#the moral of the story is dont make dumb decisions

[born-in-hell]

Looking back, i think one the things that brought the hater out of me the most during qsmp (regarding the players themselves and the story) was how so many decisions made, and arguments defended, based on ooc criteria.

Like, ok. I love bagi. I adore bagi. I recite prayers for bagi every night before i sleep. I am not saying bagi — or anyone else that wouldve been invited if other ppl won — shouldnt have been invited to the qsmp. But my GOD the opportunity for the election winner to chooses someone to send to what's essentially an open air PRISION is insane to me. No islander fucking WANTS to be there so WHYYYYY would they subject a loved one to the SAME TORTURE??????? (except like bbh inviting skeppy cuz whatever they have going on is kinda weird and they're both old as fuck so who cares)

It is a fun decision out of the rp. It gives the players a nice prize if they manage to win. And it could've stayed at that, an ooc prize. But NO they had to mention it canonically. More then once. So much that some players (cof cof) argued bbh shouldnt win bc he would invite skeppy in a non democratic way. That was a CANNON ARGUMENT. MADE BY A PLAYER.

I cant stress how much i hate this decision. I can't stress how much i adored the story and these little things broke the immersion so much for me.

How did NO ONE go against inviting someone to basically be a little lab rat???????? Not even like cellbit. Or baghera. Or anyone else.

The mods thing is less insane. Also very ooc, but not as infuriating in lore, bc it is just a fun decision thing and not like,, idk, choosing a friend to send to an open air torture house. Still broke the immersion for me a lot tho.

And now with fucking purgatory. Oh god.

This time it wasnt even Qstudios' fault (which sounds insane considering,, well, the array of poorly analyzed decisions). It was the fault some of the players that decided that "in meta this doesnt make sense!!!!! they wouldnt do this!!!" is a valid argument to bring into an IN CHARACTER DISCUSSION.

All the things tubbo said abt the cursed team were in character. All his arguments were perfectly cohesive w the things qtubbo was supposed to know, and all the times he talked to them he was playing the character. Just for them to reply w "i think ur wrong bc qstudios wouldnt do this in meta bc there HAS to be a winner"

NO THERE DOESN'T????????? Purgatory was a poorly planned and poorly executed event that id argue shouldve never existed but oh my GOD.

This is gonna sound corny but if you look at the cursed team in a completely meta perspective, the objective wouldve been very clear — force the teams to unite so that the cursed team would win (remember that if the cursed team won they could get all the eggs back instead of only 1) .

The moral here wouldve been that friendship is magic ✨ (< sorry)

And to be honest, that would've been a much more tolerable event. I wont elaborate; u all know why.

Idk if qstudios shouldve been more clear abt it, or even if they thought as far as i did — considering, well, everything that we know today. I just think not listening to someone saying things w proof bc "in meta they wouldnt do that" is dumb and breaks the immersion so much for me.

They couldve discussed it like that in their ooc convos. But they did it during rp and thats what i dont like.

Anyways sorry for this rant i woke up a hater today,, i hope this makes even a little bit of sense. Also this is not a hate to the ccs, still adore (most of) them. Sometimes ppl make mistakes and thats totally ok!!!!!!! Regarding the elections i think it was mostly a poor decision and direction from qstudios then the players' fault. Purgatory was the players themselves (in this specific case) tho..

Yeah thats it 👍

[maaaxx]

im trying to finish outlining cots and telling yall my train of thought might help me finish this so here that is.

This is also the first time you guys are getting any idea of what is actually going on in this story so have fun.

It takes like 5 chapters (not including the prologue) for things to actually start going somewhere. I dont know if thats normal pacing or not but oh well.

The difference between Sokka and Katara in this half (ish) of the story is so funny because theyre both experiencing the opposite sides of the teenage experience. Kataras out here rebelling (against who??? not even she knows), and Sokkas going through the beginning stages of gifted child burnout but like on crack.

Azulas a lot more better off in this fic than in canon because her and Zuko get to have a lot better relationship. Theyre not extremely close, because there is still some tension but not nearly to the extreme as canon. They just have a normal sibling relationship or close to it. She gets to be the well rounded and overall stable one. She deserves it. Everyone else at one point or another is going to be pretty distraught. Azulas just watching the world burn. and we love her for that.

So far all four of Zuko, Azula, Sokka, and Katara have atleast one pov in each chapter. And the difference between these is so funny because you have Sokka, who is worried about everything and anything and is like the mom of the group trying to keep his children in line, Katara's out there doing the dumbest shit she can think of on impulse, Zuko's trying to fight 10 people at once at any given chapter and Azula's just... watching.

Direct quotes from some of the outlines of azulas povs include, "Azulas really confused at everyone", "Azula's scheming", "Azula's interrogating and also scheming", "Azula's being a girlboss" Pretty much Azulas just taking everything in and laughing at everyone elses problems.

I love Azula in this fic.

Zuko's getting himself into trouble. This boy really just needs to shut the fuck up and life will overall just be a whole lot easier for him.

Most of the oc's from this fic are the more minor ones from ihiap. So far I think they've only been mentioned once or twice. But there are also some new ones and one of the new ones should be pretty familiar because its like, if two of my other ihiap ocs had a baby and you change the font a tad bit, you get this dude.

This dude is going to be the one to save Zuko from getting himself murdered because he wont stop running his mouth. This guy is the type that usually really soft and kind and quiet but at one point he just has to go "it's not that zuko's a horrible person, he's just really fucking stupid" and everyone else in the situation just goes "Oh yeah that makes sense thanks for clearing that up"

Katara and Sokkas relationship kind of replaces Zuko and Azulas for the strained sibling relationship in this fic. This is because Sokka a few times has to do something that majorly goes against Kataras strong morals but he has to do it to save her but he doesnt tell her that and it creates a lot of tension.

Zuko getting himself captured by making dumb decisions while Kataras trying to be his braincell 🤝 Katara completely abandoning any and all responsibility, actively putting a target on her back, after Sokka had to mansplain manipulate manwhore his way into some semblance of control to keep her from being tortured and starved 🤝 Sokka making the most impulsive and not well thought out decisions possible while Azula is constantly covering him and fixing the mistakes hes making in order to keep Katara and Zuko from getting killed.

I think that Sokka and Azulas relationship is a lot more simular to canon Katara and Sokkas relationship than cots Sokka and Katara. Because like,, while canon Sokka and Kataras bond is the whole "we're siblings, we grew up with eachother, we've always been by eachothers side' thing going on, that got a little bit interupted in cots. Mean while Azula and Sokka both have this 'I have this overwhelming weight resting on my shoulders and it's caused me to have to do horrible things to protect either myself or my loved ones and my sibling doesn't underdstand the entirety of that' solidarity in one another that allows them to have a really close relationship.

This story has so much going on right now because all four of the characters that im trying to keep track of all have very different goals and drives and plots. And it's going to be a while before they start to overlap.

I really love writing Azula and Ursas relationship because canon gives you so little that you can interpret it in so many different ways. Like if you put a little bit of work in you can turn it into every single mother-daughter issues dynamic in the book.

Thats all for now I'll add onto this when I feel like mentioning something else.

[hellokittysasuke]

I posted 5,287 times in 2022

That's 4,064 more posts than 2021!

69 posts created (1%)

5,218 posts reblogged (99%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@mettywiththenotes

@1rakus

@sasukechannel

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I tagged 3,568 of my posts in 2022

Only 33% of my posts had no tags

#naruto - 1,187 posts

#sasuke - 594 posts

#jjk - 229 posts

#naruto & sasuke - 174 posts

#itachi - 159 posts

#sasukecor3 - 140 posts

#sausk4 - 134 posts

#orochimaru - 121 posts

#misc - 102 posts

#founders - 98 posts

Longest Tag: 138 characters

#i dont think its ever mentioned if the uchihas had their own traditional clan names but if they did this would mean sasuke doesnt have one

My Top Posts in 2022:

#5

itachis narrative follows through at first, but falls apart if you inspect it. his story's actually quite inconsistent...

like only focusing on his treatment of sasuke, we are told he did it to make him stronger. but its all very vague and a flimsy excuse for the sheer agony and torture it caused to the brother he loved. his character or backstory didnt seem to be finalized when he was first introduced..

nevertheless i do love the 'actually he loved his brother' storyline. its very tragic. his canon actions offer a lot for interpretation...

i read a fic where itachi loved sasuke so much he killed the uchihas because he felt thy were trapping him and wanted to see sasuke fly. hmmmm*

possibilities...(the love can be twisted too)

i feel like all the anti itachi portay him as too...overly willing to kill his clan? (for the sake of konoha) wasnt danzos ultimatum (either every single uchiha dies at roots hands..or only sasuke will be spared if he does it himself) playing a major part in his decision??...

anyways kishimoto did end up creating one of the most iconic characters of anime/manga...

so im not complaining ...i dont think the uchiha storyline would be as memorable without the twist

*(i love pre reveal itachi and sasuke fics. the explanations they make for the massacre are always so interesting...)

21 notes - Posted April 25, 2022

#4

lmao how itachi didnt even kill shisui, his best friend, but told sasuke to kill his to get the mangekyou sharingan.

what would he have done if sasuke had actually killed naruto (his best friend then) only to find out itachi lied about killing shisui for power

wow can you imagine how awkward that would be

37 notes - Posted February 13, 2022

#3

the sound era trio- orochimaru sasuke & kabuto are peak comedy potential

their dynamic is SO funny to me but theres barely any content around them??? hello??

like orochimaru with his weird fake politeness and sadistic amusement vs kabuto who cant stand sasuke (and vice versa) but he has to be nice bcs this angsty preteen is his masters next vessel vs sasuke whos just here power and really doesnt give a shit about the other two, except for when he wants to take out his teenage angst by bullying kabuto,

46 notes - Posted March 27, 2022

#2

47 notes - Posted May 31, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

it will forever baffle me, all those memes that paint sasuke as this dumb, idiotic character that knows nothing and is a selfish brat for wanting to kill his brother who loves him and power-obsessed for leaving to orochimaru, and then pretend itachi didnt have any part in that. that that was all sasuke, uninfluenced.

setting aside the question of (his intentions, if it made sense, what was a better alternative, was it morally justified etc.) its a fact that the one who made him that way was... itachi. he was the one who told him to hate him, to kill his best friend for the mangekyou sharingan, to grow stronger, to cling to hate and revenge, to come after him to kill him. 

he was the one who told him he lacks enough hate, called him weak, and repeatedly used tsukoyomi to make him relive the massacre and hate him, therefore want to grow stronger to kill him. he actively hid the truth and manipulated it to be that sasuke would never find out, even after death, he was the one who took the brush and painted himself a mindless villain, just to make him hate him. that was all itachi. that was what drove him to orochimaru, to leave konoha, to try and cut off naruto. 

sasuke wasnt somehow naturally that way, (on the contrary, he went after itachi right after seeing his parents bodies, stopped himself from killing naruto)- itachi had to constantly influence him to fester hate that way. it was literally all part of itachis plan! itachi’s!!! people just ignore that, fuck?

like i love itachis character too, i genuinely enjoy his and sasukes storyline. this is not an attack on his character. its just kind of irritating when people lift him up while putting sasuke down by like, exaggerating and making him out to be a pathetic spoilt brat of a character and pretend itachis the actual and only victim bcs how terrible to have a brother who you love but wants to kill you, somehow ignoring that itachi was the one who manipulated his brother? like yeah itachi was manipulated and under pressure too, but in terms of his and sasukes relationship he is the one who lied!!!

like i dont even care about his mistakes or whatever, i care abt sasuke being made out to be the "villain" in their dynamic

51 notes - Posted March 10, 2022

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[sailor-spaghetti]

Hey! I just saw the post you made about the t pellets you're on, and I wanted to ask a few things?

