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moon-delia · 1 year

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★ ៸៸៸ JEALOUSY ╱ post ❜ ✸ ៸ !?!

Along with many other emotions, jealousy is very complex emotion and requires you to break it down into tiny pieces in order for you to identify and write them.

It is very effective in writing as it helps a character realize what they really want and how badly they want it. It doesn't have to be central to the plot; it can be understated and supported by anger or fear.

It comes across in simple examples like a villain who is jealous of the hero, when two characters want one thing / have the same goal or when one character is more successful than the other.

★ ! THE TYPES ❪ 🎧 ❫ ៸ !?!

# ៸ sexual jealousy ― when a character's spouse or significant other displays or expresses sexual interest in someone else.

# ៸ romantic jealousy ― when your character fears the loss of a romantic partner or fears rejection from a potential or current romantic partner.

# ៸ possessive jealousy ― when he/she feels threatened by someone who could interrupt a friendship or relationship that they value.

# ៸ separation jealousy ― when your character has fear of separation or loss of a lover, partner, friend or parent due to their relationship with another person.

# ៸ work jealousy ― when your character feels cheated out of a promotion at work, or feels jealousy towards a specific person at work.

# ៸ friend / sibling jealousy ― When he/she feels inadequate when comparing themselves to their friends/family/siblings (they always try to one-up their friend/sibling).

# ៸ abnormal jealousy ― extreme psychological jealousy that results in or a combination of morbid, psychotic, psychological, delusional, anxious, controlling, immature and insecure behavior.

★ ! WHAT FUELS IT ❪ 🎧 ❫ ៸ !?!

There are many reason for someone to be jealous of another person. It could be rejection, confusion, frustration, powerlessness, insecurity, suspicion, loneliness or distrust. Choose the reason that fits the type of jealousy.

★ ! HOW IT EFFECTS ❪ 🎧 ❫ ៸ !?!

Do they have an increased heart rate or body temperature? Do they become angry and clench their fist, have verbal outbursts, stare downs and tensed muscles? Do they become quiet and have a dry mouth?

★ ! THEIR REACTION ❪ 🎧 ❫ ៸ !?!

★ make up stories/gossip about that person so that others will have negative feelings towards the same person.

★ feel overwhelmed and underachieve in every sphere of their life.

★ avoid the person all together.

★ take up a bad habit or addiction in an attempt to deal with their feelings.

★ become obsessed about something (like over exercising and dieting to beat their rival in a tournament or something more sinister like plotting another character’s demise).

★ manipulate others into feeling sorry for them.

★ over criticize themselves and everything they do.

★ harm themselves, their environment or others.

★ show a blatant disregard for the needs and desires of others to fulfill their own.

★ bully or intimidate the people around them to gain a false sense of power.

★ abuse others physically or psychologically.

★ flaunt their wealth (or fame, intelligence, status, beauty, etc.) to mask their own insecurities.

#writing advice #writingadvice #writingtips #writing tips #fictionwriting #writersociety #writing promps #writing tutorial #writing help #writing tricks #character tips #writers on tumblr #moon-delia #quirks #character quirks

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iamsonormalaboutninjago · 7 months

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Another Harumi plot post because I’m so sad she gets portrayed in a psychopath/ heartless light.

TW: Mentions of Pedophilia and intense trauma.

An essay:

(TLDR at bottom)

Harumi is not a psychopath! Or a sociopath or a sadistic person fueled by genetic villainy and violence.

Harumi is actually a traumatized kid who’s found a way to cope with her trauma by trying to stop the carnage that faces Ninjago almost yearly. Her stated goal for SOG was to bring Garmadon back because he stopped the devourer. She didn’t wanna bring back a horrible person that would cause carnage and destruction, she wanted to bring back a protector who she saw as been more capable than the ninja.

She traumatizes Lloyd, yes, that’s obvious. Yet only because she sees him as being a narcissistic, ego child who doesn’t deserve to be seen as the grand protector that he’s portrayed as. Remember in her journal she states that she saw Lloyd, terrified, during the assault by the devourer. She idolized him incredibly before this, but after seeing him cower just like her she began to think that the ninja only portrayed themselves as being grand protectors, while actually taking credit for what others do.

She was stuck in a Palace for years! From S2-S8 she was trapped in the grand palace. She never saw the ninja defeat the Overlord, or Chen, or Morro, etc. As well, put yourself in Harumi’s shoes; if you only ever heard that your personal enemies are actually hero’s but never saw their heroics in action besides the time their incompetence killed your parents would you believe that they were actually being hero’s?

She hates the ninja and especially Lloyd. She had a Lloyd action figure that was either homemade or bought, both things that require money that a working class family doesn’t have, Lloyd was her favorite! And she saw him fail to save her parents!! It would be the same feeling as a favorite actor or YouTuber turning out to be a content thief or pedophile.

After brining back Garmadon she slowly became shocked and frightened by his ruthlessness and fear tactics. You can see her shock when Garmadon rips apart Mr.E in front of her. She didn’t think she would bring back a cold blooded killer and she never wanted to. She wanted to bring back the hero she remembered saving the city

She shows her true colors when the apartment building she’s in starts to collapse. A sea of traumatic memories would be going through her head in that moment as this is just like the day her parents died. She could’ve chosen to run down the stairs to save herself but she decided to help a family who could’ve been separated, instead of saving herself.

She only revived herself after death because the overlord promised her that he could be the protector that Garmadon failed to be. Her catered to her desire to help Ninjago like any manipulative person would’ve. He didn’t promise her self serving power or the opportunity to kill the ninja, he promised her the opportunity to be a savior again.

So I really don’t understand why people say she’s a psychopath dead set on hurting Lloyd. She’s traumatized, with good reason to be, but unlike a psychopath she realizes that when she’s doing something wrong she changes her ways. When she sees that Lloyd is a good person who only wants to help she realizes she still has feelings for him as he’s the protector that she’s always wanted Ninjago to have. When she sees that the Overlord is a force of evil that caused the death of her parents she defects and helps Lloyd and Garmadon finish him.

Harumi isn’t a villain for villains sake, or for revenge sake. She’s an anti-hero, who was misled and manipulated into fighting for the bad guys.

TLDR: Harumi is incredibly traumatized, saw the ninja fail, never got to see the Ninja be the good guys, and only saw Garmadon actually be heroic. She states blatantly that she wants to stop the yearly destruction Ninjago faces. She also shows herself to be empathetic, and heroic, saving the family in the apartments from being crushed like hers were. She only fights for a villain when they promise her, or she believes, that they’ll make Ninjago a better place.

#now I’m not saying she’s perfectly innocent #she’s very complicit in a lot of crimes #tyranny #fear tactics #killing the main four #I’m just trying to explain her motivations and how her trauma fits into it #she should also be given a chance to redeem herself #if the community can let Morro go from a fear tactic employing #spoiled bad boy #then we can let a fear tactic employing traumatized bad girl #be redeemed too #ninjago #lloyd ninjago #harumi #trauma #normalness: explaining Harumi

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the-modern-typewriter · 2 years

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Any advice on how to write enemies-to-lovers relationships? I have these two characters (one is a heroine/ protagonist and the other is an anti-villain/ antagonist) that I imagine to start off as enemies and slowly fall in love, but I am afraid that they’re incompatible/ the chemistry between them won’t work. And I don’t want their relationship to be forced.

I did a post here on writing conflict in a romantic relationship:

Much of what I say there applies to enemies to lovers and is a good way to start thinking about the characters you have.

If you know you are writing enemies to lovers from the start of your story, the way you set up and create the characters is typically different to when you just write characters who aren't intended to get along ever.

Background bits that are relevant when I talk novel advice

For background reading, generally, if writing a novel, I would recommend familiarising yourself with some common story structures such as The Three Act Structure, The Hero's Journey or Savannah Gilbo's romance-specific take on the Seven Point Story Structure.

Also, this thorough guide on character arcs by K.M Weiland.

I feel it's important to throw this in, because I'm ultimately doing a quick tumblr post, so my tips aren't going to do dig super deep. I'm just hoping to get you thinking about your characters/offer perspective and hopefully clarity.

Now onwards, to enemies and lovers...

I personally like to think of enemies-to-lovers romance characters (though, let's be real, also my protagonists and antagonist generally) as a set. They don't have to match, but they are designed to comment on each other - be that through reflecting the worst or best (in a happy romance, they reflect the best) of each other.

E.g. for me they are often narrative foils or mirror characters. This means that the characters contrast in a way that they highlight each other's qualities, be it how they are different (foil) or how they are the same (mirror).

A romance story in particular is often all about answering the question 'why are these two great for each other?' 'Why should they be together?' 'Why is it worth fighting for this love despite all the obstacles in the way?'

