Me? Medicated? It's more likely than you think!

Two dudes who just love their wife to hell and back (literally)

THIS IS ABOUT THEIR ORIGINAL BOOK ITERATIONS

Get those movies outta here!!!

ROUND 2 — Match 41 of 138

Ashley Graves (The Coffin of Andy and Leyley)

Problematic because: "She helps butcher and eat the cultist neighbour after the demon takes his soul. During the escape from the apartment, Andrew kills one guard while Ashley sacrifices the other guard’s soul to the demon. In Episode 2, she pushes Andrew toward killing their parents so they can’t reveal the siblings are alive, helps sacrifice their parents’ souls, kills their bodies afterward, disposes of the remains, and cooks some of their meat into soup for herself and Andrew to eat. In Episode 3A, she and Andrew can sacrifice a family of campers to recharge the trinket. Ashley is possessive, manipulative, jealous of anyone who might pull Andrew away from her, and the story explicitly gets incestuous. In the Burial route, they receive a premonition of themselves entering an sexual relationship, and Episode 3A also includes Andrew being forced to confront suppressed sexual feelings toward Ashley, and some route outcomes push the siblings further into a romantic/sexual dynamic." Propaganda: 1. "I like her because she drives the story forward. Andrew hesitates, rationalises, and tries to act like he’s above it, and Ashley is usually the one saying the ugly part out loud. She’s selfish, clingy, jealous, and often the reason things get worse, but she’s also the reason the game has so much bite." 2. "she’s fun because she’s so openly terrible. she doesn’t have andrew’s whole “i’m the reasonable one” routine. ashley wants what she wants, usually andrew, safety, control, attention, or a way out, and she’ll push until she gets it. that makes her horrible, but it also makes her extremely watchable." 3. "She’s an incredibly fleshed out character. The entire game is her codependent relationship with her brother Andrew, and their struggles not only to survive the horrors being done to them, but to fully understand and connect with each other too. They are so beautifully toxic yet simultaneously adorable. They genuinely love each other more than anything, but so much traumatic baggage and bullshit keeps getting in the way of that. Also she turns her abusive parents into soup. An icon, truly."

vs. Agatha (Pokemon Adventures)

Problematic because: "Helped (and likely masterminded) an attempt to murder all humans supposedly for the sake of Pokemon (ecoterrorism). Had zero issue with attempted murder of children, kidnapping hundreds if not thousands of Pokemon to turn into an army unleashed upon the cities of Kanto, and mind controlling one of her allies to make him fight dishonourably. Likely manipulated an actively grieving teenager (lost her beloved Pokemon to pollution, was literally crying over its dead body) into joining her cause." Propaganda: "She is a mastermind, a cunning woman with hatred in her heart. The only member of the Elite Four that do not have a redemption arc in the slightest. Self assured, very rarely thrown off balance. Almost always has a calm smile. She's a badass old woman."

ROUND 2 — Match 43 of 138

Eleanor Shellstrop (The Good Place)

Problematic because: "imagine a list of every problematic thing an average human can do. Im pretty sure Eleanor used that list as a bucket list, and managed to complete it at least 3 times before she died." Propaganda: "I support women's wrongs <3333333"

vs. Loki (Marvel)

Problematic because: "He has one of the best redemption arcs in the MCU, but the starting point is still “tried to wipe out an entire realm and then invaded Earth.” In Thor, after finding out he’s Frost Giant by birth, he kills Laufey, lies his way into power, and tries to destroy Jotunheim with the Bifrost so he can prove himself to Odin as the “worthy” son. Then in The Avengers, he comes to Earth with the Tesseract, mind-controls Clint Barton and Erik Selvig, kills Coulson, opens the portal over Stark Tower, and brings in the Chitauri army, which devastates New York before the Avengers stop him. He also keeps betraying people even when he’s technically helping. In The Dark World, he works with Thor against Malekith, but then fakes his death, replaces Odin, and rules Asgard in disguise while Odin is removed from the throne. The later Loki - especially the TVA variant - becomes much more self-aware, and by the end of Loki he’s basically holding the timelines together at the cost of his own freedom. But the redemption works because the earlier material is so bad - attempted mass destruction, imperial invasion, mind control, murder, manipulation, identity fraud, sibling betrayal, father issues weaponised at interplanetary scale." Propaganda: "I like him because he’s funny and charismatic, but also because the later material doesn’t work unless you remember how bad he was. Loki becoming better matters because he had a lot to answer for."

