#tdp character development

[serien-grl-22]

[the-sky-the-stars-the-sea]

SOREN RECOGNIZING THAT ELMER HAD BEEN MANIPULATED AND CONTROLLED AND GASLIT AND TRAUMATIZED THE SAME WAY HE HAD BEEN AND TAKING THE HIT AGAIN AND AGAIN AND STILL DEFENDING ELMER AND SAYING NICE THINGS TO HIM AND THEN HE SEES THE FIST COMING AGAIN AND HE JUST SMILES HE SMILES AT ELMER BECAUSE HE UNDERSTANDS AND AND AND-

😭😭😭

[stuck-in-jelly]

Im sure I’ve talked about it before but I will forever love how well The Dragon Prince did with Soren’s introduction and alluding to so many parts of his character.

We open with Soren bullying Callum, our main character, during sword fighting practice. He hits him on the head, makes a jab at him being a step son, and clearly isn’t thrilled at having to be the one training Callum.

Then comes along Claudia, who Callum has a crush on. He wants to impress her by doing well in the spar and Soren catches on, telling him that he’ll help.

Its a perfect set up for a classic bully troupe for Soren to pull a fast on Callum, trip him in the last second and make him embrass himself in front of Claudia.

But he doesn’t, in fact he plays along! He dramatically falls to the ground and very loudly proclaims how Callum got him so Claudia would look up from her book and notice. He smiles the whole time doing it and even appears brotherly while doing so.

Its short-lived of course, after Soren’s conversation with his dad he once again becomes cruel to Callum but it still shows right off the bat that he’s not a bad bad guy.

It lingers in the back of the mind even when he is doing and saying bad things.

[m4rs-ex3]

she was right, just not in the way she thought

[detective-luna]

Kaito is slept on honestly bestboi

Look at him being all cool and shit my boi is AMAN

(he was fighting for his life)

Nothing hotter than a man on the verge of death or dead man in some cases zenji

A GENTEL MAN

Genuinely speaking I like his character development he started fighting back and god it was HOT

[diary-dont-speak]

That moment when you need a break from a show cause it's too emotional and you can't stop crying

[raayllum]

Got your whole life ahead of you, you're only 19 But I fear that they already got all the best parts of me And I'm sorry that I couldn't always be your teenage dream And when does wide-eyed affection and all good intentions start to not be enough? When will everyone have every reason to call all my bluffs? And when are all my excuses of learning my lessons gonna start to feel sad? Will I spend all the rest of my years wishin' I could go back?

[raintheghost]

Funny thing about the dragon prince is three or four years ago my brother and I decided to pick a random kids show and hate watch it. Just make fun of kids cartoon logic and stuff of the like.

Boy were we wrong. We got super duper invested and honestly ? One of the best kids shows I’ve ever watched. (Still don’t know how the rating is still 7+ after what happened to Karim)

[a-very-sparkly-nerd]

Oooh s3 Ezran not wanting to wear his crown, then s5 Ezran upset about taking it off

[theitalianmafia]

Because I love pain, here's another What If:

What if Ethari started dating someone else since he thought Runaan was dead? It's been two years.

[review-anon]

Might as well talk about your thoughts on the two Chapter 5 casualties.

//See as this is tradition for me I might as well give my final thoughts on the final people to die in Chapter 5.

//Thoughts as always is under the cut and I will be talking about their post Chapter 2/3 actions.

//I mentioned before how Mai was the most sensible of the group and while this remained relatively true, the stress of not being able to escape was getting to her to the point she got punished by Biology Head for it. I thought at first it was rape, but literally everyone under the sun told me it was not rape, then again rape doesn't often leave the physical scars we had on Mai.

//Her relationship with Yanagi is a interesting one since it seems as the story goes on they take a bit of a role reversal; Yanagi becomes more senisible and sane, taking up Tsuno's old role as medic when she became permenantly unavailable, and even seems to have buried the hachet somewhat with Hiroaki as he's come to realise that he did have a point about Sakaki using him, and the fact that Hiroaki has been reading Sakaki's journal and plans to publish it once they escape is proof he does have some respect for her, its just the sleep motive getting to everyone. They also trust each other with deep secrets like Yanagi having romantic feelings for Mai and not only Hirokai being gay, but also having feelings for Ojima. Meanwhile Mai starts doing more and more reckless acts especially when the lack of escape is there, as shown not only with her trying to break down the arsenal door in Chapter 3 but also her rushing into a open fire in Chapter 4.

