#anyway ed villain arc

[rainbow-wolf120]

Guys, I think I downloaded the wrong TV show

Uhhh this was 100% impulse tbh. I have never attempted to replicate the clh or draw Ed ever in my life

So I hope this looks likes both or one or the other

Anyway, taffy looking mf

[sbggarakungfood]

Why Jay Deserves the Villain Arc (why it suits him)

His name is Jay Walker

He has Cliff Gordon's DNA. Cliff Gordon. The one who has the book of "wooing women", who of course targeted the master of lightning, and oh right! He's an actor, I'm sure it's easy for him to pretend to be someone else, being perceived as "cute" by Libber, to be able to get her, though I'm still wondering why's she suddenly being chased when Jay was still a baby, making her run away alone with baby Jay, who potentially has the elemental power of lightning, and putting him in the junkyard so that her baby can be safe, so then the former master of lightning FINALLY can DISAPPEAR. Jay isn't like Cg. because Ed n Edna raised him. But let's make a big deal out of it anyway. (he still has his charm though).

Jay planned to destroy the top floor of a building TWICE. And SUCCEEDED. He wasn't even a villain that time. Can’t wait to see how many buildings he'll destroy when he unlocks his villain true potential.

There's a possibility where Jay would throw away the moral values for a mission. This has been proven in s5 when he suggested thievery when he took the lead.

This post. (Not just about the biting thing) I know it's a tease but listen at how easy for him to threaten somebody. He threatens to zap Kai, next season, he threatens to bite Cole. Even though he didn't do it, threatening the main characters is supposed to be a villain thing.

There's a chance he'll laugh after he electrocutes somebody. Then electrocutes them again.

Experienced in having a cult.

[physalian]

10 Plot Premises That Never Get Old

There’s a great many lists out there complaining about the worst and most overused tropes in fiction. I want to pass the mic to tropes that will never get old. The love-to-hate ones, the knife-twisting ones, the shipping fodder.

1. Killing the character who knew too much

Or, the “Maes Hughes” effect. Your story centers around a massive mystery or conspiracy and one lone character is unfortunately not genre-savvy enough to remember that the phrase “the early bird gets the worm” ends in “but the second mouse gets the cheese”.

This is the character who has unraveled the partial, if not entire truth, coming to a shocking realization moments before their untimely murder. Usually, they’re alone. Usually, this death rocks the remaining characters, sometimes for the entirety of the remaining plot (see FullMetal Alchemist). Usually, they become genre-savvy at exactly the moment they realize there’s no way out of this. Conveniently, they’re never on the phone with the right person, or there’s never any cell service. They didn’t write their findings down or didn’t hit record.

This whole entire tragedy is only a tragedy because this character made the wrong choice that is also the only choice this character would have made.

2. The enemy of my enemy

As OSP once said, anyone can be a minion, even the presumed Big Bad. Whether it’s a serialized cartoon with well established sides of good and bad or a single movie, having two entities that loathe each other reluctantly and bitterly join forces to deal with an even Bigger Bad… that’s the good stuff.

Either the villain has been minion-ed, or the good guys and the bad guys’ enduring battle of morals is interrupted by a wild card third party that insults them both or threatens the world both sides are trying to save in their own ways.

This is *not* a redemption arc. This is the temporary alliance that usually terminates once the threat is dealt with (see: Transformers Prime, or ‘Marabounta’ from Code Lyoko). Extra points if they’re age-old rivals who fight better together than the hero does with the rest of their team. Extra extra points if they both realize this and firmly deny that it happens (and even more if the villain tries to exploit the hero with this fact later on).

3. The redemption arc

***Emphasis on the word ‘arc’*** The ones that span 56 out of 61 episodes (see: you know the show). The ones that cost the redeemer their ideals, the friends they thought they had on the wrong side, maybe a limb or two. The ones that start with a villain so convinced they’re right, only to slowly question everything they’ve come to know and, without shedding their entire personality, do the right thing and still survive the process.

This is not redemption equals death. This is not a half-assed heel turn at the very last second—that’s a button mash impulsive act for shock value. This is taking a character almost all of the heroes have given up on trying to save, someone they themselves have nearly written off, and deciding to try anyway. This is a character deciding to do the right thing even if it doesn’t ever redeem them at all. This is a character whose whole life ahead of them is spent doing better than what was done before, and we love them for it.

4. The haunted ashes of a fallen empire

This one is a bit more tricky to define but think Prometheus of the Alien franchise, or Xerxes from FMAB. These are characters in the present exploring the ruins of a civilization that never should have fallen, but did due to the Big Bad they either created or tried to imprison. This is those characters looking around at what used to be, and making history repeat itself whether they’re genre-savvy or not.

These are the glaring red sign posts telling the heroes to turn around every step further in *or else* and they do it anyway. Or, these are the heroes who know exactly what happened and in their own hubris, are convinced it won’t happen this time to them.

5. The Most Dangerous Game

The originator: An island owned by a big game hunter who has evolved into hunting humans. The trope: Powerful and/or incredibly skilled character in any other situation is trapped in the confines of a dwindling clock matched up against the very antithesis of who they are and what they represent, but who is also just like them.

I just love seeing characters who are normally incredibly competent and rarely fazed, tripped up by the horror of being hunted by someone just like them who lost their humanity. So many juicy existential questions arise, so much angst. Double points if the character has a firm no-kill policy or extremely picky morals and has to wager tossing them aside to survive.

6. Stranger in a strange land

Whether it’s a character in a foreign country trying to learn and respect the ways of the people who saved them (see: Last Samurai, or Avatar '09), or an alien who crash-landed on Earth and struggles to assimilate and not get caught by the government (see any PG 13 alien adventure movie), a time traveler to the past or the future (Outlander, Back to the Future), either drama or hilarity ensues, often with a heaping helping of socio-political commentary.

It gets kind of troublesome when the writer is a white guy taking all the wrong messages from throwing his white guy protagonist into a land of the ‘savages’ (see uhhhh all variations of Pocahontas). But then you have strange lands like Wonderland, or Narnia.

7. Magical Otherworlds

Speaking of Narnia and Wonderland—magical hidden otherworlds. They can be incredibly blandly executed sometimes, but some of our most cherished stories come from living vicariously through Harry Potter or the Pevensie siblings. In this case I’m specifically talking about complete otherworlds, not hidden-in-plain-sight otherworlds (see: Percy Jackson) because of the complete freedom and creativity you have in geography, history, and world mechanics.

