#DNAVerse Discussions

[dna-d2]

MY THOUGHTS ON RANKING OF KINGS

Alright so I gotta get this outta my system before my train of thought goes off a cliff, so here’s my thoughts on RANKING OF KINGS.

I just watched the first five episodes, and I’m not gonna say I was surprised, because I already expected this anime to be great, but the thing is that it’s AMAZING so far.

[Spoilers for Ranking of Kings ahead. If you haven’t watched it, DO IT because I PROMISE you won’t regret it. There’s only 5 episodes so far, it won’t take that long. DO IT]

Also goddamn this is about to be a long post, so buckle the fuckle in I guess.

TL;DR Ranking of Kings is GREAT and the characters are a major reason why

So to sum it up, Ranking of Kings is about a young prince named Boji, who is both deaf and mute. Because of this, as well as his small stature and physical weakness, people around him are constantly looking down on him and ridiculing him.

Or, you would THINK that, at least

Yes, there are a lot of people around him who belittle him on a daily basis, but it turns out that not everyone around him actually looks down on him.

Underestimate him? Absolutely. But it ends up not being as black and white as you would think, and THIS is what I think makes this anime great so far.

Almost right off the bat, we’re introduced to a bunch of characters who say things like “Oh he’s weak, he’s not fit to be king, etc.” One of whom is the Queen, his stepmother Hiling.

You immediately see this woman and think, “Oh, evil stepmother, here we go again.” And for a minute there, it seems like this is going to be the case, as she berates Boji and says that her own son is more fit to be king, and even altering her husband’s will after he names Boji king after his death. So it would make absolute sense to assume she’s gonna be a villain, right?

WRONG.

At one point, Boji got hurt pretty badly, and we a woman go to heal him, but we can’t actually tell who she is. And Kage (The little shadow thing) says something like “Oh man is she gonna hurt him?” But instead she heals him.

The literal thought in my head when I saw this was was “Wait is it the Queen? Nah, probably not, I don’t see why she would do that.” Only to later on be revealed that it was her and proven very wrong.

We find out relatively quickly that the Queen genuinely seems to love Boji, to the point where she ACTUALLY tried to dive out a window in an attempt to save him. We learn that her mindset isn’t that she doesn’t like Boji, but she doesn’t think he’s able to be King. She’s worried that the pressure would be too much for this small, weak boy who can’t even hear or talk. She isn’t looking down on him, at least not out of malice. She has genuine concern for him because she doesn’t see how he would be able to do anything challenging because of his weaknesses. But she still absolutely loves him.

And THIS is the best example of what I think is gonna be the real strength of this series.

GENUINE THREE-DIMENSIONAL CHARACTERS.

So far, we haven’t gotten ONE SINGLE major character who is all this or all that, all good or all bad. We have characters who are legitimately doing what they think is right.

A Queen who is worried about her disabled son.

A knight who will follow any order, even if he regrets it immediately.

A new King, who wants the same power as his father, but not at the expense of his memory.

His knight and teacher, who knows his duties and will carry them out, even if it means going behind his king’s back, or if it results in his own (apparent) death. 

None of these characters are just a good or bad guy. They are people. And this is what carries a story like this to greatness.

And this is all of course ignoring the main character of the show and his new shadow best friend, Prince Boji and Kage.

Boji is one of the best and well executed hopeful protagonists I’ve ever seen. I’ve always been a sucker for this type of protag, and he is a prime example of how to do it right. You immediately wanna see him succeed, just like Kage does. He’s the type of person who really can win people over to his side just by being who he is. (And it also helps that he happens to be absolutely fucking adorable) He has a real disability, and he has people around him constantly thinking he can’t be good enough because of it. And it hurts him. It really, really hurts him.

But he keeps on a brave face around them, and only really lets himself cry when he’s alone. Whether it’s because he doesn’t want to worry people, or because he has his own pride, I’m not actually sure at the moment. I could easily see it being one or the other, or even both.

And then KAGE, Boji’s best friend (because I said so) and number one backer. This little guy started out bullying Boji and straight-up stealing his clothes for cash. He almost immediately changes his tune when he sees that Boji is REALLY TRYING HIS FUCKING BEST, and immediately tells Boji that he’s always gonna be on his side, and that he is GREAT as he is right now. He’s the first person who ever really acknowledges Boji like this. And it’s of course as heartbreaking as it sounds. (Were I not dead inside, I surely would have cried)

To sum it up (since I have essentially rambled for an entire page at this point) Ranking of Kings is amazing, and the characters are only one part of it that makes it so amazing.