Generally how painful is the injection (with added question of whats your pain tolerance)?

Can you feel the pellets under your skin?

Have you ever experience acne breakouts due to T?

This is the first in depth info I've ever gotten on them, so thank you so much!

Okay so!

My pain tolerance isn't great. I'm kind of a huge wimp. The worst part is when the doctor injects the lidocaine and that really does sting/burn. Quite a bit. My PCP has informed me though that she can also use a numbing gel before injecting the lidocaine and we will be trying that next time. That said, that stinging only lasts maybe 2-3 seconds per poke and then you don't feel anything. The first few times, after the lidocaine, getting the incision and the implants kind of tickled before I got used to it, but now it mostly just feels like nothing.

You don't really feel any pain for the rest of the day, but then come evening or the next day you will feel sore/bruised but in my experience it's pretty mild. Your doctor will give you an ice pack to apply to the area after the procedure is done and if it feels too bad, then the advice is ice and Tylenol.

You also should not be exercising for 36 hours and you should not submerge the area underwater for 72 hours. Probably obvious advice here, but don't make the stupid mistake I made once and hop on a horse two hours after the procedure - you will absolutely regret that.

I'm not sure what you mean by feeling the pellets. I'm not constantly feeling them - I don't even really notice they're there, but if I were to run my hands over the spot I can feel tiny bumps where they are. But I don't exactly spend a lot of time touching my butt. :P

I'm a bit of a wild card on the acne thing. Even when I was still on the patch, T seemed to make my acne situation better? Like before T my face was a mess and now I can mostly avoid acne as long as I wash my face. It probably also helps that I have a boyfriend with a monkey brain who likes to pick at my face.

[gingerbreadmonsters]

dude im so fucking excited for the next project meridian, relistening to it rn and my fucking god its so upsetting (in a great way) no one gives any sort of shit about love, james is such a bastard (WANTING TO USE THE CODE FOR HIS OWN SHIT ARE YOU KIDDING ME YOU ASS) marcus is also a bastard (i get doing some real dumb shit when youre lonely and in denial BUT HOLY SHIT DUDE WHAT, i dont wanna be that empathetic to him cause he was using love even if it did end up hurting him, it was his own fault and he didnt stop it, he makes me feel a lot and i wanna put him in therapy) the other staff resented love as says brian SPEAKING OF he, him being rude and short with love and that still being the only relationship that wasnt deeply toxic for them is heartbreaking, his log was ouch, understanding that love will feel isolated and used (as he says they were) without the code and saying the kinder thing would just be to wipe their memory, and deciding not to cause "we'd lose progress", but him also saying theyre gonna let love chose what happens to marcus, i care him

ALSO marcus making that code is pretty impressive ngl, like it was taking over everything else within lovely, strong shit. sry for ramble im so psyched to see what happens, im glad eriks still making this story

this is an excellent ask and i am SO excited for more project meridian now hehe ✌️

this post does NOT contain spoilers for today's audio (seeing as i haven't listened to it yet), but under the cut anyway bc i rambled lmao

and you're absolutely right - it's REALLY interesting to be placed in this perspective where the listener character is unreliable, where we're not sure how many of our actions and decisions are fueled by this obsession code, where we can't be certain of what we know and what information (like the hidden 'project meridian' data packet) we have inside us. it makes for incredibly compelling storytelling and conceptually i think it's FASCINATING 🤩🤩

and YES we love a bit of moral ambiguity!! inconsistent and flawed morality!! characters who are in conflict with each other and themselves, who are not universally good or even liked!! project meridian to me has always been a series that pushes everything to a logical extreme, if that makes sense - a robot in love who is overwhelmingly obsessed, a sad man who is debilitatingly lonely, a mysterious corporation that is unflinchingly greedy. everything is over the top and spilling over itself, but it's approached in a very realistic and empathetic way, and that makes it far more accessible and less predictable, which i enjoy v much! 🥰✨

tbh i feel similarly about james as i do about vega, especially in his latest audio - it's very clear that we are being manipulated, but it's really interesting to observe from an out-of-universe perspective. it leads to a fun conflict of interest as well: do we want the listener character to turn to the dark side and take them at their word, or resist? what would either of those scenarios look like going forward? how is this going to be resolved? OOH it's so much fun 🤠🤠🤠

(also i agree with marcus' technical skill - it can't have been easy to hide code like that inside an android who is basically being examined at every second of every day! although come to think of it, how well did he hide it...?)

[nexyra]

James Ironwood, for character ask? 👀

Aaaa thank you so much for the ask ♡ More rambling incoming !! Sorry for the wait btw, I've been both pretty busy and tired ;;

If you hate James Ironwood and don't wanna hear one good thing about him tap out now please ღ

My fav ship(s) for the character

I am not a super big shipper when it comes to James, but there are still some I like more than others soo here goes :

I think Ironwitch is a pretty good one. It's not necessarily a ship I'd search content for but I think these two would work well together ! Glynda is stern and honest and a no-nonsense kind of woman. She has the strenght to stand up to James when he slips or gets too stubborn when faced with the high stakes. At the same time, we've been shown that she cares for him and she knows he's only trying to do what's best for people. She has faith in him but also the ability to stand at his side as an equal. She seems to be the more steadfast of Ozpin's circle : loyal, you know you can trust her, and she will not crumble. This is the kind of personnality that I think James both admire and feel safe with. And the other way around, I think James is a good match for Glynda too. On a day to day basis, he's serious enough to not annoy here, but he's also a softie in some aspects and that's a nice combination to smooth out Glynda's edges.

Ironqrow is a completely different dynamic. The "we're annoying each other" dynamic is not one I'm particularly interested in usually xD But these two certainly had strong & interesting moments so it's a pretty valid ship !! Despite how they might butt heads because of the difference in their upbringing they (prior to V8) clearly trusted each other with their life. Even if Qrow jokes about shooting himself if he had to be one of James' man, when everything goes to shit there is no doubt in his mind that James wasn't responsible. Similarly, while James talks of shooting Qrow for his misbehaviour, when push comes to shove and we meet a tired Ironwood, run ragged by the pressure he's under... the only thing he does is hug him and reiterates how glad he is to see him. So again, they clearly have a lot of faith and trust in the other, and that's solid ground for a relationship.

My least favorite ship(s) for the character

Same spiel as always, shipping kids and adults is a big no from me; so any ships between Ironwood and RWBYJNOR can qualify here. That said, among the less uncomfortable ones, here are those I don't really like

This one is again because I love their relationship but platonically only, I'm talking of Winter Soldier. The reading I like best is not that Ironwood is Winter's Jacques 2.0, nor that he groomed her; but that he was an important father figure in her life. Protective and caring, who tried to help her escape with what he knew. I don't see James recruiting Winter as a way to gain a strong ally. But rather that Winter wanted to detach herself from her family name, and make something worthwhile of herself all on her own. And that the military is what Ironwood knows and understand, so naturally it's a career he'd see as a good path. Just like Winter then proposed it to Weiss. I like to think they care about each other a LOT and they're their own tight family in between the lines, even if professionalism might throw a wrench into it. For short I love them together but not romantically please =)

I don't know if there's a ship name for this, but Salem x James Ironwood would be a big nope from me too... In general, let's just assume I ship Salem with nobody because abuse.

My fav & least fav platonic relationship(s) for the character

Fav platonic relationship would be (have been because we dont talk about V8?) with Winter. Fooor the reasons I've explained above I suppose x) I (again) love the trust they had in one another and the quiet support.

There was also his relationship with Oscar that I really liked during V7, although it has been soured a bit by the (valid) reading from some people that Ironwood sought out Ozpin a lot through Oscar, and given his identity issues it is not ground for a greatly healthy relationship. Their interactions were still very intersting though ♡ I consider Oscar to be the kid who went at trying to appease James' fear or make him reconsider his decisions the best way. There was true understanding and hope for a working relationship here. I do feel that Oscar put in more work than James however (emotionally) and I wish there had been pay-back instead of a gunshot.

For my least fav relationship ? Probably Robyn or Watts ? Robyn was always very antagonistic toward Ironwood since their priorities are so different. And I overall just don't really like her after V7 so there are very few relationships with her I'm interested in (the exception is her ship with Fiona I think it's cute). Meanwhile, Watts is just a petty asshole hell bent on ruining Ironwood because he didn't pick his project. I'm not very interested in hate relationships, and since theirs wasn't deeply explored anyway, it's even more the case here. Their fight was great though, one of my favorite RWBY fights !

My favorite thing about the character

Well this was completely proven wrong by V8 buuut as of V7 I liked that he was a deconstruction of the military general (dictator) trope. Sooo you can guess how i feel about V8 X) In general among RWBY, several of my fav are fav BECAUSE they look like one trope but also have key differences that from the get go make the character stray away from said trope. For example I'm not a fan of the princess tsundere archetype at all, but I loooved Weiss in V1 BECAUSE she was extra-willing to listen and change her mind, and you could very easily tell that it was her upbringing speaking more than herself in most occasions.

