#I know he’s a villain and I know he does some pretty horrible things but

[pocketramblr]

AU! Inko having a sugar baby arrangement with Giran that accidently resulted in Izuku. Izuku has no idea who his father is, and Giran doesn't find out he has a son until later when the League captures Izuku instead of Bakugo.

oh good the antidote to Nao in Situations... Giran Simping!

1- I think Inko kept the sugar baby arrangement up with several others since, runs an OF, wrote some steamy novels under her OF name, that sort of thing. got an little online boutique she's started more recently with her designs for plus size clothes and underthings. Izuku is generally aware of his mother's career and is fine with it, and is also fine with Inko working to keep most of it out of his sight. just another one of those potentially awkward things they're accustomed to but don't talk about. like his mysterious father. or his seeming lack of a quirk.

2- seeming, as he lacks the toe-joint that says he's quirkless for sure, but nothing obvious has ever shown up. he's smart, but not unnaturally so. none of the mental quirk tests led anywhere. he isn't officially recorded as quirkless, but he assumes that by now he's got to be. Huh anyway weird that he is able to specifically remember instances of quirk use with perfect clarity because he's interested in it, able to analyze what he saw even if it was only once, and also, the weird ofa memory stuff- but we'll get to that

3- so izuku's got a fairly normal life, gets bullied, sludge villain, etc etc etc. And then he gets OfA. and then UA gets attacked. And then UA throws a sports festival anyway. and then he gets brainwashed. And then he sees weird ghostly figures behind All Might! But All Might says he's seen them before too, and they can't interact. just glimpses of the people who used to wield the quirk. Izuku's seen them earlier than he did, probably either the quirk being stronger or an effect of brainwashing. Ok, cool, normal. Iida tries to kill a serial killer, less normal. The next night, Izuku has a vivid dream of scolding some child named Kotaro for drawing on his teacher's desk in permanent marker. not normal at all. He has no idea where it came from. but it keeps happening. Strange dreams- not every night, maybe a few times a month, but each time vivid and unlike anyone he knows. It isn't until he's patching up a shirt in a dream, when a man opens the door and says "Bruce! We got a lead on All For One- and his brother!" that he realizes what he might be seeing. Nervously, he brings it up to All Might, who agrees it sounds like flashes of the past users he can see, but not interact with. after all, the dreams just play out as memories with him unable to change anything. But its probably just because of how strong OfA is now, with Izuku's practice charging it up more! "It's a wonderful sign, young Midoriya, and I hope you have good memory dreams tonight. You're going to the mall with all your classmates tomorrow, right? and camp is next week! Who knows what you'll pull out of that quirk next, incredible."

4- the mall... happens. And so does camp... and Dabi ends up with Izuku instead. Shigaraki complains loudly about not getting the one on the take list. Dabi complains loudly about how he didn't see Shigaraki doing any work on that mission. Izuku- well he doesn't complain, but he does ask pretty loudly why Kacchan was on the list, and Shigaraki goes "oh, friend of yours? i guess we can keep you alive long enough to lure him here." and Izuku has just enough preservation to point out he's pretty sure that won't happen. He does, however, end up chained to a chair, still in horrible pain due to his broken bones, listening to Shigaraki on the phone asking some guy for intel on him and Kacchan.

5- About an hour later, a guy walks in with a file of papers and shoves the top one at Shigaraki. Shigraki reads the paper. Looks at the new guy. reads the paper again. Looks at Izuku. Decays the paper. Tells the new guy he's got ten minutes, and orders everyone out. Izuku notes that Kurogiri is still there. New guy, who smells like cigarettes when he gets close to Izuku, stares at him. Izuku isn't sure what he's looking for, but he glares back. New guy huffs. "Well, you're certainly Inko's, at least." That gets a reaction from Izuku. Shoulders tense. Eyebrows narrow. "How do you know my mom?" "Well, kid, I'm an intel broker. That give you any ideas?" "My mom wouldn't go to a crook like you for information." He's right. "Right. Now come on, be smart kid. If we weren't meeting on account of my job, then...?" Izuku blinks. His mother's? but- no. Absolutely not. "Mhm. If i can remember my old password to get into this account i can show you the old messages we had... dated about seventeen years ago. You're just sixteen now, aren't ya?" New guy, who Izuku strongly hopes is lying, fiddles with his phone, typing something. "And I trust Inko to be professional, loyal. So there's an eighty percent chance, at least." "Eighty percent chance of what?" "What's your quirk, kid?" It takes Izuku too long to say "Superpower." New guy laughs. "Now if I knew Inko well, and I did, then 'superpower' is not the name she would have given the name of a quirk that powered her toddler's bones... but you didn't have that quirk back then. What's your real quirk, not the one you just got this year?" Izuku is pretty sure that Shigaraki's teacher is AfO. He knows about OFA, obviously, though Shigaraki doesn't. This guy may or may not. So instead of answering, he just shrugs. "Let me guess. You didn't have one, or, something about remembering? Maybe forgetting? Attracting memories, that'd be a fun combo, hah. Or, quirkless, like I was before, you know... we each found an in." Izuku tries to glare again, but... well, the memories in ofa are a new thing... and quirks can have strange activators... "Ah! Here we go!" New guy, who Izuku would rather not think of as 'eighty percent chance of being his father', moves around the chair and angles his phone down in front of Izuku so he can see the screen. Instead of old messages, there's a notepad. He scrolls slowly so Izuku can read. The writing on it says "look. we both know AfO wants your quirk. But he isn't going to try and get it until Shigaraki's done with you, so play along, maybe some info here and there to 'lure' the bakugou kid to you. even odds the heroes get here first and you're fine. if they don't, i can get afo to spare your life. not your quirk, but he'll let me keep my son. you can't fight out of here, i'm the only out. but you can't tell anyone about this deal. Not the heroes, not the other villains. got it?" Izuku stares at the note. "Do you get it, kid?" The broker asks, quietly. Izuku is pretty sure he's going to fight a way out anyway, but for now... "Got it." "Good." The broker stands up and walks back in front of him, "Izuku, right? Open up." Izuku starts to ask why and gets a cotton swab in his mouth for it, then before he can bite on it to break it it's out again, tucked into a bag then a pocket. "What was that for?" He snaps. "Well, gotta make sure, right? eighty percent isn't one hundred." "And if i'm not?" "Then Inko will owe me one hell of a favor." "... And if I am?" "Then you will." The broker shrugs, turns to go. "Wait-" Izuku starts, then isn't sure where to keep going. The broker looks at him. "What's your name?" The broker laughs a little. "Ah, good question. What'd Inko call me?" Izuku tries to remember. She didn't usually, but he thinks there was one time when it was someone else asking... "Hisashi?" "Hisashi." The broker repeats. "Ah, see, that's poetic! Much more the kind of name Inko would come up with. She's a great writer, you know." Izuku glares so hard that the broker who's definitely not actually named Hisashi makes his way out of the room without another word.

