#basically the inverse of what this question is asking but opposite=the same

[abyssalpriest]

30 Days of Them #4

Has there been a time where you feel They have sent something to appear to you on their behalf?

(link to post)

The things he sends most on his behalf are masks, things that seem so disparate and independent from him but, under the surface, tie to the same creature. When he presses against the fabric of this plane it forms new bodies around him, expansive and wild - still masks of a different and more literal sort. It's always masks for royalty.

I:

I thought I saw myself stretched across the sky in a form I recognised so intimately, a great bird with wings of clouds and the presence within it of the Sun's light in summer. Why, then, were the feelings radiating off this self so contradictory to my own?

I loved my partner with all my heart. We would walk together, he in the Astral and I physically. The Sky Bird would make its appearance in all its glory, eclipsing any view into the star-heavens and stretching itself far over the land, and it would, with no uncertainty, be beaming down a disinterest at best, but mostly a brewing angered disappointment, distaste, towards my partner. He would beg and plead in religious words how he loved me and therefore the Sky, but the Sky Bird wouldn't budge. Its wordlessness and piercing stare would be unwaveringly cold. 

II:

The Eye burns so fiercely in the sky when he shows up. The Sun is rounded by clouds, but overlaid across it in another dimension is so, so clearly not a coincidence in space and time just-so-happeningly making the clouds shaped like an eye. It's his eye, his presence, dwarfing reality before it. I can see him in all his radiance as the Sun itself poking a hole into reality, the physical Sun his iris and its core his pupil. It is a look that connects souls, the interplay of two different people when they realise and communicate through expression that they understand... Something. Whatever it is, I understand. In a world that doesn't look to the Sun anymore I understand who I am looking at. The Sun is his vessel for that.

III:

I was possessed by an older gentleman in the car; his emotions were withered and heavy, and the silence between my partner and I was suddenly host to a pale yet absolute sadness. Tired, melancholic to the highest degree, chalky blue and ghostly. I wondered why my partner adamantly called him "Blue", a marker for a colour in his mind like that of the opaque Day Sky.

My partner at the time moved uncomfortably. I was too busy focusing on this sudden change in my body's input and personality to such an undeniable and unrejectable degree to really watch my partner's reaction to the newcomer, but we both knew this was an older man spoken about in my partner's cult lore as "Damian", and to my partner he was... A sign, likely, that someone outside his cult knew what he was doing. A warning. I check now with tarot to make sure I remember right. "What did my ex think and feel when this man showed up in our car?" X of Swords, in this deck a sword is broken against nine swords now descending upon it. Exactly, I felt it even if I was preoccupied. This was a warning to him, to me a friend.

My phone's auto-suggest recommends I input a link instead of a word, which brings me to something I haven't seen nor copied the link of in at least a month: a video on why Alduin from Skyrim, a character I relate to Leviathan, "should have won".

IV: 

The Sky would occasionally roost in our backyard or just over its fence. Often it would skirt metres away from us in a dreamlike haze, unthinking, inhuman to the highest degree, but undeniably present and big.

V:

My partner at the time received a vision: He was cornered in a place filled with the dead bodies of all the children he had caught up in his cult, sat in his chair, submitting to what was about to come which was so unlike him. No more charismatic talking himself out of all danger, no more manipulation, he was resigned: And specifically resigned as the character he pretended to be in his cult. Through the door came the usually fragile form of the one we labelled as my incarnation in my cult's supposed off-plane reality, an alternate universe self if you will, Agnus, but he walked with confidence unlike me and held a scythe in his hands with the perfect poise of someone much stronger than I ever could've been.

He beheaded my partner. One swift movement and it was over. I never understood, but the message was read loud and clear, apparently, by my partner, who would only have another few years alive after this before he was actually killed for his sins.

VI: 

The shift in air pressure is like a deluge of ocean water - paradoxically a soft one, but it swamps the land in the feeling of a huge presence of something that could never be seen by the physical eye.

Ahead of him, when the presence grows stronger and stronger, the rooks always fly like heralds. 

It always happens, rooks fly literally... But they're a figurative thing too and a symbol for all of reality obeying its programming to fly ahead of him. He winds himself into reality and its programming obeys, like pheromones in the senses of an animal or a software update in the core of a machine.

The air and its spirits are sent ahead of him, the feelings of this plane shifting as it makes way for him. Electronics bend under the weight and start doing strange things and playing unskippable strange songs, televisions play things that match up exactly to things he is talking to you about, conversations of those you walk past speak his words, the clouds contort into clear images like sign language alongside what he's saying, the wind dances with his words as he speaks.

Reality is sent before him on his behalf; reality is, like so much else, the fabric to be used as his masks as he bends himself into the workings of the plane he rarely appears on physically.

[washa]

I listened to Vincent and Sam’s recent audio and here’s my favourite personal comments/thoughts! (We need Elliot and some blues clues shit right now man 😭)

“He’s tying up some loose ends.” I’M SORRY?? WHAT THE FUCK DOES THAT MEAN NOW??

Also Sam sounds rather pissed and I’m just a tad scared.  

“Do we think those “loose ends” will still have a pulse by the time he’s done with them?” Probably not. Realistically not. 

Vincent sounds so disbelieving?? I MEAN I WOULD BE TOO???

“I’m not even exactly sure where he went.” Porter don’t you dare ghost treasure. PORTER DON’T YOU DARE GHOST TREASURE.

Again on, The Shaw pack needs a fucking break 🙌

I bet Vincent is FUMING or right now. Imagine you were mingling with someone who had a hand in something that legitimately killed a thousand people, and your lover. 

No bc i get it, Vincent must be like so fucking conflicted. I FUCKING KNEW WHEN VINCENT SAID HE WAS "GONNA FOCUS ON THE GOOD" IN THE PORTER AND VINCENT MEETING VIDEO SOMETHING WAS GONNA HAPPEN. 

I mean i wouldn’t call them “his lover” but go on. 

“His moral compass has never pointed true north.” Amen, Now on that note, I’d like to reinstate on how Treasure should run. 

“-And were gearin’ up for somethin’ else.” WHAT DOES THAT MEAN??

Yeah Vincent stay positive 💪 

CloseKnit = Hydra confirmed 

HUH WHAT FUCKING SCANDAL AND RAID??? Bro.. HUH

I imagine a lego tower with like “House of Bennet” stuck on it crumbling down in Lego Movie style.

“We’re about to get our hands a lot dirtier then.” If you can listen closely, you can hear Vincent’s eyes darkening, his character development and trauma tingling.

“No secondhand go-betweens, no twisted game of telephone.” I love the way he said that, Like yes drop them bars Princey ‼

URGH I LOVE THE WAY THE BOTH ASK EACH OTHER IF THEY’RE BOTH OK WITH IT UIEKJK

“They’ve shown incompetent they can be.” Sweetheart’s kicking the ground right now.

I have a question, Has nobody followed up on Elliot??? I know he reported it after the Inversion and how he got brushed off bc yk it was the INVERSION. BUT It’s been TWO FUCKING YEARS?? Realistically he’d be one of the best leads on CloseKnit, He has a basic understanding how powerful CloseKnit is and how they operate. Can we get a lil circle back to him please 😭 

“I’m not Porter, I won’t just do something because it’s what’s ordered of me, whether I agree with it or not. That’s not how I operate.” DAMN SAM DAMN

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

The next couple of lines are just things Sam said that I find really interesting…

“But that’s a dangerous precedent. We all know what growing power can do to a person with good intentions.” 

“-”Messy realities” of being in his House, Since we never wanted to be in it in the first place, and that choice was taken from us.” 

“But it’s also convenient that he kept all of this from the two people who were most likely to have a problem with what he’s doing.”

 “-To only trusted in people who voice any opposition to it, and well just do as ordered without question.”

“I need answers on those things.” 

“I appreciate you see me on that same level, deservin’ that same trust from him. But in a lot of ways, William’s old school.”

“I’m not his progeny. I haven’t been around as long as you or Alexis, He didn’t take me under his wing, like he did Porter. He’s always been kind to me, Set me up with a home and with work, and I'm grateful for that.” (I can’t tell if Sam said fringe or friend next, but If it is friend, then Porter and Sam feel the same way, which is an interesting take on how they both feel.)

“I believe that feels that he owes you an explanation, I don’t know if he’ll think that he owes me one.”

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

REAL VINCENT PREACH MAN, WILL NEEDS TO EXPLAIN EVERYTHING LIKE WHAT THE FUCK ‼

“Glorified Press Release” I want that framed on my wall.

Vincent has developed SO MUCH within these two years it’s crazy.

HUH DARLIN’??? WDYM DARLIN’????

Vincent wants like a guard dog or smth?? Or is he gonna use the guilt trip/ threaten type shit, Like,“Look who you put in danger, a member of the Shaw Pack! Tell me what’s gonna happen from now on or the Shaw Pack will cut ties with you 😇”

Hey on the bright side, Hendral Wyrdsmythe is coming BACKKKK 💕

[la-principessa-nuova]

So currently my brain is stuck on the names of familial relationships and how they could be made more systematic.

Buckle up for a long rambly post that you will gain nothing from reading after the fold.

I started with the inverse of the “nibling” (gender-neutral alternative to niece/nephew) relationship and wondered if there was a word for it. I found “pibling” (short for “parent sibling”).

Sure, it works, but I find it weird that a relationship to a (usually) older relative sounds so diminutive. But then I was thinking about how “great aunt/uncle” is used (I know some people say “grand aunt/uncle”, but I don’t), skipping over grand (e.g. great grandparent). Which means aunt/uncle basically get the “grand” included.

Well, what are they the “grand” version of? Well, “sibling”. So aunt basically means “grandsister” and uncle “grandbrother”. So a pibling could be called a grandsibling, making your great aunt also your great grandsibling.

But now we have a new problem, which is that if we extend nibling the same way, like how your child’s child’s child is your great grandchild, your nibling’s child is your great grandnibling, now the number of greats is off by one.

For example, your sibling’s child’s child is your grandnibling, but you are their parent’s parent’s sibling, making you their great grandnibling.

That makes me wish that there were a way to modify sibling directly to go down a generation rather than needing a separate word for a sibling plus a generation down the tree.

Well, what’s the opposite of grand? Terrible? That doesn’t seem like a good idea. Grand can also mean very big, so how about tiny? Maybe it also sounds potentially rude, but consider this: great and grand both mean similar things and start with the same letter. What can we prefix tiny with for a similar effect? Let me introduce: “teeny tiny”.

So instead of your grandparent calling you their grandchild, they call you their tinychild. And your children? Their teeny tinychildren. And their children? Of course that’s their teeny teeny tinychildren.

So it might be dumb, but it’s also hilarious and very cute.

So that bring’s us back to the nibling/pibling relationship from the start. Now nibling becomes tinysibling, and pibling becomes grandsibling. And your great aunt is now your great grandsibling, and you are her teeny tinysibling.

The final question to ask is, “Is this system better?” And the answer is a resounding no. Is it plausible to get people to adopt? Another resounding no. But, and this is the real killer question: is it funnier? Hell yeah.

[dat-silvers-girl]

Rakepick was more trustworthy than Peregrine, and here's why-

Sponsored by my ramblings with @weasley-adoptee yesterday.

Allow me to begin this rant by saying that for once in my life, I'm not talking about my headcanon characters. I'm talking about in-game Peregrine and in-game Rakepick.

Now, I think that Peregrine is the inverse of Rakepick. Because they're opposites in terms of behavior towards MC.

--------

Let's look at Rakepick first:

From the minute she arrived at Hogwarts as outside help in Year 4, Rakepick is powerful, egotistical, and well... downright rude for the most part. One thing that keeps getting pointed out is that she never deliberately tried to get MC to trust her. In fact, she was dropping hints that it was in MC's best interest to not trust her. And she was also fixated on the fact that we should question the people closest to us. One can say that she said that to sow discord between MC and their friends, but given recent events, I think she knew about MC's father. But that's another story.

Before I continue, let me say this: I think most adults, in my opinion, have a superiority complex. What I mean by this is that I have noticed that adults and the elderly use their age as an excuse to demand the trust and respect from the younger, without doing anything to earn it. They think they must be respected simply because they are older. Around me, this problem exists in parents (my parents grew out of it after enough fights), teachers, basically any adult with a job. And the less said about the elderly, the better.

Hey I know we should respect old people but if they're being complete asses to you then they don't deserve it.

Starting Year 5, Rakepick came in a position of power. She became a Professor, a position that demands a student's unquestioned respect. And maybe it was just me, but Rakepick never asked for our trust or respect. I think back to Year 5 and I don't think there was a time when Rakepick demanded anything from MC at all. All the same, she was a rather respected Professor in Year 5. As far as teaching goes, students loved her! There was plenty of flavour text and even some of MC's friends who genuinely liked Rakepick. And because she just didn't care whether MC trusted her or not, she never tried to bond with MC, and never tried to buy their trust. Before Year 5 ended, she was respected, and that respect was earned.

Now let's talk about Peregrine:

First of all, YES, I am aware that the position of father is very different than that of your teacher. But like I said earlier, this superiority complex problem is in parents as well.

We don't have a lot of information on Peregrine yet, other than he is MC's father by blood, and the leader of R. But through his few moments on screen, and the info from datamines, I instantly noticed that the way he acts is the exact opposite of how Rakepick acted. He flaunts his position as MC's father, and instantly asks for MC's forgiveness and trust. He says, "I'll explain everything once you join R." And this is proof enough that he's just telling MC to trust him and join R, no questions asked, simply because he is our father. He was gone for many years, and simply uses his position of power to demand MC's trust. DO YOU SEE MY POINT?

As opposed to how Rakepick acted towards MC, Peregrine is being kind, sweet talks MC and compliments them. According to the Datamine, in future chapters, he's making too much of an effort to bond with MC. Default MC seems to have missed their father to some extent, so he spends time with them in an effort to buy their trust.

But absolutely NO ONE trusts Peregrine. Even Rakepick had some people who trusted her a bit. But NO ONE trusts Peregrine. And why is that? Peregrine hasn't been rude to MC. He seems to be genuinely concerned about MC and even seems eager to share truths and information with them, unlike Rakepick. Heck, Peregrine actively wants to put his child in a powerful position as the leader of R. So why is it that Rakepick had at least a few people on her side, while Peregrine has gotten absolutely no one on his side?

Other than the fact that we know he's the R leader, it's also because we have come to a point where sweet behavior is far more supsiscious than rude or snarky behavior. There are some characters who seem nice and present themselves as friendly, but are actually the worst kind of people.

@weasley-adoptee and I have often discussed that we always knew where we stand with Rakepick. We could see some red flags from her since the very beginning, and she never cared to hide them. She didn't lie about who she was. The only thing she lied about was her involvement with R and Jacob. But whether or not she was with R, she neither confirmed it, nor denied it. We always knew she was using us to some extent and she laughed and agreed with us everytime we pointed it out. Like- "Yes I'm definitely using you. You will be used by a lot of people, and you will also use people. You are not a saint, MC."

And let me point out that MC trusted Rakepick just enough where they would share clues with her, seek her advice, and go the directions she pointed them in. I can't say any of us would do that with Peregrine.

The point I'm trying to get at:

Peregrine has put up the mask of the concerned, apologetic, sweet father. He's lying about who he truly is to MC. He is lying to us to an even greater extent than Rakepick. To put it simply, he's lying to us even more than Rakepick ever did.

I'm not saying Rakepick didn't lie. But she never put on a mask. She knew MC thought she was suspicous, but never cared to calrify. We always knew what she was. She only ever had one face, and we knew it since the beginning of Year 4 down to our last meet in Azkaban. Rakepick was trustworthy in the sense that she was untrustworthy and she never even tried to change our mind! We could always trust that we couldn't trust Rakepick and everyone made their peace with that.

I don't know how most people feel about this, but I've noticed that as people meet Peregrine in their games, even those who completely hate Rakepick, feel a little sad for her because she's not only in a beaten down state in Azkaban, but she's also being used as Peregrine's scapegoat so he doesn't have to face the consequences of his actions.

In the wise words of Blair, Peregrine is a comforting lie, while Rakepick is a harsh truth.

My scuffed conclusion because I have a lot of thoughts and I'm having trouble putting them together:

Both of these characters are adults who are "entitled" to recieve respect based on their position.

Rakepick had red flags, yes, enough to start a shop! She was owed respect and trust as our Professor, but never demanded it. We could question her all we wanted and she straight up didn't care. But at least before the Buried Vault, there was always a shred of respect for her in the community. And so in the chapter before the Buried Vault, when she said she could die, MC and we as players legitimately thought whether we were right to be so distrustful her. The answer should have been- "No, we were wrong." but unfortunately Jam City is stupid.

