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zaenaris · 4 months

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Anime-only adaptations I really enjoyed

I really loved how the anime staff pour their love in the flashback and in the parts where the characters are described the most (bc, in the end, TR is a story driven by characters, not plot), so yeah, kudos for the kokonui, kakuiza and Kisaki centric parts that were not in thee manga and that were added as a ponderate choice by the anime team.

In chronological order

When Takemichi calls him with his nickname "Kaku-chan", Kakucho hesitates before killing him, while in the manga (ch.134) when Izana orders him to kill Takemichi, he just does it with no mercy. The result is the same, but in the anime we saw Kakucho's struggle

The parts about Koko and Inupi, their past and their fight (2x21 or ep.8 of the 2nd coure of S2). It is a very emotional and crude part also in the manga, but in the anime, thanks to some changes/adaptations/voice acting and music, manages to be even more emotional and impactful, while remaining faithful to the manga. That's how an adaptation should be done

First of all, the kiss

while, story-wise, it's clear the kiss is not fanservice, but an important moment to understand their past and their complicated relationship, no one can deny the anime kiss looks even more passionate than the manga version

Among the people that approached Koko in the manga for money reasons, only Izana and Taiju were mentioned (ch.159), meanwhile in the manga, besides them, were added also Madarame Shion - an anime only addition-

and the Haitani Brothers, as a nod to Wakui's birthday art for Koko

I already talked about it here and partially here but, in short, I like how the anime underlines even better that Koko considers himself unredeemable and incapable of detach his own identity to make money illegally

and honestly, peak adaptation: the transition to younger Koko to Tenjiku!Koko saying the same line, to make us understand that Koko still feels incredibly guilty about the past...

... and the fact both Inupi and Koko cry in this scene, a moment that there wasn't in the manga and that was an incredibly beautiful and touching addition

but while manga!Koko -ch.159- at this point is just resigned and "colder" in his decision to stay with Tenjiku, just like also manga!Inupi already calmed down, anime!Inupi is both fed up with the situation but willing to makes things right and very determined..

while anime!Koko is destroyed, he doesn't even stand up when Inupi punches him (I already talked about it here)

the little addition of Kakucho in the flashback when Shinichiro goes to say hi to Izana to take him out with him. Izana's favourite people "interacting" was nice (too bad the animation quality was a little meh in this episode, but I understand we can't have peak quality all the time)

Kakucho with Izana when he finds again Karen by chance and she tells his she's not his biological mother and he's not related to any of the Sano. It the manga Izana was alone, adding Kakucho was nice because the situation is still terrible, Izana sees his whole world collapsing on himself, but at least he has Kakucho

last one, Kisaki's "I wanted to be like you" that humanizes him a little. In the manga his death was quick and brutal. We can understands, reading the manga, he had this superiority/inferiority complex towards Takemichi, but the anime explains it more clearly (I talked a bit about it here )

Maybe there's something else that was an anime-only adaptation that made sense, even improved the already existent narration, but I probably don't remember it. These are the ones that imho, are the most important both for the characters and the narration.

I love how Liden Film followed faithfully the story but added "more heart" to it, that's what a good adaptation should do

#tokyo revengers #kisaki tetta #kokonoi hajime #inui seishu #izana kurokawa #kakucho hitto #kakuiza #kokonui #inukoko #sano shinichiro #zae talks about tr #anime manga comparison #zaenaris #haitani brothers #haitani rindou #haitani ran #hanagaki takemichi

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mechanical-aristocrat · 4 months

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[OOC:]

Okay I think I'm ready to talk about that leaked light cone now:

I can criticize the potential continuity error it creates all I want, but god fucking damn it this image is too compelling for me to be even a little bit angry.

THIS is how you do a fucking light cone, THIS is how you take advantage of the inherently interesting concept behind them to deliver a deeper level of characterization. Very few other light cones in the game do that anywhere near as well as this one does, and I'm going to try my best to explain why. (although forgive me if I'm still a bit scatterbrained, this image makes me so goddamn emotional that it's genuinely difficult to think clearly)

It seems very safe to assume this is depicting Screwllum soon after he became sentient, experiencing the beauty of life and existence for the first time. The thing is, it isn't an entirely positive experience; he's noticeably damaged with moss, plants, and fungi growing all over him, which can't be comfortable (just imagining what that must feel like makes my skin crawl). He was probably left in this forest by some one (or some thing) that didn't give a singular fuck about him, that wanted him to deteriorate and be forgotten about.

And yet, his body language and the overall tone of the piece suggests that he doesn't mind. He's incredibly calm (the butterflies wouldn't be there if he wasn't, he's made himself a safe place for them to rest), looking at the viewer as if the "camera" has placed us in the POV of a small woodland creature, the way his head is tilted to the side implying a sense of curiosity and/or fascination.

The tone of this image and of the character as a whole is one of awe and wonder that doesn't shy away from the negatives. It's what makes Screwllum the perfect foil to Emperor Rupert I, because while they both began their sentience in a similar manner, abandoned by a cold and uncaring universe and left to rot, Rupert was consumed by its hatred and motivated by revenge, whereas Screwllum was able to see life for what it was, imperfect but worth cherishing.

The most impressive part about it, however, is that all of this can be inferred without even having access to the light cone's name or lore description (at least as far as I'm aware). The light cones I would have considered my favorites previously, "Something Irreplaceable" and "Shared Feeling", partially rely on the descriptions to be compelling, especially with the former example because the description is honestly my favorite part. The visual storytelling in this leak is on fucking point, and I can't wait to read the description because it'll probably make me love it even more than I already do.

Screwllum nation is winning with this.

#also I saw a couple people in the comment section of the reddit post comparing it to the Iron Giant #which...holy fucking shit yeah they're right #that explains a lot about most of my comfort characters actually. robots built for war Choosing to be forces of kindness and love is just..#GOD it's so fucking good #(for context The Iron Giant is my favorite movie of all time and it has been since I was like 8 #if you've never seen it before go watch it it's amazing)#honkai star rail #screwllum #honkai star rail leaks #ooc | out of character #hcs | headcanons

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pessimisticpigeonsworld · 2 months

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https://www.tumblr.com/rise-my-angel/740720343328686080/the-new-hotd-trailer-has-reminded-me-how-badly?source=share.

1. Jaehaera was not raped...

2. Rhaenyra was having a breakdown on Dragonstone after learning about Luke's death when she received Daemon's letter stating that he would avenge Luke (the letter doesn't even explain how he would avenge Luke). How is that her fault?

3. Aegon is also a rapist in the books, it's not an invention by the writers.

"Who are you?" [Helaena] demanded of the two. "Debt collectors," said Cheese. "An eye for an eye, a son for a son. We only want the one, t' square things. Won't hurt the rest o' you fine folks, not one lil' hair. Which one to you want t' lose Your Grace?" Cheese warned the queen to make a choice soon, before Blood grew bored and raped her little girl. Strange to say, the ratcatcher and the butcher were true to their word. They did no further harm to Queen Helaena and her surviving children. (Fire and Blood: The Dying of the Dragons - A Son for a Son)

You're right anon, Jaehaera was never raped, it was only threatened to hurry Helaena along. I don't understand why TG stans want to add to this event so badly, it's already horrific. It's actions like that which show how GRRM is once again choosing to have morally gray protagonists. TB is in the right about the Dance and who they're supporting, but that doesn't mean their heroes or even morally good in their actions.

