#some people just want to point out the villain without realizing they are all capable of being it

[eromrevencrow]

Okay okay. Some are saying that iwtv is not about being in love with the monster, but the horror of the monster being in love with you, which I think it's too simple since it's more about 'the monster loves me, but what if I am a monster too? What if the monster is actually a mirror of everything I don't love about myself and the beauty of learning to love all this monstrous things about me, in you?'

[aimasup]

just found some Valiant AU development sketches and notes in my old OLD sketchbook

I really thought it would be a webtoon

long post warning! And I mean long looooooooong post. If you get to the bottom and go "I'm not reading allat" I do not blame you

more under the cut:

^^^ OC

General notes:

This Valiant AU was meant to be a solarpunk superhero slice of life that slowly reveals a heavier plot, mostly focusing on character interactions and personal growth

White Hat Incorporated is a struggling, newbie business and clients are rare

The episodes can range from domestic shenanigans like fixing a leaking pipe or getting dinner, to running their business by defeating the villain of the week

The villains and heroes stay in their roles from canon. The only ones with major changes are our main 4 guys

All major information about White Hat would be discovered from the point of view of Lumencia and Zug as they realize that not only is PEACE corrupt, but that their boss is neither human nor demon nor alien

Now onto the characters themselves:

Dr. Zug Gleis

Like his name suggests, he likes trains. His train is also a drill that was an attempt to burrow out of government's arrest

Which he then modified into a laboratory, each train cart being a unique kind of laboratory for surveillance, medicine, etc. He sleeps very uncomfortably in cramped spaces and likes it that way

V.I.R.U.S is now a software he created and repurposed into his bratty computer assistant, now Cambot. She's also the one recording all their commercials and making his coffee. Basically Zug doesn't get along with ANY of his children

He doesn't like to leave his laboratories, so he set up a network of tunnels through White Hat's mansion that send and receive messages, inventions, food, etc. There's one little chute for these in most parts of the place

His arc was focusing on his inability to accept help from others because he sees any kind gesture as a possible way to control him. Even worse if the kind person genuinely means it, because he also sees accepting kindness as a handicap, a debt

His villainy was an easy way to make money and show the world his capability without any assistance from any hero or villain organization

Really, he just wants to be able to do whatever he wants, but his need to be the best or else he's the worst is tiring for him. Anger issues don't help

This stemmed from a past of constantly being bullied and compared to his brother, Goldheart

After dropping out of hero college, Zug became his own supervillain's known as The Mad Condoctor, whose theme was, you guessed it, trains. He stole trains, modified scrap metal, targeted stations and trade centers, held hostages, prepared puzzles for heroes to solve, etc

The Mad Condoctor was notorious for being uncooperative and a backstabber. He operated at night and was an expert in secret missions, spyware and tech-based combat and the likes

By the first season finale he would have genuinely cared for his coworkers but still didn't value his own life, so he let himself be taken in by PEACE. The crew have to go retrieve their idiot and many things about White Hat Incorporated are revealed to the public after they clash with their local PEACE headquarters

He finds authority annoying and hates seeing people kiss up. Mostly shameless in his actions and doesn't much care for other people's opinions. Can be honest to the point of hurting

So he is a terrible liar. It's like he's allergic to it or something. Prefers to lie by omission

Will only call White Hat 'sir' and 'jefecito' sarcastically or to get a point across. Unfortunately hopelessly devoted to him at the end of the series whoops

Lumencia

A superwoman with horse-like powers that decided to choose unicorns as her motif because that's way cooler. She has kicks and punches that convert her diet into energy, which is great because she loves eating

Changed it up so that Lumencia is the resident prankster and WH tells puns, not the other way around

She has a room with a slanted ceiling which she can climb out the window of to lie and chill on the roof. She's also converted that space, where flat roof meets slanted roof, into an outdoor cinema/gym, decorated with christmas lights. The mansion is a three-way clash of decorative styles from afar

She doesn't have a license to be a hero, but she helps out wherever she can anyway, stopping purse snatchers and helping lost children find their parents and such

In fact, she is actually one of the most beloved people in the little town they live near, with many residents familiar with her buffoonery but affirming her as a reliable source of help

She's also relatively well-known online, as she posts videos of her playing the guitar and well-intentioned but nonsensical 'Lumencia Tips', filled with terrible puns and comic-like ballpoint pen doodles

Her arc would have focused on letting herself acknowledge her strengths that aren't related to fighting

Shes very buddy-buddy with petty criminals and shop owners alike, able to strike up a conversation and make pals no matter who they are. Once she deems you chill, you can chill, yknow? This isn't on purpose.

Even though she has gross taste in food and is messier than Zug, her handwriting is very pretty and neat. She also is very good at graffiti and sticks to an aesthetic, with glitter and y2k stickers and denim-clad wizards on skateboards, all the works

She has a very straightforward view on heroics and is not big on plans, preferring to punch her way out of situations or annoy her enemies to tears. In fact, her main goal is to become an official part of one of the many PEACE-brand hero leagues.

There's other hero corporations too but PEACE is the number one in America

So one day she just showed up on White Hat's doorstep and never left because it would 'look good on her resume'.

Previously, she bounced from place to place, relying on connections and the occasional tip from her halfway-illegal heroism efforts to get by. She also doesn't remember where her powers are from, only that her parents worked at PEACE and where killed by 'villains' when she was a little girl

Her favourite place is the funfair because that's the last nice memory she had

By season two she would have started another arc where she learns that she was an experiment and her parents were killed by their own higher ups in PEACE to silence them, and she has to come to terms with why she even wants to be a hero as well as stand her ground when her optimism is challenged.

Lumencia's music is like whatever Equestria Girls and Electric Mayhem have going on. I think the genre is power pop? Either way it sounds like those elaborate 80s radical van murals look

Is an effortless liar in the sense that she says the most batshit things with utmost confidence and treats consequences like an afterthought.

Only calls White Hat 'White Hat' and not 'boss' when she feels the situation calls for it. Also unfortunately hopelessly devoted to him by the end of the series

624

An extra set of hands that cleans the place and helps out with their little business. Does not like being interuppted when listening to music

Goes from 'fucking hate these guys' to 'they give me food therefore they are mine' in the span of the entire series

Quite lazy, plays the winning side. Which is usually the heroes here

Dunno if I'd call his arc an arc. All I know is there's an episode where his spoilt teenager-ismd hits their peak and Zug and Lumencia have to reach an understanding with him by respecting his boundaries and helping him feel secure

And after that episode, 624 stopped being a total catalyst for disaster plotwise

White Hat

He is one of the comic reliefs and manages White Hat Incorporated, often making really stupid decisions because profit is not on his mind

The final voice I settled on for him was fucking Australian Markiplier

His "growth" would be the characters and readers seeing him to actually be a caring, experienced-in-heroics-but-not-business individual who gives really sound advice and becomes a source of comfort for his close friends

But is still a MEGA-PRICK. Every time he gets beat up it's for a valid reason

In canon, villainy triumphs because Black Hat is there. In the Valiant AU, the story is in the heroes' favour because White Hat is in his place.

I wanted him to be (mostly) opposite to Black Hat in many ways! BH's office is huge, minimalistic, corporate and cold, while WH's office is small, maximalistic, filled with sentimental items and like a warm cabin.

BH basks in hellfire and while WH does use fire, he prefers the ocean. BH enjoys golf, WH enjoys dancing. BH takes himself seriously, WH very much doesn't. BH detests everything, WH has an appreciation for everything. And etc...

They're still horrible creepy eldritch monstrosities, the fish theme for WH is just because he likes ocean shit and fish are scary

BH has made himself known globally and universally, he has statues and monuments and paintings

WH has nothing; White Hat is five years old. This is his first time being White Hat

But he's been around since the beginning of time, taking many forms and names, learning the wonders of the universe and giving all of his time to help however he could

He believed this to be natural, he's the one of a kind who doesn't need rest or food. He can't die or get really hurt, and would later learn he couldn't bear to love either

Some of the things he was included many plants and animals before the humans, then farmers and warriors, witches and politicians, an entertainer vigilante, a writer, a parent, a fur-clad warrior in the snow, guiding forces of nature, and a female pirate.

I wanted him to cycle through the entire alignment chart in terms of morality as he exhausted everything he could do to make a difference

After World War 2 on earth, his psyche gave out and he collapsed into a long, long nap; a shadow pooling in a lake, his favourite

Finally woke up and decided to take his own form not based on any species or star or tree, chose his own outfit and everything

And made his debut as White Hat, forged documents to start a small business for heroes support

He doesn't have an arc, but if he did, he would be in the midst of learning to let himself get attached again and be properly selfish. Maybe identity issues.

But he doesn't have an arc

And so really only serves to help out Zug and Lumencia. He's comfortable with no one knowing these things about him ever, because what would they even do if they did?

Wouldn't change anything, they wouldn't understand the full scope even, so he's at peace with himself right now, grateful that he's alive for once

He uses manipulation to direct conversations away from himself and get people to spill their feelings, or burrow into their trauma without using magic

if he wants he can let loose to trigger some kind of indescribable primal instinct within a person, that cripples them with terror and despair and love for the sublime face of something divine, bigger than the observable universe. He doesn't like doing this.

