#and so just happened that i played v3 in tough times when i needed the escapism the most

[sineala]

A Few Thoughts About Hurt/Comfort

I have been asked this month to make a post about hurt/comfort in Avengers comics. And I love h/c -- I actually have a massive number of WIPs right now that are h/c -- so I am very happy to talk about it! Anyway, this is not really all that planned out and this mostly turned into an excursus on Tony Stark's pain. I'm sure you're all surprised.

Like pretty much everyone else, I'm sure, I have found that everything lately has been... pretty tough. And the coping mechanism that really got me through last year and this year was reading and writing a lot of h/c, on the theory that, however lousy a day I'm having, I can absolutely make sure that Tony Stark has a worse one. And then I can make sure he gets hugs. Wish fulfillment? Why, yes. (Once at Hallmark I was trying to find a "get well soon" card, forgot what it was called, and described it to my wife as "a hurt/comfort card.") I think Marvel Comics -- the Avengers side, in particular -- is an interesting canon for h/c for a lot of reasons. Though, honestly, if you asked me to recommend you, a hurt/comfort fan, a new fandom, I would probably just hand you some Starsky & Hutch DVDs. Go watch "The Fix" and get back to me later. If you like that, there's way more where that came from. But there's still lots to love in Marvel! Superhero comics are really a goldmine as far as the hurt side of h/c. Because superheroes, and you probably have noticed this, get hurt a lot. They get hurt repeatedly, in fantastical ways that are probably impossible in real life both physically and emotionally (at least, I don't think anyone's invented mind control yet), and even the heroes without superhuman healing powers tend to get physically hurt a whole lot worse than actual people can take. Currently in Iron Man comics, Tony has a broken back and is dealing with this by locking himself into the armor as a backboard and injecting himself with massive doses of painkillers. He's busy! He's got stuff to do! He doesn't have time to lie around and heal! So, basically, if you name a kind of pain that you would like to see happen to a character, it's probably happened to superheroes. Multiple times. The downside, though, is that comics do not really deliver that well when it comes to the comfort part of h/c. They could. It's not inherent to the medium that they don't. But because of the serial nature of comics and also the fact the primary audience is dudes who want to read about people in spandex punching each other, a lot of the time they don't really feel the need to provide closure and write about people dealing with any of the hurt. (Raise your hand if you're still annoyed with the end of Hickman's Avengers run.) But at the same time, I think that's a quality that makes Avengers ripe for h/c fanfic. Because, generally speaking, fandom likes to provide the things that canon doesn't, and fandom is more than happy to provide the comfort. If you enjoy canonical h/c in comics, I think you really can't go wrong with Iron Man. One of the big innovations of modern Marvel Comics was the concept that heroes would also suffer from relatable human problems, and in practice what this means is that a lot of heroes start with a fully-loaded angst-ridden backstory and origin story, ripe for h/c. So Tony starts out by incurring a heart injury that he fully expects is going to kill him, which he responds to by vowing he won't get close to anyone so they won't be sad when he dies, and throughout the early Silver Age is constantly on the brink of death as his heart nearly gives out on him practically every issue. And then even after his heart gets (mostly) better, there are various plots involving his armor being detrimental to his health and him choosing to fight on anyway. It's hard for me to think of another superhero hitting that particular variety of h/c in exactly the same way. Sure, superheroes risk their lives constantly, because this is how superhero comics work, but Tony is the only one I can think of who is this constantly this badly off, physically. Like, think of all the other heroes who have had a continual solo presence as fan favorites across Marvel history -- Captain America, Thor, Spider-Man, Wolverine, maybe even Deadpool. You know what those guys all have? Healing factors! For the most part, they are not running around continually on the verge of death, and while there are certainly memorable arcs involving several of them being severely injured and/or dead, you really have to work at it. It's not their constant state of affairs, whereas Tony is the kind of superhero who shows up to a fight already bleeding out under his armor. Yeah, I know Extremis gave him a healing factor. But he didn't have it very long, and also he did some extremely dangerous things while he did have it; I'm pretty sure I've never seen Wolverine saying that he'll just solve a problem by cutting off his own foot. So, anyway, yeah, there are a bunch of good arcs involving h/c for Tony. If you're looking for physical injury, he has a whole bunch of heart problems over the years, gets several new hearts, then ruins his brain, et cetera. That level of hurt is basically the background pain of Tony's life; every so often, his heart will get damaged or he'll have to live in the armor or the armor will be killing him, et cetera. If you're looking for more unusual trauma, I am, as always, going to rec Manhunt, a relatively obscure arc in late v3 (IM v3 #65-69) in which Tony has an extremely bad week. His tech is stolen and used to bomb a building. Then he gets shot in the chest. Then while he's at the hospital a nurse tries and fails to poison him, and she then tries to beat him to death. Then he checks himself out of the hospital and a helicopter shoots missiles at him. Then he becomes a fugitive from justice. And then, oh, yeah, he has to fight the Mandarin. It is... a lot. (Volume 3 of Iron Man is pretty good as far as h/c possibilities. You've got a lot of physical pain, Carol's drinking arc, the Sentient Armor, both DreamVision arcs, and Manhunt. Manhunt is finally supposed to be out in trade this month, by the way.) There are of course the drinking arcs, which probably count as their own type of hurt. But if you haven't read the second drinking arc (IM #160-200), please do. Marvel likes to up the stakes on events (Fear Itself, Secret Empire) by making Tony drink, and it does work, I think. I feel like I've spoken at length about Tony's drinking elsewhere so I don't really want to rehash it all here. And then there's the emotional pain. Angst and drama is something that happens to a whole bunch of characters, yes, especially in comics, but somehow Tony seems to end up with possibly more than his fair share of it. Fandom likes to make a lot of Howard Stark's A+ Parenting, so much so that you might think, if you didn't know canon, that this was just fandom running with a throwaway mention of Tony's terrible childhood and making it worse. But, no, canon really does go there with a reasonable amount of frequency. Howard's actual first appearance is in a flashback where he's ordering teenage Tony to break up with his girlfriend because she's the daughter of one of Howard's business rivals. And then we get into the verbal abuse, and the physical abuse, and the time Howard made Tony take his first drink, and the part where Howard was a demon in hell who Tony fought while he insulted him. And more! Currently, in canon, Howard is alive again and is in league with Mephisto for the express purpose of ruining Tony's life. Also when Tony was a baby, Howard tried to trade him to Dracula. I think you can make an argument that fandom is actually showing restraint when compared to canon. Tony also has a whole lot of Terrible Exes whose presence and/or former presence in Tony's life can be used for a lot of hurt. If you've read any amount of fanfic, you probably know that the exes who get the most play in fandom are Sunset Bain and Tiberius Stone -- not that Tony and Ty were ever canonically a couple, of course, but fandom is definitely enamored of this idea. Ty and Sunset both have relatively similar interactions with Tony in canon, in that they are both liars and emotional abusers, heavy on the gaslighting, with the purpose of becoming more successful than Tony. They both also attempt to murder Tony, although this is after he figures out they're evil, at least. (Yes, I know, this is not how either of them usually appear in AUs.) Tony also has a bunch of exes who also have just straight-up tried to murder or otherwise hurt him, sometimes while they are dating, and sometimes before Tony dates them: Whitney Frost, Indries Moomji, Kathy Dare, and Maya Hansen come to mind. There are probably more I'm not thinking of! But, yes, if you want to write about a guy in a series of terrible relationships, please consider Iron Man comics. If mind control is one of your favorite flavors of hurt, Tony's pretty good for that too. We all know about The Crossing. I suppose when I say "mind control" I mostly mean "armor control" because there are an awful lot of plots where someone else makes Tony's armor do whatever they want it to do and Tony is along for the ride -- Demon in a Bottle, Sentient Armor, and Execute Program are the first things that come to mind. There is also a fairly obscure What If that is What If Iron Man Lost The Armor Wars in which Justin Hammer apparently really wants Tony in a mind control collar to take off all his clothes and lounge around in his underwear. No, really. I think a lot of pain for Tony often revolves around his issues with control, generally -- his alcoholism comes into play here again. The entire aftermath of Civil War is also notable for its propensity to hurt Tony over and over and over. Is he stoically soldiering on through his grief after Steve dies? Hell, no! He cries, like, six separate times. He 100% blames himself for Steve's death. It's great. Everybody loves The Confession and the funeral in Fallen Son, but one of my personal favorites is Avengers/Invaders, in which Tony is confronted with a time-traveling Steve from WWII and in order not to screw up the timeline, he can't tell Steve he knows him. He is clearly not coping well. He shuts himself in a room with a giant wall of pictures of Steve! Also there's a part where he has to try to convince Steve he can trust him and he ends up having to tie Steve to a chair to talk to him, and Steve looks at him and asks, "Who did you kill to get where you are?" and I feel like that is probably one of the worst moments in Tony's life. No wonder he gave himself amnesia. So now we might want to ask, okay, but why is hurting Tony in fanfiction so much fun? I mean, I can tell you why I think it's fun. I can't speak for anyone else. One reason is that he is very emotional and very affected by everything he does. Sometimes you will see people complaining that the heroes of m/m fanfic cry too much and this is not realistic. This is not a problem if you're writing Tony! He can cry as much as you want and it's perfectly in character. I don't think it would be as fun to hurt him if he didn't express so much of his pain. But he does. He also feels guilty, and for me that's a very satisfying character element. If he were well-adjusted and didn't blame himself for so many things, it wouldn't be nearly as fun as watching him blame himself for everyone whose death he thinks he is responsible for, whether or not he is. And then he just keeps going, and it's, y'know, nice to watch him be resilient, too. So, I guess, I think hurting him is interesting because it's easy to hurt him, his weak points are pretty obvious, and he reacts a lot. Steve doesn't hurt quite as much as Tony does, in canon. It's certainly possible to hurt him -- I mean, they did actually kill him after Civil War, after all -- but I don't think the canonical patterns of hurting him are as numerous. Obviously deseruming Steve is a fairly popular go-to in terms of physical hurt; he's been deserumed at least three times that I know of. I think's easy to see the appeal there of taking a character who is fairly physically resilient and making him... much less so. Certainly Marvel seems to see the appeal. But other than that I don't think he has any other really common way to get physically injured. Unlike Tony, whose origin story is basically "oh no, I've acquired a disability," Steve's origin story is "I drank a serum that cured all my disabilities." Which, I mean, great wish fulfillment but there's not really as much there to poke at. Pretty much all of Steve's pain is emotional, but, unlike Tony, his pain isn't often specifically in response to someone directly, purposefully hurting him. Hickman's Avengers run is a big exception, yes. His pain seems to come up most often as a kind of situational angst. He feels like a man out of time. He feels out of touch with the modern era, with people his own age. He feels guilt because he feels responsible for Bucky's death. He feels like he can't trust the government and therefore he can't be Captain America. He worries that he doesn't know how to have a normal life. And, yes, these are deep and important worries but it's different than, like, Indries Moomji dumping Tony with the intent to make him sad enough to start drinking. Very few of Steve's villains want to personally ruin Steve's entire life the way Tony's villains do; mostly they just want to do things like bring back the Nazis. In terms of Steve's potential for h/c, I think Steve is harder to hurt than Tony is. Physically, he is definitely harder to hurt. You can deserum him, sure, but unless you want everything you write to be a deseruming fic you're probably not going to want to do that more than a couple of times. And if you want to hurt him physically while he has the serum, you have to hurt him hard. Usually past the point where a regular human would ever survive it. He's also harder to break, emotionally, than Tony is -- which means it's very satisfying when you can get him to break, but this is a guy who's only cried twice (that I remember) in canon. So if you want to get him to cry, you really, really have to wreck him, and he doesn't have as many obvious weak spots. He also doesn't generally sit around blaming himself for things that aren't his fault, and the whole "stewing in guilt" genre of plots for him basically came down to "he was sad that he thought Bucky's death was his fault," and that's really the biggest regret he seems to have, and also Bucky's not dead anymore. The Steve/Tony relationship itself, I would think, is also appealing to h/c fans because canon provides a lot of ways for them to hurt each other. Some people only ship pairings who would never, y'know, take turns beating each other half to death in major event comics. (And for a lot of Marvel Comics history, that was also Steve & Tony, so if you want them to be BFFs who have never fought, you can just set your fic earlier.) They have definitely hurt each other both physically and emotionally, so if you're looking for something easy and satisfying as a h/c fan, you can just read or write something where they... make up. What about Marvel characters other than Steve and Tony? Surely some of them are angsty, yes? Well, yes, but also it depends on the particular flavor of angst that you like. If you like the way Tony hurts, you may very well enjoy Doctor Strange comics, because they have a very similar attitude towards life -- they are both former alcoholics whose origin stories involve physical disabilities, who routinely make tactical decisions that negatively affect their continued existence and/or happiness a whole lot. It's very much an "I must suffer alone in the dark and no one will ever know what I am doing to save the world but it's the right thing to do" sort of vibe. Like, you can read comics where Strange is lying in hell with two broken legs, hallucinating that Clea has finally come to save him. Strange's biggest fear, akin to Tony's control issues, is basically that one day he's going to be an asshole again, so he's out there trying as hard as he can to do good. Also, if you like tentacles, he has all of them. I mean that. Carol also occasionally hits similar angst spots, and her drinking arc is great. A lot of people like Natasha, too; I have read zero Black Widow comics but I get the impression many people enjoy her brand of angst. The mutant metaphor is a little different in terms of overall vibe, but some people really like it as a source of angst -- the whole "protecting a world who hates and fears them" thing. It may not work for you, but if you like your hurt to include things like systemic oppression, go pick up some X-Men comics. Start with something like God Loves Man Kills. I feel like I liked this sort of thing a lot more as a teenager but that I kind of aged out of liking the mutants quite so much. It's also worth mentioning that not everything that hits the spot in one universe will be the same in the others, and I'm mentioning this because I feel like I have to say something about MCU Bucky. MCU fandom seems to get a lot of mileage out of Bucky's guilt about being the Winter Soldier, everything he was forced to do, et cetera. I have definitely read my share of those fics, and FATWS sure went right for that angst too. But as far as I can tell, he doesn't hit the same way at all in 616. And I like him a lot in 616; I'm always pleased when he shows up on a team. (He was so good in Strikeforce. Everyone was so good in Strikeforce.) But the thing is, 616 Bucky is, basically, phenomenally well-adjusted, given everything he's gone through, and I'm including the time he wrestled a bear in a gulag. He gets over having been the Winter Soldier, and now he's just, y'know, a guy with a cool arm who likes to bring guns to every fight to horrify his teammates, and he snarks at Clint. If you're looking for that angst, that is really not him these days. He's all better. So pretty much all that is canon. So what do we do in fandom for h/c? Well, as far as I can tell, a decent amount of it is canon-based or very canon-close -- there are a whole lot of stories exploring the angst of Civil War or Hickman's Avengers run. Tony's drinking comes up a fair amount, and if one of Tony's Evil Exes comes back to haunt him, it's pretty much only Tiberius Stone. I don't think I've read a lot of fic with Steve getting deserumed; it doesn't seem as popular in fandom as in canon. When Steve gets hurt, he tends to just get physically whumped pretty hard, and there's a fair amount of that for Tony too, but of course Steve can take more. There's also a thriving, uh, subgenre of pain involving Hydra Steve doing terrible things to Tony, presumably the terrible things he would have wanted to do to Tony in canon if Tony had had a flesh body. There's the usual kinds of h/c setups that appear in basically every fandom as well -- sickfic, whump, dub-con/non-con. You get the idea. But since fandom in general likes to take specific inspiration from canon, there's a lot of fic where the hurt tends to resemble things that happen more in canon. Like, I feel like comics fic probably has more tentacle fic and more mind control than canons that don't come pre-stocked with those. Probably everybody has a whole lot of "tied up by bad guys," though. And then, of course, fandom brings the comfort that canon does not. This is true in pretty much every fandom -- I mean, you aren't going to find a lot of actual canons where Character A saves Character B from mortal peril and then there's gay sex -- but, like I was saying, comics don't provide a lot of closure before it's onto the next thing. Usually with a different creative team, who has no interest in wrapping up anything from the last team. Steve and Tony talked about the incursions exactly once after Secret Wars and nobody mentioned the part where Steve spent several months trying to hunt Tony down and kill him. Tony is never going to remember the events of Civil War. Hydra Steve died ignominiously in a fire and no one has ever talked about him again. Honestly, if you're looking for a way to get some comfort in your fanfic, picking an event, any event, and just having the characters talk about it will be way more than any of them get in canon. I feel like honestly that can often be a pretty satisfying to read. And even though comics canon physically hurts characters pretty often and pretty badly, they also often skip right past the recovery. Maybe you'll get one page of a character in a hospital bed at the end of the story arc. Maybe you won't. Demon in a Bottle has one splash page of Tony going through alcohol withdrawal and then he's all better. I think Manhunt skips to Tony getting out of the hospital at the end. That's just not a story that they want to tell very often. The second drinking arc is notable in that it devotes almost as many issues to Tony's recovery as it does to getting him to rock-bottom. Similarly, Steve is done with his Nomad angst way way faster than you probably think he is (though The Captain does go in for a fair number of issues). So one of the things we often want to do in fandom is focus on all the bits that canon skips over, both in the "why did no one ever mention this story arc ever again" way and the "wow, so how long are they in the hospital after that" way. That's really all I can think of about h/c! I'm off to write some more of it!

[its-a-branwen-thing]

“We Can Kill The Man Who Put Us Here...”

[Hey! it’s my first discussion of RWBY season 2020 and guess what? It’s totally about Qrow and Ironwood and Robyn, who’d have thunk it?] Also I promise it isn’t that long...

I know we’re being lead to believe that Qrow is talking about Ironwood here, and I totally think that may well be the case BUT I also think there might be a bit more at play in the narrative than what we’re seeing. The scene transitions directly to an image of Ironwood after this and it seems the most obvious target of this anger is definitely Ironwood. These two have been set up for a fight since V3, and I think that confrontation is a long time coming but--and this is important--Robyn says something earlier that makes me think the threat of murder might be a red herring of sorts.

“He didn’t kill anybody.”

Because Qrow clearly blames himself for Clover’s death and I think they’re going with “everyone will believe he’s a murderer” as his new scarlet letter. If we have, once again, Qrow believing that he’s this awful person that got someone murdered, having him throw himself down the path of revenge seems more tragic than redeeming, even if his opponent is a despot who we’d very much like to see thrown from his perch. The thing about terrible people is that getting rid of them sometimes involves good people having to resort to terrible things, but it’d still be tough to watch Qrow pull that particular trigger. 

And yet there’s something that got me stewing after I thought of all of this and it has everything to do with a past fake-out in V3:

I don’t think this scene will necessarily repeat itself, although that’d be a cool callback, but I do think it planted some seeds in my brain for what would happen if the writers decide to take that track. Ironwood mistook Qrow here for coming after him but, really, Qrow knew Ironwood didn’t call the attack, and he knew the grimm were a bigger threat. He didn’t say anything because he’s just that kind of ass he probably didn’t think he needed to. Now, obviously, things have changed, but not enough for me to think Qrow is going to straight up murder Ironwood like the general did with the councilman. I predict this going one of three ways:

1. Qrow actually landing the blow this time. No fakeout, full fight. Oof. outcome TBD, cool fight song, lots of yelling

2. Ironwood being the one to defend the team when they think he will attack them as a last showcasing of his humanity before he ultimately perishes ala Ozpin’s V6 nugget about Lionheart being remembered for who he was leading up to his fall rather than his fall itself. But...I think that’s too kind.

