#it's not going to change even if you make a prequel game to retcon

[bigboobshaunt]

The style for the Bayonetta prequel IS gorgeous, but it's so hard to care about what it exists for.

[midnightkolrath]

Looking over 'Fire Inside' abit more deeply

Well, with my first impressions I put out when the full lyrics weren't out yet and I was playing it by ear....

Well NOW the lyrics are out there, so you know what that means. Time for me to look them over and see what each part may mean...in my own thoughts, of course.

Putting under a Read More because it gonna be a kinda long one. I thank anyone who takes the time to humor me in reading my thought dumps;;

Video note: Visuals show Dante during this first part, so its likely meant to be taken in his perspective...buuut I'll take time to see it in the eyes of both twins, whenever possible. It later swaps to Vergil visually for a section of lyrics too, buuut I'll probably condense both twins there too. I'll color code each one based on how the video had either Dante, Vergil or Both in visuals.

I'm also obviously gonna go over each lyric once, since songs are songs and repeat their chrous, ect. I probably won't note down EVERY bit of lyric, but pretty much ones that I have thoughts on.

I know its been stated that the song is pretty much about Dante and Vergil, buuut some other thoughts/ideas sneak in too.

Also another note: I know this song was made for the mobile game, Peak of Combat, but the fact that it takes place around the DMC3 era with some...[cough] liberties, I'm gonna focus alot on that.

-

Darkened Dynasty Endless Rivalry Meeting Violently You can't change me

[Darkened Dynasty] may be referring to Dante's general thoughts about his father during this point of time, as the setting is based around DMC3. Dante has distaste towards his father at this point in time, even telling Vergil that he "has no father" during their first encounter. He really has sour feelings against his father's side, so he may feel that its on the darkened end for him.

On Vergil's end, it may be him feeling that his lack of power that he feels he has is affecting him in a sense that he feels he can't live up to his father's legacy while also having feelings of failure in protecting his mother. Hell, his whole quest to gain power is majorly in part due to the trauma he suffered following his mother's death and the fact that he had to force himself to grow up almost immediately after his family was attacked by demons. He was 7-8 years old then and had alot of time roaming alone to stir and think about it. The conclusion of him personally thinking he was a failure in several cases to his family while thinking he should take up his father's power because he feels himself best to utilise it....alot of layers there. I could go on more here but we'd be here for ages, lmao

[Endless Rivalry] is obviously referring to the rivalry between the twins. When you think about it, Sibling Rivalry is pretty endless…regardless if its on a lighter end or not. Its always gonna be there, in one shape or form. Of course, by this point during DMC3, the rivalry of Dante and Vergil is at their peak on the goal of just wanting to best the other in pure combat. In the first fight, there's really only aggression with the goal of putting the other down. Of course, it eventually simmers down into a more casual rivalry with a light competitive edge by the end of DMC5, buuut you know.

[Meeting Violently] is pretty much how Dante and Vergil pretty much always meet when crossing paths....the DMC1 prequel novel (well, before Gilver was retconned as a clone made by Mundus), the DMC3 manga and game, DMC1 with Vergil as Nelo Angelo, and DMC5 after Vergil reunites himself. Though the tone is different per each situation, its like they're destined to always meet again this way...though after DMC5, that'll likely change with their relationship slowly turning around.

-

First its Ebony Then its Ivory Making Revelry You can't save me

The [ebony and ivory] lines are very much obviously Dante's perspective, with how he always pulls them out for a fight...buuut seeing as how the twins often clash, I would see this from Vergil's perspective on what he may see while they fight.

[Making Revelry] is a fun one, because revelries tend to refer to parties....which Dante and Vergil quip about during their first fight in 3. Dante jokes about how much the "party" Vergil set up for them sucks, while Vergil responds with how he was "so excited to see him that he couldn't concentrate on preparations for the bash". So this line can be referring to their clash as a "party" they're making together through combat.

[You can't save me]...oh boy. I wouldponder this one for Dante's case, but here I can't help but think about the end of 3 and how Dante was able to save his brother from falling into the demon world. I do wonder if Dante thought, in his perspective that he knew he couldn't save Vergil but he still had to try. In Vergil's case...I think he felt the same. He threw away the sheath to Yamato upon preparing to fight Mundus after all...which usually means that either it wasn't going to be a fight he was going to back down from....or he knew it was a slim chance of victory. He tosses aside Yamato's sheath in DMC5 as well, before splitting himself into V and Urizen....which makes me believe in both cases it was moreso that he knew he likely wasn't going to survive as his full self again...or he wasn't backing down his decision.

-

Can't stop and I will never hit the breaks All nine levels and no matter what it takes All these places and their shadow figured shapes Bouta make their last mistakes There are no more escapes

Now this whole part screams Dante for me, honestly...which I mean, makes sense.

[Can't stop and I will never hit the breaks] is like Dante hyping up to do what he does best in demon slaying. He's usually a loose cannon, especially at this age, so it makes sense.

[All nine levels] is a cheeky one, because its very likely referring to the 9 circles of hell in Dante's Inferno. Which...you know. Is where Dante got his namesake alongside the Divine Comedy. (Well its moreso the poet himself, who uuuh practically wrote self insert fanfics but ya know-).

The rest of the lyrics is pretty much Dante raving about getting to kick demon ass as per usual. Like hell yeah, slay those demons. I could see this as a like on Vergil's end too, with how he's usually ruthless against demons that get in his way.

-

Branches Entwine Through the dark so we can find Ourselves in time

Before we lose our mind

These bunch of lyrics have me thinking on how this may refer to Dante and Vergil's paths always being intertwined with each other as the sons of sparda. DMC3 has a moment of Dante even pointing out that they're the halves of the same whole, with carrying the soul of their father's legacy. So...its like destiny. Even if its not a direct involvement too...Nero came from Vergil, so Vergil's shadow is felt in nearly every game one way or another. (2 is practically the only exclusion but....2 is 2 soo...).

I also wonder if it could also be referring to how the twins may be looking to find 'themselves' in time before their next conflict....before its too late. Dante goes through an arc in 3 to find a reason for himself to ultimately keep going and attempt to stop his brother....and it keeps going from place to place from there. Vergil mainly has his big arc in 5 and pretty much the VoV manga, since V is a part of himself. It took Vergil longer, but with Bury the light, he did manage to eventually find himself again. DMC5 could've ended up in the 'too late' puddle had Nero not intercepted the two, but thankfully that wasn't the case and the two brothers are reunited on a lighter field where they easily could've killed each other.

-

All lain aside It's written in our blood Two souls divide

[Its written in our blood, Two souls divide]. Now this not only has me thinking about the whole two souls line near the climax of the game, but also the fact that the tower needs the twins' blood to open the gate to the demon world. (Also Lady's, but you know, parts of a whole puzzle).

-

Our roots beneath the flood We've lost control Angels with bells do toll No we can't hide The fire inside

[Angels with bells do toll] has me thinking about the tower in 3 and how it has bells which, iirc, represent the seven deadly sins. I think they're also meant to be like angels screaming/singing when rang which uh...I guess its not so much a fun fact, but its what I think of here. Still having that DMC3 ties here, lmaooo

[No we can't hide, The fire inside] is the main chrous and where the name of the song comes from and it pretty much sums Dante and Vergil's rivalry relationship. There's always gonna be that inner fire inside each of them that sparks that very rivalry.

-

Another casualty Done waiting patiently Call me your majesty Don't take too long

[Another casualty, Done waiting patiently] is like...for me, its either referring to the fact that...you know. Many people likely died when the tower was risen up in 3 and how Vergil was pretty much done and set towards his path at that point. OR the many demons Vergil had slain while getting where he needed to go in the tower while waiting on Arkham to let him know that Dante still had and was taking care of his half of the amulet.

[Call me your majesty] has me pondering if its a foreshadow towards Vergil splitting into Urizen, who takes the mantle of Demon King. With V fusing back with him to bring about Vergil's rebirth...he's still technically a Demon King, right? He ate the fruit to carry that title, so...well. I mean. Its not like the demons in the demon realm would accept a son of sparda holding the title, until he'd put them in their place over it. Man, now I'm curious about that. Maybe one day we'll see that in play...maybe not. Its a silly side thought.

[Don't take too long] has me wondering if this is Vergil waiting at the top of the tower in 3 for Dante to come along so they can have their clash...or Vergil's inner thoughts on telling himself not to take too long in gaining the power he wants.

-

It's my reality Under the canopy Of moonlit tragedy I don't belong

[It's my reality, Under the canopy, Of moonlit tragedy] are lyrics I wanted to cover all in a row here. I think they may be referring to how Vergil sees his own reality under the cover of not just conflict with his brother at the top of the tower in the path of gaining power...atleast that's how I see the moonlit tragedy connecting, obviously...but also...the attack against his family back when he was a child took place at night. (Atleast that's what I take from the context of the depiction from VoV), so...moonlit tragedy could also refer to that. Probably thinking abit too hard there, but I can see it appliable there too.

[I don't belong] has me thinking abit on how this may be referring to how Vergil thinks he doesn't belong among humanity (he looks down on them after all early on), OR how he personally feels he doesn't belong with his brother. He did put out an offer to Dante in the DMC3 manga to join him in his personal quest, but Dante obviously turned it down. The lyric kinda reminded me of that. They're all the family they have left for each other, but their souls and goals are so at odds that it just wasn't meant to be....until DMC5 that is. Now they're together through thick and thin.

-

Can't stop and I will never veil my name Buried lights and I've hidden all my shame Will keep fighting till there's nothing left to claim Watch my blade is taking aim And you're gonna end in flame

[Can't stop and I will never veil my name] has me thinking about the lyric from Bury the Light. 'I am the reclaimer of my name'...I'm curious if its a cheeky reference, and I wouldn't doubt it. The lyric has me think that this is Vergil stating that he won't stop on his path to power and never lose sight of his goals...but alas, with how DMC3 ends, he not only ends up losing that for himself but he literally does lose his name. Mundus reshapes him into Nelo Angelo rather than 'Vergil'. So with Bury the Light, and how there's a lyric about how he reclaims his own name, I've kinda always seen that as him reclaiming who he is...especially after his rebirth.

[Buried lights and I've hidden all my shame] is another cheeky Bury the light reference I'm sure. I wanna do a deeper dive on the lyrics of that song down the line, especially with how Casey himself has put down the general meaning and storytelling of it. But here I see that Vergil's trying to bury parts about himself...namely the trauma he's had to endure in his childhood. The "shame" he sees himself having, all to do with that one tragic moment. What matters to him is power and never having to feel so weak and helpless again....as much as he even shoves the real reason for wanting power in the first place. Its why V laments about it in the VoV manga, I feel. Vergil is never one to really show any hint of vulnerability for himself...with us only being able to even see it through V.

