#don't get me wrong I don't mind giving them credit where credits due

[comradekatara]

so i read azula in the spirit temple. i actually quite liked it! it helps that she looks absolutely gorgeous in wartman's art style. it's so much easier to digest this new batch of hicks comics, not only because they're actually being written by someone who understands the themes and characters of atla, but because they're so much more aesthetically pleasing than the former art style, which didn't do any characters any favors.

now, i'm gonna venture into spoiler territory as i discuss specific panels, so if that's something to wish to avoid for now, i've put the rest of this post under a readmore. also, send me an ask if you want the link for the full comic, and thank you to @samtamdan for providing me with it!

i. thesis.

first of all, the idea that azula could have found "redemption" in the temple was teleologically illusory, due to the fundamental premise of how such "redemption" was being facilitated. that said, i don't think it was her "crossroads of destiny" moment (a potential for change wherein zuko chose wrong), but rather the leadup to "crossroads of destiny," which is to say, his metamorphic fever dream. like zuko, she's seeing visions of her loved ones manifested from her subconscious giving her conflicting accounts as to who she is and what she should do. so while the seeds are being planted, her growth is still to come.

but genuine growth cannot be facilitated in this manner. how can azula embrace "growth" she knows to be an illusion? she's definitely not being overly paranoid here by refusing to "just accept what is offered," especially considering she has experienced psychosis in the past. while i think that this spirit does accurately acknowledge the root of azula's core issue, which is that she was raised in an environment where she was denied unconditional love in such a way that she convinced herself she was fundamentally unlovable and undeserving of care (thus motivating her to overcompensate through avenues she could excel in), the visions the spirit offers don't actually provide azula with unconditional love. they list her accomplishments and state how she is a credit to her nation, but that won't allow for azula to recognize that what she truly craves is a love that transcends stipulations and is not facilitated through fear. she can't have any sort of emotional breakthrough when she is being praised for aspects of herself that were valued and fostered by her abuser who indoctrinated her into an imperialist ideology, and so the promise of "redemption" (in this particular instance) was hollow from the start, and i think that she was right to ultimately reject it.

however, her moments of genuine vulnerability wherein she voices her repressed subconscious fears may lead to her eventually arriving at a greater self-awareness and emotional clarity on her own somewhere down the line.

ii. manifestations.

a small detail i loved was when ty lee appeared to her, i could immediately tell that she was an illusion, because she was acting how azula sees her. the beginning of the comic even foreshadows this "reveal" (i mean, i think it would have been more shocking had she actually been real, but you get what i mean) by showing us a glimpse of ty lee acting more authentically now that she's no longer under azula's thumb. and it's particularly amusing to me that in azula's mind, ty lee is a perky airhead and mai is a massive cunt.

not gonna lie, the fact that this is how azula sees mai made me laugh.

of course, ty lee does always feign oblivious cheer around azula, and mai is blunt and honest to the point that she can sometimes seem mean, but it also speaks to the fact that as much as azula clearly cares so much about them, she's never truly understood them. that said, azula's last clear memory of mai is her choosing to say the exact words that she knew would hurt azula most ("you miscalculated, i love zuko more than i fear you") so it makes sense that her subconscious would now manifest a version of mai who voices azula's innermost fears.

furthermore, the fact that mai would manifest to azula as an extension/double of ty lee instead of as her own person, wearing the kyoshi uniform even though mai herself is not a kyoshi warrior, is such an interesting choice to me. i think it signifies how azula views mai and ty lee as a cohesive unit; they are inextricably linked in her mind due to the fact that they chose each other over her. while zuko does appear later as a manifestation out of the same figure, he is wearing his firelord robes, indicating that azula's memory of mai in kyoshi warrior garb back in book 2 is significant to her. i think it can be read as a clever allusion to that very subtle moment of foreshadowing in book 2, but it primarily indicates how azula sees mai and ty lee as two faces of the same body, donning the garb they once wore as a disguise – only now it indicates that their dual loyalties were also in opposition to azula.

ty lee, on the other hand, can only be a bitch to azula obliviously, when she appears ignorant of how much her words have the capacity to hurt her. considering this is a continuation of the yang established canon, the fact that (azula's vision of) ty lee would so casually suggest azula seek help from a psychiatric institution would read as condescending mockery and is clearly incredibly triggering for her, but her phrasing allows for an ambiguity of intention that azula has come to associate with ty lee's discursive affect.

of course, we as the audience know that ty lee was always perfectly conscious of how to veil her insults towards azula with enough plausible deniability that azula didn't even register them as deliberate insults at all. however, i wonder whether time away from ty lee with the hindsight of her betrayal allowed azula to reframe the nature of their relationship. and while she does still see ty lee as enduringly cheerful, that also makes sense considering she never truly witnessed ty lee drop her mask.

these nuances are the kinds of subtle distinctions only someone who truly understands their characters could write, which is why i'm so grateful they ditched yang and hired hicks.

iii. love and friendship.

i also love these panels in particular as they speak to azula's feelings for mai and ty lee. despite her... less than stellar treatment of them, it's always been clear that azula does love her friends. the reason their betrayal hit her so hard is because she wanted them to care about her as much as she cared about them, and she rationalized that hurt after the fact by claiming that she was actually upset because they betrayed "their nation." this rationalization is a pattern for her, psychologically. azula uses her status as a means of elevate herself, while simultaneously debasing her personhood/humanity (not only viewing herself as a vessel/weapon, but fearing that she is in fact a "monster") as she fears that she is uniquely unworthy of love. the irony there is that her status as the prodigious fire nation princess was what led to her dehumanization, and (like zuko and iroh before her) deconstructing her imperialist ideology would be a necessary step in her ability to uninternalize the way she sees herself stemming from ozai's abuse.

i also found it interesting that azula calls zuko a "stupid boy who didn't even want her." there are so many layers to that claim. first of all, zuko isn't just a random boy (although he might be stupid). he's her brother, and as much as she may deny it, she cares about him deeply. but here, the fact that zuko is a boy takes precedent over the fact that he's her brother, which screams teenage lesbian logic to me. azula cannot understand why her friends would choose a boy over the close female friendship that meant so much to her because her attempt to inhabit mai's perspective, as a girl who has romantic feelings for a boy, is genuinely impossible to her. i know this interpretation may seem like a stretch, but i really don't think that azula would say "she broke up our team for a stupid boy" and not "for my stupid brother" otherwise, considering that azula does have an established precedent of feeling specifically hurt by her loved ones choosing zuko over her. her wording is distinctly gay here.

furthermore, azula claims that zuko "didn't even want her." i've talked before about how azula is hoisted by her own petard regarding mai's betrayal, since she initially set zuko and mai up (there is a comic that establishes this, but since i don't consider the comics canon, i will also say that this reading is heavily implied in "the awakening"), whether to control both of them through each other, or as an incentive to keep zuko on her side, or out of a genuine altruistic desire to matchmake, or a combination of the above, or otherwise, and that choice to bring them together ended up backfiring spectacularly. but i think the fact that azula had to pull the strings to get them together also led her to assume that any care they might have had for each other wasn't genuine, and while i think that to a degree she is correct, because their relationship was largely a hollow facade, she could not have expected that their relationship would lead to their breakup which led to their conversation in the boiling rock that motivated mai to take a stand. (and of course there's also the fact that the wording of the latter clause, azula claiming that zuko didn't want mai, is equally as gay as the former. she may as well have called zuko a slur here.)

sidenote: while i could definitely spend ample time dissecting this entire panel, for now i'm just going to address the fact that the boy azula sees in her initial dream sequence isn't even chan (the guy she kissed) but ruon-jian. obviously azula in this moment knows that her hair looks like shit (although i think the overgrown uneven bangs are a really cute look on her tbh) and she's stinky from running around in the woods for however long she has, but the fact that the voice presenting that compliment to her isn't even coming from the boy she ostensibly "liked" makes it even more evident that she cares about validation from boys insofar as she believes that she is supposed to, but doesn't actually care enough about them as individuals to distinguish between them. chan and ruon-jian are interchangeable symbols to her that function to affirm her (heterosexual) femininity, but she still cannot fathom why anyone would forsake their cherished female friends out of genuine feeling for "a stupid boy." azula is such a baby lesbian.

and finally, the fact that this entire plot is incited by her replacement girl group choosing one of their own over her command illustrates how much mai and ty lee's betrayal still resonates. she is attempting to cling to an idealized past via recreating their friend group, but she still hasn't learned her lesson that she cannot make genuine friends by being controlling and ruling through fear, and so history repeats itself, and they, too, leave her. hopefully her next endeavor to find a friend group of likeminded girls will be tempered by newfound knowledge that love and mutual support creates stronger bonds than fear, but since she has yet to be shown genuine care from anyone in her life, that has yet to be seen.

iv. parents.

one quibble i do have is that because hicks has to adhere to the precedent set by the yang comics, despite navigating and adapting to those precedents deftly, some choices simply fall flat. for the most prominent example, the retcon that ursa is still alive necessitates that azula's understanding of her mother's absence is slightly muddied, but that's always gonna be a choice i disagree with, so i can't exactly single out this particular comic when it nonetheless does such a great job of attempting to mitigate prior issues, mostly by focusing entirely on its role as a psychological character study rather than attempting to deal with the mess of a plot that yang established.

that said, i do think that this panel is really poignant, and the fact that azula is even able to speak to her fear of ozai is a really big step for her. i think that azula acknowledging that she legitimately didn't have a choice is actually a really important milestone on her path to healing. her cognitive dissonance regarding her denial that ozai's abuse dictated her actions through fear is a matter she needs to address and articulate fully if she is ever to find peace. it's understandably difficult for her to reconcile her lack of agency and how terrifying the circumstances of her childhood were, and she even oscillates here between acknowledging that she was terrified of ozai and claiming that ozai is the only family she has left who hasn't betrayed her. i think that azula almost wants to be a monster who drives everyone away because that means that she nonetheless has enough control to be responsible for her fate, and actually facing the extent to which ozai's abuse shaped her is really scary. moreover, it's still difficult for azula to recognize how much harm ozai has caused her because she has no other form of material support, and without the hollow approval of her abuser, she is truly and utterly alone. which, incidentally, is exactly why he isolated her in the first place.

v. conclusion.

while, i know that some people may be disappointed that the telos seemed like a net zero, i think that the push towards isolated character studies that don't affect the plot since hicks was hired actually works really really well considering she understands each character well enough to write these compelling little character studies that largely serve to reinforce the themes of the show via placing a single character under a microscope. and while i think the toph and katara standalone comics were cute but unmemorable, the suki and azula comics were really good because they are both characters who can benefit from having their perspectives foregrounded, whereas we already get plenty of foregrounded pov from toph and (especially) katara in the show itself. azula is a character whose inner life is largely relegated to subtext, so seeing her literal subconscious battle itself upon her spiritually-manifested psychological landscape was a really cool way of communicating her latent internal struggle that has compelled me for so long. despite it being a relatively short comic, there was so much to unpack here that i could really only choose so many key panels to discuss, but that depth and richness to the text is something i appreciate greatly. azula is one of my favorite characters to analyze, so this comic was really like a field day for me.

and here are just some panels i found particularly amusing:

gotta find a way to take potshots at zuzu even when she's completely alone. she's such a little sister sometimes.

tl;dr: overall, i really enjoyed this aesthetically pleasing character study of azula's shattered psyche, and although i only unpack a handful of my favorite panels in this post, i am happy to discuss any further thoughts you guys may have regarding other facets of this comic in my inbox!

#id in alt text #this got really long lmao #analysis #azula in the spirit temple #azula #mai #ty lee #azula&mai #azula&tylee #maixtylee #azula&zuko #mai&zuko #azula&ursa #azula&ozai #<– THERE'S A LOT HERE OKAY #good comic 👍🏼

[carlyraejepsans]

i feel like uty improves on things undertale did but it doesnt have the same strong foundation as the original. like all the qol tweaks and secret shit and meta flowey are all super impressive but as a whole i agree i didnt find it cohesive or consistent

eh, sorry but i don't really think UTY "improves" much of... anything from Undertale? you can make an argument for the visuals, which are more detailed and certainly better animated, but i would argue right back that undertale's rougher, retro, "kinda ugly" graphics are a deliberate design choice on Toby's part that he stuck to for a reason. not to mention, even in their ugliness, the original main cast managed to display more variety in shape language and size than the entire UTY one, which seemed unable to break past the "tall, skinny, anime proportioned humanoid" figure for anyone beyond the occasional side NPC (which, credit where it is due, DID have some really creative designs).

the secret shit is part of my critiques, actually! while conceptually cool, i don't think they appropriately distributed their story and lore at all. i feel like if we got to the end of the pacifist run and were wholly confused as to why dalv was even a character in the story, the whole "human attack" backstory was... not delivered properly. now, there's no problem with having secret lore, gaster is right there. but if you DO have it then it shouldn't be... yknow... tied to the main backstory conflict that literally set the story in motion? lol? it felt like a game with dataminers in mind, rather than players. which was unavoidably detrimental to its storytelling.

the bullet patterns and attack designs were very visually creative but what they improved from the original in their cleverness they tanked with their execution. WAYYY too unfair, counting too much on memorization and giving you no time to accustom yourself to the mechanics (shout-out to the gun tutorial that... didn't teach us how to shoot. at all. we figured it out on our own in the axis fight LMFAO)

the meta flowey stuff was a fun idea that only really delivered in the neutral run and didn't amount to enough anywhere else to justify his presence in the game imo. like, i lost my shit during his fight too, don't get me wrong, i like when fan stories let him be a little FREAK. but everything else was just so... wasted? i almost didn't see the neutral ending at all because the way pacifist handled flowey disappointed me so much.

uhhhhh running was a good addition and the music fucked hard. can't say anything against those two, nossir. not sure it'd go so far as to call them improvements tho, just nice touches

#answered asks #biscia hater moment #< not exactly hating here this is straight up critique. just for ppl to filter out negative opinions #au tag

[mintycurry]

Simon & Parentification

Credit to @raincitygirl76 and @darktwistedgenderplural on their conversation here for inspiring me to also say my two cents about this. This is way longer than I expected, so apologies in advance.

