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wonderfulworldofmichaelford · 9 months

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About Me: Favorite Video Games

So you may not know this, but I’m a gamer. Shocking, right? Who’d ever have guessed it? But to be totally fair here, I rarely talk about video games on Tumblr. I talk about movies, and there have been a handful of times where I reviewed video games, but I focused more on the story, characters, and all that then I did on whether or not the gameplay was good. In my earliest days, before I found my niche, I talked about games a fair deal, but that fell by the wayside so I could focus on films (my true passion).

So hey, look at this! You’re all going to get to see what my favorite video games are now! Remember, everything here is just my personal opinions; I'm not trying to give actual reviews of each of these games in a couple of sentences or trying to sell you on them, I'm talking about the stuff in them that makes me love them. All of this is my subjective opinion, and I'm not asking you to agree with me here, I'm just trying to talk about stuff that I love.

Oh, and here are some honorable mentions: Super Mario Bros. 3, Banjo-Kazooie (I still haven’t finished it and I don’t want to include games I haven’t played through), Kid Icarus: Uprising, Bayonetta 2, Injustice 2, BioShock, Doom Eternal, Super Metroid, Dragon Age II, God of War II, Castlevania: Aria/Dawn of Sorrow, The Wolf Among Us, The Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time, Ratchet & Clank: Going Commando/Up Your Arsenal, and Heritage for the Future. Also a shout out to Tell Me Why and Life is Strange, games I watched my wife play and loved the story of but that I didn’t actually play myself; the former in particular has all sorts of elements I love in my stories.

Now, without further ado, here’s my top 50! Oh, and only the top 30 have pictures because there's image limits on posts! What a load of BS!

50. Animal Crossing: New Horizons

Ok, maybe this game is lacking in a few areas at the expense of its massive customization system… but boy howdy what a system it is! I cannot tell you how much time I’ve sunk into decorating my island, reorganizing my villagers, and just making all sorts of weird themed areas. It’s a lot of fun, and I get to do all this work while hanging with a bunch of weird, cute animals.

49. JoJo’s Bizarre Adventure All-Star Battle R

The original game was a lot of fun, but even I’ll admit it felt like it was missing something. That something was probably Foo Fighter, but guess what? She’s in the updated rerelease, along with aslew of other new characters like my favorite minor antagonist Mariah and the bane of Heritage for the Future players, Pet Shop! Add onto that a much better campaign mode with some fun little AU shenanigan matches and you have the most loving fighting game tribute to JJBA imaginable! Now if only they’d give Part 8 a little more love...

48. Batman: Arkham Origins

This is the redheaded stepchild of the Arkham series, and on some level I get why. It is very much aping City, right down to the map despite their being some expansions here and there, and the combat is much more of the same with little in the way of evolution, and don’t get me started on the fucking Joker showing up again. But this game also features some of the best bosses in the series such as Firefly and especially Deathstroke, a Bane who isn’t just a mindless mass of muscles like in the other games, and some interesting sidequests that make this early look at Batman’s superheroics a worthwhile entry in my eyes.

47. Miitopia

This is one of the easiest games out there, what with the autopilot combat and minimal difficulty (though there is a big spike late in the game). But the sheer vastness of the facial customization means that literally anyone from all of art or history can take part in a wacky, cliché RPG adventure. Hank Hill can fight the evil overlord Seth MacFarlane with a crew consisting of Chowder, Thor, and Japanese comedian/director/actor Beat Takeshi. If that’s not worth the price of admission, I don’t know what is.

46. Castlevania: Portrait of Ruin

The DS is where Castlevania truly shined, and my favorite of all the handheld entries is this portrait-hopping journey to defeat a mad artist and his evil vampire children. The locations are pretty great, there’s tons of sidequests and alternate game modes (my favorite is the one where you play as the Old Axe Armor), and there’s an awesome brutal bonus dungeon where you get to fight the bosses from Dawn of Sorrow without the stupid drawing bullshit!

45. Maximo vs. Army of Zin

The original game was a fun, yet very flawed action platformer. This game veers more into the hack-and-slash genre to great effect; it’s not the deepest combat ever, but it’s a lot of fun, with much better platform, bosses, and story than the first game. There’s just something cool about a world that mixes Gothic horror, steampunk, and other fantasy elements together all in one place.

44. God Hand

This is one of the most deceptive games you’ll ever come across. On the surface, it might seem like an ugly beat-em-up, but it’s so much more than that. The bosses are brutal yet fantastic, the music is fucking incredible, and the humor is just the right level of absurd to be incredibly charming. It’s ball-bustingly difficult, but let me tell you, when you finally overcome a fight or a boss battle that’s been giving you trouble? It is literally the best feeling in the world.

43. South Park: The Stick of Truth

‘Member when South Park was funny? I ‘member. And The Stick of Truth really brings back all those memories because this is a hilarious and loving tribute to the series made with the help of Trey Parker and Matt Stone to deliver the playable South Park experience of your dreams. It’s gross, immature, raunchy, and funny, and best of all it doesn’t get too preachy or up its own ass with messages—no, it gets up Mr. Slave’s ass to defuse a bomb. Peak South Park right here, though the gameplay is kind of basic. It’s all carried by that stellar writing.

42. Crash Bandicoot: Twinsanity

This game mainly scores a spot on my list for being fucking hilarious. This is the funniest Crash Bandicoot ever got, with all sorts of wacky gags and clever dialogue. Cortex really is the MVP here, with the constant slapstick that befalls him combined with his snarky dialogue making him a standout. It’s a bummer so much was cut from the game, and it does feel a bit incomplete in some areas, but for what it is it’s a damn fun time.

41. Pokemon White/White 2

It was genuinely hard to pick a single game from the series to go on here considering how much I loved Gens III – V. Emerald perfected the generation I first got into the series, LeafGreen is the definitive Kanto experience to me, Platinum polished up Gen IV’s uneven debut and made it incredible, and SoulSilver is a fantastic remake of the first Pokemon game I ever played (Crystal). But I think I have to go with the Gen V games I played as my favorites. They’re fun and challenging, and while the first game has a ridiculously restrictive regional dex and the second has an overreliance on defunct wi-fi features, the fantastic story and fun new Pokemon make up for it. Can’t be too mad at the games that let me make trashy cult classic B-movies with my boy Garbodor, can I?

40. Batman: Arkham Knight

I put off playing this for years, because I wasn’t happy with some of the things I heard about it, such as a lack of traditional boss battles and an overreliance on the Batmobile. These are still problems, but not near as bad as I feared (obviously, since it’s on this list); everything about the gameplay is the series at its peak. The main story is a bit lacking and ends up being a tad too predictable for me to love it as much as the other entries in the series, but the fact it has Professor Pyg and Man-Bat really helps make up for its shortcomings.

39. The Elder Scrolls IV: Oblivion

This game is just as silly and clunky as I imagined an older Bethesda game would be, but to my surprise I think it holds up incredibly well even compared to Skyrim. It’s a bit more complex in a lot of areas, but it’s not too daunting. What really strikes me is how this game actually has a really good story; it’s nothing groundbreaking, but when you look at how bad the Civil War plot in Skyrim was it feels like Shakespeare in comparison. Throw in a ton of unique sidequests with interesting plotlines, a gruesome Dark Brotherhood plot, an interesting villain, and Patrick Stewart for all of about five minutes, and I’d almost say I like this more than Skyrim. Almost.

38. Wolfenstein: The New Order

Sure, it doesn’t exactly reinvent the wheel when it comes to FPS games, but does it need to? All I want from a Wolfenstein game is a horde of Nazi motherfuckers to mow down, and guess what this game gives me? What really surprised me was how genuinely cool and likable BJ was. He might be one of my favorite heroes ever after this game. It’s a shame they couldn’t keep this level of polish up in the sequel.

37. The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim

In a lot of ways, this game is objectively worse than its predecessor. Like the story is ass for sure; I could not give less of a fuck about the Stormcloaks and the Imperials and their stupid civil war if I tried. But the vast world filled with things to do is so much fun to explore, and there’s all sorts of sidequests and shenanigans to get into. This game is pure, stupid fun, and I can’t tell you how many times I’ve restarted it just to play as a different race or class. Maybe someday I’ll make it to the final boss. Maybe.

36. Psychonauts

The original Psychonauts is one of the last great platformers, and among them it’s a lot more unique than many of its peers as you’re platforming through the minds of all sorts of wacky characters to help them overcome their issues. Bouncing through the conspiracy theory-addled brain of a disturbed milkman or decimating a city kaiju style inside the mind of a hyper-intelligent mutant lungfish are the kind of off-the-wall ideas this game throws at you, and in my opinion the only thing that could hold it back is if it had a really janky final level that combines meat, circuses, escort missions, and an underwhelming final boss… Oops. Still a great game in my eyes, one that’s 95% perfect.

35. Final Fantasy VI

For a lot of people, this is the best Final Fantasy game, and I definitely see why. It has a truly massive playable roster of unique characters with their own special gimmicks (of which only a handful are actually useful, mind you) and one of the greatest video game villains ever conceived in the mad clown Kefka, plus it is so focused and tightly plotted for the first half of the game. I think that after Kefka takes over the story becomes a lot more aimless and unfocused, but that’s also where the game becomes a lot more fun and challenging too. It’s a bit uneven, but after how hard the opera house scene goes I think it’s allowed to trip a little bit.

34. Dragon Age: Origins

A lot more praise is thrown at this series’ sci-fi sibling Mass Effect, probably because that series is a lot more consistent with how good it is across the board (Andromeda notwithstanding), but I’m much more fond of fantasy settings myself and this game delivers a fantastic one in ways its sequels couldn’t quite manage. This is the only game in the series where I genuinely loved every single party member (especially Leliana) and actively tried to get them the happiest endings possible—yes, even the douchebag anti-villain who joins you if you play your cards right), and the plot is just the right level of epic fantasy cheese seasoned with some delicious side quests. If the dwarf plotline wasn’t such a slog and if Varric was in the game, this would be a lot higher on the list, but this game still holds a special place in my heart.

33. Batman: Arkham Asylum

Our first trip into the Asylum really did kill the notion that licensed games had to be the most obnoxious shovelware schlock imaginable by making a Batman game that actually makes you feel like Batman. Sure, the detective part is a bit minimal here compared to the sequels, but the combat is so fun and refreshing that I’m not too bothered by the lack of crime scene investigations. There’s a clear love for the entire mythos here, and best of all a clear love for the animated series—Hamill and Conroy reprise their roles as Joker and Batman respectively, and Arleen Sorkin gives Harley one last ride before her retirement. It’s a real love letter to the Dark Knight, and it spawned one of the most consistently good video game series around, so I’ll forgive it for having the lamest final boss I’ve ever fought just this once.

32. Kingdom Hearts

What I like about the original game is how it struck such a nice balance in its absurd premise, with it never feeling like the Final Fantasy or Disney elements are really overpowering each other. We have the grandiose, convoluted plots of the former and the magic, whimsy, and awesome villains of the latter combining together into one impressive package. Yeah, a lot of the level designs are dogshit (looking at you, Deep Jungle and Monstro), and some of the stunt casting is really bizarre (Lance Bass as Sephiroth?!) but overall this is a game way better than you’d think by hearing that it’s a game where Mickey Mouse and Cloud Strife exist side by side.

31. Super Mario 64

Mamma mia! It is genuinely impossible for me to not feel nostalgic for this game. So many 3D platformers that came out in its wake took what it did and polished it to absurd degrees, but there’s still something so special about diving back into one of the portraits in Peach’s castle and going through those levels again and again. The music and atmosphere of the game add onto it; every time I play it, I feel like a kid again. It’s just such a charming game.

30. MediEvil

If Tim Burton made a Gothic horror fantasy movie, I imagine it would be something like this game. It really uses the limitations of the PS1’s graphics to the fullest extent, with the jagged polygonal looks of the characters enhancing the experience, and it has such a crazy variety of levels and enemies, from a phantom pirate ship to a crystal cave with a dragon to a village of posessed villagers to an ant hill. Sir Daniel Fortesque is one of my favorite video game protagonists around because of his posthumous journey to live up to the legend fabricated around him.

29. God of War III

Every single one of these games just escalates from the previous one. Oh, you fight the hydra in the opening of the first game? How about you fight through Rhodes and then battle the animated colossus that once stood in its port in the second? And how do you top that for the third game? Beat the ever-loving shit out of Poseidon and gouge his eyes out from his POV. And this game only gets more brutal from there! Titans and gods all fall to Kratos in epic and gory boss battles, but honestly even without that I’d put the game on this list for the simple reason that you get to fucking murder Kevin Sorbo as Hercules.

28. EarthBound

Nintendo’s quirkiest RPG makes the cut, mostly on the basis of how weird and charming it is. At this point I’ve essentially memorized everything you need to do in this game, which is good because if it’s your first time you desperately need a guide or you’ll be fucked. There are points where things get a little too grindy (mostly for Poo’s weapons) but it’s genuinely a game whose charms outweigh any negatives there are. Plus, that final boss battle is something else entirely.

27. The Binding of Isaac: Rebirth

Rebirth and all of its DLC updates took everything great about the original game and polished it into absolute perfection, with so many different item combos you could potentially get and so many bosses and endgames you could encounter. No two runs ever really feel the same, and it’s so satisfying to become so overpowered you nuke the screen every time you attack. The fact there’s a thriving modding community to continually generate new and crazier content also adds to why I have a ridiculous number of hours dumped into this game.

26. Resident Evil VII: Biohazard

This is the first Resident Evil game I ever played and, wow, I sure was missing out all those years! This is one of the most tense survival horror experiences I’ve played through, with a creepy family of hillbilly horrors to avoid as I creep through their ramshackle domicile. It’s fun, creepy, and even a little campy, and it has raised my interest in the rest of the series. Hopefully the game with the giant vampire mommy will live up to how good this one is when I finally get around to playing it.

25. Portal 2

Yes, the puzzles are great, but this game really soars due to its writing. The first game was fun and all, but it was mostly just GLaDOS insulting you the whole time with Chell being an entirely silent protagonist. In this game, we get the lovable idiot Wheatley and the greatest mad scientist ever conceived Cave Johnson to listen to as well, and the way GLaDOS bounces off the former and reacts to the latter help make this game a fun and engaging puzzle-solving adventure.

24. Doom

The legendary FPS series got revitalized after years on the edge of relevancy, and its return is one of the most metal games imaginable. Slaughtering your way through the forces of Hell while heavy metal blares in the background? It really doesn’t get much better than this. While I do think Eternal improved the formula and gameplay in a lot of ways (particularly with the addition of an awesome hub level), I find the original to be way more fun and balanced in terms of difficulty. The lack of Marauders is really what gives it the slightest of edges.

23. Super Smash Bros. Ultimate

Nobody got left behind for this one. Everyone across the series came back, and then they went and added even more to give us the most ambitious crossover of all time. Ridley, Simon Belmont, Sora, Sephiroth, Kazuya, and more all get to duke it out on the best stages of the series as well as some fresh new ones, and every character plays even better and more balanced than they ever have before. While the single player campaign isn’t quite as exciting as Subspace Emissary from Brawl, it still manages to be a pretty epic quest with fun boss battles. This is just the definitive Smash experience in my opinion.

22. Red Dead Redemption

My daughter has affectionately labeled this game “Horse Movie,” and she’s not wrong. This is a true cowboy experience right here, with lots of gunfights and horse wrangling, and it’s all a blast. The story in particular is really well done, and there’s plenty of fun side quests too. Maybe the gunfights get a bit samey after a while, but it’s an enjoyable open world to explore and is filled with oddities and mysteries galore.

21. Metal Gear Solid V: The Phantom Pain

The first Metal Gear game to make the list, and easily the most underrated of the bunch. It gets a lot of flak for the missing final episode that would have had Venom fight the young Liquid Snake, and while it does suck that that moment isn’t in the game, the story still feels plenty complete and well-done without it. Venom might be one of the most fascinating characters in the series, and the game has some of the most brutal gutpunches and tearjerking moments in the franchise. Maybe it’s just because I’m predisposed to love Metal Gear, but I loved this game even though I was well aware of what it didn’t have.

20. Final Fantasy VII

Not to be a basic bitch, but this is my favorite Final Fantasy. I mean, the cast is all so cool and fun, the story is great, Sephiroth is an amazing villain, and there’s plenty of obscure and obtuse ways of finding secrets that make a strategy guide practically mandatory if you want the most out of the game. What’s not to love? I think I was mostly surprised by how good the game actually was; it’s always high on lists of the best games ever, and it definitely earns that. The fact that Aerith’s death still made me tear up despite being common knowledge is a testament to just how amazing this Fantasy is.

19. Mother 3

EarthBound coasts by on its fun, lighthearted quirkiness… but what if you took that and applied heaping helpings of darkness and a more solid story? That’s Mother 3, a beautiful tale filled with the same out there humor as its predecessor as well as a lot of more mature and deeper themes than even the original tackled (mind you, Earthbound wasn’t devoid of deeper themes to begin with, so this is saying something). The ending is one of the few times I have openly sobbed while playing a video game. They need to officially release this in the West, because I will buy it day one. Fuck, I’ll pre-order it!

18. Yoshi’s Island

If this game was only one of the most charmingly animated games ever made, that would be enough to earn it at least some respect. But it’s also one of the best platformers in a series that invented the genre, centered around a truly inspired baby-carrying gimmick and featuring all manner of creative boss battles and one of the most earwormy soundtracks ever made. That’s enough to get it a spot on this list, but the fact it solidified Shy Guys as a Mario mainstay and not just a one-shot enemy? That gets it into my top 20.