3. A repeat fake-out of the same kind--all season we’re built up to think Qrow has it out for Ironwood, perhaps even cheering him on as the pieces fall into place, only for him to focus on a greater threat at the last minute and show little care for getting revenge on Ironwood. In fact, forgoing it totally in order to focus on their single greatest threat: Salem (or he’ll finally 1v1 Tyrian, not to the death though, because reasons I have stated and also I hate/love Tyrian and don’t want him to die yet). This is my favorite little theory.

Because instead of being responsible for passing judgement on Ironwood himself Qrow will instead, at the end of the season, offer him up for his due process punishment to those who now hold the people’s loyalty--Robyn and the Happy Huntresses. And that punishment might not be death. It might be mercy.

Not dissimilar to a reverse Tin Man, just as we saw with Lionheart’s fate to die as a coward, the great general would be frozen in place, ensconced likely metaphorically but maybe also physically, in his own rusting morals, unable to do anything as the world and his people move on without him. A chess piece taken off the board.

Ironwood’s fate could be death, but he could also very well be left alive knowing what he has done, the good and the horrible, so that his reputation never has a chance to become legend. He’ll never be a martyr like he seems to want so desperately to be, likely because he thinks it will help remediate some of his bad choices. By living he doesn’t get the chance to die in glory and his actions gain less nuance; the last few decisions will be a burden he has to bear. For the rest of his life.

[ultimaterealmofchaos]

what are your honest thought about your muse’s canon? [all your dr canons :3 ]

the source!! (accepting!!)

all of my dr canons???? holy shit here we go

starting with our favorite ultimate musician ibuki: first off???? we all know how i feel about ibuki. she’s my absolute favorite sdr2 character, and i’m about 99.9% sure she’s my favorite danganronpa character overall. but of course, i have a few criticisms. not about her specifically, i don’t think, i think she’s fine, but like... how the game handled her??? okay so i’ve seen a lot of criticism online about her (and this is probably my own fault for going to the danganronpa subreddit), saying that she’s annoying, she adds nothing to the story, there’s no reason for her existence, etc. and honestly that isn’t a problem that’s specific to ibuki. it’s made pretty clear if you really look at it that she only exists to end up dead, which i think is a real problem with the writing of the series overall. and since all my muses end up dead in some form here, that’s a common criticism that i’m going to point out right here right now and never again in this post. but ibuki herself suffers from that she’s incredibly surface-level with only a deeper side underneath if you choose to pursue it. and like. obviously i’m not asking for her to be the deepest character in the lore, that’s not what she is, and obviously she’s... not written to be the smartest character at all, but i wish they had done her a little differently, and not hidden all her insightfulness in free time events. because. she’s smart. she doesn’t see herself as smart, but she is. and i wish they’d shown that more. and honestly??? you are telling me that she is the ultimate musician, yet nobody in her class likes her music?! that many people in there and not a single soul actually likes it??? chunsoft you’re fuckin’ playing with me here and i don’t like it. come on. make up your damn minds. ffs.

also why’d she have to die that’s some bullshit. she was cool af and i’m still salt about it. 

this is going to get long and ridiculous bc i have so many of them so i’m hiding the rest under a cut.

next up is sakura!!! i actually think sakura was done quite well, honestly. granted, it was the first game, so i don’t think any of us saw the twist with her coming, but it was done really well! and her eventual death definitely suited her character. i never thought she’d be one to kill anyone, and i was glad that i was proven right, even though i was really upset with her death (just like i was with just about every other one lmao). from a meta standpoint, i really like how they took the tough-girl-who-even-looks-”manly” thing and sorta turned it on its head a bit (like, i’m not going to lie, i legit thought she was a guy at first who just happened to be wearing a girl’s school uniform and i think just about everyone does). her relationship with hina that built over the course of the game was something that was needed for her, imo, as it helps us as players sort of humanize her a bit and not just see her as this massive devastating block of muscle. i like how they managed to portray that even if she’s stoic as fuck on the outside, she really cares about everyone in her class, and that’s just shown by her death itself. they even managed to convey a sort of degree of softness with her, as shown by her relationship with hina and how hina was just about the only one that wasn’t initially scared shitless of her. idk man dr1 really did its characterization really well for danganronpa and they never really got that right again, did they? it’s a shame, really.

next up is our favorite bitch. junko enoshima. dear. god. i love her so much, and i love to hate her so much. the way she acts, the way she uses mukuro for her own gain, the way she switches personalities on the drop of a hat, the way she pretty much thought all this shit up on her own (with mukuro as well i’m assuming but let’s be real here it was honestly all her)... she’s a fucking unapologetic bastard and we love her for it. honestly i always look forward to playing a danganronpa game i haven’t already played because i’m dying to see how they’re shoehorning her in. because. it’s not dr without her. i’m sorry. it’s just not. sometimes villains are villains just because. they don’t have to have a deep backstory as to why they’re the way they are, and junko is a wonderful example of that. i love her. i’m biased. i love her sm.

next is miu. oh, dear, sweet miu. she’s the fanservicey character who makes things sometimes. that’s it. there’s one of these in every game. and you know what? having a fanservicey character is fine. to me, anyway. you do you, guys. but honestly i find miu kind of insulting in a way. no, not because she’s vulgar as fuck; guys, i am vulgar as fuck, especially after having a couple drinks, okay, i can sympathize in a way with her. no, what i’m insulted by is that they had the audacity to make her the ultimate inventor, and then fuckin’ reduce her to swearing, sex jokes, and vulgarity. like. inventors are smart as fuck. ya kinda need to be in order to invent things, right? especially doing it as consistently as she does. i mean, fuck, she provided whole things for the plot, for fuck’s sake. and they still reduce her to a dumb blonde who’s obsessed with kiibo and sexual innuendos. come on. do better. let’s go. she can still keep her vulgar tendencies, just.... god, i don’t even know how to fix her, but i hate her characterization even though overall i still like her quite a lot. learn to write women, you fucks; how did you get it more right in dr1 than in v3. and we’re not gonna even talk about the canonical ending because i see that differently than most people and it has nothing to do with what i’m talking about, which is what we see in 95% of the game. 

next: our favorite bug boy gonta. it should be no secret that i love gonta. i love him. so much. the only character that is second to my love for gonta is korekiyo. i love korekiyo so much too. but this isn’t about him. it’s about gonta. again, we are bending the trope of big-character-is-terrifying and i really appreciate that in gonta’s case. like with sakura. ahaha. what can i say, i’m really weak for that sort of thing, i guess. but he suffers from the same shallowness that miu and even ibuki does. they tried to give him some more depth, but i don’t think it really worked. and like. come on. a guy who was raised by wolves for years and doesn’t really know how to interact with people now being in a killing game with a bunch of them???? shit, there’s so much you can do with that!! but no. we didn’t go there. much like we didn’t go there for everyone who wasn’t shuichi, kaito, maki, or kokichi. (ok shuichi gets a pass but you know.) idk man it’s probably because i didn’t do everyone’s free time events because there’s literally no way to do so, but i’m kind of salty about how v3 just treated its characters. all of them have potential. it just wasn’t reached. at all. unless it was the main four. they all deserve better. 

lastly, we have mikan. and boy. do i have a lot to say about mikan. so, going into this, i want to say that i am an abuse victim. there, it’s out in the open. so, knowing that... some stuff about her makes sense. especially when you consider that she, too, is an abuse victim. and others. just. do not. she deserved better. she deserved so much better. and what made me the most incensed about this is her goddamn anniversary outfit. they only saw and used mikan as fanservice. why would you use an abuse victim as fucking fanservice i’m gonna fuckin’ riot. like. she’s traumatized as fuck. her despair disease shit makes a lot of sense, don’t get me wrong. it’s suitable for her that things happened the way they did with that. but for fuck’s sake. “oh haha look at that mikan fell again, face down ass up that’s the way she likes to--” stop. she deserves better. i’m mad about it. it’s not funny. stop doing mikan so fuckin’ dirty, you assholes. i’m taking her and i’m making her better. so fuck you.

anyway that’s it :3 i’m sorry this turned out to be so long aslkdjfal. i hope i answered the question sufficiently enough :333

[monomonomagines]

If the requests are open(if not, sorry for bothering y'all, I'm unsure if I'm reaind right or not), how about the V3 girls finding out their S/O is the blackened, only because they found out that their victim had plans to kill them both? Sorry if this is weirdly worded or anything!

Don't worry about how this is worded, Anon. I believe I was able to understand and even if I didn't you can always just tell me and I'll fix this up. It’s ironic that on my second day of writing requests again I’m already giving you guys more angst but I hope that it’s to your liking.

Kaede

Kaede didn't know if she could believe it. To hear that you'd kill one of your guy's friends was just bizarre.

You were so kind and sweet so why, why would you hurt anyone else!?

She wanted to say something but her words were stuck in her throat. Her love was a life taker and there was no escaping that fact.

She felt helpless, she couldn't figure it out and so she was left with one option. She had to ask even as she choked back sobs why you'd do this.

"Why, S/o!? How could you do this to our friend?"

She thought the news that you already killed her but hearing the reason just made things even worse.

Even if you wanted to protect her she couldn't accept this. She'd never accept that you'd turn to the murder of all things, that wasn't you, at least it shouldn't be.

Kirumi

Kirumi was normally calm and composed during the class trial but when all the suspicion fell onto you she began to worry.

She had an obligation to serve those around her as the Ultimate Maid, she had told you that before the two of you had even started dating but she still struggled.

Normally she could vote for someone rather quickly, feeling little to no nervousness as she was confident in her fellow classmates' decision.

This time though she could feel anxiety swelling within her as her shaky hands struggled to decide your fate.

For the most part, she appeared somewhat shaken up but inside she was breaking at the cracks.

"Why? Why did you do it? Why did you of all people!?"

Question after question poured out but all of them were answered in a way that she didn't anticipate. You were protecting her.

You were protecting her when it was her job to help you. If you just told her she'd be willing to do anything so that she could stay with you.

If it called for it, she'd even follow you into the dark, sure to come for you. She would do it all and more.

Angie

Angie normally was so happy go lucky and carefree that not even a killing game seemed to be able to pull her down.

Just yesterday she was laughing and smiling with you and now everything was turned on its head.

The person she trusted, the person she loved, they were a killer. Just yesterday you wouldn't even swat at a fly and now you had taken someone's life just earlier today.

How could this happen? How could yesterday be so different from today? How could the you of yesterday seem like such a different person from the one standing in front of her now?

She could barely utter the words as an unusually serious expression covered her features. "Why? Why would you leave me too, S/o?"

She knew you had to have some reason and when you told her that you had to protect her and yourself she knew it was just as hopeless as it already seemed.

After you left she'd go back to being the loneliest girl in the world. Even if she called out for you there was no bringing you back.

She couldn't even ask if it was ok for the two of you to stay like this. It didn't matter anymore.

Tenko

Tenko normally let her emotions get the best of her but that whole trial she was covering for you like there was no tomorrow. Maybe she didn't care if there was even one.

Even when everything pointed to you, she had full faith in you, refusing to acknowledge a single piece of evidence.

You couldn't let the class come to the wrong decision though, even if you were just protecting her. You had to hurt her to save everyone else, even if it's the last day you'd spend together.

As Tenko went to defend you once again you cut her off, confessing yourself, to everyone's surprise, especially hers.

"No, there's no way you could've, S/o! Don't even joke about that kind of thing!"

She pleaded she begged, she cried trying to get you to tell her that it was a lie. That all of this was a lie but all she got as a response was silence.

How could she be so useless? Why wasn't she able to protect the two of you? She never wanted this to happen!

Tenko couldn't even bring herself to look at you as the voting commenced. She wanted to wake up now, to wake up from this nightmare.

She was useless if only she could revert time so that this would've never happened.

Miu

Miu was never quick to catch onto how things worked outside her own inventions so when others began to accuse you of murdering one of your friends she was more than confused.

Even when Shuichi was accusing you she'd be trying to defend you only for the realization sinking in further with each time she opened her mouth.

"Her!? You gotta be joking right, how does any of that tie back to...wait what!?"

How did this happen!? She was just with you yesterday and you didn't seem suspicious. Why would you do this to her? Did you just want to leave her that badly!?

Despite her tough facade, she'd be breaking down, on display for everyone as she'd yell out accusations for why you did it, only quieting down when you yell over her that you did it to save her.

"Why though? Why did you make it so I h-have to watch you die now!? If I knew you'd do this then I would've never gotten close to you!"

She hadn't meant to yell out something like that as her last words to you before everyone voted. The truth was she wanted to cry, it was painful, and now she had no one to cling to.

Himiko

Himiko was quick to judge others more often than she'd like to admit. Normally, she'd be one of the first to point a finger as soon as Shuichi revealed how everything could point to someone but now she was faltering.

She wanted to believe in you so she'd refuse to hear any of it. Like Tenko she came across even as hysterical as she'd scream above others about how you're innocent.

She was falling apart, she didn't want to believe it but a part of her mind knew all along. Even as tears began to fall she just kept going on, beginning to sound like a broken record until you spoke up.

It was too much for you to keep going. You knew she'd break herself if you kept this up so you had to take it upon yourself to be the one to do it.

You had to break it to her that you did kill someone but it was only so that she could live on and so that you could have at least one more day with her.

You couldn't save both of you but if she was fine then you'd be happy. That's what you said at least but she still could barely press her trembling hands to vote for you.

Now she didn't know what to do. It was her last moments with you, she wanted to tell you how much it hurt to lose you or how much she loved you but nothing but sobs came out.

To say it hurts is hard to say and now that you're gone you won't hear it either way.

Tsumugi

Tsumugi was shocked when everything pointed back to you during the trial.

She knew there was no way you'd kill someone so something had to be off. That must be it because it's what she wanted to believe.

She could only lie to herself for so long though. She wasn't Kokichi, she couldn't keep weaving her own deceptive web to hide behind.

She had to face the facts. You killed someone and it was only to protect her of all people.

Someone so plain as her living in place of you. It was asinine. There was no way she could accept it.

"S/o, why would you protect me? Someone so plain like me I..."

Before she could finish she's cut off by a sob, unable to continue speaking. She just wanted this to end.

She didn't want to vote, or play this sick game, she just wanted it to stop.

Why couldn't it though? Why did she have to look to you as she voted for you of all people? Why couldn't things just end simply?

Maki

Maki was used to others suspecting her but when the suspicion fell on you she was taken off guard.

Sure all the evidence pointed to you, but for someone to treat her like you did make it seem impossible for it to be true.

She'd grow increasingly defensive, even lying for you if she felt she needed to.

She wouldn't stop, not until she had it confirmed for her by you yourself. She'd continue to the point that she'd seem hysterical, almost like Himiko or Tenko, and at that point, it was cruel to let her go on.

You were making her suffer like this so you had to explain why you did it. You had to tell her how much you just wanted to be able to protect her for once.

She never had anyone to help her like that before after all so you couldn't let her die when she seemed to finally be able to reach for happiness after she had suffered so much.

"Why? I-I never had fallen for someone before you, I never had anyone care the way you do. That's why you can't do this, you can't!"

As much as she'd like to argue with you, you definitely could do this. You killed someone and their silence was an indefinite thing, just as permanent as your love for her.

You wouldn't argue anymore. All that was left was the voting. You could tell she struggled but you knew she'd do the right thing.

She was hurting, maybe more than ever but that was a good thing as bad as it was. She could show the people around her that she cares now so you knew she could be happy again.

But all Maki could focus on was how once again she was useless. She was just a useless child, just like when she was growing up. She had failed the one person she had.

[sevenringsblingbling]

Sienna and Colson part 6

Word Count: 2,372

@creatureofthen1ght-v3 <3

When I walked through the door I was so nervous. I had no idea what to expect. It was dimly lit and there were only a few people at the bar, a couple sitting down at one of the tables. I was greeted by one of the waiters. “Hello ma'am. He’s been waiting on you. Please come this way.” I followed behind him. My body was filled with so much excitement and I was just a hot mess on the inside. I still managed to hold it all together doing my catwalk not sure if he could see me or not but I wasn't going to fold in front of him. If he wanted me back he would have to prove himself. The further we walked back the dimmer the lights got. This was so romantic. Then I finally laid eyes on him. I could've passed out right there! He stood up and by this time I was sure my body was in a small puddle. 

“Hi.” Colson bit his lip not sure what to say to break the ice after all they had not spoken in weeks. There Sienna was looking like a goddess in an all black dress and the jewelry he bought for her. “Wow she's absolutely stunning.” He thought to himself. “Hello Colson.” She sat down and he pushed her chair in. Sienna had to play tough but on the inside she just wanted to push all this shit off the table and ride him into the sunset. “Damnn he’s fucking hot.” She thought. “Thanks for coming through. I've been missing you.” He explained pouring her some wine into a glass. He cleared his throat. “You look beautiful by the way. You like the necklace? I picked it out myself.” Sie looked down at it. “Thank you, it's beautiful. You're looking pretty handsome yourself.” Who was she kidding he was fucking beautiful like some type of European model all tall and handsome. Sie wanted him bad but had to hold it together. 

“So how’ve you been holding up?” I picked up the wine glass taking a sip. I wanted to down the whole thing but had to play it cool. “Just been stressing honestly. It’s been rough without you.” I let out a “mhm.” “So rough that you couldn't pick up the phone and call me or at least text?” His eyes got wide almost as if he wasn't expecting that. “I didn’t think you would want anything to do with me after I blew up on you and honestly I couldn't blame you.” Just then a waiter came with our food. “The chicken enchiladas for you ma'am and the steak fajitas for you sir.” The food smelled so good. Colson thanked the waiter. “So like I was saying I didn't blame you for checking out.” “So what changed? I mean why now all of a sudden?” I bite into my food waiting for his response. “Well I realized that I need you. I mean no matter what we go through I want you by my side. Things just haven't been the same without you.”

“I've been trying to get myself together ya know.” I looked over at him. Trying to find my words. “I've been clean since the day we had that fight. I knew I couldn't live that life much longer. It hasn't been easy but here I am clean and sober. Well except for this wine.” I downed the rest of it. “I’m so fucking proud of you and you look amazing by the way.” I nodded in agreement. “Look Sien I want to ask you something important and I hope your answer is yes because this means a lot to me and I want you with me.” He took a shot of what I think was vodka. “Well things have been so crazy and I think a fresh start would help me out of this funk. So I've been thinking and this has been on my mind for awhile now and seeing you here with me just confirmed that I need to do this for my sake and yours.” 