[Will keep fighting till there's nothing left to claim] is a lyric I think just generally just fits Vergil. He wants power and won't let anyone stand in his way for his pursuit of it. Urizen is like a VERY clear showcase of that. I'm also thinking about DMC3's ending with him trying to take on Mundus and being so determined to even try. Plus his final fight with Dante and wanting to claim force edge.

-

Inside of me Don't push beneath Now I must prey Don't drift away

These lyrics, I'm like...I'm thinking about Devil Trigger (Which is more Nero's theme, but I'm mentioning anyway due to the lyrics I'm thinking of) and Subhuman....and how there's parts that refer to struggling to control the inner demons inside. I always thought about how Dante, Vergil and Nero have their DT forms and how that side of them is probably hard to control at times. Vergil, I feel, eventually controls it more sooner (Which makes sense since he picked up on getting DT first over Dante).

-

I'm not possessed I just can't rest All trees decay Endless dismay

[All trees decay, Endless dismay] has me wondering like...whoa is this referring to the 'family tree' and how the Sparda family is pretty much just....broken in many respects. Tragically. Part of my mind brings me to the tree in DMC5 but I have a high chance on it not referring to that. :' P

Dante also ends up losing Vergil at the end of 3, which contributes to the whole 'family tree being symbolizing as decaying' because...wow, Dante lost the other other family member he had left. And it affects him ALOT afterwards.

-

I've said before that there's a reason why I like this song and its grown on me and I think I've showcased why abit, hah. Its good when you dig deeper into it, just like Devil Trigger and Bury the Light.

[radnewspaperroom]

I was washing dishes and had a thought.

Spoilers past here if you haven't completed the story, so I'm only warning you once!

A lot of exchange Students who use Twitter are worried that the OG Obey Me game isn't going to be getting as much love once Nightbringer comes around.

After 3 or 4 years, you don't get any more birthday or anniversary calls, and we've been at Lesson 80 for darn near almost a year

They also had a line in the newspaper picture about making OM! Nightbringer even bigger and better than the OG, but that it's not stopping (I also noted that they didn't say the story would continue, just that it wasn't going anywhere. Their other apps didn't for a really long time)

What if they're gonna retcon everything in the OG?

The OM devs aren't shy about slyly retconning stuff to make the story work. Lucifer and Michael have changed what angels they are, Simeon has as well, and before the story was that when the boys fell--they met Diavolo's father. He gauged their power, gave them their order and titles.

Yet now, their sins have always been a part of them, but heavily suppressed in their angel days, and the devil king was already asleep underground when they came. According to Nightbringer, RAD didn't exist before the boys fell. But according to the Glory Days card for Lucifer, it did, and he went there on a tour once.

I suppose it could be explained away in, he didn't want to change out of his angel garb because he still considered himself an angel after the fall, being in denial, but then again, in the Lilith flashback he was aware and sad about it.

ANYWAY!

It really wouldn't surprise me if they decided to change MORE in Nightbringer to help the story fit. Or explained the changes that subtly happened like that in the OG was due to the events in Nightbringer.

What if they update from 81-90 or 100 and the last lesson is what sends MC to the past and erases their memory? Lesson 80 ends with MC talking to Solomon and him telling them to tell everyone hi for him before they zip back to the Devildom at will, having mastered teleport magic.

It sorta feels like a "and on and on it goes until the end of time" ending that some anime and manga take, leaving it up to interpretation, or it feels the start of a new season.

80-100 could be the events that lead up to MC meeting the mysterious figure that we see in some of the ads holding the clock. It'll also give us time to romance/get to know the new side characters: Mephistopheles, Raphel and Thirteen before the end.

I could easily see lesson 100 ending with "the story continues? In Obey Me! Nightbringer!"

Then we pick back up in OM! Nightbringer as both a sequel and a prequel and it totally changes everything?

A way to experience that first time feeling, but with characters we know and love because our interfering messes with the ending.

Kinda weird though, as OM was the first SWD game that broke away from their typical set up to Otome games.

I said before but I've played a LOT of Solmare games, and they usually went like this: a nondescript-ish (usually a thin, light skinned, brown haired) female would be thrown into a new situation, be helpless and depend on 1 of X amount of guys to defend her.

Depending on her choice, she could get a good, neutral or bad ending to THAT person's story. And each boys involvement with the story changed the ending of the overall tale. No ending was just a like.

I wonder if they're going back to that old model, in that we'll pair off with a boy and go down his route and experience the story in different ways, and getting different endings.

Plus it'll really feel weird with the rhythm gaming aspect, as far as I know, it's a first for Solmare. The rest of the games depended on chance, buying items and leveling up a doll version of your girl.

It used to really annoy me, because you'd need something like gems to get an ultra romantic version of a section of story disguised as a "choice". In it, you'd get super romantic lines and a beautiful picture to go with it, but without outright buying the needed gems or whatever they wanted, you had a snowballs chance in hell of seeing it.

Really really really really hope they don't go back to that

[mk-wizard]

Solid Snake: What NOT to do to your main character

I have a confession to make; when I was a teenager, I didn’t like Solid Snake because I found him lewd, macho and very rude, but in my adult life, I see now that this is all a facade. Underneath it all, Solid has my compassion to the fullest extent. This guy is a lonely, sad man who just wants his life to be own hence why he turns to lashing out and a plethora of addictions to gloss over his agony. With that said, while I now fully appreciate his character, I really, really, really HATE his end. And not just because he deserved better. I get that lots of heroes have tragic endings like Lee from Telltale Walking Dead, Galuf from Final Fantasy V, Anikan Skywalker from Star Wars and so on, but this is my argument as to why Solid’s end was a waste: he IS the reason for the Metal Gear franchise and it felt like the writers wanted to end his story somehow in such a way that there was no going back, but the path they chose... for a series that was so well written, having Solid become physically 80 at 42 and hint that he’s only got three months left feels like an excuse to end his story. Not a true ending. In other words, not only did Solid Snake deserve better, but the writers could also do better and deserved to showcase better of themselves than this.

The one takeaway I could get from how this iconic hero was ended was how NOT to end a series. It is one thing to kill your darlings and another to randomly kill them either for sensationalism or because you did not know what else to do. Sometimes, an open ending is better. In other words, have Solid age normally and get the chance to live free as a normal healthy man with the audience being left to wonder where he goes because now, he can do everything and anything. It is not a shut tight ending, but it is not super saccharine either. Not to mention that keeping your main character alive in an open ending leaves the possibility to pick up new ideas that are genuinely fresh. And no, I don’t mean prequels or side quest stuff that happened in between the beginning and end though that type of stuff can be great too. I am talking about true sequels in the main storyline. Metal Gear NEEDS Solid Snake. Sure, the new characters are great and interesting, but they don’t hold a candle to the face of Metal Gear. I mean, the lack of Donkey Kong is why the Donkey Kong Country sequels did not do well.

With that all said, I see no rhyme or reason why you cannot continue Solid’s story well after he is 42. After all, life does not end when you are in your forties. My husband can confirm this. And as Big Boss showed, sometimes, that is when it begins! Why not have a future Metal Gear game where Solid is living a normal happy life possibly married with a step/adoptive child and he gets pulled into action? Personally, I think that would be amusing and badass to see that civilian life did not make the guy go soft dad bod and all. Plus, what is wrong with seeing him be happy? It does not change anything that matters. Characters don’t have to miserable all of the time in order to be interesting. If anything, doing that can actually become pretty dull and kind of annoying at one point if not a bit creepy.

Normally, I am against retconning because I believe it is cheating most of the time, but for cases where a decision was clearly a mistake, I actually encourage it. I say let the Snake survive happy and healthy so that maybe he can fight another day. And even if he never does, at least the story ended with dignity. Don’t create drama or suffering for the sake of it and if you don’t know how to end a story yet, then in my experience, don’t. Be patient. Let it a proper one come to you naturally.

At least, this is my opinion. I want to know what yours is. Thank you for reading and as always, take care.

-Mary

PS: On behalf of people who got married and are raising kids (like me), please stop portraying our way of life as boring and holding us back. It isn’t. For some of us, it was thanks to this lifestyle that the best was able to come. Thank you.

[sir-yeehaw-paws]

kaz >:3c

OH BOY

Okay as a note I'm a little obligated to link this post I wrote about him some eons back because. Yeah.

Now then

hey. send me a character/ship and I’ll tell you

my general perception of them

I love Kaz. He is such a fascinating character. I love what they did with his story even though they had to write so much of it retroactively as he was more a character in the prequels than his already 'established as dead' bit from Metal Gear Solid and his 'long since retconned' background from the original Metal Gear 2 game. It's interesting to me that Kaz has such a 'grounded' background in a whacky backgrounds are the norm series that makes a lot of his situation feel all the more real and tangible. Kaz feels like one of the most 'truly human' characters in the series. Complicated as a person and messy, you always know what he's thinking because he's ranting or yelling it, but then you have to ask yourself 'well, do you though?" For someone who wears their emotions on their face and screams with the willingness of any sports coach, I feel like there's a whole bunch more happening that *doesn't* get said. And that bit is what I think about. He's incredibly intelligent, terrifyingly determined, unbearably stubborn and responsible for a lot of his own hardships, to some degree. I think it takes him a very long time to admit his own fault in certain on going events, and by the time he does, so much time has passed that there is very little he can do to change it. He has as many gritty, nasty personality traits as the rest of the people he's around-he's still, end of day, a person willingly in a war economy and someone who has been fighting and scraping since he left the womb.

an unpopular opinion or, failing that, a fun fact

Not so much a fact, but I am very drawn to the 'parasite AU' Kaz. I have thought about it extensively as an alternative universe and should really share more about it one day (and my personal headcanon design for what his would look like physically, since I do believe they'd possibly be different). Also compelled utterly by girl coded Kaz.

music i associate with them (if any)

Hmm. I wonder- Lemme chew on this one, as I am thinking about it but I wanna be sure.

if I feel (spiritually) like I could beat them in a fight

Nah, probably not. Not that I'd really try. He'd yell, I'd cry. We'd both end up embarrassed and walking away awkwardly. (Although Kaz is definitely a crier in my headcanons)

[willknightauthor]

Star Wars Head Canon Retcon: The Dark Side

Watching Andor has gotten me back into Star Wars, and going back through the original trilogy I'm realizing again how much potential there is in what's implied about the past. But then the prequels lock that potential into a very disappointing, fixed answer, which everything now has to work around. There are some workable things in the prequels, but they only work if you fill in the gaps with head canon, or refer to questionably-canon side works. So I've constructed my own head canon based on the original trilogy about what really happened in the prequels. Since George Lucas operated as though only the original movies were canon, and any of the novels were fair game to retcon, I'll do the same (although I'll at least try to keep the good modern shows like Andor and Rebels viable).

