#the made them saints which like ... kay

[indelen]

Love also the implication that there was just one (1) straightforward change of power between end of Romanov rule and presumably the early NEP USSR period I guess? Looooool is all I can say about that.

For fellow "raised on USSR media" hromada have fun reconciling that Don Bluth's hot 20 something Anastasia was running around at the same time and general place as Ostap Bender hunting down chairs with Kisa and Soviet Hardy Boy Misha Plyakov was Solving capitalism crimes and "elusive avengers" vigilanteing through southern Ukraine.

Anastasia 1997 is such a funny movie in that it's opening sequence is like, "the Romanovs died because rasputin put a curse on them AND NO OTHER REASON DON'T WORRY ABOUT WHY THE ROMANOVS ARE DEAD OKAY IT WAS RASPUTIN"

[monopersona]

Sins of the Father

Known as the devil, loved by a saint, and father to miracles. He built his empire on blood and fire, but his legacy will not be the darkness—it will be the laughter of his children, the quiet sanctuary he shields from the world he ruled. Some call it redemption, but Sylus knows better. The past will always linger as a shadow that never truly fades, but neither does the light. He was never a good man, but he is a good father. And for them—for her—he will try to be better. A reflection of Sylus and his journey into fatherhood.

Sylus x Named MC. Family, fluff with a little darkness but mostly reflective. Sylus will forever be a doting father and husband I'm going to cry. 2380 words.

A/N: Heyyy it's Nona back with yet another Sylus fic. I have always wanted to write something that was a bit more reflective on how Sylus came to be a father and his journey as one. I kid you not, this took me 10 rewrites in over 2 weeks lol but I like how it turned out. Happy reading!

You can read on ao3 here

Series master list here

Sylus had long learned to live in two worlds.

He liked to see them as light and shadow. At home, he was a husband and father—a man who loved, doted on, and cared for his children with the love of his life. His family had become his beacon of light. It was the world where Lili stood beside him, where Aria’s laughter echoed through the hallways, where Kai’s small feet ran around the gardens without a care in the world.

When he wasn’t basking in that light, he lurked in the shadows—a path paved in blood and gold that he had built and refined over the years. One that demanded ruthlessness and precision. He had shaped it, and in turn, it had shaped him. Sylus loved the shadows, but as time passed, he had come to realize that he couldn’t live without his light.

Family had always been a foreign concept. It was something that seemed to belong to other people but never to someone like him. His childhood had been a harsh teacher, and the road he walked on was not one that allowed him to indulge in the illusions of a family. For a long time, Sylus had believed the shadows were all he would ever know. He simply believed he didn’t have the capacity to build a life beyond it.

But then he met Lili, and loving her had been the easiest thing he had ever done. There was no universe, no reality, in which he would deny her. Even then, she had never asked him to be anything other than himself. She made space for herself in his life but never demanded that he change.

Over the years, they built a life together—one that allowed them to exist in both their shared world and their individual ones. Sylus had no issue with this. Lili deserved to pursue her passions, and he would never make her give up anything she didn’t want to, so they made it work. But even after marrying her, he had never imagined himself as a father. He had come to realize later that it wasn’t that he didn’t think he was capable—it was that he had never allowed himself to want it.

And then came Aria.

Lili’s pregnancy had been a cruel one. Every month was a battle against the limits of her body—especially her heart. When she went into premature labor, Sylus had nearly lost both of them. He still remembered the blinding panic, the helplessness that clawed at his throat as he watched Lili fight for her life that day. He had known many kinds of fear in his life, but nothing compared to that moment.

In the end, they survived. And when Sylus held his daughter for the first time, something in him shifted.

He was struck by how fragile she was. She had thick white hair that was so much like his, Lili’s deep brown eyes that looked up at him in adoration, and tiny fists that clung to his fingers without hesitation—the pure, unwavering trust of someone who had never known cruelty. She was untouched by the darkness he had spent his life navigating. She was perfect, and she was his to protect. In that moment, he swore that no matter what it took, he would uphold his duty.

Sylus had always believed that sin was absolute. Once you stepped into the dark, there was no return to the light. Regret was useless; redemption was a lie. He had made his choices and had no illusions about what he was. But now, he had more than Lili to consider. Lili had walked into their relationship knowing the man he was, and it was a risk she had been willing to take. But Aria was innocent. She had never asked for this life, never chosen to be born to a father who had shadows that trailed his every step. And so, for the first time in his life, Sylus chose to draw a line between his two worlds.

Where the lines had once blurred between business and home, they became sharp and immovable. He restructured, built legitimate fronts, and eliminated dead weight. It took a while, but he meticulously planned and executed a system of protection so intricate that no enemy or ally could ever betray him without digging their own grave in the process. He wasn’t naïve, after all. Humans were predictable—easily broken by the right pressure if they hadn’t already been bought at the right price. He spent years ensuring there would be no loose ends (or lips). By the time Aria was old enough to enter preschool, there was nothing—nothing—that could tie her to his other life, even as they continued to exist side by side.

Four years after Aria, Lili and Sylus were blessed with Kai. His arrival only reinforced Sylus’s determination. He had already secured his family’s safety and future; Kai’s arrival simply proved that he had done the right thing. His empire remained, but his children would never inherit its sins.

Fatherhood was expressed not through grand promises but through his actions—through scraped knees bandaged with hands that once took lives, lunchboxes packed instead of ammos, parent-teacher conferences he went to with the same enthusiasm as protocore auctions. His presence became his promise. Over the years, Sylus had found that there was something sacred about the ordinary rituals that came with raising children. He would never trade that feeling—that purpose—for anything in the world.

Silent protection was a craft he had mastered. When you live in the world he did, expecting the worst out of people was not an unrealistic expectation. Lili watched in amusement as he twisted his paranoia into something a little more wholesome, a little more poetic. She saw the way he lingered outside Aria's door during sleepovers, counting breaths under the guise of adjusting the thermostat. Or how he taught Kai to throw punches not for violence but for confidence. His vigilance hid in plain sight—reinforced steel in the treehouse under the fairy lights, panic buttons behind crayon drawings, background checks disguised as small talk, daggers kept sharp beneath Aria and Kai’s floorboards, and of course there was also Mephisto. Despite all that, his children only knew tenderness. They found it in the way their father pretended not to see them during hide-and-seek, how he held them on nights when thunder and nightmares haunted them, or the way his stern expression always softened at the sight of them coming home from school.

And much as Sylus loved doting on his children, discipline in his household was always firm but never cruel. He had seen what fear could do to a child—had once been shaped by it himself—and had vowed his own would never flinch at the sound of his voice. When Aria tested her limits as a teenager, he held firm, kept his expectations clear, and made sure his patience remained unshaken. And when Kai, years later, confessed his self-doubt—worrying about his future and wondering if he could ever measure up to his father—Sylus simply ruffled his hair and told him, “You are your own person.”

Yet, for all his efforts to separate the worlds he balanced, there were nights when the weight of the darkness lingered too heavily. When things got too close. During these times, he would come back to the simple things—the sound of Lili’s voice calling his name, the laughter of his children echoing through the halls, the small, everyday moments that tethered him to the life he had built. They were his anchor.

Many years have passed since then. It wasn’t an easy journey by any means, but they made it. Eventually Aria went to university, Kai entered his final year of high school, Lili had moved up the ranks at the Association, and Sylus found himself growing older in a thousand ways. He had welcomed all these changes with open arms, even though sometimes he mourns how the time passes by so quickly. 

Tonight, he returned home from a meeting near Whitesand Bay (N109 was an area he rarely visited ever since the restructure. That was mostly Luke and Kieran’s thing now). The negotiations had been tense, but Sylus had left with what he wanted and no blood spilled. 

As he approached the door to his house, he felt the weight of his other world still clinging to him like a second skin he could never fully shed. The cold air bit at his face as he exhaled slowly, willing the remnants of the night to stay outside before he stepped in. 

The living room was warm and softly illuminated by golden light. It had been years since the house was filled with the chaotic energy of childhood—no scattered toys, no hurried footsteps echoing through the halls, no screaming or crying. But tonight, it felt alive again.

 “Surprise!” 

Sylus turned just in time to see Aria standing by the staircase with a big smile across her face. She had grown into a striking young woman, her sharp intellect and confidence evident in the way that she carried herself. Her usual long white hair was cropped short in a bob now, her features a mix of Lili’s softness and his own sharper edges. But all he could see was the tiny baby girl he held that day at the hospital. 

He didn’t ask why she was here. She never needed a reason to visit, after all. This will always be her home. Still, he raised a brow at her. “Aren’t you supposed to be drowning in law school assignments?” 

“I finished early,” she said, walking over to wrap her arms around him. “And I think I’m going to stay here for a week and just drive to classes. I missed home.” 

Sylus hugs his baby tighter, as if she’d disappear if he let his hold loose for just a second. “Well, home has missed you, too. Have you eaten?” 

Before Aria could respond, a groggy, mildly annoyed voice interrupted them. “What’s going on?” Kai trudged into the living room, his dark hair sticking up in every direction, crimson eyes heavy with sleep. He was already taller than Sylus at just eighteen. Leaner, but still growing into his frame. “Why is it so loud?” 

Aria squinted at her younger brother. “It’s eight in the evening, Kai. Normal people are awake.” 

“Normal people don’t have morning practice and exams.” He yawned before dropping onto the couch. “Hey, Dad.” 

Sylus nodded at him. “Have you eaten yet?” 

“Aria brought home food. It was really good.” 

“Yes, I did!” Aria leaned back from the hug just enough to grab her father’s hand and pull him to the dining area. “I got you and Mom’s favorite. Kai actually set it up earlier on the table.” 

Lili emerged from upstairs. She had aged as much as him, and he still burned for her just as much as he did when they were in their twenties—if not more. Seeing her now in a long dress that hugged the curves of her body just right and how she ran a hand through her brown and grey strands had him already thinking about what he’d like to do to her tonight. “Some things never really change,” she would say.

A knowing smile laid on her lips. She glanced at Sylus, reading him as easily as she always had. “Long day?” 

“Not more than usual.” 

She hummed, unconvinced, but didn’t push. Instead, she walked over and kissed his cheek before murmuring, “Go eat.” And so he did. 

Home.

It wasn’t a grand moment. There were no dramatic revelations, no intense declarations. Just this—his daughter’s unexpected visit, his son waking up late (or rather, going to sleep early and being disturbed), his wife still knowing him so well and seeing through him after all these years. The quiet assurance that they were all safe and loved. He cherished it.

Later, when the kids had settled—Aria chatting about her classes, Kai half-listening while scrolling on his phone—Sylus sat beside Lili on the balcony attached to their bedroom, his fingers brushing against hers. 

"You don’t have to carry everything alone,” she told him, voice soft in the dim light. 

“I’m not.” 

She let out a dry laugh, but there was no malice behind it. “You still think you can keep every threat at bay by the sheer force of will, huh?” 

He let out a quiet hum, his fingers absently tracing circles on her wrist. “And you think I can’t?” 

Lili sighed, but there was no frustration in it. “That’s not the point.” She wasn’t asking him to change. She never had. Instead, she squeezed his hand and murmured, “Just remember that I’m here for you. Whatever it is. I think we’ve been through it all almost thirty years running by now.” 

Sylus closed his eyes. “I know.” And he did. He didn’t know what he did to deserve it, but he was grateful nonetheless. “Thank you.” Some nights, he still patrolled the empty halls—fingertips tracing the doorframes where height marks chronicled childhoods that passed by in the blink of an eye. Another realization that came to be was that the real test of fatherhood came in restraint. Watching Aria inherit his temper but not his ruthlessness, seeing Kai make choices he wouldn’t, and choosing not to interfere when the consequences were manageable. They had to live their lives, and so he allows them their own learning curve as they navigated the world in a way only the know how. As long as it didn’t put them in real danger, that is. In their independence, he found his greatest victory: they feared nothing, especially not him. And when they will eventually ask about his past? He will tell them truths carefully measured—not to burden, not to expose them to a darker world, but to remind them how far he had come for them. Some would call the life he lived some sort of redemption. Sylus didn’t believe in such things. But he did believe in one thing: Aria and Kai would never walk his path. choAnd that was all that mattered.

