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tallochar · 4 months

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☕️ also, hopes/wishlist/expectations for the next DC cinematic universe, if that's something you think about at all?

I honestly tuned out of DC fairly soon, for the longest time I was more of a Marvel girly (until Marvel burned me out and now I go but I do not emotionally invest into it anymore), and I still have to see ... ugh, so many of their movies.

I went to see the first Aquaman in 4DX (back before my back pain made it so that 4DX is not a viable option for me, first world problems I know but it bums me out that I cannot go anymore without ending up in crippling pain) but that was because it had both Jason Momoa and Temuera Morrison and I am a long time fan of both (and also Jason Momoa going around mostly shirtless and wet? Always going to watch) though I actually skipped the second one because it happened in a moment in RL last year while I wasn't paying attentions to movies AT ALL and so I managed to miss that it was coming out.

I know I should watch if not all of the old movies at least the Flashpoint one (can't remember if it's the correct name or not but I know I will at some point because the unholy squeaking sounds I made when Michael Keaton showed up in the trailer, I can't even begin to tell you).

I have yet to watch anything with Affleck!Batman in it and I kinda want to see his take on the character, but I don't have the spoons in me. I have seen 1 Superman!Cavill movie and it didn't really make me want to watch more.

I have also seen Wonder Woman 1 and from what I remember it was pretty enjoyable as long as I did not engage my brain, but when I did it had some plot holes that bugged me and some stuff that did not fully jive with me but I could not open my mouth about anything less than absolutely blindingly loving it lest I be crucified for it because it was Directed By A Woman [or that was the impression fandom gave me at the time] so I just kept my mouth shut and peaced out.

I had a blast watching the most recent Harley Queen movie, but it's not a BOP movie and it's definitely an Elseworld movie kinda deal to me because that's the only way I could watch it without screaming vengeance over their treatment of Cassandra Cain or most other non-Harley characters involved. Otherwise I would just scream and hate and rage.

I have not watched Joker yet because it strikes me as the sort of movie I need to be in a specific sort of mood to watch or it might really fuck with me in a bad way so I don't know how I feel about Joker Folies Au Deux (or the fact that it seems, from the trailer, to be painting Joker as the one exploited and manipulated into things by Harley rather than the other way around) but like, it feels like A Serious Movie That Might Hurt Me Emotionally because Joaquin Phoenix and it being definitely an Elseworld movie and also I am no, generally speaking, a big Joker fan so -- *shrug and raise hands emoji*

I deeply enjoyed the more recent Suicide Squad right until they killed Rick Flag and then I gasped in pain and wanted to beat Peacemaker's face in (I know his series is good, according to people whose tastes I trust, but HE KILLED RICK FLAG, I am NOT watching it [yet], yes I can absolutely be petty like that) so I am tentatively trusting James Gunn.

I know it's considered more of an Elseworld sort of movie, but I did really love The Batman with Robert Pattinson and I am looking forward to see what they do with a sequel to that and how they move on from how the last movie ended (here's to hoping we don't get too big of a timeskip, I would really love if they picked it up from where it left off rather than jumping ahead).

I am not sure how I feel about the "current canon" Batman movie in the works going with Damian as the Robin in it, but I am being tentatively hopeful about it, because my brain (possibly stupidly but hey I am allowed to dream until I get jossed) keeps thinking it is actually a genius idea if instead of going from Dick forward you jumpstart things by having Damian there and possibly referencing the other former Robins as Nightwing, Red Hood, Red Robin, Spoiler / Batgirl, maybe throw in Black Bat too etc. and then you can just introduce them with their own movies without having to go through things chronologically.

It is very much NOT encouraging to me that it's based upon the Morrison storyline, though, because I am a Tim fan and Morrison did their best to excise him and treat him from non-existent to pretty much an outsider.

I don't know if that's Gunn's vision or if it's just my own take on doing things, but it could be cool? Maybe? Here's hoping.

I went and took a look at the list of upcoming movies (this one) because I wasn't keeping up with it and seeing The Authority on it makes me hope a tender hope that it will not completely fucking suck and that it might actually be interesting (please please please do them all justice, I am begging here).

I am flabbergasted Keanu Reeves agreed to come back as Constantine, but I liked the first movie (which I saw before I read any comics with constantine in it) so hey, maybe it will be another interesting movie again. I do like Keanu as an actor, though he is very much an Elseworld Constantine and has nothing to do with pre-Flashpoint canon Constantine, which is the one I know.

Seeing a Nightwing movie being talked about makes me think I might be right about the upcoming Batman movie introducing Damian but also having the other former Robins in the background and that would be honestly a relief.

I'd love to see a Lobo movie doing the Main Man right but god, that would be so tricky to pull off, especially in the current socio-political climate and with the cancellation culture and everything else going on that I've seen fandom wise.

Everything else I am seeing on that list either doesn't excite me or is not really a character I know so I'll take it with a grain of salt.

Sorry if this was more rambling about past projects than upcoming ones, I tried to balance things out and hope this answers your curiosity :D

Thank you for sending in the asks!

#about me #answering asks #dceu movies #dc comics #just as a parent tag #umbrellacam

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empty-pizza · 1 year

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thoughts on nona the ninth epilogue and thoughts on the book and series overall

Some of you might not have checked the blog today and will just, come back to this post to find that I decided to read 2/3 of the book today and finish it. It was good but it wasn't just because it was good, I kinda just felt like finishing. I'm kind of exhausted and I'm not sure how much my lack of understanding of what's going down at the end comes down to the book being confusing, and how much is me having no more energy.

anyway

alecto breaking out

oh great we talking all shakespeare like now, this is really making it easy to follow (i am just very sleepy)

which fuckin child is who

okay so harrow is awake now (the fuck was all that going on with the tower then)

alright from alecto's attempt to kiss

i can understand why the lyctors would have called her a monster

okay so the ninth is the line of anastasia

so alecto is swearing herself to harrow

and gideon called her a slut

as it should be, i suppose

damn and she just

went and said hi to john

and stabbed him and he said good morning

man what the FUCK does any of this imply

i do not have the brain power to process any of these layers

like, what the fuck did john plan on, or want to happen

the river is DEAD? the fuck does that mean

what the fuck is any of this shit

give me answers

j;aijdgoiahdhuipfuoifhnoanononho;oi;oi;hasdi

asid;uihadso;fpihaj[POUIAHNDSO['IGH

gadzoinks

DOUIUHGIOWEOG

Anyway yeah I'd say this was the best book in the series so far. I generally enjoyed Nona's character more than the prior two protagonists. I enjoy when childish, whimsical, naive personalities are expressed realistically through prose. I also enjoyed gradually learning more about how Nona thinks and just what she is.

The plot kept its momentum better than the second book, and followed through with a better climax than the first book. I've spoken about what I disliked about those aspects of the earlier books in prior posts. Here, the situation kept changing and developing enough that it didn't get too stale. Even without Nona driving most of the changes, it felt like she had an effect on the things around her.

I'm kind of hoping the next book begins right after we left off. We already did big timeskips twice in a row, and we haven't even answered everything that happened in the last one.

My brain is just muddled in so many questions about magic mechanics, character motivations, character history, et cetera et schmetera, that I don't even know how to put into words yet.

Part of my satisfaction here is that I think the pacing of reveals was really good in this book. It kept piling on more and more the closer it got to the end. But it really just slammed me with a bunch more questions by the ends. Reveals that raise more questions are great, and this is the right time for them considering it's the penultimate book in the series, but jeez, I am just brain strained right now. My brain has gone through one of those machines where you turn the crank and the dough goes through and comes out as spaghetti shaped. Except like, in reverse, because my brain is smoother now.

I think this has been an overall strong series, but it's somewhat unique in that the lore was the main thing I cared about. Or at least, I cared about it disproportionately to how much I usually do. That's not to say that there wasn't great character work here; I totally understand those who primarily love this series for the characters. I think I posted plenty about how interesting many of them are; hopefully that speaks for itself.

In general, it does tend to focus more on static characters. Not every character is like this, but a lot of them don't really change much (not during books), but instead only get tested at key moments to demonstrate their beliefs and conviction. Which is a totally fine approach, when the characters are interesting people, and you can instead drive things a bit more via learning more about them. When changes do occur, it's often offscreen entirely — just look at Corona and Gideon this book.

