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ivanttakethis · 2 months

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Round 7 Predictions

Since we’re only halfway through Alien Stage, I don’t think there will be a Round 7 winner.

There’s a ton of material Q and V could get into if both Till and Luka survive in some way or another. I also think there’s still a lot more left to learn about the lore of Alien Stage as a competition and how the whole system functions for the competition part to end so quickly.

I think Till will be rescued by the rebels at some point, either before or during Round 7. He’ll get to reconnect with Mizi, see how much she’s changed, and hopefully come to see her as less of a godly savior and more of a person.

Freeing Till would also force him to confront his own wants and dreams beyond escaping the competition and taking Mizi with him. What does Till want out of life now that both he and Mizi are free? How does he process all of the shit that went down in the previous rounds, especially Round 6?

As for Luka I think one of two things will happen: (1) he won’t be rescued by the rebels at all or (2) he’s offered the opportunity to leave with them but he refuses.

The second option is definitely more interesting as it will tell us more about Luka’s mindset, but also Hyuna’s if she can choose whether or not a rescue attempt is made for him. It would possibly give us insight into how they feel about each other given the current circumstances.

Either way, I don’t think Luka will leave Alien Stage or rebel against the aliens.

What would be his reason to? He’s the face of the whole competition. His status within the alien society has provided him with a lot of access that he could possibly not be able to live without, given his chronic illnesses.

But more than that, I think he’ll stay for personal reasons. Fame? Accolades? Ego? Maybe a mix of all three? Or perhaps some long buried guilt or remorse? There’s still a lot we don’t know about his feelings and motivations.

Personally I think he’s too interesting of a character to kill off so soon (a.k.a. I want to study him under a microscope).

Now this next part is me being delusional, so I’m putting it under the cut.

So,

If Till is rescued before Round 7 starts, that leaves Luka as the winner by default. But that’d probably be pretty boring as a finale for the audience.

How do they spice things up? By healing/reviving Ivan and putting him up against Luka.

Think about it: they’re both insanely popular in-universe, they’re somewhat equally matched in terms of singing ability, and they’re both considered pretty boys.

Think of the fashion! Think of the theatrics!! The material is LITERALLY. RIGHT. THERE.

In my opinion they’re two of the most complex characters in the cast, but they haven’t had much (if any) direct interaction with one another. I’d like to see how their similarities and differences stack up once they’re side by side, and what that tells us about each of them.

They’re also both weirdos (in their own ways), so putting them head to head would be the ultimate Freak (derogatory) vs. Freak (affectionate) final showdown.

And if Ivan were to win, he would essentially take over Luka’s role as the face of Alien Stage. How would that affect him personally? What would he do with his life after?

If he learns that Till managed to escape with the rebels, would Ivan still want to escape on his own? Or would he be content to stay put with the knowledge that Till is free?

Similar to Till with Mizi, who is Ivan beyond helping and supporting Till? What are his hopes and dreams?

I went more in depth about how Ivan could potentially be brought back and what ramifications it could have on the story depending on how it’s done in this post, if anyone wants to read that.

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siriusblack-the-third · 7 months

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ok, any headcanons on james that compliment the ones you've done for sirius?

i absolutely loved those and i'm really curious about james

HELL YEAH LETS GO

ADHD. This dude has to be moving, fidgeting, doing something, always. It tires him, and he sleeps very soundly for a full seven hours. Doesn't wake up even for earthquakes (Sirius once did a mini earthquake spell on the dorm room floor in the middle of the night as a prank. It did not wake him.)

Wakes up at an ungodly fucking hour. He doesn't own an alarm clock (it has no effect on him), but his internal clock is set to wake him up at exactly 4:30 in the morning for quidditch practice. He is done with jogging through the entire castle, half an hour of yoga, and an hour of quidditch before 7 A.M. rolls around. Sirius calls him "a demon from muggle hell" for it.

The only one who can keep up with Sirius' intelligence. He is scarily smart, but because most of his time is invested in quidditch and pranks, nobody realises just how smart he is until the results are handed out and he's right there next to Sirius on the top of the rankings. Both of them are always exchanging ranks 1 and 2 on overall performance. It annoys Snape and Lily to no end, because those two are always exchanging ranks 3 and 4 on the list.

The definition of Reckless. If Sirius hadn't stopped him, he would probably have turned the castle to rubble in less than five minutes. This was the exact reason why people (who were in the know) were surprised when Sirius was the one that sent Snape to Moony. They had all thought it would be James' fault.

A fucking bookworm. My dude reads literally everything from mystery to romance to encyclopaedias to research papers to fucking dictionaries of different languages. Even when he doesn't speak the language, the weirdo (affectionate and derogatory).

Indian. Specifically, from Pune city, Maharashtra.

About languages, he's learnt a lot of them. The order of learning of languages, starting from his native tongue, is thus: Marathi, Sanskrit, Hindi, English, Ancient Greek, Tamil, French and Latin. He learnt the first six at home, and French and Latin from Sirius. He's good with languages.

Photographic memory. The reason he never has to study, and also the fact that he understands everything he reads on the first try.

He and Sirius both have twelve OWLs and eight NEWTs. They have Outstandings in all of them.

My dude has the widest, largest doe eyes possible. The only people who can withstand them for more than two minutes are his parents and Sirius.

Bharatanatyam dancer. Has his Visharad certificate, and genuinely enjoys dancing. Gives at least three evenings per week for dance practice to keep up his muscle memory.

Doesn't actually hate Slytherins. Neither does Sirius. Both of them have several friends from the house of Serpents, they just hate the ones that actively use Dark Magic on muggleborns, and Snape and his gang are a part of that.

Lmao the sheer arrogance in him, oh my fucking Gods—

Doesn't give a shit about the rules set by other people (unless they're set by his parents), but has a set of rules for himself that he strictly follows. No one can tell what these rules are, but he has them and he follows them. At the top of that list, there is "never betray your loved ones". He followed that one until his death.

Nevertheless, he will break every single rule. Every. Single. Rule. For Sirius. For Sirius, he will do anything, from taking care of him when he's sick to burning the world for him.

The Hat would actually have put him in Slytherin, except he had no ambitions except to cause chaos at the tiny age of eleven years. Otherwise, he's almost a perfect fit for Slytherin— determined, strong willed, cunning enough to pull difficult pranks, resourceful (because how else you gon plan epic pranks?)

He went to Gryffindor for three reasons and three reasons only: Sirius was there, he had no particular ambition, he wanted to be with Sirius.

M O T H E R H E N. Such a mother hen, but only for a select few people (the marauders, Lily, and Harry). He doesn't give a fuck about anyone else, but these are my people and if I weren't here they would literally get themselves killed put of household related incompetence how are you still alive by the Gods—

Follows ancient Vedic religion (because I do hehe)

Very very panromantic. Demisexual.

Had a crush on Sirius for a short while in fourth year, and then on Frank Longbottom in sixth year after he had one (1) glance at the older boy dressed in full Auror robes.

Loved his mother so much omg he was such a Mama's boyyy

Gave shit to Remus for looking like a professor at the tender age of fifteen, but wanted to become a Transfiguration Professor himself. He was also excellent at Potions (another reason Snape hated him) but decided ultimately that Transfiguration was his calling

Was in his last year of his Transfiguration Mastery on Samhain of 81.

Died with a Killing Curse on his lips. He was ready to cast it wandlessly, for his wife and child. Died with a Killing Curse on his lips.

#james potter #james potter headcanon #indian james potter #maharashtrian james potter #harry potter marauders #harry potter headcanon #james potter headcanons #harry potter #marauders headcanon #marauders headcanons #marauders #marauders era

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chaifootsteps · 9 months

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The issues with Stella are so goddamn easy to fix it's actually painful any time she comes on screen and they have to find a way to bend over backwards to make her as unlikable as possible to artificially prop Stolas up as well as avoid the classism plot that THEY WROTE INTO THE SHOW.

