#literally spent as much time on one story arc than i did the previous six combined

[pochapal]

started feeding the diamond/pearl liveblog into the pokespe queue and i am realising that the dp arc constitutes 50% of the total liveblog by post count

[literary-illuminati]

2024 Book Review #42 – The Golden Enclaves by Naomi Novik

This is the rare book that I read less than six months after finishing the previous entry in the series, and only the second definite conclusion to a series. It was incredibly readable and never a slog, and the big final climactic set-piece absolutely worked for me, but on the whole I probably enjoyed it rather less than The Last Graduate?

The book picks up the precise moment Graduate lets off, with El getting shoved out of the Scholomance moments before it goes spinning off into the void by Orion – her storybook monster-hunting hero/traumatized child soldier boyfriend. Who she instantly tries to move heaven and earth to drag him out, and then spends a week near catatonic with exhaustion and grief. In the end, the plot comes in the form of Liesel, the valedictorian of her year at the Scholomance, arriving and all but dragging her off to save the London Enclave from imminent collapse and consumption by a rampant Mawmouth, one of the horrifying, deathless monsters that she is one of exactly two people alive to ever kill. From there she’s dragged into the mystery of an unknown malificer destabilizing and destroying enclaves, the brewing war between New York and Shanghai, and convincing Orion’s family to help try and rescue him before the Scholomance vanishes entirely into the void.

Despite being about ostensible adults who have graduated and are properly finding their places in the world, this still very much read like YA to me – moreso, really, without the conceit of the killer magic highschool overshadowing everything else. Or, okay, have gotten disagreement when describing the series as YA before, so to be more specific – El’s romantic and familial drama are quite literally the most important things in the world, as she and her highschool boyfriend are the most important and powerful entities in all creation. With the exception of El’s mom being a saint and providing healing and support, I’m pretty sure literally every consequential act that occurs on-screen is done either by or to someone under 20. El melts down, fucks off for a week, and never answers her phone in a way that is very relatable for an overwhelmed 18-year-old but potentially world-war-starting for a walking WMD. And so on. Without the deliberately artificial setting of the Scholomance, the wires of genre convention just show through more obviously, you know? (Also, my first introduction to Novik was Spinning Silver and I’m still waiting to read anything else of hers that comes near it on the level of prose and style).

None of which is a complaint – the fact that your boyfriend’s mom is literally the worst person in the world just comes with the territory. What is a complaint is how the book treats its supporting cast. This is El and Orion’s story, and I’m pretty sure they are literally the only people in it who get – not even an arc, but just any sense of development or change over time whatsoever. They feel like characters, everyone else feels like cardboard cutouts, or NPCs in a video game. Which is a fair choice to make when space is at a premium, but my copy of this came out to over 400 pages. Even the other characters with enough personality and screentime to make any sort of impression can honestly be counted on one hand.

In consequence, this is an incredibly plot-driven novel. The pacing is both frenetic and frantic, with what feels like basically the entire thing spent either in or rushing to one crisis or big dramatic set-piece after another – a surprising amount of it is spent in airports, honestly. The epilogue mentions that they ‘crammed a decade worth of crises into a fortnight’ or something along those liens and, yeah! The contrast between this and the previous two books spreading their crises across whole school years is inescapable.

That said, that frantic, 400-page-sprint plot did work. Or, at least, the big emotional setpieces and dramatic confrontations that are clearly the heart of the whole thing absolutely hit me like they were supposed to. The finale especially.

There is a certain sort of cliche in old arguments about superhero stories, where one side says that superman is boring because he’s more powerful than the rest of the world put together and impossible to threaten, and the other says that he’s interesting for precisely the same reason. This isn’t actually true of most superman stories as far as I can tell, but it still seems an apt comparison for this book. There is absolutely no point in the entire story where ‘Can El kill this?’ is a question that is in any doubt. The horrifying monsters that the thought of fighting again in Book 2 sent her into panic attacks? She can kill them with a sentence an a wave of her hands. There is simply not a moment in the book where her efforts fail due to a lack of force – so the entire story becomes an exercise in supplying dramatic tension and a compelling action-adventure wizard-battle narrative despite this handicap. And it (mostly) works!

The series has never been big on villains – in both the previous books, the central problem being struggled against was always environmental or systemic or a matter of coordination and planning. This book redoubles the commitment, to the point of dangling the red herring of the sinister dark wizard running around destroying enclaves before eventually revealing that the real villain is, well, the collateral damage of trying to fix (metaphorical) climate change and structural inequality without a full understanding of the problem. Never a really convincing red herring, but I still enjoyed the reveal.

Part of the whole YA feel is just the themes being very close to the surface of things and legible to casual reading. What with the enclaves of comfort and luxury that every wizard is fighting for entrance to literally being built on a foundation of eternal and deathless suffering, or the number of monsters in the world being the proliferation of enclaves as China and India began catching up with the Euro-Americans leading to an arms/development race that leaves anyone not part of it just more and more fucked over, and all. Not a bad thing – honestly it’s a compliment to say that the book managed to have such clear themes with such obvious applicability to the real world without ever feeling like it had turned into a lecture. Many similar works fail the test.

It is I think kind of funny how you can use the prominence of queerness in this series to track how the culture of mainstream publishing has changed between releases. From not really mentioned at all in Deadly Education to El sleeping with a woman on-page in this. (I actually can’t remember if she ever, like, realized she was bi or it just got retroactively established as something she was already comfortable with?)

Speaking of themes – this is mostly just on me personally, but the whole resolution with El’s great-grandmother left an intense bad taste in my mouth. I’m sure it was just necessary to make the whole very cute resolution of her whole doom-laden prophecy work, but ‘yes the family matriarch basically threw my mom in the gutter with newborn me in her arms, but it was with the best of intentions! She felt really bad about it, and she was right that it was the only way things would work out well in the end!’ is a trope that just viscerally repels me. Or at least it does when El reconciling and reconnecting with the extended family that abandoned her is clearly portrayed as part of the big happy ending. I’d probably react less harshly if this was a different genre, honestly? But as it is, yeah, in the same way that being so consistent about making The System the only real villain makes the fact that there’s apparently some sort of system of instant karma and doing good things/being a good person actually does make the universe like and do good things for you ring a bit hollow.

Anyway yes, there’s definitely more to talk about – Orion as a character is a whole essay in himself, and so is his mom, but that’s enough for now. It was a very fun, addictively readable book that hit the Big Moments very well, but everything outside of them and the two main characters felt kind of threadbare and perfunctory. Still, not a book I regret reading.

[eternalthenas]

what bothers me the most about tros and what i’m most unable to accept is how jj managed to destroy and disrespect EVERY single character. even the ones who technically had “happy endings”🤡

ben - i feel like this one doesn’t even need to be said, but i’ll say it anyways. after years of emotional abuse from palpatine, it’s disheartening to see that jj gave no explanation as to why palpatine wanted ben (personal vendetta against the skywalkers i guess??) when it semed like he only needed rey AND that ben never really triumphed over palpatine in any way. it hurts to know that leia straight up had a vision about her son’s death but that she still seemingly gave up on him despite knowing that he was struggling and that she sent him off to train to be jedi with a luke, when apparently she could’ve done that herself. it’s disheartening that luke who believed even vader could be turned back to the light also gave up on his nephew, when he was just a boy no less. it’s disheartening that although he was the last skywalker (a fact only palpatine acknowledged!), none of his family nor his namesake reached out to help him. instead of telling the last skywalker to rise, they ignored him (as they had apparently done his whole life) in favor of a palpatine. ok. even though as the last skywalker, he really should’ve been the one to have the final kill against palpatine since it was HIS family that palpatine destroyed, he doesn’t. he’s motionless in a pit for the whole final battle. ok. that will never not leave a bad taste in my mouth. his whole family (except for han apparently i love him) gave up on him and clearly so did the writers. as a fan of the skywalkers and their story, this isn’t the ending i wanted for them. especially when luke and leia and han had given their lives to see him turn to the light. and for what? so he could be used as a plot device to conveniently bring rey back to life and then promptly die (even though they’re a force dryad and, according to jj’s own fucking canon, supposedly one) without any fanfare, emotional reaction whatsoever, or later mention? wtf? it’s disrespectful not only to ben solo, who is easily the best character in the sequel trilogy and one of the best characters in ALL of star wars, but it’s disrespectful to the entire skywalker line!! (and to adam driver, who deserved so much better than this shit. go get that oscar)

rey - by making her a palpatine, jj completely disregarded her arc. whatever your opinions about rey nobody, once they went with it, they never should’ve retconned it and turned her into a legacy character in the final film. it felt cheap. in my theater, there was no cheering about this reveal. because jj had never properly set it up and he didn’t even bother to reveal it an impactful way. but what’s most annoying about rey suddenly being a legacy character is that it completely disregards the fact that she was powerful on her OWN, without any famous blood making her that way. furthermore, by turning her into the chosen one and giving her the entire skywalker legacy (which felt like a slap in the face to the skywalkers imo), she did turn into a mary sue, one of the biggest complaints about her since day 1. she was overpowered, morally perfect, and never faced any failure. i struggled to root for her as the “hero” because i felt everything was handed to her on a silver platter. so not only did jj turn her into a mary sue and take her power away from her by turning her into a legacy, but he also destroyed the fact that her whole arc had been “seeking belonging” and a family. rather than having her final scenes be with her new found family, she ends the movie with her canon soulmate dead and no one but a droid by her side on a desert planet of all places. to add further insult to injury, she also disregards her family name even though they supposedly loved her and sacrificed themselves for her (despite the fact that they sold her but whatever) in favor of a last name of a guy she had barely known. she had more emotional connection to han or leia, but she didn’t take their last name. she took luke’s, the guy who had refused to teach her and who she had come to view in a more negative light towards the end of tlj. in this house i will not EVER be calling her rey sky- i can’t even say it🤢

finn - in all honestly, they screwed finn’s character arc in episode 1 when jj turned him into a lovesick sidekick who served as comedic relief. as a deserted stormtrooper, he could’ve had the most interesting storylines. and he should have. but apparently the writers forgot about him. although they mention his past BRIEFLY, it’s paid no real weight or attention. instead, he spends the whole movie once again trying to (possibly) confess his feeling for rey. and for what? probably just to bait finnrey fans and prove the character’s heterosexuality bc it goes absolutely nowhere. although we find out he’s force sensitive, that too is glossed over and has no lasting effect. he’s also made co general, which okay cool, but then he does nothing?? so while finn could have and should have been a main character with an interesting storyline, they turn him into your average run of the mill action hero with an occasional quip. john boyega, sweetie, i’m so sorry (but i guess that’s kind of what he wanted since he hated tlj, the only movie where he actually had a main role with any character growth?? idk)

poe - it’s once again evident that they originally intended to kill off poe bc he has no arc whatsoever. he gets a little backstory as a drug smuggler now ig, which really came out of left field considering the already established canon with his past as a pilot. he’s more of the same in this movie, except more unlikable than usual (imo). he’s still stubborn, occasionally funny, but mostly he just bickers with rey, which isn’t funny, at all necessary, and doesn’t add anything to the “trio’s” dynamic. he’s at his best when he’s with finn but then, of course, jj has to remind us of how straight he is every single scene so. another character like finn who could have been great, but with the lazy writing, he has no arc, no backstory, no character growth, so he’s just mediocrity personified and just kind of there.

zorii & jannah - both could’ve been awesome. both are just there for a brief introduction and to help the heroes with maybe one thing and that’s it. both deserved better.

the skywalkers - yeah jj really said a big fuck you to luke, leia, and anakin most of all. the WORST part of tros is the fact that it basically makes the previous six episodes useless. anakin’s redemption arc? what does it matter now? he didn’t successfully bring balance to the force. he didn’t successfully kill palpatine. and now his entire bloodline is dead. ok cool😎 thank you jj!!!! what a hopeful end to the skywalker saga!!!! i love seeing that anakin failed and wasn’t REALLY the chosen one. i love that luke and leia gave their legacy to a descendant of the guy who tried to tear apart and terrorized their family. that’s really nice. i love that anakin NEVER reached out to help his grandson who struggled with the dark just like he did. but that he came in just in time to tell palp’s granddaughter to rise😍 really hopeful, lovely ending. thanks again jj! thanks for making leia seem like a bad mother who sees visions about her son but just throws in the towel and doesn’t really try to help him?? wtf??? not my princess leia. also tros luke? truly the worst luke. i really have no other words, i’m just disappointed. jj let me down in every single way possible and ones i didn’t even realize he could.

palpatine - jj also managed to ruin the best star wars villain, a feat i didn’t even think possible. palpatine had always seemed scary to me because of his inhuman qualities. but in this one, he’s back with no explanation whatsoever. he just is. he somehow managed to survive (ok🙄) and furthermore he had a kid. what in the fuck? jj clearly read harry potter and the cursed child, but he clearly also forgot to read the reviews. NOBODY LIKES IT WHEN THE PREVIOUSLY UNTOUCHABLE/SCARY VILLAIN HAS A KID OUT OF NOWHERE. NOBODY. i seriously spent the entire movie wondering who the heck would sleep with him? that’s it. he didn’t seem menacing or at all like a threat. this movie genuinely had no stakes whatsoever (that’s why ben’s death feels so out of left field bc literally for what?! but i digress) also the final “fight” where rey kills him??? very lame. he supposedly survived all those years to be taken out like that?? no thank you, i’d like a refund.

in conclusion, thank you to jj for ruining my favorite franchise by killing off every last one of my favorite characters, destroying the skywalker legacy (& killing them off), ruining seriously every character, and leaving me with despair!!! while i’ll continue to watch star wars without including episode 9, it sucks that some of my joy is zapped from my favorite series. because this is how future generations will know star wars. with this shitty ending. and any future movies will have this canon. and that really fricking sucks. thanks, i hate it.

anyways feel free to message if you’re also in the depths of despair about how this all ended!! bc the more i think about it, the sadder/angrier i get.

[rachelbethhines]

Tangled Salt Marathon - Keeper of the Spire

You wouldn’t know it upon first watch, but today’s story is one of the few non-filler episodes of season two. 

Summary:  In order to acquire the third scroll piece, Rapunzel, Eugene, Cassandra and Lance travel to the home of the Keeper of the Spire and meet Calliope who informs them the third piece is kept inside the Spire’s vault at the top of the mountain. The group begins the long journey to the Spire's vault the following day and become increasingly annoyed by Calliope’s rude, arrogant and inconsiderate behavior. Despite Calliope's treatment, Rapunzel insists they still need her help all while they being dangerously pursued by the vault's protector, the Kurlock. The group eventually reach the Spire's vault, but again encounter the Kurlock and discover Calliope is not the real Keeper of the Spire.

Once Again, ‘Destiny’ Isn’t a Goal

If you want to build up some sort of mystery with the scroll pieces and what awaits Rapunzel at the end of her quest, then that’s fine. But at some point you have to actually explain what her destiny actually is, how the scroll connects to it, and most importantly, why she needs to fulfill it. 

We’re never given a reason for why Rapunzel needs to reconnect to the moonstone, nor why she couldn’t have just stayed home and did nothing. The scroll itself doesn’t tell her anything and what it leads up to has nothing to do with ‘destiny’ and ultimately comes to nothing in the grand scheme of things.  

Indeed, much like the quest itself, things would have been better for everyone had she not found the scroll at all. 

Meet the Best Written Character In the Show

No, I’m not exaggerating. Calliope is the only recurring character in the series not to get royally screwed over by last minute rewrites and poor pacing. In fact her arc may have actually been improved by the dumb creative decisions of season three.  

Which is a problem because she’s not a main character. Her story and arc shouldn’t be more well rounded than Rapunzel’s. It’s also clear, given how the writers try to pitt her as annoying thorn in the heroes sides that is only tolerated because she’s useful, that they weren’t expecting the general audience to identify with her, and so her subsequent portrayal as the most developed character in the show is fully accidental.    

We Finally Get Some Indication of Cassandra’s Age

Well first off, we probably shouldn’t be getting such information about our deuteragonist this late in the game, but also, putting Cass in her early 20s recontextualizes her arc the same way Varian being 14 recontextualizes his conflict, but in the opposite direction. A 24 year old is more accountable for their actions than a 14 year old. Always will be. 

And before people try to get all pedantic on me; yes she’s only 23 here, and Varian is currently 15. What I meant is those are their ages at the start of their villain arcs, because the linear progression of time is a thing. 

This Joke Actually Highlights One of the Bigger Problems of Season Two

I laughed when I first heard this joke, but that’s cause I was under the assumption that they would go on to develop a friendship between Cass and Lance as the season went on. But they don’t. 

Cass never has any focus episodes that aren’t about her failing relationship with Rapunzel. She never interacts with the other four people that she’s traveling with outside of group scenes like this. Not even with Eugene, who we spent the whole previous season establishing a bond with. 

This undermines Cassandra’s arc in several ways. She less well rounded and developed without other people in her life besides Rapunzel; it ignores her place in the show as the older and wiser friend if she’s so majorly co-dependent upon only person. It also ignores what was set up in season one in order to push a certain narrative later that clashes with what we the audience already know.  

Plus there’s the added effect of other characters getting poor representation within the story. 

So Why Didn’t the Others Come Along Again?

I understand not being able to take the caravan upto the top of the mountain, but the road was wide enough to get it up this far. Also it didn’t take you all day to get here so you could just walk back to camp. 

But let's get to the real reason why the caravan was left behind. The writers wanted and excuse to get rid of Hookfoot and Shorty. Because they didn’t want to write them into the story. Because they have nothing to do with the overall plot and together they’re one too many characters to keep up with and give stuff to do to. Which begs the question of why they were ever included into the season at all. 

Also why leave Adria behind? She was the one who sent them up here. She’s the one who has a vested interest in getting Rapunzel to the end of her journey. She’s the only one driving the plot at the moment, so why not have her present to do just that?  

Rapunzel is a Hypocrite 

There’s not a single description that Rapunzel says here that couldn’t be applied to herself. 

Which would be funny if the writers ever actually acknowledged this within the series. 

Having parallels simply exist on their own and not actually inform the story is bad writing. Same with character flaws; acknowledge them, use them to advance both the plot and the characters, and build off of them to establish character dynamics. This is in part why Calliope is the better written character between the two of them. 

