#because most likely there’s going to be a ton of other badass guys who know what they’re doing

[lailuhhh]

Mmmmm thoughts for you

In your army days series, what would Jack do if he has to pick between his mission and Mac? (How did they get into that situation?) He’s still a soldier and has to do his duty and yet this is Mac.

Just wanted your thoughts on this :))

HMMMM

I may be heavily influenced by JStar8 as of right now, but Jack would choose Mac. Every time

Definitely more so after Mac initially saved him from that IED he stumbled on, because before that, Jack chose him out of a sense of duty because Mac was his responsibility, and was a dumb kid that didn’t know how the world worked and it served as a kinda teaching moment(?) or something like that

But after that, it was a different sense of duty, like after learning how shit of a childhood Mac had, Jack figured he had to show Mac that there are actually good people in the world

Of course there were horribly difficult decisions, like Mac+Stranger-Jack where Jack had to choose the mission to keep Mac safe,

But like if they were out and like in a big firefight or whatever, and Jack had to make the decision of Get The Bad Guy or Save Mac, it’s Mac. 100% it’s always going to be Mac

Honestly though, Jack doesn’t really ever have to make any big decisions, because if there’s anything where Mac’s involved, he’s going to choose whatever option will keep him safe in the long haul

[chemicallady]

I'd like to say something at this point.

I'm reading here and there that some of you are changing their vision about Noah or reaching the point to ask yourself if you still want to be a supporter of him because of what that blog said about him.

I believe that what happened between Noah and this person is probably true, I don't have any reason to doubt about her. But.

As we say in Italy, you can't fully believe to a story if you ear just one-side bell. Noah doesn't have the chance to tell his side of the story because he has better things to do than care about gossip. More than that, it's a human being. We have to look at the big picture. I don't want to defend him at all costs, I actually really don't care because untill he will be a decent person in public (not saying bullshit like Ronnie, for instance) and continue to be polite to his supporters, we are cool. I think I'm far older than more than half of the rest of this (sometimes really bad) fandom because I was a teen in the years of the emo wave. You maybe don't know about the Used, early MCR, Radke himself, Oli Sykes before Sempieternal...

They were drugs addicted. Always drunks as skunks. Pissing on people, throwing mic stands in the pit, get FULLY NAKED on stage (I'll never forgot about this, Quinn Allman). They did some awful shit in front of they supporters and to their supporters. Things that nowadays would get them canceled. You have no idea (maybe, or maybe you have) of what was Warped Tour 2005. Or maybe it was 2004? I can't recall.

Bad Omens are TODDLERS compared to this people. Innocent, pure babies. They are nice, extrovert maybe but nice. No one can deny that. They dont do drugs, they dont get drunk on stage or fuck around this supporters. They have an healthy routine in tour, they are teaching people to not fucking fight, they don't fuel fights! Its NORMAL in metal to have a couple of injuries at concerts. Collateral damages. I was nine at my second concert and I saw Slipknot. One dude broke his nose in the pit. Blood everywhere.

It's not a fucking Hannah Montana show. Those dudes are suppose to be badass. Noah is not pretending to be someone else or faking a new personality. He is doing is job and he is delivering pretty good shows. In no time he will grab his crotch around moaning like Oli, give him fucking space to express himself and be feral. Like any other metal artist.

Another thing.

Bad Omens vip experience is not expensive. I don't have interest in buy vip pass for 30 second of nothing, I'd rather wait after the gig is over. I met so many artists this way and usually they are more appreciable if they don't have to move to the next city. BUT the costs is not that high. I bought vip pass for LP once and I had to work 3 months to save enough for it. And I was still living at my parents'!

The merch is high quality, they make new pieces every time.... that's their way to get real cash guys. During a tour you have to pay tons of shit: the venue, flights, hotels, your crew. And you pay in advance most of the time. I don't think they are rich bitches rn. They are doing fine probably but still many of them lives with friends. Having flatmates is many time a signal that you can't afford Ronnie Radke house in Paradise Palisades.

I heard that they weren't really nice during the set in Canada. Maybe Montreal or Toronto. Someone felt bad, someone dropped a surfer I don't know. I didn't follow this I here for dirty smutty ff. If I want to see them play I have tiktok. By the way you have to know that most of the time you can't see shit from stage. Because you have lights in your face pointing your eyes. So probably noah just say a crow surfer falling and thought 'here we go again, this people has no fucking etiquette', and he left the stage. Or maybe who owned the venue asked them to do so in case of emergency.

BTW there is no fucking etiquette at their concerts. I stand with him if he's pissed off about that. It's not that hard to understand that you have to stay at the sides if you're not used to metal shows or you don't want to be pushed. Other people is ruining your experience or maybe its simply not for you. I grew up in the moshpit and that's how we like our shit. We have no time for filming or make tiktoks, we live the moment (we, people who like metal music, I'm not gatekeeping. If you wanna learn how to survive the pit and enjoy the experience just message me.)

So, to sum up.

My point is that every one of us has that friend that was a dick with one or more girls we still love him because we know that he's a weirdo an not a bad person.

My advice is stop being obsessed with Noah and just enjoy his work. You dont know him, you cant tell. Don't believe everything, stories are getting bigger and bigger everytime their are told, and think about the fact that straight guys are mostly jerks. They take more time to mature and act like adults. We know that Noah is in therapy now, he open up about it, so he is aware that he is not perfect.

BECAUSE HE IS NOT. HE IS A HUMAN BEING AND HUMANS MAKE MISTAKES.

That's it.

I don't want to fuel fights as well but please stop being ridiculous and acting like he is insulting you personally. It's fine to be delululu but your pushing the limits.

Peace and love.

[otakusheep15]

Random Headcanons I Have for Twisted Wonderland Characters

Just like the title says. These will be all over the place, and most probably won’t make sense to anyone other than me. Some of these are very cute and lighthearted, most are pretty dark, so fair warning. 

Tw: underage alcohol/drug abuse and overdosing (Deuce’s part), fighting/injury (Ruggie’s part), eating disorder/purging (Azul’s part), mentions of poisoning and attempted murder (kalim’s part), suicidal thoughts/ideation (Jamil’s part), mentions of death (Lilia’s part), bullying (Sebek’s part)

Riddle is a major history nerd, and when he was little, he always enjoyed history lessons the best. Sometimes he’ll chat with Lilia since he seems to know so much about history, but sometimes Riddle is too intimidated to initiate conversation. 

Trey is secretly a lot stronger than people assume he is, physically anyway. After all, he is a baker, and he’s constantly lugging around heavy bags of flour for his family’s shop. Not that he’s super buff or anything, but he definitely has some muscle on him. 

Cater has a secret account that no one at NRC knows about. On this account, he posts about all of his real thoughts and feelings, like how he has a hard time making genuine connections, how horribly his sisters treat him, etc. He makes sure to stay completely anonymous, and this account is surprisingly popular despite no one knowing who the poster is. 

Ace was super popular in middle school. Like, he was that one guy who was very athletic, had a ton of friends, and, obviously, had a girlfriend. He assumed that this popularity would easily transfer over to his high school life, but he was very wrong. For the first couple of weeks, everyone thought he was annoying and rude, but he eventually calmed down after a couple of complaints from his dormmates.  

Deuce used to drink and smoke quite a bit in middle school. One time, it got so bad that his mom had to take him to get his stomach pumped because he overdosed. He honestly didn’t mean to, but it was a dare from one of his gang buddies, and he didn’t think it would be that bad. From that moment on, Deuce had sworn off all drugs and alcohol. He’s still not completely rehabilitated yet, and sometimes he comes close to a relapse, but his friends watch over him and make sure he’s okay. 

Leona sucks at checkers. Like, he’s absolutely horrible at it. For someone so good at chess, and strategy games in general, he has never won a single game of checkers in his life. Even Cheka can beat him at this point. Only a few people know about this, namely his family and Ruggie, and he gets teased for it at least once a day. 

Ruggie has rips in his ears and tail, mainly due to fighting. He’s gotten pretty used to them by now, and sometimes he even forgets that he has rips until someone points them out. None of these fights were super traumatic for him or anything, and he has no problem recounting the stories of how he get each rip. If anything, he feels like a badass whenever someone brings it up. 

Jack had a small puppycrush on Vil when they were younger. It was nothing serious, and he’s gotten over it forever ago, but he did at one point. The crush probably developed when they first met. After they became friends, Jack would follow Vil around a lot, helping him out with chores, playing games with him, and helping him practice lines. Vil knows about the crush, and will sometimes tease Jack about it, even to this day. 

Azul used to purge when he was younger. He thought that, as long as he at in front of people, no one would know what he did when he was alone. Eventually, Jade and Floyd found out and told his mom. Then his mom took him to the doctor. By this point, Azul had lost some serious weight, and he was pretty unhealthy. He’s better now, but he sometimes has those days where he’s tempted to start purging again, especially when people make comments about his body. 

Jade will sometimes join the science club when they go hiking. For one, he’s friends with Trey and Rook (vice-housewardens unite), and he just really likes nature. He’ll also lecture some of the freshmen about various plants and what kind of concoctions can be made from them. At this point, most of the science club consider him an official member, even if he isn’t. 

Floyd is banned from being a waiter at the Monstro Lounge because he once threatened someone with a knife when they complained about his service. Granted, most people thought he was in the right up until the knife was brought out. Now he’s only allowed to work in the back preparing food, and if he tries to sneak out to the front and talk to customers, Azul will dock his pay. 

Kalim has never had a real, genuine friend before. There’s two main reasons for this, one being his own fault, and one being the fault of others. The first reason is that he’s afraid to get too close to anyone for fear of them being hurt. That day when Jamil was poisoned because of him still continues to haunt his nightmares, and he’d hate it if something like that happened again, so he keeps his distance. The other reason is that, everytime someone does get close to him, it’s never out of kindness. Even Jamil, the person closest to him, secretly hated him for so many years, and all of the others just tried to kill him. Now, he purposefully keeps a certain distance from others to ensure no one gets too close. 

Jamil was actually really happy that one time he almost died from being poisoned. He thought that, maybe, this would show people how horrible being stuck to Kalim was for him, and he’d finally be set free. When he wasn’t, he was, naturally, upset. For a while after that, he started dreaming up ways he could purposefully put himself in danger, and possibly even get himself killed. It’s not like he wanted to die or anything; he just finally wanted people to see just how miserable he was. By the time he got to NRC, he had realized how morbid his thoughts were, and eventually got over the idea, but sometimes those thoughts come back to haunt him when he’s having a rough day. 

Vil never wanted to be famous. Or, more specifically, he didn’t want the type of fame he has now. Especially as a kid, he was always stressed out, adults constantly yelled at him when he messed up a line or missed a cue, and he never really got to experience a normal childhood. There were days he wished he could just quit acting and modeling and leave it all behind for a normal life. 

Rook actually hates the way his hair is cut. He preferred it when it was longer, but he doesn’t want to say anything about it because it might upset Vil. He’s considered growing it back out once he graduates. As a side note, many NRC students had a crush on him during his freshman year because they thought he looked really pretty with the long hair (and they didn’t know his personality yet). 

Epel, surprisingly, likes being feminine sometimes. He enjoys wearing makeup and dressing up nice, but he’s also really insecure about it. If he acts too feminine, he thinks he’ll get bullied, so he over-exaggerates his hatred for girly things so no one makes fun of him. Also, a small part of him thinks that, if he likes girly things, he’s no longer allowed to enjoy Spelldrive or other manly things, even if he knows that’s not true. 

Idia loves playing dating sims with an all male cast. For one, he’s lowkey very gay, but that isn’t the main reason why. Playing these games helps him understand what people find attractive in men, or, at least what his fellow otaku like in men. He thinks that, if he can model himself after some of these characters, maybe people will like him more. Now, he’s not nearly confident enough to do something like this in public, but online, he can act however he wants, and he does. Sometimes it works, and sometimes it doesn’t, but it’s all a learning process to him. 

