#anime anaylsis

[the-derpy-duck]

The TFA universe is a fucking nightmare and I wish people would actually talk about it. Long rant incoming.

Don’t expect good spelling or grammar I’m sorry

Like the show didn’t even care enough to address how fucked everything was. Like all the little baby robots just don’t have names until they go through the military/boot camp, which doesn’t make a lot of sense as the whole point of basic training/boot camp is taking away one’s identity and individualization aka what a lot of cults and extremist groups will do to get people to go along with whatever they want them to, as it’s a lot easier for group think to occur when there is a group. The whole “small cog in a bigger machine” bullshit speech is literally just that but dressed up to look and sound pretty (propaganda). But half of the names given at the boot camp are insults and that’s really fucked up. And it’s almost implied that the other transformers recognize Bulkhead and Bumblebee’s names as being insulting in nature because when Sari introduces herself to Bumblebee it sort of goes like this:

“My name is Bumblebee” “I’m Sari” “Oh don’t be, I like my name.”

But that would also imply that the show was thinking about acknowledging how messed up its own world is and I don’t really think it is. I think that’s a joke, was meant to be taken as a joke, but could be read into as world building or something.

It’s been a hot second sense I’ve rewatched season three of tfa but from what I remember, Ultra Magnus was sort of a dictator? Like I know that there is some form of election, but the main way anything gets done is through the council of primes and in TFA it is established that “prime” is a military rank, and those who advanced to “prime” have to be approved by the council, which Ultra Magnus is the head of. He doesn’t have full dictation over it (he wanted OP to not be horribly punished) but he does have a sizable amount of control (op was still given a job and got to keep his rank). The election cycles are nonexistent as the only time anyone thinks of trying to replace Ultra Magnus is when he is on his death bed. So is it like the Supreme Court? The people technically elect a leader but the council that would decide on important laws and if they are constitutional is chosen by the leader, not the people, can serve until they die, and can do fuck all and no one will challenge them because they have the final say on the law? For a thing like economics or the Supreme Court it would make sense to have these be not elected officials for the sole purpose of “they wouldn’t be pressured by potentially not being re-elected and so they would be able to do their jobs without worrying if it would please the people.” A lot of things done to fix and adjust the economy will look really bad at first but it ultimately serves to balance everything. But the people in charge of the FED and other economic shit also don’t serve until they die. Long tangent to say, not a lot of democracy in this word.

The only way to gain power in cybertron seems to be to either join the military or do a hyper specific job. Also how long has ultra Magnus been the leader? Was no one ever unhappy with how he lead? Sentinel Prime was but that was seen as a bit of a taboo. Also Sentinel’s Cybertron immediately turning into an Orwellian styled red scare nightmare was a choice. Establishing curfews during a time of potential war where the planet/country/city could easily be targeted for an attack isn’t in itself unreasonable. It’s immediately taken to 11 but the general idea of curfews makes sense. As well as reporting potential spys for the main reason that spy’s had been proven to have infiltrated the prime counsel thing. It goes to fear mongering almost instantly but the general idea isn’t bad.

Im interested to know how Ultra Magnus would have handled the situation because the show just sort of is neutral about him. He’s just there most of the time and tells OP not to try and be a hero. I want to know if he would have done something similar to Sentinel and I want to know if the show would address it. Because the general difference between UM and SP is that UM is better at hiding how much he manipulates power. He’s still a dictator even if he isn’t an antagonist force. He’s not a benevolent dictator because dictators, by definition, cannot be benevolent. If they were truly benevolent then the people would get a choice in the world that they live in.

All this to say, “dictator bad”

ALSO is there no trial system? Wasp just was sent to prison and they didn’t think to look into any of the evidence? Did no one think to maybe investigate the people who would have had the codes or spare keys for the locker things? Do they just send people into solitary confinement without any sort of hearing or evidence or was Wasp just waiting for his court date? Why does Optimus want Bumblebee to apologize to the guy who clearly doesn’t want to speak to him? He literally watched Bumblebee give an apology and a reasonable explanation for his actions. He wasn’t making excuses he was manipulated by a person who he thought was his friend and the main reason why he was able to be so easily manipulated was because the person in power was actively antagonist towards him. He did the right thing. He asked a person, who would have known how to make a report, how to make a report. If shockwave wasn’t the person who was in that roll then Wasp probably wouldn’t have been framed. And even if Bumblebees wasn’t the one who found the things in his locker, Sentinel still would have found them because Shockwave planted them. I’m sorry but asking a person how to make a report so you can go around the person who is acting aggressive towards you and holds a significant position of power over you isn’t the same as purposefully ruining someone’s life. Bumblebee was going off of evidence that was 100% circumstantial, biased, and highly questionable, that doesn’t automatically mean that he was trying to frame Wasp. If he had reported that he overheard a spy communicating with the decepticons and had reasons to believe that it might be Wasp, then I would assume that whoever the fuck would do an investigation and either clear Wasp or just arrest him because due process and fair trials is for babies. In which case, it still wouldn’t be the fault of a person who isn’t in control of anything. Blaming Bumblebee for what happened to Wasp is like blaming doctors for how expensive medical treatment is. He trusted the wrong person and that person used his trust against him. The people in power did not think to do an investigation into any of this. And even if the whole Wasp thing was open and shut why wouldn’t they look further into this? Maybe there was other spy’s? Did anyone think about that? No? It also isn’t Bumblebee’s fault that Shockwave got to the position of Prime. The security system and the people in charge of screenings didn’t pick up on the fact that there was a spy. That is not the fault of a random cadet who trusted someone. Shockwave’s actions and the people who died because of them are the fault of Shockwave. Bumblebee’s fuck up did help him not get caught, but it was also the closet we see to him being caught before he becomes a prime. If the people in the TFA world weren’t so fucking stupid then this wouldn’t of happened because maybe this hyper advanced world would have fucking security cameras. If they can figure out how to bend time and space then I think they can figure out how to install things that would record a conversation.

WAIT- doesn’t Bumblebee use something similar to that to figure out the decepticons plans and relay it back to earth? And they have computers that have screens so why don’t they have cameras installed?

Anyway, Wasp blaming Bumblebee makes sense. It makes sense that he is angry at him and it makes sense that he wouldn’t forgive him. That’s not the issue I have with this the issue is that OP also blames Bumblebee. Which I guess would also make sense as animated Optimus seems to be deeply rooted in the military and is a string supported of Ultra Magnus. It is stated in the first episode that he watches propaganda and repeats the military speech about being one big machine. He lies to save his friend and he sucks for that because his friend abuses his power whenever he gets the chance to and he knows this. Optimus lying for Sentinel is much more  egregious to me than what Bumblebee does because Bumblebee didn’t know that Longarm was a spy. I understand why Optimus would lie for Sentinel, he is a loyal friend and he definitely did blame himself for what happened. That doesn’t change the fact that he KNOWINGLY let a person who he knew to be irresponsible and who got others into dangerous situations into a position of power. I think Ultra Magnus knew that Optimus was lying and like- why are you people like this?

Bumblebee could have been called out for so many different things that he actually did. Like is he a bad friend? Yes. He treats Bulkhead badly, most of there interactions are just him insulting Bulkhead and Bulkhead never insults him back. If they both were insulting each other then I wouldn’t really have an issue but most of the time they are seen together it’s just Bumblebee being an asshole. He’s willing to abandon his team and objective to chase down Blurr, he doesn’t listen when people tell him not to do something and it often leads to problems. There are reasonable things to call Bumblebee out on but the Wasp thing doesn’t make sense. If Optimus wanted to address Bumblebee never taking responsibility for his own actions, then why not do that when a consequence is the result of Bumblebee’s actions in a meaningful way. What the hell was he supposed to do? He didn’t know how to make a report so he asked. This is one of the only times that Bumblebee stops to think and consider his options, he could have immediately began spying on Wasp and the other cadets but he didn’t. He wanted to pass it off to the right people who would be able to handle it.