+1- when Shigaraki comes back, he orders Kurogiri give him something strong enough to wipe that mental image from his mind, and then starts asking Izuku about his friend. And his friend's weaknesses. Izuku is unimpressed and he almost forgets his maybe-dad's plan- "Kacchan is really strong, he doesn't have many weaknesses, since he's so practiced with his quirk that-", but only almost, "I don't know, i scared him with a spider once. but we were like, seven. and i guess i wanted to send him a whole box of spiders after he stole my all might-"..... Shigaraki latches on to the 'wait, he stole things from you? potential for crime? i knew it' thing, Toga latches onto the spiders box thing, and so does Dabi but he does it in the opposite direction, complaining that spiders is so basic, and by the time he was seven, he had already tried to murder his baby brother. Magne then asks "wait, you tried to kill a baby? not succeeded? you failed to kill a baby?" which Dabi then responds by reminding her of her less than stellar ratio of successful kills. Compress asks for one of whatever Shigaraki is having, and swipes his' drink too. Spinner keeps trying to sneak closer to Izuku to ask him questions about Stain, and Izuku is slowly starting to feel like he might actually survive long enough to escape or be rescued before he is either turned to dust or tortured for his quirk.

#click the readmore we even got making fun of dabi in there #'isn't simping for giran the cure for s-' its a panacea #pocket talks to people #ask game #anon

[ewingstan]

I certainly didn’t appreciate it on the first read-through, but one of the biggest background characterizations of Alec is among first things we learned about him: that he painted the Undersider’s symbols onto the doors of their hideout.

The loft reads as almost ridiculous when you first read about it. Whatever you’re expecting the hideout of a bunch of hardened criminals to look like, your not expecting “the rich kid’s house with all the best video games.” It almost took me out of it; it felt like such a teen wish fulfillment of a supervillain base that I thought Wildbow must be pretty young—and didn’t really take in what it was telling the reader about the Undersider’s mindset. Because it is a teen wish fulfillment, filtered through the practicality of what cost, secrecy, and Brian would allow for. Its the derelict old building you dare your friends to go into to find some rumored amazing or horrible secret—but this building does have a secret, and its a pizza party with a sweet flatscreen setup.

For the most part, it is an especially cool hangout spot that would appeal to your average teen—and not necessarily your average villain. Taylor gets told to use the other’s civilian names while hanging out here. They wear street clothes instead of their costumes. Its built to be appealing to the non-cape side of your life, a welcome reprieve from that world. For the Undersiders who don’t have much of a real life outside of capedom, its something like a place to play make-believe. That’s part of why its so effective as an initial pitch to Taylor when she’s looking for friends and doesn’t want to be a villain, why its important for ingratiating her to the rest of them and making her backstabbing plan that much harder to follow through on. Its part of why getting her own lair, built for the specifications of Skitter the Warlord instead of Taylor the kid, represents such a big change in how Taylor sees herself and her goals. Its why there’s presumably dozens of Undersider fics of them just casually hanging out in the loft, away from any major cape shenanigans. Its why Rachel's first full appearance is her coming up into the room and breaking the bubble—ruining Brian’s pitch of sweet teen digs by bringing the violence inherent to cape life into the supposedly separate space. Because the loft is supposed to be for the Undersiders to be themselves as civilians, instead of capes.

But at the same time, everyone’s personal room has their symbol painted on their door. And the first real thing we learn about Regent is that he’s the one who painted them.