It kind of comes down to what drives you to read the next chapter. I almost always wanted to read more to learn about the lore. I often, but not always, was curious about where the plot would go next, how predicaments would be solved. And I was interested in how characters would grow or change... less than average, I'd say.

Though, the line between lore and learning more about who characters are was often blurred. I'm just not sure how much it will appeal to me personally once I already know everything about them. Maybe it'll work great on reread someday, maybe it won't.

I think I'd call this one a strong 8/10. Definitely gonna develop my thoughts on this more in the coming days but I really need to get to sleep soon.

I kind of wonder in what ways these stories will stick with me, when my experience was so lore driven. I feel like my opinion on book 2 has gone down slightly since I finished it, as the high of the reveals wore off and I felt kind of dissatisfied a few other aspects. I definitely liked the plot/characters in this book more, but I still just need to see how I settle on feeling about it all in retrospect. I mean the thing is, when you're that driven by lore, I prefer when it sticks the landing. If I don't personally like the answers in the final book I might lose a little love for the series as a whole.

Edit: To clarify this point a little, it's really that there's two kinds of reveals. There's the ones that are actual reveals, which tended to be really interesting. And there's the ones that mostly engaged me on the basis of "this tiny detail could be implying really insane things later." Some of which paid off, some of which still haven't. It's a fun feeling to engage with while reading, but for me it relies not just on the reveals paying off, but me being left with an overall feeling that engaging with the narrative in that way was worthwhile. If the series ends up not really caring about rewarding readers for paying attention that much (which I'm not saying will happen, it's just always a possibility) then that takes away a lot of my enjoyment retroactively.

Of course, it's also possible that if I did a reread, I'd end up appreciating the character work a lot more than the first read, and end up caring about the lore a lot less! This is just what I engaged with on this read and my present experience. I definitely can't say I understand everything about the characters, so there might even be whole layers to how they grow and change that I just didn't pick up on here.

Fun series and I really enjoyed liveblogging it! I hope you don't mind me kind of just, rushing through the final book today. Trust me, that was out of enjoyment primarily (also the library has kind of wanted these back for a while). I appreciate everyone who enjoyed my posts and commented things, and I'll definitely be sticking around and reading more comments as I try to make sense of all the shit I just read. I hope you enjoyed my first-timer thoughts.

#pizza reads locked tomb #tlt #the locked tomb #nona the ninth

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kyogre-blue · 1 year

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White Clouds done for the first time. It took almost exactly 30 hours, whew.

I slowed down a bit toward the end because I started talking to every student in my class after Jeralt's death. They don't generally have much interesting to say, but I've hit the majority of available B ranks, so they've grown on me.

So, first, about this specific section. The escalation pace felt a bit fast though not necessarily in a bad way. It's just that the rest of the year had drip fed relevant info at such a comparatively slow rate that the last few month felt kinda crazy. Crazy villagers! Students turning into monsters! Jeralt dies! Byleth almost dies and merges with Sothis! Edelgard is the Flame Emperor and invading now! Bam, timeskip.

I think there is something to be said about this kind of pre-war period to help build up the characters and relationships before we get to the juicy part, but 30 hours of doing what I'd consider a fairly average amount of stuff is kind of a lot to hit what would be the inciting incident of older FE games. The calendar did not help with the pacing issues for sure.

Aside from that, I think we've gotten all the Byleth-related lore we're gonna get for a good while, and I spent a fair amount of time trying to ponder out what Rhea thinks is going on and what she wants to happen to Byleth. She talks about Byleth regaining their lost memories, which makes it seem like she considers them to be amnesiac Sothis, but she also refers to them as a vessel that will become one with the power within them, thus resurrecting Sothis...? It's really unclear what she thinks of the current Byleth, what she thinks will happen concretely, and how this would affect Byleth as an individual.

However, all this discussion only takes place AFTER Solon, so Sothis and Byleth have already merged. Byleth not only came out on top (albeit presumably based on Sothis's decision that it be so), but the first thing post timeskip text scroll is Sothis talking to you again, so it seems like the merger aspect might not even be the end of the subsumed personality.

The main point being, Byleth is not really in danger from anything except Rhea potentially reacting badly if we reveal that Sothis is gone. And since her actual aims are so unclear, it's hard to feel any particular concern or unease at that point. As a budding Rhea apologist, I wish we could had had more elaboration on this storyline.

As for White Clouds as a whole...

The pacing really is a mess. And while playing through once can be considered a reasonable experience, I do not enjoy the idea of doing it every single branch, especially with how little variation there seems to be. Up until Remire or so, what would even be different except the supports? And since you can recruit anyway.... Not great, to put it mildly.

It's unfortunate, because I think the calendar and monastery base could be have provided very good worldbuilding and immersion, but they just did not have enough put into them, whether because the developers did not understand how to use them, did not focus on this aspect enough, or did not have the time/budget to realize their vision. The calendar is very poorly laid out and too bare aside from repetitive grinding in the middle of the month, the explorable areas do not change according to seasons, making the calendar feel tacked on, etc. Just a lot of presentational shortcomings.

Liveblogging notes:

Kinda forgor what happened since Jeralt bit it because I took a few days break.

Well, regardless of the mission I forgot, I do recall Kronya got offed by her own ally, which was funny but kind of useless? I didn't really feel anything.

And then Solon had Byleth "swallowed by the mystical darkness of a forbidden spell." I guess if you can't deal with a problem (the protagonist), just yeet them into the void.

Lysithea shows no particular reaction to Solon, and neither does Flayn. I guess they're speaking generic lines here, which can go to practically any team member who is still alive to say them.

Everyone quite underreacts to the situation tbh. Claude's canned animations are very funny to see here.

Sothis speculates that Byleth was emotionless because of her. Presumably because she was still asleep until the start of the game, so Byleth, who is connected to her, was not entirely "awake" either?

It's kind of funny that Sothis calls herself a progenitor god but also the one who watches over Fodlan and all its creatures. But this world explicitly has more than just Fodlan. There's Almyra and other lands as well... Usually, the FE games are on separated continents specifically to avoid these questions.

The stuff Sothis says about needing to relinquish her power to you because she doesn't have a body... doesn't she directly possess Byleth in Hopes?

Sothis's soul with join with Byleth's, which I guess means Byleth does have their own soul.

The visuals somehow... feel so dated, it's weird.

Solon seems to not have realized that Byleth IS Sothis before this.

Seteth snuck a peak at Jeralt's diary too?? man, no privacy or respect for the dead. Interesting that Seteth has been so unsettled by Rhea's shenanigans that he's gone behind her back to investigate.

Rhea seems to think Sothis will revive through you for reals?

The monastery was built over the Holy Tomb, where Sothis sleeps... so they left her sleeping a ways from Zanado, where they lived, which is interesting.

This entire scene is hilarious if you know everyone's identities. Rhea is spouting pure nonsense about Seiros while being Seiros, and Seteth who knows all this and is in full doubt mode still has to go along with it.

Claude just directly eavesdrops on your meeting with Rhea? lmao

According to Cyril, Almyra is all plains and sky. Also has a city.

Ignatz just casually goes "let's go to Almyra after the war :D" Which is... Uh. Interesting that this doesn't present any travel concerns, but also what war

Imperial Army invades the Holy Tomb, wanting to take the Crest Stones there... But whose crest stones are they? I think dragons can traditionally create more than one dragonstone, but I'm not sure how crest stones function. I'm asking because it's unclear how many dragons there actually were. We have murals with the 10-something that have specific crests (who do not otherwise belong to any unified group, btw), but those crest stones would largely be accounted for, so were there other dragons too?

Also, not entirely sure what Rhea was expecting to happen. It doesn't seem like she directly expects you to get replaced by Sothis? My best guess is she expects Sothis to awaken (memories intact) and speak to you, but she doesn't know amnesia Sothis was already awake and is now gone...?

Suddenly, Edelgard

Edelgard's big invasion speech is hilariously propaganda. Ah yeah, Seteth and Rhea sure do want rule the world. Seteth is a grumpy but well meaning man, and Rhea has consistently cared about misuse of Relics/Crest Stones and Byleth and.... basically nothing else.