He's a fan of ice and shadow manipulation, he thinks the colours go well with his coat

Most animals hate him and he cries about it

He also cries when he tries to download an app on a laptop

He is a competent medical doctor, babysitter, and waiter. In fact, he seems to have infinite patience and calm when he isn't whining over dessert like a toddler

The human skeleton hanging in his office is real

Hopelessly attached to Lumencia, Zug and 624 by the end of the series but they don't need to know that

This AU will forever make me warm and fuzzy inside I love them so much, I had so many locations planned, started Pinterest boards and shit

Instead I think I'll take some of these things and apply them to my OCs instead! HUGE thanks to everyone who enjoyed this version of this AU while it lasted! Maybe it'll come back one day, maybe not. Likely not

[crossdressingdeath]

I'm thinking about Karlach and in particular her relationship with Gortash, and the more I think about it the more I really wish that she'd known he was a Banite from the start, or at least for a good chunk of her time working for him. I mean, the canon story of "I didn't know what he was, he lied to me and I didn't realize the truth until he stabbed me in the back" doesn't not work? It just feels like a very... safe option. Now, I love Karlach, I really do, she's a joy to be around. But I don't know, the whole "I didn't know what they were doing" method of letting a wonderful person work for the bad guys has been done. It's been done a lot. And it also makes Karlach feel less morally complex than the other origin companions to me! I mean, it's entirely possible she didn't even know Gortash was a criminal; his public persona would require bodyguards too. So if we assume that she didn't even know he was a criminal then her moral complexity is limited to having some friends who are devils and wanting Gortash dead, which... even just by general fantasy standards and especially when compared to characters like Astarion, Shadowheart and Lae'zel (as the most obvious examples, but personally I also find Wyll's pact with Mizora and Gale getting the orb at least as complex if not more and they didn't work for the villain, so that feels like a bit of a problem) is very straightforward. She's good. Maybe she used to be a bit naive and then learned not to be so blindly trusting through betrayal. Sure. Fine. Personally I do not find that particularly compelling, if I just saw her backstory written out without the super hard work of her writer and VA in the rest of the game my reaction to her would basically just be "Eh". And if we assume she did know he was a criminal then it feels kind of weak that the only time that even vaguely comes up is Gortash potentially making one comment about how Karlach knew what he was and shouldn't really have been surprised.

Also, an additional point, the fact that supposedly Gortash was putting enough work into keeping her ignorant that there was a noticeable drop in his ethics after he sold her is... kind of weird, because the only reason we're given for it is "He liked her"? To be clear the fact that he liked her isn't the problem, we know Gortash is perfectly capable of liking people. But... he went out of his way to deceive this one employee? To the point that people noticed a change when he was gone? Or alternately selling her specifically actively made him significantly worse, which... would also be kind of weird. There isn't even any particular reason for him to see himself in her, other than the Lower City upbringing they had very little in common before Gortash sold her (unless baby Enver was way better of a person than his current self would suggest). I feel like if Larian was going to justify Karlach apparently not realizing she was working for an arms dealer and slave trader as his personal bodyguard (so someone who'd logically be around for a lot of shady shit or frankly what is the point of her being on the payroll) with "he lied to her" more needed to be done with it.

But if she knew he was a Banite and knew what he was doing for a good chunk of the time she spent working with him that adds a tasty "I didn't think the leopards would eat my face!" energy to the whole situation! I love the idea of Karlach liking and trusting Gortash despite knowing what he was because he treated her with respect and that was all that mattered! Obviously this is subjective, I will freely admit I like my characters with a bit more moral greyness than Karlach shows, but to me at least her reassessing and improving her morals from a standpoint of "Him liking me and respecting me wasn't enough to save me because other people's lives do not matter to him" would be much more interesting than her being a perfectly lovely person from the start and not knowing what her boss was doing and getting betrayed and then continuing to be a perfectly lovely person. (I'm not going to claim that a person's morals improving when the thing they did to others is done to them is particularly ground-breaking, but I would argue it's no less ground-breaking than "they didn't know and were good all along and their boss was lying to them" and to me at least it's significantly more engaging.) And it would also neatly remove the question of why Gortash cared enough to lie about what he was doing to this one specific employee from day one (so before he could bond with her at all), which. y'know, would be nice.

[genericpuff]

I think what gets me the most annoyed about LO currently is how I just don't care about Rachel's attempts to make the story seem more high-stakes than it really is. Apollo has no real power, Kronos was defeated by bees so why should I care about him now, everyone is instantly on Persades' side, Persephone will get any excuse to not hold her accountable for her mistakes, and Ouranos is simply too late-stage and underdeveloped for me to take them seriously. If this is Rachel's attempts to bring people back or keep them around, she's vastly unaware of what her readers actually want and want she's capable of writing. None of this is compelling, it's just frustrating.

You didn't mention it but even the fact that we as readers know now that Apollo can't use Persephone's powers without her actually being in love with him... it's such a narrative buzzkill?? So now we're spending all this time on some "Apollo twist villain" plotline that we know won't lead to him winning because we already know it won't work. IDK if this was Rachel attempting some sort of dramatic irony thing - when audience members are aware of something the characters aren't, ex. the complete misunderstanding that was Juliet's "death" that resulted in Romeo actually dying - then she completely misunderstood how dramatic irony actually works, you can't inform the audience of something the characters don't know if it's something that removes any and all tension. There are no stakes now. We know Apollo can't use Persephone's powers. So we're either gonna get Apollo realizing he can't do it and have that just be his downfall (predictable) OR we're gonna get some sudden retconned plot point that technically Apollo can use her powers because of the assault (big yikes). Or some other third thing that Rachel will inevitably pull out of thin air to write herself out of a corner.

Overall it speaks to her lack of actual storytelling skills - she's alright at coming up with neat standalone ideas, but she's not good at weaving them into a story, and she's especially not good at actually coming up with organic re-interpretations of things that inspire her; rather she often just rips whatever she likes from things she's watched and throws them into LO without any understanding of why those things were actually well written, she puts them in because "well I liked the scene where the Beast got bathed by his house servants so I'm gonna put the same thing in LO!"

It's very much like - dare I say it and possibly invoke many more asks in my inbox - a certain indie production you may have heard of called RWBY. Constantly yoinking elements out of other shows and movies to put into the show, while not understanding why those elements worked so they come across as flat first steps rather than fully developed ideas.

[klbwriting]

Broken Prism

Chapter 20

Fandom: Red Hood

Pairing: Jason Todd x f!reader

Warnings: mentions of murder and blood

Summary: Jason is revealed to be alive by Bruce, who throws him a welcome home party so Jason can become a normal person again, but things end badly

With the death of Joker, and the press finding out it was Red Hood who had committed the murder, all of Gotham was essentially at Jason’s feet. You saw people walking around with homemade shirts, pins, backpacks, all with the helmet on them. People were saying he was better than Batman, who never could do the job right. He was a hero to most, but to the criminals of the city he was a terrifying entity, capable of taking out a truly legendary villain. It was making your job easier, so many informants were willing to roll over to you whenever you came knocking just so you wouldn’t send Red Hood after them later. Every time you got far enough away from whoever you were getting information from you would laugh at the idea of Jason running around doing your bidding. He had enough to deal with running his section of Gotham and coming back to the world of the living.

As you walked past an electronics store, snow starting to fall, you saw yet another newscaster hailing the return of Jason Todd, Bruce Wayne’s long-lost son who was kidnapped as a teenager, seemed to escape his captors only to spend years with amnesia before finally realizing who he was and returning home to his father. It was hilarious and you once again mentally thanked Dick for the amnesia storyline. It had taken months of convincing, but Bruce finally wore Jason down by asking him if the only dates he was going to take you on were to the theater room in the mansion and Jason realized once he showed his face again without the mask on someone who figure out who he was. It was really a brilliant marketing tactic and Jason had rolled over to your ‘pretty please’ eyes like he normally did. You just wanted him to be able to meet your friends, they were getting on your nerves asking about how you were able to move into the Wayne manor. Once you mentioned that they thought you were sleeping with Bruce Jason was willing to do anything to end that rumor.

The snow was getting heavier when you arrived at the diner your friends were waiting at. You slid into the booth with Jocelyn and Aura who immediately asked where Jason was. You smiled a little and shrugged.

“I was working, he’s meeting me here after a suit fitting for his welcome home party this weekend,” you said. They gushed about their excitement at having received invitations to the party.

“Are you alright with all this though?” Jocelyn asked suddenly. You frowned, not sure what she meant. “Well, you were so sure that Robin was alive again, that he was still your soulmate. Have you given up on that?” You smiled, having expected this kind of question at some point, just not right away.

“Ya, I don’t need a soulmate when I have Jason, he’s absolutely the best thing that’s ever happened to me,” you said, smiling wide. It wasn’t a complete lie, so you only felt a little guilty. The bell over the door chimed and you looked back, smile getting bigger as Jason walked in, looking like an absolute vision. He was so much lighter now, he still had moments of doubt, wasn’t always happy, but the nightmares were gone, and the extra sleep helped him handle his depression and anxiety better and it showed. He smiled at the sight of you getting up and walking over to him. He gripped you close and kissed your head, arm staying around your shoulders as you walked him to the booth and climbed back in. He sat on the outside, eyes darting around, and you knew he was surveying the entrances and exits.

“You must be Jason Todd,” Aura said, staring intently at him. “I’m Aura, this is Jocelyn and I have to know…what are your intentions with our friend here? Are you looking for just a quick hookup or are you really in with her? Your answer may be the difference between life and death so choose wisely.” You rolled her eyes so hard it hurt. Jason was unfazed, looking at you.

“O I’m all in, she knows that,” he said, winking at you. You nearly melted and from the looks your friends had they were melting too. “Did you all order or are we still waiting?”

Dinner went well and as they walked away you looked at Jason. He looked like he was thinking, eyeing the sky a little bit. It was getting dark early now, December was really setting in, and he was probably trying to figure out if he should start patrolling early or not.

“I can call Alfred to come get me,” you said, not wanting to inconvenience him. He was, after all, more famous than Batman now. He looked at you and then at the city one more time before shaking his head.

“Nah, I’ll get you home babe, don’t want you waiting for the geezer in the cold,” he said, arm going around you again. “So, they were nice, and very excitable.” You nodded. “It's just the party, even I’m excited for a fancy Wayne manor party to welcome you back, since you just returned three months ago,” you said. Jason snorted out a laugh and you joined him. It seemed like yesterday, but a year had passed since he had come back, since you ran into him, and everything started to get weird and wonderful. He got to his bike, handing you the helmet and letting you drive.

“It’s not great road conditions, so be careful on the turns,” he said. He had been teaching you for a couple weeks now how to drive the bike in case you ever needed to help him out of a tough spot and didn’t have one of Bruce’s cars available. You nodded and climbed on the bike. Jason looked around while you got comfy and noticed someone walking down the street in the brightest pink suit he had ever seen. He made a ‘huh’ noise and pointed the guy out to you.