Regent did not get to have a double life. His cape stuff and his family stuff were inherently intertwined, and it was all bad. He’s arguably the only undersider to have a secret identity in a traditional, important sense: not just “you have a civilian life, and everyone’s gonna respect that its separate and not go after anything related to it,” like @artbyblastweave​ outlined here, but “your specific other identity is important, in a sense outside of just being something to target” way. People finding out who Skitter is means they know there’s an identity there to exploit—her enemies can trace her to her school, she can’t continue to go back to her old house, etc. You’d be able to get the same advantage by finding out the civilian identity of pretty much any cape. But not with Alec. People finding out who Alec is means they go “oh fuck, its Heartbreaker’s kid—” the effect is much more like finding out Taylor is Skitter, rather than vice versa.

And that’s important, because the persona of Regent is, to a large extent, his chance to live out the life he wants. Brian and Lisa both have circumstances that don’t allow them a typical childhood, and so they construct spaces to go through the motions of one. To roughhouse and play video games with friends, to plan shopping trips and visits to Fugly Bobs. They’re looking for a respite from their normal state, and that respite to them looks like civilian life. Alec is looking for a respite from his awful childhood, and that respite has a lot of the same things, but it also has the symbols and aspects of his cape persona. He draws his crown on his door, he uses his powers casually on Brian—he’s using the space to let him be Regent, in the same way Brian is pitching it to Skitter as a place where she can just be Taylor, where Tattletale can just be Lisa. This is pretty huge for understanding Regent early-on: Taylor obviously has a pretty expansive double life, as does Brian, and Lisa clearly wants to get into some non-cape-related shenanigans. We’re introduced with a clear divide between cape and civilian identities being the norm. Rachel is presented as bucking a trend, her lack of second identity making her an outlier. But if you read into Regent’s decorating choices, you realize pretty early that you can’t separate his cape identity and his current civilian idenitiy, because their both effectively the same thing: a persona where he can be something other than a Vasil.

Sheesh, now that I’m thinking about it there’s a lot to be drawn from each of the undersider’s lairs. I already talked a bit about how Skitter having her new base be a proper “villain lair” instead of “hang spot” represented a shift in perspective, and how Rachel being unable to behave the way your “supposed” to in the loft shows that she both can’t live a double life and has no interest in doing so (unlike Alec, who is very clearly interested in making a “new” life for himself with the Undersiders as Regent). But how about how Brian won’t take a room in the loft and insists on sleeping in a separate apartment he’s planning on shairing with Aisha? He obviously wants to be able to draw an especially clear line between his cape and civilian life, and doesn’t want Aisha to get involved at all. How about how Lisa’s eventual separate Coil-provided villain lair is a disguised community center she was pretending to work in, showing both that she has some interest in a life outside of capedom and that she’s inherently drawn to working with/having control over civilian culture? She doesn’t just want to hold territory, she wants to be an institution—not just someone the other capes have to play ball with, but who the mayor and civilian agencies have to go through. She separates capedom and civilianhood to an extent, but not to the same extent as Brian, and her goals are much more “civilian-oriented” than most.

I forget the specifics of Alec’s eventual Coil-base, but I know that it was a group of buildings (a campus, maybe?) with few people in the surrounding area outside of puppets—presumably not so different from the compound he grew up. But I do remember that one of the last times we see it is near when Taylor says something about his connection to Heartbreaker, and him getting upset by it. I wonder if it changes in the intervening two years, especially with Imp’s influence. I’m kinda sad we never get a chance to see it.

#worm #wildbow #parahumans #alec vasil #regent #leo says #leo reads worm

[scribefindegil]

[Image ID: A page from the Reigen manga. Panel 1: Reigen stands in a forest looking exhausted. He says, “At least I bought bug spray this time . . .” Panel 2: He sprays himself down. Panel 3: A closeup of his face. He’s dripping with sweat and his eyes are sunken. He says, “Preparations complete.” Panel 4: Reigen loosens his tie as he staggers towards the viewer. His face is sweaty and he has a haggard expression. He says, “All right then . . .” End ID.]

Okay listen it’s been a month since i read this and i CANNOT stop thinking about “At least I bought bug spray this time. . .” It’s just. It’s so Reigen.

This man is dying. He is being eaten alive by a curse that will kill him in less than 3 hours--probably closer to 2 by this point because this place is pretty far outside of Seasoning City. Since Serizawa couldn’t destroy the curse, he knows that Mob is the only person who could get rid of it--and he doesn’t think that he’ll get there in time, if he comes at all. Reigen’s last-ditch plan is to try to trudge into the most haunted forbidden evil woods he knows about in the hope that he can make the curse that’s killing him fight a different, worse curse, and if that doesn’t work at least he’ll die in a place far away from other people and the curse will be prevented from victimizing anyone else.

And what does he say when he arrives at the Evil Death Woods? “At least I brought bug spray.”

One of the things that makes Reigen’s character work is that he is Just Some Guy. A deeply bewildering, paradoxical guy who lies for a living, but still just a guy. Different characters in MP100 are trying to exist in slightly different genres, and for all his absurdity Reigen is the character who is the most grounded in the real world. He worries about his fire insurance during a psychic terrorist attack. He’s the one who goes “Hey, this is illegal?” and “Kids should not be dealing with this” and “You’re supposed to be adults, what is your PROBLEM?” when he’s introduced to the shonen-anime-villain Scars.

And he’s the sort of person who thinks, yeah, dying of a horrible curse in the woods would be bad, but you know what would be worse? That and bug bites. And he’s not . . . wrong, but it’s not something that anyone else in the series is going to think of. It’s such a normal worry in such an abnormal situation. It’s so grounded.

