#Like any time he's ''seeing the good'' or ''forgiving'' an antagonist it is literally just him like

[imminent-danger-came]

YOU think MK is a selfless forgiving good boi mc. I think he's self-centered, but that doesn't devalue the good deeds that happen as a result. We are not the same

#like to me. everything for MK is motivated by himself like #Protecting the city? That's what a good hero would do #And he wants to be a good hero and to protect *his* friends #Crying in 2x10? It's more about him failing as a hero/successor than it is about the innocent people in danger #to me anyways #Like any time he's ''seeing the good'' or ''forgiving'' an antagonist it is literally just him like #Saying the things he wants to hear/believe #Like #If Macaque isn't a bad guy then he can help and if he can help then maybe we can win #It's about the personal reassurance #Like. ''Forgiving'' DBK? Well that's easy. If DBK is a ''good guy'' now then he's not a problem for MK to deal with #And MK fucking LOVES not having to deal problems #Like it's easier for him to just ignore past history than it is to deal with it #4x14 is the ultimate example of this for me like #MK see's that Azure's crying and is then willing to be all like #''You still can. You're the only one who can'' to try and help #And it's like. Sure. MK doesn't *not* want to save/help Azure #But at the same time #Wukong was able to stop him so easily. In contrast to samadhi fire Mei where MK ran directly into the fire #Like the moment MK sees himself in you it's over okay #He's gonna be like ''you're just like me'' and self-centered about it #And it worked for like #Mei and Macaque and Azure #But it didn't work for Spider Queen #you know #lego monkie kid #lmk #lmk MK #lmk rant #For the love of god stop making MK Steven

[survivalove]

I hate to do this but someone reblogged one of my posts and I scrolled down their tl, hoping to mutual, and saw this mess:

Do people actually somehow watch the show and not see every single moment where Katara blushes or plays with her hair around Aang, gets shy at the thought of kissing Aang, is clearly attracted to him in Book 3, gets jealous of any girl that’s also attracted to him.

Or Aang comforting Katara several times: hugging her in the Serpent’s Pass and validating her feelings to the point she cried, comforting her when Jet died and getting the whole group to hug her, telling her how she inspires people and gives them hope, literally tells her she’s a hero??

Aang and Katara literally having several disagreements, Aang’s perception of Katara changing over the three seasons, him agreeing with every single idea she had to flat out rejecting her advice, then wrongly blowing up at her after zuko and the rest were flat out racist to him?? Aang telling her to confront the man that killed her mother after she rejected his advice??

Mind you Katara can barely tell Aang likes her back until season 3 and clearly shows feelings for him way before he starts initiating romantic acts with her after TWO seasons of her touching, kissing him on the cheek and hugging him unprompted 💀 not to mention “forces non-romantic feelings on her” when she is the one that said he was her family after a week of knowing him?? what does that even meannnnn

And I’m supposed to believe that these people actually watched the show, paying attention to… KATARA?

On top of that, to say (not pictured) the only person to ever comfort her was the guy that attacked her several times 💀 and he didn’t even do anything??? used Sokka’s trauma to come up with a plan he didn’t even agree with (nor did he ask him, like you can ask him to retell the most horrible moment of his life, but you can’t ask him if taking his sister to confront the man is a good idea? you can’t even ask him if he wants to go??? that is literally the most horrible writing i’ve ever seen but i digress). on top of that doing it for the most obvious ulterior motive of getting her to forgive him. standing there while she bloodbended and almost killed a man, not knowing she just swore off doing the former weeks ago because all he knows her to be is hostile until that moment. He doesn’t know Katara to be someone that expresses love and kindness until she forgives him but apparently this is how you comfort someone over every single moment of Aang comforting her that I listed above. okayyyyy

Just to contrast for contrast’s sake, Aang:

1. offers to take Katara to the North Pole with zero ulterior motive,

2. gets her mother’s necklace back with zero ulterior move,

3. helps her destroy a factory with zero ulterior motive…

4. helps her get Haru back, stands up for her to Pakku, calls her Sifu when she complains, comes back to save her home and gives himself up, comes back to save her in ba sing se and I’m sure a million things I’m missing, all with literally zero ulterior motives at all.

Meanwhile antagonist does one nice thing for female mc with shady undertones that might as well be overtones and now he’s allegedly better than her friend who helps her several times for no reason other than the fact that its something she wants.

Like am I supposed to believe that these people actually like Katara or are media literate at all? I feel like I’m going insane 😭

#pro kataang #anti zutara #antizutara #anti anti kataang #anti anti aang #anti zuko #anti zukka #katara #aang #atla fandom problems #i think i need to put a dni in my bio #because these freaks are winding up on here reblogging my posts #the jokes write themselves #stay away from me

[mymoviefaves]

So I was thinking. I think the Genshin Impact fandom (and a lot of fandoms tbh) need to learn that there’s a difference between redemption, and humanization.

Tl;Dr None of the antagonists in Genshin have been redeemed, even if they have backstories and they’re playable.

Spoilers for Genshin, She-Ra, Steven Universe, and AtLA ahead

A complaint I see about some story lines in Genshin is that the game keeps “redeeming” evil characters, and doesn’t just let them be evil, with the exception of La Signora who died before we could get much screen time at all, and will never be playable. But the characters most everyone would call “evil” who are playable, (Childe, Raiden Shogun, and Scaramouche) get quickly redeemed with no consequences for their actions, and are no longer evil characters. And there’s a worry that other evil characters that will be playable are going to get the same treatment.

Here’s my thing, I feel like they will get the same treatment, but none of those characters have been redeemed. At any point. (You could make an argument for Scaramouche but we’ll get there). None of them are even asking for redemption. All of them have been humanized though.

So I feel like the easiest way to do this would be to give examples of redemption and examples of humanization.

Redemption:

The first characters to come to mind are Zuko in AtLA, and Catra in She-Ra.

Zuko did horrible things throughout the first two seasons of AtLA, including a lot of attempted murder/capture, lying, betraying people closest to him, being a general dick even. We know that the reason he’s like this is entirely because of his abusive father, but just having that information doesn’t redeem him as a person. He has to earn that, and he does. He gains the trust of the gang, he shows kindness without expecting anything in return, he throws himself into this fight whole heartedly against the fire nation and the only family/friends he’s ever had aside from his uncle. I feel like I don’t have to go too deep into detail, but you get it right? He actively tries to be a better person and to make good on everyone he’s wronged. The gang and Iroh don’t have to forgive him, but they do, because he earned it. And it’s a “kids” show where forgiveness is kind of a big theme.

It’s a similar situation with Catra in She-Ra. She’s a horrible person. She’s selfish, manipulative, violent, and she tried to destroy the universe for attention. We know why she’s like this, she was horribly abused and manipulated by Shadow Weaver and the Horde. She’s sad, scared, and lonely, but obviously none of this is an excuse or makes her a good person automatically. She doesn’t get a redemption arc until the last season where she sacrifices herself for Glimmer, having absolutely nothing to gain from it. She has to literally become reborn, and much like Zuko she completely devoted herself to fighting the opposite side of this fight she’s been in her whole life because it’s the right thing to do. At no point did she just trauma dump and get the best friends squad and the princesses to immediately forgive her, it took weeks of earning their trust expecting nothing in return. Again, hard work.

Humanization:

I feel like this is where a lot of confusion lies. Especially with the black and white thinking found all over the Internet. “If bad person, than horrible evil monster who kicks puppies” “If good person, than perfect saint of a person has never done anything bad in their life”. That’s just not how reality works, and that’s not how good writing works. If your antagonist is just Satan incarnate, sure that could be interesting to play around, but that has to be the main conflict. Trying to overcome this force of nature.

Great bad guys tend to have interesting motivations, and are fully fleshed out three dimensional characters.

I’ll use a controversial example, but the Diamonds in Steven Universe. They. Are. Not. Good. People. Rebecca Sugar was never trying to make them good people. They do not get redeemed at the end of the show. They do not earn Steven’s or the Gem’s forgiveness. They come to a peaceful solution (because Steven is a pacifist and it’s a kids show) but they’re at no point redeemed.

They are three dimensional though. We find out that all of them are still reeling over the “loss” of Pink, and while their actions have always been hurtful they were always meant to be in best interest for the family. Does that excuse them? No. Impact is always more important than intent, and that’s why they’re the bad guys. At the end of the day and the end of the series, they’re still not welcome in Steven’s life even if they try to be better. The audience can see them as more than just evil cartoon villains, and that makes them interesting as characters, but they’re still bad people.

Another evil antagonist who is humanized and becomes a more interesting and well rounded character, Darth Vader. Stay with me.