It's interesting how op decided to complain that Aegon might be portrayed as incompetent. Aegon was incompetent in the book, so incompetent he was murdered by his own supporters. He's remembered as being one of the most useless kings of Westeros. Saying they're going to dumb him down to make Rhaenyra look better shows how op has never read the book, or even Aegon's wiki lmao.

Further proving my point is the stupidly blind argument of how Aegon "isn't a rapist in the book". The delusion of the TG stans is neverending.

I think the most incredible take in this post is how apparently, in the eyes of op, Criston isn't an incel in season one?? Did we watch the same show? Criston makes the immediate turn to hating Rhaenyra and literally killing people associated with her family after she rejects him. He makes hating her his entire personality for the whole ass show once she refuses to run away with him. He thinks he's entitled to Rhaenyra's entire life and body just because she slept with him once. He's the definition of an incel, go cry about it greenies.

B&C was done without Rhaenyra's knowledge or approval, as you said. Daemon acted on his own (he is a true gray character). She was separated from Daemon when he made his choice, so she had even less control over what he did. Added to that is how Rhaenyra was busy with other fronts of the war and negotiating, how can she be expected to micromanage her husband?

Now, while the original post was written I think before Condal started teasing the whole "people will want to switch sides", the reblog definitely wasn't. Condal has revealed that he plans to make the audience sympathize with the greens more this season. Which is why it makes no sense why the poster who reblogged believes they will make the greens appear worse. They're already making excuses for Aegon raping serving girls, trying to make Alicent be completely innocent of her team's actions, and making Aemond "accidentally" kill Luke.

The show is already so obviously TG, they even aged up Rhaenyra and aged down Alicent to control who the audience sympathizes with. TG stans are just bitter that even the intense white washing can't cover up how in the wrong TG is.

Alicent is totally at least partially to blame for B&C. In the book, she was the head of the green faction and constantly plotted to usurp Rhaenyra, thus causing the war. In both the show and the book, Alicent raised her children to view their nephews as subhuman. She instilled the hatred of them into Aemond long before the Driftmark incident. She's the one who constantly affirmed to them that Aegon is the rightful heir and Rhaenyra is a murderous whore. Alicent bears the blame for what happened to her family just as much as Aegon, Otto, and Aemond.

#anti team green stans #anti team green #anti alicent hightower #anti aegon ii targaryen #team black #house of the dragon #anti ryan condal #rhaenyra targaryen #asoiaf #anti criston cole #daemon targeryan #blood and cheese

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spigobath · 4 months

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thoughts about the prime defenders friendship and their dynamic with each other? :>

Okay honestly?? I think all of the PD characters have such good chemistry with each other- Like not romantically, but their relationships are so complex. Like you look at one of them, and how they act and treat others, and their moral compass and their goals, and it's like wow!! I think across all of the jrwi campaigns, the prime defenders have the most in-depth and most thought out interactions. Like you can tell that everyone loved their characters so much, and put tons of time and effort into them.

As a Dakota fan, I fucking love how he treats those around him. I love how somehow, the most battle hungry prime defender, the local idiot, is so incredibly smart and mature. The way he handles situations may be naive- But they way he handles his friends is so loving. During the shit show of belltech, the way he said that yes, I'm upset, but you guys are my friends, and i care about you, and I can see you are going through something, and we will talk later when you are okay. Like Dakota would not hesitate to drop someone he likes, or doubt someone he knows. He was willing to fight Doug because he betrayed his trust. And he was also willing to fight Doug because he knew Doug.

William's rationale for how he treats those around him too is also something I love. The way they are so much more energetic than him, and the way he won't try to match it but will tolerate it. The way he will step up, be their leader, their brains, and still somehow be an idiot because it's them, and he doesn't have to make the difficult calls all of the time. After Belltech, William was distraught, because he realized not only that he hurt his friends- But that he was going to hurt his best friends. That the relationships he has carefully managed were going to die because he wasn't careful. The way he much rather leave instead of hurt him, shut himself off instead of tell them- It's a weird way of saying "I love you," but it's William's.

And then Vynce. I can't wait for s3 when Condi writes him more, because he's already so good. He's a character so afraid of loss to the point he holds on and holds on tight, and he plays a clueless mediator half the time. He lost his father, lost his friends, his family, his home- But he found something better. Since I'm using Belltech as an example- I wonder if Vyncent ever looked at William and saw his father. Saw someone ready to betray the world for someone he cares about, to be protective in the most destructive way possible. I wonder how far Vynce's love for William and Dakota goes. I love his I'm sorry, I did the wrong thing, I won't leave you again, I won't let you fall, and all of his concerns and worries and careful love he places in the prime defenders. The family he found.

I think I've said it before, but I think William is like a shooting star (or a comet), he is something constantly falling and tumbling and he is burning with it all. He is something so beautiful in his decent and that in itself is dangerous. Vyncent is like a firework- Much more explosive, but can you turn away from the shock of it going off? As it pollutes the sky it never really belonged in, as it bursts with every emotion at once. And Dakota is either that very sky they are in, framing their fury and love and misery, or he is a fire extinguisher waiting and ready to put them out, to save them when they go too far. Or maybe he is something just like them, like the volcano they fell in, grumbling and rising around them, something just as destructive, more destructive. Something patient.

Now if you were asking about Relationships relationships between each other? I'm partial to Ghostknife- But honestly, I don't care if they end up together or if anyone ends up together. I think for Ghostknife to even happen, Vyncent needs his s3 development. I've seen every other ship though, and they all honestly work. But I kinda also want Ghostknife to stay as an awkward crush because it's comedic <3

Okay I got to go, thanks for the ask!!!!!

#jrwiblr #jrwi show #jrwi pd #jrwi spoilers #SPOILERS #jrwi dakota #dakota cole #jrwi william #william wisp #jrwi vyncent #vyncent sol #please continue asking me stuff!#i enjoy these little things #:D

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chthonion · 5 months

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20 for the ask meme! (Also I hope you’re feeling ok at the moment! Chronic illness solidarity 💪)

I am once again late at everything but I have not forgotten. I'm doing surprisingly well today, thanks for the good wishes! <3 Wishing you a similarly acceptable week!

And thank you for this, because this is a really fun one. Hmm, what to choose...

20. Tell us the meta about your writing that you really want to ramble to people about (symbolism you’ve included, character or relationship development that you love, hidden references, callbacks or clues for future scenes?)

Here's something I really like about the most recent two chapters of the Harrowing, and the entire Annatar-and-Frodo dynamic in this series generally:

From Annatar's perspective, Frodo is nearly godlike in his emotional stability and capacity to take ridiculous developments in stride. Frodo has been looking Annatar in the eye and dealing with his existence in a levelheaded fashion almost since day one. Annatar has no idea how he's doing it, and to Annatar, whose emotional regulation skills have NOT caught up with the fact that his emotions are physical embodied forces yet, it pretty much looks like wizardry.

What Annatar does not realize is that Frodo could not have done this at the beginning of Anastasis. This is Frodo after being stabilized by several incredibly healing months of Celebrimbor and Finrod's company, and then--crucially--having several carefully controlled encounters with his destroyer that ended comprehensively in his favor, gave him a renewed understanding of both the force that destroyed him and his own reaction to it, and allowed him to move forward into a world where he wasn't utterly defined by the Ring.