In an enemies to lover's story, one reason is often because they have a unique perspective/ability to challenge each other to reassess their own attitudes and stances (see where this is going back to foils and mirrors?) and thus further each other's character arc.

Foil route:

A simple version of this is, 'hero' character must learn to look out for themselves and not just other people, 'villain' character must learn to not just look out for themselves in order to be truly happy. Bam, collide, and somewhere in the middle of these two extremes you have an actual healthy approach to life, which they end up landing on through interacting and learning from each other. Thus, despite being fundamentally different, they both make each other better, happier people, and this is the basis of opposites attract. They complement each other flaws.

The mirror route:

The characters, despite having opposing goals, learn as they interact with each other that they actually have a lot in common, value similar things, and so a bond forms between them because of this as they realise that, oh no, they actually like each other. A lot. The internal conflict of the novel is reconciling their growing fondness for each other with their still separate goals.

This also means that, for me personally at least, the two sides of your enemies/lovers romance need to be somewhat balanced. I.e. your antagonist cannot be unredeemable monster with no valid points to make, and nothing for your protagonist to reasonably attracted to in them. Similarly, your protagonist cannot be always right, completely wholesome or perfect or...what do they have to learn from the antagonist? What do they have in common?

Obviously, add attraction on top of this + specific reasons to be attracted to each other that fit your characters. Like, as many reasons as you can give why yess, these two, the better.

I don't know your characters, so I cannot tell you if they are incompatible or not. So take-away question, do your characters have the potential to support each other and make each other better? If not, then you may have great tension as a protagonist/antagonist dynamic and they may have sizzling antagonistic chemistry, but that does not necessarily mean they should be in a romance together.

#writing talk #enemies to lovers #writing tips #writing advice #hope this helps #writing

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comshipbracket · 7 months

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Antis DNI

Remember, you are voting for the ship you prefer, not the ship you find more problematic

Propaganda for both ships under the cut.

Moriarthree Propaganda (Incest - The three are Siblings)

"I'm going to start with the devotion. And the enmeshed boundaries. They create a persona, separate from the three of them, that is also all three of them. They cannot exist without each other. Louis flat out admits that his reason for living is William. He wants to be the same for William, and he's not enough. He begs to come along and murder people, to take the same stain that has been on his brothers' hands since they were children, because while William wants to save him from that fate, he sees no reason to live on in a world that doesn't include William in it. He wants nothing more than to be useful, and most especially, useful to the Lord of Crime, to the Plan, to William, to Albert. He takes on SO MUCH WORK organizing two households without other staff (read cooking, cleaning, doing the laundry) and they are LARGE HOUSES. MANSIONS. Because they have to keep up the appearance of being nobility. And Albert, who finds them both as children and is immediately struck by how angelic William is, how he knows he must have him."

"To have them both. How he invites them to join him, to become his family, since his father would like to adopt orphans for social reasons and so he can help cure Louis and give them resources to achieve William's goal. Kill the bad nobles. Albert for who the world darkens at the edges more often than not, sees nothing but light when William is around. Albert, who feels incapable of action if William isn't in his life. Albert who sits in jail feeling guilty -- not for his very real crimes -- but because /he asked William to become a criminal with him./ Because he was a reason for William to stain his hands with blood. Albert especially values cleanliness and order and so Louis ensures that he always has it at home. From their very first crime they have always shared in all things."

Snow x White Propaganda (Incest - The two are twins, Twincest, Codependant, ShotaxShota *NOT Underage, though)

"Snow and White are immortal two-thousand year old shota twins who are insanely codependent. One day, Snow decided that he wanted to experience loneliness, because he’d never done that before. White went ballistic and the two fought, with Snow accidentally killing White, but don’t worry! He keeps him tied to him as a ghost! Forever!"

""A direct wiki quote: ` Throughout time, they've never needed anyone to fill the roles of their `mother and father, sister or brother, friend or lover, hero or villain` as they've always been all of that and more to each other.`"

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ineffeblygay · 1 year

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The following message is directed to darklina shippers, primarily those of which who have not read the books, those who excuse the actions of The Darkling in the books, and/or those who see the actions and simply accept/ignore them because “he’s morally grey tehe 🤭” or “he’s the same as Kaz Brekker” or “Ben Barnes is sooo hot”.

Let’s start this off strong: The Darkling is ABSOLUTELY, POSITIVELY, BEYOND A SHADOW (ha) OF A DOUBT nothing like Kaz ‘Dirtyhands’ Brekker, and here’s why.

Kaz is a criminal, there is no denying it, and we love him for it. Why, you may ask? That’s because Kaz has two things the Darkling doesn’t.

#1 lines he won’t cross. Kaz Brekker, a man who wants vengeance more than he wants oxygen, still has a hard limit. He’d never do *insert unspeakable things the darkling has done “for the greater good” (they were in fact NOT for the greater good but we’ll get into that later)*. And the reason for that is he actually cares about his friends, his crows. He CARES about their lives more than he cares about his vengeance. Even if he doesn’t show it, he’d never trade one of them for Pekka’s head. Instead, he’d work with them to kill him.

#2 he has an actual reason (now I know, I know: Kaz Brekker didn’t need a reason- but he has one). We all know his traumatic history and how it affects him to this day. We know what happened to Jordie and how Kaz vowed to avenge his big brother. We’ve all read the same chapters, the same Kaz POVs. He was wronged and ofc, it’s a YA fantasy novel so he’s gonna kill the bastard, duh. He’s getting his pound of flesh, and some for Jordie too, and he’ll build his empire off of Pekka.

Now I know what you may be thinking: “THIS SOUNDS JUST LIKE THE DARKLING!!” but does it really? Think about it here. Point #1, lines that won’t be crossed. Kaz has proven to have mercy even when it would have served his plan better to not (that part in CK when he threatened to kill a kid); but has the Darkling?

Let’s start a list:

the fold (and everyone inside). Sounds like genocide and world destruction to me.

Novo Kribirsk - again with that genocide.

Alina. Everything Alina. This includes, but is not limited to: grooming her, putting a collar around her neck to steal her powers and enslave her, torturing her and her partner, kidnapping her, sexually assaulting her, attacking her (x a bajillion times), threatening her, etc.

Genya - put a (I believe) 9 year old in the hands of a KNOWN pedophile to retrieve information, separated her from other grisha so she felt alone, manipulated and groomed her, mutilated her, etc.

Killed Botokin and Anna Kunya, and held orphans hostage.

These are specifics I know off the top of my head and I could get more if I did some research, but just rapid fire here: deaths of countless grisha who stood against him, what he did to Zoya, Fedyor, Sergi, Nikolai (not a grisha but he counts), etc.

All of these actions were supposedly to get to his goal of “a safe place for grisha” (We’ll talk about how that wasn’t what he actually cared about later) and he didn’t stop at anything. Never hesitated, nothing.

The real reason this was all for was because he has a MASSIVE savior complex. He may have wanted (past tense) a safe place for grisha but now, what matters more to him is being the hero. He wants more to be the one who saves everyone than to have everyone be safe. It really reinforces the whole “make me your villain” line bc he doesn’t believe he’s the villain, he wants to be the hero so bad- but he’s not. And he never will be, because somewhere along the line, he lost sight of the goal and started making bad decisions and now we’re here.

Another thing I’d like to add, you can like Ben Barnes and not like the Darkling. You have to remember that it’s a ROLE. I love Ben and hate the darkling. Simply bc they’re NOT THE SAME PERSON. It’s actually quite genius that he was casted bc a big part of his gig was seducing people to his side with his insane looks and charisma so clearly it worked a little too well.

Now to get to #2. He didn’t have an actual valid reason- not that any reason could warrant his behavior but he didn’t even have a fucking reason. He SAID he was doing it all “so grisha could be safe” but it’s a lie. It may have been his reason a few centuries ago but I guarantee it’s not his reason now. If that was his reasoning for ALL THIS, he would not HARM grisha to get what he wants. He wouldn’t KILL grisha for his goals.

In short, the Darkling does what he does because he has a MASSIVE savior complex. He wants more so to be the one who saves everyone, than to have everyone be safe.

#shadow and bone #seige and storm #ruin and rising #king of scars #rule of wolves #the darkling #aleksander kirigan #anti darkling #anti darklina #kaz brekker #kaz is NOT the darkling

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dr-runs-with-scissors · 2 years

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The Thad Thawne and Shigaraki rant

Gonna go and preface this with I'm absolutely sure some people will disagree with me and that's fine. Also gonna say there's probably a fair chance no one knows who tf inertia is so. Just roll with me I'll explain as much as my little brain can

ALSO I'm going to be referring to the OG run and Thad's kid zoom run and that ending. I've admittedly taken massive steps away from DC and I think there was stuff with his character post 2016 that I haven't read enough of. Clear? Okay.

