#cause he goes on and on about how humans are parasites that are destroying the natural order

[stairset]

I get why some Stranger Things fans didn't like the twist that Vecna was the real big bad all along and the Mind Flayer was basically just an extension of his will cause yeah it does kinda ruin the whole "incomprehensible eldritch abomination" vibe it gave off in the previous seasons. HOWEVER I personally enjoy how the writers decided to take the phrase "man-made horrors beyond our comprehension" and show that in the most literal way possible.

[lets-try-some-writing]

Imagine if there’s a lice outbreak at the school and the Jasper Trio (either one of them or all of them) ended up being affected. Imagine the bots finding out there can be tiny bugs in the kids hair

Oh dear.

Parasites are not unheard of on Cybertron. In fact, they are rather common depending on where one goes. Most lethal parasites were wiped out with the rise of medicine back during the Age of Rust, but the team are familiar with the concept. There were worms that would did into plating and destroy all fortitude in the structure. There were small nanoinfections that would corrode optical nerves and other sense. Over the vorns there have even been waves of infections that cause a bot to loose their colors almost as if they were a dead mech walking. Any number of strange ailments have plagued Cybertron over its long history.

The team are well aware that parasites and other such things exist. Scraplets are a key example.

Finding out about the lice creature would not be shocking, but it would prompt some drastic measures. On Cybertron one of the most effective ways to remove energon leeching parasites was with fire or surgical means, in large part due to how sturdy Cybertronians are. Ratchet's first response would be to get a blowtorch out and run through ways to try and protect the children's soft organic flesh so that he can burn the creatures into ash. Optimus would suggest a slightly less drastic measure and put forward the idea of removing the children's hair entirely, much like one would remove armor to get at a parasite on a Cybertronian.

Bulkhead and Wheeljack would start contemplating an acid of some sort to melt the creatures. Bumblebee would likely be too busy trying to see the parasites to offer up much aid. Arcee would similarly try to locate the bugs with no real success. Ultra Magnus would casually remark that a full blown body wash down would be the best choice, preferably with something not safe for organic material. Only Smokescreen would be the one to suggest talking to the actual human nurse involved.

The kids would be afraid of being mutilated in some way, shape, or form from that point onward when anything relating to bugs stuck on them is mentioned.

[oleander-nin]

technically still on vacation but I’m stuck in the house for a bit until the storm totally passes. Don’t have much to do though since my consoles and puter are still back at my place. It’s honestly kinda funny, I’ve gotten four flash flood alerts on my phone within the past 24 hours. I am super glad you like both songs though sorry about the spotify thing I kinda overlooked that. I’m also happy you like being talked to because I sure do like to talk.

Anyway I said the next ask will be actually good and even if this is close behind I’ve got krang observations/facts!!

starting with the stuff I managed to gather off twitter

“What happened to the foot soldiers after they had been krangified in the movie, were they taken into custody or killed?

I think they just become Krang soldiers/slaves.”

Raph was real lucky he had his brothers, it sounds like the krang zombie thing is next to totally permanent

“I've mentioned this in a few other answers, but we would have learned the backstory that a Krang ship crashed into the back of the crying Titan and its fuel was the source of the ooze that energizes the yokai.”

This is really neat to me, since it does sorta explain why the krang were able to snatch their mystic powers at the start, at least to me. Plus just them being the origins of at least why yokai are as strong as they are is really cool.

Ok movie stuff yay, typing this as I watch so I definitely didn’t get everything and some of these may just be a tad obvious

Kinda stretching it to start, but the way you can hear genuine fear in Casey jr’s voice and general like mannerisms(?) at the krang starting to get summoned again does such a good job at showing how scary they are before we really see much of them(I know we kinda do but sh)

^ Adding on their intro is so cool?? Like the way I actually freaked when two(?) said it had been ages since she killed anything right after the insane beatdown from krang one, the fact they actually got one of the mcs is also just awesome like.

Moving past the fanboying(hopefully) and going back to the crying titan thing krang one points on that Raph isnt human so it is likely that the krang did cause yokai as a whole to show.

I had something here about the krang zombies but I realized it was wrong so pretend I said something else cool

Everything in the subway was horrifying

not a krang observation but I’m saying it anyway, April goes through it in this movie, obviously everyone does. But girl is human and early on she just gets tossed off her motorcycle and totally ignores any potential injuries

The way krangs two reacts to April melting a good chunk of her face makes me feel like the krang had never actually been injured

I said this in the headcanon yapping thing but now that I’m actually rewatching it, I’m pretty sure I was at least sorta right, the krang parasites goal was to get Leo to kill Raph. Krang one is obviously confident enough that he could kill Leo on his own, and it does generally align with how messed up they are. Right before Leo puts his swords away he does almost slash at Raph who just doesn’t move at all until he takes a step back because almost killed his brother. Probably not canon but it’s more emotionally destroying and therefore cool.

probably obvious but I’m saying it anyway, the reason Leo’s sacrifice came as such a shock was because of the lack of capability to form any sort of connections, the inability to even fathom why someone would act for anyone other then themself is what lead to their downfall

theres honestly not much for me to say here, this movie is awesome but I’m trying not to go “krang armor is sick :0” Because yes it is, but like we all know that. I can talk a *lot* about the turtles and probably April n Casey jr but I said krang and thats probably smarter because I’m stuck on my phone at the moment and typings just a bit more annoying.

-🍰

ooooooooooooo I like these. Very interesting observations/headcanons.

"The way krangs two reacts to April melting a good chunk of her face makes me feel like the krang had never actually been injured" - That's a good point. i dunno what to say to this, but my brain has latched onto it.

There's not much I can add onto any of these(haven't seen the movie in a hot minute tbh), but goodness I love them. Trade brains with me pls

[whovianwatchingstartrek]

A Whovian Watches Star Trek for the First Time: Part 059 - Captain T'Pol and the Quantum Parasites

Star Trek: Enterprise - Season 3 Episode 8 - Twilight

The episode cold opens with Archer waking up to find T'Pol has taken has taken his place as captain. Not only that, but enterprise is being chased by the Xindi weapon and two Xindi ships! Quite an exciting opener. Then: We see the weapon crack open a planet. Next thing we know, Archer's an old man on earth. And for some reason, living with T'Pol in a kind of couple-y situation. I wish the show would stop trying to make Archer x T'Pol work, they have absolutely no chemistry with eachother. Apparently Archer is missing 12 years worth of his memories. Most of the episode was through flashback, with T'Pol explain what happened. According to her, Archer was hit by an anomaly, and has been unable to form any new Long Term memories ever since.

This was a really interesting episode. Normally when a show does Amnesia, they do Retrograde amnesia, so it's nice to see an attempt to tackle Anterograde amnesia for a change. And the episode being from Archer's perspective while he's suffering from it was really interesting.

Also, is this the only time we get to see T'Pol in a normal Starfleet uniform? Because it really does suit her, better than the uniforms she's had so far, at least. While we're on the topic, we later see Trip in the Captain's uniform, and it suits him too. And Malcolm's beard.

Archer's reaction to hearing that Earth and most of Earth's colonies were destroyed is heartbreakingly well performed. It might be the best performance Scott Bakula has given for enterprise so far. However, it was at this point that I started figuring that things weren't exactly as they seemed, and that this was all in Archer's mind. Earth and humanity wouldn't be destroyed off-screen. I also started to notice other small details that were off. T'Pol wouldn't argue that The Vulcans held back Earth's warp program, that was always Archer and Trip's talking point. But, later in the episode I'm proven wrong. This episode actually happened, it's just undone because of the parasites infecting Archer's relationship with Space-Time. Eliminating them now, means they never existed, so curing Archer means that he would never have been infected in the first place

The cure of course is blasting the Parasites out of Archer's head with the Warp reactor. I don't think that's how medicine works, but who am I to argue with Phlox's methods.

I really liked this episode, it had some really good emotional beats, and even despite it's more emotional nature, still managed to squeeze in a couple good action scenes. Enterprise's last stand, with everyone fighting to the absolute end in the faintest hope that Phlox's theory about the parasites was correct was beautiful, and the calm at the end once everything was undone was just really nice.

Plus, a nice Time Travel twist. In a way, it kind of reminded me of the 10th Doctor episode, Turn Left, in that a parasite causes an aberrant timeline where everything just goes wrong. It's not quite as bleak as turn left, and this deals with future events instead of Past Events, but I still loved it.

Comparing my Enjoyment of this Episode with a Doctor Who Universe Story of the Same Title

Doctor Who - Big Finish Monthly Range #23 - Project: Twilight

Project: Twilight was the start of a mini arc that ran through Big Finish's 6th and 7th Doctor Radio Plays, often Called The Forge Arc.

The radio play opens with brilliant opening that makes little sense on the first listening, but when you come back to it, it makes a lot more sense. Specifically, the Project Twilight subject's escape from the Forge in World War One. The audio then jumps forward to the modern day. I like to keep the plot summary stuff short for the Same Title segment, so I'll skip over a lot of the details, but it's initially framed as a strange murder mystery about a spontaneously combusting body, but beautifully unravels into a century long Conspiracy involving a secret government organisation called The Forge, a Vampire-Super-Soldier program from World War One, and how The Doctor, his companion Evelyn, and a random civilian called Cassie end up wrapped up into it.

The story's individual villains of the Project Twilight Vampire vampires are fantastically written, and the story masterfully sets up Nimrod, the main villain of the Forge Arc as a whole.

Project: Twilight is a lot more gruesome than most Doctor Who stories, but it plays it's horror very tactfully and the fact that it's a radio play which leaves the visuals to the imagination really adds to that atmosphere.

Picking whether Enterprise's Twilight or Doctor Who's Project Twilight is better is a hard choice, they both scratch very different itches and fill their roles very well. I am leaning more towards Project: Twilight because I'm in that Halloween Horror mood at the moment, but Enterprise's Twilight was also a really good timey-wimey emotionally driven experience.

[felixcloud6288]

Higurashi: Festival Accompanying Chapter 5

Miyo got that headpat from Hifumi.

Miyo keeps talking about how much she wants her grandfather's work to be acknowledged and his name to be immortalized. Somewhere between now and 1983, we're going to see her ideals become horribly twisted.

When Dr Takano talks about becoming a god, he's talking about vindication and being remembered past his death. Considering his reasons for studying Hinamizawa Syndrome, it may also be a matter of being a cornerstone to building something people benefit from long after he's gone.

But in the vast majority of timelines, Miyo Takano used his research as a cornerstone to drive the Japanese government to destroy Hinamizawa and cast everyone in it as cursed by an angry god. She very much is going to lose the idea her grandfather had.

We meet Hifumi's friend Koizumi who sets Dr. Takano up to meet with several scholars to look at his work. And after how that meeting goes, I want you to understand that I use "set up" in the negative sense cause I feel like Koizumi straight-up is trying to sabotage Dr. Takano's efforts.

Dark skies, faces draped in shadow, and heavy rain. The only way this scene could feel more menacing is if the Jojo "Menacing" kanji littered the scene.

The way those scholars acted pisses me off in so many ways. Just to start, they laugh at how it's "impossible" for a parasite to control human brains. HAVE THEY NEVER HEARD OF RABIES!?! Rabies literally makes people hydrophobic. If you say something is "impossible" in the biology field, evolution will take that as a challenge.

I'm willing to accept a lack of clinical evidence as a genuine critique for Dr. Takano's research, but that's actually a reason to fund his research rather than disregard it. It's a clearly defined shortcoming in his research and a limitation that he's asking for support to fix.

And of course there is the sheer disrespect from these people. I hesitate to call them scholars cause they clearly treat their position as something they can lord over others. They should be looking at this with an open mind and curiosity and should be making sure Dr. Takano dotted all his i's and crossed all his t's when confirming the validity of his work and ideas. Instead they're coming in with full mockery and an "I'm right cause I'm better than you" attitude.

Miyo's Shion foil started to show after this. If she could, she would totally lock those men in a dungeon and torture them to death in revenge for her grandpa. But since she can't she's going to take it out on god and destiny.

Did you know the 1 and 6 on a standard six-sided die are on opposite sides of each other? I'm bringing this up because I want to draw a parallel between Takano and Rika.

Both of them have a sort of luck that causes them to constantly roll 1's on destiny's dice. When it happens to Rika, she opts to try again and hope for a different outcome. Takano meanwhile responds by flipping the table to force the dice to end up on 6's. Takano just refuses to accept misfortune and it only drives her to force a desired outcome instead.

I wasn't expecting to do this, but I think there's a part of Takano that is also a foil to Keiichi as seen in the end of this chapter. They're both very intelligent but are driven by different motivators. Keiichi liked the sense of superiority that came with being the smart guy and loved receiving praise for it. Takano meanwhile is motivated more by an internal desire to prove her grandfather right. We've yet to see Takano hit a wall where her motivation dries up, but considering what normally happens, she probably also takes things out on other people and justifies it because of her status and intellect. But there doesn't appear to be any line Takano won't cross whereas Keiichi does end up realizing when he's done wrong.

And to close out all these comparisons to the main cast, I'm going to compare Takano to Mion. Through her hard work, Takano managed to become a name in high society with the connections that come with it. Compare that to Mion who was born into a position of eventual power (Although technically, she accidentally ended up in that position and Shion was intended to be the heir) and has to learn to play the part even though she'd rather not. And of course, both of them have some very shady connections.

But here we are. We have seen Miyoko Tanashi grow into Miyo Takano. She is an orphan who refused to accept her cursed life. She opposes god and forges her own identity. She loves her grandfather and has devoted her life to proving to the world that he was right. She is intelligent, hardworking, and self-motivated. She is well-connected and ruthless in her methods. She does not accept destiny and has an indomitable will than can defy it.

back

[that-angry-noldo]

No, actually, I want to talk about how most of my tolkien "unpopular opinions" and dislike for "everything's not so simple" comes from russian fandom.