A/N: What did you think of it? Let me know! I say this a lot lately but as someone who's trying to get back into writing, any feedback is appreciated. Thank you for reading and I hope you have a great day/night!

[amf-studios]

Importimp's getting an upgrade for Christmas!

My Lil goat boy has become a stinky bastard man! Realized a bit after I made Importimp "hey, if you fused him with Ol' Saint trick, then that'd make for an easy Krampus fan kai!"

And that resulting in Skampus here!(scam + scamp + krampus). Ever meet a total holiday grifter? Like prices double right around the holidays? That's the fault of this guy!

Skampus is an A rank of the Shady tribe. Hes a Merican yokai of the fire attribute, and his soultimate is "Hot Coal Barrage," which is exactly what it sounds like, he ignites Coal from his sack and begins chucking it at his enemies!

But wait! We ain't done yet, since it's the season of giving, here's a bonus!

Our first Crank-a-kai exclusive variant! Santa-Claws! He can be obtained by using a blue or five star coin in the Nocturne Clock

The cause of much confusion naming wise, Santa-Claws is something of a heat vampire. He will seek our warm places, devouring their heat and leaving only a chill behind.

Santa-Claws is an S rank of the Shady tribe, he's a Merican yokai of the ice attribute, and has the soultimate, "Stocking Sucker" where he sucks in all the heat from his opponents side, leaving them frozen in place.

I hope you enjoy this two for one post! And remember, commissions are open! Details on my blog!

[fizzingwizard]

Something else I love about Moomins...

When I was a kid, like nine or ten years old, I had a book called What Kay Did. In the book, Katy is a selfish and mean young girl, who falls off a swing and I think breaks her back or something. As a result, she can't walk, and is cooped up inside and miserable. Little by little, she learns how her nasty behavior made her siblings afraid of her and not want to be with her, and now that she can't go out and amuse herself, she's really dependent on them for fun. So she learns to be nice. She becomes almost saintly, really.

Then, near the end of the book, the family finds out that there's a possibility that Katy will be able to walk again. And instead of being happy for her, the siblings say, "But she's become so nice since she got hurt. If she heals, will she be mean again?" Fortunately, Katy both relearns how to walk, and stays nice, so everyone's happy.

I hated this book. And it's not like, as a kid, I wasn't familiar with moralizing children's books where the main character learned a lesson and grew into a better person. I knew exactly what the book was doing. I just hated it. And I also knew that the siblings weren't meant to be interpreted as cold and indifferent for their lack of enthusiasm on hearing Katy might walk again. It's probably realistic even, if you've been bullied by someone before, to worry that a return to the circumstances where they bullied you would trigger it again. Still I hated them. I hated the book for telling me Katy had to behave a certain way for her to deserve to walk. Even though the way she used to be was truly awful. And I hated the book for requiring me to sympathize with the siblings, who had been treated badly by Katy, when what I really thought was that their resistance her recovery, however brief, was worse than anything she'd done to them in the past.

I hated being told what to think. I hated being preached at about right and wrong. And more than anything, I hated that Katy went through a character arc so dramatic that, in the end, she was completely unrecognizable as the girl in chapter one. That was meant to be good thing, because chapter one Katy was an asshole. But even as a kid, I didn't believe people change that much. Katy ended up more or less a saint. Always kind, always giving, always patient. Because of that, her relearning to walk came across like a reward for being a good person.

I haven't picked up this book again since I was a kid. So I may be forgetting important points. It's always possible I'd feel differently as an adult. That's my disclaimer, but i don't really think so. Because it's not like this kind of book was unusual. Another one comes to mind, the title of which I've forgotten, which was about a plate. In the world of plates, if you let just anyone eat off you, you wound up a dirty paper plate no one wanted. But if you waited and remained pure and clean, one day the King himself would change you into a beautiful porcelain plate and you'd be part of his household. It was a metaphor for Christianity and for virginity. It was more preachy BS.

Part of the reason I hated it was because I really took it to heart. I felt that I was horrible like Katy, and that unless I could achieve her saintliness, I would be always coming up short. Every time I committed a sin, even just in my head, I felt like I was back at square one. And I was doomed to fail, because of course it's impossible to be as good as Katy. We can change some. We can strive for self-improvement. But we'll be fighting our demons forever. (And in the book's defense, I believe I remember a scene where Katy admits she still struggles with her temperament later on, but she does her best not to let it affect her siblings.) With the plates, same thing: you can't live a totally pure and clean life. No one can. In Christianity, that's supposed to be a prerequisite for being human: we are all sinners, all of us. The goal is to try your best to live a righteous life and to be humble. But there's so much judgment and so many attacks on people who falter, and so much smug superiority among those who are convinced they are living righteously.

The Moomins books say something completely different. They were about self-acceptance. "All nice things are good for you," Moominmamma says. That would never fly in my Christian children's literature. And it's not like the Moomin book were anti-religious. (on a tangent: I wondered if what Moomintroll left under the fir tree, the thing that he didn't even tell Snufkin about, was meant to be him giving his soul to God on Christmas. It's impossible for me to tell whether I read that story right or if my deeply religious upbringing is screwing with me again.)

The Moomins don't say it's fine to be a bully or it's fine to do things that hurt you or others. But they don't go around breaking your back for being a bully or rejecting you eternally for not doing what you're told. Things happen in Moomins - characters make choices in step with their nature, and although they rub each other the wrong way sometimes, it always turns out that there was this or that reasoning and no one's really right or wrong. They're all just people. Moomins doesn't expect you to ever try to be perfect. And hiding your demons doesn't protect your family from them, rather it creates more distance between you and makes it harder to support each other and feel supported.

Characters in Moomins aren't so dynamic. But they also aren't completely stagnant. No character would undergoes the vast change that Katy did, or the complete transformation of the porcelain plate. Instead, characters are confronted with themselves again and again. And, again and again, they learn to accept themselves warts and all. A hemulen is a hemulen, a fillyonk is a fillyjonk and it's no use for them to try to be anything else, because that's what they are. Sometimes they're fed up with it and yearn to be anyone else. It's only natural, because no one is perfect, so we can always find bits of ourselves to hate. But inevitably they'll miss themselves. It's when characters listen to voices that tell them they're not enough, whether those voices are internal or external, that they become nasty and mean and mistreat each other.

There are no real bad guys in Moomins. We can only wonder what would happen if someone really mean were ever introduced. But the stories aren't missing such a character - they especially aren't missing the chance to chastise their young readers for their imperfections and urge them to be righteous because otherwise, hell awaits. I much prefer the take that everyone has their own personality and temperament and history, which informs their actions, and that most of the difficulties people have with each other come from not respecting that. You can't have a community by forcing everyone to be the same. A community is different people making the same choice to support each other's differences.

Actually, there is one bad guy in Moomins. It's the aunt in "The Invisible Child." Notably, she doesn't feature in the story. The story is about helping Ninny. About Ninny learning that she is important. That she doesn't deserve to be mistreated and degraded, her every misstep nitpicked. That her wants, her needs, her voice matters. Her cruel aunt doesn't matter at all. So she's not part of the story.

And, when Ninny rediscovers who she is, she's praised in this way: "She's even worse than Little My." I wonder how different Katy's story would have been, if she had Little My to knock some sense into her, without also sapping her of her individuality. I bet that plate never would have become porcelain either, but would have enjoyed life in the Moominhouse cupboard just as much.

[drinkyourvillainjuice]

grumbles about tumblr not wanting me to post something again

(these were all showerthoughts, literally)

prefacing this saying all of this is me throwing my brainstorming at you because otherwise it's gonna live rent-free in my head. No expectation that you actually implement any of this, especially if it's inconvenient or would be difficult to code or otherwise wouldn't fit well in the IF.

1. Someone asked at some point (either here or on the COG forum, idr) if we could choose for Dime to have all 4 of the juice appearance traits, and you said having a multiple-selection menu there wouldn't have the same "punch"/would feel like an interruption. Would it be possible to add a menu for this in the stats page that unlocks after we pick Dime's juice appearance trait ingame? 2. On a related note, can we have more interactions/mentions of other characters' reactions to pallid eyes Dime? It's a very noticeable trait but I haven't seen much response to it ingame 3. Bit of a specific one, for nodes!Dime; this one would probably be the most work out of everything I've suggested so far, and I don't know how many people would find it useful, so no worries if you don't implement it. Would it be feasible to add a toggle into the stats menu that modifies how Dime produces/reabsorbs(?) the nodes? If toggled off (default), no change, but if toggled on, it swaps out the nodes' text to be along the lines of Dime producing the nodes by tearing off chunks of their membrane/tendrils/etc that then become independent, and the nodes returning into Dime's body by kinda being "subsumed" into the rest of their membrane, or something? I love the nodes and I want to play more with them, but Dime producing them by vomiting them back up and then having to choke them back down again is a bit much for me- mostly brought this one up in case it would be helpful to anyone else with a similar issue. 4. Speaking of nodes, it would be kinda cute if they were mentioned as forming a clot to keep Dime from bleeding out after becoming Saint Paradigm- instead of the membrane clotting up, it's just a hole full of upset flesh lumps doing their very best to keep all of Dime's blood and ichor where it's supposed to be :P

Hm. I dunno. That'd technically work, I just sort of want to do specific things/references at certain points and I guess it just doesn't feel quite right including an 'all of the above' ?

Oh, right! Yeah so - I've been a little low on the reactivity with certain features so far. The eyes thing was actually intentional because essentially you have a team where two members look very unusual (Kay, Teddie), one is living with those two (Wil) and a fifth can change their appearance for fun (Mal). They mostly wouldn't get that bothered by it, basically. That said I've just left a note for myself to at least have a dialogue choice to say something similar to the "just thinking about how we match" to Kay regarding having weird eyes.

This may be doable! It'd be a chunk of work but I do like the idea of including a toggle like that because I know the nodes are really quite extreme.

That's cute. I've made a note about that.

Just in general regarding people's suggestions: there are a few things I like the idea of a lot and some of those are less feasible to implement than others. Even for stuff I do want to add I'm trying to hold off the urge to tinker because I don't wanna get bogged down on refinements when I'm still in first draft, and anything I change I need to make sure then keeps continuity with everything else.

So I definitely want to add things and tidy other stuff up, I'm just keeping myself from editing too heavily as I'm already susceptible to rabbit holes. Such as current dialogue tree I'm working on, which was intended to be a short and sweet thing and has blown up into a little interaction scene per teammate.

[cancerian-woman]

what do you think of darker ships? Ships like bonkai or Kyler (Tyler x Klaus)? I think Kyler falls in the same realm as Klefan, but darker because I don’t think Stefan was abused by Klaus to the extent that Klaus abused and tortured Tyler. Part of me wants to start writing some really dark and psychopathic shit about that lol.

The problem I have with the TVD fandom is that they (especially the white fans) love the villains for being villains, but also try to whitewash all of the villainous shit that they do. They’ll be like, “I love Klaus because he’s such a good villain” and in the same breath be like “Klaus didn’t do anything bad, he didn’t abuse or hurt anyone that didn’t hurt him first”, “he didn’t do this to so and so, etc”, “klaus only did this because of this, he’s not that bad.” They’ll be like “I love Damon because he’s the villainous bad brother” and then turn around and be like “no Damon didn’t do that to Caroline, that doesn’t count as rape”, “Damon just wanted love! That’s why he hurt x person and killed x person and did this, not because he’s flawed/a vampire with skewed morals!” Or they’ll ship Delena, but they’ll try to whitewash all the toxicity of that relationship like the fact that Elena is willingly sleeping with her best friend’s abuser, etc. But I think that people who weren’t there when TVD was running don’t realise that people shipped darker things like Delena or Klonnie or whatever because the toxicity and the “forbidden-esque” nature of these relationships is what made them hot.

[which is why they should’ve delved into darker ships with Bonnieeeee, that would’ve ATE DOWN]

You see what I mean? The TVD fandom (especially on reddit) is just a circle jerk of people trying to make villainous characters be righteous/more righteous than the others. The only character they don’t do this with is Kai, but that’s because he’s canonically a psychopath/sociopath/whatever the fuck he is. Irredeemable, at least before the merge.

