#yes it's supposed to be poorly written and stupid

[beatleswings]

A Tekken trollpasta I initially shared to @boltun-tkn as a joke but posting it here for y'all to read.

Tekken Cursed Game

So I went to a yard sale and they were selling video games. This guy told me of this old Tekken game he wanted to give away for only $5. I am a HUGE FAN of Tekken and I would own anything with it. So I had to take it. But before I paid the guy, he said to be careful because this game is "cursed".

I don't know what that guy was on so I just bought the game and after we got home, I immediately ran to my room and put the game on my old Playstation. Then the start up happened and it was normal but then somehow...the game started to glitch.

And I started hearing scary noises from the game. And then it cuts to Kazuya after he threw what appears to be Heihachi off a cliff, volcano, whatever…

Yes, that scene was on a loop and then he said, "Fuck you". I don't know why he said that and then I notice his eyes turn hyperrealistic and red and he said "fuck you" again, this time in a demonic tone.

Then the player select scene showed up and everyone had hyperrealistic eyes. and for some reason the announcer sounded demonic and evil.

Then my Playstation started to set on fire and I quickly put out the fire. and then Kazuya pops on my screen and says in a demonic voice "I'm inside your TV" I yelled out for my mom because I thought Kazuya wanted to kill me.

I quickly took the game out and put it back in the case but still, the game was on the TV. BUT HOW?!?! I just removed the game.

The game was still playing even though I removed the game?!?! And that demonic sound was still playing. I went fuck it and just played the game. The last part was somehow set in hell. Why Hell of all places?! Was it because that’s where Kazuya threw him? Anyway, I had to finally fight Heihachi Mishima. And he kept kicking my ass and at one point he said "I will feast on your blood". I don't remember Tekken being this messed up and scary.

Then Heihachi kept saying "666" "hail satan" and speaking backwards, I think or maybe just ridiculous gibberish. When I finally beat him, I throw him in the lava again and he screams. then the game starts to glitch again and then it's sped up but with flashes of the characters with bloody eye sockets.

and then the TV goes back to normal. I was so scared, I almost pissed my pants. I decided to throw away the cursed Tekken game and set it on fire. After that incident, I didn't want to play Tekken ever again. But then...I heard a new game was coming out. Not sure if I should play it.

[thecarnivorousmuffinmeta]

deathly hallows is so weird. i remember even when i first read it at 12 being kinda like ???? because really? this? this was supposed to be the big hyped up grand finale?

obviously book 7 isn't the only book with plotholes but there are so many more than in the others ones and they were really obvious things that just felt so lazy. like suddenly people can be their own secret keepers? meaning that the plot device that kicked off the entire series now doesn't make sense? or jkr forgetting harry canonically knows how to cook. just basic stuff like that that felt so sloppy. or harry and co breaking into the ministry to steal something that umbridge might just as easily have left at home in a drawer in her house. ?? or they somehow don't have food when they're camping even tho they can do magic and can duplicate food so they could just take a ton of stuff from a grocery story and copy it forever?

plus the pacing. it has some really good moments towards the end but omg a lot of it has no sense of urgency. or i remember as a kid after reading book 6 being super hyped to see the other cool and difficult to defeat enchantments guarding the horcruxes like we saw in book 6. but nah. in book 7 they're just lying around anywhere.

it's like jkr set up this whole horcrux hunt thing and then got bored with it and wanted to get thru it as fast as possible. and then added a bunch of poorly thought out wand stuff that contradicts prior canon. there were a ton of cool things that could've been done with book 7 and instead most of it feels so rushed.

It seems we all have secret trauma revolving Deathly Hallows.

The beautiful thing about the being your own secret keeper, of course, now means that if that was the case then someone didn't tell the Potters this or they were dissuaded from this path for some reason makes Dumbledore look very suspect.

Though I personally love the idiotic plan to bust into the Ministry to get the Horcrux rather than try to find out where Umbridge lives or trying to get a hold of her when she does her shopping in the country's one shopping district of Diagon Alley. It's just so dumb.

Or the fact that the gang suddenly survives only on mysterious mushrooms they gather deep in the wilderness of Great Britain or the time they look for blackberries in the middle of winter. Ron knows there aren't going to be blackberries, tells Harry as much, but since he's come back from abandoning this very stupid mission he now believes that Dumbledore must have had a plan.

Dumbledore had a plan.

Right?

Dumbledore?

Dumbledore?

DUMBLEDORE?!

WHY DID YOU TELL US NOTHING DUMBLEDORE?! WHAT IS THIS BOOK OF FAIRYTALES EVEN SUPPOSED TO--

(But yes, anon, it's just a bad book filled with beautiful stupidity that felt like it should have been a video game and was oddly written as if it was a video game where most of the chapters are boring cut scenes you want to skip and the game play is things like "raid gringotts" or "fetch the sword from the bottom of a pond to destroy the horcrux".)

[229zmi]

TRAIN RIDE HOME

PAIRING: Tsukishima Kei/Reader

CONTENT: established relationship, fluff

WORD COUNT: 0.9k

It was easy for Tsukishima to gauge how soon you were going to fall asleep after the two of you sat down on the train, thighs brushing up against each other despite the empty spaces beside you and your arm wrapped loosely around his — a small action, but an affectionate one nonetheless.

(The two of you were, technically, dating now, yes. Yet he found that hardly anything about your relationship had changed since he confessed his feelings to you on a whim last month. You and him still walked home together from school, still met up at his house to study and yours for Friday movie night, and still took a train to visit the Fukui Prefectural Dinosaur Museum together every spring break.

You still rearranged his dinosaur figurines in odd places on his shelf — behind the books, in between the potted plants — before you left his room, still took up all the blankets at every sleepover, and still tried to gaslight him into believing that no, it wasn’t you who moved those dinosaurs, it was obviously his brother who was away for college.

The only difference was that everything seemed to have a romantic connotation now, a date label behind it even if never outrightly spoken. Study date. Movie date. Museum date. It was the little things that counted.)

The notion sprouted in his head after hearing the first yawn and then bloomed when your head suddenly lolled forward. Your body nearly would have made impact with the ground if it wasn’t for his opposite hand that stopped you.

“Hey, don’t fall asleep on the train,” he told you as a warning, but the gentleness of his voice, paired with the background noise of the train’s clatter as it made its way back to Miyagi, made it more or less counterproductive. Pure mellifluousness mixed with a metallic-sounding cacophony doesn’t sound too pleasing when written on paper, but it was actually calming in an odd way. Perhaps you were delirious with tiredness. “We’re almost there.”

