#dropping the enemies narrative? like i just see it as a positive thing not a Funny thing necessarily

[princeofyorkshire]

thinking

[bigboywtheskullface]

Big Guy

Pairing: Simon “Ghost” Riley x plussize!civilian!reader

Warnings: Mentions of blood, non-serious injury, m!body image issues, and allusion to smut but none to be found here (yet). Angsty behind the veil of fluff.

Word Count: 1,772

Reading time: ≈ 6 mins.

A/N: Hi friends!! This is my first writing for Ghost and I’m so happy to be a part of the COD fandom. Looking at Simon Riley… love at first sight man. I’m a big girl who loves big boys. I will often be writing with a plus-sized reader in mind, but will make sure I always include that in the description OR warnings if body size is a large part of the narrative. 

Hope you all enjoy the read and feel free to send in requests <3 Always been one of my favorite parts of writing fics on Tumblr.org.

Anywho— happy reading!!!

Ghost liked being a big guy. After the awkward teen phase, after he’d truly grown into himself, he’d never had a single issue with how he was built. Thick, muscle and fat, broad frame, imposing figure. It served him well as a soldier. Out in the real world, things weren’t always sized to fit him, but on a military base, everything felt just right. Big friends, big clothes, big guns, big cars, big wars. He was a legend of sorts. It was hard not to love how enemies knew his name. Hard not to love how they feared the legend of the giant in all black, a mask obscuring his face. Ghost loved that. Ghost was more than happy to be a machine, a legend, an armored weapon that few had ever managed to crack the shell of.

But Simon… Simon was cursing himself right now. As tears welled up in your eyes you did your best to blink them back, attempting to keep a smile on your face for him, though anyone could see plain as day that it was more of a grimace.

You two had just been joking around. He’d been lying face down on the mattress, buried in the pillows, playfully dodging your kisses. You were lying on top of him, wandering hands looking for his only ticklish spot that you swore moved every day. It didn’t, you were just normally bad at finding it. But today, you’d managed to find it immediately. He’d jerked in surprise and you bucked on top of him, the back of his head met the front of your face. It had all happened so fast. He’d just reacted too quickly. He’d lost his cool.

“Shit, shit, shit…” He swore under his breath, his hand cupping the back of your neck as you held one hand over your nose, blood leaking through your fingers. “Fuck, Love, I’m so sorry—“ He jumped up, the bead creaking as it was released from his weight, causing you to bounce a bit, your hand bumping your nose not too gently due to the surprise movement causing you to let out a little whimper. “Fuck—“ He swears once more, “Sorry, I just…” He dashes to the bathroom, grabbing one of the white towels so you could easily bleach away the stains later.

As he came back into the bedroom you took in a deep breath and pleaded, “Si, relax. It’s just a nosebleed—“

“We don’t know that… I might’ve broken your nose.” He objects, walking over and demanding, “Move your hand n’ tilt your head up for a minute. Lemme’ see.”

Only after he’s positioned the towel beneath your nose do you move your hand away, holding it to your side, attempting to keep blood off the comforter. Simon grimaces and as gently as possible brings the rag to your face, “Not broken, just… just keep your head down like that for me. We’ll check again in a few minutes and go to the ER if it ain’t stopped.” He gives a frustrated sort of huff and drops to his knees on the floor in front of you, watching a tear slide down your cheek. He wipes it away gently with his free hand as he lets loose another, “Fuck…”

Clumsy fuckin’ oaf he was. Too big for his own damn good… certainly too big for your own good. You’d only been together a little over six months now, but sometimes he wondered how you dealt with it. His looming presence in the smaller quarters of your apartment. In this place, he was damn near useless. Hell, he could hardly turn around in your little kitchenette. There have been many instances of spilled drinks and shattered dishes because of it. Forget any romantic evenings in the bathtub or shower that you so often tried to sway him into. Those facilities were barely big enough for him alone. He didn’t want to crush you or cause some stupid accident like this. Even watching a movie comfortably on the couch seemed to be a monumental task. It always took you ages to settle yourself around him comfortably. 

He winced at the thought. He wanted you to be comfortable around him.

You place your hand over his own and look up at him softly, and with a congested voice do your best to reassure him, “Simon, I am okay.”

“S’not okay.” He grumbles, anger laced into his words. While it’s a rough tone, you know it’s not directed at you. “Fuckin’ idiot. I wasn’t paying attention and you got hurt…” Worry washes over his face, replacing the anger once more as he wipes away another tear, “Shit, I’m so sorry, Lovie. Y’know I never wanna’ hurt ya’. I’d never do it on purpose.”

You nod and soothe, “I know, Simon. I know. It was just an accident, that’s all. It’s okay, I swear. I’m okay.”

“I-“ He looks around your small room, suddenly feeling like the walls are closing in. He drops his forehead to your knee and nods against it, closing his eyes and murmuring an, “Alrigh’.” 

He places a kiss against your knee and several on your thigh before resting his head against the plush skin. You look down at him and frown slightly. Poor baby looked like a dejected dog. The kind that bites its owner when startled and then immediately regrets it. You know he doesn’t believe you, doesn’t believe it’s okay. You know he feels awful about it. He shouldn’t, not at all. Like you said, it was an accident.

You add on, “It was my fault anyways, you know. You always warn me not to start with the tickling.” You give a pleased-sounding hum, “Found your spot pretty quick that time, kinda’ impressed with myself. Wonder what other fun spots I could find.” You try to flirt, though you doubt the attempt is successful given the stuffy voice, rag up your nose, and brooding boyfriend.

He gives something between and laugh and a scoff and glares up at you through deep brown eyes, “S’not funny.”

“I think it’s a little funny.” You shrug

“You’re the only one.”

You stick out your bottom lip in a pout, “C’mon, Simon. It’s really not bad. I can already feel it letting up.” 

To prove your point you withdraw the rag from your nose and fold it to get a clean part. The smallest bit of blood trickles out of your nose and you quickly wipe it away, holding the rag in place once more. He gives an unimpressed grunt, his hands moving up to rub the outside of your thighs, his form hunched over to make himself smaller in front of you.

“I’m sorry.” He says once more.

“Simon…” You sigh out exasperated.

“No, not just—“ He huffs, “Not just for the nosebleed. Just for bein’… bein’ so bloody brutish. M’too big for your space, Love, too big for your world. Feel like I come in here when I’ve got time off and muck everything up. Breakin’ shit and takin’ up too much space.” He glances up at you apologetically, “Now’m hurtin’ ya’ too? I don’t like it.” He shakes his head, “Sometimes… sometimes I think maybe you’d be better off with a normal man… for plenty of reasons, but this one too. Shouldn’t have some monster loomin’ over ya’ all the time. Want you to feel safe and comfortable in your own space.”

Your heart breaks a little as you listen to your boyfriend nervously ramble. His cheeks turn a faint shade of pink as he makes his little speech, stumbling over a few words. You couldn’t believe what you were hearing. 

“Have I made you feel like that, Si?” You ask, lowering the rag from your nose, “Have I said or done something to make you think that’s how I feel?”

“What? No. ‘Course not. Just somethin’ I think about every now and again s’all.” He reaches up and rubs the back of his neck, his large arm bumping against your knee.

“Baby…” You whisper softly, reaching your clean hand out to take his face, tilting his head upward so his eyes are forced to meet yours. “I don’t feel that way at all. I— well, I love how big you are.” You run your thumbs over his cheeks gently and say, “I feel so safe with you, Simon. I’ve always been the biggest person in the room, always been the biggest person in the relationship. I’ve always felt like I have to protect everyone else.” You smile, “And I would protect you, if I had to, of course. The best I could. But I don’t feel like I have to. You do so well taking care of both of us. You have no idea how much I appreciate that.”

“I do my best.” He mumbles

“And you do so well, Simon.” You reassure, “There is no one— and I mean no one— that I would rather have taking up space in my life.” He gives a faint smile and you give a little giggle, stuffing the corner of the rag up your nose as best you can before wiggling off the side of the bed and down into his lap. You throw your arms around his shoulders and he presses his forehead to your own. “Not to mention…” You murmur, shifting on his lap to get closer to his ear, “I love the way your body feels on mine.” You kiss below his ear and smile as a slight shiver racks his body, “Love feeling your weight on top of me… and beneath me. Behind me is pretty damn good too—“

“Alrigh’, alrigh’’…” He mumbles, his tone slightly amused, “Settle, Lovie.”

You giggle and nuzzle against his neck, “Mm… can’t help it, you got me thinkin’ now, Si.”

He gives a low hum in his throat and nudges your head away from his own carefully, “You’re in no condition for that mess right now.”

“I am too.” You pout

“No…” He chuckles, pointing to your nose, “You aren’t. Give it at least a few hours for me.”

“Scared of a little blood, soldier?” You tease, running your hands up and down his biceps.

“Y’know damn well m’not.” He huffs out, “Just want to give that pretty little head o’yours some rest. Make sure the bleedin’ doesn’t start again.”

“Mm… one hour?”

“Three.”

“Two.” You bargain back.

He rolls his eyes and gives the offer some consideration before agreeing, “Two. N’not a minute sooner. Understood?”

“Heard loud and clear, LT.” You agree, earning a sharp glare. You force down a giggle and remedy, “Understood, Si.”

“‘Atta girl.”

[nierly-amazing]

Nier Automata anime Episode 21 disjointed thoughts:

Spoilers, obviously

It had a few good moments but overall I was disappointed in this episode, more so than the last 2. I've been enjoying the anime, especially early s2 immensely but it's gone downhill so fast. It's extra annoying because most of the issues I have could have been fixed/avoided really easily.

The good bits:

THEY THANKED DEVOLA AND POPOLA! After all that time they finally thanked them! (Though I wish they had more small moments of them being dicks to them in past episodes).

FUCK YEAH JACKASS running the truck right into the room!

YEAH THE TWINS KICKED ASS TOO!

OH NO THEY KILLED JACKASS BUT that's probably how she wanted to go tbh

I do think the anime handled the whole fear thing being the machine children's downfall better than the game since they actually did some lead-up instead of Pascal dropping the info after they all died. So that's another good thing. Buuuut...

