#fight analysis

[cyreneduvent]

Fleshing this out as I write it, but: Bucky and Steve’s respective movements to the modern world through the lens of their respective fighting skills & styles

Because Steve’s never really changes all that much. He fought with a shield and sometimes a gun, then he got frozen. And the modern version dropped the gun partly partly bc of the weird line modern pg movies of how obviously you’re allowed to kill people on screen and partly bc he kept ending up in situations where he wasn’t fighting humans he was willing to kill, but despite all the angsting, there was still a place in this world for a supersoldier once he found it

But Bucky, he was a sniper. James Buchanan Barnes was a sniper, and the Winter Soldier was a sniper. I saw the winter soldier unmasking fight scene on here the other day, and he starts with guns. Starts with a sniper rifle, pares down to something closer range when he sees this’ll be a fight, and then it’s only when that stops being an option that he goes to knives and fists. Even when Hydra took him and brainwashed him and pointed him at his best friend, he still fought like Bucky would have - infinitely more dangerous, and against completely different people, but all the same skills.

But then he gets out of it. And he lays low for a while, and he’s no one there. But when the world comes for him again, he can’t be a sniper anymore. He’s not on a team, hasn’t been since he shook hydra. And the world’s changed in a way that makes who he used to be incompatible in a way that it didn’t for Steve. Because Steve can adapt, he can lose the gun and he can join shield, he can be a vigilante in the night. But what role does a sniper have in this world? Personally I’m a fan of the Bucky was drafted theory, but even if not, I don’t think he’d fit back into a military. Wouldn’t trust people, wouldn’t be able to take orders without feeling like someone else’s tool again. There’s no real role for a true sniper in the avengers, no time to sit and plan, no place where someone can be above the action.

And so what can Bucky do but become the Winter Soldier in a way that he never was when he was Hydra? In CW, in TFATWS, he’s fighting hand to hand. Going in with close range attacks, fighting multiple opponents at once. He’s a soldier, not a sniper.

Steve got flashed forward to a time where he didn’t quite belong, but could find a place. Bucky found his way to the future, but in living there was forced to become all the ways in which he had lost himself along the way.

[charlat-anne]

One of the major attributes I admire about this character

is being "Peaceful" way far from "harmless", even though I've seen some claims that Aladar's fight with Kron ended the way it did because he was the weaker, actually..

Aladar never went on the offensive with Kron. Each move he made was merely defensive.

Albeit the size difference

+ the combat experience Aladar lacked ( which should've made it more likely for him to seize any given opportunity to attack)

Kron took the initiative & went to the ground

Something which Aladar didn't take advantage of.

He blinded him

Slashed his chest..

That wasn't enough

He smacked him down

.. And still wasn't done until he'd finish him off completely if it wasn't for Neera's intervention.

You see that difference. Because Aladar wasn't primarily after leadership, but only wanted everybody to reach the valley safely.

He was never in for a fight. He had to defend himself against Kron who's mentality offered only obliteration for any objection to his methods or rules.

[isagrimorie]

I'm really intrigued by the tiny hints of Sabine's Force abilities coming forward, or apparently, Awakening as it's called in Knights of the Old Republic (I haven't played the game so please correct me on this).

Also, I love that Sabinen's multi-classed into Jedi. It's such a wonderful addition to all her skills.

And I love the ambush scene as a wonderful way Sabine's incorporating all her Mandalorian skills and then the lightsaber training she's learned.

But also, I love this moment when Sabine stops in the middle, and she seems to be sensing something but doesn't know what it is.

She's looking over her right shoulder.

And then her left shoulder -- at first, I thought this was just Sabine checking she was alone.

Sabine looked slightly puzzled as if she didn't know what she was sensing.

But then I realized the attackers that blindsided her the most were positioned there.

This attacker is hidden behind the rock over her left shoulder.

And then you can see this one just over her right side.

Then Sabine deflects a blast from the Samurai ambusher on her right:

I haven't seen a lot of The Mandalorian but from what I've seen I don't think I've seen liveaction Mandos anticipate and block a blaster blast. And Sabine does this multiple times in the fight:

This one where she had her left blaster aimed towards her left while the dude with that hat was setting up his shot, but Sabine turned just in time to

deflect his shot with her arm guards.

(It's a good thing Thrawn gave back her beskar armor).