“Good for them, that is an interesting look, hope it works for them,” you said, patting the seat behind you for him to get on. Neither of you had noticed the scalpel the man was flipping around in his hand as he walked down the street.

Jason hated Wayne parties, even when he was a kid. You had to dress up in a ridiculous suit, talk to people you hated about things that were stupid, and the food was too pretentious to be good. He hoped Bruce had at least taken his advice to have Alfred make sliders, those things were amazing and may save this whole endeavor. As he still on his suit jacket Jason considered jumping out the window and running for it. Maybe he could hide at one of the safehouses Bruce didn’t know about for the night. Then the door to the bathroom opened and YN came out and suddenly Jason couldn’t imagine why he had wanted to leave. She looked beautiful, dress stunning on her form, hair hanging loose around her shoulders and her face enhanced by the makeup she wore. Those eyes that still haunted his dreams standing out above everything else. He turned and went to her, kissing her deeply.

“Let’s skip the party,” he said, kissing her again. She growled and pushed him back gently.

“I swear if you messed up my lipstick,” she said with a smile, going to check her face out again.

“O please, I want to mess up all of that, but you’d enjoy it I promise,” he said. She blushed and he chuckled, glad he still had that effect on her. She fixed the little damage he had done, looking to him.

“Do you want to wipe your mouth off? You look like you have lipstick on too,” she said, and Jason checked the mirror. He did but he didn’t mind.

“Nah, let everyone know I’m wearing your lipstick,” he said, offering his arm to her. She took it and they headed down to the slowly filling up first floor of the manor. Bruce was by the door greeting guests and threw Jason a look that he knew well. He was late for his responsibilities again. He pecked YN’s lips again before going over to do his job. He saw YN go off to the parlor to see her friends who were there.

Getting through the introduction line was a slog but finally he was released to mingle, which meant he would speak to Dick, Tim, Barbara, or YN. They would at least act like he was a person and not a sideshow attraction. Come see everyone dead boy zombie in the main hall! He took a breath, pushing past a couple speaking with the Cane’s before joining Dick and Barbara by the fireplace.

“How much longer until I can pretend the party is overwhelming my delicate state?” he snarked, quoting a news program from last week that said he was nearly an invalid. Dick chuckled and patted his back.

“Give it another half hour and I will personally make a scene with you. You can faint, do a somersault, I’ll catch you and whirl you upstairs while declaring that you have the vapors and need smelling salts,” he said. Jason nodded.

“I appreciate that,” he said. “Where did YN get to?” Dick shrugged.

“I saw her and her friends in the TV room just a little bit ago…” Barbara said, then pointed, waving for YN to come over. She looked upset.

“You guys need to see this,” she whispered, leading the three of them into the TV room where the news was running. On screen was a photo that was blurred, but you could assume was a dead body. Then the camera panned, showing 3 more bodies, a family at their dining table. On the wall behind them in blood it said:

COME FIND ME RED HOOD.

[todomitoukei]

as something positive for a change from the gloom and misery we are all going through after this horrible ending, can you share how would you want Touya and Todofamily's ideal ending to go?

Thank you for giving me an opportunity to share my very detailed version of what the ending should be (I tried to keep it short but alas, I failed).

First of all, let's assume Shigaraki and Toga died (don't worry, I'm bringing them back!) and Touya is in that tank, supposedly almost dead. Here's a shortened (it's not short) version of what I the ending could be instead and no, I don't care if it's unrealistic, at this point anything is better-written than what Hori came up with anyway:

While Touya is still alive, he gets closer to dying, enabling him to see people that have died but haven't "crossed over" yet (yes, I was obsessed with Ghost Whisperer growing up don't @ me), namely Shigaraki and Toga, who are on the verge of being able to do so, yet believe that Shigaraki might be able to bring them back and also heal Touya (look, I haven't properly read this manga but something something the decay quirk was half of the Overhaul quirk minus the option to undo damage? So in this version, he can somehow undo damage now, yes, I make the rules<3).

Anyway, before doing any of this they actually need to contact Touya because people are about to perform an autopsy? cremate? Toga, so they want to stop that to make it easier to bring her back to life.

They explain all of this to Touya and tell him he needs to tell someone to bring Toga's body to where he is to make this whole thing easier. Fortunately, Natsuo is visiting him in that moment (he deserves to be included because he is best boy<3). Long story short, Toga's body is being brought to where Touya is (They also had to bring in the Chief of Police and Hawks for this special situation), and Shigaraki manages to resurrect her.

She also still had some of Twice's blood, which she uses to turn into him (probably insults Hakws as revenge<3) and create a copy of Shigaraki - the plan is basically for Shigaraki to find a way to take over the copy of his body. He manages to do so before also restoring Touya's body to a non-dying state again.

They then have to sit down with the Chief of Police and Hawks to discuss what happened and also to make a deal for the future since putting the villains in jail when the heroes get to keep living life despite the crimes they committed is bs etc etc, therefore Shigaraki pushes for all the lov members to be released from prison and also receive support from the HPSC (Idk what they changed their name to) - an actual second chance for them to start anew, a life without crime etc.

They settle on being given a building for them to live in and start a sort of shelter for kids like they once were; kids that are on the street, the kind of kid that their society doesn't deem worthy of saving, that people turn away from and that could potentially turn to crime as a last resort just like they did.

So in the end, Spinner and Compress get released from prison - and yes, Compress gets his ass back - and they all get to live and work together. They somehow also bring back Kurogiri.

Also, Touya has had enough of his father monologuing about how sad and pathetic he is so just like Natsuo, he decides to not talk to him anymore because he finally realizes that his father is simply not worth it. In other words, Endvr is out of the picture once and for all.

Rei will also be involved in the new lov project because you cannot tell me that this woman spent 10 years locked away in a mental hospital only to be released and push the man that put her in the mental hospital in the first place around in his wheelchair that he is more than capable of using on his own??? (It's so painfully obvious that a man wrote this story) So she becomes the lov mom and is finally free from her abuser too.

Fuyumi can move in with them too, she and Toga deserve to have a sister/female friend because I can only imagine how tough it was for Toga to only be around men after big sis mag died. Touya will try really hard to be a good big brother now so Fuyumi can finally relax. And by relax I mean Touya will annoy the shit out of her and let her forget all her responsibilities and feel like a kid again. Justice for all the bnha girlies who otherwise only exist to serve men or die because god forbid a teenage girl shows emotions and does a bit of stabbing once in a while.

Natsuo and his girlfriend will also move in with them. Once Touya hears about Natsuo's wedding plans he has a serious word with him and Natsuo promises him to wait a little longer and get married for the right reasons instead of out of spite because both Natsuo and his girlfriend deserve better. Besides, since Natsuo is studying something similar to social work, he can help the lov with their project (and gain work experience at the same time!).

Obviously there is also room for Shouto and he stays over for the weekend and also visits during the week. Touya learns to make soba for him (not like the failed attempt Natsuo and Shouto had in one of the light novels lol). Touya also teaches Shouto some social skills - it's unclear whether this is good or bad.

This way, Shouto can also finally spend some quality time with his family and be treated like the kid he still is instead of having to be a hero for his own family. Compress can become some kind of father-figure for him. Also, Shouto and Shigaraki bond over being the youngest sibling. Touya calls them out for being the youngest every chance he gets.

In summary, the lov and Todofam live together in peace and they all support each other in figuring out who they are etc etc.

The End.<3

Thanks for coming to my TED talk!

[herowithbadpublicity]

Who is Hal, really?

Like, we see so many different versions of him. We’re introduced to this awkward, neurotic, definitely not Mitchell, vampire in season 4. Oh cool, he has these friends he’s been with for years, that’s great!

Hal literally kept Leo chained up with the sole purpose to watch him kill people (and make money, as he mentions betting on the fight). This was actually in a prequel clip, not in the show - if you saw the clip, Hal and Leo’s relationship dynamic completely changes when we see them on screen together for the first time.

Throughout the show, Hal implores people to be his keeper, to watch him and make sure he doesn’t commit anymore sins. First Leo. In some ways, this is extremely cowardly - Hal puts the responsibility on others. If his inhibitions drop and he’s placed in just the right situation, he does awful things and can say “oh they didn’t watch me close enough”. I’m surprised Leo kept his promise - if I got free, the guy who initially kidnapped me would be getting these hands.

I really really like Hal and Annie’s dynamic. She is so opposite of him, and from the very beginning you see his discomfort. Then, when Kirby shows up, we get a scene where Hal wants to confess his sins. Part of it is because he would rather she hear it from him, but another part is something Hal does frequently - burden others with keeping him clean.

Who is Hal though? There are 3 parts of Hal. Of course there’s the awful part, that killed Cutler’s wife and who is 100% capable of becoming a genocidal dictator. Then there’s the part we see most of the time. Seemingly harmless vampire with obsessive compulsive tendencies, endearing in some way and obviously trying his best to stay out of trouble. But there’s this other part, that we only see a few times. It’s when the two overlap. There’s some glimpse of it with his prequel - he’s a “slavemaster” but he’s hesitant and ashamed, and wants to be someone else. We also know that this is the in between, as he references the cycles of bad and good Hal.

I think, living for over 500 years, Hal has had to develop a way to cope with everything he has done. There are old ones like Mr Snow who seem chill and totally fine with being menaces to society. But we SEE Hal is capable of acting without malice, of choosing to do things to keep others safe.

I propose then, that Hal, upon becoming a vampire and murdering people left and right, had at one point realized his psyche could not manage and be okay with it all. So, what better way to cope then to organize who you are. Hal is neurotic. He creates a line - bad Hal and kind Hal. It becomes black and white for him - he either goes full villain, or he is safe. He treats the bad part as another being, trying to separate his sins from who he is as a person. I suppose we can also see it as vampire Hal and Vampire Hal.

I struggle at times when trying to figure out who Hal is for real. Is this the true him, proper, neurotic, judgemental. How do these traits present in Vampire Hal. He dresses classy, he manipulates, and he harms. The judgement in this case leads to murder. Try to imagine Hal, the one awkwardly holding Eve, and when he turns Cutler. How can one man behave so contrastingly? The blood eases the anxiety and the pressure. Hal can let go, fall into habits. Without blood, he has to always be mindful.

