#This mostly comes from the fact that all the main characters forgive him by the end of the chapter

[trg-deltarune-quotes]

Berdly dose not need a redemption arc

I would like to prefix this by stating that I am NOT trying to excuse his actions. He is very much a prick and has a hard time listening to Noelle’s honest thoughts and opinion, but I don’t think these are good enough reasons to constitute a redemption arc for him, because outside of these flaws he has a lot more redeeming qualities. 

One of his prevalent traits is that he is diligent, hardworking, and honest. Across the two chapters we learn that Berdly has two jobs, a volunteer job at the library and a job with Ms. Boom, so far we’ve only seen him at the library but this shows that he isn't lazy and takes his job seriously.

This also shows that he is quite an honest person. When it comes to other people he might misinterpret their intentions but his assessment of their personality and how they act aren’t wrong. He wasn’t lying about his motivations and although he makes excuses for why he sucks at everything he never gives up trying to overcome an obstacle or complete his objective.

Berdly misinterprets Kris pranks on him.

Berdly making excuses for why he couldn’t solve the puzzle.

When he keeps his limits in mind and is willing to help out with the group he can be pretty smart. He has a good memory which helps out with the plan he comes up with. A plan which actually got them farther than just brute forcing their way through.

The plan fails but it does show that he isn't as dumb as he thinks he is.

These traits don’t automatically make him a good person, villains can have similar traits as the heroes afterall, but Berdly is morally sound as well.

In the spamton sweepstakes, Berdly accidentally deletes his minecrap game and has to fix it with the help of Kris. Instead of boasting about how he fixed it all by himself he admits that he got help from them.

And in chapter two when Berdly shows off the statue to Queen and Kris he specifically says to Kris to admire OUR artisanship (skill in a particular craft). 

In the next room over we learn that Sweet cap'n cakes help make the statue.

This shows that Berdly is willing to give credit where credit is due even if he sees everybody as intellectually inferior.

Throughout the entirety of chapter 2 Berdly is constantly trying to keep Noelle safe, that’s part of the reason he was working for Queen in the first place.

The other reason was to make a happy world for the both of them by creating a dark fountain. Noelle even says this herself after the ferris wheel ride.

He even pretended to have romantic feelings for Noelle so she wouldn't be sad.

While he does misinterpret her feelings as being towards him Berdly doesn’t force a kiss on her. Outside of leading her on he never once tries to take control away from Noelle or make her uncomfortable. In his mind Noelle is the one who has to make the decision to admit her love to him, not the other way around. Even when he does have a crush on someone he doesn't force a kiss on them, the control is always in the other person's favor.

He puckers up but that’s as far as he goes and when it doesn’t work he backs off.

All this shows that Berdly loves Noelle and wants to be supportive as much as possible. And while their friendship IS messy and could use some work, at the end of the day they ultimately care about each other.

If Berdly only cared about what Noelle could do for him, why does he ask Noelle how she’s getting stronger instead of why during the snowgrave route?

It’d be counterintuitive of him to let her get stronger since it would mean she could stand up to him and call him out on his bullshit.

When she is assertive and expresses her true feelings on Berdlys idea during the normal route, he’s shocked but he accepts this side of her pretty quickly.

When all is said and done Berdly comes off more as a well meaning but misguided character, far from somebody who needs a redemption arc. His intentions were never malicious and the flaws he does have are easily fixable. While in the light world it’ll take a bit of time to relearn everything, if his final few lines are anything to go by it probably won’t take that long.

[spidersmiceandeverythingnice]

Gaara is truly the Character of All Time

-Introduced as main antagonist in a tournament arc, the terrifying bloodthirsty ninja from a strange desert village who kills without remorse and has survived every mission without getting a scratch on him

-He's 12

-Character design 10/10 he has bright fucking brick red hair, literal raccoon eyes, a face tattoo that says "Love" and carries that weird ass gourd; between the fun elements and the interesting tie-ins to Tanuki Lore, I have never seen a more charming design in my life tbqh

-Immediately more emo and chuuni than Noted Emo Heartthrob Sasuke Uchiha by virtue of reciting weird poetry after killing a guy in cold blood

-We get his tragic backstory and by fucking GOD is it sad. I cry just thinking about it. Literally everything about it is just horrible and devastating.

-Talk No Jutsu at end of the tournament arc, Gaara realizes that he should, in fact, go to therapy and immediately decides to turn his life around

-The first thing he decides to do is apologize to his siblings <3

-Shows up a handful of arcs later with a cool new outfit and becomes friends with the kid he literally tried to murder and nearly permanently crippled in one of the best fights of the entire series

-Liam O Brian's English dub of Gaara is Stellar ya know what. The raspiness of the original appearance morphing into the Deepest Voice That Any Kid Has Ever Had Ever was a genuinely hilarious choice

-Has the only good filler arcs in the old show; he's such a good character that the entire show molds itself and rises to meet him

-Post timeskip he is Desert Ninja President at the ripe old age of 15 and is extremely good at it because he's the weirdest little nerd with no social skills (on account of his tragic backstory) and diligently applies himself to doing paperwork and going to meetings

-Has a fanclub in the village mostly of girls his own age that he never seems to talk to?? Or realize have crushes on him?? Oblivious king we love him.

-Dies in one of the most genuinely moving scenes. Comes back like 20 episodes of fighting later because where would we be without him honestly?

-Becomes Super General Ninja President of the Grand Army of whatever where he accomplishes such feats as forgiving his asshole father and emotionally healing from his childhood trauma, stopping a meteor, and nearly dying a second time.

-Collects cacti as a hobby

-Has the only good sequel series arc where it's revealed that in addition to continuing to serve as Desert Ninja President, he's decided to adopt a couple of orphan ninja kids so that he can break the cycle of parental neglect and stupidity that created his tragic backstory in the first place.

[grandline-fics]

Forget-Me-Not

DESCRIPTION: Sometimes things happen beyond our control. After an accident occurs your relationship with Zoro is turned on its head and changed forever.

WARNINGS: no angst in this one, mostly fluff

CHARACTERS: Zoro

WORDS: 2,588

A/N: This one was more on the slower side but things are developing and I hope this chapter was still enjoyable for you all

*REQUESTS ARE OPEN*

DIRECTORY | PROMPT LIST

Chapter One | Chapter Two | Chapter Three | Chapter Four | Chapter Five | Chapter Six (here) | Chapter Seven (coming soon)

———————

Zoro was trying to not read too much into things but he couldn’t help it. Yes he kissed you back because of a moment of pure weakness and selfishness on his part but he still had no clear answer about why you initiated it in the first place. Had it been as you said? That you truly didn’t know the driving force of your actions. Or could it have been a case of some of your memories beginning to trickle to the surface? Instinct taking over whenever you finally felt his touch winning out over your current state of rationality that your amnesia brought. He’d spent most of the afternoon training, pushing himself harder than normal just to take his mind off of it all. He only stopped when he noticed how dark it was getting and knew you needed to eat.

When he knocked at the door to the medical room he waited for you to answer. In the short time he stood there he still couldn’t get used to the fact that this was where he had to go to find you. It felt wrong, it was the main reason he couldn’t sleep restfully anymore. His body had gotten so used to having you beside him night after night for so long that the abrupt change of sleeping on his own again had completely thrown him and not even his intense training and sheer stubbornness was enough to help him find peaceful sleep. Zoro was brought out of his thoughts when the door slowly opened and he met your face coming into view. He knew that initial hazy expression well, you’d been sleeping and then he felt a small sense of pride to see the look of appreciation slip in when you looked him over. In a way it was reassuring to see that even with your memories gone, your physical attraction to him was still there.

Quickly he focused to discuss organising dinner with you seeing as the others still hadn’t returned to the Sunny. It wasn’t strange for long trips on a new island, and coupled with the fact he knew everyone intended to drag out their time before returning to the ship so you and he would be completely alone it was likely no one would return until late that night. Once he agreed to meet you in the kitchen, he turned and headed for the washroom to shower as quickly as he could. He wasn’t a great cook by any means but he didn’t want all of the work to go to you. After he was washed and changed into fresher clothes he walked into the kitchen to the smell of food already cooking on the stove. At the sound of Zoro’s approach you turned and gave him a small smile. “Good news is Sanji left stuff already prepared for us to make dinner. Guess he didn’t trust us to fend for ourselves.” 

“More like he thought I’d destroy his precious kitchen.” Zoro muttered, feeling that the stupid cook had done this to gain a point against him. To show off his fancy cooking skills even when he wasn’t here. 

“Who’s to say I’m not capable of burning the kitchen down?” You asked playfully before turning to stir the food simmering on the stove. “It could be me he doesn’t trust.”

“For one you’re a good cook and two even if you weren’t that moron would forgive you for anything.” Zoro shrugged and stepped further into the room taking charge of the vegetables on the chopping board that needed cut. 

Together you both cooked in content silence, the first real sense of calm settling between you both since the day you woke from your accident. In a way you were glad of nearly falling down the steps and the inexplicable and heavily inappropriate kiss you both shared because it seemed to help get some of the tension out of you both enough to make things bearable. Also the memory you had while you slept also helped settle some of your previous animosity towards the swordsman. Knowing that you had been a part of the crew and that you cared enough to tend to his wounds had only proved what they’d told you from the beginning; you were a pirate like them. You’d joined them, you were a friend. Cautiously you cast a quick glance at Zoro, more than a friend it seemed with him. 

You remembered his defiance to tell you anything just this morning unless you genuinely wanted to know and would listen. Were you ready now? If you were asking that then the answer was probably no. You considered that if you’d had one of your memories come back on their own then perhaps the others would too without outside influence of the others telling you the stories. You jumped when Zoro’s hand touched your shoulder and looked at him, snapping out of your daze. Anxiously you lowered the flame to stop the food from burning in time. Nervously you laughed. “See? Told you it was me that could burn everything.”

“You okay?” Zoro asked, studying you carefully. It was hard to know what was stepping too close to the line or pushing past what you were comfortable with now. If it was still the you that had all of your memories he would have known to ask what was on your mind, able to see for sure that something was heavy in your thoughts, pulling your focus. Now? He had to be gentler than he wanted to be, a simple question without being direct. It was rare for him to have this approach since he favoured the swift and direct method. Zoro lifted his hand away from your shoulder when he realised he’d been touching you all this time. 

The second his hand lifted your eyes flickered to the shoulder, registering the lack of warmth that the momentary touch had brought. Quickly you pushed back the way your body wanted to lean into his hold. You nodded and to Zoro’s question and forced a small smile. “Yeah, sorry. Just daydreaming…”

“About anything in particular?”

“Nothing really.” You mumbled, lifting the spoon to your lips to test if the food needed salvaging after nearly burning it. It was good but it still needed something. “Just letting my mind wander…” Zoro stepped back to let you walked around the kitchen with purpose. You opened one of the cabinets and lifted a small unlabelled jar before returning to the stove. With precision you sprinkled some of the contents into the food and stirred. You took a taste and smiled in satisfaction. Lifting another spoon you took a small helping and offered it to Zoro who was staring at you evenly. “Try.”