Ortho used to love sweets back when he was alive. It’s part of the reason why Idia likes them so much now. Back then, the two would often sneak sweets when no one was looking. Currently, Idia is trying to program Ortho so that he can eat, or at least taste. That way, Ortho will be able to taste sweets again and enjoy them like he used to. Ortho doesn’t say anything because he doesn’t want to rush his brother, but he is very excited, and he even has a list of sweets he’d like to eat once he finally does get the new upgrade. 

Malleus falls in love very easily, but not very often. No one gets close enough for him to fall in love with, and those that are close to him (Lilia, Silver, and Sebek) are more like family to him than anything else. But in those rare moments when someone has the audacity to get close to him, he cannot help but fall for them almost instantly. In many ways, he hates this part of himself because it ruins what few relationships he’s able to build. On the other hand though, it’s such a nice feeling to fall in love, and he hopes that, one day, he’ll find someone who will feel the same for him. 

Lilia hates how close he’s gotten with Silver. He hates that, one day soon, Silver is going to die, and he will have to live on without him. Genuinely, it pains him more than any battle he’s ever fought. It’s hard, but he tries not to think about it too often, instead hiding his pain with his silly-goofy nature. However, when he’s alone, that sadness overcomes him, and he’s left to deal with those thoughts. He loves Silver more than he’s ever loves anyone, and he hates that one day he’s going to have to say goodbye. But he tries so hard not to let that show because the last thing he wants is to worry Silver with his thoughts. 

Silver is warm, and he gives some of the greatest hugs known to man. Many assume he’s cold because he just looks like someone who would be cold, but he’s so incredibly warm. That’s also why animals like him so much. He’s like their own personal space heater. Because of his warmth, Silver gives out amazing hugs. In general, he’s very cuddly, and the body heat he gives off just makes it that much better. Plus, he secretly loves giving hugs, even if he acts like he doesn’t. 

Sebek doesn’t actually hate humans as much as he says he does. In Briar Valley, humans tend to get a bad rep. When he was younger, he moved to Briar Valley with his family. He was often bullied by fae kids because his father is a human, and he’s half-human. Due to this treatment, Sebek developed an inferiority complex, and blamed humans for his problems. If not for his human father, he wouldn’t be bullied like this. So he started acting all tough, claiming he hated humans for their weak nature. Eventually, the bullying stopped, but Sebek is too afraid to let this act go because he’s scared he’ll be bullied again. 

Sorry everyone, this got much deeper than I wanted it to. I swear, I tried to make these lighthearted (and some of them are) but most became very angsty very quickly. 

[the-heart-of-a-monster]

OKAY AS PROMISED IM BACK WITH SOME GOOD OL GOVERNMENT SLANDER LETS GOOOOOOOOOOOO

And as usually I haven’t read the page in the past 5 minutes so some details are most certainly lost within the inner machinations of my mind so please don’t excuse me if I get some things wrong. I’m also a high school student so I also don’t know every little detail about how government organizations work but let’s pretend I do for the funny.

Now, what we see of GUN (Will not be using the periods because that’s too much work lmfao) is pretty antagonistic at first glance. First they won’t permit Amy to be in the base without specific permission from anyone in charge, then they see one little thing wrong with Omega and treat it like it’s the black plague or something, and then they don’t even refer to Omega as a real person, AND THEN THEY PREPARE THE GUY FOR EXECUTION????????? YEAH WHAT A NICE TRACK RECORD THEY GOT GOING ON!!!!

However, I do have the obligation to defend a majority of the things they do here. First we’ll start with Amy’s initial rejection.

Again, a ton of details about this part are lost to me as they came out nearly a year ago and I just spontaneously decided to send in this ask.

When Amy waltz’s right on into GUN’s base of operation, she does arrive with the consent of Rouge, but our badass bat queen is not the one in charge. Yes, Rouge is a very well-respected spy in the business and she is held in high regard, but she’s only one of the higher-ups. She isn’t “The Big Man” upstairs or whatever. Not only that, but she is allies with some pretty suspicious individuals, like Sonic for example, who was already on GUN’s hit list a few times now. And not to mention, she treats Omega like he’s a real person instead of just some Eggman robot that went rogue. In this context, not only do GUN have reason to be suspicious of Rouge just allowing a random girl into their top secret operations base, but they also have reason to be wary near Omega. (I’ll get into this later) And by the way, Amy is practically unheard of to GUN, at least from what I know. They have Sonic and a majority of his friends on file, but I’ve never seen Amy interact with GUN at all until this point. Even if she had, GUN would still know very little about her. So for her to just waltz right on in and claim she’s working with Rouge, the only other Mobian besides Shadow btw, it’s understandable that GUN is gonna be pretty weird about that.

Now sure, Amy did claim she was working with Rouge, but that’s just it. Rouge and Shadow are the only Mobians within a mostly human organization, Mobians who do have previous criminal records. I am honestly shocked the two were able to work with GUN in the first place. So allowing another Mobian onto the team, even temporarily, is a big deal.

Alright that’s enough of that I’ve basically sang GUN its praises from heaven and back so we’re gonna get into the nitty-gritty now muahahahahahaaaaa

Now about everyone just hating on Omega? Well, they still have some reason to do so. Before Shadow and Rouge, GUN was quite strict in who they let in, as with any scientific/military operation that’s in cahoots with the government. Oh, and they also hate Eggman. So allowing Team Dark’s third and most op member Omega to be hired was quite the stretch. In real life, allowing a robot to work at all would basically be a felony as it could lead to harmful outcomes like software malfunctions, miscalculations, harming other workers, etc. To many things can go wrong when a robot is on the clock, and in this case, the robot is also very genocidal and wants the death of anyone who gets in his way. The only attribute that GUN can have any hope in is the well-known fact that Omega despises Eggman with a passion. Ya boi hates Eggman more than the whole of GUN, which to them is saying a lot! So GUN is already taking enough risk by allowing Omega to exist within the workspace!

But that’s the thing here. Everyone is so focused on the what-ifs with Omega that they never stop to think about what he’s really like. Everyone is afraid of Omega, or at least afraid of what he is capable of, so they all avoid him like the plague. On top of all that, due to their honestly not unfounded fear, they’ve been preparing for the worst from the guy. GUN probably has a ton of unnecessary protocols now all thanks to Omega’s mere existence, and so if anything were to go even a little bit wrong… Welp. We all know what they’d have to do.

To me, this does seem slightly reasonable, at least given how Omega truly is. The guy is a loose cannon, literally and figuratively, and his rage is unmatched! So it does seem understandable to an extent as to why Omega is treated in this way.

What isn’t reasonable though is how he’s treated on the other side of things. Yes, ya boi is a hazard. Yes, he could burn the whole place to the ground and not feel an ounce of regret. Yes, Omega is very unpredictable! However, that’s just how some people are in real life too! Real people are unpredictable and violent, and yet we don’t see everyone treating them like a plaything! To GUN, Omega is seen as both a useful tool and an unpredictable hazard, just like I said, and both these qualities combined make for a very demeaning description. Because while Omega is a robot, he still can feel and have emotions similarly to, if not exactly like a regular person! (See my previous essay to get a bigger picture for what I mean by this) He acts and feels just as human as the others, and we can tell he clearly wants to be treated as such! Omega doesn’t seem to mind the over-the-top precautions necessary for his own existence, and he doesn’t care if he gets the occasional glare or two from a coworker. What he does clearly care about is being called a violent yet necessary tool, a monster, a robot, an emotionless tin can, an it…! Omega hates being undermined. He despises the fact that he’s constantly being misjudged for what he is, not because of who he is. No one treats Omega like a real living creature, and instead treats him like another tool in the shed, a faulty lawnmower or a dulled bush trimmer. Yes, he’s useful, and yeah he is on their side! But he’s also just a bunch of code and numbers, nothing but ones and zeroes, and they’re all treating him as such. Nobody really cares about him. Nobody sees Omega for who he really is. Which is why whenever he can, Omega always gravitates towards the only other oddballs in the workplace, the only Mobians, the only people who will treat him with respect.

And finally, we come to the last section of this very very VERY LONG ESSAY ABOUT A SINGLE CHARACTER, the execution. Or I guess the attempted execution.

So, like I said beforehand, Omega has a LOT of precautions on his belt, and also like I stated, one of them is his execution. If anything were to go wrong at all, if Omega were to step out of line, the guy would have to at the very least be taken apart just to see what’s wrong. If GUN were feeling nice, they wouldn’t straight up kill the guy, and at this point in time it’s clear that the higher-ups have taken a liking to Omega. So going this far was not their intention in the slightest. It would be considered though if anything like it were to happen again, but thanks to the new pages I think they’re beginning to reconsider this. Omega has now been taken over/amplified by Dark Gaia, (Also see my previous ask to know what I think on all that) and that is seen as an accident worthy of an execution in the eyes of the government. And in some cases that’d be understandable, but in this case it isn’t. GUN has been working with Omega for a while at this point, and not only that, but like I JUST SAID, they like him. Or at least they think they do. Executing Omega for something that was clearly out of his control is not necessary in the slightest and it is exactly why I did this whole thing.

okay so as you can probably tell I’m getting tired of typing on my iPad generation 10 screen keyboard so I’ll try to keep this short.

Summary: Omega is an unpredictable force of nature that GUN clearly doesn’t like. They like the concept of him being on their side and the General likes him personally, but Omega in theory and Omega in practice are two separate robots. Having robots in the workplace at all can have dire consequences, so not only have GUN taken multiple extra precautions just in case something bad happened thanks to Omega, but they also treat him like a piece of junk! It’s terrible, but at the end of the day that’s kinda just what needs to be done. GUN is a government operation that hates Eggman, so anything trouble-making within the business is seen as a liability or a hazard, which includes our favorite homicidal maniacal robot.

AND THATS IT I FINALLY DID IT I FINALLY GOT IT DONE I FINALLY WROTE THE WHOLE THING WOW THAT WAS A LOT OF GIVERNMENT SLANDER QOOOOOOOOOWWWWW

AIGHT THATS IT IM DONE IM LEAVING THANKS SO MUCH FOR READING ALL THAT AND HAVE A GREAT DAY/NIGHT

THANKS FOR SENDING IN ESSAYS LIKE THAT!!!!!!!!! very interesting read cant wait for u to see the conclusion of this arc

[rallamajoop]

Theme, character, and a few more thoughts on the RE4 Remake

So, having played the Resident Evil 4 remake, I had a ton of fun – but in the end, I think it worked better for me when they remade this game as Resident Evil Village instead.

As every gaming outlet on the net has already told you, there’s a lot to recommend this title. The gameplay is terrific, new!Leon is still stupidly endearing to me, and there are so many little details in his character animation that I love to bits (seriously, he and Ashley actually managed to make me feel guilty about making them run back through the pouring rain hunting that one treasure on the map I’d missed – it’s that good).

But story-wise, I can only wish they’d had the guts to remake this thing a little harder. And while I have sunk a truly stupid number of hours into getting every achievement in RE8, RE4 seems to have tailored its own post-game ecosystem specifically to turn me away. And that's just a little disappointing.

The full RE4 experience is roughly twice as long as Village, but it feels like it has about half the actual plot. Most of what happens once you leave the village area feels like padding, the game spinning its wheels to fill in time. The lore makes less sense the more I try to get my head around it. Parts like Ada’s role feel so unfinished I can only hope there’s more coming in DLC. And despite token attempts to link events thematically to RE2, the result probably works better if you haven’t actually played the RE2 remake lately.

And while you can always say, “C’mon, it’s RE4! No-one remembers that game for the plot!” I’m left going, well, sure, but they remade Leon’s story in RE2 so well! And everything that left me wanting here was stuff they did just as well in RE8 – which was already basically a stealth remake of RE4. Was it so unreasonable to hope they could pull off the same here?

But enough hand waving. Let’s talk specifics. I’ve already talked Luis. So it’s time to talk Leon and Ashley.

I have so many mixed feelings about RE4-remake!Leon. So many.

In so many ways, he just works. He’s not the same Leon of RE2, but he’s changed in ways that make sense given several years of special ops training. He's taken several levels in badass and he's a lot more jaded, but at heart, he’s still a sweetheart who does this work because he wants to help people. And yet people who know him still call him ‘rookie’, still insinuate he hasn’t changed, and it’d be nice if that was something the game was more interested in exploring.