The possibilities are endless! Double points if the otherworld is a metaphor for childhood adventure and living without adult responsibilities (see: Peter Pan), a world in which we know, no matter how cool the world is, the protagonist was never meant to stay there. They must always inevitably, inexorably, return home and take what they’ve learned there to live a better and profound life.

8. “I know you’re in there somewhere”

Is it done to death? Yes. Is every situation different because it’s completely dependent on the relationship between the characters involved? Also yes. Tends to overlap with a redemption arc, but more often a hero-turned-temporary-villain. The drama! The angst! The shipping fodder! (see: many, many anime, too many to count)

This trope also has some uncertainty to it. You never know if the confrontation will be a success, if the character in question will commit some heinous act to wrack them with guilt later, if they even want to be saved, or if they really were saved and not just faking it. Either we get a POV of the stricken character’s battle in the mind or are left watching on the edge of our seat as unknowing as those trying to save them, and sometimes, rarely, they’re just not salvageable.

9. On the Run

The base has been discovered, the ship has been overrun, the house has burned down, the government is on the hunt. The hero team is forced apart with only the clothes on their back and what they can carry with only one or two others and loses all contact with most of their team, scattered to the wind. They leave a trail of sketchy motel rooms and diner take-away boxes, or they sleep in their car, or are forced to hide out in old bases that the villain definitely knows about but wouldn’t bother checking, built in a bygone era with a friend that’s no more.

Everything they ever knew has been called into question. The character they find themselves stuck with wasn’t their closest buddy on the hero team, but both forge a newfound respect for each other in this new unknown. Poignant conversations are had as one keeps watch in the dark so the other can sleep, and yet doesn’t, as they mourn the passing of the life both knew and vow to take it all back in their darkest hour.

10. The Thing

As in, a mysterious entity or illness has invaded the story and knowing which characters are infected and compromised is impossible. This entity either bodysnatches other characters and can be expunged, zombifies them, or kills and replicates them (see many zombie shows, iterations of The Thing, or “Croatoan” from Supernatural). This entity is a sickness slowly spreading throughout the town or the base or the ship and the heroes (or villains) realize far too late that something is very, very wrong.

This entity brings characters to their breaking point, paranoia making them do very bad things in the name of survival, killing off characters the audience knows is clean, but their murderer doesn’t, for extra knife-twisty fun. This entity brings a morally devout character near to ruin as they almost cross a line trying to do what’s right. This is an entity where, even when it’s defeated, is never really gone for certain… is it?

[sixstepsaway]

I don't get why people want to pretend Ed wasn't abusive. Why do people insist on making everything into binaries? Yes, Ed has been a victim of abuse. Yes, he has been abusive. Both things can be true. I love him because I think he's in interesting and I understand where his pain is coming from (even if I think S2 was a missed opportunity in terms of character development). But anyway, thank you for writing about this because maybe some folks genuinely don't recognize abusive trends.

I think it has a lot to do with the fandom culture of only being allowed to like "wholesome" ships.

Look at it this way: when season 1 was airing, Ed and Stede were, in fact, very wholesome. Sure, they had some moments of lesser wholesomeness, but overall they were pretty wholesome and sweet and gentle. They were sweet and finding love in middle age and it was adorable. They had a general stamp of fandom approval that they were, in fact, Wholesome And Good To Ship™.

If you look at other fandoms, you'll see a lot of times there's the Good And Acceptable Ship and then there's the Bad Ship (or ships) and the Bad Ship is always slapped with the "oh that's actually incest!" label when they've, idk, grown up together, or "oh it's abusive!" because one of them one time made a bad joke or something, or "power dynamics!" because one is 27 and one is 25 or one is short and the other is tall or whatever, and yeah sometimes the Bad Ship is actually toxic or whatever (which is not a reason to not ship and enjoy it!), but they're put in neat little boxes: Good and Bad.

And for a lot of people, those boxes keep them safe. Last year, someone who was an Izzy Hands fan got doxxed because...? They liked Izzy Hands and shipped him with... I don't know actually. Ed? Stede? It doesn't matter, all I know is they got doxxed.

The side of fandom that thinks you should only ship the Good Ship are toxic and downright dangerous. It's happened again and again in numerous fandoms and just keeps happening.

So when at the end of s1, Ed turned around and cut Izzy's toe off and fed it to him, I think a lot of people panicked because shit, now Ed was Bad too, and if he's Bad then you can't like him or relate to him or ship him with the Good guy of Stede, so what the fuck do you do?

Obvious answer: Blame Izzy. Izzy's already classed as Bad, so put all the responsibility on Izzy for Ed's darkness and then it's safe to ship Ed and Stede again and no one can call you an abuse apologist or whatever for liking them together.

(To be clear: Shipping says nothing about your real morality. This is very clear for many reasons, one of which is... spend thirty seconds watching fans of the Wholesome Ships dox people and abuse people online lol)

So they spent all this time saying Ed was just scared and lashing out, and now s2 has come along and Ed is... well, abusive, canonically.

And for most of us, that doesn't really matter. We can still enjoy Ed and Stede or Ed and Izzy, we can throw ourselves into fanworks and enjoy the show for the things we like, and we can critique the things we have issues with (my problem is not Ed being written as dark and twisty and having a villain arc, my problem is the show writing it badly, exploring it badly, and then handwaving it, because it's shitty writing) and still really enjoy the vibes we got from the show.

But for people who are scared because they spent all this time saying Izzy fans should kill themselves for liking an abuser, well... now they have a choice: either admit Ed is an abuser and admit that liking a character doesn't dictate your irl morality, nor does it say anything about you aside from what you enjoy in fiction, or excuse away his actions, insist he's just a lil meow meow and continue feeling safe in their little bubble.

In a lot of ways I can't blame people for wanting to duck and cover from it. I mean, look at the shit people get for liking characters who aren't perfect, or talking about the imperfections of characters, or just enjoying complex narratives!

But what genuinely concerns me isn't anything to do with the fiction really, it's when people look at Ed's behavior in 2x01 and 2x02 and go, "Nah he's fine," because oh, honey, no, you are making yourself so vulnerable to real life abuse. That is what worries me, which is why I answered that one ask saying Ed wasn't abusive, it felt important to point out why he is.

Anyway, that's what I think is happening here. I think people are just scared that if they admit their fave has multitudes and isn't a perfect character who never does any wrong, they'll get doxxed and abused and harassed online.

I get that.