Behold, the One and Only Time Lance and Rapunzel Hold a Conversation with One Another! 

Speaking of characters not getting enough focus.... It’s just a set up for a recurring gag in the episode, but this is indeed the only point in the series where Lance and Rapunzel talk, about anything. 

It’s not just Cass who is prevented from establishing relationships, it’s literally everyone. All of Rapunzel’s focus episodes alternate between Cassandra, Eugene, or a random side character. Cassandra only gets focus when with Rapunzel. Eugene only gets development with either Rapunzel or on his own. Lance is only ever shown interacting with Eugene or Adria, outside of some highly specific one off instances like here. Hookfoot is left out in the cold save for three episodes and two of them double as New Dream folder. 

We’ve managed to pair the cast down to only six, as opposed to a whole kingdom’s worth of characters, and yet they have less development here than they did in season one. The group does not feel like a group, and that is a problem. 

How is This Meant to be Encouraging? 

Ok, I get what the writers were going for here. Calliope has low self esteem. she feels useless because she’s lost her only support group, her mentor. So Rapunzel is ‘inspiring’ her to fulfill her dream of becoming the new keeper of the spire. 

However, this is an incredibly bad take. 

Calliope lacks self esteem because she’s lonely. Her dream of becoming the keeper is directly tied to her father figure, who up till now was the only person who gave a damn about her. She only wants to impress Rapunzel because she wants a friend and she believes that she needs to be useful in order to get that. And here is Rapunzel and the narrative reinforcing that belief under the guise of ‘achieving a dream’. 

No fuck that! 

You don’t need to have a ‘purpose’ to have friends.You shouldn’t have to prove yourself useful just be respected and included. Also, Rapunzel doesn’t even befriend her. She just uses Calliope to get what she wants and then avoids her for the rest of the show; only checking up on her out of obligation in season three. 

So not only are we denied another female friendship in a show bereft of female relationships, but we also have a character who can be easily read as autistic by the audience needing to prove she’s useful to society in order to be accepted. 

Ugh! 

And yeah, I said autistic. We have a character who fails to pick up on social cues, hyperfixates upon her special interests, is rejected by society for trying to share these special interests, and she even pulls out her magic linked rings to fiddle with when stressed, which can be coded as a stim. I’m not saying that this was the writers’ intent, but nevertheless these are traits that people on the autism spectrum tend to identify with. 

So how insulting is it to watch this episode and see someone you could relate to being constantly put down by the heroes behind their back and then never apologize for it, even when said character admits their own fault? 

So Are We Ever Going to Get Any Background on this Spire? 

So the spire is one of the few places that is plot important in the show. Yet we never find out why it exists, who built it, how it came to hold such important plot devices, nor the story behind the keepers who guard it. It’s just there, and that’s infuriating because it’s both a lack of much needed worldbuilding and lore. 

Still A Better Dad than Frederic

Leaving for months on end without telling you loved ones why and where you’re going is a shitty thing to do. Doubly so if its just to teach your kids ‘a lesson’. However, The Keeper still winds up being a better parental figure than most of the other dads (besides Cap, who is awesome) in the series. That’s how low the bar has been dropped by Chris and his weird ideas on parenting. 

So What Was the Lesson Here?

Ok first off, Calliope didn’t need to be reminded of anything. The Keeper says as much. She was always persistent. The only lesson that she does learn is not to lie but apparently that’s not what we’re supposed to take from this episode. 

But what are we supposed to take away? Because Rapunzel doesn’t learn anything either. There’s no admittance of wrongdoing on her part  and she does not change her outlook or behavior from this encounter. 

Calliope at least learns to become more self assured after this episode and remains honest and true to herself once the episode is done with. Rapunzel however is the same. You can’t claim that this is ‘Rapunzel’s story’ (Chris’s words not mine) if it’s only random side characters who are allowed to grow.  Which is yet another reason why the main cast of characters don't get the development and interaction that they should.

That’s also why Calliope is better written than the main character and she shouldn’t be. It’s a bewilderingly oversight of basic writing.

Conclusion 

I don’t mind this episode. As I said in the beginning, it is one of the few non-filler episodes in season two. However, there’s a lot of problems with it to the point where I can’t actually call it good, just mediocre. 

[virlath]

The Dread Wolf

Some speculation on Solas’ dread wolf form (Tevinter Nights spoilers below)

All around us was light and color, a dizzying array of the magic that makes up the world of spirits, and it swirled around the Tevinter mage and his ritual knife as though he were the eye of a hurricane. Something huge trembled around us—a spirit so great that it shook parts of the Fade I had always considered to be neutral, devoid of life—and high overhead, where the Black City shadowed the sky, I heard a great booming roar.

But before the Tevinter mage could complete his ritual, the Dread Wolf arrived.

It was no elf, no mortal mage. It was a beast unlike any I had ever seen. Lupine in appearance, but the size of a high dragon, with shaggy spiked hide and six burning eyes like a pride demon, and it came to us on wings of fire that resolved themselves into a horde of lesser demons as the Dread Wolf landed before us.

-Dragon Age Tevinter Nights 

So, I’ve been thinking about Solas’ dread wolf form, and what it it means /entails.

In Tevinter Nights, the Dread Wolf appears from the fade to stop the Mortalitasi’s blood magic ritual.

Based on the Mortalitasi’s story, I theorise the terrifying Dread Wolf form is Solas himself and not a separate entity like Nightmare serving Corypheus. 

===

First, the backstory

Personally, I think there is a lot of strong evidence Solas was originally some kind of spirit before manifesting as a physical, mortal elf. He doesn’t identify strongly with people and elves, saying to the Inquisitor he only thinks of himself as “me”. His only friends are spirits, and he has spent a lot of time justifying to himself why spirits should be considered people. He gets very passionate about this topic if you walk into his rhetoric on the matter.

Solas understands spirits because I think he was one to begin with. There have been hints that the ancient elves used spirits and bound them to their will. It would explain why Solas is so against using spirits and twisting them against their nature.

While we might visit the Fade, it is his natural home, and the spirits there serve him gladly.

After the events of Trespasser, and the events in Tevinter Nights, I think Solas has taken the form of the six-eyed wolf to reside in the fade physically. I presume this is advantageous for him so he can ensure his ritual to tear down the veil completes successfully. Using the dread wolf form allows him to build up his terrifying image  while also scaring away mages and spirits from disrupting his plans. 

We already know with the anchor he would have been able to walk the fade physically. With Mythal’s power now within him, there is nothing stopping him from living there permanently. Instead of shape shifting into a dragon like the evanuris however, Solas shapeshifts into a massive reptilian wolf. 

I don’t think the wolf form is a separate entity, nor do I think this wolf form is a spirit serving him like Nightmare was serving Corypheus.

Solas may have many parallels to Corypheus but using a spirit or even a person as one half of his persona is not his MO. Solas only relies on himself- he wants to be the one in control at all times. He may rely on spirits to help with whatever tasks he needs to carry out, but I don’t think he would ever rely on a spirit so much so it formed one half of his dread wolf image.

===

The Dread Wolf of the Fade

Now I think Solas’ origin/spirit self is important, because it will play a part in how we truly see him, and thus, form how we redeem or stop (”kill”) him.

Around the start of DA:I, he says:

The fade reflects the mind of the living. If you expect a spirit of wisdom to be a pride demon, it will adapt. And if your mind is free of corrupting influences? If you understand the nature of the spirit? They can be fast friends.

I don’t think his physical/fade form is like anything we have seen in any previous games or lore before. He says himself, the ancient elven gods weren’t truly gods but “mages”, or "something this age has not yet seen”. I don’t think he’s an abomination like Anders, but closer to a spirit that has manifested and evolved like Cole, over millenia. If so maybe the term demon is more appropriate to describe his form (and to be clear, I think Solas is definitely not a simple spirit but something much more - he says himself in dialogue with Cole “I am not a spirit, and sometimes it is hard to remember such simple truths). 

What Solas has is the understanding and kinship of spirits coupled with the physicality of a mortal body. He can walk the fade and affect the minds of others through dreams. If you remember Feynriel in DA2, it was said a dreamer abomination would be extraordinarily powerful and they would be able to affect the dreams of others. Perhaps Solas is a bit like Feynriel except he *is* the only entity- rather than possessing someone, he is the sole physical manifestation of his demon self. When he is in the fade, he can shapeshift into his wolf form by using the fear inspired by his Dread Wolf persona, much like Nightmare can.

Whatever you know of this mage, put it aside. Whether he is truly the Dread Wolf of elven myth, I cannot say—it is not uncommon for powerful spirits to be worshipped as gods, as the Avvar do. But whatever fear the name of the Dread Wolf carries, he has earned. While we might visit the Fade, it is his natural home, and the spirits there serve him gladly. They whisper in my dreams now, accusing me of crimes I never committed and promising vengeance if my wards fail. A weaker mage would be dead already, or mad.

And as clear as the Dread Wolf’s anger at what we had done—the Mortalitasi binding spirits he considered his own, the Tevinter mage using forbidden blood magic—was the feeling that we had disrupted his own work.

He intends something for the Fade, and if he wants the idol, then whatever he intends will be terrible.

This is why Solas positions himself as this big scary wolf demon to begin with. He wants people to be afraid of him because he can use their fear against them.

If our protagonist gets the chance to see him as a person or even a friend, they will see him in the fade for who he truly is- someone who at the end of the day, is a morally grey person with "good” intentions. And if they see him as a big bad wolf who wants worldwide destruction, he can use that fear to feed his wolf form as well.

This is where it’s important to note the distinction between humans and spirits. In Cole’s personal quest, spirits forgive by simply “forgetting”. Contrast this to physical beings, who forgive by working through pain and accepting it. I think DA4 will feature a pretty big existential crisis for Solas - where (hopefully) we can steer him towards the path of being a morally grey physical being, or the one track minded spirit intent on fulfilling his personal destiny at all costs.

Solas vs. himself

If you look at the murals and tarot cards in DA:I, he and the wolf are in sync with each other. Benevelont, looming, scary, confident, prideful, terrifying. In all the Inquisition artworks, he is in a position of control, actively using the Dread Wolf persona to carry out his actions.

Contrast this to the teaser mural, where the wolf has literally turned it’s back on Solas. Meanwhile, Solas stands his ground with his hand outstretched against the evanuris (the semicircles), the idol, and the wolf all at once.

In Trespasser, if Cole is made more a spirit he says this:

“When this is done, I will slip back safely, a spirit. Someone is hurting. He needs me to remember who he is.”

I think he is most definitely referring to Solas in this case.

Cole knows way more about Solas than he lets on throughout the game, and in a way, he has access to the bigger picture which we can only speculate on. This is why, when you say you want to kill Solas at the end of Trespasser, Cole greatly disapproves. It’s also why so many spirits willingly serve the dread wolf in the fade. Solas’ actions are clearly beneficial for the spirits of the fade, but whether or not he accounts for people in reality will be up to our own personal choices in game.

The more Solas takes on the form of the Dread Wolf and the more he resides in the fade physically, the more of his mortal self he will forget. It’s just the nature of being “part spirit”.  If spirits encounter information they don’t want to process or understand, they simply forget. His inner struggle is the part that wants to be a spirit vs. the part that has mortal ties and emotions based in reality. This is why when he says “I will never forget you” to a romanced Lavellan, it is so significant, and so tragic.

"Wisdom knows enduring is pain. He hurts for her, another of many he couldn't save. He carries necessary deaths." (this quote refers to his spirit of wisdom friend in his personal quest)  

If Solas wanted to, he probably could simply forget. He did after all, make Cole forget “They sleep, masked in a mirror, hiding, hurting, and to wake them... (Gasps.) Where did it go?”

Him choosing to remember the pain is what differentiates him from any conventional spirit.

This is ultimately how I think Solas’ arc will culminate in DA4.

Will Solas inevitably lose control of his Dread Wolf persona and take up the mantle of the uncontrollable, power mad villain he swore he never was? 

Or can we get him to realise the more human side to him, the side that accepts and deals with pain and mistakes and regret- the side that believes in the right of “all free willed beings to exist”?

[doomonfilm]

Ranking : Marvel Cinematic Universe - The Infinity Saga (2008 - 2019)

Outside of the Star Wars or James Bond franchises (or maybe even the longstanding BBC series Dr. Who), I am hard pressed to think of a bigger, more intricately connected set of films than those created by Kevin Feige for his Marvel Cinematic Universe (better known as the MCU to most people).  With the help of numerous established and upcoming stars, a vast range of directors, and a rich history of characters and events the studio could play fast and loose with, Marvel Studios spent roughly a decade transforming “comic book” films from gimmicks into legitimized artistic storytelling, forcing many studios to attempt and emulate the success of a connected “cinematic universe” without laying the groundwork needed to do so.

With WandaVision in motion on Disney+, and the release future of Black Widow still up in the air, the trajectory in which the MCU will move forward is still a mystery, but these properties firmly close the door on the initial three phases of Marvel Studios releases, collectively known as The Infinity Saga due to their connection to Thanos and the six Infinity Stones.  Individually, many of these pieces had impact, but as a whole, the overarching story that they tell is an epic feat yet to be matched. 

But enough preamble, I know what everybody came here for.  So, based solely on my opinion and nothing else, here is The Infinity Saga, as presented by Marvel Studios, ranked from least to most favorite...

23. The Incredible Hulk (2008) It’s a shame that my favorite Marvel character seems to be a conundrum when it comes to giving him a solo movie.  With a decent slice of these characters, it’s about casting the “normal” version of the character, and in the case of this film, as great of an actor as Edward Norton is, I am not sure if he can play enough self-sabotaging behaviors to believably provide us with a Bruce Banner that audiences can connect with.  As a result, The Incredible Hulk left us with an isolated protagonist (literally and figuratively) forced to carry audiences between long stretches absent of Hulk in his green glory.

22. Thor (2011) For a time, it seemed as if Thor was going to be the realm of the MCU where gravitas resided.  The Shakespearean approach to mythic heroes adapted by Marvel was fresh at the time, as Iron Man, The Incredible Hulk, Black Widow and S.H.I.E.L.D. were around, but certainly more relatable.  Bringing Thor, Odin, Loki and a host of other legendary Asgardians into the fold broadened the world, but with the entire picture of this stretch now laid out in front of us, it is clear that Chris Hemsworth had not yet found his voice as Thor.  We knew he would have to earn his worthiness and his title as King of Asgard, but I doubt anyone anticipated Thor would become one of the consistently funniest aspects of the MCU... sadly, that was not yet developed in his first film, and as a result, his introduction falls to the lower realms of the list.

21. Ant-Man and the Wasp (2018)

20. Ant-Man (2015) It was not my intention to lump the Ant-Man movies together, but in all honestly, they do work best in that capacity.  The events of both movies, for the most part, seem to satellite around the bigger nucleus narrative, and up until Avengers : Endgame, and appearance made by Ant-Man in the other films was cursory or meant to “balance the scales” (as in the case of Captain America : Civil War).  Don’t get me wrong... Paul Rudd is a fabulous addition to the MCU family, and listening to Michael Peña tell stories never gets old, but when it comes down to the big picture, Ant-Man and his two films are not the largest puzzle pieces on the table.

19. Captain Marvel (2019) The possibilities for an epic film were all there... Krees and Skrulls would finally get a chance at the spotlight, we were being teased going back in time without realizing how it would play into the resolution of our Infinity Saga storyline, and the final moments of the film made us question everything we’d been presented with up until that point.  Sadly, however, Carol Danvers turned out to be an extremely overpowered and dangerously self-unaware character, resulting in a lack of stakes or emotional connection ever really being established.  While Captain Marvel does have fun elements to it, much of the work that managed to stick was undone by her forced and underwhelming appearance in Avengers : Endgame.  Of all the properties in the MCU, this one seems to have the most whispers and rumors surrounding it in regards to its production and future within the MCU moving forward, but I will be curious to see how time treats this film.

18. Iron Man 3 (2013) Up through Phase Two of The Infinity Saga, Tony Stark was always positioned as the loner of the group.  With that in mind, it does seem a bit strange to me that his final solo film, and the first solo film after Marvel’s The Avengers, would find Tony back in isolation mode so vigorously.  In all fairness, War Machine is there (during his brief stint as The Patriot), and Pepper Potts is given the most room to play out of all three films, but as interesting as the antagonist structure for the film is, the convoluted nature of having at least three tiers of villainy almost begs the inclusion of at least one more Avenger.  Ultimately, the film does move Tony closer to the rest of the camp, but it’s odd that more Avengers weren’t involved in the actual film. 

17. Captain America : The First Avenger (2011) Of all the characters fans were presented with in the MCU, it’s hard to argue against the fact that Captain America received the most rewarding arc of any character in The Infinity Saga.  Every journey needs a starting point, and simply because it was the origin story, Captain America : The First Avenger was never destined to be the best of the MCU.  Visually, the MCU was still figuring a few things out, so some of the scrawny Cap scenes look awkward, but by the time this film is all said and done, all of the honor, character and heart needed to propel Cap forward was present and accounted for.

16. Thor : The Dark World (2013)

15. Iron Man 2 (2010) Maybe it’s a recencey bias thing, but I really enjoyed Thor : The Dark World and Iron Man 2.  Up until deciding to make this list, I’d not seen either of these films, and it was largely due to the negative reactions I’d heard from most fans and critics.  Thor : The Dark World gave us brief glimpses of where the Thor character was headed, it was a great look for Jane Foster (who is seemingly on her way back into the mix), it opened up some mystic doors that we will likely be exploring moving forward in the MCU, and due to these mystic elements, we may have seen the beginnings of S.W.O.R.D., who is already making its presence felt in Phase Four.  As for Iron Man 2, we are given the polar opposite Tony Stark from his introductory movie, and due to his seemingly unstoppable mission to erase himself, War Machine is given autonomy, and the beginnings of the Iron Legion are built.  Perhaps its a bit of a revisionist lens as well, hence these two being grouped together, but time seems to have been very kind to these two films, despite their flaws.

