#like all that character development just to erase it. at least how it is they really didn't lose much by forgetting everything. idk

[akechi-stole-my-heart]

Oh I'm so mad this didn't happen now...for some reason the DLC is allergic to discussing Sumi/Akechi spoilers and it REALLY holds the game back big time. I loved the game on my first playthrough but now that I've finished a second I really feel like it was huge wasted potential by not going all out in letting there be Royal spoilers. Like, Sumire and Darkechi are PERFECT foils to Guernica, but all of that is forced into subtext no one ever discusses because they're both maintaining their masks during the game. Could you imagine if their true selves were forced out...makes me want to rewrite the game tbh but I don't have the time for something like that. sigh

[lieutenant-amuel]

Okay, I got back to writing WBTL yesterday and now I think this story could’ve been a lot better if I didn’t write it from Valerio’s POV.

[peggythestrange]

Binghe's side of the story was different.

Binghe was always a good disciple. He knew his shizun hated him, he perfectly knew that Shen Qingqiu despised his character. But only for his twin brother he tried to keep their relationship at least acceptable.

Binghe was grateful to Shen Yuan for his efforts, he was the only one to actually see him as a person and not a monster. He really was grateful, but could not ignore the hurtful comments and his cruel glances. He didn't know what he did to make his shizun hate him so badly, he didn' know what to do to sole the matter with him.

But growing up he ha developed a strong resentment towards that man. Something he could restrain only thinking about the second shizun, the kind and benevolent Yuan-shifu teaching them under the stern gaze of Shen Qingqiu. Disciples loved him and his methods, his stories were the most interesting and his smile the brightest.

Binghe didn't know that Shen Yuan attempted to replicate an attitude he thought it was enough to save his twin.

It was his first big mistake. Shen Jiu didn't asked to be saved. He never asked to change his destiny and dind't want his brother to risk domething for him. But Shen Yuan tried his best.

After all he loved teaching and his ducklings were what was most precious to him even if he never wasted the opportunity to mock them a bit.

An everyone loved that of him. Especially Binghe loved that, of him.

He promised his whole life that he would never allow anyone to erase that smile from his shifu's face. Shen Yuan was a beautiful angel and he didn't care if his personality was a fake one or if he was really like he shown, Shen Yuna was the only one to show him kindness and respect. He loved him, he loved him so much. And even if he hated his twin brother, he couldn't stop showing his affection towards that man, but it seemed he couldn't even see him. But he would never give up, he would make him happy.

This was his promise.

But then, one day, his shizun came telling that he did not have many days to live and that he did not want his brother to have to take care of him and worry about his sorry condition. Shen QIngqiu left for some days to find a cure for his twin, but came back almost dying, with its deeply damaged qi and internal incurable wounds.

Shen Jiu told Binghe, that he was doomed to lose his mind. With teary eyes he told him he was cursed and he would have tried to kill his brother, he didn't want to, he asked him to kill him.

Binghe knew that this was because he wanted to part him from A-Yuan forever. Because Shen Jiu knew that if Binghe had killed the person everyone knew he hated most, Shen Yuan would not have forgiven him. Shen Jiu exactly knew the game he was playing. And the worst part for Binghe was that... had cornered him and forced him to make a difficult decision.

Binghe eventually chose to kill his shizun, because he couldn't bare the thought to lose A-Yuan forever. Maybe one day he could have told his shifu the truth about his dreadful sin, but only if his shifu was still alive. He couldn't tell the truth to a ghost, could he?

So one day, he ripped his shizun's heart, only waiting for his punishment.

And when Shen Yuan ran to them, what he saw was only Binghe's smile. He couldn't see his tears, he couldn't know his thoughts.

Binghe just wanted to cry and tell how sorry he was for what he did, but he couldn't, because his hands were stained with blood. He gave back to Shen Yuan his twin's heart still punding, still warm, while life slipped away from the arteries.

His shizun played a fair game, he won this battle.

Shen Yuan couldn't forgive what he did. And he couldn't forgive Shen Qingqiu for the choice he was forced to make.

But Yuan-shifu was beautiful, even with his face streaked with tears and his heart torn to pieces. This angel would have hated him forever. And Binghe would have loved him for the rest of his days.

He jumped into the Abyss on his own.

He didn't need anyone to force him to.

He jumped because he couldn't stand Yuan-shifu's hatred. He couldn't stand a worl, were his A-Yuan couldn't be kind as he once was.

[swimming-karyss]

Sabo: loneliness, connection and affection

Trying to organise my thoughts on this matter hehe

I just thought that Sabo's relationship with loneliness and connection are very interesting, and not much people talk about how terribly lonely his childhood days were(even compared to Ace&Luffy).

Ace has been alienated from people from the beginning. Raised in the middle of the jungle, by bandits who never showed much affection, and who repeated the same hurtful words as others did. The state of loneliness is the norm for him. He has never known any other life. Naturally, he'd be protective of what little he has(Sabo) and reluctant to open up and accept new connections(Luffy).

As for Luffy, he has been left alone. Shanks left him after a year staying at Windmill village. Garp constantly took him out of his regular life only to leave him alone in the jungle. And he as well took him away from the village and Makino, after he ate his devil fruit. And while he didn't have [present] parents, he had been cared for. Luffy knows the difference between loneliness and companionship. Which is why he chased Ace's recognition so much.

Sabo's situation is more similar to Luffy's.

But do you ever think that Sabo loved his parents? That he wanted them to love him too? He wouldn't have drawn them if he didn't. He wouldn't be so disheartened at their dismissal if he hated them from the start. But his parents made their love conditional. Sabo had to earn their love and his happiness, while they ignored his pain and attempts to connect. 

And as you know this kind of relationship could leave a lasting impact on how one navigates their future relationships! But on that later😊

Now, Sabo ran away and that opened a whole other can of worms. He's a child, that for five years didn't have anyone to rely on. Of course, Ace was with him, but after he left for the day, Sabo was left completely alone. I mean, at least Ace had Dadan and occasionally Makino and Garp, they shared meals together, he could turn to them in case something happened and they provided him with company and a roof above his head. Sabo lived on the Gray Terminal by himself, in a place where people considered him either a troublemaker to avoid, or a pest to get rid of (those like pirates and bandits). So through Ace and Luffy Sabo gains not only brothers but also other connections and people who care about him! And he welcomes both Dadan and Makino with a bright smile :) Now that I think about it, just like Ace told him about Luffy, he also must've told Sabo about them too🥹

And while all this is nice, his previous problems didn't go away magically. 

(… But his issues aren't stated or shown as explicitly as Ace and Luffy's, so they are easier to dismiss.)

Even though Sabo trusted Ace with his life, he still kept his origins a secret from him, whether it was because he felt them insignificant compared to Ace's or because he feared abandonment in case Ace would be disappointed. And he was more than willing to keep his secret until the very end - Luffy&Ace literally had to beat(strangle) the truth out of him. Sabo also put distance between them in another way too: Ace thought the two of them would sail together, Sabo didn't.

That is honestly also a point to how controlling his parents were. Sabo wanted freedom so much that he didn't mind the loneliness that came with it. Well, he got what he wanted ;) 

Now it would be easy to say that his amnesia also erased his trauma. But it didn't! Sabo still felt hid parents' influence. (And unlike the other weird amnesia case (the sea sure likes to take people's memories huh) - Big Mom - he didn't revert to his younger self, he only lost access to his memories, his feelings and 'character development' remained). If anything it only led to Sabo not being able to identify the cause of his issues → not being able to treat them properly. Now, the RA seem like decent guys, they very well could be the needed support system for Sabo, but again, it's an army with a whole lot of other issues to deal with. So either way his trauma most likely was allowed to fester for a while as we see its consequences show in his adulthood. 

Even though Sabo seems to be doing well as an adult, there's still some signs of emotional distance. He has never reciprocated a hug, even though he doesn't have a problem with physical touch in general, he didn't even think about approaching Luffy in Dressrosa at first and was very tense when actually talking to him. And it's honestly fascinating just how stiff his body language was in Dressrosa (maybe I'll talk about it in general some other time) - be it shock or anger he keeps his arms to his body, unlike Koala or Hack, who choose violence.

He also showed barely any reaction during Vegapunk's speech despite the panelling focusing on him specifically. I'd say he mostly keeps his negative emotions in check, bc in Robin's little flashback he was quite expressive! The main counterpoint is 'special Luff' where he is very open about his anger, but he has a really decent reason for it: his feelings being made fun of. And as you'll see later it's a very sensitive topic for him →

To begin with, he avoids talking about things that have emotionally impacted him in any way.

1.This one might be a stretch, but he begins to talk about his encounter with Fujitora, only not to say anything in the end, idk what's wrong with him; 2. After a very emotional fight with Burgess Sabo dismisses any worries without even mentioning the fight; 3. He refuses to talk with Hack about Luffy, even though we know that he loves to yap about him to Dragon. And that is right after he didn't want to wake Luffy up to even say goodbye! He also changes the topic quickly so Karasu wouldn't be able to further question him.

