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comicaurora · 1 year

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any tips on how to write a non protagonist-y protagonist? (as in, a protagonist that is not at all the leader of the team, generally isn't the most Morally Righteous, and has more lancer characteristics than protag characteristics)

I could probably give helpful thoughts if the question was more specific, but this is hella broad. The protagonist is just the character who's the central focus of the story, there's nothing inherently heroic about the role. Following an unheroic lead can be compelling for all sorts of reasons, but they're all very specific to the character and story.

Just for a quick look into the scope of this question, a few examples: Hamlet is compelling because he's a Hot Mess in a world of slightly more lukewarm messes; Chicago is compelling because every protagonist is so spectacularly awful you're rooting for their success just so you can watch them crash and burn; Death Note is compelling for similar reasons, with the added bonus of watching two terrible people pitted against each other - but while stories with protagonists that are terrible people can be fun in a "watching a trainwreck" sort of way, there are also stories with unheroic protagonists that the audience hopes become more heroic, which is the entire pull of Logan, Mandalorian season 1, the early stages of The Last Of Us, and basically everything in the "serious grumpy dad" genre where we spend some time waiting for the damaged loner to figure out he's adopted a baby.

Tons of stories have main characters that aren't the leaders of whatever team they're on, and that can be fun because it gives them a leader to follow or rebel against - Hellsing Ultimate is all about the chain of command on both the protagonist and antagonist side, and the nominal main character Alucard is a morally incomprehensible eldritch abomination who's the scariest thing in the entire show. He's fun to watch because he's a literal living nightmare and every time a bad guy looks like they've got him on the ropes he just goes "neat" and farts out a hellhound or a knife tornado or something and rips them to shreds. Then there are about a million cop shows with a protagonist who's a Loose Cannon who Don't Play By The Rules, almost always defined by their rebellion against the exasperated leader who has a duty to actually follow and enforce the law. Copaganda aside, there's a lot of ways to write a character operating under a protagonist-y but potentially unhelpful authority.

Hell, if you squint, a ton of heroic characters are ultimately motivated by entirely selfish drives - which, if unpacked, end up looking very questionable in the morals department, despite the protagonist being a broadly likable person. Last Airbender has this in spades, with Aang's entire arc taking him from the starting motivation of "my responsibility as Avatar will stop me from having a life and I don't want that so I'll run away" to "my responsibility as Avatar is at odds with my Air Nomad philosophy against taking life and I don't want that so I'll find a way to stop Firelord Ozai without killing him". His initial motivation was obviously a lot less heroic, but through the entire story Aang holds onto his personal wants and desires, which is on paper a selfish and unheroic thing for the Chosen One to do - but in the context of Avatar, a war story about a group of children saving the world, it is the ultimate victory of the story that Aang and his friends don't have to sacrifice their personal happiness to win. The fact that Aang can still be a little bit selfish means that the war didn't take everything from him, and if he'd done the "heroic" thing of selflessly sacrificing his own spiritual needs to end the war as fast as possible, from a narrative standpoint it would've been a pyrrhic victory at best, because the Fire Nation would've succeeded in destroying him.

These are all wildly distinct stories, and trying to draw a few easy tips and tricks from them would be borderline impossible, since they're all doing "unheroic protagonist" in totally different ways.

#asks #writing stuff

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lovesickbrat · 1 year

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Bunny by Mona Awad (Spoilers!!!)

okay so bunny by mona awad succeeded in areas I think my year of rest and relaxation by otessa moshfegh failed in which she created a satire that actually had something to say. the way awad deals with the concepts of loneliness (both incidental and self inflicted), female friendships, class and the pretentiousness of New England college culture actually feels purposeful. and the reason I compare it to moshfegh is because both books are satires with unlikeable protags but while moshfegh is too busy kissing her own ass and hiding behind “oh all art is apolitical” bc shes to scared to admit that she actually cares about the topics shes talking about, awad cares very deeply about what she’s writing which made it unsurprising to see she based it on her own experiences at brown university.

Samantha is not the most likable character and you’re either gonna cone away from the book hating her and her pity parties or deeply understanding why she throws them (especially if you read her as a woman of color like I did). there’s a constant theme of her being obsessed with her own otherness and its true especially when you consider (Spoiler) She created her best friend Ava from a swan in the pond . Ava is Samanthas ideal friend but also the ideal form of herself: cool, self assured and beautiful. If Ava is the good part of herself, then Max is the bad. Her dark thoughts, negative impulses and hatefulness. But he is also how she sees herself as well, or at least what she thinks Ava would find attractive, he’s smooth, attractive in a dangerous way, poetic without being pretentious (he’s a literal vessel for her to say what she feels about Ava all of which is written in her diary) and what I think is very very important he can fuck Ava. Something the bunny-boys couldn't do.

there's also the sense of how we lose ourselves in our friends, as female friendships tend to be all consuming to the point we really do melt into a hive mind and I think even the friendship with Ava is tinged with co-dependency. Samantha dehumanizes the Bunnies calling them by nicknames she gave them, robbing them of agency because of their perceived perfectness but once she is invited to the Smut Salon she begins to call them by their real names until finally in honestly the most disorienting section of the book they all become Bunny, to the point its hard to tell who is talking and I loved that I wish we got more of Sam as a Bunny.

the atmosphere and aesthetics of the novel were so fun a candy colored dark academia where we even see that the bunnies also put on airs around each other like how Kira’s voice deepens when she thinks shes alone, no longer concerned with sounding like. bunny. I like how each of the women have a genre assigned to their writing and personal style showing how even though they are indistinguishable from each other, they were their own people beforehand but they allowed themselves to get sucked into a vacuous pretentious bubble.

the commentary on class was great, especially with how sam is said to be too obsessed with being poor to have been poor her whole life and I think thats a very accurate representation of someone who's financial status has been precarious for much of her formative years and why despite herself shes so intrigued by the bunnies and feels out of place in her writers cohort. rich people love to blow smoke up each others asses, which allows the bunnies to write horrible work because at the end of the day they’re rich it doesn’t matter they're never gonna have to improve themselves. its also why sam feels reluctant to speak her true feelings on their work because she doesn't have anyone to rely on lest she gets ousted

the usage of the all female writing cohort with the singular teacher was a great nod to the secret history honestly the whole book was

I loved how it was a creation horror story as well as coming of age the horrific parts were truly gross and the way the cannibalize themselves (metaphorically) towards the end was satisfying as fuck

and a lot of ppl hate the ending but sam choosing Jonah was honestly cathartic, she isn't healed things aren't sweet and nice but she makes a connection with someone who has been reaching out to her instead of being obsessed with her own otherness

#coquette #coquette aesthetic #bunny mona awad

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korkiekenobiconfirmed · 10 months

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I'm on a roll with the s/j/m hatred tn so I'm going to compile a masterlist of all her shitty lgbt/poc representation and why it sucks booty cheeks. it should be noted that none of this is meant as shade on any of the characters themselves... I actually happen to like quite a lot of them

EDIT: there are some nice additions to this post in the notes you can check out

LGBT rep

Aedion (Bi/Pan)

Literally known as “Adarlan’s Whore” (a nickname that references both his allegiance to the king and his tendency to sleep around)

His only same-sex relationship is with a vaguely-mentioned unnamed lover from the past (it’s not even said straight-up that they’re a man, but I’m assuming they are bc they’re mentioned to be a commander of the Bane)

He’s shown being attracted to women and only women for two and a half books. He’s a womanizer retconned into the slutty bisexual stereotype

His liking men & women is compared to prostitution

It’s insinuated in koa that he slept with an ex while he and Lysandra were fighting (because the cheating bisexual trope is such a new & creative one!)