The not-so-good bits:

I knew immediately A2's idea to send the kids to the resistance camp was a stupidly terrible idea. Idk why they didn't try finding somewhere else to hide them but I expected them to simply lead hostile machines there rather than infect the camp with a ZOMBIE virus. Really? Zombies? Shambling groaning zombies? The whole reason logic viruses are so scary was how strong they make androids and how they'll just attack everything until they fall apart.

I get the narrative reasoning that Lily offering to shelter them ended up being everyone's downfall, but I ended up being more annoyed because of how dumb it was that A2 sent them there. Seems like an easy fix too, Lily could have called in end of last episode after the camp heard the explosions and offered to shelter them herself, then Pascal could have worried about leading enemies to them and Lily assured him they could handle it.

(me) ^

9S has basically no screen time anymore; we can't really feel his descent as well as we did in game. For the most part things are just happening to him rather than him actively doing things. Like, instead of dumping the 2E reveal in the first S2 episode they could have slowly fed it to us over the course of these episodes. They could have made it more fucked up by having the machine network torment 9S with bits of 2E hints or had the damage to his body scramble his mind in a way that he remembers flashes of his past lives/deaths. I think the game's definitely handled showing his mental decline in isolation while still being a sympathetic character better than the anime is doing.

(cymbal ism)

I sort of like how they put the flight unit in the god box and forced 9S to see it but I feel it would have been more impactful if they had a moment where he almost found it in the flooded city but passed it up because he was distracted and didn't realize it was 2B's unit. And oh look he passed out again.

No lunar tears no 2B memorial? Give him a chance to breathe and have some sort of positive or bittersweet interaction. In the game he still interacted with other androids and helped them but the only interaction we got in the anime was him slapping a flower from that one memorial quest guy's hand.

Pascal's 180 is still ehhh for me. The whole thing that made the Goliath fight in game so impactful was he was holding onto his pacifism till the very end until he had no other option. But in the anime he went berserk the moment there was even the possibility of danger. They didn't even know the hostile machines were a threat to the village when the pods told them. They had time to evacuate and it would have been a lot more fucked up (in a good way) if they were followed and picked off and then pascal went berserk when it was only the children left.

One child killed all the others in fear instead of it being a whole group fear effort. And then he bit pascal with a zombie virus? Pascal blew up when A2 wasn't even there??? And she barely even reacted when his arm shrapnel almost hit her. I get that they have to deal with the lack of player input choosing what to do but that could have easily been fixed with a scene cut right before A2 makes a choice.

They could have written it so it showed signs of them all trying to escape but were unable to. Maybe had one of them still alive because they failed to hit their core and explained what happened or had some sort of other visual hints as to what happened. maybe frantic carving on the walls or something idk.

But then again, patient 0 being the one 9S was extra suspicious about and almost hacked back in episode 5 is pretty interesting. Shows he was technically right all along about them being a threat, but for the wrong reasons. Still they probably could have merged the two ideas together to work better. I'd like to know if the machine network infected them on purpose or if it was their own fear that caused them to snap. If the latter then they could have also had the infected resistance react differently than being stereotypical zombies. They could have picked up on the fear and all went hysterical fighting and shooting each other because the virus overwhelmed them with fear and they were trying to put themselves and each other 'out of their misery'.

But then again again I don't really like how they made the disabled one the one that went crazy and ate everyone. Idk, they could have handled it better.

The whole resistance dying is definitely sadder than in game. They both work in their own ways so I can't really say one is better than the other. It hurt but I didn't hate it. I want to see what they have planned for killing everyone in this version before I make my final judgment.

I do hope they have a scene where 9S finds the village and feels bad because that was a nice bit in game to show he still cared about them despite going on his rampage with the other machines.

I really hope the tower episodes are good, I can forgive this fumbling if the next few episodes are bangers.

[morgansafe]

so the episode echoes story is over and done and it's great and beautiful and i don't think there's a better resolution to this maya's story than that gut punch but like

i think i'm really worried for what this means for the vex?

we see maya driven off back into the vex network with the echo of command. she's been defeated for now, her plans for conducting a second golden age thwarted for now, but there's literally nothing stopping her from hopping on her shit at any point later down the line

and that's not inherently a bad thing! i LIKE that we don't solve this immediate threat by shooting her in the head until she drops seasonal loot and an ascendant shard! but what they're setting up with her slinking back into the network, clearly growing more capable with the echo and being able to compel more and more people, has me kinda scared that she'll end up getting positioned as the "vex faction leader." in the same way as eramis and her house salvation filling that role as the representational figurehead of "enemy" eliksni, or xivu arath inheriting that mantle as "main hive bad guy"

(i get that these are really reductive labels to give these characters and there's a lot more nuance to be found in both them and the lore surrounding these factions and peoples and the world at large, BUT. as basic narrative elements in these stories, these are their roles)

episode echoes seems to be looking to make maya THAT. and that ruins a lot of the intrigue around the vex for me!

the eliksni are an interesting proposition because they're a spurned people desperately ekeing out survival following their own utter cataclysm. the hive are fascinating as this horrific and tragic omnicidal holy war in service of entropy itself. the cabal are an engaging force because theyre such a strong militaristic imperial faction that's so instinctively hostile to other peoples but is learning now to work in coalition

and what makes the vex work is that they're so fundamentally different. they're fourth-dimensional hiveminds that have existed since the dawn of the universe (i don't even know if the word "since" works there considering their entirely alien approach to time). they don't have "human" interests or drives or goals, they're always at least somewhat inscrutable. we can know what they're doing and what they stand to achieve by doing it, but their motives are about as digestable to our minds as radiolaria itself

(and i get that there are different collectives that have different focuses and that they aren't a monolithic unit but even still, when they're engaging in different stratagems it's still in service of these entirely incomprehensible designs)

so it scares me that bungie might be trying to establish a faction leader for them (already going against what makes them stand out AS a faction) but specifically one whose motives are, if warped, still undeniably human and comprehensible. i get the instinct! it's easier to tell compelling and resonant stories with an antagonistic force that can be understood! and to be fair if any one lore character SHOULD become THE figurehead for the vex, it's maya sundaresh. i just don't want that to be the case for the vex at all! the whole appeal is that they DON'T really have that!

i don't know, this long text wall might be for nothing! these are just the ramblings of someone who finished echoes last night and really liked it but is also worried about this particular avenue of narrative development

[freshthoughts2020]

IF KENDRICK DOESN’T DO THIS THE BEEF WAS POINTLESS

IF KENDRICK DOESN’T DO THIS THE BEEF WAS POINTLESS

June 23, 2024

This was an article I was thinking about doing for a little minute but I’m glad I didn’t get around to it until after the “pop out” show.

Let me start by stating the obvious, the show was amazing from start to finish, it was basically everything you wanted out the show.

I didn’t have many critiques but if I had to have one it would be maybe keeping the aggression a little bit in the show after opening with Euphoria. I called it before it started that he would open with Euphoria because I knew he would want to set the tone.

Then going into DNA and ELEMENT made sense if you apply today’s debacle within those lyrics but when they came on, I was kinda like “uhh I don’t wanna hear this right now”.

I was #TeamDrizzy, but if I’m going to watch an aftermath beef concert (no pun intended) then I wanna see smoke the whole time you know lol.

I can’t really think of any replacement songs so he probably made the right decision. Anyways, so he ends the night with the obvious smash “not like us” which he’s shooting the video to this weekend.

Now with all that said, I’m still here thinking what did Kendrick get in this beef for? From the outside looking in I can tell Drake entertained this because he respect the emcee code and he’s never backed down from a challenge. So when Dot finally came with a direct hit after years of subs, of course Aubrey would answer the call.

But I can’t figure out why Dot wanted this smoke with Drake so bad. I feel like Dot was used as a proxy vehicle to make a permanent chink in Drake’s Canadian armor.

I’m not saying he doesn’t have a real personal gripe with him but I am saying other people in the industry used their gripe as an opportunity to launch onto his in an effort to get the Boy outta here.

Everybody is riding the Dot wave but I swear I don’t remember people glazing cuz this hard when Mr Morale dropped. When I heard that album I was praising it nonstop in fact I was even saying that after that release artist should think twice about what they drop next because Kendrick got so deep in his substance bag it wasn’t the time to release music with nothing worth while in it. 

Really it was a truly great album that hit plenty deeper than the surface topics, but like I said people were not riding the wave that hard. In fact they was flat out calling the album trash. By people I mean the casuals because obviously his core rocked with it, he just completed a worldwide tour. 

I can tell you exactly why the casuals thought it was trash because the album did not contain a commercial hit. After releasing a DAMN, people wanted more of that sound and Mr.Morale was not that instead you learned his auntie was a man now.

The casuals made this whole battle annoying , people were saying anything and was literally regurgitating points. Someone said to me “Drake isn’t black”, I’m like he’s literally black and Jewish.

The narratives that were allowed to get push during this beef was out of control and the casuals already decided Drake’s fate so anything half way decent from his enemies would be enough to rally behind.

Though the casuals were annoying, they also play a key position in Dot’s career moving n forward. Basically they’re like swing states in politics, he already won the casuals over but he can extra secure him if his next album is a pure commercial effort.

Which brings me back to the “why” of this beef.

If this beef was to just show he can rap better than Drake or that he’s more cultured than Drake then this beef was a waste of time.

Beefs of this caliber should be only for one thing and that’s for determining rank and elevating career status. This is like a ranked match in Tekken, you’re fighting to move up not to look cool.

Yes we can say Kendrick “won” this battle. But the way he wins the war is by dropping his most commercial album to date, if he’s not trying to become “Drake” then what is he doing? 

His next effort needs to be dumbed down, a whole album of “Not Like Us”, he sprinkled in a tiny bit of Pulitzer Kendrick on there but kept it digestible. He may have put a dent in Drake’s armor but Drake is still number one even after all this because no matter how many jokes are thrown his way, everything comes down to music.

How many Dot records you’re going to hear while out vs Drake. Not saying he don’t have club records just ask yourself how many you’re going to hear? Fasure you will hear his biggest one but the moment for Not Like Us will pass and what will Dot do then? It’s a million Drake records you can choose before you throw on Swimming Pools or something beloved.

I believe the most last longing effect from this battle is the destruction of the big 3. The Big 3 is done you even see it don’t mean anything in sports anymore either.