17. Spyro Reignited Trilogy

It’s kind of cheating since it’s all three games in one package, but it’s my list, I make the rules. I view this as the definitive way to play Spyro; the redesigns are all fantastic (especially Elora) and the fact Tom Kenny is now the lovable purple scamp across all three games is wonderful. They even made the first game more enjoyable and even visually interesting, even though it’s still the weakest link in the series! And as much of a Crash Bandicoot stan as I am, the fact this game allows you to switch between the newly composed arrangements of the songs and the original Copeland tracks is a big W over the Bandicoot remakes only having the new versions of the songs.

16. Metal Gear Rising

This is perhaps the most badass game ever made. The first level has Raiden battling through a war zone and then fighting a RAY singlehandedly, leaping across missiles and slicing it in half while the most fucking awesome metal music blares in the background. The game just decides to get even more insane from there. People have argued against it being canon for years, but these people are stupid. This game is just as insane and politically-charged as the rest of the series, so in my book, it’s fucking canon.

15. Undertale

This game’s time in the spotlight has faded a bit, but that only makes it easier for me to look back on it and say, “Damn, that’s one of the finest games ever made.” It has all the quirkiness of the Mother series with unique combat and a stellar story, a cast of likable characters, and some of the best boss fights I’ve ever been through. Best of all, it’s a game that practically encourages and even rewards you for being nice! I still love it, even after all the discourse and skyrocketing popularity, and nothing will make me budge on that love.

14. Hades

I’m a big fan of Greek mythology, so this is yet another game that would have had to try really hard to make me hate it. Thankfully, all its efforts were put into areas that made me love it instead. While the roguelike gameplay is well done, the writing and story are really the stars here, with fantastic character interactions between desperate god Zagreus, the gods of Olympus, and the various denizens of the underworld really making this game something truly special.

13. Crash Bandicoot 4: It’s About Time

Sometimes this game feels like the designers saw all those articles and reviews comparing the first game to Dark Souls and took it to heart, because some of the levels in this game are absolutely brutal—especially if you’re going for 100% completion. But that same difficulty makes playing through the levels a lot of fun as well; it’s probably the most challenging Crash outing to date. It really polishes and updates the Crash formula for the modern age, and hopefully they expand on this in a future game. If nothing else, it finally lets you play as Dingodile, which is a dream come true.

12. Grand Theft Auto V

It’s wacky. It’s cartoonish. It has a surprisingly good story about three criminals from different walks of life becoming fire-forged friends as they violently work out their emotional issues. There’s just so much to do and so much to see, all sorts of collectibles and side missions, and more black comedy than you can shake a stick at, and all of it is made all the more enjoyable because the main villain protagonists are a likable bunch of nutjobs. Hell, sometimes I just like to hop into a car, put on some tunes, and cruise around until I can cause some mayhem, and the fact that’s just as valid as doing a bunch of story missions really makes me love the game.

11. Silent Hill 2

While the first and third games are good in their own rights, I vastly prefer the psychological horror and the monsters manifesting as living allegories for trauma with heavy and dark symbolism as opposed to the evil cult narrative. Plus, you know, this one has Pyramid Head in it, and his presence makes sense instead of simply being there cuz he’s cool.

10. Phoenix Wright: Ace Attorney – Trials & Tribulations

The Ace Attorney series is one of my favorites, and I love just about all the games in it and even the ones I don’t love always have one or two solid cases that keep me coming back. But pound for pound my favorite game in the series is the third one, the one that lets you play as Mia Fey, introduces the callous murderer Dahlia Hawthorne, and has you match wits with the coffee-guzzling prosecutor Godot. Even the filler cases are entertaining, with the one where Phoenix has to get to the bottom of a murder involving his evil doppleganger being wildly amusing (which is more than can be said for that circus case in the second game or cases two through three in the fourth).

9. Live A Live

Few games can boast the sheer variety this game has on display, with levels changing up their style to give everything from standard RPG fair to a prolonged timed puzzle to a fighting game pastiche to an incredibly tense survival horror experience. We also have the precursor to Undertale here in a ninja-themed level where you can spare everyone you come across or otherwise brutally murder them. And while the stories remain relatively simple in every time period you visit, it doesn’t stop them from hitting hard when they need to, like with the fantasy RPG deconstruction that is Oersted’s chapter. This game would easily have switched places with the next game if the final level played a bit more to the game’s strengths, but hey, it’s still good enough to be in the top 10.

8. Chrono Trigger

Square’s other time travel story is definitely the superior one even if it’s a traditional JRPG through and through. Of course, that is because it completely and fully takes advantage of its premise, with actions you take in one time period affecting others in turn, not to mention the vast amount of bonus bosses and sidequests there are to keep the multiple playthroughs to acquire all the endings fresh and fun. I’ve sunk so much time into getting all the endings on the DS version, and I’ve never once been bored even after visiting the Middle Ages or the ruined future world a dozen times.

7. Castlevania: Symphony of the Night

There are few games that I love revisiting more than this one. This is Metroidvania at its peak, a perfect blend of action, platforming, and RPG elements into one glorious Gothic horror monster mash package. What’s truly fun with this one is the myriad ways there are to bust the game right open. I’m not ashamed to admit I’ve grinded for hours so that I could dual-wield Crissaegrims and trivialize the Dracula and Galamoth battles.

6. Psychonauts 2

The original Psychonauts is fun and quirky, and is only really held back by a pretty sloppy final level. This game, though? This game is damn near perfect. Nearly every level here is fun and memorable, and the ways Raz has to help each person deal with their mental trauma is a lot more nuanced and tasteful than the original game’s fair-for-its-time takes on dealing with mental illness. The minds of Ford’s old crew as well as Ford himself provide some of the best Psychonauts content to date, and really, who can hate a level that ends with Jack Black as a gay psychic rock star viking performing a musical number to obliterate his own insecurities?

5. Kingdom Hearts II

This is where the Kingdom Hearts franchise peaked, and it’s a high note they’ve yet to reach again. Sure, the tutorial prologue level drags on for quite a long while, but once you get to play as Sora again, ooh boy is this basically the perfect meeting of the worlds of Disney and Square. The Disney worlds are a lot more fleshed out and have twice the plot due to midgame return visits, the combat is more exciting with fun little reaction commands to let you pull off crazy maneuvers, and you get to hang out with Tron and the most based of all Disney heroes, Chicken Little. Best of all, the story manages to strike the perfect balance between being complex and silly without disappearing all the way up its own ass like later entries would.

4. Jak & Daxter: The Precursor Legacy

In my house, there was a legend that I had beaten this game to completion one hundred times. I’m not entirely sure how accurate that is, but considering how often I replayed this growing up it can’t be too far off. This is one of the most gorgeous platformers around, and Naughty Dog’s final shot at a genre they’d perfected with their Crash Bandicoot games. Even all these years later the visuals are breathtaking; I still am in awe at how you can see the entire world from atop Snowy Mountain. Every day I cry because they decided to turn the series into GTA clones instead of continuing to explore the gorgeous fantasy world they created in this game.

3. Crash Bandicoot N. Sane Trilogy

The original Crash Bandicoot was the first game I ever played, and the rest of the series were cornerstones of my childhood. Imagine how elated I was when they not only remade the games, but they created the single definitive way to play them! Sure, the soundtrack being redone can be a little hit or miss, but they completely unfucked the brutal difficulty of the first game (and this is even with adding back the ball-bustingly hard “Stormy Ascent” level) and for the most part left the latter two games entirely untouched save a graphical boost and the ability to play as my girl Coco. Playable Coco alone makes this a dream come true.

2. Batman: Arkham City

The Arkham series is one of the most consistently great series, and this is its greatest entry. The titular city is massive, with so many things to do, and the combat and puzzles are polished to perfection. Add in some actual detective work, some truly epic boss battles against iconic Batman villains like Clayface and Mr. Freeze (and also Solomon Grundy, because why the fuck not?), the ability to play as Catwoman, and one of the most shocking and tragic tales the Dark Knight has ever been in, and I’m more than happy to call it my second favorite game ever.

1. Metal Gear Solid 3: Snake Eater

Of course, there was no hope Arkham City had at overcoming this game. This is Kojima’s magnum opus, not least because the entire rest of the Metal Gear series revolves around the events that transpire in this story. After the mindfuck that was the second game, it’s nice to return to a more coherent story, one detailing how Big Boss came to be the man that Snake fought in Zanzibar Land. Everything in the series sprang forth because of the actions the characters take here, and each subsequent game just makes this one better and better. Every single boss battle is unique and engaging, and the final battle is one of the most heartbreaking moments in all of gaming. I still cry every single time I get to the ending. It's such an amazing game, with a relatively simple yet still strong and convoluted story populated with a Russian madman with inexplicable lightning powers, a spirit medium's ghost, and a man who controls bees. God bless Hideo Kojima, that absolute madman.

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arcplaysgames · 1 year

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So as far as beach episodes go: P4G > P3P > P5R

this one was a snoozefest, so let's touch on the important bits that stand out and then talk about Beige Boy and Solid Snake.

One, I have fully turned against Ryuji on the basis of his frequent and repeated disregard for Morgana as a part of the team and frankly as a full person. I am getting really teed the fuck off because for the last five hours or so of gametime, I have been watching Mona get more and more anxious about his place and about whether anyone on the team cares about him and his journey to the heart of Mementos

and at every fucking opportunity, Ryuji basically reinforces to Morgana yeah, you're not really one of the guys, you're not really part of the team, you're the mascot.

If I had agency in the world of this game, I would take Ryuji aside for a Fucking Discussion about this, because the fuse is lit and I am certain we are headed for a rift between Morgana and the team,a nd you know what? I'm on Morgana's side. He should be pissed, he should be hurt, because I'm hurt on his behalf just watching this unfold.

Fucking Ryuji, you are the bottom barrel of the Token Best Friends. Yosuke would never do me like this*. And if Junpei were here, he'd be Morgana's BFF, are you kidding.

(* in fact yosuke did the Literal Opposite and adopted the 'mascot character' lmao fuck you ryuji)

Yusuke is the fucking load-bearing column holding this game up, i swear to god. I have never understood the Moronsexual joke until right now. I imagine Reverie is like "I have to marry him, he'd be fucking hopeless without me???? it's just the right thing to DO"

Alas, Atlus hates me.

Futaba trying to grab the lobsters while Yusuke holds them out of her reach is the best rigging and animation this game has given us thus far.

Futaba picks her name, Oracle. And she is explicitly here to learn more about her mother's research, less to save people. Which is respectable and she's very up front about it.

THAT'S THE BEACH TRIP. like this one just was..... ugh. it had the weird queerphobic stuff again and it pulled the "the boys try to pull girls and fail" gag again but this time with ZERO charm at all. I remember that scene in P4G with Kanji, Yosuke, and Reverie was one of my favorites because it was genuinely really funny. This had nothing.

SIGH. WHATEVER. LET'S TALK ABOUT MORE INTERESTING STUFF.

blah blah blah evil evil evil blah blah blah

i have at this point accepted that Persona just sucks at foreshadowing the Big Bad of their games and P3 was a fluke. interested to see how P2 does when I eventually play it.

oh shit this game caught some of the Sony Hot Sad Dads disease, huh? Iwai has a dweeby looking son named Kaoru and he's ex-yakuza.

Do I like Iwai or do i just miss MGS2 Solid Snake? Who could say.

Also his shop theme tune fucks severely, it sounds like SMT4.

Anyway, after that we're having very domestic funtime at the cafe when

oh shit Beige Alert

Futaba immediately hides behind Reverie because she got Vibe Radar. Vibedar, if you will.

I feel like when Akechi enters your vicinity, your phone should get one of those emergency PSAs. Like when a tornado touches down in your county.

Okay so. /points. Eyes closed.

/points.

The fuck is happening here. Like, bruh, you showed up and immediately mentioned the lady who threatened Sojiro's custody of his daughter, and now you are looking like a wounded puppy because it turned the atmosphere frosty.

You did that, homeboy, that was you. I know you are astute enough to know that.

He sadly drinks his coffee and reveals his backstory: he was raised by a single mom who died soon after, then got stuck in the foster care system for a while.

THAT FAKEASS SMILE AGAIN. See, this is why I know he stirred up the hostile energy on his arrival on purpose, he is extremely good at tone and social cues, enough so that he can use or not use them to his advantage.

I would tell Reverie to install a deadbolt on his door but he doesn't have a door lmao this is going to be great

I keep saying this but: Bryan Fuller vibes. My god, Bryan Fuller vibes.

Futaba realizes she missed the fireworks festival so she runs out to get some small fireworks, and Morgana goes with her to make sure she's okay.

Morgana is the fucking best. He really gives a shit and puts himself out there for people and I just want him to be appreciated dammit!

This is Reverie's family now, yep. See that gurl? She is his sister. See that old man? That's his dad. Yep!

Also Sojiro doesn't even know Morgana is a person and treats him better than Ryuji.

yeah this is me going full kill bill sirens on Ryuji, sorry. i will slam dunk him into a fucking dumpster, i'm so angry with him for his MANY MANY fuck ups and, specifically, how he doesn't seem to learn or grow from any of them.

I think that's my beef with him. Like, P3P, Junpei did multiple big fuck ups, but he both apologized explicitly for them and also learned from them and became a better person for it. He was my ultimate ride or die. I romanced Akihiko but my true love was my broship with Junpei.

Yosuke also fucked up a lot and even went full Joker Mode once, but he also experienced one of the longest arcs of character growth in the game. I remember when I started to like him after being tepid on him for the first third of the game and how annoyed I was that he was growing as a person!!!! But he wound up being a fave.

I need Ryuji to get his shit together and start growing tf up bc I am real sick of his self-important bullshit and how he steps on Morgana's feelings. I am hoping whatever the upcoming blow-up with Morgana is leads him to wake tf up, but also I'm not holding my breath.

At least I have Ann and Yusuke.

#p5 #persona liveblog

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givereadersahug · 1 year

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ten books to get to know me

Thanks for the tag @danpuff-ao3

tagging - @yletylyf @liladiurne @aquaflora17 @maraudersaffair @[email protected] if you been tagged/done this before. I lost track on who have done this. 😂 And as a bookworm, I must know your picks. *sips tea* And anyone who is reading this! I want to know! My TBR pile is never too long!

Harry Potter

I mean, this has to be first on the list, right? Even before I got into the fandom back in 2018, this book series was my life. And, no, not because of JKR. I don’t associate the book series with her. I associate this book series with my step-father. He just randomly saw the first book at the airport gift shop, bought it, and read it to me on the flight home. The proceeding years as each book got released, we would dress up and attend the book launch parties. He let kid!me indulge in my passion and let me rave about my favorite characters and potential outcomes on how Harry might defeat Lord Voldemort. (Fun Fact! I knew since book three that Severus Snape was more than he let on and I knew in my heart that he would help Harry defeat the Dark Lord. Idk why my seven-years old self thought that, but I held on! And I was vindicated! lol) He passed away a few years after the last book came out and I couldn’t bring myself to read the series for a long while. I’m glad I made my way back to Harry Potter, though. I finally got the courage to step into the fandom space (which was so intimidating to me back when I was a kid) and I met so many great, loving, wholesome people here who also love the books and the characters as much as I do.

"Happiness can be found, even in the darkest of times, if one only remembers to turn on the light."

Phantom Tollbooth

This is a fucking classic. The wordplay, the adventure, the illustrations. Did I mention the wordplay?

“Just because you have a choice, it doesn’t mean that any of them has to be right.”

Mushishi

Not a book, but a manga series. It is ethereal and thought provoking and simplistic and imaginative. In a society where things go lightning fast, this story asks you to slow down, take a look around, and appreciate what you have. It’s melancholy and not every story has a happy ending. The pull and push of us living alongside nature and us manipulating it and nature having the last laugh. Our relationship with our friends and our families and with others. It’s just *chef’s kiss* a great manga series to absorb yourself into. Don’t forget to check out the anime!

Chime

This Franny Billingsley book came onto my radar cause of a mix-up with another book for some award. (They had to ask the other author to voluntarily pull her book, because the rules didn’t allow the committee to do it themselves. Which sucks for both authors involved, imo.) It’s basically a story of the aftermath of the wicked step-mother’s evil doings. And, wow. The narrative structure of this book, the twists and turns, the exploration of themes, the undercurrent of feminist progressive charge, and the ending! I re-read this book each year. I love it to bits.

“If you say a word, it leaps out and becomes the truth. I love you. I believe it. I believe I am loveable. How can something as fragile as a word build a whole world?"

The Lie Tree

FRANCES HARDINGE! She’s my inspiration. Have you read her books???? They are dark and twisted and unexpected and go to places you don’t expect them to go. I don’t even know why her books are classified as children's literature. It is so much more than children lit. They elevated the genre. The books are surreal, and expansive and strange and wholly, unequivocally original. The Lie Tree is the first book I read from her, and I wasn’t even sure why I picked it up. But I am so glad I did.

“Large people tend to have large heads. Men are no cleverer than we are, Miss Sunderly. Just taller.”

Ghostwritten

Okay, I don’t need to explain who David Mitchell is, right? Writer of Cloud Atlas? The Bone Clocks? The Thousand Autumns of Jacob de Zoet? I remember picking up Ghostwritten when I was way too young to be reading Ghostwritten and way too young to understand the nuances. But! His writing style! It was unlike anything I read at the time. (And still is.) He’s not afraid to step out of the box – narratively and structurally - and I can only dream of writing something as complex and unique and weird like his stories.

“I added 'writers' to my list of people not to trust. They make everything up.”

The Tightrope Walkers

I have no words. Just go read it. I just know that when I first read it, I could not read a single thing for months afterwards. This book *stayed* with me. It was raw and beautiful and heartbreaking.

An Invisible Sign of My Own

I’m a sucker for magical realism and this book hit all the right spots. Aimee Bender’s use of language – the fluidity, the simplicity, the sharpness – it drew me in. The story is like a fairy tale for adults, if I have to describe the vibe of it. The film adaptation did not do the book justice. Give it a try.

