#cards that represent them as characters vs cards that represent their character arcs and roles in the story

[lostshitpirate]

Legend of Korra S2 thoughts

Literally just finished s2 and wanted to jot down my thoughts here real quick.

Spoilers for season 2

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So I didn’t hate s2. Weirdly I liked it a little better than s1, but I do have issues with it.

Honestly I thought it was pretty good in the first half. The build up to the civil war was a bit fast, but I thought it was interesting. I think the way Unalaq manipulates by using spirituality is pretty interesting. It’s very similar to the way colonizers used christianity to further control and colonize native lands.

I thought Korea’s arc of having to figure out her role in this conflict was interesting too. I think the season long arc of korra finding her place in conflict as the avatar especially as someone who is more used to using force than diplomatic skills is good especially since it parallels aang who did everything more diplomatically. I think the way unalaq also knew how to manipulate that was also good.

I feel like I’m this season we were able to get more of a feel for the characters than in the previous season. There’s still some characters who you don’t really get to know or who are kinda there (asami hopefully we get a character arc and more interactions with her >_<)

I also really like varrick. The way he plays the bumbling idiot but actually plays that to his advantage is so interesting. He is able to take advantage of a situation because he has different cards to play depending on what pops up.

I really think it falls flat when they introduce raava and avatar wan. It kinda comes out of nowhere. Like they have the statue of wan but that’s really it. I think from there a lot of the more interesting aspects of the season get derailed.

Like it takes the building tension we had from finding out varrick was double crossing everyone to benefit himself, from building tension between the north and south, from korra trying to help and being unsure to just the story of wan.

I don’t think the story with wan is bad. I liked it but it moved the story in a less interesting direction. Also it makes spirits less interesting in that they’re now divided into clean good and evil.

Personally I think the stuff with wan should have been it’s own separate short story if they wanted to have it but at that point it just gets thrown in and then mixed in kinda messily with the more interesting story.

I think the focus should have been on korras arc of “what is the role of the avatar in these more complex conflicts and by extension world?”

If they wanted to keep raava and vaatu in the story than rather it be an external conflict save the world type story than I feel like it should have been an internal turned external battle tied to korras arc.

The avatars were always a collective of people who worked hard to help the world in the ways that they could. Not always perfectly but they worked to make the world a better place. But in a sense they don’t have a purpose when there is no chaos in the world.

I feel like I’m wans story he should have fused with both raava and vaatu. It can represent the ways the avatar can both bring peace and chaos into the world. How in order for them to exist there needs to be chaos in the world so that they can bring peace. Rather than it being a more black and white, evil vs good it can be more complex.

Then the conflict can be korra not having a place and the world responding to her need for a place. Iroh says something along the lines of how korras emotions/energy can affect not only the spirit world but also the physical world. So it could be more the world responding for her need for a purpose that she could believe that only she can save the world on her own with force rather than solving it diplomatically or trying to maintain the peace that was already there.

If they wanna keep the big kaiju fight at the end then it could be more symbolic of even physical or the need for chaos and peace within korra fighting. I think that would also tie in more and actually show that raava and vaatu can’t really exist without the other rather than just saying it and never feeling like it’s true because vaatu is just evil.

I don’t know if any of that makes sense lol. Overall this season was ok. I’d give it a 5/10. Maybe it would be worse if I went in blind and had no idea about anything but cest la vie.

[albatris]

thinkin 'bout....... ocs and tarot cards again

[aashi-heartfilia]

Ochako, the Dilemma with Chapter covers: thread Part 2

Unlike some other Mangas where all the chapters usually have a cover page, the story in BnHA likes to resume from where it left off. The only exception is when a particular character has a certain role to play in the chapter. So as unfair as the author might look sometimes, I really appreciate Horikoshi for blessing us with these beautiful chapter covers every now and then.

To be frank, I'm more of a fan of Chapter covers than the actual Vol Covers just because they have so much content. They are not only more meaningful and more in number but they also give the spotlight to the other characters we don't see very often.

We have covers of Mei Hatsume, Todoroki Siblings, Toga, Tsu, and ofc Ochako.

Unlike the Vol covers where she gets next to no attention, the chapter covers are where she truly shines starting off with

Her entry in Vol 2

It is probably her first appearance in a chapter cover. At that time we had no idea that they were all gonna be besties from that point on.

The next notable cover in which she appeared was Vol 8.

It is a cool cover, to say the least, showing her spunky and fun side. She gives such a Baku vibe here. We need more of these!

She also got featured in Ch 99, saying bye-bye to 2 digit chapters.

Then with her and Toga in Vol 13

It's interesting to note here that this is the same vol where Ochako met Toga disguised as Camie. This Vol cover itself is a straight parallel to Deku and Bakugo in Vol 14 Cover.

Volume 23

Now, this is what you call Chapter Cover. Just beautiful! She gives off such an amazing Space girl vibe here that it's unbelievable how charming she is.

From her smooth bangs, fluffy space jacket, big backpack, floating helmet, and ofc the picture-perfect night sky, I adore everything about this cover.

Now, this is very Uraraka.

And this is at least what I expect to see in Vol covers too. Some meaning, some substance behind what she's doing.

And this takes us to our next cover which appeared out of nowhere in ch 248.

The thing to note here is that Studio Bones decided to do some justice to Ochako and Tsu and made an entire episode based on this cover page.

The episode is one of the fillers of season 5 but it still manages to be engaging as it connects to the plot of the movie: World Heroes Mission.

The other thing to note here is that Horikoshi decided to make that entire side story cannon as Sirius appeared in one of the recent chapters.

This is also one of the important covers because it is the first time we get a good look at her new costume. Her new bunny visors, updated belt and Ura wrist gloves.

Another TogaChako cover appears in Vol 30. The same Volume that contains Toga vs Ochako 2.0!

Uraraka went through an important development during the last narrative arc of MHA, and even if the author was unable to dedicate the cover to her due to the sensational reveal of Dabi, he at least tried to do the basic courtesy of reserving them the first page. The confrontation with toga was certainly a turning point for both of them and

What's more, is that this volume covers also looks like a reference to the LOVERS from tarot cards and you're gonna love the symbolism behind it!

Here:

In its purest form, The Lovers card represents conscious connections and meaningful relationships. The Lovers is a card of open communication and raw honesty.

On a more personal level, The Lovers card represents getting clear about your values and beliefs. You are figuring out what you stand for and your philosophy.

At its heart, The Lovers is about choice. The choice about who you want to be in this lifetime, how you connect with others and on what level, and about what you will and won’t stand for.

The Lovers card is often a sign that you are facing a moral dilemma and must consider all consequences before acting. Your values system is being challenged, and you are being called to take the higher path, even if it is difficult.

Finally, The Lovers card encourages you to unify dual forces. You can bring together two parts that are seemingly in opposition to one another and create something that is ‘whole’, unified and harmonious. In every choice, there is an equal amount of advantage and disadvantage, opportunity and challenge, positive and negative. When you accept these dualities, you build the unity from which love flows.

The article can be found here;

Anyways, noticed the many highlighted parts and how they reflect TogaChako?

It's almost shocking no one talks about it.

This is a pretty nice CC too, a redraw of their friendship and how it connects to the Villain hunt arc. It's only a cherry on top that these three also made it to the VC.

And finally...

Last but not least...Vol 33

I can't believe, after all this time we actually got a baby Chako cover! She's so precious!! After getting a flashback to Ochako's rough past in JTA it was just a matter of time, she gets this cover. It's very sweet, simple, and rare because, unlike her other friends who got inspired by heroes, she got inspired by other normal people.

It is different because she saw both sides of society, the two-way road. This CC also goes to show you how far she has come, from a little innocent girl just happy to see the cheering crowd, now she's standing against the same crowd explaining the situation, that they need both parties to Co-operate to bring true peace.

And well, that concludes the list! These were all the notable CC Ochako has appeared in, so far. Each has more meaning than the previous one. My favorite is Vol 23 in terms of visual appeal and Vol 30 in terms of the meaning behind it.

Others are great too! Let me know if I have missed some, though I won't be able to add them because of Tumblr's 10 pic limit I'll be glad to at least know.

See ya!

Ochako and Back Covers Dilemma, thread: Part 3->

[where-all-the-time-went]

The Character-Based Reasons Why Sara Chidouin Has the Highest Win Likelihood

So, okay. We all know Nankidai is, first and foremost, a writer. Don’t get me wrong, the art and gameplay are nice, and the music is... there, but Your Turn to Die is fantastic because of the game’s thematic consistency and incredible characters. Which is why the idea that Sara wins so often because she is so trustworthy and is a great leader always seemed like a very barebones analysis to me. Sure, it makes sense, but what would Nankidai convey through that? There’s definitely a message about trust that is implied, that trusting makes a person stronger, but Sara does not initially trust everyone, and not everyone trusts her. Every single character has plenty of people who don’t trust them and who they don’t trust. If anyone is good at working with and trusting people, it’s Reko (even despite her conflict with Alice), who becomes the big sister to this cast of characters. (BTW: this is a really long post. If you don’t want to read it all, scroll to the end and there’s a TL;DR).

So then, for what thematic reason is Sara so likely to win?

Personally, I would attribute her survival rate to another common theme throughout the game: her balance between prioritizing her own survival and that of the rest of the players. While Sara would never truly give her Sacrifice card to someone else, it’s doubtful that she would take the Sacrifice card to save anyone either. No other character has a similar inner balance, except Kanna in the Kanna Lives route (to be perfectly honest, I have not played the Shin lives route because I’m terrified of killing Kanna, so my knowledge may be lacking). Anyway, I am going to go down the list of characters and talk about why they’re not Sara, which I know everyone is just really, really, excited to hear (please don’t fall asleep). (Also not including dolls since our information on them is very limited at the moment).

I’m starting with the absolute worst person to start with: Joe Tazuna. He may not be a candidate, but he is still a character who dies and is thus worthy of an explanation. While he may have procrasinated to reveal that he was the Sacrifice, it was never truly a battle with Joe on whether to sacrifice himself. In the end, he will always prioritize everyone else’s survival. If there was a battle, it was between whether to save Sara right then and there or let everyone else survive, and although his connection to Sara is personal, this is still not self-prioritization.

Then there’s Keiji Shinogi (yes, I’m going by the Wiki order and you can’t stop me). At first, it may seem that logical, levelheaded Keiji prioritizes himself, but in Chapter 3 1-A, he readily accepts the tag if it means saving Sara. Keiji is traumatized by his own guilt, and thus does not seem to consider himself worthy of survival, unless it means being the smart one and thinking where no one else does. He may not have traded for Sara’s Sacrifice card in the Second Main Game, but it’s unclear whether he was planning to before Kanna took it herself (or rather, tried to). I theorize now that Keiji will have a say about his own death in Chapter 3 1-B, and it will depend on whether he is able to balance his own needs with the needs of everyone else.

Which brings me to Kanna Kizuchi, who I think has the most interesting arc in this regard. When the game begins, Kanna is extremely frightened, and we don’t really get to know her priorities since she is most definitely not thinking straight. As Kanna matures and developed into her own character, in spite of Sou’s suggestions to her, we learn she prioritizes other people’s surival over her own when she attempts to take Sara’s Sacrifice card. Now, this is where the disclaimer of “I Have not Played the Shin Lives Route” comes in extra handy, because I expect criticism here. Anyway, given that Sara logically wants to survive, and there are even character reasons to vote for Kanna (her being more ready for death), it seems very likely Sara would vote for Kanna, which would explain her extremely low 2.7% survival rate. This is a reflection of Kanna’s unshaking will to prioritize others’ survival over her own. However, when Shin dies, Kanna realizes she should never again attempt to sacrifice herself (particularly because he became a role model for her), and she begins, just like Sara, to find a balance, wherein she puts herself in danger only when logically necessary, while also caring for everyone else. As a result, and this is very shaky ground, I am putting forth that there are either no routes, or very few routes, from here on out, where Kanna dies. (The one thing I will say about this theory is that it partially contradicts my theory that the game cannot be a simulation because they would not simulate Gashu’s betrayal. While my argument mainly revolves around the metanarrative of prioritization of lives other than one’s own, these themes are reflected within the non-meta of the game itself, wherein Asunaro specifically tailors who receives the Sacrifice, Keymaster, and Sage cards. As a result, Kanna’s character arc revolving around surviving the Second Main Game makes no sense if she would have been the Sacrifice in the first place if not for Gashu. Although, her low win rate could be tied to the high likelihood that she would take Sara’s Sacrifice card).

Well, now that I’m off my tangent, let’s focus on Q-Taro. At the beginning of the game, Q-Taro, while not the brightest, takes a cold and logical approach. He is willing to sacrifice literal children--Kanna and Gin--because he doesn’t think they’re useful enough. However, his character flips (pun intended) when he presses the button and takes the poison for Gin. Q-Taro realizes that trust and self-sacrifice are noble traits, and he comes to prioritize them over his own survival, as he put his life on the line when he took the poison, when a lower dosage earlier would have been the more logical way to keep him and Gin alive. Q-Taro’s arc is intersting, but unlike Kanna, who becomes a reasonable person, his values flip entirely, particularly because his change was likely planned by Asunaro.

Then you have Shin. I don’t know what he does when he lives, and I have a whole theory about Shin’s 0.0% win rate, which I will possibly write some day and link in later, but I do have some stuff to say about his own character balance. It’s obvious that because of his fear of the win rates, Shin comes to prioritize his own life, despite all irrationality therein. He manipulates and lies for his own survival, mainly out of fear. When Shin realizes that Sara killed him instead of killing Kanna, as she prioritizes emotion over logic, he realizes that maybe he could have trusted her after all, and to die with as few regrets as possible, he gives her the Joe AI. This character change sounds like it contradicts my theory, but given that, at this point, Shin was pretty much already dead, it’s simply an interesting change within him that is representative of the theme of Your Turn to Die. Furthermore, I subscribe to the theory that Shin’s low win rate is a direct result of knowing he has a low win rate (fun bootstrap paradox times (Beethoven’s Fifth plays on electric guitar)), because this causes his self-preservation.

I mentioned Reko earlier, but I think this only needs a brief explanation (important note: I have only played the Reko dies route). Prior to the Death Game, while Alice was in jail, Reko learned that the “weak” do not deserve what’s coming to them. This indirectly causes her own kindness to Nao and Kanna in the Death Game. (Come to think of it, I don’t think this one’s going to be as brief as I thought). Reko enters the death game a changed woman, who already prioritizes the lives of others, and thus is entirely imbalanced. The fact that her past self kills her is beautifaly symbolic of why she died: because she could not balance her priorities, where she only cares about others now (which is why Nao saved modern Reko), and only really cared about herself in the past (because she thought that the “weak” did not deserve her help). As a result, in an act of pure selfishness, the AI, which has Reko’s past personality, kills human Reko. If modern Reko had been more balanced, perhaps she could have explained to Nao why it would make more logical sense to save the Reko AI.

And it’s perfect that Nao should come next. In general, Nao does not think for herself. Not until her suggestion that Sara should run away with her at the end of the Second Main Game did she do anything other than follow earliers or force herself into certain situations. This, of course, relates to the juxtaposition between her and Sara, who is a natural leader. However, it explains why there is not much to say about Nao other than the fact that she is so far removed from the issue of self-sacrifice vs. self-preservation.