This is especially bad for characters like Bonnie because they’re then completely branded as angels who can never do anything wrong and can never be with anyone who has done wrong. I think that’s why so many have an issue with Klonnie too, because Klaus is… Klaus the villain and Bonnie is the saint and angel.

But I loveeee a good dark ship. Loveee a ship with toxicity because these are vampires and witches and crazy supernaturals and I wish the TVD fandom space would allow for these characters to explore their dark sides and for darker ships like Klonnie, Kyler, Bonkai, whatever Klaus x Elena is called, whatever Kol x Bonnie is called, etc, to be ventured into.

Idk. I just love ships that don’t shy away from showing you all the dark shit. And I think Bonnie and Tyler should’ve had darker moments. And yeah, Tyler did have his whole thing in the originals, but that wasn’t well done at all. Bonnie and Tyler deserve partners that will give them the space to do some wicked and dark shit. That encourage it. But that’s just me 🤷🏾‍♀️

I just wish that TVD was like IWTV… in a TVD way lol. I just wish the show went darkerrrr.

I love Bonkai! Kat and Chris chemistry was electric! For Bonnie she finally got to not take someone’s shit and fight back. Bonnie and Kai just went at it constantly. TVDU loves a “bad man can be redeemed through love” type shit but never was going to do that for Bonnie bc racism prevails all. Not that Bonnie has to redeem him, I actually love Kai the way he is lol. Kat had to be great to work with since Chris & Scarlett (Nora) discussed positively how they thought their characters would end up with Bonnie. I don’t mind dark ships, if I’m entertained by the ship I’m entertained.

In terms of Kyler I get what you mean. For me I thought their dynamic could’ve been far more interesting than what KC was tbh. It later became somewhat is similar to Klarcel because Tyler did enjoy his hybrid-self. He didn’t enjoy the control. Then they just dropped Tyler’s feelings towards Klaus control and tied everything back to KC. TVDU never really does anything with the Sire/Sired relationships in the show. DE was toxic but their sirebond plot was nothing but “I like what he likes!”. That being said, I encourage you to write your fic! I think it’s an audience for anyone and everyone. You mentioned Kyler but my initial first watch x amount of years ago I actually thought Tyler x Jeremy was going to be something.

Yep, that cesspool of a subreddit treats Bonkai fans/Kai fans horribly I’ve noticed back when I used to engage there. How dare you ship Bonnie with Kai? In then will make a rebuttal argument for Kai/Katherine. I always say the harsher criticisms for Bonnie’s pairings often come from someone who is a big fan of a Mikaelson or Salvatore centered ship lmao. “Bonnie is too good for…” thus not placing her with anyone else beyond Jeremy or Enzo. The ghost licker x dollar general Damon lol.

But then when you start talking about how Enzo was just as violent to her friends as Damon could be. Then the fact that Enzo pistol-whipped Bonnie and tried to disable her magic… but she still falls in love with him with little development shown. What does that say about the other males? She very well could have fell for them or Nora.

My best friend and I have this saying that fictional everything stops being “okay” when it’s no longer white or cishet.

I hope you write your fic!

[an1-d0lly-h3lly]

Eternal Sailor Neptune!!! Michiru Kai...bara???

SoooOOooooooOO I've been a bit hyped for Sailor Moon Cosmos to come out since I used to be an ex fan of the Sailor Moon franchise back then, and I used to really love Sailor Chibi Moon, Sailor Venus (she kinda made me develop my anime idol obsession lol), Sailor Pallas, and Sailor Neptune, younger me used to believe that Sailor Neptune was somehow related to Spongebob's King Neptune like the daughter of her or smthn S M H...

Anywhoozles...I chose Kaibara-chan to cosplay as Sailor Neptune, you must be wondering why, well this is cause' both Michiru Kaibara and (Michiru Kaino) Sailor Neptune's human form's names are almost strikingly similar and I just know how much Kaibara is O B S E S S E D with magical girls and I used to be as well when I was small (I was a Glitter Force/Princess Tutu/Saint Tail/Minky Momo/Sailor Moon/Madoka Magica/ Cardcaptor Sakura/Sally the Witch/Ojamajo Doremi hybrid kid rightly saying who'd INDULGE into the deep pits of magicalgirlhood) ...however, I heavily grew out of ALL Magical Girl franchises and just turn back to them time-to-time and the only one that I am still currently interested in is the PRECURE/GLITTER FORCE series and OHMAHGOD I LOVE IT, mainly due to its ending dances, idol voice actors, albums, and many mooore, but that's for another time lol...long story short, I mainly love precure for its sick character designs and SEVERAL HEAVY IDOL INFLUENCES FOREVERRR, but Sailor Moon will also always have a preciously special place in my heart as well...E N J O Y B O N A P E T I T ! ! !

P L E A S E R E A D:

The character, Kaibara Michiru is from the D4DJ series, which RIGHTFULLY belong to Bushiroad, Donuts' Games, and ALL of the other companies + owners of the D4DJ franchise, and Sailor Neptune RIGHTFULLY belongs to Kodansha, Naoko Takeuchi, Tokyopop, and all of the other companies + owners of the whole entire Pretty Guardian: Sailor Moon franchise, therefore Kaibara Michiru is NOT my original character, and the outfit that I made Michiru wear is NOT my original outfit either, however this IS my original fanart.

Do NOT steal

Do NOT repost

Do NOT claim as your own(If you do any of 1-3, I will find ways to REPORT you)

This is just fanart so please do not take personally, however if I have done something that is discriminatory, please let me know IMMEDIATELY, and I promise that I will issue as soon as possible.

I respect all companies in charge of the franchises I am using and I encourage ALL of their works, and as my art is just fanart, it is made to SUPPORT their works, and to show my LOVE for the worksCopyright Disclaimer under section 107 of the Copyright Act of 1976, allowance is made for “fair use” for purposes such as criticism, comment, news reporting, teaching, scholarship, education and research. Fair use is a use permitted by copyright statute that might otherwise be infringing.”We believe our use of the copyrighted material falls under the doctrine of fair use as provided for in [Relevant Copyright Law/Act, e.g., Section 107 of the U.S. Copyright Act 1976].Furthermore, we have made efforts to credit the original creator by prominently displaying their name and the title of the original image within our content.Thank You

[wobblewokgaming]

i want the jojo yokai watch au lore

I'm still working on it rn, but (as you may already know), it takes place in the Steel Ball Run universe. Nate is the Great Great Great Nephew of Iulius Caesar "Gyro" Zeppeli and gains access to the Spin, along with information about the Saint's Corpse after coming into contact with one of the Steel Balls Gyro used, which was full of Gyro's life essence (this is directly inspired by how members of the Zeppeli Family would transfer their powers to a worthy successor). Nate gained access to this ability about a week before his 12th Birthday and on his 12th Birthday, something bad happens to Nate (it shall be kept a secret rn), causing him to be hospitalized and requiring surgery.

Fast-forwarding around seven years since he turned 12, Nate is now 19 and has been training with his Spin ability frequently. Then, one day, he stumbles upon two individuals discussing about said Saint's Corpse and a map that can be used to track it down. Nate knows this is bad, so he goes to his friends, tells them what's going on and they all collectively agree that they need to stop this devious plot from unfolding. That's all I can say right now for the story, but I can tell you some more about Nate's group.

Nate does not have a Stand, but he has a prosthetic eye made by Yopple Inc. that allows him to see both Yo-kai and Stands. The rest of his group (Katie, Eddie, Bear, Hailey and later on, Buck) have Stands, and they are, in order;

Katie's Stand; You Shook Me All Night Long (localized, You Soothe Me All Night Long)

Eddie's Stand; Weird Science (localized, Odd Science)

Bear's Stand; Mississippi Queen (localized, Magnolia Queen)

Hailey's Stand; Space Oddity (localized, Galactic Oddity)

Buck's Stand; Wild, Wild West (localized, Rowdy, Rowdy West)

As for what they look like and what their abilities are? You'll have to be a bit patient for when I finish the drawings.

[glamphantasm]

Heya! Glad to see that you like the questions for the ask game!

Anyway I have some questions about Kai for you!

General Info 05 Which deadly sin best aligns with them? Which one do they embody the least?

Realtionships & Personality 13 What is their greatest wish? What would they be willing to sacrific to get it?

Human 06 Who do they trust more—angels or demons? Why?

Hey thanks so much! <3 Love talking about the boy, so I'll take any excuse (he's taking up 97.35% of my brain meat lately, please send help)

General Info 05 Which deadly sin best aligns with them? Which one do they embody the least?

As a rule, Kai would call himself a hedonist if anyone ever asked. On the surface he is all good times and sensation and enjoyment, and more and want. He's here for a good time, not a long time, etc. *choose your mid-20s cliche deflection* That makes it very simple to say Lust or Greed would be his closest pairings, but it isn't entirely correct. He is very much those two on the surface. For all he portrays himself as nothing more than a good time boy, he works himself to the bone, he will protect those he cares about, he will never ask for help for any of it - he most embodies Pride, but in a very quiet, fierce sort of way. He would quite literally rather die than let another living being see him beneath the masks, behind the facades he's built around himself. Most would be caught off guard to realize that's is his core. Most. He's more seen than he realizes. Least like? Sloth. He allows himself the luxury of basic rest only when he collapses or someone forcibly makes him go after noticing the dark bags beneath his eyes (the only designer he'll ever own, he jokes.) Even then, he will take the bare minimum until he wakes up (most likely from another nightmare), and be on the go again.

Relationships & Personality 13 What is their greatest wish? What would they be willing to sacrifice to get it?

This one actually required quite a bit of thought. His greatest wish is simply to discover the truth. Who he really is, who he would have been without the outside influences that shaped him in ways that a good life never would have. It isn't a realistic, or attainable wish. He considered asking Barbatos once to see if there was a timeline where that was the case - he decided that it would be too much of a bother, the Prince's butler already has too much on his plate to request a favor (or maybe he just decided at the last moment it was really too terrifying to look into that and know what he had lost). For something attainable... it's simple. He doesn't want to go back to the human realm. Ever, if it were up to him. He'd offer himself on an altar for the chance, if it were required. Again - the words will never pass his lips. It will be offered if he deserves it, he hopes believes.

Human 06 Who do they trust more—angels or demons? Why?

Hands down, zero thought required: Demons. Kai wasn't raised in a religious environment, but did end up spending several years with a family who was. He was made to attend services, make the offerings, prayers, all of it. He had prayed to angels and saints and god (never capital G anymore) for guidance, for help, to be rescued, to be healed. No one ever answered. Humans were cruel, in so many ways. He understands the Devildom. At least there, the individuals he interacts with regularly are more transparent in their motivations. That being said? He does like the Angels well enough. Luke is a cute kid, reminds him vaguely of a younger boy he knew in a home - same eager energy. Simeon is kind and Kai knows he owes him everything (including quite literally his continued existence). He's amused by Raphael, and thinks Michael's kind of an asshole.

Questions Here!

[ashsound]

I Adopted a Villainous Dad

Original Novel by: yunsul (“Lips Upon a Sword's Edge” and “The Crown Prince's Fiancée”)

Adaption by: CYAM (“Sierra on Strike!”)

Art by: EON

“I Adopted a Villainous Dad” returns on December 19th with season 2.

Review: it’s adorable. Amelia (FL) is clever, well loved, and her adopted dad, Melkiades, is pudding in his daughter’s hands. Season 1 is cute and builds us up for season 2.

Did y’all know tumblr has a 4,096 character limit? Well, let me tell you, my og summary was more than double that limit (≧▽≦;) - and my upcoming summary for “Lysia Tries The Quiet Life” is currently 13,351 characters. On that note

Summary: FL goes to bed after breaking her phone screen, wakes up as a 6-year-old saint in her favorite tragic novel. Her favorite character is Melkiades, the Emperor of Rehel. While Melkiades hates the temple because they killed his father, didn't approve of him taking the throne, and refused to officiate his coronation, he still adopts FL. She doesn’t have a name (in the ogNovel it’s Priscilla); Melkiades spends 3 days and picks “Amelia", she adds "Priscilla" so the ogNovel saint will live on in her memory and history.

