#in SPIRIT. if not in action. like my point still stands characters can just Be neutral. and if that level of customization had been intended

[carlyraejepsans]

for real WHERE does the idea that [utdr humans] are nongendered so that "you can project on them" come from. their literal character arcs are about NOT being a blank slate to be filled in by the audience

i think i understand the assumption on some level for undertale, because there is a very intentional effort to make you identify with the "player character" in order to make your choices feel like your own (the beating heart of undertale's metanarrative lies in giving you an alternative path to violence against its enemies after all, and whether you're still willing to persue it for your own selfish reasons. YOUR agency is crucial).

of course, the cardinal plot twist of the main ending sweeps the rug from under your feet on that in every way, and frisk's individuality becomes, in turn, a tool to further UT's OTHER main theme: completionism as a form of diegetic violence within the story. replaying the game would steal frisk's life and happy ending from them for our own perverse sentimentality, emotionally forcing our hand away from the reset button.

i think their neutrality absolutely aids in that immersion. but also, there's this weird attitude by (mostly) cis fans where it being functional within the story makes it... somehow "editable" and "up to the player" as well? which is gross and shows their ass on how they approach gender neutrality in general lol.

but also like. there's plenty of neutral, non PCharacters in undertale and deltarune. even when undertale was just an earthbound fangame and the player immersion metanarrative was completely absent, toby still described frisk as a "young, androgynous person". sometimes characters are just neutral by design. it's not that hard to understand lol.

anyone who makes this argument for kris deltarune is braindead. nothing else to say about it.

#this is a very difficult topic to discuss imo because on Some level I don't completely disagree with people who make that argument for chara #in SPIRIT. if not in action. like my point still stands characters can just Be neutral. and if that level of customization had been intended #well Pokemon's been doing the ''are you a boy or a girl'' shtick for ages. no reason why that couldn't have been included as well #but i do feel that we're supposed to identify with chara within the story. not as in chara is us but as in we are chara #and i think someone playing the game without outside interferences and (wrongly) coming to the conclusion that chara IS literally #themselves in the story. and thus call them by their own name (the one they likely inputted at the start) and pronouns #will be someone who grasped undertale's metanarrative more than someone who went in already spoiled on the NM route who thinks of chara #(and on some level frisk as well) as completely separate from us with independent wills and personhoods at any time #who treats them as nonbinary. even if their approach is more ''appropriate'' to a gender neutral person #systematic error vs manually changing every measure to fit what you already think is going to be the correct result. ykwim? #of course this opens a whole new parentheses while discussing the game outside of your personal experience #because even if you DO see chara as a self insert then they are a self insert for EVERYONE. women men genderqueer people #i don't call chara ''biscia'' even though that's what i named the fallen human in my playthrough. neither do i use they because i also do #if you're describing the character/story objectively in how they are executed then you're going to talk about them neutrally #because you ain't the only sunovabitch who played the darn game sonny #so like. either way you turn it. even in the most self insert reading you'd STILL logically use they/them so ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯ git gud #answered asks

[oneatlatime]

The Tales of Ba Sing Se PART 2

The Tale of Zuko

Maybe I should make a Zuko's Stupid Faces post.

Zuko and Iroh's whole dynamic in one frame.

This girl is cute. Total girl next door type. She does have fairly horrible taste in men, but she's also very cute.

I just want to take a minute to point out a VERY important distinction. Zuko is not going out on a date. Zuko is not taking a girl out on a date. A girl is taking Zuko out on a date. She's got that arm in a death grip. Not only is that a clever reversal of the usual hetero dynamic, but I'm convinced it's the only way Zuko would ever get any action, so it's also in character.

I know Zuko's social skills are non-existent, but apart from the blow up at the waiter he is actually trying. He's failing, but I have to give him points for trying.

The way this girl's voice actress says "You juggled" made my ears very happy. And the beleaguered "yes. I juggled." is equally good.

Zuko! Tell her you did sword stuff! That's something you can actually do!

It gives me hope that someone so steeped in the most toxic parts of the Fire Nation, for so long, can STILL be so bad at lying, but it would certainly be a handy skill right about now.

I take it back. This girl does have good taste in men. Zuko's such a softie when it counts. He still sucks at being normal, but he just risked his identity because the girl he didn't even plan to go out with was a little bit sad.

This girl is the best.

Ha! He kissed her back! He Did! I saw that!

I take back what I took back. Zuko's evil again. He made my new favourite girl droop.

I love that Iroh's waiting up for him while making it look like he isn't waiting up for him. How many times on their ship, when Zuko was out Blue Spiriting, do you think Iroh found a reason to be randomly sat on the deck at 3 am?

Character development baby! Can you really call yourself loyal to the fire nation if you admit to having a good time on a date with an Earth Kingdom girl?

The Tale of Momo

Pretty.

That was a FILTHY bait and switch. For one shining moment, I had Appa back.

They should take that to June.

Not Appa.

Also not Appa.

I did not have 'Momo gets gaslit' on my Avatar Bingo card. Nor did I have 'interspecies animal friendship angst.'

Are these cat things the raccoons of the Avatar universe? Or the squirrels? Urban scroungers?

I love the idea that this guy just grabs the closest squirrel, sticks a hat on it, and expects it to dance. He got lucky with Momo.

I thought they were taking the animals to the pound, but this is very much a butcher. Which means that in Ba Sing Se, they eat varmint. Stay away from the hot dog carts.

That's very effective Simglish.

Thank god for thumbs.

Aw they're friends! This has Aristocats vibes, when O'Malley and the girl cat are getting together near the end.

And one final Fuck You, because god forbid Momo's tale ends on a happy note.

I'm guessing that's an Appa print, but couldn't it also be a platypus bear?

Something about the cats standing vigil over Momo's grief gets to me.

Final thoughts

I'll go through each of these stories individually, but first some general comments.

Last episode was kind of intense, and definitely ended on a downer (not that this one didn't), so it was a good call to at least start this episode off on something a bit gentler.

I was really impressed with the soundtrack throughout. Apart from the Tale of Momo where it's the animal noises that are front and centre, the music is doing a lot of work in every story, the strings especially. The strings are doing emotional work, plot stuff, and even humour. Seriously, next time you rewatch this episode, pay attention to the strings. These shorts are actually very light on dialogue (apart from Sokka's), but they don't feel that way because the music is doing the talking.

I'm assuming that this all took place over three days at least, since Iroh, Zuko, and Momo's tales seem to end on different evenings. So I don't think calling this episode 'day in the life' is accurate. My bad. It also occurs to me that this kind of episode format would be a great way of showing time has passed. If they had had an episode like this in the Northern Water Tribe - after Katara beat the crap out of Poophead but before the Fire Nation attacked - I would have liked the pacing of the whole finale arc better.

On to the stories!

The Tale of Toph and Katara

It might be because I didn't understand what this episode was doing yet, but this one didn't do much for me. It was good to see Toph have a moment of self-doubt, but I never would have assumed, based on her previous behaviour, that her appearance was her proverbial weak spot. Katara did a really good job at building her back up, and she was delightfully (and appropriately) understated for once. When she's reassuring Aang of something (especially in Season 1) Katara tends to got from 0 to 60 very quickly, so it was nice to see her be reassuring in a quiet, non-steamrolling way. Is this Katara character development? Apart from the fact that Toph quite literally got her eyeballs sanded, nothing much in this episode stuck out to me. Except those bitchy voices. Those were like knives in my brain.

The Tale of Iroh

So many questions! Is Lu Ten buried in Ba Sing Se? How is that grave not defaced yet? How did Iroh get a copy of his son's picture? They lost everything at the North Pole, right? Did he ask the people who got him their passports for a picture of his son too? Does Zuko know/remember that it's his cousin's birthday? If so, why isn't he there offering Iroh the world's most awkward hug? Given the fact that Iroh spent the whole day helping people, including a very misguided youth, and given that Iroh says something along the lines of "if only I could have helped you [his son]" does this imply that Lu Ten was going through a crisis at the time of his death? Was he misguided like the wannabe mugger? Is Zuko not the first Fire Nation Prince that Iroh has had to guide through an identity/existential crisis? Is Zuko going to be the first time Iroh succeeds at guiding a Fire Nation prince through an identity/existential crisis? Does Iroh live in perpetual fear of failing Zuko the way he seems to believe he failed his son? Am I reading too much into this?

To be quite honest, this story would have hit me harder if I had remembered going into it that Iroh had a son. Lu Ten takes being a textual ghost to a whole new level. Also the 'In honor of Mako' text confused me. And worried me a little.

The Tale of Aang

I liked this one! Aang can't help Appa at the moment, but he can help all the Appa stand ins who aren't fortunate enough to have an Aang to help them. Aang is a nice little boy! Of course he'd free a bunch of animals without thinking about the consequences and the epic pile of platypus bear dung he's just landed the zookeeper in with the Dai Li. I liked the animal designs. I liked the earthbending. I liked the Siamese cat representation. I loved cabbage man. I think that, if Appa could have known, he would have approved. I also think that I'm once again reading too much into this. it was nominally a fun fluff piece elaborating on a established emotional conflict (Appa missing), which gave it just enough weight to be slightly more than a fluff piece.

The Tale of Sokka

I am entirely serious when I say that 'poetry bouncer' is my favourite joke so far in the WHOLE show. I love absurdity played entirely earnestly. It's fridge funny too. The longer I contemplate the implications, the funnier it gets. What past event required a poetry bouncer be introduced? He's not there to protect the students or the teacher; he's here to reinforce the structure of the Haiku by force. Was he hired by the concept of Haiku? Is Haiku taken so seriously in Ba Sing Se that he's needed to break up cat fights between students? There is a rich well of haiku-related hijinks just hinted at by his presence, and I want to know more.

Sokka is so often his own worst enemy that it makes sense that he's taken out by his own hubris. That fortune teller lady was absolutely a crook, but she did one hell of an accurate cold read on Sokka.

The Tale of Zuko

Credits tell me that the girl's name is Jin. I would like to congratulate the creators of Avatar for managing to illustrate romantic interest so palpably without resorting to heart eyes and steam whistle noises. Nothing wrong with those; I'm just impressed by how much of Jin's interest in Zuko you can feel. Also, she'd better be more than a single episode character, because I need more of this sweetheart. She's a real contender for displacing Toph as my favourite girl in the cast.

To be fair to Zuko, he did make Jin droop (UNFORGIVABLE), but it was also the right call. He can't date her honestly. It IS complicated. And I don't think any Earth Kingdom girl (worth dating) would knowingly go out with Fire Nation royalty. Jin wanted Lee the Tea Boy. Try as he might, Zuko can't stop being Zuko. I would argue that he shouldn't stop being Zuko. His flashback mom told him not to forget who he was, so I'd also argue that the narrative doesn't want Zuko to stop being Zuko either. I guess it's a case of right girl, wrong time. It looks like she's cool with him being a firebender, but firebending and being the Fire Lord's son are not the same magnitude of hurdle to dating. Maybe when the war's over they can hook up again.

The Tale of Momo

I think this qualifies as cruelty to the audience. I got the impression that this story was crafted borderline maliciously, to make the viewers suffer angst dump after angst dump.

I liked seeing things from Momo's perspective. I loved the animal noises, which really got across a shocking amount of emotion. Those, combined with body language, were as effective as any spoken script. These cartoon people really know how to use their medium.

It absolutely kills me that Momo is missing Appa, and since he doesn't understand human speech, he can't even be comforted by knowing that his humans are actively looking for him. If you've ever seen one of your pets missing another of your pets in real life, you know there's nothing worse than the helplessness that comes with not being able to explain or magically summon their friend back from the kennel, or the vet, or the dead. All you can do is give them hugs. I'm glad that Momo got a street cat support group at the end of the episode, but the animal grief at the beginning was hard to get through. It's sweet to have confirmation that Momo sees Appa as family, but surely they could have showed that to us in a way that doesn't make me need to hug the stuffing out of my own pets?

Final Final Thoughts for real this time

This episode wrings you out a little. Fully a third of the stories are about Appa, despite him not being there. At least half are about missing someone who isn't there. At least half are bittersweet.

I liked this episode format. I hope they use it again next season. Only Toph and Katara's tale felt too short to me. The rest did such a good job at drawing me in, that when I went back to check timestamps I was surprised by how short these stories are.

I'm going to go eat too much chocolate.

#atla #avatar: the last airbender #avatar the last airbender #the tales of ba sing se

[hisui-dreamer]

ode to the loyal wolf

Pairing: Jack Howl x gn!reader

Synopsis: he could be stubborn and distant, but you still loved all of him dearly

Tags: drabble, fluff, slightly poetic hehe, reader is a simp for Jack, kinda ooc maybe

Word count: 612

Notes: lol this is my first post for jack ⊙⁠﹏⁠⊙ i like his character but i just don't get inspired by him hehe. anywayss, happy birthday jack!!