Just establish very clearly AT THE BEGINNING OF THE SHOW that both of them were okay with the other sleeping around (since neither liked each other and neither wanted to get married) but have Stella get mad specifically because Stolas was caught sleeping with an imp, and that reflects badly on her. If you want her to be a villain, you don't need her to be cartoonishly evil and completely bereft of personality and likeability beyond bitch (derogatory) even as a child; she can just be classist and obsessed with status. (Also maybe don't make her stupid? Maybe don't have her creepy incest-vibes brother around at all? Give her some agency as a villain, you know? Maybe let her be funny? MAYBE LET HER TALK TO HER FUCKING DAUGHTER ON SCREEN?)

But fixing Stella would force the show to actually acknowledge the classism that they've set up and have been trying to ignore in lieu of writing fluff one shots of their favorite ships. And it sucks because she could be a really, really interesting and entertaining lens into how the upper-crusts of this setting actually behave. She SHOULD HAVE BEEN the face of that plot. If you want her to be this evil scheming funny girlboss bitch (affectionate), LET HER BE ONE. Hell, she can even be sympathetic and redeemable if you play up the fact that her behavior comes from a fear of being othered by the Goetia.

As a side note, why are arranged marriages even a thing when divorce exists and vice versa? If it's a eugenics thing for blue bloods why is marriage even a factor when they could just have the kids without it? If they're immortal outside of specific weaponry why do they need heirs in the first place? How DID Striker get all of his angelic weapons? How did Stella even meet Striker, who HATES the upper classes? Why does Striker even work for her when she's the ONE CHARACTER explicitly shown in-canon to embody the things he hates about the system at large?

I guess my point is that fixing Stella's writing would kind of cascade out into actual worldbuilding, stakes, more screen time for female characters, and more coherent better-constructed plots so Spindlehorse won't do it because they want to focus exclusively on a middling romance between two characters who have ZERO CHEMISTRY. If they wanted to focus on that, great, but why on EARTH did they set up all of this other shit? Season one set up conflict and interest and season two has done nothing but blue-ball me by dangling those plot threads in front of me and yanking it away at the last possible second. I WANT the show to be good, but it desperately needs better editing at the script level which I am CONVINCED only goes through one draft and are written several weeks apart.

ALSO THE LATEST EPISODE GAVE ME MOTION SICKNESS WHY WAS THE CAMERA MOVING SO MUCH WHEN THE CHARACTERS WERE STATIC HOW MUCH BUDGET AND TIME GOT WASTED WITH THE UNNECESSARY FUCKING SHAKY CAM?

(Sorry for dropping this huge chunk of text on you, it was supposed to just be about Stella originally but holy fuck that last episode made me nauseous and I got a bit carried away.)

No apologies needed; it was an excellent chunk of text.

Stella deserved better, and we as an audience deserved better, which isn't to say she needs to be redeemable or even likeable. But she does need to be human...to do something outside of scream and drink wine and exist. She needs to do more than just prop up the show's main ship. Give her something she thinks about, cares about, and like you said, let her talk to her fucking daughter.

Nothing about this shaky-cam show makes sense or feels fleshed out. Agreed completely that there's no way it's going through multiple drafts, and the longer these 30 car pileups of plot holes and characterization problems continue to go on, the closer the show gets to a point where no amount of revising is going to save it.

#Anonymous #hb stella #Helluva Boss #Helluva Boss critical #vivziepop critical #actual blog post

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lilbittymonster · 5 months

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Okay 6.55 thoughts in no particular order:

-Big Kittie Lady Wuk Lamat I Love You So Much

-Kitali does not like her enough to want to help with the politics though. She's done and over being used to further political goals of other people. The bit about not wanting to let the overly aggressive candidate win was intruiging but her line of thinking is "well, this is what the Alliance is supposed to be for, I'm not going to continue to be their one woman army anymore."

-WIFE SPOTTED IN LIMSA I REPEAT WIFE SPOTTED IN LIMSA LOMINSA DOCKS

-I am going to fucking shit myself laughing if Estinien winds up on the same boat/same dock as the Scions coming in completely by coincidence because he's continuing his retirement trip around the planet.

-I respect and love him so much for that btw like this man has likely never set foot much further outside of Coerthas than the North Shroud for the first 32 years of his life, he is going to see as much of the world as he can now.

-someone was complaining in Radz shout chat about how the relics weren't "an actual grind" and someone else shouted back that EW was the "waiting room expansion" like. Y'all did this to yourselves, you are aware of this, right? You complained and whined and pouted SO HARD about Eureka and Bozja that they said "okay, baby shoes this time" and now you think it's too easy? Come join us omnicrafters in the Splendour tool grind then. Cowards.

-I'm glad that only the Arkasodara quests are canon for Kitali bc wow that capstone questline felt like a "somehow Palpatine has retured" for me. Nonsense(derogatory) as opposed to Hildibrand nonsense(affectionate).

-Where is Hraesvelgr we saw Hraesvelgr in the trailer but he wasn't here? Maybe there's still more for the actual 7.0 release idk

-Also weird that G'raha was in Tural in the trailer but says he's staying behind with the Annex. I don't particularly mind or care but just something I thought was odd.

-Urianger and Thancred. That is all.

-"What are you two doing here?" Krile they fucking live in Sharlayan I don't know if you were aware of this or not.

-My fondness for Erenville continues to grow. I think he and Kitali get along very well. They both are so very Done(tm) with everyone.

-It was nice seeing Jullus on the Island sanctuary but that just blasted so many holes in a ficlet I had wanted to write and I was too busy being bitter about that to really enjoy the rest of the time there.

-"it must be nice being able to get away" yeah see you would THINK THAT but I keep having all these fucking tourists showing up on my beach asking to parade around the place. 'Private getaway' my ass. Kitali is packing a bag and moving to the east side of the island.

-the overall messages of "power of friendship and hope" and "everything comes to an end, we all experience loss" are really starting to sound like a broken record. For people like me who have basic media literacy and got the message the first idk half dozen times....this is unnecessary. I know that a good chunk of the userbase needs it spelled out for them in black and white but.....idk. And a lot of it is that it's trying to hit emotional buttons that I just don't have because I did not care that much about Endwalker as an expansion. EW was just the wolstinien agenda expansion lmao. I don't particularly care for the Omicron or the lopporit questlines which is where they really tried to jam pack it in and I just ended up button mashing my way through the stories.

-Who the FUCK was in charge of picking reaction expressions in all of those cutscenes? On top of "she would not be smiling like that at G'raha, it takes so much of her self control to not actively scowl at him", some of those were just so out of place. I know what each one was bc i live in gpose and the tonal dissonance on some of them were just........what.

-Monster hunter honeymoon expansion still a very strong possibility.

-those last few lines in the final cutscene.........Man. I hope we do get to go north and see what the fuck is under all those clouds on Ilsabard and Othard.

-final relic stage lance Pretty :3

-I need an entire sitcom of Wuk Lamat and Erenville as children that was SO TASTY.

-I am glad that they're getting rid of the Stormblood problem with making the contest of succession explicitly open to outsiders.

-I like the reference in the food book to potatoes and tomatoes being imported from Tural through Limsa, that was a nice touch.

-I will still likely not pick up blue mage by the time Dawntrail releases lmao. F for me for missing any potential extra dialogue.

Closing thought: Kittie

#ffxiv spoilers #endwalker spoilers #6.55 spoilers #patch 6.55 #patch 6.55 spoilers #most exciting part of the whole patch was Estinien showing up for five seconds tbh #and Urianger's poses

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fostersffff · 11 months

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The Big Gundam Watch, Part 14: Mobile Suit Victory Gundam

What a mistake it would have been for me to skip this series.

I observed in my last post that opinions on Victory Gundam seem more volatile than ZZ, and now I understand why. Like F91 before it, Victory Gundam is an attempt at soft rebooting the Universal Century, but obviously unlike F91, it had the chance to be a full, ~50 episode TV series. I can say with confidence now that this is the format in which Yoshiyuki Tomino is at his most powerful.

For better and for worse, Victory Gundam takes the essence of nearly everything that came before and refines it into a more pure, undiluted version of itself. I'm of the opinion that this works brilliantly for the most part, although when it does fall flat, it really hits with an echoing thud. Even so, Victory Gundam has usurped ZZ when it comes to my opinion on "the true successor" to 0079. A lot of that is down to executing on a most of ZZ's plot beats and character archetypes better, but it also adds some new elements that improve upon it as well. With that said, I can think of no better element to start with than with the belle of the ball herself, Katejina Loos.