Contact with Sauron had already been very healing for Frodo, in several different ways, before Annatar-living ever existed.

It is probable that eventually they will talk about this, but "eventually" could be pretty much anything from "in the next few days" to "perhaps in a few years", with the way these two operate. In the meantime, Frodo is walking around with an understanding of Annatar that is partially informed by encounters that they had while Annatar was dead and not well equipped to think clearly or process information that wasn't about his own narrow concerns, which is almost definitely one of the reasons why Annatar finds him so baffling. For Frodo, this is a continuation of a process that had already begun in Anastasis. For Annatar, this is incredibly bewildering and extremely out of the blue.

But honestly, Annatar's currently at his best when he's too confused to pile twelve layers of analysis on top of everything, so it'll probably be good for him in the long run.

#your shadow rising to meet you #ask game #chthonion answers questions #annatar #frodo #sauron

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shihalyfie · 8 months

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From my understanding the new voices for the four 02 characters in Kizuna ended up very well received - especially Daisuke. Do you happen to know how the Tri voice cast was received in Japan?

From what I remember, it was about as good as you can expect. Voice actor changes done when the original voice actor is still accessible tend to be inherently controversial (even with the 02 quartet, they still were), and at the time, it wasn't formally revealed that Fujita Toshiko had actually been approached and declined due to poor health (it had to be kept a secret at the time on her request, which, according to Seki, put the tri. producers in a really awkward position). But most people were able to figure out what happened just by logical inference: some of the voice actors had retired, and the rest were swapped out for "consistency", especially since the Digimon voice actors were retained while the kids' were the only ones changed out. Some people did argue that "you could have at least gotten the ones that weren't retired!", but I think most people got it.

So, putting aside the people who were trying to stage a boycott over it or something:

I know Tamura Mutsumi's performance as Koushirou was particularly well-praised (this was before she ended up becoming super famous in the industry, since she's now really popular), and because of that quite a few Digimon fans were thrilled to hear her as Hiro in Ghost Game. It's probably the tri. performance I've consistently heard the most praise about, including even rave reviews from people who otherwise disliked the series itself.

There were people who said that Hanae Natsuki's timbre for Taichi was too distracting (on top of him not sounding much like Fujita at all, he was already a really famous voice actor by that point, so everyone recognized him as "Hanae Natsuki" too easily), but even those people all said that his actual acting ability as Taichi nailed his personality very well.

Hosoya's Yamato also got good reviews, which is interesting because he was also already a famous voice actor by this point, but I think it's because his timbre already enough in common with Kazama's that it didn't feel too weird.

Ones people were kind of iffy on were Mimi (although this also had a relationship with the way she was written in tri., I noticed people had fewer issues with her in Kizuna), Takeru, and Hikari (this one may be partially because both voice actors ended up breaking out into the industry shortly after in very different kinds of roles). Although this one I admit there might be some bias; I personally also think these were the ones that feel closest to miscasted to me, so maybe there was some confirmation bias from me noticing when others talked about it...

While we're here, in regards to the 02 quartet, Daisuke (especially Daisuke, dear goodness) and Miyako are generally well-received, but people tend to be more iffy on Ken and Iori. In the case of Ken, though, when you have the incredibly legendary Park Romi as his original voice actress, and when his new voice actor is Lounsbery Arthur who has his own distinctive voice, reputation, and fanbase, I think you were inevitably going to get some kind of complaint of uncanniness in some direction somewhere...

#theworstotter #tri negativity #(it's not really but again just to be safe)

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candied-cae · 6 months

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I am super fucking pissed about Wee John in this last episode.

Why. The. Fuck. Was. He. Not. Included. AT. ALL. During. The. Escape??????????

Legitimately, where the fuck was he? I was fuming for a lot of that because he's my favorite character, so I was looking for him. While everyone was stripping the English of their uniforms and getting dressed up (at least partially) in disguise, he is the only character not included.

They make a point about Fang not getting a proper shirt, which already pissed me off enough, that he had to wear what was essentially prison stripes while everyone else was in uniform, but Wee John wasn't even there. He wasn't in the raid. He wasn't in the run down the beach.

He just wasn't even fucking there. And if it was something Kristian decided he didn't want to worry about hurting himself over, particularly looking out for his back and knees, I understand not asking him to run over and over again for reshoots. But the fact that he didn't even get dressed with them... and that's the second time he's been excluded from a plan apparently due to his size (remember that he didn't get to participate when The Revenge dressed up as rich boys for Nigel Badminton)...

It is legitimately breaking my heart. One of the things I love about this show is the love is gives to its fat characters and actors. Fang gets to have his tummy out 24/7 and he's treated like a snack by Lucius, Wee John got to have an incredible dress, Oluwande is the crew's most eligible bachelor, and we even got a delightful fat character in 2x07 who spent his whole time dressed in only some leather halters and pants...

But the fact that Wee John was singled out and left behind, and the fact that Fang was singled out and othered at that very same time... It fucking hurts. As a fat person who has loved getting to see so much love for fat bodies... it stung to see that the comedy couldn't even suspend its reality long enough to say "there are a few fat people in the Royal English Navy, so Wee John and Fang get to be dressed up too."

#Cae Has Lots of Feelings About Our Flag Means Death #Have I already cried about this? Yes. I have.#It seriously hurts so much to see the character I most saw myself in separated from the entire rest of the cast over his size again #It breaks my heart so much.#I was literally asking my tv 'But where's Wee John?' all the way from the montage of them suiting up - all the way through Izzy's death.#Because he just didn't exist onscreen again until the LuPete marriage. I almost thought they were writing him out of the show there.#I hope to GOD that Kristian was the one to decide he didn't want to deal with the labor of that scene #Because I cannot imagine how he could've felt if he had to sit there alone and listen to people tell him 'Wee John just isn't in this part.#'Just for logical reasons though. Just cuz there's no way there'd be a uniform jacket big enough for him.'#Because I would've been gutted.#Wee John is big. Kristian Nairn is big. But he is not some unreasonable size.#And it feels cruel that he keeps getting treated like it.#Sending all my love to Kristian right now. I hope he doesn't need any of it. But he has it all the same.#Our Flag Means Death #OFMD #Our Flag Means Death Season 2 Spoilers #Our Flag Means Death Spoilers #OFMD Spoilers #OFMDS2 #OFMD s2 spoilers #Wee John #Wee John Feeney #OFMD Fang #OFMD Meta #OFMD Critical

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spideyykid · 2 years

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Tony Stark, The Villain Factory

I've been wanting to talk about this for a while now, and with my finals slowly coming to a close, I can procrastinate juuusst long enough to make this post.

For a very long time there has been this trend of talking about how Tony Stark creates his own villains (and even villains for others). Even people who love his character include this in their arguments, how his character arc is defined by him attempting to rectify his past actions. His own trilogy is connected by this need of bettering himself, and that starts with fixing his mistakes and protecting the ones he loves. This change from playboy rich kid to savior of the universe is what makes him so interesting to some compared to a character like Steve Rogers, his foil.

Steve Rogers is supposed to personify good, even from the start he is defined by what is to be seen as an all encompassing selfless nature. He does good, good things come from it, he is rewarded, rinsed and repeated. He is rarely told no, because to his credit, he usually is right when it comes to what is morally correct. Since Steve Rogers starts as the good, he has nowhere to grow outside of this narrative, and is constantly surrounded by yes men. He is charismatic in a golden boy type way, America's golden boy. He isn't used to being told no, and on the off chance that he is incorrect, whether fully or partially, he is unwilling to listen to another perspective.