The Light and Dark Sides of the Force:

One of the problems I see in a lot of Star Wars works is that the light side is portrayed as simplistically good, and the dark side as simplistically evil. Sith ideology and personalities get smoothed over or ignored, and any story that tries to explain how someone "falls to the dark side" while staying in canon has a lot of trouble not being facile (looking at you, Anakin). This comes from the original trilogy, but everyone leaned into the simplistic binary when there were ways to lean out of it without retconning the original movies. Basically, the Sith are extremely underdeveloped and badly structured to be anything other than villains, which makes them terrible primary character material.

So how can we fix it? Clarify the philosophies of both the Jedi and the Sith, so that they represent not good and evil, but opposing views on life and society. The Jedi are inspired by Asian religions, like Daoism and Buddhism, but in a simplistic way; these religions have multiple schools and have changed throughout history. So I say, lean into the East Asian side of things. The dark side of the force presumably exists even without the Sith, so what is it? The force is life: what is the dark side of life? In my head canon, the light side is birth, growth, life, peace, and order, and the dark side is death, decay, passion, and disruption. Both sides are inevitable parts of the universe. They're unavoidable.

Now the dark side isn't evil, it's just dangerous--and it's easy to see how the Jedi could conflate danger with evil. These two views on the force have implications for the philosophies and structures of the Jedi and Sith. The light side of the force is cultivated by developing inner tranquility, self-discipline, and a detachment from the chaotic affairs of the world. The more they develop that, the stronger they become in the force, which is consistent with the original trilogy. The dark side is cultivated through passion, direct connection with people and things around you, and force of will. The more emotionally intense and fiery they become, the more they connect with the force--which is also consistent with the original trilogy. This vaguely corresponds to the "masculine" and "feminine" paths in mysticism, one side seeking to deconstruct the mind and reality to reach ultimate truth, the other side seeking to transcend the rational to understand that which cannot be spoken.

This has implications for the Sith, because someone can be passionate and invested in the world around them in ways other than hate, fear, and ambition. There are so many ways to experience the world through passion, like sorrow, joy, and love. You could have a Sith lord literally crushing armies with the power of friendship. The stereotypical Sith, at their best, wouldn't be Palpatine, it would be someone laughing while playing music in a graveyard. Someone who understands the painful impermanence of life, but chooses to embrace the ups and downs anyway. Someone who finds the tragedy in joy, and the joy in tragedy.

But as their emotions wax and wane, so would their connection to the force, which means the most powerful Sith would also have the most inner turmoil. The Jedi have the opposite problem: disruption to their inner equilibrium weakens their connection to the force, so they must constantly discipline themselves and control their environment to ensure their inner state isn't disrupted.

This means that the Jedi would have to live mostly secluded, monastic lives, while the Sith could live among everyday people normally. This reflects a distinction in actual world religions between monastic-oriented religions and lay-oriented religions, and Buddhism has had many movements to democratize Buddhist philosophy and practice for the masses. Some of these movements have even inspired anti-aristocratic revolutions. So in this division of the force, the Jedi are the old-school conservative monks, while the Sith are the fiery populists.

But of course there is a danger with relying on intense emotions for your power. Any emotion can become destructive at very high intensity, but certain emotions are more dangerous than others... like fear and hate. While some Sith would base their power on things like joy, others would base their power on hate, and it's totally reasonable for people to not want superpowered genocidal maniacs walking around.

The other danger is the dark side itself. The light side, being focused on life and stability, extends the life of the practitioner as they grow in their force connection; their body and mind become more stable. The dark side does the opposite, corroding the body and mind of the practitioner. Some Sith masters would live shorter lives, and those who live long, live long enough to go insane and devolve into the most extreme version of whatever they were.

This is how I explain Vader and Palpatine: they were not originally like that, the dark side warped their bodies and minds further in the direction of hate and fear. Palpatine doesn't look grotesque because he was injured, but just because he lived so long with such an intense connection to the dark side. And that's why he's comically evil: no-one like that could've taken power, but he wasn't always like that. He used to be unassuming and charming, now he's a decaying husk who says evil things with no filter. Similarly, Vader's body is decaying, and his wounds won't heal, so he's had to supplement his flesh with more and more machinery to survive.

So what would a good Sith look like? One who derives their power from their passionate commitment to justice and love of their friends? Ezra and Kanan, from Rebels.

And what would a good Sith look like, once the dark side has corroded their mind? Saw Gerrera from Rogue One.

[lightandfellowship]

The longer the Kingdom Hearts series go on, the more I’m starting to think that the origins of the Emblem Heartless maybe should have been retconned/revised early on.

Pretty much every game that takes place before KH1 keeps having to come up with new and zanier excuses for why we do/don’t fight Emblem Heartless. BBS had to create a new enemy type entirely with an origin story so specific that they couldn’t even re-use this enemy type in other games if said games didn’t feature Vanitas as a character. KHUX had to have their Emblem Heartless be projections from the future (an absolutely wild work-around). And KHDR has yet to explain why Emblem Heartless are attacking the worlds, though apparently KHML will be covering that.

Point is: every time the series wants to elaborate on events that occured pre-KH1, it keeps having to jump through a bunch of increasingly ridiculous hoops just to maintain the integrity of a single piece of lore from the very first game. This series has already dipped its toes into retcons multiple times at this point, so why can’t it retcon this? If Ansem in KH1 could have his ENTIRE IDENTITY retconned in KH2, surely altering the source of Emblem Heartless wouldn’t be too catastrophic of a change, right? You could still have the plotline about Apprentice Xehanort/Ansem SOD manufacturing artificial Heartless, but maybe make it so that he was lying in his reports about being the one to slap on the Emblem. He already lied about his identity and stole the name Ansem out of spite for Ansem the Wise, surely it wouldn’t be out of the question for him to (re)discover a new Heartless type, start manufacturing artificial versions of them, and then bend the truth to claim that they were entirely his creations and that he was the one who marked them as a means to distinguish them from Pureblood Heartless.

Like, I dunno. Would that be kind of OOC for Apprentice Xehanort/Ansem SOD to do? Maybe. I’m not an expert on how he should be characterized, to be honest. But I feel like this one change (or something similar to it) would neatly fix this problem that KH prequels keep running into.

[monbon-sidedish]

DMC4′s character writing and novels

I’m gonna get really mean here for a sec because I really have a lot of gripes with DMC 4′s story in general. But I have a lot to say about the characters as well, so I am absolutely going to rant.

For starters, everyone is super underwritten and cliched. That’s fine. Par for the course, even. They were making an action game and they were overworked as fuck just getting the game to have functional levels. So when it comes to the game, I can close my eyes and say ‘it’s just bad video game writing’ and move on. Whatever, you know?

(Disclaimer - I think games can and should be held to a higher standart for their writing and there are loads of games with genuinely incredible and artful stories. Thiw was true even before DMC 4 was released. However, there is a huge difference in the felixibility of the production schedules for visual novels, point-and-clicks, survival games, RPGs and action games. Even then, the scope of a team and the timeframe they have to work in can still fluctuate massively. If your goal is to get a working, finished product that can play well, then rushing through a servicable story and generic plot beats is a perfectly viable and sometimes necessary compromise.)

But there’s the novel, you see.

(Disclaimer - my criticisms have zero to do with the quality of the writing or translation, especially since the rewritten and reworked fan translation is very solid and reads perfectly fine and clear as a text. Everything I say is targeted at the plot and characterizations specifically)

I am not familiar with the general ‘gaming spinoff novel’ industry, though I think it’s not unfair to say it’s not some treasure trove of literary genius. I do not open a game-based novel with high expectations. I am not expecting to have my mind and soul blown. But I do expect better than a Wattpad fanfic, you know? 

The DMC4 novel really rubs me off the wrong way. To be fair, the plot of the game was already stupid, and they were probably too late in production to start changing stuff even if they wanted to. So the novel can’t retcon the whole game, I get that. A lot of things were vague enough in the story to be massaged gently and changed just a little though...

But the novel feels more focused on explaining the game’s mechanics in-universe than it is in humanizing any of these characters. It barely gets in any worldbuilding, which I wouldn’t care about if they hadn’t gone and created their quirky island demon cult. That’s a concept that deserves a little more detail than the absolute bare minimum, otherwise it feels extremely unconvincing. Instead, we only get repeats of information that’s either already stated or super obvious. What new information is revealed about the characters only makes everyone feel super flat and inconsequential.

I don’t understand why a prequel novel/retelling was necessary when it changes and expands on so little it’s basically just reading the actual plot of the game. Perfect for people who couldn’t play the game or watch an LP on youtube I guess? 

Really, uhh... the most descriptive scenes are literally the characters talking about their weapons or fighting a demon. Which... Okay, if I’m invested enough in DMC lore to want to read a companion novel for the game, why would I care about the exact way Nero’s gun shoots bullets? Why would I want to read three pages of a fight that’s already a five minute cutscene in the game COME ON

It kind of just saddens me that there’s a lot of potential angst and drama baked into the premise.

There’s a mysterious demon cult that hails Sparda as the savior of humanity, but in reality they’re exploiting their own people and using them as fodder for gaining their own power. Tried and true but a great setup for drama and horror. To me, this should then beg the question - how is this cult keeping these people? What are their manipulations tactics, how does day-to-day life function in this place, how do different people serve the cult, what are their duties and rituals, etc.

Nero has felt like he doesn’t belong his entire life. He was adopted into a loving family that accepted him and then his parents were killed, which made him question if the Order’s faith was worth anything. He’s abrasive as a defense mechanism, so he insists he likes working alone and clashing with people. But it certainly must hurt feeling isolated and disliked by people he’s known his entire life. Kyrie and Credo are important to him because they’re the only people who still accept him as he is (and they are his family??).

Credo carries a huge burden on his shoulders to protect a nation of people and be personally in charge for doing so. Meanwhile he’s Nero and Kyrie’s only guardian and support, who probably isn’t around nearly as much as any of them want to. He knows a lot of the Order’s secrets and has to hide them every day when he speaks to other citizens and soldiers, people he’s known his entire life. He tries to believe harder in his faith, hoping to ease his guilt, but it only makes him crueler to the people he deeply cares about.

And so much could’ve been done with Kyrie that didn’t boil her down to a fucking hot potato with cute googly eyes. There’s plenty of scenes that show how she’s overly optimistic to the point of being reckless and careless about her or other people’s safety (i.e. taking a bunch of kids on a walk in the woods with zero protection because, certainly, the Order is protecting us just fine!), she wants people to like her so so much she’s constantly doing favors for people and exhausting herself to do so. She’s just a normal girl that wants to live a happy and peaceful life. 

All of these can work great if only they weren’t used exclusively in a ‘Look at how Pure and Nice she is, she is the embodiment of a Kind Woman, a Nurturing Soul who will sacrifice herself to protect others because her Heart is So Kind. A True Saint~!’ kind of light. There are ways to write kindhearted and nurturing characters without making them hollow shells.