CATEGORY 5 WHITE WOMAN

I have been thoroughly enchanted by the story of Katejina Loos. I knew, via osmosis, that she was a Bad Woman who does Bad Things, but I wasn't exactly sure what that really meant. That descriptor applies to characters like Haman Karn- who I love- Reccoa Londe- who I hate (affectionate)- and Michele Luio- who I hate (derogatory). She has a little bit in common with all three, because she's all the most stereotypical "evil woman" traits wrapped into a single character, but what makes that so engaging is watching how those traits get worse and worse and fucking worse over time, in a way that is kind of disturbingly mundane.

Katejina starts out as what I can most succinctly describe as a Privileged White Liberal; she's from money, but because she hates most of the wealthy people around her- including her own dad- she considers herself wholly different from them. Because of how they shuffled the first few episodes, her introduction is literally "I'm glad all those rich assholes died", glazing over both the grotesque cruelty of the situation because she thought they were bad people who deserved to die anyway and also that she is, in fact, one of those rich assholes.

At first she goes along with the League Militaire, mainly because there's nowhere else to go anyway, but she often bristles against most of the other members. This is because they pretty willing to point out that she's a rich asshole, but also more importantly because she disagrees with them using Uso as a pilot for the Victory. It's entirely possible this may have been amicably resolved- especially considering her initial attitude towards the Zanscare Empire is "they're obviously bad guys"- if not for her abduction by Cronicle Asher (who, by the way, may have The Most Tomino Name).

At this point I need to take a detour to talk about him, and how one of the other smartest things Tomino did was make Victory's Char completely unlike Char. While he is scheming against the Zanscare Empire's military dictatorship, he's a genuine believer in Mariaism- a matriarchal doctrine advocating for peace in space- and wants to elevate his sister (the titular Maria from Mariaism and Queen of the Zanscare Empire) from merely being a figurehead to the actual ruler of the empire. However, instead of subterfuge and betrayals, he's trying to change the system from within, doing his duty as a soldier with the utmost diligence so he can rise through the ranks, which will allow him to achieve his goals while not inadvertently destabilizing the empire (and thus Maria's access to power). He's maybe the most Straight-Edge Good Boy I've seen in a Gundam series, but unfortunately, all of that Good Boy Energy is being used in service of the genocidal military dictatorship. He regularly expresses distaste for the methods Zanscare's military regularly employs, but he carries out those cruel tasks anyway, because ultimately, the end will justify the means.

With all that in mind, Cronicle being the one to abduct Katejina is legitimately the point of no return for her. That genuine Straight-Edge Good Boyness of his endears her to him immediately, which leads her to reconsider what she thought of the Zanscare Empire; after all, Cronicle treats her with such a great deal of kindness and respect, so surely they can't all be bad. That one commanding officer even shot the subordinate who tried to feel her up, even! Combine that with the fact that the members of the League Militaire were mean to her, and that they have to use an innocent little baby boy like Uso to fight for them... maybe she was wrong about who the bad guys were.

I'll speed it along here, but what is essentially a corruption arc is on full display from this point forward. Slowly, she starts to integrate herself more and more within the Zanscare Empire's military, halfheartedly trying to justify what she's doing as "spying" to Uso and company until she doesn't even care to bother with that anymore, more and more convinced that Cronicle is just, and his plan to elevate Maria as the true ruler is for the greater good. The last act of kindness she musters for Uso is letting him know Shahkti and the others are safe, but the next time we see her after that is in a Zanscare dress uniform, and then later in the same episode, in a Zanscare mobile suit.

And once that threshold has been crossed, she continues to sink lower, going from "maybe we can just... capture Uso, and bring him over to our side" to "he's gotta go". And then she starts employing increasingly depraved methods of "he's gotta go", sliding from simply killing him in combat, to ordering the all-female imperial guard to fight him on foot and naked (or as naked as early 90's Japanese TV would allow) to try to fuck with his head, to finally faking a surrender after she's already lost everything so she can stab him, because fuck him.

If the League Militaire (and Uso as its spearhead) had just fucked off and let Zanscare achieve their goals, Cronicle would have eventually usurped the military dictatorship, given Maria the freedom to enact her will, and everything would have been perfect. It would've been like a fairy tale: she's swept off her feet by a handsome prince who enlists her aid to rescue to queen, and in saving her, they save the whole kingdom, and then they live happily ever after. The only minor caveat was the mountains of innocent corpses it was all built upon.

Uso- the innocent little baby boy no more- took all that away from her- the prince was dead, the queen was dead, and the kingdom had fallen apart- and rather than actually admit defeat or commit suicide, she instead continues to try to kill him, until her brain basically poisons itself as a self-preservation tactic- it's not the V2's Wings of Light that blind her, it's literally her own rage.

And, shockingly, that's where she ends up. Still alive, but unable to see the world around her anymore and with no memory of anything but where she lived. Karlmann's name evokes a memory she can't access anymore, which makes her cry for reasons she can't understand. Shahkti gives her a replacement compass so she can make her way back to Uwig and continue to live, and presumably just live... assuming Uwig has even been rebuilt, considering this series seems to take place within the span of a year (if Marbet's pregnancy is anything to go by). It's honestly a much crueler fate than I was expecting, but it's hard to argue it's not one she earned.

All of this is to say: it's possible I may change my opinion once recency bias wears off, but I think Katejina Loos is maybe my favorite single character in a Gundam show to date. A perfectly executed villainess, top to bottom.

And, you know, nice thick eyebrows, which is terrific.

Now that I've finished gushing, let's get to the normal segments:

THE STUFF I LIKED

This series is just ripe with Tomino names. Cronicle Asher, Maria Pure Armonia, Karlmann Dukatus, Junko Jenka, Duker Iq... and I would be remiss not to mention that while not explicitly said in the series, Marbet's last name is Fingerhat.

I adore the technology level of UC 0153. We've advanced forward from F91 and now goddamn near everything is beam-based; even things that aren't mobile suits use beams because the technology is so normalized. I'm also of the opinion that it's enhanced further by Tomino's obvious appreciation of the aesthetic of Pastoral European Landscapes and 20th Century European Cities; the visual clash of super futuristic robots and old-timey environments worked in F91, it worked better here, and I imagine it'll continue to be just as strong- if not stronger- in Turn A and Reconguista in G

I know on a meta level that Victory Gundam was pushed even harder than previous Gundams in the direction of MAKE TOY, which sounds like a nightmare creatively, but fuck if they didn't make it work. The in-universe justification for most of the wheel-based weapons is goofy, but damned if they don't make the Einerad (The Tire) one of the most devastatingly effective support units in the franchise. And, to be honest, if I had access to a toy as a kid that was just a cool robot inside of a wheel, it would've been, like, my favorite toy.

Plus, despite my noted dislike of the Zakrello from 0079 for being a Goofy Snake Ship, having most of the Zanscare's mobile suits have the dogu statue eyes that open into vertical slits is a great unifying aspect that is also super different from Zeon's monoeyes.

One of the coolest things about this series is how it flips the formula from 0079, Zeta, and ZZ with regards to setting. It starts on Earth, which frames space and the colonies as different and scary. Like, it was fascinating in 0079 to see the White Base crew react the way they did to a thunderstorm and other Earth phenomena we obviously take for granted, but here's it's like: hey man, space is fucking scary! I was genuinely anxious watching Shahkti and Suzy trying to get Karl and Flanders into normal suits.

This also extends to the finale taking place on Earth, which is a genuine first for the franchise. You'd think this would make things slightly less deadly overall, but man Cronicle goes out in a bad fuckin' way.

Following up on that: I love Angel Halo as the ultimate threat (with one caveat I'll mention that in the next section). "Total Human Regression as performed by Warhammer 40k's Golden Throne" is much more horrifying than what I was expecting (which was A Super Duper Space Laser), especially considering they showed what happens if everyone in an arbitrary area suddenly falls asleep, and that every time someone blew up a section of Angel Halo, civilian bodies would just FLOOD out.