[izzyshandz]

I swear if i see one more mf say izzy has been 'redeemed' or needed a 'redemption arc' im literally going to scream into my pillow until i lose my voice.

redeem is such a black and white way of looking at his entire character and dismisses everything hes gone through and yall (izzy haters and others) are just so fucking snob nosed and ignorant to sit there and think hes a villain because of how he acted. theyre fucking pirates. theyre not perfect, none of them are. eds a villain, stedes a villain, if youre doing it like that. ed has killed so many people, stede literally left his wife and kids and also had a hand in killing people; it may be easier for them to change because of the perspective the show gives them and they had love but izzy did not. everyone hated him, ed, his own crew, stedes crew.

normalizing peoples reactions to things as something other than villainy and heroism is so god damn important in a show that's trying to accurately involve our perspectives in this day and age. its a tale as old as time, making someone 'completely in the wrong' because their perspective isnt the one you aligned with as much.

like the rest of the crew izzy had his own bad things hes done, he didnt need this 'redemption' everyones blabbering on about. he needed to be fucking heard, to be seen, and acknowledged-- not thrown aside and abandoned because of a whim. you all can ride up blackbeards ass because oh hes so hot, hes so pretty omg wow; but that wont ever change the fact his character is a fucked up person... youre allowed to love him anyways, why not izzy? we didnt see blackbeard before screen but how hes mentioned it shows he was a shit awful person, the only reason no one cares is because on hes fuckin gay for stede or whatever so the main characters get a free ride. ( i agree they all get a free ride, im just tired of this izzy isolation man )

why does he need to be redeemed in your eyes? just because youve seen what hes done? he was literally a product of his environment in season one he was a product of blackbeard's leadership. only with the loyalty and solidarity of the crew did he really begin to find himself, thats fucking hard to do that late in life. instead of calling it some bullshit black and white redemption arc, lets just celebrate izzy being himself and being fucking loved for once in his god damn life.

hes also way more fucking mature and put together than people give him credit for. love you izzy.

edit: thank you all for the reblogs and insights in every single one, i read them i promise i do. im just so mf heartbroken we have to tag things as discourse when its really just about people not being compassionate. (as a couple people have pointed out) i will said id reblog and comment on every single tag but this is my side </3 EVERYONE PLEASE READ THE REBLOGGED TAGS TOO / / theyre so real ! ive also opened up that ask box thingy i havent been on tumblr in yrs and have 0 clue how any of that works if anyone wants my perspective on anything izzy related. *or otherwise ofmd related

[spicyicymeloncat]

Hey ngl I am not enjoying the discourse about Misako and Garmadon and who’s the sad puppy dog oh so owo traumatised little flower parent and who’s absolutely down right evil rot in hell forever leaking fuming bag of toxic waste parent.

…

I asked my boyfriend if I should post this and he said I should write a conclusion. And I’m thinking about this. What’s my actual opinion on them? Who’s the better parent? Who’s the worst? Has Lloyd ever a good parental figure ever?? IS THERE ANY DECENT PARENTAL RELATIONSHIPS IN THIS SHOW (jk Ed Edna and Cyrus Borg y’all are doing great).

And yknow I hate the Misako vs Garmadon bc it feels like some of you act like the only reason people hate Misako is because they just hate to see a woman on the screen. But like. No. I disagree. I mean not totally, some people do let misogyny affect their opinions on things. But like, it’s almost as bad to act like the horrendously awful writing of Misako as a character just didn’t happen. It’s horrendous BECAUSE of misogyny (and the fact that the show is not written well in a lot of places anyways).

Misako spends a whole fuckin lot of of her time in the show in the most sexist era of Ninjago, and then doesn’t really get much development after that. Her memorable moments are literally coming back after having no contact with Lloyd, flirting with Wu a lot, being Lloyd’s mother, being a researcher, flirting with Garmadon and like being his wife, getting kidnapped a few times, the letter, and uhhh being a little sassy? As I was saying this I realised I could probably list every detail we get on her in the show. It’s that little. And can we agree, I’m not saying she’s evil and should have chosen to be well written. I’m saying she’s clearly a badly written character mostly used to prop up other characters arcs, and that’s the fault of the writers. Like you can justify some of what she did but it’s not presented in that way bc the writers don’t put in the time to make her compelling.

So why the hell are we comparing “might as well replace her with a trophy for a poetry competition” Misako with characters who were less neglected by the writers. And why are we surprised when people don’t like her compared to a character who the writers put more effort into telling a more compelling redemption, a character who we get on screen for a whole season during his time as a reformed villain, a character who we see spending time with Lloyd much more than Misako. In comparison Misako spends a lot of her scenes holding hands with Wu, hanging out with Wu, like where’s the mother son bonding road trip?? We don’t get a season where Misako tags along with the protagonists and I wish we did but we do get that with Garmadon (twice) and it’s s3 and 4 and she spends those seasons with Wu (and like Wusako is not popular bc their relationship was framed as romantically inclined and she was still living and presented as married with Garmadon at the time so likeeee)

I’m not saying Misako is a worst parent, I’m saying her relationship with her son is not as fun or as enjoyable and that’s why people don’t like her as much. Not necessarily because everyone is a misogynist. But because not everyone is about to reconstruct a Misako with good writing just to enjoy her more.

Have we considered that liking Misako is a spectrum, almost because the writers gave us nothing for her and we’re all just filling the blanks. Some people are projecting hard. Some people are projecting their abandonment issues onto Lloyd. Some people are projecting the struggle of parenthood onto Misako. Some people didn’t think at all about her. Some people only like her out of spite of how annoying it is to only see Misako haters. Some people only like her because she’s one of the scarce female characters of the show and it’s fucking rough. I wish there were more people who liked women as characters tho. Like tbh it still kinda feels like we’re still stuck with the same single archetype for how we see women. Sexy badasses who snark and kiss other women. Tbh I feel like most of the fandom just projects onto characters and that’s why Ninjago discourse feels so vicious bc people are fighting for their lives that they have stitched into their image of their favourite Lego and I’m getting very off topic what was I talking about??

Uhh anyways I like Misako and I hate Misako I feel like all her haters and her stans and the show writers and the myself are wrong about her in some way. I think I’m tired of the debate of whether she’s a good mum, we should be talking about what her favourite food is and it’s probably soup she probably puts it into a flask to take on her work adventures I DONT REMEMBER WHY I STARTED WRITING OH WAIT IT WAS THE GARMISAKO PARENTLYMPICS.

Neither Garmadon and Misako are better than each other. I’m gonna blow your minds rn but write this down if you care about traumatic parent child relationships (so like if you’re gonna write an angsty Lloyd fic). But when your grow up in an abusive household, there’s a high likelihood your parents aren’t clones of each other but instead bad in different ways.

