#Even with the drama between them

[altocat]

Okay. I feel like I have to say this because I saw this argument earlier. Zack and Sephiroth WERE friends. They were friends caught up in a strained, stressful situation beyond their control. With this said, there's some understandable tension between them during the game. But Zack is NOT cruel to Sephiroth during CC, nor is he at any point responsible for Sephiroth's trauma or actions. When Zack gets annoyed at Sephiroth during the story, there are VALID reasons for him feeling this way. And, moreover, Sephiroth is not the ONLY victim of CC compared to the OCEAN OF TRAUMA Zack experiences.

For starters, Sephiroth is technically dumping all his responsibilities onto Zack, causing him to bear the emotional burden. Sephiroth is also aloof and not always communicative. Zack was mad at him in Junon because Sephiroth was not returning his calls. Zack being pissed at Sephiroth because of Nibelheim? He just murdered a ton of civilians there's realistically no way you can be nice and gentle with someone after that. Zack not checking in on Sephiroth? Well he actually MIGHT have been. How else does he know what Sephiroth is doing in there? How does Cloud have memories of Sephiroth telling him to go away? Zack likely DID express concern for Sephiroth's wellbeing and WAS rebuffed. Zack even expresses concern at the Nibelheim reactor by trying to physically comfort Sephiroth, only for SEPHIROTH to push him away. Zack was also the one telling Genesis to shut the hell up because he could see that Sephiroth was getting upset. Zack DOES care and DOES emphasize with Sephiroth. The game just isn't dwelling on it.

Sephiroth is not the only person in pain during CC. I think Zack had to deal with the MOST shit since he's the one who had to kill Angeal. He got to watch Genesis seemingly die in front of him. I think Zack has MORE THAN A FEW valid reasons for being occasionally upset and angry at Sephiroth. But even AFTER what Sephiroth did in Nibelheim, Zack still chooses to honor him at the end. Sephiroth is shown in Zack's memories of people he loves during his last stand. AND Zack stands in Sephiroth's place when he fulfills Genesis' wish to share the apples. In Opera Omnia, Zack is very clearly upset with what happened with Sephiroth, and doesn't seem to be able to truly hate him. And Sephiroth killed innocent people and tried to destroy the world. I think if Zack can still pity Sephiroth afterwards, it wasn't just an unempathetic relationship.

Also, and this is something that the game tries to convey but doesn't do a good enough job, Sephiroth and Zack spend pretty much 2 years in each other's company. The DMW cutscenes explore this idea as it shows them training together. What you are seeing are only a handful of moments in what is otherwise a period of them actually befriending each other and forming enough of a bond for Sephiroth to have grown some level of fondness for him. Nomura himself has said that Sephiroth really trusts Zack, and appreciates that Zack treats him like a human being and not a hero. He LIKES that Zack calls him out, likes that Zack challenges him. He is THANKFUL for that.

Crisis Core is a flawed game. But Sephiroth is not the only victim or the only one suffering throughout. Genesis and Angeal suffered. And god, Zack MORE than suffered. And no one was nice to HIM throughout. No one cares about HIS mental health. No one gives HIM special treatment. He has to kill his friends and deal with it. And then he dies. I love Sephiroth, you all know that. But part of loving the character is accepting the very real truth that he is STILL a villain and that he is NOT the center of suffering. His pain does NOT invalidate the pain of others.

Anyway, Zack and Sephiroth were still friends despite all this. They weren't as close as they could have been, but they were. It was a relationship with occasional bitterness, drama, and heartache, but they were still good enough friends for it to count. But we need to take into account that Zack is NOT to blame for anything related to Sephiroth's pain and actions. If anything, he is completely blameless.

[box-dwelling]

A thing I've never heard talked about but is so down right poetic as a wyllstarion concept is that the park right outside Cazadors was the one Wyll played in pretending to kill monsters when he was a kid...

[moliathh]

the scorpion and the frog

[poorly-drawn-mdzs]

Whatever Man and Whatever Sword

[First] Prev <–-> Next

[heretherebedork]

Just... Wan being afraid of dating because it might change everything like rejecting his advances won't change anything at all. Like pretending it never happened is something people can do, truly. Like rejecting Beer would meant that they could return to the limbo of pining and friendship.

Wan in love and afraid to be in love because the last time he fell in love he lost the person for two years and just found out that he left because he didn't think he mattered to them (after a love confession?!!?!) and timing was off and now he's rejecting Beer because he associates love with being left behind and unimportant to the person he loves.

And so he clings to friendship as a safer choice even though his friendship with Beer is built on Beer being in love with him and him loving him back. How is he going to handle his jealousy? How can he be jealousy and needy when he's already rejected him?

This is gonna be rough but it has to be because Wan has to get past his own fear of rejection and loss and the only way, honestly, is going to be Beer starting to move on after the rejection.

[nano30cm]

they're gym buddies :)

[themundanedumpling]

KLUER HAS GUTS I'LL GIVE HIM THAT

[gunsatthaphan]

🏳️‍🌈?

[leixinyus]

[weneedatdcharacterwho]

Conversely we also need a "mean" character who is shown to be unpleasant and rude but everyone loves. they are later revealed to actually generally be nice but got a bad edit from production for something minor on day 1

.

