#'the character kicked around by life dies in the end' is the worst trope | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

phantomchick · 4 years

Text

Naruto Fic Rec Masterpost!

Adoption by Defenestration; or, A Family Can Be A Fox Demon, Its Jinchuuriki, and Three Dozen Highly-Trained Assassins by elumish Oneshot, Gen, Fluff, child neglect, Naruto gets unofficially adopted by his anbu guards and it’s incredibly cute Summary: He will not be the ANBU who let the jinchuuriki plummet to his death out a fourth story window. Let that be another ANBU’s legacy.

Being Over-Prepared is Impossible (and other mottos) by Pleasedial123 Longfic, Gen, Team Seven, team as family, Bamf Kakashi, Bamf team 7, au, kakashi pov, Complete but part of a three part series and the third part is still ongoing, still highly recommend, what team 7 should have been, Skilled Teacher! Kakashi Summary: In one world, Kakashi awoke, felt grieved at being assigned a team he sees his own in, and he let that grief make him a lazy teacher. He saw himself in Sasuke, Obito in Naruto, and Rin in Sakura. He woke, saw himself in them, and took a large step back, regretting accepting them as his new team. In that world he was quite hands off - merely a watcher because it was so very painful to watch. He saw himself and all his mistakes in this new team of his.

In this world, Kakashi awoke, saw the similarities, and instantly panicked.

He suddenly realised what he had done, passing a team. Kakashi was left scrambling not to repeat old mistakes and regrets. This team would not suffer the fate of his team.

In this world, simply put, Kakashi became a teacher. This is the beginning of a new team seven.

Something in the water by maldoror_gw Oneshot, Gen, Teen and Up for language, hilarious, Tsunade pov, fluff, mild crack, pre-shippuden post naruto,

Summary: "Sakura...what is that man reading?" Tsunade asked in a dangerous voice. Sakura's gaze twitched away from her ex-teacher to her new - and temperamental - mentor. "Erm...a book...written by a...well-respected member of the community...about...romance?" Tsunade noted with passing approval that Sakura was demonstrating both loyalty and quite a lot of imagination in defending her one-time team leader (who was now trying to edge around a pillar to get away from Tsunade's venomous glare).

backslide by blackkat Time travel, time travel fix it, mature, fluff, team seven, m/m, slow build romance, Naruto adopts himself, Uzumaki heritage, bamf Naruto, complete longfic, Summary: Naruto’s friends are gone, his lover is dying, Konoha is destroyed, and Madara’s second return has pushed the entire world to the brink. Hunted and harried, Naruto is sent back in time to upend Madara’s plan before it even starts, and sets about changing everything. Butterfly effect nothing: the world is at stake, and Naruto is hardly about to let it fall to ruin once more. Not while he’s still breathing.

Tobirama Kicks Some Sense Into Konoha by allseer15 Hurt/comfort, whump, emotional whump, time travel, fix it, time travel fix it, The ‘what if Tobirama came to the future saw an orphaned Naruto and adopted the shit out of him’ Fic, Iconique, child neglect, child abandonment, fluff, so much fluff, completed longfic, look I have a weakness for the time travel fix it trope at the best of times but this fic is good even looking at it without focusing on that! Prolonged Tobirama content, Senju lore, senju feels, Summary: The Hidden Leaf Village in Naruto's time seems to have forgotten just why the village was founded and have lost their way. Through a mishap with a hiraishin seal, Tobirama finds himself during Naruto's time and he is having none of this nonsense. His brother may be gone, but he won't stand to have Hashirama's dream trampled so. And if he has to cause a civil war or burn the village down to the ground? Well that depends on how much resistance he meets. All Tobirama does know for certain is that no child will suffer underneath the protection of Konoha and if he has to take them in and care for them himself, then he will.

Hardest of hearts by blackkat Oneshot, Gen, look I really like blackkat’s naruto fic okay, part one of a completed three part series, all three parts are great, Fix its are the best, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Time Travel, Time Travel Fix It, Orochimaru redemption story, the sheer shadenfreude of one baddie fucking over another baddie, in this case Danzo, Obito has a ‘bad guy but not that bad of a guy’ solidarity moment with Orochimaru at the start and I loved it so there’s that, featuring a low key constantly horrified at this turn of events Minato,

Summary: Orochimaru gets one more chance. Just maybe, it will be enough to save him—and the entire world as well.

A Snake In the Grass, a Wolf At the Door by blackkat Mature, Completed ten chapter fic, Orochimaru redemption story, Orochimaru/Kakashi’s dad, you read that right, quality Sakumo content, Families of Choice, Humour, Fluff and Angst, somewhat crackish, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, baby Kakashi being a cutie Summary: Orochimaru is on the edge of breaking when someone unexpected pulls him back to solid ground. When the time comes, he returns the favour.

Nukenin by WhisperingDarkness Gen, dimension travel, team seven, team as family, Kakashi actually being a good sensei even when he’s not a sensei at all, possessive kakashi, Team Seven is his team, Kinda Fluffy, Protective Kakashi, the ‘this might as well happen’ adaptability is real, Kakashi adopts team seven and team seven adopts kakashi, even though he’s illegal, 4 chapter fic, marked as complete as author doesn’t plan to continue it, but even taking these chapters as stand alone this fic is great,

Summary: In the sealed scroll he finds a Bingo Book – his own page marking him as an S-class nukenin with flee-on-sight orders. “Ok. That is definitely different.” In his head he blames Naruto – even if his number one unpredictable student had been nowhere near him on this mission. When things go this stupidly impossibly wrong it must somehow be the future Hokage’s fault.

Ear to the Wall by Vodkassassin Ongoing, it’s really really good though! great Kakashi content, Minato is very stressed and I love him, Sickfic, Hurt/Comfort, whump, PTSD’d Kakashi gets to relive his childhood but gets a little bit of a real childhood along the way, ADHD Rin, time travel fix it, look I like what I like and what I like is fix its and time travel apparently, Kakashi adopts Orochimaru before he descends into douchbaggery, Orochimaru Redemption story, everyone is alive, Summary: The Minato-sensei beams at him, and replies, “Kakashi! I’m glad you’re awake,” and, yup, that’s Minato-sensei’s voice. Kakashi falls back down against the bed, closing his eyes. It’s too short of a way down, and he clenches hands that are too tiny and feeble and not his in dog-print sheets he hasn’t owned for decades.

How To Save The World With No One Even Realising by IncompleteSentanc (Erava) Gen, Teen and Up, Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death, time travel fix it, Canonically Accurate OP Team 7, SuperBadass!Sakura, SuperBadass!Sasuke, SuperBadass!Naruto, RegularBadass!Shikamaru, Canonically Violent Sasuke, Equally Violent Sakura, Saving The World One Murder At A Time, Various Jinchuuriki, Team 7 As Super Villains, Doing Super Villainy Stuff, Like Murder, And Professional Eyeball Removal, Poor Obito, Poor Minato, AKA The Worst Four Months of Minato's Life, And Everyone Else's Too, Dark Humor, Bittersweet Ending, Dark Comedy, Crack treated seriously, completed 3 chapter fic, Well worth the read, Team 7 To The End! Summary: Minato knows at the beginning of the week that it's going to be a hellish one. Mostly because it starts with the kidnapping of one of his two remaining students, only a year after they'd lost the first one. He just doesn't realise at the time that it's not going to be a hellish week - it's going to be hell for quite a bit longer than that. It all starts with Rin's kidnapping, and her subsequent rescue at the hands of a mysteriously appearing, monstrously strong, murderously violent woman. A woman with cotton candy pink hair. It only devolves from there.

Just Killing Time by Elizabeth Culmer (edenfalling) Gen, Oneshot, Short and Sweet, Classic of The Fandom, Ficlet, Team 7, Kids being Kids, Fluff, Fluff and Humour, Slice of Life, Cute Kids

Summary: After Wave Country and before the chuunin exam, Team 7 kills time while waiting for Kakashi to show up.

there lies a trail of fire behind us by BowAndDagger Gen, Madara is extremely confused but mostly on board, Time Travel au, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Bamf Naruto Uzumaki, Alternate Universe - Everyone Lives/Nobody Dies, Except Zetsu, Alternate Universe - Time Travel, Fix-It, Founders Era, clan wars era, Pre-Slash, POV Uchiha Madara, the Completed part one of an Ongoing/Incomplete series, completed 4 chapter fic, Summary: As he returns from a mission, Madara makes a strange encounter with an even stranger shinobi. Then, he’s summarily kidnapped to go on a quest to save the world by said weird shinobi. (He absolutely did not choose to follow the stranger on his own free will. He was kidnapped. He did not give chase. He did not.)

A Political Perspective by VJ Riddle / MueraRashaye Ongoing, Possibly (Probably) Discontinued, Teen and Up, Gen, Team 7, training montage deluxe, Konoha is a murder village, Good Teacher! Kakashi, AU, slowly developing into Bamf team 7, Bamf Kakashi, slowly developing into Team as Family, lots of fun ideas, not crack, Minor Spoiler: Zabuza and Haku get x’d before their character development gets its chance to shine in this fic, Sometimes people don’t warn for that in the tags and it can be a dealbreaker in fic for me as I love those two, not a dealbreaker in the case of this fic though! Really good fic so far, kind of verging on dry in places but it always stays fun in the end with lots of interesting elements, I enjoy the character insight from the pov switching, and also how much of a headcase Kakashi is, graphic depictions of violence, Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence,

Summary: Hatake Kakashi was a shinobi, and as a shinobi, the only people who could give him orders were his military superiors. The idea that a Council made up of civilians and peers was under the impression they could give him orders...displeased him. Or: He was ordered to pass Team 7. He was fine with that, until they actually passed.

Integrity by Liz_Starling Oneshot, Gen, Canon-Typical Violence, Canon Compliant, Integrity, Child Neglect, BAMF Uzumaki Naruto, Reflections on Naruto’s inner workings as a person, promises,

Summary: Naruto keeps his word. Some people are loyal to their families. Some, their orders. Naruto is loyal to the only thing he’s been able to count on; the promises he makes.

Foundation (Build It Higher, Bury It Deeper) by RayShippouUchiha Ongoing, BUT EXCELLENT, it made me cry, Naruto feels, 6 chapter fic thus far, Bamf Naruto, Bamf Tsunade, Naruto deserved better, Angst, Hurt/Comfort, Angst and Hurt/Comfort, Emotional Hurt/Comfort, Canon-Typical Violence, Gen, Mature, Team 7, Uzumaki Feels, Abandonment, Tsunade gives Naruto the personal talk he deserved instead of finding out from a chakra imprint when he was dying, so we stan, I love this fic

Summary: It’s just… he’d thought, given his fight against Neji and then his confrontation with Gaara, that someone would finally really acknowledge what he’d done. That beyond Iruka-sensei’s crushing hug and Kakashi-sensei’s absent pat, someone would actually notice that he’d won against both of them.

That he’d beaten a genius on his own and then had battled another jinchūriki to a stand still.

So while he hadn’t really expected to be promoted too he’d still ...

¦ part 1 ¦ part 2 ¦ part 3 ¦

#Naruto #fic rec list #fic recs #naruto fic rec list #fic rec masterpost #naruto fic recs #fanfic recs #team 7 #fic rec list masterpost #naruto fics #Uzumaki Naruto #subject to possible edits in the future #like if i wanna make a part 4 this baby's getting edited #believe it #lol #gen naruto fics

201 notes · View notes

merinnan · 4 years

Text

Fic Tag Game

Grabbed from @hils79, because it looked like fun.

Name: Merinnan, which I’ve gone by for... fifteen years now, I think? Prior to that, I mostly used Calicia (and sometimes Zoi).

Fandoms: Like Hils, I’m only going to list the fandoms I’ve actually written fic for.

Star Trek: My very first fandom, and the one I’ve written the most fics for (so far - I suspect that DMBJ will overtake it. It certainly already has in terms of word count). I was (and am still) primarily a DS9 fan, and was a huge Kira/Dukat and Garak/Bashir shipper back in the day. Most of my Trekfics are DS9 fics, but I also dabbled a little bit in TOS and TNG, and had one or two crackfic crossovers that involved Voyager characters. Discovery has tempted me with a few fic ideas, but I haven’t written anything for it yet.

Bishoujo Senshi Sailormoon: aka, the show that first had me seriously questioning my sexuality. Look, Haruka and Michiru are #goals, don’t judge me. This is also where my Zoi name came from, after the first season villain Zoisite, whom I cosplayed several times. Unsurprisingly, my main ships are HaruMichi and KunZoi. Despite this fact, neither of my published Sailormoon fics are HaruMichi.

Bubblegum Crisis Tokyo 2040: A short-lived fandom, but one I still liked enough to write a fic for and get the OST CD.

World of Warcraft: I wouldn’t say I’m really part of the fandom, per se, but I’ve been playing since the dying days of Burning Crusade, am a huge lore nerd, and started writing a crossover fic that is currently on indefinite hiatus. I do plan to come back and finish it, but first RL got in the way, and now I have to try and remember where I’d actually been planning to go with it.

A Court of Thorns and Roses: That crossover fic I just mentioned? Yeah, this is what it’s a crossover with. ACoTaR fandom went sleepy for awhile, but it’s back up and kicking now that A Court of Silver Flames is out - if any of you are still following me, it’s great to see everyone active again! To the surprise of no-one who knows me, I’m a big Nessian shipper.

Mo Dao Zu Shi / Chen Qing Ling / The Untamed: I came to this fandom via ACoTaR, actually, after a certain person (hi, @rhysand-vs-fenrys!) wouldn’t stop gushing about it :-) This is the fandom that really and seriously got me back into regular fic writing again after 15-ish years. I’m a multishipper here, and have written / am writing WangXian, NieLan, XiCheng, XuanLi, and XiSang.

Guardian / Zhen Hun: MDZS fandom led me to Guardian, which, along with DMBJ, has devoured my life in a way that hasn’t happened since my Star Trek days, and I love it! WeiLan is my major ship, but I’m also quite fond of the DaMian life raft.

Zhu Yilong: Yes, I’m going to list a person as a fandom. Zhu Yilong is one of the stars of Guardian, and is both incredibly pretty and an incredibly talented actor. So much so that I have suffered through some truly terrible dramas just to watch him in them. I do not write Z1L-fic, since RPF of living people is a personal squick of mine, but I am working on a massive crossover fic of most of his characters.

Mo Du: Guardian led me along to more of Priest’s works, such as Mo Du, which is now officially my favourite book, and I adore the main WenZhou ship. The Mo Du fandom right now is pretty tiny, and I’m still working on my first fic for it, but I hope that it will grow with the donghua due out this year, and the drama having just started filming.

Daomu Biji / The Lost Tomb: I initially came into this fandom because of Zhu Yilong, who played Wu Xie in the Reboot / Reunion / Chongqi drama, and then I got sucked into the fandom pit of all of the books and dramas and spinoffs, and it’s wonderful and fantastic. I have written so much for it, and have so much more planned. PingXie and PingXieSang are my main ships here, but I’m also a HeiHua fan, and very much enjoying the RiSang pool noodle that @kholran created.

Tropes: Hurt/Comfort and crack are my major ones.

Fic I spent most time on: A toss-up between Endings and Beginnings and Reunion, both DS9 fics. Endings and Beginnings is an alternate ending to the show, while Reunion is a Gul Dukat-centric fic set around, oh, season 5ish? Both were written for and initially published in print fanzines, so in addition to time spent writing, there was a lot of back and forth for editing, etc.

Favourite fic(s) you’ve written: Look, I honestly couldn’t say. I like most of the fics I’ve written, and there are several that I’m really proud of and really like.

Fic I spent least time on: Silent Graves, a super angsty DMBJ/Lost Tomb Xiaoge fic. I think I wrote it in like 15 minutes.

Longest fic: Cat’s Paw, a DMBJ/Lost Tomb PingXieSang canon rewrite fic I co-wrote with @xantissa, at 247 826 words. For fics written by just me, not with a co-writer, then that would be Nevermore, my WIP MDZS/CQL XiCheng Pacific Rim AU, at 22 276 words and counting.

Shortest fic: Every entry in my DS9 Drabbles series, with each one at exactly 100 words. Although if you count them as a quintdrabble, then Indiscretion (a DS9 missing scene vignette about Gul Dukat, set during the episode of the same name) at 169 words.

Most hits/kudos/comments/bookmarks/subscriptions: The answer to all of these is either Cat’s Paw or Nevermore, so I’m going to give the next highest.

Hits: Those who fear darkness have never seen what light can do, a DMBJ/Lost Tomb PingXie supernatural AU fic co-written with xantissa.

Since this fic also takes the highest kudos, bookmarks, and subscriptions after Cat’s Paw/Nevermore, I’ll skip to the next fic along on each of those.

Kudos: Stars fall like diamonds, a DMBJ/Lost Tomb PingXie missing scene fic from Reboot/Reunion/Chongqi.

Bookmarks: A Knight in Bloody Armour, another DMBJ/Lost Tomb PingXieSang supernatural AU fic (but a different supernatural AU) co-written with xantissa.

Comments: Ears and Other Related Calamities, yet another DMBJ/Lost Tomb PingXieSang supernatural AU fic (of a different again supernatural AU) co-written with xantissa.

Subscriptions: The Rescue Job, a Guardian WeiLan Leverage AU, currently at one chapter complete and posted out of a planned five chapters.

Fic you want to rewrite/expand on: We have plans for a prequel and a sequel to A Knight in Bloody Armour, and a spinoff fic for The Zhang Identity (a DMBJ/Lost Tomb PingXie AU that is complete but not yet posted. It will be posted in April as part of the Small Fandoms Big Bang).

Share a bit of a WIP: This is from an as-yet-unnamed post-canon fix-it fic for the Guardian drama:

It was hurting again. Zhao Yunlan curled up into a tight ball under the hospital blankets, trying to ignore it enough to try to get back to sleep. He knew it wouldn't work, because he couldn't remember a time when it ever did, but it was always worth a shot, right? He squeezed his eyes shut and held himself tightly for a few...moments? Minutes?...before grabbing his stuffed cat and clutching it while he forced himself to breathe deep, slow breaths the way the doctors back in Spring City had taught him.

Eventually, the pain died back down to its usual dull ache, the one that was bearable and let him play, and watch TV, and do school lessons with his mother. One day, she said, they'd find a doctor who knew what was wrong, why he hurt all the time, and the doctor would give him medicine that would keep the worst pain away so that he could go to an actual school and meet more kids than the ones who lived in their apartment block or who frequented the same playground that he liked to go to.

