not long ago i was working on a serenity cosplay and the upper part of the dress became so stiff with all the golden decoration that it felt like a breastplate :D and as that time i was watching SAO alicization it did not take me long to come up with my own integrity knight design :D
another thing with denying jaime agency is that a lot of his character is initially constructed around what his physical power means when it comes to choices that he makes. physical strength and combat prowess, violence, is a specific form of power that he has over others and can choose to extend to other parties. it is an integral aspect of every power dynamic, be it with his king, his sister, the rest of society etc. the knight is also an examination of power and responsibility. that is why their oaths are constructed around protecting the weak. it is what’s so interesting with the kingsguard too, especially aerys’s. they are the most skilled in combat and physically powerful people in the room. they had a form of power to act and prevent what aerys kept doing. and they are on a leash through oaths, law, order, obeying authority, and a status quo, a different kind of power that functions to give the man with a crown, in this case a tyrant, absolute power. you are sworn to obey, not to judge. you have to abide by your role. that is also what makes him eventually killing aerys and breaking these oaths so transgressive and threatening to the westerosi paradigm. his motivations and the circumstances aside, jaime in specific killing his king as a member of his elite guard undermined westerosi order and framed power as something that resided with the man with the sword and not with the man with the crown or even the lords with bannermen and armies who won the war that they started. it breaks these constructs apart with the precedent it sets. and on top of that, he gets away with it because of his status and relationship to tywin, which is also a scary precedent in the eyes of many. it is huge when it comes to westerosi order and class stratification, but it is also threatening in general because, yes, it does make him a loose cannon in the eyes of other people. and yeah he stagnates and falls into cynicism and begins to reject ethics and law in a dangerous way and ends up abusing that physical power and causes real harm to people who do not deserve it. he does embody a dangerous kind of anarchy that is the product of the flawed and dysfunctional social order that he experienced with a front row seat with the absurdly cruel tyrant that was systematically enabled. everything was reframed in his head. if there is no justice and order you can have faith in, who cares? he doesn’t fear death, and that is combined with the belief he can cut through anything now, he has the power to do so. be it a king, a lord, or virtually any power over him when it comes down to it. how much can a crown be worth…? he even argues to brienne that robert tearing the realm apart with his war is worse in a pragmatic sense. he rejects the existing laws, ethics, and moral constructs of his society that have a monopoly on violence because he is disillusioned with them, and he operates solely by his twisted reconstruction of morality (also obviously affected by his trauma) that atp primarily revolves around love for his family, especially cersei. he chooses to become the sword of his loved one, having lost faith in the purity of everything other than this delusional idealized relationship that is the only thing that is sacred that remains to him. and ofc all of this is another layer that makes george stripping him of this particular power through his maiming so functional in causing crisis.
The IS4 Ending 4 bossfight mechanics is so fucking funny. The main gimmick of it is that there's two guys and instead of doing normal boss things like attacking your units they just attack each other until one of them dies (or they leak, I suppose).
Also, Ceobe stonks are going way way up because holy fuck look at that 5k def (6250 at max difficulty) with reasonable Res.
Popular Picks are in white, while our Underdogs are in yellow! This way we’ll be able to see how far any of our underdogs get! (Also for ease of reading the bracket) Typed up list (w/ eventual link to polls) under the cut!
1. Breloom (Pokémon) VS The Truffle (Terraria)
2. Shrumal Warrior(Hollow Knight) VS Muttshroom (Mother 3)
3. Morelull (Pokémon) VS Marabelle Cybin/Marabelle the Terrible (Not Another D&D Podcast)
4. Apothecary Gary (Amphibia) VS Amanita (Green Lantern) VS Galwyn (Troll, 1986)
5. Leif (Bug Fables) VS Princess Shroob (Mario & Luigi: Partners in Time)
6. Mycologists (Inscryption) VS Tarin (The Legend of Zelda: Links Awakening)
7. Mister Mushroom (Hollow Knight) VS Akaboshi Bisco (Sabikui Bisco)
8. Mooshroom (Minecraft) VS Violet and Tate (Monster Prom)
9. Brown Slim Mushroom (Everhood) VS Shrumbo (Ooblets)
10. Danielle Barkstock (D20) VS Mushroomon/Mushmon (Digimon)
11. Ragel (Undertale) VS Hattifatteners (Moomin)
12. Amanita (Just Dance) VS Slimefoot (Magic the Gathering)
13. Toad (Mario) VS Shrub Berry (Empires SMP)
14. Walking Mushroom (Delicious in Dungeon) VS Master Firbolg (The Adventure Zone: Graduation)
15. Todd from Mario (Drawfee) VS Magic Myc (Inside Job)
16. Jade Leech (Twisted Wonderland) VS Nightcap (Plants VS Zombies: Battle for Neighborville)
17. Twirly-Whirly (Genshin Impact) VS Chio the Korok (The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild)
18. Toadette (Mario) VS Nightcap (Ni No Kuni: Wrath of the White Witch)
19. Moonshine Cybin (Not Another D&D Podcast) VS Puff Shroom (Plants VS Zombies)
20. Sozo (Cult of the Lamb) VS Kinoko Komori (My Hero Academia)
21. Puffstool (Pikmin) VS Myconids (Dungeons and Dragons, 5th Edition)
22. Bongo-Head (Genshin Impact) VS Shroomish (Pokémon) VS Malcom (Squishmallow)
23. Caduceus Clay (Critical Role) VS Josh (Dominion SMP)
24. Mushroom Pikmin (Pikmin) VS Red Dead Mushroom (Everhood)
25. Zommoth (Bug Fables) VS Room (Join the Party)
26. Stanley (Spiritfarer) VS Fleeble (Ooblets)
27. Poison Mushroom Cookie (Cookie Run) VS Shumi (Shumi Come Home)
28. En (Dorohedoro) VS White Mushroom Emblem Heartless (Kingdom Hearts)
29. Clickers (The Last of Us) VS Hypno-Shroom (Plants VS Zombies)
30. The Nomes (Little Nightmares) VS Shrooom! (Earthbound)
31. Ramblin Evil Mushroom (Earthbound) VS Kinoko (Katamari)
I wish Malta would get an appearance because I feel you could get a series of jokes revolving around them (ideally a her) and Arthur's relationship. Either for why don't you love me jokes or something a bit more nuanced. Reasonings are:
Malta has been host to several odd fanatical religious groups and switched ownership between multiple hands multiple times. One reason Britain won out in the end was because they would allow the people to speak Maltese, which went down a treat with the local population.
