#this is my villain origin story and i'm now fully team way

[pharawee]

I posted about the omegaverse shenanigans in the Pit Babe novel because I thought they weren't going to happen for real.

I didn't joke about the papa and daddy thing just so the series would one-up me and go full mama and papa on me.

And what's with the sudden talk about wanting to have children??

[scarlet--wiccan]

What would your main influences for your own vision of a Scarlet Witch movie?

This. I obviously don't want Marvel Studios to make a Scarlet Witch movie with Olsen, and if the M C U is going to continue as it is now, then I hope that version of Wanda stays dead and we never see her again.

But if you're looking for an original or stand-alone Scarlet Witch plot, particularly if you want an updated version of her and Pietro's origins, I've been kicking around that story pitch for a few years and that's my go-to answer. For brevity's sake, I'll copy it below.

If by "influences" you mean cinematic or creative influences-- I'm not a film expert. I always want magic-centric superhero movies to have a distinct aesthetic, but I'm rarely satisfied by what they actually put out. I would probably look towards folk horror for a lot of the stuff set in and around Wundagore, but I'm a little nervous about marrying that genre with Romani subjects and perspectives. And I know this film is a bit dated in the way it talks about magic and spritituality, but I still love The Craft and I think it's the gold standard when it comes to making witchfact feel immersive and tangible-- and it does it without all the overwrought energy-beam effects we see in so many M C U titles.

Wanda and Pietro's childhood and adolescence would basically follow 616-canon-- raised by Django and Marya; separated from their family during a racist hate crime; and forced to live on the run for years due to their emerging powers and further discrimination.

They return to Mount Wundagore seeking answers about their powers and their birth mother. They are taken in by the Knights of Wundagore, who, as in Midnight Suns, are an ancient order tasked with safeguarding the mountain and its hidden magic. Little do they know, the Knights have been corrupted by the same villain-- be that Modred or the Evolutionary-- who killed their birth mother and experimented on them as babies.

Wanda is given pages from the Darkhold, which she believes are ancient magical texts that will help her master her abilities. In truth, of course, they are priming her to become Chthon's vessel. She performs spells from the Darkhold to bolster the Knight's powers. Pietro has joined the Knights, believing that they will help him protect his sister-- as in canon, Pietro protective to a fault, because he believes that people are always trying to take advantage of Wanda and her abilities. And he's not wrong!

Agatha Harkness infiltrates the Knights of Wundagore, disguised as an elderly healer. She is an ancient witch whose coven once worked alongside the true Knights to keep Chthon bound while studying the mountain's magic. She has known the Maximoff family for generations, and has been seeking out Natalya's children ever since receiving a premonition of the return of the Scarlet Witch.

Agatha doesn't have the power the stop Wanda now that she is under the Darkhold's influence, so she sends a warning to Doctor Strange that Chthon's return is eminent.

Strange gathers a team of heroes to prevent Chthon's return. This leads to a big fight wherein Wanda and Pietro are technically the "bad guys," which ends with Wanda fully succumbing to the Darkhold. She unleashes a devastating attack against the heroes and descends deep within the mountain.

Pietro find himself abandoned on the mountainside. Agatha reveals herself to him and explains the truth, not only about his family but also about the Modred/Evolutionary situation. Pietro joins the heroes, and Agatha urges him to seek out Django, who she has discovered living in a nearby Transian village.

Django's memories are distorted by trauma and a magical curse that was inflicted on him by the Knights to keep him away from Wanda. Upon reuniting Django with his son, Agatha is able to lift the curse, explaining that their family's legacy-- not their blood, but their love for each other and the gifts they have passed down through their generations-- is the true source of their magic.

Chthon emerges from the mountain, using Wanda as a vessel. There's another big fight, and the heroes are able to get Pietro and Django close enough to Wanda for them to exorcize and bind Chthon within a doll that Django had crafted as a gift for his pregnant sister, Natalya. Django tragically passes away after the battle, but the twins are able to properly mourn him and their mothers. Wanda witnesses the spirit of Natalya and awakens to her true power as the Scarlet Witch.

Wanda agrees to study under Agatha, Pietro joins the hero team, and they both both meet Victoria Montessi, who is going to help them track down the Darkhold pages that have now been scattered to the wind. VICKI + WANDA BESTFRIENDS REAL

[pegaace]

Analysis on Witch from Mercury, Colonialism, The Tempest, and Caliba(r)n

Okay I know this is my first post ever but I was tryna find somewhere to put my thoughts after seeing a bunch of people everywhere slander Caliban and why that is not it and how my boi is innocent, good actually. For qualifications I did an undergrad lit class that covered The Tempest like 2 years ago so that's fine right (apologies to my profs if I fuck any of this up)

Okay so for starters yes by now everyone knows WfM is The Tempest, Prospera is Prospero (or Prospera actually, there was a 2010 film adaptation that had the gender switch already), Aerial is Ariel, etc etc. So therefore Caliban has to be this villainous, "monstrous" creature right?

Haha no sit down cos no that would be boring. (and also kinda racist as I'll explain) Notice how in the original Prospero isn't the villain of the story, not really, he's just getting revenge for being wronged years ago and trying to ship the kids together. But if recent gwitch is any indication, Prospera truly is the villain of this story, breaking hearts and stopping at nothing to destroy the Benerit group AND earth. Now I wonder which other adaptation of The Tempest has Prospero as the big bad HMMMM :thinking:

Enter Aime Cesaire and A Tempest. Written in 1969, it deals with a lot of the more unpleasant connotations of Shakespeares play. Let me lay it all out for you. So you're saying Prospero, a white dude, comes to this island, uses his western magic to overthrow the native witch (Sycorax), wrecks the land of its magic, and then enslaves her son to do his work for him, constantly insulting his appearance and intelligence? HMMMM seems pretty sus (racist and colonial) to me.

Cesaire, writing during a time of decolonial movements throughout the world, was rightfully really mad at colonizers for forcing their way upon natives with violence, and especially with the use of language to control said populations. Caliban has also been repeatedly dehumanised through previous adaptations of Shakespeares work slowly turning him from a man into a monster, not even human. This is similar to how non-european people have constantly been treated in the past.

Now like wait... Forcing communication through a set language? Dehumanisation? Colonisation of oppressed peoples? Where have we seen that before...? HMMMM

(its almost like... permet scores and gundam technology... Calibarn being free of permet links is like Caliban refusing language...)

And here's where I see the great potential of a Gundam Caliban. Gundam is certainly no stranger to decolonial movements (shoutout to my fave Gundam ZZ and the bois in Blue team and the African liberation front) and I think having Caliban as the Gundam to finally end Spacian oppression (perhaps in a sequel idk if Suletta is getting that far after bonking her mom by the end of the season) would be a great take.

As a side note, Aerial is kinda portrayed negatively in Cesaire's work for choosing to work for Prospero in exchange for their own freedom, as kind of a sellout who makes things worse and is ultimately tricked and trapped anyways and... hey! She's in a giant coffin now and Suletta is unhappier than ever! Oops.

Also like I qrted this on my twt but like its important to remember that Caliban is human too, and will respond to accordingly. They (and this might be where i disagree with @adracat a lil on their otherwise excellent posts) arent just a violent unthinking monster, thats just unfortunately how racism often portrays people of colour. If Suletta shows compassion and humanity towards Calibarn, like how she did to Aerial, and how Eri was able to connect with Lfrith in the prologue when Vanadis had failed, I'm sure she'll be able to bring Calibarn over to her side. And because they can connect so fully via human emotions and love (this is where I do agree with adra that love is the answer and key to open the door) (wooo yeah another love powered robot!! G Gundamming time) I dont think Quiet Zero will be able to stop them, as Suletta will have made the ultimate, unmediated connection between woman and machine, becoming one with it in the way Cardo Nabo had always truly hoped for. To don Gundam and live in space.

Okay sorry for the disorganised post but like one last thing I know I said it'd be nice for Calibarn to show up again in S2 but the other theory I have (which might or might not be true cos lets be real gwitch only rhymes, never copies, and i dont even know where schwarzette fits into all this [goatmom gundam my beloved i miss schwarzletta theory still]) is that the ending of A Tempest has Prospero send the girlies off as usual, but then still choose to stay on the island to fight with Caliban forever, till he can finally fully dominate him, cos racists are shit like that. This continues for a rlly long time cos his magics kinda prevent him from just dying of old age and he lives on, like a vampire sucking life from the island (wow capitalism huh) and its implied he and Caliban are just locked in this long struggle to the death until the day he finally croaks and the colonized can finally be free. Now what other gundam has an eternal struggle with fascism hmm?

idk just thought it might be cool for the gundam sisters to push suletta out of the way (maybe out of quiet zero?) whilst trapping prosperas grudge within it for all time, that would also be dramatic and neat lol. Come to think of it if Prospera does it itd be like ZZ again too lol with Haman pushing Judau away.

[highfantasy-soul]

NATLA Episode 8 - Legends (2/4)

[Masterlist of my NATLA thoughts]

Of course, full spoilers ahead.

<previous/next>

I really enjoy how Zhao (Azula) is a much smarter villain in the live-action than he was in the animated series. While I do love them both, leaning into the Fire Nation not just working off brute force, but rather being strategic and clever with their attacks was a great choice. The Ice Moon caveat for the spirits and Kuruk's spirit knife made the world feel bigger to me than just having the moon and ocean spirits conveniently always sitting there to kill by any means. I don't think the live-action team went in with the idea that the ocean and moon spirits being mortal was 'a plothole to fill' like some claim (yet again, always jumping to the least charitable interpretation of the live-action rather than spending three seconds to think about what it ADDS to the story to flesh that part out), I think they used it to seed a lot of lore and worldbuilding while also giving reasons as to why events played out the way they did.

Like I said in my post about episode 6, it makes a lot more sense to me that Zhao would have easy access to the info (and weapon) needed to kill the Moon Spirit rather than that shlub somehow finding the super hidden library that an archeologist spent YEARS searching for. While it was a cool foreshadowing of the library in season 2, having Zhao discover the moon and ocean spirit stuff in Avatar Roku's temple in the live-action I think makes more sense.

The fire sage being the one to explain the spirit oasis and the origins of waterbending to Zhao was a really cool change! It shows Zhao formulating his plan rather than having it just told to us like in the animated version - it includes the lore behind the ocean and moon spirit without making it so obvious that that's the solution to their problem, it introduces it as the problem and we have to work our way to the solution instead of it just being given to us. The fact that the sages still know and revere (even though they're using it to form an attack plan) the histories of bending is a nice touch. Especially the older sages, they remember the old ways and stories and don't discount the power of the old tales like younger people might. It doesn't stop them from falling into fascism (it stops some, but not all), but it does add layers and nuance to their world view rather than the very surface-level 'all others are bad, we don't pay attention to them' view that was shown mostly in the animated version.

