Tumgik
#He actually sounds quite like an hypocrite by his backstory
Note
tell! us! about! bleach! (aka ask game #37 "talk about your current wips" for AEIWAM. I stopped reading somewhere in the early stages of the arrancar arc but my brother keeps telling me Crazy Shit that happened and tbh the soul society arc had some really strong points, so I have some lingering affection for the early characters.)
An Elephant Is Warm And Mushy is based on:
That time I read about the... first half? third? of Bleach (Ichigo hit Aizen real hard with a sword and tried to quit being a protagonist about it) when I was in college and then dropped out due to brain damage from Dengue Fever.
Beloved children's book Seven Blind Mice by Ed Young.
A lecture I got to attend by Paleontologist Dr. Bob Bakker about how dinosaurs and other extinct animals are reconstructed from fragmentary evidence, and what kind of assumptions you can and cannot reasonably make from different kinds of data.
It's also me, once again, taking an excavator to the backstories of characters I like but I felt were underdeveloped or written weirdly for their stated motivations.
... Like how Unohana's later backstory of extreme violence and what sounds to me a hell of a lot like ND pleasure-seeking behavior, is great, actually, but nobody goes and practices medicine for 1,000 years and not get even weirder than before.
Or how Yachiru by herself is an interesting fucking character if allowed to develop and Zaraki is a DRASTICALLY more interesting if he's a guy who spent centuries killing but it's his decison to become a father is what finally grants him personhood.
Or Tousen, a character with an intense grudge against the system that he decided to infiltrate with a body that would *barely* allow him to do so (the weak reiatsu thing more than the blindness thing tbh), but made that system drastically more effective and less corrupt while he was actively betraying it and to me that speaks of a man much, MUCH weirder than a mere hypocrite?
There are Several Elephants in the room, and nobody can see more than a fraction of any of them :)
162 notes · View notes
thenajwanimri · 3 months
Text
I've just finished watching Berlin
and I liked it more than I thought I will, so I will rant a bit. What is this show even about?
Heists? Checked. But it is not exactly about a well elaborated heist like LCDP. Those who start watching it expecting specifically that will probably be disappointed. The heist is pretty much just a setting where the characters and their traumatic romantic experiences exist…. Which, surprisingly, wasn't as bad as it sounds written like this.
Romance? Checked. This show is a bit like a commentary about the various faces of romantic love and it did it pretty well imo. And this comes from someone who in general dislikes blatant cheesyness. The only part which annoyed me was that a certain woman proves to be far too doe eyed even at the end of the story when she should have been raging… uhm… similarly to a certain other woman who kind of did the same through the whole of LCDP, so… yeah, let's don't get hung up on this.
Problematic main character? Checked. Initially I was sceptical about this spinoff. Although, I can understand why they probably chose Berlin. Pedro Alonso makes a good lead. Although his character is not doing too much leading in the series… And Berlin was both appealing and problematic, which is a good mix for a show. In this series though, he is only problematic… and very annoying. He was such a narcissistic, insensitive, asshole even in his "golden days" that I was actually cheering for the police to catch him, and throw him into jail. Don't get me wrong, I like the problematic characters, Zulema Zahir ended up being one of my favorites, and I liked her character even more after her spinoff, but it's the exact opposite with Berlin. (Nothing against Pedro Alonso, again, he does his job well.) And that's the point probably, to call him out on his bullsht, but the guy is still infuriating. Even if I'd watch another season with him.
Interesting people in the team? Checked. This was actually a nice surprise, which I didn't expect at all. In contrast with Berlin himself, I liked all the new characters! I might even say that more than most of the team members in LCDP.
Capable inspectors to put up with the team? Checked. (Ok, we all know who wins this cat and mouse game, so that's not even the point.) BUT they have so little screentime! When we found out that Najwa Nimri will be in the series too, and especially when they used her and Itziar Ituno to promote the show my enthusiasm for it grew exponentially. And then I felt let down. I would have loved to see Najwa in a lot more episodes than the two we got with her… This is the biggest negative aspect which I can complain about. But if I am honest, I would have preferred an Alicia+Berlin or Alicia+Raquel backstory as a spinoff, but that's another thing. (Unlike Camille, Alicia would have kicked Berlin's a** for sure.) But I am glad that we at least had her, and Raquel too, in the series. I hope the creators of the show know that there are quite many people who ended up more interested in the series because these ladies made a brief appearance in it.
Pretty visuals and nice music? Checked. I loved the sunny Parisian/French scenario in the show.
I don't want to be too strict with this series, because I enjoyed it so complaining about it would be hypocritical. The only negative thing I'd emphasise again is: Not enough Alicia Sierra!
And they have to make another season just to make Andres interact with Alicia. I wanted that so much!
12 notes · View notes
Text
I Lombardi alla prima crociata (Liège, 2023): Reactions, Part I
please for the love of everything holy let this be a production that actually does something interesting in a good way with this messy-ass opera
Tumblr media
oh?
Tumblr media
OH PLEASE LET THIS BE BABY GISELDA THAT WOULD BE SO FUCKIN CUTE
Tumblr media
backstory: unlocked
Tumblr media
and here are all the usual suspects
Tumblr media
fakers gonna fake fake fake fake fake 
Tumblr media
why do they look anemic
Tumblr media
pirro out here having an existential crisis (probably about why the makeup/hair designer gave him that godawful look)
Tumblr media
who DOESN’T love a big verdi ensemble where everyone sings about their conflicting feelings *chef’s kiss*
Tumblr media
pagano: *makes classic villain faces*
Tumblr media Tumblr media
um. about that.
Tumblr media
director: how do we get everyone to understand this line about blood-tinged light
lighting designer: hear me out
lighting designer: we make the light go RED
director: awesome!
Tumblr media
anyone in the mood for some scene change nuns?
Tumblr media Tumblr media
spoken like a true incel
Tumblr media
what the hell are these cloaks lmao
also why is the priest getting in on the murder action
Tumblr media
Area Man Feels Catholic Guilt
Tumblr media
but that doesn’t stop him from going on with his Evil Scheming (also this singer is quite good!)
Tumblr media
mother-daughter bonding time! 🥺
Tumblr media
lovely aria, lovely soprano, lovely simple bedroom set
Tumblr media
you gotta imagine though. this is a teenage girl who’s likely never personally encountered death but is facing that real danger for the first time. she’s probably scared out of her fuckin mind
Tumblr media
tfw you meant to kill your brother but you accidentally killed your dad instead
Tumblr media
i get it but also that’s kinda hypocritical of you there
Tumblr media
THANK YOU GISELDA
Tumblr media
this one’s on you buddy
Tumblr media
the conductor just gave up on getting the first page unstuck from the cover lmaooooooo
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
yup! definitely sounds like the crusades!
Tumblr media
ramon vargas still going strong after all these years!!!
Tumblr media
wuv twue wuv (also hey possible baby giselda is back)
Tumblr media
aww sofia and giselda just being cute in the back
Tumblr media
this is oronte. he is a tenor who drinks his respecting women juice. more tenors should be like oronte.
Tumblr media
i…don’t think that’s how that works
Tumblr media
awwwwwwwwwwww good moms don’t get enough operatic representation
Tumblr media
why does he look the EXACT SAME
Tumblr media
okay but this is low key a mood
Tumblr media
nice to dream but i still don’t think murdering other people is the solution you think it is
(“savannah you’re ignoring the thought processes of the people in the crusades�� no i’m saying that that thought process is WRONG)
Tumblr media
somehow this is a glow DOWN
Tumblr media
yeah because God’s going to be mad at you for killing innocent people
Tumblr media
ARVINO YOU DUM DUM THAT IS LITCHRALLY OBVIOUSLY YOUR BROTHER
Tumblr media
islamophobia: the chorus
Tumblr media
verdi’s answer to every high school girly clique bullying sitch
Tumblr media
she’s just a little creative type!
Tumblr media
okay that’s genuinely uncalled for
Tumblr media
these are the WORST attempts at hijab i have EVER seen. like somehow this is worse than not trying at all
Tumblr media
rip viclinda
Tumblr media
Area Soprano Wants To Die, so what’s new
Tumblr media
giselda look DIRECTLY behind you
Tumblr media
oh NO
Tumblr media
tfw your dad apparently killed your boyfriend because he (your dad) is a racist islamophobic shithead
Tumblr media
YES GISELDA GO THE FUCK OFF
Tumblr media
pot calling the kettle black (when the kettle wasn’t black in the first place)
Tumblr media
litchrally and figuratively on a different level than everyone
Tumblr media
ARVINO WHAT THE ACTUAL FUCK IS WRONG WITH YOU THAT IS LITCHRALLY YOUR DAUGHTER
Tumblr media
in conclusion: giselda is so fuckin brave and right and she must be protected at all costs
anyway i’m gonna eat lunch so we’ll be back later
6 notes · View notes
coldgoldlazarus · 2 years
Note
I Ask Respectively for
Aak from Arknights
Krika from Bionicle
Maria Calavera from RWBY
Heimerdinger from Arcane
Rarity from My little pony
Quite the group of character. All people who witnessed dire situations and came out of it defeated in some way.
Except rarity. She is just goals.
Oh dang, that's a lot. Lemme put this under a readmore:
Aak:
Tumblr media
I don't really like Aak all that much, but I'll also freely admit that I don't really have a good reason for it? I just didn't care for his vibes from the outset, then people paying more attention to him over Nian during their shared banner soured me against him further, and then people shipping him with Warfarin over their genuinely hostile rivalry thing made me actively hate him for a while.
Nowadays, my opinion has eased off considerably; I find his gimmick of attacking other Operators a hilarious expression of his character even if it ensures I'd never, ever use him even if I had him, and the Lee's Detective Agency animated short made me reluctantly admit that he does play off of Waai Fu and Hung well, and so I can kinda enjoy him in that context. I don't know a lot of his deeper backstory, so idk how he connects to the "defeated by a dire situation" motif, but that does sound intriguing.
In short, I don't think he's ever going to be a character I come to like, per say, but he's at least grown on me enough for me to enjoy what he brings to the table, in small doses at least. Still not a fan of him and Warfarin, though.
Krika:
Tumblr media
Krika is in kind of a weird spot for me. I really really enjoy his character, he's definitely up there among Bionicle's wide cast, and one of the genuinely compelling and well-written villains during a period where most of the others were stuck in Greg's cookie cutter mould of edgy gleeful mass murderers, and also he was the first set from the 08 waves I got. I really do love him.
All the same, he kinda fades into the background for me a lot of the time unless I'm actively reminded of his existence. This is probably partially because, as I've said many a time before, the Ignition Trilogy just isn't exactly my favorite era of Bionicle, but part of it may also be that he was there and gone so relatively quickly that I didn't really get to form as much of an attachment before the inherent tragedy of his character role and arc struck. The fact that his death happened only a year after Matoro's didn't help any, even if the contexts were radically different.
I wouldn't necessarily call him overrated, strictly, but it does feel sometimes like he's rated juuuust slightly above where he actually should be, if that makes any sense. Also, I'm a hypocrite who will woobiefy and excuse him plenty, but then get annoyed by others doing it, when part of what makes him interesting to me is that his long cricket leg pincer things hands are no cleaner than the other Makuta; he's just the only one that actually cares about how awful they've become.
Personally, I feel like if he'd been given earlier appearances and more set-up in the preceding years, (not that that could have really happened given the course of the planning and development cycles for the toys) or some form of retroactive further development somehow, (either through a ressurection or a flashback serial or something) then he would more fully earn all the praises he gets. As is, he's still a fantastic character, just lacking the kind of staying power he deserves.
Maria:
Tumblr media
I don't have a whole lot to say about her. She's a great character, especially for such a late addition, and fills her mentor role really well, reflecting off of both Ruby and Qrow really well. (It would be cool to see more of her younger exploits, but at the same time it doesn't feel necessary, you know?) Plus, she's just amazingly fun to see in action, bantering with the kids, being the perfect matchup to give Neo a much-needed asskicking (I say this as a Neo stan) and also imparting the genuinely wise insight at just the right times. I understand why she got Put On The Bus early into Volume 8, but I still really miss her and want to see more of her.
Heimerdinger:
Tumblr media
I really like this guy.
Setting his specific character aside for a moment, as a Yordle I think his inclusion as a main cast member for Arcane was pretty genius, honestly. It establishes early that Yordles just Are A Thing, and that even with the adorable chibi proportions and furriness, they are still just as valid as serious dramatic characters as anyone else; had they had Ziggs instead it would be harder to take them seriously, and had they just waited until later altogether, introducing them would feel too dissonant and out of the blue. Establishing right away that this cute guy is not only a leader on the Council but a revered founder of the city, makes telling any other stories involving yordles they may choose to pursue far easier from the outset, at least from an audience perception/suspension of disbelief standpoint.
And then as Heimerdinger specifically, I think he plays a really good role in the story, even if I do sometimes overlook him in favor of the more prominent cast members. His presence as the small-c conservative authority figure in Jayce and Viktor's lives; simultaneously too stuck in the past and ignorant of the present, deeply alien in his perception of time and human mortality, yet not completely unjustified in his fears of Hextech and magic, and being ultimately well-meaning despite his impotence; is as refreshingly nuanced a portrayal of his archetype as the others are of theirs.
I feel like he and Ekko did kinda get the short end of the stick in the finale in some ways, but all the same we didn't necessarily need something bigger and more dramatic when the important part was that they met at all to begin with, and we can see them starting to learn from one another, while any more specific developments are ultimately best saved for season 2.
Fun fact, I initially mistook him for another Yordle character from the game, called Corki, and spent a while during my first watching of Arcane wondering when he'd get his biplane. Turns out that's not really a thing, but all the same, I have to wonder what will lead to him going all-out with the turrets and bombs after the way his character's been developed thus far.
Rarity:
Tumblr media
I love her. Favorite of the Mane 6 (even if Twilight and Applejack are close behind) and just, an absolute icon. I support women's rights, and also women's wrongs, etc; even at her most ridiculous, I would cheer her on. Tabitha St. Germain's skill for whole-heartedly chewing the scenery is like, half the reason she holds up so well in my mind, but even without that, she just lives at a kind of extra I can only aspire towards.
She's also rather personal for me, since her becoming my favorite not only coincided with, but both fueled and reflected my coming to better understand and accept parts of myself. Even aside from that, her struggles as an artist on the show were extremely relatable to me as a writer, (and as it later turned out, also me as someone with adhd, lol.) and sometimes I still invoke her as a Muse when I'm struggling. I own a plushie of her. I miss her, Tails, I really do.
And I'm kinda salty she did't get to marry Applejack in the series finale, losing out to Rainbow Dash??? Just another reason to be glad I stopped watching after Season 6.
But dang do I really miss her, and one of these days I want to go back.
10 notes · View notes
thesummitofrats · 3 years
Text
I was looking for some Avatar Makers for my WIP RPG and made this lil Bill Cypher looking bitch
Tumblr media Tumblr media
15 notes · View notes
pocketramblr · 3 years
Text
other main character meta- Ochako, pt 1
<part 2>
“Could you send me there?” you ask, while i blink, confused. “The world where someone else is the main character? not because i have any hypocritical biases against the one i got, just curious how the fandom meta changes.”
“Oh, yeah, sure.” I nod, thinking, before tapping my wand against your forehead. “Let’s start with Ochako.”
"I'm going to warn you now- I will have to slightly adjust the plot like I did with Mirio, just to actually let her be the main character."
"Yeah, that checks out." You nod, thinking about certain arcs where the female fighting teams get no coverage while the dudes get four different backstory reveals and full fight focus.
"Very well."
The show begins with a brief narration by the girl of quirks and super hero fights- all flashy. Then it zooms out to show the destruction, and a small construction team moving in as Ochako explains that just as there are new careers in society for heroes, there's also a bigger market for construction companies, one of which her own family runs.
"I've always wanted to help them with it, and my quirk would be useful"- a tiny, adorable Ochako finally appears, making rocks in a park float- "but to get a work license like that is expensive and selective- you've got to make a lot of court appearances and convince them why is a good idea and won't destroy the economy. It's much easier to get a hero license."
Then she explains: "Of course, once you have a hero license, you can make a lot more money than just by helping the company. Especially if... Your family company isn't doing very well." A series of tired but loving parents are shown working all hours to make ends meet.
"I want to help them- my parents. They've done everything for me, and they deserve a break. So that's why I'm going to be a hero- their hero."
The training montage is quick, using her quirk during school in training, after school in secret, around the house. She saves up money too, and studies, aiming for a scholarship.
She applies and tests for many hero schools, and the exams all vary widely.
The first episode ends with her looking up at UA, her final one, the one she really hopes to get into.
"Oh, that's nice." You nod. "And we even get to know her parents' quirks here."
"Yep." I agree. "In general, there's a lot more of a look at the financial side. It's pretty interesting."
"And the fandom?"
"Well, certain people get praised for the bare minimum, but I'll admit having a female lead is super uncommon for shonen jump." It's an improvement, though it's up in the air how much of one it will be. "There's also, because we saw a lot more hero schools, a ton of "students at different school" fics, either because they were expelled or because of the danger UA gets into."
"I do kinda feel like this universe is lucky for that sort of world building." You nod.
"It's very cool to see the takes on the aus. But, I will say there's a cost for this world building- the AfO stuff reeeeally comes out of nowhere and tends to not be popular with fans."
The next episode starts, and Ochako helps a boy from falling. "Love interest alert!" The fans notice quickly when the cute boy blushes and doesn't manage to say much before she walks away.
"They caught on quick." You note.
