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lilacxquartz · 9 days

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Don't Make Me Feel Alive I Chapter 3

Kenjaku (Pseudo-Geto) × Fem!Reader

[This fic contains Shibuya Arc spoilers and is updated every Saturday.]

ABOUT: Diagnosed at an early age with an illness that slowly deteriorated your body; you went from being a promising sorcerer to a retired husk of your once former self until he found you, offering you an opportunity to live instead—not that you had a choice to refuse.

CHAPTER SUMMARY: You are taken out on a little field trip that could have ended better, despite not knowing exactly what you did wrong.

TAGS/THEMES: (in the future chapters): »yandere, chronically ill reader, forced dynamic, non-con, dub-con, violence, caretaking, unrequited feelings, sorcerer reader, dead-dove, mixed pov, potential interpretations of dubious sorcery«

Prev ious Chapter.

Side Note: reminder, this is currently pre-shibuya arc, so some characters will still be present in his alliance. also more dubious sorcery up ahead.

3. Outing

Come the next morning, he was already long awake before you woke up. His gaze fixated on the pendant that rested around your neck, finding its low pulsating hum to be quite soothing as it echoed through the otherwise quiet room.

“I adjusted it for you overnight,” he began, patiently waiting for you to fully awake before continuing, “this time it should use less energy for the things you actively do like walking, but the energy cost will remain the same should you choose to use your technique.”

You furrowed your brows in response, seeming a little confused, “So, I can’t use my technique in the end anyway because it uses up too much energy… or?”

“That’s not what I said,” he corrected you with a slight laugh, “we can train it, the better you get at harnessing your technique, the less energy it will drain.”

“But would that really work…?” you asked.

“Think of it like working out a muscle,” he explained, trying to compare it to something you could understand, “it’ll get easier to manage over time.”

He then stared at you for a long moment as he ensured you kept up with his explanation before having a different thought enter his mind.

Thinking of something new, he broke the silence again, changing up his neutral demeanour to something much more energetic, “I want to test your ability to keep up with me.”

“But,” you halted, feeling still so cautious, “what if it’s like last time?”

“Ah, but I don’t think it’ll be,” he replied, his tone filled with optimism, “besides, what good is it if I trial things on you without you testing them?”

“…Fair,” you sighed, choosing to trust him for now as you sat up from the bed, “So… keeping up with you?”

“I have a meeting of sorts today to oversee some plans in the future, I’d like for you to attend this with me and see how the battery is spent during social settings, if at all,” he explained calmly, his tone sounding suddenly a little clinical despite his relaxed demeanour.

You found him difficult to read as his tone often overrode the look he had in his eyes as well as the smile that he constantly wore. Something about this whole thing felt unsafe, but you had no choice but to go along, so you might as well go along with what was thrown at you.

Meanwhile, his intentions weren’t as terrible as he simply just had an idea to see if the battery drain was strictly physical or if mental stress negatively impacted it as well.

You slowly nodded in understanding, “Also… what do I call you exactly?”

“Anything you’d like,” he replied bluntly. He had so many identities at this point that he didn’t care. Regardless of what name you could conjure up for him, he’s likely lived under that identity for at least a little while.

“Okay, but really, what do you prefer?” you persisted, not quite accepting his answer.

A pause followed as his smile returned, finding the insistence amusing.

“You can call me Kenjaku.”

“And that’s your real name?” you asked.

He nodded in confirmation, “But you can call me anything, however, for the meeting,” he paused for just another moment, “Maybe it’s best for you to call me Geto, instead.”

“Wait, so your allies know you as something different…?” you asked, reading maybe too much into the suggestion.

“I will go as far to admit that this isn’t my true body, so feel free to interpret that as you will,” he continued to say, “I’d prefer if this particular alliance stays in the dark about it”

“Is there a reason why you’re lying to your allies?” you asked as though to recycle your question, unsure why he was avoiding giving you a proper answer. Maybe you shouldn’t have been asking somebody you didn’t really feel too safe around so many questions, but also you wanted to understand who exactly you were working with.

Kenjaku himself didn’t actually mind your relentless curiosity, as he always found people the most interesting when they want to learn more about what’s around them, rather than just accepting things at face value. The only time he felt that people, including sorcerers, were boring, was when they were a little too content with their position in life.

“The alliance is a group of special grade cursed spirits,” he spoke up again after a hot second, studying your reaction as he next considered his tone, “but being what they are, I can’t trust them.”

“Because they’re not human?” you asked once again, trying to keep up.

“That’s not the only reason, but it’s one of them,” Kenjaku confirmed, his expression remaining unreadable.

“So you don’t trust them but you trust me?” you asked, not following along again.

“Who said I trust you?” he smiled.

“D-do you?”

“If I’m being honest, I don’t truly trust anyone,” he replied in a sudden serious tone before it faded away immediately, a wide grin following after, “but that’s enough about me, you’re going to follow me along aren’t you?”

“You’re not giving me much of a choice,” you sulked. You could walk, but you didn’t feel great doing it.

“Correct, but you are free to fight back, you know,” Kenjaku teased, knowing you wouldn’t tempt it.

“Wouldn’t you just stop me?” you warily asked.

“Also correct, so why don’t you behave for now and follow me anyway, unless you’re prepared to find out what happens if you refuse to do so?” he sang almost, still wearing his smile.

Albeit reluctantly, you chose to go along with his request, pressured by what he was doing for you. His vague threat lingered in the back of your mind, reminding you that he wouldn’t let you refuse, wondering exactly what that had truly meant. While his threat remained empty, you couldn’t deny that there was danger behind his words and you weren’t in a shape to find out.

As you walked alongside him too, you couldn’t help but admit that there was a difference in your stride; the adjustments that he made proving seemingly beneficial.

The meet with his alliance proved however brief as he quickly determined that certain aspects of his plans shouldn’t be shared with you, wanting to keep you in the dark about the darker parts just to keep your willing participation—understanding that if you knew the true extent of it all, that you wouldn’t be so keen to help him.

Which would be a problem. For most things, he preferred a willing cooperation, which was what he was aiming to achieve by tricking his other allies too.

This was simply how Kenjaku worked though; he would be selective with his plans and how he chose to tell it and to whom. He told you that he would restore you in return for your cooperation and he told Mahito’s alliance that he’s on their side in exchange to bend them to his will.

Therefore, he decided that your role wasn’t to directly talk just yet. It was to be in the midst of a social setting, humans or cursed spirits be damned—either were draining enough, so he simply just kept you present as a shadowing ally knowing that the alliance wouldn’t care much to ask.

For now given your condition, your use was limited anyway. Even if you did return to your peak condition, he would likely just utilise you in combat regardless since that was his initial plan to exploit your technique.

As such while the discussion happened off to the side, your matters were turned elsewhere—towards a person that didn’t quite seem human but not like the cursed spirits up ahead either; seeking comfort within his company, feeling bored out of your mind.

Initially, Kenjaku paid very little attention towards your interactions with one of his creations, believing that your communication with him would be limited at best. However as you continued to speak with the death painting, he felt something stir deep within him that he didn’t quite like—let alone understand.

You continued your exchange with Choso either way, oblivious to his observations. You somehow got into the conversation about emotions with him.

“I’m sorry, I’m just curious,” the death painting mumbled, hoping to not scare you away—he liked humans and wanted to learn about them, but his opportunities were limited.

“You’re fine,” you tried to reassure, “I’m just a little lost on how to answer that question,” you added with a polite, albeit strained smile.

“Sorry,” he repeated again, his face looking at you with a sat yet fascinated gaze.

“I suppose that it feels a little chaotic, maybe?” you mused, considering his question with more thought. “I think humans tend to be emotionally driven, so maybe to be human is to be unpredictable.”

You paused, trying to determine if your words were even coherent.

“Does that make sense?”

Choso nodded as he processed your answer despite feeling still just a little confused by it—he also had emotions but he didn’t feel motivated by them but maybe he was also missing something.

“A little,” he replied.

He wanted to continue the conversation but the meeting seemed to have been concluded which meant that you were reunited soon with Kenjaku, who chose to move onto the objective of continuing the practice of your technique.

With surprising patience, he encouraged you to release small bursts of your technique as you learned to regain control of it, finding that there was progress to be seen already, causing him some relief as you continued to demonstrate what you were currently capable of, meaning come autumn, you probably could prove useful. With each controlled movement, you proved that the energy handled by the pendant was becoming more and more efficient, which is exactly what he wanted.

“I know you can do better than that” he teased you, wanting for you to increase your output.

You nodded as you then attempted to do just that, finding that you still didn’t have a proper handle of your technique as you were simply too out of practice. As a result, you ended up accidentally sending over a surge of energy far greater than anything you should have been capable of—at least currently.

Kenjaku’s eyes widened slightly in response while maintaining his relaxed posture as he watched you completely drain the pendant of energy once again but in a much greater amount, thinking that luckily you were stood over grass, since the fall wouldn’t be so bad this time.

And then, to his slight annoyance, Choso was the one who caught you mid-fall, leaving him confused as to why the death painting, usually so aloof and distant, suddenly seemed to intervene.

However, he didn’t let his annoyance show at all.

Not once.

He instead continued back with you completely alone, leaving the cursed spirit alliance to their own hideouts, wherever those currently were and even though they didn’t suspect a single thing, he still felt off about something to do with you.

Then there was you, who on the other hand, couldn’t quite shake the feeling that he acted strangely colder towards you as he guided you back, finding that despite his continued silence, there was something different about his overall demeanour.

Feeling confused and weary from what had happened overall, you reluctantly went off to sleep even though there was an unrelenting nagging confusion lurking in the back of your mind, failing to understand exactly why he treated you so well just yesterday ago and why you were now otherwise reduced to barely dirt.

Initially, you wondered if it was because the technique had failed you again.

However, you also found that after you had accomplished a full night’s sleep, that he seemed completely back to normal again.

In fact, he seemed to be over the top thrilled about something.

So what was that really?

Next chapter.

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skyevie · 2 months

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I finally finished both mcl new gen episodes (kind of long post about my opinions and feelings)

Tbh I wasn't so sad about the old mcl coming to an end because I think when armin was removed back in hsl it just prepared me for whatever could come next LMAO. I am a big fan of Jason and Amanda, the rest of the Li's... are there I guess ! I think the new point system is kind of weird and overcomplicated for no reason, I really don't like the fact that we have to pay AP's for dialogue and clothes because I can either buy more clothing/recolors and be satisfied with how my character looks or save up for the new episodes... and the fact that you can't buy AP with money, only the blue hearts that can be traded for AP? (not to mention that the prices went up comparing to go mcl at least in my country) But you also need the blue hearts for those special moment with LI's every ep... like idk its sad that there is a part of content you can miss out because you simply don't want to spend money every time an ep is here lol. The missions (which is basically the eldarya expeditions) are fine since we get clothes for that. The calendar is a nice touch up because it's something new and refreshing. But the paid part and vip subscription and the clothes offers in the shop are the next thing that don't seat well with me.... Like we could get a little more for that price... especially since it rounds up to 120 dollars per year... And the fact that all the cute outfits are locked behind a daily shop rotation that have to use real money on... Oh and the last on the more negative side why does our uncle only give stuff for our fuckass goose.... We love you Taki but it's not that serious we could get like a t-shirt... or smth...

