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#there are ways for another arc with this conflict to work but do we trust the team
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they did a great job of recycling
Dressing the sidekick in the scrappy dirty sweater, lulling you into thinking Oop This Is Just Classic™ Character Design You See In Kids Movies So That Kids Know This Character is Lame! Ugh but to actually explain why hes in it and make it moving?
Giving Puss the I Let Myself Go beard to turn it into a bonding moment with Kitty, moving the plot
Kitty giving over the top threats to Perrito at first meeting but later we truly fully get how deep her trust issues run
Intro of the bears paired with their first lines, not just another lazy way for when writers set up your expectations and then break them for funnies. Through there whole interrogation scene you put together their family dynamic. also makes for some 10/10 rewatchability given their arc
Using the ship in a bottle again for the make shift shank by Goldi
Every line of the Doctors Office scene doing work! No wasted dialogue, each character gave real responses to the others lines and pushed the plot
Puss & Kittys Cute Off wasnt just made to go viral on tiktok or be used for trailer fodder, Perrito had his deserved (see practice session with kitty) moment of usefulness against BJH, the plot moves forward!
Youre the Smash Im the Grab
Jiminy CRICKET !!!! & the phoenix!
Pinochio wasnt just a Shrek easter egg the flashback also established Horners resentment and eventual greed of magic! Which explains not only his wish, but also his magical item collection!
Puss burrying his kit isnt just a bit! when G & the Bears crash in and find it!! The ! Plot ! Moves ! Forward !
Perrito bringing Puss the stick sword isnt just 'heres the side kick character being useless' that stick brings them back into conflict with Horner! (TPMF!) Also he like actually used it during the heist
This movie was just so efficient, they didnt have to ad hoc anything
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kaiijo · 10 months
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VIGILANTE — GEPARD LANDAU
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pairing: gepard landau x gn! reader content: angst, pining, pre/during belabog arc, implied previous relationship
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“we have to stop meeting like this, captain,” you say as you hear gepard appear behind you. for someone who wears all that heavy armor, he moves pretty quietly.
he sighs your name, exasperated, saying, “we would if you stopped committing crimes.”
you chuckle, tossing your dagger up and down, “i’d hardly call it ‘committing a crime’ if i’m borrowing from my own family.”
“you’re stealing. regardless of if it’s your own family, it’s still a crime,” he answers. he levels you with one of those unreadable looks and says, “i don’t get why you’re doing this.”
you roll your eyes and move closer to him. he watches your carefully but you both know you’d never hurt one another; after all, you’ve known each other since you were kids. your family is a rather prominent one in belabog and good friends with the landaus. you remember when gepard was hiding behind serval while you parents introduce you all.
you also remember when the two of you first held hands at twelve years old, kissed at sixteen, confessed your love at nineteen, but time marches on and things change. and now, you and gepard stand at opposite sides of the battlefield.
“do you know what it’s like, down in the underworld?” you ask him, only mere inches away. you don’t miss the way gepard’s breath stutters. “people struggling to survive, working to make ends meet. i’m just using what resources are available to me to help them.”
gepard’s frown only deepens and he says, “so you’re breaking the blockade as well?”
you groan in frustration, “aeons, gepard, that’s not the point!”
“i get where you’re coming from,” he says more gently this time, placing a hand on your shoulder. even through his gloves and your coat, you can feel the warmth of his palm. “i do, but there’s a reason madame guardian enacted the blockade. i don’t… i don’t want you getting hurt or caught up in something i can’t help you out of.”
“i don’t need you to look out for me anymore, gepard, we’re not kids.” you ignore the sinking feeling in your stomach as you see the hurt flash across his face. you add softly, “i need you to trust me on this.”
you hold gepard’s gaze, conflict swirling in those crystal blue eyes. you used to love you admiring him and his eyes and his classically handsome face, but you don’t really get to do that in the same way anymore. still, you take this moment to do so, and your hand cautiously comes up to land on his chestplate, right over his heart, the metal cool to the touch. gepard sighs, leaning forward to rest his forehead against yours, his own hand covering yours.
your breath comes out shakier than you want and you bite down on your bottom lip, a pressure building behind your eyes. it’s so familiar, this proximity, these touches. it’s gepard. your gepard.
you squeeze your eyes shut. you want him to wrap you in his arms again. you want to kiss him again. you want to tell him how much you lo—
“oh, am i interrupting something here?” the two of your fly apart and you look over gepard’s shoulder to see sampo sauntering towards you two with a contrite expression that doesn’t match the mischievous glee in his eyes.
“my humblest apologies,” sampo says with a pout. gepard’s jaw clenches as sampo continues, “i was coming to collect this lovely person for our little rendezvous tonight!” sampo, like the fucking asshole he is, then turns to you and clutches his chest. “imagine my surprise — my heartbreak! — when i see them with you, captain!”
you see that same hurt appear on gepard’s face and you hastily explain, “it’s not like that at all! he’s— we’re— sampo’s—”
sampo interrupts again: “we’d love to stay and talk, gepard, but time’s of the essence. you know how it is.” he taps his nonexistent wristwatch at you. “tick-tock.”
you roll your eyes but sampo’s right. you need to get this money and medicine down to natasha soon. there’s an apology on your tongue to gepard but it dies; you’re not sure what you’re apologizing for. you’re not sure what to say to him.
you slip past gepard, following sampo, who’s humming a merry tune (ironically, one of serval’s songs). you glance over your shoulder one more time. gepard’s rooted in his spot, gazing back, something forlorn and wistful in his expression, which immediately closes up when he meets your eyes.
he doesn’t try to stop either of you but with each step away from him, you feel the ever-widening gap between the two of you grow. you wonder if either of you will take a chance to leap across it but you’re both too stubborn, set in your ways to do that right now, you know that much.
so, as you descend into the underworld, you can only hope that one day, that chasm between you closes and you can cross right into each other’s arms again.
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bhaalble · 3 months
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While I'm on my script doctor shit: I want to talk about Karlach.
Karlach's not dealing with the same level of narrative neglect/hasty rewrite fingerprints that Wyll is. As a standalone entity, her arc works. I Am Not Immune To Weeping at the Post-Gortash Fight Scene etc etc. But it does feel oddly discordant with the other companion quests. Karlach doesn't really experience any moral evolution or make meaningful decisions. When we meet her she's a kindhearted friendly hero, and she will be that regardless of whether she dies in Faerun or goes back to Avernus. She's incredibly likeable while she does that, and I also don't want to come across like I think her writing is shallow. But in a game where all the companion quests follow a pretty intentional pattern regarding the cycle of abuse, it sticks out like a sore thumb to me that the resolution of the Gortash plot doesn't really impact her character arc one way or the other.
As always I feel compelled to point out that this isn't me going "actually she's secretly a bad person and the game won't admit it". This is more me attempting to mine some more in-depth conflict, using the existing arc as a template. With that in mind, these are the changes I would make:
-Make the use of Soul Coins MUCH MORE of a character point. With how much attention is drawn to acquiring these things for the first time and a special dialogue choice for whether or not you'll have her use them, it feels very much like a dropped thread that it doesn't really go anywhere storywise. Leveraged correctly I think this could've been the chance to show a crack in Karlach's persona. She's your big loveable attack dog who's been having the worst decade, yeah. But she's also a survivor, who's not only been deployed into an endless conflict but who also hasn't had a single person she can trust other than herself. I think you could make more of a thing about how the conditions she lived in in Avernus forced her to make her peace with occasionally stepping on other people, even some innocents, so she could live to fight another day. There's shades of this in some of her conversations with the tiefling refugees already, she mentions to Dammon that she felt like she couldn't really do anything for Elturel. Push into that guilt, and with it, that denial. Have ten years spent with devils maybe just maybe given her a slightly more removed view of the value of a life that isn't her own?
-Whether the player feeds her Soul Coins or not I think it should be specified by Dammon that her routine use of them during her time in Avernus has sped up her engine breakdown by putting it into almost permanent overdrive. Its a damnation of Zariel (who probably knew what the coins were doing, but didn't care) and a startling moment for Karlach, that there are consequences for being cavalier with the souls of others. High Approval Karlach either asks to stop taking them (if the player has been giving them) or thanks the player for encouraging her to hold off. Low Approval Karlach will ask to keep taking them on the grounds of "in for a penny in for a pound", arguing that they can't afford to lose the advantages the player has seen it gives them (if they have been giving them) or becoming frustrated that the player is judging her and what she's had to do to survive (if they haven't).
-Make the reveal that the Steel Watch run off infernal iron MUCH MORE emotional for Karlach, as she realizes she was an experimental run for Gortash to do this. Double down on this when the player discovers that they have corpses inside them (also, put this reveal before the Steel Watch foundry quest can be completed). Its both horrifying on a gut level to find out the stupid evil reason for all her suffering...but also she can't help but feel culpable for LIVING. If she hadn't been strong enough to survive it the experiment might've ended there. Its not true but it is one of the worst thoughts you can have when you've just found out you're going to die anyways.
-I would make the relationship between Karlach and Gortash much more mutual and much more (initially) positive relationship. Have him be genuinely glad to see her, genuinely impressed that she survived the hells. Its what he always liked about her, her grit, her ability to face down impossible odds and come out the victor. Compliments that would've made her happy back in the day and now feel like a punch to the gut. Its all build-up, though, to the Choice which will define Karlach's route.
