#...4 asks remaining...

[michaelscorneroftheinternet]

for smg4 and eggdog, who’s been taking care of eggdog since 3’s been gone? (Smg4 being asked since I don’t think eggdog can talk)

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... 4 Asks Remaining...

[textfromthelookout]

Hi! I absolutely love your brilliant analyses of Vegeta. He has stubbornly remained my favorite character of all time, and it’s wonderful to see his character arc treated with the depth and attention it deserves. ❤️

I would love to hear your thoughts, analysis, headcanons, and anything else you believe regarding the relationship between Vegeta and Freeza. The pieces of their dynamic we get in the manga and anime have always fascinated me.

More specific questions: How much of Vegeta’s personality and worldview at the start of Z do you think was influenced by Freeza, and how much was due to his Saiyan nature/the short few years he spent on Vegetasei? What methods do you think Freeza used to mold Vegeta into his own image?

Thank you so much for your time and for the insightful commentary you bring to this fandom.

Oooh, what fun questions!!

So then… what indeed is the relationship between Freeza and Vegeta? Depending on when you ask, there’s different answers to that question. Let’s start at the start.

For essentially Vegeta’s whole life, Freeza is his purpose for persevering. He shoulders the will and rage of the Saiyans—he is their hope for vengeance. Freeza destroyed everything that meant anything to him—his culture, his home, his people, and his status. Freeza occupies a strange space in Vegeta’s mental hierarchy; simultaneously far, far above him as a monolithic, implacable expression of power, and eventually fated to be crushed beneath his royal heel in retribution. There is nobody Vegeta despises more. There is nobody Vegeta fears more.

To Freeza, Vegeta is a pet. An amusing, deluded little dog with an eminently yankable chain. He is not, in any sense of the word, a threat: Freeza in his base form is literal orders of magnitude stronger than Vegeta, prior to Z, he sees him and the Saiyans as a whole as the frogs in a well that they are. Yes, Vegeta is strong—but he’s not even top 5 strong at the point in the story we meet him. Barely top 10, if you want to include King Cold and Cooler’s group. An asset, certainly, but he has stronger men, and Freeza was willing to sacrifice a whole planet’s worth of similar assets on a cost-benefit analysis. Together, the Saiyans would probably destroy most of the rest of of his forces before he could put them all down: then Freeza has to rebuild from scratch, and that’s a hassle. Better to cut the rot away before it compromises the limb, if you see what I mean. (As an aside: Nobody actually knows what the Super Saiyan is exactly before Goku roids out into one on Namek, so Freeza’s trepidation surrounding it reads—to me—less as fear of a warrior stronger than himself appearing to topple him, and more as a dictator knowing a rebel’s rallying point when he sees one. Zarbon claims to Vegeta that ‘what Master Freeza feared was a union of all the Saiyans. Alone, you are nothing.’)

No, Freeza keeps Vegeta around for the simple fact that futile struggle is his favorite entertainment, and Vegeta is a paragon of futile struggle before most everything else. He knows all about Vegeta’s vendetta, and how he’s pinned his hopes on the legend of the Super Saiyan manifesting in him, and that eventually he’ll try to bite back. So it’s fun to jerk him around and watch him swallow indignity after indignity for the sake of a long game that Freeza knows he’s not going to lose. Oh, you conquered Planet Shikk in three days? Zarbon could have done it in one; so much for the vaunted Saiyan strength. He’s a trophy, unique in the fact that he serves Freeza loyally while not disguising his hatred towards him at all.

Namek is a fabulous arc for a lot of reasons, a prominent one being the whole Vegeta-and-Freeza thing coming to a head; a perfect encapsulation of the dynamic. Everything that Vegeta does to impede Freeza, up to and ultimately including his theft of the Dragon Balls, is treated by Freeza as a minor inconvenience. A small bump on the road to immortality. Vegeta kills Cui? That’s cute, let’s see what he does next. Kills Dodoria and Zarbon? Irritating, but not unsalvageable. Steals the Dragon Balls? Now he’s earned a beating, but the Ginyu Force retrieved them quickly, and no way Vegeta leaves that encounter alive.