And it’s also . . . weirdly hopeful? I feel like a lot of people talk about this part of the manga like Reigen’s given up and is just marching to his death, but he really isn’t. Yes, he was willing to take on the curse to save Tome, and he’s well aware that he might die, but he’s still trying to get out of it with everything he’s got. He doesn’t have powers, but he’s really clever! He goes into a place with a time distortion effect in the hope that it will buy him more time! He manipulates the curse into turning around so that it gets attacked by the Mimic spirit but he doesn’t! If it had been a more even match between them like he’d hoped, he might have been able to get out of the woods even without Mob coming to save him.

He’s aware of the danger and how much the odds are stacked against him, but he hasn’t given up! And the bug spray feels indicative of this. He thinks he might succeed in getting rid of the curse. He thinks he might need to get out of the woods on his own. And if that happens, he’s going to be so happy about not getting covered in bug bites this time.

#mp100 #reigen manga spoilers #reigen arataka #i love him

[monsterhugger]

illumi and hisoka, pure awful villain love

so. i love illumi and hisoka. I think they’re perfect for each other. I also think they’re more than just a quirky villain couple. it’s not just “he’s killed people but I still love him.” they’re truly the worst of the worst.

by which I mean CW for child abuse and pedophilia. it’s pretty core to their relationship and to this analysis. nothing that isn’t brought up in canon but like, fair warning

first off, i love this interaction between them. the way illumi is just like “i know what you are. anyway not my problem." hisoka isn’t exactly subtle about his feelings for gon so I’m not giving illumi a ton of credit for picking up on it this early in their relationship but it’s telling how easily he jumps over this hurdle.

also makes for a good parallel to this exchange:

when hisoka threatens to “make a move” on killua, illumi reacts so strongly not because he’s disturbed by this side of hisoka but because That’s His Brother. hisoka can have gon but killua is His.

(imo, hisoka definitely doesn’t mean “kill” here. the wording is ambiguous in japanese and can be translated as “kill” or “fuck” but the inclusion of that hand gesture was clearly intentional.)

(both manga and anime cap here bc i like the way it's phrased in the anime lol)

i love how hisoka compares himself to illumi here. like not only is he self-aware abt his obsession with gon, he sees that obsession in illumi's relationship with killua.

illumi’s love for killua is deep. it’s toxic and obsessive and smothering. and hisoka knows this and looks at illumi and goes “we’re not so different, you and I.”

illumi is able to accept hisoka’s proclivities because his upbringing has basically ruined his sense of morality, especially when it comes to child abuse. he likes hisoka because hisoka is useful to him and he doesn’t care about the rest as long as hisoka stays away from his brother.

that’s the other thing abt this that makes illumi so terrifying imo: he’s not completely soulless and unfeeling. his love for killua is REAL. sure it’s a deeply unhealthy and abusive love but it’s love. he truly cares about his little brother, and yet he’s still capable of horrific things. illumi isn’t a monster, he’s a person capable of love with something he wants to protect and he STILL does what he does.

and as for hisoka, i think it gives him some depth too. it’s interesting how self-aware he is, especially considering how blatant he is about his attraction to Gon particularly in the earlier parts of the series. he doesn’t feel remorse for it, but he knows what he’s feeling and doing is wrong (which, imo, makes it scarier).

their relationship is so… idk how to describe it. I guess give and take works. they look at each other and go “you’re a horrible person but who am I to judge?” they’re useful to each other. they like messing with each other just to see what happens. they’ve mutually agreed not to fuck with each other’s favorite 12-year-old boy. they’re both depraved, awful people and they’re meant for each other.

they’re amazing villains with a batshit insane relationship and I love them for it

#hisoillu #hisoka morow #illumi zoldyck #hxh #hunter x hunter #meta #they’ve been on my mind!!! #apologies for this being so heavy but yknow #kinda don’t want to sugarcoat this. that’s the whole point #they’re awful. they’re so fucking awful. let them be awful

[maxwell-grant]

Any thoughts on AKI in SF6?

I haven't had a chance to play the game yet and I might do a more thorough look into the newcomers after I do sit through World Tour, but yeah I got some AKI thoughts. Holy shit what a design. Top 15-20 in the series, it is one hell of a different thing to watch it animated by the character's personality and moveset and vibe. We expected some FANG-isms, some Juri-isms, but certainly not that. We expected a cold, even generic assassin, not someone who merrily treats the penal code like a list of chores.

It was pretty funny seeing the reaction to her develop from "oh she's FANG's apprentice, okay I guess, not sure anyone was asking for that", to "is she the new Juri, she's got a really similar vibe", to "holy shit Juri's got NOTHING on her". In reaction to her popularity, SF6 had been doing a lot of great character work on Juri that, while making her much more developed and entertaining as a character (cringe failgirl Juri was such a revelation) and dramatically more interesting as a person, also really limits the extent to which she can be a straight-up villain anymore. Much like how FANG was designed to fill the void left by Sagat, AKI here crashed the scene to fill the void left by Juri, and so she gets to be not just completely 100% horrible (where as Juri is like, 70-80% horrible), but also SCARY in a way Juri never could be. She gets so, so much out of not being designed for sex appeal and coolness first and foremost, she's like the D'Vorah to Juri's Mileena.