Also, this is not a subtle game. They want you to know Tomas is sus? Boy, they will make sure you know it. So Edelgard going "they divided the Kingdom and the Alliance from the Empire" "they live in extravagance by exploiting the masses"... NONE of this has ever been even slightly supported. There's nothing particularly extravagant about the monastery, and we have never even heard of people paying tithe. And while the Kingdom and Alliance history was mentioned somewhere, the Church was never brought up in association.

No one among the Deer students has anything to say about Edelgard's speech, just concern about this being a war. There's not even a hint that anyone thinks she's right lol

Seteth directly says that Edelgard is out to conquer the continent. His first thought after confirmation of the invasion is to have the surrounding villages evacuate.

OK, Rhea thinks Byleth's "lost memories" are beginning to return and that they've guessed "the truth of who they are." She says she has acted as "the proxy" for "Byleth." But to Seteth, she describes Byleth as a "vessel" and in time, the vessel will become one with the power within, at which point the progenitor god will return to this world. It's not entirely clear what she thinks of Byleth as an individual. She asks Seteth to "help our friend and in doing so, help her." So Byleth is a friend, but... they mention stuff like Flayn owing her life to Byleth and that Byleth may prove to be "their brethren"... Really hard to parse what they think is going to happen, specifically.

But since Sothis has already merged with Byleth and Byleth is obviously fine, there's not really anything to fear from this. It can't really read as ominous when the merging has already happened lol Edelgard supposedly spent the entire year gathering her forces at the monastery, speaking them in disguised as merchants and pilgrims.

Funny how all the Empire students are chilling at the monastery, telling us how their fathers and such are supporting Edelgard. Good thing we're too nice to take them hostage or something.

Sitri 1139 - 1159, Jeralt ?? - 1180. I guess we're in 1181 now...? Hang on, it's the 3rd month. Holy Tomb was 2nd month. Sothis merger would have been first month. So Jeralt death was 12th month of previous year, right?

It's cute how Claude says he'll always be on Byleth's side. Tbh I think the story would benefit from being able to highlight his ride or die side more. But since Byleth has very little direction in their own story, it ends up being more about Claude's ambitions.

Who the heck are Randolph and Ladislava

This music is very cool tho

The monastery walls are hella tall? Wow

I'm not sure what to make of this angle of Rhea leaving the monastery and the Church to Byleth.

Rhea just body slams the invading army.

The masked black beasts are creepy. Masks are a control mechanism, I suppose.

Byleth gets bodied by Thales lol. Where did this pit even come from

And that's that! The Unification of Fodlan has begun.

#playing fire emblem

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twatshag · 3 years

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✿RUIN ME✿

Warnings: SMUT, DADDY KINK, edging, established relationship with !TIMESKIP! Suna rintaro

MINORS DNI

[11:30 PM]

You sighed while rolling your eyes as you put your phone down by the night stand. "Stupid fucking bet." You hissed.

If you were going to see another glimpse of a half assed 'good luck 🤭" message from your groupchat you might as well just throw your phone out your window.

I mean why were you doing it anyway? paying up to 360¥ per person Just because your best friends all made love with their boyfriends and you don't, doesn't make your sex life with Suna any less intimate and loving.

He knew what you liked and what you didn't like and that was enough proof right ?

No you wanted to shut their faces up and shock your boyfriend by just letting him relax and show you his love physically.

As funny as it is to say but Suna isn't the one who keeps fucking you shitless because, god does he try to take it slow with you. To show you his love through physical intimacy but you 'always want to be a damn brat' as he always says.

Always telling him that you need more of him, you beg him to go faster, to show you stars. For him to have his way with you. But sometimes he wishes to just kiss you deeply while giving you slow strokes for hours, appreciating your beautiful face and the way it shifts when he glides against your g-spot. He wants to be the only one who sees you like this.

But he didn't mind he was grateful for your beautiful fucked out face. The way you moaned his name was enough to make your wishes his command.

He'd always describe it as "bribing" or "straight up black magic" with the way you had him wrapped around your little finger.

Sometimes he would huff and pout after sex and tell you how he was excited to make love to you but you had to use "your black magic/bribing" mechanisms and ruin a sappy loving moment.

What a dork you smiled as you thought about him. Speaking of the devil there he was. The man responsible for you limping to your idiotic best friends when you all agreed to hang out, going to his games, going out of his games. The man responsible for you limping in general really.

Everyone thought he was the mean dom who just won't accept to fuck you less rough because he wants to have you corrupted but you both knew who really was the one responsible for your limping.

Suna smiled as he walked into your shared room locking eyes with you as his own laced with worry. Drying his hair from his shower. Abs on full display only wearing boxers.

Thank the gods for such a sexy boyfriend you thought.

"You wanted to talk princess ?" The bed dipped down as he sat next to your figure and he opened his arms for you so that he got a head start that you wanting to talk wasn't you breaking up with him.

Humming in response you snuggled closer to the 193 cm man and kissed his neck burying your face against his chest.

"Yeah, I wanted to ask you something." His hand now in your hair scratching your scalp and kissing the top of your head responding with a small "Hm?" Against your soft hair.

You looked up at him pulling away softly while biting your lip. he looked down at you, love and adoration lacing his eyes as he stared in yours smiling while still scratching your scalp softly. "Do you want to..well, make love to me?"

With that said his movement comes to a halt with wide eyes. last time you said something like this it ended up with him breaking the bed with you and he gave you the silent treatment for 5 hours because "you were a damn brat and had to fuck it up last minute." As he stated.

He rolled his eyes and flicked your forehead and pushed you off him softly. "Not falling for this again y/n."

As he got up and decided to finish getting dressed or he might just give in to your little games again.

"Rinnnnn I'm serious! I really want you to make love to me !!" You pouted following him like a lost puppy into the open closet.

He sighed as he searched for his sweats. "No, I am not going to do this again." Brushing past you to look in the other collection. You groaned mentally cursing yourself for always ruining a beautiful moment.

You whined as you hugged his bare back "But daddy-" oh at that ? He was listening he turned his head and body to face you faster than the speed of light. Because last time you did this you didn't call him daddy and you totally didn't sound as whiney as you do now.

He smirked at you "mm?" He leaned forward a bit just so you were at kissing height. "Daddy what? Princess?" You gulped already wet at the way his eyes sparkled with lust.

"I..want you to make love to me..daddy." suna loved seeing you like this. He loved seeing you beg for him. But there was something about fucking you so painfully slow for your own pace and stopping just when you finally feel that you're cumming made him harder than iron.

Smirking smugly he closed the 2 cm gap between the two of you, kissing you softly. Resting his forehead against yours.

"Okay, I'll play with you bunny. But are you sure you can take it?" You nodded against him "Yeah, I've taken worse before" he chuckled yeah that was your causing though he thought.

"Alright then lead the way pretty girl." Smiling sheepishly you grabbed his hand and interlocked your fingers with his and pushed him in the bed as you stripped.

He smirked at the sight of your skin becoming exposed by the mili-second. Wow you really wanted him to do it huh? He thought.

You got on top of him as he grabbed your waist settling you nicely on his hard member.

You moaned at the contact and kissed him hungrily as he smiled against your devouring.

Pulling away just as you were enjoying yourself, whimpering at the loss of his warmth. "You know that, when you want to attempt to make love you're supposed to kiss slowly and not try to eat my face up right?" He chuckled flipping you as you're now under him as he kissed you slowly and lovingly shutting you up from any comeback you had to throw at his statement.

You moaned as he slipped his tongue inside your mouth letting it explore the oh so familiar wetness and warmth.

His hand rested on your thighs squeezing it , moving his hand up slowly to the hem of your knickers letting it slide under the fabric where it rested on your hips.

He groaned against you as you grabbed his hand to show him your wet core through the fabric. Silently begging him to do something about your gushing cunt. But suna had no interest in rushing things.

Pulling away slightly to breathe and hearing you pant under him to move to your neck and give it the appreciation it deserves.

He moved his hand to knead your breast in between his beautiful strong veiny hands softly appreciating its warmth and softness sliding your bra down to pinch and play with your nipples while his tongue dragged against your neck.

You bucked your hips up at his hard member allowing the male ontop of you to groan as he pushed your hips down into the mattress so that you don't ruin his moment of pure body worship.

