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yue-muffin · 4 years

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The muffin watches Love and Redemption (insert preemptive crying here)

Aright, I finally FINALLY finished live blogging this episode. @mejomonster my thoughts are aplenty! I actually wrote way too much!

Edit: I’m an idiot, I forgot to mention a prediction/observation.

Episode 1:

The CGI is actually very nice in this drama, I’m pleased. I will definitely watch dramas with cringe-worthy CGI, but it’s always nice when they manage to integrate it with the actors and set pieces well, which is even harder to accomplish in Xianxia.

Wait, what did the god of war do to deserve the reincarnation out of the heavenly realm punishment? Didn’t she defeat the Asura/Mosha guy? Was it because she used his weapon or something? And in the first place, why does that half of the Mosha guy’s soul qualify as a celestial that can be reborn? I suppose everyone is subject to reincarnation, but this batch is explicitly for those who have committed crimes in the heavens and wasn’t he on the demon/asura side? Or…maybe he was a celestial who betrayed them? Who knows, I’m just wildly speculating…

The scene definitely suggests there is a lot the narration is not telling us about how these two ended up being reincarnated - yet.

If she lacks the six senses, then why can she see and hear just fine? She apparently can’t feel pain, which would count for the deficiency of touch. Hm.

Xuanji, I relate to just wanting to go back to sleep and not deal with visitors so much lol.

HA, that little look of alarm one of the shixiongs (Liuzi?) has on his face when Linglong tries to convince Xuanji it’ll be fun because they get to check out the handsome guys. So is Linglong supposed to be her twin since they’re both 16 years old?

The dragon wolf thing moves a little funny, but at least it doesn’t look glaringly out of place and the camera doesn’t focus on it for too long, as is typical of CGI monsters. Kudos to them!

Cheng Yi is low-key really good looking in action scenes, just putting that out there. I didn’t think I would adjust to him in period clothing and long hair so quickly, since it usually takes me a while to make the switch (after seeing him in The Lost Tomb 2), but nope! He looks really good!

Ah, so this is the ruthless sect. I love how their first rule, which is literally more important than anything else they may value or encourage in their members, is to not show their entire face when outside the sect…also, what’s the point in hiding only half your face?? Sifeng’s mask only covers one eye, his forehead, and cheek on one side…at least have it cover the entire upper or lower half like everyone else in the sect (I know it’s so we can actually see the actor’s face and not supposed to make sense in-universe)?? I actually do like how they designed it though, it’s far less clunky than the full-face masks we saw in the opening sequence, probably due to the curves.

Sect leader…Sifeng is 16, he IS little pfft. Even adjusting for the times, he is a BABY haha. As I grow older, I realize more and more how young a lot of protags in fantasy stories really are. Also, sect leader is a drama queen, like he’s just lounging on his chair with this dramatic laid-back pose, takes a deep breath, and turns his chin up. So extra.

Aw, yes, I want to see more of Cheng Yi’s easy smiles. He’s so serious in TLT2, except when the warmth seeps into this expression when he’s smiling fondly at Wu Xie…

These devil/asura people have a weird bowing pose. I can’t help but think their hands make them look like…eagle claws or something lol.

Ah, a classic ‘I forgot my invitation’ situation. Well, Xuanji doesn’t have to feel too bad, apparently none of the other Shaoyang disciples know how to fly on a sword either lol. Her sister was tied down by that spell, but could none of the others have attempted to chase after the jerk who grabbed her? (Side note: I really love the color of his sect’s outfits.)

:3 I like Xuanji’s expressions, they’re just cute? So cute. Like her little huff when she’s defending her big sister from the jerkass. Also, I love characters who are like little kittens who puff up and try to protect their friends/family even though the one they’re trying to protect is probably more capable than them.

Jerkass really does take it too far when he just DROPS HER FROM THE SKY. Like, I can accept if youthful teasing goes a little far in that he snatched her and took her for a joy ride, but when it’s apparently that she really can’t summon a sword, it’s 100% not okay to just drop her and laugh it off. If Sifeng didn’t catch her, she could’ve died, and how exactly do you plan on explaining THAT to her father, huh Mr. Jerkass? He had like a dozen witnesses too.

Well, what can you expect from a guy who forgot to bring his invitation and literally was too arrogant and entitled to wait for his teacher to come out and let them in. :p Not the smartest cookie, is he. Even if you got in trouble for forgetting your invitation, you’d get in x10 more trouble for murdering a girl. Good thing she has plot armor and Sifeng was conveniently in the right spot to catch her lol.

Small note, he left her on his sword and she fell off after a bit - so…how exactly is HE flying? Can people fly without the help of their sword? Is he able to make more than one?

Lol Xuanji tugs at him like she does to her sister, it’s cute. But he’s so PANIC every time she touches him haha poor guy. He’s so awkward…why is it so endearing…

It took me a second to realize that he stutters, also that he has a voice actor this time! Idk why, Cheng Yi has a good voice. It would’ve fit this role just fine, unless there were parts they were concerned he couldn’t do. They did a good job matching the VA to his lip movements though, it’s really hard to tell it’s not his voice. It’s been a while since I heard Cheng Yi on video, but listening and comparing, now I can tell that it’s not his in this drama. Anyways, this might be my only complaint lol. Both he and his VA do a good job conveying the stuttering though!

Cheng Yi, you’re playing another character who’s good at disappearing in the blink of an eye lol…

Aah, so normally her sister’s personality type is the annoying sort, which is why she works well as a supporting character. I love how she turns her brattiness up to eleven in order to help Xuanji get out of a scolding by their father. I just really love how these two are so supportive and defensive of each other.

Edit: Alright, but Xuanji did you really just raise a flag for yourself so early in the show. ‘I think tears are the most precious things’. I WILL EAT MY HAT IF THIS DOES NOT BECOME RELEVANT LATER.

And instead of holding onto Sifeng’s name tag for like 50 episodes, she remembers she has it and goes to give it back + some birthday snacks because it’s his birthday too! GAH Xuanji is too cute.

I love how the guy who answered the door just his back only to turn around and smoothly give an explanation for his friend’s disfluency lol (so it’s a language thing!). AND THEN HE GOES ‘carry on!’ AND TURNS AROUND AGAIN. Idk why I find this funny but.

? Why all that effort for dew from a peach blossom tree. Is this one a special peach blossom tree. Why is he making tea with it. OH OK it’s good for cultivation.

He’s so vicious ha, he’s clearly perplexed by her - I mean, he’s the top disciple in his sect, so likely he doesn’t get how she can live so carefree and not have any desire to cultivate or anything. It’s perplexing and kind of total opposite to his worldview, so he reacts harshly.

Ah, I really like Cheng Yi’s acting! He goes from flat/indifferent face to reacting angrily to her picking the snake up, then a subtle worry as his eyes drop down from her to the snake.

I don’t know why I like this snake scene but I dooo. xD Also, it’s interesting how she doesn’t feel any strong emotions (she’s actually rather intensely curious tho!), while he puts on a mask literally/figuratively to seem like he doesn’t and yet gets worked up quite easily.

I’m glad she stops imitating him when he tells her to and is explicitly angry/upset, I get enough of people being assholes and making fun of others for things they can’t help like their speech impairments or mannerisms, it’s just kind of a personal thing that irks me.

AW HE’S SO PROTECTIVE OF HIS LITTLE SNAKE.

Why is it always the peach tree forests?? They’re always weird places that trap people. I can think of two other dramas where this happens haha. I know peaches do have significant symbolism in Chinese culture, so maybe that explains it.

Lol he still flips out a bit when she gets close. Poor girl, getting dropped from the air AGAIN.

Ah, this is the lake! Where they sealed part of that Mosha guy’s soul! This can’t be good.

Aw, look at his face, he’s genuinely worried for his little snake. CHENG YI YOUR RANGE OF EMOTIONS. GAH.

I CAN’T OPEN IT. Oh wait.

WHY DID YOU GO IIIIN YOU JUST SAID YOU CAN’T DO ANYTHING AND HE TOLD YOU TO STAY OUT, YOU LITTLE IDIOT. If he’s Little Stutterer, you can be Little Idiot, ok.

Here’s an idea, she finds the snake, you fight the dragon, and then all three of you get out of there.

OH the mask comes off!! Ok, but you have seen like most of his face already…Hahaha the look on his face ‘wait…why do I feel a hand why is she touching me there…OH NO’

Ah, a nice detail I didn’t think they’d think to add in: his stuttering got way worse without the mask on, since he was so upset/shaken.

?? What just happened with her blood lol.

Final Thoughts:

An interesting start, with nice character dynamics revealed and a dangerous situation to move the plot right along. I have been informed the drama really differentiates itself from the typical setup that has been supplied thus far, and I’m excited to see it unfold.

For now, I have a tiiiiny crush on Cheng Yi and I’m interested in where they take Xuanji’s character. Also, what disasters will result from their little excursion into the super lake where a demon lord thing was sort of sealed away a long time ago...

#the muffin's liveblogging adventures #love and redemption

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damemaladroite · 4 years

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Almost done with firefight...

So I’ve almost finished firefight by Brandon Sanderson, the second book in the Reckoners series. I feel pretty lukewarm about this book– despite trying to break this book into parts, I still didn’t feel super compelled to read this one. Granted my life has been a bit hectic and I haven’t had a lot of time to spend on reading but I genuinely feel like if this had been as action packed as Steelheart was, I wouldn’t be bothered by this. Steelheart was the sort of book you didn’t want to put down, whereas this one I almost couldn’t be bothered to pick it up.

I will say, that in the last third when Megan rejoins the plot, the book starts to pick up. Megan and David have a really great dynamic that feels pretty atypical of YA. David’s a perfectly written dork, and while Sanderson gives him his cool moments, it never feels like he’s trying too hard because you have so many moments where you just have to laugh at him (my favorite being his insistence that he is not a nerd) Megan balances him really well, she grounds him but at the same time she needs his sort of infectious enthusiasm in her more jaded world. I like their relationship and it’s pretty refreshing at the end of the day compared to a lot of other romances I’ve seen.

We’re kind of entering the endgame here, so spoilers ahead (I’ve only gotten to part 4 so far) * SPOILERS AHEAD *

Even though I’ve missed Cody and Abraham a lot this book, I’m glad that they’re not apart of this plot to undermine David. The whole thing feels messed up on a lot of levels.

Part of me wants to say it’s the powers that are warping the Prof (Honestly, at this point I wouldn’t be surprised if he ends up being the big bad of book 3) but I feel like it’s something else. David’s belief that Epics can change and be good is something that Prof obviously used to really believe in, and he views it as a dangerous route to go down, so he travels as far from it as he can. David’s insistence on studying the weaknesses and that Megan is innocent strike to close to that, and I feel like this is where a lot of the issue comes from.

Then there is Megan, who Prof distrust’s a lot, even though as David points out, Prof still doesn’t have the whole story. Megan’s not someone who has a history of violence like other epics, though Prof definitely strikes me as the sort of person that once you break the trust, it’s pretty hard to regain. And yet it feels too much like he wants a reason to distrust her, and isn’t really giving her a fair shake. Arguably David is doing the same thing, he is too trusting, but Megan’s actions are questionable enough for me to at least consider what she is saying (Read: I think that while Megan is still questionable, Prof & co too easily write her off) On the subject of Sam, I find it strange that David hasn’t really asked her about it– and she hasn’t really denied that she did it. It’s definitely strange, but I feel like there is probably more to it than we know.

While I feel like the sort of endgame-setup-plot twist for this book is good, it’s also strangely frustrating. It took over 300 pages for the book to really get interesting (first fight scene notwithstanding) and around 25 pages after that for the David-is-a-traitor plot to kick in. They are both good concepts, but I don’t know if they are set up or executed the best. In fact, while David and Prof have a pretty good scene, every other character gets the short end of the staff here and distrust David way too quickly. Not that it isn’t believable, since they don’t know him too well– but it still feels shallow.

Like Val (who should be smart) thinks that Regalia somehow set up David, who has very clearly never left Newcago in his life, and literally had a corroborating story about steelheart from his childhood, to infiltrate the reckoners. It’s a huge leap in logic, and maybe she doesn’t know everything about David or she’s too emotional, but it still feels pretty jarring. Exel and Missy also are mad at him but it doesn’t really feel that bad because honestly i’m not that invested in either of them and Sanderson doesn’t spend time on actually delineating how they feel. At least at this point, it feels like a good concept that is rather poorly executed.

And then the prof (and Tia I guess) have the gall to be disappointed in David, even though their whole plan was pretty much setting David up for failure. Maybe this was a test, but it honestly seemed like David failing was something that they expected to happen. After everything they went through in the first book and in the year since then, it just makes me kind of angry. Like, if I were David, I would be pretty angry about everything. While David was not very subtle about still seeing Megan, he’s a teenager and Megan was a former member of their group, I don’t know– I understand why they are mad at him, but at the same time everything he did with Megan was in an attempt to undermine Regalia. Like it’s not as if he was helping supply Regalia weapons (If that was what happened it would have made these events more believable) They intentionally keep David in the dark about what actually happened with Sam, try to give him a chance to confess while making it pretty clear that no matter what Megan is still taboo, and David acts like a confused teenager keeping a secret because he’s dumb and doesn’t always make the right call? It’s not like they are unjustified, but they still used David and it makes their ostracisation of him just come off very poorly.

I suppose the last thing I want to talk about is Regalia and the actual Endgame here. I think the biggest thing for me right now, is despite everything, Regalia is still a huge enigma, and even though Tia and Prof knew her personally I feel like none of them are even close to cracking the puzzle that is her. Watch me be wrong, but I feel like David’s right and that all of the puzzle pieces haven’t really come together, which is why the fact that they are gearing up for the final phase against Regalia feels so… out of place. Compared to the previous book where they had already had a few significant hits on Steelheart, they have almost nothing on Regalia aside from a few of David’s efforts. The certainty that the reckoners operate with that they understand the situation feels a bit out of place, especially compared to Steelheart where the plan was very clearly delineated, and they had already gained a lot of information, while Babilar still feels off in a lot of ways. Everything they have learned at this point feels like it has brought more questions and very few answers.

Also, kind of random, but using the assumption that Regalia thinks David is compromised could kind of work. They could use that as part of a trap I think, but they trust him so little that they don’t even consider that– which I think is where a lot of my issue’s come from– despite being in the Reckoner’s for over a year, the fact that they disregard all of that over a genuinely trippy situation, I don’t know it just makes me mad at a lot of the characters. Like I get that Val is emotional because Sam died, but does it really seem that plausible that Regalia planted an unknown guy who didn’t even know how to swim, with a corroborating story of Steelheart into the reckoners? I mean, who knows if she knows the whole story, but it’s still a ridiculous accusation. I could go on, but I’m mad that the characters distrust David so easily, like if anything it almost feels forced. We also don’t really get anything from say Tia, maybe we will later but while i love the concept of David being thrown under the bus, I feel like the buildup to it could have been better, and if the execution of it could really have been improved. Anyways, I’m probably going to read part 4 tomorrow and we will see if any of my issues dissipate- I’ve heard this book has a good ending so we’ll see. If I’m going to make any predictions, right now I will say–

1. Sam was messing around with something he shouldn’t have and that’s why Megan went after him 2. Regalia is doing this elaborate plot to not only draw Prof out but to force him to use his powers and to succumb to their influence

À bientôt!

#firefight #thereckoners #sanderson #brandonsanderson #yalit #ya #books #malreviews #steelheart

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sunnykeysmash · 5 years

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S14's theme of Trust: How Global Warming reaffirms the Macden meta we already know

Or, a half reworked set of discussions from my Twitter about the underlying themes of FAITH/TRUST and CHANGE present in this season. Particularly between macden because I don't give a damn for the rest. Sidenote: my twitter thread about trust that takes up half of this post was actually written BEFORE GW came out, and despite that it got reinforced thanks to GW meta.

I apologize in advance if the reading isn't as fluid as it could be, it's hard to order the threads in a single cohesive explanation but I still tried my best. Plus, english isn't my first language.

This post contains speculation that links to my previous meta posts, tagged under "iasip meta". That's where I discuss the theme of change more in detail, not here. They're a little outdated in terms of episode prediction but the meta analysis in them holds up and was reinforced in GW.

The bible = Trust/Faith

So, how does faith/trust get in the way of their relationship? Who has it, who doesn't?

Let's address it. This might be long but bear with me I guess. First we need to address what broke their trust.

North Dakota

(aka the element that broke the link of trust between macden for good, from which they are still trying to recover; and how we got there; their shift in dynamic because of it and how it's a vicious cycle that feeds itself until a breaking point, with no possibility for rational discussion. "How Mac will reject Dennis as a final test to restore their trust")

Part 1: how it affected Dennis

It is my understanding that dennis has been left profoundly scarred by how his decision to leave to north dakota went and he has been blaming the gang for failing to stop him from leaving, and especially blaming Mac. Which lead to the events in Chokes.

Where he felt frustrated at Mac for doing everything Dennis says and never going against him. He's constantly pushing him and being abrasive because he wishes for him to snap and act on his own volition.

Because aside from feeling like he can't trust anyone, and like no one in the gang cares for him, he most of all feels like he can't trust himself. He has been scarred by the consequences of his own actions, and doesn't know what else he might do that could have a similar effect.

Of course a person who can't really trust himself would feel paralyzed, they would not act or do anything. Which is why we are moving away from that, slowly. We need to have this progression in order for Dennis to Realize anything at all.

