#i think villain origin is the more interesteing choice

[the-badger-mole]

Fic Snippet!

“Are you out of your mind?” Zuko rushed across the courtyard and bore down on Aang with an intense, almost palpable fury. “Do you know how badly you could’ve hurt her?”

“I was just…I didn’t mean to-“ Aang stammered.

“Fire is not a toy!” Zuko bellowed at him. He turned to Katara, examining her for injuries. “Are you okay?”

“I’m alright,” she assured him, her voice shaking. “I’m fine.” She was trembling visibly, and there were singe marks on her clothes, but she otherwise seemed unharmed. Zuko turned back to Aang, how was looking down at his feet in shame.

“What were you thinking?” Zuko demanded.

“I don’t know,” Aang mumbled, kicking at the ground. “I was…mad.”

“About what?” Zuko was absolutely bewildered. “What could Katara possibly have done that you thought it was a good idea to do that?”

“Nothing,” Aang admitted sullenly. He didn’t say anything after that. Zuko glowered at him, took a few deep breaths to quell his own anger.

“You’re going to clean this mess up,” he said gesturing to the torn up stones, dirt and cooling lava. “Then you’re going to do 100 fire squats. Then you’re going to work on your forms for an hour. And I don’t want to see so much as a curl of smoke out of you. You’re not responsible enough for fire. Understood?” 

“What? That’s not-“ Aang’s protests died on his lips when he saw Zuko’s expression.  He huffed, kicked at stone, and finally nodded.

“Get started,” Zuko ordered through clenched teeth. He turned back to Katara, who was watching the exchange. She was still shaking a bit. Zuko draped his arm protectively around her back and guided her away. He glanced back once more at Aang, and almost rolled his eyes when he saw the younger boy still moping at the ground. It was hard sometimes to reconcile the awesome might and eminence of the Avatar with the reality of Aang, the child.

“I’ll be back,” he warned Aang. “Have this mess cleaned up. And don’t even think about asking Toph to help.” 

I know canonically, the Lava Fissure Incident takes place while Zuko and Sokka are rescuing Hakoda, but I wanted to have Zuko see and react to it. Personally, I think it was another accidentally accurate depiction of how unready Aang is to be the Avatar. And it is also another incident that the narrative decides not to call Aang out for, so the chances of him growing from it are...well, we all know how things turned out in LoK.

[theemissuniverse]

FLIRTING WITH LIU KANG AND ONE SIDED FLIRTING WITH SHANG TSUNG MK 1 INTROS WITH FEM READER!

SUMMARY : what the title says. You’re an Earthrealm warrior.

A/N : not gonna lie I’m having writers block so take this lmao

MASTERLIST 1 , MASTERLIST 2

SHANG TSUNG VS (Y/N)

Shang Tsung : Your beauty holds no bounds

(Y/N) : Your ego holds no bounds

(Y/N) : Do Outworlders speak English? I am not interested

Shang Tsung : And yet you’re here…why?

Shang Tsung : Liu Kang cannot give you a what I can give you

(Y/N) : You do know you’re competing against a literal fire God right?

Shang Tsung : Leave that pathetic God and join me

(Y/N) : You literally got deceived by your titan double. I’m good

Shang Tsung : You are far too beautiful to be with a man like Liu Kang

(Y/N) : And my mouth is producing far too much vomit

Shang Tsung : If you don’t become my queen - you will become my enemy

(Y/N) : I already AM your enemy

(Y/N) : If I didn’t want you in the last timeline- what makes you believe I’ll want you in this one?

Shang Tsung : I can be very persuasive

(Y/N) : Of all the people that could be obsessed with me - it had to be a miserable sorcerer

Shang Tsung : You will fall for my advances eventually

(Y/N) : Stay the hell away from Liu Kang

Shang Tsung : I will. Once you join me

Shang Tsung : You were so close for falling for me in the original timeline

(Y/N) : Don’t remind me of how idiotic I used to be

LIU KANG VS (Y/N)

(Y/N) : I don’t think I can take much more of that sorcerers flirting

Liu Kang : I will put an end to it, my love

(Y/N) : So I fall for you in every timeline?

Liu Kang : It just means we are destined to be together

Liu Kang : You are the only woman made for me

(Y/N) : You always know how to make my heart race

(Y/N) : Come on. It’d be new and exciting

Liu Kang : While Temperature play sounds intriguing, I do not want to hurt you

(Y/N) : Shang Tsung seems to think he can have me

Liu Kang : *chuckles* I am the least bit worried of that sorcerer

Liu Kang : You are my one and only, (Y/N)

(Y/N) : As to you, Liu Kang

Liu Kang : Are you ready for your training?

(Y/N) : If it ends up with you on top of me then yeah

Liu Kang : I wish to treat you as my Goddess

(Y/N) : You sure know how to turn a woman on

Liu Kang : Shang Tsung’s flirting has grown drastically eye clawing

(Y/N) : You say that as if he’s been flirting with you. I’m the real victim

(Y/N) : Is it getting hot in here or is it just me?

Liu Kang : Your puns are both cute and insufferable

LIU KANG VS SHANG TSUNG

Shang Tsung : (Y/N) will fall for me eventually

Liu Kang : You are fooling yourself if you believe she would ever want you

Liu Kang : Stay away from, (Y/N)

Shang Tsung : You and I both know that deep down she craves for my darkness

Shang Tsung : I almost had her in the original timeline

Liu Kang : Only because of certain events that had taken its place

Shang Tsung : You call me the villain but you specifically crafted this timeline to make (Y/N) fall in love with you

Liu Kang : I am not capable of that kind of power nor evil. (Y/N) fell in love with me by her own free will as she has done through out other timelines

Shang Tsung : If you want her so bad, why have (Y/N) meet me?

Liu Kang : It was bound to have happen and as I have done every timeline, I gave (Y/N) the choice whether she wanted to be consumed by your greed and darkness

Liu Kang : (Y/N) does not want to be with you, sorcerer

Shang Tsung : If she doesn’t then why does she always end up back to me?

Shang Tsung : (Y/N) will fall for my power eventually

Liu Kang : That very statement proves you do not know her as (Y/N) is not attracted to power and greed

Shang Tsung : If I win, you’ll let me have (Y/N)

Liu Kang : (Y/N) is not a prize to be won

Shang Tsung : Together, me and (Y/N) can rule all realms

Liu Kang : Im sure (Y/N) would be interested in the man that got deceived by his own double

Shang Tsung : I could treat (Y/N) better than you

Liu Kang : Better? You tried to kill her in the original timeline

[zutarawasrobbed]

ALTA Live Action Season 1 Initial Thoughts (Spoilers)

I just finished the season, and holy shit!

Quick things that need to be addressed/debunked:

“Sokka is no longer sexist”

I dont know what people were talking about when they talked about Sokka’s “sexism” being removed. It’s still there! But not in the overly exaggerated comical way it was in the original.

In fact, it’s more in line with ancient practices of indigenous tribes where men are seen as protectors and providers while women are expected to nurture. It’s not the same “boys are better than girls” narrative in the original.

Additionally, Suki still beats the fuck out of Sokka and humbled him really quick. They’re super cute by the way. And I love Suki’s “I like my men a little stupid” vibe. She’s great.

“Aang doesn’t run away like the original!”

That is not true. He does run away, but not because he’s trying to get away from the temple but instead to get some air because he feels overwhelmed. He’s more like taking a quick break and planning to come back. It’s not exactly the same, but almost. It also is done in a way where his guilt feels more justified.

“Katara doesn’t talk about her mom anymore like the original”

This is true… BECAUSE THEY SHOW INSTEAD OF TELL. I was honestly not prepared to see the death Kya in such graphic detail and how Katara was in the room hiding when it happened. It’s honestly really sad and more heartbreaking.

Plot:

The timeline seems to be ambiguous compared to the original series where it was “end of current year.” In fact, they repeat “three years” a few times, which makes me think if the series get greenlit for more seasons, it would be over a three year period.

Jet is still villainized but given more nuance and not a simple "good v bad" way like the original.

Zuko’s story about how he got his scar has additional lore that makes him come across as even more selfless and compassionate. The additional context of the platoon he advocated for in the war meeting, becoming his current crew, really added to the story.

Eradicated the nepotism baby plot point with Pakku only training Katara when he finds out he used to date her grandma. Instead, Katara proves herself and ends up teaching the other male fighters the techniques she learned from watching other benders use their elements and mimics them.

This season doesn’t have Aang learning any waterbending, but rather facing his trauma and the consequences of his actions. He get roasted by all his past lives. Which is an interesting choice, but I think it works well in how they executed it.

This season seems to actually be Katara focused and her journey of learning waterbending which I honestly loved because it really hits home the element of “water” being the story of an untrained waterbender learning her element. But, I do think Aang could’ve learned a little bending. It felt a little off.