Even though these scenes are played as gags, he really seems to have trouble with emotional intimacy and opening up about his feelings. And that makes him seem inattentive and irresponsible, thus affecting his relationships with others even more… 

And speaking of which, he is accustomed with either suppressing his feelings or at least just keeping them in check. He hides his worries from his colleagues, appearing as cheerful as always. And during his meeting with Dragon and Iva he brushes aside his guilt and grief for king Kobra (but, I mean it's a work meeting, they need to be professional) and never once he acknowledges his injuries.

And if he's willing to disregard such a thing as grief, how do you think he really feels about his new title, which was gained by the blood of a man he failed to save?

And frankly, right now we don't know much about Sabo! We know about his childhood, and the way he presents himself now(and that is some material to work with), but the 12 years in the Revolutionary Army are a mystery, and again it's an army, I bet he's seen many things, especially considering how high his position is!

tldr: like Luffy, Sabo has a special relationship with loneliness and abandonment. But unlike Luffy, who especially in pre-ts hated separation, Sabo pushes people away. And what makes it even harder for others to connect with him, is that he tends to hide his feelings and problems.

(like a cat)

but again, I might be reading something wrong, my bad

[neominthe]

SPOILERS FOR SCTIR FOR +CH 200

CW: (possibly) Eating disorder ED, depression

Something that keeps me awake at night: at the beggining of the story, Yoohyun's death isn't so painful for the viewers, because we only see what is on the surface of the Han brothers' life. It's through memories and flashbacks that we get to learn 3 facts: Yoojin dedicated his entire life to Yoohyun, they parted ways and in the end they reunited, only for one of them die. That's the introduction of SCTIR for us. Moreover, Yoojin is desesperate to leave the past behind, so he doesn't linger on his traumatic memories for too long, hence why the pain of reading SCTIR isn't instant.

It is gradual.

Yoojin and we learn that the past was never erased. It still happened, and exists in the form of Yoohyun's body out in the cold. Gradually, it becomes more apparent how Yoojin is still so affected by his previous life, despite his fear resistance skill. It starts with small things like him avoiding eating unless someone tells him to do so, always occupying himself with tasks that could be handled by someone else, negative thoughts about himself for every single action he takes and so on. I love, with all my heart, the manhwa, but the novel makes it so much more apparent how Yoojin loathes himself, to the point he keeps wishing he wasn't a human being, rather an item for his brother to use. It's so messed up to want to abandon all your humanity, feelings and concept of self just so you can be of help.

SCTIR is fun to read, but even more so with the unreliable narrator that is Yoojin. He sees what he does as nothing impressive, considering the people he is surrounded with, despite running the kisengsu facility, negotiating with the hair loss company to develop a new product, managing Seok Hayan's research team, mantaining diplomatic ties with Japan, training and helping other hunters and, most importantly, caring for all the S classes. He worries for their well-being because it's only natural for him to do so, as the Perfect Caregiver.

And, in the middle of it all, the only thing Yoojin spares for himself is hate. He doesn't want to live long for himself, but rather for Yoohyun, even though Yoojin already has been through the pain of loss. When Yoojin died in chapter 241, the first thing that he thought was Yoohyun. He didn't even think about how much it hurted dying (with a freaking shot on the head)! He just wanted to reunite and soothe Yoohyun that he was okay.

Speaking of which, in Sigma's arc, as Yoojin was alone, he really stopped caring for his well-being, so Sung Hyunjae took that role and did everything he could to help Yoojin. But, for him to even have to create a quest just so Yoojin could eat is what sparked my lizard brain to write this post.

My point is, there isn't an arc dedicated for recovery (at least until the chapter I have read that is like, ~300) and that is beautiful, because Yoojin is still processing what he went through, and we get to see that. Yoojin has such an interesting character arc as he begins wanting to forget the past, as it is too painful, to start running after it. He can't let go of it, because letting it go means letting his little brother go too. Which is why he says he will never be okay again in chapter 278.

[drusill-a]

[WWDitS finale spoilers]

Aside from the obvious – the gross shipbaiting and mocking naive viewers who dared to believe an m/m dynamic could be treated as anything other than the butt of the joke – my biggest issue with the WWDitS finale is that it’s an ending that could have made sense… but at most after s2. Back then, we were still watching a story about characters who didn’t share any particular bonds (except for Nadja/Laszlo) and who were entirely static, unaffected by the things they experienced.

The thing is, the creators themselves realized you can’t build a long-running story on that formula – eventually, the characters had to evolve at least a little, and their relationships had to deepen so viewers would have any reason to root for them. And so Guillermo’s position in the group began to change – first, he earned their minimal respect, then a very solid place, until finally, in season 5, all the other characters had reached a point where they didn’t even hide that they genuinely cared about him a lot. The same happened with Colin, who at first was completely left out by the other housemates but gradually earned an equal spot in the group and developed that stupid yet sweet bond with Laszlo (erasing those memories was, imo, one of the writers’ biggest mistakes). Laszlo showed himself capable of empathy, which he proved again in s5 by helping Guillermo, and even Nadja, who used to completely disregard everyone’s feelings, had several moments in later seasons where she openly cared – at least in her own way –  about the others.

And of course, that’s how we got the romantic subtext between Guillermo and Nandor. Over all those seasons – from s3 up until s6 – I was certain it was a classic will they, won’t they dynamic that would end with them getting together. I just couldn’t believe the writers would spend the last 4 seasons making their relationship more equal and showing Nandor’s journey to realizing Guillermo genuinely mattered to him, only to do nothing with it – or worse, regress them back by three seasons. But the late s6 Nandor’s “no homo” attitude has very little in common with the Nandor from seasons 4 and 5, who was openly pining and lusting after Guillermo.

From Guillermo’s perspective, this ending is an absolute tragedy – even the end of the previous episode gave him much more hope. Maybe he’d lost his lifelong dream and still hadn’t found a new purpose, but he had found a family and a place in the world, with a potential chance to build something meaningful with Nandor in the future. I don’t understand why this episode had to undo all of that – to show us that none of his friends really listen to him, that the power dynamic with Nandor will always be uneven, and that ultimately he wasted 16 years, and no one would really care that much if he left. Considering how great Guillermo’s development was, especially in gaining confidence from s4 onward, this ending feels so unfair and insulting to his character.

I feel like the writers’ biggest mistakes have been forcing a return to the status quo after every season. After the breakup in s3, the characters should have stayed apart for at least an episode or two. Colin should have remembered that Laszlo raised him, and they should’ve kept their funny, fucked-up father-son relationship until the end of the show. Guillermo should’ve been a real vampire for at least a full season—or, in my opinion, permanently—because, as it turns out, the writers had absolutely no idea what to do with his character once he lost that goal. Relationships that had evolved shouldn’t be randomly reset by a couple of seasons just because the writers couldn’t be bothered to put in the effort to write anything new for them.

You can’t have your cake and eat it too – if the writers were so dead-set on giving us an  ending that says “nothing in these characters’ lives matters, and nothing will ever change,” they should have made the show half as long and spared viewers the trouble of getting invested in character and relationship arcs that ultimately went nowhere.

This is a comedy show that was supposed to make people feel better. After this finale, I feel mocked by the creators for believing that the queer ship they sold me for 4 seasons had a chance of being treated equally to an m/f ship. I’m also sad because the characters were regressed and left stuck in eternal limbo, and generally I feel ridiculed because the writers openly made fun of us for getting emotionally invested in the story they wrote for us.

And maybe the biggest crime of these last few episodes was that they weren’t even remotely funny—so you can’t even say they prioritized comedy over character development, because it failed on that front too.

[bright-hope-spot-19]

Top 10 Kankuro moments

I decided to do a top 10 of my most favorite Kankuro moments. As we know, he doesn't have much screentime. Despite that, I decided to compile the ones I consider to be some of his best moments. I'm gonna start from bottom to top, with a little explanation as to why I find each moment so significant. As expected, this is all based on my opinion. With that said, let's start with:

10- Kankuro having an angry outburst at Oonoki's words:

It's not a very significant moment cause it doesn't last much onscreen. That's why it's at the 10th spot. I still like it, though, because it still works to show one of Kankuro's core traits: his more emotional side and how overprotective he is of Gaara. It also shows he has a general disregard for figures of authority. It just shows how distinct his personality is from his siblings. Gaara was the one being disrespected, and he showed no reactions (I understand that as Kazekage, he has to be mature). But he could've at least shown a more surprised expression. Temari, as always, has to play her peacekeeper role, but is also very detached and emotionless bout the whole situation. I love that Kank has emotions and is allowed to show them. It's important for a character to have emotions, and Kankuro does so very well in this scene.

9- Kankuro's faith in Gaara

God, do I love it when Kankuro gets to express his emotions and be protective of Gaara at the same time. In this moment, Baki is showing concern about Gaara potentially losing control of Shukaku on the village during his fight vs. Deidara. Kankuro is portrayed as Gaara's first supporter, as he quickly jumps to his brother's defense. His faith in Gaara is unshakable. It also shows Kanks development. How he went from finding Gaara unbearable and terrifying to becoming his n.1 defender. Also, I love his expressions here. He starts by biting his lip, showing a sliver of hesitancy before making his declaration. Then the pan to his eyes is not only gorgeous, but I assume was done to show his words were genuine. I love him sm.