Helion (Bi/Pan)

He’s always trying to have 4somes with three of the main characters

Realistically he’s probably one of the most powerful/interesting High Lords but this gets sidelined in favor of him flirting with eVeRyOnE

All we really know about him is his name and the fact that he’s a bit of a manwhore… very 2-dimensional

He has an affair & a child with a married woman… just the Slutty/Cheating Bisexual Trope (Volume 2) :/

Mor (Lesbian? Possibly bi?)

She’s never shown in any real relationships (with men or women)

She had tragic off-screen relationship with a mortal queen a few hundred years ago

We get literally no hints that she’s gay throughout the series, she just randomly mentions she likes women at the end of book 3

She gets no happy relationship, she stays closeted to spare Az’s feelings (as though he’s not a grown ass man), she’s retconned into her sexuality most of the way through the series… just shitty shitty rep all around

Hasar (Lesbian)

She’s a villain, and a shitty one at that

Lesbian rep from a side character in one novella that half the fandom didn’t read? What’s even the point?

Thesan (Gay)

A very minor character & his unnamed “lover” who serve no narrative purpose whatsoever… thanks for nothing sarah

Emrys & Malachai (Presumably gay)

Oh look! More minor, background mlm that might as well not exist for all they do for the story :/

They are cute though, I’ll give them that

POC rep

Nehemia

First (and only) black main in ToG

She dies to fuel the white protag’s character arc… a very tired trope

She was actually a pretty well-written, likable character up until her brutal murder, which made it that much worse to hear about her organs strewn all over the room

Sorscha

Described as “plain” (particularly in contrast to the white women like Aelin & Lysandra)

We know she’s POC because of where she’s from, but the way her features are described suggest she could still be white

Dark hair, gold eyes, “tan” skin

She really just fawns over white-boy Dorian every 2 seconds before dying a violent death to fuel Dorian’s arc…

…Aaaand I’m sensing a pattern here

Nesryn

Much of her character (especially in QoS) is reduced to her beefing with Aelin (and thus being villanized by the narrative) because of jealousy over Chaol

Simply described as having “tan” skin (again). I think sarah is allergic to calling people brown

She is also described as plain compared to white protagonist

She has a (presumably middle eastern) family that only wants her to stay home and be a baker/someone’s wife

Yrene

Once again very racially ambiguous to the point where she could even be white, with “tan/golden” skin, golden hair, and golden eyes

She almost immediately ties her literal life force to a white man she hated like a month ago. Seriously, can WOC not fawn over a hunky white man for once?

She defeats erawan in the end — considering she’s been a character for such a short time, this just feels more like a deus ex machina the anything really set up by the plot

Helion

Not going to fully rehash what I said above but generally… he has great potential, but is basically not a character

Tarquin

He’s portrayed as very nice and reasonable, if young and naive, yet he literally only exists to get manipulated/robbed by the main characters

He seems like such a sweetheart. He deserved much better than Riceman and Feyrug doing him dirty like that

I’ve heard rumors of a High King/Queen F*ysand plotline in later books…if that happens, Tarquin will likely be bending the knee and forgiving the people who fucked him over just a short time ago

Lucien

He’s described as very caring and loyal (yay!) which seems to always get him taken advantage of (damn!)

He’s portrayed (especially in ACOWAR) as someone we’re supposed to dislike when all his actions are perfectly reasonable

He’s literally retconned out of being white when it’s revealed Helion is his father instead of Beron. I’ve seen ppl get mad at “white-washed” fan art but it’s hard to expect much else when his original character description was straight red hair, amber eyes, and “tan” skin (holy shit agAIN)

The people of the White Fangs from TOG

They’re described as having black hair, black eyes, and “tan” skin

They live isolated in the mountains (away from civilization) and are described as “savage” and warlike, always raiding villages in the mountains and stealing women away from their homes…

Cain, who’s from these people, dabbles in dark magic/religion nobody else understands

This is feeling, intentional or not, like a horrible Native American caricature. Idk maybe that’s just me

#anti sjm #anti acotar #anti tog

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lakesbian · 9 months

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out of curiosity do you have any thoughts about Maggie?

i think it's really funny that the protagonist of pact is like. some Comically Normal, increasingly-pale, interminably haunted guy the universe hates who spends 45% of his life minimum shaking and/or throwing up. and then the plucky charming girl who says things like 'drat' and 'fiddlesticks' and has a tragic ya-protag origin story and is dealing with a classic ya-protag ominous prophecy is the side character. using goblins is ostensibly possible to frame as a likable underdog trait, in contrast to Cool Shit like faeries or demons. by all accounts blake scans as someone who should show up once in the ya fantasy novel about maggie's life to serve as a bit of character development for her & then never receive a feature again except for a singular piece of irrelevant background dialogue in which it's offhandedly mentioned that they found his sopping wet flayed corpse on the street. not even a notable street, either, just some random street. And Yet. he's the protagonist instead of her.

and, like, wildbow knows this. the funniest part of this whole thing is that when wildbow went "who is the most Iconic YA Protag Material in pact, i want to put a pact reference into worm," the answer wasn't blake, it was, obviously, maggie. it's maggie's world blake's just living in it. he straight cannot catch a break. cannot even be the protagonist of the book he's a fucking protagonist of.

i digress. one last sidenote before i get into talking abt maggie's interlude: it's really fun that before it we get a firsthand look at how the Batshit and Harrowing experience of being a disadvantaged practitioner (unable to lie, experiencing the horrors at all times) will straight up turn you into a guy in a horror movie who goes around looking disheveled and shaking and discussing ominous portents, and then the interlude itself depicts how comically absurd that looks from an outside perspective. love the practitioner in maggie's interlude. out there delivering a classic vague & ominous horror novel Foreshadowing Statement to our archetypal protag maggie, and she's the only one who actually experiences the genre awareness to go "ohh, okay, i'm in a horror novel," and prevent her entire family from dying badly about it.