Peregrine, Jesus frickin Christ, has enough red flags to open a whole business. He's asking for the trust he's owed as our father. But the behaviour he exhibits by constantly asking for it makes him even more suspicious. So the more he tries to bond with MC, the less we'll trust him. Because his sweet father facade is bound to break soon if we keep rejecting him. Whereas with Rakepick, we could reject her help and she was just- "Go ahead be my guest. And if you get in trouble, I'll save you I guess."

This is also my PSA about how you are not entitled to the respect of the younger generation just because you are older. You want respect? Earn it.

Thank you for coming to my ramblings. I'm done rambling.

[fatherdmitri]

WAIT i want to hear more about this! how is smerdyakov gay-coded? (i think so as well but idk why)

omg yesssss!!! yeah it's crazy.

so, a little background, i'm doing undergrad research independent study thing this summer combining my major (ancient greek) and my other love, russian lit.

while i was re-reading the brothers karamazov over winter break- a regular occurrence- i started noticing some details in there that relates to classical masculinity and homosexuality, homosociality, etc etc etc.

so my question for my study is: how is greek masculinity presented in the brothers karamazov? basically comparing greek sexuality and gender and the brothers k and talking about the brothers + some other characters and whatnot.

now, to smerdyakov.

1. while reading an academic paper, the author cited michael r. katz, who says smerdyakov is “the worst fully developed portrait of a male homosexual in Dostoyevsky fiction”.

why did he say "worst"? well, thinking about it, smerdyakov, though my favorite part of the book, sucks. he is basically everything that isn't a man. going off of 19th century stereotypes, smerdyakov does not fit into the mold. in the chapter "Smerdyakov with a Guitar", his opinions towards his own country are revealed: he wants Russia invaded, he wants to abolish the army, he would run away in a duel, etc etc. this is opposite the status quo. he does not serve anyone in his mind, but himself. this is classic narcissism representation. i need to do more research on this, but i'm also talking about the connections between narcissism and homosexuality in literature (ALL STEREOTYPES, I DON'T BELIEVE THIS), but that's something to think about too. smerdyakov is also emasculated, will be discussed later. but what you have to know is that emasculation/effeminacy, etc etc can be and usually are synonyms for homosexuality.

okay, this next bit talks about sex and masturbation, so if you wanna hop off here, you can. or just skip the next paragraph.

2. smerdyakov's appearance is that of a sexually promiscuous individual. a dissertation created by tissot in 1758, he says that masturbators and sexual men will develop a yellow-tint to his skin, pale, effeminate, lazy, and in some cases, will develop EPILEPSY. how is smerdyakov described? "He spent some years there and came back remarkably changed in appearance. He looked extraordinarily old for his age. His face had grown wrinkled, yellow, and strangely emasculate" (Dost. 106). okay, obviously, smerdyakov's epilepsy was developed in early teen years. but remember, it got worse once he returned from moscow. homosexuals were also described as such, basically any man who had odd preferences (and by odd, i mean normal).

3. moving on: "But he seemed to have as much contempt for the female sex as for men; he was discreet, almost unapproachable, with them. Fyodor Pavlovitch began to regard him rather differently. His fits were becoming more frequent, and on the days he was ill Marfa cooked, which did not suit Fyodor Pavlovitch at all. "Why are your fits getting worse?" asked Fyodor Pavlovitch, looking askance at his new cook. "Would you like to get married? Shall I find you a wife?" But Smerdyakov turned pale with anger, and made no reply." (Dost. 107). yeah, this. smerdyakov does not wanna get married, etc etc. not much to say here.

4. dostoyevsky also stated something incredible and damning all the same: in his essay "Russian or French?" he talks about how french corrupts youth. smerdyakov is learning french, and hoping to reside there eventually. "corrupting youth" could mean a slew of things, homosexuality is one of those things.

5. his suicide: i actually did an essay about the femininity of suicide! smerdyakov commits suicide by the end of the novel. suicide is described (also in ancient greece and so on) as feminine and the ultimate emasculated thing one can do.

6. another quote from katz: "Dostoyevsky offers Smerdyakov's sexual inversion as a stark contrast to the more "normal, healthy", heterosexuality of the three full-blooded brothers... Smerdyakov is also provided with a partner, but his relationship with her must be a broad parody of a heterosexual courtship..."

7. another quote from katz: "That dress..." (marya's dress) "...with a train receives special attention in Dostoevskii's notebooks for the Brothers Karamazov... 'he took a liking to two of her [Marya's] dresses, one with a train, and to her manner of shifting that train. At first he got angry with the train, but later... he took a great liking to it'... The train is obviously a symbol of feminine sexuality; Smerdyakov is attracted to it, though not aroused by it, except a feeling of envy: as he wants one, too, and wants to be able to 'shift' it seductively"

yeah that's all i can think of now!!! basically smerdyakov is very gay and is horrible representation but i love to talk about it! also i heard some things about smerdyakov's vague feelings towards ivan and whatnot. but most of that isn't fully developed and that would be a whole other conversation.

[tinypurplewizardfan]

Hearing Teemo call Veigar short for Yordle is probably the most daring thing to do, I wonder what kind of relationship these two have and if maybe Teemo already says these jokes to Veigar often because he doesn't seem annoyed, their interactions are ambiguous anyway

Ahh!! I'm so sorry anon, this ask got lost in the depths of my inbox for some reason. I managed to find it again though!

I always took Teemo's "aww, only for a yordle!" and "what was that?" as being pretty demeaning in Veigar's direction. Teemo basically isn't taking him seriously, which is basically pushing Veigar's number one button.

I always thought it interesting that Teemo is kind of the inverse to Veigar- Teemo portrays himself as innocent and cute so that foes underestimate him, whereas Veigar tries very hard to get himself taken seriously from the get-go. But despite the difference in strategies, both are very effective at killing people and getting the job done.

I also feel like they're similar in another way regarding their relationship with the rest of Bandle City. Bandle City is all happy sunshine and rainbows, where everybody's best friends and nobody ever has to do anything alone. . . but that doesn't leave any room for yordles like Teemo and Veigar, who sometimes prefer to be alone. Teemo's two paragraphs of lore state that other yordles even feel something "off" about him and find it scary how he prefers to go on missions alone. I can't help but feel that this isn't because Teemo's secretly some sort of psychopath, but simply because he's an introvert in a culture where everybody's expected to engage in as much social activity as possible.

Perhaps Teemo's overly bright and chipper exterior is just a façade he plays to in order to fit in with the culture he was raised in. This is the opposite of how Veigar reacted, which was to become cartoonishly evil in part as a rejection of Bandle's happy-go-lucky attitude. Them, along with Vex, are the yordles who kind of got "left behind" by Bandle's insistence on intense socializing and forbiddance of negative emotions.

I guess I think way to much about how Bandle City's "perfect" culture could leave some yordles behind because that was highlighted in Vex's short story, along with the fact that I am neurodivergent and the idea living in a town where everybody has to be hanging out and smiling 100% of the time sounds like sensory hell.

So! To actually answer your question- I definitely don't think the two are friends. Far from it, actually, given Teemo's tendency to demean Veigar and not take him seriously. Despite this, I still think Veigar has a modicum of respect or at least understanding for Teemo's position. I imagine it's kind of like the trope "we're the same, you and I"- Veigar might try and tempt him to the dark side. Whether Teemo would actually consider this proposition or reject it outright is entirely up to your interpretation of him.

[aspoonofsugar]

Hi...how are you? If you don't mind me asking who are your favorite siblings' relationship in anime/movies/tv series? Sorry if you've answered this question before......

Hello!

Here is my list in no particular order.

1) Nina and Johan (Monster)

Their relationship is very interesting and complicated and it basically deconstructs the bond between twins and the trope of the good twin and evil twin (which is what makes it acceptable for my friend @hamliet <3<3<3).

The two twins were never treated as children and as a result they developed an extremely frail sense of self and kind of a symbiotic relationship. In particular, Johan decided to become Nina’s coping mechanism, a sort of living Jungian Shadow of her. The result is a disaster and the two siblings ended up hurting each other.

Still, their recovery goes through uncovering their shared past and the past they do not share. It is a path of self-discovery and forgiveness.

2) Zuko and Azula (ATLA)

Theirs is a tragic bond. They are two abused children who turn into two troubled teenagers. They are pitted one against the other by their abuser and in the end they are not able to overcome how their upgringing has shaped their relationship (at least in the show proper).

They are also two different answers to abuse and even if just Zuko is able to change for the better, Azula is still shown empathy.

In particular, they have opposite problems when it comes to their feelings. Zuko’s feelings explode and this is why he lacks control of his fire. Azula instead represses all her feelings to have perfect control. However, in the end it is necessary to aknowledge one’s emotions and to face them to truly reach harmony.

3) Soren and Claudia (The Dragon Prince)

In my opinion, Soren and Claudia (together with their father Viren) are the two best written characters in the series (as for now) and the main reason I got invested in it.

Soren and Claudia’s bond is one of mutual affection and trust. However, it is being challenged by the toxic influence their father has on both. They both risk to lose themselves to the flaws they very clearly inherited from Viren. Moreover, their different reactions to their father’s spiral has created a rift between them.

I love how they are both shown at their best and at their lowest points because of that same trait that, if well balanced can save them. Soren risks to lose himself to the desire to prove he is a good royal guard. Still, later on is that same desire that leads him to make the right thing. Claudia is his inversion. She is shown doing the right thing out of love, but then she spirals for that same love.

Still, I think that in the end they will be there for each other.

4) Krel and Aja (Tales of Arcadia)

Krel and Aja’s arcs are powerful and complementary. They both start thinking they are meant to be what the other will become in the end.

Krel starts as more responsible towards his role as Prince and shows disdain and discrimination towards Earthlings.

Aja initially wants to run away from her role and enjoys her normal life on Earth.

However, by the end Krel is the one who discovers himself through his relationships on Earth, while Aja finds herself a queen.

It is this paralleled and inverted structure together with the siblings’ complementarity and the strong bond they share that make them such good protagonists.

5) Hargreeves siblings (The Umbrella Academy)

They are all disasters and this is why their family is the best.

I love how after years spent avoiding each other, they still very clearly love each other and see each other as family. Despite being already adults, they are all still children when the story begins and they need to face each other to heal and truly grow.

I also like how each sibling has their own well defined personality and how each bond is different.

Luther and Diego have a rivalry.

Allison is everyone’s big sis and Luther’s love interest.

Vanya is estranged from everyone, but she develops a strong bond with Allison and is shown to get along with Five.

Five adores all his siblings, but often does not care for their individual needs.

Klaus is loved, but also underestimated by the others and he shares a special bond with Ben.

All in all, the family dynamic is very well flashed out and I think this is why the show works so well.

6) Zoldyck siiblings (HxH)

I love love love the Zoldyck Family and I love how all the other four siblings clearly foil Killua aka one of the MC. His two older brothers are who Killua must not become (an assassin like Illumi or dependent and unable to leave home like Milluki). Kalluto and Alluka are instead who Killua needs to save from the family. At the same time, Alluka, Kalluto, Milluki and Illumi all foil each other or have the potential to do so. They are all pretty different people and their dynamics are dysfunctional, but also entertaining to watch.

7) Schneeblings (RWBY)

This trio’s dynamic might be less central to their series than the other examples. Still, they are all pretty flashed out and their interactions are funny to watch.

The Schnee siblings have all reacted differently to their abusive environment. Still, they all share a warm heart behind a cold exterior. It is telling that they all work together to save Atlas and it is telling they all break free from their abusive home life also because of the others.

Winter inspires Weiss to leave and Weiss inspires Whitley to use his power for good. They make a virtuous chain of sibling love.

8) Kirishima siblings (TG)

Ayato and Touka’s backstory is one of my favourite parts of TG. It is interesting to see how they both changed in ways that turned them into their antithesis, but that are also consistent with the personalities they show as small children.

It is heartbreaking to see how close they were as children and how much they have grown apart as teenagers. Still, their bond remains strong and they still clearly love each other. Touka used to protect Ayato as a child and Ayato is trying to protect Touka now that he has grown. Still, he goes at it in the worst way possible.

SPECIAL MENTION: The Gandor brothers (Claire included) from Baccano! I just love how surreal their interactions are!

Thank you for the ask!

[welcometowcwmondaynitro]

WCW Monday Nitro 09/09/1996

Shit be exploding, so you know what time it is.

Yes sir.

Once again we are not given a location this week, which generally means the town is too small-time for the big shots at WCW to even consider giving a shout out to. My research tells me this broadcast comes from the Columbus Civic Centre in Columbus, Georgia.  

As always we are introduced to our first hour announce team, Schiavone and Zbyszko.

Tony is looking quite smart this evening. Larry as expected has a horrific multcoloured abomination on underneath his jacket. It’s basically his gimmick a this point so whatever. 

They talk about how the balance of power has shifted to the nWo and Larry says Giant is “the biggest traitor since Benedict Arnold”, nice ancient reference there, Larry. We get a recap of last week’s awesome show-ending brawl. 

Once they’re done wrapping this up, Goldberg’s music plays. What? I check my file - yes, definitely 9th September 1996. Has Goldberg time travelled back to 1996 and changed history by debuting early?

Well, either that is one hell of a disguise or no, actually Goldberg’s theme music was first used by this Japanese guy called Pat Tanaka. It’s really weird seeing this random fella walk out to Goldberg’s music. The crowd boo mildly - I guess just because he’s Japanese? I don’t remember there being any storyline reason to boo him, anyway. 

Pat’s opponent is... this.

Looks like a mascot from a early/mid-90s video game brought to life. If this is Super Calo then I am curious as to what regular Calo is like. I am unsure as to what makes this version ‘Super’, but maybe we’ll find out in the upcoming match. Mike Tenay joins the announce crew because it is Calo’s debut and Tenay is the only one likely to know anything about him.

Pat Tanaka vs Super Calo

I was kind of hoping Tanaka would start the match with a spear and then jackhammer Calo into oblivion, but no such luck. 

As one would anticipate from a man dressed like a stereotypical kung-fu master in an 80s movie, Tanaka starts the match off with some kicks.

Calo jumps around pointlessly and then gets kicked in the face. Bants.

Tenay tells us Calo’s name and look comes from the “top rap group” in Mexico. He does not name this group. Confusingly wikipedia claims Calo is named after a Mexican rock group with the same name, but his image is meant to convey a rapper. So, just... what? Also what rapper has ever looked like Super Calo? In Mexico is that how rappers dress? 

Well anyway this odd fellow somersaults over the ropes onto Tanaka outside of the ring. 

The screen then cuts to this.

 Then we’re back to the match. OK then. 

Tanaka hits Calo with a powerbomb, which leads to Tony talking about him being “so schooled in the martial arts”. Yes, because we all know that classic martial arts move the powerbomb. Often followed by a leg drop and a scorpion deathlock. 

The ending to this match is beyond ridiculous. 

First, Tanaka puts Calo onto the top turnbuckle.

Neither man seems to know what is meant to happen next, so they awkwardly wrap their arms around each other.

Tanaka then lifts Calo up like he’s going for an inverse piledriver and falls backwards.

Apparently he knocks himself out, gets pinned, and loses.

What an idiot.

Super Calo defeats Pat Tanaka via Pinfall.

Nothing too super about our friend Calo in this one I’m afraid. His victory came largely because Tanaka is a super dunce.

We got some lads in the front row who are big fans of the classic moustache.

They seem quite pleased that Calo emerged victorious.

Just under seven minutes in and we throw back to Mean Gene in the locker room with Rick Steiner. This should be good.

Shirts hanging out of the lockers behind them, as you do. 

Gene asks Rick Steiner about Nick Patrick’s questionable officiating - referring to the incident last week where Luger was disqualified in seconds for basically nothing. Rick says that he had Luger, and Gene saw it. Total bullshit as the match had barely started, and Gene does point that out. 

Luger walks into the frame as we see last week’s replay. Rick is continually going on about how he was going to win, sounding like a mentally challenged three year old. On the other hand this is a guy who also genuinely thinks he’s a dog, so... I should probably be impressed that he is able to form words and put them into a somewhat coherent structure.

Gene says that Steiner is “a little confused” in the understatement of the century, 

Luger tells Rick that he’s “a great tag team wrestler” but he feels like he has the edge in a singles environment. Rick continues to fail to understand basic english and keeps repeating “I can beat you, ask Sting” and then starts calling for Sting.