-By virtue of his experiments Gortash has gotten very good at working with Infernal Iron. And he believes he can fix Karlach's heart, in exchange for her basically taking up a more elevated version of her old job. He could use a bodyguard powered by hellfire and with a strong understanding of devils. Its also, just good optics for his man of the people image to have his right hand be some outer city kid elevated to greatness. He makes a lot of promises in that moment: she won't die. She'll get a chance to have a LIFE back, but now a life with all the power and security she could ask for. More than that, they could change things in this city. Give its residents better lives, improve things for all the little Karlachs out there. And after that...who knows? The Hells might be ripe for some conquest back. Gods know they've both got old scores to settle
-She takes time to think about it, and talk with the player. In addition to all the other hang-ups she might have this is where the Steel Watch comes up again, with her feeling like she's poisoned by that knowledge. A player trying to persuade her into taking the deal can point out, in the end its not so different from soul coins. Why draw the line now. If this Persuasion check is passed she can note that at least they could afford to be choosier with their victims, putting the worst baddies to use for the protection of everyone. That wouldn't be so bad....would it?
-You meet Gortash for a final time. If persuaded by the player to not take the deal (or if left to choose for herself with High Approval) Karlach will kill him where he stands. His soul rises in the form of Bane's Chosen and you have a proper boss fight. If persuaded to take it (or left to her own devices on Low Approval) Karlach will take the deal. This will mean losing Karlach from the party (with the exception of the House of Hope mission where she will appear Jaheira style) as she will be busy protecting Gortash. The player gains custom armor from Gortash and an assembly of Steel Watchers they can summon in the Final Battle.
-If she doesn't take the deal her endings play out pretty similarly to how they do in canon, either dying or returning to Avernus. This time, however, its with a new lease on life (or death). She's gotten to choose to be better than the things that dropped her here. She's still scared, still angry. But she's also proven something to herself. That Zariel and Gortash and them were wrong about her, and that she is much more than the mindless weapon they wanted to turn her into.
-If she takes the deal it unlocks a new ending for Gortash. Rather than come to the Elder Brain himself he will instead give you his Netherstone as a show of good faith, trusting you to take the chance to subdue the Elder Brain for your mutual rule.
-If the Player subdues the Elder Brain you and Gortash move it back underground, pretending to have defeated it and using the fear created by the mind flayer outbreak to rule the populace. Karlach in the Epilogue talks to you about how the two of you are making massive moves in the city. She seems to be trying very hard to convince herself at least most of the changes are positive....from a certain point of view.
-If the Player destroys the Elder Brain, Gortash skips town and takes Karlach with him rather than face his disgrace. In the Epilogue Karlach says he's starting to rebuild in another city state, "not tellin you where, though. Don't really think I want to have to fight you if you decide to come smash this one too....even though I'd definitely win." She seems extremely worn down in this ending and trying to cover it up. Gortash lost a LOT of favor with Bane having his plans blow up in his face like that and its made him. Snippy. Still, "its a living. And it probably wouldn't even be that if it weren't for him." The player can hint that it may be time for her to start moving on to a better environment, and she says only if she can find someone to do a more permanent fix for Ol' Rusty. Gortash still has to do check-ups almost monthly to keep her stable.
-She still keeps in touch with Dammon, though....who knows. He might have some new thoughts after seeing all the blueprints Gortash has drawn up....
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bestworstcase · 4 months
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What specifically makes you say that the Ozpin circle is basically a cult?
not "basically" a cult—it is a cult.
ozpin's inner circle is a religious organization dedicated to safeguarding four divine relics entrusted to their leader, who is literally the god of light's chosen one, until he deems humanity prepared for the final judgment. its notionally secular nature likely exists because ozma figured out that publicly doing this:
“The others cheered in agreement. The man considered. He had wanted to bring people together, and his efforts were finally bearing fruit. The accidental experiment was working, far better than any attempts he had planned in his previous lifetimes. “The people here believe in magic, though many have never seen it,” she said. “If you show everyone that it’s real, that the man with infinite lifetimes has returned as he promised—” [...] “She shook her head. “We trust in you and the fate you’ve laid out for us. We believe in the good of people and our shared responsibility to protect one another and Remnant. So many have heard our stories about you, but now you’re here, in the flesh. Your presence is living proof that everything you’ve said is true. It reinforces our beliefs and commitment to the Circle. Together, now, we will make ready for the final judgment.” [...] “And for a time, all that the woman had said seemed to come true. Many more followers flocked to Circle and their reputation and message spread all throughout Remnant. This was what he was here for, he thought. Perhaps, in the end, he would be able to rest.”
inevitably leads to conflict because, surprise! people don't like being told what to do by eschatological cults!
but ozpin's circle is not in fact secular—ozpin tells his hand-picked loyalists that the gods he serves are the Only True Gods and the whole point is that he's working to fulfill the mandate given to him by the god of light. the huntsmen academies are, inescapably, a religious institution.
moreover ozpin's circle is a cult not just in the broader sense of being religious in nature and dedicated to worship of a particular god but also in the narrower modern connotation of a high-control group organized around a charismatic leader. this is not a matter of interpretation; this is overt text. half the point of pyrrha's arc in V3 is to reveal this fact.
members of his inner circle are expected to work in absolute secrecy and—evinced by the antagonism between qrow and ironwood in V2-3, and the immediate suspicion of lionheart in V5—subject to intense scrutiny by other members against the possibility of betrayal. likewise, pyrrha is deliberately isolated from her peers (primarily through secrecy) and put under immense pressure when ozpin et al attempt to recruit her as their next fall maiden—all without informing her of anything beyond the very bare minimum facts of what they want her to do. "we can fill you in on the details once we know that you're with us."
and like. with the way those scenes in V3 are framed, with the very direct line drawn between ozpin's ruinous paranoia and secrecy and preoccupation with betrayal and ironwood's ruinous obsession with loyalty, and with the whole thing where the narrative continues to highlight how deeply and profoundly traumatized everyone who comes into contact with the inner circle ends up being... like, this is the intended reading. it is so unsubtle.
salem's circle is also a cult in the religious sense—she's, er, very explicitly receiving cult from tyrian and i would argue at least notionally from the others as well—and while it remains to be seen to what extent tyrian's belief that she would send him to hunt down anyone who left is grounded in reality, at a minimum she doesn't bother to do anything about it so the implicit threat is there to keep people in line.
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writerbuddha · 5 months
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I watched a video on YouTube and it said Anakin and Padmé's relationship in The Clone Wars tv show showed signs of abuse. Do you think that was intentional at all by the writers?
I think that in Star Wars: The Clone Wars:
Anakin Skywalker does exhibit controlling behavior
Controlling behavior is when a person attempts to conform another person to their own needs or desires and trying to get their way by some form of manipulation. It's the outsized desire for control, and it's unhealthy, unhelpful, and may create relationship conflicts, but it's not always abusive. Controlling behavior becomes abusive when it is coercive (threatening). The Clovis Arc of Star Wars: The Clone Wars reveals that Anakin Skywalker exhibited non-coercive, thus, as far as the definition goes, non-abusive controlling behaviors, leading to relationship conflicts with Padmé Amidala. Let's examine them.
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In Senate Spy, Anakin's fear of losing Padmé manifests itself in him trying to prevent her from fulfilling the Jedi Council's request to spy on Rush Clovis, "Because it's going to be dangerous. Whoever takes this mission will be putting their life at risk." Padmé, however, points out that she is perfectly capable of taking care of herself: "I've been in many tough situations before. It never seemed to bother you." Anakin ends up declaring: "I'm not gonna let you do it." But in the same time, it's very important to realize that Padmé immediately sets out and defends her boundaries, she repels Anakin's attempt to control her: "You're not going to let me? It's not your decision to make. It's mine."
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In The Rise of Clovis, Padmé is asked by Palpatine to "work closely with Rush Clovis" to expose the corruption plaguing the Intergalactic Banking Clan. Anakin is unhappy about this, as he is not trusting him. Padmé tells him that he must trust her judgment on the matter. It should be noted that this time, Anakin's concerns are more founded, but his answer, "Like the last time, hmm? When you almost ended up dead?" is twisting the facts: first, Padmé knew that Clovis is a traitor and that she is risking her life by trying to expose him, second, even as it's true that she was poisoned during the mission, that was the result of Lot Dod tried to force Clovis to comply with his demands. Furthermore, adds, "Or how about you just getting arrested, and it was me who had to bail you out?" Which shows that in his mind, if Padmé chooses to do something risky, it's a poor and unintelligent choice. He ends up saying: "As your husband, I demand that you tell the Chancellor you are stepping down." Once again, he attempts to control Padmé, this time clearly showing that he views their marriage as a bond that supposedly gives him some control over his wife.