He took a deep breath. “Move to Phoenix with me.” There were a few seconds of awkward silence. I could’ve died right then and there. Phoenix was a big decision to make. So many thoughts ran through my head. “Wow, what? Phoenix? I..why Phoenix out of all the places?” I was stammered. “I need to get away from the bullshit and this way I'm still somewhat close to work but not that close and I can just get a fresh start. Look I’m not moving right away or anything there’s still a lot to take care of but by next year I just want to be the fuck out of L.A. Please say yes.” I shook my head in disbelief. He couldn't expect me to just uproot my whole life to a place I've never been. “I’m glad that you've made a decision to better yourself but Colson I don’t know anybody in Phoenix. I don’t know the first thing about Phoenix,,,well except for it’s hot but other than that.” I shrugged my shoulders. “You don’t know anybody here either. I took a trip to Phoenix just to have a look around and it's not bad at all. You wouldn’t miss this place trust me.” “Well.” I downed more wine until the glass was empty. “This is a big decision..I don't know.” 

“Okay I see you're going to need a little more convincing. Boom let's take a trip out there together after the new year. If you still don't like it then I won’t bring it up again. Will you at least do that?” I nodded. There's no harm in at least taking a trip. “Yeah we can go. Colson I don't mean to rain on your parade but are you sure this is what you want? What about your brothers?  What about work? This all just seems like so much to deal with.” He reassured me. “Yes this a big step but I need this. Everything will work itself out.” I honestly wasn't convinced of this whole Phoenix situation. I really wanted everything to work out but damn Phoenix seemed so far away. 

Other than the talk of moving dinner was good. Desert was a chocolate volcano cake with raspberries inside. “Wow Mr. Baker you sure picked out one hell of a menu for us.” I licked the rest of the chocolate off my spoon. He just licked his lips. “Well a little lady’s gotta eat but for real..” He got in closer whispering. “I want to eat you.” I blushed, having sex was really not in the plan for tonight but I did wax so perhaps subconsciously I did want to fuck him. I hadn't had sex with anyone other than him and my two fingers wernt cutting it. “Let’s go to that hotel down the street and see what happens. We could watch a movie order room service and relax.” “Wait who says I’m fucking you?” “Who said anything about sex? Just sit on my face and let me do all the work.” He brought up my hand and kissed it looking deep into my eyes. I couldn't turn down an offer like that.

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There we were in a hotel suite. I took off that dress and put on a fluffy bathrobe. Even though the dress was beautiful it was cutting off my circulation. We laid on the bed my head on his chest listening to his heartbeat. He hadn’t tried anything so far, neither had I but I wanted to see where his mind was. I kept my bra and panties on as a lil peek a boo show so whenever I’d reach for something the robe would slip open ever so slightly. “Sie your so fucking perfect. I want you baby.” He kissed me and a makeout session ensued. I remember his breath tasting like chocolate, I just loved that. His hand reached down into the waistband of my undies and started playing with my clit. I was so turned on I didn't want him to stop. “Fuck, baby you’re so wet.” Then he started fingering me. His rings were cold inside of me. He had me like puddy in his hand literally. I closed my eyes just enjoying the feeling moaning and whimpering underneath him.

Then I felt him kissing down my stomach, removing my panties and getting to work. Within the first five or so minutes I was already cumming. I was just a hot mess all thanks to this tall ass daddy. I gripped the back of his head, massaging his scalp. “Oh baby now I see why you've got that long ass tongue.” He laughed. “Mm I’m glad you like it. You taste like strawberries too. I haven't tasted you in so long.” He licked my slit working his tongue up to my sensitive clit. “God damn I’m gonna cum again.” He put two fingers inside at the same time. “Yes baby cum all over my face.” Just then I exploded. I must've lost consciousness because when I came to he was tongue kissing me. “Mm little sleeping beauty is up now. That was sexy as a motherfucker baby. We need to try that again.” “What happened? How long have I been out?” “Well you squirted on my face, which I loved by the way and passed out for a good ten seconds.” Oh my, I was so embarrassed. I wanted to hide my face. “Hey don’t be embarrassed it was fucking sexy and I know you haven't had a good orgasm in a while so it was perfect.” 

“Now I need to give you a little something.” I kissed his stomach stopping a few times to kiss his tattoos. “Wait I want you on your hands and knees.” “Um okay baby whatever you want.” I dropped down to my knees waiting for further instructions. “Sien you look so fucking sexy like that I just want to shove my dick down your throat.” I put my hand on the waistband of his boxers. “Well do it then.” “Walk over to the couch and crawl over to me nice and slow like a sexy cat and put those heels back on.”

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

I crawled over to him doing my best impersonation of a sexy cat. “Purr like a kitten.” He wasn't asking this was more a demand. I wasn't exactly sure how to purr like a kitten so it just came out sounding like a motorboat. Hey, I tried my best. When I got near his feet and looked up at him all 6’4 inches I just wanted him in every hole pounding away at my mouth and cunt. He patted my head as I unbuckled his pants. “Stick your tongue out and close your eyes.” Then I felt his dickhead tap on the tip of my tongue a few times. He was so warm and that precum tasted amazing. Fuck, I want him now. “Meow like a kitten for me.” This was something new. Okay roleplay. “Meowww.” “This is so fucking hot, Say your a dirty little slut.” “I’m a dirty little slut daddy.” I looked up at him and licked his shaft. “Mm very good.” His eyes rolled around caressing my head. “Fuck I’m close already.” He let out a laugh. “I want some milk down my throat daddy.” I spit on the head and put his beautiful dick in my mouth. “Oh fuck. Sien...wait..geez god damn girl.” I stopped and smirked up at him. Yes, I am the blowjob queen. Pops collar. He was panting through his words. 

He practically threw me on the bed too impatient to do anything else and stuck all eight inches in at once. I let out a gasp. Not giving me time to adjust. Hello sir! I haven't had sex in weeks give my pussy time to get ready! “You feel so fucking good Sien. You’re fucking wet hmm.” His dick felt so good pounding me like a little whore. I was a whore, his whore. “Deeper daddy. Fuck me like one of your little sluts please.” I moaned lost in ecstasy not sure where the fuck that came from but I was so in the moment. “Alright baby lay down on your stomach.” It took a mere seconds for me to change positions. He ran his dick over my asshole which scared me. He must've felt me tense up because he laughed and moved it down over my slit and rammed himself inside of me and fucked me harder and faster. By this time I had already lost count of how many times I had cum. Perhaps four or five? “Ow oh fuck ow ow Col.” His dick was so deep it was starting to hit my cervix which was sweet pain. He ignored my pleas and kept pounding. 

“Fuck Sien you've got the sweetest pussy, god damn.” He moaned in my right ear. “You know what would make daddy happy? He grabbed my neck gently and whispered “I want another woman to taste your pussy while I fuck your throat.” I nodded. That does sound hot as fuck but actually doing something like that I couldn't be sober. He pulled out and nudged his dick on my asshole. I started to protest “No,,” “Shh shh all my sluts take it in the ass like a good girl.” Love drunk, I agreed. Once he got the head in it didn't hurt as much as I thought it would. He kept it slow which helped tremendously. I didn't feel either way about it but I wanted to make him happy “You like that ass?” I looked back at him. He slapped my ass and yanked it. “Fuck yes. Baby I'm gonna cum soon. Can I cum in your ass?” I shook my head no. Now that's where I draw the line. He pulled out and came all over my asscheeks. “Fuck! Fuck! Yesss.” It was hot and sticky. Just how like like it. Damn I wanted to swallow all those yummy babies. Oh well next time. Here I was his lil toaster struddle.

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A/N: Its a double feature!! omg im so excited to see what new adventures await Sien and Col (TWO FREAKS LOL). do yall think she’ll like Phoenix? Also shes sober now (thank goodness) i just hope she doesnt relaspe anywhooooo i truly hope that you all enjoy both chapters. love love love love love love love lol so much love

[monster-ronpa]

I have quite a mischievous prompt. The dear V3 boys happen to fall into a certain Arachne trap/hideout. How do they react? ["Fufufu~"s into the distance]

Hm, I think I had fun making up mini-scenarios for each boy.

Let us see if they can survive Arachne territory without a few bites or scratches.

~Mod Rachnera

Trap Success! ….mmmaybe? (V3 Boys and an Arachne)

Shuichi Saihara

Ohhhhhhhhh no. Oh no, this is an abnormally large and strong spider web.

Ohh, ohh no…

He hears the clicking of spider legs and now he is terrified.

Not terrified because of the fact it’s a spider it’s just that- he knows Arachne are…aggressive.

But, don’t panic–with his expert reasoning skills he might be able to quell this potentially hostile spider with just a few choice words. He hopes.

Oh, he was caught by a long-legged Arachne. She lets him go with only a bit of small talk. Well, they do only hunt for food, so, I suppose he’s free now.

Actually made a pretty good friend that day.

Rantaro Amami

I’m pretty sure Rantaro’s knowledge of exploration and all that wouldn’t really assure him being trapped in an Arachne web.

Honestly if anything he’d probably explore the place the trap was set.

Finds the den of a Large Breed Arachne. How does he know? Spiderwebs + fur = Large Breed.

Hahaha nope

Those things are way too dangerous to mess with, he’s not going for it. As much as he wants to look around a bit more, he’s out.

Kokichi Ouma

Well, what fun. He’s pretty sure that a Small Breed Arachne’s been around his house a bit. Probably the one who stole his beef. Twice.

Looks around the forest-y area around his home to try and find traces of her and actually falls for a pitfall trap.

Turns out it lead to her hideout.

She’s there oh no!

His face goes blue and he coughs as the tiny spider girl stares at him warily. Well, at least she’s…not as big as the others.

“Hey, little miss! Seems your trap is pretty effective, eh? It even got me~!” he giggled nervously, “…Now, if you would be so kind as to lemme back up, I’ll leave you be!”

Actually gets her to leave. At the cost of one of his scarves.

He mourns that scarf every day.

Kaito Momota

When he’s entangled in Arachne thread after passing under a tree, he’s having a tough time getting out of it.

“Okay…this….hike could’ve been…a bit less sticky,” he laughs nervously.

Oh, he’s hearing giggling now. Two Arachne sisters approach him and grin at him, proclaiming that he fell for their trap so easily!

“I mean, it’s not like it was pretty obvious for me to see, so, I would’a fallen for it anyway, what with all the bushes and–hey, that’s not the point! Lemme out! And, if I saw it comin’, you bet your eight-legged asses I would’ve dodged it!”

He doesn’t seem to realize that they’ve been dragging him up to the branches they’re laying on whilst he was rambling.

Uh-oh, height.

“NEVERMIND DON’T DROP ME.”

End up dropping him back with Shuichi and Kokichi anyway.

“You look a bit tied up there, Kaito~” “Stuff a sock in it, Kokichi.”

Korekiyo Shinguuji

What an…interesting predicament.

He’s studied about Arachnes before, and knew they laid traps and stuff just to catch food or even play around with humans.

Never did he see himself getting trapped in one..

But, he also knew that Arachnes had an affinity for something.

Bondage.

Seeing an eight-legged figure approaching in the distance after hearing his shifting in her web, he gets a curious smirk behind the mask as she reveals herself.

Ooh, and she’s a long-legged breed, too, fascinating.

“I see that you’ve caught me in your clever little trap of yours. Very expertly placed, I must say,” he narrowed his eyes a bit, “But, if you aren’t planning on eating me, there’s something I’d like to discuss with you–mainly, what you’d be willing to try on me with this thread of yours~” and to his delight, she got a silent smirk on her face as if she knew what he meant.

Sexual Experiments with Korekiyo Shinguuji. Coming soon.

Kiibo

Honestly, he’d probably be able to detect the trap and get rid of it.

Miu Iruma, everybody.

But, if he had walked into one of their hideouts, well..

“I-I’m so sorry, I-I didn’t know this was an Arachne living space!”

What she does to him is completely up to her.

Not like she’d be able to do much with metal anyway, though-

Ryoma Hoshi

He’s caught by a Small Breed in her web THAT’S CONVENIENTLY SIZED FOR HIM and cuddled for the next three hours.

Legit, she’s just–she wrapped her legs around him and won’t let him go.

He needs to get groceries.

Send help.

Gonta Gokuhara

Even when caught in a trap, he’s still marveling at bugs–this includes bug monsters.

“Wow, you made this web?! So amazing! Very sturdy and big!”

He was caught by a Large Breed, but even she felt he was so innocent and sweet she just couldn’t muster up the aggressiveness to be snappy or hurt him.

Ends up being freed and she actually follows him back to the city to make sure he’s safe along the way.

“So glad you want to be Gonta’s friend!”

Made plans to visit her again very soon. New friends are fun.

[hcpefulmarshmallow]

V3 Spoilers under cut. Just some stuff that has been on my mind since I played the game. 

Okay, so I haven’t played it as much as the first two, and I really do adore Shuichi as a character. Let me get those two things out first because I don’t want any angry people in my inbox. This isn’t to complain about Shuichi, or that V3 took things in a different direction than the first two games. The third installment in any franchise has a tough job, balancing fan expectations and keeping the spirit of the story alive enough to please people who have been there since the beginning; while also being new and exciting enough as to not feel stale, and maybe even draw in a whole new crowd. I get that. Changing up a series is not, by default, a bad thing, and I don’t want to imply that DR should have stuck with the same old formula. I’m just saying that there was one glaring misuse of the characters that lowkey sucked. And for the purposes of not writing a whole novel, I’ll probably gloss over some big, important stuff in the interests of streamlining. Please don’t be mad. This is just the impression that the game gave me.

(And yeah, I’m talking like UDG didn’t exist. I still haven’t finished that game to be honest. It’s enjoyable in it’s own merits, and I’m loving the familiar faces and all, but at times it just doesn’t feel like Danganronpa. Yeah, I said it. Maybe that’s my own problem, though - the third-person adventure/horror aspect isn’t my style usually, unless the game is something else. But I digress.)

 So, onto our main point, I’m gonna come out and say it: Shuichi was a poor choice for a protagonist. 

 Let’s rewind for a minute to the first two games, shall we? Each cast was likable in their own ways, the different environments gave each story it’s own atmosphere while still retaining that unmistakable Danganronpa feeling. There were things we could rely on as we transitioned from one game to the other, and things we could be surprised by. One thing about DR is that it has the same trio over and over, right up until this game, where the roles are inexplicably changed. (And again, changing things up: not automatically invalid. But this was a large part of the soul of Danganronpa: the ability to feel like your ordinary self has become a part of this world of Ultimates, and the battle between hope and despair. It’s designed to make you a part of the game so you really feel the highs and lows and every little consequence; and nowhere is it as blatant as in this game, see the final trial. That’s why this change was so bizarre.)

 In the first game, it was Makoto, Kyoko and Byakuya. In the second, it was Hajime, Chiaki and Nagito. Respectively, their roles were such:

 Your protagonist and POV character. They were relatable in many ways: feeling out of place in the presence of all this talent to which they felt they couldn’t compare, somewhat naive, always wanting to believe the best of others, never particularly keen to put anyone to death. They weren’t unintelligent by any means, but their self-doubt and desire to keep the group as a group would hold them back from difficult deductions. This would show in different degrees and in different ways in the characters, but it was always very much there. Much like the player: we didn’t want to put our faves to death, but we didn’t have a choice. For the most part, it was the protagonist who kept that human element to an otherwise fantastical environment, full of people who were only borderline believable. They kept the story grounded, presenting it through their respective viewpoints. The game doesn’t have to justify why it has this almost fictional quality to it’s story and characters, because Makoto and Hajime have both observed that it’s almost not real. But then they get close to the other characters and form attachments, and truly become a part of events themselves, and it all feels very real. It’s through this character that our ordinary selves can truly experience a world like the one in Danganronpa. 

 Next, you have the two sidekicks, performing polarizing roles. All very intelligent, often figuring out the case before our protagonist. You have Kyoko and Chiaki: dropping hints, assisting us along the way, serving as a moral compass of sorts. When we feel lost or confused in the class trial, it’s this character who usually helps us find our way to the truth. And you have Byakuya and Nagito, who exist to misdirect us. Forcing us to strive to be better; rather than relying on the work others do. (And yeah, I know all these characters are deeper than that -- I’m just talking about their basic function in relation to the protagonist). This allows the POV character, and by extension us, to navigate the class trials and the moral dilemma they present, not by providing answers, but by providing growth. By the end, out protagonists have gone from feeling overwhelmed and uncertain, to being able to stand up against the mastermind, even if we’ve lost our sidekicks by that point. 

 Now, let’s look at V3′s golden trio. I’ve seen some debate around this but, in terms of this particular dynamic, we’ve got: Kaede, Shuichi and Kokichi. Or at least, that’s who we should have.

 Kokichi is the obvious choice for an antagonistic character who forces us to up our anti a little bit. He’s constantly throwing us for a loop, constantly making things harder, but never sabotaging us to the point where the trial becomes literally impossible. Love him or hate him, he is a very good, complex character with exceptional narrative utility. I don’t think I need to go into depth with this one, because I don’t think anyone would disagree that this is his role. So moving on. 

 As for Shuichi, he does very much fit the description I gave above of the general layout of a Danganronpa protag: that he’s somewhat self-doubting, overwhelmed at the scope of the people he’s been put amongst, gets along with the others for the most part, doesn’t want to doubt his friends, and goes through extraordinary character growth. However, there are a few issues he has that the others do not. For starters: most of his relevant character growth in terms of what Hajime and Makoto went through happens in the first chapter. He learns from Kaede’s death to trust his own deductions and believe in his talent. He still has a lot of self-doubt, and is still very relatable, but from there, most of his story revolves around trusting others and working as a team, rather than his internal conflicts. That seems more in line with Kyoko’s arc of opening up to Makoto and letting the others in on what she learns rather than flying solo all the time; and of Chiaki’s arc of finally being able to tell Hajime the truth of who she is, and wanting to bring everyone together. Again, I’m kind of strawmanning the character here; but even if I’m dead wrong about his motivations (it sucks not being able to screenshot, you forget so much), there’s one more major flaw. His talent. 

 Through the class trials, our POV character goes in with about as much certainty as we have. And we, alongside them, uncover the truth of the case. We’re essentially experiencing the class trial through their eyes, experiencing being the key word here. Shuichi, however, is the smartest and most capable detective in the room, what with being the Ultimate Detective and all. The feeling I got from him wasn’t that I was solving the mystery through him, but rather that he would have all the answers at least a split-second before me, then the game just kind of waits for me to catch up. There was a lot more “I knew it!” and “As I thought!” kind of going on there, rather than “Aha! The answer can only be __!”  

 Furthermore, Shuichi isn’t terribly proactive. Which is fine, to an extent. The previous POV characters would kind of get thrust into situations too; but once they were there, they were an active part of events. Hajime didn’t want to go feed Nagito, but in doing so, became an active part of what was going on with his story, and learned early on about his manipulation of Mahiru. Makoto didn’t go out investigating Mukuro on his own, but once Kyoko told him about her, he used that information to his advantage, particularly in the Trials. And there were events for which they were active catalysts, too. Not too boring, but not pulling a lot of major strings, either: giving the player a front row seat to the action, letting something amazing play out for their ordinary selves to enjoy, but also making them feel like their actions matter. For Shuichi, he’s dragged into everything he’s involved in, and even then, he’s either just kind of there, present and accounted for while stuff happens; or he’s off on his own, even if someone else is physically present. For instance, when he and Kaito are investigating, Kaito might be there, but Shuichi is doing all the leg work, really. Not saying Kaito is useless, just...saying. And this is totally fine, and consistent with his character. He’s not very social until he gets to know someone well, and he’s definitely more intellectual and emotional than he is a physical being. But again, your protagonist needs to toe that line between being passive enough that stuff can still happen around them, and active enough that the player can engage with that stuff. And again: Shuichi more fits the mold of someone like Chiaki, who is often off on her own, and only intervenes in situations when she absolutely must; or Kyoko, who is also off on her own a lot, and isn’t sociable at all. In terms of free time events and stuff, I have no trouble believing Makoto or Hajime would make an effort to, out-of-the-blue, find and learn more about a fellow classmate; but Shuichi? Not so much. Again: he’s just not a person who is comfortable with other people. Which is all fine and relatable and good for him as a character. But as a POV? Sure he gets close with his little workout gang, but only because Kaito drags him along. Even Kaede spends most of the first chapter just pulling him around everywhere. After a while, all this adds up and makes you feel detached from events: less like you’re playing a game, and more like you’re watching a movie. 