So, other than being a story telling device; I see the Jekyll and Hyde aspect of him being a coping mechanism. He either fights the urges and the habits, vampire Hal who keeps a schedule, or, he goes full Vampire.

[m-pennanti]

Some Red Secret Life Scar Art and a few thoughts from someone who doesn’t theorize about lore often

Now I’m not the type of person to get deep into symbolism or lore but I will point out something I noticed:

No, Scar was not all chummy and friendly. But he also wasn’t completely malicious, either. He had friends, he just didn’t have allies. There’s a big difference there. It’s not inherently relevant to my point; just a distinction I thought should be made. People claiming he was full one or the other by the end aren’t wrong.., but they aren’t right, either.

Now, to my main point: If people wanted to claim that Scar won due to him being alone, they’d be wrong (in my opinion) because Scar was also alone the vast majority of Last Life. He didn’t win then. He didn’t come close, if I remember rightly.

Similar contradictions can be drawn with Limited Life and Double Life. In Limited Life, all he had was his friends (his family) and not much in terms of allyship to turn to. In Double Life, he and Grian had next to nothing in terms of allies. Grian was stuck with him and even he didn’t want to be around.

Scar being with and without friends/allies isn’t new to this series. That’s very important here. That’s not the “point” I don’t think, if points even exist.

But what Scar was lacking in every previous series was the assessment of his aptitude. His recognition of his ability to be deadly, more accurately.

In previous seasons, Scar relied on others almost entirely. He relied on Grian the majority of 3rd and Double Life, he relied on his tenuous alliances through business transactions in Last Life, and he relied on the strength of not himself- but of his family- in Limited Life.

I don’t personally think The Watchers (assuming they exist at all) gave him the villain role to force him to be alone. I don’t think they want him alone. He’s been alone before.

I think they wanted him to gain confidence in himself. I think they were sick of him constantly doubting his abilities in combat that they forced him into combatant situations to prove to him that he could hold his own in more ways than just words.

I don’t think this story is sad at all. I don’t think it’s about him finding strength in pushing people away. I think it’s him discovering more inner strength than he realized he previously had… which is always a good thing!

Or maybe he knew he had it all along and was just too afraid to let it out. Who knows?

But from what I can see in the Secret Life Series, and all the others leading up to it, this is more of Scar’s journey of self-discovery as opposed to his villain arc.

He’s grown. He’s capable. He’s able. He knows that now.

And now he can use that to protect the ones he loves. Properly this time :)

[ofmermaidstories]

[im very invested in your oc hana, idkk if any of this makes sense, feel free to ignore]

on my first read thru of your story, her betrayal was nowhere near as impactful to me as it is now. i was blinded by the grandeur of pro heroes being so powerful yet oh so human, and by a selfish, insecure, and very human artist. thus i glanced over one of the most realistic charcters. hana is the epitome of a slippery slope that is being human, so many of us claim to know that we will never tumble, that we will never become the monster, after all its always us versus them. the thing is, we could all be them. we're all capable of selling our identity to society and ignoring that, or worse, denying that notion just emphasizes our susceptibility to being the next victim. it took me a while to figure that out, but once i did i realized how much i could understand why hana went the way she did, and i just began to see how she couldve started to fall (how any of us couldve fallen). it all started with little hisae (what a steep cliff that is). but in hanas eyes, in her mind, its so much easier to blame the heroes, to blame society than to blame the unyielding circumstances that she (and everyone else in japan) found themselves in. just imagining the thought process hana must of gone thru is so devastating. going from regular thoughts of grief and self-blame to slowly becoming more desperate in your search for both answers and justice:

"how did no one see her?", "why did no one save her?", "what if i had stayed in the shelter?", "what if someone had noticed sooner?" and so on, and so forth until hana would finally come to the conclusion "whats the point of heroes?"

then fin, your morals and beliefs are forever changed. the juxtaposition bw hana and hisaes death vs scribbles and hanas death i feel like also highlights how we can all become a monster, we just have to decide not to. at the end of the day, its just like uncle hideyo said. our loved ones have the same duty to us as we do to them. hana had a decision to make - she had multiple decisions to make - and she made hers, so now we must make ours.

anywayss, i just wanted to appreciate your ocs, theyre some of the best ive had the pleasure to get to know, and hana, hideyo, miki, hitomu and yua will always have a special place in my heart (and hikoboshi [rip :(] plus tobi cant forget them) <3

ps if you have any notes/tidbits youve been wanting to share about your oc i would love to hear them

people are a lot more selfish than they tend to give themselves credit for! grief is just a surefire way to illuminate that. and for hana, like you so thoughtfully point out, it’s a slippery slope. 🥺 radicalisation is so easy when there’s pain involved and none of us are the same, none of us will deal with it the same way. and with the world that Horikoshi’s created in My Hero, the power imbalance is so like, obvious and literal lmao. Look at Shigaraki’s pain, and how that was used against him. Spinner’s. Dabi’s and Toga’s! Twice!! it’s not a stretch to imagine ordinary civilians with like, nominal quirks or whatever, seeing that struggle between the villains and the pros and then similarly being affected by it—wanting to fight against that. and then that fight being perverted by assholes with crueller agendas. :/

and like, even then, though? you’re right. hana had choices to make, and she made the wrong ones. she knew what she was doing was wrong. the same woman that was smuggling in nail polish for a captive kid was helping another mail like, photocards. of course she knew; you see the drop even when you’re sliding down that cliff-face, i guess. and we never get this in the fic because the point-of-view never allows it, but i do think hana’s internal justification for staying with the group, for being apart of imprisoning those kids was that it was going to happen with or without her, that by being apart of it she could mitigate the horror somehow. of course, the tragedy is that she still perpetuates it by being there—because she’s selfish. selfish and scared (she knows she’s not walking away from it) but still selfish (at the heart of it she’s still that grieving, angry teenager. she still wants revenge against the pro heroes who weren’t there. and being apart of the gala attack gives her that, and she has to ignore the bruises on Yua’s arms or the resentment of some streetkid? Then whatever. Hisae’s body was unrecongisable, afterwards).

maybe more support as a teenager, afterwards, would have given an hana the ability to transmute her anger. maybe uncle could have done something more in regards to like, trying to press charges or otherwise seeking justice. maybe scribbles could have noticed, should have noticed, the cracks. but none of that happened. you can’t play could’ve, should’ve, would’ve when it comes to other people’s choices, because they still choose. scribbles—and uncle, even—are fundamentally different people to hana. they choose differently! we chose differently, in the end.

for hana and for scribbles both, their grief is about survival (all grief is, which is why all grief is selfish). scribbles—us, we—needs other people. so much of something is people like, reaching out to scribbles (to us). so when it all hits the fan that’s what our little self-insert needs more of: other people who choose to stay. and that in turn gets scribbles to a place where like, they can help other people in turn (uncle, hitomu, miki, tobi). hana by contrast rejects everyone, because she felt abandoned. you can’t change things now; you can only do better for the people in your life going forward. so much of healing is learning that.

thank-you for reading, anon. 🥺 i’m so grateful you liked the gang. 😭 being human—and being loved, even by a perfect superhero—means knowing and being surrounded by others who have their own lives, beyond your story. something needed it’s little cast. 🥹 deku and scribbles are empty puppets without the people they love (or are hurt by) beyond each other. and the fun of doing a series is that they’re not limited to their own stories. hitomu pops up, in shouto’s fic! and hana’s presense drifts in and out—rippling out with those choices she made. a ghost along the riverbank, following the current of a story she’s no longer apart of, i guess. 🥹

[msfbgraves]

People need to stop and realize (and accept) that Cobra Kai is not written the way The Bear or Interview With the Vampire are. Those shows are actually written with skill, love, respect and rich understanding of their characters—something which CK dreadfully lacks.

The sad thing is that CK had huge potential in season 1 (minus the way Daniel was written several times because the writers hate him) to be an Emmy award winning and critically acclaimed show. But by the start of season 3, it was over.

I am not, and never have been a Johnny fan by any means, and I’m only here for Daniel, Chozen, and of course Terry (all 3 of whom are fucked up in the writing department already, especially the latter 2). Still, I will be shutting off my brain and watching it. And after it’s over, I will be resuming my Danzen and Silverusso fanfic reading.

But Nonnie, I want to complain about us not getting to have nice things! Now you mention it, was it all Netflix' fault? The dropoff in S3 is abysmal (pun intended). Or did they get, in their own words, 'so far up their ass they could see out of their own mouth'? (Also, why the crass language all the time? I could see Daniel dropping a jersey infused F-bomb once in a while, but his Mama taught him to be respectful and so did Mr. Miyagi...) I still think I am a reluctant fan of CK because there would be a balance between 'this is ludicrous' and 'this is accidently brilliant'. Who knows the last season may show us some of that but I feel like watching Game of Thrones in S5 desperately trying to convince myself it was still good, when we all know the show killed itself with the Red Wedding. The ludicrous reigns, and the brilliant? Um. Case in point: casual Youtubers are going: "Johnny and Daniel at each other's throats again? They should be over this." It's just, why can't we have nice things? If you can't tell good stories without constantly bringing in new villains you're a bad storyteller, and it feels awful when you've felt hoodwinked into something as an audience. I mean, at least Wednesday told me what it was from the first episode - bait with no respect for the characters, so I didn't have to waste my time on it. Now, though, going by the trailer, I'll have to slide off of a cliff with them because of how much I love Daniel LaRusso in spite of what they've done to him. Will I get to see Ralphie in a meaty part ever again? And where is the cutoff line? I pretend that Sherlock ended after series 2. I can't pretend that with CK because where would that leave Terry? And yet S5 is giving it too much credit! It's intermittent reinforcement with ever less reinforcement! Also all the 'teens' are nearing 30. I'm simply disappointed because sometimes you can smell that it could be better than it is if the writers weren't so blinded by their own desire to make the point that bullies deserve more empathy than victims and we should all try to be 50 year old boys with a child's understanding of what deserves status. Because an unkempt drunk who thinks of no one but himself and acts like a fifteen year old boy is superior to a family man who likes girl things, like fancy food and manners and not pissing on people's cars. And oh yeah, all people from Asia are magic. They can't simply be capable, they have to be exotic.