and the thing about this is that it works flawlessly as part of her "YA protag who is for some reason a side character here and not the protag" schtick, but it also makes for a genuinely horrifying & compelling narrative. like, What If you were a teenager suddenly realizing the things that go bump in the night are not only real but tearing your life down around you while everyone else remains oblivious--would that be fucked up or what? love the moment where she sees the goblin w/ the blood-soaked hair (who is hot and cool btw) holding not a bleached skull but a very visibly dark & bloody one with Bits Still Attached and it finally clicks for her that this is Real. that one little image of abject gore and suffering during an extended traumatic experience that viscerally hammers the entire thing right into your skull. & the characterization of her looking directly at sculptures of rotting meat and imagery of knives doing terrible things and blood on the streets and then deciding that there's actually an Art to the wriggling wet underbelly of the world, one she wants to hold and own instead of vice versa, is good. i like it. there's a moment where she briefly sounds entirely capable of holding a conversation with bonesaw regarding Art, and that is excellent.

i also think she's probably still in over her head without realizing. she's manipulated into ordering someone's murder and then is like "you know i think i can make up for this one AND go on a fun little adventure to add to my scrapbook of knowledge at the same time." that's not how reality works! you killed someone! and then tried to semi-earnestly befriend slash mooch from their cousin! she's only been a practitioner for six months--i think there's a very fundamental disconnect btwn the maggie that's lucky enough to still have parents she can be a normal silly teenager with and the maggie that's making forays into The World Of Backstabbing, Horror, Murder, and Fates Worse Than Death. and i think that disconnect will result in strain for her as the fact that she's sort of doomed to do some really awful things, have some really awful things happen to her, and/or both sinks in. okay that largely summarizes my maggie thoughts so far. i hope to see more of her and her silly little goblins i do enjoy the grotesque.

#ask #pact time #pactblr

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infriga · 6 months

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What's interesting about House of Usher is that Flannigan usually has likeable protagonists, at least in my experience. Granted I haven't seen all of his works, but I've seen several (Bly Manor, Hill House, Midnight Mass, and I've heard summaries of others) and most of them are generally pretty sympathetic from my understanding, even the ones with more blood on their hands, so to speak.

In House of Usher however, almost none of the main characters are good or likeable people to much, if any, degree. Their spouses/partners are decent people, for the most part (dunno how the siblings landed such nice SOs despite being so nasty), and the granddaughter seems alright (I'm only on episode 5 btw so idk if anything happens regarding her or the other non-siblings, no spoilers pls), and Auguste seems like a decent person (maybe not the best family man, but he at has his heart in the right place especially compared to the Ushers), but all the siblings, and Roderick and Madeline themselves, are pretty horrible people.

But like, they're not one dimensional bad people, they're complex, they feel emotions, they care about people in their lives even if they don't tend to treat those people well, they have fears and insecurities and passions and hangups just like regular people do. So while usually I dislike when the protagonists of a show like this are unlikable, in this show it's actually quite fascinating because like I can't say I hate them either, they feel like they could be good people if they really wanted to be. Especially if they had better influences and were taught better lessons by their father and aunt. They feel human, not evil, but I'm also not rooting for them either. I don't know who to root for tbh, except maybe people like Julius, Tammy's husband, and the granddaughter, who are all side characters lol. Idk who the weird supernatural lady is (death? The devil? God? A witch? No idea) so I don't know her motivations or what kinda person she is, she seems to be collecting on some sort of debt but that's the best I've got on her. I do think it's interesting how she tried to spare Morrie from the acid by telling her to go like she did with the wait staff, but she didn't do anything to help Ali later when she was killed, so was it strategic or does this lady have some sort of code of morals? Does she care about whether people are innocent or not? Why spare the wait staff from death by acid shower but not the other party goers? Is sparing Morrie more about the potential role she'll play in Freddy's death? I guess I'll find out.

But I do think it's interesting that we start off the show knowing who's going to die already, since usually stakes in this genre come from wanting characters to survive (hence why I usually prefer likable protags in horror/suspense media), but it makes sense that since none of these people are very likable, the suspense needs to mostly come from something else on that front, such as wondering how they're going to die or which innocent people they might take with them in the process, as well as wanting to know what caused all this.

Roderick, ironically, is probably the most sympathetic member of the family aside from his granddaughter, which doesn't mean much but I mean, I wouldn't begrudge anyone going through what he witnessed in episode 5. Like gaddamn that's fucked up. He seems like someone who deep down has the potential and even the buried desire or instinct to be a good person, but was too much of a coward to put in the work it would take to be good and stay good in a harsh world when he wants so badly to be someone big and successful and important just like, well, his father. But ultimately he does obviously love his children so I do sympathize with him in that regard.

But the show is making the unlikable protagonists thing work for it, somehow. I don't like most of these people, but I am fascinated by them and what's going down and how they got here. It's like watching a car crash in slow motion.

#the fall of the house of usher #tfothou #tv show thoughts #Random #I do find their attorney Arthur Pym to be a really interesting character #How does one get so close to a family like this #And how much does he get paid? Because that man is practically carrying their fucking empire on his back #So I imagine he gets paid a fuck of a lot #Dude is good at his job #Long post #To be clear I know it's entirely possible the show will somehow have me liking and caring about these people by the end #But as of episode 5 they're certainly interesting but not what I'd call likable lol

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tails-artwork · 7 months

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Gaming Thoughts - September 2023 - Digimon Story: Cyber Sleuth

I've had this game on my backlog for a good while for the Switch version and decided to finally load it up. I've always been into Digimon for just as long of a time as I've been into Pokemon. But I always gone back and forth on which of the two I like more, but I do tend to prefer several of the Digimon designs more than pokemon designs at times personally as well.

Either way, being that the only other Digimon RPG that I've played before was Dusk. I have to admit that going into this felt very familiar in how some of the systems worked as well so I had no issues acclimating to the game at all. Though the Switch version does have one small 'flaw' to it that can be more seen as a feature instead of a bug if you're busy like I am. That being that the Digi-Farm still runs while the switch is in sleep mode apparently.

Obviously in doing that it does make the game a bit too easy if one was seeking a challenge since the Digi-Farm allows your 'mons to level up over time, but at this point in time for me, I didn't care at all. But the general way the turn-based battle system is done along with the digivolution and de-digivolution trees are set up for being able to get other digimon into your 'dex' I do find myself enjoying it a lot more than the recent pokemon games. (Seriously, just going up and down the trees to get certain skills feels a lot more rewarding compared to trying to breed and hope you get lucky to pass certain moves around.) And the scan feature more rewards encounters as well for being able to get mon's instead of just 'hope you're lucky'

Though just being able to turn off rando encounters or just force into one on the fly without a lot of menu surfing or taking up inventory/moveslot space is also a plus too.