Obviously Anakin Skywalker gets “redeemed” at the end of the original trilogy, but it’s obviously very bare bones. It was 1985, and not a great example of a bad guy getting redeemed. However, in the prequels we can see how this literal cartoon villain, dark castle on the side of a volcano, evil character, started as an optimistic, brave, and kind hearted little boy.

Say what you want about the prequels and their writing, but the way they portrayed the downward spiral of Anakin Skywalker was fantastically done if you pay attention and don’t zone out during all the political speeches. We know Darth Vader already, but at the start of the prequels we’re introduced to a literal innocent child. We watch him literally being manipulated and groomed to the dark side by Palpatine, have no outlet to talk through his trauma so the only solution he has is violence, and when he’s at the most scared and desperate he’s ever been, he fully falls into the role of Darth Vader and goes out to murder a bunch of little kids. Little kids the same age and with the same mindset he had at the beginning of the series. Does any of this backstory, trauma, and being a victim of Palpatine’s manipulation make him a good person? No. He’s fucking Darth Vader. He kills babies and tries to drag his own son down the same path as him. It does make him into a more rounded and interesting character though. It makes him human. A terrible human, but still human.

ANYWAY BACK TO GENSHIN IMPACT

Childe, Raiden Shogun, and Scaramouche have all been humanized by the story so far, not redeemed.

Childe is a Fatui harbinger. He actively tried to kill the traveler, and while he felt bad about it (there was a translation error in the English version) tried to kill an entire city of innocent people. He only half heartedly apologized for the attempted murder and just laughed it off. He still doesn’t see what he did as wrong, or anything he does working as a harbinger as wrong. He’s by all standards a bad guy. But, he’s genuinely a kind person. We learn that he’s a loving and sweet big brother who’d do anything for his family. We’re probably going to learn about whatever traumatized the light out of his eyes soon in Fontaine, but he’s never been redeemed of being a murder happy mafia caporegime. He’s still very evil, and probably will be until either he dies trying to save the traveler/Tucer, or realizes that the Fatui are just using him and that taking care of his family is more of a threat than a favor. I have a lot of feelings about this man. But that’s the thing, he’s an interesting, well rounded character even without redemption.

Raiden Shogun has never once apologized or even asked for forgiveness for what she’s done to Inazuma. She doesn’t see her actions as evil, she just sees them as an over correction. She’s barely even able to see her citizens as people because she locked herself away from humanity for 400 years. When we get to know her and her backstory we learn that she has horrible trauma, and everything she’s done has been what she thought was best for Inazuma as a whole. We learn that she’s actually a very kind person who loves sweets and thinks the best solution to a love triangle is everyone dating each other. Does any of this redeem her and make her a good person? No. Very few Inazuma characters forgive her for what she did and the war that came from it. Kokomi is willing to be diplomatic with her, because she knows that’s what’s best for her people, but the second there’s a reason to, her and the rest of the characters effected by Raiden’s actions are ready and willing to throw hands. Will she ever ask for forgiveness or seek redemption? Probably not. But her being more than just the cartoon villain evil robot dictator that the Shogun puppet is, makes her an interesting and well rounded character.

Scaramouche/The Balladeer/Wanderer/Kabukimono/Kunikuzushi/Kuronoshi/Shouki no Kami/Babygirl is the only character so far that I feel like is in his “hey, Zuko here” era. Obviously he’s done plenty of evil things in his life. He murdered several entire families to wipe out a cultural art form because he was petty and hurt. He tried to murder the traveler several times, he helped set the vision hunt decree and war that came from it in motion, oversaw the delusion factory getting even more people killed, tried to become a god, attempting to murder the traveler again and attempting deicide on a toddler. Not to mention, overall, kind of a dick to just about everyone. He even asks “Am I evil?” And Nahida says “Yes.”

Throughout all of 3.1-3.3 we learn his tragic backstory, and how he was lied to and manipulated, and traumatized into going from “sweet and innocent puppet” Kabukimono to the Scaramouche we meet in the beginning of the game. Does any of that abstain him from everything he’s done in the past 400 years? No. But I think where we see the beginnings of a genuine redemption arc is when he decides to help the traveler and Nahida when he has no reason to. The next part of his redemption comes from when he found out the reason everyone he loved died, and the reason he became evil to begin with, was all based on a lie and decided that everyone he’s ever cared about might be saved if he never existed. And of course, after accepting all of his mistakes and the worst most evil parts of himself and still deciding to save the traveler’s life just before getting his vision.

Now, is he a fully redeemed and forgiven character even after all of that? No. Not even after all of that. The traveler is still suspicious of his motives, and doesn’t forgive him for anything. But at the same time, he told them to tell everyone effected by his actions who he is and what he’s done. He’s expecting them to come after him and he’s ready and willing to accept anything coming at him. He’s also been actively being helpful and kind to the rest of the Sumeru cast even when he has nothing to gain from it. Sure, his main reasoning for not hurting people anymore is that he has no reason to, but even if he’d never admit it he’s actively being a better person. He’s still a brat and an asshole to everyone in his life, but that’s just his charm.

Anyway, as far as I’m concerned about future playable antagonists and evil characters (Arlecchino, Dottore, honestly the rest of the Harbingers) I feel like we’re going to get their backstories, and they’ll become fully fleshed out, rounded, humanized characters, but they definitely won’t be redeemed of their evil actions by any means.

#genshinimpact #genshin impact #media literacy #writing #childe #tartagila #raiden shogun #scaramouche

[pagodazz]

rotating ur post abt vinnie as a sacrificial lamb in my mind rn it is sooo T_T could u elaborate on it? ^~^

YESSSSSSS I ABSOLUTELY CAN!!!!!!!!

So I associate Vinny with the sacrificial lamb because not only was he also effected by slenderman, habit and the rake for the entire duration of ANY LIFE HES LIVED, literally this works for basically every iteration of Vinnie.

He was blindly lead along until his inevitable death that he was unknowingly helping with. He was basically tagged as "Prime meat" for all 3 of them.

He was so blindly loyal, he did what he was told to do, what he thought was best, just to be lead to death. And HIS death was the one that was needed, it's ALWAYS Vinnie.

Vinnie is the one with the disease, VINNIE is the one spreading it to others, to put an end to it HE needs to die for the sake of others. For the sake of himself, For Evans sake, For HABITS sake.

and if we use the Wikipedia description of "Sacrificial lamb,"

"In cinema and literature, the term sacrificial lamb refers to a supporting character whose sole dramatic purpose is to die, thus galvanizing the protagonist to action and simultaneously demonstrating how evil the villain is. Very often, the sacrificial lamb is a family member, partner, or "old buddy" of the protagonist."

and I like to think everymanHYBRID took that AND MADE IT EVEN MOEE BEAUTIFUL (Atleast to me personally)

Where the antagonist leads the lamb to the protagonist to slaughter each other.

Evan is such a perfect protagonist, he's strong, determined and hes been set on the right path since the beginning, I honestly wish we got way more screen time of him struggling to deal with the possession and how it effects him mentally but we didn't and I can live with that. Unfortunately for him, he was doomed to be in the same body as the antagonist, who is MUCH stronger and way more determined.

From the very beginning Evan has been on vinnies side, loving him, protecting him, defending him even though he wasnt exactly in the right.

All while Vinny was being prepped for killing and he didn't even know it, he thought he was safe, he thought if he bonded with the butcher he wouldn't get killed. He blindly lead others to their deaths all while believing he was just, "doing everything he could."

Vinny was always trying to find some other sort of explanation for something instead of just blaming habit, while Evan was quick to immediately blame him.

Vinnie is convinced slenderman is the real main bad, while Evan is almost firmly believing that it's all habit.

Vinny is literally kept away from everyone in order to prepare for the event that is All good things, and In order to wrap up the story and move onto the next iteration, Vinnie needs to die. And Evan needs to die for Vinnie to be able to die. And that's precisely what happens. Evan even says he has to kill Vinnie first before he will be able to forgive him, which is only achieved after Vinny kills Evan as well.

honestly I don't even know if I'm making any sense right now, I get so overwhelmed talking about Vinnie because he's my absolute favorite and I'm so nervous to accidentally say something that's not actually correct lore wise. BUT !!#!@++[%[(#($(*;: OKAY I'VE BEEN WRITING FOR SO LONH I CANT EVEN GO BACK TO LOOK TO SEE IF I MADE ANY TYPOS.

I hope HOPE HOPE this made sense.

#everymanhybrid #emh #vinny everyman #vinnie everyman #evan myers #habit #habit emh #notice my shift in wether i use ie or y #i literally just blacked out when i wrote this i let the Vinny in my head explain it for me

[beevean]

You know, I don't feel like I'm allowed to say much about the whole good guy Dracula thing, because LoS Dracula becomes the protector of Humanity, but least Gabriel works for his redemption and for the forgiveness of Trevor, Marie, and himself as well.

