#she's a pretty morally grey character she's not bad but definitely has some huge flaws and faults and this is what makes her interesting

[bluehairperson]

Nadia for the opinion bingo

I could write an essay on how I feel about her and her route but yeah, egh.

[itsd-man]

I wanted to get this off my chest... again, but I see Moon Butterfly from Star vs. the Forces of Evil as the “anti-hero” or the “Morally Grey” character, but definitely not the flat out Villain. I just really honest to god, don’t want to see her as the bad guy, and that’s not what the writers of the show certainly didn’t want to convey, and the stress is killing me from it. 

Her Ideals may be in the right place, especially near the end of Season 3 and Season 4 with her fighting Meteora, and Eclipsa inadvertently causing her to go to the Realm of Magic and unintentionally removing Eclipa’s dark magic she used “In Moon the Undaunted” , and then Moon not trusting Eclipsa’s leadership as queen (e.g. Mewmans kicked out of their Homes and Monsters returning to theirs)  Moon always had trouble letting go of her past after her Mother was killed by Toffee. She was pressured to do something becuase well. Moon and Eclipsa’s way of ruling were literally two sides of a coin, have different views on they ruled Mewni. 

Yes, Moon did work with Mina Loveberry to create the Solarian Warriors (dozens even), but It wasn’t her intention to physically harm anyone (Monsters or Mewmans), and Moon underestimated Mina’s Mental Stability and made a huge mistake, Mina pretty much went behind Moon’s back, that’s why Moon was surprised that she saw Star in “Here to Help” as she found a way to get back to Mewni through the well, and Moon inadvertently undid everything that Star and Eclipsa tried to work for because Moon, saw that Eclipsa’s methods weren’t for all citizens of Mewni, but her methods for teaming up with Mina weren’t the right choice. Her ideals may be right place, but her methods of doing so were in the wrong. 

So yeah, Eclipsa and Moon’s methods on how to rule a kingdom their way are way different from one another, like two sides of a coin, but that doesn’t necessarily make them bad people because of it, it’s just, they are flawed characters who make mistakes. Eclipsa’s methods were mostly favoring Monsters more than Mewmans rather than both, and Moon’s methods were favoring Mewmans who were subjected to Eclipsa’s methods of ruling her way, and Moon was okay with Monsters living with Mewmans, as in “Pizza Party” she said to Mina she didn’t want to hurt Monsters.

That’s why Star was not just upset at not just Moon’s actions but also Eclipsa’s to an extent. Eclipsa is also a morally grey character as well (which a lot of people simply glanced over because, “Eclipsa’s mysterious”, I guess). As she was only was trying to cater the Monsters given she has a close relationship with them, especially her husband Globgor, and not so much the Mewmans, Eclipsa’s was manipulative with her magic, and used it to try to free Globgor by getting into Rhombulous’ head in “Swim Suit”, got in to Star’s head by rebuilding the Book of Spells in “The Monster and the Queen”, and “The Right Way” when she used The Spell With No Name on that Solarian Warrior, we can see how damaging the spell can be even decimating part of a mountain. Sure, more Mewmans were willing to accept Eclipsa being their queen in “Cornonation” but Eclipsa was more favored towards the Monsters as their Queen.  

So yeah, to claim that Moon was the main cause of Star’s difficult decision to destroy Magic from her decisions is only partially correct, as Eclipsa herself has done some questionable choices as well, as they were certainly the catalysts to trigger Star’s decisions, but Star only did it so that she could restore their relationships as seen in this tapestry in the Grandma room in “The Tavern at the End of the Multiverse”

And, even Moon eventually realized that her actions were wrong in the long run and wanted it to make it up to Star. I could into further detail on why the destruction Magic was good in terms of the story, but you can read a portion of it here. But to put it shortly, it was meant to end the Butterfly Family Monarchy’s history of the Misuse of Magic, like the Magic used by Solaria, Eclipsa, Moon, and to make sure people like Mina couldn’t use it for bad deeds anymore. 

And when Moon is eventually forgiven, Star says that even though we aren’t Queens anymore, we still get to choose on what family we get to be, and she wants to be the kind of Family where they mess up and figure out how to fix it, instead of getting overly upset over it. Star and Moon may fuss and fight overtime, but deep down they still love each other very much, as Moon did change her ways for the better. 

[my-miraculous-headcanons]

hey, i love your ideas!! I think it’d be really really interesting to hear what your ideal version of the series is?? don’t know how to explain lol, but like.. if everything was done great and you could find any flaws with the show,, what would that miraculous ladybug look like? like your view on the ‘perfect miraculous ladybug’ would look like ! sorry, im really bad at explaining things, anyway i love ya!! 💕

My ideal version of the series? I think I’ve done something similarly before, tagged as Original Concepts AU. 

My personal view on the perfect Miraculous Ladybug would be one more based on a lot of the pre-production concepts. Concept Marinette and Adrien are older, and struggle with much different battles than our current Marinette and Adrien.

It’s implied that the magic from the Miraculous flows through the holders’ body constantly, meaning that even as civilians they have improved strength and other magical abilities. I find this particularly interesting when it’s paired with the concept of Adrien with a cane— it implies that before suddenly discovering magical power, he had a weak body and trouble walking. This gave a legitimate reason for him to have been forcefully homeschooled for his entire life, and another reason why his family would suddenly decide that he’s well enough to attend school with other students now. (Of course, I doubt he’d drop the whole façade completely, because it would be extremely suspicious if he miraculously recovered in a single night.) 

I like the concept idea of an Adrien mixed a little bit with Felix’s personality. He’s a good kid, polite and friendly when spoken to, and won’t go out of his way to be a jerk for no reason. But, he’s still very reserved on personal matters and won’t hesitate to enact a little payback on people who deserve it. (Especially those who make comments on his cane.) Unlike current Adrien, my perfect version of Adrien would not have tolerated Lila’s BS, or Chloe’s, for that matter. He’d be using his bad luck abilities on them rather often.

My perfect version of Marinette is very closely tied to the Marinette in the Mini Menace Ladybug cover pages from the very beginning. She’s an already confident and spunky young lady who’s popular and kind, all before she discovered the Ladybug Miraculous. She’s also more closely tied with her Chinese origins, speaking it fluently and it, apparently, being the first language she uses when speaking or calling for her family.

Furthermore, this Ladybug isn’t the universally loved one we know. She’s on the run from the cops, attempting to stop crimes, study crime scenes, and discover clues that will lead her to her #1 opponent, Hawkmoth. This Marinette isn’t distracted from her goal, and doesn’t just do the bare-minimum of just purifying akumas. She goes above and beyond in order to try and stop her enemy.