So Chokes as an episode is sort of a milestone, it runs really deep in multiple overarching events and developments. It's not just fixing macden's dynamic, it's beginning to fix a core problem that stops dennis from reaching macden and that has been prominent at least ever since Tends Bar.

It's something that has been going on in the background for a while, that is touched upon sometimes. Dennis desperately wants the gang to care about him.

So when he is surprised by the RPG on the day that for him is most emblematic of the gang not caring, I think it hit deeper than what we're assuming. His feelings were challenged.

DDL is a result of many things. On the surface it's him wanting to be a dad for his child the way Frank never could for him. I think it was also a test though. If they truly cared, they would stop him. They wouldn't want him to go away.

Now. They don't. That stings. Then things possibly go south in North Dakota. That also stings. It's easy to mentally connect the two and realize the hurt he's experiencing. "If they had stopped me, none of this would've happened" I assume is the correlation he made mentally.

So then he probably thought about Mac, and the gesture he made. He thought that meant something, but then him, like the rest of the gang, did nothing. So he's even more angry at him. "For a moment I really thought he cared, why wouldn't he do something?" Betrayal.

So that to me explains why he's been acting like shit towards Mac. And he's been slowly trying to work through his feelings on the matter, as S13 sorta showed initially, with him not wanting to address it at all for a while, and when he tried again no one cared. He's been trying.

I wonder if it's a possibility that, as we reach the resolution to this circumstance, he will try to bring it up again. I wouldn't count on it necessarily, but character wise it would simply make sense. If he's getting over the problem, he's leaving ND behind. He should, I mean.

Part 2: how it affected Mac

But this isn't just a circumstance that hinders Dennis, it has deeply afflicted Mac too, in a way that is just as personal. "No matter what I do for a person, they can still choose to leave me", it is no wonder to see that side of him exacerbated, then.

Before ND, Mac trusted Dennis' words, enough to let him leave if he said he wanted to, even if it hurt. Before ND, Dennis trusted that Mac would always "be there to catch him if he faltered", that he cared, especially after the RPG moment.

These were true. They could always count on each other, trust each other. ND changed everything, and altered their dynamic in a way that we are still feeling, and still trying to remedy. That Mac and Den especially are still desperately trying to remedy.

They /want/ to go back to their codependent dynamic, they /need/ to. But the way they are desperately trying to is only making things worse and worse, and it's a terrible cycle.

[ The more Dennis rejects Mac in hope that Mac will finally go against him, the more Mac is desperately trying to appease Dennis so that he won't leave him, the more Dennis is annoyed and dissatisfied of Mac's submissive behavior and becomes more abrasive in return. ]

Which is why I think discussing that event is a necessity in order for macden to even happen at all. They theoretically need a face to face conversation to resolve these core insecurities that are getting in the way of their friendship (and possibly more).

It doesn't have to be a romantic thing either, it is just necessary for this conflict to be addressed in order for their dynamic to go back to normal. But that can't happen without a breaking point. We know them enough to assume that they're not gonna just discuss it rationally. It would be the correct way to handle the situation, but they're not like that.

Whether everything resolves positively (as in, their dynamic finally shifting back to before ND) depends on how much they want to stay together and what they are willing to sacrifice or compromise for it. Whether certain grievances can be stronger than their bond itself (and I'm pretty sure they can't, or mac and den would've parted already, long ago).

Mac's internal conflict is likely what will make it so that we have to wait a year. If it just isn't resolved, then he would want proof that Dennis isn't /just saying/ stuff. Den might assure him that he isn't but is that enough for Mac?

How do you resolve a conflict that is basically just a huge almost debilitating fear of abandonment and mistrust of the other person's words? In what way can you possibly prove it wrong?

We know Mac loves Dennis, of course he does. But does he trust Dennis? The way he has been behaving towards him tells me otherwise. He doesn't stand up to him.

Not only that but, more specifically, he's always "interpreting" everything Dennis says, you can see it in Texts for example. He knows den never means what he says, and always has an ulterior motive or hidden meaning. He doesn't take den's rejections at heart too much because he knows they're fake.

So now imagine Dennis has a change of heart. Now he goes to Mac, and he tells him Exactly How He Truly Feels. Knowing the way Mac is used to interpreting Dennis, I don't think he'd believe him. He'd want to, but he probably couldn't.

And I don't think Mac even realizes this lack of trust at all. I think it's gonna hit him exactly as it's happening. He might feel happy at first, then be confused at his sense of uneasiness like he's been used and lied to, like Dennis is saying it to manipulate him.

But that's just for words. Physically speaking, I think Mac is very much aware that Dennis has no intention of ever leaving again, nor can he really. That's how it seemed to be in tggr at least.

The abandonment Mac is afraid of is purely emotional at this point with Dennis. It doesn't need to be a "what if he moves out". More of a "what if he doesn't like me anymore and is using me".

So anyway, about the cycle I mentioned earlier.

This feels like a build up. They can't go on like this forever, they will reach a breaking point. I don't expect them to have an honest and open and calm confrontation and solve their differences before a huge snap of both of them happens, I expect the snap.

You know, either Dennis gets too abrasive and Mac finally "snaps out of him", or Mac gets too submissive and Dennis grows tired of him.

However thanks to Chokes and now Global Warming, we can safely predict it'll be the first one. Chokes set us on a path of Mac making his own decisions, which thanks to GW we know will backfire.

They'll fight, Dennis will be overwhelmed by it as Mac ""leaves"", more on that later, first let me finish my discussion on trust.

I find it suspicious how all the episodes with a semblance of resolution that we have had so far only seemed to fix Dennis' conflicts with Macden. We have failed to address Mac's lack of trust in Dennis' words, even in Texts I think. Especially in Texts.

In Texts it wasn't communication that solved the problem, it was an act, a stare. And we only ever heard Dennis' side of it. Mac at this point already believes that Dennis likes him, so there was nothing new for him to discover at the end.

If anything, it reinforced his belief that Dennis says the opposite of what he thinks, that he isn't honest. Because despite how he's been acting all day, he still saw affection in his eyes, I assume.

But Mac has already always paid attention to what Dennis "really meant", I mean, he does it throughout Texts, thought in the wrong way because it was still through text (miscommunication) and he didn't like to consider the alternative.

I put "really meant" in quotations because Dennis doesn't really work like that. Sure a lot of times Dennis doesn't say what he really means so of course Mac would start interpreting him like that, but there are still many times when he's actually honest. This is just Mac's black and white way of seeing den.

Anyway.

As a result of not feeling heard, Dennis actually developed a heavier and more frequent use of sarcasm. Because if people won't do what he says, then maybe if he says the opposite they'll listen to him. It's a reflex born out of frustration.

Back to the "trust" thing now, because see, all this time Dennis has been acting under the underlying assumption that Mac will choose Him every time. Mac doesn't have this assumption, he has been acting to Prevent Dennis from NOT choosing him.

It's gonna be really interesting, if this turns out to be correct, to see the tables be turned and find out that Dennis was the one with faith. We are used to see Mac believe have it, in god and in their relationship, but ultimately it's Dennis that is trusting Mac to make the right decisions. Which includes choosing Dennis every time.

That's a bigass trust to have for someone who says they have no faith. In contrast to that, what faith has Mac put in Dennis? None that I can think of, he actively does stuff that will please dennis, so far.

"leaving"/"rejecting" Dennis in the finale would constitute, again, Mac's faith in Dennis. He would be choosing something that goes right against everything Dennis wants, having faith that this won't mean they grow apart, and maybe even trusting that it's what Dennis actually needs. And it's what Mac would need as well, as proof that Dennis is serious. Because if he doesn't change his mind, then he is. And you can finally see how the whole season has been constructed as a way to move away from the ND conflict in order to fix their dynamic and broken trust in order to make macdennis work.

This calls back to my meta reading for the first half of the season. Again. This is old stuff. But still accurate.

Some snippets.

I now have a more detailed speculation on how Jumper will go which is no longer the one I had in that meta post, but I will spare you the useless talk and get back to my point. Maybe save that for another post. All I need to say here is that Dennis will be adamant that the answer is SHOULD WE: NO, Mac will want to prove him wrong but Dennis will be proven right, subsequently starting the path for Mac's change of outlook. And what will make him say "no"(t yet) even once Dennis believes they should. Boom, karma.

ANYWAY.

Dennis knows he can depend on Mac or at least he's learning so, Mac isn't sure if he can do the same.

As the two bicker over who had trust in who, and who broke the other's trust, it'll come to the surface, through text, that the roles have shifted. Dennis was trusting Mac all along, Mac wasn't.

Which is why Mac deciding for himself, deciding something that goes against Dennis, saying "no", is the biggest leap of faith Mac can take, the thing that would show us that yes, finally, Mac believes Dennis will still choose him.

TGGR's final part of macden's plot itself shows us Mac accepting Dennis' cynical point of view and losing faith. "I guess we're not gonna get that romantic comedy ending after all". But that is not the note the episode ends with.

Right as Mac accepts that it's not happening, we see Charlie and Frank's ending part of their plot. They're reaching back, they have a new realization. Nikki says that they feel the same way, but they still say no for the time being.

How does this all link to Global Warming, finally?

The Global Warming meta

The jump, the realization, the acceptance, in all the meta I have analyzed in the episodes, it all comes AFTER the explosion, the rejection. First things explode and Mac "leaves", THEN Dennis is overwhelmed and changes his mind, reevaluates. Think of the Nikki&Alexi and Charlie&Frank plot as a frame of reference for this. Think of Chokes also, first Mac says "No", then Dennis is satisfied.

NOW, Global Warming macdennis meta, at its most basic, goes as follows:

Dennis thought what he liked was the sexy girls dancing, then they revolted against him and literally overpowered him, and in the aftermath he has a new outlook on the japanese guys that he once disliked. At the same time as this happens, Mac isn't there to help him.

At the same time, we always see Dennis trying to rationalize his way out of conflicts, and it never working, not with Mac, not with the people in the bar.

Basically, we reach a breaking point in the conflict, and Dennis is overwhelmed by it, Mac doesn't help him in GW, he "leaves", I imagine this symbolizing that Mac finally agreeing with Dennis in the actual final conflict would feel to Den like Mac is "giving up on them". Dennis took Mac choosing him for granted, and he now learns how much trust he had in Mac despite saying otherwise (Chokes) and how much it meant to him. Dennis comes out of it changed.

They both do.

This, as I posted about previously, is all part of "God's plan". Dennis gave Mac back his "free will" in Chokes so that Mac's harsh final decisions could ultimately aid their relationship and trust.

We need Mac to turn Dennis down for the time being AND for Dennis to not change his mind during the wait, for the trust to be restored for both of them. To remedy North Dakota once and for all, and move into the macdennis territory. In a year, aka next season.

So finally, we can see how TGGR, Chokes, Texts and now GW all work together as milestones that set us in that direction.

#iasip #it's always sunny in philadelphia #macdennis #macden #season 14 #the gang solves global warming #iasip meta #this is long and complicated but I hope at least one person will get what I mean

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beeblackburn · 4 years

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Pretender Reads A Little Hatred, Part I, Chapter Ten

I won’t break this streak of reading, but procrastination’s got different ideas at times. Goes without saying spoilers ahead for the entirety of The First Law works beyond the keep reading. Read at your own risk.

Chapter Title: Break What They Love Point-of-View: Rikke

Rikke wriggled her shoulders further back among the knotted roots, up to her neck in the icy river and her hair full of dirt, listening to the warriors of her enemy trudge past on the path above. By the sound of it, there were a lot of the bastards. She wondered, yet again, what would happen if they caught her. When they caught her. She tried to make her breath come slow, come even, come quiet.

What with the grinding fear for herself, and the chafing worry for everyone she knew, and the niggling pain of a hundred little knocks and scratches, and the gnawing hunger and gripping cold, it all added up to quite the shittest afternoon she’d ever had, and that with some recent savage competition.

I partly wondered, from a narrative standpoint, why we had so much more Rikke chapters than anyone else in the first ten chapters, four compared to everyone else’s (besides Leo’s two) one chapter. From a character standpoint, they’re slowly acclimatizing Rikke to being more of a survivor, hardening her mind to the turmoils of losing her home and having to run, but I did wonder why her second and third chapters couldn’t have just been tightened into a larger single chapter. I liked them, to be clear, I just wondered the intent.

Now, it clicks better: it’s to get the reader to empathize with the passing grind of miserable days endured post-Uffrith’s burning. A continuity of shittiness and hunger and numbing chill, multiple chapters get across that better than shortening the amount of them. There’s the plot and character details to consider, of course, but in terms of choosing more than less chapters? I’d say it’s to show to the reader, on-page, how much crappy circumstances Rikke’s had to endure for her to have savage competition against this being the worst day.

And, boy, is Rikke scared, given the switch from “if” to “when” of catching her. There’s still a bit of softness and cold fear stuck in her, from a lifetime of being coddled. Isern might have talked about making her iron of a sword, but swords aren’t forged in a day or two. They take time, and Abercrombie’s quite good at making character development a messy path, full of pauses and set-backs.

She felt a fingertip under her jaw, pushing her mouth closed, and realised her teeth had started chattering. Isern was pressed against the bank beside her, river to her sharp chin and hair plastered to her frowning face, still as the earth, patient as the trees, hard as the stones. Her eyes rolled up from Rikke’s to the root-riddled overhang above, and she quietly slipped one finger from the water and over her scarred lips for quiet.

What I love about Abercrombie? That tightness of voice. Of course Rikke didn’t realize her teeth chattering, because we subconsciously can’t help or don’t acknowledge such actions when cold or scared. We’re unreliable bastards that way, and that’s why we need others to let us know the actions we won’t register in our consciousness.

“Shit,” came a voice, so loud it seemed in Rikke’s ear, and she startled, might’ve splashed from the bank on an instinct if Isern’s hand hadn’t clamped tight about her numb arm under the water.

And it seems Isern understands that a sword isn’t forged in a day too. I low-key wonder how much, realistically, that splash would’ve tipped off whoever was around, but, at the same time... the Dogman’s screwed up with stealth before.

And it just takes a moment’s bad luck. Just one.

“Shit… and…” A man’s voice, getting on in years but soft and slow, like he was in no hurry. “There we go.” A satisfied grunt, and a stream of faintly steaming piss came spattering into the water not a stride from Rikke’s face. Sad thing was, she was tempted to stick her head under it just for the warmth.

Bwuhahaha, that’s disgusting, but at the same time, after days of hunger and freezing? Yeah, I can see how dignity takes a backseat to just easing long-setting discomfort for a moment. People can surrender many things, just for expediency. Pride, morals, humanity... just look at the first trilogy for examples.

Also... Clover? That “he was in no hurry” makes me think him, especially considering Stour’s patient as bulls contemporaries. Which... huh! The second time point-of-view characters crossed over in the same chapter, after Savine and Orso in A Little Public Hanging. Curious to see how he handles finding Rikke...

“There’s all kinds of pleasures in life,” came the voice, “but I’ve come to think there’s little better than a piss when you really need one.”

“Huh.” A woman’s voice this time, picking each word careful as a smith picks the nails for a rich man’s horseshoes. “Not sure whether I’ve more respect for you or less following that little revelation.”

“It’s getting to the point…” The stream stopped, then started up again. “Where I sometimes hold on to it… so when I do go…” A few more little squirts. “It feels better than ever. How goes the noble clash of arms?”

Okay, yeah, definitely Clover and Wonderful, they’re the only ones with that kind of dynamic so far.

Also, not to be too crude... but relatable, Clover, you disgusting bastard. Hey, better than worshiping the pleasure of burning houses, eh, Wonderful?

“Union are pulling back as fast as they can. Some skirmishes but there’s no real fight in ’em. No sign o’ the Dogman’s boys. Running, I reckon.”

“Suits me well enough,” said the man. “Any luck, they’ll run all the way back to Angland and we can all have a lie down.”

Rikke glanced over at Isern. She’d been right. She always was bloody right, specially when it came to disheartening predictions.

Not surprising, but, Clover, you do realize Stour wants Angland too? If anything, it’s less a lie down you’ll get, and more besieging a capital with high walls and plenty of angry Union and Dogman’s men behind them. And, given the North doesn’t have a navy, Angland can probably hole up quite a while, given their port.

Unless you mean the siege itself would be the lie down, which, ya shit.

That morning they’d come upon a clearing full of corpses. A dozen or more. Men from both sides, all on the same side now. They say the Great Leveller settles all differences. Rikke had stared at those bodies, her wrist against her mouth, her breath crawling. Then she’d seen Isern, squatting over the dead like a corpse-eater from the songs, plucking at torn clothes, fiddling with buckles.

“What are you doing?”

“Looking for anything we can eat.”

And Rikke had set to searching herself. Trying not to look at their faces as she rooted through pockets with numb fingers. Isern had been right about that, too. Your fear, your guilt, your disgust, they all vanish once you get hungry enough. The thing that really upset her as they crept away from the dead was that they hadn’t found anything.

From just wanting a bit more food way back in Guilt Is a Luxury than her companion to now stealing from the dead, Rikke’s practically taking in the lesson of self-interest being reliable to one’s motives than higher-minded thoughts. Because, ultimately, the dead won’t complain here. It’s the living who have a host of worries, stomachs aching with hunger, who don’t want to join the dead.

“Chief!” someone roared up on the road. “Nightfall! The king-in-waiting!” And there was an approving clatter of weapons on shields.

Rikke stiffened under the water. Stiffened far as she could given she was near enough a block of ice already, and Isern pressed against her and whispered, hardly more’n a breath, “Shhhhhhhh…”

Oh, shit. (swallows)

“By the dead,” she heard the woman mutter above, and then, with forced good cheer, “Chief! How’s the day?”