//We also find out the context behind her confession of killing someone, this Killing Game isn't Mai's first rodeo of being kidnapped as she was kidnapped by a former collague of her dad's for several years before he got compliant and she escaped. Thanks to a mother and child, she was reunited with her parents and since she knew the law wouldn't punish that man, she decided to become a bounty hunter, and she actually ran into him on a seperate job for a different crime he committed and I don't think anyone can blame Mai for killing him. This COULD explain why Mai seemed initally so relaxed about the whole situation since she's been through it before, and why she knows as soon as she gets out the scientists are gonna be her next targets. But some cracks in Mai's armour started to show since while she seemed very causal about the very real trauma she had, there is signs it did affect her, and this situation is getting to her, like when Tamba screamed at her for not doing enough, she actually went off to cry.

//But even into Chapter 5, Mai still retains her cautious take no shit attitude as once she fell victim to multiple door traps, she actually rounded everyone up, tied them zipwires and interrogated them on if they know everything and the hilarious joke that almost nobody knew what catrops were calling them ninja spikes instead. In fact I think only Ken and Yanagi knew what they were, the former due to his big brain and the latter probably due to hanging out with Mai long enough to know this. Plus how Yanagi got turned on when it came to his turn which many, many jokes were made in stream about that.

//However aside from becoming headstrong when it comes to escape Mai's biggest flaw is the fact she can't admit when she needs help. Now granted Yanagi at times is being too cautuious but still its not weak to ask for help, if you acknowledge a situation is bad and can't do it on your own, then yes it would be good to get others involved. This attitude is why Mai took all those punishments in Chapter 5 despite others like Yanagi insisting otherwise, and its also what led to her death as Ken counted on Mai not telling anyone for help while she went on his wild goose chase and eventually to her doom. Of course even when impaled she went down fighting as she tried to get the blade out of her chest but alas it was all for naught.

//I knew Mai wasn't gonna make it especially when Yanagi confessed his love for her since it was a classic Kaito/Maki situation, though the gender role has changed with Mai getting killed and Yanagi being the one who lives. The tragic bit is Mai never got a chance to respond since just as Yanagi said the Sacred Three Words to her, Hiroaki and Tamba's bitchfest 828234736 occured and the chain of events which leads to Mai's death ensures.

//Also none of my favs survive and I'm not as upset as Bubbles and TA were, okay I was upset to be sure, but I accepted in the back of mind she wasn't gonna survive. Key rule in Danganronpa; never get too attached or else when the inevitable occurs, you will be emotionally destroyed.

//Plus I still have a Mai in my life~

//Moving onto the culprit of this case Ken and while he dies offically in Chapter 5, I would argue he died wwaaayyy back in Chapter 3 when Kamimura died as that completely and utterly crushed him. Not just that the one person he got attached to died and it was in the one moment they were seperated from each other, but Okazaki more or less spelled out she had no reason to kill him, as it was all to make sure he couldn't figure her out; Tsuno was her true target. Much like Watari, Ken went through a complete breakdown though since Watari is way more extroverted and emotional then Ken, her distress was way more on display then Ken's was. He didn't interact with the others even when they tried to reach out to him, and he didn't get much screentime post Chapter 3 either which should have been a red flag something was up.

//In a way you could argue Chapter 3 didn't kill 3 people; it killed 5 as Kamimura, Tsuno and Okazaki physically died and Watari and Ken died as people.

//Ken much like Yanagi goes through character development, but while Yanagi undergoes positive character development, Ken undertakes negative character development as he starts to become more tired and irritated at everyone around him, especially when his anxiety medication runs out which is never good. And then the final straw is when somehow, Ken finds out the truth behind the Killing Game and decides enough is enough, he wants to end it all, kill everyone, invalidate the Killing Game and then when he gets released go home and kill himself, and no joke Vonbabbitt confirmed that had Ken won, that's what he would do.

//This lead to him planning to screw everyone over and it was a plan he started to cook back in Chapter 4 but Watari's suicide and her bringing Hama into it disrupted that thinking process. Which makes me think he had plans to mess with Watari and Hama as well had they been the ones still alive in Chapter 5. How I don't know and it might have been harder since Hama like Ken read the student profiles so he would have been able to point fingers at Ken. And what follows is proof that Ken is without a doubt; the smartest culprit we have ever seen in a Danganronpa properity.