Animated OP frustrates me because I come so close to liking him and then he does something that personally annoys the hell out of me. I get why he would lie for his friend who was manipulative and generally awful towards him but its still just like— you have seen the consequences of his actions. This is no longer just hurting you or him, it has maybe killed a person and he has not changed. Optimus thinks he can change but he has an obligation to not let him hurt anymore people and he just needs to tell the truth. It’s really hard to leave friends behind, I know that. Even when they hurt you and actively make your life worse it is still extremely difficult to let that relationship go. I appreciate how Optimus has issues in that regard. But it’s gotten to a point where Sentinel’s poor judgment and refusal to listen to others puts himself and others in danger. Optimus gave him the opportunity to continue to cause harm to others, and he really wants to sit here and say that Bumblebee was making excuses when he just wasn’t? And he never and would never be called out on this.

One last thing, Ultra Magnus and the rest of the high command clearly don’t give a shit about the cybertronians who were fighting (they were so willing to just kill Arcee for the activation code) in the war and also don’t ever try to investigate any issue further. Potential spy? Eh sure throw him into solitary confinement. One of our top cadets went missing and might have died but no body has been recovered? Well fuck, gotta just say she died and not look into it to make sure there wasn’t any malpractice.

So in conclusion:

The name thing both doesn’t make sense and makes too much sense

Ultra Magnus is kind of a dictator kind of not a dictator

Optimus prime spew’s military bullshit and propaganda and no one cares

Wasp is a dick, didn’t deserve what happened to him

Bumblebee is an asshole, he still didn’t try to ruin a persons life.

No one cares about investigating serious crimes and accusations

[heyitsspaceace]

Clock 0ut Theories!

okay so me and @skeliiix have been theorizing about the new sad-ist animation "Blank Decay" which is another animation in her Clock 0ut series that starts with "Yellow Zone"

So if we look back to Yellow Zone, Sad-ist tells us that it's inspired by the video game the Stanley parable. (which is a great game by the way) In this video we see our main character, who we'll call Stanley working a desk similar to the video game. We're then introduced to another character (possible based on the narrator?, we'll call him Yellow for now) watching Stanley and his coworkers (more scribbles than actual people and Yellow seems to have control over them) through a system of camera monitors. The animation then launches into a series of escape attempts by Stanley only to be thwarted by Yellow and killed. Every time Stanly dies he awakens back in his desk and tries again. Only on the last try, instead of going to the exit, Stanley makes a change and ends up going for the window that Yellow is behind. They fight and Stanley ends up taking a clock from Yellow, he then slips, breaking the clock. The clock breaking seems to have some sort of effect on both Yellow and Stanley, causing them to begin to "glitch out" and for the clock to go haywire. Yellow's eye also fill completely giving the idea that he is not entirely human. Stanley then punches Yellow and breaks the clock and the animation ends.

This now brings us to.

Blank Decay!

Blank decay starts out a distorted version of maybe what the wo

rld outside of Stanley and Yellow's office is like? With the beginning scene having TV's that are similar to Yellows monitors cracked and broken. We then see Stanley, looking quite worse for wear running around this city. We then see a cube shaped monster with many legs and two square yellow eyes following him. Stanley makes it to a safe building and enters. We then see a man looking at different glasses. Surprise surprise! It's Yellow! He then sense a presence grabs a pipe and whips around, it's Stanley! The two seem to be on better terms know, but they soon get into an argument. There's no dialogue so its unclear what they are saying, just as Stanley is about to hit Yellow, a crawly cube with yellow eyes (CCYE for short) appears over them and jumps down to attack them. As their trying to escape the CCYE shoots and hits Stanley in the side, he falls to the group and glitches, as that happens you can see for a split second that he glitches to his old work clothes and then a skull appears over his head.

Stanley hits the CCYE with a pipe which doesn't really do anything, Yellow then hits the CCYE with a chair causing it to divert its attention to him and cornering him against the wall. Yellow then see's a gear in CCYE's eye and reaches out to grab it which makes his arm go black with yellow lines running through it, almsot cyborg esc. The CCYE then explodes. Causing electricity to spark along side Yellow and for his eyes to fill like they did in Yellow Zone. He is left with the gear in his hand.

Yellow then runs over to check on Stanley who is bleeding out, but not before pocketing the gear. Yellow tends to Stanley's wound and we then get a shot of Stanley sporting either what could be a bandage or a metal plate. Which then switches to what seems to a be a flashback of all the different ways Stanley has died in the past.

It then cuts to Yellows eye's implying that he is the one remembering all this. The pair walk through the weird city until Stanley spots a door with an exit sigh above it. The two begin to make their way to it. Stanley tries to open it but finds very hard to open (that door must be really jammed for a guy who sent his boss FLYING with one punch). Yellow then notices more humanoid versions of the CCYE (those will be humanoid squiggles with yellow eyes HSYE for short). These beings look similar to Stanley's old coworkers, here's an example. (HSYE on the left and the coworkers on the right, more on this later)

Yellow runs to Stanley but doesn't make in in time as Stanley is struck by a fatal blast by one of the HSYE, Yellow is also hit but only looses an arm, which doesn't seem to effect him very much (he also bleeds yellow!) The HSYE along side some smaller CCYE keep attacking the two. Yellow tries to stop the bleeding while Stanley continues to glitch like the last time. Sadly, Stanley dies. Yellow then begins to attack the HSYE and CCYE, although he gets shot and looses a leg. A HSYE pins him on the group but Yellow quickly flips it over grabs the gear in it's eye and again explodes it, this time the electricity bounces to the other HSYE and CCYE exploding them too and leaving the gears.

Yellow notices his dead companion and begins to use the gears to make something. The something turns out to be the clock from Yellow Zone. The Clock then rewinds and we are met with what seems to be Stanley waking up at his desk like in Yellow Zone.

Stanley is shocked and begins to cry. The animatic ends with Yellow and Stanley looking at each other from an un-distorted office space. Both back in their original clothes from Yellow Zone.

So that's the two animatics! You're probably thinking "Ace aren't you gonna tell us your theories? We've already seen the animation."

OKAY HERE YA GO HERE IS WHAT MY LOVELY BEST FRIEND AND I HAVE THEORIZED.

Stanley and Yellow are on better terms

this one feel a little obvious as the two are traveling in a pair and Yellow seems to care for Stanley, so something has happened inbetween the time from Yellow Zone to Blank Decay where they have gotten closer.

Yellow caused the apocalypse

Okay so, we had the feeling that Yellow has something to do with the state of the world currently, the HSYE look like the coworkers from Yellow Zone. Yellow seems to have control over them or even created. We thought that someone by breaking the clock Yellow no longer has control over his creations there fore sparks the apocalypse

Yellow is totally not human

okay this one is kinda obvious as well, as he's kinda a cyborg, can't seem to die and he bleeds yellow. So yeah. that's that.

Yellow "reset" at the end of Blank Decay

So el mentioned something about yellow's code resetting, if we go with the idea that he is come sort of cyborg, if the clock breaking in Yellow Zone is what causes it. Then the clock being rebuilt and resetting the timeline must mean that Yellow was reset as well. There's also evidence that Yellow has changed character wise and it seems that he seems to care for Stanley and is worried for him. It's also clear (to us at least) that he has some sadness in resetting the time line, we don't think that would have been shown if Yellow knew he wasn't going to be reset. ALSO! Stanley's reaction doesn't seem quite normal for being brought back to life, I don't know as I've never actually be resurrected so if anyone has please correct me, but we think that Stanley's reaction is in part to realizing that he just lost Yellow as he knows that this "reset" will make him revert back to his old character.

Yeah so that's what we have, feel free to talk to us about it in the reblogs and share your own theories! This got really long but we really enjoyed talking about it!

[blazingsun-481-insta]

mbti analysis as anime characters

Mbti analysis as anime characters

[likewiseiwish]

Gentlemen, I’m officially indoctrinated by my carrier. Like, when I heard the Mashle’s Op 2, I swore that it was saying “Dura lex, dura lex, sed lex” - that is, the law is harsh, but, as it is the law, it must be applied. And I was mentally gushing about the lyrics, about how clever they were because the whole arc was basically fighting against that idiom. I had imagined a whole ass essay about it, and how it showed the contrast between the magical society’s inflexibility (best represented by Orter Mádl) and Mashle’s, well, everything.