Zhao Yunlan tried closing his eyes again, seeing if he could go back to sleep, but he was far too awake now. He sighed, sitting up in bed and looking around the room. Again. It was just like the hospital rooms in Spring City, and in Kiyota City. He figured that if the doctors here in Tomorrow Mountains couldn't help, his parents would take him to yet another city, and the hospital rooms there would probably look the same, too.

Then, over the faint beeping of hospital equipment, and the quiet murmurs further down the corridor of nurses at the nurse station or seeing to other patients, he heard a soft sniffling sound, like someone was trying not to cry too loudly. He picked up his stuffed cat and looked at it.

"What do you think, Dead Cat?" he asked it. "Should we go and find them?"

Dead Cat didn't answer, of course, but that didn't stop Zhao Yunlan from assuming that it agreed with him, and slipping out of bed. His feet touched the cold tile floor with barely a sound, and, still holding Dead Cat tightly, Zhao Yunlan padded over to the door. He looked up and down the corridor, then left his room to track down the sniffling noise.

He wasn't surprised that it came from the next room. He was surprised that it came from another kid, a boy who looked to be about his age, huddled in bed and wiping his eyes.

"Hi," Zhao Yunlan whispered. The other boy looked up in surprise, then stopped to clutch his chest as he began to cough. Once he'd finished coughing, Zhao Yunlan and Dead Cat were perched on the end of his bed.

"I'm Zhao Yunlan, and this is Dead Cat." He held up Dead Cat, moving one of the paws to wave hello. "What's your name?"

The boy wiped his eyes again. "Shen Ye."

I tag: ALL OF YOU! Are you a writer who hasn’t done this yet? Consider yourself tagged if you want to be.

#fanfic meme #dmbj #daomu biji #guardian #mo du #star trek #ds9 #bishoujo senshi sailor moon #sailor moon #mdzs #cql #acotar #bubblegum crisis #world of warcraft #zhu yilong

18 notes · View notes

pocket-luv101 · 4 years

Text

To Woo An Angel || Chapter 1

Fandom: Servamp Ship: KuroMahi, LawLicht Characters: Kuro, Mahiru, Hyde, Licht

Summary: Hyde wants to help Kuro get a date with Mahiru. He learns that Mahiru’s protective brother stops him from dating. To help his brother, Hyde creates a plan to date Licht. He reasoned that Licht would be less protective of his brother after he starts dating. He didn’t expect to fall in love with him. (LawLicht, Ten Things I Hate About You AU)

(Ch.1) || Ch.2 || Ch.3

“Thank you for tutoring me in English, Kuro. It’s my worst subject and the midterm is coming up.” Mahiru sat across from Kuro in the library. “I was assigned to show you around the school but it looks like you’re the one who’s helping me instead. You’re from London, right? You speak Japanese very well but you can ask me if you need anything. How are you adjusting to Japan?”

“Could be worse.” Kuro shrugged. He had moved halfway around the world and the change would’ve been more difficult if it wasn’t for Mahiru. They shared a lot of classes and Mahiru helped him catch up with the courses. He wanted to repay him for his kindness so he offered to tutor him. “Tokyo is different from London but I think I can grow to like it.”

He opened the textbook between them to start the tutoring session. Before they could begin, a foot came between them and slammed down onto the table. Kuro jumped in surprise and he turned to see a student with dark hair. On the other hand, Mahiru only sighed at his sudden appearance. “Licht, this is a library and you shouldn’t be so loud. It’s rude.”

Licht didn’t respond to him and glared at Kuro instead. “Are you flirting with my brother? I’ll have you know that I will only allow a true angel to date Mahiru.”

“Once again, Licht, you need to stop threatening everyone who talks to me. Kuro is just a friend and he’s helping me learn English. He recently moved here so you’ll give him a bad impression by being so hostile.” Mahiru chastised him and lightly pushed his boot off the textbook. He turned to Kuro and said: “We might not look like we’re related but this is my twin brother, Licht.”

“I have a lot of siblings and we don’t look alike either.” He said and dusted the dirt from the textbook. Mahiru was relieved that Kuro didn’t judge his family because he knew most would find him intense. He loved his family and he couldn’t be friends with someone who had a bad opinion of them. They were close siblings since they shared everything growing up.

“If this is just a study session, I’m going to sit right here and watch. I don’t trust this guy for a moment. He hasn’t told me whether he was a demon or not.” Licht sat between them. Mahiru smiled wearily and opened his textbook. A part of him was disappointed that he wasn’t studying alone with Kuro anymore. He found himself interested in him and he wanted to get to know him.

“I’ve only known Kuro for a week but I think he’s a good guy.” Mahiru said to reassure his brother. “I’m surprised you’re here, Licht. Your recital is coming up and you need to practise. Did you reserve the music room before you came? Someone might steal your piano if you’re not there.”

“Shit,” Licht muttered to himself and stood. He rushed out of the library but shouted over his shoulder, “Text me if this demon tries to do anything to you. I’ll come back to kick him.”

“Bye, Licht.” He said to him before he turned to Kuro. “Sorry about my brother. He’s a good person. He only needs to learn how to control his voice in the library. I hope he didn’t scare you and made you change your mind about being my tutor. I don’t know if I can pass English without a tutor.”

Mahiru joked but his smile was a little unsteady. “Do you want to find somewhere else to study so he can’t interrupt us again? I have a secret staircase that he doesn’t know about. We can hide there. I just need to stop by my locker to grab something.”

“The protective father is a trope in movies but I didn’t expect you to have a… guardian angel brother? He’s funny.” He patted his shoulder. His words and his light touch made Mahiru relax. Mahiru laughed and Kuro thought his voice was attractive. He helped him collect the textbooks and threw them into his backpack. “Twins have a psychic connection so he might be able to find us.”

“That’s true. I can never hide anything from Licht. We tell each other everything anyways.” Mahiru told him. As eccentric as he was, Licht was his brother and he cared for him. He grew to rely on him since he had protected him ever since their parents died. It was difficult for Licht yet he never let it show. “He was born first so he says he needs to be the big brother.”

“I’m the oldest of my family so I understand how he feels a little. He doesn’t want to see you hurt. Hopefully, he’ll believe that I’m only tutoring you and he won’t glare at me anymore.” Kuro picked up Mahiru’s bag to carry it for him. Mahiru led him out of the library and they walked down the hall. “I hope your father isn’t as protective.”

Mahiru’s eyes fell to the ground and Kuro didn’t understand why until he said: “Our parents died in a car crash last year. We were adopted by our uncle and he’s a great guy. Uncle Toru is often at work so had to support each other while growing up. I learned how to cook and Licht decided he needed to protect me from everyone. His feelings are coming from a good place so I don’t know how to tell him to stop.”

“I’m sorry for bringing up your parents. I didn’t know they had died.” Kuro apologized and Mahiru shook his head with a sad smile. He didn’t know why seeing his sad eyes affected him but he thought of how he could make him feel better. “Licht seems like a headstrong person but I think he’ll listen if you talk to him. He wants you to be happy in the end.”

“Thank you, Kuro. You’re a good big brother like Licht. You said that you have a large family. Do any of your siblings go to the school as well?” Mahiru asked.

“My brother, Hyde, is in the same grade as us but he’s in the advanced class. He quotes Shakespeare all the time and I don’t know what he’s saying when he does.” His answer puzzled Mahiru and he tilted his head slightly. Kuro realized why he would be confused and explained: “We’re in a large, blended family. Our ages are all over the place. It can get complicated.”

“I can imagine.” They talked casually as they walked but he found himself enjoying the conversation. He stopped in front of his locker and he took out a key that was hanging on the door. “I’m a part of the home-ec club and I have a key to the room. There’s a stairway connected to it and we can study there.”

He started to close his locker but someone else shut it first and the door almost caught his fingers. Luckily, Kuro pulled him back before he could be hurt. He could feel Mahiru stiffen beneath his hand and he assumed it was merely due to the locker closing. He looked down at him and saw how his brown eyes became cold. “What the hell, Byakuya?”

Kuro was surprised by the sharp edge in Mahiru’s voice. He spent a lot of time with him over the past week and he had been friendly with everyone he spoke to. Mahiru had laughed at his brother yet he only groaned at the student’s similar approach. Byakuya didn’t seem to notice and leaned against his locker. “I saw your brother in the music room. He’s distracted so we can go on a date.”

“Byakuya, it’s flattering that you’re interested but I already told you that I don’t feel the same. You know Licht won’t let me date anyone less than an angel either.” Mahiru did his best to reject him respectfully. He wrapped his hand around Kuro’s and pulled him away. “Goodbye, Byakuya. I need to go study. Oh, Licht will be joining the study session so don’t follow me.”

Kuro quickened his steps to match his pace with Mahiru’s and walked beside him. Mahiru glanced over his shoulder and he was relieved that Byakuya didn’t try to flirt with him further. “There’s one good thing about having a protective, guardian angel for a brother. He keeps demons away.”

“I’m going to be tutoring Mahiru after school so you should head home first, Hyde. Make sure that everyone else makes it home safely.” Kuro told his brother. Japan was safer than London but he was worried about his younger siblings becoming lost since they only moved recently. “I’ll pick up pizza for everyone on the way home. Text me what you guys want on your pizza after you get home.”

“Are you planning to be out late with Mahiru? I’ve never seen you fall for someone before but you did it fast with this guy.” Hyde teased his brother and bumped their shoulders together playfully. Kuro only rolled his eyes at his brother’s behaviour and ignored him. They weren’t related by blood but they were a close family. “I saw you with Mahiru and I asked my classmates about him.”

“Why do you like to stick your nose into everything? You should focus on your studies rather than collecting gossip on people.” He didn’t know why Hyde was curious about his love life. “Anyways, Mahiru has a protective brother who won’t let him date someone he doesn’t approve of. From the short talk I had with him, he already decided that I’m a demon.”

“Licht Jekylland Todoroki Shirota? I have a few classes with him and everyone tells me that he’s crazy. He calls himself an angel but he has started a lot of fights. That almost makes me want to talk to him to see if the stories are true.” Hyde thought of the stories he heard. He knew better than most that rumours rarely reflected who a person truly was. He was interested to know Licht beyond the rumours.

“Don’t cause trouble for Mahiru and Licht.” Kuro closed his locker and he hoped the conversation would be over. “I’m going to the library now.”

“The fact that you’re so protective of him only proves that you’re interested in Mahiru. You might be too shy to ask him out but I think I know how you can ask him out without angering Licht!” Hyde declared and grabbed his shoulders. “If Licht is dating someone, he will be too focused on his own love life to worry about Mahiru’s. Did Mahiru tell you anything about Licht and the type of guy he’s interested in?”

“I don’t like where this conversation is going.” He sighed and faced his brother. “Mahiru is a great guy and he’s cute but I don’t think this is the right time to ask him out. I don’t even know if he likes me back. I want to respect his family and you should do the same.”

“Fine.” While Hyde pouted, he relented in the end. He wanted to see his brother happy and he thought he should help him. Kuro was the oldest in their family and he had supported them through a lot of difficult times. He glanced through the window to where Mahiru and Licht were talking in the courtyard. “Rumours or not, he does look like an angel.”

“Okay, I’ll try out for one sport and you will audition for the upcoming play.” Hyde sat on the bleachers that overlooked the soccer field and he discussed different school activities with his brother, World End. They had different interests but he wanted to be in a club with him. He was certain that he would have more fun with World End in a sport he disliked than doing Shakespeare with strangers.

“Or we can join the home-ec club and eat all the cookies we want!” He suggested and they both laughed. “I can barely remember the equations for math class so there’s no hope of me getting a role. I can sign up to make the sets or something. The soccer club looks intense so we should join that one! They’ll be fun to play with.”

“From how they’re playing, you would think that they’re playing football. I thought Japan was supposed to be safer and more reserve than London.” Hyde watched the game and his eyes fell onto Licht. He had a distinct white streak in his dark hair and it caused him to stand out among the others. He thought of his conversation with Kuro. “Are they holding tryouts?”

“Hey, I want to talk to you.” A voice interrupted their conversation and he turned towards the person. He couldn’t think of why Byakuya would approach him since they weren’t friends nor classmates. “I overheard you talking with your friend earlier. I want to use your plan to have someone date Licht so he won’t be protective of Mahiru. The problem is that everyone in this school is afraid of him.”

“I don’t know why you’re telling me this. I didn’t suggest that plan to you and it was for someone who actually has a chance with Mahiru.” Hyde stood and picked up his backpack. He paused when Byakuya slapped a few bills against his chest. “Twenty dollars? You don’t need to pay me for the idea. But you must have money to spare if you can give a twenty away like this.”

“What if I want to pay you to go out with Licht?” He asked. “I’ve heard a lot of rumours about you and you’re as crazy as he is. My father owns a car dealership so I can pay you twenty dollars for each date you take him on. I think that’s a generous amount for trailer trash like you.”

“Hey, don’t talk to me brother like that or else—” World End jumped to his feet to fight Byakuya for insulting his brother. Hyde stopped him by holding him back.

“I’ll bite, Byakuya. Let’s imagine I take the angel out to dinner and we order a modest meal. That’s thirty dollars already so your offer of twenty doesn’t look as generous. Licht looks like the type who orders dessert too. Then, we need to consider gas. Forty dollars is my price.” Hyde held up the twenty that he had handed him. “How much is a date with Mahiru worth to you?”

“Fine. That brother is the only reason Mahiru won’t go out with me.” Byakuya’s answer surprised Hyde. He only intended to push him to see how far he would go. It became clear to Hyde that he only wanted to date Mahiru because his rejection hurt his pride. Hyde doubted that the student had been denied much in life. “I’ll give you the other thirty after the date.”

“You don’t have much confidence in me, do you?” Hyde said sarcastically and then walked down the bleachers to go to the field. The soccer practise was ending so it was a good opportunity to speak with Licht. His brother followed him and he could feel his questioning gaze on him. He was glad that he waited until they were far enough from Byakuya before he spoke.

“Why would you agree to help that guy? You know that Kuro likes Mahiru.”

“And Mahiru doesn’t like Byakuya.” Hyde swirled the twenty-dollar bill around his finger. “I don’t intend to help him. I just scammed him out of twenty dollars and I get to talk to an angel. Wait here. This shouldn’t take more than a few minutes.”

He only intended to talk to Licht so Byakuya would think that he was following his plan. He jumped over the short fence and walked onto the field. Licht was wiping the sweat from his brow with a towel. Hyde leaned into his view and introduced himself. “Good morrow, Angel. For that’s your name, I hear.”

“What?” Licht’s brows furrowed in confusion. He recognized Hyde since they shared a few classes but they never spoke before. He had a slight accent and he could hear that he was from England. The strange manner he spoke also caught his attention. “I am an angel but that isn’t my name. It’s Licht.”

“You lie!” His words turned Licht’s slight curiosity to irritation. How dare a demon call him a liar over his own name? He turned on his heel to walk away from the man yet he smoothly stepped into his path. “In faith, you are called Angel. A bonny Archangel and sometimes Angel Cakes. But, Angel, the prettiest Angel in Heaven’s light and therefore, Angel. Hearing thy mildness praised in every town, myself am moved to woo thee for my angel, Licht.”

His words were oddly familiar and he realized that he was quoting lines from The Taming of the Shrew. He clicked his tongue and said, “If you’re going to use Shakespeare to flirt with me, choose someone better than Petruchio. He was a demon and he didn’t deserve Katherine. Either you’re saying that as an empty quote or you actually think Petruchio is romantic. I don’t find either is good.”

Hyde didn’t expect for Licht to be able to name the play he quoted when most would only look on the surface of his quotes. “I can see that taming an angel is impossible. I wouldn’t want to do that anyways. You’re much more interesting as you are. Since you don’t want to be Petruchio and Kat, would you prefer Romeo and Juliet? Or, maybe, you can be my Midsummer Night’s Dream. I can easily see you as Titania, the Fairy Queen. You would soar through the sky with your wings glistening in the sky.”

“If I am Titania, would that make you my Bottom? You do resemble an ass.” Licht made the sharp retort and he took Hyde by surprise again. Even as he insulted him, Hyde had to admire the double meaning in his words. It had been a while since he had so much time trading bards with someone. “Maybe you should give me your actual name before you act as some character in a play?”

“It’s Hyde.” He doubted he could sway Licht with his usual line so he decided to be direct. “I saw you playing soccer and I thought you were cute. I moved here only a week ago so I was hoping you could show me around the city. We can make it a date.”

“My answer is no. You barely know me. But I can see that you’re a delusional demon because you think that you can take out this angel.” Licht picked up his backpack to leave. “Between soccer practise and playing the piano, I’m too busy to date someone. Find another person to be your Titania.”

Hyde watched him leave and he was intrigued by their short interaction. He didn’t expect him to accept but he was more surprised that a part of him wanted him to. A date with an angel like Licht would be interesting at least. He turned back to World End and decided, “We’re joining the soccer team!”

#servamp #kuromahi #sloth pair #lawlicht #greed pair #servamp kuro #mahiru shirota #servamp hyde #licht jekylland todoroki #fanfiction

40 notes · View notes

linkspooky · 5 years

Note

Is the story in Owari no Seraph good? Heard it's just your average shonen manga.

Thank you for the question, anon! Owari no Seraph is not just “your average shonen manga” it’s THE AVERAGE SHONEN MANGA, it is every single average shonen manga ever combined into one and that’s why I love it. I might as well turn this into a reccomendation post to answer your question.

You Should Read Owari no Seraph

Owari no Seraph is like several different shonen manga sewn together in a horrible frankenstein’s monster, but once again as I often say on this blog tropes are not bad things. They’re all about the execution. Owari no Seraph is like, one of five exorcism/demon fighting manga published by shueisha right now (Chainsawman, Kimetsu no Yaiba, Jujutsu Kaisen, Ao no Exorcist, Owari no Seraph). It stands out by raising the stakes as high as they can possibly go, it has no reservations at all over the fact that it’s a tropey, pulp, nightmare. It knows exactly what it is and just tells it’s story anyway.

So here are a few things I like about the manga that make me want to reccomend it.

1. The World

The worldbuilding of Owari no Seraph sounds like it was made up on the spot. This is coming from someone who has read the entire manga through twice, and every single english translation available of the spinoff novels. It basically goes like this, there are exorcists who fight demons with magical swords. Then there are vampires but they’re way too strong for an exorcist to ever defeat. Demons are former humans, or maybe former vampires. Eventually the exorcists learn to put demons in swords and allow them to possess you. The world ends because of things called seraphs which are children that were experimented on to turn them into angels to call the end of the world.

It’s basically a mythology where every single supernatural creature exists simulatenously. It reminds me a lot of the Buffy mythos, where all sorts of supernatural creatures exist and vampires sort of just reign supreme as the strongest.