Zoro hesitated for a second but took the spoon from your hand to taste the food. Delicious as he knew it would be. “It’s great.” He told you, turning away sharply to grab the plates. “Always is.”

“Good to know but what’s wrong?” You asked, serving out his portion and then your own and took a seat at the table, watching Zoro steadily as he took the spot opposite you. “What did I do?”

“The seasoning.” Zoro finally admitted. “You went straight for it even though you haven’t cooked since waking. You knew where it was and what it was for even though it wasn’t labelled.”

“Oh…” You glanced at the jar on the counter only now seeing how strange it was. “I didn’t even realise. What is it anyway?”

“Something you found way back for me when the stupid cook’s dishes are too sweet.” Zoro explained with a small smile at the memory that he quickly hid by shoving food into his mouth. Even telling you that much felt like he was pushing too much, like he was influencing your thoughts even if it was the truth. He wasn’t going to lie but he felt a small sense of hope when he saw you immediately take the jar. Like it was a sign something was beginning to shake loose in your mind. It was an insignificant thing but he would take it. Now he worried when you were quiet. “Sorry.”

“Why’re you apologising? It’s the truth right?” You shrugged lightly, it wasn’t something Zoro needed to say sorry for. “Sanji does like to favour sweetness, doesn’t he?” 

“Think he does it on purpose sometimes with my food. Dumbass.” Zoro conceded with a small laugh, glad for the slight diversion from the conversation. You bit back your own grin in an attempt to hide it but failed. 

“Oh come on, you’d be bored if he wasn’t here to argue with.” Zoro rolled his good eye at your teasing and pointed his fork at your food. 

"Just hush and eat before it gets cold.”

When the meal was finished and everything cleaned, you joined Zoro in the Crow’s Nest. With just the two of you on the ship it would mean the watch would be shared between you both until any of the others decided to come back. As you took your seat you looked out the window at the bright lights of the large cityscape on the island, your thumb lightly running along your bottom lip as your mind began to drift again. “They'll be fine. We haven’t heard fighting or Marine alerts yet so they’re actually behaving for once.”

You looked over to where Zoro stood, leaning against the large pane of glass instead of sitting anywhere near you. Deep down you knew he spoke the truth, Luffy’s overwhelming excitement and boundless energy would mean that he was just as loud and obvious when fighting. If the city was calm then you didn’t need to worry about your crew. Quickly you tensed at how you considered them ‘yours’ now instead of just ‘the crew.’ That memory you experienced had affected you more than you initially realised. Your attention was grabbed when you heard Zoro hold back a deep breath, you narrowed your eyes slightly in keen scrutiny. He was holding back a yawn, a real one and not that pretend one he’d made earlier when he claimed he was going to nap. “Lie down and sleep Zoro. I'll take first watch.”

“I’m fine.”

“Again with the stubbornness?” You asked accusingly and gestured to the countless seats he could lie down on. “Just lie down okay? I slept earlier. I promise I’ll wake you when I start to feel sleepy.” Zoro stared at you hard and you refused to back down. “Please.”

Zoro swallowed hard and slowly shook his head, for a moment you were ready to insist again but instead anything you were prepared to shout at him stopped in your throat when he pushed away from the wall with a huff and trudged to the closest section of seats and lay down on his back, tucking his hands behind his head lazily. He would pretend to sleep to keep you happy. At the sound of movement, Zoro cracked his good eye open and frowned warily when you moved to sit closer to his head. You still kept some distance but were within touching distance now. “You look like a deep sleeper, have to be closer to shake you awake if I need to.”

Zoro hesitated at your willingness to be closer in proximity to him but again that selfish weakness that he had when it came to you was creeping back. He’d take anything he could get. Even if it was small, even if it meant that when you returned home like you planned to and even if it meant he’d hurt even more he would gladly accept it all, just for a little bit more of you. His eye closed again as he allowed another yawn to build in his chest and this time let it out. You watched Zoro carefully, unable to stop your small smile to see him give in and sleep. Perhaps now Chopper would be less concerned now that the swordsman would be more rested. 

As you stared out the window you absently let your hand settle into Zoro’s hair, unaware you'd done it at first until you felt him lean into your touch in his sleep. When you looked down again and saw the calm in Zoro’s expression your heart fluttered slightly and you couldn’t bring yourself to pull your hand back. He looked as though some weight he’d been holding had lifted now that he was sleeping and relaxed. You bit your lower lip and quickly looked towards the window again to keep watch while your fingers gently continued to move against Zoro’s hair, occasionally massaging against his scalp in between your slow movements. 

It wasn’t long before you noticed movement and the clear outline of people approaching the Sunny. Thanks to the bright moonlight you could see Luffy and the others had returned. Knowing you didn’t need to wake Zoro you carefully moved your hand away from his head and quietly descended the ladder to greet the group as they climbed aboard. “Nice day?”

“Yeah, the city’s great.” Nami answered first, her bright gaze drifting briefly up to the Crow’s Nest before returning her stare to you. “Lots to see and explore. Can’t wait to go back for more shopping.”

“There’s time to go back?” You asked, glancing behind her shoulder to see Sanji skipping on board with a mountain of shopping bags in his arms. Obviously this was the result of Nami’s shopping trip but you noticed a few bookstore bags in his hold too that belonged to Robin. Franky, Usopp, and Chopper carried crates of ship supplies on board and smiled to you in greeting before disappearing to unload what they’d bought.

“Well yeah…that’s kinda the bad news. For you I suppose.” The navigator broached the subject delicately. “Log pose will take three weeks to set. I’m sorry it’s not sooner than you’d like but it just means we can gather as much to stock the ship for the long journey back to your island. I hope you’re not mad.”

“Oh well it can’t be helped, right?” You asked with a small laugh, surprising Nami. All day she’d been expecting your annoyance and wish to just get home the second they had enough supplies to last them the trip back. “Well I’ll go wake Zoro. It’s Luffy’s turn for watch right?” You asked with a nervous smile before turning to go up to the Crow’s Nest while Luffy bounced happily behind you, telling you about the things he’d seen on the island and in the city. 

Nami stared at you curiously as you left. Did you seem happy that you were here a little longer? She knew better than to ask outright or let on that she suspected a change in you, but she was going to watch you a lot closer now. While she was desperate to know what happened between you and Zoro while you were alone all day she had to restrain herself. Three weeks was a long time and she was certain that there was going to be a lot more to come. She let out an amused hum as she watched you and Luffy appear in the window of the Crow’s Nest, waking Zoro. At the same time Robin stepped beside her. “Three weeks, hm? I could have sworn that store owner told you and I the pose would set in three days.”

“Well what the others don’t know, won’t hurt them. Right?”

------------------------------------------------

TAG LIST (If I've missed anyone or if you want to be added just let me know) @3v37773 @tsaaps , @i-am-all-love-puns-and-lazy , @sanemisnonexistenteyebrow , @fiery-captain-spider-santa , @vikispike , @portgasmyass , @diarythroughmylens , @itsagoodluckkiss , @emmaiscool22 , @loveyluv7 , @starlightanyaaa , @sp1ng , @guridoodles

[absolutebl]

This Week in BL - Bit Slow Round These Parts

Organized, in each category, by ones I'm enjoying most at the top.

Dec 2023 Wk 4

Ongoing Series - Thai

Last Twilight (Fri YT) ep 8 of 12 - Mhok is about the most indulgent boyfriend on the planet. Why they dressed as 1930s gangsters for the wedding? I have no idea idea, but it’s adorable. IFYLITA mark 2? And they’re even dancing together using bits of the same steps that were used that show too. Cute nod.

The Sign (Sat YT) ep 6 of 10 - Everything but the kitchen sink includes lesbians apparently. Excellent. Carry on. Also a lot of filler about the sides. (Boring, stop that.) I wish the doctor were a little bit more of a multifaceted character (and less evil snakey), and that we had some of his backstory + Tharn. If we saw them as kids, having a longer true friendship, it would make Tharn’s attitude a little bit more sympathetic and forgiving.

For Him (Thurs iQIYI) ep 5 of 10 - I like this show, but it’s awfully one-sided in the romance arena. I mean shouldn’t they be trying to support and make each other happy? Why does it always have to come from Him? Also, I’m constantly worried about the fact that Nail doesn’t eat any vegetables. His digestive track must be in serious distress. And if the boy is a bottom?! Look I have concerns is all I'm saying, I hope he's getting his fiber along with the dk. Meanwhile... Mom confrontation! Always fun.  

Twins the series (Fri GaGa) ep 9 of 10 - Now I’m having a hard time keeping the twins straight. Who’s getting beat up for whom, what’s going on? No matter who, First caught himself a live one. I like those bits.

Pit Babe (Fri iQIYI) ep 7 of 14 - I got little crumbs of my sides but not enough, and then they dropped the mpreg bomb. Kinda like blowing the BL diaper. Trash watch happening here.

Cooking Crush (Sun YT) ep 5 of 12 - They are so cute. And mostly such good communicators. Except evil dad is evil! I didn’t have OffGun tango on my bingo card, but I'm happy to check it off. After making everyone sing, GMMTV is now making everyone dance. I much prefer it. Kiss came a bit out of nowhere. But it was sweet. 

A few minutes later...

Bake Me Please (Mon Gaga) ep 6fin - I don’t know, I feel like this just wasn’t good enough for the class of talent involved. Which means it’s mostly the story and script's fault. In the end I kinda just wanted Guy to get the guy.

In cluclusion:

A lack-luster story about a group of bakers coping with (mostly) a shoddy script that could not be saved by either the beauty nor the talent of the actors involved. It suffered for lack of narrative backbone and so did I. 6/10

Middleman’s Love (Fri YT & iQIYI ep 8fin - Mai is an adorable clingy boyfriend, and that bit was kind of cute.

Summation:

Office clown, Jade, a manic pixie dream dork, is courted by the new intern, Mai. This show is right in my wheelhouse but it fell flat for me. I wish it had lived up to the concept behind the title (if nothing else). If we had done more of Jade‘s family and the reasons behind his self-worth struggles and self-acceptance issues, they might have been easier to bare. Without backstory, the show had no through line. In the end, Jade was a largely intolerable character, and Mai felt flat and lacking in personality. I was disappointed with this show, and I hope they don't blame the pair for the poor ratings. 6/10

My Universe (Sun iQIYI) 1626 ep 19 of 24 - Meh. So dull. 

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

VIP Only (Taiwan Fri Gaga) ep 7 of 10 - I’m not really interested in the late addition love triangle concept.

Sahara-sensei to Toki-kun (Japan Fri Gaga) ep 4 of 8 - a bit too frenetic and manic for me, this one. Glasses boy is best boy. But I’m kind of confused as to was actually going on with this show. Including whether I like it or not.