And then I saw a TikTok with its lyrics…..

IT WAS “WHO’S THE BEST, I’M THE BEST, OH YEAH.”

Me:

[urmomsfavauthor]

Rewatching BNHA for the third time, and I'm realizing some interesting contrasts between Kirishima and Bakugou's characters.

After episode 72, it's clear that Kirishima's greatest fear is that his worth is dependent on his personality and amiability. He fears that his only useful trait is his optimism and fears that he lacks the physical ability to back up his easy-going nature. Throughout the series, professional heroes and his classmates work with him because it seems like an easy option.

Bakugou is the opposite. People hire him and use him because they can achieve something by manipulating his negative personality and “fixing” him. Bakugou has a very useful and flashy quirk, so both heroes and villains attempt to change or highlight his negative traits to "perfect" his role in hero (or villain) society. Again, both professional heroes and classmates trust in his physical skills but lack the belief that he will be likable enough to achieve his goals.

They're opposites.....character foils……my beloved….they see their flaws in each other…and they're still friends...im…

[theanimeview]

[Recommended Read] Pandora Hearts

Source: https://www.crunchyroll.com/series/GR751Q2ZY/pandorahearts

By: Peggy Sue Wood | @pswediting

When I think about Alice in Wonderland, I think about a professor who told me that Alice’s story is one about growing up. It is a coming of age, but one that takes the perspective of growing up being a collection of ridiculous rules and conventions that everyone eventually learns to adjust to, or else! The idea is that as you grow, you start to learn a bunch of new rules. Some of them sound made-up (and they are), a lot of them sound ridiculous, and yet everyone must follow these newfound social conventions and changing trends or be left behind by the social group (or, worse, imprisoned and executed). It was an analysis by this professor that stuck with me over time, particularly as I have grown and entered the wider world.

Anime and manga regularly take inspiration from wonderland. I’ve seen a fair share of Alices, Mad Hatters, and more–which I am sure many of you have, but Pandora Hearts and it’s rendition is the one that comes to mind for me the most when I think of an adaptation, and this meaning my professor described.

“Pandora Hearts” is a Japanese manga series written and illustrated by Jun Mochizuki, the same author of another favorite of mine, The Case Study of Vanitas. The story follows Oz Vessalius, a young nobleman who is about to turn 15 years old. On the day of his coming-of-age ceremony, he is sent to the Abyss, a dark and mysterious dimension that is home to all manner of monsters. There, he meets a mysterious girl named Alice, who is also trapped in the Abyss. Together, they try to find a way to escape and return to the world above. Eventually freeing themselves from the Abyss and returning to the world outside it, Oz and Alice begin investigating who sent them there.

I don’t want to spoil the series but will warn you that the story has many twists and turns, along with surprising developments for readers to latch onto. I remember whenever a big reveal would happen and I would re-read it all thinking, Oh my goodness the hints were there all along!

The story is not so complex that it is hard to follow, but certainly, the approach to themes like growing up and how one engages with the world around them through a changing understanding of identity are. As such, I think that anyone who enjoys dark fantasy stories with intricate world-building and complex characters is definitely going to want to check out this series if they haven’t already.

It is an older work now and a complete one, so you can find copies for purchasing of the fully translated work online. Plus, if you like watching, there is an anime adaptation currently available for streaming on Crunchyroll. If you check it out or are already a fan, let me know! This series is one of my favorites, and I love hearing other people’s impression of the work.

—

Written by Peggy Sue Wood and Edited using ChatGPT

[cloudspots]

like re last post i see it happen with jhw too actually but ESPECIALLY ysa. i think on  a lot of levels orv fans suck about ysa including people who really like her but reduce her down to. nice girl whos a bit bitter about it. you knwo!? theres so much more to her than just that. shes a major character for a reason.

[archaeologicalnews]

1st known tuberculosis cases in Neanderthals revealed in prehistoric bone anaylsis

Neanderthals living in Central Europe around 35,000 years ago suffered from tuberculosis (TB), a new DNA analysis of their bones reveals. This is the first time this disease has been identified in Neanderthals, raising questions about whether tuberculosis contributed to their extinction.

In two research studies published in the journal Tuberculosis in December 2023, one international team of researchers reanalyzed the skeletal remains of two Neanderthals discovered in a cave in Hungary in 1932 and another tested them for Mycobacterium tuberculosis, the bacterium that causes TB.

Subalyuk Cave, located in the Bükk Mountains of northern Hungary, was used for shelter by animals and humans numerous times over the centuries and is considered an extremely important Middle to Late Paleolithic site. Read more.

[yuseirra]

Anaylsis on Ai Hoshino's character and speculations of how her relationship with her ex-boyfriend actually went

With the upcoming second season of the Oshi no Ko anime, I think this is a good time for me to write how I feel about this character. The manga seems to be reaching the final arc too, so if I make any guesses, it's probably now or a never thing! I'd like to post this before I get utterly proven wrong and it gets totally useless XD and who knows? Maybe I just may get some things right.

I had a chance to talk about how I felt Ai with @aihoshiino through an ask (their analyses are so good and I'm sure they'll write tons better than what I can offer) and it led me to realize how interesting the character is. So I ended up jotting my thoughts on my own and it became quite long.

This post will touch on how I think Ai's mind worked, and how it may have affected her relationship with her ex. I've been following the recent chapters, and I read up to ch. 152. This means I'm aware of most spoilers, and that this post would be swarming with it! If you're okay with it, please read ahead!

*I originally wrote this in a different language. I'm too tired to write the whole thing over again, so I used DeepL translate! I fixed some nouns that got lost within the translations, so should make sense for the most part. Sorry for the clumsy writing in advance!

While thinking about the recent developments in the onk manga, I noticed some things while listening to the opening of the anime version, so I'll write it down. The other day, I had the opportunity to discuss the characterization and personality development of Ai with someone else, even though it may be brief. There were some things that were notable in the behavior of this character in the novel version as well. I don't know how the story will develop, but from the information I got thus far, I feel I can outline what kind of person she is to some extent.

Ai has a very strong desire for "love" because she's never been loved properly. Rejection from parents in early childhood takes a tremendous toll on a person's development of self-assurance and self-esteem. I'm not an expert so I can't make a professional statement, but I think Ai often resorts fo have an avoidant (withdrawn) attitude. She want to have deep relationships with people, but she doesn't want to reveal their intimate "real" selves to others because she's unsure if she'll be accepted. Self-hatred is a big part of why she keeps it hidden. There's a very selfless reason why Ai decides lie: she does it because everyone likes the pretty, bright, lovable version of her. Ai protects herself by pretending, but they also protect the "outside" from the "ugly" version of her. Everyone prefers Ai to be this invincible idol, and so Ai acts that way because it's the way to contribute to the group and the world around her. In the end, Ai becomes so good at performing this idolized persona to the extent where she shows signs of being broken or disheveled, the others will react "That's not Ai" and deny it. But even though she's initially happy to be loved and accepted and have a place, ultimately that's not the kind of "love" she wants. This character has a very idealized idea of what love is, and she wants that kind of love where you put yourself out there and it's accepted, but when you think about it, it's her parents who should have given her that kind of love. What she wants is the unconditional, the agape type of love, the type she never got that early in her life. In reality, she was actually always getting the love from her fans, and she was giving love in return, whatever form of love it was. It was just that she wasn't sure if it was love at all. That's the sad part about this character, she has a very strong image of what love is, and she's not sure if it's love when it comes to these whole other variety of emotions. That's why she says in her idol songs that she really wants to love her fans, even though she's already doing it… When Ai became a parent and was in the position to give unconditional love, she began to think, "Will I know what love is? (Regardless of whether or not this was to be a wise choice to do this at such a young age, there are definitely people who actually have this sort of mental state. It may not make sense if you look at this character's emotional state and judgment from what's considered as the norm, but this is the flow of her thinking. It's not a healthy state, but it's not fair to just dismiss it as thoughtless, and foolish because this character has never experienced normal love.) However, the "love" she thinks of didn't just happen when she gave birth to and raised her children… Even for her own children, she kept putting on a bright face and couldn't live unadorned… This is how acting (lying) is a form of love for her. She tried so hard all the time. She lived as much as possible to fit in with others. She thinks this is showing consideration for the other person. This is another sad point, because she doesn't realize that when she reveals herself, others will still love her for who she is.