Katara ends up advocating for all waterbending women and ends up leading an army of both men and women during the siege. She’s really bad ass and is given the title of master without being formally trained by Pakku. She made herself a master.

I think the timeline is a little wonky because of how much they had to fit in with the limited episodes they had.

Kuruk is given respect! I loved that.

June actually seems into Iroh which I thought was a funny but cool way to flip the script from the original.

The relationship between Zuko and Iroh is really beautifully executed. I love the depth they added with flashback scenes and their bond prior to the Agni Kai. It also wasn’t as frustrating watching Iroh and Zuko’s dynamic because Iroh communicated with Zuko in a way he could understand with straight answers rather than seeming to actively sabotage him with cryptic puns and shenanigans like the original.

They changed the love triangle with Yue Hahn and Sokka to be very healthy. They gave Yue autonomy and a choice in her relationship- which- again- is much more in line with indigenous cultures. Also, Hahn and Sokka’s relationship is really supportive and full of respect and no ill will.

They way they handled grief and the realities of war with the loss of life was very well done and really drove home the point that this is a war and these are child soldiers.

There’s a lot more but these are my initial thoughts. Will probably post more later.

Shipping:

Kataang is all but removed. Literally DOA. There is no indication of a crust on either side. It’s painted like a sibling relationship, which is like the original, but this time everyone seems to be on the same page. But, I swear the writers had to have read ZK fics because damn.

They canonized a popular Zutara theory/hc about the cave of two lovers and how the crystals would light up once it went completely dark instead of a “kiss” activating the crystal glow.

Speaking of the Cave of two lovers. They keep the Oma and Shu story with red and blue coloring. Making it come across more as foreshadowing than a direct link to the present tunnel story.

Sokka is put in Aang’s place with Katara in the tunnels and turned it into a story about the love of family and sibling bonds. Aang wasn’t even present.

Zuko and Katara share a meaningful look when they first see each other and continue to have a Katara centric scene followed by a Zuko centric scene and vice versa.

The scarf scene. I will not be elaborating further. If you know, you know.

Zuko and Katara fight scene in the North is epic. He still taunts her with almost the exact same dialogue but it’s so sassy- I love the banter.

Suki and Sokka were really cute and the actors had great chemistry. I think Yue and Sokka was really rushed and didn’t really feel anything about them, honestly. But I attribute that to lack of episodes to develop all that plot.

[quincywillows]

like i remember the vitriol that came out when the mere PREMISE for ballad of songbirds and snakes came out bc it was “about the villain” and wasn’t instead a novella of one of the many cute likeable faves of the masses. i remember how fast people were to tear down the book before it even came out (and still do now). and it’s like look, i get it, suzanne created so many interesting characters that it would be incredible to learn more about and get more content for. but her choosing to write about snow for a prequel isn’t like Romanticizing The Villain or whatever bullshit y’all are claiming as hot takes on twitter -- ballad fits right into the common themes and tone of the series in that its not a romanticization but a reflection on how snow became what we know him as in the original series. both in how he already had some less than charming or healthy traits (just like katniss does -- suzanne is always clear that people are not inherently good nor evil and parallels were drawn between how snow and katniss view the world and think strategically, etc, from the second book), but also in how society and the choices of the greater community in panem created snow. like ballad is a really interesting piece of lore and history and worldbuilding for an already rich and elaborate setting that suzanne created, allowing us to see how that world even came to be and the kind of toxic impact it had on the people surviving in it while still pointing out that those people are human and that everyone has humanity and yet can still cause unfathomable harm to one another based on circumstance and need to survive and pressures of all kinds and like i have lost the plot here now but suzanne is one of the best authors of our time who actually gives a shit about creating layered, nuanced characters and worlds rather than black and white good and evil and unfortunately the hyperpolarization of our hot takes social media culture nowadays just can’t handle her anymore. suzanne im so sorry we don’t deserve your storytelling. anyway i’ll be seated for this movie y’all can skip and keep giving lukewarm takes on twitter to make urself seem so smart for hating a book you probably didnt even actually read

[rougecreator1]

korra fluff 🥹🥹 i love my girl so much😔

Dining with the Rich

|| Avatar Korra x fem!reader

|| Warnings: none, just pure fluff

|| Summary: Korra finds reader hanging out by the park river and offers to take her on a nice date, it's been a while since they had the chance to.

Requests open!

~~~

It was a peaceful day in Republic City.

You'd been enjoying your morning, laying by the park river and looking towards the sky with your arms folded behind your head. Feeling relaxed and at peace for the first time in a while. Being the Avatar's girlfriend meant you were always caught up in some chaos or drama that didn't originally involve you... but you somehow get dragged into anyway.

That's when you hear the sound of a familiar voice calling your name, propping yourself up on your elbows you turn your head and see Avatar Korra. Giving you that classic smile of hers you've come to love. A soft blush forms on your cheeks and you smile back as she waves at you, joining you by the river and sitting down beside you. Planting a soft kiss to your lips.

"Hey, you." She rests her hand on your knee," What're you doing out here? I've been looking for you all morning."

You lean your head on her shoulder, resting against her side and taking in her warmth.

"Enjoying the weather. You said you've been looking for you?" You couldn't help but raise an eyebrow at that. Was your peace really going to be interrupted by more Avatar duties again?

"Yeah, I've been thinking... it's been a while since we went on a proper date, unless you count fighting villains as a date?" Korra jokes, you roll your eyes and suppress a laugh.

"Absolutely not."

"Didn't think so." Korra gives you a playful nudge, which manages to get that laugh out of you. She smiles," Asami mentioned a nice restaurant that opened up recently and offered to get us a reservation. If you're interested."

"Oh, definitely. I'm not missing out on free rich people food." You smile back and Korra laughs this time, draping her arm around your shoulders and pulling you in close to her side.

"How about tonight, then?" She looks at you and you nod.

~~~

A few hours later, you were getting ready for your date. In absolute state of panic trying to make sure you presented yourself perfectly.

Jinora walked past your door (you have a room in the Air Temple) then stopped and back tracked, raising an eyebrow in confusion.

"Why are you so freaked out?" She asks, you jump and turn to look at her. Having been startled by her sudden appearance.

"I have a date with Korra tonight and I need to look perfect. Asami got us a reservation at some fancy rich restaurant." You explain, your hands making frantic gestures.

Jinora stifles a laugh and walks into your room, arms folded across her chest as she tilts her head at you.

"Korra's not going to care what you wear. I mean, have you seen the way she dresses?" Jinora reminds you, you glance at yourself in your body mirror. Looking over your features.

You'd thrown together a quick outfit. A nice black velvet sleeveless t (which showed a bit of cleavage). Paired with velvet black dress pants. It was the nicest thing you owned and you had saved an embarrassing amount of money just to get it.

"I know but the place is like- super fancy-" You stutter out, rethinking your choice as you bite down on your thumb nail.

Jinora rolls her eyes.