I Became the Main Role of a BL (Japan Sun Gaga) ep 1-3 - AKA BL Drama no Shuen ni Narimashita: Crank Up Hen - it should finish airing at the very beginning of the year, so I decided to wait and watch all 3 back-to-back. 

It's Airing But...

Playboyy (Thurs Gaga) 14 eps - Dear Playboyy, it's not you, it’s me… I hate you. You’re about as deep (and as palatable) as a shot glass of cum. While I'm sure you’re someone’s kink, you're my weakest link. Goodbye. I DNFed this at ep 5. Frankly I'm impressed with myself for getting that far.

Night Dream (Sat YT) 6 eps - It’s a pain to track down and I really didn’t like the first episode so… DNF  

The Whisperer (Sun ????) 10 eps - Thai horror BL that ALSO involves cheating (what joy is mine). I don't think even the perfect single dimple can motivate me to watch. Word is... it's terrible.

7 Days Before Valentine (Weds WeTV) 10 eps - Giving me Luminous Solution vibes. I'm waiting to binge if safe.

Dead Friend Forever (Thai Sat iQIYI) - horror, meh, tell me if it's worth my time?

It's done and I didn't, or we can't

Beyond The Star (Weds iQIYI) 8 eps - House of Stars meets Boyband. I was NOT impressed with ep 1. Been told I shouldn't bother. So I won't.

Behind the Shadows (Korea movie) - This is a historical I was interested in, but I've been told they kill the gay so I'm OUT.

[INTERNATIONAL] Cherry Magic (Sat YouTube) ep 3 of 12 - yeah Japan put the smack down on our boys. Sadness. You can use a VPN if you like. Read all about it here.

What Did You Eat Yesterday Season 2 AKA Kinou Nani Tabeta? Season 2 (Japan Gaga) 10 eps - will binge when I have a spare day.

Crazy work load right now so no idea when that will be. (End of year is a bear for me.)

Honestly I'm gonna have an epic number of dnf's this year for me.

Next Week Looks Like This

Original 2023 forthcoming BL master post (see comments, some are inaccurate, NOT KEPT UPDATED). With the end of the year upon us I'll do an "announced for 2023 but never happened list" soon.

Also my best ofs are coming.

Don't think I'll do a stats round up this year, everything progressing as before.

THIS WEEK’S BEST MOMENTS

(Last week) - sorry, forgot to link it.

It's 2024 people! Round ups are coming!!!! Leave a comment or an ask, if you have something specific you want addressed.

[nix-moon]

✮⋆˙✮ V𝔦𝔯𝔢𝔫'𝔰 𝔳𝔦𝔩𝔩𝔞𝔦𝔫 𝔞𝔫𝔡 𝔯𝔢𝔡𝔢𝔪𝔭𝔱𝔦𝔬𝔫 𝔞𝔯𝔠𝔥 ✮⋆˙✮

(𝕒𝕟𝕕 𝕨𝕙𝕪 𝕀 𝕝𝕠𝕧𝕖 𝕚𝕥 𝕤𝕠 𝕞𝕦𝕔𝕙)

SEASON 6 SPOILERS AHEAD ⚠️📢🚨

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I'll start by saying that this is my personal analysis based on nothing more than my own experience watching "The Dragon Prince". Anyway, long text ahead!

•°•°•°•°• ☆ °•°•°•°•°• ☆ °•°•°•°•°•

I really like how Viren's story was built throughout The Dragon Prince/Mystery of Aaravos. I enjoy villain narratives that bring some elements which, in my opinion, give the character development a little bit more of a "real humanity" you know?

Like for example, a character that makes mistakes, regrets them, and then go and do something totally apposed to their beliefs, take hypocritical actions, such as humans do all the time! I love when the idea of a perfect character falls apart, showing contradiction.

I think TDP brings that to the table all the time buuut talking about Viren I think it makes total sense that he used dark magic again after giving it up on previous seasons, exactly because of contradiction in actions, because things change and so does the circumstances and his whole beliefs/regrets.

Another thing, and this might be totally MY gone-too-far analysis, I feel like there's a lot of attention to detail and symbolism in Viren's relation with dark magic, which is basically, you know, the main "element" that makes him a villain somehow. Whether this was on purpose or not, I'd like to point out some of my observations towards this:

𓏲⋆ ִֶָ ๋𓂃 ⋆ Dark Magic and Viren's ascension and fall ᯓ★

Viren's plot started and ended with dark magic. As his "villain era" started when he used it to cure Soren, as shown on season 6, he also died from its use. TWICE if you think about it, because the turning of events in previous seasons were mostly led, in my opinion, by the fact that Viren, being someone very ambitious (thinking that he would to anything to get what he wants, either the cure of his son or power) found in dark magic the instrument he needed to materialize his desires.

𓏲⋆ ִֶָ ๋𓂃⋆ Someone who was served, someone who claims to be a server ᯓ★

Before dying, king Harrow "humbled" Viren by pointing out his place as a servent of Katolis, which wasn't taken so seriously by the High Mage at that time. In my opinion, we was already taken by the idea of getting almost everything he wanted from dark magic, or, being served, since magic creatures were literally serving to his purposes. As his journey continues in the "after-resurrection" times and he starts to be more reflexive, he comes to a point where he, himself, goes back to the place he sort of turned his back to (Katolis) claiming not mercy, not forgiveness, but that he is a servent of that kingdom. ~CHILLS~. This is one of my favorite moments by far! It shows to me a true redemption, where the character isn't looking to a scenario of "feeling better" about the things he did and regretted, he is actually assuming the weight of his mistakes and willing to pay the price.

I understand that people wanted some sort of reconciliation between him and Soren, or some kind of gathering with Claudia, but I like the way things went in the story by far. I'm glad Soren didn't get that letter, because to me it brought even more real-life aspects to the narrative: where you may not be ready to say some things and back up, where there's angst, where forgiveness is so hard to achieve when someone you love takes a path that hurts you so bad! Soren goes to see Viren on the dungeons, and then doesn't want it anymore, he is fighting contradictions of feelings he doesn't even know how to name - is there something more human than that? Being confused and wanting to do AND not do something at the same time?

𓏲⋆ ִֶָ ๋𓂃 ⋆ The heart: corruption and salvation ᯓ★

The last topic leads me to this one: the heart. During the series, we constantly see the narrative of the "corruption by dark magic", the "it will consume you inside", and at some point the heart is used as the main corrupted "element", let's say, which is already symbolic enough for me to think about. BUT WAIT!

Not only Viren was corrupted by dark magic, which means his heart was taken, but it was his heart that "saved" Katolis. That old heart, broken by the idea of losing his child, broken by his wife reaction to his use of dark magic, and then consumed by it, stopped by it more than once, who was used in a spell made not anymore by the High Mage Viren, but by the humbled servent of the kingdom.

And more: Soren wanted him to take his heart. In his place, Viren decided to take his own, even though he had to use dark magic again, even if he would die doing it.

This is why it makes sense to me he did it again. This time, he wasn't doing it for him, he was doing it for his son, like he did before. In the beginning, he used dark magic to save his son, and in his last moments, he did it for his son once again, and the way this was so beautifully built trough the narrative makes me actually feel butterflies in my stomach and scream cry throw up.

I love this FUCKING show so much.

∘₊✧────────────────────────✧₊∘

That was my super-freaky-super-long analysis of a fictional character. If you read all of this... Go get a life. JK, I hope you enjoyed it. Let me know what you think! ᯓ★

[sleepingdeath-light]

relationship hcs ; dark cacao cookie

requested by ; anonymous (25/07/22)

fandom(s) ; cookie run

fandom masterlist(s) ; hub | specific

character(s) ; dark cacao cookie

outline ; “Would you do relationship headcanons with Dark Cacao cookie, both fluff and angst.”

warning(s) ; mild angst, but mostly fluff!

dark cacao has been through a lot in his life, plenty of ups and endless downs that led to him becoming relatively isolated in his later years — closing off his kingdom to the world and entrusting its protection and care to those beneath him (namely caramel arrow, affogato, and crunchy chip) — so being able to form a close relationship with him would be incredibly difficult if you weren’t already close before the great flour war

he tends to call you ‘dear’, ‘my love’ and just your first name — with his preference changing from moment to moment based on your location, company, and his mood (with him being much more open and affectionate around his friends and more formal around his subjects and staff)

he’s fine with limited pda depending on the company he’s with at the time — always being comfortable with kissing you on the knuckles or placing a hand on the small of your back, but when with friends he expands his range to include kissing you on the lips and allowing you to sit on his lap

he’s incredibly protective over you and insists on keeping you within his kingdom as to keep you as safe as possible — and if you insist on venturing beyond the outer walls then he’ll either accompany you himself, or send his best guards with you (even if you’re more than capable of protecting yourself, he just fears losing you and refuses to take any chances with your safety)

whilst you are, of course, his beloved and his fellow ruling monarch, you’re also his equal and his most trusted advisor — he’ll often come to you to get a second opinion or otherwise discuss matters involving the kingdom because he values your input and suggestions greatly (and he’s become more suspicious of his main advisor in recent years…)

he doesn’t talk about his son much aside from the basics (a vague description of what happened and why you’ve never met him — and likely never will), but there are times where you’ll be able to piece together more of their story — like when you wake up to him having a nightmare and he cries out in a broken voice for his son, or when you’re walking through the kingdom and a small child carrying a toy sword rushes past and you’ll see his eyes soften as his grip on your arm grows gentle (he seems younger then, less burdened and more nostalgic, but it rarely lasts as he’s soon brought back to the present and swiftly regains his usual stoic demeanour)

he makes sure that you’re always well tended to by himself and his staff — whether that’s by having all of your clothes tailored to suit your body type and status as his spouse, ensuring your favourite foods and drinks are always available in the markets, or by making sure that all of your needs are met (be that specialised mobility aids, keeping healers on staff to deal with any chronic or short term ailments, or having all your immediate staff trained in alternate forms of communication if there are periods where you are nonverbal or if you’re hard of hearing)

he is much softer and more forgiving with you than anyone else and, naturally, that means you get away with a lot more than you should: braiding or playing with his hair, getting him to wear face masks with you, using ‘silly’ pet names for him, etc. — he’s not strictly playful himself but he will indulge your playful side when you’re alone

(even if he then suffers the endless teasing of hollyberry cookie and golden cheese cookie after the fact once they figure it out — as well as the amused support of pure vanilla cookie, but he tends not to react much to their antics after knowing each other for so long)

[empressgeekt]

I like JD in the JD Returns au. One big thing about how JD in the movie acted that always bothered me is that we're supposed to expect he believed Branch was dead this entire time and only learned he'd survived when he heard the news about the Rockapocalypse. Yet in the movie, he doesn't act at all like a person who is seeing a sibling they believed was dead for the first time. Branch, for his part, seems to forgive his brother's way too easily, considering a major part of his trauma stems from them abandoning him. I get that it's a cash grab franchise, but c'mon, at least put some effort into the main conflict you're advertising.