She's a horrible, predatory character, and much like Marisa, I don't think she would have been allowed at all to exist the way she does had she debuted prior (you just know they would have not given her those sick ass pants or given her a different haircut or a cleavage window or something stupid like that). The development team for V repeteadly stated that there were ideas for a new assassin apprentice character related to Gen thrown around and that some of those made their way into FANG and Seth, and AKI is the end result of that very long refinement process. She's the resident freakshow character in the tradition started by Blanka and Dhalsim, and she's the outrageous over-the-top counterpoint to the more traditional martial arts like Chun-Li or even Jamie (much like Adon, or Necro). She's the understudy of the kung fu assassin villain, and in a way akin to Menat she's the young new apprentice of a prior character who acts as a stand-in for that character on the roster and driven to prove her worth before said character, while also being a modern do-over of said character.

(And for the record I actually like FANG quite a bit, a lot more than most of the other V characters. He played like garbage and his execution was lacking and couldn't make up for a terrible first impression in the fanbase, but the design and character and concept I thought were very solid and I'm glad AKI shows they didn't give up on it but took steps to improve on it, I'm glad to see him again in 6).

She breaks new ground for the series by leaning strongly into a horror wraith vibe no other character had before, and she's the Street Fighter equivalent to characters like Voldo, a horrible contortionist slasher villain who doesn't fight you so much as she just passionately and exquisitely butchers you while getting off on it. Her moves are incredible, superbly characterized, she feels vicious and oppressive to watch but still hits that note on FANG's where the playstyle is meant to be tricky but overspecialized and beatable at close range. And while she's designed to be a much more explicitly serious and deadly-looking character than FANG, they even give her goofy little flourishes like blowing bubbles shaped like FANG (and getting pissed if you pop them), his propensity for bird-like arms flapping, and an uncharacteristically childish victory dance akin to Chun-Li's.

She is as cadaverous as Juri is tempestuous, openly referring to herself as a ghost, and when she isn't losing her shit in contorting fits of laughter over success, she has a remarkably chill, upbeat disposition when spouting horrible things to the protagonist or fake poisoning them for laughs. She has an incredibly distinct personality more so than any especially developed inner life, and that's kinda the point: that she has wholly and completely sublimated herself to her role as FANG's tool, by choice and intent of her own, and that's part of why she's a real deal villain.

She was raised by him, she likes what he likes, she is obsessed with everything he is and has done and will do, hates everyone that isn't him, considers him her master and teacher and father and husband all in one, and her romantic fixation and love for him is meant to be deeply disturbing in every way imaginable (and only not a total dealbreaker for me because FANG in no way reciprocates or encourages it or is able to do so, even AKI understands as much), and that they may eventually have to kill each other doesn't deter her one bit.

Despite those surface similarities, there is quite a lot that sets AKI apart from Juri, chief of those being that Juri was victimized by Shadaloo and in response fashioned herself into an instrument of vengeance and turned monstrous as a result, where as AKI actively chose her life and chose being molded by someone else, running away from home and following FANG every step of the way without any regret. Even FANG himself had little choice in his own life, kidnapped as a child and forced to partake in horrible training under which every day could be his last, raised to value nothing but survival at all costs.

Perhaps this in itself is the strength that FANG saw in AKI, that she gets to choose and does so with far greater intent than even himself. That she's someone who could fully understand the horribleness of the Nguuhao methods and lifestyle and want for that and nothing else, to consciously partake in such grueling torture of mind and body and lovingly decide that she can't get enough of it.

And in itself this pairs interestingly with the very idea of giving FANG a dedicated protege sidekick, a character beat that the series has come back to again and again, and takes on an entirely different tone here. I think a lot of what makes AKI's obsession interesting to me in a way these usually aren't, is not just because it's creepy, but because it's ultimately sad and pathetic, and parallels FANG's own craven worship of Bison. It's such a great dynamic, a miserable cycle perpetuated by miserable people caught on the wrong side of that glorification of self-improvement, inner strength and the great heroes and masters who can pass it onto others that the series uses so frequently, and it makes AKI even greater as a character for it: because now we have a true dark mirror for the driving motivation of many of our characters. We have our fucked-up toxic counterpart to every Sakura, Mika, Menat, and Sean out there.

She sees him as he saw Bison and more, and the fact that she is much more threatening and overtly competent and scary than FANG is offset by the fact that worshipping Bison is a wholly different thing than worshipping, y'know, FANG. We comprehend, on some level, FANG's worship, because M.Bison is supposed to be, at minimum, a cool imposing megavillain we're meant to like on some level, which is certainly not true for FANG. SF6 has been very clear on that, that even though he's been given a much slicker outfit, and is keeping a low profile to plot from behind the scenes, this is still very much FANG, every bit the conniving, petty control freak from before.

AKI is a cool, hypercompetent death machine able to scare the pants off the main villain, and she labors desperately day and night, to the point of crying if she fails, to meet the approval of a ridiculous, pathetic man who, no matter how deceptively cunning or dangerous he may be, is only cool to her. Much of why I think FANG worked and was necessary in the first place was because he was designed around the vacuum left by the Four Kings and to contrast them, as what kind of man would it take to work himself ragged running Bison's schemes and being unfailingly loyal to him and Shadaloo, opposite Vega and Balrog's sporadic barely-there alliances and Sagat's outright betrayal. We needed an anti-Sagat, a proper bastard of a Number 2 to run the show in secret. And AKI adds a lot of poignancy to that in that she is much of what FANG can't be, even as she wants nothing more than to be like him.