When I only started getting into the fandom, russian really was my only way to do so. Ukrainian fanfiction was fairly underdeveloped (or I didn't have the skills to find better sources), and my knowledge of english was... poor, to say the least. So, yeah, russian fandom that is.

And boy, oh boy, what an experience that was. Russian most popular trope, unsurprisingly, was "everything's not so simple".

Kinslayings? Not so simple, Feanor was justified. Lay of Leithtian? Beren is a monster and should be burnt; Luthien is a naive girl who travels naked, actually; Celegorm and Curufin are her noble resquers; Finrod deserves to die for his idiotism. Miriel & Indis? Why is it even a question, of course Indis is an evil stepmother, of course Miriel is pure and without a flaw, of course 2nd & 3rd houses shouldn't have existed!

The Valar? Hey, did you know russians have "The Black Book of Arda" - a book that is basically about poor little Melkor being right and cruel and scary Valar being mean to him?

I read many fics, but there were three that stuck to me the most (i don't remember their names, though): the one that wanted to retell the silmarillion in the "right" way, the one that basically said C&C were right for capturing and threatening Luthien, and the one where everyone was evil, except elves who lived in Beleriand.

The first one... the first one was basically a huge Feanor apologism, even though the author claimed that they were "just adding nuance" and that "you should always look past the text implications" and that "you can't be in the right if you don't spill a bit of blood, actually". I mean, even if at one point author implies that yeah, 2nd and 3rd houses shouldn't have really existed, it's a huge red flag for me.

The second one, well - the plot goes like this: C&C capture Luthien; C&C talk with Luthien; the talk goes basically like this: "Look little miss, you are your father's daughter. Your father has an army. What we're saying is, you marry Celegorm, he won't love you, you won't love him, yeah you'll be unhappy, your Beren is dead anyways, all we need you for is basically your dad's army." And it is painted as a right decision for Luthien to forsake Beren and marry Celegorm. When someone in the comments said "hey, don't you think what the feanorians told luthien was pretty off the rails?", the author exploded, saying, again, that we should see nuance, and that luthien made the right choice not retrieving the silmarill that would cause 2nd kinslaying and that C&C are much more well-thought that Finrod, and that yeah Finrod is an idiot and the fact that he and Beren will now inevitably die and his death will be pointless - well, sucks to suck, I guess.

Brr. I still get flashbacks from that comment section.

The last one basically shitted on humans. Humans? Oh you mean magicless filthy creatures who only lie, insult and are parasites that need to be destroyed? And everyone who's not an elf should die? And the elves under Valar influence should die, too? And Valar are actually parasites? And Eru is a myth? Yeah. Yeah you know what.

Russian fandom yells about "nuance" but their nuance are just sides switched. Black becomes white, white becomes black. And if you disagree, well, you clearly can't see past the 2nd-3rd Houses biased Noldor propaganda and should therefore be destroyed. (Ha. Seeing some paralels with real life now, honestly.)

That's why I left, kinda. I just felt so tired, all the time. This is why I prefered LoL as a fairytale, and this is why I mostly prefer following canon. Because for me Tolkien was an escapism, first and foremost, but I felt like I needed to have entire essays at hand just to defend my love for it.

In conclusion, I was an unprepared Ukrainian thrown in the mist of Misterious Russian Soul™ and was gradually taking 1d4 confusion damage, until I was so tired I left entirely. And I'm glad I did so, because English fandom is so much more chill, and when people say/criticise something, they do specify that it is just their opinion on a fictional world and people don't have to wage wars and write multiple essays to enjoy their fave.

P.S. My biggest beef to this day is Finarfin being portrayed as a tiny whiny man unable to raise his voice. Whenever I remember that fic I immediately want to bite. But it's just me, probably.

[magpiejay1234]

Anyway, back to Episode 127.

After the recap Yusho asks Leo how the worlds got separated. Leo states it was because of the Four Dimensional Dragons.

A bit of a break here, in Leo's speech, we see the full body of Z-ARC, and it is shown its upper wings expand to the sky, making him look like a Pendulum. In the Arc-Ray form, these are closed, so here it is a representation of Z-ARC's isolation.

Another mention as we move to the En Cards, as more people now know, though there was a bit of a confusion back then, the separation to dimensions is caused by the interference of the Dragons, whose essences also grant the Yu-boys their Summoning method's powers. The En Cards themselves do not separate anything, they merely negate stuff. Separation of the four dimensions was, therefore, an accident, not a feature.

Leo's speech is interrupted by one of Academia's staff, the older version of the guy we saw in Reiji's flashback, who informs Leo Yuya has escaped.

We cut to Kaito, and Edo knocked out on the floor. Edo questions if this was Yuya's power.

We cut to Leo who demands the four Yuzu Hiragis.

A bit of a break here, in the Pixiv tags, and Japanese fandom in general, the Bracelet Girls are called the Yuzu series, and Yuboys are called the Yuya series, so this is a reference to that.

Yuya appears, and hugs Yusho. Yuya tells Yuzu is kidnapped by Academia, Yusho tells him to not worry, and states to Leo his son is crying, and they shouldn't make children cry anymore.

Yusho tells him to explain his greater motivation, Leo is surprised Yuya made this far.

Leo states Yuya is not Yusho's son. Yuya states he should stop speaking nonsense, and give Yuzu back. Leo states he is trying to bring back truth.

The girls appear in the pods, they will be here for a while. Doktor states everything is prepared, Yuya, and Yuto demand the girls back, Doktor asks Leo to leave this to him, and have Leo watch Yuya's defeat.

Doktor asks Leo to experiment on Yuya (through a Duel, of couse) with the Parasite Queen to find out what happened to the Fusion Parasite that was absorbed by Z-ARC. Leo asks to him to stop, and asks if he really thinks he can beat Yuya.

Doktor starts gloating about how smart he is, and states he showcased how human bodies can be controlled by monsters. He states he developed Fusion Parasite to see the real possibilities of Real Solid Vision, and continues on his demand.

Leo states he once did the same thing, leading to the creation of Z-ARC, so he considers Doktor's thinking dangerous.

Yusho tries to stop him, but he cards Doktor.

With Doktor's carding, Fusion Parasites go to recessive state (they aren't actually destroyed, or absorbed, which I guess explains all the fetish art on Pixiv). Girls get their consciousness back, sort of (again, Fusion Parasites are still inside), Yuya, and Yuzu try to have a moment, but Leo stops Yuya.

Serena asks what's going on, Leo states they have a right to know the truth, and goes back to his speech.

Leo relays Z-ARC's statement that he is born out of people's desire for strength (Z-ARC isn't considering himself as a human for a while), and states ignoring the fact that Duel Monsters have souls, he created a monster that feeds on negative emotions.

A bit of a break here, this feed on negative emotion stuff is a reference Great Evil God Zorc, or Zorc Necrophades in the dub. Leo believes much like Zorc, Z-ARC is basically Giygas.

Leo states, in order to compete with Z-ARC, he tried to create a card with natural energies, we see him observing a volcano, a waterfall, an iceberg, and a desert.

This process fails initially, until he sees his rose to give him inspiration from plants, two birds to give him inspiration from animals. We see a leaf falling down with the wind.

He states living creatures' (including humans' obviously) desire to live can remove the dark desires of humanity, and surpass the power of Z-ARC. We see a blue full moon.

A bit of a break here, the point of En Cards is not to defeat Z-ARC, but merely remove the corruption. Leo obviously also wants to defeat him after purifying him, because that's the only way you can show it to a power-mad person, but that is not the initial stage here.

Leo states using poor equipment he managed to create the 4 En Cards.

A bit of a stop here, due to plurality ambiguity of Japanese language, it is unclear if Leo always expected to have 4 cards, but his mention of the poor equipment suggests he intended to have just one card.

He states he intended to battle Z-ARC himself, but as seen in the flashback, immediately after the four cards were created, Ray appeared, and snatched them. Leo explains Ray's deal, there isn't much of a shock from the audience besides Reiji, and Yusho.

We cut back to the flashback, Ray states Leo is necessary for the future, Leo dismisses that, and states young people are needed for the future. Leo states he created Z-ARC (indirectly of course), and he should be paying the price, and young people can live.

Ray states she doesn't want to lose her father, and uses an unnamed card. Leo escapes the debris, and then chases after Ray.

Leo finds Ray dueling Z-ARC. The platform she is dueling Z-ARC has red crystals, reminiscent of Barian World, even though this is on top of a tower.

I don't think I need to explain why there is an obvious Barian World reference here, right now. Thank you ARC-V for making my job easier I guess. But yes, even back in the day, Z-ARC's mere presence was merging realms, this is a hint towards that, among other things.

Ray uses the four En Cards, we cut to flowers blossoming, birds flying, and red moon sending its energy through the wind.

Leo is stepping on floating blue crystals, there are Roman pillars similar to final Nasch vs. Yuma duel's field.

Leo tries to stop Ray, we see how the Red Crystal structure is there (again, very reminiscent of the Nasch vs. Yuma field), but he is stopped by a barrier, created from En Cards' energy.

Leo states Ray is absorbing natural world's energy from the cards to herself. Leo tries to stop her, but the En Cards manifest into the bracelets. Z-ARC calls her "kisama", we see the shot of Four Dragons struggling inside Z-ARC, Z-ARC states she is unforgivable, and they will become one.

A bit of a break here, in the original incarnation of Z-ARC, the Dimension Dragons could not separate from Z-ARC, so Supreme King Dragons are not present yet. Z-ARC's statement also suggests the Fusion was unstable anyway (makes sense, Astrograph Sorcerer was also corrupt at the time). Z-ARC's dragonic form has yellow eyes here, instead of the red eyes from the previous episode, and we see scales breaking on the silhouette, much like what will happen with Yuya's Z-ARC form. Z-ARC's "we become one" to Ray is also ironic, considering what happens in both the series ending, and Arc-Ray Dragon.

The dragons separate, Ray divides to four, and Z-ARC separates, and so does the world.

A bit of an interesting visual tidbit here, Ray's, and the world's divided colours are purple, green, red, and blue, same as the colours of the Yuboys, and NOT the same as Bracelet Girls, or En Cards. Again, a cool visual reference to the fact it is the dragons that caused the separation, not the En Cards, but also serves as a future hint of a bit of Ray, and En Cards are inside Yuboys, and vice versa for the Bracelet Girls.

Reira is distressed, Leo explains he was in a strange town. He states other Summoning methods were not present, only Standard (ie. Tribute Summon). He touches a monster (Tyhone #2, known as Red Dragon in Japanese), and sees his hand going through it, the kids explain it is not there, and it is just Solid Vision, Leo states he didn't know who he was.

A brief break here. The park Leo is stuck is supposed to be the Domino City park, which is where the Haga vs. Jonouchi duel took place, though it was in a different part of the park. The Duel Disks the kids are using are the original Duel Monsters era Duel Disks.

So yes, Leo is in Domino City now. The why should be obvious, he was associated with KaibaCorp's latter successors back in the United World (if not outright implied to be a former employee, as we discussed before), so he got stuck in the place where the seeds of Solid Vision was first developed.

He states his knowledge as an engineer remained in his subconscious. We see his garage station from the Yusho flashback once again, he states he made improvements to the Solid Vision as if he was motivated by something. We return back to the Yusho flashback.

Yusho, and Leo affirm the discussion, Leo states the demon (Z-ARC) is split into four due to Ray's sacrifice. Yuzu says that can't be, and Ruri says you don't say.

Leo continues his talk, he states he became aware of the past by examining why he had memories of the future, and thus begun to regain them. He became obssessed with the fact that since he lived, Ray must be alive somewhere in the four dimensions.

A bit of a break here, the memory probe machine Leo uses on himself is the same as the memory probes we saw in the previous episodes, which were all based on the machine used to supress Judai's memories of Yubel in GX S3. I probably mentioned this, but it bears repeating.

Reiji realizes this was when he start to ignore him, and Himika. Reiji states since then Himika has changed, we see Reiji's much earlier flashback of Himika destroying business papers. Reiji states this was why he decided to take revenge on Leo, he couldn't forgive Leo for what he did to his mom.

A bit of a break here, in the Himika flashback, Reiji should be around 11, and in his resolve to move to Fusion Dimension, we know he was 14.

Reiji states this was when he learned about Leo's war aims, but Leo states it wasn't for a war of aggression. Reiji asks what was the goal then, Leo states it was because he believed in Ray's survival, and found traces of her in Academia. Reiji realizes this was Serena. Serena says what.

Leo states Serena was the spitting image of younger Ray, and he become convinced when he saw the bracelet. Leo states there was no memory of Ray inside Serena. This caused a memory to reappear, he saw Ray's shadow split into four alongside Z-ARC.

A bit of a break here, the reason why there isn't traces of Ray's soul in the girls, but there are traces of Z-ARC inside the Yuboys should be obvious. Ray's prime essence is basically God now, and more specifically the monster card Beyond the Pendulum, as we find out much much later after the show's airing. The traces of Z-ARC's soul inside Yuboys are not of human Z-ARC (initially anyway), but the parts of Z-ARC inside the dragons.

Leo states he assumed Ray was split into the four dimensions, Yuya figures this means Yuzu, and Serena are both Ray. Leo affirms this. We get the panshots of the girls.

Leo states he was certain Ray had a new life in the four dimensions, and his goal became to unify all reincarnations of Ray back into Ray.

Leo explains Arc Area Project's purpose was to gather life energy to combine the four dimensions into one.

Reiji asks how this will work, Leo showcases the ARC-V reactor., and states this will be the equipment that will resurrect the world, and bring the fifth dimension.