In short, the talk was basically about Simon being a parentified child (and parentification is rooted in a lack of healthy boundaries) but he can set boundaries with Wille, while at the same time, still protecting his mother's feelings. Oh, and that he would benefit from therapy.

I agree with all of it, but I want to expand more on the why and how.

Speaking of Wilhelm, Simon being able to set boundaries is due to him subconsciously viewing Wille as someone he cares about, but not someone who needs his protection specifically. In his eyes, Wille is strong and capable, or at least has other people (more capable than Simon) protecting him / has his best interest in mind. Simon doesn't feel responsible for him. He is there when Wille needs him simply because he wants to be there for him (football field scene, anyone?). So, when things went south, he can easily redefine his relationship with Wille or lack thereof because he has set his boundaries to begin with and has continued to maintain it.

Maybe that's what drew him back to Wille in the end. That, at one point, he was "with" Marcus, and he was a guy who is also "strong and capable". He is older, he drives, he lives on his own (?), and he "works" at the shooting range that his parents own. But, he doesn't respect Simon's boundaries at all, while Wille (eventually) keeps demonstrating that he does.

Marcus wouldn't even let them "break up" and chose to persuade him to stay together, but Wille was different. From him "letting him go" at the ball, to respecting Simon's decision to go to the police even to the detriment of Wille's own plans for the future, Wille lets him make the decisions. He lets Simon have control and, essentially, power over the situation, both of which are something neither of them have when the video was leaked.

With Simon being used to "taking over others burden", having control (over his own life, at the very least) is what he is comfortable with, and Wille can give him that now. Which is why I initially thought that Simon would feel miffed that Wille just went ahead and said "it was them" in that speech without warning him, but given that he had wanted him to do it from the start, Simon wouldn't actually mind.

Additionally, while I do agree that he would benefit from therapy, I don't think he is already at the state to open up properly to a therapist, because he is not used to opening up about anything. He opens up to his friends, and I'm sure they know the most about everything that went down, but they're his peers, not someone with any authority. He would have opened up to Sara in the gap between S1-S2, but not afterwards. He wouldn't so easily open up to an actual adult like a therapist (but maybe a therapist on the younger side would help?). He doesn't even open up to his own mother, someone he clearly loves and trusts, because he still doesn't see any of his own "issues" as wrong. Sara had even called him out on it at the end of S1 (very poorly, I may add) that he "constantly lets people piss on him", but he still continues to protect his mother, and even Sara as well, from the full extent of what went down.

So, yes, therapy would benefit Simon a lot, but he still needs to get to that point where he already lets his guard down enough with the therapist before any progress can be made, which can take a very long time. He's a stubborn kid after all

#young royals #simon eriksson #young royals analysis #wilmon #a little #I was also being kinder to Marcus than I normally would be #because I know I can go on another full post just about how Marcus treated Simon #but this post is long enough #and I didn't mean for this to get so clinical #but also #feel free to disagree #this take is very circumstantial #and is more personal than I originally intended

[nsfwordwitch]

Kinktober 2023 Day 21

Prompt: Lingerie Pairing: Astarion x nonbinary tiefling Tav 1688 Words

🔞Adults Only Blog🔞

“You like gifts, don't you, Astarion?”

“Oo, what have you gotten me this time?”

Weft hands him a long, flat, paper box, and he opens it eagerly. Inside, nestled in paper, are three articles of clothing, though, he thinks, one would hardly count as “dressed” if wearing them. A gauzy robe with velvet floral designs, a narrow corset in black and silver, and a spit of fabric he assumes is underwear, though it’s difficult to be sure.

“Oh, darling,” he says, “they’re gorgeous. How do you always know just the thing?”

Weft beams at him. “Are you going to try them on or what?”

“Trying them on, then or what.” He waggles his eyebrows at them as he hops to the next room, and they laugh.

The whole get-up fits him perfectly–of course. Weft knows his measurements as well as their own at this point. He looks down at himself, idly regretting his lack of reflection. He must look damn good. The panties have no seat at all, just three straps to hold the front in place, and the robe has a long slit up the back that ends above his tailbone. “How saucy,” he purrs to himself.

He returns to the boudoir, striking a pose against the doorway. “Well! It seems I’m not the only one who got a new outfit.”

Weft is also striking a pose, demurely holding their own ephemeral robe closed, entirely failing to conceal themself beneath it. “I wanted us to feel pretty all of a sudden, so I ordered these. That was four months ago, of course, but fortunately I”m still in a pretty mood. Do you like it?”

“Are you kidding? I feel like I’m floating.” He twirls over to them, enjoying the rise and fall of the delicate garment. “Like I’m the prettiest harlot at the orgy. And you! Why you're easily the second prettiest.”

Weft laughs. “I’m glad. And you’re having the effect on me I was hoping for.”

“Oh, that’s what I like to hear.” He slides a finger up the edge of his robe in the front, drawing it off his shoulder and just barely letting one nipple show. “Is this what you like, my sweet?”

Weft bites their lip, and reaches out to trace a line up his ear to its point and back to his cheek. He closes his eyes and leans into the touch. “You do look ravishing,” they murmur.

He opens his eyes and looks up at them through his eyelashes. “Then ravish me, darling.” Some emotion crosses Weft’s face and it gives him pause. “Is something the matter?”

“No, I...sorry, it’s stupid.”

“Tell me.”

“I was just thinking how…” they sigh, color rising in their cheeks. “How there was a time when this wouldn’t have been alright, when you didn’t want me to...look at you...the way I’m looking at you now.” He can tell there’s a hesitancy they still feel, a holdover from that time, now years past. He places his hand over theirs on his face. “Sorry. I’m just happy to see how far you've come.”

“Credit where it’s due, my darling. I couldn’t have done it without you.”

They smile. “Good for us.”

“Good for us! Now how about that ravishing?” He turns to show them the back of his underwear. “I assume that was what you had in mind when you bought me panties without an ass.”

“When I what? Oh no.” Weft is looking at him with a hand hiding their smile. “I’m so sorry, love, I think there's been a mixup.”

“What do you mean? You didn’t mean for me to have my whole backside hanging out?” He raises an eyebrow at them and smirks. “For easy access?”

“No, it’s for a tail!” They turn to show him theirs, and sure enough, the straps that he had found a little mysterious fit perfectly over their tail. “They must have taken my order wrong. Oh, your robe too! I’m sorry, darling, I’ll send them back and get you the right ones.”

“Excuse me! We will not be sending back a thing.... You are welcome to purchase me an additional set, however.” He reaches into their robe through the tail slit and pinches their ass cheek. They let out a yelp and slap at his hand, laughing. “Here I was, thinking you had an incredible sexy idea, and it was just a great sexy idea with an incredible accident.”

“You have a point.” Weft wraps their arms around his corseted waist and pulls their bodies together. Their cocks collide, nestled as they are in luxurious silk. He lets out a soft sound, and grinds his hips into theirs.

“Besides, darling,” he says, “I hope to leave these in a state that means they’re beyond sending back to the store.”

Weft kisses him. They draw their hands down his torso and cup his ass cheeks, extra perky as they are. He snakes his arms around their neck and jumps up. They catch him, like he knew they would, and carry him to their bed. 

Astarion falls on his back on the bedspread and they climb on top of him. He traces a hand around one of their breasts hanging over him, drinking in his partner’s beauty. They slide his robe off his shoulder and kiss the spot left bare, trailing down to his nipple. He hums at the flick of their tongue and bucks his hips up into them. He strains to reach behind them and unbuckle their underwear. They make a noise against his chest as he leverages his feet to scoot the panties off of them.

“Ready to go?” they ask, rubbing their erection against him.

“Gods, just flip me over already! Ah!” Weft does as he suggests and he finds himself facedown. They plant more soft kisses on his neck as they summon a bottle of oil to their hand. He shivers when their slick fingers enter him. They lay their cheek on his back while they finger him, their skin separated from his old scars by the thin layer of gauze. He still can’t feel, in the lines where he was once mutilated, but the treatments he’s been using have softened the skin, and the uncut places can feel Weft’s touch more easily.

Weft sighs against him. “I could finger you forever, you know.”

“Mn, darling,” he says, head swimming with pleasure, “I would hardly complain if you did.”

“I don’t have to worry about finishing too soon, and I can go anywhere on your body.” He feels them shifting, moving down, and the absence of their warmth strikes him. He rises to his elbows so he can turn and see them where they’ve settled, between his legs.

They draw their tongue across one of his cheeks, making him shiver, and the hand that isn’t inside him gently rolls his balls through the silk that cups them. He moans and drops his head, still keeping one eye on them over his arm. They’re looking at him with something like wonder in their eyes, then flash him an embarrassed smile. “You look so good, my love.”

His chest tightens, and he smiles at them. “Is that my best angle?” They laugh, and press a kiss between his cheeks, above their fingers. They press harder on his balls, making him gasp in pleasure. “Oh, Weft,” he moans, “don’t stop, darling.”

“Mhmn.” They keep him suspended like that, moaning, toes curling, chest aching for them. Then he speaks, with a hint of a whine.

“Weft. You could finger me forever. But…” He pauses. “I do love to be–ah–filled by you.”

They hiss the word “Fuck.” He manages a throaty laugh. “You always know just what to say.”

“Please my love,” he says softly, “let me take you to the hilt. Ah–” Their hands slip away from him and then their body is hovering over him again. He watches them apply oil to their cock, twitching in anticipation, before they guide it inside him. “Gods,” he blurts out, “my darling, yes.”

They fall around him, their thighs touching his thighs, their breasts dropping against his back, their hands, one gripping his hip and the other by his elbow on the bed. Weft pants into his hair and a wave of pleasure radiates down his body from the feel of their warm breath on his scalp. “Fuck,” they hiss again, “my beloved beloved.”

“Yes,” he breathes, “you’re perfect. Weft, please. Ah–” They press in and out of him, making small high cries into his hair with each plunge in. “Yes, that’s it, please–” He doesn’t even know what he’s begging for. What more could they possibly give? Weft is inside him, filling him, their body surrounding him, swallowing him up. He is whole, complete, with them inside him. Astarion digs his face into the bed.

Weft’s cock hits the spot deep inside him that makes him see stars and he gasps. “That’s it,” he cries desperately, “that’s it, you’re right there don’t stop!” He moans, his voice getting louder and higher, until he comes, filling the silk surrounding his cock.

“Oh my love, oh beloved.” Weft wraps their arm tight across his stomach and slams into him four more times, then finishes, with their face against his neck. He reaches an arm up past his head and grasps at them, getting a fistful of their robe. They cling to his corseted torso, holding him close. “Astarion. My love.”

“Weft, my sweet.” He turns beneath them and they pull out of him as he rolls. His hands find their face, his thumbs caressing their cheekbones. “My beauty.” He pulls their face down for a kiss and they lay their body on him, their weight pressing him to the bed. He’s indescribably happy.

Weft breaks the kiss and lifts their hips off of his. “You were right, my love.”

“Mm?”

They reach between their bodies and draw a finger under the top edge of his underwear, damp from his spending. “These are not going back to the store.”

He barks a laugh. “You couldn't pry them from me, anyway.”

#r-18 #baldur's gate 3 #kinktober 2023 #oc weft #astarion #astarion baldur's gate 3

[tobiasdrake]

One last task to take care of before we infiltrate Fort Fleshy.

I was twiddling them earlier when I was flying around the map just to see what I could find. This place is definitely an intricate combination lock.

Could be the key to releasing Duke Aventry. Might just be Roro's porn stash. Either way, we won't know until we've cracked it. Personally, I think we should forego the lock and just bring Yolande in to blow this support column to hell.

Sure, we can also do that. Yoyo knows everything and is loyal to no one, so there's no reason she wouldn't assist us but no guarantee that she would either. Worth a shot.

Your swamp is a maze and I hate it. Give me useful information or I'll make your other eye look like the one I'm wearing on this necklace.

...

I mean. Good afternoon, Yoyo. What a pleasant day we're having. Could you possibly help me break into your sister's porn stash?

Yep. Got it. Just like the Watchmaker. Not motivated enough to directly assist us but also not motivated enough to put up with the violence that's going to ensue if you don't. One whole "Not My Fucking Problem", served and delivered.

I've seen these runes before. I remember wondering what they were about. But the Roro Heist was so long ago, I'd forgotten.

Thanks, Yoyo. This was a fairly neutral level of non-assistance. Your cauldron didn't even tell me anything new; Just reminded me of answers I've already witnessed.

Here we go. The most closely-held secrets of the embodiment of evil incarnate....

...are a backdoor into this vault we've already been in. Okay but why tho.

What is even the point of this? The combination to the lock is written on the wall, and if you take that combination to an island off the coast and enter it into a secret crypt, it will open a passage to bring you right back here but now the treasure's unlocked.

This is the most roundabout key I've ever seen. Only a truly despicable mind would come up with something so needlesly convo-

...

Oh.

That's what the convoluted circuit loop lock is guarding? Roro makes this whole trip every single time she wants to write a new entry?

Well. We did not find her porn stash. Instead, we found her daily workout regimen. An awkward way to get your steps in but credit where it's due, it means she can't skip out on the routine.

Hold up, she repurposed your journal into her own? That is a whole new layer of domineering.