ROUND 2 — Match 45 of 138

Light Yagami (Death Note)

Problematic because: "Killed over 125k people in the name of justice, including his father, most likely traumatized millions, and regretted almost nothing by the end." Propaganda: 1. "Light is extremely interesting to me, because it's obvious that he would've lived a normal, picture perfect life had he not been given the Death Note. He's smart, he's brilliant, he's apathetic, he's good-looking, he's prideful,he's a really complex character. He's bored, and apathetic towards everything by the time the story starts. His life is a series of repeats, and then he finds the Death Note. Rationally, he doesn't think it'll work, but he tries it out anyway, because he's bored, and when it ends up working, he tries his best to justify it. That's why he kept killing. He couldn't bear to take the fact that he was in the wrong at face value. He doesn't do it all for justice, some of it he does for the thrill, some of it he does to deal with the fact that he's a murderer, and he was wrong, and he has to deal with it. But of course, he doesn't do that in a healthy way, he just kills and kills some more. And then, there's the fact that he killed for "justice". I think that he ended up doing a lot of harm, and saved none. The kills have already happened, they are already in prison, their crimes have already been committed, all he's doing is trying to deliver revenge on something he had no place in. But he would have brought a lot of comfort to the families of victims of severe crimes. The people who barely fended off their attempted murderer could finally rest knowing it was impossible for him to come back. The women who feared their assaulter coming back the next night could finally rest knowing they were dead. Is that a justification of his actions? Of course not. All the things hes done are his to atone for and everything his victims have done are theirs to atone for, but my propaganda doesn't end here. We have the Yotsuba Arc, where we get a clear diagram of what a non-bored, non-kira Light would look like. And he's not a bad person! Hes still able to be kind and nice to others, and he has a sense of self. If he was given a Death Note at this moment in time and told to write in it, I don't think he actually would have. (as long as his memories don't come back ofc) Light is a complex character, and he perfectly borders good and evil, because we see the worst parts of him. The parts that were awakened by the possession of a God like object and we get a total of one arc where he does not have possession of that object, in which he acts like a HUMAN BEING. But the parts of him that were Kira are still the same as the parts of him that is Light. They are one in the same, and differentiating between them has no proper effects." 2. "he is such a fun villian protagonist and his fall from grace and ability to rationalize why hes always in the right is very compelling to me"

vs. Carrie White (Carrie)

Problematic because: "kills like, everyone" Propaganda: "have you seen what this girl goes through? she has every right to kill everyone"

Angel AU

ROUND 2 — Match 31 of 138

Genesis Rhapsodos (Final Fantasy VII: Crisis Core)