Allies: Melkiades, Emperor of Rehel; St. Sophia (ghost); Lucy/Luciana (blonde), maid; Kallian (red hair) Melkiades’s aide; Ludwig (blonde), Amelia’s paladin; Pope Raphel, Kais Silvatore (black hair), ogML; Melkiades’s knights.

Enemies: Duke Valentino Ravenhook (black hair), Melkiades’s brother; everyone in the holy land not listed above (this is a hyperbole, but seriously, the corruption is intense), especially a now-dead priest that tried to have Ludwig replaced; Clody, paladin Amelia revoked god’s blessing from after he beats up Kais, a literal child (ch38~41); hooded man with a gecko tattoo on his face; Ravenhook’s lackeys like former-Count, now Baron Douglas.

On the way to Rehel, they stop by St. Revalenon's Cathedral, which has been attacked by monsters for 3 months: 1. Those monsters were people and Amelia can understand a little of what they say/think, 2. Amelia speaks with St. Sophia then draws St. Sophia's Holy Moonlight Sword, 3. Melkiades falls into a trap that in the ogNovel caused him to lose an eye and all his men because it set off his “madness”, 4. Amelia and Ludwig, the paladin she brought with her because of his contributions in the ogNovel, save Melkiades, 5. They meet ogML Kais Silvatore (black/purple) and Sir Verichtm the ice knight, 6. They go to rescue Kais’s younger brother, Harhel, from a bandit hideout under Ravenhook’s control, 7. Harhel is suffering from monster poison, but St. Sophia helps Amelia remember the revival spell, which saves him and purifies the area, and heals the injured, 8. Melkiades tells Kalian (his aide) to inform Akilo that Rehel will be welcoming a new princess (9-18), 9. Amelia faints, suffering from Lassitude (using a level of holy power even adults struggle with), but eventually wakes. 

Amelia wishes Harhel (who now has white hair) would wake up, so he does . Harhel needs to be purified regularly, so Amelia tells Kais she'll do it and he'll help her (30). Amelia plans to have Kalian remove the slave seal on Kais. She asks Melkiades to give her the people she saved, so she can be responsible for them. (29-33). Amelia shows everyone in Rehel that she's one Melkiades over (34). People think Melkiades can love and are pushing for an empress, sending marriage proposals, sneaking women into his room, etc (35). After Count Douglas is made to write a 30k apology and knocked down to Baron, Duke Ravenhook's other allies agree to let Amelia be crowned a princess so they don't suffer like Douglas (36-37). Clody beats up Kais, Amelia revokes his blessing, and Cloudy gets beaten up by the other knights and called a disgrace. A hooded person with a gecko tattoo on their face offers to help him. Amelia learns Melkiades is looking for a relic (38-42). Amelia hears Clody is missing and that Kais still isn't fitting in (43). Melkiades learns 2 people are staying at Duke Ravenhook's (we know it’s Clody and gecko tattoo man). Melkiades agrees to bring in an Empress if Amelia agrees to it (44).

[tobiasdrake]

I have a lot of qualms with the anime's handling of things. It's a lot of people's first exposure to Dragon Ball and forms the basis of how many in the fandom think of the characters and concepts. But there's... issues.

As everyone knows, the anime is not a 100% faithful adaptation like, say, Fullmetal Alchemist: Brotherhood is for the FMA manga. They were adapting the manga as it was being written, usually having to fit 1-2 chapters of manga into twenty minutes of television. So they had to improvise a lot.

This is where the padding and filler comes from. Filler episodes give the manga time to get ahead so they don't have to try and squeeze 1 chapter into a full episode. And fights are padded as hell with long sequences of characters charging up or spectators gawking at them because when you only have 1-2 chapters to adapt and most of it's fighting, those panels burn up a lot faster than 1-2 chapters of plot and dialogue.

This is the commonly discussed issue with the Dragon Ball anime, especially with Dragon Ball Z. For which Dragon Ball Kai was created to try and correct for.

But the issues with the anime run deeper than "There is filler" and "Fights are padded".

First, to the problem of the filler. We often use "filler" these days to mean episodic character-driven parts of a show. But I need to stress that I mean filler in the original sense of the word. These are scenes and whole episodes that do not exist in the source material and have been created just to extend runtime and delay the speed of material consumption in the adaptation process.

The issue with the anime's filler is fairly intuitive. These are scenes and episodes being inserted into a story that were not created by its author. Like you're reading Lord of the Rings and then suddenly someone's Legolas x Aragorn slash fic abruptly appears between two chapters, and then Lord of the Rings continues afterward like that didn't happen and it's never acknowledged again.

That doesn't have to be a problem if it's a really good slash fic. But the other problem with the filler is that the people they were made by are not the dedicated Dragon Ball fandom. It's not the Dragon Ball nerds who've memorized the lore and prepared an extensive essay on why Yamcha and Piccolo are secretly lovers.

They're made by animators and writers whose job is to produce twenty minutes of entertaining television for children. That's it. That's all they're here for. These animators and writers didn't have a very strong grasp on the characters, the concepts, or the mythology of the world they were writing these extra episodic character-driven moments and stories for.

It's not your local Dragon Ball nerd writing the fic; It's the nerd's brother who was looking at his phone while the nerd infodumped, who suddenly looks up and goes, "Wait, why doesn't Frieza just break out of Hell with his awesome powers? He's super strong, right? Hell couldn't hold him." Not realizing that there is actually an established answer to that question.

Consequently, the filler episodes play fast and loose with continuity and often have an adverse effect on the audience's perception of the characters and ideas therein.

Yamcha and Bulma's relationship is miserable, but the filler gives them lots of moments together to show that they really do love each other and we should be rooting for these crazy kids to work it out.

Yamcha himself is supposed to be a womanizer who eventually cheats on Bulma, but the filler plays him as a put-upon henpecked boyfriend who is chaste, virtuous, and loyal to Bulma despite her constant abuse. This has informed much of the fandom's perception of Bulma and Yamcha's relationship, as well as the backlash against their eventual and well-warranted breakup.

(Which is not to say that Bulma's a saint in the manga either. Far from it. The point is that they were miserable together, and the best thing for both of them was to split. Which you might not realize from the way the anime depicts them.)

Yamcha actually gets a lot of this because the creatives at Toei liked him and greatly embellished his presence and role within the story. Anime Yamcha is the guy who has his shit together. He's the leader of the Dragon Team, practically the deuteragonist of the show, with Krillin falling into a dipshit little brother role and being relegated to comic relief. He's Tenshinhan's rival and bro, and they push each other to greater heights through their iron bond of mutual respect.

All of this is fanfiction, and it plays a heavy role in the ultimate disappointment when Yamcha ultimately fell from a spotlight he was never supposed to be in to begin with. If you add a bunch of extra chapters to Fellowship detailing in extensive detail what a great hero Boromir was and his many adventures and his nobility and heroism... Then you're going to get an upset fandom when he dies at the end of the book and the plot moves on without him. Don't do that.

Gohan also got hit really hard by the "Toei writing checks Toriyama won't cash" brick. In filler, Toei liked to characterize Gohan as, basically, Goku Jr. He had an independent drive and desire for adventure and martial arts. He's constantly sneaking out under Chi-Chi's nose to go thrill-seeking and work on his training.

This, again, is fanfiction that creates the wrong impression of the character. Gohan is a sweet and sensitive boy who enjoys academia and aspires to be a scholar, but who is willing to get involved and fight when there are people he loves whose lives are on the line. He has a massive potential but no drive to pursue it outside of spending time with his loved ones who do it as a hobby. If he could, he would never throw another punch again outside of sparring matches with Dad and friends.

One very notable filler episode has Gohan escape Piccolo's training and return home. But then, just when he has the chance to be free, he steels himself and decides to return to the training. He's going to fight the Saiyans for himself, because he wants this, and he finds his resolve. But then manga canon comes back and Gohan comes apart emotionally during the fight with the Saiyans and can't bring himself to act, because he doesn't have the resolve and is only here under duress.

Krillin also suffers in the opposite way of Yamcha. They can't reduce his prominence in the anime, but he does suddenly turn into a hapless loser and cowardly buffoon whenever Toei gets their turn at writing him. It's even a running joke in the movies that Krillin always gets a chance to try to fight the villains and gets comically punked out of the action; He starts commenting on it in later films.

There's a point in the Cell arc where Goku and Chi-Chi make a deal to back off on the academia and let Gohan train for the Androids. The anime elects to ignore it and continues doing Tiger Mom bits throughout the rest of the arc, despite manga Chi-Chi holding to her end of the agreement.

Bulma, like Krillin, is often characterized as much softer and sweeter than she is in the manga. Except when they're drumming up sympathy for Yamcha, she's a lot more gentle and traditionally feminine. There are also a ton of filler scenes of Bulma just sitting around fretting about Goku, even when she has no idea what he's up to. They just have her, wherever she is, doing the "I can feel that he's in danger in my heart, my heart aches from the pain he must be in," bit usually reserved for couples in anime.

It's not just the characters, though. Dragon Ball filler is rife with absurd inconsistencies. There's an episode where Goku travels back in time to learn from Mutaito, the master who trained Kame-sennin and Tsuru-sennin. This episode features Mutaito teaching Goku about ki manipulation for the very first time... Despite it being between Piccolo-Daimao and the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai, when Goku's been shooting Kamehamehas for years.

Like Goku and Chi-Chi's bargain, the anime elects to ignore the fact that Senzu leaves you full and satisfied for seven days. That gets in the way of doing comedic "Goku eating a truck full of food" bits, which they love to animate and add into the show a lot. So that established metaphysic doesn't exist anymore in their version.

As aforementioned, the rules of how the afterlife works get in the way of having the dead villains cause trouble, so those are gone too. Toei loves having the dead villains break out of Hell. They did it in the Anoyoichi Budokai filler arc, in the Fusion Reborn film, and again in the Super 17 arc of GT.

In the manga, when you die, you become a powerless soul. On rare occasions, a god may permit you to keep your body, allowing you to retain your strength and cultivated ki while all other souls do not. Then you enter into the karmic cycle, with evil souls spending an amount of time in Jigoku until their negative karma is purged and they are able to reincarnate.

In the anime, all souls keep their bodies, always. If your ki is really strong, then I guess Hell just won't be able to contain you. Death is just, like, involuntarily being moved to a different physical location, but is otherwise no different from being alive.

They did actually nail this in the Ginyu Force filler arc, where Kaio explicitly states that he restored the Ginyus' bodies so they could be used as a training exercise for the Earthlings. But no explanation is ever offered for why all the other villains get to keep their bodies too.

A really funny thing the anime does, not really an inconsistency so much as just an entertaining bit of guesswork, is that they clearly wanted Goku to have a love interest. There are lots of filler bits throughout the first anime shipping Goku with Chi-Chi and Bulma... and also Snow from Jingle Village.

Snow. The redhead girl from the Muscle Tower arc. They bring her back in the Piccolo-Daimao arc and it is so wild. But after Chi-Chi is canonized as Goku's love interest, we basically never hear from her again. I think she appears in the Majin Buu Spirit Bomb "Lend me your energy" bit and that's it.

Just. Hedging the fuck out of their bets so that when Toriyama finally gives Goku a romance, they'll have foreshadowed it.

Which ultimately still ended up working against the story's integrity. Because when Chi-Chi does show up to the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai, it's supposed to be a huge shock. We haven't seen this girl since fucking Fire Mountain. You probably forgot she existed. Goku did.

But in the anime, we've been watching Goku pop by and hang out with her multiple times in filler just in case she's going to be revealed to be his offscreen girlfriend or something. So it completely ruins the surprise. They put in extra effort to try and foreshadow whoever Goku's ultimate ship would be, and in the process ruined a shocking reveal that was meant to go unforeshadowed.

Krillin also gets two filler shippables, Mint and Maron. And Gohan gets one named Lime. None of these characters are ever spoken of again after manga canon reasserts itself, but they don't hurt the story by existing. I'm still salty that Maron never got to meet God after winning the Nyoi-bo/Power Pole from Karin in strip poker, though. I demand my "Maron in God's Temple" scene.