Sabine gets hit at the back of her head but recovers fast to see the dude with the thin hat and rifle line up another shot at Sabine:

She reacts just in time to block another one of his shots.

The impact is enough to throw her back a bit.

But most importantly, when she was disarmed of her blasters and started using her lightsaber, Sabine really did deflect a blaster with her lightsaber!

The dude with the thin hat goes down from his (tbh) superior position (the high ground!) and enters melee range of Sabine, raises his rifle again:

Shoots at Sabine

Only for Sabine to block the blast with her lightsaber and then deflect it back:

RIGHT IN DA FACE. Or, well, metallic face mask.

The shooter is shocked and stands there for a few seconds, clutching their face.

Before fleeing.

I love how the show keeps Sabine's Force abilities ambiguous but also hints that it's there and might be slowly growing.

I'm excited to see what Sabine's going to do next!

Best multiclass ever: Mandalorian and Jedi.

[supersaiyanjedi14]

Ahsoka vs. Anakin

Thinking about Shadow Warrior again. Obviously, this episode is one of the best pieces of Star Wars media in recent years, in no small part in how it begins to tie up the loose ends of Ahsoka's long and involved story. However, one thing that I also really appreciate is that this episode is, arguably, one of Ahsoka's greatest accomplishments as a lightsaber duelist in her fifteen years of existence (and that's saying something considering just how badass she is). I know some of you might find that a strange statement given the context of her battle with Anakin, but hear me out.

Let's get the rancor in the room out of the way first. Yes, it was all a dream. Sort of like Kanan's duel with the Temple Guards in Season 2 of Rebels, Snips and Skyguy were not actually fighting each other in the real world (which makes sense what with one of them being, you know, dead). Additionally, the changing scenery in accordance with Anakin's lesson indicates that Anakin's spirit had at least some influence over the way the World Between Worlds was manifesting. As a result, Anakin basically had invincibility and quicksave mods in place before the fight even started, meaning that even if Ahsoka were able to defeat him, she had no chance of actually killing or destroying him. Yes, Force spirits have been destroyed in Star Wars lore before, but not only has this yet to be seen in the current continuity, the only spirits to have suffered this fate in Legends were Sith ghosts, which are fundamentally different than Jedi ones.

Secondly, we have the scope of just who Ahsoka was facing here. As we all know, Anakin was one of the greatest lightsaber masters the Prequel era Order ever produced, having regularly overpowered Asajj Ventress, killed Count Dooku, and being, at worst, equal to Obi-Wan Kenobi. While that's pretty epic on it's own, we mustn't forget that this is Anakin's spirit from after he died, aka this is technically Darth Vader we're seeing here. Not only did Vader establish himself in both continuities as one of the most dangerous Jedi killers of all time, but he did this with an additional twenty three years of training and experience. While Anakin vs Vader had been a fandom debate for decades at this point, I think it's pretty inarguable that Vader at his peak was a far greater warrior than he had been as a Jedi, especially since much of his development was built around addressing the weaknesses that got him roasted on Mustafar. Vader's only real shortcomings were in the logistics of his armor and cybernetics, hindering his mobility. However, as anyone with working eyes can tell, Anakin isn't wearing his armor when he fights Ahsoka in the WBW, so he can move around as much as he wants while still retaining all of his skill and power. Basically, this is a pants-crapping glimpse of what a hypothetical suitless Darth Vader would have been like if he didn't have to contend with his handicaps. While Hayden's coreogrpahy does more closly match Anakin's fighting style than Vader's, Anakin's conduct, particuarlly his psychological warfare tactics, is much closer to what he did as Vader.

On that note, let's look at the tactical side of things. We have Anakin springing this encounter on Ahsoka right away without giving her time to prepare, forcing her to fend him off to avoid being destroyed. At the same time, Anakin's objective here is to get Ahsoka to confront her inner demons and acknowledge the need to continue fighting, not just beat her senseless. This means the two combatants were going in with drastically different strategic goals; Ahsoka was fighting to survive, Anakin was fighting to prove a point. Neither of them were expecting this to be an all-out battle to the death, and their conduct reflects this. Hell, Anakin pretty much resigns from the fight once he's satisfied that Ahsoka has gotten her head back on straight.