Of course, as previously mentioned, he is usually correct. Key word: usually. So, on the few occasions he is wrong, he is unable to grasp the concept of compromise. He has a very black and white view of the world, and he fully believes that he is always in the white.

Tony Stark, on the other hand, has a different perspective.

Oftentimes, Tony has a very negative self image of himself and his impact on the world. It's easy to forget that it wasn't him who built his empire, but his father. The comics go further in depth with his relationship with the late Howard Stark, but unfortunately the movies attempted to mellow the man out, and even redeem him slightly in later movies (see: Endgame).

In short, at his best, Howard was incredibly dismissive and harsh with his son, and at his worst downright abusive. Tony was essentially groomed to take over a company which was already responsible for providing weapons that slaughtered thousands, profiting from war and destruction. His morality started at a deficit, in the eyes of the characters, the audience, and even to himself.

Unlike Steve, who is supposed to represent two sides of the same coin when it comes to dual roles, both as Steve Rogers the soldier and Captain America the hero, Tony Stark asks the question- "Can a hero do good despite the evil his alter ego has committed?"

Tony essentially has to work against a legacy that he didn't start, a life he was groomed into, and the consequences of his unhealthy coping mechanisms. With that, the main point of this post- why I think the statement "Tony Stark is responsible for his (and others) villains" is (mostly) utter bullshit.

In order to do this, we first need to define what being responsible means. This is important, because if you just define responsible as “connected with,” it muddles down the severity of the action.

What makes someone responsible?

Responsible means being the primary cause of something and so able to be blamed or credited for it.

The word primary is the most important here, as well as understanding that a character being angry at Tony does not equate him being responsible for their actions. This is a common tactic used to victim-blame, that person A did something to either upset or provoke person B, making person A responsible for person B’s actions.

In order for Tony Stark to be responsible for a villain, he had to directly cause an action to take place, which then created the villain in question. He also has to be the primary cause of said action, and not just a vessel for the anger of someone who feels like they’ve been wronged and are using him as a metaphorical punching bag.

Now, let us move down the list of the villains he is known for creating, and count the ones he's actually responsible for.

Ready?

Obadiah Stane & The 10 Rings: Iron Man was the catalyst for the MCU, and the first hero (disregarding the current multiverse storyline) to hit the big screen. With it, the introduction to the first villain. The 10 Rings existed with or without Tony's presence, seeing as Howard created the company and Obadiah both oversaw its business before Tony took over in the mid to late nineties, and was the one who was working with Raza. I've seen the argument that since Stark Industries provided the weapons he is to blame for their actions, and although that's the feeling Tony has, it is factually incorrect. Stane was the one dealing under the table, not Tony- who finds out only after his kidnapping and through Christine Everheart. Let me make this point clear now.

Tony was only aware of his supplying of weapons to the American Government and Armed forces.

This will come into play again later down the line. Was it his responsibility to know what was going on in his own company that had his name on it? Absolutely- but I would also argue he had no reason to be aware of Obadiah and what he was doing behind his back. This man was supposed to be a father figure to him, a mentor- a friend of his parents and the man who guided him when they died. We never hear mention of other family, so it wouldn't be a jump to assume that Obadiah was all he had left. Jarvis (the real person) could have potentially been still alive, but even so- he definitely is not at the start of the movie.

Tony is not responsible for Obadiah's actions. He was betrayed, stabbed in the back, and almost killed by the man who he was supposed to trust. He (literally) had his heart ripped out by him. Stane's motivation is power and greed, a desire to take control of Stark Industries and all that would give him. He was angry at Tony, sure, but the only thing we saw Tony do that directly caused him to be angry was shutting down the weapons division of the company.

Tony, 1/3rd of the way into his first movie, has already started his journey towards redemption, is already trying to fix the pain he thinks he helped create- and Stane wanted to reverse it.

Also this movie ends with him sacrificing himself to make sure Stane doesn’t win and continue to hurt others- making the later jabs at him weak and not as meaningful.

0/2 so far on created villains.

Whiplash and Hammer:

This one is going to be quick.

Venko was angry at Tony because of something his father did, plain and simple.

Hammer was a competitor of Tony’s, we see multiple times throughout the movie that his work is not to the same standard. His attempt to recreate the Iron Man suit almost kills a man, his greatest weapons used by Rhodey fail, and he is overall portrayed to be a slimy individual. His bitterness towards his inadequacy is not Tony’s responsibility, Tony is not at fault for the anger of others when all he did was provide better work. It’s easy to victim-blame him in this situation because of his erratic behavior throughout this movie, but that was fueled by the fact that he was actively dying and had no bearing on Hammer’s or Venko’s actions.

0/4 responsible so far.

Aldrich Killian: Out of the entire trilogy, this is the only villain I would attribute to Tony.

Sort of.

Tony was a drunk asshole. Tony left him out on the roof. Tony upset him, and was overall a dick. I’m not going to spend that much time arguing whether someone pulling a dick move is enough to justify mass death and inhumane experimentation- because that isn’t the question here.

(If you want my opinion, no- because if I threw my sprite at a random dude who was having a bad day, and he later killed a bunch of people and cited me as the cause, I wouldn’t be convicted as even an accesory to murder.)

Still, Tony’s direct action = Killian working with Maya and creating extremis. This is different to Hammer, where Tony didn’t directly do anything other than be better at his job. It might have led to a similar outcome, but didn’t come from the same place. I’ll give it a .5, but I don’t fully agree.

0.5/5

Ultron: This one is probably the most talked about in the MCU. Let me be clear, this is a point, I’m not arguing against that-my problem is people like to pretend he is solely responsible for Ultron.

I’m going to outline the timeline of Ultron (the bot, not the film).

-Aliens invade and destroy New York, and the Avengers are tasked with defeating them.

-The government attempts to drop a nuke, which Iron Man intercepts and directs into the wormhole, essentially sacrificing himself. While he is in the wormhole, he sees what they are up against.

-After nearly dying in space, he returns with severe PTSD. Iron Man 3 shows how much the whole experience affected him, how he didn’t sleep, obsessed over the suits, over protecting the world. He develops an anxiety disorder because of it.

-He comes up with the concept of Ultron but scraps the idea.

-While fighting a Hydra base, Wanda Maximoff, who knew (as stated in the movie by Wanda herself) that she could manipulate Tony into creating something (she did not know what at the time) that would lead to his destruction.

-She manipulates his mind and triggers his severe PTSD, which outlines his biggest fears.

-He then takes the scepter and, after consulting Bruce Banner, uses it to create Ultron. They work on it together, but do not complete it, the super bot had not been completed and was still in progress at the time of the party.

People like to say Bruce was forced into working on Ultron, he was not. He was apprehensive, yes- but he is a grown adult that has seven Phd’s, he can damn well think for himself.

Neither Bruce nor Tony had the intention for it to turn evil, it was supposed to help humanity- not destroy it. The sick truth of it all is that Tony was right. As seen in Infinity War, something big was coming, and they weren’t prepared. Ultron was a failure, but the intention behind it was just and good.