But while RE2 was inarguably the biggest day of his life to date, RE4 ultimately feels like just another day at the office for new!Leon: beat the bad guy, save the girl, fail to figure out what the fuck Ada’s deal is, go home. Nothing that happens to him in RE4 feels personal. Everything that’s changed him between RE2 and here has already happened, off-screen, and I can’t help but wish we were telling one of those stories instead.

It's not for lack of trying. RE4 opens on a heck of a thesis-statement about Leon: what he’s been through since RE2, hints of conflict with his current employer (“I was ‘asked’ later to join a top-secret government program. Not that I had a choice. The training, the punishing missions, almost killed me.”) There’s also one hell of a mission-statement about his feelings on the Raccoon City incident: “If I could just forget what happened that night, the pain, even for a second, this time, it can be different.”

That’s great as an opener! First question: different how?

What difference here is worth celebrating? This time Ada got away, blatantly alive and with the prize in hand, not even pretending she wasn’t using you? This time you got to save the little-infected-blonde-girl (who-was-only-involved-because-of-her-parents’-career-choices) yourself, instead of Claire doing all the real work? This time you rode out the explosion with only one other survivor for company instead of two? You still saw more people die than you saved! You still left a whole infected-and-dying population behind when you left! Seriously, what’s supposed to be different here?

The game seems to want us to believe that saving Ashley is enough to make it "different." On my second playthrough, I even caught Leon repeating that line, ‘it has to be different this time!’ as he carries her into Luis’ lab. But this doesn’t land for me, because – again – Leon got out of Raccoon City with Claire and Sherry. Claire didn’t need a whole lot of rescuing (much as I gripe about her story, she objectively achieved a whole lot more than Leon did), but she certainly appreciated his help. RE4 even shows us a shot of them all walking off into the sunrise together in its Raccoon City flashback.

The lore surrounding this franchise suggests that post RE2, Leon becomes almost family to Sherry ‒ you'd really think she'd count. I’m sure there’s an angle you can find somewhere where Leon would feel like saving Ashley is ‘different’ enough ‒ guilt isn’t a highly logical emotion ‒ but it’s really not coming through for me. And that makes the game's whole thesis statement feel awfully hollow.

Some other token thematic attempts are made: on the boat with Ada, Leon says, “you try to save one person, you get a hundred more killed.” Well, in the process of saving Ashley, they got Luis, Mike, and both those Spanish cops from the opening sequence killed. Saddler and his cult do get wiped out in a way more definitive way than Umbrella did in RE2 ‒ and that surely saves more lives in the long run than saving just Ashley ever could ‒ but that doesn’t seem to be what "has to be different" is going for. This is a lot like my issues with how Jill’s PTSD was dealt with in RE3 – we’re just vaguely waving at a past conflict as a way to lend nebulous weight to the present, and hoping the audience will fill in the blanks without further prompting. This is not how successful theming works!

Really, what makes this so disappointing to me is that it’s not like Capcom has never done PTSD-backstory well. See, as exhibit A: Resident Evil 8. Game opens with multiple reminders that Ethan is still dealing with trauma from RE7, the feeling that he ‘never really left the Baker’s basement’ – and as the story progresses, we learn that in a very real sense, he never did.

The reveal is the answer to a mystery that's been teased repeatedly since RE7, and coming to terms with it is a vital part of Ethan’s character arc. Though plenty is still left to the audience’s imagination, the pieces are all there. Ethan’s no longer in denial about how much his experience has changed him, but what matters to him hasn’t changed. If he’d come out of the Baker’s basement still human, he’d never have survived long enough to save Rose ‒ hell, there'd have been no Rose at all. There’s no going home again for Ethan, but he’s at peace with that. It’s really that simple: give us specifics, and specifics that make sense.

Ultimately, I think trying to frame RE4 as RE2-but-different was a mistake. The original RE4 wasn’t conceived that way, and the remake hasn’t been remade hard enough to make it so.

That doesn’t mean there’s no Leon-centric thematic material to explore. That opening also sets out a wealth of great potential surrounding Leon’s ‘not that I had a choice’ position. Build on the conflict between the Leon who’s out here trying to save a girl’s life, vs the Leon who’s out here trying to protect US political interests. Play with the idea that he’s still being used by the US, just as Ada was using him back in RE2! Let the enemies point out that Leon is as much a puppet of the US administration as the ganados are puppets of Saddler! Fucking do something with Krauser: one of the very same people who put Leon through all that ‘training that almost killed him’ has turned around and decided that their job is a sucker’s bet ‒ that should be a thematic goldmine! And then let Leon turn around and tell them all to go to hell. It’s all right there, c’mon!

The game toys with the question of whether Leon’s changed since RE2 – Krauser says he hasn’t, Ada says he hasn’t – heck, even Luis’ final words, a guy can change, right? are poking around the edges of similar themes. Leon’s problem back in RE2 was never a failure to save people, it’s getting too caught up in other people’s power plays to make any real difference himself. Is that still true here? It's really not clear.

Similarly, it’s so easy to imagine Leon was chosen for the job in RE4 because he’s got such a hero-complex he’s obviously going to work hardest to keep Ashley safe – because no, Leon may have taken a dozen levels in badass, but at his core, he hasn’t changed. But I’m pretty sure he’s going to be okay with that, just as long as he’s changed enough to be able to get the job done.

And think how much more it should give Leon and Ashley to bond over too, when… oh, right. Time to talk about Ashley.

The general buzz about remake!Ashley has been overwhelmingly positive. She’s so much better than the infamously-annoying original!Ashley, she feels like a real person now, people legitimately care about protecting her, and so on. And I sure as hell don’t want to tell anyone they shouldn’t like new-Ashley. She’s not annoying. I didn’t dislike her as a character. But the longer I spent with her in this game (and you spend more time with her than another other non-Leon character), the less she felt like an actual person to me, and the more glaring it was just how little I knew about her.

Here’s what we do learn about Ashley. She’s a college student, apparently 20 years old (she doesn’t really look that old, but what the hell, there are 20yos who look like Ashley, let’s not get stuck on this one). Her father is the president of the United States. She develops quite the crush on Leon over the course of the game (and who can blame her?) Leon handles this as deftly as you could ask for under the circumstances – he doesn’t want to lead her on, but he also doesn’t want to shut her down any harder than he has to. Ashley is understandably terrified, but coping with it with enough composure to keep her head most of the time, and the one time she does freak out and run off, it leads to one of my favourite scenes in the game – where Leon comforts her, and gets to show his gentler side.

Over the course of the game, she gains a certain level of confidence – in herself, and in Leon’s ability to protect her. All that talk about being his partner and wanting to become an agent like him is probably just her crush showing, but again, Leon treads a careful line to validate her as much as possible without ever really saying yes.

And this is all fine, but nothing really changes in Leon’s feelings about Ashley as they spend more time together. He’s 100% there to protect her before they met, and after spending all that time with her, sure, same deal. That’s his job. Nor does Ashley herself really get to change much. In her early chapters, she's already capable of smashing a window to save Leon from a burning building. By the end, she's... still completely helpless to save herself without him. Nothing really pays off.

Alright, now let me tell you about Ashley.

Ashley is a fucking political prisoner, a pawn to people who see her only as a means to an end, and yet the notion she’s in a situation any bigger than herself never enters the picture. At an age when a girl should be earning some independence, she’s going to be officially pigeonholed as her father’s daughter in the minds of the entire world. For four to eight years of the past and/or future, she’s going to be one of the most important and over-protected people on the planet. And yet, within the last day or two, all that security failed. People she and her father trusted – heck, that the whole US government administration trusted – betrayed them. She’s been kidnapped out of the blue, presumably bundled into a plane and flown across the world to some hick-village in rural Spain.

Surely Ashley should have some kind of opinion on all that, right?

There are all sorts of plausible reactions someone might have to this kind of situation. She could blame herself for not taking security more seriously. She could blame her security team for letting her down; her dad for putting her in this position, the possibilities go on. The game does vaguely wave in the direction of Ashley having (reasonable) trust issues when Leon first appears, given she attacks him with a candlestick and runs off, but then she, well, sees some ganados out the window, and everything is forgotten? It’s all over very quickly. Her only opinion on her situation is that she doesn't want to be taken over by a parasite. Such character!

Later in the game, we discover that Krauser was personally involved in her abduction. Ashley never gets to have an opinion on this. Did she know Krauser personally, or was he just pulling strings from a distance? Wouldn’t she have questions for Leon about his relationship with Krauser? Wouldn’t this have been a great opportunity to expand on Leon’s barely-a-footnote history with Krauser and that whole messed up political conspiracy ‒ even to talk about why Leon was trusted enough to be sent on this mission alone? Well, too bad – we’re on the back foot of the Ashley-two-step throughout both Krauser’s appearances, so Ashley’s not around. And Krauser’s own motivations are apparently no more complicated than "wants to be more macho than everyone else." What a damn waste.

Beyond the initial section set in the village itself, it’s disappointing how much of the plot of RE4 basically comes down to: Ashley gets captured, Leon rescues her, rinse and repeat. There are variations, sure (Ashley freaks out and runs off, Leon has to find her, Leon gets trapped, Ashley has to free him) – but the overall pattern gets pretty monotonous. Ashley frees Leon, then immediately gets captured. Leon tries to rescue her, but fails, and is thrown down a hole. Leon almost catches up with Ashley, but she’s being moved to the island. Leon finds Ashley on the island and rescues her, finally! Ashley swiftly gets captured again. Leon rescues her, again. But don’t you dare let Ashley get carried off by one of those goons out of sequence, that’s an insta-fail state. What, you think this is a situation where the bad guys can just carry Ashley away with impunity? Ha.

This is what I really mean when I say it feels like this game is just spinning its wheels for so much of its runtime. There is some additional plot surrounding Luis to break things up a bit, and a few allusions to the idea Ada’s up to something, somewhere, with a grand total of 4 named boss-villains popping up to monologue and/or fight you. But they're all kept pretty rigorously segregated from one another, like cast members who will no longer appear in the same scenes for contractual reasons. 'Wants power' or 'is under mind control' is as complex as the villainous motivations get.

The villains of RE2, 7 and 8 all had their own relationships, conflicts and internal power struggles, all presented for you in cutscenes and dialogue, and the result created some of the most memorable characters of the whole franchise. In RE4, you're lucky if you glimpse a vague hint of history in a document somewhere. C’mon, game, you’ve put Sargent Rambo and Midget Napoleon on the same team, and I don’t even get to see how much they must hate each other? That’s just not fair!

Ada’s role in this game feels like such a missed opportunity too. The final note she and Leon end on in RE2 could have gone in so many directions (how much did she genuinely care about him? Was she just bluffing by lowering her gun?) if they’d only had the sense to play into it. But RE4 seems to have picked up the tune a few verses earlier, back at ‘Ada’s evil and using Leon without a care’, and just keeps on repeating that until the scene fades out. Leon gets no answers. Maybe Ada sees him as slightly more than a useful tool, but who’d know? Ada’s just… there. Remember Ada? She’s a thing that happens to Leon sometimes.

But there was still the potential to do so much more. Tell me more about Ashley, to begin with! What’s her relationship with her father like? What’s she studying at uni? How well did she know her security team? Does she even know what country she’s in? Let her and Leon bond over their positions as human pawns in political schemes so much bigger than them as people. Let someone wonder if it’s better Ashley dies than comes home infected. Let the goal of saving-Ashley come into conflict with the goal of defeating-Saddler! Let Leon question his superiors' priorities! It's all right there to play with, I promise you!