I don't think Gabriel can be even remotely compared.

“The best villains, in general, are the heroes of their own story and the trick to making Castlevania resonate was this idea that Dracula isn’t a bad guy, he isn’t a villain, he’s just a person consumed with darkness," Shankar told us. "That first episode in Season 1 we start to see why he wants to eradicate humans. He’s not just this mustache-curling, one-dimensional villain. What Dracula is doing is not really a war against humanity. It’s more a suicide note.”

Real talk, this excerpt speaks of a black-and-white mentality that is completely unfitting for what is supposed to be a story full of nuanced characters. No wonder all villains got either redeemed without problem, or killed off just like that.

"That first episode in Season 1 we start to see why he wants to eradicate humans"

True. And we also see this.

My entire dude and pal, the whole fucking point of Dracula is that he's having the mother of all overreactions. "Oh, poor thing, he's just committing a long suicide!" Yeah! You know what his suicide entails? HE PLANS TO EXTERMINATE THE ENTIRETY OF MANKIND TO THE POINT THAT HE AND ALL VAMPIRES WILL STARVE TO DEATH.

HIS SUICIDE PLAN REQUIRES FULL GLOBAL SCALE SLAUGHTER. BRO. BRO THIS IS LITERALLY STATED IN THE SHOW. JUST BECAUSE HE CRIES ONCE IT DOESN'T MEAN HE ISN'T HEINOUS.

GOD FUCKING DAMNIT IF HE REALLY WANTED TO JUST DIE HE COULD HAVE STEPPED INTO THE SUN AT ANY TIME. NO. HE WANTED TO TAKE LITERALLY EVERY LIVING CREATURE IN THE WORLD WITH HIM. JUST BECAUSE HE ISN'T CACKLING IT DOESN'T MAKE HIM "THE HERO OF HIS OWN STORY".

You know, it's one thing when fans do the whole "X did nothing wrong" routine. But the show producer? I am just flabbergasted. How do you miss the point of your own writing this badly?

Guys! Guys it's okay to like villains! It's okay to like Dracula because he's terrifying yet has human emotions! It's okay to like Carmilla because you want an unapologetic female antagonist that reacts to her trauma with pure rage! It's okay to like Lenore because you find her deceit games intriguing! Yes, they have their own reasons to do the things they do, and from their on perspective they're justified! But for fuck's sake don't pretend they're better people than they are! They might justify themselves, but we are supposed to know that they're in the wrong!

May I also remind you that N!Dracula's whole "depth" is taken straight from the games? Shankar didn't come up with the idea that Dracula is lashing out in grief for the death of Lisa. He has nothing to praise himself for.

And yeah, since you mention Gab... Dracula doesn't redeem himself. He just gets resurrected in the finale, and we're all meant to ignore that, from his perspective, he nearly killed his own son the day before. Writing of all time.

#anti netflixvania #god that quote just sets my brain on fire

[canonizzyhours]

idk if this is appropriate since it isn't about canon izzy directly but i need somewhere anonymous to complain about 'the canyon.' i'm not in a lot of fandoms so i don't know if this is normal fandom behavior or what. I hope it isn't. this has been a uniquely upsetting experience for me. I have, like, next level autism for this show so of course i had to find Every single scrap of information about it and in the course of my obsessive 'research' i encountered these guys a lot, almost from the very beginning.

at first i thought it was funny and cute, like when people are hot for hannibal lector or some fucked up little guy. they wrote the worst ever fanfiction. that was fine, I could forgive that. but then they started saying things like 'if you watch it from izzy's perspective you'll see that he's the real hero and ed is the villain.' like girl no I've watched it 96 times and never once found this authoritarian incel karen good or relatable. the one that really got me was 'in any other show he'd be the protagonist.' yeah bro that's why i like this one? go watch one of those?

by like the fourth month they already had a bizarre victim complex. I just avoided talking about him completely because they would get really rude and start in with the guilt trips if you mentioned izzy even in a neutral way, let alone if you said anything about homophobia or psychological abuse. they called people abusive and homophobic and racist (?) if they said anything negative about fictional white man izzy hands. they threatened to sue someone. remember when there was an essay about him in a zine that was actually pretty positive? and most of the comments online were about how the actors and writers would definitely read this and be heartbroken. probably cry. maybe not even want to make the show anymore. it was a fan zine.

i didn't even like izzy except as an antagonist, but somehow they almost convinced me that i was watching it wrong. i started to seriously think, like, what if the writers were on his side all along? what if they really were making the main (queer, indigenous) love interest abusive and my very favorite thing was not as good as i thought it was? why not, when i've always had to twist a story to pretend it's for me? maybe i'd done it without realizing this time. i would have been so disappointed. and the way season two was done, there was like a week where i think i really believed it. it made me feel like i couldn't trust my own judgement. probably I was depending too much on this one tv show for serotonin because I cried a lot during that time, but you know how it is. the point is, it should have been a fun time for me but it was not.

i was so happy when he died, though. that cheered me right up and i'm fine now. i know I'm being dramatic and none of my complaints are very important in the grand scheme of things (i didn't even get into the racism) but they almost fucked up my Autism Favorite Thing for me and i want it to be documented somewhere that i will never forgive them for that <3 <3 <3

#31.

related posts: #29

(so i'd have posted this anyway bc of recent posts talking about questioning their views of izzy bc of the prevalence of canyon takes insisting he's a protagonist etc. but even without that, this blog was literally created because of a need for a space to talk about canon izzy and a need for acknowledgement that fanon izzy has become very widespread, mostly due to the canyon actions you mention. so it's difficult to separate the two when the blog was partially born from people thinking they were the only one to feel this way!)

#canonizzyhours #ofmd #izzy hands #fandom critical

[king-paimon]

Please Go Watch “Puss In Boots: The Last Wish”!

Please forgive this adrenaline fueled post; I need to let it all out after what I just witnessed.

I just came back from watching “Puss In Boots: The Last Wish” with my brother in the theater. The reviewers weren’t wrong; this movie was freaking amazing! 

I was already drawn to it because of the animation, but seriously... everything about this movie was pure gold. The characters, the story, the twists... I loved everything! I could gush about how beautiful this movie is forever and how clever they were when playing around with the framerate for the action bits, because seriously; they did an incredible job. Puss’s new design is adorable and I just love how everyone was designed:

But what really got me, besides the animation and story, were the characters. I loved them! The movie team did an amazing job making me care about them, especially the new characters that I thought I was going to hate, especially the dog. I love him and want to protect him, the poor thing!

They were all great and I loved the found family trope they established. The emotional bonds they share feels so real and good, so when the emotional scenes happen, they are impactful!

And the villains/antagonists... my goodness... They were also amazing and were actually intimidating! I was scared and thrilled whenever they appeared. They were some of the best villains/antagonists characters I’ve seen in any movie for the longest time! Heck, they are far better than most villain characters I’ve seen from other popular properties. 

Especially the Wolf, I freaking loved him! Everything about this character was great, from his design, voice, and overall presence. And I’m not afraid to admit that I think he’s horrifying and attractive:

In relations to the villains, this movie has some really intense scenes, and without spoiling too much... this movie got away with so many things that I haven’t seen even in many action packed movies meant for older audiences, from action to even language. I’m not joking; the stuff they got away with in this movie was jaw dropping in the best way. Me and my brother literally had our jaws drop during some of these scenes. Some scenes were DEFINITELY not for little kids.

This is honestly one of the best animated movies I’ve seen in a long time. No, one of the best MOVIES I’ve seen in a long time. It is so high on my personal favorite movie list now, it’s right next to “Into the Spiderverse,” which one of my favorite movies. Hell, I’m even willing to say I loved this movie even more!

If you love great animation, action, story telling, and characters, please watch this movie when you get the chance! Especially in the theater so you can get the full experience, because that is what this was for me; a true spectacle. I sincerely hope more people see this movie because it’s well deserved. Dreamworks really outdid themselves this past year; first “the Bad Guys,” which was also a fun time, and now this. I also hope this means that we’ll see more movies like this with innovative animation and stellar characterization and storytelling. (TAKE THAT DISNEY!)

This movie seriously exceeded my expectations and I fully intend on buying it soon as it becomes available. If you are at all interested, please give this movie a watch. You won’t regret it. 

I certainly didn’t. It was worth every penny.