On the positives, I really like the fact that our Candy can have a personality now! Like finally we aren't a blank page that adjusts to the people we talk to and we can have opinions AND THEY MATTER! Also the clothes are much cuter, like finally someone thought - yes u can be an adult and have fun clothing and not dress boring! We love that! And I giggled to myself a little when I read why Candy switched her job lol. Reminder me of Eric's arc Eric we love you forever idc about what other said about your route.

At the end of the day I think I will try the vip for one month just to see is it really like worth it for someone who is going to be rather active on this game. Idk im excited for the plot tbh and especially how much it changes depending on the fact if we romance the Devenementiel LI's or Jason.

Also if anyone needs help with answers to the episodes I can help :3

#mcl #mcl new gen #my candy love #my candy love new gen #my friend asked me if was writing a constitution #otome game so impactful on your life you write a whole pharagraph on tumblr

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f0point5 · 5 months

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no because i totally see the shift in lando!!

i think after japan then qatar with oscar being right there with him as a rookie whilst he was in his fifth year… yeah, a sense of bitterness was noticeable in some instances!

just seems like he’s a bit fed up and it’s rational in some sense. losing out on the sochi win while lewis claims his 100th. he watched daniel get a win in a car he’d been driving for years, compared to daniel’s months. george got his first win, carlos got his then a second with lando right there beside him. then along comes oscar, a rookie, who got settled and was battling for poles/top 5’s and scored his first win (albeit sprint, it’s still a first lando doesn’t have).

all that, with years of zak brown hyping him up and putting him first, it’s easy to see why bitterness would bubble. its come and gone over the years (prevalent, imo, when daniel was initially doing well with mclaren but we know how that went. unfortunately). he’s a first driver with second driver results, it’s why people think he would work with max. enough competition to challenge but not overtake.

he’s a good driver, that’s certain after 2023. whether the bitterness will be gone by bahrain and if performance only betters from last year, we’ll see. it obviously depends how 2024 rolls out and whether the red bull holds the lock out dominance, or whether mclaren/mercedes/ferrari will the walk the walk and do something. mclaren will certainly be a good watch this year, that is if the car doesn’t bottle under last years pressure:/

a teeny part of me feels/wants oscar to get a win before lando but i think that’s the villain in me🫡

I just want to start this off by saying I am a professional hater, so I also want Oscar to get his first win before Lando. I kind of want Oscar to do a Carlos and be the only non RB win next year lol. Just because when I see that “it should have been me” attitude, all I want is for it to NEVER be them. Like, it still tickles me that George has won more recently than Lewis. Oscar being the most recent driver to win, after Danny Ric, would be cinema. And even though I have hope that Lando will let out the hot air eventually, I just need a revenge arc.

Okay onto my Bitter Lando Medium Deep Dive (it’s not a proper deep dive because I could go for hours lol).

I feel like Lando came late to the “best of the rest” party, so he was still kind of processing how unbeatable Max is by the end of the season when everyone else had kind of settled into the groove. Like he spent the first half of the season thinking “if I just had the car I could do what others can’t” (and lbr that’s the angle the media was pushing, that if Lando had the car he would be a challenge for Max) and then he got up there and was like…oh wait no I can’t. He got up there and a) he wasn’t really troubling Max and b) he still had other drivers up there (eg the four car race in Singapore) as well as his rookie teammate to contend with and c) he was still making mistakes under pressure. I think Singapore was a bit of a wake up call for him that Max wasn’t necessarily the fight for him up front, because even without Max he couldn’t win, and then when Max was back, there was no question. I think that took the wind out of his sails. Maybe if he’d been up there since the beginning of the year things would have been different but I think he was waiting for his chance all season and when it came the disappointment hit him hard.

And then there’s Oscar. The rookie who outqualified him in Japan, who wins the sprint in Qatar, whose contract is extended beyond Lando’s. Oscar is already being talked about as WDC potential while Lando keeps getting asked why he can’t win a race. The way Lando takes public opinion to heart, that can’t be easy.

When everyone says the McLaren is the only car that can challenge a red bull, but Lando isn’t challenging Max, I guess he has to wonder if it’s him that’s not good enough.

I understand the bitterness, but at the same time, it comes across as undeserved arrogance. “It should have been pole”…woulda shoulda coulda lando, but you didn’t, did you? So just take it on the chin.

I am not hopeful of McLaren maintaining the performance leap of last year, but if they do, I don’t see things with Lando going back to the way they were. I think the climate is starting to get a bit dicey for that generation of drivers because they’re getting to the crossover stage where it’s either going to happen for them or it’s not. Lando is in an RB era, with a teammate who isn’t likely to be destined to be a second driver, and he’s stuck with him till 2026 now. I don’t see how that pressure gets better unless McLaren goes back to the midfield.

This was a jumbled rant but I could literally talk for days about this because I feel like Lando is the most honest/visible with his emotions about what’s probably in the back of a lot of driver’s heads rn.

#f1 #formula 1 #lando norris

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hopefull-mindset · 3 months

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Lately I've been thinking about the current progression of the story, obviously we are nowhere near the ending, however, what are your thoughts towards how the main story is going to end?

Based on what we know so far how do you think what do you think the climax and the resolution the story is going to be? Because so far it seems like it's going to be something related to the book, but there's so many plot points and characters that we haven't even really touched on yet and I'm wondering if we ever will (for example the order of the clock tower was this just a one and done thing or are we getting more on that Asagiri????)

I am SO sorry. I got sick on the weekend I was thinking of answering this. Then I got completely stuck on what I wanted to say because honestly I have no idea where this series is going besides a few things I know Kafka Asagiri wouldn't leave behind. I have faith in him and I feel like him pulling along Nathaniel Hawthorn for this long into the story and knowing when Fitzgerald would have involvement proves he doesn't forget about his previous storylines.

I see complaints sometimes about how Steinback’s side plot with the Guild is never touched on again and it's like?? Because there's already so much going on already?? I'm personally impressed with how Asagiri handles this bunch of characters and that's why I'm not impressed with complaints about the female characters getting “no” screentime. I think some of you really need to reread the manga because, of course, it would feel that way if you needed to split it between all these characters and have a smaller amount of female characters compared to guys.

It's an ongoing story so treat it like an ongoing story. Some criticisms I see of BSD really feel like they're in bad faith and don't give it any grace. To me, that's really depressing. I don't know what some of you even want from him. I'll move on now to your actual question.

This is a character-driven story with hmm, well I shouldn't say it doesn’t have a clear plotline because the antagonists have a clear goal for The Book, but it's not a story where the protagonist is driven to do anything besides overcome himself. I have ideas on what future plotlines would look like, but not all of them.

There are things that are absolutely going to be followed up on. Like how 55 Minutes’s story was left on a mystery to be explored in a future arc. 55 Minutes was very involved in the Great War and Europe, so I’m guessing some of that will be explored in due time. I’m not very good at guessing so I’m not the best to be asked on theorizing that far into the future.

How about I just speak on the present arc? I think that will be easier and it's good to work with the pieces we have. The ending is much too far into the future for me to come up with anything, really. This series is much too technical with its reference and motivations to say anything other than, “We should expect this stuff in the light novels to play into the story later.”

Since I gave myself some time to think this over, there are some things I am completely sure of having a critical role in the present and future of this story—besides the obvious lasting effects of the Great War and the storm Verlaine mentioned waiting for very much having to do with the Clock Tower’s eventual involvement.

I’ve been thinking about them a lot and I hadn’t realized this was my chance until now! So exciting! I mean these two tend to cross over for me.

55 Minutes is the 4th light novel in this series. Anyone who has read it loves it because of the focus on world building and getting to follow Atsushi for once in novel form. I went into it thinking that it was going to be a quick, self-contained story that happens a bit after the guild arc, but I was shocked to see that there were so many questions unanswered! On purpose obviously to set up a plot line for the future, but man.

While I am excited for many things from the light novels to be answered in the main story, I want to bring attention to the main antagonist. The living ability of Jules Gabriel Verne AKA Gab. Verne was a part of The Seven Traitors, a group that committed itself to stopping the war by any means necessary. They were what the Armed Detective Agency is to Atsushi for him. His ability (The Mysterious Island) absorbed other users’ abilities, so long as they were on an island he claimed as his domain.

By the time the war had ended, he was alone again and the rest of the members were either dead and disappeared. Verne decided to stay and maintain the Standard Island so his friends had a place to come back to. Fourteen years pass and a deadly weapon called Annihilation and it's maker, H.G. Wells, came onto the island. Annihilation had been stolen from her and Verne agreed to help her get it back from the terrorists under the name “Gab”. The terrorist in question being the colonel, not to be confused with the character of the same title who was an executive to the Port Mafia.

This colonel had actually been the former leader of the group who had called themselves Mimic after being abandoned by their country and had heard his men drifted to Yokohama, only to die there in vain. I wonder if that connects to anything that happened in another light novel, wink wink.

It wasn’t hard for Verne to find where it was hidden, but next he had to come up with a way to get it back without using his ability. He decided to join the thieves that had snuck onto the island by turning himself into a teenager and asking to be the pupil of the boss so he could borrow his ability to go through walls. It had worked as planned, until Wells was hit by a stray bullet and died. He was devastated that he couldn't save this one woman.

His solution to save her was to absorb her ability (Time Machine) to go back 55 minutes in time to reverse what had happened. That worked, but then he thought of another thing: if he absorbed her ability again, couldn't he go further back in time to get a better result? Wells’s ability has the condition that it could only send a person back in time once, but by absorbing it again, he can ignore it as if he were using it for the first time. He regretted how many of the colonel's soldiers had died and he never learned his motivations in the end.

He was right, but creating the perfect future is almost impossible because of how someone always gets hurt in the process. Every time he succeeded, there was only the “what if?” hanging over him that this wasn't enough. The more he used the ability, the further he could go into the past. Even larger ideas had come into his head. What if he could reunite with his friends? What if he could prevent the entire war from happening? He hadn't realized just as Wells's ability evolved, something else would too: Gab, the island and the boy he posed as.

It overtook him and left to reside inside his own flesh as an echo of his own self, at the very corner of his mind. He died and Gab had been birthed from it. Gab is an unstable creation and even so, his humanity still urges him to keep living no matter what. So instead of being motivated to repeat time to save others, he keeps living to save himself so he doesn't fall back into the darkness of an unknown waiting for him.

I could keep going and talk about how he's pretty much the embodiment of the themes present in BSD, his resemblance to Atsushi that the narrative points out so graciously, and the nature of what he is supposed to be in the grand scheme of BSD, but this isn't why I brought him up.