I also really liked how the memories Angel Ring was evoking when Maria was trying to pacify Uso were just ever so slightly wrong, in terms of what the characters are saying. That's a very tiny detail to address in such a long series, where most people wouldn't even remember what was actually said as it was airing, but it's appreciated.

At this point I consider Tomino to be pretty masterful at a lot of things, but I think one of his strongest abilities is writing mascot characters who are good. Victory Gundam has a baby, a dog, and the most talkative Haro yet, and all three of them are great. Karl and Flanders are just a normal baby and dog who primarily either enhance hijinks or raise stakes, and Haro earns the extra lines it has by constantly being in MVP in bad situations.

THE STUFF I LIKED LESS:

It was dumb that they arbitrarily had Episode 4 as the first episode so they could show the completed Victory Gundam right away, and then spend the next three episodes framed with Shahkti going "well Karl, as you know...". I know this ties back to toys, but surely it could've just been written differently in the first place.

While I did like Zanscare's refusal to acknowledge the Victory, Hexa, and V2 as Gundams, I'm so mad they were mainly referred to as "the white ones" instead of "white devils". "The White Devil" is my favorite name for the RX-78-2 and I hate that it doesn't get used more referencing Gundams, especially in contexts like this.

So obviously from a series composition point of view it was never going to be the case, but I was bummed out that in-universe, Marbet was intended to be the League Militaire's ace and got sidelined due to her injury. This isn't such a big deal, because she contributes regularly and actually lives through to the end in what I would consider to be the best possible circumstances (Oliver is dead and instead she has Uso, Shahkti, Karl, and Flanders as a family), but it's was just like "aw no you're so much cooler than this dumb kid with a bowl cut!"

I straight-up don't like Oliver. He just shows up randomly but everyone knows who he is, he's revealed to be the commander of the Shrike Team (who actually are foreshadowed in an earlier episode!) but arrives without them for some reason, he has a strained romantic history with Marbet, and he gets a completely unearned Bright Slap shortly after showing up, which is already something I hate outside of its original context in 0079. Then despite denying it, it really seems like he shacks up with Marbet because Junko died and she wins by default, and then after nutting inside he just killed himself in spectacular fashion, achieving nothing. Fuckin'... bad vibes, all around.

Lupe Cineau, huh? My complaint here isn't that she's a weird pedophile, bur rather that she really shouldn't have been? Her introduction is that she's a Stone Cold Bitch, murdering the guys in the bar she just got information from when she first shows up. And her tactic to try to seduce Uso into joining up with Zanscare seemed less like "oh my, a cute little boy, I know exactly what to do..." and more of a dismissive "he's like 12, all I need to do is show hole and he'll be in our pockets forever". Like, 'she fails at seducing a 12 year old because she's too much of a Stone Cold Bitch' is the point of that entire scene! Statistically, not every antagonist could be a quality one, but it felt like they just scrambled to figure out how to reintroduce and get rid of her, and the bath scene was the most memorable thing about her, so: pedophile.

There sure is a lot of biology in this series! Most of it has to do with Karlmann, naturally, but I was taken aback at the scene of Shahkti washing the diapers in the river and you see his poop get washed away. Odelo pissing himself and it filling up the bottom of his normal suit was gross but like... kind of informative on how that works? But then the scene where Cronicle redirects Suzy to the bathroom when she sleepwalks to pee in the hallways was just... eugh.

I don't know why they felt compelled to allude to the threat of Angel Halo's psycommu physically degenerating people as well. "Everyone on Earth will mentally become an infant, and if they don't die in the initial collapse of infrastructure that causes, they'll eventually starve to death because they lack the capacity for self-preservation" is scary enough!

I can't really begrudge Tomino for reusing it, because it's a powerful scene, and Karl was much more important to this story, but the fact that Karl has the same origin story as the F91 baby was just like "you can't just do that again, man". It's not even as good a moment because the pilot intentionally shoots down Karl's mother, versus F91 baby's mom just accidentally getting brained by a spent shell. They're even wearing similar outfits!

OTHER OBSERVATIONS

I've read that this is, or was at the time, Hideaki Anno's favorite Gundam series, and lines up with when he would've been making Evangelion- and I definitely think he cribbed some things. As soon as I saw the episode title "Beneath the Ultra-High Altitude Attack" my eyes narrowed, and I can't be convinced that Arael wasn't inspired by the Zanneck and Fuala's mental instability. Also: Angel Ring and Human Instrumentality and the associated Christian imagery.

Speaking of Fuala Griffon, she is Victory Gundam's winner of the "fucking insane fit" award, wearing an oversized suit and porkpie hat while riding a dirtbike with the biggest case of resting bitchface I've seen since Monsly in Future Boy Conan.

I kind of regret learning about trigger discipline (keeping your trigger finger extended along the side of the barrel of a gun until you're actually going to fire) because now it's one of those things I look for everywhere, but in this case I do think it's the second most telling detail about Cronicle's character. The other being the fact that Flanders is cool with him.

Speaking of Cronicle and guns, for however out of character it may have been I was hootin' and hollerin' when Shahkti stole his gun and shot him.

Final note on Cronicle: My favorite thing about his mask that I only realized in writing this post is that it's the inverse of Char's, covering everything but his eyes and hair.

I really like the Eyecatch Flipbook they must have made to include as an extra for the laserdisc release of the series, but it does kinda... disrupt some things. Most notably in the last episode where you get the very violently abrupt shot Cronicle slamming into a piece of Angel Halo before cutting to HARO WORLDWIDE with the cute little jingle.

I legitimately thought Maria's demonstration where she healed the sick was staged. Like, it would be revealed that Maria was a low-level Newtype with some genuine power, but all the people who claimed to have been healed during that demonstration were crisis actors designed to make the public fall in line. In hindsight, I don't even know if "crisis actors" was a concept anyone had ever thought of before the turn of the century.

I alluded to it in another post, but due to the scant few memes that have circulated about this series, I was shocked to learn the Shrike Team were protagonist-aligned. I thought that they were the ones who did the Bikini Bazooka Attack, because a second faction made up entirely of beautiful women just seemed unlikely, and I kept trying to figure out at one point they were going to turn on Uso, especially considering most of them are dead before the halfway point.

I'm really proud of the image I used for the header, and was initially planning on doing a full video of the clip, but video editing is hard. Then I was going to photoshop in more characters' faces but I didn't want to hunt for images of the right angle for that many characters. But that was a really good Shahkti face, so I left it in.

IN CONCLUSION

Victory Gundam is without a doubt my favorite of the Tomino-directed TV shows thus far, and in the upper eschelon of favorite Gundam shows. For however much he hated doing the series and may still hate it in hindsight, it's not like he just phoned it in. It's got a good cast, good conflict, good mobile suit designs, and despite a massive kill count and some really fucked up parts, it doesn't strike me as being particularly edgy or even mean-spirited. It's absolutely not going to hit the same for everyone, but I think if Tomino's other Gundams clicked with you, it's more than worth a shot.

Next up: considering I've already watched the next two entries in chronological order, I'll be moving ahead to the third Gundam OVA series, The 08th MS Team, notable for being the first new entry in the Universal Century timeline following G Gundam and Gundam Wing and for often being recommended in the same breath as War in the Pocket. Considering how that turned out, I'm optimistic that this will also be good, and if nothing else, it's sure to have that 90's Anime OVA budget going for it, much like Stardust Memory.