Right now it’s 1A and 1B. Drake is 1A. Dot is 1B.

Everybody else find their place in line. The only way Dot becomes 1A is dropping his most commercially digestible  album to date THIS YEAR! I might be willing to give him to next year but dog if you do all this and take three years off don’t come back talking that number one talk. 

He’s talented enough to make a timely album he don’t need a hundred years to conceptualize like people make it seem, he just chooses to be mysterious. 

He talking about sometimes you gotta “Pop Out” he better pop out with an album or it’s gon look like you only pop out to diss the boy. When we ain’t heard from him in years after DAMN, he pops back up on Keem record and he start talking about he smoking on people TOP 5. 

Alright Dot you got exactly what you wanted you caught the Boy slippin and snuck you in a dub. Now you better finish the job foreal or don’t come back another three years wasting everybody time with this again.

And as far as what Drake should do to stop Kendrick from getting number one. He should focus making his best music and not dissing him.

Make good songs then when it’s album time get back to dissing the living hell out of him. Get at him on album cuts. But the music wins always. If Dot want that number one spot he gon have to follow up with music for the masses or just settle for being the people’s champ. I guess that’s worth something but is it really? The people turn at the drop of dime, let him do something they don’t think behooves the “culture”, his ass gon be tooted on a silver spike too Lmao.

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[rufflesandbows]

Hi I wanted to tell you that I love your story The Handmaiden I just started reading it and it's great.

This is just my opinion but I think Padme doesn't really love Anakin it seems to me that she is only with him so we can see that she gets everything we want.

I say that because in chapter 4 when she is crying in the bathroom she thinks Padme knew about her feelings all along and made fun of that and clearly acted out. I think the queen is not a friend she is just using her, maybe they have had moments of friendship but I see her as mean spirited.

Well first off, thank you so much! I'm so happy to hear you enjoy the story!

I totally get where people are thinking that, you're not the first to tell me lol! I need to post that Padme chapter so badly but I have nowhere to freaking put it in the story yet! I'll drop it, I swear, it's more complicated on her end over just being a narrative problem! It's just really hard to get that pov when we're nowhere near her. I don't think there's too much crossfire between my blog and my Ao3, or at least this will probably get buried in my feed, so I'm just gonna spill the beans for anyone who doesn't want to wait for the more refined final draft. Spoilers below the line for The Handmaiden!!!

Padme had the same feelings for Anakin that you did. However she's a Queen, THE figurehead for Naboo. If a scandal broke out between a Jedi and the handmaiden of a Queen, it wouldn't be nearly as bad as it would be with THE Queen. She was teasing because as friends do, she knew you liked him and was trying to push you into accepting those feelings and maybe kindling something with him, as much as it hurt to sideline herself. She felt it was her duty to play poker face and pretend she never felt anything.

Problem being that Anakin still had the idealized version of Padme in his head, having loved her all these years, and he never felt like he truly knew you as a person.

When he takes her to Naboo, Padme is hard pressed to keep turning him down so he might spark an interest in you instead. But Anakin keeps pressing and flirting and kisses her. Padme struggles with her own feelings toward him against knowing your feelings and her position as Queen.

On Geonosis, she genuinely thinks there's no way out of the situation. Yes she'll fight until her last breath, but they're in a death pit, just the three of them and surrounded by thousands of enemies. As a sort of "get things off my chest before I die" moment, she confesses her feelings to him, which he reciprocates.

And then they survive. Oops.

Padme feels an intense guilt over it. She's terrified how much it might hurt you and it's why she keeps it a secret despite you two being friends. She's struggling to find some way to break it to you all the while being completely swamped by her duties. She started this doomed relationship and now there's a war growing bigger everyday. When she arrives on Coruscant all those responsibilities seem to fizzle away when she's with him. Anakin is a big enabler, leading her into abandoning the stress of both her duties and her betrayal to you. When he admits he kissed you by accident, it doesn't even hurt that much because she feels it probably should have been that way to begin with.

And I know some people were saying "ah she's using you to stand in for her." but like, that's your whole job. Sabe took her place through most of Phantom Menace, so I assumed to take the pressure off, handmaidens often interchange to help out, especially with minor things the Queen doesn't actually need to do.

On a side note: the "always second choice" is to a lot of things in the story. The universe itself wants you to be in second place. You weren't the first choice to inherit the Matriarch title (you had an older sister). You weren't the first choice to be Queen of Naboo (lost the election). You weren't Anakin's first choice. That last one in the moment of the story is a huge frustration, the real reason for breaking down and crying is because none of them would be in this twisted situation if he hadn't acted so rashly. Multiple times. But I mean, that's just our boy.

Anyway, I probably could have made her a villain, but I just love to torture everyone I write for! Sorry Padme, hope you like PAIN, cause this is going to get worse before it gets any better! (◕ᴗ◕✿)

[enneamage]

why would phil hold a grudge with dream? he’s not done anything to him and was singing his praises well after the allegations dropped. seems like a bit of confirmation bias on your end anon

I’ve been having a real big think around the state of the Server Coldwar lately and why it seems way more draining than previous stuff. I think it’s because time has shown this will probably pile on endlessly with very little catharsis, just death by a thousand papercuts without the death part. There was a time in the very beginning of the DSMP when the stories around the CCs looked more like a ‘conventional’ narrative, like life would go Beginning -> Middle -> End (happy ever after or just some closure depending on what thread you follow) but now we’re in the sixth act and it doesn’t look like anything shows any signs of definitiveness, just more of this forever. It’s not easy or satisfying to keep up with the state of things anymore, the stress to catharsis ratio is way off compared to the kind of ‘drama’ that feels satisfying to follow.

When arguments make clean, easy lines and create a sense of who can and can’t be trusted, it can honestly be kind of freeing to offload bad energy. People want clean breaks and side-taking to simplify the endless spray of messy, intense internet that they have to process every day. If they know that their friends are on the inside and their enemies are on the outside, they can relax.  I’ve talked a bit before about how setting social standards as a group activity has group benefits and that carries over here too. People want to believe that the CCs and their spaces stand for what they think they stand for, because otherwise it’s just another betrayal, but faith isn’t often spent well on e-celebs when it comes to standards of association.

I watched beauty Youtube for a while, ironically to detox from following gamers before all this. I was around for both Dramageddons, which were events that were generally misunderstood by people who only saw summaries from the outside. The super boiled down lessons I took from those events are:

People can say whatever they want, but most people are watching youtubers for their personality / what they represent symbolically / who people think they are, and acting against that faith puts people off.

Betrayal in any direction (Creator/Fan, Creator/Creator, whatever you like) is taken seriously, at least when the values of the audience overlap with the nature of the betrayal (Bad friend, abuse of power, social climbing, bad sexual ethics, the JC fallout had it all and you could see the sub count drop live.)

It wasn’t the fights themselves that put people off the makeup scene, people love a good blood sport, it was the way that in the end it felt like there was nobody left to root for in that group that didn’t feel tainted in some way. I think that time and exposure is doing this to the people who rode in on the DSMP wave, like lockdown was a fucked up kind of honeymoon for many and now people have to face the CCs with fewer happy chemicals and positive illusions. It’s easy to see why people get paranoid and start to test things or look for signs, they’ve invested in someone emotionally and they want to believe they can ‘keep them’, but they need to clear the moral deal breakers first, which is hard when people seem to be in a grey zone.

[adamsvanrhijn]

I'm someone who's into history but not so bothered by certain ahistoricalities like moving events back of forth a few years, if it makes sense in the overall story. I was ok with Bertha's Met victory being so exaggerated as I get they were possibly feeling insecure about a third season and wanted to conclude that plotline. However, I feel like they set themselves in a trap for S3 because what are they going to do with Mrs. Astor now in S3? What's Bertha going to do all season, if you don't count her beef with George over Gladys, if she has no enemies to defeat? Also, I think historically speaking, it was a worse 'crime' to have Marian and Larry kiss on the fucking street out of all places and during daylight... It just felt so modern to me. Just didn't make much sense because it's not like someone watched them in shock either, which would have made the scandal of it fun. But my only concern for S3 is that they won't do Oscar justice aka. give him at least much screentimd as he did in S2.. Although, even if he's not a fan favourite, I think JF has some kind of a third act in mind for Oscar. I hope. Because it would be so bad to see him tossed away on some level and be there just to get rid of their money... I get he doesn't bring in the viewers but there's so much history they could unravel with his character being there too (being gay and in the position he is now as a character).

oh there are absolutely certain things where i think it is fine to take some historical liberties and even makes sense to do so from a narrative standpoint!!

a very good example of this for me was bertha pulling the vanderbilt stunt in S1 to get her foot in the door and overall just the social trajectory taking place over a few months vs over several years. it Was Not Realistic, which george lampshades earlier in the season in the first episode when bertha brings up the vanderbilts - "What are you saying? We have to keep this up for 50 years, and then someone may drop by?" ... that was like, fine to me. tbqh. especially given real life considerations about telling a coherent and complete story in one season.

but i do not feel the same about bertha winning the opera war as portrayed. i made a whole post about that here but my thesis is pretty much the same as yours - what are they going to do now that bertha has "won" old society over? and they have explicitly said this and demonstrated it in an incredibly clear fashion? that was the entire conflict the show has hinged on! and so then it's like...

not only What is she going to do all season in s3... but Why is she going to do it. if part of bertha's motivation for having the duke on her side and, specifically, marrying gladys off to him, which is NOT a an action most viewers are going to be sympathetic to, was around securing social position for both her AND her family... they made it look like that is already resolved! so what's her motivation now? if the Point turns out to be that she's already won and seemingly has no reason to keep going with as much vehemence... then i guess that's to support a george-bertha conflict, which like. yeah is that really going to get us through 8-9 episodes...

on top of just. they made it seem like mrs. astor is truly irrelevant now in a completely overdramatic way such that it's going to feel like an inconsistency if she Matters again. but in history she Did matter. but in the show they have literally explicitly on screen said that she lost to these people and things are changing now. so what are they gonna do!

but to get to your other point.... my GOD the marian/larry kiss

lmao i'm sooo irrationally bitter about it... especially because Sonja Warfield said THIS:

Executive producer and writer Sonja Warfield tells EW that the romantic moment came after she directly solicited creator Julian Fellowes. "Julian had long game plans to get them together," she says. "Back then everything was very chaste. You didn't really kiss somebody; you shook hands or something like that. So, I really did want Marian and Larry to kiss and asked Julian if they could please kiss at the end of the season. He granted me my wish."