The way you describe him in JD Returns seems a lot more natural and more accurate. JD's change of heart comes from the result of a series of major wake-up calls, one after another. All of them centered around the brother who was hurt the most by them leaving. First he is hit by the fact that something bad had happened and his siblings were most likely dead, then he discovered one of them is alive but wants nothing to do with him and is a traumatized single parent that the village is treating as an outcast at that! Once he finally gets to the point, Branch isn't just shutting him out, he gets to see Branch nearly die on multiple occasions, one time leaving him permanently scarred and disabled with the loss of his eye. Basically, by the time TBT happens, JD hadn't been hit with the reality stick. He'd been completely pummeled by it on multiple occasions!

To the point that by the time he reunited with his other brothers, I'm almost certain he's a completely different troll than who he was before

Honestly my major issues with the movie is that, it felt a little rushed, and Branch did not get the apology he was owed, but Trolls is a franchise that is mostly for kids. Besides if they dug into all the dramatic stuff, fanfic writers wouldn't have a job!

I'm glad I make it realistic, I strive for good quality and character interactions. And you can only beat someone down so many times before they change. John Dory has changed Tactics and with Branch reciprocating his good behavior is rewarded.

[acutecoral]

Anyways, that was a fun first day! Especially given my main povs are mostly in Red Team, which...well, I honestly did not expect them to have spiralled that hard the last half an hour? It was glorious to have witnessed though. Despite the frustrations and drawbacks, they really did claw it back?? Somehow??

I'm still sort of in a state of being overwhelmed, since I had like 14 tabs on and swapped between povs when I had to, and somehow that hit a level of stimulation that wasn't debilitating but just enriching for my brain which is one of the funniest things that came out from this.

We enjoyed seeing Charlie tryhard at being tactical??? We didn't realise until he mentioned it, that for a good 3 hours, he had not cracked a joke and went off being a spy and eavesdropper to help protect and give an advantage to his team. Like damn.

Carre was a GOAT?? HOLY SHIT???? And also, it was great that Cellbit managed to help bridge the communications between Carre and the rest of the team, after having gotten really great at spanish thanks to Roier. But man, that was unexpected but pleasant as they rallied with each other to fight back and complete the quests.

But my personal favourite moment is how BOLAS?!??!?! started fucking spiralling. The frustration had built up so much, the event pushed them SO HARD, that they threw out their Whole Ass character arcs out for EVERYONE IN THE TEAM TO HEAR. I am not sure if that was just them being meta so it's not actually a canon confession, BUT!! THE FACT THAT THEY DID!! THEY FUCKING TOLD ALL OF THEIR TEAMMATES THEIR DEEPEST SECRETS.

CELLBIT HAD KILLED THE WORKERS. FOOLISH HAD BEEN TRYING TO PROTECT HIM FOR THE ENTIRETY OF HIS INVESTIGATION. SLIME KNOWS THE FLIPPA HE'S HANGING OUT WITH WAS FAKE AND WAS CORRUPTING HIM AND IT FUCKING SCARES HIM. JAIDEN WOULD STAB THEM ALL FOR CUCURUCHO. THAT MUST HAVE BEEN CATHARTIC IN SOME FORM AT LEAST. THEY HAD JUST BEEN PUSHED THAT. FAR. TO SAY ALL OF IT IN THE OPEN.

It's funny!! Like MAN. WHAT A DAY.

Other fave moments:

-Etoiles being sad about killing Jaiden and Philza. Him wanting to be with Red and have fun with his broooosss. He kept apologising lmao

-Tubbo and Carre's beef, but Carre apologises and Tubbo forgives him, that was really sweet

-Etoiles and Roier!!! Yessss give me more interactions of their cubitos thank youuu

-Bad being BOLAS?!?!?!?'s enemy #1 LMAO

-Foosh fucking CRITTING BAD, JESUS THAT WAS SO QUICK??? He did not escape damn

-Carre being hunted by Tubbo and Niki, and Cellbit helping coach him on how to hide his name in the map and he manages to kill Tubbo and Niki instead, JESUS

-Charlie's rants, nuff said

-Charlie and Cellbit fucking doing a stick fight pvp (Etoiles would have loved it so much, please let the man chill with Red next time he misses his friends)

-Tubbo and Aypierre??? Team up??? Oh my goddd, I'm so happy to see them working on the same side, like reminded of the fact that Aypierre had wanted to adopt him when Tubbo was first announced to join LMAO

-FOOLISH AND PHIL BEING FUCKING IMMORTALS????? THEY HAD NOT FUCKING DIED FOR NEARLY THE ENTIRE STREAM, HOLY SHIT, BOTH OF THEM ARE CRACKED AT THE CRAFT AND WERE POPPING OFF

-KAMETO??? EATING A PUFFERFISH?? AND GOING DOWN TO HALF A HEART AND FREAKED OUT LMAOOO (and then he ended stream KEK)

-Fit reverting back to his good ol 2b2t self, my man is toxic, let’s go, it's good enrichment for him, probably reminds him of the Incursions he participated 🥰

-SPREEN AND DANTDM CANONICALLY DEAD??? I mean, I feel it's a bit of a sad reveal since that means they don't have plans to come back to the server, but at least their characters got some sort of closure...?

-RUBIUS???? LOGGING IN??? BEING TURNED MORTAL???? Too bad with issues on his game not working, that sucked, hope that works next time and the admins help him to fix it and he joins!!!

-ARIN STREAM??? THIS MAN IS SO CRYPTIC STILL WHAT’S GOING ONNNN

-Bad??? Stealing Jaiden's strawhat??? BRuhhhhhhh

-Charlie goading Bad to a battle?? I think that was hilarious, but then the Sun Became A Deadly Laser and Charlied dried

-Phil did the entire Casulones emote oh my god, they finally did it

-But!! Red chose him to be the leader, and I thought that awesome, that's so deserved

-THE FACT THEY PUT THE RPers AND ENIGMA SOLVERS IN ONE TEAM LMAO, THESE GUYS BARELY KNOW HOW TO MAKE A BOOK AND HADN'T HAD LVLS HIGHER THAN 3 OH MY LORDD

-The bonfire, live sacrifices, and planned descent to cannibalism 🥰🥰

-Charlie joining other peoples vcs near the end and just BROKENLY checking in on them and telling them the plans of BOLAS???!?!?! and literally giving them the coords to their base LMAO

-Baghera killing Phil, Phil waving her goodbye before DEAD

-FOREVER SAYING THE WORDS THE BLACK CUCURUCHO GAVE HIM???? Not sure if anything came of that yet, but OHHH BOYYY

-BAD AND TUBBO??? TEAM UP??? BAD WITH THE AXE AND TUBBO WITH THE SWORD?? HOLY SHIT WHAT A COMBO

-MISSA PLAYING THE KIRBY STAR ALLIES MENU MUSIC WHEN WE DIPPED INTO HIS POV??? THAT SCARED ME LMAO DID NOT EXPECT IT

-The post-event wind down where everyone is chatting and vibing and talking to one another, that was a vibe and was really chill as everyone played tetris and watched each other's streams, and complimented Tina's tetris skills

Honestly, I'm sure there was so many fun moments despite everything, my streamers had fun despite the frustrations and discouragement

I am ecstatic where they may change about things going forward! I trust Q and the Admins to listen to the feedback from people and see how they can shift things to balance it out. We'll see!

Until then! Back on the bus we go!

Remember to stay clear of the pvp! You don't want to find yourself in the way of an axe or a sword swing!

[marquisegallery]

I FINALLY managed to finish the Devil theory pics!! Just barely before the end of the week like I hoped I would ;u;

And so, finally, my very rambly set of headcanons for these gremlins. They're my gremlins now I guess, I have hyperfixated too much lol

(This is going to be long. Incredibly long. And very headcanon-y because these guys don't exactly have a lot going for them in canon anyways. I'm warning you now. :u )

There are some of these borrowed from/inspired by @mechanical-magician's excellent Devil Theory and other BRC headcanons, I will point them out when they come up! :>

Starting off with Devil Theory in general:

The crew name is something all four of them came up with to sound threatening yet badass. With their reputation, it works well!

Their aliases come from the types of weapons most commonly associated with the Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles (for the most part). Daishō is named as such because naming him “Katana” probably would have made the connection too obvious.

He was originally going to have them named after famous Japanese swords/swordsmiths (since it would probably fit the samurai-theming of their costumes better), but decided on the TMNT weapon names because he thinks they flow together better anyways. And secretly, he named each of them after the weapon of the TMNT member they're most similar to.

Plus, he finds it amusing to see other people’s reactions when they find out, lol

The other members themselves did not even realize the themeing until much, much later. Sai and Bō were annoyed by it (Nunchaku still thinks it's hilarious), but by then they were all so used to their aliases that they didn't want to bother coming up with new ones. :P

I personally like to think the gravelly voices they have in game is a sort of "character voice" they do to sound more threatening most of the time.

The only person they genuinely respected before the events of the game was DJ Cyber, though they wouldn’t admit it publicly. Also it’s mostly due to the fact that he can kick (and has kicked) all four of their asses in a 4-against-1 fight. In game, it’s mentioned they were kicked out of Mataan, and in a way I like to think they were quite literally kicked out of Mataan by DJ Cyber himself.

After the game, they do have some respect for BRC overall too. But kind of begrudgingly, and mostly because BRC managed to beat Faux and save the whole city.

On that note! Before and during the game's main plot, they just liked to be heels/assholes for the hell of it (not exactly true, but it's what they tell people if asked). It wasn't until get backstabbed (and almost killed) by Faux as Project Algo did they start reconsidering that, hey, maybe they can afford to be a little less assholish. Sucks that it took that much for them to change, but hey, better than nothing I guess??

So they did manage a sort of Heel-Face Turn… but mostly in that they stop pushing the Code of the Street to the limit, and of course they’ve stopped ratting out rival crews to the cops. They still have their own "heel personas” while in costume though, and still continue their activities as writers. Also occasionally still physically fighting other writers anyways, but its fine, probably!

None of them expect the other crews to forgive them for what happened (especially, y'know, the snitching thing), and indeed no one offers any sort of forgiveness. The feelings from most of the other crews and writers towards Devil Theory ranges from "Well, at least you got what you deserved and learned your lesson. You better make good on your promise to be good or else, alright?" to "I don't fucking trust you and I'm gonna keep an eye on you assholes."

Devil Theory have enough grace to accept this judgement, because hey, it's understandable. And on a more selfish perspective, it's either this or stick to being such unapologetic assholes that they get kicked out of New Amsterdam altogether!