While it is kind of a mess, it works well for the story. It basically creates a world where literally everything is out to kill humans, and the humans themselves can just barely fight back. It makes humans seem even more smaller and insignificant in the world they are inhabiting because there are just so many types of magical creatures that are infinitely stronger than them.

What I love about the exorcists in this manga is how physically weak they are. Literally no matter what desperate strategy they pull, even if they are a once in a generation genius, or from some kind of chosen bloodline, every single character in the manga is desperate to survive at any time. No victory is ever achieved without tons of losses. The characters backs are perpetually against the wall.

The exorcists really do come off like underdogs just trying to survive the extinction of humanity, because the world of magic is just so overwhelming and unknowable to the human characters. It’s like if the world exploded and every single fantasy creature came to life at once, and they all hated humans and wanted to stamp them out.

Another thing I like about the vampires is that they’re not X Men. Sometimes when writing vampires authors just make them X Men, as in rather than being vampires themselves they just all have some kind of mutant power like flame conjuring or shapeshifting. The vampires are at the top of the hierarchy in this world because of their sheer strength alone, each one of them is a powerhouse of raw strength.

2. Yuichiro Hyakuya

Yu’s character is interesting because it’s so weird and offputting but only if you read far enough in the manga to realize why. Yu’s attitude is something that is eventually deconstructed to horrifying effect much later on in the manga. People often call him a boring shonen protagonist who only cares about fighting and friendship, but to me he’s always been more like Gon. That is a deconstruction of the “Pure-Hearted Hero” protagonist.

Yuichiro tends to naturally attract people around him, especially damaged and lost people because of how accepting and trusting he is. The problem is Yu is able to accept everything because you get the sense that he doesn’t care. He just doesn’t even think about or consider the consequences of his actions at all, or even how his actions will affect other people.

Yu cares about the people he considers family and that’s it. The rest of the world might as well not even exist. And this is never once framed as a good trait. Yu just doesn’t think at all before he does something, and it’s not even him being stupid it’s him being suicidally reckless. He just kind of assumes that if he wants it everything should work out in his favor.

It’s gotten to the point where people around him are constantly bringing up the consequences of some of the reckless things he wants to try and he just shrugs it off. Somebody warns him reviving the dead is a bad idea, and he just says “but I want my family back.” He trusts and allies himself with complete enemies if he thinks it can return his loved ones to him.

Yu doesn’t actually trust anyone. He just has the part of his brain where he distrusts people completely shut off. His complete and total blind faith in people ends up becoming a bad trait because as much as it brings his comrades closer to him, you get the sense that he just doesn’t care what happens in the end. As the manga progresses what seems like a typically all loving hero just becomes more and more distant from other people. The fact that he trusts without question is presented as something that makes him seem inhuman.

3. Shinoa Hiragi

Owari no Seraph is one fo the few manga where the female of the main character trio is just as connected and important to the plot as the two boys. Shinoa’s arc about learning to love and trust people also works because she was raised in a family with no love at all that only ever saw her as a tool.

Shinoa is probably the most complex of the main three characters because she engages with everyone behind a mask, but she’s also not a perfect actress. What’s great about her is that she’s flawed, she’s kind of a mess. Unlike her older sister who can manipulate anyone flawlessly, Shinoa is much more human behind the mask and has a difficult time repressing it.

Shinoa’s arc is as central to the story as Yu’s. However she’s also his opposite and a good complement to him because while Yu is wild and reckless Shinoa is reserved and overly cautious. It’s not a fear of being weak in the same way Yu is afraid to be weak, what Shinoa fears is being out of control. However because she’s not the genius her sister is for Shinoa she only ever really has the illusion of control over situations.

It’s a female character where basically the entire conflict of her character revolves around her agency, and trying to be her own person separate from her sister. Which is so rare for female characters to be that well developed and present such an interesting conflict. Which is another thing I likie about ONS, it’s a mishmash of tropes but it always uses those tropes very smartly. She fits in so well with the series because basically everyone in the series knows they’re already doomed and we see how each of them cope with it and struggle against it.

4. Guren Ichinose

Guren is hands down not only the most complicated character in the series, and also one of the best mentor characters of all time, he’s also where the excellent moral ambiguity of the series itself shines the brightest. Guren is basically the second protagonist of the series at this point because he has his own light novel spinoff and is just as important to the plot as Yu.

What makes Guren compelling is that he’s not a bad guy at all, but he ends up committing some of the worst deeds in the manga. It once again solidifies the theme that life is more complex than bad people do bad things, sometimes in fact good people do a bad. Guren is great because he’s always one person who is basically struggling against the whole world, and sometimes you get the sense he wants to destroy it because that’s the only way he can throw his burdens off of him.

But at the same time, this cold blooded guy whose constantly doing terrible things, and is desperate and hungry for power really is just a person who wants his friends to be safe and happy. Guren is someone whose lost literally everything to an uncaring world, his family, his close friends, his lover, he’s also been kicked on and stamped down his entire life. You understand why Guren would end up becoming such a selfish person because literally the world has always told him that he doesn’t deserve to be in it, he’s not a part of this story.

It’s like the struggling of a side character whose not even involved in the plot forcing their way in and trying to be the main character. Guren is so much weaker than everything around him, but he’ll keep fighting. And it’s amazing when Guren does literally every single thing, sacrifices everything, throws away everything and then he still fails in the end. That’s what makes his character compelling because he never gets what he wants no matter how desperately he struggles but he still keeps on fighting.

His foiling with Yu is also incredible, and you get the sense that Guren is a worse person because he actually cares about things unlike Yu who is so reckless and doesn’t even think about the consequences of his actions.

5. The Conflict

Here’s how the manga starts. The world ends. You’ve been enslaved for several years by vampires that suck your blood. You finally escape but all of your family that was introduced died in the first chapter.

It’s overload but yet, Owari no Seraph always manages to keep these stakes consistent. It’s a manga that actually feels like the characters are struggling at the end of the world. Literally every single person there is past the point of no return in one way or another, and yet they keep fighting.

Which is what makes every fight fresh and compelling to read. Because the main characters don’t even win that often, or if they do win it’s a minor victory that’s evened out later by some loss. Every battle is for survival, not gaining territory. Which really helps along the themes of the story as well to create this picture of a severely broken world, where individual people are all desperate to band together to survive.

The story itself also never grows stale or stagnant because things are constantly developing and changing around. You never feel one arc drags on too long. Because every single faction is just trying to survive, enemies from yesterday will become allies today and you end up getting to understand the perspective of each faction.

If you can get past the premise, the manga is actually pretty grounded. Most of the emotional stakes comes from the connection between the characters and the fear of losing them, and that’s the primary focus of the story. It’s about inhuman tragedy and circumstances, and a world that’s so fantastical it’s almost impossible to believe, but there are humans still in the middle of it trying to survive and live even though their lives are insignificant in the grand scheme of things.

#Anonymous #ons meta #owari no seraph #manga req #spooky speaks #metasks #yuuichirou hyakuya #guren ichinose #shinoa hīragi

71 notes · View notes

allnewalldifferentwildspider · 5 years

Text

Why I Dumped...RWBY

If there’s one thing I’ve learned being in fandom is that the audience is not allowed to dictate creative changes to someone else’s work. That is not your place. The trade-off is that you don’t have to be a member of that audience. Once I learned that, I decided that if a series pissed me off one too many times, I would just straight up dump it. Adios, amigo. Go piss someone else off with your shit stories. There are a hundred other things I could be doing with my time.

When I tell people this, they usually get defensive because sometimes the show I dumped happens to be a show they really like. Which is fine. If it works for you, great. Have fun. But we all have our tastes and personal preferences.

Sometimes that just isn’t enough for people. They have to know why you would insult them (I’m not and neither are you) by not liking something they like. I doubt most care. Some people just want to be offended. However, there have been some people who are genuinely curious. Usually people who are neutral to whatever show I dumped. They have no dog in this fight; they just want to see my train of thought.

So you asked for it and here it is. This is my new blog post series where I talk about why I dumped a series. Let’s see if my story and logic will help you see things from my perspective. Let me be clear, I’m not trying to convince you to change your mind. This is just the story of why I made this decision. If you like this series good for you. I don’t. It’s my opinion and I’m allowed to have one same as you.

We’re going to start off big with RWBY.

For me, RWBY started off as one of those things I kinda heard about on the internet, but never really knew what it was. Then it was on Neftlix and I decided to check out what it actually was. It was a CGI webseries made by the same company that did Red VS Blue led by the guy who did those weird Dead Fantasy videos on YouTube. I watched the first two volumes (because they just can’t be called seasons. We have to be all special and shit) and I wasn’t sure what to think of it. I guess my brain needed time to process it. I watched it again with my brother and then I started volume three on my own. After the volume three finale, I stopped watching and just kept tabs on the show before losing interest completely. There are several reasons that just piled up together so let’s just start at the beginning.

I just don’t think the show is very good.

It was a fucking chore to watch volume one again with my brother. Like holy crap, why wasn’t the show this bad the first time I saw it? Was it going to suck this hard with every viewing? (SPOILER ALERT: The answer is yes.) A lot of the character models look really pale. The animation can be wonky or jittery. The voice acting goes from bad to passable. The pacing is wack. The story is barely told. We spend way too much time on Jaune even though we already have FOUR main characters we have to be tackling. And this is a pet peeve of mine, but they gave names to things that already have names.

semblance = super power

aura = energy

Grimm = monsters

Why won’t anyone just call super powers super powers?

Anyway, those were my initial thoughts. A recurring thought I have about RWBY is, “The idea is adequate but the execution is lacking.” Someone asked me what that meant. Really? Really? You don’t know what words mean? Google it. Your ideas are okay, but the way you’re doing them sucks.

So if I hated the show so much, why did I stick with it after volume one? I liked the characters. I fell in love with Yang. She’s all my favorite parts of female characters put together in one awesome package. A blonde busty badass babe that beats a bunch of baddies? Sign me the fuck up. (Alliteration is fun, kids.) Thanks to some really good fan art, I also started to ship Arkos, Renora, White Rose and Roman Ice Cream (or gelato or partners in crime or whatever it’s called). I wanted to see more Yang and I wanted to see if I would get a payoff after investing so much time.

I didn’t.

youtube

The story goes all over the place. It introduces a bunch of new ideas but never sticks around to develop one. I’ve lost track of how the world works and what our goals are. They created side videos called, “The World of RWBY” that explains that shit. That’s another sign of bad writing. Supplemental material to understand what is going on in the story isn’t fun; it’s homework. More importantly, I shouldn’t have to. It should be organically in the story itself. But it wasn’t because this crew doesn’t know how to. It’s just not there.

Pyrrha’s Death

The main reason I stopped watching after the season three finale. I understand that everyone wants to do their own version of Empire Strikes Back or Avengers: Infinity War. The big battle where the good guys lose. I have several problems with this though.

1. I agree with Linkara that the only reason you should kill a character is if you’ve ran out of stories to tell with that character. Cheap drama should not be your goal. The problem with shock value is that it only lasts for a second.

2. You should never kill a fan favorite. That’s how you lose audiences i.e. money. You don’t sell your golden goose, and you don’t kill your cash cow.

I don’t believe that Pyrrha had ran out of stories to tell with her character. Pyrrha was killed just to further Jaune’s story arc which sucks because I barely liked Jaune. I shipped Arkos because I wanted good things for Pyrrha, and really, who doesn’t?

This unfortunately common trope is Stuffed into the Fridge, where female characters are killed for the sole purpose of a male character’s story. It doesn’t matter if Pyrrha was the best warrior in the class or had friends who could have helped her or she could have just ran away or anything really. Pyrrha, my second favorite character, was killed off to jump start Jaune’s character development. Fuck you, Rooster Teeth. And the worst part is, I heard that this was always the plan for Pyrrha. If you have to rely on a trope from 1994, you’re probably not a good writer.

I cancelled my Crunchyroll subscription, and a few people told me to get the fuck over it.

No. My time. My money. Not interested.

Yang wasn’t ‘for me,’ apparently

This one has a little less to do with the show and more with the fandom (or FNDM, because we have to be all special here). Like I said earlier, I fell in love with Yang. She became my number one waifu instantly. She had everything I liked. Big boobs, long legs, blonde hair, fiery personality, loved to kick ass, loved martial arts, had a great zest for life. It’s like that song lyric, “You are everything I want ‘cause you’re everything I’m not.” I know it’s super embarrassing but I would fantasize about being a character in RWBY and being Yang’s boyfriend. Whenever I would work out I would say it was because I was training to be Yang’s husband. I know it’s lame, but that’s how enamored I was.

Hell, Yang was the reason I even considered watching RWBY in the first place. I only discovered her thanks to that episode of Death Battle where she beat Tifa.

Then bumblebee happened.

People on tumblr have this thing where they like to decide what someone else’s character’s sexuality and gender is regardless of the canon. Do whatever you want. The problem was that I am a straight, cis, heterosexual Hispanic male with a tumblr account who likes a character who mostly shipped with another female character. So whenever I try to get matchups or headcanons or imagines, I’m usually ignored. I’m a big boy. I can handle that. What does get under my skin is people going out of their way to tell me that Yang isn’t for me. Like I’m not allowed to like her. When you’ve already lived most of your life with other people telling you that the things you want were never really for you, that sorta thing kinda hits you in the wrong side of the feels. Yang is for bumblebee and bumblee shippers only. I’m over it, but still not cool.

Now I’m hearing that Rooster Teeth might make bumblebee canon to appease the fans. No artistic integrity. I guess I was wrong. The audience is allowed to dictate creative changes if you’re Rooster Teeth. It doesn’t help that Blake is my least favorite character in the series.

I was upset when Adam cut off her arm in the end of volume three. It didn’t help that it was the same episode that Pyrrha died. Two birds with one stone and all that. I’m glad somebody made a supercut of Yang’s volume four story on YouTube. That was good to watch. It was kinda like Korra’s story in the beginning of Book Four (ugh, just call them seasons!) except with a fraction of the talent.

I haven’t watched anything beyond that, but I have heard of a few things. I’m glad Adam is dead, but that’s about it.

So that’s mostly why I dumped RWBY. Sorry if it was too much, but thanks for reading. Do I miss the show? Not really. I do miss Pyrrha, Yang, and the fan art. Will I ever go back to RWBY? Sorry but no. That’s not how that works. The damage has been done.

tl;dr version

I dumped RWBY because:

I didn’t think it was very good to begin with.

They killed my second favorite character for a shit reason.

My favorite character isn’t ‘for me’ according to everyone else.

#why i dumped #rwby #anti rwby #yang xiao long

20 notes · View notes

luminisvii · 4 years

Text

okay im gonna go black out and write some bullshit about my Thoughts on Literary Analysis and Character Writing bc i love writing and i love trying to figure out what works and what doesn’t. i am an unfortunate fan of fire emblem, so the real joke is on me, but let’s do this anyway. using a lot of bold as always! it makes me feel special.

Why is Leonie such a divisive character?

as per usual, here is my disclaimer that it’s okay to like Leonie. it’s also okay to dislike her, as long as you’re not being a massive dick about it. lord knows people are rude to me about lorenz and i didn’t ask for their opinions. if you like leonie, i am not out to get you, i’m not going to tell you that you shouldn’t, i’m not even mad at you. Neat! you like a character i don’t! and that’s just fine. i honestly don’t care! go have fun!

so let’s talk. theres a TL;DR at the end so be ready.

i’ll make no bones about it: i’m in the camp that dislikes her. i don’t have the energy to hate her as i do for faye, but leonie is pretty obnoxious as a character and it’s an uphill battle to like her. i’ve played VW like three times since i’m a self professed GD stan so i’ve dealt with her a lot, read most of her supports, and seen her as a character in actual cutscenes and stuff.

the short answer: making a character obsessed with another one and having that be most of their personality is really annoying.

the long answer: let’s start on that now! these are my personal thoughts and analysis, so you’re free to disagree with me if you think i’m falling short.

one statement i will make right away is that i’m not offended by leonie being mean to the player. a lot of people who stan leonie like to argue that people dislike her because she’s one of the few characters who doesn’t kiss byleth’s ass immediately. that’s fine. that doesn’t bother me. after all, seteth and hapi are mean to byleth at first too, and those two are far more beloved… in fact, it’s funny that they’re mean to byleth. i would also argue that my favorite lord claude is not buddy buddy with byleth at first either, but if these popular opinion threads have proven anything to me, people love taking claude’s lying ass at face value. that’s besides the point—it’s okay that leonie isn’t immediately friendly to byleth. that is not an objective character flaw. characters need something to conflict over in the narrative, and not being instantly friendly to a player insert is not a problem in the slightest.

the major flaw in leonie’s character, imo, is that the writers decided it was a brilliant idea to make her obsessed with a man who barely seems to acknowledge her. this is an extremely unfortunate reoccurring character trope in fire emblem. notable other victims that more modern fe fans may recognize are faye and cordelia, faye being the worst offender. luckily, leonie isn’t as bad as faye. but it really is irritating that leonie, along with these other women, seem entirely driven by men who cannot acknowledge them. within three houses, you have similar traits in male characters as well: cyril is another notable offender, and to a lesser extent, dedue’s fixation on dimitri. now, we do see jeralt talking to leonie at the very least, and he does speak about her at least once in my memory, and positively at that. so it’s not as pathetic as the likes of faye.

outside of that, leonie cannot stop fucking reminding everyone she comes across: she loves captain jeralt. she’s his only apprentice. and you, dear player, who is his child, are not good enough, because you don’t love him as much as she does. practically all her convos with byleth are about how they don’t love jeralt enough, save for a slight turn around in the A support where she talks about her promise to protect byleth in jeralt’s place. to be honest, i usually ditch her in any run i’m forced to take her (hello sylvain, the superior idiot redhead cavalier) so this promise is just cute.

the arrogance in this attitude is insensitive at best, and as seen in her B support with byleth, potentially malicious and self centered at worst.

let’s not beat around the bush. the main point of contention for leonie is her B support with byleth, which is locked to jeralt’s death. you cannot get this support until jeralt has kicked it. and if you’re on GD, chances are you have gotten enough support points with leonie to get it immediately upon his death. the man’s grave is still fresh. what does she have the gall to say to her beloved mentor’s child?

“I've spent my whole life working to become a great mercenary like your father. There were so many times when I wanted to ask his advice, but I couldn't. I just had to make do. That's how I've made it this far. Just hard work, all on my own. But then you come along... And it's like you don't appreciate Captain Jeralt at all, or how lucky you were to have him around your whole life! Ugh! It still really bothers me! You might be his kid, but I'm still his best apprentice! Got it?!”