Believe me, I’m doing you a favor by not starting on about the animation. (THOUGH THE ANIMATION IS INCREDIBLE AND BEAUTIFUL AND I LOVE IT SO MUCH IT’S SO EXPRESSIVE AND SMOOTH AND PRETTY)

So yeah, you should watch Ranking of Kings

Also I’ll probably have more thoughts on this later, and if I do, I’ll put links to them below or something, because I am NOT done with this series and what I have to say about it yet.

#Seriously you should be so glad I didn't bring up the animation here #I'm an animation student #I would have gone on for WEEKS on that #And I didn't even get into how this reminds me so much of ONE and Mob Psycho 100 #Yeah I'll be revisiting this later I guarantee it #DNA-D2 #Ranking of Kings #Ranking of Kings Spoilers #Ousama Ranking #Ousama Ranking Spoilers #Anime #Manga #Ranking of Kings Anime #Ousame Ranking Anime #Long Post #DNAVerse Discussions

[dna-d2]

Leverage Redemption, and How it Handled Character Replacement

(Long Post Alert, so I’ll put a TL;DR down at the bottom)

(Also Spoilers for Leverage Redemption if you haven’t seen it)

So I recently got around to watching Leverage after way too long, immediately followed by Leverage Redemption. To start off with, if you love found family and eating the rich, watch this show. If you don’t like that stuff, also watch it, because I promise that by the end of it, you will. It has quickly become one of my favorite shows and I find myself smiling consistently throughout watching it. (Especially when Eliot is on screen because goddammit, I always end up picking the tough guy as one of my favorites. Though it’s much better when Hardison is on screen too because I fucking love their dynamic)

Anyway

Before I get too far into this, let me give you a pretty quick rundown on Leverage as a whole, to help contextualize all this. Also so I can finally talk about why I love this show in general, because no one else I know watches this and I need to talk about it.

So Leverage is basically a show where a group of ex-cons (convicts, con-men, you decide) teaming up with the guy who used to help catch them to pull off a heist for what they think are the right reasons at the time. (Spoiler alert, they got tricked, and then had to pull another heist to fix what they messed up) After that, they basically decided to remain teamed up to basically pull heists and con various types of rich douchebags who were gaming the system at the expense of the people. This is basically the whole show.

The Crew is comprised of five people. Sophie Devereaux (if that is her real name), the Grifter. She’s basically a master at pulling cons and tricking people. She’s basically the actress of the group, who pulls a lot of weight in getting the mark ready for their tricks and whatnot.

Eliot Spencer, the Hitter. And also my favorite character. He is literally what he’s advertised as. He hits things. REALLY well. In all seriousness, I can only think of one or two times in the entire series that he actually lost a fight, and he usually managed to get them back pretty quickly. He’s basically the violent older brother of the group, and as per sibling rules, he must always torment his younger siblings. Especially the middle child. That’s important. But also HE’S the only one allowed to torment them, because the second anyone else tries to mess with them, he (sometimes literally) jumps in out of nowhere to beat the everloving shit out of them. It’s great.

Alec Hardison, the Hacker. He’s also what he’s advertised as. A master hacker, as well as a Jack of All Trades in most technological and non-technological type stuff. You never know what knowledge he’s gonna pull out of his bag of tricks, but you can bet your ass he’s gonna use it to pick a fight with Eliot. As stated previously, he’s basically the middle child, though I get I a little iffy on the expression right around here as it regards Parker. Since they start dating about mid-way through the series. But not in terms of his relationship with Eliot. Honestly, I see their dynamic as one of the big selling points of this show, and I fucking love seeing them interact with each other. One minute Eliot is literally threatening to kill Hardison over a sandwich, the next he’s punching the shit out of someone because they threw Hardison over the side of a building and NO ONE throws Hardison over the side of a building, godammit. Except maybe him. (His words, not mine)