Wanda Maximoff, on the other hand, also an adult woman at the time, intended for destruction, regardless of who it hurt. She, on the flip side, did not know of Ultron, but wanted something that would destroy, for the sole reason of being angry at Tony Stark. We know that at this point she had no care for anyone other than herself and her brother, she even used the Hulk to attack a town as a distraction, something that was devastating for Bruce. If you watch the movie, her face after she whammied Stark at the beginning is sinister. She has the biggest smile on her face when she realizes that her actions were going to lead to something big.

Tony Stark was partially responsible, yes- responsible enough that Ultron brings the score to 1.5/6 . Still, absolving Bruce’s, and much more importantly, Wanda’s contributions is absolutely not ok.

Which nicely leads to our next villains-

Wanda and Pietro Maximoff: Yes, they started off as bad guys. Yes, people will take every opportunity to blame Tony Stark for something. Let me first state something that should be obvious:

Tony Stark was not responsible for the death of their parents.

That’s it.

(Ok that’s not it, I have more to say)

The twin’s parents were killed when they were 10 years old, meaning they died in 1999. The Novi Grad bombings were conducted by the American Air force, which Stark Industry provided with weapons. Still, and I can not stress this enough, the manufacturer is not responsible for the acts of the user.

If you’re angry that Tony was working for the military, then I’m sorry to tell you, but there are a lot of MCU characters that work for the military. He did not orchestrate the bombings, he did not make descisions on what the government would do in Sokovia, he did not provide his weapons illegally.

HE DID NOT CREATE STARK INDUSTRIES. HE BARELY OVERSAW THE DAMN COMPANY BETWEEN HIS FATHER AND OBADIAH. THERE WERE MULTIPLE SHAREHOLDERS, GOVERNMENT OFFICIALS, MEMBERS OF THE COMPANY THAT ALL HAD A SAY. WHEN HE SAW THE PAIN AND DESTRUCTION THAT WAS HIS FATHER’S LEGACY, HE IMMEDIATELY SHUT IT DOWN.

We even see in the first Iron Man how much power Obidiah had, how he was able to shut him out of the company when he did anything outside of what Stane wanted. Tony mostly kept to himself even when he was CEO, and Stane was the one shown to make the big choices. The company's connection to the United States military wasn’t even started by Tony, but by his father. When he was exposed to the destruction and went to shut it all down and stop the manufacturing of his weapons, pretty much everyone was angry at him. Stane and Rhodey are never blamed for the deaths of Wanda’s parents, even so their connection and desire to continue working with the military after Tony’s ordeal is even more significant.

Even if it was Tony who directly made the sale, something which again, was established by his father and continued by Stane, it still would not make him responsible.

See previous point: The manufacturer is not responsible for the acts of the user.

This is probably the point, besides Ultron, that the most amount of people will argue with me over.

1.5/8

Vulture: There's a very popular idea that Tony Stark is responsible for all of Spider-Man’s villains. The DOC was established as a way to rectify the damage caused by the attack on New York in 2012. Since it was all funded by Tony Stark, he is the one connected to the project. I’ve seen a lot of Tony stan’s use this as an argument for Tony, saying he is the only Avenger who cared about New York after the attack.

I am not making that argument.

As much as I love him, I think it’s unfair to accuse the other Avengers of not caring. We have no proof that they didn’t help in any way after the attacks. Unlike Tony, none of them have the money, nor the resources to fund an endeavor such as a complete reconstruction and clean up of a city such as New York.

Now, that isn’t to undermine Tony’s charitable actions: in the real world, not every billionaire contributes to events such as this one. Even when they do, there is a close to zero probability that they would fund the entire thing. We see how Tony uses his money to help in multiple situations, not only funding the Avengers themselves, but doing things such as buying a building the Hulk was about to destroy in Age of Ultron.

If there wasn’t a billionaire on the team, or Tony, who you could argue did his part by almost getting himself killed getting a missile away from the city, did not contribute his own money, that burden would fall on to the government.

In short, we see his contributions through the eyes of the villain, who is attributing his loss to the man responsible for not only saving the lives of countless others, but funding the effort to clean up a mess the Avengers didn’t create.

This is another example of Person A being wronged by someone, attributing it to Tony, and then using that hate to justify their actions.

You can not tell me that Tony was in the wrong for providing resources to aid in the reconstruction of a city he almost gave his life for.

The DOC even told Toomes he could reach out and complain, and with everything else we have no reason to believe Tony wouldn’t have compensated Toomes and his crew. If there was a scene where he made the attempt and Tony denied him, then you could potentially make the argument that he was the cause.

1.5/9

Mysterio: This one hurts me to even entertain.

Quentin Beck, a person who worked for Tony Stark, was angry that an invention that he worked on while under contract for Stark Industries, was taken, repurposed for use in therapy, and named B.A.R.F.

Let’s break this down.

We don’t know how much of B.A.R.F was actually Beck’s doing, since we know that his recollection of events was incorrect. A prime example of this is shown through the flashback in FFH, where on stage at Tony's joke about the name, there was a lot of laughter coming from the audience.

In the actual scene which we see in Civil War, no one is laughing. It is either a blatant lie or a fabricated memory.

Even if Beck was a major part in the project, he still created it for Stark Industries, which, approximately seven years prior to Civil War, shut down their weapons division.

Beck was angry that the company didn’t want to use it as a weapon.

This is a decision which would also probably be pushed through to the CEO, which by this time, is not Tony Stark, but Pepper Potts. We see in Iron Man three that she is the one making the big choices, probably in collaboration with members of the board alongside Tony Stark himself. There is a possibility that Tony himself didn’t even fire him, and that this is yet another example of name attribution, but that of course, is merely speculation.

Beck says he was fired for being “erratic”- I do not doubt this, considering how he acts in FFH. He is constantly yelling and threatening his coworkers when he doesn’t get his way.

The crew alongside him are also portrayed to be wronged by Tony, including a man named William Ginter Riva. He is the guy everyone knows from this classic interaction with Stane:

"Tony Stark was able to build this in a cave! With a box of scraps!"

"Well, I'm sorry. I'm not Tony Stark."

This is the reason Riva is shown to be angry at Tony, because Obidiah yelled at him. Not Tony himself, but Stane. Just another example of people being angry at Stane, but attributing that anger to Tony.

The group is upset that Tony left Peter Edith instead of them- why would Tony leave Edith to a random bunch of employees, some of which were even fired or had left the company?

Their motivation makes no sense, is unhinged, and is no way the responsibility of Tony Stark.

1.5/10

To conclude, Tony is responsible for 1.5/10 of the villains people accuse him of being responsible for.

That’s 15%, and that’s not even taking into account the rest of the villains in the MCU that he has nothing to do with

A rough count (that i'm low balling) is approximately 40 villains in the MCU. 1.5/40 is 3.75%.

“But he still antagonized/motivated/upset them!”

So has every hero in every movie ever. So has a lot of victims of crimes, that is not an excuse for these people to hurt Tony, his loved ones, or any one else they so please.

#this is long #long post #tony stark #iron man #the avengers #spideyykid #marvel cinematic universe #marvel #mcu meta #mcu #This is not anti anyone but to be polite I will still tag this #anti wanda maximoff #antis dont interact

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nyaagolor · 9 months

Text

I made a whole post about the SV Bad End AU stuff but I never actually bothered to like. Write up the deal with Nemona and Penny which is ironic bc they were the ones this entire AU is built around. Anyway.