It's one thing to have somebody who really looks up to and makes an effort to imitate the cool and impressive and heroic World Warriors, or someone influenced by imposing villains like Balrog or Sagat but ultimately decides to carve their own path. It's another thing entirely for maybe THE most obsessive protege character in the series, someone who actively has no identity outside of servitude to her master, to revolve around FANG, the dastardly bird man, who made his debut in a story by hunting down and melting an innocent woman, and grossly and animastically licking her ashen remains off his fingers. What kind of person would decide that this sickening, vile creep is deserving of worship and following until the ends of the Earth?

(art by @remy2fang)

Well, maybe the same kind of person who would consciously look at the likes of M.Bison in the first place, someone they intuitively understand "will reign death on all living beings", and upends their life on the spot towards becoming that man's eternal servant. Someone who seeks self-fulfillment through no other means than the pursuit of strength and knowledge as tools to subjugate others and appease their master. The darkest corruption of the master-student dynamic that defines so much of the series. You couldn't ask for anything more fitting, for the poison specialists.

#replies tag #street fighter #fighting games #capcom #a.k.i. #f.a.n.g #aki street fighter #aki sf6 #fang #sf6 #street fighter 6

[pigfacedbitch]

Dating Hort of Bloodbrook

summary : general headcanons of dating Hort while being the princess of Camelot.

word count : 0.7k

type : headcanons

pairing/s involved : Hort x Reader, Sibling! Tedros x Reader

warning/s : discrimination against Nevers and Evers.

here is my masterlist!

Note : I know this is late but this has been on my unfinished works since the movie came out. I fell in love with Hort, he is so cute and loyal to Sophie 🥹. I haven't read the books but I might soon when I need to escape reality again.

You will likely be a year younger than Tedros.

Because of the heir and the spare™.

I know it sounds bad but some rulers actually do those.

Tedros is extremely overprotective over you, especially when Queen Guinevere ran away with Lancelot and King Arthur died.

He's like the typical older brother you see in movies; handsome, buff, (kind off) a meathead, and annoys you to know end.

Will also be the first one to come to your defense.

When you got to the School of Good, you were determined to destroy the image of being Tedros' little sister.

Which results to you preferring to be a hero in your own story than being a queen in someone else's.

As expected, you quickly became friends with Agatha.

Not afraid to stand up to those who think girls are inferior to boys.

While the other Evers found the Nevers horrible for being future villains, you have a neutral perspective towards them.

After all, the School of Good has many stuck up and vain students.

Meeting Hort was definitely a memory to remember. It was when Professor Dovey took the first years to the Wish Fish (Let's pretend Agatha didn't free them).

When you put your hand on the water and begin to think of a wish, you didn't feel the water swirling like Agatha told you she experienced,

Instead, it was hand that intertwines its finger with yours.

And it harshly pulled you down the water.

The girls' screams and the professor calling out your name in panic caught the boys and Tedros' attention, running to the 'rescue'.

Under the water, you see someone smiling at you, or at least that's what you hopes he's doing.

A Never named Hort, son of Captain Hook.

Tedros immediately pulled you out of the water, with Hort in tow.

The angry professor commands the nearby guards to bring him back to the School of Evil and how Lady Lesso will surely punish him.

"It seems like I'm your wish, my lady."

He expects you to be disgusted like the other Evers. To his surprise, you give him the sweetest smile he has ever seen in his life.

"That you are, Hort of Bloodbrook."

To say Hort is surprised was an understatement.

You didn't only smile at him but also knew his name.

Cupid's arrow struck him at that moment. His villainous smirk drops, staring at you with wide eyes as much as he could before they were out of sight.

Tedros, who saw the whole thing, was not pleased and gave you a warning on how Nevers can't be trusted.

After your encounter, Hort seeks you out more.

You didn't mind, he is an odd yet funny companion.

He also doesn't care for one's physical appearance like the girls do or how you're nothing but a pretty face with a royal title like most guys think.

He encourages you to be yourself, like Agatha does.

You two would get judgmental looks from both sides.

Sophie was pissed, not only because Hort was losing interest in her but being the princess of Camelot is everything she wants to be.

So is Tedros. And everyone else who sees you together.

Agatha is just worried and would remind you to keep your guard up.

But you enjoy each other's company, that's what matters.

Hort was in love with you the moment you met but it took you a longer time to realize your feelings for him.

You only told Agatha about it but Tedros overheard.

Believe me when I say that Tedros will demand you to be examined.

"She's not under any spells, my prince."

"Are you certain?"

"Oh my God, I love Hort and there's nothing you can do about it!"

Everyone in the hall heard you.

Silence before a giddy howl ensues.

Hort runs to you and gives the biggest hug you could ever receive.

Despite being initially embarrassed, you returned it.

Before he could kiss you like he always dreamed of, Tedros stops him.

He pulls out Excalibur and points its tip on Hort's neck. Your brother will mercilessly give the poor boy threats if he broke your heart or hurt you in any way. Agatha joined in without words, just sending a warning glare on his way.

Hort would be lowkey terrified but so happy at the same time.

I mean you love him back. He could take a fucking army if you command him to.

Lady Lesso and Professor Dovey would only look at each other in disbelief, worried for what happens next.