And… if I’m going to be honest, my absolute perfect version of Miraculous Ladybug would be Ladybug working alone. I don’t mean that Chat Noir doesn’t exist― he absolutely does! The difference here is that he’s not her partner and isn’t helping her out. He has no reason to, and since her mission to take down Hawkmoth is more personal, (since, in the concepts he apparently orchestrated the murder of her father,) Marinette isn’t all too inclined to take him on as a partner either. They only ever work together on special occasions when their goals line up. 

This makes Chat Noir a reoccurring character without him stealing any spotlight, and shapes him into something more morally grey without making him out to be the villain. And, in this version of ML, the show would be focused on only Marinette’s point of view, so it wouldn’t start off with us knowing Chat’s identity. Because for one, he’s not the main character and therefore it isn’t important for his identity to be known from the very beginning, and secondly, it leaves the audience going wild in trying to figure out who he is and what his goals are. Not only that, but there would be… a lot of theories of whether or not he’s a good guy, or if Ladybug should trust him, or if he’s working for Hawkmoth, etc, etc. 

There’s more on how I would make this show better suited to my tastes. For one, the whole villain of the day episodic order needs to be thrown out. It’s not working out currently and it certainly wouldn’t work out with the concept premise. Secondly, Adrien is not directly related to Hawkmoth, and therefore isn’t smack-dab in the middle of all the drama, making it all about him. And thirdly, all development is slow-going, including any romance development, meaning that the love square would not be the main hook for the show. (Honestly, making the love square the main hook is a huge mistake, because that gets stale quickly.) 

Let’s see, what else… Well, since this show is more focused on Marinette, and since she is powered even when she doesn’t have the super suit on, there would be a lot more instances where Certified Civilian Marinette Dupain-Cheng is seen doing some pretty badass stuff. A lot of screen time is going to be dedicated to her doing her thing even without the mask, like sneaking into places using her innocent civilian face, or commanding the classroom to either evacuate or come up with a plan where her and her classmates can work together to get out of difficult situations. (And even maybe beat the bad guy along the way.)

As for the romance department, in an ideal ML, I’d want it being slow-burn, and maybe even start off as one-sided, with Adrien slowly but surely beginning to like both Marinette and Ladybug. Marinette would take a lot longer, being so focused on finding her father’s killer. 

That’s… all I got for the moment. But honestly, I really love imagining this version of ML. I may even do a complete ML rewrite with this version in mind someday. Fluff may be my love, but this darker version of ML with older kids who act more mature is definitely more engaging to me.

[ettadunham]

A Buffy rewatch 7x09 Never Leave Me

aka tired of subtle

We did it, guys! We made it to the last season! Also, hello if you’re new, and stumbled upon this without context. As usual, these impromptu text posts are the product of my fevered mind as I rant about the episode I just watched for an hour (okay, sometimes perhaps two). Anything goes!

And I prefer today’s episode to Sleeper as a post-Big-Bad-reveal kick-off to our season’s main arc in multiple ways. Also, Willow drags Andrew. Literally.

Season 7, as a whole, struggles from the main story arc taking up too much of its time. People often hate on filler episodes, but the truth is, you can’t fill out 22 episodes of television with a singular, focused story arc. And you shouldn’t.

Not to mention that fillers are a great way to explore characters without being bogged down by an overarching plot. (So stop hating on their concept, just because some shows do them badly.)

Buffy at its best realized that these things – your main arc, your character stories and your fillers – can coexist in the same episodes. Some of the best episodes of the show are one-off stories, using a unique set-up or villain of the week while focusing on characters and pushing the season arc on some level.

Unfortunately, the structure of season 7 makes it much harder to tell these kinds of stories. Our Big Bad is ever-present, and the battles and confrontations with it are constant throughout the season, once the reveal happens in episode 7.

I’m pointing this out not to criticize Never Leave Me, but to emphasize how good it is, and why the issue of the season has more to do with trying to keep up with the pace this episode sets.

Oh, yeah. Hot takes I guess about the episode that ranks 98th on iMDB. Never Leave Me is pretty good.

(I kinda wanna look up each episode’s iMDB ranking at this point before writing up on them, just for funsies, but I also don’t want to be influenced by the popular opinions? The struggle.)

To be fair though, part of my fondness for this episode comes from my feelings regarding the previous one. Watching it, I felt like I was seeing a much better version of what a follow up to Conversations with Dead People would look like.

And a lot of that has to do with Spike. And Buffy.

I spent the last time ranting at length about how I just don’t connect with Spike, and that’s okay. Pretty much all Buffy characters are incredibly flawed, and we all relate to and/or gravitate towards different ones, based on our own experiences. I love that. I love that these are well-rounded characters who change and grow in both surprising and consistent ways.

I also like Spike much better in this episode, because his story relates to Buffy much more strongly. Which does seem to be the best way for me to find a connection to Spike in any given episode (see also: Fool for Love).

I guess another aspect is that unlike Sleeper, this episode focuses much less on his romanticism. He instead talks about his past. About the horrific things he’s done. About his and Buffy’s self-hatred. About how he understands it and that she used him now, and how he didn’t back then.

More importantly, Buffy gets to fire back. She did tell him all those things last season. It’s why she ended things with him in the first place. She also challenges his assumptions about that self-hatred as a current motivation in what’s decidedly my favorite scene of the episode.

SPIKE:  “Have you ever really asked yourself why you can’t do it? Off me? […] You like men who hurt you.” BUFFY:  “No.” SPIKE:  “You need the pain we cause you. You need the hate. You need it to do your job, to be the Slayer.” BUFFY:  “No. I don’t hate like that. Not you, or myself. Not anymore. You think you have insight now because your soul’s drenched in blood. You don’t know me. You don’t even know you. […} Listen to me. You’re not alive because of hate or pain. You’re alive because I saw you change. Because I saw your penance. […] You faced the monster inside you and you fought back. You risked everything to be a better man.”

I love this scene, because Spike posits something that’s in line with Buffy’s own fears about her relationships, something that she voices as far back as season 4. That maybe she herself seeks out these painful, dramatic romances.

…But this discussion isn’t really just about that, isn’t it? And even if Buffy hasn’t quite landed yet on how to approach her romantic history, she has plenty of self-knowledge. She knows why she hasn’t and won’t kill Spike now.

Buffy sees and believes in the best of people. Even when they don’t. And here she shows the same compassion to Spike that she did to Angel as far back as season 1.

See, she’s a protector, not a killer. And one with a huge fucking heart at that.

That’s why she didn’t kill Spike. At worst, she saw him as non-threatening to others after his chip debacle, at best, she saw a potential for him to become better.

Still. How does one reconcile this characterization of Buffy with what we see in Selfless? Has Anya not proved more than enough times that she can be better? That she’s more than just the vengeance demon she used to be?