YIKES.

no matter how you dice it, saying that to someone whos father just died? NOT GOOD. it doesn’t matter what her reasoning is. a lot of people argue that this is realistic, that she’s acting out of grief. maybe so. however, if the game wants me to like her, they’re failing, no matter how realistic her reaction is. if this was supposed to be seen as a moment of weakness, that would be one thing, but it’s clear leonie never learns anything from this. she never gets better. she spends the rest of her life constantly centered on jeralt, and sees byleth as a competitor and obstacle to his affections, even after he’s dead.

i don’t want to entirely make this about byleth, because let’s be real, byleth is only one of her many supports. but it is the most easily noticeable, and the least charitable to her character.

also fun fact i did a basic search for jeralt in her supports and thats 37 times hes mentioned lmao this isn’t even accounting for her non support dialogue! which is still a lot!

so a decent chunk of her supports still involve her talking about how great jeralt is as if the man is jesus. her better supports don’t involve him at all. i don’t have easy access to a lot of her dialogue by chapter, but quite a bit of her regular dialogue references jeralt too, be it by name or title, and a good chunk of her endings, especially her solo one, have her just taking up his title and job and drinking habits. it’s supposed to be seen as cute.

this woman is in her 20s at the beginning of the game. she’s my age. this kind of behavior is worrying.

so you’re thinking “tell, you’ve spent a LOT of time talking about how leonie won’t shut the fuck up about jeralt. what about the rest of her character? unlike faye, she actually has one!” right you are! i will concede that. leonie does have things going on for her outside of her constant screeching about jeralt! what are they?

we see that her personality has her as a hard worker and frugal person because she’s grown up in a life that has less than many of her peers. she’s rational and rather keen, capable of assessing her opponents correctly and outsmarting them. she likes to help others. her supports with claude are fairly interesting as they talk about their own perspectives on the world to each other in a friendly manner. she talks to bernadetta and praises her skill in craft and manages to befriend her. in fact, all her supports where she doesn’t mention jeralt at all are pretty good. she can be headstrong and sometimes quick to jump to conclusions, but leonie isn’t one to be too beholden to preset ideas and shows a capability to learn and change.

wait, this sounds like a pretty well rounded and likeable character i’m describing! what happened here? this kind of portrayal is almost contradictory to the side of her that only thinks of jeralt.

a lot of people who like leonie like her for these aspects. at first, i had thought her to be interesting, since she’s the poorest student in the entire school, here on money raised by her entire village, which must have been extremely difficult for them to do. she doesn’t understand how nobles can be so frivolous, and butts heads with the likes of hilda, who has been raised in luxury her whole life and she clashes even harder with lorenz, who is obsessed with nobility. in a way, leonie is the slap from reality that many of the rich students from garreg mach need. and she also serves an important function in the dynamic of the deer—she’s a bit of a hapless straight man to all their bullshit. they always need one of those! in the lions, that role falls to ingrid, while edelgard plays that to her own house.

so yes, there is merit in leonie’s character. there’s a lot to like about her here. however, in my opinion, it’s not enough to make up for the incredibly abrasive aspects of her fixation on jeralt. it really just comes back to that—that someone decided that it would be a fantastic character trait to have her never stop thinking about a man, and flaunt this to the man’s child. constantly. almost all her dialogue directed at byleth is about jeralt. post skip, a lot more of her lines become about jeralt and making him proud. it’s like she thinks that he’s her dad. she’s a grown ass woman! leonie is one of the older students! she is an adult by the time the game starts! an adult with some actual worldly experience, unlike her peers! what went wrong? why is she like this? why did they make her so fucking annoying when it comes to jeralt?

so yes, that’s what i think is the major flaw of her character. a flaw that is not easily overcome. cyril is a largely derided character for similar reasons. another simple control+f tells me that rhea is mentioned in cyril’s supports 59 times so uh, woo! he has leonie beat there.

worst of all this is a flaw that narratively, she does not overcome. she never grows and gets better from it. she never changes her single minded determination to impress jeralt, even long after he’s dead. a good chunk of her endings have her taking up his business and acting just like him, taking his title too. somehow lorenz is the more likeable character, and lorenz starts off as a much worse person than her! he starts as a stinky incel classist and somehow, especially over the course of verdant wind, manages to learn and grow and change into a much better person, while leonie remains stagnant in who she is. her own peers outdo her in almost every aspect, in that they appear to be capable of growing up while leonie, already an adult, never seems to show any signs of maturing over the course of the game. we see ignatz turn from a meek nerd to someone who’s willing to do what it takes to protect what he cares about. marianne grows from suicidal and depressed to finding the will to live because it means she’ll be able to spend more time with things she enjoys and people she loves. lorenz goes from snobbish and distant over his complex about nobility to being one of the kindest members of the deer, willing to go against his father for the greater good. even hilda matures! hilda starts the game lazy and unambitious, trying to avoid work, saying she’d never risk her life for her friends, to fighting against some of the strongest forces in the continent and ESPECIALLY on CF we see her refusing to abandon claude in his time of need, no matter how bad it gets, even if it costs her life. what does leonie do? leonie seems to forever be stuck in the mindset that she has to impress jeralt, no matter how far she goes.

this is incredibly nitpicky, i’ll admit, this isn’t really part of the character analysis, but i find she under performs as a unit too. she may have ungodly speed and no weaknesses in her skills, but damage output wise she’s easily outdone in house by the other canon paladin of lorenz and his wonky statline, and out of house sylvain has basically the same ability as her, the same color hair, and a crest + relic that make him way more effective. the man has bulk, too. so, that’s a small ding to leonie as well. i had the same problem with sully in awakening. for all the talk about how these women are just as good as the men, they appear to under perform quite a bit.

and i’m gonna talk real quick in a basic list format of arguments i’ve seen for people defending leonie, since i’m running out of like, a coherent way to talk about some of this stuff.

-She’s realistic.

maybe so, but the game intends for me to find her as likeable and sympathetic, as it is for all recruitable characters. her reactions to byleth and sometimes others may be realistic, but don’t paint a charitable image of her. again, the moment in her B support with byleth is so bad, it makes her seem like she’s acting towards them with cruel intent. while i don’t care about byleth’s feelings since byleth isn’t a real person, what it does is it paints leonie as malicious, no matter what her intent was or how realistic it is. yes, she’s in grief, she’s lost someone important to her, but in what context is telling someone who just lost their dad that they didn’t love him enough supposed to garner anything but hatred? even if she apologizes for it in their A support, that means she basically took years to do so and still seems to think of byleth as an obstacle to her being like jeralt.

although as i have said before, the rest of her personality is fine. i find her non jeralt stuff is much more well written. she’s a down to earth person amidst a sea of lunatics. that’s not a problem.

-People don’t like her because she’s mean to Byleth.

this is probably true in some regards although i can’t say for certain. because byleth is a player insert and some might take it personally, but otherwise i find this isn’t much of a good universal claim since there’s more to the disdain to that. personally, i think it’s hilarious when video game characters are mean to me, but that’s just My Opinion, so no, i’m really not offended by leonie being mean to me. other characters are also mean to byleth, and that leads into the next point...

-Other characters act similarly towards Byleth and they’re popular.

one, look at those stupid unpopular opinions threads on twitter. they’re not as loved as you think. two, a lot of the characters who are listed for these things are often the likes of seteth and felix, and let’s talk about the context of their actions there. seteth is indeed mean to byleth at first, but his intent is wildly different from leonie’s—he’s suspicious, and rightfully so, of this mercenary who came out of nowhere and rhea is suddenly showing a lot of interest in and is giving a position of power to. seteth is not acting out of malintent or jealousy, he’s acting out of concern for the students and his daughter as well as rhea. because his core intent is “protect everyone around me” it comes off as far more palatable and dare i say, endearing. this is vastly different than “i’m jealous towards byleth because i love their dad and hate that they’re getting attention i can’t.” with a character like felix, this is outright incorrect—felix is not necessarily more rude to byleth more than he would be anyone else. felix is angry with the faerghus four in particular, but everyone else gets the same level of vague disrespect from him otherwise, so his behavior is not centralized to byleth. again, i don’t care about byleth’s feelings. there is also cyril, who is similarly obsessed with rhea, and is just as irritating as leonie for it, if not worse because he gets an extra layer of being a poc character obsessed with a white one who saved him.

tl;dr: context and intent matters. a lot. i know this is a ton to ask of the fe fandom to consider taking things beyond face value, but please consider the context of characters actions and their intent behind them.

-People who don’t like Leonie are misogynistic.

i won’t discount that there are bad actors who are likely extra critical of leonie because she’s a female character. it could be and has been argued that the reasons that characters like edelgard and ingrid are so controversial is because they are female. but not everyone who raises criticisms is strictly doing so in bad faith. most people i’ve seen criticizing leonie do it for the same reasons i am, which is that she’s an abrasive character. these traits would not be any better on a male character and in some regards could be worse. so for this one, it’s better to take it as a case by case situation, and pay attention to how people are talking. those doing so for less savory reasons often let it slip eventually, somehow. i’ve been avoiding using the word “bitch” in this entire thing for this exact reason.

-Her non-Byleth supports are good.

this is highly subjective imo and comes down to what you personally like in a character. i do like some of her non byleth supports, but she still has an unfortunate habit of bringing up jeralt in non byleth supports, so the only ones that are truly good are the ones where she doesn’t talk about him at all. even then, some like her one with marianne can do the same accidental portrayal of her seeming like a pretty unpleasant person. this isn’t saying that leonie can’t be flawed or short tempered, after all i adore felix and he’s got Some Fuckin Issues, but her portrayal as a kind and bright person clashes with how she’s portrayed surrounding byleth and jeralt. far too much. i like her supports with claude, i like her line with bernadetta, and her seteth one is good too, but i’d also argue that as a personality she doesn’t bring much to the table. she’s a perfectly serviceable character when she’s not dealing with byleth, but i personally fail to see more appeal to her. she isn’t particularly enrapturing like some of the others, and unlike someone like ingrid who has a similar role in BL, doesn’t have the shared history and integration with the deer that grants ingrid a unique perspective on her peers. although again, this is highly subjective, so it’s tough to argue about this. i’ll grant that yes, the writing that doesn’t surround jeralt is WAY better and almost makes leonie a redeemable character.

-Other characters are worse.

very true! i’ll cite faye again as the bottom line for “this is how abysmal this character could be” and in feth itself there is, as stated many times before, cyril. however it doesn’t mean that leonie is better by association. and i also often see people citing seteth as an example over the rudeness to the player too, but once again that’s about context and intent. hapi is a lesser example, due to a similar mistrusting nature, and there’s quite a bit of the cast who are cold and rude because that’s just who they are. now, thank fucking god that leonie actually talks about things that aren’t jeralt. like, seriously, i’d die. she still talks about him too much, but i really should go through all of faye’s dialogue to do a proper count.

so now you’re probably thinking—if you even got this far—“gee tell, you sure do like running your fuckin mouth, eh? so what’s the point of all this?” let’s wrap it up.

the TL;DR:

what this all boils down to is that leonie’s got a serious problem in her writing where her entire life revolves around a man, and the way it’s dealt with isn’t particularly great. she doesn’t have a dynamic character arc like some others that redeem them from their problems, and the personality she has outside of her relationship to jeralt and byleth often clashes with the one she has with them, particularly centering on byleth. when dealing with byleth, the image it paints of her is extremely negative, and not one easily shaken—again, the B support moment is just THAT BAD. that is the most cited moment for why people hate her. it just seems like for all the flaws she has, they are not compensated for or grown out of like other characters in the game do for theirs.

theres also that tweet about how we put more thought into these characters than intsys does, so. yeah. definitely doing that right now. thanks, intsys, you did it again.

i will also point to the argument that we should hold the writers accountable, not the fictional characters who aren’t real and don’t have feelings. i don’t think leonie needs to be held accountable for her bullshit. i just wish the writers could have treated her better.

this is personally why i find leonie so difficult, and hopefully if you didn’t understand why people don’t like leonie, this can help enlighten you. i’m willing to hear people out if they have something to say, and as always, if you are a leonie stan, please go enjoy yourself, have fun, and don’t let me ruin your parade. i just enjoy trying to figure things out and talking a lot along the way! so that’s all, here’s hoping that in the future they do better, and remember that GD is the best house okay bye take this picture of me typing up this whole ass thing

#don't tell me tell #i should probably make a separate tag for when i lose my fucking mind like this

1 note · View note

krugerevengeinej · 6 years

Text

So, I’ve said this once and I’ll say it again

I do not think Kaz and Inej will have kids it would be very impractical for them. They’ve seen and experienced some of the worst things that life has to offer and likely wouldn’t be keen on sharing it with children even in the distant future I doubt they’ll somehow magically decide to run away from Ketterdam because they have work to do at least trying to make a difference in the world. But someone’s got to takeover when they’re gone (particularly Kaz he’ll probably die young.) No, they won’t adopt a kid either because that’s still someone who might be impressionable enough to fuck up and they’re not the most nurturing.

Why wouldn’t it be another kid like them who ended up on the streets of the barrel? Someone without family, confused, traumatized and hanging on to coping mechanisms but deserves a chance to succeed and has some useful qualities. There might be some other’s but the next generation of Ketterdam kids probably won’t be the lovechildren of our favorite Dregs that’s just not how it works.

· Inej has younger members of her crew that she’s trained and who’ve learn to trust her, respect her and look up to her.

· Of course she’s more willing to admit that she cares about them, and wants to see children who, like she and the other crows, went through a lot and had to become too mature too quickly.

· She wants to see at least a few do better than she did and tries to play role model for them.

· Kaz is feared and idolized by a lot of kids in the barrel. He probably has a lieutenant, someone who can help him run the gang because Inej isn’t around enough.

· But he needs someone young enough to be moldable, someone loyal to him who doesn’t have ulterior motives that he can mentor to take over eventually and do a lot of grunt work he hates doing.

· He really doesn’t want his gang to go to shit after he dies, and he has no idea when that’s going to happen, but it could be any day.

· So he finds what he dubs an ‘apprentice’ (basically just another Wylan and I know you’ll want to say son but it’s really more like student teacher).

· He’s too old to be a son and too young to be a brother

· He’s also a great character so let me introduce you, he’s nearly as fucked up as the rest of the dregs! 😊

· His name is Aleksander Verona, and he’s a Ravkan boy who’s about 14 or 15.

· He’s smart and practical but he doesn’t really have an edgy dramatic streak and was in the dregs for a couple years before Kaz noticed him.

· Because none of his strengths show very well, and he seems a bit boring.

· He’s very average looking, and the way his says things is very straightforward and simple.

· You wouldn’t notice he was serenading someone for information, and they wouldn’t either until he’d already gotten it.

· Any insults he says pass right over people’s head until they rethink what they just heard.

· He just seems like a very plain person (at least for a gang member in the barrel), but that’s mainly because he keeps everything under lock and key.

· It comes out in short violent bursts when he finally can’t keep it under control anymore.

· His outbursts get very vicious and very nasty very quickly and he doesn’t even realize what he’s doing until its already done and by then its too late because he’s gotten in deep.

· It’s exactly that trope of when some guy gets in a fight and loses control and literally can’t stop himself because he’s upset about a chick or something, but this happens to Aleks every single time he starts to get frustrated, scared, worried etc.

· He’s not even that mad at the situation or whatever person he lashes out at, but he gets starts spiraling.

· That’s his weakness, and how Kaz noticed him.

· He’d been put on a crew for some job or other that ended up with a brawl and it was him, Aleks and a couple others.

· Aleks seemed competent but not like anything special, not until it started to seem like they might lose the fight.

· Then he just tipped over some invisible edge, and the signs were clear.

· His eyes got hazy, breathing turned to ragged pants and his movements had a precision and force that seemed manipulated by an invisible hand.

· It was spectacular, some little scrap managed to salvage the fight entirely by himself.

· And Kaz liked that, he liked it very much.

· Of course, he didn’t just tell Aleks that he kept an eye on him for awhile and he wasn’t just good in a fight, he was calm and collected (alot of the time), intelligent, and most of all loyal.

· Almost like a dog.

· He was perfectly trainable and so Kaz decided to take him under his black, feathery wing.

· It wasn’t an official thing.

· It started with him sending Aleks on more exclusive jobs and personal errands until eventually he was teaching him how to do the crow club accounts.

· Aleks does a lot of the things that Kaz hates doing himself which usually involves running around the city and checking in on things constantly.

· He’s a very quick study for most of the things Kaz teaches him and even if Kaz isn’t willing to admit it he’s impressed.

· Aleks is usually at Kaz’s heels and for the manner in which his outbursts occur he starts getting called “Dirtyhands’s Guard Dog”

· And less commonly, “Prince of the Barrel”, usually to piss off Kaz because he’s not even old enough to have a 15-year-old kid.

· It’s about 12 years post ck so Kaz would be 29-30

· Aleks and Kaz lowkey bond over being fucked up messes and it’s really not good because Kaz doesn’t know how to help him at all.

· All he does is tell him how to not let his issues interfere with work.

· Especially after Aleks lashed out at someone during a meeting, no physical violence just said some awful things and got that same cloudy look in his eye.

· But when he lashes out with words it can be just as disastrous.

· Let’s talk about why Aleks is fucked up, and more of his general history.

· He’s actually only half Ravkan.

· He was born in Ketterdam though.

· His mother had him when she was very young and didn’t even know who his father was but he’s a mutt, probably a little Kerch or Shu, maybe some Kaelish who knows.

· She died when he was about 5, which would have been two years after ck when the gang wars in the barrel were really starting to rack up carnage. (this is what Kaz had to fight through)

· He doesn’t have a lot of memories about her but one very vivid one he has is of walking east stave with her and seeing a crow land in front of them.

· He asked her what it was, and she told but she’d used the Ravkan word, ‘verona’

· You see it? Yes he changed his last name to the only Ravkan word he knew.

· He’s actually very disconnected from his Ravkan heritage and isn’t super happy about that.

· But back to his mother.

· She’d lived in the barrel for a few years but she got caught in the crossfire and Aleks was left on his own.

· He saw some really horrible things growing up in Ketterdam around that time.

· Particularly his mother’s body chock-full of bullet holes and gruesome brawls in the middle of the street.

· He saw shootouts and watched gangs take people hostage when the stadwatch threatened to intervene.

· He saw some of the corpses gangs left for each other to ‘send a message’

· He bounced around orphanages and temporary homes but by the time he was 9 or 10 he was out on the streets

· And he ended up right back in the barrel.

· He’d been beaten bloody and had his head held in the canal until he nearly drowned, had his money and food and dignity stolen.

· He nearly died several times and it was only when he learned how to fight for himself, he started to do a bit better.

· He always sees himself as a useless child, watching the chaos and being unable to do anything when his mother or anyone was being attacked.