You lethargically rested your head against the cold window, which had entirely fogged up save for your initial plus Tsukishima’s that you’d drawn in the corner with your finger at some point during the train ride out of boredom, and reached up to rub your eye with the base of your palm. He resisted the urge to scold you and tell you to stop, supposing that this time he could ignore it as he saw how drowsy you were. Nevertheless, his disapproval of your problematic actions remained evident on his face. How many times would he have to tell you about the bad health effects of rubbing your eyes too much before you finally listened?

“I wasn’t going to fall asleep. You’re delusional.” And just like that, boom. He was automatically wrong now that you’d discredited his thesis. Cancelled.

He fixed a blank gaze on you, as typical of him whenever you said something stupid, so you knew some kind of snarky remark was coming your way. Sometimes, you wished he’d just pretend you were funny and fake-laugh instead. “Sure. Then I guess I should’ve just let you fall out of your seat instead. Would you prefer that?”

You glared at him. He poorly concealed a smug smile behind his hand. Scowling even more at his overall unbothered reaction, you retracted your arm, moved as far away from him as possible like he suddenly held some sort of contagious disease, and even went as far as to pinching your nose to pretend he emitted a stench. Immature, he thought. And now people were staring; you couldn’t have been more obvious. But he was used to it nonetheless.

He observed you for another couple of moments: you rested your head against the window again. Yawned. Blinked once, then twice, slowly. Even your expression alone suggested that you were clearly fatigued. He supposed it would be a matter of a few more minutes before you dozed off again.

In the meantime, Tsukishima felt the place on his arm where you touched him burn and then dissipate. Hot to cold in mere seconds, like walking into a grocery store on a scorching summer afternoon. Perhaps you were smarter in your tactics than he thought, now that he was stuck wallowing in the icy air that seeped through the cracks of the window and left goosebumps trailing across the back of his exposed neck.

Finally having had enough of the lack of your presence beside him, he reached out and poked your arm to catch your attention. However, when you turned to look at him, he simply cast you an apathetic look. Your eyebrows furrowed together in clear cut confusion; it wasn’t unusual for him to be this inexpressive, but you don’t understand how he expected you to know what he wanted from just that. You almost wanted to scream at him: WHAT DO YOU WANT?

Before you could turn away, he motioned for you to come closer. “You can sleep on my shoulder,” he whispered in a fairly convincing manner. “Only for ten minutes though, and then I’m waking you up.”

“I’m not tired,” you insisted. Regardless, you moved yourself so that you were sitting right next to him once again but this time with your head on his shoulder. His fingers intertwined with yours, his calloused thumb brushing over your knuckles back and forth, and then he tilted his head.

“Sleep,” he murmured, hot breath fanning against your cheek. He smelled faintly of citrus, you noted with a sigh. And then you went out like a light.

[borisbubbles]

Eurovision 2024: #34

34. CYPRUS Silia Kapsis - "Liar" 15th place

Decade Ranking: 128/153 [Above Benny, below Reiley]

15th place? Generous. Good floordrops only get you so far if that's the ONLY thing you've got.

Every year there's a few acts that I thought just plain sucked, and yet can't really muster feelings of dislike for. Like, what's the point of putting in the effort of emoting if I can simply choose to focus my attention on better, worthier songs? They're shit, but that's their problem, not mine.

And that awkward little spot where those acts go is also where dear young Sillia lands. "Liar" is bad, I think we all agree? Laurel Barker still hasn't shown her busted face since "Sober" (GOOD.) but her spirit lives on in mediocre, poorly written girlbops with no substance, and this season had multiples of those. "Liar" stood out the worst to me by virtue of, well, not really standing out at all, other than for its horrible libretto.

CUZ YOU'RE A LIAR LIAR LIAR LIAR YEAH YEAH YEAH YOU LIE IE IE IE YEAH YEAH YEAH

that THIS is a chorus of a Eurovision FINALIST. 😳 Futhermore the lyrics also rhyme "oolala" with "truth la la" (okay this one is ACTUALLY funny) and present Silia as some sort of... intrusive busybody calling out pther people's adultery and philandering? I suppose it's a little LESS scuffed than have Isaiah Firebrace hone his gaslighting, uglycrying and concern trollery skills at the same age. But if you're going to tweak the narrative in function of her being a minor, and attempt to steer her away from sexualization, then perhaps don't style her in a top that accentuates her cleavage? And don't end with this:

(always a telltale sign of a losing battle when you have to splice THAT into a song/act that doesn't call for it just to get a Q.)

Unlike a Nutsa or a Sarah, you can't quite say that Silia was at the top of the performance game. She was a 17 year old with limited on-stage experience, and it showed. She had memorized her stupid lines and rehearsed her stupid TikTok dances and delivered both as flat and robotic as one does when they go through the motions. The Dance Break lmao what the FUCK was this epileptic seizure:

If you want a true Performative Piece emulating a neurotic disorder, got tho say Il Senso did it better.

"SHARP. BLADES. OF. TIME. CUTS. THE. SPACE. :twitches: " 😍

Silia was in the Reiley zone where nothing she did was particularly bad but also none of the things she did were objectively good, and it balances out in blandness. It was all just a little bit too much "Participation Trophy" material, which is the Cypriot special by now. Btw, did you know it is a Greek hand-me-down? ("Liar" starts at 0:59)

That's right, this was the song that lost to "WHAT THEY SAY" and then tried to fight its loss in court and lost the appeal. This song is so embarrasing it lost in an internal selection to Victor Vernikos.

Ofc behind all of this lay a huge shitstorm of a selection with Cyprus planning to do an NF on Greek soil based on a format ERT had planned and trashed sometime in the past. Greece found out and threatened to blank Cyprus completely if they appropriated their NF concept, which forced Cyprus to recruit another Australian and contact Kontopoulos who still had "Liar" in his folder, with the hopes that the badness would fly under the radar.

But don't worry Cyprus repaid Greece by ranking Eden ahead of Marina in the jury vote. 🙂 I wouldn't blame the Greeks if they invaded and annexed (or bribed the Turks to do it for them) 🙂

So yeah, Cyprus made the final. Unfortunate because it rewards an entry that deliberately plays lowest base on several levels. I suppose I would find Liar's advancement offensive in most cases, but like... it's semi 1. Half of the acts in that shitshow deserved to get the boot including Silia yes, and all five acts that were eliminated, so whatevs. Do we really care which shitty acts made it in, if at least three of them were advancing anyway, idfts. Finland was the only one I wanted to see dead (not literally. i think.) and that was never happening in a full televote from that second half.

