[ SECRET POST #3777 ]

[case]

⌈ Secret Post #3777 ⌋

Warning: Some secrets are NOT worksafe and may contain SPOILERS.

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Notes:

Early for once!

Secrets Left to Post: 02 pages, 44 secrets from Secret Submission Post #541.
Secrets Not Posted: [ 0 - broken links ], [ 0 - not!secrets ], [ 0 - not!fandom ], [ 0 - too big ], [ 0 - repeat ].
Current Secret Submissions Post: here.
Suggestions, comments, and concerns should go here.

Comments

[fscom]

General comments:

(If the thread contains spoilery/triggery content please post as 2nd comment so it collapses!)

Designated bad guys

[(Anonymous)]

Obviously inspired by the Slytherin secret.

Who are your fandom's designated bad guys? Do you think they're meant to be, or it's a POV issue, OR it's played for laughs and not meant to be taken seriously?

Re: Designated bad guys

[(Anonymous)]

With Slytherins all being bad, I actually think it's a mixture.

1. JKR has said she never meant for Slytherins to all be, as I put it, meanie stinky poop heads. So I think some of it was her focusing on the "bad" Slytherins, as well as Harry's limited POV. I think ultimately Houses in general are way more complex than is immediately obvious.

2. The series started out very juvenile, and therefore there are a lot of juvenile tropes. I don't mean juvenile in a bad way - but they were for kids. Cheerleaders in kid's books and shows are always snobby and popular and mean, the nice kids are always bookish and smart. Even YA books and movies, which the books eventually graduate into, are often very "she wears high heels/I wear sneakers." The Slytherins are the bully cheerleaders, except eviler. I don't think JKR expected adults who now realize an entire snake-leading squad can't be evil would be fretting over it.

Re: Designated bad guys

[(Anonymous)]

Parks and Recreation had the library, but I think that was a combination of it being played for laughs and the fact that Tammy 2 was a nut job and probably ran the library with a nutty fist.

Re: Designated bad guys

[(Anonymous)]

Tolkien: Orcs, Nazgul, Morgoth, Sauron, etc. Balrogs, Black Numenoreans
Mostly played serious and they are completely irredeemable. There might be wiggle room with orcs in LOTR when they are clearly abused and annoyed by their situation.

SW: Sith, Imperials, Criminals, Politicians
Sith are evil and intended to be, but characters like Ventress (and maybe Maul/Savage) allow some grey in the mix. I

mperials can be played for laughs intentionally and unintentionally. There were two bumbling Imperials in Rebels but they ended up getting beheaded so that ended quickly. Tarkin/Thrawn show that some are super badass and evil.

It depends on the criminal. Jabba is irredeemable and Aura is ruthless. Hondo is a joke on Rebels now. Boba is the hidden heart-of-gold type, and is mostly a villain because he was an antagonist to the heroes.

Same for politicians. Some are straight up evil (Lott Dod), some are virtuous (Bail), most are somewhere in between.

Re: Designated bad guys

[(Anonymous)]

pull up a chair, F!S, and let me talk to you about One Piece.

864 chapters in, and there have been only two actually evil irredeemable bad guys, one of whom is mostly in the background and will probably stay a background villain until the very final arc (that being Blackbeard). Donquixote Doflamingo is an absolutely terrible person, but rather than fall into either "evil for the sake of evil" cardboard tropes or "but's he's really just misunderstood!" tropes, he's so ridiculously complex that while he's terrible, you don't know how to feel about his terribleness. He was born a bit psychotic, raised in a culture that treated him as a literal god, then brought down and shown the real pain and suffering of humanity. Rather than learn humility like his brother, he clung to his nature to be evil...and also had it encouraged by his lackeys. Oda crafted the most complex villain I have ever seen and while I personally hate Doflamingo, I tip my hat to stellar storytelling.

I suppose by that right you can also consider Doflamingo's crew to be 100% bad guy irredeemable bastards, but at least two of them had complex reasons for being as they are and one deserted him, so...

That said, it's a series about pirates and for the most part, nearly everyone is shades of gray, both protagonists and antagonists. And then antagonists become protags and you don't know what to think. During their story arcs you hate Crocodile, Enel, Arlong, and Caesar, but then Crocodile assists in saving Luffy's life, Arlong turns out not to be the worst fishman that ever existed with complex reasons involving racism and slavery for turning out nasty, and Caesar becomes useful - and also comic relief. Full-on enemies become the crew's friends. Marines themselves are not treated as unimpeachable good guys, there are corrupt ones and ones who have simply let their worldview taint their morals. Even Big Mom and Kaidou, who may arguably be just as irredeemably bad as Doflamingo, have become what they are through a complex mix of background, personal desires, and the way the world has treated them. The Vinsmoke children have been genetically engineered to be emotionless badasses and yet you can't tell if they're bad guys or just victims. On top of all of that you have the main cast - they're pirates. They kill, steal, cause destruction, and live to break the law and defy the government.