There’s also a lot of interspersed moments of worldbuilding that feel poorly thought out. Or at the very least, they’re a throwaway line with little to no elaboration.  

A fun example for the poor allocation of worldbuilding to me is the cult’s condemnation of guns and Nero’s Blue Rose. Guns being banned/taboo on the island is a fine concept on its own. Even outside of their own mythology (i.e. Sparda fought with a sword, so that is our weapon of choice), denying access to firearms and creating this taboo around them effectively makes the population weaker. 

If any person on Fortuna could get their hands on a gun, they could stand a chance against a demon or two, this would make them more confident and would thus take away the cult’s fear tactics and credibility. Having guns would also mean the general public is armed enough to pose a threat if they choose to riot. Maybe not a large threat, but they’d have long-range weapons and numbers. 

Relegating the weapon of choice for the island to close-combat blades that also require a lot of skill to wield properly raises the bar for fighting ability and increases the people’s dependence on its special armed forces.

And all that is great and good as in-universe design.

On a meta-level though, Nero, as a playable character, kind of needs a gun to fit in alongside Dante and feel natural as a surprise new protagonist. It makes the transition between the two smoother when they have the same general mechanics (melee + range). Cool. Also perfectly fine in service to the game.

These two things are at odds with each other, yes. Which solidifies Nero’s image as a rebel and black sheep in his own home (I have plenty to harp on here but that’s another rant lol). All of this is fine and dandy. 

However, while the novel decides to painstakingly explain how guns are taboo and how exactly (and I do mean exactly - very impassioned explanations of fantasy gun physics and all) Nero modified the gun himself and how cool he thinks he is for being a rebel with a gun, the entire process of how Nero 1) learned how to maintain and modify guns, and 2) got a gun to begin with, are completely glossed over. 

We receive this information in about two paragraphs of Nero’s inner monologue in the middle of his retelling of how he got his Devil Bringer - another boring slog that only establishes that Kyrie is So Pure and Nice, so Nice that She Loves Orphans <3, and that the Order doesn’t want people to know that there’s demons powerful enough to kill their soldiers. All of this, plus Nero getting the Devil Bringer through an injury, can all be achieved in so many other ways that I swear don’t even need to be long.

The Devil Bringer chapter does establish all of these things, only it’s entirely through exposition. We know Nero is a rebel because we see his dismissive body language in the game, but in the novels all of this information is just stated. He says ‘I’m not a team player’ maybe five times in just his first chapter, when this could’ve been communicated through character interactions a lot better.

The very process of Nero becoming interested in guns could’ve been an entire fun chapter on its own that could’ve built on his backstory, punkish mannerisms and the cult’s aversion to guns at the same time.  

If Fortuna is a closed off city that doesn’t get outside goods, how did Nero find out guns were a thing? Does the Order have guns they show off as sone sort of ‘teachable moment’, are there smugglers in the city?

How did he get his hands on one and how did he decide to start modifying it? How long has he been tinkering around to learn such complex modifications?

 Those are all interesting things to expand upon. And they can easily endear the audience to Nero because they can all show him being curious, resourceful and adventurous while also showing him actually going through life in Fortuna.

I said it before, but I’ll say it again - the novel suffers a lot because it’s deeply focused on retelling things already in the game. Dante’s chapters are little more than boss fights we’ve already seen in the game, only now they’re slow and stilted because the prose is nothing but exposition, and tidbits that hint at Nero being Vergil’s child. All of this kind of makes Dante being a POV character redundant. It’s not his story, and none of his segments give much insight into his own inner workings either.

The thing is, too, if the novels are just a quick cash grab, but also meant to be a deeper character piece for Nero and Dante, why not just make two books instead? One being Nero’s side of the story, where they expand on his upbringing and life in Fortuna in more detail. And the other book being Dante’s side where we get info about what he’s been doing since the events of DMC 1 + 2, his thoughts about Vergil, wondering when and how Vergil even stumbled into Fortuna, all that good angsty stuff that people invested in the story want to know about.

Anyway, TLDR making a companion novel for your game should involve more than just writing a transcript of the fucking FMV cutscenes skgbrjgrdg

I could harp on for HOURS more about how Kyrie and Credo are totally misused as characters, how Nero doesn’t have an arc when he has all of the ingredients for a full character arc, but I’ll leave those for another day - I’m gonna go play some DMC 5 instead lol 

[phoenix-is-the-hottest-thing]

Heya! I'm new to the Honkai fandom, from Genshin (yes yes i know, fear me) and I've got to say, I'm really enjoying myself so far. And to that end, I mean I have no clue what's going on or what I'm doing, I'm just mashing shiny buttons and am a Fu Hua/HoS simp now, which works since I now have all her battlesuits sans Azure Empyrea.

I'm neck deep in Honkai fanworks but I haven't seen a whole bunch of Sin, who from what I gather is from a prequel (?) of HI3rd, GGZ. I'm really interested in the lore around her tho, especially with the way you've written her, and I was wondering if you could explain a little since you're the only one who's written about her that I know of? Heck, maybe not even canon Sin, just headcanons or whatever you feel like giving.

Sorry if this ask is annoying and you've already talked about her or something. Loving the vamp fic thus far btw.

NO YOURE NOT ANNOYING I love talking I do not shut up. And I also came from Genshin actually

First of all! Good luck with Hua battlesuits I hear they’re no the easiest to master!!

and I’m happy you like the vampire AU ;w;

As for Sin, she IS in Hi3, but not prominently.

I already made a post about her but I’ll go over stuff quickly now that Mangadex is back up. Skip to the next section if you don't wanna hear it.

SIN (NON FAN) CONTENT

Her main canon appearances are Azure Waters (as an antagonist, which the vampire fic covers from her point of view) and a Chronicles chapter in the game, in which you learn her password is “gummy bear”.

What is there not to love

She has a non-canon appearance here in which you get to know her 14yo self a lil better. Basically this stuff was retconned into the Chronicles chapter we have now lmao poor child.

You can read her backstory comic from GGZ (also featured in Vampire AU, but with some changes) here, it’s a bit of a mess on mangadex right now but you want to get the five chapters called Sin Origin. It’s very visual storytelling though— some extra context I got from translating chinese stuff;; and other stuff is just to make it fit into my story better. canon is a suggestion.

In Hi3 she was last heard of babysitting the orphanage kids. She’s 16. Cocolia why. (Raven and Sin children wrangling team up someday???) She appears a few times in Cooking with Valkyries, also once in AE Invasion where she kind of just smirks and then faceplants because of the clone’s gravity power

I love my dumb daughter.

anyway now that I’m done rattling off all the questionably canon content about her off the top of my head (do I have a problem? I think I may have a problem) I’m going to answer your question properly

HEADCANONS TIME: VAMPIRE AU EDITION*

*canon to the AU but not the actual hi3 canon

call this a treat for *checks notes* having her tear out a rock out of her chest after getting retraumatized by a rightfully angry murderous Herrscher and killing someone in self defense With writers like me my faves don’t need enemies

Her natural hair color is pink but she thought it was too girly so she dyed it. Part of her fascination with Sakura has to do with her looking badass with pink hair. Sin feels like nobody would take her seriously if she didn’t do something a bit funkier with it

Her dad used to repair clocks in his spare time. She watched him do it a lot as a child. She hardly remembers it consciously but on a subconscious level if she’s going to create anything her go-to is clockwork because of that

Sin’s health used to be very fucked up. This was due to using her powers as a young child, but improved in the orphanage, so Jackal did one genuinely useful thing. One. Now she’s got a better physical condition than regular humans instead. tbh she's probably the closest thing the story has to a dhampyr right now

Her hallucinations have gone waaaay down because the orphanage was a much better environment for her but she did hallucinate blood in chapter 20 due to the sheer stress of the situation

not really a headcanon but i call her a cactus all the time

[ardenttheories]

ardent, I have a real rough question to ask you. is it worth it to read hs^2? Ive been avoiding reading it because I didnt want to ruin what I loved about homestuck, but seeing the amount of art and interaction makes me feel like I'm missing out. I know it's not going to be good, but do I still take the risk? are there homestuck fanprojects you'd suggest instead?

An anon asked:  Hi, may I ask what is your opinion of fan creation inspired from Homestuck? I'm not the biggest fan of where homestuck is heading but was wondering on your opinions of fan comics. I'm leaning towards reading them over Homestuck2 because of some of the writing that Hussie and his team of writers have produced in Homestuck2 feels off and a bit weird for Homestuck. (Ps. Have a lovely day.)

I forgot to answer the anon when I first got it, but since both mention fanvantures, I’ll combine the two!

I would absolutely not recommend reading HS^2, personally. There’s just a lot wrong with it that I genuinely don’t like and am deeply uncomfortable with. Futanari Jade making Rose cheat on Kanaya to have a baby she then completely abandoned is really just the tip of the iceberg, from what I’ve read and seen; there’s also just an outright lack of care for triggers (the warnings for which were taken off chapter by chapter, so you’ve got no idea what you’re going into anymore) and so much bullshit around facts from Homestuck not being taken into consideration during writing (for instance, Rose tells Terezi about the Exiles despite Terezi being the one who told Dave about them back in Act 5).

It’s uncomfortable, sloggish, uncaring, actively written to ruin Homestuck for fans, and overall just unpleasant to read. Not only is it a bad continuation, it’s just bad fiction in general. Some of this of course is exacerbated by the writers themselves, which is another reason I refuse to read it; I do not want to support them in any capacity. 

I wouldn’t say you’re missing out. There’s some genuinely interesting things in HS^2, but a lot of it is overshadowed by how bad it is. That’s why I stopped reading, personally. You could always give it a go, see what you think and if you can handle it or if it appeals to you - because it’s different for everyone! Some people genuinely like it, and that’s okay, too - but I wouldn’t recommend it.

If you read the Epilogues just fine, you should be okay? But if they were rough for you to read, I’d definitely say HS^2 will be worse. You can still enjoy the content on the peripheral, though; for instance, acejams/sarcasmprodigy draws some HS^2 bits, but only really the designs that she likes. Consuming fan content while avoiding the comic itself is no issue, as far as I can tell.

That said, I’d 100% recommend reading fanventures. There’s a lot of benefits to them, actually!

Firstly, since they’re made by fans doing it for free, there’s a lot of love that goes into them. You know that what you’re getting is going to some degree be a homage to Homestuck, and that even if it’s an AU or divergent somehow, it’s still going to be loyal to characters you love. 

There’s a lot less - and I mean a lot less - bullshittery in fanventures than HS^2 proper. It’s done for fun, for love! It’s going to connect with you, as a fan, a little more, because it’s literally written by fans for fans; by people who know what the fandom wants because they’re actively part of it. 

Also, the writers don’t want to ruin the characters, so that’s an incredible bonus.