Everything Kai did, up until his death, was to protect Sara. His job was to be her bodyguard, and Sara is the person who saved Kai from a life of murder. Kai dies because his silence in his efforts to protect Sara prevented a proper discussion over whether it was worth it to kill the Sage simply because they were the Sage.

Gin Ibushi, much like Kanna, started the game by prioritiznig the lives of others. Unlike Kanna, he did not change, particularly because there was no narrative reason for his change. Even when Gin was about to die, it was up to Q-Taro to decide between self-sacrifice and self-preservation. However, when Gin and Q-Taro were up on the targets, this was a symbolic message to Sara: you must choose between the self-preserving tendencies of Q-Taro and the self-sacrificing tendencies of Gin, who gave out his tokens for free, unaware of the consequences. While Gin has yet to die, his steadfast hold on his self-sacrificing beliefs would explain why his win rate is lower even than Kanna’s.

Gin would often cling to father figures due to his dad’s alcohol addiction, and Mishima was the first to experience this treatment. Mishima cared for Gin, but he knew Nao best, and his instruction that she vote for him would cause his death, because Mishima sacrificed himself for Nao. Mishima is interesting, because his self-sacrifice is less a result of a hope for everyone’s survival, and more about his desire for people to improve as human beings. He tells Nao to give him up when he is an AI, and instructs Reko to break his screen. Although Mishima is perhaps more self-sacrificng than Gin, his understanding of teaching others how to care about themselves is likely why his win rate is higher than both Gin’s and Kanna’s. This may also be a result of the fact that he is older and more capable, but his strange quirks also make him less trustworthy than both Gin and Kanna, which cancels his capabilities out. Thus his self-sacrificing beliefs would kill him, even if his understanding of self-preservation decreases the likelihood of his death.

Last but not least of the non-Sara characters, we have Alice Yabusame. Now, on this one, I am probably missing the most information, since I have absolutely no idea how he dies in the route where Reko survives. However, I can say that in the route where he survives, despite his understanding at the beginning of Chapter 2 that Reko had changed, he was unable to accept that the unchanged Reko was not human. This implies that Alice wants a version of Reko who both cares for others and values strength, suggesting a need for balance. I also know this is a big change from his attitude towards the beginning, where he believes that everyone should be as self-preserving as possible, and not get in anyone else’s way. The fact that Alice has to die to accept Reko’s change (I think???), it makes sense that his self-preserving tendencies would place him in the bottom half of win rates. Again, this theory is weakened by my ignorance.

Joe’s likely inevitable death contributes to Sara’s fear of the Sacrifice card, which perfectly balances her lack of desire to manipulate others with her desire to preserve herself. Sara is also often given the choice between wanting to win or escape with everyone, and the fact that character moments often hinge on her response illustrates Nankidai’s thematic goals. The choice between Shin and Kanna’s deaths, while about emotion and logic, are also about choosing between preserving oneself (voting for Kanna, who cannot contribute to Sara’s survival) and preserving others (Kanna is TOO YOUNG TO DIE). I do not mean to suggest that saving Kanna was necessarilly the “correct route.” Quite the opposite, in fact. I mean to suggest that the fact that Sara is presented this choice and that she does not have an immediate answer is exactly why she is so likely to win.

TL;DR i drone on about how sara is special and not like other characters, and how she cares about people but also about herself, so that’s the theme and stuff. there’s also a long, pretentious rant about the symbolism of reko’s death. and a doctor who reference. there’s also a weird amount of parantheses.

(credit to @sip-of-depresso for having the conversation with me which sparked this theory)

[naruhearts]

Do you think that Dean and Cas will finally have a heart to heart conversation this season that has a beginning, middle, and end without being interrupted? Where they finally get to talk about everything and mend the rift between them? I really hope so

2/2 I’m the heart to heart anon! Like I would love if there was a moment where someone sat them down to air their grievances the way Sam and Dean did for Chuck and Lucifer in s11, bc it actually worked and was incredibly promising

HI nonnie!!

I’m on the run and have a busy Canadian thanksgiving dinner to get to (and I’ll most likely add to this once I have time), but WHAT A GREAT QUESTION, because frankly, this is what we’ve been anticipating for…a while. 

We’ve seen 15x01. The rift between Dean and Cas = NECESSARY spousal discord. Dabb & Co know what they’re doing here, and pretty much most meta writers in the Destiel community gleefully watched the EVER-heightening intensity of D/C’s romance-coded arguments unfold in their conjoined emotional arc for the better part of 11 years!! Dabb era, dudes. Family struggles. DEEP EMOTIONAL BONDS, frayed, to be repaired in the endgame. 

English 101: writing an external conflict between two characters can inherently convey INTERNAL CONFLICT — character vs the self, thus introducing significant elements of character development and self-reflection that two characters, intentionally written as romantic star-crossed counterparts to each other, will think about, then either NOT act on or WILL act on. 

In short, the metanarrative focus on Dean and Cas fighting means they’re gonna need to RESOLVE it, and exactly, anon – since it’s the final story countdown, this also means there should be a subversion of every other instance in which they’ve almost hashed things out but were: A. always interrupted, B. gave outside forces priority, not their interpersonal relationship, or C. just plain ol’ avoiding addressing it. 

HOW MANY TIMES CAN THEY SURVIVE THAT? How many times can we survive the drawing-out of WILL THEY WON’T THEY/USING THEIR WORDS?

Lemme tell ya, I do believe we’re going to see the D/C narrative focus grow more potent the closer we get to 15x20, if not earlier. Again, PR isn’t showrunning, but Jensen and Misha are fully aware and informed of their roles as Dean and Cas; they know their tension is a key emotional plot point driving the physical plot, always has been. I mean, it’s already amplified, right in the first episode of the final season!!

After finding out that God is the Big Bad, Dean and Cas must re-evaluate everything they thought they knew about themselves and each other. Again, did they inadvertently play into God’s Angst Plot for them? Did they think they were saving the world on their own terms of free will when in fact, God wanted them to do exactly that – to ignore their self-consciousness and each other’s emotional needs in the process?? *rips hair out* 

Keeping up the awfully sad vibe of arguing ex-husbands a la 14x17/18/19/20, Sam continues to represent all of us. Currently, we don’t see any resolution in sight; once S14 came to a close, they were still clashing. The negative spaces are NOISY! Once again, D/C = divorcees at odds, with what looks like irreconcilable differences. Sigh.

It’s the classic trope of setting aside personal conflict to get the important crap done, yet not realizing that personal conflict is inevitably going to implode.

To get on the same page, Dean and Cas’ preconceived notions of FREE WILL must be challenged, and true free will –> LOVE. God couldn’t control the existence of love...the most powerful force in the world. The ultimate manifestation of free will. TFW threw a wrench into His plans when Dean, out of LOVE, refused to shoot his son, Isaac-mirror Jack – when Cas, out of LOVE, also raised Jack as his own humanized child alongside psychologically nurturing him with Dean – when Sam, out of LOVE, chose to be his teacher in the ways of survival and human difficulty. 

TFW singularly chose to destroy God’s script when they started loving the Nephilim, the TFW mirror, God’s OG Big Bad for his cut-and-paste SPN series of The Winchester Brothers and the Angel Castiel: Same Mistakes Never Learned.

*Back to the point, sorry I went on a whole TFW-lovey-dovey tangent there lol – YEAH, I hope and expect that Dean and Cas will engage in a genuine heart to heart without interruptions, where they no longer let God perch on their shoulders. It’s time for them to set their cards on the table. It’s time for them to USE THEIR WORDS.

Romantic or not (lbr a non-romantic resolution –> greatest cop-out for a 15-year iconic institution, because why even implement consistent, constant tropes of a damn non-platonic nature without any proper follow-through, even in subtext?!), the fact remains that Dean and Cas are longggg overdue for a discussion – a deconstruction of their tension, clearing the air of ALL the stuff they’ve hidden from each other, and with bated breath, I wait. 

(The visual D/C narrative also holds: they stand as a unit together, Sam positioned apart from them. Like, we been knew.) *trots around in clown mask*

Seriously. I’m Destiel-positive so far. 15x01 simply strengthened my (cautious) optimism. If you want to read more about the D/C rift, with Jack at the core of it all (oh man, how fitting that Belphegor, who’s taking up Jack’s image by possessing his body – and remember, Jack was the catalyst for both heavily marital-code unity and conflict in Dean and Cas’ relationship – will seemingly take over Jack’s role as metanarrative exposition/mirror for now), I wrote these late S14/beginning of the last hiatus (below), plus x x

I discuss the Dean/Cas argument here, here and here – it’s both a break-up and argument entrenched in parental mistakes, self-guilt, and their ultimate bond with/trust in each other (particularly in relation to Jack, their subtextual son), where the lying and the dishonesty (a redux of S5/6 and S12) are combined spiral narratives of their relationship that they eventually have to break together. COMMUNICATE BEFORE IT’S TOO LATE

I’ll emphasize this again too – still highly relevant lol (14x18):

Cas is telling himself: if I was completely honest with my husband, without holding back, we could’ve been able to avoid this. I wasn’t honest because I knew how much Jack meant to us. I was 😨. I did it for myself…I did it for Dean. 

Dean is telling himself: I dunno, why am I taking my husband’s dishonesty so hard? Because I 😍 him a lot, and I 😍 my son. I trusted Cas to be honest with me. We could’ve worked together. But, 💩, I guess I wasn’t as open with him as I was supposed to be…about what I wanted, and what I felt.

Me: *slaps notebook closed* *coughs* Uh, it’s a — really long — work in progress. KEEP TALKING. 

[blaster-aichi]

IF 13 debunked so much but in case they might be of use in the future, rather than losing them in the depths of chat logs, decided to slide them here with some new thoughts that came to mind.

THE DEBUNKED

if 13 as a transition from antag Aichi to antag Shuka

After Bushi’s tweet showing a couple of caps from the episode, seeing Aichi smiling and Shuka dazed left the impression that it was the scene where Aichi revealed to Emi that Shuka had been working for him all along, thus breaking her spirit and eradicating their connection as well as Emi’s ability to transform. It was how she recognized Aichi from the photo that Emi showed her when they first met.

But with Shuka’s fixation on him, Sanctuary and getting home, had been suspicious that she might even usurp Aichi’s throne — as with how his ascension had locked her out of Sanctuary — and when Emi, overcoming her reliance on Shuka to transform and Realize, was able to manifest that power herself, defeated Aichi, Shuka rose as the greater threat.

Until this point, Aichi had essentially cornered Shuka, giving her no option but to serve as a double agent with her return to Sanctuary (or wherever her home is) dangled over her head if she sought out Majesty Lord, the greatest threat, and brought him to Sanctuary to remove him from the picture. This was where Ren’s reluctance to entrust Blaster Dark to Shuka and Emi stemmed from; he was aware that Shuka was working beneath Aichi, but to flat-out make the accusation in front of Emi, who had seen Shuka as repairing the distortions, would only case suspicion unto himself instead. Therefore, he had to remain coy, refusing to hand over Blaster Dark to Shuka as doing so was essentially the same thing as handing him over to Aichi.

But with Aichi’s defeat, Shuka would no longer have any restriction imposed on her and full access to Sanctuary, she returned to full power and could allow the distortions to run rampant, with no need to search for any unit or any guise to maintain.

if 14 as an episode paralleling KaiAi and EmiShuka’s relationships / Episode 178-179

Though she had her brother back, Emi had lost something invaluable: a friend like no other. While trying to process the events of the previous episode, Emi crossed ways with Kai-kun, who extended a hand to help (as he did in the original timelines with Aichi when they first met) and listened to Emi’s story about losing a dear friend, which reminded him of Ibuki.

With the trials Kai-kun and Aichi have been through throughout the years, in both iterations of their story, he would be ideal for hearing out Emi going through the same thing and offering advice, even if this version of him had no experience with the same (or had, but it was limited to Miwa and Ibuki if he still moved away).

Having gotten stronger and weaker across the years for the sake of and in pursuit of one another, having Kai-kun be the one who picks up the pieces and help Emi back on her feet in her own, similar journey with Shuka would be neat.

IF as a shield world

Going by the parallels or facets of Legion Mate that IF has been playing with, the removal of Aichi could actually have been brought about as a direct result of the Psyqualia Zombie arc and just how much of a threat he is to a force attacking Cray.

If the Jammers’ intention is to destroy people’s relationship with Vanguard, that motivation could overlap with Brandt’s drive to sever the flow of destiny between the two worlds and feed on it. But with Aichi’s interference — with the show that even Deleting him wasn’t enough, that Cray was willing to intervene and rescue him from losing that connection — extra measures would need to be taken in order to establish their campaign. The next best thing: seal Aichi away within a world where he never came into contact with Vanguard to erode that relationship.

The purpose of IF was to keep Aichi contained in a manner similar to the moon sanctuary, allowing the distortions to grow until they tore apart IF World, and Aichi along with it — or to break him so that, once IF collapsed, allowing him to wreak havoc on the outside in the same vein as his Psyqualia Zombie self, but warped so far that there should be no hope of his salvation.

[Yes, this is putting a lot of emphasis on Aichi in a season where Emi is the focus but this plays on the likeness to Legion Mate that IF has going on]

IF World as a Lostbelt

Just a little easter egg idea that popped into mind during the week. Shuka being the only character with no Outside World counterpart struck as curious. Though this is essentially debunked too, it might have been foreshadowing that, as like IF World isn’t supposed to exist, Shuka played the same role as the allies of FGO’s Lostbelts to erase their dead-end timelines and vanish along with them, leading to Shuka’s erasure once IF was resolved and faded away.

IF’s “Creation” and the Sendous being their Outside World selves dragged inside

This is the only thing the episode didn’t flat-out debunk, and seemed to imply might have some truth to it, so it can sit in this little middle ground. IF is described as being “created”, and the proper timeline described as the “Outside World” makes it sound as though IF is a contained world, into which Outside World characters — Ibuki, Suiko, Rekka, Ren — can enter. But Emi has all along been unclear.

Emi and Aichi could have, all along, been the Outside World siblings pulled inside IF by its creation, their memories sealed away and living their childhoods of IF World, which is why Emi has no recollection of Aichi playing Vanguard, but has a pivotal role in seeing Sanctuary and getting him back. As for Aichi’s, they factor into a new branch below.

POST IF-13

Outside World Aichi’s memories

Something strikes as strange that Aichi would hate Vanguard solely because he never met Kai-kun and began to play; Ibuki had a direct reasoning to despise the game, but there isn’t anything that would present it as a scapegoat for Aichi’s hatred than anything else in the world.

This allows for two possibilities:

— Possession by the Jammers’ root / which might originate from Brandt

Despite his isolation, Aichi showed himself to harbour the same kind personality (almost weirdly, as one would expect he’d remain downtrodden like prior to the babie meeting) until Blaster Blade was presented before him. It’s hard to tell whether the noise he made could be the mask slipping, genuine rage on Aichi’s part or some head Jammer seizing control, it could be any of them, same with visually. This might be his true self, or, like Destiny Conductor’s ability to when he reunited with Misaki, (his) Jammer’s absolute control over him allowing it to fake the real Aichi’s personality.