Kuruk appearing to Aang to warn him was super cool!! I like how past Avatars can appear to their current iteration (not to mention they were right outside his shrine) to warn them of something and having it be Kuruk's knife that he can feel added a lot. It's another instance where the Fire Nation can turn anything into a weapon against the world - the weapon Kuruk forged to PROTECT the world from evil spirits and keep the world in balance is now being twisted and used by the Fire Nation to hurt the good ones and throw the world out of balance. Just as Zhao and the Fire Sage took a beautiful story about the creation of the Water Tribes and twisted it into something to harm them, they're taking a weapon of protection and making it a brutal weapon against the light.

UUUGGGHHHH Zhao and his twisted 'justifications' as to why killing the moon isn't actually all that bad. "Killing the ocean would deprive people of their lives - I'm not a monster!" of course he wants a world to rule, so he can't kill them, only fully subjugate them and wipe out their culture! See, they will get to live under his amazing rule, why would he deny them that opportunity?? Watch closely, everyone - that's the reasoning a lot of fascists give when they start trying to eradicate cultural practices - they argue that they're leaving the people alive, so it's not actually bad! We're just stripping away their identity and replacing it with our own! Save the man, kill the savage and all that.

"The Avatar's power is great, but it pales in comparison to the elemental spirits" SUCH GREAT FORESHADOWING WITHOUT GIVING IT ALL AWAYYYY!!!!!!! Also a great way to show the power scale of the world - as powerful as Aang is in the Avatar state, the spirits are the OG - especially the elemental ones. Aang ISN'T the most powerful thing in this world. It sets up how they're going to defeat the fire nation army without Aang in control of the Avatar state really well! They're leaving breadcrumbs rather than telling you the plan in a monologue or just randomly deciding to join with the ocean spirit - a power that hadn't been discussed at all in the animated show.

That Momo fake out death was CRUEL!!!! He just saved a girl's life and we think he gave his life to do it!!!! But it was a great way to introduce not only the spirit oasis, but also the healing properties of its waters. In the animated show, that's not mentioned at all until Pakku gives Katara the water vial and tells her it can heal - it's actually SHOWN in the live-action that it's powers are beyond normal healing. Yue's story about her being healed in these waters makes a lot more sense here as well rather than in the animated series where she tells the story once the moon is in trouble. At the time, it seems like it has nothing to do with the immediate danger, it's just a way to set up that she'll give back that life in the end - a quick lore set-up break in the action. In the live-action, it's directly tied to what's happening - she's doing the same thing to Momo that was done to her to save her life. Her connection with the moon isn't relevant yet, so that part of the story is held till later when it is relevant.

Honestly, I think the spirit oasis is much more impressive in the live-action. In the animated show, it's just a small island of grass with a pond - in the live-action, it's a whole valley filled with life. And I love how NO adaptation can resist showing Zuko fire-blasting his way out from beneath the ice - it's just too damn cool to leave out! I like how Iroh is still playing his loyalties close to the chest - he's not going to outright attack Zhao yet, but he'll definitely stall and not help out as much as Zhao wants him to.

Zuzu!!!! Like always, huge shit is happening all around but Zuko still thinks him capturing Aang is the most important thing in the world. I like that they're keeping that narrow focus for him - one of his biggest flaws - that blinds him to everything around him. He's not concerned about saving Agna Qel'a, he's not concerned about saving the spirits, he just wants to capture Aang and restore his place in the Fire Nation.

His face as Katara says she's gonna fight him and Aang agreeing - oof. Here he is thinking he's Aang's biggest threat and Aang is just handing his battle off to Katara. And Aang's sly little 'go easy' that wasn't to Zuko - the poor thing. So we begin Zuko v Katara round 2!!! Back in episode 2 on Kyoshi Island, Katara stood against Zuko - untrained and terrified, but knowing she needed to protect Aang. She was beaten easily, but now, she's had training. She's had experience. She's forged herself into a warrior and she's ready for everything Zuko can dish out. Well, not EVERYTHING as even in the animated series, Zuko does win due to his extensive training, but she puts up a wicked fight!

I am good with the siege only lasting one day rather than several like in the animated version. Though I do miss the 'you rise with the moon, I rise with the sun' line, it does kind of feel like Zuko kidnapping Aang was more to provide a cliffhanger for the end of The Siege of the North: Part 1 rather than a necessary narrative choice. In a 2-part finale, yeah we want a cliffhanger, but since this is all one episode, like I mentioned in my post about how episode flow has to change given the new format, that just wouldn't have worked out as well as a smooth single-night attack. Aang seeking guidance before the battle rather than getting kidnapped mid-meditation I think was a smart move. (I've always felt like that cliffhanger was a bit of an odd choice anyways because they make this huge deal about Aang not being able to find his body if it isn't right where he left it, but then it's…not a problem at all - his spirit just zooms back to his body - conveniently showing the Gaang where to find him and Zuko and nothing actually comes of that 'threat' of him not being able to re-enter his body. I'll talk about Zuko's speech about Azula later when it's brought up and altered in the live-action).

I LOOOOOVE Zhao's little speech here - his ambition to gain status - to become a legend, has led him to more and more dangerous things. He truly believes he could become the new Fire Lord. Iroh pleads with him not to do it, but Zhao is too filled with the desire for power that he's not listening to reason. Even after Iroh's threats, Zhao isn't concerned in the least - he views the threats 'empty' and is so smug about how 'this could still work out for you'. As if Iroh is like Zhao and would cave to any opportunity for power.

Like always, Aang tries to talk his enemy down - he tries to appeal to their better nature, an idea that they wouldn't want to throw the world into chaos. The exchange here is SO FREAKING GOOD. Aang pleading with Zhao that this isn't power, Zhao so drunk on his own importance that he can't imagine why anyone would give up the chance to wipe out an entire race of benders - and Aang knowing exactly what that's like, how horrifically awful it is. But for Zhao, those are only stories - he's never known a world with airbenders in it, but Sozin went down in history for that 'accomplishment' he, himself, can be in the history books along side such a 'legend' with no thought to the actual real, human hurt necessary to get there.

Aang finally tries the last thing he can - making Zhao the same offer he made Zuko: leave the attack behind and he'll go with them peacefully. But Zhao isn't Zuko - he wants more than just the Avatar. He wants to cause pain and suffering and have people look upon him with fear. I think it's such an interesting take to have Zhao, like June, not view the Avatar with reverence. He's bought into the Fire Nation propaganda that the Avatar isn't actually all that powerful - the Fire Lord has taken that place. Even the legitimacy of the concept of the Avatar itself is called into question - after all, the Fire Nation wants all the power and the Avatar would stop them. That's not helping  them, so the Avatar must be useless.

Unknowingly, Zhao has just struck at Aang's biggest fear: while Zhao thinks the Avatar doesn't matter on its face, Aang is afraid that he's not good enough as an Avatar TO matter.

I've seen people confused about Iroh's loyalties and his true goal in the live-action - is he really working against the fire nation or not? And some criticism that it seems like he's helping Zuko capture Aang TOO much/ doesn't stop Zhao soon enough from killing the moon spirit. I'd point them, yet again, to the animated series where he very clearly, in The Waterbending Master episode, tells Zuko "once we get to the north pole, the Avatar will be yours". At the moment, animated Iroh is fully on board with Zuko capturing the Avatar. If he plans on trying to influence him not to turn the Avatar in to the fire lord, it's not even hinted at yet, so I think keeping it up in the air for the live-action is staying true to Iroh and Zuko not being 'good guys' - their goals are still to capture Aang. Live action Iroh even attacks Zhao BEFORE the animated Iroh does! In the animation, Iroh threatens Zhao, but doesn’t make a move until Zhao has killed the moon spirit - in the live-action, he attacks in an attempt to save the spirit. Yet another example of people criticizing the live-action for something even more apparent in the animated series - often because they're thinking of the character 2 seasons from now and what they think THAT version of the character would do and trying to apply it to season 1 when that's not even the characterization the animated show gave them in season 1.

I think the subsequent fight in the moonless night is even more emotionally intense in the live action than it was in the animated series. You can FEEL the terror and SEE people dying as the waterbending fails and the fire nation advance. The way this sequence was shot is honestly amazing - it's not gruesome or violent for the sake of it - it's showing the truth of war and the horrific cost of such an assault. Letting the warriors of the Northern Water Tribe have a heroic stand against the firebenders even when their best resource was taken away was great to see. Giving Hahn and Chief Arnook their moment showed that it truly wasn't just about Aang and his friends - this story is about every single person who stands up to fight against tyranny, no matter the weapon they might wield or power they have.

[crascet]

Recent Comics I've Read Pt. 2 (Marvel-Ultimate 2023-Ongoing/6160)

Now for the reason I started collecting comics, being with the creation of the new Marvel Ultimate Universe. Back in 1999, Marvel decides to make a brand-new universe separated from the mainline universe that new readers can jump into and enjoy, with Earth-1610 aka the Ultimate Marvel Universe.

The universe opened with Ultimate Spider-Man done by Brian Michael Bendis and art by Mark Bagley and it was pretty good! A nice jumping off point for new readers that want to know about Peter without reading the previous 30 years prior to Ultimate that goes over the massive events in his life. It wasn't perfect given how dated it feels at times and there are moments that feel off, but it was still good. Also, the Raimi Spider-Man films were based a bit on them as well as the original comics, or the first movie at least.

Then there were two other Ultimate books launched around that time with the original Ultimate X-Men and the Ultimates who are the Ultimate Universe's Avengers, even though I don't know why they could just call them the Avengers and title the books as the Ultimate Avengers. Both series were written by... sighs Mark Millar. They... are not as held on high regard as Ultimate Spider-Man, except for Ultimate X-Men #41 since that's the only one I heard was good. But yeah, they were both not great and sort of lead into the downfall of the original Ultimate Universe. There was also Ultimate Fantastic Four, but I only know a few things about it with the four being much younger, the introduction to the Marvel Zombies universe (which I'm not into personally), and the introduction of a character that's relevant to the new Ultimate Universe. Ultimatum was a god-awful event that served as the nail in the coffin for this universe. It still continued after it, but interest in it died (as well as the multiple characters within Ultimatum). It was years later when this universe fully ended with the comic event Secret Wars with the Ultimate Universe being sort of assimilated into the mainline universe with only two characters coming into 616: Miles Morales aka Spider-Man, who I'm pretty sure everyone at least knows now be it comics, the Spiderverse movies, or even the Insomniac games, and Reed Richards who turned evil and is calling himself the Maker.

Jump to 2023 and the announcement of Marvel bringing back the Ultimate Universe has left people including myself questioning why, but more details were revealed as the opening arc showing the creation of this new Universe and how this universe is only similar in name alone. Will this new Ultimate Universe be better than the old one? Well, that's what I'm figuring out.