In summary, Ahsoka was fighting one of the greatest warriors in all of Jedi and Sith history who was functionally immortal, had some measure of control over the environment, and could employ his skills unrestricted by what held him back in life.

And she still held her own.

Yes, Anakin was holding back (he was trying to teach her, not kill her), but he wasn't just playing around either. He still forcefully pressured her; he would have needed to in order to get his point across. If Anakin had just walked up to Ahsoka and smacked her around like a ragdoll, that would have been one thing, but he didn't. She fought back, resisting his onslaught, even landed a few hits on her own, and ultimatly compelled him to call off the fight. Anakin may have been in no real danger of dying here, but he clearly couldn't afford to coast by this either.

Now, just so we're clear, I don't think that Ahsoka is Anakin/Vader's equal, and in a straight up fight with no strings attached, she would ultimately loose just as she did on Malachor. But the simple fact that she acquitted herself as well as she did against Vader's unrestrained specter is absolutely incredible. I'll go so far as to say that Ahsoka performed better than the vast majority of the people Vader fought in his career even if she didn't actually win.

So, yeah. Ahsoka Tano is a beast. No ifs, ands, or buts about it.

[void-inked-pen]

I noticed that you did a kind of an analysis of tmnt 2012 and I was wondering what your thoughts where on Rise's fighting style and how the kids use their weapons?

I technically did analysis of both shows but i can give you an overall consensus

from what i can tell from rise IN GENERAL, they are a lot more balls to the wall about everything action wise. mystic powers adds a whole knew realm of craziness to what they can do and because it overall runs on cartoon logic... the majority of their moves would physically be impossible kjsdhfjkd

the basis for how they fight tho is sound. Splinter fights pretty much exactly like Jackie Chan (considering that's what Lou Jitsu was inspired by, it only makes sense) so all of his moves, minus the tail, are more or less actual martial arts. He is by far our standard, what a master can do and how well he fights regardless of the circumstances. He taught his sons to think outside the box with everything they do and to USE everything at their disposal when they can (fish and ladders), they also are very dynamic with how they fight if not more so.

the only times they show off their skills in regular martial arts was during insane on the mama train and i believe the episode where raph got his sparring buddy. Foot Recruit (Casandra) is probably the only character who... fights with martial arts 90% of the time actually? Raph is the only one of the boys who fights with his fists more often than not but he also is the protector, will jump in the way of attacks, and is close quarters all the time, he actually relies on his mystic armor often and his general bulk as well.

if we compare fighting soley with weapons and their accuracy/skill, rise beats 2012. But if we compare the boys and their actual SKILL at martial arts, my bet is 2012 would in theory have more behind it (though as I've stated before, 2012 doesnt really show any of that correctly if at all. if rise is more creativity focused, 2012 should have been focused more on the martial arts/ tradition aspect. but because they never really fought hand to hand often, its hard for me to really say anything about comparing their martial art skills).

overall, rise is an... odd duck in the tmnt franchise because not only do they have more accurate fighting with the weapons, but we don't actually see legit martial arts outside of the Foot Clan and Splinter... maybe a BIT of Draxum too when he and splinter actually fought hand to hand but not much. Thats it. But taking into account how the turtles in rise are far more immature and more kids who got thrown into a lot of weirdness, it makes sense that they dont really take anything all that seriously. I mean idk if splinter really taught them much on the physical hand to hand past the basics when they were younger before throwing weapons at them.

I would have loved to see more hand to hand fighting with rise, and the tmnt franchise in general, but weapons are seen as cooler to some people and its technically safer to walk around with a "big stick" or "giant sword" than nothing at all. I mean, have you BEEN to new york!? (/hj)

hope this helped in any way, I know it wasn't much. I personally love martial arts street fighting in stories but we don't see that past gangs and delinquent shenanigans and rise is more centered around fun and weird/creative so its hard to really... talk about the martial art side. maybe some day i'll do an overall fight analysis so you guys can learn the basics of "what makes a good fight" vs a bad one but im busy kdsjhfjskd

thanks for the ask!