Similarly, I wasn't a big fan of Ironwood before V7. I didn't hate him you know and he wasn't lower than most characters in my Tier list but I also didn't particularly care. But you know what ? I've aaaalways had a really soft spot for the "angsty angry traumatized teen". And RWBY made the mistake of extending that soft spot to "tired adults trying their best" (only to repeatedly beat them up/make them villains after making me care about them but what can you do uh)

Soo in general, I loved that Ironwood was trying so hard. I loved that he was tired and in over his head but learning and listening and trying to do good and be better despite his fears. I liked that he told his entourage about Salem and was loyal. I liked that he cared about helping the people above his own image and the way people perceived him. I liked that you could tell this was a terrible situation all around, and his decisions WERE questionnable but we could SEE that he meant WELL and was genuinely trying so hard despite how scared and tired he was.

My biggest criticism for the character

Well this won't be a surprise but in general I just wished he had stayed a morally grey character we were allowed to feel for instead of a cartoon black villain. I didn't need James to be THE Hero or anything like this despite some accusations levelled at those who like him. Him becoming one of RWBY's antagonist is honestly fine by me ! It is interesting. But I'd have preferred they kept him ambiguous and trying in his own way. (And smart because V8 Ironwood was dumb af)

I can be a tad overprotective of his character since he's just... so despised, so I think that I have inadvertently distanced myself from any of his flaws... somehow like "people are already yelling all of them so I don't need to add to this shit show" you know ? skjfkd But I KNOW he has them and it would still have been good to develop his flaws, just... not like that

But yea I'd have liked it if V8 Ironwood DID diverge from RWBYJNORQ and became an antagonist but not an iredeemable villain. LIKE,, we redeemed Hazel and Emerald and IRONWOOD is where the writers draw the line by saying "nope this one is rotten" ?? What ?

When was their writing at the peak according to me (ex : best season)

V7 definitely ! Ironwood carried V7 so hard haha. His character was fleshed out and given nuance and made to struggle and evolve and I loved him in that volume.

A song I think fits them & why

Hunger • Monsters & Men Human • Rag'n'Bone Man Way down we go • Kaleo Beekeeper • Keaton Henson Thistle and weeds • Mumford and Sons Castle of Glass • Linkin Park It's all so incredibly loud • Glass Animals

A headcanon to make up about them

His metal parts impact his metabolism so Ironwood is terrible at holding his alcohool and very little manages to knock him out. He's a workaholic. His low tolerence for alcohool is a great tool whn friends need to put him to sleep.

His joints crack and hurt in the cold, his metal parts as well and they are an hassle in the sand. James like to keep his room temperature warmer than the average atlasian because of this, otherwise he has to spend 30 min every morning simply unwiding muscles to move around efficiently.

He's not a good singer but has a nice low voice for telling stories. If he had kids, he'd probably avoid lullabies but compensate with bedtimes stories.

What I would change about them if I was making a re-write

As always, I'm kind of reflecting along the way as I write this, and one thing I'm thinking right now is... Doesn't it take away from the atlas arc message ITSELF to just pile up so many "standard bad guy" stuff on Ironwood ? Like, I wanna ask... why do we hate him ? Is he an antagonist because he lets fear get the best of him ? Because he's a classist who doesn't care about Mantle like some fans argue ? Because he's too stubborn and wants to be THE hero ? Because he doesn't listen to others ? Because he abandonned Mantle ? Because he kills peopke left and right ? Because he wanted to bomb a city ? I think you might see where I'm going with this : his status as villain is kind of messy. V8 just kept piling-up flaws and villainous actions onto Ironwood with no concern for whether this was a lenght he would go to (using the certainty that he would go to any lenghts to enact his plans), ,or whether these were one of the initial flaws/failings that led to his "fall" as an antagonist. What lesson is Ironwood supposed to learn ? Personally the very first time I yelled at my screen "No ! Why would the writers choose that ?" is when Ironwood shot Oscar. When answering criticism against medias, many people tend to look at it only through the lense of "well it makes sense in universe" or as if there were no other ways for the story to devolve. But at the end of the way, everything in a story is a choice from the writer even if it is influenced by the characters' personnalities. If I took the scene where Ironwood shoots Oscar, someone might tell me "he's crippled by his PTSD, he COULD do this." Maybe, that's a reading I can somewhat understand at least. But the writers have the power to NOT put his character in such a position. When I saw the wreck that was V7 finale, I ranted to my bestfriend about it and at no point did i say "why did Ironwood do that", I said "why did the writers make him shoot Oscar, the only point narratively would be to make irredeemable" Aaaand that's what they went for and I obviously didn't care for it. So if I had to rewrite it; I would have kept Ironwood's "mistakes" more focused. If he's wrong because he wants to abandon Mantle, because he's (understandably) scared and doesn't want to take risks; then stay focused on that. It's what makes RWBY leave, and out of all his V8 actions that's really the only thing RWBY needed to tell the whole world he wasn't an ally anymore apparently. - Don't make him shoot Oscar point blank, instead Oscar can simply fall because he flinches away from Ironwood's outburst; and a distraught/guilty Ironwood can decide that he doesn't have the time or capacity to help because of the tense situation. (Killing and not saving someone don't hold the same moral weight at all). - Don't make him kill people left and right or bomb cities, maintain the flaw of Ironwood struggling with his PTSD and his fear and not being able to take risks. - Don't paint him as a black villain, and eventually write V8 in such a way that RWBYJNORQ show taking risks might lead to a bigger victory, which was the volume's theme anyway. For example, following Oscar's destruction of the whale, a growth can occur that would bring back together the two anti-Salem factions : Oscar's risk put Atlas out of harm's way, which leads to Ironwood seeing that maybe there WAS a way to save Mantle as well as Atlas despite Salem's presence and he might have jumped the gun too quickly because of his fears. I'm not sure, I haven't thought about this extensively honestly but I hope you see what I mean. I think it would have been more focused & more in-character to focus Ironwood's failings on his fear; and the fact that he cares for the people and the greater good sometimes at the cost of the individuals. The idea that by sacrificing individuals too much you forget the people you're fighting for in the first place, could have been interesting to dig deeper into. Keep to the idea that Ironwood is somewhat disensitized to the individuals suffering for the sake of the greater good, instead of making him just

callous & uncaring.

My guess for their MBTI/Enneagram

I think pre-V8 Ironwood was an unconventionnal ENFJ. Aka, the type of character no one would type ENFJ because they go by stereotypes and Fe stereotypes are just enneagram 2 everywhere (aka nice, kind, helpful) whereas Ironwood has an enneagram tritype very common among xxTJs so that's what he looks/behaves like, but the way he thinks (what's best for the people, ethical values derived from an Atlasian upbringing) align more with Fe cognitively I think I'm going with ENFJ 6w5 1w2 3w4

Starting from V8 though, Ironwood veered clearly into ENTJ territory (types aren't supposed to change but I wouldn't say RWBY is the most consistent media when it comes to characters' personnalities)

One aspect that I think would be nice to delve deeper into ?

I understand why they didn't care to, but it'd have been interesting to get a few backstory hints for Ironwood. How did he lose half his body ? How did Oz recruit him ? Or some pieces about his upbringing ?

[kendrixtermina]

Sorry but hearing ppl say “I would like CF more if Edelgard was either treated like a full-on villain or as a manipulated groomed victim of TWSITD who had no choice” and just generally seeing ppl trying to shoehorn her into one of those two takes,  it’s hard not to think the words “Madonna Whore complex”

I kinda abhorr the latter more than the former (Not the crowd calling her Hitler and clown-emojis, but I’ll take someone who considers something she actually did a moral dealbreaker over someone who defends her because “she’s just lashing out cause she’s traumatized”.. That’s Dimitri. you’re describing Dimitri.) because it goes against everything her character is about, which is mostly: 

a) A tendency to think in the big picture, focussed on mainly the end result, especially on the temporal axis (”The nobility system has only existed for 1400 years”, “This is all part of the ebb and flow of history”, “This is the path that leads to the least casualties in the long run”)

She’s always playing the long game - so dealing with the Agarthans later (once the church is taken care of) is the same as dealing with them now. She never went against the church instead of them, she’s playing them against each other. 

b) A rejection of tradition as a reason to keep things the way they are

c) An emphasis on self-reliance and proactivity instead of surrendering yourself to your circumstances. See the speeches she gives to Petra and Lysithea. 

She generally believes in ppl’s agency, she gives everyone an out, and likewise her generals and the non-recruited ppl are all shown as believing in her cause (Something even Seteth notes) - they’re fighting to abolish hereditary Feudalism and clamp down on corruption. You’re fighting a bunch of people who wanna abolish Feudalism and Theocracy. 

Claude wants the same but he’s hiding it because he thinks he can avoid confrontations that way (There’s pros and cons to both their approaches, and I’m not saying that Dimitri or Seteth are bad, either, especially not in the context of the world they live in) 

She’s basically a Nietzschean Superman but in the original sense not the cheap bastardized version mixed up with pseudoscientific misunderstandings of evolution: Someone who proactively lives according to their own beliefs regardless of the mainsteam in greater society. 

And herein lies another factor, I think,like I’ve often noticed a tendency in modern fandom that people can’t seem to emphasize with anyone who isn’t in some way marked as an underdog -  Leading ppl to argue that characters who are definitely not underdogs like , say, Tony Stark, are definitely underdogs. 

Of course in reality things aren’t so simple that you could make a clean split into “underdogs” and “not underdogs” - Some ppl clearly demonstrably have it harder than others but ppl can have it hard in one way and have it easy in others. (Dimitri clearly struggles alot  - but he’s also a king. One doesn’t negate the other.)

There’s nothing wrong with underdog stories, they can be very inspiring and cathartic - but they shouldn’t be the only kinds of stories. 

Even the most powerful  can see themselves as victims because we’re all just squishy meatsacks who can still be hurt, and even the most powerless might see themselves as in-control if that helps them feel better. 

It also goes into the trolley problem and the human illogical tendency to view harm done through action as heavier than harm done through inaction. A tendency to not want to rock the boat, to confuse stability with peace. 

There’s no difference between harm done through action vs inaction. 

It’s at best, a failure of object permanence - to understand that things still happen and change even if you dont act  - and at worst selfish pride and ego (I want to keep MY hands clean I don’t care if people are suffering and dying as long as no one can say it’s my fault... the counterproductive puritanical idea of morality as “good person vs bad person”)

This leads to this attitude where if they can think of someone as a “victim” then it doesn’t matter what they do, because, after all, it was just circumstance, but the moment someone makes an active, deliberate choice, all empathy goes out the window and they’re held to some impossible standard. 