“It is all about numbers. It is all about sequence. It's the mathematical logic of being alive. If everything kept to its normal progression, we would live with the sadness--cry and then walk--but what really breaks us cleanest are the losses that happen out of order.”

Saffy’s Angel

This is the first book of Hilary McKay’s Casson Family series. The whole series is a comfort read. One I re-read often as a child. The family is so eccentric and loving and chaotic. And Hilary explored dark themes in this children series – bullying, infidelity, disability. But it is also hilarious and fun and compelling. I wish I owned all the books, but sadly they are out of print at the moment.

What Did You Eat Yesterday?

Another manga series! This is about two middle-aged Japanese gay men living in Tokyo. That’s it. It’s a slice of life series and *actually* explores how queer couples live in Japan. Don’t go into this expecting all the BL tropes. Other than them being gay, it’s just them being them and how they navigate being a couple heading into their senior years and worrying about taking care of their aging parents, about saving money, about keeping up with their friends. It’s just wholesome and real.

#tag game #about me #books #book recs

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bloobluebloo · 10 months

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Can you rank the beast Ganons by design? Maybe a tier list?

Sure I don't mind ahahaa Legend of Zelda:

I mean, I guess he's just there. A means to an end. I feel like he's kind of like Calamity Ganon in terms of the story he tells. I think his circumstances fascinate me though. In the downfall timeline he is the absolute final form of OoT Ganondorf when you think of it. Hyrule has been reduced to such a barren landscape that the people live in caves and monsters roam the surface. He is defeated by what is possibly the youngest version of Link, with what is basically a regular blade even though he has the Triforce in his hands. Of course a lot of this is because this game was conceived as something simplistic but now with the timeline being a Thing it adds an interesting twist to him. His design just looks like a top tier king moblin of some sort which I think goes along with the idea that he has kinda...degraded in power and intelligence with the passage of time. I think his in-game sprite is cute. 6.5/10 A Link to the Past:

I really like Ganon's history in this game. He's incredibly cunning and intelligent, and a real threat. However, I find his official design to be eh. It doesn't really match the sort of devastating monster the game portrays him to be. He kind of looks dopey to be honest. I think Agahnim looks more interesting imo. 4.5/10 Ocarina of Time:

I fucking love this guy. The entire sequence of when Ganondorf transforms into this beast still sends chill down my spine, truly a display of a man maddened by power and divine might. I love that he still has elements of Ganondorf on him. His face is kind of crazed and also cute and I LOVE THAT HE HAS A TUMMY THAT MAKES HIM HUGGABLE. 10/10 Oracle of Seasons/Oracle of Ages:

I appreciate this design. He looks like an enraged beast. While it isn't as majestic as one would expect a man as vain as Ganondorf would be, I think this design really does a good job at portraying his state in this game. Twinrova was unable to complete his resurrection correctly, reviving him as a beast with a fractured mind that was incapable of even forming simple sentences. It's a sad and degraded state, but one still filled with hatred for this world. Also he has brass knuckles like damn good for you my guy. 7.5/10 Twilight Princess:

Not gonna lie, this one is my favorite. I looooove his glorious mane and the fact that he still has his crown on because even in his beast form, Ganondorf is going to make sure you remember that he is still king. The scar across his chest that remains is so gruesome, like it really demonstrates the extensive damage the Sword of the Sages left, and yet Ganondorf still stands and wields that very sword. He's scary. I would sleep in his mane. His theme in battle fucking rocks. 10/10. Four Sword Adventures:

Okay so this is yet another design that leaves me feeling whelmed. However, once again, I feel like the design sort of suits the sort of character he portrays. When you read the tablet by the Trident of Power's empty pedestal it says "Seek you the world? Seek you power? Does your soul despise peace and thirst for more? Does your soul cry for destruction and conquest? We grant you power to ruin the world. The power of darkness. Evil spirit of magic trident. You are the king of darkness." Which you know, it really comes off as edgelord-y. And the Ganondorf in this game does kind of come off as pathetic too. He went and pick up this trident after running away from the Gerudo to escape execution for a crime he committed. He kind of hides behind Vaati the whole game making everyone think that Vaati is the actual problem. When you fight him he sounds like a punkass kid. HOWEVER, he is HUGE. Like this is the HUGEST Ganon you will fight. He is a huge, king moblin-looking pathetic meow meow who gets sealed in the four sword which used to be Vaati's prison. Serves you right sucker. 7/10. A Link Between Worlds:

I was debating whether I should count Yuganon or not but, I mean it is Ganon in a sense. I imagine that his desire is somewhat influencing Yuga and vice versa, though Yuga didn't have good intentions to begin with anyways. ANYWAYS, I think his design is kind of cute. He's a buff beast Yuga. I like to call this one "Purple Ganon with clown pants" and I think that's hilarious. I think they did a good job here, marrying the king moblin-esque design that Ganon is known for with Traits that belong to Yuga. His nails are pink! 7.5/10 Breath of the Wild:

I think this form goes well with the entire theme that Calamity Ganon represents aka a calamitous force of nature that only wishes to persist for the sake of destruction. The fact that he still comes back, refusing to give up on resurrection is kind of metal, like that is truue conviction. He reminds me a lot of TP Ganon, but of course he is mindless. He's also huge and scary. The fire of malice on his face is neat. 8/10. Tears of the Kingdom:

Well, this is certainly a beast isn't it, just not we've come to expect from Ganondorf. My thoughts? I THINK HE'S REALLY CUTE ACTUALLY. I love that he retains some of his boar-like features in the curling horns and the nose. I also love that when he rises from the castle that he looks so similar to Calamity Ganon. To me, Demon Dragon is just another big dopey dragon and I love him. Shrink him down so I can keep him in a cute little terrarium and keep him well fed and watered. Forget about all that evil nonsense. 9/10. HONORABLE MENTIONS Hyrule Warriors:

I mean it's clear they copied Twilight Princess here but I think it's an inferior design. He also has a full rack of abs which kind of creeps me out a little not gonna lie hahaha. He's a very muscular shredded beast Ganon. Also, I find it really hilarious that Ganondorf obtained the entire Triforce and builds up the anticipation for the ultimate dark spell that he will cast and...this was the result. That man was tired and didn't want to do all this clearly. 8/10. Cadence of Hyrule:

I think this is a very fun design and suits the character he portrays in the game. He freaking bounces around with musical instruments okay. I love his cute little bun and his tusks are way too big for his face. I love that he kept the same hairstyle as a kid too, it's clearly important to him. 8/10. Age of Calamity:

Really can't stand this design. Why are his tits on fire. 3/10.

#ganonthots #hope that answers your question!#long post

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bikerjongho · 2 years

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recs game!

Tagged by @blossom-hwa, thank u lina!!!!

recommend 5 or more of your own works that you would rec to someone asking what they should read first & explain a little bit about the work. these can be the most popular, the ones you think are underrated, or your own favorites! then tag five other writers!

santiago ― this fic, unlike the other four that I will also recommend, is very light and silly! I think if you had to pick up one of my fics for the first time and are not a fan of horror or supernatural, this is the fic for you. im also extremely proud of the concept! san works as a waiter at a mexican restaurant and everyone that goes there thinks he’s hot stuff (younger crowds think he’s Hot and older crowds think he’s the sweetest and kindest gentleman). he is called santiago by a sweet older woman that he’s besties with. san is the reason why this restaurant is booming, people just adore him. but when a rival mexican restaurant opens and takes customers from san’s restaurant, san has to reel in the help of dancer friends (wooyungi) to win a dance off against dancers from the other restaurant that hired them (fun fact, those dancers are stray kids members!!!) to get their customers back. I remember writing this fic and feeling so joyful and the words came so easily. I wish people loved it more!

piracy and pyromania ― this was my first ateez fic... ever! this fic is special to me not only because it was my first, but because I wrote it after a really long writing drought and also I wrote it during an extremely difficult time in my life and I found some solstice in writing this fic, because finally, something im doing is enjoyable and maybe life is worth living. just a bit. anyway, this is an ot8 fic where all of them are pirates with supernatural abilities and they’re all very ruthless and evil. they do shit like set other ships on fire or raid towns and kill people. not for the faint of heart! this fic was inspired by pirate king, and I remember it playing in my shower playlist while I was taking a shower and the entire plot came to me and I feverishly wrote the entire thing in one sitting. it was extremely cathartic.

stradivarius in flames ― the first fic starring hongjoong that I wrote! this fic came about on a whim because I saw a Tumblr post about music teachers and them sacrificing old instruments to a bonfire (or something. I linked it on the actual fic) and I thought that was insane so this fic was born. hongjoong is a demon hunter except he specializes in music demons, which are demons that use musical instruments as hosts to cause problems. one is being hosted inside a stradivarius violin so hongjoong crashes an orchestra concert where it’s being played... and I won't say any more because that will spoil it! this is another fic where the words came super easily and I wrote the entire thing in one day. I think it’s a really unique concept (though, I think a lot of my concepts are super unique and creative)!

corpsehands ― probably the fan favorite. ironically, I hated this fic when I wrote it. I thought the concept made no sense and it was a boring fic, and instead I was bombarded by all of these people that adored it! I was really pleased! in this fic, wooyoung is a bartender during prohibition (so, alcohol is illegal and this is a speakeasy) with a supernatural gift. I cant explain a lot of the plot because it revolves around his supernatural talent, but I think the plot and themes in this fic are extremely compelling and interesting!

card bender ― out of these five, this is the only jongho fic! Im putting this one on this list because it’s a personal favorite of mine. I just think jongho is so so so so so so hot in this one and there’s a sentence in this one that might be my favorite sentence ive ever written. in this fic, jongho is a poker player and he’s extremely good at it. poker is somewhat of a luck game, but jongho always wins, implying he’s a little supernatural or he’s cheating somehow. he’s drunk, cocky, and extremely good looking. what’s not to love?

tagging: @mathgoatwrites @abiaswreck @itsapapisongo @straykits and anyone else that wants to do this! you also dont have to do this if I tagged you, ofc

#f: tag game

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milkybishop · 2 months

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i'm answering all these bleach asks cause i like bleach and want to:

Who are your top three favorite characters and why? (It can be arrancars, espada, humans, soul reapers, zanpakuto spirits, souls, visoreds, fullbringers, and of course I can’t forget the quincies): Yumichika...like of course Ikkaku Kenpachi

Who is/are your least favorite character(s) and why?: So many, but none I like HATE, I just have no interest in when they're on screen PERSONALLY: Toshiro Gin Hisagi Kira Hinamori Most of the fullbringers Shino Madarame (solely because she brought in the storyline that ikkaku is from a noble/upper class family) Omaeda Bount Arc guys Mod Soul arc guys Kon (just for being a perv) Ulquiorra (i like his design i just...i never get him so i never get into him y'know?) Pepe (...just makes me uncomfortable which is intentional but...) Zabimaru (ONLY in the Zanpakuto arc design, turn back into the baboon please even though i like rough-voiced women, i hate the snake child)

Favorite minor character?: I'm not sure what counts for minor cause Kubo is so wishy-washy with character's presences. But, Tatsuki, lesbian of all time. Or Jackie Tristan.

Favorite zanpakuto?: Character-wise: Fuji/Ruri'iro Kujaku (causes the gay allegories, will always be famous) Aesthetic-wise: Chika Shihōin's Zanpakutō (pretty, love a tassle)

Favorite shikai? Ability-wise: Sakasama no Sekai (i think it's really fun and relatively simple and can catch anyone off-guard but Katen Kyōkotsu is also fun but soo complicated i still don't fully get its rules sometimes) Aesthetic-wise: Ichigo's initial shikai (talented, brilliant, incredible, iconic)

Favorite bankai?: Ability-wise: Kannonbiraki Benihime Aratame (spoilers) (it's op as hell and sooo in character for Urahara with the dissection vibe) Aesthetic-wise: Senbonzakura Kageyoshi (the image of the blades rising in the dark has always stuck with me but there's alot of contenders Katen Kyōkotsu: Karamatsu Shinjū or Minazuki)

Favorite kido? (It can be bakudo, hado, or kaido): Man, idk, Rikujōkōrō cause it's the only one I remember the ability of

Favorite squad? Squad 11 of course, without question.

Favorite captain?: Kenpachi but I also don't think he's a good captain sdjhgjdhg. So, Shunsui I think, he's the most competent. Or Mayuri, cause he's weird and interesting.

Favorite lieutenant?: I think Ikkaku? Cause of his loyalty. But also his ass does not do the lieutenant's work so actually probably Nanao.

What’s your favorite opening theme from the series?: Orange Range - *Asterisk, OP1 (always and forever)

What’s your favorite ending theme from the series?: My Pace - SunSet Swish, ED 6 (i just like the beat)

Favorite manga panel?: This is like evil, there's too much choice. Like I LOVE kubo's use of negative space so I adore so many of those impact panels. I think Kyoraku Shunsui's Bankai reveal page slays cause of the paint texture. Rose's star blast wound panel. Ichigo's vasto lorde form reveal. Soooo many panels in the Unohanna vs. Zaraki fight like her bankai reveal. I'm going to keep this in mind when I do my re-read after the anime ends and then come back to this kxjhgkjdhfg.

Most heart-wrenching death?: Unohana. I think it was sad for the characters but mostly for ME, cause she served every ounce of cunt and then died. I always say, if Kubo is to finally abandon his habit of reviving/bringing characters back, I hope he stills brings her back no matter what. Tousen's is up there.

Favorite arc and why? Soul Society: The Sneak Entry Arc, hands down. AND NOT JUST CAUSE YUMICHIKA IS INTRODUCED, it's the arc that has the most fights I'm interested in, the most development for some characters and others get to shine. I do definitely think nostalgia is a big reason too because I think that the first time I ever saw Bleach and it's where I got to in Bleach before dropping off when I was a kid. But I do love it.

Favorite movie and why?: I think Memories of Nobody, maybe Hell Verse? Because I think they had good stories and I remember being really into either it was the animation or emotion of Memories of Nobody. I think Hell Verse, I liked the animation. But honestly, I don't remember much about the movies and I watched them only last year.

Favorite piece of merch that you own? I think it's my Yumichika tote bag? But I love alot of my merch, and especially my Ichigo figure my friend's boyfriend won for me in one of those remote crane games (and it got lost to the transit void and we'd all given up hope).

Do you have any tattoos? Yes. Yumichika cat tattoo by @ kiera_tattoo (no pics cause there's something we need to tweak when I can next get a trip to London ;-; ), but I love it!! still thinking about getting a panel tattoo or sword but atm not Looking for one.

If you’re a fic writer, who do you write for? I don't write fic much but it is Yumichika/Ikkaku but usually just musing on how a reveal might look or their past. It's not really shippy.

If you are an artist, do you have a favorite character to draw?: I don't do fanart much, so I've only drawn Yumichika.

If you could be in the Bleach universe would you be a soul reaper, visored, human, quincy, espada or arrancar?: God I'd probably be a human who sits at home not questioning buildings getting exploded.

Free space to ask whatever you want that I missed or talk about something that isn’t mentioned! Favourite flashback: All of Turn Back the Pendulum

#answered #(<- i wasn't but just so i can find it again)#bleach #im holding back on a re-read cause i don't remember lots of tybw and so i want to get to experience some surprise and shock watching the #anime come out in real time

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clanwarrior-tumbly · 2 years

Note

since gregory have freddy how about reader with roxanne assist/helping gregory and freddy, reader love wolf since its his favorite animal and number one fan to roxanne. reader meet gregory by accident and decided to wait till the pizzaplex closed to meet his favorite animatronic roxanne, roxanne like freddy she wanna help reader friend gregory since she wanna repay reader for being her number 1 fan (she wasn’t evil just following order) also reader have his plush blue and white wolf plush with him as a good luck charm and wearing a sweater hoodie with added wolf ear attachment. family member anon

"AH! Oh...jeez you scared me for a second."

"S-Sorry. I didn't think anyone else was here."

"Yeah well you're in luck. We're both stuck here now."

"I guess so." With a slight frown, you hugged the blue and white wolf plushie to your chest. Unfortunately you didn't win the actual plush of your favorite animatronic yet, and they were quite expensive at Pizzaplex's gift shops, so this was a good substitute for now. "I just wanted to meet Roxy. I'm her biggest fan. I thought staying late would help but..I haven't seen her anywhere."

Gregory only scoffed, seeing that you didn't realize the danger you put yourself in. "You're gonna regret staying here on purpose." He muttered, before handing you a Glamrock Freddy-themed camera.

"What's this?"

"A Fazcam. I found at Monty Golf. If you see any of those robots you can stun them with the flash. But it needs charging so use it wisely."

"Huh? What do you mean? What's going on?" You asked, being further confused as you looked at the camera between your hands. "Why would I need to-?"

"Shhh! She's nearby!"

"Who's-?"

But all of your questions were ignored as the other boy ran to a nearby motorcycle ride machine and pressed the button, making it noisily tilt back and forth. Then he motioned for you to follow him to a group of large tin bins. He insisted you hide in one.

As perplexed as you were, you listened and jumped into it while he hid inside another. A moment later you peeked out upon hearing heavy footsteps thumping past you, seeing a tuff of silver hair with a green streak and a pierced wolf ear.

It was Roxanne.

You gasped softly, a smile overtaking your face as she wandered near the motorcycle, which stopped moving. She sniffed the air like she was looking for a scent and huffed, turning away from the machine.

"I bet I'm your favorite..." She sneered in a cold voice.

Gregory was about to call for Freddy on the Fazwatch..until he heard lighter footsteps and realized you left your hiding place. He watched in horror, not wanting to blow his cover but being absolutely terrified for your safety as you bravely approached Roxanne from behind.