"Ahgnn- Rinnn" you whined as you desperately clung to his wet hair for grounding. As he sucked and nibbled on your neck making every shade against it.

Leaning in to kiss your earlobe as he whispered against it "shh let me love you pretty girl, I'll give you what you want, greedy baby." He cooed.

His hand reached to unclapse your bra and toss it to the side of the room. He buried his face in to your breast as he sucked and ran his tongue on it. Nibbling on your nipple to ignite the fire in you even more.

At that point you could've sworn you're a burning hungry for more-bonfire.

Moaning at the sudden contact your grip on his hair tightened throwing your head back a bit as he glided his tongue all the way to your earlobe biting softly at the skin and kissing it.

"Tell me what to do bunny hm? Where do you want me ?" His voice so raspy like that you wanted to scream for him to just fuck you right now but that meant losing the promise you made to yourself and your friends or rather the bet. You wanted to do something for him just like he always gives in to your greedy slut needs.

"Whatever you want to do to me daddy I'd accept it I just want to feel loved by you." was suna dreaming ? No he can't be right?

Just how long are you willing to keep this act up? But he didnt care even if it was an act he wants to enjoy it as much as he can while it lasts.

He pulled away as he stared wide eyed at your flushed face and panting figure. "Is that what you want bunny?" You nodded "Are you sure ?" You giggled at his concern as you wrapped your arms around his neck "mhm, one-hundred percent positive" he smirked kissing your lips innocently one last time before he decided to play along.

Oh how you wished it was as innocent as it seemed.

Suna dipped his head as he began to kiss your body down to the upper hem of your knickers biting it down to reveal your wet cunt and let it go as he kissed your clit through the fabric.

Moaning at the warmth against your throbbing core he looked up at you.

Savouring this memory of you in his head forever he decided that it's time to give you what you want.

He is making love to you after all.

He pulled your knickers off you slowly kissing each and every inch of your thighs, inner and outer, your knees, your ankles all the way until you were completely bare under him.

He smiled at your figure silently appreciating it.

"Hey, stop staring its embarrassing." You pouted at him deep shade of pink on the apples of your cheek the sight of you leaving the brunette chuckling as he lowered himself to kiss your lips as he hummed against your lips.

"You know this isn't the first time I see you naked right? And I sure hope it'll never be the last" he smiled as he leaned against you placing a sloppy kiss against your lips. The way he explored your mouth was hungry and full of lust.

He reached to pull your leg up so he had better access to your folds. Playing with your wet core as you let out a whimper against his lips.

"So wet for me, and I barely touched you bunny." Without warning he slipped a finger inside your throbbing hole allowing you to moan at the sudden contact.

It's been so long since you've seen Rintaro, with him on away games all the time your hole shrunk without his thick, long cock stretching you out.

And boy did he love the tightness of your small cunt against his finger. His cock swelled so badly at the feel of your hole clenching on his finger.

But of course suna was in no rush he pumped his finger into you slowly staring at the way your cunt kept swallowing and spitting out his finger.

Lewd sounds coming from your cunt at the action. You grinded against his hand wanting him to do more as he smirked.

"Will you ever let me enjoy one moment of appreciating your sexy body bunny? Why are you so greedy?" Pouting at you he leaned into your cunt as his hot breathe hit your clit.

You wanted to kick him. He was trying to break you so bad he wanted you to beg for him. But you wanted him to enjoy this. Oh boy was he enjoying this. Maybe too much even.

Silently begging for him to do something as if he could read your mind he licked your slit as he fingered you, hitting your spot flat with his finger tip.

Oh did he love tasting you, after all suna is human and even he is greedy sometimes. He wants to always, always taste more of you.

That's exactly what he did. Sucking and licking your clit leaving you a whimpering mess under him.

It boosted his ego so bad. "R-ahhgn-Rin please, god ye-s." You moaned against your orally gifted boyfriend.

Curling your toes as you felt you could literally die from the way he was hungrily handling you right now. He looked up at you, his snake like eyes staring you down enjoying the way your face would shift to various emotions pulling away to harshly spit against your clit perfectly.

As you jolted at the sudden wet 'slap' on your clit he attacked you hungrily adding another finger and curling them both so that they hit your spot perfectly as his tongue swirled onto your throbbing core. He moved your clit around and sucked on it while his fingers stretched you.

Feeling your high already approaching from the over stimulation of his actions you buckled your hips upwards moaning loudly.

"G-ah f-fuck i-m gonna cum Rin d-dont st-op." He was now aggressively thrusting his fingers into you and licking harder against your clit as you felt the knot in your stomach began to loosen the brunette decided to play a little game.

What was it? Oh to edge you. He pulled away as you moaned loudly in irration. "RINNNN.." you whined clearly annoyed at this. He chuckled as he shoved his fingers back into your wet cunt and curled them hitting your spot just like he was doing earlier.

"Shh bunny, be a good girl. Let me play with you." He smirked as you groaned at his statement. continuing to reach your high as he licked your pussy hungrily searching for something. God knows what exactly was he looking for with his tongue attached to your gushing cunt like that.

"Aaahgnn- y-es o-h god y-es Rin y-ehes ahh fuck mhmm, please let me cum ah!" You felt your high approaching once again as if your body was upset too that it didn't release its arousal, this time your body demanded to cum.

You felt yourself shake under suna. He knew what that mean. You were going to squirt and he loved watching you squirt for him but not when he's like this. Not when hes trying to break you first. Just as your wetness interrupted the cream on his fingers he pulled away immediately and looked up at you with his hungry eyes to see your reaction.

[12:10 AM]

Suna edged you as if you were his little pocket pussy for the next forty minutes. You cringed at yet another sign of yet another edge as suna decided to keep playing this dangerous no cumming game.

You let out a whimper and a sob. "F-for fuck's sake st-op edging m-me !" You spat at him as he smirked and got on top of you now face to face with the professional athlete.

"Then tell me what you want, bunny." Suna could do this for hours breaking your walls one by one because he was a sadist. He loved not letting you cum, edging you and frustrating you to point of begging.

You stared into his dark eyes they were gushing out lust. He wanted to fuck you, slow strokes and neck kisses maybe pick up his pace and let you cum on his cock but not today. Nootttttt todayyyyy he thought he wanted you to beg for him. To beg him to ruin you. Just like you always do.

You shifted your gaze blushing deeply at his gaze. "To make love to me suna." You rolled your eyes at him trying to hide your desire for him to just rail you.

He smirked at you "oh yeah? Okay I guess I'll keep eating you out then." He lowered himself but was deemed unsuccessful as you grabbed his face making him look up at you.

"N-no i want you to be inside me.." he smirked at you happy he broke two walls by now. One more to go he thought.

He lowered himself to give you a sloppy kiss, his tongue already on your lips and then your own as he rubbed your swollen clit. Harshly pulling out all the air your lungs saved with his kiss he decided to finally let you breathe again.

"I'll give you what you want bunny." He smirked, sitting up straight, grabbing you by the thighs to pull you closer to him or his swollen cock really.

You whimpered while biting your lip as he brought his cock along side your slit teasing you as if it was asking for entrance.

"Pl-ease j-just put it in- AHGN!" Suna decided to surprise you and push it deep into you without waiting.

Arching your back as his cock hit your cervix perfectly. He always filled you up to the brim.

As you finally thanked the gods for getting the thrusting you deserved suna had other plans.

He was in no rush so he began to kiss you. The lewd sounds of the way he groaned against your lips and tongue swirling aimlessly.

You clenched so roughly around him begging to be fucked and he knew that. But he wanted to hear it from you.

He wanted to edge and tease you as long as it took for you to beg for friction.

"R-in please.." he hummed in response as he sucked on your neck and massaged your breast and adjusted himself so he was in the perfect position to cockwarm you.

"Stop teasing m-ah-Me." He smiled against your breast "hmm? if i recall correctly you said you wanted me to do anything i wanted to do to you bunny. Isn't that right?" he said between kisses and licks you whimpered as he bit your nipples and tugged the sensitive bud between his teeth rolling his hips to tease your spot.