Heck, let Hunnigan (or some other official voice in Leon’s earpiece) disagree with him at some point. Delve deeper into the scale and implications of Krauser’s betrayal! Contrast him with Luis – they’re on virtually opposite tracks as people who’ve switched sides, but they’ve both made more meaningful decisions about who to work for than Leon ever has. Let me feel all the different interests at conflict here – between Luis, Ada, the US government, Krauser’s rebellion, and Saddler’s cult, there should be enough of them. Let Leon question what he’s doing there – saving one girl or saving the whole US administration, but ultimately just saving one girl. And if you still want to tie it to RE2, it doesn’t have to be about it being different, it can be about Leon feeling like he’s made a difference this time. There’s got to be something you can find here that’ll resonate.

Going by the general reception to the game, these don’t seem to be issues that have bothered the masses. Given how revered RE4 is in gaming history, I can well believe there was real resistance at Capcom HQ about to trying to rework it more than a relative minimum, without trying to build any real thematic weight into what originally worked as a fairly cartoony rescue-the-princess caper. It’s still got great gameplay and some lovely character moments – I wouldn’t dream of debating that. But as a whole, RE4 felt thematically empty in a way I didn’t get from RE’s 7, 8 or Leon’s story from the remake of 2. If anything, it reminded me more of my problems with RE3 or Claire’s story in 2 – there are ideas here, but what they add up to is less than the sum of its parts. And that’s a disappointing feeling to come away with.

The remake still has a lot going for it. But remade a little harder, I can’t help but feel it could’ve been so much more.

[some-pers0n]

I just typed out this when talking with some friends in a Discord server, but I think it probably could go here as well not gonna lie.

I have a lot of opinions on the views of fanart VS fanfic. A lot of fandom things in general are mocked by people who aren't really in them, despite other things being normalized. People who buy all sorts of merch for their favourite sports team or take off their shirt and paint their body the colours of the team aren't seen as that strange, but if you try to express that you like something more niche you're seen as weird.

Twilight is a great example of how something that's relatively innocent and light-hearted is twisted into a dead horse for people to routinely beat over and over again. Are the books that great? In my opinion, not really. However, a lot of people (in particular young teens) loved it. They however were made fun of and mocked relentlessly for their interests. A lot of the time you'll see fandom mocked because it's seen as something weird kids, do. Halo and Call of Duty aren't talked about in the same breath as something like Twilight, because despite being targeted towards a similar demographic (pre-teens and adolescents), they're seen as cool and nostalgic. Twilight? That's some dumb girl stuff. They should do something better with their lives than talk about a dumb stupid book all the time. Criticizing the writing and themes were a shield a lot of people used to bully others. A lot of the time, it's making fun of people for liking things. I bring gender into this because fandom culture is predominantly queer and neurodivergent oriented with a ton of teenagers. They are spaces for queer and neurodivergent people to express themselves and find safety in the comfort of media. A good chunk of the time when a person complains about fancontent and media, it ties back to ableism.

Anywho, back to fanart. Fanart is iffy in that sense. Some fanart is seen as cool and amazing. I find it absolutely hilarious when some guy will complain about young girls drawing fanart of DSMP characters doing. literally nothing bad. Maybe they're just hanging out and talking. I dunno. Regardless, those type of people are more than likely to have hyperrealistic Joker art as their background. You know the type. It makes me laugh because like…how do you think that came into existence? But, still. Depending on who makes the fanart, it's seen as a cool and badass thing. If it's some random guy who paints Scrooge McDuck smoking a cigar and counting dollar bills or the Joker in front of an explosion, that's based and cool. But if it's like Gordon Freeman chatting with Barney and maybe being a bit vulnerable after being subjected to all of this trauma, it's lame and weird. Gordon Freeman is a cool strong guy!! Re-enforcing ideas that there's a certain level of tolerance. Somebody drawing your favourite cartoons from your childhood or your favourite characters doing generic and random stuff in a somewhat hyper-realistic style? Cool! If it's in a style that may vaguely resemble something softer, lame and gay. A lot of artists in fandom spheres will draw these characters doing silly things because it's an expression of their admiration for the media. It's comforting to them. Art in general is very personal, with fanart being something you make from your heart. You were inspired by this piece of media to not only create art, but create art of this media. Fanart is a bit iffy. Fanart is cool when it's Chell hopping through portals or standing over GLaD0S's destoryed body. Fanart is not cool when you make shipart of Winter and Qibli.

Fanfic however? You'd be pressed to find anybody who isn't involved in fandom defend this. Why? Because most fanfic at its core is queer. A lot of the criticism thrown at is is because of it being seen as something weird young teenagers do as some sort of wish fulfillment. Depraved weirdos who want to see your favourite characters kiss??? How horrible!! God, what weirdos. Not just that, but you're STEALING these characters!! You're taking them and using them as your own little dolls to do things with (these things being like. I dunno. making them kiss or hold hands). God, who would even write this stuff? Fanfic is almost always associated with NSFW content as well, far more than fanart. A good chunk of the reason I feel is because of stuff like Fifty Shades of Gray breaking out into the mainstream and being well-known for originally being a Twilight fanfic. It's. uh. known for not being the most PG of books, so yeah. Again, it's associated with young teens being stupid and dumb and writing this dumb stupid stuff because they are weird little freaks. It's stereotyped as being bad and generally kind of immature, far more than fanart ever was. While fanart is occasionally hit with the "drawn by stupid children who are barely even talented" stereotype (mostly with fangirls and such), fanfic is almost always is.

But, fanfic is so personal. It's incredible. Wonderful. I'm biased indeed, I mean, look at me writing my TF2 fanfic where I take the insane healer character and make him into a silly guy who is aro/ace and autistic (as well as having 97 other mental disorders). I'm no different than these other people who write slashfic of these video game and TV characters holding hands and kissing. However, I've seen so much passion and love. People pour so much of their time into creating these long and beautiful works of art. Thousands upon thousands of words, a good chunk of the time stretching over the length of entire books. These characters mean so much to these people. Fanfic is seen as lesser and more heavily stereotyped IMO because, more than anything else, it's about queer and neurodivergent people expressing their emotions, sexuality, traumas, and thoughts. Not to say that EVERYBODY who writes fanfic is gay or autistic or that there isn't any cis/het/allo neurotypical people out there, but just that it's heavily dominated by women, queers, and neurodivergent people.

But, that's just me and my silly opinions, ya know?

[ben-talks-art]

Why I like Adam

"It's alright... Don't cry... Your dad is here to protect you!"

I don't really know what other word I can use to describe it but to me, "Records of Ragnarok" is a manga with probably the biggest "Chad" energy that I have ever seen.

This ridiculous premise of a bunch of popular male historical figures banding together to fight against the gods of several different cultures in a tournament where the fate of humanity is at stake as they get paired up with the valkyries to unleash a hidden power that represents their personalities manifested as a super powerful weapon is so freaking stupid but at the same time so freaking awesome that I can't help but love it!

The fights themselves vary in quality depending on who is fighting who and how much you care about the backstory of the competitors, and for me, no fight has gotten me more invested than Adam's fight.

(spoilers for Records of Ragnarok)

When I talked about Makima I mentioned that one of the character traits I tend to hate the most is entitlement and I mostly prefer it when it's used on villains to show how bad of a trait it is.

Meanwhile, one of my favorite character traits is by far "confidence."

Confidence is, I feel, one of the most attractive, appealing, inspiring, and overall just enjoyable quality that you can give any character. You can be doing the most mundane of things like, walking your dog, doing grocery, paying your bills, or whatever... But when you do it while exhibiting a lot of confidence it instantly makes you look 10 times more badass somehow. It's why so many people love Escanor. A character that shows confidence just makes you believe that they're born to lead, that they'll keep you safe, and makes you want to follow them no matter where they go.

And like I said, Records of Ragnarok just radiates a ton of that "Chadly" confident energy. Every character goes into a fight fully believing that they're going to win, constantly smiling, laughing, relaxed, and just having a ton of fun with their fights, even though it's their lives and the lives of every human on the planet hanging on the balance as they face off absurd monsters like Hercules, Thor, and Belzebub.

Of course, the biggest Chad of all these Chads ends up being Adam, who's facing none other than Zeus himself with nothing but a knuckle duster.

Just from a visual standpoint, this setup alone would already be amazing. The father of the greek gods versus a skinny man using nothing but his fists to fight. These are such absurdly ridiculous odds that you can't help but want to root for our apple-eating underdog.

But the actual true core of what makes me like Adam so much is the why. Confidence is only effective when it feels earned, when you have a good motivation behind it. Why is he doing all that, why is he fighting these crazy odds, why is he risking his life, and why is he still so calm while doing it??

Because he wants to protect his family... And that's it.

That's his entire motivation, and if you saw my Rachel post, you know I love it when a character's motivation is reflected in their actions. It's such a straightforward reason but he goes to such lengths for it. Kinda reminds me of Denji from Chainsawman. Yeah, his motivation is simple but he's trying so hard for it that you just start rooting for him, because you see how much it means to the guy.

Even while Adam's getting the hell beaten out of him, slowly going blind, and painting the ground in red with his blood, the only thing on his mind is whether or not his wife and kids will be safe, and he does it all with such a relaxed set of eyes.

The way Adam's eyes are drawn is simply perfect as they show there is no hesitation or doubt in his heart. Yeah, he's fighting freaking Zeus, the god of lightning and one of the most powerful things on the universe but... He has a family to protect, man.

Adam just awakens a very primitive and animalistic feeling of "fight for what you believe" in me, because I really get behind what he's trying to achieve as I feel how passionate he is about it and get really inspired by how hard he's trying to reach it.

He's a man with a simple goal, but also a man that's giving 150% of himself to achieve said goal, and it's a goal anyone can relate to.

Very basic but still very noble and very awesome!

Favorite character list>>

[quantumshade]

your comment+tags on the martha vs k9 post... literally thank you so fucking much. martha is one of the companions with the most gentle souls ever, she was nervous about hanging up on her mom when she was literally being eaten by a star for fucks sake. like how many other companions wouldn't think twice about hanging up on their mom right then? how many would make funny quips like "sorry mom lol!!"? and MARTHA is still in the running to be the "beat up the doctor" one? i wouldn't be surprised if i missed a moment where k9 actually shot at the doctor tbh

literally!! martha is a fantastic and layered character. she is a lot of things, but she is never a violent person. she’s brilliant, she’s a medical doctor, she’s dedicated her life to helping people!

and yet i *constantly* see posts like this

[image id: a screenshot of a tumblr post that reads: i am manifesting martha jones with a gun for 2023. end image id.]

and like this

[image id: a screenshot of a tumblr post that reads: i have my heart set on 15 appearing because of martha jones and a shotgun. the tags beneath it read #dw shit #insert gif of the cheshire cat #grinning here #she didn’t manage it the first time but she’s no quitter!!!! #doesn’t Have to be a shotgun. she can shove him off a cliff. end image id.]

there’s a ton of these posts that are like “if martha comes back in the 60th she should get to kick the doctor’s ass!!” like. bestie I don’t know how to tell you this but she forgave him 15 years ago. they are friends in s4. she has an entire life outside of him and she is happy. why do you want her to be hung up on some guy from a decade and a half ago? why do you want her to have an angry grudge against someone who hasn’t been a part of her life in a very long time? she moved on. she healed. which is a helluva lot more healthy than still being angry at him.

the doctor treated martha poorly, and that’s why she left. because she respected herself and she loved herself and knew she deserved better. but I don’t think she ever hated him. her choice to leave is framed as heroic. she steps off with a smile and a hug goodbye and a promise to see each other again.

whether or not you think martha should have forgiven the doctor is irrelevant, because she did. because she is a kind-hearted, loving person. and to frame her as otherwise is a really strange reading of her character. i just feel like a lot of people, when (rightfully) criticizing rtd for his treatment of martha, reduce her to something she’s not, and it’s not fair to her. and i’m not the right person to talk about this, so I won’t go on too long, but i think it would be wrong not to mention that a lot of it feels really racialized. this is a big problem as a whole, but i’ve noticed it a lot in fandom where people will take black characters and decide that they’re violent and they have to be Badass or something. it’s kind of gross. it’s really gross.

[spinningbuster98]

Dante and Vergil for the ask!

Dante:

do I like them:

Of course. I mean look at him. Look at the guy!