When interpreting the character of Ai, you shouldn't interpret her as someone who is emotionally stable and loved. The MV for the song "Idol" was my first introduction to the work "onk", and the initial feeling I had when I saw it was discomfort. This was because I felt like it was exposing a very vulnerable and precarious psychology of a young child. To compare it to other works, I think it's similar to the psychological state of One Piece's Tot Musica or Fleeting Lullaby, but even more extreme in a way because there's not even a metaphor to cover it up. It's a very honest song, and so I was like, "Is it okay to lay it all out there?" and at the same time, I was like, "This is going to be popular, but do people like stuff like this these days?" because it's about something that pretends to be okay, but it's really not. It's a song about struggles, about trying and trying. This discomfort dies out a bit when you "get used to it", so now I just enjoy the song like the crowd in the song going "Whoa! Whoa!" but the song is too "easy", it's… It's really, really easy to understand, because the lyrics are what it is. You don't even have to scrutinize it to recognize what it says. It's painfully honest.

But when I read the comic, I realized that was the entire point. Ai wanted to be honest, to reveal all of his intimate details, to be accepted, to understand others, to obtain what she thought was a "genuine relationship," and that's why he wrote this song. That's the core of the character. If the core of Aqua's character, which we talked about before (I wrote a different analysis on Aqua once too), is his inability to forgive himself, then the core of Ai's character's motivation is her desire to realize what she thinks is an "ideal form of love."

The problem is that this "lie" as a form of love comes in direct conflict with Ai's idealized notion of "love." After all, in Ai's mind, "true love" should be free of lies. Even when Ai has proposed the idea of lies being a form of love, she didn't even fully believe it herself. Because she kept wearing the mask of an "invincible idol" as an extension of her work, even in her daily life, she wasn't sure whether the love she was giving and receiving was really "love" or not. I think Ai is a character who thinks a lot about these things. This aligns with how celebrities are in real life, too. I realize that there must be many people who think differently from the image they are to be shown in the media.

I think this is what led to the breakup of her relationship with her ex-boyfriend, and I think she was trying to confess all of these feelings in the documentary, and I think it was meant to be a shock to the said character. It's probably going to be something that would hurt her ex-boyfriend in some way. I think this would only work if the boyfriend really loved her. I think she would have had good feelings towards her, love or not on her end as well. It just never came across. Ai's so used to pretending she's okay. She's the type of person who's very secretive and evasive when it comes to deepening a relationship. I think she avoided Kamiki because she thought it would be better for the both of them if she stayed away. On the other hand I think Kamiki would've been very dependent on her, and since this was a relationship he's had when he was very vulnerable and had been through some serious mess, Ai must've been kind of like a lifeline to him. He may have clung to her because she doesn't show her heart very often. Kamiki is an anxious attachment type, but Ai is an avoidant type, and I think that backfired in a very bad way. I don't think Kamiki was able to convince Ai to stay when the breakup happened… I don't know, maybe he was near the hospital when she gave birth because he really wanted to see his kids from a distance, this seems more likely given the how the storyline is going so far.

When Ai says, "I don't know," when Kamiki asks her, "Does Ai love me?" desperate for affection, she's trying to be honest in her own way. She can't simply say "no," to that but she really doesn't know if her feelings for him's really love. She can't lie to herself, so she wants to be honest. (Kamiki would've been so heartbroken, but when you look at the character of Ai, it's surprising to see a relationship without pretense. She wanted to be perfect in every moment, but she wasn't doing that with him.) I believe that Ai may have came to a conclusion that she's never loved anyone, whether towards her fans or to Kamiki, but she wants to "love properly" now. (Now that I think of it, Kana is the polar opposite of Ai. She's very honest and just plain states that she doesn't like her fans that much. It took Ai a really long time to say it, and if Ai was all wrapped up, Kana just went out and blurted it lol… I think that's what makes her so charming.) The song "Idol" was a song that summarizes the whole character of Ai, and I think she wanted to tell everyone that she loved(s) them, just like she could tell her children at the very end of the song.

She didn't want to get back together with her ex because she wanted to continue being an idol. She couldn't have a public relationship. But I think she wanted to show her kids to him because she gained a little bit of courage while raising them. That she could show her real self. When you look at a Ai, you can infer she has a lot welled up. They had always hidden themselves, and now they have "secrets" that are not just their own, living, that grow with time. She's always had vicious circle that led to self-hatred from all the lies she'd been creating, which led to anger and stress…and it was this close to being let out through the movie. Maybe that's why Aqua believes making movies is for her. It's to fulfill her desire to be freed from the lies.

When it comes to whether she loved Kamiki as much as the children or as much as Kamiki craved from her, it's hard to say for now. However, I've always noticed how Ai, who is very careful and cautious when it came to keeping her image, was willing gave her address and tried to show her children to him. That means she thought him as someone who she could trust. I thought that the ex must have liked Ai because they had a positive effect on her after their meeting. Considering their age, it is likely a case of two children who were unprotected and emotionally vulnerable and became close by relying on each other. I'm sure there were to be some type of bond at least.

It's all a matter of speculation, but Ai's method of "caring" usually boils down in ways that the other person has no idea about how Ai herself feels and her circumstances. I think that's what happened in her relationship with her boyfriend. She's like the rabbit doll in the beginning of Mephisto, with her colleagues in IDOL going "You're great! You're never sad or angry!". Everyone around her ends up adoring and blaming her like an object to project upon, without having to think about how Ai feels inside. I think the 15 year-lie would have acted as a confession of that situation, with the message being:

Isn't it possible that she cut him off unilaterally to "protect him from herself," and then when there were signs that things were stabilizing over time, through the children, the president, and the fans, she took the time to call him back when she could, for it to have ended up like this? It's possible that Ai seemed to be so unmoved that her potential feelings didn't resonate with the other party, who felt betrayed at the time because she seemed so cold and distant. Ai doesn't like herself, and may have decided it's better for her to leave. She may have thought that Kamiki's obsession with her was bad for himself, or with him being so driven to the point where he thought that she was all he had. At that point Ai didn't believe she knew love, so she thought he'd be disappointed later. This is only a speculation but Kamiki could've wanted to take responsibility for the children if he knew, but it was Ai who thought it'd better for her to carry all everything and go her separate ways, because if she kept her mouth shut and kept it a secret, it wouldn't hurt him… and it's a child she wanted to have (and if this were to be the case, Kamiki's own wishes probably were never taken into consideration at all). Surprisingly, Kamiki may have feelings of affection for the children he had with Ai. He's never come to met them, but that could be because Ai told him not to. He complimented how Ruby grew up to be so beautiful resembling both him and Ai, that'd mean he must still like her, right? He has a love-hate relationship with Ai, but he's never harmed or came into close contact with either of his children until they were grown up. Could it be that Ai told him to stay away from her when they had the breakup?(And then she calls him up years later and asks if he wants to see the kids, unintentionally driving him insane)

"I've been lying about loving you all this time, and I don't want to do that anymore. Now I'm really going to tell you what's on my mind, and we're going to start over. We're going to build a relationship from the ground."Something like this? Something like this would be best.

If it's something like this, it'll be a blow to Kamiki. It'll be the same as Ryosuke, because he'll realize that he's the one who stabbed the hand that held out to love him and killed it, and he'll never be able to have that love again. It'll be revenge to realize that.

I can be wrong, but… But I still think there was something Ai would've wanted to convey to kamiki through that movie.