“Bloodless so far, but it’s still early.” The voice of Stour Nightfall himself, then. A whining sort of voice for a famous warrior. Sounded like a boy on the edge of a tantrum. “They’re thin sauce, these Southerners, always trickling away. The Bloody-Nine had Rudd Threetrees to fight, and Black Dow, and Harding Grim and all the rest. How’s a man meant to win a great name without great enemies to weigh it against?”

A brief pause. “It’s a tester, all right,” said the woman.

The difference between Clover and Rikke’s look on Stour? Rikke’s more fully geared to think worse of Stour, given Uffrith’s burning, taking into account his “whining” sort of voice. Clover... well, he was certainly primed to think worse of Stour, given Calder and Wonderful’s words, but that’s cushioned a bit by the knowledge that Stour’s just the recent out of a shitty cycle of warrior cocks.

Rikke doesn’t have that knowledge and that wouldn’t cushion away Uffrith’s fate. Not that it should, because, geez, Stour does sound the whiny type, wanting a big name to puff himself up, just like the Bloody-Nine did. All this does is strengthen my Stour = cut-price Bloody-Nine sentiment. Wonderful’s response is perfect sarcasm in that regard. I just imagine both she and Clover are rolling their eyes in their minds at Stour right now.

I know I am.

Also, it’s nice that Finree’s plans are working accordingly!

“I’ve a task for you, Wonderful. There’s a girl out in these woods.” Rikke had a bad feeling in her stomach. Worse than the hunger, and she shrank against the bank like she could become one with the dirt. “I want her.”

A snorting chuckle from the enthusiastic pisser. “Well, who wouldn’t want a girl out in the woods?” There was a silence, like the jest had miscarried. Certainly Rikke wasn’t fucking laughing. “How do we tell this girl from another?”

“They say she’s got a twitchy way. She’ll have a gold ring through her nose, maybe a cross painted over her eye.”

Rikke touched the tip of her tongue to the ring through her nose and whispered, “Fuck.”

“She might have some witch of a hillwoman with her. That you can kill. But the girl we need alive.”

“Must be important,” said the woman called Wonderful.

Nightfall gave a little hooting giggle. “Well, there’s the thing. She’s the Dogman’s daughter.”

Hm? They weren’t already looking for Rikke? Or, is it... they know the approximate location of where she is now? Because, shit, there’s the active tension we’ve been missing in the past Rikke chapters. Whereas they were about Rikke getting into the survivalist mindset, this is the starting point of where she concretely realizes it’s survive or die. She has the voice of the enemy now.

“What happens if we catch her?”

An unhappy grunt. “Well, if my father gets her, I daresay he’ll ransom her back, dangle her as bait, use her to get his way when it comes to talking peace.” And Nightfall spat out the word like it tasted bad. “You know my father. Plans within plans.”

“Always been clever, Black Calder,” came the man’s voice.

Very Bethod with Rattleneck’s son, Calder. Cunning to use as leverage against the Dogman and the Union to getting back Uffrith and Angland. I doubt Rikke, by herself, has the traction to get back Angland, of course, but Uffrith... Dogman’s generally had a more decent heart than most, and I’m sure he’d consider it, at least.

Too bad that Stour—

“I see things different. How I see it, the way you break your enemy is you break what they love. Way I hear it, those old fools on the other side love that twitching bitch. Sort of a little mascot for ’em.” Rikke heard the smile in his voice. “So if I get hold of her, I’ll strip her, and whip her, and pull her teeth out, and maybe get some Thralls to fuck her, out between the lines where everyone can hear her squealing.” Bit of a silence, and Rikke heard her own breath coming ragged, and Isern’s hand tightening around her arm. “Or maybe I’d get my horse to fuck her. Or my dogs. Or… like, a pig, maybe?”

WHAT.

The older man sounded more than a touch disgusted. “How the hell would you do that?”

“There’s naught you can’t do if you’ve the imagination and the patience. Then I’ll bind her up in the trees with brambles where everyone can see, and cut the bloody cross in her, and put a bucket underneath to catch her guts, and send ’em to the other side.”

THE.

“What, her guts?”

“Aye, in a pretty box. Hardwood, nicely carved. With flowers, maybe. Or no! Herbs. So those old fools won’t smell what they’re getting till they open it.” And he gave a satisfied grunt, like he was talking about a nice fish he’d catch, or a nice meal he’d eat, or a nice sit on the porch he couldn’t wait to have at sunset. “Imagine the looks on their faces.” And he chuckled like her guts in a box would be quite the height of drollery.

“Fuck,” breathed Rikke.

FUCK.

HOLY SHIT, STOUR. What the ACTUAL FUCK?

1. My jaw legit dropped at this and I had to walk away from the text for a solid fifteen minutes. That’s how bad my immediate reaction was. 2. After that walk and thinking about it a little more... yeah, wow, this is going to put more fear into Rikke... or hatred. As Machiavelli say, it is better to be feared than loved, if you cannot have both, but avoid hatred at all costs, and this might tip Rikke into hatred. So. Congratulations, Stour, you might have just made a hard enemy without realizing it. 3. ... Stour Nightfall is actually kind of really... comically absurd, reading back? Like, really over-the-top pointless cruelty in a way that Abercrombie intended. Don’t get me wrong, he’s a clear-cut asshole and, regardless of sincerity, Rikke should have plenty of reason to fear him, but the “Or… like, a pig, maybe.” line makes me think he’s trying to escalate his plans in an attempt to be all imposing and full of blackness to Clover of all people. 4. If we continue the Bethod/Logen/Rattleneck and his son allusion, then there’s nothing of the cold, chilling nature of Made a Monster’s ending here. It’s just a child trying to play-act the Bloody-Nine and thinking that makes him a badass. Look, I know some people might take Stour full-on serious here and I get that, considering the sexual threats, but t’s just... sorry, really, I can’t entirely take it seriously. Especially when Abercrombie’s proven in the first trilogy he does not write such over-the-top threats and situations without taking the piss out of them. 5. Good that even Clover was disgusted by this. Should be taken as a given, but it’s good to know Stour disgusts even hardened Named Men. 6. For that matter, what’s Stour’s angle here? This is in private, only him, Wonderful, and Clover, and Wonderful’s likely already been treated to plenty of stories about Stour’s assholery. So, in all honesty, from a character standpoint, this feels like it’s mostly for Clover’s benefit. Stour already treats Clover with derision and like an old turd, so why does the ass-pup feel the need to impress Clover with how much of a BIG VIOLENT COCK WARRIOR he is? Maybe it is the lack of reverence from Clover that makes Stour push harder and escalate to get a positive reaction? Or maybe Stour just wants to imprint some fear into Clover, considering he’s the newest Named Man in his company? 7. Thinking through all of this, why are you such a disgusting dumbass, Stour.

“But that’s for later.” And Nightfall gave a disappointed sigh. “Can’t cook what you haven’t caught, can you? My father’s offering a big gild for her, that’s sure. Whoever brings her in’ll be a wealthy man.”

The woman called Wonderful sounded like she was hardly enjoying this any more than Rikke was. “Right y’are, Chief. We’ll be looking.”

Good thing about Rikke’s perspective? Even she has the good nature to know Stour’s “allies” don’t much enjoy the ass-pup like her. Though, that won’t really stop Wonderful from capturing her and giving her to Stour, will it.

Rikke heard soft footfalls moving away. Perhaps she should’ve been frozen with fear. The dead knew she’d a right to be. But what she felt instead was a boiling fury. A fury that warmed her through despite the icy water frothing to her chin. A fury that tempted her to slip from the stream with her knife between her teeth and cut the bloody cross in Stour Nightfall right then and there.

Rikke’s father had always told her vengeance was a waste of effort. That letting it go was the strong thing, the wise thing, the right thing. That blood only led to more blood. But his lessons seemed far away now, meant for a warmer place. She clenched her jaw, and narrowed her eyes, and swore to herself that if she lived out the week, she’d make it her business to see Stour Nightfall fucked by a pig.

Oh, oh.

You know, I’ve been low-key wondering which first trilogy comparison befitted Rikke in terms of being a refinement/evolution of an earlier character archetype and, while the Dogman or Logen were the easiest choices to pick, both of them the Northern perspectives in the first trilogy, I feel like the Logen comparison only holds up in terms of early chapter material similarities of cold-bitten survival and hardships, whereas the Dogman comparison held up decent enough, another Northerner who just wants to do the right thing... until now. Now, it clicks into place what first trilogy archetype Rikke’s refined from.

The first woman, burning with vengeance.

“What do you want, Ferro Maljinn?”

“What?”

“Why did you do that?” Yulwei pointed down at the dead man. “What do you want?”

“Vengeance.” She spat out the word.

—The Blade Itself, What Freedom Looks Like

Rikke’s the most recent of vengeful women in the Circle of the World.

She curled her fingers round the cold grip, strange in her left hand, and slid a few inches of steel from the sheath. It shone bright and eager in the lamplight. Good steel bends, but never breaks. Good steel stays always sharp and ready. Good steel feels no pain, no pity and, above all, no remorse.

She felt herself smile. The first time in months. The first time since Gobba’s wire hissed tight around her neck.

Vengeance, then.

—Best Served Cold, The Bone-Thief

But, if we’re talking in terms of backstory, the hardships, the suffering of diaspora at a young age from losing your home and those you loved?

The old man jerked his head at the woman, watching them suspiciously with her slanted yellow eyes. “She is from a place called Muntaz.”

“I never heard of it.”

“Why would you have?” The old man shrugged his bony shoulders. “A small country, by the sea, far to the east of Shaffa, beyond the mountains. The Gurkish conquered it years ago, and its people were scattered or made slaves. Apparently she has been in a foul mood ever since.” The woman scowled over at them, keeping one eye on the soldiers.

—The Blade Itself, Nobody’s Dog

Rikke, I posit, is Abercrombie’s second chance at writing Ferro, given far more dimensionality and given a greater sense of personhood pre-vengeance. Ferro was too tight-lipped about her losses and locked in her vengeful mindset to be that much more than a vessel of vengeance against Uthman-ul-Dosht and Khalul. She was also surprisingly passive in terms of the narrative, back then, being jerked around by Bayaz’s offer of vengeance against the Gurkish Empire and less an independent player on the board until after the first trilogy.

Rikke’s still young enough, just walking the first steps, to not be devoted to vengeance, to choose and seek out better paths, because as Ferro herself points out:

When the light of the fires and the sound of the talking had faded into the distance she stopped and dropped down on the hard ground. A cold wind blew up across the barren plain. It blew stinging dust in her face, but she hardly noticed. The hate and the fury were gone, for the time being, but they had left a hole, and she had nothing else to fill it with. She felt empty and cold and sick and alone. She hugged herself, rocking slowly back and forth, and closed her eyes. But the darkness held no comfort.

—The Blade Itself, What Freedom Looks Like

By the dead, I have no complaints about her wanting Stour dead, but... I hope she comes out of that, still human. Still having something inside her by vengeance’s end.

That being said, I 100% hope and expect to get Ferro in this trilogy eventually!!! Just like Ardee and Terez, Ferro’s a female character given the short shrift, comparatively, who I will be fascinated at reading, if Abercrombie gives us.

“I’ll be honest, Wonderful,” came the man’s voice, the one called Clover, speaking soft like he was sharing a secret, “I’m finding that bastard increasingly troubling.”

“Aye, I know.”

“Took it for an act at first, but I’m starting to think he’s everything he pretends to be.”

“Aye, I know.”

“Guts in a box? With herbs?”

“Aye, I know.”

“He’ll be king one o’ these days, will guts-in-a-box over yonder. King o’ the Northmen. Him.”

A long pause, then a weary grunt. “It’s a thing no right-thinking person could look forward to.”

I’m... of two minds here. I’m not sure Stour’s everything he pretends to be, not all his reputation is, but I definitely agree that there’s an vicious and awful person in him, regardless. This isn’t a decent man pretending to be a bad man for fear or reputation’s sake, like the typical trope demands and like Bethod and Calder had to act. This is a bad man pretending to be worse. Stour carving out his own path, out of the stale and well-trodden roads of the ghosts of the first trilogy.

Also, when you put it like that, this strikes me of like how the North reacted to King Logen, way back in Last Argument of Kings. Fear of what was to come out of that station and reality. And it really says something that Clover and Wonderful, two Named People who’ve lived through three Kings of the North, talk of Stour’s upcoming reign as something that strikes as worse than Black Dow or potentially the Bloody-Nine’s reign.

Rikke could only agree. She thought she saw a hint of their reflections, dancing among the black branches in the water.

“You see something down there?”

(Throat tightens) After Stour’s threats? Oh god no.

She stiffened, numb fingers curling tight around the grip of her knife. She saw the jaw muscles clench on the side of Isern’s face, blade of her spear sliding from the water, smeared with pitch so it wouldn’t catch the light.

“What? Fish?”

“Aye. Worth getting my rod, d’you think?”

The sound of Wonderful hawking up, then a glob of phlegm came spinning over from above and plopped into the water. “Nothing in this stream worth catching, I reckon.”

(Breath of relief) Live to survive another day, Rikke! Though, I’ll admit, I wonder what would’ve happened if Clover and Wonderful found out Rikke? Would they let her go, considering they’re not particularly enjoying the graces of Prince Ass-Pup? Or would they have captured her, thinking it not much of a weight on their consciences compared to their own lives? I’m not sure I’d like the answer to that question...

As a chapter, this is one hell of a turning point, important to the plot and characterization. It’s the accumulation of all of Rikke’s chapters in the woods, digging through corpses’ pockets and freezing so hard she feels like ice, hiding from Stour’s men. But, from there, the crux of the chapter of the Stour material, which... as disgusted and grossed-out as I was at first impression, strikes me as dearly overcompensating in hindsight, for some reason. But he makes a turning point in Rikke’s narrative, where she goes from just wanting to survive and be safe from his men, to having the more visceral motive of vengeance against Stour after his words. It’s a worrying turn, to say the least, especially given the Ferro connection, but after the circumstances she’s endured... can’t much blame her. The chapter also sets up a point of discontent between Stour and the rest of the Northmen and how much his over-the-top cruelty could turn off his allies, which, given Rikke’s from the North too and his enemy... could prove interesting.

PART I

Chapter One: Blessings and Curses Chapter Two: Where the Fight’s Hottest Chapter Three: Guilt Is a Luxury Chapter Four: Keeping Score Chapter Five: A Little Public Hanging Chapter Six: The Breakers Chapter Seven: The Answer to Your Tears Chapter Eight: Young Heroes Chapter Nine: The Moment Chapter Ten: Break What They Love

#a little hatred #a little hatred spoilers #the age of madness #the first law #joe abercrombie #rikke #a little hatred part I

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spongeguyandlelouchvibridankia · 4 years

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SpongeGuy Reviews Every Disney Sitcom Ever!: Liv and Maddie (1.1): “Twin-A-Rooney”

Sorry this one is a day late!

Liv and Maddie is a Drake and Josh clone I don’t hate starring Dove Cameron as two human beings, something that still impresses me! The show focuses on Liv and Maddie Rooney (a girly girl teen actress and a tomboy jock respectively) as they try to deal with life as a family again, alongside their brothers Joey and Parker and their parents Karen and Pete.

The show was a massive success for the channel, and I never really watched it, but it always struck me as intriguing. And Now I’m finally giving it a review, so let’s get to it!

SUMMERY: Liv Rooney has returned home from a four-year stint in Hollywood to the open arms of her parents, brothers, and twin sister Maddie. When Maddie confesses she has a crush on a boy named Diggie, Liv disguises herself as Maddie in an effort to win her a date to the upcoming dance. Unfortunately, Diggie says no. When Liv confesses that she asked Diggie to the dance, Maddie is upset and tells Liv that she wishes Liv had never left Hollywood. Liv prepares to leave, but her parents stop her, trying to show Liv that twins are special and she and Maddie will always be sisters. When Maddie is out practicing basketball, Diggie comes up to her and tells her he knew that it was Liv that asked him and that was why he said no, telling her that even though she and Liv have the same face, he knows Maddie. He then asks Maddie to the dance and she says yes. Meanwhile, Joey and Parker attempt to turn their shared bedroom into a bro-cave, but it backfires when Liv almost leaves. Liv gets emotional about a painting that she and Maddie made, and decides to stay.

COMEDY: 3 Out of 5

This is a strong 3, it has to be added. Yes, while this too has a lot of sitcom humor fodder, somehow, it’s more charming with this set of characters and this delivery. The Office esque interviews actually add instead of hinder, and a lot of the humor ends up relying on the character’s quirks and dynamics with each other rather than banal zingers we’ve all heard over and over again. In fact, I was quite impressed with the delivery on the jokes more than the jokes themselves! For example, the subplot is a fairly standard one: Joey and Parker, the brothers, realize that Liv and Maddie are getting all the attention, and take advantage of the situation to build a bro cave. When they have to bring the fridge back it falls down the stairs and crashes into a popcorn machine. Fairly standard teen sitcom slapstick, but the execution really made me smile.

It’s hard to explain, but the show has great execution, even if the jokes aren’t really that hysterical. But perhaps our next category can explain that.