The Bad End AU is basically my way of saying "alright we have characters with problems the protagonist helps solve. If the protagonist wasn't there, what's the worst possible conclusion to their arcs? What kind of person could they become if left unchecked?". It's all their worst qualities taken to their extreme

Nemona's character in this AU is basically "aren't you tired of being nice? Don't you wanna go apeshit??". She stops caring what other people think and being considerate, looking after her own needs and wants before others for the first time in her life. She's not "evil", per say, and all she really wants is a good battle and some enrichment in her enclosure, but her standards are so high that she basically comes across a bull-headed battle machine (moreso than in canon). At Sada's insistence, she takes over the old league building, crowning herself the new top champion and battling paradox pokemon and pesky trainers that get in Sada's way. She's not trying to hurt anyone, she's just so bored that she needs a good battle and thinks this is the only way to get one.

Doing so has naturally isolated her further, so all she has to make her excited and happy are those battles. She can't help but force everyone she meets into a battle or to scrap with paradox pokemon because she has nothing left. Her philosophy eventually becomes "well, if no one is gonna like me anyway, there's no point in bending over backwards for people." She gives up on the idea of trying to make people like her and chases after her own individual dreams with reckless abandon. The protag only gets through to her by meeting her on her level, showing her the ~power of friendship~ and whatnot. It's not like she needed much convincing either-- she wasn't really evil in the first place

Penny is far more of a typical villain than Nemona is in this case: Nemona is at her most selfish, but she's still ultimately incredibly sweet, kind, and friendly. Nemona does not want to hurt anyone, she just wants to have fun in any way she can. Penny, meanwhile, is 100% ready and willing to throw bricks at people. After seeing how Team Star suffered, she's awash with anger-- partially at the academy, but partially at herself. If she hadn't formed team star, everyone would have been bullied but at least they would be safe. She blames herself for getting everyone in that situation, and got lost in the sheer rage and guilt. Unlike Nemona, who isn't really thinking about the consequences and is only evil by circumstance, Penny falls more easily into the role of a "villain" and is willing to do some pretty bad things because she sees herself a villain. Her self-hatred is so strong at that point that she already believed herself to be irredeemable, so she wallows in her presumed identity as a bad person.

Penny's status as a villain is mostly self-inflicted: she knows exactly what she's doing, but she's so consumed by anger at the academy and herself that she's willing to do what Turo says and lashes out at everyone and everything around her. It takes not only the protagonist to give her a wakeup call, but all of Team Star. While Nemona needed to be shown the ~power of friendship~ and the way her isolation and dogged pursuit of her own happiness was hurting others around her, Penny's self-loathing and anger runs so deep that only the people she trusts the most can bring her out of that dark place and get her to accept the reality that she's not inherently a bad person and that attacking everyone and everything you think hurt you isn't really a solution.

#this is really 'girlies going thru it: the AU'#mod vex #sv bad end au #if anyone has questions abt the au feel free to ask

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aprillikesthings · 5 days

Text

So I am fascinated by how some fandoms just...spontaneously end up with some tropes repeating over and over in fic (especially explicit fics)

Like, I've never been in a fandom that had many coffee shop au's, but I know there are fandoms where they're super popular. There are fandoms with absolutely massive amounts of omegaverse and fandoms with like, none.

And sometimes it's obvious why a particular fandom ends up with a popular fic tropes: Steven Universe fandom has a lot of high-school au's. She-Ra has a lot of university au's. (These are probably the same authors at least some of the time!)

But sometimes it's a complete fucking mystery to me???

And a thought/question about explicit catradora fics under the readmore:

With the obvious disclaimer that I have not read a double-digit percentage of the explicit catradora fics on ao3 (seriously there's 1,668 of them as of right now), I have read uhhh maybe a dozen or two dozen of them?

And I'm dying to know: why is tribbing (i.e. rubbing your vulva on someone's body; sometimes the other person's vulva but in this fandom usually their thigh) so INSANELY COMMON in catradora fics?

I say this knowing that before I even read fics in this fandom, I'd already written my own tribbing scene into my current WIP! So like, I'm including myself here. I didn't even know it was such a huge thing when I wrote it. Like, I think it was the first sex scene I wrote for that fic. So it wasn't just from seeing it in other fics, which would be the obvious reason.

So imagine my surprise and amusement when I started inhaling fics and "rubbing off on each other's thighs" is INCREDIBLY common in catradora fics, whether they're pre-canon or mid-canon or post-canon or non-fantasy au or those au's where they're on modern Earth but all the partially-animal characters are still partially-animal, so like, Catra works an office job but still has cat ears and a tail (I admit I love these)

So now I'm sitting here going: why is that the sex act so many of us write???? Like we might also write oral and fingering and whatever else, don't get me wrong.

If it was just canon-ish fics I could sort of see it: I could imagine a situation where all of us are looking at Catra's claws and possibly-rough tongue and going uhhhhhhh...hm. But...everyone manages to get around that! We decide that Catra can retract her claws. Either her tongue is closer to a human's or Adora's into it lol.

I've had some theories.

My first thought was that rather than "take turns" they can kiss and face each other the whole time? And we really want that for them? (But...there are other sex acts where you can do that.)

But maybe also it's the kind of thing that is the obvious next step when frantically making out (as one might when you finally get to kiss/fuck the person you've loved and wanted most while also actively tried to hurt for the last multiple years...don't mind me just having. feelings. again. ;_;) and not wanting to separate for even a second???

I mean I say this knowing a couple of weeks ago I posted about how the first time I made out with another girl, when I was 17, she shoved her knee into my crotch and I nearly came even though we were both fully dressed lol

So are we all basing it on our own first times with another girl? Because I know that's why I wrote it.

Anyway, likely nobody will see this post lol, BUT, if you read or write she-ra/spop fics lemme know if you've noticed this (like seriously is it just the fics I personally happen to have read?) and if you have theories

Because this is not my first f/f pairing or fandom for which I have read and/or written a ton of fics (lol), but this is the first one where like, nearly every explicit fic has had "rub it out on each other's thighs while making out, either dressed or naked" in it lol

#spop #catradora #april writes

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historyandmyth · 7 months

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Please get started on lightning returns lmao

[sputters and laughs] This is the funniest ask I've ever gotten, partially because I don't think you know what you're uncorking here, anon. I do try to keep negativity off this blog nowadays, but I'll oblige you this one time.

Salt beneath the cut, click at your own risk, dead dove: do not eat, etc etc.

Naturally, given how central Lightning is to this game, most of my grievances are with how she was treated and written, though I'll quickly note my other problems with the game:

The fanservice obvs. :U

The combat. Why did we do things like replace the fully functional stagger gauge with the weird audio waveform readout? Seems like a strange choice when XIII-2 had actually made noticeable improvements in terms of accessibility during combat (larger health bars, more readable text, etc).

The incredibly discordant and hard-on-the-ears soundtrack.

I don't usually harp on graphics because I don't really care about how pretty or "realistic" a game looks, but when the dev company boasts that this game is the "most complete and polished" in the Final Fantasy series (not the trilogy, the entire series), and then we get... copy-pasted trees... well, let's just say that that's objectively not the case.

The fact that all of the previous main protagonists don't play more prominent roles in this final installment of the trilogy is abysmal, and this goes twice for Sazh whose "character arc" has been recycled twice now.