14. Spider-Man : Far From Home (2019) Avengers : Endgame would have been a perfect place to close the door on The Infinity Saga, but that monumental task was appointed to Spider-Man : Far From Home.  Perhaps it was that implied burden that made the film feel a bit buried under the weight of expectations.  There are certainly calls to a post-Tony Stark snap present throughout the film, but Mysterio’s plan runs seemingly independent of any previous events shown.  The mid and post-credit scenes certainly tease big things for the future, but even before COVID-19 flipped the script on the industry, it was uncertain where things where headed as the new phase unrolled.  This film was enjoyable, but almost feels like a stand-alone trapped on a bridge between two worlds of narrative.

13. Iron Man (2008) The one that started it all.  I’ve never been the biggest Iron Man fan, but I can certainly respect the large risk that Kevin Feige took by kickstarting his empire with a character seemingly caught between fame and obscurity.  Tony Stark has enough Bruce Wayne in him to make him an intriguing character, but Iron Man and Batman could not be more different from one another, which immediately gave the MCU a fresh feel in light of them using a Silver Age character.  The pool of household name talent was limited, as Sony was sitting on Spider-Man, the X-men and the Fantastic Four in 2008, but ultimately, Iron Man was a roll of the dice that paid off in a major way. 

12. Spider-Man : Homecoming (2017) Spider-Man is such an iconic character that it is sometimes hard to believe that he was not always involved in The Infinity Saga.  Tobey Maguire was the definitive Spider-Man to many fans, and Andrew Garfield was starting to build a cult following, but after a bit of legal ping-pong, Captain America : Civil War went from being an anticipated mess to possibly a shadow of its comic book counterpart when Spider-Man appeared in the trailer.  Tom Holland brought a pitch-perfect voice and sensibility to the character, and Spider-Man : Homecoming drove those feelings home (no pun intended).  It wasn’t like Spider-Man needed a boost in tandem with his entry into the MCU, but his introductory movie did most everything right (including assuming we were WELL AWARE of his often repeated origin story).

11. Guardians of the Galaxy (2014) Out of everyone that the MCU has introduced to the masses, it is safe to say that I knew the least about the Guardians of the Galaxy... in fact, my closest tie to knowledge of their existence came in the form of Howard the Duck, who shares that section of the Marvel comic universe with them.  Marvel Studios had already made me enjoy films about Thor and Iron Man, two characters I did not consider myself a fan of prior to their films, so I went out on a limb in hopes that Marvel could sell me on characters I had zero connection to.  Guardians of the Galaxy did provide another set of colors in the Marvel spectrum, and it helped open the door to Marvel’s space-centered stories, but it wasn’t until the sequel that I went back and really found an appreciation for Guardians of the Galaxy, which I will expound later.  That being said, Guardians of the Galaxy is another Marvel film that has been benefited by time and revisitation.

10. Marvel's The Avengers (2012) The main pieces had found their way to the board by the time Captain America : The First Avenger was released, and it only seemed like a matter of time before the big players would cross paths.  Rather than build to a mass collaboration via smaller duos and groupings, Marvel went all in to close Phase One by locking in The Avengers as the collective stars of The Infinity Saga.  Loki found new agency as their protagonist, but he was really just a smokescreen for the big bad of the entire saga, Thanos.  The entire run of 23 movies can be summed up or represented by the iconic shot that rotates around our heroes when they stand shoulder to shoulder for the first time, staring up at their enemy emerging from the sky.  There was no turning back at this point, and this is largely due to the wonderful execution of one of the MCU’s key films.

9. Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 (2017) I’m really not sure why Guardians of the Galaxy didn’t connect for me initially, but after watching Vol. 2, I felt a deeper understanding of Peter Quill, the relationship between Gamora and Nebula, and I came to love Groot and Drax even more (who didn’t immediately love Rocket Racoon?).  Kurt Russell was the evolved mirror to Chris Pratt that I didn’t know I needed, and the soundtrack contained more songs that spoke directly to me than the first film.  Some of the set pieces were downright beautiful in this film, I lowkey became a big fan of Mantis, and Yondu’s story culmination may have been the first time the MCU brought a tear to my eye.  Guardians of the Galaxy Vol. 2 may deceptively be the most emotionally powerful of all the MCU films, short of Avengers : Infinity War, and for that, it must be respected, considering it all came from a little known band of upstarts.

8. Captain America : Civil War (2016) While Marvel’s The Avengers may be the first true “event” film in the MCU, the first major “event” attempted in terms of historic Marvel stories was the infamous Civil War run.  A weird mix of anticipation and fear existed in the time preceding the film’s release, as a number of key players from the comic book storyline were either not available to the MCU or had not yet been introduced into the MCU.  Speculation between who would be emerging, omitted and adjusted flew back and forth, but in the end, we were not only presented with a riveting triangle of emotion between Tony Stark, Steve Rogers and Bucky, but Spider-Man and Black Panther stepped into the spotlight (with a little dose of Ant-Man thrown in for good measure).  Had the MCU waited for a different phase, there’s no telling how many heroes and villains could have ultimately been involved, but considering what they had at the time, the MCU definitely exceeded expectations and created their own iconic version of a Marvel narrative hallmark.

7. Black Panther (2018) Outside of the final two Avenger’s, there wasn’t a more anticipated or well-received release (to my knowledge) than Black Panther.  After bursting onto the scene in Captain America : Civil War, it seemed everyone was ready for more of King T'Challa, Black Panther and Wakanda.  Chadwick Boseman became even more of a fan favorite than he already was, and Black Panther became the first MCU film to be nominated for Best Picture at the 2019 Academy Awards.  Marvel presented Wakanda, and Africa in turn, with the utmost cultural, historical and social respect, and short of a slightly underwhelming finale in terms of visual effects, it was hard to hang a complaint on Black Panther.  If the MCU had to pick a single film that they were most proud of, I would not be surprised if this was the one that was chosen.

6. Doctor Strange (2016) As a fan of science fiction, mysticism and overall weirdness, I was incredibly hype for the announcement and release of Doctor Strange.  Of all the active characters in the MCU at the time, Doctor Strange was the most obscure that I was already familiar with, and his introductory film did not disappoint.  The visual representation of the mystic arts was brilliant, casting Tilda Swinton as The Ancient One was a stroke of genius (despite many that voiced reservation to the choice), and the introduction of different dimensions and realms to the MCU hinted at the future that was to come.  With Doctor Strange and the Multiverse of Madness coming in sooner than later, it is almost certain that I will be revisiting this film, and I hope that as time goes by, it finds a bigger audience with a deeper appreciation for it. 

5. Thor : Ragnarok (2017) If I think about it hard enough, I can probably find a character that will contradict this statement, but I’m hard pressed to think of a character than took a bigger personality jump between individual films than Thor did between The Dark World and Ragnarok.  We got shades of a new Thor in The Dark World, and he was really starting to come out of his shell in Avengers : Age of Ultron, but I’m not sure if anyone expected for Taika Waititi to not only turn Thor into possibly the most loveable Avenger, but make his third film a psychedelic masterpiece of fun.  Thor and Loki have never had better chemistry, Cate Blanchett was surprisingly well cast as Hela, and most everyone’s favorite MCU iteration of the Hulk came to life (not to mention a brief nod to Beta Ray Bill being present for keen viewers).  It may not be the best film in the MCU, but Thor : Ragnarok is almost certainly the one viewers gravitate towards if they make a quick selection.

4. Avengers : Endgame (2019) How do you end a story arc that spans more than 20 films?  Well, for starters, you bring every character to the table, collect every expectation that fans have for them, and then kick all of those expectations to the side and forge a completely wild, new and unexpected path.  For a large portion of Endgame’s runtime, it is tonally and stylistically different than any other Avengers film, but near the end, when the rubber hits the road, Thanos and his legions of followers take part in one of the most epically satisfying stands against our heroes already present, only for the world of the MCU to open up and rain the most enjoyable and acceptable fan service ever to be captured to film, including the most iconic Captain America moment of all time.  

3. Avengers : Age of Ultron (2015) For a long while, this film stood as my clear-cut favorite in the MCU.  I didn’t even know I was a Vision fan until he emerged from his chamber, and the introduction of Scarlet Witch has brought me nothing but joy.  David Spader brought some of the best antagonist personality in his powerful portrayal of Ultron, and the party scene provided one of my favorite non-action sequences in all of the MCU.  The interactions between the Avengers had the best balance of all their collaborative films during Age of Ultron, and Scarlet Witch took each of our heroes to the darkest corners of their mind.  Perhaps people had other ideas in mind when they learned that Tony and Bruce’s murderbot was due for a screen appearance, but for my money’s worth, Age of Ultron was the first Avengers film that blew my mind, and still stands as my personal favorite of the Avengers movies.

2. Avengers : Infinity War (2018) Easily the most epic of all the MCU films, Infinity War set the stage for a truly iconic struggle between the Earth’s mightiest heroes and the seemingly unstoppable Thanos that had been promised over many, many films, and in the opening rounds, Infinity War delivered.  For all of the combinations of characters we’d been provided, we’d yet to see Tony interact with Doctor Strange or Star-Lord, and each of those meetings yielded hilarious results.  The stakes had never been higher prior to Infinity War, and the costs had not been greater up to this point.  I personally remember people in theaters being nearly moved to tears when their favorite heroes (especially Spider-Man) began turning into dust, like they were watching Schindler’s List.  If the MCU collectively raised the bar for comic book movies, then Infinity War raised the bar for the MCU. 

1. Captain America : The Winter Soldier (2014) The MCU has more than a handful of classic films under their belt, but Captain America : The Winter Soldier is probably the sole film of the MCU that feels like a proper action/adventure suspense-thriller, like it was penned by John Grisham.  The connection between Bucky and Cap is kinetic in its swings between impending hope and tragedy, and the level of combat and action in the film is second to none.  This was the film where the Cap that the masses know and love stepped into his own as a hero and a leader.  Of all the directors that Marvel Studios has tapped, the Russo Brothers seem to have the secrets unlocked to make a great MCU film, and Captain America : The Winter Soldier is the pound for pound best they’ve offered yet.

[mrstifastrife]

The Seventh Heaven Children Need More Love!

I have like no following, but I have a lot of opinions so whoever is willing to listen is going to get my ramblings. 

Anyway, I’m not saying in any way that the Seventh Heaven family doesn’t get any love at all, but in the midst of all the shipping wars, it often gets muddled and the children are thrown around like chess pieces for the sake of preserving ships. 

Denzel and Marlene are amazing characters all on their own. This post does not include Tifa, Cloud, and Barrett (if it wasn’t evident from the title) because their characters are obviously shown throughout all of FF7. Marlene and Denzel are of course shown quite a lot in Advent Children, but I wanted to bring attention to On the Way to a Smile, in Denzel’s case, since his backstory isn’t really mentioned in ACC

Disclaimer: What I will be saying is my personal opinion and my interpretations, so if anything I say is incorrect, I am willing to be educated in a humanely fashion. Also this post will contain spoilers from FF7 OG as well. STRAP IN because this is going to be a LONG post. 

Let’s talk about Marlene first, shall we? 

In Advent Children, Marlene is about six-years-old. She’s really mature for her age and is very used to handling situations on her own. Not only that, but she grew up to be loving, thoughtful, and caring. Traits that both Aerith and Tifa share. (And I refuse to take slander on either character because they are both strong, wonderful women to be proud of.)

It’s important to remember that she has gone through a lot in her life, and yet, she still grows up to be such an amazing and profound child. Her biological parents died when Corel was destroyed by Shinra troops, and her family has almost always consisted of people that she never had any blood relation to. 

In ACC, even though she’s fairly young, she’s shown as a reliable, forthright, and dependable child. 

She deserves more credit than to be written off as a prop for ship wars. 

Let’s not forget that she played a hand in putting Cloud Strife in his place as well.

Her conversation with Cloud in Advent Children can be compared to that of Tifa’s conversation as well. This is not in any way to connect to any ships. I know it seems biased, but let’s not forget that in Advent Children, she and Tifa had a conversation about how they would go home after giving a lecture to Cloud. 

Starting off the conversation to discuss him having Geostigma:

Tifa to Cloud: “You have Geostigma, don’t you?”

Marlene to Cloud after touching his arm: “Does it hurt? 

Telling Cloud that he shouldn’t just keep thinking about himself: 

Tifa: “Stop running! I know. Even if you find the kids, you might not be able to help them. Maybe something will happen that can never un-happen. That scares you, doesn’t it? But you need to think about now. Really take it in. Look at you! You think you’ve got it so damn hard. Well, you hate being alone, so let people in! Sure, you might not answer the phone, but I don’t see you throwing it away either.” [Also I love this scene because you can see Rude and Reno trying to figure out what to do while Tifa is yelling at him lol]

Marlene imitating Barret: “How you supposed to look after your own family if you can’t even look after yourself?"

Trying to tell Cloud not to give up:

Tifa: “Don’t run. Let’s fight it together. We can help each other, I know we can. [No response] I guess that only works for real families.”

Marlene: “How you supposed to look after your own family if you can’t even look after yourself? At least, that’s what Daddy says. Cloud, don’t give up.”

I just like pointing out that even though Marlene looks up to Aerith as a role model, it does not discredit how much she looks up to Tifa as well. Many are forgetting that she literally lives with Tifa every single day and is taken care of her, so it’s not unnatural for her to adopt Tifa’s mannerisms. 

Unrelated to Tifa, can we talk about how Marlene is incredibly observant too? 

Marlene: “Does it hurt?” Cloud: “A bit. But not as bad as Denzel’s.” Marlene: “Is there a cure?” Cloud: “I don’t know.” Marlene: “After all you did, you’ve been trying so hard to find a cure for Denzel.” Cloud: “You knew about that? Marlene: “Cloud! You should clean off your desk once in a while.” Cloud: “Maybe I should.” Marlene: “So is that why? Is that the reason why you had to leave, Cloud? Because you couldn’t fix Denzel? Or because you have the sickness too?” Cloud: “I just thought I couldn’t care for myself. Let alone anyone else.”

I really loved this scene, especially since the way that they talk to each other is so natural, while the way that they look at each other is just so soft. Even though Barrett is her father, Cloud is obviously still a parental figure to her.

Marlene is really just an important character in Cloud’s development. Throughout Advent Children, he’s stuck in a struggle between guilt and himself. You see that in the beginning, he’s very quick to shut people out and disregard them. However, Marlene is the first person that he’s showing a change in character to. Yes, I said in my previous post that Tifa was the first to get him to open up and realize that he has to confront his struggles and live in the present, but he doesn’t actually start actively changing until he has a conversation with both Marlene and Vincent.

Cloud: “Marlene!” Marlene: “Cloud! Denzel, and Tifa!” Cloud: “Tifa is alright.” Marlene: “I wanna talk to her!” [Cloud and Marlene realize his phone is gone; Marlene turns to Vincent] “May I?” [Vincent shows that he doesn’t have a phone.] “You don’t have a phone?” Cloud: “Vincent, will you bring Marlene to Tifa? I’m gonna go see Shinra and get a few answers.” Vincent: “I can’t do that.” Cloud: “But I -” Marlene: “Forget it, Cloud! Why don’t you ever pay attention to us?” Cloud: “Marlene, please give me some time. There’s a battle to be fought, but it’s not as simple as just fighting it. Understand?” Marlene: “No, I don’t!” Vincent: “Cloud, are you sure this is about fighting?”

I really think that this was a true turning point for him. It’s not only a flashback of Tifa or a conversation with Aerith that changes his perspective, it’s also Marlene confronting him and showing him that his actions continue to have consequences on the people that he cares about. Hence, the conversation they have later where he actually starts to change from his stubborn indifference. 

Last but not least, let’s remember that even though it’s not ideal, she fills in for everyone else when they fall short. Besides being the narrator in the beginning, the first scene she’s shown in is of her taking care of Denzel. 

Narration: “But it looks like the planet is a lot madder than we thought. They call it geostigma.” Denzel: “Well, Marlene, how does it look?” [Marlene does not reply; She goes to place a gauze over the geostigma mark] Marlene, as a voiceover: “Please. Please don’t take Denzel away.”

This scene, despite how small it is, is so powerful. She’s a young girl living in a world where the people around her are directly affected by Geostigma and the aftermath of the planet. She knows there’s nothing she can do other than hope. That’s why Marlene shouldn’t just be used as a pawn to advocate for a ship. She’s her own character with her own convictions, thoughts, and actions. What is she not? A character only used to vouch for a ship. Let’s give Marlene the respect and love she deserves please!

Who’s next? Our lovely Denzel, of course. I’ve seen a lot of people say that he looks like Cloud and Aerith’s love child and then justify it by saying Aerith brought him to Cloud at her church.

First of all, Denzel is an orphaned child, who is just as affected as everyone else by the plate falling and the Meteorfall. He is not just a token child for a ship, so please do not simplify him as that, especially if you disregard everything about him in favor of your ship. Perhaps Aerith did lead Denzel toward Cloud, but remember that while Cloud’s away, Tifa is the one who is taking care of him. If we see it as love children, Denzel might as well be Tifa’s and Aerith’s.

Anyway, I digress. Denzel’s story is so much more impactful than to be written off as a love child or like in Marlene’s case, a pawn to justify a ship. He’s put in Advent Children as an example of a character that suffered from the worst of the Meteorfall and is an “outside” example to be more specific. He had no ties to Avalanche, Sephiroth, Shinra, etc. He was just a boy who lost his family from the plate falling, and not only that, he is suffering from geostigma as well. 

Please don’t just write him off as another piece of “evidence” for a ship. He has feelings too, and he started off being raised by a different set of people unlike Marlene, who had been raised by the same people her whole life. 

Let’s not forget that Denzel and Marlene were just as affected by Cloud leaving. While he’s laying in bed, he asks, “Cloud, where are you?” 

So please, for the love of all things holy, don’t classify Tifa as a hopeless, lonely bar owner. Denzel and Marlene needed him too. 

Throughout most of Advent Children, Denzel has his own story arc. There’s flashbacks of him and how he became a part of the Seventh Heaven family, along with his continued arc following the Moogle girl. 

I find it unfair that Denzel is only used as justification for ships because he has a really heartbreaking storyline. In Advent Children, he appears in bed suffering with geostigma. While he’s laying in bed, he’s wondering where Cloud is. Then, as he’s looking at a picture of him, Cloud, and Marlene, along with a picture of him with his parents, he says:

“Guess I was the last straw.”