For the opposite extreme, see Dimitri (mind you I’m not saying he should be judged either im saying that mindlessly hating both is equally nonsensical... the dimitri haters are fewer but they do exist), or worse, Rhea... who regardless of her backstory has objectively been in a position of power and privilege for a literal thousand years.  You know Dedue and Seteth are right there? )

Something similar is to be said about ppl who call “bad writing” or “waifu-ism”, or consider her a “manchild” because she... opens up around people she trusts? Expresses relief when an ally validates her in a moment of self-doubt? Gets into comical situations in everyday life? That’s just kinda consequence of living in close-quarters with her. 

“How dare you not fit into “misguided victim” vs “ridiculous bitch” dichotomy don’t remind me that some character I don’t like is a human being” 

They pressed that any deviation from that is “ridiculous” or “extreme”. Tell me again that someone who’s consistently calm, collected and intellectually-inclined is a “manchild” for telling her closest ally that she would like to take a day off sometimes and liking stuffed animals.

I for once really like that she’s tough and proactive and makes decisions that really impact the plot without being a flat over the top amazonian stock character with no emotion other than “grrr! men dumb” which is then never taken seriously as a threat. 

Actually this part alone would not even preclude her from being a victim even Osama Bin Laden had a favorite color and liked disney movies. Hitler liked his dog. Stating this is just acknowledging simple facts, not saying that you should have sympathy for them (which for the record, you shouldn’t) - I think a work geared at ppl over 15 shouldn’t have to explicitly remind you that “this is an evil person” every time one shows up, people can distinguish for themselves, and those who can’t won’t be convinced by a video game. No one can “make” you like or empathize with a fictional chracter peeps. 

[im-just-star-dust]

Yooooo why tf are so many people sexualizing Five? Hes like 14 in the show and the actor is 15! Wtf! I'm not saying u cant make fanart or fanfics of the dude, thats all fine, hes a great and intresting character, and im sure the actor is a good person. But for fucks sake dont sexualize a kid!! It makes me sad that i even have to say this, i thought some of u guys would know better. Also! Stop sending so much hate to the actor! The kid is only 15, 15 year olds make dumb and questionable decisions, its okay if he makes mistakes sometimes, we all do. I know that was ranty but i needed to talk about it. Moral of the story.

Dont 👏 sexualize 👏 literal 👏 children!!

Thank you for coming to my TEDtalk

[ramblian]

Jericho Thoughts

HHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHhhh

okay so. i’m rewatching jericho. i first watched it sometime around 8th-9th grade, I think maybe somewhere in the first half of 2014. I basically remembered this: the main character was the black sheep of the family, he came back to town, and atomic bombs destroyed most of the US, and the show was about the town dealing with the aftermath. the guy from continuum and one ep of flashpoint played a character i liked named dale (eric knudsen) who liked a popular girl who ended up befriending him, and the asking-for-flowers flashpoint ep guy was the responsible brother. Someone used to be a teacher. The main character looked like Skeet Ulrich, but i didn’t know who that was, just the name.

turns out the main character WAS Skeet Ulrich, and 2 characters (heather and emily) used to be teachers, and i apparently forgot almost all of the major characters. I’ve been rewatching it with the knowledge of which characters die, so that’s good. the show is really good, and it’s really intense. I’m almost done, and it’s tough to keep watching both because it’s so intense and because i know a character i like is about to die tragically. 

watching this show makes me so TENSE. i think it really got bad when goetz showed up and i knew bonnie’s death was coming up. i’ve been watching the same episode for like an hour and i started 6 minutes in from another viewing. i don’t know why i’m so stressed. well actually i do it’s because things in this show are AWFUL but i know that no one dies after bonnie.

i also really like that the plot is very much what drives the show. romantic relationships somewhat matter (eric/april/mary, dale/skylar, and stanley/mimi in particular get screentime, while jake’s relationships with emily and heather are there and meaningful but not something that drives the story or gets a lot of attention. dale and eric’s relationships have also been less important in season 2) but they are regularly sidelined while the character deal with the latest crisis. characters have backstories that aren’t always super expanded on, like johnston’s chaotic neutral dad or stanley and bonnie’s parents, because they don’t have a meaningful impact on the plot- how mimi grew up isn’t going to change how the Greens deal with food shortages. 

also, i love that it’s a post-apocalyptic show where there’s a lot of fighting and lawlessness and not once have they used rape as a plot device. the closest it ever came to being mentioned was when maggie, a survivor pretending to be military to get towns’ supplies, said that ‘out there, men only want women for one thing’ and that’s IT. i respect that so much. way too many shows and books and movies are like ‘things are bad... and we can only express that through rape’ but this show never does

also the grey morality is very well done in season 1 (the bad guys are clearer in season 2). characters fight and do shitty things because everyone is just trying to survive. Constantino was wrong to start a war with Jericho, but i also understand where he was coming from. Ravenwood ransacked New Bern and left them with almost nothing, and Jericho never bothered to warn them. There were some people considering not honoring the deal to repay the windmills in food. New Bern was on the brink of destruction and Constantino tried to get the resources for survival where he could, by force. The thing with the refugees too. There isn’t really enough food for everyone, and it’s true that Jericho’s been getting a lot of refugees when it’s barely managing to sustain its own population. Some of the refugees have been stealing from them, and sometimes you have to make tricky decisions to survive. But the refugees are also probably going to die if they get sent away, and understandably they cannot accept that. they’ve been stealing food to prepare for this possibility, and they are willing to be violent to secure their place because jericho is much better off than just about anywhere else and they don’t want to die. Roger gets in a fight with Gray and accidentally shoots him, but then actively chooses to hold him at gunpoint and refuse him medical help unless he guarantees the safety of the other refugees. That’s obviously awful- but he’s also trying to protect the lives of the 50 innocent people he brought here. In the end, the refugees get to stay because some Jericho residents volunteer to share their rations, but Roger does not because he obviously committed a terrible crime. He’s not a bad person, but of course he can’t just be forgiven and integrated back into Jericho like nothing happened, and he accepts that and leaves with only a gun from Jake to protect himself because at least the others and emily will be safe. 

also that emily and roger’s relationship wasn’t made meaningless in order to further her relationship with jake even despite their history as high school sweethearts.

oh god i just watched the scene where stanley’s talking to bonnie in the morgue and it’s so well done and i’m just in bed crying- not sobbing or anything, but plenty of tears. i don’t know what the last show to make me cry like this was; i’ve been watching so much youtube that i haven’t been watching a lot of hard hitting shows lately i guess. Barry was extremely Fucked Up, that might have made me cry, but it might not have- it had me fucked up for weeks, but i don’t know if i cried.

anyway the scene with stanley and bonnie in the morgue is so good. Stanley talking to her like she’s still alive the way they always did for their parents, and talking to her sign language bc that’s her language. Telling her to say hi to their parents. Letting her know that mimi is still alive, that she succeeded in protecting her, and thanking her for it. Still joking around a little even though he’s obviously heartbroken and just being so genuine with her. Neither of them deserved this. 

wow can’t believe heather is a fuckin bootlicker, knowing that the government is extremely corrupt and that she and beck are destroying new bern and choosing to continue to work for that government.

oh beck just has to be some sort of a stupid son of a bitch. absolute goddamn buffoon. siding with the govt, arresting jake in the shadiest way possible in the middle of a crowd, choosing to torture jake (which if he knew a goddamn thing like hawkins did he would know was ineffective), and then thinking that after everything this town and those rangers have done to protect themselves and their loved ones that it was just going to work out for him like the others aren’t going to come for jake immediately and efficiently. i liked beck well enough before but any fondness or respect for him is fucking absolutely gone.

at least eric is really getting to show off his leadership skills now. johnston’s dead, jake’s been arrested/kidnapped, hawkins is busy with other shit. eric’s always one of the second-in-commands but this is one of the few times he’s just plain in command.

“your friends have escalated this to a level i will not tolerate” right but you dragging jake to a fuckin blacksite to torture him was fine???? YOU ESCALATED THIS YOU DUMB STUPID SON OF A BITCH. you have really been given so many chances this season to not serve an evil government and try to protect these people and you’ve failed almost every time, huh? he’d also have to be some sort of an idiot to think that a clearly faked note with jake’s signature saying ‘this bad’ would stop anyone. god i haven’t escalated to hating someone this much so quickly in a long fuckin time.

love how beck is leveraging the entire town of jericho and choosing to oppress them in order to get the rangers to turn themselves in <3 i love punishing innocent people to use them against others just like goetz did last episode <3 what a good guy

i dont know why there are so many beck fics on ao3 because this man fucking sucks. like, can you imagine refusing a whole town food, power, and lights as a bargaining chip, blaming someone else (”don’t forget, you caused this”) and then still thinking you have the moral high ground? incredible mental gymnastics when will beck be in the olympics

heather: your actions are so blatantly terrible that i am just now beginning to consider not defending you to everyone. take responsibility for what you do

beck: hmm. no. my choices are jake’s fault

i know beck is probably going to ‘redeem’ himself by the end of the episode but i don’t fuckin care. too late for him now he can’t just say ‘oops’ and pretend he hasn’t done all of this shit. wild how his actions are now literally being compared to those of nazis during wwii and people still like this guy.

hey do you think beck is an idiot asshole or just pretending to be one for fun

commanding officer: go ahead and destroy everything in the area

beck:  🤔 is killing all those people wrong?

oof rip eric sure is rough when you have to ally with the guy who tortured you and killed your dad to protect ur city but sometimes you gotta do what you gotta do. also where the hell has dale been? i’ll let it go bc the show isn’t consistent on when he shows up and is a major part of town but in universe it sure is fuckin weird, and you know beck would have dragged him in for questioning too

oh wow beck finally decided to actually try thinking critically and addressing the obvious evidence about cheyenne’s corruption. that makes up for everything and i can stan now /s

‘i’m no longer taking orders from the cheyenne government. i believe it’s corrupt at its core. its actions are criminal’ oh so like everyone’s been telling you this whole time? the actions like the ones you’ve taken, not even at anyone’s command? idiot.

lmao i’m not as opposed to constantino’s methods as the show thinks i’m supposed to be. a revolution against a corrupt, oppressive government is not peaceful. it cannot be. the only good fascist is a dead one.