"And they aren't wrong." Not that it's any real feat to be right.
The exam starts, and Ochako is off in a flash. You see a few glimpses of future classmates- Iida, Aoyama, Kirishima.
She does well, racking up villain points and rescue points, until she's a little too ambitious and falls into the rubble. Her nausea is well established by now, everyone knows she's at her limit.
She can't get up.
The green haired boy comes back and stops the zero pointer.
And breaks every bone in the process.
Ochako saves him in return, lifting up the rubble and stopping his fall.
And then vomits violently afterwards.
"You know, I think quirks suck, actually." The fandom tends to agree on this after that episode/chapter. "But it is interesting that there's such a price for the powers, balances it really well."
"Ha." You shake your head. "They caught onto that, quicker."
"Yep." I can't even say it's more highlighted here, it's the exact same way it was shown in our universe- down to the sparkling rainbow puke.
"Though..." You can't quite imagine that's the only thing the fandom is saying isn't actually that great.
"Ding ding ding." I nod. "Did our own main character get treated just like a damsel in distress? Sure, she saved him back, but that just meant she could have floated away on her own in that time, even if it made her sick. Better that than dead. Is it the sexism?" I shrug. "Most decide to wait and see a bit, and by the time they work together in the first battle exercise figure it's a pretty even split between them saving each other."
"So no sexism?" You get happy at that thought.
I cough. "Ah, no. Both in the show and the fandom. You wouldn't believe how many grown men complain about the lady mc, even as they keep watching."
"And have her body pillow."
"Please don't make me think about that." I cover my eyes, but don't deny that it's true. "Anyway, yeah. Get ready for a lot of people to point out that even though the main character is a girl, every single other girl is flat as cardboard so far and that she only has developed friends that are guys."
"Hey, they aren't flat-"
"In the first season? Yeah they are. Unless you meant, physically, in which case..."
"I didn't." You protest. "But I guess I can see your point, at the start."
"Right. Let's continue on."
Uraraka goes to Present Mic to offer her points. The man pats her on the head, and skyrockets to the position of fandom dad.
"It's all about Dadmic and then Dadzawa here," I explain. "The fans were very disappointed to learn Mic wasn't her homeroom teacher, but yeah... He got a huge head start before Dadzawa fics got going."
"Nice. And it's all fanon?"
"Yeah, it may be a good thing he's not actually in it much, or they might realize how much they just made up on their own."
Then she gets accepted in, on hero and rescue points- she's third place overall, and she gets the scholarship.
On the first day of school, she actually gets to know her love interest's name- Midoriya!
There's also the quirk assessment, which really leads to the "expelled to another school" au and the "fire Aizawa and replace him with better Mic" aus, the first of which lasts much longer in the fandom use, but the second one was just as passionate for a while.
Iida becomes the second friend, and gives her the "Infinity Girl" nickname- which actually is the fandom assumption of what her hero name will be for quite a while, a la 'ground zero'.
Then it's time for All Might's first appearance on screen, to much applause of the students, and the announcement that they get their costumes.
During the first battle exercise, there's a lot more lingering camera work in the changing rooms. Ochako gets to expand a lot more on how she didn't want her costume to be that tight. It's uncomfortable, especially when she thinks about wearing it in front of everyone.
"Oh, I forgot she didn't like it at first... Does she just, get used to it here?" It sounds horrible for the plot to just say 'get used to it' to the main character being sexualized by costume makers outside of her control, especially as a child.
"Not on my watch." I mumble, waving the wand. "Don't worry, she'll actually get more costume changes each time, like some other characters."
"Oh good."
Mineta, regrettably, still exists. You find the fandom manages to be even more violent in his removal.
The battle does even out the opinions on Midoriya, as well as lead to a boost in Iida's with his charming little attempt at thinking villainously.
And cements Bakugo as rather hated. No one has really liked him, when the first thing he did was blow up at Midoriya, then get revealed to have called him a cruel nickname all this time. And then specifically hunt him down because all he cares about it beating him up.
"Yeah he's not gonna get a lot of fans here huh."
"He sure never gets first place in the popularity poll." I agree. "Most consider him the subversion of the rival trope to show is just stupid and violent and in real life, people like that don't go anywhere."
"Most?"
I look away. "How dumb of a discourse do you think you could see today?"
"Oh please, show me." You lean in. "It's nice to not have to deal with it in my universe, so I don't care."
The discourse is such.
Bakugo is gay-coded for Midoriya, the violence is a result of him being shoved off for a girl's love interest when she should be single and independent, and the homophobic creator is vilifying all gay people by saying they are predatory to poor straight boys with refused.
"They............... What."
"If it makes you feel better, that's a very brief minority of the fandom. My favorite response to it was "he's not gay-coded, he's bully coded you sanctimonious sumph of a shmuck.""
"Oh good," you sigh. "I'm glad we don't have to deal with actual queerphobic tropes like that."
I stare at you.
"What?"
I sigh. "Nothing, put a pin in that until I bring up the predatory bi thing with Toga."
Your eyes widen, and you start to have some regrets.
"Anyway, we can talk shipping later. Time for more."
The 'exit sign Iida' gives him a boost in being shipped with Ochako, (as well as Yaoyorozu) and also the general idea that "Ochako has two hands."
That one hand can have a boyfriend with a lot of cash to spare for her and the other is also played with.
"I missed the main trio, like this." You smile as they walk off into the sunset after school.
"Yeah." I agree. "Anyway, time for some near death experiences."
The USJ marks the start of the gradual, gradual growth of Dadzawa fics. It also focuses far more on Ochako, Mina, Sero, and Iida having to think strategically to get around Kurogiri. It's only after Iida escapes that we cut back to a slightly abridged version of how Midoriya was doing, then the other kids, before help arrives.
He does still through his first non bone breaking punch though, which makes the audience happy.
All Might saves the day. Aizawa is battered afterwards. Many fans start out by saying they were disappointed, since this was supposed to be the first big fight, and the kids didn't do much. Many others say in response that's the point- we're looking at first years, they had to think and help each other, but in the end they had to rely on adults.
And then the sports festival is announced. They want to do well, because this is how they get work-week placements, which could become internship offers.
Ochako thinks about Hado Nejire, the only intern of a top ten hero, and senior at UA, along with a few others who are on the up and up. She's determined.
"Really? You're bringing in the big three early?" You ask, glancing at my wand.
It's not sparkling.
I cross my arms with a huff. "Look. Nejire is at this point the only intern in the top ten, she would have been recognizable to the students for that, even if they didn't recognize the big three (which really means that they aren't actually called the Big Three by everyone, or at least not a wide enough group for it to be as big a deal as it's treated. Anyway.) But she wasn't, even if she should have been the most famous of the bunch, considering the coverage the first years got in just their first night. That's because a certain someone doesn't actually think of his female characters much, but he has to in this universe, so."
"Ok, yeah, that's fair. So does that change the sports festival?"
"Not... Much." I admit.
“What?”
“Well, keep in mind in the first universe, our main character didn’t make it past the second round in the one-on-one’s. So she’s not exactly guaranteed a win here either.”
You have to nod, admitting that is true.
“And the conflict isn’t so much about having to live up to any predecessor or breaking down some people’s walls via breaking bones.” I tap my wand against my chin, thinking. “There really is two- one about Midoriya, and one about Ochako’s parents.”
“Oh?”
“One, there’s been the Uraraka’s not happy about how much danger Ochako’s been in. Its been hinted at in the phone calls, but really shows up when we get to see them at home before the SF for the first time since she moved for school. They aren’t sure if she can stay there herself, or if the right thing to do would be to pull her out and maybe try a smaller school.”
“I suppose that's fair, if they haven't been able to actually see her or her progress.”
“Right. The second one is- well. in this, Izuku’s win of the first round, and then breaking out of brainwashing, is more about really piling on how good his mind is- all that brain power. This adds more pressure when we see Ochako being offered a plan from him to beat Bakugo.”
“Oh that does sound neat.”
“Yep- but of course, she still refuses. It’s held up as a worse thing, strategically, initially- but then she comes up with a plan that Midoriya confirms in the stands is better than his, and proves to her parents that she’s smart and skilled enough to handle continuing at the school.”
You smile. “That is a cool arc to do, i guess, if very not traditional. But what about all the character setup and growth with Shinsou and Todoroki?”
“Oh, Shinsou’s largely gets delegated all the way later for the joint training arc, where Ochako’s team is directly against him. Todoroki...” I begin to giggle.
You wait for me to answer, getting more concerned the longer i laugh.
“Pocket?”
“Sorry, sorry, yeah. He actually tells her himself in this canon, a bit after stain. Oh! right, i forgot- the cheerleader incident.”
“Oh no.”
“Oh yes. of course they need this merch opportunity! But yes, it happens. The... shall we say, non-body-pillow portion of the fandom, generally saw it as the end of any goodwill to Kaminari, who had previously been seen as a tertiary possible love interest, since he’d flirted with her on the first day. Flirt, but harmless, and unlikely to be important. Then there was that breach of trust and international embarrassment, and anyway he’s basically the second least likely in 1a to be shipped with her now.”
“Wow. So none of that changed?”
“Well, the setup wasn’t under narration from Todoroki about how his mother was bought for her body and how much that sucked and impacted her and the family while on screen we see multiple girls tricked into barring their bodies and its treated as a laugh instead?”
You stare at me. “I’m not sure if that’s better or worse.”
“Neither am I.”
“So, the Todoroki reveal?”
“Right. So, first you need to know the Stain thing- the claims he has against ‘false’ heroes focusing on money is better spotlighted. After Stain’s arrest, Ochako hears a couple of sidekicks at Gunhead’s agency-”
“Wait!” you interrupt. “She still interned with Gunhead? Then what was the point of showing Nejire and Ryukyuu earlier?”
I try not to massage my forehead. “To build up to it. She only made it to the first of the final round, she couldn’t get an internship with a top tenner yet. She’s also got to learn how to disarm someone who fights with a knife. These things build up over more time, small steps.”
“Ah.” You’re satisfied, and let me continue.
“Right, so, Overhears a couple of them talking about Stain’s philosophy and ends up just feeling really bad about it for a bit, trying to figure out if she’s actually being selfish or a bad hero for, you know, wanting her family to not be crushed due to capitalism.”
“Poor girl.” You shake your head in sympathy, the freeze. “Oh. did not intend that pun.”
“It’s alright, i know what you mean. And yeah, she bottles it up for a bit, until the second day back at school. Then Iida reminds her that him bottling things up last week got several kids in mortal danger, and she begrudgingly admits that he has a point and tells them about what has been bugging her.”
“And they comfort her?”
“Well, Todoroki also offers to tell off Kaminari because at this point his mention of stain upset both her and iida, but yes, A lot of reassurances.”
You squint. “I feel like shippers.”
“You’re learning! Yes, Todoroki is just a bit behind Iida in terms of popularity shipping with her. and she does basically get shipped A Lot with each girl in her class too, like imagine double to triple the amount with each girl now, and for the minor guys- but yeah. There’s a lottttt of ships. This was basically called ‘todoroki’s introduction into ochako’s harem’ in the fandom.”
Shipping. fandom just can’t escape it.
“So, then she learns about Todoroki’s past? oh, and what about Hosu? Does she- and everyone else- actually think Endeavor saved the three??”
I snort. “Oh, no. Todoroki’s flat ‘yeah my father totally helped us, as you read on the official report’ basically tipped the fandom off that something else had. But nothing confirmed either, you know? Filling in the hosu gap is another trope in fics that is pretty common.”
“Neat.”
“Yep. But yeah Todoroki tells her his backstory a bit after his introduction into her ‘harem’ of friends. It’s really played up more to caution Ochako- its alright for her to want to help her family, and to work for money to do that. But Rei accepted the marriage offer for money for her family too, and it ended up breaking her. Ochako has to accept a balance- she can work to help her family, and its good, but there are some things she cannot morally do to help them, and other things that she shouldn’t do because she has to take care of her own health first.”
“Ohhhh.” You hadn’t quite expected that, but you sorta liked it, now that you thought about it.
I smile. “It is pretty neat, yeah.” I glance at my watch. “Look, i hate to cut you off, but this post is gonna end up thrice the length of Mirio’s and i think tumblr might stop me, so we’re gonna have to do a two-parter.”
“That’s fine.” You are gracious for what you’ve gotten so far, and do have questions that you’re excited to see answered for the rest of the series. “It’s been fun.”
“It has been.” I agree. “Lets take a break, but you can ask me any questions too, before I return for part two.”
<part 2>
115 notes · View notes
mihidecet · 3 years
Text
SBi d&d AU: Tubbo
Aka: Tibi’s MCYT WritingTober, day 20!
From @the-only-gamer-gost ‘s list of prompts, another entry for “Fanmade AU” ahahah And as requested by a super cool anon: “ i'd love to see more of tommy's backstory in the d&d au! especially if we can meet tubbo?” :D
Ask and you shall receive! You can also find Tubbo’s reference sheet made by the wonderful @whatimevendoinhere here! Also, @rigatonipastaroni made a super sweet comic about the reunion, waaay before the chapter was even posted!!
There is nothing quite as sad as a bard with a broken guitar. 
It happens during a fight, a sadly-not-that-unusual spar with a rogue elemental that had decided to mess with a village just because they had been bored. 
Absolutely unrelatable. Tommy's patron had commented, the absolute hypocrite.
Still, the overall business had been quite straightforward: get to the outskirts, find the bad guy, kick their ass, profit. 
Nothing they hadn't done before. 
And like everything they expected to go smoothly, things went wrong. 
Tommy would say that thankfully nobody had gotten hurt, and everyone was perfectly fine, and they'd gotten a particularly big reward for something that standard. 
Wilbur would say, instead, that his guitar had been irreparably damaged, its neck snapped in half and body ripped apart, shards laying on the ground like blood, a gruesome heart-wrenching sight that would haunt him until the end of times. 
Tommy's patron had warned him that his second-degree cousin was a bit dramatic, but maybe it was just standard bard behaviour.
To be fair, the guitar was mostly gone. 
Wilbur had picked up as many pieces as he could and stuffed them in its case, but no amount of mending cantrips had been able to fix it. Phil had tried, but he didn't know how guitars worked and it was hard to discriminate where each shard needed to be placed in order to mold it all back together, like a freakishly hard jigsaw puzzle. 
And Wilbur had been extremely proud of his guitar, as apparently it had been a gift and a memento of his grandiose adventures. Sentimental values and such. 
Not that Tommy could say anything about it, not after the friendship bracelet incident.
For about a week, every time they stopped by a town, they looked for a carpenter first, a musical expert second, and an arcane expert third. 
They never managed to fix it. The thing was, it happened to be a weirdly specific and skill-needing task, so nobody they found was either confident enough or prepared enough to do it. 
So they moved on, and the bard's lament continued.
It gets to the point where one night, the innkeeper approaches their table during one of Will's performances - the tiefling had insisted in keeping the tradition of offering his musical entertainment in each tavern they resided in, now with just his voice and sometimes his flute, but being unable to have music as he sang and vice versa was truly different. 
That night, Wilbur is singing a ballad so sad and tear-jerking that the innkeeper actually approaches them and asks if everything is alright. 
"Oh- oh, yes, my apologies, everything is alright. -" Phil instantly responds, looking quite awkward "- It's just that his guitar broke, and we haven't been able to find anyone to fix it. It was of great personal importance." 
The innkeeper nods understandingly, an expression of deep empathetic sadness on their face, before their eyes light up. 
"You know, I might just have what you need. You guys are lucky, the Fixer Upper just arrived a week ago! If he doesn't know how to fix it, nobody will." 
After obtaining a brief explanation of where to find this infamous "Fixer Upper", who apparently works for free and will probably ask for food, shelter or protection as he moves to the next town over, the innkeeper leaves them be, assuring them that it'll be the solution to all their problems. 
Phil finds himself, despite the overall skepticism, feeling a bit of hope. If nothing, at least he might be able to convince Wilbur to buy a new one - make new memories. 
Even Wilbur is less enthusiastic than usual when they tell him, but after all they've been redirected to plenty of miracle workers that turned out to be unable to do anything.
The only thing that feels a bit off, is how Tommy's patron keeps giggling in his head - the way he does when he knows something Tommy doesn't. It's a bother, but Tommy's too tired to try and investigate.
The "Fixer Upper" is staying in a farm just outside the village, apparently sleeping in the barn. 
He comes to the village every couple of months, apparently used to circling back around the same couple of dozen of places, constantly travelling from one to the other and helping out whoever needs something fixed. The innkeeper that recommended him apparently had him fix their son's prosthetic leg, which has been working better than ever. 
The fact that he never asks for compensation is what keeps them all on the defensive: nobody does anything for anyone without coin on the line, so Wilbur is already somewhat expecting to find yet another old relative making deals with young children. 
Yes, he is still a bit bothered by the fact that his second degree cousin spends half of his time inside Tommy's head. 
No, he's not going to bring it up. 
 Approaching the barn, an increasing cacophony of sounds greets them, and Wilbur starts looking less and less convinced and more and more like he wants to leave - not to blame him, the noises are definitely not reassuring. 
They enter the barn, where one side is perfectly fine and the other has a bunch of mechanical and metallic parts strewn on the ground. 
At this point, Techno has a hand on Wilbur's arm, either to instill some confidence in him or to keep him from running away with the shattered guitar.
Then all of them stop, frozen in their tracks, as something completely out of the ordinary appears from behind a wooden wall - that is quite an extraordinary feat, considering the peculiar array of people they are. 