That said, here are a few fanventures I’d recommend:

SOULSTUCK: A fanventure that takes place in the Soul Eater universe, following Roxy and Dirk as they work towards getting that sweet, sweet final Witch soul to become a proper duo. I haven’t read too much of it, but the art is beautiful, the writing is well in character, and it’s also pretty faithful to the original Soul Eater while staying uniquely Homestuck, too.

Guidestuck: A pretty wellknown fanventure that started up again recently, following a kidswap universe where the kids’ initial sprite prototypings (the Harlequin doll, Jaspers, Bec, and Cal) are the kids (Cal Strider, Bec Harley, Quinn Egbert, Jaspers Lalonde), and our kids are their associated items (John’s a plush toy; Bro and Dave are dolls; Jade is a puppy; Rose is a cat). Also features a very unique look at what Alternia would be like if the lusii were the sapient species, and the trolls the symbiotic one.

TLCstuck: Double Death of the Author: A fairly interesting redo of Homestuck, taking control of the narrative a little after Game Over - so, essentially completely changing the story of Homestuck partway through Act 6. There’s a FAQ to give you more information - on how it’s written, how it’s changed, and how it works overall. 

Note for TLCstuck, though; it’s very explicitly ship-neutral. This means that although characters’ sexualities remain the same, no actual shipping generally happens in the comic. It also, since it continues from Game Over, doesn’t have a lot of the content that occurred in the Retcon timeline - including DaveKat and Davepeta (alongside the other combosprites). Keep this in mind on whether or not you want to read it, but I think it’s still a good read regardless.

Act 8: Might be one you’ve seen in the tags before! Unsurprisingly, it picks up after Act 7, and works a little like TLCstuck in that it changes the narrative from that point on. Just before the kids can go through the door to Earth C, the white door explodes. It’s animated beautifully, drawn amazingly well, and is well written! If you want to continue Homestuck’s story with the Retcon changes, this would be best for you to read. 

Well, that, or...

Act Omega: Like Act 8, it picks up after Act 7, only this time before they can claim their reward, a foe we’ve seen before appears to take the win from their grasp. It’s incredibly well animated and drawn from what I’ve seen so far, with an amazing initial fight sequence. It’s well written, and even from a cursory read-through, they reintroduce most of the main characters (including the Alpha trolls) for a second try at characterisation. Pretty nifty!

Homestuck: Subscript: I know significantly less about this one, except that there is some gorgeous art and design in it. It’s an interesting take compared to the others, since it actually happens on Earth C - so it’s more of a HS^2 replacement than anything else I’ve shown so far. It’s also incredibly different, though, and takes a little more a of a Candy route in so far as it focuses a lot more on relationships. It depends on your tastes!

Karkat goes to a Convention: Everything I know about this comes from a friend talking about it. It’s entirely satirical, I think, and a bit of a pisstake more than anything else? It’s quite literally what it says; actual Homestuck Karkat ends up at a normal, everyday convention. From what I understand it does get more detailed and involved as it goes on, but it’s also good for laughs. 

Abodebound: A webcomic a friend of mine wrote! It’s a completely original fanventure, essentially a fansession. There’s music and animation, as well as Homestuck-eqsue writing and original comedy, and some really sweet videos. I’ve never read it all the way through (life’s a bitch like that) but it’s what inspired me to create my own fanventure, and for something completely original but with the same feel as Homestuck, it’s pretty spot-on. 

Also, though it’s never been finished, what little exists of Heinoustuck is a delicious treat if you’re into horror. And Prequel -or- Making A Cat Cry: The Adventure is a really good Skyrim comic done in the old Homestuck style. Definitely NOT Homestuck, but it’s got the same art and humour, as well as games and animation - so it’s pretty sweet to look into, if nothing else. 

[marie95disneygirl]

How Kingdom Hearts ruined the Ven and Vanitas storyline

I’m very frustrated how the Ven and Vanitas backstory is written at the moment. Now that we know Ven was in fact possessed by an evil spirit and that Darkness will end up in his heart like we saw in remind, everything is pointing to it being Vanitas and to BBS being retconned. It is just an awful idea and writing decision that will destroy the themes of BBS, will make everything that happened in BBS look absolutely pointless and worst of all will make what Xehanort did to Ven now look like a good thing, ugh even though it was meant to be the most cruel thing and can be seen as a metaphor for child abuse. Sadly, however I can kinda understand why they are doing it. Giving Ven a prequel backstory can only have one reason: To explain why he had so much darkness that could manifest into a separate person. There is absolutely no other reason to give Ven a backstory because we already learned everything else in BBS and in my opinion, they should have just left it there because the backstory he had was completely fine and enough for me. Prequels are always a bad idea because you must get the characters to a certain state that’s already set at the end. (So, I would never want to write a prequel because it limits the creative writing freedom.) Besides there are other characters like Terra who also have darkness and it‘s never explained how he got it. But they probably thought they had to explain somehow why Vanitas was so much stronger than Ven and why he was able to live properly after they were separated while Ven was dying. So, they likely thought they have to explain this somehow by giving them a backstory. However, when writing a backstory about the original Ven before he was ripped in half creates a very big problem: Everybody will just look at him as only BBS Ven when in reality it’s actually a combination of BBS Ven and Vanitas. But that is entirely the writers’ fault for making Vanitas look completely different while Ven looks exactly the same as before! Seriously why does Vanitas look like Sora and not like Ven??? He is supposed to be Vens dark side so he should look like an evil Ven not an evil Sora!!!!! Ugh, Vanitas looking like Sora is in my opinion just as much nonsense as this retcon!!! IT MAKES ABSOLUTELY NO SENSE AT ALL!!!!  It also means we were robbed of an evil looking Ven! (I know there’s Ventus-Vanitas but he is only in one short scene and is always forgotten) There is just no logic at all when you make Vanitas look like a person who at this point in time didn’t even look like that yet and who is actually not connected to Vanitas at all because when Sora connected with Ven, Vanitas was already out of his heart!!! Again, why doesn’t he just look like Ven with black hair and yellow eyes??? The obvious answer is: They thought we can’t have three Roxases so let’s just make a second Sora even though it makes no sense at all and just make up a convoluted reason why he looks that way. Thanks, I hate it!!! If they would have just made Vanitas look like Ven, it would have been much easier for the audience to understand they are supposed to be the same person!! You know, when I was a little kid and played BBS for the first time, I wasn’t very good in English, so I didn’t understand at all that Vanitas was supposed to be Vens dark side. I only found out about it a few years ago when I replayed it and was better in English. I was incredibly confused as a kid why Vanitas looked the way he does and couldn’t even understand that he and Ven were supposed to be the same character. If they would have just designed Vanitas as an evil looking Ven, I would have understood immediately that he is Vens dark side. It would have also given a logical reason for why he wears that mask!!! You know if he looked like Ventus, it would have made sense for him to hide his face so that he won’t reveal the truth to Ven and Aqua!! But with him looking like Sora, I don’t understand at all why he even hides his face!!! No one of them knew Sora at this point and Sora didn’t even look like that when BBS is set, he looked like a little kid!! So the writers created two heavy plot holes in BBS (by having Vanitas look like Sora and not like Ven who he is supposed to be) that they could have easily solved if they would have just designed Vanitas as an evil Ven, ugh!!!!! So what if they are three Roxases???? They could have still given Vanitas black hair to make him stand out among three Roxases, so why didn’t they just do that???? I believe it was just fanservice, you know giving the Sora fans an evil looking Sora even though that’s not Sora AT ALL!!! I just hate it!!! Everything would have been fine, there would actually be logic in KH and there would be no reason to retcon BBS at all if they would have just made Vanitas look like Ven!!!!! Let me explain: When giving the original Ven a backstory there’s the problem that everyone will look at him and think he’s completely the same character as BBS Ven when he is actually not!! And that’s like I already wrote because Ven looks like the original Ventus when Vanitas looks completely different! So, I can’t really blame the fans for treating the original Ven like he’s absolutely the same character as in BBS when in reality, Vanitas is also in there!!! And with everyone thinking that’s the same as BBS Ven, there’s the problem that if they make him act differently, everyone will just scream: That’s not my Ven, how dare they change him!! The Ven fans would have been angry. That’s why I knew they couldn’t make him the murderer alone because then everyone would have just attacked BBS Ven and hated him even though that’s not entirely him, that’s Ven+Vanitas!!! But people don’t understand!!!! That’s exactly why I hated the thought of Ven being the killer because I knew how the fandom would have treated BBS Ven even though it wouldn’t have been his fault alone!!!! And that’s only because they had to make Vanitas look differently!!! If him and Ven would have looked the same, it would have been easier for the audience to understand KHUX Ven isn’t just BBS Ven but Ven and Vanitas combined!!! And because of that stupid mistake (making vanitas look differently) they couldn’t have the original Ven act differently than BBS Ven, they had to let him act exactly the same.  But that creates another big problem: How do you explain Vanitas??? If the original Ventus acts completely the same as BBS Ven, why does Vanitas act differently??? Where did he come from???  They could have just avoided that problem altogether if they wouldn’t have given him a backstory at all, ugh!!! Some fans would probably argue Vanitas acts so different than Ven because of his novel backstory where he was abused by Xehanort and became so evil only because of the abuse. But the thing is: The novel and his backstory are not exactly canon! And they never will be unless they show exactly what happened in the novel in a game! But as long as they don’t do that, the novel will not be canon and we can’t use it as proof to explain Vanitas! And there’s also the problem that in my opinion the novel doesn’t really fit Xehanorts character. He seems more like a lying manipulator who would at least pretend to be nice to Vanitas to get him to forge the X-blade for him.  You know like he tricked Terra by pretending to be nice to him. If he tortured him all the time, he would have risked that Vanitas will turn against him as soon as he gets the X-blade. So in my opinion the novel backstory doesn‘t really fit with the game portrayal of Xehanort, so I don’t consider them canon unless they show it in the game. But back to the topic: Because of their stupid mistake of making Vanitas not look like Ven, they had to have the original Ven act exactly like BBS Ven, but because of that, there is that huge plot hole that Vanitas acts differently! So, they now probably thought they have to explain that plot hole somehow and an easy solution for that is to make Vanitas a separate character that was only trapped inside of Vens heart. This of course creates even more plot holes like why was there a part of Vens heart missing, why did he almost die without it and why does Vanitas say he is the other half of Ven all the time??? These are all huge plot holes but you know, Vanitas being Vens dark side and looking like Sora while hiding his face even though he and everyone else at the time never saw Sora are also huge plot holes that make no sense at all!!! So KH having plot holes is not new at all and they kinda already ruined the Ven and Vanitas story at the very beginning by having a character that was split into two characters having one side that looks like him and one who doesn’t look like him at all!!! The theme of splitting a character into a good and evil side also happened in other series but they handled that much better than KH: they had the good side look like a good version of the character and the bad side look like an evil version of the character just as it should be!!! They don’t have the evil side looking like a completely different character because then it would be much harder for everyone to understand that the good side isn’t the original!!! The point of these storylines is always to show that you need both good and evil to be whole, not that the good side is the only one that should be considered the original!!!!! Ugh, the Ven and Vanitas storyline had so much potential, it could have shown that you need both light and darkness to be a whole person!!! But instead they treat it like the dark side has no right to be considered the original by having him look like a different character while the light side gets to keep the appearance and like the darkness needs to be destroyed!!!  I mean they always end their story by having Vanitas be defeated instead of having him go back to Ven and saying: Yes, Ven needs his dark side, everyone does!!! There’s so much potential: they could have them rejoin and saying: well the villain does have a point, light and darkness need to be balanced, we can’t have one without the other!!! Besides they didn’t ask for this: to be sifted apart nice and neat!!! It was a horrible crime that’s a metaphor for child abuse!!!! So, they shouldn’t end it by letting Vanitas die but by having them rejoin!!! If I wrote that story, I would first of all make Vanitas look like Ven!!!! Seriously that’s how he should look like!!!! By making him look different you are making it look like only the light side is the real one when you could have easily made it look like they both are the real one!!!! Then secondly, I wouldn’t have made the original Ven exactly like BBS Ven, I would have made him like a combination of them or not give them a backstory at all!! And finally, I would have made them rejoin, not having them destroy Vanitas!!! With how the story is now they are reinforcing the idea that darkness should be destroyed, and they already make it look like what Xehanort did, wasn’t so bad because metaphorically they are keeping them in their abused state by not having them rejoin. But anyways, what I’m actually trying to say here is that of course I would hate it if they retcon the story by having Vanitas be Darkness because that would ruin their story but the thing is: They already ruined their story way back in BBS by having Vanitas look different instead of having him look like an evil Ven!!!!(I can’t say this too many times because that is what should have been!) This simple huge mistake makes every backstory for them extremely difficult and they shouldn’t have given them one in the first place!!! But now that they made this second huge mistake, it’s almost inevitable to retcon their story!!! They must explain somehow why Vanitas is so different from the original Ven while BBS Ven is the exact same!! Sure, they could have taken the novel backstory, but I just think that’s too violent and unnecessary cruel and also doesn’t fit with Xehanorts character. So, adapting the novel backstory wouldn’t be such a good idea! Instead they will probably retcon the story, of course that creates many plot holes but they will probably give explanations that are just as convoluted as the reason why Vanitas looks like Sora. And plot holes are nothing new in the KH world. So, I don’t really care anymore if their story gets retconned because I realized it is already ruined simply because they don’t look the same!!!