"If you aren't going to listen to my advice you're hopeless." She leaves you to fend for yourself, not wanting to deal with you if you won't even listen to her advice.

~~~

After another hour of fussing, you finally decide you were at least presentable. Taking a breath, you stepped out of your room and headed down the hall. Why was this all still scary? You and Korra have been on a number of dates. This one shouldn't be any different.

But it was.

Because you'd be dining with rich people. God, you just realized you didn't even know proper table manners. Like, yeah you knew how to behave yourself at a table but not rich people level.

Though you quickly relaxed remembering Korra was in the same boat as you. Even if she was the Avatar, her manners... could use a little work.

You made it to the first level of the Temple, Korra standing by the front door and waiting for you. Styled similarly to how she was during the last scene of the finale episode.

I couldn't find any decent pictures.

She noticed you and smiled, taking in your appearance with a soft blush on her cheeks.

"You look... wow. Now I feel underdressed." She looks down at her own outfit and you can't help but laugh, smiling and taking her hand in yours.

"You look perfect." You assure her, a blush on your cheeks matching the one on Korra's.

Korra gives you a soft kiss, though you don't let her pull away and instead continue it for a moment. Your lips moving against each others in soft, rhythmic motions before your lips finally part. Separated by a mere inch or so as you looked into each other's eyes.

Your hand squeezed hers and she leads you out of the Temple, heading to your date spot.

The rest of the night flows smoothly. The two of you enjoying your meals, having conversation after conversation. Talking about anything and everything from latest bending techniques to latest interests. The hours tick by and you haven't even realized how long it's been. Just enjoying have a night off to be with each other.

It was nice focusing on your relationship rather than the world.

[offshore-brinicle]

Thinking about the three characters we've met who had already found and claimed the Golden Bough before the Sinners, Kromer, Dongbaek and now Ahab it's very interesting to me that they all have in common being women leaders of groups where they are seen as messiahs of sorts, much like how Carmen herself who is the origin of The Light was the one who united the original LobCorp team and had such supernatural charisma that she could convince anyone she wanted to join her cause of "saving humanity".

Kromer is the most blantant and cartoonish example, she's worshipped as a messiah and goddess by her followers to the point they consider basking in her grace a priviledge to the point of genuine insanity beyond what any regular person could comprehend, pure religious fanatism for their savior they believe in who will bring them a "pure, untainted" world, so much that they have cast away their individuality in their adoration, inquisitors being indistinguishable from one another.

Ahab who is a more realistic example of this kind of person even if not as infallible as the seemingly perfect Carmen; she's strong, confident, passionate, revered as a hero and makes convincing cases for herself while having the unnatural ability to appeal to people's desires and cut through them, and in her case the way the Pequod Town have come to bend to her isn't unfounded given their situation. I think that's what makes her significantly scarier and more effective as a villain and character in general; she's not just a comically evil woman in a position of power, you can very easily see why some people would fall for her words and bend to her will. She is paradoxically both the savior of the Pequod and the one who doomed them to the hell inside The Pallid Whale, yet after being isolated from society for so long with no other choices or escape and having their sense of self degraded by the Pallidfication the Pequod crew only came to see the first part.

Dongbaek is an interesting case, unlike the two women described before who are undeniably villains and egomaniacal, she's portrayed as much more sympathetic and even an outright tragic figure, however at the same time unlike them we never directly see the relationship she has with her followers. They never talk about Dongbaek herself and not even mention her in any way, only the ideology she gave them: destroy the current order to create an ideal world free from the shackles of The Wings and technological advancement, and unlike the two before who are always aided by their lackeys, Dongbaek was always seen alone, less like a hero or a goddess but more like a ghost that haunted everyone, much like Carmen's role in LobCorp. This "ghost" motif is doubly emphasized by her sickly dying appearance and how she contantly dissapeared and appeared without a trace, never letting those around her forget about all they have lost or sacrificed trapped in her vendetta.

But ultimately Dongrang, herself and even Yi Sang come to admit her motives were just as self-centered and she was just as manipulative, yet rather from a place of hubris it came from a place of deep despair and yearning.

Like Kromer, the TLA believed she would make a better world, but like Ahab, she was ultimately someone taking advantage of people in despair and giving them false hopes, all while deluding herself further, and much like Carmen, she's associated with trees and vegetation, both expressing the wish to be like one and having a disdain for The Wings, though in Dongbaek's case, she only represents half of Carmen's wish; being the plant blooming across the land, while Yi Sang is the one who would reach the sky.

In the end, all three of these women were false saviors, much like how Carmen's idea of bringing salvation to humanity led to all of the suffering within Lobotomy Corporation, the unleashing of chaos upon The City even her own endless torture as The Well giving birth to Abnormalities...it makes me wonder if all of this was intentional, as a way to parallel Carmen herself. Yet all three of them appear to us clearly untrustworthy while Carmen does not.

Kromer, Dongbaek and Ahab are immediately stablished as dangerous presences; Ahab and Kromer being the sources of Ishmael and Sinclair's suffering and tormenters they have to overcome --the source of their nightmares, and Dongbaek is introduced stabbing Yi Sang and being called "dangerous" yet Carmen is introduced as her best self and all the best memories everyone has of her, it isn't until Ruina, away from Ayin's perspective that she's questioned, it makes me wonder if they will continue to bring these characters contrasting Carmen in further chapters.

[weirdmarioenemies]

Name: Mr. Egg, Mr. Pickle, and Mr. Hot Dog

Debut: BurgerTime

BurgerTime is one of those retro games and that's about it. It existed, and it's Retro!, and I feel like people don't really care about it aside from that. It never even got an awkward attempt at a scrimblo adventure reboot, like Frogger did! Poor BurgerTime.

Anyway, my first time playing BurgerTime was not by playing BurgerTime at all, but a SpongeBob Flash game clone of it. I have no personal connection to BurgerTime itself... but I know it has some enemies that are living foods! I always get a kick out of that! So I'm going to talk about some of the various design incarnations of them!

These original designs are exactly what you would expect from a 1982 arcade game. I feel like I've seen Pac-Man ghosts drawn EXACTLY like this. I like how Mr. Egg has the strangely realistic crispy bubbling detail around his edges. They're all fine.

...is what I felt before I noticed their elbows and knees! Ew! Bones! Wretched creatures!

Ohoho... now what have we here? The in-game sprites are delightful! The simplicity makes them very cute! Their feet are interesting, being just little floating lines, except for Mr. Egg's, because his legs are made of amorphous albumen! Mr. Egg is really the breakout star here. Look at his yolk! That's his EYE! This is so awesome! That's such a rare design choice to see, especially since egg creatures that are not of the "creature hatching from them" variety are pretty rare themselves.

Mr. Pickle is no slouch either! I appreciate him being specifically a pickle slice, often portrayed as nicely crinkle-cut. I just have to question why he is a villain! Pickles are one of Burger's best friends! This is like if Cheese was a villain! I think if anything Mr. Pickle should be a cute little sidekick on the side of burgers, and in his place can be, I don't know, Mr. Olive? Of course, pickles are much funnier than olives!

Mr. Hot Dog is not as interesting as the other two, but a simple sausage with eyes and feet is still cute. He is like the leader of the bunch, the main antagonist of our hero, Peter Pepper, who I do not really care about. I like that it's him! Burgers and hot dogs are like counterparts, but in no way equals. Hot dogs are easier to hold and eat, but burgers are just Better. And hot dogs have finally decided to give burgers a piece of their mind!

This flyer art is funny. I don't LIKE any of the designs showcased, but they're funny! Faces are moved around on the foods, noses are introduced to the series, and Mr. Egg is now a slice of a hard-boiled egg. You will also notice the elusive Mr. Lemon! Mr. Lemon is not real! I don't know why there is such an emphasis on lemon here. Finally, of course, you will notice the personified Cheese, as she noselessly beckons Peter to recline atop a beef patty. Ooh la la! Don't you wish you were invited to hang out with such a beautiful female cheese who is a girl woman?

Really, the designs of the core food fiends never diverged much from the classic cartoon-style versions they started out with, appearing like that in pretty much every sequel. Except...!

In BurgerTime World Tour, which was not a good game at all, these guys have been utterly rebooted! Now known as Frank Furter, Ruthless Dill, and Sonny! Are these their real names? Or just some similar guys?

The designs are rather basic, as to be expected from Foods With Faces, but it IS interesting seeing them generally made so much more monstrous. Something ESPECIALLY interesting is that Sonny the egg is the only one with limbs, reminding me of how Mr. Egg is the only one to have actual legs in the original sprites!

Ready for the SCARIEST redesign from World Tour?

This game's version of Peter Pepper is this horrible gentrifying millenial and I'm glad his game was prematurely delisted. I hope he got eaten by an egg and chewed by teeth made of yolk. I hate him!

[redbatchedcumbermayned]

"I didn’t even know that there was the possibility of a romance option when voicing Heinrix" - Interviewing Chris Tester part 2

We're continuing our interview with Chris Tester, the voice of Heinrix van Calox in Owlcat's CRPG Rogue Trader. In this part we speak about insights into Heinrix's character, how the process of recording voice lines for a video game works, if Chris would romance Heinrix in game, and interacting with his fans.

Part 1 of the interview

Part 3 of the interview