You need to get out of this relationship, my dude. Like. I think it's pretty clear at this point that she does not respect your personal space at all.

There is a vacancy. We butchered the creature that was occupying it, so if you want to go back, you can.

Oh cool, new Ferry ticket.

Honestly, not 100% sure why Aventry wanted us to come here. Unless this is the place he has fond memories of or something.

I dunno. We'll smash and grab first, then sift through the loot and figure out what we're supposed to do with it later.

Oh shit, it's Roro's private residence. That's what he gave us. I guess that other place was just her work office.

...do you think she'll be happy to see us? I guess there's really only one way to find out. *clears throat* HEY BESTIE--

How have you been? Raised any cool horrors lately? I saw your sister the other day, she seemed to be doing... adequately.

Anyway, we gotta talk about your boy. You're keeping the leash wound a little too tight and--

Okay, but was it really your journal? He had it first. How does that saying go? Two wrongs balance each other out and make everything ultimately fine.

But also that's lame and I prefer it when things are unbalanced in my favor, so now I need to rob you even more.

You heard her, team. We're looking for a locket. Fan out and--

Oh, yeah. We're old pals. It's just too bad she keeps her place in such a miserable state. Look at this place. Bones and flesh just lying strewn about.

I'd offer to help clean up but honestly, that sounds like too much work. Zale, you're pretty good with clutter, why don't you sweep the place.

There we go. Nice and spotless.

Ah, this brings back memories. There's something nostalgic about it. You never really forget your first armed robbery.

Pleasure doing business with you.

You know, we have to stop meeting like this. You going about your day. Me, beating the shit out of you and taking your things. It's getting stale. Why don't we do lunch sometime or something, just for a change of pace?

I think we hurt her feelings. Do... do you want to talk about it?

Uh, Roro says you're fired, by the way. Can't say I've ever been given a gift-with-purchase for a robbery before but she handed me the pink slip right along with the locket.

Yeah, I thought it was weird too.

Better luck in the next life, man. Hope the person waiting for you will treat you better.

#sea of stars #drake plays sea of stars

[nyxthejinx]

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐇𝐚𝐫𝐛𝐢𝐧𝐠𝐞𝐫 𝐅𝐚𝐦𝐢𝐥𝐲 - 𝐏𝐭.𝟏

𝐒𝐲𝐧𝐨𝐩𝐬𝐢𝐬: The harbingers dealing with a kiddo but it's actually a funny sight.

𝐅𝐭.: Pierro & Capitano (on crack, a bit ooc)

A/N: These headcanons can adapt to a more general context, but some parts will be about things I specified in THIS post about a project I'm working on, check it out if you’re interested, or curious about this "curse" I'm speaking of. 👀 + omg gotta split this cause I’m having too much fun and it’s long bye.

𝐏𝐢𝐞𝐫𝐫𝐨 - 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐉𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐫

Alright, big scary old man.

 Ngl he gives me a bit of Silco vibes, for those who watched Arcane. Stoic outside, soft inside. I can see him as someone who doesn’t bat an eye even at chaotic situations, mostly because no one dares disobey him or anything like that, a glare of his and everything goes quiet.

Not you apparently. Lmao F in chat for this guy who has to deal with you.

No well, the curse won’t start eroding for a few years, so 4-11 y/o you will be a typical curious but quiet kid for the time being. Though it doesn’t mean you won’t stir up trouble. You know they can’t lay a finger on you, so you just do whatever you want and expect them to follow around without complain. Even the great Jester.

He spends most of his time behind a desk, despite being the strongest, hence you don’t really seek his boring office out unless there’s something you need or want to ask.

He’s not even pissed when you rant while he’s doing paperwork, he’ll entertain a full ass conversation without lifting his eyes or stopping the movements of his hand. He’s that patient. And wise too, he’s seen so much in his life prob.

You usually stay with him when something upset you. Whether you need advice or just someone who will listen until you’re done, he’s here -mostly because he can’t outright kick you out, but also cause he doesn’t mind. 

If someone is foolish enough to do you wrong he won't uh, slaughter them, but rather make a mental note to check their nominative later and confront them peacefully.

Aka tower over them with his usual glacial aura and let them know they're walking on thin ice.

Not big on physical contact, just a couple of headpats if you do something right. Carries you to bed when you fall asleep somewhere in his office.

Will lend you some books if you’re getting bored, even help you with words you don’t know.

If you're gonna be a Harbinger (the main reason why the Tsaritsa took you in, for sure) you need to be cultured and an expert in different fields. Low-key makes it his mission to hone your already sharp mind. He feels like it's his duty, though no one ordered him to do so.

MIGHT spill some bedtime stories. Just expect a lot of violence and philosophical depth. Don't worry, he'll cut out/soften the most gruesome parts.

Overall understanding and willing to help. His advices are top notch cause he doesn't give you the solution, but rather teaches you how to reach it with the tools you have.

Give it some time to learn his indirect language and he'll go from "zero degrees cold" to "warm blanket around your shoulders during winter" warmth.

9/10 recommended grandpa.

𝐈𝐥 𝐂𝐚𝐩𝐢𝐭𝐚𝐧𝐨 - 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐂𝐚𝐩𝐭𝐚𝐢𝐧

This guy, what to say about this guy

From what Viktor says in his dialogue, I can picture him as a fair person.

Gives credit where’s due, treats well his subordinates. Calm, collected, serious. Kind of like Pierro, but I feel like he could be more vocal and less stoic. 

He’s strong. Duh. Of course. And busy as hell too, given his position as captain. 

So he’s never around because of it, not even when new recruits could use some of his experience. Childe says he doesn’t pay any attention to those who are weaker than him, so you’re even further out of reach.

Can’t see you. Literally, you’re too short.

You’ve probably seen him fight against people he deemed worthy and, yes it was breath-taking. 

He’s not someone who basks in his enemy’s blood, he’s someone who dances with them, keeps them on their toes and then cuts thru like a gust of wind. 

The Tsaritsa eventually asked him to train you a bit once you became old enough to handle weapons, and from what you could see -very little- he didn’t look content, nor bothered.

You, on the other hand, were happy. Until he showed you that no, just because you’re the Tsaritsa’s child he won’t go easy on you. 

It’s not that he’s extremely violent or anything, he does his best to calibrate his strength and follow you step by step, but his stamina is like a thousand times higher than yours and forgets about this most of the time. Will "look" at you confused when you lay on the ground, wheezing, after barely two hours of training.

Struggles a bit when it comes to explain a technique verbally, as he’s not used to fly low and overall teach, but you’re quick and observing his perfect poses and movements is enough to get the job done. 

As time goes by he’ll grow more comfortable in his teacher role. He’d have almost fun sparring with you, and would be secretly proud when he barely escapes one of your new, original moves. Gives you headpats too, but what you really cherish is when he reaches out after kicking your ass again and offers his hand to pull you up from the dirty floor. 

You’ve never seen him doing it with anyone he’s defeated. EVER. 

He’s more like a proud brother sob, that brother who pats your shoulder and sends you flying into the wall /hj

When the curse starts to hinder you physically but you still insist on fighting, he’ll either swoop your ass and threaten to call the Tsaritsa or literally drag all your way thru the HQ to your room.

Poor man is worried :( But when you start to discover the powers that come with this same curse he’ll help you out at the best of his expertise. 

Don’t ever tell him if someone’s pestering you.

Ever.

It won’t be a bloodbath, no. It’ll be EMBARRASSING.

He’s married to the idea that honour comes first and foremost, and he's willing to pull out his 25 slides long PowerPoint to prove how wrong the person's behaviour is.

Just make good use of his teaching and punch the guy's jaw till they can't speak.

Yeah.

Another harbinger you can't really see thru unless you've spent a long time in his company

Don't let his lack of perception kill you, cause he won't realise you're about to melt in your own sweat.

Incapable of being angry. Literally seems too level headed for it. Worst case scenario he'll give you the cold shoulder till he gets the opportunity to clean the floor with your face.

7/10 good brother figure

BROO THIS TOOK ME FOREVER and it's only the first two. But my perfectionist ass can never let it be 🥲 hopefully this will give me the right charge to start the fic fr lmao. Also, lemme know if there are typos, checked this 420 times and still don't trust myself lol

DON'T copy/repost my work. REBLOG instead! ©nyxthejinx

#Genshin impact x reader #genshin x reader #pierro x reader #pierro #genshin pierro #capitano x reader #capitano #genshin capitano #genshin impact #genshin headcanons #gn reader #fatui harbingers #fatui harbingers x reader #fatui x reader #| Genshin Impact 🌓 | #| Nyx Writes 🌑 |

[cheeto-flavoured-pasta]

APS Book One Excerpt (1)

Taken from "Chapter One: The Pub and the Peril."

If you wish to see the WIP intro for more information, you may find it here.

I exhaled slowly. "For the last time, Caster, that guy insisted on us coming to this place, and he wasn't gonna give up. There was no choice, okay? I promised him thirty minutes here, and then we'd leave." Lifting up my wristwatch, I checked the time. 1:20 A.M. "We have ten minutes left anyway, so don't worry. We'll get outta here soon, and I promise I'll pass you the aux cord when we get in the car to make up for it. Deal?"

Caster paused for one, two… three moments. "Fair enough. But can you please remove that book from the table and do something other than read?" He shot a pointed glance at the comic near my half-full glass of tequila. "I'm afraid you'll spill your drink and soil the pages."

"Oh, come on, I'm not that clumsy! It won't spill!" I replied.

Silence dropped on us like a weighted blanket, and Caster simply raised a brow that clearly said, Are you sure about that? 

Two seconds passed and I bit my lip, backtracking to all the moments I'd soaked pages with water or coffee (plus the time when I had to ban myself from having paper and liquid near each other for a couple weeks…).

"Okay, I take it back," I muttered, pulling the book off the desk and slipping it into my bag. "So what do you wanna do?”

He shrugged. “Say, do you have any homework to finish?”

“Um…” I paused. “I don't know why I'd do homework now of all times, but yeah, I do. It’s just one art assignment that’s due in…” I checked my watch. “Negative two hours.”

Caster clicked his tongue in disappointment, shaking his head. “You procrastinated again, didn’t you?”

Glancing away, I fidgeted uncomfortably in my seat. “Yes… and I knew I was probably gonna miss the deadline… Look, I don’t even know why I chose this art major, okay?” 

I didn’t even want to. Not because I hated art, but because I’d probably fail at it — just like always. 

“You did so because you knew what you wanted,” Caster replied (also, no I didn't Caster; you're wrong). “But now… it seems like you’re wasting it, no offense. However, at least you had your desires in mind. I still don’t, and therefore that puts me at a level lower than you.”

Yeah, of course I was wasting it. Because I wasn’t any good at it, and therefore lost all the passion for it. Where was the reason in wanting to do something if I just messed it up? Exactly. No reason at all.

But of course, I didn’t mention that — because it would be horribly unhelpful — so I just raised a brow and said, "I mean, at least you aren't forcing yourself to go down your family's path. I don't think anyone wants to support the government. Give yourself some credit, man."

And at least he was actually getting straight A's in his law and business course. Saying that wouldn’t help, though, so I kept my mouth shut.

"Very true, but what I do now still doesn't please me.” Caster bit his lip. “I… could try something else, but…”

“Well, if you were to disregard your position in life right now, what would you wanna be?”

Just as I finished speaking, the fancy glass doors to the bar suddenly swung open, and in came three people wearing dark clothing. But they were strolling around casually, so I disregarded it. Why bother with other people's business? I wasn't like Desmond.

"If I could choose anything… a vigilante, I suppose." Caster tapped his chin. "Both of us have super abilities, so is it not best to make the most of them?"

... Even if that was impossible, he still wanted something to do in his life. (It made me realize how I didn't want to do anything at all.)

I sighed, pushing away my irrelevant, personal thoughts. "Okay, I didn't say, 'throw logic out the window,' but… alrighty then. That's not feasible though, and you know why. Or rather, it's not smart. Like, I'm not exposing my hydrokinesis just to do that."

"Firstly, you said, 'disregard your position in life right now,'" Caster argued. "So therefore, my answer is still valid."

"I meant, 'disregard the fact that you're a uni student who doesn't exactly know what he's doing.' Not 'disregard the fact that superpowers" — I lowered my voice, even if nobody could hear — "are supposed to be kept secret.'"

Pushing his long ponytail over his shoulder, Caster sighed. "Well, I've still been pondering the idea. Vigilantes are bound to exist with inefficient police forces plaguing Codex. So there must be some superhumans out there who take matters into their own hands."

"Well, sure, but if they did, they'd get caught. It's kinda easy to expose your abilities when you're battling criminals."

"If you think about it, however, Codex has been dealing with the issue of magic powers since 9050, so perhaps it’s not so — wait, wait, I should take that back…" Caster shook his head. 

"Yeah, not the best point to make. When Codex was dealing with Exelonians… You know, it wasn't pleasant, with prisons and torture and war and all. Adding superhumans — who have an even wider range of abilities Exelonians— to the mix is only gonna cause more trouble," I replied. "So, to sum it up: the idea of vigilantes is great, but I hate the reality of it."

My friend paused. "I admit, you raise a fair point. But really, don't you think that life is so dull…"

"Ack! Hey, stop! What are you doing?"

The shout came from across the room, forcing me to flinch.

I knew it was bad manners to look away when someone was talking, but what was going on at the front of the bar? 

My eyes widened when my gaze landed on the scene playing out in front of me.

The three people who entered earlier had cleared the way of the dance floor, and the largest one in the trio… was holding Desmond in a chokehold.

What. The. Hell. 

If you want to be added to the taglist for this story, let me know in a reply or reblog.