Gene then ushers Rick away like an unruly child as Luger walks off as well. Gene says that Luger was alluding that Rick “doesn’t have it upstairs”, pointing to his head. Wow, what a dick. Luger didn’t say anything like that. All he implied was that he was a better singles wrestler than Rick. Not sure where Gene has gotten his interpretation from, but my guess is he just wants to stir the pot as usual.

Next it’s nWo announcement time.

Just the usual t-shirt ad with Nash saying “all proceeds go towards the Ric Flair retirement fund”. Joke’s on him, that fund must have accrued some serious cash before it was finally paid out.

We’re back and...

Somebody buy these poor kids some real nWo t-shirts. 

Where did these people come from? Did they decide to stop by Nitro after a corporate dinner or something? 

Are these pilots in the audience as well? Wtf? Why are all these people coming to the show dressed in their work clothes? Is this a common thing in the States?

Oh, hey, guess what - Glacier debuted. I would say “remember all that hype” but if you’ve been reading this sad collection of nostalgic drivel then you will indeed remember the many Glacier adverts that have been on every Nitro broadcast since May or so. We’re now in September and Glacier finally had his first match... on WCW Pro.

Seriously.

WCW Pro is like... Sunday Night Heat or Velocity in WWE terms. It’s below WCW Saturday Night for fuck’s sake.  Tony calls it “one of the most eagerly anticipated debuts ever” - which is why he made his first appearance on WCW FUCKING PRO. Oh WCW, what are you like?

Larry says Glacier will be “a force to be reckoned with”, which, spoiler alert. turns out to be the opposite.

  Oh good, these two walking charisma vacuums.

And these two lumbering idiots. WCW, the best wrestling on the planet. How could WWF in 1996 find no way to entice people away from Pat Tanaka vs Super Calo and The AFC vs the Nasty Boys? Seriously. It isn’t that difficult. 

The AFC do their usual schtick of singing the Canadian national anthem badly and the crowd get angry because ‘Murica fuck yeah and whatever. The Nasty Boys say “fuck this” and attack the AFC after about 10 seconds of this bullshit, getting the match started.

The Amazing French Canadians Vs The Nasty Boys

You don’t care about this match. I don’t care about this match. Let’s just skip to the end.

Knobbs whacks the eyepatch guy with the flag the AFC brought out. Saggs pins for the win. 

The Nasty Boys defeat The Amazing French Canadians via Pinfall.

Mean Gene comes scurrying out to interview the Nastys, for some reason.

Saggs says everybody has been pointing the finger at the Nasty Boys, accusing them of being with the nWo (can’t imagine anybody really cares but OK, sure). Saggs says the Nasty’s are only worried about the tag titles which are in WCW, ergo they aren’t interested in joining the nWo. Does he not realise that faction affiliation is irrelevent as far as challenging for belts is concerned? I mean, Hogan is literally WCW Heavyweight champion at this point in time. 

Knobbs says that the Nasty’s don’t care about the nWo, they’re in WCW and they’re coming for Harlem Heat to take the tag team titles. Short and to the point, which is fine by me, even if the Nasty’s appear to be under the mistaken impression- that joining the nWo would invalidate them from challenging for the tag titles. 

We’re back from a commercial break to find Scott Norton and Sgt Craig Pittman in the ring.

Sgt Craig Pittman Vs Scott Norton

The commentators bill this as a “hold versus hold” match and I’m not sure what this means, as I was under the impression every match is hold versus hold. But whatever. 

After some back and forth Pittman decides that it’s time to ram his head into Norton’s sternum. 

It looks pretty painful and not especially effective, but Pittman enjoys it so much he does it again. 

They head to the outside of the ring. Norton gets whipped against the guardrail, the entirety of which moves upon impact, but then Norton regains control by slamming Pittman’s shoulder into the ring post. 

Norton locks in the armbar but the Sarge will not give up. Long gets onto the ring apron to beg Pittman to give in, but he won’t. WCW, for reasons beyond my understanding, is very careful about protecting Sgt. Craig Pittman. He never gets pushed, as far as I remember, but this man WILL NOT QUIT.

Then... 

Ice Train wanders out wearing this abomination. Seriously - what the fuck? It’s like a demin vest with a backpack built in. It’s something you would expect to see an eight-year old girl in the mid-90s wearing over the top of a t-shirt or something. What clothing brand figured that this design was suitable for huge, beefy dudes? I don’t know, but they clearly have a customer in Ice Train.

Train throws in the towel for Pittman.  

Scott Norton defeats Sgt. Craig Pittman via Forfeit. 

He enters the ring and stares down at Norton, who is looking at Train’s vest top and moobs like “dafuq?”

The two former amigos have a staredown which doesn’t lead anywhere. 

Pepboys Power Pin of the Week is a submission. Go figure.

We head to the locker room where Gene-o is with Ric Flair, Arn Anderson and Lex Luger.

Three of these men are dressed appropriately. The other is Lex Luger.

Apparently Sting is supposed to be a part of this interview as well but is nowhere to be found. Luger assures Flair & Arn that Sting is in the building, but the Horsemen are having none of it and are concerned that Sting doesn’t have his head in the game. Flair starts going crazy and practically flings himself into an alternate dimension with his erratic movements.

Like a jet propeller is being put directly in front of his face.

Anyway eventually these two sad sacks come lumbering in...

Mongo looks like he’s about to explode, whilst Benoit as usual appears barely awake. Mongo yells about not being able to count on Luger and Sting. Luger reiterates that Sting is in the building somewhere, he’s just not around for the interview. The Horsemen do seem overly paranoid here - how hard would it be to track Sting down and talk to him if they are this pissed off? 

Arn says he’s called ahead to Winston, Salem (where Fall Brawl/War Games is being held) to pre-book himself a hospital room as he assumes he’s going to need one. Seems like a somewhat pessimistic thing to do, but is it even possible to pre-book hospital room? Arn is talking like he’s booked a hotel room for the night. Strange lad. He also suggests Hogan uses battery acid to burn out his eyes which... I mean, don’t give the guy ideas, Arn.  

Interview ends with everybody talking over each other and Flair wooing a lot - so, the same as most Horsemen interviews.

People in the crowd are holding these signs which say “nWo - you haven’t seen bad... but it’s coming!” - indeed, Hogan Vs Piper is coming.

We get a recap of this thrilling DDP/Eddie/Chavo storyline which nobody cares about, but why this is recapped is beyond me as the next match has nothing to do with any of those three. 

Instead, out comes “the desparado” himself, Joe Gomez.

Somebody throws a wad of paper at him as he enters. Obviously not a fan.

His opponent is Juventud Guerrera,  who Tony repeatedly refers to as Juventud Guerrero. 

As Juvi enters he runs past these ladies, who appear both baffled and unimpressed with him.

Cold.

Joe Gomez Vs Juventud Guerrera

The match starts off okay, but descends into disaster fairly quickly as Juvi starts trying various lucha things which poor Joe is clearly not comfortable with. First Juvi stands on the apron, jumps onto the ropes as Gomez slowly walks towards him and does this...

It’s clear from this angle alone that there is no way in hell Juvi is going to reach Gomez. In fairness to WCW they switch camera angle just in time to make it look slightly less terrible, although I imagine it was more down to luck than skill. Nonetheless Gomez at least tries to sell the move, falling backwards theatrically.

Weeee! Points for effort if not execution. 

This happens next, and thanks to Uproxx “Best and Worst of WCW Monday Nitro” series (check it out, it’s great) I have a GIF to put into pictures what I would struggle to put into words.

Speaks for itself.

After this Juvi seems to want to go for a hurricanrana from the top turnbuckle but I‘m not sure if they botch this as well or it was the plan, but Juvi ends up backflipping away from the turnbuckle and then catching Gomez with a weak looking dropkick as he jumps towards Juvi.

Juvi just about manages to hit the finishing move...

But even that looks a little bit dodgy. At least Joe just had to lay there for this one. Ref counts to three and mercifully this one is over. Not sure if Gomez or Juvi are to blame for this shitshow, but either way I advise never putting them together again.

Juventud Guerrera defeats Joe Gomez via Pinfall.

For some reason Mean Gene is on the ramp to interview Nick Patrick. Oh good, more of this storyline.

Before they start the interview though, as Juventud walks past Gene and Patrick, Gene says “very good match there on the part of Juventud Guerrera”, then gives Juvi a disdainful look and mutters “guy just kind of... wanders around here”. LOL. Why is Gene throwing shade at poor Juvi? “Guy just wanders around here”, like he’s a lost child or something. I guess Gene is still salty about the interview with Juvi that went wrong a couple of weeks ago, but come on, that was hardly Juvi’s fault. Obvious Gene is still holding a grudge though. 

I don’t think anybody really wants to hear from these two ballbags but here we are anyway. 

Gene is accusing Patrick of making too many controversial calls for it to just be coincidence, whilst Patrick is accusing Gene of being a shit-stirring cock cheese who needs to get a life. Neither are lying but nobody really cares either. What is funny is that Okerlund is very haughty and dismissive of Patrick - until Patrick threatens to take Gene to court - at which point Gene stutters “well I-I hope that doesn’t happen” before saying “thank you very much Nick Patrick, sir, thank you” to Patrick as he walks off. Pathetic. 

Meanwhile Hogan, Hall, Nash and the Giant are outside in the pouring rain putting those nWo flyers with the “you haven’t seen bad... but it’s coming” slogan on random cars. This seems like a total waste of time as by the time the car owners get back to their vehicles the rain would probably have destroyed those flyers anyway.  Do these guys really have nothing better to do? Tony tells us the nWo are “literally” in the parking lot - as opposed to what, being there in spirit?

Ted DiBiase is the smartest of the lot as he 1) has an umbrella and 2) isn’t wasting his time putting up useless flyers in the pouring rain. He’s talking to somebody in the car, and the announcers are shitting themselves as to who it might be, as they tend to do. For all they know DiBiase might just be talking to the driver. 

“HERE’S A STORY OF TWO BROTHERS, RICK AND SCOTT!”

Just Rick tonight. He comes out doing that sad half-bark he does whenever something is troubling him. 

His opponent, of course, is Flexy Lexy.

Rick Steiner Vs Lex Luger

These two are not exactly known as ‘ring generals’ so I am not expecting a classic here. Let’s see, though. Perhaps we will all be pleasantly surprised. 

After various arm drags, headlocks, shoulder blocks, and so on, this happens.

Uh...

Yeah. Rick is basically molesting Luger in the ring and keeps this up for a disturbing amount of time. I guess it’s meant to show his amateur wrestling background but it basically just looks like sexual assault. Rick’s hands are going to places they really should not. 

Hour two begins with the usual fireworks. Bischoff, Heenan and Tenay come in on commentary for the rest of the show. 

Rick hits Luger with a nice powerslam, and Randy Anderson cannot bear to watch the impact. The crowd bark their approval which, personally, I don’t think is helpful. Rick’s clinical lycanthropy is only going to get worse if people bark at him when he does something good. Or bark at him in general, really.

More cuddling. Back away, Rick. Even Randy Anderson is telling him to cut it out at this point.

Luger takes control with a powerslam and signals for the rack. However, before he can attempt his finishing move...

This dicksplash comes running out waving his arms around. Looks like he’s doing the sieg heil there but fairly sure it’s just the timing of the screenshot.

Anyhow, Patrick tells Luger to follow him out the back, yelling something about the nWo beating up Sting.

Considering Patrick’s recent behaviour, Lex, it might not be wise to...

OK. Never mind. Of course Luger goes running after Patrick, abandoning the match entirely and getting himself counted out. 

Everyone looking towards the entrance way like “where’s he going?” 

Rick Steiner defeats Lex Luger via Countout.

We get a shot of DiBiase talking to the mystery man in the limo. Sting’s voice is heard but it is blatantly piped in from some other promo. He says he’s “tired of the DTA stuff, don’t trust anybody”, so I guess he’s not a fan of Stone Cold Steve Austin. DiBiase pretends to talk to the pre-taped Sting voice until Lex shows up.

A guy who is clearly not Sting gets out of the limo and starts beating up Luger whilst Bischoff screams “NO! NO!”

I have the advantage of hindsight and my monitor is probably bigger than most people’s TVs back in 1996... but still, it’s really obviously not Sting. Were people genuinely fooled by this? 

The nWo along with “Sting” beat Luger down and leave him laying in a broken heap in the rain...

It has not been a good night for Luger. First he got yelled at by the Horsemen, then he spent ten minutes getting inappropriately touched by Rick Steiner during their match, then he gets smacked around by the nWo and left on the ground in the pouring rain. Bad times for sure. Although if you’re stupid enough to follow Nick Patrick anywhere... 

Luger does manage to get back up but ends up just kind of wandering around in the rain looking confused whilst the nWo flee, leaving the limos parked outside the building.

These bois are not impressed by what they have just seen. Tenay looks like a dad who is about to grab his belt and put a whippin’ on somebody. Bischoff is indignant. Heenan wears the expression of a man who was just forced to sit through every Raw from 2015. Pure torture. 

Bischoff says he has an update which is literally “we don’t know where [the nWo] are. I’m sorry. I don’t know”. Well thanks for that. Very helpful. 

We get a long recap of last week’s angle including more footage of the amazing all-out brawl that ended the show. Then we get another nWo advert for their t-shirt. 

A bunch of random jobbers are outside with Luger and Rick Steiner milling around the limo yelling out “DIBIASE!” - as if he’ll just pop up and be like “sup bois?” - pointless endeavour. Rick Steiner is the only one smart enough to bring an umbrella outside. Let that one sink in. Luger chucks a bunch of stuff out of one of the limos onto the floor which seems unnecessary. 

Out comes pre-Flock Billy Kidman. The commentators could not care less, just droning on about Sting’s supposed “defection”. 

The other combatant in this contest is Cruiserweight champion Rey Mysterio Jr.

Rey Mysterio Jr Vs Billy Kidman

The announcers spend the entire match in ‘sad voice’, like their dogs have all collectively died. It’s really annoying.

The match spills to the outside very quickly. Rey gets the advantage and rolls Kidman back in. He attempts to jump off the ropes from the apron, but Kidman knows what’s coming and meets Rey with a dropkick to the chest.

Kidman slams Rey in the centre of the ring, runs over to the turnbuckle and leaps off.

Just a two count though. Rey wins the match soon after this by flipping off the ropes onto Kidman.

It looks weak but whatever. This wasn’t anything special.

Rey Mysterio defeats Billy Kidman via Pinfall.

We come back from a commercial and the Dungeon’s of Doom’s “music” is playing, and I put that in inverted commas because it isn’t really music, just a pseudo-creepy OTT villainous laugh accompanied by some kind of chant. Whatever. Normally any sign of the Dungeon is enough to make me want to hang my head in despair, however!

If Meng is involved, it might be somewhat entertaining. Just to note those aren’t two random arms sprouting out of Meng’s shoulders – the Barbarian is behind him.

The announcers are still going on about how tragic Sting’s supposed betrayal is – and Bischoff apologises for “not giving Rey Mysterio the attention he deserves in his match”. I mean, kind of tough to take that apology seriously considering how often this has happened and will continue to happen until Nitro goes out of existence. It is the only time I can recall any commentator in WCW actually apologising for the routine ignoring of the cruiserweights in favour of talking about/complaining about the nWo, though.

These two are the opponents. Yeah, Public Enemy, they definitely deserve that pyro. Sure. Look at them waving their hands in the air like they just don’t care.

By the way, the commentators are still going on about Sting. I wonder if we’ll get another apology for ignoring this match as well? Not that I’d necessarily blame them here.

Some diehard wrestling fans here. I think we saw them previously – seemingly someone in production has taken a liking to these ladies. They look like they got lost on their way to a PTA meeting, but fuck it, might as well enjoy themselves now. Watch out for the dude behind you though, ladies. That smile worries me a little.

The Faces of Fear Vs Public Enemy

We go to a commercial break, and as soon as we come back Bischoff says “I hate to keep repeating this, but apparently Sting has joined forces with the nWo”. Bullshit, if you hated it that much you’d have shut up about it by now. I mean, jeez, we get it.

This contest is just a brawl, as you’d expect. Not exactly a match for the ages, but all of a sudden, randomly…

This dude on the left appears and begins running/skipping around the ring.

The fuck? It’s like Rockstar Spud’s demented uncle or something. 

He briefly chases Jimmy Hart, then just… vanishes? Oh, and by the way, the commentators make no mention of this. They do not acknowledge this at all. Why? Because they’re talking about everything except the match itself. Literally, I’m not kidding, it’s like this match is not happening. It’s like listening to a radio show or a podcast spliced together with unrelated WCW footage.