· Whenever his eyes start to get hazy, he’s flashing back to those moments and he really believes he’s that he’s still a helpless child.

· Even when he’s bloodied and bruised and panting like a rabid dog.

· And that’s what he is truly, a rabid dog who’s nearly impossible to keep a leash on.

· He tries as hard as he possibly can to rein himself in, but he’s never 100 percent contained.

· There was one particular outburst, when he was sparring with Kaz that freaked both of them out.

· Kaz had told him to go as hard as he possibly could and that might have been his own fault because Aleks nearly beat him to death (he was about 17 at this point)

· By the end of it he was covered in blood and his knuckles were bruised so bad he couldn’t even feel them, in fact he couldn’t feel anything.

· As soon as he became aware, he’d simply dropped to the ground.

· Kaz had seemed more worried about the deranged, vacant look in his eye than the fact he just got his ass kicked because that’s absolutely the look of a flashback.

· Something Kaz would know all too well.

· But they don’t talk about it, because he knows better than anyone that it can’t be fixed.

· Even if you tried to tell yourself beforehand that it wasn’t real when it happened it was the only real thing.

————————————————————

So @bitchasscrows and I had weirdly similar oc ideas and we started talking and came up with an ass ton of hc. There’s even more than this its like really bad. But I hope you guys like this! She wrote some of her own and you should them up soon, I urge you to read them and ask either or both of us for any more hc!

Its also late and I’m tired so sorry if this sucks or there’s any errors but I wanted to share and I’m too lazy to wait till tomorrow.

#Six of crows #soc #the dregs #kaz Brekker #Inej ghafa #Aleksander Vorona #crooked kingdom #ck #sfw #safe for work #certified by the dork #kanej

177 notes · View notes

constantlyirksome · 6 years

Text

Are you Cool Enough to Join the Umbrella Academy? (Season 1, no spoiler review.

Have you heard the one about the astronaut, the talking monkey and the violinist? Last week Netflix released it’s newest superhero offering, “The Umbrella Academy,” originally an indie comic written by Gerard Way of My Chemical Romance fame. Published by Dark Horse Comics, this is one of the first adaptions from an independent publisher, untethered to the Marvel or DC cinematic universe. Publishers aside The Umbrella Academy has enough unique style and story element to attract anyone suffering from SHFF (SuperHero Film Fatigue.) The story revolves around a family of six siblings, born across the globe to mothers who weren’t pregnant the day before, who all possess certain super human talents. Brought together by a careless billionaire scientist who wanted to build an army of super children, the now estranged siblings have to come together once again when their dear old dad kicks the bucket. As family secrets are revealed, tensions between the group become palpable, as they struggle to deal with past traumas, while trying to come together to save the world from a deadly fate. For the most part the six siblings are all very unique, from both each other and a lot of the other types of heroes you’d see from the Big Two studio. There’s Luther (Tom Hopper), an astronaut with super human strength. Alison (Emmy Raver-Lapman) is a glamorous movie star, who has built her life using her power to persuade others to do what she wants. Diego is an expert knife thrower who still moonlights as a vigilante. Klaus (Robert Sheehan), the family’s black sheep, is a drug addict who can talk to dead people. Vanya (Ellen Page) is the only sibling with no evident superpowers and is told by her father often and at length that she is nothing special. Number 5 is a time and space traveller who disappeared when the group were little, and he reappears in the present, looking just like the 13 year old who disappeared decades earlier. There was a seventh sibling, Ben (Justin H. Min) who died mysteriously while 5 was absent, and is now a ghost who can only talk to Klaus. He was the strongest, able to conjure ancient beasts from his skin to smash up bad guys. The central plot revolves around an upcoming apocalypse prophesized by five to happen in one week. Sometimes this main plot point becomes a little thin in early episodes as the siblings are distracted with their own troubles, and a clear way forward isn’t really established until mid way through. The second half pushes forward hard and fast as the apocalypse approaches, and relationships begin to splinter. While the first few episodes lack clear purpose they act as a good six origin stories, which help the season feel like both a beginning, there’s enough action and intent to make it a possible stand alone if there are no more seasons. As superpowers go the group have a pretty stacked deck. In a team there are usually a few cool powers and a few trained assassins, or a super genius. The members of the Academy however are all strong, powers honed by their strict father to be the perfect weapons. Super strength isn’t anything new but Luther makes up for it with a super ego and a super sense of self-importance. Diego is the Hawkeye of the group power wise personally if I had siblings who could conjure the dead or teleport, throwing knives would seem pretty lame. Each sibling carries on their own side story, the outlines how their powers have in some way or another ruined their lives. Obviously Ben had it the worst because he, well, died but most of the others have highly compelling stories. Alison used her powers on too many wrong people, leaving her personal life in shambles. Klaus, so haunted and terrorised by the dead, had to take up drugs to drown out the noise. Number 5 was ripped away from his family and spent, let’s just say, a lengthy amount of time trying to get back, and is now being hunted down by time cops Cha-Cha (Mary J Blige) and Hazel (Cameron Britton.) Diego and Luther however lack any sort of story worth getting teary over. Perpetual man children who never grew out of wanting to be the hero, they spend much of the season bickering, swinging their metaphorical dicks around and generally not helping the situation. While David Casteñeda does an admirable job of injecting Diego with some much needed heart, Luther’s character falls flat in almost every category. You almost want to root against him the way he mistreats people and feels sorry for himself. (Fake looking muscles and a weird sub-plot with incestuous undertones don’t help at all. Technicalities or no, the uncomfortable relationship between Luther and Allison is creepy and makes both characters slightly off-putting. While Aidan Gallagher plays Number five with a perfect mix of teenage snark and a world weariness that comes only after you’ve seen some shit, it’s Page and Sheehan who carry much of the seasons emotional heavy lifting. Sheehan, known mainly for his roll as the scene stealing Nathan from the show Misfits, once again steals the show as Klaus. Kooky yet troubled, hilarious yet haunted, the actor is mesmerising as he stumbles, high usually, through life. Without knowing his full backstory you can tell, through glances or certain lines, that this character is deeply disturbed, and not just a token junkie. He also is one half of the most touching, if not woefully under-developed, relationships toward the end of the series as Number 5’s time hopping shenanigans start to affect his siblings. Ellen Page, (think Juno) as Vanya is the character most grounded in reality, having grown up “normal” Page is perfect as a tired, shunted sister, the perfect person to stand in the middle of some of the seasons juicer plot points. Having written a book about her mistreatment as a child, Vanya is alienated from the rest of the family, is while sometimes morose also very raw. Page wearily moves through scenes with characters that are far whackier, but still holds her own. When the main story focuses, and Vanya takes centre stage, her inner turmoil and fractured relationships make for some of the seasons most gripping scenes. The world in which the siblings live is bleak, grimy and wild. Most scenes take place in run down diners or hotels, or in the decaying facades of the family mansion, with just enough colour and intrigue to keep the show from becoming depressing or drab. During flashback scenes the group, as children, wear matching school uniform in a kooky, Tim Burton like house. There are scenes on the moon, in glamorous Hollywood events, and gnarly apocalyptic wastelands that keep the settings fresh. The influence of comic writer Gerard Way comes through in the children’s uniforms, the matching black umbrellas and the architecture of the mansion, you can sometimes see how the comic was created by the same man who sang the Black Parade. Costuming does an excellent job chiselling out the identities of the siblings. The glamorous Allison in her red carpet dresses, the unassuming Vanya in her drab denims, and he badass Diego who wears all black. However, Klaus beats them all, as in every scene he’s wearing a new whacky ensemble, perfectly matching feminine and masculine, none of the pieces like skirts, flowy jackets or crop tops seemingly go together, but it works. Cha-Cha and Hazel steal their costumes straight out of Fortnite, the contrast between their cop uniforms and their giant animal head helmets is hilarious and unsettling. While the plot sometimes stretches a little thin between characters, The Umbrella Academy succeeds in breaking the traditional superhero tropes by imbuing the characters with more depth, personality beyond gruff tortured crusaders, and individual styles that both ground them, and elevate them so that they remain sympathetic. Not out as actual heroes since their teens, their humanity makes every fight or drama more climactic. As the apocalypse comes closer and the tension builds, it’s never actually certain that the siblings will actually win against whatever or whoever causes the apocalypse. The future of the show, whether it will get renewed or not, and the future of the world may remain uncertain it’s definitely worth exploring the futures of each of these characters. How will they and their powers grow? Will we ever find out how Luther got to the moon? Why was their dad such a dick? Watch this new season and you will definitely want to find out. Also their butler is a talking monkey named Pogo.

#The umbrella academy #umbrella academy #tua #vanya hargreeves #ellen page #klaus hargreeves #robert sheehan #diego hargreeves #david castaneda #number 5 #aidan gallagher #alison hargreeves #luther hargreeves #ben hargreeves #the white violin

34 notes · View notes

jaaryl · 5 years

Note

jaaryl (or if someone beat me to it, daaron)

Some answers are going to be based on the rewrite of my Daaron fic which is going to be set during 9.16 (that one day I will get around to finishing I swear lmao).

So, spoilers for that I guess lol.

1. Who makes the first move and how?

It would have to be Daryl.

Even though Aaron has the most experience dating another man/ person in general, I have no doubt in my mind that he would find it incredibly daunting to even try and proceed a relationship with Daryl. His friendship with Daryl is one of the few bright spots of the apocalypse and it would absolutely break his heart if he scared him off or was rejected.

Since my fic is set during the 9.16 blizzard, the two of them are going on ahead to collect supplies at the next way station and, of course, it has to have the cliche trope of Aaron being all heroic and pushing Daryl out of the way of cracking ice so he’ll fall through instead… all while they are escaping ice zombies. Cue the trope of them cuddling naked for warmth and waking up with an awkward situation yada yada.

Aaron: [incredibly embarrassed and freaking the hell out] This doesn’t have to change anything.

Daryl: [also incredibly embarrassed and freaking the hell out, and just fresh off thinking Aaron could of so easily died one (1) day ago and not wanting to waste what time they have together] Ahhhh I kinda want it too????

2. Who is the most insecure and what makes them feel better?

Being seen as outcasts still bothers them a lot, even if they try their best not to show it. No matter how far into the apocalypse, or how important they have become to the success of the communities, there will always be those douches who look down on people for being different. And the best thing about Daaron is how leaning on each other for support and having each other’s backs when they are feeling this way is literally the foundation of their relationship.

3. Who is the most romantic?

Aaron’s the obvious choice with his tendency to be extremely tactile and handing out affection left and right while also giving away huge gifts, like the bike. However, Daryl is incredibly sentimental, and loves and cherishes that bike like it’s one of his most precious possessions, and he also shows his love by making sure the people that he cares about are well provided for. So, it’s for you to decide.

4. Who can’t keep their hands to themselves?

Daryl is extremely touch-starved but he is also pretty awkward when it comes to asking for affection. Aaron is a mix of very tactile, begging to give hugs and super lonely.

So, once Aaron figures out that Daryl wants to be touched more than the occasional hug, handhold or brush of arms all bets are off. I can only imagine how bad it will be when they get into an actual relationship.

5. Who says ‘I love you’ first?

I feel like Aaron has said those words long before they started dating, “Daryl, I love you, but no,” and completely mean them (both platonically and romantically). So, the moment Daryl says the words back for the first time…he is kinda worried Aaron’s smile is going to split his face in half.

6. Who would they ask if they ever had a threesome?

Season 5: Eric, for obvious reasons.

Season 9: Paul, most definitely, hot, gay, single and already someone they both trust completely.

Post 9.08 though? Ah, no one? Aaron is literally the only male character that Daryl is close to lmao.

7. What do they get up to on a night out?

I doubt there is much to do datewise beyond the wall, even for two bamfs like Aaron and Daryl. Maybe fortnightly overnight camping trips when it gets too stuffy in Alexandria and they need to escape for a bit.

On the nights that they have the house all to themselves, it is pretty quiet. Just the two of them hanging out, kicking back beer, pressed up against each other, talking about mindless topics, and having sex etc.

8. What do they like in bed?

Daryl: when you said “magical in bed” this isn’t exactly what I was exp-

Aaron: *holds up 8 of hearts* is this your card

Daryl: *softly* holy shit

Aaron knows that Daryl doesn’t have a lot of experience in the bedroom department, and is happy to help guide him. I see Aaron as someone who is super into foreplay and body worship, especially on someone like Daryl who needs all the touch he can get and is v receptive to praise kink. As Daryl becomes more confident I do see him taking charge a little more, maybe some manhandling etc and he doeeesss have an oral fixation, always putting things in/exploring things with his mouth so take that as you will lmao.

9. What is the most embarrassing thing they have done in front of each other?

Honestly, Aaron is pretty hard to embarrass. Like, sure, he does embarrassing things but he’s always the first one to laugh at himself. Things like his over-the-top dorky dances to make Daryl laugh, his celebrity impression of people Gracie has never even seen, or heard of, and she is super embarrassed about when he pulls it out as his party trick, his off-key singing to Disney songs with Gracie and trying to get Daryl to join in (AK can take Disney nerd Aaron from my cold dead hands these people have solar panels and the kids have definitely seen movies).

10. What two songs, two books and two luxury items do they take to a desert island?

Damn, I can’t cheat and answer with ‘a book on how to build a raft’ or ‘survival guide for dummies’ because they are both very survival competent lmao.

For luxury items: Daryl’s crossbow and Aaron’s knife.

Ahhh I am worst at music questions! I can see Daryl being a sentimental loser and bringing Rick’s terrible music with him even if he hates it.

Ross apparently headcanons Aaron’s favourite song as “Hand in Glove” by The Smiths, so why not?

11. What do they hide from one another?

Their unspoken feelings uwu (lame).

12. What first changes when it starts getting serious?

Their relationship status.

13. When do they realise they should get together?

There has always been something simmering under the surface of their friendship. From the very beginning, Aaron has been incredibly fascinated by everything Daryl Dixon and Daryl in return has found comfort, acceptance and an overwhelming amount of fondness towards Aaron.

It has just never been the right time to explore the unspoken thing between them. But after the six-year time jump, Daryl is finally in the right emotional place to settle down and Aaron has been ready for a long while. Daryl is confronted once more that the world is a dangerous place when Aaron almost dies again (in the fic) and the prospect of leaving their relationship open-ended weighs on him heavily.

14. When one has a cold, what does the other do?

Aaron has been run ragged by the worrying he has done about sick Gracie all week (even just a cold in the apocalypse is a scary thing for Aaron with all that he’s lost). He probably got one good day in before his own immune system came crashing down hard. Daryl feels a little useless that he can’t really help him get better so he goes out and hunts whatever bird he can find so he can cook him something at least resembling chicken soup, and distracts Gracie for the next couple of days so he can get some rest.

15. When they watch a film what do they choose and why? Who gets the final vote?

In this house, we appreciate animated films and since Lydia and Daryl are not really accustomed to the broad range of them they get the final vote. It would probably be Jungle Book (after years of rejecting civilization they finally rejoin it) or even something like Spirit (refusing to let anyone tame their wild).

16. When the zombie apocalypse comes, how do they cope together?

Do I need to answer this one lmao?

17. When they find a time machine, where do they go?

Try and change the events of 8.02? Saving Eric and having the three of them adopt baby Gracie? Changing the events of 9.08, so Paul lives and Jaaryl can happen? 7.01, so Glenn lives? 9.05, Rick never blows up the bridge? 9.15, so there are no pike deaths?

Ahhh there are just so many options, these two have such a sad life!

18. When they fight, how do they make up?

19. Where do they go on their first date?

Out on a hike in the woods, a picnic is involved.

20. Where do they go on holiday?

You and @boltsandashes have given me major daaron beach day feels, it’s an absolutely adorable visual. Aaron making sure Daryl has the best day possible visiting the beach for the best time? I dieeee.

21. Where do they get nervous about going with one another?

They are still both not the biggest fan of parties unless it is a family event with people they like.

22. Where does their first kiss happen?

Waystation cabin.

Aaron makes sure to ask him if it’s okay if they kiss for the first time after they are already in a heated grinding session, the goober.

23. Where is their favourite place to be together?

Beyond the walls and out in the woods hunting, hiking, exploring ect just like old times.

24. Where do they first have sex?

Waystation cabin.

25. Why do they fight?

Pissed at each other for being so damn self-sacrificing (“Whether we make it or not, we do it together,” remember that, asshole?!)

26. Why do they need to have a serious chat?

Aaron’s first priority is his daughter’s happiness so it is pretty crucial to find out where their relationship stands before it gets way too deep (which good luck on that one), it would be different if Gracie wasn’t in the picture but she is so he needs to know if Daryl is 100% on board with being a parent to her or not.

27. Why do their friends get annoyed with them?

The shifty way they try and keep their relationship under wraps.

There’s nothing strange about Daryl moving in with Aaron, they are both close friends, right? But what is strange is Aaron turning up to every council meeting absolutely glowing and grinning ear to ear, and Daryl being a super nice to everyone in Alexandria.

Are they sick???

It goes on and on until Gracie accidentally spills the beans when she excitedly tells Judith that her daddy and Judith’s uncle are dating(not that Gracie knows all the details of their relationship or anything it’s just what she suspects lol).

They probably going to get married one day, and it will make her and Judith related!

So, Judith goes home and asks her Michonne if Aaron and Daryl are dating, causing Michonne to finally connects the dots on why the hell they have been acting so weird.

28. Why do they get jealous?

Aaron is super jealous over how cool Daryl looks on a motorbike, while Daryl is pretty jealous over how well Aaron can articulate his words to describe how he is feeling.

29. Why do they fall a little bit more in love?

When Daryl is being absolutely precious with Gracie, Lydia and Dog. It makes Aaron’s chest tighten and his heartbeat frighteningly fast. Those are the moments that Aaron wants nothing more than to raise a family and have a future with him.

Aaron is probably being dorky af just to make Daryl laugh, for real not just an under the breath chuckle. Every time he pulls one from Daryl, Daryl can feel his heart expand tenfolds.

30. Why does it work (or not work) between them?

Oh man, I could write an entire essay on why these two are perfect for each other but to really simplify it: they already have a super strong bond, they are comfortable with each other and trust each other, both relate to feeling like an outsider, both like kids, they have history, their personalities balance each other out etc

It’s one of Daryl’s healthiest relationships on the show I don’t think there are any reasons why not?

#daaron #aaron twd #daryl dixon #twd

11 notes · View notes

kaimaciel · 6 years

Text

Top Worst Books I’ve read in 2018

It’s that wonderful time of the year again, where I scream and rant at books that disappointed or pissed me off all the while trying to avoid hate comments.