Ryosuke is a scumbag, and if Ai's meant what she said to them, I think it would be more of a statement towards all the fans who loved him than it was about him. Kamiki, if he really did instigate Ai's death, also needs to be punished for his respective crimes. Ai contributed to a part of his misery maybe, but… she's never actively harmed anyone. She may have hurt people's feelings, but she never did anything to deserve to die like this, and I don't think it should have happened, no matter what. It's a stalking and killing crime. I think Ai's life was very lonely, but I think she kept reaching out and trying within her limits. I hope all children grow up to be loved. The idea of love took over "Ai's" life, and I think she lived up to her name.

Beyond this are some more speculation, though it's likely to be more off than the stuff above.

For now, that's how I feel about this character.

I don't think Kamiki would have taken it that way, though. it was twisted, in more ways than one.

+ I think the Ai's feelings for Kamiki were… I think she's liked Kamiki quite a bit. Whether it was love is ambiguous. I don't think she would have been able to say for sure that she loved anyone at that point. This character hasn't been taught what love is, so her ideas of theoretical love, and the barriers to it are pretty high. Ai would've been confused going "Oh, is this what love is?" even if it's a level of emotion that most would consider to be love. What they had between them seems like something that could have been love, but never really came to a conclusion. In fact, the contradiction of Ai's character is that she wants to love, but blocks deep feelings for fear of being hurt. I think it would have been difficult for her to love him like she did for her own children, with whom she has an unconditional connection through blood…it would have been impossible for her at that time.

This is completely speculative, but I wonder if when she found out she was pregnant, she hid it, called it quits, and disappeared, because she felt like it would be a burden for him to know, and she thought she could handle it all on her own. She didn't ask for any help, and she didn't ask for anything when she agreed to keep the baby. Kamiki somehow found out and came to the birth and sees it from afar. Ryosuke runs away because he killed someone, but this character didn't do anything harmful to Ai that day. On the contrary, Kamiki may have been subconsciously been influenced by the person who exploited him. He may not have hated the children Ai had with him as much because he saw them as his connection to her. Perhaps after having seen her loving her children he had with her, raising them well, he had hopes that maybe she could get back together with him someday, and maybe she even cared about him a little bit. After he got that call from her, however, he realized that she needed the children but not him, and he despaired that there was no place for him in his life to begin with. Kamiki may not have any hard feelings toward his children. Rather, there might be some kind of inner affection he holds towards them proving as evidence that there was still a relationship between him and Ai; and that's why he sponsored the movie?

As for Ai, It would have been hard for Ai to truly love the children of a man she didn't even like, but there are no signs of that with her, either.. I don't think she broke up with him because she didn't like him. If you look at the phone scene, you get the impression that Ai broke up with him in a pretty casual way, there was a level of willingness to talk to him again and keep in touch and build a relationship from the beginning. This is a big deal coming from Ai because she has little to no friends and only a limited number of people with whom she's had a deep relationship. She's still wanted to form some kind of relationship with her ex-boyfriend, and here we can infer that Kamiki is a pretty important relationship for her. From her point of view, there was room for the future in that relationship. I think she was thinking about starting over with a more authentic relationship with her fans and with her ex-boyfriend. As she grew to love her children, she was subconsciously preparing herself to do so.

By the way, is it really true that Kamiki has been committing murders all this time? I think it could be a huge detriment to the manga's completeness and immersion to reveal the real culprit was someone entirely different at the very end, but we've never seen this character directly do anything, so I think it would be a good idea for the author to bring a twist the plot. It could be just that he feels responsible or guilty because he couldn't stop what's happened… He might actually be someone like Aqua who feels intense guilt for something he wasn't responsible for (I say this is like a 5% chance). Ryosuke is a stalker, so it's possible that he stalked Ai for four years and found out her address on his own. In the case of the actor, it's also possible that Kamiki's warned her to be careful beforehand, but she died anyway, so he's self-loathing saying it's all because of him. If you look closely, he seems to be blaming himself, so he keeps repeating the phrase "because of me." Did he actually kill her? This could be a narrative trick. You see how he's had a terrible past. Himekawa and Uehara may not have been the only ones that died around him, maybe he's cursed? Maybe there's a god that makes people with great talent in the arts unhappy… Anyone would have been suspicious if people around Kamiki kept dying in the first place, but Akane, who did the background check on Kamiki, didn't suspect anything like that, did she? It's never revealed in the story if he killed people, and if so, how many. People just come to infer "oh, he's a psychopathic killer" but just how much of it's right? We'll get to see that soon, I guess.

++Lying is also a keyword that's constantly stressed.

Like I said, I don't think it's very likely… Now that I think about it, the bouquet is a possible connection to Ryosuke. However, he may be less guilty than we thought. If it's true that he's killed other celebrities, the most intuitive reason I can think of is that he didn't want anyone to shine more than Ai's ever did. But what good does that do? What exactly does it mean to this character to feel the weight of his life? :/ Is it actually a positive thing for him, does he want to have a heavy life, does he want to do anything with it? This is something I can't say until the author explains it, because I don't have any information. There is also the matter of God in this story, but I don't know that'd get tied it into the the plot even though the manga is nearing the end. Ai and Kamiki are supposed to be characters who are connected to the gods, probably but I can't make any guesses. I was more confident about the psychological analyses than my plot predictions.

Isn't "15-year old lie two things? Ai lied to her fans that she loved them, and she lied to her boyfriend that she couldn't love him even though she had feelings for him. She told two lies about love, and now she's spilling the beans and saying, as she said before, that she wants to try to love again with her true heart.

The song "Idol" is what summarizes the whole storyline. If there is a lie that can be maintained for 15 years, I think it would be this.

In that case, assuming that the boyfriend loved the child, it would definitely be revenge from Aqua's point of view and give Ai what she's wanted… After all, Ai's narrative is a journey of a child trying to be true.

[ameliaszahmet]

Duncan , the most EVIL character in TOTAL DRAMA HISTORY- a psychological anaylsis of the narcissistic syndrome and the downfall of 3 great characters: Courtney , Gwen and Trent (and why Courtney made a list)

I want to specify something from the start. Duncan Courtney Gwen and Trent are ALL MY ABSOLUTE FAVOURITES . I just tried to make sense of this situation through a psychological point of view. Each time I analyze this it gets darker but a lot more interesting than expected. So the point is not hate them but figure them out.

I wrote this covering almost each and every aspect. courtney's sudden friendship with gwen , duncan as the one and only evil character , courtney's downfall and her list. I split this in more parts cuz it was already too long . So more parts to come .But in this one I cover their characters and their personalities

To understand better what really happened in total drama and that love triangle there is only one and ONLY ONE EXPLANATION for that . Narcissistic syndrome.

For those who don't know narcissistic syndrome refers to people who have a constant need for attention and a complete disregard of who they might be using to get that. We're not talking about someone just simply looking in the mirror we're talking about a complete painful form of abuse.

To get a better understanding of Duncan ‘s character we need to see how it all started . The first thing that Duncan did when coming to Island was flirt with whatever moved around him, torture animals and bully people. He pretty much made a point how he wants to be seen . A bully . “Being bad is cool.” He tried his luck with some girls on island :heather, lindsay , gwen , till courtney fell for it. "told you she wanted me". While for her it seemed like the best day of her life because she finally got her chance to express herself as she is without that pressure of rules and "perfect image" , for Duncan was just another usual Monday. She was so obsessed with rules ,raised to believe they are the only thing that keep her safe in society but the moment a bully showed her how to be free she accepted that immediately. She wanted to be free and Duncan offered what she wanted.

I do follow rules , that makes me a loser , right?

With his usual taste to break the rules it is quite obvious why he was fixated on Courtney and why he didn't try to flirt with other girls when she was around. He knew that at some point she would fall for him ,cuz Courtney = rules and Duncan LIKES breaking them.He saw her as a challenge and not someone he particularly liked for herself. He dislikes rules or police or law or anything that courtney mostly takes interest in: studying, school, being a good kid etc. He had a lot of girls, specifically those that "are crazy" . "I had crazier chicks and uglier or" hey I like that in a chick. "He likes to drive them crazy for him and the attention he's getting from them and Courtney gave him that each EACH AND EVERY SINGLE TIME.