But honestly, I feel like the story for this game and the characters is where it really shines. I've not finished the game so far, and only at Chapter 17 presently, but honestly a lot of the NPCs are just likable in the main story, esp Nokia during one of her major scenes. And honestly I have to admit that I really like Arata as a character as well.

Though god Kyoko is making me VERY suspicious of her now with her...crazy coffee.

Anyways, as for this piece, when I started the game, I had picked Hagarumon as being my starting Digimon in the game out of the options that I was given, and well, I knew immediately before starting the game that Machinedramon was one of the mon's that I aimed to get as part of my primary team. (Hence the one that is shown in the background) And thus it was only natural to draw them with the main protagonist of the game as well. (Currently the main ones that I've been using on my team besides Machinedramon are also Imperialdramon Dragon Mode, MetalSeadramon, and Omnimon Zwart)

And honestly, the protag is not quite a silent protag even though it seems like it at times. besides having dialogue options to give to the NPC while speaking, there are rare points that even the protag themselves have lines of dialogue too. Which does make them more like their own character.

Either way, very enjoyable game, moreso if you always enjoyed the franchise too. Though I have every intention of also starting up Hacker's Memory at some point in the future too after finishing this game as well.

#My Art #Digimon #Hagarumon #Machinedramon #Ami Aiba #digimon story cyber sleuth

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kkolg · 9 months

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hello, I love what you're doing with your AU. as someone who is making an AU myself, do you take somethings from "canon" and put them in? if so how do you decide how to put things into the story of Vigilante

GAHHH IM LOVING THESE QUESTIONS!! Fangirling aside, it really depends what direction and plot you’re taking with your AU. Time period, location, and main plot all are big factors here, along with how polished you plan the story to be.

Let me do some comparisons with my two AUs

Vigilante: I did want to keep main aspects of the game in there, but sometimes plot can get in the way of that so you really have to get creative. I won’t spoil anything but I did have to do this with a few main plot points in the game. Tom being Boris in this AU is one example: two Boris’s that look exactly alike would be very difficult to explain in the context of this AU, the only way I could see this working is having them be twins which is it’s own can of worms. There are a few other examples but again no spoilers. This is specifically a BATIM AU due to the difficulties BATDR provides for the AU, plus this AU was also made way before BATDR was released and I already had my main plot points done. I was lucky with the time period because early BATIM did happen in the 1920’s, tbh this is one of those moments where I bullshit the story and say “well in this world-“ mostly referencing the animation era and just moving it to take place in an earlier time. I don’t like to do this too much because I do try to be as accurate as possible, but in the end of the day it’s my story and I can do whatever I want😜. I also got luck with the setting too, correct me if I’m wrong but the cannon studio is in either New York or Brooklyn but at the time I actually didn’t know that so… Lucky me lol. I decided to make Henry’s backstory actually relating to the main plot of the game, he goes back to the studio except this time he’s trying to find Bendy. If you didn’t know, Henry also leaves the studio in this AU. I won’t spoil any more of this because I want to expand on the little man more in the future but that’s what I got.

The Void AU:

This AU was made 6 years ago, it is quite old- This AU was probably my first intro into story making so it’s very messy. What I mean by that? The plot is everywhere, many characters are flat or have no real goals or morals, Bendy was honestly the worst guy ever he was such an asshole (not in the cute way) and was the most toxic mf alive, the amount of Warriors references that are there is honestly exhausting and basically turns this whole “original story/AU” into more of an elaborate Warrior Cats fanfic, the many villains that popped up were super flat and boring along with every protag too, and finally this take place in a forest/plain/camp place and tbh I don’t even know what the setting is.

With that being said…

What I was talking about there was the “original” version of the AU, call it “Random Mess 1.0” if you will, since then I’ve changed many things about it since it’s original creation. Keep in mind, the Void AU you see is only one of the arcs in this full AU and it’s basically the last one, so many of you don’t know a lot of the whole world that’s in the back of my brain. I will tell you the changes I’ve made for the characters and story you do know: I made Bendy much more likable protagonist with goals that are much more expressed, I polished the plot a lot more than it was before, I made a few things more original and deleted a lot of the Warriors references (so many…), I gave many of the characters more expressive personalities which the reader would be able to recognize, I fixed the designs to match the fluffs personalities much more and to help make them more expressive. NOW BACK ON TRACK, I honestly didn’t have any of the cannon events in the game really happen in this AU, the only thing really relating to the actual games is the alt. designs (demon/spirit forms probably the only OG thing I created that was pretty cool, this concept is also featured in the Vigilante AU) I’ll show them here at some point but that aside, this was just a goofy, silly, story that I made just for fun so I really didn’t care how the story went. The Void AU you all see is probably the most polished part of the story and because of that it’s able to be cut off and stand alone as it’s own thing.

Ok, I probably went off track many times and started rambling so my bad, BUT this is sorta how I see it: Depending on the plot you can add and cut out things as you please, this also applies to the quality of the story you want to tell.

#Please ask me more questions like this I love them sm #batim #batim au #vigilante batim au #ask #k’s rants #vigilante concept #the void au

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shadowxamyweek · 2 years

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So... I run this blog, yeah? This one, a ShadAmy ship blog, in the good year of our lord 2022.

Why?

I like the ship. You say, 'yeah no shit dumbass,' but I really like the ship. It is the ship that formulated a blueprint for my fleet of favorite ships all under one flag. It is my ship of dreams.

And I'm not someone who grew up with Archie, which is where a lot of old-school shippers come from. I knew ABOUT Archie and what I knew scared me. Even post-reboot, I didn't want to touch it. I was firmly entrenched in the games and the games only (to a large degree, I still am. They are the only actual 'canon' in my opinion, no matter the many cool things IDW and Archie may have done.)

I'm also not someone who just wants to see their fave in a cute ship. They're both favorites of mine -I like them both separately just as much as I like them together.

So why the fuck did I love these two characters together so much when they hardly even talk?

This moment.

Because it was always going to be this moment.

I'm about ten years of age playing this game, my mind being totally blown by the plot and the characters, and it all comes to a grinding halt... to talk.

But me liking this scene didn't happen right away.

It happened in stages.

(Trigger warning. Heads up for mild mentions of gaslighting and issues with eating disorders. Shit you not, this is canon to their history.)

Part 1- Why do I like Shadow?

I knew from the start I liked Shadow.

There's something about a character that is not a 'nice person,' but they are, very much, a 'good person.' They are, in their own way, trying very hard to do the right thing.

Shadow was designed as a weapon, first and foremost. That's what G.U.N. wanted them for and that's how Gerald found his funding, even if he was also designing Shadow to be a cure/aid for Maria on the sly. Shadow went through a lot of hell because of that. Yet regardless of his history, he still makes the decision to get up every day and do his best to solve whatever situation is in front of him, bit by bit, striving steady forward to make the world a better place.