"You're my favorite, Roxy!"

Immediately she turned around, looking down to see you, a boy the same age as Gregory--maybe a bit younger--wearing shorts and a hoodie with wolf ears attached to the hood.

The brunette felt helpless to save you now..and just when he thought he had someone else on his side. No animatronic bears or suspicious night guards, but a normal kid in an unfortunate circumstance like him.

And you had no idea you were about to be ripped apart-

"I am?"

He blinked, surprised at Roxanne's change of tone. It sounded rather..surprised? Delighted? Yet he stayed hidden, just in case she was feigning it.

You on the other hand didn't see anything wrong with her, as you just grinned up at the wolf. "Yep! You always have been!"

She stared at you for sometime, before smiling and kneeling down. "Heh, I'm glad to hear that. Y'know it's dangerous to be here after closing, but...what's your name, little pup?

"[Y/n]."

Her yellow eyes did a quick scan of your guest profile, and she was surprised. "You...I remember you wanted your birthday at Roxy Raceway. And you said you were my number one fan." She recalled, her smile growing. "Is that still true? Or did someone take my place?"

"It's true. I'm your biggest fan!" You nodded. "I know I should be home but..you seemed sad after today's show and I thought meeting you would cheer you up! I didn't mean to break the rules, though..you're not mad, are you?"

"Mad? No..I could never be mad at my...m-my number one fan." Her voice wavered a little, being so touched by your words. You noticed her eyes seemed a bit glassy, but maybe it was just the lighting. Regardless, you both smiled and shared a hug.

How funny. The Glamrocks were designed to entertain and comfort children, not the other way around. But Roxanne couldn't help but feel relieved that she's still loved. No longer did she feel as miserable as she did earlier.

Between being embarrassed after the show's mishap, Vanessa bossing her around, her hair and tail getting dirty, and feeling like a loser at this "game" she's playing with Gregory..this is what she needed. Just a simple one-on-one interaction with a loving fan.

Speaking of whom, she looked to the bins and sighed. "I know you're in there, Gregory. C'mon out. I'm not gonna turn ya in."

"H-Huh? How can you...?" The brunette showed himself, bewildered that she didn't make minced meat out of either of you yet.

"My eyes see everything, kid. Even through walls."

"So...you knew everywhere I was hiding this whole time?!"

"..pretty much."

"Huh? What are you two talking about?" You let go of Roxanne and took a step back as Gregory finally left his hiding spot.

Both of them explained everything to you: the security guard Vanessa ordered the Glamrocks to find him since he was sneaking around after-hours, though a glitch in their systems made their behaviors rather..erratic and they unknowingly frightened him into hiding.

Roxanne genuinely didn't mean to say he has "no friends" or anything hurtful. The glitch just amplified her anger and insecurities tenfold, but it seems the "power of friendship" made that go away. Somehow.

Gregory was shocked. He usually didn't believe in that kind of cliché bullshit. He thought of ways to shutdown his pursuers for good but...

It seems this could be resolved peacefully after all.

"Well, I gotta thank my number one fan for saving my tail." The wolf chuckled as she patted your head. "So..I'll help you two out till the doors open."

"Did I hear that right? Roxy is..helping us?"

The three of you turned to see Freddy there, looking surprised at Roxanne's presence and another lost child. You nodded, and the bear sighed in relief.

"It's good to have you back, my friend." He smiled, glancing at his bandmate and feeling a bit awkward all of the sudden. "And I'm...sorry about my malfunction at-"

"Don't sweat it." She waved it off. "I dunno what makes you so special, but your systems must've kicked out the virus while the rest of us got screwed over."

"Right. I-I also didn't mean to lie about-"

"Freddy. It's. Fine. We're all in this together now, so...let's go knock some sense back in the others. I'm done takin' orders from Vanessa. And...[y/n]?"

You perked up, seeing her staring at your plushie in disdain. "You don't have an official Roxanne Wolf plushie at home?"

"O-Oh no..not yet. I don't have money and I'm terrible at the games-"

"Go grab one from that gift shop over there."

"Really???"

"Yeah. I won't tattle."

"But...! Roxanne!" Freddy gasped as you eagerly dashed off to the shop, while Gregory just snickered. "[Y/n] looks up to you! You need to set a better example for-!"

"Relax, papa bear. The company's not gonna crash and burn from one stolen plushie."

"I know but..just....don't tell them to steal anything else unless it's absolutely necessary, okay?"

She would've rolled her eyes had you not returned with an actual Roxanne plushie in your grasp, your old wolf one shoved into your pocket. You smiled and hugged it closely.

She chuckled, glad to see you looking happier.

Now she was ready to fight tooth and nail to keep you safe.

#clanask #family member anon #fnaf x reader #five nights at freddy's x reader #fnaf sb x reader #fnaf security breach x reader #roxanne wolf #glamrock freddy #fnaf gregory #child reader #male reader #fluff

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flower-slut004 · 3 years

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SOFT ABC BENNY

A - Affection (how do they show affection)

Benny ADORES PDA. He always has to have his hands on you somehow. He loves wrapping his arms around your waist and his chin on your head ( if you’re shorter than him) And if you’re taller than Benny, he’ll just stand on his toes to rest his head on your shoulder.

B - Balance (how do they balance you, work/school/life?)

You’re apart of the supernatural life so you two practically spend every moment with each other. In school and out of school, people can always fine the two of you in each other’s arm. When you guys are spending time apart it’s usually when Benny is with Ethan and you’re with the girls/Rory.

C - Cuddles (do they enjoy cuddling? what positions?)

Like earlier, Benny loves PDA. He especially loves it after a long day fighting monsters, he’ll come up to wrapping his arms around your shoulder and lightly put his body weight on you in a joking manner. That’s your cue to know the boy wants his cuddles. Bennys favorite positions when cuddling is either having your head resting on his chest with your arms around his waist or having his head on your lap so you could play with his hair.

D - Date (what was your first date?)

Benny would overthink everything for your first date. He wanted to make everything just perfect for you. So he enlisted the help of your best friend ( if you want Sarah/Erica/Rory/Or Ethan to be your best friend just ignore the best friend part). Your date would be in his backyard. It would consist of a picnic along with his own outdoor movie theater.

E - Excited (how excited do they get when they see you/are with you?)

Benny gets super excited when he sees you at school in the morning, he’ll drop everything to go greet you with a kiss and a pickup line. / Benny is more in awe of you dating him. He couldn’t believe you said yes when he asked you the first time.

F - Fighting (what happens when you fight)

I feel like with Bennys flirty behavior that would be the cause of most of your fights. Benny knows when you're upset when you disappear out of nowhere. Like you’re nowhere to be seen since you’re avoiding him. Benny has to track you down or pay Rory.

G - Gorgeous (pet names. what do they like to call you? what do they like to be called?)

Benny is definitely more creative for your nicknames “Sweetness, cherry, hot stuff, delicious". Anything to see you blush/ You call Benny names just to tease him by "Benny Boo, Benny Rabbit, Chipmunk, and Sweet Pea"

H - Hi (first time meeting)

The two of you met when you were asked to babysit in place of Sarah when she was "sick". You were making Jane a sandwich and having a debate over Dusk when the bell rang. Ethan was nowhere to be seen so you went to open the door. "Hey, Eth...Woah babe alert.. I mean hey! I'm Benny"

I - Intimacy (how romantic they are)

Benny loves getting you things, like flowers, teddy bears, chocolates. Bonus for him since he can practice his magic. he’s also gotten you necklaces and rings. Since you guys are still in high school he usually makes them homemade or gets a summer job.

J - Jealousy (do they get jealous? how do they react to you being jealous)

Look up the definition of jealously and Benny's photo will be there. Benny isn't jealous of Ethan but he is of Rory since Rory is just as flirty as Benny. Benny tries to hide his jealousy but fails to do so. / When you're jealous, Benny doesn't know if he thinks it's cute or hot. You don't hide your jealously. You'll go right up to Benny and make a snide comment to whoever is grabbing the attention of Benny.

K - Kisses (where do they like to kiss you/how often?)

If you're shorter than Benny, he'll give you forehead kisses, a peck on the nose, or a smooch on the cheek. If you're taller than him, he likes to give you small neck kisses, press on your hand, or just a plain kiss on the lips. Benny likes to kiss you every moment he can.

L - Love (when was the first time they said i love you or realized it?)

Benny realizes it after he almost dies after Jesse's comeback and was holding him by the neck. You were crying silently as you hid in a locker. The only thing running through his mind was you. he wanted to live the rest of his life with you, he wanted to have kids with you, that’s the only thing he could think of. thankfully, Sarah saved the day and you jumped right into his arms, crying into his chest. he whispers that he loves you over and over again.

M - Moving in (when do you decide to move in together)

You guys are teenagers let's remember that, you guys definitely talked about it though. The closest you guys got to living together was when your parents were out of town and went to stay with Benny. After college, you guys finally moved in though, rented an apartment together.

N - Newborn (their reaction to starting a family)

(If you don't kids skip over this one). Benny was super excited when he found the news. He spun you around the room and couldn't stop kissing you. Benny was already coming up with star-wars-themed names for your kid. He used this as an opportunity to practice his magic just in case your child would inherit his powers/ he used them to baby-proof the apartment.

O - Open (how open you are with one another)

Benny is an open book with you. Sometimes he shares a little too much but you don't mind. You guys have this time of the day where you go under any tree you can find and spill your feelings.

P - Photos (what kind of photos you take of them/they take of you)

Benny is a bit paranoid taking photos since the whole evil Benny situation. But before Benny would take pictures of you where you weren't paying attention, smiling at him or intimate photos of course with your consent. / You love taking photos of Benny when he's sleeping or giving you a smooch.

Q - Quirks (what random habits do you have that they love or hate/vice versa)

You have a problem with being careless, most of the time you jump into situations without thinking it which upsets him. Benny loves your quirk of randomly knowing things/ Benny tends to forget things that make date nights difficult which leads to some fights. You love Benny's quirk of puffing up his cheeks when he's in thought.

R - Recovery (how you help them after an injury/vice versa)

Benny freaks out every time but tries to hide it. (not very well ) and does everything in his power to make you comfortable./ If Benny gets injured, you’re his nurse which he’ll take advantage of in his own ways.

S - Solution (how they resolve fights)

the group usually has to get you two back together after a fight. you take a break from one another, and it’s awkward for the group. Until one of you misses the other and comes back with food/promises.

T- Touch (when they need/want your touch, what will they do? how often?)

Benny wants your touch all the time. He’s big fan of PDA and always has a hand on you or around you. Usually Benny will come up and gently grab your hand to plant a kiss but if you remove your hand before he gets the chance to, he’ll rest his chin on your head/shoulder and wait.

U- Waking Up With Them

waking up with Benny is the best. he has his arms around you every single time, he somehow manages to pull you into his arms in his sleep when you go to sleep on separate sides of the bed. if you’re still asleep, he just presses kisses to your forehead, trying to wake up a bit more before getting up and starting the day. if you’re up before him, you absolutely love playing with his messy hair and stroking his cheek.

V - Vacation (where they travel with you)

Weeks after planning and planning, you and Benny finally take a trip to ( your dream location). Benny wants to visit every corner with you as well as getting a souvenir.

W - Wedding (how they propose/where you get married/honeymoon)

Benny is a nervous wreck when he prepares to ask you. Looking around, stuttering, and tripping. You were beginning to think you were being followed and Benny didn’t want to scare you. You finally asked him what’s up and he grabbed your hands gently to pour his heart out. Benny was scared when no response came out of your mouth but a few minutes later you were covering his face in kisses and saying yes over and over again. You really didn’t have a BIG wedding but it was all your family and friends there.

X - X-factor (what about you captivated them?)

Benny loves your bluntness. He likes it how you tell everyone the truth and you’re not sorry about it.

Y - Yawning (how they act when they’re tired)

Benny tries to hide when he’s tired so he’ll be over exaggerating his emotions but when he’s tired to the point where he can’t hide it he’ll be less clingy and kinda shut off from the group. You can tell he’s tired when he begins to mumble or just stops talking overall.

Z - Zzzz (how you fall asleep together)

Benny doesn’t care about space. he wants to be as close to you as possible, breathing in your scent and feeling your warmth.

#multifandom imagines #my babysitter's a vampire imagine #my babysitters a vampire #my babysitter’s a vampire x reader #benny weir x reader #benny weir imagine #benny weir

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satansaidmyturnintheh3llscape · 2 years

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Everything Right/Wrong with Ninjago “Rise of the Serpentine” E4: Never Trust a Snake

“Never Trust a Snake” is actually my favorite season 1 episode, so I apologize for the person I became while making this… I also apologize for what some might consider to be excessive Lloyd love. Anyways, let’s get into it! DISCLAIMERS: Show owned by LEGO, this is not a professional review/critique and is primarily intended for comedy

Read below the cut! Comment/reblog if you read and follow for more!

- Episode title is snake-ist ❌

- Theme ✅

- Zane has his green ninja vision the same episode that Lloyd joins the team. That’s what I call ✨foreshadowing✨ ✅

- Does the golden dragon symbol on Zane’s pajama shirt count as foreshadowing for season 2? ✅

- ^Also, I’ve mentioned before that all the ninja have some sort of unique, element-based trait about their spinjitzu that makes it different (other than just the color) and I love how Lloyd’s is just ✨glitter✨ ✅

- Dream!Green Bean spinjitzu’s around a pole for literally no reason. Guess Zane just wanted to see him show off? ❌

- So Zane’s vision can predict a suit that has yet to be made and powers that have yet to be unlocked, and even picture the right eyebrows, but still gives the green ninja Kai’s voice?❌

- Also, Lloyd and the Falcon are never shown to be close or have any connection really, so why does it land on his shoulder? ❌

- Building off of the above, sin for teasing me with the potential of seeing kid Lloyd playing/messing around with the Falcon but never following through ❌

- “Sleeping in? You’re gonna be late for training.” You all look like you’re just getting out of bed now, so what makes you so different? ❌

- “We didn’t think you wanted us to. You looked like you were having some dream.” We know what Zane was dreaming about, but I’m curious as to what they thought was going on… 👀

- ^ Hear no evil, speak no evil, see no evil reference ✅

- “Yeah, what else did ya see?” Kai steals Cole’s voice again. Look, I love watching fictional siblings fight, but this is getting out of hand. ❌

- “The rest of the day can be used for training. And tomorrow, for that matter…” “training? For how long?” He literally just told you, Fire Cracker ❌

- Always remember that had Skales and the Fangpyre general not been friends, Lloyd would’ve started a race war.

- “I let you out of your hole for a reason” I don’t know why but this line is so f*cking funny to me ✅

- “A tussle? A tussle! But I’m Lloyd Garmadon! Bringer of evil!” ✅

- Cole walks from next to where Zane was standing to over where Jay is standing for no apparent reason other than to make it easier for the camera to pan to him so he can respond to Jay’s line ❌

- “Had you released the Constrictai😡, the Venomaari😬, or 💫heaven forbid💫 the AnacOnDrAI😧🤭 THeN we would’ve had a tUssLe~ 🙄🤬😡😤🤬🙄” Lloyd mocking people is my religion ✅

- Simp for Pythor all you want, but he’s still depicted basically like a p3doph!le ❌

- C@nnibalism! For kids! ❌

- “Lloyd Garmadon😁😇 Son of Lord Garmadon, and future dark ruler😈😈😈” ✅

- Pythor’s voice actor appreciation ✅

- “Woah! I hardly have any friends too!” Sweetie nO- ✅

- Also Lloyd voice actor appreciation ✅

- “You know, Floyd…” Oh god I’m getting old meme flashbacks

- LLOYD IS SMALL ENOUGH TO SIT ON THE HANDLE BARS OF A SCOOTER ✅

- Where are these kids’ parents?? Why are there so many unsupervised infants lined up in the middle of the town?? ❌

- Lloyd and Pythor take all this candy from a village in the mountains and then WALK it back to the tomb in the f*cking desert ❌

- By the way, how is there a school that literally teaches children to be criminals? How is that not illegal? ❌

- “Should we infiltrate using stealth?” “We’ve done that!” So? You can’t use stealth again? It’s not like it was a specific plan, it’s just sneaking in as quietly as possible. Is Kai really willing to bet the lives of countless children on the ideal of them making a flashy entrance? ❌

- “I’m still working out the kinks on that.” Isn’t Jay the inventor? Why is Cole working on the vehicles and not him? ❌

- What kind of eye sight does this child have to be able to see that tiny a*s lizard from this far away??? ❌

- First off, this whole “drop down on the anchor” thing was a terrible plan ❌

- Second, it’s also f*cking hilarious ✅

- Cole slices the ropes on the kids and skeletons horizontally, but the cuts in the ropes themselves are vertical ❌

- “Stay out of school, kids!” So you mean to tell me a part of this episode was censored and it wasn’t this line?

- OH SO THE MASK IS THIN ENOUGH FOR COLE TO BE ABLE TO COUGH ON THE DUST BUT NOT ENOUGH FOR HIM TO BREATHE THE ANTI-VENOM FROM EP 1- ❌

- Lloyd Montgomery-Garmadon? LLOYD MONTGOMERY-GARMADON?!? This poor child stood no chance. How tf did Misako think he wasn’t gonna get bullied?

- The way Jay just throws him over his shoulder >>>>>>> ✅

- Lloyd’s bowl cut ❌

- Update: the polycule has a kid now ✅

Sentence: I love my dark strange son :)💚 (if you get this reference you get a cookie🍪)

#ninjago sins/wins #ninjago #lego ninjago #ninjago lloyd #ninjago kai #ninjago jay #ninjago nya #ninjago zane #ninjago cole #ninjago memes #ninjago fandom #lloyd garmadon #ninjago wu #kid lloyd

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thewingedwolf · 2 years

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I’m gonna attempt to watch through all of Buffy bc tbh I don’t…remember a lot of it. So much of it is also filtered through my 12 year old mind and that was just a mess of hormones and repressed sexuality so it’s not reliable at ALL (I mean who knows I might give up at one point like I did with Glee lol).

