#just going with the flow

[emahriel]

inktober — day 2

[tetitous]

I've just come across the realization that 2 shows I absolutely adore have made an attempt at a very similar type of villain, and while one worked, even though she wasn't appreciated by everyone, the second one is recognized by the entire fandom to have been messily written.

So now I'm going to try, through comparison, to see why Dante from FMA 2003 feels much better written than Oropo from Wakfu.

First and foremost, some basic presentation.

[Warning: spoiler for both shows, I'm doing an analysis so I need to work with what the shows gave]

Dante is a normal woman, an alchemist who unlike most managed to create the Philosopher Stone, and to transmute a human soul within another human body, effectively making her immortal through soul transfer. She takes in the results of failed human transmutation, homonculi, and raises them into faithful followers, promising them to make them human. She uses them to keep tabs on alchemist with the potential to create the Stone, and to create situations where people would get tempted to seek or create it (usually through conflicts, wars and massacres). Her goal is to obtain the Stone for herself without dirtying her own hands, and to stay young and beautiful through body-hopping. She also wants to get back at Hohenheim for leaving her.

Oropo is the result of Yugo's use of the Six Eliatrope Dofus. Sent at the beginning of time with all of his kin, and learning all the while, he has much more knowledge than the average human, and is similar to immortal due to the way life energy gets transfered from one eliotrope to another when one dies. He takes in demigods like him and convinces them to follow him by promising them they'll replace the gods and be able to do better than them. He uses them to accomplish his goals, obtain the artifacts necessary to his goals and make sure that the events that caused his own birth do happen. His goal is to replace the gods and obtain Yugo's energy to avoid death, he also wants to get back at Yugo for creating him then leaving him in the dirt.

In a way I bet you can see the similarities that caused my reflexion, and you also might already see one reason why Oropo's writing is already a bit difficult: time travel created a paradox in which he existed before his own birth, making his creator unaware of his existence, and so incapable of helping him in any way. Convoluted situation aside, and it's worth noting it isn't helping, it already makes one of his goals illogical. I don't mean to equate illogical with emotional, mind you, Dante wanting to get back at Hohenheim is just as emotional, but the reason why Yugo wasn't there for Oropo was because he couldn't be there, for a long time he didn't even exist! How was he supposed to help? And Oropo knows this, but chooses to ignore this information. On the other hand, Hohenheim leaving was his decision, he was aware of Dante and decided to leave her, so while it is an emotional matter it is also understandable why Dante would be angry at him. Add this to the fact that Yugo is the protagonist, a character most people like even when he makes mistakes, whereas Hohenheim is usually considered an asshole, or at least a guy who made very questionable decisions, and you get very different reactions from the audience.

I'm only getting started though, because another problem has to do with the characters they're surrounded with.

Dante has the homonculi : humans but not quite, emotionally torn by their nature, that Dante raises from birth into obedient servants, holding them on a leash with a promise of humanity. They're here from episode one, usually cold and uncaring, you still get to see their more emotional side, through Lust and Wrath mainly, but also with Greed, Sloth and Envy. Those are characters who seem simple on the outside, but who actually have depth. Dante however sees them as tools, never anything more. It starts with the way she names them and it ends with her taking away Gluttony's mind, which is also the cause of her own downfall. She believes herself superior to others, and the homonculi inferior to all. She remains consistent on that matter. The only character she actually has respect for is Hohenheim, she has a bit of respect for the Elric brothers, a little bit for Izumi, and that's as far as it goes. Pretty women are vessels, others are either Stone-producer material or just Stone material.

Oropo, on his end, has the Brotherhood. They are demigods who grew-up in bad environments, who he took in and promised them he would help them change the world. He calls them siblings, and makes them call each other siblings, while Oropo's tower seems to establish a form of hierarchy, in practice they have a status almost equal to his. They only start appearing in the OVAs (the manga if you have them), and most of their screentime is focused on action scenes, Echo being the biggest exception, Adamai being a special case, and Coqueline and Ush arguably. They're all implied to have depth, there's a buch of lore about them, but the show never quite gets there. Oropo sees them as replacement for the Brotherhood of the Tofu, as such he seems to spend time with them, gets to know them, they aren’t just tools to him, but in the end he keeps projecting other people onto them (we regrettably don't get to really see it, the closest ones are again Adamai, because Adamai, and Echo who "replaces" Amalia). He's a bit inconsistent with the way he treats them, usually talks of them as brothers, and yet still infantilizing them, punishing them for thinking for themselves even though he encourages them and their goals. Oropo doesn't seem to consider himself superior, it actually feels more like he has an inferiority complex centered on Yugo. He litteraly wants what Yugo has, and if he can't take it from him, he'll just find the next best thing.

There's a lot of compelxity there, and it's for a character we see for only 13 episodes, the result of that is bound to feel clumsy.

In comparison Dante feels simpler, that's because her complexities are related to the main theme of the show, equivalent exchange and the value of a human soul, of humanity as a concept, and the rest is kept relatively simple. Her incoherences are typically adressed by the text itself and she remains a bad person the whole way, just one who raises important questions.