-Pen

Edit: OH SHOOT! I forgot to add: April knows martial arts too! she shows it off often enough but she also uses her bat equally as much and likes to fight with her brothers at her side, she is literally what I would call "a CO-OP fighter". what that means is, she works best in a pair or group. Using other people as LITERAL spring boards some times and her environment to help her. She has a crane license. what more can I say about the queen herself? lol

[kanralovesu]

One of the Greatest "Non Battle Battle Manga" Fights of all Time

Cipher Academy is an insane current Jump manga about a school for genius code breakers and it just had its most insane "battle" yet. Here's what went down:

Our hero is after the title of Class Leading Private, a cross between class president and the general of an army, who is stated to have the lives of the class in their hands. This is the final test and it starts with a simple vote, but of course there's a catch. The 4 candidates then take their votes as Poker chips which they will be using in a game of Blind Man's Bluff (you can only see your opponent's hands and not your own)

But even that would be too tame for this series! No, instead every single card in the deck has been encrypted so you have to decode people's hands before you can even think about betting!

Oh and that's not all, one of the 4 candidates is also "Anonymity Requested-san" who has an in-universe explained black bar obscuring their face, making them the ultimate "poker face".

Much like every code in Cipher Academy, this isn't just some made up code, it's actually solvable! Now unfortunately as an English speaker it's basically impossible to understand the tricky ways it uses the Japanese language, but I still appreciate the ingenuity of this manga to no end.

Spoiler Alert

So how does our hero decipher the code? Well in a clever thematic twist they do so by reading the expressions of their audience of classmates, not their opponent. This ties into the fact that the Class Leading Private needs to be someone who understands the needs and concerns of their classmates, but it goes even deeper than that.

Every single card in the deck was a code created by a classmate! Thus even if the onlookers didn't bother deciphering the deck's codes, each of them knew exactly 4 cards: the 4 different suits they made for their assigned number.

This is not even to mention the other 3 or so small but incredible subplots this battle ties up, including how our hero overcomes trauma he had from losing a different code battle (insane I know), and how he tackles the cheating of Anonymity Requested-san in previous duels.

Definitely give Cipher Academy a go if you haven't already! I didn't even get into the other great things about the series like how it sometimes censors things the characters say about the world because that information is "classified"

Oh, and I can't end this post without sharing this amazing use of the medium of manga to convey information. These 2 pages revealed the answers to the ciphers before each was explained. Now as I was reading this on my phone, I didn't understand why the cards were flipped horizontally, but then it hit me: with each image printed on the side of a physical page, it creates a front and a back to a decoding table! Absolute genius!

[sonneillonv]

Why do you think Steve is bad at fighting normal people?

Note: Okay, this got LONG because you brought this question to a fight nerd. Hopefully that's what you wanted!

Honestly? I think he lacks motivation (and training, but that part's not his fault).

One of the things we find out in Season 1 is that Steve's 'King Steve', jock/asshole vibe is a false front... he doesn't actually WANT to be like that, and a lot of the reason he's been doing it is external pressure/expectation. In S02-3, Billy walks in and starts dismantling Steve's crown a prong at a time, and Steve barely resists. Hell, he doesn't even seem to care; Billy's trash-talking him in front of his team, breaking his keg record, showing him up, and all Steve says is, "Man, do you ever stop talking?" He doesn't feel threatened, he's not scared. He's annoyed.

I think when he got into the fight with Jonathan Byers, Steve wasn't as much angry as he was deeply hurt. We hear from him later about how Nancy was the first girl he really loved, and he alludes a little bit to how badly she broke his heart. Hell, Steve didn't even do the spray-painting of the marquee - when Nancy finds him, Tommy, and Carol in the alley, Carol's telling Tommy he writes like a three-year-old and she didn't know he could spell, indicating he was the one who did the spray-paint - he's the one with the can when Nancy gets there, scrawling, "Byers is a Perv" on some particle board.

When Nancy confronts them, Steve looks about a half-second away from tears. To me, this says that Steve's reaction to seeing Nancy with Jonathan wasn't to get mad, it was to be crushed. Tommy's the one who took his buddy's pain personally and got aggressive about it. The first words out of Steve's mouth are, "I was worried about you!" This isn't anger he's expressing. Then, he tries to get an explanation out of Nancy and she refuses to offer one, so Steve falls back on the jackass persona he's spent years cultivating. I'm actually pretty convinced the person he wants to lash out at here is Nancy, but he goes after Jonathan instead because he's a more acceptable target - you'll notice Steve's generally pretty careful about limiting his aggression toward women. Problem is, Steve's fighting a battle he's already lost. If Nancy wants Jonathan, there's nothing he can DO about it. Beating the guy up might salve his reputation a little bit, but Steve knows, I think, that Nancy is a person not a prize. He can't 'win her back' or something equally juvenile just by knocking Byers around.