55 Minutes has aspects that have appeared in the main story ever since the Decay of Angels have taken their place in the manga as antagonists. Dazai’s ability to control his heartbeat, time travel, Akutagawa calling Atsushi his “trial” and fighting out at sea, and the Great War being the source of the conflict. Now what if I propose my idea of what had happened to Fukuchi to be similar to what had happened to Verne when he had used Wells’s ability?

This is Fukuchi’s corpse reanimated, I think we all know it. While it’s possible Fyodor must've put a safeguard to put the condition for this to have happened or that this is a Fukuchi from another universe, I think what had happened altogether, in the end, was the consequence of using Amenogozen so freely to the point he was messing with the state of the timeline and creating paradoxes. The backlash of this divine blade had either created a divine being or let one reside in him.

It's not only 55 Minutes that has parallels/foreshadows what's to come, but Untold Origins as well. I do like noticing how Kafka Asagiri adds things so they fit more snuggly into what's to come later in the season or make the connection more obvious, like Fukuchi having a feature when Fukuzawa is visiting Oda behind bars and Fyodor appearing on the roof when Fukuzawa monologues about “V”.

I think I've been seeing some people notice this too, but I think the play featured is incredibly important. Like really, really important. I mean beyond any resemblance people saw in the visuals used in the anime background that looked like Fyodor being crucified. I feel unprepared to talk about it, so I hope I make some sort of sense.

“The Living World Is a Dream. The Nocturnal Dream is Reality” is a real quote from Ranpo Edogawa and is used as the name for this play. Twelve fallen angels gather in an old theater to earn god’s forgiveness. They had disobeyed god in the past by wanting to coexist with human beings and were shunned after the fact. During this, they are killed off one by one without the killer ever being seen. The killer, as the script follows, is a supposed angel of judgment, but it's hard to tell for the others if it really was an angel imparting their judgment or a serial killer because of how common the methods seemed to be. That is their mystery to be solved.

One of the fallen angels claims that an angel would use a divine blade to purge them and not methods like these, while another begs the question of why a fellow sinner would go after them and that an angel would have a real motive to have them killed. Their reason to going to this old theater is because they were searching for an ability user. In this fictionalized story, ability users are angels who had fallen but were able to atone and given a portion of their power back. Their hope is that when they encounter the ability user, they will gain atonement as well.

Suddenly, Murakami (the lead performer) is stabbed by a blade that came from nowhere. Completing the promised threat of an organization named “V”:

“An angel shall bring death, in the truest sense of the word, to the performer.”

So, what happened?

As he takes his newfound identity as an “ability user” in pride on stage and claims himself to be the savior of all, Ranpo explains that the angel that the play refers to is the audience watching it. A metaphor to how the audience is invisible to the characters on stage and knew almost every that had happened, but Ranpo also says that because the audience couldn't have laid a finger on the them, it means the angel couldn't have been the killer.

The “angel” was more the victim than anything and the so-called judgment imposed was the show of what was originally regarded as another victim. The switching of roles. The same thing has also applied to this murder. While Murakami was regarded the victim, the accused killer the police suspected was a man under a fake name who has randomly disappeared. Tied up behind the currents, the man had been here all along. The true victim of this case.

Which makes Murakami the real culprit of his own “murder”, but he's only a piece of the picture. After getting arrested, he speaks about how he had planned with the playwright about this but has no clue what capturing the older man was for. Not even after saying this, a detective rushes in saying that the playwright had been impaled with no weapon to be found.

Again, after an officer who had worked for the mysterious group “V” and tried to kill Ranpo after refusing to join them had been arrested, he was also killed the same way as the playwright. I feel like I don't even need to say that this “V” group is obviously the Decay of Angels after laying that out. The same motivations as Fyodor (”rid all evil of this world”) and the sword business is Fukuchi silencing people.

What was the purpose of the play though?

Besides capturing Natsume Soseki (if you haven't read it), it was foreshadowing for what was to come. Let's abandon the idea that skill users are redeemed angels for a second. Just a second, I promise. Have you ever looked up what Kaumi (神威) even means?

While one of the first results you get will refer you to gods themselves, you should be focusing on a more literal translation. That being “God’s Authority” or greater divine power, making Fukuchi function basically as Fyodor’s own angel of judgment. Let's say that ability users are the sinners and Fukuchi (or Fyodor) is the one imposing their judgment, even if they should've been in the same boat.

Just like the play, they swap the victim (Armed Detective Agency) and the killer (The Decay of Angels) for the public‘s unknowing view. This play is filled with Fyodor’s personal bias and I think the irony of their searching for the “ability user” in the play is that to Fyodor, there's no such thing as a redeemed ability user. There is only salvation of death for this great evil and that is exactly what happens to the characters from the play.

Ranpo filps this narrative on its head and forcefully changes the ending of the fallen angel. He wasn't a part of the story, he forcefully shoved through its bullcrap to create something much more ideal. Something much less miserable. It's a little fun that two people he goes out of his way to help out (Yosano & Mushitaro) both have the title of “angel of death/murder” as that's how the angel of the play is also referred to. Save the killer that was actually a victim…

With that, I really shouldn't abandon how ability users get referred to with titles like angel and demon right? Chuuya had an angelic allusion in Storm Bringer when he activated corruption for the first time, and hell, look at my buddy Gab and his mechanical wings. The further they transcend themselves of their humanity, the more angelic or demonic they become. There really is no true difference between them though.

This should've been about the trajectory of bsd…. Then it became me wanting to talk about DOA crap….

Well, I really don't know much. I connected dots that were there for me, but nothing to say for the future of BSD. I understand what is happening, but not enough to be psychic haha. I mostly went on about that because I didn't want our conversation about what is currently happening to be pushed aside because there's always more to say. Maybe if I read more of the authors involved, maybe I'd know.

If this is disappointing, oh well! It has taken me so long to think of something to say that the new chapter has already come out. Kafka Assgiri always leaves me with more questions than answers.

What even are abilities anyway?

#bsd #bungou stray dogs #bsd meta #bsd analysis #fukuchi ouchi #bsd fukuchi #bsd 55 minutes #bsd untold origins #ranpo edogawa #bsd fyodor #the decay of angels #i should stop narrating the stories of the novels #i was going to say more #but I'm tired #the best I can say is to think of the questions bsd offers you and reread the series at any chance #you'll get more information each time and come up with more ideas for the future of BSD

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sio-lokistiel · 8 months

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Hi!! So I'm a fairly strong chuck won believer (i have been given some Extremely convincing evidence and I think its interesting to think about so) but I saw a post you made about how that theory disregards cas and jacks arcs and I was just wondering if you could expand on that? I'm super open to interpretations lol and I'm really curious to hear the other side (i haven't seen too much anti chuck won stuff so I dont know the arguments)

Okay, oh boy. I guess part of it is what exactly you mean by “Chuck Won” because I understand it on a censorship level. Yes, Chuck was representing the network. Yes, the network meddled and cut Dean’s reciprocation and we ended up with that garbage finale with pages of [OMITTED] in the script. So, if that’s all you mean by “Chuck Won” then yeah, whatever I guess.

Idk, some people probably feel it’s a legitimate theory simply because Dean died. It seems a lot of the fandom thinks death = bad…and that’s just not the case now that Jack freed the souls. I mean, I can throw quotes from The Mummy and Lord of the Rings at you about how death is the next step in journey. So while I’m no longer upset about Dean dying in general, especially because it was foreshadowed, the way he died was so fucking dumb. That doesn’t mean I think it has anything to do with Chuck.

Cas’ arc was all about self-actualization. His speech in Gimme Shelter explains a good part of it with how he found purpose having a family and becoming a dad, BUT him also realizing that having himself is important, too. Then, oh goodness, we reach the culmination in Despair (The Truth) when he realizes happiness is in the saying, in accepting your truth, both the good and bad bits of yourself. The Empty comes and he reintegrates with his Shadow to become whole and saves Dean, the world, and himself in the process. Yes, that’s a whole bunch of Jungian psychology stuff and it’s a lot to process and I’m probably not doing the best job of explaining it. Most of the Chuck Won theory stuff I’ve seen ignores all that and seems to ignore the canon that Cas IS in heaven. I understand the disappointment of Cas and Dean not reuniting, YET. Corporate fuckery (and Covid) kept it from happening in the finale with the original Roadhouse ending that was planned and then scheduling conflicts and Jensen and Misha agreeing Cas needed more than a cameo kept him from being in The Winchesters.

And Jack. Jack was literally the whole goddamn point. The two big things are he’s possessed and sometimes dead because of this, or he is corrupted somehow. I have never seen a convincing damn argument for either of these things. There’s one post that tries to compare some his mannerisms to Chuck, but is filled with so much straw grasping and reaching I’m surprised the author didn’t need a doctor afterward. Another is that some people project on the poor boy so much and just they don’t like his arc, they want to think something is wrong. There is a lot more Pagan stuff about Jack and the number of mythologies where some god is brought down by being a power hungry dickhead and that comes back to bite them in the ass as a grandchild in Jack’s case removes them from power. There are better people to explain all the Pagan imagery surrounding Jack; my tag #jack is the orphic egg should get you to some really good stuff. I’m also not down to argue about how the last 3-5 seasons are meant to read with a Pagan lens. There was one group who predicted the end of the mothership months in advance and then all of The Winchesters and it wasn’t the people clinging to some white Christian reading.

Last thing, I just personally find the theory really lazy as well. I would legitimately be so disappointed in Jensen and whoever ends up writing the next chapter whether that’s Robbie or someone else if they went that route. Luckily, they are all smarter than that and I can see them seeming to lean into it, but then having the most fabulous rug pull! This is very long, oops.