[lizzibennet]

Honestly, I *DO* like episodes 7, 8, and 9. BUT I would have LOVED if they did everything they did AS PLANNED, and then added the alternatives film (the versions we got) as a bonus. Honestly I hate ROS because Rey is related to HIM. Lbh, NOBODY would have sex with p*alpatine

the problem with episodes 7-9 is that each is a standalone film. that is not a problem in itself since every other star wars trilogy movies could technically be watched as a standalone and with a little context you’d be fine, since they tell an overarching story with three more or less independent characters. episodes 7-9 do not tell an overarching story, they are each chapters to a different telling of rey’s story. ep 7 tells the story of rey nobody, who is both the narrative foil and the in-world counterpart of one of the strongest force users alive, and that’s honestly already a really good premise, buuuuut if we’re going to have a trilogy then that main conflict should be resolved either in the second movie or at the very least in the first half or so of the third because things! need! to! happen! for! a reason! except that they don’t because at the climax of the second film kylo tells rey she’s a nobody, and apparently that changes nothing within her resolve which..... fine, let’s push it and say she’s going to deal with that in the third movie, whatever, but we get to it and actually she’s palpatine’s granddaughter so actually she’s all the jedi which. UGH. the point I’m trying to make is that she is a completely linear character being thrown in three different takes of her story, and I hate to say this because I LOVE her, but after the second movie I totally got it when people said she was a mary sue because her faith in the force and the jedi and her kindness and blahblah NEVER really waivers (except when she gets angry at luke which. saves everyone! how fuckin convenient!) and you could come out and say “lori, if we think like that luke skywalker is also a mary sue”, which, again, don’t get me wrong because he is literally my son but he IS. and in the 80’s that is FINE cause it’s the story we needed - a story about this starry (heh) eyed guy whose unwaivering faith in people and The Magic Around Him™️ may seem a little misguided at first but ends up saving everyone, but that was 40 years ago. and maybe it was silly of me to expect a nuanced take on The Human Specificity Of Empathy from a star wars movie but you know what, I don’t think it was since gareth edwards paved the way with rogue one that is the epitome of analysis of what it really means to be good or bad and I’m not going to rant about how rogue one is the best star wars movie today BUT it set the tone for a less us-vs-them view of the world which was VERY exciting and in line with what I think the 2010-20’s really wants from its heroes in general. so if we want to follow the narrative beats of the first trilogy or at least the first movie (no way of knowing where jj abrams would’ve gone in ep 8) I think that’s fine so as long as you make it your own, and imo jj abrams was, and then rian johnson was like nope lol, and jj abrams tried to fix the narrative 180 rian johnson tried to do, and like. episode 8 is a very fun movie to watch as a star wars fan but narratively it does not make any fuckin sense. I thought so then and now with ep 9 out I think so even more. rian johnson is a very creative guy, he had some REALLY interesting ideas, but WHY give him the creative liberty to do so in the MIDDLEEEEE of the trilogy??? WHY!?!?!? give him a star wars story film! he would KILL it! or you know wait a couple years so the director of the first movie who actually knows what the fuck he’s doing can direct the second, but noooooo the damned fucking mouse wants to wipe his ass with $100 bills so we cannot possibly wait. cohesive storytelling? we don’t give a shit about that in the house of le mouse.

that all to say, there is nothing Fundamentally wrong narratively with either of the three movies. they’re fun to watch. even ep 8, possibly my least fav of the bunch, was a fun experience in cinemas. it’s star wars and disney - they know how to make a blockbuster. the thing is that as a trilogy they simply do not make any sense. if you analyze each movie individually all three seem to have different core themes: ep 7’s is “nobodies are people too actually”, 8 is “maybe space fascists aren’t so bad, actually (also luke is here hey luke)”, and 9 is “I take that back, nobodies aren’t a people actually”. it’s satisfying to watch as a casual spectator who goes to the movies, seems some space gays with one braincell between the three of them and is like coolio and then goes home, but it’s not satisfying to watch as someone even the littlest bit invested in the story because there is no cohesive roundup of everything. the original trilogy was like is luke an idiot for being nice? is vader actually redeemable? is han deserving of trust despite being a space nerf herder? and sometimes u were like what’s happenin!!!! but in the end all your questions are answered quite satisfactorily. luke was right, han is sexy, vader was redeemable. in the prequels: how does anakin skywalker become darth vader? how do he and obi juan become the enemies we see in the death star? what happens to padme? and while the sequels are a beautiful mess that I love they do answer the questions they put out when episode 1 begins, so you know, imagine liking the sequels and hating the prequels when the PREQUELS make more sense, the PREQUELSSSS. anywhomst, point is: the sequels are like here is finn. finn is the first stormtrooper we see the face of! he defects! also the first stormtrooper we se defect. the other defector we know is bodhi from r1, who is very sympathetic despite being imperial, and clearly we’re supposed to feel empathy for finn. finn survives! finn finds rey! go finn I love u! and then. WHAT happens to finn? what furthers his character development into a full fledged person when he starts out with not even a name? where’s his anger? where’s his OBVIOUS narrative direction that should be “ex stormtrooper who shows imperials that fascism is bad actually”? nope, goes almost unmentioned from then on. and again, I love finn, he is literally baby, but he also froze after ep 7 because rian johnson decided to fuck shit up and also because disney is racist. poe? the do-good soldier who is supposed to be the Believer™️? actually he is the only one who was any semblance of a coherent role in ep 8... which is promptly retconned when jj abrams makes him a fucking spice runner in ep 9 lol. who is rey? and they’re like she’s a nobody and that’s why she’s spesh, wait no she is a nobody but she’s spesh because space fascist has the hots for her, oh, no, wait, she’s spesh because PALPATINE. what was the theme of this trilogy? what was the thesis? what questions did they set out to answer and did they answer them at all, never mind well? and it’s unclear, obviously, because three movies with three clearly different views behind them won’t magically make narrative sense just because you are trying to piece them together. they’re not pieces at all, they are three independent takes on the stars and the wars. enjoyable as little snacky treats, not as a three meal course. (also I’m not even going to TOUCH on how what was already a narrative mess was made worse by disney’s NONSTOP fanservice. sw sequels and game of thrones last season are the cautionary tales of why fanservice sucks and while a good, intelligent if cliche or predictable story is always better than a Shocking™️ one that doesn’t make any sense. but if I start on that I will LITERALLY not shut up SO AHEM CONTINUE @LIZZIBENNET)

ALL that to say: I agree w/ u and I LOVE your idea of each movie being an alternative version of the story. honestly, that would make more sense than what we have right now off the bat lol. can you imagine ep 7 being the rose colored version of the story via the heroes’ lenses, and then ep 8 being the “actually space fascism is good if ur kylo ren” version of the story, and then, ep 9 is what actually happened... told by rey nobody, who dances the line between the good and bad until there’s not a line anymore. CHEF’S FUCKIN KISS obviously much more risqué than disney would ever go for, but genius! much better than trying to make us care about these conflicts that they make up in the first 15 mins of each movie. ur mad because episode 7 follows the beats of 4? here’s three movies on why you were wrong when you judged it all true and therefore Bad. HUHU I love that

also the galaxy is a vast place... I am sure there are emperor fuckers out there

[onf-headcanons]

ONF UNIVERSITY AU

A/n : ok this is just the first (?) elaboration of the au. This is also meshed with senpai au. I actually already had a few moodboards (Yuto and Minseok ones) and a senpai AU of Seungjoon that opened up the idea, its just i did not have the time and luxury to expand the au. Another reason was that timing i am still learning about ONF so I don't want to go too OOC on things I am not familiar with.

To keep it short, the boys actually formed a dance club and they named themselves ONF

I do said dance club but if you wanna utilise it like F4 from meteor garden, it totally flexible

Also totally doable if you wanna use the university au as the main worldbuilding for other AU, examples, Sibling AU, or any BF headcanons I have mentioned like the MTL for PDA. MTL to confess and MTL to leave hickies, so do check out masterlist (that is constantly updating )

Also, even though it might retcon some setting I have already done, but it is totally doable for University AU to be the prequel for Office AU.

OH HEADS UP, FOR THIS AU I AM ALTERING THEIR AGE. Their real life age difference are about 4-5 years which is unrealistic to fit for the au, so shrink age difference to 1-2 years. 