There's an entire filler arc of Gohan being Great Saiyaman under Videl's nose while constantly dodging her attempts to unmask him. Which ruins the Gotcha moment where Videl nails his identity in one day because she's observant and open-minded while he's bad at faking normal. Videl's intelligence doesn't shine through in the anime, and she instead comes across as a hapless damsel for Gohan to rescue from her own self-destructive foolishness over and over.

Anime Frieza has an infinite supply of minions for the entire duration of the Namek arc when he's supposed to be down to just himself, Zarbon and Dodoria, and Appule - with those three gradually diminishing. But because they don't actually exist in manga canon, they are forbidden from influencing the plot and just hang out in his ship doing nothing. They're just there so he and Captain Ginyu can kill them in filler sequences to show off how wicked they are.

Oh, except for one episode where they get in a fight with Bulma and lose.

And that's not to mention the Garlic Jr. arc, which is a direct sequel to a non-canon film somehow happening within the anime's canon. Fuck you, that's how. Toei legitimately does not care. They don't care who the characters are, they don't care what the rules are, and nearly everything they write ceases to be canon the second the manga canon returns to the screen. They aren't really writing Legolas x Aragorn slash fic. They're writing an episode of The Simpsons and inserting it between Lord of the Rings pages.

But that's only problem 1. The other issue is the padding. And again, people say "padding" and they think of. Like. Goku screaming for ten straight minutes as he transforms. Charging up a beam attack for six minutes before firing it. Reaction shots of each individual character, some of whom aren't even present. That sort of thing.

And that certainly is present in the anime. To be sure. The manga's action is far more fast-paced than the anime. Sometimes this is, admittedly, to the manga's detriment. Goku's first Super Saiyan transformation takes like one page. It's over and done with. Vegeta throws like one or two punches at Final Form Frieza before giving up and accepting defeat.

There are moments of action in the manga that feel like this could have been longer. I will give them that.

The problem with the padding is really just more problems with filler, but in an action context. There's a lot of extra fighting inserted between panels being adapted. On paper, that makes sense as the kind of thing you might add to an episode when fleshing it out, but it has... problems in practice.

Characters will spend between 30 seconds to a full episode going through original fight choreography that the same people writing those filler episodes came up with. The problem with that is twofold.

One, this is all action happening between panels. That means that, at the end of this piece of choreography, the fight must return to the same place it was at the beginning of it. Frieza smashes Vegeta into a rock but then Vegeta suddenly gets up and they start fighting again. Nobody takes damage, nobody does anything significant, and at the end of it Frieza smashes Vegeta into the rock a second time so he can be where the manga needs him to be.

This makes a lot of the action feel weightless, because there are extended sequences of fighting where both characters are effectively invulnerable. It would ruin the story if anything changed before we get back to the manga, after all.

This filler action is where a lot of iconic Dragon Ball animation shots comes from. You shoot a ton of ki blasts into your enemy and they explode into a smoke cloud. You breathe a sigh of relief knowing you got him. But then he slowly emerges unscathed. WHAT!?

Is it because he's SO POWERFUL? Uh. No. Hitting a really powerful guy over and over usually still does some damage. It's because this part of the fight isn't really happening so he has Filler Invincibility turned on.

Goku's body is destroyed by the Kaioken but suddenly he gets a second wind and is able to jump around and throw punches like he's full of energy! Is Goku back in the fight? No. At the end of it he'll be right back where he started. It's just that this part of the fight isn't really happening so he has Filler Infinite Stamina turned on.

This is most noticeable in the Super Saiyan Goku vs. Frieza fight, which has like ten straight episodes of Filler Action. At one point Gohan's Filler Battle Lust snaps on and he comes back to fight 1v1 with 100% Full Power Frieza. He doesn't get his shit completely rocked, though, because he has Filler Invincibility turned on; he has to survive and return to the ship once the manga's ready to start up again.

This kind of stuff completely destroys the pacing of a fight. It's not a problem when the Filler Action is good. But that's where the second problem, the "Toei doesn't really care" problem comes in. The same people writing those Simpsons episodes are also choreographing these extra bits of fighting.

Filler Action is rarely innovative, rarely does anything new or interesting. For the most part, it's derivative. They lean heavily on referencing cool shots and cool scenes, and on reusing cool attacks from past arcs regardless of whether it actually makes sense.

The Shishin no Ken/Multiform technique appears one time in the Dragon Ball manga. Tenshinhan created it for use against Goku in the 23rd Tenkaichi Budokai. However, it was critically flawed. Goku was able to pick apart the flaw and overwhelm Tenshinhan, delivering a crushing defeat. No one ever attempted the technique again. Because it's bad.

The anime makes it a staple of a completely different character whatsoever. Piccolo whips out Shishin no Ken all the time. He trains with it. He uses it against enemies. At certain points, Krillin and even Cell also use the technique? Everybody loves Shishin no Ken even though it's a bad technique that lost its only fight.

Zanzoken/Afterimage was a really strong technique at the beginning of the manga. But as the characters advanced in their study of martial arts, it became obsolete. Once ki sensing entered the picture and nobody needed to track a foe with their eyes, leaving a Zanzoken in your place as you move became pointless. You made five shadow clones. Cool. I can sense which one is real, so there is no value in doing that.

The anime continues using Zanzoken for Filler Action all the way through the end of its run. What about ki sensing, you ask? That's fine. Nobody can sense ki in Filler Action. The anime just forgets that's a thing when ever Toei is in the writing seat.

Characters who can sense ki are constantly losing track of their opponents in Filler Action. Kick up a cloud of dust in the air and you can get the drop on Goku. He has no way of telling where the next attack will come from if he can't see you with his eyes!

This is often used in tandem with... Looney Tunes tunneling? I don't know why that's a thing in Filler Action but Toei likes having characters go subterranean and then suddenly erupt from the ground to grab their opponent's feet. It always makes for a surprising ambush since the characters can't sense ki anymore.

Oh, and Bukujutsu. Characters in Filler Action sometimes forget that they can fly. There are so many Toei-written scenes where characters plummet uncontrollably through the air for tension or are surrounded/confronted by an obstacle that could be easily solved by going airborne, especially in the Baby arc of GT.

Piccolo breaks out the one-handed Makankosappo/Special Beam Cannon a lot. In the manga, he was doing it with one hand because he'd lost the other one. He demonstrates the two-handed Makankosappo in the fight with Nappa, and then never uses it again in either form. But it was an iconic moment when he did the one-handed one against Raditz, so one-handed Makankosappo divorced from context became a staple of his Filler Action moveset.

In the manga, characters are constantly innovating. Constantly evolving their styles, creating new and better ways of using their techniques while inventing new ones. But Filler Action is stagnant, with characters simply deploying existing attacks and referencing Cool Moments like playing cards from a deck. Genuinely innovative and interesting things, like using the sun to create a Solar Genki-Dama and obliterate Namekian Dracula, do happen but are few and far between.

Once Super Saiyan enters the picture, the anime uses it like Kaioken. Characters will try to fight without it and fail only to suddenly reveal that they can transform at the eleventh hour, long past the point where it actually would have made sense to do it. I have complained at length about this so I'll keep that part brief but suffice it to say that Filler Action characters often let themselves get beaten up really badly while coasting on their Filler Invincibility even when they have the ability to stop losing at any moment.

Power levels basically cease to exist in Filler Action. See above, re: Gohan surviving throwing hands with Full Power Frieza. But also in other ways, like an episode of Dragon Ball Super that features Goten and Trunks being menaced by a random jungle snake, and needing to turn Super Saiyan to escape from it. At one point in GT, Trunks has to turn Super Saiyan to lift a pallet full of bricks?

Toei has a general idea of "This character is to some extent stronger than that character". Except when they don't, like characterizing Yamcha as a worthy opponent and rival to Tenshinhan or suggesting that Chiaotzu would be a match for a member of the Ginyu Force.

For every "Goten and Trunks menaced by snake" moment, you also get stuff like "Pre-Namek Vegeta can destroy an entire planet in seconds with a casual shot fired from his fingers." They have no idea how powerful these characters are supposed to be at any given time, or what their abilities actually are, or how those abilities actually work. And so they make a lot of errors in both directions.

And it makes for hollow fight choreography where the moves being made are derivative and overly referential, none of the moves make sense as things these characters would be doing or would be capable of doing, and it doesn't mean anything anyway because it's happening between panels so it's all going to reset to 0 at the end of it. Except in the movies and GT and stuff where only two of those things are true.

Even the DBS: Broly movie, which I love to death, has a lot of shitty Toei-style fight choreography baked into it. Stepping through stages of Super Saiyan for no reason? Check. Characters letting themselves get shitstomped for no reason but it's fine because they're invincible? Check. Over-reliance on referencing iconic manga moments even when it makes no sense and breaks the integrity of the scene? Just once I'd like to see a Fusion Dance that doesn't Play the Hits of the two characters turning into Fat Gotenks. You know they have to wait an hour or so to try again, right? Because the movie doesn't.

So, all in all, the anime gives me a lot of grief. The manga wasn't this exceptionally crafted masterpiece. Akira Toriyama did a lot of improvising. He was writing by the seat of his pants. But he at least tried to present a consistent universe with consistent characters and rules.

So, for me, watching the various Dragon Ball animes is like being pricked by a thousand tiny needles. That's not how that works. That's not how that works. He wouldn't say that. She wouldn't react like that. Nobody uses that attack anymore. Why can't he sense his opponent? That's not how that works. He wasn't there for that scene. Why is Uranai Baba here?

weird question. how do you feel about toriyama's art, and the use of his art style?

Artistically, if people take anything away from Toriyama's work, I want it to be his talent for conveying action through still panels.

I've read plenty of comics and manga where the action is honestly pretty hard to make sense of. Like taking still images of one of those jumpy thousand-cuts-per-minute modern Hollywood action scenes where the images are taken like fifteen seconds apart and there's no real sense of how anyone got to anywhere or where that punch is supposed to land.

By contrast, reading Dragon Ball is like watching an actual martial arts film. Toriyama's panel work was a big part of what made him such a great mangaka. It's very easy to follow Toriyama's action from panel to panel; To read the visual language of the fight.

Look how smooth that is. People don't think of Dragon Ball fights as clear, concise affairs where every punch has weight and every move counts. But that's exactly what the manga is. This was Toriyama's greatest asset as an artist.

Look at how the panels follow Frieza's right leg. He's stepping forward with his right leg. His right leg is in front of Goku's face. His right leg kicks Goku into the air. Then he sweeps with his right leg. And then the right leg connects.

That whole sequence follows Frieza's leg. It's what is going to be used to hit Goku and so the action tracks it from panel to panel. You always know where Frieza's right leg is.

And it's why the whole "Characters designed by Toriyama" thing never really meant as much as it was hyped to be. It doesn't matter if he drew a guy's hair Goku-style. What matters is this. When the fists start flying, is it going to be his action?

Or is it going to be something like this?

Did Goku push Vegeta? Did he shoot him? Because he was like ten feet away from the fighting when that maneuver was completed. And then he definitely took that hit to the back of the neck but I guess he was just playing pretend?

Did Son Goku just fake a knockout so he could land a cheap-shot sucker-punch on an adversary?

(This same fight also had Goku defeat Granolah's knack for targeting someone's vitals by suddenly being able to reposition all of his organs somehow, incidentally.)

11 pages of pure action just to convey that Goku and Moro are equally matched. By the end of this, the fight hasn't actually moved in any way.

Goku and Moro chitchat with each other across a beam struggle?

Just so Goku can brag that Toyotaro knows what the Zanzoken/Afterimage is.

By contrast, Toriyama's Beam Struggles look like this.

Intense, strenuous affairs which are clearly and visibly taking a toll on both participants, in which one party ultimately and significantly prevails over the other.

In Goku and Moro's struggle, neither of them really seems to be trying very hard. Goku and Moro are able to water-cooler chat across the beam somehow and then they both just stop caring and leave. It was a Continuity Moment so Goku could call out the Zanzoken but ultimately Goku's Kamehameha achieves nothing and the fight just carries on like it never happened.

Also there's a point where Moro telekinetically yanks Goku down out of the air and then, on the next page, Moro telekinetically yanks Goku down out of the air again. What's that about?