I have already read Ultimate Invasion #3 and the Ultimate Universe one-shot, but I'm focusing on the titles released at this time, but long story short: the Maker makes a new universe where he controls everything since he hates how he keeps losing all the time and in this new universe he made sure to run it without interruption by stopping the origins of a lot of superheroes and getting villains and other Marvel characters to join his secret cabal in running the world. He was going to recruit Howard Stark, Tony Stark's dad, but Howard refused, and a fight ensued between them which ends in Howard getting killed and the Maker being trapped in the Impossible City for 18 months, and now Tony, now naming himself Iron Lad, assembles a team of superheroes now created in this new world to stop the Maker when he gets out.

Alright, with that out of the way, let's get this started!

Ultimate Spider-Man #1-5, 7-8 (Hickman, Checchetto, Messina): I legit started collecting comics by how I heard how good issue #1 was and MAN THEY WEREN'T KIDDING! This whole run is great, probably the best thing I've read from Marvel, and ensures my trust with Hickman as a writer. I'm not just saying this as a fan that wants the Peter that I know have the great life that he deserves, but how this run incorporates the Spider-Man mythos and essentially remix it in a way that is brand new. First thing, Peter, not having bitten by the spider when he was a teenager, is now in his 30s, married to Mary Jane, and has two kids. Not only that, but Ben Parker is still alive in this universe, although May died during an attack back in the Ultimate Universe one-shot. Now the first arc (#1-5) is essentially about Peter finally getting the spider to bite him after being delivered to him by a Tony Stark from the future and him being acclimated in being this new hero and introduce new versions of characters, with J. Jonah Jameson being friends and coworker to Ben, Harry Osborne and his wife Gwen Stacy, and Wilson Fisk still being the Kingpin of New York. I just love how Peter's family and friends are so closely connected to his hero origins here: Peter's daughter coming up with the new suit design and MJ coming up with the Spider-Man name. Hell, the "Great Power" speech is not given to Peter by Ben, but instead by Harry in issue 4. Two issues into the second arc and I'm already hooked on the how it'll turn out: Harry having his dead father as the A.I. in his Green Goblin suit who is still dismissive of him, which is all kinds of messed up, Peter's suit being sentient in its black form being a more technological version of the symbiote which makes me excited in how this new Ultimate version of Venom would be like, and the creation of the Sinister 6 which sort of reminded me of the 90s animated Spider-Man series in how the Kingpin created the team instead of Otto, like in the comics and in Spectacular Spider-Man. Please read this series, it is really that good!

Ultimate Black Panther #1-2, 4-7 (Hill, Casselli): Now I haven't read any Black Panther story before, with me only watching the MCU movies, but I am open to any BP recommendations. So, with that said, this is probably my least favorite title, but that doesn't mean I hate it, since it's still good, but I feel that not much happened in the first arc and there were times that I've debated on whether or not I want to continue. However, there are still some interesting parts here: I like this version of Khonshu and the Moon Knights being devout followers and soldiers of Khonshu, while Ra is just... there. Storm and Killmonger look great here, especially Storm having another awesome design, but I feel that they don't do much either except in the early issues and recently in issue 7. T'Challa is good, but god that mouth opening on his BP suit is really off-putting, that could be due to how the suit always covers his entire face in 616, but I really want that opening covered, maybe in an updated suit later in storyline. I like how this series would go into the origins of Wakanda with how they use Vibranium and how the element is connected to the life orb that Ra and Khonshu have. Again, not much in arc 1, but there is a possibility that things will improve in arc 2 with the war between T'Challa and Khonshu starting, while Storm and Killmonger go out of Wakanda and into the rest of the world. So maybe we could see them in a future issue of The Ultimates.

Ultimate X-Men #1-5 (Momoko): I have heard how not everyone is into this version of the X-Men in how different it is, but I absolutely adore this run right now. I just love this horror manga feel to it that has a really good mystery at the center of it, while still having the main core of the X-Men which is "In a world that hates and fears them including their own families, mutants can find love and hope within each other." The characters are great here in how they're not the main ones in 616, with Armor being the main character here and featuring the original character, Maystorm. There is also a little column after every story that goes into parts of Japanese culture that was also in the story, and I like how they contribute to the story. A fair warning in that this series does go into heavy topics like suicide, depression, and abuse, so heads up to anyone reading it. A really good series and my second favorite title in the universe.

The Ultimates #1-3 (Camp, Frigeri): Now the Ultimates is what I consider to be "the meat" of this entire universe in terms of worldbuilding and in how I sort of see this universe's main story being Tony's. The starting lineup here is already solid: you have this version of the big three with Tony, Thor, and Steve, and two newcomers with this universe's Reed Richards who is now Doom, and Lady Sif who I'm not sure was a member of the Avengers before. In issue 1, we see Tony start this new group by sending out messages to potential heroes without their origins and telling them who they were meant to be. This method was not entirely successful as most either just walk away not wanting to be said hero or just dying when they got their powers with the only successful participant being Peter. So Tony, now with the help of a recovered Steve Rogers, develop a more personal way of recruitment by simply going to them, as they begin to recruit Hank Pym and his wife, Janet. The interesting part here is that Hank already received Tony's message and hid it from Janet because of him looking into his 616 self and his horrible actions (i.e. hitting his wife and creating Ultron) and dreading what he would become if he accepted it. However, with a little pep talk from Steve in how Hank is still his own person in this universe, and he can make his own decisions not based on an alternate version of himself to become a better person than that version. Nice moment that shows why Steve is great. Issue 2 goes into the alternate history of the US in the Ultimate Universe and how much it was altered by the Maker and how Steve is dealing with this massive time shift in a country that's not the US anymore, essentially not only making him a man out of time, but a soldier without a country. I like Midas here, even if I never heard of him before, although he is pretty talkative in the story, and I can see some people put off from it. But in the end, the Ultimates save America. Issue 3 is the most disturbing issue of the story with Tony, Thor, and Sif going to an irradiated island in the Pacific to recruit this version of She-Hulk after dealing with the dangerous fauna of the island. This also where they meet with the other villagers of the island and how horribly mutated they were from the nuclear tests. What makes it worse is that these villagers are actually children with their parents already dead from radiation poisoning and how excruciating the process was with it being explained by She-Hulk. Seriously messed up stuff here that is based on how Pacific islander have been affected by these tests in history. She-Hulk then decides to join the Ultimates on the condition that Tony fixes the island and making it more bearable to live in again for everyone, which he agrees to do. Issue 4 seems to go into the origin of Doom and how the Maker impacted him, so I'm interested in how that issue would turn out.

So overall, this new Ultimate Universe seems to be an improvement over the previous universe in terms of stories, especially with Ultimate Spider-Man and X-Men. Already hooked to see how this universe would turn out going into the return of the Maker in about 13 months and if they would continue afterwards.

[bloodboundsiege]

what was priya's wasted potential?

*cracks knuckles*

dude, I am so sorry, but you are about to get an essay.

So, generally, I think that as the BB writers intended, Priya is a fun villain and they did a good job making her be that. I kept her alive in my last BB playthrough and when she pops up in book 3, it's always a good time.

I think that generally speaking, people who don't get the Priya hype say that she's very one note, which I fully understand. I guess that to me, it's an interesting note in a potentially much more interesting song, and whenever PB went outside of that and expanded on her slightly as a character, I was always like "wait, no tell me more!" and then they wouldn't. 

So, with all of that said, here is why I think Priya could have been a super compelling character. 

Dubious Origins. From what we learn from Jameson's notes, there's barely a trace of her as a human, and while she claims to have been born and raised in the US, Jameson sometimes hears traces of a Mumbai accent when she talks. So, what does that leave us? That she's lying about where she came from and who she is. Which then raises the question....why? That implies a lot and seems like a very intentional detail. Most likely, she was born and raised in India. I completely understand maybe being vague about that in the 1920s, but I just find it surprising that she never came clean to anyone about that, and the fact that Jameson can't find much about her as a human leads me to the conclusion that she went out of her way to scrub any pre-vampire record of herself. And, in my opinion, that's really interesting. It would have been really cool to expand more on that, even with a single tapestry fragment, maybe around the circumstances she was in before she was Turned. Which leads me to my next points... 

Survivor First/"I always back the winning team." Jameson says in his notes that Priya is a survivor, and is not to be trusted because of that. She is only ever looking out for herself, and that's where her ruthlessness comes from. People aren't just...like that. I mean, sure some people are, but I really don't think there's much use in trying to armchair diagnose a character with scraps of information about who they are and where they came from. I also think that the crumbs that the BB writers left us felt very intentional, as I already mentioned. And even in comedic story beats Priya has, particularly in book 3, that mentality is still there. If you choose to spare Priya in book 2, her penultimate book 3 appearance has her showing up at the opera house, taking in the damage that MC has caused and the fact that she's now this supremely powerful being, and Priya just. Dips. Fully just "this is no longer worth it to me, I'm out." In that sense, I don't think Priya really has any true principles. Her priority is her comfort and her safety. You have to have some shit happen to you to have that kind of mentality: that you are your only priority, and that you need to look out for yourself. And based on the fact that she's super elusive about her life as a human to the point of lying about it (and maybe even going out of her way to get rid of any trace of her human life), I think she had some really fucked up shit happen in her life. 

Cunning. Remember when Vega was like "Adrian has something I don't: cunning." He was wrong. He didn't have shit. Priya has the cunning. Tinfoil hat on here, and this could just be the result of Bad Writing on the part of the BB writers, sort of just "fuck it, nobody's going to read too much into this" (they were wrong), but I have such a hard time believing that Jameson was like "Our best ally in the council is Priya." and Gaius was like "Yeah." (or vice versa). I think she figured it out herself. And if she didn't...I think the reason why somebody (probably Gaius, pre-coffin) trusted her enough to eventually bring her into the fold was because she'd already worked on them enough to get them to trust her. People don't just have the ability to do that. So again...what were the circumstances that led her to figure this out? How is she so cunning? 

Vega and Priya. I'm honestly not much of a Vega/Priya shipper. I think they made sense as a couple, and I've had to think about them a lot, but they don't particularly tug on my heartstrings a lot. I think Vega is fun, but I'm not particularly interested in him. But here's the thing...given what we're told, Vega just...deciding to turn Priya "out of affection" really doesn't make sense. Again, is it just the result of bad writing? Maybe. Probably. But I'm working with it. The idea that Vega would just be like "I'm down bad for this human girl I met, let me turn her into a vampire!" isn't particularly consistent with his character. Adrian describes him as a "lady killer" (literally) in book one, and it's clearly established that Vega won't do shit for anyone unless there's something in it for him. So, with turning Priya...what was in it for him? I have my own speculations about what might have gone down between Priya and Vega that I'm not getting into here because it comes into play in The Siege, but the point is, result of bad writing or not, it leaves a big question mark. And I think the BB writers could have done something really interesting with that. 