Problematic because: "He’s a First Class SOLDIER, which means he’s one of Shinra’s elite enhanced fighters, and after finding out he’s a failed experiment from Project G and his body is deteriorating, he deserts with a bunch of SOLDIER members and starts the Genesis War. Shinra is obviously awful, but Genesis isnt exactly running a clean little resistance movement here - Hollander uses Genesis’ cells to turn deserters, soldiers, and monsters into Genesis Copies, and those copies make up a whole army that attacks people while also degrading because of the same messed-up science that’s killing him. He also drags basically everyone around him into his search for a cure. He attacks Shinra, helps Hollander get away, goes after Hojo, and later starts chasing Sephiroth/Zack/Cloud because he thinks their cells might fix him. His whole thing is understandable on one level, because he was literally created and discarded by Shinra, but he handles it by making his identity crisis everyone else’s problem. He also shows up in the Nibelheim reactor and tells Sephiroth about Project S/Jenova while asking for his cells, which is maybe not the best thing to drop on your unstable friend in the middle of a cursed science basement. And then there’s Banora, his hometown, where Zack and Tseng find the place overrun by Genesis Copies and Shinra machines, plus Genesis’ parents’ graves. The exact blame around Banora is messy because Shinra bombs the village afterward too, but Genesis is still standing there being cryptic, insulting his dead parents, summoning Bahamut, and generally making the whole thing ten times worse instead of communicating like a normal person for once in his life." Propaganda: 1. "Genesis is one of those characters I like partly because he’s annoying. I mean that affectionately. He is dramatic, petty, obsessed with being a hero, constantly quoting LOVELESS, and somehow convinced that every conversation would be improved by turning it into a literature recital. But underneath all of that, there’s a genuinely interesting character: a man raised as a success story who finds out he was actually a failed experiment, and that his body is breaking down because of choices other people made before he was even born. I don’t think he’s secretly reasonable, but I do think his anger makes sense. Shinra used him, lied to him, and then would have thrown him away the second he became inconvenient. The problem is that Genesis responds to being dehumanised by dehumanising other people right back. He wants a cure, he wants meaning, he wants to be special, and he’s willing to pull Angeal, Sephiroth, Zack, Cloud, and half of Shinra into the fallout. He’s ridiculous, but he’s ridiculous in a way that fits Crisis Core perfectly." 2. "he’s messy and insecure and constantly trying to make himself feel important because the truth makes him feel disposable. he wants to be the hero of the poem so badly, and the sad/funny part is that everyone around him is stuck in a completely different genre. zack is trying to save people, angeal is drowning in guilt, sephiroth is one bad basement away from disaster, and genesis is over here like “act iv will explain everything.”" 3. "he’s genuinely tragic if you take him seriously, but he’s also very funny if you don’t. this man discovers he’s dying because of shinra science and immediately becomes everyone’s group project. angeal has to deal with him. sephiroth has to deal with him. zack has to deal with him. hollander is somehow involved, which is never a sign that your life is going well. even the apples are plot-relevant"

vs. Mary (Ib)

Problematic because: "She’s basically a lonely painting-child who just wants to leave the Fabricated World and be a real girl, which is sad, but she also goes about it by trying to replace Garry, stalks/attacks the others once her secret is out, and can get very willing to let people die if it means she gets Ib to herself. Garry discovers she’s actually one of Guertena’s paintings, not a normal lost child, and once he knows, Mary becomes desperate enough to try to remove him from the equation. Her goal is understandable in the saddest way possible - she wants friends, the real world, candy, beaches, normal life. The problem is that she decides Ib is her way out, and Garry is just the obstacle. Depending on the ending, she can trap Ib and Garry in the Doll Room forever, give Garry’s rose to the Lady in Blue to be destroyed, and throw away his lighter so they can’t burn her painting. In the more common good-ending path, Ib and Garry have to burn Mary’s painting to stop her following Ib into the real world, which is also why she works so well - she’s dangerous, selfish, and scary, but the thing you have to do to beat her still feels horrible because she’s a childlike creation trying to survive too." Propaganda: 1. "Mary is one of those characters where I can’t fully hate her, even when she’s doing terrible things. She’s a painting trapped in a nightmare gallery, surrounded by other works of art, reading about things like the beach and sweets and friendship without ever actually getting to have them. Then Ib appears - a real girl, kind, close to her age, someone Mary can imagine escaping with. Of course she clings too hard. Of course Garry becomes a threat in her mind. That doesn’t make her innocent, because she does try to get rid of him and she can be genuinely frightening once she’s cornered, but I like her because the horror is also really sad. Mary isn’t some grand mastermind, she’s a lonely little girl-shaped painting who wants to be chosen, and when she realises she might not be, she panics in the worst possible direction." 2. "honestly i feel bad for her!! she didn’t ask to be made as a painting. she didn’t ask to be stuck in guertena’s weird murder gallery forever. she just wants to go outside and have a normal life."