#school of good and evil #school for good and evil #sfgae #sfgae x reader #sfgae headcanons #sfgae imagine #hort x reader imagine #hort of bloodbrook #hort x reader #hort x reader headcanons #agatha of gavaldon #tedros of camelot #tedros #agatha of camelot #agatha of woods beyond #sophie of woods beyond #sophie of gavaldon #pendragon! reader

[raythekiller]

do you mind doing a NSFW & SFW alphabet for EJ? either one is fine if you don't feel like doing both! if not it's totally fine <3

🗒 ❛ SFW Alphabet ༉‧₊˚✧

Featuring: Eyeless Jack

#Notes: NSFW alphabet can be found here

pronouns used: none, gn! reader

˗ˏˋ back to navigation ´ˎ˗

A - AFFECTION

He's a little bit distant at first. I've mentioned this quite a few times before, but he doesn't think he deserves affection, so he's a little reluctant to give it as well. Once he opens up, he mainly shows it through quality time - really enjoys when you're both in the same room, doing different things but still in each other's company.

B - BEST FRIEND

He's surprisingly considerate as a best friend, always hyper aware of your needs and doing his best to make sure you're comfortable. Just a gentle giant.

C - CUDDLES Normally the big spoon. He's super warm, almost like a "human" furnace, so he's great to cuddle with on colder days.

D - DOMESTIC

He's basically a malewife. Yes he does the cooking, yes he does the cleaning. Likes to keep his space tidy and is a super good cook (you don't wanna know where the meat came from, though).

E - ENDING

When breaking up with someone, he goes directly to the point - no beating around the bush. It's most likely because of something they did or his "villain complex", as I like to call it, where he believes he doesn't deserve love due to being a horrible person.

F - FIANCE(E)

He really wanted to get married before the cult sacrifice thing. His desire didn't change much after, but now he has some issues to work through before possibly making it happen.

G - GENTLE

Again, he's a big softie. Handles you like you're made out of porcelain, scared that the slightest of touches from him might hurt you. Emotionally, he's not too different - always thinks twice before talking, aware as to not hurt anyone's feelings.

H - HUGS

A little reluctant to give them at first, but once he does, he's gentle and warm. He's super tall, so normally your head is resting on his chest. Makes you want to not let go.

I - I LOVE YOU

My god, it takes him forever to say it. Once he does, it's barely above a whisper, almost like he's hoping you won't hear him as he doesn't want to be too forward or make you uncomfortable.

J - JEALOUSY

Doesn't get jealous easily. He trusts you, so he sees no reason for it. Even when he does, he normally keeps quiet about it, accidently giving you the silent treatment.

K - KISSES

Super gentle. He has fangs and tusks and such, so he knows he has to watch out as to not hurt you with them. Likes kissing your hand the most, especially if you're cupping his face, giving him easy access to your palm.

L - LITTLE ONES

Has a soft spot for kids. Sally absolutely adores him and it's mutual - he's just so caring with them in general. Wanted to have some of his own, but given his circumstances, he realizes it might not be the best idea.

M - MORNING

He wakes up early and ready to go. Definitely the type to bring you breakfast in bed, especially if you're not much of a morning bird.

N - NIGHT

Even though he doesn't actually need much sleep due to not being human, he goes to sleep pretty early. The type to cling to you in his sleep.

O - OPEN 

Takes a long, long while for him to open up about his past. One, because he doesn't like to talk about it, and two, because he doesn't see it as relevant to your relationship. Once you start growing closer, though, he realizes he can't exactly run from it for long.

P - PATIENCE

Absolutely the most patient out of all the creeps. You have to do something seriously fucked up to get him to be even slightly pissed off.

Q - QUIZZES

Remembers pretty much everything you tell him, almost like he wrote it down or something. You'll be chilling and he'll just bring you your favorite snack from your childhood cause he saw it and thought about you.

R - REMEMBER

His favorite moment is when he realized you loved him as well. Might be before you even started dating or months into the relationship - the moment you do something that makes it click for him that he's a actually, genuinely loved is his favorite.

S - SECURITY

Extremely protective, more so due to instinct than anything else. He's not possessive, he just worries about you.

T - TRY

Doesn't really do fancy dates or gifts - thinks that just getting to spend time together is enough.

U - UGLY

Unless you don't count the occasional cannibalism, he doesn't really have any bad habits.

V - VANITY

Doesn't exactly care about his appearance, per se, but refuses to take off his mask most of the time. Not because he thinks he's ugly, but because he doesn't look exactly human and is self conscious about it.

W - WHOLE

He never really felt complete before meeting you, there was always a void in his heart he couldn't quite fill until you came along.

X - XTRA

Has a tail. Need I say more?

Y - YUCK

Here's a post about his petpeeves.

Z - ZZZ

Again, goes to sleep really early. Also, he purrs in his sleep. No, I will not elaborate.

#creepypasta #creepypasta headcanons #creepypasta x reader #ray.writes #eyeless jack #eyeless jack x reader

[ryuichirou]

who do you think out of the twst boy tops is the meanest to their bottoms? (ok it’s probably the leech twins combined but i’d love to know how you think the tops would bully their bottoms for pleasure of course)

Sorry for the late reply, Anon!