CURRENT TAGLIST: @writeblr-of-my-own, @yesireadbooks

#writeblr #writing community #writers of tumblr #writing #am writing #writing excerpt #wip excerpt #APS #current wip #my wips #wip tag #writing wip #wip teaser

[thetimelordbatgirl]

A big reason why I like the Black Panther films is that you can totally ignore everything else and the story works fine. You can forget Civil War, Infinity War, and Endgame, just watch the first film and then its sequel. I didn’t like Captain America having his third film be changed to Avengers 2.5 just because marvel wanted to compete with Batman V Superman that same year, or Planet Hulk getting a half-assed adaptation in Thor 3, or Wanda stealing the show from Doctor Strange in his own sequel. Cameos can be fun but those were a bit much. The worst offenders are the mcu Spider-Man movies because Peter is shown being pretty dependent on characters like Iron Man, Nick Fury, Doctor Strange, and even versions of himself from older movies. And both Iron Man and Doctor Strange were responsible for the villains showing up in those films.

I will say due to the...really badly handled introduction of Skaar in She Hulk, its likely we could potentially get a Planet Hulk adaption down the line hopefully, but at the same time, as you pointed out, they already took half of that adaption in Ragnarok with Hulk landing on another planet due to leaving for space at the end of Age Of Ultron (another set up that went in weird places...at least it didn't go nowhere I guess like most MCU set ups lately). And your not wrong on the others: Civil War was basically MCU trying to compete with Batman Vs Superman (and yet somehow, Batman Vs Superman is the one getting dragged still when I'd happily rewatch it over Civil War) while also giving Captain America's film to Iron Man basically, and Wanda basically took over a film that wasn't hers to the point every character is depowered just to make her look better as remember: Doctor Strange is meant to be a powerful sorcerer as is Wong and the other sorcerers and even Miss America in the comics is pretty powerful, but they all depowered just to make Wanda this powerful villain that takes over his film that should have been him facing Mordo with the set up first Doctor Strange did, but nope I guess (and given how they planned to have Wanda kill Mordo before it was cut from film...maybe Mordo escaped being in this film...at least main universe him, anyway...).

And oh god, don't get me started on the MCU treatment of Spiderman. At least when you watch the OG trilogy and Amazing Spiderman films, you know they spidey films and you see Peter doing everything on his own with his villains having some form of connection to him. MCU???? Tony Stark caused the first two villains and Peter just happens to get caught in the messes each time and No Way Home can try all it wants: Strange should have told Peter about the spell PRIOR to doing it and therefore, if Peter did still do his stupid mistake, it would be his fault, but no, Strange doesn't, and therefore Strange's fault too. Plus its funny as hell they clearly wish they got to do Green Goblin and Doctor Octopus and Electro and Sandman, but they didn't, so they drag the prior Spiderman films versions of them into this Spiderverse rip off and force a connection between MCU peter and Spiderman films Green Goblin via fridging Aunt May, because beyond that, MCU Peter has zero connection to these villains and the other two Spidey's have more development with the villains then he does.

Like, there's fun little cameos everyone whose seen prior stuff can enjoy (Doctor Who coming to mind here along with DC's Shazam! and Black Adam), and then there's the MCU having the cameos take over the whole film somehow, meaning your forced to watch prior stuff to understand. And as much as I can agree Black Panther is easy to watch because it doesn't rely on prior stuff (with the only set up being in the end credits where we see Bucky), gonna have to sadly point out Wakanda Forever does have that stupid Valentina stuff shoved in to set up Thunderbolts, though gonna assume that was on higher up's end and not Ryan Coogler's end, since its basically apart of their pattern in the MCU at this rate.

#anti mcu #mcu critical #tho ngl not huge on wakanda forever myself #but only cause of how t'challas death and riri were handled #and as someone who doesn't see the hints of namor x shuri #but at the same time its probably the better movie of phase four next to shang chi #as shang chi is also easy to watch without prior stuff

[hoodlessmads]

Who wants to read a long ass review of FFXVI?

I would give this game a 6/10. Here’s why. (seriously, it's long, I'm warning you)

SPOILERS for late game (I don't spoil the ending but I do mention characters and events through basically the beach scene - if you know you know)

First, I've seen a tendency to dismiss and/or mischaracterize people’s criticisms of FFXVI as them saying “I don’t like that it’s not turn-based” or “it’s not like other Final Fantasies” when that’s not at all what I’m about to say. Those aren’t my issues with the game. At all. So just getting that out of the way. Kingdom Hearts II is one of my favorite games of all time, so I am not at all adverse to this game having action combat. Final Fantasy XII is different from other Final Fantasies too, but that’s in my top 3 FF games, so that’s not my issue either.

To be honest, I haven’t actually seen anyone criticize the game for not being turn-based except in memes, so I can’t help but feel like fans are blowing this particular criticism out of proportion, unless I’m just in the wrong places online. Who is actually saying the game isn’t Final Fantasy because it’s not turn-based? 90% of people seem to love the game.

Moving on.

This is not...professionally written, by the way. I kind of wrote it in one sitting. Also, please try not to take my extreme language too seriously - that's just how I write. praying emoji

Credit where credit is due

The presentation is great – graphics, cinematics, voice acting, cutscenes. Some of the cutscenes in this game and some of the cinematic QTEs were actually insane. Completely bonkers. The game reaches extreme high points with its story and spectacle that had me yelling. I’ve never in my life cared about graphical quality or spectacle, but this game got me, and I think part of it is the way they successfully integrated the story’s most dramatic moments with the grandest spectacle possible gameplay-wise. Virtually all of the big story moments were dope as hell. I hope this integration helps these spectacular moments stand the test of time when they eventually become graphically outdated. (Because they will. Who cares about the FFVII motorcycle chase anymore? But it blew minds back in the day.)

Things I didn’t know I needed in Final Fantasy: Ifrit hanging off a crystal going, “Fuck.”

The combat is pretty good. It could be better, but it’s pretty good. Action combat-wise, it’s a huge improvement from FF15. I didn’t love it, personally, but I enjoyed my time with it sometimes, and would definitely count it among the game’s strong points. I like that you can control Torgal; it added a nice layer to the combat. I did find myself skipping most mob fights, though.

The story, like the combat, could be better, but overall I think it’s pretty solid. My issues have more to do with the execution and storytelling than the core concepts, which I think are really good. There are some really compelling and interesting ideas here. The story feels very “Final Fantasy” in a good way. I enjoyed it for the most part. I had one MAJOR issue with it that I’ll discuss in the negative section of this review but other than that the flaws in the writing, while there (especially the writing of some of the characters and the ending), aren’t huge detractors for me. I hated the moments I call “Game of Thrones bullshit” which is where I felt the GoT posturing got a little too on the nose, but otherwise, I’m a sucker for political storylines and the political machinations and such in this story were some of my favorite moments, along with the epic confrontations, of course.

Some of the characters: I like Joshua, Cid, Mid, and Dion. Joshua....what can I say. I’m obsessed with him? I’m hyperfixated on a character that is trapped in a game which I think is otherwise mediocre, and that sucks.

Overall, I'm actually really frustrated by all the things I like in this game, because similar to the last mainline entry, I feel like Square almost made one of the best games in the series, if not the best. Truly. But they kind of shat the bed instead.

Gameplay negatives

I could nitpick forever, but the main gameplay element that fully ruins this game for me, if I’m being honest, is the fact that there is no permanent party.

You have your dog, and sometimes you have Jill, but for most of the game Clive is alone. The game’s story preaches a lot about bonds with other people and togetherness and how that is humanity’s strength, but the gameplay doesn’t match up with that message at all. The gameplay sends the opposite message: that this is Clive’s sole journey. As a result, a lot of the story’s themes don’t land well. Also, because you are playing alone as Clive for most of the game, the game is pretty much made or broken on how much you like him. For me, I don’t like him. I’ll get more into why in the story negative section. But because I don’t like him, I have a hard time really enjoying my playing experience because I am forced to spend all of my time with him, and only him. This isn’t about not being able to play as other people, though that would be nice. It’s that the other people aren’t even there.

Final Fantasy XV is a broken mess of a game that I did not enjoy, with a messy story, but even that game understood this most basic principle of building a sense of camaraderie with the main character’s friends by having them all in a permanent party together all the way through until the very end of the game. When that game talked about Noctis’s bonds with others being his strength, it landed because of all the time I, as a player, had spent with the party members. I bought that. The game had earned it.

This sort of leads into my other big issue with the game, which is the virtual lack of RPG elements. Even when you do have temporary party members, they are (relatively useless) AI bots that you have no power to affect whatsoever. You can’t even change their equipment. In the menu, the only character is Clive (other than some cute sprites). It makes you feel even more alone in the journey. So there are no party members to outfit – what can you customize? The game’s customization options are limited to picking and choosing which abilities to give to Clive using earned ability points and an extremely bare bones crafting system. As for the abilities, I will admit there is potential to customize your combat based on which Eikon abilities you choose to outfit Clive with. But it pretty much stops there. The itemization and crafting system are utter dog shit. I don’t feel like I need to justify saying that...even fans of this game have to admit how tacked-on that shit is. In addition, there isn’t even something as simple as elemental weaknesses that might be affected by said tacked-on crafting system. This is a game where the story centers around eight Eikons for eight magical elements and yet there is no elemental affinity baked into the gameplay. I have to ask, what the fuck?

Some Zelda fans would probably get mad at me for saying this, but even though Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom also feature a solo journey without any party members, they legitimately feel more like RPGs than Final Fantasy XVI. Those games have elemental weaknesses and systems that force you to put some thought into your approach to combat, and they have a more worthwhile and involved gear upgrading system. It’s crystal clear that the developers of FF16 put a lot of effort into the presentation, the story and the combat and I applaud those efforts, but it really feels like they put zero effort into ANYTHING else outside of that because there is NOTHING to this game outside of the main story and combat. I would almost rather they hadn’t even bothered to try to pretend this was still an RPG instead of the linear character action thriller it wants to be.

Even in that sense, it’s not particularly outstanding. The combat’s depth is questionable...I would have preferred if you could at least use ability points to, say, modify the base combo, which never changes. Shake it up just a little bit. Instead, the modifications to Clive’s combat as the game goes on come entirely in the form of Eikon abilities that are on timers and you can cycle through them as you want. I don’t get the feeling that Clive himself is growing stronger or better, persay. Each ability has a unique utility, but that utility is limited in any given boss fight due to the lack of enemy variety, and they mostly served for me as extra damage dealers rather than relating to any sort of strategy. The lack of combo modifiers and also the lack of a dedicated block mechanic other than the one Titan ability makes the combat feel a bit clunky and outdated to me. I don’t know how to say it, I guess, because Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom also don’t have combo modifiers and that combat isn’t particularly deep but it doesn’t feel nearly as clunky to play, so I don’t know what I’m saying...but FFXVI’s combat just feels clunky to me sometimes and you’re gonna have to believe me. (I'm not trying to compare these two games, I just feel like since I compared them in the last paragraph I should at least mention I'm not trying to make a double standard about the combat here.)

Lastly, a big issue I have with the gameplay is the exploration. It’s shit. Really. You get a couple of big maps but they’re empty. The coolest locations in the game are ones you either only get to visit once or ones you only see in cutscenes. This does a lot to alienate me from the world the game is trying to build.

I've seen a counter-criticism amounting to basically, "You shouldn't bring franchise expectations to the game!" when people criticize the lack of a party or the lack of RPG elements but I have to ask...why shouldn't I? Any game that carries a series title is going to draw comparisons with other entries in the series, and why shouldn't it - otherwise, what's the point in carrying the title? Every Final Fantasy game has always been "new" in many ways, but there has also still always been a thread connecting them, even a thin one. For me, this game just frays that thread a bit too thin. Through 12, 13, 13-2, Lightning Returns, 15, you name it, I've still always felt like "This is Final Fantasy." When I'm not even playing an RPG anymore, it's gotten too far away from the core of the series. I'm sorry, but it has.

Now here's the story negative section:

Final Fantasy XVI has a slavery problem

There are other story negatives, but for me, this is the big one. I haven’t seen people talking about it much (yet) and I don’t really understand why, because for me it was glaring and cast a pall over the entire story and many of the characters.

There’s nothing wrong with featuring slavery in your fantasy story and/or world; far from it. I think it can add stakes and a dark, realist tone to the narrative (as we know, unfortunately, slavery is a disgustingly frequent part of human history and still exists even today) as well as set up some political commentary. It just has to be done right. It’s obviously a sensitive, heavy topic. FFXVI completely bungles its handling of said topic and betrays that its developers seemingly did not have the historical comprehension or tact to appropriately handle it.

In the narrative of FFXVI, there are good slaveowners and bad slaveowners. (You can see where this is going.) The bad slaveowners are people like Clive’s mom Anabella, who view Bearers (magic users) as vermin and treat them abhorrently. Like, clownishly evil and violent treatment. The good slaveowners are people like Clive’s dad Elwin, who claim to want to make life better for Bearers and treat them relatively well by comparison—see them as human beings (theoretically)—but still keep them as slaves.

During the game’s prologue, you play as a teenage Clive who was raised as a prince of Rosaria in a slave culture where Bearers are branded and are forced to work in service to his father’s duchy. We are shown that Clive is nice to the slaves and wants to make sure they are treated well; however, he doesn’t see that there is much wrong with them being enslaved and is perfectly fine with the status quo. Clive idolizes his father, who is otherwise an evenhanded, astute ruler who truly cares about his people (at least the ones that aren’t slaves). I like Clive during these first few hours. He shows a bit of personality: he is earnest and loyal to a fault, he is fiercely protective of his brother, he is focused on what he sees as his duty to his father and his country, he is secretly devastated that his mother doesn’t love him and wants to earn his place so he has poured his entire life into making himself worthwhile in his own way, i.e. becoming the best swordsman of all time. He’s kind of giving a jock but with a sensitive side.