Oropo is a bit all over the place, the main theme of Wakfu are family and the moral implications of one's actions (for oneself or for others, the one that can and the ones that have to be made), which are very broad themes and rarely adressed in an open way, so the characters, the antagonists especially, cannot really be all that simple. Oropo's incoherences remain unadressed, and because we didn't get that much of him interacting with his circle we cannot feel that divide.

In the end Dante feels more alone than Oropo does, that's one dies alone by the end of her tools while the other gives up on his plan and dies with his loved one.

I like Oropo, but I think it's because I spent a lot of time thinking about him, because it's really hard to like him with just what the show gives us. Dante is a villain I love because she's unlikable and I'm not expected to feel for her, but I can see in her something that talks to the worst side of my own humanity. In Oropo, at first I only saw a parody of a politician, or at worst a sect guru, it's only with much thinking I started seeing a lost child running on lost time, who had to create a family after being abandoned by his father when others usually have theirs no matter what, and who got jealous of that. That's why the creators tried to make him empathetic even though he was a pretty terrible guy.

I hope I got most of what I wanted to express right, there's a lot of other stuff actually, but I feel like I tackeld the main point. Also I like to compare my fandoms, that's just what I do.

Anyways if anything gets added just know that I'm an avid analysis reader, so you can leave it under there ^^

[guhroovi]

*does the little sanji love wiggle*

I drew my husband. And yes, i asked tsurujo if she can share him, teehee

[sickvictorianangel]

Life is a huge blur at the moment

[yabakuboi]

Steve walks into his house—HIS house, he would emphasize—to find his two favorite people wrestling on his couch.

For a second, the bottom drops out of his stomach. It's knee-jerk, even though he knows better. But they are very wrapped around each other, twisting and writhing, and it's pretty easy to get the wrong idea. Until he looks closer and realizes the wrestling is a lot more... violent, than sexy.

He watches, shocked into silence and stillness, as Eddie chomps down on Robin's upper arm. Robin screeches and yanks Eddie's hair. Steve feels un-easy in a different way now, like maybe this is devolving into an actual physical altercation instead of some friendly tussling. He winces when Robin gives Eddie a rather vicious purple nurple.

"FUCK, I give, I give," Eddie screams, limbs releasing her to curl protectively around himself.

Robin bounces up cackling, rumpled and sweaty. Her victory grin is vicious when she turns to Steve.

"Hear that Harrington? Your ass is mine tonight!"

Steve stares at her in fear. "What?"

"I get cuddle privileges tonight," she declares, still a little breathless. "And Eddie gets to sleep on the couch."

Behind her, Eddie looms before he jumps on her back, dragging her back down with a war cry. Steve watches them for a moment as the curse at each other for cheating, before going upstairs and locking himself in his room.

[barghest-land]

pursued by a memory

[angrycloudcrown]

just so you all know i only know like 4 things about goncharov

[worlddissolvingintoslime]

like looking in a mirror

[communistkenobi]

saw someone on here describe reading as a passive activity. and like no judgement on this person but I think we have fundamentally different relationships to reading

[splickedylit]

You can't fight the role the Mother had in store for you

[l0vergirls]

ideas are coming to me in waves........

royal!darling with a harem constantly fighting for their attention....... not to mention that pesky advisor who seems to be too proud of himself when he earns their praise (and a night in their bed)

and that smug queen from a neighboring country and her husband, who both seem far too excited to be visiting for "diplomatic purposes" ....... everyone glowering at the two when they emerge from royal!darling's chambers looking too disorderly for what was meant to be a "friendly chat"

maybe a butler who's very loyal as well, perhaps a bit too loyal for some.......

[thatlittleegyptologist]

Grammar programme: If you combined these five words into just these two words it will be more concise for your reader.

Me: Have you considered that the story perhaps just won't sound as good, though?

[degenerateflesh]

Yume and her Nikkies celebrating Halloween together

[blluespirit]

i keep thinking about zuko during the day of black sun, starting down his father who's goaded him into staying by torturing him with details of his missing mother, only to use that opportunity to try and kill him again.... only for Zuko to use a technique Ozai did not even know possible, flowing through motions that are distinctly not firebending demonstrating a power so different and deeper than Ozai could ever fathom... idk man just zuko

[misc-obeyme]

You were the one who should have been scared, but the fear you see in Satan's eyes is deeper and more shattering than anything you could have felt in that moment. You want to kiss him, to ease that terror you see behind his anger. The shivering horror that struck through the rage when it came too close to you.

Whenever Satan is out of control, that fear lights up his eyes when he looks at you. You've seen it almost every time, the only one to inspire it in him. You know what it means. He's scared of himself. He's scared of hurting you.

And yet, you are not afraid. You never have been and you never will be. You know that he needs your touch, to hear your voice calling him back to himself. You know that when he's lost in the hurricane of his wrath, you are the one thing that can ground him again, keep him from leaving more destruction in his wake.

So you say his name. You tell him you love him. You watch that fear and anger drain away, the demon form retreat. And you catch him when he stumbles into your arms.

masterlist | Thank you for reading!

[zephyrine-gale]

working on some new charms!