(The Gilded Age writer talks that long-awaited finale kiss, Ada's new power - Entertainment Weekly)

which like. boy it would explain a lot about what to me are Interesting departures from the jf modus operandi if he has been receiving encouragement from the rest of the executive team to disregard history For The Drama in places other than just the marian/larry kiss. Boy Oh Boy would it explain things!

& last but not least blorbo thoughts <3 my trying-to-be-realistic hope for oscar is that he gets at least as much screentime as in season 1... i definitely agree that it feels like jf Does have more in mind and i just hope that pans out and also that they manage to do so in a way that feels legitimate to what they did in S2 while also not shoving him off to the sidelines to do so... realistically he should Not be in a very good place socially in S3. but also i want to see him wearing fun outfits at parties. So There.

i also ummmm want more of him with his boyfriend <3 that would mean so much and be so important. to me.

[everygame]

Karateka (Apple II)

Developed/Published by: Jordan Mechner / Broderbund Released:15/11/1985 Completed: 04/10/2023 Completion: Beat it! Version Played: The Making of Karateka Trophies / Achievements: n/a 

The first video game to use rotoscoping (well, according to the Guinness Book of World Records, so who am I to dispute) Karateka was Jordan Mechner’s first released game and, somewhat surprisingly, one of the first martial arts video games, with only Karate Champ, Yie Ar Kung-Fu and one other I’ll mention in a minute beating it to the punch (no pun intended). Mechner even originally intended it to be a one-on-one fighter much like Karate Champ, but (as recounted in The Making of Karateka, the recent deluxe re-release via which I played this) gradually shifted towards creating a more cinema-inspired game with a classic narrative: rescue a kidnapped princess.

I talked about it in my article on Super Breakout, but Karateka represents another perfect example of multiple discovery, released likely mere days after Data East’s Kung-Fu Master (aka Spartan X) was released in Japan, a cinema-inspired side-scrolling martial-arts game where you must rescue a kidnapped princess (well, your girlfriend. Every girlfriend is a princess. Am I right, fellas?)

They are somewhat different games: Kung-Fu Master is faster paced, with less of a focus on one-on-one combat and instead more enemies and less animation, but it places Karateka in a strange position in history. Kung-Fu Master is the immediately seminal title, directly inspiring both Super Mario Bros. and Street Fighter (!) where Karateka, a western game for home computers, seeded… Prince of Persia. But wait! Prince of Persia seeded more cinematic platformers, which begat Tomb Raider, which arguably created every triple A game we know today.

So wait, maybe Karateka actually is unbelievably important!

Anyway. In 2023 what stands out about Karateka on Apple II is that 1) it’s weirdly easy? and 2) it’s weirdly playable?

It’s honestly a very simple game. You run right. Sometimes the game actually cuts so you can see enemies running towards you (which is unusual, but interesting) and then you take fighting stance and fight them via punches and kicks of one of three heights. You can move forward while punching, but if you’re kicking you have to put your foot down after a few kicks. It’s basic, and for what all the talking heads in The Making Of claim, I’m not sure it’s actually that strategic, considering I could beat everyone by either just sticking to “keepaway” kicks or spamming punches while moving forwards, returning to keepaways if I needed to heal (interestingly, health recovers for both you and your enemy over time.)

There are some cheap deaths; you die if you run directly into anyone (rather than taking fighting stance.) There’s a bird that’ll fuck you up, and then a portcullis that you have to time exactly right, both of which extend things quite artificially in a game that has only one life. That said, however, I beat this on my second try, which I found really surprising. But speaking of point 2: there’s a smoothness to the animation (yes, even with the Apple II’s blazing 8 frames a second) and immediacy to the combat that makes it… fun, just in an unchallenging sort of way. I understand why kids at the time, facing the fact that they’d just dropped the equivalent of $100 or whatever on this, played it over and over, trying to speedrun it.

I’m not sure though if the lauded “cinematic” nature of this game hasn’t been a bit overblown, though. In 1984 cutscenes existed in other games, and are cutscenes something to be that celebrated? In 1984 we’ve got Rescue on Fractalus, King’s Quest, Lords of Midnight… and Infocom creating deep narratives that use the cinema of the MIND! (Ahem.) I think having cuts happen while you’re actually playing its… interesting. But there’s a fairly good reason why it hasn’t been used much since.

So Karateka, then. It feels like a weird game to me to get an insanely deluxe re-release with a full interactive museum, but it’s a surprisingly fun diversion for as long as it lasts.

Will I ever play it again? I don’t know. It’s such a breezy wee thing to have a go on I could be tempted, but I’m better off playing Kung-Fu Master, which terrified me as a child for reasons I’ll explain if I ever write it up.

Final Thought: Next week I’ll be taking a look at The Making of Karateka in depth, because I think it’s an interesting release in and of itself.

Support Every Game I’ve Finished on ko-fi! You can pick up a digital copy of exp. 2600, a zine featuring all-exclusive writing at my shop, or join as a supporter at just $1 a month and get articles like this a week early.

[alphadursgate32023]

Diplomacy Refined: Baldur's Gate 3 and the Evolution of Interaction

Baldur's Gate is, like, this total legend from the late 90s when it comes to CRPGs, and OMG, when they dropped the news about a sequel, it was seriously mind-blowing! Yet, given Larian Studios' track record with Divinity Original Sin 1 and 2, our optimism had solid ground – those games were absolute genre-definers in the past decade. But let me tell you, Baldur's Gate 3 takes it to a whole new dimension. Classic RPGs of yore, like the ones you mentioned, often sport a bit of a serious and restrained vibe. Isometric view, graphics that seem to have resisted change since ancient times, and enough text boxes to fill a library. But here's the twist – Baldur's Gate 3, despite coming from an indie studio, rolls in with resources that put it in the league of heavyweights like The Witcher 3, Mass Effect, and Final Fantasy 7, the recent champs of the Action RPG scene. The graphics are like, totally mind-blowing, especially when they totally nail those facial expressions. I can't even, it's seriously a visual masterpiece.

Baldur's Gate 3 isn't just your regular sequel – it's this massive game that's totally shaking up the whole modern gaming universe, like whoa. It's like taking your nostalgic love for the classics and then catapulting it into the PS5 games era. Get ready to have your minds totally blown, fam! 🤯 Gamers, you're about to dive into an insane adventure that's like, next-level epic. It's not just vibing with the OG vibes, but it's also slapping on a seriously stunning layer that'll make your jaw drop.

Diplomacy Refined: A Comparison of Baldur's Gate 3 and Baldur's Gate 2

When you check out how diplomacy works in Baldur's Gate 3 versus its old version, Baldur's Gate 2, you can totally see that the new one has brought in some awesome upgrades to the system. It amps up the fun factor when you're playing and might even make you think about scouting where to buy PS5 games to really soak in all these cool changes. Baldur's Gate 3 goes all-in with a more complex diplomacy vibe, giving players a bunch more options and outcomes, kinda like when you're on the hunt for where to buy cheap PS5 games. While Baldur's Gate 2 featured diplomatic interactions, the newer game refines this aspect by providing deeper branching dialogue options that cater to various playstyles, similar to how gamers choose and explore different PS5 game options. This totally leads to, like, a way more immersive and super personalized vibe, you know? It's all about letting players really, like, mold how things go down, based on their choices. It's like when they snag those PS5 games that totally match their style, ya feel me?

In Baldur's Gate 3, diplomacy is better integrated into the overarching narrative. Conversations and choices feel more meaningful and impactful, leading to a greater sense of agency. The game's advanced AI and dialogue system create more lifelike interactions, making the world and characters feel more alive. Stealth mechanics in Baldur's Gate 3 provide a fresh perspective on diplomacy-related situations. Players can now use stealth to avoid confrontations and engage enemies on their terms. This tactical vibe brings some serious depth to those diplomacy-heavy situations, giving players the chance to work their environment and positioning to totally crush it. Baldur's Gate 3's turn-based combat is all about that refined and super strategic gameplay. This turn-based style really makes you think hard about your moves, adding an extra layer of smartness to finding diplomatic solutions. It's like finding the sweet spot between old-school vibes and what's poppin' in gaming today.

Where old-school feels meet new-school thrills

Baldur's Gate 3 is like the ultimate flex when it comes to leveling up those diplomacy mechanics. If you compare how it handles things with its older sibling, Baldur's Gate 2, you'll see that the new kid on the block is all about those intricate and immersive vibes in conversations. The game totally weaves diplomacy into the story, serves up a buffet of dialogue options, and even tosses in some sneaky stealth and turn-based combat for good measure. All of this adds up to feeling like you're calling the shots in a totally real world. Baldur's Gate 3 isn't just tipping its hat to the OG days, it's pushing the envelope by mixing in some modern flair like mind-blowing graphics and gameplay that's all about strategy. As you dive into this epic journey, you're looking at a diplomacy system that's all about making those big decisions, getting cozy with a unique experience, and bouncing off some crazy interactions. Larian Studios totally flipped the script on diplomacy in CRPGs, crafting a game that's all about keeping that classic vibe while setting a whole new standard. So, whether you're a die-hard fan of the oldies or you're just getting your feet wet in the world of CRPGs, Baldur's Gate 3 is serving up a ride that's all about showing how far diplomacy has come in the gaming scene.

[phoenix-is-the-hottest-thing]

I want to pre-emptively say that what I'm gonna ask is in good faith and I'm really curious, that said I wanted to ask since you are the one who I follow who enjoys Elysia a lot and I tend to find really interesting your readings of characters:

What is it that makes Ellie that enjoyable for you? I genuinely am perplexed because It feels to me like a character I would normally like, the whole motif of loving humanity, not by necessity or weird cult, but out of pure admiration of what humanity can be feels like something I would enjoy, but throughout the whole ER experience Elysia has always prompted an eye rolling experience to me, and I think it may be because of how much everyone seems to not be able to shut up about how great she is for a second, but I feel I'm probably biased by an annoyance I've head with her before hand from interacting with a vocal subset of fans of her wich usually ends up being "she hot, repeated sex and horn joke n.387" so I ended up kind of skimming through when dialogue involving her was present.