#personal thoughts #puss in boots #puss in boots: the last wish #dreamworks #animation #absolutely beautiful #amazing characters #kitty softpaws #wolf #perrito #beautiful animation #amazing movie #long post #please watch it #puss in boots the last wish

[kitchfit]

Year in Review: Movies Part 1

I don't have that great of an attention span. If its something I am invested in I can spend hours upon hours reading or playing through it until I get a headache telling me its time for bed, but if something doesn't hook me after around 30 minutes I'm probably turning it off or putting it down for a bit. It is for this reason I don't finish a lot of movies unless there is another reason to watch through it all. Usually that means watching it with other people. If there aren't friends to help me finish this movie it's probably going back in the case, which I think is true for all but one movie on this list.

Glass Onion

Knives Out is one of my favorite movies of all time. I've not read any of Agatha Christie's works which is who Benoit Blanc is largely parodying, but I do love other things inspired by her such as Columbo, and the first movie is a stellar deconstruction of that genre, while still providing an engaging mystery. I saw this movie's baby brother at the dawn of the New Year alongside my cousin, both fervently pushing out trope appropriate theories only to be completely wrong at the twist ending in plain sight.

This sequel is not anything as elegant as the first, but still seeks to deconstruct mystery tropes in a very similar fashion. The mastermind behind a series of murders or even one murder is a role often given to rich, suave, and intelligent people of high standing. It is this role that Edward Norton's character sees himself as, but while he is a rich dude of high standing, he is a more realistic rich dude than most murder mystery antagonists; that is, an arrogant dumbass who got where he is by manipulating and screwing over everyone he can. He wants to be complex while being transparently simple. Also he smells. LIKE AN ONION. WHOA. ONE MADE OUT OF GLASS. THANKS JOHN LEMON.

A Silent Voice

A good way to get me to watch a movie until the end is to make it animated, that way even if its boring as all hell I still get to look at some pretty art. That's not the case with this movie. I first watched this on a bus ride when I was sixteen with one earphone on while the girl next to me held it up on her phone. That was a good memory, but seeing the gorgeous animation on the big screen was a nice treat.

I love the dynamic between the two main characters. I wouldn't say this movie is a romance in any real sense of the term, but is about a relationship. Both of these kids spend most of their adolescence admonishing themselves for hurting the other, believing everyone hates them for what happened when they were 10. This is especially tragic for Shouko, the deaf girl who did literally nothing besides exist and try to make friends. The fact that she blames herself for her bully becoming ostracized is even played as a twist, but its a very realistic mindset anyone can fall into. The theme is forgiveness of the self after others have already forgiven you, which can be pretty tough to do, especially when you've done some genuinely shitty stuff.

I also showed this movie to my mom, an ASL instructor and translator, cause I thought it might be interesting for her, but she lost interest and fell asleep after she realized it was JSL and couldn't understand it.

Puss in Boots: The Last Wish

My friends were freaking out about this film, one of them going so far as to watch it like six separate times within the span of a couple weeks. This made me expect it to blow my mind, but it was just a very well written, beautifully animated movie about a cat coming to terms with its own death. I think the drought of movies with good writing from mainstream studios really elevated this one further than it would have normally. It was nice to return to this character, having grown up with the Shrek films, and doubly nice to see his character arc being used to discuss a serious topic in a healthy way.

The central conflict is the most compelling aspect of the story, the John Mulaney villain and Goldilocks subplot are funny and entertaining, but the effectiveness of Death as the main antagonist is genius. The Shrek universe has always been a conglomeration of fairytales and folktales brought to one setting, and who is most common death metaphor than the big bad wolf? Or I'm sorry. Not a metaphor. He's just Death. Straight up. You don't outrun death or win against it in any meaningful capacity, and the story could only end with Puss' acceptance that he will die. There's no Sisypussing his way out of this one. Pussyphusing? Pfft.

X-Men: First Class

My dad and I decided to watch through every X-Men movie earlier this year. We managed two of them. They're good movies, most of them at least, but marathoning all *looks at watch* eleven films just never came to fruition. This one might be in my top 3 for X-Men movies, though. Xavier and Magneto's relationship has always been the most interesting part of these films, and this movie puts it front and center. Xavier's focus on helping his friend make peace with his traumatic past is something so genuinely sweet that ultimately empowers his greatest enemy. It's this understanding they have with each other, established in this movie, that underlines every interaction they have in the future.

The rest of this movie is pretty standard origin story stuff for the ensemble cast. How the Beast Became Blue. How Mystique Stopped Pretending and Became Her True Blue Self. How the Guy Who's Power is To Never Die, Died. It's fun for what it is but overall pretty generic.

X-Men: Days of Future Past

This is also one of the better X-Men films, not sure if I'd put it in the top 3, but there's enough time travel nonsense in this movie to make me giddy. I love paradoxical bullshit. This movie works as both a direct sequel to First Class, while also working in the continuity of the first 7 or so films. It's the Apocalypse, baby! Okay, not that Apocalypse, I still haven't seen that one, but we are introduced to one of the more famous fascist genocidal hellscapes to come out of Marvel comics. The story starts at the very end of this murderous crusade, only a handful of mutants are still alive, grouped together as a unit in some abandoned... temple bunker? I'm sure this is explained somewhere in the movie, but it makes a cool setting to fight for your life in.

Most of the plot, however, takes place in the 70s. It was a big twist in the comics that the girl who can walk through space without hindrance can also walk through time the same way, but in this movie Kitty Pryde can only send other people into their past selves, meaning it's once again Wolverine's turn to take the spotlight, because Hugh Jackman is more expensive than Elliot Page. It makes less sense, but this movie still has a lot of fun jumping between the past and future versions of established characters. Angry, passionate Magneto in his 30s vs the wizened Sir Ian McKellen Magneto. At some point the X Man himself gets to talk directly to his depressed, 70s incarnation. Not to mention Quicksilver is there, which is always nice.

This was the "Rogue Cut," which adds cut content about Rogue infiltrating a sentry factory to blow it up. The new stuff doesn't add a lot, but I did like her character from earlier films, so it was cool to see her again.

Shrek

After the joy of obsessing over Puss in Boots: The Last Wish, one of my friends insisted that we all catch up on the deep lore of the franchise, and go through every Shrek movie in order. Unlike with X-Men, we succeeded in one marathon through them all. The dude who suggested this also made the assertion that PiB: Wish was the first Shrek film to feature blood and cursing. This is patently false and I took immense pleasure in proving him wrong. *whispers* Shrek says ass within the first twenty minutes, don't tell mom!

The first movie got memed on quite a bit, but I think most people have come around to enjoying it in a genuine sense. It's a cute love story with a good message and funny fard jokes. I don't think the gross-out humor really oversteps in bounds, and it would feel pretty bizarre in hindsight if a movie like Shrek ever toned that stuff down. There were a lot of movies with "fairytales come to life and their rude and goofy," as their premise, (think Hoodwinked, another fun movie) but I think the style of the Shrek world comes off in the most endearing way. Or maybe that's just nostalgia talking.

Shrek 2

I have the soundtrack of this movie embedded into my skull. I had the CD growing up and would make my mom play it in the car on the way to primary school ad nauseum. I also had the entire movie with incredibly compressed graphics on my GBA. This classic film is synonymous with my early childhood, and it holds up really well. It's shorter than I remembered, but I think that's just because it's so expertly paced.

It also introduces our favorite fearless hero, who blends effortlessly into the main cast. All of the character's play off of each other really well, actually. The gags of a royal knight planting catnip on Puss or Gingy yelling "IT'S A THONG" to get Pinocchio to lie still get me. Not to mention the perfect fight scene scored by "I Need a Hero." Every studio with rights to that song have been chasing that high ever since.

Shrek the Third

Some people hate this movie with genuine vile and malice in their hearts. Maybe that's harsh. It definitely doesn't match the highs of either of the first two, but I still enjoyed it a lot as a kid and had a good time with it now. My friend noted that the first half of this film has a lot of funny gags that peter out in the second half, where the focus is on Shrek's complicated feelings on fatherhood. There are moments in the movie where I can tell it can't decide whether to write a scene with appropriate drama or make a stupid joke, which is odd as the first one balanced those aspects pretty elegantly.

This movie does have a sequence where the classic fairytale princesses learn martial arts from Julie Andrews and kick the bark covered asses of the trees from Wizard of Oz, all to the beat of Barracuda. Disney could never. I also like that Prince Charming takes a more central role as antagonist in the story this time around, which feels very appropriate for the setting. Justin Timberlake is here too I guess. Damn, I forgot about him. Sorry Justin.

Shrek the Final Chapter

This movie came out when I believed myself toooo olllllllld and MATURE for silly animated movies with farting in them. I had grown, and was ready for stuff like *looks at movies that came out 2010* MEGAMIND, an even sillier animated movie with still probably several fart jokes. I had a bunch of reasons for disliking this one when it came out, but I don't really recall any of them. This movie is pretty wild upon revisiting. Shrek pulls a It's a Wonderful Life with Rumpelstiltskin and is pulled into an alternate universe fanfiction where he never existed, joins an Ogre resistance and tries to get his wife to fall in love with him again. It's such a goofy premise with some fairly well constructed dramatic moments. It's also very good 3D animation for its time, which might be consistent with the rest of the series.