Too often, the messy, personal business of having to recognize your faults is minimized for the protagonist and amplified for everyone else that they are with. Especially in recent media (last 10-years ish, in my opinion,) you don't get a lot of protags that might not be likable all the time. You don't have that moment where they realize what they have done, are reeling from guilt and self loathing and shame, and have to make the conscious effort to do better.

But Shadow is.

This is a character who was gaslight (actual genuine memory manipulation with malicious intention I CANNOT make this shit up), fed a lie for purpose, their personality weaponized. Their love turned into an atomic bomb.

Then, they had to unlearn that and become themselves again.

I want more heroes like that. I want heroes that were or could have been villains, and instead of and dying in a last redemptive act (as if it makes up for everything they have done), they live... and they have to keep living. They have to keep learning. They have to be... you know... people.

I know a lot of people debate over whether or not Shadow as actually suppose to stay dead after SA2, and in everything I have read, the evidence seems inconclusive. Either way, I'm glad they brought him back. I'm glad they made him live and learn (pun intended) and choose to be better. Not as a weapon, not as a cure, but as themself.

That makes for a great story and character study. That's always the sort of thing I want to sink my teeth into and stay awake reading and rereading and coming back to it with new eyes.

Furthermore, Shadow... well, they are a person who scares people. The design, the demeanor, the articulation (or lack thereof) in regards to motivation and thought. It doesn't matter if they mean to, it happens.

And they're fine with it.

They don't need to be verbal all the time. They don't need to understand social cues or unspoken rules. They are allowed to go off and stare at nothing and think in the quiet because it's comfortable. This guy was living my fucking dream.

Also, Shadow was also my first introduction to Nonbinary Thoughts that I had ever seen. This person walks in with their highlights and eyeliner and fluffy self with their dope kicks and sweet color pallet and a cool voice and I had all sorts of joy lighting up inside me. This was like glam rock. This was like seeing Mercury or Lennox for the first time, or realizing that sometimes, the chick-parts in theater productions are played by boys and the dude-parts are played by girls. I dunno how else it put it. It's the moment you go, 'ooooh,' before you flip the flimsy table that the binary gender code has placed itself upon.

This fantasy hedgehog bastard and I have a lot in common, and I've leaned on that a couple of times to remind myself I'm not alone because, for the longest time... I didn't know any living people who had gone through what I had. I have since found friends over time with similar situations, and they all mean the world to me, but Shadow for years was the imaginary friend of a lonely kid who scared the other kids.

That means a lot to me.

Part 2- Why do I like Amy?

I use to not like Amy.

(As such, the order of thought for this segment is going to be different. Sorry in advance.)

I hasn't played any other Sonic game before SA2, so my first encounter with her was not the best. I didn't understand why she was here. I didn't understand why she acted the way she did. I didn't like her voice actor, or her dialog lines, or how she was just written as 'the girl'. Every other character got to be cool and do shit and be playable and Amy was just There(tm). Later I played SA1 and realized she was cool but how she was written in every game seemed to just be decided by dice. Yeah, they used the same dice, so the basic characteristics stayed the same, but the way they were portrayed or portioned fluctuated drastically. I never knew what she was going to show up like.

And that's partially on me- I was stuck in a binary jam as a kid. Still, even beyond that, she as a character and I did not gel.

And then I played Sonic Battle.

(tw // eating disorders)

I keep saying I need to replay Battle, if only to get evidence of this. There's a part of me that wants to believe I made it up, just to avoid the implications, but I know I didn't.

In Battle, like in SA1, SA2, and 06, you play through multiple perspectives of a story (always did like that sort of gameplay.) During the story, you get to be both Cream and Amy, and you find something out during this.

Amy has an eating disorder.

This may be a headcanon, and I am biased, but this obsession to the point of illness with her weight and figure has appeared a couple of times including out if gameplay (I know, breaking my own rule about game canon focus). For an older example, there's an issue in the Sonic manga Spin and Dash where Amy falls for one of Eggman's schemes for weight loss since she's worried she's gaining weight. She then comes back emaciated, asking Sonic and Tails if she looks pretty. Most recently, there is official art of Amy punching a punching bag with a picture of ice cream on it while Germal watches, which is a direct reference to that I am about to relay.

In Battle, you go against Amy several times in a form of combat called Boxercising. Canonically, it is stated that Amy got into Boxercising to get stronger and help out more on missions, but then became obsessed when she realized she could lose weight. Though Cream protests all the 'training' saying Amy is too tired due to her lack of eating and constant training, Amy keeps insisting she wants to go another round. You do this a few times, and then, it is revealed that she has been wearing weights this entire time.

I use to wear weights all the time, around my ankles and under long pants so nobody noticed. I did it to try and lose weight. You want to know what happens when you do that? You fuck up your ligaments and tendons. I had to take a second. Then, I went back to the game. It got worse from there.

After the fighting, Amy passes out. When she awakens, after a bit of dialog, she asks then-Emerl how she could loose more weight. The robot proposes a ridiculous training regiment and a diet in which Amy is to only eat salad leaves and some other minimal insane bullshit, and though Cream is horrified, Amy insists she can do it.

And I hated it.

I hated how of course it was Amy. I hated how this was played for laughs. I hated how they'd pick the Girl Character(tm) because eating disorders are coded girlish apparently and once again I'm sitting there hating everything to do with everyone but especially whoever thought that was funny or let that mistake (if it was a mistake) slide or whatever. I was angry.

But it was at that moment I saw Amy in a new light. I had never seen another character go through this, not in the way I did. I decided to go back and give her character a second look.

What I found upon putting aside my own self loathing was a wonderful character. Yes, she, like everyone else, suffered from tone changes between games, but at the core, she was a really wonderful person doing the best she could out of love for everything and everyone.

Yes, she is stubborn and maybe sometimes a bit selfish. Yes, she has tunnel vision and sometimes that causes a problem. I will remind the court that the kid in canon is 12/13 and which one of you was the perfect preteen? I reiterate my point about flawed protagonists. I reiterate my point about multifaceted characters. I reiterate my point that a person is allowed to be a person and that makes them better than a cardboard cuttout that can be projected upon.

She's not a manic pixie dream girl, she's a fucking supernova.

She loves her friends, her found family, her home, her planet, the strangers she meets on the street, everyone. This girl will remind you to take care of yourself right before she throws hands with god. This girl is a badass because she loves fiercely and terribly. No, not in the 'cool, masculine way' that seemed to be the only permissible volatile love I saw in media, but in her way.

It's not a thing that just is. That sort of love comes from wanting to love. Making the conscious decision to love, and act on that love, in the best way a person knows how.

Just like you, or I, or anyone else.

And how deeply, how furiously, how passionately and totally a person can love everything, anything, and in spite of whatever is going on, decide to act on that love with a desire to do good for the sake of doing good.