8- Kankuro's reaction to Gaara's defeat at Naruto's hands

Once again, it's a very small but significant moment. Actually, it goes hand in hand with Kank also being the first to respond to Gaara's apology. I've already talked about this once, but it just goes to show that Kankuro had always loved his brother. Deep down, beneath all the layers of fear and unease, beat the heart of a true big brother. Kankuro's reaction is the one being highlighted here. He's the first to note Gaara's state, the one to carry him, and the one to tell him it's all right after the apology. I see it as foreshadowing for how strong their bond would get in Shippuden. It also shows the contrast between how Kankuro constantly viewed and treated Gaara through the whole arc, majorly with disdain, and the little moments he has, showing concern for him. Such as this one, and Gaara's fights vs. Lee and Sasuke. It's just great to show there's buried trauma, but not even that is enough to erase their sibling bond.

7- Kankuro's flashback of Gaara's dream

I know some people might view his words here as mean, but it's actually another trait of Kankuro I adore. That's how realistic and down to Earth he is, and how he's not afraid of stating the cold truth as it is. Now, as I see it, this memory was used to develop both Gaara and Kankuro. Right now, I don't remember if it took place during Kanks' unconscious state while Sakura healed him, or if it happened during Gaara's fight vs. Deidara, while Kankuro was observing them. Either way, it's a phenomenal scene because it accomplishes many things. For once, it does the bare minimum of showing us Gaara's drive and motivation to change and become Kazekage. It shows Kankuro's pragmatism, but how he doesn't do it out of malice, but because he cares. He doesn't want his brother to get even more hurt on this path he's chosen. It also shows Kankuro's a great listener because he lets Gaara explain his motives. After Gaara is done talking, Kankuro smiles, and it's obvious he has absolute faith his brother can achieve his dream and he's ready to support him and stand by his side. I've seen people hate on him over being mean in this scene? Which not only shows their poor reading comprehension but also a slight hypocrisy. We all know, if Temari was the one present in this scene instead of Kank, saying the exact same words Kank said, she wouldn't be viewed as cruel or mean, but as a caring sister. Temari stans who hate Kankuro baffle me.

6- Kankuro in the council meeting

Another phenomenal overprotective brother moment from our boy here. Shortly after recovering, he not only attends a meeting with the council (that Temari was excluded from, btw). But he has enough strength to stand up and almost beat up this old geezer. It's very similar to the scene with Oonoki above, Kankuro really doesn't care about figures of authority and their rules. He only cares about Gaara's safety. I know it's also clearly shown he listens to Baki here and immediately lets go of the guy. I prefer to think he didn't do it due to having any particular or specific bond with Baki, but because he stopped to momentarily realize the repercussions this action could have on him and his siblings. After all, the council geezers could've easily used Kanks lashing out here against one of their members as an excuse to not trust Gaara or his siblings. So, the reason he stopped is to not bring any further harm to Gaara's already harmed reputation with his outburst, not specifically due to Baki's words, that served more like a reminder of what he was doing. At least, that's how I view it.

5- Kakashi's acknowledgement of his skills

I'm already getting a little tired of typing, so I'll keep these next ones short and simple. As the image suggests, Kankuro not only managed to obtain a vital clue that would lead t7 to Gaara (the only reason Gaara was found and rescued). This feat also earned him Kakashi's acknowledgment. It shows how skilled Kankuro is. Despite going against an opponent who knew everything about his technique and literally being in a situation where his consciousness was quickly fading, he still managed to think and react quickly to obtain a piece of Sasori's cape. If that's not utter skill, idk what is.

4- Kankuro killing Sakon/Ukon showing his brutality

Now, I'll be the first to admit that this one should've definitely been lower. It's a cool moments but really not deserving of such a high spot. So, let's pretend it switched spots with the Kankuro flashback moment. Overall, I just like it because not only does it show Kanks brutality and decisiveness when he has to make a kill. He also revels in it, treating it like an utter show, a performance of horrors. He also shows wit and skill, being able to outsmart his enemies, which is how he managed to kill them. Once again, tho, this one definitely deserved to be lower.

3- Kankuro asks Naruto to save his brother

This moment was also vital for Kankuro as a character. It allows him to be vulnerable and ask for help. He realizes he can't protect Gaara alone, so he reaches out. You know this moment is significant because it catches everyone present by surprise, and the anime even went as far as to dedicate shots to all of their surprised faces. Meaning this reaction is quite unusual for him. I also just love him having more positive interactions with Naruto, further solidifying a bond with the mc. Let's remember these two also started not liking each other.

2- Kankuro holding Gaara

I just love this moment so much. Once again, Gaara finds himself unable to stand on his own and in need of support. Who does he rely on? Kankuro and Naruto, of course. I find this pretty telling because while making this scene, Kishimoto could've very easily put Temari there instead of Naruto. She's Gaara's sister, after all. But no, it's Naruto's and Kankuro's shoulders he's relying on. Same as when he was defeated at the hands of Naruto in the chunin exams, and Kank was the one to carry him. To me, this means Kankuro is the one helping him shoulder most of his burdens. He's the one holding him upright the both times he can't stand on his own, and the one he shared his dream with. Kankuro is definitely a very important person to Gaara.

Before n.1, I'll mention some honorable mentions:

A- His motivational speech to his squad in the war arc when he noticed Omoi's fear and indecisiveness.

B- His moment with Gaara in the forest of death. It's way more nuanced than people think and definitely not proof that Gaara 'hated Kankuro and loved Temari the most.'

C- His moment retrieving Sasori's puppets with Sakura. Yeah, I'm aware that moment was anime only, but I still like it because of what it added to Kankuro's character. Showing how he also understood and empathized with Sasori's pain but was still willing and ready to carry on his legacy.

D- The other bonding moments he has with Naruto, shortly after Gaara was brought back. He goes comfort him after he is pushed away by Gaara's fangirls. He relays the information of Chiyo's death to him and also explains her life transfer jutsu. It's not much, but I love how their bond also improved from basically hating each other in the chunin exams to being pals.

Finally, number 1:

1- Kankuro facing Sasori in the war arc:

I'll be the first to say it: their bond definitely deserved more attention. Seeing as they're both side characters, tho, I'm still satisfied with it. This is, canonically, the last fight Kankuro gets in the manga, and I think it's a very nice conclusion to his character. He comes face to face with his idol after having been defeated once to show and prove how much he'd improved. It also shows inner frustration because while facing him, Kank does reveal he'd spent plenty of time training and trying to improve after his defeat. Sasori can see that, and he entrusts his legacy to Kankuro. This can also be considered Kankuro's peak because it's also the most puppets we've seen him manipulate at a time (6 total). With this fight, Kankuro finally achieves his character goal of becoming Sasori's heir and improving his technique. People who hate it or think it should've been Sakura here instead of Kank really do not understand Sasori's character at all.

All right, and this would be all. Looking back at these moments in conjunction, we can see Kankuro did go through notable development for such a minor side character. Especially in his bond with Gaara. I just appreciate him a lot and wish more people would appreciate him more, as well.

[boxturret]

BMOP: A history of the Abandoned Koro

Now that things have all come out, and the project is well and truly over, I thought I'd take a moment to talk a bit about something I worked on in the game, the "Abandoned Koro" area, now that there's video footage of a playthrough I can easily reference.

I suppose as a quick primer, I was with the BMOP team from around March of 2021 to November of 2022, serving as both 3D art lead and Level design lead for a time. There's a post out there about my experiences with the leadership of the team that I mostly stand by still, I do feel bad for how the project ended, and I have come around a bit to remember the positive times more than the negative, but that doesn't erase what happened.

So to begin, when I came on level design was a fairly inactive sub channel of the game development discord, some ideas got tossed around occasionally, but not much seemed to be happening, before I'd joined there was a rough map drawn up by the then current level design lead.

It was very basic stuff, there was a version of this map in engine that had been extruded a bit to make it a kind of playable space, one area had some trees on it and some random platforms.

One area that interested me greatly was this part in the south, the so called "Abandoned Koro"

The rough idea being that it was the Le-Koro seen in the GBA game Bionicle: Quest for the Toa, that had been abandoned in favour of the one seen in the browser game Mata Nui Online Game and the cancelled PC game Bionicle: Legend of Mata Nui, as the one in QFTT had a lot of wooden structures while the one seen in the other two was more like a woven nest.

At the time I was just a 3d modeller, and had never really done any real level design, but the concept just really inspired me, so I went off and in blender sketched out a possible level layout for this area.

I made a bunch of renders and wrote out how I thought the level could work, which can be seen in this document HERE.

For a quick overview, the idea was you'd enter the area, the bridge would break, you'd have to clear a river to activate the water wheel on a large mechanical tree that would allow you passage upwards, and then navigate through the Nui-Rama infested ruins of the village before coming to a cave.

The tree was something I poured a lot of time in to, its worthy of its own post at some point in the future.

Now I'll be honest, I was super nervous about releasing this document to the team, I thought I was overstepping my bounds. I was just a relatively new 3d modeller on the team, I didn't have the right to be talking about level design, but to my surprise people were really receptive to it, and I very quickly got added to the level design team¹.