Tw- gonna be a long post, mentions of abuse, creepy older men, spoilers for both series's

Thaddeus starts out his life as a clone of another character, Bart Allen and he's raised by his "father figure" president Thawne to just be a hateful little bastard really. Thad is a means to end for him and his only goal is to get rid of Bart - a lot of his initial characterisation in the impulse comics comes from his mission and relationship (or lack there of) to Bart.

Tomura was abused by his dad (to some extent anyway we can talk about that in a separate post) and after accidentally killing his family he's taken in by the story's big bad, All for one (AFO) who uses him as a means to an end, both grooming him to be his replacement body (we'll get there don't worry) and using him as the punchline to a joke with his nemesis. See tomura is the grandson of Nana shimura, the teacher and mother figure to All Might, one of the big damn heroes in MHA.

So already they're both starting strong with heavy connections to hero's and heroic families. They're trained and groomed by older men as a means to an end that ultimately isn't really their fight.

The next thing is a smaller thing, it's heavily implied that if That's were shown kindness and love he would have turned out well...not a murderous maniac but when he's offered that chance he ultimately declines, and that's in and of itself a nuances thing but ultimately he's never "saved". Tomura was left to the mercy of his family who he described as "rejected him" and when he kills them he's left traumatized and scared (he's only 5) wandering the streets and no one, absolutely no one comes to help, he's even more or less shooed off by a lady - it's all for one that comes to his rescue and takes him in, ultimately leading him down a hard track. Obviously there's differences here but the theme of needing someone in a moment and not getting it (too late in Thad's case and not a real saviour in tomuras) is interesting I think.

Last thing I wanna talk about and it's related to current events in MHA (as of ch374) so this might change but I doubt it.

Thad's story more or less ends with him dawning a new villain title 'Kid Zoom' - the sidekick for Zoom, one of the reverse flashes and after a series of reasonably complicated events he's eventually killed...by the other rogues from the flash's rogue's gallery. Which I always thought was super disappointing. In the end Thad ended up the same way he started - a tool for other villains and despite having what was a wonderfully interesting concept and potential he was reduced to yet another cog in the Allen's Vs Thawnes conflict.

Seem familiar? Yeah that's cuz Tomura is currently in the same position. Reduced to a means to an end in a longstanding grievance battle. All for One is possessing his body and it's looking like his only out is having izuku (the protag) save him which...just doesn't sit right with me like this for various reasons. MHA has increasingly become about the all for one Vs one for all conflict and tomura (and izuku) have become cogs in a conflict that wasn't even theirs. It's inherited. It's not a writing decision I'm a fan of, and people are more than welcome to disagree or argue with me.

Okay sorry for the rant but I'm sure I'll end up adding more to this as days go by

@multi-lefaiye this is your fault for enabling me (but thank you)

#ramblings of a lunatic #bnha #mha #shigaraki tomura #thaddeus thawne #inertia #dc comics #long post #this is niche af i think #feel free to disagree with me but dont start shit im not dealing with it

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an-aussie-button-masher · 2 years

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The Best of the Worst: Five of Gaming’s Best-Written Villains

Thanos. Darth Vader. The Joker. It’s no secret that a story is often defined by their antagonist - when thinking of memorable characters, a lot of the time, you’ll think of the bad guy. Good villains can make or break a story, and the best-written baddies are usually the ones that last in people’s memories. Of course, not all memorable villains need to have complex backstories and motivations - Bowser’s just been kidnapping Peach over and over for 37 years and he’s practically the face of video game villains. While there’s nothing wrong with such one-dimensional antagonists, there are plenty of more complex, engaging gaming villains as well. I’ve assembled a small list of them here; this is hardly a comprehensive list, but by the end you’ll see just how interesting these gaming bad guys can be. Spoilers abound below!

Handsome Jack (Borderlands 2) “It’s cute that y’all think you’re the heroes of this little adventure, but you’re not. You’re bandits. You’re the bad guys, and I am the goddamn hero.” You can’t discuss interesting video game villains without talking about the psychopathic CEO himself, Borderlands’ Handsome Jack. He’s among the most infamous gaming antagonists in the world, and for good reason; his charming and entertaining persona mixed with his horrifically twisted actions make him a classic “love to hate” kind of character. His popularity even led to being the focus of an entire prequel game detailing his backstory and plenty of references throughout the rest of the franchise and beyond. While many villains tend to think their actions are justified and pretend they’re the “good guy”, Jack takes it a step further by being so deluded by his own incredible narcissism that he genuinely believes he’s the hero of Borderlands, and everyone in his way - including the actual protagonists, the playable Vault Hunters - are just filthy violent bandits. He thinks that summoning a godlike creature to commit mass genocide on a planetary scale is the heroic thing to do, and doesn’t think twice about imprisoning and enslaving his own daughter to further his goals! All these abhorrent actions are done with a smile on his face and constant jokes and petty threats, as though the main characters are barely worth taking seriously. Case in point: one of his most famous monologues is about him laughing himself silly while scooping a man’s eyes out with a spoon, all while mocking the player and telling them to just “let the hero win already”. Nice guy!

Flowey (UNDERTALE) “Did you think you were the only one with that power? The power to reshape the world, purely by your own determination. The ability to play God! The ability to SAVE.” If you had the power to quick-save and reload the real world like it was a video game, what would you do? Try to fix your mistakes and right wrongs, or wreak havoc before reloading and getting away with it without consequence? In UNDERTALE, the main antagonist Flowey shows just how terrifying it can be when a villain shares the same meta powers as the actual player. He initially seems friendly and harmless - the first character you meet, and he’s just a happy little flower, right? Well, it’s not long before he proves to be the most dangerous and sociopathic character in the game. He’s aware of the player saving and reloading, and calls you out on certain choices like saving other characters you’ve killed - or going back to kill characters you previously spared. Eventually he gains the power to save over the player’s file, deliberately crashing the game and saving over your own death just to show how helpless you (and any other video game character) are in the face of such power. Most of his backstory is only found in the game’s “evil” path, the Genocide Route, so to really learn about him you’ll need to prove that you’re even more twisted than he is…and he won’t let you forget about it in future playthroughs either.

Andrew Ryan (Bioshock) “In the end, what separates a man from a slave? Money? Power? No, a man chooses…a slave obeys.” “Would You Kindly” - a well-known phrase within the gaming community, one that accompanies a famous plot twist dropped by Andrew Ryan, one of the main antagonists of Bioshock. Throughout the game, the player is directed all over the fallen, violent city of Rapture by their “ally” Atlas, with no choice but to do exactly as he asks. This is pretty standard affair for linear story games, of course, but Bioshock gives this normally-ignored gaming rule a dark spin with just three simple words. Andrew Ryan, the creator and leader of Rapture, reveals at the end of the game that the player’s character, Jack, is actually brainwashed to respond to the phrase “would you kindly”, a phrase that up until then had simply seemed to be a quirk of Atlas’ speech pattern. Future playthroughs are given a completely different feel after this reveal, now that the player knows Atlas is actually manipulating them for the entire game. I chose Andrew Ryan as the antagonist to write about here instead of Atlas because he’s still ultimately the reason behind most of the game’s conflict, and his final scene is one of the most harrowing moments in the series. Shortly after revealing the player’s trigger phrase, he uses it against you - ordering you to run about his office in a cutscene, to really drive home how completely helpless you’ve actually been all game. After that, he even orders you to kill him! As the player whacks away at Ryan’s skull with his own golf club, it’s not so much a victory for the player as it is for Ryan, proving he was right all along: Jack, and in turn the player, is but a slave, with no choice but to obey. Keep that in mind next time you’re railroaded into following orders in any other story game…

Alister Azimuth (Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time) “You ask all these questions, ask yourself this: how relevant is the past when it can be changed? Your father would have said not very.” When a heroic character turns bad, it’s usually because their motivations have changed. They decide the villain is right, they decide whatever they’re fighting for isn’t worth it, that sort of thing. This isn’t the case for General Alister Azimuth, however; for the entirety of Ratchet & Clank: A Crack in Time, Azimuth remains steadfast in his goals from start to finish, while it’s the main heroes Ratchet and Clank that change their minds. Azimuth is initially a mentor figure to Ratchet, and blames himself for the exile of their species, the Lombaxes. He and Ratchet work together to find the Great Clock, a massive time-keeping device at the centre of the universe (give or take fifty feet), with Azimuth intending to reverse the mistakes of his past and bring back the Lombaxes - including Ratchet’s lost family. When Ratchet & Clank learn that the Great Clock is not a time machine, and that tampering with it will have catastrophic consequences, they decide against Azimuth’s plan. Unfortunately, Azimuth is so focused and single-minded on his goal that he ignores the duo’s warnings, and when they try to stop him he turns against them at the end of the game. Azimuth is a very headstrong, reckless and aggressive character that believes he can brute-force his way through any issue - just like Ratchet was, before he met Clank all those years ago. Narrative foils often make for the most compelling villains! Ratchet likely would have ended up just like Azimuth had he not met Clank.