There's a huge block of metal, vaguely rectangular shaped and painted black and yellow, floating towards them. It has what looks like the spinny part of a windmill rotating at embarrassingly high speed over it, and the noise it makes vaguely resembles that of a low hum, or maybe a buzz. 
Two large semi-transparent circles - its … eyes? - emit a soft light that shines against Phil's palm as it bumps against him, the elf cooing with an adoring expression. 
"Hello dear, you're not one of nature's children but you are alive, aren't you?" 
Even Tommy, who has no idea how magic or nature works - he made a pact with a demon for a reason, alright? - can see that it's an impressive display of craftsmanship. 
Wilbur is looking quite confused on Phil's right, but he's no longer needing Techno to keep him from bailing on the whole thing. And to be honest, if somebody's able to make … this, maybe they'll be able to fix his guitar. 
"AH- Visitors! Sorry, I hadn't heard you coming in-" a short figure stumbles in sight from behind a pile of apparently garbage.
The short man, who appears to be human, had wild brown hair, somewhat darker in certain spots where black oil seems to have gotten stuck. There seems to be oil and soot all over his clothes and hands, where bandages cover his fingers.
On his head reside a pair of goggles - multiple lenses of different thicknesses and colours appended to its sides - and he's holding a wrench as if they'd interrupted his work, which would explain the worrying noises. 
The mechanic has a bright welcoming smile on his face when he appears, which immediately falters the moment he sees the infamous mercenary group, expression turning to fear. Which is understandable, given their fame of being quick, efficient and rather costly, unless they're working for the good of all.
Then it turns to shock, when Tommy takes a tentative step forward from behind Phil's back. Which is less understandable.
"Tubbo?" Tommy's voice calls, almost breathless. The boy takes off his goggles and blinks. The wrench he was holding clutters to the ground.
"Holy shit, Toms."
The warlock lets out a strangled yelp, then blinks out of existence in a puff of bright red smoke, reappearing right in front of the other boy and picking him up in a bone crushing hug as he laughs - more joyous than Wilbur's ever heard him - and the two of them fall to the ground.
When Tubbo is still a teenager, he loses his best friend to the prejudice and scorn of their hometown. 
All they need to see are the buddying horns on his forehead, the flames licking at his fingertips, the reddening skin around his eyes, and they banish him. 
They come for him, in the middle of the night, and find nobody but his parents in his home, because Tommy has always been smarter than he let on. 
Half a day earlier, Tommy had said his goodbyes to the last few people that deserved to know where he was going; never once asking for his parents' forgiveness for something he always knew he was going to do - Tubbo had never seen his best friend more sure of anything, even at the worst moments, when the ritual was about to begin, or the few first weeks when he had to use all his coins to buy salve for burns.
And so Tubbo was left alone, left behind. 
It lasted for one day.
Tubbo had never been particularly gifted in the craft his parents had tried to teach him - glass blowing was definitely not his forte, his hands too strong, his grip too tight - and he'd never shown any latent arcane power. Books on the arcane were long, boring and complex, the glyphs all looking the same and mixing with each other on the page. 
But that didn't mean anything to him: he was going to do great things, with or without magic, and he was going to find his best friend again. 
Fate wanted to keep them apart? Tubbo was going to stare Fate in the face and laugh. 
If the glyphs and arcane chants of the mages weren't going to cooperate, he was going to force his hands into the fabric of the arcane plane and pull magic out by himself. 
And again, why stick to prayers and dealings with other entities when he could just make it himself?
To be fair, it does take him a lot more time than the couple of weeks of research and half-and-hour-deal that was Tommy's experience. But Tubbo's always been a quick learner.
The day he finishes his big project, he leaves his home, ready for adventure. 
He has a map of the coast, enough coin to pay for emergencies and a backpack full of the tools he needs to offer his assistance to whomever will need it. 
His marked path will bring him around the same towns. Tommy is bound to pass by at least one of them during his travels. 
Tubbo's going to be alright.
Tommy's eyes are absolutely not, under no circumstances, shining as he tries to squeeze the life out of his best friend. 
Tubbo is just laughing, which is quite rude in Tommy's personal opinion, he should be struggling to breathe due to his impressive strength.
"Look at you! You made it!" The mechanic cheers, squeezing tighter - which, ouch, when did he become strong, it must have been all the working with metal, this is the worst possible outcome. Tommy lets him go for a moment, leaning back to splutter and wave wildly at the mechanical bee still intent on bumping its head against Phil's hand. By the Nine Hells, Tubbo made a living bee with the attitude of a puppy out of metal. 
"I made it?! You made bees!" Tommy protests, feeling a swell of pride for how far his best friend has come. On a completely unrelated note, there must be light shining insistently in his eyes. 
"I know! Aren't they cute! Ah! Let me introduce you to them!" Tubbo exclaims, hurrying to stand up - nearly elbowing Tommy in the gut - and grabbing his hand so that he can drag Tommy towards the bee from earlier. 
Then he stops in his tracks - which makes Tommy slam into his back and get oil stains on his favourite shirt - as he realises there are three other people in the room, all staring at them with varying degrees of amusement. 
"So, what just happened?" Wilbur asks, looking quite shell shocked. 
165 notes · View notes
crusherthedoctor · 3 years
Note
Can we have some unpopular Sonic opinions?
I tried to cram in a lot, so I hope this satisfies you. :P I tried to stick to the ones that I haven't brought up quite as often, since by this point, we all know that I think IDW's storytelling is dire, SA2's story is overrated, X Eggman is an embarrassing portrayal (at least from season 2 onwards), Blaze shouldn't be handcuffed to Silver, Shadow's backstory had issues with or without the Black Arms, Neo Metal Sonic looks silly, etc. But anyway, here we go:
- Knuckles may be tricky to incorporate into plots that don't relate to Angel Island, but making him obsessed with his duties is no better than having him forget about Angel Island entirely.
- I like Marine, and never found her annoying. Oh, I understood what they were trying to do with her, but I honestly wasn't put off by her, and found her Aussie lingo more endearing if anything. Since her debut was during the period in my life where where I couldn't stand Sonic himself, I instead thought he was irritating (and hypocritical) for getting annoyed with her for doing shit he would often be guilty of.
- Silver is just as guilty of being shoehorned into games and plots as the Deadly Six are. Having more fans than the latter is irrelevant, since we're still talking about a character who constantly has to time travel in order to be present.
- Speaking of Silver, if he has to stick around, please do something different with him. They've pulled the doomed future routine multiple times now, and it's been boring every single time. I wasn't interested when it involved Iblis. I wasn't interested when it involved Knuckles drinking the edgy Kool Aid. I wasn't interested when it involved a council of dumbasses... give it a rest already.
- The Tails Doll can work as a mildly creepy thing, with maybe more to it than meets the eye when it's time for a boss fight or what have you. But the memes about him stealing your soul are just dumb, and I thought it was dumb even back in my teenage youth.
- “Eggman is supposed to be clownish!” Yeah, well he's also meant to be a genuine villain with a 300 IQ. These qualities don't have to be mutually exclusive.
- “Sonic is supposed to have attitude!” Yeah, well that's not the same thing as being an absolute cunt. Sonic was only ever meant to come off as having an edge compared to Mario. He was never meant to be a GTA-tier protagonist.
- Rouge is not a villain, and never was a villain. Literally the whole point of her role in SA2 was to reveal that she was working against Eggman and Shadow the whole time, albeit using sneakier tactics to do so. You'd think all those people who exult SA2's story would remember this, but apparently not. She barely even qualifies as an anti-hero, since aside from stealing the Master Emerald, she rarely does anything morally questionable otherwise. She's got a lot more good in her than people give her credit for.
- Captain Whisker is a better Eggman Nega than the actual Eggman Nega. And as far as robot characters in this franchise go, Johnny's design is pretty underrated.
- I don't like Iblis or Mephiles, but I DO like Solaris, and it annoys me that it was out of focus for most of the story due to all the time spent on its less interesting halves. Had they kept the backstory with the Duke and his experiments, and worked from there, I think they could have provided an interesting contrast with Chaos (since Solaris can also qualify as a monster with a sympathetic backstory) instead of recycling the surface level schtick.
- Black Doom may technically be just as bad as Mephiles, Nega, Scourge, Mimic, etc, since he's yet another villain with one-note characterization and fucked over Eggman. But because he never gained a disproportionate fandom, he doesn't annoy me to the same extent. It's easier to ignore him by comparison, and his Dr. Claw voice and face shaped like a lady's delicate part make him enjoyable to mock.
- Likewise, while Lyric is also on the same level as these other villains, it's easier to dismiss him because I was never invested in the Boom games anyway, and being an obvious alternate universe (compared to Sonic X or IDW, which retain the Modern designs and plot elements), it never had an effect on the main series. I also unironically like his design, and if nothing else, at least this snake didn't start a hypnotism fetish across the internet.
- Sally - and the rest of the Freedom Fighters for that matter - have had their importance in the franchise severely inflated. They may have been lucky to be the face of popular media (SatAM and Archie), but they're not these magnificent entities that the game characters are but a speck of dust in comparison to. Having a “legacy” doesn't make them more entitled to shit than any other character, old or new.
- Conceptually, the treasure hunting gameplay is one of the better alternate gameplay styles IMO. But it was let down in SA2 by its one track minded radar (the levels may have been big, but I don't think that would have been an issue on its own if the radar was better). If they brought it back and made it more like SA1's treasure hunting, I'd be all for it, although it would probably be better suited for a spinoff title.
- This goes for a lot of games, but when it comes to 2D, I prefer sprites over models. Not that the Rush models are bad (though the ones in Chronicles sure as fuck are), but the sprites in Mania and the Advance trilogy are just so charming and full of character.
- I actually like Marble Zone. Yeah, the level design is a bit blocky, but I love the concept of an underground temple prison, mixed with lava elements in a zone that otherwise isn't a traditional volcano level.
- I also like Sandopolis Zone. Again, completely understand why it's not the most popular zone around, but I've been a sucker for the Ancient Egyptian aesthetic since childhood (you can thank Crash 3 for that), and Act 1 is visually stunning.
- I prefer the JP soundtrack for Sonic CD over the US version overall... but I also prefer Sonic Boom over You Can Do Anything.
- SA2's soundtrack isn't bad by any means - I love Rouge's tracks, and The Last Scene is one of my favourite pieces of music - but as far as variety goes, it's a step down from SA1's soundtrack.
- If Sonic X-Treme had been released, it probably would have been unenjoyable and confusing. Whatever your thoughts on SA1, it was probably the better option between the two as far as Sonic's first legitimate translation into 3D goes.
- I have no qualms with Modern Sonic and the other Modern designs and characters, but I also fully acknowledge that changing gears from Adventure onwards - and doing it with a great amount of fanfare - was always going to create one of the biggest divides in the fandom, and fans shouldn't act surprised that this happened. The fact that they felt the need to hype up a new design and direction in the first place (compared to Mario, who has mostly been the same since the beginning, with only the occasional minor change with little fanfare) also indicates that they weren't confident enough in Sonic and his universe being the way it was, which often gets ignored by all the “SEGA have no confidence!!!” complaints you see with their recent games.
- Unleashed did not deserve the incredibly harsh reviews it received back in the day... but it doesn't deserve its current sacred cow status either. It had more effort put into it than '06 to be sure, and I can respect that, but much of it was misguided effort, and even if you like the Werehog, you have to admit that the idea came at the absolute worst time. The intro cutscene may be awesome, as is the Egg Dragoon fight, but 2% doesn't make up the entire game. Chip was also quite annoying, and I wasn't particularly sad when he pressed F in the chat at the end.
- On the other hand, while Colours definitely has its shortcomings, and people have every right to criticse those shortcomings, a lot of its most vocal detractors tend to have a stick up their arse about the game because people actually enjoyed it, and it had a gimmick that people actually liked. Yes, it may have been the first game to have those writers everyone hates, but then SA1 was the first game to give the characters alternate gameplay styles and have other villains upstage Eggman, so...
- Forces is absolutely not on the level of '06. It's nowhere close. A game being flawed does not make it the next '06, clickbait YouTubers. Or should I say, the game they want to retroactively apply '06's reception to, since they've been trying hard to magically retcon '06's own quality...
- To echo @beevean, ALL of the 3D stories have their issues. SA1 is probably the most well-rounded of them on the whole, but even that one isn't perfect.
- To echo another opinion, although I do love SA1, I'm not crazy over the idea of a remake, and would prefer them to just take Sonic's gameplay from SA1 and work from there. Because with a remake, you're stuck in a hard spot: Do you keep it the way it is bar the expected graphical upgrades, and risk accusations of not doing anything to actually improve the experience? Or do you try to address past criticisms, and risk the wrath of the fans who will inevitably go on a #NotMyAdventure crusade about it? What people fail to consider is that the Crash and Spyro remakes were accepted gracefully because their original iterations were still unanimously beloved for the most part, whereas SA1 - and especially SA2 - have always been divisive, and have only gotten moreso over the years.
- People take their preferences for the character's voice actors too seriously. I have my own favourites like anyone else, but I don't make a big deal out of it.
- And with fandom voice actors, they usually focus too much on doing a basic impression of their preferred official voice actor, and not enough on the acting. So you end up getting a lot of fan voices who sound like decent impressions of Ryan Drummond or Jason Griffith on the surface, but they sound utterly empty beyond that impression, because there's no oomph or depth to the actual emotions. They think about the actor rather than the character, when it should really be the other way around.
- The thing with Ian Flynn is that he is capable of telling a decent story, and he can portray some characters well. But he's proven time and time again that everything will go off the rails if he's given too much freedom (ironic, given how quick he is to point the finger at mandates when something goes wrong).
- Ian Flynn and Shiro Maekawa are not the only people in the world who are allowed to write for Sonic. I understand that one should be cautious when seeking out new writing talent, but for all the fandom's accusations of playing it safe, they sure aren't in a rush to experiment outside of their own comfort zone.
- And of course, the big one: You don't fix the franchise's current problems by crawling back to its previous problems. It's much more helpful and constructive to discuss the good and bad alike with each of the games. Less “THIS GOOD, MODERN BAD”, and more “This could work, but maybe without that part...”
46 notes · View notes
josephsaturn · 3 years
Text
Danganronpa Trial 6/Epilogue thoughts
Here’s the ending! I really enjoyed this game, And’ll prob give a full review sometime later, but which game should I play next, dr2 or dr:udg?
Either way:
That’s a lotta ultimates
Nice of Komatsuzaki to shade kyoko’s patootie so we can’t see her unmentionables
Girl you should be more worried about slipping than me with those heels
Hm that’s a kinda sad backstory
My opinions on u don’t change, but I have some respect for ya
Hm
Dang Kyoko way to sell that
Bear jokes? Who are you, Teddie?
Oh dang…it really is a final showdown
Dang, she never broke a rule, eh?
Why u mentioning Junko now?
Yay! My friends! And Byakuya!
Harsh…
Miss Cleo? Am I missing something?
Ok miss pot is there anything else you wanna call black or just the kettle
I am once again asking toko fukawa to please cease
Aw hina don’t say that!
You’re more useful than Hiro at least
Honestly I can see some ship tease between our boring hope man and milk-bag swimmer girl
Ok, let’s go!
Ruins?! Hey what’s this?!
Nice swanky bathroom they have
The headmaster’s room, huh
Also quite swanky
A hidden room? We’ve reached levels of swank I don’t think exist yet
Aww his password for the computer is her name!
So sweet if u don’t remember he left her in the care of the extended family
Oh, a box?
HOLY SHIT
Aww, what a cute picture
Game are you trying to give me a seizure?
Hello eye of Horus, what are you doing here?
Oh dang, that’s mukuro?
A whole Monokuma room? Really?
Why would you not check the hatch, Makoto
CHECK THE HATCH
THE HATCHHHH
WHAT DID YOU THINK WAS IN THERE???
Is this a bio lab or a morgue?
There are 16 fridges…
Girl you have the spine of a sea cucumber, of course people won’t accept you
Aw dang, I thought it was trial time…
Strange…hiro
A photo?
It sure is nice, though
Are you not even gonna consider that Junko’s face is blocked?
I stILL can’t go in there?
Come ON!
Why’s everyone avoiding me?
At least Jill isn’t
Wow! That doesn’t sound foreshadowy at all, Jill!
Ooh a cd!
Wait…interviews? For what purpose?
Staying here forever?? Why tho??
Ok is it actually trial time????
WOOOO HOOOOO
TRIAL TIME TRIAL TIME TRIAL TIME TRIAL TIME TRIAL TIME TRIAL TIME TRIAL TIME TRIAL TIME!!!!!!
Why’s everyone so mean-looking??
If byakuya’s team dad then Kyoko’s team mom
They’re both just disappointed
The localization team really had a lot of fun didn’t they?…
Too many deepers, Mako
Very…Spartan
Even Byakuya’s too disgusted for words
Holy…girl needs some moisturizer
Y’all are just now realizing it’s Junko??
Heh, Xanadu
That was a p. Cool ending frame for the closing argument
Smoke?
Ope there she is
What’s with the robo voice?
At least the game is self-aware enough to point out that the twin reveal is kinda dumb
Woah she changed
Maybe the last name thing is that Junko’s using a moniker
GAH again??
Dang a complete verbal cutdown
jeEEZ
again??? Why tho???
How could u expect that Kiri?
Geez
I find that hard to believe, Junko
“Always filled with despair,”????????
How many personas does this girl have
My thoughts exactly Hiro
That’s a bit of a stretch, Junko
Also it seems like she repeated the words Togami said in his first FTE
Her Monokuma voice is kinda nice
At least she’s cordial
A theme?