Besides, the finale had a much bigger fish to fry, and Cyprus's generous-AF 15th place overall (reminder: this is the same placement Maraaya and Zalagasper got in WORSE finals) feels like such a trifle in comparison. So, I'm FINE with ranking her barely into yellow today. Pray that we're spared more degenerative nonsense from this clown country next year if there's a next yeah and and if Poseidon doesn't make the disrespectful island sink into the sea for its many crimes against Marina Satti.

THE RANKING

[rarepears]

Better still; the reason everyone thinks Shen Jiu is the one who wrote birb!Shen Yuan's book is because Shen Jiu HAS published works under his parrot's name before. Its just that all of those were counter-essays to someone else's published work, which is a scholar's way of insulting someone with "You're argument so stupid even animals can see what's wrong with it."

Lol how is Shen Jiu supposed to explain the section of Shen Yuan complaining about all the (bad) dirty talking the Five Tailed Fierce Robins engage in and comparing it against the Anxiously Hungry Flesh Eating Squirrels' vore-focused dirty talk?

Yes, even Airplane's creatures engage in poorly written dirty talk and papapa. Shen Yuan doesn't know why he expected better.

Anyways, Shen Yuan's book has a very very detailed section on mating that goes into far too much information about dick sizes, the actual act of sex itself, the bucket of cum that's produced, the dirty talk and other acts of sexual engagement that might be involved before Shen Yuan even gets to the pregnancy part.

Shen Jiu doesn't know who is trying to ruin his reputation by sticking his emotional support parrot's name on it, but he's ready to kill the guilty parties.

And Yue Qingyuan is (naturally) ready to support him.

[More in the #shen qingqiu has an emotional support parrot and hijinks happen au]

[the-knucklesverse]

Dark Deception

So a lot of what we do in the server is toss out any ol' idea that pops into our head and spitball the ramifications of it.

Dark is what's left of Dark Enerjak from the alternate Archie timeline, and he's always trying to reclaim that power, always trying to trick the other Knuckleses into drawing on the power of the Master Emerald so he can then have it for himself. (We're not sure how, those are details we don't bother with when we're knee deep in angst heaven.😆)

This bit was written a while before the other one I posted (Deep Thoughts) and introduced the idea of Boom being upset that he was so stupid on his world. I think he has some really deep resentment that he's viewed so poorly in his world, and he may fall for Dark if he's told he could be so much more respected if he shows his true power.

Dark gets to Boom after a particularly bad day where everyone makes fun of him or shows annoyance at him because of his 'stupidity'. He goes to the Sanctuary to cheer up, or at least take his mind off it, and Dark's the only one there, and the old crank sidles up to him, and is all "What's wrong, boy?" and Boom tells him because Boom doesn't think much of it, and Dark starts poking.

~~~~~

"Why do you think they see you like that?"

Boom shrugs. "Because in my world I am kinda dumb. Wachowski said it's probably because there's no Master Emerald, and something something chaos energy. I dunno. I didn't really understand it."

"But you think more clearly here, yes?"

"Yeah, but it doesn't really last when I get back home. Again, no Master Emerald there."

A smile curled Dark's lips. "But you have access to that energy. That power. You could pull from it and use it whenever you wish. Even in your world."

Boom quieted as he thought. He wasn't supposed to. It was pretty common knowledge among Knux's that they were only meant to be guardians, and not actually use that power.

"But the others always say that power's not meant for us," he said, brow furrowed. "We're just guarding it."

"But why not? I never understood that line of thinking. We are meant to simply stand nearby and look at it? We are the only creatures capable of harnessing and controlling chaos energy on that level. Why shouldn't we use it? If it's not meant for us, who is it meant for?"

Boom furrowed his brow. "I dunno . . ."

"Look at it this way," Dark said, inching closer. His voice had taken on a more eager tone. "Chaos energy is like a river. Flowing and moving freely around everything. If you could control that river, use it to make yourself healthy, or stronger, or . . . smarter, who would it hurt?"

Boom chewed his lip as he thought. He wasn't supposed to listen to Dark. None of them were. Because he was some evil Knux, from a different dimension—a different timeline? It was confusing—who'd done a lot of bad things with the power he'd had.

But . . . he kinda made some sense. So what if Boom used some of that power, if only to make himself think more clearly in his own world. That wasn't bad, right? It wouldn't hurt anyone, right? And he was a Knuckles--they were all good deep down, so even if he did use some of that power, he wouldn't do anything bad with it, so maybe it was okay?

He shook his head. This was confusing.

~~~~~

Dark eventually convinces him that tapping into the ME's power isn't so bad, and Boom's starts doing so. Just little bits here and there, mostly to make himself not so damn dumb on his world, but he doesn't know how to control that flow into himself. More importantly, doesn't know how to turn it off.

So it's flowing and becoming more and more powerful the longer he's linked to it, but it's too much, it's so much more than he's capable of handling.

His emotions are starting to cause problems back on his world - storms, earth tremors, killing vegetation near him, etc. No one has any idea what's going on, and he starts to panic, which is causing even more destruction.

He runs to the Sanctuary, but being in essentially ground zero of ME power makes things so much worse.

The Knux's who are there immediately feel the drain, and are shocked to see Boom of all people being the cause. Boom has no idea how to handle chaos energy in the first place, and being in a panicked state is making him unintentionally draw more.