(Tw: I traumadump to you about my not great parents. Skip past the italics)

One of my parents is emotionally unstable and immature and yet more in touch with me emotionally, my other parent is neglectful and has unsatisfiable expectations of me and yet she doesn’t verbally abuse me.

One isn’t worse than the other and worrying about who is worse often ends up minimising the damage the other causes. Why does one have to be worse when it’s more accurate to describe the experience as “they’re bad in their own way”. The “who is worse” debate is definitely something people from broken households ask themselves and I think we can definitely explore Lloyd’s character in terms of that, but there’s no actual answer. You can’t put a number on trauma and I personally don’t think we should be trying to. Goodbye black and white thinking, hello to messy and complicated, as most bad parental relationships are.

I don’t think Misako and Garmadon are great or justified in what they did, and I don’t think they were terrible or that Lloyd shouldn’t have forgiven them either. I wish we got more development for both of them (Misako more tho bc the writers are bitches) and I wish people didn’t ignore either her characterisation as a loving character as well as her characterisation as a once distant one (and then hinge their opinion of Garmadon as a comparison.).

Idk. Idk what this post was I’ve just always been annoyed at other people in the Misako fight club, some people get way too one way about her, like some of y’all get mean about her I think. I opened tiktok once just to feel like the anger was warranted. Idk she’s not my favourite character and I feel like that’s not allowed bc people act like the only way you could hate her is because you’re sexist and I disagree. But I like her as a character that I can get mad at and then forgive. She’s so interesting. She’s not evil she’s complicated I like having complicated feelings about her. That’s the most compelling part of her in my opinion. I’m a Misako hater and a Misako enjoyer and I’ve thought too much about her and that has to count for something

Now. No one is allowed to read one line of this post and then act like I’m taking away freedom of speech or that I hate women or take a fraction of this and get overly angry. This is due to the fact that this is my opinion. The penalty for doing this is that I take your tumblr profile pic and photoshop it into a garbage bin and I will show it to my boyfriend and we will laugh.

There are so many different points in this post and like it feels like this could be five separate posts but oh well. Send post.

[vegalocity]

It’s honestly a crime that the writing just brushed Syntax’s becoming a Spider under the rug. No, he’s fine with it, don’t worry about it. No we’re not gonna explore this, they’re bad guys and we’re killing them off anyway, don’t worry about it.

There was so much room to explore, especially with how Goliath and Huntsman might’ve felt, but no.

I MEAN RIGHT?

Admittedly it's a running thing with LMK to IMPLY a lot and then look at the audience and say 'no followup questions' with their full chests, (like all of the implications of Red Son's home life being kinda fucked but it barely gets touched upon again after season one despite clear evidence that things aren't all fixed in S3 and we're just supposed to believe everything's aces by S4) And the Spiders i think are probably the most egregious example

the deleted character (rip Spindrax regulated to the shadow relm), one of the characters never gets a dedicated episode to see how he acts as an independent agent and that spider doesn't even have a real NAME (which im sure drives you crazy in particular Twinkle) there are IMPLICATIONS of character arcs and backstories and overall POTENTIAL that just got thrown away to show everyone how cool and dangerous LBD was and gave NO hope of rescue.

Back when s2 was airing i thought LMK was sort of like- Building a rogue's gallery- a sort of batman rogues are we type cabal that could keep the adventures fresh and fun and... nope. I would have KILLED for a sort of 'Harley and Ivy' type episode that was focused entirelhy around the spiders, and possibly run it like essentially an Ed Edd N Eddy episode as the spider boys tried running a heist or smth without SQ there to keep them from feeding off of eachother's vibes too hard and it all turning to complete chaos.

LMK has a lot of stylistic influence to Adveture Time, and you can tell they WANT MK to be a Finn type (I mean his place in the mythological system seems to be essentially Finn's Catalyst Comet arc truncated significantly) but you kinda can't make an adventure time style world without understanding that the world belongs just as much to the semi-reformed wizard kidnapping princesses as it does to the hero that kicks him in the boingloins, you know?

and LMK very much belongs ONLY to the Monkie Kid Krew (I mean ive gone on record to say that Tang's arc would have been MUCH more interesting if he WASN'T actually the Monk in a past life and really was Just Some Guy and fully earned his own magic, but that would mean the world was bigger than just the characters designated as important so that couldn't be) and the villains are just pins to set up and knock over in a season and a special's time (if they even get that, sorry Nine Heads)

But as for Huntsman and Goliath's perspectives on Syntax- man i WISH i knew those... I think the ones i like the best are Goliath being... nice but distant to the new guy in like a 'whatever the queen clearly thinks its fine' type way and Hutnsman being like- INSTANTLY thinking Syntax is gunning for his 'position' (whatever it is) and is HYPER aware of him, Syntax is living RENT free in this spider's head because he's CONVINCED that he's after his position in the 'loyalty to the queen' social ladder or smth and meanwhile Syntax, genre savvy as he is is like "oh we're gonna do that thing where we start out as rivals but grow closer to respect eachother and eventually become very close friends and playfully compete with eachother sometimes to keep the spice in the banter! this is fun! ^.^"

Idk sounds like more fun than a pile of dead bodies that don't even get the dignity of being brought back in flashbacks

[outrunningthedark]

I hope u right cos what a fucking waste of a good villain who can bring an insane amount of drama.

I never wanted Gerrard gone 'cause I want(ed) to actually SEE Tim put effort into telling a longer story instead of these one-and-done episodes that don't even require the whole cast or something like the lawsuit arc that took a whole two weeks to wrap up (that's sarcasm, ftr), so I'm HOPING that fandom has it wrong and the big "opening sequence" isn't actually just "Now you see him. Now you don't." I can respect scaling down because last season's cruise story line took FOREVER to film, but c'mon. There has to be a twist. Right? (That's what I'm choosing to tell myself, anyway. 🙃)

[canonizzyhours]

183 is exactly right and it's something I was worried about all along. I'm a jar guy who loved actual canon Izzy from the start and back during summer 2022 when the Izzy woobification took off I started getting really worried about all the demands for a redemption arc, because I knew the only two possibilities for Izzy were that he'd stay a villain and stick around until the end of the show or he'd get a redemption arc and have to die at the end of it, and I didn't want him to die.

The thing the canyon types thought they were asking for was an arc where Izzy redeemed himself and stayed a happy friendly member of the crew but that was absolutely never on the table as something that could make sense as a follow-up from the story established in season 1. Redeeming Izzy that thoroughly and convincingly would have taken more focus on him than we were ever going to get - honestly, I can't imagine how staying on the ship long-term could possibly even be a good thing FOR IZZY, he'd have needed to get away from Ed in order to find himself, and he wouldn't have done that voluntarily. He couldn't have really fulfilled any narrative role in the show once he became a good guy either, because just like 183 said, season one established no personality traits that he didn't have to discard in order to be fully redeemed - even his "loyalty" wasn't a positive or healthy kind - and after giving him so much focus he was too prominent to just fade into the background as a crew member.