I ended up doing a rough blockout in engine. This was back in the time before Lewa had been chosen to be the main player character, so it was still Tahu.

This was the first time I'd ever touched Unreal, so it took a while. That's why the sky is black, I didn't know how to add a skybox.

I never got in to level scripting, but as a proof of concept, I think it was successful.

You can see that in this version of the level it had already progressed, now there was the idea of using the Pakari to break the dam, so finding it was the first task on the ground.

This version wasn't in the actual demo map, because as I said before the demo wasn't really very fleshed out at the time. One thing my map showed though was that the demo was way too big. The level design lead at the time had decided the size based on how long it took to get around the map as a perfectly flat plane with no terrain, at max run speed, with no obstacles. This is a very flawed methodology to say the least. Having an actual level with things scaled to the character really started to show the holes in this, and eventually, once I became lead, the demo area was massively shrunk.

Here's a version from just a month later. The version is now part of the new, more compact demo area, but its mostly barren at this point.

This version was actually completely rebuilt from the ground up because it had been decided to try out voxels as a basis². They were a pain to deal with and this was overturned eventually. I'd say in total, including the 3d sketch I did, I re-built this map maybe 4 times.

One benefit of voxels was it was trivial to have caves, so this is where the idea of the pakari being found in a cave started to emerge.

As I continued to play and refine the demo it became clear how much the movement systems would need to be tweaked. There seemed to be this idea in the team that everything could be done separately and bolted together later, so character moment was all handled by someone jumping around on some big blocks in a test map whereas level design was off doing their own thing, but it really wasn't working. So while the movement felt good in a vacuum, actually putting it in context really exposed a lot of issues. You could easily jump over any enemy you could come across, as said earlier maps had to be huge in order to make the world seem big while you were running at full speed, and after about 3 jumps you'd be 20 metres in the air.

At this point the idea still was to have the entire island of Mata Nui be one large open area you could freely explore, so the sheer size of the maps resulting from the over powered movement was a major issue. I lobbied very hard to have things pulled back and eventually they were.

its a bit out of order, but here's the demo area from closer to when I left. Its a fraction of the size of the original map

Here's another video from a month later.

As much as it pains me to say it, this is basically it in terms of meaningful development. By this point Lewa had been locked in as the playable character, and the movement had been dialed back to a more reasonable degree, so I was able to really start trying to refine the area. This is where I ran in to a fatal issue.

No one else wanted to play the game.

And what was worse barely anything worked.

The level is still in what I would call a grey box state. I used a couple tree trunk assets I'd made here and there, and put in a big canopy asset from one of the many asset packs we had for a bit of ambience, but it was all still very basic geometry, easily changed or modified.

Unfortunately, there's only so much you can do for playtesting your own area. You built it: you know where everything is, what's supposed to happen, where you're supposed to go. You can try to pretend to play it as a new player, but that only gets you so far. I was hoping people on the team would play it and provide feedback³, but outside of maybe one or two people a handful of times⁴, trying to get any real feedback was was a futile effort.

The thing was that this area was very complex. If the demo was a vertical slice of the game as a whole, this area was itself a microcosm of the demo⁵. It had platforming, puzzle solving, combat, mask powers, the lot. Now unfortunately for me, barely any of those systems actually worked.

As an example, this long ledge was for a long time a stand in for vine swinging, then rail grinding⁶, then was ultimately just replaced by a platform.

So things had kind of hit a wall. I couldn't properly design areas with combat in them until combat existed in a more stable state, I couldn't design platforming sections until platforming worked in a consistent way. I couldn't even adjust the overall flow of the level because everyone else basically refused to give feedback.

But the unfortunate thing is, in August of that year they'd released a teaser trailer.

And that trailer had gotten hundreds of thousands of views.

This is where the whole development of this game really went off the rails. Now there was this push to get things in a presentable state, start set dressing and making final assets so things could be shown off.

But I refused. Everything was too up in the air to commit to set dressing, this is why block out exists, if the jump changes height its no big issue to grab the couple cubes an area is made out of and shift them up or down, if combat is found to need more space its easy to make things bigger, or add or take away walls. If something is confusing things can be shifted. Once set dressing starts now you're dealing with dozens to hundreds of objects being scattered about, even the smallest tweak can lead to a mess.

Not to mention set dressing raised its own series of issues, from plants triggering the IK on the toa's feet, making their knees go up to their chin when walking through a bunch of ferns, to collision volumes being oversized or offset, meaning that big rock face they just added has now created a massive invisible wall in another area. Once the addition of some plants caused all ledges within a wide radius to no longer work⁷.

It was a miserable state of affairs. My mental state rapidly deteriorated as I fought against this, I became very short tempered and irritable, and eventually near the end of 2022 I was kicked from the team. It was such a relief honestly.

I think the tragic thing is, set dressing is actually quite a fast process. The starting area went from looking like this to something quite like the final in about a month?

But you can't show off the first screenshot on twitter⁸.

I guess I'll spare a quick moment to talk about the final version seen in the video.

Its at 46 minutes in if the link doesn't work

Its...fine? The assets they've made are all good, though I think they lost the QFTM inspiration along the way. The thing that stands out to me is just how...little its moved on from 2022. Just look how much progress was made in like 3 months, compare that to now, 3 years later. Temporary platforms I placed are still in the exact same spot. I do find the addition of a matoran with a key for the cave to be a not great addition, if only for the fact that you need to find a tiny green man in amongst the overwhelming greenery to proceed.

One part I found quite amusing was the final enemy encounter. It was supposed to be this large hut, probably Matau's, that had been completely overtaken by a hive, and Nui-Rama would spawn constantly from it until the encounter was over.

There were a lot of concepts drawn up, but I guess it just...never happened. I also don't know why there's waves of fikou there either, that was after my time I think.

So that's really all I have to say about that version, it looks okay. Its still clearly unfinished. It kinda works more than it did when I left, but its shockingly not that much different, outside of some new assets.

I'll be honest, I did intend this to be more of a happy, reflective post, but when watching part of the developer commentary a quote stood out to me.

"Traditionally you would kind of have really basic blockout for an environment and play test that to see how the level design is working. Because of the the situation we had we were kind of forced to just go ahead with set dressing and prettying it up and everything so if it were in a perfect world I would have loved to have gotten to do some more play testing early on but we did what we could with it. And I mean you basically had to just blindly trust the process because many systems weren't working at the time things were designed." -AN UNKNOWN BMOP DEVELOPER (2025)

And I just fundamentally disagree. This was a fan project, there were no deadlines but those that were self inflicted. This process they blindly trusted just lead to a thing that on the surface looks okay, but is still riddled with bugs that were well known for years. I've seen some people on the team say the game was 90% completed, feature locked, just 3 more months of polish and it would have all been working, but from what I've seen of the game I really doubt it. They say themselves in the commentary that there's bugs they've been fighting for nearly a decade still rearing their head.

So yeah, its not exactly a happy tale. I'm quite proud of the work I did, I learned a lot, and met a lot of people I'm still friends with to this day. Its a shame the project had to end this way, and I'm sad everyone's work has gone to waste, but I'm also not going to pretend this was some amazing project that was struck down right before achieving greatness.

But most of all: Fuck you lego.

If you're interested in seeing a few more of the things I worked on in my time with BMOP, go HERE. I may post more publicly about some of them in the future, who knows. I have a post about the regional Kini temple I designed and built for the game HERE. Also some renders I did for some of my game design reports HERE.

¹-I say team, it was maybe two other people who were barely around. ²-I'll be honest here: Some people wanted to have the entire map destructible so that they could have Bohrok dynamically destroy it. For the post game DLC after we'd finished this Zelda sized free fan game⁹. ³-💯👍👀 isn't helpful feedback at the end of the day. Its supportive I'll give you that. But sometimes you need more. ⁴-One person on the team even outright refused to play the game until final release, to "save their first reactions for their stream"... ⁵-idk if its clear at this point but the "demo" is, was, and now always will be the entirety of the existing game. Oh there were ideas for other things, but nothing concrete ever materialised⁹. ⁶-You know, like Sonic⁹ ⁷-The ledge's over sensitive detection for something blocking it is one of the most frustrating things about the game's development for me. ⁸-You absolutely can show off real development stuff, there are lots of people who find that fascinating. ⁹-This game was nothing if not ambitious.

You see that kind of mop is called a "Bee Mop", because of its sponge's resemblance to honey comb.

[benkyoutobentou]

LGBTQ+ Japanese Media for Pride Month

Happy pride month! There's no better time to read and watch queer media than June. I tend to read and watch mostly queer content, so I thought I'd drop some things that I've enjoyed over the years for those looking for something that they maybe haven't picked up before. Since lots of Japanese media tends to have multiple versions and adaptations, I'll be organizing this by representation rather than type of media. The version(s) that I've personally seen or read will be bolded. This will also be a little bit different from my usual Japanese media recommendation posts, as I will also be including media that I've read in English or watched with English subtitles. This is also an invitation for anyone to recommend things to me, especially ones that have LGBT rep outside of just gay and lesbian characters. I'm always looking for more stuff to enjoy!