"P-please j-just f-ah f-uck me." you whisper moaned. Ah there it is, suna thought.

truth is you gave up trying to make love with suna along time ago because it never worked out suna was an edger and a teaser. only giving in when you begged him to. And well, you were like putty in his hands and you hated not finishing.

"hmm? i can't hear you princess." he smirked as he contiued rolling his hips sitting up as he stared at your flushed frustrated face. this was gonna end in two ways he told himself.

one> you were going to keep this act up for another 15 minutes until breaking

two> you were going to break right about...

"I WANT YOU TO RUIN ME SUNA RINTARŌ!"

..now

he widened his eyes at the desperation lacing your tone but he smirked because that's exactly where he wanted you. he lowered his face staring intensely into your eyes "I thought you'd never ask." and at that he was thrusting sharply into you.

you yelped at the sudden rush of adrenaline his dick had runting into you. Pain mixing in with pleasure.

Suna was big..Bigger than the average person and if it was possible for him to rip you apart he was doing just that.

you moaned loudly as he grabbed your hips roughly, thrusting into you as if he wanted to kill you with his dick.

"F-fuck you're so tight-ah shit. You damn brat, Always begging me to fuck you like a whore." he knew just how slutty you were for him, for his cock.

he loved to break you, salvoured every moment he got as he broke you. you moaned at his pace and the way his cock was banging against your cervix making you roll your eyes backwards, mouth drooling from the overstimulation.

"God look at your whore face so fucked out already. I love it, No I'm obsessed with it." he leaned in to kiss you deeply. Even though suna's thrusts were the exact opposite of loving his kiss was truly something else.

you panted trying to escape his runting and sharp circles being drawn on the sensitive bundle of nerves by attempting to push him as your hand weakly rested on his toned stomach.

"Sl-ow D-down R-Rin." you whined against his hips.

Suna loves when you tell him to slow down because that is his green card. He had you exactly where he wanted you . He now has full access to fuck you into oblivion.

And that's excatly what he did. He runted into you hungerly making you scream and cling onto him for balance.

nails digging deeply into his back as you threw your head back and he sucked and bit harshly at your neck.

"You take my cock so well princess mhm, you're so good for me. you like that huh ? you like when i fuck you like this huh ? Such a dirty whore for me bunny." sitting up straight to have better access to your spot to thrust into as he wrapped his defined hand around your throat.

"A-h a- oh my - god Ye-s D-daddy Y-es pLea-se yES!" You moaned loudly as he kept his bone crushing pace up. His stamina was insane. For such a lazy person he'd always have enough energy to fuck the hell out of you.

Feeling your hole clench hardly around him he smirked knowing you were going to be cumming soon so he grabbed both of your thighs pushing them against your chest and keeping you in that position.

you laid perfectly for his eyes to see the way your cunt swallowed him whole. "I-m g-on-naaahh- mhhmm - I'm cumming daddy P-lease." your legs were shaking violenty because of the position you were in and the easy access he got to hit your gspot and the spot to allow you to squirt in one go. groaning at the way you clenched and how your walls were like heaven against his cock.

"F-fuck, agnh- You're clenching so hard around me, bunny. Let daddy see you squirt. I wanna see you cum and squirt for me baby." he sucked his bottom lip in as he felt his high approaching the harder you clenched.

he reached to your clit letting your throat go and he began to rub circles as fast as he could and pounded faster in you.

throwing your head back. You saw stars, eyes crossed completely fucked out of your brain moaning loudly as you unraveled and dug your nails deeper into his skin. the knot in your stomach finally broken. as his thrusts got sloppier pulling out to cum on your stomach.

As Suna pulled out once you both came, he shoved two of his fingers inside you curling them and thrusting into your sweet spot mercilessly giving you no room for coming down off your high.

making you shake and try to escape from his fingers he grabbed your hip with one hand silently telling you to take it.

"R-IN AAA-hhhhh P--l-e-aseee S-s-st-AAAAAHHHH" you shaked as you squirted all over his body. he kept shoving his fingers into you trying to rob every little drop of water inside of you.

"Thaaaaat's it baby, that's it let me see you squirt." he finally pulled his fingers out of your poor weak hole after the bed sheets were drenched and so was he.

you panted as your legs were shaking violently bringing your hands to your face to try to come off your high and to process what you just felt.

Suna moved your hands out of the way as your eyes shot open and he smiled at you. "Well? Have we learned our lesson?" you rolled your eyes at him and hit his chest "Shut up, it was your fault that i was so needy!" he chuckled kissing your lips as he said in between kisses "I wasn't the one who said ruin me." "I said shut up".

He pulled your blushing figure into his chest as he cuddled you and lifted your chin up to look at him.

"I love you, pretty baby." making you blush even more he decided that teasing you can be done at anytime just not now. Kissing you deeply as he enjoyed the warmth you raidiated for him.

cuddling you closer as you drifted off to sleep in his arms, vowing to himself that he'll always be the one to make you moan like you did.

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

[ 12:30 PM]

BONUS

you groaned at the sharp pain in your legs as you tried to drag yourself out of your bed to the kitchen.

Suna thought you needed all the rest you could take because he knew this would happen.

he smiled at your grumpy figure walking around mumbling curses under your breath as you literally dragged your self around clutching any surface for support as you entered the kitchen.

You felt Suna's gaze on you ignoring his smug stupid smirk that you saw from the corner of your eyes.

"Wow and what happened to you there bunny?" you had about enough of his shit you were limping because of HIM and he had the nerve to ask you about it!

"I really don't want to talk to you right now Suna. You broke my hip."

He chuckled standing up and walking over to your leaning figure against the counter and wrapped his hands around your waist kissing your shoulder and pulling your ass towards his hard cock as your breath hitched.

he brought his lips to your ears letting his breath shiver down your spine. "You know..i think i can readjust your broken hip for you bunny.."

Suna Rintarō was going to be the death of you. But you didn't mind. at least you had him even though each of your friends were now 360¥ richer.

It still didn't matter because he was here and that is all you needed.

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

A/N: Heyyy sorry yall i've been so busy with exams :( this was inspired by my irl friends LMFAOOO they aint shit i do be freaky but they ain't have to say it like dat..💔 hope you guys enjoyed!!-kira

#haikyuu smut #suna rintaro imagine #suna x y/n #suna rintarou #suna smut #suna x you #suna fluff #suna x reader #haikyuu fluff #haikyuu x reader #haikyuu x imagines

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iturbide · 3 years

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So, in the Spite Project we have Dimitri recovering in the Alliance during the time-skip, Claude even argues that while it is a selfish thing to do Dimitri should be selfish because the people have asked so much of him and he needs to heal to do good. Then we have the fix-it fic, where Edelgard has to go through a painful process of change where most of her friends and allies turn their backs on her for the sake of the world. I want to take you in good faith, but this feels a bit mean spirited.

So, I'm willing to take you on good faith here and try to explain this, because I really think that the issue is this: you seem to think that treating all characters fairly means treating them all the same way, rather than specifically addressing their individual needs. And this is not the fair way to handle them.

Think of it this way: you have two people that want to watch a movie in a language neither one speaks. How do you handle that? Do you find a version dubbed over in the language they do speak, or do you preserve the original language track and turn on subtitles? They both have their pros and cons -- it can be hard to keep up with subtitles sometimes, especially when they includes notes on cultural nuances, but dubbing can lose cultural nuance if there's no equivalent in the target language (and that's not getting into how different language tracks can have strikingly different levels of quality). So which one do you choose?

Whichever one you picked, you're going to make one of the two unhappy.

On the surface, the question of how to approach it is simply a matter of preference -- but it doesn't factor in the individual needs of the people that want to watch. One has an auditory processing issue, making it hard to catch everything; they need subtitles in order to follow the dialogue at all, and without them they're not going to enjoy the movie because they're not able to keep up. The other person, meanwhile, has difficulty looking at screens for long periods of time, so having to keep up with subtitles will give them a splitting headache; they need the dub so that they can disengage periodically and still be able to hear dialogue in a language they can understand, and with subs over the original language track they're either forced to risk a migraine or lose track of what's happening because they don't understand the spoken words.

(Arguably the most fair solution is "do captions over the dub" but a lot of movies don't do captions and subs, they do subs only, which means that there are going to be places where the subs and dub don't match and that in itself is jarring but that is not the point here.)