But this just sort of circles back to the reason this blog exists, the reason the canyon thought they wanted Izzy redeemed was because they thought Fanon Izzy - the version of him that was actually a really nice guy who loved the crew all along and sincerely cared about Ed in a healthy positive way and had never really done anything all that bad anyway, and was always destined to be a main character on the same level as Ed & Stede - was a real character in the show. That guy could have had the kind of redemption arc they were imagining. But that guy was never actually in the show, and it would have been a narrative betrayal of what was actually set up in season 1 - and of those of us who actually liked the character Izzy was in season 1 - to suddenly pretend he was.

And it just makes me mad, because I DID love the character Izzy was in season 1, and I didn't want him to die, and I knew if the canyon got what they were asking for it would mean he had to die. And now they did get what they demanded and they're angry about it. It's not David Jenkins' fault that he thought you understood what you were asking for.

#186.

related posts: #183

[dynamic-k]

wait no i was scrolling and suddenly found something to ask-

WHY MEE NOW I SEEM LIKE AN IDIOT

Okay, Is Monster School a thing in Super Sticks?

I assume it is, as Red was wearing the yellow bandana shown in Monster School Ep 27 (I think that's the number).

Therefore, did the monsters there still bully him?

Also are the Enderman and Skeleton and Spider going to show up as main characters or side but still important-ish characters?

...did any of the CG's trauma from AVM s2 happen? Like Blue getting burnt in lava and Red getting possessed and Yellow also getting possessed etc??

OOOHHH OR THERE'S A VILLAIN BASED OFF THAT, like a lucky block powered villain, WHO GIVES THEM THE TRAUMA!!!

EEK-

new OC time >:D

/j because I can't make OCs very well. It just doesn't work with me.

Good night!

-R

Ohhhhh, Monster School- Uh-

...Maybe at one point, yes? I have thought about it, but don't have an idea of how it'd work, since the sticks of Super Sticks don't have the power to go into a video game and meet the canonical school. So, there would need to be some Outernet AU equivalent/counterpart to the mobs there, IN THE CITY and I don't have ideas for that yet at allllll.

The yellow bandana Red wears was merely a reference toward Red's preferred taste in clothing, not a clue-in that Monster School exists in-world.

I have no idea-!! :I Arc Two is already jam-packed with hectic and overlapping journeys between everyone. If Monster School ends up as a thing in Super Sticks, it's gonna be MUCH later. Maybe another thing to insert into Arc Three- XD

[Scarlett stop talking about Arc Three, FOR THE LAST TIME-]

No CG traumas just yet. That's Arc Two plot- They gain trauma in Arc Two, I haven't gotten that far yet- But I think everyone expects this anyway, as I've made it abundantly clear the Color Gang basically gets BigHeroSix-ed and become heroes.

"AND WITH GREAT HEROING COMES GREAT TRAUMATIC EXPERIENCES-" -Scarlett Parker, 2024

Lucky Block villain is such a cool concept- :O WHOA. I'm gonna have to use that at some point-

:D Gooooddd nighhhttt!!

[420technoblazeit]

list of submitted queer characters in homophobic media that were so incredibly badly written that they're automatically in the bracket

Castiel (this one's self explanatory. goes to superhell because he confessed to dean, is resurrected by the time of the series finale but doesn't appear onscreen or resolve the confession)

Chihiro Fujisaki (literally murdered because she came out as trans, handling of her case is so bad she is misgendered constantly during the trial and the fandom still argues on her pronouns)

Will Byers (canonically in love with his best friend, who is in a committed relationship with another main character)

Shiro from Voltron (his relationship with Adam was teased at constantly in promos and Adam was revealed to have died in a flashback)

Remus Lupin (werewolves are stated by jkr to be a metaphor for AIDS)

Tallstar (after they part ways Tallstar never takes a mate because 'his heart belongs to Jake')

Dean Winchester (homophobic writers accidentally making the most bisexual man to ever exist by making his arc revolve around dealing with his toxic masculinity + constant jokes over multiple seasons about Dean being attracted to guys)

Judas from da Bible (i just thought this one was funny)

Magne (from BNHA, her reason for joining the league of villains is because she feels marginalized as a trans woman. she gets brutally murdered in the show)

Danny Phantom (we've all seen the tumblr posts i think)

Oswald Cobblepot (specifically from Gotham, is in love with his best friend and tries to kill his girlfriend because of it. changes made on-set by producers to make his relationship with Ed less queer)

Irene Adler (stated to be a lesbian but falls in love with Sherlock anyway as a major plot point)

[dashielldeveron]

1000000% agree with you about your takes on the mha ending, it sits so wrong with me that toga, touya and tenko don’t get to be redeemed but don’t get to even survive??? Like they victims of abuse stemming bc of hero society and they don’t even get to live in the ‘new’ ‘’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’’changed’’’’’’’’’’’’’’ world LMAO that’s fucked. ESPECIALLY WHEN NO 1 ABUSER ENDEAVOUR GETS TO NOT ONLY LIVE BUT HAVE THE REDEMPTION ARC??? and to a lesser extent overhaul too??? Like ik he isn’t redeemed in anyway but he gets to live?? The message is soooo depressing when the two most prominent abuse figures get to live but the victims aren’t even worthy of a second chance. This is why we have fanworks ig.