And like. He isn’t wrong to look at it that way, is he. Goku has to bail Vegeta out of dying by Recoome’s hand. He gets a lucky break and a rana ex machina against Ginyu himself. Once he actually starts fighting Freeza, the cover comes off the whole thing immediately. Because it’s not a fight to Freeza. He’s not eliminating a threat, he doesn’t view Vegeta as a combatant. He’s pissed and he’s killing two birds with one stone—punishing those responsible for screwing him out of his wish, and blowing off steam by toying with them and watching their spirits break before their slow, inevitable, agonizing deaths.

And boy does it work an absolute treat on Vegeta. For three main reasons, I think. First is that Vegeta grew up under Freeza’s rule. Fearing him is in his bones now, and that’s a tough instinct to shake. Second, Vegeta is just starting to get a handle on how ki-sensing works. He’s not used to being able to feel other peoples’ powers. He is a bonfire among a sea of candles, and he’s suddenly face to face with the sun. He can’t run from it, he can’t deny it, he can’t shut his eyes to it. Imagine how that feels to someone who previously spent his whole life in metaphorical darkness. This only reinforces his fear of Freeza. Third, and perhaps most importantly: the two prior reasons run directly counter to the avenger narrative Vegeta has constructed for himself and lived his whole life by. He can’t get The Way Things Are Supposed To Go and reality to reconcile. As in the post before: he refuses to bend—so he breaks.

In a lot of major Dragon Ball fights (maybe all of them, I’m not gonna go back and check), there’s someone playing the role of the defeatist. The doomsayer. The ‘it’s all over, he’s too strong’ guy. For the group confrontation against Freeza, this is Vegeta. What a role to cast him in. What other role could he be cast in, with the history and mindset he has? He didn’t plan on tangling with Freeza until he was immortal, when his victory was at best overwhelming and at worst a matter of attrition. Past their initial clash—a brief grapple that Vegeta notably leaves winded while Freeza seems more annoyed than anything else—Vegeta doesn’t go head-to-head with Freeza. He’s hesitant to attack him. Scared. Freeza knows that. Freeza largely ignores Vegeta throughout the fight because he isn’t doing anything, which he taunts him about. Oh, I’m gonna kill this little half-Saiyan. Aren’t you gonna come save him, Vegeta? No? I thought not.

As tactically unsound as bringing Piccolo to Namek was—seriously what the hell, you almost defeated the whole purpose of going there in the first place—it makes for an interesting way to twist the knife in Vegeta. Here he is, embodying everything that Vegeta was supposed to—the champion of a slaughtered people, (almost) the last of his kind, fearlessly throwing down with Freeza. After a transformation, and meeting with decent success, furthermore. Piccolo, who has only the most tenuous of connection to his race and his homeworld (same as Goku, interestingly enough). And what is Vegeta doing?

He gets desperate. And when Vegeta gets desperate, he does stupid, crazy, desperate things. Like letting Krillin blow a hole in his chest because if he gets one more brink-of-death power-up then surely he’ll be stronger than Freeza. He just has to be. But he’s not, and all the fight goes out of him. And when the fight goes out of him, Freeza’s interest in him disappears too. Because that was the whole appeal of Vegeta to him—that expectation that he’d fight to the bitter end.

That’s where they stand at the end of Namek, up until Super. Vegeta is a pitiful disappointment to Freeza, Freeza is a memory of failure to Vegeta subsumed into his fixation on defeating Goku. And so, time passes. Vegeta goes through A Lot of development. Freeza seethes in hell, dreaming of revenge.

While Resurrection F is imo a rather poor arc, it’s got some stuff for us in this vein. Freeza comes to Earth for the grudge match against Goku—he barely acknowledges Vegeta at all, except to express surprise that he’s still around, and hanging around with Goku no less. He’s uninterested in him entirely—when Vegeta tries to cut into the fight, all Freeza has for him is a quip about pets and masters and an order to butt out.

And Vegeta just… takes that? Why does he just take that? This has baffled me for the longest time. The closest approximation of a Good Writing explanation I can get is Vegeta deciding that he wants Freeza reduced to about the power level that he was on Namek before he pulls that mean role reversal on him. Hey, did you know I have transformations now? But Vegeta doesn’t get off on crushing ants (anymore) the way Freeza does, so he doesn’t even really seem to revel in kicking Freeza’s teeth in like he’d wanted to for so long. I guess to his mind it’s too little too late. The Saiyans have been avenged for a decade already. He’s had time to heal and grow and rearrange his priorities.