She seemed so fake when congratulating me for the second time
Ok I’ll admit this is pretty cool
Crazy Eddie??? Whomst???
Wuh-oh
Wow, that foreshadowing was important
hAH
that’s the name?
Hah, the secretary
Ooh, a fourth-wall break!
That’s…kinda sad…
2 full YEARS?
I know that amnesia is a weird thing…but that specific???
She loves us????
???????????????
What even happened during the tragedy?
Yeah it is a lil hard to believe
That’s a pretty cool splash art
Wait but when Sakura…that doesn’t make sense
That’s hypocritical of you, since u forced your despair-filled view on everyone
…sHiT
I mean she HAS a point…but still
Chunsoft really saying “fuck ur ‘abused Junko’ headcanons, she she just don’t care”
HAH
Schrödinger’s cat is very apt rn
Pfft
Ooh a new voice clip
Liar💖💖💖💖
Oh, the main theme!!
Cool!!
So he’s the…Ultimate Hope?
Didn’t expact that, eh?
A callback to Leon? In MY trial 6?
Not gonna lie…I almost died in that last BTB
Has Junko’s face always been on there?
Dang she really is crazy
First and last colossal despair?
I would say I want what she’s smoking…but I’m kinda scared to even think abt what that is
Whoa those some crazy eyes
There she is
What?
She’s going through EVERY PUNISHMENT?!
How is she surviving all of these?!
And in the end…crushed to death, but not before having a small spot of hope
(I’m putting the epilogue here as well)
Are you sure it isn’t just the lack of air, mako?
Toko. CEASE.
It took 2 hours to do that trial…
Here we go!
Aw, it just ends?!
Who’s kujira?
At least the ED is nice
WHA?!
HE’S STILL ALIVE????!
I got an eestur egggg
That’s the end, huh?
SEE YALL IN THE NEXT GAME!!
1 note · View note
thanksjro · 4 years
Text
More Than Meets the Eye #12- Gay Rights: the Movie
Finally finished with our franchise obligations! Let’s get back to the main story.
Tumblr media
Those are some ominous ellipses. Almost like something bad is going to happen!
Let’s take a look at Cover A for this issue.
Tumblr media
When this was released to the general public, alongside the synopsis that stated the Lost Lighters were going to run into a group of Decepticons, a lot of people thought we’d be seeing them meet the Scavengers. This isn’t the case, and that’s not Fulcrum. It’s some other K-Con, one that has purple in his color scheme.
Our story opens up with a narrative framing device:
Tumblr media
Welcome to “Before & After”, one of the more ambitious issues of MTMTE in terms of storytelling. Roberts really likes bouncing between scenes and POVs, and he’s really indulging that here.
Rodimus and crew have loaded up on one of the Lost Light’s scouting ships to check in on a planet called Temptoria. Whirl’s leading all the guys in the front in a war cry that wouldn’t be out of place in Hollywood’s version of the Vietnam war, while Brawn demonstrates how to not properly handle a gun. Rodimus tries to explain what exactly they’ll be doing, but no one’s listening, feeding off of the chaotic energy. The back seat isn’t quite as rowdy.
Tumblr media
Oh, Ambulon’s here? That’s got to be awkward. And Perceptor’s looking mighty cross about having to pick up a gun again. Isn’t he supposed to be retired from being a science sniper?
Rodimus finally gets everyone to settle down long enough to explain the situation, though not without a little jargon mixup.
Basically, Ultra Magnus went down to Temptoria while the “Shadowplay” story was being told, and found out that the organic populace had been enslaved by a group of Decepticons, and, more importantly, the sovereign agreement that the planet had with Cybertron’s been violated. Also, these guys might have been the one’s who kidnapped the Circle of Light. You remember those guys, right? The guys who were supposed to be in the 2012 Annual, but they weren’t, and Drift got really mad about it.
Rodimus wraps up the briefing with a “’Til all are one!” And we cut over to see what Swerve and Tailgate are up to. Tailgate seems to be a little nervous, not the type to enjoy waiting, but Swerve seems to be doing just fine. Why is that, exactly?
Tumblr media
Even if Rung’s still a steamed side dish of a vegetable, he’s still here, in a way. And good on Swerve for not assuming Tailgate can visualize in the same way he can. Aphantasia is more common than one might think.
Escapism is an interesting way of dealing with your problems, but I don’t know enough about wartime psychiatry to know if this is something that would actually be considered a viable solution or not.
Oh, now that I’ve said it, I’ve got the research itch.
Later, later.
Anyway, Tailgate gives it a spin, and his happy place is surprisingly domestic for such a seasoned professional.
Tumblr media
Pipes, it’s a clear glass, it’s not hiding anything from you.
Speaking of Pipes, he’s seated next to Hound, as they discuss what happened to Red Alert. Or, rather, the cover story that’s been fed to the rest of the crew by Rodimus, which is that the engine room pretty much attacked him. This is how ghost stories get started.
Trailcutter’s gotten some guns installed in his legs, because he’s a hypocrite.
Over with Chromedome and Rewind, there’s trouble in paradise, as they’re having a lovers’ spat. Chromedome’s giving Rewind the silent treatment, and Rewind’s having none of it. What exactly are they fighting about? We don’t get to know about that yet, but it’s digging up other issues, like Chromedome going back on his promise to stop injecting. The only thing keeping this from becoming a total meltdown is Whirl can-canning through the door to kidnap Rewind, so he can film Whirl getting in the zone before the fight. Whirl’s having a great time. This is probably the first time they’ve gotten to fight something since the Lost Light took off, and he’s all about it.
Rewind’s dragged away, and Chromedome just lets it happen, because he’s feeling cross. It’s good to take a moment to cool off, but I’m not quite sure this was the best time or way for it to happen.
Meanwhile, on the Temptorian surface, Blip the Decepticon, who is likely the dirtiest son of a gun we’ve run into so far, is asked to take a look at the monitor by a guy who sounds exactly like Megatron. It doesn’t particularly matter which Megatron, because comics are not an audio-based medium, so you can pick whichever one you like best. What’s on the monitor does not please Blip in the slightest.
Tumblr media
I feel like maybe having guys who don’t turn into flying machines jump out of the bottom of the shuttlecraft isn’t the greatest tactical thinking, but I’m sure everything will be okay. Brawn’s got a gun, maybe he’ll figure out how to rocket-jump before he hits terminal velocity.
Then the narrative jumps to after the fight, as the ship flies away from the scene, and Chromedome isn’t happy. It’s for a different reason than earlier, though.
Tumblr media
Man, Pipes just can’t win, can he?
Ambulon remembers that he is, in fact, a medical professional, and starts working on Rewind, while Chromedome tries to ask Swerve just what the hell happened. Swerve’s having his own issues, however.
Tumblr media
I’d nearly forgotten they had skeletons.
On the production side of this issue, we’ve got two artists: there’s our usual guy, Alex Milne on the “Before” sections, and Brandon Cahill on the “After”. Cahill’s other Transformers work includes The Transformers (2009) and the sister series to MTMTE, Robots in Disguise. Outside of the franchise, he’s worked on several Marvel pieces, including writing Sable & Fortune and Legion of Monsters. Unlike a lot of the alternate artists we’ve seen for the series, Cahill won’t be a one-and-done; we’ll see his art again in Dark Cybertron, Season 2 of MTMTE, and even Lost Light.
Getting back to the story, we’ve jumped back to the point in the battle where everyone’s hit the ground and are just wailing on each other. Tailgate and Swerve watch the chaos unfold, as Ultra Magnus more or less takes on a platoon of Decepticons.
Drift’s having a great time, as he Naruto runs through the enemy, slashing as he goes with a big ol’ smile on his face. He stabs a guy in the back of the head who was trying to grapple with Rodimus, thus interrupting the little dialogue they had going on. Rodimus is vaguely upset that his moment was cut short.
In the “After”, the shuttle’s landed back on the Lost Light, and Chromedome rushes out with Rewind in his arms to find First Aid with a motorized stretcher. He was hoping for Ratchet- he wants only the best for his shnookums. As they run Rewind down to the medibay, Chromedome starts listing off his allergies- which include ultraviolet light, something we know reveals mnemosurgery scars. This is a holdover from a dropped plot point I’ll cover at a later time; as it stands in the canon narrative, Rewind’s just got an allergy to the friggin’ sun.
Back at the shuttle, Tailgate starts dragging Cyclonus down the gangplank. Oh, hell. You know it’s a bad situation when the guy who literally couldn’t die for six million years is out of commission.
Tumblr media
Spoke and Lockstock are a bit of a gag- they always manage to get their asses kicked, but everyone on the ship really likes them. They will never be seen on-panel, and have no character designs.
Over in the medibay, history is being made.
Tumblr media
Esteemed members of the jury, I present to you: canon gay robots. The first in a long line of them. This is the starting point of the queer community being handed the Transformers franchise on a silver platter.
Up to this point, Roberts hadn’t gotten any further than implied attraction and affection between robots, in either his fanworks or professional credits. Pretty heavy-handed implication in some cases-
Tumblr media Tumblr media Tumblr media
-but implication nonetheless. Here is the first, honest-to-god direct confirmation of two male-coded robots in love.
In love and space-married and recognized by the authority in power, in a comic written in 2012, as a part of a major franchise owned by a massive American company, three years before same-sex marriage would be legalized on a federal level.
As part of the story, it’s great. Within the context of the time during which it was published, it’s a whole other level. This wasn’t just good writing, it was important.
Let me part the kimono a little here, with some personal backstory- I grew up in Buttfuck Nowhere, NC, and went to a high school that was so homogeneous, they were threatening to bus students in after I graduated. I didn’t know what a gay person even was until I was 12. “Lesbian” was used as an insult, and it was one I was subjected to because I had cut my hair short in middle school and wore cargo shorts on occasion. It was something I really pushed against, because that’s how a lot of people react to being forcibly given a label.
Not the best environment for a little queer kid, clearly.
It wasn’t until well after I’d gone to college that I really started understanding who I was. Hell, I’m still figuring some things out, but at least I’m getting somewhere.
I remember reading this for the first time in 2015- yes, I got into the comics sort of late- and then having to reread it. I needed a moment just to process what had happened. As a person who had only recently come to terms with their sexuality at the time, it was kind of mind-blowing to have that sort of representation, especially since I was also watching Transformers Prime at around the same time. Talk about the duality of man, am I right?
These days, there’s a lot more representation in many different forms of media. Things are getting better. Which, y’know, yay! I’m glad. I just can’t help but wonder if things would have been a little different if this sort of representation had been available earlier on.
Anyway, so yes, Chromedome’s got a difficult choice to make for Rewind- either let his body try to sort itself out, or let First Aid break out the clamps and try to jumpstart him. Rewind’s got a relatively rare spark type, but luckily Chromedome’s the same type. Looks like everything’s coming up roses for our boys!
Tailgate and Cyclonus aren’t getting nearly as good a break.
Tumblr media
My god, he’s filled with grape soda!
Back in the “Before”, things are getting a little silly.
Tumblr media
Chromedome, what POSSIBLE tactical advantage could you be gaining from riding the giant, fire-breathing robot dinosaur? This is why they threw you in Kimia, isn’t it? Because you’re a dumbass.
While this bullshit is happening, Rewind and Tailgate are stacked on top of each other to look through a window, because I guess that’s just how things turn out when the resident couple on the ship is upset with one another. Rewind’s found something, but it isn’t the Circle of Light. Rather, it seems the Decepticons are dabbling in Pink Alchemy- a rather inefficient process that allows organic creatures to be turned into energon for consumption.
The good guy thing to do would be to save all the organics, but there’s a bit of a problem- the door is wired to a massive bomb. Good thing Tailgate was in Bomb Disposal, and is just generally an impressive and well-established dude. He gets to work.
Tumblr media
Getting back to a point I made during Chaos Theory, Whirl can’t make a fist. Punching himself in the face is probably more akin to slashing it.
Tailgate’s got a weird approach to bombs, taking the time to teach Rewind how to do it, by way of student-led learning. They decide to poke a hole in the bottom of the bomb to drain all the explosive fluid out, which Tailgate does with little robot tears streaming down his face. Fear is a great motivator.
Tumblr media
Oof, not a “Domey” in sight. That’s how you know things are rough.
Outside of this little scene, Whirl and Cyclonus are handling Decepticons. Whirl’s got a hold on that guy who’s voiced by Frank Welker, and we get a nice shot of his sad cat face before Whirl turns his head into a memory.
Swerve- who is also here- asks Whirl to loan him a gun.
Tumblr media
GODDAMMIT SWERVE.
Not a single one of you bastards know proper gun safety! Between all the severe depression and reckless weapon-handling, I genuinely have no idea how the hell are any of you are still alive.
In the “After”, Chromedome’s just finished jumpstarting Rewind, and it’ll take a bit to see if it worked, so he’s left alone with his thoughts.
Just kidding, Tailgate’s come over to check in. Seems like Cyclonus is gonna pull through, something Chromedome’s not terribly thrilled about. Chromedome’s still miffed about the whole Kimia thing.
We finally learn why Chromedome and Rewind were fighting; it was because Rewind, as a walking historical database, has been deemed too important to die, and can opt out of any fight he choose to, but he doesn’t, thereby putting himself in harm’s way unnecessarily. Maybe he just worries about you when you go out there on the battlefield alone, Chromedome, you ever think of that? Maybe he doesn’t want to wonder when his husband will return home from the war.
Tailgate asks about all the little vials that are scattered around Rewind’s hospital bed, and we get a little Cybertronian tradition thrown at us.
The vials are filled with innermost energon, the stuff that surrounds the spark casing and never changes, no matter how much you modify or upgrade your body. Leaving a little of the stuff for someone in an offering signifies that you care very much for that person. Chromedome can’t give Rewind any, because he was “born dry”, but I think being space-married to the guy more than makes up for it.
Tailgate asks how the two of them met, and unlike in issue #6, Chromedome is feeling vulnerable enough to indulge the question this time.
But first we need to establish that Chromedome is insanely insecure.
So, Rewind is fucking old. He’s older than the Cybertronian civil war, he’s older than the calendar system, and he’s old enough to have been affected by Functionist society’s categorization system. Due to being a memory stick- something that there were millions of back in the day- Ratioism dictated that Rewind as an individual was worth very little, and made him and his like into slaves. Because he was a slave, he needed a master, and that master was none other than Dominus Ambus, also known as Cybertron’s Mech of the Year for 40,000 consecutive years.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Even on Cybertron, there’s a weird stigma about breastfeeding.
Rewind and Dominus quickly became friends, because that’s just the sort of guy Rewind is, and it made Dominus realize that maybe these slaves Cybertron had been working to death were sentient creatures worthy of respect too. He even developed a test to prove that all the slave classes were on the same level of functionality as everyone else.
On their quest to find a cure for the horrible disease Cybercrosis, Rewind and Dominus fucked off into space, on a wild goose chase to try and find Luna 1, the Cybertronian moon that just disappeared one day. Weird, that. They didn’t find it, and by the time they’d come back home, the war was well underway. They immediately became Autobots, and that was it for a while.
Then we move on to how Chromedome and Rewind met, and boy is it a doozy.
Chromedome had decided he wanted to kill himself, so he moseyed on over to the nearest relinquishment clinic- they did assisted suicides instead of body-swaps at this point- to do the deed. He was sitting in the waiting room, when he heard someone screaming. He wandered into the back to find Rewind weeping over a coffin, and he thought to himself “Maybe I don’t need to die after all” as he offered his future conjunx a shoulder to cry on.
What a fucking dark start to a relationship.
Rewind wasn’t upset about anyone who was dead though, but rather missing- Dominus had disappeared into thin air months ago, and Rewind was getting desperate to find him, looking in more and more awful places in the hope of recovering what he’d lost.
As it turns out, he’s still doing that. The reason the two of them are on the Lost Light is because Rewind needs to find Dominus- alive or dead, it doesn’t seem to particularly matter at this point. That’s why he buys snuff films in dark alleys.
Tumblr media
See, Tailgate gets it.
Tumblr media
Guys, bad news.
Chromedome’s spark is too weak to jumpstart Rewind. Unless they find another compatible donor, Rewind’s gonna be in big trouble. There’s nothing to do but wait.
Later, in their room, Chromedome is sitting on the floor and very much not following doctor’s orders to get some sleep. Someone on the opposite side of the door he’s leaning up against starts talking to him. Chromedome doesn’t seem to want to hear any of it, until he does.
Tumblr media
Given who the basement dweller is, this probably won’t turn out so hot.
Chromedome gets a call from the medibay, and fortunately the universe has decided to play nice this go around, because someone came forward as a match.
Tumblr media
But it’s not like Whirl cares about anyone, right? Not in the slightest, nuh-uh, not him!
While Chromedome gives Whirl what is probably an uncomfortably long hug, and they both most likely ignore the fact that Chromedome would be actively suicidal without Rewind, Tailgate’s off in the corner, having taken his hand off and begun pouring cartoon toxic waste into a vial. It’s actually his innermost energon. Boy’s making an offering, but it isn’t to Rewind.
Tumblr media
It’s to this ungrateful fuck.
Cyclonus stalks away from Tailgate’s kindness, until he’s stopped by witnessing the power of love.
Tumblr media
Everyone likes Rewind, and these displays of affection seems to have reminded Cyclonus that he’s horrifically lonely. Feeling some remorse over his actions- not that he’ll ever admit it out loud- he goes back to help Tailgate pick up the pieces of the vial he broke.