5 good qualities:

He's a great guitarist

A great actor

A great dancer

He can be really supportive of others when the situation calls for it, as seen with Lady during the end phases of DMC3, or even with Trish in the ending of DMC1. Hell he tries to look after Nero the best he can, even if he's sometimes insensitive about it

He's got a bigger heart than he lets on: in DMC3, even before he fully transitioned from "adrenaline junkie who doesn't care if the world goes to shit so long as he gets to have fun" to "more or less responsable adrenaline junkie who's willing to make tough choices for the good of everyone" he still tried to save Lady from a strike by Vergil when she interfered with their fight.

3 bad qualities:

He's a complete slob, who's always wasting around in his office not really taking care of himself, just stuffing his face with pizza, strawberry sundaes and alcohol

He's got a bad habit of getting into debts that he cannot repay, as Lady would likely confirm, since I believe he owes her a ton of cash in the anime

While he genuinely cares for Nero and wants him to stay out of harm's way it's pretty clear from his comments about him being a deadweight and "needing to sit this one out" that he doesn't fully understand or take seriously his insecurities

favourite episode/etc:

Well technically it's DMC3, for giving us the most dynamic, perhaps human and falliable Dante, though DMC5 is close for striking the best balance between being a goofball and a "I'm getting too old for this shit" 40 yo responsable adult

otp

I know everyone wants him to get into Lady's pants, but honestly aside from their interactions in DMC3 I just don't see enough chemistry and it often feels to me that fans like to pair them together mostly because she's the only available option that doesn't devolve into problematic territory

So I'm going with Dante/Pizza

brotp:

Well he's only got one bro so :P

ot3:

None

notp:

Pretty much everything involving incest, so anything with Vergil, Nero and unfortunately Trish as well

best quote

"Frankly, at first, I didn't give a damn... but because of you I know what's important now. I know what I need to do. That's what MY soul is telling me to do"

head canon

We know that for the longest time he didn't use to have the highest opinion of Sparda, but it's implied that over the years this changed. I like to imagine that, since he never learned much about his father's "adventures" when he was a kid he sometimes tries to research stories and old folk tales about him in order to learn more about him...when he can get his lazy ass off his office chair

Vergil:

do I like them

For all intents and purposes I shouldn't, since I don't have a huge liking for purely edgy characters, even if their edginess can lead to some unintentional hilarity (look: Infinite) but Vergil is helped by having a more or less convincing backstory for his edgy behaviour (a backstory that I would have liked explored DURING DMC3 not AFTER in supplemental materials, not to mention DMC5 not delving as deeply as I would have liked) while still being pretty hilarious in his stone faced edginess. Plus he's genuinely and consistently threatening, and his brand of edginess is more of the "stoic badass who commands respect with a simple stare but who gets punked on by goofy brother" rather than "dude's a pathetic loser who got a dose of raw power and thinks he's hot shit and so just spews out edgy catchphrases thinking he's cool". With the former it's someone who is equally powerful who humiliates him, with the latter he just inadvertedly humiliates himself and I don't think it was the actual intention

5 good qualities

He's very good at keeping himself neat and tidy for someone who's technically more of a hobo than his brother (I mean I don't think Vergil has a house no?)

He's very perceptive as to when somebody might just be trying to trick him (like when he attempted to kill Arkham because he rightly suspected he was trying to double cross him)

Has some fine taste in literature

The fact that his human side was able to see the consequences of his destructive behaviour, and the fact that he was willing to stop his fight with Dante and listen to Nero and try to cut down the Qliphoth before it was too late (though only after some hefty convincing and ass kicking) shows that there might still be some form of hope for him. Maybe not outright "redemption" (kinda hard to make up for killing an entire city's population), but he may one day stop being an evil douche

Truly motivated chad

3 bad qualities:

Well y'know the whole "gotta get more power even if it means destroying the world" mindset

Really shortsighted: yeah he wants to gain more power in response to his childhood trauma....but what then? What will he do after he gets what he wants? Will he ever be satisfied with the kind of power he can gain? I don't think Vergil has ever bothered making long term plans for his future

He should really work towards paying that due child support

favourite episode/etc

Technically DMC5 by virtue of being the only game that tried fleshing him out in any way. I guess there's also that Visions of V manga but I haven't read it fully

otp

Vergil/Plastic Chair

brotp

He's stuck in Hell with Dante of all people and that's comedy that writes itself

ot3

None

notp

Same as above

best quote

"You will not forget this Devil's power!"

headcanon

Dude probably kept going about displaying the "true power of a son of Sparda" while conceiving Nero

[moviemunchies]

I was absolutely sure that I’d written a Movie Munchies review for this movie, and apparently I didn’t? I can’t find any record of it existing. I figured I’d go ahead and watch it again this Christmas season because why not?

Klaus is an animated film meant to tell an origin story for Santa Claus. We open with our protagonist, Jesper, the son of the Postmaster General who would rather spend his life in leisure wasting his family’s money. His father’s tired of that nonsense, so he sends him to the remote island of Smeerensburg as a postman and tells him that unless he sets up a successful post office (delivering six thousand letters), he will be cut off from the family fortune.

Jesper is not having a great time in Smeerensburg, which is an unfriendly backwater home to two feuding families that have hated each other since the dawn of time: the Krums and the Ellingboes. That is, until he runs into Klaus, a reclusive woodsman with a massive stash of homemade toys. When Klaus is inspired to deliver one of those toys to a child in town, children get the idea that if they write letters to Klaus, they can get toys too–and Jesper, wanting to capitalize on this, decides to help this along so he can go home.

Of course, no one counted on the side effects of this: not only does Klaus become beloved by the local children, but also the town starts cleaning itself up when the children are told that only good children will get toys. And Jesper starts realizing that maybe Smeerensburg isn’t so bad after all.

Alright, so right off the bat: what makes this movie really shine is the animation. The purpose, as described by the makers, was to make a traditionally-animated film that “picks up where traditional animation left off.” See, in the US at least (director Sergio Pablos recognizes that other countries have rich traditions of animation that are still going strong), most of the major studios switched to computer, 3D animation, and when they go back to traditional animation it’s for nostalgia or callbacks to classics. This movie is not that–it’s meant to be where traditional animation would have developed if it had been allowed to continue as the dominant art form. The result is a movie that looks really, really good–to the point that you might be surprised to find out that it’s traditionally animated.

The movie’s story does not strike me as being particularly original. I suppose that’s a result of me watching a butt-ton of Christmas specials back in the day, in which there are tons of origin stories floating around for Santa Claus. Still, the movie is good–it’s a solid telling of how Santa Claus came to be, and it weirdly doesn’t have many supernatural elements at all.

I am fond of this take on Santa Claus. It is amazing that the first time we see him in the movie, Jesper is terrified of him, because he’s a massive guy living by himself in the woods chopping wood with a giant ax. OF COURSE that’s scary if you have no context to him. Klaus is also, as Jesper points out, not at all talkative at first.

With so many shows and movies we’ve seen jolly, happy Santa. In stories like Rise of the Guardians we see badass warrior Santa. And here, we meet… gruff loner with a heart of gold Santa. I don’t know, I just find it amusing.

He is also, to me at least, just a fascinating take on Santa. He’s a man who takes joy in bringing gifts to children because he doesn’t have his own children–even though he desperately wanted them (that’s why he made so many toys to begin with). There are a few Santa Claus origin movies where he loves children, but the element of “Because he and his late wife couldn’t have any” seems fresh and interesting, and tragic in a way that I don’t get a lot.

There are a couple of things that I don’t think worked for the film. First: the romance between Jesper and Alva. It’s… not really A Thing. Their interactions never struck me as being particularly romantic. Sure, they get closer as the story goes on, but I can’t say that any of it is really strong enough to make it feel much like a romance by anything other than ‘He’s the lead man, she’s the lead woman.’ Maybe I’m just missing something, but it felt a bit forced compared to other elements.

There’s also the film’s moral that it tries to hammer in: that “one selfless deed always inspires another.” Except that’s not what happens–the children aren’t inspired to do good because they’re selfless, it’s because they want presents. Which leads to them becoming more selfless. Likewise, Jesper’s not trying to be a good person, he’s trying to get back home and his family fortune. It’s weird, because the actual message you’d get from this, that acting good regardless of motive will lead to being actually good and bringing out that side in others.

Still, I think it’s a solid and entertaining animated film. It’s funny, it’s fun, it’s cool to look at, and it’s an original Santa Claus origin story that sticks out from many others. If you want to try a new Christmas special, I think this one’s worth a try.

[travllingbunny]

Who was the poster who talked about how "Draco in leather pants" is rooted in misogyny and crossed out the girl in fangirls and basically accused all the tropers who posted if being "nice guys" who thought all women wanted to be with jerks? In my experience it's not misogyny, it usually is female fans who often take conventionally attractive male villains and either woobify them or make them into perfect prince charming's. Even villains who have commited horrible crimes like rape or genocide

(pt 2) I typically see this done with characters like Draco Malfoy, Professor Snape, Anakin Skywalker, Billy Hargrove, Loki Laufeyson, Voldemort, Kylo Ren, Michael Langdon. Almost all of the characters on this list have said and done truly horrific things yet it is mostly women I see treating these characters these way. Most male viewers/readers don't really have an interest either way in these villains male or female and don't really go out of their way to defend them in this manner.

This anon sent an ask in 4 parts, and since there's a lot to unpack here, and this will be a long answer, I'll answer the first two in this post, and then the second two (which address a different issue) in another.

Anon, I'll start with the sentence here, because what you're saying is blatantly inaccurate.

Or rather, it's possible that most men, for all I know, don't have that kind of attitude to these specific characters you listed. But it's definitely not true that male fans typically don't idolize and whitewash villains.

In fact, it's equally well known and has been for years that there are many villains, or anti-heroes of the very morally dark variety, who are idolized mostly by men, particularly straight men, including many who don't just enjoy them as villains or anti-heroes but idolize them as cool "badasses" and heroes who in fact, never did anything wrong ; even their crimes were fully justified, and/or their ideology and worldview is in fact completely correct (even when the narrative is going out of its way to show it really isn't).

This has happened. for instance, with villains like The Joker from The Dark Knight, Tyler Durden (...yes, I know - and this only makes it eveb funnier), Negan on The Walking Dead (way before the show gave him a redemption arc, at the time when he was unquestionably the main villain), and even MCU Thanos (which I find particularly mind-boggling - I could understand it with villains like Vulture or Killmonger, but Thanos' ideological motivations are incredibly stupid and nonsensical). I will never forget how Negan fanboys during season 7 argued that he was really so against rape and therefore a good guy, and not a rapist himself - and that his "wives" were not sex slaves but "golddiggers" in consensual relationships with him, ignoring not just Negan's power over the entire community but the fact that the show explicitly showed that at least some of the women were directly blackmailed by the threat of harm or death of their loved ones, and at least one escaped the community so she wouldn't be forced to become his sex slave.

Tywin Lannister is a great example: this is someone who's, among other crimes, guilty of ordering child murders (including that of an infant), mass murder (including an eradication of an entire extended family), gang rape of a 14 year old girl, of sending the worst monsters he could possibly find to commit countless other murders, rapes and torture, who's also a terrible, abusive father to all his children, a major hypocrite, blatantly classist to the point he barely considers common people human, and his overriding motive isn't anything noble but his own arrogance and easily hurt pride. But even when the author goes out of his way to show that his legacy turns to sh1t the moment he dies, you'll still find a ton of fanboys who buy into Tywin's own rationalizations for his actions and will argue that he was in fact the best, smartest political and military leader in the series, and that every crime he committed was justified. Those fanboys even included the GoT showrunners David Benioff and D.B.Weiss, who, oddly enough, included most (if not all) of Tywin's crimes and awful behavior in the show, but still described him as "Lawful Neutral" (?! Funnily enough, he is neither lawful, nor neutral) and parroted the character's own hypocritical justification for the Red Wedding as something they thought the audience should take as gospel truth.