Masterlist

Your lover is an enigma wrapped in a facade of strength and independence. At first glance, his demeanour may come across as cold and distant, but beneath that stoic exterior lies a heart of gold. You adore the way he refuses to rely on the help of others, and how he proudly claims that he can handle everything alone. It's a testament to his unwavering self-reliance, a quality that makes him all the more irresistible. His determination to stand alone, to fight his battles with honour, it's something that draws you to him, a magnetic force of righteousness.

Your lover possesses a sense of justice that's unparalleled. His loyalty to what's right is unyielding, even to the point of betraying his own dormmates when they attempt to use dirty tricks. It's awe-inspiring to witness how he navigates the labyrinth of moral ambiguity. His justice is not swayed by popular opinion; it's uniquely his own, a beacon of truth in a world where the lines between right and wrong often blur. His commitment to honesty and straightforwardness is not just a choice but a way of life. It's this unwavering commitment to principles that sets him apart, making you fall deeper in love with him with each passing day. You admire this quality, knowing that he'll stand firm for what he believes, even when it's not the easiest path to take.

Your lover's dedication to his studies is a testament to his disciplined intelligence. He takes his academics seriously, excelling in tests and boasting an excellent memory. The way he values education, and his commitment to self-improvement, it's admirable. His pursuit of knowledge is not just for the sake of success but to better understand the world around him. It's inspiring to see how he invests himself in his studies, setting a high standard for personal growth.

Your lover’s determination is a blazing fire that never wavers, and shines most brilliantly when faced with the direst of situations. It's as if he possesses an unyielding spirit that refuses to bow to adversity. No matter how dark the storm clouds gather, he stands firm, resolute, and unbroken. In the face of insurmountable odds, his determination becomes a beacon of hope, a reminder that even in the bleakest moments, one can find the strength to persevere and emerge victorious.

Your lover may not always openly express his care, but his actions speak volumes. Beneath that tough exterior lies a heart that beats for his friends. He'd go to great lengths for those he considers friends, often downplaying his intentions with a different reason, perhaps to protect his pride. It's endearing how he values respect, how he'd move mountains to earn and maintain it from those he holds dear. His loyalty is something you cherish, a precious gem of devotion and honour.

Your lover’s transformation from an initially harsh and stoic personality to one that gradually reveals a warmer, friendlier side is nothing short of a beautiful journey. Over time, he's allowed his guard to come down, revealing the depth of his affection. At first, his demeanour felt like a fortress, but now it's more like a cosy hearth, warm and inviting. His affection toward you has grown exponentially, and the way he smiles when you enter the room or how he wraps you in his arms, all make you treasure him even more.

You adore every aspect of him, from his unwavering sense of justice to his loyalty, his commitment to fairness, and his dedication to self-improvement. He's a remarkable individual, and you feel incredibly fortunate to be the one who gets to love him and cherish all the intricacies of his character.

Your lover, is none other than Jack Howl.

Masterlist

if you liked this post, don't forget to reblog!

#twstnexus #twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland x reader #disney twisted wonderland #twisted wonderland jack #jack howl x reader #jack howl

[yourhighness6]

A Yue Stan's Thoughts on Yue's Character in NATLA

As much as I appreciated what NATLA was trying to do and think it is worth a rewatch, can I just say as an unapolagetic Yue stan that they completely ruined her, and Yukka by extension.

And say whatever you want about her scenes leading up to the sacrifice (which did make me cry, I'll admit, her speech about living was actually a nice addition), but it was actually this line that left me absolutely seething and in my opinion proves that the writers completely misunderstood what made the sacrifice so powerful:

I actually had to pause the television and collect myself after this one because holy fuck is this the stupidest thing I've ever heard. The entire point in the animated show was that she didn't get to make her own choices before this point. She didn't get to choose who to marry, she didn't get to choose her role in society, she didn't get to choose basically anything about her life besides maybe how to style her hair or something. Yue was a character who was extremely dutiful, but also extremely boxed in by her duty. It was both her greatest strength and her greatest weakness, a parody of itself, just as her mere existence was a parody: while she was saved by the moon spirit as a child and allowed to live on, it was that very reason that she eventually gave up her life. And the very fact that she was given these choices in the first place in the LA seriously undermined the idea of her sacrifice. Yue was told her entire life what to do, and although she did manage to find a bit of freedom through her brief romance with Sokka, ultimately, she still didn't get to publicly be with him or reject Hahn or anything similar. Her sacrifice was what she saw as her duty, yes, but her sacrifice for her people was also a way of standing up for herself and finally resolving to make her own choices. In that moment, she not only saved her people, but she finally made a decision for herself instead of doing something someone else told her to, even going against Sokka's wishes to do what she thought was necessary. So in the LA, with her having a place of influence in her community, with her being able to call off her engagement, with her being told that she could one day be chief, to that stupid fucking line implying that she was in no way ever repressed and free to make her own decisions the entire time, removing all of her character growth and any character significance to her actions, it was all basically pointless. It made Yue into a plot device for Sokka to bond with and to move the Aang-and-Kuruk plotline forward. In the animated series, Yue was not a plot device, and she was extremely well written, whereas in NATLA, her character fell completely flat. She talks about responsibility and pressure in her first scene with Sokka, but other than that, she has no depth. In other words, she has no depth besides her relationship to him.

Anyway, I hope we can all agree that her characterization and a lot of the decisions made in the last two episodes of NATLA were nothing but a pile of bulshit. From Iroh killing Zhao to Yukka having zero chemistry to Katara just magically becoming a master to Zuko being shelved to the plotline about Aang not feeling like he belonged having absolutely no buildup beyond a throwaway line in the second episode to everything about Yue I spelled out above, I would go as far to call it just plain bad. Again, I'm glad it got renewed, and I'll be the first to say a lot of other episodes get unnecessary hate, as well as that we are working with slightly different characters (especially Azula) in this version than the first, but I was really disappointed with seeing Yue in LA for a second time.

#natla #yue #yue meta #yukka #avatar the last airbender #anti natla #sokka #arnook #natla episode 7 #natla episode 8 #consider this part of my natla debrief series #which wont be continued at all #emmie babbles

[thankskenpenders]

Sonic Prime!

The first eight episodes of Sonic Prime are out! I've been busy for obvious reasons this past week (I kinda released a video game), but I've now seen all eight episodes, and as such can give more structured thoughts on them.

Overall: pretty good! I like it! ...But it's not 100% there yet for me. In the spirit of Festivus, I'm here to air my grievances.

Let's start with one of the highest points. First and foremost, this show looks great. We FINALLY have a Sonic cartoon that actually looks like the games with no asterisks attached, even across multiple wildly different AUs. And everything from small acting choices to big, bombastic fight scenes is a joy to watch in motion thanks to the fluid, expressive, fast-paced movement, with characters pleasantly squashing and stretching in fun ways. It's so fun literally to just watch Sonic's face move in dialogue scenes. God, I wish the cutscenes in Frontiers had animation this good. I get why they don't, but still.

And those action sequences! Man, some of these are the most fun fight scenes in any Sonic cartoon ever, period. Lots of great shot choices, a good mix of recognizable moves from the games combined with new ones and improvisations, I could go on and on. The shot of Sonic leaping backwards down that long stairwell, only for the camera to pan around beneath him and show his friends following suit? There's a reason why they put that in the trailer. It rules. This isn't the greatest action series ever - it still has your typical kids' action cartoon problem where the stakes rarely feel adequately high and you can turn your brain off during fight scenes - but it's fun to look at in a way that previous Sonic cartoons haven't always been.

Really, with how strong the presentation is, it's the writing that tends to let the show down in this first batch of episodes. The writing isn't even bad - there's some really cool stuff to latch onto, and I'm optimistic about them leaning more into what's interesting as the plot continues to develop. It's just... well, it's a Man of Action cartoon.

I'm going to nitpick a lot here, so I want it to be perfectly clear that I like Sonic Prime. I think it's a solid cartoon, and firmly on the high end of the Sonic cartoon spectrum. There's a lot that I'm into, and if someone told me it was their new favorite Sonic cartoon, I could absolutely see why. It mainly just has three things working against it:

It can't decide whether or not it actually wants to be wholeheartedly faithful to the games.

It was very clearly written to be a weekly TV show and not a Netflix show dumped in large batches.

The bar has been VERY high for Sonic content this year across every other medium.

Faithfulness to the games

As has been touted in interviews, Sonic Prime is actually canon to the games, and in many ways it's slavishly faithful to them. Which only makes it weirder when it isn't.

The thing that'll immediately stand out is the new voice cast they had to get because Canadian production laws blah blah blah. Now, they're all good here, particularly Deven Mack as Sonic. His take definitely sounds similar to previous takes on Sonic, but I think he manages to find a nice middle point between the youthful enthusiasm of movie Sonic and the more experienced heroics of game/IDW Sonic. He's great. And not to knock Cindy's performances, but I think Shannon Chan-Kent's voice might actually fit Amy just a liiiiittle better here. But the problem is it gets harder to view this as the regular game cast and alternate timeline versions of them when everyone always sounds a little off. Knuckles in particular is really weird because his AU counterparts have a completely different voice actor, and neither particularly sounds like his current voice in the games. I have no idea why.

For another example, Green Hill is used as a setting in a cartoon for the first time ever, and it looks exactly how you remember it. Cool! But it's also framed as the place where Sonic and all of his friends live 24/7, which has never, ever been true in the games. Even Knuckles is here with no explanation for why he isn't guarding the Master Emerald. (One might think that not drawing attention to Knuckles' job allows the writers to just pretend it doesn't exist, similar to what Sega does in many games, but then we get a literal 16-bit flashback to him guarding the Master Emerald in Hidden Palace.)

This would be a totally fine concession if this show was just doing its own thing like every other Sonic cartoon. The different universes are all different bad timelines for Green Hill, with Sonic spotting the unique iconography of the level buried beneath whatever's taken over South Island this time - a smog-filled Eggman city, an overgrown jungle, an abnormally high sea level - to drive home how wrong the AUs are. It also explains why Sonic can always find the AU versions of his friends in Green Hill, and it probably cut down on the number of sets they had to model. But because it is canon to the games, things like this distract me as a hopeless Sonic nerd. It also leads to some repetitive dialogue in the first few episodes as characters constantly comment on the presence or lack thereof of palm trees, because their only reference for what the world is supposed to look like is Green Hill.

Rings are also treated as a minor plot point early on to incorporate another thing from the games, as Sonic is late for the big battle against Eggman because he was off collecting extra rings. But despite how often it's brought up in that context, they aren't actually a factor in the fight at all, and then rings are never seen again in the AUs.

Also Orbot and Cubot are in this in the regular universe and then we never see them again? Are they going to come back??

This extends beyond these pedantic nitpicks, though. To me, the worst offender of the show selectively choosing when to care about the source material is the dichotomy of the character writing in the alternate universes.

Every AU will have one or two takes on one of Sonic's friends (Tails, Amy, Knuckles, Rouge, and Big) who are The Interesting Ones, the spotlighted characters for each subplot. These are the ones that get actual character arcs, and they feel like they're written in conversation with their original game counterparts in interesting ways.

In the dystopian world, Tails is known as Nine, a cynical loner inventor who was never saved from his bullies and inspired to be a hero by Sonic - but who, when pushed, is still a good kid deep down. In the jungle world, Amy is the extremist Thorn Rose who rides around on a giant Flicky like it's a chocobo and prevents foragers from "stealing" from the forest, possibly riffing on her bond with the Flickies in SA1. She's still looking out for the little guy, she's just doing so at the expense of everyone else. And in the pirate world, Knuckles is the captain Dread Knuckles, who instead of diligently guarding a magic rock was a pirate obsessed with obtaining a magic rock, and who swore off of that quest (and fighting in general) after it cost him the trust of his original crew.

These characters and their interactions with Sonic are all fun - Nine in particular provided a lot of my favorite emotional moments so far - and it feels like it gets at why you would do a multiverse story like this in the first place. You get to examine the characters from other angles! It's just that then there's... the rest. Characters who aren't the focus will just kind of get inserted into roles as Man of Action rests on broad cartoon tropes instead of actually doing anything with the Sonic source material. The dystopia of New Yolk City feels like a good fit given the history of the franchise, but then the other two worlds we've seen so far rely largely on stock "tribal" tropes and pirates going yaarrrrr.

I'm biased, but the worst off here seems to be Rouge, who has yet to get her spotlight universe (assuming she gets one next). This really stings because she's spot on in the regular universe. She hasn't been retconned to be part of Team Sonic, she's invited herself over because she's got her eye on the Paradox Prism (even dropping in unannounced at Tails' workshop). She's got a bit of that playfulness that makes her so fun, and the animation is able to lean into it. But then you go to the other universes and it's all gone.