There's a scene where Rumpelstiltskin jumps off a ledge and makes a weird noise that I cannot for the life of me find on youtube, but it sticks in my brain for some reason. He's a pretty fun villain, overall, all of his scenes made me laugh. I think we watched the other Puss in Boots movie after this, but I fell asleep. Sorry Justin.

Ghostbusters: Afterlife

This franchise got reimagined with a new cast a few years ago, and for some reason became a controversial focus of American politics for several weeks. I mean not for some reason, it was really just sexism. Women? Fighting ghosts??? Only men fight ghosts in real life, everyone knows that. This movie, on the other hand, is a direct sequel to the original film and also didn't come out during an election year, so even though Girls do be Fighting Ghosts in this one, there was less outrage around it. It's a fun homage to the original, but doesn't acknowledge the original Ghostbusters 2 in the least, and that movie genuinely freaked me out as a kid with its pink slime that kills you.

The film focuses on the very autistic granddaughter of the late and famously autistic member of the original cast, Egon. She's a delightful protagonist throughout the story, working with the ghost of her grandfather to uncover the truth behind the natural disasters plaguing her Podunk town. There are also some fun new ghost designs our child heroes have to overcome. The supporting cast is serviceable, mostly focused around Finn Wolfhard and Paul Rudd's eternal struggle to get dates before the world is eaten by Gozer, or whoever. There's a lot of nostalgia bait in this movie. The OG Ghostbusters even make a Deus Ex Machina style cameo, saving Baby Egon at the last moment aside a CGI Harold Ramis that did get me to tear up a little. This whole movie was dedicated to him, which is sweet.

Kingdom Hearts: Back Cover

Remember when I said I was done talking about Kingdom Hearts for this year? No? You haven't been reading these? That's okay, I was lying anyway. As part of my full bodily integration into this series, I watched the entirety of the KH Union X Cutscenes interspersed with clips from the Back Cover movie in order of the proper timeline of events. This is probably the sanest way to experience this story. The original has you play a mobile game where you are updated on the plot every ten or so boring ass missions and then watch the movie as a companion piece. It's a pretty engaging narrative by KH standards, but its told in the most batshit way possible, which I guess is also up to KH standards. You can watch it here, if the embeds work:

The first part of this story focuses on a member of the Keyblade Guilds, who is slowly encroaching upon the reality that the organization they're apart of is tearing itself apart. All of the Guild Masters are in conflict over a potential traitor, and this suspicion eventually spirals into an entire war. The Master of these Masters, or MoM, is largely implied to have orchestrated the entire event. The second half focuses on the fallout from that war as the surviving Guild members try to escape the end of the world.

I got pretty attached to several of the characters and their ultimate fate, but I think this could have worked better as a TV show rather than a REALLY BORING MOBILE GAME. I guess you can watch it as a TV show, if you watch the video above in 30 minute chunks, and if you're okay with beautiful 3D animated cutscenes transitioning into kind of stale sprite art at random.

Alright ending this here. I didn't finish this on Friday as I had some other Things going on, so we're in for a double feature! Hopefully, I'll continue on the games list which will be out this evening. I'm writing these ahead of time so who knows???

#movies #film #review #glass onion #puss in boots #the last wish #a silent voice #x men #first class #days of future past #shrek #ghostbusters #afterlife #kingdom hearts #back cover #union x #my post #Youtube

[averagecatdoodlesenjoyer]

🌟

Genuinely all of the main cast are my favorite characters. Though I do have to admit that I've also grown quite fond of the dummies and the floor masters over time.

...I imagine this answer isn't very satisfying so I'll tell you why I like each character but it's also 2:30 am for me and I'm very sleepy so this isn't a serious analysis or anything just pure feelings.

Warning incoherent ramblings and bad English

Sara: imagine being the strongest person in a death game and a group of people unanimously decide that you're their leader that will lead them to survival and there's also that one guy who hates you and wants you dead and also you're 17. I could never. I think Sara is a really cool protagonist honestly amd I also have a soft spot for caharcerts who are so very serious and powerful but also so silly..... I love Sara she's such a good character..... I love Sara..

Joe: ngl it was love from first sight. I love the 'happy go lucky best friend' archetype and he's so deeply caring and kind (and he can be pretty smart and a quick thinker too when the situation calls for it) and just.... ooghh im gonna cry

Keiji: weird guy relatable in the way he hates himself so much and is so convinced of being a bad person that he acts like one.

Kanna: Kanna!! Hi Kanna!! Haaaiii Kanna :333 she wears a bucket and acts like any 14 year old dragged in a death game would. She's very deeply trusting in contrast to Shin and it's sort of one of the biggest things about her character and I'm just :((( Kanna my dear precious baby girl.... Also do u ever think about how Kannas first trial was evaluating trust and Kugie trusted Kanna enough to let her use the key but Kanna couldn't save her and then she tells Sara to kill her and trust in Shin. Do u ever think about that. I just made that up its 3 am idk if this makes sense.

Q-taro: great character AND the fattest ass in the death game.

Shin: one of the best antagonists I've ever seen. Nankidai literally went 'what if the most reoccurring antagonist is Just Some Guy who is weak and kind and timid and is only an antagonist because he was told that he's doomed by the narrative' and it's AWSOME.

Reko: she's the normal one of the group if I'm being completely honest. I love her. I really enjoy that we see her in several different lights: the Reko who is kind to the weak (Sara's POV), the Reko who is harsh to the strong (Mishima's POV in YTTS), and the Reko before Alice's case, who is more abrasive and cold to everyone.

Nao: what can I say, I love my wife. She's grown A LOT during the events of the game and then DIED in a very sad way... Very tragic. Also I love that when bad stuff happens to her she thinks 'ok how can I incorporate this in my art' (how she wants to sketch the insects from the 'fly swatter' attraction and her fondness events in YTTS) very relatable tbh.

Kai: he has done nothing wrong ever and he's also very relatable.

Gin: WHO put him in a death game. He should be playing roblox not witnessing the horrors. He would call me a homophobic slur and I would forgive him.

Mishima: I genuinely believe he's actually the most powerful character in the game. Have you SEEN how easily he figured out that Shin was lying to him in YTTS and made him actually open up and befriend him instead. The only reason that his survival percentage isn't very high is because he puts others before himself and maybe in some simulations he died because of a trap involving trying not to smoke idk. I also LOVE his cartoonish mannerisms. I like to imagine he's very animated.

Alice: I would hate this guy irl and that's why I like him. He's so intense in everything it's hard to not find it enjoyable or at least entertaining. And then you find out that he's also actually pretty kind and protective of his loved ones and deeply sad and has a very tragic and complex backstory and it's the guy who says 'yikes!'.

...ok I won't write about the dummies and floor masters but I hope you were at least mildly entertained reading this. I have a lot more to say about every character and why I think they're all great but I'll need more time and energy for that

[nicomrade]

Talk to me about Kaiji part 4... OR abt something youre currently reading/enjoyed recently idk how up to date I am w that 🐴💕

i almost bonked u for a fave emoji but now i see that horsie :) hehe hi horsie

kaiji part 4 is so one of my favorite death games PERIOD like outside of its kaiji context the arc does something i havent seen anything else do.. kaiji, the protag, isnt playing the game hes forced to only spectate it and comment on it. and so is the calculating antagonist! and that take on the 3rd party commentators is one of the only good examples of it ive seen (usogui is another good example) in opposition to how liar game does it (and everything else that copied it)

CAUSE ok my rules are

1. ur narration should, as much as possible, be from someone IN the gamble. what do i care what someone not in the game THINKS, MAYBE, is the gamblers' motivations? let the gamblers speak for themselves- about each other and about themselves. let THEM lie.

2. if u do have outside commentators, that commentary needs to ADD something and it CANNOT be stuff thats just thrown away later. example: in liar game the commentators will tell u "this gambler did this for that reason" and that turns out to be WRONG. so on a reread u remember thats literally not true and can easily skip the pages and not lose any information. thats very bad.

im OK w narration (from outside and inside the game) misleading you- its the bread & butter of gambling fiction. but that has to ADD something. it cannot just be clutter and lies. theres a great example of the ref lying to the audience in usogui but i cant get into it w no spoilers so trust me i do love it when the narration lies to my face sometime. cuz it adds meaning to a text!!!