The others are trying so hard to counter it, to balance it, but it's not working.

~~~~~

Boom fell to his knees, overcome with the sheer power flowing through him. Every nerve felt on fire. His muscles tense and thrumming with energy. He opened his mouth, trying to call to his friends, ask them to help him, but the only sound that came out was a strained scream.

The others stood back in shock. And maybe a little fear. They could feel the chaos running through him. There was so much. If they couldn't get it out of him, if he couldn't control it, it would tear him apart before their eyes.

Modern and X exchanged glances. Wachowski barely held himself back from rushing forward to help. Dread growled, his feet seeming glued to the floor as he watched his best friend struggle.

"We have t' do something!" he cried, looking from one set of fearful violet eyes to another. "Ye all know much more 'bout this Master Emerald. What c'n we do??"

"We . . . we don't know," Modern said, his eyes glued to Boom as the tall echidna struggled. "I've never seen anything like this before. No one's ever had this amount of power and lived."

"I have," a voice called from the shadows, and Dark moved into the light. A small smile curled his lips. "Oh, you poor foolish children. I have held just as much power before."

He turned to them, to Dread, that smile turning to a smirk. "I can help him."

The pirate's knee jerk reaction, honestly, was to launch himself forward and slice Dark's throat. The older version of themselves was never anyone's favorite, but now, when Boom's life hung in the balance, this wrinkled echidna's words seemed especially mocking.

"And I'm sure ye would do this outta the goodness of yer shriveled black heart," Dread snarled, showing fang. "And I'm also sure ye had nothing t' do with Boom even usin' that energy in the first place."

Dark moved closer, that smirk never fading. "We can stand here all day and point fingers, cast blame, but do you really think he has that kind of time?"

Dread looked back to his friend. Boom was on his hands and knees, waves of what he assumed was chaos energy flowing over him. The air around his body seemed to shimmer, and the Sanctuary around him . . . twisted. It was changing, as though melting and shifting into something different.

No time. Dark was right about one thing—there was absolutely no time to argue about this. Dread turned back to him, his snarl more pronounced.

"What can ye do?"

Dark uttered a soft laugh. "I can take the energy from him."

Of course he could. That's what he'd wanted all along. Using Boom's insecurities and fears to make him do something he ordinarily wouldn't. To tap into that power that Dark so desperately wanted, a power Boom had no hope to control himself.

Dark knew this would happen.

Dread's hand itched to take hold of his blade. He should have ended that shriveled pile of nastiness a long time ago.

Boom screamed again, and everyone in the Sanctuary covered their ears. It did little good. The sound came from inside their heads.

Dread uttered a loud growl, turning back to Dark.

There was no other choice.

"Help him, ye damned demon."

The smile on Dark's face widened, and Dread almost took a step back. He'd never seen the older echidna actually smile. Not like that.

"Gladly," he said, and moved with a speed Dread would not have expected. Dark stopped before Boom, going to one knee before the downed echidna. He didn't seem affected by the energy coming off Boom at all.

"You did well, son," Dark said, his voice low and dark. "You did just want I wanted."

Boom managed to lift his head, looking up at Dark. Tears ran down his muzzle, and his body trembled. "Wh-what?"

"Give me your hand." Dark held his own out. "I will take it from here."

Despite his current state, Boom hesitated. Questions, concern, fears, and doubts flittered through his mind.

This was wrong. He shouldn't. Dark was bad.

But the agony he currently experienced couldn't be ignored. The terror.

Lifting a trembling arm, Boom took Dark's offered hand.

The response was immediate. All that energy coursing through Boom, instilling every cell, every nerve, every fiber of his being with this unimaginable power, flowed into Dark.

No. That was the wrong word. It didn't flow as much as it was pulled into the older echidna. Every last ounce of the power Boom had tapped into was sucked away, along with whatever small amount he'd had to begin with. Boom uttered a strangled cry as Dark drained him, and fell to the floor, weak as a kitten when the older echidna finally released his hand.

Dark stood tall, his frail, weak body infused with that familiar power once more. He turned, offering the rest of the echidna present a wide, malevolent smile.

"Now," he said, his voice stronger than they'd ever heard it. "Oh, now the fun will truly begin."

~~ Qwerty

[barid-bel-medar]

At least Hori is one of the few writers who acknowledges that he should’ve done something differently for the early portions of the story. He acknowledges that he should’ve written Bakugo not as harsh and that Aizawa should’ve different characterization. So there are valid reasons for fanfic writers to reduce the Mary Sue-ness of Bakugo and make Aizawa into a better teacher. It’s just that people want to make Aizawa a Batman-like character without the charm and understanding on how Batman works in his universe, infantiled the other characters and bashed the good ones, and not understanding certain cultural impact in the Japan vs US societies.

This is very true! Like a lot of authors won't say shit or just hope people will accept retcons. Yes Hori's also to some extent doing the second, but at least he's come out and said he shouldn't have done some of the stuff he previously did (though I think there was also the issue of him underestimating how popular both Bakugou and Aizawa would get).

Yeah the attempts to make Aizawa a Batman-like figure in fanon/fic again (much like the Kakashi references I noted in that earlier post) miss why things work for that character. This definitely goes into the desire to make Aizawa a much more competent figure then he is actually written in canon. But like...he's not getting called in as a strategist. He's not getting get in because he's a great combatant. He's generally getting called in because they need his Quirk for something.

I should note this is also an issue Nedzu suffers in fic/fanon. He's certainly brilliant and manipulative. He also still misses some pretty obvious shit or handles it poorly (no matter what, someone as smart as he's supposed to be should have realized immediately how stupid the 'chain Bakugou to the pole' thing was)

(Though also in context of Batman I think it also gets missed a lot that the man himself fucks up/DC writes him as doing things that make no sense. I know I've talked about in the past the issue of how in the Nu52 when he's explaining his take down plans for JL members his plan for taking out a GL is apparently to use a yellow ring. You know, the thing these guys are specifically given training to fight against? And the ring-type that two of them (Hal and Guy) are perfectly capable of wielding themselves? Also in general Lantern rings are much, much harder to use then they seem on the surface, and trying to use one against people, who have the case of the four GLs he would have been setting up the plan against, been using those rings for several years is just stupid. Though also there it's a good demonstration of the arrogance DC also is prone to writing with Batman)

Though to be fair to the cultural impact issue, that's a pretty wide ranging issue in a lot of stuff, not just things related to Aizawa. There's a reason I had it specified in Words May Hurt that the detention thing is a result of WHA standardizing punishments at hero schools, rather than a norm.

[the-priestess-of-dawn]

thinking abt ur validar post because i actually thought about that a little in my stupid werewolf fic. I had to really sit down and be like "what the fuck would people even FIND attractive about this guy enough to have a baby" and I didnt wanna just use the occult angle and it hit me that Validar isn't self-caring because he hates he's not the vessel he wanted and yeah he definitely IS the equivalent of That Parent. You know the one. What I'm saying is maybe there's a commentary to be made here abt how the Plegian people and him in turn felt so dehumanized in general after a point even the extremist sects of Grimleal were better bc well, if you become food for Grima/BECOME Grima's body then you're useful and good and righteous. What gets me is Plegia isn't poor, either, but its poor in sustainability outside the ocean... idk, a lot of food for thought with Validar here. I didn't expect to think abt him in FEH so deeply but here we are.