It’s uncomfortable that he is so comfortable with slavery, but that is exactly how a kid who grew up in a slave culture under a father he admires might think and behave. That’s why there is massive potential here to have his worldview shaken up in a big way – we know that Clive later becomes enslaved himself.  As an adult, how might he look back on his interactions with the slaves in Rosalith? How might he reevaluate the man he thought his father was, compared to the man he actually was: a benevolent father but a man who owned and sanctioned the owning of slaves?

There is one scene where, as adults, Clive and Jill are in Martha’s Rest having just witnessed some awful treatment of slaves, and they comment on how it’s crazy that they never saw anything wrong with slavery as kids. That’s it. The commentary begins and ends there. Outside of this moment, not once does Clive come to terms with his complicity in slavery as a teenager, and not once does he ever think to criticize his father for it.

On the contrary: throughout the game, Archduke Elwin is revered by everyone, and we the player are supposed to revere him too. There is one part of the game where Clive returns to a village in Rosaria and the mayor, recognizing him as the prince, offers him his father’s old Bearers back in a chillingly casual tone. Like, offers to give him his father’s old slaves back who have just been hanging out in this village ever since the country was taken over. Clive of course declines, but we don’t get any indication of how Clive feels about this reminder that his dad was, you know, a slaveowner. Clive also never confronts the mayor’s assumption that these people are things to be owned, just lets him keep on as he was. Clive then meets one of his father’s old kitchen slaves, who has become senile. The old former slave thinks he is still waiting for Elwin to return and take him back to the kitchens, where the former slave apparently enjoyed working. The old man apparently has no idea what to do with himself in the mean time and just hangs out by the well waiting for Elwin, day in and day out. The old man thinks Clive is Elwin returned to get him, and Clive plays along, but says the old dude should just chill out in the village until he’s done with his journey and eventually he’ll come back and get him.

Now...it’s not super clear what we’re supposed to get out of this scene. It’s not entirely clear if we are supposed to take the old man’s ravings about how great it was working in Elwin’s kitchens at face value. Obviously, that would be horrifying. I have to assume that we are supposed to sort of see this as a really dark and sad look at a Stockholm Syndrome-type situation. But the uncertainty that I feel is just the problem. Does this quest exist to show how great Elwin was and how much everyone loved him, including his slaves, or to show how fucked up slavery is? This shouldn’t be a question I’m asking. And the reason I’m asking it is because our viewpoint characters give us nothing to go off of.

Assuming for everyone’s sanity that it’s the latter, why doesn’t Clive have some sort of emotional reaction? This is his father we’re talking about. The great Archduke Elwin. And here is a devastating reminder of the horror Elwin wreaked on a man’s life and psyche. Nothing. We get nothing from Clive. If a normal person suddenly realized that the food they ate growing up was always prepared by slaves, you’d think they’d have some kind of reaction.

And like...is Clive serious? Is he actually planning on coming back to “get him” when he’s done with his journey? Does Clive literally just own slaves in this game? (I don't actually think so, but I'm just saying, the scene was weird.) In any case, it is clear that most of the current and former slaves in this game are completely helpless and will just keep being enslaved through inertia if someone doesn’t save them or at least come and explain to them that being enslaved is wrong, actually, and they should be free. (A portrayal of slaves that is more than patronizing...it’s revolting. Certainly many real life slaves were victims of this sort of brainwashing, but it just feels like...way too many of them are like this in the game, and there are almost no rebellious slaves to provide an alternative portrayal, so it feels very one-sided. The Hideaway folks don't count - I'm talking about current slaves that you meet in the wild.)

After the events of the following section, where a village is massacred, Clive and Jill are upset and suddenly decide they want to help Cid free all the slaves, even though up until this point they have been pretty lukewarm on the idea of joining the liberation effort. I don’t feel like the threads between events are clearly drawn to show how the characters changed their minds. Instead, it’s sudden. They see a massacre (that includes non-Bearers as well as former slaves) and decide slavery is wrong.

Normally, you’d think that since Clive and Jill have, you know, been slaves themselves for the past thirteen years, that alone would be enough to give them a new perspective on slavery. But apparently not. Apparently they had to go through a journey in Rosaria to come to the conclusion that all the slaves should be freed, and even then it doesn’t feel like a perspective change that is earned or that makes sense. The scene with the mayor could have been a great opportunity to show that transition – just have Clive be like “oh, fuck...my dad did this too” – and boom, his character arc starts to make a lot more sense.

Instead, Clive proudly wears his father’s old clothes and later goes so far as to claim that he is carrying on his father’s ideals. At one point, when viewing the atrocious crimes against humanity that Anabella’s men perpetrate against former slaves, Clive mutters something along the lines of, at least in Elwin’s time Bearers weren’t “spit on as slaves.” Fam, what in the world are you talking about? We literally just talked to one of Elwin’s former kitchen slaves? We talked to a man in the Rosalith courtyard in the prologue named “Slaveowner?” It would be one thing if he was in deep denial, but the game doesn’t play it like that. The game plays it straight, like we are supposed to take what Clive is saying as truth. Later, Clive tells Byron that he won’t take back rule of Rosaria, because instead he’s fighting for the world his father believed in, where all people can live freely. Clive explicitly tells us that his father’s beliefs and the goal of ending slavery are one and the same. This does not make sense at all.

I spoke with a friend about this who argued that Elwin did believe in ending slavery, but he didn’t outright do it because he would have had revolts on his hands and so on – it would have been too sudden of a change for the free people to accept since the hatred of Bearers was so entrenched (my thoughts: oh dear, not the free people having hurt feelings, not the revolts! Better keep those people enslaved to avoid such a horror), so he was trying to change attitudes over time. According to my friend, this is what Clive meant by following his father’s ideals - moreso in spirit than in actuality. I think this is a bit of a stretch to assume this is what Clive was thinking since the game doesn't really make it super clear, if I'm being honest, and it's still a very unflattering portrayal because he's essentially excusing his father's policies of slavery. I agree with my friend that such behavior makes perfect sense for Elwin as a character, but owning slaves is still 100% wrong, Elwin was wrong, and the problem is the game’s narrative never really acknowledges this. It's obvious to us, but the game needs to acknowledge it, and it doesn't. (Also, if the reason he didn’t end slavery was truly because he was afraid of the chaos it would cause (eyeroll...it’s giving Northern liberals in 1850s United States...), then why did he himself also own slaves? Surely that wasn’t required if all he wanted was to avoid revolts. It's because he needed to use them as resources and he'd rather use free human beings in forced labor than use up the meager supply of crystals they have, right? Isn't that the real reason?) I bring this up not to discredit this friend, who is great, but because I hadn't considered this perspective before and it helped me understand Elwin's thought process a bit more, so I thought it would be helpful to mention.

What we get, as a result of all this, is a main character who comes across as extremely putzy and tepid. Sure, Clive thinks slavery is wrong, generally. He definitely thinks treating slaves badly is wrong, at least. He probably thinks having them at all is wrong...probably. (Unless you’re his dad, Archduke Elwin.) But at the same time, he doesn’t bat an eyelash when he comes across random NPCs that are in the process of abusing their slaves. And I mean including after he takes over Cid’s role as the international slave liberator and removes his brand. He doesn’t even have an emotional reaction. He just moves on like it’s to be expected. Clive is the most powerful man on earth by this point and he doesn’t lift a finger to help any Bearers he comes across in the wild. Cid the Outlaw, everybody, Clive the great liberator of slaves. What a stand-up guy. If I were a slave in Valisthea, I wouldn’t want this guy to be the one advocating for me. Personally.

It is incredibly difficult for me to emotionally connect with this character when this is how he is characterized, and when the slavery storyline is handled so tactlessly. Like it’s just tacked on to make the world more dark and fucked up, but the developers didn’t care to follow through with exploring it.

FFXVI’s portrayal of the badness of slavery is mostly limited to the cheap, low-hanging fruit of showing horrific atrocities and abuse being perpetrated against slaves by awful slavemasters. But it mostly avoids the true insidiousness of slavery, which is how normal it could be, and has been. How normal, otherwise nice people, could and have been complicit in it. Slavery doesn’t need horrific treatment to be bad. Owning other people is inherently bad. And FFXVI somehow doesn’t seem to get that.

There’s a fun, interesting, comedic relief type character with a lot more personality than most of the other main characters: Clive’s uncle, Byron. He’s wonderful. I wanted to love him.

Except - nagging at the back of my mind from the second we met him was the thought that this guy probably owned Bearers as slaves back in the day, and even if he was somehow the only noble in Rosaria that didn’t, he was close with his brother and could have made an effort to convince Elwin to end slavery, but didn’t.

You can’t have the fun quirky comedic relief uncle character also be a former slaveowner (or, optimistically, a guy who used to help maintain the system of slavery). Tonally, it just doesn’t work.

It would be one thing if Byron ever addressed his past, or his failure to act, or ever somehow recanted his former beliefs and complicity in a way the player can see. But he doesn’t. The slavery in Rosaria thing goes completely unaddressed. Byron easily slides into his role as the benefactor of the Freeing the Slaves Group as if he was one of them all along. It’s confusing and distressing to see the insidiousness of “good” slavery in Rosaria go totally unaddressed.

There’s also this uncomfortable feeling when you go around as Clive after he removes his brand and suddenly no one treats you like shit anymore, and you can’t help but thinking, “Are all of these NPCs actually racist assholes and the only reason they’re not showing it is because they think I’m not a Bearer?” Steph Sterling (The Jimquisition) has a great video where she talks about how everyone in the world of Valisthea comes across as an irredeemable bigoted monster and it makes it hard to care about saving the world. I agree. Like, saving the world is obviously still the right thing to do. I know this logically – but I don’t feel it. I don’t feel any attachment to this world or the awful people in it. This makes it even harder to connect with the “role” I’m supposed to be playing in this “RPG.”

Then the slavery storyline is forgotten halfway through the game for more Final Fantasy-like and less complicated nonsense like killing gods. (Probably for the best.)

There’s also the obvious issue of there being very few people of color in the game, and many of those being white passing to boot, but I feel that has already been touched on elsewhere better than I could say it. It’s obviously stupid and it makes their bungling of the slavery storyline even worse.

There are other flaws with the story, but I can’t even pay attention to those because the slavery thing overwhelms all the comparatively small writing problems for me. I feel like one of the 2.5 people on the Internet who is actually bothered by the portrayal of slavery in this game and it’s making me a little insane. Are people really not bothered by this?

Listen. The slavery storyline had a lot of potential. Episode 2 (or 3?) of Resonant Arc’s FFXVI analysis podcast series on YouTube goes into a really great deep dive about the portrayal of slavery in Valisthea and it made me realize it was more nuanced than I had initially given it credit for. Particularly, the fact that the reason people treat Bearers with such comic book villainy and abuse is because they have to buy into the idea of Bearers being sub-human in order to justify enslaving them and slowly murdering them, and they have to buy in hard. This is extremely true to life. In order to justify treating people like objects, they dehumanize them. There is probably guilt and shame involved over taking advantage of Bearers as a resource, which they have been brainwashed into thinking they must do in order to survive, so they channel that shame into hatred and abuse. Even many slaves themselves have been brainwashed into buying into this system, and as a result they value the “good” slavemasters compared to the “bad” ones. The system has been so entrenched for generations that there is buy-in even from the lowest rung. It’s realistic and true and I definitely get what the developers were going for, I think. But there’s still a problem:

The game never does condemn the “good slavery” in Rosaria. That coming-to-terms, that realization that it seems like the game should be building up to within Clive – it never happens. Clive never has the character growth he needs in order to make the slavery storyline land properly. By the end of the game, Elwin is still a great, admired guy, Rosaria’s slavery is still good, and it is presented as fundamentally different from, say, imperial slavery. This is really just...wrong. So all of that potential for nuance that I just discussed in the previous paragraph ends up falling flat.

Anyway, I don’t like adult Clive. I think he’s a loser. For all the game’s talk of strength of will, I don’t see much strength of will in Clive. He comes across as uncommitted and wishy washy in nearly every instance, with a side dose of angst. He doesn’t compel me in the slightest; in fact, he outright disgusts me at points, and I’d have given my left arm to play as his twinky brother instead.

The women

Okay, so I’m just gonna touch on it briefly. The women in this game...could be better. Like, they’re not bad, but I came out disappointed. Especially in Anabella.

Benedikta’s storyline has already been criticized a lot for being too short and not giving her enough depth so I won’t rehash all that, but we have to talk about Anabella. Clearly, the woman’s inspiration is Cersei from Game of Thrones, unless there’s another beautiful blond traitorous kingmaker who is a total monster that I’m forgetting about. But Cersei is a great villain because in spite of all the horrible things she does, she still feels like a real person. A fucked up person, but a real person nonetheless. Her past is carefully explored so we understand the institutional misogyny, insecurity, horrible monster of a father, and toxic relationship with her brother that led her to grow up into this person. On top of that, Cersei shows a glimpse of humanity – in spite of how she may feel about everyone else, she truly loves her children. She isn’t really a monster – she’s actually just a really fucked up, evil human being.

On the other hand, Anabella is a total monster with no redeeming qualities. We get an indication at the very end that she did genuinely love Joshua and Olivier in...her own way, perhaps...but it’s just a glimmer and then she gets killed off immediately. We watch her commit horrific act after horrific act with no idea why she would do such a thing for tens of hours, and we only just manage to learn what her motivations were the whole time when she spews it out in a rush right before she dies. And the motivations are surprisingly shallow. She was just tired of people gossiping about her behind her back in Rosaria, so she had them all killed. Cool. Why is she like this? I guess we’ll never know.