So Steve goes into this pointless fight already hurting, doing it mostly because it's expected (if a dude steals his girl and he does nothing, how does that make him look?) and because he DOES honestly kind of want to hit Byers in the face, whether it fixes anything or not.

But Jonathan goes into it FURIOUS, full of directionless anger about his brother that Steve triggered. He's been helpless to do anything about all the fuckery he's been experiencing for weeks, and Steve just offered him an outlet by calling Will names and accusing him of murdering his baby brother. And in a contest between those two emotions, the fury is gonna win every time. I can personally tell you that when you're that mad, 'seeing red' mad, and somebody hits you? You don't even feel it.

So Steve was kind of doomed, especially when Tommy tried to step in and Steve waved him off. RIP baby boy.

Moving on to the fight with Billy, Steve very obviously didn't want to be doing that. He gives Billy EVERY opportunity to get out of it and back off, even after the punching starts. (Side note, I can't help feeling like Steve's lack of regard through the whole season must have driven Billy kind of crazy, because he's clearly trying to get himself an Epic Rivalry and Steve's just like "wevs", and of all the reactions he provokes, Billy's not used to being IGNORED.) Steve has bigger things on his mind at the time, and dealing with the guy who's been an annoyance to him all season just doesn't rate on his priority list. Which is a mistake, because he clearly doesn't take Billy seriously even after they start swinging... and then Billy smashes a plate over his head, which is a dirty move and a disabling one.

Basically, my opinion is that his lack of conviction dooms him in both these fights. He's not focused on what he's DOING, and he's not committed to winning - with Byers, I think he honestly just wants to exchange some blows so he gets a nice inside pain/outside pain synchronicity going. It's a feeling I'm really familiar with, personally. Sometimes when you're hurting that bad inside, the fact that nothing hurts outside feels wrong to you, like it makes the pain invalid, and you just want your wounds to SHOW. With Billy, he's trying to protect the kids, but there's stuff out there that's so much WORSE than Billy that he's really having a problem taking Billy seriously. So he doesn't fully commit, keeps trying to get Billy to just leave. And Billy, who's already been smacked around by his father today, who's already driven all over Hawkins trying to find his little sister, and who legitimately has every reason to think her presence in the Byers house is sus af, is just ready to take his fury out on anyone who makes themselves an acceptable target. And Steve just offered. We see HIS conviction in the fact that, had Max not intervened, he very likely would have beaten Steve to DEATH - his rage is a bottomless well, and Steve (who, signs indicate, is a neglected kid, not an abused kid) just cannot match it.

We can talk about his other very bad fighting habits - the truth is, Steve's not that good with his fists. Hell, Billy tells him, what, three times(?) that he needs to PLANT HIS DAMN FEET and quit shuffling around because it ruins his stability. Plus, he sticks his tongue between his teeth every time he's about to hit something, and that's a great way to get your tongue bitten off. I don't blame Steve for any of this because I don't think he has any kind of fight-training at all. Of all the sports he does we never even hear wrestling mentioned, we see no indication that Hawkins has a gym or anywhere boxing would be taught, he definitely hasn't taken any karate. His dad's an absentee, and he doesn't seem to have any other dudes in his life who would have taught him how to throw a punch. While he definitely has natural athletic ability, he's winging it, and he ALWAYS does better when he has some kind of weapon in his hand. That's why he succeeds with the bat (and the microphone) where fists repeatedly fail him... He has more practice swinging objects (for sports) than he does swinging his fists.

This is why it's a little unfair of Dustin to be like, "You did it! You actually won a fight!" when Steve takes out the guy in the Russian base. Steve doing better with a weapon than empty-handed is a pattern through the whole series, and a valid one IMO, where it concerns his relevant experience and skill set. Steve can swing a bat with force and accuracy because Steve played baseball. Considering his family's wealth and the fact they seem to gravitate toward the urban upper class, it's entirely likely he has some tennis chops as well, but that's just speculation. When he grabs that microphone and lays the Russian out, part of it is luck (hitting his head on the table), but part of it is that you can SEE Steve's competence increase the minute he's using something to hit something else - his entire form changes. His stance is different.