 So we’ve established that, as far as the game goes, Shuichi is a good character but makes a better sidekick archetype than a POV protagonist. So what’s the difference between him and Kaede that makes her a great, Danganronpa-esque protag?

 Well...the opposite of everything I’ve said. 

 For starters, her talent. Thus far, our protagonists’ talents have been generally the least impressive of the group. (Okay, yeah, Hajime was eventually the Ultimate Everything, but we only find that out at the end. He spent all game being the Ultimate Nothing, and therefore had all his relevant character growth before that. By this point, we already experienced the events of the game through him, and have already grown accustomed to the very human, very fallible, Hajime. Tell me he’s Izuru, I’m just as easily gonna see the guy who passed out on the beach but over time became a badass.) Ultimate Pianist is kind of a niche talent, but I don’t think that makes it isolating. For one, like her predecessors, her talent is utterly useless in a trial setting. Unless there were some specific circumstances, knowing how to play piano will not help her find a killer. (Technically Makoto’s luck could have been useful, but I think it’s made pretty clear he and his class passed those trials through hard work, not luck). The most important thing for a protagonist has to be their ability to be relatable by being brave and true and all that Good Stuff, not to be born exceptional. How are you going to pander to a market who is trying to escape their dull lives if all they have to escape to are people who are fundamentally better than them in ways they could never relate to? Anyway can be brave, not anyone can be Sherlock. 

 Because Kaede’s character was built mostly around her traits and not her talent, she’s still easily relatable. She, like us, wants the best for her fellow characters. She’s moralistic, kind, and defiant of the circumstance she’s been thrust into, all things we can aspire to. She’s likeable, but not infallible or unbelievable. She can be bossy at times, her own personal sense of justice perhaps her biggest downfall. This idea of “good/hope MUST triumph over evil/despair” which has been pushed by the game itself, is used as it’s newest protagonist’s flaw, and is a viewpoint that will ultimately be subverted in the final trial.

 Kaede is, overall, more sociable and active. I buy that she spends her free time getting to know other people. She doesn’t always think with her head, and she is the type to stumble into situations by accident, meaning she’s a much more viable candidate to be just lucky enough to wind up in wacky hijinks, and just active enough to really become a part of them. Also, I’m gonna just mention the elephant in the room real quick: it sucks that the only female protagonist out of the main games had to be killed off. I liked the idea of a female protag.

 Okay, I know I said it was a bummer that Shuichi so quickly moved past doubting himself and his own talent much too quickly, especially when the protags we’re used to take most of the game to do that sort of thing. Kaede doesn’t really have much self-doubt, to be honest. She doesn’t struggle with the morality of the situation she’s in: instead, her solution is simplistic and naive: “We just won’t kill. Easy.” This is a polar opposite of our protagonists, but not invalid. Remember: not all changes are bad, and this is the third installment. We expect some shakeups to the formula. 

 This actually could’ve been used really well, if Kaede was given more time. After her idea of “we just won’t play!!1!” is crushed and she’s forced to endure an entire class trial and vote for someone to be executed, this would’ve shattered (or at least, damaged) her pure and perfect world view. She would be forced to look inward, and question her frankly childish sense of right and wrong, which ties in so much better with the eventual themes of the final trial. Rather than seeing only good and evil, she would be forced to confront the moral grey that exists within her, and within all situations. And she would have to do so without losing what makes her fundamentally Kaede - her optimism, her strength, and her trust in others. I’ve seen this done well rarely, but most notably in characters like Penelope Garcia. I truly feel like Danganronpa could’ve pulled this off. 

 “But Jenny! There’s a problem!! You said that it was after the first trial that Shuichi had the development to grow into a great Chiaki/Kyoko archetype, but that only happens through the death of Kaede!!! If she survived, he would still be hiding in her shadow!!”

 I’ve thought of that too. So say, instead, Kaede just comes really close to being killed in the trial. Say, the vote is split 50-50 between her and the real killer. Shuichi is the only one with the key information to sway the final voter/s, but he knows in doing so, he will condemn someone to death. He can do so and save Kaede, or close his eyes and leave it up to chance. In the end, he trusts his talent and uses what he knows to shed light on the truth. He has to come to terms with condemning someone, but he knows that he also saved an innocent person. Once again tying in so well with the final theme of how good and evil and right and wrong aren’t always distinguishable; and giving Shuichi a great character development moment that’s more than just “my girlfriend is dead so now I can grow, I’m so glad the franchise has never played this angle before or it would feel tired and kind of sexist :(”; and giving Kaede a chance to view first-hand that you can be a good person, and walk a grey line. I thought of that in two seconds. Just saying. 

 But anyway, that’s just one long-ass thought from someone who has played this game one and a half times. I want to play it again, and maybe I’ll change my own mind, who knows. But while I’m still of this mindset, I wanted it out there. 

[kamen-base]

Well, that was Kamen Rider V3. First, I would like to thank Generation Kikaida for subbing the entire show, though I can’t find the movie anywhere (but I’ve heard it doesn’t add anything). 

So, like I always do, I’m going to go over what I thought was good and bad about the series, the first thing I list will be the best, the last thing I list will be the worst, and the mediocre section in between. As if I’m not implying, there will be spoilers.

GOOD:

Yuki Joji and pretty much all the episodes involving him: As I’ve constantly gushed, I loved Yuki’s character arc, and pretty much all the episodes involving him. Going from a misguided individual that trusts in Destron to slowly doubting everything about it to finally joining Shiro in his cause was absolutely fascinating to watch. Not only that, his backstory and his “sacrifice” were also great to watch, not to help that Bokura no Riderman is a good song, in my eyes. The only complaint I have about him is that he’s sorta useless. He doesn’t really do much until his final episode, he doesn’t develop Shiro (though I will point out that Shiro helping Yuki basically showed us that Shiro’s developed into a mentor figure like Ichigou and Nigo), nor interact with much of the supporting cast. However, that will not change the fact that Yuki was the best part of the show in my eyes.

Kazami Shiro: Yes, I ranked the secondary over the main rider, flame me. In my eyes, these two characters are absolutely great. Both of them have deep personalities, Shiro, like his powers, is a combination of Hayato and Takeshi’s personalities. However, what Yuki has over Shiro is a character arc, which I will get into in a later section, but despite that, I still love these two characters.

Tobei Tachibana: Once again, Tachibana is the mentor figure, and I feel like he plays it better in the show, as he helps Shiro go through some tough times. Though I feel like there is a missed opportunity with his character, I will get to that later as well, I still enjoyed watching him just being a fun yet wise character.

Marshal Armor: The only villain I’ve liked so far, and the reason for that is he has a personality. Coming off as extremely anxious and petty, it makes a lot of his actions understandable, even if they do come back to bite him. Despite this, by the end, he seemed to revert back to the stock villain personality that all the other villains had, but at least his death was ironic. Although, he doesn’t have a backstory, but I’ll take what I can get.

The “Serialization”: I’m not sure if I’m using this word right, but I’m trying to say that most episodes contribute to the overall story. For example, episodes 3-20 were introducing V3’s 26 Secrets (although they were pretty much just shoved in at the end of the fight), episodes 30-40 introduced, and got rid of, two new commanders, and episodes 41-52 introduced Marshal Armor and Yuki. Though I will admit, a lot of the episodes can feel repetitive, I will also get to this later, but at least there was an attempt to make it look like there was an overarching story. 

MEDIOCRE:

The Rider Scouts: The inverse of what happened in the original series, the Rider Scouts were important at the start of V3, then slowly just faded out of existence by the end. I mean, sure, there were a few episodes dedicated to training the Rider Scouts, but they didn’t seem to do much at all. The only important one we knew was Shigeru.

Dropping/Forgetting Stuff: Ok, whatever happened to V3’s 26 secrets and four weaknesses? How the hell does Destron know of a weakness that V3 has despite them trying to analyze V3 caused their computer to overload and explode? (This happened in I believe in Episode 3 or 4). What about the Reverse Double Typhoon’s side effect or that Doctor G having an affinity for the supernatural? There are some things this show just drops/forgets, and it just bugs me than rather anger me.

Junko and Shigeru Tama: Another issue coming from the previous series, these side characters did absolutely nothing. I mean sure, there was some nice interactions between Junko and Shiro at the start of the series, but by episode 25, nothing really happened between the two of them. Shigeru, to me, didn’t really feel like Goro to me, aka, smart, quick-witted, but childish, as expected of a kid. In addition, we really didn’t know much about these characters, they had no backstory, no personality, no growth, nothing. I mean, sure, we see Shigeru’s better nature when he’s introduced, but other than that, nothing really comes out of him.

Doctor G and Destron as a whole: Why just Doctor G and not the other two commanders? Oh trust me, we’ll get to them. Doctor G is… interesting. He doesn’t really have a personality or backstory, but what makes me like him over Baron Tusk or Archbishop Wing? Well, I guess you could say he had some interesting things, like verbal tics or an affinity for the supernatural. Meanwhile, Destron to me was a better organization than Shocker/Gel-Shocker, but I still found that they did stupid stuff.

BAD:

Wasted Opportunity: Ok, my main reason I didn’t rank Shiro higher or on par with Yuki is because he didn’t have a character arc. That isn’t really a lie, as he does have one, that lasted about 2 episodes. I mean, he goes from wanting nothing but revenge for Destron to going to protect everyone using his powers so no one experiences what he had to go through. I mean, yes, there are some remnants of character growth after episode 2, but it’s either subtle for me to notice or I’m just dumb, probably the latter. I mean, I would’ve liked it if Shiro’s character arc was longer and actually had a conclusion to it, but what can I do? The other thing, in one of the earlier episodes, I believe it’s episode 4, Tachibana gets amnesia. I would’ve actually liked this plot to come up to develop Shiro. Something like Shiro learning that Tachibana got amnesia, possibly due to Shiro being idle, causes him to realize that his focus on revenge caused him to ignore someone that needed help and he starts to use his powers to protect people instead. Something like that, I’m not a storyteller, that probably sounded bad.

Ken Sakuma: AKA, Taki Clone except without the character and skill. Ken didn’t do anything, they could’ve easily gotten rid of him after episode 30, but no, they kept him around for another 10 episodes and they did nothing with him. He had no character, no development, no interesting interactions with any of the characters. Hell, he doesn’t get a proper farewell and none of the characters acknowledge he was ever there in the first place.

The Finale: Though I think this finale is better than the Original Kamen Rider’s finale, I still find flaws with it. The main one being that nothing gets revealed about the Great Leader once again. Plus, it doesn’t feel like a happy ending, as the Great Leader’s still at large. Another thing I really didn’t like was that it didn’t feel dramatic enough. All Destron did was kidnap Junko and a handful of Rider Scouts. Why don’t we have Rider Scouts HQ completely destroyed, Junko and all the Rider Scouts are held hostage by Destron forces, and a massive attack led by at least 15 revived Destron cyborgs. I mean, I would like if the finale didn’t feel like the episodes coming before it.

Baron Tusk and Archbishop Wing: Ok, these villains absolutely sucked. Despite having no personality or backstory like Doctor G, these guys had nothing interesting going for them. What makes it worse, is that despite Baron Tusk being the most powerful commander so far, causing both Takeshi and Hayato to come back to help Shiro, Baron Tusk does nothing to substantiate that claim. 

The “monster-of-the-week formula”: Despite there being some “serialization”, most of the episodes are a monster-of-the-week formula. I mean sure, at first, most of the episodes at the beginning were two-parters, by the 20s, it just fell into the same formula, until Yuki came in, which just made the show feel repetitious and boring.

Overall, I’d give Kamen Rider V3 a 6/10. There are some really good moments, especially Yuki and Shiro, but everything else just sorta brings it down, especially episodes 31-40, though I will admit there were some pretty good episodes in there.

Starting from now, I’ll be posting on Twitter as well, so just a reminder I do have a twitter account (https://twitter.com/KAMIseta_blanca). You don’t have to follow me, but just in case Tumblr goes to shit, here it is.

Anyways, thanks for joining on my adventures through V3 and I’d like to know what you thought of V3 if you’ve watched it. Were some of my positives actually things you hated, or vice versa. You’re welcome to reply so we could have a friendly debate over the show, but for now, I will be going on to watch Kamen Rider X next.

Yes, I know the show isn’t fully subbed, but I hope it will be by the time I get to that point (aka like 4 months, I’m sorry for being inactive, but Disgaea 1 and school really eat up a lot of time).

[kimmysfandomblog]

1, 2, 3 and 9 for the meme :P

Thank you Serahne! You always send me asks for these memes, and I appreciate it :D

Also sorry for the delay again. This time I actually had computer trouble when I was near the end, so I lost my answer, lol. ANyways, I’m sorry it’s really long because I like to go on tangents and further explain things ^^;

From Here: https://kimmysfandomblog.tumblr.com/post/169753929827/ship-asks

what is your absolute favorite ship?

what ship do you hate most?

what was your first ship, and what fandom is it from?

what is the most underrated ship, in your opinion?

Just as a warning, I do quite a bit of ship negativity and have V3 spoilers for the last question! check the tags for the ships that I’m negative about.

what is your absolute favorite ship?

Well, I think it’s pretty obvious that KomaHina is my favorite pairing! I love the relationship Haji and Ko have with each other. It’s a very complicated one, no doubt, but these boys always seem to create more complications instead of fixing any misconceptions ^^;.

What I really love is the potential for the ship post-canon! I feel like now that there is no time pressure, they’ll both finally have a chance to heal. I think that these two had it the toughest. They both believed strongly in Hope’s Peak Academy’s poisonous mentality in Talent being equivalent to how worthy you are as a person, measured in “Hope” for how much you can help society later. They both never considered themselves anything special and were on the outside looking in, but their way to cope with being “average” was different. While Ko just accepts his place, not even taking any compliments because he feels like he doesn’t deserve them, Haji fights to prove his own worth, and if the system for worth is based on talent, he even sacrificed his own body, mind, and spirit to finally be of worth. They are at these two extremes of how to cope, so I think given their perspectives on the issue and having it be proven just how toxic the mentality is, they can in turn help each other find that balancing point of acceptance to the new world order, so to speak.

Also, even in-game, there was a dynamic showing their strengths and weaknesses playing off one another. Haji is a super caring guy, and he genuinely tries to understand Ko, no matter how wary he feels of him. However, he always runs away from problems or denies them, even if he does eventually come back to try to solve them. Ko, in the mean time, cares, but he cares more for the toxic ideology of Hope’s Peak Academy (which is understandable once you know his backstory). All of his decisions are not based on emotion, but on what he would deem the logically best outcome (or maybe ideologically?). He is always fully against running away from the problem, no matter how tough the solution would be. So, in how I view these two characters, they compliment each other so well. Haji would be the emotional support and hopefully help Ko open up more to him and to the others so that he can learn to care about himself, and Ko can be the logical one motivating Haji not to run from problems, or the solutions that would probably lead to some sort of loss.

Everyone points out the aborted confession means Ko has a crush on Haji, but Haji really did like Ko in the beginning. They both felt calm towards each other, and Haji’s rejection towards Ko in the first trial was a result of him feeling betrayed that he person he woke up to on the beach was not the person Haji thought he was. Still, he tris to understand Ko while the others accept him as an outcast and don’t give a chance, while Haji feels conflicted because he’d seen a nicer side of Ko, so while he’d like to do the same, his caring side is asking himself why things turned out this way. That’s why I’m sure he was close to forgiving Ko in the FTEs. If Ko had a good reason for his actions, than why not forgive him and help him? Haji tries the whole game to deny any association with Ko, but it’s there and he realizes how much Ko helps even if he doesn’t ever admit it.

Koma//Hina brings up so many good points of discussion, and it leads to thinking about all of these AUs and speculations about post canon. The relationship is very complex, and it’s easily put into many different situations and wonder just how they would handle it. I guess that is why I like it so much!!! I hope that Kodaka never touches the Hope’s Peak storyline again and mess it up though :/ We really don’t need to, like, ship Haji with an AI or some other female charcter just to keep him straight and keep Ko the tragic character. Just saying :P

what ship do you hate most?

I have very few ships that I hate, so it wasn’t that hard to pick Junko///miki. Mikan has been through abuse and sexual exploitation her whole life. She’s very easily manipulated for fear that she’d endure more abuse, even by those that would never cause her any harm. Junko, in the mean time, does everything Mikan tries to avoid, except she adds her poison of getting Mikan to actually like the abuse because of despair and having it translate as “love and attention” instead of physical and emotional pain. The only way I can ever see this working is with an OOC/much toned-down Junko in some AU. Even then, the source of the ship really irks me most of the time :/

what was your first ship, and what fandom is it from?

Well, I think my first fandom was the Naruto fandom. I was into Naru//Hina and I hate how they became canon. I was also into Sasu//Naru, though I didn’t like it quite as much as Naru//Hina because as developed as it was, I couldn’t see Sasuke seriously reciprocating? Like, he’s done a lot of things to annoy Naruto, but it was always in a rivalry and he always just saw himself as better, yet when Naruto gets close to his level, he freaks because he’s dependent on the idea he has to be better than anyone to kill his brother, and Naruto, the idiot/dead last ninja, getting close to his level is some kind of failure on his part not to advance as quickly. I understand the complications, but I can’t see it happening in anything but an AU.

As for why I liked Naru//Hina, I saw myself in Hinata a little? Especially since I was even more shy as a kid, and no self confidence (not that that has changed all that much lol). Also, seeing how Naruto helps her gain a bit of confidence in the Chuunin exams made me root for her, and his concern leading to him swearing on her blood to get Neji to pay (and then beating Neji in a tough-won battle and spinning Neji’s ideology on its head). She doesn’t get a lot of screen time, and the manga makes fun of how hard she crushes on him, how shy she is, and how oblivious he is despite obvious signs, but I just shipped them together for it. I’d believed that they would compliment each other well (loud-obnoxious with shy-reserved: he’d tone it down a bit around her and she’d gain confidence in herself and come out of the shell more for other people, and they both share the same ideology and goals to become better and stronger for those around them and to prove themselves to those who doubted them). My opinion on the ship itself hasn’t changed that much, but I understand the hatred towards it, especially with how it became canon :/ I really would have preferred nothing become canon than what we got...

what is the most underrated ship, in your opinion?