CHARACTERS: 4 Out of 5

Once more, our show here has a lot of sitcom fodder: A girly girl diva, a tomboy jock, they’re twins, they butt heads but are also besties, there’s a geek brother and a trouble making brother, and two clueless parents. Heck, the episode ends with a date to the dance! But somehow, despite all these clear tropes, this episode manages to make me like nearly each one, even the parents! (I don’t like Parker, but that’s just a matter of preference, he wasn’t bad by any means)

A lot of it, I think, comes down to the script’s respect for the characters and the execution. Let me explain: The writers of this show know they’re working with tropes. But these tropes HAVE worked before. They just need a little extra kick. So the writers write the characters with respect, giving them motivations and actions that fit them and make them likable, and not assholes (an easy trap to fall into in shows like this), and the actors than execute these actions and make them even more likable. So when Liv dresses up as Maddie, we don’t think that this is absolutely stupid, because Liv is clearly trying to help. And when Maddie gets angry at Liv, it makes sense (even if that part was a little rushed, which is why I am Story and Heart will get):

STORY AND HEART: 3 Out of 5

Again, a strong 3, but a 3 nonetheless. This is no revolutionary story: This is the Drake and Josh pilot if they were always brothers. But once more, execution is so key to this show. Yes, the twin bond could have been shown to us a little more, yes the story is VERY STANDARD, yes the ending is predictable.

I honestly don’t have much to say but: I had FUN watching this. Good Luck Charlie was better, especially in the writing and realism, but this one was a lot of fun, it just was. And I honestly felt happy to see the characters happy in the end, so if that’s not a sucess, i don’t know what is!

FINAL SCORE: 10 Out of 15

A very respectful score, an excellent start for this show for sure!

Next time: Stuck In The Middle, a show that cannot possibly be a Loud House ripoff, but does feel a lot like a live action version of it. But Isabelle from Elena of Avalor is in that and she is super cute so that’s good!

https://docs.google.com/document/d/100qHOP9aQ1AmKbrYuc--CQAP3LQnHfsS/edit

#liv and maddie #dove cameron #review every disney show #spongeguy #disney sitcom #disney channel

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bat-lings · 6 years

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Opinion on Jason Todd/Bruce Wayne relationship as a father-son?

ALRIGHT the human rambling disaster that I am struck again

Jump to the conclusion if it’s too long!

It’s just really hard discussing anything about Jason without acknowledging the sheer mess that DC’s whims made of him. To take that inconsistency into account let’s consider his relationship with Bruce from three angles:

Before Jason’s death / during his Robin days as portrayed before Starlin;

Before Jason’s death / during his Robin days as portrayed since Starlin and up until Jason’s resurrection, through mentions & flashbacks;

Post-resurrection.

Sadly enough the first era is the only one that bothers to portray a father-son dynamic with enough content to have a real opinion on, but I’ll take what I have. And what we have then is pretty great.

Jason’s Robin days

We’re in the 80’s, and Jason & Bruce’s relationship is the most ridiculously pure thing to have graced our poor souls. It’s soft and good.

They have great interactions, a real proximity, and overall bring a lot into each other’s life. Alfred and Bruce are happy to have another kid at home, and Jason is as much in need of guidance & of a family as any other kid. Jason doubts himself a lot and Bruce does his best to reassure him. He’s also is a teasing little shit and that’s great.

[Batman #377 || Detective Comics #579]

[Detective Comics (1937) #573]

JASON YOU’RE TOO CUTE. Also the tired dad feel is strong in that one lmao. Jay, lad, my son, my life,, what have you done to the newspaper,,,,

Ahem right, less gushing more commenting.

As you can see, Jason and Bruce’s relationship before his death/resurrection is pretty peachy. The slice of life sequences strengthen their father-son bond into the reader’s mind. We’re shown they’re father and son rather than just told so.

At some point Bruce’s custody of Jason is temporarily threatened, and that arc is a vivid telling of how strong their bond is.

[Detective Comics #542 || Batman (1940) #377]

Just. That whole speech. “Only Jason is real.” Definitely one of my favorite papa-bat moments.

And as Robin? Jason is clever, often brings valuable insight during cases, and respects Bruce’s teaching and authority. Bruce makes a good job at addressing Jason’s insecurities and guiding him, both through his training and by honing his moral compass.

(Note that I said honing, ‘cause Jay’s moral sense is very much present well before he meets Bruce. He was cool with stealing to survive but Ma Gunn’s school was too much for him.)

He’s initially nothing like the violent angry kid he’s now known as. Pre-Starlin, the only times Jason acts brashly is when confronted with his father’s killer. When Bruce addresses the matter, it’s not about blaming or judging him. ‘Cause he gets it, but it’s also his job to make sure Jason’s not compromised.

[Detective Comics #580 & 581]

And when Jason promises to keep himself in check, it’s all it takes for Bruce to take him back on the case. That’s how much he trusts him. Read the end of the issue and see how Jason proves himself worthy of that trust.

Not only does Jason understand Bruce as much as Bruce understands him, but he’s very perceptive in general. He tends to be straightforward with what’s on his mind… at least when it comes to calling out Bruce lol

[Detective Comics #579]

(They’re talking about Leslie on the last one btw. She was Bruce’s surrogate mom after his parents’ death and they have a great dynamic. Another pearl straight outta the 80′s!)

They get each other, they trust each other, they respect each other. Honestly Bruce’s relationship with Jason was the most healthy he’s had with any of his kids.

We can kiss all of that goodbye after Starlin has his way with Jason. And since Starlin’s “““characterization””” is the one that crossed the years, of all things, we can consider Jason’s initial portrayal pretty much retconed— and his relationship with Bruce with it. Shame, huh?

Of Flashbacks and Victim-Blaming Robin days, 2.0

From the 90’s to the reboot there is… few material about Jason’s relationship with Bruce. Or about Jason outside of his death/Robin.

Whether Jason is mentioned or appears in a flashback, the goal isn’t to recall a father-son relationship. It’s to drive through the point that Jason was reckless and violent. That new portrayal has its predictable impact on their relationship, and that’s pretty much all there is to say.

[Gotham Knights #43]

Obviously Bruce doesn’t trust Jason, since Jason is now a “reckless angry kid who likes to inflict pain on criminals”. Beatty delivers cool stories, but if you read that arc you’ll see that he lies it very thick when it comes to victim-blaming Jason.

Depending which writer/comic book you’re reading, it’s implied or affirmed that Jason is Bruce’s son. You’ll probably have a line about Bruce’s unending guilt, or Jason’s (*sigh*) recklessness. Mostly Jason’s a cautionary tale addressed to either Tim (who never gave much of a shit about Jason btw) or Cass (Batgirl #7 is a rare instance where it’s done without victim-blaming because Pucket is da bomb).

But there’s legit no material about Jason’s childhood in the Manor, or how him and Bruce acted around one another, what they talked about, Jason’s personality aside of “angry”, how Bruce addressed his son’s self-doubts – oh right modern!Jason is an arrogant brat who claimed the Robin mantle for himself so that’s out.

DC rolled with Starlin’s portrayal, and didn’t bother to construct anything else between Jay & Bruce to replace the parts they chose to erase.

[Batman (1940) #645]

The point is: Jason and Bruce’s father-son relationship before Jason’s death is barely spoken of. We don’t know shit about how Jason was as a kid. Bruce loved him but didn’t trust him since his “mean streak” made him sooo dangerous and unmanageable. That’s it. Jason is the bad Robin first, the dead Robin second, and Bruce’s son last.

Resurrection and onward

Jason and Bruce’s relationship post-resurrection is complicated, for obvious reasons, and has interesting potential. My main problem with it is that it’s seldom addressed after Jason makes his dramatic return in UtH & the arc is closed.

For all that I have a love-hate relationship with Winick’s writing, and for all that I don’t like everything he’s done with Jason, his narrative is mostly coherent (and a good read overall!).

Winick doesn’t talk outward about Jason and Bruce’s bond before Jason’s death, but enough is implied. Jason’s damaged psyche centers around Bruce and what wrongs Jason considers to have suffered from him. He reorganizes his entire identity and actions around Bruce.

It’s not only consistent with Jason’s mental health at this stage, it’s telling of Bruce’s importance for him. The same way Bruce must have been his world after he took him out of the streets, Bruce is still very much his world when Jason is on a vengeance frenzy.

Killing Bruce, taking revenge against Bruce, making a point to Bruce; everything is about Bruce. It’s the whole “the opposite of love is apathy not hate” thing. DC could’ve expanded on that and made it evolve into whatever, but they just, y’know. didn’t.

[Batman (1940) #650]

I like Under the Hood and Lost Days well enough except for the Jason/Talia ugh. Problem is, DC obviously had no idea what to do with Jason after that, so his relationship with Bruce stays at a status quo.

Post-resurrection Jason isn’t so much estranged family than an antagonist who makes some cool appearances here and there— when they’re not so terribly written that they make me cringe.

There are some other interesting things here and there, giving depth to Jason’s estrangement from Bruce & the batfam…

[Green Arrow (2001) #72]

… but those elements are few and far between, and fail to establish a solid construction/development of any kind between Jason and Bruce. UtH!Jason put on some interesting bases but afterwards? Jason as a character is stagnating, and so is his relationship with any member of the batfam.

And then there’s the n52 & Rebirth I guess. It obviously wants to deliver a father-son narrative, but doesn’t do great job at it. Again, aside from a few cute scenes, the “he’s my son but he does baaaad things” eternal dilemma, and Jason’s newfound proximity with the batfam coming out of nowhere (especially with Tim wtf), I didn’t find much content to have a solid opinion on.

(Salty) conclusion

My opinion of Jason & Bruce’s father-son relationship is that it’s hella cute pre-Starlin and that Winick’s version of it makes sense within his Under the Hood & Lost Days narrative (I personally cut out “bad seed Jason” and keep most of the rest).

I think we lost a lot of potential when Starlin’s work became the reference. I think the Red Hood and his baggage with the whole fam could’ve been richer and more interesting if Jason’s initial characterization was kept in mind.

Yes, Jason and Bruce’s initial relationship could’ve used some more tension/conflict in between the sweet moments but… as far as I’m concerned Starlin’s writing wasn’t the way to go.

I think the only way to build a coherent interpretation of Jason & his relationship with the fam is to make a patchwork of canon elements and to fill in the blanks yourself. Thus what I have on Jason & Bruce that takes the Red Hood into account isn’t so much an “opinion” on canon material than a personal construction.

I’m sorry Anon, I bet that’s not what you expected when you sent that ask, but it’s all I have to give :’) Hope the answer is still okay & thanks for the ask!

#jason todd #bruce wayne #batfamily #batdad #batfam #red hood #batman #robin #dc comics #meta #dick grayson #barbara gordon #zae chatters #asks #my stuff

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koh-classpects · 5 years

Note

Hello! I've done the official Zodiac test a while back, and got the Light aspect. After a few days of trying to find my class, I ended up with Mage. So, could you perhaps enlight me on the Mage of Light? Thank you!

Hello! Okay, let’s put your Classpect to the test!

As always, I like to tell you whenever I’ve worked with a classpect before, so here’s one of my precious fankids, Dane Wright!

He’s a bit trashy, but I love him so much.

–

Mage

The active knowing Class, counterpart to Seer. Opposed to Heir.

Actively knows their Aspect, through the lens of their Aspect.

Light

The Aspect of, appropriately enough, enlightenment, and all it entails. Deeply connected with Skaia itself. Counterpart to Void.

Knowledge, wisdom. Comprehension, understanding. The mind’s eye. Probability, chance. The Conscience to Void’s Vagueness.

Mages are an enigmatic class right off the bat. They seem to have lived with their Aspect their whole life: watching it work its ways from both an insider and an outsider’s perspective. The Mage knows the ins and outs of their Aspectnot exactly because they want to, but because their Aspect permeates every part of their life. This process of spontaneous discovery is natural for the Mage, and can even be quite unwanted on the their part.

Skaia, however, really demands for the Mage’s knowledge. When the time comes, usually between during early and mid-game, all of the experience the Mage has gathered will make itself useful.

Unlike Seers, Mages are not the tactical commanders of their teams. They lean more to the tech wiz or the resident bookworm: quiet, doing their own thing. Just leave it to them and don’t be a bother, they’ll solve it on their own.

–

A Mage of Light would probably have no choice but to become a pragmatic character. Maybe they were raised in finantially dire environment (like my boy Dane up there); maybe they were brought up in a cruel place, where reckless abandon would get them killed. Nothing can ever be left to chance in the Mage of Light’s life, and so they had no other way to live than naturally absorbing knowledge and conscience of everything that surrounds them. They know the ins and outs of every single aspect of their life, and not even luck is unknown to this Mage.

But ignorance is bliss, right? With conscience comes bitterness: This Mage knows far too much of the world to truly love it, growing impatient and angry at the horrid truths laid bare before them. With predictability comes boredom: if you already know which things will happen and how, how could you ever be thrilled by something?

The Mage of Light is bored and bitter on an existential level, convinced that nothing truly matters. They’re probably a very helpful asset to their team, but they’re most certainly not a happy one. The Mage as a Class is already prone to being isolated, but the Light Aspect makes this particular trait ten times as strong. They don’t feel superior to anyone, though: this isolation is simply a product of their vast knowledge, and also a little bit of envy of those who aren’t plagued by such matters.

At the beginning of their Session, the Mage will probably have access to everything their teammates need to know: the peculiarities of Sburb and its rules, the dynamics of Skaia’s structure, what to do and where to do it. Working their machinations by themselves, they grant their Session the keys to success.

At first.

Sburb sessions are never truly on a set of rails. Not everything can be predicted: rules are constantly broken and changed, both by players and special circumstances. The Mage’s natural Third Eye will eventually, inevitably be blinded by unforeseen circumstances; almost always marked by some significant physical change. The Mage will be completely thrown off their balance, confused and no longer in complete control.

This very moment will signify Skaia’s benevolent order: the Mage of Light can finally rest.

It will take some time, but the Mage will eventually realize that they have fulfilled their role, and can now join their fellow Players. Once they are done, they can ultimately enjoy the life they once found so boring and predictable.

Constant support, along with their fellow Players treating them as an equal instead of an all-knowing guru, can do wonders for the Mage of Light’s fragilized psyche. Their teammates must know when to let the Mage work their, well, magic, but also know when to step in and let them rest their mind a little bit. A little respect goes a long, long way with Mages of all kinds, but especially this one.

In terms of raw power, the Mage of Light would be pretty strong: concentrating literal Light into beams or raw heat to blast away enemies with. Their most important power, however, is the power of sheer prediction. The Mage knows the enemy, and they know the probabilities involved in any fight they enter. They’re able to quickly calculate what the best course of action is, for themselves and their team. Luck is for chumps, the Mage of Life has everything in their hands (and heads).

Good luck, Mage of Light! Don’t think too hard about stuff, or you’ll just get a huge headache! Let people take the reigns sometimes, even if you feel like they’re gonna fuck it up: you need your mental rest!

#velvetbaguette #homestuck #classpecting #mage of light #mage class #light aspect

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bloomingundertheshadows · 5 years

Text

Deeply upset by 4x10? Grasping at straws to find a happy ending? Join me for this rambling essay as I build a substantive case about why everything is going to be fine.

Okay. So. Deep breathe. That episode thoroughly wrecked me emotionally. However, after my moments of shock and anxiety, I’m going to propose some optimistic observations/predictions/hope for those of us scrambling to figure out what’s going on. Fair warning, my brain is so sleep deprived, so I can’t promise any of this makes sense.

1. Pretty sure Smurf’s dead in 4x12, and that’s great for everything. The episode synopsis mentions that something changes the family forever, and frankly, the only thing I think is even reasonable is Smurf’s death. So, let’s go over why this is great. First, the episode synopsis focuses entirely on this, and let’s be honest, Smurf’s death episode better focus ONLY on Smurf (i.e any Adrian action might be kind of small). Yet, we know Adrian is in 4x13. This tells me that Smurf doesn’t have the chance to tell Pope anything before her death. Also, this is Smurf, so let’s not pretend that she’s not happy that Deran has to kill the one person who he cares about outside the family. She has no desire to let Pope kill Adrian. It’s much more satisfying for her if Deran kills Adrian because it proves his loyalty to the family. My point is Pope is most likely not a threat to Adrian. The feds are still the biggest problem.

2. Gold! Gold! Okay. So let’s say Smurf goes out in a blaze of glory during the gold heist. That’s going to leave her children with probably millions in gold bars. Do you know how many judges you can bribe with that kind of money? Adrian’s lawyer mentioned getting a change in judge. How hard can it be to find a bribable judge? With that kind of money, Deran can get shit done. He could probably bribe literally everyone in the DEA to get someone to recommend a lower sentence for Adrian. Or theoretically, it’s a nice little nest egg for him and Adrian living in Belize.

3. Spencer’s last instagram photo. I’d like to draw your attention to right under the lamp, where you can clearly see (what I believe to be) a suitcase handle. I’d spent some time pondering why Adrian was in a suit in the middle of the night with a suitcase. But, if Adrian’s making a run for it? That makes perfect sense. Now, since he is in the next episode, I propose that in 4x11/4x12 Adrian is prepared to go to Belize to escape Smurf. However, after Smurf’s death, he no longer has to leave. With his giant stockpile of gold, Deran tells him that everything is going to be fine as he proceeds to bribe the whole city of Oceanside. Deran has a chance to save Adrian from the feds, but he needs Smurf out of the way.