#jack kline #castiel #spn #spnwin #fuck chuck won #anon ask #hermeticism #long post

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diesoonandsuffer · 10 months

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I FINISHED TNG!

please clap.

i never actually did an update on my thoughts post since season 3, so i figured before i watched the movies i'll do a summary of my thoughts on the show.

first off it apparently took me over a year to finish it since i started in july of 2022, and it's now august of 2023. this isn't because i didn't like it or anything, i just kept doing other stuff and unlike with tos, i wasn't watching it WITH someone, so i wasn't on a schedule of any kind. however i did enjoy the show, i grew to like the characters quite a lot and i was invested in their stories. it was definitely a different vibe to tos, while tos is quite episodic, campy, and a bit dated, tng is less campy, a bit less episodic, and slightly less dated lol. it did kind of annoy me that we would start to get these longer arcing plots and then they would be abandoned or forgotten. for example at the beginning of the show it seemed like riker and troi were going to have a lot more "drama" in the show but nothing really happened with them, and then at the very end of the show they put her with worf and don't really explore that fully. i don't just mean romantic pairings but that's an example of what i mean. there was also just a general quality difference in episodes, maybe it was more noticeable here than in tos since tng was longer, but towards the end of the show in particular we got really good episodes followed by quite shit ones. by the time the show ended i didn't really feel like it was ready to end, if that makes sense. i feel like it was always toeing the line between being episodic and being a show with long plots. in general -- was fun. i had a good time. i've forgotten a lot from the beginning but oh well.

here i'll give my thoughts on the characters since that's what i used to do. in no particular order:

picard: i really don't have many strong opinions about him, some episodes he definitely was more entertaining than others. i think i would have liked to see him fail more often because generally he seems too capable at times. i do enjoy the rare moments where he loosens up. despite the longer screentime he had i weirdly feel like he has less depth than kirk? let me know if this is a crazy take but i don't feel like picard is a particularly complicated man, he doesn't seem like he has a lot of inner turmoil or conflict about things, meanwhile kirk is going through it at all times. not to constantly compare the two but. well, i just did

troi: the most beautiful woman in the world i'm such a whore when i look at her. when she got a real uniform i whooped and hollered and when she become a COMMANDER bitch?!?!?! i really do wish they did more with her character she had sooooooo much potential with being half-betazed and they never really give it the exploration it deserves, they use it when its convenient and forget when it isn't. i feel like if we had gotten one more season she could have really shined but they were like i know let's spend the last couple of episodes we have with her making her date worf i guess. also why did they give her mom so much trauma. that wasn't nice.

worf: i grew to like him more and more as the show went on, like whenever i would realize the episode i was watching was going to be a worf-focused episode i would get excited. he's one of those unintentionally funny characters which makes him entertaining, but i also find it interesting seeing the way he balances his klingon heritage with his role as a starfleet officer. i love how much he loves being a klingon, and how he always wants to teach other people about it and let them, in turn, learn more about him. he cares deeply and he tries hard even if he doesn't get it right. i know he's in ds9 so i'm happy to see more of him when i finally get to that

riker: we didn't get enough of him tbh. it felt like there would be multiple season gaps between his solo episodes. like for someone who is the first officer he didn't feel very relevant to the show, they stopped caring about his character after a while. he would have maybe a small arc in certain episodes but he was mostly there because he had to be? maybe the sporadic way i watched is effecting my memory on this. but i really like him, i think he's funny and i like his rogue tendencies.

geordi: we also didn't get enough of geordi. i love him but i feel like i barely know anything about him. but i love how genuinely kind and caring he is, and he's also in the scotty position of "the ship would fall apart without him" i feel like every episode picard would be like geordi fix this! help! also i wish he would have kissed the android.

data: hey it's the android. i love this dude. however i am getting a little overexposed to the dude and i know the movies are only going to continue that. idk why by s6-7 they were like "we're out of ideas for data. what if he liked killing and hurt his crewmates and was maybe evil" which is so lazy. like it would all somehow get resolved by the end and everyone would just move on like data wasn't a genocide machine two minutes ago. the finale reminded me of the way data used to be, where he would constantly ask people questions and say obvious things, and i realized i really missed that. he has dreams and shit now he's not really as compelling. he's been a human to me from day 1 so they didn't need to do all that. however brent spiner continues to be very funny.

beverly: um she certainly was there. don't get me wrong i like her but i feel like i never had any strong attachment to her. she didn't get many solo episodes and the last one i can remember (with the fucking. ghost?) was not good. yeah i can't really think of anything else to say. she's fine.

wesley: ok i know he like left the show after a certain point but i would be remiss to mention again that his arc did not end in a good way and he should get to take a NAP why does he have to keep being SO SPECIAL. also why does anyone ever hate this kid he was like 12 he literally was so non offensive to the show. but i did really like every time he came back after wil wheaton left i feel like wesley brings a new perspective to the show that is needed.

honorable mention ro laren: she's my icon right now so i feel like i have to mention her. i would have loved to see more of her in the show, i found her character really compelling and complex. i liked how she was always a bit of a bitch. i'm on the fence of how i feel about her arc ending, i feel like the episode with geordi and the one where she was turned into a kid both were made to help her feel more like the enterprise could be a home for her. they didn't give me much reason to believe otherwise? i don't care about her leaving, i liked that both her and wesley left starfleet even if the show didn't have the time or capacity to explore it, but i didn't fully believe her reasoning. but i loved every time she was there.

i have probably forgotten. many things. i was in the sun all day and maybe have heat exhaustion. but i'm starting generations in like 10 minutes and i realized i needed to make this post before i watched it. thank you for coming along on this year-long journey of me watching tng. we did it boys

#when i finish the movies i'll be able to follow people who post tng stuff #then i can add my thoughts to those posts as they come up #for now have the brain soup #tng lb #tng #sam's thots

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seelestia · 2 months

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YEEE NPNP!! college was nervewracking ngl (still is), at least when i started last year august iirc? but yeah! do you know what major you want? alas i cannot chill as much as i used to smh

heheh fr tho >:3 i think the fontaine arc was really well written and went into more depth (get it? depth? waters? ok i'll stop now) and because of how much lore we were given since it seems to be more complex ngl. as for myself, i'm sticking albedo and lyney under the microscope so i can understand them both better

especially albedo. i'd very much like to pick his brain the same way i wanna pick my boyfriend's- coughs

HEJSJD THE WAY I STARTED SMILING AFTER READING THE HCS,,needed that ngl cuz i've been stressed a lot. but i think bedo would be the kind of person who'd do that and create an artificial flower and then name it after me hehehe

but hey, who's to say wanderer wouldn't leave you a flower someplace where you can find it? just a small and sweet gesture and will very most likely deny it (and fails) when you tease him for it mwehehhe i can be devious too ya know or maybe even ayato leaves you a little present like a bracelet or hair accessory after a long day of work

AND NOO ITS OK I LOVE LISTENING TO UR RAMBLES TOO /gen /pos

actually yea i do have some new vibedo trivia! we've officially become engaged and he was the one who proposed first <3 that and he has a tendency to call me "sweet violet" since its an actual flower as well hehe. and tysm!! i'm honestly just doing my best to stay happy since my irl bedo is like very complementary to my personality if that makes sense? like he tends to wear darker clothing, i tend to wear a lot of pastels kinda thing. and so far, we're doing rlly good! sure there are some challenges we're dealing with now but im doing my best to stay positive ^^

also me being 20 ew. somehow i'm still being referred as old sheesh

ok im done rambling now im passing the mic to u hehe /lh

ah, truly. the price of education = freedom to chill !!! 😔 but alas, life is a ongoing journey with hurdles (and i happen to not be an athlete /j). currently, i have my eyes on a social science major atm! so i can hopefully pursue psychology :3 but my second choice is english bcs i cannot stray from the path of linguistics and literature no matter how much i tried /pos. ALSOSOSO if you don't mind, can you tell me more abt what you do in your course? i did my research on google but i think it cannot compare to someone with the actual experience™ ++ i'm just a curious cat and want to enable your rambles hehe <3 /lh

THE PUN, HELP. i agree, the fontaine quest deffo made some waves when it ended. OH I SEE!!! at first glance, i thought i could find a similarity between albedo and lyney (finding vi's type: a reality show jkjk we all already know it's albedo /hj) but the longer i looked, the more i questioned myself 😭 i do think that both of them are deeper than what people credit them for tho! albedo with his knowledge of khemia.... and lyney with his burdens as the next 'father'..... ooOOooO. some emphasis for now on lyney bcs of the 4.6 trailer that just dropped! DID YOU SEE IT YET VI 👁️ (but dw, i understand if you had no time / busy with college!) { the comment abt picking your bf's brain LMAO would he let you?? oh, truly, love is blind 🤭 /lh }

always happy to provide you with hcs!!! my brain buzzes with possibilities all the time && one of the things i love most abt selfships is analyzing how different personalities come together to form habits / idiosyncrasies / love languages of their own. like how albedo conjures up an artificial flower bcs he is simply reminded of his sweet violet — that is special and unique to you in a way. it's vv beautiful, i think!!

AND HSHDHWHSH. THE HCS??? vi, i cannot convey how much i appreciate you. i haven't indulged in my selfships for some time since i didn't have time to be active - so this made me SOSOSO happy aaaaaa!!! but wanderer definitely has left some flowers for me before bcs who else? i suggested the possibility of another suitor and he knocked me on the head (softly) YOWCHHH but hey, at least he admitted it was him! :3c and 'yato.... aghhhhh this man. he leaves a hairpin out in the open but tells me “not to touch it until he gets home” just so he can put it on me himself. he derives joy from seeing me hold back from snatching that thing up myself. meanie /j

AWWW THAT'S SO CUTE!! you two are the apt presentation of “opposites attract”. and i'm glad! i only have average experience with relationships but i think everyone agrees that a relationship isn't sunshine and rainbows all the time. that's as natural as our having good days and bad days in a week. i think what matters is how you both deal with them - and i believe in you & your bf! you're a good egg and ik your bf is too, so do what you both know is best <3 (forgive me if i sound like a grandma here /j BUT hooray to vi and irl albedo! my new fav couple yesyesyes)

#not sure why people think 20 is old... that's like the prime of your life!!#who cares abt them!!! live your life like you're forever young i say 🫂🫂#ask box! 📬#visitor: dearest vi! 🍡#selfships! 🧸#<- a new tag bcs selfships deserve a tag of its own <33

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chemicalbrew · 11 months

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@elendsessor listen, I love your blog and the way you curate stuff!!! that comment was honestly self-defeatist on my part, and I'm sorry if it made you doubt yourself, you're one of my absolute favorite mutuals at the moment (even though we don't talk, your blog is so awesome!), and I was genuinely worried you'd not follow me back when you remade, wahhh (mostly because I barely post fandom lately, and all I do is lazily scroll my dash and scout the katana zero tag, and I am so self-conscious about how much i love kz these days... i gotta stop with that)

ANYWAY!! back to your original inquiry, at full force

9. worst part of canon

stealth levels in games that are not otherwise about stealth tend to be quite ruinous. off the top of my head, two examples I am forever a little salty about are Ghost Trick and Katana ZERO (though it's partially optional in the latter - I always opt to kill my way through the prison on replays)

For Ghost Trick, that's legitimately the only issue I have with it. For Katana ZERO, however... the ending stretch of the plot is somewhat poorly paced\unsatisfying compared to everything else + hard mode is genuinely unbalanced to the point where I actually gave up on it last month (but god, the itch to play more has not left)

SMT4: rapid-fire complaints from someone who hasn't played other SMTs yet: most of the plot after the Tokyo reveal felt weak, the game needed to be a little more obvious early on about how your choices matter, I wish Flynn had a bit more personality, just to match his companions, the Isabeau twist in particular sucks ass, Burroughs turning out to be a goddess sucks even more, App Point costs were unbalanced, they could have afforded to use multiple asset sets for Domains, I didn't like the prospect of endgame grinding.