This one was the hardest to answer... Like, there’s a lot of “crack pairings” that I ship based on the way I see characters and their personalities, and then shipping them based on the potential (Oum//ami, Hin//aegi, AI Kamu//Nami, and Koma//Nami definitely fall into this category). There isn’t a whole lot of canon interaction, if any (lol at Kamu//Nami), and a lot of people just don’t see the characters the way I do, and that’s fine! I’ll just have fun in rare-pair hell, like usual.

So, to actually answer the question, I’d have to say Sai/Mota would be my pick for underrated ship. Shuichi and Kaito already have development in canon. Kaito is told that Shuichi struggles by continuously placing the blame on himself after convicting someone to their punishment, especially when the culprit had a “good reason” to commit their crime. He also saw something in Shuichi’s motive video that made him approach Shuichi in the first place. Because of that, he takes on the role of “hero” and takes all of the responsibility onto himself, so that if Shuichi thinks he makes a mistake, Kaito can brush it off of him.Yeah, a lot of people saw Kaito as interfering with the investigation, but I’m pretty sure he’s aware how important Shuichi is in the investigation. He’s only around so that he can he that emotional support. He sees what Shuichi has investigated, asks questions and points things out so that maybe he can help Shuichi figure things out. The first trial, when Shuichi is beginning to doubt himself, he reminds him not to think about the responsibility and just do his best. No one will fault Shuichi if he makes the wrong deduction. He also makes a mistake in assuming Shuichi knows everything, and he doesn’t really do that again in the trials after.

Kaito certainly has a hero complex, but I’m positive he’s aware of more than he lets on. He is actually pretty good at lying and has very strong sense of morals (he will never forgive killing someone, and since Kokichi was already on his way to death, taking the blame for his death was just a little easier). He was also somehow able to take the test to become an astronaut and pass and knows numerous languages fluently. Now, given what we can see of Kaito, he always seems like the idiot, the Hagakure or Souda of the V3 cast, but this time, he takes a more active role in the story. He is playing his part to keep morale as high as he can. He unfortunately lets that role get to him in Chapter 4, when he adamantly defends Gonta and realizes at the end of the trial just how close all of them got to death for his mistake. He can’t look Shuichi in the eye after that, maybe a bit mad for him siding with Kokichi during the trial, but more mad at himself for not seeing how much Shuichi grew to be able to not need Kaito’s support anymore during a trial, and for letting himself get in the way of that.

As for Shuichi, there is so much concern for Kaito once Kaito helped him relieve his stress about making wrong decisions and reaches out to him in Chapter 2. Shuichi may be a little exasperated at times, especially at being a sidekick when Kaito doesn’t really do anything, and Shuichi is a little snarky about that internally, but he truly appreciates Kaito. Kaito’s FTEs really don’t make a lot of sense since he rambles on a fictional story supposedly about how he became an astronaut, but the important part is how supportive Kaito is of Shuichi and how much Shuichi appreciates having Kaito so close and knowing he can rely on Kaito to help him feel at ease about the situation. It really does seem like Shuichi has a crush on Kaito built from his admiration of him, even if he doesn’t really realize that is what it was.

Sorry, I rambled a lot about Sai/Mota already, but I never really said why I think it’s underrated? It’s pretty clearly overshadowed by Oum//asai, Sai//Aka, and Kai//Maki, but to me I just don’t like these pairings as much. Sai//Aka I do kinda like, but the other two I kind of don’t. It’s not like they are NOTPs, I just don’t like them for different reasons. I didn’t like Oum//asai because, well, it’s very boring to me and I don’t get it and the popularity. I tried to understand it and the love for Kokichi, really, but they didn’t hit anything I liked and both the realtionship between the two and Kokichi’s characterization are quite straightforward in canon, while the fandom made me convinced that they’d be super complex (and honestly if people didn’t keep spoiling me, maybe things would have been much more different. Actually I’m positive fandom ruined it for me.) I don’t like Kai//Maki because, well, it makes me sad for Maki falling for a guy that apparently unintentionally lead her on :/ And Sai//Aka has it’s major problem of reducing Kaede to some 2D character with little backstory there to be killed for a man’s character development... when in Chapter 1 and prologue she was a character with many conflicted feelings trying to do her best.

Thankfully, Sai//mota isn’t that much of a rare pair, especially once the English Release hit, but it’s definitely not that popular, or people don’t get it because to them, they are just bros (perfectly understandable either way). I just wish there was more Sai//mota content because there’s a lot of evidence for it and it’s a ship that’s pretty mutually beneficial to me.

Sorry again for rambling a lot! I tried to cut it shorter... tried is the key word here hahaha ^^;;;;

[bthenoise]

Here’s The Best of 2019 As Picked By Members Of The Used, Periphery, Counterparts, Killswitch Engage, Grayscale & More

Well everyone, we did it. Somehow someway we all survived yet another 365 gloriously trying days on this place we call earth. In about two more weeks, we will officially begin a brand new decade with hopes of starting something beautiful and life-changing for the human race. Until then, we’d like to take a second to look back on some of the finer things that came out of 2019 – you know, like the best album, best song, best movie, etc.

Like we’ve done in years past, we’ve completely turned our year-end best-of list over to the artists we cover on a daily basis because let’s face it, their opinions are the ones we all really care about, right?

Right.

To check out what bands like The Used, Counterparts, Periphery, Killswitch Engage, Fit For A King, Grayscale, Atreyu, Wage War, Boston Manor and more have all been obsessing over for the past year or so, be sure to see below. We hope you enjoy this final list as much as we do and wish you all the most peaceful and positive holiday season ever.

Enjoy!

Jeph Howard and Dan Whitesides - The Used

JEPH HOWARD

Best Album of 2019: Sampa the Great - The Return And Knocked Loose - A Different Shade Of Blue

Best Song of 2019: “Blow Me” - from The Used and yes I’m biased.

Best Music Video of 2019: Wendall - “The Power of Wings”

Most Underrated Album of 2019: Sampa the Great - The Return. Her vibe reminds me of my favorite era of hip hop.

Best Movie of 2019: Dr. Sleep, great book too. Must have been tough rewriting the story just enough to mix both the book The Shining and the film adaptation Kubrick made and then making a movie based on both origins.

Most Binge-Worthy Show of 2019: The OA season 3. So unfair that never happened.

Favorite Internet Moment of 2019 (Viral Video, GIF, Meme, etc.): Epstein was an inside job and also the cat playing the cell phone ring tone 😂

Best Concert You Attended/Played in 2019: HodgePodge Superfest 2019 Indonesia, mostly because I got to hang with a couple family friends I haven’t seen in years.  

2020 New Year's Resolution: For 2020 I want to worry less about things I have no control over.

DAN WHITESIDES

Best Album: The Knocked Loose album A Different Shade Of Blue is great and so fuckin heavy! On the other side of things, the Billie Eilish album is really good front to back. Saw her live in Salt Lake and it was pretty sick.

Best Song: Honestly, it’s “Blow Me” by my band The Used. I’m not just saying that because it’s my band. It’s a great fucking song and it has all of my favorite elements in it.

Best Music Video: Blink 182’s “Darkside.” Love the stick tricks and the dancing kids.

Most Underrated Album: All the albums I liked in 2019, I rated them pretty high.

Best Movie: Dumb and Dumber has been the best movie every year since it came out. All the kids movies that came out in 2019 were good. I see them all. I didn’t really like The Addams Family though.  

Most Binge-Worthy Show of 2019: Atypical and Fuller House and I’m not fucking with you. I laugh out loud at Fernando every time!

Favorite Internet Moment of 2019 (Viral Video, GIF, Meme, etc.): When the deaf baby hears for the first time. I almost cried but I couldn’t because I’m a man and men don’t cry. Just playin! I did tear up a weeee bit.

Best Concert You Attended/Played in 2019: Saw Rob Zombie and damn he puts on a great show. Back To The Beach was my favorite show I played in 2019. We did a cover of Linkin Park’s “Shadow Of The Day” at that show and it started raining. People were crying. It was nuts!

2020 New Year's Resolution:  I don’t really do resolutions but I wish people could just get along despite their beliefs. Life is too short.

Misha Mansoor - Periphery

Best Album of 2019: Mordial by Carbomb Best Song of 2019: “F it Up” by Louis Cole Best Music Video of 2019: “Genesis” by Devin Townsend Most Underrated Album of 2019: Forever, A Fast Life by Infinity Shred Best Movie of 2019: Jojo Rabbit Most Binge-Worthy Show of 2019: Barry Favorite Internet Moment of 2019 (Viral Video, GIF, Meme, etc.): Gamer Girl Bath Water Best Concert You Attended/Played in 2019:  Attended - Deadmau5 Cube V3.  Played - Sold Out London headliner at O2 Kentish Town 2020 New Year's Resolution: Drive more cars

Brendan Murphy - Counterparts

Best Album of 2019: Better Off - Reap What You Sow. Luke is probably the best songwriter I know personally. The album is an absolute fucking hit. I literally begged him to send me the masters before the album came out and I’ve listened to it non-stop since. Was hard to keep that album a secret. 

Best Song of 2019: Gotta go with what my Spotify wrapped tells me and aside from the 1975’s discography, my most listened to song of 2019 was “Slingshot” by Better Off. The song is amazing, the lyrics rock, chorus is fucking huge. Like I said, Luke can’t write a bad song. 

Best Music Video of 2019: I’ll be honest, it’s rare for me to watch any music video that doesn’t have the 1975 in it so I’m gonna go ahead and pick their video for “Frail State of Mind” because... I mean look at him, he’s so cool. If we could get away with making videos like that I might actually not dread shooting them haha. 

Most Underrated Album of 2019: BETTER OFF, YET AGAIN. ARE YOU SURPRISED? I don’t understand how they aren’t the biggest band on earth. 

Best Movie of 2019: Midsommar. I’m a total A24/Ari Aster fanboy and I love movies about freaky cults and this movie ticks all the boxes. It’s not as much of a “deep dive” as Hereditary, very surface level, but I mean it’s creepy and it’s shot beautifully and there’s flowers everywhere and in case you forgot I sing for Counterparts so it’s right up my fuckin alley haha. 

Most Binge-Worthy Show of 2019: Barry without question. Blake made me watch an episode when we were recording NLTL and I binged watched the show so hard I’d be up all night watching when I was supposed to be writing lyrics. Last time I was physically unable to stop watching a show was Lost, so that should say something. 

Favorite Internet Moment of 2019 (Viral Video, GIF, Meme, etc.): My own twitter hun xox 😘

Best Concert You Attended/Played in 2019: I mean it’s hard to remember our shows because not only are they all fun, I’ve usually had a few chardonnays by the time we go on stage BUT one that stands out is the last day of Private Room 2.0 in Worcester... simply because for all of “Love Me” I didn’t have to say a fucking word, the crowd did the whole damn thing. I think there’s a video where I get so stoked I start screaming “YOU’RE GOD DAMN RIGHT” and jumping. It’s fun and honestly, it’s 10 fucking words don’t make me do it by myself. 

2020 New Year's Resolution: Stop accidentally calling my teacher “mom.”

Mike D'Antonio - Killswitch Engage

Best Album of 2019: He Is Legend - White Bat Best Song of 2019: He Is Legend - “Resister Resist Her” Best Music Video of 2019: Death Ray Vision “Just Let It Die” Most Underrated Album of 2019: He Is Legend - White Bat Best Movie of 2019: Joker Most Binge-Worthy Show of 2019: The Mandalorian Favorite Internet Moment of 2019 (Viral Video, GIF, Meme, etc.): Yoda/Toyota meme Best Concert You Attended/Played in 2019: Field Day played in Connecticut a few months back. 2020 New Year's Resolution: Refuse the new world order

Porter McKnight - Atreyu

Best Album of 2019: Angel Du$t - Pretty Buff Best Song of 2019: “The Dead Don’t Die” - Sturgill Simpson Best Music Video of 2019: Rammstein - “Deutschland” Most Underrated Album of 2019: The Act - The Devil Wears Prada Best Movie of 2019: Midsommar Most Binge-Worthy Show of 2019: Watchmen Favorite Internet Moment of 2019 (Viral Video, GIF, Meme, etc.): Paul Rudd “Look at us” on Hot Ones Best Concert You Attended/Played in 2019:  Attended - Nothing More - New Orleans March 2019 Played - Mr’s Smalls Theatre - Millvale, PA  2020 New Year's Resolution: Establish a consistent physical art practice

Ryan Kirby - Fit For A King

Best Album of 2019: Just for the purpose of nostalgia, I am going to go with Shaped by Fire by As I Lay Dying. It doesn't re-invent the wheel but it's just some good ole metalcore that brings me back. 

Best Song of 2019: I absolutely cannot stop listening to "Masochist" by Polaris. This band is going to be huge!

Best Music Video of 2019: I feel like I have to say our own video for "When Everything Means Nothing" is the best strictly because we all almost died of hypothermia while getting sprayed by a fire hose.  

Most Underrated Album of 2019: I think The Valley by Whitechapel doesn't get talked about near as much as it should. Phil's cleans are fantastic and they keep bringing the heavy. 

Best Movie of 2019: I feel like this will be a lot of people's favorite movie but The Joker was an absolute masterpiece.

Most Binge-Worthy Show of 2019: This one is EASILY The Boys. It might be the most well-done superhero show OR movie ever made. Once you watch the first episode, you are sucked in.

Favorite Internet Moment of 2019 (Viral Video, GIF, Meme, etc.): This one is really tough because at this point, I don't even know which meme is from what year. I guess I'll go with Baby Yoda since I know that’s 2019 but with a disclaimer: There are a lot of NOT funny Baby Yoda memes out there.

Best Concert You Attended/Played in 2019: The show in Cologne, Germany with As I Lay Dying was the biggest club show we had ever played, and at the same time, probably one of the best live performances I've ever seen. Amazing night.

2020 New Year's Resolution: I want to be able to run a half marathon with my dad. It’s pretty simple but he is out here running full marathons all the time and is double my age. I feel like I need to step it up.

Valentino Arteaga - Of Mice & Men

Best Album of 2019: Gideon - Out Of Control Best Song of 2019: Kublai Khan TX - “Self Destruct” Best Music Video of 2019: Ghostemane - “Bonesaw” Most Underrated Album of 2019: Ithaca - The Language of Injury Best Movie of 2019: Yesterday Most Binge-Worthy Show of 2019: Cold Case Files Favorite Internet Moment of 2019 (Viral Video, GIF, Meme, etc.): Spotify Wrapped 2019 Best Concert You Attended/Played in 2019: Wacken Open Air Festival 2020 New Year's Resolution: Eat less meat & make more music

Matty Mullins - Memphis May Fire

Best Album of 2019: Dermot Kennedy - Without Fear Best Song of 2019: Papa Roach - “Feel Like Home” Best Music Video of 2019: Asking Alexandria - “The Violence” Most Underrated Album of 2019: He Is Legend - White Bat Best Movie of 2019: Yesterday Most Binge-Worthy Show of 2019: This Is Us Favorite Internet Moment of 2019 (Viral Video, GIF, Meme, etc.): @catatonicyouths IG Best Concert You Attended/Played in 2019: Warped Tour in Atlantic City was LEGENDARY! 2020 New Year's Resolution: Write the best MMF record of our career

Nick Ventimiglia - Grayscale

Best Album of 2019: tryhard by The Band Camino and Fear Inoculum by Tool Best Song of 2019: "No Age" by Rich People Best Music Video of 2019: "Mantra" by Bring Me the Horizon was pretty wild Most Underrated Album of 2019: Third Eye Blind - Screamer Best Movie of 2019: Big fans of Us and The Irishman Most Binge-Worthy Show of 2019: Peaky Blinders and Mindhunter Favorite Internet Moment of 2019 (Viral Video, GIF, Meme, etc.): Big fan of the Kawhi Leonard “Hey, hey, hey” memes. Really anything but that lady yelling at that fucking cat. Best Concert You Attended/Played in 2019: Our headliner in Philly this past October at The TLA.  2020 New Year's Resolution: Rock harder than we did in 2019.

Cody Quistad - Wage War

Best Album of 2019: tryhard by The Band Camino Best Song of 2019: “See Through” by The Band Camino Best Music Video of 2019: “Resentment” by A Day To Remember Most Underrated Album of 2019: In Darkness by Varials Best Movie of 2019: Peanut Butter Falcon The Most Binge-Worthy Show of 2019: The Office, duh Favorite Internet Moment of 2019: The Epstein memes kill me Best Concert You Attended/Played in 2019: Can’t Say I Ain’t Country Tour: Florida Georgia Line, Dan + Shay, Morgan Wallen 2020 New Year’s Resolution: Write the best songs I’ve ever written, love on more people, and be healthier 

Boston Manor

Best Album of 2019: Death Is A Warm Blanket by Microwave. This record is the best guitar music to come out in years. As our contemporaries, Microwave is constantly challenging and inspiring us to make better art.

Best Song of 2019: “The Brakeman Has Resigned” by Microwave. This song could not be more relevant to us, both instrumentally and lyrically. It’s just fuckin’ perfect.

Best Music Video of 2019: “DIAWB” by Microwave. You get the point.

Most Underrated Album of 2019: Foreign Language EP by Can’t Swim. Always love to see friends changing up their riff game.

Best Movie of 2019: The Irishmen. I’ve watched it like three times in the van now and can’t choose which Tony is my favourite.

Most Binge-Worthy Show of 2019: Rick and Morty. You son of a bitch, I’m in.

Favorite Internet Moment of 2019 (Viral Video, GIF, Meme, etc.): Eric Egan from Heart Attack Man.

Best Concert You Attended/Played in 2019: Best concert we played would have to be Download Madrid. Right off the heels of ADTR in America, the airline lost our gear so we had to cobble together a backline and ended up playing after Tool to an insane amount of people.

2020 New Year's Resolution: Continue our world domination.

Mike Foley - Varials

Best Album of 2019: Feels Like You by Whirr Best Song of 2019: "Nothing Left To Love" by Counterparts Best Music Video of 2019: Tie between "Lips Like Lemonade" by Nick Prosper & "Mistakes Like Fractures" by Knocked Loose. Most Underrated Album of 2019: Deceiver by Diiv Best Movie of 2019: Joker Most Binge-Worthy Show of 2019: I Think You Should Leave Favorite Internet Moment of 2019 (Viral Video, GIF, Meme, etc.): Kombucha girl Best Concert You Attended/Played in 2019: The best show I attended was definitely the Balance & Composure farewell show in NYC. RIP. Best played was definitely the Atlantic City Warped Tour date. Also RIP. 2020 New Year's Resolution: Tour more internationally / spend as much time traveling as possible. Really hoping we make it to 3 different continents this year.

Kory Gregory - Prince Daddy & The Hyena

Best Album of 2019: Remembering The Rockets - Strange Ranger Best Song of 2019: “Mono No Aware” - Great Grandpa Best Music Video of 2019: “Must Be Wrong” - White Reaper Most Underrated Album of 2019: Super Enthusiast - Macseal Best Movie of 2019: Parasite Most Binge-Worthy Show of 2019: Been really enjoying Mandalorian Favorite Internet Moment of 2019 (Viral Video, GIF, Meme, etc.): Baby Yoda forever and always. No questions asked. Best Concert You Attended/Played in 2019: Our record release show in NYC was really special! That’s my favorite one I played. As far as the ones I attended, this Culture Abuse/Tony Molina show I went to in Boston was pretty legendary. 2020 New Year's Resolution: I just wanna keep writing songs that are better than the last!