Now, you're concerned that it's mean-spirited for Dimitri in the Spite Project to be treated one way while Edelgard in the Pre-Timeskip is treated in another way. But my concern is that you're looking at them in these situations as though they have the exact same needs, and I do not feel that's the case. They are two very different people, from two very different backgrounds, with two very different kinds of trauma and associated trauma responses, not to mention the mental health component that's much more pronounced in Dimitri than it is in Edelgard. Because of that, what they need as individuals to address their trauma, learn to cope, and finally begin to heal, is going to be very different: therapy is not one-size-fits-all, and the first step is always admitting there's a problem (which is why therapy generally doesn't work on someone who doesn't think they need it, even if they arguably do).

Let's start with Dimitri. He is a young man who lost his mother before he really had a chance to know her. He gained a stepmother in Patricia and a close friend in Edelgard during her time in Faerghus, though the latter ended in a bittersweet parting as she had to return to the Empire. Two years later, at the age of 13, he lived through the Tragedy of Duscur where his father, his close friend and personal guard Glenn, and everyone else in the party was presumed dead (he understandably believes Patricia died but we learn that's not the case much later): he suffered not only physical trauma (burns and a likely concussion leading to his loss of taste/ageusia) but mental and emotional trauma (survivor's guilt and PTSD), exacerbated by the dismissal of his first-hand account that ultimately led to Duscur's effective destruction in retribution for the Tragedy. Two years after that at age 15, Dimitri's uncle Rufus -- acting regent of the Kingdom, since Dimitri was not legally of age to ascend the throne -- ordered him to put down a rebellion in the western territories, leading to his first arguable mental break where he ruthlessly cut down the rebel faction despite the minimal threat they posed; this in turn led to Felix calling him a beast and a boar and piling further guilt and shame onto the teenage prince.

There's also a cultural context to take into account: Dimitri has spent the past four years since his father's death not only burying his unaddressed trauma associated with Duscur, but getting rapidly brought up to speed on how to lead the Kingdom of Faerghus so that he can ascend the throne as soon as he comes of age. While there were certainly those who did not approve of Lambert and his policies, a far greater number loved him dearly, and Rufus is not a well-loved regent during his short term in charge. Dimitri has effectively been groomed to put his own needs and feelings second to those of his people because of this treatment: he was not believed when he tried to defend the people of Duscur, his trauma associated with the Tragedy went unaddressed in favor of preparing him to take over leadership, and when he finally shows signs of his own distress, he's criticized for it by someone who had once been a close friend. This has led him to repress everything negative within himself, speaking rarely if at all about his personal feelings or troubles until the pressure becomes so great that he can no longer hide it.

So, to sum it up: Dimitri has suffered a combination of physical, mental, and emotional trauma, all of which he has been conditioned to repress with the message that his personal needs are secondary to the needs of the Kingdom's people. This eventually manifests in attempts to satisfy the voices of those who died at Duscur by viciously eliminating Imperial forces with the ultimate goal of taking Edelgard's head: even the desires of the dead outweigh his considerations for his own life.

Then we have Edelgard. She is a young woman who was very close with her father, something we can glean from context cues in how she speaks of and to him in the secret coronation. When political unrest began brewing in the Empire, her uncle secreted her out of the country for several years, where she made a new friend in Dimitri before her uncle brought her back home to the Empire. Once there, her happy homecoming instead became a nightmare as she and her ten siblings were confined beneath Enbarr Palace and subjected to torturous experiments at the hands of Those Who Slither, bankrolled by the nobles who had stripped her father of his power and leaving him unable to help his children as they died one by one, leaving Edelgard as the sole survivor. Driven by her hatred of the three powers that led to the situation -- the nobles who wanted an unassailable pawn of an Emperor, the Twisted who conducted the experiments and therefore had her family's blood on their hands, and the Church of Seiros run by monsters whose societal system valued Crests over human lives -- she ultimately allied herself with the enemy faction that could grant her enough power to make the changes she believed needed to be made in order to change the system, fully intending to stab them in the back once her other goals had been achieved.

There is, again, a cultural context to consider here. The Empire and the Kingdom have some of the most toxic approaches to the Crest System that we see in the game, and it has ruined countless lives in both nations. Edelgard's own life has been destroyed in this way: she lost her siblings to the Great Nobles' desire to create a Major Crestbearer that they could put on the throne, and therefore has every reason to hate the Crest System crafted by the Church of Seiros to the point of wanting it razed to the ground: without that bias, there would have been no reason for her family to undergo those experiments, meaning her siblings would still be alive. Her trauma has left her determined to destroy the existing social systems, created by non-human forces, and replace them with something crafted by human hands -- and in her mind, there is no cost that outweighs the benefit of that ultimate goal.

So in summary: Edelgard has suffered a combination of physical, mental, and emotional trauma, all of which she has used to fuel a determination to change the world by undoing the influence of Crests and the Church of Seiros that enshrines them. This ultimately manifests in her seizing power in the Empire and ordering an attack on the Church, condemning those not from the Empire or who do not immediately ally with her as enemies, and conquering her way through the Leicester Alliance and the Kingdom of Fodlan based on her belief that her way is best for Fodlan.

Are there similarities between these two? Yes: they are both victims of extreme trauma, and neither of them have had that trauma addressed in the years following the events. But so many other factors, including their coping responses, are wildly different, such that if you tried to give them the same treatment only one would benefit.

Dimitri, who has constantly repressed his own needs for the sake of others, needs to have his health and personal feelings validated rather than shunted off to the side as less important than some other matter. He needs an opportunity to get out from under the pressures placed on him since Duscur, develop some healthy coping mechanisms, learn how to self-advocate and enforce personal boundaries, so that he can unpack and deal with the trauma he suffered. Now, if you tried to take this same validation approach with Edelgard, it would only further enforce her view that she is right in her belief that dragons are inhuman monsters that need to be eradicated and that the Church of Seiros needs to be wiped out and replaced: it would entrench her yet more deeply into what's already a toxic mindset, and make her more determined than ever to see it through regardless of the cost.

On the other hand, Edelgard's first issue is that she does not recognize that there's a flaw in her mindset. She wants to reform Fodlan, but by her own admission she's willing to drag people into a conflict they had no part in because in her view those sacrifices are necessary to achieve her goal. It's part of her trauma response, no doubt -- but it's also a very toxic one that needs to be confronted. The first thing that needs to be done with Edelgard is make her recognize that there is a problem: the flaws in her logic and her beliefs need to be highlighted, and she needs to be pushed to try to understand other people rather than locking herself in an echo chamber that's constantly reinforcing her beliefs. Challenging Edelgard is the first step toward making her realize that she needs to change -- but that same approach has already been used on Dimitri: arguably that's what Felix did with his confrontational response toward Dimitri's mental break...and it led to Dimitri further repressing his trauma out of guilt and shame.

I also don't understand the claim that I'm not treating Edelgard kindly in Pre-Timeskip. Edelgard makes a personal decision that directly and negatively affects the lives of her allies, and she suffers consequences for it: that's not unkind, it's a logical follow-through based on what she personally did. And at no point is she expelled from the group, either: she is confronted with the fact that her beliefs were wrong -- that her allies are not, in fact, thrilled to have their lives put on the line for her personal ambition, especially since she never told them what she'd been planning -- and then given every opportunity to learn from the mistake she made and try to repair the relationships her choices and actions damaged; in the end, because she personally puts the necessary work in, she is able to do so. This is exactly the same approach that I've taken with Grima in Askr: the only difference is that Grima erred toward self-isolation at the beginning and needed to be coaxed into interacting with others. They are well aware that they have committed atrocities that cannot be forgiven, and they do not seek forgiveness from those they harmed: they only seek to do better here with the opportunity they've been granted. Edelgard, too, has every opportunity to change and do better -- and the key factor is that she takes it, learning from her mistake, starting to open up more and listen to the people around her rather than making assumptions based on her personal beliefs.

So ultimately, you're right: I have taken very different approaches to helping Dimitri and Edelgard in these two stories -- because they are two different characters who require two different approaches when it comes to addressing and overcoming their traumas. There is no one-size-fits-all therapy, and so there can be no one-size-fits-all story mold for them. I'm simply doing the best I can, based on their individual character traits and personalities, to give them the opportunity to heal and grow.