Honestly it's kind of embarrassing how much I HAVE deeply thought about Validar. I've been wanting him to get into FEH for a long time now. A lot of his lines in Awakening are so poorly written that it's hard to make sense of him as a person. But even though you can't really argue that he's in any way sympathetic in the text... For me at least, there's no such thing as a completely unsympathetic villain, and I can't help feeling sorry for both him and the other members of the Grimleal...

I mean, yeah, when Aversa explains that Plegia suffering under Gangrel was useful because it drove the people to worship, I think we ARE supposed to feel bad for the common people. But I think it's easy to fall into a trap of trying to distinguish those ordinary citizens from the evil, manipulative leaders like Validar just a little bit too much. Aren't they all trapped in the same vicious cycle, in the end?

Over the course of the game, we occasionally fight some Grimleal enemies who are... really just nasty, and not supposed to be given a second thought at all. But I can't help but be moved that they call out to Grima with their dying words... "Master Grima... my life force... is yours..." (Chalard, Chapter 8). "Lord Grima... Rain down... retribution..." (Jamil, Paralogue 6).

The Grimleal... love Grima. Even Validar loves Grima. Aversa says he's everything she knows of love, but she also doesn't presume he loves HER, so of course it's his devotion to Grima that she sees. Notably, it's this form of love that makes her content to die for him.

So I end up feeling deeply moved, even though (or more accurately, BECAUSE) the entire philosophy behind the Grimleal is so horrific. The deep despair these people must feel in order to see salvation in the form of humanity's destruction... It's NOT just "hee hee powerful dragon will make me powerful" because these people, including Validar, do not presume that they are special and going to survive. Even the leader of the Grimleal is nothing. Grima alone is everything.

And... okay I talk a lot about the symbolism of Grima's name meaning mask, which I love so much, but lately I've also been thinking about the meaning of their Japanese name, Gimurei—from Norse, Gimlé, referring to the place where the righteous will dwell in happiness after Ragnarok, which will stand "even when both heaven and earth have passed away." So... yes, I do think that for the Grimleal, giving their souls to Grima is a way of becoming righteous. The world is cruel and ugly but Grima will make it right :::)

(Of course, because they believe Grima is the only answer, no one does anything to make the world they have any better. It's a self-fulfilling prophecy. One that Grima is drawn into as well. When this is what they wake up to, what are they supposed to do? If they don't destroy the world, they will be letting a LOT of people down.)

[apollos-boyfriend]

Dont know much about p5, why do you have morgana? Just curious

i'm preemptively putting this under the cut bc i KNOW it's going to get long but tl;dr: he's an annoying character that's poorly written. the conflict around his arc is badly done, and most of the time, he insults others for no reason and praises himself like a god. i would kill him if i could

SO. yes i took down notes of what i wanted to say before starting this. there is a Lot to get through.

first things first. during the first arc, when his character is introduced, we are also introduced to ann. ann is a pretty, charismatic girl, whose story largely revolves around people being unable to see past her looks, and she is both judged and sexualized for her appearance. she is also a teenager, which isn't Super important to morgana necessarily, but it's still weird, as morgana is 1. a cat (or a cat-like monster, depending on what form he's taking) and 2. unknown in age, acting anywhere from a child throwing a tamper tantrum to an older and more experienced mentor figure. at no point does morgana make an effort to treat ann like anything other than a subject for his affections. he only refers to her as "lady ann", praises her for the same thing he belittles others for, and overall, 99% of his interactions with her revolve around his attraction to her appearance and nothing more. he treats ann like they're destined to be together, and part of his end goal to "become human again" is because of his need to woo her over and claim her as his. it's unnecessary, it's annoying, and it's especially infuriating because the point of ann's character is to see past her appearance, something morgana never truly does. he compliments her smarts and actions because he likes her romantically, not necessarily because he genuinely thinks what she says and does is the best course of action.

second of all. in the same first arc, you're also introduced to ryuji. ryuji is the first character you meet, before morgana and ann, and the first friend you make at your new school. ryuji is seemingly bone-headed at times, but he's a passionate, caring kid who would do anything to protect his friends and family. he's by far one of the most beloved characters in the game, as he's just a good kid that's gotten wrapped up in some bad situations, and ostracized because of that fact. morgana makes fun of ryuji CONSTANTLY. and while, in all fairness, ryuji does make fun of morgana sometimes as well, it's not nearly as bad as morgana's treatment of ryuji. every word out of ryuji's mouth has morgana firing back with "of course an idiot like you would say that" or something equally as belittling. while ryuji is shown to not be a very booksmart character, he's extremely perceptive and in-tune with people's emotions. it's annoying and irritating to see morgana, who is, in all honesty, much worse than ryuji intellectually and emotionally, constantly punching down on him for simply breathing in his direction.

which leads me to the next point. one of the worst parts of persona 5 hits during a climatic argument between ryuji and morgana, as at this point, morgana has felt as if he’s “useless” towards the team and they would be better off without him. to begin with, morgana doesn’t even VOICE these concerns until they pile up. the game treats it like we’re supposed to pity him, as we, the player, see all these scenes of him moping and complaining about how useless he feels, but it means nothing because none of the fucking characters see that. they do not know he feels this way and therefore don’t know that they’re doing anything wrong. when he DOES finally voice these concerns, leading to the aforementioned argument with ryuji, ryuji is written as uncharacteristically mean and out of touch in order to push morgana to his breaking point. at no other point in the game does ryuji come anywhere close to acting like that. they purposefully mischaracterize one of their best-written characters just to have their stupid miscommunication plot work.

on top of that! morgana’s sucks. this is an issue a few of the persona 5 characters have, where instead of having a real arc, they repeat the same thing over and over again until their story actually moves forward. with other characters, you get to see their stories evolve and more forward with every meeting. by the end of each meeting, that character is in a different spot emotionally, physically, etc in comparison to the last time you met with them. they move forward. morgana doesn’t. every meeting with morgana is the same repetition of him going “i HAVE to be human . . . joker, you think i’m human right? but what if i’m not . . . no, that’s ridiculous, i HAVE to be.” you sit through this same conversation, no joke, roughly 8 times. there is nothing you can do to change it. it’s the same. stupid. boring. story. he doesn’t progress in this aspect until the VERY END of the game, and at that point you just want to throw him out into the fucking streets.