Yvette Young - Covet

Best Album of 2019: The Japanese House - Good At Falling Best Song of 2019: “Shrugging Match” - Bobbing Best Music Video of 2019: Don Broco - “Action” Most Underrated Album of 2019: Town Portal - Of Violence Best Movie of 2019: Midsommar Most Binge-Worthy Show of 2019: I Think You Should Leave Favorite Internet Moment of 2019 (Viral Video, GIF, Meme, etc.): Discovering bandmemes666, Chibson, catatonicyouths and allgasnobrakes on IG Best Concert You Attended/Played in 2019: Orlando summer headliner show at The Soundbar 2020 New Year's Resolution: Make a dope full-length album

Carter Hardin - Chapel 

Best Album of 2019: Album of the year for me is KIN by Electric Guest. Every song is a bop and the production is so clean.

Best Song of 2019: I would have to say “Friends” by CHAPEL. The band is pretty cool and the song is a slapper.

Best Music Video of 2019: “Panini” by Lil Nas X is mine. It’s the most memorable one I’ve seen this year.

Most Underrated Album of 2019: Pep Talks - Judah & The Lion. Not enough people are talking about that record.

Best Movie of 2019: MARRIAGE STORY. This movie broke me & I can’t stop thinking about it.

Most Binge-Worthy Show of 2019: Fleabag is amazing. you need to watch it.

Favorite Internet Moment of 2019 (Viral Video, GIF, Meme, etc.): Baby Yoda memes are the best memes in the world.

Best Concert You Attended/Played in 2019: I saw Cherub recently and they always put on the best show. This recent one was super inspiring.

2020 New Year's Resolution: Release more music

Alex Biro - Selfish Things

Best Album: The Act by The Devil Wears Prada. Genre-defying and innovative, this was one of my favourite albums of the last decade. I’ve been a TDWP fan since Zombie EP but the growth they’ve shown on their latest release while still staying true to their roots was sonically refreshing.  

Best Song: “Old Town Road” by Lil Nas X. This speaks for itself. I’ve never been one to shy away from popular music, but it’s Lil Nas X’s “love everyone but fuck everyone” attitude that kind of impresses me most? He’s punk as hell. He breaks stereotypes. He pissed off 90% of the country music industry. I hope he continues to succeed.

Best Music Video: “bury a friend” by Billie Eilish. I mean, it’s been Billie’s year. We all know that. But the whole “monster under your bed” motif coupled with her wanting to not shy away from the dark side of things in a genre filled to the brim with bubblegum songs and visuals speaks to her innovation as a creative and an artist.

Most Underrated Album of 2019: Everyone I’ve Ever Loved by Valleyheart. This came out a week and a half before 2019 but I’m including it here. “Agnosia” is one of the best songs I’ve heard in years. This band is fucking amazing. Don’t sleep on them. They deserve better than they’ve been given.

Best Movie of 2019: Peanut Butter Falcon. Shia LaBeouf is a true artist, and he’s at the peak of his game here. If you’re a fan of Garden State, The Grand Budapest Hotel, The Perks of Being a Wallflower, Rocket Science or any other emotionally devastating indie films, this is a movie for you.

Most Binge-Worthy Show of 2019: The Simpsons. God bless you Disney+. I can’t even put into words how nice it is to watch all of my old favourites with my daughter. Treehouse of Horror forever.

Favorite Internet Moment of 2019 (Viral Video, GIF, Meme, etc.): Colton jumping the fence during The Bachelor. We admittedly got snowed in during the “snow cyclone” in Wyoming and binged this whole season. I’ve never been more disappointed. Still impressed by his agility, though.

Best Concert You Attended/Played in 2019: Atlanta, GA w/ Microwave, Boston Manor and Heart Attack Man. We’ve never had that many kids over the barricade. It was one of those “wow, maybe our band isn’t totally shit” moments. We all got off stage and knew it was one to remember. I’ll never forget it. 

2020 New Year's Resolution: Learn to be happy with who I am without letting the toxicity of social media cloud my self-perception.

Ryan Donovan - Red City Radio

Best Album of 2019: Mannequin Pussy - Patience. "Who You Are" & "Drunk II" are some standout tracks on that record for me! It's just filled with melodic anthems that have killer soft harmonies and is kind of a technically ambitious record compared to their older stuff, which I also love!

Best Song of 2019: The Menzingers - "America (You're Freaking Me Out)." They fucking NAILED it with this track and our current climate in the US, socially/politically/economically etc. They seamlessly always write some killer tunes!

Best Music Video of 2019: PUP - "Free At Last." No one had heard the song yet. They posted the lyrics and chord chart to the song and took all submissions of everyone's interpretation of the song and edited that down. You just gotta watch it for yourself, IT FUCKING RULES. Most Underrated Album of 2019: Decent Criminal - BLISS. I love this band and their tunes/sound. Small indy label release and I hope they take some more strides forward and keep growing. They rip.

Best Movie of 2019: Favorite movie I have personally seen so far this year is Once Upon A Time In Hollywood. I heard it was a lot of either "love it" or "hated it" kind of reviews but I personally thought it was a killer film.

Most Binge-Worthy Show of 2019: Ah man, with so much time on the road touring this year for RCR binge-watching older shows was a lot of my downtime when I got back home so here are some favs: Admittedly I had never seen Breaking Bad, that has now been binged and completed. Game Of Thrones (hadn't seen it until this Summer, I know, I know whatever). Animal Kingdom, Succession, Punisher, Jessica Jones and I Think You Should Leave.  

Favorite Internet Moment of 2019 (Viral Video, GIF, Meme, etc.): I LOVE THIS MEME and I do love pizza.

Best Concert You Attended/Played in 2019: Probably the last show of our short tour with Hot Water Music over in Cologne, Germany. It was the largest capacity venue show we have ever played as a band - that wasn't a festival - at 4k humans, sold out! It was also extra special because Rockpalast had a 10+ human camera crew on hand and filmed the whole thing with live edits as it was streamed for anyone to tune in and watch. The edits and camera/audio/streaming quality was A+!!!

2020 New Year's Resolution: Better self-care.

Brett Boland - Astronoid

Best Album of 2019: HEALTH - VOL. 4 :: SLAVES OF FEAR Best Song of 2019: Dinosaur Pile-Up - Thrash Metal Cassette Best Music Video of 2019: Billie Eilish - “bury a friend” Most Underrated Album of 2019: Nightmare Scenario - Beyond What is Real Best Movie of 2019: Midsommar Most Binge-Worthy Show of 2019: Succession Favorite Internet Moment of 2019 (Viral Video, GIF, Meme, etc.): Sonic The Hedgehog Movie debacle. Best Concert You Attended: Final Slayer show in MA Best Concert You Played in 2019: Exit 111 2020 New Year's Resolution: PUT OUT MORE MUSIC

Conversation

Best Album of 2019: Copeland - Blushing. I’ve been a huge fan of this band for years and years and years; to say that they shaped my songwriting is an understatement. I was lucky enough to catch Copeland for the first time on this tour and it was a truly tectonic moment for me. Blushing was a perfect step for this band in terms of tone, emotional maturity and instrumental creativity. I was just so happy to hear every single song.

Best Song of 2019: “Make It Better” by Anderson Paak. This track just puts you in a good mood!!

Best Music Video of 2019: Our music video for “You’ve Made Yourself Perfectly Clear” where we accurately and tastefully re-created the opening scene of Wayne’s World to perfection. I know it seems like a bit of a brag to say you had the best video of the year, but truth be told, nothing else even came close.

Best Movie of 2019: Joker - I’m sure this will be a pretty common response but IT WAS INCREDIBLE!!

Most Binge-Worthy Show of 2019: Letterkenny - A hilarious show about small-town Canada. If you don’t know, now you know.

Favorite Internet Moment of 2019 (Viral Video, GIF, Meme, etc.): Jonathan Frakes Asking Questions.

Best Concert You Attended/Played in 2019:  A close tie between Arkells at Scotiabank Arena and Barr Brothers at Mod Club

2020 New Year's Resolution: To tour all of the USA and Europe for our new record. We are all so excited for the new music that we’re about to put out into the world and our undying dream is to show our live show to the entire world. SO THAT’S WHAT WE’RE DOING!!!

[yabashiri]

V3 Character Memes Part 1

Kaede Akamatsu

general opinion: fall in a hole and die | don’t like them | eh | they’re fine I guess | like them! | love them | actual love of my life  hotness level: get away from me | meh | neutral | theoretically hot but not my type | pretty hot | gorgeous! | 10/10 would bang hogwarts house: gryffindor | slytherin | ravenclaw | hufflepuff  What, isn’t that obvious? She’s as typical Gryffindor as you get, as far as I know. best quality: Being a protag with some balls for a change? Committing a murder for the greater good? Having lost faith in humanity (just like me after Ch.1)? She’s practically perfect, save for that one plot point, which is not het fault at all. Bless your soul, Kaede, you made me love and hate DR again. worst quality: Hangs out with Shuichi instead of Maki/Iruma/Ouma/practically anyone else.  ship them with: Maki, Tsumugi, Iruma (yesssss), Junko (I ship anyone with her), any DR girl brotp them with: Ouma, Ibuki, Nanami needs to stay away from: Saihara, Saimatsu fics, Kodaka, DR plot misc. thoughts: The reason I’ve wanted to play ndrv3 so much and the reason I’ve almost dropped it. The only character (save for Ouma and maybe Maki) who didn’t get worse after several chapters, the reason maybe being she fucking died. Her pre-v3 self is even better, she’s my new all time favorite excluding Junko. If Junko’s despair, Nanami’s uuuuuuugh hope I guess (though DR’s representation of Nanami is horrible), then Kaede is everything in between.  Rantarou Amami

general opinion: fall in a hole and die | don’t like them | eh | they’re fine I guess | like them! | love them | actual love of my life hotness level: get away from me | meh | neutral | theoretically hot but not my type | pretty hot | gorgeous! | 10/10 would bang hogwarts house: gryffindor | slytherin | ravenclaw | hufflepuff We don’t know anything about him to be sure, though I suppose he’s ravenclaw for surviving the game and being smart enough for this. Doesn’t seem to have any other redeeming qualities best quality: I was laughing so hard when I saw him dead and not one of my precious waifus, so... thanks for that, I guess? worst quality: He has literally no character, he does nothing and serves as another plot point and a reason to kill off Kaede. Fuck him.  ship them with: Nobody, though Tsumugi is a nice candidate!  brotp them with: Eh, Ouma. I dunno why.  needs to stay away from: Kaede and libraries, so that we don’t have the shit we have now.  misc. thoughts: I expected him to be Komaeda of this game and look how wrong I was. I never was interested in him and the game did nothing to make sure I was. He just exists and I don’t give a fuck.

Kokichi Ouma

general opinion: fall in a hole and die | don’t like them | eh | they’re fine I guess | like them! | love them | actual love of my life hotness level: get away from me | meh | neutral | theoretically hot but not my type | pretty hot | gorgeous! | 10/10 would bang hogwarts house: gryffindor | slytherin | ravenclaw | hufflepuff Ravenclaw is a solid second choice, but look at him, he’s as much a typical Slytherin as Kaede is a typical Gryffindor! best quality: Somehow manages to be a better version of Komaeda than our garbage boy himself. He entertains me as a player, does more to a plot than anyone else ever and always stays in character. worst quality: Chapter 5, period. Writing a 300 page script while dying from being shot two times AND getting poisoned? Fucking what? ship them with: Junko (mayyyyyybe), but he’s not a shippable character for me  brotp them with: Kaede, Gonta, Komaeda, Togami, Kuzuryuu, Gundam needs to stay away from: Kaito and Kodaka. Also from Komaeda, obviously. And anyone whose name begins with ‘K’ I guess.  misc. thoughts: Didn’t like him at first, but oooooh boy. When Kaede left this world he was the only one to save me. The only character who tried to make this game at least barely interesting, always staying as optimistic as Kaede (!), being cynical and smart, someone to relate to. I don’t even want to know what fandom makes of him, another Komaeda I guess? But for me he is a small, tiny male Junko, though not as smart and despairing as her. One of the best DR characters, at least one of the most interesting to look at. He is not only Komaeda, but also Gundam of v3.

Shuichi Saihara

general opinion: fall in a hole and die | don’t like them | eh | they’re fine I guess | like them! | love them | actual love of my life hotness level: get away from me | meh | neutral | theoretically hot but not my type | pretty hot | gorgeous! | 10/10 would bang hogwarts house: gryffindor | slytherin | ravenclaw | hufflepuff This is a tough one. He’s not brave nor cunning, but he’s smart, though he doesn’t seem very ravenclawish... that leaves us with hufflepuff and I guess he is loyal, so. best quality: Megumi Hayashibara as his VA, also loved his design and loving it now. He is kinda relatable. worst quality: Tries to replace Kaede and fails miserably. He’s a coward, bland and uninteresting. ship them with: I don’t want to imagine that  brotp them with: Hinata, he could teach him a thing or two about being simple but interesting needs to stay away from: Kaede, Maki and Kaito and v3 cast in general. But especially Kaede. misc. thoughts: I thought I’d love him for his design, talent and VA but... geez. To be frank, he does have a development, though I hate the way it happens. He acts kinda cool in later chapters, finding truth even when others tell him to stfu and vote, I’ll give him credit for it. People hate him for protag switch and while I don’t exactly give enough fucks to hate him, I don’t like him. As a character he’s not bad. As a protagonist he’s a shitty mess. I can’t really tell how I feel about him; at times he seems okay, but then I think about everything Kaede could be and he wasn’t, and it fills me with rage. If he was a character in the first installment, he could pass, but in v3 where they fucking compare him to Kaede? No, thank you. 

[gadgetsrevv]

Eden Hazard: I can do much better at Real Madrid

Alexis Nunes and Julien Laurens break down Real Madrid’s 0-0 draw with derby rivals Atletico Madrid, including an underwhelming effort from Eden Hazard.

Craig Burley says Atletico Madrid are good enough to defeat Real Madrid despite getting off to a slow start in league play due to a strong midfield.

Sid Lowe reacts to Zinedine Zidane’s comments about Eden Hazard’s slow start at Real Madrid leading into the Madrid derby.

Real Madrid forward Eden Hazard has said he is not affected by criticism but admitted he can produce much better performances for the club.

Hazard missed the first three La Liga games through injury but since his return, he has failed to demonstrate the form that made Madrid spend an initial £88.5 million to sign him from Chelsea in the summer.

– Champions League group stage: All you need to know

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The forward said he is back to full fitness and asked for patience as he attempts to get back to his best.

“I feel good and strong,” he told a news conference ahead of Real Madrid’s Champions League match against Club Brugge on Tuesday. “It’s true that people expect a lot from me and so do I. I can do better. I’m critical of myself and I’m working every day to achieve great things because we have a great squad.

“We’re top of the league. Right now, I’m 100% fit and I hope to give my best in the upcoming matches.

“Like I said in my first press conference, I’m still not a galactico, I have to be the one to prove that I can become one.

“We all know the last No. 7 at this club and I have to be the one who proves I can be the best in the world, to enjoy myself and give my all not just in matches but training too. I don’t doubt myself, I’m confident. Right now, I’m only lacking the goals and being more decisive. Football is all about confidence.” 

Hazard was unable to prevent Madrid losing 3-0 against Paris Saint-Germain in their opening Champions League game but he hopes his home debut in the competition can be better.

“I can see my debut consisting of lots of goals and an important victory,” he added.

“It’s not going to be an easy match, it’ll be tough. After losing in Paris, we have no choice but to win tomorrow. “Brugge are a great team, top of their league and doing a great job.

“They have quality players. Having [Simon] Mignolet is a great reference. They are going to try to win the match. Don’t think that it will be an easy match because it’s a Belgian team.”

Madrid boss Zinedine Zidane defended Hazard and pointed out that he experienced difficulties adapting to Italian football when he signed for Juventus in 1996.

“The same thing happened to me,” he told a news conference. “I’m relaxed, I knew it was going to take time for him to adapt and it was worse when I moved to Italy because it took me three months, but less in Madrid.

“Hazard is the same, I know that he’s going to succeed here and the most important thing is to calmly accompany him and we’ll definitely see an improvement.

“I’m not going to give him any advice on how to play or where he has to be. We know him as a player, he’s important for us and we love Eden. It’s good that he’s not going to change. I’m not worried because I know he’ll be very good and we have to be patient with new players.”

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[tokupedia]

Hey Marco, I had my own Ideas when I had the free time:

Cutie Honey GRX (Generation RemiX): An imaginary anime that if it were real would be on Sundays and advertised during Superhero Time. This takes elements of Cutie Honey’s long history and blends them into a new spin (including aspects of The Live). 

Dr. Gou Kisaragi is experimenting with an unknown space isotope and nanotechnology that can make a system capable of making any form of matter materialize from surrounding air molecules. He is targeted for his research by Panther Claw and his pregnant wife Eiko is attacked by an assailant who works for them. Desperate to save his dying unborn child after his wife dies, Dr. Kisaragi uses the device to create an artificial womb and repair the cells and create nutrients to sustain the baby. 

However, an unforeseen result happens as the baby begins self replicating its cells into fetal clones with the genetic quirk of differing hair colors and become fully grown infants in a matter of weeks. Dr. Kisaragi is then blessed with four healthy newborn daughters, Honey, Seira, Miki and Yuki. 

19 years later Seira is getting married to a boy named Akira Hazuki, but their wedding is crashed by Panther Claw, who have finally found Dr. Kisaragi after going into hiding for so long. Akira is revealed to be a demon-like agent of Panther Claw and Gou tells his girls to change to fight Panther Claw off. The four becoming the shapeshifting superpowered Honey Warriors: Cutie, Misty, Hurricane and Flash. Together they fight Panther Claw led by the evil Panther Zora and try to solve the mystery of their mother’s killer!

Kamen Rider Pecos:

It is the future ...The Fire from the Stars has burned our world, In this age of fear.... a legend is told .... that the Waters of Strength and Wisdom shall cleanse the Water of Evil...and wash away the Fire from the Stars.

I envisioned a Wild-Western cyberpunk sci-fi “bad future” where the heroics of the Kamen Riders of the past get the attention of a race called the Pra’meths (Prah-Meeths, a play on Prometheus), who arrive in our galaxy long after the all the Riders have passed on or died in battle. The Pra’Meths are weapon makers and love war so much they consider it an actual religion, viewing slaughter and death as the divine work of God. Once they begin to invade, they are disappointed as no matter how many they hurt or kill, the Riders of legend will not come out. 

Due to centuries of political corruption, apathy towards their citizens needs and living in spoiled luxury from corporate bribes, the leaders of the Earth surrender immediately after their weapons and defenses are destroyed and turn over our world to the Pra’meths in an act of cowardice. The aliens then use our planet as a weapons testing ground, scorching the Earth and leaving little water on it. 

In the refugee city of Leone, The Pra’meths try to use their war devices in the hopes of bringing out humanity’s “war gods” the Kamen Riders. Only to find a ghostly figure and an actual Kamen Rider appearing before them! 