Lothar Rendain (Battleborn) “Don’t you see? We needn’t all perish! We can save something! What value is life that is already condemned? What are you fighting for?!” Doing whatever it takes to survive isn’t exactly an uncommon motivation - it’s a pretty basic demand of living, after all. When it’s the end of the universe as we know it and you take honour out of the question, however, it can lead to some not-so-heroic decisions. Battleborn brings us to a universe dying at the hands of the Varelsi, inter-dimensional horrors eating every star in space, and introduces Lothar Rendain: a battle-hardened military commander that has his species’ survival at the top of his priorities. So, what does he do in the face of seemingly unavoidable death? Make a deal with it, even at the cost of everything and everyone else in the universe. Rendain’s motivations are at least understandable - in his words, he’s “saving something instead of nothing”, and it may as well be his own people. It’s just a shame he goes about it in the most despicable fashion possible. He’s sided his forces with the Varelsi and turned on the rest of the surviving universe, aiding the Varelsi hordes in exchange for them ensuring his own species’ survival once the last light winks out. After thousands of years battling an apparently unstoppable foe, you’d probably be desperate to figure out a different solution too. Personality-wise, he stands out as a darkly serious villain compared to the more chaotic and gung-ho heroes, almost as if he was pulled from a different story entirely. He avoids all the usual mistakes of being the “bad guy” too; he doesn’t needlessly kill any underlings that fail him, he takes any advantage he can get in a fight (like siccing a dozen gigantic bosses on the heroes at once instead of playing fair), and he even gives them chances to join forces with him in the interest of saving his own troop’s numbers. All in all, he’s a cunning antagonist with reasonable motivations, yet still so completely irredeemable and evil that finally defeating him at the end is just as cathartic for the player as it is for the heroes of the game themselves.

All this goes to show that all the interesting motives and engaging characterisations doesn’t always make for a nice person. There’s hundreds of fascinating and memorable villains out there, far too many to fit in a single article. If you have any suggestions of engaging evil-doers that fit this list, feel free to let me know! Thanks for reading!

#article #gaming #borderlands #gearbox #handsome jack #undertale #toby fox #flowey #bioshock #2k #andrew ryan #ratchet & clank #a crack in time #r&c #acit #insomniac games #alister azimuth #battleborn #rendain

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cecenyss · 1 year

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The best OCs fics can stand alone. When canon is nothing more than context for them, and their character has their own, individual story to tell.

This is always made easier in fandoms like the mcu or the arrowverse, which has a series of villains that are introduced and then defeated, usually within a single short show, season, or movie, and much more difficult with fandoms such as my hero academia, which has a singular “big bad” or “evil” organization of some sort that the main characters work together to overcome within the entirety of the franchise. The singular goal shared by all characters makes it more difficult for OCs to branch off and do their own thing with their own separate, personal storyline.

Of course, in something like a wartime setting this is also made easier without the separation of enemies over different installments, because there’s the understanding that this is a universal thing; something affecting millions of people across different countries or areas or wherever this war is taking place.

In stories with wartime settings, it’s also taking place over the course of several years, making it easier for your original character to go off, do their own thing, and then regroup with the main characters for the bit bad fight, usually the opposing force in the aforementioned war.

There’s no real point to me saying this, I just thought it was interesting. Also I just read The Siren by emmagnetised and it’s fantastic. I love OC stories so much and I always think it’s such a shame what a bad reputation they get; the well-written ones are few and far between and it’s a shame, in my opinion.

There’s something about reading an individual’s own story from within a universe you’re already familiar with that’s so spellbinding to me and I love it. Adding new characters and introducing new ideas, altering canon through the eyes of an entirely new person. It’s like reading an entire novel, with all the thrill of getting to know the character it’s about, but you don’t need to trouble yourself with the world or the other characters. Less to keep track of because you already know everybody else and their dynamics; you just need to focus on this person’s.

It’s the same reason I like reading fics which introduce two characters who never got the chance to meet or write out backstories for people who never got their own canon one. Even just novelizing someone’s backstory when you already have most of the disjointed details.

I prefer pre-canon type fics to future ones or fix-it ones, because to me fanfiction is about expanding on the rudimentary details we’re given. World-building in an otherwise unexplored world. Even just tiny details about what it would be like to live in this world is just fascinating to me.

This ended up as a longer ramble than I thought it would. Read more OC fics and write more OC fics I think they’re cool.

(also I am taking OC fic recommendations for the mcu please and thank you)

#fanfiction #fanfiction appreciation #fanfic #fanfic appreciation #rambles #sleep deprived ramblings #ramblings #ocs #original character #fic recs please #mcu #tentative about including that because the post is more about fanfiction than marvel but whatever #I have so many Thoughts and Feelings and I like to share them #please read them I am lonely and friendless #that second part isn’t entirely true but none of my friends really like OC fics #except one but she doesn’t like marvel #no bashing for any characters in the fic recs btw #I hate bashing #I get disliking a character but if you do so for legit reasons you shouldn’t have to alter them to express that #they’re all complicated people I would like to see that expressed #also no prominent romance #that one seems like a tall order #but what I mean is i don’t want have the story to focus on them shacking up with someone #it just doesn’t appeal to me

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vidmains · 2 years

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Link to the past gba with 1player 4swords

#Link to the past gba with 1player 4swords series#

In a massive departure from the series formula, Four Swords Adventures plays out over a bunch of isolated levels. The familiar tunes, the old enemies reimagined in a cartoony style, the classic items this all feels like a title lovingly crafted to allow you and your buddies to share in something you love together instead of something cynically made to sell a stupid accessory. When played with a bunch of Zelda loving freaks, everything about Four Swords Adventures feels like fan service. While not the most original setup, it does at least give you a reason to pal around with your friends through familiar lands. This has the side effect of unsealing Vaati, thus spurring an adventure to save Hyrule once again. With no choice but to rescue them, Link grabs hold of the Four Sword (a mystical artifact that later gets explained in The Minish Cap) to save them. Just as they are about to do so, Dark Link steps out from the shadows and captures the maidens. Fearing the return of the dark sorcerer Vaati (a villain introduced in the previous Four Swords game), she and the six maidens set to reseal Vaati and prevent his return. Starting off in a gloomy storm, Link meets with Zelda and she sets up the goal for this adventure. While the sprites are borrowed from the original Four Swords, the locations and music come from the seminal A Link to the Past, widely regarded as one of the best entries in the franchise. Right from the beginning, you can see Nintendo is borrowing from the best when it comes to backbone of this title. From both a cooperative and competitive aspect, Four Swords Adventures hits every beat you’d want from a multiplayer take on Zelda with a dash of charm that will make any diehard fan blush. Despite Nintendo tinkering a few more times with the idea of a multiplayer Zelda game (most recently with 2015’s Tri Force Heroes), they’ve never done a better job than this. It was a highly unique idea and something way too ahead of its time. Controlled entirely with the GBA, certain segments of the game would force players to look at their handhelds to explore separate areas at the same time. Four players with four Game Boy Advance systems could connect to the lunchbox and explore a new version of Hyrule together. An expanded take on a bonus mode offered in its GBA port of A Link to the Past, Adventures made liberal use of Nintendo’s GBA Link Cable for GameCube. Continued abuse of our services will cause your IP address to be blocked indefinitely.15 years ago today, Nintendo released The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures in North America. Please fill out the CAPTCHA below and then click the button to indicate that you agree to these terms. If you wish to be unblocked, you must agree that you will take immediate steps to rectify this issue. If you do not understand what is causing this behavior, please contact us here. If you promise to stop (by clicking the Agree button below), we'll unblock your connection for now, but we will immediately re-block it if we detect additional bad behavior. Overusing our search engine with a very large number of searches in a very short amount of time.Using a badly configured (or badly written) browser add-on for blocking content.Running a "scraper" or "downloader" program that either does not identify itself or uses fake headers to elude detection.Using a script or add-on that scans GameFAQs for box and screen images (such as an emulator front-end), while overloading our search engine.There is no official GameFAQs app, and we do not support nor have any contact with the makers of these unofficial apps. Continued use of these apps may cause your IP to be blocked indefinitely. This triggers our anti-spambot measures, which are designed to stop automated systems from flooding the site with traffic. Some unofficial phone apps appear to be using GameFAQs as a back-end, but they do not behave like a real web browser does.Using GameFAQs regularly with these browsers can cause temporary and even permanent IP blocks due to these additional requests. If you are using Maxthon or Brave as a browser, or have installed the Ghostery add-on, you should know that these programs send extra traffic to our servers for every page on the site that you browse.The most common causes of this issue are: Your IP address has been temporarily blocked due to a large number of HTTP requests.