Could you imagine being ten years old (I’m not entirely sure if this is 100% confirmed but he is a young age) and saying this? Within his years of living, his parents, Ruby, and Gaskin died. Now Cloud, someone he really looks up to, left him as well. 

A significant amount of his life was spent alone, hopping from home to home to the streets until he was able to find a place where he was loved.

From “On the Way to a Smile: Case of Denzel”: 

Alone again, like he had been so many times before, Denzel took a stick he had sharpened at one end looking for rats. He planned on catching and eating one. Dad, he thought. The people in the Slums don’t eat rats after all. But I will. Because I’ve got no money or a job, and this place is lower than the Slums. I’m a Sector Seven kid from the upper world. I can’t grow up in a place like this.

The isolation sapped Denzel’s will to live. It was the same situation as when Sector 7 was destroyed, but this time, his parents, Arkham, Levy [Ruby], Gaskin, the Search Team, hell, all the people he’d ever met who had supported him were gone now. Forever.

He felt that he couldn’t smile anymore. What did his mother say? “There’s no point in living if you don’t smile.” That’s right, mom, he thought. A filthy rat covered in horrible germs should save me. 

I think this passage alone speaks more volumes than I can. I should put a disclaimer that this was his thought process right before he ended up at the church. A little bonus of him telling Reeve and Johnny, “Hey, I USED to think like that back then, but I was wrong. That’s why I’m here now. Because I met the best person you ever could.” 

That’s just an insight into Denzel’s backstory, and even though he’s in a better living situation right now, it always breaks my heart thinking of what he had gone through to get where he is now. I don’t know if I should spoil too much of Case of Denzel, but I just want to say that he has such an amazing growth that’s show not only in Advent Children but in Case of Denzel as well. 

“I’m alive thanks to a lot of people. My parents, Mrs. Levy, Mr. Gaskin, everyone from the Search Team. People who are still around today, people who aren’t. Tifa, Cloud, Marlene, and...”

Reeve nodded.

“I want to be a person like that for someone. Next time, it’s my turn to protect people.”

Flash forward to Denzel talking with Johnny:

“It’s not that I want to be admired or anything,” Denzel answered. There were so many people who had supported him. Men and women, adults and children. All of them inspirations in their own way. “I guess I want to...repay my debt to all of them.”

I know, I know, most of my evidence for Denzel is taken from On the Way to a Smile, but I think that most of Advent Children’s story arc for him is more prominent and out in the open, so long as you decide to or have already watched it. That’s why I’m bringing more attention to Case of Denzel because it has a lot more insight into Denzel’s character and why he looks up to Cloud, along with his own motivations, not brought upon by anyone other than his experiences. 

There’s so much more that I could use for Denzel because he’s such a complex and amazing character. It’s why I find it aggravating that he’s only brought up for the sake of a ship war rather than to commend him as a person. So, as I said for Marlene, he deserves more recognition than to be a poster child for a ship. He didn’t lose so many people and decide to become a protector just because he was a “love child.” Please give him the love and appreciation he deserves as well. The creators of FF7 did not write him in to be the trophy of a winning ship. 

Anyway, if you read this far, thank you so much! I could go on and on about how Marlene and Denzel deserve to be praised to the heavens for how amazing they are. I hate seeing them only be used as justification for ships and then tossed to the side when they’re not being referenced anymore.

I know they’re just characters in a video game franchise, but they’re children. They’re people just as much as Cloud, Tifa, Aerith, Barrett, and everyone else. Put some respect to their names please! 

Feel free to come into my ask box or replies and talk to me. 

This is by no means meant to bash any ship. I know it may seem that way at some points of my rambling, but I promise that I’m trying to keep the peace and keep it as ambiguous as possible. 

Let’s spread love and positivity!

[beatriceeagle]

Where do you think teen wolf jumped the shark? Also, non-specific, but do you have a favourite (and least favourite) TV finale? Thanks!

I heard a TV writer once discuss shark-jumping in terms of suspension of disbelief. “You get one buy,” is how he put it. On Psych, we’ll buy into the idea that Shawn does wacky hijinks in pursuit of convincing the police that he’s a psychic, because that is the show’s central premise. But if you try to add one more unbelievable thing on top of that (say, werewolves) the high-wire act fails. You’ve asked the audience to believe too many things, and now their faith in the show has collapsed.

But as even that writer acknowledged, it doesn’t usually work that cleanly. Shows rarely jump the shark all at once. Even seemingly obvious cases like, I don’t know, Bones, usually show some cracks in their foundations before they do whatever massive thing it is that completely fucks over their show. And often, it’s not a case of so much doing something that breaks the suspension of disbelief as it is breaking your contract with the audience. We agreed, implicitly, that we were going to be this kind of show—but now we’re this kind of show, instead.

The weird thing about that is that, in theory, that doesn’t have to be a bad thing. The Good Place broke its contract with its audience at the end of season one in a pretty major way: A lot of the twist of the first season of that show only works if you assume that it’s the kind of show that doesn’t have twists. (And despite it being one of the best first seasons of a comedy in years and years, I know people who felt betrayed by that twist!) Agents of SHIELD, as I wrote about earlier today, broke its contract with its audience massively at the end of its first season—it spent 18 episodes establishing a world, and character dynamics, and operating procedures, and then not gradually, but all at once, said, “Okay, none of that is what we’re doing anymore”—and became a much better show for it. Sometimes, you just have to say, “Screw the old world order,” and let people come along or not.

So anyway, when I ask, “When did Teen Wolf jump the shark?” I’m asking both, “When did it stop being the show it agreed to be at the outset?” and also, a little bit, “When did it get bad?” And there are two assumptions built into those questions: 1) That Teen Wolf at some point stopped being the show that viewers first signed on for, and 2) That Teen Wolf was ever good.

And, okay, I don’t think that Teen Wolf was a bad show, clearly, because I have watched seasons one through three… a lot. There is something compulsively watchable and fitfully well-observed, about that show. The scenes between Scott and his mom, or Stiles and his dad, or of just Allison, alone, are often shockingly well-observed on a human level. There is some great, almost melodic dialogue, performed by really good actors.

But also, I mean, it’s really silly. The first season is paced atrociously. There are all of these over-the-top cinematic sequences of lacrosse. The mythology is incoherent, even before they start piling stuff onto it. And it doesn’t seem to have a central theme until well into its third season, at which point its central theme is extremely ethically questionable.

But I think the thing is, that’s the show that viewers signed on for! They signed on for this silly, heartfelt, overly cinematic, occasionally weirdly insightful, sometimes very funny werewolf show, that couldn’t pace a 12-episode story arc to save its life. And there was no one moment where that show transitioned into being a different thing. It would be really easy to point to Allison’s death, but honestly, I think her death was fairly in keeping with the kind of show Teen Wolf had been up to that point; one thing that the show had always handled pretty well was teenage heartbreak, and although the ramifications of Allison’s death were handled weirdly, when they did pop up, they tended to be some of the better bits of late-season Teen Wolf.

I will say that season 3B was a huge tonal shift from previous seasons. It’s significantly darker than anything that came before it—not just at the end, but all the way through. It’s not really goofy the way that previous seasons were. On the other hand, 3B is a really good season of Teen Wolf. In many ways it’s the show firing at all cylinders. They’ve got their formula down. (Teen Wolf at its best is a villain + a secondary villain who’s hunting the main villain and making trouble for the good guys in the process + a handful of emotional throughlines.) They’ve got a genuine atmosphere going. They’ve got a tremendous central performance from Dylan O’Brien. And the plot completely tracks!

The problem is that 3B leads into season 4, which maintains the tonal shift—it is literally, physically darker, as all of the ensuing seasons are—but is also bad. There are moments of season 4 that I like, but it’s also the point in time when Teen Wolf gives up on the “two villains” model in favor of the “five hundred villains” model, and also introduces a bunch of new characters, which it is absolutely not capable of dealing with. Also, at around this point, Teen Wolf stopped plotting logically and started plotting thematically. What I mean is that, for instance, in season four, suddenly Lydia, Stiles, and Scott all have massive, encroaching financial issues. Of these, Stiles’ are the only ones that are connected to any previous plot point on the show itself. Lydia’s are, if I’m remembering correctly, introduced mid-season for like two episodes. But more to the point: These financial issues don’t go anywhere. There’s like a running bit with a duffel bag of money from the Hale vault, or whatever, but it’s ultimately meaningless, because the financial issues are not there to either move the plot forward or elucidate character. They’re supposed to be a thematic counterpoint to the hired assassins who have shown up in Beacon Hills.

That kind of theme-based plotting is a) not Teen Wolf, and b) completely outside of Teen Wolf’s skill set, and as soon as the show started working that way, it immediately became an incomprehensible mess. I reviewed every episode of season 5A, and I still could not tell you what the fuck was happening in that season.

But that can all be walked back. I’ve watched shows that got bad—sometimes in ways that made them feel completely unfamiliar to themselves—and then got good again. (For example, Community‘s season four finale is a shark-jumping moment if I’ve ever seen one, and season five, though it had Harmon back at the helm, still didn’t feel like Community in some vital way—but season six is my second-favorite season of the show, and keeps trying to sneak its way into being my favorite.) The moment that I think of as being the point of no return, for Teen Wolf, is when they wrote Kira off. When Allison died, at least it felt meaningful, and like it was part of the natural progression of the show saying something. When Derek and Isaac left, it was due to the actors understandably moving on, and came about in ways that felt like natural exit points for the characters. But Kira’s exit was just Teen Wolf flailing, getting rid of characters who felt like likeable, old-style Teen Wolf (and who the show had put three seasons of development into) while filling up the cast with a bunch of mostly bland next-generation people. After a season with no Danny and no Coach, writing Kira out was really Teen Wolf just intentionally burning its bridges.

And actually, if you go back, it all starts even earlier than 3B. I think the cracks in Teen Wolf’s foundation start in 3A (a season I’m generally fond of!) with the introduction of the capital-M Mythology: the True Alpha stuff, which ended up really fucking with its ethics and the way that Scott functioned on the show long-term; and also Lydia’s banshee stuff and the Nemeton stuff, which ended up just being incredibly confusing. Season 3B is remarkable, in hindsight, for how comparably well it deals with those elements, when they all ended up being a huge drag on the show, in the long run.

So my short answer is that Teen Wolf jumped the shark in season 4, but my longer answer is that it was a process, starting in season 3A, and not really ending until season 5.

My favorite TV finale is, I think, the Lost finale, although the Community finale is certainly high up there. (Controversial, I know, but I will stand by this opinion til the end of time.) My least favorite, though I know it’s practically a cliche, is the How I Met Your Mother finale. When my sister was helping me brainstorm to figure out my answer to this question, she noted that a unifying factor among many terrible series finales is that they undo major aspects of the show that preceded them, and she is completely correct. This is the same reason that, even though it’s unusual for people to stay with their high school sweethearts, Harry/Ginny and Ron/Hermione had to be together in the Harry Potter epilogue; if you want to make that point, you had a whole series to make it. Trying to be clever and pull a fast one with the ending is just irritating.

Send me meta prompts to distract me from my migraine! 

[arcaneranger]

Final Thoughts - 2019 Netflix Original Anime

It seems like every year, going down the Netflix list just makes me more angry. This company seems to really want to bring anime to its mainstream customers, and then it does so by funding terribly-animated CG schlock, oddly-timed sequels to shows that aren’t even on its service, and awful adaptations of older work. Or, it blows all of its money to license Evangelion and then make it worse, while still holding back the good shows it does help make from the international audience that’s so hungry for the content they own that they turn to piracy. 

If it weren’t for a few high-profile projects coming next year (Beastars, High Score Girl II, Ghost in the Shell) I would probably just stop covering Netflix Originals altogether, but since we’re here, let’s take out the trash.

13 Netflix Original Anime premiered in 2019, and of those…

I Skipped 2:

Kakegurui XX and Hero Mask Part II, because I dropped their previous seasons.

I Dropped 6:

Kengan Ashura & Levius

I’m lumping the two of these together because I dropped both of them for the same reason, that being that they are rendered in eye-gouging CGI and directed so poorly that the source material could have been a masterpiece, and I still would have no interest in watching it.

Ingress

This one, however, was not only eye-bleeding but confusing from the minute it began, which makes sense given that it’s supposedly an adaptation of a game whose only story took place metatextually...meaning that it’s created out of whole cloth for a bad show. Why bother, when nobody knows what Ingress even is anymore?

7Seeds

Another poor adaptation of what appears to be a good classic shojo manga, the first episode tried to cram in about six episodes’ worth of plot while looking like crap. At least this one was 2-D animated.

Ultramarine Magmell

This one came close to being worth finishing, until its episodic structure and boring setting really started to hit me. Supposedly this is about adventures to a mysterious new continent full of crazy creatures, but unfortunately in the first four episodes we may as well have just been going into my backyard.

Forest of Piano Season II

I tried with this one, I really did, but Forest of Piano disappeared up its own tailpipe last year. Was it really that much worse than the first season? Probably not, but as the focus of the show shifted and shifted, I found myself realizing that I didn’t really give much of a crap about what was happening, and that was three episodes before the end of the show.

I Finished 5:

Worst Netflix Original Anime of 2019: Carole & Tuesday (2/10)

I delivered a pretty extended hot take on this one only a few weeks ago, so I’m not gonna rehash too much of that, but Watanabe has been in the game for two decades. The kid gloves need to come off. Pretty music and good visuals can’t save a story that treats its political messages with such a lack of care that the two main characters literally never talk about the fact that Tuesday’s mother is running on a racist platform that would deport Carole from the entire planet.

Kabaneri of the Iron Fortress: The Battle of Unato (6/10)

The original show collapsed under the weight of a very dumb villain, and four entire years later, the best they could give us in this movie was a totally underwritten antagonist who has no buildup whatsoever in the first two thirds of the film? (And no, I don’t usually do films, but Netflix wanted to pretend this was a three-episode miniseries, so I’m gonna treat it as such.)

Cannon Busters (6/10)

This show had so much potential to be a blast from the past a la Megalobox, but its incredibly weak attempts at worldbuilding bring it crashing down to earth. The cast is likeable (mostly), but the show spent so long spinning its wheels that when the story finally kicked in, things got way too serious, way too quickly. Maybe the followup will be improved?

Rilakkuma and Kaoru (7/10)

A very charming, lightweight little show about a girl down on her luck and the mascot bears that apparently live with her, Rilakkuma did things differently from any other show this year by going fully stop-motion. Unfortunately, it’s not particularly memorable, but at least this was an attempt to do something cool.

Best Netflix Original Anime of 2019: Aggretsuko Season 2 (7/10)

Yeah...the best show of the year. Seven out of ten. While still being funny and wacky, Aggretsuko’s second outing wound up downplaying its core cast to the point of irrelevance, instead focusing almost entirely on two new ones in the form of Anai and Tadano. While neither of them are inherently bad (or even worse than the main cast, I actually do really like Tadano in hindsight), this resulted in a season that failed to build the way the previous one did, and instead left me wondering where the third act of the story was. Luckily, it should rebound next time, since Retsuko finally figures out her next character arc at the end.

And, uh...that’s it. The whole underwhelming list. Last year we got ambitious successes like Violet Evergarden, and Dragon Pilot, and Devilman Crybaby, and this year...a lot of nothing. Carole & Tuesday was certainly shaping up to be Netflix’ big swing, and while it seems to have worked out for them, it missed very badly for a world that should be embracing individual political action that I don’t know how much I can even trust its director anymore. We’ve got a couple big things to look forward to next year, but I think it’s pretty safe to say that Netflix should hang it up.

[nerdyshippergirlthings]

GOT season 8 rant

I reject 8x06 as the final ending to the saga that is game of thrones. I know that the TV show cannot be held to the same ideals as the books they are based on and, to be honest, I did not expect that much from the final season. However, the issues that I have with it now are that the writers did a half arsed job and did not stick with the concepts and themes that they introduced.

Speaking just purely about the last three episodes, there are so many actions that did not have any narrative consequence. For example, 8x05 was titled 'Bells', to signify the moment that the characters were talking about since the previous episode. It was made clear to the GA that there was a way to take kings landing with as little bloodshed as possible. When the city rang it's bells, dany and her troops were supposed to pull back and wait for their surrender. However, Dany heard the bells and chose to attack anyway. Not only did she continue the attack, she then started attacking random civilians and destroying the city as a whole. This was a plot device to complete the arc of dany becoming dark. To make obvious to even the most biased of audiences that dany wasn't the good, benevolent liberator. However, the show chose to downplay this pivotal moment, that it created, by having the unsullied and the northern armies start attacking civilians as well.

But, even if the armies were at that point fed up with war and so chose to 'act out' this way, the rest of the populace could not have ignored the fact that dany literally burned down innocents. In a way that mirrored her infamous father.

Again, this act alone should have made Jon a hero for killing her rather than being sent to the wall as a convict. The show used two people to enforce this issue. Grey worm, a man hardened and jaded by the loss of missandei, and, Yara Greyjoy. While I understand where grey worm is coming from, I definitely do not understand Yara's stand in this.

Yara spent most of last season as eurons prisoner and during that time, dany did not lift a finger to help her. She was rescued by Theon, who then told her that his allegiance was to the Starks. While this does not necessarily mean that Yara had to switch over too, it definitely does mean that atleast she doesn't owe dany anything.

Okay, let's assume she stayed with dany because dany promised her independence for the iron islands. But, when Sansa asked Bran for Northern independence, it would have been a good chance for Yara to bring up the iron islands as well. I'm not saying it definitely would have been granted but she didn't even ask.

The next point I want to bring up is the melting of the Iron Throne. This brings up two major points.

The first, it was drogon who melted the throne. In a very well thought out scene, drogon, feeling his mother dying, comes to her and initially seems angry at Jon for having killed her. However, he chooses not to attack Jon because he recognizes that the problem was not Jon but rather the Iron Throne that drove his mother mad and ultimately caused her death. This was again a point brought home to the audience just to be ignored during Jon's sentencing. He essentially did what Jaime did, killed a mad ruler for the greater good. Jaime though, was not sent to the wall for his 'crime'.

The second point brought up by destroying the IT was that there was no need for a central ruler to rule over Westeros from KL. While the show addressed this by bringing up elections and then mocking them (I agree that elections would have been a step too far), the better, more obvious solution would have been leaders/representives from each state to make up a council that would be headed by someone elected by the lords and ladies. That was what that council in the dragonpit even was.