#Gundam #Mobile Suit Gundam #Victory Gundam #Mobile Suit Victory Gundam #Yoshiyuki Tomino #The Big Gundam Watch #anime #blu-ray #long post

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veliseraptor · 2 years

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Okay, but consider: Groundhog Day Yi City, a tragic-comedy of repeated errors with drama sprinkles on top (results vary depending on who’s Bill Murray)

a secret that I have never seen the actual groundhog day movie. I feel like I should admit that, as a big fan of time loop stuff, I have not seen the trope namer. I just feel like that should be out there.

also if you saw me post this before it was finished: no you didn't

but to the substance of your ask: yes, I have considered this, I have considered this a lot and I actually technically have a fic in progress for it from xiao xingchen's pov but I might need to start it over, we'll see. and it is so much fun! because the success states vary wildly for each character, like:

xue yang: xiao xingchen alive, himself alive, nice domestic life preserved

song lan: xiao xingchen alive, himself alive, xue yang not alive, xiao xingchen never knowing about who he was living with

xiao xingchen: song lan alive, a-qing alive, doesn't even know what he wants with xue yang??? ahhhhh

a-qing: xiao xingchen alive, all else optional and only relevant inasmuch as it serves that end

so there are three of them aligned on the "xiao xingchen alive" goal, at least (xiao xingchen's a little more wobbly on that one), and only one person actively invested in xue yang being dead, and nobody actually putting as a definitive condition song lan being dead (though xue yang operates on a low key assumption, most of the time, that the win condition of "himself alive" depends on the condition "song lan dead"; he is not necessarily right about this but he tends to assume it's the case. however, it's not something that's necessary; I think if xue yang knew how badly things could go, he would be fine with letting song lan live if it didn't ruin the other stuff).

however, these points of agreement come into conflict with each other in several key places. I feel like I'm also thinking about these in order of priority (i.e. what's most important to least important) in which case it looks like:

xue yang: xiao xingchen/himself alive (either/or is not acceptable, has to be both), nice domestic life preserved (terms and conditions may apply, he'll make it work), song lan dead (possible condition but not required, particularly the longer he has to go on trying)

song lan: xiao xingchen alive, xue yang dead (at least initially, though I think it might eventually swap places with), xiao xingchen never knowing about who he was living with, himself alive

xiao xingchen: a-qing alive/song lan alive (I don't think he could deal with either not being true), still doesn't know what he wants to do with xue yang (affectionate/derogatory/deeply confused)

a-qing: she's got a very clear single priority and she's sticking to it.

so how this fic looks, and what the resolution is, could go any number of ways depending on who is trying to "fix" it and what the individual author decided a fix-it looked like (someone who is not me might think that just killing xue yang fixes the problem, but they would sadly be incorrect. common misconception! but inaccurate.). which is why my favorite version of this, I realized as I've been writing this post, is a version where all of them are time looping but none of them knows anybody else is, and every time one of anybody's primary win conditions are violated it starts over (i.e. if xue yang dies, even though it's only his win condition that stipulates his survival first and foremost, it still cycles back to the beginning).

just please consider with me the mutual frustration both song lan and xue yang in particular experience on discovering that they cannot, in fact, fix the problem by just murdering the other person in the right way. I feel like that alone makes this entire concept worth it.

also a-qing just getting xiao xingchen the heck out of dodge and being like "GREAT DODGED THAT BULLET" only to end up cycled back because one of the other two died. she didn't sign up for this

#conversating #anonymous #aggressively headcanons #i'm not equipped to write this right now but i'm kind of eyeing it now like in the future....maybe #but if someone else wanted to do it. please do #songxuexiao #song lan #xue yang #xiao xingchen #a qing

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greenerteacups · 1 year

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From "Weasley" to "Ronald": Nicknames in Lionheart

This is an entirely self-indulgent post about Lionheart, because a user named for_now on AO3 commented about Draco switching from "Weasley" to "Ronald" as a form of address for Ron in Book 4, and I got totally carried away ranting about my thought process. I didn't want to inflict it on that poor person's inbox, but I actually marked out a place on my outline where Draco starts calling Ron "Ronald," and it's at the Burrow, and I have Reasons for it!! So! I'm putting them out here.

The Importánce of Draco shifting to informal address with Ron is a sort of thematic emblem going into Book 4, because it telegraphs the broader scope of what's going on under the hood in Draco's brain. Draco is reluctant as a rule to use first names for the Gryffindors, less so in the later years than earlier on, but for certain people the habit just stuck — most obviously, "Granger" has become his nickname for Hermione because it's Special when he uses it, it's a Thing that they have. I think "Potter" is the same — he thinks about him as Harry, but Potter is DRACO'S nickname, it's what He Calls Him, and if he changed it then he'd be using the same name as everyone else. Conversely, he switches quickly to first names for his Slytherin friends, because it was much easier for him to get comfortable with them sooner, but that also means he doesn't have his Own names for them, which I think shows how he really feels about his Gryffindors. It's about possession, you know? It's about how giving something a name means taking it in.

Anyway, in that context, Draco coming to the Burrow is him being forced to reckon with Ron's personhood in a way he's never done before — he meets Ron's family, and he CAN'T call Ron "Weasley" anymore, because that name won't mean anything here. Both functionally and symbolically, he's having to acknowledge Ron's individuality. Because "Weasley" was never an affectionate nickname for Ron, like "Granger" or "Potter" was; in Draco's world, Weasley means something, there's a reputation attached to it, and it's not a good one. Calling him "Weasley" started as something derogatory, then became something neutral, and finally became unsustainable, because he was no longer distant enough from Ron and his family for it to make any sense. He's being brought closer — not just to Ron, but to the Weasleys in general, to their physical situation, to their social situation, to their beliefs, to their way of life. So he switches to "Ronald." (Not "Ron" — even for him, that's a bit too informal, and besides — well, nobody else calls him "Ronald," do they?)

And like, this is a broader theme in the context of Book 4, which is Draco's arc of shifting from a personal alignment with the Gryffindor Four to an explicitly political one. It's entirely possible to hold beliefs that contradict your actions, which is where Draco's at, vis-a-vis the muggle-born and blood traitor things, at the end of Book 3. He's come to care about his friends personally; he's learning to communicate that with them in ways they can understand, and voluntarily makes personal sacrifices to improve their lives, which is big growth and not an inconsiderable accomplishment; and he obviously sees them as people, but that's it. He never follows through on the actual consequences of them being real people for his ideology. So as the political gears and machinations of Book 4 kick into effect, he's having what is effectively a very drawn-out and painful come-to-Jesus moment about his whole way of life, the essence being that the personal and the political are not nearly as far apart as it seems when you're a kid. And the catalyst for that arc, in Book 4, is one Ronald motherfucking Weasley.

#lionheart spoilers #did anyone ask? NO! do I care about it way too much? YES!#there's a wrinkle here which is that daphne also calls him Ronald #and there is Significance to that too but it's different and it'll come up later #anyway. thanks for coming to my ted talk

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sooodonewiththis · 8 months

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It's been like 2 weeks since i finished reading Dark Matter (did not like it at all) and i still haven't stopped thinking about how the internet recommended it to me because i loved Project Hail Mary and this was supposed to be a similar book.

I'm not sure how else i could possibly stress it enough that while, yes, both of these books are about school teachers going on sci-fi adventures, they couldn't be more different.

Project hail mary is the embodiment of 'boys will be boys' (affectionate) while Dark matter is 'boys will be boys' (derogatory).

#project hail mary #dark matter #i will die on this hill

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psychewritesbs · 1 year

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How is it possible for my two favorite characters to have merged and yet all I can do is cringe (affectionate) every time I see what they have become…

To be clear, I actually love this… whatever you want to call it (affectionate), I just love them both separate better.

Also I love how vain Sukuna is? (Derogatory)

And are we not going to talk about the fact that Sukuna lost yet another shirt? This isn’t Dragon Ball.

#I don’t think i’m memeing right #but wtv #god i love jujutsu kaisen #jjk ch 213

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carefulfears · 10 months

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idk if this will add or subtract or just mean nothing at all but fwiw I think a lot of people who said "it's both" probably didn't mean it in That Way. I don't think Scully ever wanted to ditch and I don't see how anyone over the age of like...10...could watch the show and honestly think that? They're both so stupid [affectionate] and Scully definitely knows it and literally relishes it! I just think anyone with a sideeye/facepalm game that strong is probably looking at their beloved idiot sometimes and thinking "you. why." It doesn't necessarily mean they're not happy to be there! She said "I'd kiss you if you weren't so damn ugly" and that was definitely one of The Most things she could possibly say no matter what body he's in! Then again where I'm originally from a friend's affection can be directly measured in how deadpan teasingly mean they are so something like "my daddy wanted me to be a doctor and instead I'm here" or "I should have become a nun" would actually be a huge compliment. Like that's basically saying ily without actually saying ily. So idk maybe something just got lost in translation for some peeps?