One of the project they did as a dance club, which they uploaded

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Let see the members headcanons below

Hyojin : Probably musical student but if we were to jump out from stereotype,I do feel him studying marketing (analysts side)

OK if this boy does not finish his assignments in the cafeteria, then he is not Kim Hyojin lol. Constantly munching something while he trying to finish assignment or solve a problematic question

Even if Seungjoon drags him to library to do assignments . HYOJIN DEFO GONNA MAKE EXCUSE TO BUY BEVERAGE FOR THE 2 OF THEM AND SNEAKS OUT FOR A SHORT WHILE.

The type that try his best on getting good results on every class. But he never brags about it.

Should we give him a senpai au plot, I would write him as the senpai you have a crush on since high school and you did not know he attend the same university as you.

Changyoon : Design student for sure😉 Interior design, graphic design or even fashion design. Oh! Film Director also not bad? (I mean he has loads of ideas and thoughts also let's not forget about Incomplete MV)

Ppl which are not in their circles would be like, "how did you even get along with the others?" Because his majors are very different compared to the other 6

Hmm I do feel it is more like Changyoon did not make the first move to join the group. Probably the Capricorns/ENFPS (Seungjoon or Jaeyoung)

So maybe he kinda drop by to a short marketing class so that he can gain insight on how advertisements film can grasp audience heart. There he either met Hyojin or Seungjoon (maybe both) ,then only the bond gets deeper

After knowing each other he finally comfortable to be himself and does not feel awkward anymore...

Also including this hc here because I only thought of it when writing. HYOJIN,CHANGYOON, SEUNGJOON AND MINKYUN teaming up to sing something? Like them 4 have a YouTube channel that upload their covers, without showing their faces, using illustrations drawn by Changyoon

Seungjoon : Could go for science genre or maybe business administration? Also anything related with mathematics(that need flexible solving) might suit him too

Might occasionally appear in the library. Not really searching for books to read,more on giving himself the environment to complete assignments. But visits bookstore too

Maybe, the most social-able being in the group. Constantly waving or say hi to acquaintance/classmates passing by. Even though that, there are never rumours or scandals of Seungjoon being playboy. (But totally the first one in the group to get a GF, hint established in his senpai au)

Like people only notices the group because of him because of his social skills. Its kind of like the fairy who brings/enlarge the fandom lol

You can read his Senpai au here

Might doing part time job at a cafe nearby university because of distance+ time convenience purposes. The other members of the group might occasionally hang out at the place, waiting for him to finish his shift or Yuto to finish his lessons and then they go eat dinner

Jaeyoung : High chance of choosing communication related genre or/also social science/sociology related genre. I won't be surprised if he will choose psychology or behavioural science

Easily to find him in library searching for books to read/expand his pov. Sitting beside windows

One of the hyungs that will explains Korean to Yuto. Especially idioms.

First impression would be the quiet good looking one that definitely gonna stay back to ask lecturer more questions

The second on in the group to get a GF. But very very low key.

Linking to the tutor AU I posted recently, he might be teaching online to gain extra income because he does not want to do part time job to exhaust himself as he want to reserve energy to dance. Which also the main factor he suggested Yuto to do online teaching later

Minkyun : Musical student but focusing on composing. To jump from stereotypes, he could be going to broadcast communications, to become professional radio DJ

He might also join another club which is established by uni it self to make radio broadcast that plays at the cafeteria.

Cues in other members all recognise his voice immediately. Lol if he qccidentally messed up on some wordings, the next time they meet they are gonna tease him for sure haha

OK this applies to all of them but I only remembered to include this during writing for Minkyun, the boys are totally banned from playing any games at the cafeteria lol (not a strict ban but they are loud lol.) So they changed plans to play game and hangout at home, with Yuto coming over to sleep over.

Yuto : the exchange student / the foreign student who is majoring in Korean language. High chance going for Korean language teaching later.

Once they knew Yuto's Korean Proficiency level are above average, the boys are supportive and proud of him af. Lol also his devilish hyungs teasing him that he should get a girlfriend, it is a way to master language lol

Cues in his hyungs helping him out by giving him small tests of Korean grammar

Could be the only one who lives in university dorms. But he gets to have sleepovers with his hyungs at their house during weekends (rent or family residence,up to you)

Even encourages him to try out online teaching beginners first to gain experiences

Probably feeling sadden the most when found out Minseok had to quit university. Also could not help feeling lonely when his hyungs graduated. (Some did extend studies but some did not. My hunch, Minkyun and Chang Yoon could be the first two to graduated first. Jaeyoung and Yuto being the last two to graduate)

Minseok : a junior who studies history and choosing Japanese + Chinese as sub majors. Who knows, he might choose translating/interpreting as major later (I mean have you seen some interviews where he used Japanese and Chinese, damn his pronunciation is good, trust me cos i speak both language)

Did not get to stay long, maybe just 1 year and a half then he had to quit university because his whole family are moving out from the country (no worries they contact each other online frequently). His hyungs defo doing a farewell party for him.

Even though short time, but he gained the title of university sweetheart by the first day he starts uni. 

Same as Seungjoon and Jaeyoung, the type to find him in library alot.

Of course gonna ask Yuto a lot of Japanese grammar questions

BTW if link to Sibling AU, should we link it to the double Kim household, Minseok did not drop out. He could have participated an exchange program and had to leave for overseas to complete a course at a better institute

A/N : Ok I am gonna stop here before it gets even messier (slaps forehead I changdolled while writing this)

[aion-rsa]

10 Injustice Characters the DC Animated Movie Needs to Get Right

https://ift.tt/3fCncB7

As we wait an announcement pertaining to the existence of NetherRealm Studios’ Injustice 3, we at least know that Warner Bros. is set to adapt the games into a DC animated movie.

Ever since its release in 2013, the Injustice franchise has not only become a staple of NetherRealm’s roster, but the comic spinoffs have made it a beloved part of the DC multiverse. The plot revolves around a reality where the Joker was able to mess with Superman so badly that the Man of Steel gradually became a mass-murdering dictator, with the support of several members of the Justice League. Left without any other option, Batman brought in counterparts of the Justice League from the “mainstream” universe to help him fight a civil war against his former friend. It was a story that merged the Justice Lords two-parter from the Justice League cartoon with Marvel’s original Squadron Supreme comic series.

A popular prequel series was released, mostly written by Tom Taylor, that explained the five years in-between Superman killing the Joker in cold blood and Batman’s last stand. Sometime later, the game’s story was adapted into the comic Injustice: Ground Zero. And the Injustice universe has only continued to grow since then.

As snazzy as NetherRealm’s story modes are, they are going to have to make some changes to the narrative for the animated movie. It’s not like every character is going to stumble into exactly four best-two-out-of-three fights in a row before someone else is the focus. Knowing that there will be alterations, some characters are really going to need some tender love and care.

Superman (Both of Them)

Injustice: Gods Among Us didn’t invent the idea of an evil Superman, but things are a bit over-saturated these days. Face it, “Dark Superman” has been done to death, what with Brightburn, The Boys, Invincible, and everything Zack Snyder intended with his Justice League movies.

It’s important that the animated movie really get into the WHY of what turned Superman evil instead of the Joker just getting a tragic win over him. The Injustice comic nudged him over and over again with multiple betrayals and manipulations before he finally snapped and angrily broke every bone in Green Arrow’s body. Hit all that, or at least enough of it.

More importantly, Injustice is a story of two different Supermen. The mainstream Superman has to ring true. He has to be the beacon of hope and positivity that pop culture has been missing for the past decade.

Ultimately, as long as they don’t do that minigame where Superman blows up cars and the people in them with his eye-lasers, we’re cool.

Batman

In this DC take of Marvel’s Civil War, Batman is by default the better person when compared to Superman. He has a line he won’t cross and that means no murder and no tyranny. That said, he still needs to be portrayed as a flawed hero. He may be competent, but he still behaves like a total douche at times and deserves to take one to the chin every now and then.

Being a paranoid futurist who buries himself in contingency plans means alienating allies, friends, and even family members. There’s a great moment in the Injustice comic where he reveals that he infected Cyborg with a virus within a week of meeting (you know, just in case), which Killer Croc says is outright sinister. It’s this kind of behavior that led to Superman’s fall to darkness, because even if Bruce wasn’t behind any of the horrors, he still chose coldness and paranoia over being there for a friend who was going through some serious shit.

Harley Quinn

A hype trailer for Harley painted her as a major protagonist in the first game but the game’s story mode just didn’t measure up. The comics did a better job and the Ground Zero volume was specifically about telling the game’s story from Harley’s perspective. I’m not saying that she should be joined by her team of BFF henchmen from Ground Zero, but she should definitely be a prominent hero.

Similar to the Mark Waid comic series Irredeemable and Incorruptible (also about an evil take on Superman), Harley’s turn to heroism is the universe’s response to Superman’s actions. She’s done some horrible things and may never make up for her actions under the Joker’s thumb, but she’ll keep fighting to stop Superman’s atrocities.

Wonder Woman

While Batman did a bad job trying to pull Superman from the darkness, Wonder Woman succeeded in pushing him in. It’s noted here and there, but this Wonder Woman was also altered by tragedy. In this timeline, Steve Trevor turned out to be a Nazi traitor. His betrayal left Diana feeling much less optimistic and hopeful than her mainstream self.

Wonder Woman’s villainy isn’t as pronounced as Superman’s, but she’s definitely the friendly face who eggs him on and wants him to stand over all mankind. As Superman uses her to fill the void left from Lois Lane’s death, the power couple become very good at bringing out the worst in each other.

Damian Wayne

The Injustice game did Damian a little dirty, revealing deep into the story that the Nightwing fighting on Superman’s side was not Dick Grayson, but Damian. According to Batman, Damian murdered Dick. The comics dove deeper into that and made it more of a freak accident brought on by Damian being an impulsive and angry child. Still, Bruce and his son were unable to make amends due to their shared lack of warmth.

Later stories, and even Injustice 2, added more depth to Damian. It always made sense that he’d join Superman’s Regime, but there was a soul in there who would eventually see that this wasn’t the right path. In the comic Injustice vs. Masters of the Universe, which was treated as a sequel to Injustice 2’s dark ending, Damian took up the mantle of Batman to oppose Superman and even grew a long-missing sense of humor in the process.

Lex Luthor

The great tragedy of the DC multiverse is that Superman and Lex Luthor just can’t get along. They will always be at odds no matter what Earth they come from. The Injustice universe was the one exception, as Luthor was portrayed as fairly warm and altruistic. Much like Batman, he has contingency plans up the wazoo, but they don’t come off as creepy.

Seeing him there as Superman’s longtime friend who sadly has to stab him in the back brings back that multiversal truth about the duo. Just because this is a world where Superman kills and things get very bleak doesn’t mean it’s the worst world and that it isn’t worth saving. The mainstream Cyborg is reluctant to come to terms with this heroic Luthor, but he ultimately accepts the miracle that this universe created a Luthor worth befriending and even looking up to.