NOTICE: The Clovis Arc showed that there is a recurring unhealthy pattern in the relationship between Anakin & Padmé, showing that something must change. All the conflicts between them are arising from Anakin's fear of losing Padmé, which results in him attempting to control Padmé's decisions. In the same time, this behavior is not feeding into a pattern that extends to, and therefore defines every aspects of their relationship. It should also be acknowledged that Padmé is not allowing herself to be controlled and she successfully protects her boundaries and independency. Her reaction to Anakin's controlling behavior clearly tells us that he is not behaving in a way that she is used to, warning him, "we've been over this before." In other episodes, Anakin takes no issue with Padmé participating in the battle on Mon Cala, or with she sneaking to the capital world of the Separatists, thus, it seems that his outsized desire for control flares up from time to time, but it's not defining their dynamic.
Anakin Skywalker is jealous and is distrustful
Jealousy is a negative emotion and attitude focusing on our partner and a third person, in which we resent that person for appearing to take away or being likely to take away the affections of a loved one. Basically, we are scared that we will lose our special relationship to the third person, and as a result, we become intolerant to any rivalry or of possible unfaithfulness. It's not unnatural to experience jealousy in a close relationship, however, it's crucial to be able to manage it.
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In Senate Spy, Anakin's attachment and the fear of loss flowing from it causes him to be distrustful and jealous toward Rush Clovis, as he realized that he and Padmé were involved romantically years before. Although in order to fulfill her mission to expose him as a spy, Padmé needs to seduce him, Anakin, disguised as a Naboo pilot, clearly tries to sabotage that. Later, he walks into the room in the moment when Padmé throws herself into Clovis' arms in order to distract him. He is flooded by jealousy, staring at her with anger and in pain. She signals him, revealing that she is actually hiding the data they need. When Padmé and Anakin are leaving with the evidence, Padmé tells him, "I'm sorry", since "I made you doubt me." Anakin answers he "never" doubted her, but this is not exactly true: there was a moment when his emotions clouded his judgment and let them to make him jump to the conclusion that he is losing Padmé to Clovis.
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In An Old Friend and The Rise of Clovis, Clovis is back, and so does Anakin's jealousy and insecurities, and this time, they're manifesting themselves more clearly and more disturbingly. He claims, he doesn't want Padmé to work together with Clovis because he is worrying for her safety, but there is more to that: his fear of losing Padmé feeds into anger toward Clovis, who is, in his mind, a threat, both to Padmé and to their relationship, which feeds into burning hatred toward him. When they're together in Padmé's apartment, Clovis makes advances on her, but she firmly turns him down. He is frustrated, asking, "It's that Jedi isn't it?" Padmé insists "there is nothing romantic between" her and Anakin. Clovis says, "Then there is absolutely nothing to stop us from doing this", taking her and leaning in to kiss her, and Anakin enters in the exact moment she utters, "Clovis, no!" Anakin is mortified and snarls, "Get away from her!" Startled, Clovis backs away from Padmé. Anakin grabs him with the Force, he strangles him and slams him against the wall. Drawing his sword, he is marching towards him. Padmé is in shock, crying, "Anakin! No!" She is ignored by both Anakin and Clovis: Clovis invites Anakin to fight, "like a man without your Jedi tricks", something that Anakin gladly accepts. During their fight, Clovis sarcastically asks Padmé, "I thought you said he didn't have feelings for you?" to which Anakin reacts with staring at her, shocked and hurt. The two are beating each other up in a fist fight, and when Padmé screams at them to stop, Anakin yells at her, "you don't have a say in this!"
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There are some who would insist, the scene shows Anakin gallantly saving Padmé from the man who is harassing her sexually - however, this interpretation is seriously problematic. The first thing to note is that Anakin attempts to explain his actions by saying, "I'm so sorry, Padmé. I don't know what came over me." and "It's just when I saw you about to kiss him..." Not "he was about to kiss you." Padmé tells him, "I regret that, but it was not what you thought. And you must know I don't care for Clovis." To which Anakin reacts with asking her: "Don't you?" Anakin's reaction - outrage, demanding Clovis to get away from Padmé then attacking him - was entirely the result of him perceiving the situation as Padmé kissing Clovis, and his reaction would've be the same if Padmé would've been a willing participant in the kiss with Clovis, because as he said, "you don't have a say in this." Which means, whether or not Padmé wants to be kissed by Clovis is irrelevant to him, what matters is that he doesn't want that to happen. Then, he accuses his wife with being unfaithful. This scares Padmé and it also hurts her, and she is explicitly telling him, "This marriage is not a marriage, Anakin, if there isn't any trust."
NOTICE: Anakin is not portrayed to display habitual behaviors of distrust. The core of his issues, harming his relationship with Padmé is his attachment to her and also his inability to be mindful of his emotions. Emotions are not bad at all, but when they awake as a response to our perception and understanding of a situation, they usually make us to stop thinking: we respond immediately, without any conscious thought, pushing us to act upon them and we're driven by them. To be mindful of one's emotions is to be conscious and aware of them. By bringing our emotions into the space of our conscious and passive, i.e. non-judgmental and non-reactive awareness, with calmness and inner peace, their power to kick us out of the driver's seat, to narrow our perspective and distort our perception of reality falls away: we can find the gap between the moments of our experience and the reaction, the response, where we can appraise the situation accurately, rationally. His distrust in Padmé lacks any rational basis - it's the result of him not being able to deal with his fear of loss, which drives him to act negatively.
It should be noted that Clovis' attempt to kiss Padmé has the potential to be read as sexual misconduct, thus, Padmé telling Anakin that she "regrets" what happened can also be read as her apologizing for Clovis grabbing her and then trying to kiss her, and this leads to the notion that Anakin blamed Padmé for being assaulted.
Now, it must be taken into consideration that Star Wars is not a "may I have your expressed verbal consent to kiss you?" type of romance, instead, it follows the "kiss borns out spontaneously from the situation" style, so Clovis (just like Han and Anakin in both trilogies) going for a kiss is not exactly out of place. The difference here is that Padmé clearly doesn't want to be kissed by him, but there is nuance to this. Clovis is leaning closer to her as she is telling him, "Clovis, no!" and she is drawing back to avoid him. As we cut to Anakin right after she says "no", and as she is finishing the sentence, they're both in the middle of movement - Clovis is leaning closer and Padmé is leaning backwards. Because we cut to Anakin, we don't see if Clovis was still going after the kiss after Padmé declared that she doesn't consent, or did he stop after that. When we cut back to them, Clovis is still holding her, but they don't appear to be closer to each other than before, so if he didn't move closer to her within the (roughly) 2,5 seconds during we were shown Anakin, it seems safe to conclude that he did stop. This is supported by the fact that neither Anakin or Padmé registered his behavior as assault and that Padmé makes no attempt to tell him that Clovis was actually forcing himself onto her, ignoring her protests. It's more plausible that what Padmé expresses "regret" over is that she didn't resist physically, only verbally.
In Conclusion
In Star Wars: The Clone Wars, it's very clear that Anakin and Padmé were written in a way that it showed Anakin's attachment and his struggle to keep the anger, hate and aggression coming from that fearful grasp on Padmé, under check. This is undoubtedly intentional - George Lucas initially planned to hint their issues, mainly Anakin's jealousy, in Episode III, which was cut from the final script but was clearly introduced in Clone Wars:
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However, based on my own limited knowledge, this is not enough to call their relationship abusive. An abusive relationship will involve one party using their power over the other party to prevent them from doing anything except what the abusive person wants - one party controlling the other’s thoughts, feelings, or actions. Some conflict is normal in any relationship, healthy relationships involve two people who are both free to disagree, debate, and have their own opinions. Anakin clearly tries to control Padmé, which leads to conflicts, but Padmé is not allowing him to do that. Anakin is clearly unhappy with this, but he actually backs down once he meets resistance. There is a power struggle, which is never healthy, but no power imbalance.
There were unhealthy patterns there that needed to be healed, but unhealthy patterns and patterns of abuse are not the automatically the same. If you experience unhappiness in your relationship because of the behavior of your partner, something must change and if it cannot be changed, then the relationship must end. No one has a license to make you feel unhappy.
But although an abusive relationship is always unhealthy, an unhealthy relationship is not always abusive. There is just no attempt on Anakin's part to monitor her communication, to isolate her or to try to control her financially, to coerce her and there are expressions of anger and frustration, but I can't recall one that could be called an attempt to manipulate her emotionally and obviously, there is no physical violence (in Episode III on Mustafar there is, but that's a totally different context). So, I would say that what we can see on the screen can be called "signs of abuse" only if we assume that we're outsiders observing a relationship, because we can easily suspect that the behaviors we see are feeding into a larger pattern. But a fictional couple doesn't have a life "behind closed doors", we have all relevant information about their relationship.
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anotherblas · 4 months
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What will Ada's fate be? (my opinion lol)
Ada's fate in the story is my roman empire. It has so many outcomes it's unpredictable, just like her. Let's see, she's currently with Montresor who she would likely end up being with after the whole rescuing Duke arc because she has no one else. Annabel will probably cut her one sided friendship with Ada and prioritize her trust with Prospero, who she thinks is her strongest ally. I like to think there would be a conflict there, where annabel cut ties with her and Ada doesn't take it very well (it would be so cool if in that moment Ada brings up the fact that Annabel was the one that told her about Prospero being interested in her and that she should take the lead. Annabel of course could deny this and no one would question it, but maybe it could be something that starts making Prospero doubt about Annabel, at least a little bit). Then we got morella, she'll probably join the misfits again after finding out what the others did to duke. I could see her trying to talk to ada but i think she would just push her away. Also the fact that ada was a part of putting duke in the wall could affect how she sees her.