Sorry for the long ask but now that ER has ended I wanted to try and see If I'm missing something with her, and if you decide to respond to this long-ass ask thank you in advance, if you don't feel like I absolutely get it dw and thank you for your time

I think, first off, it's perfectly ok to not like her! She seemed to be a pretty hit or miss character, many people love her but a lot also don't like her at all. That's totally fine.

For me, first of all I liked the mystery about her. When you're really trying to think of what's up with a character, you think more about them, and if you think a lot about a character you'll usually get attached. If you're not interested, obviously that's not gonna happen. She made me curious! She had a lot of sneaky sneaky recollections, and to be honest some things she could do haven't been clearly explained even now.

Second thing, Elysia made me laugh a lot. She just says completely shameless and outrageous things, and she's not shy about what she thinks or wants— she's also a huge tease who knows exactly what to say to gently bully her friends. Laughing is a positive experience, I like doing it, so it made me like her even more!

Third thing that got kinda dropped in Elysium Everlasting (SHAME), but was more present in ER chapter 1 and 2, is how they were actively subverting the "she's perfect" narrative. Elysia will say outrageous things, but whoever she's talking to reacts more like *facepalm*. Mei, Mobius and to a lesser extent Su would do that. It creates a comedic dynamic, sometimes at her expense ("must be growing up" "you're just getting fat, Elysia"), sometimes not, and balances out what she says. Even in her enemy collection, you have Elysia bragging, Mei asking "Can anyone keep her under control?" and Kevin answering "No". It's very funny, and it disarms the annoyance I feel, because the other characters are literally siding with me. (But they like her anyway).

Fourth I guess comes her actual character, she's a nice girl who wants to make everyone around her happy, but she is also profoundly lonely and covers up her negative feelings with smiles and jokes. That kind of character is fun to write and read about! She's also very insightful so she delivers so good lines to other characters too, which is ALSO very good. I like seeing her be soft, but I like see her teasing too. Just a delight to write and read about.

Fifth she is very pretty and fun to play, I always enjoy my runs with her! Not a fan of the color pink myself but her model is very very well made, and her gameplay feels really good to me. Then again I love most characters' gameplay, as long as they don't hurt my hand hahaha.

Sixth she is very memeable and I love making jokes and memes so that made me like and think about her more, joins back with point two except I'm the one joking around.

Let's stop here... getting a bit long. But on top of my head that's what I like about her!

[ontheoddoccasioniwritestuff]

Begrudging Allies (Aaron Hotchner x Trans!Male!Reader)

Summary: Aaron and Y/N's marriage is suitable enough, given that Aaron secretly loves men and Y/N secretly is a man. When the one year anniversary of their amicable nuptials brings forth correspondence from their estranged families, Aaron takes the opportunity to potentially make something more out of their arrangement.

AN: This is one of my entries to the "Enemies 2 Lovers" challenge set by @imagining-in-the-margins​ on Tumblr!

Reader is trans male and uses he/him pronouns. 

WC: 2.4k words

Content Warning: References to era appropriate homophobia/transphobia but nothing actually mentioned. Two dumb fucking gay men trying to flirt.

Photo Credit // Masterlist // AO3

Your name: submit What is this?

Aaron Hotchner and Y/N L/N were served breakfast together every day they were in the house together. They sat not at opposite ends, but the seat left adjacent to them. That way, they did not have to look at each other whilst they ate. Breakfast was the only meal with which they shared each other’s company. Why make it unbearable first thing in the morning? They read the morning paper - and any post - while eating. Only the scrape of their plates and muted chewing was to be heard before the chairs scraped across the floorboards and both men departed.

Today they both received a note from the L/N household back in their old country.

“I assume your letter reads the same as mine,” Y/N dropped his beside his plate before pushing it further away.

Hotchner raised his eye from the headline that had been mildly entertaining him, “It does.”

In cursive flicks, the usual complaints of their emigration had reached his eyes not moments prior. The closing of his family’s letter however broached a new request: a photograph of the happy couple on their first wedding anniversary, specifically a recreation. The ungrateful bunch, the only remaining wedding photographs of the wedding were in their hands.

“I don’t have the dress,” Y/N scoffed and looked aside. Even from this end of the table, Aaron could see that he was trying to mask his tears from the dawn. The wedding day was the culmination of their greatest shames.

At least Aaron had tried to make the best of it, but there was no relief for Y/N until they were in their separate chambers and free from all betrothment attire.

“Suppose we should arrange for a fitting. Though how we’re going to do that without arousing any suspicion here is beyond me.” “Perhaps we can go north, find a seamstress and a wigmaker there.”

Aaron did not patronise Y/N by pretending he understood his plight. He himself had never pictured himself with a wife; worse was that Y/N had never pictured himself to be a wife.

“Wouldn’t it be easier to remain a woman?” He had said after Y/N had confessed during their third arranged rendezvous.

With venom spitting from each syllable, Y/N’s reply was one that he remembered vividly: “I was never a woman to start with.”

They were not friends, they barely spoke, but the enemy of the enemy is a friend. This sentiment made Y/N a begrudging ally.

However it did not make the occasions they had to pretend to be a happily wedded couple any simpler. Y/N did look most becoming in white, but Aaron knew that there was no worse day for Y/N than that day in the church. Any reminder was like a stake through the heart.

“I’ll arrange for the fitting,” Aaron quietly volunteered.

Y/N was quick with a brusque reply, “I can organise my own affairs.”

“Of course, but perhaps it would lighten your load if I took on those responsibilities.” Aaron paused as Y/N pushed aside his breakfast plate, his eggs now making his stomach turn. He used his newspaper as a shield, “And as your husband, I give you permission to dress how you please.”

Y/N blinked then nodded. He did not ever say thank you. That was his problem, Y/N, too proud. Too nervous to admit that he had been graciously allowed to exist like this because of his marriage to Aaron. As if that was ever any part of their agreement, both of them had blackmail worthy material. Y/N just seemed to forget that, or at least he was not the type of individual to dangle Aaron’s secrets before him like a carrot on a stick. Why Y/N thought that Aaron was that type though, he had some idea.

“A member of the bar?” was the response Aaron got from Y/N, disgust thinly veiled, upon their first chaperoned walk through the L/N estate. It must have seemed contradictory later down the line, to be a protector of the laws that criminalised his very own existence. It was not as uncommon as Y/N believed however, and there were much worse laws to break between trials than being attracted to men.

A man of his word, Aaron prepared for a fitting in the comfort of their own home. A friend of theirs was a tailor; accommodations were no economic issue. Of course, this friend did not know either of their secrets, but other than that, he was a companion who would be greeted warmly into their home.

Y/N watched the tailor from the chaise whilst pretending to be interested in a book. His eye would raise itself to see each adjustment made to Aaron’s wedding suit, which he had surprisingly kept – folded in a box at the farthest corner of the house. Then Y/N would go back to the page and reread the top few lines. Every time, Aaron would pretend not to notice. But the jiggle of Y/N’s knee, the absence of progression through the book’s narrative, taught him that Y/N was anticipating this fitting with something more positive than last time.

“All done, thank you, Aaron!” “Y/N, your turn.”

His book snapped shut and Y/N stepped up to the podium. Aaron swapped places with him without acting out the role of an aloof reader. As expected his expression was well disguised as neutral, but Aaron’s practice in law gifted him with a pair of spectacles into the soul. Y/N’s glee of the tape measure taking in his proportions was masked so that only his eyes smiled. Once or twice, the corner of his mouth ticked up, only to iron its creases out when the tailor moved into his eyeline. When asked what colour he would consider, Y/N mulled deliciously his options before selecting a gentle blue. His fingers were cautious but as soon as they touched the royal fabric offered, they fanned out and welcomed it for his new suit.

From the moment they broke apart, his hands were restless. Ticking against his teacup or tapping against his legs were two of their new favourite hobbies. Even when the suit arrived, Y/N could not keep himself still. His beautiful face was scrunched up in the mirror as he attempted for a third time to make the right knot in his cravat. The photographer was waiting for them downstairs.

Aaron sighed and knocked one knuckle to the door, “Allow me.”

Y/N rolled his eyes, “I can do it myself.”

“I know. But this knot will look better.”

Their eyes locked in the mirror, before Y/N turned around and released his tie. His chin pointed parallel to the carpet. His neck was still so as not to drop the breath he was holding. Aaron flicked with the tip of the cravat as his hands slotted it through, his focus on the column of Y/N’s throat, because meeting his gaze now was an impossible feat. They were too close for that. He bent the stalks of his collar into place then stepped back as if to admire his handiwork. But that was not at all what he really regarded.

He cleared his throat, “There.”

As Aaron removed his hands, Y/N spun to face his reflection head on. “Adequate. You’ll have to teach me that one.”

Finally, they greeted their photographer, who had set up his camera in their garden. It was a lovely day, not to be wasted inside. At least that’s what the photographer said as he unceremoniously ushered them into place and posed them to his liking. There was no instruction for how to position their faces so Aaron kept his the same as their original wedding portrait.

His plan for relaxed facial features hit a bump in the road. As the photographer ducked beneath his sheet, Y/N snorted. His hand was quick to follow and it clapped over his mouth. The photographer emerged with concerned curiosity. A strand of his combover was standing on end.

“My apologies, there was a tickle in my throat.” He pressed his lips together and ducked his head, his feet scuffing one inch’s worth of dirt before he regained composure.

The photographer tried again. Aaron could see, in the corner of his eye, that Y/N’s corners of his mouth weighed down to prevent a break but it was unsuccessful.

“Do forgive me,” He said, his voice quivering, “I remembered a jest from last week. It isn’t even worth the laughter it brings.”

Despite his detractions, Y/N kept guffawing to himself as the photographer kept dodging about his cloth and camera. It spilled from between his pressed lips like an overflowing goblet. Aaron had not heard such delight before. He would describe it as infectious if the joy in Y/N’s notes was comparable to a plague. No, this was intoxicating, a mead he would heartily drink until he too was giddy on the stuff. Y/N, clutching Aaron’s arm to stay standing, almost stumbled as Aaron bent over with equally bashful laughter.