Other than Ren, Rekka and Shuka — beings not of IF’s Earth — no-one has any power, supernatural or otherwise, yet Aichi wields an enormous amount. It feels safe to assume that IF itself doesn’t possess any power, if it’s a reflection of Outside World, so Aichi’s power must come from something that has taken control and twisted him / taken advantage of his IF circumstances, and it could be that, given its goal of disrupting the relationship between Vanguard and Earth’s humans, it heralds from Brandt rather than an enemy of Cray’s lands.

— Outside World Aichi’s memories were withheld and then thrust upon him

Going by the insinuation that IF Aichi is also the one of Outside World, perhaps his pre-IF memories were sealed until a moment in High School, long past his point of meeting with everyone, when they were unleashed and revealed to him that it was possible to be rescued. Feeling scorned and forsaken within IF, Aichi reacted poorly to the revelation and sought to unleash his rage against Vanguard itself for failing to save him, allowing him to wither within a world that suffocated him with the same loneliness prolonged. Perhaps, ultimately, his goal is to find Kai-kun and sever their relationship altogether a la Reverse Kai-kun so there remains no lingering ties to Vanguard (not that far off Deletion, playing into the fact they’ve switched Aichi and Ibuki’s roles). His recruitment of Kourin, Shingo and Naoki stemmed from their intended place among the Cardfight Club which never formed.

Misaki exclusion from SK4 and Morikawa’s recruitment

As for Misaki, she represented something separate, as someone who was present within Aichi’s life prior to High School. To have her around would deepen the pain within Aichi’s heart, as a representation of Card Capital and the people around them (or even, if his original continuity memories were given to him and she represented the Q4 of that world), and so he refused to recruit her.

Instead, Morikawa, who had initially led him there and back to Kai-kun by the theft of Blaster Blade, filled her space. By taking Morikawa away, there would have never been anything to allow the Middle School Aichi to reconnect with anyone or anything that had been keeping him going since the day of that fateful meeting.

(it was 100% for the gag that he got thrown out before episode 1′s halfway point but let me believe there was a deeper meaning)

Q4 vs Miyaji / SK4

With Aichi’s choosing of his Cardfight Club’s members, the group that the manga and Reboot had emphasized after ts formation, that leaves free the Card Capital regulars to team up with Emi, as the group at the heart of the first Reboot arc and the original continuity — pitting against one another two parts of the story, be it 2011 vs 2018 or Foo Fighter Arc vs Psyqualia Zombie and Continued Arcs.

Wearing Aichi’s middle school jacket and holding his place, Emi recruits the members of the team, in line with the “new arc” idea played with in the preview, as the story moves away from episodic distortion solving, in hopes they might help bring Aichi back to his senses.

Takuto’s capture

Takuto being captured / sealed by Aichi is a fascinating turn of events, given the role Takuto has always played, and how no human has truly gotten the upper hand on him (hi Voidkuto). If he stormed Sanctuary with the intention of dragging Aichi, Kourin and the others back, please show us that fight because boy.

But in the arc prior, Takuto, even if not himself but Destiny Conductor, had so much power over Aichi that he was able to assume absolutely control (i.e. Aichi using “watashi” when telling Naoki to let him go, the faces he pulled during his fight with Misaki, Destiny Conductor’s astonishment when Aichi’s rage allowed him to act of his own accord and fight Ibuki, etc.), but here, the tables have turned completely on him and their positions essentially reversed.

It’s also interesting to think about the Royal Paladin vs. Gold Paladin dynamic that presents, and after Takuto forced Gold Paladin on Aichi during Asia-hen, yet they find themselves on the losing side when their figureheads clash in this scenario.

Majesty Lord Blaster

This isn’t new per se, but not ruling the possibility out so here goes. As with the original Psyqualia arc, Ren noted about how light and darkness are feuding within Aichi and how Majesty Lord represented that. It’s curious how he holds such a prominent role after not appearing within the Reboot and Exculpate being the ace of the Foo Fighter arc, though it could be Majesty Lord’s intention is to serve the same purpose for IF Aichi as Psyqualia Ren and remove the darkness that’s twisted the subject beyond recognition and that’s why Shuka has been so desperate to Realize him.

IF14: new arc, new ED

self-explanatory, I’m ready to die

[stevenuniversallyreviews]

Episode 100: Beta

“Earth can set you free.”

Bismuth is the first two-part episode in the series that was structured as a single long episode. Beta and Earthlings should have been the second.

This isn’t the first time the first half of a two-parter has ended abruptly (here’s lookin’ at you, It Could’ve Been Great), but there’s a difference between wrapping up a story without much resolution and just cutting to commercial midway through the story, and Beta does the latter. It’s not even a cliffhanger, it’s the beginning of a new scene that pauses for effect and starts exactly where it left off in Earthlings. In most regions they premiered back to back, and could be confused for a single unit if not for the title card.

This isn’t an actual complaint: it’s a harmless distinction to have Bismuth as one episode and Beta and Earthlings as two, especially because Zuke’n’Florido boarded this one and Molisee’n’Villeco boarded the next. But when you’re writing episodic reviews, you have to take the segments as they’re presented, and it is really difficult to review the first half of this story as a discrete unit. The rough equivalent would be writing about Bismuth up until they exit the forge and just stopping there. 

I’m not gonna cheat and review Beta and Earthlings at the same time, despite them literally being one story. I could dig in hard to my view that they’re more connected than Mirror Gem/Ocean Gem, The Return/Jailbreak, It Could’ve Been Great/Message Received, and Super Watermelon Island/Gem Drill, but that wouldn’t change that they’re technically two different episodes, and I’m not changing the goal of this blog (to review the series episodically as parts of a whole) out of convenience.

But I am gonna cheat and pull my header quote from Earthlings. Because despite Peridot getting that wonderful moment then, it’s really about what’s happening now. 

You can apply a three-act structure to just about any story if you try hard enough, but Beta is more smoothly divided into halves: Steven and friends at the barn, and Steven and friends at the Beta Kindergarten. The second half is fine. It’s honestly more than fine. We’ll talk about it, of course. But the first half is one of my favorite things in the world.

Amethyst’s arc continues to benefit from its funky flow. Our very first shot is of her whip cracking, outfitted with Bismuth’s upgrade, evoking both Bismuth and, well, Crack the Whip. Steven is still helping her out from Steven vs. Amethyst, and just like in that episode, his encouragement is only hurting: he compliments Amethyst’s whippery (and to be fair, he’s doing it more genuinely than in their video game fight), but she reveals that she’s still down on herself. In less than thirty seconds, we’re right back into the swing of things after a huge episode that had something but not everything to do with Amethyst’s insecurities.

And then we get to the barn.

The Meep Morp Exhibit is Florido’n’Zuke’s finest hour, and I’m saying that as a huge fan of Last One Out of Beach City. It’s everything I want in hangout comedy on this show, and thank goodness it has time to stretch, because every second counts. Like It Could’ve Been Great, we get a first half with a killer opening featuring Peridot, but this time we benefit from spending about half the episode basking in its glory.

(As tempting as it is to spend the rest of the post just telling each joke and intermittently saying “that was so funny,” I’m gonna write about the characters instead of the events. I know, I know, nothing is more entertaining than reading an over-analysis of comedy that threatens to take all the joy out of one of the most joyous sequences in the series, but you’ll just have to deal with it.)

I haven’t talked much about Jennifer Paz yet, but that’s because I’ve been saving it for now: it’s easy to argue she has better showcases than Beta (Can’t Go Back is likely her best episode, and The New Crystal Gems shows off her impersonation skills), but this is a terrific medley of all things Lapis Lazuli. We get sweet and earnest Lapis, pleased as punch to see Steven. We get hesitant but assertive Lapis, smiling while delivering a pitch-perfect “No” to Peridot’s request to fly everyone into the barn. We get Daria Lapis, dry as a bone as she talks about Meep Morps (a rare honest-to-god alien joke in a show about aliens). And we get Lapis as a comedy partner with Peridot; the Paz Pic above is the other half of the image I used for Shelby Rabara in Catch and Release, and like their characters they’re unstoppable together. It’s so great to see Lapis and Peridot getting along, considering we last saw them in a tentative truce, and the new status quo we establish here pays major dividends in the future.

In lesser hands, the tonal fluidity between sincere and sarcastic could have made Lapis seem inconsistent, but Paz has mastered both sides of the equation to the point where it all feels real. This dual nature fuels the best joke of the episode—Lapis correcting Steven’s analysis of a Camp Pining Hearts teen repeating “I just feel trapped” while surrounded by mirrors by saying she just likes the show—because it’s impossible to tell if she’s just messing with us (sorry, had to throw one joke analysis in there). It’s brilliant that a character who has been ambiguous from the start can retain this trait while shifting towards the side of our heroes.

And it makes her a great foil to Peridot, the straightest shooter in the series (not because she wants to be, but because she’s so unsavvy that it’s impossible for her to hide her emotions from us). She’s the consummate host here, openly admitting her desire to impress their guests and snooty without shame as she presents her Morps by name and tells us what they represent. Her bowtie is a wonderful gag by itself, but it gets even better when we see the doll she won in Too Short to Ride, whose bowtie has clearly been ripped out, floating helplessly in the water without comment (okay, last joke analysis, I promise). 

Amethyst’s antsy desire to leave and focus on Jasper keeps us grounded: I could watch an entire episode about Lapis and Peridot showing off their exhibit without any conflict, but we have to keep the ball rolling on Amethyst’s story. Her loud lack of enthusiasm may seem mean (and it is), but showing her reject repurposed junk reveals just how out of it our trash-loving heroine really is. Plus, as she points out on their walk over, she has no reason to think much of Lapis, whose only interactions with Amethyst have been fights or playing baseball as gloomily as possible. Her attitude isn’t enough to put a damper on one of the best scenes in the series, but skillfully keeps us from drifting too far into the majestic realm of Gem Art.

In terms of the immediate plot, the actual goal here is getting Amethyst in the same room as Peridot, who’s the key to resolving her arc in two ways: she has actual answers in regards to Jasper, and she shares a history with Amethyst involving their mutual feelings of inadequacy. We get references to both Too Short to Ride and Too Far here as they talk about size and Kindergartens, and it’s a natural step in Amethyst’s growth to be helped by someone she once helped. This is a Peridot who’s aware of Amethyst’s issues with how she was made, who’s confident and even proud of her short stature, who’s a total ham with her developing metal powers, and who gives casual nicknames and pep talks when her friends are down. None of that would have been possible without her friendship with Amethyst, and it’s time for her to return the favor.

The Beta Kindergarten’s red sandstone has a warmer, brighter feel than the Kindergarten we know and fear, and we can actually see the sky. So while Amethyst’s cheerful attitude in On the Run acts as a contrast to the unsettling setting, Peridot’s snotty appraisal leans comedic. Shelby Rabara’s mean girl delivery of lines like “It was obviously a total rush job” is entertaining, sure, but it also shows a cute implied influence from Camp Pining Hearts and Lapis in her manner of speaking: it’s the same disdain we’ve seen from her throughout the series, but now through the filter of a haughty teen. We could have gotten away with a straight exposition dump about the Beta location’s role in the rebellion, because it’s fascinating lore and Peridot can be mechanical, but as ever, the opportunity is taken to characterize.

As the tour continues, that classic Kindergarten feeling creeps up on us. The eerie instrumentation that accompanies the Prime location quietly emerges as Steven takes a long look at a broken injector, and ominous percussion plays as we finally see Jasper’s hole, taking the wind out of Peridot’s rambling for a moment of whispered terror. Her attitude soon returns (I love that she dismissively refers to the enormous Jasper as “tall”), but is muted once again when we learn the cleverest plot point of Amethyst’s arc.

We know that Amethyst emerged late and small, and that she was an exception in the otherwise sterling track record of the Prime Kindergarten. But now, after minutes of pointing out how all the denizens of Beta were a mess, we realize that Jasper is Amethyst’s polar opposite: a single massive success in a sea of mediocrity. She’s not just good, she’s perfect, born right on time and flexing her muscles all the way out. It’s worth repeating that a handful of episodes ago there was zero connection between Amethyst and Jasper, but thanks to some seriously elegant writing the pair now feels fully intertwined. 

There isn’t an actual resolution to Beta, but the closest we get is Amethyst’s newfound resolve to beat Jasper. After an entire episode spent sulking, our hero is finally revved back up and brimming with enthusiasm, which leaves Peridot picking up the buzzkill baton. Amethyst may be in a better place, and her kinship with the messy offspring of Beta is heartwarming, but she still thinks the only road to satisfaction is defeating her rival in single combat. It’s a mindset that befits her quartz heritage, but I’m glad that it’s Peridot, who got out of her own slump with help from Amethyst, who feels comfortable pointing out that it’s not a realistic goal. Steven’s input has been consistent throughout the episode, and Peridot (who was once told not to focus on what she can’t do by a certain purple Gem) could have been drawn in by Amethyst’s zeal. But for all her artistic sensibilities, this is still a blunt realist, and after going out of her way to try and prove Jasper’s inferiority she’s still forced to admit that Amethyst’s goal is a pipe dream.

Steven keeps to the background here, due to that consistent input. Obviously he’s still charming and helpful, but Beta is more about Amethyst and Peridot in the grand scheme of things. It shows his continuing growth as a leader, realizing that a kindred spirit like Peridot could help Amethyst out, and he still gets a brief pep talk that gets the ball rolling on Amethyst’s rekindled desire to fight Jasper. But he’ll get more focus after the commercial break. For now, we realize that the strange holes are cages for Corrupted Gems, then Jasper emerges from behind a sand cloud, then Amethyst pulls out her whip, then

Future Vision!

We actually meet the Beta Kindergarteners that Amethyst was hyping up in That Will Be All, including Skinny and the Carnelian that Peridot mentioned.

I’ve never been to this…how do you say…school?

Dude, spoilers that Peridot’s gonna become a farmer!

We’re the one, we’re the ONE! TWO! THREE! FOUR!

It’s our hundredth episode! And that means a new expansion of the top list from fifteen to twenty! When It Rains, Catch and Release, Chille Tid, and Keeping It Together return to the higher heights, while Bismuth squeezes right in in the sixteenth slot. We’ll be expanding again to a top 25 at episode 125 to maintain the percentage of glory for another moment.

As for Beta itself, it was a tough call. But if I’m being honest with myself, I love the opening scene so much that it makes up for it only being half a story. I’ve watched that scene alone so many times and it still satisfies.