And then Parker, first/last name unknown, the Thief. She is an expert thief who, fun fact, canonically has high-functioning autism. (Technically the producer or whoever said that she had Asbergers, but that was back when the first season was running, and during a time when the autism spectrum probably wasn’t really a thing, or at the very least not well-researched) She’s crazy. At least that’s how people keep describing her, but personally, I just think she’s neat. She’s actually my second favorite character. VERY close second. It fluctuates depending on the episode, honestly. (Btw I wasn’t joking when I said first/last name unknown. We know one of her names is maybe Parker. Is it her first name? Is it her last name? Is it even her name??? Literally no one knows, not even the CIA. It’s great. I love it)

And then of course there’s Nathan “Nate” Ford, the Mastermind, He was once an Insurance investigator who chased these four down multiple times and probably got them all caught at least once (though clearly not for very long). He’s the guy you see in memes with the galaxy brain playing 4D chess backwards. He’s smart, he’s an alcoholic, and his son died. A perfect recipe for a hot mess to play team dad with a newly formed found family.

These five spend five seasons ripping off mostly rich white dudes and eating the rich. (not literally. If that’s what you’re looking for, watch Hannibal. I’ve never watched it, but something tells me that’s a little closer to the whole eating people thing) They quickly became a family, pretty much, and had lots of fun doing it. Each of these characters were a huge part of why Leverage was as good as it was. However, before the revival series began, there had to be some changes.

Between Leverage and Leverage Redemption, there were some issues with Nate’s actor, Timothy Hutton, and due to those issues, the show runners elected not to bring him back for the Revival series. And I’m not gonna go into that because it’s not really the main point of this analysis.

However because of this, that left a huge, and very important, gap in the main cast. The Mastermind, the LITERAL reason these guys were brought together has now been killed off due to casting issues. So what is a team of writers to do in this scenario?

Surely they’re just going to bring in some guy who has the exact same skill-set as Nate, who is also ultra-mega-smart, who we just HAPPENED to have never seen during the five seasons of the show, right?? That would make total sense, wouldn’t it??

So the writers did exactly NOT that.

Instead, they got Noah Wyle, of the Librarians (another series that a lot of the producers and writers actually worked on) and cast him as a good bad lawyer named Harry Wilson. The kind of lawyer who’s GREAT at his job, however he was not helping the right people. Eventually he realized that he was in fact NOT the good guy, and decided that he was gonna screw over one of this douchebag clients by stealing a painting of his from a museum, on the EXACT same day that Sophie, Eliot, Hardison, and Parker happened to have decided to steal a painting from a museum to cheer themselves up on the anniversary of Nate’s death.

So they of course figure him out immediately, observe how he does this, and watches as he immediately trips an alarm and almost gets caught. After this, they decide to help their brand new Mr. Wilson screw this guy over, and after that, he joins the team.

Now, what does this add to the team, you may ask? The new Mastermind, right???

WRONG

Mr. Wilson is a good lawyer, but he is by NO MEANS a criminal like the rest of them. He’s inexperienced, a little naïve, overall just not a con-man like the rest of them. He does however bring a lot of legal information and fancy lawyer-y loopholes to the game, which proves to be pretty useful throughout the season.

But I know what you’re thinking. If Mr. Wilson didn’t replace Nate as the Mastermind, then who did??

Well, no one, really. Instead, the rest of the team stepped up and each started pitching in their ideas for the overall plan, with Sophie mostly taking the lead. And this is kind of the genius of how they handled replacing Nate. Instead of just bringing in some rando smart dude that we just never heard of or something, they bring in a new guy who covers a new skill-set that they didn’t have before. While he is the new Fifth guy, he is not JUST the new Fifth guy.

He’s the new guy. He’s filling in the place Nate left on the team, but he is by no means a replacement for him. He’s not the Mastermind, he’s the…Well, Sophie keeps calling him “Our Mr. Wilson” so I think that’s just his title. You’d think he’d be the Lawyer, but nah. So he’s not the Mastermind, and he’s not the New Nate Ford. And he never will be. Nope.

He’s the Mr. Wilson.

And btw I know I didn’t really address Breanna and how she actually more closely fills in the archetypical “Replace Character A with Character B who has the same skills” but that’s because one: This was mostly about how they handled Mr. Wilson. Two: I think her integration with the cast is almost flawless. I say almost because I miss Hardison. And Three: She also wasn’t a carbon copy of Hardison. She was less experienced in certain fields, but more experienced in others, and is also a Gen-Z kid who’s more than willing to fight the power. 