4. Renewal timing. I’m not saying that TNT was ever questioning renewing AK, but it is possible (given that the renewal came kind of late) that the writers were not quite clear if they were getting a renewal or not for season 5. As a result, they may have tried to tie everything up in a nice little basket. That might explain Smurf’s death, Craig getting a baby, etc. They’re setting everyone up for a new future away from Smurf. Now, Deran and Adrian running away to Belize is a perfect little future for them (as is Adrian’s trial getting sorted)). Basically, if they didn’t know if season 5 was happening, they would probably give them a happy ending. Now, this is probably a stretch because I have no knowledge of the inner workings of TNT. I’m sure writing staff and whatnot learn about renewals much earlier than us. But, I’m prioritizing optimism over everything else.

5. Jess’s episode appearances. I’ll admit, this one is throwing me off a little. We know she’s in 4x12, which seems odd to me as this episode seems to be focused so much on the job. There are two ways this makes sense to me. There’s no way Jess would miss her brother’s trial. So, it’s possible that for one reason or another Adrian goes to trial in 4x12 and what we see in 4x13 is simply Deran and Adrian talking in jail. However, given that Smurf is actively plotting Adrian’s murder, I doubt that Deran is going to let Adrian sit around long enough to go to trial. Therefore, my thoughts are that Adrian is hiding out at his sisters (where Smurf & Co. are less likely to find him) or that he’s going to say goodbye to her. Or, since Jess seemed very angry at Deran this episode, she goes to confront Deran in 4x12 and yell at him.

6. I’m also taking Jess’s appearances as the Adrian problems will be mostly sorted by 4x12. As stated above, Jess doesn’t seem like the type of sister to let her brother go to court without her. So, I’m blindly assuming Adrian can’t be in court in 4x13. I’m also assuming the writers are going to try to wrap up this storyline by the end of season 4. So. Do with that information as you will.

7. Nearly all of Deran’s character development involves Adrian in some way shape or form. Adrian has been central to Deran’s storyline since season 1. While Deran’s had growth and stories outside of Adrian, everything always comes back to him. Therefore, I don’t think they’re inclined to write Adrian off the show. Deran’s already a human train wreck with Adrian in trouble, so I don’t want to imagine what he’d do if Adrian went to jail or had to make a run for it. I don’t think they’d abandon everything about their relationship they’ve established. I will honestly feel cheated if they do. Although Adrian is a side character, he’s been so important. There’s no way they lock him away in a prison cell without compromising the story they’ve created.

8. Season 5 limits what they can do. Simply put, Adrian is either coming back for Season 5 or he’s not. If he’s coming back for Season 5, I frankly don’t think they can keep him in jail for 15 years. I said previously that jail would give them room to explore a new Deran/Adrian dynamic, but I really don’t think it’s sustainable long term. Like, the most they can do is Deran visiting Adrian and that’s going to get boring no matter what kind of conversations they’re having. Spencer’s screen time has only increased, so I’d be surprised if they drop it down to Deran visiting every few episodes. This obviously assumes everything I said in point 7 is true, but we’re here for optimism. My main point is that the Deran/Adrian dynamic has been a constant throughout the show. I think a lot of people have pointed this out, and I’m sticking to it.

The writers haven’t given me reason to think they’re going to destroy everything, so I’m going to force myself to trust them for a while.

#deran x adrian #adrian dolan #deran cody #animal kingdom tnt #I have so many thoughts #animal kingdom #long post

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snkpolls · 5 years

Text

SnK Chapter 116 Poll Results

The chapter poll closed with 1,671 responses. Thank you to everyone who participated!

RATE THE CHAPTER 1,533 responses

The chapter overall had positive reviews, with only 19 respondents leaning toward disliking the chapter. Will Isayama be able to keep up this momentum with the rising action?

Amazing as always. Definitely I always get surprised by Isayama each chapter, you never know what can happened in the next chapter, and i love that. Thank you Isayama

It was amazing. Can't wait to see how things will play out

Felt short, little content. I'm happy Porco can be seen when Pieck says "hey there", nice touch

I don't understand how some people thought this chapter was boring. I found it to be the most entertaining one in ages! Hyyyype. Also yay Colt!

I'm glad it looks like we'll get a bit of a break from the political conspiracies and constant double crossing. This is not the kind of stuff I started reading this manga for.

Pretty good chapter with a lot of characters stepping up imo. It's getting pretty tense and I was hoping for more information regarding Ymir or more of Zeke but reasonably this chapter was necessary.

FAVORITE MOMENT FROM THE CHAPTER

1,634 responses

This chapter had no shortage of excitement, and we nearly had a three-way tie for the favorite moment of the chapter. For 14.7%, Eren coldly calling Pieck’s bluff was chilling enough to be their favorite moment. In contrast, 14.6% most enjoyed Pieck’s betrayal as she turned to name Eren her enemy. Despite Porco’s failure to incapacitate Eren, 14.1% still loved the Jaw Titan’s surprise attack! He tried!

Nice to see Eren playing 4D Chess with Pieck. I loved Pieck's "Please take care of me!" as she went up the stairs! And Yelena standing up for Sasha was a great moment in my book too - a bit extreme like, but that's Yelena's style though! Eren at the end returning to his old self - angry and legless - was my favourite moment though!

my favorite moment was jean, just jean, jean all the time but that wasn't an option :(

Reiner finally showing his beautiful face again is the best, one can only hope that we get Annie soon.

This chapter was amazing and really set the tone for the upcoming battle. That last page with Reiner looking down at Eren was my fav moment.

WHO WAS THIS CHAPTER’S MVP? 1,627 responses

This wasn’t much of a competition - with Pieck taking the MVP title for Chapter 116 with more than half (56.2%) of respondents thinking her actions were exactly right (as expected). We had a close race for second place, with Jean (17%) taking a slight lead over our problematic protagonist (15.4%).

I never really got invested much in the new Marley characters, but god damn if I don’t love Pieck more after every chapter. I mean the pointing thing? That was SICK

I liked Nicolo's defending of Sasha and it hurt to see her family forced to listen to that guy degrading her. And because of his feelings for her and for eldians, I chose him as the MVP for now :)

Grior. He showed us how deeply Nicolo felt about Sasha, he created a scene where Jean got to show his worth, and he opened the door to everyone seeing exactly how creepy Yelena is. He made EVERYONE (besides Yelena) look good. :D

ERENS ABS

YOUR FEELINGS ON PIECK GIVING GABI A DOSE OF REALITY? 1,578 responses

The vast majority are happy to see someone from Gabi’s side of the war finally tell her the reality of their situation. 12% of respondents don’t think it will ultimately matter as Gabi is too stubborn to change her views. A smaller portion feel that Pieck doesn’t actually believe what she’s saying to Gabi at all.

Gabi is easily the character whose future development I look forward to the most.

I feel like Gabi needs to listen but Pieck here really means there's another method on the way; the rest is just her LARPing as a restorationist to gain Eren's trust, just as Armin did with Annie in the past.

Gabi's already gotten so many doses of reality that have done nothing. I honestly don't feel anything about these moments at this point.

Pieck isn't entirely lying here. She believes that eldians should fight for themselves and is using Marley to get what she wants. Good on her for calling out Gabi's blind devotion to Marley! Stupid child.

Pieck is showing her true thoughts but won't act on them, because she won't betray Marley and everyone she knows.

Gabi truly believes that all the Warriors are doing what they do in the name of Marely, Zeke turned his back on Marley to accomplish his ultimate goal and Pieck revealed that she doesn't trust them at all. Gabi may understand that simply being an honorary Marleyian isn't why the Warriors fight for Marley, they simply fight for themselves, even if it does help Marley to an extent.

I'm more interested in what it means for Pieck's viewpoint tbh. She says this, and is clearly smart enough to know this to be true, and yet is still apparently fighting for Marley. I'm very interested to see whether she actually has any ideas on how to win Eldian freedom after the Paradis battle.

Pieck was telling half-truths to Gabi, she knows about the danger of the Eldians being obsolete but Eren is not the answer for the survival of her people in the mainland.

WHICH MEMBER OF THE 104TH DO YOU MOST AGREE WITH ABOUT EREN’S ACTIONS? 1,582 responses

70% of respondents feel similarly to Jean, believing that Eren wouldn’t do everything he’s done without a good reason for it. 21% feel similarly to Armin, just wishing to understand Eren’s actions and why. A smaller percentage feel similarly to Connie and agree that Eren has simply become irredeemable regardless of his motivations.

I BELIEVE THERE IS A GOOD MEANING BEHIND EREN’S ACTIONS, TRUST MY WORDS

I still don't know how to feel about Eren and his plans

I really like how Jean was trying to see Eren in a different light to try to understand him and Connie's ongoing grudge against eren.

WHICH JEAN ACT SOLIDIFIED HIM AS BEST BOI? 1,582 responses

Jean provided some much-needed comfort this chapter, and 38.4% were most pleased that he decided to finally introduce some much-needed objectivity to the Eren discussion. On top of that, another 26.1% were most impressed with his ability to stay calm despite the stressful circumstances.

All of the above. Any of these moments in isolation would have been good, but it's all of them taken together that made Jean amazing this chapter.

Now our favourite Jailbirds: I'm so happy to see them after a few months. Jean continues to be the best, and my most favourite boy, I liked how rationally and objectively he viewed the situation -- and the fact that he was still vouching for Eren, and showing so much care for Mikasa made my heart flutter a lil bit.

Horse-face standing up for that suicidal bastard was the best moment in this chapter!!! Jean growing so much makes him best boi-horse ever!

He should join the yaegerists, then we can talk about best boy

Literally anything the majestic stallion does classified him as best boi. He breathes and he’s best boi.

Jean's actions in this chapter show the signs of a good leader, and I hope he is rewarded for it down the line.

getting the SOLID gift of character development that just KEEPS ON GIVING

Oh so for THIS one you ain't got 'all of the above'? WHERE IS ALL OF THE ABOVE

You utter fools, everything Jean has done since Season 1 has solidified him as best boi

MIKASA ISN’T WEARING HER SCARF. DOES THIS HAVE SIGNIFICANCE? 1,569 responses

Is it getting hot in that jail cell or did Mikasa take off her scarf for more personal reasons? Almost half of us believe this is hinting at Mikasa breaking away from Eren in some way, but more than a third think it’s just another of many instances where Mikasa has gone scarfless for practical reasons.

Isayama probs used it to sew another seed of doubt so that we'd ask this exact question.

she's sad :(

It's typical for her to take the scarf off when it's warm, so it shouldn't have any significance, however it's hard to think she would just casually remove/interact with the scarf after that conversation. I feel like Mikasa'd either keep it with her at all times, or get rid of it completely (though if it's the latter, the chapter should've focused on the absence of the scarf more). For now, the scarf situation has me really confused.

She doesn't want to think about Eren right now

She finally saw how hot Jean is. Just as everyone else in that cell. That's it.

She is Sad, not Mad at Eren

This can mean that she is still shaken up after what Eren said to her, but that doesn't mean she's sick of him. She's probably realizing that her attachment to him is not doing her any good so far.

She wants to let go

WHAT ARE YOUR THOUGHTS ON ONYANKOPON ALLYING WITH YELENA? 1,562 responses

The majority are still uncertain about where Onyankopon stands. Less than 1/4th of the fandom believe he’s truly on Yelena’s site. Many agree that he needed to side with Yelena at that moment regardless of what he truly believes. Nearly half the fandom (45.6%) selected “He’s been too hard to predict, I hadn’t made up my mind.”

My man is legit Yelena’s hostage. He never asked for this.

He looks very hesitant, so I am also hesitant to make a call

he’s sweating and eyeing yelena like he’s worried so he is just playing along with. i think he’ll go free the 104th during the commotion!

At the very least, he and Yelena are not on the same page. In a way, they've been foils since their introduction: from the way they interact with the Survey Corps, the ways they assisted in Liberio, to their stance on God. I've always loved their dynamic, and I definitely look forward to more of these two in the future!

Great way for Yams to maintain tension in the storyline. It doesn't really matter what he chooses, but he works great as a character to bounce concepts off of.

He is on Yelena's side for now. You can tell that the guilt is weighing on him.

He's just here until the next Star Wars movie

ON A SCALE OF 1-5 HOW BADLY DID YOU WANT TO PUNCH GRIOR? (1: HE WAS IN THE RIGHT SOMEHOW; 5: I’VE NEVER ROOTED HARDER FOR YELENA.) 1,574 responses

Perhaps the most interesting thing in this result is that 51 people in our fandom don’t want to punch Grior. The vast majority (72.2%) selected the highest choice, “I’ve never rooted harder for Yelena”

She's nuts but she's fun and gets props for shooting Grior.

Jheez the disrespect coming from Grior. Connie and Nicolo were rightfully fuming. Yelena putting a hole in his head has been the best thing she’s done in the whole story.

Fuck Grior

I wasn't a fan of Grior, but shooting him was an overkill. Yelena did it in front of the kids no less.

WHAT ARE YOUR CURRENT FEELINGS ON YELENA? 1,576 responses

“Crazy” was the most common reaction with nearly half the fandom (41.9%) selecting that option.

Although she's 'cray cray', I would feel bad for her and Zeke if they find out that Eren is using both of them. I'm staying neutral to her.

I hate fanatics. I hope Zeke steps on her and we never see her again.

I love Yelena. Truly, her actions aren't that right, but everyone in this show depends on some corrupt decisions. I'm sure she has good reasons why she's that way and she shows to the 104th some of her weak as well as nice side. I think she would be a good ally for them, but we will see!

She's very interesting, although her motivations are indeed 'crazy' (not normal admiration for the Yeager brothers), her actions stay logical and reasonable considering her goal.

First she kills people in ruthless way and few minutes later she is crying and tells others about Yeager bros being gods. Yet, I have to admit that she is a good character.

She’s an interesting combination of things tenacious, devoted and cunning. I can’t wait to find out if what her and Zeke want is actually the same thing.

cray cray, but still, P O U N D T O W N

WHY WAS ARMIN CRYING? 1,573 responses

Another strong consensus in the poll! 65.4% selected “He realized Eren would never agree with what she said, and is still on their side”.

Armin is trying to like to gain the upper hand

he must've felt overwhelmed with something, and decided to play it to his advantage

Biggest mystery of the whole manga imo. Ymir fritz and he origins of the titans? Nah fam, I need to know why Armin crying was important enough to take up a whole pageworth of panels.

Boy tryna get tf outta here even if it means temporarily joining yelena’s wack ass cult

He just got heads-up about some harsh truth.

He was definitely faking

He's figured SOMETHING out, we don't know just yet. I'm so excited, it's been a while since we've seen his tactical cunning side!

He's obviously manipulating her. Yelena is a bit of a nut case, but she's also really passionate. Armin is using that to his advantage.

I think he's genuinely crying, but certainly not for the reason he said. As for why exactly... Not sure, it might be for a lot of things… I think he understood something about what Eren's plan might be

he could be crying from relief. he has known eren the longest, knows how much he values freedom, and knows he would never agree to euthanasia. after 112, he was really asking himself whether eren was actually on their side or not. he's definitely seeing through his mask now and realizes that he's playing zeke and his cult like a damn fiddle.

THIS MONTH SEEMS TO CONFIRM THAT EREN KNEW ABOUT THE WINE PLOT. ARE YOU SURPRISED? 1,576 responses

Ahem. The Snk Poll Team would like to remind you that we asked this question in the chapter 111 poll and at that time only 27% believed he knew about the wine. Just sayin’ :P

DO YOU THINK THAT EREN KNOWING ABOUT THE WINE HAD ANY INFLUENCE ON HIS DEFECTION? 1,556 responses

The larger half of the fandom doesn’t feel that the wine plot had anything to do with Eren taking his own actions. Still, nearly half feel it’s possible it could have influenced his decisions.

Eren is planning something

Eren is suspicious.

HOW DO YOU THINK EREN FEELS ABOUT FALCO INGESTING THE WINE? 1,580 responses

Nearly 75% of voters feel that Eren does care about Falco’s situation, but not enough to distract him from his plans. Nearly 15% feel that Eren doesn’t actually care about Falco at all, and 9% believe that he is feeling concerned for Falco.

Sympathizes with another unknowing Eldian pawn

Eren collapsed a building on Falco, like, are we forgetting this.

He thinks he cares, but has decided that the end justifies the means. How noble

I think that Eren thinks it sucks but that 'it be like that'

He’s so cray cray right now that I don’t know what to think

WHO IS THE OTHER WOMAN THAT EREN IS SAYING HE DOESN’T TRUST? 1,575 responses

Was Eren shading Yelena? 30% of the fandom seems to think so. 23% feel that he is referring to Kiyomi. 20% don’t want to make any calls yet but feel that this is something we’ll be calling back to down the road, while 10% think the rest of us are making a big deal out of a small statement. A few write-ins also listed Annie, Hange, Gabi and Historia as potential options.

He's talking about Pieck, the translation is weird.

Can we hack Eren's brain?

Have we considered Historia? I'd love for Historia to be one of the big players herself.

Either he's talking about Pieck if you take the translation as "just as she doesn't trust me" or Yelena, since he's not on board with her plan as a whole.

"That woman" is Kiyomi and she will appear like a wildcard next chapter.

I think that he means Pieck doesn't trust him either? I don't really know, the translations are so wildly different.

WHO PLAYED THE OTHER BETTER? 1,608 responses

Regardless of who wins or loses the upcoming titan battle, Pieck won the chapter with more than 75% believing she won this particular meeting of the minds.

As expected of Pieck, she's best girl (hope she won't die too soon).

Erem seemed way too easily convinced by Pieck that she would point out her colleagues. Yes he threatened her with his pricked finger, and yes he was ready to transform on the roof, but it felt like he went along with everything too quickly.

I love pieck and eren and I didn't know I needed them to meet until now!

