#I didnt expect it after his lack of screentime and they tied so well to his character development

[chatte-noire]

Light bringer x scheming

an appreciation and condemnation of the schemes, moves and manouvers in light bringer. who served them the coldest, and who was bamboozled? This is only about stunts, not about morals or likability.

Lysander:

Lysander's scheming took a whole new level and I was really surprised at the little coup he staged with atalantia in the collosseum. In the first half of the book he really had the monopoly on well placed and daring maneuvering.

I think his best stunt was the compromise on the dockyard of venus, managing to keep apollonius, and win the carthii and julias block while simultaneously showing up atalantia, reinforcing the alliance with the rim and starting the attack on mars.

I wouldn't have expected him to be able to hold the alliance with applelonius for even a few weeks, now its been a whole book, I'm exited to see if Darrow can use the minotaur against lysander in red god.

yes in the attack on phobos he wasted ships and men and money and copied darrows helldiver strategy.. but he also surprised virginia with his strategies and finally took enough of phobos to have the upper hand in negotiations, something I wouldn't have expected him to be able to do. esp. after atlas called phobos impregnable.

Darrow:

in the first half darrow honestly took the scheming L. when I read the excerpt 2 weeks before buying the book I was CONVINCED that they didnt just land in apollonius obviouss trap, like pls let this be a trick. Darrow is such an experienced schemer, he must have expected a trap? but no he was like, tattoos look right, must be my bestie in this easily accessible prison. Its especially naive because he broke apollonius out of deep grave and so knows that apollonius knows how he would plan a prison break. and that backup plan was also flimsy, I expected better from him haha

on Europa Darrow had a nice scheming comeback, like recreating the Dead Horse strategy and beating Fa? Iconicc. bringing both obsidians (with a vote) and rim (with diomedes' oath) closer to democratic values? inspiring. Brokering collaboration between Rim, Daughters and Obsidians? A strong feat. that speech with the daughters was nice too.

but.. (and I'm not saying it didn't cost him a lot and will probably keep costing him dearly in red god) lysander still kept his scheming level established in the first half of the book. so much trickery, let's see how long he can keep it up before he drowns in it. He was backed into a corner by atlas but managed to trick both Atlas and Cassius, defeat the rim and gain a horrible weapon with one move.

It cost him the Rim Alliance and his humanity, but we already know his morals and ideology are a feeble construct held up by delusion and wanking off on silenius. and the rim armadas were destroyed by atlas so to lysander it probably only seems like a temporary loss until they come crawling back to society when hunger defeats them.

Sevro's stunts were refreshingly constant and awesome. Like.. escaping apollonius and fighting him in his own house?? rescuing his bumbling saviours? and the most bestest move: convincing the Daughters of Ares to work together with them by holding such an iconic speech like.. wish we would have gotten to see that in first person. just like Volgas ascension as obsidian queen. They both had such iconic and smart moments off screen. pierce doesnt want them to steel the stunt limelight me feels.

Aurae was able to follow her goals throughout the book, while managing the boys, the daughters of ares and diomedes. she had an emotional and moral bond to each one of them, but managed to stay true to her own values even as the parties were conflicting.

honorary mentions:

Lyria smuggling herself unto the archie, she knows how to take advantage of her size, even more impressive because darrow had the same experience with rhonna and still didn't realise (or didnt care?)

Apollonius snatching up Darrow and Cassius

Virginia having an informant in the Society (her clone bro?) and her making a pact with and freeing the obsidians. I would have loved to see more of her, she always delivers top tier schemes (except for when she is outschemed by society rats).

they were outschemed, honorary mentions:

Volga following Fa: even if he wasn't Atlas puppet,,, he's still such an obvious upholder of Gold values and tyranny, but volga didnt want to see any of it. this makes her following him so horrible, I hope it doesn't all get blamed on Atlas, I mean Volga was fine with everything except for atlas' involvment. I don't know if she was naive or blind or ignorant or greedy but that was some top tier delusion.

Lysander bedazzling himself: this is the most hilarious and complete trickery. That guy just believes every fucking excuse he can give himself, he just gobbles them up. He might have freed himself from his AA Puppetduo, but the real puppeteer in his life is his delusional ideology and hybris.