I love evil women, but Anabella doesn’t even feel like a real person. Such a missed opportunity. I still kinda love when she’s being deliciously evil, though.

*tiktok autotune voice* and I’m not saying she deseeerved it – but god’s timing is aalwaaays riiiight

Oh, you want me to talk about Jill? How did they do? You mean other than her entire life revolving around her love for a man? (Just kidding...sort of.) Well, she’s fine, I guess. Personally, I find Jill to be kind of bland as a character, but that’s just me. I think we needed to get more from her backstory than what we got. As it is, she’s too Clive-focused. She’s giving Dollar Tree Tifa but not in a good way...Tifa definitely still had her own goals and motivations independent of how she felt about Cloud, and she had much more personality. (I also don’t really understand how Jill had the patience to wait for this dude for 18 years, but we don’t really get to see how she feels about that. Or was he the one waiting for her to make a move, and she was the one hesitating? Unclear, but unlikely.) Jill is just totally gung-ho to go at Clive’s pace, in all things. The Hideaway’s goals, their relationship, talking about their feelings, anything and everything is whenever he wants and no sooner or later. I don’t necessarily have a problem with that if it makes sense for the character - We’re just never in her perspective, so we don’t know why, and I find that a shame. But I do love Jill’s design, her voice acting is great, and I like that the narrative treats her like an equal to the men when it comes to combat prowess and general agency. My problem with her giving up her powers to Clive isn’t unique to just her – I hate it in every case that it happens – it just happens to sting a little bit more since Jill is the only female party member in the game.

I like the Jive ship, by the way, even though I'm not very fond of them individually. Like many people (especially fellow adults lol), I appreciate the refreshing maturity and healthiness they have. Not exactly common in Final Fantasy (as much as I love other FF ships).

So close and yet so far from greatness

For those thirsting after Clive and Cid, I raise you, Barnabas? He’s weirdly hot, right?

I feel like fixing FF16 wouldn’t be hard. Not nearly as hard as fixing FF15. It would take some redesigning the way the story plays out a little bit to give us a permanent party, but it would be worth it. The party could include Clive, Jill, Gav, and Tarja for the duration of the game. Characters like Cid could drop out when it’s their time to drop out, and characters like Dion, Josh, and Mid could jump in after crossing paths with the party, and then stay there. When the characters go off on their little quests, like when Dion sneaks off and goes back to the Crystalline Dominion, instead of having them go alone, have the whole party accompany them. This would help organically build the bonds between the characters instead of just having the game tell us that they have bonds.

There are even classic FF archetypes to work with, if they wanted to balance the party accordingly. Clive is a knight/jack of all trades, Jill is a black mage, Gav is a rogue, Tara is like a white mage or an alchemist, Cid and Mid are machinists, Dion is a dragoon, and Josh is a red mage. See? Not that they have to be called this, but I’m just making a point that balance-wise, the party is RIGHT THERE. Then allow the player to outfit them with unique gear and maybe have a couple options for how they want the AI’s playstyle to be, like offensive, defensive, attack Clive’s enemies, attack enemies other than Clive’s enemies...just simple options (if I wanted to be really greedy I’d say add a gambit system but I’m trying to keep it “easy” here--).

But if I can be a bit greedy – how about you allow us to return to the areas featured in the one-off missions and, more than that, how about you actually let us roam around in the fantastical set pieces we only get to see in cutscenes, like Oriflamme? It wouldn’t have to be a big area. Just give me like one little town square. One tiny itsy bitsy little town square per city. Nothing too graphically intensive. Something, anything to help me feel more immersed in this world, because the game desperately needs it. The world is so cool, conceptually, but I can’t really immerse myself because I can't explore most of it.

For the story, just include some deeper revelations for Clive, Jill, Josh, Byron, even Dion, where they regret their complicity in slavery in the past (well, Josh was basically a baby so I wouldn’t necessarily call him “complicit,” but you get it, his family owned slaves, that’s a lot to swallow). Instead of having the boring ass side quests that exist now, create some side quests that are like Clive and gang actually going out and freeing more Bearers on the side, even while they’re dealing with the Mothercrystal shit, so that the freeing the slaves storyline can continue even after the plot shifts to be about the crystals. Have the quests be about unique, fleshed out characters where they have agency in freeing themselves and building a better life for themselves so it’s not all about helpless slaves with Stockholm Syndrome who need to be saved (because that’s both historically inaccurate and gross).

Of course, I think the RPG elements need to be fleshed out, but I think if you just change these two major things (a permanent party and improving the slavery storyline) the game turns from being a uncomfortable and often dreary slog into an absolute banger.

Demake

Okay hear me out – a Switch demake in the pixel art style of, say, Final Fantasy VI (like the sprites we see on the menu). The party that I mentioned above exists. I don’t care if it makes sense with the story or where the characters are supposed to be located in the world. If you’re fighting, you’ve got the party. They’re just there, get over it. If you want it to make sense, you can play the original or watch a Let’s Play of the original. You can choose four of those fuckers at a time. It’s turn-based, for the hoes (I’m the hoes).

The Eikon battles though – the Eikon battles are a 2D side scrolling brawler. How fucking sick would that be? Hell, if they really wanted to keep it entirely action-oriented even in a pixel art demake, the regular combat can be a 2d side scrolling brawler too, and maybe you can control your other three party members with, like, their own assigned buttons. Kind of like TWEWY. So it would be chaotic but in a fun way. And maybe (also for the hoes) they can insert some of the epic cinematic cutscenes as FMVs.

Have I mentioned my emphasis on having a party?

Would this not be sick as hell?

Conclusion

I needed somebody to scream at about this and my only friends who are playing this game are still early in, so I turned to the Internet instead. I welcome discussion if you for some reason actually read all of this and feel so inclined. This isn’t a comprehensive review (in spite of being this long) and there’s room for debate and there are certainly more things that could be touched on.

I wrote all this about a 6/10 game because I love Final Fantasy that much – if I didn’t care, I wouldn’t have this much to say about it. Ultimately, I love all Final Fantasy games, even the ones I don’t like. If you get it you get it.

#final fantasy xvi #ffxvi #ffxvi spoilers #final fantasy xvi spoilers #final fantasy xvi review #clive rosfield #i question whether there's a point in posting this since tumblr is kind of dead #but i hope someone is entertained at least #i love reading shit like this anyway lol

[beevean]

Good day to you! Sorry to bother you, but do you know about that voice clip hidden in Sonic Frontiers game files where Sonic comments about regretting not sharing an umbrella with Amy? The clip is both in JP and EN, I already had heard it, cannot for the life of me find it at the moment, but seeing as you are a pretty dedicated, analytical Sonamy shipper, I wanted to bring attention to its existence, and how it was previously believed it was just an unused asset, but now, with the DLC confirmed, there's a high chance there's gonna be a Sonamy heavy scene related to the DLC 💙💖

Hello, good day to you :D

Oh no you give me too much credit fshjafhaskjfhkj I'm not a Sonamy analyzer at all, there are people way more dedicated than me (I have to tag my friend @latin-dr-robotnik, he's the residential Sonamy expert here), I just think they're cute <3

I haven't heard the clip in Japanese yet, but I had found it in English - not just the umbrella one, but the one where Sonic says "I should have made up my mind sooner"... mmh, about what, I wonder? 👀

From what I know, the mysterious voice clips in Frontiers (including the ones where Sonic is physically sick because of the Cyber corruption/erosion) are not "unused", merely very hard to trigger: you need to stay idle for 10 minutes. Maybe they'll patch them to not make them so obscure?

In any case, I'm glad that the DLC content will give Sonic Team a chance to include material they had to scrap due to development issues (because Frontiers screams "development issues", regardless of if you liked it or not lmao), but it's a bit too early for me to tell what the "new story" they promised will be.

Something about the way they framed the third image implies to me that they'll add a whole section to the part where Sonic gets completely corrupted: instead of the trio saving him after 10 seconds, maybe they'll go through an End Of The World-esque section in the Cyberspace, while Sage gets even more development. But it's just my theory and I could be wrong. I guess that it's what I'd do if I had the chance ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

Anyway, truth to be told? I'm in no rush to see more of Sonamy in Frontiers, because while I don't particularly like Amy's arc, I sure like her interactions with Sonic. They're very chill and comfortable towards each other :) it's what I've been saying for a while now: they're just very close friends, mature enough to have morality discussions, supportive of each other, and Sonic even accepted Amy's hug <3

This is my vindication for that horrible scene in Generations where he's pushing her face away <3 yay, character development!

#sonic the hedgehog #sonamy #sonic frontiers

[pulaasul]

Deserve

Hikari Natsumi calls for the Girls Remix to be reactivated to give Beroba her divine retribution.

A/N: As @tokuteasings published their vent fic about Neon’s circumstance in Geats 29, here’s my vent fic. I would like to thank @narashikari @thehistorynut19 @tokuteasings for helping me brainstorm this idea.

credits to @asknarashikari​ as it was her prompt that gave me this idea. 

credits to @flaim-ita because she helped me figure out how to introduce Kamen Rider Decade to Keiwa. I used and modified her answer to the anon ask she responded to, and yes, the anon was my cousin XD

FFN I Ao3 

----------

"Sakura, could you call Narumi-san?" Yukimi called out to her daughter, who was studying by the waiting area.

"Do you want a case to be solved, mama?" Sakura questioned, curious why her mother was asking for a detective.

"Remember the celebrities you kids brought over a while ago?" Yukimi handed her phone to her daughter. "It seems like one of them is a Kamen Rider and I just received this video from someone I don't know."

"Eh, Neon-chan is?"

"What's wrong?" Ikki went out to the waiting area. "You want to speak with Terui-san's wife, Kaa-chan?"

"Ikki-nii, look at this."

Ikki and Sakura watched the video that was on their mother's phone. They're watching an artwork of a chibi woman announcing something about how one Kurama Neon was a product of the Goddess of Creation and how she replaced the deceased Kurama Akari.

"This reminds me of the time when we found out that Tou-chan has Giffu's cells." Ikki commented.

"This is very frustrating!" Sakura exclaimed.

"I'll call Terui-keiji and try to get his wife to come," Ikki volunteered. "I'm leaving this in your care, Sakura."

"Eh?"

"You can do this."

--------

"The Desire Grand Prix is a tournament for Kamen Riders in a bid to wish for their ideal world." A woman in pigtails narrated. "This is the fourth time where a tournament like this was held, the first one was with Kamen Rider Ryuki, The Second Time was with Kamen Rider Gaim, and the third time was with Kamen Rider Ex-Aid."

"Ryuki…" Sakura trailed off. "That seems familiar."

"Kamen Rider Ryuki – Kido Shinji, Kamen Rider Knight – Akiyama Ren, we met them sometime last year." Ikki called out from behind the wall.

"Eh, I don't remember." Sakura blurted out.

"Just don't mind it."

"I thought Kamen Riders are heroes?" Yukimi questioned as she processed the explanation the detective relayed.

"Not all Kamen Riders are heroes, Igarashi-san," Akiko shook her head.

"I also participated in the Desire Grand Prix once." Ikki contributed. "I know some of the Kamen Riders participating there."

"Eh? I don't remember that." Sakura looked at her brother in surprise.

"We met Kido-san and Akiyama-san during that Grand Prix." Ikki offered.

"Really?"

"Part of the Desire Grand Prix's operation is to erase the memories of everyone not involved in the Grand Prix but were caught in a crossfire."

"You won, didn't you, Ikki?" Yukimi looked at her son before she caressed her son's face.

Ikki nodded. "It's how I remember Vice."

"Since we're all involved with Kamen Riders, I don't think I will keep this a secret from you all," Akiko smiled. "I know why you called me here, Sakura-chan, it's about Neon-chan, isn't it?"

"How?"

"Apart from my reputable source, there's someone who takes pride in all-female Kamen Riders and she definitely did not like how Neon-chan was treated currently, she can't confront everyone involved on her own so she contacted everyone who she thought would best deal with the situation.

"Sakura!" Hana got inside the Igarashi's waiting area, out of breath, followed by an equally frazzled Daiji and Tamaki.

"You got a video about Neon-chan too?"

"If Hana-sama wants to help, I wa-"

"Let's leave this to them, Tamaki." Ikki swung his arms around the younger male.

"Sakura and the others can handle this." Daiji affirmed his brother's statement.

---------

Keiwa was sitting in his cell. Due to Ace's previous rampage, Michinaga postponed the third round of the game, which meant he stayed in the cell for the night.

He didn't know why, but Beroba and the others did not take his phone away, which meant he was also able to inform his sister that he won't be able to make it home for the night.

"Keiwa-kun, are you okay?"

"Eh? I-Igarashi-san?" Keiwa was surprised to see the other man outside his cell. "W-what are you doing here?"

"To get you out of here, of course."

"Y-you-"

"I don't know what Ace wrote on my desire card, but I didn't forget about the DGP."

"Neon-chan!"

"Don't worry about Neon-chan," Ikki smiled. "Now I need you to stand back for a bit."

Keiwa nodded as Ikki brandished a neon blue axe and pressed the Rex Vistamp on its stamp pad and hacked on the cell, cutting the cell's bars into pieces and created an opening for him to go through.

"We need to stay here until my sister arrives."

"Third Round of the Bullfighting Game starts." Beroba's voice could be heard in the room as a holographic screen graced Keiwa's and Ikki's presence. "Naa-go Vs. Rook. Fight!"

Neon was seen on the screen entering the battlefield and she was immediately attacked as soon as she stepped foot into the arena.

"Neon-chan."