Wrapping up our story, we go back to the “Before”, right before the bomb is set to go off. Whirl and Cyclonus have more or less taken care of the Decepticons, Whirl suggests they set aside their differences and agree to stop trying to murder each other, in a surprising show of reason and, perhaps, self-preservation. Cyclonus doesn’t seem to agree with the idea.
Tumblr media
I genuinely think that’s the most he’s said all series up to this point.
Rewind calls the two idiots over for help, because Tailgate’s about to pull a self-sacrifice to get this bomb emptied, and he just isn’t listening to reason. Cyclonus assists.
Tumblr media
Once Tailgate’s been fastball-specialed out of the room, Whirl decides to get back to being a bastard, and locks Cyclonus and Rewind in with the bomb with 10 seconds left on the clock. Ah, so the donation was out of guilt, I see. Still a form of caring, in its own way.
With no way to escape, all Cyclonus can do is attempt to shield Rewind with his body as the bomb goes off.
That’s the end of the issue but it’s the middle of the story, and despite what Cyclonus says, dynamics are changing. Slowly, but surely, things are shifting. He’s headed for a lot of character development, and he’ll be kicking and screaming the whole way.
44 notes · View notes
snowstorm808 · 3 years
Text
More Than Friends episode 1 - 8 review
Initially, I was not planning to watch this drama for my usual petty reasoning that I don’t like the actors. However, Kim Dongjun was just too darned irresistible so here I am writing a review, admitting my defeat. My less biased self has acknowledged that a decent dram is worth watching. Since the quarantine began, I’ve been on a constant search for romance themed dramas that would actually make my heart beat the way k-dramas did when I was a kid. It is the main reason why my reviews are mostly along those lines. As much as I want to watch When I was the Prettiest, I’m simply not in for melodramas nowadays.
Since I’m writing this review as I watch each episode, I’ll be doing a per episode review so this is going to be lengthy. I’ll be adding the other episode reviews on this post until the drama ends.
Tumblr media
Episode 1 - Everything started from their high school days. Honestly, Kyeon Woo Yeon is reminiscent of the senior high school life my and my sister had. We became the villains for trying to be kind. I like the friendship the characters developed. The first episode has laid a good foundation of backstories and what is more to come. Soo and Woo Yeon’s friendship may have started as platonic but it is also something that can obviously become more than that. I assume Soo is too young to actually realize his won feelings for Woo Yeon. It seems like she’s really the only one he considers a friend given that he hasn’t really opened up to anyone else other than her. Knowing the premise of the story beforehand makes me think that he’ a jerk but I also want to be a bit more objective for his character. Oh and I love how Jinju listened to her mom with a Jo in Sung reward in her mind. Heh, while her mom may have just lied to her but it was enough to motivate this poor girl. Heck, even I would have been motivated by that but most guys my age are just effed up. I can’t wait for On Joon Soo!
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Episode 2 -  So we start off from where I’m beginning to realize Soo is a bigger jerk than I assumed. While I do understand that he had issues because of his parent’s selfish divorce, I just feel that he should be more considerate of Woo Yeon’s feelings if he even saw her as a friend at all. I am used to his narcissism especially with his words, but I just want him to at least try to think from her perspective. Woo Yeon may seem whiny and a bit irritating but she’s simply someone hopelessly in love with her best friend who only rejected her coldly without trying to sound nice about it. What’s worse is that he wants to keep her as a friend despite it all! So yes, I am still waiting for On Joon Soo! Woo Yeon’s little encounters with him are quite cliché but cute. His eyes seem so cold which makes me think that he’s a nice guy but scary when he gets angry. Damn, I could not take my eyes off whenever he’s onscreen!
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Episode 3 - I’ve been really excited for this episode because this is where everything kicks off! There’s also a bit more storyline for the other friends which are also enjoyable to watch. There’s also more to Lee Soo’s story and his own scars (which I still think does not excuse his treatment of Woo Yeon) so it provides viewers with more of his perspective. It is evident that he is also beginning to realize the type of feelings he has for Woo Yeon. I still think of him as selfish for all that, I also feel that the only reason he might be acting that way is because he fears her not being around him whenever he wants her to be there. As they say, having your cake and eat it too. But he needs to be clear about it fast because she’s becoming more serious about moving on from him and her world is becoming bigger. I want Soo to feel more threatened and jealous since I know they will end up together anyway so he should at least suffer more than she did. On Joon Soo has some stories up his sleeve too which I hope to see more. It would be too unfair if he’s just there to make feel nervous about loosing Woo Yeon, right? 
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Episode 4 - I love how honest and straight forward my On Joon Soo is! Yup, I’m claiming him once Woo Yeon rejects him. It is refreshing that he knows about Woo Yeon and Lee Soo early on which saves me from some dramatic cliché of not knowing about it till the end. Joon Soo is making an impact pretty quickly even though Woo Yeon isn’t too keen about it as of the moment but he seems to be making her smile unbeknownst to her. This drama’s storyline isn’t something very new, in fact it is quite simple but it’s also giving clichés a refreshing take which I really like. I’m reminded of Discovery of Love and this might just beat that one. Soo has come to really feel the threat Joon Soo brings, his talk with his dad was a wake up call which I hope he can take. I’m starting to think that he can actually learn from his parents’ mistake if he cares to look. For now, he is just a whiny kid whose toy is about to be taken away. I might as well mention a bit of Young-Hee and Hyun-Jae’s relationship; his mom is a total hypocrite! These two should find more balance in their relationship and not seem like a dom and sub most of the time.
Tumblr media
Episode 5 - Soo clearly denied having feelings for Woo Yeon! I honestly thought by now, he would be done hesitating but instead he keeps confusing her and being jealous. Meanwhile being straightforward is Joon Soo’s card. He does not hesitate to say he likes Woo Yeon so I hope he stays that way even if he gets jealous over Soo. This is a precious moment for Woo Yeon to see someone else other than Soo in a romantic light. I do get she’s hesitant because of lingering feelings and all but I also want to give herself a real chance to like someone else which makes me happy with this episode’s development. Finally, they also get to talk more about her pain in liking him one-sidedly, she’s being clear about how difficult it was for her but then Soo only prefers to look at the good memories. He’s being unfair especially when he decided to intrude in her date with Joon Soo only to embarrass her out of his jealousy. I must say Jinju is such a sweetheart for helping out Woo Yeon just in time.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Episode 6 - Just as Soo is beginning to realize his love for Woo Yeon, it seems like fate is keeping them apart for a little longer. I must agree that timing is essential in our actions, whether in love or other decisions we make. I think I’ve missed a lot of chances my self but I don’t want to dwell o it but instead, work harder on things that I can work on. I’m still swooning over Joon Soo’s confession which I did not expect at all because he has been vocal enough about wanting to date Woo Yeon. I’m loving a lot of things in this episode like the first fight among our female trio who finally gets a few things out of their chest about each other. There’s also Young Hee finally thinking if she’s being too much with her tough girl act. I mean even she used to buy shoes for Hyun Jae so she really should try to understand him more. He wants her to rely on him too not just in monetary things but to actually talk about her problems too. She can learn to share her burdens bit by bit too. I also like the fact that Woo Yeon decided to give Soo one last chance. I think this time around, it would be harder form him to win her feelings back. Regardless of his accident, it is true that he had realized his feelings quite late. It is also a fact that Woo Yeon has been hurt several times by him. As he said so himself, understanding does not make it hurt less. My ship is beginning to sail so I’m really happy and full of spazzing here. I want to see more sweet moments between Joon Soo and Woo Yeon because they deserve to be happy with each other after being hurt by their first loves. Dong Joon’s eyes are so expressive, I need to be saved, the way his expression changes from that sunshine to that cold hard and serious face gives me such tension. The narrative towards the end of this episode was really nice. I thought Soo’s accident would not be shown due to filming constraints but it seems the director and writer had something in mind, and made a narrative out of it to corelate it to essence of timing.
Tumblr media
Episode 7 - Joon Soo and Woo Yeon are finally together! I’ve been swooning over their dates, I hope they can stay that way longer. I want them to get to know each other more so they won’t have regrets later on. I must admit it’s gratifying to see Soo suffer this time around. This is his consequence for thinking that Woo Yeon would be always beside him. While I do know he is sincere with his feelings for her, he had hurt her too many times for so she deserves to be happy this time around. Even if her feelings for Joon Soo does not equal what she felt for Soo, it is the former who makes her happy in the present and showers her with the love she deserved from the start. It was unfair enough to be dragged around by Soo during all those years while he rejected her and insisted they remain friends so I don’t really get why he acts all pitiful now. Oh and I prefer his hair styled up than down. I like that Woo Yeon has come to understand where she stands in terms of her feelings for Soo. She acknowledged the fact that she was partly at fault for continuing to harbor feelings for him despite the constant rejection. I’m loving the details in this drama such as the person Woo Yeon bumped in to at the airport when she was on her way to confess for the first time turned out to be Joon Soo. Also the fact that he hesitated in his own confession was because he saw her get rejected straightaway. I sort of guessed this much because there was an emphasis during that scene in the first episode which I almost forgot until this episode. Then there’s Jinju’s possible love prospect and the extra emphasis when she bought milk tea for the sunbae who “cares too much about health.” But then he seems so young! I personally ship her with Sang Hyeok; he seems like the type of guy who will take good care of her and be her comfort after a hard day’s work. I love it that Young Hee and Hyun Jae are actually making a progress in their ten year relationship. I’m loving these two a lot especially now that Young Hee is making an effort to open up to him about herself and what is happening to her. They’re actually my favorite couple in this drama since I keep wanting to have Joon Soo for my self.
Tumblr media Tumblr media
Episode 8 - The previous episode’s ending got me really nervous because I don’t want Joon Soo and Woo Yeong to break up so soon. I did not want him to get hurt that way too because he does not deserve it. Obviously, their relationship is not stable enough with Soo in the picture, and Joon Soo is very anxious of it. I want his to be more vocal about his feelings of jealousy and anxiety but he probably just want to show Woo Yeon his good qualities lest it drives her away. However, I keep having the impression that Joon Soo fears the idea of loosing the girl he likes more than anything else. I suppose it is because of his experience with his first love but it seems that this fear is overpowering his feelings for Woo Yeon. His secretary/ friend’s advice also struck a chord with me because I know they will not end up together. In this episode, I think I have confirmed my suspicion about him being the type who is scary when angered. It was evident that his patience has been running thin in trying to keep his jealousy under wraps especially when he got pissed with Soo’s informal way of speech. It wasn’t something most people would appreciate which reminded me of the reactions actor Joo Won received from his seniors due to his informal speech. Soo was really a jerk for letting his jealousy overtake him to the point of causing Woo Yeon to be embarrassed in front of their friends and her boyfriend. I hope he can take a step back for awhile instead of constantly shaking up Woo Yeon with his own feelings. He owes it to her to let her be happy even if it meant with someone else. Young Hee’s advice about letting Woo Yeon go was right especially when she pointed out that Woo Yeon liked him for a third of his lifetime. How can I not love her more? It’s so nice to see that she and Hyun Jae has come to terms where their relationship stand instead of getting overwhelmed by the pressure to get married immediately. Please don’t let them break up ever! Next week’s episodes will be more intense so I am excited and dreading it at the same time. Just why is this drama flying by so quickly?
7 notes · View notes
Text
Tumblr media Tumblr media
I want to make one thing absolutely clear before getting any further into this: I am not in any way or form saying you are not allowed to ship whatever you want. I am not here to call you Toxic™ or Problematic™. In fact, I get hives when people guilt-trip others because of their fictional ships and make them feel like there’s something wrong with their head. I have many dark ships myself and know how the bashing feels so I would never do something like that to others. 
For a long time, I didn’t actually have a real NOTP, and this one was mainly born out of the fans’ reaction to She Li and his recently revealed backstory rather than the ship itself. To me, it seemed like some people took the “easiest” way with SL and MGS’s relationship and jumped straight to romantic love. When, in fact, I find their past and relationship much more complicated.
I liked what OldXian had to say about the matter, actually. Thank you @nira18 for going through the trouble of posting and translating OX’s comments for us. (I’m going to borrow them for a while 🙏) But before that, a few words about what I’ve learned about interpreting during my years as a literature major.
Usually, I have mixed feelings about authors “explaining” their stories because fan-readers often use them to attack other fans’ interpretations that differ from their own and make them less valid. There are actually three major players and powers when it comes to interpreting: the author, the text itself, and the reader. You can study texts from any of those major perspectives, but you’d be surprised how little the author’s intentions weight when reading and interpreting. In fact, scholars and students of literature are very rarely interested in them at all.
What many fan-readers don’t perhaps realize is that interpreting isn’t supposed to be some kind list of correct and incorrect that you should check with someone to see if you “got it right”. As long as you can argue your point by using the text, your interpretation is valid. Which is actually an interesting issue since so much of the fandom culture stems from the fans’ almost rebel-like ways of reading characters and stories. For example, one reason why fans write fanfiction is to fulfill their own interpretations the author hadn’t explored. Actually, fan-reading revolves around the age-old question of literature: to whom does the power of interpreting belong after a text has been published, the author or the writer? So, why are we somewhat hypocritical when it comes to fan-interpretations that differ from our own?
All that being said, I’d still like to take a look at OX’s comments. But I don’t wish to use them as weapons, though. I’ve been saddened by how people seemed to almost rub them in the shippers’ faces.
Tumblr media
“Two people can’t just stand in one place together and fall in love! [Laughing crying] There are many kinds of feelings in the world, family affections, friendship affections, romantic affections, hatred, jealousy, etc. I personally believe that the often interesting relationships (?), are complicated and unexplainable.” X
As I said earlier, when SL’s backstory and his first connection with MGS were revealed, some fans jumped straight to the romance wagon and saw SL being so hung up on MGS as romantic jealousy. I see where the shippers are coming from but find that a whole plethora of feelings that would fit between hate and romantic love is in danger to be bypassed. As OX said, there are many kinds of feelings in the world, and many of them are nuanced even though they share some common denominator. I am not saying people can’t see SL and MGS romantically, but it’s a bit frustrating if they choose to ignore all of other, more complex options. Just because 19 Days is a shounen-ai doesn’t mean there can’t be any other kinds of relationships.
Partly, my frustration stems from my “protectiveness” of SL’s character. It’s no secret I’m very interested in and intrigued by him. I realize he’s the bad guy of the story and fully understand why the majority of the fans hate him with a burning passion. But I can’t bring myself to dislike him. He’s in the long line of antagonists who have found their way into my heart.
I find SL’s character highly complex which is why I don’t want to brush his feelings towards MGS and role in the overall story off as romantic love. It feels way too hasty. To go to such extreme as “love” is too easy and cuts too many corners.
What I think SL and MGS’s relationship could be boiled down to instead is “misery loves company”. SL had once managed to pull MGS down with him and intends to keep him there. Because if MGS gets freed from SL’s world, it would quite painfully point out how messed up SL’s life is, too. Which brings me back to OX’s point about nuanced feelings. To see others you thought shared your misery actually try and climb out of the pit, is its own form of jealousy. When I see SL being so hung up on MGS, I don’t see romantic jealousy but something more complex.
Tumblr media
I like what @casually-inlove said about the different roles of SL and HT in her answer. HT is a savior of sorts in MGS’s life, someone who believes in him and strives to make him “an outstanding person” aka not ruin his life by becoming a part of the criminal gangs and underworld for good. The opposite of what SL ultimately wants to.
Tumblr media
And the change in MGS must have been apparent enough for SL to take notice. Since MGS has gained more people who actually see good things in him and even admire him, it’s given him more self-esteem and confidence and started to convince him he’s not an outcast good-for-nothing delinquent. He’s been looked down by his peers since his childhood and after a while, he’s started to believe in that image, too.
Hope is a very strong motivation in life, and SL seems to despise the idea of MGS having any of it. It’s the light at the end of the tunnel that would ultimately lead MGS out the world he’s shared with SL.
Up until HT got involved, SL had managed to snuff out MGS’s hope quite effectively. He’s manipulated him by using the carrot by talking about “destiny” and seemingly giving MGS what he knows he’s desperate for:
Tumblr media Tumblr media
But he also wasn’t hesitant to use the stick when he needed to remind MGS of his place. There’s a lot to be said about using gratitude as a way to manipulate others but it’s very effective and something SL seems to go for a lot:
Tumblr media Tumblr media
I don’t know if SL actually believes MGS owes him for the rest of his life and sees himself as some kind of grand savior. It’s possible, I suppose, and would somewhat explain why he’s trying so stubbornly to hold on to MGS even though he obviously has quite a lot of followers already. SL seems to have a compulsive need to control and possess other people and sees MGS trying to leave his side as a betrayal. No one is allowed to think their debts have been repaid until he says so. Now, why is it like that is the million-dollar question. Why is he so desperate to shackle people to himself like that? Is it simply about power or something deeper?
We don’t know exactly how SL saved MGS either, but ultimately I think it’s about giving MGS a place to belong when others discriminated against him. He took advantage of MGS’s growing bitterness and strengthened his poor image of himself by creating a vicious cycle of being involved in gangs and further more estranging him from his peers. As I said in my earlier post regarding MGS’s character, there’s no faster way to turn someone into an outcast than by making them bitter and pushing them to join like-minded people.
However, it’s also possible it didn’t begin that way. It’s unclear to us how long MGS and SL have known each other. Their first encounter was revealed in ch 294, but it seemed one-sided. How soon after this
Tumblr media
did MGS and LS meet again? Did SL recognize MGS? Were they actual friends at some point, and it all went to hell later on? Did they perhaps bond over both being seen as weirdos and outcasts by others? (As a side note, I’d like to recommend this piece of fanart by @naesol that I think offers an interesting possibility of how things might’ve gone down between them.)