That means a lot to me.

Part 3: The Ship of Dreams

We come back to this moment, because it was always going to be this moment.

An unstoppable force meets an unmoveable object.

But they are not on opposite sides. In fact, they are very much on the same side. These two love fiercely and terribly. They want to do the right thing. They are willing to sacrifice happiness and safety in order to achieve that.

And once they realize this, they work together to do the right thing out of love.

This post, I think, does a very nice job of elaborating on a facet of that concept.

---

@wizardofthebog

The “This character who is flawed, traumatized and hurting cannot be saved by love. But they can choose recovery because they are loved”-trope makes me just… I think I need to lay down.

@theoneandonlymagiscientist

“saved by love” and “choose recovery because loved” look similar on the surface, perhaps because the end results look similar, but they’re so different really. It’s passive vs. active; a story is about the person who’s making choices, being proactive. If Character A is saved by love, then it’s not them the story is about, it’s about their savior, Character B. If Character A chooses recovery, then they’re the one the story is about. Character B is the side character this time.

One is the narrative of taking what is broken and fixing it. It is not about the ‘broken’ person, it’s about the ‘savior’ who ‘fixes’ them.

One is a tale of healing. It is not about one person ‘fixing’ the other, it’s about the person who makes a conscious decision to not let their pain define them.

In one, the story is about the person who loves the hurt person, and the hurt person’s pain is incidental to the main character’s arc. In the other, the story is about the hurt person themself, and the other person’s love is incidental to their arc.

I hope I’ve said this well enough. My words may not be coming out the right way to express what I’m trying to say. Sometimes they do that.

---

There's also this quote from Guillermo del Toro

---

"The beast doesn’t need to transform to be loved. He doesn’t have to turn into a boring fucking prince to be loved. Or renounce to the essence of who it is. To me love is not transformation, love is acceptance and understanding."

---

And what about these closing lines from Niel Gaiman's observations on love given at a friend's wedding?

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"- In the darkness you will reach out a hand,

not knowing for certain if someone else is even there.

And your hands will meet,

and then neither of you will ever need to be alone again."

---

I believe in love: the concept, the idea, the goal. I believe that, upon achieving the goal of fostering love, in maintaining it, enabling it to thrive, to be happy and be healthy.

I believe in people and the power they have as individuals, and how that power finds new strength when people work together as a unit, as a team, as friends and confidantes and lovers.

Love to me is being in lock step, hand in hand, walking forward together.

And I just so happen to see it in these two silly, fictional hedgehogs.

#shadamy #shadowxamy #shadow the hedgehog #amy rose #tw // eating disorder #tw // gaslighting #i seriously cannot believe i actually was able to pen this all down. it took me a while #i highly doubt this is what... anyone... expected when they asked why i like the ship but... here it is #op rambles #this took me... days... but i wanted to get it right #thoughts

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erebosblue · 1 year

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welcome to: I never post but I kinda want to sum up how I feel about (616) Peter Parker.

so, like. I've tried to do this many times and always end up coming short of fully explaining myself because I have ✨𝓂𝒶𝓃𝓎 𝒻𝑒𝑒𝓁𝒾𝓃𝑔𝓈.✨

note: I have done an ass ton of research over my couple years of loving Spidey, but that does not mean I know everything. if something sounds wrong, it might be! I'm just a 17 year old idiot who got attached to an absolute mess of human being.

note #2: I am trying not to make this all about how much I dislike MCU Peter, but it will come up from time to time so just be aware of that.

first and foremost, I want to talk about comics as a whole. a lot of choices around characters have less to do with what a character would actually do and more what a writer wants or general comic/societal culture at the time. every character will be different depending on the writer and you're gonna make your own interpretation of a character from what you like. that doesn't mean certain things can't be out of character, just that a comic character can vary quite a bit depending on the person. that's part of the fun of comics tbh.

what I'm trying to say is that if my character analysis doesn't feel like it's what you read, it very well might not be and that's okay. Peter is a character that's been around since the 60's. he's developed over time and will continue to as time goes on. like, for instance, how he's changed from a high school kid trying to get by to a mid-to late twenties mentor for Miles (1610) and Gwen (65).

alright onto more interesting points. and actually a kinda heavily debated topic. whether Peter is a naturally good person or not. mainly this is just about his origin and how he really just straight did not care. honestly, part of the reason I really like how the comics did his origin is that he's not an self-absorbed prick. (even though it would be reasonable if he was considering he was 15.) he's more,,, jaded.

Peter was a social outcast his whole life. he didn't make any sort of friend until Freshman year. he's also super traumatized. his parents' death is kinda over-looked a lot, but it was shown that it really set in action his fear about everyone around him dying that has only gotten worse from, well, just that happening. he's shown in younger years to help people, and even in Freshman year he puts his safety on the line to make sure his bullies don't get stabbed by his friend, but he also kinda just,,, doesn't care.

personally, I really like characters that are inherently good people, but are limited by trauma making them apathetic. (ahem me with a male P3 protag icon.) not all trauma responses are loud or easy to fix. it's totally reasonable for Peter to close himself off from a world that has only been cruel to him, but the fact that moves past this? yes, it took a tragedy, but sometimes you need something big happening to realize.

Peter is inherently a good person, but he's also,,, short-sighted at times. he can royally fuck up because he was trying to do the right thing and just really missed the mark. but I honestly thinks this makes him more likable. intent doesn't change the affect, but if you're a vigilante, you're gonna fuck up from time to time. he's always been a hero grounded in reality and I don't think that makes him any less of a good person.

speaking of trauma, the fact that he hated working with other heroes for the longest time is mwah chef's kiss. mans did not make a real friend until college so, like, of course he's gonna have problems trusting other heroes. (especially since most heroes have tried to kill him but that's neither here nor there.)

this is one of the times I will be ragging on MCU Peter so skip to the next paragraph if you don't want that. there are many reasons not to like MCU Peter wanting to be an Avenger so goddamn bad, but one of the ones that irk me so much is the fact that it just gets rid of so much character development. 616 Peter had to learn how to trust heroes, to trust people, with something as serious as his life after being tormented by basically everyone that wasn't his caretakers. he now works with heroes just fine but like??? it's been a long ass time you can't just skip all that.

anyway, moving on. another thing I just fucking love about 616 Peter is how he is just a ball of fucking rage. this is basically never explored outside of 616 but it is genuinely one of my favorite parts of the comics. this man has been put through so many things and he is just so. done. like the canonical reason why him having Venom is a bad idea is because Venom specifically will go feral when their host is pissed and Peter is, to state again, a ball of rage.

like, yes, sometimes he doesn't kill because ✨moral compass✨ but more recently a lot of the times he hasn't is because The Giant Web That Holds The Entire Multiverse Together Said No.™️ I could make a whole post about how much I adore Spider-Totem stuff, and I just might, but my point is Peter is just done with shit and life in general and I love it.

this is so rambly and not gonna go over everything I want it to, but I'm gonna get powering on until I have to go to bed.