AND THATS what part 4 is about. the gambler protag is forbidden from playing (at times literally tied up!!!) and its allllllllll about the biases of narration and commentary. its about kazuya literally FICTIONALIZING this. hes writing a book from this!!!! and kazuya seeing everything through his "friendship is fake" lense, kaiji seein the same thing as PROOF trust & friendship r real... the players backstories being inserted at the most impactful moment, the ways kazuya lies to the players without technically~~ lying and so on. the question at the heart of the game: is friendship more valuable than money? is not even answered properly because of kazuyas manipulation AND of kaijis interference. the commentators are pulled back into the game- they are playing, too. may they want it or not theyre part of this "experiment", of this fiction. you, sir, are a space too- we live in a society.?

and as u pointed out theres an omnipresence of water imagery in the arc and this is kazuya projecting his own subconscious into it. this is kind of like what jigsaw does in saw 1 hes recreating his trauma and putting people in that situation to see how THEY cope so he can know what hes supposed to do too. (cause emotionally he lived his diagnosis like a saw trap. so hes putting other people in this death sentence to, yes, cope.)

kazuya lived his drowning like a choice everyone on the boat made to save someone else instead of him, so hes putting other people in a situation to choose between someones life and something else to see what THEY do. and, of course, they have to reenact that betrayal he felt or his trauma isnt just "how the world is, trust and friendship are fake" but actually something that was wrong with him. the game does not exist without him reliving his childhood through it. theres no story without the spectator, the camera, the voyeur.

& kaiji is reliving his own gambles! "theres no way theyll betray each other" because if trust & friendship arent real then all of HIS betrayals were just him being a fucking idiot. what grace and virtue is there in forgiving the one who stabbed you in the back if it turns out thats just human nature to be selfish. if its not the death game making people act unlike their true selves then kaijis just some mark who got scammed over and over again lol...

like all good death games, the game stands for something. in part 1 its capitalism (and most of the time in kaiji its this, work, money, addiction, class) and in part 4 too you see this rich japanese man exploit poor immigrants for entertainment and thats what the game is, but its also (childhood) trauma. "they wont kill each other because me and the 45ers, me and the guys on the steel beams, we didnt." and "emotionally, this was like being strapped to a chair and seeing my trusted one walk to the button, and kneel, and apologize, and cry, and not release me. and watch me die."

#ask #fullmoondagger #kaiji meta #idk how coherent this all is my head hurts #ty for the ask mwah

[semper-legens]

187. The Book of Accidents, by Chuck Wendig

Owned: No, library Page count: 525 My summary: Nate's father is dead. Good, the bastard deserves it - but he's offered Nate the house, for the high price of a single dollar. His empathetic son is struggling in school, his wife needs a space for her art, so why not? But not all is as it seems. Oliver's new friend knows a little more than he should. Maddie's making things she can't explain. And Nate's seeing things in the woods... My rating: 5/5 My commentary:

Sometimes, you can judge a book by its cover. And this book has a particularly good cover. I had no idea what to expect going into The Book of Accidents - vaguely supernatural horror, yes, but beside that I wasn't sure what else. And what I found was a book with bleeding edges; a book about fear and trauma and mundane horror writ large that will stay with me for, doubtless, quite some time. It was interesting, it was thought-provoking, and I just wanted to sink into it and stay there for quite some time. Reader, if any of this sounds appealing to you, I would urge you to get out there and read this book blind before continuing. It's that good a book.

Our main characters are three - Nate, recently moved from the police to Fish and Wildlife after the death of his father; Maddie, an artist who finds herself unconscious of the art she creates; and Oliver, their unusually sensitive and vulnerable son. Their relationships are messy and strong. Nate is unsure of himself and trying his best to be the dad that his father could never be. Maddie is burying secrets and repressing her memories and trying her best to protect herself from her past. Oliver is figuring out who he is, and in the meantime discovering the depths of that question's answer. None of them are perfect, all of them make mistakes, but they're all making smart choices, even if they turn out to be the wrong ones, which is key to my enjoyment of a horror story. Nate coming to terms with the abuses he suffered and trying his hardest to break that cycle of abuse is a really strong story - at every turn he's offered the opportunity to slip and become just like his father, he is stopping and removing himself and not making excuses for bad behaviour. Maddie's the most out of the loop of the supernatural happenings, at least at first, but she manages to keep her head and keep her family together while still dealing with her own stuff. And poor Oliver is a good example of how kind and empathetic characters do not have to be weak. His strength is his big heart, and the way he can literally feel the pain of others.

Speaking of pain, this book is largely about trauma. All of our characters have experienced it in one way or another. Antagonist Jed survived the accident that killed his wife and daughter, an accident he caused. Nate was abused. Maddie was adjacent to serial killings in her community. Jake, our villain, is an alternate version of Oliver from a world where Nate ended up just as abusive as his father. How the different characters respond to trauma is a major theme. Nate keeps his trauma close; Oliver can heal trauma and pain, Maddie blocks it out of her memory, Jake weaponises it, and Jed grieves over it. None are, necessarily, presented as the right or wrong approach (other than Jake). It's how that healing affects the character that matters. Nate finds himself forgiving his father - or, at least, a version of his father who is trying to make amends. Maddie finds her past and uses it to save the day. Meanwhile Jake is consumed by it, and Jed falls apart over the guilt not just of what he did then, but what he does over the course of the narrative.

See, one thing I find interesting here is how the narrative uses metaphor and analogy. There's that element of the metaphor also being literal. Oliver is literally an empath who can experience other people's feelings, as well as being a sensitive kid. Maddie's art is literally a release for her and others. Jake literally uses the titular record of deaths and injuries to bring pain to the land. The serial killer is literally visited by a demon. I kind of like that in horror, bringing the analogy close to the skin while also treating it with a layer of truth. It blurs the line between the real and the supernatural; the heart of the story is still these characters working through their pain and trauma, it's just abstracted with this supernatural overlay. I cannot recommend this book enough, it's a gripping read, and I find myself loving it the more I think about it.

Next, we take to the ocean, with a mermaid, a witch, and the sea.

#The Book of Accidents #Chuck Wendig #bookblr #book blog #book blogger #5

[butwhatifidothis]

claude, dimitri and byleth went into enbarr/adrestria and yoinked it for good regardless of the ending fodlan becomes one again ( 3 houses isthe first fire emblem game to do this where a lord annexes the enemy country when they are done ( edelgard and the empire are antagonists not villains thats what they were described by the writers where any of the 3 lords can be the good guy in their own arc ( morally grey figure ) other games they just eliminate the war hawk faction 1/2

and leave the leadership to the people . or the country asks them to take over or the lord has the birthright to the land 2/2

If by "yoinked it for good" you mean that they made sure that the people weren't left high n’ dry after their emperor threw them into war, starved them, conscripted them, and used them as meat shields? By taking on the responsibility of making sure the people are safe after their last leader very clearly failed in doing so, you mean? Forgive them for daring to help them and not leaving them to fend for themselves after they've had just about everything taken from them due to a war none of them asked for or wanted.

And besides, even if we go with this reading of the three of them, then wouldn't this just make Edelgard still worse than them? Because unlike them, who had no intention of taking over all of Fodlan and only do so because all of the other leaders are either dead, gone, and/or had given up their authority to them, Edelgard... literally has it as her go-to goal. Conquering all of Fodlan is what she intends to do. It wasn't because of the circumstances to led to it happening despite her wishes/intentions, she wanted to conquer all of Fodlan.

And also, no, this is literally not the first time the heroes have "annexed" the land they "conquered" from the villain; Ephraim and Eirika do this after Lyon invaded - and destroyed and ransacked - Renais, in Sacred Stones. Ephraim literally says that he will do his best to look after the people of Grado, essentially in honor of Lyon. So that's just. Literally incorrect lol. And I doubt that these two games are really the only ones like this, either. Because, shocker, taking responsibility for the people after killing their leader who had instigated war and mass suffering/death across an entire continent for explicitly self-serving, imperialistic purposes is not, in fact, the same thing as imperialistically conquering lands by killing off their leaders and replacing them with your own men. Trying to conflate these two things are is hilarious.

"Heroes of their own story" yes, I would assume that Edelgard does not, in fact, think of herself as evil, as that is not a mindset the overwhelming majority of anyone ever genuinely believes about themselves (outside of self-loathing, which Edelgard does not have). I would think that she has successfully justified her horrific actions to herself as not-evil, because that is what almost everyone who does horrific actions do. That does not stop the fact that her imperialistic and violent conquest, her use of her people as human shields, and her targeted attacking of a specific race and religion, all done without any attempt made to rectify said actions whatsoever... are evil. Those are evil actions. Zero other people in the game do anything close to these evil actions, other than her evil butler and the evil murder cult she is working with.