MLM

同級生/Classmates (manga/anime movie): Two seemingly opposite boys meet during the choir festival at their all boys' school and develop a relationship. How could this not be the very first thing I recommend? This is one of my all time favorite BL series and one of my favorite movies as well. Seriously, I watch this at least three times per year (once being during June!). Nakamura Asumiko is one of my favorite manga artists, and this won't be the last series of hers on this list.

ひだまりが聴こえる/I Hear the Sunspot (manga/movie): This follows a college student who agrees to become the designated note taker for a deaf classmate. I love this series and one of my favorite things about it is how much the romance takes a backseat to other things happening in the characters lives. It also has a large cast of deaf characters! If you're looking for something with representation outside of only LGBT and doesn't focus too much on romance, this is a really great choice.

30歳まで童貞だと魔法使いになれるらしい/Cherry Magic! 30 Years of Virginity Can Make You a Wizard (manga/drama/anime): After waking up on his thirtieth birthday, a businessman discovers that he has gained the ability to read minds. And with that, he discovers that his male coworker has a crush on him. For such a zany concept, this series is very cute and sweet. It's also always nice to see something that follows older characters (ie. not high school or college).

美しい彼/My Beautiful Man (novel/drama/manga): This follows a social outcast who ends up falling in love with a boy in the friend group of his high school bullies. This isn't a sweet and heartwarming romance at all, but it's also not pure toxicity. The drama is extremely bingeable and the author is a juggernaut in the BL light novel community for a reason.

消えた初恋/My Love Mix Up (manga/drama): Due to an eraser mishap, a boy admits to having feelings for another boy in order to save his actual crush from embarrassment. This series is The Blueprint for me in terms of romcoms. It does everything right for me and the characters especially stand out. It covers topics from discovering your identity and first love to dealing with homophobia and it does it all spectacularly. I also think that the manga does visual humor extremely well.

スリーピングデッド/Sleeping Dead (manga): After being stabbed to death on a routine patrol, a popular high school teacher wakes up on a metal table. I have no words [words]. This is definitely up there in my favorites, I love it so much. If you like queer horror, this is definitely one you need to pick up. I also found it very funny and the characters were extremely charming.

僕らの地球の歩き方/Our Not-So-Lonely Planet Travel Guide (manga): A couple decides to travel the world together, promising that they'll get married upon their return to Japan. Probably my all time favorite manga ever. I love every single thing about this, especially how much this series loves the queer community. This manga is overflowing with love in all ways, and I'm overflowing with love for this manga.

きのう何食べた？/What Did You Eat Yesterday? (manga/drama): This series is basically just snippets of a gay man's daily life. He likes to cook. And you know what? It's all the better for it. This series is award winning and such a great time. The main character is so relatable and it covers some great LGBT+ topics. Honestly, it's a crime that I haven't seen the drama yet.

WLW

独り舞/Solo Dance (novel): After a violent encounter, a Taiwanese woman makes the choice to move to Japan. When reading this, I saw it mention Qiu Miaojin's Notes of a Crocodile, which I had just bought, and now that I've finally read it, I can easily see the influences that Qiu's works had on this one. This is a tough book to get through emotionally, but ultimately a worthwhile read, especially if you're looking for something more on the literary side.

ささやくように恋を唄う/Whisper Me a Love Song (manga/anime): A girl confesses to an upperclassman that she loves her music, but the upperclassman misunderstands it as a true confession of love. I adore this series and the relationships in it. It has a huge cast of female characters and also has a driving plot outside of just the romance. I'm a sucker for series about music and this one is one of my favorites.

あさがおと加瀬さん/Kase San and Morning Glories (manga/anime movie): A shy gardener and a popular track star become friends and begin dating. This series is so cute! It feels like a GL staple to me and is one I've been following for practically as long as I've been reading manga in Japanese. It also has a sequel series called 山田と加瀬さん/Yamada and Kase San which follows the two of them after high school.

メジロバナの咲く/A White Rose in Bloom (manga): After not being able to go home for Christmas, a girl is stuck in her boarding school with one other student, who seems to not like her. This is another one by Nakamura Asumiko and there's something about her writing which always sucks me in. I can't get enough of this series, it has wonderful vibes, impeccable art, and I just want more and more of the characters.

欠けた月とドーナッツ/Donuts Under a Crescent Moon (manga): This series is a slice of life following two coworkers and their growing relationship. It's very slow burn and puts a lot more emphasis on the feelings of coming into and realizing your sexuality as an adult and dealing with compulsory heterosexuality. I really loved this series and how it focused on issues surrounding but not directly related to the central romance.

気になってる人が男じゃなかった/The Guy She Was Interested in Wasn't a Guy At All (manga): A girl develops a crush on a worker at a music store after bonding over their shared love of music. Little does she know, he's actually the girl who sits next to her in class. This manga has taken the world by storm to the point of having a collaboration with Nirvana, and let me tell you it deserves every bit of hype you've heard about it. The art and characters are both stunning and is absolutely worth the read.

ハロー、メランコリック！/Hello, Melancholic! (manga): A talented trombonist enters a high school without a wind band, but is scouted anyway by a drummer looking for a new member to join her combo band. This is another one where the romance takes a backseat to other stuff in the plot, can you tell that I love that sort of thing? I also really loved the ways they talked about music in here, and I could definitely relate to it as a musician myself. Apparently, all the chapter titles are songs as well.

さよならローズガーデン/Goodbye, My Rose Garden (manga): A young woman moves from Japan to England to find her favorite author and is hired on as a maid. Her boss agrees to help her find this author so long as she agrees to help her with a grisly task. This is another really lovely series with gorgeous art. Set in the Victorian era, this does have some time period appropriate homophobia but overall it didn't strike me as a very dark manga.

Transgender

彼らが本気で編むときは、/Close Knit (movie): A young girl goes to live with her uncle and his transgender girlfriend. This movie is so sweet and cute! I watched it a couple years back now, but I feel like a lot of specific scenes have stuck with me. This is definitely a good heartwarming Pride month movie night candidate.

不可解なぼくのすべてを/Love Me For Who I Am (manga): A nonbinary teen is offered a job at a crossdressing cafe run by a classmate's family. Although this series has a cast with multiple LGBT identities, I chose to include it here because the main theme seems to revolve around gender. I do recommend this series if you're looking for a cute and sweet story about gender issues, but I did have some hesitations about the way lesbians are portrayed in this manga.

ボーイミーツマリア/Boy Meets Maria (manga): A boy who dreams of being an actor falls in love at first sight with a girl he sees dancing in his high school entrance ceremony, only to later find that she is actually a boy in his class. I feel like I always need to preface any recommendation for this manga by saying that a lot of people took issue with the way certain things and tropes are handled in this regarding being transgender. I personally didn't find it transphobic but I'm also just one person and can't speak for every nonbinary person out there. Regardless, I really enjoyed this. Be aware of trigger warnings when going into this one, it gets extremely graphic.

ボーイズ・ラン・ザ・ライオット/Boys Run the Riot (manga): Two high school boys bond over their shared love of fashion and start a brand together. I read this one a while back and never ended up finishing it but I do remember enjoying what I read! It's also by a transgender mangaka!

放浪息子/Wandering Son (manga/anime): This is a slice of life coming of age series that follows a middle school friend group revolving around two transgender friends. It's more of a slow paced series and a little bit on the more depressing side. The anime is also award winning and the manga was nominated!

星合の空/Stars Align (anime): This is a sports anime about a middle school boys' soft tennis team. I always hesitate to recommend this one because it was greenlit for a twenty four episode anime then cut down to twelve episodes during production. Rather than condense the story, the creator chose to animate only the first half of the series, so it's perpetually unfinished. Despite that, I still think it was a really wonderful anime and I would really love to see the rest of it one day because so much good stuff was set up!

Other/Multiple

しまなみ誰そ彼/Our Dreams at Dusk (manga): A gay teen is about to commit suicide after being outed to his classmates but sees a mysterious person jump from a balcony, which then leads him to a drop in center for LGBT people. I cannot say enough good things about this manga, it is phenomenal and is always my go-to for anyone looking for queer manga. It's heartfelt and beautiful and written by another one of my favorite mangaka, Kamatani Yuhki, who also happens to be X gender!

ヒラエスは旅路の果て/Hiraeth: The End of the Journey (manga): After the death of her best friend, a young girl decides to join a forgotten god and an immortal man on their journey to find death. Another Kamatani manga! This manga deals more with grief and mortality rather than queer identities, but if you want something with casually queer characters, this one is worth picking up. Also, this is one of only two manga to ever make me cry, and boy did I ugly cry at this one.

恋せぬふたり/Two People Who Can't Fall in Love (drama): Though I haven't watched this one, it's been on my radar for quite a while and I've heard so many good things. It's also harder to find series that have explicit aroace representation. This is about a woman who feels ostracized by her lack of romantic interest in anyone around her until she finds a blog about asexuality.

わたしは壁になりたい/I Want to Be a Wall (manga): This series is a marriage of convenience plot between an asexual BL fangirl and a gay man who never got over his childhood crush. I loved the relationship between the two characters and the depiction of a nontraditional family that still has love within it, even if it's not romantic.