Pirate Rouge is pretty fun, I'll admit, but I'm shocked they don't play up her love of gems there. Rebel Rouge (yes that is her literal name, the other rebels call her Rebel) gets to be a spy with a fun dynamic with Knuckles at first, but it quickly devolves into her just being the serious, responsible girlboss leading the rebellion who acts as a straight man to Sonic's snark. In other words, she's a lot like... Sally? I hate making that comparison because SatAM/Archie fans have been derisively comparing literally every new female character in the franchise to Sally since the '90s, but it's really hard to shake. (Similarly, it's hard to shake comparisons to Bunnie and Mecha Sally with Rusty Rose, the evil cyborg version of Amy with extendable limbs.) And Rouge's jungle universe counterpart ("Prim Rouge") is also just kind of there as the no-nonsense leader of the tribe, similar to Rebel.

And it's in scenes revolving around the blander of the AU characters when I'm like... man, I kinda wish they'd just made a show about the regular game universe without having to watch Man of Action bust out the pirate joke book and write the dollar store version of Princess Mononoke. I want to spend more time with the actual characters. Because they nailed the tiny glimpses of the game world that we got. This isn't a constant thought I have - again, I like the show, and the major AU characters are cool, and I like seeing new things be done with Sonic. But I'd be lying if I said I never wished the show had gone a different way. My perfect Sonic cartoon continues to elude me...

Story construction

Let's back up a bit and describe the basic premise. On the regular version of Sonic's Earth, things are business as usual, although Sonic seems to be getting a little too cocky and taking his friends for granted. During a fight with Eggman, Sonic accidentally shatters our new macguffin, the Paradox Prism, creating a series of new bad timelines in which he never existed. In that way, I might almost compare it to a multiverse-hopping adventure version of It's A Wonderful Life. A pretty solid emotional throughline to give the show a little more heft. In each of these worlds, Sonic helps set things right with the alternate versions of his friends and finds another shard of the Paradox Prism in an attempt to restore his world. He also usually faces off with the Chaos Council, a team of five alternate Eggmen who are all different ages.

Beyond the fact that there are like five versions of most characters, it's not THAT complicated, especially in a time when damn near everything in pop culture is doing multiverse shenanigans. Which is why it's frustrating that the script seems to think it's fucking House of Leaves.

For the first few episodes, Sonic has a VERY hard time grasping the fact that he's in an alternate universe. This is to be expected to some extent - Sonic is our point of view character through all of this, and it's a kids' show, so he's got to go through a process of figuring things out so that it can be explained to the kids at home. The problem is that it takes him damn near the entire first mini-arc in New Yolk City to figure it out, which starts to come off as insulting and leads to EXTREMELY repetitive dialogue where Sonic wonders why his friends don't remember him and where all the palm trees went. You'd think that by the time Nine explains that his personal history is completely different from how Sonic remembers his time with Tails he'd get a clue, but no, not really. He continues to meet alternate versions of his friends, stubbornly refer to them with their original names, and wonder why no one remembers their previous adventures together. This then somehow even continues into the second universe, the jungle one, where he somehow thinks he's still in New Yolk City and wonders why the cyberpunk rebel versions of his friends are all covered in leaves and wielding spears now. Thankfully, by the time he reaches the pirate world Sonic finally gets a clue, so this isn't a pattern that's going to continue. But it does make the first few episodes a drag.

This, the many recaps, and the out-of-order presentation of scenes back in Green Hill so that they can have a flashback to the regular universe in every episode for context really make it clear that this series was written for TV, not for Netflix. It's assuming that every single episode is going to be some 7-year-old's first episode and that they need to have everything explained again. I'd probably be a bit more sympathetic towards this repetitive, patronizing writing if it actually was airing on Cartoon Network, rather than being a Netflix show where they're dropping eight episodes at a time.

Stiff competition

This is the least fair of my complaints, but I gotta say it. As solid as Sonic Prime is for the most part, it looks worse at the tail end of a year when we've been FEASTING as Sonic fans.

We got a movie sequel that pivoted HARD into game elements, giving us both really great takes on the characters and interesting remixes of old ideas. The IDW comics are still going as strong as ever, with the continually compelling arc of new villains Surge and Kit and now the wildly inventive and downright beautiful to look at Scrapnik Island. And, of course, we got Frontiers, a return to form for the series that adapts it to a semi-open world with the best and most interesting story we've had in god knows how many years.

And then we've got Sonic Prime, a pretty good cartoon that between fun action scenes and interesting story ideas frequently relies on genre pastiches that were tired 30 years ago and jokes that aren't particularly funny.

I think reading Scrapnik Island #3 really put this into perspective for me. Which, again, isn't fair. The comics target older kids and are ALWAYS heavily tied to established continuity, and a comic miniseries can afford to go way more niche than a Netflix show. But Scrapnik is just doing such amazing and original things, bringing back long-forgotten elements of the games and recontextualizing them in fascinating ways. That mix of both the heartwarming sight of the Scrapniks finding happiness in their new lives and the EXTREMELY atmospheric horror aboard the ruins of the Death Egg. It rules! It takes elements hardcore fans wanted to see again and tells a totally new story with them that's unlike anything we've seen before in the franchise. It's really, really hard for "what if Knuckles was a pirate" to compete with that.

But we're still early in Prime. Things are getting more interesting over time, with Sonic acclimating to the dimension hopping and more crossover between the different universes. Nine discovering a completely dead, empty world and wanting to start from scratch there was also really interesting, and I'm curious if that goes anywhere. Again, I've been nitpicking a lot, but the show is pretty good and I've enjoyed my time with it overall. I just don't quite think it's 100% there yet. But I definitely think it could get there within the next 16 episodes.

Misc thoughts

Rouge sleeping like an actual bat is cute.

I like that the environmental themes of the series are such a big focus here! They fall to the wayside too often

I like that the AU characters have different names for the sake of telling them apart, but some of them are pretty bad (the aforementioned Rebel Rouge) while others I just don't get. Why is the old man Eggman named Dr. Done It? Why is the teenage one Dr. Don't?

I thought the scene where Sonic was trying to talk to the New Yolk City crew after a battle and they had to keep ducking under a laser that was still slowly circling the room was funny

The new shoes and gloves are ugly and I think it's really contrived that they magically transform into the perfect tools for every new universe

Between this and Frontiers it's becoming a pattern that Tails and Knuckles can get explicit flashbacks to previous games to highlight their histories with Sonic, while Amy can't. I don't know what to make of this

Thorn is pretty good overall but I do think the flashback depicting her as just randomly snapping one day when her friends pick one too many berries is so hokey that it wraps around to being kinda funny

I've neglected to mention Shadow, but I like him okay in this. It's definitely modern Shadow, but I think "hardass, no-nonsense rival who thinks Sonic is an idiot who acts without thinking and thus wants to kick his ass" is a decent place for Shadow to be in, compared to just The Vegeta, even if it's not my favorite version of the character. I'm curious to see what his role is in the rest of the show, especially given the cliffhanger, and hope he's able to work together with Sonic instead of just being a pissed off antagonist the whole time.

I hate baby Eggman

#tkp post #other media

[tadpolejourney]

Thoughts on D&D alignments and BG3

Don't mind me, I just felt like spending my day off writing a philosophical essay about Baldur's Gate 3 and Dungeons & Dragons character alignments. I may or may not have been inspired by someone I admire here on tumblr. And by may, I mean yes, I was inspired by that. :) Everything that follows is my opinion as an experienced D&D player and dungeonmaster. My main motivations are being a 3.5 D&D nerd above all else, and wanting to educate others about a cool but misunderstood system in a game I love.

Respectful discussion and questions are highly encouraged! <3

Character Alignments in D&D

Alignments in older versions of D&D were much less about the morality of a character's choices, and more about the confluence of a character's values (good vs evil) and loyalties (law vs chaos). There is long-standing recognition among many D&D players that these alignments are merely guides to help you create a fully realized character and encourage good role-playing. Just as it is widely acknowledged that all characters are capable of changing and capable of surprising anyone when faced with a situation, even themselves. Flexibility is not only implied, but highly encouraged in response to an event, because it enriches role-playing. It also encourages creativity when you're making a truly unexpected character because that character still needs to make sense in the world they are in despite being rare or unique among their kind. For example, how would someone become a chaotic evil druid when typical druids are neither chaotic nor evil? How does that influence their actions and decisions as a druid? The potential for rich backstories and truly unique characters can multiply when thinking about a character in terms of their alignment. The broader concept of categorizing characters to better understand them isn't new or unique to D&D either. See also: Carl Jung's Archetypes.

Alignments are supposed to guide role-playing decisions, not dictate them or pass judgment on a character's worth. In D&D, players are not supposed to know the alignments of the other players' characters, and in fact alignments are often withheld from the dungeonmaster (DM) as well to limit meta-gaming. When your character's alignment can be revealed as a creative surprise to the whole table upon confrontation with a game mechanic that exposes you? That's fun. I heard fun is the point of games, idk.

Character Alignments and BG3

In the spirit of not making things fun, BG3 character alignments have become broadly associated with moral judgment of a character instead. Another mistake being made in the BG3 fandom over and over is the erroneous conflation that D&D 5.0 = all D&D ever. D&D 5.0 is D&D simplified and reworked to be more accessible to more players. This is a good thing at the end of the day, but resulted in a lot of difficulty imbalances, lost mechanics, and confusing remnants from the more robust versions of D&D. In the case of alignment, it should have been either included entirely or left out entirely. Instead it was left in name only, causing it to be often and easily misunderstood and misused.

Larian wisely left alignments off the character sheet in the game, and I'd like to think that was at least partly done out of reverence for D&D. It would take away from one of the most powerful experiences in BG3 that separates it from D&D: your choices, as the video game player, guiding and influencing ALL of the characters, not just the one you chose for yourself.

I consider the characters in BG3 to be well-written characters. Well-written characters are meant to be seen in multiple dimensions, and at best an alignment gives you 2. There will always be nuance in a complex, fully realized character that alignments just won't cover.

All alignments have two sides to them. The first side of an alignment is good, evil, or neutral, while the other side of an alignment is lawful, neutral, or chaotic. If both sides of their alignment are neutral, that character is considered a 'true neutral' (often simplified as neutral, sometimes referred to as neutral-neutral).

Good vs Evil in Alignments is Not a Value Judgment

The good vs. evil side of alignment is all about degrees, not about a character's worth. Anyone can be an asshole or an angel under the right circumstances. Good vs evil is about what they value most. A traditional argument for the meaning of goodness asserts that all killing/harming is evil, and therefore a truly good character would never harm anyone. On the opposite end, the simplified definition of evil is anyone who kills or harms others, regardless of their circumstances or motivations. These definitions are way too reductive and inflexible, and would be the worst framework for the good vs evil side of alignment. In D&D alignments, characters who fall along the good axis are primarily motivated by altruism no matter their loyalty. Characters that fall along the evil axis are most motivated by power no matter their loyalty. Neutral characters on the good vs evil side of alignment are most motivated by personal relationships.

What follows is my perspective on how alignments shake out for BG3 characters. For the sake of brevity, I provide either a single example or a short justification of why I think that character 'fits' within a given alignment only if needed. I also account for contexts where a character's alignment can change based on players' choices in BG3. This is presented along the law vs chaos side of alignment, rather than good vs. evil, to diminish moral knee-jerk reactions.

Chaotic Axis

Chaotic characters are not always actually chaotic by definition, nor are they selfish by definition. Characters in the chaotic axis are most loyal to personal autonomy rather than rules/duty (aka law).

Chaotic Good – places the highest value on freedom of choice. Different from personal choice, freedom of choice implies that all people should have liberty but not at the expense of the liberties of others. (Karlach's arc is largely driven by this.)

Chaotic Neutral – places the highest value on personal choice.(Astarion doesn't care if others' lives don't benefit from his personal gains. He won't commit an evil or altruistic act that would disrupt or compromise his ability to live how he wants to.)

Chaotic Evil – places the highest value on personal gain (Ascended Astarion, on the other hand, will harm or kill anyone to be and remain powerful, no matter the consequences. His romanced line about being two sovereigns when in reality you are subjugated by him is a good example of that shift in values. See also: Every devil in the game. Orin fits here in theory but her alignment is more chaotic stupid, which is a special circumstance I won't cover here.)

Neutral Axis

The neutral axis gets wacky, because true neutral is the only alignment where neutrality is typically the goal and neutral shows up on both sides of alignment. Neutrality is difficult if not impossible to maintain unless you're in a vacuum, and true neutral characters are the most difficult to role play correctly. It is rare that a true neutral character is presented in a way that makes them compelling and interesting. They are likely to read flat and/or as though they're missing something. This alignment isn't useless however, because true neutral alignment as something intentional and/or temporary allows for interesting characterizations not available to other alignments.

For neutral good or neutral evil characters, their neutral alignment is determined by them being most motivated by their values rather than their loyalties. For chaotic neutrals and lawful neutrals, the opposite is true: their loyalties come first.

Neutral Evil – places the highest value on total control. (The Emperor. The Netherbrain. Ketheric. Gortash. Don't feel like I need to explain these to anyone who has played through BG3.)