Look at this lead-in^. Look at how he hops into position, hips set, leading foot forward, weight on his back leg. As soon as the bat's in his hand, he knows what he's doing.

For more good clips of this, and a generally awesome edit, check out Grable424's amazing vid, which I've queued to the relevant segment:

He has the same stance when he whips that microphone across the Russian's face, the baseball/tennis stance.

So in conclusion, Steve Harrington just needs to pick up a weapon of some sort every time he's in a fight, and once he's in that fight he needs to block out the rest of the world (and his own inner monologue) and focus on what he's doing. He needs to stop picking fights with people who are nursing massive amounts of internal rage. Also it helps to give a shit about winning it. That's my opinion, thank you and goodnight 😅

(Here's a funny analysis video that goes over a lot of these points)

[ellionwrites]

Let’s talk about how much Geto (canonically) loved Gojo. He saw Gojo in a way no one else did.

The way that Geto answers this question is deceptively meaningful. Let me explain…

This is a flashback, but we can assume this interaction is roughly 10 years after Geto’s defection, based on Nanako and Mimiko’s (Geto’s adopted-ish daughters) apparent ages. Right around the time of JJK0.

For context, let’s remember that the last time Geto and Gojo spoke as friends (KFC breakup), Geto said this:

Geto was being intentionally hurtful here. He knew that everyone (except him) sees Gojo, first and foremost, as “the strongest.” Gojo is barely even a real person to them; he’s just a savior or threat or deus ex machina.

Geto used that to twist a knife and ask: “Is there actually anything more to who you are than just being the strongest sorcerer?” He knew this would be devastating to Gojo. Gojo’s best and only friend is saying: “even I don’t know if there is anything else that’s important about you other than your strength.”

Let’s go back to Nanako's question.

She sets this question up in an important way. Like every (non-Geto) person, she sees Gojo’s fundamental defining quality as “strong." So, naturally, her immediate sub-question to “who is he?” is “he’s super strong, right?”

She’s asked the question in a way that Geto could very easily answer it: “yes, that’s right. He’s the strongest sorcerer.”

BUT

- - - - - Keep reading cut - - - - -

Geto gets contemplative. (“Hm…” - he’s thinking about how to answer because “Who is X?” is either a very basic question or a very philosophical question).

He ends up not even acknowledging the second part of the question about Gojo’s strength and instead tells her who Gojo is to him.

Because when they were best friends and even a decade later, he never actually thought of Gojo as just the strongest. Gojo was always something more to him.

“He was my best friend.”

As an adult, an ex-best friend from high school isn’t necessarily someone meaningful to you. Is Geto saying this actually significant? Yes.

This memory (“who is Satoru Gojo anyway?”) is what Nanako remembers as the context to this next thought:

This is WILD.

This thought is during Nanako’s interaction with Sukuna where she is essentially blackmailing Sukuna into helping get Geto’s body back.

She loves Geto so much that she’d risk pissing off the most dangerous curse/demon/sorcerer just to get Geto’s body back. That’s how much she loves him.

But the man who actually killed Geto she will (never fully forgive but) “let things be” with. Because Gojo was Geto’s one and only best friend in a way that was deeply meaningful to him up until his death.

..

“Are you the strongest because you’re Satoru Gojo or are you Satoru Gojo because you’re the strongest?” is just what you say to someone you love when you need to hurt him enough that you can stay away from each other.

[gallusrostromegalus]

Kenpachi Realizes Nobody Else Actually Read The Employee Handbook And Decides To Get Inventive, A Story In A Ranking Chart

Yamamoto Thought He Was Punishing Everyone Including Zaraki By Making Him Actually Fill Out That Report, Was Not Ready For Zaraki To Deliver A Twelve Hundred Slide Powerpoint Category Seven Autism Infodump About It A Week Later, A Sequel

[risestarkiss]

Rise Ramblings #265

Well that explains this:

...and possibly this?