Each of them do feel genuine guilt over the snitching thing and working with Faux behind everyone's backs. Sai was the only one who was opposed to it all in the first place, only being convinced by the others and Faux that it would be "fine". So besides guilt in not pushing back harder, there's also a bit of, "I fuckin' called it that this was a bad idea. I only went along with it because you guys said it'd work out, and look what fuckin' happened!!"

Meanwhile... Daishō is the one who feels the most guilty about what happened, since he's basically the leader, and had convinced the others to go for it. So he feels like it's his fault first and foremost for trying to cheat, as well as for trusting Faux in all of this just because he was one of the Big 3. Not to mention all of his friends nearly dying because of Faux, especially with Sai being the one slammed against the statue in Mataan... If any of them died, Daishō definitely would not be able to live with himself after that. He has not admitted this to anyone and is still personally grappling with that guilt. Nobody knows because he's (unfortunately?) very good at masking these kinds of things...

Sai is the member who ends up leaving DT for BRC, though mostly out of revenge against BRC (and specifically Red) for the crew battle back on Pyramid Island. He gets that out of his system eventually, and sticks with BRC as a genuine member (I have a fan fic idea for this bit of story, hee hee). He's still friends with the remaining DT crew of course, they've all been friends for a long time. (I'll touch on this more in a bit)

So then after the events of the game and Sai joining BRC, as a show of good will, Devil Theory let other writers (and especially DJ Cyber) know how exactly they managed to sic the cops on people: Basically hijacking certain police signals to send in false tips. Because otherwise interacting with the cops directly would have just led to them getting arrested too. (It's something that Faux told them how to do in order to gain their trust and make a "deal")

Everyone thinks it might be at least good as last resort free distraction against the cops. Send in a false tip, something like "Ignore those writers, there's a bigger emergency that is conveniently on the opposite side of the city!!" No one's sure if the cops have the ability to actually trace back the false tips to the source (like what happened with DOT EXE finding out about Project Algo), so writers only use it for emergencies. Still, coincidentally, arrests against writers has gone way down after this!

This also leads to a new addition to the Code of the Street: Any writer found to be abusing the false tips in order to get another writer/crew arrested, will be ratted out to the cops themselves. An eye for an eye! DJ Cyber was considering doing this to Devil Theory as well, but figured them getting pummeled by Faux towards the end of the game was punishment enough.

This one comes from a Mech headcanon: Devil Theory has their own hideout in the shipping container maze on Pyramid Island. The confusing (and frankly rather unnerving) nature of that area means their hideout can stay secure from anyone who doesn’t know how to get there.

My personal addition to this: There are different routes to the hideout based on whether or not it’s Tuesday, raining, a bank holiday, or any combination of those factors. Also, the crew (and even the dock workers of Pyramid Island in general) have not ruled out the possibility of there being any sort of Backroom Beasties in the maze. Sometimes you can hear things in there...

Sai is still invited to hang out at their hideout. Anyone else has to have approval from him and the remaining DT members before they're allowed to visit.

Also based on a Mech headcanon: They have pet crabs they keep at their hideout. Me personally, I like to think they're specifically hermit crabs! So then the crew paint designs onto any shells brought for the crabs, and will let visitors paint one too.

Back to the topic of all four of them being friends for a long time, more specifically: Sai and Daishō have known each other since very early childhood, and then they became friends with Bō and Nunchaku during middle school (i.e. around ages 12/13). Nunchaku in particular was living in California at the time, so it was an online friendship with the other three, eventually moving to New Amsterdam after turning 18.

They may or may not have started an anime-manga club during their time in school, which is how Sai and Daishō met Bō (and with Nunchaku as an honorary online member). All four of them refuse to admit to it these days, lol

Truthfully, the main reason all four of them have stuck together for so long is because they have had rough childhoods in one way or another, mostly due to their respective parents. This is what lead to the four of them becoming friends and wanting to protect/defend each other (sort of like a found family kind of thing), and thus forming Devil Theory together later on. However, they are more likely to admit to the anime-manga club thing than any of this.

(I might elaborate more on how rough it was for each on them in a separate post. Or just save it for a fan fic, if I can manage it...)

All four of them learned to fight mostly from watching wrestling shows and martial arts movies. “But wrestling is fake, those moves probably wouldn’t actually hurt someone--” “Only if you hold back.”

Both Sai and Bō have face scars. Sai has it over part of his lips, while Bō has a mark on part of his jaw. Both of them got these from injuries while trying to learn how to skate and freerun in order to be writers.

With Bō in particular, he outright passed out when it happened, causing the others to panic. They had to take him to the Flesh Prince to get him fixed up (hospitals would ask too many questions for their liking).

For Sai, the only people who know about how he got his scar are the rest of Devil Theory (and eventually he tells Rise too). To anyone else, he just tells them he got it from fighting 3 walking tanks at once. Rise says he should tell people it was 5 tanks at once to make it sound more impressive!

All four of them have cybernetic lower legs (from looking at the in-game models, it definitely looks more like cybernetics/prosthetics than just armor, at least to me). Long story short, each of them lost a foot or part of a lower leg (sometimes on both legs) for one reason or another. It eventually got to the point where Daishō went, "You know what?? Fuck this, we're clearly cursed, so let's just get this over with." And paid for all of them to just get what's left of their lower legs upgraded to fancy cybernetics, as seen in the game!

This is at least another reason for them becoming writers ("With these legs we could probably manage it pretty good, right?"), and then of course eventually forming Devil Theory.

Some more specifics on the why for each member:

For Sai and Daishō, it was directly caused by their Respective Bad Parents. (Like I mentioned earlier in this post, I may go into further detail on that in a separate post. Especially since it gets pretty dark...)

For Bō, it was an accident out in New Amsterdam. Basically there was a failed test involving one of the police's walking tank, resulting in Bō and other civilians getting injured. Some of them fairly severely, and of course Bō being one of those. None of them (including himself) know what actually caused the accident, not even that it was caused by a walking tank.

For Nunchaku, it was a factory accident. This was back when she first moved to New Amsterdam and needed a job. That led her to having to work at a shady factory with unsafe work conditions, and which was taking advantage of new immigrants like her who don't 100% know their rights or who to go to for help right away. Her accident in particular was one of the worst at the factory up to that point, with several other employees getting hurt as well. They all of course quite after that, including Nunchaku herself.

Sai's incident was the earliest to happen chronologically, while Bō's was the last one.

Daishō and Sai tried dating each other at one point in high school. Emphasis on “tried”. At the least, it wasn’t the worst relationship either of them have had, just awkward. So they were able to stay friends afterwards.

And now for each individual member! With bonus head pics. :P

Sai

As previously mentioned, he's the member who joins up with Bomb Rush Cyberfunk in the postgame.

Also as previous mentioned, he at first only joined BRC for revenge against Red, but they sort it out after a while!

Has some anger issues, but since joining BRC (especially after a final serious fight with Red) he’s gotten a much better handle on it.

Eventually after that previous point, he starts dating Rise, there is a whole outline for this I swear…

He and Red still fight each other, but it's more like sparring matches. The rest of BRC end up treating it like actual sport matches, basically cheering on one or the other! Cueball and Bel even act as commentators for these matches, lol

He is fairly stand-offish most of the time, and takes some time to open up to other people.

He can cook, as in cooking without necessarily following a strict recipe. He cooks a lot for his former crew, though it takes him a while to open up and cook for BRC as well. You will not be disappointed if you invite him to a potluck!

He can sing quite well, but he hates singing in front of others, even his own friends (they've only ever heard him by accident when he didn't mean for them to hear him at all). He eventually opens up to singing for Rise at least.

I have a personal headcanon that DJ Cyber will occasionally take suggestions for mixtapes he's working on. Sai suggested several reggaeton songs/remixes, though he expected none of them to be picked. He was super stoked when he found out the DJ actually included one of his suggestions (the AGUA remix) in the particular mixtape that plays on Pyramid Island.

Works as a freelance graphic designer/artist as his day job. He takes commissions on the side. No, he does not take requests and will not draw your OC for free.

He is the one who designed Devil Theory's graffiti in canon, Daishō paid him for it too!

He's Puerto Rican, he moved to New Amsterdam as a kid.

Fluent in Spanish, he has a noticeable Puerto Rican accent when speaking Spanish.

Daishō

He is the leader of Devil Theory!

He let Sai leave the group to join BRC because he started getting sick of Sai’s anger issues (it had been growing worse until the BRC crew battle, at which point said issues were at their worst).

Once Sai gets a better handle on his anger, they go back to being friends, even with Sai staying with BRC.

Fairly chill guy (though also arrogant and snarky at times) out of costume.

While in public as the Devil Theory leader, he can be ruthless (as seen by how the group pushes the Code of the Street to the limit). He can also be dramatic sometimes, almost playing it up like an anime villain/wrestling heel at times. At least he’s smart enough to not let himself get distracted by monologuing.

Though if you genuinely piss him off, he can be incredibly petty and cruel, regardless of him being “in costume” or not.

Daishō wears contacts while in costume, but just normal glasses outside of that

He’s the one who designed Devil Theory’s costumes. He has experience with cosplay before forming DT.

He’s also the one that came up with their Hip-Hop dance. He’s particularly proud of the “criss-cross hop” part of the dance, but this was also the part that the other members had a hard time getting right. (I say this as someone who has attempted doing the dance IRL myself, and also had problems with that part :P)

On that note, he's a pretty good dancer in general, with both freestyle and "formal" dances with specific steps.

He supposedly has enough money to just live off of for the rest of his life, but he continues to be a writer for the fun of it (and as an outlet/destressor). He does still work part-time though, as a secretary for one of the companies in Mataan.

He's a theater major and part of a group that holds plays in New Amsterdam. He loves to play as the villains, especially in musicals. Villains always get the best songs!! That being said, his actual singing is about 100% confidence and 65% actual talent. Him singing villain songs is already great, but anything else is usually "just" alright.

Big fan of horror movies, mainly slasher/splatter and body horror. Also the kind of guy who goes looking for director's cut versions and deleted scenes. He will ramble for hours about his favorite horror movies, especially about the acting and special effects! Though he will also rant about genuinely awful horror movies just as much. He has opinions!!

Claims to have a girlfriend, but he never names who he’s dating or goes into any specific details about her, and the other DT members have never met her. They have a running joke about her being his “theoretical girlfriend”. (Truthfully I just haven't decided if she's going to be someone "in canon" or just slap together an OC. I'll decide eventually...)

This one gets its own subsection because it's pretty long lol:

Daishō is terrible with names. In general it takes a while for him to learn other people's names, and he tends to mess up by getting close-but-not-quite with names. And with him being the leader of Devil Theory, most people assume he's just being a jerk and making fun of them. :P

Some examples:

Tryce = Tricycle, Trace, Tracy, Trance, Trick

Bel = Bell, Beth, Bev, Ring (like a ringing bell lol)

Vinyl = Vine, Vino, Vinny, VHS

Solace = Soul, Solis, Crash, Test

He doesn't have this problem with people who are basically celebrities to him (DJ Cyber and Felix being two-thirds of The Big 3, and he knows Rise because he follows her on social media). So then otherwise, the only thing that helps is coming up with mnemonics/associations. "Bel's hair kinda looks like a bell", "Vinyl works at a record store", etc.