I think we deserve to complain about that.

[firesofdainix]

October 25: Time | Past

You’re lucky I wasn’t inspired to make an angst post about this prompt. the luckiest you guys ever will be.

@morrotober

AO3 Version

*

Basically, just another excerpt concept of the au me and @emisnt2 made! Morro lived and became old and is the assistant teacher of the ninja!

*

"Master, the blade hit you! Are you feeling well?!"

"Ugh, I'm fine, everyone! The only one not fine is Wu over there." He sighs. "You'd think living for fifty years would mean he'd grown smarter not to fight villains without us."

"You lived for fifty years and you didn't think when you went to shield Lloyd from getting hit by the Reversal Blade."

"... What did you say, Kai?"

"Nothing, sir."

“Are you sure you’ll be fine, Morro?”

The old, wise man clutches his cousin’s (it’s still a strange concept to think about) hand, a small smile warming his arms. “It’s all good. You must take care of Wu. I’m just feeling… a bit tired, that’s all.”

“Are you sure you won’t wake up as a kid, Master?”

“... Do you want me to bonk your head with my staff, Jay?”

“No, of course not! It’s just—”

“Just that I’m tired and need some rest! Now, let me hear the silence in the hallways and hear you guys just… taking care of Master Wu. He needs it more than I do.”

He closes the door, and, eventually, as the pain settles into this numbing sense of feeling as if his body is distorting through time, he closes his eyes.

 When morning strikes, the birds let out their annoying pitches and the sun’s rays slip through the windows like a beast primed for revenge, that is when the others are reminded of their daily tasks. Nya and Jay, who's been tending to their Senior Master in the Master’s bedroom of the monastery, had no choice but to hold his hand before leaving his unconscious body as they make their way to the dining room for breakfast. While there was a tense, nervous-filled silence in the monastery, Zane continued to cook their breakfast for them, which lightened up their mood, somewhat. While they try to act like nothing's wrong, the entire air and atmosphere of their home was anything but warm.

Lloyd was just about to do the roll call when he realizes that only two people are missing from their current breakfast table in the monastery.

Kai speaks first. “So, are we going to do something about that?”

Nya sighs, munching on her bread and jam, courtesy of Zane. "Of course we are. We won't rest until we find Acronix. Krux too for that matter."

"We're down two masters," Jay says, deflated. "We're doomed!"

"We're not," Lloyd replies in lieu of Jay's worry over their fate, a bit exhausted at this point. He had tried entering Master Morro's room to figure out it was locked from the inside; he worried about his cousin's welfare at that, knowing that he locks his room when he has an exceptionally terrible sickness or is grievously injured. The way he'd been clutching his head when Acronix hit him with the Reversal Blade was not ignored by Lloyd, no matter how many times he's said he was fine. "We may be without our masters, but we shouldn't lose hope."

"I don't think our hope can win against a master of time himself, Lloyd," Kai says skeptically. "Especially when we don't even know what they're capable of."

"Then we ask either Master Morro or Master Wu when either one of them wakes up."

"When they wake up."

Nya swats Kai. "Jeez, when were you so pessimistic?"

Kai shoots his sister a look as if the answer is obvious. "This is only one of the times we've got both our masters out of commission. We have to solve this problem on our own."

"We're not without one master," Lloyd replies, a little more forcefully than intended. "When my cousin wakes from his headache, we'll be asking him about Acronix!"

"If he wakes up," Kai corrects with a dark look in his eyes, which Nya immediately splashes water at him for. He glares at his sister. "I'm just stating the facts."

"What fact you're stating is making Lloyd worry," Nya points out, raising a questioning brow at Kai for his callousness. "He's already worried about Master Wu, and you're making him worry about Morro."

"Yeah, I know you and Master Morro don't always see eye to eye but come on, that's still Lloyd's cousin," Cole speaks up, with the majority of the other ninjas in agreement.

Kai stares at Lloyd, who looks ready to drop everything to find a way to unlock a door for Morro. He sighs, "Sorry Lloyd. I didn't mean it like that. I just meant… who's going to lead us?"

Lloyd looks lost in thought for a moment, almost prompting Zane to try and scan him with his health scanner, but he resumes his conscious state, a resolute look on his face. "If my cousin still won't regain consciousness, I will be the one in his stead. I am the Green Ninja, after all."

The rest of the ninjas stare at one another, but they nod.

"You're already the team leader, after all," Jay agrees, nodding. "It's not a surprise you're taking up the mantle both Morro and Master Wu left when they're incapacitated."

Lloyd nods, feeling a little less tense. However, his nerves aren't all that set, when he's subconsciously fidgeting, his green eyes glancing at Morro and his uncle's room with an impressive speed.

He wants Morro to come out and say that he's okay.

"So, what's the plan, Green Machine?" Jay asks, snapping him out of his tension.

Lloyd snaps in his direction, bewildered. "Huh?"

Jay rolls his eyes. "What's the plan? We're bound to have a plan, right?"

Lloyd nods, clearing his throat. It's to hide the fact he's too distracted to think or formulate a plan, but he has to act like a leader. It's what's needed for him. "Right— the plan. The plan is—"

Much to his relief, the sound of the shoji doors sliding open interrupts his half-baked scheme, and it seems the heavens must be by his side today since it was Morro's door.

Lloyd and the other's eyes light up as they see a figure slide out of the room, slowly.

Lloyd's smile fades as he hears an intake of breath behind him.

He knew he shouldn't have thanked the heavens yet.

Because the person that came out was Morro, except… this man was closer to the photos littered all across the monastery, a historical piece of evidence that Wu likes to keep up as a way to either commiserate the memories that come with living in the place or… simply so he can embarrass his oldest student with old photos and memories.

Green-gold eyes, reflecting a youth and an ambitious glint that unsettles Lloyd a little stares back at him with a ferocity of a serpent's. The old, wrinkly skin is replaced by smooth, stinging scars from training raging across his forearms and legs. And his long, black hair pestered by white streaks? There was a green streak in his hair that Lloyd swears were never there, complete with fully dark hair, with a few gray strands, but not a whole mass.

Of course he got hit by the Reversal Blade when he took the hit for Lloyd. Of course he did. Because this entire team can never catch a break.

Lloyd gulps, as someone — probably Jay — whistles in drama. He tries to find words to describe this situation, because, from the look of unfamiliarity and suspicion (that looks a lot like Kai's) he barely can remember anything that happened prior to… how old is he? Seventeen?

"Hi," he says, his voice sounding squeakier than it usually is. "Master Morro, do you remember us?"

The extreme summons of wind that sends Lloyd and the others flying toward the backyard of the monastery makes it perfectly clear. Lloyd lets out a startled breath as he lands on Kai's body, the latter swearing at the impact.

He immediately recovers, because which Green Ninja doesn't recover easily? Jumping up and helping Kai with regaining his balance, he turns to look at his master, now the same age as him, and very, very angry.

"Who are you?!" He demands, his voice, while it is reminiscent of his older voice, was filled with strength and vigor of emotions that their master has, but it was not as strong as this. "What do you want with my master?"

"Not only did the Reversal Blade make him younger, but he also lost his memories," Kai deadpans, summoning his fire despite the wind blowing against him. "Great."

The Green Ninja's eyes flare at seeing this. "Kai, don't! He's our master!"

"Yeah, do you want him to give you a hit in the head if he ever remembers this when he ages back up?" Jay speaks up, summoning his lightning in an aim to immobilize the new young master.

"He'll be thanking us for trying to help him with his memory!" Kai replies, summoning back the fireball and hurling it towards Morro, who deflects it easily, and like a boomerang, brings it back towards Kai, who has to summon his hands to order it away. He blinks. "Okay, yeah, he still has that stupidly freakish strength of his."

"Why are you here?" Morro demands as he summons another destructive current of wind, almost blowing Zane and Nya away if they hadn't summoned their own respective elements.

"Glad to know his destructive behavior got milder over the years!" Jay speaks up as he strikes a wisp of lightning toward Morro, who deflects.

"Master Morro!" Lloyd, ever the mediator, tries to pacify his teacher, shouting over the wind.

This, somewhat, satiates Morro; either because of the way, he calls him or perhaps because he feels the slightest hint of familiarity with the boy.

"Master…?" The wind calms down, but only slightly. His gaze hardens. "There is only one master."

He summons another wind, stronger this time, the force of the wind in a storm. Jay almost falters if he wasn't so familiar, and Lloyd as well if he didn't correlate this to one of Morro's moods again.

"Morro, no!" Lloyd summons a force of energy to repel his wind, but instead of it warranting his young master to calm down, it seemed to have, bewilderingly, made him angrier, eyes flaring.

"That's the Energy Element!" Morro exclaims, and Lloyd wonders how much he's learned of the Prophecy. He stares at the blonde in confusion, before it thaws to transition to betrayal, anger, and hurt. He didn't know why he was angry at this revelation, but it complicates things. "So… you're the Green Ninja?!"

Lloyd opens his mouth, and Kai thinks it's the perfect time to gloat about his achievements.

"Hell yes, he is! He's saved Ninjago's sorry ass a thousand times and—"

An angry wind explodes forth from Morro, as a scream ravages their ears.

"I'm—" His voice breaks, hearing confusion and a certain kind of vulnerability Lloyd has never heard before. Not even the times when they had assumed the worst, had Wu not risked their lives for them time and time again. “I’m supposed to be the Green Ninja.” His voice was strangled as if he was wrangling himself to stop crying. All he did, however, was alarm the others of what is currently happening.

Lloyd knows his cousin, even with the considerably large age gap between the two of them. While he has never seen him break down into tiny little pieces, only letting the wind sort out any grievances that he has with himself and others. He’s always appeared as this strong, unbreakable wall even with the force of a thousand villains attempting to defeat them, almost always able to penetrate the professional wall. Even despite how cold and temperamental he is to his students, aside from Lloyd, he does it sincerely because he wants them to live by themselves. Even when it means having to dabble in their ire and comments about how he was terrible at teaching.

They always forget who gave them those mindsets where ninjas never quit, where ninjas rise to the challenge. Simply because he was their harsher, bad cop teacher.