(I’m serious about Hardison though. Please put him in more episodes next season I miss him. Have them both, I would LOVE to have them both. That’s a new dynamic that I think would be great. They’re sitting in Leverage, tag-teaming the bad guys’ security systems, it would be awesome)

TL;DR: They had to kill off a major character but instead of replacing him with some random-ass carbon copy that we just somehow never heard of in five seasons, they brought in an actual new guy who covers a new set of skills, but also is very inexperienced regarding the field they work in, and instead all the veterans of the group help fill in the role that the dead character left.

Also if you wanna watch it but don’t care where to start, I have two personal picks for ”Episodes I show Someone to Introduce them to the Show”

First is Season 3, Episode 11, “The Rashomon Job”

Second is Season 4, Episode 12, “The Office Job”

They’re both very good, and are basically my favorites

(Edit: I was gonna put more recommendations in the tags but I guess today is the day I learn there's a 30 tag limit. Who knew? NOT ME)

#DNAVerse Discussions #Nate Ford #He's depressed #He's an alcoholic #He has a dead son #He has radiation poisoning #And he's NEW IN TOWN #This show is so good guys #I can't say I'm an OT3 shipper but goddamn I still love the dynamic they have #Seriously when they dig up Hardison in that one episode #When they dig up Hardison #And Eliot literally dives across the grave to hug him #And tells him to Never do that again #It's so fucking sweet #I don't want to see them as romantic #Just because sometimes you need a guy who's your brother #And I fucking love that #No disrespect to anyone who ships them #Everyone is entitled to their own fanon #And I do see exactly why people would want to ship them #I even see why people ship all three of them #But sometimes people need platonic companionship #Even if that platonic companionship is more sibling-like than anything #Leverage #Leverage Redemption #Nathan Ford #Sophie Devereaux #Eliot Spencer #Alec Hardison #Parker

[dna-d2]

DELTARUNE CHAPTER 2 SPOILERS

So I just watched the Snowgrave Route for Deltarune Chapter 2, and I gotta say, this is really sitting with me. I have to get these thoughts out.

This is different from Undertale’s Genocide Route. The Genocide Route, for me, was an interesting challenge, and a way to see things differently from before, but ultimately, that’s all it ever felt like to me. An alternate way to play the game that’s a bit darker and has more of a challenge.

But with Deltarune, that’s not what this feels like. After watching (SIMPLY WATCHING) the Snowgrave Route, I’m unsettled. Even after it ended, this is sticking with me. This was so much worse in my opinion. 

In Undertale, you’re controlling Frisk, who is basically a non-entity. A character specifically for you to control in order to play the game. And that’s just the same for Kris. They’re both just player characters you control. Frisk never gets to make a choice for themself in the game. Kris does to a certain extent, but we never really see it. So making these two do these horrible things never felt as bad. (Not to say I didn’t feel bad, but with them, it felt like an actual game)

But here, that’s not what we’ve got. We’ve got Noelle, a real character with agency throughout the game, who speaks her own words, makes her own choices, and undergoes her own character arc. And that essentially gets stripped away from her, as she’s forced to do horrible things. Killing people, including her own best friend. She’s being directly controlled by the player, even though it doesn’t seem like that was ever meant to happen.

Like I said before, with Frisk and Kris, it never felt the same, because these are player characters who are designed for us to control. But then there’s Noelle, a character, a person, who experiences that firsthand. The Genocide Route never affected me outside of “Man, I feel kinda bad, I should do a Pacifist Route to fix it now.” It never really went past that for me with just the game alone.

But this? Forcing what feels like a person to do these horrible things? Stealing away her will and making her kill her friend? Seeing the way she’s so affected by it afterward, and her reactions to it all?

I didn’t even play the route, but that shit is haunting me.

I played and beat Genocide because I was curious to see what would happen, and because I wanted the challenge. But I don’t think I can touch Snowgrave with a 10-foot pole

#I just really needed to get this out because goddamn #This is the first time I'm seeing an alternate route for a game I love #And actively choosing NOT to do it #Holy crap this ended up being longer than I thought it would #Hoo boy #Deltarune #Deltarune Chapter 2 #Deltarune Spoilers #Deltarune Chapter 2 Spoilers #Snowgrave #Snowgrave Spoilers #Pipis #Pipis Spoilers #Noelle #Kris #Frisk #Undertale #Long Post #DNAVerse Discussions

[dna-d2]

So Regarding Sentimonster(?) Adrien...