The other major issue I have is that the whole ordeal made out of Jon's identity and people finding out about it and him telling his family and sansa telling tyrion and varys getting killed, ultimately had no outcome at all. Jon started his story the same way he ended it. As a conveniently hidden away heir to the IT. But in the end, he is more aware I suppose.

The other issues I have are pretty common ones that others have brought up too.

Jon going beyond the wall to live out the rest of his days definitely does not complete his character arc. Jon is not a fighter or a politician. He was both by necessity. All he wanted was a family to belong to, a wife to love him and kids he could give his name to. None of that will be possible for him as a member of the nights watch. Perhaps it is poetic that his story came full circle but it is a disappointing ending to his story.

I also did not like that in the end, Sansa was once again left in a place where the audience blames her for what happened. It was also visually reflected in her coronation in a dark hall filled with northern lords we do not see and no-one by her side. Not her family, friends or even a sworn sword.

I did not completely hate, but also didn't complete like the idea of Bran on the throne.

It takes away from the political realism that ASOIAF has always shown, to give the throne to a boy, because he has a magical ability. They did not even mention that he was a stark who would be backed by at least three out of the seven kingdoms. I do however like that they made a point of mentioning that he could not have children to the next king would have to be chosen as well.

I also liked aryas arc conclusion in becoming an explorer and setting out to see 'what's west of westeros'. It has always seemed the most logical progression for her. However, I would have liked if Gendry had handed over storms end to a steward to travel with her or if she had any other friend with her.

I also have to admit, since northern independence being granted, I was waiting for sansa to say that the six kingdoms had sentenced Jon to the wall, but the north hadn't and that he was free to come home.

Mostly, I did not like that starks all ended up in different parts of the world, alone, without thier pack. Whatever happened to 'the lone wolf dies but the pack survives'?

I suppose I can accept this as a temporary ending, if, in the books at least, we get a Harry Potter esque epilogue for five years later where Bran has selected a good ruler and abdicated to come home, arya returns for a break from her travels to stay at winterfell and maybe go meet gendry and Jon is back from the wall to stay at winterfell to help Sansa rule.

[duhragonball]

Dragon Ball Z 166

Cell Games Saga!    This is probably my all-time favorite part of DBZ.   I have a hard time deciding between this and the Perfect Cell Saga that preceded it.   This is probably because it was the Perfect Cell arc where I finally got hooked on DBZ, and the Cell Games was the payoff to the cliffhanger.   

Here’s the thing: Cell has already won.    Twice, really.    He was the last warrior standing in the post-apocalyptic future he came from, then he went back in time to this era to fulfill the true purpose of his design.    Actually absorbing 17 and 18 to become his final form involved a lot of extra battles that he didn’t have to fight in his own time, but like he told Piccolo in his debut, he was created to do it.    He had to do it.   

I suppose that’s the core concept of Cell as a character.  Winning alone isn’t enough for him.  He enjoys winning, but he wants it to be on his own terms.    Dare I say it, he wants his victory to be perfect.     So moping around in his native era, a world where the androids and Z-Figthers have all been killed, held no satisfaction for him.    The Imperfect and Perfect Cell Sagas were his chance at a do-over.   You’d think beating Piccolo, 16, Tien, Vegeta, and Trunks to reach his perfect form would be enough for him, but it’s not.    And so he spared Trunks, and promised to arrange a tournament where they could fight all over again.  

The other thing to keep in mind about Cell is that he only seems to enjoy winning for its own sake.    Reaching his perfect form seems to have been his only major objective.   In the last episode, he admitted to Trunks that he’s really only out to enjoy himself now.    He was created to kill Goku, but that no longer holds any particular interest for him.   He wants to fight Goku, but that’s probably because Goku’s the only major player he hasn’t beaten yet.   But Goku’s probably not going to offer much more sport than the other Super Saiyans he’s fought, so that’s why he’s planning a tournament, so he can fight all his enemies in one go.  

Except, that’s kind of what he just did in the last 17 episodes.   It says a lot about Cell that he won that gauntlet, and all he knows to do with himself is to clap his hands and say “Again!”.    Team Four Star observed that Cell is only six years old, which sounds about right.    For all his power and intellect, Cell lacks emotional maturity in a lot of ways.    All he knows is fighting, but he has no interest in conquest or spoils.   There’s no raddish farm Cell can go to between battles.  

So this leaves the Z-Fighters in the awkward position of losing a battle for the fate of the world, but still being alive to deal with the consequences.   Vegeta and Krillin meet up with Trunks, and he fills them in.   Vegeta scolds Trunks for trying to fight Perfect Cell alone and this just might be peak Vegeta right here.    Does he even listen to himself?  

Krillin tries to put Geets in his place by revealing that Trunks surpassed him, but Trunks shushes him.   When I first saw this episode, I thought maybe Trunks was still trying to protect his father’s pride, but over the years I’ve realized that Trunks was just trying to spare himself the embarrassment.   He had thought he had surpassed Vegeta, but his increased strength was illusory, and it’s just as well that Vegeta never knew about it, since he would have dismissed it as such.  

Actually, that’s kind of the tragedy of the time these two spent in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.   They had to share the room, but they clearly spent very little time working together, or Trunks could have shown Vegeta his Dummy Thicc form, and Vegeta would have told him why it was a blind alley.  To be sure, Vegeta probably wouldn’t have been very kind about it, but it would have been less painful than learning the lesson from Cell.   

In contrast, we saw Goku and Gohan have that exact conversation in the previous episode, and it was pretty early on during their time in the HTC.   Gohan was all “This will work”, and Goku was like “No, it can’t.    We need to try something else.”     Vegeta and Trunks could have shared that same exchange of ideas, but they didn’t because Vegeta insisted on training alone.  

From the Lookout, Piccolo starts planning his own session in the Hyperbolic Time Chamber.    You’d think this would do the trick, since he was much, much stronger than Goku or Vegeta before they went in.    In theory, a year to train would push Piccolo over the top, but it never actually works out that way.   

Likewise, Trunks and Vegeta decide to do the same thing.    Krillin was pretty upset to hear about Cell’s tournament, because who could even enter the thing after Cell beat everyone?   But Piccolo and the Saiyans are game for one more round.    After all, they still have the time chamber, and this was what Cell was counting on, even though he doesn’t know about the chamber specifically.    He saw for himself that Vegeta and Trunks improved very dramatically, and apparently Goku’s doing something similar, so he’s hoping that if he gives them ten days, they’ll be even better opponents.   

Android 16 also wants in the tournament, and he steps forward to ask the Z-Fighters to take him in for repairs so he can fight on their side.    Trunks hates that idea, because he still regards the androids as enemies of the Earth, but Krillin agrees to help, because he believes 16 isn’t really a bad guy.   He doesn’t understand why the androids are worse in Trunks’ world, but in this world they all share a common enemy in Cell, and that’s good enough to help 16.

Hyperbolic Time Chamber Update: Goku tries to put Gohan in bed for the night, but Gohan wakes up and apologizes for passing out during their training.    Goku wants him to rest, but Gohan pleads to keep training with Goku, so Goku decides he’s going to turn in for the night as well, if only to convince Gohan to get the rest he needs.  

At Capsule Corp., everyone meets up to discuss the situation.    Trunks explains Cell’s tournament, and Yamcha gets all nostalgic for the Tenkaichi Budokai.  Oolong reminds him that he lost the first round of every tourney he entered.   Well, let’s see how that compares to Oolong’s win-loss record, which currently stands at oh wait Oolong never fought in any tournaments because he’s just a one-off gag villain who never did anything useful after that one time he wished for panties.   It’s almost like Oolong is a perverted jackass who needs to shut his mouth and stay in his own damn lane.  At least Yamcha shows up for these kinds of things, and he accomplishes his own personal growth, even if it doesn’t actually turn the tide of the battles.   What’s Oolong ever done for the world except drool and support the child-size suspender industry?   

On the other hand, Yamcha’s been in exactly zero suitcases full of panties, so I guess Oolong has him beat there.    In case you can’t tell, I’m being sarcastic.    Fuck you, Oolong.    

Vegeta, Trunks, and Bulma’s parents have never heard of the Tenkaichi Budokai, so Roshi explains it to them, while also noting that he was a former champion.   Puar’s all “Wait, when did you win the Tenkaichi Budokai?”    So I guess Roshi’s secret identity as Jackie Chun is still in effect?   I feel like there was some point where it was implied that the others knew the truth.    Or maybe I just thought that because Roshi keeps alluding to his Jackie Chun work without actually spelling it out.  

Vegeta mocks the tournament, which seems pretty stupid, since it was a long time ago, back when everyone was weaker.    I mean, he calls them “lower-level fights”, but by that logic, the scrap with the Ginyu Force was a lower level fight, and everyon in this room could kick Recoome’s ass today.   Except Oolong, he’d get killed in seconds.    Puar would shapeshift into a bug and burrow into his brain through his eyes and kill him that way.    Puar doesn’t mess around.   

According to Roshi, they stopped holding the tournament after Piccolo and Goku’s match destroyed the “fighting ring”.   I find that weird, because it buries the lead.    Piccolo destroyed the whole city the tournament was held in.   Of course, we would later learn that a 24th Budokai was held without the Z-Fighters’ knowledge, but we’ll get to that later.   

By the time Roshi finishes his story, everyone but Dr. Brief has left the room.    I kind of like this gag, because Roshi sort of got lost in his own exposition.   Most of the characters already knew what the Budokai was, and the ones who didn’t were only interested in how it relates to Cell’s version, which Roshi doesn’t know yet.  

Outside, Vegeta insists that the human fighters won’t matter in Cell’s tournament.   That’s kind of B.S., because when I first watched these episodes, I really thought they were going to do some sort of thing where Cell would fight each good guy one-on-one, and by the time he got to Krillin he’d be pretty tired, to the point where Krillin would have a real chance of making a difference.  I mean, 16′s no match for Perfect Cell either, but they’re still taking the time to repair him.    The more guys they bring to this party, the better their chances.   

Chi-Chi, for one, is relieved to hear about the tournament, because Cell will finally have to follow some rules, even if they’re rules he made up himself.   Killing your opponent was illegal in the Tenkaichi Budokai, and so she’s expecting a similar no-killing rule at the Cell Games.   

That being the case, she refuses to allow Gohan to participate in the tournment, because in her mind it’s voluntary, as opposed to the previous crisis, where the androids and Cell went around attacking everyone.  

Here’s a cute picture of baby Gohan, from a flashback to where Chi-Chi first declared that Gohan wouldn’t become a martial artist.    When he was born, the world as at peace, so Chi-Chi believed it would be a waste for Gohan to learn martial arts.    The last 166 episodes o this show suggest otherwise, but Chi-Chi’s sticking to her guns.  

Then she tells the others that she doesn’t want Gohan to become a delinquent like all of them, and they take offense to that.    Okay, from left to right:

Yamcha was a literal bandit.  

Chiaotzu grifted yokels for free corn.   He also cheats at things.

Krillin destroyed the remote, thereby allowing Cell to become perfect.   

Master Roshi belongs in jail.  

Oolong grifted yokels for free child brides.   

I mean, the shoe fits.  

On the other hand, let’s check in on Cell, who is literally murdering a guy so he can flatten his property and build a tournament ring over it.   I love Chi-Chi, but she’s like every overwrought crusader on the internet.     Cell’s out here dumping toxic waste into the ocean, and she’s calling out Krillin for using a plastic straw.   

This whole scene is bad ass.   Cell lifts a hill out of the ground with telekinesis, sort of like how Frieza did on Namek, except he carves it into a stone block, then slices it into tiles, and arranges them into a larger replica of the Tenkaichi Budokai stage.   This event hasn’t even started yet, and it’s already way better than those piece of shit Frieza Games from a few years ago.    Two hundred bucks a seat, and you get there and Frieza just sits in his stupid hoverchair and chatters while Zarbon and Dodoria fight people for him.   For six hours.  

A lot of this episode was a waste of time, because Cell pretty well explained the tournament idea to Trunks in the previous episode, and he’s going to announce the full details in the next episode.   So there’s not much point in having a bunch of good guys talk about it here.    This was probably just an excuse to do a flashback to some of the old Budokai episodes, but I still like this one because of Cell making the ring, and the gang chilling out on Bulma’s balcony.    Good times.  

[terramythos]

Review: Vengeful by V. E. Schwab (Villains #2)

Length: 567 pages

Genre/Tags: Fantasy, Urban Fantasy, Science Fiction, Found Family, Revenge Narrative, Superpowers, Dark, Time Jumps, Perspective Shifts, Third-Person, LGBT+ Protagonist, Female Protagonist, Duology

Warning(s): Pretty much every previous warning applies here (violence, gore, genocidal thinking, etc). In addition, there is a VERY graphic medical torture scene, physical abuse, references to rape, implied hard drug abuse, and somewhat graphic sexual content. To reiterate: NO ONE in this story is a good person.

My Rating: 7/10

My Summary:

Five years have passed since Victor and Eli’s fateful encounter, when Victor enacted his perfect revenge. He finds himself in an unusual position; with other people to care for. There’s just one problem— his pain-manipulation powers have started to backfire on him. Every few weeks, they kill him. He comes back, but the intervals between episodes are growing shorter, and his amount of time without oxygen to the brain are growing longer. Thus Victor, Sydney, and Mitch enter a desperate race against the clock to find a cure— by any means necessary. Meanwhile, a new force rises in the city of Merit. When Marcella Riggins, wife to one of the most powerful mob bosses in the city, catches her husband cheating, he burns her alive to solve the problem. What he doesn’t count on is for her to come back as an EO with a terrifying power in her grasp. Now she’s out to take revenge and all the power of Merit for herself. As Marcella’s  ascension to power progresses, she inevitably pulls Victor and Eli back into their deadly conflict.

“How many of us do you think there are?” “EOs?” June hesitated. “Who knows? More than you’d think. We don’t exactly go around advertising.” “But you can find them.” The glass was halfway to June’s mouth. Now it stopped. “What?” “Your power,” said Marcella. “You said when you touch someone, you can take their appearance, but only if they’re human. Doesn’t that man you can tell when they’re not?” June’s smile flickered, and returned twice as bright. “You’re awfully sharp.” “So I’ve been told.” June stretched on her stool. “Sure, I can tell. Why? You looking to find more of us?” “Maybe.” “Why?” June shot her a sideways glance. “Trying to eliminate the competition?” “Hardly.” She finished her drink and set the empty glass down, running a gold nail around the rim. “Men look at anyone with power and see only a threat, an obstacle in their path. They never have the sense to see the power for what it really is.” “And what’s that?” asked June. “Potential.” Marcella tightened her fingers around the stem of her glass. “This ability of mine,” she said as her hand glowed red, “is a weapon.” As she spoke, the glass dissolved to sand, slipping through her fingers. “But why settle for one weapon when you can have an arsenal?”

For my review of Vicious, the first book in this series, please click here. 

Full review under the cut. 

I really wanted to give Vengeful a higher score. After all, the first 90% of the book is a solid 9/10, addressing most of the criticisms I had with Vicious and containing much of what I had hoped to see in a sequel. It features deeper exploration of the characters, develops intriguing themes I had wanted to see more of, and expands upon the setting and premise in interesting ways. In essence, it’s a bigger and better version of Vicious… for the most part. However, it falls apart in the ending, to such an extent that it dragged down the whole experience for me. I’ll get into the whys later. But first I think it’s worth discussing the novel in general and which parts of it did click for me. After all, I’m not lying when I say most of it is very enjoyable.

Vengeful is written and takes place 5 years after Vicious. It’s roughly twice the length of the previous entry and features an expanded cast. Three main leads from the previous novel— Victor, Sydney, and Eli— all reprise leading roles. Joining them are Detective Stell (a minor antagonist from Vicious) and two newcomers— June and Marcella, the latter of whom shows up on the cover and in most of the promotional material. I was struck immediately by the writing improvements in Vengeful— including more detailed, imaginative, and interesting descriptions. Schwab obviously improved a lot on the 5-year span between this book and its predecessor.

Basically, Vengeful focuses on where the characters have come over the last 5 years— for better or worse— and how the world adjusts and changes in the presence of EOs— superpowered humans.

Like before, the story is told in an anachronistic fashion. There is an overarching plot, but it hops around the timeline showing different parts of each character’s lives. That could be confusing, but it’s well-executed here, as it was in Vicious. Unlike in Vicious, however, this entry dedicates entire chunks of the book to individual characters. For example, the story opens up with Victor and explores him for a while, then switches over to Sydney, then onwards through the six members of the main cast. Occasionally we get guest chapters starring minor characters or “check-in” chapters with others, but for the most part it follows this pattern. I really liked this approach, because it's a deep dive into each character and their complexities and motivations. There were times I had to backtrack and remind myself what happened in previous sections, but that’s probably more on me than the book itself.

The characters themselves are interesting, and probably the strongest point of the novel. I enjoyed each to some extent. It’s fun to read a story where nobody is a good person, yet what that actually means varies quite a bit. Sydney and Eli had the most compelling stories and arcs; both dealt with identity and one’s place in life and the universe, but explored different facets of the concept. Both characters have changed a lot from their introductions, and it’s been interesting to see. Victor’s struggles and desperation are a far cry from where he finished in Vicious, so that was interesting as well. I thought June was a creative take on a shapeshifter character (more on that later), and her level of obsession with Sydney and its development over time was alarmingly relatable. While I don’t find Stell particularly interesting, I do think he was an essential perspective for the story, and he does expand the world quite a bit with his ties to EON (again, more on that later).

The (somewhat twisted) found family between Victor, Sydney, and Mitch was a big high point of the story for me; there are some indications of it in the first book, but this one goes all-in. I really enjoyed seeing these messed up people genuinely bond with each other and form a ragtag family.

There’s also some good LGBT+ representation in the novel. The relationship between Sydney and June, while ultimately pretty screwed up, is flirty and romantic in nature (and again, uh, alarmingly relatable). Victor is canonically confirmed to be asexual as well. I’m of the opinion that LGBT+ characters should hold a variety of roles, heroic and otherwise, since we’re people. I’m glad to see Vengeful make it happen.