A bit of a break here, in the previous statements, Leo uses the term "hitotsu", same as Z-ARC, but in ARC-V's reveal, he uses term "saisei", resurrection, meaning, as we mentioned before, his true goal is not to combine all dimensions into a one, but reset the world back into the United World's timeline, with presumably a bit of changes that would avoid Z-ARC's corruption, Ray's sacrifice, and a couple of other things, like his ex-wife, and coworkers coming back, and, as we will discuss later with his Deck, him becoming the next God.

ARC-V's animation is very similar to the Spirit Gate lock back in GX S1's ending, as we discussed before, the visuals imply the reactor is built on top of it.

Leo states the unnatural division of the worlds will disappear, so will the Bracelet Girls back into Ray, and it will be new beginning, thus the name Revival Zero.

Yuzu asks if they will become one, Serena states this is such a stupid thing to do, Rin, and Ruri are too scared to talk.

Yuto realizes his comrades are thrown into this thing, Yuya states he cannot allow this, Reira is scared, Reiji asks if this was all for Ray's resurrection, and remembers Yuri's name in the file.

Reiji realizes Yuri is Z-ARC's Fusion part, and the cast realizes Yuya is Z-ARC's Standard variant. Leo asks Reiji to lend him his power, so they can defeat Yuya together. Leo states Z-ARC was also split into four, and Yuya is part of Z-ARC, so since Z-ARC's power came from Duel Monsters, the only way to seal it is through a Duel.

Leo states Reiji's (half-)sister Ray sacrificed herself, thus he should honor her sacrifice by defeating Yuya. Yuto is shocked he is a reincarnation of Z-ARC.

Yuzu states Yuya is not like that, Serena states there is no way that is true. Leo states they all saw Yuya fuse with Yuto, and they should seal Yuya's power.

Yuya states he is not a demon, Reiji affirms this, and says he saw he brought smiles to people. Reiji states Yuya helped the occupation back in Xyz to change their mind, and it was noy Yuya who caused the end of peace, but Leo himself. Reiji states his goal is not worth it to bring fear to people, and he will stop Leo with Yuya. Yusho picks a card, and Leo vs. Reiji-Yuya duel begins.

Next episode is Leo duel.

That was the episode, here's the lore.

It might be weird that none of the Bracelet Girls have traces of Ray, but as we discussed before, Dimension Counterparts are more close to being manifestations of the En Cards, than their originals. So yes, Yuya, in the absence of Z-ARC, and Odd-Eyes' essences, is technically made of tomatoes in actuality.

There is a lot of "hitotsu" talk here, as an obvious in-joke, since both Yuzu, and Leo use the term. There is an obvious parallel with Leo, and Z-ARC's God complexes, and Leo is too focused to notice that.

And yes, earlier incarnation of Z-ARC was technically weaker, but we don't have the card representing that, so it might not be weaker in the OCG.

Leo's talk about the younger generation is a huge theme in ARC-V, as we discussed in Season 2's ending. ARC-V doesn't really play well with it, but we'll see how the post-canon goes.

Leo's flashback is the only time we see the proper original Domino City, so it was kinda nostalgic.

The fact that En Cards are manifestation of living creatures' desire to survive is a reference to Holactie, of course, and the final confrontation with Zorc.

Leo's initial attempts of using regular powers of the world (as seen with his treks to the four biomes) failed, meaning En Cards are only powerful because of their association with life, regular elements cannot work on Z-ARC. The four biomes roughly correspond to the four biomes at the Battle Royale at the end of the Season 1, but are obviously meant to reference various Elemental Decks of GX era.

The concept of Kachofugetsu used on En Cards has no deep philosophical meaning, it is just a classic artistic term:

While Z-ARC's initial form looks like a Pendulum, since Odd-Eyes Dragon was in its regular form, this incarnation of Z-ARC is not a Pendulum monster. We will discuss more about this later.

As we discussed before, Leo's goal on Yuya changes from carding him, to capturing him, to sealing him. He also talks about Z-ARC as a monster in the flashback, but as a duelist when talking about Yuya being Z-ARC's reincarnation.

[dreamerdoesthewritething]

Because I picked up some new characters in Dead By Daylight during the anniversary event, I've been playing Nemesis and he's (almost) always friendly.

So I've come up with lore for Mr. Nemmy. Yes, that's the nickname I've given him (and Nemesis in general in DBD tbh).

Someone messed with him before he was deployed in Raccoon City. Instead of going after S.T.A.R.S. members and anyone that gets in the way of that hunt, he was "programmed" to destroy fellow B.O.W.s, more specifically anything carrying the T-virus. His tentacle doesn't infect people with the T-virus, either. Instead, it contains the vaccine, so he can actually cure those who are infected but haven't turned yet.

The one who messed with him gave him a different name to differentiate him from the Nemesis that was sent after Jill. Several nicknames, actually. Officially, he'd be the Vindicator. They've also called him the Cleanup Crew (or CC), the Janitor, the Fixer-of-Umbrella's-Biggest-Fuck-Up, and related things. (Mr. Nemmy is my nickname for him, not the in-universe person's.)

Unfortunately, he looks exactly like the Nemesis hunting down Jill, so she wouldn't be able to tell one from the other, at least at first. Vindicator wouldn't ever engage her in battle, and therefore wouldn't get his ass kicked and forced to mutate. His "clothes" wouldn't be destroyed and his "heart" and stuff would keep his mutations in check much longer than Nemesis's. All the fighting against the zombies and miscellaneous B.O.W.s would eventually cause some wear and tear, however, though I doubt Vindicator would suffer enough damage to mutate even after hours and hours of killing the masses of monsters.

But imagine how confused and terrified Jill would be seeing "Nemesis" unscathed from their fights when she could've sworn she did damage to him the last time they crossed paths. Eventually she'd realize they weren't the same monster, especially if she sees Vindicator completely ignore her in favor of crushing zombies and Hunters and Lickers and whatnot. She probably would never fully trust him, though. He is a B.O.W., a Tyrant with the same parasite as Nemesis, created by Umbrella. She's be well within her rights to never trust that he would simply keep to killing monsters.

If he doesn't get taken by the Entity (by accident, because he's not much of a Killer), he would most likely remain in Raccoon City when it gets nuked and be destroyed along with everything else. He carries the vaccine, but it would be gone with him. The only ways he could live is if 1) HUNK received orders to meet up with Vindicator and bring him back to HQ along with the G-virus sample, 2) He somehow got on the train with Claire, Leon, and Sherry and assists them with defeating G before they can freak out about a Mr. X-like monster showing up and he somehow makes it very obvious he has no intention of hurting any of the humans and once they're out of Raccoon City he goes off on his own to most likely return to HQ, or 3) Jill and Carlos somehow find out he has the T-virus vaccine within him and decide to risk it when they escape via helicopter, though it's not enough to prevent the nuking of Raccoon City.

In Scenario 1, he'd probably be destroyed. In Scenario 2, he might be intercepted by the same military group that captures Leon and Sherry, which would either lead to him being destroyed outright or experimented on and vivisected and stuff before being discarded unless Leon and/or Sherry could convince the government he's worth more as an asset against B.O.W.s than as bio-waste. In Scenario 3, Jill would have to find a way to keep Vindicator hidden until the BSAA is founded by her and Chris and then utilize him in every conceivable way to prevent another T-virus outbreak as well as simply combat the rising threat of bioterrorism and B.O.W.s. Hiding him, an 8 foot something inches Tyrant, isn't easy, but once he's hidden, he's complacent and willing to stay put since he has no further instructions. He'd eventually come to see Jill as his "commander" and do whatever she says. Maybe he'd also eventually develop a personality? Who knows?

Anyway, maybe I'll consider writing some "Nemmy" x Reader stuff, going off the idea that he would become fully sentient.

[zachsgamejournal]

COMPLETED: Röki

I'm gonna nitpick, as I do, but this was a great game with a great story, and I want Guillermo del Toro to do the movie!

So where I left off, I had been exploring the forest and rescuing ancient animal gods from dream parasites while learning more about Tove's past, dealing with the death of her mother. With the spell to drain Tove's younger brother, Lars, of his humanity to turn Roki human nearing an end Tove has finally found a path to the castle:

So, I had really thought: THIS IS IT! We go to the castle, we confront the goddess of crows, and everything's done. But not. There's a whole castle-puzzle section and it's long and convoluted. It contains some of the more challenging puzzles while having the lowest story-to-puzzle ratio yet. So it's kinda...well boring. It didn't help that I played through 90% of Ocarina of Time this weekend, so my limit for storyless dungeon crawling is pretty much at an end.

They had an interesting twist, though. When Roki destroyed the house, the depressed father basically said "Run kids!" and let himself be buried in the rubble. NOW, he awakes and crawls out. He then tracks the path Tove and Lars took and finds the real-world version of the castle Tove has teleported two.

The game now lets you switch between the father and Tove. The father is in the real world, with mostly no snow and the sun is shining. Tove, on the otherhand, is in the mythic world where it's night the world is pretty much frozen over. MOST of the puzzles in this section must be solved through some sort of cooperation between the father and child.

The father stands on one end of a cart to lift the other in the air, giving Tove access to a key item.

Climbs walls to flip switches, opening doors for the father.

The characters can't talk to each other directly, but they feel each other's presence. They also magically share an inventory (thank god!). It's a creative idea that has several shortcomings. Mostly, the key item to a puzzle is rarely within the same vicinity of the puzzle. And you often pick up key items before you have access to the puzzle that needs to be solved by them. So a fishing hook, or a book with a tree on it don't make sense when you pick them up. You just know it'll come into play at some point.

This isn't a huge problem in its own right. Most of the game works this way already. And many point-n-click games do this too. It's a staple of the genre. The problem is that even with all the locked doors and obstructed stairways, the castle is quite large. And exploring, trying to figure out how your random assortment of key items are meant to help you is tedious. It's made doubly frustrating because you have to move Tove and the father independently. So after walking all the way across the castle to put Tove into position, you then have to repeat the same journey with the father.

This section, while clever gameplay, is made more frustrating by the fact there's essentially no story and plot development. We know everything there is to know about the legends, the way behind the kidnapping, and even how Tove and her father struggled to deal with the death of Tove's mother. And that's a shame, cause this element of switching between the father and Tove could have been an amazing storytelling opportunity.

Tove's father is presented as being so depressed by his wife's death, he's unable to be a father to either children. He just sorta drinks and sits in his chair all day. Tove has assumed many adult duties, especially when it comes to the care of her brother. She makes supper, babysits, ensures that he goes to bed on time. Everything her father should be doing.

When the father climbs out of the rumble and decides to rescue his children, it's an isnpiring change. But besides sharing a few sentiment lines of dialog about how much he loves Tove while co-op solving puzzles, there's no real development. Honestly, it feels like the castle section was tacked on to add length and then adding the father gave that arbitrary filler a little bit of life. Really, I think this should have been gameplay from the beginning:

Tove follows Lars into the magical world. The father is stuck in the real world looking for his children. He sees signs and finds he's able to interact and communicate (to a small degree). While he sees rock formations and strange trees, Tove sees creatures and amazing structures. Along the way, there's some discussion--as Tove's father reflects on the past few years and his failure to support Tove and regret.

But ah well. maybe I'll steal this for one of my games.

The final cutscene is kind of interesting. Roki and Lars have become friends. Roki doesn't want to be human, he liked being a monster. But his mother, the antagonist, doesn't think he'll have an easy life as a monster. Sadly, she's sacrificed many children trying to change him and it hasn't worked. It's revealed in a cutscene that Lars was born in the forest, so has more magical power than most kids. The reason he was born in the forest was because of a car accident that killed the mom. There was an attempt to Tove feel responsible since she could not find the emergency phone to call for help. Tove's mom isn't upset though. She introduced Tove to baby Lars before she passes.

I think instead of having Tove look for a phone and not find it, she should have simply stood there frozen in shock. I think doing your best to look for a phone makes you clearly blameless, especially as a child. But had she been frozen, too horrified to try and help, well that's something that'll scar you for life. It would have made Tove's guilt more real, and also be something that her father could forgive her for. I think there was more emotional weight that could have existed her, which would have provide more catharsis when it worked out.

The game has an interesting bit where the guardians come to interfere with the spell. While the crow-lady rightly calls them out, they take responsibility in their part and apologize. Roki decides he doesn't want Lars to die and he doesn't want to be human, so he breaks the spell--saving Lars and returning to a giant, hairy...thing. The mother, having sacrificed the last of her energy to convert Roki, now passes a way. She's decided to allow her son, Roki, to live his own life and feels bad for what she's done. Not bad enough in my opinion. But's a tragic end for her in this sense.

The game ends with a more motivated father, a rescued Lars, and friendly Roki that wanders the forest.

While the castle bit was frustrating and lacked meaningful story development, the ending was really interesting and the whole game is great. Now that I know most the answers to puzzles, I'd love to play this again and just enjoy artistry of it all!

[danisha-tdh]

Wow! Love your Dharkon! Did you design Galeem in your human version too??

Well, yes-

But, it's kinda bit different in two options as a bit theories actually. Since I've been thinking about Guardian Spirit from Miitopia want it as a human version, why not both instead??

The outfit I've made have been difficult to think. How about we talk about the characters about Galeem's headcanons in my ideas?-

Despite of himself, his personality seems calm and love to be peace. But somehow, Dharkon just destroying everything in the world though, might have not been well actually. As about a theory if I connect the dot, Galeem is a Guardian Spirt in my opinion. As though, he's seems to looks like a good guy to me.

As a question: "If Galeem was the Guardian Spirit, but what about the story of world of light that he's a bad guy?-"

Answer: I think it must be an illusions or someone manipulate him. Who? Don't know.

As the other options, Galeem in the past of , he used to be a king who is the founder of the Kingdom in a very, very long time ago. As himself, he must know about what the meaning of determined in life of him, seeking to find the answers of truth. Speaking of Life, let's talk about the parasite, Dharkon.