Anyway Im halfway through s2 and my opinions are

Sarah Michelle Gellar really holds the script all together ya kno. She’s just absolutely pitch perfect right off the bat

Especially obvious bc I forgot how bad the acting is in the first two seasons, it’s just SMG and Anthony Stewart Head giving the performances of their lives and everyone else is giving their best High Schooler Attempting And Failing To Deliver A Hamlet Soliloquy

I think it’s funny that Willow almost right away seems to see morality as much greyer than any of the Scooby Gang. She tends to see the good in bad people because she wants to believe in the power of redemption. It’s interesting when you think about it in terms of her story as the series goes on.

Why does the show try to convince us that Willow and Xander have chemistry. There is Nothing there

I adore Joyce. I can already tell the reason her death made me hysterical as a tween is because she’s not just a compelling character (and not to ever give That Bitch any props, but a mom being ALIVE can be so hard to come by in SFF and I’ve complained about it before), but sometimes she reminds me of the women in my family, and U Kno I Love Projecting

That theme really does go so hard tho

Giles puts up a good fight but like 3 episodes in he is so EAGER and READY to play the father to Buffy, Xander, and Willow and loudly complain about how they don’t treat their father with respect lol

Dru/Spike is just as appealing to me now as it was to me as a tween, I just love Villain Who Is Devoted To His Wife dynamics, and Dru is so weird and SO FUN

The kid who plays the Anointed One is so boring, I’m sorry little kid but show an emotion bro

Honestly, while I think s1 is a bit uneven, the show picks up Immediately when Spike and Dru show up. They bring such a fun, uniquely stylized villainy to the show, and I think that’s when it really starts to cement its own flair of urban fantasy, and even tho I want to fight Joss Whedon with my bare hands, I GET why this flavor of urban fantasy completely took over the genre

I love the way Xander dresses because I dressed exactly like that in middle school and I’m very embarrassed to realize that my friends were right I was SUCH a frumpy dresser

I loved Bangel as a kid but I also LOVED Cordelia/Angel (like I was DEVASTATED when she died I loved her so much) and seeing Cordelia and Angel hit it off IMMEDIATELY even when he’s dating Buffy made me giggle lol Angel really does find her very charming

Okay but imagine you are Giles and you finally have your life on track as a Watcher and you’ve gotten used to suddenly being a dad to 4 children and a vampire, and you don’t even LIKE half your new children but it’s fine, you’ve got it under control, the principal likes you, you’re making friends, and then your evil ex boyfriend shows up Lichrally just so he can get off on you beating the shit out of him like how angry would you be??! The life of a DILF is so hard

I am just now realizing I had a huge crush on Drusilla when I was a kid and it’s in character bc Zhaan in Farscape was my bi awakening but why did I have such weird taste in women as a teenager bro

(Also omg I think I was in love with Cordelia??? Ajsjdjd I repressed so many crushes on girls as a kid holy shit)

#JusticeForJennyCalendar she was so cool and she dressed so cool and watching Giles trip over his feet around her was so damn cute

I love the Spike/Dru/Darla/Angel fucked up family dynamic, it was my FAVORITE in the show

Feels like the show is hell bent on making Buffy pay and make amends for not having a crush on Xander and it is so annoying. Like every time she shows An Interest in Angel or another guy, Xander gets to be there Suffering Loudly, and Buffy once again has to make space for his continued forcing of the responsibility of his feelings onto her. Why is this her problem?

So I know we canceled Angel in the first few seasons for dating a high schooler when hes 300 or whatever, but Angel is just SO emotionally repressed post-getting-his-soul-and-breaking-up-with-Darla that I don’t think he’s mature enough for older friends, he’s just so whiny in a specifically teenagery way

But also doesn’t he ever get tired of a bunch of high schoolers constantly trying to be his best friend after awhile??

This is not me saying I hate Angel, I love that emotionally repressed, painfully awkward broody bitch he’s my man in all his awkwardly Byronic glory

I loved Xander/Cordelia, they are so funny together

I just love Kendra so much, I wish we’d had her for longer

I think I might get way farther in this rewatch than I expected because I’m actually really enjoying myself. We’ll see how long my attention span lasts

#rani liveblogs buffy #btvs #Rani's liveblogging tag #um #anti xander harris #ish?#buffyverse

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patt-writes-stuff · 3 years

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Violetgrass (Xiao x f!reader)

Pairing: Yan!Xiao x f!reader

Word count: 6.7K+

Warnings: not the most canon complaint cuz the timeline for the archon War is a little blurry? Angst with no happy ending, major and repeated character death, semi-detailed descriptions of blood, injuries, and violence. Unhealthy and toxic relationships, yandere themes, mentions of stalking, controlling behavior, mentions of kid-napping, forced captivity. Unhealthy mindsets and generally xiao’s kinda slowly losing his sanity. Some delusions. Allusions of starvation/dehydration (it’s like one sentence). Pleas do not read this if any of the previously mentioned topics trigger you in any way.

Genre: Angst and Yandere

Tags/Aus: Mythology Au, Reincarnation Au

Summary: You and Xiao were lovers during the Archon War. You were his paradise, his bliss, and, unfortunately, a fragile mortal who was taken away far too soon. However Celestina was kind enough, or perhaps cruel enough, to bring you back to Xiao, only to rip you out of his loving embrace once more. This happens again and again, each time far more painfully than the last. Even an Adeptus such as Xiao can only take so much before he snaps though. This time, he’s gonna make sure that no one, not even you, can take his bliss away.

A/N: This is my piece for the Attack on Academia Mythology Au Collab!! Be sure to check the rest of them, they’re all super awesome and made by amazing writers!

You’ve heard the myth about the Vigilant Yaksha and the violetgrass maiden, haven’t you?

It’s said that the two are eternally intertwined, destined to love each other, only to be ripped apart by both her mortality and the cruelty of the gods. The tale itself goes like this…

The first time the Adeptus and his mortal lover met was back when the Archon War was still roaring. The smell of blood and misery filled the air and Rex Lapis had yet to claim his title as the Geo Archon. Despite this, some managed to find joy and serenity in these troubling periods.

The maiden was one of those people. She found joy in frolicking through the fields and climbing the highest mountains to collect qingxin flowers and, her personal favorite, violetgrass, whenever she had the time. Though climbing up the steep mountains and jagged peaks of Liyue was indeed dangerous, the damsel had become quite skilled at climbing, her hold rarely ever slipping, no falls or cuts of any sort.

Until one day, the maiden was climbing up a particular mountain. It was a troublesome one, for there were no proper footholds or protruding stones to grab on to. Still, the pretty violetgrass that was just a foot or two away from her, swaying gently with the wind, was far too tempting to not collect. It would look so lovely in a flower crown, or maybe a vase, perhaps she could flatten it out to make a bookmark or-

A piercing shriek escaped the mortal. Whilst her thoughts had been elsewhere, she’d stopped on a small ledge that was far too fragile to support her weight, the rock beneath the maiden gave away to nothing before she could react.

She shut their eyes tightly, bracing herself for an impact that would surely leave her battered and bruised, if not dead.

However, it never came.

Instead, she was caught mid-air by a pair of strong arms that secured their hold under the mortal woman’s knees and neck. She didn’t open her eyes right away, for fear that she would still fall, choosing instead to catch their breath. Once her savior landed safely on the ground, something she was able to detect due to the thud of shoes against the earth, she slowly opened her eyes.

Upon opening them, her eyes met with the piercing amber eyes of a young man with dark hair (the color of the ocean at night, she thought dreamily) with pretty teal bangs framing his even prettier face. His brows were furrowed slightly, thin lips twisted into what seemed to be a permanent frown. In her still dazed state, she couldn’t help but think that he was far too handsome to look so dreadfully serious.

After an intense moment of eye contact, perhaps too intense for two strangers that had met only seconds prior, he let her go in a rather unceremonious manner, causing her to squawk in surprise, knees buckling under the unexpected weight. She had not yet had a chance to gather her bearings after such a terrifying event.

Instead of asking if she was alright, the young man simply said, in a rather crude and callous manner, “You should be more careful, mortal. If I hadn’t been there to catch you, you would’ve surely broken your neck.”

She gawked at him. Mortal? Why would he refer to her in such an… odd way?

The maiden looked at him up and down, as if trying to understand just what was wrong with this poor man. Suddenly, it struck her. She’d been an absolute idiot to not have noticed sooner. From the tattoo that adorned his right arm to the way he held himself, it had been so obvious.

Her savior was an Adeptus.

He wasn’t just an Adeptus, no. He was much more than that. He was one of the Adepti who served under Rex Lapis. He was one of the five Yakshas who kept her and the people of Liyue safe if the mask tied to his belt was any indication. And instead of killing demons or evil gods, he’d taken the time to save her.

Before she could muster an adequate thank you, he, who she’d now realized was Adeptus Xiao, was already leaving, uttering a quick “Please be careful,” on his way.

Quickly, and without really thinking, she grabbed onto his wrist, blabbering out the words, “Wait, don’t go! You must allow me to repay you for your generous actions!”

The amber-eyed Adeptus opened his mouth, ready to declare that it was unnecessary, but before he could, the damsel spoke up, “I could cook you something in return. How about almond tofu?” with a small giggle she added, “I assure you it’s sweeter than those dreams you eat.”

To both of their surprises, Xiao uttered a quiet, almost shy, “Yes.”

The Adeptus didn’t know what had come over him. All he knew is that there was something about the way her eyes sparkled and her lips moved, her soothing, melodious voice. It made his heart pound in a way it never had before.

And so, she cooked him some almond tofu, and they- well, she- talked as he ate the mouthwatering sweet.

He came back the day after that one and the one after that, followed on by the one after that, and so on. Xiao hadn’t meant to, really he hadn’t. But there was something about the maiden that just brought him a peace he had never experienced before. Her warm embrace and soft, gentle words were all he needed to keep fighting, to keep living, even. She was his paradise, his bliss. It wasn’t long until they were mutually infatuated with one another, deeply in love.

Every time he would visit her home, he would always bring her the flowers she so adored. Glaze lilies, silk flowers, and of course, violetgrass. Xiao had even gifted her a small broach, one made of the finest noctilucous jade, shaped like the downturned purple flower.

Unfortunately, everything is temporary for those punished with immortality.

The first time Xiao lost his maiden was, as he remembers, a rainy day. Despite the dreary weather, she had decided to go violetgrass picking since they’re always best picked after the rain.

But, dear Archons, what a dreadful idea that had been.

While the purple flower is indeed best picked after it rains, it is also the time when rocks are most… slippery.

So, as the maiden was climbing up the steep mountains of Juyen Karst, her right hand’s hold on the rock slipped, causing her palm to be cut open by a particularly jagged piece of stone. She hissed in, watching as blood began to ooze out. Panic started to seep in, there was no ledge for her to tend to her wound, and the cut was far too big for her to continue to climb up or down.

Dread began to fill her to her very core, she felt burning hot with unchecked anxiety, fear begging to settle into her gut in the most uncomfortable of manners. She should have waited for Xiao as he had asked of her. Ever since they had first met, a year ago to the day, he’d been so adamant on wanting to go with her to ensure her safety. She’d only wanted to surprise him with some when he returned home. The maiden was so sure it would’ve been a romantic anniversary gift, seeing as they were the cause of their meeting…

She’d been such a fool.

The violetgrass maiden attempted to climb down but Celestia seemed to laugh at her feeble attempts. She stretched her leg, trying to find the foothold she had used previously. However, her foot slipped and before she knew it, she was falling, just as she had been a year ago.

Horror filled her lungs, making it hard for her to breathe, her life flashed before her eyes, and then suddenly she remembered some words her lover had uttered to her one night under the glow of the moonlight when it was but the two of them in each other’s arms:

“If you awake to a knife at your throat, if monsters dig their claws into you, if death comes knocking at your door, call out my name, Adeptus Xiao. I will be here when you call.”

And so she called, at the top of her lungs, as loud as she could muster. The seconds seemed to turn to hours as she shut her eyes and waited to feel the strong arms of her lover, to hear the safety of his heartbeat.

But it never came.

Or rather, it came too late.

By the time Xiao had finished up the demonic creatures that threatening Liyue, by the time he’d answered her call, he was already too late.

Upon manifesting in the air out of nothing, he was greeted by the side of his love’s pitiful, mortal body. Her garments were bloody, the basket she carried her flowers in laid a few feet away from her body,her neck bent in a painfully awkward way.

Xiao felt so helpless. He was so helpless.

He could do no more than hold back the tears stinging his eyes and attempting to shake her awake.

The second time Xiao met the maiden was no more than a century after the first time. The Archon War was not yet over and sickness plagued every nook and cranny, taking the lives of hundreds upon thousands.

The two star-crossed lovers were reunited one clear summer night when the maiden was wandering aimlessly through the fields of Lingju Pass. She knew it was dangerous during these times, especially with how ill she had been feeling as of late. Yet, she couldn’t bring herself to care. She’d already spent hours tossing and turning in her bed. Sleep, however, refused to come. Instead, she felt the overwhelming urge to leave the safety of her bed and go there. It was as if someone had tied a rope around her waist and was tugging at it persistently, insisting she follows.

And so she followed.

Upon reaching a clearing, she froze. In front of her very eyes was a sitting Stonehide Lawachurl, the type even the fiercest warriors in your village struggled with. The maiden quickly started backing away, praying to the Lord of Geo that it wouldn’t sense her presence. Her prayers were in vain, however, for as soon as the thought escaped her, she stepped on a twig, making it snap and effectively alerting the fearsome monster of her presence.

She shook in terror as parts of the Lawachurl’s rocky exterior began to glow with geo elemental energy. She hadn’t expected anything of the sort to happen so she hadn’t brought her sword, meaning she couldn’t exactly fight it, definitely not without a vision at least. Running wasn’t much of an option considering her body’s weak and ill state. She could try to outrun it, sure, but it wouldn’t be long before she was driven to a coughing fit because of it.

Before life had a chance to flash before her eyes, a masked young man appeared. Distantly, she recognized him as one of the adepti and watched him easily defeat the Stonehide Lawachurl with a series of short, consecutive plunges. She couldn’t help but watch him, mouth agape in an expression of pure, unadulterated awe. The Adeptus didn’t even need a claymore to break through the creature’s thick, hard exterior. As bad as she felt for not assisting him, she knew she weren’t exactly in any position to lend a hand. Not that she needed to, though, for soon enough the monster crumbled into nothing but red and black smoke.

After a second of panting over the remains of what was left of the creature, polearm in hand, Xiao turned to her and felt his blood run cold.

It was her.

How could it be her? She had died long ago. He knew she had, he’d cradled her cold body as tears streamed down his face. He’d taken her lifeless body back to her family. He’d left flowers at her grave.

This had to be some sort of sick joke, he thought, perhaps the karmic debt was finally getting to him, just like it had his fellow Yakshas.

Suddenly, his amber eyes zeroed in on a broach she had pinned to her dress. A Violetgrass broach, to be exact. Made of noctilucous jade, just like the one he had given her. The one he’d made for her with his own hands. There was no denying it was the very one. Only, how could that be? He had ensured it had been buried with you…

But it was an indisputable fact. That broach was the one he had made for his love and the woman before him was her. It was her from her wide eyes, fixated on him with the same wonder they had always had when they looked at him. Her hair was the same color and texture, and it framed her face in the same way. It was her.

The beginnings of tears stung at his eyes. Perhaps Celestia had brought you back? Perhaps they’d finally realized, just as he had always known, that her death was cruel and unfair. That it wasn’t meant to be. That she was meant to be in his arms, happy and safe.

“Uhm- excuse me, Adeptus Xiao, are you alright?” She inquired worriedly, eyes solely on him, filled to the brim with concern.

‘Oh Archons’, he couldn’t help but think distantly, ‘I’ve missed her voice.’

Instead of running up to her and crushing him in his loving embrace, he stayed where he was, took off his mask, nodded briskly, swallowing as if to avoid the tightness in his throat. She didn’t seem to remember him yet, so there was no use in frightening her.

Before he could muster up the courage to speak to her, his love began to cough furiously, though she attempted to cover it up. She didn’t want to be rude to her savior, after all.

“Ha, pardon me, sir, I’ve just been feeling a bit under the weather is all,” she told him feebly.

He nodded brusquely, before uttering, “I shall return you home safely.”

“Oh no, I assure you, you’ve done more than enough for me. I can’t ask that of you,” she fumbled hurriedly, though his words were more of a statement than a question.

Xiao had never been one for unnecessary- or at least what he thought were unnecessary- words, so instead of saying anything, the Adeptus simply grabbed her by the waist and teleported you home, after asking where home was, of course.

The next day, the Yaksha visited the maiden’s home, a bushel of violetgrass flowers in hand. She’d been understandably surprised, yet thrilled that the dark-haired man was visiting her. She hadn’t expected someone as busy as him to make time for a regular person such as herself, especially not during these times.

“These are my favorite flowers, y’know? They’re just so beautiful,” the maiden exclaimed gleefully.

He did know. That had been one of the reasons he had brought them to her. The second reason was because of what happened last time, in her previous life, he supposed. Celestia had been kind enough to gift him a second chance with his love, and he was going to ensure that it did not go to waste.

And so, every day he would visit her. Some days he would bring silk flowers, or glaze lilies, while other days he would bring her loach pearls and core lapis. Not a day went by where he would not appear in front of the damsel’s house, a gift in hand, ready to hear her ramble about whatever that beautiful brain of hers desired to prattle on about.