(Obviously Spoiler Alert for Miraculous Ladybug Season 4)

Okay, so we all basically know that Adrien is most likely a Sentimonster, which means a couple things, but also makes a couple questions. Honestly, I feel like we’re all about to have a huge surprise regardless of what head-canon we’re subscribing to because some things aren’t 100% adding up.

For one, Adrien remembers that Emelie was sick. How is that possible? Does that just indicate Emelie got sick because she had to keep up a Sentimonster for such a long time with a damaged Miraculous? Or is someone ELSE the Sentimonster? (If that’s the case, I’m thinking it’s Gabriel or Nathalie. Gabriel is WAY too devoted to getting Emelie back at literally any cost, plus the whole eye color thing in Wishmaker. And Nathalie is also way too devoted to helping Gabriel (Though that could just be that she loves him. Who knows?))

But the biggest takeaway is, if Adrien, or ANYONE is a Sentimonster, then there’s another solution to all of this.

If they break the Amok for whoever/whatever Emelie made with the damaged Miraculous, they could possibly bring her back. It’s been shown that the Miraculous Ladybug thing can bring people back from the dead if their death was caused by an Akuma or Sentimonster. So it’s possible that if it was just ONE Sentimonster that caused Emelie to die/coma, then fixing that Amok will bring her back. At the cost of whoever was created with that Amok.

(That’s actually one reason I was thinking maybe it’s Gabriel. This is his last battle, after all. Maybe he realizes this and gives up the Amok. (However, most clues definitely indicate Adrien is the Sentimonster. The Gabriel/Nathalie thing is mostly just a hypothesis))

So to close this out, no matter what, we are in for a FUCK-TON of emotions, and possible character deaths when Strike Back comes out. Have fun with that

#So yeah Risk was crazy right?? #RIGHT #Felix is turning out to be one of my favorite characters #Dude is GREAT #He'd better steal that ring from Nathalie though #Put that pickpocketing skill to use again #So Strike Back When??? #DNAVerse Discussions #MLSeason 4 #MLSeason 4 Spoilers #Risk #Risk Spoilers #Wishmaker #Wishmaker Spoilers #Ephemeral #Ephemeral Spoilers #Miraculous Ladybug #Miraculous Ladybug Spoilers #Miraculous Ladybug Season 4 #Miraculous Ladybug Season 4 Spoilers #Adrien #Adrien Agreste #Gabriel #Gabriel Agreste

[dna-d2]

The Hardest Thing...

Man I really wish I’d gotten into this show earlier, because having just one season’s worth of time spent with it was not enough.

Amphibia is over, and I’ve gotta say, out of all the cartoons I’ve thankfully gotten to see the end of, I’d say this ending tops the list.

Gravity Fall’s and Ducktales’s endings both felt a little rushed in certain aspects, so I was really worried that Amphibia would follow that trend, but thankfully it really stuck the landing, and actually almost made me cry (which, if you knew me, you’d know that alone is a big deal)

It did go pretty quick at the beginning, but something tells me that if you watch “All In” and “The Hardest Thing” back-to-back, it would probably flow much better. And that means that we did thankfully get enough time to see the ending. The goodbyes, and the epilogue, which I would say are some of the most important aspects of an ending.

We got to see these characters grow and develop, and now we’ve gotten to say goodbye.

I’m really going to miss Amphibia, and I hope we can get more shows like it.

Saying bye to this show really is The Hardest Thing

#It hurts that we can't have many good shows like this without creators having to fight tooth and nail #And still losing sometimes #So it's nice to see that at least one show got to do what it wanted to #At least for the most part #I'm still so bitter about The Owl House #And that bitterness is only getting worse #Knowing that it could have potentially ended as well as Amphibia #But we'll probably never get the chance to see it #It honestly hurts #ALSO A BIRD AND A SNAIL PROCREATED I THINK WE NEED TO DISCUSS THIS #LIKE #WHAT???? #EXCUSE ME????? #?????????????? #DNAVerse Discussions #Amphibia #Amphibia Season 3 #Amphibia Series Finale #Amphibia Spoilers #Amphibia Finale #Amphibia Series Finale Spoilers #Amphibia Finale Spoilers #The Hardest Thing #The Hardest Thing Spoilers

[dna-d2]

So You’ve Heard of Sentimonster (?) Adrien...!