One of the rare times he managed to remember someone's name easily is Red. Because, y'know, literal red head. :P

And yes, this also applies to his own friends, at least with their real names. He had no trouble with their street names, but only because he was the one who came up with them, lol

He's half-Japanese and half-Peruvian, born and raised in New Amsterdam. Fluent in Spanish and Japanese. He has a Peruvian accent when speaking in Spanish, his mother insisted on teach him herself (and to avoid him potentially ending up with a Spaniard accent, lmaooo).

As mentioned much earlier, he has known Sai since they were kids in elementary school. Basically Sai latched onto him because he was the only other Latino at their school, and Sai was already being alienated by the other kids because of that. They eventually realizing they have a lot in common anyways (like same favorite manga at the time) and became friends.

On that note! He only got into anime and manga in the first place out of spite towards his dad, who basically looked down on it as "everything wrong with my homeland these days". Dad only very begrudgingly got Daishō stuff in the original Japanese, choosing to see it as at least a way for his kid to learn Japanese more easily.

That leads to a more genuine love for anime and manga, and then forming the anime-manga club, becoming friends with Bō and Nunchaku, and of course eventually all four of them forming Devil Theory. Funny how these things work out!

Bō

Rather stoic while in public as a Devil Theory member, but outside of that he tends to be fairly nerdy and polite.

Arguably the way he acts in and out of costume is probably the biggest difference among the rest of the DT members. Which tends to be rather jarring to most people…

The tech person of the group, bit of a hacker too. He was the one who figured out the false tips thing with the police signals, and frankly he finds the police force's security systems to be insulting pathetic a lot of the time.

His day job is as an IT tech, though he often gets forced into doing stuff outside of his job description, especially since his damn coworkers keep pushing their own work onto him. He even has to take care of coding things as a programmer/engineer, which is even more outside of his job description!

Being a writer is basically a destressor for him at this point. Do not ask him to troubleshoot your tech problems when he’s off the clock, he hates that. The rest of DT know this and don’t ask him unless it’s something genuinely serious (and only after they’ve done their own troubleshooting).

He's a gamer, and especially loves games that he can mod himself.

Related to the previous point: he has strong opinions about how the game industry is going these days (Little-to-no official support for preservation of older games, going after emulators when they won’t even help make their games more accessible, awful dev crunch especially from larger companies, etc.). He will rant about it if you let him!

He can't handle horror content very well, be it movies or video games. And I mean genuine horror stuff, especially with gore. Silly scary stuff like Luigi's Mansion is fine, but getting into Silent Hill and Resident Evil is where he starts genuinely freaking out. He'll at least watch his friends playing through survival horror games, not playing it himself, but he'll insist on having all the lights on.

One time the others did manage to drag him through a haunted house attraction. He ended up freaked out badly, and afterwards got into a fistfight with Sai over it (it was his idea to do that in the first place). Lesson learned!

He has attempted at least once to get a piercing like his friends, but he almost fainted while doing so (he might have a fear of needles). He hasn't tried since.

Knows how to fight like the rest of the DT members, but some people may underestimate him because they assume the tech guy isn’t that strong. Also, Bō is admittedly built more for weightlifting than outright fighting like the others, but that doesn't mean he can't kick your ass!

On that note, he hates when people underestimate him in general, or otherwise think he’s naive.

Inspired by Mech's own CUE.mp4 and Pluto: Bō eventually starts dating Cueball (the DOT EXE member who joins BRC in the postgame). Admittedly at first I was like, only lightly considering something similar in my own stuff, like "That'd be cute, but it probably wouldn't work for these two in my AU/headcanons, ha ha" but eventually after more thinking I realized, "Wait a minute, this could work after all." lol

His family has lived in New Amsterdam for generations.

Knows enough Spanish to follow along with Sai and Daishō when they have conversations in Spanish, though not necessarily respond to either of them in Spanish (or anyone else for that matter).

Nunchaku

In case her real name in my headcanons didn't already tip you off, Samus Aran surprise!! Nunchaku is a gal named Roxanne! She has a naturally deep voice, and can pull off a gravely “character voice” like the rest of DT.

She goes by Rox as a nickname out of costume/with friends.

"Wait so is she cis or trans--" In all fairness I would say "Probably cis??" but at the same time I also have to wonder, "Would the character themselves be comfortable answering that question?" And in this case, she wouldn't want to answer either way. If she were trans, she would not feel comfortable sharing that publicly. And if she were cis, she wouldn't answer that out of spite, seeing it as something that's none of people's business anyways.

So basically, either way she's a very butch lady in my personal AU/headcanons for BRC, and that's all you really need to know on that front. :P

Overall a very positive and friendly (and energetic) person outside of Devil Theory, but can be surprisingly underhanded when in costume.

Though either way, she tends to be very high-energy. She is in fact the team member with the highest gremlin energy!

Her ears are pierced, but that was something her parents forced her into doing. She refuses to use earrings and stuff even as an adult, though she did eventually get that piercing on her nose.

She likes spicy food! Also has a tendency to add hot sauce to certain foods just to kick up the spice factor. Sai and Nunchaku used to have small arguments over her adding hot sauce to the food he cooked for her (Sai sees it almost as an insult, as if she’s saying it doesn’t already taste good enough). By now they’ve come to more of an understanding, and Sai just side-eyes her whenever she adds hot sauce to her food.

Was a bit of a kleptomaniac as a teen, and these days she still steals things on occasion. She’s good at it and manages to not get caught (a lot of the time).

One time she went to steal a new TV for the Devil Theory hideout. She saw the store she was hitting had a buy one get one free deal on TVs, so she stole two and gave the extra to BRC for their own hideout!

She works as a mechanic as her day job, mainly fixing cars, though also other kinds of large machines and equipment (washing machines, fridges, trucks, construction vehicles, etc). She’s in charge of fixing the crew’s skateboards when needed.

Adding onto her job backstory: The shop Nunchaku works for as a mechanic is owned by a guy who originally mentored her back at the factory she worked at (mentioned a lot earlier on this post). Basically he'd seen a lot of violations and other shady crap, none of it getting fixed despite multiple complaints and reports. And seeing so many people (including unfortunately Nunchaku) end up hurt at once was the last straw. So he quit, opened a repair shop, and offered Nunchaku and other former employees of the factory new jobs at his business. They're all happier to be away from that crappy factory, which has since been shut down due to the accidents and violations.

Nunchaku is crane and forklift certified. She figured it would look good on her resume, and hopefully be impressive to the ladies. Hopefully. It hasn't worked yet.

She has been interested in learning about welding, especially given how much money those types of jobs make, but for now she's happy with her mechanic job.

She likes to take things apart in order to put them back together again. She finds it's the easiest way for her to understand how something works!

She has a personal goal of someday taking apart DJ Cyber's spider tank thingamajig in order to figure out how it works. And ideally being able to make one of her own. Basically imagine the following: Nunchaku: "Heeeey, Mr. DJ, do you mind if I take a look at your tank thing? I promise I won't take long!" DJ: "Hell no."

She has a crush on Vinyl, but gets too nervous to actually ask her out. Nunchaku also keeps going to the music shop that Vinyl works at to buy records (she doesn’t even have a record player) just to talk to her. Note that Vinyl working at a music shop is inspired by Mech's headcanons for Vinyl! :>

Nunchaku's impromptu "record collection" is growing out of hand at this point, a lot of it for genres she doesn't even like, lol

She once tried to learn how to juggle knives in order to impress ladies! That ended in a trip to the Flesh Prince (again, hospitals would ask too many questions), and she hasn't tried that since.

She knows how to pick locks though! Most of the time it's just using one tool (more often than not the single-sided jiggler) to jam everything until they open. She gets excited when she has to pick a lock that actually requires genuine work to get open.

American, as mentioned a while ago she moved from California to New Amsterdam a bit after high school

Fluent in Japanese (she learned it due to being a weeb, lol); in terms of Spanish, she’s in the same boat as Bō, knowing enough to at least follow Sai and Daishō’s conversations in Spanish

---

SO THAT'S EVERYTHING!! For now. Maybe.

I'm gonna go hibernate like a bear for a while. Feel free to leave snacks in front of my cave if you want, loool

[noctiselusio]

Park Junmo and his unstable self–image:

In The Worst Of Evil, we’re not told much about Junmo’s past (not really shown much of any character’s history really) as the story mainly focuses on the noir and crime aspect of the show. But we’re shown enough to be able to connect some clues and understand some of the reasonings and psychology behind our main character’s actions.

Junmo’s father was a drug addict, and his mom left when he was young. Obviously, this would have a detrimental impact on his mental health—which we see slowly spiraling out of control throughout the show. (Never mind the fact that the series mostly focuses on the ethics of it, Junmo is a cop who goes on an undercover mission and he has to fight hard to not lose his morals to all that he sees, all that he experiences, all that he does. And as compelling as that was, for this short rambling of mine I want to focus more on something else.)

And yes Junmo’s faltering morality is also a symptom of this disconnect he has with his own person. Junmo is confused and has no idea as to who he really is. His mother left early on and his father evidently was not a good one, we can imagine he had no interest in properly raising his son alone. I suppose the resulting trauma posed a significant hindrance to Junmo’s upbringing and development. Without an adult’s guidance, he was unable to properly develop a personality of his own. You need (healthy) interactions with others to shape your sense of self.

While I don’t mean to diagnose, or misuse psychology, or project on his character (forgive me if I’m doing any of those but also can you blame me, this deeply flawed character is so beautiful to dissect and read and attempt to read between the lines, behind the footage) there were some parts that made the light above my head switch on.

We learn that Junmo became a cop mainly thanks to his mentor: Seo Do Hyung.

He’s the reason Junmo didn’t stray off the path and became a cop. He gave him a purpose, a reason to keep going, an identity to chase after, and a sense of belonging. Do Hyung presents all of this to him, and Junmo holds on to it for deal life.

He gets married to a cop —born into a family of cops— and that’s kind of where it starts going bad again (including the wedding scene). Junmo starts feeling like… an impostor. Unlike his wife, his family is broken, he‘s unable to get a promotion, this all is an open wound that Euijung’s family keeps gnawing and scratching at until it scabs over and falls off. It’s sad, it’s tragic, but I don’t think that marriage had any hope of lasting.

Comes Jung Gichul—Junmo finds a new… place to belong, a brotherhood, maybe…maybe…maybe… a home?

It’s not that way at first, but the bridge effect is very real and Junmo has more than one close–death experience with Gichul next to him. And the more time he spends with him, the more humanity and vulnerability he sees from his boss, the more he hesitates.