“You’re simply too generous Xiao,” she’d told him playfully while she laid in her bed, as she was still unwell, the Adeptus seated in a plush chair next to it. “There has to be something I can give you in return for everything. I won’t take no for an answer.”

He thought for a moment, before asking, tentatively, “Do you know how to make almond tofu?”

He’d never forget her dazzling smile that day, as she shakily got out of her bed, latching onto the support he offered while she gathered her bearings, and marched to her kitchen, enthusiastically preparing the sweet treat as she talked about a book she’d been reading, one that’d been gifted to her by a friend, titled Moonlit Bamboo Forest.

The lovers did this every day for months. Xiao brought her some medicinal tea that Rex Lapis himself said could cure her ailments. They did indeed begin to see improvement in her health and Xiao couldn’t help but feel immense relief. This time, he wouldn’t lose her for certain.

Until the plagues reached her village.

She’d been one of the first to catch it since the village doctor came to check on her so often, he’d spread it to her. The plague, coupled with her previous illness, weakened her body in a manner of days. One day, Xiao went to get some medicine his fellow adepti had guaranteed would help the maiden feel better.

When he returned later that day, however, he found her body in the bed, cold and without a pulse, the stench of death and sickness thick in the air.

That was the second time he had lost her.

The third time the star-crossed lovers met was long after the archon war. Liyue was now its own nation with its own name, the great center of wealth and commerce. The Yakshas were now a thing of the past, having succumbed to their karmic debt. Eventually, they all fell in one way or another.

All but Xiao, who remained a constant throughout it all.

Over the past decade or so, Xiao had taken to staying at the Wangshu Inn when he wasn’t slaying monsters. The people were nice enough, though he had long given up on attempting to form emotional connections with others. It would only lead to grief, just like it had when he’d lost his love or his fellow Yakshas, and there was only so much grief anyone, mortal or not, could take before their thread of sanity snapped in half. And with his Karmic Debt being as bad as it was…

As Xiao sat at the edge of the balcony of the Wangshu Inn, legs dangling below, he couldn’t help but think of her, his maiden. He wondered if, perhaps, Celestia would give him a third chance and bring her back to him. Honestly, the Adeptus wasn’t sure he wanted a third chance with her. While he did miss the sound of her heartbeat and the sweet words she’d utter to him and only him, he doubted he could bear the pain of having her ripped away from him once again.

It’s as if Celestia was taunting Xiao. As if the Archons above were bored and found some sick amusement in his pain as if his emotions were nothing but a game to them. What other explanations were there for what happened next?

“Um- excuse me, do you mind if I sit here?” An angelic voice he knew far too well, missed far too much, spoke.

Xiao looked up and lo and behold, it was her. Same hair, same eyes, same violetgrass broach.

She stood behind him clutching a plate of something, though the angle wouldn’t allow him to make up what it was. Her face adorned that same anxious smile of hers and he could feel himself falling in love with the maiden all over again. He knew he should say no. He shouldn’t allow her back in, not when he’s already lost her so many times before, not when they’d both suffered so much just by being together.

He nodded before looking away.

He shouldn’t but he would.

“I hope you don’t mind me intruding on your quiet time,” she said softly once she had settled beside him. When he made no indication of answering, she continued, “To be honest, you just seemed so… sad, melancholic even. Something about it, even if I don’t really know you, doesn’t sit right with me. It makes my heart feel heavy.”

The violetgrass maiden received no response, except for a soft grunt of acknowledgment, so small she wasn’t sure she hadn’t imagined it. Still, it was all she needed to perk up and stretch her arms out, offering him the plate she’d been holding.

“Here, I got this for you,” she told him, “word around the streets is you’ve got quite an appetite for it! Though this is my first time staying at the Inn, so I’m not sure if it’s any good here.”

Xiao looked at her, amber eyes filled with love. He was glad to know that, despite living through many lives now, she was still the girl he’d met back then, as sweet as he’d remembered her, just as caring.

He shouldn’t have but he took the plate from her hands and began to eat.

Instead of saying anything, she simply watched him as he ate, a silly little smile making its way to her face. The look on his lady’s face had him growing hot and turning beet red

“So,” he coughed out, embarrassed, “where’d you get a broach like that?”

“Oh, this one?” She inquired, pointing at the shiny violetgrass broach, “I found it lying on the ground one day when I was out picking lotus heads for dinner. I asked just about everyone in Liyue Harbor if it was theirs, but no luck. I eventually decided to just keep it for myself. It is a shame though, whoever lost it must truly be upset over losing such a beautiful piece of jewelry. I’ve never seen anything quite like it.”

He nodded along, thinking that, well, the broach actually was with its owner.

“It’s as if it were fate though,” she prattled on happily, watching the stars as she talked, “Violeygrass is my very favorite, always has been really. Though, I’ve always been too scared to climb up for them myself. You see, ever since I was little, I’ve had this recurring nightmare where I fell to my death while collecting some.”

The Adeptus stilled for a second, tense. She hadn’t ever brought up dreams about her past life. Maybe this time was different, maybe she’d remember what he did!

“Oh my Archons,” she exclaimed, face warm with embarrassment, scratching the back of her head sheepishly, “I’ve been going on and on! I’m so sorry, something about you feels so familiar. It makes me feel like I can tell you just about everything. Is that weird?”

His heart was racing like it hadn’t in years, decades even.

“You can tell me whatever you want,” he answered shortly, “I don’t mind listening. You have a nice voice.”

The maiden covered her hands with her face, flustered, and Xiao let out a rare smile, soft and gentle. This time would be different. He’d make sure of it.

After that day, the maiden began to visit the Wangshu Inn often, whenever she could spare time away from her job. Unbeknownst to her, however, Xiao followed at a distance when she wasn’t visiting him, to ensure her safety. He knew it wasn’t right, truly, but he had no other choice. He had to, or else he’d risk losing her to an accident such as last time, fall ill again, attacked by monsters or, Celestia forbid, be kidnapped by a group of treasure hoarders.

He’d have to get rid of any and all threats.

So, Xiao continued to follow his maiden from a distance, he made sure she was in tip-top shape, and ruthlessly slaughtering all enemies that he deemed a threat to her, until he was certain nothing would take her away from him again.

Except for one threat. Himself.

The third time he’d lost her was on a beautiful night, not that Xiao could remember it well. His love had insisted on the two of them taking a walk. She’d reasoned that the cool night air would help him regain control. His karmic debt had been weighing on him an awful lot recently and she simply couldn’t bear to see him in such excruciating pain.

The walk had started off rather pleasantly, as far as Xiao could remember. He could remember nudging his hand against hers, wanting to hold it but being far too shy to do so. With a laugh and a teasing remark, the maiden interlaced their fingers, bringing up their hands to place a gentle kiss on his, making the tips of his ears redden in bashfulness. They’d walked a little further until they encountered a group of hilichurls accompanied by a pyro abyss mage. Without skipping a beat, Xiao stepped in front of his lover, polearm appearing in his hand.

And then…

Everything went dark. Xiao’s mind was nothing but a void, pain exploded in every inch of his body as his karmic debt returned in full force to punish him for the slaughtering he’d committed.

When he came to, his mind was hazy, unsure of what had occurred. The Yaksha sat up, ignoring the way his muscles protested against it, and looked around, trying to make sense of what had happened and where he was.

Xiao froze when his eyes locked onto her pitiful body laying a few feet ahead of him in the grass surrounded by arrowheads and broken hilichurl masks, blood turning ice-cold. If he ignored the gashes across her body, the ones that were unmistakably made by the bloody spear he was clutching and not some hilichurl club or bow and arrow, and the blood that stained her pretty garments, he could almost fool himself into thinking she was asleep.

This had been his doing.

After a few beats of stunned silence, the dark-haired Adeptus lurched forward grabbing onto her cold body and shaking ruthlessly, calling out her name frantically, as if it would make his love wake up, make her cradle his face lovingly and ask why he’d been crying.

Xiao looked up onto the sky scornfully, looking up at Celestia with nothing short of pure, unadulterated loathing. He was willing to bet they were all mocking him right now, laughing at how weak and pathetic he was, at how time after time, he’d failed to love her enough, to keep her alive. They did this on purpose he was sure of it, those bastards. Well, if they could play dirty like this, so could he. He’d get her back, he’d keep her alive by his side.

And just like that, Xiao’s thread of sanity snapped.

“You can’t take her away from me anymore,” he spoke to the sky nonsensically, “I won’t let you. I don’t care what I have to do, who I have to kill, you won’t take my bliss away from me again.”

“That story was quite depressing,” Chongyun stated, ceasing his footsteps to look to his friend, Xingqiu.

“Ah yes, it is indeed, my liege,” the navy blue-haired gentleman agreed, “However, I’m glad this book included the whole myth, instead of making me wait for the next volume like the last one.”

The light blue-haired boy rolled his eyes before saying, “As much as I appreciated you reading the book aloud, I don’t see how this aids us in our search for (Y/N).”

The reason the boys had been searching across all of Liyue, was because their aforementioned friend had mysteriously gone missing. Everything had been as it normally was until one day, (Y/N) didn’t show up at her job in the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor, something that was incredibly unusual of her, especially without a warning to her boss or coworkers. This led Hu Tao, with the insistence of Zhongli, to ask Chongyun and Xingqiu, two of (Y/N)’s friends, for help in the search for her. They had also contacted the milelith, but they had told them that she’d not been missing for long enough to warrant a search party. The two had, of course, been quick to help, though Xingqiu had been rather enraptured in a book of Liyue Myths, simply insisting he’d have to take it with him so he could read while he searched for her.

“But my liege,” Xingqiu exclaimed playfully, golden eyes shining with mirth, “this story is of utmost importance in our search for our beloved friend. Why, for all we know, (Y/N) might’ve been kidnapped by the Vigilant Yaksha himself! She has always had a habit of climbing mountains to pick violetgrass like the maiden in the book”

“Do not be so ridiculous,” Chongyun said, rolling his eyes, “I doubt an Adeptus such as himself would ever commit such an atrocity of that degree against a citizen of Liyue. Besides, that myth is incredibly old and there’s very little evidence that proves its validity. It’s more likely that (Y/N) was taken by a demon. That is why I asked you to accompany me to Wuwang Hill.”

“I was simply joking Chongyun,” he said with a laugh before turning solemn, “However, regretfully I feel as though it is time for the two of us to return to Liyue Harbor for the day. You’ve just about run out of popsicles and with this heat, I have no doubt you’ll overheat if we keep going.”

“I’m afraid you’re right,” The blue-eyed boy admitted. “I hope (Y/N) is alright wherever she is.”

“I do as well,” Xingqiu agreed, “Perhaps Hu Tao and Zhongli have had more luck.”

Chongyun nodded, “Xiangling also said she’d ask her customers if they’d seen her.”

With that, the two boys made their way back to Lihue Harbor, oblivious to just how true Xingqiu’s joke had been.

Xiao sighed as he climbed up the stairs of Wangshu Inn up to his room. Of course, he did not need sleep, it was a mortal need in and of itself, or a room for that matter but Verr Goldet had insisted that he should have his own space, somewhere he could rest after long days of slaughtering demons such as this one.

The Adeptus turned the door handle, opening the door of an empty, pristine room. While the room had all of the furniture the other Inn rooms had, it still felt unnervingly empty, without any clothes or trinkets laying around. The only personal object of Xiao’s in the room was an orange teapot that rested on the nightstand.

Quickly, Xiao opened the tea pot’s lid, and within seconds he was standing in front of a Liyue style mansion, surrounded by mountains that he crafted to look like the ones from when the two of you had met all those centuries ago. Eager to see you, Xiao ignored Tubby’s greetings and opened the front door, making quick work of taking off his shoes before climbing the stairs to the second floor, where your room was.

He opened the door to find you sat atop your bed, alert and glaring at him fiercely. The Adeptus rolled his amber eyes, it seemed you were still trying to act out and be defiant. Looking around your room, mostly to make sure you hadn’t tried to smash the windows with the desk chair like last time (you seemed to not comprehend the fact that there was no escaping the serenetea pot, since it was a world Xiao himself had created), his eyes settled on the plate of bamboo shoot soup he’d left for you this morning, along with a still filled to the brim cup of water. He narrowed his eyes at that. It simply wouldn’t do. You’d been here for about a week now and you still refused to eat or drink anything he brought you, except for a few nibbles and sips he’d managed to threaten coax out of you. Xiao, admittedly, didn’t know very much about humans, but he did know they needed to eat and drink to stay alive. He’d learned that the hard way on his last few tries.

“Why aren’t you eating?” Xiao inquired before adding, “If you don’t like this food you should come out and say it. I can ask Smiley Yanxiao for something that suits your taste more.”

You let out a poorly suppressed scoff. This nut-job didn’t seem to get that out of all the things wrong in this situation, the last thing you were concerned about was the food. Dear Archons, just what is wrong with this man? First, he had the gall of taking you captive one evening when you were going home from work and now he had the audacity to expect you to act like a complacent little toy and go along with this insanity?

And to think that when you’d first met him whilst accompanying the Traveler and Paimon, who had been commissioned by Director Hu Tao to gather some cor lapis for a client’s ceremony, you’d been absolutely smitten with the awkward and stoic Adeptus. Everything from his pretty black hair to his captivating bright eyes had your knees weak. So much so that you’d ignored all of the red flags, like how he’d stare at you in such an intense manner, with eyes fixated on you and only you, how he seemed to distrust Aether, a trusted friend of his, when it came to him accompanying you, or how as soon as you’d met you had the horrible sensation of being watched at all times of the day. Just thinking back to all the warning signs you’d missed made your skin crawl. Perhaps if you hadn’t been such a lovesick idiot you’d be at home right now or eating dinner with Chongyun and Xingqiu, trying out one of Xianglings crazy concoctions containing slime condensate or whopper flower nectar.

Instead, you were trapped in an artificial world, in a room that looked horrifyingly similar to your own back home.

You were snapped out of your reverie by Xiao moving closer to your bed.

“Let me go home,” you said, hating how your voice cracked at the end. You felt so pathetic, you always prided yourself on being a headstrong independent person, and here you were, cowering at his closeness and avoiding all eye contact, as if looking at his pain filled eyes would ruin you.

“You are home,” he retorted, his voice bordering on delusion, “This is your home. This is where you're safe. Where you stay alive and I get to keep you forever.”

Xiao stretched out his arm, as if to cradle your cheek in his hand but before he got to you flinched away, backing away from him as far as you could, back hitting the headboard. You looked away, trying to ignore how guilty the pain that flashed through his eyes made you feel. You shouldn’t be the one feeling guilty. He should be. He’s the one that stole you away from your home. He’s the one that ruined your life.

You look down at the violetgrass broach clasped onto your blouse in nothing short of complete and utter loathing. You’d been so captivated by it when you’d first found it at the antique shop while window shopping with Mr. Zhongli.

It had been exactly six months since you’d moved away from your home in the sleepy Qingce Village in exchange for a job at the Wangsheng Funeral Parlor and a quaint apparently in the bustling city of Liyue Harbor. To celebrate, your coworker (and the person you had been shadowing in order to learn the ropes of the funeral business) Mr. Zhongli had insisted on going to Third-Round Knockout for some dinner. You’d been a bit hesitant at first, mostly because you knew well of the elegant gentleman’s habit of forgetting his wallet, but you enjoyed hearing his stories far too much to say no. Something about his retellings of stories about the Adepti just enraptured you.

Afterward, the two of you had decided to walk around the city and look at the displays in shops, since you had decided that your hard work warranted splurging a little as a reward of sorts. You had of course asked Mr. Zhongli to join you since he had such exquisite taste and an eye for the authentic, you valued his opinion greatly.

That’s how the two of you ended up at Xigu Antiques, browsing the display case. All of a sudden, your eyes zeroed in on a broach that resembles a little violetgrass plant, its downturned leaves made up of what you could only guess was noctilucous jade. It was, for lack of a better word, stunning.

“Mr. Zhongli,” you exclaimed, tugging at his sleeve to call his attention away from a porcelain teapot with gold little geo symbols as decoration, “what do you think of this one? It’s quite beautiful isn’t it?”

The dark-haired man looked at the broach you were pointing at before going tense, a small gasp escaping him as his beautiful amber eyes widened slightly. You looked at him in concern, you’d never seen the man come this close to losing his composure.

“Oh,” he said, clearing his throat, “is this the one you’re thinking of purchasing? I’d advise against it. Even by just a mere glance, I can tell it is not made of real noctilucous jade.”

Strangely, you felt as though he wasn’t being truthful with you.

“Well, that’s alright. I don’t really care about the authenticity and it’s pretty cheap. If it is a fake, I don’t really have much to lose. Plus, I’ve always loved violetgrass. This broach could be like a little homage to that!” You answered, letting out a little giggle.

“You’ve heard of the Vigilant Yaksha and the violetgrass maiden, am I correct?” He asked.

“Oh, yes I have! My Gran used to tell it to me and the rest of the village children back when I was young. It always made me so sad, how they can never be together. It was pretty silly now that I think about it, but I would bawl my eyes out every time. The rest of the kids would tease me a bit but I just couldn’t control it,” you reminisced.

“I- well, yes in any case, they say that anyone who possesses that broach will be cursed to meet the same fate,” Zhongli added, trying his best to dissuade you from buying the old broach, dread creeping into his stomach as he thought of what might happen to you- to the both of you.

“Of course you’d believe old supersticiones, Mr. Zhongli,” you said, letting out a lighthearted laugh that could make any heart, even one of stone, melt, “it’s very on brand! However, I’m sure there’s no need to be worried, after all, it’s nothing but an old myth! And even if it is real, you yourself said that it’s not made of the real stuff.”