The double-punch panel to show that they're evenly matched is... I have no idea where Moro got the strength to suddenly do that when last we saw was him recoiling from being hit over and over? Moro suddenly gains Super Armor between pages so he can be back in control of a situation where they were not evenly matched and he was clearly on the back foot.

The art is really good and, visually, Toyotaro has a good bead on what these characters should look like. But not what they should move like. It's not Toriyama's action, and you can feel that difference.

[greetings-and-salutations]

“Don’t. Talk. To. Her.”

Eli “Hawk” Moskowitz x Reader

COBRA KAI CATCH-UP DUMP

Masterlist

(Gif not mine)

Requested? No

Summary: Hawk wasn’t exactly the “Knight in Shining Armor” type. That is, until he met (Y/n)…

Warnings: starred out swear words, assault, teenage party

Pairing: Eli “Hawk” Moskowitz x Fem!Reader

(We’re so off on this but it’s fine… 😬😂)

(Y/n) didn’t even know why she was here. She was not a party person. Never had been, never would be. But, when Moon invited her to her annual Back-to-School Bash, that wide smile and those doe eyes staring her down, awaiting an answer… Well, you try saying no to that face.

At any rate, she was here, all dolled up in her “House Party” best, and already searching for excuses to leave, though knowing that wasn’t an option, as Moon was her friend, and she certainly couldn’t do that to her friend.

“(Y/n) right?” She’d been hiding in the kitchen, staring off into space and daydreaming about the comforts of her care bear pajamas and big screen tv, when the guy approached her. She vaguely recognized him, probably from some random class or something like that, but she couldn’t for the life of her come up with a name. She opted to simply offer him an awkward smile.

“Yeah.” (Y/n) took a sip from her cup, Diet Pepsi, as she would be driving herself home that night, before the guy opened his mouth to speak again, having to lean in to be heard over the music booming from the other room.

“(Y/n/n)- Can I call you (Y/n/n)?” He started, not really waiting for an answer, before continuing. “So, (Y/n/n), I don’t think I’ve seen you around one of these before.” He gestured towards the colorful flashing lights and drunk teens filling the house.

“Not really my scene.” She mumbled, looking around a little, while still trying to be discreet about her intentions. She hoped to god she’d find an excuse to leave this conversation, which was becoming more and more uncomfortable by the second.

“You’d have fooled me in that dress.” He smirked, looking (Y/n) up and down hungrily, and leaning in closer, a little too close. (Y/n) took an obvious step back, her eyes wide as the reality of her situation settled in. He followed her movement, a sarcastic pout decorating his face.

“Hey where you going? A pretty thing like you shouldn’t be all alone at such a big party.” His face switched back to a grin, as he towered over her, (Y/n)’s own having the exact opposite effect at their position. “Where’s your boyfriend?” He teased, making a show of looking around the room, empty except for the two of them. “Couldn’t make it?”

(Y/n) didn’t have a boyfriend. She didn’t even have a date to bring her to this party. She’d come on her own. (Y/n) knew that, and she figured by the look on the guy’s face that he knew it too. She took another backwards step, trying to put some distance between herself and him, deciding that, her only option, at this point, was to hope for a distraction, then make a break for it. Suddenly, however, her escape plan, it seemed, would no longer be necessarily.

“Nah, he made it. Just had to take a leak.”

+ + +

Hawk wasn’t entirely sure what he was doing. He’d never even met this girl before, the only indication she’d even gone to their school was Chris’s vague recollection of them being lab partners a few years prior.

Now, Hawk wouldn’t say she was unnoticeable. He*l, she was very pretty in her knee-length party dress. If he had stumbled upon her in any other way that night, he might have even ventured some flirting of his own. But she did have a certain look about her, as if she felt off in her environment. It was clear she did not want to be there. Perhaps that was why he couldn’t recognize her; she didn’t run with their crowd?

But, Hawk didn’t care whether he knew the girl or not. He knew the look on her face. He’d been around guys like that long enough to know what his intentions were. And, by that look, he knew she knew too.

Now, Hawk definitely wouldn’t call himself a saint. He*l, he was honestly probably a lot closer to the devil. The boy was infamous for starting fights, for beating people til they were black and blue just for the he*l of it. But, there were some lines not even the King of Cobra Kai would cross.

“Sh*t, Hawk… I didn’t know she was-“ Hawk glared down at the guy, the pretty girl, (Y/n), standing awkwardly between them, a confused look painfully evident on her face. Hawk inwardly groaned at the realization that she either: had no idea what he was trying to do, or was the worst actress in the history of the world. Either way, he needed to up his game if he wanted this douche to believe the ruse.

“Yeah well, now you do.” Hawk said, through gritted teeth, his arm winding around (Y/n)’s shoulder, the girl seeming to finally catch on, and falling into his side. She smelled good… and she was a really good height for him- Focus, Hawk.

“Sorry, (Y/n)… I’ll see you Monday?” The guy asked, making Hawks grip unintentionally tighten around the girl. Was this dude for real?

“Oh-um…” (Y/n) stuttered out, clearly not knowing what to say, and looking to Hawk for some help. And help he did.

“Seriously?” He shoved the guys shoulder harshly, causing him to stumble back a few steps with wide eyes. Hawk almost smirked, but kept up his frightening facade, as he continued. “Don’t. Talk. To. Her.” The guy nodded his head with fervor, (Y/n) moving her body further behind her fake boyfriend’s.

“Right. Yeah, totally. Sorry…” Hawk kept the murderous glare on his face until the guy was long gone, wanting to make sure he’d definitively gotten his point across, before he felt (Y/n) pull away, and turned to look at her.

“You okay?” He asked, his eyes scanning her form for a reason to go after that guy and knock one of his teeth out. He did have a reputation to uphold, after all. (Y/n) nodded her head slowly.

“Yeah… thanks, by the way.” And though Hawk didn’t believe her for a second, he was inclined to remain where he stood anyways, with a single nod of his own the only indication that he’d even heard her.

“So…”

“So?”

“Come here often?” Hawk couldn’t contain his chuckle, though his bad boy persona fought heavily against it, as he took in her words, a smile creeping on his face as he looked down at her.

No, Hawk didn’t know what he was doing. He’d never in his life been so willing to start a fight over anything other than his own selfish reasons. But, there was just something about this girl. He didn’t think he could stand to see her get hurt. And goodness knows he had the ability to protect her. So why shouldn’t he?

And so, Hawk remained, vigil at her side for the rest of the night, the small smirk growing gradually into a wide grin the more time they spent together. Neither had been friends hours prior, but perhaps they’d be something a little more before the party was over...

Tag lists are open!!!

Tags: @electriclcvewp @kaqua @nickangel13

[songmingisthighs]

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ch. lviii - association gathering

wooyoung × reader, ??? × reader

in a school filled with the affluent, it would only make sense for birds of a feather to flock. but what if your new status doesn't immediately buy you a way into said flock? what if instead, it bought you sure rejection? to the rich and powerful, having different masks is a must. despite some people knowing your true self and your secrets

The hotel was very luxurious. You stared at the hotel ballroom entrance where the Business Association Gathering was being held and you could feel your palms getting sweaty. Though the door was merely ten feet away, it felt as if you needed to journey out there to enter the room.

"(y/n),"

You turned your head to the side to see Kai popping on your side, a worried look on his face. He was wearing a very fancy maroon Valentino jacket and slacks combo with a black mesh top inside, hair slicked back completed with what you can only assume is genuine crocodile leather Armani shoes. Poor croc.

Trying to shake your nerves, you shook your head and offered him a tight-lipped smile, "I'm okay Kai, don't worry," you assured. Beomgyu popped up from behind him with an arm around the younger's shoulder, "This is a foolproof plan, alright? Worst thing that could happen is us getting kicked out quietly," he grinned. Despite wearing a Brunello Cucinelli suit with an unbuttoned shirt inside, he still looked very boyish. One can only assume it's the grin he sported.

Soobin, Yeonjun, and Taehyun soon emerged, having just dropped their cars with the valet. Just from the way they were standing idly, they stood out amongst the already rich crowd. Donning Yves Saint Laurent, Tom Ford, and Stefano Ricci, their looks are comparable to runway models. Not to mention their towering heights which made you feel even smaller than you already were next to them. Both physically and mentally. It didn't help that the whole time Yeonjun dressed you, he kept spewing old money brand. In all honesty, you can only remember a few and that's one of the reasons Yeonjun put you in Chanel instead.

"We should just get this over with," you grumbled. To the unassuming, you might seem like you're just tired of attending fancy business gatherings but you knew damn well that the nerves were getting to you. You let your pettiness get over your head, feeling like you need to prove something to the people around you (namely your brother Mingyu and maybe Wooyoung) or something.

Yeonjun stepped in front of you, blocking you from entering. "Look, we can call this off if you really don't wanna go, it's completely fine. We could just go to an arcade or something," he stated. You raised an eyebrow at him and motioned to all of you, "Dressed like this?" you scoffed, thinking that he was kidding. But he shrugged at you, "Wouldn't be the first time and definitely not the last," he smirked.

Soobin walked to your side to gently rest an arm on your shoulder, catching your attention, "Point is, whatever you decide to do, we're gonna be here with you, okay? We got your back always," he smiled reassuringly. "Unless when we're peeing," Beomgyu blurted out, causing the others to groan at the broken sincerity of the moment. Though it made you laugh as he kept it lighthearted, so you were glad he said it.

Feeling determined, you nodded firmly, "Okay, yeah you guys are right, I just- I need to do this and I'm gonna fucking do it."

You tucked your hands on the arms of Soobin and Kai who offered them to you before walking with your gaze zeroing in on the door.

The pressure of wanting this plan to succeed was there. But oddly enough, you felt nothing but excitement. Usually, before doing anything big (or anything at all), you'd feel this pit in your stomach, a sinking feeling that turns you into nothing but a ball of anxiety. Sure, you've trained yourself enough to power through, mind over body type of thing. But this time, right then and there, you felt confident. Sure, it was nerve-wrecking and the idea of you getting kicked out or even get your ass handed back to you by your parents with an audience watching was more than scary. When you involuntarily squeezed Kai and Soobin's arms out of nervousness, they responded by putting their hands over you and tapped it twice as a sign of comfort. That was when you realized that you didn't turn into a ball of anxiety because this time, you were damn sure that you have people to support you.

So when Beomgyu and Taehyun opened the door to the ballroom that caused people to look at the six of you, you were confident enough to simply smile at them.

You had expected your arrival to be like the movies. People staring in awe, parting as you and your friends make a straight line to your parents. But it didn't happen like that. Sure, people were staring and whispering, but it wasn't anything dramatic.

As you made your way to your parents, you failed to notice a pair of eyes that followed along your form.

Wooyoung couldn't help but stare at how regal you looked. In all the years he knew you, he had never seen you look so out of reach. He admired how your outfit seemed to compliment your curves and it seemed like it was giving you confidence. Whether the outfit boosted your confidence or your attitude elevated your outfit, he couldn't really tell. But one thing's for sure, it made his heart ache.

His eyes soon travelled to your five companions. Of course, someone as attention-stealing as you would be escorted by people who look like they just stepped off Paris Fashion Week. The sight made his grip on the glass he was holding deadly. His mouth felt dry and as much as he wanted to run over and push them all off of you, he couldn't.

"Is that (y/n)?" Seonghwa asked after he blinked rapidly to make sure that his eyes weren't messing with him. Or that his eyes were messed up. Yunho turned from watching the other side of the room after hearing what Seonghwa said. "(y/n)?? (y/n)'s here??" he frantically looked around until his eyes saw you. You looked very different in the best way he could ever mean to say. But his soft gaze turned to glare when he saw Soobin next to you, grinning happily as Huening Kai said something to you that made you look down at your feet. You could've been holding in laughter but Yunho's bitter mind convinced himself that you were ashamed to be seen with those boys. Before he could realize what he was doing, Yunho had fished his phone out to take a picture of you while Seonghwa and Wooyoung were busy staring at you.