And now, Park Junmo has a new name, a new identity. Which I don’t know if it was intentional or not: giving Junmo a new name and an impostor role—to convey his unstable sense of self.

Once again, Junmo is stuck, and he can’t —no matter how much he tries— figure out what he actually wants to do, where his heart lies. Who is he? What does Park Junmo want? How does Park Junmo feel? Who should Park Junmo betray? Should he act as Kwon Seungho or as Park Junmo?

But this doubt, this doubt hurts too. Because why should he be faltering? He’d spent so much time and effort to get here, sacrificed so much, and his wife is part of this too, he didn’t go through so much suffering just to fail his mission in the end. (He went through all that for Gichul.)

Do Hyung’s sacrifice settles it, Junmo is forced to make the final choice and bring the gang to justice.

But Gichul… Kwon Seungho couldn’t do that to him. Not until Gichul had really forced Park Junmo’s hand.

(Forgive me if there’s any mistakes or if this seems incoherent, this is my own interpretation and it’s been on my mind for a while and of course I had the urge to finally write it before a deadline. So these are my jumbled thoughts that I had to let go into the world)

[thatgirl4815]

Side Character Roles/Functions

I've been thinking about the roles of side characters in this series and how they function as narrative devices. I have no specific point to laying them all out other than I think it's interesting to take a look back at what they've shown us about the main characters.

Yo & Plug - I'm putting them together because they're almost always in scenes together. To no one's surprise, I think they are intended primarily as a mirror to SandRay's relationship. What is first presented as a seemingly ideal relationship turns sour fast when Sand and Ray catch their breakup outside of the bar. Yo is afraid of commitment much in the same way that Sand is afraid of setting boundaries or rejecting people he cares about lest he lose them. In that way, Yo's behavior almost contradicts Sand's own--Yo is so afraid of losing someone that she opts to leave them first, while Sand is so afraid of losing someone even if they treat him badly. There are so many juicy comparisons to Sand and Ray's commitment to each other.

Atom - Also unsurprisingly, Atom functions as both a point of conflict for Boston and, more importantly, a turning point for Boston in his own self-reflections. What makes Atom different than Boston's other hookups is that Boston had established a genuine friendship with him prior. Not only that, but Boston was under the impression that Atom was 100% straight up to the point that Atom asked if he could try things out with Boston. Judging from Boston's reaction, the fact that this friendship leads to a sexual encounter is disheartening in that it once again affirms Boston's worth as coming from his body. This topic hasn't been explored in too much detail, but I like that the situation with Atom subtly hints at it. Additionally, we see Nick tell Atom that he knows what it's like to be in love with someone who doesn't love him back (right in front of Boston!) which is a poignant line for Boston to hear. Boston was already aware of this, but in light of his recent revelations, I think it hits harder to hear Nick say it in the interaction between AtomBostonNick.

Boeing - Boeing is here to ruin everybody's day. I think he serves multiple functions given that he is involved in multiple relationships (I'm sure he will have an important function in BostonNick's relationship as well judging from the Ep12 preview). For TopMew, Boeing is both another road block for them to move past and proof that though Mew wants to forgive Top, he still wants to take revenge against him. Boeing is a convenient way for Mew to take that revenge; Boeing even invites it. Mew deciding not to take the bait though is what allows him and Top to move forward. For SandRay, Boeing is a source of conflict that they must overcome too, but he also plays a very integral role in illustrating Sand's boundary issues.

April - April is here to be the unproblematic gf of the year. In my own personal opinion, I think she deserves better than Cheum. I do not think Cheum is a bad person, just like I don't think anyone in this series can be considered a bad person, but her behavior--especially with the Atom/Boston incident--frustrates me to no end. But back to April. I think her relationship with Cheum is important in that it remains fairly consistent even though it has its own issues. I'm glad they encountered some conflict to remain realistic and show the audience that not even the lesbians are safe from drama.

Moms/Dads - I won't go too deep into this since there are so many avenues (might be better-suited for a longer post), but moms and dads play an important role for many of the main characters, particularly Sand, Ray, Boston, and Mew (with variation of course). Contrasting the relationship that Ray had with his mom to Sand's mom/Mew's moms illustrates how Ray has been lacking in a familial support system for much of his life. On the other hand, Sand's father is an absent figure while Ray's father is only mostly absent, though he does care about saving Ray from his mother's fate. We also see small glimpses of Boston's father and Nick's father; Boston's father is an especially good indicator of the role of reputation, expectation, and even toxic masculinity in Boston's life.

[leggerefiore]

cw: light jealousy, mostly fluff, ingo being jealous of a fictional character (lol), short

-----

Ingo believed he was a man who was well composed and mannered.

He rarely used any kind of vulgarities and kept his head in stressful situations. These things aided him in his job.

That was what made this situation most odd.

Ingo sighed as you sat in his lap. It was not uncommon. In fact, he quite enjoyed having you so close to him. After a long day at the station, coming home to his beloved and cuddling just melted away any pent-up stress. This easily found its place in your shared evenings together.

His arms were locked around your waist while his head rested on your shoulder. Your warmth soaked wonderfully into him, as he could easily forget that teenage graffiti artist or the older woman convinced he was secretly from Sinnoh for whatever reason.

Except.

His attempts at light conversations went ignored.

Ingo glared at the infernal device in your hand, which had entirely consumed your focus and attention. The older twin was certainly no gamer, but he did usually enjoy watching you play. Your hobbies intrigued him, as much as he hoped his did you. (Though, he supposed, hearing a man go on and on about trains and pokemon battles could grow boring quickly.)

“Dearest,” he tried again. You gave a light hum, but your fingers still continued to mess with the buttons as you did specific moves in your game. “… Do you prefer blonds?” he asked, feeling oddly jealous of how much attention you had been giving the fictional man over him. You froze before bursting into laughter.

“… No, Ingo, I don't,” you turned your head to look at him, “… Mmm, he is kind of cute in his own way, though, isn't he?” Ingo stared blankly. He had barely followed along with the story and did not see the appeal in the main character that you had.

“He is… Passable,” Ingo replied, unable to sort out his strangely complicated feelings about your words, “Should I grow my hair out?” More laughter. This time, you put the switch down and turned around your entire body. Your chest pressed into his own. His eyes moved to gaze at the floor, avoiding yours. You hummed. Pressing your forehead to his, you grinned playfully.

“Hmm, are you going to get sent to the past and struggle to get back to me?” you teased him, words going directly over his head. What a horrifying situation! If he were in that situation, he would certainly be doing everything he could to return to the present. Leaving you and his poor brother behind made him shudder.

“Absolutely not, dear!” he said strongly, wrapping his arms around your shoulders, “I would never wish to leave your side! Oh, I cannot bear the thought of all the worry my vanishing would give you and Emmet…” You were taken aback by his strong reaction. Embracing him back, you felt him nuzzle his face into your neck. Well, your heart raced with gentle affection. What a sweet man you had ended up with.

“Ingo, you're too cute,” you sighed, “First you get jealous of a fictional character, and then you declare that you want to stay by my side. Who couldn't love you?” You pressed a sweet kiss to his temple.

“… I… I was jealous,” he mumbled into your neck, “My love, I am so sorry for acting in such an undignified manner! Please forgive me –”

You silenced him by moving his head and pressing a kiss to his lips.

[velvet-vox]

An analysis of Doll on a Roleplay battle setting.

Here's a little something to remember in regards to the things discussed in this post:

Tank beats Melee

Melee beats Support

Support beats Critter

Critter beats Tank

I head canon that Doll is (in an RPG setting) a Critter/Tank but mostly a long distance damage dealer that relies on dealing critical hits (metaphor for her plans) with tanking features and talents that allows her to take in a lot of damage (metaphor for her incredible survivability) in line with these stats:

And the funny and interesting thing about it is that her life trajectory probably wasn't this; in fact, I believe that originally Doll was expected due to her behaviour, personality type, and attitude towards situations to become a Tank/Melee (but more specifically an high damage dealing Tank) but after the death of her parents and the hands of V she took a forceful nose dive into rewriting her class trajectory in order to accommodate for her new goals, because it makes perfect sense:

Uzi is definitely a Critter/Melee but not a straightforward one; for context, a Critter/Melee in the language I am using is a long distance damage dealer that gains advantages from actually getting up close, it's a super rare play style that jives well with Uzi being an unconventional protagonist, but it doesn't stop there as Uzi also doubles down as an all-rounder by also having a blunt, defensive personality and being fairly resistant and resilient like a Tank but also having an understanding, highly empathetic and forgiving personality like a Support that allows her to help her teammates in battle and shrug off some of the trauma caused by her situation.

N on the other end is a Melee/Critter (opposite attract each other:) but not a straight up assassin like V in the sense that N is mostly a regular Melee that has counterplay for Tanks and his capable of getting through other people defenses (metaphor for penetrating the bunker at the start of the season) and he's not a glass cannon like other damage focused Melee and Critters tend to be, (although I don't think he has Tank like qualities in the same way as Uzi, rather he has a moderately high base health pool) and has on top of that the qualities of a Support like Uzi to help his teammates by cleansing debuffs and giving bonuses.

(Side note: even though Uzi and N have the qualities of Support, none of them are healers, they are only buffers and cleansers, they heal themselves and only themselves once they kill, hence why they are the most dysfunctional main trio of all time. Nuzi still works by the way, in the same way Wall-E and EVE works).

V instead, arguably the most complex character of the series, is your typical glass cannon Melee/Critter assassin that deals massive damage up close but can't take back said damage. But where it becomes interesting is that V, much like Doll, wasn't initially projected for this play style as we can clearly see from her original timid maid persona that she was probably more inclined towards being a Support, but unlike Doll, she was fully capable of making that transition because she was motivated by the desire to protect N while keeping him distant, while Doll never fully managed to let go of her Tank origins because she was motivated by hatred and not love.

And as you all can clearly see, the problem with Doll being a Tank becomes self evident: all of the protagonists have the characteristics of Critters, the one class who counters Tanks, meaning that each and every single one of them could have easily mauled her like her family had been if she didn't change her ways; which is ironic, since Tank counters Melee, V main class, so even if Doll couldn't defeat V in a combat situation, she would have hard countered her on a narrative level, so in committing to the Critter play style, she lost an important advantage on that front and, narratively, allowed V to destroy her like her parents were.

And it all comes together to bite her in the ass in episode 7 when she faces Tessa/Cyn who I believe, despite what the colour scheme might imply, it's a Melee/Support who stacks attack buffs on herself; you know, Melee who's the class countered by Tanks (of the which Doll isn't anymore) and villainous Support, the class that counters Critters, aka the class Doll traded Tank for.