Wait, what? What’s happening now? The match is ongoing and they just cut to the back. Judging from the faces of these lads you’d think someone died. It’s a sombre scene to say the least – but seriously, why even have the match in the ring? What’s the point? The commentators are acting like it isn’t happening and we cut to an interview as the match is happening. Bischoff doesn’t even note that we’ve cut away from a match in progress, he just says “take it away Gene”, like this is totally normal. Whatever, I guess. It’s not like I’m desperate to see the Faces of Fear versus Public Enemy, but what a bizarre way to structure… everything.

Gene asks Arn to explain what happened in the parking lot earlier. Seemed quite self-explanatory to me and the commentators have not stopped talking about it since it happened, so the viewers really don’t need any extra information.  

Arn says he doesn’t give a shit about Luger losing a friend, or that he’s lost a team mate, he’s just shocked. He brings up Sting’s loyalty to WCW.

They actually move to a split-screen here – I guess someone in the production truck remembered there is actually a match going on. It wouldn’t be fair to deprive the dozens of Faces of Fear/Public Enemy fans the chance to see their favourite grapplers go at it.

Anyway, Arn says he has a sick feeling in his stomach, he’s shocked, and he’s out of words. He’s said quite a few already, though, so not really.

Flair stands there with his arms folded, eyeing the audience like a disappointed father.

Luger says he doesn’t have any answers, and that his “best friend in the whole world” stabbed him in the back. He then says he knows where Sting lives and where he works out, and he’s going to go and find him “right now”. Sounds like Lex is planning to murk Sting. However, he should keep in mind this is a guy who only last week tried to murder somebody by chucking a rock through the window of a limo, then stole a police car. Come to think of it, I’m not sure why Sting isn’t in jail. Regardless, I wouldn’t be chasing after him without a good plan.

Flair screams that he’s “sick of it” and just generally yells about how they’re going to beat up the nWo at War Games (including Sting). Arn says “it’s a fight to the death – yours, not ours”. I suppose that was worth emphasising? Also Arn has a tendency to see these matches as ending in death, even though it never comes close to that.

We return to the Faces of Fear/Public Enemy match. By “we” I mean the audience – the commentators are still talking about War Games. I genuinely don’t think they have said anything about the match – oh, wait a minute, Bischoff does mention the match, finally. Although he says the teams are “literally fighting for their lives” which is not exactly accurate. What is up with these people thinking matches are going to end so tragically?

Anyway, the brawling continues for a while and eventually, somehow, Rocco Rock ends up lying on a table. Barbarian heads for the top turnbuckle.

Guys, I don’t foresee this ending well. Seriously, what is the absolute best result of this? Rocco (who can clearly see Barbarian on the turnbuckle) for some reason lays there and lets Barbarian jump on him. It’ll be brutal for both. Or, Rocco moves and Barbarian crashes through the table. Either way Barbarian doesn’t win in this scenario.

Uh oh. Jimmy Hart is absolutely useless at holding Rocco down, kicked away like an insect as Rocco sits up.

That is a fucking sick bump. It’s funny because Barbarian barely takes any serious bumps at all, on Nitro at least, then he decides to say fuck it and leaps to the concrete through a table because YOLO I guess?

Well anyway he dead. Rocco brings a second table into the ring.

Looks pretty old. Nick Patrick wags his finger in disapproval, but incredibly that isn’t enough to persuade Public Enemy to stop. They lay Meng on the table, then Rocco goes to the top turnbuckle for a moonsault…

He almost misses the table entirely, only catching Meng with his legs. The table is weak enough that it breaks despite the soft contact.

You’d think that would be the spot that ends the match, but no. Meng gets up like nothing happened and starts brawling with Rocco again. Barbarian is also somehow revived and back in the ring fighting with Grunge. This is weird because the outside table spot with Barbarian getting wiped out, and then Meng getting put through the table by Rocco’s moonsault, felt like the end sequence of the match. Now it’s like we’re back at the start again. Keep in mind the match has been going for about 10 minutes now. That’s at least 7 minutes longer than is ideal for these teams, really.

Whilst Rocco and Barbarian are hugging it out in the corner, Meng puts the Tongan Death Grip on Grunge and now this one is over.

No explanation as to what the fuck was going on with that random ginger guy running around the ring earlier by the way. Oh well. During the replay Heenan accidentally calls Meng “Haku” and then goes silent immediately. Oops.

The Faces of Fear defeat Public Enemy via Pinfall.

Suddenly Okerlund appears at ringside, accompanied by the Dungeon of Doom.

Maxx, Jimmy Hart, Big Bubba, Gene, Kevin Sullivan, Hugh Morrus and Konnan. To quote Rufus from Final Fantasy 7 – “what a crew”.

Sullivan is no longer painting his face with those stupid markings, but for some reason is now wearing a white headband. Does he think he’s the Karate Kid now?

He also starts making this derp face - and this isn’t just a screen grab catching an awkward expression momentarily, he’s making this face on purpose.

For some reason we go to Jimmy Hart first, who tells the Giant “it’s the beginning of the end for you, you just don’t know it yet”. I’m sure he’s quaking in his boots.  

Big Bubba then rants about Glacier, talking about him saying he’s coming for “6 or 7 months” and asking if he’s not debuting because he’s afraid. Slight exaggeration on the 6 or 7 months from Bubba, but to be fair it does feel like those vignettes have been running for at least that long. Bubba actually doesn’t seem to be aware that Glacier debuted on WCW Pro, but it’s WCW Pro, so... understandable. Bubba calls the Dungeon of Doom “the masters of intimidation”…

What he means is that Meng is the master of intimidation. The others aren’t exactly adding much to the equation. Maxx is standing off to the side looking distinctly unimpressed by the entire thing.

With that said, bored does seem to be his default expression regardless of what is happening. I imagine he’d have the same expression even if Bubba was in the process of sprouting three heads whilst doing a kossack dance.

After calling Gene “homes”, Konnan calls Sullivan a “hardened veterano”. He then says Sullivan has seen and led gang wars from coast to coast.

Yes, Kevin Sullivan wearing that silly white headband is exactly what I think of when I think of leaders of gang wars. Sullivan’s ‘wut?’ expression here says it all. I’m not sure you can call the Dungeon of Doom/Alliance to End Hulkamania Versus Hogan and Macho Man a “gang war”. I’m not sure two people can even constitute a gang. Also Sullivan may be worried Konnan is unintentionally (?) implicating him in genuine gang wars… which probably isn’t in the Taskmaster’s best interests.

Konnan challenges the nWo to come out and confront the Dungeon, who he calls “the toughest set”. Yeah, sure. The challenge is not accepted, because the nWo are for sure terrified of a “gang” featuring the likes of Maxx, Kevin Sullivan, Big Bubba and Hugh Morrus.

Sullivan says that Savage thinks he’ll owe the Dungeon “a debt” for carrying him out from the ring last week. I doubt it in all honesty – maybe if they’d actually done something to help him before he’d been beaten down and spraypainted. Carrying him out after the fact didn’t really help much.

Anyhow, Sullivan says Savage can repay this fictional debt by first beating John Tenta, because why not I guess, and then by getting rid of the Giant. That doesn’t really seem like a balanced deal. We carry you backstage after you’ve been beaten up, you make it even by beating John Tenta and the Giant. Hmmm.

Time for some nWo propaganda.

Hogan tells us that they “aren’t here for a stinkin’ reason” – directly contradicting Nash and Hall, who had previously made it clear they’d come in specifically to take over WCW. He then randomly says “we’ve got our boss with us” and points to Ted DiBiase, who’s sitting in a chair behind them.

Homely. DiBiase looks like he’s being held prisoner, but whatever. Hogan says DiBiase makes Ted Turner look like a “pauper”. Honestly I could try to recap this whole thing but it’s really just a bunch of random sound bytes ripping on WCW for the most part. They talk about wanting “their own tag team tournament” for some reason. They also want a segment (on Nitro, presumably) where they can “highlight” their talent. What they actually mean is a segment highlighting Hogan, as we’ll discover going forward. Scott Hall says “nWo 4 life” with the hand sign (might be the first instance of this?) and they all end the segment laughing like it was an amazing joke.

I was a satellite dish owner back then – or rather, my parents were - but no WCW PPVs in the UK, sadly. We only got a butchered hour-long version of Nitro on TNT UK during 1996 & 1997. I didn’t find out that I’d been watching an edited version of the show until many years later. At least now I can sit back and relive the glory of the Faces of Fear Vs Public…. eh, maybe TNT UK were doing us a favour after all.

Back with your bois at the announce desk. Tenay once again has that “stern dad” look, whilst Heenan seems to be whimsically remembering something from years gone by. Take a guess as to what Bischoff is talking about?

A)     The upcoming main event

B)     Meltzer being wrong about everything

C)     Blue Chew

D)     Sting’s betrayal

If you’ve been following along thus far, you’ll know the answer. The lad does genuinely hate big Dave though, and loves that Blue Chew. Come to think of it, what is the main event? I can’t even remember. Sting’s supposed betrayal has been hammered into my brain so many fucking times at this point I can barely conceive of any other event occurring at any wrestling show.

Chris Jericho’s music plays, but…

It’s John Tenta? Still got that stupid haircut by the way. Seriously, fish man, you’ve made your point. Get that shaved.

But yeah, I’m confused here. I thought Jericho was coming out. But hold on, that’s Jericho’s second theme, “One Crazed Anarchist”, aka the Pearl Jam ripoff, not the one he’s using at this point in WCW, which I believe is the Journey ripoff. So John Tenta is in fact the OG “One Crazed Anarchist”. For the record, the theme suits Jericho far more than it suits the former Shark.

As he comes out Tenta says “Savage, you’re not putting me down”. You think so, John?

What exactly has that guy in the hat been up to? That is not the look of an innocent person.

Ohhh yeahhh, it’s the Macho Man. The commentators are pretending that the result of the match is in any doubt, which I suppose they have to do.

John “anti-fish” Tenta Vs “Macho Man” Randy Savage

Savage storms to the ring, but that turns out to be a bad idea as Tenta stomps on the Macho Man’s back as he slides in and then clobbers him with a forearm to the back.

Bad strategy, Macho. Tenta’s moobs though… whoa.

That’s an interesting choice of attire for a wrestling event, madam.

Tenta works over Savage in the corner for a bit. Savage then begins to make a comeback, before for some reason attempting to slam Tenta…

Goes about as well as you’d expect. Macho really needs to work on his strategy.

Bischoff actually specifically says here that Heenan accidentally referred to Meng as “Haku” earlier and wants to make it clear Meng now works for WCW and not the WWF. I guess they were really taking this kind of thing seriously due to the lawsuits flying around at this point in history. Funny though, as you hear these kinds of slip-ups all the time. I mean, if TNA or AEW were sued for every time a commentator accidentally used a competitor’s ex-WWE name there would need to be a legal department created specifically just to deal with the fucking volume. At least Heenan didn’t call it “WWF Nitro”.

Tenta hits Macho with a decent looking drop kick – quite impressive considering his weight. Outside of the ring Savage hits Tenta with a steel chair…

He isn’t disqualified because…? He whacks Tenta twice more with a chair. This is not a no-DQ match, but it is WCW, so fuck the rules unless we need them for storyline purposes, right?

Flying elbow drop!

Macho goes up for a second, but then Teddy Long comes to ringside yelling “Macho!” – what could the so-called “godfather” want with Savage? Also where’s my man Ice Train at? Come to think of it, I just remembered what he was wearing earlier… best for him to stay backstage.

Savage still hits the second elbow drop. Long is gesticulating wildly at Savage and yelling something about the nWo. Savage leaps over the top rope with nice agility.

But before we go any further…

Son, I am disappoint. I can’t even say “A for effort” because that is the lowest tier of effort.

Anyway, Savage follows Teddy to the outside of the arena where Teddy announces “YOU GONNA GO ONE-ON-ONE WITH THE UNDERTAKER PLAYA!”

Actually, they run towards a limo.              

The limo drives off as soon as Savage approaches it. What was the point of that?

Flair and Mongo randomly appear as the limo drives away.

There’s another limo there, but only a box of spraypaint inside it. There are a ton of WCW guys out there now �� the Horsemen, the Dungeon, Public Enemy, Juvi, Super Calo, Savage… basically everyone who was on TV tonight. They start spraypainting “WCW” on the limo windows… or rather, they try to. Due to the fact it’s been raining and everywhere is wet it ends up just looking like a green smudge. As an aside, if that is in fact not an nWo limo, somebody is going to be in for a surprise.  

For some reason the commentators are all standing up. Tenay is looking more evil every time he’s on camera. It’s like he wants to reach through the camera and strangle each and every viewer.

Seriously though, he is repeatedly making a “pissed-off dad” face.

“Dad, I borrowed your car…”

“Um… and… I got a speeding ticket…”

“And there’s a dent on the front as I kinda sorta knocked over the mailbox…”

Grounded forever.

Anyway, once they all sit back down Heenan goes on a rant about the nWo which concludes with “if we don’t stop them now then they can’t be stopped”. If only you could glimpse into the future and nWo 2000, Bobby.

Oh, by the way, I guess John Tenta won the match against Savage by count out? It wasn’t announced or shown, but Savage jumped out of the ring and never returned, so…

John Tenta defeats “Macho Man” Randy Savage via Countout.

I guess Tenta was right, Savage didn’t put him down after all. Score one for the fish hating weirdo.

Double A suddenly appears on set. Heenan gives Arn his headset. Can’t help but think it’d be better for Anderson to be in the ring with a mic, as the fans in the arena can’t hear any of this… but whatever.

Arn says that the world is “in shock” and “outraged”. The world is probably a bit of a stretch, but OK. Flair turns up as Arn is talking, as do Benoit and Mongo. Arn says that this all began ten years ago with the original Horsemen, and that they paved the way and showed the nWo how to do it. Technically true. Arn says the nWo want to be the Horsemen “when they grow up”.

Tenay continuing to give that evil stare, even at Arn. Bischoff looks kind of sad.

As an aside, I may have mentioned it before, but I really like this shirt design:

Bischoff begins talking about making mistakes, but Flair interrupts him. Flair screams so loudly that the headset seems to take some damage as the volume decreases slightly. Flair explains War Games – although if you don’t know what it is by this point then what have you been doing with your life? – and says Hogan won’t leave War Games alive. Spoiler alert: he does.

Bischoff then talks about how maybe bringing Hogan in to WCW was “a mistake” and that the Horsemen “haven’t been given their just due”. The same exact sentence could have been said in 2000 and been even more relevant.

WCW then ends the show with a replay of Luger getting beaten up by “Sting” and the nWo. I’m sure he appreciates that. A good thing they reminded us, as I think a whole ten seconds passed at the end there without mention of Sting’s betrayal and my memory had started to go hazy.

[linkspooky]

Toga Himiko’s Normal Life

Himiko looks like the most straight forward case of what pop culutre considers to be a classical sociopath / psychopath in My Hero Acadmia. Shigaraki, Dabi, Hawks were all groomed to become the way they were, but Himiko possessed a natural inclination towards blood and violence from the start. She seesm to be a natural born cold blooded killer, however in this meta I’ll argue that while Toga seems like the flip-side of a normal, good person like Uraraka, she’s actually just a normal girl herself. 

1. Character Origins

Volume sixteen of My Hero Academia had an official illustration included as an extra that shows the characters Twice and Himiko drawn together in an illusion to a famous Joker and Harley Quinn illustration. 

Now, I’m not going so far as to claim Himiko was based off of Harley Quinn, but one the league of villains and characters like Twice (and ReDestro) have made similiar references to the Joker before that especially with the quote “All it takes is one bad day”. There’s also enough similarities betweeen the two characters, they’re both the only female members of a crime syndicate that is mostly men, and dominated by men. Their backstories mirror each other, they were both relatively sane, normal, girls, until suddenly they cracked one day and became a total inversion of their previous presonality. There are enough similarities that I could use Harley as an example to explain a few of the important ideas present in Toga’s character. 

They are also both female characters who are written with love as the central concept of their characters. Harley’s origin as originally depicted in the comic and episode for the Batman the Animated Series “Mad Love” goes as follows: Harleen Quinzell was a psychiatrist working at Arkham. Eventualy she came to sympathize with one of her patients which triggered a transformation in her from well meaning doctor, to love-sick sycophant of the joker who broke him out of prison. 

A lot of Batman Villains have origins like this. The most comparable one is Harvey Dent. Proescutors, Doctors, we are told the people who hold these jobs are good and righteous people. Even Harley herself started out as someone who just sympathized with a patient too much. However, somehow they become flipped into the exact opposite versions of themselves. They go mad for lack of a better words. Harvey Dent who was once a symbol of justice, becomes nothing more than a murderer, and Harley Quinn goes from healer to the sidekick of a mad clown willing to destroy everything in the name of love. 