#Link to the past gba with 1player 4swords

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hello-nichya-here · 2 years

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Imo Light can't be called a hero, in fact in the end he was getting so fixated with the idea of becoming the god of the new perfect world that he wanted every human on Earth to agree with, to the point where he started killing innocent people and was almost ready to kill his family. Manga Light could definitely be counted as a villain, anime Light at least reflected on his actions, maybe even regretted picking up the death note before his death. Seriously Light with his memories erased and the Kira!Light are like two different people...

But at the same time I'm so sick of people deifying L, saying that he's a "hero" with always good intentions. Like, L's goal was to catch Kira, to beat him in a game because he was bored. I'm not even sure that L really cared about Kira's true intentions. And to win the game, he also did selfish things that affected other people. If L was heroic, he would have solved more crime cases to benefit humanity, not just those that he was solely interested in. This quote describes the truth the best:

"Kira is childish and hates losing. I'm also childish and hate losing." - L Lawlight

And yet these two have the audacity to call themselves justice. What do you think about this?

I mean, that IS the point. Light and L are two sides of the same coin. Both characters:

1 - Show a disconnect from the rest of the world (Light has really shallow, basically performatic relationships with others, L has isolated him almost completely).

2 - Show little to no real care, respect, or affection to other people, with some exceptions (his sister and father for Light, Watari and Naomi for L).

3 - Are absolutely brilliant, and that contributes to their isolation (both because they can't relate to others AND because they see themselves as superior).

4 - Are VERY obsessive.

5 - Found something that allows them to get away with basically anything (L had money and influence, Light had his reputation and the death note, both had the fact that their crimes couldn't be connected to them).

6 - Did a few good things for completely wrong reasons (Light killed some truly awful people who would have hurted others if he had not killed them, L tried to capture a literal serial killer with a God complex).

7 - Did HORRIBLE things to try assuring their own victory.

These two are pretty much one in the same, that's why they got so fixated on each other. All the times they made the same monologue at the same time in different places were deliberate attempts at showing that the only thing that makes them different is circumstance.

Now, regarding regret and Light being a "completely" different person without his memories, we need to keep in mind that:

1 - The death note did NOT create Light's bad traits, it only intensified them AND gave him the means to get away with almost anything.

2 - Light was possessed by a "demon" (Shinigami) and that messed with his sanity. Like I said, it didn't change him COMPLETELY, but it did make him worse, and we don't know how things would have played out if he had the death note, but wasn't possessed.

3 - Both in the manga and in the anime, Light demonstrated some kind of regret/guilt. In the manga it is shown that he struggled to come to terms with what he had done once he started killing people, while in the anime he had that moment when he was moments away from being killed.

4 - L "joined" humanity when he accepted the fact that he was going to die. Light (in the manga) kept trying to separate himself from it by convincing himself that death would not be the end for him/that he was beyond being killed like a mere human, despite overwhelming evidence to the contrary. He was STILL forced to join the rest of humanity, and to truly become one in the same with his rival because, in Ryuk's own words, DEATH IS EQUAL.

Fans might love to misinterpret the "I am justice" speech as making it about either Light or L being correct, or even about them being the "two extremes of justice" as I've seen people claim once or twice, but the real point of the story is in the name DEATH Note. Death makes everyone the same. It just so happened that Light and L were the same while they were alive too.

If you want to read me ramble about Light and why death was the ultimate fuck you to him, click the post bellow:

https://hello-nichya-here.tumblr.com/post/664420189770743808/why-was-light-yagami-wrong

#asks #death note #death note meta #light yagami #l lawliet

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villainsandvictimsalliance · 3 years

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My opinion on bnha 329:

You can check in here my opinion about chapter 328, if you want the context.

I'm glad Horikoshi solved many of the things I pointed out last week. And I'm glad that I'm correctly reading into the manga, at least at some extent.

Let's see what we got this week: (long post)

After a long building up of relating Spinner to common citizens, mutants, people with weaker quirks and in general, the audience or the general public, we finally see this being explicitly acknowledged. He's on the end of his arc now, because the people picked him as their voice.

The last point is really important because Spinner now has great power. This is a direct parallel to the way Uraraka took control of the megaphone and spoke for the heroes. Now, it's Spinner's turn to speak for the villains, but because people wants him to do so.

On another note, we got an amazing graphic parallel of Stain and Spinner. While Stain is in shadows, Spinner is bright. And unlike Stain, Spinner has been chosen by the public. He was not there to be a leader, but people recognize him as one. This is very interesting because it shows how much Spinner has grown and how he is his own character, with his own achievements.

We saw Dabi back in a forest. This is a direct parallel to the way he stopped being Touya and got to be Dabi. It's a graphic reminder that we're getting the end of his arc with the Todorokis. What is his last step? We know he has his own plans and we know he wants to make Endeavor suffer, so could he be on a solo mission to achieve his vengeful desires? In which forest is Dabi? Are we're going to get more flashbacks? Are we going to see him back at Sekoto Peak?

Please note that when they mention Toga, it's exactly the way Curious wanted it. Toga is in front of a black background. She's being inserted on a narrative by force and not by choice, because someone else is putting her there. Alternatively, the white background tells us Toga's arc is still lacking definition and scenario for its end. Her fate is yet to be defined.

There's A LOT to say about AFO. Please look how the League of Villains is broken. AFO is using them as puppets. When referring to Spinner, he talks about him like he's a "bodyguard", not an equal or a friend like Tomura used to do. AFO clearly doesn't care about them and he won't stop to consider what they want, unlike Tomura. He has his own things to do and anything else must be forgotten and put aside.

AFO is still hiding behind Tomura. Please note how Tomura is treated like any other nomu. AFO took the throne of the king (Tomura) and made Tomura into a war dog.

Now, I've written some meta before about how Tomura never had an own identity until he met the League. Kotaro denied Tomura being himself, so much that the hand of Kotaro was still making Tomura faceless long after Kotaro's dead.

After Kotaro, AFO took away Tenko Shimura and imposed a new identity: Shigaraki Tomura. Please note that Shigaraki is AFO username, which means that even back then AFO was planning on using Tomura as an extention of AFO himself. And by naming him Tomura he pressured the kid to never forget his anger and sadness, caused by the tragedy of his family. It was AFO who repressed further the kid, all the hands being a physical reminder of such act. The hands were covering his entire face and because Tomura was unable to touch, he was only able to listen, just like the nomus. That's why Tomura scratches his neck so much. He itches for having an own voice, an own personality, an own identity.

If you pay attention to the panels in bnha 329, you can see how Tomura is wearing both a suit that resembles AFO's clothes and a cloak that resembles the one AFO was using on the world where Deku could see the vestiges. Tomura even has the white hair like AFO now. His pose and clothes are a direct parallel to Deku, but in a way AFO is a parallel to OFA.

Tomura has been stripped away of everything that made him himself. He doesn't have the hands, he doesn't have his clothes, people calls him AFO now, he doesn't even have his friends around. He's alone, a weapon and nothing more. I wrote another meta about how Tomura had no identity analyzing a panel from bnha 328. This is the direct consequence of that.

But this is not a separate case. It is pretty normal, in fact. When a system fails, when an entire country dives on a crisis, it's normal for everyone to question their place in that society and their identities.

Deku had an identity crisis and his friends for UA needed to rescue him and reminded him who he was. Toshinori had a crisis and Stain needed to helped him with it. Uraraka questioned too her identity as a hero and from there her speech above UA was born. Endeavor got a crisis, Shoto got a crisis, Toga needs to decide as much as Spinner does who do they want to be, Dabi is facing his old identity and his new identity conflicts...

This is actually pretty good. The narrative around heroes and villains are being questioned.

Who am I and why am I that person?

Do I need to be that person?

What is my role in society? Why?

What are my goals and why? Are they worth all the consequences?

Do I like the identity of my society? If not, can I change it? Can I change all the things before?

Bnha inner universe is walking towards a redefinition. What is a hero, what is a villain, who are they, why they are heroes or villains, etc. These characters were forced into certain roles or they assumed they needed to play those roles, according to what society told them. And now, they are free to decide. Time and time again, in every journey of any hero, the problems of the identity and the self vs the others is vital, and it shows through the decision making system.