Top Twenty

Steven and the Stevens

Hit the Diamond

Mirror Gem

Lion 3: Straight to Video

Alone Together

The Return

Jailbreak

The Answer

Sworn to the Sword

Rose’s Scabbard

Mr. Greg

Coach Steven

Giant Woman

Beach City Drift

Winter Forecast

Bismuth

When It Rains

Catch and Release

Chille Tid

Keeping It Together

Love ‘em

Laser Light Cannon

Bubble Buddies

Tiger Millionaire

Lion 2: The Movie

Rose’s Room

An Indirect Kiss

Ocean Gem

Space Race

Garnet’s Universe

Warp Tour

The Test

Future Vision

On the Run

Maximum Capacity

Marble Madness

Political Power

Full Disclosure

Joy Ride

We Need to Talk

Cry for Help

Keystone Motel

Back to the Barn

Steven’s Birthday

It Could’ve Been Great

Message Received

Log Date 7 15 2

Same Old World

The New Lars

Monster Reunion

Alone at Sea

Crack the Whip

Beta

Like ‘em

Gem Glow

Frybo

Arcade Mania

So Many Birthdays

Lars and the Cool Kids

Onion Trade

Steven the Sword Fighter

Beach Party

Monster Buddies

Keep Beach City Weird

Watermelon Steven

The Message

Open Book

Story for Steven

Shirt Club

Love Letters

Reformed

Rising Tides, Crashing Tides

Onion Friend

Historical Friction

Friend Ship

Nightmare Hospital

Too Far

Barn Mates

Steven Floats

Drop Beat Dad

Too Short to Ride

Restaurant Wars

Kiki’s Pizza Delivery Service

Greg the Babysitter

Gem Hunt

Steven vs. Amethyst

Enh

Cheeseburger Backpack

Together Breakfast

Cat Fingers

Serious Steven

Steven’s Lion

Joking Victim

Secret Team

Say Uncle

Super Watermelon Island

Gem Drill

No Thanks!

     5. Horror Club      4. Fusion Cuisine      3. House Guest      2. Sadie’s Song      1. Island Adventure

[namixart]

To start off 2019 with some positivity, I'm going to make a list of things that I absolutely love and make me happy in my favourite shows, movies, books, games etc. Small things, big things, no particular rhyme or reason. It was surprisingly therapeutic. Feel free to reblog and add your own!

Link being left-handed now let him use sign language Nintendo please

The entire Sector 6 Market section in Final Fantasy VII and the Honeybee Inn in particular

Zuko's character arc

The Pirates of the Caribbean soundtrack

Final Fantasy X's worldbuilding

Everything about Disney's Mary Poppins it put me in a good mood for three days straight

How Percy absolutely adores his mum and is supportive of her relationship with Paul (after a while)

Edward Elric

(Yes. Just Edward Elric as a character, person, concept, actions...)

Major character design kink: boys with long (ish) blonde hair (see Edward, Link, Zidane, Howl)

Final Fantasy IX's soundtrack

Aerith and Tifa being close friends despite both being in love with Cloud

The Gentleman Bastard Sequence's worldbuilding

The fact that one of the characters in Zootopia speaks with my city's accent in the Italian dub (you never see it in any movie)

Final Fantasy IV's world being just vague enough that it tickles my creative bone to expand on it

Kingdom Hearts I using original storylines for the Disney Worlds

How Yato's eyes are very a very clear indication that he's a supernatural being in Noragami, being unnaturally light and bright

That one panel in the Kingdom Hearts II manga where an almost-naked Pete carries Maleficent bridal style out of the collapsing tower

Sleeping Beauty's art style and instrumental soundtrack

The fact that two super popular shonen manga/anime have leads who are super smart instead of being dumb muscle or the stock happy-go-lucky-not-very-bright protagonist (Fullmetal Alchemist and My Hero Academia)

How some of the Olympians like Hermes and Poseidon are so casual when interacting with mortals

The scene where the Spaceport is revealed in Treasure Planet and the look of the film in general

The first few chapters of the Yu-Gi-Oh! manga before card games took over the plot

People in the Gentleman Bastard Sequence being emotionally honest despite being literal con artists

The theatre motif in The Republic of Thieves

Cloud, Aerith and Tifa threatening Don Corneo, but especially Aerith saying that "she'll rip it off" if he doesn't cooperate

Locke and Jean becoming pirates in Red Seas Under Red Skies

The Hunger Games movies being the most accurate film adaptations I have seen in my life

The Kingdom Hearts soundtrack, especially the vocal tracks, Dearly Beloved and The Other Promise

Final Fantasy VI shoving you in what usually is the backstory of a videogame and literally destroying the world

Edward defending Mustang when he had his sight taken from him despite them having spent 90% of their screentime together bickering

Tony Stark and Peter Parker's relationship in the MCU

Sophie throwing a tantrum after she realises she's in love with Howl and creating deadly weedkiller to express those feelings

Darcy being a goddamn social Disaster in every incarnation of Pride and Prejudice

The relationship between Roy Mustang and Riza Hawkeye

The Once Upon a December sequence from Anastasia

The mere existence of Zamira Drakasha and Ezri Delmastro and everything they represent

Sokka's role as both the strategist and the goofball in the Gaang

Peter Parker sharing a hot dog with Loki when he could have asked for anything because Loki owed him a favour

How the plot of Kingdom Hearts is so ridiculous we don't even question it anymore

Enormous muscly men I can still categorise as "super adorable and sweet" (Major Armstrong, All Might)

Howl being the biggest drama queen in the book

My Hero Academia's fantasy AU ending

Spider-Man (PS4) nailing the Friendly Neighbourhood Spidey aspect of the character and letting him interact with civilians

That moment when I was sure Bakugou was going to join the League of Villains but then he didn't and I've never been happier about being wrong my entire life

Zuko practising before asking the Gaang to join them

SNAP SNAP SPARK SPARK

Harry's wonder at every new thing in the Wizarding World

The fact that Spider-Man's backstory could just as easily be that of a villain but instead he's a hero and he has the biggest heart

Jake and Amy being in an Adult and Communicative relationship while still being themselves and each other's best friend

Winry being just as much of a prodigy as Ed and Al and building Ed's automail at 11 years old

Percy Jackson starting out as a standard straight white kids' series and Riordan adding ALL THE DIVERSITY as soon as it got popular enough that Disney couldn't say no

Charlie Weasley just outright trespassing into Hogwarts to smuggle an illegal dragon out

The soul and essence of Pride and Prejudice being passive-aggressiveness and sarcasm

Apollo's haikus in Trials of Apollo

Every scene using Deep Canvas in Tarzan

Winry and Edward's diametrically opposed reactions to the realisation they're in love ("Oh I guess I've fallen for him alright moving on" vs "Fuckfuckfuckfuck oh shit no why oh god aaaaaaaaaaaaaahhhh")

Lilo & Stitch's watercolour backgrounds

The fact that Roy Mustang's womanising persona is a facade to hide the fact that he's a) a huge nerd, b) going to overthrow the government and c) in love with his lieutenant

The "makings of greatness" speech in Treasure Planet

Spider-Man (PS4)'s swelling score as you start web swinging

The Battle of 1000 Heartless in Kingdom Hearts II

Sophie proudly describing Howl to Abdullah, him assuming she was listing flaws and her getting angry about it

Edward and Alphonse being atheists despite having literally met their version of God

The fact that Amajiki is one of the top three hero students despite his crippling anxiety

Rubicante recognising Edge as a warrior and apologising for Lugae's horribleness

Edge unlocking new powers out of sheer rage

Sora throwing a tea party at the end of Dream Drop Distance while his best friend was still asleep

The backstory in Skyward Sword about Hylia and the first Link

The "immoral manga" omake in Fullmetal Alchemist

The School Festival arc in My Hero Academia, Eri finally smiling and Deku and Mirio being the best big brothers I've ever seen

Kingdom Hearts III finally coming out this month

McGonagall's cat form resembling her human form

Edward finally breaking down at the end of Fullmetal Alchemist god I love this boy so much he has such a big heart

The Enlarged Suit Scene from Howl's Moving Castle

Most of Howl’s Moving Castle is a delight to be honest

Kairi's reaction at the news that she would be training with Axel in A Fragmentary Passage

The bonfire scene in Cosmo Canyon from Final Fantasy VII

Uraraka deciding not to focus on her crush on Deku in order to grow as a hero

Rydia summoning Titan and raising a mountain at the ripe age of seven in Final Fantasy IV

The friendship between Percy, Annabeth and Grover

Kairi and Lea looking like they're going to be a team in Kingdom Hearts III

Greed (at least the second one) claiming that his goal in life is to have everything when in fact he only ever really wanted friends

The Main Theme of Final Fantasy playing during the scene where the characters not in the final battle pray for the party in Final Fantasy IV

The Overture from Phantom of the Opera

Locke Lamora from the Gentleman Bastard Sequence being named after Locke Cole from Final Fantasy VI

Luna Lovegood never having to change who she is and remaining weird and happy

Terra Branford becoming more human by feeling not romantic love but maternal love for a bunch of orphaned children

The "You're not alone" scene from Final Fantasy IX

Darcy respecting Elizabeth's refusal of his first proposal and working to become a better person after she points out his many flaws

Neku learning to open up to people in The World Ends With You and literally saving Shibuya through character development

Bakugou's slow development into a better person

The sketchy animation during Disney's Dark Age

The official character artwork for Skyward Sword

Harry and Sirius's relationship

Spider-Man being a street-level hero and being super humble even though he can literally lift Thor's hammer

That little high-five between Sora and Remy in the 30 seconds trailer for Kingdom Hearts III

Rosa and Rydia immediately ignoring the boys' order to not come to the Moon and stowing away on the Lunar Whale

Plus Edge's adorable "Y-you're here too!?" in the DS remake

Cloud not being allergic to smiling and joking around in the original Final Fantasy VII ("Let's mosey!")

Thor and Loki starting to mend their relationship in Ragnarok

Into The Spider Verse has a scene where Miles uses Spider-Man comic books to figure out how to use his powers and it's the best and I love it

You know what, Into The Spider Verse as a whole because I saw it a while back and I'm still gushing

[newx-menfan]

X-23 and the Direction of the X-Men

I’ve talked a lot about what I don’t like with what Marvel has been doing, so I thought I’d talk about what I DO like with the X-23 solo series and how the X-Men line in general could benefit from doing the same…

Mariko Tamaki’s solo series utilizes elements of Morrison, Kyle and Yost, Liu, and Taylor; without being dependent on them. While examining Laura and Gabby’s histories as clones; I don’t feel like this story arc is TRYING to be ‘Innocence Lost’, ‘Target X, ‘the Four Sisters’, 'Riot at Xavier’s’, or 'Planet X’ . It’s very much it’s own story, instead of a continuation of previous stories.

One of the major reasons for this is Mariko doing something different with Laura’s clone narrative; by having her story parallel the Stepford Cuckoos, characters Laura has been around but never really interacted with.

This helps bring out BOTH a different side to Laura and a different side to the Cuckoos that we didn’t get to see before. Mariko examines Laura’s, Gabby’s, and the Cuckoos motivations thoroughly in this series; making the big motivating factor being different characters psychologies and points of view.

The Cuckoos motivations ARE relatable- wanting their family back. They also both connect to Laura’s inability to somewhat see herself as a individual- by dressing and acting as one; and Gabby’s desire for independence-be having different personalities and personal tastes. Esme wants to both be THE ONLY Cuckoo while simultaneously wanting to merge the Cuckoos power; essentially being permanently connected with her sisters.

Another big change is the risk factor; before in All New Wolverine there was little fear that Gabby was at risk. While Taylor did put her in dangerous situations; rarely as a reader did you question whether or not Gabby would come out of the situation okay. The change is, Mariko’s willingness to allow BOTH Gabby and Laura to go through conflict. While Gabby WILL more than likely come out of the situation physically unharmed, there is the question of-'How will this situation change or shape Gabby as a person?’ What changes will Laura and Gabby go through because of this story arc?

Good writing NEEDS conflict, because conflict is the biggest connector to humanity we have. Conflict can be anything from 'I lost my keys’ to more complicated conflicts like 'Who am I?’. Conflict can be Internal (man vs. self) or External (man vs. nature, man vs. man/society, ect…). But the universal truth is that everyone will experience some form of conflict in our lives and that conflict will shape us.

These elements are what have made the recent X-23 solo a really solid book (well that and Juann Cabal/Nolan Woodard’s art and inking…). It’s also the upcoming problems I see with the recent 'Uncanny’ and 'X-Force’.

Kelly Thompson, Matthew Rosenberg, and Ed Brisson ARE right-The series hasn’t released yet, so I can’t completely comment whether or not it will have these elements or not; but all of the indicators from solicits and interviews DON’T look very convincing…

If Brisson , Rosenberg, or Thompson were introducing a new villain- I’d give them the benefit of the doubt; but the character they are using is the rather overused Apocalypse.

If they were showing a different side of Apocalypse through some difference in plot, that would be one thing-but from the looks of it, it’s playing off 1995 storyline 'Age of Apocalypse’ where David Haller creates a new timeline when accidentally killing his father after traveling back in time to kill Magneto; the only minor difference appears to be is having the 'Horsemen of Salvation’ and kinda in representing Nate Grey as a messiah (a role he regularly rejected…).

We’ve seen the mutant 'messiah’ before-with Jean, with Rachel, with Cable, and with Hope. At the very LEAST you could have done someone NOT tied to the Summer’s…

We’ve seen Angel as a horseman; maybe having Angel being 'Life’ instead of 'Death’ will bring out a new facet to his character, but from the looks of it, the story will heavily hinge on his on again/off again relationship with Betsy.

Are we seeing a new team lineup-from the looks of it, not really; the focus seems to be Iceman, Jean Grey, Beast, Cannonball, Storm, Bishop, Nightcrawler, Jubilee, Psylocke and X-23.

*X-23 and Cannonball are really the only new additions.

*One of the covers heavily featured Legion, hinting that he will AGAIN play a part in kicking this story off.

*Bishop in the original 'Age of Apocalypse’ storyline was the character to notice the timeline WAS wrong and fought to fix it-so it’s not all that surprising to include him.

*X-Man was the main protagonist in the original 'Age of Apocalypse’- maybe their plan is to SUBVERT this trope by making HIM the antagonist and thus making a commentary around organized religion…but I kind of doubt it….

Pixie, Glob, Rockslide, and Armor are SUPPOSED to be the Horsemen of Apocalypse but I am somewhat doubtful that this will largely impact their characters developmentally any more than 'Age of X’ impacted Julian’s, or any of the OTHER ALTERNATE UNIVERSES have largely impacted any of the characters.

Can playing with old storyline’s and nostalgia BE fun: yes, but too much nostalgia becomes empty. It becomes desperately trying to grasp a time period long past that you are inevitably romanticizing and coloring with personal connections. It inevitably showcases how out of touch the writer is with current society…

It would have been one thing if X-Men HADN’T been over utilizing past teams and stories- but in the last few years we got 'the Original Five’ (both time displaced and living adult members…), the Exiles, Generation X, New Mutants/X-Factor hybrid, BloodStorm, Gold with a Claremont reminiscent team, Gambit and Rogue back together, Kitty and Colossus back together, Magneto reverting back to his roots as a villain, Emma reverting back to her roots as a villain, Xavier back, and multiple extinction storyline’s trying to be M-Day or the Legacy Virus…

It would be one thing if X-Men had taken a break from AU characters- but in the last few years we’ve had time displaced Original Five, Jimmy Hudson, baby Cable, Raze, clone Kid Apocalypse, BloodStorm back in focus, Old Man Logan, Exiles characters, ect…

Maybe this title is different and people are 'Pre-Judging’ it; but when in the last few years has Marvel given fans a lot to go on?! The recent interview could essentially be copied and pasted from 'ResurrXtion’-promising big changes before reverting to a overplayed status quo… Maybe this IS a new take on 'Age of Apocalypse’- but hasn’t Marvel promised that beforehand?! They promised a new take with the 'Original Five’ coming back, with the extinction plotline, and with countless other storyline’s-yet Jean and Scott’s romance is heavily the focus, the mutant population inexplicably recovers from mass genocide without any lasting effects, and little character growth actually happens.