[somnilogical]

<<Over the past year, however, Google has appeared to clamp down. It has gradually scaled back opportunities for employees to grill their bosses and imposed a set of workplace guidelines that forbid “a raging debate over politics or the latest news story.” It has tried to prevent workers from discussing their labor rights with outsiders at a Google facility and even hired a consulting firm that specializes in blocking unions. Then, in November, came the firing of the four activists. The escalation sent tremors through the Google campus in Mountain View, Calif., and its offices in cities like New York and Seattle, prompting many employees — whether or not they had openly supported the activists — to wonder if the company’s culture of friendly debate was now gone for good.

(A Google spokeswoman would not confirm the names of the people fired on Nov. 25. “We dismissed four individuals who were engaged in intentional and often repeated violations of our longstanding data-security policies,” the spokeswoman said. “No one has been dismissed for raising concerns or debating the company’s activities.” Without naming Berland, Google disputed that investigators pressured him.)>>

https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2020/02/18/magazine/google-revolt.html

<<“Of the five people that were fired, three of us are trans women,” Spiers said. “That is either an unbelievable coincidence or Google is targeting the most vulnerable.”

“Trans Googlers make up a very small percentage of Googlers,” she added. “They make up a slightly larger percentage of organizers, but not 60%.”>>

https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2019/dec/17/fifth-google-worker-activist-fired-in-a-month-says-company-is-targeting-the-vulnerable

i too am transfem and would "violate longstanding data-security policies" if my organization were being unjust. i wouldnt say that unless it were already obvious by what bits ive leaked to people about my life, because otherwise i could suppress this information and whistleblow more.

if you were an evil corp at this point youd probably try to avoid hiring any trans women in the first place because given this happens to you, its likely done by a transfem. not that this saved CFAR, who never hired a trans woman, from having a bunch of transfems whistleblow on them despite not being employees.

from what ive read from transfem google employees who are or were involved in activism, the degredation of google's culture. their complicity with ICE and weapons manufacturing mirrors CFAR's with OpenAI and DeepMind; authoritarianism and expulsion of transfems who object to this among a myriad of wrongs. to protect the territory of injustice and complicity with organizations like ICE, google needs to import "a consulting firm that specializes in blocking unions", CFAR needs to violate their whistleblower policy. if you once protect injustice, justice is ever after your enemy. morality isnt some modular thing such that you can be comitted to protecting injustice and not have this choice spiral into also invoking and protecting systems that protect injustice and invoking further things to protect those, recursively. all the way down to doing really dumb and obvious unjust things like transmisogyny (lots of future posts), changing your fundraiser after its clear its losing money, announcing that this year you got way below your donation target and claim to have no idea why.

well *i* know the compact generator for all of these things, and that makes me strong. unlike MIRI/CFAR who like the CDC rely on gaslighting the populace for myopic gains. i also wore a particle mask during the time that the CDC claimed that they were useless to preventing spread of disease, so it was really important to give them to doctors and nurses.

after so much gaslighting, *i* have built up general capabilities at arbitraging the difference between what agents claim and the truth. people who say:

<<Edit: This is a type of post that should have been vetted with someone for infohazards and harms before being posted, and (Further edit) I think it should have been removed by the authors., though censorship is obviously counterproductive at this point.

Infohazards are a real thing, as is the Unilateralists’s curse. (Edit to add: No, infohazards and unilateralist’s curse are not about existential or global catastrophic risk. Read the papers.) And right now, overall, reduced trust in CDC will almost certainly kill people. Yes, their currently political leadership is crappy, and blameworthy for a number of bad decisions—but it doesn’t change the fact that undermining them now is a very bad idea.

Yes, the CDC has screwed up many times, but publicly blaming them for things that were non-obvious (like failing to delay sending out lab kits for further testing,) or that they screwed up, and everyone paying attention including them now realizes they got wrong (like being slow to allow outside testing,) in the middle of a pandemic seems like exactly the kind of consequence-blind action that lesswrongers should know better than to engage in.

Disclaimer: I know lots of people at CDC, including some in infectious diseases, and have friends there. They are human, and get things wrong under pressure—and perhaps there are people who would do better, but that’s not the question at hand.>>

https://www.greaterwrong.com/posts/h4vWsBBjASgiQ2pn6/credibility-of-the-cdc-on-sars-cov-2/comment/uDYbgf3QtEQirbsJk

havent. its easy to see how peoples minds are warped when its someone elses glowy thing, when its someone elses friends working for an institution that that someone else routed their hopes through.

its easier to recognize betrayal and see knowledge beyond the veil when its happening to someone else, instead of you.

until you build up general skills for recognizing it, this sort of betrayal isnt infinitely powerful. and like how you might expect that smart people who live for predation would do anti-inductive smart predatory things, but they end up converging on child sex rings; institutions that betray you, because justice is their enemy will start doing dumb unjust things like banning two people from speaking about their irl experiences with anna salamon, saying their first-hand accounts werent evidence and then citing anna salamon's first-hand account of the meeting as evidence. when i objected that this was a fucked up self-serving ontology of "evidence" they acted like i was objecting to "beliefs flow from evidence" and they acted as if what i was saying was obscure and beyond their ability to comprehend. their "incomprehension" was fake, downstream of a fear to dynamically compute things in front of other people that might end up outside the orthodoxy. the result of which is they display a blue screen of death and say “i just dont understand and aaa dont explain this to me!!!”. and then people agree that it "seems like it could be an infohazard" because when your goal is the preservation of the matrix, everything that tears it down looks like hazardous information.

or a cfar employee, in response to claims that anna's transmisogyny influences CFAR's hiring choices, claiming that anna salamon, head of CFAR, is not involved in CFAR's hiring. until i post proof from another CFAR employee pursuing personal vengeance against the org for hiring their rapist where its tangentially mentioned and they suddenly "realize" that anna salamon, head of CFAR, is involved in CFAR's hiring process.

or a thousand other injustices that have burned themselves into my brain during my months of talking with people under the assumption that they were simply mistaken in their path to saving the world. when they were actually un-mistaken in their path to having babies and a low chance of personal death. hoping and expecting someone else will take heroic responsibility for the planet.

like when you drill down to the base of injustice, it bottoms out in dumb and petty injustice. like the structure doesnt go infinitely high and complex, if you go down to the base level, you just need a bit of courage to not flinch away from what you see even if it seems that it means the ruin of something you ran your hopes and dreams through.

--

"isnt this a little... extreme?" i hear some people ask. ""dont protect regions of injustice?" that sounds like the end product of obsessive compulsive fixation on virtue at the expense of practicality."

well, assuming the algorithm seeding this response is a systemic reasoning tool, it should forkbomb when you consider if youd output ""dont protect regions of untruth?" that sounds like the end product of obsessive compulsive fixation on virtue at the expense of practicality." in response to eliezers essay. the principle behind both is the same such that if you hold by one you should hold by the other.

all of these things have parallels. if you want to see what is happening with MIRI/CFAR, theres a lot of mutual information with whats happening with Google.

[asthetika]

Alternative analysis on trans issues (5x15) — Discussion

I’ll start by saying, why do the writers have to vilify decisions of good lgbt characters all the time when theyre trying to construct a story? like upon reflection, im sure nia would have realized with ease that theres no logic in hurting that guy (and more laughably, in killing him) since there will be others always targeting them (she even said so, but for some reason failed to arrive at the conclusion she set herself up for). Nia can still have lingering anger AND be rational. That kind of anger subsides to festering frustration, exhaustion, injustice and even aversion and dislike (a reactionary response to defend oneself against that group of individuals that had done the hunting and spitted violence), with time we, the lgbt, become resilient. And someones anger does not correlate with literally going to act out killing them, like normal people may wish death upon someone but they won’t fucking plan it out and actually seek it. At the end of the day, we find reasons for those behaviors and target changes in underlying mechanisms/laws etc that guide and foster that hatred and discrimination in the first place, we complain about patriarchy, we dont waste our time going after some random idiot, its fucking stupid, it wouldnt make any sense from a perspective and knowledge of an lgbt, and in this case, a cunning trans person. so you don’t have to dumb down characters or vilify their anger when they are experiencing anger, cause if you do the whole plot seems disney-villainy, over-saturated by, not so much anger, but at this point, by creepy levels of psychopath.

also theres more to trans or any minority issues besides surface rage and violence against us, so by just focusing on this plot point theyre wasting time. it isnt teaching folk anything, its just showing the audience the obvious consequences. it doesnt propel the audience to understand the underlying mechanisms behind those behaviors, and examples of educating oneself and others on the topic. 

its just comes out as “some people bad >=( dont be bad because other good people say its bad and they look all so sad =(”, and “if you dont want to be judged by others as a bigot then you should close your mouth.” and in that, nothing changes, there is not so much a lesson for the moral obligation to strive for the greater good than a lesson for looking out for your best interest; there is no understanding or epiphany that this is more than about primal emotions like anger and violence, its about the history of oppression: what instills that violence and why people discriminate in the first place. You need to change the system not the individual people. And you need to feel equally enraged and motivated by that unfairness to feel morally responsible. It's not something you will teach people by omitting the fundamentals behind the aggression.

and the whole idea that it played out with nia understanding she shouldn’t hurt others is actually so demeaning on so many levels. and that shouldn’t be the ‘lesson’. the lesson shouldn’t have been, ‘hey nia i know other people are assholes but u gotta chillax ok?” why are they shining spotlight on “her emotions getting out of hand,” in an episode devoted to transphobia. the transphobic issues shouldn’t be focused on balancing your reaction towards others, staying good despite wanting to murder people, like? who are we educating? psychopaths? cause I’m pretty sure we understood the whole bit about how we shouldn’t kill people we dislike from primary school. The focus shouldn't be “we need to be better than them by staying positive and kind”. But that “we DO need to feel enraged”. The message should be uneasy, frustrating. This isn't an issue you can wrap up neatly. Putting one guy behind bars is not a win at all, its a cathartic illusion in an attempt to appease that sense of power imbalance in society, but is an escape from the idea that the system fails us.

and what now? they finish with “were better than them cause we dont use violence uwu so were gonna use violence to put them behind bars” as if their continuous hypocritical pursuit to putting people in prison will cure transphobia or do anything to tackle the issue. its inefficient and superfluous. its blind. You can’t bully privileged people into compliance 😩 (and even more into understanding); like you obviously shouldn’t expect people to forfeit their privilege and realize their association to society, that requires deep self-reflection and literally cutting a part of yourself since its so ingrained in that person’s identity; you have to take their privilege away from them by changing the system gradually.  

overall, nias plot for the ep is not it. its horribly boring, ignorant, shallow and in some places downright disrespectful. am i surprised? no. but the show miraculously lowers the bar each time.