I will publish this interview in three parts over the next week in text form and with the accompanying audio file (the audio quality is not spectacular but tumblr limits uploads to 10MB). If you quote or reshare, please quote me as the original source.

F: So, you already talked a bit about Heinrix as a character. What drew you to the character or what hidden depth did you find in the character?

CT: Well, I hope I found some depth to the character. That contrast between principles or values that you seem to be holding onto and lots of unprocessed trauma going on underneath. Sure, that seems interesting, that seems like a really interesting thing to find. Because you can understand, therefore, the appeal of an ideology, which gives you the answers and it tells you what to do. Essentially, it gives you a role, authority, it gives you status, you completely understand the appeal of that. Just like I find voice-over incredibly appealing and exciting: it gives me structure and authority and the illusion that I know what I'm talking about and what I'm doing. 

And then there's the flip side: you could make him heretical in some way, shape or form. And you know, I love, obviously, the fact that he belongs to part of that world which I'm sort of familiar with. Where a lot of the more interesting characters are the ones that have disavowed this God Emperor kind of like status in one way or the other, they tend to have a little bit more going on. They're not two-dimensional villains, not all of them, not all of the time anyway. Whereas on the one hand he's not going full chaos, there was just an interesting tension there to explore. Also, it kind of reminded me a little bit of the Eisenhorn series, which again, it's an Inquisitor that through his pursuit of different things starts to question and use the powers of the warp for his own purposes. A very different character, but still, there are those parallels that I really liked, that fallibility, that vulnerability to a degree, but I wouldn't say too much because I didn't really know how vulnerable or how much of a journey he was going to have in the early stages. I didn't know that until we were recording, I'll be honest. 

And I didn’t even know that there was the possibility of a romance option, until we were like: Oh, these are romancing lines. And I was like, you what now? So, sorry, I appear to be saying some quite forward things, from his point of view anyway, that's slightly taken me aback. They were like: oh yeah, you're romanceable, you can have a romance. I was like, oh, okay, right. I'll just think back to the five hours or so of recording that we've done up to this point and pray that I've made the right choices. So that was a bit of a crazy ride, but thanks to Olga, the writer of my character, she gave really astute directions. She wasn't in all of the sessions, but the majority, especially when there were big plot beats to explain to me what the hell was going on, however, roughly. She was great. And also the technicians at 3B. I was working with a lot of different members of the group technicians slash directors as well. And they were great in terms of giving me not exactly the bare minimum details, but the bare minimum details that I needed in order to be able to make choices quickly, but strongly and relevant to the game. So yeah, it was quite a trip.

F: Thank you. Since you have been trained as a stage actor do you bring a certain physicality to voice acting? If you embody Heinrix, do you puff your chest? Are you rigid?

CT: Definitely. I think there's the reason why rather than having a small booth, I record in a room is, that I can explore those dynamics as much as possible. And the fact that I was able to record standing and very upright and taking that space was vitally important. Obviously, there's the action stuff that really helps when you're actually making fighting noises. That's one thing. But I think in terms of real subtle differences to be able to, as well as mic proximity when he's speaking under his breath and that kind of thing, that's obviously incredibly vital, but even the subtle things of being able to have that big open physicality because he is so often so imperious because he thinks he's absolutely right. That was a vital aspect to explore and just being able to be upright and expressive in that made such a huge difference. 

And also when, without wanting to give too much away, he's in more constricted circumstances, shall we say, trying to do that just purely through the voice means that it all becomes about the sound that you're making as opposed to the truth of the character's journey without wanting to be, again, too much of a cliche, but focusing on that rather than am I making the right gurgling noise?

F: Were you offered any other character to audition for Owlcat? Or if you could, which other character would you like to voice?

CT: I couldn't say any of the other characters. I do play a couple of NPCs randomly. I think before even I had Heinrix. There's some cockney London geezer in there that is immediately disposable. That was me. That was my kind of guaranteed role. I was like, great, fantastic, because I did the audition for Heinrix and then there was quite a few months before it was actually kind of confirmed. I thought the role had gone to somebody else. As with many of these things, you just don't hear back. If you don't hear back, you just assume it's dead and then suddenly it'll come back up or it won't or you'll see another voice actor posting on Instagram going “amazing session” and you slightly die inside and then you move on. 

But in terms of the other characters, I mean, I've met, at least digitally online, the vast majority of the principal companion cast and they're all lovely and amazing and I associate them with their performances. For better or worse, Heinrix is very much my kind of casting and I loved it. Not because he's pretty in a particularly posh kind of way, but that helps. Sure, I'll go with that kind of slightly emotionally constipated. I'm very well cast, very well done, but I think so is everybody else. Throughout the entire game, it's a bit of a who's who, they might not be all household names, but in terms of for myself, the actors that I know in some big parts and some really small parts, the actors that I know in the UK and in the U.S. voice-over scene, so much talent, so that it was just an honour to be included in that really.

F: So now I have to ask you a question from our discord server. Would you romance Heinrix if you were playing a female Rogue Trader? 

CT: I think that would be a bit weird. No, I'll just watch videos of other people romancing him slash me. Is that more or less weird? I mean, I'm 42 years old. I've spent far too much time playing with myself already. So, let's just draw a line under that, but other people are welcome to. That's absolutely fine. My only thing, without wanting to overstate it too much, is that I was very surprised that there was anything around any character that I've been related to but as with so many of the other companions as well, that's a testament to the writing. Credit to the whole Owlcat team in that respect.

F: Would you like to continue working with Owlcat in the future in another capacity?

CT: Oh, God. Yeah. They've not made me sign an NDA, so I can say, not name a thing, but there's DLC for one of their other titles, which I'm going to be in, and that's in a completely different world. There's that thing of once you've had one really positive experience with the developer and the type of games that they create. The ones that are very story focused, that's the type of games that I'm passionate about. I was brought up on these things like the Mass Effect Trilogy. You know, that absolutely iconic kind of stuff, and so to be a part of someone else's experience to facilitate that kind of longer storytelling stuff is exactly what I would be after. They've got a great process, amazing writers and I also think that the games themselves look fantastic. So yeah, I'm a fan of that.

F: So your fan base has certainly expanded since the release of the game. Do you mind having a female fan base now? Have you noticed that there is a bit of a shift because Warhammer 40k for the totally uninitiated looks like a male hobby and unfortunately some part of the male fans are very aggressive against female fans.

CT: Are absolutely ridiculous. Idiots, essentially. Because my relationship to the whole Warhammer 40k thing is like, I played it when I was really young, and then you put away your childish things. I'm saying that in inverted commas, that's kind of ironic or whatever, and then didn't really get back into it until someone gave me a book and I realised that the lore was actually quite good, quite interesting, and then actually really good and really interesting, and I therefore have done some novels for them and a couple of video games as well. 

But to your question, do I mind? No, of course I don't mind. I'm very happily married and well adjusted, so I definitely don't mind as long as it's all respectful, if that makes sense. Surprise, surprise, female fans seem to conduct themselves with that level of respect or if there is a server which is going into crazy, crazy character scenarios and that kind of stuff, no one's sending me a link to that. And even if it is, it's the character, it's not me, and so that's all quite healthy and good. And I think I'm definitely not in a position where I should be censoring any of that kind of thing at all. I think it's all positive and very, very healthy and everybody that I've interacted with has been incredibly respectful. So, I think that's great. 

And I think being able to portray these characters that offer that level of connection is great. We're in a post Baldur's Gate world, I suppose. Not that there weren't other games that did this, but on that scale and everything. I think the value that the games can offer in that. Rogue Trader is hugely valuable and I definitely wouldn't want to censure any of that at all.

F: Yeah, it was nice. I reconnected a lot with people who have this fandom experience again that I had in the Eddie Redmayne fandom more than 10 years ago when it was small, when you have a rather small group of fans and then a very nice person that you're a fan of, and you can interact with.

CT: So people have contacted me via Cameo, for example. And, you know, they've had a certain particular playthrough and then they say, well, I would like you to voice this letter from Heinrix or whatever.

F: That was me.

CT: There have been more than just you is what I'm saying, but sorry, not to say that I'm a whore and I'll just do anything, but you're not the only person who has come to me with that kind of thing. And that's great. That's a pleasure, because it's continuing to tell the story on a wider scale. But also the fact that you can personalise and make it your own. And that's the brilliant thing. 