I love your posts hope you made it to your lecture and are having a great day you deserve it ❤️

i did get to my lecture and it was so great, thank you so much!! i love you!! i totally see what you're saying, and i think most people were just joking, or it did get lost in translation, but it still just leaves a bad taste in my mouth? to forward that line of thinking at all? i also find it disrespectful to roz, as an artist, to look at something that they invested in creating and rag around in their notes going completely against the point they were trying to make. i totally see how that was frustrating to them, people do the same thing on my writing, totally bypassing what i'm trying to say to argue logistics, and it sucks? like it feels like people don't even care to think about what i'm trying to say? roz also mentioned here about how as someone who relates to mulder, it's offensive to see people view him as not worth listening to, or a burden. and it's true! there's nothing wrong with the theories he has (he's almost always right, but regardless) or the way he shares with scully, and scully loves it! why confront that concept on someone else's work? the first piece was clearly derogatory and portraying scully as disinterested or annoyed or wishing for something else, which isn't true!! roz is right, it's not what the x-files is!!

thanks for chatting babe, i hope you have a great one <3

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dogsliampaynedoesntinstagram · 6 months

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Hi! There is a video going around on Instagram of Louis flipping off someone who brought an Israeli flag to a concert. Do you know if this is true?

I have a very longstanding position that it is impossible for us to know what happened between someone on stage and an audience member. It is impossible to document both what is happening on stage and everything going on in the audience. This goes back further than the claims Louis was giving thumbs up to Larrie signs - all the way to 1D days. In that sense my position is that it's completely unknowable how Louis reacted to an Israeli sign at a concert.

I'd add a couple of other points - given that Louis regularly does the fingers at fans - I think it's really reaching to say that Louis was flipping someone off (derogatory) and not flipping someone off (affectionate).

Finally - I understand being curious about what Louis thinks about Palestine - we don't know and it matters. I also think it's entirely possible for a celebrity to give meaningful solidarity to Palestine right now without letting the world know.

But Louis has every opportunity to share his position publicly and he hasn't - using something he might have done doesn't seem very serious to me.

#Oh Louis

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gray-morality · 1 year

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Tagged: Altitis Edition

@thefreelanceangel

Favorite | Fakhri Man'tik Obviously I'm biased because he's the one I currently main. But I do believe that, with every new character, I learn something or 'get better' (even if I have 25+ years of RP experience) and Fakhri is something very new for me to RP. His personality alone but also his overall view on life and how he went through it. He's definitely the one that allows me the most freedom, not even being afraid of the ridicule, which can play a big part. He's also provocative, inciting reactions from others or dragging them into a scene.

Oldest | Katsuro Wakahisa Katsuro was 'born' in The Secret World back in 2015 and I brought him with me in other games, FFXIV being the latest and possibly where his story ends? Who knows! He's more typical yakuza archetype and very hard to RP because he lacks empathy and fucks to give. He also is very reserved and extremely disciplined, which makes it hard to introduce him into new situations or places.

Newest | Fakhri Man'tik If that wasn't obvious by now :p

Meanest | Katsuro Wakahisa I mean, can you do meaner than an assassin and serial killer with a lack of empathy... Not that he doesn't have his good side but you have to find it, or let him drop his guard, which frankly rarely happens. He's painfully direct and doesn't care how people feel or what they think about him. To be honest, Fakhri can also be painfully direct and not give a shit... but he's far less stoic and his overall attitude is more prone to make him look like an ass. Guess that balance it all a bit.

Softest | Yuu Fujimoto He's my irezumi master, and he's a big dork. Oh he sure can fight, having trained under Doman monks all his childhood, but then he went on an apprenticeship to become a tattoo master and managed to make a living out of his passion and really, he never loved to fight. He sings like a battery of casseroles someone dropped on the floor but his energy at karaoke is infectious, as well as his smile.

Most Aloof/Standoffish | Dr. Thanos [Lux] Caius Despite caring about people's wellbeing in general, he's an intellectual and will prefer his books instead of talking to people. If you say something stupid, you can bet he's looking at you with a judgmental gaze. He has very little tolerance for stupidity, verrryyy little.

Dumbest (Affectionate) | Luula [GW2] I rarely make dumb characters unless they're disposable NPCs. Luula was an exception. She was Asura in GW2. For those who know the game, I can hear you say "But aren't they the most intelligent and advanced of the races?" Well yes, but you see Luula's mother had an accident when her daughter was but a baby still in her belly and... poor Luula was born with some... problems. This obviously resulted with her being shunned from the Asura society and ending up as a ranger (she has a big bear) travelling the world. People really loved her, she was cute and silly.

Dumbest (Derogatory) | Ren Yasui He was essentially a NPC and your typical muscles without a brain archetype. He didn't have a presence in game, as I never made the character, but instead was featured in a few short stories all part of The Cursed Hand narrative. a campaign that stretched over 2 years.

Smartest | Dr. Thanos [Lux] Caius I guess this makes him somewhat hard to RP because I definitely don't have his intellect XD nor his immense knowledge in medicine.

Horniest | Fakhri Man'tik Most of my characters being NPCs, their level of horniness is simply inexistent. As for those I did/do roleplay, I'd say their libido is quite mild. Katsuro is possibly the worse, since he's demi-sexual, his sexual drive linked to actually loving the person. My 'leader' characters [Ujitoshi Hagane and Hikmat Shah] are both asexual. Other characters are old and not interested in that anymore [Sun Hyeon] and some, while not asexual, are either no longer interested or never truly were that much [Dr. Caius who prefers knowledge to people and Yuu who had a wife, with whom he had a daughter, they got divorced and now he's early 50s with a teenager, working his dream job and content in life.] Which leaves us with Fakhri, who's just your normal guy, really. He enjoys sex as much as the guy next door but can go without for long periods as well. So he isn't a horny machine, just a very normal man.

Character You'd Bang | Fakhri Man'tik Mainly because he's a very respectful and caring lover. He doesn't have a type, doesn't have any expectations and won't shame anyone for being clumsy or inexperienced.

Character You'd Be RL Besties With | Yuu Fujimoto As tempted I am to say Fakhri, he may be too 'loud' and disruptive on occasions for me irl. Yuu, on the other hand, is calm yet knows how to have fun. He's also an artist, which I can relate to. So we'd totally be showing each other our new drawings and whatnot. He's also hard working and respectful, but won't let others step over him either.

Tagging: whoever wants to do it I guess xD

#ffxiv #well mostly ffxiv #tagged

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francesderwent · 1 year

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Okay I could be wrong on both of these but I HAVE to throw my hat in the ring, I have to: Anne and Captain Wentworth from Persuasion (possibly #3?)

And it's possible I am thinking of another mutual right now but I feel like Spike/Buffy miiiiight be on there, or Angel/Cordy for TV show second chance love?

ANNE AND WENTWORTH

I mean the letter!!! is SO much!! but that little scene where she says she's not a card player and he answers "you never were, were you?" or something to that effect (if I'm remembering a movie invention I will die of shame) is so special to me, because what's hurt her most of all is his coldness, the fact that he's treating her like a stranger! so this brief exchange where he lets all of their history come into the room for a moment! where he basically says "I was there I remember it all too well"! he still knows her!! AAAAAAHH

Wentworth is trying to be fucked up but he's not enjoying it and it goes against the grain. really they're wholesome.

"Back to December", Taylor Swift, of course! "your guard is up, and I know why / because the last time you saw me is still burned in the back of your mind / you gave me roses, and I left them there to die"

the MAGIC of them is that they are both a “I have loved none but you” ALL ALONG romance like Anne and Gilbert and Bathsheba and Gabriel but that they’re also kind of a Cinderella story! he did see her value from the beginning, and it’s not in one magical moment in the perfect dress on the stairs, but the story IS a gradual revelation of her beauty and her goodness for everyone to see!

I wouldn’t alter a single thing about their dynamic if you paid me to. however, I would make Wentworth a spaceship captain instead of a navy captain and relocate the Elliot family to a small planet with a new colony when they run out of money

they ARE on the list, coming in at number 5!!!