So yeah Ada and Montresor ( i cut Will out of the ecuation because i want him to find better friends), those two are not gonna end up well. One is going to be doom of the other, and how i see things it'll probably be Montresor dooming Ada. Why? well easy, he's using her. Ada's depending on her relationship with Montresor. she needs him to like her, validate her, praise her, love her. Make her feel powerful and protected, because that's what she wants, love and power. And all it takes is just some sweet words and she'll do whatever he wants.
We don't know how far their relationship will go but one thing's for sure, she's not going to leave him out of nowhere because she has no one else to depend on. Ada doesn't know how to be on her own or maybe she does know but dislikes it. We saw in her flashback she was a maid and got murder by (most likely) the man of the house she works. Don't know if she had any family or friends, but probably she was alone. This man, a powerful sir giving her attention, feeding into a false delusion of a better life, was probably Ada's only relationship. He used her and when she started being an inconvenience he just got rid of her.
And that's what i think is going to happen again. Ada will become an inconvenience in Montresor's plan and he'll get rid of her. Now how could ada become a hassle? Ada's spectre is (to me) one of the most powerful ones. If she learns how to use her abilities to a maximum (get to know wtf the "mark of the grave" is, maybe being able to actually see the fear of the others, or use her screams to a point where she can cause harm) she could become a big threat to everyone, including montresor. But of course that wouldn't be a problem as long as he has her wrapped around his finger. There could be many outcomes from this situation: -Maybe Ada is way to possessive and jelaous of any person that montresor interacts with and that starts to annoy him, we already saw how agressive she gets when she's in her spectre. -Another possibility is that Ada realizes that Montresor is not the powerful person that she thinks he is, and that makes her not want him anymore. As i said before, ada wants love AND power. I don't think she would stay with him if he's in his flop era, she'll try to reach out to new powerful students (maybe even try to get on the good side of the misfits) but i see her doing this sectretly. She doesn't want to take the risk of leaving Montresor without having a backup that would greet her, but he'll eventually find out and when he starts losing his control over her, that's when he wants her out of the game.
Now how could he get rid of her? One option is that he could simply kill her, but i don't like it. It's boring and it leaves no room for theorizing lol. Anooooother option is something that i'm kinda hoping we get to see is (dumroll please) THE EXPULSION OF A STUDENT. Now, we don't know if this is even possible, but there's nothing i love more than to overthink situations in fictional media. What would it take for a student to get expelled is unknown, stealing something important? going somewhere forbidden? put in risk the well being of the academy or the deans? Also what would the expulsion mean, like does the student goes straight to the land of the dead OR they simply open the gate and kick them out for the monsters to do whatever they want. It would be tragic if this where to happen to ada but she's the most likely candidate. She's someone we know a lot about, something that can make the reader relate to her or feel emphaty towards her. She feels like a real morally questionable person. Someone that wants to be good one, but her selfish priorities come first. If the expulsion thingy where to actually happen it would have to be to someone that we know so it has a bigger impact and i don't really see it happening to any of the misfits nor Prospero.
Love her or hate her, Ada being expelled because of Montresor's doing would be heartbreaking. Buuuut at the same i feel like she wouldn't die DIE, idk how to explain it. Like she'll be gone for some time having us thinking that she's gone forever but then comes back somehow. She's one of the most interesting students so getting rid of such an amazing and complex character would be kinda of a waste in my opinion. I want to see her develop but not lose her sparkle that makes her, her. She's problematic, create chaos and i live for that.
So yeah, there are some of my thoughts on Ada, i kinda went off the rails at the end.
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theerurishipper · 6 months
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Okay so like. They speed ran through all options in the love square in season 5 only to end on Adrinette. There’s 3 seasons left at minimum. How are they going to make the audience invested in this bland high school romance? Are going to cycle through the options of the love square again? I genuinely have no idea how they can possibly make me root for this couple after the finale of season 5
I honestly don't have any idea. And you're so right about the bland high school romance thing. Like, it's cute and all, but Adrienette has fuck all to do with anyone's character arc and absolutely nothing to do with the overall plot. Ladynoir was the side of the square which had all this going for it, and they took it out back and shot it in the face. You can literally see how inconsequential Adrienette is for the conflict, because they had to contrive all sorts of ridiculous plot points like retconned in trauma and Gabe's sudden obsession with shipping Adrigami in order to give it any sort of story weight, and it just felt so forced to me. Adrienette has nothing.
Like yeah, they're the same person, sure. But by virtue of the writing and how their relationships with each other are portrayed, Ladynoir is the dynamic that will enable character development and story progression for both Adrien and Marinette. Marinette's greatest struggle is now that she's lost the Miraculous and is carrying a heavy burden of being the Guardian. Who is the one who can help her with this? It's Chat Noir. Not Adrien Agreste, the guy who should have no fucking clue about any of this. Adrien is stuck with an abusive father who is also a supervillain. Who can help him? It's Ladybug. Not Marinette the high schooler.
Ladynoir have been supported each other from day 1. They've been through it all, they've seen each other at their lowest and they've trusted each other with their lives. They have a secret that they can't tell anyone else in the world and have a struggle that only they can understand (until Season 4 made Alya Marinette's greatest confidant and started killing Ladynoir, but we don't talk about that).
On the flip side Adrienette... is there. Don't get me wrong, I don't dislike it. But it has no story weight the way Ladynoir does, and the biggest conflict in Adrienette is that Marinette can't talk to Adrien. There's no development here. Adrien legit has nothing going on in this dynamic, he's just there. Adrienette is one-sided in who needs development. The dynamic is one-sided for most of the show, and only Marinette really needs to undergo a change because Adrien already knows and appreciates her for who she is. And that's not a bad thing, but making that the main canon ship lets the writers flake out on writing meaningful character development. Marinette didn't have to learn squat. Adrien did all the work, and apparently, he learned to take accountability for Marinette's inability to speak to him. And tell me if I'm wrong, but I don't think that a ship that I like becoming canon and the characters confessing that they love each other a la the fanfics I ravenously consumed over the years should make me go "no you fucking don't!"
And I was a LS shipper. I wanted Adrienette to get together. But not a pre-reveal, bland and ultimately inconsequential Adrienette who have nothing to do with anything. Why did they even become canon? What purpose did it serve in the story? Nothing! They had to manufacture these ridiculous conflicts like Marinette's trauma because Adrienette had fuck all to do with anything.
And it didn't have to be like this, because Adrienette actually had one storyline with minimal story weight that could have had it be important too. The Lila plot. That was a thing. Ladybug and Chat Noir fighting Monarch while their civilian selves fight another threat together? A threat that is in cahoots with their supervillain? Adrienette could have had story weight. They could have bonded over this; they could have developed. But instead, the writers chose to give Adrien's place at Marinette's side in the fight against Lila to, wait for it, Sabrina. Yes, Sabrina. The fuck??
Adrienette has no story weight or interesting conflict. They literally had to contrive some enmity between Gabe and Marinette so that Adrienette could have any kind of relevance by making Gabe an Adrigami shipper outta nowhere. Adrien doesn't need to grow by virtue of Adrienette, yet he's somehow the one who does. Marinette does have to grow, and instead, she gets her trophy handed to her without doing any work. And they killed Ladynoir for this. Now Ladynoir are just work buddies who don't care if they never see each other again so long as they can get with their high school crush. They only talk about their new GF/BF and the "rest of the team." Done is the Ladynoir conflict, done is the yin-yang symbolism, gone is the "it's us against the world." They killed Ladynoir for some shoddily developed generic romance.
And if they had to contrive conflict in the very season that had Adrienette become canon, what hope does it have of being interesting for three more? Ladynoir is dead, if Adrien and Marinette reveal their identities, it's not going to fucking matter because they're already together and Ladynoir don't even care about each other anymore. And they're already dating, so they aren't going to look at any other boy/girl again, and I genuinely have no idea how they're going to develop the Love Square any more. You can bet your ass that they aren't going to deal with the parallels Marinette now has to her boyfriend's abuser, so Adrienette has legit no ground to stand on and nothing of value to contribute. It's just a drag at this point. Whatever.
Thank you for your ask!
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ms-cartoon · 2 months
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Episode 1 really feels like episode 2 and some things/plot seem like season 2. [Hey they probably didn't know there getting two seasons.] But if you didn't seem the pilot and you didn't know these character. Then you just get throw in and All these characters are just there.
Exactly. . . . Viv should've realized by now that not EVERY BEING ON EARTH watched the pilot before putting the show in production. Regardless, you still need to take time to develop your story and characters. It's all about taking things slow. Focus on the main thing first (all the while throwing in some hints about a reveal here and there) THEN you can focus on something else. Even if there's a second arc you want to explore (in each episode mainly) have it be your B plot. B plots are technically stories focused on your secondary characters. Plus, the letter B is second to A, meaning #2. So have the focus on your secondary characters be your #2 plot instead of your #1 plot (your main plot).