On a final note, I'm a little sad that Horikoshi made a female version of All Might to fight Tomura, instead of giving her a more original character design in general. Women in the bnha universe tend to be seen as replacements of previous existent characters, or they are used quickly to further the plot and get forgotten. They deserve a better treatment, being honest.

The kids will get there rest time, because not all the cards are on the table yet. I love that it's the turn of the villains to play, because the final result of the next battles are going to be partially determined by what the members of the League of Villains decide to do.

Spinner will probably betray AFO, because he's not loyal to AFO's ideals but to his own ideas.

Dabi has his own thing going and he's also going to get rescued by the Todorokis. I really want to see Hawks, Endeavor, Shoto and Dabi all in a same fight, because parallels are going to fly around and I bet we're going to found out more about Dabi's heart.

I think Toga is still going to interact with the UA kids and help them somehow. I hope she gets to talk to Deku and make some good friends.

And for Tomura... He needs someone to reach for him. He has lost himself. His determination is gone, the sparks in his eyes, his fire. He needs a reason to fight, a reason to believe. He needs someone to believe in him, someone to call out his name and make him exists. He needs someone to see him. He's the same lost boy who walked on the streets asking for someone to rescue him. He's the same kid that asked for someone to believe he could be a hero. If Deku gives him that, if All Might helps him too, if the League is there to show them their loyalty, Tomura will be able to snap out of AFO's control and break free.

Nothing like a good villain chapter to make me excited about the future chapters. Let's wait and see.

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dystopiandilfs · 3 years

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The DreamSMP is told in different perspectives meaning the person you watch is automatically the hero and anyone they disagree with is a villain. That's literally the whole point of the server it's all about perspective. That's why it's interesting.

For example people who watch the members of the Eggpire see that the Egg is the villain, they're watching the victim and there's no real hero.

Watching Techno puts Techno as the hero Tommy and Tubbo as the biggest villains whilst Dream is a chaotic but trustworthy ally.

Watching Niki makes her the hero, L'Manberg the villain, Karl her biggest threat and Techno her ally.

The reason most people see Dream as the villain is because nobody sees his perspective which is how most superhero movies are. Nobody is actually a hero or a villain it's all about perspective and persuasion.

If you look from Dream's perspective he and his friends made rules and they all lived by these rules and everyone was fine, Tommy broke the rules was understandably punished for it then he turned that into Dream being a villain.

Interestingly Dream is the only consistent character. He's the only one who's motive has remained the same the only thing that changed was how far he was willing to go to get there. His motive has always been to be a big family, it's why the og rules were put in place, it's why he tried to stop people from separating, it's why he detached himself from everyone, he made everyone hate him so they all finally agreed on something. He told Tubbo and Schlatt that the biggest problem was nobody could agree with anything. He told Sam and Bad that the closest thing to a full server agreement was that people who did wrong got the correct level of punishment which is why he commissioned the prison. (This was just before the egg was discovered). He told Punz he just wanted a happy family again and that he was doing something that everyone would hate him for which is why Punz had to pretend to be against Dream. Then he blew up the community House which ruined the final relationships he had left with the og members and Captain Puffy as she'd given him the tnt (and the obsidian)

Even from day one Dream's goal was for the server to be a big happy family, he made deals with the strays like Schlatt and Techno, he created favours with the influential members, he destroyed everything that was separating and secluding people, he did all these big things to attempt to bring people together (For example Hbomb said the closest the server has been ever was during the rebuild of L'Manberg after Wilbur and Dream blew it up). After discovering that it wasn't enough he made himself the common denominator. If everyone hates Dream it was something they all had in common.

Literally everyone else has had multiple end goals. Techno's was originally to destroy governments but then made his own under the guise of it being a club. Essentially Techno got blinded by control and power, got overwhelmed and tried to leave only for the butcher army to reignite his thirst which is when he decided to blow up another government. He'd changed his mindset, he wasn't going to go after the new government but they went to him.

Tommy tunnel visioned towards Dream making him the villain after Dream stole his discs eventhough Tommy stole his and George's fish, nobody in L'Manberg saw Dream as their biggest threat until he made a deal with Eret even then they were more concerned about Eret. Just as Wilbur started to see Dream as the biggest threat instead of Eret, Schlatt came along and suddenly Dream was providing Wilbur and Techno with supplies, Tommy still saw Dream as the villain but was now busy with Schlatt. Once again Tommy's main goal was stopping Dream as the villain he created but constantly sidetracked to fight other battles.

Bad's perspective is interesting because a large chunk of it is down to manipulation and corruption. He was on Dream's side until Badlands was created that's what made him start to change. Before Badlands Bad didn't really have a clear goal (other than Be Gay Do Crime. /j) His new and more consistent goal is down to Egg manipulation but is the longest he's had the same goal in mind.

Ranboo tried to be neutral and not pick sides however that in turn gave him multiple enemies. All based on perspective. From Ranboo's pov he wasn't picking a side and was a victim to the voice, most people's perspective he was a double crossing traitor. Only Dream and Tommy knew that Ranboo blew up George's house and that was used by Dream to get Tommy exiled but to also get Ranboo away from the biggest defective person, the biggest rulebreaker.

Literally you can't call someone a villain on the DreamSMP unless it's Dream purely because it's based on perspective (and opinion) you however can't use Dream's acts on the DreamSMP as real irl things (that's just fucking weird)

Character apologists aren't a thing. You can be a sympathiser but not an apologist. However just because someone is defending their character it doesn't mean they're enabling it. If someone likes Dream and defends his character it doesn't mean that they're enabling abuse or terrorism. At the end of the day it's a bunch of teens, young adults and Philza having fun roleplaying on a MINECRAFT server with friends. They're not condoning anything that their character does, they're not excusing it. It's just a role. Let people defend their favourite characters. Let people have a different opinion to yours. It's literally the whole point of the SMP.

#dreamsmp #dream smp #dreamwastaken #georgenotfound #mcyt #sapnap #badboyhalo #tubbo #karl jacobs #philza #technoblade #ranboo #quackity #tommyinnit

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lord-of-christmas-lights · 3 years

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I swear I have normal Narnia headcanons. However, none of them are featured in this post.

So! If you've been following my series of posts about my Inhuman Narnia AU and the couple of oneshots I posted on ao3 under ASkyOfKai, you've probably noticed that in this little universe I've created, Narnia is sort of...sentient. And I've just realized that I've only actually gone into depth about this on Discord with my friends who are probably very tired of hearing about it. So I'm making y'all suffer through it instead. Welcome to Inhuman Narnia 101, please take your seats because this is going to take a while.

Warning for religious themes, theological discussion, and some dark fantasy/inhuman/body horror concepts that involve blood and physical changes.

BEFORE I SAY ANYTHING: Please keep in mind that an AU is meant to be an alternate universe that may not follow canon information. If anything in this post contradicts canon on the creation of Narnia (it undoubtedly will), pay it no mind, this is an AU. It doesn't have to follow canon.

First off, a little explanation of the Inhuman Narnia AU in general. Basically I came up with this AU after seeing some other people on tumblr post about the Pevensies being not quite human after their time in Narnia. Just eerie, cryptid, a bit of dark fantasy kinda stuff. And I was like, "I'm in love, sign me up, I have ideas." I did not sit down and develop this all at once. The worldbuilding I've done for it has come slowly over the past few weeks through posts, fanfics, and discord rambles. The idea of Narnia being a sentient earth deity of sorts is a recent one and there is already so much to it. (Also I call her Narnia because it's convenient, she has other names but I haven't bothered to like, actually make any up so Narnia is what she's called.)

The most important thing to note starting off is that Narnia is not supposed to be a replacement for Aslan, nor is she necessarily "the hero to his villain". Aslan and I have an interesting relationship, as he is literally God/Jesus/The Holy Spirit/etc and I no longer really identify as Christian. While there are times that Aslan definitely takes a more antagonistic route in my writings, I don't actually see him as a bad guy, nor as a good guy. As God, he literally removed from our concepts of good and evil (in my opinion). The same goes for Narnia being an earth deity. I am a Christian-raised pagan, and I definitely subscribe to the idea that gods and deities are not subject to humanity and our rules. Narnia is not a good goddess, she is not a bad goddess, she simply is a goddess. Plain and simple. The dichotomy that exists between Narnia and Aslan in my writing is generally that of opposing deities, but this isn't a hard and fast rule. There were and still are times when they're friends, working towards the same goals. There are times when Narnia's power is stronger than Aslan's and times when Aslan's power is stronger than hers. There is no simple 1:1 comparison between them.