As to why I believe fake Tessa is Melee/Support, there are a couple of reasons, but you can mostly get it by their personality and play style; Cyn in their dialogues doesn't try to get under N skin to then deal as much damage as possible all in one go like a Critter would, instead, she slowly destroys his sense of security like a Melee would, also, the Absolute Solver is definitely a Support type of villain since they give their abilities to Uzi and Doll, even if inadvertently, which would make sense narratively to have an unstoppable Support force against our 3 Critter protagonists and to have N and V, our 2 Melees working for him, be the ones who can stop him through Uzi's help.

And lastly, the main reason why Doll even manages to reach Uzi inside the chapel is thanks to that Tank characteristic that she chose to forsake and neglect, and now, that characteristic is not strong and trained enough to allow her to survive, but it has just enough of a presence to allow her to get a final warning out, much like her redemption was always possible despite not being reachable anymore.

Want more?

[hrodvitnon]

Ok, forgive me if the following is a bit aggro but I feel like a lot of people seem to forget some very important facts about Godzilla (the IP, not the character)

I genuinely can't take people who place blame on directors for 'bad Godzilla characterization' seriously. Especially Dougherty and Wingard. Before I get into my rant, I just feel the need to remind everyone of this quote Wingard gave in regards to writing Godzilla for GvK:

Toho actually has an entire laundry list of rules Godzilla needs to follow that came out around GvK's release. The actual list is super long and with a lot of frankly weird points, but this is one of their main ones. Theatrical Godzilla doesn't emote. That is what they tell directors and that's a rule they need to follow. But, on the same token, there are ways around it and some directors are afforded some negotiating power on this front. The quote, for example, is in reference to Goji's famous smile from GvK.

One of the largest ways around it in fact is having characterization come from external sources that aren't the films. In fact, almost every single piece of info that builds Godzilla's character in the MV comes either from moments in the films that are intentionally vague, things like the comics or novelizations, or Word of God tweets from Edwards and Dougherty (sidenote: the reason you never hear about stuff like the Dougherty tweets coming from Wingard is that he literally doesn't have Twitter. A lesson I think we can all learn from). This is not unintentional, these are literally the only times they're allowed to get away with breaking a few of these rules.

Wingard, Doughtery, Edwards- all are huge Godzilla fanatics and it gets on my nerves a tad when people tear into them for rules out of their control. I probably don't need to tell everyone that Dougherty used to retweet ship art for Mothzilla and engaged with fans at length back when he was still on Twitter (Oh yeah, he also has since left Twitter. Man, maybe these directors had the right idea or something?); and Wingard has come out saying he wants to do a Godzilla-focused movie next if Legendary lets him come back, probably because he himself recognizes he's been playing favorites a little bit. I'm sure the directors would love to give Godzilla more depth and personality, it's just that Goji's always been Toho's favorite boy that they're very picky about. Like- I hate to be that guy- but we easily could've gotten the Transformers treatment and gotten saddled with a director like Michael Bay for one of these films and the Monsterverse would be dead on arrival. These people clearly care but are obliged to follow some ground rules they may or may not agree with. Godzilla's characterization is left mostly ambiguous for this reason. Audiences are supposed to fill in the blanks. Hell, people in this blog/hellsite have already done that! We've done that with our own interpretations and that's what the directors are going for in lieu of being allowed to do that themselves. May just be a me thing, but I'd much rather have audience interpreted characterization and very high quality content then shitty/no content and Godzilla becoming a dead franchise again.

And- in regards to the Twitter stuff-

-I don't care. Nobody should care. Just- just don't even give them the light of day and let their asinine takes die in the darkness. It's better this way.

I understand all this. I understand. I've heard that Toho has their rules for what not to do with their favorite monster, and I still think "Godzilla can't emote" is a dumb rule, but what the fuck can I do about it beyond the usual fan content. I know this. I get it.

I'm just getting tired of discussing it and want to stop before the discussion starts going in circles or something.

I'm going to go outside for a while.

[thv-jk97]

Hi anons! Thank you for your questions and forgive me for lumping them together, and using these asks as a response to some of the accusations that are being thrown my way at the moment lol

There was a 🃏 that was pretty triggered in the comment section of one of @dearweirdme’s responses about GCF, so I figured I would piggyback off what I was saying in there lol

My thoughts on GCF are pretty simple. I love them all because it’s something that JK created and I am grateful for anything that he chooses to share with us. What I don’t love is people using those gifts as some sort of proof that he’s in love with one of the members. Without being vague, I obviously mean jkkrs and their penchant for using GCFT as some sort of love declaration to JM. And then doubling down on the notion that JM is the “most featured” member, so that must mean something. And sure, I think it does mean something; that he loves JM platonically and is happy to use any footage that he has of him lol.

A lot of the arguments that were being thrown my way were reliant on literal logical fallacies. One thing being true (JM asking JK to film him a lot/jumps into the footage) does not mean that another thing is also true (JK was forced to use the footage). Why are those the only two options? Same logic applies to idea that JM being featured often in GCFs because he’s around a lot must also prove that Tae being featured less often means that he isn’t around as much. The idea that JM getting the most screentime in GCF (and I probably agree with this because of GCFT and the 3J GCF) must then mean that 1) JK is in love with JM and 2) Tae not being in them as must means that TK don’t hang out, is such a silly and illogical conclusion come to. And realistically speaking, the tkkr in me wants to argue that Tae is heavily featured in a lot of GCFs as well lol.

However, I’d much rather we take JK’s GCFs for what I think they’re meant to be. JK is the main character and he was showing us a documentation of his life and his POV. I don’t think they’re meant to highlight whatever city/country he’s in, nor are they meant to showcase any one specific member. Just that he’s surrounded by the people he loves and is doing what he loves, if that makes sense. I can’t remember where I read this, but someone once mentioned that GCFs are like love letters to the moments in his life and I genuinely love that idea.

Moving onto the ITS talk. Do I think the talk was scripted? Yes. Though I should clarify that I don’t think every word was scripted, just that this interaction and what they talked about was pre-planned. And that’s not me talking as a tkkr, but as someone who also has the knowledge that there was a nearly identical conversation that was shot and recorded in incredibly similar ways for another group under H*BE.

And even if I weren’t claiming that it’s scripted (or at the very least, they were given specific talking points), what exactly am I supposed to be taking at face value? The awkward narrative? I know it requires a tiny bit of media literacy, but that specific narrative is driven less by what TK actually talk about and relies heavily on the fun, descriptive subtitles that the company loves adding. Less than three minutes into the scene, BH already used the word “awkward” four times to describe their interaction, despite Tae or JK never discussing feeling awkward/struggling in their relationship – in fact, they mostly talked about how close they were as kids lol (which is something we’ve all heard before). The only time “awkward” comes from one of them is during JK’s private interview where he said that there started to be “a side of things” with Tae that became awkward, which also feels like intentional vagueness. A lot of fandom took that statement and ran with it to mean that “my relationship with Tae is awkward” but again, that’s not what he said? I’m making zero assumptions here when I say that JK’s statement was vague as all fuck, and we literally have no clue what exactly he could be referring to. Relationships are complex, so do I think he might’ve been referring to something real between them? Absolutely. But I don’t know what lol.

Ultimately, I know that a lot of fandom doesn’t like to engage with the idea that some BTS moments are scripted because it makes them seem less genuine, but I do think that their reactions and interactions are still genuine in the moment. Just that some the moments are pre-planned. And lbr, we have literal footage of moments being pre-planned/scripted. So given all the additional context, I have very little doubt that the ITS conversation between TK was scripted.

There’s a lot of nuance and context that’s required when it comes to these sort of discussions. So it’s hard to have a proper conversation in the comments of a post 😅 forgive me for how long this is.

[celestiall0tus]

Luka Couffaine Notes - All That Remained

So, I think I see what issue I've had with Luka that I don't with Kagami. And, I ask your forgiveness for the blasphemy I'm about to speak. But you know what they say, right? Better to ask forgiveness than permission. So, let's crack into this.

With all due respect to Luka, he's a decent character in concept. However, from what I've seen, he's dreadfully bland. It's honestly hilarious seeing what a far cry he is in show versus what the fanon is. I've known this fact, but it really isn't until rewatching the older seasons that I see what my issue is. He was really just made to be for Marinette. He is the typical love interest catered to be for the main lead.

Now, there's nothing wrong with the original intention of a character being a love interest. One of my favorite characters, Sally Acorn, was originally intended to be a love interest for Sonic in the Archie Comics. However, for those that read the comics and know her, she became so much more. It's honestly arguable that the world of those comics was built for Sally and not Sonic. Sally became such a big part of the comics and her role was incredible, but she was still intended to be Sonic's love interest. Same goes for Kagami. She is a love interest for Adrien and rival to Marinette, but she feels so much more fleshed out. Like Sally, she's utilized so much more than Luka, which is a shame.

Luka, for all the potential he has, is nothing more than the would-be gold medal. He comes in to offer emotional support and be the rock for the main leads, but mostly Marinette. He is perfect for her, is everything she needs him to be. Day on the ice rink? He's a professional skater. Having trouble with your feelings? Shoulder to cry on and advice giver. She's feeling down and needs a pick me up that the girls can't give her? Enter stage right, Luka.

We see this even in their akumatizations. Luka is akumatized because of Marinette. It is only ever because of Marinette. Kagami did have her share of akumatizations because of Adrien, but for different reasons. Wanting a rematch, Lila, and Adrien lying. And let's not forget the cloud titan that was due to Marinette, not Adrien. Then there's Luka who was akumatized because of either an injustice to Marinette or wanting the fucking truth. (I'm not counting Migration. You all can fuck off with that. That was just bad writing all around that fucking episode.)

Doubling back on the bit about fleshed out. We see more with Kagami about who she is, her struggles, and so much more. We even see her GASP grow as a person. Whereas we have Luka. The man who is always kind, caring, protective, understanding, and patient. Well, that's all fine and all, but what else? What are his flaws? What are his weaknesses? What makes him human? I'm honestly reminded of the scene in Barbie the Nutcracker with the Rat King reading on the Sugar Plum Fairy and just being like "That's it?" Or in Swan Lake when Odette asks "What else?" and prince asshole asks "What else is there?"

You know, it kinda makes sense that when I see canon Luka, I just laugh. I don't see a character like I used to. I see a character with potential relegated to a glorified plot device. He only ever served as a way to advance the plot, which is a fucking sin. If Kagami was allowed to be important later on (which I get for what season 5 was) why couldn't we get that with Luka? I would have loved to have seen more than just a glorified plot device and, I wager, almost falls into the everyman trope. He is ordinary at the time we meet him. The one bit of normal in Marinette's life that we all honestly became attached to. Well, most of us anyway. Makes sense given his borderline blank slate personality of generic good traits.

It also makes sense why I latched onto the Luka in fanon. The entire fandom, all of y'all, make Luka such an interesting character. And I, for one, thank you all. We see more with these characters that don't get the spotlight, especially with Luka. It's amazing seeing what we do with him with the meager template provided by the show. Thank you.