//Firstly Ken cooking up his scheme made sense since unlike a certain Guitarist, we have seen plenty of evidence that Ken is really intelligent and knows his stuff, and this knowledge makes sense due to him going on Quiz shows. Plus reading the student profiles gave him all the ammo he needed to break down the cast, using their own personal weaknesses against them, all to mentally weaken them for the class trial and breaking down social coherism. His victim was the one person who kept her head on straight and could cut through all the bickering that was going on, and while Yanagi might have been able to do something, that's why he locked him with himself and once Mai's death was revealed to him, for him to lock up and not help. Nothing over the top was done for Mai, she fell through fragile floorboards and got impailed on a sword, simple and gets the job done. He also uses his reward to hide vital evidence since the others wouldn't be allowed to do so, especially when Tamba threw him a bone by halving investigation time. And speaking of Tamba, by keeping Mai's murder simple, and relying on the cast assuming the two worked together, it made Tamba as the ideal fallgirl who due to her actions screwing over the cast already makes them all the more likely to vote for her. Thus making it seem plasuible Tamba did it, and not like how Kanade does a over the top murder scheme for Setsuka and somehow expects the cast to believe Iroha, easily the stupidest character of the cast, to be able to do all of that.

//He very easily could have won, and the ONLY reason he lost was because Monomoko decided to side with the students rather then the staff and gave them a hint which made Hiroaki pick up they were on the wrong track and Ken was found out as a result. That was something he couldn't have predicted but cruically it was something that for the auidence didn't come out of nowhere since we have seen signs of Monomoko having doubts about the Killing Game and going through a character arc of her own, so her doing this was something acceptable, and easily redeemed her in the eyes of many. Again very different from Sora "having a hunch" and via Divine Luck, Kanade lost which was and still is bullshit.

//And its when he was exposed as the culpirt its revealed just how broken and fed up he is over everyone. I do like his reason for falling the way he did wasn't just because "He's mad since his boyfriend died" Since yeah he did have feelings for Kamimura but that WASN'T the only reason he decided to kill, it was a major reason don't get me wrong, but there were other reasons. Which is tragic since a big reason he got mad over Kamimura's death was because he believed he was the only one who cared, understood and missed him which we know its just not true, both Mai and Tamba have positive experiences with Kamimura and they both missed him, but his grief, lack of interaction with the others and depression clouding his judgement meant he couldn't see that.

//Normally when the execution bell rings, the culprits start begging the others for help, but Ken doesn't do that as he's already accepted he's going to die, so in one last act of defiance, he just causally leaks the Tetro Blue roster which alarmed the staff enough for Head Scientist to assume direct control and cut off the feed herself to stop it from occuring and this, plus Monomoko betraying the Staff, meant the entire Tetro Pink Killing Game was rendered invalid and all data becomes useless, which was Ken's main goal anyway so nobody could take pleasure from the Killing Game.

//Its a example of what could happen when people snap, and sometimes when that snap occurs its not always obvious. Watari snapping was very much on display as she became a lot more distraught and willing to do actions to end herself, but Ken was more like Tranquil Fury, he kept his emotions and rage in check until the time was right, and it really reinforces a core message of Danganronpa; that everyone has a breaking point and you never know when someone reaches there's.

//And that's my thoughts on the victim and the culpirt. Of course I probably when I do part 2 of my Tetro Pink write up give my final thoughts on the survivors as that felt fitting enough to do that, and when that comes out, it will be this week, I just got busy yesterday and didn't have the time to do it.

//Either way I hope you enjoy these final thoughts and I think the only ones left are the Survivors.

[quillsparkle]

Callum: Unless, maybe Soren was also trying to protect our feelings.

Rayla: Oh, right. He definitely seems like a thoughtful, sensitive, feelings-y, protect-y kind of guy.

Callum: Yeah, you're right, that's not really his style.

------2 seasons later...-------

Soren: So, things are tense.

Rayla: Yeah. Great evil about to be unleashed, potential end of the world and all that.

Soren: I meant with you and Callum.

Rayla: - Nope. We are not talking about this.

Soren: Look, when you left, it hurt him bad. Real bad. He was miserable. And now you're back. That's kind of good, and it's kind of bad. But it's mostly just weird. And one thing I always say: sometimes you need time to work through the weird. And then it'll work out. Or not. The heart do what it do,or don't what it don't.

AKA Soren goes from Rayla and Callum saying he's thoughtless, insensitive, not protect-y kind of guy to actually becoming a thoughtful, sensitive, feelings-y, protect-y kind of guy.

And that group hug at the end of "Ocean" said it all

[blufoxstar]

"he's cruel, but you don't have to be" -Soren (The Dragon Prince, S5)

Baby boy has come so far, sharing what he's learned with others

[t-n-c]

The sexual/sensual coding in Aaravos and Viren's interactions: The Sequel

Also known as "Why I don't like the revelation in s5."

Trigger warning--This discussion is going to mention manipulation/coercion, homophobic stereotypes, and sexually-charged abusive/invasive behavior under the read more so please proceed with caution.