"What the fuck is she doing with those five?" Seonghwa scoffed, "Has her standards really dropped that low?" Although it was a rhetorical question, Wooyoung blurted out an answer before he could stop himself. "Her standards were always THAT low, why did you think no one liked her and we had to take pity on her?" Wooyoung said bitterly. Seonghwa completely skipped over the fact that Wooyoung was being bitter and laughed at what his friend said.

Meanwhile, after managing to hold your laughter in after Kai pointed out that one specific man looked like an Asian version of Mr. Dursley, you stopped in front of your parents who despite the surprise, managed to keep their composure.

"Mom, Dad," you greeted with the sweetest smile you could muster, "I hope I'm not too late." Your dad smiled at you and shook his head, "Not at all, dear. I had hoped that you would arrive before my speech," he said, completely following your act.

The person your dad was talking with interrupted, "Mr. Kim, is this your daughter?" he asked, looking between you and your parents. "Yes, yes, she is my youngest," your dad introduced. You reached your right hand from around Kai's arm and held it out for the man, "Nice to meet you Mr. Uhm. My name is (y/n) and these are my friends, I'd have to say I'm a big fan," you confidently said. The man's eyes widened and he hesitantly shook your hand, "I'm sorry dear, have we been introduced before?" he asked, unsure. You shook your head as you let your hands free and cross them in front of your body, "No, sir, I can assure you we haven't. This is actually my first time attending such events as previously, I was too busy with school work. But I am fully aware of your work revolutionizing industries with Solar Panel Plant and I must say, people don't talk about its significant just enough." Hearing you, the man's expression lifted as he became as your parents stared at you in utter shock. Taehyun and Beomgyu looked at each other in complete shock as well as they weren't completely aware of your prowess.

"My, my, you know your stuff, young lady," the man chuckled. "Oh no, sir, please, you're too kind. I'm an International Business student at Prestige Academy along with my friend Kai here and we are simply used to talking about current events," "I see... Are you all International Business majors?" he asked, very intrigued with the six of you. "No, only Kai and I. Soobin here is a Science major, Yeonjun is in Fashion Business, Beomgyu is in music, and Taehyun here is in opera," you explained, pointing to each of your friends who bowed slightly at the mention of their names. "Oh, dear, you must come speak with some of my colleagues here, we can use the opinions of young minds like you. Mind you, these gatherings, while they're very extravagant and exclusive, should've allowed us to be more interactive with the next generation. Mr. Kim, you don't mind me borrowing your daughter and her friends, would you?" he asked your dad. Of course, your dad shook his head and smiled at the man, letting you and your friends go with him.

As the man excitedly talked about his interest in expanding to biochemicals and Soobin told him about his mom's work, you all followed along to wherever it was he was taking you six. Yeonjun slipped to your side to take your hand in his. He lightly squeezed it with a proud smirk on his face, "I knew you could do it," he said smugly. You furrowed your eyebrows at him in confusion, "What are you talking about? We still have a long night," and he shook his head at that, "I'm not talking about attending this event entirely. I was talking about you taking charge and being confident. I knew you had it in you, you just need the right push," he said. You nudged him slightly in a teasing manner, "Are you trying to take credit for my success?" You asked jokingly. Yeonjun rolled his eyes and chuckled, "Hey, Kai started this wanting to become your friend and supporting you thing, you have him to thank. I just like pushing people and see if they fall," he snarked. You elbowed him lightly in the rib but it didn't hurt him whatsoever judging from the way his chest rumbled with laughter.

The night went smoothly. You and your friends managed to mingle with a lot of people who seemed to catch wind of the youngsters who are fun to have business talks with. Your initial worry of failing your plan was immediately forgotten once you got comfortable. Sure, you were in your element, talking about interesting things with interesting people. But the presence of familiar people next to you, which are your friends, allowed you to unlock your confident side.

You were so caught up in socializing that you became completely unaware of the gaze that Wooyoung had been giving you the whole night. For the first time ever, Wooyoung felt inferior in your presence. What made things worse are you were nowhere near him and you still managed to affect him so much. Scratch that, the worst thing is seeing you looking so happy in a place you claimed you never want to find yourself in with the people he hates most that seemed to be able to bring out the best side of you.

It hurt him to admit.

But he could've been that person.

He should've been that person.

In reality however, he was never that person despite the many opportunities. He had always kept your best side to himself.

His selfishness took its victim.

And sadly, it was himself.

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@tannie13 @borntowalkaway

[ilovemyqueerattorneys]

I mean, I cannot argue with you about the Winner situation, it does feel a bit incomplete, and Gavelle is probably a personal taste matter. Same for Mind Chess. HOWEVER.

Saint is not made to be a normal villain you enjoy taking down, he’s supposed to be one who makes you feel like he HAS TO be taken down because of the law, but you don’t really want to punish him deep down. He might not be as disgustingly selfish as Von Karma, Gant, Engarde, Dahlia ( even if she does have reasons), Gavin and Ga’ran, he’s not as dangerous as the Phantom, Stronghart, Alba and Ga’ran, doesn’t yield power like three of them, but he’s by far the most cunning out of all of the final antagonists, and he is the only one who actually succeeded in punishing everyone he was after.

Saint doesn’t come from nowhere. There were a LOT of hints and foreshadowing since case 2. I remember back in 2020 that I personally started suspecting him of something during case 3. Why? Sugar. He was adamant he hated it in case 2, and it did look important. Then nothing comes of it by the end of that case.

Then, I start the third one and… it is about sugar. It just clicked for me that he probably was linked to that story one way or another… then… I heard about the two young kids, and I remembered that Saint said him and Knight were together since childhood. I connected the dots, and their ages fit with the timeline of those events.

Case 4 did not give me anything except that Kay knew the guy who pushed her ( Honestly my least favourite case of that game, if I’m being honest), and introducing the orphanage and bizarre conspiracy plots.

Then case 5 arrived. I was pretty sure he wasn’t innocent the moment we got to the orphanage, while knowing that the mastermind had been watching and listening to them, and knowing some details Saint was present for ( He was at court).

Some details of his design and personality give away he’s manipulative. He is an animal tamer, he’s rarely answering directly, and he hates sweet things ( this trait is usually associated with villains).

I personally like Simeon Saint a LOT. Thing with Saint is that, compared to other Ace Attorney antagonists, you *CAN* see why he did what he did. He is a forgotten victim, and you really feel for the guy. He fits the theme of the game, which is about how the corruption of the judicial system can cause second hand victims.

He helps you take down vile individuals, in his own way. The one he cannot tackle down with trickery? He kills him. Pretty understandable, in my opinion. I honestly like the fact that this guy is more likeable and less evil than the other villains of the game. A good defense attorney could probably get him a lighter sentence, yes, but not let him get away. I kind of wish he got a lighter punishment, in the end, but he gets a bittersweet ending with the only person who ever really cared for him ( Kanis).

In the end, to each their own opinion, but it’s wrong to say Saint came out of nowhere and is not a good antagonist for the game. He is, and he fits the themes perfectly.

I'm just gonna say it, the ending for Ace Attorney Investigations 2 kind of sucks. Spoilers under the cut.

They also really want me to feel empathy for Gavelle when she's been an ass the whole time. And yes, she's shown some glimmers of not being as bad as she seems, but she annoyed me so much that it didn't really land for me.

Final bad guy comes out of left field. Did I miss a hint that Simeon was important? Plus, at the end of AAI:1 you had a real sense of urgency. Arrest that ambassador now or he'll escape and be beyond your jurisdiction. Simeon is...... not an immediate threat and not a flight risk. A good defense attorney could get him declared not guilty.

Honestly, it should have ended with Franziska and Edgeworth helping Winner to bring down his father. Those two helping the son of a corrupt prosecutor take him down? Brilliant bookend to the story. Instead, we got what felt like a badly thought out coda.

And for the love of God. Please stop making me play Mind Chess. The most pointless mini-game ever. Zero stakes, zero skill. Let me go back to looking for twitchy muscles with Apollo.

This was the first Ace Attorney game that I really didn't enjoy.

[strooples]

Just some anime vs. manga thoughts

So I’m beginning the Bakuten Shoot manga for the first time, and so far, I still have a strong favoritism towards a lot of the anime’s elaborations. I love Rei’s level-headed but kind personality in the anime after his first defeat to Tyson/Takao (while in the manga he generally stays the cocky rival trope). I love that it shows Kai has soft spots like for Max and for cats. And I especially love the expansion upon the other characters — whereas the manga heavily centers around Tyson/Takao. The manga is enjoyable in its own way too, but I can’t deny the joy of seeing Max, Rei, and Kai have their own shining moments in the anime.

However, the Bakuten Shoot anime doesn’t explain a lot of things that’d be helpful background while the manga does. Namely, Kai’s backstory (which would explain his initial behavior and the 1st season betrayal more) and the story behind the four bit beasts.

Vol. 1, Chapter 4 shown above.

The second especially would solidify so many things, such as how their 4 bit beasts combined in the 1st season are incredibly powerful beyond any means. It would also explain a gap in logic during V-Force — where Team Psychic and the Saint Shields were after the 4 protagonists’ bit beasts. The whole time watching V-Force, I thought to myself “What about the other people’s bit beasts?” “Why are they only going after the Blade Breakers when it’s known that many more bit beasts exist out there?” The fact that the gang’s bit beasts aren’t only incredibly powerful when combined, but has also created their world AND can reshape or destroy it in any form, justifies what seemed like an arbitrary goal by our 2nd season antagonists.

Now, to Kai’s backstory.

There were a lot of times I wished more was done with Kai in regards to the anime. At my first go of the 1st season, my initial reactions were “WOW this is dark” but both the betrayal and redemptions were very sudden. The betrayal made me think Kai seemed like am incredibly cruel character *despite being my all-time favorite — one who would use anyone/thing as a means to an end. He seemed, quite frankly, power-hungry. When the Kai Hiwatari we generally know has limits and doesn’t seem like a person who’d hurt anyone needlessly. I also questioned “Why would Kai just go along with Boris’s manipulation?” when he was shown to be in literal hell all his childhood, sent away to the (very obviously mentally abusive) abbey in Moscow.

And this is where the manga comes in.

Vol. 3, Chapter 2 shown above.

The context above makes it apparent the manga Kai is very different from our anime Kai — they do tell a VERY different story after all. However it also explains a lot of things, namely:

Who are Kai’s parents? (Well, one of them at least)

Why he initially formed the Blade Sharks and approached Tyson/Takao

It also depicts that he had a childhood that wasn’t the literal nightmare of an upbringing shown in the anime. But instead, one where he was loved very much by both his grandpa and father — one where he’d feel incentivized to get back or at the bare minimum avenge what we left, had it crumbled to pieces. One that wasn’t necessarily abusive, but still fraught with feelings of loss and abandonment that grew to have a stronghold within present-day Kai.

Soichiro Hiwatari is like your expected stern, head-of-the-household grandfather that placed a lot of responsibilities upon his son and grandson’s shoulders. As being the owner of one of Japan’s largest firms, it’s a strong likelihood that he had to get both future inheritors — Susumu Hiwatari and Kai — to be able to handle the burden of responsibility. It’s implied that Susumu Hiwatari likely dipped because of that pressure, and beyblading was simply either an excuse OR one of the last straws. In the eyes of young Kai however, we see the insecurities start to form. In his perspective, he was likely wondering if his father was actually abandoning him for a game! And so, the resentment start to form along with a deep hole of insecurity.

Now, the Soichiro in the anime (Voltaire, for those who also watched the dub) versus the one in the manga both manipulated Kai’s emotions one way or another. However the anime Soichiro did it to use Kai as a tool — another means to an end — in your usual anime antagonist “I want to rule the world” ways.

The manga Soichiro was shown to have manipulated Kai’s feelings of sadness and insecurity too, but because he cared for his grandson. It’s like good intentions but with a questionable means. He was shown not to be the best with emotions and likely didn’t know how to comfort a now-confused but terribly hurt young child who had just lost his father. So the option? To turn those fragile feelings into rage, to make that sadness a hatred for weakness. And we see it affect Kai enough to take up the sole game he wanted to destroy, form the Blade Sharks, and start again — this time for revenge.

So, what do I do?

Headcanoning.

Yes, you heard right.