( also this is completely unrelated but who do you think had the best pro hero redesign.for me I think kaminari looks very. nice. and bkgs bomb tassel hair tie things r cute. Also idk why hori felt the need to do a aizawa shinsou hair transplant 😭😭😭😭 like

shinsou: where is mr aizawa???

mic: who do u think gave you the hair….)

listen,.,..,i can excuse murder (touya), but i draw the line at child abuse (endeavor) lol. i hadn't even been thinking about overhaul!!! yeah, why does he get to live when, out of the the villains besides AFO, he's the one with the worst intentions?? why give us a found family if they're gonna be torn apart forever?? sigh. how would you have approached the endeavour and overhaul stuff??

at this point, i kind of hope we all stay in collective denial and keep our fandom standard of, like, baku/todo/deku as the top three heroes, complete with OFA. it's not that i'm mad deku lost OFA; that could make sense narratively, but it's that he gets iron man-ed up that pisses me off. it's like a retraction that being quirkless is fine, since deku needs that power to hang out with his friends. sigh. sigh. sigh.

well! i'm finally glad yaoyorozu got fabric to cover her boobs. she deserves it. i liked the flashes of jirou, eri, and sero that we got. and this is me projecting, but a lot of them having long hair down while they fight seems impractical. i know hair growth/cutting is a primary way to show time has passed, but i especially think mina could have trouble with her longer hair--looks cool but might get in the way of her acid.

and i will say that i much prefer aizawa's and shinsou's old hairstyles. and lololol kirishima looks like he's drawn in a completely different manga with how detailed and buff he looks; good for him. i need to yank bakugou's explosion tassel things i need to bite them grrr grr bite bite bite definitely not the design i was expecting but definitely interesting!!!! and that closeup panel we got of shouto.... 👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀👀 what a h*nds*me man. despite the weird storytelling choices lately, the art remains very, very beautiful. hori is very good at drawing interesting designs and beautiful people, and there must be an odd pressure to draw really well when your whole cast is hot. so, at least the art hasn't fallen off.

i hope we can all keep making fun art even though the series has been strange at the end!!! thanks for your thoughts; i need to hear everyone's take on this bizarre turn of events

[komilys]

After a several weeks of being dead, I'm back! And since you said that you don't mind me crashing into your inbox...

First of all, you and Ciel are really cute together. Hopefully you will be able to stir him up and get him to have some fun... You two seem to represent that kind of "troublesome guy x unfortunately has to deal with them" ship dynamic that I always loved.

But now I wonder, what other canon events would have gone differently with your s/i in it? Especially since Ciel and Sebastian decided to use your s/i for his knowledge of canon events (even if it barely helped). You also mentioned that lately you've been thinking a lot about the current arc, so what about that?

And it's kinda funny how both of us have our Black Butler s/is isekai-ed into their world from ours. I also got this idea from similar "x reader" fanfiction I was reading a long time ago.

Except my s/i ended up getting adopted (kinda) by Undertaker instead, and later was too busy working in the funeral parlour and slowly slipping into the madness to influence the plot...

Anyway, about your s/i again. How does he look? Do you have any drawings or picrews or just written description? Asking just so I could picture you and Ciel together.

– villain-in-love

(it deleted my first response. that sucks.) after weeks of ME being dead, i’m back n ready to answer!! :3 (im so sorry i keep dying)

thank you thank you!! that really does capture our dynamic perfectly i think <3

funny you mention your s/i being adopted kind of by undertaker bc i’ve been playing with a similar idea! instead of adoptee, it’s more kidnapee-but-not-really. he was already suspicious of komie, what with ciel just appearing one day with him and even more so by the fact that he always seemed to be five steps ahead of everything, like he always knew what was next. at first he dabbled with the idea of something supernatural, but i think at the end i’ve been toying with the idea of him ‘kidnapping’ komie during the whole blavat sky thing (that arc) but honestly im still not very sure what with the manga still going.

kidnapping in quotes because it’s not so much as kidnapping as me more or less willingly going with him, though originally that was the first draft, i switched to pinning komie’s departure from ciel’s side to his own selfishness. undertaker did have a part in his convincing to leave though.

i’ve been thinking a lot about the current arc trying to figure out how komie ties into it, whether having him be an active player as he’s always been or kind of just sitting on the sidelines watching everything play out for once. this is also in part due to that i really have no idea how the manga is gonna play out, i kept flip-flopping between being with r!ciel and lizzy (in my universe lizzy and i are close), and being wherever undertaker is, (essentially switching me always following ciel to me following him).

yeah, the current arc is messy for komie i don’t know what im doing with myself yet (￣w￣;)

that’s quite funnu though! that both of our inserts have both been just dropped in the story! i’m curious on what you mean by too busy descending into madness ??

the emerald witch arc (the next one to be animated, hooray!!!) is the last arc i have more or less thought out well (all my self ships are more or less thought out, lol)

i think komie ends up taking a lot more of a caretaker role for ciel, and he’s also a lot more careful with him during the emerald witch arc. at first he stops ciel from going into the forest too, because at this point he’s very fond of ciel and doesn’t want him to hurt, but at some point he does push ciel to go into the forest as he’s meant to.

like how finny takes care of ciel, komie also does as he’s more like a kid. at this point, guilt starts to creep up on komie because he just has to let bad things happen to the people he’s grown to care for and he becomes a little detached (this leads into the next arc, similar to lizzy). at some point between these two arcs, i think ciel and ki have a moment and for a little, ki goes back to the same but i think it’s a quick regression to his state during the witch arc.

speaking of witch arc, i remember i had an idea that i kill someone (one of the german women who tried to kill wolf, but id have to reread the arc to actually flesh that out… i forgot what happened…)

also funny ! sometime before the actual start of the green witch arc / during the public school arc, ciel finds out komie’s actual age— lizzy was trying to find out my birthday, lo and behold i admit my eighteenth was a month ago. ciel just goes quiet and looks at me— he genuinely didn’t believe i was that older than him.

its a funny moment, lizzy’s sad i didn’t tell her during easter, edward has his head in his hands— his mind is running crazy— he’s like oh!, and ciel is just staring. he blushes a little. anyways komie is just like sry gang (victorian version)

for the visuals of komie i have these 2! the first’s purpose is mostly to get a feel for the dressing/how he dresses + hair and the second is for the more actuate body type :3 obviously i dress very differently given… 1800s… but it’s a good representation of how i looked when i landed in the phantomhive garden in the first place (also my pajamas)

but if you want a kind of not really… more accurate to the kind of clothes i switch to wearing once actually in the 1890s, that’s the third picture (a little plain, it’s probably be more detailed / different in reality but just a vague idea! the general idea is more coverage lol)

something i thought of but i thought it’d be cute if during that shopping ciel has with the phantom servants post-school arc, he asks if i want anything and i shrug and say, “a blanket? i don’t really use the bed coverings i have at the manor”

“…you don’t?”

“no, i don’t really… the way they feel is…” i squint, making a vaguely grossed out noise.

ciel stares, before averting his gaze towards the shelves.

“how is this one?”

we go back and forth for a while, having me go through the different fabrics and try to explain how they are and the differences as he gauges my reactions. it’s embarassing because i can tell he doesn’t really get it, but he also doesn’t relent. we leave and i get a new blanket. a few weeks later, a little before the trip to germany— i find a few new clothes on my bed.

“ciel?” i examine the neatly wrapped package. its green. i look back up at him from the doorway across the room. “what is this?”