I said Chrono Trigger is perfect, but that's only if you ignore what follows after (especially the tie-ins attempted in CTDS). I still do not have it in myself to wholeheartedly love Chrono Cross

Pyre is a wonderful game, but the second half of it was a huge drag and could stand to be less repetitive

Hades has an ending that basically ruins the rest of the plot and it's BAD. also, endgame grind is way too tedious and the progression system can break in places

Brandish 1: the remake doesn't have speed options like the original game did, Tower is a bland-looking stage with awkward music, boss music in this game is uninspired outside of HEADLESS Brandish 2: literally nothing important to the larger narrative happens in this game when you think about it, endgame is not fun and absolutely ridiculous (I get why, but this is truly old school game design at its worst), boss music still sucks (most of the OST outside of the opening hour is honestly weak), there's a different Tower and it sucks for different reasons (backtracking yay) Brandish 3: the fact that the translation isn't out yet (serious answer: this game, iirc, has more backtracking than the others. Sanctuary was a really gimmicky stage in particular) Brandish 4: for fuck's sake, who decided the Temple stage was acceptable? it's literally an assault on the senses

Trails series: awful with ships. awful. the main ship of the first arc of the series is a case of adopted incest lol there's some other really gross tropes like this all throughout and I really don't feel like reciting them right now, so... I'll list other stuff: the games weren't intended to have multiple difficulties, so playing on anything that's not Normal will suck in some way you have to be extraordinarily meticulous to 100% or use a guide as the series went on, it became easier to break the difficulty into pieces with how ridiculous skills get despite that, superbosses and scripted losses that you have to win to 100% are a tradition of the series and can be really annoying to deal with as the series went on, it also started using more modern anime tropes to appeal to more people and it UNFORTUNATELY has been working

Ys series: modern games suffer from trying to be more like Trails, which they shouldn't <3 end of story

Xenoblade 1: battle system as a whole was unrefined and unsatisfying, worst sidequests in the series, female party members are all suffering in some way (Sharla's arc was cliche and unsatisfying, she sucks to use, her design is awkward; Fiora's situation was not explored deeply enough and she got fridged; Melia suffers in the story so much it almost turns into comedy and suspends disbelief) the only antagonist that resonated with me was Zanza.

Xenoblade 2: (DLC fixes most of this) The obvious: there needed to be less titties; The obvious again: Tora's introduction sucks ass (and he doesn't get truly better ever :() AND Tiger! Tiger! can go fuck itself; The introduction in general is slow and is why I won't replay this even though it's a GOAT; I actually like the gacha being around (I got lucky and the only real trouble I had was getting KOS-MOS imo), but it should at least become infinitely more generous in NG+. AT LEAST THAT. The infamous roadblocks to 100% like Ursula's affinity chart; The UI issues that everyone harped enough on; The maps got so much worse in this game compared to 1 like? I had so much trouble navigating here compared to other XB games.

Xenoblade 3: (DLC fixes most of this) literally the worst antagonists in the series; not a great party either (RIP Sena); Noahmio was kinda boring for half the runtime; in general the messages made by the game are not interesting to me and did not resonate like 2 did; the class system ruins every good change made to battle system; chain attacks suck, and not just their music - they're worse than 1's; weakest soundtrack (same issue as Brandish 2, where it starts strong but as a whole is eh); probably the only XB game that I do not ever intend to actually finish, because it's such a slog somehow.

The only sin Kid Icarus Uprising committed was its control scheme. Might have been justified, but it sucks.

Ace Attorney has too many issues to count <3 I'll just mention that: The series as a whole sucks at guiding you when you get stuck Big Top sucks, we all know this AA6 ruined Athena and Apollo and has questionable setting\design choices AAI2's last case dragged on for too long even if it was hype

13 Sentinels: Aegis Rim's battle system as a whole really sucks if we're being honest, and nowhere is this shown off better than the final battle.

VA-11 Hall-A often goes overboard with humor, but its worst offense is the optional bullet hell minigame they put in

#zero.txt #whew i like pointing out flaws in things #TO BE ABSOLUTELY CLEAR ALL OF THESE ARE GAMES\SERIES I LOVE AND I WOULD NOT RATE THEM LOWER THAN 8\10 (except for xb3)#i could have elaborated on ys tbh but every game is so different....

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regulusrules · 1 year

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Chain of Thorns Review ✯✯

Beware, you are going to be staying here for a long while because I wasted my entire night writing this out of spite.

I'm going to start by accentuating how much of a CC lover I am. TID was exceptional. TDA had characters that snuffed my soul. Even TMI had its good moments with me, no matter how much I hate Clary. But nothing compared to TLH. It was a series I thought of recurringly. The fact that it was a continuation to TID made me go absolutely bonkers when I first read CHOG. It was perfect. Perfect in its characterization. Perfect in representation. Perfect in every single aspect I could think of.

Until this book.

If I've learned anything, it's that you either die a hero or live long enough to see yourself become a villain. And this is exactly what happened with CC here. She ruined everything by writing this book the way she did. Utter waste of paper. Utter waste of time. I wish she had just left us at her cliffhanger to Paris in CHOI rather than shitting her way out in this one. Truly, it would have been more dignified than what she did here.

But where do I start? Lord, I literally wrote a checklist of all the things that went wrong in the book so that I wouldn't forget mentioning them. It's a list I never thought would be warranted for a CC book, let alone the culminating book of my favourite characters. The book just went on and on, repetitive and insanely ruinous to all what you hoped for. You wanted her to do justice by Matthew with him realising that he's not actually in love with Cordelia but with the idea of her? No, let's make it a fucking love triangle instead. You wanted Cordelia to exude the glorious power and grace that she had? No, let's reduce her to a stereotypical girl torn between two boys. You wanted James to be the ever-giving, everloving continuation of Will Herondale? No, let's shun him in speculative introspections instead and just give him a badass move in the chapter before the epilogue so that by the last page he's a semblance of the MC we fell in love with.

I haven't started yet.

Listen; I don't mind long books. Rather, I really enjoy them. I don't like rushed narratives or quick endings. I like seeing things given the depth they deserve. But that's not what happened with Cassandra and this 800 pages book. It was nothing but a waste of ink. She went on and on for CHAPTERS on things no one gave a shit about, but when it came to the actual scenes that were the core of the book.. she pretended she did not see.

𝐒𝐏𝐎𝐈𝐋𝐄𝐑𝐒 𝐅𝐑𝐎𝐌 𝐇𝐄𝐑𝐄 𝐎𝐍𝐖𝐀𝐑𝐃!

For example, the most important character arc of Matthew confessing his biggest secret to James was rushed in two pages. I kid you the fuck not, two pages. She might as well have not wrote it, just like she didn't write Matthew's conversation with his parents over this, rather skimmed it in a paragraph in the ending. Just like she did not write James's important scenes as well! You want him to have a proper conversation with Will about how he was cursed in the EXACT SAME WAY Will had thought he had been cursed when he was young? Joke's on you. You want to see Matthew's proper reaction to this? Um no. You want him to be truthful to Cordelia and tell her? Ah no my love, let's let the miscommunication theme work its way instead, prolonging this with him not wanting to be "pitied". For a very proud person myself, I did not see what Cassandra was doing by justifying their actions with pride. Pride is not about shunning pity. It's about not accepting it. So to ruin their character's arc by relying on this pedestal.. yeah, that didn't work.

What else? Ah, number one thing that created the checklist and made me leave the book for days: James and Jem's conversation. You know what the problem of it was? It was everything that Jem wasn't. I literally raged reading this scene, because as audience who are very familiar with Jem's characterization, you KNOW that his response to James's curse wouldn't be this plaintive indifference. There was NOTHING of who Jem was to James in this conversation. It was the first time someone from the elder generation talks to James about the curse, and it was very apparent how in despair James was from it, only for the conversation to not even exude one ounce of sympathy. I fucking didn't believe her. She tried to fix this by making James always able to calm down through Jem's instructions in the back of his mind, but what's the use of that when the main conversation we were looking forward to set an undertone of how much of a disappointment the rest of the book will be?

Next in the neverending list: Paris. Dear fuck, how it aggravated me. The utter ooc-ness of Matthew LYING????? Like fine, I get it. He didn't want to burden Cordelia with seeing him in shambles. How very honourable. So let's ruin this by being lying, conniving sons of bitches instead of being truthful and shutting her out while we heal for all we care. I mean, the whole ship is problematic for me, really, how Cordelia only clung at Matthew as her form of escapism and how he, supposedly, loved her despite it? I won't go on lengths on how I think the headcanon of how he was projecting his love on her instead of believing his real love for his parabatai should have WON, but the least CC could've done was to not make it too destructive for his character so that we basically have to go through a typical love triangle just because there's nothing better to write. She literally just reduced Matthew with all his charisma and superb characterization to a mess who doesn't want to heal. Even when he stops drinking, CC still enforced the narrative of how he was doing it for others' sake, not for his own. Only in the end, with the solo trip thing, do we get a sense of his adventurous spirit that might be on his way to healing. The rest was useless. The rest she just wanted to show the effects of withdrawal without showing HIS own thoughts about it. Nearly always it's people's thoughts about Matthew, about him going through this, about him always susceptible to the bottle, never HIM! Not one scene do we see his perspective, and God if this wasn't the most reducing thing she could have done to his character.

Should I start with Cordelia now, or leave it to the very fine end? Might as well do both, since it's basically a long list with everything that went wrong with her. My favourite female, also reduced to a shallow shell of all she could have been. It was like CC was taking notes from her shitty characterization of Clary and applying them to the one character that should have surpassed all standards. I'm not even talking about her reaction to the love triangle thing. I'm mainly talking about her fixation on it. How all of a sudden, the victimized mode was on, lamenting all what has been happening in her life. And sure, characters are allowed this— they're allowed to rage for all we care— but Cordelia became a hollow figment of the character she was with CC's insistence on this framework. She didn't even do anything about the matters that aggravated her, just took them all in with passivity that I was dying from. And the first time she did take matters in hand, her conversation with Matthew, she just slaps him in the face (metaphorically) with everything you don't say to a person who supposedly loves you. The real first act of agency I found in Cordelia was her reaction to Grace when she told her of the bracelet. How she took it in stride, and how it truly spoke of the fire and grace she was made of. Other than that, no amount of Edom or killing Tatiana or disentangling from Lilith could truly speak of her actions that were out of her own accord. And that's when you lose me: when characters lose their agency.

I'll be back to Cordelia later, but there is someone who I also wish to talk about regarding disregarding their agency: Anna. Just the most influential of characters being nothing but a puppeteer for Ari. And listen, not that I have anything against Ari, who was also one of my favourite characters, but no matter how much this ship is loved, it shouldn't have been the only sense of her character. We don't see Anna in her own eyes. We don't see her grief, her pain over losing her brother. We just see her characterization wasted on romance, and that was not all of who she was. When she discovered the abandoned entrance of the Silent City, that was the first time I felt like I was reading Anna Lightwood again. When in the epilogue she said, "I regret nothing", THAT was Anna Lightwood. All the rest was a bare reflection of the all-encompassing person she was. I mourned her more than I mourned Christopher.