I’m not saying this to 'rain on the writers parades’ or target them; but this has been promised BEFORE and all signs indicate this IS the exact same empty nostalgia we’ve seen for years…

I’m not writing this to be negative or condescending. I WANT to be wrong…but I don’t think I am, because I honestly don’t think the writers WOULD be getting defensive if this wasn’t a by the numbers homage to 'Age of Apocalypse’. You don’t NEED to get defensive if you have a trump card or brand new idea up your sleeve.

Whether you love or hate Morrison, Whedon, or Kyle/Yost; there’s no denying they are iconic runs BECAUSE they did something new.

Morrison created villain Cassandra Nova and countless other characters, utilized Emma as a main character to create a new dynamic, and examined population changes with having Mutants become the majority and create their own culture. Even Morrison’s representation of Scott, while controversial, still took a new look at Scott as a character.

Whedon created several characters including Danger, Armor, and Blindfold; explored Xavier’s more questionable decisions, and focused heavily on character dynamics and psychology of the characters. One of the defining relationships was the conflict between Emma and Kitty; utilizing old animosity but examining it under a new lens of Emma being a hero and interacting with Kitty (they did not interact when Emma was part of Generation X).

Kyle and Yost created X-23, creating a new examination into Wolverine’s mythos and a new dynamic. They heavily utilized some of the newer teen characters, to again create a new dynamic. While using older stories (Nimrod, William Stryker, Magik’s origin) by injecting new characters they created something refreshing instead of empty nostalgia. It also examines the darker side of X-Men, by questioning the choice of teens being recruited to essentially be a 'paramilitary group’…

Are all these writers still using old storyline’s- yes, but by adjusting lineups of characters, adding new dynamics, creating new characters, and examining the X-Men under a different social lens: it can dramatically change the story.

The original 'Age of Apocalypse’ also did this when first written by analyzing what the world would be like ruled by Apocalypse and changing character motivations and relationships.

X-Men doesn’t HAVE to change drastically; but it does need some variation. I’ve said this once, and I’ll say it again- I don’t think fans are being unfair by questioning if this was a good choice to semi reboot the X-Men. This by all appearances doesn’t LOOK like a 'Fresh Start’. Sorry but people are going to 'pre-judge’ things; it’s one of the things that sucks about being a writer.

It would be one thing if X-Men had been knocking it out of the park storyline wise, for the past few years- but the truth is, is they haven’t. You can’t blame fans for being tired of giving Marvel a chance only to watch them make the same pitfalls over and over again.

If you don’t want the criticism-maybe take a chance and try something NEW…

X-23 PROVES Marvel CAN get it right- they just need to put the same thought into the X-teams that they put into her solo.

[twdmusicboxmystery]

Possible Ties Between Alone and AL’s Departure

Today’s theory comes to you from the ingenious mind of @wdway. After I did these posts (X, X) about Andrew Lincoln’s departure and how I believe it’s been planned this way from the beginning, she had some awesome insights that might just make you look at the symbolism in Alone in a whole new light.

TD has tried to figure out the symbolism and dates in Alone since S5. For the most part, our analysis has centered around the fact that they actually walk through graveyard. That can be symbolic of death, but of course they both survive it. We’ve thought it foreshadowed Beth's arc. She walks through graveyard, which means she almost died, and perhaps should have, but came through on the other side.

It's also important that Daryl gives her the serious piggyback. Not only is that a great way to mention the word serious (Sirius the dog star who always returns), but the two of them together like that represents them becoming one, no. As I said HERE in the Tarot card post, the symbolism of an asexual being (because it's a man and a woman together) with four arms, four legs and two heads, is symbolic of soulmates. So I think it represented that they would be together romantically. But also, in terms of the writing, it represented that they would have the exact same arc. Those arcs have played out at different times and in different places, but they were still the same arc. We’ve already seen fulfillment of that in how Daryl was kept captive at the Sanctuary in the same way Beth was kept captive at Grady.

And of course we’re always trying to figure out how the dates on the head stone correlate with what we've seen. We were super excited in S8, because the dates actually lined up with days episodes aired on. We hoped that meant Beth would return those episodes (8x05-8x08). But of course, she didn't. So we’re still unclear on what the dates mean or how they might tie into S9, but I do have one thing I like to say about them. I will add it in after I get to @wdway’s insight.

So here's what @wdway had to say. If I'm right, and Rick's departure was planned back in S4, which we have a lot of evidence for, then this scene in Alone foreshadow Rick leaving. So let's look at what happens from a broad point of view.

We have Beth and Daryl becoming one, and then walking through graveyard. I would argue we saw the fulfillment of that in S4 and S5. The two of them connected, became soulmates, but then both of them went through a symbolic death. (Beth’s was physical, both because she was shot and because everyone on the show and most people in the audience think she's dead. Daryl’s, as foreshadowed when he laid in the coffin, was more emotional.)

Even many of the general audience have commented many tiems over the past few years that Daryl hasn't had any real character development since Beth died. That's purposeful on the writer’s parts. He is still in this part of his arc. He died emotionally when he lost Beth and is now stuck in limbo. He can't develop, he can't move on without her.

So after moving through the graveyard, they stop the gravestone which the which reads “Beloved Father.” In terms of the plot in S4, this was something of a memorial for Herschel. He didn't get a burial at the prison because everyone had to run for their lives, so this was their way of saying goodbye.

But...

In terms of what's happening in the show now, in S9, let me pose a question. Who is the quintessential father on the show? Of all of the characters, who would you think of if I say “dad?”

It's Rick, right? He's the only one that has actual children to look after on the show. He’s the one we’ve heard called “dad” a lot by Carl. Rick is the one who constantly talks about how everything is about his kids; they’re the reason behind everything he does.

So Rick is the quintessential father on the show. Both literally because of Carl and Judith, and figuratively because he’s the leader, and therefore the “father” of TF. Herschel once occupied that role, but it hasn't been his since he died in S4.

@wdway’s insight was that perhaps this grave foreshadowed Rick's death. The gravestone itself could foreshadow that the quintessential father on the show would die and that Beth and Daryl would stand in front of his grave and mourn him. Her point was that this foreshadowed Beth being there to comfort Daryl when he is mourning Rick, just as he was there to comfort her when she mourned Herschel.

Looking at the sequence, this didn't happen until after they both had their symbolic deaths, which suggests Beth was never going to return until the father (i.e. Rick) died. She’ll be there to help Daryl through his grief, just as he was there to help her when she lost her father.

I could take this even further by saying that the sparks of romance didn't happen until after they mourned at the father headstone. So once again, will have both of their death arcs, then the beloved father (Rick) will die and Beth will be there to help Daryl through that. And only after that we’ll see a Bethyl romance. Meanwhile, we had Beth singing to Daryl and the bridal carry, which will probably figure into things in some way.

I also mentioned in THIS POST that with Beth stepping into the sheriff role, we might have something similar to 4x08, where perhaps Beth will step into Rick's role, Negan will be in the Gov's role, and Rick will be in Herschel's role. Remember, Herschel died, and I'm wondering if they’ll follow a similar template for Rick's departure. So it would actually make a lot of sense for this headstone to represent both Herschel and then later Rick. Once again, the arcs are circular, and are about to be recycled again.

I was also thinking about the whole “gone” vs. dead theme yesterday, and I had a random insight into this. It may be very significant that in 4x16, it was Rick Daryl talked to about Beth when he said, “she's just gone,” in answer to Rick's question about whether Beth was dead. We couldn't possibly have known at the time, but if Rick's arc follows Beth's in this way, and he returns eventually too, the conversation wasn't just about Beth. It will eventually apply to Rick as well. Daryl will lose them both, but later regain them again.

So what I wanted to say about the dates on the stone and Carl’s death is that, if Carl’s death leads to Rick’s death/departure in some way, that may explain the dates on the stone. We have no idea how this will all play out yet, but I have a hunch that the dates on the headstone will make more sense after Rick’s departure.

Anyway, that’s pretty much it. I thought this was an amazing insight. Thoughts?

[commenter2]

Story arc ideas for yugioh sequel series (Part 2)

I am so sorry that this is late, things have been pretty busy but now I’m back, and not only is this finally done but I was able to do a few other post as well that hopefully Ill be able to post soon. LONG POST WARNING

Here is part 2 which contains ideas for all the other yugioh shows up to Arc V, as well as one misc. idea and an idea for the original series. Here is the link to part 1 which contains misc ideas for all the series and ideas involving the original series: https://commentron.tumblr.com/post/172998364223/story-arc-ideas-for-yugioh-sequel-series-part-1

For the misc idea

More duels combo between characters- Looking back I’m kinda suprised that the writers never tried and add more duels between other main characters in there respective shows, like Yami Bakura vs. Joey, Syrus vs. Chazz (or Alexis), and Crow vs. Jack to name a few. Maybe if they do make any sequel series for the yugioh series, they should implement these duels more, or at least in the next spinoff series.

 For the original yugioh show

OVA episodes of Yugi an Joey’s duel after battle city tournament- It was said multiple times that Joey would duel Yugi to get his Red Eyes back from him, yet we never got to see it happen, so what if there was a ova or two that showed us how that duel played out.

 Now for GX

The Gang’s adventures after duel academy- In season 4 of GX, we got to learn what some of the gang were going to do after they graduated from Duel academy, but what if we got a small arc where we get to see the characters work to accomplish there dreams. The first quarter of this arc would show the characters work on trying to achieve there goals however later on maybe all the characters reunite as it turns out someone is trying to do something evil within the dueling community, so its up to them save the day again.

Return to Duel Academy - This idea would be more like previous seasons of GX then my last idea. After a few years since graduation, the gang is invited back to the by Chancellor Shepard where they learn from him that the current generation of duelist there aren’t as good/motivated as when the main cast attended, so he invited them in hopes that they will inspire them, and offers whoever inspires the most students a prize of there choosing, so they accept but while there they soon learn that some students (or one) are looking of an item/card on the island that will give them (or he/she) immense power (or something like that) when found, throwing them into another world saving adventure.

An alternate version for this is that the gang go to the island for a class reunion (not a typical 10 or 5 year anniversary, maybe 2 or 3 years) where they learn that a tournament will be held for them and whoever wins not only gets to keep a prized item from the island but also get to teach a few classes at the Academy, so the gang decide to compete, maybe during the season they inspire the next gen of duelist. However unbeknownst to them the item that is offered is targeted by the antagonist of the arc as it is the key to finding an ancient power or card (not the sacred beast though) that he wants in order to take the world or gain immense power so not only do they have to compete in order to get the prize/teach the classes (or for fun according to Jaden) but also save the world.

Original and GX cast working together- Its clearly shown in GX that not only is the original cast of characters still alive and well but there possibly on another adventure (it was hinted at by an older grandpa Muto in one episode of GX) so maybe we could see the GX cast run into the original cast and work with them in order to save the world, or at least duel them for fun. We could even see Yugi and Jaden have a rematch.

Jaden vs. Light/Darkness alliance- Not my greatest idea but I thought I but it down. In GX Jaden defeated not only a being of Light but a being of Darkness so maybe we can see an arc where both enemies return and are working together in order to destroy Jaden.

If a GX sequel ever happens I do want the writers to at least try the following ideas.

Bring Bastion back- Since I said characters should get more screen time, the writers should try and bring him back into the series and give him a bigger role, not only dueling more then he did in the past but maybe also make him a teacher at the Academy. Him returning could also result in Konami to make more cards for him, maybe that Fire Dragon in the credits and/or more monsters based on chemical formulas. While there at it, maybe they should try and bring back other characters as well like Jim Cook, Blair, and Adrian Gecko to name a few

Dub season 4- If a GX sequel does come out and gets dubbed, the people who dub the episodes should also try and dub season 4, since no one has tried to dub it as of yet. Same thing for all the other yugioh series that have episodes that were never dubbed like 5Ds and Arc V.

Don’t fill the dub with jokes- One thing the dub version of GX is infamous for is how the dub was pretty bad, consisting of mostly humor, even at the most intense moments. That’s why if another GX is made, or season 4 of the series is dub, neither should be as wacky as the first 3 seasons dialogue wise.

And finally the biggest personal idea/opinion

Yubel being separated from Jaden- A lot of people who watched GX didn’t like how near the end of season 3, it was shoehorned that Yubel was not only a just a duel monster card friend of Jaden’s when he was a kid but also the reincarnation of another friend from Jaden’s previous life when he was a prince, who later fused with Jaden.

Now I’m ok with her being a reincarnation of a friend from Jaden’s past life as well as an old duel monster spirit from his current life, or that Jaden was a prince in his past life (something that I believe is never brought up again in season 4) but I didn’t like how she and Jaden fused together at the end of season 3 because of several reasons.

One reason is though referenced several times in season 4 Yubel rarely appears in the season, thereby making her not necessary. Another is that it made Jaden more like Yugi and the Pharaoh, which I don’t like since it was clearly shown that Jaden was suppose to be different from them, it also doesn’t help that Jaden supposedly got powers from Yubel but I didn’t notice any of this. But the biggest reason is that Jaden already had enough spirits to begin with, so why did he need another one, especially one that never does anything.

That why I think if a GX sequel show happens, the writers should try and retcon this by making the villain of an arc somehow extract Yubel from Jaden’s soul (or steal her card) and hold her prisoner for the arc. I can see some good things coming from this, not only would this fix a mistake the writers did a long time ago but also make Jaden less like Yugi/Yami. Another thing that can result from this is that it gives Jaden a reason to save the world again, but learning from the events of season 3 and 4, doesn’t get obsessed on saving her that he “loses’ himself, thus seeing some development.

This could also possibly result in good story moments as well, like maybe losing Yubel makes Jaden develop feeling for Alexis or maybe after seeing her get destroyed she could become reincarnated at either a human girl around Jaden’s age or as the daughter of his and Alexis ?

 The following are ideas that could bring speed to 5Ds

Return of the Dark Signers- A big part of 5Ds was the Crimson Dragon, a being of goodness that chose the main characters to help stop great evil throughout the series, and in season  2, a group of bad guys were given the name dark signers as a joke to it. This got me thinking, if there is an all powerful dragon that represents good, could there be one that represented evil? I mean there’s got to be since there is always an opposite force to things like this, plus fun fact in the manga the Crimson Dragon was depicted as evil.

This is where my idea comes into play, a few months/years after the events of the last episode or maybe somewhere in between seasons 2 and 3, the gang has to save the world from 6 chosen dark signers who do the bidding of an anti crimson dragon of sorts, whose goal is to destroy its good part and bring the universe into chaos, or control it.  

A mystery solving arc- This would be an arc similar to the Grand Championship arc from the original yugioh anime as though there is a threat, it isn’t something that can destroy the world, which I think would be interesting to see in the 5Ds world since I didn’t like how they made everything so serious, though its seriousness can work for a mystery themed arc.

It will take place a few months or a year after the events of the last season as the cast of 5Ds conveniently reunites again when they enter/work at the tournament of a new type of turbo dueling that I thought up, which is a cross country race where duelist not only have to defend themselves from other duelist but also try and reach certain checkpoints across the country before a certain number of positions fill up in order to advance to the next part of the race. Maybe similar to Arc V (or Mario kart when I think about it XD) they can find cards across the track that can aid them in duels or the higher the place a racer is in the tournament, the more chance they can get of getting an advantage in the next part of the race.