SPIKE AND BUFFY

I’m going to cheat a ton and name two: when Buffy is trying to figure out how much Glory knows about Dawn and so she goes to weasel it out of Spike and does so by dressing up as the robot he made of her and when she asks him he says, basically, “I could never let something happen that would hurt Buffy that much. I would have let Glory kill me first. I nearly bloody did.” and Buffy, hearing this, leans in and kisses him--and he accepts it for a moment and then he rears back, because he knows it’s her!!! and she knows he knows, and she looks at him steadily and doesn’t take it back. and when he asks about the robot (because he’s still Spike and still very soulless at this point) she says the robot was obscene, but “what you did for Dawn...that was real.” and then the second one is when she reinvites him into her home!! fully knowing who he is and all of his mixed up motivations and pathetic love for her. and he stands in the threshold and smiles and says “I know that I’m a monster. but you treat me like a man.”

the reason spuffy is so good is because it’s kind of a longform essay about how fucked up (affectionate) tends to collapse into fucked up (derogatory) but it is possible to regain your humanity and become wholesome (affectionate)!! they REALLY do it all! except they’re never ever boring :)

I put this song on pretty much all my character playlists, but it’s them most of all: “Breathe Me” by Sia. “ouch, I have lost myself again / lost myself and I am nowhere to be found / yeah I think that I might break / lost myself again and I feel unsafe / be my friend, hold me / wrap me up, unfold me / I am small and needy / warm me up and breathe me”

drawing vampire parallels is my one great love so I’m gonna say Buffy and Spike are most like Klaus and Caroline. perky blonde who loves to win and fun-loving artistic type whose murdering tendencies come from a very fragile heart

I think it’d be fun to I Will Remember You Spike instead of Angel, i.e. see how a Spike without vampire powers would handle Buffy. I think he’d enjoy being babied and coddled tbh

they did not make the list!

ANGEL AND CORDELIA

there are more romantic moments of them, definitely, but the defining one for me was always after they’ve had a scare with the possibility of Angelus coming out again and they’re having a heart-to-heart about it and Angel starts to very cautiously broach the possibility that if things had worked out differently then would she..., and Cordelia interrupts him with perfect confidence “oh, I’d kill you dead.” and it’s not this massively heavy dramatic angst thing. Buffy killed him because she had to, and Cordelia is saying she’d do the same thing, but she can be light about it with him, she can be there for him and keep smiling, and that’s actually what he needs!

wholesome! there are very VERY few completely wholesome Whedon ships but I’m saying that as long as they’re themselves, they’re one!!

I’m awarding them “Lover” by Taylor Swift!! because theirs is a love that is very rooted in sharing a common home, building a life together, becoming a family. “can I go where you go? can we always be this close? / forever and ever, take me out, and take me home / you’re my my my my lover”

they’re a difficult one to find a parallel for because they have mega “mom and dad” vibes, but they...legitimately never even define the relationship?? I’m stuck and I would like to phone a friend

my perpetual AU is one where Whedon wasn’t a despicable excuse for a human being and didn’t get his revenge on one of his actors for the horrifying crime of getting pregnant by destroying her character out of sheer spite. so like. that woulda been nice.

they did not make the list!

#ask game #anne and wentworth......I mean all of austen's everything is brilliant #but the ROMANCE of them

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tc-doherty · 2 years

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OC Superlatives Tag Game

Tagged by @jess-p-edits thank you! It's very funny to tagged in my own game, but some of the words have changed since I made it! Last time I only gave names of characters so this time I actually talk about that a little bit.

I'm not going to tag anybody because I forget who has done and who hasn't, so just take this as an open tag if you think it's fun!

Most arrogant - Ithea Seilez (Silverwood)

Arrogance is practically her middle name, and undeniably one of her defining traits. I've already talked about how she basically interacts with others by saying "I (affectionate), you (derogatory)" and that is literally true. But she's just the kind of person who knows exactly what she wants and absolutely will take it regardless of the cost to anyone else. The only people that matter to her are the people that she's decided matter to her, anyone else is just someone standing in her way.

Most humble - Arwyn (Miracles)

Arwyn talks down about himself all the time and figuring out the reasons behind all of that is one of the main plot points in the book. It's an interesting combination that he can be willing to blatantly talk about how powerful he is, but still manages to do it in a humble and self depreciating way. He's not humble in the manner of denying what he’s worth, but he’s still definitely humble.

Most charming - Sigrid (Temitope)

Charming with a C! In that…she can literally magically charm people into loving her, and it's an ability that she uses liberally. To be fair, it's an ability that loses effectiveness in certain situations, but even then she's still capable of being charming in the regular way.

Most aggressive - Kradhi Laero (Laero)

Violence is both the question and the answer in her case. It's not that she’s incapable of stepping back and calming down, or proceeding rationally, but she has a very sensitive trigger and will happily respond with violence and aggression at the drop of a hat. She's been trained as a warrior her entire life and its pretty much the only thing that she knows how to do. She also has a very good idea of her worth and will not tolerate disrespect to her or the people that she cares about.

Least talkative - Mahesha (Second Chances)

At the beginning of the book he can't talk at all, and even when he begins talking later, he still doesn't talk very much. He doesn't like talking about himself and he also doesn't like wasting time on things that he considers unnecessary, leading to him being just a rather quiet individual.

Most relatable - Dante (Untitled 1)

I only relate to a few of my characters and most of them are in a negative way (oops). I find Dante very easy to write. He's someone who lives a quiet life, and seemingly has a mild personality. He is very loyal but keeps his emotions under tight control and is somewhat cut off from other people… Absolutely nothing like the author at all.

Least relatable - Seneria Psicore (Celestials)

Active, outgoing, ambitious, and impulsive. Not like me at all. I do love her though.

Most ambitious - Keril (Northbound)

I have a lot of very ambitious characters, because it's a character type that I like to write. But Keril can be so patient about it, and I think that's what makes her the most ambitious. She certainly wants a lot out of life, and she will get it, but she's capable of taking the long road to make sure that when she gets what she wants, nobody else could possibly take it away from her.

Most easy-going - Temitope (Temitope)

She's just very chill and goes with the flow. Again it's basically her defining character trait. She's willing to do what she thinks is necessary and what she thinks is necessary just changes from moment to moment based on what's going on around her. No matter what obstacles she comes up against, she only hesitates for a moment (if it all) before accepting the situation and starting to deal with it.

Most high strung - Kyraen (Northbound)

I probably also have a lot of high strung characters honestly. He is very organized and detail oriented, and also very untrusting of other people. He has great faith in himself and often feels the need to do everything because otherwise he doesn't know that it will get done. Even after living together as long as they have, Risaul is still capable of winding him up so easily and does it all the time. Somehow, Kyraen just never learns or calms down.

Most pretentious - Cyrinene va Lysuin (Coyote Song)

She's a bard who sings what she considers to be truthful historical tales, and hates legends, tall tales, folktales, and fairytales. She goes on an entire quest to try and prove the correct objective truth is the only thing that's needed, and that false stories are detrimental to development. The entire story is incredibly pretentious and so the main character is as well.

Most cheerful - Retta O'Kread (Laero)

I do have a few characters who smile a lot, but out of them I think Retta is the only one who is actually cheerful. She’s just a happy person. She takes almost everything as a joke and definitely enjoys life no matter what's going on.

Most patient - Iskandar (Magic Black as Knight)

He gives off the vibes that he's brash and impulsive, but Iskandar is actually incredibly patient and thorough. That's just what you get growing up in an environment where you think any mistake could literally lead to you getting killed. Iskandar can make decisions quickly, but he never acts until he's thought through all his options.

Most diligent - Sasia (Northbound)

Somebody has to keep Keril alive, and with the number of enemies she makes that’s no small task. Only someone who is thorough and never cut corners would be capable of keeping up with her. No matter how troublesome it is, Sasia will always do her job to the fullest. This doesn't mean that she won't give Keril shit for it though.