Up through the Super Broly movie, that’s where they’re at. Mutual enmity, mutual acknowledgment of the threat each poses to the other. Everything past that, I’ll save for the Moro/Granolah post (and for once I’m. yknow. current with the manga again.)

As to the other questions—the thing is, I don’t think Freeza tried to mould him into anything, because the whole point of keeping him was [gestures to the above] That. Let me instead pose a different question—how much of Vegeta’s personality and worldview at the start of Z do you think was influenced by Nappa? Nappa, who was old enough to remember life on Vegetasei before King Cold took over. Who would know exactly what was taken from them, and would harbor a deep resentment over it? Whose view of such things was likely colored by his more than probable involvement in the Saiyan-Tuffle war? Personally I think it’s more than anybody realizes.

Thanks for your ask <3 Hope this was satisfactory.

[didderd]

Hello beautiful creature!

Question for him beautiful, adorable and handsome Crack;

I understand that one of your hobbies is cooking. Doesn't it affect you to handle animal products such as very large and recognizable pieces of meat?

Crack: Yeah, I uh... don't touch th' stuff... Jus'.... vague cuts a' boneless meat... But... 'still struggle with cuttin' this stuff sometimes..

[superm4ks]

i am the girl who hates change who sent that ask in june when i was like there's no way max holds onto this title. i cannot believe my meowie continues to surpass my expectations because of course he would win this year. there was no other alternative.

Wow ... And like I told u back then bbygirl .. Max is also a girl who hates change. Max hates change SO much he clinched his 4th in an ice cold pig wid Monza type characteristics that lend themselves to every t0p team except the car wid the suspension of a jeep Wrangler and the top speed of me doing the mile in hs still drunk and on 3 hours of sleep and a mcmuffin. Vegas had a lil something for everybody that wasnt based in Milton Keynes. Unholy temperatures for the ((extremely confused)) merc baddies, slow corners + long straights for the ragazzi, moderate graining for the Woking dolls so Lando cud hit the slay button in low fuel ((an unexpected flop gotta say)). AND nothing for rbr. Not the right wing, not the right balance, not the best tires, not the fresh engine. Imagine being faced wid all that and still feeling fairly confident Max wud be crowned the best driver in the world that weekend, because he's Max Verstappen and for as long as theres a chance I know he'll take it. I know that because I know him. All Max had to do was out qualify Lando in a car that never once got anywhere close to papaya times during practice sessions. I swear they fitted him wid a new wheel and shit came off like three times. So obvi Max out qualifies Lando, then come Sunday, Max manages the gap like the rb20 never been better fit for a circuit, he lets the lil ponies go around and off into the distance to create drama of their own and thats all he wrote. 'there was no alternative' . Say that again. No alternative. No choice. The illusion of choice was broken in Brazil. The definition of insanity was reaffirmed in Vegas. They called an ambulance but not for him. 💎

[revoevokukil]

hi! i love your blog and your analysis!! ♥ how do you think, what role will be play elder blood in adult ciri's life? ps. where are you from??

hey, anon! thank you! you are speaking to an Estonian who's gone wandering.

i thought about it when the first trailer game out in december, and i arrived at these conclusions and impressions at the time. i think the trailer makes it fairly obvious ciri is running from herself and is clinging to her idealization of a witcher's identity. this is her 'simple life' fantasy, which actually originates in her wanting to empower herself in order to kill people who have harmed her.

(in one of the original endings for the witcher 3 (the original 'witcher-ending', ciri becomes disillusioned with herself as a witcher and departs to roam among worlds, seeking a solution to a problem only she can solve but abandoned at geralt's instigation)

and i think the first game will probably ease new audiences into the IP anew, and i don't expect them to do much with elder blood and the implications it creates -- except for, maybe, alluding to what happened in the Tower -- but in the end it seems inevitable. and i think the moral problem for ciri will always-always circle back to the responsibility and burden that comes with power.

the witcher books end where they end for a reason. the legend closes in a moment where everything is actually left up in the air; imagine what you like. it's fantasy. but if we were to begin to think of 'what now?' for ciri -- realistically -- then there would be a whole other saga in it. the witcher 4 kicks off with ciri living her fantasy of being a witcher (just where the books end, effectively). a happy ever after?

doubt.