Before Zhongli could figure a way to change the unchangeable, you had already purchased the broach. As you kept on leading the funeral consultant around the streets of Liyue Harbor, bag in hand, prattling on about anything and everything, he couldn’t help but feel his heart sink. A single thought, the same one you would later have, crossed his mind.

If only you hadn’t bought that goddamned broach.

In a fit of anger and desperation, you ripped the detested broach off of your shirt, throwing it at Xiao. You hoped it would somehow break into millions of tiny pieces.

After a beat of silence, Xiao spoke, “Eat.”

“No,” you yelled, before breaking down into a fit of angry sob, “I hate you!”

As soon as the words left your mouth, Xiao lurched forward so close your noses were almost touching, and for a second you think he’s gonna hit you but instead, he simply rests his forehead on yours and closes his eyes. When he pulls away, your sobs have waned into hiccups. Without saying so much as a word Xiao clasps the violetgrass broach onto your shirt, where it belongs.

“Eat,” is all he says, placing the now lukewarm soup into your hands.

Scared, tired, and sad, you do as he said, taking small sips of the admittedly tasty dish. He does nothing more than stare at her with those intense amber eyes of his for a few minutes before turning around and heading towards the door.

Before he leaves he turns his head back to look at her and says, “I don’t care if you don’t like me. Hate me for all I care. As long as you stay alive I don’t care.”

#Xiao x reader #xiao x you #xiao x y/n #genshin impact Xiao x reader #yan! Xiao x reader #genshin impact fanfic #genshin impact fanfiction #Xiao #genshin impact #tw: yandere #flavor: xiao #patt’s creations

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doctor-disc0 · 2 years

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um... not to be rude but isn't not having Loki in the next Thor movie what you wanted? I can't help but remember a bunch of anti-Ragnarok posts about how Taika Waititi turned the franchise into a big joke and calling CH "Chris Odinson" who insulted TM? Wasn't it keep Loki away from that at all costs? I don't understand why you changed your mind...

Hi sorry this got buried in my notes and I didn't see it

I haven't really changed my mind? Sorta? I still think that Taika Waititi did a terrible job with Ragnarok. One of the things I liked about the Thor franchise was its darker themes, at least compared to the rest of the mcu (and I also liked Loki. Obviously) and TW just kinda smashed that up and replaced it with awful characterization and like, butt jokes (idk it's been forever since I've seen Ragnarok).

But ever since the Loki series, I've kinda been like...actually, can we go back to Ragnarok? Cuz despite the shittiness of that mess of a movie, at least it didn't give us false hope at representation. At least its creator never pretended to like Loki. And at least it gave us a few good moments (I did love that Loki used their horns as a weapon, and I did like Thor's power upgrade).

Obviously, I still prefer Thor 1 and 2. But I've lost all hope that the mcu will ever be as good as it once was.

Also, as Tom Hiddleston once said (I think, idk): there is no Loki without Thor, and no Thor without Loki.

Actually, I think that's another reason the Loki show sucked. Thor did not show up at all, and was rarely talked about. We all know how much Thor means to Loki ("I may be envious, but never doubt that I love you") so the fact that their love for Thor wasn't really addressed (or even mentioned) really bothered me.

So, having a Thor movie without Loki is like having a Loki series without Thor, in that it's inevitably going to suck (even more than I predict it still would with Loki in it).

Also, maybe it's the optimist in me, but I really, really want to believe that Taika can make a good Thor movie if he really tried (as in, correct characterization and all that). I am glad that he sees Jane Foster's Thor as the Mighty Thor instead of just "Lady" Thor (though I do have my anxieties about how he'll go about portraying Jane). I think that if he gave Loki a chance, he could see our favorite god of mischief as more than just a pampered jerk (like they were portrayed in more recent mcu projects) and instead as a broken but loveable trickster who has gone through so much and received so little.

So, to summarize my feelings: yes, I think that Taika did a bad job with both Thor and Loki in Ragnarok, but I do think that Love and Thunder will be even worse than Ragnarok if Thor's love of Loki is not acknowledged and if he doesn't bring Loki to life in the form of kid Loki or if Loki doesn't at least make a cameo. Because let's face it, Thor's story and Loki's story are tied together so tight that you can't possibly make anything good about one without the other

I mean, Loki was way, waaaayyyy worse in the comics (literally called themself the god of evil for a while) and Thor still missed them and brought them back. Also the fact that Thor thought of Loki more as his brother than Balder is pretty hilarious considering Balder has never tried to kill Thor and is also actually related to him

So, yeah. I at least want a Loki cameo because Thor and Loki are important to each other, dammit

#I am not good at talking or like. expressing my thoughts #so like I hope this isn't too confusing #it probably is though 😅#ask #anonymous #Loki series criticism #anti Ragnarok #I believe the tag most of us decided on for anti Ragnarok posts was:#Thor gagnarok #idk though it's been a while and I have a terrible memory #if you need me to like. clarify something or whatever feel free to ask #because I doubt this is very easy to follow #and maybe I will be more coherent in the morning #idk it's late and I'm kinda sick (waiting for results for a Covid test)

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illuminatedquill · 3 years

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Extracurricular, An Analysis

Oh Ji-soo and Bae Gyu-ri

“Love is the ultimate outlaw. It just won’t adhere to any rules. The most any of us can do is sign on as it’s accomplice.” - Tom Robbins

You know the story. You’ve heard it before, right?

Boy meets girl.

Girl finds out that boy is running a side protection business for prostitutes.

Girl decides to blackmail boy into letting her join his business.

Classic high school criminal shenanigans ensue leading them into more dangerous situations where they are forced to make desperate decisions to stay alive.

Oh, and they fall in love along the way.

Oh? You haven’t heard this one before? Then let me introduce you to this delightful kdrama called Extracurricular.

I watched this one while waiting for the newest Hometown Cha Cha Cha episodes to drop and ended up binging the whole series in two days. There are many remarkable parts of this series: it’s a crime drama, first and foremost, that showcases high school teenagers caught in a cycle of violence and crime, abandoned by the society and adults that are supposed to be protecting them. There are no clear good guys and bad guys in this drama; everyone is cast in shades of grey. Our main leads, Oh Ji-soo and Bae Gyu-ri, run the prostitution business, and are both from broken family backgrounds. Their actions are morally questionable at best, but the top tier performances from Kim Dong Hee (you might remember him from Itaewon Class) and Park Ju Hyun make you cheer for them anyway. You want them to have a happy ending, despite the horrible things they do. The audience is always reminded that despite how clever they are in staying ahead, their actions have consequences, and they’re just high school kids. The drama never pulls it punches.

But, weirdly enough, it’s also a love story. And that’s the part the really sticks with me until now. (The chemistry between the main leads is absolute dynamite and I could watch ten episodes of them just verbally sparring with each other. They don’t even kiss. They’re that fantastic when together on screen.)

I’m writing this because this is undoubtedly one of my all time favorite kdramas and I have a lot of feelings about our main pairing, Ji-soo and Gyu-ri. I can’t call them a couple (wait, didn’t I just say they fall in love) because their relationship can’t be labelled simply as that. Think of it as something similar to the main leads in My Ahjussi. Two people who should have become soulmates, yet met at the wrong time.

This kdrama is not particularly happy, and while I do encourage people to watch this, I am warning that the subject matter is extremely dark. If you’re sensitive to scenes depicting sexual assault, graphic violence, or anything in that zip code you’ll want to steer clear.

Also, I’ll be diving into spoiler territory in this analysis. So if you want to go in clean, then stop reading here.

Still here? Awesome. Let’s dive deep into the messy, amazing pairing that is Oh Ji-soo and Bae Gyu-ri. First, let’s do a brief character background on our two main leads, starting with Ji-soo.

Oh Ji-soo is one half of our main pairing and this story starts with him. He lives by himself and has been essentially abandoned by his only parents; his father is a failed businessman who gambles whatever money he acquires on scams and his mother ran away. His apartment is small, sparse, but functional. He owns only a few outfits aside from his school uniform. The only unique item he owns is a pet hermit crab that he takes care of. His life outside of school is non-existent; he has no friends, no one to hang out with and do typical high school teenager activities with. He takes care of himself and lives only for himself and his “dream”: to graduate, attend college, get married, and have kids like a normal person.

But to do that, he needs a large amount of money. He has no other financial means to do so (his father is largely absent, as is his mother), so he decides, at some point, to start up this protection business for prostitutes. The drama doesn’t go into detail about the how and why he came to this conclusion that this was the best way to make a lot of money in a short amount of time, so you’ll have to suspend your disbelief from the get go. Considering the themes of the story (how youths abandoned by society tend to act out in extreme ways to make it in this world), it’s not hard to believe his desperation would drive him to make such a decision.

Ji-soo, despite his shady business, is actually a decent person. There’s a streak of humanity that exists inside him that refuses to go out, despite the increasingly dark and bleak events that start to overtake his life. He’s attached to his hermit crab, cares for his “employees” outside of them being tools to make him money, and doesn’t want to see anyone get hurt. He goes above and beyond what’s required to help out people at the risk of his own life (in particular, Gyu-ri, and we’ll get into that shortly).

What we learn from the first few episodes is that Oh Ji-soo is extremely smart and methodical in how he approaches his life. At school, he is known as a model student - quiet, top of the class in terms of grades, doesn’t draw any attention to himself, always follows along with what the teachers ask of him. Only his homeroom teacher, Mr. Cho, seems to consider his quiet style of existence to be concerning and tries to make him less socially awkward by pairing him up with another student in a new extracurricular club. This leads to the introduction of Bae Gyu-ri, Ji-soo’s longtime crush and future partner-in-crime.

Meet Bae Gyu-ri, the other half of our dynamic duo. Her introduction into the story kickstarts the entire plot, as one of her earliest actions leads to a domino effect that spells increasing doom and tragedy for our main leads. She messes with Ji-soo’s operation at a critical moment and she spends the rest of the drama doing her best to make up for the consequences that follow.

In my personal opinion, she is probably the best main female lead I’ve ever seen in a kdrama. Hands down, no other character exists (currently) that rivals her sheer cunning, wit, and badassery. Gyu-ri is Crazy, capital C, and is the chaos to Ji-soo’s control; the fire to his ice. Despite being the direct cause of half the events that happen to Ji-soo in the drama, he can’t help but need her because of what she offers. They make an incredible team. Her competitiveness, her need to win no matter the odds, helps them survive time and time again.

Gyu-ri is from the opposite end of the spectrum of Ji-soo; he’s dirt poor and she’s insanely rich (always nice to see a reversal of typical kdrama tropes). Her mother and father run a successful entertainment company. Gyu-ri is popular at school, friends with seemingly everybody, pretty, cheerful and gets along well with her teachers. Ji-soo, and the audience, believe from the beginning that she has the perfect life. It’s not hard to believe that she’s just involving herself in Ji-soo’s business because she’s bored and needs an outlet, at first.

We soon learn otherwise. Gyu-ri has more in common with Ji-soo than he initially realizes, in that they’re both trapped in circumstances beyond their control - it’s just that Gyu-ri’s cage is gilded, whereas his is not. Her parents are strict and have her life planned out for her, all without her consent or input, leaving her feeling frustrated and powerless despite her rich lifestyle. A suicide attempt hasn’t done much to change her parents attitude towards her, only serving to further their control over her life.

So, when she learns of Ji-soo’s operation she immediately seeks to angle her way into it. First, she tries to rip him off, believing that he’s an evil “pimp” and thus deserves it. But after spending some time with him, she changes her mind last second and decides to help him out instead.

And, now, let’s get into their relationship, which is one of the best (if not the best) aspect in the entire series.

I need to be upfront about something: the relationship between Ji-soo and Gyu-ri is not exactly healthy. I wouldn’t describe it as toxic - the circumstances surrounding them aren’t exactly the best environment to encourage open and honest communication - but it’s definitely not what should be considered ideal, especially for young adults, and especially for young adults who are dabbling in crime instead of studying.

So, why do I love them so much? If you’ve read some of my previous posts, you know that I loathe toxic relationships in kdramas, so I understand if you think I’m coming off as hypocritical here. Why do I like Oh Ji-soo and Bae Gyu-ri when I didn’t like, for example from recent history, (oh boy, here I go again on my Nevertheless BS) Park Jae-eon and Yu Na-bi?

First, Ji-soo and Gyu-ri are way cooler than Jae-eon and Na-bi ever could be. They run a criminal enterprise that involves having a high amount of intelligence, cunning, and daring to do so. Do Jae-eon and Na-bi run a criminal enterprise as a side business? No, they don’t, because they’re boring art students.

Secondly, Ji-soo and Gyu-ri actually progress in their relationship and change their views as they learn from each other. Now, granted, that progress isn’t towards becoming better versions of each other - quite the opposite. But at least they have progress. Jae-eon and Na-bi stayed in the same stupid cycle for the whole series and then decided that it was better staying that way as opposed to trying for something else.

Last, but certainly not least, Ji-soo and Gyu-ri are actually interesting to watch for me. The chemistry between Park Ju Hyun and Kim Dong Hee is explosive and they way they spar, exchange looks, and just generally exist around each other on screen is something I can watch forever. I’ve said this before but Han So Hee and Song Kang’s on screen chemistry, outside of their intimate scenes, really didn’t impress me.

Okay, back to Extracurricular. This relationship, man. It’s all I can think about (other than HomeCha’s Du-sik and Hye-jin, but that’s another post). Ji-soo and Gyu-ri are so good together.

I’ve noted before that Ji-soo is methodical in how he approaches his life; he plans out everything ahead, and rigs any situation as much as he can in his favor. It’s brilliant, but when a crisis happens, he doesn’t know how to deal with it effectively. He panics and flounders; becomes indecisive at a time when clear, decisive action is required.

Enter Gyu-ri. She quickly becomes the partner he never knew he needed. When there’s a situation, she becomes invaluable in her quick thinking and wit, coming up with solutions on the fly. It’s not perfect, but it keeps them just one small step ahead of whatever is coming their way.

The only thing preventing them from becoming unstoppable is the lack of communication and trust they have with each other. A lot of that has to do with how Gyu-ri entered Ji-soo’s business - she blackmailed him first, and, when that failed, she strong armed her way into getting him to accept her help. It’s implied in the drama that Ji-soo has had a crush on Gyu-ri for a while (since ninth grade, I believe) and in the first episode he actually gets the chance to spend time with her outside of school on a sort of quasi-date.

It goes sideways pretty quickly because of some shenanigans from his business, but not before she gets to know him and says some pretty touching words regarding his situation. Poor guy is head over heels - even after finding out that she’s the one blackmailing him, his feelings are only dampened, not extinguished. When he catches a glimpse of her family’s situation, he gains a deeper understanding of her and why she acts the way she does. Even more importantly, Ji-soo treats her the same after finding out this information which, to someone like Gyu-ri, means more than if he comforted her about it.

If you want to see a physical representation of how he feels, other than paying attention to his actions, you can see it in him keeping mementos from Gyu-ri. She has an interesting habit of folding bags into origami shapes and giving it to him. Even after the blackmail reveal, you can see that he continues to keep these in a container on his desk. It’s really cute that he keeps these, when it probably doesn’t even matter that much to Gyu-ri.

Towards the end of the drama, Ji-soo prepares to turn himself in to prevent Gyu-ri from being implicated in the crimes they committed. And it costs him almost everything to protect her. Ji-soo, the quiet, nerdy kid, puts himself on the line time and time again to protect Gyu-ri, knowing that it puts his life and his dream at risk to do so. And all for what? For some girl that he thinks doesn’t even like him in return?

Well, let’s talk about that. Because I’ve seen some comments that Gyu-ri was only using Ji-soo for her own selfish gain. And I can agree that was how it was at the beginning for her; she definitely was only interested in acquiring money, like Ji-soo was, in order to achieve her own goal of being free from her parents.

But, oh man, that is not what is motivating her at the end.

It’s actually pointed out relatively early by some of her friends that it’s obvious that she likes Ji-soo more than he likes her. Understandably Ji-soo is keeping her at arms length from him given the whole recent blackmailing, so it would make sense that it looks that way.

Further questioning reveals what she likes the most about him:

“It’s not like I’m crazy about him. He’s fun. And amusing. He’s smart. And there’s a certain charm he has. He also has a wolfish side to him. But he thinks he’s a puppy.”

- Bae Gyu-ri

But, as she gets to know Ji-soo better, you can certainly see that she starts to fall hard for him. As a cover story for why they hang out so much together during and after school, Gyu-ri states to everyone that they’re dating. The reactions across the school definitely imply that this is a shocking development, which means that Gyu-ri hasn’t dated anyone before. So why Ji-soo other than the reasons she herself states?

He challenges her, just as she challenges him. Gyu-ri may be the more dynamic, quick thinking of the pair but Ji-soo is every inch her intellectual equal - just in different ways. She doesn’t seem to be the type to be easily impressed, but you can tell that she’s definitely impressed by Ji-soo’s operation and how thoroughly set up it is. When Ji-soo is frustrated at the beginning by his setbacks, he blows up at another student (knocks him out in a crazy punch) and immediately walks over to Gyu-ri afterwards (who saw the whole thing) to inform her that she is now his partner in crime.

The look in her eyes, and the small smirk she has speaks volumes about her attraction to him in that scene. Smoldering.

And, oh yes, she’s prone to jealousy. Another classmate, Min-hee, gives Ji-soo a present out of the blue (it was supposed to be for her boyfriend, Ki-tae, but that’s another sub-plot) - all within view of Gyu-ri. It’s hilarious how she tries to brush it off. Later, for plot reasons, Ji-soo has to spend more time with Min-hee which only furthers Gyu-ri’s annoyance.

And her motivations stop being entirely about the money and more towards helping preserve the dream that she and Ji-soo share about being free. There’s a scene in episode 8 where it’s revealed that, due to a business partnership with a local gang (set up by none other than Gyu-ri herself in a desperate move), Ji-soo would have to drop out of school permanently to work on their behalf. Gyu-ri overhears this and, despite badly needing the gang’s help in sustaining their own business, immediately terminates the partnership.