And if you made it this far, what were your thoughts on the way they had tackled these issues? 

[ruffiorocks]

Few issues I want to address

I just want to address a few things I've seen lately (then blocked 😅). But I feel the need to at least say something for anyone else who came across the posts.

1. First off why do people feel the need to tell everyone they 'used' to ship Supercorp? Oh and then act like they had a religious experience, took off their 'supercorp' goggles and were born again? Like seriously? They are acting like they were on drugs and went to rehab and are now advocates against drugs. Being a shipper isn't a bad thing, it's NOT something you have got to recover from.

Also those who 'used' to ship Supercorp now thing that their time spent in shipper rehab means their mission is now to point out everything wrong with the ship and attack those that still like it. 🤔🤔 I'd like to point out that while attacking others for shipping Supercorp they are simultaneously shipping something else which is apparently acceptable because they have decided it is???

Please people! If you decide not to like a ship anymore don't suddenly act like you were on drugs or feel that your civic duty is to turn people away from something they enjoy by attacking them simply for not agreeing with you.

2. People really hate on Lena for being a billionaire and white huh? Shockingly after a glance at these people's blogs they are completely fine with WHITE BILLIONAIRE Tony Stark. These people want it addressed in the show that Lena is white, a billionaire and is privileged. Erm.... Ok..... But we can see she's white?? This doesn't need to be addressed, we know she's a billionaire, it's part of her story arc and we know she's privileged because she's white and a billionaire. I mean where exactly does this need to be addressed? I saw someone say that they acknowledged Kara's privilege when she didnt realise how good she had it being white and passing for human and they want the same for Lena. But.... Lena isn't pretending or acting like her white skin gives her an advantage, she openly dated a black man and she went out of her way to create image inducors for those that couldn't pass for human, not because she's racist or xenophobic but to protect them. Where exactly is the problem people want addressing?? She also uses her money to help other people.

The same people who diss Lena for using her money to cause problems and make tech, do experiments without telling Kara or anyone else are the same folk that love Tony Stark who fyi secretly worked using Loki's staff with Bruce to create Ultron without telling the rest of the Avengers and this ultimately caused the damage to Sacovia and the Sacovian accords that led to Civil War. But no one is talking about that??

3. People are still saying that KARA would never agree with Lena. KARA has different morals. Lena should have told KARA what she was doing. KARA could have advised her on what she should and shouldn't do. 🤔🤔 What the actual hell? Why on Earth does Kara get to be the ultimate decision maker?? Lena is not beholden to Kara/Supergirl anymore than the rest of the world is. Kara is not God! Kara may disagree with stuff Lena does, but just because she isn't a fan it doesn't ultimately make everything Lena does wrong. Shockingly Lena and the rest of the world dont have to Petition Kara/Supergirl everytime they want to do something.

4. I saw someone still going on about Lena going behind James' back to deal with his issue. Apparently Lena was absolutely in the wrong to do this because James begged her to let him handle it. Er..... Do you know what I remember? I remember James being cocky and thinking he could just be a a superhero because he was 'meant for it'. I remember James being a dumb ass and failing 'being a superhero 101' by almost immediately revealing himself and he genuinely believed there wouldn't be any consequences. He was literally going to go to prison because being a vigilante shockingly is against the law. Lena told him she would help and he actually thought he could deal with it. How exactly? What defence did he have? What resources? Lena knew he would go to prison and that's why she struck the deal, she wouldn't have needed to make any deal if James wasn't going to prison. She then let him have his moment and believe he had handled it BY DOING ABSOLUTELY NOTHING 😒. He then decided to get even more cocky and go back out as Guardian even though he knew be wasn't allowed to anymore. He got pissy with Lena saying HE handled it and how she worries to much prompting Lena to bring him down a peg or two and confess she's the reason he isn't currently in prison. He then gets angry she saved his ass and lied, even though he had NO DEFENSE to speak of. James didn't have pull to get himself out of that predicament. He then rejected her love and went out anyway risking his freedom and everything Lena worked for.

So she should have told him? I actually agree, not because she owed it him, but to give him a dose of reality and make him realises he isn't untouchable and sometimes you need help.

Anyhoo, that's today's rant.

[kanemayfield]

Chivalry... A Rest In Peace Tutorial

It may not be dead... but it definitely could use some therapy and a green juice.

I can't even re-tell this story in full, but I shall enumerate the 5 lessons of the day, and give my final thought like Jerry Springer. 

1. If you are buying sammiches... at 3am... in the south bronx... let's not act like you are innocent. 

Bitch ain't nothing out this time of the night except the devil, people who met him, and muhfuckers who too dumb to know better.

You're wearing a long tee shirt and knee-high boots... you're already out of line. You look like a fashionable ghost..

Unless you selling that rhubarb.

In which case your pimp or lady pimp.. or whoever answers the email on your OnlyFans page should have handled this sammich run. Doordash niggas look like berserker vikings for a reason.. they deal with creatures of the night. Like Spawn.. or Michael Jackson.

2. If a gentleman of leisure walks into a sammich shop saying "Ayooo.. I just robbed me a nigga, turn dem cammas off so I can use deez creddy cars to buy shit"

AND is DEAD serious...

Making the “I don't know math so let me fight the teacher for calling on me” face.

Yeah... you should leave him alone if you cant scrap. PERIOD. Nothing about this mans life seems like it has prepared him for complex decision making or whatever goes through the mind of people who don't beat you up.

This ain't tag team.. I don't know you OR him. Sun got on black "I shot the party up" air force 1's and NBA jeans.

If he backs that thing out and I get hit in the crossfire and you DONT... my dying breath will be used to call you all types of bitches and dog headed bitches and stank hoes. I’m not an avenger. I'm high. I ain't sign up for the Kumite. Fuck you think this is. You selling that rhubarb or what?

 3. You start wilding on that crazy dude like chivalry ain't dead and my mother knows who you are, I will let you get Worldstar’d.  I will watch said crazy nigga sweep your leg like Karate kid and I will go have a Pepsi. In fact, I will tell you to shut up all the screaming as I order extra fixings on my delicious sammich from Aki and say tandem Muslim prayer for you.. and high five sun as I leave the scene of your accosting. How do I sleep? Like a fucking newborn.  

4. Putting your hands in the face of a crazy nigga when you're clearly not interested in telling me how handsome I am does not provide much in the way of motivation for me to go all Batman Begins on said crazy nigga. 

The last thing ANYONE wants to hear after taking a few lead poisoning strenth haymakers is "aaww.. Naah, I'm into girls... but thank you sooooo much... muah 💋". So fuck that... you should have winked at me when you walked in here. I’m not a mind reader. 

5. Turning to me and Aki and saying "yall just gonna let him put his hands on me?"

Yes.. yes I am.... technically YOU started it. I may say "is that lady bothering you sir".

"Oh.. yall some whole bitches... bitch ass men ain't even help a WOMAN".

Yeah... that don't make me feel bad. It makes me want to pull out my phone and see if I can find a RZA instrumental that has the BPM’s of your ass whipping. Need a good backdrop for the Kung Fu noises and sound effects I plan on adding in post edit. This could have been avoided, but you wanted to make a stand... and you did.

Now we all know who's "not allowed to ask for your phone number mid robbery”.... at 3am.... in a sammich shop... in the south bronx.

fuck outta here sun. His beef was with the dude who ain't wanna turn off the cameras for his theftwich hold the mayo (and most probably Newport 100's) so he could use credit cards he just stole.

There is a wallet deprived man suffering from blunt force trauma because this mf'er don't feel like repeating himself when he said run it...

Time is the only thing standing between him and ramen noodles with cut up beef jerky in it and telephone lectures from his baby mom bout why she not visiting this time.

Think of the thought process behind a person like that... and you want to call him all types of pussy ass niggas and fuckboy faggots and mush him in his subway series hat. You are a crazy sob. You mushed a robber...mid robbery... or theftwich or whatever....yeah.. not my problem. 

MORAL TO THE STORY: If you are a woman... or a beautiful womanly man or whatever... and you are a "hands in the face" type, you might want to know how to fight. Personally, I am not a beater of wimmins, but nor am I a street vigilante. My heroics are on a case by case basis. You slapped my girl cousin... which one.. some of em might have had it coming. We are a mouthy tribe.

I don't go running off all willy nilly into trouble because a woman yells help... that's how Rosewood started. 

Minding your business is a delicate process, like heart surgery, or pickpocketing. For moms and grandmoms I fight eternally, for sisters and close girl cousins.. until I get tired, but anything below that pay grade, you might want to call the cops, your man, your dad, the nigga you are currently dutty whinin', a nosy neighbour, a less jaded nigga than me, or keep your opinions to yourself in the Bronx at 3am, cause I ain't helping you. Unless (as we have covered) my mom knows you, or I think you will let me ladle that fondue as a parting gift. 

Love, 

Emmett ... who ain't in it

See if Aki got a cold compress for that eye.