Yes, protagonist and antagonist are two different things; the protagonist can be the villain and the antagonist can be the hero. You know, what happens on CF, where you play as the villain and you fight and defeat the heroes. By violently invading their lands for explicitly imperialistic and racist motivations. And by lying to your allies. And by working with a murder cult. I'm sorry but I just can’t see how Edelgard forcing what she herself says she thinks are “pale offshoots of the Empire” back under the Empire’s banner for the explicit, directly stated purpose of putting Fodlan completely under the Empire’s control is morally gray and not flat out evil

#ask #anon #Anti-edelgard #anti edelgard #edelgard critical #edelgard discourse #just to be safe #and PLEASE try to tell me that Dimitri/Byleth/Claude SHOULD have left Adrestia completely alone while the other two nations are looked after #where Adrestia is literally the ONLY nation of Fodlan that should have been leaderless #after starvation and conscription and religious suppression and in general not being looked after ALREADY #because then the argument would be that they ''conquered'' the land and then left the people to flounder about with no help #(''they'' being the lords + Byleth here) #like I know this post is very rudely stated but like. c'mon.

[emerlovesinvaderzim]

Okay, I understand if anyone disagrees with me on this but I think the Invader Zim fandom is pretty shitty. You know the way people always say there's always a quiet majority and a loud minority? Well this is different. This time it's a loud majority and quiet minority situation. Zim is the main protagonist of this show, is he a good character? No. Does he have flaws? Yes. Do characters need flaws? Yes. Is it good that Zim has flaws? Yes it is. But does the fandom treat his flaws like they're even flaws at all? No, they don't.

The fandom obsesses over Zim and acts like there's nothing wrong with his character. He was seen committing terrorism throughout the show and he acts like he's better than everyone and throws them (Including his robot GIR) under the bus yet they'll always comment on how "cute and small" he is and how everyone just wants to hug him. (even though he'll most likely kill you if you do.) You can still like Zim but please acknowledge that he isn't a good person. He has narcissistic personality disorder.

However, Zim's arch nemesis, Dib Membrane, who is the main antagonist of the show, is also a terrible person. He wants to expose Zim for fame and money and is often seen bullying or picking on Zim at school however the fandom actually acknowledges that Dib is in the wrong for this and people tend to hate him a lot because of this. I know there's a lot of Dib fans out there (myself included.) but even they're able to critique his character and understand he's asshole but Zim's fans don't seem to do the same with Zim. This really annoys me. I've seen people who'll hate Dib for his selfish and entitled behavior but then they'll love Zim for the same reasons. What the fuck?

I had someone tell me Dib being a terrible person is overlooked while Zim being terrible isn't, which isn't anywhere near true. I explained to them why and they just gave me a skull emoji and said "It's not that hard to comprehend, I've seen media where Dib is easy going, chill and nice where as Zim is a huge dickhead." I have never seen that and they never even showed me any proof of fans doing that. There's literally a whole AU called "The lovebug AU" where Zim is a sweet and kind little guy with wings and Dib is mean and cruel. I have never seen an AU where it's the other way around. I have read a read fanfictions where he's a portrayed as this high school chad who's racist and misogynistic and I even read a fic where he was pro-life. I never read any fics where Zim is portrayed that way. The person wasn't lying when they said Zim is portrayed as mean though but when he is portrayed as mean, it's meant to be in a cute and light hearted funny way and when I see Dib portrayed as nice, it's in a dumb and creepy way.

There's a comic called "Trainwreck" (it's a Zim x Dib comic incase you're uncomfortable) where Dib is portrayed as a dumbass and crazy obsessed stalker while Zim, is mean yes, but is also chill and just wants to go about his own day and his cruelty is kinda glamourized as humor in this comic. I also have read stories where they've abused each other but when Dib abused Zim, it wasn't glamourized or made funny but when Zim did it to Dib, it was. This one fanfic had Zim abuse Dib and he held a grudge against him (as he should) but the comments where calling Dib salty for refusing to forgive him and they said they wanted to slap him while I was wanting to slap Zim.

Same with Gaz, I can understand her anger and see why she finds Dib annoying but she's no better than him. She constantly abuses him physically and emotionally yet their dad does nothing about this. I know Dib has also done bad things to her and he has no excuse for doing that. He put a curse on her in one episode and she had every right to be mad at him. I have seen no one defend him for doing that, everyone was pretty mad at him for doing that. Also just because Dib is mean to Gaz doesn't give her the excuse to actively try to make his life more miserable than already is everyday. They're both toxic towards each other and they both make life harder for each other, we need to end the harmful standard that men can't be abused.

I don't hate Zim or Gaz, they're actually two of my favourite characters. I can still critique characters I like, that doesn't make me like them less. I'm still able to critique Dib and I have done it throughout this rant. I won't disregard anyone's experience with the fandom, I promise. They're are Zim and Gaz stans who are able to understand that they're both terrible characters and there are Dib stans who are toxic and won't accept that he's also a terrible character too. It's Invader Zim, everyone in this show is a terrible person. Not just Zim, not just Dib, everyone. The only one who isn't terrible is GIR. I'm just expressing how I feel and what I have seen with in the fandom, please don't take this personally and feel free to disagree with me.

#invader zim #zim iz #invader zim dib #dib membrane #zim invader zim #zim #dib #gaz iz #gaz membrane #dib invader zim #gaz invader zim #dib iz #invader zim zim #invader zim gaz #gir invader zim #invader zim gir #invader zim rant #please read the whole thing before commenting or I will explode

[ly0nstea]

I think a lot of people are too hard on Zuko for turning on Aang in the Season 2 finale. Free Will is based on viable, feasible, and realistic choices. If you set unrealistic expectations for other people then that borders on cruelty, and I think it can be argued that there may have been mental and physical factors preventing Zuko from joining Aang in the Season 2 finale. After all, even the act of freeing Appa caused Zuko to pass out. It's possible that the act of joining Aang would have been..

enough to kill Zuko 10 times over. So it might not even be reasonable to expect Zuko to have joined Aang at that stage. If you place unrealistic expectations on other people then that's cruelty. Not in a cruel to be kind sort of way, but it's just cruelty. You have to take it slow. So I think some people were too hard on Zuko. And Azula, and even Ozai. I think the writers of the comics knowingly placed unrealistic expectations on Azula because they hated her and wanted to be cruel to her.

-------------------------------------------------------

I'm gonna come at this from 2 angles, from a more meta narrative standpoint, and from a character analysis standpoint, so forgive me for the longpost.

From a narrative standpoint, these characters don't have free will, they aren't real, it isn't Bryke's job to make them make the most realistic choice, it's their job to make the characters make a decision thats realistic enough for our suspended disbelief to allow, while producing a good story. Zuko joining the Fire Nation isn't a good story, the first half of season was some of the weakest writing the show really had imo, especially in the Fire Nation, all that was achieved by Zuko going back to the Fire Nation really is Zuko finding out about his heritage. A realisation that could have been made easily out of Zuko being in the Fire Nation, and I'd dare say it would be better had Zuko discovered it alongside Aang as it would have given a reasonable way for Zuko and Aang to develop any sort of genuine connection. Zuko could prove himself loyal during the Black Sun, and the later field trips could have focused more on relationships instead of being forced to make Zuko likeable to the gaang so they'll like him. Likewise, they did nothing in the first half of season 3 to make Azula an antagonist toward Zuko to make the finale feel any kind of satisfying, in fact Azula is overly nice to him, it sometimes seems that they're 'rivalry' is just Zuko being bitter that he's not as good as her, while she doesn't really care about it, save for a throwaway line in the finale that seems shoehorned in to make her seem like she thinks Zuko is greatly worse than her, namely, "You can't treat me like Zuko!"

Azula and Zuko irrefutably have unrealistic standards placed on them, the height of which being 'find the avatar' and 'topple Ba Sing Se' (both of which they managed to achieve to their own degrees). But to say that Zuko defecting from the Fire Nation is unrealistic is just not true. Zuko is more or less already completely rid of any Fire Nation loyalty by the end of season two, it's literally his whole season two arc.

From a character analysis, again, it's really stupid. Zuko was working towards breaking free for the whole season and to see him turn back on that is not very satisfying to watch, and i feel like a lot of people gloss over that frustrating in favour of going with the 'best redemption arc ever' status quo. Zuko doesn't realise anything new in the Fire Nation other than his grandfathers, he already knew the Fire Nation was bad, he already knew the war was wrong, if they want Zuko to be a hero, he has to be heroic, he needs to do the right thing depite and because of its dificulty. It honestly feels like they sent Zuko back to the Fire Nation just for the purpose of giving him a big dramatic confrontation with his father.