Alrighty so before I start talking about tdp s5's major reveal in the Viren + Aaravos relationship I'd like to discuss the interactions they had with each other before and after the reveal and my thoughts on them. Here we go:

First thing I'd like to note is that Aaravos is still showing the creepy, invasive behavior that concerned me in my original post. Throughout the scene he and Viren share he:

Touches Viren

Invades Viren's space

And manipulates/controls Viren's body

And in addition to controlling Viren's body, we've also find out that Aaravos can straight up move Viren's very soul if he wants.

And like I addressed in my previous post, he does all of this without asking for Viren's permission and/or showing any care for Viren's wishes--hell, he explicitly ignores Viren when the latter says he doesn't want to be in the prison with him.

That being said, these actions alone aren't the most concerning issue for me; that isn't to say that they're not concerning to me all, but it's nothing that hasn't been done before in their relationship--it's nothing new is what I'm trying to say.

However, the revelation about Sir Sparklepuff being their child is new--and imo it adds a whole new level of creepiness to the relationship.

Allow me to rehash what went down a bit:

Aaravos reveals to Viren that in order for his resurrection to be permanent, he needs to preform a spell that requires the "blood of his child"--Viren protests and claims that he'd never sacrifice his children.

Aaravos responds that he never expected him to hurt Claudia or Soren and reveals that he has a third child he can use--

Viren is confused and claims he doesn't have any other children--then Aaravos reveals that Sir Sparklepuff is his and Aaravos' child

He tells Viren that Sir Sparklepuff is there for him to use for the spell and that he will teach Viren how to use his "living essence" to reclaim both his life and his "future."

There's a lot (and I mean A LOT) of things about this scene/reveal that worry me; I'll try to sum it up neatly, but it's probably going to be pretty lengthy regardless. Here we go:

Concern 1) Viren had no idea that Sir Sparklepuff with his child, but Aaravos did

No matter how many angles I try to see it from, this feels violating to me; considering how Viren didn't know what the spell would do and how desperate he was at the time, his willingness to perform the original spell is dubious enough already--to then have it revealed that the spell produced a child that's biologically his really disturbs me. It might just be my opinion, but I feel that it adds a level of predatory to Aaravos that's unnecessary at best and horrifying at worst.

Concern 2) The lengths Aaravos has gone to keep Viren alive (and presumedly on his side).

This includes:

a) Telling Claudia the spell that would resurrect Viren.

b) Preserving Viren's body for 2 years while Claudia gathered everything necessary

c) When they first met, he chose a spell that would create a being that would not only allow them to communicate, but could also be used to resurrect Viren if the need arose.

Now assuming the writers planned this all from the beginning (I have my doubts, ngl) this shows a great deal of effort and premeditation on Aaravos's part to make sure Viren sticks around--whatever his plans may be, Viren must play a pretty big role in them or else he would have just moved on when Viren died the first time. (It's either that or he has some strange sort of fondness for Viren, which leads me to Concern # 3)

Concern 3) As of now, we have absolutely no info about how their relationship is going to be portrayed going forward

While Viren's fate is a bit ambiguous at the end of s5, I'm 90% confident that he's going to live through s6 in one way or another and assuming I'm right and that happens, there are a few paths the writers could take in how they depict the relationship

Option A) They sweep everything under the rug and pretend the sexual coding in the relationship never existed.

Option B) They portray Aaravos as a complete monster who was just using Viren for one thing or another and has now discarded him since he got what he wanted from him.

Option C) They portray Aaravos as having some dark sort of attachment to Viren--one that won't allow him to let Viren "leave him"

All these possibilities are iffy imho, but I'm honestly not sure which would be worse.

Going with Option A feels lazy--like the writers don't want to deal with the dark themes they chose to put in and decided to take the easy out.

(Granted, it wouldn't be the first time the show has dropped important plot points/developments--no one seems to have found out that Viren and Aaravos sent the assassins at the end of s2, for example--but it would still feel cowardly to me)

Going with Options B or C both feel gross--with Option B it feels like Aaravos would be the epitome of the Predatory Queer-Coded Villain--he would have effectively used and abused Viren in a violating way (i.e coerced/forced him to bear their child) and abandoned him once he was done with him. It would be pretty hard to make a case for him having a "kind side" after that.

That being said, Option C isn't really any better--Aarvos would still be following the "Predatory Villain" stereotype, the only difference would be that he'd fall more into the role of an abusive partner than the "pure evil" role that some older queer-coded villains were placed in.

TLDR: I don't like the revelation of Sir Sparklepuff being Viren and Aaravos' child because I feel it follows the reoccurring theme of possessive/violating actions from Aaravos toward Viren that I've worried about all the way back in s3.

[tategaminu]

Me thanking the heavens everyday TDP doesn't have any love triangles.

[ana-cantskywalker]

I’m actually crying right now that was one of the most beautiful self sacrifices I’ve ever seen