[marymekpop]

⟢ highlight of the hour: flex x cop [10/16] ⟣

welcome back home

[rapidhighway]

K I've been thinking about this for like a week now. Ignoring any immortal headcanons if you have them. Knuckles knows he's not going to be able to guard the Master Emerald forever and that probably troubles him, but, if he was dying do you think he'd ask Sonic to guard it? He's the person with a unique connection to Chaos and the Chaos Emeralds and he's basically chosen one the most specialest guy, and one of the few people Knuckles could trust with that duty.

Of course I think Sonic would say no. I think he'd never be able to do that and he wouldn't want to.

[raccooncityriots]

Honestly the people saying that they’re sorry to SEED fans because the movie feels like a teen drama fanfic is sending me, guys did you watch the series. I was expecting nothing less.

[kazz-brekker]

i feel like everyone on here saying that even if rhaenyra peacefully took the throne daemon would definitely cause a civil war to make sure one of his sons succeeds her are forgetting that (a) daemon's eldest daughter was going to be queen of westeros one day and his grandchild through her would be heir to the throne (b) daemon is like 15 years older than rhaenyra so barring her death in childbirth or some unexpected accident she would probably outlive him anyway

[rickybaby]

Laila I hard agree with your tags RE: Italiano leaving. I’ve seen people joke that Danny must have fucked his girlfriend or something but I don’t think it’s anything personal (in that way)

If I had to guess I’d say it was something big, maybe business/money related. I kind of hoped Daniel just realized what a shit trainer Michael was (I can rant on his bs practices all day, but he pushes some unsustainable and sometimes outright dangerous ideas like extensive fasting, etc. etc. which have always rubbed me the wrong way). BUT I think in reality Daniel hasn’t really acknowledged/processed how NOT OKAY that whole McLaren stint was for him. He still talks to Zak, all the McLaren mechanics, friendly with Lando and Oscar, so if it was just “Michael let him down and wasn’t putting his best interests first in McLaren” I think Danny would have just let it go.

One thing he’s not stupid about though, is his money/business (and also, what a lot of people don’t acknowledge, his privacy). We don’t really hear a lot about Danny post-season. So I feel maybe the fall out had to do with Italiano going on podcast after podcast talking about Daniel and then also (presumably) raking in money for it. Again, all allegedly completely-just-going-from-my-own-vibes, Michael Italiano do not sue me

I do think there was a catalyst that led to their break-up sometime after the last race last year, because if I remember correctly, Jack (Doohan) had mentioned that Michael would be training him for F2 while still working with Daniel during his year off. But then, this never happened and MI ended up going to AT. All I'm saying is, whether something happened or someone sat Daniel down and talked to him about it, Daniel on his own would never have realised how harmful whatever MI preached was. And i think whatever it was, really hit Daniel hard because every time he's talked about coming back this year, whether it's the lone wolf comment or other things, he's constantly talked about how he's approaching training differently and how he's realised prioritising his recovery and rest is important.

Regarding your comment about whether Michael wasn't putting Daniel's interests first at Mclaren, I think a lot of people got the same impression, especially if you go by his comments on his Pitstop appearance this year. The way he framed it kind of implied that he was annoyed at Daniel's decision to take a year off and there was the implication that this derailed his own career and aspirations, which fair enough.

But coming to whether it could have been money/business-related, I feel like this is more like it. You do get the impression he was more in it for the money and the fame. Forget the part about dming girls and the cheating allegations, but the side-hustle part of it?? With the F1 season getting more and more hectic and trainers like Brad and Angela leaving because they can't keep up with the strain and time demand of the new calendar, how can you have the time to dedicate to other private clients? To me, it just means you're not really giving your 100% to the driver you are meant to support. Then, there was the mask debacle thing in 2020, his whole 'merch' collection and the way he continued to make money off his posts of Yuki this year.

And then the privacy thing - I know just because Daniel looks like such an open guy that people don't realise how private he is. Even during the whole mclaren debacle, not one person from his side ran their mouth in the press when you constantly have the family or friends of other drivers making snide comments or liking posts they shouldn't. And then, there's mr. Italiano making appearances in dodgy podcasts and obviously whatever he says, people are bound to take it as him meaning it about daniel because that's who they associate him with. And then the whole leaking of his private medical info, coming after the one and sole sighted interaction of theirs must have come as such a betrayal to Daniel

[nozomijoestar]

Asuka is a tragic figure, a figure of mystery, a wild card, all because the only thing she wants in life is peace and quiet for herself and to feel in control- yet her secret heritage that may be hidden from her for her own protection and the reality that life is unpredictable and will go on with or without you keep ruining that delusion, that vision of how the world is meant to work to her, and she suffers regardless of what she wants, what she does, and how little she understands anything

She was born into a family preaching peace and balance and order while being a creature of violence, and puts a dozen mental locks and excuses over this truth to justify giving into her impulse for fighting by pretending she's justice when she does it

She keeps trying to build a place of safety but she's using sand and life is a wave that destroys, yet she stubbornly persists rather than give up, not drowned to the point of self centered suicidal loathing like Jin- there's contrast, where Jin is cloaked in death Asuka stubbornly clings to life and humanity as a normal person in a terrifying world

She's not a fucking narrative clone for Jun's own purpose, Asuka's purpose must be determined by Asuka herself