Bonus- Music

I'm not one to look much in to the person behind the music, so I often don't know much about band members or singers of the music I listen to. However, there are two wonderful transgender artists that I listen to regularly in Japanese and couldn't pass up the opportunity to share their works with the world! Nakamura Ataru is a pop singer who also takes inspiration from traditional Japanese music. I love her enka styled songs such as 廃墟の森! The other artist is a bit more popular, and that's the rock band QUEEN BEE, whose lead singer is the incredibly talented Avu Chan. Avu Chan also voiced Inu Oh in one of my favorite movies, Inu Oh, which isn't (explicitly) queer, but is definitely worth watching anyways, even if just to hear Avu Chan's insane vocal abilities.

And so, those are (just a few) of my recommendations for Japanese queer reads to celebrate Pride month! If you have any recommendations for me, regardless of whether it's a movie or novel or manga or other, I would love to hear them!

[bowandbrush]

sorry for patronizing you mutuals with my sudden avatar fixation!

having rewatched the series, I decided to check out the live action series out of curiosity (I jumped straight into the Kyoshi island episode, to see what the interaction between Sokka and suki was like. Yeah)

In the new series we have much more screen time with Suki and more story on her past, but it’s not written half as well as the original. I understand they’re trying to change some things up and erase sexist Sokka, but that was the entire point in the original story.

in the new version, Sokka just…stares a little and tries talking to her. Which is fine I guess. He’s impressed with her skill in fighting and devotion to being a warrior. It’s understandable, as he develops a bit of a crush after watching her in combat. Later discovering her training dojo, Suki just decides to train him. Out of nowhere. There are a fair amount of scenes and dialogue that insinuates she has a thing for him too, a lot. The entire training segment is just them standing close, tripping over each other, staring, etc. basically the same formula so many writers use to build tension between two characters.

It lacks substance. There isn’t much reason for them to like each other here. And for Pete’s sake, we don’t get to see Sokka wearing the traditional Kyoshi outfit!

In the original, Sokka saunters in with prideful arrogance, dismissing and underestimating the female warriors. Y’know, because they’re girls. This scene wasn’t being sexist, Sokka was. I still don’t understand why they erased this, because it was a very important character development.

When Sokka ‘demonstrates’ his combat skills, Suki sets him straight without a sweat. In humiliation, Sokka realizes how much how wrong he was about women and their strength. How disrespectful he was.

that gives him a reason to ask for training. For forgiveness, and to better himself. It’s also a great scene when we see Suki sharing her culture with him. Although she wouldn’t normally “train outsiders, much less boys”, she still gives him a second chance.

There is so much authenticity here. He grows to admire Suki as a fighter and as a person. For her kindness and forgiveness too, not just strength.

we can see Suki grow on Sokka, appreciating his unbreakable loyalty and bravery. As well as his silly demeanor. We all like funny guys!

It’s a really nice Strong and brave woman + smart and silly idiot duo, and I love it.

live action is just,,,watered down a lot. I don’t know what the live action series will do in the future. I don’t really care anyways. BUT what I really appreciate with Suki and Sokka is their vulnerability with each other.

nowadays, every “strong” girl is defined with outer works/action. That usually means no crying, no soft side, no fear. Especially if she’s in a relationship with a man. She has to be tougher than him. Because I guess vulnerable and defeated girls can’t be strong. At least, that’s the trope I see most often.

Suki is very strong, brave, and tough. But when the appropriate time comes, she lets herself be open and exposed. She can let her guard down and expose her inner pain, because she knows Sokka is there for her.

it’s perfectly normal and healthy for a man to be able fall apart in his girls’ arms. But I feel like that’s suppressed the other way around, because it displays weakness. And I guess we’re cancelling weakness in women now. Because of woke

[tryandbehappy]

Oh my god. What utter bullshit.

Do you realize what they did? They made Nick the fucking scapegoat with no closure, no resolution, no development, nothing. And the worst part? It’s all completely OOC.

Why?

Because if they wanted to show that he was some kind of villain June became disillusioned with, then they should’ve actually shown him being shady and doing something really unforgivable and irredeemable at least. They should’ve given him a real “dark side,” a secret life, something ( i honestly can’t even imagine what it could’ve been —considering she forgave Lydia and Serena for things that were so much worse. But okay. At minimum, he would’ve had to personally shoot those girls and assault someone right in front of her for this level of rejection to make any f***ing sense)

But they didn’t.

All we ever saw were things that made us feel sympathy for him, compassion for him.

And then what happens?

June throws him away like a fing dog. Even when literally everyone else is defending him (even Luke and Serena) She’s like “nah, f that, it was his choice, he deserved it” 😱

Completely erasing everything they shared. EVERYTHING. Don’t get me started to list everything he did for her.

I genuinely don’t even have words for how f*ing absurd that is. So what are we left with?

A message that her love for him was… what? Fake?Unacknowledged? That he was never really good? That it meant nothing?

Because apparently, “all commanders are evil.”

Except wait — not all of them. Lawrence is fine. Rapists are evil — but not Lydia, not Serena. THEY get redemption. THEY get forgiveness. Even from June herself.

The hypocrisy is off the charts.

Nick gets destroyed for one single mistake. (And it wasn’t even really a mistake)

She knows his circumstances. She knows he has no one outside. She left him. She knows he has a wife and a child now. She knows all of that.

So if the goal was to make him look like a monster then WHY give him a wife and child he actually cares about?Why show that he values loyalty, family, love? Why frame him as the one man who stayed decent in a hellish system only to punish him for it?

You can’t have it both ways. You can’t build a character whose entire arc is about being emotionally grounded, loyal, protective and then expect us to believe he’s evil because he didn’t abandon his child?

In his final scene, you have ROSE pressuring him to protect his child and that was his motive. And now we’re supposed to go, “oh yeah, that’s a bad guy”?

WHAT???

It just…It doesn’t make any f***ing sense. And let’s be real — this episode told me nothing I didn’t already suspect. They planted those dumbass lines earlier:

“the winning side,”

“June asked me to leave Gilead.” It was already clear they were setting him up for a fall.

So what’s the takeaway?

The entire show used us — used the fanbase’s love and trust and compassion for Nick —

just to keep us watching. Just to keep us emotionally invested. So that in the end, they could drop this cheap lazy f***ing twist where he’s suddenly “the villain” not because it makes sense, but because they wanted shock value.

And in doing that, they made the main character June look like a coward. A hypocrite. A bitter woman who never actually grew, never evolved. An ungrateful disgusting woman.

She judges based on labels (only Nick btw), even though she, of all people, should understand the gray areas —better than anyone. Her mother doesn’t. Luke doesn’t. But she lived it. She knows.

And still, in the end, she chooses the white coat (strange she wasn’t wearing it like when she was watching the fucking ballet)

She turns her back on Nick.Betrays their entire story. Over one thing. ONE decision — a situation she herself put him in. A father of her child. Made out of love! (She said it herself)

It’s disgusting.

And the message it sends? Absolutely revolting. I don’t even know how to comment on this anymore.

F*** them. They deserve a f***ing avalanche of 1-star reviews, internet rage, and public backlash.

Because this, this is how you butcher a legacy.

[sarafangirlart]

This is just my personal opinion and it isn't a fully developed but I'll basically try to verbalize one of the possible reasons why Athena is unnecessarily demonized, namely that she doesn’t fit into a "dark aesthetic".

A lot of people - typically young adults and teenagers - usually develop a fascination for a macabre, gloomy, eerie and overall dark aesthetic. This aesthetic is also linked into the awareness of morality, a sense of empowerement and a desire of being unique and different from others.

The main problem is that many people end up confusing the idea of a morally grey, complex character with an aesthetically dark one, and have the impression that if a character has sonething "dark" - wheter this has to do with death, monstruosity, darkness etc. - then it's automatically a complex and interesting one. That character usually turns out to be either labeled as "misunderstood", or have their flaws and wrong deeds erased or twisted.

See how so many people are obssessed with Hades and Persephone purely because of aesthetics, despite the fact that they barely appear in any myths and the major one is literally focusing on a forced marriage and an abduction. Or how Medusa becomes the misunderstood victim in the Media and a lot of headcanons are spread as facts about her despite the fact that even Ovid didn't write them, so that she could be perceived as unique and/or a complete girlboss. Underworld deities in general receive this type of treatment.

Athena, on the other hand, doesn’t fit into this type of aesthetic, or at least not into a classical one. Nor do Demeter, Hera, Perseus or Hephaestus. Which might be part of the reason why they receive unnecessary hate.

P.S: I'm talking here as someone who wears black all the time, is into goth literature and watches horror and disturbing movies. Therefore I have all the right to criticize my own kind.

I agree yeah, there’s this idea that figures like Hera and Athena “uphold the status quo and patriarchy” even tho they are the ones who cause or at least attempt to cause change constantly. They are the ones that try to overthrow Zeus, they are the ones who stand up against him the most or in Athena’s case, step up as a parental figure to his children since he’s rarely a present parent. Hera and Athena are some of the most popular and well known women in myth so it’s unsurprising that they receive a lot of hate from ppl who wanna be contrarian and different.