“It would possibly suit you better if you sat,” said the photographer through a faux smile. He then ushered over to one of the benches, the one amidst the tulips, before he wrangled with his camera after them.

Seated on the cool marble, Aaron kept a few inches between himself and Y/N. Their hands took that space but waited to hold hands. Y/N was still shaking but his smile was minute now, replaced by mild embarrassment.

“It wasn’t that funny,” He said. But there was a twitch in his voice, a breath that indicated otherwise.

“No, not at all,” whispered Aaron, his head tilted against the invisible line between them.

Y/N turned, his nose pushing their boundary and almost brushing against Aaron’s cheek when he too turned to face him.

“At long last, we agree.”

Y/N’s lips betrayed him again. A bubble of laughter popped between them, letting out the smallest of smiles. Yet it shone through with such luminosity that it almost outdid the flash of the bulb as their photograph was taken. There was delight at the absence of the melancholy pose that a long exposure wedding portrait promised. Oh, the wonders of new technology.

As was with his new suit, Y/N practically waited by the door for the photographs. His hands were beyond ravenous for them by the time they arrived. They snatched at the envelope and tore with as much care as he could muster, his voice catching in the roof of his mouth as he called for Aaron.

On the chaise together, their knees were brought in close to rest the papers upon. Their faces looked as though they were carved into the paper with charcoal, smudged by an artist’s thumb. That radiant smile among it all was the centre of the photograph. Aaron noted the distance between them was mirrored in their past selves as they sifted through their options.

Then Y/N held aloft the ones for their respective families, “Sit with me while I pen the reply.”

Aaron was not usually welcome in Y/N’s study. Yet, as he pulled up a walnut wood chair with red velvet seat beside the bureau, behind Y/N’s matching one, he felt like he was in place. With anticipation, he watched the most passive aggressive comments that had ever been put to paper. All bar one was spun from Y/N’s inspiration. Aaron had but one to add and it took some convincing for Y/N to put it in his family’s correspondence – he was writing since his writing was far neater. Even so, there were a few loops of the ‘l’s that slanted when Y/N was particularly amused by something that Aaron had commented on.

“There,” Y/N said as he closed the second of two envelopes with crimson wax. As he lifted the seal, he spoke quieter, “Just a thought, nothing more, but I almost wish I could see their faces. Only the first second though.” The seal was placed in his drawer and the letters were left in the centre of the desk while one remaining photograph was selected by Y/N, “I want to keep this. In the drawing room.”

Aaron’s eyebrows jumped up his forehead, “You do?”

Y/N nodded once with finality, his broad smile returning, “It’s the first time I was myself in a long time, the best I’ve ever looked! Besides, I am your husband and I say it will stand above the fireplace by the end of the week – once I find a suitable frame.”

He held it up, squinting to imagine what frame might work best with the décor. His chair itching to be closer, Hotch leant over and cupped his hand over Y/N’s so that he could see the photograph too. It stayed there, and perhaps it was his imagination, but Hotchner could have sworn that Y/N’s back slacked and swayed to the right an inch, almost resting against his shoulder beside Aaron’s.

Y/N’s quiet voice was back, “Thank you, Aaron.”

“You do not have to say thank you.”

“When are you going to stop telling me what to do?”

There was no accusation in it; it was asked as simply as one would ask for another napkin. But Aaron did not quite know how to answer.

“I don’t mean to come across as a drill sergeant,” He said softly.

“Aaron,” Y/N lowered their hands but kept them together beside his lap, “You don’t have to worry about me and what I’m going to do, just like I don’t have to worry about you.”

And what Aaron thought about being ignorant of an answer before, that became a lie. Aaron wanted to worry about Y/N, and he did worry. Not for himself or his identity being exposed, but because he did care for his husband. He didn’t want to worry or have Y/N be worried about control in their home. They should exist as equals, not in blackmail but in respect. Maybe one day, in love.

Aaron settled instead for: “My apologies. And I thank you too. It was the first time I was myself as well.”

Y/N blinked, then avoided his stare. It was a revelation therefore when he laced his fingers with Aaron’s for the briefest of squeeze and replied, “No thanks necessary. It was my pleasure.”

Then the bell tinkled for breakfast and the two men were up on their feet. Y/N was in the dining room first. He sat two away from the head of the table this time. With enough care to drag his chair loudly across the floor, Aaron mirrored that seating, dragging his cutlery and crockery into place. As they were served, Y/N swiped the newspaper before his husband could with a smirk hidden behind the pages. Hotchner poured his coffee and smiled into the brew. He was, for once, thoroughly glad that they had breakfast together.

----> ----> ----> ----> ---->

Tagging

Aaron Hotchner fics: @averyhotchner​

[tundrainafrica]

[Part 1] Hi Sav! What are ur thoughts on Kamiya's (Levi's VA) words regarding Levi? Here are two translations I found on twitter. Since you know Japanese I think you're the perfect person to ask this from ^^ " Today at Anime Japan Kamiya Hiroshi said, “Levi hasn’t changed. The loss of Erwin is so huge that afterwards his life in a sense is like ‘yosei’.” Yosei (余生) means like, the rest of one’s life (after raising kids or retiring) where you have nothing left to do"++

Disclaimer: Please I have no intention of starting a ship war with this, I just wanna drop my own interpretation for my own Levihan stanning heart. 

Note: I had no plans of watching the Japanese Seiyu panel for the last episode of Attack on Titan for many reasons and 90% of it is because Romi Paku didn’t show up and I’m still salty overall about how AOT and the narrative is treating Hange altogether and literally the only comfort I get about Hange this whole AOT season is that she looks great in all her scenes but anyway, enough about the rant. I’m still low key salty about not getting our Levihan reunion yet… But whatever. 

I got all of these asks in succession and soon after I did some research on twitter to see what all the fuss was about and apparently, a lot of Eruri fans are likening Levi to a widow--- A WIDOW of all things. 

And I dunno, I feel like this conclusion for one kinda cheapens Levi’s character altogether and just cheapens the bond of Levihan so I kinda realized I just cannot stand and watch some obviously Eruri-biased Japanese translations of that statement run rampant on twitter without my own take. 

So anyway, I’m gonna drop my own take on this, my own interpretation as a Levihan stan.

Disclaimer: I am in no way trying to push any Levihan agenda on anyone. If you like Eruri and you wanna stick to your widow interpretation feel free too. I just feel like a pro Levihan take, and a more ‘non Eruri’ take on that statement should exist as well so I’ll just drop this here for Levihan fans to seek comfort and possibly for any casual reader or Eruri fan to get some other perspectives on this statement I guess?

This is the original Text

声の方「団長、エルヴィンを失ったことはとても大きかったと思うんですよ」

「だからそこから先ってある意味余生みたいな感じになってる気がする」

Isym先生「エルヴィンの最期を看取って役割を全うし、現在宙ぶらりんな状態」

リヴァイ本人「…俺達の役目は」「あそこで終わりだったのかもしれない…」

And if I were going to translate it word for word. 

“For Levi, losing Erwin was a big thing. And everything after that became some sort of ‘retirement’ (Yosei) for him. Since he took it upon himself then to follow Erwin, right now it feels just dangling in space.”

Okay these are obviously Eruri crumbs at first glance and I recognize why exactly Eruris would celebrate over something like this because if we had a Levihan thing like this too, I’ll probably be celebrating too

But Let me offer my own interpretation of this as a Levihan stan

Yes, I recognize that for Levi losing Erwin was a big thing, but I’d like to paint some of the terms in a positive light for Levi. And the main key terms above were ‘Yosei’ and “Levi dangling in space’

So I’ll be focusing on those two: 

余生 (Yosei)

余生 (Yosei) isn’t necessarily a bad thing. Yosei literally translates to ‘the remaining years of someone’s life” So it doesn't necessarily mean Levi’s a widow or Levi is lonely because Erwin’s not there anymore In fact, Yosei is used a lot from what I see, to mean, retirement years. So after you’re done with your job and you retire, your last few years playing golf, playing with grandchildren, those are your ‘yoseis’ 

And there are lots of takes I saw online to this Yosei thing 

There was a meta in Japanese I found  where they discussed the fact that Levi was approaching his twilight years. and the main reason he was facing ‘retirement’ wasn’t necessarily because Erwin was gone but because soon after Erwin died, the basement happened and it turned out there were enemies much stronger than titans out there. 

The ‘Yosei’ meant, Levi retired from his role as ‘humanity’s strongest soldier’ because Levi was the ‘strongest soldier’ against titans, not against humans, the rapidly changing world and technology. I mean if we actually are objective about this, we could see the most capable survey corps member for handling the new enemy which is Marley and the Hizuru and just all the other countries and the impending war, was Hange since she is the best at navigating politics and she would be the quickest to adapt to technology.  

So yes, if it’s obvious, I do not like the ‘Levi is a widow take’ AT ALL.

「エルヴィンの���期を看取って役割を全うし、現在宙ぶらりんな状態」

 Since he took it upon himself then to follow Erwin, right now it feels just dangling in space.

But I’m not gonna discount the role of Erwin in Levi’s life. I think it is actually very important to understand why Levi feels like ‘he’s dangling in space.’ 

We all remember that last scene from ACWNR after Isabel and Farlan died and I’m sure we can all connect those last words from Erwin all the way until Levid decides to follow him to the role implied above. 

Erwin was Levi’s compass. Erwin gave direction to Levi’s life and suddenly Erwin dies and at the same time the world opens up and Levi starts to realize he’s not as needed anymore and his role as humanity’s strongest is gone.

So obviously all those events at once would leave Levi in some sort of limbo right. And that’s why he gets this feeling that he has reached his ‘yosei’ years and he’s also dangling in some limbo

I can think of two more specific reasons he ends up ‘dangling.’ 

First reason is: Killing the beast titan, the last order Erwin gave Levi wasn’t so easy to do anymore given the political nuances, the environment and of course the fact that the world was already more complicated than killing titans. And to think that Levi makes a promise to do that right before Erwin died? 

So I’m thinking the ‘dangling’ refers to Levi grappling with such complexities and nuances while trying to fulfill a goal which would have been so much easier if the basement thing didn’t happen and the world didn’t open up. 