For instance, your #1 main plot; focus on Charlie trying to figure out a way to redeem her sinners and send them to heaven. Meanwhile, we can also focus on Angel in a few episodes, and explore his troubles working for Valentino, being your #2 plot. Maybe while Charlie can focus on achieving her goal, she and the rest of the characters can help Angel get out of his situation. And since Viv really wants to make this show about relationships between characters, she can try and develop some sort of bond between Angel and Charlie. I bring up Charlie cuz he was the first to accept her offer to live in the hotel, even though he doesn't believe in the idea of redeeming sinners. A friendship could blossom between the two and Angel could have more trust in Charlie. Charlie is fully aware of the troubles Angel is having now and should be more determined than anything to help him get out of his situation. And if Viv wants to give him a boyfriend, she can WAIT on that.
Another thing to work on is focusing on the main characters' conflict, what they're up against, and the story involving them first, THEN you can introduce new ones and focus on their arc (without fast-pacing it).
We already have a conflict going on with the villainous Angels and them exterminating sinners and we've introduced Adam and Lute as our first new antagonists. They can stay as our main antagonist until the season ends. We DO NOT need another conflict involving Vox figuring out a way to bring down Alastor in that same season (with only eight episodes mind you). That can wait for another season. Viv will probably forget about that shit anyway.
Don't just make things clear for newcomers, do the same for people who already watched the pilot, cuz there are at least some hints they aren't gonna grasp that they are meant to already know. Me for example: It came as a shock to me that Husk was an overlord.
... Actually, shocked isn't the right word. But it was unexpected.
Some people say that pilot watchers should've already taken the hint that Husk was in Overlord in the pilot just cuz of a picture scene that was shown:
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In the pilot, Vaggie tells Angel about Alastor, and the picture of him and all the other overlords is shown. If you look closely, Husk is standing right behind Alastor (so is Niffty), Okay . . . I can understand them hinting at the "overlord Husk" thing by showing him as a silhouette, making it hard to recognize him. Then again, this is completely brushed over in like 3 seconds with the camera moving upward with Husk is off-screen. So of course I'm not gonna immediately see him and theorize that he was an overlord. That's why it came off-guard when he revealed it. Not only that, but NIFFTY is there too!? She's right beside Alastor, shown as a silhouette along with Husk and the rest of the Overlords. So what . . . you're gonna tell me that Niffty was an overlord too, but then made a deal with Alastor at some point and ended up losing her title?? (Seriously, PLEASE don't tell me that) No way in hell u can convince me she was an overlord too just cuz she was shown here. IDK why she's shown here. There's not much character in her anyway apart from "Hehe! Me is psycho! Me like bad boys! Hehe!"
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utilitycaster · 1 year
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absolutely no pressure, but when you have time, would LOVE your thoughts on the Adventuring Academy Dropout posted today with Matt and Brennan - they talk a bit about spotlighting and when it’s important and i would love to hear your take
So, I just watched it because I was not yet in the mood for Neverafter.
I think it was overall a very good discussion, and while I don't think it always comes out perfectly in practice on their respective shows, for the most part I can't fault them on that because that's how D&D goes; a DM plan never survives contact with the players.
I think to hit the high points:
Brennan's point of "we have 6 PCs and 2 hours so everyone gets 20 minutes would be an absurd system" is extremely correct and it's one I think people would be well served by remembering
The discussion of Caduceus, Ricky Matsui, and Orym as characters who explicitly do not have an internal darkness and whose role is by design one of party support (either mechanical or RP) is also a very good one; basically, if a character doesn't have much internal conflict, that's totally cool! Just make sure the player is aware that this will put them in a particular position within the narrative and that they won't usually have a huge big spotlight but will have other crucial opportunities in the story because they don't have that inner turmoil weighing them down. (And of course Matt and Brennan's praise for Taliesin and Zac was extremely well-deserved).
The talk about the Briarwoods arc and also the art devil fight in The Unsleeping City were both excellent, namely, it's ok and even good to have a character who is particularly in focus for an arc - even a long arc - provided other characters still have plenty to do that's not just surrounding the focus character, and also it's normal to have multiple characters in focus. I've said this before about Briarwoods and Pirate arcs but truly, I can name absolutely crucial moments for every single C1 and C2 character present in those arcs.
Brennan's statement of how a good player could diffuse even the most lopsided spotlight is a very worthwhile one. Not to get corporate but some of you have never had to work around a shitty but not actually fireable offense-type manager and it shows.
The final point of table trust and the fact that both the DM and the players should, and indeed must communicate, is key. I think there is an unfortunate mindset that exists in some D&D spaces that you shouldn't have to speak up if things aren't to your liking and REAL FRIENDS NOTICE. This is wrong, and bad, and an undue burden on everyone around you, and frankly assumes that you (or the person you feel is being wronged) is in fact the main character of the universe, and explains a lot of other bad opinions in actual play spaces, but anyway. Speak up! If you feel another player is getting all the time, either because of them or because of how the DM has structured the game, speak up, and as Brennan said, also ask what you can do!
One last personal takeaway, which is that Brennan as a tiny sidebar (in discussing Ricky) mentioned that playing a character who isn't in some way in internal conflict can be difficult, and referenced Superman as an example. I think this is actually the key: to be a truly great player, who builds characters who are genuinely interesting and who can carve out a spotlight in every story, you do either need to understand your character's inner conflict such that you can generate story from that; or you need to be able to look at Superman and understand the inherent conflicts that must have existed to bring him to that point. Honestly, because of the earlier context on worldbuilding and continuity/narrative's importance in good worldbuilding, I had that in mind, and the same applies to character. If your character is tortured, why? If they're not...why? Because if you can't answer those questions there's a reason the spotlight's not on you.
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gothicakvtagawa · 3 months
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your blog says to please talk to you about Akutagawa
So... what's your top favorite things about him??
GLADLY THANK YOU FOR THE OPPORTUNITY!!!!
i think my favorite thing about him is just his personality in general—in particular, i completely adore how honest and chatty he is, and i think it would have been so easy to kind of pigeonhole him as the silent and secretive rival to a talkative and expressive atsushi, but it’s so much more interesting to me how they fill the opposite roles there. akutagawa literally never shuts up when he’s fully in charge of his own mouth and i think that’s just delightful, and the fact that he opens up to atsushi the way that he does (without any real prompting) is just so special. he’s special, he’s my special little guy!!
i’ve been thinking a lot lately about that scene in chapter 39 that bones cut in the anime, where atsushi meets with a mafia informant that turns out to be akutagawa, who provides atsushi with information about his abuser and stays with him as he reads through it, and is oddly… comforting, i suppose, when atsushi expresses a natural confusion, panic, and a number of other emotions regarding what he’s learned? i think it’s interesting to interpret akutagawa as this incredibly emotionally aware sort of person, because he was placed under the command of a man who was notoriously expressionless and cold during his time in the mafia (and outside of it, though that’s a different analysis). i think that it might be almost reasonable to believe that akutagawa under dazai, out of sheer survival instinct, learned a way of reading other people’s emotions from startlingly little, and it just so happens that it doesn’t really work on dazai but it does work on mostly everyone else (maybe someday i’ll talk about akutagawa and kyouka and what we can kind of read from there, but i’ll just say that akutagawa is a much quicker study than most characters or fans really give him credit for and that’s it for that point i promise-)
another thing that i love about him are his light novel appearances and his overall arc!! i know that the light novels aren’t strictly necessary reads, but 55 minutes and beast are my absolute favorite light novels and i think 55 minutes in particular is really special for how it provides a little extra insight into his and atsushi’s dynamic—plus we get to see them work together again, which is always a treat. but beast to me is so vital to understanding akutagawa’s character because of how we get to see him: he’s strange and off-putting and quick to violence, but he believes in protecting family, in the value of the unglamorous work like farming, and in justice for those who have suffered, even if his methods are somewhat twisted by what he’s learned to do in order to survive. i think he has this fascinating conflict within him—both in beast and in the main story—where part of him knows that he could be better than he is and wants to reach for it, and part of him is aware that there are some things that require unsavoury methods and that someone has to dirty their hands. i’m not sure he believes that he can be anyone other than the kind that dirties their hands so that others’ may go unstained. i’m not sure he believes that he ever stood a chance either way. and i’m not sure he believes that he’s ever going to live long enough to try, but i hope he does!! i hope he gets to try!!!
also, i’m sure other people have different opinions on this, but i really enjoy the fact that his chronic illness—while contributing heavily to his motivations because of how it limits the time he has left—is heavily implied from the beginning but isn’t actually mentioned until akutagawa has grown enough to trust atsushi with it? i think it’s one of those things where he’ll talk about dazai day and night and he’ll talk about challenging atsushi until his tongue loses all sensation and he’ll yap on and on about purpose and the right to live and how he’ll defeat so and so to prove his worth, but he never once brings up his illness until the moment comes where he needs atsushi to trust him. does that make any sense? it’s a moment of genuine vulnerability, and i think it’s a direct response to atsushi opening up about his hallucinations during the cannibalism arc. it seems like shin soukoku have this strange little call and response: one trusts the other with a secret, a weakness, and the other responds to that trust by extending their ability. they’re so strange and i love them so much
also he’s so pretty??? manga akutagawa is SO PRETTY i cannot believe how lovely he is. sometimes ill just screenshot certain panels and just stare at them for a good long while because i think he is so visually fascinating. eerie and ethereal and dark, like an angel of death
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boyfridged · 4 months
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Y'know I really wish Jason's team ups don't involve heroes, super or not, all the time (or ever), but instead just normal people whose experiences may mirror his/whose background creates a common ground through which he can insert himself. I just prefer him being grounded by the hellish reality that civilians are the ones suffering the most, who are stuck in this continuous and endless battle between capes and villains. I just think that Jason could have been the perfect pov character to bring focus the opinions of the common people regarding this whole fiasco.