I also genuinely love how even though they will never come out and say Peter is any sort of queer of way, he is so queer-coded. his relationship with many of his male friends is fruity as FUCK and Peter straight wore a crop top with the word animal across it and booty shorts. (if you've never seen it, let me treat you.)

this hasn't even covered half of what I know I want to cover so let me speedrun some points before I literally pass out.

Peter "I'm partial to clones" Parker and his relationship with Kaine and Ben is my favorite relationship dynamic (/p) in all of 616. the fact that they are just absolute bastards to each other but only they are allowed to be. no one else can touch the others.

Peter's closest hero friendships being Daredevil, Wolverine, Johnny Storm (I can't remember his hero name right now I think I'm officially losing it,) and Deadpool is so fucking good. he just loves someone that he can argue with and that is also my ideal friendship. just absolutely besties and fuck with each other but will absolutely kill for each other.

I love Peter being a teacher and/or mentor SO MUCH. please I need more of it, no one appreciates how good of a teacher he is and it's mean. :(

his guilt. man as someone with an awful guilt complex I just,, adore his so much. the way that every other character is like "woah dude chill" is just so fucking funny to me as he mentally just shuts down because oh god how dare he not be perfect.

unrelated but the fact that Miles can tell the difference between how Peter and Ben talk is literally one of my favorite facts. like that says two things.

Miles knows Peter so well that he knows the way he talks and

Peter and Ben have become such different people that they talk with different speech patterns and/or in different tones of voice.

personally, I headcanon that Ben rambles more and talks in a higher register but kyldktdoy this is off topic- (I should make a Ben post too.)

okay, I'm delirious, the point is: Peter is a really interesting and good character and I love him so much. I personally resonate a lot with how he handles trauma and I think it's well done. but stldykd that's just me.

I'll add on later because I know I have more to say.

#marvel #marvel comics #spiderman #peter parker #616 peter parker #marvel 616 #miles molares #ben reilly #I mentioned those two enough I think #I think I'm gonna start posting my ramblings here #Peter is my little meow meow I love him #anti mcu #not like fully but-#I have *a lot* of gripes

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littleshysheep-at-da · 1 year

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I’ve come to the conclusion I really don’t like Harem Series, but I don’t think there’s anything inherently wrong with them. If you enjoy Blandy McBlanderson having Women fall over him for literally no reason at all live your bliss as long as you don’t think it’s translates to real life and believe you should be getting women for doing nothing when you have the personality of moldy cardboard. Also I HAVE to know upfront it’s a Harem I hate when there’s a really good Shounen Premise and then it becomes a Harem… I think what turns me off from Harems is especially when there is like a clear winner, so why is everyone trying to get something that’s taken??? I’m not even a fan or Reverse Harems honestly, I’m okay with a Love Triangle because it’s small enough to be reasonable but I really prefer Polyamory over either.

HOWEVER, there are 3 Harem Series I actually really like and I wanna talk about why. Quintessential Quintuplets, Bakarina (Full Title is My Next Life as a Villainess all Routes lead to Doom! But I ain’t typing that every time), and Nu: Carnival.

[Warning for poor wording here I’m just trying to get my thoughts out]. For Quint Quint: First of all it actually feels like each girl has a chance so it actually could go any which way. The Second thing is he actually has to earn their trust they don’t immediately fall over him and he doesn’t immediately like them either. We see both sides grow into better people as they get closer. Also Third the situation that forces them to hang out doesn’t feel creepy? I’ve seen a few too many Slave Harems and I like that Quint Quint has a situation where if it really came to it they could back out but there benefits for both sides so they begrudgingly stay. For Bakarina and NuKani: the Protagonist is actually REALLY likable and has a winning personality (also both these Series feel like they could have some Poly so I am very game). Katarina and Eiden out here giving free therapy to their Harems ngl. I also feel that Bakarina does a good job of exploring why the Harem Members actaully like the Protag. And NuKani has a lot of talk of that sort of thing as well where Eiden doesn’t seem to want to push anybody into anything and values their boundaries.

Update/Edit: [Also maybe poor wording just realized I missed a massive point]. I will say my biggest concern with Harem Protags with zero personality getting all the girls despite doing nothing is it may feed into the Entitlement a loooot of men have towards women’s bodies. Also I just find Harem Protags having no personality boring in term of being a Character 🤷‍♀️

#trash meme #anime talk is what I should be know for #harem series talk #the quintessential quintuplets #my next life as a villianess all routes lead to doom #nu carnival #NuKani is the only fully n//sfw I will talk about on my main because it also has a lot of plot #I’m not even kidding the plot is really good and so is the outfit design

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nezuchuuko · 1 year

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i’ll polish this up in a better worded post later but lately i’ve been thinking about several things. basically i love that fujimoto made part 2’s protag asa because she is a girl. like i constantly think about the things like red hood where the author was pressured into making the protag the young boy character and not grimm like he had wanted. then the series eventually got cancelled. even araki got questioned about why he made joylene the protag of her own part iirc. fujimoto’s editor seems chill and lets him do want he wants which is nice.

it makes me happy cause i’m so tired of the mentality that boys won’t read girls stories or stories where the main character is a girl. and fujimoto is forcing dudebros to read a story with a female protag. and hell even when they are forced not everyone is happy about and u see that with how ppl who shut up about denji returning as the mc (copium) or why they dislike asa. the cherry on the top is that asa isn’t even meant to be a likable character either.

and this is not to imply that fujimoto is some feminist icon cause that’s another thing. i find it very odd when people dispute whether or not chainsaw man is feminist or not. fujimoto loved to include female characters and write them a certain way which tends to skew towards unpleasant with traits that women will be judged or put on the stake for. he writes female characters that feel humanizing but like even fujimoto’s female characters aren’t the best written female characters.

it makes me uncomfortable when people praise him for having the best female characters in all of manga or in all of anime. and it also makes me remember how for a lot of people shounen is all of anime. they overgeneralize animemanga as being like a shounen so a lot of the complaints ppl have against anime are things that shounen suffers from that are almost non existent in other manga demographics. really goes to show the dire state of shounen when a guy does the a little above the bare minimum and ppl think it’s something tremendously special.

#also i say demogrpahics because shounen is not a genre #assuming shounen series or shoujo series are one type of way is over generalization #like ppl always think skip and loafer is a shoujo because it’s a cute slice of life hs romance series #but it’s a seinen lol #it runs in the same magazine as vinland saga

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chipsncookies · 10 months

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this is probably a weird compliment but...

I haven't watched Horizons yet but Spinel looks like that type of villain that you love to hate.