in retrospect to everything else i’ve listed. this is an admittedly small thing. and semi not his fault. but morgana is what the developers utilize as a roadblock, for lack of a better term. the developers don’t want you to go out? morgana tells you it’s time to go to bed. it is CONSTANT. he doesn’t even let you leave the HOUSE sometimes. it was a major mistake in the developers’ part, because i wouldn’t feel nearly as annoyed if it was the main character saying “oh, i shouldn’t go out today. i should go to bed”, because then it’d still feel like it was MY choice, to some extent. morgana forcing you feels much more like you are not in control of your own autonomy. you’re being forced to listen to a CAT. you don’t even have a say in the matter. these are not my thoughts. these are not my CHARACTER’S thoughts. why the hell should i have to listen to him??

there are probably more smaller things but. those are my biggest issues with him. he just encapsulates the worst parts of the game’s writing and honestly his only redeeming quality is the fact that he looks like a cute kitty

[atlas-plugged]

Atlas Shrugged Read-Through: PP 14-20

Our first introduction to the primary antagonist of Atlas Shrugged, Jim Taggart, is with him sitting at his desk saying "Don't bother me, don't bother me, don't bother me."

The unpleasant task that Eddie Willers has been facing is coming into Jim's office to tell him that a delivery of steel that has been delayed multiple times will be delayed again. Jim ordered the steel from his friend, Orren Boyle, who runs Associated Steel. Jim insists to Eddie that he won't hear of ordering the metal from the competing company, Rearden Steel, run by Hank Rearden. Taggart Transcontinental needs the steel because their Rio Norte line is too damaged to keep safely running trains on, and they are being outcompeted in the region by a small, local railroad called the Phoenix-Durango. Eddie is telling Jim to make a decision because the regional line supports the oil operation of Ellis Wyatt.

All of these are important characters and business that will come up a lot but they're not the real focus of this scene. The real focus of this scene is making Jim Taggart look like a big throbbing asshole, which is how you're supposed to think of him.

Here are a few of his lines from this brief scene:

"Who's thinking of giving up the Rio Norte Line?" he asked. "There's never been any question of giving it up. I resent your saying it. I resent it very much."

"Orren is my friend." He heard no answer. "I resent your attitude. Orren Boyle will deliver that rail just as soon as it's humanly possible. So long as he can't deliver it, nobody can blame us."

"Ellis Wyatt is a greedy bastard who's after nothing but money," said James Taggart. "It seems to me that there are more important things in life than making money."

"I think he's a destructive, unscrupulous ruffian. I think he's an irresponsible upstart who's been grossly overrated." It was astonishing to hear a sudden emotion in James Taggart's lifeless voice. "I'm not so sure that his oil fields are such a beneficial achievement. It seems to me that he's dislocated the economy of the whole country. Nobody expected Colorado to become an industrial state. How can we have any security or plan anything if everything changes all the time? [...] Yes, I know, I know, he's making money. But that is not the standard, it seems to me, by which one gauges a man's value to society. And as for his oil, he'd come crawling to us. and he'd wait his turn along with all the other shippers, and he wouldn't demand more than his fair share of transportation—if it weren't for the Phoenix-Durango. We can't help it if we're up against destructive competition of that kind. Nobody can blame us."

Jim Taggart is aggrieved. He is whiny, he doesn't accept responsibility for his actions, he resents people who are more active than he is (at least if they make demands on his time or cost him business by shifting their purchases to his competitors).

Jim is not written well, but the way that he is poorly written is interesting. Rand's big bad guy is an industrialist who doesn't take responsibility for his actions and who wants other people to do all of the hard work.

I'm going to get right to the big reveal in the middle of the book: Jim and the Moochers force through a law that means that nobody can compete with them. Other railroads shut down, new innovative companies have to give their capital to older businesses.

On the one hand, I think there's something clever that Rand is doing here. Jim and the Moochers use what is essentially "weaponized wokeness" (mealy-mouthed speeches about collectivism) to place themselves at the head of state-backed monopolies. They're not evil just because they're whiny and don't take responsibility, they're evil because they can use the power of the state to crush competitors, which also allows them to exploit workers and consumers.

On the other hand: I can't tell if Rand is being stupid or malicious in attributing the motivations for these actions to a collectivist impulse.

She clearly, obviously, deeply hated collectivism. But when each of her characters are revealed down to the nastiest, darkest parts of themselves it's revealed that their collectivist talk was meant to cover up personal greed. So I can't tell: stupid or malicious? Is she being stupid, and genuinely doesn't believe that anyone who talks about or works toward communal goods and shared resources actually wants those things? Or is she being malicious and suggesting that all people who claim to want to do things for the benefit of everyone are actually greedy and are trying to burn down the rest of the world so that they can stand on a slightly nicer bit of the ashes?

I haven't read much of Rand's non-fiction, or watched too many interviews with her, but I know that at one point she discussed the evils of altruism by saying that the Nazis were motivated by altruism. That seems like it's pulling a pretty bullshit rhetorical trick and defining "nationalism" as "altruism." And that's what she does with the evil characters in her books - makes them do terrible things while saying that they're doing so for the good of mankind when everybody knows the score. It's a bullshit rhetorical trick.

And this is how we're introduced to Jim Taggart. He's a wealthy industrialist who is whining to his sister's assistant that he can't be blamed that his friend is late with a delivery of steel. And I think Jim Taggart is a pretty good example of Rand being more malicious than stupid. We're going to learn a lot about his motivations and desires throughout the book and they come together to make a laboriously crafted strawman of an evil capitalist.

Anyway. Eddie walks out of their meeting after Jim insults his own sister; Eddie at that point finds an old clerk repairing a typewriter (one that has been repaired before and is made of inferior materials - planned obsolescence; a subject that I will have to yell about somewhere else) and asking Eddie if he knows where anyone can get woolen undershirts. Jim's office has been a break from the most visceral reminders of the bleak, slow-motion collapse of the economy that Eddie is confronted with as soon as he's out of the room again, and he is once again bothered by the question "Who is John Galt?" - the question that opened the novel in the mouth of a bum - as the introductory scene of the novel ends.

[rainsaws]

hey im gonna complain about how people characterize misty

i am annoyed with how i can never find content that properly portrays misty getting to be angry or upset without characterizing him as an actual stalker. it was stated in misty's disciplinary records that williams accusations were largely hyperbole and the investigation has concluded that misty hasnt affected his ability to work. being stalked would absolutely affect someones ability to work, especially if they were aware about it enough to make a report.

i hate this characterization because it waters down a very serious and real subject such as stalking to just, a character having a crush on another unreciprocated character. seeing art of misty staring at william through a window or following him is ridiculous to me because., thats just,. not something we would see in toontown? yes, ttcc can handle more emotional subjects, but there is a difference between having deeply emotional characters and poorly portraying stalking and harassment.