Before Keiwa could even react two chains suddenly sprouted from the ground and restrained the attacking Jamato as the space behind Neon becomes distorted.

"So as we wait for Daiji and the others, here's a bento, my mom made it for you." Ikki handed Keiwa a bento, to which Keiwa bowed in gratitude.

"Thank you."

"Mom also insisted that we bring you a change of clothes." Ikki handed Keiwa a bag of clothes.

"You really didn't have to, getting me out of the cell was help enough."

"Don't mention it, mom wanted to be prepared in case things weren't favorable to you."

---------

"Chain Now."

"King Cobra."

"Queen Bee."

"Invincible Je-je-jeanne!"

"Aaaah – Aguilera!"

Blue and Orange streaks started attacking the restrained Jamato and none of them let up until the new Blue-Orange entity kicked the Jamato in the air.

A number of golden bees swarmed the Rook Jamato before it was blown away to a nearby wall from the explosion the swarm generated.

"Chain Now."

Another set of ice chains

"What's going on?!" Beroba demanded as the Jamato struggled to get up from the attack it just endured.

But a smirk appeared on the supporter's face.

Unbeknownst to the attackers, there was another enemy, it may have been discovered by Tycoon and Geats, but Beroba doubted that the latter was able to inform Naa-go about it.

Suddenly behind the Blue-Orange, Gold-Blue, and White-Orange attackers, another Jamato phased through the floor in an attempt to wound Neon as she stood behind her saviors.

"Not on my watch!" Another person, this time someone wearing brown with red accents with an orange helmet stepped in front of Neon and placed her hand on her belt.

"Barrier Now!"

An intricately-patterned barrier appeared in front of the warrior and defended both Neon and herself from the Jamato.

The Blue-Orange warrior used the dreadlocks on their helmet and bound the Jamato with it and threw it towards the other Jamato that they just defeated.

"Why yo-"

"Blizzard now." The warrior with the orange helmet froze the two Jamato together, rendering both immobile.

A zipper appeared above Michinaga and Daichi, as they were about to attack the invading force, released vines that bound both men in mid-air.

"Wha-" Beroba immediately retrieved her Laser Raise Riser but another tendril of vine stopped her from equipping her Laser Raise Riser with her Rise Cartridge." Jamato? How?!"

"These are not your Jamatos, these are Helheim's plants."

The grip the vines had on Beroba's hands tightened forcing her to drop her weapon and transformation trinkets as a woman in white with yellow hair descended from the open zipper the vines came from.

"Noroshi Muchuu!"

Smoke enveloped Neon and before anyone could react, she was suddenly in front of Beroba with another warrior wearing brown and gold armor.

"What are you going to do, Kurama Neon-chan?" Beroba taunted. "No, Kurama Akari Nigou-chan?"

A resounding slap echoed through the arena.

Beroba wasn't facing Neon anymore as the force of the slap forced her to look to the side.

"How dare you?" Neon's voice whimpered as she struggled to hold back her tears. "How dare you tell that story on Akari-chan's birthday, on my birthday!" She yelled.

"I live for the people's suffering, bleh." Beroba stuck out her tongue, proud of what she just said.

"Right, We're all just entertainment for you," Neon took a deep breath and turned her back on the woman responsible for everything that had gone wrong. "Berobaa-san."

"How da- How dare you call me that?!" Beroba's lost her composure as she struggled against her restraints. "You, you, you person! You were only created by the goddess's power!"

"The future must be full of dumb people, no offense to the other supporters." Neon continued her spiel ignoring the ballistic woman, struggling against the vines that restrained her.

"Do not ignore me you fake!" Beroba continued to struggle against her bonds.

"How come Neon-chan?" The blonde woman in white asked as she smiled at the youngest woman in the group as flicked her wrists and tightened her hold on the captives.

"If the time they came from is our future then that would mean that destroying our present would erase their time," Neon as she faced the three people in the Jamato faction. "That also means that you both are dumb Michinaga, Isuzu."

"Do not ignore memphfff"

Vines sprouted from Beroba's restraints and gagged the already-restrained woman leaving only aggressive sounds from her.

Michinaga clicked his tongue.

"I'm smarter than you'll ever be, spoilt fake princess." Daichi retorted

"My existence may be a fake, but I still made my life, what about you, Isuzu?" Neon smiled sweetly. "You never figured out that I was the Dezastar."

"What has got that outdated game have to do with this?"

"That you may think you're smart but you're actually dumb," Neon shrugged. "You know who did figure it out? It was the person who you framed in the very first round."

"No, that's impossible!"

"Unlike you, Keiwa observed and worked with every information he got," Neon smiled. "Which means he's a lot smarter than you."

"He got it wrong the first ti-."

"Sae-san was covering for me." Neon cut off Daichi's sentence. "That and he figured it out because he actually knew me, knew Ace and me for him to be confident in his deduction, which you wouldn't have figured out because all you got were superficial information.

"Are you telling me, friendship made him able to figure it out? Don't make me laugh!"

"I didn't really think someone dumb like you could ever understand."

"Du-"

Vines covered Daichi's mouth, muffling his next words.

"Who cares if it's your future, it's still free entertainment." Beroba giggled.

The woman in white raised an eyebrow at the remains of the vines that were used to gag her.

"Looks like I was right, you are indeed dumb, Berobaa-san." Neon smiled.

Beroba glared at Neon but she didn't explode as she did earlier.

"She has a point." The ethereal woman agreed as she chuckled at how humorously dull the woman was. "Well, maybe not as dumb as the scientist who wanted to destroy the universe without thinking that he'd be destroyed alongside it."

"Aah! That's right!" The Blue-Orange and White-Orange warriors pointed at each other as they figured out what Neon was talking about.

"Indeed," The Blue-Gold warrior nodded.

"This has gone on long enough." The brown warrior slammed the hilt of her sword onto each of the enemy's necks, knocking them unconscious.

Well except for one.

"Don't tell me."

"Yes, we are all Kamen Riders here." Everyone de-transformed out of their Rider suits and revealed their identities to everyone present, well revealed their physical appearance to everyone.

"Well not all of us," The ethereal woman chirped in.

"Eh, close enough, Mai-chan." Another woman walked out of the distorted space below. "You are Kouta-kun's equivalent after all and he's Kamen Rider Gaim."

"Why thank you, Natsumi-chan." The woman – Mai – expressed her gratitude for the praise.

"Tch." Michinaga clicked his tongue once more.

"Get this over with," He growled.

"There is still a chance, Michinaga." Neon offered.

Michinaga used all of his strength to roll his sleeve up and show everyone the moss and grass that grew on his hand.

"Whatever chance you're talking about, doesn't exist," Michinaga growled. "I only live solely to destroy every Kamen Rider."

"Good luck with that." The woman who just exited the distorted space before it fizzled out of existence laughed.

"I must agree."

"Tch."

----------

"Enjoying ourselves?"

The space in the hallway distorted and out came a man in Magenta followed by people in blue carrying guns.

"They're clever, installing a barrier to prevent anyone from entering." The man in pink hummed. "How you got here before us, Revi, is a mystery."

"I asked Natsumi-san the entrance to this place and waited for Neon-chan to get inside." Ikki informed." I timed my entrance with Neon-chan's so that I could get in."

"That's why Live mentioned you immediately ran off."

"Thank you for helping us save Keiwa, Kadoya."

"Think nothing of it, Revi." The man – Kadoya shook his head. "It was a favor from Natsumikan." He casually pointed at the woman who exited the distorted space on the screen.

"Mou nii-chan, you didn't have to rush here, we would have gotten here eventually."

"I know, but someone needed my help." Ikki rubbed the back of his neck.

"Well that's how you are nii-chan, I guess it couldn't be helped."

"There's still some time before the ladies will be done with Beroba, Nadge-Sparrow, and Buffa." Kadoya announced. "You can have your men do some routine check-ups on Tycoon, Live."

Daiji merely nodded before gesturing for one of his men to check on Keiwa.

"Ano, what did they mean about 'Good Luck' when Michinaga stated his sole reason to live?" Keiwa couldn't help but ask as he was ordered to remove his shirt, revealing some untreated bruises he got when he fought in the first round and lost to cheaters.

Kadoya scoffed as he watched the girls give Neon some comforting hugs on screen.

"The last time a Rider tried to kill all others was me," He gave wistful smile. "It took months, with far less of us."

Keiwa looked at Kadoya with a look of abject horror, inching slightly backward from the man in pink.

He then stared at Ikki, as if prompting the man to explain himself.

"He got better?" Ikki offered, still not sure of the stories he heard from the other Kamen Riders he had met, least of all Kadoya himself.

"Who are you?" Keiwa couldn't help but ask as he gulped saliva.

"Depends on what you want from me." Kadoya hummed as he snapped a photo of the rescued man's distressed state.

"A name would be nice."

The man looked Keiwa in the eyes.

"Kadoya Tsukasa," The man in magenta ��� Kadoya Tsukasa, said. "I'm just a passing through Kamen Rider… and destroyer of worlds."

Keiwa could only gulp as he realized how much of a folly Michinaga's wish was.

"Don't worry about it, like nii-chan said, he got better." Daiji offered, even when he shared his brother's feelings about Kadoya.

----------

Natsumi, Akiko, Mai, Mayu, Yaiba, Reika, Sakura, Hana, and Neon were at the lounge area of the Igarashi's bath house, enjoying their time together. They were wearing the bathhouse's yukatas and drinking milk.

"You know had Natsumi-san not contacted me, I wouldn't have known that there's another Rider Battle tournament going on." Mai, who now has black hair and is dressed in a simple shirt and blue hoodie, stated. "Even if I don't really consider what happened in Zawame as a Rider Battle."

"So, Kamen Rider…" Neon trailed off. "They have always existed?"

"Since the 70s," Natsumi answered. "At least in this world."

"In this world?" Sakura asked.

"Parallel Worlds," Akiko offered. "Not that my source really knows a lot about it, every time we are presented with options there is a world where we chose the other option."

"That makes sense, the Gaia Library wouldn't have that much information about other worlds."

"Gaia library?" Reika questioned. "Is that like the libraries we have at the Sword of Logos?"

"Close," Natsumi answered. "However I won't be saying much, people would kill for access to that information."

"Understandable." Reika nodded.

"So there is a world where I was sacrificed for Giff." Hana hummed to herself.

"Or a world where I became like my nee-san." Mayu stated off-handedly.

"I find that not thinking of our parallel selves is beneficial for all of us," Akiko offered. "After all we are living our lives in the present."

"That's why you don't have to pay attention to the words of the people in the future," Natsumi looked Neon in the eyes. "No matter what they say, you are a Kamen Rider, you deserve to be one."

"You've visited that time period, haven't you, Natsumi-san?"

"Yes and it wasn't pretty," Natsumi shook her head. "I would even say it's worse than the world where Sougo-kun was Ohma Zi-O" He sighed. "The reason I was even aware of what was happening in the first place was that I was there when Beroba made the announcement."

"That bad, huh?" Akiko commented.

"Sougo-kun… You mean Tsukuyomi-san's friend?" Sakura asked.

"It's better if we don't think that far away, ourselves," Yukimi stated. "We just focus on the now and live our lives in the present."

"Are you a Kamen Rider too, Igarashi-san?" Neon couldn't help but ask the mother of the group.

"No, I am a proud wife and mother of Kamen Riders, and that's enough for me."

"Don't let her fool you!" Sakura responded almost immediately. "Mama is strong!"

Everyone just laughed at the outburst.

As everyone continued to enjoy their time Kyuun was outside the Igarashi bathhouse, eavesdropping on the conversation that happened as he looked at his Laser Raise Riser before walking away.

#kamen rider geats #kamen rider decade #kamen rider revice #neon kurama #kurama neon #igarashi sakura #igarashi ikki #inamori mayu #takatsukasa mai #hikari natsumi #kadoya tsukasa #story #deserve #shindai reika #yaiba yua #natsuki hana #igarashi yukimi

[freaky-flawless]

So I Got Cleo's G3 Doll

Here's my thoughts under the cut. Just wanna put a disclaimer that I am someone who doesn't consider themself a fan of Gen 3, but is keeping an open mind. So just keep that in mind as you read, I am biased and do compare her to the G1 dolls, but I try to give credit where credit is due.

Like I said previously, I love the doll itself. Her face up is pretty (mine does have a slight imperfection, but its subtle enough that I'm not bothered by it), her hair is pretty, her skin tone and the shimmer they added to it are beautiful. I love her new body as well, though I do wish her torso and neck were a little longer. Specifically I love her big ears and hands. I do like G1 Cleo's hand pose a little bit more, but overall her new hands are great, and because they're bigger they're easier to remove. And finally, this will probably be an unpopular opinion, but I could do without the chest articulation in place of something else, like a doll stand.

I can't say much on the quality of her hair as it's not something I'm all that knowledgeable about. All I can say is that it feels more...plasticy? Compared to her G1 doll's hair. I'm having a hard time getting it to stay flat. I also think it's kinda odd that they seemingly made it a point to give all the dolls long brushable hair, but didn't provide brushes. Don't get me wrong, I have an abundance of Monster High brushes and don't need any more, but kids brand new to the series don't. And as someone with nieces, I can say for sure that they love brushing doll hair. I feel like doll stands and hair brushes are pretty standard things for dolls to come with nowadays, especially at that price range.

I'm very amused at how much she looks like Nefera, in the sense that the two of them look even more related than G1 Cleo and Nefera. It does look to me as though they took more inspiration from Nefera's G1 design more than Cleo's, which is interesting. I also discovered that Nefera's shoes, though they don't fit, match G3 Cleo's outfit pretty well, aside from the black in them.

Speaking of G3 Cleo's outfit...that's where my biggest disappointment lies.