I was super worried that Pieck wouldn’t be given any spotlight and would stay in the background forever. Now all I need is her last name and I will die happy.

PORCO FAILED TO EAT EREN AGAIN. WILL HE EVER GET HIS MOMENT OF GLORY? 1,571 responses

Sorry Porco. Most (73.1%) of us have no confidence in you. But look on the bright side - 17.1% think that maybe you can be redeemed. Oof.

Coming up through the roof *was* his moment of glory. It's all downhill from there.

His moment of glory was getting to see ymir's gorgeous face four years back

I believe that his mission was about injuring Eren, not eating him. I hope he will have his own five minutes because he is strong as a titan and knows very well how to use his powers.

Eating Erens legs off is pretty impressive on its own right tbh

Eren is gonna eat him before he gets another chance to do something impactful

He'll be forever a failure but I still love him very much! He's trying his best!!

WHAT WAS THE GRIMMEST GRIM REMINDER? 1,577 responses

The opening scene, and one of the most iconic, has had several imitations since. The slight overall majority, at 51% think that Eren turning the tables and being the one to deliver the grim reminder in chapter 100 was the grimmest. 33.5% of you prefer the classic scene that started it all. 9.2% thought that this chapter offered the grimmest circumstance, with Marley’s blimps appearing overhead.

The grimest reminder was chapter 84 for the simple reason that heroes of the story showed the worst side of humanity and ever since then I think they don't deserve happy ending.

THOSE BLIMPS HAVE MOUNTED MACHINE GUNS

It’s so cool that we get to see another grim reminder, again, so soon, as to ensure that it has little emotional impact!

WHICH MARLEY CHARACTER WERE YOU MOST EXCITED TO SEE RETURN THIS CHAPTER? 1,564 responses

There was some genuine excitement at seeing Reiner’s return to Paradis. Of the Marley cast, 84% where most excited to see him.

Why you gotta be assuming people are unanimously excited for Marley characters to return? I literally could have gone this entire series without any of them.

ITS BEEN SO LONG MY SON IS BACK i missed you reiner youre doing amazing sweetie pls dont die @_@

BEST BOY REINER IS BACK AND READY TO KICK ASS

My ovaries exploded when Reiner showed up looking badass with those swimming goggles. I missed my best baby boy so much.

REINER VS EREN ROUND 4 BABY!!! hopefully reiner can win! he deserves to win a fight with eren once at least lol

I was so happy to see Reiner again. It's so ironic of Isayama, that Reiner looks like a hero in this panel and Eren as the bad guy.

cOLT STILL EXISTS BOIS YEE HAW

REINER, MAGATH, AND COLT ARE ALL WEARING PARACHUTES. WHO (IF ANY) WILL BE GOING SKYDIVING? 1,566 responses

In chapter 92 we saw Reiner join his comrades by jumping out of a blimp; will he do it again? And if so, who will join him? The general consensus, at 92.8% think Reiner will be skydiving once more; and about half at 52.2% think Colt will join him this time. 36.6% of you think Magath will as well, with 73.4% feeling he’ll likely command from the skies. 2.8% of you think no one will be leaving the blimp anytime soon.

Reiner again! I still fear that Colt will end like Farlan, but it's just me.

I freakin' wish Pixis weren't in jail. I'd love to see him and Magath match wits while commanding large forces.

Colt is allowed to exist dammit

I think Marley is going for the same tactic they used in Slava: sending in Pieck and Porco on the ground, then deploy Reiner via parachute. Zeke will also show up last this time and fire on enemy ships, the difference being that the enemy isn’t marley and the ships are airborne.

I didn’t realize Colt was even in this chapter until I filled out this survey

WILL EREN USE THE WAR HAMMER POWERS IN THE UPCOMING BRAWL? 1,575 responses

With Eren recently acquiring the unique and awesome war hammer abilities, many of us are waiting with bated breath to see him show them off. 87.5% think that Eren will utilize them in the battle, and 8.3% think he already has. While his titan form doesn’t seem radically different yet, it seems to have formed in the style Lady Tybur’s did. Only 4.2% don’t believe Eren will break out these powers.

Disappointed that Isayama didn't give Eren's titan form a redesign after eating the Warhammer Titan. Hopefully we'll be able to see how Eren's going to utilize its power in the next chapter.

Marley came prepared to deal with the Founding+Attack+Warhammer Titan. If he's overwhelmed, he may get desperate and who knows what could happen then.

I thought Eren easily fell into a trap, and I don't see why he can't easily take down the blimps with his Warhammer power.

After that Awesome entrance I really wanna see warriors kicking his Eldian ass, but I just somehow know that Eren Warhammer will wreck them.

i'm really hoping to see some badass war hammer action

i am ready for the war hammer boy

THE LAST TIME EREN FACED THAT WARRIORS HE HAD THE SUPPORT OF THE SURVEY CORPS. THIS TIME HE IS ALONE. DO YOU THINK THAT WILL AFFECT THE OUTCOME? 1,615 responses

The results here are relatively divided. Nearly 40% of the fandom believe that Eren’s going to be able to handle himself in this battle without the help of the Survey Corps. 23% are certain that he will be defeated. 30% feel it could go either way and don’t want to make a solid prediction.

Eren will struggle but ultimately not be taken captive

He is totally going to get kidnapped😆

They will help him anyways. They need to protect their home, and without Eren it's impossible

Eren's fine. He's been able to predict and deal with everything up to this point. If he knew there were already spies on Paradis, he could've predicted the invasion. Might be too much credit, but he might've even used Pieck's arrival as the opportunity to lure everyone out.

With the help of Zeke and the Yeagerists I believe he’ll be able to hold his own

I sure hope so. He better fail. And he SC better only reluctantly help him they have to; ends don't justify means Eren. You made your bed, you gotta lie in it.

He has the support of the Yaeger faction, Eren has shown massive improvement with his fighting ability in titan form in Marley, and with the power of the Warhammer he can only improve.

He will not be able to overcome them on his own BUT WITH THE POWER OF FRIENDSHIP will win out once Armin convinces everyone of the truth

Last time he didn’t have the Warhammer’s abilities, now he does. He also has the Yeagerist faction with him. I say he takes it.

We've never seen Eren in a fight where he was completely on his own. He always relied on an assist from either the Survey Corps or an Ackerman. It's going to be really, really interesting to see how he does without his cheat codes.

WHO ELSE WILL JOIN THE FRAY FOR THIS FIGHT? (CHECK ALL THAT APPLY) 1,488 responses

Another battle finally erupts! What other challengers will approach? Zeke is the most popular option at 68.7%. Armin, Mikasa, and Jean all had about half the fandom voting for them, and Connie and Floch just below that, but still popular choices. About 90% of you think Levi and Hange will sit this one out whilst on their own little adventure.

I suspect that Zeke will show up with the Yeagerists in time to save his younger brother.

If Zeke should appear, then the battle is almost certainly lost to Marley.

Zeke will probably show up at that moment so he can save Eren just as he claimed he would long ago. His promise to Eren was even brought up Pieck this chapter, who we know is exactly right!

Reiner is going to get SO depressed when Armin transforms into the Colossal. Also not a big fan of Annie but she needs to get out now.

Now Eren is facing the strong enemies alone. I would like to see how he can handle them, that why I hope that Zeke and SC won't join. I want Reiner to win at least once.

Floch and co. will come to the rescue after Eren starts losing

I'm sorry but ew who wants to see Floch?

Floch needs to make an appearance I wanna see the rest of the 104th rip him a new ass hole tbh

Floch is best boy

I just really wanna see all titans fighting each other. Just Imagine how Eren is standing there with Zeke like : Hey We just won and then Eren is kicked from behind by Annie and then Levi show up + Armin (and others) gets out of prison and transform to fight Eren.

I know I've said that I hoped Hanji and Levi stay away from this war as long as they can but LORD please tell me how they've been currently.

WHO AMONG THE SC, IF ANY, DO YOU THINK WILL EVENTUALLY CHOOSE TO SIDE WITH EREN? 1,519 responses

Has Eren burned every bridge? The majority, at about 55% think both Armin and Jean will still end up siding with him. Just below that, 47.7% think Mikasa will continue to support him. 28.9% think everyone listed will oppose joining up with him.

Eren alienated Mikasa and Armin so i think they won't join, but they can't abandon him either.

I bet Eren broke ties with Armin and Mikasa so that they wouldn't get involved in this fight, because he's seen a scenario where they die here.

It's hard to tell because Eren's "side" is still quite a mystery. If he truly believe in the euthanasia plan then I doubt anyone in the SC will join him, even Mikasa. But if it turns out his plan is something else we don’t know, then they might help him in the end. Most likely Armin and Jean. But I doubt any of the SC joins the Euthanasia side, now we just need to find out if that's actually Eren's side.

Mikasa believes that the Eren now isn't the Eren she knew back when he saved her

I think it would be interesting for at least one warrior to join forces with him.

IS THIS THE FINAL BATTLE? 1,570 responses

The warriors have returned to Paradis Island on the offensive! Will this be the final conflict in the manga, or is there more to come? 78% of you feel there will be another fight after this one; while 22% think we’re in the endgame with this brawl.

I'm concerned that if this does turn out to be the final battle many important characters like Levi, Hange, Historia and Annie will not be involved.

I think this is the start of the final fight but depending on how you look at it the fight may pause and continue on elsewhere, but this is for sure the final conflict I think

The chapter is a kickstart to the final climax of the manga, and I'm excited to see how the end turns out.

I hope this isn't the final battle, if so, I hope its very long

The final battle will end up decimating the entire island. No one will survive.

I really like that Pieck was pointing her finger at Eren, as he asked on the rooftop where the enemy is and she said 'there'. I'm wondering if this has a special meaning that Isayama will turn Eren into the last 'antagonist' for his final arc. Maybe the last fight, includes the whole world vs. Eren, but who knows?

This chapter was great! i thought pieck will side with eren and others but nope. Also hyped for final battle!

I hope it isn’t the final battle. I’m so confused by everything happening.

HOW HAS YOUR OPINION ON THE FOLLOWING CHARACTERS CHANGED?

The biggest winners this month were unsurprisingly Jean and Pieck, with huge upswings in popularity. On the other end, Onyankopon, Yelena and even poor Connie took a hit. It seems Connie’s distrust of Eren might have upset a few people.

I don’t know who in the SC will side with Eren but I am almost completely sure Connie won’t.

I'm glad we got to see more of pieck! best girl snapped on this chapter. She was playing it safe and smart with the things she was saying to both Eren and Gabi.

Could someone please punch eren in the face

Honestly feels like Onyankopon is just a side character that won't affect the plot much at all and therefor is pretty much irrelevant.

Also, WTF are you doing, Onyankopon?

Can't say I was surprised about how things unfolded. The SC are still in jail, at this point it's laughable. Pieck and Marley attack - who didn't see it coming? Onyankopon is still shady. Yelena is still cray cray. Eren is still acting like a heartless asshole. Gabi is beyond redemption, she would have shot Pieck if she hadn't been stopped. So nothing much was new :D

Still tryin to figure out what's the point of Gabi in this story.

AT THIS POINT, AROUND WHICH CHAPTER DO YOU EXPECT THE MANGA WILL CONCLUDE? 1,561 responses

Just like last time, most respondents (37.5%) believe that Chapter 130 is most likely to be the final chapter of the manga. 85% think that the manga will go until at least 130, and 48% think it will go until at least 134. With the recent announcement that the manga will continue for another 1-2 years, it’s looking like we won’t be getting a conclusion before Chapter 128 (or 130 if we are going by volume-ending chapters and chapters per volume remains the same).

WHO DO YOU MOST HOPE TO SEE NEXT CHAPTER? 1,554 responses

We may or may not have forgotten to include Annie on this list, but aside from that, people seem overall most anxious to get an update on Levi’s condition, as well as see Historia (presumably doing something other than sitting in the rocking chair). Floch… sorry, dude.

Annie wake up and kick some people in the head.

Can we get some annie or is she just like the basement we'll never get?

PLEASE JUST SHOW ME HISTORIA, WHERE IS SHE

I just want to see Bertoto at some point again :(

I still curious with Levi's and Hange's condition after Hange throws herself to the river.

I wonder how many more angles can we view Historia from that rocking chair.

WHERE DO YOU NORMALLY DISCUSS THE SERIES?

ADDITIONAL THOUGHTS ON THE CHAPTER?

Porco and Pieck look good in Paradise Military coats...

It would make the most sense for Eren to lose this upcoming fight because he abandoned his friends, while the opposing side is united because of their friendship (if we're speaking in narrative terms). But we still don't know what his thoughts are, how much he knows, what his plans are, or his reasoning for anything. How can he be the main antagonist of this fight if we don't know this much? Idk but I hope we'll get some clarification during the fight (but I doubt it)

Will Reiner overcome his sufferboi status to finally do something right for himself? That's what I want to see.

I want to know if they have Hot Chocolate in the cell or some coffee. Why only tea? What is Eren planning withholding the coffee?

Armin's ability to manipulate has levelled up so much! He might be overplaying it a little bit with the tears, but considering previously he was really bad at making the emotions on his face reflect what he was saying, he's getting better at it. It both excites and saddens me. Excites because it makes him all the more dangerous; saddens because my greatest wish for Armin is that he needn't know these skills at all. Just let him be free and travel and see cool things! He deserves it.

What a ride! And what a turn-around. I love how the narration has come around to Eren being the villain, and Pieck and Reiner being the heroes. I also can't wait to see Eren get his ass stomped.

I'm so happy that it looks like the remains of the 104th might actually do something soon.

The direction the manga is going it’s fucked up. I think the manga has lost that sparkle that once had. Basically at this point everybody is waiting just to see who makes it out alive and lives to tell the tale.

Eren is finished. Maybe imprisoning your best soldiers, crippling your strongest trump card, having Zeke titanize a bunch of Scouts, and generally wreaking havoc in Paradise wasn't such a good idea.

I was really impressed with Eren. He’s become such an interesting and amazing character. And he didn’t fall for Pieck at all, and it was so smart when he healed his finger in front of her to show he “trusted” her, meanwhile still having another finger cut and hidden. And his overal distrust and not telling Pieck anything he knew. He obviously didn’t trust her. *sniff* my baby going out to destroy people

JEAN FOR BEST STALLION

Jean and Connie are both right. Eren's not absolved just because he has reasons for his actions. Lying and manipulating your friends is shitty, especially if you're doing it "for their own good." That's not a solid friendship. I hope Isayama sticks to his guns on this. And also get Historia out of that damn chair, I'm so tired of it. But mostly I really liked this chapter, particularly the arrival of Reiner and Co. And Gabi and Pieck!

Pieck is the best girl of all time. You CAN’T change my mind.

The Marleyan military is attacking Paradis. Them killing Eren and getting his powers is bad for Paradis. I have no idea why there are fans saying the Survey Corps will outright abandon Eren or even fight against him right now. Helping the people currently attacking them is...unwise, to say the least.

I know Eren looks like a tasty snacc, but I would be extremely grateful if Porco keeps his filthy mouth away from Eren. He can eat a 10 foot flaming pineapple for all I care, please and thank you!

Best part of this chapter: no Zeke. Thank you Yams.

Porco and Pieck look good in Paradise Military coats...

Will Reiner overcome his sufferboi status to finally do something right for himself? That's what I want to see.

I want to know if they have Hot Chocolate in the cell or some coffee. Why only tea? What is Eren planning withholding the coffee?

What a ride! And what a turn-around. I love how the narration has come around to Eren being the villain, and Pieck and Reiner being the heroes. I also can't wait to see Eren get his ass stomped.

I'm so happy that it looks like the remains of the 104th might actually do something soon.

Eren is finished. Maybe imprisoning your best soldiers, crippling your strongest trump card, having Zeke titanize a bunch of Scouts, and generally wreaking havoc in Paradise wasn't such a good idea.

JEAN FOR BEST STALLION

Pieck is the best girl of all time. You CAN’T change my mind.

Best part of this chapter: no Zeke. Thank you Yams.

I know Eren looks like a tasty snacc, but I would be extremely grateful if Porco keeps his filthy mouth away from Eren. He can eat a 10 foot flaming pineapple for all I care, please and thank you!

#snk chapter116 #snk 116 #snk polls #snk poll #snk poll results #snk spoilers

88 notes · View notes

aspoonofsugar · 5 years

Note

(1) I’m the anon who sent the question about whether characters need to be sympathetic in order to be likeable. Thank you for such a thorough response! The examples you provided were incredibly helpful! As a writer, I often wonder if I need the readers’ sympathy in order to make a point about an issue a particular character represents.

(2) It’s also hard for me to predict readers’ reactions, so I get anxious at the thought of writing contradictory characters who occasionally do something unforgiveable. Then there’s the question of what constitutes as unforgiveable, especially since I find that women tend to be more harshly scrutinized than men who are shielded by the idea that “boys will be boys.”

(3) Then there’s the ableist aspect. Mentally ill people are often seen as incapable of taking responsibility for their own actions, which conflicts with my bipolar OC’s desire for self-agency. That’s why my OC hesitates to request even minor accommodations for her condition, because she sees that as an admission of defeat.

(4) At the same time, however, she understands the temptation to blame her actions on her illness and remain the good, innocent ‘angel’ adored by her family and peers. However, it frustrates her when people dismiss her uncomfortable, cynical, angry, aggressive traits as being part of another manic/depressive episode. But then, who is she?