So, getting into motivations and why Narnia as a deity even exists. Essentially, I asked the question, "How do the Pevensies become inhuman?" and voila earth deity Narnia was born. Now, the basic in-universe mythology I've worked out is that Narnia and Aslan are two deities from separate dimensions that came together to create a new world, the world of Narnia. Aslan is the one who oversees things, he's the one who comes up with the ideas, and he's a little less attached to the world as a whole because he's a Creator, not an earth deity. Narnia is, however, and she literally makes up the world, she sort of runs the entire thing on a physical level, and she is much more attached to it. So she's always kinda taken on this role of making the things in her world the way she wants them. For the most part, she and Aslan designed everything together and they're both happy with it blah blah blah. Well, Aslan then decides to bring a few humans from this other world he's created to Narnia. And she affects them a bit (I've got headcanons about Digory and Polly that I haven't posted anywhere yet but I might soon), but it isn't until Aslan brings the Pevensies over that she really gets to experiment. See, there are other deities in the world that kinda rule over the various lands on a surface level (patron gods for Telmar, the Archenlands, etc, they just have less power than Narnia and Aslan) so she has a little less power over the people in those places, but the country of Narnia is both her land and her so when the Pevensies become the Kings and Queens and live there for 15 years, she's very connected to them. And it's through this connection that she starts to affect them. Honestly, I'm not sure if Narnia even knows what she's doing when she starts stripping away their humanity. I think it's that she can feel they're not from her world and she doesn't like that. She wants them to be a part of her, she wants them to belong in her world just the same as everyone else. (Side note—I know Telmar and some other lands in canon are based on people finding portals and coming through and I'd like to say that she does affect them a bit, takes away a bit of their humanity, but it's not to the same extent as the Kings and Queens of her lands).

"So Kai," you might say, "You keep empathizing that she is literally the land and the land is her. What the hell do you mean by that?" Well, essentially, she is...the...land. Basically if you've read Percy Jackson Heroes of Olympus, there's this idea that Gaia and Tartarus are both physically their domains and able to take on a smaller, human shaped physical form because they're gods and not restricted by human ideas of only having one body. Narnia is the same. Her physical form is both the entire world and whatever smaller shape she might appear in to people. However, we have to acknowledge that their world is differently structurally from ours. There's magic, there's talking animals, and in my Inhuman AU, there is a literal Heart of Narnia at the center. Like a physical, beating, human-shaped heart. Except it's a lot bigger than a regular human heart. Also it's golden. And many many many miles underground. So anyways this is where she's centered. It's basically where her soul is. Probably under Cair Paravel because I just came up with that idea and I love it. And radiating out from it are veins of magic and blood, and these stretch all across the world. Now here is where we get into blood magic and some of those fun terrifying concepts I've come up with.

Narnia has her own blood, of course, but also whenever one of her Kings or Queens bleeds in battle, she kinda pulls it down through the earth into her own heart and veins. It doesn't really do anything to her or them in particular, it's just a fun side effect of them having a patron pagan god. Yes this includes Caspian after he becomes King. Also Peter's blood turns golden because he's the High King, and then later Caspian's does too because I just really like imagery of Ben Barnes bleeding gold. (Side note—when Peter returns to England, his blood goes back to red, but it does remain a brighter red than blood generally is).

Diverting for half a second here. Now, in both my regular Narnia writings and my Inhuman AU, Lucy is very very connected to magic. In my regular Narnia fanfic, she studies with the druids, who are sort of like BBC Merlin's druids. They're just like, chill dudes who run around in camps doing magic and making prophecies and shit. However, in the Inhuman AU, they are a lot darker. One of my favorite ideas with the Inhuman druids and Lucy is that they are so connected to Narnia's magic and her Heart that their hands become stained with blood. Is it their blood, is it Narnia's blood, is it someone else's blood? Idk, don't ask questions. But yea, their hands are permanently stained reddish-brown to almost black. In my regular Narnia stuff, I still like the idea of Lucy's hands being stained and go with just earth magic, dirt stuff for the reason why. But yea no, in the Inhuman AU her hands are stained with blood because of blood magic.

So getting a bit more into how Narnia affects the Pevensies now because I love talking about this lol. She doesn't consciously chose how to change them, though she does call them her creations. Generally the way her magic affects them is by connecting them to to the land in some way and bringing out certain traits they have. So for Peter it's his eyes flickering between regular blue and the amber of a lion's, feathers appearing on his back that grow into wings, having a strength greater than that of a giant's. His blood is golden and on clear nights, the Aurora Borealis in the sky is reflected across his skin. For Susan, her skin glints like glass in the sun and she can briefly glimpse the future. Her wounds are sewn shut with golden rays of light, her eyes are cracked but clear, and she seems to glow faintly in the night, a bit of the sun's radiance shining through her. Edmund has a bit of a star's power lodged in his throat, and can manipulate words, uses them to influence people and their actions. His skin is frostbitten in places, a side effect of ruling the Woods where the White Witch once held so much power, and in some spots his bones shine under the ice that spreads across his skin. Lucy has the stained skin from her stronger connection to magic, and when she speaks words from the Old Language (the one Aslan and Narnia used to shape the world itself), her voice echoes and rasps. Her teeth are too sharp, her smile too wide, and when she disappears underwater, she can stay for hours without surfacing. I want to get into Eustace and Caspian now too but this post is already extremely long and I've still got a bit to cover, so we're just sticking with the Pevensies for now. So yea, Narnia doesn't pick what she does to the Pevensies, she just connects herself to them and through that connection, they change. The magic that she is made of, that Narnia the world operates on, that's what changes them. However, as I stated already, she does call them her creations and feels extremely responsible for them.

Wrapping back around up to the beginning, this is the biggest source of conflict between her and Aslan as of the canon timeline. I like to believe that the lamppost incident was an accident, that Aslan didn't actually mean to send them back at the end of LWW and it was pure coincidence, wrong place wrong time stuff. That being said, it did happen and Narnia really didn't like it happening. The Pevensies did return to their (mostly) human selves in this AU in England, so when they came back in Prince Caspian, she felt disconnected from them again. She reacted to this by digging into them even harder on a spiritual level and essentially speedran them back to being inhuman throughout the timeline of PC, which generally takes place over a few months in my mind. I don't remember how long it was in the book, it's been quite a while since I read them, but it's only like a week in the movie and like eff that, overthrowing a kingdom takes a bit longer in my opinion. Now there are a few divergences here. 1. They all stay at the end of PC and yea that's it, they go back to being Kings and Queens and it's like a second Golden Age but with Caspian there as well. 2. Susan and Peter stay, Lucy and Edmund go back and it's a repeat of the human/inhumanity cycle for them + Eustace in VOTDT and then they stay. 3. Everything happens exactly as it does in canon and it's a constant cycle of humanity/inhumanity with the character's various trips and finally ends at The Last Battle. I like all versions and I tend to leave things a little open to the reader on what exactly happens, or I would if I could actually finish some of my drafts and post them. As you can imagine, Narnia likes 1 the best and 3 the least. She really wants her Kings and Queens to stay and rule her lands and like be awesome and stuff. However, Aslan prefers 3 the best and 1 the least. So again, neither of them is really good nor evil, they just have differing opinions on how the world should be run and what the Pevensie's fates should be. I do tend to side with Narnia, I really like exploring these concepts of inhumanity, but I also really like the concept of a cycle. That's very common in mythology.

So anyways, that's a bit of an overview on earth deity Narnia and her role in my Inhuman AU. If you made it this far, congratulations, and I give you explicit permission to use any of my ideas in your own writing/fanart/whatever, as long as you tag either my tumblr or my ao3 (lord-of-christmas-lights and ASkyOfKai) because I need more Narnia+Inhumanity content in my life. Thanks for reading all this and I'll probably be back very soon with elaboration on Eustace and Caspian's inhumanity!

- Kai

#inhuman/dark fantasy narnia #the chronicles of narnia #peter pevensie #susan pevensie #edmund pevensie #lucy pevensie #aslan #digory kirke #eustace scrubb #caspian x #narnia headcanons #rambles of a hyperfixating kai

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limitededitionsanderssidesblog · 3 years

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I listen to the Janus playlist religiously and I definitely know this song wasn’t there a day ago 🤔

The song is mostly in Korean so I had to look up the lyrics in English and a couple lines stuck out to me

Some things are black, some things are white

You shouldn't look through colored lenses

You're the good guy, he's the bad guy

Your boring world is in black and white

This seems to be directed at Thomas (and maybe Patton too) about Thomas’s mental—and subconscious—separation of the “light” sides from the “dark” sides.