It's part of why I wish we had more insight to Jason's thoughts in Batman: The Cult. The bit wherein multiple people were being interviewed and how a lot of them were in support of what Blackfire's cult is doing (not to say that the intentions behind it are all for righteousness or whatever cause we all know it's not), and how people in the first place were debating whether the killings were justified or not shows that the general public has so much distrust with the police and the law which to me was a perfect opportunity to show Jason's ever growing distrust of the system. He may not support Blackfire but he definitely can see & understand the sentiment of the public. And I think this should have had more impact to Jason going forward.
i really wanted to take my time to answer this ask properly because while i agree in the most general terms, i think there's some very specific nuance to it.
the civilian cast – yes! i am always in favour of a civilian life, as i am in favour of jason finding his way back into living in general, which necessities a civilian arc for him too. and it is true that jay is a perfect character to explore it, because i believe that in a way he is a victim of vigilantism. he's collateral damage turned martyr; and as the red hood he's stuck in self-affirming this status. it's all interconnected... and it all always leads back to the crime alley. except i think there's another part to it, and it's the class conflict.
here is where the cult comes in, and oh, i very much see what you're trying to do! except i would not go about it this way... simply because i have a huge issue with the cult itself, as in my opinion it's very ill-fitting into the narrative of batman at the time and as it, in total, is built on a reactionary and conspiracy theory-esque plotline... an ostensibly racist one on top of that. which makes me wonder if there is a way to fix it at all.
it could be an opportunity for some sort of development for jay, absolutely – but ironically, i think the part i liked best in it was when jason wanted to get to blackfire to save him from the raging crowd while bruce was standing back because of his personal victimisation and even stopped jay from intervening. i think i enjoyed this part because it shows how isolated from the people jason became in his robin days, and also brings to the light some hypocrisy on bruce's side. there's such dissonance there that just works perfectly into moulding jason into the confusion of the justice, revenge and the no kill rule in total...
but i digress. for jay to be taken seriously in this story he would have to be at the centre of it. perhaps it should have even been him who went undercover, since he used to be homeless himself and would know how to talk to people. perhaps he should have been the one to pay attention to it and notice it altogether. but i think the issue i have with the idea that this is what would make him distrust the system is a bit contrary to my reading of him in general. i think jay only ever trusts the system when he has bruce urging him to do it at his back and when he internalises these teachings, and even then there remains a deeply buried skepticism in him. because at the end of the day jay has a tendency to trust, but to trust people, not the authority. this is something that would be very difficult to properly portray in the cult, where the general politics (? if it can be called politics) is: people at the bottom are actually the ones in charge via secret organisations. and even when they are manipulated they are ugly and evil at their core. their violence is always random and they barely punch back, only recreating the power structures. and at the end, we get back to the status quo.
i guess the cult is too confused and bigoted in its plotline to offer much. hence there's no lesson for jay there at all. mayhaps because i don't think jay needs to learn to question the authority; on the contrary, a somewhat hidden stream of narrative that exists (or that i read into it) in his robin run is that he knows all about it but represses it because of his implicit trust in bruce and his judgement.
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lattefissssssssh · 8 months
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Okay okay okay okay
Was reading this fic called ‘Shifting Adaptation’ by Kuraiarcoiris on Ao3 and I’m always down for exile arc babyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyyy!!!
So here we go with da blobs
Oh and ig spoilers for Shifting Adaptation haha—
Dream still sus as hEECK and I definitely don’t think he’s super great so I was lowkey pretty excited for the end bit of chapter 5!!! Hopefully Tommy boy can get some good, *healthy* relationships outta this turn of events (crossin mah fingers for some lil cuddles mixed in perhapsssss, goodness knows the boy needs it).
Annnyyways! I was tryin my best to get the little blob guys to be decently unique cause why not ig lol. Hopefully they’re accurate, but I think these blobbys and pretty cute either way.
(Purposely did little squinty eyes for Tommy cause I was like ‘OOO itty BITTY blobby boy :D he do da squinty cause smol :D’ so that’s my only reasoning: it’s cute.) also thought he’d have a bit of an unhappy expression cause, like, he seems like he’s kinda conflicted a lot and I think he’s allowed to be upset bout it. I mean, bro dunno who to trust at this point :P
Anyways anyways—
I have another sketch I drew cause art stuffs is gettin me in a choke hold and I’m losing but winning at the same time (cause I gots motivation) so I might color it tomorrow cause it’s laaaaetteee for meeeeeee ;-;
Anyways, please check out da fiiiicc
(I’ll try to add the url at some point in edit, but my wi-fi is failing me currently :P)
Edit: here is is finally :D
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sketching-shark · 1 year
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Bangs head on my desk. Its sooooo fucking hard I have literally most of the LMK fandom blocked and I still can’t fucking escape that mid ass pairing I want to explode. Honest to god it sucks because I actually like analyzing LEMH and Sun wukong’s dynamic when it comes to the original story and like the idea of a character trying so hard to be this other person they just fundamentally erase any aspect of who they could be. That shit is interesting (especially if you interpret the two as actual family bc there’s a level of. Tragedy there) but NOOO mfs wanna focus on shipping clones/siblings together instead and painfully writing both characters ooc instead of just making an oc good fucking god. ( that being said I really like the art you draw of LEMH. It’s really cool. Keep up the good work 👍🏾👍🏾👍🏾)
fregarewargtfds I once saw someone describe the LEMH & SWK ship as jttw retellings's reylo and. hm. yeah.
BUT YEAH YEAH YEAH to this day one of the things I find most baffling about the western monkie kid & jttw fandom is this widespread refusal to even recognize LEMH's actions in the og classic. Because it's like: here we have what could very well be one of literature's first instances of the "evil twin" trope and it's being done SPECIFICALLY in a way to create the maximum amount of conflict and uncertainty for SWK!
Because on one hand the false monkey of the true and false monkey king arc is essentially the very embodiment of everything that SWK ever wanted; LEMH, in copying SWK so completely, does it in such a way where he gets to be both a yaoguai warlord with a loving family AND a holy pilgrim bound for glory at the exact same time, whereas SWK is constantly being forced to choose between the two! But LEMH's also doing it in the worst way possible! He beats Tang Sanzang into unconsciousness, steals their stuff for his own use, and in so doing drives a serious rift between SWK and the pilgrims!
He clearly doesn't give af about the Mt. Huaguoshan monkeys outside of how they can serve as his personal tools to fulfill his own aims! He just wants them to use their own powers of transformation so that they can serve as his own obedient group of pilgrims! He even eats one of them as part of a merry feast he throws for himself after a violent encounter with Sha Wujing, and immediately has that monkey replaced with another! And he's doing ALL of this wearing SWK's face and adapting SWK's mannerisms! EVERYONE thinks that it's SWK doing these things! It's like LEMH's very existence is throwing it in SWK's face how this horrible version of himself is closer to achieving ALL of SWK's desires than SWK ever was, and that no matter how much SWK tries to change for the better even the two sides of his beloved family automatically think even this version which would inflict such violence on them is the "true" him! No wonder SWK hated him so much!
And AUGH the possibility of LEMH either being a manifestation of SWK's worst impulses or of being his brother just ramps the tragedy and horror of this situation even more! Like if it was part of SWK inflicting all this pain on the people SWK loves most, well there is truly something messed up about this situation where even if it's not technically "you" going along with your worst impulses they will still hurt people! Could you ever trust yourself again? Should you? How much of the blame for this situation lies with you? And can it be enough to fully acknowledge you have violent impulses but don't act on them?
And yes @the-bitter-ocean even in interpretations where LEMH is some random yaoguai who decides to commit identity fraud the story from his point of view of him throwing away his identity so completely that there's basically nothing left of him is just...goddamn. In his ambition he literally reduced himself to one part of SWK's story, just one more obstacle for the Monkey King to overcome.
And SCREAM if LEMH was SWK's brother? Imagine this situation where for SWK he's confronted by what is essentially the culmination of his failures to protect his family, where his beloved brother (I'm saying beloved because SWK loved all members of his monkey family very much) ended up despising SWK so much that he has essentially destroyed everything that he was or could have been in his bid to be the "real" monkey king and bring glory back to that name, but does so in the worst way possible to the point where SWK feels he has to take down LEMH himself. And then for LEMH, you can see how love and admiration for his brother would be twisted into resentment, envy, obsession, and hatred due to the series of atrocities the Mt. Huaguoshan simians faced in large part as a consequence of SWK's challenge to the heavens and his own sense of entitlement, so that eventually he convinced himself he would be a more "true" monkey king than the monkey king himself, and thus completely discarded his own identity to take on that of his brother, and in doing so basically tossed his own morals given how his "version" of the monkey king cares for no one but himself.
Sorry for the rant! But all the pieces for a whole series of interesting tragedies are! Already! Right! There!!!!! Why are we all so hellbent on ignoring/rewriting them!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!?!