That's part of the whole appeal of a video game, as opposed to it being a theatre piece or a film or something else is that it was very much your experience, your playthrough. You can have multiple versions of the thing that you kind of like one but you can really structure your own narrative. And that's a fascinating thing. You get to iterate on it yourself. You know, if one stage of that is also being able to call upon the voice actor to facilitate that, I think that's a cool thing, you know, as long as it doesn't get too weird or too whatever, but you know, whatever two consenting adults want to exchange money for or time, great, fine. I think that's less weird than getting an AI to do it personally. I think that level of storytelling is a great thing.

[bliss-in-the-void]

Satoru, Suguru, and the Detriment of Their Origins. (How their characters completed each other.)

This is going to be an analysis on how their differences came together and contributed to their downfalls once they parted. I really like how this turned out—it’s very interesting.

Long post, read under cut:

Satoru:

Blamed the Jujutsu Higher-ups for even burdening him and Suguru, who were both sixteen, with the task of escorting Riko—who was only fourteen—to Tengen. The fate of the entire world rested on the shoulders of three kids who were only put in their position because of abilities assigned at birth, and nothing else. The three of them literally had no choice in the matter. Also, because of what happened with Haibara. Satoru deduced that the elders shouldn’t be in charge of sending kids off to their deaths to fight uphill battles.

So, he in turn decides to raise strong allies in the form of students so that they one day can overthrow the elders in hopes of establishing a more fair and just system for sorcerers. Here, he recognizes the need for sorcerers to exorcise curses to protect the populace, but does not agree with the system as it stands.

Note, Satoru before the Star Plasma Vessel incident had barely any motivation to exorcise curses other than the fact that he could do it. He did it for fun. He just liked using his powers. He was always a self-assured person.

Suguru:

Blamed non-sorcerers for generating curses in the first place, and developed a deep hatred for them that was seeded after Toji (a non-sorcerer) ‘killed’ Satoru and killed Riko, as well as after he witnessed non-sorcerers applauding the death of Riko, a fourteen year old girl. He met Yuki, Tsukumo, who introduced to him the idea of getting rid of the source of curses. He also blamed humanity for conjuring a curse that killed Haibara. His turning point was finding two young sorcerer girls, Nanako and Mimiko (~seven years old) caged up like animals by non-sorcerers. It probably reminded him of his own childhood—I can only imagine how his parents must have at least alienated him for his abilities, since they were not sorcerers. It also in part probably reminded him of Riko, and how she’d been a young girl unfairly targeted due to her abilities. It definitely triggered him.

So, his goal became to rid the world of non-sorcerers, so that curses wouldn’t exist. To do this, he had to abandon all of the principles he had subscribed to thus far and become a villain who kills people—but he did it for his cause.

Note, Suguru has always been a self-righteous person. It’s a bit different from who Satoru is. He has had time to think about his place in the world because unlike Satoru, he was born to a normal family and had to find where he belonged himself. Satoru, on the other hand, was told where his place was from the moment he was born.

So, Suguru defined himself as somewhat of a hero who valiantly, selflessly swallows nasty curses to protect the populace.

Satoru never had to define himself. He was already defined at birth. A wielder of the Six Eyes and Limitless, a once in a lifetime anomaly, a scale-tipping, monstrosity more powerful than anyone else.

These origins are both of their downfalls, and this is ultimately why the two needed each other so badly. They did complete each other as people.

As I said above, Suguru had to define himself. He had to affirm to himself that what he was doing was for the good of the people—it was how he had convinced himself society had to run. The strong protect the weak, it doesn’t matter if one had a choice or not. If you are strong, you have a duty to become a protector.

The issue with this mindset is that he has absolutely no attachment to it whatsoever. The only thing it does for him is make him feel good about himself in his early days as an active sorcerer. Even Satoru calls him out, letting Suguru know he “hates righteousness” and that he just “makes himself feel better” by “spouting bullshit”, the bullshit being his ‘heroic’ beliefs. At his core, Suguru believes himself to be a hero of sorts, which is why when things go sideways, he does a one-eighty and decided to kill all non-sorcerers rather than protect them. In his mind, he’s still affirming to himself that he’s the hero. It’s just that now, he’s protecting other sorcerers. The enemy has changed. He’s still the self-righteous, martyr-Suguru he has always defined himself as, sticking his neck out for the good of his cause.

He lost his grip because he was not emotionally attached to being a sorcerer. He was just attached to being a hero. This is why when entering Jujutsu High, Yaga puts such a huge emphasis on digging deep and finding a strong, personal reason to be a sorcerer. He recognizes that he fell short in that aspect when it came to Suguru, and doesn’t want it happening again. Resolve is very, very important so that once doesn’t lose their mind.

Now, let’s take a look at Satoru’s mind in contrast. He is the strongest sorcerer. The ‘honored one’. He always has been. He had bounties on his head before he could walk, and grown adults feared him even as a child. He was always seen for his abilities first and not his soul, so he identified with his powers more strongly.

This caused him to become disillusioned with himself. He believed that being strong was all someone could need, and that he was untouchable. He was relied on by everyone. “Gojo can handle it.” “Just wait for Gojo.” He was the trump card. That’s why he strolled up to Shibuya so nonchalantly—the way he was raised gave him a natural arrogance. It’s not because he’s a jerk. It’s because that’s all he knows. He was raised believing he was all powerful, so what else can he default to? He was literally wired that way.

Unfortunately, because he leaned so heavily on his powers, he forgot who he was as a person. Especially after Suguru, the only person he was able to form a vulnerable emotional bond with, compared him to his powers and left him.

Caveat I want to make about that point: Suguru was the only person who treated Satoru like a human being. Everyone else saw him as the Six Eyes. Because he made Satoru feel seen, because he tried making Satoru a better person (teaching him manners, acting as his moral compass), Satoru grew attached to him. So, when Suguru’s psyche took a turn for the worst and he left Satoru in Shinjuku, the line “are you the strongest because you’re Satoru Gojo? Or are you Satoru Gojo because you’re the strongest?” dealt a fatal blow to his heart. This was the one person he trusted deeply, reducing him to a man with powers, just like everyone else his whole life did. It caused a rift in their relationship. It caused Satoru to rethink his entire identity—how much of himself was based off of his powers? How much of himself wasn’t based off of his powers? Suguru’s presence allowed him to feel more human and less like a creature than he ever had. But those words pushed him back into that constraint.

In chapter 236, Satoru reveals to Suguru that somehow, though he had love for everyone around him, he felt a line had been drawn where he felt more like a creature than a human being.

A TikTok user (lauravpvp) pointed out something that drives this point home. Satoru wears a blindfold over his eyes 90% of the time. As his powers grow, the coverings get thicker and more restricting. He starts with glasses, then bandages, and then the black blindfold. Eyes are the window to the soul—and as he gets stronger, the less he shows them; the less he beard his soul.

We look into someone’s eyes to see how they’re feeling, to connect to them. His eyes are always covered, so he prevents that connection and prevents people from knowing how he feels. He dehumanizes himself that way.

Because of that, when he goes into his fight with Sukuna, he goes believing he’d the strongest and that he would win. It’s all he’s reduced himself to. This blind attachment to his powers, to the idea that he had to do it alone, is what lead to his downfall.

Because he learned the hard way that he wasn’t the strongest.

In his final moments, he reinforces what he had discovered after Suguru left him in Shinjuku.

Strength alone is not enough. Why?

He said that if Suguru had been there to pat him on the back, he would have truly been satisfied.

Suguru, who had to fight to find his identity his whole life—who, because he spent so much time defining himself, helped Satoru define himself in ways that were separate from his abilities. And Satoru, who identified himself with his abilities so much that it reinforced Suguru’s confidence in his own abilities.

They completed each other. Suguru’s moral compass and strict principles held Satoru’s head on right, and Satoru’s confidence and youthful heart kept Suguru motivated and away from the dark.

Without each other, Suguru descended into madness and Satoru lost sight of his human side.

[bakuhatsufallinlove]

re: 405

This is gonna be long.

First, I'm bringing this post back around to remind people that kocchi is a pronoun of ambiguous plurality.

This means that an interpretation of "we" is just as correct as an interpretation of "I." Readers may interpret it differently, but on simply linguistic grounds, they are of equal validity.

You will often see this kind of ambiguous language used in Japanese, even with characters that are forthright. The reason is one part cultural expectation that the listener will read between the lines, and one part a willingness to accept two things as simultaneously true. This exists and is frequently found in English as well, there just isn't a direct parallel for kocchi itself.

What I want most out of writing this blog, aside from personal enjoyment, is for people to understand that there can be more to a story for you to engage with, think about, and be moved by, when you step outside the boundaries of your own language and culture.

I think that is a much more interesting space to be in than a gotcha-laden approach of trying to prove something wrong or bad.

But if we are going to talk accuracy, the fact is that the fan translation many people have been upholding as superior has just as many problems as the official one. It takes just as many creative liberties, they are simply different ones.

The fan translator centered an "I" reading and, rather than using either of the two pronouns provided by the text ("OFA" and あいつ, meaning "that guy"), added a narratively-charged word ("nerd") that did not exist in the original and which (as far as I can tell) Katsuki has never used when speaking to villains. As a translator myself, I really disagree with that second choice. The official clearly missed the callback, but noticed the theme of "everyone who has faced AFO until now" and went with "we." The rest was just style over substance which prioritized edgy language to capture the aggression of the line; this falls squarely in line with what Viz has consistently maintained as its in-house aesthetic. It's disappointing, but unsurprising to me.