[zhongtea]

hi! i really love how you wrote ifa 🥺❤️ and for your brainrot im wondering if you have thoughts about his age. since hes a working vet do you think he might be in his late 20s?

aww thank you!!🥹

hmm, for his age, i’m really thinking anywhere from mid to late twenties. i’m sure the requirements to become a veterinarian may be a little different in the world of genshin than it is in the real world lol, but considering the time it takes to become a vet is about 4 or so years (approximately) after core college courses, i’d say he’s anywhere from 25 to 28. enough time to finish his studies as well as establishing himself as a reliable veterinarian!

[muzzlemouths]

I hope this is okay to ask but originally it looked like there was supposed to be 15? Chapters of DFtR. Is this because of the major poll results? Meaning the steering towards a specific ending

Given that the story is poll driven, I wasn't sure exactly how many chapters it would take to reach its conclusion, so I decided to give myself some leeway with the chapter count, with 10 being the minimum estimate of chapters I would need, and 15 being the max. Now that we're further into the story and I can kind of gauge where it might head, I can better estimate the amount of chapters needed before we reach the finish line.

To be clear: You aren't losing any part of the story. There aren't less chapters being written because those chapters didn't exist to begin with, they were only an estimated number.

That being said, the estimate may continue to change depending on the results of these last few polls, and the number of chapters may go back up to 15. We'll see!

[palukoo]

Bettejoan plsssss 👉👈

thanks!!! ehjbfhefh okay. no summary on this one lol. i don't typically write rpf not like out of judgment or anything (rpf is fine!) but bc it feels like. so much harder/so much "she would not fucking say that" and like um as i've mentioned the lack of historical consistencies for bette and joan makes me feel crazyyyyyyy. also in truth, bettejoan fic should be like predominantly insults and hate sex and the most insane public comments known to man and that just isn't really my strong suit sadly!!! all this to say an effort has been made!!

“I can’t stand you,” Bette grits out, though she makes no move to step away.

“I'm not asking you to stand me, Bette," Joan says breathily. "I'm asking if you'll fuck me." Bette places a hand, firm, on the flat of Joan’s chest, and Joan grins in something like victory, until Bette pushes her back forcefully.

“God, you're even more easy and desperate than I realized." It lacks some of it's usual bite, because she's clearly a bit flustered by the directness and trying hard not to show it. Still, Joan’s face hardens.

“Easy and desperate?” she asks, voice cold, and Bette pretends she doesn’t somehow know that that’s her response to the actual anger and hurt beneath it. “I’ve always admired your originality with your insults, darling. You sure know how to make a girl feel special.”

“Only if she is,” Bette retorts. “I’m honest. And you're as common as they come.”

“Is that why you make such a point to avoid me? Why you insult me publicly given any possible chance? Why you bring me up just to get in a dig or two when I’m completely irrelevant. Maybe I’m too obvious in my appeals, but you’re hardly subtle, and if you haven’t noticed that, you’re crazy. Honest," she says with a scoff.

Joan waits for a rebuttal that somehow doesn’t come.

“I know you don’t like me, but you sure talk about me a lot. I bet you think about me a lot.” She pauses. “I think about you a lot,” she adds, voice lower.

“That much is obvious,” Bette quips, rolling her eyes. Joan takes the lack of outright denial as some kind of progress.

“I’ve thought about it, you know, and I never could decide if I thought you would have a need to be in control in the bedroom, like you seem to have everywhere else, or if there’s where you’d want to surrender it,” Joan says, mock casually. Bette flushes. The funny thing is that Bette’s never able to figure it out either, not in any way that makes sense. And she sort of hates that Joan has come to the same conclusion. Or lack thereof. She feels horribly, shamefully vulnerable under Joan's discerning gaze.

“What’s your point?” she huffs out, reaching into a pocket for a pack of cigarettes and a lighter, but Joan beats her to the latter, quickly lighting a match and holding it up to the cigarette Bette places between her own lips. She meets Joan’s heavy gaze as she inhales, and quickly looks away.

Joan puts out the match. “My point, darling, is that perhaps I tried the wrong approach. Maybe instead I should ask if I can fuck you.”