The wind stills, meaning that Morro is unable to control his wind due to a tumultuous relationship with his emotions.

All Lloyd could see was a vulnerable young boy, who seemed like his world was ripped out of him to start a new one in that freshly-made tear.

The same type of boy he’d once been before Morro came to his room and comforted him.

Feeling a twinge of sympathy, he runs towards Morro, who was still standing shell-shocked, frozen to the core by this revelation. When he gets close to his cousin — Woah, he’s taller than Morro in his younger years — he attempts to touch the startled man. Only for his hand to be slapped away with a younger hand, Morro’s eyes glinting with anger and betrayal.

Lloyd tries to hide his shocked and hurt face, but his feelings betray him. For the first time in his life, Morro denied the emotional vulnerability of letting Lloyd stray behind him. It was… strange, to think about, perhaps inconsequential in the near future, but it didn’t mean it didn't hurt him.

“Don’t touch me,” he says forcefully. “You took away my destiny.”

The blonde shakes his head. “No, I didn’t, I—”

Morro takes a deep breath, before letting out another gust of wind that almost knocks Lloyd off-balance. He glares at him with the force of a thousand Suns, before walking away.

"Wait, where are you going?" Lloyd calls after him, a bit worried he'd do something reckless.

"I'm going to find Master Wu. Perhaps he'll know what's happening here." Without waiting for a response, he disappears into the monastery, leaving the ninja to recover from that windy onslaught and the shock that their Master is now the same age as them, with no memories whatsoever.

It was silent for a while.

Then, Jay says, "Wow, that was the worst impression for someone’s younger self ever."

Kai sighs, rolling his eyes. “Shut up, Jay.”

[weaselbeaselpants]

Final PhiliBelos observation for the night

A lot of people are pointing out how Philip's old coat is probably Caleb's, which Philip wore in trying to 'rescue' his brother from witchlovins. And, while I do think that's true I also personally headcanon that Philip had a parasocial bond with Caleb, i.e. he not only missed and idolized his bro, he was also deeply jealous of Caleb, just maybe not in ways he fully realizes because of course he doesn't.

One of my prequel comics had tiny!Philip declare he was going to have "80 kids" with a wife despite witchhunters not doing that, and that ties into said headcanon; Philip was the one who really never fit in and was always eager to impress in the human realm. Philip desperately wanted to be the cool kid, but if his adult self in Elsewhere and Elsewhen is anything to go by, he inevitably always fails because he's really a manipulative bastard jackass who's idea of freindship is actually just using people; His diaries show how dedicated he is to his main character-syndrome and how he really wants to be the distinguished-looking-down-on-others grand adventurer; Everything about PhilBelos is self-fufilling prophecy and work-upon work as he played such a long-con to get to where he was at the start of the series- but like all children's show villains, his fatal flaw is he doesn't consider others' feelings or capabilities, and so all his schemes actually end up falling apart because he only ever uses other people who then turn on him; it happened with Luz and Lilith= it happened with Kikimora - Collector - OG Caleb since he couldn't just accept Caleb's new life and happiness - and definitely with all of Caleb's grimwalkers up to Hunter, whom he literally disapatches every time they manage to escape him. Like all good villains, I love wehn Belos breaks down and shows weakness and he's always at his maddest when mofos are in his way or unravel all his "hard work". He, even more than most villains, craves success.

Caleb naturally got all Philip wanted. Caleb found

A place where he was accepted and otherwise fit in

A girlfriend and was also going to be a father. Till proven otherwise he was prolly accepted into Evelyn's family.

If the Clawthorne palisman trade did come from him, than that means Caleb was admired for his skills and interests.

Caleb did have an epic, real-life adventure because he didn't hate and only think of destroying the Demon Realm. ((I'd be so jazzed to find out Caleb knew some magic and glyphs of his own~))

and most importantly

Caleb got all these things without trying or bending over backwards to make it happen. Sure it didn't last, because Philip fucking murdered him, but regardless of how it ended Caleb led a happy, prosperous life. A life Philip could never have because Philip's own goals are really selfish despite what he thinks to the contrary.

I don't know. It's just a GAAAYYYMMe thEORRie. I find it fascinating. This would also explain why Philip wears his hear back as an adult where, if you go by the pics in his mindscape, he wore his hair down as a kid while Caleb had a ponytail.

tl;dr:

Philip Wittebane has issues: World Shocked

[ijustliketoreadstuff]

Illusion analysis

The episode starts with the news interviewing the public in terms of their thoughts on Ladybug and Cat Noir having lost the miraculous to monarch and the fights that have followed since Monarch resumed his attack after weeks of absence. This is very concerning because although the majority of Paris was in support of Ladybug, regardless of Monarchs threats near the end of “Strike Back”, we come to find not everyone had the intention to show their support to the heroes despite their mistakes. Word of the heroes failed attempts to retrieve the miraculous from some of the villains that Monarch has already akumatized, seems to have caused enough of a public debate to the point of the news industry getting involved to figure out just where the heroes stand among the people of Paris. 

Although Nadia has guests who show their support for the heroes, except Bob who’s just trying to advertise, it’s  Alec who explains that the media has begun to spread fear amongst the people. Despite being dedicated to encouraging the people of Paris to stay positive and not let Monarch take advantage of them, it is people like Chloe who are unfortunately beginning to spread doubt through the media about Ladybug and Cat Noir’s capabilities, which will inevitably result in hate as people begin to focus on the flaws of the heroes and their mistakes rather than all the good they have devoted their lives to doing for them time and time again.

With the news ending, we see Adrien discover the alliance rings are not only capable of using him as an avatar, but it can also allow the owners of the ring to use his image and his voice to do whatever it is they want with him, which does not sit well with him. Adrien didn’t want to be a model anymore because he was tired of living a life where he would see his image everywhere and be constantly fawned over by people who don’t know him, he was tired of the work load that prevented him from doing the things he wanted to do in his life and he was tired of all the new business ideas he had to go along with to meet everyone’s expectations, without anyone considering how he felt on the matter.

 Back in “Multiplication”, when Adrien found out his dad digitized him into a avatar, he didn’t know how to feel about it since he technically got what he wanted, he wasn’t a model anymore, but now that he knows the alliance rings are capable of letting a person do whatever they want with his image and his voice, Adrien feels uncomfortable, it’s as if he is still trapped in his modeling career without actually being in it. Rather than keep how he feels about it to himself, Adrien decides to stick by what Marinette told him and goes to confront his father about the matter.

However,  Adrien is surprised to learn that his now cheerful father will be taking him to school, instead of Nathalie. Gabriel has always refused to spend time with Adrien due to his busy schedule, so when Adrien sees that he is in the kitchen of all places, cooking him breakfast, and not stuck in his office like usual, he isn't just shocked, he has a hard time believing  his own father is actually in a pleasant mood and has actually decided to avoid his busy schedule in favor of spending time with him. Gabriel’s behavior further shocks Adrien as he hears him request to be called “Dad” rather than “Father’ like usual.

(Nathalie was not happy to hear Gabriel say he would be taking Adrien to school because she doesn't trust Gabriel being alone with Adrien)

Gabriel's explanation to his sudden cheerful behavior is simply that he's realized how torn their relationship has gotten as father and son since the day Emelie disappeared from their lives. Rather than see their strained relationship continue, Gabriel states he wants to devote himself to spending more time with him, to understand what’s going on in his life, even going as far as attending the parent teacher conference which will take place at school later that day. 

Gabriel says he has realized his devotion to his work prevented him from seeing just how much his own son didn’t want to be a model anymore and doesn’t want that kind of distance between them to continue. All of this is of course difficult to believe from the viewers perspective given just how emotionally unstable Gabriel has gotten. It’s possible there is a part of Gabriel that does want to spend more time with Adrien, but his attempts to suddenly be the picture perfect father and parent  people don't normally assume him to be, does leave suspicion that he is doing everything he can to keep up appearances and not make Adrien, or anyone else for that matter, question things or him.

However, the moment a small splat of oil hits his clean apron, Gabriel quickly shifts from his happy demeanor  to someone who is angry enough to be willing to throw the pan that caused the oil to spring into his apron. This little moment shows us that Gabriel is still the same, and due to his worsened emotional instability, he will very easily lash out the moment anything unexpected ruins the pitch perfect image he is trying to present.

When the topic of the alliance rings comes up, Adrien explains to Gabriel how uncomfortable it makes him feel knowing his image is still available for everyone to see and doesn’t want it to continue. This is a problem because Gabriel needs people to buy the rings to give him an advantage as Monarch. Since he is perfectly aware of his sons popularity and reputation among the Parisian, he knows the citizens are more likely to purchase the rings if Adrien is incorporated into it. 

In order to prevent Adrien from further questioning and requesting his avatar be removed, we see Gabriel evade his request by telling him his avatar is not really affiliated with him since it’s just an image, an image that has allowed Adrien to be free of his modeling career. He further makes Adrien wonder if it’s really a good idea to go against what has even allowed them  to spend more time together, like they are currently doing now. Getting rid of his avatar and the rings would mean everything would have to go back to the way they were, Adrien would resume modeling and Gabriel would resume his busy schedule once again. 

Despite his doubts, Adrian does not further question the matter and agrees with Gabriel as he begins to believe that perhaps the rings and the avatar might have really done an enormous amount of good for their family by providing him his freedom and giving his dad the time he needs to devote himself to changing his cold and distant ways and finally be a father who is there for him.

As Marinette and Alya are seen talking about figuring out how Monarch is able to provide the villains with the power of the miraculous without actually giving them the jewels, we see  Alya is still wearing the belt bag she once carried Trixx in, signifying that she still misses him and misses helping Ladybug as Rena Rouge.

At school, Adrien discovers that although Nino is no longer able to help the heroes as Carapace, he is still devoted to helping them in anyway he can, and his plan to do this is by forming a resistance group who will dedicated themselves to fighting Monarch in secret. I go more in depth about Nino, his plan and the situation surrounding his Resistance group here 

(Adrien attempts to express his affection by saying he wants to spend more time with her. Marinette once again attempts to avoid Adrien's affection the moment she senses it.) 