Edit: First option should say Genesis, whoops

ROUND 2 — Match 32 of 138

Jeanne Valois de la Motte (Rose of Versailles)

Problematic because: "Almost got her own sister killed after she abandoned her and her sick mother. Also killed the woman she left with, frame the main characters too" Propaganda: "I just love manipulative women it seems. I love her greed for reaching the status of nobility and how she fights until the end, even saying that she won't let anyone judge her not even god"

vs. Silena Beauregard (Percy Jackson)

Problematic because: "She is problematic because she acted as a double agent against the MC’s group for years directly leading to the deaths of many demigods on both sides because of her information. She tried to go back redeem herself by sacrificing herself against a monster and bringing two groups within Camp Halfblood to the battle of Manhattan." Propaganda: "I find her a compelling character because even though she acted as a double agent giving information for what was ultimately the bad side the mindset behind the demigods on the side of Kronos was that they were being mistreated by Olympus and their parents so they wanted to fight back anyway possible. It’s a moral grey area where her beliefs weren’t wrong it’s just she was backing an even worse benefactor than the Olympians for vengeance. Ultimately she tried to do what she believed was right and bring her people back together."

ROUND 2 — Match 34 of 138

Derek Hale (Teen Wolf)

Problematic because: "Turned a bunch of teenagers into werewolves" Propaganda: "He was doing his best to survive after years of trauma! He lost (almost) his entire family and blamed himself for it and tried to rebuild the only way he knew how! And he genuinely grows as a person and learns from his mistakes! He is constantly willing to sacrifice himself for others (even if they made it very clear that they do not like him). My poor traumatized, self-loathing baby :("

vs. Elias Bouchard/Jonah Magnus (The Magnus Archives)

Problematic because: "well for one, he killed the real Elias Bouchard and he's just chilling in his body impersonating him. for another, he ended the whole entire world. and not even in an Everyone Dies Instantly way, instead he does it in an Everyone Suffers Infinitely Forever way" "Started the apocalypse, manipulated lots of people, killed people via guns and pipes and inaction, etc" Propaganda: 1. "his stupid voice. his stupid little jokes. "I'll reimburse your expenses, but not if you die. if you die I don't know how to reimburse you"" 2. "He taught me the true meaning of characters you "love to hate""

ROUND 2 — Match 35 of 138

Clarisse La Rue (Percy Jackson)

Problematic because: "She refused to fight in a major battle, leading to many people dying needlessly. She also is a bully and an asshole, particularly to the main character." Propaganda: 1. "Firstly, her story parallels the one of Achilles, in a very lesbian way (yuri!!). Also is fat, buff and hot, she has daddy issues and she also has a tragic backstory. She is a very flawed character, who is often motivated by a desire to prove herself, particularly to her father." 2. "Had a doomed lesbian situationship that mirrored Achilles and Patroclus. She also has a ton of daddy issues and wants her father to be proud of her, despite the fact that he probably never will be, no matter what she does."

vs. Sahar (Luna Story)

Problematic because: "Invaded his home of Nobilunia with an army of demons out of jealousy, killing most of the guard, cursing the two MCs, and turning everyone else into trees; when the MCs managed to break the curse he came back as a demon himself to (try to) finish the job" Propaganda: "They used to be friends 😭 He and the MCs were childhood friends until he got cursed by an evil wizard and “the seeds of darkness began to grow in his heart”; after his demon form is defeated he disguises himself to help one MC save the other; there’s a mysterious helpful wizard in a hood that helped the other defeat the demon, that is somewhat implied to also be Sahar’s ghost — this requires the demon to be a separate being but that’s pretty plausible as well, they have very distinct character designs."

