i still think making allura a permanent paladin was a mistake and a downgrade for her character, specifically as a leader, in this essay i will-
so in season 1 it was essentially set up in allura’s first appearance she’d be having a leadership arc. the paladins look to her, she has the big breakdown then talk with a mentor (the former leader of altea, her own father who died for the cause), who encouraged her to take up the mantle. except not to follow in his footsteps, but to follow in her own path, because her father admitted allura was right in her decision to fight against zarkon before her father forcibly put her to sleep. it’d seem like her arc was to be a leader in her own right from the very first moment she’s shown on screen.
allura controlled the castle ship, and even though shiro was the black paladin, leader of the lions, he looked up to allura for confirmation on whether to go ahead with plans. he was an in battle strategist to allura’s overall plan to undergo a mission and to see how that’d played out. it’s rare as hell to see a grown man respect the leadership of a teenager, but that’s what i loved about their dynamic. there was mutual respect between the two, and they realized each others strengths.
jump ahead to season 3. shiro’s gone, so you’d think the only other person to take his spot would be allura, right? WRONG. keith, the most temperamental, the most stubborn, and the most lone wolf out of the entire team is chosen despite allura’s obvious leadership abilities which is dumb. because instead of spending the arc focusing on keith fucking up with leading, we could’ve focused on allura’s frustration with piloting the black lion, it’s differences from piloting the castle, and how piloting zarkon’s lion—the man who killed her father and planet— would be on her emotional toll. shiro and allura are the only ones who has a connection to zarkon that’d make piloting the black lion interesting. keith… has none.
(allura being in the red lion would be shitty for her ‘supposed’ arc about her being her own leader, because she’s still following her father’s footsteps. i would’ve still kept the rejection of the red lion in for her though to cement this, but i am still anti red paladin allura for that reason.)
many people say she’s better off in a paladin position, and i think having her as a paladin for a season or two would allow her to bond in a way with the paladins she couldn’t before. one of her flaws in season ½ was pushing the paladins too hard, which is understandable, but it’s still a flaw. having her be put in that role and becoming frustrated and understanding why they acted that way would have improved her leadership for when she went back to the castle, but that wasn’t the case.
with allura being in blue and keith in black and shiro no longer here, she no longer has any leadership to stand on. she’s regressed as a character from taking charge and knowing what needs to be done, to following keith’s lead, and when shiro comes back, only supporting shiro. after the castleship is destroyed, she has nothing to fall back on. she’s literally stuck in a position that caused her to regress as a character.
“But despite these aims at inconspicuousness (or more likely, largely because of them), “It’s Nice to Have a Friend” is the most captivating song on Lover. It’s the rare Swift song that suggests more than it implies, that punctuates with commas and ellipses rather than exclamation marks and hard periods, and its delicate, crystalline beauty is unlike anything we’ve heard from Swift before. (Even “Delicate.”)”
— Billboard: The Most Fascinating Song on Taylor Swift’s ‘Lover’ Is Its Strangest and Shortest (x)
aroace characters are valuable. they aren’t boring. they are important queer rep. their stories are important. they are groundbreaking. they aren’t any less than other queer characters. they don’t deserve to be erased.
so why are phil’s keep sakes okay. ghostbur’s blue, friend’s first coat, the friendship emerald, tommy’s helmet, all of ranboo’s gifts, the sword he killed his son with. why are those okay.
but tommy’s discs, his books, bedrock, remains of pets & schlatt, the axe of peace, drista’s knife, etc considered unhealthy, the source of his problems, and not okay to have. why are they ‘just items’ that can be replaced.
but phil’s are valuable keep sakes?
you’re telling me he wouldn’t be upset if suddenly someone stole the friendship emerald? or used it as something against him?
i hate the crazies in the kpop fandom as much as anyone else but i think its weird how many ppl specifically target kpop and their fans considering there are just as many, if not more fans of western artists that are the exact same. i also think its weird how a huge chunk of those ppl are weebs that enjoy anime with sexualized 14 year old characters
the answer is that weebs are mostly men and kpop fans are mostly young girls and men love making fun of the things young girls enjoy.
your fat activism posts should include people who are not healthy at their current weight or have an eating disorder where they eat too much btw
like YES there are plenty of fat people who ARE healthy and that is a super important thing to say but fat people who are not currently healthy (especially fat women) are treated like dirt by both camps. like i dont know how to explain to you that unhealthy people dont deserve to get treated like garbage
and no. fat unhealthy people who are not currently working out or dieting or losing weight do not deserve to be dehumanized either. gyms are expensive. not everyone can afford one. unhealthy food is much cheaper then healthy alternatives. people have school and jobs and that can be both mentally and physically exhausting. disabled fat people exist. chronically ill, autistic, ect fat pepple exist. there is elderly people who cannot work out so easily. its not all black and white and every single fat person is going to be different.
[ID: A screenshot of a comment from Tumblr user victorelivale. It says:
health is not indicative of worth and by and large people use “health!!” as a mask for fatphobia. believing otherwise is classist and ableist. people are worthy of love and respect regardless of physical health or ability because humans have inherent worth and rights that cant be diminished on the basis of discrimination. /end ID]
Me as an adult realizing Sharpay got Troy his job in HSM2 because she was attracted to him and thus put him in a situation where he could not deny her MANY advances because she was an important member of the club and it could cost him his job if he upset her and that was a prime example of sexual harassment and it was super fucked up
Fucking hell. Every year awkward and possibly cringey cishet teen romances, particularly supernatural ones, show up, and none of them face the kind of overblown scrutiny First Kill faced. A few dozen Twilight-inspired media have come out since Twilight wound down, and every year at least two or three shitty teen romance movies come out on Netflix, each with cishet protagonists. That’s not to mention the number of shitty teen cishet romance shows. When so many people are so fucking obsessed with the fucking Kissing Booth movies, how in the goddamn hell do you find the courage to shit on First Kill for not being a fucking masterpiece?
Riverdale.Teen Wolf.The Vampire Diaries.Buffy The Vampire Slayer.Legacies.Shadowhunters.The Kissing Booth.After.Sierra Burgess Is A Loser. Stop. Stop pretending that First Kill is anywhere near as bad as any of these shitty fucking projects, and that people don’t get obnoxiously aggressive if anyone dares criticize these pieces of media because “it’s just a dumb cringey teen romance and I want to enjoy it without you ruining my fun”. Shut up. Shut the hell up. I don’t want to hear a single word out of anyone’s mouth about First Kill not meeting your expectations, especially not if you unironically love Riverdale or something similar. Let people have a sapphic cringey teen romance for once without pretending you wouldn’t be obsessed with it if it were a cishet teen romance.
Prioritising yourself is not selfish. Preferring to not date someone, and to stay single, is not selfish. In the end you’re alive for one person, and that is yourself. It’s up to you how you spend that life.