As Adrien takes delight in having a meal with his friends at a school cafeteria for the first time, his alliance ring activates, making Marinette question if he doesn't feel uncomfortable about being used as an avatar for all the rings. Adrien tries to believe his father was right on the matter and tells Marinette exactly what Gabriel told him, never questioning if it might not actually be what he wants so long as he sees that it is providing him the benefits of spending time with others and living his own life.

However, when Nino tells them his plans to record an akumatization and how the easiest target to anger and throw into an akumatization is Gabriel, Adrien has a hard time believing his dad should be the target in Nino’s plan. Adrien tries to convince Nino Gabriel has changed and is now making efforts to be better, however, Nino does not believe this given his cruel experience with Gabriel back in “The Bubbler” and assumes his sudden change is nothing but his attempts to seem more appealing to the public eye for the benefit of his new alliance rings, this of course saddens Adrien as he originally believed his father is making efforts to change for him, he never considered the possibility that it was all for the sake of improving his own image in the public eye. Nino notices he has upset Adrien and apologies, but despite any second thoughts he might have to changing the target, it is Marinette and Adrien who ultimately decide to approve his plan.

As Adrien agrees to Nino’s plan, we see him look at his alliance rings, knowing fully well that if they do this plan, his father may very quickly revert to his old ways, but if they don't, he and Ladybug will continue to struggle in retrieving the miraculous. Adrien and Marinette both feel like they have run out of options and are now desperate enough to resort to extreme measures in order to finally gain some sort of lead or advantage in retrieving the miraculous. 

Unbeknownst to them, Lila had secretly listened in on their plans and wastes no time in informing Gabriel the moment he arrives at the school for the parent teacher conference. Gabriel’s presence at school causes a major shock among the other parents as he is known for never making public appearances, so to see him be present at school for his sons parent teacher conference, leaves them with a much more positive view of Gabriel than whatever it was they though of him before.

When the plan is finally carried out to anger Gabriel  during the parent teacher conference, Gabriel takes note of them from the window moments before they enter, he is  perfectly aware of what they are about to do, but has no idea how it is they will go about angering him. Gabriel is set on maintaining his new image, anything that interferes with this will very quickly anger him to a great degree, but because he knows something is coming, he prepares to maintain himself no matter what they throw at him...speaking of which.

As Marinette, Adrien and Alya ruin his new suit by pushing plates of food at him,  Gabriel manages to restrain himself in front of the public enough to make his anger justified near the end. By reverting to his old habits and once again being willing to remove Adrien from public school, we see his decision resulting in very distinct reactions from Adrien and the others. Marinette begins to believe that her decision to not go against Nino’s plans has now resulted in Adrien suffering the consequences of her decisions. She believes this is further proof of being someone who can make bad choices by just being around Adrien and is someone who is better off not being in his life. Alya tries to tell everyone to apologize and make up for their actions while Nino is to deep in his determination to fulfill his plans.

Adrien on the other hand, reevaluates his situation with his dad and the alliance ring. In the car ride home, as he hears his dad strictly demand to be called “father” again rather than “dad”, we see Adrien look at the alliance ring on his finger and clench his fist in anger. At home, he looks at the ring once again, thinking about everything that’s happened, and without remorse, he takes the alliance ring off.

Gabriel told Adrien the avatar is what allowed him to finally be free of his modeling career and live his own life, that the alliance rings are what allowed them to come closer together, but if Gabriel is once again so quick to decide the fate of his freedom based on how he feels and is still willing to take control of everything in his life just as much as when he was still a model, then Adrien has no reason to continue believing that the rings and the avatar are what provided him his freedom and liberation from his modeling career. Adrien has no reason to believe everything would go back to the way things were the moment his avatar and the rings disappear, because it’s his father who is still in control of things, and if his father is still in control, then Adrien needs to stick by his choices and try to work around his fathers reasoning in order to try and make progress in liberating himself from his fathers expectations and control.

When Monarch begins his plans to use the fox miraculous to stage a full on illusion of himself being akumtized and be given the power of the horse, he takes delight in deceiving Ladybug and Cat Noir as he watches them struggle to catch his illusion, especially considering just how many times in the past they used illusions to deceive him. With his plan running smoothly, Monarch carries out the last phase of his plan and excitedly looks at the caged kwamis and all the power he is now able to take advantage of.

 Although Gabriel is aware of the backlash that comes with using to many miraculous at the same time, Monarch has essentially learned to bare through the backlash and is now capable of using the power of five miraculous at once without the intense power making him loose control or lose conscious. How this will affect him in the future remains unknown. As the fight is taken into the confines of the sewers, Monarch uses the power of the bee, horse, mouse, rooster and fox miraculous in order to ensure Ladybug and Cat Noir don’t quickly expose his illusion of the Collector by touching it. As Ladybug sees  the power of the bee in action as well as the invisible threats currently trying to attack her, she quickly concludes that it’s possible for Monarch to provide his akumatized villains with more than one power of a miraculous.

Monarch knows people can break free of his control, he knows Ladybug will now spend time during an akuma attack in order to try and help a villain break out of their akumatization, as such, he knows that if he acts a scene with his  illusion where Ladybug believes she now has the chance to finally talk to “The Collector”, then she will waste no time in making the same attempts with him. As he listens to Ladybug  talk to his illusion about doubting the negative emptions that got him “akumatized” as well as the words used by Monarch, Monarch gains the final chance he needs to prevent Ladybug from pursuing his illusion further as he stages himself breaking free from his “akumatization”, then immediately has it fall into the water below the cliff it was next to so he can switch places with his illusion.

Once the group is reunited with Alya and Nino, Gabriel is sure to act in a much more heartfelt manner than the cruel and strict person Nino and the others are used to seeing. Gabriel convinces Nino and the others that he is truly making an effort to change his ways, making them feel ashamed for targeting him in the first place. To further convince them of his changing behavior, Gabriel agrees to Nino’s pleads to return Adrien to school and even expresses support and an understanding for Nino’s actions as he knows it was for the greater good and to do that he had to be willing to do whatever it takes. When Gabriel says this, he is not just talking about Nino, bur rather, himself, as he is now willing to resort to extreme measures to defeat Ladybug and Cat Noir in an effort to bring Emelie back into his and Adrien’s lives, believing that if it’s for the good of their family then its a justified enough excuse for him to continue attacking the people of Paris. 

(video glitches as the bolt of light is seen across the video. The image of The Collector illusion is slightly see through but we have no confirmation if this was part of the illusion Gabriel staged or if its a reaction from the technology colliding with the illusion)

When Nino presents his findings to Ladybug and cat noir over Monarch having used “Magic lightning” to send and retrieve the miraculous from his villains, Gabriel is pleased to know  Ladybug and Cat Noir have now accepted the most misleading piece of misinformation, information which has absolutely no connection to him or Monarch.

Upon realizing that Gabriel might not actually be the man he once was and after seeing him even be willing to support his plan and his findings, Nino decides to ask Gabriel if he would like to join the Resistance group. Gabriel agrees as this will no doubt prove useful to him later. 

After everything has settled down, Adrien is once again staring at the alliance ring, wondering what he should do about the matters concerning his image and not knowing whether to wear it and agree to his fathers reasoning or turn his back against it all after seeing his father once again act so heartfelt and sincere to everyone. As Gabriel enters his room to confront him about the events of the day, he apologizes for his behavior at school when he let his anger spill over and explains how thanks to Ladybug, he  understands now that he shouldn't let his failures decide who he is and he shouldn't give up so easily on trying to make their relationship as father and son better. Despite believing his dad is trying to be sincere about their situation, Adrien decides to tell him nothing about the matter concerning his image and the rings and instead opts to simply ask Gabriel if its ok for him to not wear an alliance ring himself, to which Gabriel agrees as it does not interfere with his plans whatsoever.

Back at school, Nino excitedly congratulates everyone on the success of their first mission as “The Resistance”. Despite Marinette's previous concerns, upon seeing Max, Kim, Rose, Juleka, Ivan and Mylene being recruited, Marinette is happy to know that having the rest of team together as civilians is the best way they can once again reunite the miraculous team to better defeat Monarch. However, her joy is short lived upon realizing that Lila has also been recruited to the resistance. Weather or not Nino asked her to join or if Lila herself confronted Nino about joining after overhearing them talk, remains unknown. Marinette knows Lila will bring trouble to the team but is perfectly aware of the fact that she has no other choice but to agree to Lila’s request for a truce because she can not afford to leave her with the team. Any attempts to expose her will only end in failure just as it has before as Lila continues to successfully manipulate everyone around her into believing  she can do no wrong.

 With Lila secretly in support of Monarch defeating Ladybug and Cat Noir as well as being a direct informant to Gabriel, she now has the chance to ruin any chance the Resistance may have in providing an advantage to Ladybug and Cat Noir, only time will tell when the resistance will realize there is a traitor within their group.

Meanwhile, Gabriel reports to Tomoe about the events of the day, she is pleased to know the heroes have accepted a false piece of information that strays them from the true source of Monarch’s ability to transfer the power of the miraculous to villains, the alliance rings.

Lots of new plots points this episode, the Resistance is still missing members of the miraculous team, but whether anyone else on the team, besides Marinette and Adrien, will realize that Lila is not who she claims to be is something we still need to wait to see, and whether or not anyone will realize Gabriel’s deceit is still up for question, but any who, that’s it for now, see you next episode!

[egg-emperor]

So true for example about your post. Emerl even sees himself as a living being, does Eggman cares?

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=GPpKtlSiTgI

Sonic Battle - Final Story ~ Final Boss [28]

Eggman is good at manipulating others and that's only one of the few things that makes him a villain. He can stop but he doesn't, why? Easily, feelings can be weaponized against anyone who falls for his traps. Good feelings, bad feelings, doesn't matter. Eggman will take any if that gives him an advange and that is scary and downright evil. There's nothing good about it, it's good only for him

Yeah Eggman still really didn't give a shit about Emerl beyond what he could get from him for his own selfish gain, despite Gerald once handling him himself and even attempted to give him a soul based on Maria. But as soon as Emerl didn't do what Eggman wanted, he was just like fuck this shit and beat him and told him he's already made a replacement for him so he doesn't need him anymore and throws him out.