Hades is never seen as ever directly opposing Zeus, in fact they seem to get along just fine considering the fact that Zeus thought Hades would be a good husband to his daughter (aside from in Claudian’s Rape of Proserpina in which he threatened Zeus to get him a wife which Zeus does), but bc he has a dark aesthetic and has been turned into a shadow daddy by retellings, he’s seen as hating Zeus, rebelling against Zeus, hell even being against him for his violence against women which is RICH coming from Hades of all ppl.

That same mentality is why ppl think Ares is a mama’s boy who would do anything to protect his mom even if he has to confront Zeus when that’s literally Hephaestus’s thing! Hephaestus was the one to defend Hera from Zeus not Ares.

They want the aesthetic of ‘sticking it up to the man’ but not actually sticking it up to the man. Medusa didn’t kill abusers to protect women, Perseus did, he was the one who chose to kill Polydectes, Proetus, Phineus and their goons not Medusa.

[that-one-i-think]

Since we are overanalyzing stuff, time for me to talk about my view on Shadow Knights.

I like to think of Shadow Knigts as a metaphor for obsession and how trauma can fundamentally change you and your relationships, and this is exampled by all of the Shadow Knight we know (with few exceptions, but I can explain why).

As well all know, the biggest part of being a Shadow Knight is the strong desire to kill the person closest to you, with the majority case being your lord. It is what the required step to change from fledgling to fully developed Shadow knight is. No avoiding it, and that's because relationships have power.

There is no relationship where someone does not have some sort of power over the other, and that is not a bad thing objectively. It is just a fact. From siblings to parents to friends to lovers, all relationships have some sort of power dynamic. I am not talking stronger or weaker, but more like a charge or energy. You trade and share your power like a circuit to a bulb, some relations brighten it, others burn it out.

The trading of power is natural, but Shadow knights are unnatural beings created by a man scourned by every relationship he had, especially with a woman who held so much power over him, so much sway. We have all seen the trope of "I have had my heart shattered so I must make sure no one EVER LOVES AGAIN!", well, to me this is exactly that. The knights are forced to kill the person closest to them, the person who holds the greatest power over them, metaphorically but especially literally when it comes to lords. You cannot have a relationship in fear of harming the other.

The process of being turned into a Shadow Knight is also very similar to how abusers trap their victims, this time to a very literal extreme. They isolate them, make them dead to the world, feed them vile thoughts about the people they care about, and when they do leave, there is a literal calling, forcing them to come back. They can't be around their old relationships because they now fear they are too violent, too dangerous, too broken. They try to act normal, try to be who they once were, but they can't. Cause that is not how trauma works.

The two shadow knights who exemplify this the most are Laurance and Sasha, who are the ones we are the most familiar with. We watch for essentially 150+ episodes of Laurance and Aphmau building a relationship as friends and having that relationship deteriorate as Laurances trauma gets worse and worse, before overtaking him entirely when he has to respond to the calling. I am not going to go into [black] deserved better in either relationship as it doesn't matter what they deserved, this is how the situation played out. Friendship to genuine care to hyperfixation to possession to obsession to hatred, that is how their relationship played out because Laurance was never able to heal. The relationship became toxic because of it, NOT ON PURPOSE, mind you, neither were abusive or intentionally tried to be. Sometimes that just happens and you need to know when to walk away, which is what Laurance did.

Sasha is another character who faced this conundrum with Kenmur, but the only difference was that she had time. 15 years with the knowledge that Kenmur was most likely dead (Irene dimension), and she, to some extent, already mourned. That is not to say she did not freak out when she saw him again, but she wasn't murderous. She was incredibly depressed. Just like Laurance, her love moved on and was even getting married, but her reaction wasn't murderous rage. It was to try and bury her feelings. She had time to be away, time to heal, and while she can never move on (as shown is season 3 when she cries when Kenmur dies despite being in Tu'la) she can allow both of them to heal at least.

Gene is another character who is obsessive with his relationships after becoming a Shadow Knight, but a big difference with him is that he already had abusive tendencies. He tried to erase his ex's memories so they could continue dating, so after his transformation, his TRAUMA these traits became worse and exaggerated, something that does happen after trauma. It does not excuse nor make sense of his actions but when Gene came back, he came back for revenge but he felt no desire to kill Dante, the person you would assume would be closest to him, because Dante had already betrayed him, so he had no one. There was no one with power over him because Gene was in abusive relationships where he did have all the power, where he was the one burning their bulbs in a sense.

Vylad is another character who has no one he was truly close to either. He was the bastardd child of a lord, he came into this life as an accident, as a mistake. Objectively he should have the desire to kill Garroth or him mom (which 50/50 for Garroth, those arrows man) but here's a big thing for Vylads healing, Hyria. She took care of him and made sure he was okay before sending him off. He was given the tools to heal by someone who doesn't give him permanent reminders of his trauma. He also had time on his hands to heal, where his family was trapped in another dimension or being invaded by Tu'la. He had both time and resources, which is why he is the only one who is truly fine.

I am not going to go into Zenix cause he is... Odd as hell and I don't recall his shadow knight status. He is very complicated character with not enough answers to go with.

Vincent is a full-fledged shadow knight after killing his brother, but the thing is, after purging that relationship he still struggles. He said he had moments of no control but he doesn't anymore, he is in control and that is after time, a very long time. Purging the relationship didn't solve his trauma, it just gave him nothing to obsess with.

Now, there is one last Shadow Knight I am going to go into, and that is Amethyst, the old lady who was in like, 2 episodes. She was a happy old lady who was with her loving husband, and that is all she was because time allowed her to be so. Nothing more. She is a shadow knight who was able to overcome her trauma and live a happy life, but that was with time, and with her husband, whom she grew old with.

Even if the relationship you desire wasn't the one to traumatize you, the memory of that time can be enough to cause damage. Time is what is needed so someone can be able to set their wounds and allow themselves to heal, if they so choose.

[superbbirdofparadise]

Are y'all ready for a mildly unhinged character comparison?

(It makes sense when you think about it, trust me)

William Afton and Doctor Morocco. One is an undead serial killer from a mascot horror game. The other is a villain from a cartoon targeted to preschool-age children who doesn't even have a body count (at least, not one that's mentioned on-screen). On the surface, all they have in common are their British accents and general disregard for public welfare. But, these two are actually far more similar than you might think.

First, they are both inventors, and experts in robotics. While it is unclear exactly how many animatronics Afton himself built, we know from Sister Location that he designed the Funtimes by himself, and he worked very closely with Henry Emily for earlier animatronics (not even gonna try researching specific numbers because FNAF). Morocco is shown working on many projects, from submarines to a machine that controls ants, but his most famous invention is the MorBot, a non-sentient transforming robot.

Early in their careers, they both met fellow genius inventors; Afton with Henry Emily, and Morocco with Jules Verne. They became best friends, and began working together on projects. Unfortunately, both of these friendships were more one-sided than they seemed.

Admiration of Emily and Verne soon turned to jealousy, leading Afton and Morocco to betray them. Afton, either grieving the loss of his own child(ren), or just at his breaking point depending on what timeline you use, killed Henry's daughter, Charlie. After being gifted a prototype Verne device, Morocco disagreed with Verne on how the technology should be used, and disappeared to develop inventions which fulfilled his own selfish desires. Although they are not equal in magnitude, both betrayals hurt the recipients deeply.

At some point, both became obsessed with the pursuit of eternal life. This led Afton to continue killing children to harvest remnant from them, even creating the S.C.U.P., better known as the Scooper, to aid remnant extraction. Morocco used his Verne device prototype to create his Chamber of Youth, a glass pod with anti-aging properties. (Picture of Burntrap's charging pod included for comparison with the Chamber of Youth, and because I couldn't find a better place to put it.)

However, time waits for no man. Although Afton "survives" injuries that should be fatal, and Morocco barely looks a day over 40 at 200, neither of their situations are perfect. What's left of Afton is trapped inside an old Spring Bonnie suit, and Morocco must make frequent trips to his Chamber of Youth to avoid aging rapidly and dying.

Eventually, Emily and Verne decide to end their former best friends' reigns of terror. Emily builds a fake pizzeria to trap Afton, and all of the haunted and/or sentient animatronics, and burns them to the ground. Verne takes a (relatively) pacifist approach, erasing Morocco's memories of being evil and bringing him to future Paris, where he will hopefully live out the rest of his days in peace. So goes the ends of two great villains…

…until SOMEONE decides that the characters are too popular to die, so they're brought back, but it's not really them, it's just viruses that look and talk and act and think like them that were created by the real Afton and Morocco at an undisclosed point in time because why wouldn't they do that? These viruses appear in experimental VR games, Glitchtrap in the Freddy Fazbear Virtual Experience, and the Morocco virus in Griffin Rock Element Quest 2.0. They both have the ability to alter the games they originated in, Glitchtrap adding the tapes and Bonnie plush, and Morocco virus creating entirely new levels. They also have the ability to control other machines, and even humans, under the right circumstances.

Both viruses manage to transfer themselves into physical bodies, and continue to cause chaos. (For this example, we are assuming that Burntrap is the Mimic infected with the Glitchtrap virus and pretending to be William Afton, NOT Afton himself.)