At this point, you might rightly wonder how on earth I could like a character like that. A despicable manipulator who exploits others’ weakness and wants to drag them down with him. It’s actually partly why I don’t see a romantic connection between MGS and SL.
As crazy as it sounds, I relate to some of SL’s character. Up to a point, I see my own shortcomings in him. When I see him being jealous of MGS trying to turn his life around, ultimately leaving him behind and feeling betrayed by it, I 100% recognize that feeling because I’m prone to it myself. In those situations, I don’t go wielding pocket knives or try to manipulate them out if it, of course, but I can’t bring myself to genuinely root for them, either. Instead, I tend to feel jealous, envious, and bitter. When I see others fix the things in themselves that I hate about myself, I silently wish them to fail because if they can do it, what’s my excuse for not doing the same? I’m not proud of this side of myself but it is the truth.
And that’s why I think it’s dangerous to bash other people for what they ship or what characters they like. You can’t possibly know the reason why and can make them feel really shitty about themselves by assuming they just don’t know right from wrong or want to romanticize problematic things. The thing about fiction is that it provides us a safe environment to experience and discover different feelings, some of which can be weird or scary or conflicting, and possibly recognize those feelings in ourselves and work on them. And people should be allowed to do that without being bashed or made assumptions about by others.
All in all, because I relate to what I interpret SL is feeling I don’t recognize the romantic aspect some readers find between them. I think it’s more based on fanon than actual canon, but that doesn’t mean I have the right to tell anyone what to ship.
30 day 19 Days challenge
240 notes · View notes
volarentarchived · 4 years
Text
liveblogged thoughts on the before the dawn preview.
cut because it’s pretty much all ramble, mixed in with my love for fox.
ah alright, so i’m starting to see some hypocrisy in sun’s personality ? as well as something that seemed very interesting to me when i was reading the preview ? blake and sun share an aloofness that isn’t quite clear at first, and i’m hoping that the book might actually shed some light on that. the way that sun ditches responsibility when it comes to his teammates, as well as the way they act when sun runs off makes me think that sun going off to do his own thing is something he is continuously doing, but going to menagerie with blake was an egregious instance, like he took it too far this time. sun thinks something in the novels along the lines of “when are they going to get over it?” implying that sun doesn’t believe it’s a huge deal. ( “they were fine.” “they’ll come around.” ) sun deflects like a madman. it made me think of the vytal tournament, how the fight was actually kind of a mess, and there was very little actual teamwork to be had in s/ssn’s fight ? they all just did their own thing. i think … sun might not actually want to be the leader. i don’t think he’s suited for this role.
sun went to fight thugs on his own with very little thought as to what his teammates approved of, he thought he could take on four assailants on his own, so sun isn’t only aloof but he’s arrogant too, which is interesting. he took offence to velvet and yatsuhashi implying he needed help ( which he did, but was too prideful to admit it ) and this coming from someone who told blake “ you should always get your friends involved ” hypocrisy. and frankly, i kind of like it. love it when good - aligned people have flaws.
“ vacuoans still watch out for their tribe. ” SUN CAN YOU NOT SEE HOW CONTRADICTORY YOU’RE BEING. i love him, but the boy is dense. i also very much want to believe that he is honestly just being a knobhead, because the slight implications from yatsuhashi + the author that sun went “ running after a girl ” is a little too heteronormative and also implies that sun really did follow blake all the way to menagerie to play white knight with her so that he could get into her pants which WE’RE NOT ABOUT. it also implies that sun lied to neptune about why he went after blake, which we’re not about. boy’s team has paper thin trust in him as it is.
something that coco says about sun really reiterates how much he and blake have in common, which really ??? it really has never struck me like that before, they’re portrayed as complete opposites, but at the same time, they have this one fundamental character trait that they share whether it was obvious or not. here’s the line from coco’s perspective: “ sun was too unstable, too unreliable, for her to want to partner with him and his team. ” it’s just, strange to see him in this light. coco might be arrogant too, but her distain towards sun’s leadership is interesting. anyway, if that doesn’t sound like v1 blake then idk what does.
velvet ? flourishing with confidence now that she’s not at beacon anymore ? we love to see it.
i am so confused, what is it with yatsuhashi and continuously pissing people off ? i don’t understand what myer’s trying to do by making yatsu the token “piss off faunus” person, i cannot get his personality. why hasn’t fox snapped at yatsu before and told him about basic vacuo ettiquette 101 ? haven’t they been here for over a year ? yatsu should have gotten a comment like calling vacuo “ used of resources and therefor useless ” out of him months ago when they were *travelling* there. either way, the writing ( to me ) is pushing the impression that yatsuhashi is dumb and we’re not here for it ... unless, he’s meant to be written like a himbo ??? in that case, it would be very interesting shift from the fandom expectation of him, just like fox was in the last novel. huh ...
you know, if i was fox i would have taken sun’s “ you’re having trouble getting help because you’re outsiders, you don’t know this city like i do ” as another hypocritical statement if i wasn’t sure that sun spent most of his life outside of the city walls. still. the line “ they don’t trust outsiders — especially huntsmen trainees from other schools who are only in Vacuo because they have nowhere else to go. ” SUN didn’t you come from haven ? a school that is not in vacuo ? anyway, once again, i’m finding out some very interesting things about sun’s canon from this preview. it’s hard to tell how much of it is skewed because of the writing style but, it’s still pretty interesting.
“hold on,” scarlet said. “are you saying you don’t have permission to investigate the crown?” “we don’t not have permission.” — fox fox, i fucking love you. never change.
holy shit, scarlet really caught onto coco’s ( albeit earned ) arrogant thoughts immediately. i’m actually glad that his spitfire fanon personality might be closer to canon than originally thought ? anyway, the gays can read each other something fierce.
oh my god, the ( again, albeit earned ) shade being thrown at sun by the rest of his team has me ‘ oooo ’ - ing from the sidelines, i bet it’s been real awkward for months. also, since coco’s team disagreed with her about needing help it’s hard to take everything from her perspective as absolute fact, but wow, her observation about sun latching onto stronger teams because his own is, in her eyes, mediocre was harsh. i felt that burn from here.
SCARLET. TELLING IT LIKE IT IS. I LOVE HIM. I LOVE HIM SO MUCH.
“ city vacuoans are different from desert vacuoans ” really struck me, because i’m starting to see that sun is definitely a city one, and fox is a desert one.
okay, so neptune being more of a yes - man than a playboy really threw me off for some reason. his will seems like the weakest amongst his teammates.
fox’s ability to tell it like it is is one of my favourite traits about him. he never cares about being complacent or getting on coco’s bad side because they’ve earned each other’s honesty and i’m for that. same with the rest of coco and her team actually, i like that a lot. maybe they look like they’ve improved so much because they’re next to s/ssn and they’re almost falling apart but i’m proud of them.
velvet’s little smile and her “i like proving people wrong” IS SUCH A MOOD I LOVE YOU DEARHEART, YOU’RE DOING AMAZING SWEETIE.
“ fox had tried to explain that in vacuo, you didn’t do things for praise — you did them to survive ” okay, so this gives more validity as to why i write fox so praise - starved.
i’m really loving all the background detail we’re getting on the war, and shade, and vacuo and it’s relation to other kingdoms. it’s really helpful when it comes to writing fox ? it partially explains why he’s so friendly and easy - going one minute, and then so feral and guarded the next. he really is so intelligent and observant and he’s blanketing all that in humour to throw people off. i love it. fox misquoted ( i’m not sure if that’s the word i’m looking for, since he did it intentionally ) something from oobleck about being destined to repeat history and i’m starting to think that might have been his favourite class in beacon.
okay, so coco and yatsuhashi are really driving forth that “what else does vacuo have to offer” thing which makes me think that that’s a narrative set up for the crown somehow having gotten a hold on the artefact. they keep talking about what vacuo has to offer, and it’s just hammering it into my mind that c/fvy found something relating to the relics.
FOX AND COCO’S ABILITY TO SEE BETWEEN THE LINES, I LOVE IT. and also team c/fvy energy is like, an organised chaos. man, i just love their friendship so much ? they really compliment one another in their interactions, fox’s really flexible nature to coco’s domineering one, his ability to talk to her without sugarcoating anything and being wholeheartedly honest, but they also have a lot in common personality wise - just the fact that they knew at the same time that they were being given a loophole by the professor really made me smile.
i am absolutely sure yatsu is intentionally being written dense now. this is from the preview alone ? i’m just curious about where they’re taking his personality, because while i might not have been paying much attention to his character in the previous novel, it was mostly because not a lot of things stood out ? i did notice how he was the most called out on unintentionally racist things, but he’s also saying ignorant things about vacuo now too ( given, coco said the same thing and was also reprimanded for that way of thinking about vacuo and it’s value ) and i want to know if that’s intention that he seems to be the stepping stone outsider ignorance more often than not. is that part of his personality, or is it a habit of the writer ?
fuck the city vacuoans seem so much meaner than the desert ones. i’m not faulting them for being wary of outsiders considering how much the other kingdoms have taken from them and remained complacent in it, but there’s a real distinction between a city vacuoan and a desert vacuoan. city vacuoans value their history so much more, whereas desert tribes don’t. i guess it’s because they don’t have the monuments to value the history huh ? anyway, the tribe folk seemed so much more friendly in comparison to c/fvy’s recollection of other shade students and the residents of the city. you know what, the outcast thematic and fox being someone who came from a headcanoned scavenger tribe makes sense if city vacuoans are against digging stuff up and ruining it. i’m noticing the city vacuoans are more concerned with keeping their history while desert vacuoans are more concerned with surviving.
i’m not even sad that i have to retcon some of velvet’s backstory ? i never pegged her as being associated with atlas, but i like it. definitely explain show high tech her weapon is. i did write velvet’s parents being separated yes, but i wrote that her mother was from vacuo, and her dad was the one who stayed but i like the cohesion of this, of her father being an atlesian engineer. i always thought that velvet’s design was odd ? she has so many earthy brown and gold tones and it’s a tad misleading because of the blue of her light copies, i should have figured that that neon futuristic blue was a part of her backstory, i’m actually kind of mad that i didn’t see it earlier, didn’t think that hard on how she could have such a weapon when hard light dust is damn expensive. i also didn’t see her mannerisms as someone who came from family who had marital issues. i always thought that it stemmed from the bullying, but i don’t mind exploring this.
sun didn’t tell his family that he’s back in the city, and neither did fox with his ??? i want to know if that’s connected somehow ??? whether it’s just culture or a personality trait ?
anyway stan fox, the love of my life, my darling. i love him so much.
7 notes · View notes
vicsep7250 · 5 years
Text
@ren-amamiyaa and their (he/she?) Golden Heist, Thief Nanako and Cryptid Chaser aus flooded my brain and now Im making this post bc I cant fit all of this in asks!!!
All right, so, idea. Cryptid Chasers, Thief Nanako and Golden Heist are all connected righr???
CC acts as a prequel, TN becomes the inbetween starring Nanako and Akechi, and GH stars a broken and older IT and slightly jaded PT.
So far CC has Yosuke and Naoto forming the brotp that fanon wanted through silly Saturday Night Ghost Chasers Shenanigans, Akiren is bein' a lil shit at midnight bc he needs an outlet and exercise to Phantom Thief. While this goes on, Akechi's ghost/spirit/rement/heart/whatever pulls pranks and shenans along with Joker (hiwever that happens).
As the Cryptid Chasers keep going out of their way to confront Joker about Arsene (bc even he likes to mess around) the other IT in Inaba start to try and stop them from disrupting the peace (read : harassing a known criminal) and this somehow leads to a falling out. Mayhaps Naoto and Yosuke break a few laws and Chie busts them, Kanji wants to know why theyre stalking his student/protege, and Yukiko just wants to keep the rumors about the inn in check bc jfc Yosuke STOP SCREECHING IN THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT IN THE LOBBY THERE IS NO GHOST ON THE TV!
Maybe eventually they call it quits or dont bc Naoto dug this hole too deep to climb out themself and Yosuke is having the time of his life since Partner isnt around and hasn't come back to visit yet (Not sayin' souyo is canon and there but-). And the Cryptid Chasers arc probably ends here with there being some animosity towards their shenanigans , but the IT are all still friends.
Now fast forward to like, uhhh (*flings dart at wall of calendars*) 2014 during winter and Akiren's cryptid acts are now fully accepted and maybe exposed, who knows. Nanako is like 10 ~ 12 (P5 is maybe three/five years post P4 I believe) and is just going through the motions of public education. I.E. go to class, do work, get good grades. Dojima is still the same as he was before Yu came but is at least doing better at being a dad, not much but better. Yosuke and Ted aren't around as much bc Junes, Chie is transferred to Tokyo, Yukiko is busy managing the Inn, and Kanji is busy with work (as a teacher and crafts business owner). Rise unfortunately cant come visit and Big Bro now visits every other year.
Nanako starts to look back and wonder how things started to fall apart amongst the group and recalls that "delinquent" who came back at the same time the Cryptid^tm showed up and ruined the group. So now she starts to remember the good times when Big Bro came by and starts to notice some blanks around winter... Why was she in the hospital when she got kidnapled? Why does she remember these weird flashes of Big Bro and his friends and some monster?? And how come she tried to ask them anything about it they brushed her off each time???
The TV in her room flashes and soon she starts hearing things. She starts to move closer to the tv, as if she was in some sort of trance, as the sounds start to become voices to her. When she's directly infront of the screen she sees something... someone on it...
Nanako doesnt show up for breakast, or to school, and nobody seems to have seen her.
A full year passes on after that day. It starts off with a big search party of the IT and Social Links for the first two months, then after ankther three something stange happens... are people forgetting that Nanako existed or something? Everybody's starting to act like completely different peoplw than who they are too, some even end up hospitalozed due to severe headaches and such, and start claiming that Nanako was never around when she vanished or that she left Inaba or was already deamed dead or missing. This rings alarms in the IT's mimds as they search for answers, eventually all fully reuniting for the first time in years/months.
Naoto and Yosuke blame themselves bc they piece together her disappearance with the Cryptid + Ghost case and immediately get scolded for trying to pin their stupid kids game on a missing person's case - especially now with Nanako missing and possibly in danger again! Afterwards the IT are a bit on edge and a bit broken with the whole thing. Meanwhile Akechi can hear the tale ends of "missing person" and "literal disappearnace" and starts looking into this weird limbo metaverse he's in bc some shit is kinda fucked in here now for some reason. They're pretty much only together as a team to rescue Nanako.
GH in the PTs POV starts when Akiren invites the group to the Amagi Inn thanks to licrative money grin- I mean training. He comes clean into having seen something weird on the tv one late night and wants to let the gang know.
Midnight rolls around and Akechi shows up on the screen and the Thieves losing their shit is an understatement - numerous noise complaints were filed that night. Anyways Akechi decides to just play the role of "hey moron, some shits fucked come help fix it" and ends up informing them of a missing girl and this weird TV Mementos world he is in.
I would like to note that Akechi is not at all bitter or confused at everyone's circumstances in life, no of course not Joker stop crying I know its been a while but shutup theres a kid in trouble rn and youre the only ones who can possibly help her.
When the PT figure out a plan to reach this other world Goro is in (Arsene : THOUARTTHEESTICKYOURHANDINTHETVDOITDOITDOITDOIT) the IT eventually come to the very sad conclusion that Nanako moght be in the TV world and that opens a whole can of worms and burnable bridges to cross.
While in the TV world, I'd like to imagine that due to Akechi having been there for a good while it has been shaped to reflect his heart and be the new overall theme of that world. It all still looks like Inaba, but it all holds themes to Akechi and his no good terrible life. However due to Nanako having been in that world as a kid, and now for an uncertain amount of time, the world now holds motifs to the Heaven area from P4, but it's all sorta ruined and kinda darker.
When both teams get together and enter the weird Tele-Mentos world (IT in a Junes storage and PT at either Ren's pad [bc he moved out obvi] (OR bith teams enter from seperate TVs at the Inn so SHENANS!)) Yu and the IT go through Akechi's influenced world/TV Palace, finding out about his tragic backstory and involvement with the PT, but anything that can and could reveal their true identities is blurred and staticy or missing bc Akechi aint gonna snitch out who ruined his sperm donors life (also I guess saved the world too yeah). While going through the Palace the Team starts to think that finding Goro will just be an "if it happens" sort of deal bc he's been missing for years already, what if we just leave him here bc M U R D E R E R.
Cue a sudden appearance by someone in some sort of fallen angel garb who starts whipping out a full on Metal Gear Villain monologue about how hypocritical the IT are when they find the truth about Akechi's life and disappearance - they claimed to want to live in a world where no one hides in the fig, was that all a lie? Are they going back on their word, and hiding behind a shriud of lies and falsehoods once more? "You've gone and lied and hidden the truth already, what's to say you won't continue?"
Meanwhile Akiren and the Thieves enter at the very top of the Heaven TV Set and have to climb all the way down. As they do so they start seeing little murals or epitaphs about memories and people in this girls life. They see all of these memories of a happy girl who had such a loving family - both found and by blood. As they go further and further down the ruins start to look like an actual Heaven, and the scenary becomes more bright and colorful. Eventually they might run into Crow in his Black Mask clothes and give the bastard a slug on the arm and a group hug or two, bc man he doesn't deserve to suffer anymore like this.