However things start to get serious as a masked duelist (and some minions) appear and sabotages the race by not only eliminating players in duels but also sabotaging their gear (like decks and vehicles) and the race track. So its up to Yusei and the gang to try and stop this guy from ruining the tournament while figuring out who he is. However unlike in other yugioh shows the obvious antagonist isn’t shown to the viewers, giving the arc a mystery theme to it as the identity of the  “masked duelist” would constantly change through out the arc until near the end where it revealed.

The only small thing I would like to see happen in a 5Ds sequel series is this.

Make turbo dueling more interesting- To me turbo dueling was a failed attempt to make dueling in the show more interesting as the only thing it did was make duelist ride modified motorcycles around tracks, sure there were other things that made it different from regular dueling but none that changed the concept of the game that much.

However I have some ideas that can fix this. Like I said in my previous idea, maybe they could do what Zexal and Arc V did, and have players find random cards on the track/field and use them to help them in there duels. Another idea is to have race courses with various obstacles on them that if a duelist touch something happens, like lose life points, have something positive or negative happen to them, or automatically lose, that way not only do the characters have to focus on the duel but also on there driving, making it more intense.

Zexal

Revenge of Barian world- If fiction have taught me anything, just cause peace was established somewhere, doesn’t mean it will last. My idea is that a few years after the events of the last episode, and defeating the “great evil” hinted at in said episode, which they could say wasn’t as bad as they thought. Things are going bad on zexal/barian world (the new planet was never given a name) as the fusion of the worlds seems to be having negative side effects on the world and its people, maybe have it cause some negative things on earth as well. 

Turns out the world is starting to tear apart due to some rouge chaos energy in the core, however Astral or someone else finds out that there is an item on Earth that can save the planet but doesn’t know where it is, and that someone else is looking for it in order to gain its powers. If that wasn’t enough a splinter cell consisting of former Barian world people, and maybe a few Astral people are also looking for it in order to split the world in order to bring back the original dimensions, so now its up to Astral with the help of an older Yuma (maybe 16 or 17) to stop them and save the planet before its destruction.

Aliens attack- Another not great plan but I thought I put it down. This arc would center around another alien race, specifically a group of tyrannical beings, from a parallel dimension who after detecting the fusion between Astral and Barian world, have traveled there in order to conquer it and Earth, just like they did to there home dimension, that big hand at the end of the series was actually a imprint of the machine (powered by a form of chaos) they used to get to astral/barian world. 

However after realizing that either race can put a dent to there goal, even destroy them and there empire if the 2 work together, they devise a plan that involves getting the humans and astral/barians (or all 3) to go to war against each other, so that when weak enough will be easily for the new antagonistic race to conquer. However Astral catches wind of this plan (or maybe he’s told this by a rouge agent of the new race) so he ask an older Yuma to help him, which leads the duo on another quest to save the world, while at the same time trying to prevent the planets and even his friends from fighting one another.

A key theme for this arc would be trust and friendship as not only would fights between the humans and astral/barian (or all 3) people constantly happen on the show, but Yuma would also get in fights with his friends as well, as after a few close calls some of the characters like Bronk and Caswell start to question things like why Yuma should make the decisions, and at some point some of them some stop helping him, maybe go to the dark side for a bit. Speaking of fights this idea would involve humans finding out about the barians and astrals constantly, as at some point (maybe hallway in the series or first season) the barians and astrals reveal themselves to the entire world

Here are misc. things that should happen

Confirm if the events of 5Ds did happen- Before Arc V introduced the alternate dimensions/universes concept, people questioned if Zexal took place in an alternate timeline where the events of 5Ds never took place, cause not only did the show never referenced anything from 5Ds itself (especially in this one episode featuring duels monsters used by past main characters) but out of all the non xyz’s monsters used in the show none were synchro monsters.  This should finally get answered if another Zexal series comes out, I even have ideas on how thy can handle this depending of what the writers decide to do.

If it does take place in an alternate universe the writers could bring up that in Zexal, Ener-D was a failed attempt of an alternate power source, which as a result not only cause the events of 5Ds from never happening but also never created the tech needed to make Duel Runners and as a result Turbo dueling as well as inspire synchro monsters.

If it doesn’t a possible explanation is that the events of 5Ds happened a century or more ago before the events of Zexal (cause when compared to 5Ds, Zexal looks like its takes place much farther in the future) and as time went on stuff like turbo dueling along with synchro, and fusion monsters, became more unpopular (or to expensive to fund in turbo dueling case) and were faded out/forgotten in the duel community which would eventually favor regular dueling and xyz. Or say turbo dueling and synchro monsters are more popular and/or used more in other parts in the yugioh world, but heartland city isn’t one of them.

Use fusion/synchro monsters in series- This can work depending on either answer in my previous idea. In Arc V I liked how all extra deck monsters were used throughout the entire series, and I think they should do this in a Zexal show as well (if it does takes place in a world where all previous shows existed) but better since Pendulum summoning won’t be used (I’m not a big fan of those cards). The writers could say that during the time skip, fusion (and or synchro if 5Ds did happen in Zexal timeline) monsters made a comeback in the dueling world, thus dueling has become more intense then before, making the show itself intense.

Time for Arc V

Saving the yugioh multiverse- Though the idea of alternate universes in the yugioh world is cool, me and other people didn’t like how it kinda ruins the idea that all the previous shows before Arc V no longer take place on one big timeline (at least up to 5Ds max) so I have some ideas that could not only make for good arcs but also retcon this idea.

One idea is how after fighting a few bad guys as the season starts, Yuya and the others eventually discover that the worlds they know of are but a few in a yugioh multiverse, which is now in danger as a evil force (maybe a evil pharaoh?) has gathered a team of villains from various worlds (which would consist of villains we know as well as new ones like an evil Yubel who never fused with Jaden and a evil Luna) and is looking for the center of the multiverse which is the world were all the events of the previous shows (with the exception of Arc V) have happened at once, which is the key for him to ruling everything. 

So now its up to Yuya and his friends to save the day once again, and along the way they team up with not only his friends but also a variety of characters from other spinoffs like Kaiba who won the God cards during Battle City or a Zane who never went evil for example.

Prevent a great merging- An arc where Yuya and the gang have to save all the dimensions from a group of people with the goal of trying to merge all the dimensions back into one world (as stated briefly in the Arc V series), which if they succeed could result in the destruction of all the dimensions. However maybe as a twist it turns out that the only way to save all of them from a great evil, who was the one that convinced the leader of the group to do so, is to indeed fuse them which not only defeats the evil but also results in a world where all the events of all the shows have happened in one straight timeline.

So what do you think ? Which of these ideas would you like to see be made in a show ?

If you like this list, make sure to subscribe as I plan on posting a few more yugioh centered list in the future, like ideas for an actual yugioh spinoff as well as cards Konami should consider making.

[mst3kproject]

Fire Monsters Against the Son of Hercules

This here Sword-And-Sandal epic was directed by Guido Malatesta, who wrote the screenplay for Colossus and the Headhunters, and stars Margaret Lee, of Secret Agent Super Dragon; Luciano Marin, of Hercules and the Captive Women; and Andrea Aureli, of The Loves of Hercules. Clearly this one is fully qualified, even without the hilariously unconvincing monsters that peer out of every corner.  My copy is an ancient VHS that looks like sun-baked shit and for some reason has no title card.

A tribe of cavemen, who I will call the Sun Tribe, are migrating south to escape the ice age.  They reach the edge of the glacier, I guess, and build a village, but soon find themselves being menaced from multiple angles.  There’s a stupid monster puppet living in the local lake, and another tribe already making their home nearby, the Moon Tribe, who have a strict anti-immigration policy.  Lucky for them, Maxus the Son of Hercules happens to be in the area, and he’s all about fighting monsters and protecting the rights of refugees!  Lots of people swing Styrofoam clubs and throw fake spears at each other, more terrible puppet things show up so Maxus can kill them, and I sit and think about how Cave Dwellers would be a much better title for this movie than it was for Cave Dwellers.

Holy fuck, you guys, this movie is so bad.  It has its dull stretches but most of them don’t go on too long, and whenever something is actually happening it is hilariously awful.  I could fill this whole review with a bullet list of the moments that made me laugh.

We’ll start with the dubbing, which critic Howard Hughes (not that Howard Hughes) described as the worst of all time.  He clearly hasn’t seen Gamera vs Guiron but it’s still really bad.  It’s not so much the performances, which are kind of crappy but no more so than in a thousand other lousy imported movies.  It’s the lipsync, or rather, the lack thereof.  Nobody made any effort to match the English dialogue to the way the actors’ mouths move. Sometimes it’s distracting. Sometimes it’s funny as hell. Sometimes it’s annoying. Sometimes it loops right back around to being funny again.  The best part is that to re-release Maciste Contro i Mostri as Fire Monsters against the Son of Hercules, they had to dub the name Maxus over every occurrence of Maciste.  The guy they hired to do so has a voice several notes higher than the original dub actor for Maciste, and introduces himself like he’s on a phone sex line.

The onscreen cast are pretty bad, too.  The actors look like they belong in the ice age about as much as anybody in Deathstalker and the Warriors from Hell belonged in the Hyperborean.  They’re all standing around dressed in fun fur and those cow rugs you can buy at IKEA, and they all look kind of awkward and embarrassed about it.  Maxus has an amusing henna pompadour and his primary facial expression is the ever-popular smug smirk.  The women wander around in fake leather miniskirts and bouffant hairdos like they have no idea what they’re doing here.  The cannibal tribe wear little horns on their heads, like they’re Vikings who haven’t invented helmets yet.

The monsters are unbelievably bad.  I can’t actually think of an adjective to describe how magnificently terrible they are. They’re the fakest, fabricky-est puppets I have ever seen in a movie.  The first water dragon Maxus slays looks like a cheap plush toy version of that thing from The Neverending Story. Another is represented by stock footage of what I think is a perentie lizard, which is only seen in a cutaway because they couldn’t be bothered to back-project it.  A three-headed cave dragon looks like a hand puppet you’d buy on eBay and leave a bad review about because it fell apart the moment you took it out of the box.  It looks like it’s made of construction paper and felt.  It makes The Loves of Hercules look like Jurassic Park.  The screencap doesn’t do it justice.  You’d need to see this thing in motion to truly understand just how stupefyingly shoddy it really is.

Oh, and despite the title of the movie being Fire Monsters, not one of these stupid things breathes fire.  I am both disappointed and relieved, in that I would have loved to see it but if they’d tried it on this budget they would probably have burned their sets down.

This delicious chocolate icing of badness is slathered on the rich, gooey cake of what actually happens in the movie, almost all of which is ridiculous.  Maxus fights a bunch of boneless water serpent creatures while the camera pays loving attention to his crotch.  There’s a bit where several people theatrically lose their balance on a log bridge and fall into the ravine one after another, and it’s funnier every time.  Maxus and his love interest get buried up to their necks as a form of punishment and people stand around throwing things at them but never hit them because nobody in this movie can aim.  Then they’re freed by a random earthquake that just happens to split the ground right where they are.  I was staying with my parents at the time I first saw this movie, and to keep from waking them up in the wee hours with my laughter I had to munch pillows like a vampire wedding night.

But I’m not here to laugh – or at least, not only to laugh – I’m here to analyze.  Believe me when I say that very little in Fire Monsters against the Son of Hercules merits analysis, and even less is intended to be analyzed.  The movie tries to set up a dichotomy between the two tribes. Our heroes, the Sun Tribe, worship fire and the sun god, live outdoors in wattle huts, and hold religious observances during the day.  The bad guys, the Moon Tribe, worship the moon goddess, wear seashells and live in caves around an underground river, and sacrifice at night.  Sun/Moon, Fire/Water, Day/Night, Peace/War, Light/Darkness, and to some extent Male/Female.  It’s a list of opposites, so simplistic that I really can’t think of anything more to say than just to write them out.  I doubt any deeper meaning was intended by it.

If I want something to actually talk about, Maxus never has an arc (I guess being the son of a demigod, he’s already perfect), but some of the minor characters do.  The young chief of the Sun Tribe is supposed to be growing into that role, though he leaves most of the actual heroing to Maxus and it’s unclear how old he’s supposed to be (Luciano Marin was thirty-one when the movie was released). There is an interesting bit where he rails at the sun god for his misfortunes and is warned against it, but whether the gods actually exist or are active in this universe remains mysterious.  It is true that a convenient eclipse halts a series of sacrifices, and that Maxus is saved by the volcano, but these could just be coincidences.

The odd thing about these two events, now that I think about it, is that while among the humans the Sun Tribe just want to live peacefully while the Moon Tribe wants to make war, their gods seem to have the opposite idea.  If the eclipse (portrayed by effects people who clearly have no idea what an eclipse of the moon actually looks like) is the goddess’ doing, it is a frightening but peaceful intervention.  Her worshippers asked for a sign, and she sent one that she does not approve.  If the volcano is the work of the sun god, it is a catastrophic event that destroys the Moon Tribe’s home and livelihood, and kills many of the tribesmen.  Not to mention that the main villain dies when the solar idol falls over and literally crushes him.  Who’s advocating violence now?

I’ve gotten distracted, though.  Getting back to the characters – the Sun Tribe’s leader is secondary not only to Maxus, but to Moa, the deposed rightful leader of the Moon Tribe. Moa probably gets more screen time than any other single character, and has the best claim, after Maxus, to main-character-hood.  Her father and brothers have been murdered by the evil Fuan, who now wants to cement his claim to being legitimately in charge by marrying her, but she can’t stand him.  I think she’s supposed to be one of those Strong Female Characters, but if so she’s a pretty half-assed effort.

For starters, while her introduction makes a big deal of her lost inheritance, she never does anything to try to reclaim it until Maxus turns up inside the caves. You’d think she could nurse a rebel cell biding its time or something, but all she does is sit on her shapely bottom and refuse to marry Fuan.  I’m left with the impression that while she may be the obvious genetic heir, she actually doesn’t have any support base. The rest of the Moon Tribe prefers Fuan for some reason, and she’s left to sit there and pout and wait for a man to save her.

At the end of the movie, Maxus tells Moa that her job now is to make peace between her people and the Sun Tribe.  One might expect the usual trope in which she does so by marrying the Sun Tribe’s leader, who is much more polite and less hairy than Fuan.  He’s already got a wife, though, and saving her from the sacrificial block was a big part of his motivation.  It’s no surprise, then, that Moa instead chooses to walk off into the sunset with Maxus. I guess she’s learned that nice girls don’t want political power.

That’s all pretty lousy, but the rest of the movie is all so deliriously fucking awful that there’s no point in taking it seriously, even as an example of shitty gender politics.  Give this one a watch if you can.  It’s a guilty pleasure, but a pleasure nonetheless.

[rosencrypt]

Magic Prediction Time!!

So, the next 3 sets after M19 are Ravnica. We know the first two are scene-setting/Guild politics, and that Ravnica Act 3 Act 3 is also Bolas Smackdown Round 2. We also know that there are lots of planeswalkers involved.