im not trying to say misty is in any way normal towards william, but comparing his stupid little bits of dialogue about him and minimal content featuring him to actual stalking feels tonedeaf and unrealistic. yes, mistys weird and awkward, i feel as though hes meant to be that way. his dialogue is supposed to rise a little bit of concern, but this is a kids game. his romantic implications about william are written with the seeming intention that they should be cartoonish and exaggerated, like how cogs are in general.

but even more so then that i think people forget that william is one of like, the most ridiculous cogs in all his writing. hes supposed to be laughable at how pretenious and straight laced he is. even in his cutscene he is put under a comedic spotlight for some of the ridiculous things he says

like. come on.

in short i just think that comparing mistys behaviour, in a game derived from over exaggerated cartoons and caricatures all meant to be comedic, to actual stalking is really tonedeaf and just poor misunderstanding of his actual character. you can have deep characters while still retaining a limit to how serious the game is going to get, and i think dark subjects like stalking is too much. ok bye lalala

[bardinthezone]

Watching Making myself sit through Moffat's Who, trying to give it a decent chance and I can't stand it already. Y'know why?

The stupid fucking love triangle.

Because not only is it just generally annoying as a trope, but it is so poorly written here. It takes over the show in a really obnoxious way and completely flanderizes characters who, in the first episode, were decent people.

Rory is portrayed as a fool for being... concerned that his fiance is cheating on him with the not-actually-imaginary friend she's been obsessed with since childhood, who she ran off with and kissed (A normal thing to be concerned about!!). And just generally, he's portrayed as a bumbling idiot. As the one who just gets confused and makes one-liners about being insecure. And both Amy and the Doctor just brush him off, leave him behind! Mocked by the woman who's supposed to be there for him and abandoned by the Doctor who's meant to keep him safe. He's being reduced to basically just comic relief here, and it sucks.

The Doctor is so.. aloof. More so than 10 and DEFINTELY moreso than 9. He's a silly, childish man who often fails to recognize the emotional consequences of his actions. He has his emotional moments, yes, but a lot of his writing falls victim to what I call "Sherlock Syndrome." When Moffat just writes an aloof super genius and expects the audience to fawn over him because he has good outfits and witty one-liners. Matt Smith is a fantastic actor and he carries a lot of his run, but putting glitter on a turd doesn't stop it being a turd.

Amy is yet another victim of the "every woman falls madly in love with the Doctor" pitfall. Worked with Rose, got old with Martha and after that almost every one-off woman who flirted with him just made me roll my eyes. Her obsession and anger with the Doctor didn't have to be romantic, but Moffat just couldn't resist writing a "strong female protagonist" who's sexy and she knows it, who loves having all the boys fawn over her and flirts without a care in the world. Who's a brash girlboss in charge of her boys, but who also turns into a sobbing damsel in distress at the slightest sign of danger.

All three of these characters are so blatantly characatures of themselves right now that it takes me out of it. They're all just quippy one-liners of their smartness or their brashness or their insecure foolishness. Can these types of people exist in real life? Yeah. But the way they're written about here is just obnoxious. I'm willing to accept that later Moffat seasons might be better than this (at least on the interpersonal conflict side of things), but it's season 1 and he's already dropping the ball so hard.

We could've gotten something truly marvelous, with a PLATONIC conflict based on the Raggedy Man from her childhood finally coming back and offering her freedom from a boring adult life. She's enamored with him, but doesn't entirely trust him because hey, he massively fucked up once already. Maybe Rory is concerned about his place in Amy's life, and Amy tries to be comforting. Maybe she messes up, maybe she says the wrong thing. Maybe she says the wrong thing right before losing Rory to the crack in space and time. But she has to try, because why should I care about a relationship where one person doesn't care about the other's happiness, at least a little? And right now it just feels like she doesn't.

I'm not saying shows shouldn't have interpersonal conflicts and flawed protagonists. They should! But to pull that off well, you have to make us want to see these characters grow. You have to give us a reason to enjoy watching these characters interact, even at their low points. And revisting Moffat's run as an adult, I don't feel enjoyment. I just feel annoyed.

[it-is-i-zim]

Before I get any bs messages from anyone about Captain Boomerang being a creep. I really want to say he's not. I really don't want to pull up anything from the worst version of him from the 1987 Suicide Squad. I really don't. But here we are again, I guess. People who don't know shit about him, talking about him as though they know his entire history.

This was less than 10 years before Showcase '94 #6. This is literally the worst version of him from any main comic. He was literally a racist douchebag in this comic. But even here he cares about consent. Is he written as pervy sometimes? Yes. Is he supposed to be implied to be rapist like in panel? ABSOLUTELY NOT.

This is honestly disgusting. Sick of Captain Boomerang being written this poorly. And I'm tired of having to defend myself Every. Single. Fucking. Time. Someone says something stupid cuz they read a fucking 30 year old comic that had nothing to do with him and the writer wrote him poorly.

[taraknowless]

no wait finish the purple hearts essay i gots to know!

Hahahaha ok here we go

(based on these tags I left on a gifset: #not to be a hoe for this movie but#wait there actually is no but#I AM a hoe for this movie#and I think twitter is ripping it a new one for all the wrong reaons#in this essay I will -#shut up janina nobody cares#purple hearts)

So this movie is doing exceptionally well (or at least that's what Netflix tells us and we all know: never trust numbers that you didn't fake yourself) and twitter is essentially tearing it apart because it's so racist and misogynistic (the dinner scene after they got married is making the rounds and people are angry) and I'm like -

Yes?? That's the point?? The movie is doing this intentionally?? We have Cassie react to it multiple times?? People act like this movie presents those scenes in a positive light - but it never does?? If you are outraged about these scenes - good!!! You are supposed to be! Those scenes are literally a big catalyst for even more conflict between Cassie and Luke?? (Although can I say that during the dinner scene, I think Luke is more concerned about blowing their cover than actually defending his friend and that's why he's just trying to not cause a scene - albeit to be fair in general, Luke is a shell of a character, he doesn't have a single character trait besides supporting the military lmao)

What people should drag this movie for is that those “issues” were never resolved and that the main message is ~ love can overcome all odds ~ which is bordering on insanity when you have completely opposing political views (if that's even the case for Luke, I feel like we saw more of his republican family and his xenophobic friends and never what he actually thinks (did he have his own thoughts..like at all??) but I guess you are the company you keep so......) like I don't know about you but I kinda want my partner to support the same basic human rights as I do. I think they kinda blew it by trying to make this movie overly woke and having this as the base of their movie. Like what was the point of all the political subtext? Literally every plot line of this movie would've worked without that and since this is still your good old romance movie, it just felt very out of place and ' fake woke'. They wanted to have their cake and eat it too. Cassie called him out constantly but in the end it was brushed off as a minor argument when there should have been some kind of change on his part - but there never was as far as we’ve seen, it was just never brought up again and kinda just ended in “agree to disagree I guess” which is just very poorly written.