Now that the Phantom Thieves have been reunited (Akechi : I can't leave this world The PT : FUCK, MORE PLOT) they end up thinking up ways to get Akechi out until this weird angel priest looking dude shows up and starts babling about how they are criminals and how they've done more bad than good and blah blah blah. Everyone is just all "We're the good guys, we do the right thing even if its morally grey/ambiguous!" and oh look! Another crazed maniac wants to kill us for our "injustice" *Crow has the decency to look away and not say anything* annnnnnd Heaven is locked off. Perfect.
Now maybe the Phantom Thieves and Investigation Team run into each other somewhere in Akechi's Palace and "You have Personas?!?!" "The hell is a Palace?" "YOU'RE THE CRYPTID OF INABA!!?!?" "And Im the 'Ghost' that follows him." "Wait you followed me as a ghost?" "WAIT WHY ARE THERE TWO AKECHIS??!??!!"
Oh yeah, Shadows... Akechi is still kinda in denial about the whole friends and justice thing...
And now the Dark Priest is back great ("Good name Skull" "Well I've got my moments right?").
Annnnnnnd now I have no idea what happens next and Im all burned out but AAAAAAAAA this entire AU crossover thing is so GOOOOOOOOOOD!!!!!
38 notes · View notes
commentaryvorg · 5 years
Text
Danganronpa V3 Commentary: Part 4.5
Be aware that this is not a blind playthrough! This will contain spoilers for the entire game, regardless of the part of the game I’m commenting on. A major focus of this commentary is to talk about all of the hints and foreshadowing of events that are going to happen and facts that are going to be revealed in the future of the story. It is emphatically not intended for someone experiencing the game for their first time.
Last time in chapter 4, Maki opened up about her past, she and Shuichi and Kaito were ADORABLE FRIENDS, Kaito was a huge hypocrite on the topic of burdens, twice, Kokichi helpfully suggested some improvements to Monokuma’s script like an absolute moron, and Kaito’s bonus training for his sidekicks was totally not him desperately trying to prove that they still need him or anything.
Now for the last of chapter 4’s free time!
Shuichi:  (What can *I* do? The only thing I’m good at is solving mysteries, but I can’t figure out this academy.)
That’s not the only thing you’re good at, Shuichi! Your detective’s brain also makes you pretty good at coming up with plans. That plan with the cameras in chapter 1 was really not a bad plan if you ignore the fact that the entire premise of it (that the mastermind wouldn’t have a way of knowing about it) was flawed. But of course Shuichi wouldn’t think that or want to attempt something like that again since it indirectly got Kaede killed.
Keebo:  “What can we each do to make sure that we all survive…? We all possess Ultimate talents. There *must* be something we can do.”
YES IT’S ALMOST LIKE THE ULTIMATE ROBOT COULD GET US OUT OF HERE OR SOMETHING.
Geez. I was mostly not being too mad at Keebo because I figured he was largely oblivious to the difference his weapons could have made anyway, but this makes it a whole lot less excusable. (And again, there is no indication given that he’s not doing so because of his inner voice, which is the only truly justifiable reason that would make sense within the story.)
So that’s even more reason for me to not hang out with Keebo here like I wasn’t going to anyway, because that should by all rights lead to Shuichi persuading him to use his weapons and get everyone out of here today. And that’s obviously not in line with canon.
Gonta:  “Hi, Shuichi! How can Gonta help you today?”
Heh, this mostly just sounds like a polite, gentlemanly greeting, but in this chapter’s context, it definitely has undertones of “please tell Gonta he can help you today, Gonta really wants to be able to help you today”. Sorry, Gonta, I’d love to, but we’re already best friends; Shuichi needs to spread his friendship around others too.
Miu is in the computer room as she was all day yesterday as well, but interestingly, right now Kokichi’s hanging around in the corridor not too far from it too. He does apparently help her set things up for their Virtual World trip, so maybe that’s what he’s doing right now.
Despite Kaito not showing up anywhere on the Monopad’s map due to what is presumably a programming oversight (even characters who aren’t available should have their locations shown, with the understandable exception of Kokichi in chapter 5), he does exist during this free time slot and is perfectly available to hang out. The wiki says he is unavailable right now; the wiki is wrong. He’s in the warehouse. You’re welcome.
(The first time I played through this game myself, during which one of my missions was to find every piece of optional dialogue I might not have seen from Youtube playthroughs, I was determined not to give up on finding Kaito here and resolved to manually check EVERY SINGLE ROOM IN THE SCHOOL IF I HAD TO. Thankfully I started from the bottom up and the warehouse is on the first floor.)
Kaito’s reason for being in the warehouse probably has something to do with the fact that it apparently contains medicine. Like, you know, painkillers and stuff.
Kaito:  “I can see my training is already having results for you and Maki Roll.”
It is, and Kaito has every right to be proud of himself for that!
But it’s also interesting that while a lot of the characters are focusing on thinking about what they can do, since that’s what they discussed at breakfast, Kaito is instead focusing on what he already has done. Almost as if thinking about what he can do in future is painful and discouraging because there’s almost nothing he can do (short of suggesting even more bonus training for his sidekicks, which still isn’t going to help them escape), and so he doesn’t want to dwell on that.
Kaito:  “But don’t slow down here! It’s important to keep up your training every day.”
It is! Shuichi and Maki (with the addition of Himiko) are absolutely going to keep up their training every day when they get out of here.
(Also, remember back in chapter 2 when I mentioned that I’d started doing exercise myself thanks to Kaito? I’ve been doing that every single day for a little bit over a year now, and it’ll be several months more than that by the time this part I’m writing actually gets posted. Kaito is the best.)
Anyway, we’ve been on a roll with Maki lately in the rest of the story (pun totally intended), so let’s continue that by hanging out with her, shall we?
She happens to be in the dining hall, which is just across the corridor from the warehouse and therefore tantalisingly close to where Kaito is. They could all hang out as a trio again! Kaito would also want to hear more of Maki’s heartbreaking backstory! No? No. Silly game mechanics.
Maki:  “Something only I can do… I can think of just one thing. …I know what you’re about to say. But… that’s the reality.”
Oh, Maki. That’s not the only thing you can do!
Maki:  “Of course, I’ll think about… other things I can do.”
Exactly! You can fight and protect us!
Shuichi:  “I didn’t know that assassins were scouted.”
As the event proper begins, Shuichi just straight-up continues the conversation they were having last night. This is why I had to save Maki’s third FTE until now at the earliest – because having this before that scene just does not make sense.
Maki:  “It’s better if you didn’t know. Also, there’s no need for you to know.”
I dunno, Maki, if more people knew that there were child-slave assassins out there then maybe some people would be able to do something about it and this horrendous practice might stop. She just can’t see it that way, because she’s had to accept this as her reality in order to cope.
Maki:  “The orphanage I was raised at was run for that reason.”
Shuichi:  “…What do you mean?”
Maki:  “To raise potential candidates for assassins.”
Yup, that’s the truth of her orphanage. That’s not remotely fucked up at all.
Shuichi:  (How much is Maki carrying on her shoulders…? Such small shoulders…)
Heh. You sound like Kaito, Shuichi.
Maki:  “The basic training forces your body to go beyond its human limitations. They physically beat us to help us withstand torture, and taught us how to die when needed…”
Happy fun Free Time with upbeat music as our friend casually tells us about how she was tortured.
(It really is a shame Kaito couldn’t be here to hear this too. He would 1000% want to help her carry this awful burden just like Shuichi is doing, even though all they can do is listen.)
Maki:  “The only option left when you fail a mission is to die, right? Dying sooner is the nicer way out. It’s much better than being tortured alive.”
…I mean, she failed that one mission with the katana and didn’t have to die for it. I guess what she’s really talking about is if she were to get captured by an enemy of the assassin cult that would use her for information.
At least this means that when they’re all considering group suicide in chapter 5, Maki would know how to also kill herself painlessly at the end of it. You know. Reassuring thoughts.
Shuichi:  (I can’t bear to think of what Maki had to go through…)
I know, Shuichi. It may have never really happened to her, but she’s still having to live now with the memory of it, believing that it really happened to her, and that’s not fucking fair at all.
Maki:  “They tried to drag my dignity and tear it… To make me feel empty…”
They were trying to turn her into an empty, cold-blooded killer without a heart. And they didn’t succeed.
Maki:  “I wouldn’t have accepted the job in the first place if I knew I couldn’t do it… But most importantly… If I broke, then *that girl* would replace me…”
We’ll hear more about this next time, but she’s talking about her best friend from the orphanage. She put herself through what she knew would be literal torture and refused to break under it because if she did, then her best friend would go through that instead. God, Maki is amazing.
(Again, technically none of that really happened to her, but thanks to those fake memories, the person standing here is someone who really would do that kind of thing.)
Shuichi:  “That girl?”
Maki:  “… Sorry… Pretend you didn’t hear any of that just now.”
But it seems like, at least for right now, she’s not quite ready to open up that much. She’ll get there, though.
Kokichi:  “I bumped into Kaito, and he ended up giving me a lecture. He told me to think of a way to escape…”
Kaito has still been trying to get through to Kokichi! He still hasn’t given up on Kokichi and believes there’s some semblance of a decent person inside him who actually wants them all to escape! Kaito is so good.
(It also seems that, despite his earlier declarations, Kaito realised that punching him again might give off the wrong impression and decided to just stick to words this time.)
Kokichi:  “But the only idea I can think of is becoming the blackened myself.”
And… Kaito’s not wrong about Kokichi, but he is underestimating how massively, completely inconceivable it is to Kokichi to actually acknowledge that buried part of himself and start being co-operative. What’s about to happen tonight isn’t going to be for lack of Kaito trying to stop it, but even Kaito isn’t enough here.
Kokichi:  “That’d entertain everyone.”
Which is exactly what Monokuma wants, you are playing right into his hands and you should know this, you goddamn idiot.
Gonta:  “Nrgh… Gonta tired… Gonta think too much…”
Awww, Gonta. He’s been trying so hard.
Gonta:  “Rest is important, too… Gonta have to make sure he not useless when everyone need him!”
“When”. He’s still managing to stay so optimistic that that time will come. (Which it will. Sooner and far more tragically than you think, Gonta. Gaaaaah.)
Anyway, this time, in the very last chance we have for it, we’re hanging out with Kaito. Come on, now – you didn’t really think for a second I was going to go through the story without maxing out his FTEs, did you?
Kaito:  “O-Oh, Shuichi… What’s the matter?”
Just like he did a day ago, Kaito doesn’t seem super-thrilled to suddenly encounter Shuichi wanting to talk to him.
Kaito:  “Yeah, I don’t mind talking, but… My stomach hurts a little. Can we talk somewhere I can rest?”
But this time, he’s actually being somewhat honest about what the problem is. That’s pretty remarkable. Sure, for Kaito to be admitting to Shuichi that his stomach hurts a little, it must really be hurting one hell of a lot, but still. Kaito being willing to show even just a tiny bit of vulnerability in front of his sidekick is such a big deal and warms my heart. It’s okay, Kaito. Shuichi isn’t going to be any less inspired by you just because you’re struggling with a lot of things yourself, you absolute wonderful moron.
Shuichi:  (I spent some time with Kaito… Didn’t he say his stomach hurt last night too? I hope he’s okay…)
I’m sure Kaito hates the fact that his tiny nugget of honesty is making Shuichi worry about him and doesn’t want him to do so at all… but Shuichi absolutely should be worried about his friend.
Kaito:  “Hey, you got a minute? I got something to talk about.”
Shuichi:  “Ah, okay…” (He seems upset…)
Shuichi’s already getting the sense that there’s something more forceful about Kaito than usual as we start the event proper, and boy is there a reason for that.
Shuichi:  (Did I do something to make him angry?)
This, however, is not that reason. But of course Shuichi is lacking enough in self-assurance that he would immediately think this is somehow his fault. Of course it wouldn’t ever occur to him that maybe Kaito has issues and problems of his own and that might be what’s at the root of this rather than Shuichi having done anything wrong. (And this won’t be the only time Shuichi misunderstands Kaito in literally exactly this way.)
Kaito:  “I’m just gonna say it! What are you moping around for!?”
Shuichi:  “What?”
Kaito:  “When my sidekick is moping, it really ticks me off!”
Shuichi:  (I’m… moping?)
Shuichi isn’t moping. He’s still not a shining paragon of confidence or anything, but he’s been able to be a lot stronger and more positive lately. His own reaction to Kaito’s accusation just now shows that even he didn’t really think there was anything he was being particularly negative about, even though Shuichi is usually his own biggest critic.
Kaito disapproves of moping because it’s just wallowing in your negative feelings without making an effort to make it better. But in this context, the effort to make it better that Shuichi is supposedly avoiding would be asking Kaito for help. Right now, “Why are you moping?” really translates to “Why aren’t you letting me help you?”
Kaito:  “I told you, man! Don’t hesitate to talk to me if something’s wrong. But you’re still keeping stuff from me! Am I not reliable enough!? Spit it out! If you bottle everything up, it can’t get fixed!”
What this whole thing really is is Kaito projecting weakness and worries onto Shuichi in another desperate attempt to show that Shuichi still needs his help. His “Am I not reliable enough!?” in particular shows what’s really going on. Kaito is terrified that he really isn’t reliable enough, not now that he’s dying and Shuichi solved the previous trial entirely without him and is seemingly strong enough that maybe he doesn’t really need Kaito’s support any more.
(It could also perhaps seem like Kaito is projecting his own behaviour of hiding his illness from his friends, but like last time, I don’t think the fact that he is incidentally being hypocritical here is the point. If the point was Kaito deflecting, that’d mean that acting like he wants to help Shuichi would just be an excuse to distract from his own problems. But of course Kaito wanting to help Shuichi could never be an excuse – Kaito always wants to help Shuichi, and that’s the real problem.)
Shuichi:  “I’m sorry, I don’t know what you’re talking about. I’m not looking for advice…”
Kaito:  “You’ve got some guts trying to lie to me.”
Shuichi:  “…”
He’s not lying! Shuichi wouldn’t lie to Kaito, not about his own weaknesses and struggles, nor about wanting Kaito’s advice for his problems. He may sometimes hesitate to talk about what’s bothering him until Kaito prods him a little, but he has never and would never outright lie about it once prodded if something really was wrong. And if that wasn’t proof enough, Shuichi’s staring at Kaito here with a sceptical face like he’s wondering why Kaito even thinks this.
Kaito should know perfectly well that Shuichi isn’t lying here. So it’s really quite delightfully messed up that he would rather tell himself Shuichi is lying to him than face the idea that Shuichi doesn’t need him.
(Even though the only way in which that’s really true is that Shuichi happens to not particularly need his help right now. That’s a completely different thing from not needing him at all… but Kaito doesn’t seem to realise that.)
A couple of times previously, Kaito did a similar thing of starting off a conversation with someone by trying to make it about him listening to their troubles and helping them – once with Kaede in an invitation dialogue, and once in his first FTE with Shuichi. Both those times, though, when they didn’t need to talk to him about anything, he accepted that and was happy to start talking about something else. But not this time.
Kaito:  “Fine then! Listen up…”
Shuichi:  (Kaito encouraged me, complimenting me about my talent.)
If Shuichi isn’t going to ask for Kaito’s help despite Kaito insisting that he totally should be doing so, Kaito’s going to help him anyway, aggressively complimenting him and telling him he’s awesome so that Shuichi can see how inspiring and encouraging and important Kaito still definitely is. (Really, Shuichi had no reason to have ever stopped thinking that about Kaito in the first place, but apparently Kaito doesn’t see it that way.)
You may have noticed from the way I’ve been talking about this event that I’ve been casually assuming despite the flexibility of FTEs that this is definitely taking place during chapter 4, and that all of this is a part of Kaito’s canonical arc that I’ve been talking about the rest of the time. And the thing is, this event really does have to take place in chapter 4, going by the keeping-FTEs-in-line-with-canon logic I’ve been using. Kaito’s fourth FTE mentioned Shuichi being his sidekick, putting that in chapter 3 at the earliest, and while there are two slots in which Kaito is available in chapter 3, the second of those has him already feeling too unwell for it to be believable that a proper FTE would have canonically happened then. So this fifth and final one has to happen, not necessarily this late, but definitely during this chapter.
But even if that weren’t the case, I’d still consider this event practically a canonical part of this chapter. While nothing in it explicitly mentions chapter 4-specific details, this is so clearly written for Kaito’s chapter 4 state of mind as he desperately tries to compensate for the fact that he’s dying by being as helpful as he can to his sidekicks. It fits in beautifully with the rest of the hints toward that we’ve had so far up to this point – in fact, this event is significantly less subtle about it than anything else has been, which is why I’m happy I saved it until the end like this.
Shuichi:  (I should tell him… Then he’d understand why. I told him all about the case that got me the title of Ultimate Detective. I told him everything… so that he would know how untalented I really am.)
However, it seems like all of Kaito’s aggressive compliments just made Shuichi feel like he doesn’t deserve them and actually start to feel bad about himself. Now, at least, he has something to talk about that Kaito might be able to help him with, even though he genuinely didn’t need to talk about this when this conversation began.
(I don’t think Kaito was deliberately intending to bring Shuichi’s issues out by complimenting him, though. That’s far too underhanded and manipulative for Kaito to do no matter what state of mind he’s in. Plus, I’m not sure he’s even that consciously aware of the reasons he’s been acting this way, which he’d have to be for this to be deliberate.)
Kaito:  “I see… So you were chosen after you solved a case.”