#answered #anonymous #fire emblem: three houses #spite project #pre-timeskip fix-it #edelcourse #i have spent roughly four hours typing this #it's a lot okay #i think it comes down to equality vs equity #equal treatment would only solve problems for one of them #equitable treatment will help them both get what they need

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heinzpilsnergonewild · 3 years

Text

Vegeta’s Character Analysis Looooooooooong Read

Oh my, what can I say? I just really love to write long essays in a language that isn’t even native to me, lol.

Well, nobody’s perfect, I guess. ... Were you expecting a Cell joke here? I may not be perfect, but that doesn't mean I have to be that predictable.

Ahem, anyway.

This isn't exactly a psychological analysis of the character - more like, hmm, a storytelling analysis. Or something in between, really.

You may not find anything fundamentally new in this text, but I definitely had fun writing it, haha.

It's mostly amateur. I have a useless psychology degree, but not a literature one.

My classic rant about vegebul fics is included, of course.

Summary: proper psychological analysis requires a single continuous personality, which Vegeta simply doesn’t have.

The more I think about Vegeta, the more I come to the conclusion that he is only pretending to be a consistently evolving character.

In fact, he's a bit like 10 different characters in one, which abruptly replace each other (and that's without considering the difference caused by the voice actors’ approach and the changes in his looks). Essentially, Vegeta's a collection of disparate images, arbitrarily lined up by Toriyama and hastily glued together. And the beginning of this line is so far from the end of it that these two extreme images cannot be perceived as belonging to the same person. Well, because human psychology just doesn't work that way.

(Not that Vegeta is unique in this respect – it’s a common feature of characters in long stories that authors compose as they write. Still, his case is quite extreme and interesting as example.)

I mean, take Vegeta in the Saiyan or the Namek arc. He's a complete psychopath. He clearly doesn’t suffer at heart from the unnecessary violence (as, for example, Guts from Berserk). His behavior looks like something natural for him, not an unhealthy defensive reaction. He enjoys it, he smiles happily, killing and torturing weak innocent people. And such a degree of psychopathy is not something that can be healed by a couple of deep personality crises or years of peaceful family life. Vegeta's redemption arc works through strong emotional impact and forgetfulness of the audience, but makes very little sense when viewed in retrospect.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Perhaps the biggest, hmm, splitting of the personality occurred with Vegeta right after the Namek arc. Toriyama had already made a small retcon of the character’s motives before (to include Vegeta in the context of the Freeza army after the Saiyan arc), but it didn't feel that drastic.

You see, until Vegeta was invited to Bulma’s house…..

(Gosh, Toriyama, you could’ve done it more subtly, really. Vegeta killed Yamcha, threatened to kill Bulma, gutted Zarbon in front of her eyes, slaughtered an entire Namekian village... Oh well.)

…Ahem, anyway, right up to Bulma's invitation, Vegeta looked to me like a character who, hmm, has a life of his own? I mean, you have always felt that his motives and behavior were generated by the bizarre social system, not related to the little world of Goku and his friends. Simply put, Vegeta was a natural product of the big space civilization, an organic part of it. His whole personality was formed by it, all his plans, motivation and ambitions were associated with it. And although in the Saiyan arc, he gave the impression of an independent entrepreneurial chief at the head of a small hierarchy, in the Namek arc it was revealed that Vegeta is actually far from independent. He lost his throne and his people, he was in slavery to the tyrant all his life, and wants to take power for himself. So, his social background and the motives caused by it post factum get much more complex. But in short, Vegeta wanted a highest possible position in the hierarchy he knew. In this way, he was… social? His belonging to the Saiyan race was only a small (although important) part of the overall picture. Because the Saiyans were dead, but the Freeza Empire was alive.

But when Toriyama realized Vegeta's popularity and decided to keep him in the story after Namek, it came as a blow to the character's personality. Apparently, the author simply couldn't come up with an elegant way that could keep the character in all its complexity around, and therefore did a very clumsy thing. He roughly cut Vegeta out of his social context and almost forcibly glued him to the main character group like a poorly done appliqué. But although you see rough edges and glue drips, the story moves on rapidly, distracting you with Freeza and Future Trunks, and you don't stop to think about what happened. This is how, almost imperceptibly, Toriyama changed Vegeta's motives (and, consequently, the basis of his personality). Yes, Vegeta's saiyan pride was also significant part of his character previously, but when it became his sole and central motivation after Namek, you feel like a very big and important piece of him has been arbitrarily cut off. This wouldn't have happened if Toriyama had followed the logic of previously established social motives, rather than his desire to make Vegeta a convenient figure. Now, bound hand and foot by the author, the character is forced to behave as the plot requires.

Still, all this can be justified by the fact that Vegeta experienced a deep emotional shock as a result of death, which forced him to rethink his life priorities and wait for Goku (especially in the manga, where he just lived with Bulma for a whole year after Namek, without even trying to use dragonballs) ... And then he waited for the androids (despite the final death of Freeza and his father, which was an excellent chance to try to take over the decapitated empire). Anyway, this rationalization doesn't negate the fact that the character, as a result, has lost a significant part of the fire that he demonstrated in the Namek arc. His new energy, the energy of obsession with surpassing Goku, turns him into a new character – bitter, marginalized and focused on training.

(Ironically, the very splitting that made him a less attractive character in my eyes allowed vegebul to take place. After all, imagining the romantic relationship of the nice Bulma and Vegeta at the height of his villainous ambition is really difficult. That just would be a psychologically implausible story.)

In the Android and Cell arcs, after brief glimpses of the SSJ superiority, Toriyama turned Vegeta into a plot tool, whose personality flaws he could use to spoil the situation favorable for the heroes. As a result, Vegeta continued to be an angry and unhappy character who has lost most of his charisma, but on top of that, he also started to be really annoying. ... Still, also kinda amusing thanks to his truly impressive inability to draw obvious conclusions from the ego bruises he gets.

(If you ask me, the character's biggest contribution to the Cell arc was to ignore the existence of condoms, lol. Although strictly speaking even it was an achievement of Future Vegeta (RIP). But seriously, Vegeta's relationship with Trunks turned out to be one of the few things that I was really interested in about this part of the story.)

And then there was Goku’s death and the 7-year-gap. ... At the end of which Vegeta still didn't look like a happy man who has found his place in the world. Even though he had seven whole years (and a spaceship) to change something. I mean, this is the case when it'd be logical to expect changes in the character, but for some reason they didn't really happen (or they did, but veeery quietly and unstable). I mean, Vegeta trains with Trunks, yes. And he's married to Bulma now, apparently (which we learn only at the end of the arc though). And he hasn’t killed himself yet, which means that he sees some meaning in his existence. Hurray, I guess?.. The problem is that when we first see Vegeta after the timeskip, he keeps walking around with such a sullen expression, as if Goku had died just yesterday. (Remember Vegeta in the Saiyan arc? He smiled quite often. For the wrong reasons, but hey.) Basically, Toriyama tried to sit on two chairs at the same time here - 1) keep Vegeta as recognizable as possible (because he hasn't decided what to do with him yet) and 2) keep him around (which doesn't make sense for the character if he hasn't undergone significant changes during the timeskip). And the result of this hesitant approach is an undesirable effect - it feels as if Vegeta hasn't built a new life for himself all these years, but only waited for Goku to return.

As if the man is unable to evolve without Goku's influence. Until Kakarot does or says something, or is just around, everyone else in Vegeta's life and his own reflection has little or no meaning. Old social ambitions? His wife and child? New insights gained from life on Earth? Pffft. Goku is able to destroy the seven years’ worth progress (no matter how small it may seem) in one day, and at the same time, one fight with him is enough for Vegeta's character development to jump forward explosively. It sounds like a solid ground for shipping, but In fact it’s just a direct consequence of the author's poorly chosen narrative structure.

The thing is, Toriyama tend to avoid romance and slices of life, and shows Vegeta's personality mainly through fights and their consequences. And at the time Goku just turned out to be the only significant character for Vegeta, the fight against whom could be used as an excuse to develop the character in front of the audience. Well, Toriyama couldn't get Vegeta to fight Bulma or himself, you know.