Which takes us to darling Kit, who was done so dirty in the way his death meant nothing. I take it how characters thrust in war shouldn't always have honourable sublime deaths, but the least CC could've given us was their genuine pain over losing him. The intermission, the subtle references of their destruction over his death, were not enough. Not for a book that is 800 pages anyway. We don't even see Thomas, his parabatai, grieving. (Just like we didn't see him grieving his sister. It's so typical at this point to shrug Thomas's pain off.) She can justify it on Tumblr all she wants, but we don't put a lid on grief just because it's war and there's no place for mourning there. She didn't even write Cecily and Gabriel's reactions over the death of their SON! We just see them coming to the picnic in the epilogue, carrying their other kid. What a nice ending, CC :)))))

Truly, I wouldn't have found Kit honoured at all if it wasn't for that note: 𝘐𝘧 𝘺𝘰𝘶 𝘢𝘳𝘦 𝘳𝘦𝘢𝘥𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴, 𝘵𝘩𝘪𝘴 𝘪𝘴 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘍𝘪𝘳𝘦 𝘔𝘦𝘴𝘴𝘢𝘨𝘦 𝘵𝘩𝘢𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘴𝘦𝘯𝘵 𝘸𝘪𝘵𝘩 𝘴𝘶𝘤𝘤𝘦𝘴𝘴. 𝘐𝘵 𝘩𝘢𝘴 𝘣𝘦𝘦𝘯 𝘸𝘳𝘪𝘵𝘵𝘦𝘯 𝘣𝘺 𝘎𝘳𝘢𝘤𝘦 𝘉𝘭𝘢𝘤𝘬𝘵𝘩𝘰𝘳𝘯 𝘢𝘯𝘥 𝘪𝘯𝘷𝘦𝘯𝘵𝘦𝘥 𝘣𝘺 𝘊𝘩𝘳𝘪𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘱𝘩𝘦𝘳 𝘓𝘪𝘨𝘩𝘵𝘸𝘰𝘰𝘥. No matter how insignificant it must be for everyone, but this was the legacy I was waiting for Christopher. Waiting to see him honoured and revered in the eyes of his beloveds. This was the only thing, if you hear me.

Speaking of beloveds, from all the characters, the only one she did justice to was Grace for how she held on her care for Christopher and honoured him while doing so without being romantically entangled. One of the two stars is basically for CC not sailing that ship, and rather making them equals and companions. I absolutely loved this. And I love how when Kit spoke on her behalf, he was not speaking from being enamoured by her, but rather his own beliefs of what true mercy and justice meant. In the epilogue, when all of them hold on his words, that was what made me give a sigh of relief. But when James buried his gun saying Kit would "understand", that fucking made me explode. Because bitch yes he would understand, that's the problem. But you don't honour the dead by burying their greatest creations unless they specifically asked for it. He could've buried anything else to leave Belial behind; the book of Demons, Demons and Demons for all we care, but not this. It was the first time I was actually in pain from Kit's death.

Back to Grace though; CC still did her dirty. You know in what? That reunion scene of her and Jesse. Because fuck, I cannot even express how much I was longing for this scene. It was the one that would either carry the whole book in its shoulders, or speak for how shitty it was. And indeed it spoke, in the worst kind of way. I truly didn't expect CC to ruin this scene with how indifferent it was. Does everyone understand what it means to have your dead brother come back from the dead and call for you? It shouldn't have been as insignificant as she portrayed it. It would have been the most powerful scene of the entire book, if only she wrote it well. Instead what does she do? She leaves bars between them, figurative and literal, and distances them in a way that fucking ruins everything. I'm not saying she should've went on full emotional, but at least, Jesse's reaction shouldn't have been this painful. It wasn't even the time for the revelation. We could've gotten it later, but when closure was first met. For years, Grace held onto Jesse as her only anchor, and what does CC do? Throw the anchor in the sea. Fucking miser. This was my biggest indication of how CC will no longer know how to write emotional scenes.

And this was obvious in all of the other emotional scenes too, you know. When instead of cutting dialogue, she prolonged them, which made it horrible to read. Long dialogues are worthless without sincerity; I'm sure that's 101 writing for us. And no matter how hard she tried to issue sincerity, I personally could not feel it. I didn't feel it in their grief over Kit, nor in Matthew's reaction over the bracelet. I didn't feel it in Edom, nor felt it in Cordelia's pain when she saw James stabbing his own heart. They were all scenes that should have served, but all they served was half-baked imagery.

Last thing I'll say because I'm really going to post this review and leave Cassandra's entire world behind: the problem with her is that she has nothing new to offer anymore. Cassandra Clare is one of the best authors of nowadays, and rightfully so. She created a fully-fledged universe that is so well thought of and well-structured. But in doing so, she burned out by prolonging her stories. Chain of Thorns could've been culminated in a four hundred and a few pages, but instead she went on and on with ideas she had already done in previous books. Fuck, she even drew inspiration from the TMI show with the whole Alexander being kidnapped thing and going into a demonic realm. I legitimately didn't know whether to laugh or cry from how horrible that was; drawing inspiration from the show that fucked up your series. But really, this all speaks for how burned out she is. She is reusing the same ideas over and over for lack of new things to say. It's better not to at all rather than to go on in a "full cycle" of ideas. No matter how impressive she thinks it was, repeating 𝘊𝘰𝘳𝘥𝘦𝘭𝘪𝘢 𝘳𝘢𝘯 for 8 times (yes, I counted) in this book was truly NOT impressive. An idea hits for how fitting it is to the context, not for its sole sake. I haven't been this disappointed in TMI no matter how much I hated it just as I've been disappointed here for how she ruined the characters we grew to love. I hope she takes a break before writing anything new, because I truly believe she'll need it. And I hope, for her sake before the sake of this fandom, that she realises that there is no shame in taking your time in writing. It's so obvious she was rushed into writing this book, and that just speaks for how terrible the influence of media is nowadays. We love her despite her characters and despite her writing. Once she realises this, I'm sure her whole perspective might change as well.

And with this, LJ runs away from the Shadowhunters world.

#chot #chot spoilers #book review #rant #chain of thorns #cassandra clare #regulusrules metas

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spinaroos-47 · 2 years

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uhhh what’s your favorite toh character writing-wise? like the most interesting character/ most well-developed character in the show?

I am going to resist the urge to focus on Hunter here fjsnfnfnd but just know that i do really like his development and writing (minus one personal gripe). He is my blorbo for a reason and its mostly how he's written

But i really do think that the owlfam trio got really strong amazing arcs througout both seasons. Luz's is going on a worrying direction, but not from a quality standpoint, Im just worried about the inevitable darkest hour relapse she most definetly will have :'3 but i do really love how theyve been dealing with her problems and struggles. She's a very solid protagonist

Eda also got a very strong arc going, comparing between luz and king, she's closer to an end of hers than her kids are. Doesnt mean any less about it, i just think her resolution isnt going to be as messy as the other two, which is good, variety is good and boy this situation is already quite distressing, i need a breather gjsjfnfndn. The whole curse and Lilith thing is handled so well and Raine's introduction in S2 really got to show us a side of her that we didnt see much before. Both her and Raine do wonders on eachother's arcs.

And king, my dear poor boy, my heart aches for him so much. I already said before that i care a lot about him, and every single King episode in S2 breaks my heart. He's just a kid and he's dealing with feelings so big and that ideally he shouldn't be having to deal with this young, or that he shouldn't have to deal with at all in the first place. And even on s1 i like how he's not just for comedic relief. He is that but he has a depth to his character basically since the first episode. And he's quite relatable on quite a lot of his episodes. Since my first watch of really small problems i have deeply related to what he felt there. He's painfully obvious on what he's going through, and tbh sometimes i feel like the fandom overlooks that. He's not taken seriously, he wants people to spend time with him, and that kinda gets reflected on the fandom as well. No one gets him like i do/j

Not to mention how he went from a little kid with delusions of being a king, to getting the HORRIFYINGLY PAINFUL realization that his life was a lie and that he's actually just a kid, to trying to find his dad, understand more about himself and just be a kid, to learning that he's a freaking Titan and that who he thought were his demon family were the killers of his species, to wanting to shoulder everyone's burden because he's a Titan and he wants to help people, to finally, sacrificing everything to save his family, which includes doing the thing he feared the most, luz going to the human realm and not being able to return to the Boiling isles

Not to mention all the complicated feelings about luz returning to the human realm. She's his sister, she's the closest bond he had with someone besides Eda. The first episode of season 2 had him desperately wanting luz to stay in the demon realm, and by the finale HE was the one who pushed her and the others through the portal

He's gotten to mature just as much as Luz, and while this isnt a totally bad thing, its heartbreaking that he hasnt really got to fully be a kid ever. Before, it was him being so sure of him being a a terrifying demon king, of course he was pampered and etc but its not the same as knowing you're a kid and letting yourself be a kid. And then he learned the truth, he tried to be a kid but that basically lasted two months and during that he's had to deal with other complicated stuff and trying to know more about himself. And after all that 2B happened which didn't really leave room for him to just be a kid, especially after he learned that he was a Titan. He matured a lot but he shouldn't have had to mature that much, he deserves to be a kid and not have to worry about anything else besides his friends and family, possibly school, and goofing around. Its tragic honestly.

I hope he gets to really be a kid after all this

You're welcome for this accidental essay fjsndnrnr

#toh #ask #long post

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crystalelemental · 10 months

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I never actually did this. Ranking the villain arcs.

#8: Alola The only VA that I'm willing to say what entirely bad on every front. Just an absolute garbage event. Literally no stakes, no significance, not even a real conflict. Instead of just whipping Lusamine around to being good, now we also have to drag Faba into this kicking and screaming. The worst part is the alts weren't even that good. Sure, SS Acerola wound up being fantastic, but the other three are fairly unimpressive, with Mina being borderline bad. Also I'm just saying, it's not my favorite on aesthetics either. And to think we got all of this...instead of a good Lusamine alt. Or hell, somehow without a Lillie alt. Or Gladion. Or anyone I think people were clamoring for. I'm usually in favor of lesser favorites getting alts but this one stings a bit.

#7: Kalos Kalos felt similarly nothing, because the main event was Giovanni stealing some data from Team Flare, by...having some Rocket grunts pose as their grunts? And threaten to fire a big weapon they had? Lysandre is toothless at this point, mostly just grousing about his ideals or whatever while refusing to act for vague reasons. At least he gets to kill people. Also the alt game was strong. SS Diantha was a great Rock Zone option, Emma and Anabel finally got in, and I do like SS Lysandre even if I'm not a fan of Volcanion.

#6: Hoenn Hoenn feels like it's just treading old ground with little in the way of innovation. It tells a story where things happen, so it's better than the last two, but that story is mostly Maxie and Archie continuing to wax philosophical while Giovanni riles up their beasts as distraction to steal a bunch of Pokemon. Which on its own is okay. But then it shifts kinda out of nowhere into the same old "there is a meteor" thing. Also Deoxys just shows up with no significance or fanfare, the protagonists don't really accomplish shit, and more emphasis is placed on Zinnia getting her mega evolution than anything. The alts for the event were fun, but nothing in this event felt important. You could've just not done this one and not a single thing would've changed for any future story.

#5: Unova Comparable to Hoenn. Ghetsis tries to do stuff, and at the very least this isn't a Giovanni plot in disguise, but it amounts to nothing. Ghetsis is completely useless when he's not able to scheme, and events just don't carry much weight. Hilda just shows up with Victini, while Hilbert getting Genesect is...fairly mundane. Even N's Kyurem is wildly out of nowhere. The alts were good, don't get me wrong. But Hilda's just damage, and N's fairly awkward, so it's a little messy.