This is my personal list of books that I did not enjoy. If one of your favorite books is in here, don’t take it as an insult towards you. I’m not saying these books are bad, I just did not like them.

Alright? So, let’s start.

The Shatter Me Trilogy by Tahereh Mafi

There was a lot I didn’t like in these series. First of all, the writing style. I understand what the author was trying to with the crossed words that represented Juliette’s true thoughts, but it really got on my nerves.

Then there was the plot. This is supposed to be a dystopian future, but that’s really a backdrop for the romance and, a love triangle. While I agree that Adam was not suitable for Juliette, I really couldn’t get into Warner. In the first book, he was straight up a sadistic psychopath, then the rest of the books he does a complete 180º, it felt like a completely different character was created so that he could be a good love interest for Juliette.

And if the romance is the most important thing in the plot, it’s a bad sign I was mostly interested in the secret connection between the Adam and Warner and how much I wanted to see that developed. At the end of the third book, I sort of wanted to follow another character but Juliette.

And what the hell was that ending? It was one of the most anti-climatic endings I have ever seen.

I know the series will continue with another 3 books, but I doubt I will continue it. I’m not interested enough.

The Fandom by Anna Day

Okay, what the hell were the people in charge of the Portuguese cover thinking?

It’s so ugly! At first, I thought I was looking at a Jo Nesbo book. Oh well... I could forgive the cover if the story made up for it, but it did not.

This book had so much potential. A group of cosplayers is transported into their favorite dystopian series and realize how reading about it is a lot better than living through it.

The main character Violet was so annoying and I couldn’t connect with any of the characters. Everyone except for Katie, Nate and Ash were scum or really annoying. I couldn’t connect with any of them. And the way they went after Alice for her looks and her fanfictions (she dared to write stories in the bad guys POV!!!) it really pissed me off. I understand in the context of the story but my God! I write fanfiction. If someone said stuff like that to me I would kick them in the gonads.

And that ending. What the hell?!

Caraval by Stephanie Garber

I like plot twists. One plot twist is fine. Two is awesome. Three... it might be too much. Four, five... just what the hell am I reading?

There were so many twists and lies in this book I honestly can’t give you a synopsis because I can’t remember what happened and who was supposed to be who.

This book felt like being drunk and high during a festival. A lot of pretty colors, but nothing substantial.

The Savior’s Champion by Jenna Moreci

Oh, Jenna... why?

I've watched Jenna's videos for a while and I was pretty excited to finally read one of her books. First the positives, the writing style was very good and the plot very intriguing. I could not wait to read the next chapter and find out who lived and who died. Unfortunately, I must admit that in the end I was disappointed with the story. For someone who makes such good list of tropes and character pet peeves, there were a lot of characters who felt tropey, with their trope being the only characteristic they had. I did not really like the relationship between Tobias and Leila, most because they became each other's whole world. I also felt disappointed on how Flynn's character was handled, the selfish, coward rich boy has been done to death and I wished that trope could have been avoided for something different. Regarding the twist, I saw it a mile away and kept reading hoping it wouldn't come true, that I would be surprised, but no.

It was not bad, but it could have been a lot better.

Death Comes to Pemberley by P. D. James

Pride and Prejudice with a murder mystery written by the great P. D. James. This book had everything to be a blast and it felt so flat on every front.

The characters we know and love from Pride and Prejudice are boring caricatures of themselves, the mystery was dull and resolution equally boring.

This was a bad fanfiction from start to finish. What a waste!

The Cinderella Murder by Mary Higgins Clark and Alafair Burke

A bit of context. Mary Higgins Clark was my favorite mystery author when I was a teenager. I collected all the books I could find and read them on the same day. They were compelling and easy to read.

As I grew up and started reading other books by different authors, I found myself looking for more complex themes and characters.

Clark’s books are good and simple, just like her characters, but they were too simple for my adult tastes now. The good guys are practically saints, the bad guys are evil. They became too flat for me to truly enjoy like I used to.

The mystery part is fine, but I can’t for the life of me remember the plot or the ending a few months after reading the book. A forgettable book is sometimes worse than a bad book. It left no impression on me.

The Magicians by Lev Grossman

DNF (Did Not Finish) around page 200

Long story short, this book wasn’t for me.

The premise looked very interesting. People are tested and only the very best get sent to a prestigious magic school, it looks like Harry Potter in college and, sure enough, it is a lot more mature.

But the plot was all over the place. The main character, Quentin, was such a boring and annoying protagonist that staying inside his head was giving me a migraine. His lack of interest on anything unless it’s magic related or the Fillory books seriously pissed me off.

The plot felt rushed and very weird at several parts of the book. I lost interest. I don’t care about the characters, the magic or the weird sex stuff happening in animal form.

I’m out!

And finally, it pains me to announce my number 1 worst book of 2018. I can handle bad books or forgettable books, but this was my most anticipated book for 2018, from a series that I love with all my heart. It let me down so much...

The Testament of Loki by Joanne Harris

Now, let me say this isn't a bad book, it was well written and ties the events between Gospel, Runemarks and even Runelight quite well. I'm glad this book promoted a bit of friendship between Loki and Thor. My disappointment with this story was mostly due to my dislike of the whole body sharing, switching and stealing, which I personally hate.

Also, Loki's love for Meg felt rushed and confusing, as if it was only there to give Jumps a girlfriend and a damsel in distress for them to save. Meg was nice and BAM, both Loki and Jumps were in love with her. What? Are we talking about the same Loki from Runemarks? I know human emotions were influencing him and all, but that was one of the worst cases of insta love I have ever seen.

And the fact that Jumps’s eating disorder and other mental health problems get resolved because Loki makes her eat pizza and gives her a makeover. That is not how mental disorders work, not by a long shot.

The human characters were flat, merely vessels for the gods to inhabit. Evan is his disability, Stella is a shallow beauty, Meg is nice and likes girls, and Jumps, the human girl sharing her body with Loki, was little more fleshed out but, honestly, aside from her problems with her body image and her sexuality, I can’t remember anything about her. I really wish this sequel didn’t happen inside a YA contemporary novel.

This isn't a bad story, but it fails to capture the magic and wonder I felt while reading Runemarks.

#books #worst books #joanne harris #the testament of loki #the magicians #lev grossman #mary higgins clark #p.d. james #pride and prejudice #jenna moreci #the savior's champion #caraval #stephanie garber #the fandom #anna day #shatter me #tahereh mafi

28 notes · View notes

takerfoxx · 6 years

Text

As it so happens, my unplanned little rant about the Lego Movie sequel kinda ends up being a great jumping-off point, as here is another little rant that I’ve actually been working on and off ever since that discussion about grimdark deconstructions and how to and not to do them, mainly to just get it off my chest all in one go.

See, I (obviously) like darker stories, but like everyone else I got my storytelling pet peeves. And the biggest one is something I’ve talked about here and there, something that I call Redshirt Philosophy. Basically, this refers to the narrative treating the protagonists as the only ones whose lives matter, and any nameless passerby and/or walk-on is free game. By this, I don’t mean that it’s bad to only kill bystanders and side-characters while sparing the mains, I’m saying that it’s bad to treat those deaths like they don’t matter and that they happen with no consequences.

But there’s a sub-category of that that pisses me off even more: the concept of the Unintentional Karma Houdini. Basically, a Karma Houdini is someone who does something really bad and gets away with it. They go upon their merry way suffering no repercussions.

Now, in of itself, this isn’t a bad plot device, and it can be done well if it’s intentional to make a point. However, when a character who is supposed to be the hero does something bad and it’s not treated as something bad, or if it’s just brushed off with no consequences, or if the bad guys switches sides but is never held accountable in any way for their heinous acts…then yeah, that really gets to me.

So without further ado, here’s my list of good guys who did bad things badly and it still pisses me off!

Warning: the following contains spoilers for Buffy the Vampire Slayer, Harry Potter, Warcraft 3, Elfen Lied, Future Diary, Game of Thrones, and Angel. Yes, I will be saying some bad things about most of those. So...take that for what it’s worth.

1. Protagonists who did bad things and were either treated as being in the right or at least insufficiently called out, but I am still a fan of the series and even still like the character. It’s just that these incidents kind of stick in my craw.

A. Buffy’s “Everyone but Me Sucks” speech, from Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

I’m starting off with the least offensive incident, as well as the most understandable, even if I still think it was bad writing. Okay, some quick background: in season 7, the Big Bad known as the First Evil starts sending its henchmen to wipe out the entire Slayer line by killing off all the girls who had the potential to become the next Vampire Slayer when the current one died (which, due to a weird loophole, actually wasn’t Buffy, but she still had her powers and shit). Anyway, all the surviving potentials get together and go to Buffy for help, who takes them into her house to shelter them and train them to defend themselves, even though they didn’t have any supernatural power.

Now, the thing about the First Evil was that it couldn’t become corporeal and interact directly with our world, which is why it had to work through agents. However, it could take on the form of anyone that had died to speak to people, just not actually touch them. Which meant that it could still appear in Buffy’s house to fuck with the gang, which it did.

The worst incident is when they noticed that a girl named Chloe was late in coming to breakfast, so they went to her room to wake her up. But upon entering, they find Chloe’s body hanging from the ceiling, with another Chloe standing next to her. It turned out that the First Evil had been speaking to her all night, slowly twisting her around and finally convinced her to kill herself.

Naturally, everyone is shocked and horrified. Buffy buries the body by herself in the back and then calls everyone together for a meeting. From there, she has this to say about their recently departed friend.

“Anyone want to say a few words about Chloe? Let me. Chloe was an idiot. Chloe was stupid. She was weak. And anyone in a rush to be the next dead body I bury, it's easy. Just...think of Chloe, and do what she did.”

She then proceeds to ream everyone for hiding behind her and letting her do all the work, giving them the “Get your shit together or die” speech. Of course everyone is offended and angry, but over the course of the next few episodes they start doing just that: pulling themselves together and becoming more proactive in the fight. All well and good; after all, sometimes leaders have to be harsh and tell people exactly what they need to hear to save their lives. It ain’t always going to be pretty, and you do sometimes need to be mean, especially when it’s a matter of life or death. I’m sure commanders out in the field have often had to make similar speeches to their surviving men, especially after one of them cracked and took the easy way out.

There’s…just a couple problems with the execution here.

See, this is the last we ever hear about Chloe. She freaks out, kills herself, and gets verbally bashed by the person she went to for help. And that’s that. She straight up loses, and that’s that. And call me a softie, but I have a real problem with introducing a terrified girl, have her get mentally tortured by the literal embodiment of Evil itself to the point where she takes her own life, and having the final word on her in the whole show be…that. And from the main character no less! It goes back to the whole disposable victim thing, which is funny, considering that the whole reason the show even existed was because Joss Whedon would always feel sorry for the cheerleader who would get killed off at the start of schlocky monster movies and wanted to see them fight back and kick the monster’s ass. Understandable, but it’s weird that that same trope would get used over and over again in his own show, all to make the monster of the week look scary. And again! There’s nothing wrong with that in itself, but it’s kind of noticeable when you have a kid’s head explode in one episode and have Buffy just make a joke about it, have a girl get her heart torn out in another and have her supposed best friend mention their bond all of once right after and then forget all about her, and then there’s the whole thing with Jesse in the first episode and…well, you get the idea. Joss, man, what are you doing?

But this wasn’t just a monster tearing out some teenager’s throat out. This was a suicide, followed by a verbal condemnation of the victim. Which, in a real life setting, wouldn’t be as much of a problem, but the fact of the matter is that no matter how much reality you want to inject into your fantasy show about vampires, ghosts, and robotic internet demons (look it up), your show does not exist in a vacuum. It wasn’t just the characters hearing that speech, it was thousands of people all over the world. And if you’re going to tackle a subject such as suicide, then you have to be really, really careful about how you handle it. Did it never occur to the writers that there might be people in their audience struggling with suicidal thoughts themselves, who were constantly told that their problems were all their fault, that they were being a burden, or maybe some of them had actually attempted it, failed, and were all called weak, useless, stupid, what have you?

Interestingly enough, I recently stumbled across an old Buffy message board, which had a thread debating this very topic. And it was pretty fascinating reading the various viewpoints, with many agreeing with me that the writers kinda dropped the ball here, especially since there were many points in the series where Buffy also gave up, succumbed to fear and despair, and even attempted to end her life. Plus, she wasn’t nearly so vicious when the First Evil nearly convinced Angel to kill himself in an earlier season. Others were of the opinion that while harsh, it was something that needed to be said, and that Chloe’s actions were cowardly and selfish considering what it would do to her friends. Plus, given the immense amount of pressure Buffy was under with all the trauma she had already suffered, snapping like that was perfectly understandable. And I can’t lie, I do see where both sides were coming from.

I guess my main problem with this episode wasn’t that the speech itself happened, but that it ended up being the final word on Chloe, which was pretty messed up.

So what would I have done differently? Well, if we must keep the speech, then fine. Have Buffy slag her off to motivate everyone to get their shit together. However, don’t let that be the final thing that’s said about the terrified girl who was manipulated and intimidated into committing suicide.

Earlier in the episode, it’s mentioned that Chloe had been a big fan of Winnie the Pooh, something that the First Evil used to taunt her friends. So, after the speech, after the fight and whatever it was that everyone did to get their heads into the game, just stick in another scene, one that’s just a few seconds long, where, when nobody’s watching, Buffy goes into the backyard and just leaves a Winnie the Pooh doll on Chloe’s grave, indicating that she did feel bad for her but had to say what she did. That’s it, that little bit of empathy is all I ask.

B. Hermione Granger’s scarring of Marietta Edgecombe in Harry Potter and the Order of the Phoenix.

Ho boy, this is a complicated one.

All right. So, Order of the Phoenix is my favorite of the Harry Potter books, mainly owing to Dolores Umbridge being a brilliantly written character in just how incredibly scummy she is, and the whole plot of her versus the school was just gold. And…kind of topical, now that I think about it.

But anyway, though it’s my favorite of the books, it also has my least favorite scene. Quick background: Umbridge has taken over the school and pretty much nixed Defense Against the Dark Arts, which is now needed more than ever. To counter this, Harry and co. take it upon themselves to start teaching it to the students. They form a group called Dumbledore’s Army and make their hideout in a magical room hidden from Umbridge and her minions to practice. However, someone sells them out, the room is raided, everyone is caught, and Harry is rushed to Umbridge’s office to be interrogated.

There, it’s revealed that the traitor was one Marietta Edgecombe, best friend of Harry’s girlfriend Cho Chang. This is discovered because Hermione had hexed the contract she had everyone sign to cause pus-filled blisters write out the word SNEAK across her face, something that apparently none of the brilliant and experienced wizards they got teaching at Hogwarts can remove. In fact, her final scene in the series shows her wearing a veil over her face to hide it.

Of course the heroes get out of their predicament in the end, but it pretty much destroys Harry and Cho’s relationship, as Harry is understandably a little peeved about that whole betraying him and his friends to a sadistic fascist thing and felt that Hermione’s hex had been brilliant, while Cho sticks up for her, saying that she’s actually a good person who had been the only one of her friends to stick with her after the murder of her previous boyfriend Cedric Diggory, and she had just made a (big) mistake, given that she hadn’t even wanted to join the DA in the first place and didn’t trust Harry to begin with, given that her mother worked for the Ministry of Magic, which wasn’t exactly keen on Harry at that point. Plus, she was kinda put out that Hemione had hexed them all without telling them, so basically they fight and break up.

Anyway, this in itself wouldn’t be much of an issue. A bit character that we barely know sells the good guys out, gets humiliated in return, and the good guys prevail in the end. What makes this something of a sticking point for me is due to one of the first of the many controversial social media canon details that JK Rowling would become infamous for dropping: that the blisters would indeed leave permanent scarring, and that she feels that this is wholly justified, given that she, and I quote, “Loathes a traitor.”

Okay.

There is…a lot to unpack here, and it has become even more divisive in the fandom than the Chloe thing I mentioned above. One camp holds that while betraying the DA was a rotten thing to do, the hex still crosses the line, given that scarring a sixteen year old for life for one mistake is really messed up, that she hadn’t even wanted to join the DA in the first place but had been pressured into it, that given that she had a parent in the Ministry of Magic she was probably subject to a lot of anti-Harry propaganda and genuinely thought he was a bad person, and that she had probably been singled out by Umbridge and interrogated, likely with her mother’s job being threatened. The flipside argues that she had to know that she still sold everyone out to a sadistic fascist, that Hermione was a minor herself and isn’t subject to the same rules that an adult would be, that Umbridge’s perchance for torture was well established at that point, that she had to know that her friend Cho would be punished with everyone else, and that teenager or no, there is no excuse for supporting someone like Umbridge. I mean, Hitler Youth and all that.

To tell the truth, like the Chloe thing above, I can see where both sides are coming from. On the one hand, I can see how someone like Marietta could be led to believe that Harry was trouble and feel that she was endangering her family by associating with him. Plus, we have no idea what the circumstances surrounding her betrayal were, though given Rowling’s words on the topic I guess Umbridge didn’t have to probe hard. On the other, she did sell out everyone to get pretty much tortured, so that deserved some kind of retribution, so good points all around.

But that’s not really where I personally have a problem. My problem is that Rowling’s addendum on the whole affair goes against the rules of the world she created, and even the themes of the book itself. Also, if Rowling wanted us to agree with her, then she fucked up the execution.

First, let’s take the bit where it the blisters left permanent scars. This is a world where they can make bones grow back, inflate bodies like a balloon without doing permanent harm, and where even mutilations are temporary (if painful) inconveniences. The only thing that can cause permanent damage is Dark Magic, hence Harry’s scar.

So…how exactly does Hermione’s hex permanently scar Marietta then?

Jumping off that, this isn’t the only instance of permanent scarring in that book. One of the many horrible things Umbridge did to students was force them to write lines with a magic pen that literally carved out those lines into their skin, resulting in Harry picking up a new scar that read I MUST NOT TELL LIES. The fact that this scar can’t be removed with magic is one of the many clues that Umbridge is more than just a pompous asshole and had dealings with something darker.

Look, I’m not saying that the two situations are a one-to-one parallel, but it just feels kind of uncomfortable for the book to treat magically scarring kids as something horrible and unforgiveable (which it is!), only to laud one of the heroes for doing it right after, regardless of circumstances. It…just doesn’t sit right.

Plus, you know, there is the point that when you get down to it, the hex is kind of a problem in of itself. Like Cho pointed out, putting it on everyone without telling them is a little messed up, and it makes it completely useless as a deterrent. Why not use a tongue-tying spell or something? Then again, logic was never really the series’ appeal.