I completely get that when you're writing something, you want to tell a specific story, and clearly, the BB writing team wasn't particularly interested in expanding on Priya very much. That's fine. But for me personally, I think there was a lot to work with, and I wish they had. 

The very last thing I'll say is that I think Priya really could have slapped as a mid-series love interest. I don't know if Pixelberry has every actually done the whole "the fandom wants us to redeem this villain and make them an LI, so we'll do it," but I think she could have been a great contender for that. 

Priya is an extremely selfish person. I don't plan to hold back on that with her. With what I've written so far, what we see of Priya is pretty consistent with how she's portrayed in the original series, and I plan to develop her further. So, hypothetically, let's say that in book 2, the BB writing team decided to listen to the sapphics of the fandom and make Priya a love interest. They gave her an arc where she still does all of the shit she does in book 2--namely, betraying the Council and defecting to Gaius. But still, she has feelings for the MC, should you choose to romance her.

I think one of the best BB scenes is the way the MC dies. Like, no matter who you're romancing, it's really fucked up for them, in a very specific way. With Lily, it's the fact that you died in a way that's really similar to how she died. With Jax, it's the fact that you were killed with his sword, that he's viewed as the tool to protect people. With Adrian, it's the fact that he lost you in a way similar to how he lost his wife--the two women he's loved most in the world died in his arms. With Kamilah, it's the fact that the man she once loved killed the woman she loves. So, imagine that with Priya.  Priya betraying the Council isn't just framed as villainy. It's framed as this extremely selfish act that endangers millions of people and fractures your relationship with her. She's holding onto this possibility that maybe, just maybe, she can convince you that what matters is your safety, not everyone else's. Obviously, you don't listen to her, because you don't view the world the way that she does. 

And then, the one person that she's cared about since becoming a vampire is murdered as a result of her own selfishness. It would fit in beautifully with the rest of the story. 

...and there is always a part of me that will be super bummed that PB didn't go that route. 

Anyways. Apologies for the novel-length post, but I hope this answers your question. 

[worldismyne]

Hope this doesnt come of sounding the wrong way, but have you ever written/drawn an fully original story/world, and if not, do you ever want to, or are you satisfied with just doing fanfics and fanart for the forseable future?

I do have original projects!

I'm currently working on a visual novel called Villain Reform School.

I haven't talked about it much recently, because I don't know when chapter 1 will be fully completed. We're getting really close, but there's still a lot to do. I work full time outside of this and the team I can afford is a lead programmer and my brother on editing.

(I'm the author, artist, audio director, and secondary programmer on it. So there's a lot of hats I've been cycling through.) Having watched games crash under the wieght of doing that and maintaining a media presense, I decided to focus on making it first and promoting it once it's out.

The first pass at the demo is up on itch.io https://worldismyne.itch.io/mccarthy-academy-demo

Here's some current CGs of the lead character Nagen.

You play as a teen super villain that failed to take over the city and has to go to school with all the kids he brainwashed during his master plan and his old squad.

Fanfiction and fanart is a nice creative break for me. The hardest part of a project like this is I have black and white thinking when it comes to progress on it (either it's done or it's not). Where as fics and art I can post in stages and get instant feedback on.

I have an interest in writing original novels, but finding a literary audience is difficult for someone like me, who sucks at networking and works nights. I am working on an original story atm, but I don't have the first chapter finished yet. Right now it's just a for fun thing. (It's going to be about a witch princess/trainee trying to teach a boy how to be a witch just to prove she can. It ends badly.)

Warrior U Fanmade is a project I'm also working on. It is a fancomic, but I have the creator's permission to distribute anything I make with Warrior U so long as I properly credit her. (She's moved onto different projects) It's a fan continuation of the orginal comic, but I tried to write it in a way that anyone jumping in at this point will have an easy time getting into it.

Changeling acts a stand alone fantasy story about Finn meeting the rich family that disowned his mother for using magic.

I have a collaborator who helped a bunch with the first issue, and our physicial copies are set to be available online next week!

I've been working on this at the same time as other fandom stuff so it updates online weekly. I learned a lot from this issue and have gone from just writing and illustrating to figuring out the storyboard and paneling side of things.

Idk if I'd ever want to do an original comic. My love for complicated character designs demands the VN format.

I have a couple VN ideas, but Villain Reform School is the one I wanted to have the most creative control over. It's also a meaty project. Prologue and Chapter 1 are around 90 k together and there's supposed to be 5 in total. Some of the major mechanics I want haven't been 100% ironed out yet. And I need to get player feedback on certain story elements first before I commit to writing another 180k of a playstyle we might have to rework or cut.

[danganronpasurvivoraskblog]

Rpg Anon: 1. Besides Sayaka, no other Japanese Folklore? 2. I've been getting a bit better emotionally. Not fully but regardless. 3. While I do like Celes of course having a French Persona who similarly died burning on a cross and labeled as a witch (yes I know about the firetruck), Jeanne is a relatively nice person who wanted to help people (who still swore a lot in history), while Celes is honestly an absolute selfish bitch. In FGO, there IS Jeanne Alter (Jalter) who is literally the reverse of normal Jeanne and revels in being a bitch to others (tho she's warmed up to everyone by now and is now just treated as a tsundere waifu by the community).

Side note: this might be irrelevant and kinda disturbing to bring up but if we're talking about Jeanne, should we bring up her friend Gilles de Rais aka Bluebeard aka Mr. I abducted, tortured, raped, and mutilated litte boys for years to prove that god exists and will punish me for my sins, all in the name of Jeanne? This might just be me portraying his Fate version but the point still stands.

4. Yeah I doubt Siegfried is for Leon. Side note: there's Siegfried and then there's Sigurd. Different versions of the same person that are now regarded as two different people. Different romantic partners, different deaths, different choices and experiences. 5. While Yog is also another H.P. Lovecraft Elder God and I understand that you're giving it to Mukuro to represent that she's Junko's sister, I'm still not sure if Mukuro should have it cuz most elder gods are just really fucked up evil people. Maybe I can find someone better fitting.

No, it kind of just worked out that way. I didn't really limit myself to nation because Persona 5 doesn't. 3's Persona's are based on Greco/Roman gods, while 4's are based on Japanese gods, but 5's Persona's have the setting of infamous thieves that can just come from anywhere. In fact, Yusuke is the only one of the team who has an actual Japanese figure as his Persona.

These days, I don't think it's possible to be completely content. The world just keeps getting worse lately, and we just have to take our licks when we can. Don't think about getting help if you need it though, just do it.

Be that as it may, I still think Jeanne d'Arc is one of the best possible choices for Celeste when it comes to the focus on folk heroes/characters. Really, Junko and Mukuro are the only two who break the trend, since their Persona's are kind of the villains of their stories, but they're also the primary villains of Danganronpa. Celeste is undoubtedly a villain in Survivor, but in core Danganronpa, while yes, she's a bit of a savage and is the furthest thing from a nice person, she's not "evil." Any horrible thing she does is out of desperation and a selfish desire to survive, putting her needs above everyone elses. It's egotistical and selfish, but that doesn't make her inherently evil, so it stands to reason she would still have a folk hero. On the other note, in regards to Bluebeard, I actually did make him the Persona of one of the V3 students, since by this point we are undoubtedly going to cover them next. I won't say who, but I think it's pretty obvious.

Honestly, if I just had an alternative, I'd go for it. The problem is that Leon isn't exactly what one would call heroic. He's a better person than Byakuya or Celeste, but he's not really a nice person either.

Going back to what I was saying about Celeste, I'm thinking about it from the core series primarily, not including Survivor. In Survivor, Mukuro gets a second chance, and makes the wise choice to follow through with it and turn over a new leaf; which is entirely possible, as the events of Danganronpa IF (which as a reminder, is what I consider to be semi-canon. It didn't actually happen, but it COULD have). However, people in canon DR seem to forget that Mukuro, at least originally, was equally as horrible a person as Junko was. She is responsible for acts of terrorism, mass genocide of an entire high school, lobotomy and brainwashing, as well as stalking, kidnapping, theft and smuggling. To be honest, I DID come up with something better, but the primary two reasons why I didn't talk about it is because it's not a folk-hero, and I do intend to have it come up at some point in Phantom Thieves of Hope, so I'm going to avoid spoilers.

Fate Grand Order, while yes, is also an intriguing take on demigods and folk stories, has no sway here. Persona's are typically based off the original mythological figures, not incarnations of them from media. And yes, I acknowledge that I did pick both Maximus and Leonidas from their respective roles in Gladiator and 300, but they were historical figures who fought through similar battles, and I try to focus mainly on the legend than other stories told about it.

-Mod

[umbral-stigmata-unbound]

Do you think that Seph will have a breakdown in the 7R trilogy when he is forced to realize that he really is a human and wouldn't be much different from Cloud if they changed places as a parallel to his breakdown in CC? I'd imagine this would only happen when Jenova takes the reigns back from him and straight tells the man, "Yeah homie, you just a puppet like Cloud. you're not special, I would've done same to any other human with my cells". or some sort. This is the only way I can see Seph BECOMING a good guy in the 7R timeline. I do not subscribe to the theory of him being THE good guy at this current point considering how he is relentlessly tormenting Cloud, killed Barret and trolling everyone else in Midgar to an lesser extent. Not to mention, as Aerith says, "selfishly challenging fate without concern of what could happen" What are your thoughts on Seph potentially back to the light? How do you think it will be done? I personally don't like my villains to be redeemed but in Seph's case, I can see how it can be well done if they give it enough time and respect for the character to make it happen.

Anon Asks | Always Open

Hi there! A lot of questions, haha, I'll do my best to answer them! But this is just my understanding, theories, as well as lack of information on FF7R right now.

1- Do you think that Seph will have a breakdown in the 7R trilogy when he is forced to realize that he really is a human and wouldn't be much different from Cloud if they changed places as a parallel to his breakdown in CC? To be honest? I don't really see him having a breakdown. I'm not sure, if Jenova is the one in control in this scenario if she would go so far as to psychologically attack her host, she'd be more likely to manipulate and come off as working with to keep him pliable. And that's if she's in control. I know I've read that there is more than one Sephiroth in Remake, but there are not exact, clear answers as to how many and which ones there are. So it is debatable that there are different ones, in different encounters in Remake and therefor motives are different. However, nature of Sephiroth aside, I don't really see him having another break down. It seems like his fate is either to be broken down, or defeated, unless he were to win (which duh, he likely won't). My only other theory (and this theory is one i hold with full awareness that it is 99.9 percent unlikely to happen and its more a fan idea), is that his motives may be selfish and and self serving but they are still to save the planet from a greater evil currently out of focus...and so he's looking to team up, at the very least, with Cloud, and change what bits of fate he can for a better hope of survival. But I don't see him coming back to any full acceptance of who he once was, canon Seph is too far gone IMO.