#4: Galar Galar...went well, actually. I think it's actually a good story. The alts were reasonable though I hate the Gloria alt on Cinderace-themed principle. I like how the story actually incorporates Giovanni without making him the center of attention. I like that it ends in failure for him like all of these actually did even if we never acknowledge it. There's just one teeny tiny thing that makes this hard to accept. Rose is an alternate reality Rose. And so is Oleana. For...no reason. Sincerely, why? Because you couldn't come up with a way for him to bounce back from the Darkest Day? Lysandre fired the ultimate weapon and nearly killed everyone, and we just kinda treat him as some surly guy that lives in the woods, this is absolute cowardice. If it weren't for this, Galar would be #3, but as it stands...

#3: Sinnoh SOMEHOW, Sinnoh gets to be #3. Look, I won't pretend like Sinnoh's events were important in the grand scheme. It's very much a side story to Giovanni's stuff. Which is why it's good. It is the only one completely removed from Giovanni. Instead, we focus on Cyrus, whose perfect world was found in Darkrai. The instant he got the opportunity, he just retreated into his own dark world and refused to come out until people made him. Which is funnier than it is serious. More to the point, though, this story had consequences. Team Galactic still operates, but his grunts openly acknowledge they're on a different track and focused on scientific development more than destruction of spirit. And I'm willing to bet Renegade Cynthia will have some significance when Volo shows up. Events from this VA endure, and had more of an impact.

#2: Kanto But of course, Pokemon is just Kanto. Literally just Kanto, if it's not about Kanto stuff we don't care and won't try for you. The quality between Kanto/Johto and literally everything else is so stark that I legitimately think this entire VA thing was a fucking waste of time. Which is sad because it started so fucking well. Giovanni steals some data that lets him unlock the power of mega evolution in his Mewtwo, and becomes strong enough to fight off Red and Blue, then escapes to become a massive threat hiding in the shadows. All of this around a great little narrative about how Mewtwo enjoys causing problems on purpose, and they do have a true bond in that desire. And on the heroes' side, we get Paulo starting to act up, Blue being a leader and champion, and I admit even Red gets to be a bit of a chaos gremlin about things with the whole Dynamaxing in a contained space and nearly crushing everyone. There's great stuff! But of course, just like actual Kanto, we can do better.

#1: Johto There's always the sequel. Johto is easily the best VA. Not only do we have more of an emotional hook with Silver's connection to Giovanni and attempt to put a stop to all this, we also have everyone in Johto working in tandem to fight back as Team Rocket temporarily assumes control of Pasio. We get direct continuity from the last event as Giovanni learns about Dynamax/Gigantamax, and learns to apply that to his Nidoking. And unlike Kanto's fairly limited sync pair choices, Johto rules. A bunch of first time alts (and Lyra), all of which are fantastic, including what remains one of the best supports, and the strongest disruptive effect in the game even now. Sure, SS Giovanni wound up being a dud in the grand scheme, but he's Kantonian, failure comes naturally to him. It was the only other time that they legitimately tried to make something interesting.

I think the big problem here is DeNA's refusal to actually engage with its villains. That's probably because some villains are too good to really do much with, but like...if you can do it with Cyrus, the guy trying to unmake reality, you can do it with the others. Lysandre, Lusamine, even Rose are all just ignored as threats. Maxie and Archie are sidelined so hard they effectively don't do anything at all. Ghetsis tries but is completely ineffectual without scheming in his corner. All of them could have had more to do. Lysandre's willing to kill, but let his clash with Team Rocket mean something rather than just be petty nonsense. Lusamine still cares for her children but never confronted what her flaw actually way; let her go villain mode on Giovanni for threatening her kids. Actually engage with the fact Rose is an extremist and that maybe he could be talked down or brought to other solutions, without just hand-waving events. It's just such a mess, seeing how many of these antagonists went to complete waste. Whatever the next story arc is, I hope it's lower stakes. DeNA does better when they go with just heartfelt or lighthearted. I don't think they're legally allowed to get serious.

#pokemon masters #villain arc

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theaceofskulls · 11 months

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Oh boy... some thoughts on Red Vs Blue now that the announcement of the final season is here.

This series was probably one of my favorites. Hell for a bit there one of the more popular posts I had was a starter guide for people getting into it. It's not a long series but I knew that people had a limited amount of time and with every season being a full 90 minutes to 2 hours long, asking someone to catch up on 10 movies worth of stuff to get to the current arcs was an ask.

I was a fan of the series before Rooster Teeth got into making RWBY. Hell, I was a fan of the series before I got into Rooster Teeth in general.

In fact I like to say that RvB set my expectations for RWBY and is part of the reason I was able to enjoy the series as much as I have. So it's got me feeling all sorts of things to watch this come up as the finale announcement while RWBY's ultimate fate is currently up in the air, especially thinking back on how RvB really started without all of the corporate nonsense and way worse that everything surrounding Rooster Teeth is wrapped up in.

Anyways, if you haven't caught on, this is going to be rambling so I'll apologize here and put a readmore so that everyone else can just move past

RvB shows its age. From the fact that the best way to start it is something I'll put plenty of advisory warnings on when I share it with newcomers to the fact that it still rolls with machinima. There's a charm to that though. It's like watching a webcomic that you've fallen into. The start is rough but it finds a footing that no one else can really claim to be anything similar to.

That said, "rough" is a word that I feel eventually haunted the series for me.

Anyone who looks over my tag of it can see I'm a huge fan of the show and weathered almost every change it went through and oh boy does this show go through changes. It's fair to say that one of the biggest exodus of fans was after Season 5 when it looked like it ended for the first time when Season 6 took the series in a more serious route continuing off of the drama from 5 (and the mini series around that time). In fact, almost every transition saw people dip off and it's understandable even if most of them felt great in the long run once the new arcs were allowed to get rolling.

But I'll admit that eventually, I was one of those fans, and I wasn't alone from what I've experienced.

Season 13 had a monumental ending. Actually one of the more emotional pieces of media I've seen and that's not something I say lightly. It had a spectacular examination of storytelling and managed to find a solid endpoint to a character arc that wrecked me. I still tear up whenever I rewatch it.

Season 14 was a great cooldown by going with some more experimental media that disconnected itself from the stakes and acted as a good bonus, and I was willing to see more from the series.

However despite my willingness to meet this show with each of its new arcs in their own ways, the next couple seasons threw me and a lot of fans off. Something was definitely wrong and it wasn't just the change to the status quo or the new framing, it definitely began to spin wheels and to lose direction in a way that other arcs hadn't.

I got midway through season 16 before I just stopped checking in without realizing it. I kept up with the company though I rarely looked into anything other than RWBY or Gen:LOCK as the company began to shift away towards something different.

I've talked with other fans about this at various points whose experiences match my own. Anyone who made it to the Chorus arc of Seasons 11-13 all tend to agree that the show definitely managed to weather every arc change except the last two/three (depending on if you view season 15->16 as its own shift).

I compare this heavily to the fact that most people got through 15 and partway into 16 than the fact that most people who bounced off Season 6, 9, or 11 did so a few episodes in.

And almost everyone has an identical story: We all tried RvB Zero.

A lot has been said about it but this is my rambling post and if you're this far you're probably willing to read my take.

I went in welcoming the change of cast, the animation style, and the fact that it would probably be rougher to start. But I hate to say this: it was extremely poorly written and poorly delivered. Characters and plots were collections of tropes that couldn't hold the action scenes at the core of the show together. "Reveals" were things I assumed would be subversions and the show spent no time getting us invested in the characters because it was given a ridiculously short runtime so the twists landed with no emotional weight.

I know the creator has to deal with constant criticism of the show and is defensive of it so I have no wish to add to that pile but even approaching the season on its own merits I was unable to engage with it and felt like I was burying the series there.

Then came all the Rooster Teeth scandals. Crunch was a rumor but was then confirmed. Everything regarding the animation team (the other two big items were unrelated to RvB and RWBY but did put a damper on me engaging with the company the way it had always presented itself via the personalities it showcased). I drifted away from them until the latest season of RWBY (which itself premiered on a service that continues to deal with union related scandals). Regardless I'd sort of made my peace with RvB.

So then comes the announcement of the final season written by Burnie, whose retirement seems to have been in part one of the big reasons I drifted away from both the series and the company (it's notable that when I was a fan, the podcasts with him tended to be the highlights). I'm not here to put any of the founders on a pedestal after all of the dirty laundry that's come out about some of them, but it's reignited interest in this series at the least.

Added to that the soft retcon of everything after season 13, it seems a sort of acknowledgement that the series did lose its touch.

This post was meant to help me process the feelings I've had since hearing this announcement and record my experience with the show and I can't say for sure that I've sorted things completely as much as it feels like I understand where I stand with this.

I want it to be good. I want it to be a send off the series deserves. It's sad to watch something you've followed for almost 20 years be laid to rest and it's the closing of the chapter of "amateur art" as one of the last big machinima series comes to close.

If RWBY continues, its almost certainly going to be done by a separate studio, and while I've heard people are enjoying the new podcast formats I don't really enjoy general podcasts as much as specific interest ones these days.

All in all, this feels like closing a chapter on not just a series but the studio itself as Rooster Teeth has changed its logo to remove the "cock bite", changed its cast to remove most of the "old guard", and now lays to rest its longest running series. It's been obvious this has been coming for the better half of a decade now, but it's still the moment to me where a book is being closed. And it's bittersweet in its own way.

#red vs blue #rwby #rooster teeth

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cherryblossomshadow · 1 year

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Stranger Things And Intertextuality (A Response To The Nerdwriter)

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Highlights:

Mike, Lucas, and Dustin frequently settle arguments by using pop culture metaphors to communicate more clearly. Dungeons & Dragons, the Lord of the Rings and Star Wars have given them a code of ethics and a communal language

Dustin: We couldn't agree on what path to take so we split up the party and those trolls took us out one by one and it all went to shit

Mike: You really wanna fight the demogorgon with your wrist rocket. That's like R2D2 going to fight Darth Vader

Dustin: Nancy maybe Lucas: What if it's the chief Dustin: Lando Calrissian! Lucas: Would you shut up about Lando!