Vanessa and Gregory trap the Mimic in an even lower level of the basement, and the rescue team traps Morocco virus in a block of ice. After they are captured and imprisoned, they decide that they should update their character designs at the earliest convenience to be more easily distinguishable from their human designers, sell more merch, and, in Morocco virus' case at least, grow more powerful. Mimic basically just stops cosplaying as Ourple Guy (and starts cosplaying as a circus creature amalgam depending on the ending), but Morocco upgrades to a MorBot, rivaling the Rescue Bots in every physical aspect.

It is unknown whether or not either of these viruses, or their creators, will be threats in the future. With the Morocco virus stuck at the bottom of the ocean, and the doctor himself nowhere to be seen in Rescue Bots Academy, the reign of Morocco has likely come to an end. It seems as though William Afton has finally died, too, being replaced by the Mimic as FNAF's main antagonist. To know the Mimic's fate, we'll have to wait until Secret of the Mimic, or maybe even a game farther in the future.

Aaaaand I think that's it! There are a few smaller details that I didn't mention (i.e. Morocco's shirt button/brooch thing is ourple?!?😱😱😱), but these are all of the big connections between these guys that I saw. I haven't seen anyone else make this comparison (for good reason lol), so I thought it would be nice to share my thoughts. Let me know what y'all think, and feel free to mention things that I missed, or let me know your own mildly unhinged character comparisons. So, uh… yeah. Thanks for coming to my TED Talk.

Edit: I fixed the typo in the image description for the picture of Morocco and Verne meeting.

[thegirlgraves]

i see a lot of people talking about the new devlogs and how it's proof that an andrew LU lobotomy/memory wipe will occur in decay.

first of all, imo, the (june 1st, 2025) devlog screenshots are decay screenshots and not burial (as some people think, due to them still being in the area near the motel). but to me, it seems that the devs are dead-set on finishing decay before starting burial, there isn't much to "prove" this with how vague they are, but it's just what i think. shrug.

but anyway. it's not IMPOSSIBLE for them to backtrack, and especially with andrew's rekindled connection with lord unknown, and them going back down to the cultist club (where andrew can accidentally summon him, in chap 2.) they may as well be there because they need the large summoning circle to summon LU again, into the human realm.

the reason i'm not quite on board with an andrew lobotomy... (the idea that lord unknown will simply erase all of andrew's incestuous feelings to ashley, making him act much more tame and docile overall.) i just feel like it would diminish any kind of character growth that could be considered satisfying, but then again, it is entirely in character for andrew to utilize a "get out of jail free" card and just have those feelings erased, assuming he still believes that ashley doesn't love him like that. but mayhaps there will be some hesitation for it.

but honestly i don't know what lord unknown will do, hence the CLIFFHANGER that the ending gives.

also YAYAYAYAY ASHLEY POV FOR CHAPTER 4 (if this is for decay ch4) .... chapter 3 has such a heavy focus on andrew's pov (for good reason!) but i always love to see and dive into ashley's psyche bc ;;; she needs it too LOL.

but a lot of people have been assuming this above screenshot is proof of the memory wipe, but mm methinks that this is AFTER all the character development that potentially occurred from the end of the decaying along cliffhanger. they've absolved whatever favor the demon (not lord unknown, the other one) set out for them and they've left the realm between and came back to the human realm...

andrew's behavior is clearly changing at this point, but honestly, it doesn't seem like it's bad? ashley associates the doormat-y and obedient side of him as andy, and his more stern and assertive side as andrew. clearly there's a shift in his behavior if he's falling in Neither of those categories.

tbh this doesn't explain how they're still in the hitmans car, but im lowkkk just assuming that the "interior car" graphic just looks the same across all cars. but that's kinda a stupid assumption to make. but otherwise shrug. (maybe they get let out of the demon realm where they left off at the campsite, and when they go to walk back, SOMEHOW the car hasn't been towed and it is still there for them to use.)

anyway lol im glad there's at least stuff to chew on this time.

[natsmagi]

Is it me or has the writing quality gone down in enstars? the reason I say this is because although I don't keep up with the game (I am still heavily into enstars I just went on a game hiatus bc im salty for losing my account) I keep on hearing about the writers just absolutely butchering the character's development and mischaracterizing them. It's like the fans know the characters better than the writers themselves. Plus I haven't recovered from my anger from them adding Ibuki to Akatsuki (as well as blatantly ignoring and erasing his Ryukyuan/Okinawan heritage). This really frustrates me

oh for SURE. granted, ive pretty much exclusively been reading switch stories these past few years, so my perspective is limited and theres always a chance im missing something. So do take my word with a grain of salt

but yea no, compared to !-era the quality just. isnt really there. enstars was never perfect, but the stories felt consistent. each story felt like it meant something, even if its something small and slice-of-life-y. one thing ive always adored about the earlier stories is how interconnected everything felt. ive mentioned this before im sure, but i loved how certain stories would take place at the exact same time and if you read both stories you could see the overlap and how their paths cross. it was always so fun to read a story taking place at the same time as one centering your oshis, and then see them have a little cameo in this other one! like you uncovered a little easter egg of extra context!!! and this is a thing ive noticed lacking in !!-era

the big stories in !-era also felt like they actually carried weight. some stories would be over 40 chapters long just because akira had a story he wanted to tell. And this was greatly beneficial for the stories! because it meant the story could be written at a more logical pace. he didnt just rush through bullet points, he weaved a genuinely convincing story. and i feel like this is another factor the quality feels like its gone down so much. everything feels rushed now. a story will introduce a new conflict and resolve it within 15 chapters. it carries no weight but it tries to be groundbreaking and shocking. and nowadays they arent even conflicts that had been foreshadowed or anything. Honestly i think theyve forgotten about how powerful foreshadow can be altogether because they just Dont implement it anymore. at least when it comes to switch

i think the reason for this might have to do with there being so many different writers now. During !-era it was just akira writing the big hitters, and you'd have other writers do smaller, less consequential stories. but now i feel akira is running dry with things he can write, and it does feel like he wants to start distancing himself from the project. And this has resulted in other writers getting to take the spotlight. Which would be totally fine btw! but it feels like none of the writers really know what the others are writing???? and thats why you can feel like a story has a decent set-up only for literally nothing to come from it. thats why conflicts start and end within the same story. It completely breaks the illusion that these are complex characters with complex stories, because they just flatout dont give us convincing complexities anymore. Even if a character has healed from a large character arc, theyll now reintroduce that old drama because. Well it sold back then, so why not??

its so frustrating because i feel like even if enstars WAS to give me a decent story today, itd fall short on the basis that i Know this isnt going to matter like. at All. theyre gonna forget this ever even happened.

u should all know my opinion on Wish by now, but lets pretend for a second that its a good story and was greatly beneficial for the development of switchs relationship together. For the sake of argument. Since the release of this story their dynamic has not been changed WHATSOEVER. with natsume, theyve been DOUBLING DOWN on his insults towards tsumugi. he still mocks his hair and since he cant call him "fuzzy glasses" anymore, hes resorted to calling him "neat glasses"?????? and natsume seems to have gone back to being so fucking Rude, when at the beginning of the new era he had grown so sweet because he now genuinely trusts tsumugi. you give us this huge page turner only to undo literally all growth??? though frankly, it makes sense for the growth to be undone after a horrible decision like that

but you also have tsumugi who is the EXACT SAME AS HE WAS PRIOR. do note ive been distancing myself from the game for a little while now, and esp since after the release of wish, but i saw people on my TL post screenshots from stories with neo tsumugi in them where hes still as clumsy as he was, still neglecting to take care of himself, still overworking himself, and still leading this borderline self-destructive routine. theres been NO CHANGE. WISH CHANGED NOTHING BUT TSUMUGIS HAIR. these stories are only excuses to make grand changes. they dont even care about making it convincing or not anymore. they dont care about what comes after. They didnt think any of this through. i still cant get over them adding ibuki to aktk on a whim and now theres 2 aktk songs that are just never getting ingame MVs because they DIDNT THINK THIS DECISION THROUGH AT ALL.

and again. WHAT WAS THE PURPOSE OF TAKING SORAS SYNESTHESIA AWAY??????????????? i constantly see people trying to defend the tsumugi hair thing, but genuinely HOW can you think it was done with switchs best interest at heart when they TOOK SORAS NEUROLOGICAL CONDITION AWAY?????????????? how do you not see the absolute gutting of switch happening before your eyes???????? and dont even get me started on natsume. hes not safe from this either. But his deterioration is seen through his characterization rather than having literal features taken from him. hes being reduced to some pretty "femboy" and it pisses me off. he has so many complexities and is such a compelling character and hes WEIRD hes supposed to be WEIRD but theyre just. Hes being reduced to pretty guy. and it pisses me off because thats not what made me love him so much.

remember in thieves when switch were given a new secret room they could hang out in like in yumenosaki, where natsume could do his little experiments? remember how NOTHING CAME OF THIS AND NATSUME HASNT DONE A SINGLE EXPERIMENT AT ALL IN LITERAL YEARS???????? the prsk collab was unironically one of the sweetest things they couldve given us because it had the natsume i had grown to love, and it featured his newfound maturity since wonder game. It made me so incredibly happy to see and made me hopeful that maybe........ Maybe things will get back on track.

and then fucking wish dropped LMAO