Shuichi:  “Yes, and the most important part… I just happened to find some evidence that was missed. I accidentally solved the puzzle. It was all coincidence, happenstance…”
As soon as Kaito says something that puts things in a vaguely positive-sounding light, Shuichi’s immediately jumping to insist that no, that’s not the point, he barely even deserved to solve that case. It’s hard to know how true it is that it was all just a coincidence, but I’m inclined to think it wasn’t. Even if it is just a matter of Shuichi noticing something everyone else missed, that’s still him having better observation skills than anyone else on that case, which is something that’s important for a detective to have. Shuichi’s just likely to not want to give himself enough credit what with how much the outcome of the case traumatised him.
Kaito:  “Geez… You worry about the most trivial stuff, man.”
Kaito, you’re the one who was fishing for Shuichi to be worrying about even the tiniest thing so that you’d have an excuse to help him.
Shuichi:  “You have no right to say that! You don’t know what I’ve been through!”
Kaito:  “Hah! Nice! It’s good to see you actually have some bite to you.”
Shuichi’s response is a dialogue option that I picked, but I like this one, because I enjoy Kaito being proud of him for being able to stand by his own feelings, not even caring that Shuichi doing so involved snapping at him.
(Mind you, Shuichi was also standing by his own feelings earlier when he was asserting that he didn’t need any advice from Kaito right now, and Kaito was much less on board with that, but, you know.)
Regardless, when Kaito said “trivial”, he was really talking about the culprit’s feelings.
Kaito:  “He killed someone and was trying to get away with it! He’s a bad guy!”
This is an instance of Kaito’s often fairly black-and-white way of thinking, but even so, him putting things this simplistically helps Shuichi move away from worrying about how the culprit felt. Even if the guy wanted revenge, that still doesn’t justify murder, so Shuichi was right to expose him for it. Kaede and Kirumi’s crimes so far during this killing game were much less black-and-white, such that Shuichi has a decent reason to feel at least a little bad about cornering them, but that one guy? Screw him, he’s nothing like them.
Kaito:  “If he’d gotten away with it, he’d be crushed by the weight of his guilt. But you got him before that happened! He should be thanking you!”
It’s also very appropriately Kaito of him to see Shuichi’s job of catching criminals as important because it forces the criminals to take responsibility instead of running away from their own actions and the pain they caused. I especially love that Kaito even sees this as a good thing for the culprit himself. This will be a very relevant idea during this upcoming case in particular, in terms of a certain someone Kaito has already been trying to get through to a lot.
Kaito:  “I’ll support you all the way! I know you did the right thing!”
This might still be Kaito overzealously trying to compensate for his own feelings of inferiority, but it’s adorable all the same. This is all Shuichi really needs from him at this point – not necessarily major advice on specific problems, but just knowing that Kaito’s there for him and on his side no matter what. You’re already doing enough, Kaito. Just keep being you.
Kaito:  “And not just with that guy! From now on, if anyone holds a grudge against you… I’ll kick their ass!”
This is not ironic foreshadowing to the extent that one might think, because Kaito is never going to hold a grudge against Shuichi, however much it might seem that way. Of course, Kaito would also definitely want to kick the ass of anyone who even seems to hold a grudge against Shuichi, even briefly, just because doing so would hurt him. So… that’s a thing.
Kaito:  “So you just gotta follow the path you believe in! You’re my sidekick. So don’t hold back, and rely on me whenever you need to!”
These are Kaito’s voiced lines for his final event, and they couldn’t be more appropriate. They’re adorably full of him believing in and supporting Shuichi, with just a dash of that delightful undertone of him desperately wanting Shuichi to still rely on him even if maybe Shuichi doesn’t need to quite as much any more.
Shuichi:  “Kaito… thank you.” (Alright, so he’s foolhardy. But he supports me and expects nothing in return… He does so much for me… I could never turn my back on that. I will never betray his support and trust. I will never break my bond with Kaito!)
While Shuichi is completely oblivious to what’s going on with Kaito and why he’s being so aggressively supportive right now, it’s still just absolutely heartmelting how grateful he is for everything Kaito does for him and trusts him so wholeheartedly in return. For all of Kaito’s issues that this event has been subtly full of, they’re still incredible, adorable friends, which comes across so strongly here. Most FTEs, when they end on emphasising how much the protagonist has become friends with the subject, are kind of dampened by the knowledge that this is just an optional side thing that isn’t really there in the canon storyline. But here, this just serves to highlight the canon adorable friendship between these two even more and I love it.
And if only Kaito could hear everything Shuichi is thinking here. He would never turn his back on you, Kaito! No matter what weaknesses you might have and no matter what mistakes you might make! You have so much less to be afraid of than you think.
Shuichi:  “…I understand, Kaito.”
…Shuichi doesn’t really understand. He only understands the fact that Kaito will always be there for him, and while that’s true (or at least, Kaito has no intention of ever making it untrue), that’s not remotely the full picture here.
Shuichi:  “I will always depend on you.”
This sounds adorable on the surface, but is potentially pretty messed up if you think about it too hard. Ideally, what Shuichi means is, “I will always depend on you when I need to”, which is the healthy way of looking at it – everyone needs to depend on other people sometimes, and it’s great that Kaito will always be there for him during those times.
But… that might not actually be what Shuichi means. I’ve mentioned multiple times that Shuichi is pretty overly dependent, hence him latching onto Kaede and Kaito so easily… so he might be okay with the idea of always needing to depend on on Kaito. Which he shouldn’t! Nobody should want to be constantly dependent on someone else their entire life, and it’s especially unhealthy if it’s on one single person, no matter how reliable and genuinely well-meaning that person may be. Shuichi should want to become someone who doesn’t need to depend on someone else most of the time, even if that someone else is Kaito.
Kaito:  “Yeah! Just leave it to me!”
Under normal circumstances, Kaito would probably be able to pick up on this and recognise that it’s unhealthy and assert that Shuichi should be striving to become more independent. After all, his former sidekicks he mentioned last FTE no longer need him any more, and he seemed perfectly happy with that.
But in the state of mind Kaito’s in by this chapter, he’s not about to do that. Kaito may be a little bit like this even at the best of times, but right now especially he has become incredibly co-dependent – meaning, he’s pathologically dependent on the idea that someone else depends on him. He needs to be needed. And that’s pretty messed up of him too. There is definitely a large part of Kaito that’s worried Shuichi already doesn’t really need him any more – but he’s not letting that part have a say and continuing to insist that of course Shuichi should be constantly depending on him.
Shuichi’s dependency and Kaito’s co-dependency make them a perfect match for each other in a wonderfully messed-up kind of way, and that dysfunctionality lurking beneath the surface is another of the many reasons I enjoy their friendship so much. If it weren’t for this, things wouldn’t be about to fall apart like they do, and this chapter and the beginning of the next wouldn’t be nearly as delightfully heartwrenching.
Shuichi:  (Kaito’s smile was as bright as starlight. I couldn’t help but smile back.)
Bright like he’s a luminary or something! Space imagery! FRIENDS.
Shuichi:  (…Everything is going to be okay. As long as we have this, we can move forward.)
Oh boy, it sure—
isn’t going to be even remotely okay barely twenty-four hours from now.
Shuichi:  (Sometimes I feel as though I’m dragging him down, but I know I’ll catch up one day.)
You’re not, though, Shuichi! This could not be more completely opposite of how Kaito sees things! Kaito feels like he’s the one dragging Shuichi down, which is precisely why we just had this whole event of him desperately trying to show that he isn’t and that Shuichi can still benefit from his support! But Kaito has apparently managed to successfully convince Shuichi that he’s completely invincible and doesn’t have any problems of his own, so Shuichi has no goddamn clue.
Shuichi:  (I bet he’d laugh and tell me I have a lot of nerve for a sidekick.)
He wouldn’t, though. The entire point of Kaito’s sidekicks is supposed to be that one day they’ll reach even greater heights than him – we went over that in his previous FTE. Kaito should laugh and then tell Shuichi how proud he is of him for coming this far. I guess Shuichi genuinely never did realise that most of the reason Kaito was telling him about his former sidekicks was to imply that the same thing applies to him.
Or, at least… Kaito should show pride in Shuichi if Shuichi ever overtook him. But that’s Kaito at the best of times, and those are not the times he’s in right now.
In the report card summary for this event, there’s also a very similar line to the one from before:
“Kaito, I know it seems as though you’re dragging me along, but I’ll be right there beside you.”
This is such a delightfully ironic line, and the writers clearly knew exactly how important it is since they essentially included it twice. Oh, Shuichi, if only you had any idea just how completely backwards you have it. If only Kaito would tell you what’s really going on in his head, and then you could support him in return and help him figure things out. But then, this is Kaito we’re talking about here.
All of Kaito’s previous FTEs featured him talking about himself, like FTEs are supposed to. And in general, the final event in particular is meant to involve the subject talking about their biggest issues now that they feel comfortable doing so because of their growing friendship with the protagonist, and maybe having the protagonist help them a little with that. But in Kaito’s final one, he doesn’t talk about himself at all. Because of course Kaito would never talk about his issues, especially not to Shuichi, who needs to see him as strong and invincible in order to be able to rely on him, or so Kaito is irrationally convinced. (And if he somehow miraculously did talk about his issues and Shuichi helped him with them, that’d probably mean that what’s about to happen in the main storyline shouldn’t happen the way it does any more, which we absolutely can’t have.)
Yet this final free time event of Kaito’s still manages to be thoroughly about his issues, not even despite the fact that he doesn’t talk about himself and makes it all about Shuichi’s issues instead, but precisely because of it. It is so appropriate for Kaito that things should be this way, and I love it.
---
[Next post]
12 notes · View notes
travllingbunny · 5 years
Text
The 100 rewatch: 1x09 Unity Day
This episode was never one of my favorites, but I didn’t dislike it first time around, so I was surprised to which extent I did this time. It’s an important episode that moves the plot along in crucial ways both on the Ark and on the ground, but it has so many of the things I disliked in season 1 (the Jaha/Diana plot – which reaches its climax and ends with this episode, Finn the peacemaker, and the first appearance of Anya – always one of my least favorite characters, who starts the tradition of Grounders being extremely hypocritical in their interactions with the Arkers) or that I’m indifferent to (the very rushed Linctavia romance - the Romeo and Juliet “we just met and we’re already in love” type romance was never my thing, I just don’t find it relatable).
Rating: 6/10
The scenes I liked the best were just the little moments of the Delinquents having fun during the Unity Day celebration. And I don’t mean just the scene where Clarke and Bellamy spend a few minutes eye fucking flirting totally platonically interacting, but also Clarke having fun with a couple of random Delinquents (Fox and Sterling, who are both introduced here) and the start of Jasper’s and Raven’s friendship and him telling her that she now kind of has a family with the Delinquents. And I liked Miller’s snarky remark while watching Jaha’s speech, that he can now try to take credit after the 100 have done the toughest job.
This was the first time we got the backstory of the 12 stations joining, and the unofficial fact that the 13th station was blown up, which the show explored more in S3.
It’s also the first time we hear the “…May we meet again” prayer for the dying, when Kane says it to his mother.
At least the Diana/Jaha conflict is finally over. This is how not to do moral greyness: instead of having sympathy for both sides, I disliked both sides equally, which results in indifference. Diana’s political stance is supposed to be about protecting the working class, but it’s kinda hard to trust that when all her people did in the previous episodes was manipulate one member of the Ark’s working class to do their dirty job and assassinate Jaha and then another one to try to kill the former one. And here they stage a terrorist attack and fail to kill Jaha, again (this guy survived probably more near-deaths during the show than anyone else), but blow up a bunch of innocent people, including children.  And on the other side you have Jaha, with all his oppression, executions and constant lies. But I guess this show loves the “people being total a-holes and destroying everything” plots, like this one.
Something that I always disliked but couldn't put my finger on why, but now I know: Finn’s new role as a peacemaker is just Finn doing Finn things again: he is saying so many things that sound right (peace, we should all get along, stop the cycle of violence etc.) but the way he goes about it is so frustrating and stupid, it’s basically “How not to do pacifism”. 
First, he goes to talk to Lincoln on his own and suggests negotiations – nice, but Lincoln tells him straight up that he has no power to negotiate a truce, and Finn is like “Find someone who can”. What makes him think any of the Grounder leaders will listen to Lincoln? He knows nothing about the Grounder society, so it’s dumb to assume they don’t have a strict hierarchy and act the same as an informal group like the 100. He assumes the thing is already as good as agreed on and that everyone will do exactly as he wants them to, including the Grounders not bringing any weapons, because he said so. Then he tells that to Clarke alone – Lincoln identified her as the leader of the 100; I wonder what Finn would’ve done if Lincoln had thought Bellamy was the leader – and brings it all to her as a done deal, telling her to do as he says, insisting that there should be no weapons, and silencing any arguments to the contrary. 
First off, this is really stupid: there’s nothing unusual about bringing guards to peace negotiations, in fact, I’m pretty sure that’s what leaders always do – and of course the Grounders are going to bring armed guards and backup to the meeting. This shouldn’t have been a surprise. Secondly, how presumptuous is he? Now that I’ve seen S2, everything Finn does looks like an attempt to be a hero and to prove himself as a hero to Clarke specifically and to have her need him, like Raven did on the Ark. 
Clarke, on her part, obviously thinks to herself – the same as she later does during the conversation with Anya – “there’s no use arguing with someone so unreasonable”, and you can see her starting to learn to be sneaky to get things done. So she goes to Bellamy for armed backup, of course. Later, Finn is surprised that, oh look, the Grounder “leader” is coming with armed guards (duh) and is clearly upset when Anya tells Clarke to come to talk to her on the middle of the bridge by herself, not letting Finn come with her. He lost the opportunity to be her knight protector. How do you think you can protect her, Finn, when you didn’t bring any weapons? In fact, not only does Anya come with armed guards, but she has a knife herself, and archers hidden in the trees nearby, including one ready to shoot Clarke any moment. 
Bellamy made a mistake bringing Jasper, the guy who was speared by the Grounders – but having seen S2 and S3, it’s clear that even Abby has no clue about PTSD, so it’s not surprise that Bellamy didn’t. Though he seemed to have learned by S4, when he acted very differently with Riley. Jasper’s PTSD certainly was partly responsible for the way he jumped to the conclusion that the Grounders were going to kill Clarke. I don’t think they were intending to – or they would have done it immediately – but the archer was clearly there to shoot any moment she does anything suspicious, so her life was in danger for sure – it could’ve easily ended up as one of those “I thought he was reaching for a gun” situations.
I love the way Clarke and Bellamy just looked at each other and rolled their eyes at Finn when he started blaming Clarke for bringing up backup and said “All you had to do it trust me”. Geez, Finn, not everything is about your relationship with Clarke. And this didn’t even make sense – she could trust him but still think he was being dumb, he could not vouch for the Grounders, and he was wrong in his expectation they would do what he told them to and come without weapons.
I’ve always found Anya really annoying, and with the info we find out later, it’s even worse, because it’s obvious that everything that came out of her mouth during that meeting was utter BS. I had forgotten that she actually told Clarke: “You’ve started a war you don’t know how to finish”. Really?
Tumblr media
Not the last time the Grounders will blame the Arkers for the things they did themselves, or for defending themselves against them. Even more annoying is the fact that some fans take the “you started a war by destroying our village” argument seriously, in spite of the facts that Grounders speared Jasper way before that and engaged in intimidation tactics, that they must have known exactly what the 100 were like for quite some time since 1) at least one person, Lincoln, followed them and noted info about them, and 2) we learn in 1x10 that they had captured and tortured Murphy and that he told them everything. And you have to be extremely stupid to conclude that 100 unarmed kids going around having fun are an invading force, or that their first action would be to blow up a random village, rather than find out more about the Grounders, target their leadership, do anything strategically important. Lexa was not stupid, so I think that she was probably thinking along the same lines as Bellamy was in 1x04 when the crowd was lynching Muprhy – “give people what they want”. People want to blame someone, they want blood for blood, so let’s give them an enemy. 
Anya’s other arguments are even worse:  the Delinquents also supposedly started the war because “you captured and tortured one of ours” – forgetting that they did it right after the Grounders had killed 3 of the Delinquents and were just about to attack and killed more when the fake signal for the acid fog interrupted them. She says she has no reason to make a deal that Clarke cannot guarantee the Ark leadership would observe. True – but we now know that Anya is not the actual leader of the Grounders or even Trikru, so she has no authority to do guarantee the rest would listen, either. The deal was negotiated over a few hours, so I doubt they could have consulted Lexa in Polis (and it’s questionable if even Lexa could guarantee anything, since the clans were not united, and Trikru were at war with the Ice Nation so much of the time). 
And her reply to Clarke’s warning that the soldiers from the Ark would come to destroy them with their technology, “They wouldn’t be the first to try”, seems like empty bragging. That has to be about the Mountain Men, but they never actually tried to destroy the Grounders. Why would they destroy their continuous blood supply? They just wanted to enslave and harvest them, and it doesn’t seem like the Grounders were ever able to do much about it.
Body count: a ton of people from the Ark, but I don’t know the numbers. Dozens of people in the terrorist attack, including Kane’s mother and the cute girl who was giving the speech. Then everyone on the Exodus ship, including Diana, when it crashes – which we now know was caused by Mount Weather. The Mountain Men killed so many Arkers in S1, before they even appeared on screen. (They said before that the Exodus ship can take up to 700 people, so I guess it must have been around that number, or at least a few hundred people?) And Diana’s actions crippled the Ark and it lost power, so she’s responsible for the imminent deaths of a lot of people who remained on the Ark. On the ground, Jasper shot 2 Grounders, but I don’t know if they died.
21 notes · View notes