Marcella is probably where I struggled the most (outside of the ending in general). She was initially one of my favorite characters— imagine an ambitious femme fatale turned up to eleven and literally given the power to destroy anything she touches. Her chapters are certainly fun based on that premise. However, I spent most of the novel waiting for there to be something else to her. Possibly a secondary motivation, or some kind of personal moral struggle— anything. But there really isn’t. She is just straight up a character who wants to seize power at all costs because she thinks she deserves it. Marcella is a pretty flat character, which is disappointing when she’s (1) the face of the novel and (2) in a series that focuses on moral complexity and shades of gray.

Vengeful improves upon the worldbuilding in Vicious. Before, Merit was just a generic city setting. But this entry expands upon it— especially its criminal underbelly. It also develops some setting-specific concepts. New to the story is EON, a clandestine paramilitary organization that hunts down EOs and eliminates or imprisons them. Led by Stell and built with the best of intentions, there is nevertheless a sense of dehumanization and genocidal parallels as he struggles to control the expanding organization. It’s key to both Stell and Eli’s character arcs, and there is certainly enough material to expand upon in the future.

This may sound like an odd thing to praise, but Vengeful abandons the whole superhero motif present in Vicious. Yeah, it was an interesting moral dilemma in the first novel— who’s the hero and who’s the villain— but it’s played out by now. Having a setting which features superpowers but isn’t tied down by superhero tropes is a good call and allows for more creative plot and writing decisions.

One thing I really enjoyed about this novel is how it expands upon the superpowers in creative ways. Even established characters have new and interesting developments to their powers that are still in line with previous canon. For example, Victor— whose power is manipulating pain in others— discovers he can manipulate nerves in general, and develops the ability to control others’ movements. June is a shapeshifter, but it’s a unique take I haven’t seen before. Basically, she takes on key memories of anyone she touches, which gives her enough background to convincingly mimic them. In addition, she’s a living voodoo doll. If she sustains injury while disguised as someone else, they’re the one who gets injured, not her. This is used to interesting and creative effect several times in the story.

Overall, this has the makings of a really entertaining novel with some deep character arcs and interesting themes. I should be overjoyed this even got a sequel, and for most of the novel I was. So what’s up with the ending? How could it have so strongly impacted my experience with Vengeful?

My problem with the ending isn’t that I disagree with it, or didn’t like it on a personal level. I’ve dealt with plenty of endings that didn’t go where I wanted (hell, I’ve read some by this author). But I can justify and even appreciate just about any ending as long as it makes sense with what’s been established before. Does it make sense for the characters to end up here, based on their development throughout the story? Does the ending fully realize the premise? If so, it’s an acceptable ending. Even if it’s one I didn’t picture, I can understand and even learn to like it.

That’s not the case with Vengeful. I mentioned characterization as a strong point, but out of the six members of the main cast, I’d say maybe two of them end up in places that even make sense (not even in satisfying ways, just… make sense). That means that four members of the main cast have unsatisfying or nonsensical endings to their character arcs. Considering this, is it much of a surprise the ending impacts the score so much? I finished the novel scratching my head like wow, that’s really it?

And I’ve tried to figure it out, believe me. I finished this book weeks ago and am only now posting the review. I’ve gone back and forth, tried to justify certain endings, went back to see if I missed something, but… nope. And at the end of the day, I shouldn’t need to bend over backwards to justify an ending. It should justify itself. It should make sense in and of itself.

I’ll give an example of one character, because I think it exemplifies the root of the problem. (Obviously this will be vague to avoid Mega Spoilers, but it should be obvious who I’m talking about if you’ve read the book).

There’s one character whose main conflict is they NEED to find a solution to their problem. Throughout the story they seek out and find various people who might be able to help. But nothing is working. They grow increasingly desperate and resort to more and more extreme methods to find the solution. Eventually, they find what seems to be the answer, but their hopes are dashed once again. In a moment of personal growth, this character realizes that there is no miracle coming. Since they are the cause of the problem, the only one who can solve it is THEM. They resolve to find the solution themselves or die trying.

How does this arc end? I’m not even joking— they just straight up find a miracle solution. There is some setup for it… but that setup is tied to a completely different character. And regardless, it still feels like a deus ex machina; it destroys initiative. It’s even worse because this character’s arc peaks when they realize they must SOLVE THEIR OWN PROBLEMS, then the ending hands over the solution with no strings attached. Sure, they technically find it due to their own actions, but it’s because someone unrelated to them or their arc did something. Even then, there were ways to make it work— Schwab could have drawn parallels between characters, or played up the dramatic irony. It would still be weak, but at least it would show some self-awareness. But we don’t even get that.

That’s just the clearest example. There are multiple characters whose key moments are just ignored in the ending. It would be one thing if they realized certain things weren’t that important to them, or in a moment of dramatic irony fell short of where they were meant to go. Those things make sense. But that’s not what happens— the character arcs just end with zero solution to the problems and ideas the rest of the novel spends developing. It’s very unsatisfying, and I found myself wondering what the point of the novel even was. It honestly feels like the first 90% of the book is hand crafted and polished to a mirror shine, while the ending is a first draft with minimal edits and zero continuity with the rest of the story.  

It’s possible, and even likely, that there’s more to the Villains story. Nothing has been officially announced, but certain aspects of the novel just scream it to me. One of the few characters who ends in a decent place has a very “the end… or is it?” outro. There’s a 4-page short story after the epilogue that focuses on a seemingly minor character and her origins. And some aspects of the worldbuilding, such as EON, could be explored more. In short, Vengeful sets up for a book three, or even a spinoff of some sort. But even then, the character arcs still need to make sense in the context of this novel, and they simply don’t. When the main strength and focus of the novel is characterization, the ending HAS to realize that potential. Vengeful doesn’t, and we’re left with a confusing and disappointing conclusion.  

Feel free to take this review with a grain of salt— from what I can tell, Vengeful was critically well-received and a lot of people enjoyed it. Perhaps there really is just something I’m missing. But the ending was enough of a disappointment that it affected the whole experience. It was especially disappointing to me coming from an author I really enjoy. Perhaps there is more to the story, but it’s going to take a lot to win me back on this one.

[makeste]

“Cool motive; still adultery” (or, ITP: makeste rants about Gokudera’s stupid dad)

@natashawogver Haha, so this reply ended up being so damn long that I ended up doing it as its own post so that I could add a cut.

First, I can’t speak for everyone, but I’ve always assumed “Gokudera” was his mother’s surname rather than his dad’s, and the parts of fandom I’ve interacted with seem to concur, I think? But since Gokudera’s father never got a canon name, I use “Gokupapa” at times just to make it clear who I’m referring to without having to type out “Gokudera’s father” every time.

Anyway! I said in my answer to your previous ask that I could go on for days about this topic, and I probably will, so! Just... be warned, lol.

The thing is, it’s absolutely possible to take Bianchi’s statement at 100% face value. It was a misunderstanding. His parents really did love each other. His mom was sick and didn’t want to get attached to him (and vice-versa), so she limited her contact with him. His father was heartbroken and wanted to marry his mother, but she refused, thinking it would be better for everyone that way. Somehow this all got twisted around, and rumors about Gokupapa’s infidelity spread, but the rumors all missed out on the crucial points that (1) he actually was in love with her, and (2) that she did from her illness rather than under any suspicious circumstances. Fine. It’s possible; it checks out; there are letters proving this; TYL!Bianchi says this is the case. So fine, let’s assume this is what actually happened.

The thing is that if this really was how the events actually played out, in my opinion it not only does not redeem Gokudera’s father, it actually kind of makes him a bigger asshole than ever. And on top of that, it makes his mom kind of an asshole too. The manga tries to play off this revelation like it’s supposed to redeem Hayato’s parents, but in actuality, if this is all true, both of them were pretty irredeemably selfish, and their actions came very close to ruining Hayato’s whole life. So okay, let’s get into all of the reasons why they, in fact, suck.

First and foremost: Gokudera’s father cheated on his wife. This is indisputable no matter which version of events we go with. He was married with a young daughter, he had a mistress, and he got his mistress pregnant. “Yes, but he was in love!” Okay! Cool motive; still adultery! “But he was going to marry her!” Sure, but then he didn’t. Nor did he divorce his previous wife. In the end he wound up pretending Hayato was her son instead. I can’t imagine she was very happy about that. Shades of Catelyn Stark and Jon Snow, most likely, except that Ned was actually a decent guy, whereas we have no evidence at all that Gokupapa was anything other than a big sack of shit.

Gokudera’s mom! Lavina! Let’s talk about her. First of all, it’s clear that whatever else, she genuinely did love her son dearly. She died before he was even three years old, and by all accounts only ever visited him a handful of times, and yet he still has deeply affecting memories of her more than a decade later. For her to have had that much of an impact on him in just that short amount of time, she must have been absolutely radiating love for him on each and every one of those visits. She’s a saint in his eyes. He loves her and misses her even though he barely knew her. I absolutely won’t argue that she didn’t love him, because all evidence says otherwise.

But -- she abandoned him. Because she thought it would be best for him, supposedly, but still. She left him with his father and basically surrendered all responsibility for him, and gave up the few short years that they could have spent together. She denied him the chance to get to know her, and minimized what seems to have been one of the few bright spots of his childhood. And by turning down Gokudera’s father (even though we’re led to believe they were in love), she ensured that her son would never have any hope of being seen as legitimate, something that ends up making his life fairly miserable later down the line.

So to sum, Gokudera’s mom = loving, but absent. As for Gokudera’s father, his infidelity is only one small aspect of his being a piece of shit! 

Let’s talk for a second about Gokudera’s childhood. By all accounts, he grew up desperately lonely. It’s clear that he and Bianchi were very isolated growing up. They don’t appear to have any friends, and they were tutored at home. It’s also fairly clear that Hayato was not receiving anything in the way of paternal affection, judging by how totally enamored he was of Shamal, idolizing him and seeking his approval and going so far as to imitate his hairstyle. Look, Shamal isn’t exactly a tender or affectionate guy. He’s mostly just an asshole! On the few occasions that he does show any type of caring toward Hayato, it’s always in the most gruff and indirect ways possible. So for this guy, as aloof as he is, to be receiving that level of reverence and admiration from this six or seven-year-old boy speaks volumes about just how starved Hayato was for any type of kindness or attention. It means that he had no one else. Maybe he wasn’t suffering from any physical abuse yet at this point, but there was absolutely neglect. And you can tell this left scars on him that he’s still struggling to deal with even as a teenager.

So now, let’s talk about the actual abuse. Poison cookies! All right, so before I start in with this, I just want to make it clear that I don’t blame Bianchi for any of it. As I’ve said before, I truly believe that she didn’t (and still doesn’t) understand the damage she actually did. She loves her little brother and her cooking was made with love; how could it possibly hurt him? There’s a lot of inherent tragedy there, because this ends up forcing the two of them apart, and up until that point, Bianchi had really been the only loving presence in Hayato’s life from what I can see. And she still doesn’t understand what caused the rift between them.

Because this was all first revealed back during the Daily Life arc, it was all played up for comedic effect, and so it wasn’t ever examined too closely. We’re not really meant to think on it too much. But later on when the manga does become serious, and more events from Hayato’s past are revealed that absolutely are serious and tragic and treated with gravity and solemnity, it gets harder to ignore the tonal whiplash. You kind of do have to go back and look at the whole poison cooking thing again, this time from a more serious standpoint. And when you do, it’s pretty damn fucked up.

Basically, Hayato was poisoned on a regular basis for two whole years. It was painful and traumatizing to the point where just the memory of it physically affects him years later. And the one responsible for making all this happen in the first place? Dear old dad. After the bizarre “success” of that first disastrous concert, Hayato is forced to eat his sister’s cookies before every single performance. His dad fucking forced him to eat poison for fucking entertainment! Like, it’s such an insanely over-the-top tragedy that that itself is the joke. It’s so absurd and so out of the blue that it’s hilarious. Or at least it is in the original context when we first get this reveal all the way back in chapter 10.

But as the manga’s tone gradually sobers up and matures, Gokudera’s role in the series shifts from “hotheaded whipping boy whose hypertragic past can be exploited for comedic purposes” to “deeply-insecure-yet-determined character whose genuinely awful past can be milked for lots of angst.” Conveniently enough, the series never revisits the whole poison cooking story once this shift takes place, but what we do get is a brand new backstory in which Gokudera despises his father because he believes that he had his mother killed. 

Let’s repeat that: Gokudera believes that his father murdered his mother. Whether or not this is actually true or not almost doesn’t matter, because the fact remains that Hayato believed this story without question from the moment he first heard it. It means there was absolutely no doubt in his eight-year-old mind that his father was capable of that. And small wonder that he wouldn’t doubt it, because this is a man who first neglected him and then later went on to abuse him. Because that’s what the poison cooking thing is, in this revised context: abuse. Full stop. There is absolutely no other way to look at it. 

So yeah! It’s pretty safe to say that a man who was capable of that would also have been capable of callously killing a woman just to cover up his own indiscretions. He doesn’t exactly have a lot going on that would make one want to give him the benefit of the doubt.

But again, canon later swings around and says this was all just a misunderstanding. He didn’t kill Lavina, and Gokudera was in fact “born into this world loved by both of his parents.” To add onto that, TYL!Bianchi tells Gokudera all this while also observing that she “doesn’t expect him to understand right now.” The implication is almost that Gokudera is somehow the one who’s been in the wrong this whole time, and he’s been unfairly assuming the worst about his dad, and judging him without fully understanding the situation.

This. Is. Bullshit. And it’s where I take the most umbrage with regards to this entire thing. Because here’s the final bit of evidence that Gokudera’s dad is The Absolute Worst, and it’s probably the most damning of all: he lets Hayato run away. He lets him leave, and there is no evidence at all that he ever made any kind of attempt to go after him and bring him home. This is an eight-year-old child, who up until this point has grown up in a fucking castle, and who has absolutely no knowledge of the real world whatsoever. He went from fairy tale levels of wealth to literally living on the street. Anything could have happened to him. Probably a hell of a lot did happen to him that will never be fully examined, because this was a manga aimed at kids and young teenagers, and also it ended back in 2012 lol. But it’s not hard to imagine. Even assuming the most G-rated version of events possible -- say, in a world where drugs and human trafficking and violent street crime somehow aren’t a thing -- he’s still homeless, and all alone. We know from canon and from the light novels that he basically just drifted from place to place. 

In the opening section of his light novel story Bakudan Bambino, he wakes up after getting himself knocked out in a brawl to find that a good samaritan has taken him in and bandaged up his wounds. He is incredibly confused by all of this, but it’s not the fact that he was knocked out and woke up in a strange place that confuses him. It’s the fact that he didn’t wake up bleeding in an alley somewhere, but that instead some guy he didn’t even know helped him out for absolutely no reason without expecting anything in return. Hayato is at such a low point in his life at this stage that he literally can’t conceive of someone actually doing that, because he’s spent the past four years having it repeatedly hammered into his head that people aren’t like that, and the world isn’t like that. He has issues. He is miserable. Later in the novel, when he asks that same good samaritan guy why the hell he keeps helping him out, the man answers that it’s because Hayato’s eyes always seem to be saying ‘help me.’ Basically, in those four years he’s been through absolute hell, and the entire fucking time he’s been suffering through it completely and utterly on his own.

But here’s the thing -- he was eight years old when he left. He had no plan whatsoever, no fucking idea what the hell he was doing. You can’t tell me he could have possibly made it very far, at least at first. Where the hell could a stupid little eight-year-old kid with no money or transportation or anything possibly could have gone that his father, a man with a ton of resources and wealth, wouldn’t have been able to track him down? He wasn’t laying low; we know for a fact that he attempted to join a number of other mafia families, only to be turned down by all of them because they didn’t want a spoiled rich brat, or “a half-breed.”

This all goes to show that they knew who he was, though. It’s not a secret. All his father would have had to do was put the word out that Hayato had gone off on his own and that he would be very grateful (in the $$$ sense) to anyone who could aid him in tracking him down and returning him. This is assuming that he couldn’t have just had his own men do it. Basically, there’s no way that Hayato successfully manages to run away and not be found unless his father actually didn’t want to find him.

And when you think about it like that, then it does start to make more sense. From the start, Gokudera’s father never shows any kind of attachment to him, and is content first to ignore his existence, and then to later on actually have him poisoned for laughs. Best case scenario, he doesn’t care about him one way or the other. Worst case, Hayato is actually a thorn in his side and he’s happy to be rid of him. Because he is still illegitimate, after all, and who knows what kind of political troubles that could end up causing as he starts to get older. And there’s a good chance that Hayato’s stepmother, Bianchi’s mother (who is never once mentioned throughout the entire series but who does, one has to assume, exist) isn’t particularly fond of Hayato and never has been. So really, who even cares if he runs away, then? In the long run it’s probably for the best. So rather than showing even the slightest bit of concern over his son’s safety and well-being, he just lets him run away and apparently disregards the matter entirely. Just abandons him to whatever might happen out there, and good riddance.

And this -- this is why I can’t swallow the whole “your parents loved you and each other” thing at the end of the day. Because even supposing that the latter part is true, the former absolutely is not. It can’t be. And it bothers me so much, because it’s like, so are we supposed to get the impression that Gokudera’s dad is just a misunderstood guy who was only ever trying to do his best, then? Because if not, why even bring any of this up? Is this supposed to be a cathartic revelation for Gokudera, to realize that not only is his dad a dick who never gave a shit about him, but that his mom, too, played a part in how these events all turned out, and that it was her choice not to ever see him? How the fuck is that supposed to make him feel better about the whole situation? In the end it somehow just makes it all end up being even more of a huge clusterfuck.

Lol oh my god. So that’s pretty much all of my thoughts on the matter. As you can see, I still have very strong opinions about all this, and I still haven’t gotten over it after all this time, to the point where I actually wrote a fic that partially revised Gokudera’s backstory just so I could resolve it all in my own mind in a way that actually felt satisfying to me. (The link is here, incidentally, and I really have some nerve linking to that considering that I still haven’t finished the epilogue for it yet. But I guess I have no shame lol.) It’s probably the single most infuriating thing in the entire series for me. I should probably chill out just a little, but! He’s my goddamn son. It’s like you said: I love everything about him too, lol. So for his sake, I will always be mildly enraged over this two-page plot point that occurred ages and ages ago and then never came up again.  (︶▽︶)b

[96percentdone]

Anon if you’re wondering why I’m doing it like this it’s because I don’t want this showing up in the shi//rog//ane searches. I am going to rail very hard on her character. If you like her, you were warned.