During the war, if England was America's unsinkable aircraft carrier, then Malta was Britain's unsinkable hospital ship. The assorted sieges of Malta, the legacy of nursing and hospitals, and the general protective nature of Britain to their independence gives way to the idea of a rather caring but almighty stubborn character.
Malta at one point very much wanted to become a part of the UK, not as a colony but on equal standing as England, Scotland, Wales, and Northern Ireland, or, at the very least, a Dominon like Canada, Oz and NZ. Despite being repeatedly refused home rule at various times in the 19th Century, they flip and then at some points it looked like Britain was trying to shake Malta off only for them to cling real stubborn, like no 😠 love me.
Of course, it's more complicated than that, and when integration to the UK failed, it kind of set the precedent that UK overseas territories would not end up like in the French or Dutch model and instead would not be fully integrated into the country...
Anyway. Malta. I think you could get quite a funny character out of them. Very devoted to God, nursing, and just a little bit too cosy with the UK bros in a way that they find really off-putting (what do you mean you want to stay? Nobody wants to stay. Who hurt you, Malta, to make you like that? Wait. Don't answer that question). They still give the UK points at Eurovision to this day. Like that is dedication and loyalty right there.
I love that Saitama is still salty about Tatsumaki sending Genos flying to a wall.
Also, Saitama's under the radar, big heroic moment.
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Instead of yeeting her away when she was breaking up the entire foundation of HA and accidentally murdering all the people living above from building collapses and breaking her wrist in the process of flinging her away, he instead chose to just get her into bodily contact and cart her out of there. Because she didn't seem to give a damn. That she stopped using her psychic powers out of sheer shock and bewilderment was an added bonus.
Really, Saitama saved Tatsumaki from committing accidental mass slaughter with earthquake of greater magnitude than 6 and getting into far worse mess than she bargained for. Tatsu is a great hero, but she needs to be talked about causing far too much devastation in her wake, especially when she doesn't need to; she's perfectly capable of precision.
She doesn't need to show off to be feared. It's understandable that she does...but she needs to have a talk with a therapist.
She should be grateful too, because with all her issues, she's not thinking with her head.
Buildings collapsing during earthquakes is no joke. People get trapped beneath collapsing buildings all the time and it's why Japan especially where EQ's happen frequently, have to build buildings resistant to that sort of thing. HA is not that kind of building.
I know Metal Knight is ambiguous character at best, but he did do his work well...one just can never be prepared for overzealous OP psychic destroying everything at the base. One that is supposed to be on YOUR side too.
I feel sorry for the guy now, he's gonna get the blame again, nobody will trust him again and he could do so much good with his cybernetic technology in field of medicine, for instance.
In this, Saitama is again, showing his true heroism and his actual heroic intuition that he thinks he does not have and pulls the fight out of the danger zone before the structural integrity was too compromised and quite possibly, saved tons of lives doing so, without even harming anyone.
Shame he doesn't trust himself.
He's a real hero, through and through.
One could argue that he was too lenient on Tatsumaki and should've just knocked her out, but the moment he saw the structural integrity was being compromised, he sprung to action.
I can't do anything but commend Saitama for his quick thinking.
Knocking her out would've been fine, but the difficulty would've been to have the technique in the heat of the moment to pull it off without hurting her or inciting her even more. And it would not allow Tatsu to actually vent her issues and start healing from her childhood traumas since Saitama is apparently the appointed therapist. Saitama's approach allows her room to actually calm down without further violence.
I think that 'you're like a father too me' vs 'you were my brother' is crucial in understanding the Anakin and Obi-Wan dynamic and their particular brand of dysfunctional communication.