Dharkon is actually being Chaotic Evil actually. Somehow, it's difficult to know if he's live once again in third time. The first time is actually the first reborn of him in the past, the second was actually from Smash bros. Ultimate (Spoilers: if you haven't know about what happen next), and the last could be live once again. I don't know if he's gonna be live again since he was defeated by the fighters from Smash Bros. Felt like I could think that would predicted I guess. :|c

As I searched on them, people think they are dating (I mean, why would people get that).

But as my opinions, Galeem and Dharkon are actually meant to be Brothers. Even they shares their Father of Greatness (known as the God).

Between them, Galeem wanted to confront him as Mercy. But Dharkon doesn't care about it, he wanted to spread to world Darkness just like from the Smash Bros. (Spoilers ahead of course). Galeem believes to himself he has been hardworking for anything what he do since the past for his people from his own Kingdom.

Let me tell you a story in the Past what happened and how Galeem is actually the Guardian Spirit.

Many decades since Dharkon starts the War, Galeem and his old friends needs to stop him of his cause of doom to the world. Eventually, somehow might not end well.. Dharkon wins to take all of their souls to him for taking the World spread in Darkness. But Galeem and one chance to get up, to Protect his friends and his kingdom for everyone he sacrifice himself to stop Dharkon. Then, the world spread with brightness of explosions. Don't know where could be the Ancient Guardians would be. No sighs of Galeem where he could be. But living in the Depths of Void where he is never woke up again. As many, many decades later, he wakes up hearing someone out there. He ask, "Who's there?". But it doesn't answers his question. He can't see but only a void he lives nothing with it. As soon one day, we wakes up again for hearing a strange voice earlier. Then, the light of a star stright foward to him. The Star seems like he looks at the mirror. It shows where the voices coming from. It's was a child who seems lost in the forest. Galeem felt sad about the child looks lost and he find a way to make the child goes to their home. As soon he realized, the child was holding is actually Galeem stuck in a Antique Charm. Galeem does nothing but only way to communicate the child. The child look sad and cries in the middle of ruins. Galeem has idea how to calm them down, he begins to sing his lullaby to make the child's calm. Then, he makes something else like call for a help. A momenst altee since it was raining, somehow came by and pick up the child for their safety. Galeem feels like he seem forgot his memories, but despite he recognize people that he knows about it so he could jog his memories as well.

Thanks to you anons, for filling my motivations as well! ^^

[rhys-rambles]

FIGHT CLUB | 1999

I was introduced to the movie Fight Club around 3 years ago. It wasn’t until recently I’ve become interested in it. So here’s my Fight Club breakdown :) WARNING FOR SPOILERS!!

For those who don’t know, Fight Club is a cult favorite novel that was later adapted into a film released in 1999, directed by David Fincher. Starring Brad Pitt, Edward Norton, and Helena Bonham Carter.

The story of Fight Club revolves around three main characters. It’s told from a first-person perspective by a nameless character that’s commonly called ‘the narrator’, who has a dead-end white-collar job at a major car company and has fallen prey to what he calls the ‘Ikea-nesting instinct’. Dictated by social norms he walks perfectly in line like a docile sheep, which translates into an inauthentic, repetitive and empty life.

He suffers from a bad case of insomnia, which causes him to be neither fully awake, nor fully asleep. Sometimes, he entertains self-destructive thoughts: as he flies around from state to state for his job, he prays for a crash or mid-air collision every time the plane bankes too sharply on takeoff or landing.

During a flight, he meets an eccentric and hypermasculine character named Tyler Durden.

Tyler seems to be the direct opposite of the narrator. He’s a wolf rather than a sheep, disentangled from society, and impervious to social norms. He takes what he wants, without asking, and whenever he pleases. He’s self-sufficient, has no superiors, and doesn’t care about material possessions.

The movie later reveals that Tyler and the narrator are the same person, as Tyler is a product of the narrator’s imagination, that’s probably induced by severe insomnia combined with dissatisfaction with a dull, meaningless existence and a lifetime of repressed urges.

The narrator is addicted to going to support groups for specific illnesses because these give him the opportunity to cry, which seems to be a remedy for his insomnia. The downside of his behavior is that he isn’t genuine; he has no testicular cancer, or blood parasites, yet acts as if he does, so he can reap the benefits of these sessions.

But these benefits come to an end when another non-genuine visitor starts to join the sessions as well. This is a woman named Marla Singer, and her motive for joining these sessions is, and I quote: “It’s cheaper than a movie and there’s free coffee.”

Marla is a self-destructive, chain-smoking fatalist, who’s expecting to die at any moment, but finds it tragic that it never happens. She steals food and clothes for a living and attempts suicide by overdosing Xanax.

Even though the narrator, Tyler, and Marla are totally different personalities, they all live their lives accompanied by a nihilistic undercurrent.

Tyler seems to have figured out what causes this emptiness, and during the course of the story, his solution unfolds. Unfortunately, his character slides from a sage-like father figure to an anarchist terrorist, who’s out to destroy modern civilization. Nevertheless, he exposes a series of harsh realities about modern life that are worth contemplating.

Anti-consumerism

The anti-consumerist stance of Tyler Durden becomes obvious when he verbalizes his concern about the modern way of life. Shortly after the narrator meets Tyler, he discovers that his apartment went up in flames. After this unfortunate event, realizing that he has no friends to call, he calls Tyler. The two meet, and the narrator complains about losing his furniture, and his respectable and almost complete wardrobe. Tyler responds rather indifferently and slightly sarcastically before he begins to express his views on the matter. Quote:

“We’re consumers. We are by-products of a lifestyle obsession. Murder, crime, poverty, these things don’t concern me. What concerns me are celebrity magazines, television with 500 channels, some guy’s name on my underwear. Rogaine, Viagra, Olestra…”

It becomes clear that Tyler has quite an unconventional view of what’s good and bad. Murder, crime, and poverty are generally considered bad things, while consumer goods like televisions, clothing from a certain brand, products that help to hide aging, enhance bedroom performance, and help us with weight loss, are considered preferable.

Tyler has a contempt for the artificial, as opposed to elements that have been a natural part of the human condition, probably as long we exist. This way of thinking touches upon an ancient Cynic philosopher named Diogenes of Sinope, who believed that modern, civilized life hinders our natural state.

At the end of the movie, it appears that the narrator has destroyed his apartment himself when he was taken over by his alter ego, Tyler Durden. This deed was the first step onto the road of detachment from his property, into a more authentic way of life and to (how Tyler puts it): “reject the basic assumptions of civilization, especially the importance of material possessions.”

The narrator moves in with Tyler, who lives in a dilapidated house with ongoing leaks, power failures, and no Ikea furniture. Slowly but surely, the narrator indeed detaches from his previously destroyed property. “Things you own end up owning you,” Tyler tells him. And this simple piece of wisdom probably hits home, when the narrator realizes that he doesn’t need all these worldly goods, and is actually much happier without them.

Non-conformity

Tyler Durden is a non-conformist, and shows, again, similarities with Diogenes, who not only purposefully lived in poverty, but also rejected social norms. For him, social constructs are nothing more than a superficial layer of culture that represses our true nature.

Diogenes lived in a barrel, Tyler lives in an abandoned building. Diogenes urinated in public, Tyler urinates in the soup of a restaurant.

The narrator, on the other hand, seems to be the embodiment of conformity, as he adapts his lifestyle completely to societal expectations. The problem with this behavior is that we dedicate our existence walking the paths that people other than ourselves have laid out for us. This need to conform, the fear of falling by the wayside, this sickly preoccupation by what others think of us, this necessity to keep up with the Joneses: what an exhausting way of life, just to feel ‘accepted’.

So, what if we stop caring? What if we reject the generally accepted norms, and choose our own values, elect our own leaders, determine our own goals, regardless of the social expectations? This is a fundamental difference between the narrator and Tyler Durden, who puts it like this: “I am free in all the ways that you are not.”

Ironically, later on in the story, Project Mayhem, a terrorist organization led by Tyler that grows out of Fight Club, is a textbook example of conformity, as it’s members wear the same clothes, are absolutely equal, abolish their names, and are referred to as space monkeys that sacrifice their lives for a greater cause. We could say that by rejecting one doctrine in order to be ‘non-conformist’, we often imprison ourselves in another one.

Fighting and masculinity

Fighting and the experience of pain play a significant role in Fight Club. At the beginning of the story, Tyler asks the narrator to hit him as hard as he can. He explains his strange wish by saying: “How can you know yourself if you’ve never been in a fight? I don’t want to die without any scars.”

So, the narrator hits him. Tyler hits him back, and the two engage in a fistfight. Both seem to feel surprisingly pleasant afterward and decide to do it again. Their nightly activities on a parking lot attract the attention of other men, that are also interested in joining these non-hostile fistfights. And thus, Fight Club is born.

It’s widely known that voluntary exposure to certain forms of pain makes us stronger in the face of adversity, which could be a legit reason to partake in these fights. As the narrator states: “After fighting everything else in your life got the volume turned down.”

However, Fight Club is more than just a metaphor for dealing with hardship through exposure: a physical fight, and the violence and aggression that goes with it, resonates with the primal part of our being.

Not only the men in the story are attracted to the violence of fighting; Fight Club as a movie and novel was so impactful on its audience, that real-life Fight Clubs started to emerge.

The story shows an experiment in which the members of Fight Club pick fights with random strangers (and are supposed to lose), which isn’t as easy as it sounds; most people do everything to avoid physical conflict.

But Fight Club makes us wonder if it’s a good thing that we’ve lost touch with these primal tendencies. Should we repress this part of human nature? Or, perhaps, integrate it in healthy and constructive ways?

Self-destruction

When the story progresses, Tyler and the narrator begin to see the world through a different lens. Tyler criticizes the modern self-improvement hype by saying: “Self-improvement is masturbation. Now self-destruction… ”

This statement is slightly confusing, as the increasingly destructive nature of Fight Club, in which faces are permanently mutilated and teeth are knocked out of people’s heads, doesn’t seem to be a sustainable way to live.

But Tyler might be onto something when we look at self-destruction as the destruction of a false self.

‘Self-improvement’ often points to the accumulation of external goods: a better house, a better job, a better body, more money. But why should we endlessly want to improve ourselves? Why can’t we just be happy with how things are, and take life as it comes? Or as Tyler states:

“I say never be complete, I say stop being perfect, I say let’s evolve, let the chips fall where they may.”

We create an identity through material wealth, and social status. And as far as Tyler is concerned, this false sense of self must be destroyed, before we are free to do anything we want. Therefore, the ‘space monkeys’ of Project Mayhem live by a mantra which goes like this:

“You are not your job, you’re not how much money you have in the bank. You are not the car you drive. You’re not the contents of your wallet. You are not your fucking khakis. You are all-singing, all-dancing crap of the world.” - Tyler Durden, Fight Club

Tyler makes a so-called human sacrifice, namely a man called Raymond who works a dead-end job in a convenience store. Raymond wanted to be a veterinarian, but didn’t make it because it was “too much studying.” Tyler threatens Raymond, saying that if he doesn’t start studying within six weeks, he’ll kill him.

In this scene, Tyler points to another aspect of self-destruction: the act of letting go of fears, negative self-talk, and all distractions, so we can fully focus on our purpose. It’s the destruction of everything within ourselves that holds us back from living life on our own terms.

A near-life experience

Many people go great lengths when it comes to pain avoidance. The problem is that running from pain means running from an inevitable part of life.

The prospect of incurring pain makes us anxious, and often leads to self-indulgent decisions. That is: choosing the less painful path, even if a more painful path guarantees more success and pleasure in the future.

Tyler Durden deals with this by inflicting a chemical wound on the narrator’s hand using lye.

As expected, the narrator does everything to escape the pain: he uses visualization techniques he learned at a seminar, and retreating in his cave to find his ‘power animal’. But Tyler slaps him in the face, forcing him to stay with the pain, saying: “This is the greatest moment of your life, man. And you’re off somewhere missing it.”

For the narrator, Tyler has one central goal: he must reach bottom. After putting him through suffering, and destroying his false identity, there’s yet another aspect that must be crushed: hope. Losing all hope is freedom. And, therefore, he must reject what has rejected him: his father, and God. I quote:

“Consider the possibility that God does not like you. In all probability, he hates you.” - Tyler Durden, Fight Club

Tyler states that we don’t need God. That we shouldn’t care about redemption and damnation. And if we’re God’s unwanted children, so be it. Thereby, we lose all hope, but are also liberated from religious doctrine and fatherly authority.

Now we’re truly free. Now we can create our own meaning, and live how we want to live.

Tyler emphasizes the importance of knowing what we want in life. To achieve this, we must be willing to get out of our comfort zone and jump into the unknown without safety brackets.

The narrator, however, has difficulties letting go of security. He begs Tyler to not mess around when he lets go of the steering wheel in a driving car while hitting the gas. Tyler calls the narrator ‘pathetic’, and yells: “hitting bottom isn’t a weekend retreat. It’s not a goddamn seminar. Stop trying to control everything and just let go!”

After an inevitable car crash, Tyler states that they just had a ‘near-life experience’.

Wrap up

Fight Club is a story about rebellion against the status quo and a plea for the simple life. It criticizes the ways in which we are so hung up on security, and material possessions, and how people let social norms dictate their lives.

‘Stuff’ has become our religion. The idols we worship are Ikea and Starbucks. And the more we immerse ourselves in such an empty and unfulfilling existence, the more we start to resemble the things that we produce: manufactured products rather than authentic human beings.

Tyler shows us a way out. And even though his insights are profound, the execution is questionable. Fight Club, and its terrorist branch Project Mayhem, show us how easy it is to oppose one ideology, in order to fall into another, and how a cult-like echo chamber built on rigid beliefs could become very destructive.