(5) She struggles to separate her own personality, thoughts, feelings, and impulses from her disorder. She worries that her “deformity of mind” reflects her “twisted inner nature.” Similarly, she wonders the same about her grandmother, who hurt my OC’s father during a breakdown. My OC purposely triggers her grandmother to see if the latter would revert to violence.

(6) Sorry for sending you such a long ramble. Basically, I want to know how integral is sympathy in communicating a point through your characters? Is there a way to write a character as being conflicted and contradictory without coming off as hypocritical? On a related note, can you still express a point through a hypocritical character?

(7) For example, my OC resents people using ‘crazy’ as shorthand for violent, yet resorts to violence toward herself and others. In addition, she goads her grandmother into another violent breakdown to see if destructiveness is an incorrigible side effect of mental illness and if recovery and rehabilitation are actually possible.

(8) I’m also curious to explore how characters operate on and distribute sympathy. For instance, my OC wants to make things better for mentally ill people, but is also aware that she often antagonizes certain individuals who remind her of her worst insecurities toward her condition (i.e. her grandmother). She also tends to justify this antagonism.

(9) Do I need the reader’s sympathy in order for someone to be invested in my character’s arc? I’m afraid that making her too imperfect would cause people to lose interest in her. However, I also know there’s a danger in making her invincible. How do you balance a character’s strengths and weaknesses? Does a character even need to be balanced?

Hello again anon!

First of all, yes it is possible and also common to make a point through characters who are hypocritical. This is simply because real world people are hypocrites, so if one trie to write a character as if they were a real person it is completely possible they will turn out hypocritical on some level depending on their flaw.

I would say again that what @hamliet said about sympathy being subjective on some level is true and it is an unexcapable fact. Some people will not like your character and your story, but others will and there is no way to control it.

That said, when it comes to make a character sympathetic, I think that there different approaches which can be followed.

Before I give some examples though, I think that considering one’s public target can help a little. For example, writing a story for a specific target (e.g. kids, adults etc.) or a specic genre (e.g. detective story, hrror, thriller, science-fiction etc.) might help you come up with some of the attributes your character will have. After all, every genre has its stereotypes and tropes and one can be inspired by them both in recreating them and in wanting to make something completely different.

Going back to your main question, I think that a good way to make a character sympathetic and liked is honestly to just give them an arc. Let’s consider for example Eva Heinemann in Monster. She starts the story by being very detestable. She is arrogant, spoiled, doesn’t care about others and basycally spells word by word the opposite of the series’s themes. However, she develops and grows a lot by the end becoming a better person. I have seen several people starting Monster and commenting how horrible Eva was and by the end many of them have come to consider her one of their favourite characters thanks to her development. In short, a good development can make a character who starts off as negative loved.

That said, it is true that often the characters who start off as completely negative are not the MC nor the main POV characters because they could alienate a part of the public (I think this is particular important for longer stories where the development is slow; in those cases even if the character is going to have a development eventually people might lose interest before that happens). In many cases, it can be useful to give the MC some sympathetic attributes. I think this can be done in multiple ways and there is not really just a right way to do it. I will try to make two different examples using what you told me about your OC.

1) You could give your character a sympathetic objective. For example, you said she wants to make things better for other mentally ill people, so that could be her objective which is sympathetic. It could be better if this objective were made somehow more concrete in the plot itself. So for example she wants to help a specific person or she wants to enter a specific organization/do a specific job which might help her reach this objective. However, while she pursues this objective it might become clear that she herself has some contradictions. For example, she might dislike being seen either as “crazy” or as a “pure angel” whose all flaws are blamed on her illness, but she might treat the person she wants to help exactly in the same way. She might realize she has the tendency to see the other as a person she must protect and not as an equal or a proper individual.

Let’s highlight that a similar dynamic is present between Killua and Alluka who is a character I used as an example in my previous answer. I think Alluka is a character who despite her short screen-time explores themes related to mental-illness pretty well thematically and she is also used to highlight Killua’s own contradictions as a character.

In short, your character can be presented as a character having a very sympathetic objective and being honest in her pursue of it. She can react strongly at people catecorizing her in one way or another and this can be inspiring to people reading. However, as the story develops it becomes cleaer and clearer she has her own insecurities and struggles with her own identity and how her mental illness influences who she is. In this way, her flaws and negative traits can emerge little by little until she realizes that before she can reach her objective she has first of all to solve her own personal issues and grow as a person.

If you want another example of this dynamic you can think about Judy in Zootopia. She doesn’t want to be discriminated for her being a rabbit and works hard to overcome others’ prejudices, but she herself has prejudices against foxes and other carnivores even if she says she hasn’t.

2) An almost opposite approach would be to give your character an egoistic objective, but to show early on that despite her having negative traits, she has also some positive ones hidden deep down. This is what one would call a “save th cat” moment. For example, you can have you OC state she doesn’t care about other mentally ill people, but have her go out on her way in the beginning to help someone who is being bullied. In short, she can pursue selfish objectives, but she can still show positive qualities despite it. Her arc will be about taking out these qualities and making them shine. For example, the character’s unwillingness to have anything to do with other mentally ill people migth stem from her not wanting to accept her own illness or at least from her not wanting to be seen as only that. And in the end she might realize that even if she is not her illness, she still has to accept it on some level and that her not wanting to be defined by it doesn’t mean she has to lash it out on others.

These two examples translate in two opposite ways to organize a character arc. The character has the same flaw which might be synthesized with her not wanting to accept some of her feelings towards her own mental illness, but she declines it in different ways and her personality will be different in the two scenarios. I would also add that it is not set in stone that everything you have written to me about your character is something she has to realize and to know since the beginning. For example, she might start out as earnestly believing she is helping others with her behaviour, but then she might have to realize she herself can be violent and discriminating towards others. One she realizes it she might have to choose what to do about it and this will help with conveying specific themes rather than others.

I hope this was useful! Thank you for the asks!

#asksfullofsugar #anonymous #writing #writing anon

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colddisobedience-blog · 5 years

Text

WINTER AND BUCKY

This headcanon is a long ass time coming but it’s going to be my go-to post in explaining the dynamic I have for The Winter Soldier and Bucky Barnes. As a forewarning this post covers major abuse, mental health talk, suicidal ideals, deliberate triggers, emotional manipulation ect ect ect - if you’re having a bad day please skip ahead.

So after combing for too long through the Winter Soldier comics and re-watching the movies I started to notice a re-occuring theme in Winter and Bucky that had my attention and it mostly delves down to the terminology Bucky uses as well as Winters reactions to outside stimuli.

We all know what happened to Bucky, Hydra caught him, experimented on him with tests of the super soldier serum and began first trials of a new mind control and neurological adaptive technique. Under his time with them Bucky went through a lot of intrusive testing and mind fuckery - it was abuse down to the bone, plain and simple. But it didn’t just come in strapping him down and pumping him full of painful concoctions.

Hydra wanted to wipe all loyalty and personalisation of Bucky from his head and make him an asset that was entirely loyal to Hydra, but they didn’t want to loose his skills or experience in the field. Keeping in mind that Bucky was a sargeant at that point and a hell of a renowned sniper in his own right it would be a waste to rid of talents by setting his mind completely, they may as well have just raised children as they did with the red room for that.

No. They wanted to keep the skillset and tacticians mind but change his loyalties and obedience and in doing that they took away everything that made him Bucky. They rewrote his personality, they used reward techniques so that he would associate disobedience with pain and loyalty with reward. Hydra took away everything that influenced Bucky’s morality (his family, steve, his background) and finally his name so he wouldn’t be able to look into that should he actually wiggle out of their grasp.

They were left with an empty husk of ability but not mind so they gave him a name, a handler to become emotionally dependant on and they taught him their own version of morality. Winter’s a weapon, no doubt, but he’s still a person. He has to be. A weapon can’t think in the field, it can’t react, it can’t make calculated choices and a weapon can be loyal to anyone that handles it.

Winter is loyal only to his Handler. A way to ensure loyalty isn’t split and keep the amount of hands holding the leash to a minimum. A handler was enforced, stayed and given control of him. The Handler and the Handlers superior were the only ones who knew the trigger words for him, anyone not given control was beneath winter and the one holding him.

Every time Hydra wiped his mind they didn’t remove Winters training, they didn’t remove WINTER they just wiped BUCKY. The resets ensured Winter was the fronting personality, otherwise it’d be a waste of time. With the amount we know Bucky kept breaking out if they had to restart from scratch every single time and re-train winter it wouldn’t be worth the trouble.

This specific strain of abuse, forcing someone to take an act that isn’t them, punishment for acting out of character - that strain of abuse caused Winter to have his own mindset entirely and a case of Dissociative Personality Disorder is honestly extremely likely.

Obviously it’s not canonly confirmed but - DISCLAIMER - as someone with DID the way that Bucky speaks of memory lapses, of whispers, of voices and actions he doesn’t remember and the way Winter so violently responds to being called Bucky, the visible dissociation when Bucky starts coming forward? It all fits the box.

DISCLAIMER PART 2: Don’t take this as me feeding a stereotype I’m very much not. Not everyone with DID is evil, DID isn’t a violent horrible thing and it isn’t the string of serial killers and shit. This is me acknowledging that the abuse Bucky went through was also put on Winter and that the mind simply had to cope in some way, Bucky through canon states that he knows Winter is still in him, that he can feel / hear him in his head and Winter recoils from Bucky entirely. They act as two people, for obvious reasons.

DISCLAIMER 3: I wont be having either of them use terminology nor will they be diagnosed, Bucky doesn’t want a therapist and in order to diagnose it they’d have to study winter which just isn’t a safe thing within Marvel universe. I’m letting y’all know this purely so you can see where my mentality lies and why I’m writing them as I do.

Which brings me to further points - Winter as a person and not just an asset. Despite what Hydra trained Winter for and despite the abuse forcing him to obey we see in the comics and slightly in MCU that Winter isn’t thoughtless or heartless. (As much as I hate the ship) It’s shown most in the comics in regards to Natasha. It wasn’t BUCKY who was with her, it wasn’t Bucky in that room, it wasn’t Bucky who fell for her. It was Winter and it’s Winter who she betrayed which is why Bucky’s dumbass was willing to hop around and see what happened whilst Winter went boi stop that.

Winter is a case of a personality regressing to what its abusers demands. Hydra demands him to be violent, Hydra demands him to be cruel so he is but Winter also makes personal choices. He chooses to pull Steve out of the river in search for whoever Bucky is and he chooses to Run rather than keep fighting Steve when Bucky starts fronting.

I’m not dismissing everything Winters done, before anyone starts getting on my ass about it, I’m simply pointing out the cold hard fact that whilst Bucky was abused, Winter wasn’t much better off.

HOWEVER due to the nature of Hydra’s reward and punishment system Winter’s morality scale is fucked and he has an idealisation of whoever is his handler. They’re his best bet at safety, they’re his best bet at surviving. Winter very much see’s a handler as his protection, as long as he behaves and pleases them they keep him safe.

So what about Bucky and Winter? Well, Bucky fucking hates Winter and Winter fucking hates Bucky. That’s probably not going to change, at all. Bucky for obvious reasons blames Winter for everything and is terrified of him and Winter is… angry. He’s pissed that he wouldn’t exist if not for Bucky but he’s also pissed that no matter what it’s Bucky people see. He thinks of Bucky as a weakness, an error in his system that he’d get rid of in a heartbeat. ( This isn’t usual DID mentality, this mentality only comes about in late term DID development e.g. when adults develop it because it’s rarely done. It typically occurs in children who haven’t got developed personalities anyway. )

Aaand we come to a big question. Can Shuri actually get rid of Winter? Hard no. She can’t. What Shuri did do was undo the conditioning and the trigger words that would force Bucky down but it doesn’t stop winter fronting if needed and his reactions can’t be predicted. I really hate to tell MCU this but trauma can’t be undone with a fancy machine and MCU can absolutely choke for trying to tell me that. What a goddamn quick fix dismissive mentality to character growth fight me infinity war -

anyway lmao

Bucky was given rest, she did what she could the rest should’ve been done with therapy but Bucky ran off before that could’ve continued.

So where am I at?? Winter & Bucky aren’t becoming just Bucky, Hydra are pieces of shit who should burn, they both need a hug though winter would probably stab you a little bit, mental health isn’t a gloss over for shipping marvel I will @ you on that and I think that’s everything!

I might come back and update this as and when I remember things! IF you’ve got any questions feel free to ask I hope I explained it right and heed those disclaimers thank you!

#( headcanon : winter ) the order was given and i obeyed #( headcanon : bucky ) it’s like a memory from a dream #( fire elmo gif.jpeg )

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notcompliant · 5 years

Text

Winter and Bucky

Hydra wanted to wipe all loyalty and personalisation of Bucky from his head and make him an asset that was entirely loyal to Hydra, but they didn’t want to loose his skills or experience in the field. Keeping in mind that Bucky was a lieutenant at that point and a hell of a renowned sniper in his own right it would be a waste to rid of talents by setting his mind completely, they may as well have just raised children as they did with the red room for that.

Obviously it’s not canonly confirmed but - disclaimer - as someone with DID the way that Bucky speaks of memory lapses, of whispers, of voices and actions he doesn’t remember and the way Winter so violently responds to being called Bucky, the visible dissociation when Bucky starts coming forward? It all fits the box.

Disclaimer part 2: Don’t take this as me feeding a stereotype I’m very much not. Not everyone with DID is evil, DID isn’t a violent horrible thing and it isn’t the string of serial killers and shit. This is me acknowledging that the abuse Bucky went through was also put on Winter and that the mind simply had to cope in some way, Bucky through canon states that he knows Winter is still in him, that he can feel / hear him in his head and Winter recoils from Bucky entirely. They act as two people, for obvious reasons.

Disclaimer 3: I wont be having either of them use terminology nor will they be diagnosed, Bucky doesn’t want a therapist and in order to diagnose it they’d have to study winter which just isn’t a safe thing within Marvel universe. I’m letting y’all know this purely so you can see where my mentality lies and why I’m writing them as I do.

So what about Bucky and Winter? Well, Bucky fucking hates Winter and Winter fucking hates Bucky. That’s probably not going to change, at all. Bucky for obvious reasons blames Winter for everything and is terrified of him and Winter is... angry. He’s pissed that he wouldn’t exist if not for Bucky but he’s also pissed that no matter what it’s Bucky people see. He thinks of Bucky as a weakness, an error in his system that he’d get rid of in a heartbeat. ( This isn’t usual DID mentality, this mentality only comes about in late term DID development e.g. when adults develop it because it’s rarely done. It typically occurs in children who haven’t got developed personalities anyway. )

Anyway lmao

Bucky was given rest, she did what she could the rest should’ve been done with therapy but Bucky ran off before that could’ve continued.

I might come back and update this as and when I remember things! IF you’ve got any questions feel free to ask I hope I explained it right and heed those disclaimers thank you!

#( headcanon : bucky ) it’s like a memory from a dream #( i have been thinking about this for weeks peeps )#( and reading looking only at how bucky and winter talk about or react to each other )#( so this isn't a half assed slap on hc i actually put my brain in for a bit lmao )#abuse tw #mental health tw #( headcanon : winter ) the order was given and i obeyed

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oumakokichi · 8 years

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I might have missed an ask along the way, but have you discussed the dynamic between Momota and Ouma yet? I understand Japanese enough to get by without the occasionally misinformed/misleading translations and I am FLOORED by the lack of people talking about the dynamic shift between them in chapters 3 and 5. I guess I just wanted to know what you had to say on their relationship since your metas are always on point (also bc my friend and I can only scream at each other about these two so much)

I wanted to answer these two questions together because I’mactually very excited to have a chance to talk about this! Ouma and Momota’srelationship and the way in which the dynamic between them shifts is one of themost fascinating parts of Chapter 5, in my opinion.

If Chapter 5 in every DR game is about encouraging theplayer to put aside their preconceptions in order to find the truth (trustingthat Kirigiri is lying to Naegi for a good reason, understanding that justbecause Komaeda’s murder was gruesome and horrible didn’t necessarily mean hewas killed by someone else, etc.) then ndrv3 Chapter 5 really, truly takes thecake: complete cooperation between a culprit and victim is definitely a firstin a DR game.

There are so many intentional parallels and points ofdifference between them, in much the same way that there are parallels betweenOuma and Saihara, or Saihara and Momota. I feel Saihara himself managed tosummarize it best when I was translating the Chapter 5 post-trial, and when hesaid that they “had lost the friend that they could trust the most and thefriend that they could trust the least at the same time.”

I’ll be discussing Ouma and Momota’s relationship prettythoroughly under the read more, so there will be quite a few endgame spoilers.Please read only if you’re comfortable! I’ll also be referencing things fromthe Chapter 5 post-trial quite a lot, so if anyone hasn’t read it yet, there’sa translated transcript of the whole thing here!

So, for most of ndrv3 I don’t think anyone quite expectedsuch an effective and incredible alliance between Ouma and Momota preciselybecause they are so different. For most of the early chapters, and especiallyChapter 4, the emphasis is placed on their inability to see anything from theother’s perspective.

To Momota, Ouma is simply the worst. He’s cynical, he’s cryptic, he seems to relish in saying crueland sadistic things to the group at large, and he absolutely will not playalong with Momota’s “power of friendship” shounen protagonist wishes. Momota isprimarily concerned with motivating and inspiring others, and Ouma’s constantapparent attempts at sabotaging those motivational speeches seems nothing butchaotic and heartless. Therefore, he hates him.