[courtmartialme]

woag .. otp

[keets-writing-corner]

Love how Lucifer just manhandles Adam during their 'fight' despite everyone else getting their asses kicked. Plus him effortlessly destroying him when Charlie's in danger is really sweet.

gawd me too anon me too

that was everything me to me. like everything. It was built up so well too

we spent the whole season building up alastor as this massive powerhouse, eldritch, nobody messes with him. Only one who tried picking a fight with him (Vox) got utterly humiliated and everyone else was clearly outclassed. Except for Lucifer where Alastor merely just went with annoying instead of power challenging. Like we got vibes okay yeah makes sense that the King of Hell isn't intimidated by anyone, even if it's alastor, but Alastor got TWO wtf moments in Dad Beat Dad one with Husk and one with defending the hotel

other than that, it was pretty much, nobody messes with him cuz he will mess you up

and he fights Adam evenly sorta for a bit before Adam pulls out the "I'm an angel which is stronger than any demon" card and alastor gets his ass handed to him.

Like what a way to set up how strong ADAM is, having him beat Alastor. And then no one else in the hotel is as strong as Alastor was, so everyone's struggling. Charlie at least gets one good hit in but her inexperience kicks her in the ass and then Lucifer just shows up and

like hot DAMN that was just one hit! He broke Adam's mask, the force was enough to send him FLYING across the roof top, and bounce so hard against the billboard he BROKE THE SKYLIGHT

That was just a "HANDS OFF MY BABY" warning too, like LOOK at that face, that's not a "fight me" face it's a "if you touch my baby again, I will screw you so bad your bones will need therapy and you never recover"

Lucifer not even .2 seconds later, just upon seeing Charlie

and then yeah, Lucifer was NOT taking the fight with Adam serious at all, like the dude was taunting him, mocking him, dodging all of his attacks, just shapeshifting like Adam was a joke LIKE LOOK AT THIS

Lucifer isn't even scared, he's just "oh there's a wall there"

His FACE IM DYING he's legit like "wowwww you just tried shoving me into a wall? really? didn't have any other ideas? Soooooo original of you. I will mock you now"

HIS HANDS ARE BEHIND HIS BACK HE FOR REAL SAID HE COULD TAKE ADAM WITH BOTH HANDS BEHIND HIS BACK

rewatching rn for the screenshots, he's legit just shapeshifting for the fun of it. 70% of the time nothing has happened, he's just dodging adam and shapeshifting while doing it, like he doesn't need to be doing that this is 100% mockery.

And then the iconic

like omgggg this is soooo satisfying and amazing to watch. Like the set up of Adam being powerful was great, and then we just get this absolute trolling from Lucifer cuz he really doesn't care about Adam

And listen the trolling is great and all, but when Adam makes the mistake of not heeding Lucifer's warning of messing with his baby, and then does it a second time

RIP Adam just getting one shot-ed like that but hnnnnnggggg we got to see Lucifer fully pissed and it was GREAT

And somehow my favorite part wasn't even watching Lucifer go absolute ham on Adam, it was that even at his absolute most rage fueled moment, snarling like a beast where he was going to and fully intended on making good on his threat about messing with his baby

just one shoulder touch from Charlie and he's immediately chill. Like it's instantaneous, like how much do you love someone to be able to be absolutely livid, about to incinerate someone levels of rage only to immediately be "o oki! No more violence!" the second that person touches you???

Ugh I love them so much! Like everything about that fight, but especially how Lucifer can just go from absolutely the most dangerous person in one second and then OWO SOFT the next just by looking at Charlie

oops this post got long... IMSORRYYYYY other than "More than Anything" and the phonecall with charlie this is one of the scenes I replay the most, I love them so much

Characters going absolutely feral over loved ones is just aasdfadffalklkmafdjalsg 👌👀👌👀👌👀👌👀👌👀 good shit go౦ԁ sHit👌 thats ✔ some good👌👌shit right👌👌there👌👌👌 right✔there ✔✔if i do ƽaү so my self 💯 i say so 💯 thats what im talking about right there right there ʳᶦᵍʰᵗ ᵗʰᵉʳᵉ mMMMMᎷМ💯 👌👌 👌НO0ОଠOOOOOОଠଠOoooᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒᵒ👌 👌👌 👌 💯 👌 👀 👀 👀 👌👌Good shit

[emsylcatac]

Part of me will always mourn that we didn't get to see Chat Noir fighting Monarch, his father, in the finale battle. That's always gonna be nagging in the back of my mind.