Fandom oscillates pretty violently between vilifying the official English release and fawning over it. Whole fan theories are built upon nitty gritty bits of the official release's phrasing; people will get excited over how homoerotic a line sounds, and it's because of how the official translator worded it, rather than any innate implication in the original Japanese.

If you do not speak Japanese, your experience of MHA is fundamentally dependent on the work of translators. I respect that everybody has their personal tastes or hopes for how the series will go, but it is deeply demoralizing as a Japanese speaker and translator to see fans who don't speak any Japanese at all act as though their opinion has the same weight of authority as people who do.

You are entitled to your preferences, but please recognize that they are based in taste, not personal knowledge. Not all Japanese translators will even agree in their interpretations, but it weirds me out that some non-Japanese-speaking fans will use this fervor to spread misinformation far and wide that proclaims as inaccurate perfectly good official translations, simply because the choices don't suit their own tastes.

The lists of "times the fan translations were better" I've seen mostly contain instances where the fan translators took greater liberties than the official release did, and some fans just happened to like the liberties that were taken.

We all reasonably hated the "best friend" fan translation of chapter 359, but somehow that isn't a point forever against fan translations the same way mistakes in the official release are?

At this point, it makes me wonder what the point of writing about linguistic nuance is, if the interest is primarily not in learning but in being told what you want to hear.

I know posting this won't win me any favor with anybody, but it's how I feel. I'm bummed about 405's last line in the official. I do hope it gets revised. But the vibes around translation details are getting decidedly unfun.

One last thought: if you well and truly want to experience MHA unfiltered, learn Japanese. I mean this sincerely, I'm not trying to be a jerk. We live in an age where it is easier and more possible than ever to acquire a new language, talk to people around the world, and absorb yourself in culture and history.

If you want to remove middle-men and develop your own relationship with a work unfettered by the tastes, biases, or choices of others, learn the language. It won't be easy, but I can guarantee you won't regret broadening your horizons and discovering even more beautiful stories in the world.

[celaenaeiln]

I’ve been thinking about Robin Year One and how that inciting incident with Two Face which is supposed to lead to Dick’s character arc throughout the story

Thing is at least for me personally, it wasn’t actually Dick’s fault at all on how badly it went since Two Face was rather unpredictable for the Dynamic Duo, to the point it can be conceivably called Out of Character for Harvey, especially since this meant in being ‘Formerly One of the Guys Bruce can Call a Friend’ Harvey

So if I may propose a very slight rewrite;

Have it so Two Face is genuine in giving Robin a Head Or Tails Choice but then Dick acts preemptively before he can make flip the coin, slipping off one of his boots to fling it right to Two Face’s hand, knocking the coin out of his hand and distracting the henchmen that moment so Robin can slip out of their grasp and make his way to the scaffolds to rescue Batman and the judge being held hostage. He’s able to successfully at least get them down but just as he’s about to untie their restraints…BAM! Then comes the baseball bat

In that moment of rage by losing his coin, Harvey and Two Face have come to an agreement: the brat must be punished for what he did.

Then you get the infamous beat down and Batman for once putting aside his deep down sympathy for Harvey to rescue his partner and the judge

From here it goes somewhat the same, only tiny other change I’ll do here is that Bruce gives Dick one last chance to prove to him that he’s capable of being Robin. He’ll have Dick on an undercover assignment to investigate some disappearances of some youths in Gotham on the streets, and have a small tracker Dick then can tap onto to call him in once he finds the source. Therefore, Dick can still encounter the Academy under Shirke

How’s that all sound?

Robin: Year One Issue #2

I agree!!

Dick changed the rules of their game and he did win because he said "clean side up, the judge doesn't hang."

But Harvey played dirty by using a play on words and cut the rope so "the judge doesn't hang." He cheated even more by having a secret panel in the floor that drops directly into the ocean.

"Have it so Two Face is genuine in giving Robin a Head Or Tails Choice but then Dick acts preemptively before he can make flip the coin, slipping off one of his boots to fling it right to Two Face’s hand, knocking the coin out of his hand and distracting the henchmen that moment so Robin can slip out of their grasp and make his way to the scaffolds to rescue Batman and the judge being held hostage. He’s able to successfully at least get them down but just as he’s about to untie their restraints…BAM! Then comes the baseball bat

In that moment of rage by losing his coin, Harvey and Two Face have come to an agreement: the brat must be punished for what he did.

Then you get the infamous beat down and Batman for once putting aside his deep down sympathy for Harvey to rescue his partner and the judge"

I love the original story but I LOVE THIS REWRITE!!!

Actually as you were describing, I could literally see it play in my head, it's so cleanly written.

I find it very interesting how you wrote about the significance of Two Face's coin and his mental state because I feel like this can be explored even further. Two Face is really into games and binary deals because that's his villain motto. And like his face, he uses the two sides of a coin to represent two different choices but same overall situation. By losing his coin, he lost both choices and it feels like an all or nothing situation of union. Typically both sides are always fighting but now they are one just like how the loss of the coin signifies there are no sides and only one answer. That's really cool!!

Also Batman beating down Harvey and this scene causing the loss of sympathy for his long time friend also makes it clearer why. Actually this writing helped me better understand Bruce's feelings toward Harvey even though it happened the same way in the comic. Bruce has a long line of patience for people who have wronged him. He's sometimes acts like an abused partner in a relationship which is why I feel so bad for him and mentioned some time earlier that I always forgive him for almost anything. I just feel bad for Bruce because he's gone through so much but he also self blames so much and lets criminals like Harvey go out of loyalty and love towards a friend.

However this scene is the feather on the camel's back because even though Harvey was once his friend, the second he beats up Dick he has become irredeemable. He can never forgive anyone who beats up his son and in a way this becomes Bruce's character growth arc too.

All in all this scene is pretty well written wow.

"From here it goes somewhat the same, only tiny other change I’ll do here is that Bruce gives Dick one last chance to prove to him that he’s capable of being Robin. He’ll have Dick on an undercover assignment to investigate some disappearances of some youths in Gotham on the streets, and have a small tracker Dick then can tap onto to call him in once he finds the source. Therefore, Dick can still encounter the Academy under Shirke"

I think this is a great idea! I like the comic version too where Dick cleaverly tricks and lures Freeze into a trap and captures him neatly for the Gotham police.

Robin: Year One Issue #3

This whole scene!!! I just live for Dick being the bane of all the criminals' existence.

"You annoying little gnat!"

"oh."

"I've been planning this operation for months, you little snot."

"...blasted meddling child..."

And the beginning too!

Robin: Year One Issue #1

Robin: Year One Issue #2

The criminals are just not having it!

"Yellow cape. Little pixie boots."

The way they describe him is hilarious too-

"little pixie boots"

It's funny how more than being done in, it rankled villains how they were done in by an elementary schooler who wore a bright canary yellow cape and little pixie boots. Robin dick grayson era was wild.

I love the continuation into Shrike though! The only reason I would have for sticking with the canon one is because it would be hilarious getting Bruce's reaction on Dick sneaking away to train under the league of assassins because he was mad at his dad. The first time Dick ran away, he became trained with the LoA and the second time he ran away, he got caught up in a cult. Dick just has some really crazy luck.

[gimmemore14]

“That why he’s here?” Hood ask, pressing against Dick’s cheek for emphasis. “You’re just acting neighborly?”

“In a way, think of him as a welcome gift,” Maroni explains magnanimously. “My family doesn’t have the infrastructure to hold him long term and trying to sell him will likely bring more heroes to our door… we just wanted to see if you’re interested before we dispose of him.”

“You think dealing with Nightwing is a gift? He’s a fucking full time job,” Hood scoffs.

“Clearly, you can handle him.” Maroni laughs pointedly. “You can kill him if you’d like, he’s yours to do whatever with. I mean, he’s awfully pretty for a man...”

“A pretty pain in the ass.”

The mobster chuckles before sighing thoughtfully, collecting his thoughts while puffing on his cigar.

“Listen, we all know about your vendetta against Batman. I don’t know what he did to you but I’m sure you have good cause. I want Nightwing off my hands and I wanted to offer him to you as a gesture of good faith.” Dick grits his teeth as they talk about him like he isn’t here too, under Hood’s heavy weight. “You’ve been in Gotham awhile now, so I’m sure you’ve come to the same conclusion that everyone else has; you hurt the Bat through his Robin. Lately the newest Robin has been glued to his hip, but the original? That’s gonna hurt him too, he has to be a favorite.”

Red Hood is silent. Nightwing desperately wishes he could see his face or read his body language, but the man’s expression, like Dick’s vision, is covered. He pushes off of Dick and barks at Maroni’s men, “Stand him up.”

Hands latch onto him before him can move, they pick him up and slam him against the wall. Without his sight it’s disorienting, he bites back a groan as his head cracks against the wood.

Red Hood’s voice is cruel as he asks, “Where’s Daddy Bats? Shouldn’t he be here by now?”