#zuko #avatar the last airbender #azula #atla #avatar #bryke critical

[thejadecount]

villain aru shah headcanons?

Okay forgive me when I mention plotpoints and I get them a bit wrong, it’s bit a hot minute since I’ve last read the books, but I mostly remember a bunch of the points in the books where I got bitter and gave Aru permission to become an antagonist. Like, I was bitter in the second book, my god. And yes, you can consider this a strongly worded hate letter to any other Pandava stan and if you say Aru doesn’t deserve to have a villain arc I will physically fight you.

Anyways—

She’s your bitch okay? She’s down for murder. She’s quoting vines. She’s unironically getting them wrong to annoy the other Pandavas

Mini: Aru stop this isn’t you—

Aru: Oh cry me a table, Mini

You see she hates the Pandavas, but she also hates her dad. She hates everyone. So she just does fuck all

“Fuck you, fuck my dad and fuck the gods, I’m Aru Shah you goddamn idiot and there’s nothing you can do about it.”

I’d like to think her villain arc would start in the second book, but it’s only her thinking these antagonistic thoughts, she really doesn’t do anything about them. She gets jealous and bitter but how different and unfair her life was compared to Mini and the others, but she keeps the same personality with them more or less.

It gets worse with the twins. They’re spoiled. They’re kind of brats. She starts getting into tiny, petty arguments with the others in their point of view, but reading in her perspective they’re completely understandable. Perhaps the arguments themselves are a bit ridiculous and overdramatic, but we can understand where it’s coming from.

And then comes her half-sister, and OH BOY this is when everything really starts taking off. Her dad’s trying to get her on his side every more because he knows. He knows Aru is so fed up with all the other Pandavas bullshit and he’s going to try.

Of course Aru isn’t an idiot. No, fuck her dad. She’s going to keep being a Pandavas to beat him of course. But once that’s done she’s out.

Soon enough, she’s a villain. She renounces the Pandavas and her sister, calls them and her mom out on all their bullshit, and just leaves. You don’t need school when you’re an antagonist. She knows 98% of what she’ll learn in that dump will be useless anyway.

She likes mostly annoying and do fuck-all to the Pandavas. You’d be surprised how quickly they’re willing to beat her ass. Of course, they’re failing, but that’s because Mimi still believes in Aru. She’s the only one who has truly appreciated Aru, and Aru respects that by not beating the shit out of her.

She has lightning powers. Her hands are tasers. If you want she could freely provide you a sample of what 3.1 million volts feel like being shot through your body.

I’d like to think she chills out more with Hindu mythological people, like nagas and the such. She has found out that they’re much more accepting and chaotic neutral.

Also, when she quickly makes her way to her villain arc, she finds out she is very much bisexual.

For a villain, she’s not one of the bad bad ones. Like, she’ll fuck up your day and maybe cause a rukus at the Night Bazaar. She might accidentally cause a few deaths here and there, but only a small percent of those were on purpose.

She mostly just hates the Pandavas. Fuck them. And the Gods too. But for the most part, as long as your not a demigod and you have a loose sense of morals, you’re on her decent side.

I’d like to think she’d try to raise a demon army like the Sleeper did to kill the Pandavas, once and for all.

Gaslight Gatekeep Girlboss

She is very good at insulting people. She has made demons cry. She is merciless.

No matter the circumstances, if some demon or some other antagonist goes up to her and tells her about literally any plan that may or may not include fucking over the Pandavas, you bet she’s in.

Over time, she gains the heterochromia from her father once she starts accepting her more demonic qualities. She hates it of course—fuck her dad—so she uses contacts. Not those stupid boring brown ones tho, no she’s going to make her eyes highlighter yellow to fuck with everyone and make their eyes bleed.

I’d like to think she very much blurs the line between chaotic neutral and chaotic evil.

If she were to meet canon Aru, she would surprisingly comfort her. She hates the fact that for some reason, this version of her is still with the Pandavas and on ‘the good side’, but she suspects it’s more the gods and Pandavas fault and her desperation for friends and validation than anything.

She’s a theatre kid, most definitely.

And to confuse her enemies she’s start singing in the middle of battle no warning.

Just imagine she’s fighting the Pandavas and all of a sudden she starts belting out every Hamilton song in existence.

She still has her weapon, the classic ping pong ball. But now she knows how to properly use it, it’s her most dangerous thing in her arsenal.

Like you know those scenes in cartoons where a character throws a bouncy ball and it starts bouncing around the entire room at mock speed and breaking almost everything? Imagine that, plus electricity.

Half the time she’s a devious, cunning villain. The other half—

“I have no idea what I’m doing and there’s nothing you can do to stop me.”

#I probably have a bunch written somewhere that I can’t find #I had a big villain Aru phase like a year ago #but those are all the ones I can think of #enjoy! #aru shah

[thedragonagelesbian]

wait i have more for 'what if anders lived' :) cyrus letting him live and not knowing WHY in the moment that he did it. rationalizing it to himself a hundred different ways from, 'is it really right to kill him even if he wanted it?', to 'making him see the consequences and not run away'. but in the end he knows the real reason why: he's sacrificed so much and lost people he loved on the way here that in that single moment, even when he knew what he SHOULD have done... he didnt. even if he was hurt by anders pushing him away. even if death is what anders wanted, even more for it to be at cyrus' hands. the fact that no matter how he tries to rantionalize it, the right thing to do, what he should have done, was give anders that 'mercy'. but. would killing him be worth going through all that pain? again? so just this once, in spite of everything, he was selfish.

i need to go dig a hole somewhere and lie in it and W E E P I----

bc. you're so right. killing anders is still service to someone else. there's no catharsis or even justice there, especially as cyrus spends the rest of his life carrying that guilt and that grief around with him, literally dragging anders' corpse behind him in the form of the broken imperial chantry amulet soldered back together with anders' ashes. the pain of that death is another expectation, another weight he's taken and put on his own shoulders. even as anders tried so hard to absolve him of that blame, by asking in the first place--saying I’d rather it be him than anyone else. He’s the only one I trust to tend to the ashes and i'm glad it's you and This way, it’s my sacrifice, not yours and do you want to pay the price for this? // if it's you--the hurt... continues.

to think that cyrus would refuse that ask... that he would allow himself that selfishness...........................................................

here's the meta thing: when i initially conceived of cyrus' solo worldstate like five years ago, i decided that anders would be dead. cyrus existed as such a vague concept back then, and he was initially a much more traditional lawful good. still wary of/antagonistic toward the chantry, but not one to let its explosion go unpunished. furthermore, that he and anders had ANY relationship beyond the canon friendship did not occur to me.

i went into my first playthrough with cyrus so. so curious to see if i was going to change my mind about that. as i built out his and anders' relationship, i thought maybe....... and then i got to the justice quest. the lying, the manipulation, the guilt-tripping, it hurt cyrus so much.

but cyrus' personal pain has never been much of a motivator or a justification of anything, because he views his own suffering as secondary.

the real, key explanation as his creator for choosing that path for them was that anders asked for it. not super explicitly (at least on the friendship path), but between his dialogue in the last straw & one of his act 3 banters with isabela, it's clear that he thinks he should pay for this with his life. he believes that anyone would be well within their rights to dole out that punishment. and if that's the case, why not ask cyrus to be the one to do it.

cyrus would do anything he asked, because cyrus would do anything for his family, and anders is still his family. and because is there anything sweeter in this world than to be redeemed by his bloody, loving hand?

and cyrus says no.

he has grown so bitter and jaded and harsh at this point, and yet he chooses for a moment to be kind to himself.

and in so doing, as he has so many times before, he extends that kindness once more to someone who has taken advantage of it.

to be burnt and to try again, not out of naivety or foolishness but because he needs this for himself. he needs this to survive.

it's not forgiveness at first, it's not forgiveness for a long while, especially for varric, and even cyrus tells him to leave after sparing him. but it's an open door, and when anders chooses to walk back through it, cyrus can't deny to himself how happy he is to see him again.

and when a seeker of truth hunts them down three years later, varric tells her the version of things that keeps both his loves safe: that the champion of kirkwall killed anders that night.

#like obviously cyrus doesnt know in the moment the burden he will carry from that decision but... #it haunts him for so long. #that theres some version of him in some timeline that asked himself out of that pain... #to ask himself out of a lot of his worst habits to put down the mantle of champion #and find a quiet place to heal & growth with anders and varric after kirkwall #fuck man it did NOT occur to me until writing this post just how much that grief spurs him in the immediate aftermath of kirkwall #i................... need more time to sort out those particular thoughts but that trajectory would be so different #and i think ultimately happier #ANYWAY THANKS FOR THE PSYCHIC DAMAGE NEO ILY #cyrus hawke #andersXcyrusXvarric