2- In reference to what Aerith said to him and about him before and during their battle at the end of Remake, as well as a side note on him being a good guy in Remake... I'll be honest, this is likely solely my opinion and my slightly off grasp of how things are working but...idk, what she says about Sephiroth seems like she's a little off the mark or, honestly, the writers are trying to be different and yet lazier from their original plot and story telling and sources of evil/cruelty/accountability from wrong doings. Because she speaks like he is the sole wrong in the world, everything about him is wrong. My In-Plot explination? Take from OG canon that she may have been disconnected from her abilities for a while and only recently started connecting to them fully, she could be sensing and reading things wrong. Yeah, sure, she's an Ancient and a lot of it is natural to her, but you can't tell my her instinct are infallible. OR, if she's been using them openly for some time, opposing OG canon, she is instead currently still confusing things. I think perhaps she's reading Jenova, the infection that she is, or something more that is connected to Sephiroth but not solely him and just assuming it is him alone. He is a villain, he is at this point in his existence self serving, I don't claim him to be a saint. But he is nowhere near the core evil. He was born from evil and selfishness and carelessness from all side and survived beyond that for only so long before too many things broke him. But he is not the sole evil and I don't like the story telling that. Now, as for him being a good guy in Remake? TBH, I seriously doubt it will happen. Good and Evil team up? Possible, but kind of unlikely; a part of me would love it, and a part of me also hates that this isn't a remaster like I really wanted. But, the only time he was ever 'good' was CC up until Nibelheim, and good is a loose term given all ShinRa had him do as a SOLDIER.

3- What are your thoughts on Seph potentially back to the light? How do you think it will be done? I personally don't like my villains to be redeemed but in Seph's case, I can see how it can be well done if they give it enough time and respect for the character to make it happen. My thoughts on Sephiroth returning to the light, as it were, are fond and self indulgent and are channels solely into fanfiction and roleplay. I do not see it happening in canon, ever, really. I'd be happy to be wrong but I seriously doubt it. How it could be done? There are a lot of ways, I think, but they would take time, consideration, and would likely involve altering one or two key points of Sephiroth's story just to make it work. Again, this is how fanworks are a better indulgent avenue of that possibility. I too prefer redemption to happen only when it fits the character and the story and as much as I adore Sephiroth and like to imagine how things would have went if, say, he'd found out his origins in a more stable environment, if he had been able to be there for Genesis and Angeal rather than run away from him and possibly brought him with...he's just not meant to be anything other than the tragedy he was written to be. And that is why he is my One-Winged Tragedy~

I hope I answered things well enough!! Thank you for your ask!

[parachutingkitten]

Screw it, here's my series reboot

Part of the community has fallen down the reboot speculation rabbit hole even though there's literally zero evidence for a new group of ninja or next gen situation happening. But hey, what better time to drop my reboot idea on y'all? If I had more motivation I might turn this into a fic, but that's never happening, and I need to get these ideas out of my head.

We open on a Ninjago far into the future. Just like the pilot, we follow our future fire master- a morbidly curious and unapologetically energetic girl who has just recently discovered her power. She's keeping it a secret for now, but is searching for answers on what it is and why she has it. She finds herself drawn to the mountain far in the distant skyline. On top is an old building. No one knows what it is or if anyone lives up there, but there are stories of it being haunted. She sets out on her journey, still unsure of why she's going.

Along her way she meets our earth master- not the smartest guy, but indescribably sweet with a dash of spice. He too is drawn to the mountain, and the two reveal their powers to each other after discovering their strangely similar impulse and journey.

They make their way up the mountain together to find the long abandoned monastery. Though it appears to be empty, they find a woman meditating next to a large tree in the garden. (If you know me, you know where this is going) She has long gray hair and a strangely ageless face. She seems to know why they're here. She says she has answers about their powers, and can help train them to use them effectively. Our two new masters, desperate for answers and purpose, commit to stay and learn from their new sensei.

Eventually they recruit a new member, our master of lightning, a fairly quiet and observant girl deathly afraid of her own powers. The massive lightning storm that accompanies her unlocking her powers triggers the first mission for our other two. The three train together, fairly content, but sensei insists there is one more.

Turns out, he's a fairly bitter ice master who has had his power for a while now. He and sensei seem to know each other, and recruiting him seems to be a harder task than anticipated. The three continue to train on their own while continually trying to coax the ice master to join the team, resulting in several heated confrontations and fight scenes. He ends up being a sort of running antagonist for a string of episodes. Eventually it all comes to head when he nearly ends up killing our fire master. He comes with them back to the monastery and insists he's only staying until she's fully healed, but ends up bonding with the team and sticking around. Turns out he's got a great heart once you get past all the ice.

Sensei grows increasingly distant as the team gets closer, fighting off what first appears to be one off threats. They see her meditating by the tree more often, sometimes sitting there all night, talking to the stars. They gather that they aren't the first team with these powers to be assembled, and that sensei lost someone very close to her.

The season 1 finale is accompanied by the revelation that Sensei is in fact Pixal- The students discover her still hidden Samurai X cave and her robotic nature is revealed after an initial run in with with big bad for the series. This could be Pixal predecessors, a Zane-related threat, or an entirely new villain. Idk, do what you need to sell sets or whatever.

The second season explores what exactly happened to Zane, if it is possible to bring him back, and the assorted mysteries associated with the rest of the team. Why are the lightning powers continually increasing in severity? What exactly is the ice master's deal? And maybe... Romance? Idk, I haven't gotten that far.

Anyway, that's the pitch- at least 2 seasons, like the original show, with plenty of room to grow. I guess I should have a name for it but... I don't. I'm bad at names. Anyway, thanks for reading!

[shyrose57]

Timeloops as a form of character derailment (kinda)? SIGN ME UP.

Okay but god that would cause so much angst, like, they team up, they comfort each other where no one can see, out of necessity because literally no one else knows what they're going through. (Okay I rambled quite a lot here I'm so sorry)

But like, imagine everytime they do something different, refuse to engage with what the script is forcing them to do and suddenly everyone is forced back to the beginning.

Like, Wilbur would probably break the most in the beginning (would this start at the Pogtopia arc, or before that? How far back do they have to go back every time they reatart? God that would be a sort of angst all on its own, half the time messing up purposely cause back here was so simple), since Dream is antagonistic but not a full fledged villain, and Quackity really hadn't entered his villain arc yet. And Wilbur, the poet, refuses to believe that this is the only story, he wrote himself a country, he created the symphony, he gets to choose how it ends. He refuses to do anything to his brother and friends, refuses to hurt Tommy. Of course, that doesn't work and he gets sent back to the beginning, in the end, he does lose himself, just not for the reasons that his family, his friends think (when Wilbur begs for death from philza, it is not a part of the play, the act, he just wants and end to this loop, maybe death will be an out, and imagine his surprise when it works. Imagine his surprise when its so much worse. Now he gets revived each time someone messes up, and it becomes a twisted relief from a different kind of loop)

Dream after this point would probably start ending the loops just before and during the exile arc, when he realises, oh, I'm the big bad of the story. The ultimate villain. First his friends abandon him, and why wouldn't they? He's horrible to them, he doesn't doesn't want to be, but what choice does he have? When he's forced to say he doesn't care for them, can't refute the claims that he doesn't care for them, doesn't love them. Then exile happens. And it's so much worse, cause he likes Tommy, he's one of his friends, and sometimes dream even thinks of him like a brother. And sometimes that shines through, he can be friends, then he's reminded oh no, apparently he has to a massive piece of shit now (all of the background stuff that happens, him commissioning the prison, the hall of attachments just makes this so much worse, whatever the hell is going on with Ranboo). He probably starts to really get distant, cause it's easier to go through the motions again and again and again if you actually dont care about the people around you (he cares so much, but hey, maybe there's some truth to attachments only being there to hurt you. Cut yourself off and you'll be free)

When the disc confrontation happens the first time,he thinks he's messed up something again cause everyone's here to stop him. Then he gets sent to prison and the next day happens. And it's still a torture, being isolated and treated like that, but at least he's alone, only has to act when people (rarely) visit. And then Tommy visits again, and then Quackity visits.

As for Quackity, I feel like he would have the easiest time, at first, after all he wasnt a villain at first, that change happens gradually. He only loops because he doesn't know the script, not because he refuses to do any actions, and sure some are harder than others, Tubbo's execution for one, but he's allowed to be against that, so it's justifiable. Techno's execution is justifiable (Dream can just tell him the behind the scenes information, it's fine, sure he dies, but what's one trauma in this time loop? He's got plenty to spare). And he's always been charasimatic, manipulative under certain lights, so thats easy. In fact, he goes so long that he doesn't even fully realise the villain arc he's undertaken until he realises that oh god, he has to go through with torturing Dream, someone he knows isn't a bad person, is forced into this the same way as he is, and each time Dream gives in, tells him what he want to know (no he doesn't, he never want to know, not like this), he gets sent back, doomed to repeat their actions. Every. Single. Day.

Imagine all threes surprise when they notice other veering off script, too. Not stuck in a loop, but noticing hey, haven't we done this before?. And for the first time in a long, long, long time, the three start to feel a glimmer of hope.

Anon, I love, literally, all. of. this. You read my mind! But like, better!!!

They end up reset to the very start of the Smp. A bit before the idea of L'manberg started to form. So yes, while originally, they're quite determined to find a way through the loop, as time goes on, they start purposely messing up for a breather-though only when they feel they truly can't take it, because it still means they have to go through everything again.

The three all get so close as a result of this whole thing, which makes everything so much worse when it comes to hurting each other-especially for Quackity. Sometimes he just-can't, stopping and sitting with Dream until Sam finds them and resets the loop.

Wilbur can do anything he wants in limbo....but he can't get out. Nothing he does will break the loop once inside. The first time it resets after his first few years in there, he can't stop shaking. The cold seems to have followed him right back to the start.

And Dream? As you said, exile is just about the worse for him. Because he's supposed to manipulate Tommy, make him think their friends as he hurts him. And maybe the worse part about that is that he's allowed to be nice to Tommy-genuinely nice...but only to an extent. Only because in the end, it will just be seen as part of his manipulations.

They're just all straight up suffering.

And then-

And then, everyone shifts a little bit to the left, and for the first time in a long time, they dare to hope.

But if they want to see if this is really what they think it is, well-they'll have to devote themselves more to their roles than ever.

[deonideatta]

hi hi i heard you like chief kim and i'm here to get all the intel on why it's a good drama 😊 and what you love about park jae bum's other dramas 😊 pls let me know if there's romance bc that's the oxygen i breathe when i watch a show 💕

Hello!!! Thank you for asking me about Chief Kim!!!! I can go on about it for ages lol. This got a bit long so i’m putting it under a cut

Chief Kim (aka Good Manager) is a comedy office drama with 20 eps, and it aired in 2017. There isn’t a main romance plotline, but don’t let that put you off! It’s an incredible drama in so many ways. (tho there is a subtle romance side plot, but it doesn’t involve the main character and it’s never the main focus, though it is cute). It does feature a bromance that was so great that the two actors literally won an award for it tho lol, so there’s also that!

