No.421 Spoiler

I will be forever salty about how they played it safe with Belos.

So afraid to follow through with what they put in place because that meant he was sympathetic and complicated so they just went "Oh, no he's just evil, nothing else."

It's like telling kids they can never be this way if they aren't already. Belos' mindset can literally affect anyone at any age and turn them into monsters. You can fall into the pit of doing bad things because you think you're in the right. A lot of people already do that by taking activism in the wrong direction and harassing others they disagree with. It's people who try to use violence and threats "for the sake of good" against anyone they perceive as their enemy when they're anything but the good guys. You'll often find them trying to speak for others who don't want to be spoken for because they have their own voice and miss the mark entirely.

God forbid he has a sympathetic backstory. God forbid what happened to him makes people think. People are so afraid to have sympathy for the bad guy that it makes them look like freakin' robots who can't think for themselves. It makes me think back to my grandmother's time when people were so fucking afraid of what others thought of them that they didn't do what they thought was right or wanted to do. My life would have been a bit different if my Catholic grandmother didn't worry about what other idiots in the neighborhood thought.

Sympathizing with a bad guy DOESN'T MAKE YOU A BAD PERSON. It says more about you than the bad guy in general. Showing sympathy to someone like Belos shows you have compassion. You realize that nothing in this world is black and white and something drove him to what he currently is today. You're not excusing anything. You're not wishing he had redemption, but that he took different routes in his life and there's nothing you can do about it. You PITY him. Belos can't be redeemed because he's too far gone.

I don't feel bad for saying Belos deserved worse because he did, but I do sympathize with him for his early years considering the only person he cared about up and left. He was a fucking orphan for Christ's sake, he had no one but Caleb, had been taught to be a certain way, and Caleb just does a 180 on him and disappears? You feel nothing for someone who goes through that? You can't tell me to look at it from Caleb's perspective because we didn't GET Caleb's perspective. If we did, MAYBE we wouldn't be at this point, would we?

I wish they had just gone the "he's just evil" route instead of dropping all of that complex crap they put into motion for him knowing they were cut. Why the hell was he a witch hunter with religious undertones if they just going to make him evil and discard everything up until that point when it would have just saved time and effort to just drop it?! I would have believed it more if he was a corrupt member of a church than someone thinking they were actually doing good BY THE CHURCH and the society he was raised in.

Belos was too good of a villain to be wasted like this. The sympathetic background made it angsty and showed that anyone can cross a line if they think they're in the right instead of "Oh, you don't have to worry about that, you aren't that way". Luz was right about feeling complex about the situation because it is complex. She noted that Belos is doing something that would be considered a good thing. The Titan just brushed it off and pulled the whole "Well, it's okay if we do it, but not when he does it, he's not sincere" which is the same message a religious establishment would give you.

You want a non-sympathetic "evil for the sake of evil" villain? Go watch Puss and Boots and observe Jack Horner. Jack Horner embraces his selfishness and knows he's doing bad things. Belos is not it. Just because the writers flubbed his character at the end, doesn't mean he's not a sympathetic villain.

((Sorry, I feel ranty))

The tragedy on the ice 🧣

TW: angst,a little blood

MAYBE there are mistakes somewhere, but I've already given up on it

Let's see who the next mini-comic will be with 🤲

originally posted on my tiktok, just something cool i found 4 years after i bought the volume :)

🤨❓

Oops!

He slowly pulls away and propped up unto his elbows, hearing Ragatha’s breathing pick up as she presumably spirals into her own thoughts on how he was going to leave her like this. Jax cast down a disapproving look. He broke his gaze to unceremoniously take her right hand – now clutched close to her chest – and intertwined their fingers, before resting his head on her left shoulder once again. He close eyes as he use his free hand to put her left hand on his head again, waiting for her to resume her petting.

Fanart of a scene from the fic "The Snake and The Water Spring" by @estro-gem

The World's Tree

Captain America: The First Avenger (2011)

Thor (2011)

Loki (2023) — 2.06 “Glorious Purpose”

Aoyama’s parents are really out here like “Yeah, let’s ask this incredibly dangerous and powerful villain for a favor— I’m sure it won’t backfire at all.”

“We just want our son to be happy—“

DOES HE LOOK HAPPY??!!???!??

Two of my pieces from the @shineonzine✨

I’m so glad I was able to contribute to this project. Everyone involved is super talented!

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