The fact that we lose this wonderful world we've spent the past two games exploring and growing attached to is also abysmal! I hate stories where we lose magic at the end, separate the found family, etc etc. and LR is guilty of all of that. It's such a kick in the teeth.

Here's what I did enjoy about this game:

Masculine outfits. They all look great on her. And even better is when you run by NPCs and half the time they can't figure out her gender! (Really furthers the enby!Lightning headcanon I have for this game in particular.)

The fact that you can have Lightning take a jab at Etro during Noel's main quest lmao.

The guy in Luxerion that sings the New Bodhum theme.

You get to pal around with Fang in the Dead Dunes.

...And that's it, that's all I enjoyed.

And now, what I really hate about LR and how they wrote Lightning in general is... Lumina.

Do not get me wrong. I don't hate Lumina for superficial reasons like her personality or aesthetics. If she wasn't inherently tied to Lightning, I think I'd find her rather interesting. Her voice actor did a stellar job with her!

Instead, to me, Lumina's existence is a really hilarious admission from the writers they didn't know what to do with Lightning's character post-XIII. Lightning—who was shown in the first game to be incredibly self-aware, genre-savvy, and emotionally mature—gets reduced to a character that needs to have her "emotions" trot out in front of her as a little girl that harps on and harasses her for things like, I don't know, allegedly pushing her friends away?

Friends that never offer to help her in the first place, I might add. If they really wanted to drive home the idea that Lightning was being aloof, they had ample opportunities to do so. But instead all we ever have is Lumina telling us what Lightning's intentions supposedly are. Lazy writing at its finest!

Lumina also accuses Lightning of trying to be "as cold as the steel in [her] sword," which is a notion later tied to Lightning "locking away" her heart as a child which is just... a really funny retcon when you once again consider how emotionally mature she becomes in XIII.

We did this character arc before. And we did it to much better effect! The whole Lumina/Claire fiasco is one of the biggest walk-backs I've ever seen for a character's development, it's insane.

(I've already spoken at length about how Lightning's character is not the self-sacrificial type, either; you can search my blog for the word 'sentinel' if you want those posts.)

It's just sad, because there are ways they could've played with Lightning's character that would have made sense and been in line with the things she'd gone through up until this point. If you wanted to mess with her emotions, you could've written her as bitter, exhausted, and traumatized after her extended stint in Valhalla. This could have been a natural and compelling consequence of her time as Etro's guardian. It wouldn't have resulted in a terrible rehash of her first game's character arc either lmao.

Anyway there's a lot more I could say but I'm just gonna end it here. LR bad but could have been pretty good with a little effort, the end!

#ff critical #not my most eloquent post but it's been a long three weeks

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orionsangel86 · 9 months

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I’m really sorry people are being dicks in your inbox.

Curious if you have thoughts you’d like to share on Facade (the story from Dream Country). I don’t think it’s going to get adapted: the show is sticking closer to Morpheus’s story and I feel like that would be incredibly difficult to adapt well both from the perspective of Rainie’s character design as well as handling the difficult subject matter. But that was a story that got very lodged in my brain and I returned to mulling it over for years and years after I read it.

Thanks! I was very touched by the number of lovely asks I received that day following the weirdness in my inbox!

Facade is a delicate issue, that covers some very delicate topics. I have read that a lot of people view it as one of their favourite Sandman comic issues, which I guess makes sense if you relate heavily to concepts like isolation, loneliness, suicide ideation and putting on masks to hide your true identity... I'm not sure if the show will adapt it or not, but seeing as I view it as an early foreshadowing of the end of the Kindly Ones I would be interested to see if they DO adapt it. I agree that Rainie's character design will be difficult to bring into live action - but then I think the same thing about the entirety of Orpheus' arc, as well as quite a lot of A Game of You, so I doubt its impossible and they will figure out some way to do it if they truly want to.

I can't say that I personally enjoyed Facade all that much. I struggle with the topics mentioned above, and I'm very much of the view that life is always worth living and can always improve (aka the Hob Gadling outlook of life). Unless you are in constant agony all the time and have absolutely zero quality of life... but I don't want to turn this post into a debate about assisted suicide. I didn't view Rainie's situation as one that was worth dying over. She wasn't in agony, she was just lonely. She clearly didn't have a support network and even her only friend was more interested in talking about her own predicament as the pregnant mistress of a married man than to take any time to find out how Rainie was doing - partially because Rainie would not remove her masks (metaphorical and literal) to reveal just how badly she was struggling... anyone who has read through to the end of the Kindly Ones now may start to see the similarities.

There are so many themes to explore in this issue that tie into the wider themes of the overall story. She did not want the power she received, instead it was thrust upon her by an ancient god as part of some ancient battle that was already long since over. So the role she was literally created for was already redundant. Ra not realising this - because the old gods are still so set in their ways and in the Sandman universe this is partially the reason why they are slowly dying out (take characters like Pharamond for example who learned to adapt and change with the times therefore ensuring his own survival) - is just another example of how change and accepting the changing times of the world benefits everyone. Rainie was just another victim in the chaotic world of gods and monsters and powerful entities that care so little about the lives of the mortals they affect. So now she is stuck with a power she did not want or ask for, for a purpose that was over 3000 years before she was born.

I also found this issue to be the best example of how Death is not an entirely good character (as people often attempt to make her). She is completely and utterly neutral in all ways (the true neutral on the alignment chart should always go to Death imo). Whilst Death does try at first to get Rainie to see a brighter side, she doesn't exactly put in much effort, and in the end she gives her the information she needs to get what she wants, though I note that Rainie does NOT ask Ra to kill her, she asks him to make her normal again, though I think the point of it is to show that deep down her wish was just to die at that point, but I guess that's up for interpretation. Death is just that. Death. She is not the person to talk you off the ledge. She is the person who will be there for you after you jump. She saw that Rainie was in a terrible place, and she decided to be there for her whilst she made those decisions. But Death isn't really going to convince you either way. "your life is your own Rainie, so is your death."

I also note that the show used some of Death's speech in this episode in episode 6 when she is talking with Dream, so that's also worth considering when speculating on whether they will adapt Facade or not.

I think for the comic its an important issue and ties in heavily with the comic themes, but as I have often said, the show appears to be taking a different direction, and I don't think Facade fits with the more hopeful, optimistic route that they are taking. But we shall see.

#the sandman #sandman meta #sandman comic spoilers #the sandman comics #element girl #death of the endless #suicide for ts #suicide mention #asks #The sandman facade

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84reedsy · 3 days

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What is your opinion of The Montreal Screwjob?

Impeccable timing, anon!

Just finished Bret's autobiography this weekend! So my opinions are fresh in my mind. Putting a cut in because I got WORDY (side effect from reading Bret lololol)

The book didn't change my opinion of how I feel it all went down much. Most controversial events are a little bit of the truth from both sides. Finding that truth can be nearly impossible, throw in the cast of characters who play pretend in an extremely physical sport for a living and it gets even muddier.

I believe Bret was told and believed that he was not dropping the belt to Shawn in Montreal. Now, WHY he believed Vince after a 13 year career of consistent broken promises and straight up lies is beyond me. He had years of precedent, but yet chose to give Vince the benefit of the doubt (mistake #1 of #ERR).

I believe Shawn and Hunter both knew what would happen and perhaps were the ones that worked out the details or took the idea to Vince in the first place. At this point, Shawn was Vince's new shiny pony that he wanted to be the face of the company. He was already pushing Bret towards the door.