I admire Oda for making it so that outside of just a couple of villains, you constantly have to question what constitutes a villain and what makes someone "bad." He constantly makes you struggle with questions of blood, upbringing, influence, politics, and relationships. I actually like that bad guys change based on the story's POV, there's nothing wrong with deciding that you like Crocodile a bit now or can't tell if Akainu is supposed to be considered a villain. The only "bad guys" played for laughs are tertiary-level characters who are just filling out a roster in an arc's baddy's crew who get humiliated by the main cast, and even then, it happens a lot less than you'd think in a shounen story about pirates.

Re: Designated bad guys

[(Anonymous)]

Liberals, the media, and human rights activists. Yes, my fandom was Law and Order: SVU.

They tried to walk it back a little and show a "good" human rights lawyer, but human rights were only a good thing when cops had them. Then the entire world drank the koolaid and I could no longer keep watching the show.

Re: Designated bad guys

[diet_poison]

Voltron has the galra, and actually I like where it's going because of the reveals in the second half of S2 that they're not, in fact, all bad, but some of the characters have prejudices (of understandable origin, really) making it hard to accept that. It's a big part of the plot right now. I don't know offhand if the original Voltron series ever went there with them though.

Also reminds me of the geth from Mass Effect. I really like races like that in sci-fi. :)

Goals

[(Anonymous)]

What are you working towards? Big stuff, little stuff, the stuff that means a lot to you that just wouldn't be on the radar for anyone else.

Re: Goals

[(Anonymous)]

I am counting the days until my next MA testing and then the next after that. My dojo has a new Bo Sensei and I can't wait to start training but I'm too low level. One more belt and I can watch the Bo classes, two more and I can train. I think I'm more excited to watch than learn because the classes we can watch are the brown and black belts who get to do all the coolest stuff whereas when I finally get to start training with the staff I won't really get to do much for another couple years.

Inspired by a secret from a few days ago that I just now read

[(Anonymous)]

Have you ever read character/reader fic? Do you remember any particularly bad ones? Any you'll admit to enjoying?

French presidential election

[(Anonymous)]

So it looks like Female Trump lost? Whew!

Pleasant Surprising News

[(Anonymous)]

Doesn't have to be great, just "Oooh. Nice."

Personal news, world news, entertainment news all apply!

Villainous Characters You Sort Into Hogwarts Houses Other Than Slytherin

[(Anonymous)]

Who are yours & to which non-Slytherin house do you think they belong?

What are your local movie theaters like?

[(Anonymous)]

What kind of seating? Prices? Screens? Comfort?

Guardians of the Galaxy, vol. 2 thread

[el_regrs]

Spoilers, obviously!

Human Body 2.0 is coming out next week....

[(Anonymous)]

What patches and updates do you want to see? Can't be Life Game breaking!

What is your favorite animated tv show?

[(Anonymous)]

Anime or Western.

complain about things

[(Anonymous)]

.w.

Strong women ramblings

[(Anonymous)]

Physical strength, I mean.

I noticed just recently that a huge part of the teen male culture seems to be pushing strongly the claim that women are vastly weaker than men. Now I know there is a bit of a gap, but the overlap can be substantial, it is not really an issue until you get right out to the extremes. However there seems to be a strain of thinking that there is a major, major, difference in strengths and that a young man who does no strength training will be automatically stronger than any young woman.

I got to wondering, is this the reason why so many fashion brands and media are pushing the idea of stick thin women? That the current beauty ideal is petite and very thin? It is almost like an enforcement of that dogmatic belief that men must be stronger than women is being conducted through media image.

I also noticed that physically strong action women in the media are now pretty much always given their strength by supernatural or technological means of some sort, that they are mostly Whedonesque magic waifs who still conform to the petite and thin image while having magic strength. Is the media pushing the idea that women are just automatically inferior, that there is nothing to be done about it, and just to look pretty instead? Should we not be avoiding media and narratives that push this now?

Also I have a severe headcold and am on some major painkillers and I can see like echoes of where my fingers are when I type. Like a super slo mo movie shot. It is freeky. Every body way in.

What's going on with Wikileaks?

[(Anonymous)]

Why has Wikileaks recently been assisting far-right candidates like Trump and Le Pen by selectively releasing damaging information on their opponents before election time? Were they always this right-wing and pretending to be neutral or has something changed?

Damn you, Japan

[(Anonymous)]

I want an Amami rabbit as a pet, but the stupid Japanese call it a national monument and make it illegal to own them. And then they have them live in the wild on just two remote islands which are really difficult to acquire from on the grey market.
Who wouldn't want a pet one of these:
http://www.arkive.org/amami-rabbit/pentalagus-furnessi/

Put them on the pet market, Japan, we'll have tonnes of them within a couple of years.

Recs!

[(Anonymous)]

Ask for yours, change the subject to the topic of choice etc etc etc

Job vent

[(Anonymous)]

I can't get hired in what I want to do and I'm gonna be stuck working part time jobs I hate my whole life.I can't find any entry level positions even tangentially related to what I want to do locally. Even if I think I could do the job, I don't have the on paper experience to get into the door, even with my bachelors degree. And I can't get the on paper experience if no one will even consider me. I'm never gonna be able to escape Retail Hell

Alien covenant

[caerbannog]

Worth a movie ticket price or not?

I hated Prometheus shitty plot, if that matters.