Neutral-Neutral (aka True Neutral) – all things are considered equally. They favor neither their loyalties nor their values when making decisions. Their typical actions neither directly harm nor directly help others. A character without specific motivations to maintain balance in all things (aka a true neutral that isn't a druid) is likely experiencing or has experienced something which prevents them from possessing strong convictions or values. (Shadowheart when you first meet her, literally only because she's missing chunks of her personality and nearly all of her personal history. Her attempts at conviction are shallow and unconvincing, and her values don't land consistently either. I'd put God of Ambition formerly known as Gale here too. He's not actively bringing harm or help to anyone. He's just kinda there, soaking in worship while being really detached, uninteresting, and uninvolved, as any god would be.)

Neutral Good – places the highest value on kindness/compassion for others. (Gale. How outraged Halsin is at the state of the refugee crisis in Baldur's Gate. Jaheira allying with the Astral Prism gang once she realizes they're on the same side, despite misgivings about them being infected. Selunite Shadowheart.)

Lawful Axis

The meaning of 'law' in the law vs chaos side of alignment is extremely flexible: duty, order, honor, justice, tradition, and rules, are all considered law. The lawful axis is for characters who place law first, above their values. The type of law is not necessarily indicative of the good vs evil side of their alignment, but there is a certain amount of boxing in that can take place. If the character's highest priority is fulfilling duties for an evil god, for example, they're lawful evil, period.

Lawful Evil – places the highest value on attaining and maintaining 'rightful' power. (Minthara embodies the lawful evil paladin archetype pretty fully. She has a malevolent sense of justice. See also: Dark Justiciar Shadowheart, Vlaakith's Zealot Lae'zel.)

Lawful Neutral – places the highest value on upholding law (Lae'zel. Duty is everything to her.)

Lawful Good – places the highest value on benevolent justice (Minsc and Wyll, always kicking ass for good and willing to sacrifice for it too. Killing may be an unfortunate side effect, but the values of lives are respected.)

A Scandalous Visual Representation

Final Thoughts

These are just examples, of course. There are many characterizations in which you can argue for an alignment where the standard description I provide here wouldn't apply. That is part of the fun of debating character alignments and thinking critically about what motivates the decisions of characters. As a creative tool, character alignment has value outside of the game as well. It facilitates that difficult process fan fiction writers go through of not being the original writer while trying to determine how a character would react, what they would do, and what they would say. Writers who can see characters in three dimensions are capable of expanding on any existing well-written universe with believable canon and stories. If you got this far, I appreciate you entertaining my rambles!

#apparently I just like school so much that I school even when I don't need to school #sorry if you're in college and an essay is the last thing you want/need #I hated writing essays the whole time I was forced to do it but now I'm really glad I developed the skills to write like this when I want t #bg3 #baldur's gate #baldur's gate 3 #baldurs gate 3 #baldur's gate iii #bg3 spoilers #baldur's gate oc #dungeons and dragons #d&d

[highfantasy-soul]

NATLA Episode 6 - Masks (2/5)

[Masterlist of my NATLA thoughts]

An explanation of what I'm doing here and my history with ATLA.

Of course, full spoilers ahead.

<previous/next>

Aang begging Zuko to let him go save his friends seems naïve of him (it is, kinda) but Zuko's resigned 'no' at Aang's pleas is heartbreaking. He's not gloating, he's not angry at Aang, he's exhausted and beaten down and surely feeling guilty over all the arguments Aang is throwing at him - everyone assumes they know who Zuko is because of the mask he's put on since his banishment, but Aang is the one who can see through it. Aang's naïve belief in the inherent goodness of people extends even to his enemies and is such an important character trait.

The war council flashback is ssooooooo well done! Zuko clearly just happy to be there and not actually paying attention, then desperately fumbling for an adequate answer to his own plan for the attack - all of which any viewer who had been paying attention could see are bad plans. BUT when the general suggests his own plan, Zuko is smart enough to see the flaw in it - he's far from inept, he just wasn't ready to jump in with his own strategy at his first war council. The frustration and disappointment Ozai shows as he tried to prompt his first-born to prove to him he was worthy is much more interesting to me than Ozai just writing Zuko off from the start. Ozai's insistence that 'sacrifice is a part of war' really is a key aspect of why he does what he does - to his people and to his children - and ironically, is exactly what Roku and the other Avatars always advise Aang. While Ozai takes it to the extreme, and it's very important that you know when a sacrifice is going too far, the sentiment is a solid one. Soldiers die in battle - it's when you resign yourself to that and no longer fight against it or you feel a twisted sense of pride and accomplishment for 'bearing' that sacrifice that the issues really come up.

It's a GREAT detail that Ozai doesn’t break eye contact with Zuko as he asks which division it is that will be sacrificed - gauging his son's reaction.

How Zuko stands up against the general is just sooo Zuko. Again, SHOWING his honor, not just having Zuko yell it randomly. The plan is 'unworthy' of the fire nation - it's a dishonorable tactic. In Zuko's eyes, just like fighting with your face hidden and employing mercenaries, it's underhanded and not how the fire nation - as they have positioned themselves to be in the world - should behave. All that propaganda about the Fire Nation being the best and always doing what is right begins to crumble, but he believes, as of now, that it's 'just a few bad apples' and the system is still good. If he can just speak out against the aberrations in the system, then everything will be fine because the system is correct, others just aren't living up to the way 'the system tells you to be' in the Fire Nation. (Oh my god, I knew my current DnD character had a lot of Zuko in her (plus Azula, little bit of Yue, some Darth Vader, and others) but damn, this analysis is hitting very close to home for her).

The Blue Spirit animated episode really shows Zhao's station in the Fire Nation - other leaders think he's just on a vanity project going after the Avatar. This is shown in the live-action all the way at the beginning of the season with Ozai declaring him 'no one of importance'. I think the live action giving us an early look at that, and Azula seeing him as someone she can use to further her own gains, adds depth to Zhao as we're not doing the Jong Jong storyline. Having Zhao take command of Zuko's search for the Avatar lines up with the animated version, and I like how they combine Zuko breaking his banishment by sneaking into the fire nation to capture Aang in the animated series episode Avatar Roku (part 2 of the Winter Solstice) with his infiltration of the prison. In an animated show, you can have many repeats of plot points (Zuko defying the fire nation rules to capture Aang) and meld them into one plotline that gives the moments time to breathe.

As iconic as the Blue Spirit episode is, there's little connective tissue from Zhao capturing the Avatar and Zuko showing up as the Blue Spirit to get him out - for some reason he's on the roof of the building as Zhao gets his promotion, then somehow gets back to his boat and sails off without Zhao realizing he was in the area until his boat pulls up beside his, then there's no indication that Zuko has any informants that would let him know that Zhao has caught the Avatar in a remote location or that he sent him to that particular prison. How does Zuko know any of this? It's established that Zhao is the one with resources, not Zuko. Sorry to poke holes in this beloved episode, but if y'all are going to complain about the live-action, I need to bring up this stuff so I can compare it to how the live-action handled it.

So, how did the live-action do it? Zuko was already employing June to capture Aang, and since we know she's great at it (and succeeded before), she gets him and hands him off. Then Zhao comes and 'takes Aang off Zuko's hands' as he's been given charge of capturing the Avatar and he goes ahead and taunts Zuko with the location he's taking him to: hammering home Zhao's overconfidence and urge to gloat. So in the live-action, there are direct lines from Zuko tracking and capturing Aang, Zhao taking him to the prison, and Zuko showing up as the Blue Spirit. Yes, the vibes of the animated episode are immaculate and I'm sure a lot of the questionable plot holes concerning the spirit are to keep the mystery of who it is until the mask comes off - but according to first-time watchers of the live-action, they didn't call it was Zuko either until the mask came off, so I think, from a storytelling perspective, the way the live-action did it flows better and is more tight storytelling while still maintaining the mystery of the masked man's identity.

Zuko's performance here is so great - Dallas manages to capture Zuko's anger and frustration as well as his vulnerability so well without skewing too hard in either direction. The perfect balance is struck where I think the animated series sometimes fell short of as, even though the narrative was clearly trying to get us to see that Zuko wasn't a flat villain and that there was a chance for him to be redeemed, a lot of his actions were quite one-note in the beginning. There were definitely hints of his softer side like in episode 3 when he asks Iroh if he really meant that he had more honor than Zhao, but I think the live-action, like with many of the character shifts, made him more real and believable rather than a heightened cartoon version of the archetype (after all, cartoons are meant to be heightened).

From the moment we see Aang tied up in the prison, it's almost a complete shot-for-shot remake of the animated version - even down to Zhao dictating to his little note-taker - and it's soo good. Funny enough, Zhao even tells Aang to stop worrying about his past and start worrying about his future. Just as with Ozai's twisting of 'necessary sacrifices', we see Zhao twist the idea of moving on from the past into something darker. Zhao is the epitome of the new Fire Nation ideals taken to the absurd extreme - the hubris, arrogance, and ambition by any means necessary. And unfortunately, despite its absurdity, it's a very very real depiction we see every day (Trump and Elon Musk being prime examples).

The escape is so close to identical even down to Aang's little quip where he questions the masked man, gets no response and says 'IIIII'll take that as a yes' (or the live-action version 'Right, escape now, talk later' which is the same energy so if you had an issue with that, take it up with the animated show). Though I will always mourn the loss of the line "Wait! My friends need to suck on those frooooggss!!!" I understand the need to nix that bit.

The standoff at the gate between The Blue Spirit holding his blades to Aang's throat and Zhao ready to take them out was so well done. No words, but the fact that you can see Zuko's eyes behind the mask, hear his shallow breathing as he's terrified his plan might not work, it adds so much. Aang's confusion, Zhao's cocky assurance, then uncomfortable shifting as he realizes brute force won't work this time - the Blue Spirit isn't afraid of him (he thinks). So many layers of masks and bluffs make the scene so good, even though most of us know how it's going to end. Being introduced to the Yuyan archers with Azula and then having Azula be Zhao's backup was a great way to tie in him getting promotions and more resources than he otherwise would have.

In The Blue Spirit episode of the animated series, Sokka and Katara are benched by getting sick, but I like that the live-action changed it to being captured in the Spirit Realm by Koh - it lets then still do stuff (character building stuff) while out of commission and Aang's reason for being in the place he's captured is a lot more compelling than 'he was looking for frozen frogs'.

<Ok, next posts are going to be very in depth about Zuko and Aang's interactions after the escape and the Agni Kai - I have a LOT to analyze there>

#natla #natla positivity #live action avatar #avatar the last airbender #netflix avatar

[peachonified]

I have some anime recommendations.

I have STRUGGLED this year to find things to watch. I don't particularly like romance - it saps the storyline - and I like action/comedy. It's why I've always had a taste for sports anime.

So... this is just a starting point for the lost souls who are just after something, and don't know where to start. This is in no particular order, although prob related to how recently I watched it...

1. The Apothecary Diary

Set in a land in the far east, Maomao is sold to the back palace. From there she solves mysteries.

This is honestly such a great show! Intrigue, engaging characters, and you could absolutely read Maomao as aroace. This was a stand out.

I also love the opening song. Very Shakira-esque.

2. Another stand out was Death Mount, Death Play

I'm not a fan of super violence, so I almost didn't make it past ep 1... but I ADORED this show. The main character is amazing, the shark in the credits is so cute, the story is many faceted, and I seriously adored it! highly reccomend.

3. I wasn't expecting to enjoy God of High School.

Now, it absolutely does feel like it needs a second season, but it ended in a way that felt okay too... it is based on aKorean wrbcomic, but has japanes va's. It's an over powered fighting anime, with mystery powers and a very likable main character. It's got super baddies to hate, and it does edge into too violent for my taste, but still sat down and watched my way through it xD

4. Ah... my beloved sports anime. I'm gonna add Haikyuu! And Kuroko no Basket here. I mean... both are fandoms I write for xD

Haikyuu!! Is great as there are no real bad guys, and lots of growth all round.

Kuroko is basically magical high school boys who play high school basketball, but same thing: lots of character growth, lots of friendship.

One thing I love is how the boys cry? I mean that in a they are disappointed when they lose and aren't told to suck it up. I always appreciate that!

5. It's been hard to avoid isekai animes, and some of them are less than engaging, it is true. But some? Some are delightful!

5a So, I got reincarnated as a slime is one of my faves.

It's just... nice? Satisfying? It doesn't reaaaaally push any boundaries (although I love almost everything about the final arc). There's so many loveable characters, and it's alot of fun. It helps I've always loved slimes, so this overpowered one isno exception.

5b why Raeliana ended up at the dukes mansion is, yes a romance.

But its also fun. Our protagonist is reincarnated into a gane, as a character that they know will die. And they don't want to die! And so... this isthat story.

5c. This lead me down the reincarnated in a game pathway, and I came across My next life as a villainess: all roads lead to doom

You know those really dumb lovable characters? Well, I love Catarina. She is charming with a harem comorised if almost everyone she grew up with, and there's just something so delightful! I laughed outloud as much as i groaned at this one!