Worse, when Buffy and Xander argue about the difference between stopping Anya then, and Willow at the end of season 6, Buffy’s argument doesn’t really make sense once you think about it. She says that they weren’t planning on killing Willow, because Willow’s human. But from everything we know of vengeance demons, there really isn’t any distinction between them and a human with powers. They still have their souls.

So the distinction Buffy makes between Anya’s and Willow’s case feels arbitrary. And so does the decision to not kill Spike at certain points of the story.

But that’s what Buffy says in Selfless, isn’t it? “Someone has to draw the line.” And in a world with no clear-cut black and white morality, that line is arbitrary.

Buffy’s been acutely aware of the fact that the world she operates in is full of grey areas ever since Lie to Me. There are no easy answers or choices, even when you’re fighting literal creatures from hell, but someone has to makes these decisions regardless. Someone has to draw the line. And that’s Buffy.

But I think that’s why she finds it all the more important to choose hope sometimes. She has to be prepared, yes, and she can’t rely on the power of love alone, as discussed before. Her responsibilities come first. But she can offer a choice.

Even in Selfless, one of the most important moments for Buffy is when she implores Xander to find her another way to deal with Anya. Which is what Willow ends up doing, by asking D’Hoffryn to offer up the same kind of choice to Anya, that Buffy felt unable to in this situation.

Never Leave Me is also the episode where the gang meets Andrew again. More accurately, Willow runs into him, and he’s terrified. As he should be.

ANDREW:  “Warren killed Tara. I didn’t do it. And he was aiming for Buffy anyway.” WILLOW:  “Not making it better.”

In case you missed it, this was a direct callback to another scene:

WARREN:  “It was an accident, you know.” WILLOW:  “Oh. You mean, instead of killing my best friend, you killed my girlfriend.”

Listen, all I’m saying that if Willow flayed Andrew after that line? I wouldn’t have blamed her.

But Willow these days is less about the murder, so instead she just stares incredulously at Andrew after that little moment of rage-inducing blunder. And they both nerd-monologue at each other, I guess?

(Sidenote: I don’t think I ever got around to mention this with the last season, but there’s an interesting and somewhat uncomfortable interpretation of the Trio, as a mirror to Willow’s own character. Mostly the worst parts of her at that of course, but there are definitely some parallels here; particularly to Warren and his tech savviness, and Jonathan and his magical abilities. Andrew is probably the least obvious example though – unless we take his relentless gay-coding as a nod to that.)

This whole storyline of course ends up being played mostly for comedy, as Anya and Xander take it upon themselves to test their interrogation techniques on Andrew. And it’s fun, too, seeing them work together without the added baggage that was their romantic relationship. It makes me both root much more for them to get back together, and wish that they wouldn’t, because they work so much better like this.

Even if Xander’s speech to Andrew is obviously supposed to be about himself, and how he’s still not over Anya.

XANDER:  “There was this one guy, her hurt her real bad, so she paid him back. She killed him, but she did it real slow. See, first she stopped his heart, then she replaced it with darkness, then she made him live his life like that. But he still had to go do his job, and see his friends, and wake up in the morning, and go to bet ad night, but he had to do it all empty. Without anything to look forward to. Ever.”

Honey… I know you know this, but you did this to yourself.

Oh, and isn’t it fun that when the Harbringers attack, one of the first things they do is knock Willow unconscious? It’s almost as if the show is trying not to call attention to the fact, that she could probably take these guys out in a second with magic.

But at least this gives Dawn some chance to kick ass, so that’s always a plus.

Another side-plot that’s happening is with my boy, Robin, who finds Jonathan’s body in the basement. And decides to bury It instead of telling anyone about it.

I’m sure there’s an explanation to this other than making us believe that he’s a bad guy, but I honestly can’t even remember. We’ll see, I guess.

The episode ends with Buffy making the connection that they’re up against the First, and the First itself monologuing at Spike about how it’s tired of being subtle. Which feels very meta in an ironic kind of sense from the show, but also marks a questionable turn in the season arc.

There’s a lot of cool concept and potential (hehe) in the First as a Big Bad, that we’ve seen demonstrated in Conversations with Dead People. It knows things. It can appear as anyone you know who died. It can mess with you in infinite ways.

In this scene though, the First is talking about bringing these Uruk-hai vampires to the surface, and that’s just not as interesting as those other tactics. Even if Buffy gets to have cool fights with them.

But that’s still to come. Who knows, maybe I’ll appreciate the super vampires after all.

Also appreciated – those scene of Quentin and the Watcher’s Council being their usual, holier-than-thou selves, keeping information from Buffy, and relying on empty platitudes... immediately followed by them getting blown up.

Yeah. This show’s anything but subtle, that’s for sure.

[wonderfulworldofmichaelford]

Episodyssey: Equal Fights

It’s been a while since I did one of these, and Shockingly the first time I’ve talked about The Powerpuff Girls. I think for a situation like this, we should all ease back into the series with a fun, lighthearted topic that I think we all can enjoy.

So let’s talk about feminism!

(I’m sure this is most of you reading this right now.)

“Equal Fights” is a rather infamous episode of the show, in which the girls try and accost a female robber named Femme Fatale who manages to turn the girls into man-hating straw feminists, much like she herself is. That is, of course, until positive female role models teach the girls what it really means to stand up for women and that people like Femme Fatale are merely paying the idea lip service so they can deflect blame and criticism from themselves. Pretty lighthearted and fun for a kid’s show, eh?

This is one of the most divisive episodes of the entire series these days, and honestly, I do kind of see why. Like, this is a superhero action cartoon aimed at kids, and it is dealing with a very serious topic, and since this show isn’t known for its deep moralizing or anything it’s obviously not going to be able to give this topic the 100% due that it deserves. And in a lot of ways it doesn’t; this is a pretty watered down look at a very big topic, even more constrained by the episode’s 11 minute runtime. It takes a brilliant mind to cram such serious topics into such a short timespan.

(Not all shows can be the same level of godly quality as Captain Planet)

But on the other hand, I do think there is value in introducing stuff like this to younger audiences, especially younger girls. I think stuff like this can give you a lot to think about, a lot to read up on, a lot of questions to ask, even if it isn’t necessarily perfect at portraying the issues at hand. And honestly, even if it is pretty simplified, the message of this episode most definitely has its heart in the right place. You should be willing to call out people who are trying to use feminism as a free pass to be an asshole, you should correct girls who think being empowered means they are superior, you should try and educate calmly and try and steer younger people who are being lead astray by false icons to the righteous path. Like, this isn’t a bad message to send to young people, these are all very good things.

I think a lot of the problem honestly lands squarely on how Femme Fatale is written. She’s just not a particularly interesting villain at all. The term “strawman” is used so utterly poorly in internet arguments these days it has basically just become a codeword for “thing you said I don’t like,” but if ever there was a strawman character, it is Femme Fatale. And again, it’s not like what she represents is good or right, but she’s seriously hamfisted and… uhhh… cartoonish to the point where it’s almost laughable that she could ever lead anyone astray. All that being said, I can’ say she serves her purpose poorly, she just could have used some better or more nuanced writing to her, as most of her positions are absurdly transparent, particularly the one in regards to superheroines where there are so many obvious answers that it’s painful.