I'm curious about his schemes but ultimately I wanna see him fail and get what he deserves. What does he deserve? Completely depends on his future schemes and character development.

Just by first impressions I'm fully on Team Amethio here. So I may have a slight bias. (though seeing Amethio get what he "deserves" is going to be very very interesting too)

Either way I really need to find a source to watch the anime so I can work with more than I've seen so far. It's so far been very intriguing. The completely different approach of storytelling and less reliance on comedy especially for the villains feels refreshing. And the main Characters also feel nice too. From my impressions Riko is a sweet girl that got caught in the middle of an big adventure but gains friends and a big found family along the way and I predict a huge growth of character on her end as well. Also Pokémon!

You're right i also get that vibe, since ep 1-6 we've seen amethio struggling hard to get the pendant and you can't help but root for him a bit, especially since he got so close but some of his efforts were interrupted by sudden happenstance (rayquaza appearing, for example). And then spinel is introduced as this smug guy who's better than amethio, replacing him in the mission. Viewers who got used to amethio can't help but want to see spinel get knocked down a peg (and seeing the preview he probably is more competent than amethio, which is more annoying 😅) also spinel always have this smug look on his face which is easy to hate lol

I'm also on team amethio and biased, but i think the current plot (being replaced by spinel) is interesting and important for his development. He still hasn't given up on the case, choosing to focus on rayquaza instead.

A lot of people have speculated that amethio will turn to the good side at one point, based on how he's unlike traditional villain (he's very... Polite?), he fights his enemy fairly, he has an inquisitive nature and willing to go against his boss' orders, unlike spinel who followed the boss' every word. It could serve a path for him to diverge from explorers 👀 (something he's kinda already doing)

Idk what will happen to them both but I'm always looking forward to every development.

And yeah, you summarised the story well haha. We got competent villains, engaging mystery, the protags are well written and likable, they learn and develop naturally each episode. The other rvt members are also interesting even though they don't get much screentime. There's a lot to love about this anime!

You can probably find the episodes on most ☠️🦜 sites, last i checked dailymotion also has them (so sad we can't get simulcast with this anime)

#pokemon #pokeani #pokemon horizons #asks #spinel

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artofzz · 10 months

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Swordsmith Village Arc Review P1

Warning!!! Not spoiler free!!

Since the anime wrapped up, I thought I would do a long review on how I personally thought this arc was, mainly looking at the plot an not necessarily at the animation.

So, let’s be real here, the Swordsmith village arc, despite its conclusion, was not great at all. It could have been a lot better, had there been more efforts put into the writing.

Now don’t get me wrong, I am not calling anyone out or insulting the creator I am just trying to give constructive criticism and nothing else.

A big issue here to me is Tanjiro. We spend a lot of time showing his skill set and power-up which is hardly believable. The arc starts after he has been in a 2-month coma. I don’t know how much time has passed until he goes to the village but that hardly can explain his insane amount of progress. His strength feels more plot convenient rather than well presented.

We spent little time on fleshing out and showing the skills of the hashira. Unlike in previous arcs, where we got lots of insight on how strong a hashira can be, with rengoku and Uzui, both Mitsuri and Muichiro are heavily sidelined. On top of that the upper moon Muichiro is battling is hardly any kind of threat, and more efforts went to the upper-moon Tanjiro was battling.

I don’t know what reason was behind the fast pacing, but because of that there was little time spent on a major foe. When all upper-moons are hyped up as hashira killer and being in their position for more than a 100 years then the writer should put some efforts into delivering.

In the end since Tanjiro is the protagonist, he needs the more fleshed out antagonist.

Inherited Memories:

This is another issue. While the idea and concept is actually very interesting it is only used on Tanjiro and conveniently enough he sees just the right ones.

Since Kotetsu can guess what he might be seeing it is safe to assume that it does happen to multiple people and therefore make it odd that only Tanjiro has them.

There are multiple characters with ancestors that knew and interacted with Yoriichi. So again, the inherited memories feel just convenient rather than a well thought out concept.

It is aside from this very ridiculous that Muichiro did not destroy Yoriichi Type 0. All he did was rip off an arm. We established that he is much stronger than Tanjiro, not only through his hashira title but also showing that he is physically stronger. We also know that he does not care about breaking it or not. Yes his sword breaks during training, but he must have still done a ton more damage to that thing.

(I don’t really see much for a reason in Kotetsu crying over this because Yoriichi type 0 is not going to be relevant after this arc, and since the nice kindhearted Tanjiro destroys it. It is fine.)

On a side note, I have watched lots of reactions to this season and I must say it is ridiculous how negatively people thought of Muichiro just because of his bland nature. Like to me Kotetsu was just annoying, you know the typical annoying children animes tend to present you as cute or likable whereas they just are not.

(Besides, I might be the only one but when Tanjiro tried to interject and be again that ‘amazingly’ nice person to stand up for Kotetsu and then got knocked down by Muichiro, it was very satisfying. Since this is the point where I am getting very tired of the endless ‘oh look how nice’ Tanjiro is that the series forces constantly on us.)

Furthermore, this arc while seemingly being about the two hashira is relatively little about them and much more about Tanjiro’s progress. Which is another big issue. Of course, he is the protag and all, but occasionally, focusing on others and giving them time and interest is not a bad idea. It adds a lot of depth to a story.

There is nothing wrong with taking your time and properly showing other characters and what they are like. Your Protag does not make a whole story!! All the characters and concepts added around him is what truly make a story.

Another big issue of this arc is the sword that Tanjiro will receive. It is Yoriichi’s sword but at this point, we don’t know much about him at all and why his sword would be so special. There is no connection that would make us understand why the sword would be so important.

Furthermore, Tanjiro was doing completely fine with the sword he had the whole time, making it even more questionable why he needed the other one. Had there been much more background on the sword one would understand the connection. And had Tanjiro struggled a lot more with the sword he already had one would understand why he needed the other one. In the end, I kept forgetting that he needed a sword at all.

Another issue of this arc is a common Shounen issue and that is writing the arc in a way that the protag finishes off the enemy. For most stories, it hardly makes much sense. there is always a lot of effort put into justifying why the stronger ones cannot do it and too much focus on the mc. This is the second upper moon he decapitates.

Please keep in mind that all this is my own opinion and how I feel a story would be more interesting if you don't agree with this it is completely fine and there is no need to be upset in case you don't like my opinion.^^

#demon slayer #kimetsu no yaiba #demon slayer season 3 #muichiro tokito #kny tokitou #kimetsu tanjiro #tanjiro kamado #kny kotetsu #swordsmith village arc #demon slayer muichiro #demon slayer tanjiro #kny nezuko #kamado nezuko #kny yoriichi #yoriichi tsugikuni #kny mitsuri #mitsuri kanroji

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