Older ones I reccomend:

Natsume's Book of friends

Slice of life about a boy who can see spirits. Definitely leans towards melancholy, but really leans into found family

2. Black Clover

Look. Get past Asta screaming in the first 20 eps and you've got some enjoyable action. The characterisation is

#anime #anime recommendation #kuroko no basket #haikyuu #the apothacary's Diary #death mount death play

[s10127470]

The MCU Synergy Problem

It’s been a month since X-Men ‘97 came out, and just about everyone’s has already pointed what makes it so good.

-Staying true to the spirit of the original while still striving for its own identity

-Staying true to the characterization and depiction of the characters, and in some cases, improving on their characterization such as in the case of Jean Grey and especially Morph.

-Introducing new concepts, elements and characters that haven’t been explored in other adaptations yet.

-Having so many callbacks to the original while not coming off as nostalgia pandering.

-The animation and action! MY GOD! The animation and action!

Really, the only problem people have with this show is the weird love triangle between Rogue, Gambit and Magneto.

We already had to deal with the infamous love triangle Cyclops, Jean and Wolverine in the original, we did not need this.

Not only is this just unnecessary, it’s also just weird since in the original, it was never even implied that Rogue or Magneto had any sort of history between each other at all.

But here, they met during Rogue’s days with the Brotherhood. And I think when they met, Rogue was still a teenager.

During that time, the two grew an attraction towards each other and although it’s not explicitly stated, it is implied that they did….ya know…

Man….

Although I do enjoy Magneto, unlike a lot of other people, I can acknowledge that he’s kind of an awful person.

He’s a supremacist, a terrorist, a mass murderer, a violent, abusive psychopath, and a deadbeat father (well, when he used to be a father but we’ll get to that soon).

But never though that “groomer” would be an addition to that list as well.

All I can say is that….if this show took place in the modern day, Magneto ain’t beating any allegations.

But besides all that, another major positive people have with this show is just how….comic booky it feels, which is something that’s been lacking with a lot of Marvel content for the better of a decade now.

But before we get into that, let’s take a little history lesson.

Marvel was founded all the way back in 1939 by Martin Goodman….but it wasn’t called Marvel at first, it was actually called Timely Comics. But by 1951, the name of the brand was changed to Atlas Comics. 

During this era, the comics saw the introduction of several characters include The Human Torch (the android), The Whizzer, Miss America, The Destroyer, the original Vision and The Angel. 

But the two most notable characters introduced during this time were none other than the patriotic fighter of justice Captain America and the anti-heroic aquatic incel Namor the Sub-Mariner.

But Marvel would become the comic book powerhouse we know them as today starting in April of 1961, when Altas Comics was changed to be part of the newly-named Marvel Comics brand, helmed by the legendary duo of Stan Lee and Jack Kirby.

And over the course of the 1960s, Marvel would not only quickly become the biggest name in the comic industry (only being rivaled by who else, but DC), but also introduce many of their most recognizable stars.

This would include the likes of The Fantastic Four, The Incredible Hulk, Thor, Ant-Man and The Wasp, Iron Man, The X-Men, Daredevil, Doctor Strange, The Inhumans, Black Panther, The Silver Surfer, Black Widow and Hawkeye, and of course, the friendly neighborhood Spider-Man.

And in addition to tons of, in the words of Yogurt…..

Marvel would also see plenty of entries into the wider world of television. 

From the anthology series Marvel Super Heroes, to the acclaimed five-season run of The Incredible Hulk starring the legendary bodybuilder Lou Ferrigno, to the absolute meme-fest that was the 1967 Spider-Man cartoon.

But Marvel really found their footing amongst the public consensus in the 1990s, largely thanks to their animated shows.

We had X-Men ‘92, Spider-Man, Iron Man and Fantastic Four ‘94, and The Incredible Hulk ‘96. 

What made these shows stand out from their predecessors was that they strived to actually be adaptations of their respective comics.

Yeah, prior to these shows, all of the cartoons were largely villain-of-the-week shows with little to no continuity and apart from the characters, didn’t really take a whole lot from their source material.

But these shows actually went out of their way to actually adapt storylines from the comics, had ongoing plots, and much stronger characterization than before.

And even besides that and of course, merchandising, Marvel was making quite the name for itself in the world of video games. Most notably the ones that were made by Capcom, which included the likes of The Punisher, X-Men: Children of the Atom, Marvel Super Heroes, X-Men: Mutant Apocalypse, and most famously of all, Marvel vs. Capcom.

Their status among the public consensus became even stronger when the 21st century rolled around.

This was largely thanks to the multiple films based on Marvel Comics properties that came out during the 2000s.

This included the likes of Sam Raimi’s Spider-Man trilogy, Ang Lee’s Hulk film, Tim Story’s Fantastic Four duology, Mark Steven Johnson’s Daredevil, and (Sirs whose names will not be mentioned here at all)’s X-Men series.

And apart from the merchandising (which was stronger than ever before thanks, the 2000s would also see some of the best video games based off the Marvel Comics and its IPs.

Marvel vs. Capcom 2: A New Age of Heroes, Incredible Hulk: Ultimate Destruction, X-Men Legends and its sequel Rise of Apocalypse, Marvel Ultimate Alliance, and Spidey himself had a multiple of great games from this era.

From ones based off his cinematic outings, to ones based off his alternate universe escapades (Ultimate Spider-Man), to ones that featured the characters’ worst voice actor to date and was responsible giving us that famous depressed Spidey walking meme (Web of Shadows).

But everything would change for Marvel in 2008 with the release of….

This film would not only serve as the invincible armored Avenger’s first outing on the big screen, but would also be the start of one of the most well-known and influential pieces of media in Marvel’s entire history…..

The Marvel….Cinematic….Universe….

Just about everyone knows about the MCU.

It only not made the characters of Marvel even bigger than before (along with introducing some of the more lesser-known characters to the general public), but also helped popularized the concept of the shared cinematic universe in general.

The franchise has gone on to become one of, if not, the biggest and most successful film franchise in history and has left a major impact on the world of cinema and even Marvel themselves.

And unfortunately, not really for the better…..

Everyone has already pointed how much of a negative influence the MCU has had on the media we consume.

From the multiple failed attempts from studios who desperately wanted to trend chase by making their own cinematic universe, only for these attempts to end up being massive failures, to a lot of writing in many films post-Avengers having this quippy and observational sort-of-write that while beloved at first, has gone on to become seen as annoying and tiresome…..

But I really want to focus on the effect it’s had on Marvel as a whole.

To start this off, let’s look the place where this MCU effect has been the biggest problem…..and it’s ironically enough, the comics.

Ever since MCU began, Marvel has been adapting elements from the MCU into the comics, which became especially more apparent after the first Avengers film.

And while Marvel is no stranger to adapting elements from Marvel media outside the comics, it’s never been to this extent.

This synergy has seen major changes in the appearances and characterization in many of its characters, including…..

-Iron Man being portrayed as far more snarky and quippy than he previously was. At first, people were on board with this change, not only because people liked Robert Downey Jr’s portrayal, but also because during the mid-2000s, Iron Man was not a popular character. Not in the frankly overused and tired “nobody knew who Iron Man was prior to the release of the first film” way. But more in the sense that everyone hated him during that time. This was largely thanks to the absolute clusterfuck known as Civil War, which turned Iron Man into a full-on villain. Plus he was indirectly responsible for One More Day, aka the worst Spider-Man story ever written.

-Loki became far more heroic and started looking and acting more like his MCU counterpart. Hell, the Loki we know today isn’t the same one introduced back in the 1960s. That Loki died all the way back in 2010, and the one we know today is essentially his reincarnation. And this reincarnation was not only introduced in the exact same year that the first Thor movie released, but in the exact same month as well!

-Thor started acting far more goofy and air-headed like his MCU counterpart following Thor: Raganrok.

-Hawkeye started giving off what could be best described as “uwu small bean tired dad” in the Matt Fraction run, which started just 4 months after the first Avengers film.

-Agatha Harkness having her appearance changed into that of a much younger woman following Wandavision.

-Introducing the Ten Rings following Shang-Chi, and having the titular hero being the user of them instead of just being Bruce Lee like he had been for last 50 years.

-Literally everything involving the Guardians of the Galaxy.

Its also led to tons of the characters getting somewhat phased out like….

-Iron Fist, due to the poor reception of his MCU show and complaints towards him being a “white savior”.

-Hank Pym and Janet Van Dyne, aka the original Ant-Man and the Wasp, who were also two of the five founding members of the Avengers. But despite that, neither of them appeared in the first Avengers film. And although it was a loose adaptation of The Ultimates, Hank and Janet were still present in that story as founding members of the titular team. Hell, Hank definitely has this the worst as he was killed off back in 2015, and was only recently brought back from the dead…..and he’s an old man now. I wonder why?

-Valkyrie, who was not only killed off permanently after Thor Ragnarök, but replaced with not one, but two characters very similar to the Valkyrie that appears in Ragnarök.

-The Inhumans, who had a major push in relevancy in order to promote their upcoming movie and TV show. But after the former got cancelled and the latter ended up being a massive flop, they ended up being banished to the shadow realm and barely acknowledged anymore. Also, the reason for their push plays into a later point.

-Quicksilver, which also plays into that later point I just mentioned.

-Black Panther, who Marvel seems to be somewhat edging out in the comics literally because of Chadwick Boseman’s passing.

And worse of all, retcons……such as…..

-Quicksilver and The Scarlet Witch being revealed to have never been Magneto’s children nor mutants at all….shortly after the release of Age of Ultron.

-Shang Chi’s biracial heritage being rewritten to have him being fully Asian shortly after his film.

-Nebula, in addition to being made to look and act more like the movie version, also was revealed to be Thanos’ adopted daughter and Gamora’s sister….just like in the movies. 

-Ms. Marvel being revealed to have been mutant all along instead of an Inhuman…..just months before the release of The Marvels.

-Thor and the other Asgardians are not mythical beings, but actually aliens who were mistaken for gods by humanity….who just so happen to use magic (yeah this is a weird one because it constantly keeps flip-flopping between one or the other).

-Nick Fury being revealed to have had an illegitimate son who looks exactly like the MCU Nick Fury, who himself was based on the Ultimate Universe version of Nick Fury, who was African-American and modeled after Samuel L. Jackson. This is really weird because if they wanted a Samuel L. Jackson inspired Nick Fury, they could’ve easily just waited for the 2015 Secret Wars event and just had the Ultimate Nick Fury be one of the surviving inhabitants of the Ultimate Universe to be brought over to the 616 Universe along with Miles Morales, The Maker, and that son of Wolverine everyone forgot the existence of (even Marvel themselves!).

So yeah, as you can see, this is quite a problem.

Marvel has essentially been trying to make the comics resemble the movies rather than the other way around.

Which has not only gotten annoying and tiresome, but it’s also pretty disingenuous.

I mean, you’re pulling from a source material that has literal decades of content and lore to use, and now you’re actively trying change and contradict that lore just because of a series of movies adapting said source material?

This is obviously because they’re trying to appeal to new Marvel readers who came right from the movies.

But for some reason, Marvel seems to believe that general audiences have never heard the word “adaptation” before.

But this isn’t just an issue for the comics, it’s also an issue for…..pretty much every medium Marvel can be represented in.

For over a decade, Marvel has been essentially trying to push the MCU as the default everything.

Anything Marvel related: it all has to be similar to the MCU and barely anything else. And if it can, just utilize any of the comics written post 2010.

It’s pretty much the same problem that a lot of recent Spider-Man media suffers from.

When they’re adapting stuff, it’s almost always from the cartoons, Brian Michael Bendis’ Ultimate Spider-Man and Dan Slott’s run on Amazing Spider-Man.

And this has often come to the detriment of many of the non-MCU projects released during the 2010s.

Three of the best examples of this I could think of were Avengers Assemble, Square Enix’s Avengers, and Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite. 

Avengers Assemble is famous for being the Marvel cartoon that was only created just to ride on the success of the first Avengers film.

But in spite of this, it was apparent during the first two season that this show was striving to have its own identity. Specifically utilizing some of the lesser-known faces of Marvel.

But as the series went on, the MCU got bigger and bigger. And as a result, the show started to get bogged down by MCU synergy.

From having storylines that were obviously done to tie into whatever movie came out not that long ago, to even changing characters appearances in order to better reflect their MCU counterparts.

The best example of the latter was with Falcon, who was a member of the main cast.

During the first three seasons, he actually stood out from the rest of the team visually as his outfit wasn’t trying to emulate the MCU.

It wasn’t emulating the comics either because I think that outfit of his was wholly original to this show.

But during season 4, Falcon ends up going through a time warp. And when he comes out, he’s been aged up from a young college-aged man to a grown man around the Avengers’ ambiguous age range and is wearing an outfit similar to his MCU counterpart.

Now we come to Square Enix’s Avengers.

My God…..was there anything this game did remotely right?

Or at least competently?

And one of the many flaws of this game was its roster.

And this actually plays into another major point on how stifling MCU synergy is.