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sarcastic-sketches · 2 years
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Intervention AU
Roll out the carpet, it's another one lads and buckle up because this ones long. I've had several mini AUs that I've kind of just compiled all into one but I just really want to explore a narrative where Anakin gets a chance to sort his shit out and work towards fixing his issues. Because man do I love untangling characters inner conflict and having them get help so that they can overcome their own hurdles. An Intervention AU, if you will, before he truly flips his lid.
First, the concept that Anakin Skywalker is not entirely human - he's half Force - is fascinating. Because yeah, with the confirmation that he is the Chosen One, plus the Mortis Arc, it seems obvious that the Force made him. It borrowed a likeness from Shmi and then filled in the gaps (so he's technically a clone of his mother with some Force poked mutations here and there - I’ve read fics along those lines and they are top tier imho). But the Force is well, a cosmic power and can't really integrate into a human body all too well. The human half just wants to belong and be loved and to love. The Force half does not know how to express such messy human emotions in a way that doesn't resemble a flood.
But a flood can be managed when it's diverted into many rivers and streams, rather than being solely focused through only a few. To be clear, this is not a ‘attachments are fine actually’ take, this is a ‘get more friends so you loosen your grip on the ones you currently have’ angle. He learns to let go of the few people he loves because he has so many other people in his life to turn to. He will never be truly alone or abandoned, which is his fear ultimately, and they in turn help him realise that the only person who can convince him that he is enough is himself. Basically, dear god get it through Anakin's thick skull that the Jedi are communally raised so they spread their affections over multiple people and yes that is allowed. He’s just more used to a nuclear family model because thats all he had growing up. Him and his mother.
Love doesn't just have to be romantic and having a wider support network would also mean that Palpatine can no longer keep Anakin isolated. His grip on the Chosen One lessens as he finds other people to trust and confide in. It would also mean more eyes and ears to notice when he suddenly has a 180 in attitude after speaking with the Chancellor.
Also him being half-force I want to play with the idea that 'let your feelings pass through you’ doesn’t really work when he feels so much. All amplified by his Force connection. He can’t just let them go, so he has to work on the source of those feeling of inadequecy and ‘never having enough’ to make sure they don’t spawn in the first place.
This all started after watching TCW Clovis Arc 2.0 where Anakin’s possessiveness goes up from like a 5 to a 10 in one episode and I couldn’t help but think that it was a bit extreme from what we knew of his character up to that point in TCW and from the films. Or it's highlighting how badly Anakin is starting to lose that battle with himself. But Padme saying “I don’t know who's in there any more” had me going ‘right, time to use this as a wake up call’.
The Clovis Incident happens earlier in this AU (just after The Wrong Jedi - let me save Fives hot damn). Padme, actually seeing Anakin's rage first hand, notices how abrupt and strong the change is and makes some observations. Since the last time he entered Beserk Mode TM was also in response to someone he loved being harmed, she reasons that's the linking factor. I imagine her logic basically going; ok, so he goes afk due to anger/stress, he got angry because Clovis was too close to me, he’s stressed that he’ll lose me as I’m all he has now… He needs more people in his life! A+ logic there Padme. Because at this point? She kind of is all he has, besides Palpatine (which is the problem in of itself) - Ahsoka left, his trust in Obi-Wan is damaged (Hardeen arc), and Rex is his Captain so theres a power issue there.
Thats a lot of emotional energy for one relationship. She can also lay down the facts that the issue wasn't necessarily punching Clovis in the face (lmao he deserved that) but that Anakin didn't listen to her. THATS my main beef here honestly, Padme was far too passive by the end of that arc and I ain't about that. So she absolutely spells that out for him because she knows damn well his idea of expressing he cares is fucked from growing up in slavery and then being handed over to a bunch of monks (-Deep inhale- boi) but he needs to understand that isn’t how it’s done.
So she pushes him to actually speak with other people and maybe connect more with his fellow Jedi. Since he sees them more often anyway. They all seem very nice to her when she has spoken with them, she’s sure it’s just a misunderstanding between them all for how he feels.
This allows Anakin to really dig into what the Order considers attachment (it’s not having relationships that’s the problem, it’s possessive love - based on the concept that such ‘attachments’ prevent people from passing on into the afterlife). This misunderstanding has 100% come from his background because slaves were not allowed to have anything, except the bonds they made between themselves. Anakin views his relationships as things he owns, things he must protect and cherish before they are taken from him, because that’s all he was ever ‘allowed’ to have. He eventually gets to realise that the Order dissuades Jedi from having spouses/romantic partners because potentially having them in a position where they must carry out their duty over the safety of their spouse/partner is just cruel. They understand that facing such a dilemma would break a person and it is simply kinder to just avoid the possibility altogether. ‘It’s a peaceful life’.
Cue Anakin arguing that he would feel just the same having to let a platonic relationship go too which sparks off another 2 hour debate...
Anakin gradually reaching out to other Jedi more and more, starting off with who he thinks would be the easier ones, like Plo Koon, Kit Fisto, Aayla, even Yoda oddly enough (Troll asks him to break him out of the med bay later in TCW and Anakin was instantly on board with such a thing. That’s hysterical). I think he’d eventually try with Luminara too, given the whole debacle of the Wrong Jedi involved their padawans, but that takes a bit of time. And, wouldn’t ya know, he realises that they don’t resent him, they’re not even remotely afraid of him or trying to suppress his abilities, and they’re perfectly happy to talk to him even when off the battlefield etc (Palpatines words are already starting to hold less water now that Anakins starting to get his own proof - I could go on about my ADHD headcanons but that’s a given I feel at this point). He starts to trust them. Not just trust that’s given to Jedi as default, to an ideal, but personal trust.
They start to swap battle tactics, ask each other for advice on certain scenarios or get second opinions. Then they start swapping stories about their troops and these idiots have been waiting for the opportunity to gush about how their Legions are the best. The ship nose art is a particular point of pride (That Plo wins btw). Pride is unbecoming of a Jedi but they’re proud OF their troops so it doesn’t count.
Given how much more often they all now talk to each other, they are able to slowly open Anakin's eyes to the fact that Palpatine is suspect af. 
Aayla: he asked to meet you, alone, when you were how old? Anakin: about eleven, or twelve maybe? After I had settled into the Temple for a couple of years. Plo: and he took you where? Anakin: to the lower levels, he showed me a bar- Kit: [holding a hand up] I'm going to stop you there Aayla: [patting Anakin's shoulder] My guy, that's not normal. Plo: Nor is it appropriate Anakin: oh... I'm sure he didn't mean anything bad by it? He just wanted to show the good he can do when his hands are tied by the Senate Plo: The Senate he governs... Aayla: You were twelve.
They tell him to tell Obi-Wan.
It's a bit more of an up hill battle because Anakin's trust in Obi-Wan is still a little frazzled (never let it be said he's not a hypocrite about keeping certain truths) but he grudingly relays some of the conversations he's had with the Chancellor to him because of the comments the others have made. To his surprise, Obi-Wan looks distraught when he realises what Palpatine has been insinuating and he vows to never let him be alone with that man ever again. Obi-Wan always strived to allow Anakin to make his own choices once he became a knight, but this stems from decisions when he was a minor. Anakin thinks everyone is being very dramatic about this - pot meet kettle - and doesn't know what the harm is. This just makes people worry more - they are suddenly all keenly aware of what the Chancellor has been trying to do, even if Anakin hasn’t clocked it himself yet. But he is secretly (or not so secretly when you broadcast your emotions in the Force like a fog horn) pleased by Obi-Wans reaction. See? He does care. He’s just a little reserved about showing it because surprise, he’s also a little insecure Anakin, go fucking figure.  
He does also allow himself to bond more with his troops and they all have a meeting where he lays down some ground rules:. 
All of this just so he can relax with his men and actually be their friend when they're not suffering on the frontlines together. The clones are surprised but ecstatic about this development and waste no time at all bragging about how they have the best Jedi in the GAR. Wolffe, Monnk, and Bly have some things to say about this. Cody wisely keeps his mouth shut.
1) Off of the battlefield they are all equal, no ranks apply (besides medics, thank you Kix) and if anyone is uncomfy with that they can leave (nobody does) 2) He leads them all with the best of intentions but following Umbara he doesn't want any of them to feel like they can't call him out for being a twat (Rex does it just fine and he's still his SIC) 3) If anyone has any concerns or questions he wants them to feel safe enough to speak up about it, either tell him or Rex if it’s a vode issue specifically.
Given this turn of events when comes the time for Fives to seek out Rex and his General they hear him out and Anakin stops the blaster bolt Fox fires from hitting Fives. He’s stunned that one of his men would try to attack the Chancellor but he knows there has to be a reason, he wants to know why damnit. Also heeey has Fives been drugged?
They all get the low down on the chips and Anakin is now fuming. Bit too close to slave-chips. He's pleasantly surprised to find that Shaak Ti is also upset by what she has learned and with his prompting (and Fives looking utterly traumatised) shoves back at the Kaminoans hard. 
They find the list of Orders. It's not pretty. 