It's also something that commonly happens with villain protagonists, or morally dark antiheroes who are protagonists of their stories. In those cases, one of the main reasons is the fact that a lot of people always expect the protagonist to be the Hero of the story, the Good Guy - especially if the characters starts off sympathetic. Walter White is a very well known example of a villain protagonist that many viewers, and I'be be surprised if most of them were not straight men, identified with and idolized to the point they heaped an incredible amount of hate on the character of his wife Skyler for simply disagreeing with his actions, and even to the point that the actress got harassed and threatened. Tony Soprano and Vic Mackey got similar treatment from many fans, and Don Draper, a pathetic man with a ton of personal issues, somehow became the epitome of Coolness that straight men wanted to emulate.

But in spite of all that, fandoms and TV Tropes have been going on for years only about how bad and stupid and awful it is that certain villains get whitewashed or idolized by female fans, supposedly mostly for being attractive. Cue the "Draco in Leather Pants" trope and similar monikers. I dunno, I'd say that's kind of sexist (and also heteronormative), don't you think so?

Even with the well-known fact that one dude back in the 1980s shot a president not for any political reason but because he watched Taxi Driver and overidentified with Travis Bickle, I haven't seen the fact that many men idolize male villains brought up as an issue - until a few years ago with the panic around Joaquin Phoenix's Joker (which is a bit odd, that this one got so much criticism and not the earlier ones, but maybe that's a sign of the changing tides of the Western society and pop culture). Before this, people would sometimes mention tropes like "Misaimed Fandom", but no one came up with a trope called something like, say, Tywin Sh1tting Gold, to complain specifically about men idolizing villains and dark anti-heroes and justifying all their actions. Instead we got a lot of hang-ringing about oh those airheaded women and the way their minds just don't work when they see a hot dude!

But maybe I'm wrong? Maybe the "Draco in Leather Pants" trope is in fact meant to be an all-accompassing one about people of any gender and sexual orientation whitewashing villains, or just generally whitewashing the flaws and defending the morally wrong actions of their favorite characters? Let's take a look at the Television Trope Draco in Leather Pants page. On top of it, there's a quote that's supposed to summarize what it's about:

"I guarantee you Satan's going to have no problems on this planet because all the women are gonna go 'What a cute butt!' He's Satan! 'You don't know him like I do.' He's the prince of darkness! 'I can change him.'"

— Bill Hicks, Pussywhipped Satan

...Oh.

And now to answer your question: it was @dinamitelove who answered my old post where I criticized this Television Trope, and said, among other things, this about the origins of the trope: "God knows I wasted too much of my time on TV Tropes, and there are a few things I have to say about it. Most members, at least back when I was around during 2009-10 were male, and its sexism was pretty evident on the example pages. Draco in Lether Pants was one of the most egregious examples of this. (...) There was that horrible sexist assumtion that has been around since fiction became massive about the dangers of women consuming it, because their “highly sensitive minds could not distinguish fiction from reality” and that could be dangerous for society (see Madame Bovary). That idea got married with the “Nice guys finish last” idea to create this trope. Althought I have to say that recently, I’ve been seeing it around here amongst female bloggers to attack other fangirls. I guess this idea became an easy way to attack other fangirls for liking stuff I don’t like."

And considering all I pointed out above, I think they were probably right. (Also, in that old conversation, it's been pointed out that fangirls later started throwing the same accusations/mocking each other the same way. But that doesn't necessarily mean there aren't misogynistic assumptions involved.)

Now, I'm not saying that there aren't many fangirls who are really very annoying in how much they're willing to whitewash and justify crimes and awful actions of their favorite male characters who they find appealing in a romantic and/or sexual way. That's certainly true. But it's not unique to female fans, it's not always moticated by romantic or sexual desire, it's not unique to male characters either (as you also pointed out in your asks 3 and 4, which I'll answer in another post).

Plus, sexism isn't the only issue I have with the Draco in Leather Pants trope and its trope page. I got so annoyed with that page that I wrote this post sarcastically tearing it apart. Because that page is a huge mess, from the quote above and the description of the trope, to the various examples people have added to it. As I've already pointed out in that post, the description is incredibly imprecise and full of incorrect assumptions (”A form of Misaimed Fandom, when a fandom takes a controversial or downright villainous character and downplays his/her flaws, often turning him/her into an object of desire and/or a victim in the process. This can cause conflicts if the writers are not willing to retool the character to fit this demand.”) - For starters, it's not like villains, let alone controversial characters who aren't necessarily villains, aren't often 1) deliberately presented as sexy and desirable in canon, and/or 2) given sympathetic qualities and tragic backstories or even are actual victims (of rape, abuse etc.) in canon, and/or 3) shown to have some good qualities and a potential to be better people or get redemption. And with the imprecise wording like "villains or controversial characters", you can apply that to almost every character.

No surprise that the examples people added are an even bigger mess. Examples include canonical villains, heroes turned villains, villains turned redeemed heroes, anti-heroes or even flawed heroes. Many of the characters mentioned were definitely deliberately portrayed as sexy in canon (and a few even literally wore leather in canon) and promoted as such, and/or were love interests of the heroes. Many of them were abuse or rape victims in canon, had PTSD, are shown crying and having emotional breakdowns, etc. So, basically, the people who added them to the page were complaining that the fans were "woobifying" chararacters that were already "woobified" by the creators, or putting characters in "leather pants" who were in leather pants to begin with.

(I haven't read or seen much of Harry Potter, but a few people also pointed out that even Draco Malfoy doesn't fit this - since he was, a child, and more of a school bully antagonist and not some Big Bad monster.)

It would make a lot more sense if the trope was simply about fans defending their faves at any cost and whitewashing them or justifying their actions, which often happens. However, that's tricky too - because while that happens a lot, you know what else often happens in fandom debates? Haters portraying the characters they hate in the worst light possible, even making up things that are not in canon, but more often insisting on the worst possible intepretations, or denying even the obvious good qualities the character has, or even denying or downplaying the character's victimization or disability, because those don't fit with the the idea of them as 100% mousache-twirling evil monsters.

Both of these things come from a similar place: the tendency to see things as black and white, and it gets worse when fandoms try to make liking fictional characters into a morality contest. Fandom debates are often terrible because people on opposing sides start ignoring nuance and get more entrenched in their views because it's all about defending their fave or attacking the characters they hate (or pointing out the hypocrisy of the opposing side of the fandom).

Then you get debates that sound like this:

A: How dare you say that [my favorite character] is a ____!

B: Err, they did this horrible thing, which means they are.

A: But in their society, this thing is not considered bad as it is in ours, because [mental gymnastics and really messed up arguments]

but you may also get this:

A: This character (X) is disgusting and evil and anyone who likes them is immoral, bad and an idiot!

B (fan of said character): How is X worse than your fave, Y? Y is also a murderer and a terrorist and war criminal, same as X...

A: Oh yeah, well X is worse because... [throws some random accusation that makes no sense]

B: WTF? That's not true.

A: X"s fans are so annoying! You can't realize that X is a villain! You think X is perfect and you keep whitewashing X!

Or, how about this:

Fan 1: writes a post about a character focused on their disability, which is 100% just about the real life medical facts of how having this particular condition would affectthem.

The post angers a whole bunch of fans who hate said character, who mock it and rant in quotes, saying things like "Now you are babying war criminals!" "How dare you compare X to real canon disabled characters! Missing a body part doesn't make him disabled!"

Bizarre? I didn't make up this example. It's almost word by word what happened on Twitter a couple of months ago.

What's normal defense of a character and what's whitewashing often depends on whether you're a fan or a hater of said character. The line isn't always clear. And tropes like "Draco in a Leather Pants" are often just used by people who want to complain and rant about the fact that, shock horror, some fans dare like the characters they hate, orr prefer them to their own (obviously superior) fave. Most of the examples on that page read exactly like that.

[magicalyaku]

Greetings! It's been a while, but here I am, same as before (as in probably talking to much. :P) Work sucked the life right out me, I had a few conventions to attend, and I wrote another book. But things are slowing down again, and as I'm reading regularly again, I feel the need to share. I have four months which were hugely different in reading volume to talk about, so I'll split it up by theme this time! First up is: Ace books and Academic setting!

Dear Wendy (Ann Zhao): I was apprehensive about this one when I read the summary for the first time. Because two aroace protagonists? Awesome! But the setting and the story themselves didn't appeal to me at all. Unfortunately, that stayed true as I actually read it. Don't get me wrong, I do think it's a good book. I liked how the discussions about aro/ace and gender topics where integrated quite naturally into the story thanks to it being a college setting. And I liked what topics were chosen. It's just that I couldn't care less for that social media war they have going on. I'm the weirdo who has never used instagram, twitter, or facebook. The only thing I have is my tumblr and even here, I'm barely interacting with anyone. Stories centered around social media just aren't something that appeals to me. It also didn't help that the formatting of the e-book edition from libby that I borrowed was kinda hard to read for the posts and comments. I think I remember wondering if I am actually too old to enjoy this, but then again, the last ace/aro book I read before this was Just Lizzie which hit really hard and that was about a 12-year-old. :'D So personally for me, it was more meh, but I can see it resonating with other people. Go give it a try, please.

Upside Down (N.R. Walker): Another book with two ace protagonists, male this time and homoromantic. This one had me wary at first as well, because the author usually writes gay romance with smut? (That's what the books look like at least, haven't read anything.) But it's super cute and really funny. The discussions about asexuality were more basic in here than in Dear Wendy, the usual "we're all valid" etc., but a) they were for the most part well intergrated again as one of the protagonists leads an ace support group, and b) if the author's usual readers can broaden their horizons a bit through this, that's a good thing, right? Overall, I had a lot of fun reading this. There's two cover versions for this one. Obviously, the new one with illustration is superior.

A Darker Mischief (Derek Milman): Ugh, this … was weird? Intriguing? I'm still not quite sure what I'm supposed to take away from the ending. I'd have to reread the whole thing for the analytical part of my brain to activate and I'm not going to do that any time soon. The prologue was wtf, then for the longest time not much happened. Except, you could totally see the slow descent into the abyss. That one guy? Not real. The other one? Walking problematic person with difficult tendencies? Next guy? Alarm bells from every side. Fortunately, the main protagonist is smart enough, he's just poor and sixteen and been through rough times, what reflects in his choices. Oh, and there's probably a bunch of references in here that I didn't catch (history is not my thing at all). I did get the apple thing, at least. Yeah, so a weird experience, but all in all I liked the book.

Darker by Four (June CL Tan): This is one of the two books I read in April, so it was ages ago. :'D I remember having fun, though! It's the kind of book that was basically written for me. Badass sword-wielding heroine, suffering boy hero who kisses other boys, interesting worldbuilding, magic, evil creatures to slay, action, a sweet romance that is not the focus of the story, actual story to think about. A ton of good ingredients! What I liked best was that you get to know both protagonists, Rui and Yiran, equally as people. There's two of them but only one can have the magic! There's no choice but to have one of them suffer! And it's so mean, which makes it so good! I'm very eager to read the second volume to see where it all leads, the sacrifices and the triumph. <3

That's it for today. Next up will be another five books in Part Two: France and Other Places. :)

[darkfrost-star]

Oh, I feel you so hard on that. Like just look at her, Leaf has NOTHING. She is the most useless female character and least loved and when we FINALLY get Green whose an awesome canonization for her people argue *squints* "they have a different number of eyelashes and personalities are different" <---- actual repeatedly pushed argument. I hope they put Kris in a hypothetical Let's Go Johto timeline (which may even be based off Crystal like LGPE was for Yellow) so I can make the "but noooo, look at the eyelashes, the clothes, the personality" argument right back at them. God forbid characters be redesigned or be given a "pre-make" bc that's what Lgpe IS it's the old designs! Leaf never had her own, she was just female Red! Green is the most canon she has ever been let me have this I've waited years. She's so clearly a blend of FRLG and the beta design for the Gen 1 female with the black dress. Sometimes I wonder how much even this argument matters if nobody cares about Green either. Curse of being female in a trio where people care about Reguri yaoi more. Her only content is fetishized ship art with Elaine and Leaf is just bubbly, grass loving ditz, or wingwomen. There was a time where Lyra was hated in 2014 but people adore her now, she has tons of appearances and relationships with other characters, even Kris gets more love. (She deserves it tho yay, but the point stands.) That Evolution ep was SUCH a win I tell you. She's quirky, she's silly, she's adventurous, she's a risk-taker and has insane shounen protagonist vibes, she's quick on her feet and improvises, she's brave and determined, she's kind, she loves the world, she has her own insecurities, in the japanese version Trace calls her BIG SIS. She's got cool Pokemon, not just cutesy ones, she's a badass in battle, she's got good sportsmenship and didn't just run off, she returned the favor of getting saved from Zubats. She is SO MUCH MORE than what we get in fan content. Her tumblr tag and ao3 is always dead. It makes me sad.