Ever since the first Avengers movie, whenever the titular Avengers appear in just about anything, they’re almost always shown having the same roster.

That being Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk, Black Widow and Hawkeye.

Sometimes there will be other members like Falcon, Ant-Man, Wasp, Black Panther, Vision and Captain Marvel, but that’s because those guys are also major names in the MCU as well.

Like for God’s sake, switch it up a bit! 

For the next major thing the Avengers appear in, how about we have a roster based on like…..

The Heroes Return roster, or the Hickman roster, or the Englehart roster, or the New Avengers roster, or the Stern roster, or the West Coast roster, or even the Classic roster!

But back to the Avengers game, they didn’t even commit to that never-changing roster I just mentioned!

When the game released, the Avengers video game had Captain America, Iron Man, Thor, Hulk and Black Widow as the main Avengers roster until Ms. Marvel joined up.

Yeah, Hawkeye didn’t appear as a part of the roster until his own DLC with Kate Bishop!

As for the other additions to the roster, we had Spider-Man, Black Panther, The Winter Soldier and the Jane Foster Thor.

Yeah, when looking at this game as an adaptation of the comics (which it barely was), the roster is absolutely pathetic when you look at the INSANE amount of members the Avengers have had over the decades.

And when looking at this game as an adaptation of the MCU, it didn’t even commit to that!

This is even more of the case when you look at the list of characters they initially had planned, but they obviously had to drastically cut all that for the sake of time constraints.

Hell, if you want to see something really sad, just look at the villain roster.

Over the 3 years this game was around, it only gave us 4 (yes 4) villains.

M.O.D.O.K., Taskmaster, The Abomination and Klaw….

Yep! Just these four schmucks!

No Red Skull, no Mandarin, no Baron Zemo, no Leader, no Ultron, no Kang the Conqueror, no Absorbing Man, no Wrecking Crew, no Enchantress, no Whirlwind, no Crimson Dynamo, no Circus of Crime….

Hell, they don’t even have Loki, the most popular and well-known Avengers villain!

It’s even more sadder when you consider the DLCs, i.e Spider-Man, who despite having undoubtedly the most well-known rogues gallery in all of Marvel, not one of them appear at all in his DLC!

In the wise words of a young redheaded YouTuber who likes to talk about Spidey….

“How easily you got showed up by Fortnite!”

If you want more detail on the history of this game and what went wrong, I suggest watching Matt McMuscles’ What Happened video on the game, but basically the reason that the game was the way that it was due to the laziness and apathy of Square Enix, the inexperience and slight incompetence of Crystal Dynamics, having WAY too many cooks in the kitchen (i.e., they worked with five studios, all of which were located in different parts of the world), and most of all, the utter greed of Marvel.

And funnily enough, this game ties into my next talking point…

Marvel vs. Capcom: Infinite! The fourth and possibly final game in the series….and is regarded by just about everyone to be the weakest game as well.

Just like Avengers, one of (if not) the biggest criticisms of this game was the roster.

Infinite had a roster of about 36 characters, having the second smallest roster in the series’ history, only surpassing Clash of Heroes’ 15.

This was quite the surprise when compared to the previous game, 3’s 48 characters and especially 2: A New Age’s 56.

As for the roster itself, it was made up of both veteran characters and new characters.

Returning from the previous game, we had Spider-Man, Captain America, Hulk, Iron Man, Thor, Doctor Strange, Dormammu, Ghost Rider, Nova and Rocket Raccoon.

Also returning were two faces that hadn’t been seen since 2: Venom and Thanos.

As for the new characters, we had Captain Marvel, Black Widow, Hawkeye, Black Panther, Gamora and Ultron.

Yeah not exactly the most interesting roster.

And I’m sure many of you noticed by now, there’s something notable characters missing from the roster.

Namely the X-Men, their villains and Doctor Doom, all of whom have been staples of the franchise since the beginning.

And there’s a reason for that….

A very, scummy reason….

I already mentioned this in my X-Men: The Next Mutation post, but it does bare repeating her.

As the MCU became more popular, Marvel became focusing on pushing the Avengers as their premiere superhero team, with the Fantastic Four and X-Men essentially being dethroned.

Along with that, their relevance in the comics notably began to degraded, and barely began making appearances in media outside the comics.

The reason for this, apart from Marvel focusing on cashing in on the Avengers, was because despite still owning the overall rights for the FF and X-Men (which, why wouldn’t they?), their film rights were still owned by 20th Century Fox.

Since Fox was pretty much a rival company to Marvel until Disney bought them out, Marvel basically saw any form of FF and X-Men representation as free-marketing for Fox.

So they decided to essentially not to allow any FF or X-Men related characters to appear in any media outside the comics and even reduced their overall presence as well.

Which is why Quicksilver, Scarlet Witch and the other non X-Men mutants were retconned into not being mutants, why Quicksilver himself has been sort of been an afterthought in recent years, why the Inhumans were pushed so hard, and why the FF and X-Men characters weren’t in this game.

Plus the justifications and excuses for this from the developers are absolutely hilarious, because you can just tell that they’re lying through their teeth while being held up at gunpoint by a bunch of Marvel executives.

Oh yeah, let’s bring up the other biggest elephant in the room and want led to Square Enix developing Avengers.

After Infinite came out and got quickly abandoned by the player-base, many people at Capcom have come out to reveal just how awful it was working with Marvel and Disney.

They weren’t just pushy with who and who couldn’t be in the roster. 

They were also pushy about how the characters that would be in the roster would be portrayed (specifically wanting them to heavily resemble their MCU iterations) and even changing their themes to be exactly like the MCU ones. 

Hell, this pushiness was so bad that for the trailers, they did not want the Marvel characters to be depicted as losing!

This was also an issue back during 3 as well, but it was essentially amplified during this game.

This really shows just how petty Marvel really is….

They’re willing to ignore and downplay the existence of two major players of their brand that people have loved for decades and were created by the two men them helped make the company they are today.

They’re unwilling to compromise and it has to be their way or the highway.

And this pettiness eventually came to bite them in the ass as Capcom’s statements about working with them eventually reached many of the other big video game developers.

And soon enough, when Marvel was trying to find someone to develop Avengers, none of the big game developers wanted anything to do with it!

Eventually, they did find a developer with Square Enix, who already had experience working with Disney via Kingdom Hearts.

It’s actually ironically hilarious that the heads at Marvel believed all three of these projects would actually be successful because of the MCU synergy, but they all ended up being flops because of said MCU synergy!

But this desire for MCU synergy has not only negatively affected non-MCU project of this time, but even ones that either came out before this desire or….never came out at all.

I’m sure many of you remember The Avengers: Earth’s Mightiest Heroes.

This show was essentially a love letter to the Silver Age comics of Marvel  and strived to be an near-faithful adaptation of many classic and even recent Avengers storylines, while also having its own unique spin on it.

Hell, in some cases, the EMH versions of these storylines are actually better than the originals, especially in the case of Secret Invasion. 

Sadly, the show got cancelled in 2012 after 2 seasons and 52 episodes…and to this day, EMH probably has one of the dumbest and scummiest reasons for cancellation in television animation history.

The reason this show was cancelled because Marvel wanted to replace with it a show that was more in-line with the MCU, aka Avengers Assemble.

Yep! Not low ratings. Not bad critical reception. Not budgetary reasons. Hell, not even bad toy sales, which was a major reason for a lot of action cartoons around this time getting the axe!

And it doesn’t get much better from here.

During the 2010s, there were a lot of promising Marvel projects that never saw the light of the day, with two of the most notable being the animated Deadpool series and Marvel Era.

Following the success of 2016 film, FX and Marvel Television decided to collaborate to created an animated series based on the merc with the mouth, with Donald Glover (yes, that Donald Glover) being one of the main showrunners, alongside his brother Stephen.

However, the series was cancelled almost a year within its development, with the main reason being that Marvel wasn't particularly big on the vision that the Glovers had for this series.

And apart Donald speculating racism on Marvel’s part (which given that Jeph Loeb was meant to be an executive producer on this series, that possibly could be the case), another possible factor for the show’s cancellation was because of Deadpool’s connection with the X-Men, and during this show’s production, Marvel was still in their “the X-Men don’t matter anymore” phase.

And it really sucks because the pitch animation for this was really good and made this seem like it was going to be a very fun show.

New we come to Marvel Era.

Out of all the cancelled projects, this was perhaps the most interesting.

Marking a first for their animated shows, this would’ve been an anthology series released in 2014 to commemorate the 75th anniversary of Marvel Comics.

It was going to be produced by Powerhouse Animation (best known for Netflix’s Castlevania series) and it was gonna have 7 stories, with each one being themed around a different decade and focusing on a different character.

There would’ve been a 40s story focusing on Captain America, a 50s story focusing on either Wolverine or Namor the Sub-Mariner, a 60s story focusing on the X-Men, a 70s story focusing on The Heroes for Hire, a 80s story focusing on The Punisher, a 90s story focusing on the aforementioned Deadpool, and a 2000s story focusing on Captain Marvel.

This honestly seemed like it was going to be a really great show, which was enhanced by the absolutely gorgeous animation of the pitch trailer.

Unfortunately, Powerhouse announced that the project was cancelled because it wasn’t what Marvel Television were focusing on.

Which is code for: Marvel didn’t want it because it wasn’t MCU adjacent….

To wrap this up, I just wanted to bring up the reason I made this in the first place.

Over the last few weeks, there was a leak for a upcoming episode of X-Men ‘97, which showed a shot of Captain America’s shield.

And this led many people to somewhat groan, believing that this was yet another case of MCU synergy. 

And although this was proven to be false, it really does speak volume with how much influence the MCU has had.

Although it has brought lot of Marvel’s star characters into the mainstream, the MCU has shaped and changed them so much, that it seems like they can no longer exist as characters who have existed for literal DECADES.

They always have to be associated with a film franchise that has existed for about 1/6 of their existence in fiction.

But I think the biggest takeaway to all this is that this constant MCU synergy kinda shows a lack of reverence for Marvel’s legacy.

Look at this merchandising from the 2010s and 2020s....

In most of this merchandise, the character roster featured is almost always the same.

The Avengers, Doctor Strange, Spider-Man and the Web Warriors, and the Guardians of the Galaxy.

The Inhumans were also apart of this roster until, as I mentioned earlier, got banished to the Shadow Realm....

Occasionally you'll get some of the other cosmic characters like Nova, She-Hulk and some of the street-level heroes like Daredevil, Elektra, Ghost Rider, and The Heroes for Hire.

But those are few and far between.

But other than that, it's largely the four I mentioned earlier.

Because they're the main faces of the MCU, and as we all know, everything has to be related to the MCU in some way....

But now let's compare that to some Marvel merchandising from the mid-to-late 2000s and early 2010s....

Upon seeing this, you can tell that there’s a far greater sense of appreciation for Marvel.

This merchandising pulls from nearly every corner of the Marvel Universe you can think off and features characters from the heavy hitters, to the borderline obscure.

Plus it still heavily features the Fantastic Four and X-Men characters, who, may I remind you, spent a good chunk of the 2010s having their presence greatly reduced and their existence constantly threatened or denied because of movie rights!

All in all, Marvel really needs to stop the MCU synergy.

In spite of what they think, it’s clearly done nothing but harm and stifle many potentially good (even great) projects.

Not only that, but it’s also gonna start harming the Marvel brand itself with how homogenized they’ve made everything and the rapidly increasing lack of interest in the MCU.

Plus its also brought out the worst in Marvel.

From cancelling projects for stupid reasons, to showing a lack of respect for the legacy they’ve build, to literally being difficult to work with because of how they want everything to be their way.

But things do seem to be looking up a bit….

There’s been the multiple of Spider-Man media of the last few years , which has been one of the few Marvel projects that aren’t bogged down by MCU synergy.

Moon Girl and Devil Dinosaur also ended being shockingly really good, and although it does have some MCU synergy, it’s pretty minor.

And now we have X-Men ‘97.

It does appear that there’s some kind of movement in Marvel to actually start making projects again that aren’t being made to be a glorified MCU circle-jerks.

And hopefully, this could led to some really unique and interesting projects, specifically for this year.

Since remember, this year marks the 85th anniversary of Marvel Comics, so that’s pretty big!

But then again, their corporate overlord had an utter embarrassment of a year for their centennial….

And Marvel themselves also contributed to that as well….

#marvel #marvel comics #marvel cinematic universe #mcu #mcu synergy #disney #xmen 97 #avengers assemble #marvel vs capcom #deadpool #but seriously please the stop the MCU synergy it’s has been so. fucking. annoying. #avengers earth's mightiest heroes #Youtube

[natlacentral]

The Kiwi director bringing live-action Avatar: The Last Airbender to life

Netflix's live-action adaptation of Avatar: The Last Airbender is arguably one of the biggest productions of the year. The project, which has a budget of US$120 million, has captured imaginations worldwide since its debut last month. Today, Netflix confirmed the series will be renewed for two more seasons.