The question, asked in both Himiko and Harley’s stories is how can good people flip like this? 

Most people have a black and white view of these issues: good people are only capable of good actions, and bad people are capable of bad actions. It’s hard to swallow the fact that any normal person has the capacity to cause so much harm inside of them. 

We see similiar remarks in the background of Himiko’s story. Himiko comes from a good upper class family, she went to what was most likely a good school, she was always smiling and surrounded by friends. Everyone who comments on her sudden transformation reacts in a similiar way. “She was aways so cheerful and well-behaved, I still find it hard to believe.” She was always such a good girl, and good people don’t do those things. 

Normal people, good people, don’t have the capacity to do bad. That’s what makes the transformations so shocking. Therapists/Doctors are supposed to heal, Prosecutors are supposed to be just. And now we return to our old friend Jung. 

The story of Harleen Quinzell and Harley Quinn. The story of Himiko Toga the happy middle school girl and Himiko Toga the serial killer is a tale told over and over again, it’s just usually told with male protagonists instead of female ones. It’s Dr. Jekyll and Mr. Hyde. 

Robert Louis Stevenson’s The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde (1886) is a late-Victorian variation on ideas first raised in Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein (1818). Stevenson’s monster, however, is not artificially created from stitched-together body parts, but rather emerges fully formed from the dark side of the human personality. In the story Dr Jekyll, an admired member of the professional Victorian middle-classes, conducts a series of scientific experiments which unleash from his own psyche the ‘bestial’ and ‘ape-like’ Mr Hyde (ch. 10). Gothic fiction had examined the idea of the sinister alter ego or double before on many occasions but Stevenson’s genius with Jekyll and Hyde was to show the dual nature not only of one man but also of society in general.

“Man is not one, but truly two.”

Robert Louis Stevenson

Both cases are tales are transformation, of the monster coming from within. Himiko transforms from middle school girl into serial killer. Harleen Quinzell transforms into Harley Quinn. Dr. Jekyll becomes Mr. Hyde. We witness a transformation into a monster that seems the antithesis of everything that person was boefre, but was inside of them all along this works because of the jungian idea of the shadow. 

The shadow is the unconscious side of personality. The shadow is what exists but what we do not acknowledge. If our behavior during everyday life, choosing to smile, choosing to talk to people, choosing to use our manners is a mask then the shadow is the face beyond the mask. The conscious personality conceals, the shadow reveals. It’s the difference betewen who we are and who we choose to be. The shadow isn’t necessarily negative however. The shadow is just the repressed side of our personalities, it’s what we try to hide. 

The shadow plays a role in Harleen’s transformation. While it’s present in Mad Love as well, a recent miniseries ‘Harleen’ really dives into the Jungian symbolism. There’s even several similarities in common with Himiko’s story, for example there’s a scene where Harleen is shown watching the bat man beat up joker and notice how everyone is cheering despite the fact that it’s violent. 

Himiko’s interest in a boy is sparked by watching him get into a fight while everybody else is cheering for him. 

The cover page depicts the change between Quinn and Quinnzel as a crumbling mask, which is the exact same imagery used for Himiko. 

When she enters Arkham she chooses to depict Harley Quinn’s silhouette in Harleen’s shadow. Once again implying that the transformation is not so sudden and jarring as it seems, that Harley Quinn has always been there and is a part of her psychology the same way Mr. Hyde is inside Dr. Jekyll. 

The comic even points it out. Harleen, and also by extension Harvey Dent are people who claim to be “good, righteous people’ and yet both of them end up transforming into murderers. Two-face’s name is literally two-face.

There’s also one particularly Jungian sequence in the middle of the conflict. She dreams (dreams are unconscious and therefore the realm of the shadow in Jung’s theories) about the city of gotham as a place inhabited with citizens who are monsters wearing the faces of human beings. 

The idea is consistent throughout that Harleen is not really a ‘good person’ she’s merely repressed. She has had this capacity to be violent inside of her, this selfishness, all of these dark desires carried with her all along but rather than deal with them in any healthy way she repressed them until repressing them is no longer an option. Harvey Dent’s face gets half burned off, Harley’s skinn gets bleached by chemicals, the monsterous features inside of them are now worn on their faces and they have to wear their ugliness on the outside rather than the inside. They are now expressing every single thing they have repressed. However, the suggestion in both stories is that these are not special cases, that Gotham is such a repressed society that everyone is repressing the things they don’t like about themselves in that way. Harley fell in mad love sure, but love was just the reason, just the trigger, the truth is those feelings always lurked inside of her and she had no healthy way of dealing with them before that point. 

That is the shadow, it’s everything you repress but it never disappears. If you ignore it, it takes on a life of its own. In some cases, like Harley’s you basically become your own shadow. Harley is the flipped upside down version of Harleen Quinzel, now her inner demons are what are expressed on the surface (desperation to be loved, violence, etc.) while her ‘normal’ self is hidden under a mask of insanity. That’s in fact how she ends the comic, Harley qalking around while Harley is trapped on the other side of the mirror because they have basically traded places. Now Mr. Hyde is walking around, while Dr. Jekyll is hidden personality. But it’s important to remember it’s not something like a split personality, Harleen Quinzell and Harley Quinn were always two sides of the same person. Even when she starts expressing her ‘bad’ traits, the good traits don’t go away. They’re just hidden underneath the surface the way the repressed bad traits used to be. Because you’re not good or bad, you’re not one side or the other. You’re both at the same time. Man is not one, but truly two. 

So the complexity in Himiko comes from understanding that she’s BOTH a normal girl, and also a blood crazy yandere psycho. 

2. A Normal Girl - Uraraka Ochaco

Uraraka is a pretty standard shonen heroine. She’s a cheerful girl. She’s a supportive friend. She’s the embodiment of what you’d call a good, kind, person and doesn’t seem to be any more complex than that. She lacks say the drive to be a hero that Midoriya does, the superiority complex that Bakugo has, the emotional issues that Todoroki has. She seems to always be agreeable and in a cheerful mood. 

If you look just a little bit closer though she always seems to be walking on eggshells when she’s around others. She doesn’t want to join Deku and the others to try to save Bakugo from the heroes because, it might hurt Bakugo’s feelings. 

When she loses in the hero tournament, she apologizes to her parents crying not because she feels bad that she lost, but she feels like she failed them. Like it was her job to win and bring money home. However, when Deku comes to check on her in the room she’s already completely hidden her tears. 

Going into her backstory we learn that Uraraka is walking on eggshells around everybody due to her own parents, that she’s spent her life trying to be as small of a burden on them as possible because she could see the tired looks on their faces. She’s a child who felt guilty that her parents had to take care of her. 

So, for Uraraka her entire life is devoted to making herself seem as small and inconsequential as possible. Other people’s needs will always trump hers. Other people will always have more noble motivations for becoming a hero than she has. Other people’s emotions will always be louder and take priority over hers. Uraraka sees her own emotions and needs as mere trifles that get in the way, and so she always shuts them down. We see Uraraka as a version of Himiko, a high school girl who always appears to be cheerful and well-behaved but is merely repressed. 

Uraraka repeats the same unhealthy behavior as Himiko once did. Which is why Uraraka’s first meeting with Himiko goes with Himiko getting such a cold read on her. 

It’s helpful to view Himiko as the flipped version of Uraraka. Uraraka hides everything that’s pleasant about her on the inside, and on the outside appears like a perfectly selfless girl. Himiko is someone who hides her good qualities and instead wears the mask of a bloodthirsty psycho on the outside. While Uraraka lives by denying her selfish desires, Himiko always chases after them and is true to them. 

Traits that are repressed in Uraraka, are expressed in Himiko. Especially traits that society sees as bad in girls, like selfishness, being emotional, etc..

The way Himiko acts is especially jarring because she seems convinced she’s a normal person. She’s in her own little world, making friends, getting along with other people, it’s just her friendship just happens to involve stabbing. 

Himiko appears to be a girl psychotically obsessed with blood and nothing else. A girl who only cares about killing other people and chopping them up to bits. When she expresses the feelings deep inside of herself, literally no one can make heads or tails of what she’s saying, she doesn’t sound like a girl just a bloodthirsty monster. 

While Uraraka seems like she has nothing in common with what is essentially a weird serial killer, we learn that the exact behavior that Uraraka’s creation is what led to Himiko’s current state of mind. 

The difference between them is not that Uraraka is a person of higher moral character, or a better person, but rather of circumstances between the two of them. It’s not the choices they made but rather things they were born into and couldn’t control. Uraraka has parents that accept her even when she fails and encourage her. 

Toga had parents that  abused their daughter, and then abandoned her. 

Uraraka chose to repress herself, while Toga was forced to become repressed by her parents. While we don’t know for sure if it was physical abuse it’s at least emotional abuse, and it had to be to an extreme extent to make Himiko snap that hard. The same unhealthy behavior but push to extremes gets extreme results. 

3. Normal Girl - Himiko Toga

Himiko did not become the way she is because she was lacking empathy or born with uncontrollable urges for bloodlust, but because of the environment around her that always forced her to repress herself. From the knowledge that her parents would never love her for who she really was. Himiko wasn’t born that way she was a response of what was done to her. 

People who don’t really know Himiko always judge her this way, that she’s incapable of understanding other people, that she has no empathy for others. She’s almost literally labelled and dismissed as a one dimmensional yandere trope by the people surrounding her. 

However, Himiko is in fact always doing the opposite. She’s constantly trying to empathize with others. Her maddened way of talking to both Tsuyu and Uraraka in her character introduction is exactly that, her trying to feel that kind of connection. 

Himiko’s fascination for Uraraka is a desire for empathy and understanding. One that you could say even surpasses some characters on the hero’s side, because she’s willing to try to understand the world’s of people who are nothing like her. Himiko’s next most significant action in the manga is to take Camie’s place and go after the kids. While she does fight against them she’s not overly violent, just curious. Deku even reaffirms some of Himiko’s primary traits. 

Himiko is always talking a lot and trying to explain her way of thinking to other people, because she wants them to understand her. However, because she’s bad at communicating this tends to come off as babble and a lot of people completely dismiss what she says and don’t attempt to listen. 

She expresses two things one a desire to know Deku on a deeper level, immediately asking him very personal, and sometimes very downright invasive question and two she also notices the closeness that Deku and Uraraka have for one another. 

Once again this is a repeating theme for the league. Himiko repeats the same desire that Twice has, to become a person who is trusted in the same way. 

Once again it’s important to remember that Himiko is just the flipped version of a normal girl. If most people hide their bloodlust and show their good sides, Himiko hides her desire to be trusted and to empathize with other people underneath her bloodthirsty urges she shows on the surface. She positions herself as a femme fatalle, but she’s actually just a girl who’s trying to understand why other people are different then her, and why Deku and Uraraka can have a relationship mutually founded on trust when she can’t. 

Himiko’s past was so repressed she never formed real relationships with people. Not only that she assumes that nobody will want the real her, because the moment she flipped and the real her was exposed everybody in her life abandoned her and she had to run away. 

After her brush with Deku and Uraraka we see Himiko start to be trusted by her comrades and a marked transformation takes place in her. 

We see shades of the old Himiko. A selfish girl who only exists to fulfill her whims. However, we’re shown Himiko is capable of empathizing because not only do Shigaraki’s words get through to her. 

Himiko is also for the first time able to reach the emotions of another person. Remember when Himiko tries to explain how she’s feeling, she babbles, and babbles and nobody listens. However that changes and for the first time, not only does Himiko pick up exactly on what’s troubling Twice, she also comforts him the way he needs to be comforted. She tells him that yes it might be his fault that Magne died, but she sees that he’s doing his best to make up for it and she gently encourages him. 

Remember how important this is for Twice. The world has never forgiven Jin for his mistakes. He hit the wrong guy on accident, while obeying the law, and lost both his job and his home. He started stealing to make ends meet, and as a result he lost his mind. When he makes a mistake it always blows up in his face but this time, Himiko notices that she’s panicking and comforts him telling him it’s okay he’s made this mistake and he can still work hard to fix it. 

Not only that but she notices what the problem was with Jin, she was able to notice the symptoms of his psychotic breakdown and rather than dismiss it as just Twice being crazy was able to help him in real tangible ways by wrapping her hanky around him and covering him up like he asked. Uraraka has a very surface level kindness, she’s kind but only by walking around on eggshells with everyone. Himiko is able to see through people, but uses that to comfort people on a deeper level. 

The “Himiko just can’t control herself because of her quirk” narrative is something that Himiko rejects herself. Because that’s not what Himiko wants. Himiko doesn’t want to be special or different from other people. 

Himiko sees herself as normal, and what she desires to be understand and be understood by other people. She doesn’t like Curious’ narrative for her because it made her out to be a freak or someone special when Himiko is trying her best to get others to understand her as a normal girl. Himiko can’t repress herself anymore, she can’t become normal the way her parents taught her too so not permanently broken, and forced to always express herself she’s trying some other way. 

What she wants isn’t to hurt other people, not really though. Those thoughts just turn violence, because Himiko is herself a person who’s endured a lot of violence. Himiko is basically a child that’s been on her own living on the streets and surviving for years, with all the dangers that entails, and also people who can shoot lasers and punch things really hard chasing after her. 

The more she’s isolated and on the run, the more violence she endures, the more violent and unhinged her thoughts become. The more she’s exposed to people who accept her for who she is, the more she’s trusted by those people, the more empathic and sensitive Himiko becomes instead. Himiko’s desire isn’t violence, when she’s pushed to her utter limit she says what she wants is to become a girl like Uraraka who is just loved and trusted by others for who she is. 

And I genuinely believe at the core of Himiko’s character this empathic girl exists. Himiko becoming violent and unrepressed doesn’t mean her empathy disappears. The complexity from Himiko is that she’s both the knife wielding psycho and the normal girl who just wants to have friends at the same time. If behind every normal person there’s a monster lurking is true then the opposite is true as well, behind every monster there’s a normal person. 

This is an idea expressed by Twice again. One of the villains that Hawks dismissed as a bad person, was capable of showing him compassion and gentleness even when he screwed up. Toga was capable of empathy for Twice besides the use he had for others. Toga herself is shown to be capable of more empathy than Hawks, who is one of the most selfless characters in the series, and who is convinced his actions are always done in order to save others.

However we see their treatment of Twice is so drastically different. Hawks treats Twice in a selfish way refusing to listen to what Twice wants, and only ever used Twice as a tool to exploit. Twice himself thinks that now that he’s no longer useful, Himiko won’t be kind to him anymore however we see the opposite. 

Twice admits to Toga that he’s the reason that everyone is in danger right now and he completely failed, and he’s not going to come save them. He admits that he’s useless and Twice himself said Toga wouldn’t be kind to him anymore. However in that moment, Himiko ignores the fact that her life is literally in danger and everything is going to hell around her to comfort Twice one final time and tell him the words he needs to hear.

It’s literally the single most empathic moment of the manga, and it’s in direct contrast to Hawks’ behavior. A hero as devoted to saving other people as Hawks, who genuinely likes Twice as a friend doesn’t show him any empathy at all and even stabs him as the back. A psycho like Toga puts her own feelings aside and notices Twice’s feelings, and gives him comfort and thanks him in his final moment because to her Twice has value as a person beyond what his use is. That Himiko is capable of this kindness, but equally capable of her monstrous actions earlier in the series  is what makes her human. Her kindness doesn’t make her any less mosntrous, and her monstrous qualities don’t make her kindness go away she’s both at once, rather than either or. That’s where the complexity comes in. 

Toga is a very human character precisely because we see her at her most monstrous, and we see that girl slowly relearn how to express the kindness that’s always been inside of her in healthier non-stabby way. A normal girl who learned how to be a monster to protect herself. A monster who is slowly relearning to be a normal girl.

[weclassygirl]

𝐅𝐞𝐞𝐥 𝐢𝐭 𝐩𝐭.𝟐

Word count: +2k

Pairing: neil x reader (tenet)

Warnings: not much, just a fight and a gunshot wound, the usual, besides that it’s a rather calm chapter

Author’s note: hi! I just realized that I didn’t put the warnings in the first part, oh well, the warnings won’t really change anyway. so... the next part, hope you enjoy! as always, i’m not a native english speaker. take care <3

Previous part (x)

Gif credits (x)

The next few days you spent in the container before moving to the outskirts of Oslo. Neil briefly explains the operation. 

"So you're basically trying to prevent some kind of nuclear holocaust?" you ask him as he finishes explaining. You sit back on the stretcher that you've been sleeping on the whole trip.