Bette laughs.

“What’s funny?”

“The fact that you think that your asinine question made you sound submissive. You may play it from time to time, but you’ve never sold it, not to me. You're not good enough to."

“Do you want me to be submissive? You’re right that it’s hardly the most natural thing for me, but you’d be surprised what the right person can get from me,” she says, perching on Bette’s makeup table carefully and doing her best to look seductive. Bette may not give Joan a lot of credit for her acting, but alluring is one thing she's quite good at playing.

Bette tries very hard to be unaffected, to not let her eyes follow a path from Joan’s long legs all the way up to her almost pleading eyes, to not picture it, Joan taking orders from her. Joan completely at her mercy. She tries not to be enticed by it, tries to tell herself it would only be for some sort of revenge, some way to humiliate her, to hurt her. And yet, there's a strange sort of disappointment as the fantasy seems to solidify. Not disgust, not even really shame, though she's sure that will follow. Disappointment. And something seems, horribly, to click.

Joan picks up on it, of course. “Bette,” she starts, and Bette doesn’t let her finish. She surges forward, letting one hand press into Joan’s thigh to brace herself and keep Joan against the table, and bringing the other to Joan’s jaw to crash their lips together. Joan tenses for a beat in surprise, but then clutches at Bette’s back, kissing her back fervently. “So that is what you want?”

“No,” she says bluntly, and kisses her again working slowly towards her neck.

“I don’t—“

Bette twirls a strand of Joan’s hair around her finger and tugs, and Joan gasps, her head falling back. “Fight back,” Bette says, and even she isn’t sure if it’s a command or a plea. Either way, Joan takes it.

“Oh,” Joan says, pulling against Bette’s hold to bring her head back up and meet Bette’s gaze. “With pleasure, darling."

[mint-yooxgi]

do you have any plans to update any of your ateez works? i read HC i LOVE it! (no worries if you dont plan to return soon tho, taking care of yourself is important!)

Are you- are you fucking kidding me right now? Like, no, for real... are you serious???????

[scatterpatter]

Oh! Saw you wanted to create your own robot master oc line! (and been struggling to draw which mood) Have you decided on something? A theme, aesthetic, names, whatever really

(don't feel forced to answer either lmao take your time)

YEEAAAHHH!!! I dont have much right now, just some vague ideas and whatnot

So my line would be the DPN line- Dr Patter Numbers. Ive got 4 ideas for robot masters so far, but I eventually want to make a full line of 8 like all the megaman games >:3 Heres what Ive got idea-wise so far:

MeteoMech (DPN-001)

Short for Meteorology, MeteoMech was created to assist in the prediction and tracking of weather systems, particularly severe weather. Meteo is a high speed/agility bot with some strong armor to withstand high winds, hail, and debris associated with strong storms. While Tornadoman was made to deal with more tropical storms and cyclones, Meteomech is more built for supercell storms. Wanted to give them a more gender neutral suffix instead of man/woman!

Not sure what their weapon would be, given theyre more of a storm chaser type... Thinking they'd have a pretty flighty personality, definitely a little weirdo /affectionate

DuneWoman (DPN-002)

Dunewoman was created to help combat beach erosion through the creation of coastal sand dunes and planting of native plants that take root in the dunes and keep them nice and sturdy- this helps combat erosion, provide protection against storm surges, etc. This makes her more of a plant based robot master than a water based one, and I imagine her weapon could be something that she'd plant in the ground and then vine-like plants could shoot up and ensare her target, not sure yet.

Dont know her personality yet, but I imagine she's a big ol nerd who really likes hanging out with the local wildlife (crabs and seaturtles especially) more than she likes hanging out with other bots

DinoMan (DPN-003) and DynaMan (DPN-004)

Okay this ones the most silly. When I was brainstorming robot master concepts I thought that Dinoman- an archaeological robot master built to uncover and preserve+date fossils of dinosaurs and other extinct creatues... Then when joking around with my fiance, we thought of an explosive-based dynamite robot master Dynaman. Dyna would probably do controlled explosions on snow-covered mountains for avalanche control... but I need to double check the other explosion-based robot masters to make sure I'm not overlapping with any existing bots functions.