“clothes,” he doesn’t look up from his paperwork. “you were uncomfortable before, weren’t you?”

“sometimes,” i answer.

his pen stops. “now you won’t be.”

i stare at him, the quiet scratching of his pen being the only sound filling the air between us. that’s kind of you, but i don’t say it.

“oh…” i turn the package around in my hands. did he have sebastian wrap it? “thank you.”

“you’re welcome.”

x <3

[bb-bare-bones]

How We Make Our Psychos: A Psycho Retrospective

By Rebecca Smith

Artwork by Dy Dawson @xgardensinspace

Psycho. For a great many people, that single word is enough to conjure up Bernard Herrmann’s iconic screech of violins and Janet Leigh’s screaming face as a knife arcs towards her in the shower. Whether or not a person has actually seen Alfred Hitchcock’s 1960 psychological thriller won’t spare them – in the more than six decades since its release, Psycho has become a cultural touchstone for America and the horror genre. The pivotal spoilers Hitchcock went to much effort to conceal – if you didn’t know, the conventions of cinemas having start times and no late admissions policies are thanks to Psycho – are now so well entrenched in our collective cultural psyche that I wouldn’t be surprised if newborns’ shrieks these days are actually baby speak for “IT WAS NORMAN!!”

It's perhaps unsurprising that Hitchcock’s Psycho, which was named the greatest movie ever made by Variety in December 2022, is not exactly unexplored territory when it comes to analyses. Whilst the legendary shower scene is one of the most famous movie scenes in history, virtually every shot of this suspenseful masterpiece is familiar to us and, as such, has had interpretation after interpretation, and symbolism after metaphor after allegory, applied to and teased out of it. Fortunately, I’ve still been allowed to write something about Psycho anyway, so do indulge me and read on.

At its twisted roots, Psycho poses the question of how well we truly know other people, and this unsettling thought is where its lasting horror derives from. Lila Crane, Sam Loomis, and Mr Lowrey are all shocked to discover Marion Crane has run off with $40,000 because this isn’t the Marion they thought they knew; likewise, the entirety of Fairvale are shocked to discover Norman Bates has been murdering people while dressed as his mother – who he also murdered – and for years has been looking after her preserved corpse as if she was still alive. This isn’t the Norman they thought they knew, either. As the audience, we’re positioned to be shocked by this reveal about Norman too, as we’ve been encouraged to feel sorry for him as the dutiful, unworldly son of a cruel and possessive mother. Instead, we discover the brutal violence in Psycho is a part of Norman and we were just taken in by Anthony Perkins’ innocent smile – which, of course, was one of the many reasons he was chosen for the role.

In the real world, the people of Plainfield, Wisconsin, probably felt a similar shock in 1957 when it was uncovered that one of their locals had killed and mutilated two women and was living in a house full of stolen human body parts, many of which he’d morbidly fashioned into pieces of furniture. It is widely known that this unassuming local, Ed Gein, was a source of inspiration for Robert Bloch’s original 1959 Psycho novel, of which Hitchcock’s film is an adaptation. After the initial horror of Gein’s crimes, there remained the uncomfortable realisation that something like that could happen right under a community’s nose. A story not a million miles away from Psycho can, and did, happen somewhere it would be least expected to.

In a bold move for its era, then, Psycho explores why its killer kills. Psychoanalysis – the legacy of Sigmund Freud – was popular in America around the time of Psycho’s creation, and both Bloch and Hitchcock incorporated it into their respective works, most obviously through the character of Norman. As well as being one of the most recognisable poster boys for the Oedipus complex, which Bloch actually highlights Norman’s self-awareness of early in the novel, a significant portion of Norman’s dialogue in the Hitchcock film functions as Freudian slips about the horrible truth his unconscious is repressing. The inclusion of psychoanalytic elements in Psycho is an important component in making Norman a complex horror villain rather than one who kills for the sheer evilness of it. We could spend an entire essay debating exactly which mental illnesses Norman is supposed to be suffering from, and it is clear in retrospect that their depiction does not quite hold up to the reality in any case, but the fact that Norman is not well and has been spiralling for some time – while no excuse for murder – means we understand why he is where he is mentally and why he stays in his “private trap” rather than facing reality.

Of course, it is all very good understanding the psychology behind our so-called proto slasher, but Psycho hints towards the external as well as the internal factors that go into making a deranged killer. I am referring here to the place where Norman was allowed to fester: the fictional town of Fairvale, California. In its depiction of the small town, Psycho is critiquing the type of society and community attitude that unwittingly enables someone like Norman. American society in the 1950s was repressed – look what happened when Elvis wiggled onstage – and it is this repression that has disastrous consequences in Psycho.

It is Lila who summarises the issue with Fairvale in Bloch’s novel, in a disappointed observation about Sam: “He had that slow, cautious, conservative small-town outlook.” This outlook, exhibited by both Sam and Sheriff Chambers in their insistence on waiting and not bothering Norman, is perhaps best typified by Mrs Chambers in the Hitchcock film. When Lila and Sam learn Mrs Bates supposedly poisoned herself and her lover in a murder-suicide some ten years past, Mrs Chambers adds, “Norman found them dead together. In bed.” There is a disapproving emphasis on “in bed”, as if this is the most shameful aspect of the incident, which serves to highlight the still dominant conservative Christian outlook on sexuality and marriage prevalent at the time. This societal outlook on sexuality is shown throughout Psycho to be detrimental to its characters: at the beginning of the film, Marion is unhappy she and Sam are unmarried and must meet in hotel rooms for sex; and Norman, of course, has internalised disgust and guilt with his own sexuality to such an extent that, in a misogynistic twist, he projects that disgust and guilt on to any woman he finds attractive, allowing ‘Mother’ to surface and kill her.

In addition to this, Mrs Chambers has two other lines that provide insight into the community Norman grew up in. She mentions she helped Norman choose the dress his mother was buried in, remembering that it was “periwinkle blue”. Then, a few scenes later, she invites Lila and Sam for a meal to make reporting Marion’s disappearance and theft “nicer” for them. Both of these are kind acts, but are they inordinately helpful ones? Neither of these gestures would have illuminated what Norman had done; they were more like putting plasters over gaping wounds. This, it seems, is the Fairvale way: don’t ask, don’t know.