I believe that the plot structure chosen by the author (rapidly changing action events immediately after a long timeskip) is not a very good basis for a redemption arc. For a good redemption, a character had to have screen time during which small changes accumulate gradually, between the big points. And Vegeta simply didn't have it. Besides, the scheme by which Vegeta develops is really messy. Because at first, Toriyama kinda froze his development at the neutral point (thereby partially devaluing the influence of Vegeta's family on him). Then in one moment, the author abruptly reversed even this the-end-of-the-Cell-arc development with Majin Vegeta (this time completely devaluing the family factor, because the betrayal was Vegeta’s conscious decision). God, how I hated the Majin Vegeta idea. And in the next scene, the author made a quick retcon, which gave the family’s influence the status of a ground for Vegeta’s personal growth again for no apparent reason. It's as if a huge bundle of family values was post factum squeezed into the character in defiance of everything that we just saw with our own eyes. This is a complete narrative mess.

But... oddly enough, Vegeta's redemption still manages to work, and work spectacularly. My guess is that it's because by that time the audience is already SO sick of Vegeta, frozen in his bitter anti-heroism, that it desperately wants the author to finally do something new with the miserable guy. Well, at least get him out of his misery. So people are willing to accept it in any possible form.

... And the author chose the form of a powerful emotional catharsis. The explosion was legendary, haha.

I don't even know if this is a good reason to call Toriyama a genius (after all, he found a very clever way out of a difficult situation, in which he found himself thanks to his own bad decisions.)

The only thing I'm sure of is that despite everything I was very sad because of Vegeta's death. I didn't even realize that I had become emotionally attached to this asshole until he made such a spectacular exit, lol. As if something had broken inside of me, and all the analyticity of my mind couldn’t prevent it. I was surprised when I found myself crying really hard - usually my emotions don't reach this level due to fictional stories. (Well, maybe it was due to the fact that my own father was dying of cancer at that time, and the moment just triggered my emotions. ... Oops, it seems a little too personal, doesn't it? Well, at the end of the day, this fact is an integral part of my unique dbz experience. Come to think of it, in dbz, fathers die regularly).

But while this scene greatly affects emotions and forces a new viewer (or reader) to truly reconsider their attitude towards the character for the first time, the absence of a neat gradual movement towards this moment weakens its influence somewhat.

At this point, Vegeta’s character splits once again (perhaps the last time within DBZ). You simply cease to understand who this man really is and who he was before.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Now, when I look at all the images of Vegeta in general, I come to the conclusion that I like this character the most in the first two arcs and in the end of the last arc. Two directly opposite moral poles.

(Funny enough, because my initial reaction to Vegeta and Nappa was annoyance: "Well hello, the next stereotypical villains who like to chat and laugh maliciously instead of simply killing their victims." (Still, against the background of Freeza, Vegeta turned out to be a much lesser evil in every sense, haha). You see, usually I'm not a person who likes villains. Basically, I only distinguish such characters from others as a result of romance or redemption. It’s only after that I begin to see aesthetics in their villainous charisma as well.)

And now, in retrospective, I believe that at the beginning of the story Vegeta is at the maximum of his vitality and charisma. Especially compared to his ever-crisis moody version (who supposedly lives happily with a loving family). In the Saiyan arc, he's objectively the most powerful character (Freeza didn’t even exist in Toriyama's head at the time). Vegeta is domineering, playful and unpredictable, but most importantly - his self-confidence is fully justified. Oh well, it was good while it lasted. He's really in control. These are, if I may say so, quite exciting qualities in a man, haha. Even if he looks like an evil dwarf in stupid armor and bullies some weaklings. I'd even say his demeanor in the Saiyan arc (especially with the voice of early Horikawa) is suspiciously easy to translate into a sexual context (well, until he loses control and gets hysterical, lol).

The Namek arc, placing Vegeta in a broader context, somewhat spoiled his original image (after all the big words, it turned out that he was running errands for Freeza all this time), but gave him a more interesting background and a strong drive. He had ambitions and a socially significant goal, and he actively and passionately fought for them against a clearly superior enemy. In addition, his inability to defeat Freeza by brute force forced him to use his brains from time to time, and not just pull another power up out of his ass, as is now traditionally done in DragonBall. (Needless to say, I consider high intelligence to be one of the most attractive traits). All this made his position in the plot as interesting as possible. He literally sparkled with energy.

Well, we know what happened next. Brain Death, an eternal chase after Goku, and an off-screen family life on a backwater planet that Vegeta is supposedly happy with. Until he suddenly became a really beautiful character without a proper justification for this (well, at least the explosion was spectacular). Really, I like the general concept of redemption, and yet... the way Toriyama portrays it in the story just doesn't work convincingly enough for me.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Another point I’d like to cover in this already too long essay ahhh I'm a monster is Vegeta’s personality in fanfiction.

Reproducing (?) Vegeta is a bit like playing with a lego set - his personality and behavior is always the result of a conscious reconstruction, which is based around a specific point on the long contradictory line. Depending on which end of the spectrum the chosen point is, the author is forced to shade facts related to the opposite end, or to give new context to Vegeta's past (or future) actions. It's always noticeable when the author extends the later, sympathetic Vegeta's image to an earlier segment of the story. Apparently, it's possible to kill the person who raised you (with an evil smile on your face) just because the situation was too stressful lol. Likewise, when the authors allow Vegeta to remain a charismatic psychopath, the story wouldn't work without ignoring some parts of the later canon.

(And, of course, there is always a "medium" type of Vegeta - Vegeta from the 3-year-gap, whose personality is almost entirely based on anime fillers. Yay, here comes the promised vegebul rant

Honestly, I'm pretty tired of this "gravity room exploded again woman grrr" type of Vegeta.

Because if you take the manga, we have no idea how Vegeta actually behaved with Bulma and her parents, what his training regimen was, and what he did in his free time besides unprotected sex. People elevate his rudeness and irrational self-torturing to the absolute because of all these filler patterns, but this is just one of the possible versions of the events and the character's behavior during this time (albeit partly canonical). But... there are also alternatives. There are smart Vegeta, curious Vegeta, civilized Vegeta. Honestly - I don't think Bulma would've married him later if there was nothing in his personality that’d make communication with him enjoyable. I mean, she's a rich modern woman, she doesn't need a husband just for convenience and Vegeta is a marginal freeloader anyway. And if we subtract good looks (which people often attribute to Vegeta) from the equation, then the idea that he has no interest in anything other than training and cannot maintain an interesting conversation becomes completely unconvincing. Toriyama clearly didn't attach much importance to the fact of their marriage, and generally avoided romantic scenes as if they were on fire (and, perhaps, did the right thing), but these two just had to be capable of adequate and mutually pleasant personal interaction in order to take this step.

In general, Toriyama's lack of attention to most aspects of the characters' lives other than fighting and training, on the one hand, can be considered a drawback of DBZ, but on the other, it creates a lot of room for fans' imagination. But not everyone uses it. Most authors generally repeat the same tropes over and over again and don't try to look at the three-year-gap from a new angle, although the canon provides all the possibilities for this. Because of this, fics in this genre often seem boring. But in fact, it's not the setting itself that is boring, but only dusty formulas in the heads of the authors.)

Ahem, so where were we?.. Oh yes.

Actually, Vegeta's inconsistency is a very handy character trait for the authors, as it minimizes the chance of accidental OOC. Indeed, it's quite difficult to make someone to behave out of character if he has many different canon versions of himself, lol. On the other hand, this leads to the fact that the character seems to... kinda disintegrate. You never see his whole face, because he simply doesn't have it. As a result, Vegeta turns into a mosaic that must be reassembled each time. And I keep staring at this crazy kaleidoscope like an idiot.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~

Well, that's... quite a lot of contradictions in my relationship to Vegeta, haha. Still, life without contradictions would be somewhat boring, I guess.

Thanks for your attention I suppose?..... lol, as if someone really got to this point

The End.

P.S. 1: The antisocial version of Vegeta who doesn't understand stupid human rituals and hates crowds, but puts up with it for the sake of his family is my spirit animal, haha. This is just so damn relatable to my autistic personality. Maybe I'm an alien myself.

P.S. 2: Actually, my favorite dbz character is Piccolo. Yep.

#vegeta #it's really long #3260 words kind of long

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