One of the visionaries behind the new show is Asian-New Zealand creative Roseanne Liang. Serving as co-executive producer and director of episodes five and six, Liang knows the responsibility she carries in taking a beloved story from script to screen.

"It is a huge weight to bear," she says.

"We wanted to provide the best thing in the spirit of why we love the original Avatarand that's all we can really operate through. Have faith, trust our instincts that our hearts are pure, our minds are true and we're doing the best we can."

It all started in 2021, when Liang's agent called her about the show. Netflix was looking specifically for pan-Asian directors and her name was on the list.

"I knew about the show because all my friends had been saying 'you need to watch it' at various points. I was like, 'oh it's a Nickelodeon animation' and they're like, 'no, you don't understand. It is life, it's got one of the best dramatic arcs ever, you've got to watch this show' ... I watched the hell out of the three seasons and became a convert. Everything everyone told me was true."

Liang says there were huge challenges in adapting a 20-episode, half-hour animated series into eight hours of epic live-action television.

"The world is so rich, there's bending, there's all this flora and fauna and animals, it's this pan-Asian, indigenous world that is taking from cultures that seem familiar to us but are different and new. The challenge of that world-building was vast.

"It's also hard to get the tone into your head - you can do silly things like sucking frogs and cactus juice in the animation - because it's animation - but I don't know if you can have the tonal whiplash in a live-action like that.

"We'd always have to find that line. The dramatic can't be too dramatic, we've gotta undercut it with probably a quip or something, but the funny can't be too slapstick cause people will be like, what is this."

Liang says casting for the project also came with a bit of pressure. Season one follows a 12-year-old Aang, 14-year-old Katara and 15-year-old Sokka, and finding young actors capable of undertaking the roles was "scary".

"They're all teenagers. I think Dallas (Zuko) is a bit older but still young, just in his early 20s. It's all about casting the right actor - and person. Because the person needs to be able to deal with the pressure of what they're about to go through.

"The children had an incredible support network though. Dallas Liu and Ian Ousley (Sokka), they were best mates, they chose to room together in Vancouver where we shot and they were each other's support buddies. I just love their bromance, it's a beautiful thing when cast members look after each other like that."

The Netflix adaptation attracted some scrutiny after the creators of the original series - Bryan Konietzko and Michael Dante DiMartino - stepped away from the project citing creative differences after being involved for two years. Liang says their departure was "a source of pain and dismay".

"We cared so deeply about the source material ... at the same time, we know what we're doing it for. Some things won't live up to people's understanding, we're never going to be able to completely mimic or mirror the animation, but some things - I've gotta hand it to the writing team - some things they made even better."

A plot tweak in episode six, directed by Liang, follows Zuko's journey in a way that strengthens what the character stands for - Liang argues, better than the animation itself. While episode four features the addition of one of the most beautiful and heartbreaking flashbacks of the series, the funeral of Iroh's son Lu Ten.

"The Leaves from the Vine storyline about how much Iroh grapples with his part in the war and the cost of who he was in the army, the writers were like, we think we can add this moment in here to really cement the relationship between Zuko and Iroh.

"Zuko did an immense kindness to Uncle Iroh by sitting with him in mourning and it is a gift that Iroh repays. That relationship is one of the most rewarding, beautiful, fun, funny relationships of the whole series."

As a Chinese-New Zealander, Liang says it was a huge honour to be involved in a project that highlights the richness of a pan-Asian, indigenous world.

"It was the ethos of the entire production team that we do something new in this sphere that won't draw the silly, polarised calls of "wokeness" because it makes complete sense in this beautiful world that Bryan and Michael created in the original series. It was always diverse and that was their vision.

"All we had to do was serve that vision and it was just the most natural thing in the world."

While she hadn't worked on a project of this scale before, Liang could draw on rich experience from her involvement in local productions such as Creamerie (with RNZ's own Perlina Lau), Banana in a Nutshell and My Wedding and Other Secrets. She hopes her success inspires other New Zealand creatives to aim for the stars.

"Just because we come from a small country or are part of a diasporic community, that's no barrier to working at this level ... whether it's your ethnicity or your upbringing, don't let it limit you because you can get there."

In fact, Liang's "New Zealand-ness" was a strength on set. Wearing an 'Aroha Mai, Aroha Atu' shirt, she explained that the Māori phrase means 'love received, love returned' - an understanding that helped connect with the First Nations indigenous crew that worked on the show.

"The ethos that we have in New Zealand, the multi-cultural understanding of people and relating to each other, it helps - so much of my job is feeling people's energy and giving my own energy back to them and growing up in New Zealand where these - usually indigenous - ideas of how to serve people and act with love has served me so well.

"It's really been nothing but an asset to my entire process."

#natla #atla #avatar the last airbender #netflix avatar #netflix atla #avatar netflix #atla netflix #roseanne liang #rnz

[sokkastyles]

ATLA LIVE ACTION EP8 THOUGHTS:

I enjoyed seeing the gaang participate in the battle, but where are the NWT forces?

I'm not sure why the decision was made to change the dialogue in the goodbye scene with Zuko and Iroh. I doubt viewers new to the story even remember who Lu Ten was. There's also no particular reason for Zuko to say this here other than that we should have him say something sentimental. It's also just that Zuko at this point in the show, even though we know he loves Iroh, isn't really ready to be that emotionally open, and should not be. That was part of the point in the original scene when Iroh is emotional and Zuko shies away from it. You can still feel the love between the characters but the tragedy is in how Zuko isn't ready to accept it yet, and that mirrors how he's choosing to chase Aang, and by extension his father's love, doing what is basically a suicide mission.

All the waterbending women standing together during the battle is what was missing from the original. Emphasizing that this is not just about Katara but everyone.

And Yue being a waterbender and fighting emphasizes that too. Nice touch.

"Yes, Master Katara!"

What Zhao says implies that only the Northern waterbenders draw power from the moon?

We could have learned about the healing Oasis without the uneccesary violence to Momo.

I was worried that the glimpses in the trailer of the spirit oasis looked less natural, but my fears are put to rest here.

Loved the zutara spirit oasis fight.

Zhao realizing that the koi fish are the spirits feels very "old man yells at cloud." Obnoxious man yells at fish.

"Even Ozai wouldn't want that." Are you really sure? The Phoenix King would disagree.

WHY IS THIS SCENE SO STATIC? Iroh and Zhao are supposed to be in a dire struggle but they just stand there talking to each other. In the original, Iroh takes a fighting stance as he delivers the great line about unleashing tenfold on Zhao if he tries to harm the spirit. Here he just stands and shouts, despite how much easier it is for live action to actually have their characters MOVE.

Is it just me or does the show keep contradicting itself on what Zhao's plan is? Previously he said he didn't want to kill all the waterbenders and now he's saying he does. Which, let's be real, the FN absolutely does want to do. Sozin was willing to kill airbenders just to stop the Avatar. And the logical extension is that they would then have to decimate every other nation until nothing was left.

"Do you understand what that's like?" "Yes, I do."

I have to admit, the battle is pretty impressive. The waterbenders losing their bending is a nice touch.

Missing the Zuko/Aang moments and have mixed feelings about Aang purposefully choosing to meld with the Ocean Spirit but the themes of sacrifice are good and am kind of interested to see where this takes the story.

Zuko/Zhao fight good

"It was all a game." Yeah. And Azula identifying the blue spirit as Zuko, which I kinda predicted! But I still maintain she should have recognized the mask, not the sword. This show has shown its willingness to acknowledge the Search's existence, so it should have been the mask that represents their mother that Azula identified.

Did Iroh just kill Zhao?!?

Love the iceberg imagery with Aang imprisoned in the ocean spirit with Katara calling out to him to come back. And here's the "we are your family" speech. Aang sacrificing himself because he feels like he doesn't belong and Katara wanting him to be part of her world. This is good stuff. I just don't really feel why Katara needs Aang here. Even though I don't like KA, at least I get a sense in the original that they are important to each other. That's missing here. I feel like if I hadn't watched the original I would not get it at all.

"My daughter always made her own choices." Look. OG Yue sacrifices herself because that is what she has done her whole life, a girl who lives for her duty. This Yue sacrifices herself because she chooses to, as a spiritual leader of her tribe who rejected an offer of marriage and made her own choices. It feels much less like fridging this way.

The taking of Omashu is great. Awkward that Ozai is explaining it in exposition to the Fire Sage like he wouldn't already know.

I still don't buy that Ozai would be like "well, let's see if Zuko survives." He would want to keep tabs on what Zuko is doing. Especially now. In the original, Iroh's outright treason was a big plot point. The same thing happens here but Ozai just has nothing to say about it? Iroh fights against the Fire Nation, Zuko is legally made a traitor, they vanish under mysterious circumstances, and Ozai is just like "lol that's chill let's see what happens." Even his reasoning, that if Zuko is strong he'll survive, doesn't make much sense. A Zuko who is left to survive is likely to come back stronger and less loyal. Ozai says the things he does are to make Zuko stronger but Ozai really does not want him to be strong, because that means there's a risk that he might develop independence.

Also this contradicts what Zhao said about how Ozai never wanted Zuko to succeed. So what is Ozai's game? I hear we've been renewed so maybe we'll find out, but honestly I don't think the writing on this show is consistent enough to get my hopes up.

#atla live action

[minijenn]

Jen Tortures Herself With Every Dreamworks Animated Movie Ever: Kung Fu Panda 3

Alas, we have reached the end of the beloved Kung Fu Panda saga (at least until later this year when 4 comes out). I remember seeing this when it first came out, but much like the rest of the series, I didn't remember much about it going in. I did have a few minor issues with 2 during this watch through, so how does 3 hold up?

We pick up with Po and the Furious Five facing another new threat, an old peer of Master Oogway's, the spirit warrior Kai, who is determined to steal chi from all of the masters across China. Amidst this, Po reunites with his birth father, Li, who takes Po back to the hidden panda village, promising to teach him to use the power of chi he needs to properly confront Kai. Throw in a jealous, but well-meaning Mr. Ping, a village full of lovable new panda characters, and a plot about learning to become your best self and embracing who you are, and we result in an utterly beautiful movie with a touching and fantastic story to tell.

So yeah, I loved the hell out of this one. I still think the first Kung Fu Panda is my favorite of the series, it's just so beautiful in its simplicity and its message really spoke to me. But this one is also fantastic, with a lot more focus on the characters and the emotions this time around. Po is always a great character to follow; he's so fun and lovable and I love to see him come into his own as we round out his arc throughout the entire series in such a wonderful way. The Furious Five also get some much needed personality in here, with lots of great quips and jokes from them and Shifu alike. Mr. Ping gets some great focus, I always liked him in the first two movies, and he's just as much of a hilarious sweetheart here too.

As for our new characters, Li is a great addition to the cast; I love how he bonds so wonderfully with Po and they develop such a sweet father/son relationship that's put to the test when a certain revelation happens towards the middle of the movie, one that you can't even blame him for because he just doesn't want to lose his son again. The rest of the pandas are also a lot of fun, very silly and cute and not overstaying their welcome. Kai is SUCH a fun villain too! I will stand by my opinion that this series has consistantly great baddies, probably some of the best Dreamworks has to offer. Kai is hella intimidating, but he also has some hilarious moments too, courtesy of J.K. Simmons bringing his all to the role.

The animation here is next level. Like seriously, this franchise is consistently beautiful, but this one is just gorgeous. There were some moments in here that just made my jaw drop with how utterly pretty they are. The colors are so vibrant, the locations so lively, the characters move so fluidly, especially in fight scenes, and the stylization is so utterly well done that you can just tell so much love and care was put into every last frame. The music is also INSANE. Like seriously, Kai's theme alone goes so damn hard when it doesn't have to, and the rest of the score is so fucking beautiful man, I'm gonna have to listen to it while writing or drawing at some point just to soak it in by itself.

While not as emotionally impactful to me personally as say, HTTYD2, I still got a little choked up at some points here, especially during the climax and its aftermath. The movie also excells with its comedy, with a lot of really fun little jokes thrown in throughout. Overall, I feel like this movie tops Kung Fu Panda 2 because it just feels more... I don't know, focused? Like it doesn't meander and spend so much time on action scenes, it has plenty of that yes, but it also has so many solid character interactions as well. And I loved every second of it.

It's bittersweet to be bidding my second favorite Dreamworks franchise farewell as far as this watchthrough goes, but at least it's going out on an absolute high note (again, for now). Maybe I'll do a drive by review of Kung Fu Panda 4 when I see it, idk how to feel about it based on just the trailers alone, so I'll reserve judgement till then. As for Kung Fu Panda 3, well... it's a masterpiece. Simply put.