My predictions for the planeswalkers and planeswalker decks are:

Guilds: - Jace (bc come on) - Vraska - Ral (these two are both story important, both have history with Jace, and both of their guilds are featured in the set) Planeswalker decks: Ral and Vraska. This mirrors the Izzert vs Golgari duel decks from RtR, and combines the draw of planeswalker decks with the appeal of guilds for a perfect introductory product.

Towards the start of the story, Jace will confront Ugin and let him know about the upcoming battle. Ugin will be mysterious. About 3/4 of the Guilds story will take place simultaneously with the last few chapters of Dominaria. Towards the end of the story, Gideon, Chandra, and Teferi will appear (possibly after having stopped off to check in with Nissa. Depending on whether or not Chandra has gotten in touch with her true feelings yet, Nissa may or may not come with them) and update Jace on Teferi’s oath and Liliana’s capture.

Allegiance: - Gideon (when Kaladesh/Amonkhet rotate out, there will be no Gideon cards in Standard. Gideon is an important enough character that he should be represented on the cards. He also has ties to Ravnica) - Liliana (? quite probably a new character/other agent of Bolas. If someone else takes Ral’s slot for Guilds, he’ll be here instead) - Chandra (Gideon’s here, so why not? Also, it will have been over 2 years since her last non-planeswalker card) Planeswalker decks: Jace (this set includes Azorius cards, so he’s a perfect fit), Liliana (WB. She fits the Orzhov flavour well and she has flavour with Jace. If someone else has a card in the main set, she’ll still get the Planeswalker deck)

During the Allegiances story, the guilds will split into pro-Bolas (Orzhov, Rakdos, Dimir, Golgari) and anti-Bolas (Izzet, Azorius, Selesnya, Boros, Gruul, Simic) factions. Niv-Mizzet will start out heading the anti-Bolas group along with Jace, but over the course of the story he’ll be killed and Ral will become the Izzet Guildmaster, making it a straight 50/50 split. I could also see Simic on the Bolas side - they’re making super soldiers, and anyone doing that is definitely preparing for battle and probably up to no good.

Ravnica III.3: - Bolas (it’s his set. He has to be there) - Ajani (making his appearance just in time for the fight) - Ugin (Bolas is going to lose, but the arc revolving around him can’t end without a confrontation with his old nemesis) Planeswalker decks: Ajani, Bolas (it’s another pair of characters who Have A History! And between them they make up all 5 colours)

I could see Ugin’s card slot being taken by another of Ajani’s recruited allies. Not Tamiyo; she doesn’t like fighting. Narset? Maybe Sarkhan, contacted through Narset? Or Garruk, as a completely random choice?

During Ravnica Episode IX, Teysa will overthrow the Obzedat (like the story has been telling us she’s going to do for...about 13 years at this point) and ally with the anti-Bolas faction. Ral will be defeated and routed, and Mizzix will take his place as Guildmaster. Bolas will be winning, despite Ajani’s help, but Vraska’s remembrance and Ugin’s unexpected appearance will result in his defeat. He’ll be reduced to a formless ghost, as he was before Time Spiral. Tezzeret will flee to New Phyrexia, helping to set up the next arc.

Neither Tezzeret nor Teferi will get cards. None of the Ravnica guilds care about artifacts, so Tezzeret is out of place, and he will have just had a new card in M19 anyway. Teferi has also just had a (very strong) card, so there’s no need for him to compete with all the other blue mages for another one.

...THEN the 2019 October set will be either Theros or New Phyrexia. It’s looking like New Phyrexia, with a new Karn, Koth, and Tezzeret, but personally I’m hoping for Theros first. That way, Elspeth can return from the dead just in time to play a major role in the Phyrexian storyline.

[elizabethrobertajones]

Whats your take on Cas' arc this season? Cause i don't get it..IMO 1st half was very strong w/ his continued arc about belonging, bonding with Mary etc. But then what happened? Why did his story change to be about religious faith, destiny wanting a world without free will ruled by a supernatural being, why is this this story now when that was relevant for years i mean, we had his FATHER/GOD last season then there was nothing on this theme cause its not his current story so what is this now

I don’t think his overall arc has changed from what it has always been about. He’s always been caught in a balance between Heaven and the Winchesters but “Heaven” is quite an abstract concept for Cas after a while. 

I watched 10x18 last night, and lemme be awful and quote Metatron to start off :P

CASTIELWhat we did back there was unfortunate. No more of our brothers and sisters should die.

METATRONBrothers and sisters? Listen to you. Still spitting out the company line like anyone cares. Like we’re actually a family? When what we really are – are a bunch of glowing lights filled with self-loathing or delusions of grandeur. Or both.

CASTIELYou shut up!

METATRONNo! If I’m gonna die, I want answers. Like, who are you now? Like, you’re obviously not an angel of the Lord. And what about all of this walking the earth like Caine from “Kung Fu” crap? Cleaning up Heaven’s messes. How many more rogue angels are there out there? And, what are you gonna do once you’re done with all that? Go back to Heaven? Please. The angel formerly known as Hannah has restored order up top. Smoothest it’s run since God cut the ribbon on the pearly gates. So tell me, Castiel, truly, what is your mission now?

CASTIELYou shut up and keep looking. [Castiel walks away.]

Essentially, Cas has still been stuck here since 10x07 and Jack’s disrupted him majorly for the first time, but let’s backtrack…

So in season 4, Cas’s conflict is between Heaven and doing what’s he’s told, and listening to Dean and doing what he thinks is right. This conflict is introduced early on with 4x07, where Cas is supposed to follow Dean’s orders by order of Heaven, and Uriel is like fuck that I wanna smite this town just because, but Cas won’t let him. Cas’s conflict with orders turns to be hunted and in the end reprogrammed because he won’t do what he’s supposed to without coercion, showing us that orders (and Heaven) are bad and Cas wanting free will and to do the right thing and align with Dean is right. He does this at the end as his big damn hero moment.

In season 5, Cas’s conflict is more abstract. He wants to go fetch God as a replacement for the vague orders from Heaven which he no longer trusts, and basically the ultimate deferring to a higher power. Dean warily gives him the amulet to start his search, but the end of the search basically results in God telling Cas to naff off and think for himself. Rebuffed from having anyone to take orders from, Cas sulks around the Winchesters for the rest of the season, his faith in everything up to and including Dean shattered. He rebuilds this faith after Dean doesn’t say yes to Michael, and once again follows him to doing the right thing at the end. This whole conflict is overtly about Peace vs Freedom and Cas loses faith in Dean when he picks “Peace” and regains his loyalty to him when he picks “Freedom” - this is how Cas ends the season, pointing out Dean got what he wanted.

In season 6, Cas IS this higher power/Heaven/God/where the orders come from, but he steps into this role because he believes God appointed him the new sheriff in town. Raphael represents the old order/Heaven and wants to be God too. Cas struggles with this power, and maintaining Freedom, and appeals to God at the end when it’s all unravelling into the chaos that Freedom inevitably brings, and his downfall is played as because he doesn’t align with Dean and attempts to be the new order.

In the start of season 7 he acts as God, the higher power order, and eventually basically self-implodes from trying to maintain that. His high-minded ideals to force a sort of peace and happiness on the world are undermined from within by the leviathan, a dark chaotic presence. At the end of the season he falls into denial and running away from his issues, and he and Dean struggle to reconcile, as the main arc which allows the defeating of the leviathan. Heaven barely plays a role but they’re horrified by what he did/became if we take Hester as a representative of how the angels feel in general at their worst opinion of Cas, and he is nostalgically fond of them but doesn’t want anything to do with them and their attempts to restore order.

In season 8 Naomi once again brainwashes him onto their side, using that to get his cooperation to restore order and empower Heaven (and in general I assume she’s been using these tactics to overhaul and repair what she can) and it goes about as well for them as in season 4, when Cas goes chaotic on them, answering to the higher power of the tablet, aka directly from God, before Metatron derails him on the guilt trip to fix Heaven, which is a personal arc for Cas and the remains of his obligation to be an angel/work for Heaven. Once again Dean’s got the sense something is up with Cas all season, and though sometimes misguided about confronting him (grr 8x22) calls him out pretty consistently and generally represents the main character always right about everything pull he’s always done for Cas - Cas’s conflict is finally more obvious about being between Heaven and Dean because even after the crypt scene, he runs away serving the tablet and then is off on his mission with Metatron, giving Dean whiplash on what he’s doing which isn’t just being chill and like 8x08 Cas. (For the most part - 8x08 does have the one private conversation between them reveal Cas’s massive guilt). Edlund hands us back Cas at the end of 8x21 with for the first time since the end of season 6 and lasting until the end of season 12, an un-tampered-with sense of self to have character development and grow and change, in time for him to have things happen like becoming human to REALLY kick off Cas’s self-exploration and personal conflict.

Season 9 manages the conflict more cleanly - Cas is suuuuper guilty about the fall, so his motives are quite plain now. He has to sort out Heaven, struggles with not wanting to be a leader, but the angels all seeing him as a great war hero or important figure or despised but powerful and dangerous enemy, and Cas’s conflict is now getting laid out on screen - human or angel, leader or not… Obligation to repair Heaven and help the angels and his family is a strong motivator, and he does as much as he can for them until it crumbles at the end, and he ends up on a personal mission to save Dean which just follows in the PATH of his angel mission (e.g. he still has to go to Heaven and confront Metatron, but now it’s not because he’s doing it to overthrow him, he’s doing it to help Dean). Cas also is rejected from both angel and human families because of Gadreel asking Cas to leave, and so feeling rejected by Dean, the card is played that Cas falls back on trying to help the angels FIRST and losing out, leaving the Dean card un-played. There’s no peace or freedom imagery really, as it’s all a mad scrabble to sort Heaven out and the angels aren’t paying a great deal of attention to humans and their place in the natural order.

When we get to season 10, it’s a bit more reflective. Cas’s mission with Hannah is now interrupted with trying to save Dean, and there’s finally the reflection on what angels DO and what they’re FOR. Hannah goes back to heaven to preach the original mission, and Cas goes to help Claire after several threads combine to finally get him to remember and care about her. Hannah’s decision emphasises allowing humans free will by not possessing them, and respecting that and leaving them well alone and Heaven begins seriously withdrawing from the narrative. Heaven = meddling with free will, and historically has always wanted peace over freedom, enforcing mind control on it subjects (killing Naomi off, who’d “been in all our heads” was also a start of the angels in general having free will without any compromise so of course they freak out in season 9 :P) Cas is then on two complementary arcs of PERSONAL self-discovery, helping Claire (humanity, freedom, Cas’s guilt focused on a human instead of Heaven) and Dean (Cas’s faith and loyalty and family). He also takes a break to do a me-time episode which is 10x18 where Metatron lays down this challenge about who Cas is, pointing out in case the average viewer didn’t spot it, that Cas is really struggling to have a mission now, because he ALWAYS needs a mission. Being on call to help Sam with Dean or Claire with anything, splits his attention (10x10) but he’s determined to do his best for them (I love him so much). His conflict early in the season was where he wanted to be and what he wanted to be doing, Heaven or Earth, but Heaven tactically retreating (symbolically shown with Hannah, just in general narratively by playing no serious part in the story) but that choice is somewhat made for him by Heaven leaving and Hannah leaving him in the lurch to take Caroline home to her husband, and Cas picking up Earth-based quests to care for important humans. 

His personal story trickles out in season 10 after 10x20 does nice things for the Claire arc and his personal resolution there that he completes his mission in a sense… He spends the rest of the season helping Dean with just a bummer scene in 10x22 to enforce this is the lowest point and he’s being rejected AGAIN from being with Dean, and I would say Rowena’s curse really doesn’t count as interrupting his personhood because in season 11 when he’s not violently attacking, he has a crystal clear sense of who he is, so his conversations with Hannah and the angels in 11x02 and Dean and Sam in 11x03 are still from Cas, just with Rowena’s curse on top. In season 11 they play delay tactics - Cas’s depression is personal and to do with how hurt he’s been in general by everyone, he resolves personal crap with Metatron in 11x06 via punching him so more but doesn’t really have any more answers about who he wants to be and the choices he’s made, and in 11x10 his desire to help and need for a win lead to him being possessed, abruptly ending his role in the season as an active player and therefore giving him no real personal arc to struggle against.

Meanwhile God comes back and Lucifer in Cas gets to swing against the ultimate higher powers. There’s a sense that God can’t intervene because he’s a walking deus ex machina and takes away free will because as the Creator-author, intervening automatically is defining the story… He’s not a powerful ally, it’s literally his whim by which there is and isn’t free will… He told Cas to naff off in 5x16 because if he came to help, it’s no personal victory at all for his creations. (PS: obviously Chuck’s approach is terrible in many ways and the hands off parenting approach is directly paralleled to John, so… Not approving here lol) Amara represents obliteration of the Self, which she offers to Dean and accidentally nearly does to the universe. She treats this as a peace she can offer Dean, so Cas themes are playing out with the other characters and the universe is being re-shuffled a bit. Cas having no freedom turns into Cas being in a “peace” inside his head, watching TV and wanting no part of the fight. He chooses the same thing that in 5x18 he rejected Dean and withdrew his faith and loyalty for - possession by an archangel for the greater good. Yet another lowest point, and yet in 11x23 Dean doesn’t reject Cas for doing it, but says nice things about respecting his decisions etc. Dean firmly establishes that Cas is family to him, leaving it for Cas to accept. And these paragraphs are getting waaay too long as this becomes more relevant, sorry >.>

In season 12, Cas starts off struggling with being accepted into the family. It’s all right there for him to take, but the belonging arc mirrored with Mary, shows he still feels distant from being a part of the family, and that despite Dean’s words, he hasn’t quite had the acceptance he needs, despite all the rejection between him and Heaven one way and the other, and since season 9 his increased dislike and obligation and duty to help them, and their interest in him and activeness in the story dribbling to a stop. Dean has also seemed to reject him, but Cas has never turned away from HIM except reluctantly or being coerced somehow or because he was severely emotionally compromised with guilt or blackmail. When it comes to genuine choices like 8x17 or 9x22 he picks them, but when ASKED about it, can never answer and is interrupted or walks off every time. In this season’s case he has a similar guilt-obligation to season 8, 9, and the first half of 10, about letting Lucifer out, and so he goes to deal with that. Dealing with it leads directly to Sam and Dean being imprisoned, and an abrupt swap to Cas dealing with the family side of things - the obligation Cas feels is no longer strictly between HEAVEN and the Winchesters, but OBLIGATION and GUILT and the Winchesters, his past actions still causing a heaven-level mytharc nonsense but not really being about Heaven wanting him back or him really wanting to be with Heaven. He cuts those ties almost every time he’s confronted. 