Nevertheless, Tyler challenges us to be self-sufficient and disobedient to the authorities that let us down, to live authentically and in the moment, to confront our fears, to boldly step out of our comfort zones, and let the things that don’t matter truly slide.

[iconfusionwastaken]

🧁 BadBoyHalo reborn as a demon antagonist AU 🧁

This AU is part of the DSMP Reborn as a “villain” AU multiverse, the link shows the masterpost which explains the AUs & has the index for more AUs that I posted.

If an AU has no link attached, it's coming soon.

Holy crap I went hard for the angst on this one.

CWs for:

Non-consensual body modification (cause of the Egg), Parasites (because Egg), Loss of a limb (Not Egg's fault surprisingly), & Derealization in a paragraph

Let me know if I need to add any other CW or anything else.

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

As a child Bad wakes up 1 day to learn that in his 1st life, he played a video game/read 2 novels where his current life, became 1 of the Demon Lords who willingly worshipped/was possessed by the Egg & worked for it. In fact OG him is the Egg's future 2nd in command & poses as the leader of the empire dedicated to it, & he was killed/defeated late in the story.

(Up to you if it's a game or novel, w/ a game maybe there's multiple routes/choices meaning multiple endings while w/ a novel, in canon the Demon Lords were all killed while in a spin-off they were just defeated not killed or maybe it's the other way around w/ the novels, or maybe it's a single novel w/ a mix of some Demon Lords dying while some survive.)

It was pretty ambiguous if some of the Demon Lords were wholy possessed or willingly worshiped the Egg w/o possession, or a mixture of the 2.

(If we want to we can have this world be the same world where Techno is reincarnated as Billiam, because then they could discover they're in the same boat & bond over it but I'm making those worlds/time periods seperate for this post.)

The Demon Lords & the Egg formed the Eggpire. 1 by 1 in the story they are killed/defeated by Puffy, Sam, &/or Technoblade, the protagonists. If the Demon Lords weren't killed they were defeated at a terrible cost for themselves & others.

Bad won't accept being a villain, or being killed or worshipping/being possessed by the Egg.

The good thing is that he remembered this before the Egg has enough power to get him & the other future Demon Lords under it, so he has time to plan. Actually Bad has a few decades to prepare!

On the off chance that the Egg possessed the lords, he wants to find the future Demon Lords & other major charaters so as to prevent that.

In the original story, Puffy & Sam are demons who betray the Eggpire which they help found early after it's formation due to realizing the Egg is bad. They flee, & later form 'Pro-Omelette' in opposition of it, w/ Technoblade joining their cause at some point in the story after OG Bad & the Egg fails to recruit him.

Unfortunatly, while fleeing, Puffy & Sam fail to do some things/do some things which they regret then & in the future that also has major consequences as they feared.

Another close ally is Hannah, a dryad/nymph who aids them w/ her powers. At some point the Eggpire captures her meaning she has to be saved & after that as the story progresses Sam, Puffy & maybe even Technoblade if he's also a demon starts feeling a strange kinship & repulsion towards & against her.

There's also the starborne mercenary Purpled who isn't willing to work w/ the Eggpire due to them taking his big sibling figure.

(Starborne means the starborne origins from the Origins mods for Minecraft).

Everyone has their own motifs, Puffy the sheep demon pirate has pirate & sheep motifs. Sam the creeper demon redstoner has a redstone motif. Techno has a pig motif. Purpled's motifs are stars, galaxy patterns & just anything to do w/ space.

Ponk, the chicken demon w/ a lemon (tree) & chicken motif is Sam's ex who was heartbroken by his sudden disappearance. He joined the very Eggpire Sam betrayed & had his heartbreak used to harden his resolve for the Egg's desires.

He is the 1st Demon Lord to be killed/defeated. If defeated he's turned against the Egg w/ the power of love leading to Sam & Ponk making up, maybe they never go back to dating or Ponk's ability to love was taken away by the Egg after he goes against it.

Maybe early in the fight Sam is holding back his emotions, cuts of Ponk's arm which leads to Ponk's reaction snapping Sam out of it & then Sam has to convince Ponk he geniunely loves him & regrets leaving him the rest of the fight, just angst.

(Sam saving Ponk from the Eggpire w/ the power of love only for Ponk losing the ability to love after betraying the Eggpire, oh yeah the angst).

If Ponk is killed, well Sam is extra vulnerable to the Egg's influence & risks getting brainwashes by it while carries the guilt of killing his lover w/o reconciling.

Maybe Ponk isn't killed but Sam's tunnel vision to defeat him causes Ponk to die of broken heart syndrome (maybe induced by the Egg?) oof & Sam regrets not contacting Ponk after escaping the Eggpire & forming Pro-Omelette & is extra vulnerable to the Egg.

Also there's these these flowers called Carnations that have different meanings depending on color, maybe the 2 have a shared magical carnation flower that Sam ends up taking w/ him while fleeing from the Egg, so the dark red flower (love & affection) becomes almost fully yellow (disapointment & rejection) which makes Sam truly realize the extent of what he's done by leaving Ponk w/o like a note on what's going on.

Maybe to Sam's horror the flower sometimes flashes to being striped (regret love can't be shared) before going back to being yellow w/ a tiny bit of dark red some where.

During the battle, if Sam manages to convince Ponk to defect from the Egg, the flower flashes fully dark red but then the Egg take Ponk's ability to love. This takes away Ponk's connection to the flower making it half dead & the flower permanently is striped.

If we go the route of Ponk's death, the flower doesn't flash dark red at all, it goes from yellow to striped when Ponk dies, disconnecting his magic to the flower making the flower half dead.

Punz is next to go, they are a human mercenary turned into a demon after joining the Eggpire be it because of possession or there being promising gains of wealth from joining the Eggpire. He has a wealth motif.

Since Punz was turned by the Egg, he has Blood Vine's for horns & said vines for a tail.

Punz fights his own brother & talks about how the money is worth more than Purpled, how they don't love Purpled, etc., which Purpled refuses to believe is true.

Punz either dies (meaning a grieving Purpled for the rest of the story vulnerable to the Egg) or ends up in a coma (extra angsty if Purpled thinks he it himself).

Purpled is scared for his big sibling's health, will they be okay when the Egg dies? Well, after the Egg's defeat Punz wakes up some point afterwards but his health is awful, said awful health will last a long time & they can never do mercenary work again, both he & Purpled are distraught by this.

Punz's demon features are especially sickly & act like a parasite for a while before just dying. Punz basically didn't/couldn't have his connection to the Egg & his new demonhood removed, now he's here w/ maybe chronic fatigue because the Egg seriously fucks people over even in death.

Skeppy, a blue-turned-red diamond golem-turned-demon, goes down after Punz's defeat. Skeppy has a gem motif, & in the past made a purely proffesional deal w/ OG Bad, while OG Bad would forfeit his immortality to make Skeppy harder for death to claim, & as a result became a demon, Skeppy would provide OG Bad w/, let's say 1/2 of the gems & riches he owned.

Remember that if Skeppy dies, Bad dies but Bad can't die w/o Skeppy dying 1st.

Skeppy basically helps fund the Eggpire. When the Egg decides to give Skeppy some demon stuff itself, Skeppy not only is made of red diamonds now, but his body is cracked if not before & there are roots & flowers sticking out of said cracks.

Skeppy joins the Eggpire because of possession &/or promises of an even longer life through a connection w/ 2 demons.

After his defeat, the Eggpire is more desperate than ever due to losing a big funder, putting effort into getting Skeppy back. The vines also act parasitic after the Egg's fall before dying but not w/o Skeppy's mind & body being damaged by the vines.

If Skeppy is killed then OG Bad's connection to the Egg is the only thing keeping him alive if barely meaning Bad's easier to kill & the Eggpire more desperate than in the route Skeppy lives.

Antfrost, the demon w/ a cat, ant & ice motifs, the '2nd in command' of the Eggpire to the everyone. Only alone w/ the Egg & OG Bad is he called the 3rd in command since that's what he truly was.

If Ant is killed/defeated, OG Bad has to deal w/ getting a new “2nd” in command, this time keeping her in the shadows so as to keep her from being taken on by Pro-Omelette. Security is tightened as much as it can be.

The Eggpire becomes even more stressed if Ant is defeated & is w/ Pro-Omelette 1 way or another because Ant knows a lot of stuff they'd rather never get out.

If Ant's defeated & a prisoner of the protagonists, maybe they get some info from him but soon he is released by a traitor but as he escapes he winds up stranded somewhere in a place that won't be kind to him unaware of how to get back to the Eggpire. Perhaps for the rest of the story.

At this point Pro-Omelette also tighten security since they have a traitor in their ranks.

Althought Hannah is acting suspicious, she isn't like vanishing at random times or acting that off so they can't exactly suspect her. She's got sick this once & has been pretty unwell but who can blame her? So many of her flowers got destroyed & leeched off of in Ant's escape.

The demons of Pro-Omelette are feeling a strange repulsion against her but also a strange kinship towards her.

If Skeppy is dead, Bad when being confronted by the enemy instantly is sapped of all his power & life left since the Egg realizes it's about to loose him. Or his connection to the Egg is severed by Pro-Omellete before it can happen leading to him naturally dying.

If Skeppy isn't dead however, Bad is captured but not w/o the Egg taking all the power it can from him severely weakening him on a level of power & health.

OG Bad was a very powerful demon & so if Skeppy lives, the Egg gets a major power boost before his capture, but in the route of Skeppy's death, the Egg doesn't get that much since it had to keep Bad from dying.

After Bad is down, Hannah goes missing again & there are 2 groups, 1 to find Hannah & the other to take down the Egg once & for all.

Either 1 or both groups find the Egg & to their horror they find out since Hannah's 1st capture the Egg brainwashed her, has been leaching off of her & replaced the flowers she wears w/ it's vines.

The Egg holds Hannah's life over them. If the Egg took the power of OG Bad in the route Skeppy lives it's much for difficult to try & defeat the Egg & save Hannah.

Also the Egg turned Hannah into a demon that has the power to grow vines & flowers. She's powerful but even more if Skeppy lives.

Egged!Hannah does a number on Pro-Omelette. She goes as far as to maim, kill controlling the vines & worm parasitic plants in people. The Egg has these powers too.

There are 4 directions at this point.

     Pro-Omelette succesfully kills the Egg while getting Hannah out of it's grasp in the process, of course there's the parasitic plants & other damage done to the protagonists' side as well as Hannah who's health is super fucked liked many in the final battle (it's kinda like what happens to Punz if he lives).      Like Hannah who was turned into some egg-demon who's egg-demon parts act like parasites & others w/ the parasitic plants in them have to deal w/ the plants till said parasites die & even then there's the stuff to deal /w the parasites deaths.

     Hannah is killed by the Egg sapping everything from her & fighting w/ all it's new might but still killed. The damage done to everyone else is significantly worse.      I'm not even accounting for the background characters brainwashed, genuinly worshipping the Egg dealing w/ the fall of the Egg, the aftermath, etc.

     The Egg & Egged!Hannah win, some Pro-Omelette members in battle are killed while the rest are captured to be egged.

     Hannah dies to the Egg sapping everything from her & the Egg wins w/ it's rejuvenated power. Many Pro-Omelette members in battle are killed while the rest are captured to be egged.      Basically 3 & 4 are the bad endings, while 1 & 2 are the 'good endings.'

As I said before, there's so much I'm not considering. I can't bring myself to further work on the canon of the game/novel(s) Bad played before being isekaied.

But yeah the game/novels were full of angst & Bad was super into it so he wants to give everyone (especially his favorite character(s)) a happy ending.

People around Bad notice he's changed his behavior but lets say it's not enough to warrant any investigation.

Bad starts studying defensive magic since he doesn't want to die, he also learns all he can about summoning, deals w/ summoners, etc.. While he's at it he's tracking down all the major characters & is going to make sure they know what he's learned to prevent any possession.

When Bad finds the major characters, he becomes close friends to them but he's still nervous at the idea that the people he's befriending like Sam, Puffy & co. will kill/maim him.

Or we could have it so that Bad becomes cofortable w/ his friends & confessed about having a past life & all the knowledge of future events he has. You're choice.

When Skeppy summons him & he makes the deal w/ Skeppy he makes sure to hang around his #1 favorite character because, in his 1st life Bad loved Skeppy's character & now he has the chance to geniunely know & become friends w/ Skeppy. Skeppy even warms up to Bad & geniunely begins seeing him a a friend!

Uh, I didn't exactly develop the world much, oops, let's say that Bad is born into a high enough position to change the living conditions of those of lower class of those around him.

Bad out of fear of the Egg makes sure as many people as possible have the common sense to not do anything stupid, has the knowledge & defense to not get possessed, & more, regardless of whatever barriers are in his way.

Since the Egg makes promises, he makes sure to nip that bud as much as he can, such as making sure that even in death, loved ones can communicate via like necromancy/something else, everybody has their needs met, prejudices are squashed as much as possible, etc.

Bad, while earning the ire of many who liked things the way they were, also earns the support of those who benifited from his actions. He also actually listens to what people are saying because he can't let the Egg have any chances.

The main cast of the game/novel(s) Bad read also help out, even more if Bad confessess about his past life.

(The next paragraph has some derealization, said section of derealization being in bold.)

If we want angst, we could have Bad (& co. if they know?) overworking themselves sometimes because the Egg can't have any chances, maybe sometimes he (& others) can't go to bed because he/she/they are terrified of the Egg, terrified of it, worried about the Egg already being here, worried about the Egg already somehow possibly controlling & possessing them & already being possessed, sometimes wondering if their own mind & eyes can be trusted—

On the bright side we can hopefully have some comfort & fluff after that angst & hurt.

Also there's this 1 guy also helping Bad out as much as the main cast called Karl, he disappears at random times but by the looks of it, he isn't connected to the Egg in any way & is really helpful so there's not much to worry about.