To be quite frank I think literally anyone would have made a more interesting ringleader. Okay, that’s a lie. Except for Ouma and Harumaki and Yonaga, I think anyone else would have made a better ringleader. I’m gonna explain why, first starting briefly with why I think Ouma and Harumaki would have made worse ringleaders.

Ouma is quite simple: his entire character gimmick is “pretending to be an obvious mastermind only to end up NOT being the mastermind and is fundamentally against the killing game to begin with.” This is is just too good to ruin. Harukawa’s is less complicated in that she’s an assassin, so making her the ringleader would be boring and obvious. Like yeah okay of course the surprise assassin was the organiser of the killing game big fuckin whoop. And finally Yonaga, and the big reason for that is her character gimmick is “scary exotic foreigner” and cults and it’s a lot of racist shit and tbh I think even if you took a lot of that out, making the one foreign coded character (in a Japanese environment) your ringleader is asking for trouble. Don’t do that. 

The biggest reason I think shi//ro//gane fails not only as a DR mastermind, but as a character, is because she’s boring as shit and has no personality. It’s not even an accident she has no personality. in v3 characters tend to revolve around a gimmick, and her gimmick is literally being a non-entity. She constantly talks about being plain, and for most of the game her big thing each chapter is just...going with the gimmick of the chapter. That and she makes anime references that feel kind of forced and personally not how people tend to make references. And then in her big chapter, where she was the revealed to be the mastermind, she spends most of it pretending to be other pre-existing characters with more personality. 

Some people think the center of her personality is on fandom, and it’s a commentary on it, and on passion. To which I say: fucking where. Okay, I understand exactly where that potential lies, and in her free time events there’s definitely more of that. But I personally think that if I need to read the free time events (which are entirely optional you could play v3 without ever doing a fte, nevermind specifically hers) to feel like a character has a personality, then you didn’t write a well written character. 

What is there in the main story to suggest this? She makes constant poorly done anime references, and there’s one forced fanservice consplay scene. I’m blown away by this. It never feels like this is important to her, because it’s always played as like a joke or an event where her talent is just the excuse for fanservice in the ch1 scene. What else is there? Does she talk about her love for fandom and cosplay? Is she looking for excuses to dress people up in her various cosplays in the main story? No! Fuck I mean we even unlock her room and the mandatory conversation you have with her with that weird ass cg is about her bar life, not her fandom life. Like they go out of the way to not talk about it meaningfully in the one place it would be more than apt to do so. Seriously?

Chapter 6 is better at making her fandom commentary. You could argue that her constantly shifting into previous characters and rambling on and on about her love of dangan ronpa is fandom commentary. And yeah I guess it is. But it’s weak as fuck. It’s backed by like jack shit from the earlier chapters, and she has to talk about this because this is the big plan for ch6. It’s the ch6 gimmick! And then ch6 is an inconsistent mess of lies and contradictions that canon can’t explain, and she says some things (like the cosplaycat killer line) that imply she faked all that too so like. More following the chapter’s gimmick? would you believe? I would!

That’s the big problem with Shi//ro//ga//ne. Her gimmick is her entire personality, and that gimmick is not having one. That’s why she just does the big thing of every chapter, that’s why she’s so forgettable and doesn’t stand out and is “plain”, that’s why she constantly cosplays as other dr characters, and that’s why at the end of the chapter she goes “haha I pulled another great trick” without elaborating. Her thing is having no existing personality. Just being whatever the story needs. And maybe someone out there will be like “but that just shows her passion for DR and--” no. No what it is is just cheap and lazy writing, and again possibly not even true. 

And this has bad effects on writing a meaningful mastermind, particularly since we spent the entire game with her. She does nothing the entire time and doesn’t stand out, and particularly with v3′s writing where characters generally only become important in the chapter they die, by the time you get to ch6 it’s so obvious she’s going to be the ringleader. Harukawa’s had an arc (albeit a shitty one), Yumeno had an arc, Saihara is your protag for realsies who had an arc (albeit half-assed and not focused on what would have made it strong), and Kiibo is clearly having his big moment right now, so that leaves Shir//o//gane being saved up for something huge. Like the ringleader. She becomes obvious because she’s nothing. And then her reveal means nothing because she had no personality to get invested in because her gimmick was having no personality. And also they do nothing with her and chapter six is a poorly written garbage fest that makes no fucking sense.

She’s a bad mastermind because she’s a bad character, and she’s a bad character because her personality is a nonexistent thing that’s entirely up for grabs since she’s faked it all and her gimmick is just not being an interesting person. 

And this makes effectively anyone else a better ringleader, because anyone else in the game has more to their personality than she does. I’ll even explain why everyone excluding the previously mentioned three will make better antagonists before getting to my main ideal pick. In order of deaths!

Amami: he’s a mystery man right? that kinda seems to point against him but like play up the he died first trying to stop the killing game angle and it turns out he faked it or something just to get it started. He could take or leave killing Akamatsu off, but she chose trial, so she had to go. revise his videos a little so he looks a little sketchy, but even more like a victim trying to do good.

Akamatsu: if you just take out the fuckin “she has a twin bit” in ch6 and have it turn out she faked like her entire execution just so she looks like she’s entirely uninvolved, only to turn out she did kill Amami but with entirely different means, would that be cool or what? like it’d be the triple Akamatsu twist whammy. also wouldn’t waste her as a character cause she wouldn’t die for manpain to be your wife.

Hoshi: so yeah he’s kinda got the “I’m depressed because i’ve killed” shit working against him but you can easily rework that into a big old lie (hey look it’s the themes of the game some more wild). he’s still depressed in real life but his outlet for that was violence, so killing game.

Toujou: literally she gets power hungry and sick of constantly having to tend to the whims of everyone around her. her loving serving people was the big lie. she’s more interested in serving herself and the audience. Simple. Effective. Subverts her character in a meaningful but still relevant way.

Chabashira: she’s super honest and open about her emotions right? To an almost childlike way? fuck yeah you could make that ringleader shit. She wants to bring out the best in people emotionally, except she actually thinks the best way to do that is trauma. But she doesn’t really actually care about your emotional wellbeing, and that becomes apparent throughout the trial. her big fuckin lie. amazing.

Shinguuji: see this is tough and i’m tempted to put him in the not-mastermindable category because of chapter 3 which was. eugh. But okay see we’re just gonna take out all the weird incest serial killer shit. shinguuji’s gimmick anyway is that he’s detached and more interested in observing the people around him like an onlooker than he is partaking. smart but doesn’t give much a shit. this is easily played up to ringleader levels just. “I wanted to put humans in a society I made myself to play god and observe them to my heats content” simple. not as thematic, but hey it’s consistent.

Iruma: okay so canonically. Iruma is kinda a bitch. I mean this positively she’s kinda funny even if the sex jokes gross me out. She’s paranoid and kinda narcissistic and super weak to criticism and bites people in an attempt to make them not bite her. So what if it turns out like that’s just...fake. she’s actually just rude mean and crude not as some kinda backwards defense mechanism (we’re taking out the kink) it’s just because she likes being mean and crude. She seems so weak willed as a person but it turns out she orchestrated and “invented” the killing games just to keep attention on her and put people through hell. I’m not totally confident in this one I’m sure others can come up with better but fuck I mean it’s not shi//ro//ga//ne.

Gokuhara: this is easy he’s not actually a gentleman at all! it’s a big lie! a ploy to make him sympathetic and likeable! He went along with Ouma’s shit just because he thought it was amusing! The world at large decided he couldn’t be a gentleman, so he decided to be the biggest brute you can find and run killing game where he makes himself look good in comparison to everyone else. you’d have to rewrite ch6 a lot but it’d be better than canon anyway lmfao

Momota: now Momota’s my second favourite ringleader choice not gonna lie. This is just because the narrative plays him up as your shsl best friend and you get very invested in him (despite his uh....glaring toxic masculinity problems which we’re taking out because they add nothing to his character). His big thing is being a supportive believer. a shounen protag. but it’s all bullshit! Have the real Momota be the audition tape asshole. Or he doesn’t even have to be that it’s just his big thing will be that huge punch of betrayal that won’t compare except for with my #1 pick. But we’ll get to them very soon.

Kiibo: Y’know those posts that talk about how AIs are actually going to be very pure with their best interest in being serving humanity? I want that for Kiibo, but in a super warped and twisted way. Kiibo in his desire to be seen as a human and respected by them, starts feeding the twisted desires of the masses with the torture porn they crave in the form of a killing game, because this will make him be accepted as one of them. But he still ends up being a kind of subservient AI who never escapes that role, so now the killing game runs partially on hate, and partially on the thin remains of hope he has. I think this is kinda fun.

Yumeno: Yumeno is great because she has that whole arc where she learns to be open with her feelings and honest with herself right? Well we’re gonna make that just. a big old lie. She just doesn’t give a shit, so fuck it she’ll do this killing game shit too.

And finally, top pick: Saihara. Saihara would be the literal best option. Keep the protagonist switch. Akamatsu dies, we take Saihara as protagonist now. He gets played out basically the same. We play thinking we’re playing an insecure detective with some issues with the truth (and some issues with lies that aren’t capitalised on as well but hey that’s not actually entirely necessary for this scenario). We think Saihara is trying to carry on Akamatsu’s wish, because he says he would, and he solves all the cases and seems to be interested in saving everyone.

But...it’s a lie. Like in chapter 1 we were playing with an unreliable narrator the whole game. Saihara’s focus on the mystery versus trying to guarantee their lives in the game now gets played for “of course he’s focused on those this is his show. It’s what he lives for.” Saihara created a killing game to have an endless set of murder mysteries to solve, and he doesn’t really care about the people, but their potential in creating a good story. Maybe he’s even the pre-game fanboy too if we’re keeping that trick. And the narrative insisting on framing him as good through the use of the cast becomes a clever trick to hide his motivations.It’d be another unreliable narrator, and the best way to capitalize on the themes of the game. More lies. 

Not to mention it would make the Akamatsu thing especially brutal, because you play as him to frame her for a crime it will turn out she did not actually commit. The replay value of the game at LARGE would be through the roof, all because of this trick. It’d be fucking fascinating, and it would just destroy dangan ronpa formula. We’ll have not only a murder protagonist, but a mastermind protagonist. Listen. LISTEN. This is the best possible ringleader selection. I will fight you. dkgjrngdjkn

Okay I went on long enough we’re gonna call it a day. I hope this more than answered your questions!

[spicy-pozole]

Thanks a lot Mr. Han - Chapter 3

I meant to put this up earlier, sorry about that! 

Link to story on - AO3

First Chapter - Previous Chapter - Next Chapter

Jumin has a good day but almost slips up near the end. V is a good friend, and I want him to be happy too, but unfortunately this story is not about him.

“How many times have you been to Paris?” she asked him as they moved through the Paris subway, about to go above ground to the city. Jumin still had his bodyguards with them but they were standing aways away, only keeping a watch on the two who luckily had not been followed by the paparazzi.

“Six... I believe.” he said, his mental calculator running constantly in his brain.

“Oh... You sound like an expert. Are you fluent as well?” she joked, sounding a little nervous still.

“No, but I can speak a little.” he spoke in French, trying to hide his smile. Her face lit up and she said,

“That’s so cool! I only know how to say everyday phrases and words in French. I guess you’ll have to be my tour guide then.”

“Well I have to tell you, I haven’t spent very much time sightseeing in Paris. I was usually stuck in meetings while I was here. But the city is so old it’s impossible to go anywhere without being somewhat of a tourist.” he admitted, a little worried that he wouldn’t be able to give her a good experience while she was here.

“Do you like it?”

“It’s... just another place to me. I can appreciate that it’s a beautiful place but... it just feels like another city to me.” Jumin said honestly, his voice growing quieter as they climbed up the metro stairs together.

“Maybe you just need a chance to make good memories with it then... We’ll have fun today, alright? So just try to enjoy it, maybe you’ll get more attached.” she said, looking at him in the eyes as she grinned. He tightened his fingers to the inside of his palms, staring back at her.

If there was anything he was starting to get attached to, he didn’t think it was the city.

They came up out of the metro together, into the gray rainy air that was the weather of Paris that day, clouds hanging in the sky but the air still warm against their skin. She was smiling so wide as she looked around, walking forward aimlessly until he walked a little faster so he could catch up and begin leading her in the correct direction, holding her arm gently.

“Oh!!! It’s so big!” she gasped when she finally noticed the Eiffel Tower that he was leading her to as they walked across the Trocadero Plaza, and he continued to lead her away from the people trying to aggressively sell knock off landmark trinkets for money.

They walked across for a while, talking as they grew closer to the tower about different places that they had been and where they still wanted to go someday. Jumin did enjoy seeing new places when he went on business trips, but those moments of enjoyment were usually spent from him looking out a hotel window at the end of the day, or taking a walk through a garden. This kind of tourism wasn’t something he was particularly used to, and he wasn’t really sure whether he would have enjoyed it if he had been alone. Seeing her so excited about everything was enough to make him enjoy himself too. Once they got closer to the tower she excitedly ran up to one of the bases of the legs, her mouth wide open as she looked at it and then up at the top of the tower in the sky.

“It’s just... so much bigger than I thought it was going to be. Have you ever gone somewhere and seen a famous landmark... and you are surprised by how much smaller it was than what you imagined?” she asked him, and all he could do was smile back at her a little, shrugging lightly. “Well... this is the first time that something I imagined was bigger in reality... It’s almost frightening.” she breathed, her neck still craned up to the sky.

“I’m sorry we had to come on a cloudy day...” Jumin said, noticing that it was hard to even see the top of the tower in the foggy rain clouds above them.

“Oh, I think it’s beautiful! It feels cool but not cold... and when things are gray the grass always looks greener, don’t you think?” she asked, and he turned around, glancing at the gardens they had walked past earlier.

“I suppose... you’re right about that.” he mumbled quietly, interested. Then she took him by surprise when she linked arms with him, pulling him towards the closest edge of the river Seine that they could reach from where they were, pointing at the boats and asking him if he wanted to go with her on one.

It wasn’t too long until they had boarded a boat and she took lots of pictures of the view, many of him too. He didn’t know what to do as she snapped photos, so he was worried his expression in all of them looked either bored or in discomfort when he was really enjoying himself in reality. She showed him the photos as the tour boat sailed slowly down the river, deleting a few but generally commenting on how his black hair looked nice against the greyish background.

They passed by many landmarks and took pictures as they went, sometimes hopping off the boat to explore new parts of the city before they reboarded when the next boat came. Notre Dame was one of Jumin’s favorite places that they went, intrigued by the detail and symmetry of the building, both in the art of the windows and the architecture itself. She got him to smile beside the building as she took photos, taking some selfies with him as well.

She nearly forgot to eat she was so excited to move onto the next landmarks, but thankfully Jumin’s internal clock made sure that they took a break, taking her to a restaurant.

As soon as they sat down she seemed to relax a little from her excited state, sighing as she picked up a menu.

“Jumin, how much of this menu can you understand.”

“It’s more that I’ve had the food before so I know what it is, rather than me actually understanding what the words mean.”

“That’s fair.” she scanned down the menu, looking very unsure. After a few more moments of her frowning at the menu and trying to decipher what things were he leaned over and pointed to some of his favorites, explaining what they were. She ended up getting the same thing he was, saying that she was willing to try anything that he thought was good.

“Today has been really fun so far... I almost forgot that we’re on a business trip.” she said, and he smiled.

“It has been fun. I would love to travel with you again MC, you make it a lot more enjoyable.” he said, and she blushed. “I didn’t realize how entertaining it is to see others experience things that you yourself have become used to. It’s like sharing, isn’t it?” he continued, and she nodded lightly.

“I’ve probably looked like an excited kid all day, or a very typical tourist.” she sighed, and he shook his head.

“I thought you looked like someone who was just thoroughly enjoying life.”

He wanted to tell her that she looked beautiful as well, and that he would do anything to experience the joy that she was feeling. But he felt a little uneasy doing that. This wasn’t a date after all, this was a free day on a business trip. He didn’t want to make her uncomfortable.

“Thank you for coming here with me. I actually like traveling alone a lot... I feel like I can express myself more honestly, where as if I’m with others I have to hold myself back. But for some reason... I don’t feel that pressure from you. So thank you Jumin.” she said politely, and it was his turn to look away a little, feeling embarrassed. He wasn’t even sure why. In fact, this whole business trip had been near infuriating so far just because he couldn’t always count on his ability to control his emotions. And now she was the one telling him that she felt comfortable around him? When had been the last time a woman, or rather, literally anyone had told him that they felt comfortable around him? Besides his father and V, the two people in this world closest to him, he didn’t know if the had ever met someone like this. To be honest, he felt a little terrified.

Those bonds of friendship and trust had taken years to build and to prove faithful, and yet here he was with this girl after maybe three days, and he already felt as though she was becoming close to him as well. He had no real reason to trust her, no real reason to enjoy her company this much, but still he did and he had no idea how to convince himself logically of that fact. He couldn’t wrap his mind around why this was different, and he was scared of it.

“Jumin? Do you know how I’m supposed to eat this? I don’t know which fork to use...” came her voice, interrupting his anxious thoughts and he saw her looking uneasily down at the plate of foreign food set before her. Her expression was so sweet he couldn’t help but smile and feel his emotions calm, and he began explaining how to properly eat the food in front of her.

It was closer to the end of the day when they hit their last landmark, the Arc de Triomphe. The sky was growing darker and cloudier as they entered the tower and began the very long climb up the circular staircase. She had to pause after a few minutes of climbing, catching her breath as he waited patiently beside her, the bodyguards not very far behind as well.

“This is... a very long walk... I can’t even see up to the top!” she gasped, leaning over the railing to look up and down the long tube of curling staircase.

“We only have 165 steps left to take.” Jumin stated calmly, and she frowned, looking at him in confusion.

“What?”

“I’ve been counting. We have 165 steps left, there are 284 steps in the Arc de Triomphe and-”

“Why do you know that???” she asked him, still trying to catch her breath as she laughed.