And my second reason is: 

Warning: Before I go to this, I wanna warn you that this is my Levihan stan self reaching for pro-Levihan interpretations so feel free to ignore this if you don’t want crazy Levihan delusional interpretations. 

Anyway, my second explanation which I like to play with and I like to keep close to me, being a Levihan fan is that Hange of all people, was the last veteran stuck to Levi and as we all know, according to Yams old interviews about Hange’s gender...

Hange’s a free soul. She’s like the balloon, the kite that just floats in space and just continues hanging, dangling and flying. And she’s the person who Levi ended up sticking to after Erwin’s death. And since he ended up with such a free sould, he didn’t necessarily find much direction again, the same way he found direction with Erwin. 

Hange didn’t give a straightforward direction for Levi. But Hange provided comfort. 

And I’d just like to introduce a pro-Levihan interpretation this. 

So maybe ‘dangling in space’ and leaving the remaining years of his life like that isn’t such a bad thing? I mean I like to interpret this ‘retirement’ and ‘dangling’ as Levi finally being free of whatever ‘Ackerbond’ or whatever compass or order Erwin has set for him. 

Because Hange went about her position as commander more as a parent to the cadets and more as a comrade to Levi than anything else. And with title of ‘humanity’s strongest soldier’ not so relevant anymore post season 3 with titans becoming a not so big threat compared to the impending war, I think the ‘yosei’ and the ‘dangling’ could be interpreted as freedom for Levi from his role as Erwin’s right hand man and freedom from the burden of being ‘humanity’s strongest.’

And the transition from having to report to Erwin to having to report to Hange, I think this can be interpreted as a breath of fresh air for Levi.

Yosei after all can be interpreted as freedom. When people retire, people are free right? They’re free to try out different things, they’re free to focus on other things. Even if people have to experience the pain of ‘loss’ when losing one position, the remnants of it, the ‘yosei’ isn’t inherently bad although it can be interpreted as that. 

And the crumbs for this? I always believed that Levi generally acted freer under Hange than under Erwin. And I feel like I have created metas about this before about Hange’s leadership style: here and here

Anyway if you got this far, thanks for reading! 

[o-king-of-suns]

To the sweet anon who sent me an ask couple of days ago. I am sorry for not answering you earlier. I have a problem with the reply button, so I will be answering your ask here :D

 1- Let’s be real here; Levi was NEVER going to choose Erwin :D No matter how much we wanted it to happen. No matter how much we thought it is the most reasonable choice, it was just never going to happen and we all know it. Levi was pretty much a slave to the narrative at that point.

Isayama said that he ALREADY had made up his mind that Erwin would die there and then. He also said that the since volume 18, he tried to draw Erwin and Armin as contrasting characters, the past and the future and described Erwin as someone "who is drenched in sth very personal" while Arimn is someone who "is chasing a dream that's pure and fresh”. Isayama intentionally created the serumbowl scene to draw important parallels between Armin & Erwin (as well as to show Levi’s development). I don’t understand how can anyone be blind to this!

  Armin is the future, rightful successor to Erwin. The plot deemed it necessary to show that Armin WAS the right choice and Isayama’s objective was to ensure that neither the characters nor the readers regret this choice by the end of the story. This is what Isayama planned to do all along but I’m going to be honest, it wasn’t well-executed as I wished it to be. Armin’s arc could’ve been handled much better.

2- Both Levi and Erwin agreed that in order for humanity to have a chance in survival and for them to have a chance in winning this battle, Erwin had to march to his death. Did this mean that both of them made a choice to doom humanity?! of course not, because as much as brilliant Erwin was as a commander, he wasn’t the sole key to humanity’s survival, Eren was at that point. I mean if they had to choose to sacrifice Erwin or Eren at that time, they would’ve agreed that it was Erwin is the person to be sacrificed because Eren was more important.

Actually, Levi made the same decision before during the Uprising Arc! He was willing to let everyone in the SC (including Erwin) die in order to find Eren and Historia.

3- Levi’s two most highlighted character traits are his kindness and his perceptive nature. His choice on that rooftop solidifies what I find to be his most important feature: an innate instinct for consideration, for understanding how to best care for someone independent of himself ALONG with his very strong perceptive nature and his ability to read situations and act in the best way accordingly. Taking that into consideration, an important comparison between Levi and Erwin needs to be drawn to also understand why Levi chose Erwin to rest.

Levi admits that he is willing to play the role of the “lunatic who kills people” for the sake of humanity. He chose to take this burden on himself. He understands that he might need to ask his comrades and subordinates to sacrifice themselves and in return he promises them to carry their will. The deaths of his comrades have always been a way to strengthen his will. He uses their will to keep moving..

Erwin, on the other hand, enrolled into the SC to achieve his childhood dream, like Armin and many others (he’s a human after all), but found himself getting up in ranks till he became a commander and a necessary devil. It wasn’t simply a burden he took upon himself, unlike Levi. As Levi said to Floch, it was asked of him. Everyone wanted to see something in or get something from this figure Erwin cut in their tense, desperate world : Erwin the Figurehead giving people direction  and purpose, Erwin the Monster wielding ruthlessness for the sake of  humanity, Erwin the Visionary who sees something no one else can see.  Everyone had something they wanted him to be, and he delivered. Erwin eventually becomes broken. He struggles to find meaning in his comrades’ deaths. He tells Levi that he thought many times that death would have been much easier for him. He never wanted that burden in the first place and it’s a heavy burden indeed.

Levi always thought that Erwin was the same as him but he realized that this wasn’t the case till it was very late. He never “accepted Erwin as a human” until he  watched him drop the mask on that crate in Shiganshina and realized that had an ideal which he projected onto Erwin.

My point here is that Levi deciding to let Erwin rest is very understandable and he would have acted in the same way regardless who the person was - Erwin or someone else- because it has only to do with Levi’s compassionate and understanding nature. It had nothing to do with personal feelings towards Erwin (If it was, we would have had flashbacks of Levi thinking only of Erwin moments in his life and him reminiscing their old days together, right? Lol)

4-  Levi’s decision was a layered and nuanced decision and Levi refers to it multiple times as such, saying he let Erwin rest and ALSO that he doesn't regret the decision and wouldn't let anyone else regret it either and reassures Armin about his abilities. Anyone who intentionally decides to not pay attention to detail within the narrative structure, both visually and textually, know what they are doing (ehm shippers :D)

Isayama: “The scene where Levi decided Erwin’s fate - he was influenced by his interactions with Kenny.”

Levi’s past experiences always helped him in making decisions, especially this one. We can see how Kenny’s final moments, Kenny’s “being drunk on sth to keep going on” speech, and Levi overhearing Armin talk about his dream to go to the ocean influenced his choice.

The answers  to what’s in the basement were the only thing that drove Erwin. Aside from that, his life was empty, thus his longing to die. Erwin admits that he has no idea what he will do afterwards, whereas for Armin, the idea of seeing the ocean is more of a symbolic gesture for appreciating the freedom outside the walls - one of hope for the future itself.

Seeing the basement could never be a positive thing for Erwin’s character, because once he saw it, he would have been overcome with despair because it could never have possibly lived up to his expectations. His goal would be complete, but he would still be a broken man, and upon discovering the secrets of the basement he will have no choice but to see those ghosts all the time.

This is an excerpt from one of the official short stories and it summarizes the whole thing. Erwin’s dream, once fulfilled, would have probably caused his downfall.

 Going forward to ch. 136, Levi specifies that he made his choice with Armin and the future in mind and he doesn't regret entrusting the future to Armin "who had the same look in his eyes as you guys" Levi saw something in Armin that made him entrust their future to him.

This is literally the same chapter in which Armin convinces Zeke to offer to sacrifice himself to stop the Rumbling, showing his potential and skills.

In the official short story, Levi sees an apparition of Erwin, but it’s actually more of his own reflection.

5- At the time of making that decision, none of the characters knew that their enemy was the ENTIRE world. Knowing this might have changed Levi’s choice, but it was never going to happen as I said because this is not how the plot was supposed to work.

6- Last thing, it is very strange that Eruris say that Erwin and Levi share a very deep bond and understanding but then make such claims as though Levi doing that would be a gesture dedication and *love*. It's not just that Levi wouldn't be willing to risk it. It's that it literally would not occur to him as an option because it would not be good for Erwin or any of his comrades who gave their lives for the sake of humanity.

[sunfoxfic]

Even Clark Kent has the sense to see that Lex Luthor is bad news and even calls him out from time to time, even though Superman is meant for children just like ML is. Let's face it, if Astruc wrote Superman, then Clark Kent would be completely oblivious to Lex's corrupt nature and he would be Lex's biggest fan. And Lex would have control over the Daily Planet and he would be Clark's boss. If you defend the show's writing that much, then why did you propose for Mari to attack Bezos?

Okay, one, I know next to nothing about DC comics, so what you said means almost nothing to me. I know the characters and roughly the roles they play, but not that.

But there's the thing: Miraculous Ladybug is constantly calling out its rich characters as evil and corrupt. Did you see Mega Leech? Three wealthy adults, one of whom is in an elected position of power, was using technology to fight climate change. None of that is even subtextual. The subtext is that they're doing it for profit but they've bought out the media so thoroughly that hardly anyone knows what they're doing. The hero of the episode is an environmentalist protester. That's pretty fucking anti-capitalist.

And I have no idea which comic or TV show or movie you're referencing when you say that Superman would call out Lex Luthor, but here's the thing: DC isn't owned by a public network. You know what that means, right? Public network. It means that they are directly susceptible to being censored by the government. It's the same reason they can't write a canonically Muslim character but they can make 2 Christmas themed episodes. France isn't this European haven of progressive-ness. They have their own shit to deal with. And their laws can be seriously fucked up at times. So asking Astruc to personally change the show when the reality is that he's at the mercy of all the people above him is ridiculous.

I'm not saying he couldn't be better. I don't think he's at all perfect. There's a lot of fucked up shit he's done and said, and I don't agree with it. But painting him as your enemy only makes it so that other people who are doing the same shit as him get off scot-free. Honestly, I'm far more distrustful of Jeremy Zag than I ever will be of Astruc, and I'm far more likely to campaign against the French government than I am to campaign against either of those lone two men.