Atalantia: she had such a good and safe plan, she just didn't realize that lysander doesn't care for his friends enough. now she is some ships and influence poorer, lost her watchdog, her nephew/lover (ew) and the grip on Lune's heir

Diomedes: Lysander had him wrapped around his lying finger and he did nott see that dishonorrr coming. Cassius didn't see it either, but I think he would have tried to save lysander anyway. The himbo bamboozlement lost them the garter and Cassius was murdered, at least he could kill Fear on the way.

#this is not a measurement of merit #just of trickery #lysander obviously won the scheming contest #he tricked everyone and then himself #but darrows comeback was iconic #he entered with nothing but his name and his bros and left with a fleet and two new alliances #but my favorite stunter was sevro #I didnt expect it after his lack of screentime and they tied so well to his character development #in red god I wanna see some more tricks from the shes and the gays #light bringer spoilers #light bringer #red rising #darrow of lykos

[smordesigns]

Why Ben Solo Died

So I have quickly fallen into the Ben Solo hole. Literally as of January 10th I hadn't read a single thing about Reylo or Kylo Ren beyond having seen The Force Awakens in 2015. I had a son in 2016 and my husband and I didn’t love Rogue One so when The Last Jedi came out we shrugged and went on with our lives. Now we did visit WDW in 2018 and had pictures with Chewie and Kylo (my husband is a Kylo/Sith fan) - me it was a cool story but that was it. Come January 14 - my company does a massive firing and to cope with it I go to my Everlark A03 list and start to read. I had been on Tik Tok earlier and someone had posted the “I Need a Hero” video with Ben Solo kicking ass. so  I had this thought - “let me look up Ben and Rey on A03.”

I was hooked - started reading all of this fanfiction, looking up fanart, got back on Tumblr just like in 2014 when I fell for Everlark. Now I talked to a couple people at work and knew I needed to see the movies and finally talked my husband into watching the Sequel series and watching TROS in theaters on Saturday (1/25). I know why everyone is hurt. Ben had his redemption but his Happily Ever After - or even the acceptance by those who knew he had turned his back on the darkness was cut short. Everyone is blaming JJ Abrams for crap writing and Disney for rushing the sequels but in watching all three last week its a really good story. Here’s why I believe they killed Ben off and didn’t say goodbye in the end:

#GirlPower

Now I’m going to get yelled at by someone who says thats bullshit or unfair or whatever but let me explain.

In the original trilogy they made a strong female character in Leia as we know its takes reading into older movies to find the #girlpower but its almost always there - just gotta realize what the women are doing - they are all strong in their own way BUT Leia was not the main character - Luke was. 

In the prequel trilogy again another strong female character in Padme but the issue here was she didnt have a lot of screentime - Obi Won and Anakin were the focus of these movies. 

So when Disney decided to continue what did they do? Write a strong female character in Rey but instead of the man being the focus they wanted Rey to be the saviour and leader with the help of Leia. Here’s where they found issues - they made the character that everyone knew from Canon and his history very appealing. They did not expect to have the redemption of Ben Solo be of focus. They knew they needed a bad guy and fans loved him after TFA - evident when you go to their merchandise or parks but the plan was to kill him or do a quick save like Vader at the end of the movies - but he wasn’t ever going to survive because they needed that final shot to be of Rey. To show a woman could carry a series and live without a man.

The only reason we got the redemption we did (again all my speculation) is because of Rian Johnson and the story he started in TLJ and the storyline of the Skywalkers - he couldnt end up bad. Now I do believe they have left the door open to continue Rey and Ben’s story but the question is will they because of comments made “This is the end of the Skywalker story” etc. Also do Daisy and Adam want to continue the story? I DO NOT want to see anyone else play those characters but with Adam’s rise in fame its going to be hard to get anything done - and they cant wait. I do agree a quick series in Disney+ like the WandaVision would be the best option. Showing her getting him back from the WBW if thats possible. 

I purchased the extended version books this weekend to continue my obsession and if you notice I am all about posting this right now. I cant wallow any longer but i wanted to put my thoughts out there as to why Ben was killed as quickly as he was once he truly showed who he was and had nothing after.