"More likely another world war." he responds. You look at him with slightly raised eyebrows. 

"Great…" you say slowly, you look down on your lap, fiddling with your hands. "and what's my part in it?" you wonder. 

"Most of the time we gather people that have a military background. You and I are here for the scientific one." he says as he gestures between the two of you. 

"But you already seem to get a hold of the whole inversion. You know how it works and what happens if someone tries to interfere with it." you acknowledge.

"We don't know that. No one has ever interfered with it. We noticed some changes a few weeks ago. Things not going the way they should." 

You look at him in silence and he seems to notice that you're finally understand what's really going on.

"And you think it has to do something with that masked guy that tried to kill me." you state. There's no doubt in your voice. This time Neil leans back and rests his head against the wall. 

"Exactly." he confirms. "As of now you're in the centre of it. We think that if we stay here, on the reversed side for a few days then we might pinpoint what that person tries to do and why." 

"And if you don't manage to do that?" you ask after a moment of silence.

"Then we'll wish for the best." he says as he begins to lay down on his own stretcher. "And, of course, go back to the normal world."                                                   

You arrive at the hideout. You honestly expected it to be in the woods and not near an abandoned construction site. You see some houses placed next to each other and wonder if people live in them. Neil takes out his bag out of the trunk and gives you yours. 

"No one lives in these houses. They're only here for a cover." Neil explains. He moves in the direction of the white house but moves to the back of it. "Our nice and cozy, temporary apartment." he says as you move down the stairs. Neil opens up the door to a small living room connected to a kitchen. You can see another two rooms from the doorway. 

"Not one of the houses?" you ask. 

"It's better to keep hidden. No one would guess that some people live in the basement of the house. Or a former basement." he sets his bag on the ground and turns on the tap, testing the water. The entrance of the apartment is sealed just like the container, you exit it and take off your mask. 

"Now we wait?" 

"Yes, for Ives. He and the rest of the team will make sure it's safe to cross again." he tells you as he goes to check the other rooms, you see him open the door to a bathroom and a small storage room. The latter is filled with masks, oxygen bottles, uniforms, some bulletproof vests and guns. 

"What if he finds us?" you question. Neil turns to you, a smile on his face. 

"Then we'll be ready." he turns the light off and moves to the room. You sit down on the couch and reach for the book laying on the small table. It's in Norwegian, you can understand some words from it but not the whole sentences. Neil doesn't bother turning on the TV, knowing that it would only go backwards. 

For the next couple of days you start getting to know Neil. You find out that he has a Masters in Physics, he teaches you how to fight and you try to use your self defense classes on some occasions. Mostly to throw him off guard when he has the upper hand. At one point you go to the construction site to practice shooting targets, Neil hands you the gun and tells you to shoot in any direction. You look at him confused, not really knowing what to shoot at. You take the gun and feel it being really light, you take out the magazine and see that it’s empty. 

“Just aim it.” he tells you from the side. 

You point the gun in front of you and shoot it. You see a tin can raise up from behind and the bullet goes back to you. You put the gun down and look into the magazine. One bullet inside. You turn to Neil and furrow your brows. 

“I’m not shooting the bullets, right?” 

Neil steps closer to you and shakes his head. “No.” he takes the gun from your hand and pulls out the bullet. “You’re catching them.” 

You look at the tin can in front of you and back to the now empty gun. “Huh.” 

“Not surprised?” Neil asks. 

You shrug and turn to him. “I’ve seen objects going backwards and experienced hipotermia in an exploding car. I don’t think anything can surprise me now.” Neil chuckles at your response. Both of you go back to the apartment and Neil puts the bullet on the table and another one next to it. You go and sit opposite him. “Another test?”

He only half smiles. “You’ve seen how the bullet can go back to its original place. Can you guess which one is reversed?” he points at the bullets in front of him. You take a guess and place your hand  above the one you’ve seen him pull out of the magazine. He nods and holds his hand above it. The bullet flies to his hand. 

“You remember one of the first questions I asked you on that roof? You said that an object would seem as if it flies to the person’s hand if it’s inverted.” he reminds you and you recall that moment. The moment where you were still in the dark about the hidden reality of the world. 

You rub your temples and look up at Neil as he tilts his head at you. “Enough for today?” 

You scoff and shake your head. “Definitely. I think that if I hear more than my head might explode from all the confusion.” you start laying down on the couch and put a blanket over yourself. Neil sees you adjusting your pillow and looks at you confused. 

“What are you doing?” he asks. 

You look up at him, also confused. “Going to sleep.” you say slowly. Neil shakes his head. 

“No, take the bed. I’ll sleep on the couch tonight.” he tells you as he steps closer. You don’t move. 

“You’ve slept on it yesterday and the day before that, it’s my turn now.” 

“(Name)...” he begins but you cut him off. 

“You need to properly rest too.” you look at him, trying to convince him that it’s alright, but he doesn’t seem to budge. You close your eyes and sigh. “Fine. How about a compromise?” 

“Somehow I know where it will go.” he mutters under his breath. You stand up from the couch and take your pillow and blanket and throw it on the bed. You lay on your side, looking at Neil. You close your eyes and smile. 

“Just get in the bed, Neil. I don’t bite.” you tell him. After a moment you feel the side of the bed dip and open your eyes to see Neil finally laying next to you. “See? It wasn’t so hard. The bed is big enough for the two of us.” 

“I would still take the bed if-”

“And I would still drag you away from it.” you cut him off. “When was the last time you got some proper sleep, Neil?” he doesn’t answer and you smile weakly. “Get some sleep, you need it.” you close your eyes and try to fall asleep.

“Goodnight, (Name).” you hear him whisper. You respond with the same.             

You wake up to the sound of the banging on the door. Neil wakes up to already a gun in his hand, aiming at the door. You get out of the bed and look through the window to see who’s the intruder. 

“It’s Ives.” you tell Neil, he lowers his gun and goes to the door, unlocking it. Ives gets in and Wheeler stays behind, watching the entrance. Ives looks at the apartment and then back to the both of you. 

“Well, you two seem like you’re getting cosy.” you try to hide the blush that begins to show on your face, silently thanking that it’s still dark outside and in the room. “Get dressed, we need to get moving.” 

“What’s going on?” asks Neil. You put on some clothes and pack your bag, not caring if it’s folded neatly. Neil does the same. Both of you put on the masks and leave the apartment. Neil hands you the gun and you quickly take it, not even thinking twice. 

“Someone told. They know we’re here.” he only says. As you’re about to enter the car, few things happen. The bullets start to go in your direction, Ives and his team gather around, creating a cover and you feel a throbbing pain in your shoulder.. You see about a dozen people aiming at the car, you hide behind it, gripping the gun tightly. Neil drops beside you, dodging from a bullet. You look at him and see him come up and aim at the hostile. You do the same and manage to hit some of them with the inverted bullets. 

The pain in your shoulder starts to become even more unbearable and you duck again behind the car, Neil does the same and soon Ives comes up to you.

“We have no way out. You two need to get out of here.” he orders, occasionally looking at the shootout. 

“We’re not leaving you guys behind.” you say, your voice not faltering. Ives can see the determination in your eyes and only hangs his head low, giving up. He signals at Wheeler to create a cover and all three of you move to the abandoned car - a car that’s been set in the neighbourhood as a cover. 

Before you make it to the car you see the window of the car beginning to form, the shatters of glass connecting. You duck when you realise what it means. You don’t have the time to react ‘cause the person behind you already has a gun pressed to your shoulder. You feel the bullet enter from behind of your arm and into the gun of the masked men you’ve been trying to avoid this whole time. 

You grunt in pain and try to kick the man off of you. You see the man’s eyes before Neil and Ives start shooting at him, somehow they feel familiar but you can’t pinpoint where you’ve seen them before. You even see some bruises starting to form on the man’s face. The man retreats and runs away, disappearing in the crowd of armed men. You see Wheeler giving orders to the rest of the team, Neil urges you to get into the car and you oblige. He gets behind the wheel while you press onto the wound, Ives looks in the mirror to see if you have a trail. After a few miles all of you relax in your seats, seeing that there’s no more danger ahead. Neil cranes his head back to look at you and examine your state, Ives already gets in the backseat trying to find some kind of an aid kit underneath the seats. He finds one and opens it up. 

The bullet went right through your skin and created a much bigger hole than a normal bullet would. Ives pours some hydrogen peroxide on it and you hiss in pain, Neil’s eyes find yours in the rear view mirror. You lean your head back against the seat and look outside of the window to distract yourself from pain. Ives manages to patch you up, enough so that you don’t lose any more blood. 

All three of you drive to the location where another machine is placed, Ives calls Wheeler to let them know that they will jump forward in time. You fall asleep, too tired and in pain from the day and the drive. You hear Neil calling out to you before you close your eyes. 

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Is It Really THAT Bad?

Cats has been a divisive show ever since it opened in 1981. Some people hate it for being a plotless spectacle that focuses more on the visuals than on music and story, while others love it for those same reasons, as well as for being utterly campy and fun. I’m firmly in the latter category, to the point I can’t  really comprehend the opposition to the film. Stuff like the jab at this film in The Critic or the mockery of it in Hey Arnold just seem weird to me; what is it about this fun, silly musical about cats that makes people’s blood boil so much?

Perhaps all these people saw into the future where the film was released.

Cats had a long, troubled history getting from stage to screen. In the 90s, Amblimation was set to make an animated version of the movie, set during the Blitz of WWII. Unfortunately, the inability of writers to find a way to turn this episodic showcase of random singing cats into a cohesive narrative combined with the failure of Amblimations films caused the project to dissolve, leaving behind nothing but some really cool concept art. 

But see, this perfectly demonstrates the problem with adapting Cats: the musical is a spectacle, a showcase, it’s all about the dancing, costumes, and the songs. It doesn’t have a story to speak of, instead contenting itself with showing us a bunch of different cats and having them sing about themselves for a bit before moving on to the next cat. Sure, there’s a bit of continuity and whatnot, but this really isn’t the sort of show that’s trying to deliver a deep narrative. It just wants you to have a good time, nothing more, nothing less.

No one told any of this to Tom Hooper, apparently. This director of the grounded, gritty, realistic adaptation of Les Mis was tapped to utilize this same style in a musical about magical singing cats, all while not even knowing what catnip is or how animation works. Hooper was apparently constantly butting heads with the VFX team due to his lack of understanding of how animating works. He tried to get the team to watch videos of cats performaing the stuff he wanted and forced them to give 90 hour work weeks, cementing Tom Hooprt as one of the biggest douchebags imaginable. On top of all this, the guy tried to weave this plotless showcase of felines into a cohesive narrative, and tapped a bunch of talent of various degrees of questionability to play parts. And what was the result?

An absolute disaster. The film was savaged by critics, with most positives being that the film was so bad it’s good. The film (of course) won a bunch of Razzies, and was the subject of mockery and memes before, after, and during its run in theaters. Hell, as soon as the trailer dropped, the film was mocked to death. Not helping was the rushed VFX which, again, was due to the team being under pressure from a draconian idiot who had no idea what he was doing. The film received an unprecedented bug fix, so to speak, in the form of an updated version with slightly better VFX that was shipped to theaters after the initial negative reaction. This obviously did nothing to help the movie’s reputation, of course. Hell, even in my initial review, I wasn’t super keen on the film. Most damning of all, though, was Andrew Lloyd Webber himself calling the film ridiculous, and even said "The problem with the film was that Tom Hooper decided that he didn’t want anybody involved in it who was involved in the original show."

But after ruminating on it, and after watching the film once more, I’ve decided to ask the usual question: Is it really that bad? It’s weird to ask this about a film that’s so new; I usually wait for hindsight to kick in, and look at older films considered bad. But even now, Cats is building up a reputation as a campy cult classic, with such figures as Martin “LittleKuriboh” Billamy watching the film with alarming frequency. And after reading the nightmarish behind the scenes and considering everything… yeah, I think this film deserves a re-evaluation.

This is going to be a little different, though: I’m sort of going to go through the film part by part, since this film has an interesting issue where, generally speaking, the first half is where the worst problems are, and the second half is where things start to pick up. So let’s get the bad out of the way first, then move onto the good.

THE BAD

So, I’m actually not going to pick on the VFX too much, and not just because of the horrible treatment of the VFX artists. In all honesty, the weird human/cat people, while not even remotely as cool as the insane costumes of the stage show, eventually stop being super distracting and kind of just become something you accept. Like, I’m not gonna pretend like this work is amazing, but I dunno, I think it gets harped on too much. There is some stuff that stands out as noticeably bad, though, and we’ll get to that.

A consistent problem with the film that I can’t even try to defend is the problem with the scaling. It’s seriously hard to tell how big these cats are supposed to be in relation to anything else. They honestly seem to change size from scene to scene. It’s seriously weird and baffling and there’s never any way to get a good sense of scale. Even when the cats are alongside mice and roaches, it just boggles the mind what size anything is actually supposed to be.

Mr. Mistoffelees, one of the most flamboyant and enjoyable characters of the stage show, is one of the biggest character issues with the film. Gone is the tricky, confident magician who prances and dances, and here is a meek, sniveling twerp who can barely do anything without tripping over himself. This is because the actor who plays him had a terrible audition that left him miserable due to a lack of singing and dance background. So, rather than find someone who could, you know, sing and dance, they decided to rewrite Mr. Mistoffelees into comic relief, which is just an insulting slap in the face. The cherry on top of course is how they straightwash the character and excise his homoerotic tension with Rum Tum Tugger, instead making him completely and totally straight and giving him a thing for Victoria. Out of everyone in the entire film, they did Mr. Mistoffelees the dirtiest.

Now, let’s get onto the actual “plot.” The film actually starts out fairly well, with some cool shots, good dancing, and some setup for Macavity, whose intro has a neat little nod to the fact he’s based on Moriarty. The issues don’t really start showing up until we reach the first of the Jellicle choices… Jennyanydots.

Jennyanydots is portrayed by Rebel Wilson, which is the first issue. Rebel Wilson is probably one of the worst actresses ever. She is just a horrendously, relentlessly unfunny human being, and she brings that exact quality to her role here. For her song, the vocal talent is secondary to the cringeworthy comedy Wilson puts on display. And yet, somehow, Wilson isn’t the worst part of the scene. No, that would be the horrendous CGI human-faced mice and roaches, which look like they came out of a PS3 game.

This horrendous spectacle is followed up with the appearance of Rum Tum Tugger, portrayed by Jason Derulo. I’m of two minds about this. On the one hand, I do think Derulo has the necessary egotistical celebrity swagger to play Rum Tum Tugger (especially when you consider he responded to negative criticisms of the film by calling the movie  “one of the greatest pieces of art ever made”) and his design is actually one of the better ones in the film, but on the other hand, his singing and the musical choice for his song are not very impressive and really just doesn’t work all too well. It’s at least something of a step up from Rebel Wilson and her CGI abominations, but that’s not really saying much, is it?

Next up we have Bustopher Jones, played by James Corden and, if I’m being totally honest… he’s not quite as awful as he could be. Corden is basically the male equivalent to Rebel Wilson, but at least while he’s singing he manages to be somewhat amusing, whimsical, and enjoyable even. The problem comes when he throws in jokes, including one where he claims to be self-conscious about his weight… a joke that occurs in the middle of his song where he is bragging about how fat he is. Talk about sending mixed messages. I wish I didn’t have to be so harsh on Bustopher, but sadly he is bogged down by really bad shtick.

Bustopher Jones also highlights a problem with the cats in this first half. These minor roles – Jennyanydots, Rum Tum Tugger, and Bustopher Jones – are all being played by relatively big celebrities, and as such they’re going to want a lot of time to sing. As a result, songs that were ensemble numbers on stage become more one-man songs here, with Bustopher Jones being the most egregious example, turning this positive fat character into a walking James Corden fat joke as he sings his own praises rather than having his praises sung.

Following him up we have Mungojerrie and Rumpleteazer, who are usually fun characters with a fun little pseudo-villain song, but alas, they manage to screw that up by using a slow, jazzy version of the song originally used in earlier London productions rather than the more up-tempo version from later productions, making the song sound awkward and forgettable. Topping it all off is the bargain bin Mr. M popping in at the end for some wacky shenanigans, but at this point, the movie takes a turn towards…

THE GOOD

So as soon as Dame Judi Dench shows up as Old Deuteronomy, the film gets a sort of inverse of what happened at the start. Where the film starts somewhat awkward and promising, it slowly gets stupider and stupider when Rebel Wilson, Jason Derulo, and James Corden botch their scenes in the ways described above. Here, things start a bit shaky and unsure, but Dench is a sign things are about to pick up. What makes her so enjoyable is how, despite how utterly silly things are, she treats her role with the dignity and gravitas of something out of Shakespeare. The only thing as good as an actor in a silly movie like this going full-on ham and cheese is an actor treating their role dead serious and injecting it with such class and dignity you can’t help but enjoy it. Thankfully, Dench isn’t the only person to take her role seriously.