A language older generations are not fluent in

Chief: You said he takes...what? Mirkwood? Mike: Mirkwood yeah Chief: Have you ever heard of Mirkwood? Deputy: I have not that sounds made-up to me Lucas: No, it's from Lord of the Rings Dustin: Well, the Hobbit

Using pop culture to communicate also ends up becoming a very literal part of the story as well. In the first episode we see Joyce and her son, Will, plan to go see the film Poltergeist. Later, when Will gets trapped in the upside-down, Joyce figures out a way to communicate with him through the walls, just as the characters in poltergeist do

That shared experience gave them the tools they needed to survive, and that's contrasted with other pairs of children and parents who are completely unable to communicate

And just as the characters understand each other through pop culture, the references are also used to frame how the audience understands these characters. Eleven speaks very little throughout the course of the show. Instead references are used to characterize her and foreshadow her arc. It's a very effective tactic. The idea is that you relate a character to at least two others from other pieces of fiction and the audience will be left wondering which one the character will lean towards

Eleven is constantly compared to ET both by the camera and in the plot. She's on the run from the government, has supernatural abilities, and is hiding in the suburbs with a young boy whose parents are unaware of her existence. Major scenes include escaping on bikes and dressing up in a wig. The references are so heavy in this direction that I wouldn't be surprised if the original pitch of the series was "What if we made E.T. but E.T. was a young girl?" At the same time, the peaceful innocence of ET is offset by references to two troubled Stephen King protagonists, Charlie from firestarter and Carrie from well...Carrie. Characters who are hunted and/or abused, but who have great supernatural power that they use to cause a massive amount of violence, sometimes to innocent people

Eleven is a dynamic character because there is an internal contradiction within her that is articulated through intertextuality. The references paint a spectrum of possibility for her character, leading us to wonder whether her story will end with a tearful goodbye, or massive violence. Turns out, sort of both

You can do this with a few of the other characters on the show as well. Is Joyce, for example, going crazy but for good reason, like Richard Dreyfuss' character in Close Encounters of the Third Kind, or is she going literally crazy, like Jack Nicholson's character in The Shining In bringing new meaning to familiar tropes, The Duffer Brothers are able to overcome The Anxiety Of Influence

Stranger Things takes the most familiar elements of 80s films and boils them down to their most essential elements, fashioning a sort of mythic 80s that sanitizes both that time period and its pop culture. The characters are archetypes we've seen a hundred times before, but care is taken to put a little twist on each of them. For instance, horror movies often have this weird puritanical attitude about sex where the last survivor is always a virgin. In Stranger Things, she's the first victim

You don't have to reinvent the wheel to be original. Embrace and understand tropes, and then twist them in new ways. Intertextuality and influence are inescapable. That's why you need to master your influences, or your influences will master you

#i link #YouTube #just write #stranger things #stranger things meta #intertextuality #pastiche #character analysis #eleven hopper #joyce byers #i transcribe #Youtube

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rahleeyah · 2 years

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Do you think they'll be a love triangle next season? I just... I'm tired. There was Kathy, Dani, Angela, Flutura and Porter. Do we really need yet another love triangle? It's been nearly 25 years and I'm tired y'all.

I love Barba and his relationship with Olivia. I think he's the best character on SVU since Elliot left. I just don't see a romantic edge to their relationship. Really just a very deeply loving friendship. And I understood why he defended Wheatley even if I didn't like it. (What a great episode that was!)

He was trying to protect her and he doesn't know Elliot. He doesn't know that Elliot is actually a good person. He just sees this guy that hurt his friend very deeply. Sees the bull in a china shop and thinks that's all of who Elliot is. And doesn't want her hurt further. Anyway I'm getting off track.

I know his ILY could be interpreted in many was. It felt romantic coming from him but her response to him: Rafa, I miss you too. Did not feel romantic coming from her. So I am just confused. Like what are they trying to do here?

That whole episode felt like they were trying to compare Olivia's relationship with Elliot to the DV case. Like a long abusive marriage she just can't be free of. Elliot can be aggressive but like... It feels like the writers on 2.0 SVU don't know him at all. He's not an abusive person. He just had an entire arc of him struggling with thinking he was just like his dad and realizing that he wasn't.

And the talk of what Olivia deserves. She deserves happiness and I'm so ready for it! I want her to have it! But I couldn't help but think about what Kathy wrote in the letter. That Olivia deserves a kind and faithful man. Which made it really seem like this episode was saying that Barba was the guy that she deserves because he was trying to protect her and didn't ghost her like Elliot did.

I know WL is gone now so I'm hoping that however comes in doesn't have some weird grudge against Elliot and EO. One that never made any sense to me.

Anyway what do you think will happen? Do think that EO will eventually work it out? Or do you think they'll do this annoying yet another roadblock love triangle thing?

listen fam i got no expectations. zero idea what they're gonna do. i could sit here and tell you that my gut doesn't think there's any reason why we should expect another love triangle - bc there isn't, there isn't any reason - but right this minute there's no reason to expect anything. all we know is that the new seasons are coming, and they said it's gonna pick up where it left off. well ok this past season literally picked up at the end of the svu finale and we all know how that went so. we really don't know anything.

and because we don't know anything, i don't think there's any reason to worry. we have no reason to expect anything, so for now we can just relax, and breathe, and try to wrap our heads around last season.

i did not see rafa's confession as romantic, at all, and raul and m have both said they play it like brother and sister. there are many different types of love and i do think that rafa and liv had a deep bond that is a love in its own way, just not a romantic one. i didn't walk away from that feeling like we were supposed to believe that rafa has been carrying a torch for liv and is bummed she won't fuck him. like that was not the vibe i got at all, so i'm not worried about that. i think like you said he's worried about his friend and he's hurt, which from his perspective is understandable. but friends hurt friends all the time, hurt does not require romantic feelings.

i think the way the last episode cut was deliberately trying to draw that parallel, but crucially i do not think the parallel was there bc that's where the story is going. liv has been told she deserves happiness, and she has been told to try with elliot, and everyone around her is nudging her in his direction. i think cutting the episode that way was a means for certain people to make their opinions known, almost like a protest in the face of where the arc is going. they don't want eo to happen, but it's gonna, so they pout and stomp their feet but they can't stop the train from rolling down the tracks.

and they're wrong. nothing about elliot has ever been abusive towards liv and anyone who watched 1.0 can see that. it's an opinion held by some people out there, but it isn't backed up by canon, and i'm not worried about it.

and even with the way the episode was cut, it would take just a mindboggling amount of hoop jumping to think that it was intended to set up liv/rafa. rafa was not being presented as an alternative to elliot. he was a voice arguing against elliot, and trying to get liv to see what's right in front of her, but even rafa knows liv loves elliot, and there was N O T H I N G in liv's behavior to indicate she was contemplating a romantic entanglement with rafa, or casting one aside. she's still hurt that he doesn't understand why this matters to her, and that he didn't take her feelings into account before he acted on her behalf - which as she tells him, she did not ask him to do. and maybe rafa didn't ghost her but he sure as hell left her, and sure as hell hurt her; he is not blameless, he is not a martyr. he hasn't been faithful, or devoted.

elliot has, tho.

the new guy does not seem to be holding grudges, and he's got an upbeat vibe - unlike WL, who was fucking miserable all the damn time - and that bodes well.

let the antis on twitter tell themselves whatever they want, don't internalize their arguments.

remember that they literally wrote and recorded the benson-stabler love theme. you don't write a love theme for characters who aren't meant to be romantic interests for one another.

it's gonna be fine.

#anonymous #e.o asks #s.vu

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ronpatrash · 2 years

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okay here is my danganronpa 3 anime experience post. tl;dr it wasn't great and i really didnt need to watch it, but i have to...complete the plot in its entirety? I gUESS??? and this was...painful

first off let me say that my watch of this was with my danganronpa friends. it's already a biased opinion you're about to read, cause we're watching it dubbed, and for the most part we weren't paying full attention to it, because the plot fell off very quickly

the english dub is alright though! for the most part it's not bad and not too jarring, though some lines can sound ridiculously funny, like yukizome talking to chiaki and asking "you think no one will like you cause you're a gamer?" or junko actually saying "kamukura yaas queen" and "he's gonna burst a blood vessel cause i dissed his waifus" I CANT BELIEVE THIS BAD SHOW MADE ME LAUGH SO HARD AT SOME POINTS. junko's english VA is a delight and i'm so glad i sat through it for her to show up and be a horrible girlboss <3

and also the future arc is so skippable that my friends and i still got the gist of the plot while we watched almost all of it at 2x speed LMAO the only part that was a great time for me was when toko and komaru showed up (what a nice continuation from ultra despair girls!!!) and when makoto was about to be brainwashed into committing suicide, cause we get to see a glimpse of what his mind was experiencing. that shit was really cool cause of all the dr1 characters and makoto going through survivor's guilt? i was fascinated UNTIL WE ALL SAW MONDO, IN BUTTER FORM, WITH HIS JACKET ON THE FLOOR THAT SHIT WAS HILARIOUS)

actually the whole story,,, the whole thing with the despair that led to the end of the world shit is just so,,, shallow in the end? it would have held more weight to me if being in 'despair' wasn't actually just brainwashing through watching an animated film. i think the concept of mitarai being so good at animating that he uses hypnotism methods in his films to manipulate the emotions of the audience is... far-fetched but makes sense? animation and film directing is in a sense about making your audience feel things, and everything plays a part in that (from character movement to composition of the shot and colours, sounds, etc etc if you've been to animation school you know this stuff).

as cool as the idea is, I JUST DIDNT EXPECT IT TO BE THE BACKBONE OF THE ENTIRE TRAGEDY, and as much as i want to hate it, i cant bring myself to. im just disappointed, but it's very danganronpa to do this

OH AND I DIDNT THINK MITARAI'S GRAND PLAN IS TO JUST HYPNOTISE EVERYONE AGAIN WITH A HOPE FILM INSTEAD OF A DESPAIR ONE, DUDE, YOU WERE THE REASON WHY EVERYTHING WENT TO SHIT IN THE FIRST PLACE

AND I DIDNT THINK HE WOULD JUST BE STOPPED WITH UHM I DONT KNOW, THE FUCKIN,,, POWER OF FRIENDSHIP, FROM HIS CLASSMATES THAT HE BARELY KNEW OR INTERACTED WITH. THIS PLOT IS SO UEHJDJGJF

also the new characters are mostly very boring. i kinda called it early on that there's sorta a throuple thing going on with yukizome, munakata and sakakura dOES ANYONE EVEN REMEMBER THESE PEOPLE'S NAMES FOR REAL?? I SURE DONT, I KEEP HAVING TO LOOK EM UP CAUSE THEIR PLOT WAS SO UNINTERESTING, AND MUNAKATA AND SAKAKURA ARE BOTH ASSHOLES

the throuple ended really badly too????? oh my god the adult characters are all terrible, only great gozu, the guy with the bull mask in the future foundation, was amazing, bUT HE LASTED LIKE ONE EPISODE. future arc bad,,, you can tell characters were created just to be killed

if you cant tell already by how incomprehensibly angry this entire blog post was written, i'm relieved to be done with the anime. there is no more mystery, the writing is just really bad. it's comparable to my experience with following the kingdom hearts timeline in that it's good in the beginning (because many questions are open and unanswered and your brain fills it in with theories you enjoy), and gets worse towards the end (because every question is answered badly, established plot points are rewritten for bad reasons, and the work is clearly rushed so they can try to beat more money out of this dying horse)

#ronpatrashtalks #danganronpa 3 anime liveblogging #spoilers #extreme spoilers. i will be dissing everything very angrily #if you genuinely love the danganronpa 3 anime you need to keep scrolling. do not read. i hated this

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