Edit: Additional thought- JJ’s initial goal with Kylo was to create another Vader. No one refers to him as Anakin (prior to the prequels) but as Vader. The fact that he came back to the light for his son didn’t matter to anyone - he was always known as Vader. He’s one of those classic villain characters. JJ supposedly loves Star Wars and probably wanted to create a character just as memorable as Vader. That was his goal with Kylo Ren but unlike Vader who really has very little humanity until the very end we got Kylo/Ben and saw his humanity in TFA. This is why his redemption had to be stronger than Vader’s- Kylo had more humanity and we as humans want humanity to thrive. This is why we are upset about how quickly Rey gets over Ben. It’s not the fact that he died, had no lines, or whatever it’s that his mourning did not fit his plot line in the story. JJ had to bring in Palpatine because Kylo wasn’t strong enough to just flip at the end or be the evil baddie that Dey beats to have eternal happiness. he needed to do more than just take one second to throw someone off a cliff as Vader does and giving of his life to someone who is dead is so much stronger - plus it’s groundbreaking in Star Wars and ties back to Anakin so well. But again this conversation wouldn’t have happened if we had gotten one more minute of Rey grief or a quick force ghost from Leia saying thank you for my son. Something that says one of Rey’s goals is accomplished because honestly them laughing and hugging at the end said none of that. Even her taking the Skywalker name was an “eh” moment. I didn’t need Ben as a ghost or with her at the end but I wanted a tear something more than “Ben!” And move on. That’s where I think JJ got his wish.

Also you can tell Ben Solo was never end game because there is a decidedly lack of Ben Solo merchandise. Come one Funko just one figurine if Ben Solo doing their shrug in the black sweater - is it too much to ask for?

#tros #star wars #ben solo #reylo #theory #disney #jj abrams #kylo redemption #kylo ren #tlj #tfa #sequel #funkopop #savebensolo #bringbackbensolo

[bloodstalk]

Utsumin for the ask meme?

my boy... my fav... expect this answer to be VERY rambly

First impression

ngl it was “who’s this guy”. before episode 12 i didnt remember his name and called him glasshole exclusively. boy. how times have changed.

Impression now

god, how do i put my feelings about utsumi into words? i could write an essay about him, how much i love him, how tragic his character arc is, and how APPROPRIATE madrogue being a kitbash is for him, but i’d be here all day. so let me try and condense it

Utsumi is definitely my favourite character in build, which is Notable considering how much i love basically everyone in it. while he doesn’t do much early on, and prior to becoming madrogue he’s still often not the most proactive in the plot, his backstory, characterization, and especially the whole nanba children thing specifically are all tied to my FAVOURITE part about build, which is its refusal to just excuse human evil through the pandora’s box. nanba was not even effected by the box, his evil is entirely his own, and utsumi, while given more than enough backstory to explain his actions, is NOT defined by it entirely. which we know, because of Sawa’s arc. i know a lot of people wish utsumi could’ve had a redemption arc in the show, and i kind of agree on that, but i do think-wait this can go in the unpopular opinion

Favorite moment

EPISODE 23. Need I elaborate? Though a close second is definitely in the stage show, basically every time he gets to interact in a non-antagonistic manner with the other riders during the stage show is... so good. Utsumin real...

Idea for a story

Cyborg Utsumi waking up in the non-vcinema new world and needing to figure out how he can live as a regular person after everything he’s been trhough and done... slowburn redemption story... hell yeah

Unpopular opinion

Well, liking Utsumi seems to be a pretty unpopular opinion in and of itself, but my view of his lack of a redemption arc probably is as well. While I already said i would’ve LOVED one, i don’t think a lack of one is necessarily a flaw in the story. at the end of the day, utsumi’s arc was as much about clinging to the evil you know because you’re too afraid of the alternative, and i think the way he went out was fine. 

sure, he could’ve been given more screentime to focus on this but, its fine.

Favorite relationship

now, do i talk about my favourite Exceedingly Unhealthy Ship For Both Sides, gentoku/utsumi? do i talk about utsumi and sawa, and how they should’ve been given more time to interact on-screen? do i talk about utsumi/sento, the little ship that could? or, hell, do i talk about utsumi/kazumi, where I get to fully embrace utsumi being a stupid tsundere? and, of course, there’s the weird half-sexual half-hate tension between utsumi and evolt in the latter half of the show

god, it’s hard to choose. I honestly can’t pick, there’s a lot of really fun dynamics.

Favorite headcanon

that utsumi designed kr rogue and put the fragile sticker on the back of his head to fuck with gentoku. its simple but so so good.

#kamen rider #build #nariaki utsumi #i could talk about him for SO LONG but i'll cut it here. #kiryuusento