Tbh yeah, the whole eyelashes thing is probably the dumbest argument for them being different characters, like nevermind how that’s purely a cosmetic thing and people change the look of their eyelashes all the time via mascara and such, and besides that it’s just such a trivial and insignificant difference. You’re seriously telling me that just because Green has one extra eyelash than Leaf, that proves that she’s not her? Give me a break. Remake! Red and Classic! Red literally has completely different hair colors, yet I don’t see anyone arguing that they’re completely different people because of that! To be fair tho, I’ve only ever seen that Leaf fanboy troll guy (you know who I am talking about) use this argument, so I don’t think most people actually use it as a serious counterpoint, at least not from what I have seen. Besides, that doesn’t erase the fact that there’s still a crapton of overlapping design elements between LGPE Green and FRLG Leaf people!

I also never really got the “different personalities” counterpoint either. PMEX Leaf actually has a lot of the same personality traits that LGPE Green has especially if you compare her with her Evolutions counterpart. She has a lot of the same qualities that you described Evolutions Green having, such as being kind, smart, adventurous, brave and determined, being quirky (she likes to smell her mons for crying out loud!), and loves the world! Not to mention, she has similar possessive behavior with her Eevee as LGPE Green has with mewtwo, and is shown to have the same mindset of blurring the lines between humans and mons when she played along with Valerie’s desire in becoming a pokemon! And yeah, it is really disheartening that vast majority of the fanbase uses Leaf as shipping fodder and nothing more, whether it be shipping her LGPE self with Elaine (even though I actually kinda like that ship) or making her the “wingwoman” to Namelessshipping. It just comes off feeling very wrong, especially since female characters are infamously known for being used for romantic subplots and nothing more. It’s 2024 people should really be making more fan content of Leaf that portrays her as being as active and badass as her Evolutions self. 

Also yeah, if we ever get a let’s go Johto, Kris is definitely going to show up I think. The let’s go series is obviously based on the classicverse after all, so it only makes sense that Kris will appear and not Lyra. Not to mention it would give justice for her as she doesn’t have enough game representation either. I hope they make her some kind of knowledgeable senpai/mentor figure to the player, as PMEX has now established that she’s actually like her Pokespe counterpart. I don’t have much to say about Lyra but I’m definitely glad that she’s not as hated and bashed on as she was in the early 2010s fandom. It’s about time that we gave that girl a chance too!

[casliveblog]

Custom Toonami Block Week 120 Rundown

Inuyasha: The big fight between Inuyasha and Bankotsu starts off and they kinda have perfectly symmetrical violence for a while which is pretty cool because Inuyasha rarely gets mirror matches since his skillset is pretty rare in the story, most of the time he’s just Wind Scarring a giant demon into oblivion. The anime really loves Bankotsu so there’s a ton of extra backstory for him and extra scenes of him being a badass and just throwing hands with Inuyasha and admittedly Bankotsu is one of the coolest characters in the show so it’s not like it’s not appreciated. Everyone outside gets their chance to show their attacks against the demons coming out of Mt. Hakurei and it’s like that scene in modern anime movies where it’s like ‘well we have to show off all the most popular characters but we don’t have anything for them to actually do so here’s so fodder so they get some attack scenes for the trailer’. Meanwhile inside Miroku and Sango actually fucking find Naraku but he’s not quite fully baked yet so Kagura intercepts them and sends them falling down again. Inuyasha manages to do a pretty smart feint on Bankotsu and get a couple of jewel shards out of his arm and knock his sword away until Bankotsu’s just like ‘you think having a big sword is all I got?’ and just fucking decks him so we get the rare chance to show Inuyasha just having a fistfight. Honestly Inuyasha vs Bankotsu is probably one of my favorite fights in the series behind maybe the last Inuyasha vs Sesshomaru fight. I remember as a kid the preview for the next episode is all like “Bankotsu has a demonic aura sword!? How can I beat that!?” and absolutely no one was fooled since Inuyasha mentions the Backlash Wave in this episode so everyone kinda immediately knew how this fight was gonna end in the anime but it’s still fun.  

Yu Yu Hakusho: So it’s the standard post-arc cooldown episode and I really kinda like these where the protagonists that have been through five apocalypse level threats have to come back and be teenagers again. Like after being punched with the force of a nuclear explosion, Algebra just doesn’t seem to do it anymore. Yusuke’s kinda riding that wave of ennui and Kuwabara rightly points out that if they never have to go through something that challenging again he’ll welcome the boredom. It’s just funny to watch random kids try to pick on Yusuke and him to give them the glare of like ten Vietnam vets combined and have them piss themselves. Anyway Botan’s getting reports of humans emitting weird energy all over the city so that’s kinda fucked and Yusuke gets challenged by some kids and kicks their asses but they still make off with him and send the message to the rest of the group sans Genkai to come after them because Genkai isn’t marketable enough I guess, glad we resurrected her.  But yeah, new arc time and we got Stand Users because Bleach wasn’t ripping off YYH enough we find out they took the ‘throw basic humans with obscure powers at the team after their most high-octane adventure’ from here too.

Fate/Apocrypha: So Astolfo and Sieg are still processing all the crazy shit that happened in the past ten minutes and suddenly Yggy TitsMcgee aka Astolfo’s Master comes out of fucking nowhere and is like ‘time to be crazy and kill the main character and I’m all out of crazy’ and just like BURNS through Command Spells to try to get Astolfo to kill Sieg like all the other Grail Wars has Masters sitting there like using one seal was like cutting off a limb and for this one they’re like ‘nah we got fourteen masters so might as well just use five seals to do one thing why not’ also Sieg has Command Spells too not because you’re not gonna tell the Bigger Cup how to do its job and it always knows who the new main character/new villain orgin story is and is ready to pass some of those things out. Anyway Mordred comes by and decapitates Tits Mcgee so Astolfo can go be gay with Sieg and is like ‘hey if you guys are gonna be morons and kill each other do it quietly’ and then she fucking teleports or some shit because in the next scene she’s just at the middle of the Hanging Gardens to break up Shiro’s ‘I’m the Ruler now’ speech. Karna’s just like ‘don’t really trust you but gonna need more context’ and Avicebron’s looking for his kid so he’s just fine with switching sides. And honestly at this point I wish we had one of those cover pages manga volumes do so I can keep track of who’s on what team now and who’s still alive because so many people exploded last episode and now the teams are basically non-functional and I need a flowchart damnit. Anyway Sieg’s back at Castle Yggy and is organizing the Homunculus Underground Railroad movement because apparently Team Yggy didn’t program the homunculi very well because Sieg’s just like ‘hey guys aren’t you tired of being nice, don’t you just wanna go apeshit?’ and all the homunculi are just like ‘yeah sure, didn’t really like the whole being a human murder battery thing anyway’ like I thought Sieg was a glitch in the matrix or something but apparently Team Yggy just did a really shitty job conditioning their murder battery dolls for a life of being murder battery dolls and none of them are down for it. So yeah Sieg’s a Master and a Servant now which I’m no Mana Physicist but that seems like really bad fuel economy but there’s no explanation for how he does any of the shit he does anyway so why not.

Speed Grapher: Picking up where we left off, Kagura is now in Suitengu’s custody and he whispers something to her that makes her docile enough to go along with the whole marriage plan for now and Suitengu just has the balls to alter all of Kagura’s records to make her legal like no one would notice she’s only in high school. Meanwhile Ginza’s done boning comatose Saiga’s brains out so he’s awake and in a jail cell but that doesn’t last long given they fucking let him keep his camera, like I know they don’t know he can use that thing as a miniature rocket launcher and he’s not technically a traditional prisoner but that seems like a dangerous thing to let him just keep in prison. So he busts himself out and Ginza follows him because time’s up and the doctor’s results on the Euphoric Virus are ready. They basically establish it’s a virus that alters the DNA of its users based on subconscious desire which makes sense why Euphorics have a healing factor since ‘stay alive’ is a subconscious desire of most people, and then it throws in some kinky shit as a bonus based on how fucked up the Euphoric’s morality is. Apparently Kagura doesn’t actually have the virus herself but is a catalyst for it so anyone that has contracted a strain of it and carried it in their DNA has it reproduce when introduced to her saliva. Saiga muses he must’ve gotten it while as a war photographer from some kind of biological weapon or something but we don’t get confirmation on that. The doctor goes on to say it affects Euphorics’ brain chemistry somehow and Saiga gets him off but fr I wanna know what he was gonna say, he says something about it inhibiting serotonin so their dopamine runs wild and I don’t know enough about biology to really make an informed conclusion from that but what I’m guessing he means is it makes Euphorics more impulsive and have more addictive personalities than they otherwise would which is true for all the Euphorics we’ve seen except Saiga (though his impulse control may be mostly in the form of protecting Kagura single-mindedly no matter what who knows) but he ends by saying overuse of the virus to change the cells damages them so the more Euphorics use their powers the more it destroys the affected parts, which we’ve seen with Suitengu having problems controlling his body though that may be more due to the stitched-together nature of his body we alluded to last episode because none of the other enemy Euphorics have displayed this despite some of them having implied to be at this for a long time so I’m guessing it takes a while for it to kick in but maybe since Saiga’s is so intensely focused on just his eye it does more damage more quickly. Anyway long story short if Saiga keeps blowing shit up with photography he’s gonna go blind or possibly die. Ginza takes this news badly and wants him to just give up on Kagura, assuming he’s just a weird guy with a thing for underage schoolgirls. It’s kinda funny how absolutely no one believes Saiga isn’t banging Kagura like it just shows how fucked this city’s morals are that no one thinks he wants to save her for any other reason. Like to me his dedication would back up that he’s not sleeping with her because honestly no one is worth taking on a city full of psychotic superpowered rich people just for sex. Anyway the spider tattoo guy from last time attacks again and Ginza wrecks her car to get rid of him but he just shrugs it off and activates the spider tattoo he put on her last time to take control of her gun arm and shoot Saiga. Ginza’s been not wanting Saiga to use his camera this whole time out of fear it’ll kill him but she finally asks him to use it to end her and that tattoo so she doesn’t kill him. Given this episode title is Ginza’s name it looks like this may be her swan song after all… BUT FUCK THAT she is able to alter her aim just enough to shoot spider dude in the fucking head and lets Saiga finish him off by blowing up the top half of his body without hurting Ginza, fuck yeah.