[simplystefanie-rae]

got series finale

Anyway random thoughts i had last night that I can remember:

I remember wanting to block out the first half hour because this ‘dany is a 2 dimensional villain used only to cause jon man pain’ was just torture to get through

tryion walked WAY too fucking long. are long tracking shots where people walk the only thing they can direct, do they think its artsy. you can only do so many of them before you get bored

greyworm im so sorry they had you end up this way

why is this show acting like the devastation the smallfolk suffered actually matters when they never gave a shit before

if jaime and cersei took like 5 steps back they would have been fine and not artily crushed to death

(tyrion to jon: ‘you heard her speech, did it sound like she was finished?’

me: but she wasnt speaking english)

i snorted at that scene where drogons wings were used as a backdrop on dany. Like yeah it looked really fucking cool but at the same time it was so stupidly on the nose evil lol

emilia clarke as just been carrying the entire season with her face acting alone and i cant believe im saying that now when i thought she couldnt act, i guess it really was just shit directing, surprise surprise 

they made jon such a fucking idiot, all because they wanted him to be tortured by this decision in killing dany

tyrions entire talk about how all her righteous killing is a slippery slope is such fucking bullshit, they framed EVERY one of those scenes as a triumph we should root for. And with the exception of her burning the Khals religious place, why WOULDN’T we cheer for her executing slavers. like why is that being questioned. oh wait i know why they must have read some anti dany meta online and decided to ignore their own story for the sake of this bs dany is a crazy bitch plot

why didnt drogon also kill jon, like literally the entire time i was like ‘oh shit jons gonna be burned alive holding dany, well that makes sense, BECAUSE I SURE DONT KNOW HOW HE’D GET OUT ALIVE OTHERWISE CONSIDERING HE JUST KILLED THEIR QUEEN’

little did i know

why wasnt jon killed on sight because you know this bitch just went right up to greyworm and was like ‘i killed her’

whatever. anyway sure glad drogon can understand basic ASOIAF themes even if the writers couldnt. not that burning the iron throne mattered in the slightest

and again how dare they act like the smallfolk and what dany did to them matter NOW when they just go right back to ignoring their existence, nay, downright LAUGHING at the thought of them getting a say in how theyre governed 

urgh

fuck this is long. okay well the entire outdoor council scene was really dumb. greyworm was all like ‘we control this city and demand JUSTICE’ but allows their prisoner tyrion the Most Moral Man to choose an opposing king. why. what??

have fun when bran dies and this council cant decide on a new king/queen

also poor fucking edmure, why was he even there. see this is how you know D&D dont understand these characters, like yeah im sure sansa would totally disrespect the last tully, her MOMS BROTHER. but lolol its comedy i guess

robert arryn + breast milk= jokes on us for making fun of him all those years i guess lol

seriously i dont understand why tyrion has this much clout with anyone

so is the underlying thing here that bran just NEEDED jon to know that he was rheagars son just so he, BRAN, could be king. that he knew what dany would do and that it would force jon to kill her making way for him, bran. to be king. 

can bronn even read

what math does he know

why isnt brienne sansa’s queensguard

bran: ill find drogon 

okay like what then tho. god i kind of wish there WAS a little ending scene where drogon took dany to asshai and she was resurrected 

jon losing his man bun = coming full circle in D&D’s eyes

sansa’s dress already had major points in my book for not being black and bdsm-ish looking. it was so gorgeous, i need better stills of it

that said as much as i liked her being crowned queen it felt hollow, not just because her family wasn’t there for it, but because there was not ONE face we knew there that I could see, and there was hardly anyone there at all in the first place.  

glad arya found her family just to leave her family. again. 

if this were a better show, i could like the starks not being able to truly be together again, at least in body. So much has changed all of them, they’re all on different paths, and as long as they all know that they’re okay then the distance shouldn’t matter. But this show didnt earn that type of nuanced ending

and i guess thats it. i feel like i should say something about jaime and brienne but i think everyone said what im thinking last episode. brienne writing in the book just felt like a knife twisted in the gut since once again they’re doing this thing where they’re pretending this significant thing matters after they got their disrespect juice all over it

[arkus-rhapsode]

Eden’s Zero Chapter 1 Review

Hey guys, now before I dive into this already longer than usual review, I did wanna take this time to mention something. Its been no secret that I turned on Mashima and FT pretty hardly after the end of FT and some of you may be aware that I was moderately active in the fanbase with putting out my reviews and such. That said some may liken that shift in mentality to me not liking how the story went and a common critique of fans is that when what they’re fans of doesn’t gel with what they want they wanna destroy it. As if the fan has ownership of the source of the fanaticism.

I admit there are times that I’ve question decisions on Hiro Mashima’s end and has posted rewrites, but that’s not me doing it out of a sense of ownership. I’m doing it because I have a standard. Being a fan of something and letting your disappointment get to you and fester into salty, bitchy purest is one thing, but being a person who’s judging what a series puts out and actually caring about the quality of what’s in the popular media is important. FT got negative reviews in its latter half because it was that bad. By the end of the series it was legit that bad. Now I don’t say that is someone who was in the fanbase and hated Hiro’s decisions cause they weren’t mine, I hated them because it was bad writing. I’m a reader with standards, as are all of you, and in the digestion of media we make distinctions between good and bad. I make this claim with more concrete surety now that I’ve been around longer and have reviewed more series than just FT, I think it be harder to believe if I made this case when I was just starting and all I was talking about at the time was FT.

Some of you might remember when I first started out on MHA, my second chapter I ever reviewed I had found it boring and mundane and to date its my least popular MHA review and I still stand by that assertion. I hold everything to the same standard, and that includes FT. The reason I write this is that while throughout this review I will mention comparison’s to FT’s first chapter (and yes, even ways Eden’s Zero improved on it), but I will be holding it to the same standard. So this entire review won’t be me holding a grudge against Hiro, but it will be me holding it to the same standard as I do everything I read. That out of the way lets dive in.

We open on a hill side and met our MC named Shiki. Beside him is the mecha demon from the cover page and what they see is a... dragon. Yeah, Hiro I thought you wanted this to be wholely original?

On the hand I actually like this scene in the sense robo demon here is actually encourging actual adventure (something FT lacked) and its kinda amazing listening to this demon looking guy talking about friendship, yet on the other hand, damnit Hiro. Is this the only thing how to write about? Like damn man.

We cut to the future where we see our main female Lucy-I mean Rebecca! Y’know I could make a Rebecca from One Piece joke, but she’s kinda already a bit of a decisivee figure so I’m not gonna bother.

I mean its okay. Its just castle theme park. Also Rebecca we find out is apparently a youtuber. Look if DBS can have GodTube then I can put up with Blue Cate (Aoneko) website. Also yeah Happy here, no sugar coating its just Happy. Also Rebecca here purposely made her skirt short. Just because you point out the sexualization in canon doesn’t make it better, ya still drew it, Hiro.

We see that the theme park is full of robots and each one acts as an assist in sending the guest through some kind of medieval simulator. And if anyone has seen Westworld you know where this is heading. To be fair I love worldbuilding so please, explore!

So we find out Rebecca’s dream is to have one million suscribers and now here’s where I gotta give props to Hiro because he actual made a dream for a character that doesn’t seem like it can be achieved a chapter from now. Granted this seems a bit hard to actually quantify, but this dream could potenially evolve into something of why she wants the suscribers and could be like Nami making the map of the world that getting video of unknown locations may actually be worth something to the general population.

We see that Rebecca chooses to go on a monster hunting quest and they encounter...

...This thing. Also it seems Rebecca’s character quirk is she really likes cats I guess? But this doesn’t last long as someone crashes down on mecha cat.

Okay that was kinda funny. I mean if this was FT would’ve actually gotten the panty shot so maybe Hiro has learned his lesson! Also note that wrench!

Oh god damnit Hiro. So this tarzan guy after acting like an animal is knocked out by Rebecca. Y’know it took about 60 chapters before Natsu got all up in Lucy’s chest, guess we’re cutting straight to the chase here.

Okay is joke with here just going be about here short skirt? Damning it with faint praise here, but at least he still hven’t flashed us them yet. Also Tarzan here is the only human on the island.

We get some scenes of Shiki here wanting to be friends with Rebecca cause she’s a human and Rebecca isn’t interested and she returns to the Granbell town where Shiki is there and the robots know who he is.

Shiki’s expressions and creepy advances really gives off this tinge of sci-fi horror, unfortunate Hiro doesn’t really go that route and we’ll get to it. Also that wizard looking robot from the color page is also here.

They then have a party where the robots all celebrate them having a costumer for the first time in so long they have a party being nice to Rebecca and lavishing her with stuff outside is robot that looks like Robin Hood and he reports to his boss this machine king.

Oh look, Hades if he was a robot.

We see Shiki trying to bond with Rebecca and it leads to him expressing he wants to leave the kingdom and see another country, but we also learn he’s in charge of fixing this and the robots are acting up lately. We find out that the one who was talking to Shiki and is his “Grandfather” was called the Demon King a robot designed for playing that role in the park.

Umm Rebecca... That’s being a dick. So you don’t like it, so you decide to cut it, cause it bothers you. You could’ve framed it like, “If he fixes you up then maybe he needs better vision” or “He’s been so nice to me, let me do something for him.” And what makes this worse s that Shiki is asleep, so she doesn’t even consult his feelings. Like seriously, that’s not being a good friend . But for contrivances sake I’m sure Shiki will wake up and love it, won’t he?

Huh? I was wrong instead we got shitty 80s comedy. I don’t know if that’s better or worse.

Y’know I said I’d give Hiro atleast two free fanservice moments for his first 3 chapters. He’s now used all of them up in a single chapter. Also Rebecca is tied to a stake while robots with torches surround her along with the machine king.

Shiki is also there and here’s something that did remind me of rave, the tightness of the first chapter. Everything seems to flow like one continuous story and doesn’t seem to do some dumb interlude like FTs first chapter did with that awkward moment where Lucy leaves Natsu and she’s just randomly in the park reading.

The King wants to use her ship to leave this world and we get som kind of motivation out of him.

Oh wow, for a first chapter villain that’s actually a really deep thing to unload. That as amusment park hosts they must’ve just been seen as pleasure tools and with no one around these robots who seem to be senstinent must’ve felt betrayed and...

Oooooor you cut out all moral ambiguity by just saying they have a virus. Sure. Trust me, this is where it gets stupid really stupid. And that’s the inconsistency.

So these robots I guess are like the ones from the Animatrix where they just kinda develop sentience out of nowhere. But unlike Animatrix it doesn’t seem to imply when they developed this sentience and that they began to think they were being abused.

Tired of Friendship already, it ain’t leaving.

So why do you hate humans? They abandoned you I guess, but there’s not other robot saying “hey our times were fun together” no everyone is like they left us to rot  so we hate them. Not like Humans did anything legitimate bad. We actually see that at the end of the chapter that there is some sort of central battery on the park that all robots are hooked up to. You could make their reason for hating humans that. That even though they left these sentiment robots still had a little kingdom to themselves, but realized that its all just going to end one day and humans didn’t even bother to unplug them. They’re existence is literally knowing when they’ll die, imagine that as why they harbor negative emotions and maybe Shiki actually fixing things might’ve actually been prolonging their lives so maybe that be why they kept him around. This whole sentience things just feels like Hiro wanted to do a trope of crazy robots and ended using multiple to fit the whatever story purpose at the moment.

You do run the planet, dumbasses. This entire plane, apparently for hundreds of years, has been solely controlled by you. Maye this should be rephrased as, going to the place that built you to get revenge or as I spoiled with the battery we’ll take the ship to get more power for our kingdom?