While most of the guys have shown a particular interest for the girls they genuinely liked , like Trent for Gwen , Geoff for Bridgette , Owen for Izzy , and Tyler for Lindsay ,Duncan was the only one who tried his luck with ALL of them. Touching Lindsay's shoulder without permission, flirting with Heather the first moment he got there or flirting with Gwen later.

It is not unusual for a narcissist to use one or more victims to get their constant supply of attention and Courtney offered him plenty.

The situation changed in season 2 , especially when Courtney was not around anymore to give him that ,and Gwen's relationship with Trent was his PERFECT OPPORTUNITY to get it. He saw Gwen weak ,vulnerable during her difficult time with trent just like he saw courtney's obsession with rules as her own weakness, which made them the "perfect victims".

The sudden interest and the amount of time Duncan spent with Gwen made her confused enough about his feelings for her and Duncan knew that it would work against both her and Trent. He knew how much Trent cared about her and he used his jealousy to his advantage while turning his genuine love into a pathetic image in front of gwen. He saw this as an opportunity and not genuine interest. " Personally I would choose the money ", "I would remind you two about it when money' s divvied up" .While Trent valued her more than money and always as his first option Duncan saw her as a second option.

idk ....duncan? Not sure herself of her choice this was the very moment Duncan understood his plan worked. She made her confused for his own gain.

He instigated the doubt between them to make their relationship fall. A narcissist doesn't care who is he using for that as long as he gets to be the centre of attention and create trouble. He doesn't care about people more than himself. Just like he didn't care what Courtney might think watching this back home and seeing him doing this to people around him without remorse.

season 2 he noticed that Gwen 's relationship with trent suffers a change for the worst so he used that to his advantage. He told in his audition tape he is "resourceful" , he adapts to many situtations. His best skills are "fake tears"as he refered in his confessional . A skill that he proved to have it from a young age " oh mom was that your favourite vase? boo hooo" It is seen through his friendship with Alejandro how easy is for them to lie to women for their own convenience and even when both Courtney and Gwen were around.

those 2 are pretty much on the same page when it comes to seducing women without any regard of how they both feel. The main difference is one does it for the game and the other for "FUN"

Duncan can manipulate his goodness and his badness to his own advantage .

When he saw he's losing his game with Gwen he lured her back by saving her from the leeches trying to insist he's good while he simultaneously tried to send hints to courtney by using his relationship with Gwen and trying to make her notice him . All this while he tried to prove his bad boy image for a whole season. He doesn't want to be good, he doesn't want to be seen like this. It just happens his goodness was useful for him when he wanted to prove he's bad.

In season 2 he told gwen about the stars, and how good he treats his girlfriend because he knew this very thing would ATTRACT her when she was dealing with her hard time with Trent and offered her a safe option she can pick when her relationship with trent completely falls , just like he told courtney "oh look sweetheart how cool it is to break rules but I have a "soft side "so of course I'm not gonna hurt you." He knows Gwen is a kind girl in spite of her strong appearance just like he knew courtney is weak in spite of her forceful personality. He doesn't like to be seen as nice but it is not uncommon for narcissists to use that if it's proven to be helpful in achieving their goals. Duncan pretty much like Alejandro has to analyze the situation and act according to the victim's preference. Harold is obsessed with duty and honour? then Alejandro suggests "harakiri" , Bridgette's character turned completely dependent on Geoff ? then Alejandro makes her fall for him cuz she's weak without him. Dj has a curse problem? He creates a "gold fish" fakely making him believe he is not cursed anymroe.

Duncan operates in the same way Alejandro did.

He used Courtney's weakness and love for him against her to get Gwen and he used Gwen's trust and emotional vulnerability to get Courtney. To understand why it was easy to do this to them we need to see their characters.

For both Gwen and Courtney art is basically the only place they allow themselves to be weak

Both of them are sensitive souls who keep their feelings hidden in the hopes someone might get them one day . Gwen likes drawing , music and actual romantic stuff in spite of her dark strong goth appearance. And Courtney was the kind who never wanted other people see that she is weak , not even let them see she has a small fear or open up for a moment about her feelings ," you must be afraid of something"

"No ...nothing...."

or that her eye was hurt : " what happened to your eye girl ?" nothing! ! but it's worse.!!

" shh we don t want to let them know that. "

Her violin is the only thing she particularly feels attached to and her only safe way to actually express what she really feels. For many musicians, playing the violin is an emotional outlet and a way to express their innermost feelings. The physical closeness of the violin to the player’s body creates an intimate connection, allowing the musician to channel their emotions directly into their playing. She uses her violin to share emotions she wouldn't normally tell out loud just like Gwen creates art through her drawings revealing her deepest emotions on paper

Courtney has trouble trusting people fearing her weakness might be used against her and Duncan was the first person she completely let her guard down for. Why Duncan? She noticed he was "different". Until that" soft side episode " she did not have interest in him that much. He called her princess cuz she is spoiled not as a form of affection. that's why she hated it. She doesn't like to be reminded she has to keep up with a "perfect image" . All she wants is to be herself . Courtney mostly thought he is just a bully , just a plain bully. But the moment she saw that he has" a good side " she completely changed her mind "ohh, a bunny , wow he is nice??? " yet for him it was not something he is particularly proud of or wanted to show her. Everyone has a soft or weak or a mean side , something that Courtney and Gwen find it hard to accept .

That's for the first part. second to come.

[stillness-in-green]

On a happier note, according to the ninth popularity poll, Nimble actually won 32nd place! It was probably a joke vote, but I take it as a small Advisor win anyday!

(Or: a brief but salty comparison between the PLF Advisors and the Shie Hassaikai Eight Bullets)

I saw that!  In a paucity of great results (Monoma hitting #11, missing the color image by a single rank, is so MonomaCore I can't even be mad) and amidst some low-key scandal about uncounted votes, it was a small bright spot. Good for her!!  She deserved it, and so much more.

(Yes, I’m still annoyed that she was Spinner’s #1 and yet got so much less to do than his #2, who gets so much more in the way of personality and dialogue, and who is not-so-coincidentally male.  I love Scarecrow and have from the moment I attributed to him dialogue the anime wound up giving RD, but come on.)

Honestly, if you’ll forgive me for using your ask as a springboard for a rant, the general paucity on that front has lately had me thinking about the Shie Hassaikai arc, and how much better, comparatively speaking, Overhaul’s crew got treated.  All named, all with named and explained quirks, and all but one of them[1] have at least one factoid shared either within the story or in supplementary material about their backstories, their relationships, their motivations, or their roles within the gang!  We know Mimic is the gang’s accountant, for example, and we know Tengai is the newest member, specifically recruited to serve as a restraint on Rappa.

1: Sasaki Deidoro is, I think, the only one about whom we know nothing beyond his observable personality and quirks (both mundane and metahuman).  The closest we’ve got is the on-the-job drinking, and even with that, we don’t know for sure to what extent his quirk and his heavy drinking are entwined.  Does the strength of his quirk depend on the amount of alcohol in his system, similar to the prerequisites characters like Fat Gum, Suneater, Momo and Sato have, or does it work the same regardless and he simply prefers to be drunk?  His Ultra Anaylsis blurb says he loves alcohol and is always drunk—hardly a huge leap to make from what's in the manga itself—but is that because his quirk gives him a biological compulsion towards alcohol, making it difficult for him to live a normal life, which in turn led him to the yakuza?  Or is it more a factor of the sort of life he leads, difficulties in his personal history, the demands of his boss, etc? Would he still be an alcoholic either way?

On top of that, every single one has a minimum of one dedicated scene apart from their introductory spread in Chapter 138 and the group scene where Overhaul inducts Toga and Twice into the gang’s operations, and several, like Chrono, Mimic and Nemoto, get multiple such moments dedicated to them throughout the arc.  Even in defeat, we can account for them with relative confidence: the transports attacked by the League reported themselves as carrying 11 members of the Shie Hassaikai, presumably the Eight Bullets, Overhaul himself, Mimic, and Chrono.