In a way, the general premise is somewhat similar to Vincenzo in that it’s the main character and an unlikely team of others fighting a big corporation. The comedic tone is also more or less the same. The drama follows Kim Seong Ryong (the titular Chief Kim, played by Namgoong Min), a man with a talent for handling numbers who goes from running a seedy accounting firm to quite accidentally becoming a champion of employees rights in one of the biggest corporations in the country. He originally joins the company with the goal of embezzling a lot money and moving abroad, but he gets swept up in office politics surrounding high executives and the sinister goings on surrounding the position he was recruited for, as well as the shady things the higher-ups want him to do and the suspicion of the other members of his department. Eventually he starts to work alongside them to fight the corruption of the higher ups, and quickly becomes the bane of top management’s existence by being so incredibly annoying that they begin to regret hiring him.

It’s the kind of drama that really gets you to laugh, while still being incredibly heartwarming. The main character is so unashamedly funny, and the character dynamics are all so warm, and none of it ever seems forced. The first tag for the drama on MyDramaList is “character development”, and that says a lot! There’s so much growth that goes on for all the characters, even some of the villains! It’s especially funny because to begin with all the good things Kim Seong Ryeong does are completely by accident, and he’s annoyed but also pleased with all the attention it gets him. Over time he begins to own it, and begins to actively try to stand up to the corrupt people at the top of the company. The other highlight for me besides the humor is definitely the characters. From the eccentric main character, to the no-nonsense second in command in his department Yoon Ha Kyung, to the aggressive finance director Seo Yul who is always eating (one of my all time favourite characters, played by 2PM’s Junho), to the janitor lady who always roasts everyone, there isn’t a single dull character, whether good or bad. And Seo Yul gets one of the best character arcs I’ve ever seen in a kdrama. You get to watch the characters struggle and triumph, and you feel for them because their struggles feel so real, and the drama really gets you invested in them. You see the ways in which they fight to survive as normal working class citizens and you want them to win.

It differs from Vincenzo in that the main character isn’t considered evil and loses his less savoury traits over the course of the drama (his character arc is one of becoming a more upstanding citizen), and the message is one of fighting against corporate greed using the corporate system against itself in order to make things better for the average working citizen. But there’s the same plotting, and the same feeling of rooting for the protagonist team to win as you watch them plot and plan. I never rewatch things, but i’ve rewatched Chief Kim twice already and i’m looking forward to rewatching it again soon (just writing about it is making me want to rewatch it right now lol). It especially hits well for me because i love office dramas, and the humor and the bromance are just right. (Also, not entirely related, but it’s the first drama Kim Seonho was in!)

Another Park Jaebum drama i can definitely recommend is The Fiery Priest! It’s also a comedy action drama with 20 eps (released in 2019), and it follows Kim Hae Il (Kim Nam Gil), a catholic priest with a real temper, as he works to solve the mystery surrounding the death of a senior priest. No romance there either, but it’s got the same humor as Chief Kim and Vincenzo, and the same overarching found family trope (that really shines for this one). It’s darker than Chief Kim, but not as dark as Vincenzo. The plot is very intriguing, and it’s the kind of drama you feel compelled to keep watching to see what happens next. And the host of characters in that drama is still one of my favourites to this day. Every character was incredibly written, and they all played vital roles in the overall story. Again, lots of character development all round, and great character arcs not just for the main character (even for a few of the villains!). Plus it was lovely to watch the various characters interact, get closer, and build relationships. Such an iconic squad. Not to mention how funny it is?? And the fight scenes??? In fact, I enjoyed it so much that when I checked Park Jaebum’s page on MyDramaList after watching it around June last year and saw Vincenzo as an upcoming project, I added it to my plan to watch list immediately even though there was only a single line of synopsis lol. It’s also got an absolute banger of a soundtrack!

When you think about it, all three (Chief Kim, TFP and Vincenzo) can be simplified to “guy with dubious past sets out to fight corruption and creates a great support circle in the process”. All three are dramas of finding people who care about you and are willing to fight alongside you, and fighting for your convictions/what you think is right. Each main character starts out as a somewhat solitary figure, and you get to watch as they each find people who are willing to fight alongside them and support them. What exactly those specific convictions are varies in each drama, but Park Jaebum writes the character development arcs incredibly each time, and the relationships between the characters are so real and so satisfying to watch. And yet the integrity of the main character in each drama is never compromised either, it’s shown that they can grow and become better without losing themselves. The growth is also in the way that they learn to work with and rely on others, because teamwork makes the dream work. And then to cap it all off he lets them have victories, and he makes it SO satisfying??? There are highs and there are lows, and you feel all of those right there with the characters, which makes the victories feel so so good. In each we see the ensemble cast get involved with the fight and the plotting, and we get to see all their epic plans and their execution, and the victories they win that build up over time. And it’s so satisfying to me! I love it a lot, just thinking about it is making me smile lol. It also shows how well humor and darker/more serious plotlines/events are balanced in the dramas, neither is compromised in favour of the other, but it always works so well that the humor never feels forced or out of place. As someone who doesn’t like overbearingly dark shows, I really appreciate that. They all give you lots to laugh at, while not losing any of the plot to the funny.

Of course there are differences, notably the romance, and the fact that Vincenzo is bad vs bad rather than good vs bad like the other two. They deal more with redemption (especially The Fiery Priest), but that works for the stories that are being told, and it’s very well executed.

It’s worth noting that Park Jaebum also wrote Good Doctor and 4 seasons of God’s Quiz. I haven’t checked those out yet, but I’ve heard good things about all of them. He also wrote Blood, I haven’t seen that one either but opinions seem to be split on how good it was. All of those are medical dramas (which is the reason I haven’t watched them lol, i can’t stand medical dramas) from before 2017, when he wrote Chief Kim. It seems he’s been on a roll since then, good for him and good for us lol. You can see everything he’s written on his MyDramaList page.

Overall I enjoyed the Park Jaebum dramas I have seen for first and foremost the comedy, but also for the warmth of the character relationships and for how well developed/written each character is. And I love how he balances the humor with more poignant/darker moments, I laughed a lot watching all three dramas, but I’ve cried over each of them as well. It’s a good balance to have, it gives you a good plot to be interested in, but doesn’t keep you stressed and sombre the whole way through. I’ve seen people say that Vincenzo wouldn’t be as good if it wasn’t so wacky, and I fully agree. It’s the same for both TFP and Chief Kim, and that balance is definitely what I appreciate most in Park Jaebum’s dramas. I know I will laugh, but I also know I will get an incredible plot and incredible characters, and that’s really important for me. Plus I know I can trust that there will be a good ending because the writer cares about his characters.

I definitely recommend checking out both TFP and Chief Kim after Vincenzo is done, especially since they’re so similar in terms of comedic tone and basic plot direction. If you ever get to watching either of them feel free to hmu to chat about it!! There’s lots of plot stuff that can be can discussed.

lol this got v long (i have lots to say about how much i love these dramas haha), but I hope it’s helpful!!!

[itsclydebitches]

Sorry to be agitated in your asks, but I just finished catching up on V8 and I'm hung up on a LOT but one of the big things I haven't seen many people talk about is the attitude towards Atlas? The way the show has constantly beaten in that Atlas is BAD, the city as just being the wealthy (and the irl association that that brings to fill in the gaps), with no redeeming qualities and actual decent people being few and far between (hello, Cinder backstory), makes it horribly difficult for us as an audience to connect to its current peril. I had a group of fans I talk with genuinely say that the civilians of Atlas deserve to be slaughtered because, really, "are they even innocent?" - like, what??? How does a show gaff up so badly that the massacre of a city is cathartic or wanted?

You’ve come to the right place, anon, because we’ve indeed been discussing that over here! Not that I can easily point you towards any posts because my blog remains a disorganized mess lol. 

In all seriousness though, yeah. All of the above. The more I think about it, the more I’m leaning towards the claim that the current treatment of Atlas is akin to the current treatment of Ironwood. Which is to say, made illogically, simplistically evil because RWBY does not know how to write (or is simply uninterested in tackling) a situation with this much gray in it. I say this because Atlas wasn’t treated as this #evil city up until late Volume 7/Volume 8. Originally, Weiss represented Atlas, which means we came to think of Atlas as we thought of her: flawed (very much so), but with a good core. Then the Vytal festival introduced us to Atlas students and we learned that Weiss, as the privileged Schnee, really is an exception rather than the rule. Atlas is also (perhaps even mostly) made up of those who are her opposite. Here’s a working class son whose family was screwed over by the Schnees. Here’s a fun, energetic faunus decked out in rainbows. Indeed, Weiss’ comment that she expects military-focused, highly organized fighters is blown out of the water, telling us that her view of the city (and what she as an individual supposedly represents of that city) isn’t accurate. Our other characters reinforce this. Winter appears to be the strict, military official... who eagerly greets her sister and cares that she’s making friends, not succeeding in her studies. Ironwood is the scary-seeming general... who actually listens to his allies and is 100% out to help others as much as he can. Time and again Atlas was shown to be a complicated, but ultimately caring place and that was shown to us through the people it produced and sent out into the world. Even when we hit Volume 7 and were introduced to a very dystopian looking Mantle, the story undermined that simplicity by having the group realize oh, Ironwood is crafting a plan to take out Salem and taking logical precautions to ensure his kingdom survives until then. He’s not just screwing over the city because yay rich people and boo the poor. Things began to fall apart when the group assisted in perpetuating these sacrifices (Amity), became an official part of this flawed system (huntsmen working under Ironwood), and actively undermined Ironwood in his attempts to get something good out of all this (secrets, lies, betrayal) while trying to paint them as the Good Guys to his Bad Decisions, but at least that complexity existed for the viewer to engage with, even if the show refused to acknowledge it. 

But then... late Volume 7. Ironwood shoots an unarmed, allied kid for no reason and with that about-face came a slew of anti-Atlas writing. Whereas before things were a bit more balanced (such as showing us racism in Mantle too) now Atlas is the Bad City to Mantle’s Good one. See how everyone talks about how awful Atlas is, only worthwhile for the protection it can give Mantle citizen? See how the Happy Huntresses have moved from being pro-Mantle to anti-Atlas? See the lack of scenes that give Atlas a human, sympathetic face? Mantle gets that with toys lost in the streets, or abandoned family photos. Atlas has privileged folks having picnics during the end of the world and military men so stupid they run out of the room - right past the heroes! - screaming about coffee on their pants. Atlas is now the transphobic city when transphobia was never introduced in this world before, and it’s the place where our villain was sold as a slave and horrendously tortured with a shock collar for years. Are there at least other, redeeming characters in this story? Only one and the fandom has decided to hate him. 