I believe the ref knew at least once he was in the ring. Watching the match its obvious that the match wasn't over. The bell was rang because Vince told them to. Its obvious to me that both Bret and Shawn knew this wasn't at least supposed to be the end of the match.

Shawn's behavior backstage did not feel genuine. Trips looked incredibly guilty and nervous. They knew.

I'm glad Bret got a chance to knock the tar out of Vince. From the account in his book. He gave him several warnings and opportunity to leave. Vince might be the boss but I'm sure he was RARELY in the locker room. That was a space for the roster, not the boss. Their presence was infringing.

After years of dishonesty and insincerity, Vince got what was coming to him.

I can only think that this dramatic falling out led to the questionable situations that ultimately caused Owen's death. The more we learn about the real Vince McMahon, the more I lean towards the likelihood that he had at least a partial role in Owen's death. He may have not pushed him, but he used Owen to punish Bret.

#reedsy answers asks #bret hart #Montreal screwjob #Montreal screw job #wrestling

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relaxxattack · 11 months

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Person who sent the Vriska ableism ask. I am currently rereading and at least up through act 5 Vriska is the only one to be Horrifically ableist to Tavros. Alot of the troll characters *are* ableist but they're not vicious about it in the way she is, she actively seeks out excuses to call him useless and better off dead and like. While other characters do make ableist remarks about them they're both significantly toned down and also not usually to his face. I'm saying this as a disabled person- Vriska is ableist to Tavros beyond what we see as "normal" on Alternia. (This isn't me trying to accuse you of downplaying it btw. I wouldn't remember exactly how bad she was if I wasn't rereading rn and also hyperaware of it as a wheelchair user)

(CONT.) The actual reason Vriska's ableism bothers me so much is partially bc I read with the directors commentary mod that lets me see what Hussie wrote for the books and Hussie repeatedly agrees with alot of the horrific shit Vriska says about Tavros so like. When people try to defend Vriska saying that shit it feels in a roundabout way like trying to defang REAL OPINIONS Hussie has about one of their only canonically disabled characters

if it makes you feel at all better, i don't think you can trust literally anything hussie says to actually be their 'real' opinion on anything ever (motherfucker thinks they're the dave strider of real life), but it seriously doesn't excuse any of that shit regardless, just because it's uncomfortable and terrible to have to watch, hear, or sit through.

i distinctly remember being incredibly uncomfortable whenever vriska was talking with or interacting with tavros, so i don't think you're wrong for saying that (it must be exceptionally worse for you, actually). also, as someone who often likes to take a dive into older fandom history-- i think you're completely right that the people who say that shit are trying to defang that stuff. worse, actually, i think they don't see what's wrong with it; there were a LOT of fucked up memes and posts and in-jokes that went around back in the day that people thought were fine just because they were 'funny'. like "oh no i'm not making fun of disability, i'm making fun of tavros, which is fine because he's a joke character in a webcomic", and then they refuse to unpack in their brains what that could possibly mean.

not that i'm saying older fandom was intentionally malicious, i'm well aware that 2012 was a different time in which rigorous self-examination and outspoken empathy wasn't as popular as it is now, and that sometimes when memes get really big people don't think about the message being sent behind them; but i also don't think it can really be excused with "oh it was 2012 and people made jokes like that". like, no, people (mostly hussie) can be aware of the sort of thing they're putting out into the world. it's not anything except deeply uncomfortable to write a series-wide extended joke about how a disabled character is useless/worthless and deserves abuse.

i guess basically what i'm saying (to people far in the past who probably already know this now, not to you, anon) is: critical media consumption, people. learn it.

you need to be able to examine the things you're reading/watching to see what it's saying to you, and what sort of things it's making you think or be comfortable with, what sort of person it's helping you become.

#hsmeta #tw ableism

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forcedhesitation · 1 month

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I finally got to recruit minthy....and wow. in just mere minutes, she's already infinitely more interesting to me than both halsin and SH. her dialogue is so beautifully written, and it's so interesting to learn about the cult's activities from someone who was forced to act under their control! I am genuinely eager to keep playing the game with her in my party, just to hear everything she has to say.

and I haven't gone very far with her yet, but god, wow, it's really shocking to see the contrast between my first impression of her, and how halsin is handled as a companion throughout the whole game. to be clear, I do like halsin, but that's because I spent a whole campaign trying to learn about him and grew attached to the version of him I rewrote in my head as I played. I find his actual, in-game character to be terribly inconsistent, disappointing, and incredibly bland. I mean, when you first recruit him, you learn things about him that do genuinely sound fascinating. when he tells you that it seems to him that most people do not think his feelings can be hurt, that he feels he was a poor leader, that he was unhappy and felt trapped in the grove...that had my attention! I was hoping the game would expand upon that and we'd learn about how this position of well-respected leadership and near reverence led halsin to feel dehumanised. instead...most of his in-game material is, well, just about sex, to be blunt about it.

after you finish any quest material in which he could have remained a full NPC, there's just...nothing, really. his position in the story is demoted to "eye candy" for the player, and the only scenes he gets are about sex. while I did not have my tav sleep with the drow twins, I know of the information about halsin you learn after this happens. it is WILD to me that the only other way you can even get a HINT about halsin's traumatic experiences in the underdark seems to be by taking him to the house of hope and having him interact with the portal to menzoberranzan, which will prompt him to make a comment about his "misspent youth." why you would lock information like this behind something many players would not want to do, when this character already has SUCH limited material, is completely beyond me. not only this, but it is utter madness to me that the only instances in which halsin can acknowledge the player's relationship to astarion seem to exclusively exist in discussions relating to sex/the act of sex itself. you know, astarion, the guy who wants to be seen as more than just a pretty face? whose story is about reclaiming his bodily autonomy after being abused in every way imaginable for 200 years?? whose romance explicitly requires you, as the player, to respect that he doesn't want to be expected to have sex? like, wow! it is completely bananas to me, that halsin, as he is in game, just. exists alongside a character like astarion. I know they are written by different people, but I have to ask if halsin's writer even thought some of his writing through.... did he think that this wouldn't look bad? because it does look bad!

again, I like the halsin I envision in my head, the story that I would have written for him...but the way he is in game...the weakness of his entire character in comparison to just minutes of minthara's....he just would have been so much better as an NPC because he clearly wasn't added as a companion for the purpose of story. or, I don't know, he should have been written by someone other than the person who wrote the most bland origin, because the writer being the common denominator between the two least interesting companions suggests to me that it's partially an issue on his part. they also could have chosen a different NPC, that would have better suited the role of extra companion, instead of using halsin. like, if there was any NPC that should have been made a possible extra companion, like how minthara is, it's barcus. barcus has a clear, consistent, and well-written story that spans all three acts of the game. he has an important tie to the central narrative of the game by virtue of his association with the ironhand gnomes. just as minthy can be recruited after rescuing her from moonrise, barcus could have been recruited after you rescue wulbren from the moonrise towers' prison and wulbren is a huge asshole bastard to barcus when you get back to the last light. it would have made so, so much more sense than last minute shoehorning halsin into the companion role, just because EA players wanted to fuck him.

#bg3 #thoughts about media #please do not take this as character hate.#it's criticism of larian's priorities and writing choices.#anyway. minthy is very cool so far. I can't wait to learn more about her!

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