It is true that this effective silence around difficult or taboo subjects was a society-wide issue, but I think we can assume Fairvale, as a small town, was supposed to have its own distinct, concentrated flavour of it. If most people knew of the Bates family who lived like there was nobody else in the world, did no one ever think to query why that was? Did anyone know what Norma Bates was like? Didn’t anybody notice that Norman had lived in near isolation all his life, and wonder what effect that might have on a person? The answers are clearly no, because that was the Bates family’s business. The warning signs were therefore missed or ignored. At this time, and in this kind of place, the structural forces simply didn’t exist to avert crises of mental health, or abuse, or violence before they escalated. Psycho is pointing out the dark side of contemporary, as it then was, American society. The sort of situation that led to Gein. The story of Norman Bates is in part a warning about how pretending something isn’t happening and being unwilling to face reality – and that’s literal reality, in Norman’s case – only causes more harm in the long-term. And, once again, these external factors also do not excuse Norman’s murders. However, they do help explain how he was able to get away with them, unsuspected, for so long.

            This is not to say there is one single set of circumstances which would enable the story of Psycho to play out in some way. The whole point of Psycho is that it could happen next door, to anyone, because we might not know someone as completely as we think we do. The story could only critique the world it found itself in at that moment, but the passage of time prompts the question: could Norman Bates exist today? After all, not only have taboos around sexuality and mental health weakened considerably in a general sense over the last six decades, but there have also been huge advancements in the technology used to catch criminals. Giving your bloody crime scene a quick wipe down with some water and a mop might not cut it now. The internet too is encroaching further and further on our lives. It is fast becoming impossible to exist without at least a small online presence – and once you have an online presence, there is something about you there for people to pry into.

Then again, while the internet can be a tool to help people in bad situations, we all know what a double-edged sword it is. Never mind the overtly dark corners of the web, someone as well-established in presenting a false state of affairs to the world as Norman is would surely excel in doing the same thing in the supposedly safer online places. In fact, doing it online would be child’s play in comparison to real life. And, inescapably, security cameras would be a modern-day Norman’s scopophilic dream, there is no denying that. There are also still parts of society that cling harder to the values and social etiquette of the past. Who is to say Fairvale would have kept to the average rate of progress?

            Thus, the exact circumstances Psycho painted as aiding Norman’s murders in a small 1950s town might well have been altered in some way in the years since Hitchcock’s untouchable film first hit cinema screens, but the central fear in Psycho about how well we truly know other people remains. In Psycho, the two key characters of Norman and Marion, so often compared as two sides of the same coin, are being dishonest with those around them. Norman is even being dishonest with himself. Today, in our world of chronic oversharing, I’d wager there are still very few people who would – or even could – reveal every part of themselves to other people. Should that really be an aim for anyone? I would argue no, definitely not.

The inevitable consequence of personal privacy is that, in our imperfect world containing messed up people who sometimes do terrible things, there will be a few Normans. Likewise, not everyone can be the Lila who exposes and stops them. We can only exist inside our own heads; we can’t ever truly know the entirety of another person. In the end, the perversion of the familiar, of the people we tell ourselves we know – such as Norman – and the places we think are safe – such as our showers – is what continues to frighten and unnerve us in Psycho.

And Norman’s creepy smile at the end, of course; although that’s my favourite bit.

[pixeldragon-45]

PREDICTION FOR S2 + BEYOND

SOMEONE'S PROBABLY ALREADY SAID THIS BUT I'M DOING IT ANYWAY SO THERE:

SO YOU KNOW HOW THE MAIN VILLAIN FOR OFMD IS MOST LIKELY GOING TO BE THE NAVY,

AND BY NAVY THIS GUY IN GENERAL:

THERE'S PROBABLY GOING TO BE A TEAMUP INVOLVED WITH THE OTHER PIRATES

THIS ENTIRE STORY ARC MAY BE ABOUT EITHER THE END OF THE GOLDEN AGE OF PIRACY OR JUST A SINGLE NAVY DEFEAT, EITHER WAY --

DO YOU REMEMBER WHEN ED SAID THIS:

WHAT IF BY THE END IN SOME FINAL DRAMATIC CLOSING ACT THESE TWO END UP FAKING THEIR DEATHS BY USING FAKE HEADS/BODIES IN THEIR PLACE WHEN THE NAVY TRIES TO PUT THEM TO DEATH, AND THEN THEY FINALLY GET TO RUN AWAY TOGETHER

GUYS IT MAKES SENSE *getting pulled by security* THE RICKY GUY IS GOING TO GET DUPED *gets slung over security guy's shoulder* IT'S GOING TO BE SO FUNNY *clawing at doorframe as I am taken away* AND LIKE WHAT IF IZZY GETS TO BECOME CAPTAIN AFTER GENTLEBEARD LEAVES AFTER HAVING A REDEMPTION ARC AND GETS TO FINALLY BE A FAMILY WITH THE CREW AND STUFF---

[note-boom]

I don't have time to put together something that's coherent, so I shamefully offer some my reacts I shamelessly spammed while watching the new episode

SEASON FIVE LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

Why is it always the tacos that are sacrificed?

YO NEW OP?!??!?!

Man, Kunikida....that raw scream so made up for Jouno's nightmare face

I love the way Ango understands that Kyouka and Lucy would choose Atsushi and once again resigns himself to become the villain for the "greater good." I want to know how he got that mentality. He is so aware that the "for the greater good" philosophy is messed up and yet he still goes for it, as if he's aware he has a choice but really has no choice at all

"Kamui" the masked man says when we all know it's just Ranpo being dramatic

Let's be honest, though. Kyouka and Lucy have the most realistic reactions to Atsu's existence in the entire animangaverse of BSD. Like, yeah, I also wouldn't hesitate to stab Ango (even though I love and adore him) and would protect Atsushi no question if it came to a choice (as much as I love to see him de-limbed)

I love my phone, too, Katai...you are not alone in this

It was just your son, Fukuzawa, chill

Also, love seeing Souheki at work

THAT WAS THE MOST DRAMATIC CAPE TWIRL AND I'M KINDA JEALOUS OF IT

full respect to ranpo for lugging around kunikida, who is like twenty-five cm taller than him around

Unnamed lady in that meeting place, you have your priorities straight

The fact that Ranpo recognized a life he'd saved....I wonder if him telling Poe "I never forget a mystery I solved" was also foreshadowing this moment that shows he remembers every single life he's saved. And now I'm curious if this is a Kunikida parallel. Never forget a life I've killed/life that's been lost vs never forget a life that's been saved. Something something the ADA really does stand up for life over death because it does not dwell on those that have passed, though it does carry their legacy, but remembers everyone they have saved. Every life saved matters and this is the arc that shows that. Life over not just death but prestige and power and all that stuff - maybe we don't know what "life" means just yet, but we know that it take precedence over the things we do to live it

Anyway. How about that season 5 OP?? I can't wait to see the ED's animation!