And I still think you're being incredibly entitled to the way that the story is told. Not every story needs to be anti-capitalist. I repeat, if every story was anti-capitalist, it would be fucking exhausting. As is, ML is pretty fucking anti-capitalist, but even if it wasn't, that's not a fault of the narrative unless it's actively pushing along a capitalist status quo, and frankly, every TV show created at all is going to push along a capitalist status quo by nature of the way that TV is created. It's funded by capitalists and it has to push their agenda. Sorry to say babe, we live in a global capitalist society. You can't fucking escape it. It is absolutely unfair to say that storytellers should not tell their stories because of this.

Maybe instead of fighting against a single dude who is honestly less consequential than you seem to think, you get the fuck up and actually fight against things that matter. Tell France to change the rules about what can and cannot be published through TFOU, or to drop ML altogether if you feel that strongly about it. But honestly, you'd probably have a better time fighting against Disney and it's entertainment monopoly, because that has huge impacts on the cartoon industry as a whole. Thomas Astruc is not the root of all evil and firing him will not fix TV. I guarantee he makes a LOT of compromises on the show that he doesn't want to make. I don't think he's perfect, but I think that he's a lot less important than you think he is.

But you did the right thing, coming to a 17 year old's askbox on Tumblr and turning on anon. This is definitely where you can best spend your energy fighting against capitalism /s

[stillness-in-green]

I felt like the plf war was rushed

1.Plf advisors getting hype but no payoff

2.Only miruko, Momo, and Kirishma got time to shine

3.Machia got defeated to easily

4.The war felt more like a raid

I don't know if I feel like it was rushed, per se--it's by far the longest arc in the story so far by number of chapters, and would be even if you cut off the Tartarus jailbreak and the entirety of the hospital aftermath. What it absolutely does feel like to me is unbalanced.

You note that the "war" feels more like a raid, and you're right. As a caveat, it's worth keeping in mind that "Paranormal Liberation War" as a name for the arc in question is entirely an invention of the fanbase. To the best of my knowledge, the reasoning for the name was that big action shonen series like BNHA (Naruto, Bleach, Hunter x Hunter, etc) always have a war arc, so what we were seeing in the lengthy, mass combat confrontation with the PLF had to be HeroAca's equivalent. It's not a term that's in the manga itself, however, not called as such by the characters, not referred to as such by Horikoshi or his editors, not even namedropped in chapter or volume titles. If it feels like a raid, that's probably because that's what it was intended to be.

And that's the problem, really. This arc shouldn't have been about a couple of raids; it should have been about a war.

(Below the cut: a bunch of fired-up complaining. Uses some harsh language, and talks about both injuries and deaths we did see and some we logically should have.)

From the outset, we were told that the resources Shigaraki had amassed were "on par with, or even stronger than" the resources of the hero-saturated society. Yet, we're expected to believe that a force that strong is so easily taken down by a single coordinated set of raids? Yes, the heroes had the benefit of surprise, but there's just so much that doesn't work for me.

First off, and to get this out of the way, it's ridiculous that the heroes even had the benefit of surprise. The MLA had an unknown number of hero double agents. They had people in the government; they had people in the infrastructure. This is an organization that had been living undercover completely unsuspected for multiple generations--how did the HPSC ever manage to carry out a massive, country-wide investigation on such a secretive group and coordinate multiple simultaneous, comprehensive raids without a single person finding out and alerting the higher-ups over a period of only three and a half months?

When exactly did Hawks have time to go and revive Best Jeanist--which he tells us he did personally--such that none of the bugs and micro-cameras he was covered with picked up on it, and both he and BJ could be back in the positions they needed to be in for the raid to begin?

How did Skeptic find out about the raid such that he only discovered it at the last possible second and not minutes, even hours, before it kicked off? How did hundreds of heroes (and even "hundreds" is being conservative, given the fact that they had seventeen thousand people to detain) close in on the villa without anyone from the PLF noticing, either Skeptic with his information network or mundane precautions like people on watch?

Even granting the heroes their surprise advantage--which I don't want to--if the advisors were all supposedly "stronger than the average hero," why didn't we see any of them winning? Okay, yes, Hose Face beat Midnight, but he had every possible advantage in that "fight"; I hardly count it as some big impressive defeat that shows us that the villains were holding their own.

Here's another thing: the MLA styled themselves as an army--they were demonstrably trained in troop tactics. When we saw them in Deika, even their nameless on-the-ground people were capable of coordinating with each other on the fly in response to the movements of the enemy, as we saw come up repeatedly:

Yeah, they were off-guard at first, but as soon as the advisors made the front line (which, you'll note, was immediately), that disadvantage really should have begun eroding. Certainly once Geten--Geten! The number one MLA member most willing to disregard collateral damage! And there he was being a proper leader!--got to the front and started yelling orders, we should have seen the PLF rallying, and I can't imagine any sensible justification for the tides not turning when a) Re-Destro showed up to occupy the highest-ranked hero on the field, b) a bunch of heroes peeled off to try to stop Machia only to get trampled for their efforts, and c) Trumpet got dug out.

You know who don't style themselves as an army, though? Heroes. Oh, they get some basic lessons in cooperation as students, but the extent of such lessons we see is stuff like "why it's important for heroes to have signature moves"--so that on group missions, their reputations will precede them and fellow heroes will already know their shtick. U.A. teaches the odd lesson plan that involves the kids fighting in groups, but there's a huge difference between you and 3 to 6 of your buddies fighting a similarly-sized group in a practice fight, or a handful of heroes teaming up to take down some criminal low-lives, and the mass combat scenario that was the raid. For heaven's sake, look at our closest other equivalent: the raid on the Hassaikai base. At every turn in that encounter, the heroes let themselves get split up and picked off, winnowing down their numbers. It's even explicit in the narrative that hero team-ups were, in the age of All Might, uncommon, and heroes are only just beginning to adjust to fighting in teams. The erstwhile MLA should have had the advantage there.

As to Machia's defeat, I think the big problem with it is not how it happened, per se, but the timescale involved. The plan itself was sound enough, and even with all the kids' efforts, it still took Machia reaching Shigaraki and not getting any new orders to follow to really do him in. Given what we can extrapolate about his movement speed, though, I just don't think the kids should have had time to set all those traps, especially given how much of that equipment would have had to be fabricated by Momo on the fly. I know she's gotten stronger and all, and good for her, but you're telling me that in the four months between Joint Training and the raid, she went from passing out because she created a bag of goodies and one (1) cannon to being totally fine and still able to coordinate her fellow students while cranking out 23 jars of sedative, dozens of feet of rope/cable, multiple fire-resistant coats, explosives they somehow had time to bury, and three cannons?

For fuck's sake, Jirou gave Machia's ETA as under ten seconds. Yeah, Mount Lady slowed him down, but "only a little"--how much time could she possibly have bought them, that the kids were able to to coordinate and enact everything that plan involved?

You guys, go read this post by @codenamesazanka. Machia is so fast. So unbelievably, incredibly fast. "Twice as fast as the fastest train in the world" fast. "Horikoshi clearly did not stop to think about the distances involved here" fast. Three miles in ten seconds fast. It would have been hard enough to square with the needs of the plot that the kids were sufficiently far from the villa to have the kind of time they needed to swing Momo's plan at all, but Horikoshi explicitly letting Machia get right on top of them before the kids even start just makes it completely impossible for me to credit. Machia clearly being slower aboveground than he is when burrowing does not make that much difference to my suspension of disbelief.

My other big complaint? More people should have died, for real. The PLF warriors would not have been holding back. They were ready and willing to kill anyone they came up against. The heroes did have to hold back, because heroes, as we're told over and over again, are not supposed to kill, no matter how dire the circumstances. That difference in ability to exercise force should have been yet another significant advantage for the PLF. I could write an entire list of characters that I think could have reasonably been killed during the raids. That wouldn't be to say that I think any individual, specific character on that list should have died, just that, based on the parameters as they were presented to audience, some number of them should have.

I mean, honestly. How did Horikoshi wanna show us Gang Orca's unmoving claw in the wake of Machia's passage and not have Gang Orca on the list of the dead? How did Fat Gun run right into a mass melee and still have enough fat left over afterward to survive getting trampled by a walking mountain? How did Thirteen survive not getting pulled out of the hospital basement when Shigaraki's Decay hit? How did Trumpet survive getting a staircase dropped on top of him? How did Gran Torino survive a fist through his tiny old man chest cavity?

I could go on and on, but it's not just about the deaths, either. I'm not saying that Kamui Woods necessarily should have died by swinging himself face-first into a blast of blue fire, but I am saying that he should have been out of commission for longer than three goddamn days. You bet your ass I'm saying that after telling us that Hawks' weak point is fire, making us watch him spend at a solid minute or more with his wings wholly enveloped in Dabi's 2000 degree flames, and having Dark Shadow exclaim that his back is completely burned away, Hawks should never have grown his wings back, much less so quickly that they were already visible under his shirt a single day later.

More deaths, more maiming--heck, even more retirements. I'm not saying I love that kind of thing in my fiction--I don't, actually. I think an overreliance on it is a sign of edgelordy nonsense. But the scenario that we had demanded to be treated with the kind of gravity that would have led to such an outcome. To set up a conflict like the raid and have the villains only barely be able to scrape a partial escape, to try to tell us that Shigaraki's victory in Deika granted him such a terrifyingly powerful force only to have them lose every battle they got into, to tell us this was a blow that shook Hero Society to its core, only to be so unwilling to kill or retire any heroes the audience cares about that Midnight is literally the only significant loss… It doesn't work. None of it works.

I don't have much to say on which characters did or didn't get a highlight. I think there were a few more people than you listed that got some good scenes--Tokoyami and Uraraka both got material I liked quite a bit; Dabi famously out-trended the U.S. presidential election on Twitter when he (literally) came clean, and Mr. Compress gave us some wonderfully interesting and characteristically opaque material to chew on. On the whole, though, adding more character moments would only have been dragging out the problem: the scale of the PLF's threat and the HPSC's chosen method of dealing with it are simply incompatible with the feeble "neither side truly won or lost" resolution we got.

And that's my rant on that--thanks for the ask!