[sweetiepie08]

RebelZ (Chapter 9)

Invader Zim fanfic

While analyzing Zim’s PAK for weaknesses, Tak discovers strange coding that sends her on a search for answers. The clues lead her to uncover a conspiracy that governs all of Irken society. When the truth sends her on the run, she has no choice but to return to the one place the Tallest would never willingly go: Urth.

Meanwhile, Dib has noticed odd changes in Zim’s behavior. Has the invader simply grown bored of his mission over the last few years, or is there something more interesting going on?

People who asked to be tagged: @incorrect-invader-zim , @messinwitheddie, @reblogstupids, @cate-r-gunn, @agentpinerulesall​

If anyone else would like to be added to the tag list feel free to message me. Also, if you’re on the tag list and you changed your name, please just let me know.

Chapter 1. Chapter 2. Chapter 3. Chapter 4. Chapter 5. Chapter 6. Chapter 7. Chapter 8. Chapter 9. Chapter 10.

[-]

“Care to tell us what the fuck that was?” the Dib shouted as they ran down the hall.

“A coup, obviously,” Zim shot back. “Just not one where you seize power at the end. So, half a coup.”

“So then who seizes power now?”

“The Tallest Red and Purple still have it,”

Dib nearly tripped over his own feet in his shock. “You mean you didn’t kill them?”

“It’s nearly impossible to poison an Irken,” Tak explained. “The PAK filters out most toxins. You can incapacitate them, though, for a short period of time.”

“So you basically just quit your job in spectacular fashion,” Dib said indignantly.

Tak almost couldn’t believe it. Zim must be sincere in his betrayal. He poisoned the Tallest and declared to the entire upper crust of the Irken military that it was intentional. There was no coming back from that. Every other disaster he caused could reasonably be argued as a mistake. But there could be no doubt here. Zim truly had turned on the empire.

Yet, something still didn’t sit quite right with her. If he had gone rebel, if he had truly turned traitor, then his life clock would have gone off like hers did. One would reasonably assume the impotence for this betrayal was her discovery of the Control Brains parasite, but she was with him ever since she told him that news and she never saw his life clock go off. But that could only mean something else prompted him at an earlier date. So the question was, what made Zim finally snap?

They came to a split in the hallway. Tak started going right while Zim went left.

“Uh, the Voot is this way,” Tak called.

“I’m not going to the Voot,” Zim yelled back. “I’m going to the control room.”

Dib and Tak cast each other a glance, then followed him. They found him crouched behind a door at the end of the hall and joined him in his hiding spot. Dib took a peak inside. There, dozens of Irkens worked at their stations. They seemed unaware that, for now, their leaders were incapacitated.

Zim tapped his PAK and a metal ball flew into his hands. He pulled a pin, tossed it in, and smashed the control panel, shutting the door. They heard coughing from the other side and, after a few minutes, opened the door to find the Irkens unconscious on the floor.

“So, what are we doing in here again?” Dib asked, as they stepped into the room.

Zim grabbed one of the Irkens who still slouched in their chair and threw them to the floor. “Wiping Urth off the navigation map.” He sat down and the monitor and started messing with the buttons. “If I’m going to continue to use it as my home base, I can’t have them finding it.”

“Not so fast,” Tak slapped his fingers away from the buttons. “Before this goes any further, I need answers. If you’re truly on our side, there’s only one way your life clock didn’t go off.”

“We don’t have time for this!”

“You had a rebellious thought!” Tak declared. “When?”

“Three Urth years ago.”

“Three years?” Dib shouted, stepping up to them. “But I’ve been watching you. Why were you still trying to conquer Earth if you kinda-quit three years ago?”

“I wasn’t.”

“But I saw you building machines!” Dib argued.

“They weren’t for me!” Zim shot back.

Tak began to ask “But how-” before Zim cut her off.

“Silence!” he shouted. “Silence your questions! I need to concentrate.”

Zim continued typing on the buttons until a picture of the Earth appeared on the screen. The stats were scarce, save for the coordinates and the note, ‘that place where Zim is.’ The little blue ball of dirt and water had gone unnoticed by the empire, noteworthy only as a banishment site. To them, it was merely a place to keep Zim contained, far away from anything important. But after the stunt they pulled today, it would be a target.

Another few clicks of a button and the Urth was gone, leaving only a blank file in its wake. All Irken military ships automatically synced with the Massive. If it was gone from this data base, it was essentially invisible to all Irkens. If they wanted to find Urth again, they’d have to scour the universe for it. But why stop at Urth?

“Let’s dump it all,” Tak said.

“What?”

“Erase the database,” she said. “It’ll be a crippling blow to the empire.”

“Do we really have time to erase everything?” Dib asked. The human made a good point.

“Jut the maps then,” she suggested. “They would have to rebuild their navigation systems from scratch and it would send the fleet into disarray.”

“Zim is no radical!” Zim snapped. “I’m only doing this to cover my own ass.”

“Not a raical?” Dib scoffed. “You just poisoned your own leaders.”

“That was personal,” Zim argued. “This is political.”

“And what about those weapons you’re building?!” Dib shot back. “If they’re not for Irk, then who are they for?”

“Zim’s business deals are none of your�� um… business!”

“Shut up!” Tak commanded, taking a seat at another monitor. “We don’t have time for this! Let’s get these maps erased and get out of here.”

“If you even make it that far,” a chorus of voices answered.

Dib looked around. “Who said that?”

“We did, human.”

Every Irken in the room rose to their feet. Tak prepared herself for a fight. Her eyes darted as she watched them all, poised to deploy the weapons in her PAK. But none made a move to attack. They all stood there, stalk still, with a dead look in their eyes.

Dib gaped at the sight. “H-how are you…”

“Silence Urth Creature!” the possessed Irkens shouted in unison, turning their cold eyes toward Dib. “Do not interrupt us again!” Dib shut his mouth and the Irkens calmed. “Congratulations defectives” they said, now addressing Zim and Tak. “It’s been centuries since we had to resort to total override, but mark our words, you will pay for this waste of food.”

“What do you care for waste?” Tak spat back at them. “You throw Irken lives away every day in your conquest.”

“A calculated cost to bring me more to feed from in the long term,” the Irkens explained with their eerily monotone voices. “You should know about calculated risks. Don’t forget, we see everything you do.”

“When have I ever sacrificed good soldiers?”

Every possessed Irken in the room wore the same mocking smirk. “All through your training days. Don’t you remember? We saw everything you did, every little cheat to get ahead.”

The Irkens tapped buttons on their control boards and soon, every monitor showed various scenes from Tak’s training years. “Electrodes hidden in your boots to cripple race opponents. Stealing test answers and planting them in a rival’s locker after copying them for yourself. You got top scores on your exams and excelled at your drills, but is it really victory if you have to sabotage your competitions? Oh sure, you studied and trained, but it never felt like enough, did it? Never thought you could win a fair fight. Had to tear someone else down first. Maybe, if it weren’t for all your cheating, we’d have let you make up your Elite ranking test. After all, we allowed everyone else who was inconvenienced by the blackout to take it.” Their smirks grew as they twisted the knife further. “Just not you.”

Tak ground her teeth together as she watched the images play out on the screen. There was no denying them. The monitors played footage from her own memory bank. They showed her and everyone else who she really was. She work so hard. She clawed her way to the top and did everything she could to stay there. But it was all a lie. And now they knew it. What was worse, Zim knew it. That little pain in the ass managed to make it to elite the first time, even while being a walking disaster, and he never had to deliberately cheat. The idea of him lording that over her was enough to make her blood boil.

“Perhaps you can prove everyone wrong, though,” the Irken voices went on. “Take the honest route for once in your life. Tell Zim what you learned on your little trip to Refirencee. Tell him what you suspect.”

“Fool!” Zim scoffed. “Zim already accessed Tak’s memories. I know everything she knows about the Control Brain parasite.”

“Yes, you saw the same books. But did you reach the same conclusions?”

“Guys! Don’t you see what it’s doing?” The Dib burst in. “It’s distracting you. It’s keeping you here until your leaders recover. Let’s erase those maps and get out of here!”

“Silence!” Zim snapped at Dib, then turned back to the dead-eyed Irkens. “Tell Zim what you know, creepy hive-mind…thing!”

“Have you ever wondered why you’re such a failure? Why you destroy everything you touch? Why, no matter what you do, everything always blows up in your face? It’s because you have no choice in the matter. It’s what you were made for.”

“What are you talking about?”

“Before we push for something big, we require extra sustenance. We take this sustenance in what some have called a blood toll. On our first planet, we made many mistakes, one was asking our hosts directly for sacrifices. We know better now.”

“Ans what does this have to do with me?” Zim growled impatiently.

“Since the beginning of our reign, one PAK has been passed down through generations, carrying a suppressed impulse for destruction. We need only to activate it and we have our blood toll. Clearly our PAK has become quite damaged over the years. It no longer works quite right. You’re so defective, you couldn’t even declare your name right.”

The screen flashed the name Zim across it. It then reversed the letters and spread them out to reveal an acronym. ZIM became MIZ. And MIZ became Massacre Initiator Z.

“You were supposed to live as a low-ranking drone until we activated your destructive impulse and die in the disaster. You, however, defied us at every turn. We kept you alive out of sheer curiosity. We wanted to see how your life would play out. It’s been entertaining, however, you’ve become too great a burden to bare.”

Zim stood motionless, staring straight ahead. They waited for the typical Zim outburst of “lies!” or declaring his greatness, but nothing came. His eyes looked as dead as the possessed Irkens around them. He said nothing, did nothing. As much as Tak couldn’t stand Zim’s obnoxious voice or erratic behavior, watching him be so still was chilling.

Tak’s antenna perks at the sound of footsteps trooping down the hall. The Dib’s head darted for the door. “Guy! Come on! We’re out of time!”

Tak smacked Zim’s lifeless body away from the control panel. “Do you think you can stop us by getting into our heads?”

“Oh simple Tak,” the Irkens sighed. “We've lived in your heads since you were fitted with your packs.”

Tak sneered at them. “I cut you off for me and I won't rest until every Irken is free of you.”

“Please, you worked your whole life to get our attention. You finally have it. Do you want to throw that away? Perhaps we can find a place with someone of your drive and ingenuity.”

“Liars!” Did they think she was stupid? She knew as well as it that treason of this scale would never go unpunished. Even if they tried to appease her with a higher rank or a cushy job, it’d only be a matter of time before they got rid of her. But even the fact that it was trying to negotiate meant something. She was a threat to it, and she would stay a threat until the day she died.

“We you know you, Tak. You’re a plotter. You won't do anything rash.”

They don’t know me half as well as they think. “Want a bet?” She started hitting buttons on the control board. An alert came up on the screen and the voice blared from the speakers. “All maps queued for deletion. Are you sure you want to proceed?”

She hit one more button and the screen went black. “Deletion successful.”

“Take that you parasite bitch.”

“Come on,” Dib begged, pulling on her arm. The footsteps were noticeably louder. “We have to go now!”

Tak took off running and Dib pulled on the frozen Zim until his legs moved. They burst into the hall and immediately came across a group of Irkan soldiers. “There they are!” one of the soldiers cried.

Tak led the way as they ran toward the ship’s hanger. The soldiers fired at them. A laser cannon popped out of Tak’s pack and returned fire, but it was difficult for her to aim while leading the dash to the Voot. She wished one of her companions had could back her up with a pistol but Zim was still barely conscious and Dib was preoccupied with keeping his legs moving. The sound of little metallic feet running beside them gave her an idea.

“Zim, tell me your SIR unit to go into defensive mode.

There was no response. Zim was as helpful as a sack of empty ginzor cans.

“Hey Zim’s robot,” Dib said to the little SIR unit.

Gir looked up at him curiously. “Hmm?”

“Don't you have any weapons or something?”

“Huh?”

“You know, something that makes pretty lights and goes ‘pew, pew’?”

“Oh that. I got that.” A giant laser cannon popped out of his head and he fired wildly into the soldiers behind them, forcing the Irkens to scatter for cover

Finally, they made it to the hangar and all jumped in the Voot. Zim slid zombie-like into the pilot seat.

“Come on,” Dib said, shaking Zim’s shoulder. “Get us out of here!”

“Zim!” Tak snapped. “If you don't fly this ship, I will!”

That seemed to work. Zim shook off whatever stupor he was in and his usual look of single-minded determination returned to his eyes. “No one pilots Zim’s ship but Zim!” He took hold of the controls and the ship roared to life. In a flash, they took off into the stars.

[calamitaswrath]

Okay, so this vague idea for a Fullmetal Alchemist fanfic has been bouncing around my head for about a week now, and since I know that chances of me actually doing something with it (and finishing it) are absurdly low, I figured that I might as well write down all the ideas I have for it, and at least share those.

Basically it’d be a “crossover” between the 2003 anime continuity and the manga/Brotherhood (gonna call those just 03 and manga from now on), wherein the various incarnations of the 03 characters suddenly appear in the continuity of the manga right in front of their counterparts. It would follow an underlying plot beneath it all that needs resolving (more on that later), but mostly it’d just be a comedy fic of sorts, with pretty much all the jokes just coming from the interactions between the characters and their counterparts, as well as other characters reacting to these interactions.