But the bottom line is that I still highly enjoyed this movie because two hot strangers got fake married, had to be fake in love (and good God, they were bad at it), had to share *one* bed (shrieks!!!) and then they fell in love for real!!! it's a stupid romance movie!!! do I wish it was better? hell yes! I am starved for good romance movies. but I’m still here for the chemistry and the tropes!!! and those were fire!! let women enjoy things!!!

[swirlysmile]

this is for everyone who wanted it , hope it’s a little enjoyable! thank you to everyone who offered ideas for how a sequel should be written, i appreciate it ❤️

word count: 728

warnings; some f bombs, lots of dialogue=less story, poorly written

this is a sequel so read the first!!

“What the hell [callsign]?” Ice says, venom lacing his tone. He’s been searching, stalking his prey, and he just walked into the common room, and luckily, for your sake, it was only being occupied by you. 

“What do you want, Ice?” You’re matching his tone, and he doesn’t appreciate it. If anything you should be apologizing. You roll your eyes when you turn around to face him.

“Bitch.” He mutters, and you can hardly hear him.

Ask anyone else on base and they’d tell you Ice had been asking around, like he was a little desperate to find you.

“No, what do you want? Why even give this to me, asshole?!” He says, seething.

“Give what to you?” 

“This fucking letter!” He says, holding up the letter you had written a few days prior. Instead of fear or remorse, you just feel confused. You never sent that letter out, or gave it to anyone to deliver to Ice.

“You weren’t supposed to get that,” You say truthfully. He wasn’t supposed to get that letter. You had written your deepest secret in it, and Ice was definitely not supposed to know.

“Why leave it on my doorstep then dumbass?” 

“I didn’t.”

It’s his turn to roll his eyes. “It’s not like it just blew out your window and randomly found its way to me, so what are you trying to gain from giving this to me?” 

“I didn’t give it to you.”

He flips you off. From your point of view, the window thing doesn’t sound so impossible, except… you never open the windows. 

“You read all of it?”

“Yes.” He grumbles, patience running thin. 

“So why in the world do you think I’d want you to see that?!” 

He’s silent for a minute, thinking of a good answer. When he can’t, he just settles for a “Look, just tell me why you gave me the damn letter.”

“I didn’t give you the letter.” 

It’s a bit of back and forth, Ice insisting that you look stupid trying to deny it because it didn’t just pop up and you, genuinely, denying it because why on earth would you want him to read all of that. The letter was probably the worst love confession of all times, not to mention the many notes of underlying jealousy. That’s a look you wouldn’t want many to see on you, much less Iceman. 

“Look, Kazansky, it wasn’t me.” You say for the final time. Then you realize.

The letter was addressed to Ice, and it was on your counter. Slider just happened to come by for some painkillers, so you told him where the key was and he saw the letter. 

“Oh my god. It was Slider… Maybe he thought he saved me an extra trip.” You mumble aloud, and Ice stares at you like you’re crazy.

“What business would my RIO have with your unsent mail?” 

“Absolutely none. He saw it on my counter, he came by for some medicine.” 

Ice’s expression softens from that intense glare to a more confused glare. 

“What the fuck.” He groans. This situation just got a lot worse. 

Your head is pounding because Tom is not a quiet man. Your throat is sore due to the amount of yelling you had to do just for him to acknowledge you. In short, there was a lot of yelling. 

“You actually thought I wanted you to read that?” 

“I mean, kind of. You hate me… so, yeah. Don’t you want me to know everything wrong with myself?” He actually sounds a little remorseful.

“I hate you? No, you hate me.”

“I don’t hate you. It’s more of an intense dislike.”

You shoot him a scowl. 

“Kidding, kidding.” He says, throwing his hands up in surrender. He gives a small eye roll.“I’ve never hated you, just been a little intimidated. You’re a good pilot, and maybe I sort of hate that I love you too.” 

He rushes the last part.

“You’re a dick.” You say because he is definitely mocking you. Maybe if this had been happening to someone else it’d be a little more funny.

“I’m serious!” 

“Yeah okay,” but before you could finish rolling your eyes, the predator pounced. His lips are on yours and if you weren’t so surprised, maybe you’d kiss back instead of starting to laugh.

“You’re serious,” You say, still chuckling. 

“Yeah, I’m serious.” 

[exposingtheidiocy]

This Scene Sucks: Sora's Breakdown (KH3)

"Sora Gives Up & Everyone Dies"

"Sora Gives Up"

You can probably already tell from the title of the video that it sucks. Context makes it even worse.

Much has been said about the scene of everyone facing off against Terranort and the Demon Tide, and I agree with all of the criticisms: everyone stood there and let themselves get fucked over, the scene was badly paced, cinematography was horrible, etc.

But the part I'm highlighting is after that, from around 6:17 and onwards, after the Demon Tide takes out the rest of the cast except Sora and Riku and he breaks down in tears. This moment got so much hype from the trailer showcasing it, and even today, many praise it as an amazing scene, but not me.

Listen to this garbage:

"They're gone. Kairi, Donald... Goofy, the King... Gone forever. What do we do? Without them...I... All my strength came from them. They gave me all of it. Alone, I'm worthless."

What the fuck.

First of all, Riku said a few minutes earlier that they still have their hearts, which means it was not too late, but they have to protect them. Despite this, Sora just stands there and spouts this garbage instead of fighting. I could see him breaking down after the fact, or even for a little bit before he starts fighting, but this is how he acts throughout the whole scene before darkness wins. Riku isn't much better, he doesn't pick up the slack for Sora, he doesn't try all that hard to get him to pull it together, he just says a platitude. Riku comes off as an uncaring dickhead, he couldn't care less that Sora is having a meltdown over people dying, or that said people just died.

The quoted line above is supposed to be this huge callback to the moment in Hollow Bastion from the original KH where Riku takes everything from him, but it fails. Sora lost everything: his weapon, his friends, and he eventually got his act together. Seeing Beast fight that hard for the one he loved was more than enough motivation, but in this scene, he still has a weapon, and Riku is still there (I guess he's just not that important to him anymore).

He also says his strength came from his friends (again, I guess Riku doesn't count), but who was doing almost everything throughout the game? Who was the one saving everybody? Him. It's not this clever deconstruction of the "my friends are my power line" that everyone says it is, it's just stupid. This sort of scene was also done better in the previous world, The Caribbean, in the same game - the scene where he pounces on Davy Jones wass good.

Another thing I see people say is that it's a culmination of his self-doubt in 3 (an arc that I think was so poorly executed as it required him to be ooc to tell this story), and that it was buildup from DDD. Yes, people, this COMPELLING character arc hinges on context from A FUCKING SPINOFF TITLE. I think that says enough.

The scene is also hilarious considering when he sees Chirithy, he's back to being the "sunshine boy"!

In summary, the scene was way too overdramatized in context, didn't live up to trailer hype, compromised Sora's character (and Riku's to an extent, as well as the others who just stood there and died), and the lines were badly written.