Hear me out — I think the best backstory for Kai at this point would be an integration of both the manga backstory and the anime one. One that leads to similar results and stakes as the anime has, but one that also provides some background the manga did in explaining our character’s motives.

Imagine if years back, before the anime’s beginning, Kai’s father left just like that while his grandfather tried to shape Kai up the exact same way. But this time, the good-intentioned Soichiro was consumed by his frustrations and rage. This was where he had met Boris Balkov on a business trip to Moscow, Russia. Boris, wanting to seize the chance of swaying the powerful corporate Hiwatari (what, with the money and influence that comes with the Hiwatari name that could fund their goal for years) initially talked about the bit beasts — seeking to draw Soichiro Hiwatari’s interests. Soichiro dismisses it as nothing more but the musings of a deluded man over the very game he couldn’t stand! That was, until he showed Soichiro some papers he kept on hand documenting the 4 legendary bit beasts who created the world. And Soichiro sees the Dranzer and realizes that’s the dragon on the blade his grandson always carries around!

He decides to entertain Boris’s ideas a little longer. He learns exactly what the bit beasts are capable of during his stay in Russia. And as a result, he starts funding Boris’s orphanage of elite eugenics-era bladers — not realizing exactly how extreme Boris is or that Boris is using him. But rather, hoping he himself can get back a world where his grandson is happy. Being a difficult man, he knows deep down he put much too much pressures on Susumu. But he didn’t expect his son to leave cut and dry (to be fair though, he was the one who issued the ultimatum). He can’t word it, but he is deeply hurt. So he tries to do a bit better for Kai throughout Kai’s own childhood and especially so after his dad is gone. But Soichiro doesn’t have the words to say sorry, and the inability to voice the issues that are really nibbling at his conscience under the cold exterior. The bit beasts combined provides a chance for him to redo his mistakes, reshape a world where his son walked out on him — even if it tears the world at hand apart.

It’s kinda like this guy. Jkjk, though this IS semi a PokeSpe blog. And I’ll be 100% honest in admitting this is where I got the idea xD

One of the things he does afterwards is send Kai to the orphanage very TEMPORARILY in order to let his grandson see how the project’s going. But it’s mainly for Kai to practice blading with his Dranzer, who Soichiri predicts can be of much use towards getting the other 3 bit beasts despite his initial distaste for either his son or grandson playing the game. And who’s better to use Dranzer than his grandson?

Kai, upon arrival, feels a strong degree of skepticism. But he’s still a very young kid — one who was previously very sheltered from the world growing up in the wealthy Hiwatari household. He doesn’t know yet how Boris treats the other boys at the orphanage, nor does he know how he would be treated either. His grandfather was given obscured information, while Kai was molded into the cold and pensive blader he soon becomes. All the while the facility uses data from the powerful Dranzer blade he holds to build up the Black Dranzer blade. After nearly a year of this, Kai decides to sneak around one night because he has a sneaking suspicion that his blade’s been tampered with. And there he stumbles upon the Black Dranzer, tests it out in awe, and has the traumatic complete wipe out we see him gradually remember in the anime.

Soichiro is angry to hear what’s happened to his grandson, so he decides to bring him home to Japan after the year ends. But be continues to fund the project in the hopes that he’ll get the life he had wished for back, for both him and his grandson’s sake. And this will become what later gives Boris leverage to sway Kai towards using Black Dranzer. It’s incentive to take the other less powerful bit beasts to build up the Black Dranzer and be strong enough to capture his friends’. Boris dangles the idea in front of Kai: “You WILL get your father back AND your revenge.” So it’s not hard to picture why Kai takes up with the idea; it’s not blatantly being power-hungry. But rather, the chance to undo a hurt that couldn’t ever be taken back. And as it follows, it’s also equally easy to see the guilt Kai feels from betraying his friends, and makes the following redemption more believable.

Additional notes:

I’d like to still believe that similarly to the manga, Kai’s father still supports him from the background. But his presence isn’t as commonplace. Enough that he knows his father still cares for him, though never enough to repair the damage the initial walk out has caused.

I’d also like to believe that within my headcanon, Soichiro Hiwatari sweeps under the rug many of the wrongdoings at Boris’s hands and the orphanage for his end goal. He only interferes when Kai gets hurt, like the morally gray character I’d imagine him to be in my twist. He does admit to his crimes at the end though, and rightfully atones. Which is why we do not see his presence later much in the anime — as he’d logically step out of the overbearing stranglehold he’s tried to have over his grandson, in the way he failed to do with Susumu, and let Kai enjoy being the person he’s become. The one who now has friends who support him through this. The one who’s now let go of his resentments and need for revenge — and can finally move on.

But yeah, I’m totally just spinning ideas here.

[mach-speed-spin]

My opinions of every Beyblade season so far

Season 1: Beyblade has always had both sports and fantasy elements. The first season is the in-between of both. It’s not as fantasy-heavy as MFB and not as sporty as Burst. It has five arcs, with each one focusing on one character (Qualifiers-Tyson, Asia-Ray, America-Max, Europe-Tyson, Russia-Kai). If you showed someone whose never watched Beyblade the Asia arc, they’d think Ray is the main character. The villains were good, with the Dark Bladers improving the Europe arc a lot and the Demolition Boys being amazing final opponents. Overall, a solid foundation for the original series that establishes all the Bladebreakers really well (which makes G-Rev much better). That said, the art wasn’t perfect. The beys lacked the detail that made the real toys so appealing

V-Force: I have problems with this series. Besides the artstyle change (which I did eventually get used to) the cg beys didn’t age well (I still prefer them over the 2d beys in season 1). Hilary was a bad addition, at least in execution (she has 0 knowledge or experience in blading and still lectures the world champions). The story itself also has problems. While the main plotlines are great (cyber bit-beasts, Zeo), there are too many underdeveloped one-off villains (same problem I have with part 3 of jjba, where the main/ recurring villains are great but the rest aren’t). I admit some of the one-off villains were cool (Dark Emperor Bat) but they were too few and far between. Also V-Force has the worst episode in all of Beyblade in The Power Half-Hour (episode 20). However, I’d say V-Force is worth it for the Battle Tower (mainly Tyson vs Kane) and the team tournament. Plus the Saint Shields prevent the blander arcs from being too stale

Fierce Battle: Decent introdction to Daichi, but pales in comparison to the manga. The plot was fine but when compared to the somehwat similar plots of parts of the metal saga, it’s not as good. The villains were forgettable but had cool designs. The only really good thing Fierce Battle had was Daichi’s flashback, but even then it was better in the manga

G-Revolution: Building on season 1, each of the Bladebreakers get to shine individually, but this time as each other’s opponents. The first half is great with both returning and new characters making it enjoyable. The BEGA arc is one of the best arcs in all of Beyblade, and the return of Boris was both unexpected and welcome. My only complaint would be how underutilized Mystel was, but that is a small complaint that doesn’t change how good G-Rev is

Metal Fusion: Beyblade Moses. That’s it. Beyblade Moses perfectly encapsulates not only Metal Fusion, but the whole metal saga. It’s big. It’s fantastical, and there is a bey that steals sould that was sealed in a volcano before the villains stole it and killed the guardian (who was the main character’s dad). There is a serial killer that talks to crabs. There’s a vigilante who uses his bey like a sniper. There’s a fortune teller who gaslights you into thinking you’re being set on fire. It’s amazing purely because it pulls no punches

Metal Masters: Metal fusion but now there’s a world championship. We have martial artists, astronauts, a bodybuilder, and a mad artist. Amazing. There’s also a guy that’s possesed, a guy that turns “go to hell” into a literal command, and a nuclear reactor that stops time (Za Warudo moment). This guy plans on selling nukes to the highest bidder and broadcasts his auction by hijacking the broadcast of the world championship

Scorching Hot Invader: Climate change causes Atlantis to sink and generations later a descendant of Atlanteans wants to use the power of the sun to melt the ice caps and flood the rest of the world. He of course will survive because he’s recreating the story of Noah’s arc (complete with the animals). Also they go to space

Metal Fury: Remember how the world was supposed to end in 2012? Metal Fury did, because the Mayans predicted the revival of a Greek god that would consume the planet. Also Anubis is there for some reason. There’s a giant hamster ball rampaging through New York City. The effects of a Chinese civil war 2,000 years ago come back and mess with the Greek god. The Russians claim to honor privacy agreements with the Americans. The Moai on Easter Island wear beyblades as hats. The Tower of Babel is destroyed

Shogun Steel: Not as ridiculous as the rest of the metal saga, but still fun. It’s shorter than most seasons so characters can be underdeveloped (especially with how many new characters we get). The villains are fun. Captain Arrow and Kikura Gen are incredible. Doji becomes Arnim Zola in the shape of a giant beyblade (he is also driven mad by sensory deprivation because his robot body lacks touch and taste)

Beywheelz: Like Shogun Steel, it suffers from underdeveloped characters, but also like Shogun Steel, the villains are entertaining. The heroes are ok, but the villains really carry it, especially Jake and Odin, with David and Gigante also being pretty good. Also the villain’s plan is amazing (use the power of beys and astrology to open interdimensional portals and also he’s an imperialist)

Beywarriors Beyraiderz: Beyblade but it’s an isekai. The setting is by far the strongest part, taking place in a desolate world that is scarcely populated. Kaiser Gray was a decent villain, but I wish he had more develpment. Also Jin now has superpowers with no explanation. Armes carries the season until Kaiser starts battling himself. Sadly, the small cast of characters doesn’t allow for many interactions and despite the high stakes the story feels small

Beywarriors Cyborg: I’ve seen 2 episodes because it’s all I could find (seriously if you find the whole season message me). On a desolate planet, a handful of people decide to make it their new home. They form 5 city-states, being Lightning (democratic state and home of the main character), Sunburst (aristocratic monarchy), Flame (military dictatorship), Stone (not much is shown in the first 2 episodes, but it’s a mining town), and Hydro (isolationist and has a monopoly on water). There are themes of nationalism and classism as each city-state fights for control of Sanctuaries, which house massive energy supplies that make terraforming easy (allowing for more farmland and thus, more food). From the little I’ve seen, I love it

Burst season 1: Burst takes the fantasy aspect of Beyblade to a minimum and the sport aspect to a maximum. Really, it’s a slice-of-life sports anime with slight fantasy elements. It still has the things that make Beyblade as whole great (large cast of interesting characters, cool battles). While it’s far from my favorite season, it’s still enjoyable

Evolution: Takes the sport aspect to an even higher degree, with beyblade leagues and teams scouting bladers from across the world. Really, there are 2 main plotlines, the first dealing with how BC Sol has become too reliant on a single blader and the second dealing with the Snake Pit and Shu’s dissapearence. It’s a good season with some great moments (the Requiem Project and Free in the International Bladers Cup). Overall, while not in my top 3, it’s probably in my top 5

Turbo: Turbo ups the fantasy elements higher than previous Burst seasons (and adds a tiny bit of psychological horror). There’s still the sport aspect (like title matches), but it delves deeper into the connection between blader and bey, represented by the bey talking to the blader and vice-versa. There’s a possession plotline, possible aliens, and a ghost that one time. The new characters are pretty good, and the returning cast is used pretty well (except for Lui). It’s my favorite Burst season due mainly to how good the possession plotline is

Rise: Far more lighthearted than Evolution and Turbo. Rise feels like a smaller, self-contained story, because it is. It’s not about being world champion or stopping the apocalypse (except for the bey, Prime Apocalypse). The new characters range from ok to pretty good, and the battles are great (Blindt’s battles after the Battle Island arc are hilarious, and Joe is really fun to watch). And while I loved Arthur as a villain, I do get why most people didn’t. Overall, it’s not stellar, but it’s pretty enjoyable in it’s own right

Surge: Terrible plot and the new characters are very bland, but the battles are the best they’ve ever been and returning characters make up most of the cast. The heavy use of 2v2 battles (previous seasons used them, but never this much) allows for some really cool combo attacks. Surge has very little character development of its own, but the returning characters build off previous seasons and their interactions are top tier (especially Lui and Dante)

Dynamite Battle is still ongoing so I won’t give my opinions on it yet, but it’s pretty good (not as much as Turbo, but above Rise)