To Ouma, Momota is incrediblynaïve and foolish. His attempts at motivating and “trusting in” the others arenothing but a parallel to Kaede’s early attempts at the same thing, and Oumaabsolutely hates the hypocrisy of someone claiming to trust everyone sowholeheartedly when they themselves are keeping huge secrets (such as Momota’s illness,which is a huge risk to his own safety and could very well backfire if he wereto die suddenly with no one knowing about it). Momota’s beliefs seem likelittle more than idealism without being willing to make cold, hard sacrificesin order to actually keep others alive. What’s more, he feels Momota’s rashnessand tendency to rely on yelling and getting angry is a spark waiting tokickstart the killing game into action. So he looks down on Momota, and thinkshe’s a loose cannon waiting to misfire.

This conflict between them reaches its obvious boiling pointin Chapter 4. After Miu’s death, Momota wants Saihara to become more confidentin his reasoning and believe in himself—but by relying on Saihara’s skills as adetective without actually encouraging him to doubt or suspect others, this isdangerous. By contrast, Ouma notices the others’ complacency and wants Saiharato trust absolutely none of them, but to work with himself instead—but thiskind of isolation from a friend group which provides so much support for one anotheris equally dangerous. Saihara understandably is torn between their conflict formost of the chapter.

The actual trial in Chapter 4 features both of them clashingover ideology and trying to force Saihara to pick a side once and for all. And both of them are ultimately surprised bythe turn of events, which is, I think, precisely why they both begin toreevaluate their plans and strategies in Chapter 5.

Momota is forced to reevaluate his “trust everyone, believein your friends, don’t doubt anyone even if the facts tell you to” strategyprecisely because it gets Gonta hurt so badly. By fighting against the obviousoutcome of the trial and prolonging the inevitable, Gonta became more confused,more upset, and the truth hurt that much more because it was slow and painfullygouged in, rather than accepted quickly and all at once. As angry as Momotagets at both Ouma and Saihara in Chapter 4, it’s clear that he knew he himselfwas partially in the wrong for denying the facts and for blaming Saihara for “betrayingGonta”—because he definitely begins acting guilty and readjusting his plans inChapter 5.

Ouma, of course, felt that his strategy was right up untilthe very end of the trial. He wanted initially to reveal the truth gently andin a much more roundabout fashion—but Momota and the rest of the group’srefusal to believe it unless it was presented coldly, harshly, and by ruthlesslyeliminating every other possibility made him angry enough that he “proved” tothem how horrible the truth could be when used as a weapon. He was confidentthat his methods and his doubt for everyone was right, up until the very end—whenSaihara and the rest of the group still ultimately chose to support Momota, andwhen it became clear that Ouma’s own façade and aggressive actions wereprecisely the reason no one could understand him or what he was trying toaccomplish. His intentions were right, but his methods were wrong, and this is exactly what forces him into such atight spot in Chapter 5.

By reevaluating their actions and their plans, these twoarrive at the very unlikely alliance we see in Chapter 5. Ouma isolated Momotafrom the rest of the group because he believed he would likely rile up everyone’smorale and possibly jumpstart the killing game again. But instead he was verysurprised when, contrary to his expectations, Momota stopped Maki from killinghim outright with the second arrow. For all that Momota was reckless and tendedto view things in very shounen-like terms of “good guys vs. bad guys,” he stillsaved Ouma’s life. Even if it was more for the sake of preventing Maki frombecoming a killer than actually protecting Ouma, that was still the end result.And that is exactly where I think Ouma’s opinion of Momota began to change.

The fact that he told Momota directly after that point, “You’rereally not boring after all” is perhaps the highest compliment Ouma had tooffer him. To Ouma, who constantly seeks out fun and interesting things as adistraction, and who can predict so much, boredom is the worst. Being “notboring” in his eyes is the equivalent of holding someone in very high esteem.After all, these are words he offers only to characters who impressed him insome way or other, including Saihara, Kaede, and Momota himself.

While Momota was clearly reevaluating his plans and feelingguilty for the things he had said to Saihara in the previous chapter for mostof Chapter 5, I don’t think his opinion of Ouma quite changed until theirconversation in the machinery bay. It was at that point that he finally sawexactly how far Ouma was willing togo in order to stop the killing game, and exactly what kind of crazy,over-the-top, ridiculous stunts he was capable of thinking up. Ouma’sintelligence and ability to draft the script and diagrams on such short noticeimpressed Momota, but I think his “guts,” if you could call it that, impressedhim even more. Momota was someone who was all about willpower and “fightingspirit.” And Ouma’s tenacity and willingness to stop the game no matter what ittook was the very definition of those things.

Their dynamic is incredibly interesting, because theiralliance was something absolutely no one expected. Not themselves, not theirclassmates, and certainly not the ringleader. The killing game was supposed tobe a situation in which trust and cooperation was impossible right from thebeginning. The idea that a culprit and victim would ever cooperate then,especially when Momota and Ouma were paralleled so thoroughly as “the hero” and“the villain,” was absolutely unthinkable. And yet it happened, because despiteeverything, both of them were actually willing to set aside their extremelydifferent beliefs and work within a middle ground.

As always in ndrv3, working within the middle ground is thebest option. Ideals get you killed. Reckless,naïve optimism and trust is just asdangerous as refusing to trust anyone at all. Only by showing that they wereboth willing to think more realistically about the situation they were in andcooperate were they capable of accomplishing a plan so incredible that, hadthey really carried it out to the fullest (meaning, had they actually beenwilling to bet everyone’s lives on their plan) they did stand a good chance offorcing Monokuma to make the wrong judgment in the trial and ending the killinggame then and there.

They were so drastically, incredibly different on thesurface. Momota constantly calling himself “the protagonist” and maintainingthe image of a shounen hero who fights with willpower and “the power offriendship” parallels and complements Ouma’s villain façade perfectly,mimicking Ouma’s constant claims that “trusting everyone will get you killed”and setting himself up to be someone hated by everyone else. And yet it’s truethat at heart, both of them were arguably the people thinking the most aboutthe group’s well-being. Their intentions, rather than their individual beliefs,were the reason it was possible for them to cooperate.

Even to the very end, I don’t think that either of them everfully agreed with the other’s perspective. Ouma definitely believed Momota wasstill foolish and rash, and judging by Momota’s willingness to believe thatOuma was “probably just lying to him again” when Ouma confided that he hatedthe killing game and everything it stood for, showed that they really didn’ttruly agree with the other’s mindset. However, there was undeniable respectthere between them. And I think that precisely because they could never trulybe like the other, there was admiration, too—Momota clearly admired Ouma’sability to think up such incredible plans and stunts, and Ouma no doubt admiredMomota’s very real ability to inspire change and development in others.

I absolutely love their dynamic myself, and I’m sad thatthere’s not nearly enough art of them or of Chapter 5 at the moment, becausethis kind of potential for two characters to get along even though they stillhave their differences is something I love to see in fiction. I blame most ofthe current lack of attention to their dynamic on the fact that many people inthe west haven’t played the game or seen spoilers yet, but also on the Japanesefandom’s rather lukewarm response to Momota’s character design. I’m hoping thatmore fanartists will appreciate him as time goes by because he’s a fantasticcharacter, and his and Ouma’s collaboration was an incredible plot development.

Chapter 5 hurts so much because the loss of both Ouma andMomota to the group was such a blow. They went through huge lengths, ultimatelynot to actually create a “completely unsolvable case” (because they bothdefinitely left clues) but to try and get Saihara and the rest of the group tosolve their case first and then solve the mysteries they themselves wouldn’t bealive to see the answers to. They formed an incredibly unlikely, incredibly effective tag team.

This has gotten pretty long by now, so I’ll finish up, butthank you both so much for asking! I love Chapter 5 and I’m so glad there aremore people interested in Ouma and Momota’s dynamic. Their cooperation was soessential to the last stages of the game, so I really hope more people come toappreciate how they both interacted and collaborated from here on out!

#ndrv3 #new danganronpa v3 #kokichi ouma #kaito momota #oumota #ndrv3 spoilers //#my meta #okay to reblog #i'm so constantly upset over chapters 4 through 6 #devicing #unchangingmelody

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alltheworldsrpg-blog · 7 years

Photo

WELCOME TO ROSWELL, ZARA RHODES!!

ADMIN CAMERON: What caught my attention about Zara was how carefully she was written, The Halogen’s past can go south very easily and you were able to handle that with grace. The plot section of your app really gives me confidence about her future growth as a character, and her dynamic with The Pulsar is everything I was looking for and some.

You’ve been accepted as THE HALOGEN with the faceclaim of JESSICA DE GOUW. Please follow all rules and regulations as laid out by the Roswell Town Council, especially concerning any non pre-approved biologic. All UFO’s outside of city limits must be stickered or will be towed. Enjoy your stay in the first city of extraterrestrials.

OUT OF CHARACTER.

NAME/ALIAS + PRONOUNS:

Riley, he/him

AGE:

18+

TIMEZONE + ACTIVITY:

GMT. I don’t know about numbers, but I’m usually active every couple of days at least. I might not always be on tumblr because it’s blocked at work but I tend to write in notepad then post when I get home during quiet spells, and I’m off on Wednesdays and weekends.

TRIGGERS:

Removed for privacy.

ANYTHING ELSE?:

I like sci-fi, superheroes and social justice. And I love this rp.

IN CHARACTER.

SKELETON TITLE:

The Halogen

FULL NAME:

Zara Rhodes – Zara means to blossom, I chose it because she’s only just starting to figure out who she is and developing into that person. Her motives might have been selfish and not entirely pure but she’s still growing. I chose the name Rhodes because I liked the sound of it and it summons images of loftiness and pretentiousness in my head.

GENDER + PRONOUNS:

Cisgender female, she/her

SEXUAL + ROMANTIC ORIENTATION:

Panromantic Pansexual

DATE OF BIRTH + AGE:

26 years old, July 13 2033, I chose Cancer as her star sign because they’re described as being inconsistent, difficult to predict, and seeking adventure but also security and that they keep others guessing and that’s how I picture her character.

OCCUPATION:

Law student

FACECLAIM:

Jessica De Gouw

BIOGRAPHY:

London has always been a city of immigrants, home of people from all backgrounds and walks of life, but the London Zara was born in fostered a different kind of immigration. She shared playgrounds with alien children (from the other side of the park, at her mother’s insistence), and she sat near them on the train (only when there were no other seats left, and even then her father would shield her as if she were some kind of fragile thing). From childhood, Zara knew two things; that aliens were part of life and that this was a bad thing.

She was eleven when her famous, wedding photographer father was all over the internet headlines because he’d famously refused to photograph an alien couple’s wedding. To Zara, it wasn’t such a big deal. It was his business and he should be allowed to run it the way he wanted. Her parents were business-people and it was their right to refuse those who weren’t technically human. After all, human rights laws didn’t exactly cover them. Her parents sheltered her from mixing with them as best they could, but that changed when she moved away, went to the United States for college.

Zara had lived in her dorm for only a day when her room mate casually dropped the fact they were a Centaurian in conversation. Zara was less than pleased. She made no attempt to hide her anti alien rhetoric, with slogans on shirts and posters on walls that could be classed as hate speech. She attended anti alien rallies, even tried to get them kicked out of school. She would get irritated when her room mate didn’t recognize her photographs at the campus gallery shows, even more irritated that they could hardly enjoy her work at all. After all, she was the human, and wasn’t this supposed to be all about her?

It would have been so easy to switch rooms. Her parents could even have afforded a fancy little apartment for her, and the room mate never moved either, intent on being ‘tolerant and understanding’. Zara’s motivations were less pure. She was determined to show her alien room mate a better way of life, to ‘tame’ them, and so it was almost ironic that she was the one who ended up being the student and the Centaurian the teacher. It took weeks, months, even years of debates, philosophical conversations, compassion and understanding that Zara probably didn’t deserve, but eventually it started to sink in. Aliens were a little different, but there was nothing fundamentally wrong with them. They could be friends. They could even be people you fell in love with, and boy, did Zara fall hard.

She was ashamed. She felt an intense need to make up for her actions, her blindness. Zara switched her major, choosing to pursue criminal justice as a pre-requisite for law school instead of the photography and artistic focus she’d held at the behest of her parents. Her parents didn’t take too kindly to it, especially when they discovered her reasons. She got the impression they thought she would grow out of it. But she never did. Zara used their last name to get some galleries interested in her photography and began selling it to make up for the money they were no longer so keen to send her. She even started her own online store. She wanted to be important in a different way, like her room mate was. She wanted to be an activist.

Zara never got the chance to truly share her feelings with her room mate even when graduation turned into summer turned into them renting a place together as ‘friends’. There might have been some flirting and some drunk confessions, but Zara pretends not to remember. For now. She doesn’t want to rock the boat on their living situation, and she tells herself that having recently been accepted into law school means she doesn’t have time for a relationship just yet anyway, but it’s all just an excuse. Really, she’s just waiting for the perfect moment, and she has no idea that the moment might not turn out to be perfect after all. Because the world isn’t perfect. In fact, it’s pretty broken, and Zara has yet to see just how deep the cracks go.

MUSING + HEAD-CANONS.

HEAD-CANONS:

I imagine Zara to be kind of like that activist with the best of intentions but she’s still learning. She’s come from a place of privilege with well-off human parents, upper middle class, white, and for most of her life she didn’t acknowledge or think about that. She’s only just starting out on this new journey. She’s growing as a person but she’s still in that sort of awkward stage where she doesn’t know when to talk and when to listen, and she also kind of turns her activism into a display, with social media posts etc.

Is a total pinterest ho and she loves those studyspo style pics.

Kind of a hipster.

But good intentions and has a lot of room for affection in her heart, even if it’s currently misplaced.

Zara was loved and a little spoiled as a kid. She wasn’t raised to have responsibility. She wasn’t punished for messing up and she didn’t have many rules. Who she is now is a result of the effect this can have on a child and their development so that its even affecting them as an adult in their mid 20s. Responsibility is starting to catch up with her and I find that a fascinating theme to explore. You can’t go through life as a free spirit not caring about anything in the long term, because then when you care about something completely, like Zara does now with Pulsar, then it’s kind of like a sensory overload that she doesn’t know how to handle, and now that she’s learning, for lack of a better term, social justice, she’s sort of diving in at the deep end and doesn’t really realise it takes time to be a good ally.

Her favourite color is blue, but she also likes blacks and greys. She likes pastel colors and a soothing aesthetic from her surroundings. She likes things to be neat and in order.

She still keeps up with photography, but primarily as a hobby. Selling her photos sometimes earns her a bit of pocket money and she still has her online store, but she doesn’t do much new photography for profit any more. Saying that, she’s happy to lend a hand and take snaps for the student paper or websites at local protests etc.

PLOTS + CONNECTIONS:

I want to explore the balance between responsibility and the impulsive artistic nature she has. She’s creative and intellectual, she believes so deeply in fate and chances, in a way that could something her mind used in the past to absolve her of her responsibility. She goes where her heart and impulse tells her which can be a dangerous way to live and that I feel has kind of come back to bite her now that she’s only just learning how to be a responsible adult.

The problem with being ruled by your heart and not your head is that it can get you in trouble, as you’re living a life without balance. If she’s taking her balance and the idea of morality from Pulsar that means it could be seen as a co-dependent relationship, which isn’t healthy either, but there’s also something about her and Pulsar that’s very pure and real too. Basically she’s a mess of contradictions. I love when characters have such realistic faults and they’re all rounded characters. She’s a free spirit and yet also has this dark side to her that’s capable of jealousy and insecurity and bitterness. It just feels like the realistic faults and struggles real people have, so I want to explore those.

Right now she doesn’t have any awareness of the fact Pulsar doesn’t feel the same way about her. She’s got a kind of confidence and sort of detachment from reality that she hasn’t picked up on any subtle cues that might have been dropped, but also the skeleton implies Pulsar might be leading her on a bit, which gives a few various avenues to explore when Zara actually finds out about it. I can see her reacting in a few different ways. She’s probably initially going to be pretty angry and upset. She’s going to be jealous of anyone Pulsar might be spending time with, but she doesn’t want to push the issue so she would instead focus on being angry that Pulsar wasn’t honest with her from the beginning.

I think it’s important not to fall into the trope of “I became a better person for you, so you owe me your love” especially as in this situation, Zara is sort of in the position of the oppressor, but I do think it might take her a bit of time to accept the reality of the situation because she’s so used to people fawning over her and thinking she’s fantastic. I want to try and find a balance between her disappointment and her spoiled attitude but also the fact she does respect Pulsar as a person and their free will.

I’d like to see her be exposed to some of the resistance people and be a little shocked and have her eyes opened about what a different form of activism looks like. It can be dark and gritty. It isn’t always sitting in a classroom learning about alien rights laws and spouting philosophy.

I’d also like her to come into contact with the anti alien people who she used to pal around with and who she turned her back on when she started listening to Pulsar and fell in love.

Those are the sort of connections I can see her building too. She’s kind of in an interesting position being that she’s touched on and has the ability to be part of both worlds. She tries to stay clear of the anti alien people now, but it would be interesting for some of them to try and tempt her back in, and especially if they do it to sort of take advantage of her being upset after she learns about Pulsar not reciprocating her feelings. Contrast to that, the types of aliens or alien supporters who use a more radical form of approach than Pulsar does I’d love to see her interact with and see how she responds to that.

WRITING SAMPLE:

Removed for privacy.

ETC:

https://ru.pinterest.com/mccluskry/zara/ Pinterest for her

http://vigilantwriter.tumblr.com/tagged/insp%3A-zara and my muse tag for her including some edits (its a queue so the tag will get bigger as my queue posts them)

#accepted.#the halogen.

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