To be clear, I’m not out to claim that Atlas wasn’t framed as “bad” prior to this, but it’s crucial that nearly everything was filtered through Jacques Schnee. Ballroom full of idiotic, privileged folk who don’t care about the Fall of Beacon? They’re all Jacques’ guests (with Weiss and Ironwood standing as their contrasts). Awful brand on Adam’s face? That’s from the Schnee Dust Company too! Atlas was a city with wealth and that wealth not only created disparity, but allowed a few really bad individuals, like Jacques, to exploit systematic problems. Major flaws to be sure, but otherwise a city like any other, producing good that the audience is meant to love even as it grapples with its problems: Weiss, Winter, the FNKI group, and yes, Ironwood. It’s only when the story decided to turn Ironwood into a villain that we likewise saw this extreme turn towards Atlas as a fully corrupt, irredeemable city. Which makes a certain amount of sense to me because Ironwood represents Atlas and the city represents him in turn. They are are intimately connected. RWBY wanted simplicity despite failing to write a simple problem, so if you’re going to claim, “Ironwood wanting to save the people he feasibly can” is an objectively bad stance, you can’t make those people sympathetic. The audience can’t want Atlas to survive because that makes Ironwood too sympathetic in turn for trying to help them. The general trying to save a city filled with plenty of good people is a hero. The general trying to save a city filled with nothing but rich, racist assholes? Oh, he’s OBVIOUSLY evil.  

You’re right that the way Atlas has been presented makes it difficult to care about its peril. I think that’s the point. It’s really easy to take what RWBY is currently saying at face value and I think that’s why so much of the fandom has reached a “are they even innocent?” mindset. You need to take that second step of asking things like, “So if Atlas is all irredeemable trash, does that mean we should hate Weiss too? If Weiss is an exception because of what Team RWBY taught her, does no one else in the city deserve the chance to learn what she did? What about Winter still working for Ironwood? What about the group’s friends still in the academy? The non-Atlas students attending school? People from other kingdoms who were in the city when the borders closed?” etc. Getting to the point of realizing, “Huh, I don’t think an entire city deserves to perish because of systematic problems largely outside of individual citizens’ control and a few, heinous assholes,” but that requires thinking past what the show is saying right here, right now. 

RWBY now banks almost entirely on its audience believe whatever the claim of the week is. Starting with Ozpin in Volume 6, the show has made a habit of arguing things that are unsupported by the writing that came before this moment, or even, sometimes, the writing that’s happening right now. The latest in this long list is Atlas and, though disappointing, at this point I can’t claim I’m surprised. 

[autumn-foxfire]

ooh I'd really like the idea of Midoriya and Shigaraki's next confrontation (I assume there's going to be at least one more before the big fight) to end up mirroring Hawks vs Twice (and the potential of the opposite ending of him not bringing himself to do it, leading to someone important dying... oof. I wonder if Hori has the balls to do anything like that?). Though I'm still waiting for the resolution to the Hawks vs Twice drama in the narrative (will probably happen at the press conference)

it seems like the story isn’t going to condemn Hawks for his decision the way SOME fans want it to. If it were to actually justify it? Delicious. On another note though I seriously doubt with like every bone in my body that Deku and Shigaraki are going to team up at the end to take down AFO. Like, the way this chapter framed it makes it feel like a race against the clock for Deku to try and reach the part of Shigaraki that is still Tenko before he surpasses AFO as the greatest evil,

with an understanding that he’ll do whatever it takes to take Shigs down if he does. And I fully expect AFO to die at some point - probably close to the end of the story and probably by Shigaraki’s hand. Idk. I just don’t really think there’s going to be an automatic redemption for Shigaraki after all he’s done, or them joining forces or whatever. MHA just seems to take a more realistic route when it comes to consequences, and I wouldn’t be surprised if Shigs really died in the end.

I can’t wait for the Twice situation to be brought up again because I’m really curious about how the other characters will react to it. While I still firmly stand by the fact that a hero killing a villain isn’t illegal or wrong (heroes have been shown to go for the kill on multiple occassions after all), it’s still highly frowned upon because the image of a hero is that of saving.

Deku this chapter says how much he wants to try and save Shigaraki because he felt a crying boy deep down (...Yeah, I have a lot to say about that and none of it good but whatever) so I wonder how he’d feel about Hawks actions, especially when he learns that Hawks wanted the same thing for Twice that he wants for Shigaraki but had to face the reality that it’s not what Twice wanted anymore.

And that’s the crux of it isn’t it? Deku says he sees the boy deep down but that doesn’t mean that’s how Shigaraki feels anymore, the same as how Twice once wanted people to help him but he rejected it when he finally got it because he felt like he didn’t want or need it anymore. And then what is Deku going to do then? He can say he’ll stop or maybe even kill Shigaraki if he reaches that point but that’s easier said then done and it’s a lot for a 16 year old boy to handle.

Now whether Hori actually has the guts to make Deku face such a situation and make it so that Deku actually faces the loss of someone important (and making it even more personal for him) we’ll have to wait and see. I’ll admit I’m not holding my breath for it though considering it’s too good to be true.

I definitely don’t think, or well I hope not, that Deku and Shigaraki will “team up and defeat the ultimate evil AFO” in the end like some people will think. Most likely that Shigaraki will end up killing AFO and take over his legacy and make it even greater, or worse considering what he was planning to do. I still do hope that the “saving Shigaraki” angle will lead to Shigaraki ultimately taking over the role of the big bad of the series but that’s because I think it’ll be a really tragic but interesting route for Shigaraki to take.

Shigaraki dying but being content with returning to his family once and for all (a throw back to how he originally walked away from them and death for his anger) and signalling that he’s finally let his anger go would be a pretty good ending for him in my opinion.

...Though I guess many Shigaraki stans will disagree... 

[hirazuki]

Ooo I'm curious about your hot takes on the Inuyasha reboot after reading your tags 👀

Ahaha, where to start XD Idk if they are hot takes, but here are my thoughts in bullet point form for coherency, I couldn’t figure out how else to organize them. Under a cut, as usual, because it got lengthy... as usual :D

We are 13 episodes in, and I still have no idea wtf is going on or what the series is actually about. And yes, I’m aware that we didn’t know of Naraku’s existence or of the overarching plot until at least episode 16 of that series either and Inuyasha was still very episodic in nature at that early point too, but here’s the thing: Inuyasha did not build upon a pre-existing series. For better or for worse, Yashahime has certain expectations to live up to that the original anime didn’t, by virtue of its being a sequel. Unfair? Maybe, but tough; that’s what happens when you make a sequel. Additionally, despite us not knowing The Main Plot™ of Inuyasha until later, the basic framework for it was laid out clearly by... episode 2? I think? Find and collect the Shikon Jewel shards. Boom, done. Were there distractions or fillers? Sure, but you never got the sense that the characters simply up and forgot about the shards. Even in fillers, the shards often made some kind of appearance. With Yashahime, there’s like three potential storylines going on: 1. The most obvious: most of our main cast from the OG is missing; where are they? Apparently no one in-story cares! :D Inuyasha, who’s that lol. I’m all for a sequel focusing on the new generation with cameos of the old crew; after all, they already had their own series. But this is like... no one cares about them? No one talks about them? And the more characters go about not mentioning them, the stronger their absence is felt. Like, for instance, Kaede knows Moroha is InuKag’s daughter. Moroha grew up on her own, doesn’t know her parents. Kaede doesn’t mention them to Moroha, doesn’t even spare a passing thought about them for the audience’s benefit, Moroha doesn’t ask. Kagome’s family in the present day meet Moroha, recognize her as Kagome’s daughter and... say nothing??? Souta shows Towa Kagome and Inuyasha’s old photos, but doesn’t say a word to Moroha?! Like. It makes no sense. By people not even acknowledging their existence, it makes the fact that they are nowhere to be found even weirder. Also the new gen girls don’t care about their parents or finding out who they were/are... like, okay, it would maybe be in character for one or two of them, but all three don’t give a fuck??? 2. Kirinmaru/the rainbow pearls: Idk how familiar you are with the story, but similar deal with Naraku and the shards here. Kirinmaru is being set up as the villain, still a mysterious figure; our new gen trio is supposed to collect the rainbow pearls that... some of his henchmen have? Or he is after them? Or is that Riku? Unclear. ANYWAY the new gen girls often forget all about the pearls’ existence :D 3. Setsuna’s memories: Setsuna’s dreams have been stolen by the dream butterfly and they need to get them back, because without her dreams she has no memories and is unable to sleep. Cool! Finally a solid, easy-to-follow plot line! Except wait! Towa, who supposedly made it her goal to get Setsuna’s sleep back, forgets all about it! All the time! Like, none of them make an effort to look into this other than being like “oh yeah, know anything about the dream butterfly?” to random folks every now and then. The Inugang back in the day was putting some grad school level research towards their goals, just saying. It just feels like everything’s all wishy-washy and there’s nothing really solid tying the series together. People just remember shit exists when it’s convenient.

.

Character development is MIA. I’m not expecting ground-breaking char dev in 13 episodes (though I do know 12 episode series that were phenomenal in that regard), but like... I do expect the series to focus on building the dynamics between the main three characters. So far, the series is more focused on teasing the audience with glimpses and promises of the OG cast instead. The creators are using nostalgia and bait (esp of a certain pairing) to drive interest in the series, rather than developing the new characters as fully-fledged characters for their own sakes. 

.

Moroha is was the only thing I actually liked about the series. She is a little spitfire and you can somehow instantly see both Inuyasha and Kagome in her, while she also remains very uniquely herself; I have never seen such a successfully developed main pairing child in any series. She featured quite prominently in the first few episodes -- and unlike both her parents, she’s got a great memory and knowledge of lore -- where she balanced funny moments with badass fighting moments and being the token supernatural encyclopedia. It was great! And then... they’ve like... forgotten her. She’s been left behind so many times by the twins. She’s the butt of every joke. She’s become the type of comic relief that’s, well, insulting. More like a buffoon than anything else. And it’s basically all for the sake of giving the floor to Towa :/

.

Setsuna is okay. Not offensive, but unremarkable. She’s got her dad’s personality but like way toned down due to her different growing up circumstances, which is nice, but like... I feel she isn’t given any room to grow or breathe or anything. She’s also basically there as a device to enhance Towa’s development.

.