Compare this to the advisors, who get exactly the same sort of introductory spread as the Eight Bullets do, but who are for the most part unnamed,[2] only Slidin’ Go getting his quirk officially named, the vast majority of them (17 out of 21) having no chance to even demonstrate what their quirk is, and many of whom not only never get dedicated scenes,[3] but are not even accounted for by the course of the story!  By my measure, only a third of them (7 of 21) can be earmarked as “definitely arrested”—one further, Hose Face, could be called definitely defeated, but given that Big Sis Bindi was in that first wave of people attacked by the Edgeshot+Midnight(+whichever students with ranged attacks they were in range of) combo and yet showed up later in a group shot of PLF remnants, even apparently decisive defeats may not necessarily result in a lieutenant being successfully captured if the Heroes on-scene have too much else to do.

2: And the handful we do get names for are not named in the course of their actual appearances as PLF members.  Slidin’ Go is named because he’s introduced as a Hero and gets a volume extra for that same chapter, several chapters before he’s explicitly identified as a member of the MLA and long before he appears in the roster of PLF advisors.  Sanctum’s identity as Twice’s #1 was just an educated guess based on Twice’s framing of the lecture he received and Hawks’s subsequent namedrop; it’s a guess the anime team made as well, adding a visual of Sanctum to the moment of Twice’s impression, but lord knows the anime does not always get everything right about the MLA!  Finally, Scarecrow might be named Disgustas, but that’s the thinnest guess of all, since it’s based on a scrawl of katakana under an artist sketch of the character included in a pile of other such sketches used as volume preview material.  It’s never used anywhere in the canon itself, and therefore, to me, is not specifically more reliable than any first-draft sketch of a character—it would be like basing your assumptions about Bakugou based on his discarded initial conception as an impossibly annoying prep!  Of the three, Slidin’ Go is the only one whose real name, as opposed to a code name, is known.

3: I would say only Galvanize, Scarecrow, Slidin’ Go and Hose Face rise to the level of having “dedicated scenes,” with Piercings Dude and Brand being the next-closest, the former getting a clear demonstration of his quirk and the latter getting one (1) characterful line of dialogue.  Nimble gets one or two lines of generic rabble rousing, but it lacks anything specific to grab onto as a characterization note, and in fact mostly serves to raise questions about how she’s talking when her face seems to utterly lack a mouth!  Giving her spoken dialogue actually undermines one of the most memorable aspects of her character design!

Three of the advisors are never seen again period after their introductory spread!  They aren’t shown in the opening rounds of the battle, they aren’t shown as escapees, they aren’t shown as arrested, and they appear nowhere in the second war.  They simply vanish entirely from the story; for all we know, Hawks could have guessed their identities wrong, or they could have gone back underground like the original MLA to make sure Liberation ideology survives!

And, of course, most glaringly, there’s the matter of their lack of characterization or defined motivation.

Looking back at the Hassaikai, Katsukame Rikiya—the big energy-draining dude fought by Ryuukyuu and co.—strikes me as the most thinly characterized on his face, being primarily defined by his boorishness towards Nejire, and not helped by the full-coverage bird mask.  Even he, though, has a supplementary note about how he’s a long-time member of the gang who was a "younger brother" (in the yakuza sense, not the familial one) to Overhaul, which suggests a rather charming admiration pulled straight out of the standard book of yakuza relationships, which is noticeably not a dynamic Overhaul has with anyone else in the gang!  All of them are pretty distinct, as much as can be hoped for of characters with their limited screen time; they're bolstered by on-screen connections to other members of the group or quirks that hint at how they came to be criminals.

Compare this over to the PLF.  The named MLA characters introduced during My Villain Academia are all relatively clearly drawn people, with only Geten lacking a real full name and only Trumpet so much as a hint of personal backstory.  All of them have roles, personality, specific ways they engage pursuing the cause, differing shades of belief in what the cause even entails, all that great stuff. 

But the advisors? Aside from their fantastically varied and diverse designs, they're far thinner.  Other than the previously introduced Slidin’ Go, their personalities are virtually identical—militant zealots—with only the barest of discernible differences that trace mostly, again, to the expressiveness of their great designs.  Galvanize and “Red” come off as pretty chill; Sanctum seems more stern than fiery; Big Sis Bindi and Aster have a “cool” vibe.

But that’s the issue: they “come off” that way; that’s “the vibe” they have.  I’m having to guess that based mostly on isolated pictures with no dialogue and little action.  When they get dialogue, what we get is that same “militant zealot” tack, and worse, there’s a choking, overflowing infusion of overt supremacist rhetoric that previously Geten-whose-name-means-Apocrypha was the only character to openly espouse.  As for why those characters believe this—other than as a meta-narrative device to make them less sympathetic—and how they came to be members of the group, none of that gets explored.  The few who do get “dedicated” fight scenes with other characters still get stunningly little time to establish themselves.

Compare the three full chapters (plus bits around the edges of Kirishima's two-chapter flashback) we get with Rappa and Tengai with the single scene Galvanize gets that ends with him ignominiously wiping out against Kaminari.  Compare the two chapters—with space given to specifically showcase their bonds with each other, their individual backstories, and how they came under Overhaul’s dubious wing!—allotted to the Trash Trio before Suneater overcomes them, expressing sympathy and admiration in the moment he does so, with the incredibly cruel-minded showcase Scarecrow gets, his own internal monologue undermining any attempts to read him sympathetically, only the scar on his head even implying anything about his own experience with discrimination, before Koda angrily and summarily pushes him off the roof of a tall building.

And those are the two who do the best!  Hose Face is such a cartoon he has to be made to gloat out of nowhere about a random woman he killed on the battlefield months prior, doubtlessly not the only person he killed that day or in the time since, for no reason but that Horikoshi no longer had the time—or perhaps the freedom—to explain how Hose Face came to have the beliefs he does such that his opponents in the story and the readers of the story can regard him with the slightest trace of empathy or compassion.

It's just pretty fucking egregious all-round.  So, to circle back around to the actual content of the ask (sorry), I’m glad that at least 403 people probably a small handful of extremely dedicated fans with money to burn, be it as a joke or not, looked past the bullshit and voted for Nimble anyway.  The advisors all deserved the kind of attention and care that would have had a handful of dedicated fans voting for them, in the same way that members of the Hassaikai other than Overhaul still show up in the polls to this day.

Thanks for the ask, @shockersalvage! And I'm sorry for using your happier note mostly to complain orz.

P.S. I admit this is a bit unbalanced because a chunk of what we know about the Hassaikai cast does come from the databooks, and we hadn't even met the advisors yet back when Ultra Analysis was released! So maybe if we get a third and final databook once the series actually ends, the advisors will get some blurbs as well.

But cripes, given the quality of their writing in the endgame, do I even want them to? I think I'd prefer Horikoshi just give them canon names and then leave them alone.

[envihellbender]

BYF: 🔞18+ only🔞, blanket trigger Dead Dove warning. I block people I don’t like on sight. No discourse. You’re boring.

I do requests for: oc, fanfic, headcanons, character creation, AUs, meta/anaylsis, and the like.

Fiction wise I specialise in: horror, dark, trauma, smut, kink writing prompts.

Only rule is: no kids involved (not just for the obvious but also for the horror, under 16 is a definite no). But also I do this blog for fun so if you send me something I don’t wanna do, I won’t do it.