The female whip wielding Rider named Nile is the city’s protector and the “ghost” says that she has been preparing for the arrival of the Pra’meths. The ghost also envisions that the Water of Wisdom shall soon meet the Water of Strength. During a tough fight, Nile sees a stranger walking into town and tells him to back away. He does not and dons a belt of his own, becoming a wind whipping, gun toting Kamen Rider known as Pecos!

The motif is modern style/cyberpunk western cowboys and cowgirls mixed with a desert animal from myths. Nile is based on a Raven and has a final form based on a Thunderbird. Pecos is obviously based on the legend of Pecos Bill (as it involves a wind theme of riding tornadoes) and is themed on a Rattlesnake. His final form is based on a Quetzalcoatl. I wanted him to have the classic “double scarf” like V3, but stylized in a way that gives it the illusion of a duster coat when it isn’t blowing in the wind. Nile has a dark blue scarf with a sun, moon and star on it, which references an old Native American myth about how Raven made the sky. 

There is also a villain Rider the Pra’Meths “created” to try to deal with the threat after several failures, Khabur, an “Amazon gone wrong” idea of a wolf themed Rider who is mute and feral. An abducted human programmed to kill from childhood and has a psychotic animalistic nature. His final form is based on a Jackal. He is also sort of modeled in terms of personality when he isn’t all berserker on Jack Palance, the silent, black hat wearing evil cowboy seen in most old westerns. His belt can siphon the life force energy of people and animals to regenerate or simply weaken any resistance, based on data the Pra’Meths took from Kamen Rider J. (I thought of this before Genm was a thing)

The “water” thing is a metaphor, as the “ghost” (who is actually a “pure” good Pra’Meth from an alternate reality) thinks that the Riders will “wash away” the evil that burned the Earth and allow the planet to slowly heal itself. (Also, the Riders in the series are named after rivers) The “Soul Rounds” orbs they use are drawn from Earth’s remaining life force from a special spring or from ancient spirits of myth (In other words: Legend Rider toys!). 

First and foremost, I want action. The gimmicks of the real shows proper are fine, but I decided that the Soul Rounds should be of a limited supply and expendable. This would allow more martial arts and gunplay to be incorporated and tense situations where it may seem the Riders may not win or have to retreat to plan out a strategy to defeat the enemy. I liked the old days when a Rider worked at it to gain victory. The Pra’Meths being weapons manufacturers  and warmongers, would have various combat variants of footsoldier humanoid drones called Dorugs. (Infantry, Flying, stealth, human duplicates.)

Plasmids: The monsters of the week. I wanted to go back to basics by having remodeled humans who become monsters and are beyond saving. These people represent the worst in humanity: serial killers, thieves, some of the politically corrupt, racist extremists, scientists who abuse their gifts to harm others, a game hunter who hunts humans and at least one who is a child murderer. These are meant to be the Pra’meths evaluation of humans, just tools and worshippers of death. However, the Riders represent humanity’s compassion and desire for survival and preservation of life.

Each Plasmid is enhanced with powers that are unique and interesting, at least to me. A human female lieutenant of the bad guys who is a bat that can nullify light and sound in a surrounding area and fire sonic blasts. A lizardman who gets bigger and stronger whenever he is exposed to pain via an implanted gland that creates a steroid. A polar bear monster that has a “cryonic venom” that slowly freezes its victim secreted from the claws etc.

Despite going a bit apocalyptic, I wanted to show that humans are a resilient bunch and put a bit of optimism in it, showing the citizens of Leone building gardens, businesses and houses and using whatever they can find to make technology to cope with the hostile environment. 

While there are moments where they feel despair or just pure hopelessness, the sight of the Kamen Riders never giving up on them give the people the drive to keep going, thus Leone thrives and grows as their spirits are raised and more and more of the Pra’meths are defeated.

What do you think sirs?

[elderburn]

Ruby Rose Kisses (Almost) Every Girl RANKINGS

I haven’t seen this one yet so I’d like to resurrect this terribly underfed blog (sorry about that by the way) to list, in order, my favorite Rube Smooches- as written by @xekstrin. (This is just my personal opinion and does not reflect the opinion of Viz Media, Paramount Pictures, or any other corporation to which I have no relation. I’ll also announce that if you’re tired of this blog not producing (sorry,) you can always follow me on my normal blog, @gottalovethosecostcomuffins​, which has been known to reblog at least one thing per day. Maybe more. Let’s begin!

21. There are really that many of these? Goodness. I’ll be here awhile. The bottom of this list is BY NO MEANS the “worst” Ruby smooch, as if there could be such a thing, but something has to go here! Ciel starts us off this morning. I honestly pictured the obstacle course for MW2 for this piece. This also scratches my “Ciel is a tough, smol cookie” HC, which is nice, but it also mentioned suicides, which I hated, so there. Kiss rating: 7/10. Good on Ruple for being conscious of her own sweat. Simple soul confirmed.   

20. Neon. LOVED THIS. If there were any more scenes in V3 with Neon, this is how I would have pictured them going. Meg would have had far too much fun VA’ing these, though, so of course it could never happen. Bonus points for the use of “impish delight”, always a crowd pleaser and definitely appropriate.  Kiss rating: 6/10. ‘Mmmmmwah’ is my favorite smooch onomatopoeia, sure, but poor Rotunda was just so distraught. Can’t have that. Bonus points for (in my mind) secret domme Rubes and the implication that someone would be kneeling should this piece go any farther. Me like.

19. May Zedong. You may be thinking by now, “Hey. this guy is putting all the secondary/tertiary character smooches pretty low.” And you’d be right. But not because of that. Anywho. May joins Neon in the “Be playfully mean to my daughter” squad, but Rope-a-dope takes it in good fun. These two practicing together/bonding over weapon types was like the FIRST thing I thought of when we met May, and I love that May is having so much fun with it.  Kiss rating: 8/10. Kissing the bullet is such a cheeky thing to do, and the slightest possible whisp of gunplay has me goin’ like a drop of water on a dying man’s tongue. Bless.    18. Pyrrha. This one was so cute! I’m gonna go ahead and guess that Ruby decided that those dern Goliaths were just too tempting and decided to go big game hunting. Thus the broken leg, so far the only real injury she’s ever sustained (the_shade_of_it_all.gif) Pyrrha though, as usual, is a perfect god damned angel that this world does not deserve, and thus stands ready to keep her girlfriend safe and... otherwise entertained. Bonus points for pet JNPR rock, whose name I still want to know. Kiss rating: 9/10. There’s lots of em, which is always good for healing (something something transfer Aura). Cute as fuck. Would read again.

17. Weiss. The main team had to start somewhere, right? I like how this one frames the WR dynamic, which has always been one of my favorites, if not necessarily my favorite ship. Flustered Ruby will always get some points in my book. Just don’t be needlessly sharp with her T_T Kiss rating: 7.5/10. So close, but when compared to Pyrrha, Weiss is gonna need to step up her game. Though I don’t think Rubes had any problems with this one. A good kiss.  16. Coco & Velvet. A photoshoot is, of course, the perfect place for Ms. Adel, and the scenario to get Ruskie in one is perfect. Tall/ leggy Yang is my shiiiiiiiiit, so points there. Lots of detail on the shoot itself, which just makes me want to pull out MY camera again. Jerk. Overall a fantastic and well built piece. Like Yang’s legs. I’m not distracted, shut up.  Kiss rating: 10/10! First one of the set. Velvet and Coco both playing off Ruby’s flusteredness is my fav, which may or may not come up again on this list... but that’s for later. Bonus point for boo-boo kisses. 

15. Salem. Eughhhh. What an unsettling mental image this piece gave me, but at the same time, that’s fucking perfect. The eyes especially got me. Poor Rub.  Kiss rating: 6/10. This is more of a “Ha gotcha now you’re my corrupted mindslave” kiss. Black liquid was mentioned. My eyes kinda glazed over after that. Well fucking written, though. Goodness. 14. Reese. “Eaaaaaaat my shorts” has to be the best opening to a piece you’ve had in a long time, Kep. The ball keeps rolling from there. Yang somehow breaking the ice and setting up this little bet also tickles me pink. I guess you could say she was being an... enabler? To her weapon junky tendencies. Now she gets to take the weapons apart. Is what I mean. Not. You know. Shut up. Kiss rating: 9/10. She is Ruby god damned Rose and fuck if she is not getting a kiss you fucking fucks get out of her way

13. Amber. This one seems like the longest? I didn’t do a word count. But I like it. Poor Rutabaga. You hook up with a nice gal, you clock in to your bodyguard job the next day, there she is. Awkward. Did I mention she’s basically a god and now you have to protect her from all the shit that wants to kill her? No pressure. Still, Amber, being Amber, handles it perfectly. A nice fic on its own. Lots of fantastic internal dialogue and focus on thoughts. Which I love.  Kiss rating: 7/10. For this one, the kiss was but a small part. Still an important one, but smaller. This was such a fantastic piece that gave more to Amber as a character than Mile and Kerble could ever hope to give her. I wouldn’t mind a little prequel to this one, though... club hookups? Yes please.  12. Arslan. One of my favorite new characters. Aaaaand she’s gone. This one has so many of my favorite #JustXekstrinThings- you got tight, revealing clothing, you got Ruby noticing said clothing, Ruby short circuiting when girls in tight clothing touch her, “beforewards” and the ensuing mental battle over its status in the Oxford Dictionary... the list goes on. Fantastic.  Kiss rating. 9.5/10. This kiss has so much. The breathless “Y-yeah.” The “I’m warm cuz exercise, not gayness.” The forehead, mentor mentee thing. But something keeps it from a 10 for me. I dunno. Maybe I’ll come back to this one. Still excellent. 

11. Penny. Arguably one of my favorite Ruby pairings, and another one knocked out of the park in this set. Normal girl, normal knee things are my favorite with these two who, along with Ruby/Pyrrha, so desperately need to do normal girl, normal knee things. Cute. As. Fuck.  Kiss rating: 8/10: Again, this kiss is a passing thought, but for it to be so normal for them is what makes it beautiful. Did I mention I fucking love this ship? 10.  Winter. Hoo boy. Top ten. It’s gonna get a little more difficult here, but I’m taking my time, so I’m confident I’ll get these right. Pilot Ruby is something I didn’t know I needed in my life, but here it is. Winter being naturally apt with such things is a no-brainer, but I love that that became a mentor dynamic as well. Perfect characterization throughout. And just a dash of spice at the end- “I can teach you more... if you want.” I bet you could, Winter. I bet you could.         ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°) Kiss rating: 9/10. Keep your sticks under control, Roob. That’s an expensive ship. 

9. Neo. Alternative learning style Ruby has always been a thing for me, so what better way for her to learn than through the most unconventional methods possible? Neo yanking her sign language chain made me giggle. Then you turn around and slap me with an “oh shit someone’s fallin off a cliff” scenario. Rubrub to the rescue.  Kiss rating: 10/10! Ya gotcher adrenalin pumpin’, almost dyin’, arms slinkin’, shirt bundled in fist ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°), height difference, full on smackeroo of a kiss. Perfection. Everything I could ever ask for.  8. Raven. Ohh-ho man. Do I love me some Ruby/Raven. Like Neo and Arslan, this one checks lots of boxes for me. Wall pinning. Desperate clawing. ANGST. Raven’s shirt unbuttoned? Y E S  P L E A S E. Still, I feel bad for Ruby in this one. I just want it to stop too sometimes.  Kiss rating: 7/10. A bit unclear in this one, but I liked it all the same. What ties into the kiss(es) are what make it so good. An excellent read.  7. Nora.  Another one of my favorite ships. Doesn’t get nearly enough love in my opinion, but hey, what can you do. This is weapon-nerd Ruby in her fucking PRIME, so major kudos there. She’s elbow deep in this muthafucka and Nora likes. I like all the little world-building details you’ve got here- gee, it’d be nice if we got those from someone who, say, wrote the show- as they really help explain certain mechanics of weaponry and Aura without having to, say, make a 3-8 minute video narrated by some creepy dude to explain them. Amazing stuff as always.  Kiss rating: 9/10. That it was brief was its only flaw. Established couple stuff is my jam, and this delivers. Love, love, love. Bonus points for the wink, Nora. I see you.  6. Numbers 4, 5 and 6 are probably the hardest for me, but I think I’ve got it pinned down. This one is Cinder. Arguably one of your best written ships overall. I like the dynamic you set up in this piece- anti-hero, is she the bad guy or not, and so on. “As always, Cinder was perfectly put together” is the perfect summary of the character- at least as written by you, imo- and the rest of the piece frames that so perfectly. I would gladly measure my music by her footsteps- so long as they were on my back, chest or face. Damn do I love this character.  (side note: Is this set in the Chained Rose universe? Cuz if so...)

Kiss rating: 10/10! You’ll probably see a few more of these as we reach the top. This one is double for your money- you’ve got Ruby being a little bold puppy, always a favorite; and it even comes with a side of feigned penitence. This is, of course, immediately punished. As it should be. Bad Ruby.   ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

5. Emerald. This is one of those fics that just makes you go, “Aaahhh.” Not in the screamy way. In the “I’m home” kind of way. I love all the little domestic touches. Her wife. Calling in sick. Let’s buy a house. Talkin about jobs. It’s perfect. Poor Em- I hope she works through her issues. She’s got a good helper.  Kiss rating: 8/10. As the rest of it, this one is perfectly domestic. A nice hand kiss. What a sweetheart. Points to Ruby for taking initiative. 

4. Blake. I really miss Beacon as a setting. While the whole high school anime thing can only take you so far, I do love me some dorm room snuggles, and boy does this scratch that itch. All my Ladybug boxes are checked off here. I would read 200k words of this. at $.03 a word... let’s not do that math.  Kiss rating: 10/10! Blake is opening up. Her mouth. Get it, Ru. 

3. Glynda. I am heeeere for this pairing. Of course Glynda can always find the nearest office space within a few miles to make her home. And of course Ruby can find it’s window to languorously hang off of. I love the dialogue here! Probably some of my favorite out of this whole list. What a fantastic piece. Kiss rating: 11/10!! There are so many!! There’s your hello kiss, your return mid dialogue kiss, your on your knees kiss pepperings. Glynda, as always, is completely down for this. Bravo. 2. Yang. You knew it was coming. And boy oh boy did it come. Heh. This is written in what I called the Style of the Strained Master- all of your Ruby/Yang fics have this feel to it, and it makes them amazing. Ruby is always thiiiis close to destroying herself, Yang, and everything around her, at any given time. Because she’s so. Fucking. Ready. This makes me happy. This waters my crops, feeds my children, eases my aches and pains. This puts a man on the moon and music in my soul. This is everything.  Kiss rating: There isn’t even a fucking kiss but you know damn well it’s getting a 10/10

1. The Sisters Malachite. Sound the trumpets! We have our champion! This was a struggle to decide. But this- and I know I’ve said this a couple times now- checks all. The. Boxes. Ruby being difficult. Ruby can’t do numbers. Weiss, help me. I have a number fixation and it’s making it really difficult to be the fuckin’ mack daddy that I know I am deep inside. Ruby has fucked up now. Now you fucked up. It has begun. Double teaming. Vainly struggling. There is no hope for you, child. Your clothes are ours. Have some cleavage, it’ll make up for the last three meals you’ve skipped. Except it wont. How bout we just fuck you instead. K? K.  Kiss rating:   ∞/10. I mean, there’s two of them, and they’ve got pretty decent stamina... There’s nothing here saying they couldn’t just go on forever. Poor Rubiks has a looooooot of stress to work out....  What. A. Ride. I spent the better part of two hours writing this out, and re-read all the pieces a few times a piece to get things down just the way I like it. Is this full of grammatical errors? Probably. Do I care at this point? Nah. Thank you again, Krissy, for writing this, and everything you write. You put in a lot of time for us nerds, that you really wouldn’t have to if you didn’t want to. And we appreciate the fuck out of that. Keep on keepin on. 

[theheartofcoding]

An Inferno on the Head of a Pin

Today's processors contain billions of heat-generating transistors in an ever shrinking space. The power budget might go from:

1000 watts on a specialized server

100 watts on desktops

30 watts on laptops

5 watts on tablets

1 or 2 watts on a phone

100 milliwatts on an embedded system

That's three four orders of magnitude. Modern CPU design is the delicate art of placing an inferno on the head of a pin.

Look at the original 1993 Pentium compared to the 20th anniversary Pentium:

1993 Pentium 66 Mhz 16kb L1 3.2 million transistors

2014 Pentium G3258 3.2 Ghz 2 core / 4 thread 128kb L1, 512kb L2, 3MB L3 1.4 billion transistors

I remember cooling the early CPUs with simple heatsinks; no fan. Those days are long gone.

A roomy desktop computer affords cooling opportunities (and thus a watt budget) that a laptop or tablet could only dream of. How often will you be at peak load? For most computers, the answer is "rarely". The smaller the space, the higher the required performance, the more … challenging your situation gets.

Sometimes, I build servers.

Inspired by Google and their use of cheap, commodity x86 hardware to scale on top of the open source Linux OS, I also built our own servers. When I get stressed out, when I feel the world weighing heavy on my shoulders and I don't know where to turn … I build servers. It's therapeutic.

Servers are one of those situations where you may be at full CPU load more often than not. I prefer to build 1U servers which is the smallest rack mountable unit, at 1.75" total height.

As you can get so many cores on a die these days, I only build single CPU servers. One reason is price; the other reason is that clock speed declines proportionally to the number of cores on a die (this is for the Broadwell Xeon V4 series):

coresGHzE5-163043.7$406E5-165063.6$617E5-168083.4$1723E5-2680122.4$1745E5-2690142.6$2090E5-2697182.3$2702

Yes, there are server CPUs with even more cores, but if you have to ask how much they cost, you definitely can't afford them … and they're clocked even slower. What we do is serviced better by a smaller number of super fast cores than a larger number of slow cores, anyway.

With that in mind, consider these two Intel Xeon server CPUs:

E5-1630 V3 (4-core, 8 thread, 3.7 - 3.8 Ghz)

E5-1650 V3 (6-core, 12 thread, 3.5 - 3.8 Ghz)

As you can see from the official Intel product pages for each processor, they both have a TDP of 140 watts. I'm scanning the specs, thinking maybe this is an OK tradeoff.

Unfortunately, here's what I actually measured with my trusty Kill-a-Watt for each server build as I performed my standard stability testing, with completely identical parts except for the CPU:

E5-1630: 40w idle, 170w mprime

E5-1650: 55w idle, 250w mprime

I am here to tell you that Intel's TDP figure of 140 watts for the 6 core version of this CPU is a terrible, scurrilous lie!

This caused a little bit of a problem for me as our standard 1U server build now overheats, alarms, and throttles with the 6 core CPU — whereas the 4 core CPU was just fine. Hey Intel! From my home in California, I stab at thee!

But, you know..

Better Heatsink

The 1.75" maximum height of the 1U server form factor doesn't leave a lot of room for creative cooling of a CPU. But you can switch from an Aluminum cooler to a Copper one.

Copper is not usually all that necessary; it is significantly more expensive than aluminum, so it's usually cheaper to throw a larger mass of aluminum at the cooling problem when you can. But copper dissipates more heat in the same form factor when space is a constraint, which it definitely is in a 1U case.