ROUND 2 — Match 38 of 138

Jane (The Walking Dead Game)

Problematic because: "She teaches Clementine practical things, and she’s not wrong that attachment can get people killed in the apocalypse, but her whole worldview is built around leaving people behind before they can become a burden. That comes out hard with Sarah - Jane compares her to her own sister Jaime, pushes the idea that some people can’t be saved, and if Sarah survives the trailer park only to get trapped under rubble later, Jane can try to help but ultimately leaves her behind when it becomes impossible. Then there’s the Kenny/AJ stunt, which is the big one. Jane wants Clementine to see how unstable Kenny has become, so she hides baby AJ and lets Kenny think the baby died because of her. That pushes him into a fight where Clementine may either shoot Kenny to save Jane or let Kenny kill her, and only after Kenny is dead does Jane reveal AJ was alive the whole time. It’s one of the most manipulative choices in the series because she’s right that Kenny is dangerous, but the way she proves it is by using a baby and Clementine’s trust as bait. If Clementine stays with her, A New Frontier later has Jane die by suicide after finding out she’s pregnant, leaving Clem and AJ alone again, which makes her whole “I won’t leave you” angle age horribly." Propaganda: 1. "She’s not wrong nearly as often as people want her to be. That’s the annoying part. She clocks the group’s weaknesses, she understands how quickly people become liabilities, and she teaches Clementine skills that are actually useful instead of just giving speeches about family and hope while everything collapses around them. In a season full of adults using Clementine as emotional support, Jane at least treats her like someone who needs to survive. The problem is that she’s so scared of needing people, and by the finale she’s so desperate to make Clementine choose her version of the world that she hides AJ and engineers the worst possible confrontation with Kenny. I still think she’s compelling because she’s right about Kenny being unstable and wrong about almost everything she does to prove it. That’s a great kind of messy character." 2. "she helps clem a lot! she teaches her things! she comes back during the shootout! she is not some useless selfish monster who never cared about anyone. but she also has this awful habit of deciding her trauma is just realism and everyone else is stupid for not agreeing. sarah reminds her of jaime, so sarah becomes proof that some people can’t be saved. kenny scares her, so she creates a situation where he’ll explode and clem will have to see it. she’s smart, damaged, useful, manipulative, and a lot more interesting when you don’t pretend the baby stunt was normal behaviour." 3. "If Jane were useless, nobody would still be arguing about her. But she’s not useless. She’s good in a crisis, good at teaching Clementine, good at reading people, and unfortunately also good at making the most psychologically explosive decision available."

vs. Sweeney Todd (Sweeney Todd)

Problematic because: "he's sympathetic for about five minutes because his life really was destroyed - judge turpin falsely convicted and exiled him, raped lucy, and took johanna as his ward. the issue is that sweeney comes back for revenge and then very quickly expands “i want turpin dead” into “the whole world deserves the razor.” he kills pirelli after being blackmailed, starts murdering random customers, and works with mrs. lovett to turn the bodies into meat pies for unsuspecting people to eat. he later kills the beggar woman without realising she’s lucy, nearly kills johanna because he doesn’t recognise her, kills mrs. lovett after learning she lied about lucy’s death, and then basically lets toby kill him. tragic? yes. deeply understandable rage source? also yes. still a serial killer barber running a cannibal pie supply chain? unfortunately also yes." Propaganda: 1. "sweeney is awful but he has RANGE. wrongfully exiled husband, grieving father, revenge-obsessed barber, serial killer, worst possible business partner, and somehow still gets some of the best songs in musical theatre. cannot defend the murder pies. can defend the drama." 2. "he sings some great musical numbers about killing the men who raped his wife and kidnapped his daughter. and then he kills those men. does a fantastic job of killing them too."