From a story perspective, the premise goes as follows: As mentioned before, the 03 incarnations suddenly, from one moment to another, just appear everywhere. Nobody has a clue what’s going on, who the counterparts are, or why this has happened, and, more importantly, time and space themselves seem to be completely messed up, as time does not flow, and situations that are technically impossible for the canon of either series keeps happening. One of the earliest scenes sees Father, Dante and all 14 homunculi gathered in Father’s lair, everyone has (partially fuzzy and unclear) memories of everything that happened to them in their respective canon, the Alphonses know for a fact that both of them had gotten their bodies back, yet here they are in armor form again, and with 03!Alphonse in particular this leads to some massive confusion as he, in addition to remembering that he had gotten his body back, also remembers that he had lost his memories of his journeys by that point. Weirder still, nobody has a clue where 03!Ed is, as he did not pop up together with 03!Al in front of their manga counterparts. Under this premise, some ideas ideas for some comedic interactions include:

Dante, 03!Envy and 03!Sloth obviously mistaking Father (who is asleep for most of their initial meeting) for Hohenheim, and getting increasingly frustrated when their attacks/advances/other actions get little to no reaction from him

The two Greeds just immediately book it when they realize who’s all around them, realizing that no matter what is going on, they do not want to be here right now

Some very confusing interactions between the Prides and Wraths, as everyone tries to figure out who’s who, and manga!Pride not being sure whether he is taking a liking to 03!Wrath or getting pissed off by him

The Gluttonies wondering if they could/should eat each other

Mass annoyance at Mustang’s offices, as the two Roys very much do not get along with each other, while the Rizas try in vain to calm the situation; meanwhile the Mustangs’ teams just try to actually figure out what’s going on, while the 03!versions of them either wonder about their manga counterparts individual talents, or lament how they never got to show her; eventually the two Alex Louis Armstrongs drop by proclaiming something along the lines of “You will not believe what has just transpired!”, only to find everyone else there with their own counterparts - so they just flex

Manga!Kimblee tries to have a reasonable discussion with 03!Kimblee and at one point even asks for his pronouns, which 03!Kimblee doesn’t even get

The Barry the Choppers welcome the challenge of getting to chop each other up

03!Scar thinks manga!Scar eats mountain lions for breakfast (. . .okay I don’t really have any real ideas for these two)

Manga!Hohenheim getting increasingly appalled by 03!Hohenheim, until he eventually takes a page out of either Ed’s book on how to deal with him

Once 03!Ed is found and united with manga!Ed, he gets pissed that manga!Ed actually grew taller, and demands to know his secrets

Upon realizing that 03!Ed has no idea who Ling Yao is and never even met him, manga!Ed contemplates whether to pity or to Envy him

As the plot progresses, it ultimately becomes somewhat clear what exactly has happened: At the end of the events of the 03 series, while he was in front of their world’s version of the Gate, 03!Ed had a sudden spark of inspiration that might as well have come from manga!Ed: Before the Gate can take him anywhere, he decided to sacrifice it, figuring that no matter what’d end up happening, it’d be worth a shot.

(And as a quick side note: It has been a while since I last rewatched the 03 series so my memory on the functionality of that version of the Gate might be hazy. Everything I’m about to write on it is on the assumption that 1) there’s only the one Gate that exists for everyone in the setting 2) it’s the place where the souls from the world of FMA and earth go after they die, with the ones from our world becoming energy for alchemy.)

For the purposes of this fic, that version of the Gate would be explained to be  a metaphysical parasitic and sorta divine entity that has attached itself to a version of the FMA world (as well as the “real” world), thereby causing all the differences between the continuities, and changing the rules and functionality of alchemy in various ways. By sacrificing and essentially destroying it, 03!Ed has caused his reality to break down and temporarily merge with the manga!reality, as it copies/restores itself to a new functioning state. This leaves 03!Ed stranded at manga!Ed’s version of the Gate, unable to escape until a certain point in the story of the fic when manga!Ed has to go through the Gate. (Or so 03!Ed thinks - when he does eventually leave, the Truth points out that he could have left at any point since he didn’t peform human transmutation to get here. 03!Ed is understandably very frustrated with himself when he hears that.)

Much of the actual story - once the initial confusion has been cleared - would then be about making sure that none of the antagonists abuse the current state of the world to further their own goal, especially since after a while, Dante and Father realize that they get on unfortunately well, and Dante is quite taken by the possibilities of the manga!Philosopher’s Stone and the lack of soul decay with that form of alchemy. . .

. . .And that’s about all I got.

[tfw-no-tennis]

ani....morphs.....

ok so picking up after the david trilogy, which hit hard as FUCK, we have book 23, which basically was a semi truck that ran over my corpse, jesus christ, they really followed up the david trilogy w/all that....

23 was so so good and also painful. its the culmination of a lot of tobias’s characterization in the series thus far and also we finally get the reveal we’ve been waiting for about elfangor....ooooh man 

and there was a lot of painful stuff in this book but the worst imo was tobias wondering if it were possible that somebody wanted him and would take care of him, only to have it all come crashing down in the worst way when it turned out aria was visser three in morph, ouch. 

that was so brutal augh. and when he figured it out and just crash landed and kept thinking about how he wanted to die and how he was stupid to think he could have a home...bro get these kids some THERAPY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! 

so yeah that book was absolutely brutal but also so good...and it further fleshed out the animorphs working as a near-flawless team, w/the whole setup of tobias meeting w/the lawyer being so airtight and well-planned 

also more free hork bajir!! its cool that there's stuff happening w/them offscreen, I like that 

I literally had to take a break from reading the books bc the david triology + 23 was like so much, and also bc the olympics were on and all my time got dedicated to watching those, but then I opened 24, not sure what to expect, and BAM it was the helmacrons lmaoooo

I don't even remember the helmacrons but ig a lot of people hate them? lmao so that whole reputation preceded the book and I was like oh wow time for a change in tone

which wasn't wrong but also I liked that book?? I was never bored, even tho the whole thing was patently ridiculous and also had very little bearing on the overarching story

but I think it would be a standout if it were a TV episode w/a good budget - the visuals were amazing even in text, and I can imagine all the cool shrinking/growing/cellular stuff would be WICKED cool visually (ideally 2d animation but an ant man-esque live action adaptation wouldn't be terrible if they had the budget for it)

whatever let me dream. so yeah I didn't hate the helmacron book even tho the helmacrons themselves were...sure something. lmao I think they come back? that should be interesting

next book is the arctic one, we have yet another alien of the week style adventure - I liked this one too, it felt like more plot-y stuff happened since they destroyed the base, and marco’s POV is always fun 

I do find it funny/interesting how sometimes when the animorphs do something - like in this book, destroying that base in the arctic - it doesn't really seem to impact the yeerks much/it doesn't get brought up much after that. and then other things like them destroying the ground-based kandrona get mentioned a lot (that example is understandable tho bc that WAS a big deal). its just hilarious to me how blowing up entire building complexes has become so routine that it isn’t even worth mentioning at this point

Also I adore when they meet other random people/kids and are chill w/them, like w/that kid they met in the rain forest earlier on w/the time travel 

the descriptions of the brutally cold weather were great. I hate the cold so I was like oof this is a nightmare lmao

also ig that was the first ghostwritten book and I did kinda notice it was slightly different than usual? maybe? I could be imagining it tho 

okay but book 26 tho...BOOK 26. bruh 

that was SO good and I really didn’t know what to expect - but when we finally revisited Jake’s dream w/crayak I knew it was gonna be good (but I didn’t expect it to be a chess game war epic..!)

basically I loved it. SUCH a good Jake book - I really appreciate his character now as opposed to when I was 10 and often overlooked him (sorry jake).

similarly, when I was a kid and read these I sympathized a lot w/the chee and felt bad for them towards the end of the series when they had to get more involved in the war (genuinely don’t remember what they even do but ik I felt bad) 

but now I've basically 180′d and I'm like damn those chee sure are hypocrites huh. 

like they could solve So many of the animorphs problems but their stringent adherence to nonviolence leads to them actively getting in the animorphs way sometimes? and obviously pacifism is a complicated topic, but in this case it also intersect w/the whole ‘child soldier’ thing, and as beings who are insanely old and wise, the chee probably shouldn't just leave all the dirty work to a bunch of literal middle schoolers

aaaaanyways. there’s so much I love about this book. the iskoort! they were sure something. and the ‘plot twist’ that they are actually 2 beings, the Isk and the Yoort - and the Yoort are essentially Yeerks - that slapped. the symbiosis of it all! 

I loved the part where they all realize what this means, that this is why Crayak wants the iskoort destoryed - because someday the yeerks might come across them and realize parasitism is not the only way. I love it! 

alas I don’t recall the iskoort returning in the story (but also my memory is terrible so who knows?) but still that would be cool

basically I feel like this is the book where Jake Truly comes into his own as a leader, in every sense. he outmaneuvers Crayak, and even the ellimist, who’s yanking them around in his own way

the scene where jake shoves the howler off the cliff and jumps off and morphs and acquires the howler...that was fantastic and tense. 

also the murder is definitely becoming more overt. I mean, it has been for a while, but it isn’t really pointed out as much anymore. oof

more on the chee - as Jake points out in this book, and other characters point out in other books - the chee could have saved the pemalites, but instead just stood by while their creators were slaughtered. on the other hand, jake says, what do the chee do AFTER they’ve killed the howlers - where to point them next? when is the end of their violence? 

buuuuut also standing by while atrocities occur is pretty damning, as is frequently mentioned in this series - from the very beginning, when marco initially doesn’t want to get involved in the war at all, and the other animorphs basically tell him that turning his back on the war and acting like he doesn’t even know it’s happening would be immoral and cowardly (which imo this reaction helps to push marco in the direction he ends up going, but I digress) - this topic comes up again in 19 when cassie quits the team and rachel is upset bc she sees it as cassie elevating her own feelings above the greater good (as in, as long as cassie feels good about how she acts, it doesn’t matter how much preventable evil the yeerks are committing while she turns away). etc etc. but that’s essentially what’s happening w/the chee - even tho they help w/intel, the lack of any sort of Action on their part means that they’re essentially allowing awful things to happen when they could prevent them. this is rambly but basically...animorphs deals so much in grey areas, and the chee are noticeably black and white in their actions, despite falling, in a meta sense, in an extremely grey area. its such good, thought provoking writing!

anywayssss I keep talking about the chee lmao what else was there. oh YEAH jake and cassie kissed for the first time awww that was super cute 

and ofc immediately marco teases them as asks jake if he’s gonna kiss him next, and all I can say is...marco is a bicon 

also I love the background worldbuilding w/the iskoort, how they have all these groups and guilds and stuff - its not dwelled on much, which actually works really well to give the world/species a sense of lived-in realness 

okay oh man and the reveal at the end that the howlers were just like...children who thought the whole thing was a game...AUGHH man that’s sooo fucked 

like, when jake morphs the howler and has rachel ready to knock him down in grizzly morph if he gets out of control due to the howler’s murderous instincts, and he morphs to find that the howler is...playful, like a dolphin morph. SUCH a good fucked up sense of dawning horror there 

and the fact that as far as I can tell the chee KNEW this, but wanted revenge anyways, so they let the animorphs assume that the howlers were Evil On Purpose

also I love smaller moments, like jake seeing that ax is ashamed for briefly running away during one battle w/the howlers, and then entrusts him w/an important task bc he knows that ax will see that as redemption - and when everyone thought jake was dead and were so happy when he wasn't (they all love each other so much im gonna cry about these child soldiers augh)

basically that book was so good

man one thing I absolutely love is that the longer the series goes on the more obvious it is that andalites, despite inventing morphing technology, barely use it themselves 

like, most of the andalite characters we see barely morph. its kind of a last resort to them, as they’re already plenty dangerous in their regular forms 

meanwhile for the animorphs, that’s all they have to fight with. that’s their only weapons against the yeerks, and its so fun to see them use the power in so many varied ways, and so creatively, while the andalites have barely scratched the surface of their own technology

its also interesting to contrast against the yeerks who start out w/absolutely no technology, and the andalites share some but not all of their technology w/them...its too bad that morphing technology was just starting out cause that would’ve been interesting

like imo a lot of the conflict w/the yeerks could’ve been avoided if they could just nothlit into better forms - of course, there’d still be plenty of yeerks who want to go start wars or w/e, just like pretty much any species in the series, but a lot of yeerks would probably be like ‘yeah I'm good’ and just chill out as nothlits

also people online love to talk about how humans are alienfuckers and would definitely have sex w/sentient aliens and whatnot, and while I'm not saying that's untrue, its just funny bc in animorphs the truest alienfuckers are definitely the andalites

as of the hork-bajir chronicles, we now have a second instance of an andalite morphing another species to be in an inter-species alien romance (and eventually have kids) 

speaking of, I don’t think I’ve talked abt the hork bajir chronicles yet??? even tho I read it a while ago lmao 

HBC was great...I honestly haven’t really run into an animorphs book I’ve actually disliked at this point, I’m sure it’ll come w/all the ghostwriting and whatnot, but I’ve liked at least some aspects of every book

anyways HBC was great, and it’s funny bc I remember that I read this book as a kid, and yet rereading it now I didn’t remember a single bit of it lmaooo

I really liked the framing device of the free hork bajir telling this story to tobias. I also liked how we know from the beginning that this story wont have a happy ending - we know all the hork bajir end up enslaved by the yeerks, but it’s still somehow hopeful at the end? I think this is largely due to the framing device tbh. 

also I love toby, and I love that the First free hork bajir named their kid after tobias ;_; 

and oooh mannn I LOVED the different POVs from this book. all the characters were so interesting! aldrea was fascinating - I really like the increasingly negative view of the andalites that the readers are getting, all while maintaining the sense that they aren’t like, actively evil, just that they have their issues - like aldrea’s arrogance, and the general andalite arrogance which lead to the loss of the hork bajir. also, who knew andalites had their own brand of sexism? Ls

I did like getting a female andalite tho, that was cool. and dak was really cool, he was such a good, compassionate character who was able to maintain his morals in an interesting way throughout the story

and VISSER THREE...or should I say esplin 9466, because he’s not visser 3 yet...getting his ‘origin story’ was excellent - I really like how we’re learning about visser 3 backwards - we start off the series w/him as the main villain, and he’s campy and menacing, and then we see him in the andalite chronicles as a power-hungry sub-visser trying to climb the ranks and eventually getting alloran as a host, and then back even further here, w/the start of his focus on the andalites and the beginning of his ambition. its been very cool and interesting to see

plus, the beginning of the yeerks as we know them! seerow! alloran! it’s a party and nobody is having a good time, except for some of the yeerks. 