All because it would interfere with Ji-soo’s dream.

Man, if that isn’t love.

In the following episode, Gyu-ri, and later on Ji-soo, is kidnapped by the same gang in retaliation for terminating their partnership. Ji-soo comes to her rescue but Gyu-ri is already almost free (again, she’s really, really badass) and is demanding that they bring Ji-soo to her instead of running for her life.

Surviving this latest attempt puts the two in a reflective, vulnerable mood and Gyu-ri asks Ji-soo why he keeps saving her. Ji-soo asks later on why she keeps risking her life to be with him. They don’t say the answer in words but in an almost kiss (yeah, you read that right - almost).

And then, if you aren’t already convinced, Ji-soo crosses his one last remaining line in an effort to keep Gyu-ri safe; he accidentally pushes a fellow classmate down some steps and, instead of helping her, leaves her to die after grabbing the evidence she has on him and Gyu-ri.

Extracurricular pulls off quite the magic trick here, hiding this well done love story in the middle of a serious crime drama.

The real tragedy is that Ji-soo thinks that Gyu-ri views this whole business, and by extension his life, as one big game. It’s something that she takes offense at, visibly becoming upset when he says that.

But even if that were true, he should be assured since Gyu-ri doesn’t like to lose.

As they hurtle towards the end and face up to the consequences of their actions, Ji-soo and Gyu-ri undoubtedly lose sight of their original goals and dreams. They do some fairly horrible things to stay alive and ahead of the police who are close on their trail. You can’t really blame them for doing what they did; in the face of a society that has abandoned them, what they’re doing is a logical outcome to gain what they want so desperately and deserve so much: the chance to be free to live like normal, care-free people.

I can’t say for certain that they achieve that. The drama is serious in consequences and, at the end, the net around them is drawing tighter and tighter. I won’t spoil the ending scene for you, because I highly encourage you watch this drama yourself but I will say this: Ji-soo and Gyu-ri seem stuck in an impossible situation with nowhere to go, and no one to help them, with a clock ticking down towards either death or discovery by the police.

But, all the same, I’m always the optimist. They’ve gotten through situations like this before and they can certainly do so again. Maybe not as bad as this one, but not too far out of their league. And, like I mentioned before, Gyu-ri doesn’t like to lose. Especially when it comes to Ji-soo.

Their relationship is truly dangerous, as Ji-soo himself notes. Them being together is the source of their problems; they’re too much alike now, as opposed to the beginning of the drama where he stated that they’re too different. Their love is the kind of love where both of them are willing to burn the whole world down if it means keeping each other safe.

I’m a real sucker for those kind of love stories. No one’s a hero here. They’re just kids in high school, doing the best with what they know.

Who are we to judge what is right and wrong? Especially when the one committing the acts are high school kids who don’t know any better and just want to save each other?

Do we have that right?

Do they really deserve that punishment? Shouldn’t we be pointing fingers at the society that forced them to act this way?

Extracurricular really makes you think about that. Is it really so outlandish and terrible what Ji-soo and Gyu-ri do to survive when the adults who are supposed to be protecting them, teaching them better, have failed in their duty?

Maybe they really did win at the end. Not so much in succeeding in their goals but in gaining something that not even regular people are likely to find - a partner, a soulmate, someone who will stand by you no matter what.

If you do watch the ending, and are not an optimist like I am, then all I can say is this: whatever happened, they were together at the end.

They were together.

#extracurricular netflix #human class #netflix #kdrama #oh jisoo #bae gyuri #park joo hyun #park ju hyun #kim dong hee

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teruthecreator · 3 years

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okay. thoughts on the grad finale

gonna slap it under a readmore bc i’m Sure i’m gonna ramble.

uh spoiler warning for the finale of taz graduation, as well as spoilers for the season in general.

also, these are my own thoughts of how the season went, what the themes were, etc! if you don’t agree with me, that’s fine! but i don’t wanna have a convo w you in the replies about it i’ll be honest. if you want to share your opinion so badly, make your own post, alright? that good? we cool?

aight. so. finale thoughts.

to make it short: i think the finale was a satisfying end of a very good arc.

to expand upon that, let me share what i think the themes of graduation were and why the finale satisfies those themes.

i made a post about this a while back (here it is if you want) but my honest belief was that the theme of graduation was self-reliance: the concept that you don’t allow yourself to be governed by forces that go against your own beliefs. this concept was coined by essayist ralph waldo emerson to talk about how the american people shouldn’t allow the government to create laws that go against the will of the people. now, understandably, this feels very anti-capitalist which is what i think a lot of fans believed was reflected through the season.

but, in reality, self-reliance has more to do with being active in your government and making sure you’re being represented the way you want to be by your representatives. that’s sort of the vibe emerson was going for in his essay, and i think. in a sense? that translates to graduation. but i took self-reliance in the more metaphorical about breaking away from those things that are controlling you. which, in graduation, was A Lot Of Things.

the way i saw it, there were two major groups that inflicted order upon the world and the thundermen--conveniently separated as order and chaos (not the deities though, just the concepts).

the order half of control existed mostly through the school and the HOG. the HOG created the economic reliance on the heroes and villains system, which removed all literal meaning from those terms and turned them into bureaucratic titles. society existed under these very strict checks and balances; heroes and villains supplied money to the kingdom in terms of entertainment, which then boosted that kingdom’s creditability and allowed them to contribute more to nua’s economy, which then led heroes and villains to have a higher demand, thus perpetuating the cycle. it’s important to note that this term does not represent the sort of morality we expect for heroes and villains--hell, even the term “evil” turned into an arbitrary term used to show those heroes and villains who failed the system. this is the more prominent representation of control that the thundermen break away from in achieving their own self-reliance. they don’t see the value in a system that holds no real moral code (fitzroy Especially, but i’ll get into that in a bit), and can’t help the public when there’s actually a serious situation. as we saw with althea in the beginning, the HOG had no way to help the thundermen when they were dealing with the whole Demon Prince situation (as he had already placed some of his own people in there, proving these kind of systems are easily corruptible). so this wasn’t a system meant to Actually create heroes and villains--it was just a way of boosting the economy.

the chaos half of control existed primarily through grey and Chaos. grey represented how chaos could be controlled, through various means. he planted that tree for the centaurs to fight over because he knew it would constantly create conflict, which he enjoyed. he kept the school under a watchful eye to prevent anyone from stepping out of line with his grand ideas, and used several manipulation tactics to try and get his way (most notably, his own admittance of grooming fitzroy into joining his side, which didn’t work). grey was the perfect example of how chaos does not automatically mean a lack of control. he was very controlling in how he did things because he had an endgoal: find hieronymous and have a war. but he didn’t even realize he was contributing to a greater idea, that being Chaos’s insistence on causing general disarray. as we realize now, Chaos’s plan was both for them and Order, but i’m leaving Order out for a second because they only really rear their head in towards the end. for the most part, audiences were led to assume that Chaos was the Big Bad(TM); they were the one pulling the strings, allowing things to happen to cause general chaos and disarray. them supplying random mortals with their endless power was a way to plant chaos into the world of nua; but it was a chaos they controlled. fitzroy resisting them was not simply a refusal to bend to Chaos, but it was resisting the control put on him through his magic.

these systems were constricting the thundermen on both sides. when they thought they’d find help in one side, they were disappointed to find that there was nothing anyone could do. the only people who could fix their problems were...them. so they forged a new path, set new ideas, and became self-reliant. that’s what i think is the most important aspect of graduation; not the anti-capitalist implications of turning over the economic and political systems in place, but the idea that if nothing that is supposed to help you is actually helping that you can just...do your own thing!

and i think that’s what the finale really shows, at the end of the day. that these forms of control were not doing anything helpful, and were in fact ruining the fabric of space-time! that’s where i think Order comes in because Order is really...the ultimate culmination of control. they are aware that Everything being done will benefit their cause. the HOG? well, they make sure everybody’s so incompetent that they can do their work. grey? well, he’ll contribute to the plan without even realizing it. they even manipulated Chaos and enacted their own form of control over Chaos to make sure that they had no reason to believe that this plan couldn’t go wrong. but Order knew. Order always knew there was a chance for error, and that chance was very great. but they didn’t care! so long as they had control of things, they could try a hundred times to get it right. they had no care for mortals, unlike Chaos.

the thundermen showing Chaos the truth is the final jenga piece that collapses this tower of control. which is why the finale is so great.

travis does a phenomenal job of incorporating chaos (general chaos) into the battle mechanics. it may be stupid and slightly arbitrary, but having them change forms randomly and having to adapt to those new circumstances really does exemplify the season!!! the thundermen were constantly forced into new situations (being sidekicks/henches, fitzroy becoming a villain, being let in on the heiro dog situation, the unbroken chain trial, joining forces w grey, etc.), and in all of them they simply found a way to adapt and keep working their way. which made the finale generally interesting and also thematically interesting!

i think my favorite part of the entire fight scene is right at the end, when argo chucks the shark’s tooth necklace at Order. and time stops. and they’re given a choice.

the fact that they leave it to a coin toss?? oh my god...how fucking FITTING!! like, that’s disorderly. that’s going your own way. it’s new, it’s terrifying, it has DIRE UNKNOWNS ON EITHER SIDE, but it’s what they do! and...it ends up working out! i think it would’ve worked out either way, but the fact that they left it up to chance really shows how they aren’t allowing anything to control their actions.

AND THEN WE GET TO THE EPILOGUE. MY GOD I LOVE THE EPILOGUE I’M GONNA GO OFF SO MUCH.

first off, i loved hearing how Nua adapts to losing this very significant form of government/economic contributor and turns to more people-based work. citizens uniting together, fixing things, making amends, THAT’S SELF-RELIANCE BABEY!!! THAT’S THE WHOLE EMERSON SHIT! HAVING A SYSTEM OF GOVERNMENT THAT ACTUALLY HAS THE INTERESTS OF THE PEOPLE AT LARGE!!! YEAHHHHHHHHH THAT’S THE WHOLE SELF-RELIANCE THING!

now, i’ll break it down by characters:

fitzroy

GOD. LOVE IT. FIRST OFF, absolutely ADORED how his character arc involved him stripping himself of these self-assigned titles because he actually has an identity that is all his own and he doesn’t NEED arbitrary titles to prove his worth because HE HAS IT IN HIMSELF. not to self-plug or anything, but that’s ssoss!fitzroy’s WHOLE SHIT. I’VE ALREADY BEEN ON THIS TRAIN, BITCH, AND TO KNOW I GOT IT SO RIGHT...GOD. FEELS GOOD.

but also, i just really enjoy how his ending went in general. the fact that he doesn’t really know what he wants to do, so he just...does stuff he likes to do? that’s so good! because, if you remember, fitzroy had a Very set schedule of life events when the campaign started. he was going to get his wiggenstaffs degree, go back knight school, get his knight school degree, and then go to goodcastle. but all of that was based on a very limited understanding of himself.

fitzroy’s character arc has primarily focused finding himself, specifically in terms of identity. for someone who was bullied for his past, the present formation of himself was Extremely important to fitzroy. he thought that shutting out his past and taking on this grandiose title of knighthood would make him something more than himself. he would no longer be fitzroy; the poor, country kid trying to make it in a big world. he’d be Sir Fitzroy Maplecourt; respected, honored, revered, with a title to prove it.

he explains to fauxronymous (pre-reveal grey) that the reason he wanted to be a knight was because he wanted to assist in doing good. morally good. fitzroy has Always had a very clear sense of his morality; this comes through when he refuses Chaos on the basis of many people having to die if he agreed. but being a knight also had the added of bonus of a very respectable title that no one would want to look beyond, which fitzroy felt he needed because...i don’t think he Saw anything beyond that. in himself. he wasn’t himself for a very long time, and i don’t know if he ever thought he would be again. he’d wear this new identity, start a new life, and be happier....he hoped.

then, things changed! and he started to realize that arbitrary titles don’t do shit because plenty of people with Big Important Titles ended up being Awful People! so he started to value himself For Himself; his wit, his humor, his strength, his magical prowess. and, i think, he started to wonder what knighthood was Really about. was it about upholding a moral good? or was it just another bureaucracy filled with people who won’t do shit when things get bad.

i think this is why him becoming a lawyer is fitting. especially because of the reasoning he gives sylvia nite. now for A LOT OF PEOPLE, i’m sure they hear lawyer and assume some corporate hotshot who doesn’t give a shit about people. but fitzroy is Not applying to be a corporate laywer. he SPECIFICALLY telsl sylvia that he wants to help people who cannot help themselves, and he wants to do good in that way. THAT kind of lawyer is more of the pro-bono, district lawyer. the ones that don’t make crazy amounts of cash, but help those who cannot afford lawyers and represent them when the government is fucking them over. those lawyers don’t rely on title, they rely on principle.

that’s the perfect representation of fitzroy’s growth. holding his identity within himself, while still trying to do good by those who need it.

firbolg (aka gary)

i think the firbolg’s ending is so unique but so...right for him. his character arc has really been focused around finding his family. he had one, in the beginning, in his clan. but that didn’t end up, y’know...working out that much. so he had to go out into the world alone--something that firbolg’s are rarely--and try and navigate these foreign spaces all by himself.

we see very early on how he latches onto the idea of groups. he likes being considered a part of the thundermen; he very much hoists himself upon the CFO title and wears it proudly. i think, where fitzroy needed to find identity within himself, the firbolg needed to find it within other people. which is completely okay! he’s still an individual, but you can tell he finds comfort in numbers because that’s what he is used to.

him going back to his clan was, i believe, his finally severance with his identity as “firbolg”. he would never be welcomed back to his clan, and one of the few people in his life who supported him was now dead. but his father was proud of him; his father was happy he seemed to find his own clan, even if it wasn’t with other firbolgs. from that moment on, i think the firbolg begins to try finding himself within the thundermen. within his friends.

so his epilogue is neat! it definitely captures the loneliness he feels on his own, and how he feels lost with himself without others. i think it might seem silly to some that he would become a gary, but i think it’s fitting. the garys were always present in his time at school, and they were always helpful. they didn’t mind how long it took him to talk because the gary’s are stone gargoyles--what the fuck do they care about time? it was a group that the firbolg saw as familiar to him--always willing to help, slow, stony, and attuned to a larger group.

and i think the way gary takes this idea of unity and family and puts it into financial assistance just...it just ties everything together! we saw how attached he got to the concept of finances, thanks to his very confusing accounting class. so he had all of this new knowledge--this knowledge that represented a separation from firbolgs--and this new clan. and he used it to help other clans and families!! i think the fact that the Garys financial advice works specifically with groups is what makes this so fitting. because gary wants families to feel stable within themselves; he understands how finances can create struggle and divides, and he wants to provide relief.

giving financial advice to communities so they rely on themselves and not the government (aka inviting them to be controlled once more) is a VERY self-reliant concept. not that i think gary’s goal is to have no social networks to exist, but he wants to give communities the ability to rely on one another and foster that feeling of togetherness. so groups aren’t fighting over things, but are trusting and loving and relying.

just like gary’s always wanted. and just like what he has with the thundermen.

argo

argo’s ending is probably the funniest, but also the sweetest. i think that argo’s character arc revolved around finding his place. we see how argo’s early personality and motivations revolved around his past. he very much had a revenge story since the start; he wanted to enact revenge on the commodore for murdering his mother, no matter what it took. which made him very limited!! in terms of the self. he saw himself less for what he was now, and what he was then. and what he couldn’t do then.

we see how much he finds comfort in being a part of the thundermen, but also how he feels...out of place. i think this is because a part of him is still attached to his past and doesn’t think he can do anything beyond his set plan. the unbroken chain certainly contributes to this, by not only separating him from the trio but also reinforcing his connection to his past through his mother’s involvement in the unbroken chain.

the commodore also being a part of the unbroken chain is, i think, what causes the shift from past to present within argo. his life’s goal is standing right in front of him--attached to the group his mother once was a part of--with his friends at his side. letting the thundermen in on his history is the start of bridging these two halves of argo. and the fact that the thundermen are so willing to helps makes argo feel more a part of the team and more a part of this reality.

when he kills the commodore, it isn’t intense. it isn’t overly dramatic (minus the fight prior, which was BADASS), it isn’t crazily staged. it is argo, staring down the commodore who lies prone on the ground.

he kills himself unceremoniously and completes his life-long mission.

what becomes of him in the epilogue is the culimination of both past and present. he takes what he knows and loves (the sea, the mariah, sailing) and blends it with what he’s come to love now (his friends, this adventure, and making people happy). there are SO many instances where argo uses performance to his advantage. this man is piloted by clint mcelroy, of COURSE he’s going to have a flair for the dramatic.

so for him to open up a themed cruiseline, based on the stories of him and his friends? SO FITTING. and it isn’t forcing himself to leave his past behind or to completely ignore his present circumstances. because he’s found a place in the now, in the merging of these two sides. and by merging them, he paints a bright future for himself. a future that is partially known, partially not. partially old, partially new.

but it’s all his.

after that, i think their final scene is just...sweet. a nice, jovial, joking send-off to a nice season. it proves these people have grown and will continue to grow, even when we no longer see their story. it does exactly what graduation does--shows you a struggle, a triumph, and a glimpse into the future.

i’ll miss it so much, but there’s nothing more i could’ve asked of this ending. it was exactly what it needed to be; nothing more, nothing less.

#taz grad spoilers #taz graduation #sir fitzroy maplecourt #argo keene #firbolg #taz fitzroy #taz argo #taz firbolg #ignorance cloud on #this took a while and now my head hurts so lol!#also if there are spelling mistakes leave me alone i cant read this text anymore

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