ROUND 2 — Match 39 of 138

Cullen Rutherford (Dragon Age)

Problematic because: "He starts as a Templar, meaning he’s part of the religious/military order that imprisons and controls mages, and after the Circle Tower disaster in Origins he’s traumatised enough that his answer is basically “kill all the mages, don’t risk saving any of them.” Then DA2 puts him in Kirkwall, one of the worst places in Thedas to be a mage, as Meredith’s second-in-command. The Gallows is already a nightmare, Meredith is already getting worse, and Cullen spends a long time backing the system before he finally draws a line. He has the infamous view that mages can’t really be treated like ordinary people because they’re too dangerous, and his own Inquisition dialogue has him admit he wanted mages locked away, trusted they were being treated reasonably, and “should have done more.” He isn’t Meredith, but he helped Meredith’s system function for years before deciding it had gone too far." "Either committed crimes against mages who were imprisoned at the Circle he was in charge of, or looked the other while while his men did. This includes verbal abuse, physical abuse, sexual abuse, and nonconsensual lobotomies. His "redemption arc" was abysmally written and his crimes were swept under the rug. Also, his voice actor is a terrible person." Propaganda: 1. "Cullen is compelling because his redemption arc only works if you don’t sand off how bad he was. He isn’t just a shy ex-templar with a desk, a dog, and a lyrium problem. He was part of the machinery that kept mages afraid, and for a long time he believed in that machinery because it made the world feel safer to him. I like him best when the story treats that seriously: the trauma, the prejudice, the shame, the fact that stepping away from Meredith at the end doesn’t magically undo years of looking the other way. His Inquisition version is interesting because he’s trying, not because he was secretly harmless all along." 2. "cullen is best when people let him be messy. like yes he’s sweet in inquisition, yes the romance is cute, yes i also enjoy awkward war table man, but this is still the guy who went from “annul the circle” to “meredith’s knight-captain” before he got anywhere near “maybe i was wrong.” that’s the good stuff. give me the cullen who has to actually live with what he believed and what he enabled, not the version where we pretend he was just standing nearby looking sad." 3. "His reasons behind the treatment of mages were completely justified in his eyes. Before Kinloch Hold he did what he had to but never went out of his way to abuse mages (and never had after) but when the blood mages killed his colleagues and tortured him, he became wary and even paranoid. He upholstered their abuse in Kirkwall but when he disavowed himself from the Templars in Inquisition he started getting better. It doesn't solve the abuses he allowed in Kirkwall because of his paranoia (which was kind of justified, blood mages were everywhere then) but him seeing mages as equals in the inquisition despite his fear is good development." 4. "I think Cullen looking the other way while other people committed crimes is even juicer than him doing the crimes himself, because it gives him the comfort of plausible deniability, the fantasy that he is still a good man, at least until he is forced to contend with the cold hard truth. And while his arc in the games was written poorly, I think there's a lot of potential there in terms of how much indoctrination plays a role in that kind of behavior. If Cullen has been trained to be anti-mage since childhood, and those beliefs were reinforced by torture and trauma, and then stoked into fanaticism by the people who were supposed to help him recover, how much of what he did as a result is his responsibility? In no way do I feel he should be let off the hook for what he's done, and there's no way to answer objectively where the line is, but the question is an interesting one, and it's a shame that most people either write him off as a predator or as completely blameless instead of digging into that gray area."

vs. Mae Borowski (Night in the Woods)

Problematic because: "Misses social cues in a way that actively fucks up her friend's night. Says insensitive things thinking they're helpful. Technically indirectly killed like 12 guys but I don't think many people would blame her for that one. Beat the shit out of a kid during a highschool softball game because she was having a mental breakdown" Propaganda: "Funny and kind and trying her best even when she fucks up (which she does often) also she plays the bass pretty good"

ROUND 2 — Match 40 of 138

Armitage Hux (Star Wars)