Hal Jordan

Maybe it’s just me, but I was never a fan of how Geoff Johns retconned Hal’s past and gave him deniability for everything he did as Parallax. I liked that a boring hero dude like Hal snapped, did some bad stuff, and then had to accept his failures in an attempt to be better. With Injustice, they gave us that exact Hal.

Read more

Games

Injustice Beat Zack Snyder’s Justice League to the Punch

By Matthew Byrd

Comics

Injustice: Year Zero Brings the Justice Society to DC Alternate Universe

By Jim Dandy

Overflowing with willpower and being an otherwise competent space cop, Hal is still something of a dunce at times, and he’s susceptible to manipulation in the right situation. He’s already following Superman’s lead, but having Sinestro pop in to indoctrinate him into the Sinestro Corps makes him actually interesting. Let Hal be the worst version of himself here so he can double back on it in the sequel and beg Guy Gardner’s ghost for forgiveness.

Shazam

Injustice may be the B-side to Mortal Kombat, but the game itself is fairly tame on the violence. Joker’s death isn’t actually shown on screen, Luthor’s end is fairly clean, and Grodd taking a trident to the torso is relatively tame.

But what we absolutely, positively have to see in the animated movie is Shazam’s death scene to really give an idea of how far gone Superman is. It’s bloodless from our point of view, but it’s grisly as hell and made worse when you remember that Shazam is a literal child under all the mystical power.

Batgirl

The Barbara Gordon version of Batgirl was one of the first DLC characters added to Injustice, but it’s unfortunate that she’s not in the main story mode — something the animated movie could fix by giving her a more prominent role in the fight against the Regime. Her ending gives her a kickass backstory where she returns to the cowl after her father dies at Superman’s hands. The comics go deeper into this, even making it so that Superman doesn’t directly kill Commissioner Gordon.

In this continuity, she was already wheelchair-bound as Oracle. She had to go under a very dangerous procedure under Luthor’s care in order to walk again. This is one of the storylines that could make for a captivating arc in the movie.

Alfred Pennyworth

Alfred isn’t in either Injustice game. He’s already dead by the start of the first game. But I don’t care. Alfred needs to be in the animated movie because he is the heart and soul of the Injustice comics. While others bow to Superman, follow him, or even try to reason with him, Alfred Pennyworth doesn’t play those games. He will straight-up verbally clown Superman for his actions without flinching. He is not afraid of the Kryptonian, no matter how red his glowing eyes get.

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This comes to a head in the comics when Alfred takes a pill that gives him Kryptonian strength and he kicks the absolute shit out of Superman for ruining his family. I know I’m asking for a lot, but I simply need to see Alfred stomp a mudhole in Superman so hard that his own shoe explodes from the impact.

The post 10 Injustice Characters the DC Animated Movie Needs to Get Right appeared first on Den of Geek.

from Den of Geek https://ift.tt/3hIQH7h

[fragmentwitch]

Im not tagging this post bc it is an unpopular(?) opinion but I dont think lambda is part of satoko at all... I definitely am not trying to downplay what satoko went through (her brother, teppei and her aunt, the syndrome prpbably damaging her brain, being forced to witness her childhood friend's disemboweled corpse or being tortured by shion, etc) but it... just doesnt match up with the way lambdadelta describes her own logic error. It's so terrible she won't explicitly specify other than there was what seemed to be total isolation and eternal silence according to her.

That might well be the case for Frederica who could only watch fragments play out for when she was featured in the manga (idk how the VN covered this and it probably is irrelevant to understanding Retconathon GOU) but we have no idra what the higurashi logic error even is still. Or maybe im stupid and Ryukishi just needs to spell it out OR admit he can't do it without having to forcibly retcon a shitton of stuff because Umineko came after Higurashi, and probably didn't start sprinkling in Umineko references in Higurashi material until the console arcs n stuff added new content (I'm guessing, but that's what I think usually happens for writers that want to tie in separate stories within the same metaverse but didnt initially introduce it to seem that way)

Idk... it's funny now but when I first heard of Gou I got so excited to see if we'd get a prequel metafilled Umineko-Higurashi crossover thing where we'd pretty much see Bernkastel explicitly originate... but with the way Gou has been going and no 2nd season confirmation (convenient to find rumors of it right when we're about 5 episodes away from the end) I'm perfectly content if we just don't see any explicit Umineko cameos/Meta Logic stuff at all now? Haha it's really weird my thinking changed.

There's a saying that goes around for horror where the mind is capable of interpreting the unseen monster (i.e. the creature from Bird Box that makes you commit sudoku if you see it) as something MUCH scarier than anything the creator would reveal to you. It's fun to read different interpretations, and provided no hard evidence disproves them, all are perfectly valid and really creative if the person theorizing crafts an excellent forgery.

So when the 'solution' is given to you, inevitably it's going to disappoint some people that it isn't up to par vs a more plausible/favorable explanation offered via interpretation. An old rokkenjima forum post I read a while ago had a pretty valid concern: perhaps it's better not to try and explain Higurashi as a gameboard because if Ryukishi is not extremely careful, the struggles and individual stories of each character may feel cheapened and devalue Higurashi's story by untroducing an element where it was the doing of witches all along.

Honestly I'm hoping Satoko and Lambdadelta aren't part of each other the way Bern and Rika are... I feel like it would cheapen how enigmatic she is, and it cheapens by a LOT if Lambda's supposed logic hell started when Satoko... wasn't thriving in an academic environment. And even if Rika goes full Bernkastel and says something really heartless to Satoko, would it really justify pushing her to murder Rika and handwaving it like "it's not out of character because Satoko still has hinamizawa syndrome"? I'm really not sure. Shion's reason for what happened was a pile of issues that you gotta unpack, it wasnt just because she was a yandere for satoshi (and no, Shion isnt a yandere)

If you ask me, Lambdadelta isn't part of Takano or Satoko at all. This is entirely subjective but I got the impression Lambdadelta has been a witch far longer than Bern has. She even said she'd "maybe understand Bern's feelings a little better" in one line... meaning Bern is also an enigma to her and perhaps her goal of trapping Bern in an eternal stalemate is to get past that last wall Bern put up around herself and her trauma. (I call it a brand of flirting only traumatized magical girls would think is cute... and it is... but it's tragic). I'm a LambdaBern stan who doesn't believe they're actually unironic yandere with each other. I think they're both witches that came from unique circumstances and found solace in that. Their logic hells were so traumatic to them that their only comfort is to watch people go through a hell of their own. Sure they say really violent stuff to each other but again I think it's them both putting up an act. Neither of them would ever show weakness or vulnerability in front of pieces, much less other witches. Maybe not even each other, and that's why they are glad to play a game of cat and mouse with each other forever.

I have a lot of complicated feelings in the way I try to explore their dynamic that can't quite be put into words. Umineko is very layered but my favorite pastime is figuring out why they're drawn to each other while simultaneously playfully in constant opposition. And maybe Im a little fearful that Gou could ruin the fun of guessing for me + devalue Satoko and Rika...

[writingonjorvik]

Can We Discuss Character Development?

So there’s been a hot take going around about Lisa not having much of a personality, and this isn’t directly related to that, but I do want to discuss character development and how SSO is handling it.

I want to lead with I don’t personally think any one character has completely bad development. I think some characters are weaker than others, despite their presence in the story, but that just means there’s room for them to develop. However, what I want to focus on more is why it’s important, and why some of the retcons I feel like have hurt it. I should also add before I get into this that I just got my copy of Jorvik Calling today and I have not had a chance to read it. That may change my opinions, but for now, I’m going into this topic totally blind with just my playthrough.

I want to focus on Lisa because I think she’s a good example. Personally, having met Lisa in SSO and gone back to learn more about her in previous media in the series, I like her. I like her changes and I like the focus that’s been on her, particularly because with her music, she’s probably the easiest to market. Linda has been getting better with her little pop-ins for videos with info, like with the Galloper Thompson info, but overall, it’s hard to fit any other Soul Rider into marketing content besides Lisa. She has an actual voice in our world.

However, I do also agree with her hot take that she’s lost some of her character. Before her characterization was that she was a punk rocker who lost her mom. And when that was still canon, her going punk rock on her tour and returning to reinvent herself in country that felt more her, was an interesting narrative. It showed her character development in her getting over her mom. Right now, it seems like Lisa is debuting with her country music and the rock tour has been completely cut. And that makes her significantly less dynamic as a character. And don’t get me wrong, I get why Star Academy is getting cut. With as few languages as it’s in, and with it being the hardest game to get a hold of, it’s the hardest portion of the prequels to reimagine because there’s the least amount of nostalgia for it. 

But, that arc is fascinating to add to Lisa. Since that was canon when I listened/played it, it’s what made the Texas Bluebells story so emotional for me, to show Lisa’s healing through her music and her ability to reflect on what happened and how she changed to reflect her moving on.

I think this is the biggest hurt with the retconning, even if it’s logical. I have a mixed timeline now, and I have a mixed understanding of Lisa’s character. The Lisa I imagine, that I put into The Lucky Six, is different from the Lisa the story has, and one of those is seriously more dynamic in my opinion. One is someone who was hurting and then kidnapped, and then recovering through something she’s passionate about, not only on the recent trauma, but on the deeper one. Another has her character very static, having the same tool on both sides of her journey to rely on and no growth.

While changing narrative to make it more accessible is great, removing narrative that was there is dangerous when it’s not directly offensive. While difficult to find, the idea of a punk morning Lisa is interesting and dynamic to think about in how she changes by the time we rescue her. How much more impact would it have to rescue Lisa and she’s in the ruins of her old punk rock outfit, and then pulls out her mother’s jacket, looking for comfort after a near death experience, possibly even being tortured by the thought of seeing her mother soon while she’s scared. And that isolation pushing her to come back to her friends and work through her trauma.

Lisa isn’t Anne. She’s not angry, she’s sad. At least, that’s my biggest take away. She’s already gone through her rage with this punk rock phase. To release it, to lean into her roots with country, her mother’s jacket, shows her accepting and letting go. Not to mention it makes every bit of her interactions with Anne, who is still angry about what happened, incredibly more dynamic. They can relate on a whole different level and Lisa, as the healer of the party, actually knows how to help. 

I don’t think this only applies to Lisa. I think characters like Loretta being toned down makes her big twist to help the MC less of a surprise. When she was a mean bitch, the idea of her setting it aside to help the MC feels like more of a big deal. I think taking away Ms. Drake being truly evil makes her seem really dumb for trusting Darko. If she’s not entirely evil, then it’s kinda to be expected she’d be duped, but if she’s evil, Darko betraying her is kinda a big deal. There a bunch of little micro-stories that get their nuances taken out when you cut things to be more tame. And maybe this is just an author who writes adult fiction speaking, but it makes this chances for development have less impact, particularly when different parts of your audience are getting different stories.