And finally, how the hell are we supposed to feel righteous indignation about a character that gets zero lines, just sort of hovers in the background, and has a character we already know to be sympathetic defend her? With Umbridge we had ample on-page reason to hate her, but we never get to see her finally get her just rewards in the end. The Malfoys are all sorts of horrible throughout the books, but other than some humiliation they apparently come through it unscathed. So really, this whole thing just feels weird.

How to fix? Simple. JUST DON’T PUT IN THE PART ABOUT PERMANENT SCARRING!!! All the rest about the hex can be written off as Hermione just not thinking things through. And without the scars, it sort of works. Marietta still gets paid back for her betrayal but isn’t disfigured for life, and the whole things becomes a lot less uncomfortable.

Hell, why not take advantage of the situation? Give Marietta some character growth, bring her back to redeem herself like they did with Percy, and he was way worse. Hell, Snape was downright monstrous, and he was made out to be this tragic redemption story.

Sigh. I know the movies get a lot of flak for the stuff they’ve changed, but switching things so that Cho was magically compelled to give up the secret and sidestepping the issue entirely was a good idea.

2. Heroic (or at least, portrayed as sympathetic) characters who cross the line so thoroughly that I now loath them and am infuriated whenever I think about them, but I am still a big fan of the rest of the series they appear in.

A. Tyrande Whisperwind’s slaughter of the Watchers to free Illidan Stormrage, from Warcraft 3: The Reign of Chaos.

Yeah…fuck this character.

All right, this happens pretty deep into the plot, so here’s the cliffnotes: demons are invading the world, and the remnants of civilization need to put aside their differences to stop them. In particular, the priestess Tyrande and her husband Malfurion, the Arch-Druid, set out to awaken their people’s sleeping druids for reinforcements. But while delving into the cave where said druids are napping, they come across a strange locked door. It turns out that the door leads to the prison of Illidan Stormrage, Malfurion’s traitor brother, who was imprisoned for turning on the Night Elves due to his lust for magical power. Tyrande has the brilliant idea that they should free Illidan to help fight the demons, BECAUSE THAT TOTALLY SOUNDS LIKE A SWELL IDEA! Malfurion says no, Tyrande tell him that she’s gonna do it anyway, and fucks off to do just that.

Beyond the door, she’s confronted by the Watchers, a group of Night Elves and their forest allies who had been entrusted with defending Illidan’s prison, who respectfully inform her that they will not waver in their duty and she does not have the authority to say otherwise.

So…she slaughters them.

All of them.

She wanted to free a dangerous traitor, the guards said no, and she kills them for it.

Yeah. That is a thing that happens.

But hey! Illidan is free now, and he agrees to fight the demons for her. And wouldn’t you know it, on day one he manages to destroy a powerful demonic artifact that was corrupting the forest and kill Tichondrius, one of the demons’ primary leaders, so that worked out!

…a pity that his lust for power took over and he absorbed all of the artifact’s power, turning him into a monstrous demonic beast and leading to Tyrande and Malfurion to become so horrified that they imprison him once again.

…nah, just kidding. They banish him, basically freeing him to do as he pleases. And as it turns out, what he pleases ends up being summon up a bunch of monsters from the depths and use them to strike at Night Elf villages, massacring its inhabitants.

Good job, Tyrande. You really know how to pick ‘em.

But you know what’s worse? You know what takes this whole ordeal from a massive fuck-up to completely killing any possible redemption for the character for me? As it turned out, Maiev Shadowsong, the leader of the Watchers, was out on patrol at the time and narrowing missed being murdered off with the others. And when she got back and found her friends dead and her prisoner freed, she gathered up what remained of the Watchers and immediately set off after Illidan.

Well, she finds him, but he and his new allies prove to be too much, so she calls for help. And Malfurion and Tyrande answer, with Tyrande even admitting that the whole thing was her fault and thus it was her responsibility to fix! Okay, okay, it’s a step in the right direction. Doesn’t really make up for what she did, but at least she’s…

Oh wait. Maiev calls her out on pretty much everything, and Tyrande’s response is, and I QUOTE, “I did what I thought was right. You are in no position to judge me.”

…

Oh, FUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUUCK YOOOOOOOOOOOOOUUUUUUUUUUU!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Bitch, YOU MURDERED HER FRIENDS! YOU FREED ILLIDAN, WHO HAS SINCE MASSACRED YOUR OWN PEOPLE! SHE HAS EVERY RIGHT TO JUDGE YOU!

Hell, waaaaaaaaay back earlier in the series, the human prince Arthas kills all the inhabitants of a city call Stratholme, all whom had recently become infected with the Undead plague, and it’s treated as his moral even horizon, the point where there’s no turning back from his descent into evil. Except…while terrible, he at least had a very good reason for doing what he did. Those people were literally moments away from turning into zombies, and there was no way to save them. Whereas Tyrande causes the deaths of even more innocent lives, whether directly or indirectly, but it’s treated as, at worse, as a whoopsie-daisy on her part. Meanwhile, Maiev is made out to be this revenge-obsessed extremist.

So…yeah. Fuck Tyrande. And hey, I still kind of like him, but fuck Malfurion too for letting it slide.

B. Just about everything about Lucy from Elfen Lied.

All right, cards on the table: of all my favorite anime/manga, Elfen Lied is easily the most flawed. The violence is beyond gratuitous, the nudity is sometimes downright silly in how nonsensical it is, the plot is completely inconsequential, and the sudden mood changes aren't exactly gracefully done.

Still, I’ve always had a soft spot for schlock that embraces its own schlockiness, and it has enough of my personal favorite tropes to make me love it. Hell, it was my freaking avatar for the longest time!

That being said, I do have one major issue with it, and that is the central character: Lucy.

Yes, the chick whose eye used to be my avatar.

I hate Lucy.

Why? Because she’s a psychotic serial killer who’s graphically murdered hundreds of innocent people out of pure sadistic nihilism. One of her first acts upon coming into her powers is to kill a random family just so she could hide out in their house, and that’s when she was a child. There’s a scene that establishes that she’s mastered the art of giving passersby brain aneurysms just so she can murder more effectively without drawing attention to herself. She tears Kouta’s family apart, including his little sister, because she was jealous. She has a breakdown and massacres an entire festival full of people. One of her first acts upon regaining her memories and wandering off is to use that brain aneurysm thing to kill a passing girl…just for walking by!

And that’s just the stuff we see her doing on-screen!

Now granted, the series doesn’t make it out that she’s still somehow a good person, though they do portray her as sympathetic for…reasons, and even treats her like the hero in some parts. However, there is a scene in the anime where, upon learning all this, still forgives her and even kisses her! And yes, that includes learning that she’s the one who murdered his little sister! At least in the manga he tells her off and tries to make her promise not to kill anyone else! And she also gets a terrible death in the process, so there’s that.

But I guess most of my issues come from how others fans still try to stick up for her. I had a friend who once said that she was justified for everything because kid-Kouta lied about the gender of his cousin. Uh, yeah, nooooo. She’s a monster, end of.

Oh, what’s that? She has a tragic backstory of abuse and neglect? Well, whoop-dee-fuckin’-doo. Guess who else has the same? Just about every Batman villain, and most of them are portrayed as dangerous monsters! Except…for the ones who are cute girls. Huh, imagine that.

Wait, she had an alternate personality intrinsic to the Diclonius driving her to kill? Well, I’d just might buy that, except for one problem: Nana exists. Nana, another Diclonius who is shown having the same alternate personality issue but also fighting it off and goes through the whole series without ever killing anyone else, despite enduring even more horrible torture and abuse than Lucy! And that’s why Nana is a ball of love and delight and fully deserved her happy ending and fuck Lucy.

Although…just to be clear, I’m not talking about Nyu: the childish other alternate personality that Lucy reverts to as a result of her amnesia. Nyu’s great. Nyu’s adorable and innocent, and since the series treats her like her own character, I will too.

But yeah, Lucy’s an irredeemable monster and screw anyone who says otherwise. Man, that on top of how much of a mess this series was, why did I like it so much?

=looks down at my Nana-themed mousepad=

Oh yeah.

Thank God for Nana.

And finally…

3. Protagonists who did so many terrible things and were never held accountable for their actions that I stopped liking them entirely, actively rooted for their failure, and eventually stopped liking the series as a whole.

For this entry, there really is only one example: every single one of the main characters of Future Diary.

Oh, Future Diary…

See, I used to be a big fan of this manga. Back when I first started IM, it was my favorite, and I eagerly awaited every month for the new installment. I mean, it was pretty much Battle Royale meets Code Geass, of course I would be a fan!

However, as the series went on and my favorite characters were all killed off, leaving the four mains, I started to realize something:

I did not like these people.

They were all pretty terrible people, in fact. All of them had either done something really, really awful or were complicit in the others’ actions, and they never really got held accountable for what they did, with their actions just treated as, “Oh, BIG SHOCKING PLOT TWIST!!!!” So by the time the series reached its end and they all got a happy ending, I felt no happiness for them. In fact, I was kinda pissed.

Later, when the anime first started airing, I watched the first couple episodes, and seeing their actions actually animated before me made it worse. I hated them, and I hated the fact that nothing they did ever had any real consequences for them.

Now, looking back on it years later, I can really see what a mess this series was. Nearly every aspect about the plot, setting, and character growth is pretty illogical and inconsistent to the point of being outright stupid. But that’s just the icing on the cake for me, and not my main reason for hating this series. My beef comes down to these people, and the things they did.

Yuki Amano

A lot of these people bash this guy for being weak and passive, a bit like Shinji Ikari. Personally, as someone who actually liked Shinji, that part didn’t bother me.

Him deliberately betraying an entire orphanage and gunning down all the orphans sure as hell did though.

As did him almost immediately forgiving his father and wanting to live with said asshole EVEN AFTER HIS DAD MURDERED HIS MOM! And this is just swept aside because yay, his dad is back!

Yuno Gasai

Ho boy, where do I start with the Queen of Yanderes? Well, let’s get this out of the way: I actually don’t have an issue with her creepy stalking. It’s her schtick, and if executed well it can actually work.

It…wasn’t executed well. It just was a long list of making her do crazy shit for big shocks, and outside of her Yuki obsession, she had pretty much no other characteristics.

Also, in the second episode, she deliberately sets off a bunch of bombs that massacres scores of innocent teenagers over a misunderstanding.

And after that happens, it is never brought up again.

So yeah.

Minene Uryu

Let’s start with the fact that she is a literal terrorist who has killed scores of innocent families.

And that she blew up part of Yuki’s school to get his attention, also probably killing several children.

And no, she isn’t held accountable for this. At all. Why? Because she’s cool, I guess.

Masumi Nishijima

Doesn’t kill anyone like the others…but hey, what about him completely ignoring the fact that he falls head-over-heels in love with Minene and even proposes to her, despite knowing that she’s massacred hundreds of innocent people and it’s actually his job to bring her in? Talk about being completely useless as a police officer.

And the worst of it? All the above get one kind of happy ending or another.

Yeah, no. Fuck each and every one of them.

Even though this is by far the worst offender, I’m not going to spend as much time on it, as it’s easier to rant about something that does a lot of things right only to fail spectacularly in one regard. Future Diary instead does so many things wrong that it’s kind of beyond saving and not really worth getting heated up about. Which is a shame, because the concept could have worked in the hands of a better writer, but instead, we got a dumb, illogical mess full of characters that are impossible to root for.

But okay, I’ve ranted on and on about these instances that piss me off, but are there any examples of series doing this right? As if in, actually holding characters accountable and making them suffer consequences for their actions when they usually wouldn’t?

Well, obviously, but there are a few instances that really stand out in my mind, because they’re instances that would normally get glossed over without mention, but the writers actually had the wherewithal to ensure that this wouldn’t happen. And they really make me happy.

A. Sandor Clegane stands trial for the murder of the Micah the butcher’s boy, in Song of Ice and Fire/Game of Thrones.

It’s kind of funny that Ice and Fire would be on this list, seeing how it’s full of innocent people getting slaughtered, tortured, and raped, even by the “good guys’” hands at times. You’d honestly think that I wouldn’t even touch it as a result.

And yet, it is the rare example of someone going all in on the ultra-darkness but actually doing it right. Because no matter who it is doing the bad thing, who they do it to, and how well laid their plans are, they always seem to suffer consequences for their actions.

In this particular example, there is a scene where Sandor Clegane casually murders a little boy named Micah in the first book because evil Prince Joffrey did a thing. And of course, none of the bad guys suffer any repercussions. At the time, I chalked it up to another example of just how unfair this medieval fantasy world is meant to be.

Flash forward another book or two. The king is dead, chaos reigns, and the Stark family has been scattered to the winds. Little Arya Stark, who had been a friend of Micah, falls in with a group of good guy outlaws. And to her surprise, they have taken the now renegade Sandor Clegane hostage.

Naturally, since the Hound had been one of Joffrey’s top henchmen, this is a big catch for them, but since they insist on doing things honorably and giving him a fair trial, they run into the problem of being unable to pin any specific crime on him, since most of the stuff they come up with was actually carried out by other people or they can’t prove that Sandor was involved. But then Arya brings up Micah, which Sandor actually did, and of course the outlaws seize upon.

Now, when I read this, I actually put the book down for a moment to pump my fist. Because holy crap, they’re actually acknowledging that whole thing! It wasn’t just another example of an innocent person getting offed for shock value without the perpetrator being held accountable! It was getting brought up, and not only that, it was being used as a plot point! It was beautiful!

Of course, Sandor does actually win the resulting trial by combat and is set free, but that wasn’t the point. The point was that Song of Ice and Fire, as grimdark as it is, is fully committed to holding all of its characters responsible for their actions, and sometimes small cruelties will come back in huge ways, and I think that’s awesome.

Another example from the same series is Theon Greyjoy. Now, here is a guy whose insecurities lead him to betray the family he was raised by, steal their home, execute their associates, and even murder a couple of little boys and cover their bodies with tar just to make his men think that he had successfully killed the Stark boys rather than admit that they got away. Now normally, this would put him right at the top of my shit list, and it did for a while. But surprise surprise, the story actually manages to make him look sympathetic again, by…

1. Showing full well how his insecurities have caused him to make these mistakes

2. Have him get called out by pretty much everyone over how horrible his actions are

3. Show full well that he understands this, and feels rotten about it deep down inside

4. Have him essentially put through hell as a result, to the point where he’s physically mutilated and mentally scarred by Ramsay Bolton’s…administrations

5. Have him go through even more hell to try to redeem himself and put his life on the line to protect someone innocent

6. Make him acknowledge that he doesn’t deserve forgiveness, but he’s going to try to do whatever he can to atone for his sins once he gets his identity back

Through all that, when he finally is forgiven by Jon Snow and welcomed back into the Stark family, it does feel earned, and not through excusing what he did, but by acknowledging it and dealing with it directly.

B. Spike shows genuine remorse for his past, in Buffy/Angel

Kind of weird to include Buffy/Angel in this section after already calling it out before, but I’m pretty sure these two episodes had different writers.

Anyway, Spike is undoubtedly one of the most, if not the most popular characters in the Buffyverse, and it should come as no surprise that he’s my personal favorite. Quick background for anyone who hasn’t seen the series: he is a British punk-rock vampire renowned for loving violence and besting two Slayers in one-on-one combat. He started off as a main villain, but became so popular that the writers nixed his planned death and spent several seasons slowly bringing him over to the good guys’ side, first out of necessity, but giving him a redemption arc (which was controversial for…reasons) that ultimately ended with him fighting to get his soul back and become an actual hero. So, hoorays all around.

However, there still is the lingering problem of him having spent over a hundred years torturing and killing his way across the world. The last season of Buffy tried to address that by revealing that one of the heroes’ new allies was the son of one of Spike’s victim and wasn’t too keen on working with the monster that killed his mothers, but their execution of said idea was…deeply flawed, to say the least.

Things got better when Spike made the jump over to Buffy’s sister series Angel. In it, a rogue Slayer named Dana, who has been rendered mentally unstable after an evil man murdered her family and tortured her as a child, is deluded into believing that Spike was the man that ruined her life. As such, she kidnaps him, tortures him, and even cuts off his hands (don’t worry, he’s a vampire, they can deal). Then the cavalry arrives to save the day. Dana is captured and handed off to people that can actually help her, Spike is rescued, and goes to the hospital to have his hands sewn back on. Like I said: vampire. They can do that.

Anyway, Angel then uncharacteristically goes to visit Spike, and as a bit of a surprise Spike doesn’t seem to hold any anger toward Dana at all, and instead says something to the tune of, “What? I’m supposed to be angry because hers wasn’t one of the hundreds of families I killed? I spent so much time being a monster, I never stopped to look back at the victims.”

This is great, as it 1, acknowledges the wrong he’s done, 2, shows that no matter what he does to redeem himself, it’s always going to hang over him, and 3, puts no blame on Dana whatsoever. And with that, I felt like I was free to like and root for Spike without having an asterisk hovering over everything.

And honestly, that’s all I ask for. Acknowledgement. Accountability. Acceptance of consequences. Because otherwise, it just leaves a rotten taste in my mouth, and the more I see it happen in fiction, the more it bugs me.

So, that’s my rant about storytelling for today. My next posts will probably be something more positive.

#buffy the vampire slayer #buffy summers #chloe #harry potter #hermione granger #marietta edgecombe #Warcraft 3 #tyrande whisperwind #elfen lied #lucy #future diary #angel #spike #game of thrones #sandor clegane #arya #rant

9 notes · View notes

teababe27 · 6 years

Text

Anime/Manga I’ve Seen/Read This Year - Notes from the Myanimelist Anime/Manga Challenges - Part 1 - Anime

Every year on Myanimelist.net, there is a Manga Reading Challenge and an Anime Watching Challenge.

Though I didn’t end up finishing all of my challenges before the deadline, I did see some good anime and read some good manga this year. I will mention a few notable ones, as well as ones notable for other reasons.

This post will deal with the anime side. Another post will be made about the manga side.

Favorites from the challenge:

Haibane Renmei - completed for the challenge “Watch an anime recommended by a staff member”

Very feelsy.

A story about an angel (?) who suddenly appears in purgatory (?) and tries to find her place in the world. I thought the animation style was nice and the story was cute. Some things could have been developed a bit more, but this one still made me tear up at the end.

Wandering Son (aka Hourou Musuko) - completed for the challenge “Watch a Noitamina anime”

Two trans kids in middle school trying to figure stuff out.

I loved the characters in this one. I plan to read the manga when I get the chance to see how the story goes on. I liked how one of the trans kids has an older trans role model to ask for advice. The main girl (one of the trans kids is a trans girl, the other is a trans boy) was the best, along with a couple of the side characters: a rambunctious classmate and the aforementioned older trans role model.