Then he thought that if Emerl wanted to be all friendly and like family with Sonic and co then he'd take advantage of his feelings and naivety to actually get some use out of him. He specifically took advantage of the feelings he had and laughed in his face for his softness and said he was weak and vulnerable for caring for others and it ended up allowing him to be the perpetrator of the reason he ends up dying in the end.

So yeah, he's a real heartless bastard that doesn't care about sentient robots and other creations as people, no matter how real and like flesh and blood living beings they feel. He shows them no mercy either way and sees them only as tools for him to use and if they have feelings, he'll just take advantage of them and/or destroy or repurpose them when it makes them realize how horrible he is and want to betray him.

It's twisted and impactful when he's the one that's more cold and heartless than artificial creations. How he'll take advantage of their life-like feelings and manipulate and break them without hesitance or remorse, all for his own selfish gain and will even enjoy it, laugh in their face, and mock them for their feelings and softness. It's so compelling and scary and dark, what he's capable of doing mentally and physically to them.

Along with how he was with Shadow, Battle is one of my favorite examples of the cruel fucked up lengths he'll go with manipulation and abuse of artificial creations, no matter how precious they're supposed to be to others, even if his grandfather worked on them. Battle really emphasizes my point of how much he loves doing it as he enjoys it and laughs in the face of victims and knows he's evil as he refers to himself as such.

I absolutely love it when how horrible and fucked up and evil he is is really understood and explored like that. I'm always going back to and gushing over Battle Eggman for being funny, charismatic, and so deeply fucked up and acknowledging it proudly and loving it. It's a great example of all the things I love most about him working at once and how compelling it is. He's everything to me, I love that evil asshole 🥰💜💕

[ungrateful-cyborg-moved]

Happy birthday! Is there a quest/mechanic/plot point/anything you don't really like in FFXIV? What do you think would make it better?

If that's too much to think on then: cake or pie?

Oh dear...

When it comes to what I don't like about the game, it's almost always about Garlemald. I didn't realize that before you asked but really, almost everything I can think of that I dislike story-wise is related to how Garlemald/Garleans/traitors in general are treated in the game.

1/ Tsuyu.

I've said it before, but the storyline with Tsuyu sucks (imo). And to get a bit personal, I've suffered from amnesia for years due to trauma. You don't regress into a five years old, you just don't remember why you feel the way you do. And sure there are several types of amnesia, and I do understand that they wanted to humanize her and put her wrongs into perspective with her culture and the political situation in Doma. But there were better ways than "but she was such a cute child before she was hurt!" Yes, so? So are the many many victims that don't destroy other people's life.

It's not that I don't find Yotsuyu's story interesting in itself, but I would have preferred something like: she built her own spy network with almost exclusively other girls who were once sold into (sex) slavery, both because she needed such a network and to 'help' them regain control on their life. And sure she put them in danger by using them as spies but it'd show that she was somewhat capable of compassion, at least towards people that reminded her of herself, which for a narcissistic woman who believed her suffering so great it gave her the right to commit high treason and torture innocent was fitting.

And then mix that with Asahi's bullshit (a bit differently that what was done, obviously), and we'd have had a nuanced villain who was once a sweet girl who suffered immensely and took it out on other people when she had the chance.

Except this time it would've been done with subtlety instead of shove down our throat.

2/ The Sorrow of Wherlyt.

Gaius was the one who ruled over Ala Mhigo for twenty years. The vast majority of destruction happened in Ala Mhigo because of him. The cultural genocide happened because of him. And he feels sorry for himself because Lahabrea used his thirst for conquest against him? And I'm supposed to believe that him being sad because his kids keep sacrificing themselves means he feels somewhat remorseful for all he's done? Not once does he shows a shred of remorse or true understanding of what he's done. And it'd be fine, if it was just how the character is, but everybody else treats him like he's on the way to redemption and that's just... jarring.

Like. I don't mind the political aspect, far from it. That the Garlean Empire presented such a threat that Werlyt felt like asking for his help, why not. He wouldn't be the first war criminal to get a job for having been a war criminal.

That Raubahn "I-cut-people-in-two-when-I-think-the-Sultana's-dead-but-apparently-having-the-man-who-destroyed-my-country-freely-roaming-said-country-is-all-fine-and-dandy" Aldynn discovered political pragmatism for the sake of Ala Mhigo... I mean, I do believe it's more of a plot hole than anything but let's admit it wasn't. I'm fine with it. I do believe he should have put limits to where Gaius could go without supervision though but I'm not a head of state.

What I don't get is why no one is asking for a trial now that the Empire is no more. If SE doesn't want to take Gaius out of commission, I can understand. But then let's just say that Wherlyt refuses to give him up, Raubahn's hands are tied and it causes tensions between the two neighboring countries. If SE didn't want political tensions, maybe they shouldn't have made Stormblood so political to begin with.

But this, at least, would mean that you don't get to commit war crimes only to be rewarded with a country you helped conquer, and everyone's blessing on top of it.

I just want some consequences when people fuck up in the story. Not death or torture or anything, just... consequences. They did it right with Fordola, I know they can do it.

3/ Garlemald.

Missed occasion with that politician in the last patch (I think it was the last?) to have actual resistance against the Alliance from the people at the top, because they're the ones with something to lose in that whole affair. And by that I mean "resistance for more time than it takes to save yet another bastard from his own stupidity".

In my opinion, we'd get a better situation with Garlemald if the politicians'd been so self-interested they rejected the Alliance's help in a patch. Then later the people of Garlemald would realize what they'd done in their name and throw them out, finally showing us they're ready to compromise and work with us, rather than being passive recipient of generous help they don't deserve.

Because really at this rate, in thirty years they're back to trying to conquer another country. And why not? When they fucked up, the people they tried to destroyed helped them for free, without even expecting respect in return. Clearly it shows they're superior, right?

4/ Lyse.

She should have had a bigger role in the Resistance before we met her again at the end of HW, and then sent as the Resistance's speaker to build alliances in the East when she comes with us (as training as the next leader).

And maybe Papalymo could have been like "you don't need me anymore" before sacrificing himself, and she would have protested that he's her friend, it's not about needed him or something. Idk. In my opinion it would have made the whole scene more emotional, and her revelation later more impactful, but maybe that's just me.

Another thing that could have been fun as far as character development goes would have been if she'd been a bit more serious in SB because she already had had character development while we were battling dragons... and people commented that she started to remind them of her sister.

I'm still a bit disappointed that nobody ever comment on it later. I know they already knew but what's the point of such a reveal if there's no comeback to it? (Plus, angst.)

And that's it, I think.

Well, no. SE, please give me back my positional when I play monk ;_;

Thank you for your ask, @luck-and-larceny! It's very long but letting me rant about all that was a great birthday gift XD

[linkspooky]

Cipher Academy, Chapter 2 Thoughts

I’m continuing out these chapter by chapter analysis of Cipher Academy Nisioisin’s newest Shonen Jump series, out of my undying love for him and his previous work Medaka Box (my favorite manga of all time). Let’s hope this series gets past chapter fourteen. The entirety of the first chapter spends time introducing the main character as more than just a token boy character among a huge cast of female characters, the second chapter in my opinion tells us even more about him as well as introducing his “flaw.” 

1. You Won’t Be Bullied There

Iroha has a very “bullied kid” attitude in regards to their place at the school. He’s acapable of solving puzzles on his own, and working hard to study and yet because of low self esteem he immediately assigns himself the bottom rung of the class, assumes he’s inferior to the others, and just assumes he’s going to get picked on and bullied. All of these result in Iroha downplaying himself and presenting himself as a more passive, incapable person than he really is. 

If you’re being bullied you’re the vcitim of something, right? If you’re a victim, you don’t have much of a choice. Iroha already showed in chapter one that they are capable of standing up for themselves in a pinch, and solving the puzzles that the person they’ve assigned the role of “class bully” Kogone set up for him when she got three girls to gang up on Iroha. 

They want to give back the glasses, but they don’t, because they’re convinced not too. They think about joining a club, but then get scared off by Kogone. They’re a pretty passive actor getting pushed around from place to place without really thinking about what they wanted. Ie, if they did what they originally wanted to do they would have just handed the glasses back and then been on their way. He also tends to act like he’s just being pushed around and doesn’t have a choice in these matters. The glasses give him hints, but he’s the one solving the puzzles. Kogone is a pretty strong and forceful personality, but he’s perfectly capable of standing up to her when he’s called to. 

Iroha’s homeowrk of asking everyone in the class what their dreams and ambitions are tell us an important fact about his character too, he’s really naive and doesn’t seem to udnerstand people. His partner tells Iroha right away that the girls are all laiars, and Iroha is completely surprised by this fact. 

Which makes sense if you realize what a self conscious person Iroha is. They are constantly looking in, overanalyzing themselves, trying to scrutinize and look for flaws in themselves and because of that, they can’t pick up on something as simple as the other girls in class might be lying on him, and might not be what they seem to be. Which is also why he assigns someone like Kogone as the villain or bully role despite barely knowing her, because she puts on the act of being a dominating, pushy and authoritative person.

While pointing out that naivete his partner also challenges some pretty fixed beliefs,  Iroha assumes he can’t do anything on this school on his own, because he is a bullied kid and this school is yet another environment where strong people gang up and pick up on the weak. His partner points out the flaw in that thinking right away by saying he’s not doing it on his own, he’s asking for help. 

He also provides Iroha an outsiders perspective on hismelf, because he sees him in a different way. He sees Iroha as someone who’s hard working, practical and dedicated therefore a person suited to carrying out his more lofty ideals, to give a method to his madness. Iroha sees themselves as someone inferior, and his partner sees him as humble. 

Naivete is estalbished this chapter as Iroha’s central character trait, for better or worse. They are innocent in a way that others are not which makes them straight forward, and earnest. At the same time they’re so naive they don’t see complexity in other people, which not only results in him not really understanding the people in his school but also in general getting pushed around because he can’t really see people’s dark sides or ill intents. His practicality and straightforward nature makes him more useful, while at the same time it makes him easy to use and take advantage of.