#tag games #my characters

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wild-houseplant · 2 years

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It is a ridiculously quiet day today, so the upside of that is that I have finally (FINALLY!! :D :D) got the time to send those asks for cousin Tank and their squad of loved people. If that's too many people (which I conpletely understand), I am most interested in Tank and Isabela, but feel free to pick loved ones as you'd like. Long story short, these are my questions:

8. What are their most prominent memories of each other?

24. Is their any moment that happens between them that you know happens and just makes you melt?

31. Share anything you would like about the couple!

As always, take as long as you'd like and feel free to skip questions ^^ Hope you are having an absolutely spectacular day! :D :D

HEYOOOOOOOO HI! 8D 8D 8D Ooh I had to think a bit for ol' Cousin Tank- not as fleshed out as they could be, poor sod, but we're getting there! Also, sorry for the delay, but now I have answers for you! Tank and Isabela, coming right up! Under the cut, naturally, because I do tend to waffle.

I'll start with 31, sharing anything I'd like about the couple, because this may be pertinent given the nature of this particular ask game: Isabela, in my world state, is aromantic, and her flavour of aromanticism is total apathy to it, maybe a little 'good for you!' if it's someone she likes. So Tank's and her relationship is very much a 'kiss kiss, fall in friendship' sort of dynamic. But when I say fall I mean fall hard. The longer they spend in each other's company, the more certain they are that they're one hell of a good pair. Peas in a pod, two halves of a whole, all that good stuff. Isabela (and Tank, too) are the happiest they've ever been in the Kirkwall polycule. Isabela's surrounded by people she cares about and naturally enjoys herself with, and so is Tank. Everything (rather, everyone) they could have wanted for themselves is living in the Amell mansion, and by golly they're happy as clams in high tide about it. Now for 8, their most prominent memories of each other. For Isabela, it was... well, a bit of a wall incoming for this one, I think. I'm going to say, for safety's sake, that I find the DA2 timeline a bit... messy. I've rearranged it to suit myself, so if anything seems too rushed or out of order on my part, it absolutely is. x) With that disclaimer out of the way, on we go. To set the scene: we're a few months after All That Remains. I hc that Leandra survives (Tank intercepted the vivisection bit and used a lot of horrific blood magic in the process of restoring Leandra’s body into something liveable, before it could completely expire). After receiving Tank’s letter informing them of what happened, Leandra's cousin (Rhod's mother) Revka, along with Aurelio and four of the offspring, break their vow to never return to Kirkwall. They make for the hellhole (affectionate & derogatory) with all due urgency to both support the family and magically assist in any further healing where possible (Evander, younger of the twins, has proven himself to be quite a prolific healer mage, and having had five kids, Aurelio’s not too shabby, himself).

A day or two after their arrival, Rhodri has finished Warden-Commander duties and done the most unceremonious dump-and-run since the Tevinters ditched Ferelden. She's now in Kirkwall, too, stopping only because exhaustion from constant travel forced her to. By the luckiest hap, Tank has Rhodri come along with them and co. after Nuncio puts in an order for a certain Antivan to be delivered into his hands, so we can imagine how that turns out.

That afternoon, a celebration takes place with this cluster of traumatised, overjoyed people who simply cannot believe their luck, all held at the (other) Amell estate where Revka’s branch of the family lived.

The thing with Isabela is that with all the romantic affections Tank gets from Fenris and Varric, she feels terribly (unduly) worried that somehow her own love for them isn’t enough to sustain any long-term interest in a very intimate sense. She doesn’t really get a chance to see much of the platonic kind, because friends are few and far between (or they end up Tank’s partners), and their immediate family is inclined to be rather toxic at times.

But here, at this ecstatic, careworn party, she gets to see the people who Tank grew up with, all revelling in them. Revka mellows Leandra out a lot, so the toxic criticism falls away and it's nothing but praise, praise, praise. Carver's smiling (genuinely!) and slinging an arm around Tank as Auntie Revka talks about Tank spending hours making little Rube-Goldberg contraptions for him that dispensed his favourite snacks. Uncle Aurelio laughs himself to tears recalling how his delightful niece accidentally blew up a hill. The youngest cousin, Bethann, who doesn't do well at parties and is frequently leaving the room to decompress, signs "I love you" to Tank every time she passes them on the way in and out. Other cousins (and sibling! Bethany's alive and kickin'!) are falling over themselves to snare some of Tank's time and attention. (And of course, Rhodri is praising and adoring her cousin to high heaven, amid light hosting duties and trying not to lose her shit about getting Zevran back and seeing her family.)

Isabela watches on with her heart fit to bursting as Tank drinks all this in like a sponge, positively exulting in it-- especially the affection coming from the relatives who were consistently good to them (mostly the aunt/uncle side of the family). Naturally, it’s not quite the same sort of love as Isabela’s (they’re sleeping together, after all). It’s familial platonic. All the same, sitting there and watching this is the wake-up call Isabela needs to see the way Tank is just as moved, just as fulfilled, just as deeply involved in a love that isn’t romantic in nature. By the time the party’s over, Isabela’s been adoring Tank as much as anyone else, and has been adored back twofold. That’s happiness and true love right there. Now, after that enormous wall, for Tank: I have to say, for Tanky Wanky, it’s not so much one single memory of Isabela that stands out for them, but rather a cluster of them that revolve around doing one thing together repeatedly. Tank is a dab hand at mechanics. Inventing, fixing, pulling apart and putting back together for shiggles, high-tech pranks: they’re the one you want to see about it. They’re pretty good at magic, especially blood magic (much to their chagrin), but their true interest and talent lies in building things.

When the money from the Deep Roads exploration came in and Tank was able to buy back the main Amell estate, they immediately installed a workshop out the back so they could fiddle and faddle to their heart’s content.

Like Rhodri, Tank loves company, but nobody ever wanted to come to the workshop with them. Leandra and the siblings weren’t interested, Fenris got uneasy around too many sharp tools ( ;_; ) and Varric couldn’t stand to be around that kind of stuff after Bianca. Nobody wanted to be there.

Except Isabela.

She was happy to sit in there with a bottle of plonk between them until all hours, making conversation with Tank while they worked away. She knew a bit about the art from carrying out basic repairs on her own ship, and was curious enough to ask a few questions here and there. Sometimes she was a spare pair of hands, or a rubber ducky like programmers have, but most of the time she was good company.

It ended up happening so frequently that Tank built a special, comfortable recliner for her that took up half the free space in that cramped little box of a workshop. It’s their little Thing They Do. They still do it. Well, that was another wall. But we made it to 28! Is there any moment that happens between them that you know happens and just makes you melt? Ugh their friendship makes me into a puddle on the reg, I have to say. They’re meant for each other in a way I can’t quite describe, aside from that very hackneyed ‘on the same wavelength’ claim. But it’s the same wave, at the same point in the wave. Just a perfect match, with just enough differences to keep it interesting. They were meandering past a bakery in Lowtown a couple months into the FWB scheme, still long before either of them had much money to their name. Both of them having a sweet tooth, they looked at the window display. “Those cream puffs look a bit of all right, don’t they?” breathes Tank. Isabela nods. “They do, don’t they? I’m quite partial to those, myself.”

Because of course they both like the same confectionery.

They share a shrug and make for the Hanged Man, where they eat dinner and sleep the night in Isabela’s room. In the morning, Isabela wakes first and slips out with her money bag in hand, making for the bakery to buy as many cream puffs for Tank as her funds will allow.

Tank wakes not long after Isabela leaves, and slips out with their money bag in hand, ALSO making for the bakery to buy as many cream puffs for Isabela as their funds will allow.

Isabela returns to the Hanged Man victorious and penniless, clutching a small box with three cream puffs. She makes her way to her room only to find it empty, but Tank’s things are still in there. After checking the facilities and finding them empty, she’s about to leave on a search-and-rescue mission when she catches Tank creeping into her room, victorious and penniless and-- you guessed it-- clutching a box with three cream puffs inside.

A lot of pointing and exclaiming follows, after which the boxes are exchanged, and the cream puffs are devoured with relish and silent adoration.

#god sorry it's so long!!!#Well. Not sorry enough to make it shorter #but here we are #Tank Hawke #and Isabela #(our beloved)#Aromantic Isabela #Dragon Age: 2 #Amell family #askin' games #thank you for the ask mate!! I'm sorry it's taken so long.#I had a ball with this one!!#if your eyes are strained after reading all this you may be entitled to financial compensation

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