(THIS position of hers is perfect, though)

And yeah, I get it,  11 minutes blah blah blah. But here’s the thing with PPG: the villains are all quirky, interesting, and fun, even if they have simple and cartoonish personalities. A lot of these villains can fit into a lot of different stories, and they don’t just have one role that theye always play. Mojo can pull of petty crimes and scientific schemes and it makes sense, Him can kick the dog and poke the poodle and you can buy it, Princess can be a snotty brat in one episode and literally trying to hijack Christmas in another and you can buy it because while these are simple characters they have the sort of personalities you can bend to fit a situation. 

Femme Fatale does not have this. She is literally a straw figure meant to be struck down by FACTS and LOGIC and REASON. And while she serves that purpose well, she does not feel like a PPG antagonist at all. It’s no wonder she was never used as an antagonist again, because really, what the fuck other stories could she be in? Any story in which she was a major antagonist would feature her being an obnoxious man-hating straw feminist espousing the same ideology that was stripped apart and shown as garbage in her first outing. She just does not have the foundation for a good or interesting character, which is a real shame too because her costume, design, and voice acting (courtesy of Grey Griffin or Grey DeLisle as you may know her) are all perfectly fine. It’s just that all of that ends up being wasted on a character who only exists to be proven wrong.

(Her Psycho Analysis score is 2/10)

I guess this is really just a case where I can see where anyone’s opinion on this episode is coming from. On the one hand, it does have good messages and morals, and it does show that you shouldn’t allow people to use feminism as a smokescreen to hide their actions, as well as giving a sort of brief history lesson about Susan B. Anthony.

But on the other hand, it centers on a bland antagonist who exists solely to be the antithesis of the message and is extremely unsubtle and hamfisted in its moral, and given the restrictions of the show it doesn’t really give the topic the full examination it deserves. The episode is ultimately a mixed bag, one that I think has value but is most certainly flawed.

It’s kind of sad, though, that Lauren Faust views this episode as such a huge failure on her part. Like, yes, maybe she did try and tackle a topic that was far too big for a kid’s cartoon show about superpowered preteens who beat the shit out of a monkey with a giant brain who talks like a dictionary describing Lex Luthor stealing forty cakes, but this is not writing of hers that is devoid of quality or merit.

No, that’s an entirely different episode of a show she wrote.

(I’ll be getting to THIS cunt eventually)

[playchoicesconfessions]

I decided to make this a separate text post because i have a lot to say and a lot of tea to spill. So i need the read more.

Imma spill the tea right now and remember these are all OPINIONS and people are bound to get BUTTHURT. You can agree or disagree with me I couldn’t care less. I just need to let free of those things that I’m holding in before going on break.☕☕☕☕☕

I personally really enjoy it and don’t get much of the bitching around tbh? And this is coming from someone who doesn't really like sci-fi too much.

The LIs look amazing ( although Titania is bugging me the wrong way and Meridian’s arms are far too bloated. This aint a swimming aid). Even the ones of the siblings.

Moving on, I do not really get the comparison to RoE??? Except that the main characters has siblings tbh. I expected it to be more like Endless Summer (without tons of stuff to buy or relationship meter) or TcaTf and so far my expectations has not been proved wrong at all. The plot finally settled in lately and I can expect a train of feels to rush over the next few chapters.

I think the reason why people are complaining so much about it is because they expect it to be like your general romance story. The book is not introduce Li -> romantic scene with them -> introduce next 2 LI -> Event -> romantic scene and rinse and repeat. This book follows a clear story line and sets the romance on the back burner. I’m pretty sure if TCaTF would have been released right now it would face the same criticism tbh. About it be RoE like because you can also control Dom etc…

This is what I love personally. I’m not that big on romance stories so having a more adventure style is amazing. Now before you come and say “why are you playing choices then???” Well Hon, this is Choices STORIES You Play, not Choices romance you play or Choices pixels you fuck

Back to where I was, I love it even more since it has a morality meter. I love these in games especially when they severely alter gameplay and stories like in your usual Shin Megami Tensei games. But knowing choices, the alterations would be very minor if not that would mean the writers would have to make 3 chapters a week as opposed as one. Plus keeping the choices super drastic will make it hard to get a sequel book to it because the writers would have to write again 3 chapters per week and ATV2 will be essentially 3 books.

I also get the complaints that MC does not get much to act and we get to play as the siblings more. First of all I find this questionable but mind you i haven’t counted the scenes. Anyway I’m pretty sure MC has more scenes but the thing is, they are just not as remarkable as those with Pax and Eos. You are just so used your regular cut of mill MC that they no longer feel special and rhe scenes with the siblings feel different. They might not let you feel awe constantly but they amek you feel something else and you have to adapt to fit the new perspective you are playing as.

Now the Zekei thing… I actually think if you love Zekei that is actually an amazing situation you are in because think of it. You will be basically getting 2x more Zekei scenes if you romance him both on MC and Eos. Remember that you are the one controlling both of them, it is not like there js another person beside you and the two of you are in competition to win Zekei’s heart. And if you do not want X to romance him, just don’t romance him. No need to be cry babies and claim Y stole your man when you are clearly the one that led up to these actions 🤷‍♀️

Now Pax and Eos themselves…These characters are definitely flawed but thing is … I remember people asking PB for more morally grey and flawed MCs. Now you get them and just diss them out??? Conclusion : you ain’t really for morally grey characters and should try not asking for stuff you can’t handle. I think playing as them is actually a good thing to be honest. I’m 100000% sure that eventually the family will separate as Eos goes complete Vanguard and Pax goes Jura. The different perspective during the war will help lean the players to either side and also pull the strings of the player as they will be opposing the siblings’ own blood. Unfortunately I can’t really explain what I mean through words so I’m just going to summarize it by this:

ATV is definitely neither a romance or adventure book and sci-fi is just the setting. The true nature of Across The Void is a familial tragedy imo and it will shine if it continues delivering in that essence.

This is an entirely new genre PB is going for and a really interesting one and I sure hope they go in that angle. If they do continue like that it might actually end up at my favorite choices book and trust me, I love ILITW so much that there are barely any books that come close to it to me.

However, I won’t deny it. ATV does have glaring weaknesses. Namely:

1.Too many shades of purple. Purple is a beautiful colour but in such excess it feels a bit nauseating.

2.Eos X Lyra is a car crash that will be really hard to salvage. It is super cringy. I’ll be doing anything in my power to avoid it. Eos X Zekei is super fluid and natural though and I’m really liking it.