The famous "Ninja" CPU cooler came in copper and aluminum versions so we can compare apples to apples. At 12v (max fan speed):

Aluminum Ninja had 24C rise over ambient

Copper Ninja had 17C rise over ambient

You can scale the load and the resulting watts of heat by spinning up MPrime threads for the number of cores you want to "activate", so that's how I tested. And each run has to be overnight to be considered successful!

Aluminum heatsink — stable at 170w (mprime threads=4), but heat warnings with 190w (mprime threads=5).

Copper heatsink — stable at 190w (mprime threads=5) but heat warnings with 230w (mprime threads=6).

This helped, noticeably. But we need more.

Better Thermal Interface

When it comes to server builds, I stick with the pre-applied grey thermal interface pad that comes on the heatsinks. But out of boredom and a desire to experiment, I …

Removed the copper heatsink.

Used isopropyl alcohol to clean both CPU and heatsink.

Applied fancy "Ceramique" thermal compound I have on hand, using an X shape pattern.

I wasn't expecting any change at all, but to my surprise with the new TIM applied it took 5x longer to reach throttle temps with mprime threads=6. Before, it would thermally throttle within a minute of launching the test, and after it took ~10 minutes to reach that same throttle temp. The difference was noticeable.

That's a surprisingly good outcome, and it tells us the default grey goop that comes pre-installed on heatsinks is ... not great. Per this 2011 test, the difference between worst and best thermal compounds is 4.3°C.

But as Dan once bravely noted while testing Vegemite as a thermal interface material:

If your PC's so marginal that a CPU running three or four degrees Celsius warmer will crash it [or, for modern CPUs, cause the processor to auto-throttle itself and substantially reduce system performance], the solution is not to try to edge away from the precipice with better thermal compound. It's to make a big change to the cooling system, or just lower the darn clock speed.

An improved thermal interface just gets you there faster (or slower); it doesn't address the underlying problem. So we're not done here.

Ducted Airflow

Most, but not all, of the SuperMicro cases I've used have included a basic fan duct / shroud that lays across the central fans and the system. Given that the case fans are pretty much directly in front of the CPU anyway, I've included the shroud in the builds out of a sense of completeness more than any conviction that it was doing something for the cooling performance.

This particular server case, though, did not include a fan duct. I didn't think much about it at the time, but given the overheating problem this 6-core CPU and its 250 watt heat generation was putting on our 1U build, I decided I should build a quick card stock duct and test it out.

(I know, I know, it's a super janky duct! But I was prototyping!)

Sure enough, this duct, combined with the previous heatsink and TIM changes, enabled the server to remain stable overnight with a full MPrime run of 12 threads.

I think we've certainly demonstrated the surprising (to me, at least) value of fan shrouds. But before we get too excited, let's consider one last thing.

Define "CPU Load"

Sometimes you get so involved with solving the problem at hand that you forget to consider whether you are, in fact, solving the right problem.

In these tests, we defined 100% CPU load using MPrime. Some people claim MPrime is more of a power virus than a real load test, because it exerts so much heat pressure on the CPUs. I initially dismissed these claims since I've used MPrime (and its Windows cousin, Prime95) for almost 20 years to test CPU stability, and it's never let me down.

But I did more research and I found that MPrime, since 2011, uses AVX2 instructions extensively on newer Intel CPUs:

The newer versions of Prime load in a way that they are only safe to run at near stock settings. The server processors actually downclock when AVX2 is detected to retain their TDP rating. On the desktop we're free to play and the thing most people don't know is how much current these routines can generate. It can be lethal for a CPU to see that level of current for prolonged periods.

…

That's why most stress test programs alternate between different data pattern types. Depending on how effective the rotation is, and how well that pattern causes issues for the system timing margin, it will, or will not, catch potential for instability. So it's wise not to hang one's hat on a single test type.

This explains why I saw such a large discrepancy between other CPU load programs like BurnP6 and MPrime.

MPrime does an amazing job of generating the type of CPU load that causes maximum heat pressure. But unless your servers regularly chew through zillions of especially power-hungry AVX2 instructions this may be completely unrepresentative of any real world load your server would actually see.

Your Own Personal Inferno

Was this overkill? Probably. Even with the aluminum heatsink, no change to thermal interface material, and zero ducting, we'd probably see no throttling under normal use in our server rack. But I wanted to be sure. Completely sure.

Is this extreme? Putting 140 TDP of CPU heat in a 1U server? Not really. Nick at Stack Overflow told me they just put two 22 core, 145W TDP Xeon 2699v4 CPUs and four 300W TDP GPUs in a single Dell C4130 1U server. I'd sure hate to be in the room when those fans spin up. I'm also a little afraid to find out what happens if you run MPrime plus full GPU load on that box.

Servers are an admittedly rare example of big CPU performance heat and size tradeoffs, one of the few left. It is fun to play at the extremes, but the SoC inside your phone makes the same tradeoffs on a smaller scale. Tiny infernos in our pockets, each and every one.

[advertisement] At Stack Overflow, we put developers first. We already help you find answers to your tough coding questions; now let us help you find your next job.

from Coding Horror http://ift.tt/2iI7mJ1

[kimmysfandomblog]

Ohh, 6, 9, 11, 19 and 25. For all the games, but if it's too hard to pick, you can have one by game :p

Thank you, Serahne!!! ^ v ^

From here: https://kimmysfandomblog.tumblr.com/post/170470327942/lafumiko-hi-people-i-was-searching-for-a-good

Spoilers for V3, so these are under the cut!

6. Favorite plot twist?

DR1: Gosh, it’s a tie between Sayaka being the one killed and even planning to kill to escape the game and Naegi escaping execution!!! Bot of them realy threw me for a loop! I will say that discovering Sayaka was murdered left the greater impact, though, and was the reason I stuck to Danganronpa early on. It blew my mind at the time!

DR2: Hajime being Izuru/the “mastermind” was the most shocking thing to me! I really wasn’t expecting that??? I really came to love Hajime a lot by this point, and was feeling incredibly sorry for him already. When we were exploring the school for the last trial’s investigation and the Hope Cultivation Plan came up, I kinda figured it out. I don’t think I connected the dots completely though, ahaha. Also, just the fact that all of them were evil and responsible for spreading Despair worldwide was such a great plot twist, in my opinion!

DRAE: There weren’t many plot twists in this game, but I guess the most shocking was that Monaca was not an invalid. Like, she was pretty obviously the one running the show, and she was obsessed with Junko, but her faking being handicapped to control both her family and friends for sympathy and to get what she wanted was a genius plan on her part!

V3: I honestly didn’t like them all that much, especially Kaede not being the protag. The ending one where Tsumugi reveals everything is a lie (literally) wasn’t bad or good in my opinion. Like, I wasn’t necessarily disappointed by the ending like I thought I would be (that one was spoiled even before the game released in Japan because I couldn’t blacklist on PC and thought going through Hajime’s tag would be okay :( Damn you, dataminers!!!), I kinda just accepted that this was it. Also the trio being alive was not an exciting plot twist in the least (I love you Himiko and Maki, but your survival kinda makes me go ehhh with how the game ended). I guess that only leaves Kaito being ill and dying before his execution killed him as my favorite! I really liked how that last execution (not counting Danganronpa’s execution) was the reverse of the very first execution we see (Jin Kirigiri’s), and I already loved Kaito. It was nice that Kaito’s final goodbye was a middle finger to Danganronpa’s theme of killing the blackened with an over-the-top execution!

9. Favorite Ultimate Talent?

These are all very tough decisions…

DR1: Ultimate Biker Gang Leader! I honestly would never expect such a talent to exist, and I gotta wonder how HPA was able to gather data for that talent, hahaha. It helps that I found Mondo endearing even if he swears a bit and reacts with violence. He hast a golden heart full of regrets, and I liked his backstory! Also the talent itself is just… really cool.

DR2: Ok, so this is kinda weird, but Ultimate Lucky Student. Makoto was a totally different kind of Ultimate Lucky Student than Komaeda’s, where all-in-all he is an average guy and his luck only affects him sometimes. While that is an interesting talent, it’s not as interesting as Komaeda’s. Komaeda is probably the truest definition of Ultimate Luckster! His luck is tragic. It takes away any personal relationships and turns it into materialistic fortune. It is so powerful it warped Komaeda and his view of the world drastically. Gosh, it is very interesting and gets me wondering what could possibly happen around Komaeda because of his luck in different situations and with different people. Truly, a fascinating talent that I wouldn’t bestow on anyone!

DRAE: There were only a few people with an Ultimate Talent here, haha. I liked that Kotoko was the Ultimate Li’l Drama who actually will not perform for anyone (understandably) and the Fighter of the Group! If that counts, haha. Otherwise we only have Byakuya, Fukawa/Syo, Makoto, and Komaeda (and technically Izuru but he is on the screen for, like, 5 seconds and has every talent, so that would be boring anyways). If I had to choose between the four talents without Komaeda repeated, I think the most interesting would be Syo’s Ultimate Murderous Fiend! It’s really interesting to me that she’s a split personality of Toko. I kinda have to wonder how Toko can get exhausted easily, but Syo can slash and dash, even hurling herself several feet in the air, without breaking a sweat!

V3: It is a tie between Ultimate Anthropolgist and Ultimate Mage Magician! Unlike with the previous installments of the series, I was able to just see the talents before knowing the characters, though, so Ultimate Magician was the one that really caught my eye since I’m obsessed with Fantasy AUs, especially of the RPG kind with that class system! I’ve also always been really fasinated by Magic and magicians in general, haha. After playing the game, though, Kiyo really sold me on the Ultimate Anthropologist talent! I was a Cognitive Science major in the school within the university that focuses on the humanities, so not only am I very interested in human cognitive thinking as individuals and as a group, but I took a lot of history and some anthropology courses. I really nerded out with Kiyo and Shuichi during those FTEs! History/Folklore is truly fascinating! 

11. A character you’d revive?

Alright, this is a tough one for some of these because most of the ones I liked who died died “well,” as in their story was finished and satisfying. I’d surely love to see them alive again, true, but if we are going by canon and I could only bring back one, then it almost feels cheap. Kinda like “DR3 cheap.” That makes most of these characters not my favorites, but ones i felt deserve a second chance/should have survived.

DR1: Ishimaru. He isn’t my favorite character (I’m honestly gonna place him in the “he’s ok!” range), but he clearly didn’t have any satisfying development. You can’t get FTEs from his Kiyondo form, and he dies having done very little as Kiyondo other then some inconvenience regarding Alter Ego! It would probably be super interesting to see what he would do in later chapters, and if he ever snaps out of it in the chapters after.

DR2 (assuming the DR3 anime never happened): Saionji died for nothing, let’s be real here, lol. She was just barely going to reform herself and become a better person, and then she dies, offscreen, on accident. A friend also helped me realize that we never come across her murder weapon. I think that what would have been the best solution was not having a double murder. Plus, it would make it interesting to see whether she is able to forgive Kuzuryuu at all or not, how that affects the groups trust in each other in later parts of the game (since it is really hard to get close to her since she doesn’t trust people easily), and especially her reaction to being Ultimate Despair, as well as her growth spurt.

DRAE: Chihiro’s dad Taichi. He and Yuta died for shock, but how sad would it be if he was alive and found out his son was killed? And that his son’s legacy, Alter Ego, survived? Man, what a tragedy! It would have been nice to see him tag along with Toko and Komaru to the adult’s base and maybe try to hack into devices, or slowly give upgrades to Komaru making her life a little easier. He could also join Togami and leave Towa City.  He’d be an incredible asset to Future Foundation, but he would either refuse out of grief, or he’d take time to warm up to the idea, before accepting and becoming the head of any project regarding the Neo World Program/Alter Ego Chihiro, working closely with Miaya, and keeping close to those who had been Chihiro’s friends.

V3: hmmmm, this one I don’t know for sure. It’s between Hoshi, Miu, Kiibo, and… this may surprise you, but Angie as well.

*** Angie Negativity, you can skip it ***

I hate Angie, but she honestly needs the story development. She got the most abrupt ending, another offscreen death, and no resolution. Honestly speaking, if she had a better story and some form of redemption/questioning of her actions, I would like her a lot more. She just never learned that what she did was wrong, and unlike in her FTEs, telling her “no” made her stick more to her own opinion. Like, initially I didn’t like Celeste in CH3, but I actually grew to like her because she had that backstory that made her want to be more than she was, and she anyways accepted her death in the end without being spiteful and ruining the secret of Alter Ego, even giving the others a hint of where she kept him. She was leagues a better character than Angie. Angie, I was starting to kinda accept her after finishing her FTEs when I was still in CH2 (even if I hate the racial stereotypes, what with orgies, sacrifices, etc). She really made me mad when she refused to listen to anyone else and manipulated others to agree with her (I have an extremely soft spot for Himiko and Gonta, so my bias didn’t help her at all). I’ll give her that she’s really sly and a lot smarter than she tries to let on, but  her cutesy personality combined with manipulation to convert to a religion, suggested by light brainwashing using her paintings (and the fact the others were converted overnight), all so that she can get whatever she wants, and then not seeing any kind of downfall: no backlash or consequences because of what she did? It makes me mad. I’m sorry. I hate her and yet, she is one of the people I’d revive, hahaha. Geez, I honestly tried to like her despite my initial feelings I would dislike her, lol.

*** End of Angie Negativity ***

Kiibo dying while the other three survived is something that rubs me the wrong way since he almost never got respect until he was destroying the school, even when he was one of the few character that were actually helpful during the trials. Honestly, if the others survived, which, given the ending, was kinda pointless, then him surviving as well wouldn’t detract from the impact. Seriously, if anyone deserved to survive, it would be him or Maki.

As for Miu, her death felt like a cop out, for some reason. I can’t explain it exactly… I know that her being killed was because they needed her to go after Kokichi, so that they could get him to trick Gonta to kill her, but it feels wrong somehow? Like there was unfinished business? She had the electrohammers, electrobombs, a remote control, and a bug catcher, her more amazing inventions, made after her death. All her upgrades to Kiibo were very useful, but not as amazing. A drone and the camera set up are really simple, too. Her working with Kokichi on these amazing inventions feels like a plothole instead of plausible. It would be really nice to see her survive since, despite being vulgar, she’s really entertaining! And I wonder how she’d react to being told she wasn’t real, nor was she actually a genius inventor.

And I can’t forget Hoshi! He died horribly for no reason. Kirumi could have bashed him in the head with a tennis racket, or against the wall or something, after she knocked him out. There was no need to pin the blame on anyone. The second trial p*ssed me off so much because it was unnecessarily convoluted and cruel for no reason and anyways made no sense. My heart truly goes out for Hoshi. He had a horrible life! He was imprisoned for killing the Mafiai, was a true hero, and I wish he could have learned that he could find something to live for.

So yeah, V3 was the hardest for me this question, hahaha. I honestly can’t choose between these four. BIG SIGH

If this was bot the answer you were hoping for and you just wanted to get a list of my faves who dued, it would go like this: Sakura, Komaeda, Taichi, and Kaito! Priority goes to Sakura since Ko lives post-canon, hahaha

19. Favorite Free Time Events

DR1: Alright, honestly I need to actually play this game myself. I’ve only seen LPs of the game, and the anime does not have FTEs. The only FTEs I recall are Sayaka’s, Chihiro’s, Ishimaru’s, Kyoko’s, Sakura’s, and Asahina’s. I don’t think I can really say which is my favorite, but I really like Sakura’s and Kyoko’s. I just… can’t remember most of their backstories ^^

DR2: DR2 had too many good FTEs. Komaeda’s are probably the ones I liked the most, though? I didn’t care much for Komaeda initially. He was an interesting character, and I didn’t hate him (I was very neutral). I felt like there was more to him, so when I played the game myself after abandoning the LP I was watching, I went after him first and it changed my mind completely! I like it when a character’s background is explained and matches consequences and actions the character makes during the main story, and DR2 did this really well for my taste. Komaeda’s helped explain everything and made him a sympathetic character and helped me to understand him. Of course, it also sparked the Koma/Hina shipping, hahaha. If I had to come up with a runner up, it would be Souda’s for a similar reason! His also ties really well to the main story, especially with not being able to finish his FTEs until like after CH4, after he is done doubting Hajime.

V3: I’m stuck between Kiyo and Maki’s. Kiyo’s had more of an impact on me, though, because it flipped my initial suspicion I would hate him. Him being fascinated with anthropology and teaching Shuichi about it made me seriously love him as a character even though I was sure at the time I would hate him since I was spoiled about the incest plot twist. Maki’s was really well explained and tied nicely to the game’s story. She is kinda like Komaeda, in a way, hahaha. She had a tragic backstory because of her talent, been through hell, lost someone very precious to her, and her talent makes her actively try to avoid people and trust them. And, like I said before, I like FTEs that help explain why a character reacts the way they do (although in her case, a small part of her FTEs do land up in the main story, so I say they were slightly less effective, but tied better to the story)

DRAE doesn’t have FTEs, but there are explained backstories of the kids, and I loved Nagisa. His was the most relatable, with all of that pressure to succeed, never feeling good enough.

25. Saddest Death

DR1: 100% Sakura’s!!! She’s a real gem of a character, and I wish Danganronpa had more female characters that were like her! Anyways, she was so interesting, and not just for how she looks or her talent, but that she was the traitor torn by family duty and her loyalty to her friends. She thought that the best way to end this killing game was by sacrificing herself so that the group would not be split. She was so selfless and loved so much, yet she was treated horribly in her last hours because Monokuma made sure to make her as disliked as possible. And then he spits on her death further by stealing her last letter and will so he could use Hina to make the trial more interesting. My heart goes out to her more than anyone in DR1.

DR2: My gut instinct was to say “Komaeda” or “Nanami”, but truth be told, CH2 wrecked me! Peko’s execution really got to me because, firstly, I never suspected her, and secondly, her backstory with Fuyuhiko and the fact she killed and died to save him made the execution 10 times worse to endure! I hadn’t seen her FTE’s all the way through the first time, but I saw most of them and while she hadn’t been a favorite, she had a cute personality! I really did like her!. What made her death worse was Fuyuhiko’s reaction and him trying to intervene. I’m getting shills remembering it ^^;

DRAE: Most probably Taichi! Though it is hard to choose between him and Yuta, Taichi’s was the one that was most tragic, because up to his dying breath he was so excited to be able to have the chance to meet his son again. I mean, even if he did survive, his son would still be dead, but somehow it just felt worse than Yuta’s since we seemed to get to know Taichi better (he worked at Towa for the company, we talked to him more and his love for his son).

V3: Another hard one, and it is between Kaede, Hoshi, and Gonta… I feel like none of these three should have died, or at least for Gonta and Hoshi, not the way that they did. Gonta’s was the one I felt the most emotional over leading up to his death because of the present feeling of how Kokichi betrayed him and the feeling of how it wasn’t even his fault, really. Kaede’s I felt the angriest at because she was 100 times a better protag than Shuichi and I loved her. It doesn’t help that her death was especially tragic and her execution was gruesome (not that Gonta’s wasn’t gruesome, but it was too weird for me to feel much). Hoshi’s I felt the saddest over during the trial because of just how not-fair this was. I don’t even hate Kirumi, I really hate the writers for the trial because of all the pointless and illogical parts of the case and how Hoshi was murdered, but I ranted enough about it.