Shiki doesn’t do anything and kinda lets the robots just wail on him as he found out all things in his life were a lie. Then Rebecca gives a friendship speech. A stupid stupid friendship speech.

You’re right, Rebecca! Too bad we didn’t see that. I’m serious we barely see memories of Shiki with any robot outside of the demon king and Michael so there’s no weight to this conflict. We only get the vague sense they raised hm, but there’s no moments of Shiki really laughingg and enjoying their company outside of the party with Rebecca which rather is made more for getting Shiki to like Rebecca for this moment.

Shiki remembers what his Grandpa the Demon King said and just blows them all away.

We see Shiki’s hand and apparently he has these marks indicating he has Ether gear. The power system of this series.

You’re sentiment! You have out grown your programming! You can choose to have a concept of friendship.

So they fight with shitty action scenes (If I can give Horikoshi a hard time for how he draws his fight choreography, then I sure as hell will give Hiro the once over.) Happy manages to save Rebecca and like Happy from early FT, he basically spots off exposition on powers.

So is it like a literal gear? Because Happy afterward destincties as the Gear of Gravity, so is it like a devil fruit? Is ether in all humans, but this specific gear brings it out in a certain way? If its internal then I guess its like the magic circuits from Fate? And then every of has their own unique variation like Nen? Like cause Happy gives it the distinction of Gravity it doesn’t seem like Shiki gives a reason why he has this power. I’m hoping \its like devil fruits, literal gears you implant and then it brings out your ether in a certain way.

Shiki punches out the machine king and cause a massive collapse.

Credit where credit is due, Hiro actually did build up the reveal of this power throughout the chapter and its actually really well done. Kinda reminds of something Oda would do with subtly building up a devil fruit power without revealing it. Like Crocodile drying out a flower but it isn’t stated his power is specifically sand.

They then flee when the other robots rally and Shiki takes Rebecca back to her ship.

This scene would actually be really nice if we actually saw more young shiki actually having fun with the machines and not a being a creeper with them.

Shiki and Rebecca take off and we see the universe.

Not gonna lie, that’s a really pretty shot. Like damn, I could get behind this.

It seems like worlds in this universe are basically like kingdom hearts worlds. They’re not real “worlds” so much as they are islands in space.

Sure, keep the mystery alive why don’t you, no that be too much.

Well great place to end the chapter. Little dry of a first story, but I definetly see that has room for improvment and there is something-Wait this isn’t the last page? But what else is there to talk about. There’s nothing left-

Oh for fuck sake. That’s right they were trying to send SHiki away. Because apparently these robots thought there was no way to restore battery life even if stayed.

Here’s a tip, ifyou really care, and had such a close bond, maybe tell him to leave? Tell SHiki the truth that you guys are tied to a battery and instead of Shiki vowing to leave for the stars so he can make 100 friends (I’m not kiding that’s his actual goal here). Then this would be an interesting goal.

But no, you have to act like human hating jackasses and shatter the boy’s entire reality, just so you he would go out and “change the universe”

This would be a really nice scene with a very nice amount of character development starting point, if we actually saw their past. All we know is they raised Shiki, but its never really seemed like they’re loving or caring or Shiki openly gets upset if one of them had a problem. Again the biggest flaw with this chapter is that it sacrifices seeing one potentially interesting relationship (Shiki and the robots) for another one (Rebecca).

So we end on this page which reveals that Shiki’s goal is to have a hundred friends. Not going to say something snarky I just realized this is the same motivation as Yuki from future diary. Like before the crazy yandere shit.

Post Chapter follow up:

Lets be positive and look at the good stuff in this chapter. The first thing great about this chapter is it improved upon two of the biggest failings in the first chapter FT. Goals established and world building. Not only does this set up force Hiro Mashima to actually world build (literally) but each person in the first chapter has a goal that doesn’t seem like it can be accomplished quickly. It means we can have investment in the story.

Another thing I’ll give is Shiki is an okay MC. He has more personality than Natsu, but not as much as Haru and this first chapter is about him. Its easy to understand that Lucy is often considered the MC of FT because it literally focuses on her for the story than Natsu. But this chapter had a healthy balance.

Also the power system at least seems to have some definition. Unlike how anyone could have magic yet normal people just don’t choose to use it like in FT. Ether Gear seems to be a powersource that only a select few can use. Now we need to see first if there are ways of combating it like technology or such so a non ether gear person can still fight.

It also has its own unique aesthetic. Ft is a pretty generic fantasy world. It doesn’t have the bleakness of bereserk or the Japanese aesthetic of naruto. You could say Black CLover, Fairy Tail, and Seven Deadly sins all had their first chapter happen in the same world and I’d have trouble arguing it.

Now on to the crappy stuff. This series suffers from the usual Mashima foibles such as the sexual harassment, the stupidly way it tries to justify and give all conflict happy ending, not actually bothering to have a situation drawn out ad built up too, etc. I mean for the first conflict of the chapter its a heavy one, these guys raised SHiki yet their own mentality is against humans so Shiki has to choose, but instead of actually answering that question, it turns out there was no real conflict and the machines were just faking.

As for my like for Shiki, I flat hate Rebecca. She is so pointless and useless. Look I will defend Lucy and she actually can d things. First chapter she saved Natsu by using aquarius. But Rebecca? She’s just all of the bad traits of post timeskip Lucy. She is used for pointless fanservice, does nothing contribute, and becomes a mouth piece for friendship.

Speaking of friendship as a concept and goal here, Hiro just rewrite what you mean. Have deeper meaning than friends for once. There is ways you could take the motivation “I want to make 100 friends” in a compelling way. Prehaps Shiki is going out to make his own world where he can make a happy place for people where they can laugh and cry in harmony. Like story telling wise its pretty weak.

Like me personally, I would’ve taken the first chapter like this, the robots are sentinet and they are nice to Shiki and Rebecca and they have genuine fun together. They gradually reveal that they are shutting down maybe one starts acting wonky and tries to hide it and maybe the machine king is the real bad guy. He has sentinece and hates humans and he wants to eliminate SHiki and Rebecca and that’s because they’re shutting down. The other robots say they don’t care they were abandoned, they were mad at first but Shiki showed them that why they loved catering to humans. King and Shiki fight and they all reveal they’re shutting down and Shiki cries he doesn’t want them to go. The robots say its inevitable and they don’t hpw to recharge the battery and Shiki vows to leave the planet and search for a power source to bring them all back. Then that’s shiki’s goal and it even can cause questions like “Is it worth all this for machines?” or “who designed them maybe we can figure out the right substance to power them up?”

or if Hiro wanted to go a more darker route. Have the machines have no sentience and literally be dolls for the King who turns out to be a human who stayed here on Granbell and made his own little kingdom. Make it a bit meta on how Shiki’s only friends were just hollow imitations of people who were only friends because that’s what their programming dictated and they can all be switched off. It be meta as critiquing Ft and how all the guild characters basically had no conflicts, all got along, and were just friends with no depth or reason.

This all highlights the issue with Hiro Mashima and that’s he is not a good a writer. Hiro is an incredibly talented person and can come up with incredibly unique ideas and looks, which is why his cover pages are the best things he puts out because its him free forming. But writing. He has a limited scope on that and stuff like sci-fi and fantasy can be very morally grey things. But Hiro doesn’t seem to understand tragedy in the sense that its tragic because a person fails or dies unsatisfied. But he only seems to know how to write painfully obvious concepts like “save the world” or “friendship” instead doing a concept like “what it is to be a hero” like MHA does which can have a variety of answers to it.

So what’s the final verdict? Well I actually am going to do something different than usual. I’m going to say what I though the quality was compared to FT and then to what I’d consider this work compared to anything else.

In comparison to FT, Eden’s Zero gets a Final verdict of 8/10

Improves on a lot of FT’s first chapter flaws

Created a more unique environment for a story

And actually has a lot tighter narrative

But in comparison to everything else...

Final Verdict: 5/10

Even if it wasn’t Hiro, its a pretty generic start (some names aren’t even all that inspired like Machine King, Demon King)

Potential to grow into something better is there

Nothing is outright offensive

Cool concept

[polturn]

Im late! It takes a while for the bandwagon to get to where I live, dirt roads and such. 

SO. Though I like a lot of what this game has goin on I do have my gripes... Which is probably good bc I have my own stories that need to be fleshed out. Its good to be critical of things you like to learn. Thats my excuse for this down here lol.  Thoughts under the cut

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Main beef is I wanted the plot to delve into robot morals more. Id heard people complain about Marcus’ shallow character development before and... yep. In focusing the storyline on a huge political-ish movement to try to make the game’s choices feel they have weight that affects a large amount of people/androids, they hugely sacrificed nuanced character development opportunities. Marcus is turns into like a figurehead for the Movement... no complexity. He talks like he downloaded a database of every Revolutionary speech(which now that Im saying it would make a lot of sense!).

The original Kara short from a couple years ago was so powerful because it was so nuanced, a small focus on a personal interaction without going into a world building background. In gaining scope, detail is lost.

Why is so much time devoted to establishing what the world thinks about this situation. The player could figure out the social climate without it being stated outright constantly. UGH its a shame its like BEAT over our HEAD this racism analogy when anyone with a middle school social studies education gets it. Whys this story so dumbed down....

So changing gears// Ok theres this definitive Im-a-deviant-now-Moment when these bots go deviant. And then after that realization their personality is suddenly BAM! Human! Emotional! (lazy writing!) Its a shame Kara and Marcus have that Moment so early, when they could have a really interesting struggle with the moral pulls to act differently than their programs, telling them to be subservient.

If Issac Asimov’s 3 Laws of Robotics were applied to DBH can you imagine how fleshed out and complicated the characters moral reasoning would be, having the 3 Laws in their program as a base for where their morals come from in the first place would make so much sense.

Ok daft punk’s Electroma characters and how the other bots see them and react to their decision to differ from the norm. If all DBH androids have the potential to deviate inside them why don’t they have any opinion whatsoever to whats happening.

Anyway I still like some aspects of the game. It has moments of touching acting! Real cool actors who obviously cared! and from a technology standpoint the translation from mocap to render is top notch. Hank has the most realistic reaction to the deviant issue and it bothers me that no other humans have a thought in their skulls about empathy apparently. Connor’s development is good because he’s having deviant leanings this whole time.... it actually doesnt make sense that he has a Moment of tearing down a wall. Hes been subconsciously defying his orders the whole time. It makes no sense.

In summary: wtf Dell is this crit writing 101 dont you have something better to do than analyze this game