3.Labelling your twins as annoying. This is bad marketing. Naming people that the users are going to play as annoying gives people a bad foretaste and will obviously affect their future experience with them. I think if they didn’t call the twins annoying, people would approve of them more. But Pb already seeded the annoying mindset in people’s mind and so it because hard for some to enjoy them because of it.

4.I’m probably going to get a lot of flame for it but Titania. I’m not really liking her and her design to be honest. Like one of our previous confessions said her appearance is very strange, even for the book she is in. Plus she is giving me Drake vibes (minus the whiskey) who is someone I do not really approve of.

5.Too much going on!!!! This time I’m not talking about plot wise, this time I’m talking about content. You have 4 Lis ( possibly 5 if Zekei is available to MC too) to give time to for MC. Plus each sibling I’m guessing has at least two. I’m guessing Zania and Holmes for Pax and Zekei and Lyra for Eos. You have the robot and bartender sub romance going on. Passenger and Crew Management. Moral Alignment. Huge story that requires a lot of time to properly bloom. Eventual sex with LI option that probably 60% of you have been lusting for. There is just too much to fit in just 1 book! And repeating what I said far above, with the Moral Alignment thing, it will be hard to get a sequel. The book is already at its 6th or 6th chapter. If they intend to wrap everything up in this book we will end up with probably a 35 chapter book and thats just redundant by choices standards. I think the highest amount of chapters a book has is 22 i think with RoE2 and any book with 20+ chapters feels too long so yeah.

6.Also talking about Zania she should have already got a proper introduction when we are using Pax because the gears of the plot are already turning unless they want it to be a super slow burn but that would be a bit redundant considering how she is after Pax based om the chapter in which she is introduced.

7.The most glaring weakness though had to be the lack of lore and background information. We are thrust into a fictitious world with no information about it will alienate the player (no pun intended) and make them less likely to be engaged. No background information worked in the case of endless summer as the cast also didn’t know about what was going on. Noth the player and the characters understood what was happening at the same time. One way they could have set it up is that …. Do you guys remember the Sol, Kepler etc… teasers? Well instead of showcasing the LIs they should have posted lore bits. Like say for the Devinee (did I write this right? Its the tree people). They make an image with Lyra, or any other devinee on it and explain the race, their characteristics and tid bits about their planets. They could even go further and add another button, just like the one for the closet that would bring you to another menu where they would have all this information plus other general important ones like what exactly are the Vanguard and Juras. Why the war is exactly happening. Artemis and her company and stuff and get even more background information as we complete more options. Plus if PB wanted money they could even monetize them like they did in ILITW with Mr.Red’s origin stories that you got from the crow. It is entirely optional and not need to understand what is going on but is still interesting and puts things under a different microscope.

Anyway thats all I had to say. Again it is all my OPINION you are very welcome to disagree. I won’t be replying to anything so if you intend to attack me and stuff well then, congratulations you lost 5 minutes losing your shit and attacking me. Now I’m going on break, see you guys when I’m back. I’m sure I’ll have an amazing break since i emptied my trash!

thank you for sending this question @choices-addicted by the way!

-Mod Frosty

[dellaliz19]

Jessica Jones, season 2 review (spoilers!)

Firstly, I had not been expecting this season to drop, so that was a pleasant suprise! I’m a huge fan of Jessica Jones: it’s my favourite Marvel tv show, and I found her character to be the best part of an uneven season of The Defenders. The first season of Jessica Jones was like an anti-superhero superhero show: a dark, dirty personal noir that looked at heavy themes of rape, abuse, consent and trauma. With a pretty strong first season debut, season 2 has a lot of expectations to live up to...did it manage to do so? I think it did!

Most of the critic reviews I read going into season 2 called the season some variation of more “narratively messy” than season 1. I can’t particularly say I disagree, but I think that’s only rather because, at its core, season 1 had a very black and white antagonist. David Tenant’s Kilgrave was an utter force of presence, but he was a straight up bad guy, and the right answer was always clear there. Killing him was the right thing to do, and the characters, and we, the audience, knew that.

In contrast, season 2 doesn’t offer any moral choices quite as clear. Nor does it really have a chief antagonist, so to speak. If season 1’s overarching theme was surviving and triumphing over your abuse and abuser, then I’d call season 2 theme the age old question of: are we good people doing bad things, or bad people doing good things? The question is a popular one in media, but it’s a fallacy of course. The real answer is we’re all just people, doing good and bad things, and Jessica Jones is so refreshing because it really gets that grey ambiguity.

This is displayed perfectly in the main female characters of the season: Jessica herself, Trish, Jeri Hogarth and newcomer Alisa. There’s a great quote by a comic book writer I can’t quite find at this moment, but to paraphrase its basically “don’t just write “strong women,” write weak women and good women and bad women, and women who ‘don’t need no man’ and women who want a man desperately. Write women: write real women.” Jessica Jones really nails this in season 2: Jessica, Trish, Jeri and Alisa are all these complex characters who are allowed to have flaws. Jessica is an alcoholic and has anger management issues and struggles with human attachment, Trish wants to help people, but is also is an addict and a user and desires fame and recognition and power, Jeri is a dying, scared woman who is also vulnerable and manipulative and so smart and brutal and Alisa is a caring mother and a violent, murderous psychopath. These women are sometimes very hard to like, and sometimes so easy to love, but they’re all so deep and messy and real, and I cannot help but have so much massive respect for that. This is also a trait that’s carried to the other supporting characters: Malcolm remains morally grey and messy, and so to does new addition Carl, a fascinating character study in good intentions paving the road to hell and the desire for fame and recognition and legacy.

Again, narratively this season is a little less clear cut: is does sometimes feel like we get stuck in a loop towards the last few episodes where in Jessica seesaw’s between locking her mother up and then doing something good with her and deciding to let her go. Alisa’s arc was unfortunately really painted into only one corner by the end, and although that moment was still powerful, I can’t help but wonder if the show will really follow through with this new, interestingly toxic aspect to Trish and Jessica’s relationship. Furthermore, the show never seems to be able to pick a tone for the “powered people prejudice.” They clearly want to to be a metaphor, but it’s as of yet a pretty ill defined one. New rival PI Pryce Cheng’s arc never really feels like it had forward momentum. He goes from threatening her, to suing her, to stealing from her and having his buddy killed, to shooting her, and then he just...gives up? Hires Malcolm and jokes about Jessica to Jeri? As a secondary antagonist he gets abandoned towards the end of the season, which is a pity. And, although I really applaud the moral complexity that Trish has gained in this season, I feel like there are going to be a lot less viewers excited about seeing her as Hellcat next season. Having her going from broken, leaving Jessica’s office after having to try and deal with Jessica’s response to her killing her mother to that little smirk in the elevator when she realizes she does have some kind of power is really appropriate for the charcter she was this season...but it does sort of rub the wrong way, and for a charcter I know was a fan favourite, it’s going to be a decision that bothers a lot of people.