Overall Rating: 10/10

Verdict: Oh, to be an asexual panda with two dads

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#jen watches #dreamworks watch #kung fu panda 3 #kung fu panda #jen tortures herself with every dreamworks movie ever #dreamworks

[underfell-crystal]

my dnd character died! it was fun! Jax edition

Borf's PC Blurb:

The feeling of gritty dust and blood is wet and sticky under her face. The pain in her gut is blinding, but blinking away the spots, she can see a dust-covered figure advancing toward her friend. She tries to say his name, tries to reach out to him, tries to do anything, but all that comes out of her mouth is a weak whisper of his name. She can do nothing but watch as the figure cuts her friend down, can only watch as his body falls to the ground and begins to join the choking dust in the air.

A tear snakes its way down her face, clearing a thin path through the grime on her cheek.

The figure turns around, and even through the blurriness and spots in her vision she can see his manic grin. He slowly advances towards her, twirling his dust and blood covered knife. Her hand trembles, still outstretched toward her friend's decaying corpse.

No.

She won't go down quietly or easily.

She owes that much to her friends.

Her hand curls into a fist as he gets closer. She slams it into the dirt, rocks and coarse dirt biting at her knuckles, bloodying them even further. She pushes her battered body to its knees, then to its feet. She grasps her sword, the blade gleaming like a thousand stars, and she rises to her full height. She knows she won't last long. It's a downright miracle she hasn't succumbed to her injuries yet.

The twisted man in front of her just smiles, but she can see a hint of wariness in his eyes. She can see several slashes in his shirt from where she attacked him earlier, and a faint feeling of smugness blooms in her chest at the sight.

He's not infallible.

He can be killed.

But in her heart, she knows that she won't be the one to do so. She's on her last dregs of health with no help in sight, lost in a maze beneath the surface, face to face with a relentless killer.

But that doesn't mean she won't try.

With a scream filled with anguish and rage, she points her sword at the man, calling upon the ancient spirits she knows linger out of sight around her. They burst into action, flames licking across their spectral bodies as they dive at the man. She doesn't waste another moment, lunging forward and slashing across his chest in quick succession. They slice through bone with a satisfying cracking sound, and she allows the smallest of grins to grace her face as the man shouts in pain and staggers back against the onslaught of attacks.

He stops moving backwards as the spirits finally dissipate, red and blue eyes in dark sockets glaring into her very soul, face twisted into a snarl. He lunges, knife ready to carve her to pieces, and she faintly registers a sharp pain in her shoulder, then her body hitting the ground.

I'm sorry.

#crys writes #underdew dnd #underdew campaign #tw death #tw character death #Jax refused to go down without a fight and by God she didn't #She didn't go down like no bitch!!!

[kira-quartz]

17, 27 and 35 for protectshipping?

I know you told me not to worry about taking too long to answer but GAAAAH I'm sorry 😖+😂 They were just really good questions.

OTP Relationship Asks

17. Who fell in love first?

Well, if we're talking about who *really* fell in love first, probably Ryo, but Tristan had a definite "oh, no, he's cute!" moment when he saw him for the first time. Based on the way he acts towards Miho and Serenity, I feel like he tends to idealise his crushes until he gets to know them better (bonus Carryshipping: Joey was the only exception, which is why it took him (Tristan) so long to work it out), so he was just standing there, letting his friends do the talking while he tried really hard not to stare at this fluffy-haired angel, and envying Joey for being able to talk to him so easily. (I was worried I was contradicting canon with this (not that it matters), but I had a look at my copy of vol.2 and not only does Tristan not say a single word to Ryo in that chapter, he's only in two panels! There is no proof that this didn't happen! XD)

The Monster World game was... an Experience for him, but it did help with that a bit - no time to feel awkward when there's an evil spinach spirit around! What really broke the ice, though, was when Ryo insisted, repeatedly, that the heckin' big hole in his hand wasn't a problem, really, no, he can't move his fingers, but it's fine, which finally showed Tristan that he was just a person - a brave, beautiful person, but still just a person with flaws (namely, being frustratingly stubborn), so there was nothing to worry about.

After Duelist Kingdom, Tristan made a point of checking on Ryo every so often, and while Ryo wasn't entirely sure how he felt about this at first (he didn't want to inconvenience Tristan - or worse, put him in danger), he came to appreciate it. Once the Ring wasn't a problem anymore, they grew even closer and started hanging out together one on one more often, and one evening (or maybe night, the idea hasn't finished loading yet) they were walking home from somewhere and there was a Moment... which made Ryo realise how he felt, and confused Tristan for another month. 🤣

27. What random everyday object/activity makes them think of each other?

Every time Ryo brushes his hair in the morning, he thinks of that concentrated look Tristan gets on his face as he styles his, and it always makes him smile a little bit.

And for Tristan? Well, it's not exactly an object, but the smell of tea reminds him of Ryo.

35. What movies do they enjoy watching most?

argh I haven't seen enough movies-

Fantasy (I know, predictable), adventure, some horror. Tristan's picks tend to be more on the action-y side, and in the case of the horror movies, the characters have a bit more sense (he can get *pretty* frustrated otherwise, 😂). And I know he secretly likes cheesy romantic movies too - these aren't necessarily Ryo's thing, but he's not the kind of cornflake who'd make fun of someone's interests, so Tristan doesn't feel embarrassed watching them with him.

Thanks for asking! 😁

#yugioh #ygo #ryo bakura #tristan taylor #protectshipping #ryou bakura #hiroto honda #ask meme #replies

[kranagok0]

Hilda AU: Jujutsu Kaisen

Are you ready to see Hilda's skills...?

Well, what a shame, because there are still several more characters to go before her!For example: Anders, Hilda's father. I felt like he wasn't given much importance in the last season, even though he was kidnapped, saved, and looked desperate to get his family back, but I still felt like something was missing there... And I want to exploit that something like a intern doing their social service.

Anders, Hilda's father, Johana's ex-husband, is a full-time sorcerer. Their job consists of eliminating low-level spirits and curses to prevent overpopulation.Low grade cursed spirit activity spiked at some point and Anders was one of the sorcerers chosen to exorcise these entities.

Anders had a family, confirmed by a daughter and a wife. Due to his work as a sorcerer, this took away a lot of his time together. In the end Anders had to get divorced because he couldn't keep up with both family and work life. He knew that it was more important to make a safe world for his daughter than to be with her... As much as it hurt him to leave them both alone, every sacrifice is worth it if it is to make the world safe for his little daughter.

Interestingly, Anders' cursed technique was perfect for dealing with weak beings in large numbers.Anders' cursed technique was: Radar.

This technique told him where his enemies, allies or, in short, his objectives were.It also gave him the ability to track them over long distances if he had something to use as a reference to locate him.As if that were not enough, he also has a large number of cursed weapons stored in a special bag for immediate use.

Anders' ability increases his senses to the maximum, even sensing his something in the environment suddenly changes.

This has saved his life several times, an example of this is when the low grade curses were consumed by a higher grade one (which Anders could not cope with), Anders was able to escape thanks to knowing the location of his target. thanks to Radar and for another of his abilities.Radar not only increased his senses, it also decreased the senses of his enemies. While Anders could improve his search and tracking skills he could also disorient the enemy with each attack.

The cursed weapons he has are mostly daggers and arrows charged with his cursed energy to stab his enemies and consequently disorient his opponent.Working tirelessly meant that Anders had to work hard not to die in his daily life, this gave him a fast, agile and highly skilled body.

Anders does not usually fight hand to hand, his attacks consist of him not being close to his opponent. Its range of action is medium and long distance because its technique consists more of precision and speed than anything else.

With this in mind, Anders made a contract on himself that can be summarized just as he said at the time (a point where his life was at risk and he inadvertently created the contract);

'It's no use being faster than that thing if I can't even give it a scratch. I need power, I need to use more strength, push the limits of my body to overcome this damn thing'.

The contract that Anders formed data about the total loss of his speed and agility, exchanging all of that for strength and power to attack. In short, he exchanged his dexterity and speed for strength to be able to cut through his enemies.

However, to achieve this it is necessary for Anders to remain completely still where he is standing. This is a double-edged sword because his defense remains the same and he has no ability to block attacks.

Anders uses his cards well, but he usually doesn't take as many risks as he did that time with that grade 1.5 curse.On that occasion it was all or nothing, and in this world of sorcery one must take any opportunity that leads to victory. Doubting this is a life or death situation.

The weapons that Anders uses are usually cutting and throwing, except for a spear that he uses when he has to deliver a powerful, accurate and lethal blow. He rarely, if ever, uses it and only does so when his contract is activated.

Curiously, he has only had to use this weapon on two occasions:

The first; when he faced that grade 1.5 curse and with them he achieved his victory.

The second; when he attacked Johana (who was being controlled by Sukuna for the first time) and thought that by doing so he could knock out his ex-wife. (The funny thing about this is that he attacked with all his strength and accidentally hit with a black flash. It still didn't do much to Sukuna, some scratches and so on, it took off one of his arms, but knowing Sukuna that didn't bother him. did nothing and possibly got a power up somehow)

#hilda #hilda netflix #hilda (netflix) #hilda series #hilda the series #hilda fanfiction #hilda au #hilda anders #jujutsu kaisen

[morievna]

Bsd ch 105 – Atsushi’s insecurities and Sigma is just a baby xD

Hello~~

This was short albeit interesting chapter and good transition for what’s is to come… And Dazai-Sigma interactions were pure fun^^

Anyways, short but still plenty to analyze XD

Okay, starting from Atsushi-

What is interesting that this time voices of ADA members + Fiztgerald are tormenting him:

It is like his fears doubled with low esteem about how others view him and what expect from him. Though orphanage headmaster is not here – it is still the belief that he instilled in Atsushi, that he has only right to live if he is useful to society.

Which ofc is wrong one, as everybody has their own worth no matter usefulness. In addition, nobody from ADA is looking down on him and he is important to all of them as found family. And even Fitzgerald agreed to help ADA because he recognized Atsushi’s spirit.

But still it is more about Atsushi’s insecurities and how they are weighing him down and make him afraid of taking any action.

Then to break him from this stupor passivity – Akutagawa aka his other half appears and then Dazai aka his mentor appears to show him way out. No matter what DoA true end-goal is – passivity is not an answer.

Akutagawa and Atushi are yin/yang symbolically – werewolf were-tiger and vampire now xD - opposites with similarities that are complementary and they need each other to move forward in each own life.

After all, it is always Akutagawa’s influence that springs Atsushi into action – at beginning it was more like Atsushi trying to refute Akutagawa’s disregard for other’s life. His perseverance and fighting spirit gained Akutagawa’s respect, which showed Atsushi that he has worth on his own and helped to try moving past orphanage headmaster’s teachings.

Enemies -> unlikely allies -> lovers and now this arc is test if they can become new version of Soukoku. Akutagawa already passed, but Atsushi not – as he wasn’t ready to trust Aku completely.

(Though it wasn’t said openly in this chapter – imo Atsushi thought that Akutagawa appeared to blame him for his death…)

Basically, there is still character development for Atsushi to go~~

Although he is going outside -  he doesn’t want to make decisions as he simply wants to be told what to do by person of authority = Fukuzawa. He still doesn’t believe in himself and that he can be hero on his own. He still need to find and realize his own strength within – the tiger – to become better version of himself and help overcome current situation.

My rough guess what will happens next  – imo Atsushi will run into vampire!Aku targeting Aya and Bram and protect them, then realize that ADA plan to kill Bram was wrong and what needs to be done is granting all vampires free will.

Also we got another death flag for Fukuzawa – at this point I will be more surprised if he will live though ^^’

Though it is hard to say if these are correct guesses and how exactly it will go, Asagiri is unpredictable sometimes xD

[me with bsd sometimes xD]

Okay, so let’s move next~~

I must say it is endearing how Dazai is treating Sigma like a child a trying to teach tricks and lesson about life xD After all, despite Sigma’s adult appearance he is still a kid symbolically as he lived for few days only... and Dazai treats him accordingly xD

Personally I don’t think that Dazai wants to manipulate Sigma or has ill intentions – imo Dazai planned his way out of prison long before Gogol and Sigma’s involvement.

In addition, during casino arc he stated that Sigma is no terrorist, meaning that the latter is not really guilty and is just used by DoA. After all, he was from the start manipulated by Fyodor and he had no real agency. Artificial casino stands for fabricated sense for belonging, which he needs to let go – Sigma literally is a baby and he needs to grow up and find belonging for himself.

Btw I won’t be surprised if after this arc Sigma will start working for Ango as form of repentance for striking Taneda. And maybe starting his own casino afterwards xD

Btw x 2 – it is fun how much Sigma is paralleled with 15!Chuuya^^ They both had no memory of their past due to artificial tampering, and are searching for belonging and reason why they live. And Dazai has important role during that search with lot of teasing xD

As for Dazai – it is interesting how he is composed and in no rush in this chapter – imo he is waiting for outcome of his attempt to drown Fyodor and Chuuya, probably hoping to see some indication of Fyodor’s ability. Though most likely he will just get very angry Chuuya in Arahabaki mode xD

That’s all for today, thanks for reading <3

#bsd #bsd manga #bsd meta #bsd theories #atsushi nakajima #sigma #dazai #bsd dazai #bsd sigma #bsd atsushi #bsd akutagawa