Jennifer Hudson as Grizabella technically appears briefly in the earlier portions of the film, but here we get to hear her belt out “Memory,” and by god does she do a fantastic job. The raw emotion and passion she injects into Grizabella is phenomenal, and it’s even more powerful when it comes back for its reprise in the finale. Victoria gets a sort of response song to “Memory,” called “Beautiful Ghosts,” and it’s a decent song in its own right, but you can tell it was a more modern composition and it just doesn’t gel super well with the rest of the songs. Still, all this is good stuff, and the “Memory”/”Beautiful Ghosts” scene is a nice, refreshing bit of emotion after the incredibly weird and silly extended dance number that is the Jellicle Ball.

The movie doesn’t stop pulling punches; shortly after Grizabella we are given Gus the theater cat, an elderly actor whose number is all about reminiscing of the old days of theater and his many stellar roles from days gone by. Naturally, the only actor who could possibly perform this role properly is Sir Ian McKellan. I am completely unironic when I say this: This is to McKellan what Patrick Stewart’s performance of Xavier in Logan is. This sounds ridiculous, but think of it: Gus is an aging thespian, clearly a bit senile and desiring to be reborn because he has reached the end of the line, and McKellan fills him with this genuine, incredibly honest performance that really makes you feel emotional. It’s powerful. It feels so personal and resonant, like McKellan has inserted some of his own feelings into his performance, which may very well be the case. Oh, and after his song Macavity kidnaps him with a big autograph book and apparates away while saying his name, which gets me every time.

And now, my friends, the lord and savior arrives: Skimbleshanks.

This is, hands down, the best scene in the entire film. Everything comes together here: the music is absolutely fantastic, the dancing is choreographed extremely well, and it’s clear that everyone involved is having a blast. This is a concentrated essence of what Cats should be, and it’s really a shame Hooper didn’t understand that this is the energy needed for the entire production. The most crucial element, of course, is Steven McRae, who not only has a lovely singing voice and looks dapper as all hell in his red suspenders, but is a tap dancing maniac. This man has feet of fire, and his tapping adds a whole new layer of fun to the song. Overall, this is a perfect scene, and probably one of my favorite scenes in any film ever. For a brief four minutes, everything about this film works. I literally have no idea why this cat wants to be reincarnated, he is straight balling in this life.

But the hits don’t stop! Right after this song, Taylor Swift descends from the ceiling, and we get “Macavity.” In the stage productions, this is a song sung by Bombalurina to describe how nasty Macavity is, since she’s traditionally a good cat; here, she’s reimagined as a villain, and so this song is basically her acting as Macavity’s hype man, singing his dastardly praises, and best of all, Macavity joins in at the end! I’m certainly not a Taylor Swift fan, but she really kills it here, and definitely makes this one of the best songs in the movie with her hilariously forced accent and insane energy. It’s just a shame that from here on out Macavity ditches his villainous pimp coat and is now a nude Idris Elba, but I suppose this is equivalent exchange for Skimbleshanks being so amazing.

While not as incredible as the previous two songs and not quite as good as the stage version due to the removal of the latent homoeroticism, Mr. Mistoffelees’s song is actually okay. It’s nice that he gets to sing his own praises here, but it’s just nothing compared to the stage version, even if it has a fun little finale and it actually is genuinely heartwarming when Old Deuteronomy returns and sings along. It’s a sweet moment that almost makes up for how much Mr. M has sucked the whole movie. Oh, also, all of the Jellicle choices Macavity kidnapped fight back against their captor Growltiger, with Skimbleshanks aggressively tapdancing at him and Gus using his acting skills to make him fall into the Thames. This is so goofy that it wraps back around to being awesome.

The movie winds down in the goofiest way possible after the gorgeous reprise of “Memory,” with Macavity being caught on a big sculpture and apparently running out of magic, leaving him stranded like a regular cat. Then we get one final fourth-wall breaking song where Judi Dench directly addresses the camera that has the music swell up to the point where it seems like the song is ending numerous times without actually ending, and each time is funnier than the last. Really, what better way could you end such a silly film than with this?

Now, a general thing that’s great about the film is the choreography. The dancing in the movie is spectacular. I don’t really have a bad thing to say about it. And, in a broad sense, the music is good too, even if the singers aren’t always perfect, the backing tracks are great, and there’s a lot of fun in the tracks in the latter half of the movie. McRae and Taylor Swift’s contributions in particular are great, and Hudson’s version of “Memory” is incredibly powerful, as is McKellan’s take on Gus’ song.

Is It Really THAT Bad?

No.

Look, it’s hard to be like “Wow this is a fantastic masterpiece of film” or anything like that, because the movie has blatant and evident problems. But this is literally the reason I made this review series; I’m asking if the movie is really as bad as people say, and in this case, no, there’s too much genuinely enjoyable in the film for me to say it’s deserving of several Razzies and a spot on the Bottom 100 of IMDB that places it above Master of Disguise and The Emoji Movie. Like, seriously? This is worse than the 90 minute commercial starring the abusive dick who called a bomb threat on his girlfriend? Hell, this movie is rated worse than Artemis Fowl, which is definitely a contender for the worst film ever made (and amusingly enough also features Judi Dench in it). Artemis Fowl has next to no redeeming qualities in it, and it certainly doesn’t have Skimbleshanks, whereas Cats has several fun scenes and also has Skimbleshanks.

I definitely think there’s more of an argument for this film being so bad it’s good or camp at best, but it’s definitely more enjoyable than you’d think it would be. If you can learn to live with the weird CGI, it’s a fun, goofy romp that you might find yourself feeling for at times. After my second watch, I have to say… I’ve started to unironically enjoy this movie. It might even be one of my favorites of all time. I can’t even deny that it has a lot of stuff I don’t like, and it falls flat in a lot of ways the 1998 film soars, and it screwed up some of my favorite characters… but there are so many moments where the fun and heart of Cats shines through brighter than it has any right to, and all the failures of Hooper and Universal seem distant for a just a few minutes.

So yeah, is this movie good all around? No way. But is it fun, does it have value, and is there more redeeming qualities than the critics let on? Oh yes there is.

[secret-diary-of-an-fa]

The End of Year Awards Are Back... and This Time, It’s Personal!

And so we approach the end of 2020, the year that never really began. On paper, at least, it looked incredibly promising. There were lots of great movies slated to come out; culture seemed slightly less paucity-riddled and pointless than usual; good things were in the air. Then COVID happened, and basically fucked everything. Actually, that’s not quite true: my personal year has been fucking spectacular. I’m in a long-term relationship with a gorgeous woman for the first time in forever- no more abrupt trysts and stolen moments for yer humble narrator: I’ve got a sumptuously plus-size lady-friend who actually wants to spend substantial amounts of time me (and has knockers you could sled down, were you so inclined). I also started a Youtube channel where I upload performances of magic tricks I’ve designed and a few people seem to quite like it. Oh, and I’ve written four novels, with a fifth well on its way to completion. Unfortunately, that’s my life, not the life of our civilisation and culture as a whole. The fact that bugger all happened in that makes this end-of-year round-up a little hard to write. With that in mind, I’m going to hand out the gongs for 2020, but I’m also going to do my usual dodge of giving end-of-year awards to things that I discovered in 2020, even if they came out the year, decade or century before. It’s not like any right-minded person gives a hoot about my opinion anyway. Right then, everyone clear on the rules? Then let’s roll up our sleeves and plunge elbow deep into the fetid trough of our decaying society to ferret out the best and worst of the Things That Humans Have Done Recently.

The ‘I Like It Because It Confused Thick People’ Award for Best High-Concept Sci-Fi Movie... … Goes to the sterling Tenet, a spy film that used entropy inversion and symmetric, opposite-direction timelines within the same physical space the way most spy films use hacking and guns. Christopher Nolan films are always intricately constructed and meticulously-executed, but this one must have had Japanese Master Puzzle-Box Makers crying into their breakfast cereal. Is breakfast cereal a thing in Japan? I honestly I have no idea. For some reason, all I can imagine is a sort of dry kedgeree where all the ingredients that aren’t rice have been removed. But I digress. For all its intricacy, Tenet is actually really easy to follow once you’ve grasped the basic premise that there’s a machine that lets people move backwards through time, and that this makes them appear to move in reverse to the rest of the world while they perceive the rest of the world as moving in reverse. Nolan maintains a mastery of cinematic visual language that makes even the most abstruse concept easy to wrap your head around. Nonetheless, following Tenet’s release, dumb people took to the Internet on mass to complain that the film was confusing and stupid, never once realising that their inability to conceptualise time in non-linear ways was their own failing, not Nolan’s. I find that refreshing. It’s nice to see a sci-fi film that’s actually made for smart-cookie sci-fi fans and doesn’t give a hoot if it alienate thickos.

The Award for Most Inexplicably Compelling Web Comic… … Goes to Questionable Content. I originally started reading Questionable Content because I’d heard that the female lead and love interest was a plus size lassie and that shit’s my jam. However, the art style makes everyone look like a skinny indie-type, regardless of their actual, in-universe size, so it doesn’t do much to titillate my Fat Admiring Titillation Centres. And yet, I’m over five hundred ‘episodes’ in and still reading. The thing is, I couldn’t tell you why for the life of me. Maybe it’s the hope that the art style will evolve to the point where the people look like actual human beings with different body types (but then, why would I care unless I was invested for some other reason). Maybe it’s the fact that when I get one of the many, many obscure band or pop culture references, I feel a little buzz of kinship with the writer. Maybe it’s the fact that it takes place in a universe where robots and superheroes are things that regularly happen, yet most of the strips are just normal people chatting shit in a coffee shop and the slice-of-life narrative/sci-fi setting appeals to my sense of juxtaposition. I don’t know, but I find it really compelling to the extent that I’ve pissed away entire days reading it. I have a horrible feeling that it’s a short step from this to really angsty hentai. If I start singing the praises of that, somebody please shoot me in the crotch.

The ‘Forest Gump Debating Peter Andre’ Award For Most Sustained or Elongated Instance of Stupidity… … Goes to Donald Trump. I was tempted just to award this gong to his entire presidency, but that wasn’t just stupid: it was also venal, corrupt, horrifying and punctuated by terrible moments of low cunning. So, instead, this award goes to his ‘soup’ rant. For those of you who missed it, the former President of the United States spent a really, really long time (in the run-up to the election) wittering on about protestors throwing cans of soup at police. What was dumb and weird about it was that he appeared to be extolling the virtues of soup as a siege weapon, going into really specific detail about how it was better than a brick because it could be thrown with more force, finishing with the utterance that protestors would just argue that “this is just soup for my family” if they were caught with the cans… which is phrased wrong in such a subtle and inhuman way it’s hard to imagine that anyone actually ever said it, at least in those words. I have no idea if protestors in America were throwing soup cans at police (which would be entirely justified considering how many innocent people American police have murdered in cold blood quite recently) or if this was a fantasy dreamed up by the former president in the cloudcuckooland that is his diseased little brain. Either way, the connected rant was balls deep in dumb.

The Most Disturbing Unintentional Impression of Vincent Price Award… … Goes to the narrator from One Step Beyond, a Twilight Zone-esque anthology of weirdness that purports to be based on true events and has to be seen to be believed. The stories are oft-disturbing instances of spooky-inflected human drama and can occasionally be quite disconcerting… until they’re book-ended by a dude who sounds like Vincent Price reading a children’s book in a really earnest voice. It’s weird and no, it didn’t hit our screens in Space Year 2020, it dates back to Ye Olden Times of the 1950s or 60s, when men were men, women were women and technincolour was a distant dream that could get you strung up for witchcraft. Nonetheless, I only encountered it this year, so it’s getting its prize. I warned you I was going to pull this shit, but you foolish fools didn’t listen.

The ‘It’s Not Gay If I Don’t Clench’ Award for Cognitive Dissonance… … Goes to Amazon Prime, the content-making branch of evil, tax-dodging, anti-monopoly-law-breaking megalith Amazon. You see, while Big Daddy Amazon is off being incredibly sinister and worrying, like a shifty vampire hanging off the economy’s throat, the creative people at Amazon Prime are busy making or acquiring some of the flat-out best TV ever committed to a streaming-service, from the extra-weird slice of fun-pie that is The Tick, to the entertainingly horrifying cultural dissection of The Boys to the utterly unique Carnival Row, to the superbly adapted American Gods. It’s a bit like discovering that Geoffrey Dahlmer single-handedly created a body of artistic work to rival Vincent Van Gogh’s when he wasn’t pouring acid onto the brains of emotionally vulnerable young adults. It gives me a headache.

The Clint Eastwood Award for Most Effective Older Gentlemen… … Goes to Joe Biden, for unseating dipshit in chief Donald Trump with the casual badassery of a Wild West gunslinger shooting a baddy (probably played by Leonardo Di Caprio) in the balls. I mean, he’s not the best Prez America could ask for but a) as a Brit I don’t have to care and b) anyone who ousts Trump gets mad props from me.

The ‘It’s a Pity Everything Else is Shit Now’ Award for Best New Ongoing Series… … Goes to my own Youtube series, Victor The Magician, in which I claim to be a reality-hopping, interdimensional wizard on an endless quest to… perform magic, basically. I’ll admit that the quality is super-variable (Youtube algorithms and their constant demand for fresh content be a harsh mistress, etc., etc.). However, when I’m good, I’m really good. If you’re looking for a punch-line other than the fact that this whole bit is a self-promoting plug, it’s this: my Youtube series really was the best thing to come out this year. Not because I’m great or anything, just by default. A promising year really did turn into a cultural wasteland the moment COVIDius Rex reared its scaly head.

The Zombie Ian Curtis Award for Most Crushing Disappointment… … Goes to Rick and Morty Series 4. As I think I’ve said before, it was still good, but it just didn’t reach the dizzy heights of nihilistic lunacy achieved in series 1-3. I think the problem is that the audience is meant to learn something from Rick’s poor choices, even if he doesn’t, because the creators saw the amazing success of Bojack Horseman and decided they wanted a slice of that sweet, tangy deconstructionist pie. It worked up to a point in the climax of Series 3, but having made their point, the showrunners probably should have moved onto a different point. They forgot that the appeal of Rick Sanchez is his combination of ‘entertaining car-crash of a human being’ and ‘unstoppable superbeing’. Push him through an arc and you risk breaking the thing that makes him and the show so endlessly watchable. Rick, unlike Bojack, just wasn’t built for heavy introspection. Also, the team hired on new writers who were less than familiar with the characters, setting and subtext, and that’s always an invitation to disaster.

The Special Sir Mixalot Award for Posteriority… ...Goes to… my girlfriend and glamorous assistant, Mystic Miss Terri, who’s arse is gorgeous and majestic.

The ‘Are They STILL Making That?’ Award for a Show You Forgot Existed And is Now Back… … Goes to Supernatural, which never technically went away and whose final series is apparently being broadcast on one of the 4 channels (though who knows which one, any more), It’s kind of nice to realise it’s still out there and be reminded that there are still people who care deeply about what happens to it. It’s like when you remember ‘oh yeah, [insert cute animal here] actually exists and isn’t just an internet meme. That’s nice’. Also, it’s good to see Jared Padelacki working steadily. It can’t be easy to find acting gigs when most producers just want to shoot you and mount your antlers over a fireplace.

The Irritating Magician Award for Something That Just Won’t Fuck Off… ...Goes to this blog entry, which is three pages long in Word. Good grief. Bye y’all! See you next year, assuming that the last few days of 2020 don’t culminate in a civilisation-destroying attack by giant space-ants. If that seems worryingly specific, let’s just say that- as Leonard Cohen would say “I’ve seen the future and, brother, it is murder”… by giant space-ants.

[blazing-emblem]

S-Support Wallpapers: Style 3

Here you go! The one you guys asked for! :D

Download the Photoshop file for this style here! All the layers, effects, and backgrounds are already ready for you to use and play around with. I would assume you know the basics of how to navigate the program, but I’ll try to take it slow if you’re still new to Photoshop.

NOTE: I made this using Photoshop CS6! It should still open with the other versions (??), but you might have to adjust when following the tutorial.

Style 3, Type A

To start with, you’ll need the portrait art and the special attack for your characters. To place your files into Photoshop, go to File>Place>then find where your images are>Place. Put the portrait artworks into the “Original 1″ group folder, and the attack art into “Original 2″ group folder. I would recommend duplicating those folders before you do anything with them in case you mess up and need to restart.