As stated by Logan in Can Lying Be Good?? the other sides where hidden from Thomas because Thomas did not want to accept those parts of himself, which meant that Janus was not allowed to show his true self, or any of the others sides, without permission. To follow that up, in Dealing With Intrusive Thoughts, Logan also stated that the original creativity was spit into light and dark because of Thomas’s view on the concept of creativity as being solely ‘good.’

So many shades of grey

Oh how can you still not know? oh

Good easily fades away

Think twice before you like me because

I'm a villain, what makes you think otherwise?

To me, these lyrics seemed to be directed at Patton. Most of the song is very repetitive and speaks about the immaturity of black and white thinking, which we all know Patton is very prone to.

The line ‘good fades away’ may be in reference to Patton, who sees himself as the embodiment of “goodness and virtue.” Yet, despite that view, Patton has been the biggest cause for misfortune and malcontent in Thomas’s life due to his strict black and white thinking in regards to Thomas’s desires and self-sacrifice over the last three episodes.

But what I take notice at the most is the line ‘Think twice before you like me because I'm a villain.’ This is most likely talking about the most recent episode where Janus and Patton seem to be getting along better, especially when Patton relinquishes his role in helping Thomas to Janus after his many attempts only made things worse. As we’ve seen with Janus’ “nudge them down the stairs” suggestion, he isn’t any more “good” now just because he’s been allowed more privileges, and I think he wants to make that clear. Does he want to be treated like the villain of the story? I don’t think so. But I don’t think he wants Patton to try and rewrite who he is either. Janus knows he’s not what would he considered morally good, and he fully owns and prides himself in that.

The next line that follows is Janus then trying to get Patton to admit to he truly is.

You're villain, what makes you think otherwise?

The villain you failed to notice breaths within you

The one thing this fandom has had to face this season is that our papa Patton is not all sunshine and rainbows. He’s morality. Morality is very grey and complex. It looks different for everyone and is completely based on your upbringing and life influences.

RELIGION MENTION BELOW

Since we know Thomas is catholic, we know Patton’s standards are based a lot in the same religious principles, which is one reason he is so insistent on self-sacrifice, as it’s seen as noble in Christianity.

However, just as character!Thomas and Logan said in Dealing with Intrusive Thoughts, religion isn’t perfect and there have been plenty of terrible religious figures in history.

So, naturally, just as Thomas’s influences aren’t perfect, neither is Patton’s version of morality. Sadly enough, over the past three episodes, Patton has become a sort of “villain” in the story—albeit accidentally—and yet he still parades around as he hero. To this, I think Janus is trying to ground him in reality by telling him that he is no better than Janus. They both want what’s best for Thomas, both have hurt Thomas to accomplish their goals, both have been selfish. Yet only one of them thinks he’s selfless.

Over all, I love this song addition as it further explores Janus thoughts and feelings towards both Thomas and Patton.

Bonus:

The person I love the most

Could be a dog to somebody else say

Might be in reference to Remus, who is often treated as unimportant and inconvenient and is seen as lesser than all the other sides.

The person you hate the most

Is somebody's beloved child

Possibly about Virgil, who we know Janus has a grudge against, and is treated dearly better than the others by Patton.

#sanders sides #deceit sanders #janus sanders #thomas sanders #patton sanders #moceit #but not really #I just ship them #ts theories #ts theory #sanders sides theory #tw religious mention #sorry if this isn’t coherent #it’s 1 am

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haleigh-sloth · 3 years

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Who will be saved and who won’t be?

So at first I really super didn’t give a hoot about this chapter, but I changed my mind. Well, I don’t care about the OFA stuff, but Midorya’s encounter with Muscular actually caught my attention more than I originally thought it did. It brought some up some worries, and I saw some others have the same questions. After thinking about it and reading others’ thoughts I came to an answer that satisfies me personally, and actually makes more sense for the story.

My original prediction for the overall goal of the story was “save everybody”. I thought this because:

Obviously Midoriya can’t save EVERYBODY, literally, but I had assumed that the story was going to stick with this goal throughout, because he’s said it multiple times. These are just the moments that immediately come to mind. I know there are more moments, I just can’t think of them right now.

I think where I went wrong in thinking “save everybody” was like, the end game, was thinking that he wasn’t going to be put in a position to where he had to face all his past foes, and actually FAIL (Midoriya? Failing? 😱) at saving them. I just didn’t expect it because, well, how many times has Midoriya seriously failed at anything in this story? Not many times, at least not when it mattered. This makes Midoriya not very interesting to think about or talk about for the most part. But here I am.

So what does Midoriya’s failed attempt with Muscular mean for the rest of the story? Does it mean that if Shigaraki turns Midoriya down, he will have to just put him down? Kill him? Because Shigaraki said he doesn’t want help? Are we supposed to just take Shigaraki at his word? So what are we supposed to think now when Midoriya is going to let Muscular continue being himself, and not continue to try to sway him after this one attempt? Is he not worth saving? I think I’ve been thinking a little too hard on this, and it brought up some anxieties. At first I was worried about Hori backing out of the “save everybody” goal, but I’m not worried about that anymore because I no longer think that’s the main message here. Right now, the story is establishing a severe difference between villains like Muscular and villains like the league.

We already knew there was an obvious difference between them, but now the purpose of showing us this is to prove which villains will be saved, and which ones won’t.

The main difference between Muscular and the league is that one is shown that he does NOT need help, while the others are shown that they desperately do. Can we assume that Muscular is suffering and that’s why he is going around killing people? I mean we can, but that’s not what we’re told by Muscular or the story:

I mean, we’re not given any indication that he’s suffering here. But we also know that Muscular isn’t hiding behind anger or personal grudges. We know this from early on..

and it’s reiterated again now:

This is important because one of the biggest things about the LOV is their grudges, their desire for vengeance and justice. Muscular has none of that. We’re told on two separate occasions that even though he lost an eye, got beat up, and sent to a torture chamber (for lack of a better word), revenge doesn’t interest him. He literally just wants to fight, kill, spill blood, use his quirk. There aren’t any underlying motives.

So going off of what we have, does Muscular even need saving? Saving from what? He’s not in tartarus anymore, he’s not being put down by the system from what we can tell. He’s not self destructing like Touya and Shigaraki, and he certainly isn’t suppressing himself like Toga. He literally doing what he wants, when he wants. As of now, what does he need saving from? I’d say nothing. It’s not just that he doesn’t want saving, it’s that he doesn’t need it. And we all know that the LOV DO need it. I’m not even going to cite panels to prove that.

So is it okay that Midoriya wasn’t able to “save” Muscular? Yes, it’s okay. Muscular isn’t savable because, from what we know, Muscular doesn’t need it.

There is nothing to worry about with Midoriya’s resolve to save Shigaraki. No matter how many times he fails, it’s not changing. Even during his failed attempt to “save” Muscular, Midoriya already acknowledges the difference between a villain like Muscular and a villain like Shigaraki:

Even being faced with a failed attempt at saving a villain, Midoriya is still solely focused on that crying child in Shigaraki’s soul. Midoriya is focused on Tenko. Even though that crying child is a grown man now, he’s still Tenko, and Midoriya isn’t going to give up on him.

If he truly understood him, maybe things would turn out different. There’s nothing really left to understand about Muscular. Midoriya knows next to nothing about Shigaraki, so therefore he understands nothing. But he knows he is missing something. He’s got a long way to go, and I highly doubt it’ll be an easy conversation or an easy switch to flip in Shigaraki. But we gotta remember that Midoriya’s faced similar challenges on a smaller scale:

Shigaraki was never going to ask for help, but he needs it. And that’s what matters. Heroes save people who are in need of help. That’s something to think about for the next villains Midoriya tries to “save”, or change. Do they want it? It doesn’t matter, but do they need it?

I’d be lying if I said I had any good predictions for the next few battles Midoriya has, and I honestly don’t know if I should expect him to fail again or begin making progress. I think Stain will play a role again but it’s hard to tell if it will be a positive one or a negative one. Will he face Iida again? Or will he help the young generation of true heroes save the country, realizing now is his chance to make the change he wanted to see, albeit a strict and flawed change? I don’t know honestly, but we’ll see.

The bottom line is, not every villain is going to be saved and Muscular is a good example of that, with good reasoning behind it. But that does not jeopardize Midoriya’s resolve to save Shigaraki.

Shigaraki, Touya, and Toga are in need of saving, and that’s why they will be saved.

#bnha 308 #bnha meta #bnha #bnha predictions #bnha endgame #boku no hero academia #mha 308 #midoriya izuku #shigaraki tomura #bnha deku #tenko shimura #my hero academia #bnha spoilers #shigaraki redemption #redemption arc #league of villains #bnha lov #todorki touya #toga himiko

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