Durararax2: We now continue with the city of Ikebukuro fucking melting already in progress. The Blue Squares faction of the Dollars have arrived at the Saika zombie hoard in front of Russia Sushi and Takashi’s plan gets their scout infected and draws them into the hoard while Masaomi and Chikage are on a roof scouting the joint but the Blue Squares have their shark hoodies on and they’re disguising which one is Mikado which makes sense why Masaomi can’t just rush down there and has to send Chikage down but how come Takashi isn’t just infecting them all with Saika since he probably knows Mikado’s one of them, like I get he’s trying to lure Masaomi in too but it’s not like they gotta fight them just graze against each one individually like they did with the scout and boom you have control of Mikado assuming he is one of the group and if not you still have half a dozen new Blue Squares agents but I guess Takashi’s not exactly the smartest. Meanwhile Izaya reasons that while you can’t cut Shizuo up or crush him with fucking industrial equipment, dude’s still gotta fucking breathe so he just lets a bunch of carbon dioxide flood where Shizuo is to try and choke him and throws a match in for good measure. Celty mysteriously helps contain the explosion for some reason despite no longer having any memory of the main cast and apparently Shizuo just punched through the floor to escape the gas and the explosion and fucking bats Izaya through a window with a steel girder. Akabayashi confirms that Anri has Saika thanks to Namie’s texting spree and Chikage warns the Orihara twins to not go into the city on account of all the zombies. Meanwhile Manami goes over to Kasane’s hideout to give her all of Izaya’s data because fuck Izaya but turns out she’s not there and they kinda left Shinra alone and his Saika influence is kinda flickering because he saw Celty and the power of boners is just that strong I guess. So Manami is helping Shinra while pumping him for info to hurt Izaya and there’s a really funny scene where it looks like she’s about to stab Shinra until he says Izaya sucks and she puts away the knife. But yeah Shinra’s kinda at the center of both Izaya and Shizuo’s flashbacks and tells Manami that Izaya is pretty stoic when it comes to other people because he figures if he can predict and accept any human reaction he’ll never be hurt by others, the whole ‘bend so you don’t break’ mentality so he can take anything without being hurt because he’s learned to accept everything which is also why Shizuo’s inhuman mentality is at odds to him, it’s probably the only thing that can really hurt him because he can’t accept it. As far as Shinra guesses though the only thing that can hurt Izaya is something inside himself or his personal pain as opposed to trying to harm him with relationships or blackmail.  

[scarlett-vixen]

Pirate Mammon

I’m a fucking simp for this boy and also I’ve watched far too much One Piece to ignore this event. So here are my headcanons for our greedy little pirate. I apologize in advance for this trash I’m about to unleash on y’all but anyway here ya go 🎉 (also posting from mobile so lord help me) @yaboihack I’m tagging you simply because you have pirate mammon living rent free in your mind.

Part 2

👑 Mammon won’t let his brothers near his treasure but trusts you with literally anything so he’ll take you to his treasure room pretty often! The room is filled with tons of gold, jewelry, art and other valuables he’s found/stolen from other pirate ships or different ports they’ve visited. In the center of the room is a massive throne that he took from a rival crew, it once belonged to their captain but now he sits there while he sorts through his latest haul each week. Every time you visit he’ll sit you down on the throne and adorn you with the newest necklace, bracelets, or crowns he’s received. He may be a fearsome pirate but he’s still the same ol tsundere we know and love so he’ll look at you sitting there covered in his valuables and his entire face will turn red as he realizes you’re his most prized possession. Every bit of treasure in that room could be stolen or lost during a raid and he wouldn’t care as long as he still had you. He’d fight every pirate on the sea if it would keep you safe and happy, but he’d never actually say any of that out loud (not yet anyway) so instead when you ask why he’s staring at you like that you’ll just get a poorly thought up excuse like “T-those jewels don’t look right on ya, I’ll find somethin that does!”

👑 He’ll find out what your favorite jewel/gemstone is probably has one of his brothers ask and then he makes it his personal mission to find any and every piece of treasure with that stone. Anything from rings, bracelets, necklaces, earrings and crowns or even things like statues and chalices; if it’s got your stone on it then it’s now his to bring home to you. And if that piece of treasure happens to be on the body of a rival pirate? Well… you may want to clean off the dried blood before wearing it….or don’t! Our blushing boy thinks the blood makes you look even hotter, like you were right there with him in the fight.

👑Speaking of fights: they tend to happen more often than you’d like and can go one of two ways. If you’re not a fan of being in the middle of the chaos and would rather not see the bloodshed that’s bound to happen then Mammon will make sure you’re hidden away somewhere until it’s safe. If it’s on the ship then he may hide you in his room with your weapon of choice just in case some dirty pirate got away from him and his brothers and manages to find you. He’s taught you some moves to defend yourself long enough for him to get to you “cause ain’t no way one of the others is gonna save you, so ya better call for me if anything happens!” But it’s all for show, he’d never let anything happen to you. The minute another crew sets foot on the ship or in the bar you’re all at he goes in to protection mode, making sure you’re out of harms way. NOW if you’re a feral gremlin who wants to fight until the sun goes down that’s okay too. Mams isn’t real sure about letting you fight along side them in the beginning but ask him to teach you how to fight? He’s done. Might combust on the spot. One on one time with you AND he gets to watch you be a badass in battle?? “‘Course ya want me to teach ya how to fight, gotta be able to keep up if you’re gonna stay in the crew!” Once the battle comes and you show that you can hold your own in a fight against other pirates? Lucifer may be Avatar of Pride but he’s got nothin on how Mammon feels right now! He’ll get distracted during his own fight while watching you take on 3 guys at once, none of them stand a chance against you and all he can do is grin because even though he started teaching you, those moves you’re using right now are all you. Honestly the more chaotic and feral you are in a fight the better!

👑 Mammon is one of those pirates who is an absolute goofball outside of battle but once a fight breaks out? He’s as feral as they come! The reason he wears his coat open with nothing underneath is because he got tired of trying to get the blood out of his shirts. Easier to clean it off his chest than to worry about washing clothes. Once the fights over he’s back to laughing and joking about whatever he was talking about before the fight broke out. Is that his blood or the other guys? Who cares! He’ll clean up later, right now he wants to celebrate the victory!

👑 Two theories on his eyepatch: one being that there’s literally no need for it. Pirate Mammon still has crow brain, saw a neat eyepatch, and now he wears it. Will absentmindedly flip it up to get a better look at something. Thinks it makes him look tough and will blush if you tease him about it he’s a dork your honor

👑 The other is that he still doesn’t NEED it but he wears it to cover up his dead eye. He still has his eye and it still moves just like the other but he can’t see anything out of it and there’s a wicked scar that goes from above his eyebrow to just below his eye. Instead of the gorgeous blue (I think they’re blue forgive me if I’m wrong) his eye used to be, it’s now a foggy white color and he hates it. Will not discuss his eye if you ask him in front of his brothers, mainly because they warned him not to pick a fight with the pirate who scarred him in the first place. But if the two of you are alone late at night on lookout or if you take him to a bar and he gets a little drunk he’ll tell you the whole story start to finish.

👑 It was back when they first started out as pirates, eager to make his name as one of the most fearsome on the seas Mammon picked a fight with a lot of people and usually he won. Sure he lost a few fights here and there but he always stole their treasure so who cares about some bruises and a black eye. He’ll admit that this fight was one he should’ve walked away from but when a guy challenges you “ya gotta defend your name as a pirate” The fight took a bad turn and Mams knew he was screwed. Luckily the guy only got his eye and not his throat which he was aiming for. Lucifer had scolded him for getting in the fight and Satan had helped care for him while his eye healed. In fact the eyepatch was actually a gift from Satan who knew his brother wouldn’t want the others to see his eye once the bandages came off. (My HC is that Satan is the ships doctor)

👑 If the moment is right he’ll take off the eyepatch and show you his eye. That’s how you know you’ve gained his full trust, none of the others aside from Satan have ever seen the result of that fight. He’ll make it sound like it’s a gruesome sight to look at but really it’s very beautiful. Tell him that and he’ll turn every shade of pink and red there is. “Yer just sayin that cause ya feel bad for me! I don’t need yer pity!” He’ll pout and turn away but he’s watching you from the corner of his good eye. If he sees you still smiling and trying to look at it more he’ll give in and let you. “If you tell the others about it I’ll string you up, got it?” He doesn’t really mean it but he’s gotta make up for the massive amount of blushing he’s doing while you hold his face and look at his scar.

👑 Eventually he’ll get comfortable enough to take his eyepatch off anytime he’s alone with you, knowing that you think it’s badass and not hideous makes him feel so much better. After some time he may even stop wearing it all together but that first time he has it off in front of the brothers you better be ready to be the ultimate hype man! He’s gonna need ALL the confidence boosting to be able to face them after everything that happened the night of that fight. As long as he has you to support him then he’ll do it, and of course once Satan compliments him on how well it healed he’s beaming with confidence.

~ I have so many more thoughts on this but I had to get this out of my mind before I blew up😭

[eyrieofsynapses]

…maybe an unpopular opinion, but I think I like Eliot's hand-to-hand fight scenes more than the ones in big-box movies.

see, I was rewatching a bit of Captain America: The Winter Soldier (yes I've seen some of the MCU, no I have not seen Infinity War or anything past it because I refuse to watch it without other people to cry with and my friends haven’t been available) before I rewatched Rundown. and guys, I adore TWS. easily in my top favorite films of all time. the fight scenes are fantastic! holy heck, the emotional weight! if you asked me which movies I love hand-to-hand in the most, that'd be at the top of the list, easy. Steve and Bucky in that final scene? ohhhhhh my gods.

but then I bounced over to The Rundown Job and just… y’know the bit where Eliot takes out the guys after Hardison signals him at the elevator? it feels so much more fun. I can't pin down exactly why, but it feels closer, more personal, more impactful. probably some of it comes from how Eliot is having--maybe not exactly fun, but how he likes doing his job. there's something about it.

and it's not just TWS that I can compare this back to, either. off the top of my head, I love it more than The Batman's hand-to-hand combat (which is admittedly rough because it's early-years Bruce, but still) and probably most anything else I've seen out of the MCU. animation isn't live-action, obviously, but I've seen some really solid combat in DC's animated work too. like, I haven't seen a ton of hand-to-hand work (it seems the film industry is understandably more fond of sword fights and such), but personally I find that when it comes to sheer fun, Leverage is really hard to beat.

now I'm not gonna compare it to sword-fighting or things like that. that's another ballgame. but hand-to-hand specifically… I'm not a violent person, but I dunno, y'all, there's just something about how Eliot fights that makes him fun to watch in a way I'm not sure I see elsewhere. probably it's partly that I'm just ridiculously fond of him. it is absolutely in large part because Christian Kane a) does his own stunts and works with the choreography, b) actively integrates Eliot's character into his work, and c) is just an all-around fantastic madman of a person.

but! they get so very clever with it! all the different things he'll grab to improvise with! I mean, where else do you get somebody who uses umbrellas, pipe organ pipes, whisks, screen doors, golf clubs, appetizers, literally anything to take opponents out on a regular basis? hauling people up over his shoulders and his back to toss them into dumpsters? comments like "if I'm not honest with you, you can't improve"? counting every single dude in a massive ship and then counting down as he takes each one out? barreling out of nowhere to tackle a dude? who else gives us lines like "that's what makes it fair" to the dude who laughs at him for not carrying a gun?

and it's hardly like we don't know Eliot's going to win--Eliot always wins--but there's still tension to it. he's not so good as to be perfect. he struggles, he comes back with bruises and cuts and the occasional broken rib, it's not like there's nothing at stake here. we've seen him have to let somebody go or otherwise mess up. too many opponents or too much muscle make him wary. he's competent as all hell, but he has to be sly and tricky and clever about how he fights as much as he has to deliver enough force. Eliot doesn't just fight well, he fights smart. he uses his surroundings and knows when to play possum and how to target an opponent's weak spots.

like. goddamn. I can watch him versus Roper in The Carnival Job a hundred times, and it still shakes me to the core to see him go down for that brief moment. in that second, you can believe he's in real danger. and he does come out of it hurt and limping and covered in blood. but we still have no doubt that he's an absolute badass!

oh yeah, and also: he has fun. there's always that little smile he's got when he's about to take down a bunch of unwitting thugs. laughing at Quinn when he's got bruised ribs and bloody teeth. looking at the pipe from the pipe organ in Van Gogh in surprise when it rings when he hits a guy before giving it an appreciative grin. sizing up Mikel and running through each situation (and, you know, that little make-out in the basement). staring at the dude in Lonely Hearts and going "fisticuffs? seriously?" with that tone of amused disbelief before flipping the guy into the harbor.

it's his job and he's not fond of hurting people, exactly, but he takes pride in it and he enjoys proving himself over and over. he enjoys the challenge. and it's kind of impossible not to love watching him beat it every. single. time

anyway yeah, if you ever ask me "who's the most fun to watch fight hand-to-hand?" it's probably always gonna be Eliot, tbh.