Also, I recommend having the Navigator window on when editing. Go to Window>Navigator to turn it on. This will help when you’re positioning your characters. When the canvas is upside down, the Navigator will keep the rightside-up view. Then rotate your canvas (R) to 180 degrees. Doing this will help your design look even.

We’ll be working with the portraits first for Type A, so let’s go to the “Original 1″ group folder. Place your character images in between the layers named “Rectangle 1 copy” and “Rectangle 1″. 

Select both of your character image layers and resize them together (CTRL+T). You don’t have to make them too big. Just enough that both characters fit the wallpaper area from their thigh-up. Put one character on the bottom, and one upside down on the opposite side from the first character, as seen from the examples above. Here’s how my example looks.

Once you got your characters positioned, duplicate their layers. Then, add the Black and White adjustment for each of the duplicated layers. You can find that here:

Make sure to clip the adjustment layers to the character image layers! You don’t want to have the black and white effect affect other layers. To do this, you can either right click on the adjustment layer, and the find “Create Clipping Mask”, or press Alt as your mouse hovers over the line between the layers. The mouse will turn into a box with an arrow beside it. And then click to create a clipping mask. Now your layers should look like this.

Double click on the adjustments layer to open the settings for that effect. Play around with the presets to find a look that makes your character POP. You can change the settings manually, but that takes too much time for me, so I just use the presets. Here’s an example of how different Takumi looks in different presets.

Feel free to adjust the preset if it has something you want, but not quite exactly how you want it to look. For me, I’m going to use the High Contrast Blue Filter look for Takumi, but darkened his blue values so his sleeves pop more.

Once you found a black and white look for your one character, do the same for the other

On to the next step! Use the layer mask on the copied images, the ones with the black and white adjustment on them. You can find the layer mask icon on the bottom of the layers panel. Mine is grayed out because I have two layers selected; it can only be used for one layer at a time. Your layers should look similar to this now.

We need the layer mask to bring out the colors of the characters’ hair and eyes from the bottom layers. Bring out your brush tool (B) and start erasing out parts of the black and white layers. To “erase”, make sure you’re using the color black as you’re brushing away what you don’t want, and use the color white if you want to bring something back. Use the X button to toggle back and forth quickly between these two colors. This part can get meticulous, so take your time and be patient! It’ll look cool when you’re done!

After that, zoom out a whole lot (Alt+Z). We’re going to make the eyes in the background. You can skip this step if you don’t like having the eyes. But I think they’re cool so that’s why I put them there XD

Select all the layers that involve the character images. The includes, the Black and White Adjustment layer, the copied layer, and the original layer. With two characters, that will be 6 layers you select. Now duplicate those. Put those new layers in between the layers named “Rectangle 1″ and “Layer 2″. 

Do not make a group folder these new layers! You’ll marge them in a bit, so endure a bit of clutter for now. Select the 3 layers for one character and enlarge them together. Like make them suuuuuuper big! Big enough that a single eye, or both eyes (if one eye is not big enough for the space), is shown in the empty space next to the character. Do the same for the second character. 

Then once you got the eyes positioned in the empty spaces, go ahead and merge the sets (select the desired layer and CTRL+E)! This will make it easier for the next part.

Change both opacities for these huge layers to 40%. Then use the Eraser tool (E) to erase the edges around the eyes to give it a faded look. Change the setting to a very large eraser size and 0% hardness.

Do not press and hold down the mouse as you erase! Use single clicks because that will give you more control on the faded look.

On to the last step! The gradient color. Use the Gradient tool (G) to change the colors of “Layer 2″. Use the colors of the character’s hair. You don’t need to use the Eyedropper tool for this. Just use the general colors of their hair. For mine, I’ll be using red and a light brown color.

Put the character’s hair color behind their partner’s. For example, I will put Celica’s red hair color where Takumi is, and I’ll put Takumi’s hair color behind where Celica is. Sanaki’s purple hair color is behind Shigure, and Shigure’s blue hair color is behind Sanaki.

If the characters have similar hair colors, make one value darker than the other.

And now Type A is done!

Style 3, Type B

To start, move one character above the “Rectangle 1″ layer and the other character above “Rectangle 2″ layer. Then clip each images above their respective rectangle layers. For me, I would put the character who was at the bottom from Type A at the top, and the top character from Type A to be at the bottom. 

(If you haven’t noticed it, inversions is the main thing in Style 3).

Resize and position your characters so that they’ll show bust-up in their rectangles. You can zoom out further and show from their waist, but I think the eye effect we’ll be making later on will get lost.

Once you set your character’s positions, duplicate them. We’ll be doing another Black and White adjustment + layer mask effect.

However, the difference here is that you’d have to merge the Black and White adjustment layer and the copy before you make a layer mask! So make sure you got your black and white settings the way you want before you merge! Also, you can add in an Exposure adjustment above the black and white layers if you’d like to increase the contrast for each image.

Once you’re done, put the layer mask on the black and white images. Bring color back only to the eyes. Then, make a new layer above each of the black and white layer. We’re going to use that for the streak that comes out of the eyes.

Draw in a streak of the character’s eye color coming out of their eyes. Use an eraser with 0% hardness to erase the ends. And then once you have the streaks down, change the layer mode to give it a luminescent look. Which layer mode you choose is up to you.

When you got that set, double click on the colored version of the character. We’ll be adding an Outer Glow effect on it. The color for the glow effect will be the same color as the character’s eyes. You can set however you want the glow to look like. My preference is Normal mode, 100% opacity, 0% spread, and 15px size.

The layers should look similar to this bottom image at this stage.

For the background, this will be similar to Type A, but the only difference is that we’ll be using eye colors instead of hair colors. We’ll still place the colors opposite of who owns it.

And that’s how you make Style 3! I hope that tutorial was understandable. My ask box and DMs are always open if you have any questions.

[aquapede]

The law requires me to ask about ‘Mirror’ Robobot Wispy Woods. Though this all feels more like an inversion than a reflection

Well a reflection is inverted. Or backwards, at least--not exactly the opposite, but definitely not the same. One thing I’m trying to keep is the core personality traits and design choices that make a character them. I don’t want to completely remove what makes a character unique, just flip their theme (and some facets of them) on their head. Basically, the antithesis to their normal counterpart.

As for the actual question--King Golem is just outfitted with like...a bunch of vines and shit coming out of any available cracks. Like Flowery Woods but made of rock. Mirror Susie doesn’t quite know what to do with him since he’s made of enchanted stone(?) so he doesn’t get changed that much.

[aspoonofsugar]

Hello! Which would be your top 5 fight scenes in anime/manga?

Hello anon!

This is a tough question. I am not sure tbh. I can generally tell you about series whose fights I enjoy, but I am not sure I can pick specific fights.

In no particular order:

1) ATLA

I know this is not technically an anime, but I love the fight scenes in the series and how the animators adapted different kinds of martial arts to each bending. Seeing so many different kinds of movements and so many different styles has always been one of my favourite aspects of the series.

When it comes to specific battle sequences, I love in no particular order

-Toph vs Earthbenders: I love the episode The Blind Bandit and Toph’s battle against the earthbenders is amazing. I especially like how she fights in a smart way by moving very little and using her opponents’ movements against them.

-Zuko and Katara vs Azula: I like this fight for several reasons. On one hand Zuko and Azula’s opposite state of minds and developments are beautifully conveyed through their fighting-styles. On the other hand I love the way Katara fights against Azula by using the environment to her advantage. I also like the character moments between Katara and Zuko since we are shown that they really value each other despite everything which went through between them.

-Katara vs Master Pakku: this is one of the first episodes of ATLA I saw and I love how creative Katara is in this battle and how she keeps on fighting fiercely despite not standing a chance. I think the battle conveys very well Katara’s creativity and talent, but also the fact that she has still much to learn when it comes to water-bending.

-Katara vs Hama: in this fight we see waterbenders taking water from the grass and the plants and I like that this possibility was explored. The use of blood-bending is also extremely interesting and the way Hama tricked Katara into using this technique she despises is very interesting.

-Aang, Sokka, Katara and Toph against the Ba-Sing-Se’s soldiers: I like how well the characters work together in this battle and how they manage to basically take down a whole army with just the few of them.

2) HxH

I like battles in this series because they are often smart and have the characters think out of the box. What is more, after it has been introduced, they make use of nen which is a power system which mirrors the characters’ interiority.

When it comes to specific battles I have especially enjoyed

-The fight between Gon and Hanzo because it highlighted how twisted it was the system invented by Netero. What is more it was both a deconstruction and a reconstruction of the shonen trope according to which one can win out of sheer willpower. In this case, we are shown that this is not true because Gon’s willingness doesn’t make him stronger than Hanzo who keeps dominating him. However, in the end Gon wins precisely because of his stubborness which is precisely what Netero wants to test. At the same time we are shown how Gon’s determination can be a double edged sword since he wins, but only because of the fight’s rules and even then he ends up badly hurt.

- Gon vs Knuckle (the training match): I am referring to the fight where Knuckle does not use his nen power against Gon. The fight is a minor one, but I like how Gon develops while training and how he finds smart ways to use Jajanken despite the dangers linked to that ability.

- Hisoka vs Kastro: this is one of the first battle where we learnt how nen works and it is one of my favourite because of how we get to see it from different perspectives. First of all we see it from Killua’s perspective and later on from Machi who explains what happened and how Hisoka’s powers work. I also really like how the battle sheds some light on Hisoka’s personality.

-Hisoka vs Chrollo: I have talked about the fight here and I think it is complementary and the inverse of the Hisoka vs Kastro one.

-Shizuko vs Pike: I have enjoyed this fight mostly because I have a soft spot for Shizuko, but I liked how she approached the whole battle in a smart yet ditzy way and her going back to tell Pike he could have still avoided death was a nice touch.

3) Madoka

I enjoy the fights against the witches because of how symbolic and aesthetically charming the witches are. In particular, I like Homura vs Walpurgis, Mami vs Gertrud and Sayaka vs Elsa Maria. I have talked of every witch (so indirectly of every fight) here.

4) YYH

It has been a while since I have read the series, so I don’t remember all the battles, but I remember enjoying them. They were funny and had some great character moments!

5) Assassination Classroom

I enjoy the fights in the series and the fact the story puts on the same level exams and battle against assassins makes so that the fight scenes end up being very original.

I have especially enjoyed

-The kids against the exams questions all three times we have had it. It is one of the charms of the series to use smart metaphors to convey study-related topics.

-The kill team vs the save team fight. It was great to see the students show each other their most hidden abilities and I like how in the end Nagisa and Karma’s friendship is mended.

-Nagisa vs Takaoka (the first fight). It is the fight which reveals Nagisa’s talent for assassination and I think it manages to do so in a very interesting way.

-Class A vs Class E during the sport festival. I like the rivalry between the two classes and this figth specifically was just hilarious to watch.

Apart from these series, here are some single fights I have enjoyed:

-Ino vs Sakura in Naruto, which I like because of Ino’s plan, the flashbacks and Sakura’s will.

-Levi and Mikasa vs the female titan in snk because it was short, but effective into conveying Levi’s competence, Mikasa’s feelings and their relationship evolving througout a very short interaction.

-Levi vs Kenny in snk because it was the first time we saw a battle among humans and it was interesting to see weapons usually used to kill titans transformed into weapons against humans. What is more, Kenny and Levi’s interaction was interesting.

- I also like several fights in RWBY (even if it is not an anime) when it comes to scenography. I especially enjoy Neo’s figthing style and watch her battles with pleasure.

- Yako vs X in Nogami Neuro. I like that this fight is not really a fight, but simply Yako managing to use her emotional intelligence to get through to X. All in all it is a great way to wrap up both Yako’s development and X’s arc. On one hand Yako shows how much she has grown and how much her empathy can be useful. On the other hand X finally finds themselves.

Thank you for the ask!

[sparda3g]

The Seven Deadly Sins Chapter 283 Review

The feud is over. Gowther has served his part in saving Mael from endless sorrow. He has returned home. Same cannot be said for Meliodas and Ban. They’re still trapped in purgatory; unable to defeat the Demon King. Not even the Great Wild can help. Literal years have gone by with no progress. We return back with those three in this good and interesting chapter.

If you’re hoping to see the follow-up with Gowther and Mael, you may have to wait for a while as the focus resume back to Purgatory. Right from the start, it’s abundantly clear that the three are still struggling to put a dent on the Demon King. It is comical how after getting blasted away, they casually discuss about the next tactic while eating. I know they have been there for a while, but it is funny how the Demon King is just standing there while they talk.

They have fought 6,093 and they have lost 6,093 times. I know this, thanks to Wild. I can’t believe he actually tallied it. If only they have the power to search all the possibilities and find the one where they win. Interestingly enough, they have been fighting the Demon King for 60 years already. Out of context, that would throw people off and wondering why those three still look young. “Anime logic” is what they will go with. Anyway, the upside is they’ve gain lots of experiences. Lucky for them to live long or forever.

Meliodas does have a second thought and start to think perhaps he’s not meant to go back to Earth. He thinks if he were return home somehow, Elizabeth is bound to activate the curse and die in front of him like an endless cycle. That’s disheartening to hear one man sacrificing for his love. This is literally emo Meliodas we’re talking about, so he’s bound to feel doubts and sadness. Luckily, good friend Ban is there to cheer him up. Always room for a bromance moment.

Ban lets him know the curse is already activated, even without his presence. Besides, Elizabeth wouldn’t want him to isolate himself from everyone. Ban got his own similar problem as well, so those two can relate in a certain way. They have someone to save back home and the Demon King isn’t going to stop them. It’s simple yet encouraging. Funny how Meliodas got smacked all the way to Wild like a safety cushion. But I do like Meliodas remembering his friends, Sins, fighting for them; leaving him feeling comfortable, literally and mentally.

It’s time for the Demon King versus the Three once again, and despite the early encouragement, nothing has changed. Three of them gets annihilated like no tomorrow. It’s like watching an Isekai series where the overpowered protagonist fights, which is pretty much every one of them. Is there a problem of level one hero story? It’s completely one-sided. Not even Revenge Counter works on him. The real interesting tidbit out of this is the hint of Meliodas’ actual power. His Revenge Counter is a joke compare to Chandler’s, but if he had his power, the battle could be different. He’s just afraid. Hm…

Meliodas got blasted really badly, but the damage was significantly reduced thanks to Wild, who took a bad landing. Pigs or boars in this series are true MVP. The one interesting development is Ban’s newest ability. After 60 years or so, he learns the ability to give, the opposite of his style. He basically did “Heal” (RPG reference) to Wild from using his own life point. Considering he’s immortal, that sounds broken. He’ll be the best medic ever, unless there’s a limit. While that’s great in the long run, it won’t change with the Demon King and his “Ruler.” Right?

Ban asks the same thing that fans would ask about his actual power. If Chandler taught him the Full Counter, what was Meliodas’ specialty before then? Surely, he’s already powerful before being trained by him, so there could be more than we have seen already. Of course, Meliodas jokingly brush aside, avoiding the question like an idiot. Ban clearly doesn’t buy his unawareness, but Wild breaks off the discussion while pondering on what to do next. Saved by the pig. After recapping their losses, Meliodas has an idea.

They step in to meet the Demon King to gain another loss into their record book; or did they? Demon King got tired of the same tactic over and over again; I mean it’s been 60 years, so who wouldn’t be. But this time, Ban doesn’t aim to steal, rather to give. He basically uses “Heal” on the Demon King, but instead of feeling good, he goes down like it gave him a virus. The truth behind that broken ability of Ruler is Inversion, which means anything bad is good and vice versa. I don’t remember which game, but I do recall one time using “Heal” becomes the most powerful attack due to the enemy’s status. It’s a nice callback.

You can’t blame Ban and Meliodas to come up with this idea so late. Purgatory’s time is hastened tremendously, so 60 years should be more like a couple of days or a week; maybe even less. Also, Ban recently gained this new ability to give, so it’s not like he always had it, yet they still didn’t come up with it. When he explained how his snatching only does the opposite to the Demon King, Meliodas has a hunch that perhaps the ability is to invert the effect. It makes sense why this happened now.

This was an interesting chapter with new developments in their ability and their dilemma. The action was the showcase of the Demon King remaining godly as ever. You got to appreciate the really nice artwork and the design of intimidation. You always get that sense of unstoppable force whenever he appears on panel. The bromance moment was nice. Ban’s ability made sense; greatly benefit the future. The end showed a sign of hope. The real fight begins now. It will be laughable if they still lose badly though...