Still, some of my favourite moments:

- Jeri realizing she’d been conned and dropping to the floor. Powerful scene by Carrie-Anne Moss, and amazing vulnerability for such a hard ass of a character

- Jeri conning the woman who conned her into murdering her boyfriend and just causally waiting outside. Jeri Hogarth is not a woman with mess with, and that was a scene that just so fit her character.

- Carl really was a great new charcter. His devotion to Alisa was so complex but it felt so genuine, and you really got the impression that he’d had good intentions and done terrible things, and was trying to reconcile it. It would have been so easy to just make him “an evil scientist” and I’m relieved they didn’t go that route. And, having him also be an addict: of science and of wanting his legacy with Trish at the end was so in keeping with the seasons theme.

- Newcomers Oscar and his son were also welcome additions. It was really rewarding to see Jessica try to make an effort and fit herself into a real life again, and both Oscar and the kid felt like real, layered people.

- The Kilgrave delusion episode was the perfect use of that character. It was an incredibly effective visual metaphor for Jessica’s moral struggle and turmoil about killing, but it didn’t make the season about Kilgrave.

- I like that Malcolm grew a spine and really stepped out of his shell. I’d prefer him working with Jessica, but I like that his arc felt very natural for who he is, and I’m interested to see what kind of shady shit he’s going to get into now.

- Jessica and her mother’s relationship was incredibly well done. It was great to see her and her mother talk about the past, about the accident and to watch them try to find each other again. By the time they got on that Ferris wheel you knew exactly what was going to happen, but somehow, I still wanted them to run away and fight wars together, and from where they started, that’s a real testament of the story telling.

So, final verdict: Jessica Jones season 2 isn’t quite the tight, dark noir season 1 was. But that doesn’t mean it isn’t as good. Season 2 is still intensely personal, and it’s a season that asks a lot of morally grey questions and delivers morally grey answers. If you enjoyed the first season, season 2 should definitely deliver for you!

[sultaiascendancy-blog]

Since magic origins we gotten roughly half human/ non-human planeswalkers in cards. Counting Angrath getting a card, we got 17 human walker cards and 16 non-humans planeswalker cards. Also except for magic origins, conspiracy 2 (which was tied) and Amonkhet each block since magic origins has had more non-human planeswalkers then human planeswalkers.

Yeah, it’s true that the total number of post-Origins planeswalkers have been pretty much 50/50 when it comes to human versus non-human. BFZ was 60/40 in favor of non-humans. SOI and Kaladesh were 50/50. Amonkhet was 60/40 in favor of humans. If you want to count planeswalker decks, Kaladesh’s and Amonkhet’s were 50/50 as well. Ixalan block is shaping up to be either 60/40 or 40/60, with the planeswalker decks being either 50/50 or 75/25 in favor of humans. It depends on who the non-Angrath planeswalker in the main set and non-Vraska planeswalker in the planeswalker decks end up being in Rivals.

But none of that was what I was addressing. I’m primarily concerned with new planeswalkers. And with new planeswalkers, it’s not close to 50/50 at all. Our eight most recent new planeswalkers have been Narset, Kaya, Dovin, Saheeli, Arlinn, Samut, Huatli, and Angrath. Notice any trends? 6 out of 8 are human. Those same 6 are all female. 5 of those 6 are women of color, with the remaining one (Arlinn) being white but older than most planeswalkers, thus still functioning as representation. It’s also worth noting that since Tarkir, there’s been one such planeswalker (representative human female) in every block save BFZ, as well as in Conspiracy. Not that this is necessarily a bad thing, it’s just that every one of these planeswalkers comes at the expense of another potential planeswalker.

The remaining two planeswalkers, Dovin and Angrath, are male and non-human. That means that only 25% of new planeswalkers recently have been non-human (or male, but I’m more concerned with human versus non-human than male versus female). In a game with dozens of interesting fantasy races, most of which don’t yet already have planeswalkers, making three-fourths of your new planeswalkers human despite already having twenty human planeswalkers is absurd. I think that the number of non-human planeswalkers should increase for the following reasons:

1. People request non-human planeswalkers all the time. People often have said “please make a minotaur planeswalker”, but I’ve never seen anyone say “please make another human planeswalker, we don’t have enough”. People do ask for planeswalkers with certain attributes, which often implies that they should be human, but it doesn’t necessarily have to. I’ll explain this further in number 3.

2. The current method is only giving us male non-human planeswalkers. It won’t be long before people start complaining about how there are too many non-human male planeswalkers and not enough female planeswalkers - even though people, maybe even the same people, asked for more representation. Personally, I don’t think this is a huge issue as long as the genders end up somewhat balanced in the long run, but I do think it’s important that we get at least a few non-human females and human males for planeswalkers. 

3. With a little creativity, representation can be accomplished with non-human planeswalkers. Human planeswalkers are created by default whenever WotC is trying to check a box. But there are times when other fantasy races, especially those that are more similar to humans, could be used instead. WotC definitely needed to make an Indian planeswalker with Kaladesh, especially after making the mistake of giving a very white planeswalker a very Indian name. But Kaladesh’s dwarves and elves are just as Indian as the humans, aren’t they? They technically aren’t humans, which might diminish their representatives effect slightly (although I would argue being an elf is an improvement on being a human), but it still works pretty well and it’s a nice compromise between those who want representation and those who want non-human planeswalkers. I think that the vast majority of us would have been happier with Rashmi as a planeswalker and Saheeli as a UR artifact legend.

An actual example of WotC using a non-human as representation is Ashiok as a nonbinary planeswalker. Aetherborn serve a similar role but without being a planeswalker. Ashiok is one example where not only can a group of humans be represented by a non-human planeswalker, but in this case it even seems to work better that way (people living in chaotic, war-torn fantasy worlds based on history or mythology seldom have time to contemplate gender identity, so a character who was born without gender accomplishes a similar effect without unnaturally forcing something from the real world into a fantasy world).

WotC has also made a bisexual planeswalker in the form of Chandra, and it’s natural to expect that other planeswalkers representing the LGBT community are on the way. I’d expect a gay planeswalker, a lesbian planeswalker, and a transgender planeswalker within the next few years. I hope that when doing so, WotC remembers two things: first, that these planeswalkers don’t need to be new. For the gay and lesbian planeswalkers, at least, they could simply reveal that preexisting planeswalker has been gay or lesbian the whole time, similar to what they did with Chandra. This would eliminate a few options like Gideon, Jace, and Liliana, but most other planeswalkers are still on the table. We only get a couple of new planeswalker spots a year so there’s no need to make a new one for something an old one could easily do. And if anything, having an existing planeswalker come out or be revealed to be gay is more impactful than making a new one from scratch. A transgender planeswalker would probably be better if they started from scratch, but gay and lesbian could easily be done with preexisting characters.