Nightwing rolls his eyes under his ruined mask, villains and their ideas of grandeur. “Nah he called and said he didn’t think you’re important enough to deal with.”

The goons on either side of Dick leap away as Red Hood rushes him. He doesn’t have time to put his bound hands up in defense before Hood crashes into him and uses his weight to trap him against the wall. The mobster’s thick forearm cuts off Dick’s breathing, his mouth gaping trying to get air.

It’s an eerie feeling for him, knowing Hood’s face is close enough that he can feel the smallest amount of air escaping the man’s mask on his cheek and yet, he sees nothing but the red spray paint across his mask.

“I’d hope Batman wouldn't make the same mistake twice.” Hood’s voice is controlled, just barely, Dick uses it as his only anchor as spots begin to fill his already dark vision.

His throat makes a pathetic sounding gurgle and in an unexpected act of mercy, Red Hood moves his forearm down from Dick’s throat.

“How about this, I’ll let you pick, Birdy.” Hood says, his body still pressed tightly against Nightwing’s as the vigilante desperately tries to catch his breath. “You want to take your chances with the Maroni’s hospitality or risk my unknown capacity for mercy?”

Dick wants to rub his throat. It hurts. He clears it once, twice, before trying to speak. He needs to keep talking: to stall, to decide- if Red Hood is actually serious- which option would be better.

“A real Sophie’s Choice, if you ask me,” He croaks to keep up appearances.

Red Hood’s voice modulator makes a sound not unlike a laugh. “Choose, now. No time to scheme or calculate…”

As Dick opens his mouth to stall, what feels like the business end of his escrima shoves into it. His heart beat ticks faster, the last setting he had it on was powerful enough to stun a meta, the damage it could cause in such a vulnerable area would be permanent.

Hood sighs as if he’s being indulgent, “I’ll give you three seconds to choose before I light you up… Three, two-“

“You!” Dick garbles desperately around the escrima.

“You.” He repeats clearer as Hood retracts the weapon from his mouth. Dick cringes, feeling the strings of saliva still attached as the man lowers it.

“Hmm, I guess I’ll take him then,” Hood says, patting Nightwing’s cheek condescendingly. “Since he’s so adamant about it.”

As Maroni and his men laugh around Dick, his face heats up in embarrassment, but he wasn’t going to risk Hood electrocuting him. He’s got a week until they move the victims, he’ll have plenty of time to go after the Maroni Family once he escapes Red Hood, but right now he needs more info on the newcomer.

“Would you like my doctor to prepare a sedative? He’s not huge but it took a lot to put him out the first time. It’d be no issue to do for you, my friend,” Maroni offers.

Nightwing can’t help his lip curling up into a snarl.

“I’ll manage,” Red Hood responds ominously before Dick hears the crackle of his own escrima stick.

He doesn’t have time to protest as it’s shoved into his stomach. Wing convulses before true darkness overtakes him.

[dracenavibes]

Ok guys so I have been thinking about the fact that we know so little about “demon lore” in kuro and that Yana stated she will never expand on it.

And honestly I think thats awesome. Just imagine the huge shift in tone if we suddenly had a bunch of other demons and superpowers and demon society etc. (season 2 doesn’t exist for my mental health) And yes we have a bunch of other supernatural characters (mostly grim reapers ) but I think they don’t really take away from the vibe of the story (or rather add to it with their break from the victorian aesthetic)

And they are also important for stakes, I mean they are natural enemies to Sebastian, it’s their job to collect souls and demons steal them. We need a foe who is on par with Sebastian (which is why UT is so great)

On a different note it would also destroy Sebastian’s character, never really knowing what is going on behind his facade. What really is just his role and what is his true personality? All this mystery around him makes him a much more interesting character for this kind of story and adds to the horror element of kuro. I mean he is kind of the main villain from a certain point of view and knowing all about him and his powers and origin would damage this role for him.

Lastly the mystery also helps strengthen the main theme. Mostly a faustian contract is a metaphor for people being so greedy, or in Ciel’s case desperate, to give away their very essence what makes them them, to loose quite literally everything. So in that sense Sebastian’s demonhood is a device that strengthens the symbolism of the darker themes of the story and I personally love it.

In conclusion I completely understand why Yana wouldn’t want to take away from all the points mentioned earlier. I also understand that peopel are curious and like to explore Sebastian’s demon nature more (which is showcased by some very cool concepts I saw in fanfiction) and I wholeheartedly encourage anyone to do so in the fandom, but having the details of Sebastian’s nature obscure in cannon is in my opinion the better choice

What is your opinion on this?

[ultraviolet-cello]

Aw man. Today's the last day of @tristampparty and I am surprisingly sad about it. I'll be catching up the days I missed at some point, but I've chucked all that I've written, including today, into a google document and I apparently wrote 7.5k words over the course of episode 6 to today.

That's! A Lot!

I really wanna thank everyone who reblogged and gave me their additional thoughts/commentary, and special thanks to Revenantghost for organizing this whole thing! you do good work for this fandom i am giving u a gold star

With that, here we go into Episode 0 - High Noon at July. CWs for pregnancy discussion and a less detailed than last time but still present analysis of sexual assault and transphobia, marked with a [CW] Ofc, spoilers for Trimax and Tristamp

Cowboy kid Knives is something u can pry from my cold dead hands but it's also,,, I don't watch a lot of westerns, but the way Knives describes it seems like he likes the high action and justice. Which yea. yeah.

A lot of ppl interpret Vash then saying that he doesn't like that sorta stuff as him having always had pacifistic tendencies but I don't really read it that way? I just see him being rather similar to Trimax Vash - chill kid with his own interests and hobbies and Knives being the very oversensitive kid so outshines him initially.

Regardless of version of Trigun (except 98. 98 didn't know shit about knives lmao), Vash and Knives have always started off wanting to coexist and be peaceful; it's just how they reacted to it later that differs. In this case, Knives wants to stand up for his friends and make a peaceful world through that, and Vash is more passive in that he just wants to have faith in humanity.

Not to mention they are kids. Young, idealistic kids. This is pre-Tesla, they don't know the extent of how horrible the world is. The loss of innocence and subsequent breakdowns relating to The Horrors is yet to come.

[CW] Mmmmm they really don't make the pregnancy imagery subtle now do they dfgkjdfjk

I also think there's like - merit in also interpreting Knives as trans. Not Just because i think he's also very trans coded (A lot of his breakdowns and story arcs have reflections in how some trans men overcompensate masculinity in a Bad Way. That's a very small subsection of trans guys btw but I am speaking from experience. I got better tho). Anyway it makes the fact that Knives is disregarding Vash's bodily autonomy very much Worse if you take the male plants are trans analogy into it.

He's so far gone that he's willing to do to Vash what would be the worst thing to be done to him; Violating his body to rebuild and make him a perfect independent ("remind him of biological reality"), physically overpowering him ("taking the aggressor, commonly masculine role in sexual assault") to do what he wants. Disregarding the wants and needs of the Plants ("women +fem-presenting ppl that he originally set out to protect because he knew their experience and wanted to help and still has that trauma from witnessing that trauma")

Ofc that's just a reading of the scene, but I quite like it as a trans guy because that makes a really good villain with trans themes/motifs! I hate him so much (affectionate)

No, no she doesn't. Meryl is making a choice and she's gonna damn well stick to it! She's been given agency and she's gonna spend it in the most eldritch horrific scene that someone on that planet could spend it lmao. Well, no Knives takes most eldritch and horrific. Meryl's second tho

Okay this fucking scene drives me INSANE. This is a memory, clearly, but it's one that's being tampered with. Vash asks Knives if they can get along with humans, and then Knives immediately messes with the memory to make sure that he says that he'll protect Vash no matter what. But that is very clearly not what was originally said, so... What did he say? What was present day Knives so desperate to cut off?

I've talked about the narrative being biased against Knives a lot, but something I haven't talked about is that Knives kinda tries to contribute to that narrative a lot. He wants to seem like he never cared about humans, he wants to seem like he always planned this and was going for justice ever since he was a kid. He tells Vash the Tesla incident was just a small grain of sand, he uses Luida to tell everyone he wants to kill Rem, he's unbearably cruel to Vash to make his point. The only difference is that he wants to be right.

So he doesn't let us see what the kid version of him says, because that would contradict the narrative he's built for himself.

I really wanna give props to Studio Orange here for both the design and way they modelled the wing here, that's a really difficult task when the guy you're putting a wing on has a tight as hell bodysuit. But the anatomy holds up surprisingly well!

Also many people have pointed out that the plant mech looks a lot like Rem, and Knives staring into the face of a Plantish representation of his mother that is created and controlled subconsciously by his brother and saying he was rejected is. It sure is a scene!

ONCE AGAIN. INCREDIBLE EFFECTS. I also would like to once again point out the angelic motifs of Knives' design here.

Also Vash saying this is SO important because Meryl!!! is so important!!! I see a lot of people brush Meryl's space in the story off and it Enrages me because Meryl is one of the most important people to Vash. Aside from our frontline yaoi soldier Nicholas D. Wolfwood, Meryl has one of the most tangible impacts on Vash's character.

When Vash is in his breakdown in Trimax, Meryl is the one to kneel at his side and believe in him; When Vash is having his god awful horrible mindscape time in Tristamp, Meryl does the same. When Meryl is kidnapped in Trimax, Vash instantly jumps out of a window in the chance of getting her back. Vash trusted her enough to fire the ion cannon in the sand steamer episode. He immediately went to July the moment she and Roberto were kidnapped.

Meryl has so much faith in Vash and she's insane for that, but Vash recognizes her and that faith pays off in giving him the strength to carry on. He heard her voice, too :]