I haven't exactly been subtle about my dislike for her boots. They don't go with the style of her dress, and overall I think giving a character who grew up in a hot desert climate boots is a super weird choice. On top of that I don't find them to be flattering on her new leg molds. Her calves are much thicker now, and adding thick boots to them really accentuates it and makes her look slightly awkward and disproportionate. However the actual quality of them is pretty good. There's a decent amount of detail, and I appreciate that the slit in the back of them doesn't go all the way up so they can't lose their shape, which is actually an issue I have with a couple G1 dolls. I would say the same for her accessories, they're well detailed and the paint job on them is really nice.

Her dress is where things take a nosedive. I think before I was so distracted by how much I disliked her boots that I didn't pay that much attention to her dress. But now that I have her and have felt the material I'm really disappointed by it. I don't know what material was used to make it, but I can assure it's plastic and pretty cheap feeling. Compared to G1 Cleo's clothes it feels like a cheap costume. I will say this material is probably more play proof, but I do have G1 Cleo's basic outfit, which is over ten years old by now, and her jumpsuit still looks brand new, and the material is so soft. It feels like real clothes. And compared to other modern doll lines the quality of her dress is kinda embarrassing. They couldn't have used a nicer material?? And aside from that, she has this new beautiful body mold, I would have really hoped that they'd have given her an outfit to accentuate it a bit more, like Draculaura's does.

Interestingly, I think her outfit in the show and on the box art would look better on her doll, and her doll's outfit would look better on her 3D model.

tldr; the doll is gorgeous, she should have come with a brush and a doll stand, her accessories are well detailed, and the quality of her dress is cheap.



#monster high #monster high dolls #monster high g3 #cleo de nile #debating if i should add pictures but i feel like there are already so many going around that it feels unnecessary #really hope they release fashion packs ghoulie needs a new outfit #other than her outfit i do really like her #and she looks so good next to nefera its wild #i thought the new dolls heads were bigger but they're actually not #i think it's just because of their new big ears and eyes that it looked that way #text post

[haysprite]

What if the Legion had a rival group :0 basically it's a group full of popular kids were they would be the opposite of the legion. There would be the captain of the basketball team, the head cheerleader, the class president and the richest kid in school and the Legion hates them a lot. (This is before the entity of course)

Hm, I feel like it's a neat concept, but probably needs to be expanded a lot more? I feel like having a group of four other kids that contrasts them feels a bit,,, I dunno, a bit off-putting to me ? I guess forced, in a sense, but that's just cause I'm personally not one for a lot of story cliches. BUT I see where you're coming from, so I hope you don't mind if I tweak the concept ! (Btw I hope you know that I don't dislike your original idea at all, anon, my lil writer brain just kicked into high gear and wanted to expand and talk about it in regard to my personal HCs! I'd genuinely love to hear more about your original idea and HCs around it!)

The Legion has been shown to have a heavy distaste towards authority, cowards, and people who believe they're better than others (mentioned esp in Julie's Tome and flavor text in game). So, I feel like instead of just having a sole main rival group, they'd just have beef with either whole cliques within Ormond (esp at Fairview) or single people here and there that just irk them the wrong way. And lets be real, if one of them has beef with somebody, that means all four of em do.

Also, I feel like having beef with mainly the popular kids doesn't always fit, since I feel like a good chunk of them were still kind or good people (though I'm assuming you directly ment rude ones idk?)! Esp since I personally think that Julie is possibly more popular than I think we give her credit for, due to the fact that she hosted a shit ton of parties and was probably thought very highly of for them. Idk if this matters much in this context, but I still wanted to throw this out there. They all just hated whoever rubbed them the wrong way more than anything else.

For instance, Frank and the basketball team! Despite his ✨natural charm✨, he still had those teammates that he fuckin hated and that hated him back, and I do feel like the leader woulda been one of em! With Frank's love for being the center of attention and I'm assuming leadership, he'd naturally wanna take charge, leading to arguments n shit with the actual leader (or other teammates due to them not wanting to listen to him). This would also lead to hatred towards the basketball coach due to possible favoritism towards the leader, feeling like he's been tossed to the side despite his obvious skills. This might be what led him to shove that referee during one of his games as well (this is also the point where I feel like he dropped out, but that's a HC for another day :3c).

They all hate most of the cheerleaders due to the bullying that a chunk of em have put Susie through. I feel like there was a lil clique within the cheerleaders, namely the ones in Susie's own grade, that just targeted a lot of girls they deemed as "weird" or "different", and Susie just so happened to be one of those poor gals :( There were probably a lot of girls outside of the cheerleaders that were still a part of this clique as well, so it just boils down to whichever bitchy chicks at school treated Susie like shit.

In terms of a Class President or your average rich kids, I just feel like they'd be part of their own lil cliques, and whether the Legion hated them or not just highly depends on their personal interactions with them. Class President (and other SBO fellas), maybe, since they'd probably view them as a sort of authority figure of sorts, or a teachers pet. Rich kids, I dunno, I'd feel like it stems more out of jealously than anything else unless they do nothing but flaunt their shit ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

I feel like Joey personally keeps out of a lot of school related drama n whatnot (only gets involved if he needs to back another member up), and a lot of his problems typically stem from his jobs. Shit coworkers, rude customers, all that fun stuff, so he tends to focus more on them than anything else.

I guess where I'm going at is they just,,, Have shit with a lot of people, so I just feel like it's harder to pin point a main group of em that they hate (⁠-⁠_⁠-⁠;⁠)

Tbh, I personally wanna explore the idea of who the Legion DID like or tolerate within Ormond. They obviously kept to their own lil group, ofc, but there's gotta be people that they refused to pick on. Jeff defo was one of them when he still lived in Ormond, he was a chill guy that they enjoyed talking to, esp Joey. But who else, is the question 🤔 And also what is their definition of a coward, as well? I personally feel like it isn't in regard to people who struggled to stand up for themselves (honestly, I feel like they'd have a wee bit of sympathy to people like this, since it's basically hurting someone who genuinely didn't do anything wrong and can't fight back), but more so in regard to people who hid behind lies or other people to protect their asses. Idk, random Cherry Thought of the Day™ ig 😋

I feel like I went all over the fucking place here, but hopefully it made at least some sense 🛐 Also, like I said before, I'd love to hear your personal thoughts and ideas, Anon, since I'm just one singular idiot that over thinks this shit lmfao <3

[nateriverswife]

Misa and light stans annoy me so much thank god there’s sane people in this fandom

i agree with the sentiment, because that was me while navigating again the fandom last year, but not in a general way, because I know reasonable people that like them as characters and are genuinely nice. there is a specific type of Light and Misa stans that get on my nerves:

Light stans that feel entitled to the canon and think they have some sort of authoritative power over the narrative, like their interpretation of Light or the events around him is THE interpretation, formally cosigned by the authors. unfortunately, they are the 80% of Light stans and for a reason i won't say but I think it’s obvious, they monopolize a lot of discussions. I often refrain myself from using "hive mind" but sometimes it feels like that, based on how people interact even with my content, like I've seen people liking my posts and then come back to reblog it only after a popular blog did that. It feels a bit weird and sad, because that means that a lot of content (not talking about mine, because I know that what I post caters only to a small group of people) won't be considered "worthy" of sharing unless there's someone else they trust to approve it, like can’t you think for yourself and decide if you want to reblog something regardless of how many notes it has or if your favourite blog gave it the thumbs up? this went from light stans to fandom dynamics but oh well

Misa stans that treat her like a baby that can do no wrong. I understand it an unironic way (i do this constantly with my favourites), but when you are trying to have a serious discussion and they just say something along the lines of "she was just being silly", i get so fucking annoyed and makes ME overprotective over her character, like get away from her. she deserves better than to be treated as a caricature. I have to give credit where credit is due: there was this lawmane analysis on my feed because i think one or maybe two of my mutuals ship them and i liked it. i didn't agree with at all but i was genuinely impressed by it, because i finally came across something serious and interesting about her for once. i don't engage anymore in any discussion around her character unless people ask me something in my inbox, so i don't know how things changed recently but it seems to me that most people that like her treat her only as a pretty face and not an actual character that can be criticised or praised for what she did (like i think she is good at disguising herself, but she's also a murderer for selfish reasons).

#dn.inbox #don't know if i should expect some form of negative response because i think it's very hard to deny this and say it's not true #or maybe it's just me and my sociology degree. who knows

[aaliyg]

**on a fatass hiatus**

Welcome! Here's everything you need to know about my place 🤎

a little bit about me

Name: Aaliyah (or Alz for short either one is fine 🤎)

Pronouns: she/her

Sexuality: Bisexual (with a preference to women)

Race: Black (specifically Afro-Caribbean)

Star Sign: ♒Aquarius♒

Hobbies: Writing, Reading, Singing, Gaming

Fav Music Genre: RnB all the way (mainly new school RnB tho)

Fav Movie Genre: anything but Horror. Slashers are fine but Horror....just no

Fav Book Genre(s): Romance, Comedy, Fantasy, and Mystery

Aight on to the nitty gritty

(the more y'all wanna fuck around, the longer this list gets <3)

**If you want to be added to my taglist, you can either send an ask or dm me (I'll read them...eventually😅)**

general housekeeping

DO’s

You are free to do whatever with my writings, just give credit where credit is due <3

You can request for me to write about any characters listed here

I don't necessarily plan to write for celebs that much, but I'm open to doing so

DONT’s

(instant block if you break any of these)

Please don’t DM me about sexual topics. Just because I write smut, doesn’t mean you can come out of left field like that you know?

MINORS PLEASE DO NOT INTERACT you’re not as cool as you think you are -_-

writing rules

**I have every right to deny requests that I either don’t think I can write well, or that rub me the wrong way**

(keep in mind that all of my reader inserts are black and feminine. If you don’t like it, don’t read it)

WILL WRITE

Anyone in the character list here

I’m open to cross-fandom fics as well! (two characters maximum)

Any female character that is 18+ in the canon lore (aged up AU’s irk me)

Any female celebrity that is of course 18+

I'm open to writing headcanons UwU

Although this IS mainly a smut blog, I’m open to writing fluff :)

WON’T WRITE

Incest

Extreme Violence

Knifeplay & Gunplay

Anything having to do with bl00d, or any other bodily fluids (ya nasties)

Angst

R@pe/Non-con/Dubcon etc

Anything containing characters/people who are 17 and below

Huge age gaps (the widest I’ll write is three years)

Anything including men

**I have every right to deny requests that I either don’t think I can write well, or that rub me the wrong way**

#masterpost #introductions #do's and don'ts #rules #house rules

[dearcat1]

(Business)

Part 75 of Sofia

This man is an idiot, Sofia thinks, with something like bemusement.

Or he isn't and knows it all too well, which is the problem. He's smarter than most, Sofia gives him that, but it's made him arrogant. He's used to being one step ahead, to getting away with most of his schemes. This one is ambitious but so effective, for as long as it lasts. After all, what better way to promote his own assassination squad than this? Sofia's presence at his feet says his people could steal from Vongola's Assassination Squad. The Varia are meant to be whispered in fearful low voices, their name is meant to induce terror. And yet here she is.

He knows how to put on a show, knows how to give the perfect presentation. He dressed her in a flowy, matte grey dress. It contrasts with the paleness of her skin, brings out her hair and the eyeliner, though subtle, makes her pale brown eyes pop. She looks like the sort of prize her tutor intended her to be and this Don is making sure it's clear for all to see. Sofia thinks she could like the dress, in a different circumstance. As it is, she kneels quietly on the floor for the third time this week and refuses to acknowledge the coldness in the room.

"You have to give the Commander this," the Don curls his fingers in her hair. "He knows how to pick them."

"And train them, I'm guessing." This day's client says, reaching for her but thinking better of it. "Or did you?"

"No." The Don laughs, lighting his cigarette. "Credit where credit is due. You see what I mean, though, don't you?"

"What I see is a dead man walking," the new man squirms, voice firm but definitely younger. Sofia wishes she could look up and see. "Vongola will hunt you down, the Varia will find you. They say the Commander is fond of his pet."

"You worry too much." The old man waves his hand, "Vongola has other problems. They'll forget this omega soon enough and it won't be easy to track us, regardless."

"Vongola, maybe." The man shifts in his seat, his foot tapping rhythmically against the floor. "The Varia? No. They don't forget. But if you live long enough to finish the contract, that's fine by me."

"I'll just have to prove you wrong." His anger doesn't show on his voice, but his fingers are tight on her hair. "Let's get to business, then. Who do you want dead?"

"Not dead," the client sits back. "Information."

"We're an assassination group, we don't do spying." The Don lets her hair go, his voice going tenser still. "Don't waste my time."

"Don't waste mine either." The client gestures to her, "no Mist on your employ is skilled enough for this. No, you had help. There's only one famiglia both with the talent and desperate enough to be persuaded into this."

"The Estraneo." The Don shakes his cigarette and she ignores how the ash falls on her arm. "What of it?"

"Have them find information about the Millefiore and we'll pay for the hits of all their informants in our territory." The client leans forward. "How about that?"

"Now we're talking business," the old Don taps her cheek. "Off you go, girl."

Sofia rises to her feet, walking calmly out the door and making no sound when the brute grabs her by the arm. They'll die for this, she thinks, and it helps her bite her tongue. Brute, as she keeps calling him, is fond of being overly rough with Sofia. He'll drag her back to her cell, literally if she happens to stumble, but Sofia doesn't mind. She busies herself with committing anything that seems even remotely important to memory. She'll let Xanxus know, everything she sees and hears, Xanxus will know too. Soon enough.

#fanfiction #khr #katekyo hitman reborn #xanxus #oc #a/b/o #sofia au