Second, I hope they remember that these planeswalkers don’t need to be human. Characters of any race in Magic can be gay, lesbian, or transgender. Granted, a gay or lesbian planeswalker needs to, you know, actually do gay or lesbian things in the story, so it would be best if they’re either of a race that appears on many planes, or of a race that can interbreed with humans, like an elf. Obviously there won’t actually be any sex scenes, but a human-minotaur relationship would still make a lot of people uncomfortable whereas a human-elf relationship wouldn’t. In general, I’d say to avoid anything based on an animal, but things like elves, dwarves, and kor are all on the table.

Representation can also take the form of things like age and body type, which once again can be conveyed through non-humans. Granted, these things lose some of their intended effect when they get too far away from being human, but anything close to a human can work almost as well as a human can.

Now, there are certainly times when a human planeswalker is needed. Kaya was long overdue as the first black female planeswalker, and trying to convey that through anything other than a human would have been a complete failure. The same thing applies to Huatli, who obviously needed to be human.

Also, if any of this sounds like I’m saying that each of these groups only should get one planeswalker and then the box is checked so to speak, that’s not what I’m saying. Multiple planeswalkers for the same demographic can and should exist, and I wish as much as anyone that a lot of the white male planeswalkers made in the earlier years of planeswalker cards had been something else. But when making a planeswalker for representation, it’s worth considering making them non-human if the representation can be conveyed through a non-human, especially if a planeswalker representing the same group already exists.

4. Non-human planeswalkers are often more interesting than human ones. Humans are the most generic race in Magic. We all can agree on that. Other races have interesting physical traits as well as personality traits that go along with being that race. When you make an elf or vedalken or minotaur planeswalker, you already know something about that character. Half the work is already done for you.

Humans, on the other hand, don’t have any particular direction for personalities, and often end up feeling generic. Also, the high number of human planeswalkers makes it much more likely that a human planeswalker ends up feeling very similar to another human planeswalker. And when human planeswalkers are used as representation, which they almost always are nowadays, they often end up being underdeveloped, and I think that’s because WotC is afraid of offending or stereotyping the represented demographic. Granted, they should try to avoid doing so, but not at the expense of interesting characters.

All of the human planeswalkers we’ve gotten recently have been used as representation, which is fine, but all those planeswalkers have also been clear protagonists. They haven’t been morally grey characters at all. Additionally, they don’t really have flaws, even the things that could be flaws end up being helpful. Narset has autism, but it only ends up helping her advance in the Ojutai. Samut is a social outcast and later a criminal, but only because she knows the truth that no one else knows. These characters don’t have flaws, or negative qualities, or setbacks. Their character traits are minimal and their story roles are small. In my opinion, Dovin and what little we’ve seen of Angrath so far look much more interesting, but they’re clearly not afraid of making morally grey or antagonistic characters with actual flaws.

I’m not saying this because I’m against female characters or representative characters in general. I want to have those characters. But I want them to be interesting. They deserve the same treatment that other characters get - real story roles, along with the flaws and character development that goes with it. Of our recent human planeswalkers, only Samut really got a major story role, and even she was a typical flawless “chosen one” who was the only person who actually knew what was good and evil. That’s not an interesting character. I’ll try to keep an open mind with Huatli, but already they seem to have made her and her faction into clear protagonists, even going so far to as to make dinosaur-riding Aztec warriors use non-lethal battle tactics, as if that makes any sense.

5. The “short list” of non-human planeswalkers is much longer than the short list of human planeswalkers. Non-humans have more design space than humans, so to speak. Let’s list the non-human planeswalkers that people might want to see that don’t exist already:

Aetherborn

Ainok

Angel (would require special circumstances, but we have a demon PW)

Aven

Djinn

Dryad

Dwarf

Faerie

Giant

Flamekin

Khenra

Loxodon

Naga

Orc

Orochi

Siren

Sphinx

Treefolk

Viashino

Here’s a list of representational planeswalkers that don’t yet exist that people might want to see:

Gay

Hispanic

Large Body Type

Lesbian

Middle Eastern

Native American (North American rather than South/Central American)

Pacific Islander

Transgender

There are a lot that we already have - black (male and female), East Asian (male and female), South Asian, Eastern European, Greek, Native American (South/Central America), older, bisexual, nonbinary, amputee… granted, the above list might not be complete, and I’m sure that there are others people could think of. There are also probably others that people could think of for the list of planeswalker species. This is just off the top of my head, and not exactly scientific by any means, but the point is that there are a lot more fantasy races to still represent than there are things that need to be human. And even some of the ones on that list could be non-human… like I said, what’s stopping a non-human (but not too non-human) planeswalker from being gay, lesbian, or fat?

Now granted, real-world representation is a higher priority than fantasy representation, because one represents real people and the other doesn’t. They also work better in multiples - having multiple planeswalkers of a certain race or sexual orientation is better than having multiple elves or dwarves. But still, both are things that people request. If you see this as a checklist, we’re checking boxes on the second list way more quickly than the first (three times more quickly, to be precise), even though the first list is much longer. If you want something on the second list, you’re guaranteed to get it soon, but if you want something on the first list, it could be years or decades before they make a planewalker of your favorite fantasy race, if they get around to it at all.

I think it would be good to make non-human planeswalkers more often and human planeswalkers less often. Instead of doing a human in every block, how about a new non-human in every block? Instead of non-humans only when there’s an opening, how about humans only when there’s opening (or a necessity)? Still make human planeswalkers if for no other reason that representation at regular intervals, especially when there’s a good opporunity, but it doesn’t need to be constant. There’s a lot more design space for non-humans than humans, so I think they should start exploring that design space and stop putting if off.

Maro even said that Angrath was made only because fans requested more non-humans, which means that if not for public outcry he likely wouldn’t exist. That’s pretty disturbing because making non-human planeswalkers seems like only an afterthought to them, something that they only do on the rare occasoin that they remember or when fans beg them for it. We get new human planeswalkers every block and non-humans only once a year, if even that. In my opinion, they should slow down on the humans and start making more non-humans.

[oumakokichi]

Do you think the NDRV3 kids would have survived if they were in DR1 kids situation? As much as I like this change of MM I can't help but feel curious how would they play facing Junko.

Now this is a veryinteresting question. On the one hand, it’s very fun food for thoughtspecifically because ndrv3’s much more grey area of moral ambiguity and ofquestions that lie outside the debate of hope vs. despair might mean they couldactually cause some sort of upset if they were forced into the same situationas the Hope’s Peak characters.