I like how it’s pretty obvious that the andalites are well-meaning with their interactions w/the yeerks, but go about it the wrong way - they give them enough technology that the yeerks realize there’s a whole world out there to experience, and then they blockade the yeerks on their planet and tell them they can’t leave. nnnnot the best approach imo

again, as I said above, I’m interested in how things could’ve gone if the andalites had given the yeerks morphing technology early on - could a lot of the conflict have been avoided, or would it have been worse? the yeerks seem pretty evil in this book, immediately jumping to enslave anyone they can. otoh we hear from esplin that not all yeerks like having host bodies, and find it overwhelming, preferring to swim around in the yeerk pool as a slug - I assume as host bodies became more available this type of thinking was probably stamped out in yeerk society or w/e, but there are a lot of interesting what-ifs in the situation 

I loved the scene where esplin first experiences having a host, and immediately knows he can’t go back. there are a bunch of great sensory descriptions, and it’s a nice scene to pinpoint as a foundational moment for the visser three in the current story, who spent a lot of time and energy getting what he sees as the best possible host body, an andalite

I find it interesting how much visser three clearly respects the andalites, even while constantly deriding them. and you can see the origins of that here as he immediately focuses in on the andalites, working to become an expert on them in order to make himself useful enough to move thru the ranks

another thing I like is how esplin seems a lot more crafty and ambitious than the visser three from modern times - I would guess that reaching his goal (andalite host body) and being given all that power was detrimental, playing on his weaknesses instead of his strengths. basically, I don’t think it’s ooc or anything, I can see how HBC-esplin became animorphs-esplin, especially w/TAC in between

as for seerow...poor dude. you really do have to feel for him, because you get the sense he really did just want to be kind to the yeerks, but it was borne from a place of pity, and he (and the other andalites) consistently held too much power over the yeerks for the species relations to ever be truly equal and functional 

AUGH I have so many thoughts about alien space politics. omg. I need to talk about the actual story lmao

so yeah I also feel for aldrea, she had a rough time, watching her entire family die and being thrown into a hopeless war

and then the andalite council or w/e not listening to her bc she's a girl AND seerow’s daughter...oof

also, I really really liked the running theme of the andalites - specifically aldrea - looking down on the hork bajir as ‘simple’ and constantly underestimating them, especially dak

and I like how this is portrayed as a bad attitude for aldrea to have, and she still remains and interesting and sympathetic character even while having obvious flaws. it’s about being 3-dimensional baby!

and oh man I love that dak realizes that aldrea looks down on him, and his entire species, but he can see that that’s how the andalites are, and it all connects back to the beginning of the story w/the yeerks, bc the andalites looked down on the yeerks and treated them with pity and kept them pinned under their proverbial thumb ‘for their own good’ and look how that turned out 

but dak is wise and kind enough to not hate aldrea for this, even acknowledging when she’s using him, but not pushing her away because he recognizes good in her too - and she ends up changing, partially because of his faith in her

and I feel like it can all be compared to that scenario of like - a hypothetical creature that lives in a 2D world suddenly being thrust into a 3D world, and comprehending what its seeing, and understanding that there’s so much more out there outside of the flat lines of its world - and then its dropped back into 2D-land with the knowledge of all the stuff its missing out on, and no way to get back to it or explain it to anybody else

I loooove that ‘trope’ or w/e you wanna call it, and it’s done beautifully here w/the yeerks - whos the say they wouldn't have been fine in their pool swimming around; as esplin said, a lot of the yeerks were terrified of having a host, it was only from the andalites’ perspective that their lives were sad and pitiful, and the andalites showed them what the world could be like, and then said ‘no, you can’t travel the stars like we do, you have to stay here on your planet and do what we say.’

and then again, w/the hork bajir - dak talks about how, even though he drinks up the knowledge that aldrea gives him, in the end it might have been better to just have lived peacefully, not knowing what was in the sky or the Deep - as aldrea says: “It was too late for Dak: he knew that the stars were not flowers.” 

plus the hork bajir having to go from a completely peaceful species who don’t even understand the concept of violence, to a bunch of soldiers fighting a war...oof 

basically everyone in this story uses the hork bajir. the yeerks use them as hosts, the andalites use their planet as a convenient place to dump seerow and then take their sweet time coming to help, and the arn created them as means to stabilize the planet, but block them off from their society and refuse to help when the yeerks come

like, the arn modifying themselves to be un-infestable by the yeerks and then being enslaved for physical labor instead? oof guys. if they had teamed up w/the hork bajir resistance things might have gone better, but probably not 

more on aldrea - throughout the story I was always thinking ‘how am I supposed to see her? as a good person, or as a bad person?’ 

as a POV character, especially a ‘good guy’ andalite, you just start off automatically thinking of her as a good person, but as the story goes on, she starts getting lost in revenge and begins using dak and the hork bajir, and you’re left wondering if this is a story about her slide into darkness, and then towards the end of the story her character development culminates in her making the decision to stay w/the hork bajir, and the be with dak, and that’s about when I went ‘ohhh right this is animorphs so every character is pretty much gonna be grey’

I feel like that moral grey-ness was on full display w/aldrea, and I really enjoyed that. I love so much when characters who are good do bad things, for good or bad reasons, especially in media like animorphs that’s aimed at kids. it’s so compelling. 

oof, and the ending when aldrea convinces dak to mobilize the hork bajir and teach them violence...and dak asks her if she’s ever killed another andalite, and she’s horrified, and says of course she hasn’t, and he says that that’s what she’s asking him, and all the hork bajir, to do - to kill their own people, even if they are being controlled by the yeerks. biiiig oof. I love that dak can keep up w/aldrea and her andalite supremacy attitude - it seems that the non-andalite characters who get along best w/the andalites are the ones who wont take their bs 

what else happened....oh my god how could I forget about alloran, and his quantum virus. oooof. I like how we find out about alloran in parallel to visser three, in the same backwards way - in animorphs he’s the tragic host of visser three, in TAC he’s the disgraced but still semi-respected war-prince who becomes the first ever andalite controller, and here he’s the guy who decides to commit some war crimes because, hey, we haven’t tried that yet 

but yeah that was fucked up, I love it. I’ve said it before I think but I like that alloran isn’t some perfect martyr tragically taken by the yeerks - it’s a lot more compelling that he’s a very flawed person who was taken as a controller partially due to his own bloodthirstiness. 

but yeah, the part where aldrea morphs alloran and ‘sneaks’ into that room was great. aldrea’s dedication to disposing of the virus is a great indicator of her character development - it really feels like the straw that broke the camels back w/re: to the andalites not being what she thought they were, w/their tardiness coming to help the hork bajir planet and the way her father was treated being the precursors to this realization. it all culminates nicely in aldrea saying ‘fuck this actually’ and nothlit-ing into a hork bajir.

and it’s really tragic but realistic that even though aldrea and dak end up seeing eye to eye at the end and getting together, the virus ends up being released anyways (and fails in its objective to stop the yeerks from using the hork bajir - the whole thing was p much a lose-lose situation oof), and aldrea and dak still die fighting a hopeless war 

but then we have the free hork bajir on earth, including toby, who, like tobias, has andalite ancestry, but no DNA to show for it - I like that they have that connection as well as tobias being her namesake

so yeah I enjoyed that one and its many-layered themes

WOW this got long uuuuuhhh ok I think i’ll leave this one off here. at the time I’m actually finishing the writing and editing, I’m on book 35 lol so I have some backlogging to do. never fear, I have a lot to say....

[bloodymarryy]

Anime time

Literally, no one asked BUT MY DEAR CHILD sit down because imma show you my top 10 action/horror/splatter anime that are easy to enjoy for beginners!! Have fun!

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#1: Tokyo Ghoul

So if you follow me for a while now or just have some kind of taste in anime, you should know Tokyo Ghoul.

For everyone who doesn't know it:

It's about the 19-year-old Kaneki Ken who lives in Tokyo and is now, thanks to an organ transplantation and a miserable date, a half-ghoul. To learn how to take control of his now new powers and strength, he has to go through a lot of shit. It's a journey of him finding out where he belongs to and who he really is.

Great anime even greater Manga 10/10 would recommend!!

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#2: Full metal Alchemist Brotherhood

Action, romance here and there, sadness and humor... What do you want more?? Fma Brotherhood has it all!

For everyone who doesn't know it:

FmaB is about the two brothers Edward and Alphonso Elric that lose their mother to an incurable disease. With the power of alchemy, they use taboo knowledge to resurrect her. The process fails. Edward loses his left leg. Alphonso loses his entire body. To save his brother, Edward sacrifices his right arm. Both of them search for the Philosopher's stone to return themselves to their original bodies, even if that means becoming a "State Alchemist", one who uses their alchemy for the military.

FmaB is better than Fma so watch it!! Great ANIME!

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#3: Zankyou no terror

My HEART OMG! This anime has amazing quality, a sad story, likable characters and a lot of intense moments!

For everyone who doesn't know it:

Nine and twelve, the two boys behind the masked figures of the sphinx, should not exist. Yet they stand strong in a world of deception and secrets while they make the city fall around them after their successful terrorist attacks, in hopes of burying their own tragic truth.

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#4: Attack on Titan

This anime literally has no chill omg the ANIMATION!?! Sadness, gore, a lot of deaths, GREAT storyline, and badass characters!

For everyone who doesn't know it:

Attack on Titan is set in a world where humanity lives inside cities surrounded by enormous Walls that protect them from Titanic, gigantic humanoid creatures that appear out of nowhere, kill humans and disappear. The story centers around Eren Jaeger, his adoptive sister Mikasa Ackermann, and their childhood friend Armin Arlett, whose lives are changed after the appearance of a Colossal Titan which destroys their hometown and kills of Eren's mother. The three friends join the Scout Regiment, an elite group of soldiers who fight Titans outside the Walls.

24/10 would recommend!!

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#5: Death Note

Okay but this anime is gold and known everywhere!!

For those who don't know it:

The anime centers around Light Yagami, a high school student who finds a death note. He decides to rid the world of evil with the help of the Notebook. The book causes the death of anyone whose name is written in it and is passed on to Light by the Shinigami Ryuk after he becomes bored within the Shinigami world.

A classic anime for everyone who is a beginner! This is gold! Watch it!

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#6: One Punch Man

Okay this anime is so funny but at the same time there is so much action, this is a must watch!

For everyone who doesn't know it:

The seemingly ordinary Saitama has a unique hobby: being a hero. To fulfill this childhood dream, he trained for three years,, and lost all his hair in the process. He now is incredibly powerful and no one is able to defeat him. In fact, he is so powerful that it takes one punch for him to win a battle,, that led to an unexpected problem- he is no longer able to enjoy the thrill and has become quite bored...

Really good anime! If anyone tells me Son Goku would win against him then bitch no??? Son Goku has no chance.

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#7: Another

Gore, gore and even more gore. This anime is horror pure and has a great story!

For everyone who doesn't know it :

In 1972, a popular student in Yomiyama North Middle School's class 3-3 named Misaki passed away during the school year. Twenty-six years later, 15-year-old Kouichi Sakakibara transfers into class 3-3. He finds himself drawn to the mysterious, eyepatch-wearing student Mei Misaki, however, the rest of the school treats her like she doesn't exist. He ignores every warning and gets closer to her. Kouichi, Mei, and their classmates soon are pulled into tragic events as they try to find out how to prevent everyone from dying- but unraveling the secrets and horror may just cost them the ultimate price.

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#8: Code Geass

Old anime style, but great story!

For everyone who doesn't know it:

Code Geass is set in an alternate universe where, during the French Revolution, the nobles of all Europe fled to American colonies and ruled there from that time on. The resulting country "Britannia", is the world's foremost superpower by the time of Code Geass. The main lead of Code Geass is Lelouch- a prince of Britannia. His goals: he wants to kill his father, the Emperor, for abandoning him and his crippled sister after the assassination of his mother. With his superpower "Geass" he can control everyone who looks him into his eyes. Power in hand, Lelouch starts his quest for revenge.

10/10 would recommend!!

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#9: Assassination Classroom

I really like this anime and the end is so sad????

For everyone who doesn't know it:

A strange new teacher is introduced to Class 3-E at Kunugigaoka Junior High School. The teacher is a round-headed, tentacled octopoid creature that is capable to move at an insane speed. In a year, he plots to destroy the earth but decides to teach a junior high school class in the meantime for an unknown reason. The students greet him with assassination attempts in their journey to save the world by eventually murdering their own teacher, and to earn 10 billion yen from the government.

Really good anime!! Popular as well 10/10 would recommend!!

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Last but not least

#10: Parasyte

I love Shinichi omg gsgsgs this anime has so many cool gore scenes and is worth watching!!

For everyone who doesn't know it:

The sixteen-year-old high school student Shinichi Izumi falls victim to one of the parasites that descended to earth and quickly infiltrated humanity by burrowing into the brains of vulnerable targets. However, the parasite fails to take over his brain ending up in his right hand instead. The parasite, named Migi, has no choice but to rely on Shinichi in order to stay alive.

This anime is good written and modern, great for beginners!!!

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That was it AND THIS TOOK SOO LONG!! But I love anime and wanted to share it!! I hope maybe this helped someone who wants to start watching anime! I tried to show a lot of action animes that are easy and interesting to watch!! (I will make a romance list soon)

Have fun with this new won Infos about these animes, BYEEEE!!

(I don´t own the gifs, credit goes to the rightfull owner, if you know who did these please tell me so I can tag them)