So in a way let’s say his distraction to deal with Lucifer leads to Sam and Dean getting locked up and making the deal. He overcompensates to save them, and is thrust into a series of episodes dealing with his position in the family, where he finally gets to see Dean choosing him, and gets to tell them he loves them, and that he truly does consider them a family. In a way he now seems to have achieved something that’s been teased since maybe as far back as season 8 - 8x08 he wanted to join the family business - but definitely became a main conflict for Cas in season 9 (and I think season 12 picked up a LOT of dropped arcs that disappeared with the plot accordion of season 9, Mark of Cain onwards) 

But he still has the guilt-obligation to the Lucifer stuff and even knowing Lucifer is banished safely to the cage, the nephilim is an ongoing part of things Cas is responsible for, and so represents the same place in the narrative as other times Cas has been off doing Heaven things - obligation that takes him away from the family. In 12x19 we literally see that obligation laid out (Cas’s issue going back to 6x20 that he considers himself a guardian angel to the Winchesters, and though he says he’s not doing ANYTHING for Heaven and voices stuff that firmly suggests cut ties emotionally, from Cas’s side, which is HUGE, he will work with them in order to protect the Winchesters - so they don’t have to get involved. Same deal as season 6 - peace or freedom? He picks peace, by going behind the Winchesters’ backs and giving them no choice to help him, shouldering the burden like he’ll be going around behind their backs saving them as necessary, instead of integrating into the family and taking their problems as they come, which is what Dean does all episode. He’s lost the ability to wrangle Cas with loyalty and faith because their relationship is more equal and Cas hasn’t got all his faith invested in Dean, but having this hole in him that faith belongs to is a huge weakness/design flaw in angels, that they need it and go off the rails without it (see also: most angels we encounter after season 5 :P), so Jack, who he ALREADY has an obligation from guilt to deal with, derails Cas yet again BACK onto the obligation train to take him away from the Winchesters, this time using his faith AND his guardian angel need to protect and care for people traits to win over Cas’s absolute loyalty. And to do so, he shows Cas a vision of the Future which is essentially the same wording as the descriptions of paradise the angels fought for and Cas fought against, rejected Dean for accepting, fought again the next year, etc, so Cas’s new lowest point from 11x18 of a PERSONAL surrender to peace over freedom, is an external surrendering to peace over freedom. 

Essentially, 12x19 is fiendishly clever in twisting together every last thing that has defined Cas’s arcs, and mixing them all together. In the first third of the season we see Cas struggle and seemingly overcome one, in the second we see him struggle and seemingly overcome the next, and in the third part because he never truly balanced them, still picked obligation and missions that take him away from home and he’s shouldering a burden to resolve out of guilt that he caused it, or hesitance to join the family unit entirely but carried on treating them as if he was their guardian angel not their close family, these two things plus some other unresolved baggage ALL tie together and pile onto Cas. 

I don’t think it’s really all over the place when the season first established one, then the other, and then used them both to seriously affect Cas’s actions. I don’t think they’ve ever been telling different stories about him, just highlighting different aspects. When he was running off to hunt Lucifer with Crowley, the family stuff still hung around in the background. And when he was dealing with family stuff, he was still hunting the nephilim in the background. And when he was dealing with Heaven it wasn’t because he was mending ties with Heaven, he was protecting his family while dealing with his guilt-caused obligation to the nephilim while exploiting yet rejecting his complicated relationship with Heaven, and it all culminated in him failing a will save against the peace or freedom line that has been the main way to brainwash or control or derail Cas in many instances from Naomi’s forced programming to whatever the tablets did to him, to times like 8x23 where he runs off to fix heaven of his own free will but abandoning Dean in the process, or 10x03 where he walks out on Dean entirely because he’s weighed down with guilt and his fear of belonging. (And it gets more complicated and less epic and black and white each time.)

So, tl;dr I think these are ALL parts of who Cas is and what his conflict is, ALL THE TIME, and have been all the way through - some parts wane while others are waxing depending on the season, but in general they’re still pulling from the same source of character stuff, only with years and years and years of personal development and narrowing down Cas’s choices and trying to point him to what would make him happy and shave off the obligations bit by bit, so that he’s free to choose. And now he keeps ending up in the darkest place, but 12x19 and 12x23 were like a perfect storm of all the WORST bits of Cas’s arc, except that he wasn’t choosing to be an angel, and he did care for his family, just too abstract. And at the end, he died as an angel in a way. I don’t know how he’ll come back but I’m expecting it will not be magically poofing back graced up and a sort of ~regular~ Cas we haven’t seen since season 8, or wingless since 10x18. 

(And of course Metatron was asking that in the context of where Cas gets his grace back and is no longer living day to day about to die but again like at the end of 8x21, is confronted with full freedom and a life to live and choose what to do with it. His response is to go back to the bunker and eat pizza with his family, but that only lasts a day >.> Anyway I assume that’s a moment that’s going to be important when Cas comes back because these choices he’s been looping around were all set out for him more immediately and obviously than ever and all at once as well, so… I think it all works. Since season 9 it’s all essentially been these same challenges to Cas over and over, while Cas does various things that make you yell at the screen that no Cas that’s not what you want, or yelling encouragement that he’s maaaaybe nearly worked it out and is getting so much closer to what he wants. Sort of a game of hot or cold, or something… >.> And when it seems like he’s nearly found it, he veers back into cold territory…)

[neni-has-ascended]

excuse me I would like to know a little more about the lovers and justice arcana since their both card that symbolize choices,relationships I noticed that characters of the justice arcana had something to do with law enforcement with the exception of Hidehiko Uesugi who is popular variety-talk show host, the lovers is understanding yourself and others in relationships. I would like to know a little more about them. wondering if you half to be in law enforcement for justice.

The Lovers Arcana is a complicated case, since there are *two* absolutely different, but equally common interpretations going around, one more traditional, and one based on the Marseilles Deck. 

It all depends as what exactly you read the people portrayed on the card. In spite of the Persona Series using the card pretty much exclusively for female characters, in most traditions the card is usually male-connoted and seen as a symbol of Adam, the first man. The first interpretation of that is straightforward; It is seen to represent Adam’s pure, creating love with Eve, the “original human love”, which binds two beings together and creates something new from it. Pure romance and erotic in its most innocent form.

The second interpretation, however, is a little darker.. It sees the choice as being about Adam’s choice between Eve and Lilith, the later of which he abandoned for her (from his perspective) “evil” heart, in order to be with the former. In this interpretation, the Lovers Arcana is about choice; deciding what really IS the best thing for you, in order to live a fulfilled life, rather than just going with your gut-instincts. Learning to be decisive and not back out of difficult “Yes or No” questions. 

The Persona Series usually goes with a middle-way between the two interpretation: All characters assigned this card tend to be pretty romantic and sensual in nature and make for the most obvious, cliche choice for a love interest you can probably have in the game, however, their arcs are also always about making choice, clear decisions. Lisa’s decision to not become an idol to simply be accepted with her friends, but find her own reasons to chase her dreams. Yukari’s decision to live her own life, rather than running from her mother and constantly making excuses about it. Rise’s decision to dedicate herself to her job AND her role as the team navigator, rather than constantly running away from everything she’s good at. I won’t go into Ann now, because that’d be spoiler, but I promise you, the connection is easy to see with her as well.

Now, as for Justice Arcana, I promise you the Law-enforcement connection is just as incidental as the fact that all Lovers Arcana characters in the series are either idols or models or both. It’s a bit of a running gag, not more than that. (And Ken also doesn’t quite fit the description, come to think of it).

The Justice Arcana is mostly about “One’s Understanding of Right and Wrong”. It’s an Arcana symbolizing the human moral code, our way of judging what’s “good” and what’s “evil”. These definitions, of course, can often be quite subjective, and the upright Justice is, indeed, often about understanding quite that: Realizing that “Right” and “Wrong” is more complex than Heroes VS Saturday Morning Cartoon Villains. However, reversed, the Arcana can stand for the exact opposite: A mindset, which is completely “Black or White”, in which everyone is either good or evil, and there’s nothing in-between, no compromises, no balance. Ken Amada’s arc is a good example of that: He painted Shinjiro Aragaki as 100% “evil” in his mind, along with everyone else he felt “left him alone and disrespected” when his mother died, and absolutely couldn’t deal with it, when these extremely simplistic viewpoints were disproven by reality and the way Shinjiro died. Ken’s entire character, right down to his name, had an incredible overload of “Yang”, with pretty much no “Yin” to balance it out, since he did not allow it in. Nanako’s case is similar: She painted her father as “bad” because she couldn’t understand his situation, and painted heaven as “perfect and good”, because Mommy was there. Namatame was similar: Painting himself as 100% “Good”, because he rationalized himself as the savior of his victims, while painting the IT as 100% “Evil”, as he failed to comprehend they were trying to help. Sadly, I can’t talk about Hidehiko, since I don’t know much about him. Still gotta catch up with that. And, again, no P5, because spoilers, but you probably understand how that fits in here as well. 

[morningmoon]

Saw DSoD

I love how the movie is built, it feels like there's a lot to discuss, in fact we had a pretty long debate about Kaiba’s fate on NAC’s discord. Kuwabara did an amazing job because a Lot of times the visual design of the movie conveyed messages alongside the script, helping make these high-concepts easier to understand. Him and Takahashi worked really great together, and all the animators on board made a great job with how sharp and beautiful the movie became. 

It's great, it was a very good, full story and I cannot wait to buy the bluray when it releases (to see the subs and catch whatever the dub couldn't convey) and see this again to enjoy it some more and catch more of the visuals. (Also Gaia looked very yuma-esque with his colors, nice.)

Under the cut some long ramblings

Dub-script: Felt pretty alright! There were some dialogue stuff (the eight millenium item!) that immediately pulled me out, but there were like two or three and very, very spread far in-between. Lots of added goofs but mostly just side-jabs, which honestly made the characters feel a bit fuller (my favorite has to be Tristan's "you're not crazy, you're just dumb" in the softest voice ever). There's a ton of high-concepts and it did an adequate enough job at presenting them, specially since most are told to us visually, but i'll touch on that later. Felt very true to the movie while keeping a tone similar to the original dub, kinda like Ocarina of Time 3D, it's not exactly the old thing bc the old thing has huge flaws, but it's how you'd remember it with its improvements. Yugi and Kaiba came out particularly well. I fucking loved Mokuba, I forgot that since thsi is the manga canon that means Mokuba is actually a good character. The story: Aigami ironically sorta has the problem Arc V has in which he is more of a walking theme than a villain, but his actions are so very important to everything, his motivations are crystal clear and relatable. Heck, you could make an argument that he shares the protagonist role along with Yugi, on the other side of the coin you can say that Kaiba is the protagonist. It's pretty interesting how Yugi is the only heroic dude here, but he gets the less amount of time because his character story is already told, so instead it's two extremely morally gray dudes with conflicting goals trying to do something for the wrong reasons. The expanded role Shadi gets was fairly surprising. I love that it turned out he was a ghost all along lol. Surprised that the evil/good item split wasn't used to explain away his questionable actions, he was just a friendly ghost who killed for good reasons. Guess it fits with the justice of the time. So the gift of prana was made possible thanks to him "defeating" death, pretty cool. I love, love that Prana Leaving is a self-fulfilling prophecy, and Aigami just gave reason for Atem to return and take it away. Super love the story, memories are such a big part of DM, so seeing it expanded as metaphysics and alternate worlds is a good-ass view. It's a good story, mostly playing with high-concepts and established characters. The prana stuff is overplayed since it's such a concept and a half for a 2 hour movie, but I love how firmly the rules are established and how they mesh with the journey our characters have had, particularly Jou being able to overcome the prana stuff thanks to his memory of Atem bringing his story full-circle, because despite being higher than humanity it still falls below the gods, below those who have truly ascended, thus even the memory of Atem is too powerful. The Visuals: really just gonna continue talking about the story next paragraph, but until then: the movie looks beautiful. The visual designs on everything look amazing, the expressions are lively, the movements are great, the colors were fantastic. The only thing I don't dig much is Anzu's designs, bit too waifu, but alas. Where the visuals truly shine is in telling the story. The opening shot just, god, just so good. I'm guessing the opening of it represents how memories can fade away to the light, to being forgotten, but the ones that persist make way for other memories to follow along and each is a world of its own. I want to link that to stories in general, the power of fiction is that to survive as memories, so while many get destroyed and become forgotten, those who survive make way to others, much like how the original yugioh manga survived being forgotten and allowed for an adaptation world to happen, and a world of Yugioh R, and the world/story of Gx, and its manga, and so on as the Yugioh franchise grows, but it's not even the start of that DNA sequence (also worlds that can survive being forgotten is the DNA of fiction itself, but that's just obvious given the way the worlds are presented) there were stuff before even the original yugioh story, such as what Takahashi used for inspiration. If Dragon Ball was in that DNA sequence, Journey to the West would be there as well above it, helping it survive and shaping it with what's forgotten and remembered of it. And after that metaphor we get the space bridge in the shape of the kaiba corp logo. lmao. There are so many visual things i'll probably just list them at random now: -There's one consistent element i just want to call "ascension", when golden particles happen to represent the powers of Prana, be it to teleport the kids or to send goons to other dimensions. And immediately after its first use we see the sands of egypt and yup, that's it, that's the whole thing, it's much like the sands of egypt, it gives shape to the land but it's not consistent, it changes and shifts and rapidly changes the landscape while it remains seemingly the same, it ascends like a pharaoh would. -Aigami vs Kaiba has one main element: Aigami's cards make the "ascension" happen to the crystal dragons, and it is so great even those seemingly timeless beings fall to it, because they are attached to this world's rules, then BEWD also falls to it, that is why Kaiba's deepest memory of holding power beyond mortals makes for a being greater than sand: stone. A stone so powerful it is above prana, and thusly the stone soldier of obelisk can defeat Diva's whole shenanigans even when they use this ascension to empower themselves or when they defy our laws by using cubes to make all sorts of curved shapes. -Aigami vs Yugi has the coolest representation of Aigami losing himself, with his final monster being much more man-made than anything else, it's just a creature with gears and a machine gun, no longer a being above humans. And Yugi so easily expects his anger it lets him play a triple combo that locks him into venting his rage to his own defeat. -Aigami vs Yugi and Kaiba has the latter two use a plague and technology to try and harm Aigami's creature, but it is too strong. It's also a good inverse, Kaiba is mostly tech-based but at that point he uses biological stuff to do harm and Yugi was more living-creatures-based but switches to technology, or rather progress. While Kaiba devolves in his desperate struggle, Yugi continues moving forward, which is important for what Kaiba does at the end. -Jou in his own memory world owns, the light destroying his memory ultimately falling to the power of his memory of dueling Atem at the end of Battle City is amazing. Having closure with Atem is such a good detail to show off. -Loved, loved LOVED that the space station/bridge was made just like the alcatraz island his dad had, just he uses it to go above war and such things and into a higher place. -ATEM LOOKED SO GOOD. He looked like his early manga self and that was amazing to see. Also just adding here, Takahashi's sequence looked awesome if overly detailed. -Loved how Atem's return makes things go normal by having all that "ascension" stuff go back to the ground, the sands of egypt return to how they should be instead of defying nature. Makes me think that the rain scene has a deeper meaning with how it's water that falls, but alas it eludes me. -Really dug the contrast with the darker "sand" stuff, showing seemingly straight-up death only by ring- oops, there's Kaiba. Going off to his techno-tomb, being sent from a place high-above to the ground, as he slowly dies but gets enough time to finally face Atem one last time, to get the memory he craves the most. He fucking dies, man. -Yugi says goodbye to another loved one who goes off to a place above. It's because she's leaving like Atem with going up to the heavens being another representation of the afterlife you guys. The score: was alright, pretty neat here and there.