We joked that Dino and Dyna constantly get mistaken for each other, and they're both sooooo pissed at that. They start off kinda hating each other because of this, but eventually rivals-to-lovers their way into being husbands

Dont have solid personality ideas for them yet, but I imagine Dino attacks with digging into the ground and popping out to slash at an opponent with some sharp weapon of sorts, and Dyna... well Dyna has dynamite soooooooo... yeah

Thats all ive got so far!!! Mostly just concepts and vibes, definitely dont have any designs in mind yet... Ohhh i wanna get a few designed before this summer tho so I can add them to ArtFight!!!

[catofoldstones]

I am hopeful that at the end, the Iron Islands, Dorne and the North will be independent and will be ruled by women.

Yup me too. All of the three kingdoms have a strong history of demanding independence from the iron throne pre-asoiaf and have recurring themes of independence in asoiaf. (Balon’s war of independence when Theon was taken as a hostage by Ned, the entire Robb Stark arc and now the Great Northern Conspiracy, and finally, Dorne burning to avenge Elia pipeline to breaking away from the IT after Aegon VI dies). It would be a reasonable resolution to have the kingdoms gain independence.

I genuinely don’t know how George is going to resolve Asha and Sansa being the queens of their respective kingdoms considering they do have living brother(s) whose claim is stronger than theirs… solely by account of them being men…. :/But anyway, Theon could vouch for Asha and then declare a rule of simple primogeniture, like in Dorne, going forward, much like he did in the show. If it even comes to that …(Euron, Victarion, general misogyny do stand in the way). As for Sansa, she has a much more complicated path ahead, both for getting her family back together and then ultimately becoming the QiTN. However, all of that being said, all of the three girls’ arc is barreling towards unequivocal independence, agency and leadership. It’s not hard to guess that they will end up as the effective rulers of their own respective kingdoms.

[onekisstotakewithme]

🔥i dunno if you have any, but anything related to video games?

I am not a huge gamer (I have literally four games I've bought, and I've only played three of them), but... i guess my opinion is it's perfectly fine to play and enjoy games without heavy modding? (is that unpopular??)

(It's maybe a tad hypocritical because I have a few quality of life mods on Sims 4).

oh my other unpopular opinion is that the OG Wii is a valid console, you guys are just mean. (It was the only gaming console I grew up with lmao)

~ send me a 🔥 for an unpopular opinion ~

[balkanlila]

LJUBAV (for albums)

ahhh my first love

zid

7 dana

ljudi iz gradova

prvi i poslednji dan

pored mene

hello send me an album and i’ll share my top 5 favorite songs from it <3

[enbysiriusblack]

can't believe all my closest mutuals have left/deactivated. guys, i'm lonely here :((

[dreaming-hibi]

Gokudera being 1/4th Japanese still means he’s Japanese too. Saying he’s only Italian is kind of offensive honestly

I'm not mad, I'm not offended, I'm just very confused.

Back to the anon.

This is what I said in my post: "Gokudera is 1/4 Japanese, and 3/4 Italian so he's technically considered Italian", I didn't say he was only Italian.

Gokudera doesn't stop being Japanese because his first nationality is Italian. It's all technicalities at the end of the day, like how it's easier to just say "Oh Gokudera? He's italian." that doesn't make him any less japanese

[dramas-vs-novels]

I hope your dog Jessie is doing well and you get good news very soon! My family are thinking about getting a dog or dogs and I was wondering how you found yours?

Thank you!

She is recovering from her surgery shockingly well (I mean, this might be the normal way doggos recover, but Riley had surgery in a similar area a couple years ago and had a horrible time recovering), she's peppy and bouncy and full of energy (we are trying so hard to get her to take it easy while she heals).

As for how we got our dogs--

Maggie: Traditional rescue from an animal shelter. She was found wandering the streets at around 6-7 months old and we adopted her. She passed away not long before Riley was born, and I strongly suspect Riley is Maggie reincarnated.

Riley: Found through a pet-finding site that linked into a facebook post someone had made. Her litter was a "oh crap, those 2 aren't fixed, are they?" happy accident a family had.

Jessie: Kind of a cross between Maggie and Riley. She was brought home from a rescue at 8 weeks old, but was never a stray. Her litter was dropped off one night at the shelter (which is a somewhat regular occurrence at that particular shelter).