Also oh to be floating slowly down to the floor while you're a meter away from a cube with the power of an atom bomb while someone named Millions Knives is summoning millions of knives in front of u. Meryl has guts, man.

And now that Vash has gotten his gun back, he's back to using it as a tonfa! (check I think my analysis of episode 7 for more on that). Watching for the swing blocks, the forearm guard, and thwacking the knife tendrils out of the way

This fight scene has soooo much love and care and detail in it I love it so much actually. From seeing Vash's bullets to all the expressions and beautifully detailed firing, there's so much detail in a quick space that you really have to slow it down to see everything.

Seriously how strong is Knives to be able to have a feasible chance again Vash's prosthetic - and Vash matches him! Also the chomp

Now something that I have the shakiest of theories on is that after summoning The Cube, Vash starts moving in a far more controlled manner, he stands still when reloading, he has his movement flurries and then stands still to aim. Which uh. Studio Orange works in 3d, but those are 2d animation techniques. He's moving like 98 Vash.

There's a lot I admire about Studio Orange's use of 3d (I am a mid-tier 2d artist lmao) but I love love love that they're able to get all these really nice, creative camera shots that would be impractical in 2d (all those overhead shots, for example, have a chance of turning about bad/looking weird in 2d, and puts more strain on animators, but 3d you have the models from every angle already. 3d isn't easier by any means, but it does have its strengths)

Also. how Did Wolfwood get over here, dare I ask. mans climbed a tower in just a few minutes what is Wrong with him

Also a nice detail, Vash usually has perfect trigger discipline, but he falters here against Knives, probably because he's been already shooting, but hey, he's stressed. I'll give him a break.

I also appreciate exactly how superhuman Wolfwood is now. Tristamp Wolfwood is on a different level. Like 98 Wolfwood is just some (attractive) guy, Trimax Wolfwood has a lot of gory body horror going on and a subtle kind of endurance/strength, but Tristamp Wolfwood just jumped off a very tall building holding a grown woman and the Punisher and was fine.

Oh hey, same symbol on the tower as was on the sandsteamer and on Vash's wanted poster - symbol of July, probably

Very horribly, Knives probably did just save Vash's life here. But also the rest of July's life (though ofc he just extended the timer)....

I'm not quite sure When Vash started using plant bullets, but he's definitely using them now. Also the nails on his prosthetic are a nice touch!

THE FLYING SAUCER STRIKES AGAIN. I wonder if that's gonna be the basis of the Ark, if that's the route season 2 goes.

I also. Was that allI the Plants collected that escaped in this, or were there a bunch still running in July that get obliterated too? Did Knives inadvertently cause the death of more plants? I mean, when Knives gets revived in Trimax he definitely causes the death of at least 2 plants (there are a couple of bulbs in the background of the blast radius, plus the one that was used to revive him... she uh. Didn't look like she was doing so hot)

Vash's little speech is always so,,, intense. He has such a strong sense of character and it's admirable how well he sticks to his morals despite it all.

On a more body horror note, Knives can survive a long fucking time trying to grab The Cube. In Trimax he gets hit with the angel arm and practically disemboweled instantly, but Tristamp Knives can take over a minute of just like. being right in the direct path of fire. They're really gonna have to work to reconstruct him. Good luck, Legato!

UFO SPOTTED !!! LEAVING JULY AS IT IS DESTROYED !! NOT CLICKBAIT !!!

^ I made that long ago and needed to use it somewhere dfgkjdfg

[RAUCOUS CHEERING]

And ofc I have to bring up Eriks :] I don't actually have too much to say abt him. Studio Orange strip this man and make him bark like a dog next season or we will riot

CHRONICA MENTION!!!!! YAYYYYYY

And that's kinda. It.

Man I have had such fun over the last 12 days, I've really discovered a love for analyzing and theories and putting that out there and chatting with people about Trigun :] I should do this more often lmao but I do want to get back to drawing. I'll find a balance, then!

Thank you all for coming, and Wow if you made it this far I must be doing something right lmao.

[jzargo]

I have a few criticisms for the endgame of Baldur's Gate 3, but one of my big ones is that the Netherbrain is...not a good villain.

Yes, we've been hearing about the 'Absolute' the entire game. The mysterious god who has a vast, terrifying cult under her control. The mystery builds and builds until you discover, at the end of Act 2, that the Absolute is in fact an Elder Brain being puppeteered by the Chosen Three (one of whom was the main villain of Act 2). Throughout all this time, there is also the mystery of the Dream Visitor.

We then spend the entirety of Act 3 dealing with the remaining Chosen and the revelation that the Dream Visitor is the Emperor. The Netherbrain is a looming threat, but it is abstract in comparison to the real, tangible threats that are Orin, Gortash, and the Emperor.

And none of them are the final boss.

Yes, depending on your actions, the Emperor may ally with the Netherbrain at the very end; but at that point he has become a puppet of the Netherbrain; another thrall, a stepping stone to reaching the true threat: the Netherbrain.

But it is just exhausting to go through fighting Orin and Gortash, to only then have to go against the Elder Brain and sit through a scene where no matter what you do, no matter what you roll or what choices you make, the same outcome always occurs: the Netherbrain breaks free and a bigger and even more exhausting end battle waits for you.

The game tries to spin it so that the Netherbrain was actually the secret mastermind the entire time - manipulating the Chosen Three and biding its time - but it just doesn't feel earned. They've already done a villain switcheroo on us: the Absolute isn't a god, it's an Elder Brain being controlled by the Chosen of the Dead Three. Switching it back and saying "Psych! The Netherbrain was the real final boss the entire time" feels cheap. What's more, the Netherbrain just isn't a compelling villain.

I know Dragon Age and Baldur's Gate comparisons are tired at this point, but look at Dragon Age: Origins. The Archdemon may be the final boss, but the villain most people talk and engage with is Loghain. He's compelling, he has motivations and drives, and depending on what background you picked his actions could have serious repercussions for your characters' friends and family. Loghain is the villain; the Archdemon is just a big monster. And it's the same with the Netherbrain.

Just look at how people are engaging with the characters; there's a plethora of meta being written about Thorm, Gortash, Orin, and the Emperor. I'm not seeing the Netherbrain get that same level of interaction. Though it is sentient and has its desires (the Illithid Grand Design), it's just a slightly more intelligent Big Monster that needs slaying. And for an RPG, a game that should be character focused, that is an immensely disappointing final boss.

I think instead, depending on player choice, one of the three Act 3 antagonists - Orin, Gortash, or the Emperor - ascends, takes full control of the Netherbrain, and they're who you have to fight. The final battle has more impact that way - you're fighting against a villain who has actual character, who you potentially have built an actual relationship and history with, and who you actually care about fighting. Imagine how satisfying it would be for the final battle to be against Gortash if you're playing Origin Wyll or Karlach? How much more tragic it would be if the Dark Urge's duel with Orin was the final battle instead of a mid-Act 3 moment? How earned it would feel for it to be the Emperor you're fighting against if you've spent the entire game being manipulated by him?

There are a plethora of interesting and compelling villains in Baldur's Gate 3, and for some reason none of them are the final boss. The final boss is just a big monster. And that's such a big letdown.

[livefromcastledracula]

So, what are your general thoughts on more modern takes on Carmilla that make the titular vampire more sympathetic or outright heroic (anti or otherwise).

I'd say there's probably a lot more room for that kind of reinterpretation compared to, say, Dracula given she was already treated with a certain degree of sympathy in the original novella (but well also a vampiric serial killer and *GASP* a LESBIAN ).

Tricky one! I think there is probably more room for 'redemption' with Carmilla than Dracula, because there's a certain ambiguity around her whole character. The novella never makes it 100% clear whether she is just a gaslighting predator toying with her next victim or a lonely immortal trapped in her own impulses. A lot of the things she says and does are similarly mysterious and have multiple potential meanings, including suggestions that she's trying to make a companion out of Laura (and similarly may have tried and failed with Bertha) out of a mixture of vampire compulsion and actual loneliness and longing.

She unquestionably lies, she has unquestionably killed a lot of young women, she unquestionably wishes to turn Laura into a vampire, but she was also herself the victim of a vampire at a young age and how much of all of that is her choice and how much of it is vampiric compulsion is up in the air. Similarly I don't think it's entirely fair to Carmilla to take Vordenburg's account of vampires or Laura's status as a reliable narrator entirely at face value.

So I think particularly given the queer subtext, and changing views around how to read and contextualise that, there's a lot more room for stuff like the Canadian web series (which I love with my whole soul, so I'm totally not biased here) giving us a new take on Carmilla.

Dracula has already had his woobiefication / romantic antihero era and I think it's interesting in the wake of Daily Dracula to see more people seeing him / depicting him as a cruel, gaslighting abuser with undertones of serial r*pist, which, I think, was certainly Stoker's intent with the character. The much more aggressive way his feeding scenes are written compared to the dreamlike, surrealistic Carmilla visitations certainly helps this (oof, the Mina scene never fails to turn my stomach).

I remember reading someone's quite sensible take that a flaw in readings of Dracula is that, by categorizing it as a gothic novel, readers start searching for the central Byronic antihero that typifies the genre, the flawed, stormy, romantic, dark, tragic figure like the Phantom of the Opera or Frankenstein's Creature, or indeed, Carmilla...and Count Dracula just ... isn't that, he's a pure despicable villain, but he's the title character so people try to force him into that role.

I think that's a fair take away.