At the same time, it was a little predictable, and what the writers chose to do instead makes a lot of sense when you think about it, and is maybe more satisfying for Adrien's arc regarding his relationship to his father than if he'd had to fight Monarch knowing it's Gabriel. (Not talking about the whole "he still doesn't know his father was Monarch" bit, I'm strictly talking about the fights here - that one's another topic entirely)

I say "predictable", because of what happened in "Representation". Adrien got here his moment to fight his father, as a seemingly akuma victim, and this on his own without Ladybug.

With this set-up we have here: Adrien confronting and fighting his father as in Gabriel Agreste, and Marinette confronting and fighting her nemesis as in Monarch. That's always what we envisioned as the finale fight against Monarch would be: Adrien vs his abusive father and Ladybug vs her enemy. It just didn't happen in the same fight, so both could separately have their moment and their thing to say.

I think in the end it's significantly more important that Adrien got to fight Gabriel Agreste as Psycauchemardeur focusing solely on him as his father, than have him fight Gabriel Agreste knowing it's Monarch. Because everything that happened in Representation, everything Adrien told his father as Chat Noir and everything Adrien was angry about regarding his father's behaviour with him, that all comes down to how Gabriel has acted as a father to him independently of him being a city terrorist.

If Adrien had had the realisation that his father's actions were terrible through the discovery that he was, on top of an abuser, a supervillain, then the whole "terrorising innocents" would have overshadowed in Adrien's anger all that Gabriel did to him personally as an abuser & shitty parental figure.

What I mean is that Adrien realising his father is shitty independently of knowing he's a terrorist and confronting him about it in a fight is part of his arc and is more impactful than Adrien confronting his father for his supervillain acts. He didn't realise Gabriel was a terrible person because he was a supervillain, but because he understood he was an abusive father and that's amazing

And that's why he got his moment in Representation while Marinette had hers in the finale - Gabriel is a shitty person both as a father and by being a magical terrorist. Adrien confronted him about the "shitty father" bit, and Marinette about the "magical terrorist bit", and both these things make sense with their respective character arcs & respective relationships to Gabriel

[byleriscanon713by]

Wait a damn minute Mike doesn’t know Wills gay… he’s projecting…

[yourlazykitkat]

Hey thanks for checking in, I’m just going crazy on how Scott always resorts to killing himself as a way to level the playing field, give one final advantage to his teammates (double life final with pearl, limited life finale, losing yellow and red life to gem). How his sacrifice is never truly honoured or reciprocated, sometimes becoming an emotional burden for the person he does it for.

VS

Pearl who internalises Scott’s final act of love from double life, coming into this series with the mindset that she will die for her allies. Her fear of being the only one alive and surrounded with the blood of her allies she worked so hard to support. Being denied this chance to be a martyr and then being forced in that final fight to the death once again. Understanding like every other winner, the victory in these death games is not worth it to the point that they would do anything to avoid it. Something scar will realise soon.

VS

Gem, the newest player- one with so much promise. Her eagerness to kill, we all remember that from every player in third life. And the risk-taking, the greed and desperation. Throughout the season, Scott has gifted her hearts and his lives (reluctantly with yellow) with not as much in return (in terms of hearts). Tell me, why did gem have to kill both Scott and impulse? Why not kill one and then let them kill the other? Distribute the hearts properly? It’s because of the instinctual greed of a red life- one that she couldn’t understand the scope of until Scott had only 2 and half hearts. When all he could do was give, and she could only take. Her outrage at the 2v1- god as an audience member who knew that one side agreed to sacrifice because of the odds and the other side didn’t, it felt like a battle deciding which was the better way to love. Gem loses here and moves onto the dead without the consolation that Scott’s sacrifice changed anything.

VS

Scar, who denies Pearl’s offer of sacrifice. Refusing any less than a true fight to the death just like with Grian in the cactus ring. Not having friends this entire season and understanding that he was not the one pearl wanted to give up her life for. As soon as gem dies, he wastes no time attacking pearl despite their alliance because he understands the rules of the game better than anyone- there can only be one winner, the secret keeper demands it. Him, breaking the rules in episode 1, then suffering the consequences for four sessions straight, becoming more isolated and dangerous and eager to please the secret-keeper. Grian, from the dead, telling him that he won as he stands alone. The complete opposite of third life where he wouldn’t have made it to the end without his partner. All he can do now is press succeed.