Towa... oy. I tried to like her, I really did, but she just doesn’t work for me. They set her up having a very Kurosaki Ichigo type deal with beating up bullies and getting into trouble at school and shit -- I’m fine with that. That’s cool. Esp if it’s linked to not feeling like she fits in bc she’s a hanyou? Awesome. Except once she travels back in time to the feudal era it’s all “Oh killing is bad you shouldn’t kill people” and “even though they attacked me I can’t possibly hurt them” and “you need to empathize and talk things out” and “friendship is magic” and shit. It feels like she had a personality transplant, it literally makes no sense. Her design is totally nonsensical too -- out of everyone at her school, she’s the only one dressed in a bright white suit? Do protags not wear the school uniform? Someone should tell Kagome lmao. She’s a pro at hand to hand, and she can absorb demons’ powers and fling them back at them like a personified Tessaiga, and she has a lightsaber sword, and she’s immune to miasma, and -- like... you get it. It’s too much. It’s way too OP for the type of universe that Inuyasha/Yashahime is set in. She’s hanyou for fuck’s sake; remember all the training Inuyasha had to go through? When he couldn’t lift his sword? When his sword attacked him? Sango, Miroku, Kagome, even Sesshomaru all had trouble with their weapons and had to work to become stronger. But Towa? Nope. Towa is straight out of the Yas Queen/Girl Boss manual, so she gets a free pass on everything.

.

UGH they are doing the VLD/bad writing thing where things happen (like, BIG THINGS) and none of the characters actually react to them. Or stuff happens and there are no consequences. No one ever talks about anything. It’s wild.

.

Everyone has amnesia!! :D People either don’t know or don’t remember anything or anyone. People who absolutely should know things all of a sudden magically don’t know them. Like, Kohaku -- traveled with an undead priestess, spent years in the company of demons, traveled with Sesshomaru... and yet had NO CLUE that Setsuna is Sesshomaru’s daughter or that she is hanyou, despite her living and working with his team of demon slayers all this time. Like... how, man. How. And Kaede! Don’t get me started. Since when does she perpetuate random demon-boogeyman type stories as facts? Demon children will kill each other in the nest so that only the strongest one will survive, therefore Setsuna must have killed Towa when they were infants. O_O What are they, sharks? Has she been hanging out with Kisame? Wtf?? And she’s speaking about Sess’s kids as though she doesn’t know him or anything about him, when she has had Rin under her roof all these years. It just makes. no. sense.

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Things that happened in the original series are happening again now! Because that’s the best we’ve got, recycled plot elements wooo! No, but really, characters that died or things that were resolved in Inuyasha keep coming back. Why? What was the purpose of bringing back Kinka and Ginka? To have a foil for Towa and Setsuna as twins? Someone please tell Sunrise they can just create new characters. Like, it’s one thing to have call backs to the original or cameos, references, whatever. But like... this is entire (dead) characters and interactions.

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No one knows how long it’s been since the original series ended. Fans initially heard 20 years from promo material, then “over 15″ and “10 years since” in-series regarding two different events, and now in a future episode summary we’ve gotten 18 years since Hosenki II gave Inuyasha the black pearl. But like, which black pearl? Because the one in Inuyasha’s eye doesn’t exist anymore, but Hosenki II had told Inuyasha that it would take 100 years for him to produce one. So, are we retconning that or where the fuck did it come from? Also, this doesn’t help one bit, it just confuses things even more. Back to the point, though, we have no coherent timeline or real frame of reference whatsoever, and I’m betting it’s in large part to keep the mystery of who is Sesshomaru’s wife going, as it keeps Rin’s age very vague. Everything is vague and mysterious in Yashahime, to the point where no one knows what’s going on, in fandom or in-story even. It’s kinda like how too much plot twist/shock reveal ruins a story, too much mystery does the same. It’s insane that both shippers and antis of that ship can lay equal claim that the “18 years since” announcement works in their favor.

tl;dr: Idk man, Yashahime is a clusterfuck of a series. Even if the mother of Sess’s twins is either of the characters I ship him with, I will still not like the series. There’s no saving this writing. Every episode feels like this:

[juicemitio]

Alright I went to Louisville Galaxycon and saw Travis and Clint twice, for their worldbuilding workshop and their Q&A. Here's some interesting stuff I learned (I didn't include stuff they talked about that's pretty common knowledge or they talked about on the last ttazz)

Graduation 

Fitzroy was originally going to be a jock that was weak bc he no longer had a team, Travis told Griffin that that didn't really work for the world so they reframed it as him training to be a hero, was great academically and behaviorally, but had a problem no one had seen before and no one felt like dealing with. It specifically wasn't "barbarian fails bc he can't keep his rage in check," it was that no one was willing to deal with his magic so they shipped him off

Someone asked Travis to explain fitzroy's magic, so from the DM's mouth- he's a barbarian subtype with elemental magic which has a random effect while raging, which we haven't seen yet (path of the wild soul if you want to look it up and see what he can do) and he took a feat which gives him the ability to cast 3 cantrips of his choosing. What I thought was interesting was that Travis described Fitz's magic using the word "elemental" twice, even though that isn't specifically stated in the path of the wild soul entry

Travis knows Argo's secret and is very excited about it 

Clint has a pirate fiction book he reads every night before they record to get into the headspace to play Argo, he told us the name but I forgot it 

There is one small little concept that made the whole of graduation make sense to Travis and is what the arc will be about, and he only figured it out a few days before recording. Obviously he didn't tell us what it was

Originally it was going to start with everyone starting at age 11 and slowly killing the other kids off, but Justin didn't feel comfortable playing a game surrounded by kids dying 

The accounting scene is already one of Travis' all time favorite taz scenes

The pegasus scene informed Travis on exactly how he was going to treat the firbolg

Also Travis referred to Justin's character exclusively as "the firbolg," which means "master firbolg" is solely a thing going on with the npcs in the game which I find hilarious. They just all decided to give him a dope title bc he deserves it, meanwhile no one will call Fitzroy "sir"

To Fitzroy, social threats are an extremely real and serious thing, like the Biggest thing to him (we were talking about what characters found threatening in the workshop, for context)  

There's some big concept/idea that comes up in the next episode that travis almost let spill and had to quickly stop himself from saying it

Someone mentioned eating breakfast in their question in the workshop and Travis goofed on it for a second, then said "cereal world" suddenly, and Clint had to pick up the question bc Travis had to take a second to make a note of it in his phone 

Travis started brainstorming graduation in March and they recorded the first episode in October, and his main job in that time was working on graduation 

Before Buckminster was adapted for graduation he could not fight at all, if he got into a fight he would die, he poured everything into charisma and could talk his way out of any fight (even the big bad of the game he crit 20d his check and the big bad walked away from the fight) 

Travis is really into psychology and how if you assign a label to someone they're going to act more like it (ie you tell a kid they're amazing and smart and talented and they become more like that, you tell a kid they're annoying and dumb and a problem they become more like that), and how that was a major contributor to play into hero/villain/sidekick/henchperson dynamics, you get assigned this arbitrary title of good/evil/subservient and you become like that to fit the role, and then the inevitable pushing against that mold

Travis is fully aware of his story being compared to harry potter and he doesn't care bc it's apt (people in a school arbitrarily divided into four groups and one of them is the Bad One), also he knows people describe it as "sky high meets Harry Potter meets my hero academia" and he actually finds that really flattering bc he thinks that sounds cool and like something he'd want to watch 

On that note, Travis is a self-identified Slytherin and he's always upheld that the reason Slytherin is depicted in a bad light is bc Rowling decided she didn't like them, and he's always sympathized with the idea of a first year Slytherin working their ass off following the rules and doing their work and getting points, and Dumbledore rewards three idiots for breaking like every rule and pulls the trophy away from you. This was a big inspiration for graduation, of one group getting a bad rep and being portrayed as evil for literally no reason 

Amnesty

Clint & Travis's favorite scene they've ever done together was Ned & Aubrey's final scene together 

Aubrey and Dani do move in with each other at the end of amnesty

Balance

Travis' main emotion around taz is pride and he's most proud of the scene in stolen century with the spirits in the robots, bc they had to record it a second time bc it got way too dark and ended in a really grim way and about 20 min after they finished they all decided that they weren't happy with it, that it didn't fit the tone, he's really proud they didn't just leave it be and they took the second pass at it to make it right

I'm pretty sure he's talked about wanting to kill Magnus off at the beginning before but he mentioned that it was only at the end of petals to the metal he actually realized he wanted Magnus to live, bc Hurley had to sacrifice herself to save Magnus bc Magnus had been so reckless, that hit Travis really hard. Travis realized that Magnus' recklessness was getting people hurt and so Magnus did too, so Magnus become a bit more cautious and took up rogue training to try not to get anyone killed again 

Dust

Dust wasn't designed to be anything more than a one off and the workload was completely unsustainable, the document of notes for dust was about 100 pages and only about 10% of it got used

The reason Travis loved it so much was bc it was a mystery and he found it really fun

Commitment

Clint would love to revisit commitment, but probably not in podcast form bc he didn't find himself really being in the moment as much bc of all the different things he had to keep track of, he'd like to see a comic adaptation/continuation if possible

It was based of a comic he wrote that never got published bc the company producing it failed (he still cashed his paycheck) so he reused it bc he still liked it a lot, it was about how America was founded as a monarchy instead of a democracy and what that changed in the usa's (united sovereignty of america's) history, and how people now were fighting to establish a democracy. Also there were cowboys and spaceships and other cool stuff he put in there bc he liked it

General adventure zone

The reason why they're are able to do romantic relationships w/o being weirded out by it (they joke about it but they don't actually care) is bc it's never done in an explicit or sexual way and since it's the decision the characters would make to pursue the relationship then that's the decision they make. He reframed it as it wouldn't be weird if a family were writing a script together and there was a romance and one person wrote lines for one character and the other wrote lines for the other. He did mention that two siblings playing characters in a relationship as actors on screen wouldn't be cool though

They sometimes get comments that some of the stuff they do is "fanservice," but they feel that they owe their success to their fans and they owe some to them 

They are both aware of and proud that Justin is the best at character creation, Clint specifically really was talking about how Justin's strong suit is definitely character creation and characterization

General mcelroy stuff

They walked pretty close to me when they entered the stage room for the q&a and like… they're short, like shorter than you think

Travis referred to his unborn child as "baby dod" (I'm not 100% certain but I'm pretty sure) which I looked up and is a nickname for George, and given with their older kid being named Barbera and nicknamed BeBe and Travis talking before about how he and his wife like classic names with cool nicknames it makes sense

Travis had an earing in his right ear, I didn't get to see his left ear and I couldn't tell if it was an actual piercing or a fake, it looked really good though. Also his tinted glasses look a lot cooler irl than they do in pictures

Clint told the teenage mutant Ninja turtle story with the signatures that griffin told on mbmbam, but Clint remembered it as happening at King's Island, not Disney. This story was prompted by the question of the biggest lie he ever told his kids, and he only came clean about this a few months ago

Travis told a story about how he finished a videogame when he was younger and was so excited that he picked up a plastic knife, yelled "throwing knife!" threw it directly at Griffin who dodged it and it hit and shattered a window