Problematic because: "Hux is one of the First Order’s highest-ranking officers and the commander of Starkiller Base. He gives the huge fascist rally speech in The Force Awakens, then orders Starkiller Base to fire on the Hosnian system, destroying the New Republic’s capital, Senate, leadership, fleet, and multiple planets. He was raised around Imperial ideology and committed to “military superiority through technological terror”. He’s also petty, cruel, and power-hungry in a much more personal way - he spends a lot of time trying to undermine Kylo Ren, treats people beneath him as disposable, and only becomes the Resistance spy in The Rise of Skywalker because he wants Kylo to lose, not because he has any moral change of heart. So even his one helpful act is still motivated by spite rather than conscience. He’s a war criminal, a fascist officer, and somehow also a pathetic workplace hater with military authority." Propaganda: 1. "He wants to be terrifying so badly, and sometimes he actually is (the Starkiller speech is genuinely monstrous), but then the second he’s next to Kylo Ren, he turns into the most resentful man in the galaxy. He can give an empire-level genocide speech and then also look like he’s about to combust because his weird Force-user coworker gets more attention from their boss." 2. "hux is what happens when the worst guy from your office gets handed a superweapon. genuinely evil politics, zero chill, massive inferiority complex, and the funniest possible reason for becoming a spy: he doesn’t want the good guys to win, he just wants kylo ren to lose."

vs. Freddie Lounds (Hannibal)

Problematic because: "She's a tabloid journalist who keeps wandering into active serial-killer cases like privacy laws are optional and trauma is just content she hasn’t monetised yet. She snoops around crime scenes, posts details that can interfere with investigations, sensationalises Will’s work/mental state, secretly records people, and has apparently been sued for libel multiple times, which tells you a lot about the professional standards at TattleCrime. She pushes herself into Abigail Hobbs’ life after Abigail has survived her father’s murders, tries to turn her into book material, and reveals information that helps Nicholas Boyle find her. Then later, during Will’s trial, she testifies that Abigail told her Will planned to kill and eat her, because of course Freddie’s journalism career has somehow made it into the courtroom too. She’s not a murderer, and in a show full of cannibals that almost makes her look normal, but she is absolutely exploiting victims, suspects, and active investigations for clicks whenever she thinks she can get away with it." Propaganda: 1. "She is honestly one of the funniest characters to me because she’s awful, but she’s also weirdly necessary. Everyone around her is lying, hiding bodies, protecting institutions, covering for killers, or pretending they’re above the mess. Freddie is not above the mess. Freddie is inside the mess with a camera, a headline, and absolutely no shame. And look, I’m not saying she has ethics. She barely has manners. But in a show where half the respectable professionals are either enabling Hannibal, missing the obvious, or actively making Will worse, there’s something very satisfying about Freddie being this annoying little cockroach journalist who keeps surviving and keeps noticing things she probably shouldn’t. She’s exploitative, yes, but she’s also not wrong as often as people want her to be. Will is dangerous. Hannibal is hiding something. The FBI is a mess. Freddie just has the worst possible way of being correct." 2. "she’s selfish, nosy, exploitative, and allergic to minding her business, but she’s also so entertaining because she has zero reverence for anyone. not will, not jack, not hannibal, not the fbi. if there’s a scandal, she is crawling through the air vents of it with a recorder. also iirc she might be the only person outside of bedelia + the mizumono fiasco hannibal has tried to kill and failed to?" 3. "She is basically what happens when “true crime girlie” becomes a public menace. She has no business being as brave as she is, considering she keeps inserting herself into situations where the murderers are very much still nearby. She’ll break into someone’s barn, find evidence of something horrifying, pepper-spray her way out, and then somehow still have the energy to make it about the article. That’s commitment. Horrible commitment, but commitment. The best thing about her is that she annoys absolutely everyone. Will hates her, Hannibal finds her rude, Jack finds her useful until she’s a problem, Alana thinks she’s awful, the audience is sitting there like “Freddie, please stop” and also “Freddie, please continue, this is funny.” She’s not sympathetic in the soft tragic way, but she’s not meant to be. She’s a vulture with a blog, a legal team somewhere having migraines, and the survival instincts of someone who has somehow dodged being eaten through sheer narrative irritation."