“I guess someone told me once and I remembered. I’m sorry we didn’t take the elevator.”

“No- no it’s okay! I wanted to climb up all the way, I’ll feel more accomplished that way!” she said, beginning to walk again and he followed en suite. She nearly missed a step once and he came behind her immediately, hooking arms with her, and helping support her as they continued to climb. They took a break at the mid section, going into the gift shop where the crowds bustled around, looking at the souvenirs on display. She continued to keep her arm linked around his as they walked around the shop, and she declined whenever he asked if she wanted to buy something.

“You’ve been spending money on me all day long, I’m fine.” she laughed, and he raised his eyebrows at her saying,

“It really hasn’t been that much, don’t you want something to remember the city by?”

“Umm... I think I’ll remember this day well enough thanks to you.” she said, her voice timid as she looked at him. He swallowed, ducking his head in a kind of half nod before pulling her away. As they were leaving the shop she continued on saying,

“Also, look at my dress! No pockets. I can’t get anything.”

“I can hold things for you, my jacket has lots of pockets.” he said with a frown, “And why didn’t you grab a jacket before we left, it’s not a sunny day!”

“I’m fine! It’s still warm!” she laughed, pulling him towards the stairs again.

They made it up to the top of the tower and she began grinning again, holding onto the edge of the arch as Paris spread out from them like a star, the lights of the city beginning to turn on now as the night came.

“Smile!” she said, catching him by surprise as he was looking out at the view, and she caught him with a wide eyed look instead. Then she turned around, trying to get both of them in the shot, taking a few pictures, making faces in a few of them. He did begin to smile as he watched her, and then he was surprised as she called over the body guards who awkwardly walked over as well.

“Aaand here’s a group photo!” she laughed, trying to get all of them in. “Make a funny face! Jumin, that’s great, it looks like you just ate a lemon.”

Once she was done he stood beside her again asking quietly,

“Are you trying to tease me?”

“Maybe.” she said slyly, smirking as she looked through the past photos. He looked away, pursing his lips tightly as he huffed. As he looked around however, he unfortunately found that most of the other people on top of the arch were couples, standing close and talking or kissing. He looked forward again, his fingers twitching uncomfortably. He wondered if he was the only one feeling the suffocating pressure around them, or if she was feeling it as well.

“Oh this is a really good picture of you.” she said quietly, holding up her phone. He leaned down, looking at the picture to see it of him smiling and pointing at a bird that was a few inches from him, sitting unafraid on top of a fence.

“Hmm.” he smiled at the picture, now becoming aware of how close they were now. He knew that she noticed it too as she nervously chewed on her lip, continuing to hold up her phone. If she moved it away, they both knew that they’d break away again, so she held it steady, keeping them frozen in place.

“Do you... do you think I really should have gotten something to remember the city by?” she asked quietly, and he met her eyes, not knowing what to say.

Then it seemed as if his brain went into a shut down mode, completely out of his momentary control as he moved his face closer to hers, the warmth of their breath hovering in the cool air between them as the space grew smaller.

And then a raindrop hit him in the nose, making him jump. They pulled back from each other immediately, looking up into the sky as more fat raindrops fell onto them, hitting the stone of the archway with loud slapping noises as their intensity grew.

He instantly took her arm, leading her back inside as he said, his voice strained,

“It’s dangerous to be up here this high in a rainstorm, lets go.”

“A-Alright!”

They didn’t link arms again, but he did keep a firm grasp on her arm as they walked and rode the metro all the way back to the train, as if he would lose her if he let go.

They didn’t talk much, getting onto the train and sitting down, keeping their eyes away from each other. She thanked him again for the trip and he nodded silently.

Jumin was watching the scenery pass outside the window as the train sped along, and was only interrupted when he felt something fall against his arm. He turned his head to see her, eyes closed as she leaned against him, breathing slow as she slept. He was almost over his own jet lag now, but he could see now how much she’d been fighting it off during the day. Now that the adrenaline of the trip was over for her she was probably crashing.

He sighed, a little shaky, and turned his head to look out the window again, hoping that whatever happened from here on out was not as confusing as today had been. He didn’t know when his heart would stop thumping against his chest.

It had been like that all day.

---

She could barely remember getting off the train and into a car, she kept going in and out of consciousness. She could feel Jumin’s hand supporting her, helping her from place to place, and she continued to lean against him, feeling shaky on her feet. She did start to wake up a little more when they reached the hotel room, and she got ready for bed.

When Jumin came back from the bathroom, ready as well, he found her sitting at the table, mumbling over some papers and notes that she had, organizing them in her binder.

“What are you doing? You need to go to sleep.” he asked her, looking as her head drooped sleepily before she brought it up again, rubbing her eyes.

“I just... I wanted to get ready... tomorrow is the big day so... my papers... sleep.” she mumbled, and he shook his head, taking her by the hand and leading her to the bed instead. She crawled under the covers without much coaxing, taking the pillow that he handed her and hugging it to herself, mumbling a thank you or goodnight, he wasn’t completely sure.

She was already asleep by the time that he crossed the room to the light, turning it off. He wasn’t ready to sleep yet however, he too had things that he wanted to go over before bed, and he spent a few minutes with the desk lamp on, looking over papers and making sure everything was where it should be. He wasn’t sure if he could sleep unless he knew it was all going to be there waiting in the morning where he needed it to be. As he was going over papers his phone rang and he glanced at it, not planning on answering this late at night really. When he saw the name however he immediately picked up saying,

“V? What is it? Is something wrong?”

“Nothing’s wrong Jumin, why would you assume that?” came a light laugh on the other end of the phone and he sighed, relaxing back into his chair.

“Well you never call me anymore you know... You seem to only check in on the chatroom once a month or so. I’m beginning to equate you contacting me to there being an emergency with how scarce your calls are.” he said, running his fingers through his hair as he tried to calm himself.

“I know... I’m sorry. I just haven’t spoken to you in a while, I was wondering how you were doing.”

“Well... to be honest, I’m not sure how I’m doing.” Jumin answered after a moment, his voice sounding even more tired than he expected himself to sound.

“What’s wrong? Jaehee said you’re on a business trip right now, is the deal not going well?”

“No, no, it’s going fine... I just... have had an unhappy situation thrust onto me thanks to my father.”

“Oh that doesn’t sound good. The only thing you two seem to argue about is his love life, what’s going on?”

“It isn’t that this time actually, though the subject isn’t too far off.” he sighed, standing up from his chair as he paced around the room quietly, glancing over at MC who was still asleep, her soft breathing becoming almost like white noise to him at this point, it fitting into the hotel’s atmosphere so well.

Jumin explained his situation quietly to V, keeping his eyes on her the whole time as he spoke, and listening to the worried exclamations of his friend on the other end.

“The biggest problem that I have now though is that I can’t get a hold of myself when she gets too close, or when she smiles at me sometimes. I feel like I’m going crazy, and I don’t know what to do. I don’t have worries about the deal with the companies, but I do have a worry about me being able to make it through this without doing something stupid.” Jumin added after he finished his story, and he waited to hear what his friend had to say. To his surprise, V began laughing on the other end, and Jumin narrowed his eyes.

“Something stupid? What exactly do you mean by that Jumin? It sounds to me as if...”

“As if what?” Jumin asked him, unable to hide the iciness of his tone.

“Well.... at the risk of you becoming furious with me, it seems to me that you like her.”

“Weren’t you listening V? I do like her, she’s one of the best employees I’ve ever had the chance to work with.”

“Don’t be so stubborn Jumin, you know what I mean.” V sighed, and Jumin couldn’t help but blush now.

“Fine, I do understand what you mean, but can you honestly believe that yourself? I barely know her, and I have no reason to trust her to the point of anything like that.”

“Like what? Jumin, even we were strangers when we first met as kids, but we trust each other now, don’t we?” V asked, and Jumin curled his fist in frustration.

“I know, okay? I know that’s how trust is slowly built- but honestly-” he began talking faster and faster, feeling his heart thump harder now, “the few days that I’ve been spending with her still doesn’t feel like a sufficient amount of time to reach the point of wanting to kiss someone or-”

“Kiss?! Did you kiss her Jumin?” V laughed, sounding amazed, and Jumin sucked in air, lowering his voice again as he hissed,

“Of course not- it was just an example- I didn’t-”

“Jumin, calm down, this is scary.” V said, his voice still shaking with a laugh, and Jumin buried his face into his hand, his skin burning. “Look Jumin, I know you sometimes don’t handle emotions very tactfully when you get very upset in unfamiliar situations, and I know you’re even worse when it comes to others and their own emotions. So please just make sure that you don’t set off a mental time bomb while you’re on this trip, alright? I don’t want the next time we talk to be me consoling you over a bad decision. Just stay calm and be yourself. She sounds nice enough that you shouldn’t be so worried about her. She’s not going to hurt you, she sounds like a good friend already.”

Neither of them said anything for a moment, and for a moment Jumin wondered if V had lost connection, which often happened while he was on the phone. But before he could ask him if he was still there, V’s voice asked him quietly,

“Is she pretty too Jumin?”

He waited a moment before answering back,

“....Yes. She’s beautiful. When she smiles at me I..” he paused, the words difficult for him to say. “I feel like the threads inside me become a little untangled.”

“Threads?”

“I guess I never told you about that... never mind.”

“Hey, you haven’t been drinking wine by chance, have you? You seem to only talk like this when you’ve been drinking.”

“No, I only had a little at dinner, I wish I had some wine right now though...” Jumin said, his voice slipping into a moan again as he pressed his face down against his forearm.

“Tsk Tsk, don’t turn to that stuff for a solution to problems Jumin, you be careful.”

“I know, you’ll never let me forget.”

“I’m glad you know that.”

Jumin smiled, glad to be talking to his friend again, though he was still feeling the ache inside him that reminded him of how much he missed him.

“I should be getting to bed now... but thank you for calling, V.” he said quietly, and V replied happily,

“Of course. I’ll try to do it more often... again, I’m sorry for being so out of touch. Have a nice night Jumin.”

“You too.”

After they’d hung up, Jumin sighed, setting the phone down on the table as he walked back over to the bed, looking at the girl who was still sleeping peacefully, holding her pillow close to her. Then he made himself look away from her, swallowing the lump in his throat as he again felt a little funny. He gently stacked pillows between them again, not really wanting a repeat of last night, and then he fell asleep, his eyes heavy and his mind still buzzing.

[nostalgic-blood]

so yeah tri finale thoughts

i went into this movie with rock bottom expectations. mostly because i went into symbiosis riding high due to the ridiculously juicy poster that turned out to be the baitest bait that has ever bait.

and i suppose perception helps because I mostly enjoyed it! my biggest fear was that they’d try to answer the millions of questions and mysteries they brought up in one single movie, and seeing their track record it’d be done rather sloppily. instead, they went for a sequel hook so it made sense to leave out the answers to some mysteries. It’s not as if homeostasis and yggdrasil were the reason I was watching tri. If the lore was why I was watching it I’d be bored and left long ago

like thank god they didn’t explain much about huckmon or alphamon because i do not care. I do understand on an objective standpoint that leaving so many of these things in the air is bad writing, but for most of the movies they already reserve like 60% of the screentime for meiko and her murderous cat so really what spotlight is left is prime real estate for characters and digimon i actually care about. slice of life moment at an inappropriate point of the movie is better than static exposition for five minutes. 

still what they did use the screentime for was a little odd, though not to the egregious degree of meiko in the previous movies. I find it interesting for instance that yamato and gabumon had a pretty long scene together but they are the only ones of the cast that never had a full-screen metalgarurumon evolution. they also spent a lot of time that wasn’t the occasional flashback or the recap at the beginning of every episode even though it’s released as movies and we literally just watched that scene showing the faceless military being inept at destroying the supernatural giant monster. 

it feels like tri’s structure is far more rigid than average. As in they seem to follow some strict formula, which causes pacing issues and screentime priority issues. They also don’t really put thought into what goes into the structure. For instance we did get some Hikari spotlight because it was necessary due to the situation, what with tailmon having become part of the big evil bad. But instead of focusing on really anything specific on hikari’s character, it was mostly reactionary and worrying over meiko. There was a quick moment just before tailmon mega evolved which, when I put more thought into it was sort of poignant, but because that conflict of hikari’s character was so much more subtle than meiko’s plot it almost seems like it comes out of nowhere as a conclusion to hikari’s arc.

plus, they rip away more of tailmon’s agency when they simply refer to the big ordinemon boob butt monster as simply meicoomon that has absorbed tailmon. You can’t backtrack like that! We VERY CLEARLY SAW in symbiosis that tailmon TOO was corrupted as ophanimon falldown mode, and that the two digimon fused together in a rather blatant manner. It felt far more like they were equals when they became one than one digimon absorbing the other. There is no point to tailmon’s dark evolution if that never comes up in the plot! If no one ever brings it up! It feels like, just as the poster was, included just as fanservice and bait so more people would watch, but with zero substance. 

Again, a rigid formula or structure, like the writers were all sitting in the room and throwing ideas on the wall, but the ideas are like “we should have a dramatic moment where tailmon disappears!” and they do. But it doesn’t do anything. It’s not really relevant because it’s not as if tailmon changes drastically or even dies. It feels like it was put there just for the drama itself, just to throw in a trailer so people will be like OMG DID TAILMON JUST DIE!?!?! HOW SAD!!! I NEED TO TUNE IN!1!!

or like “WE SHOULD BRING BACK WIZARDMON!” because fans of hikari and tailmon love wizardmon! so they do! for 3 seconds! He has no lines! We never see his face! What the fuck. It’s a tease that goes no where. They even have the audacity to include his hat in the poster for five seconds of screentime. I should have expected that after the ophanimon falldown mode debacle.

meanwhile the new characters are involved in drama that is actually affected by the plot, like meiko having to say goodbye to her partner forever because meicoomon is too far gone, and needs to be put down to end her suffering. Pretty dang relevant to the story right? it wasn’t simply put there for feels. Or Daigo dying. While the situation they got into seems kind of convoluted, like how they just happened to fall into the underground bunker where the 02 kids just happen to be, and Daigo just happens to be mortally wounded and Taichi just happens to be unscathed. People explain it away that Daigo “probably shielded Taichi as they fell” which he probably did! But when I have to say “probably” or if the audience has to explain it themselves because they SHOWED ABSOLUTELY NONE OF IT, then it’s especially jarring. Like the writers were like “Let’s kill Daigo off!” and put no thought into how they should smoothly transition to a moment where that could be possible. 

like you spend six movies foreshadowing and leading up to the twist that meicoomon was the source of the infected, and then slowly revealed how much yggdrasil’s influence was exactly on her and then give us the shock of the century when she fuses with tailmon into the big bad near the end, and then we finally conclude the conflict of sacrifice by yes, we must put the cat down. Because of all the damage that she had inflicted, by the death that taichi had just witnessed and could do nothing to prevent. That the theme of the movies was growing up, no longer the fun friendly idealism of digimon back in adventure. That she was just too far gone, almost dragged another digimon down with her, lead to the death of humans !! and risked the death or at least the reboot of the real world. It was not time to debate what we should or should not do because if action is not done now it’d be too late.

but for daigo dying it’s like, oh he ends up in a room, somehow far more injured than taichi. Like at least give Taichi cuts and bruises so the whole “OMG TAICHI IS DEAD!!!” thing had a little more merit, and then not!gennai sets up a sadistic trap where only one of them will live and the one that lives will conveniently return back to the real world safe and sound with the 02 kids that have been missing this entire time. I mean, real convenient hm? kill off a guy for drama and put the main char where he needs to be while fixing up one of the biggest issues in the entire series with the lingering whereabouts of the 02 cast and no one seemingly caring. They tried to kill many birds with one stone, but they were too greedy, trying to kill so many birds that all the birds they killed weren’t intact bodies on the ground for feasting but mere scraps, as the stone was used in such force their remains were absolutely pulverized. I swear that analogy was going somewhere.

I was still sad about it tho, because I warmed up to daigo and maki as characters, and if maki doesn’t come back then these original chosen have left Tri in rather brutal and bloody fashion, tragic with no real positive spin aside from maki’s cautionary tale over sacrifice and what it can do to a person and daigo leaving lasting words to taichi. They were the first to get Digimon and save the world! The rest of the adventure kids and in the 02 epilogue everyone else gets their own digimon and lives out happily side-by-side. Why do the first get such a bad hand? It’s sad.

i’m a bit disappointed some of the coolest theories over tailmon and meicoomon as foils didn’t come true, which I mean I can’t really expect what with the track record of tri, but it would have been nice. tailmon would be light and then meicoomon is darkness, and the demon that results is even more powerful because they light that combined has been tainted by darkness, or w/e. there was little explanation for the fusion and again, they often referred to tailmon as simply having been absorbed. When she escaped ordinemon I doubt there was memory of being ophanimon falldown mode. I guess the koushiro-ex-machina mass return of their selves before the reboot has some amazing ability to purify on the fly. Could have been done better!

still, on an emotional level I enjoyed it. Even if they planned every emotional moment in the most soulless, structured way possible without any ounce of passion I think I still would have teared up at some scenes. Seeing all the megas in grand animation was great, and the fighting was good this time too unlike the body slamming fun times from symbiosis. 

so my initial rating of this movie is 2.5 stars out of 5, but I will minus .5 stars for the ridiculous and unnecessary amount of fucking butt shots ordinemon has. I don’t know what person in this wide wide world would actually enjoy seeing cthulhu’s bare fat ass every twenty seconds but if they were the primary demographic somehow then I guess I have no justification to complain!

I also minus .5 stars for the stupid pointless recaps. And minus another .5 for doing nothing specific for hikari’s character. That least us at 1.5 stars.

BUT ONE WHOLE EXTRA STRAW FOR HOLYDRAMON!!! AWWWWW YEAH

Even if Holydramon only was around for 15 seconds itself, it still got a gorgeously animated evolution sequence and as I do not stare at trailers (and it never being on a poster) that surprise was not only well worth the wait but the time it took to process. I was cheering at 3am in the morning.

but . 5 deducted for the stupid wizardmon bait SHAME ON THE BAIT THE BAITEST BAIT I HATE THE BAIT

2 stars out of 5. Eh good enough. I personally put the movies as 3 > 6 > 2 > 4 > 1 > 5. That is all and Spotto out.