✨ Random shit about me ✨

Astro: Aries ☀️ Cancer 🌙 Sag 🌅

Married to: @ninetimesthepain

Pronouns: they/them or he/him

Gender: is a cage and I’m a wild animal (faggot, freak, thing, manbeast, hellspawn, transvestite)

Orientation: gay guy with an ace edge

Other: Celtic pagan witch, bendy cripple, intersex, AuDHD, system (don’t call me plural please), metalhead, demonic malevolent being, gorehound

Find writing here

Some Fandoms / Fanfics I write: Star Wars, Dragon Age, Dead by Daylight, Batman, The Sandman, Dead Boy Detectives, The Magnus Archives (inclu Protocol), Succession, Fargo fx, 911 (original and Lonestar), The Bear, Saw movies, Invincible, House MD, Stranger Things, Baldur’s Gate, Ghost (the band), Sleep Token, One Piece, Barry, Midnight Mass, The Silt Verses, Scott Pilgrim Takes Off, Dungeons and Dragons, The Fall of the House of Usher, Vampire The Masquerade, Old Gods of Appalachia, Atlas Six, Vicious, Breaking Bad, Squid Game, The Mechanisms, JJBA, Monster (Manga), Thirteen Storeys, Family Business, Tokyo Ghoul, Neon Genesis Evangelion, Beastars, Trese, Arcane, Sherlock Holmes (ACD verse), Frankenstein (book), Bojack Horseman, Disco Elysium, OFF, Fire Emblem (3 houses/hopes, awakening, and engage), Persona (3-5 + Strikers), Deep Space Nine, Naruto, Castlevania, Mexican Gothic, and a lot lot lot of horror films/books/etc

Fave topics to write about: horror, angst, queer criminals, queer murderers, queer villains, extreme weight gain, other niche kinks, characters and their trauma, stalkers, abusers, toxic families. Things involving monster and cryptids as OCs, AUs, or just within a canon are heavily encouraged.

[your-local-uwu-artist]

okay so i got another video essay idea BUT I SWEAR T H I S TIME i think ill manage to complete the script (yes thats what i say everyt ime fnsdjkafl) anyway

if youd like to hear more its under the cut (kirby related btw uwu)

warning its all very ramble-y

setting the bar low and keeping the tone more so to just discussing something i like so i dont get to ambitious with the analysis

so a while back i read this awesome poggers fanfic called "being a knight is easy (and so is pretending to be one) by @/azzie-tangerine

its REALLY GOOD

and ive already had plans for a potential series discussing completed novel length fanfics so it could be snazzy!!

most notably though sense its written work thatll help me to not go crazy ambitous with the anaylsis: i ussually just have SO many thoughts that its hard to write down, so im hoping that covering a written work instead of something with a visual element, will help my thoughts to be more manageable sense like, i dont have as many of those entire essays over itty bitty details stuck in my head sense i dont have as much of a grasp on the itty bitty details of the written word

like bassically, because im less savy with written work my brain wont go so absolutely primal artist instinct mode feral lmaofnsdjkalfhdsk

anyway, ill want to go over all the art and fanart the author has done and recieved and maaaaybe if i gain the confidence see if i could talk to/interview the author?? (i had the confidence to compliment them on anon but that was it nfdskja )

gsoh this post is so un structured

uuhhhh heres a link to the fic

Being a Knight is Easy! (So is Pretending to Be One) - Chapter 1 - Azzie_Tangerine - Kirby (Video Games) [Archive of Our Own]

if you read it: it would be super helpful to me if you could maybe lmk your thoughts and takeaways on it? or wanna talk about it with me more

its nice to have other peoples thoughts to bounce off of when writing a review/video essay/anaylsysis/random guy on the internet goes feral over kirby characters having emotions video

so anywayyy snfskjdfk ummm if anybody would have any video edting software recs that would be GREAT too~ (as well as its nice to know who would be willing to proof read my scripts)

okie so

currently i guess my "to do list" for starting up this idea is to reread the fic wile writing notes along the way: and joting down comments and quotes

during that ill also work on organzing my thoughts into topics/categories

i dont want to worry to much about structure, art, and the such until i have more work to show

anyhow! while im chaotically chatting i might as well kirby animation update too!!!

im having a hard time deciding where to start with the lines: at first i was gonna do a non anti-aliasing basic brush so itd be easy to color but i really wanted a bit more texture so im currently trying to get all the backgrounds lineart with that: in which ill than go along with the character animation and color whenever its most convenient too~

and sense i can heres another wip!

a bit of a pause on this piece: ima try to find some lineless scenery speedpaints to give me more of an idea of how to go about with this

[get-fossilized-idiot]

bluuuuuuuuh. data analysis. so uncool man! :(

hope it went well though! if it did not, then the data analysis simply could not handle your coolness. your coolness was so high off the charts that data anaylsis uh. swooned!! or something!! :p - john/june

exactly you get it man dave strider just too mind blowingly sick for this poor goddamn data it broke apart like a villain in some magical girl anime

[the-gequassel-shiro27]

“Kekkon Surutte Hontou desu ka?- 365 Days to the Wedding”Manga Review, kinda

Ever had a Manga that is just heartwarming to read? And while being at it, its chracters living rentfree in your head? A series that is satisfying to read, despite or more accurately because it’s sometimes a bit predictable. For me this happened with “Kekkon Surutte Hontou desu ka?- 365 Days to the Wedding”, a Manga by Tamiki Wakaki, which recently got an anime announced. It was said announcement, that got me to read the description of the manga and lead me to read it, halfheartedly at first. After three days however, i started to bookmark it.  Without realizing it the series just stuck to me because, there were moments or even entire chapters that left me with a stupidly bright smile and a very warm and cozy feeling. Usually accompanied by a  feeling of “i knew it”.

“Kekkon  Surutte Hontou desuka?” is a slice of life/(office) romance manga about Takuya Oohara and Rika Honnjouji who are co-workers at a travel agency, where the higher- ups recently announced the opening of a branch in Irkutsk. Both protagonists are incredibly anti-social and neither of them wants to be send there. To reduce the likelyhood of getting send there, they pretend that they are getting married to each other, because the higher-ups also announced that singles are more likely to be send there. While pretending to get married they actually fall in love with each other. Technically this plan could easily fall flat, because the higher-ups could just send both of them, but that’s probably just me relinquishing my suspension disbelieve for a second. With that out of the way, one of the things that i like the most about the series is how the characters start developing because of each other. Both of them open up as people through interacting with each other and to see that unfold is genuinely heartwarming. And it stays like this. Without going into detail a good example of this is the entire development from chapter 20 or so up to chapter 50. Their different social backgrounds, ad an interesting element to their relationship, by creating a bit of tension, beyond just the two of them, because an underlying theme seems to be aside from marriage, the conflict between tradition and modernity. Something that influences another great aspect of the story namely the way how the author uses their co-workers to subtly deal with themes that, from my experience, are rarely brought up in  slice of life/romance manga, like (dealing with) divorce and to some extend single motherhood. The only way how i’ve percieved these themes within the confines of romance manga somewhat, was thorough the classic, “oldest daughter does the household, while the mother works” trope. Within the story, especially the topic of single motherhood was part an arc, which lead me to like one the sidecharacters, Gonda, who meets a woman who turns out to be a single mother. Through that arc he gets an interesting amount of character development.

The fact that there were little to no conflict, to the point were i expected one to happen, while it didn't happen is something that i really enjoyed about the manga. A minor nitpick is that Gonda's Arc feels a bit cut short, but that impression might change, considering that i am currently slowly rereading the series. So in the future I might actually revisit this with a properly researched anaylsis on its themes (and probably overinterpret it, to the point of seeing aluminium trees).

So to conclude: I can happily recommend this Manga. 

[demonsfate]

hmmmmm. thinking about writing one gigantic post that’s p much a love letter to jin’s character, but also explaining why i love him so much and why he matters a lot. also debunking a lot of popular beliefs about him, and showing why he works in certain things (the first 5 games he’s in) vs why he doesn’t work in others (TEK6 namely, as well as the anime, and some crossovers.) i’ve written about this many times before. buuut. i’m thinking about doing one gigantic post regarding it - just spilling it all out there. i’d like to maybe make a youtube video of this. buuut i’m not the best at articulation, and i’m rly shy about getting on mic. so i’ll just write it all down in one Huge Blog Post. a jin appreciation and anaylsis post. so uh. prepare for that.

i’ll probs copy + paste (albeit rewrite some things) from a post i made yesterday or the day before as to why it’s WRONG to say jin’s motivations have always solely been revenge. since that’s a very common misconception fans have, and an excuse they use as to why “villain jin makes sense” (villain jin never works - from a writing point too - and i’m gonna get down and dirty with that.)