Alright, so I made a post not that long ago, talking about how Adrien is probably a Sentimonster. Nothing revolutionary, and honestly they were all points that other people had already discussed.

Which is why today, I’m here to START a discussion

That GABRIEL is also a Sentimonster

Now, as I said in the previous post, I said I think Gabriel could be a Sentimonster. Now, to be honest, that was mostly based on the fact that the last episodes were called “The Last Battle of Shadowmoth.” The only other proof I had at the time was that Gabriel is way too devoted to bringing back Emelie, which could easily be attributed to him loving her. But now, this last episode (as well as one other previous episode) has me convinced that not only is Adrien a Sentimonster, but so is Gabriel.

When Felix first showed up in his titular episode, he stole a ring from Gabriel, that once belonged to his mother Amelie. And Gabriel was hell-bent on getting it back, and even noticed immediately afterward that the replacement ring wasn’t his. He said it’s because he could recognize that it wasn’t his, but I think it’s a little more complicated. That ring, that Felix stole, is GABRIEL’S Amok.

I say this because in the finale, Felix returns the ring to Gabriel. (And it’s been confirmed that this was not the ring Nathalie had, and that she still had it) And not only that, but he then says “If I wanted to hurt you, I could have already done that.” and holds out the ring, very purposefully, as he says that. This leads me to believe that that ring, the one Felix stole, was never Adrien’s or Felix’s Amok, but Gabriel’s.

And if this is true, and Gabriel is a Sentimonster, it could explain one other huge detail from a previous episode, Wishmaker. In the flashback when Adrien remembers his parents, Gabriel’s eyes are a different color than they currently are. (As many people have pointed out)

And this all leads to my final theory. Adrien and Gabriel are both Sentimonsters. And Adrien is modeled after Felix, specifically. (There is an iteration of this theory where Gabriel is also modeled after Amelie’s now deceased husband, but I’m not gonna make that leap until we actually see him) Emelie created both of them, possibly in order to emulate Amelie’s family. But of course, the strain of all that ended up putting her in a dead/coma. So now Gabriel, having been created specifically to love Emelie, is entirely driven to bring her back, because that’s the only thing he can think to do.

(This might mean that Felix isn’t actually a Sentimonster, and just knows about the Peacock Miraculous and what it can do. And I could totally believe he’s doing this to potentially recreate his dead father, but that’s not what this theory’s about)

Now, there are definitely a few holes in this theory (I’ve been trying to fit the different eye color into this and I’m having a really hard time) but I do think I’ve placed at least a few of the puzzle pieces, and I hope it makes sense to people. If you have any thoughts or explanations for (or against) this theory, let me know, I’m really curious how this is going to turn out.

(Last minute addition here, but I’ve got one other hypothesis to throw in here. What if Emelie and Gabriel made Adrien first, then something happened to Gabriel and he died. So Emelie made Sentimonster Gabriel, and THAT’S what caused her to get sick. It would account for why Adrien existed to see her get sick, and why it would have happened so long after creating Adrien. AND it would explain the different eye colors. Adrien saw real Gabriel when he was a baby and remembered him, but this is Sentimonster Gabriel now. This is just an additional hypothesis, feel free to contribute to this as well)

#I think that last paragraph is REALLY close to what happened #Though I'll admit it's a bit of a leap #I just still feel like I'm REALLY close guys #Someone who's actually a theorist help me out here lol #I'm really good at getting a lot of details right #But not figure out the BIG detail #DNAVerse Discussions #Miraculous Ladybug #Miraculous Ladybug Season 4 #Miraculous Ladybug season 4 spoilers #Miraculous Ladybug Spoilers #Ml spoilers #MLB spoilers #Ml season 4 #ML season 4 spoilers #Strike Back Spoilers #Strike Back #MLB season 4 #MLB Season 4 Spoilers #Adrien #Adrien Agrest #Gabriel #Gabriel Agreste #Felix #Felix Graham de Vanily #Chat Noir #Cat Noir #Hawk Moth #Shadow Moth #Uber Moth(?)