Anakin has his breakdown way earlier than Sheev intended and far out of his reach. Instead he is comforted by Shaak Ti (who quite frankly was probably counting the days until Skywalker crumpled) and a bunch of Clones who are similarly suffering from this discovery. Watching a Jedi break probably has most of them reshuffling a few pre-conceptions they had.
Anakin doesn't get sent to spy on the Chancellor and when he tries to buy Anakin's favour back by giving him a seat on the Council, Anakin refuses it and immediately dobs him in with the Jedi Masters. This time, they cotton on to Palpatine's intentions with Anakin and have him accompany Ahsoka on Mandalore. Far, far away. He doesn’t fight the decision, in fact he is rather relieved to be out of the man's reach. Plus, he now gets to fight alongside Ahsoka again so win-win.
Speaking of Ahsoka, even though she left the Order, Padme argues that this doesn't mean that she and Anakin can't still talk to each other. So he calls her and reminds her that he's there for her. Doesn't try to make her come back - though he makes it clear he would be very happy to take her back if she did choose to - and even though she said she wanted to go at it alone, she shouldn't forget that she does still have people she can turn to if things get lonely or hard. He had to be reminded of this so now he’s reminding her.
Just let this man truly understand the risks of what loving people as a Jedi means, learn how to do so in a way thats healthy for everyone involved, and allow himself to be extremely over the top about it much to everyone's surprise.
Ahsoka: I'll think about it Anakin: Sure thing. Anything. Anytime. Ahsoka: ... it is nice to hear from you though Anakin: !!
Ft. Padme being incredibly pleased with herself in the background.
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waheelawhisperer · 1 year
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I'm a boring basic bitch, so who would you ship with Jaune?
Full disclosure, I think Jaune is bi (or at least bicurious) and hasn't quite figured it out yet. With that in mind...
Arkos is my number one Jaune ship, no contest. It's a classic, and never mind that Pyrrha was done dirty.
I also really like Guard Dogs, Jaune and Marrow's dynamic throughout the Atlas arc was cute and funny and I enjoyed their interactions. The only problem is that they're both subs, so determining whose penis opens up to accept the other one's penis can be difficult at times.
I'm actually quite partial to Dragonslayer as of Volume 8, I wasn't really a fan of this ship beyond aesthetic appreciation at first but their scenes in Volume 8 really convinced me that these two have a genuine bond. Yang's been remarkably supportive of Jaune ever since, like, Volume 2, and I think their personalities are pretty compatible. Can't say their chemistry in canon is explicitly romantic, given Yang's focus on Blake, but they obviously care for each other and I think a writer could build on that in a very believable way. Also, I'm a huge proponent of bi Yang, let her have a hot boyfriend and a hot girlfriend.
I know some people don't like the actual ship name, mostly because it carries connotations of Jaune taming/owning/conquering Yang, and there are definitely people who really buy into that and portray the relationship (and Jaune's relationship with other girls, for that matter) in really gross ways, but I actually think it's funny in an ironic way because anyone with a functioning brain cell who's spent five seconds thinking about their established characterization knows that Yang would run Jaune over like a locomotive. If anyone's getting conquered, it's our resident himbo.
Also, if you capitalize the wrong (right) letter, the ship name turns into a sex joke, which is important to me because I have the mental and emotional maturity of a middle schooler.
White Knight was arguably my least favorite Jaune ship early on, and Beacon-era White Knight just does not do it for me, but I'm actually coming around on Atlas-era White Knight. Part of it is a "pair the spares" thing that comes from the emphasis on Bumbleby and the way it parallels Renora in the Atlas Volumes, as well as the hints of Nuts and Dolts we get in that same Kingdom, but also I feel like Weiss and especially Jaune are a lot more emotionally mature now. Jaune had a lot of stuff to work through, what with the whole toxic masculinity and not really knowing how to talk to girls thing, but he's come around and they feel like people who actually trust and like each other now as opposed to people who happen to be in the same friend group.
Martial Arcs (I think this is the name for Jaune x Ren?) is also very nice, even if I don't particularly like splitting up Ren and Nora. They're clearly very close, we get some nice angst and conflict in Volume 8, and they have a deep heart-to-heart discussion while Ren is naked and wrapped in a towel, thus making it impossible for me to view any of their interactions as anything other than homoerotic. Adding Nora into the mix is also a nice option, she deserves two boyfriends who will love her and each other.
Jaune x Neptune is inherently funny to me because I think having the two characters voiced by the main writers kiss would be funny and would probably make a lot of people mad for a lot of different reasons.
Not a big Lancaster fan, Jaune and Ruby have always just felt like friends to me. I like their relationship in a platonic sense but they just do not seem to have chemistry to me.
Knightshade is another one I'm not particularly partial to, given that Jaune and Blake have so little interaction in canon, to the point where seeing Blake hug Jaune when they reunited in Volume 6 genuinely shocked me because they've never seemed like anything other than people who happen to run in the same circles. I can't even test whether they have chemistry of any kind together because that hug was genuinely the first time I could remember them directly interacting, and by that point CRWBY is clearly gearing up to make Bumbleby canon. Like, they seem compatible, based on their personalities, but who the hell even knows because the writers seem to have an aversion to letting Blake just interact with her friends unless they're part of her specific plotline or her love interest of the day. No, I'm not still upset that it took us 8 Volumes for her to get a meaningful conversation with Ruby, I have no idea what you're talking about.
Still think the Gigachad Jaune shit does a disservice to his character.
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tonedeafkunst · 5 months
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assorted helluva boss sentiments
I knew it from the moment asmodeus appeared on screen. I felt it in my soul, I could see the heart eyes. I wonder how it ever felt to be a doubter because I was never one
2. While I do enjoy Fizzarozzie as much as the next guy I do hope the series continues to be about IMP instead of shifting focus every season? or at least concluding some type of arc for Millie and Moxxie? It feels weird that we haven't seen them in the last two episodes.
3. Speaking of weird things that don't fit. Musical numbers. 4 in one episode is way too much if they're going to be full-length musical numbers. Fizz's song should've been cut after the first verse -like the distraction one- and it should have been way less pop. Get fucking weird with the songs please I dare you. ALSO TOM CARDY. MORE TOM CARDY ALWAYS PLEASE THANK YOU
4. speaking of things that stop tempo to a halt and are way too based on the internet's love for the trope rather than the actual quality: Stolitz. not the ship in itself but the conflict it's going to endure in the next episodes. Please. for the love of god. "Oops" was without a doubt one of the best episodes in the series by virtue of the fact the characters TALK AND COMMUNICATE TO ONE ANOTHER. and as Oops shows, this doesn't mean having less conflict or interesting stuff happen! You can have Stolitz without getting this played-out fanfic Will-they-Won't-they bullshit and still make it interesting! I'd usually trust the writers cause Helluva Boss is one of the best-written series I've ever seen, flat out, but Stolas' backstory episode makes me weary. PLEASE have them communicate, Blitzo's problems aren't going to be carried away by it all because he's the protagonist and the story centers around HIM, having Stolitz be an arc of personal growth rather than the end point of said arc will make it MORE engaging
5. silly things interruptions. The Major Sin Design Debacle was obviously bad faith bullshit, and I enjoy every one of the Deadly Sins' designs, but I especially enjoy their theming. Lust isn't tied to any particular negative environment because this show, rightfully, doesn't want to depict lust as a sinful thing in the first place lmfao. Beelzebub as a party queen completely incapable of holding back is good, Sloth being depicted as hospital land is fun and I hope they expand the joke further, Wrath being a fiery and desolate land is appropriate. Greed is fun as a design and I find it very apt that a group of animators would depict the sin of avarice as being into entertainment and the merchandising of said entertainment and the people behind it. I do wonder why he's an insect? maybe there's some catholic lore behind it I don't remember but considering they (rightfully) are only kind of inspired by it as Beelzebub shows I would have preferred to see Mammon as a bit more parasite-like. Also, did I miss something. WHy is he Australian. he should definitely be British. though if you apply that logic I guess everyone should be British in hell
6. and last but not least... why oh why, if your show wants to focus on inter-character relationships (and it clearly does and it's the correct choice in every kind of storytelling) would you ever bring in class warfare and make the anticapitalist the asshole. Striker might want to kill our fave bird bottom but he's right. "ooooh but he works for Stella he's part of the system" hey the fact S2 stripped her of all her nuance doesn't excuse making Striker's cause into a joke as well. I just pray the writers KNOW what they're doing (and if Stolas' Harvest Moon Festival characterization is still canon, then they should be aware of what they're writing) and... I don't know if I'd prefer they ignore the entire theme by closing it off with a joke or at least give a satisfying ending of """compromise"""" to the entire system in hell. Considering how every romantic relationship between an imp and an overlord has been shown to either be incredibly positive or at least healing, and how the only negative relationships we're shown are -by nature of the show- character-focused and don't really touch on the systematic oppression of imps, I don't trust SpindleHorse will ever actually give space to the Imp Socialist Revoluton, which is a damn shame.
I'm going to go ahead and make the mistake of tagging this because I'd really like to find other fans to discuss with but please. for the love of god. If you read this until the end and aren't able to recognise this criticism is born out of LOVE for this show and a desire for it to become even better than it is. do us both a favour and ignore me.
Mediocre bad shows don't elicit this type of reflection and engagement and if they do for you I urge you to stop letting media make you more miserable
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