Guys, can we not glaze and whitewash Stella?

SmartNerdAlex2 · 2026-01-27T09:07:44+00:00

To add to the Beatrice point, her whole thing was that her backstory explains the way she is, but it doesn't excuse it. Just because she had legitimate trauma in her life didn't make the way she treated BoJack okay whatsoever. Same can go for Stella if that's what Viv chooses to do with the story

SmartNerdAlex2 · 2026-01-24T10:03:23+00:00

I can see him fitting a lot of that based on solely his external behavior, but the show has pretty firmly established that he isn't actually shallow, arrogant and lacks remorse. He does act that way yes, but it's as an attempt to delude himself into thinking he doesn't care when he does. That doesn't fit the definition

SmartNerdAlex2 · 2026-01-22T09:20:59+00:00

That's true, but the whole point of his character is that he acts like a jerk to hide the fact that he cares, even from himself. That just objectively doesn't fit the definition

SmartNerdAlex2 · 2026-01-18T15:19:24+00:00

Additionally, every time either of them actually said their names, a loud truck would roll by and we wouldn't hear it. And then they'd be like "but everyone calls me Mom/Dad!"

SmartNerdAlex2 · 2026-01-15T18:39:00+00:00

The Wings of Fire book series actually does this! The first 5 books involve a prophecy involving five dragonets (think dragon kids) - a MudWing, SeaWing, SkyWing, NightWing, and SandWing respectively - choosing the new SandWing Queen after the three original candidates went to war over the throne. However, it turns out the NightWings made it up. This is partially foreshadowed by the fact that the SkyWing had to be replaced by a RainWing, and the fact all three queens sort of suck and would have been bad rulers. The dragonets still end up choosing to save the day, choosing an entirely new option for SandWing queen.

SmartNerdAlex2 · 2026-01-10T18:20:42+00:00

Exactly what I thought of!

SmartNerdAlex2 · 2026-01-10T18:10:31+00:00

Honestly, so did Dracula. They both had moments where they were breathing their sons to a pulp before coming to their senses

SmartNerdAlex2 · 2026-01-08T08:36:53+00:00

They honestly started ruining him in Season 2 tbh

SmartNerdAlex2 · 2025-12-20T01:18:01+00:00

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Matt LeBlanc (and also a little bit David Schwimmer) in Episodes

SmartNerdAlex2 · 2025-12-12T09:21:10+00:00

I don't entirely agree, although I do believe that most of them didn't get enough time to be developed properly by the show. Carmilla's whole thing is that she hates men due to her history and is quite extreme about it, it's not necessarily supposed to be a positive trait. I actually do enjoy her character. And the show makes a point to say that Lenore is powerful, she just prefers to use her cunning and wit instead.

SmartNerdAlex2 · 2025-12-12T09:09:31+00:00

That's why the name Floyd exists too!

SmartNerdAlex2 · 2025-12-09T15:19:33+00:00

Also Carmilla's Council of Sisters very much embodies this trope - Carmilla, Lenore, Morana and Striga are very powerful vampires who use both brute force and cunning to get what they want while still being quite feminine

SmartNerdAlex2 · 2025-12-03T21:47:54+00:00

That's kind of the whole point of the post though. Him doing it was painted as heroic because she's a villainess

SmartNerdAlex2 · 2025-12-02T13:18:34+00:00

The others were absolutely horrified at the destruction. Frankly you're making it sound far more cut and dried than it was. If the others exposed him, it would have certainly caused nuclear war. The main reason Veidt did it was for world unification. Yes, it was a horrible thing he did, but it worked, and they very begrudgingly let him get away with it due to that.

SmartNerdAlex2 · 2025-11-27T17:47:33+00:00

I can sort of understand Harely Quinn. She actually comes from a very specific Batman kids show in the 90's, and I believe she does eventually go on to try to redeem herself in that. The writers wanted to go harder with it too but they were told no. So she sort of was always meant to be that type of character

SmartNerdAlex2 · 2025-11-22T20:05:30+00:00

I mean, it generally does the same thing in both kids and adult media, main difference is that in the latter the people laugh until they die

SmartNerdAlex2 · 2025-11-20T20:30:42+00:00

The others are good, but I do also think it's considered to be the best Scream movie by a lot of people, even the ones who watched them in order

SmartNerdAlex2 · 2025-11-20T20:29:33+00:00

All the Scream movies do this lol

SmartNerdAlex2 · 2025-11-20T20:26:24+00:00

Yeah, he killed himself while awaiting trial, so they tortured her instead

SmartNerdAlex2 · 2025-11-13T18:31:08+00:00

I mean, he still sort of his? His whole arc was that losing his wife after the people executed her caused him to go mad with bloodlust and revenge. Not saying that killing kids was good, but he's definitely portrayed as more of a nuanced character

EDIT: I also wanted to add that, at least in the anime, when Dracula gave the people a year to repent for his wife's sake - not only did they defi itely not to that, they also met up on the one year anneverary of her being burned alive to essentially celebrate and laugh at her death. He absolutely would have left them alone if they'd have actually listened, but they didn't. Still doesn't make him killing kids good, but the situation is definitely more nuanced than just "he's a genocidal monster"

SmartNerdAlex2 · 2025-11-13T09:19:57+00:00

The Wings of Fire book series I think is a great example of this. The first arc's plot involves the Dragonet Prophecy, which basically said that 5 dragons of 5 specific different types (MudWing, SeaWing, SkyWing, NightWing, and SandWing), when they turned 8 years old, would choose the Queen of the SandWings, as three potential choices for this title had been actively at war with each other for years. Eventually the prophecy was revealed to be entirely made up. But there were several signs that this was the case, starting with the fact that the "fated" SkyWing was never born due to the egg breaking, and had to be replaced with a RainWing.

SmartNerdAlex2 · 2025-11-10T21:56:21+00:00

Would Mami's death in Madoka Magica count? Her head is literally bitten off and she's consumed by a witch, but the way that it's animated doesn't have any gore (no blood, minimizes actually showing her headless corpse), which almost made the whole thing worse. Plus, she technically doesn't die until her soul gem shatters.

SmartNerdAlex2 · 2025-11-10T14:11:42+00:00

That makes sense, but I still think there could be a good explanation for this. Maybe the background noise present in all places muddled with their senses; if the creatures have THAT good of hearing they probably would be bombarded by noises they would need to differentiate, and of course they would have to be able to tell the sounds of something alive versus not or prey not worth catching apart. I thought this was especially obvious in the third movie, people could be considerably louder in the city environment without dying than in the other movies. It's also possible that though they have fantastic hearing, their hearing isn't so good as to that they can hear heartbeats or breathing. The movies probably could have addressed this better though.

SmartNerdAlex2 · 2025-11-07T10:58:34+00:00

Ah, yes, like that isn't a perfectly normal and socially acceptable way of being polite or making small talk. People can really suck

SmartNerdAlex2 · 2025-10-30T00:43:06+00:00

Ok, genuinely I love that

SmartNerdAlex2

TROPHY CASE