On the other hand, this is something the game actually playswith itself in Chapter 5 and tries to lure the characters themselves intothinking, and—it’s true that by getting themselves too attached to the idea of “ideals”(where is Munakata in the background to shout “platitudes” at a time like this)they do blind themselves to much more realistic problems, like the truth, andhow their ideals and preconceptions are actually a hindrance when taken toextremes.

If we judge off of Chapter 5 alone, I can’t help but thinkthey might fare very badly. Earlier chapters, long before “hope and despair”were brought into it, showed that the characters definitely had some potentialfor thinking outside the box and avoiding the kind of “despair addiction” thatJunko herself lives to get others addicted to. But the moment they do startthinking in terms of “hope vs. despair” and put themselves on the same level asHope’s Peak Academy students is the moment they start to turn astray from thereal truth of things, and as we can see, that ended very badly, with Momota andOuma getting the worst of it.

It doesn’t help either that, while Tsumugi is certainly less infallible than Junko and definitely makes more mistakes, lies her way out ofthings more, and is unafraid of cheating, Junko is also certainly willing tocheat if it’ll get her what she wants.

Many people who I’ve seen criticizing ndrv3 seem to havethis sort of perfected hindsight vision of Junko as this “perfect mastermindwho never cheated or lied her way out of anything” and I honestly don’t understandwhere this idea came from, because Junko will absolutely interfere with thingsshe’s not supposed to or cheat, as long as it’s more amusing and more “despair-inducing”that way.

People who call the Chapter 1 trial with Kaede a “hack” inndrv3 seem to have forgotten that Junko was perfectly willing to go dress up ina mask and try to kill Naegi with a knife, and that when that failed shesabotaged her own dead sister’s body and tried to push either Naegi or Kirigirito take the fall, all because the two of them were getting in the way of hergame continuing and upsetting her predictions that “everyone” would despair inher killing game. She planted fake evidence to incriminate Kirigiri, tried tokill two people who hadn’t actually broken any rules in the killing game, andhad to be literally forced into a retrial, just as Tsumugi is forced into onefor Chapter 6 of ndrv3.

Even earlier than that, Junko was clearly willing to tamperwith actual crime scenes. In Chapter 4 of dr1, she sabotaged the entire case tolook like a more “conventional” suicide, forged a fake suicide note for Sakuraspecifically for the sake of getting Aoi to despair and try to get the wholegroup killed, and then threw a huge tantrum when everyone guessed the rightculprit in the end and executed an AI program “just because she could.” Evenher backstabbing Mukuro and killing her was technically a violation of herrules, because it was premeditated and had nothing to do with Mukuro’s “violenceagainst the headmaster,” and that’s exactly why she gets put on trial for “themurder of Mukuro Ikusaba” later on.

Junko definitely cheats, when she wants to. If people aren’tdespairing the way she wants them to and things are actually going outside ofher predictions for once, she will breakher own rules in order to force them to despair. She follows her own rules solong as it suits her, and that’s why she ultimately agrees to execute herselfaccording to the rules of her own trial—because it makes her despair, and she likes it. But I have no doubts whatsoever thatshe would absolutely cheat like hell if it seemed like the ndrv3 charactersinitially weren’t responsive to her attempts to make them despair.

Seeing Junko vs. Ouma would be…particularly interesting,because while I’ve talked at length about how Ouma is undeniably a person thatputs himself against the mastermind and loathes killing and murders to thepoint that he wants to upset their plans, it would be hard, perhaps impossible,for him to take down someone like Junko. Moreso when one particular qualityOuma definitely has that those like Kirigiri and Nanami do not isself-loathing.

Ouma’s hatred for himself and the things he’s willing to dois essential to his whole character, and it’s something Junko would know wasthere and would target. For most of ndrv3, Ouma is able to convince himself ofthe necessity of his plans and doesn’t ultimately falter until he stains hisown hands by having to get Miu and Gonta killed—because as long as he’s notkilling anyone, he’s able to justify that it’s okay to do and say otherhorrible things as long as it accomplishes the right results and gets thekilling game to end.

But Junko’s perception and analytical talent is literally superhuman,and goes above and beyond even what Ouma himself can predict or analyze. She’dknow his flaws, she’d know his similarities to people like herself andKamukura, and she would absolutely try to twist it and turn it against him andrub it in that he was “just as bad as she was.” Ouma would put up a pretty incrediblefight, I’m sure, but I feel like if it were a direct face-off between the twoof them, Junko would be pretty capable of breaking him and convincing him thathe was the bad guy, moreso considering he basically convinces himself of thisat the end of Chapter 4 in ndrv3 already.

As for the other characters, it’s interesting because Idefinitely don’t think someone like Saihara would ever have had the potentialto become a protagonist if the setting were like dr1, and if Junko was the mainantagonist and mastermind. Kaede, or even Kiibo, would be much more likely tostep up to the plate instead, because a detective like Saihara can never trulyshine in a game that calls for a “representative of hope” while Junko is playingfor Team Despair.

While I feel like Kaede would be the obvious choice to playa much more Naegi or even Komaru-like role of “cheerful girl whose mainstrength is her unending optimism,” I would actually love to see Kiibo vs.Junko too, because that would actually allow for very interesting, hugelydifferent potential from most of the other hope vs. despair set-ups we’ve seen.Kiibo by the end of ndrv3 is so pissed, and tired, and ready to literallyeliminate despair off the face of the entire planet even if it means takinghimself down in the process—in a way, he’s got the same sort of ideals abouthope as Munakata, but without turning on others or, well, without fucking up majorlythe way that Munakata did.

This of course begs the question as to who Junko would “bribe”to be her traitor, or assuming Kiibo is still a robot, if she would still usehim as a bargaining chip with the whole “Kiibo blows up if all the survivorsband together” trump card. Then again, the latter doesn’t even soundparticularly despair-inducing and might be cheating too much, even for Junko’sstandards, so I think she’d much rather have a traitor who was convinced bymore “traditional” methods of despair, i.e. blackmail and bribery, etc.

The best guess I can give is that the ndrv3 characters goingup against someone like Junko would seem to go surprisingly well at first,because they’d believe themselves to be “prepared” as students of Hope’s PeakAcademy. But the thing is that with hugely varied characters in the mix—like Ouma,who was never supposed to be someone “on the side of hope,” and who would knowthis and have this rubbed in his face by Junko, or even like Kiibo, whosewillingness to protect hope means eradicating despair at the cost of his ownlife—things wouldn’t necessarily play out the same way as dr1 or sdr2 wherethere’s at least 5 or 6 survivors every time and things end on a relativelyokay note.

Junko is someone who sees even the slightest, smallest gapof weakness and targets it and crushes it like a bug, and to her, the fact thatthe ndrv3 characters would seem so much less inclined to “hope or despair” atfirst is exactly what would make her want to push them all the more.

This was very fun to write about, and I’d really be interestedin seeing other people’s takes on it or even AUs and such! Thank you anon!