Kaiba - completed for the challenge “Watch an anime with more users in Plan to Watch than Completed”

Vastly underrated.

Takes place in a world where people’s memories can be transferred between bodies via computer chips. A guy wakes up in a room with a hole in his chest and a locket around his neck. He goes on a quest to find his memories and who he really is.

I loved the art style and the soundtrack in this one. The premise was also very interesting.

Fune wo Amu (aka The Great Passage) - completed for the challenge “Watch a completed anime with a popularity of #701 or lower”

A guy gets recruited to help edit a dictionary and makes new friends in the process.

I often found myself headcanoning the main character, Majime, as autistic, and I found myself relating to him sometimes. This anime was just one of the sweetest things.

Cowboy Bebop: Knocking on Heaven’s Door - completed for the challenge “Watch an anime from a random TV Tropes page”

It’s the Cowboy Bebop movie. I love the original show. How could this not be good.

Spike and the gang hunt for a bounty, revealing more than they thought possible.

The action is great, love the characters and the music and stuff. Basically, all the stuff I love from the original series is here.

Other Notables:

Pupipo! - completed for the challenge “Watch an anime that started airing the same day you joined Myanimelist”

A shy girl, Wakaba, can see ghosts. People are afraid to get near her as a result. One day, she gets a pink round creature thing, named Po, as a pet, and it helps protect her from ghosts. And she makes a new friend!

This is my most pleasant surprise of the challenge.

I thought the premise was kinda cute by itself, and it started off as a simple slice-of-life short series, but then near the end, it took an interesting supernatural twist. I also loved the friend character, Azuma. Made me laugh every time she was on screen. And I want a plushie of Po.

The episodes are 4 minutes each, and there are 15 episodes. You can finish this one in about an hour, so search it online.

Legend of Lemnear - completed for the challenge “Watch an anime that began airing between 1980 and 1989″

I would consider this my guilty pleasure for the challenge.

A warrior girl, Lemnear, goes on a quest for revenge against the king that killed her family.

This was honestly a bit contrived and Lemnear’s outfit was super-fanservice-y and there was gratuitous boobs (it was the 80s, after all), and the dub could have been better (again, the 80s), but I couldn’t help but get a kick out of this one.

Probably because Satoshi Urushihara did the art. If you don’t know who he is, read my review on the hentai Another Lady Innocent. He has also done a manga that I started for the challenge, but have not yet finished.

Recovery of an MMO Junkie - completed for the challenge “Watch an anime that aired only during 2017″

A girl, Moriko, quits her job and devotes her time to playing MMORPGs. She ends up meeting a guy, and she and him are both super-awkward about it.

So many convenient coincidences/contrivances, but this anime was still so cute!!

Ling Qi (aka Spirit Pact) - completed for the challenge “Watch a Korean or Chinese anime”

A guy, Yang Jinhua, dies and gets brought back to life ten years younger. He is found by Duanmu Xi and asked to be a Soul Image (like a support spirit, as Yang is still technically dead) to him. Possible shounen ai undertones.

I honestly found this one interesting because this one came out in Chinese first. I watched the Chinese dub of this anime, which I had never done before.

Yang was kind of annoying, but this anime definitely had its moments.

The Short Works of Shintaro Kago - completed for the challenge “Watch an anime with no producer, licensor, or studio listed in the database”

If I had to pick a Worst for this challenge, this would probably be it.

Just some random 1-minute shorts by Shintaro Kago, a mangaka known for making manga that is on the ero-guro side, often involving sex, body horror/gore, and poop. Most of the shorts were just kinda stupid and gratuitous. There was one with Buddha jacking off and like 5 million dicks, I don’t fucking know.

The second episode/short made me laugh for some reason, though.

I would say watch if you’re morbidly curious.

5 notes · View notes

duhragonball · 6 years

Text

JJBA Vento Aureo Reread Ch. 553-567

Previously, Bruno’s team was headed for Rome to meet with a mysterious ally who claimed he could do some trick with a Stand Arrow to make one of them strong enough to defeat the Boss. But when they got off their boat, they found the whole area was ravaged by a plague of flesh-eating mold.

To the surprise of no one, this is yet another enemy Stand. The Boss is getting desperate, because he’s running out of guys to send after Bruno’s group, and he doesn’t know just what it is they’re looking for in Rome. So he’s brought out two of his absolute worst henchmen ever, Cioccolata and Secco. Cioccolata used to be a doctor who vivisected his patients for funsies, and his Stand, Green Day spreads a deadly mold contagion. It’s not all that different from the death virus of Fugo’s Purple Haze, actually. The main difference is that this mold takes longer to kill you, but it can spread across a much wider range. The rule to it is that if you move below whatever level you started at, the mold begins to multiply and kill you. By the time Bruno’s team figures this out, Narancia and Trish are wounded, and have to sit out the rest of this Stand Battle in the turtle.

Before they drop out of the story completely, Narancia seems to imply that Trish is sweet on Bruno, so I guess this is as good a time as any to discuss Trish ships. To be sure, there’s a significant age gap between Trish an some of these guys, but I’m just dealing in hypotheticals here.

Starting out, Trish seemed to have more chemistry with Fugo than anyone else. She spoke to him first, asking him to take off his shirt, and then later he fell into her cleavage on the way to the Naples train station. Then he pretty much stopped doing anything and left the story entirely.

Abbacchio and Trish barely interacted at all, although he seemed impressed with her willingness to help them take down the Boss, and I think he dug her Stand one she manifested it. She was tore up over his death, but so was everybody.

Bruno... well, Narancia spells it out, although it’s anyone’s guess if he’s actually onto something. I suppose we could read this to mean that he’s kind of jealous, but again, anyone’s guess.

I’m flashing forward a little, but Mista was the last person Trish interacted with before the end of Part 5, and they swapped bodies, so that seems like it might lead to something, but maybe not. By the end of Part 5, Trish and Mista are celebrating together mostly by default. There aren’t a whole lot of other characters left standing.

Giorno seems like an obvious pick since he’s the main character, and they do have a lot of things in common. They’re the same age, they both have supervillain fathers who abandoned their mothers, and they’re both kind of hard to read. I suppose there’s two ways to read their relationship in Part 5. You can either take their eventual romance as a given, which is why it never sees much explict development, or you can assume that Araki is purposely inverting the trope. The hero not only doesn’t get the girl, he doesn’t even appear to be trying to get the girl.

I think that ambiguity is intentional, unless Araki honestly couldn’t decide what he wanted to do with Trish. There’s romantic potential in her interactions with most of the other main characters, but it’s indefinite enough to make you wonder. I should probably revisit this topic when I get to the end.

Cioccolata’s partner is Secco, one of his former patients who apparently became his disciple in madness. Secco’s Stand, Oasis, allows him to move through the ground as if it were liquid, and he can also liquefy the ground to make things sink into it. In other words, he compliments Cioccolata’s mold perfectly, since their opponents can’t attack Secco without sinking to his level and succumbing to the mold. I’m not sure how Secco himself avoids infection, unless Cioccolata’s Stand can grant immunity to certain people.

Fortunately for the team, Bruno proves to be impervious to the mold, so he can beat Secco down long enough for them to get in a car and head for Rome. On the way, Giorno finally confronts Bruno about why he’s been so strange ever since he fought the Boss in Venice. The answer’s pretty simple: Bruno died in Venice, and he’s been dead ever since.

If I understand this right, Giorno used Gold Experience to put Bruno back together after the Boss killed him, but all he did was reanimate Bruno’s body. The story indicates that Bruno’s soul is still inhabiting his corpse, so it’s really Bruno, and not some new life force created by Gold Experience.

What I don’t get is why Bruno’s body still works despite having no pulse. Gold Experience turns inanimate objects into living things, so if Giorno did unwittingly reanimate a corpse, shouldn’t it be a perfect replica of a live person?

The more important point to this moment is that Bruno’s only sticking out the rest of this mission by sheer force of will. He’ll succumb to true death sooner or later, and there’s nothing anyone can do about it. Now that Giorno knows this, he’s taking one step closer to actually leading the team, and not just the subtle soft leadership he’s been demonstrating until now.

On the flipside, the Boss has essentially rejected any pretense of leadership when he brought Cioccolata and Secco into this matter. By his own admission, he finds them reprehensible, because they kill for sheer pleasure, rather than to achieve any practical goal. But the Boss kept them around anyway just in case he needed their brand of mayhem, and now’s the time. Since he doesn’t know why Giorno and Bruno are going to Rome he’s basically given Cioccolata free reign to destroy the entire city with his mold plague.

This is important, because, as Bruno points out, the Boss has Passione members and business interests in Rome. Setting aside the huge civilian death toll, this course of action will hurt the Boss as well. It might even cripple Passione as an organization for all we know. Think about it: this whole conflict has removed a lot of Stand Users from the gang, either by death or betrayal. The Execution Team is dead, Polpo’s dead, Carne, Squalo, and Tiziano are all dead. Any Passione operatives in Rome are likely to die as well. Presumably, the Boss would have to kill Cioccolata and Secco to end their rampage. All to protect the Boss’s identity. Yeah, he might be able to rebuild from all this, but what’s the point?

Symbolically, this is the moment when Giorno dethrones the Boss, not because he’s beaten the Boss, or because his dream has prevailed, but because he’s the only one alive who can take charge of this chaos and set things right.

But he won’t do it alone...

Cioccolata’s big counterattack involves using a helicopter to spread his mold, but Giorno combines his powers with Mista’s to turn bullets into trees, which grow into a building and catch the chopper. Meanwhile, Bruno takes on Secco by himself, since he’s the only one who can fight him without worrying about the mold. Mista figures he’s got Cioccolata dead to rights, since all he has to do is fire into the helicopter and let Sex Pistols kick the bullets around until they hit him. But when he tries this, the Sex Pistols get ambushed somehow. With Mista taken down, Giorno has to board the helicopter to figure this out for himself.

Turns out Cioccolata can disassemble his own boddy and use his Stand to keep the pieces alive. Also, Green Day can make the pieces move independently of each other and... yeah, this is pretty fucked up right here. The advantage to all of this is that Cioccolata could hide in places a whole human being couldn’t, allowing him to set this trap. Fortunately for Giorno, one of Mista’s Sex Pistols still works, and it kicks a bullet through his hand, which Gold Experience turns into a branch, which he uses to keep from falling from the helicopter, only Cioccolata uses his mold to kill the branch, but aha, that just turns it back into a bullet, which Giorno kicks into the chopper blades, causing it to richochet perfectly into Cioccolata’s head, cancelling his Stand. Or something.

Giorno thinks Cioccolata is just playing possum though, I guess because he survived taking himself apart a few minutes ago. After all, if Cioccolata can just jump out of the chopper, he can turn his Stand back on and start using his mold again.

Sure enough, Cioccolata was laying another trap, except Giorno had already set one of his own, as he turned that bullet he had already turned into a branch into a beetle egg.

Giorno was just talking to him to buy time for the beetle to tear through Cioccolata’s head. How is David Productons going too animate any of this? Will they just cover Cioccolata’s entire body with a black blot, like they did whenever Jotaro was smoking? Anyway, Giorno punches Cioccolata for like seven pages and then tosses him into a nearby garbage truck.

Meanwhile, Bruno’s been fighting Secco, but unfortunately, Cioccolata called Secco right before he died and told him that he overheard one of the Sex Pistols blabbing about the Coliseum. So now Bruno not only has to beat Secco, but he has to stop him from going to the Coliseum and killing his contact.

Perhaps appropriately, this is when we find out that Bruno’s contact is Jean Pierre Polnareff from Part 3, and he’s clearly in no condition to defend himself against someone like Secco, so it really is up to Bruno to save him. So Bruno bursts a tire right in Secco’s face, bursting his eardrums. At first, Secco doesn’t see this as a problem, but when he tries to find Bruno...

“Tee-hee! Did someone call for an ambulence? :3c ”

Oasis is pretty friggin’ unbeatable, but it’s only any good if Secco can navigate while he’s swimming through the ground, and he can only do that by echolocation. With his hearing damaged, he can’t find his way, and that leaves him exposed above ground.

Desperate, Secco grabs a hostage, who ironically turns out to be Doppio, the Boss’s other personality. Bruno defeats Secco easily, though, and I guess he ends up in the same garbage truck as Cioccolata. This leaves Bruno and Doppio alone together.

Only Bruno has no idea who he’s talking to, and he tells Doppio exactly where he’s going. Whoops.

#jojo's bizarre adventure #vento aureo #vento aureo reread #spoilers #giorno giovanna #trish una #bruno buccellati

18 notes · View notes

apocahipster · 6 years

Text

here’s just some author’s notes for the huge taz fic i finished today

you can read it here if you want

https://archiveofourown.org/works/13468608/chapters/30877473

Author’s notes,, i haven’t proofed these so, apologies ;000

Wow. Huge. This is literally the biggest thing ive ever written to completion. I had the whole fic planned before I uploaded the first chapter, and to accentuate the planning I had a 100+ page document of notes and also had an excel sheet which looked like this:

(the yellow on the left means summer, and blue when it was winter. The second column is day of the year, third important dates. On the right is the events which I highlighted yellow as I wrote them)

and like this

Its also the first fic I decided to upload as I wrote each chapter because I knew it would take about a year to complete. I wanted fan support (which I got and loved <3 ) and I didn’t want to sit on the whole thing and constantly re-write it and end up hating it and never publishing it.

So the way this fic began is I was listening to TAZ balance for the first time and as I different scenes or dialogue occurred I started taking notes on my phone for how they would translate to a high school setting. This whole thing started around the time I was at crystal kingdom and ironically, that’s were im up to in my relisten at the time of publishing the last chapter.

The other, very original, formative idea for the fic was this:

Magnus beats up kids who are homophobic to Taako as a way to cover for the fact that he is also bi // Thinks he’s straight and overly supportive of his gay friends

Similarly, in the original idea, it was going to be Julia who had died, not magnus’ dad. There was a really depressing scene where magnus spent the day with Julia’s parents.

Another formative idea was,

My name is Taako, you know, from Instagram.

And I suppose in the end this was the most impactful because I decided that I personally specialise in writing comedy based things. I wanted this to be a light-hearted fun fic.

In the original fiction, Travis and the other McElroys show regret that Magnus’ story is formed around the death of a woman (Julia). Similarly in sensitivity to the McElroy’s personal background I decided that this was not the right thing to write about. But I also wanted this story to be a magnus emotional journey. By choosing his dad as the character who had died I could keep many things planned such as magnus’ one year gap, Fischer as a therapy fish, Magnus’ aggression etc.

My favourite TAZ character is magnus, if that wasn’t obvious. But ironically, I feel like of all the characters his dialogue is the most OOC. While I tried to keep his thought-logic and actions to Magnus I don’t feel like magnus would say 99% of what my magnus did. Conversely Taako seemed like one of those characters who would be hard to pinpoint but I actually found him easiest to write.

Taako’s magic stone which ultimately ruined the play was introduced as I felt I was focusing too much on Taako’s appearance and not the fact he is incredibly smart and a brilliant wizard.

So I decided to make this fic mostly lighthearted. I wanted to squeeze as many highschool tropes in like the gigantic party, the school play, the football match. The last chapter has a scene in a class for every subject as I felt like I somewhat forgot to write them ever being in class for a large chunk of the middle section. But then again no one really want to read about school do they?

I almost always write my stories to a song, but in this case it was an album. Vance Joy’s Dream Your Life Away, and while I love the music I never want to hear it again for like at least a few months. I would play the whole album every time I sat down to write this thing. It set the summer-time mood for the fic. If you listen to the songs youll probably find places where each song inspired bits of the fic.

The first song Wind’s of Change begins with the like ‘I miss you more than you could know’ which began the driving idea of Magnus dealing with the loss of his father. The song ‘first time’ begins with a line about jumping in the neighbours pool which obviously… inspired magnus jumping into a pool. ‘The best that I can’ inspired Magnus and Mr Waxmen’s interaction. I love the idea of a teenage boy who keeps doing the wrong thing, feeling shame in himself and in his mentor and trying to get better.

The song ‘from afar’ was initially Taako’s song. This whole fic was going to be a Taako / Magnus / Kravitz fic where Taako convinces Magnus to take care of himself and Magnus realises Taako is in love with him and this helps him discover he’s bi and it was super dramatic. There was (an still is) some Magnus / Kravtiz scenes too mostly in the form of flirting.

As I stepped away from this being a ship heavy fic this song became Lucretia’s song. Lucretia’s unrequited love to Lup was mostly written from the heart, and I’m so sorry to Lucretia stans, she deserves all the GFs in the world. But I felt this was a very powerful thing to write in a teen story.

Taako’s fear of LDR is also taken from the heart. In a way this whole fic was a serious vent from my high school experience. Similarly as I am now 21, I didn’t feel comfortable nor did I even really conceptualise any NSFW scenes for this fic. It just didn’t seem to have a place. Besides, sex is in almost all other teen movies and books. I also wanted to keep weed out of this one bc I personally hate how drugs are in every teen story.

I actually had a planned acronym for the IPRE, the Insufferable Prick Resistance Ensemble, and a short backstory that Magnus Taako Lup and Merle formed the group in their youth to complain about annoying classmates.

Writing Lydia and Edward was the worst. I don’t know how to write cool and sassy kids. Me at me: don’t make me do it again.

Heres the entirety of my prepared barry notes:

Barry

-Oculus, opens portals?

-Likes pretty girl?!!?!?!

I had a planned thing for how each of their grand relics could play into the fic but it was far too much work.

I was also planning on writing wayyyy more Lucretia and wayyyy less Barry. Bc Lucretia was basically me as a teenager. But I started writing Barry as one of my friends and this helped me just write bundles and bundles of Barry content.

I really didn’t have anything planned for davenport. Even drawing his yearbook I was like whelp idk. The idea of him becoming a sports strategist kicked in right as I was writing the paragraph about killian being the new jock, simply bc the section needed to be longer and frankly, I love how his story turned out.

Part of scrapping the original, edgy tone of julia’s death and taako / magnus romance was wanting to continue the tradition where TAZ is a world separate of racism and homophobia. I scrapped original ideas of magnus being provoked by homophobic remarks and transphobic remarks about lup, wanting this to also be an escapist piece like TAZ is. Therefore coming up with other reasons for magnus to get into fights was hard and also I hate writing fights bc ive never been in a fight in my life.

The first half of this fic I was riding an enthusiasm high and just adding scenes and conversations as I thought of them and listened to the story. By about the end of semester 3 I still cared about the fic but I was basically writing everything I had pre-planned with little innovation.

All in all, this was extremely fun to write, and I think it made me a much, much, much better author. I love anyone who read the whole thing sm.

#my work #hhhhhhh

7 notes · View notes