First and foremost, I think you’re right, the Leech twins are the meanest, but that would be quite an easy and short answer. And now that I think about it… a lot of these boys are pretty mean lol but I guess they are villains so it’s natural for them to be not-so-wholesome, especially considering my own bias towards this kind of dynamic. So uuhh, let’s examine all of them! And rate their level of meanness from 0 to 10 while we’re at it, we love scaling stuff in this household…

Ace – around 6-7, he is pretty mean. His default option is to tease his Deuce (or Riddle, if this is a AceRid situation) and to bully him a little bit, mostly by touching him in a way he doesn’t expect and commenting about just how much he likes it. It’s always a game of never-ending bickering with him and Deuce, and Ace always wants to get the last laugh… He also loves to tease Deuce for being loud and talk about how they’re going to get noticed.

Trey – if he was true to himself, up to 8. But he has to be in a very comfortable place in his relationship to actually stop holding back lol He knows that his desires are unhinged and is very afraid of scaring Riddle away. He is not mean at all when he is with him, as if he’s going to break him if he does anything remotely uncomfortable. With other potential bottoms (Idia? Vil?) he allows himself to be a liiiitle meaner, mainly because they are more aware of his “true colours” and wouldn’t be as shocked by the contrast. If he didn’t hold back at all though, I feel like he could be pretty intense: verbal degradation, spanking, forcing his bottom to eat or drink semen…

Cater – normally around 3, but could go up to 6; it depends on a situation, but I can picture him getting meaner than one would expect him to be because the arousal partially shuts off the part of his brain that forces him to be friendly and cute all the time. Especially if both of them are into it to some degree, Cater could get carried away sometimes. I guess taking pictures/videos and forcing his bottom to act for them and then look at them later or asking if he should post it would be on brand for him lol

Ruggie – he usually minds his own business and doesn’t do any of the mean stuff, but honestly around 4?? There are moments when Leona gets on his nerves, so if he has an opportunity to be a bit more mean, he always uses it lol Mostly in a physical way though, like tugging on Leona’s hair and tail, biting his ears, even smacking his butt if Ruggie is lucky. And Ruggie enjoys these moments tremendously… but it’s not like he is naturally inclined to be mean by default.

Jack – good boy, not a meanie :( But he is also a tsundere who could say mean stuff every now and then, so I guess that’s a 1. It’s not like he doesn’t have potential to be a bully, it’s just way too embarrassing and feels weird and unnecessary for him. That being said, despite being such a gentle giant, he loves being physically rough and can’t control his own strength well, so if we’re judging by the level of “damage”, he is higher than a 1 lol

Azul – horrible. Definitely around 7-8, and on a good day could even jump up to 9.5. Azul thrives on dominating his partner, this is one thing he loves the most about having sex. Being better that everybody around you academically and a successful young entrepreneur is one thing, but overstimulating your partner to the point when you can see his body aching for your attention and his brains get all foggy? This is priceless, Azul’s ego is orgasming. So yeah, be it Idia or Jamil, Azul loves overstimulating them and then preventing them from reaching an orgasm, and he ALWAYS accompanies it with verbal bullying. Because he knows that Idia is going to grind his teeth and sigh in arousal and annoyance unable to talk back (finally!). And he knows that Jamil is going to get snappy at him because he doesn’t have all the time in the world to play Azul’s stupid games (how impatient~).

Jade – like we already agreed, the tweels are the meanest, so 10. And in some sense Jade is the worst out of all of them? There is no point in having sex to him if there isn’t any bullying involved; I think to Jade sex is just a pretext lol Otherwise he isn’t all that into it. And to him the bullying part starts before sex and continues after sex… so a lot of mental mind games, confusing his bottom about whether he wants to have sex with him or not, gaslighting him before AND after about what actually happened between the two. But other than that, he also teases a lot, degrades verbally a lot, and threatens a lot, but always in such a sleazy way as if he is slowly putting himself under his bottom’s skin. He also does a bunch of physical stuff too, like feeding funny mushrooms, playing with needles and choking. He also made Idia feel like he is going to kill him during sex once, and Idia genuinely believed him and almost died due to being scared. Of course, that made the orgasm stronger for both of them.

Floyd – also a 10, obviously. In a way, he is better than Jade because he actually does enjoy having sex, and sometimes he just wants to have a good banging session, and he might even be somewhat passionate and sensual (not gentle though lol). But when he wants to bully, he is much less premeditated than Jade?? He just does the first thing that comes to mind. So sometimes he just tugs on Riddle’s underwear and playfully blows on his sensitive ear in public, making him moan in surprise… but sometimes he threatens to do horrible irreversible things to him while he fucks him, licks his tears off and steals his phone to make it seem like he’s calling his mom. And then throws away his clothes so he has to come back to his dorm naked.

Kalim – barely a 1, he isn’t mean at all. Even when he gets playful or capricious, it’s never really a desire to bully or be even mildly sadistic. All the mean stuff that he does is kind of unintentional?? I think to some degree Jamil would prefer him to actually be mean and degrading than to do whatever the fuck he does when he suddenly decided that they need to change the position once every minute or so.

Rook – another weird one. He isn’t malicious and wouldn’t consider himself a bully, so it feels like he would have a very low number… but similarly to Kalim, he does stuff unintentionally, and he is kind of much worse than Kalim. The thing with Rook is that he enjoys the thrill and enjoys his partner feeling all kinds of complex emotions while having sex with him, it’s like seasoning a good meal to make it into a great meal. So while he wouldn’t call Vil (or any other of his partners) a pathetic slut, he would ask weird and invasive questions, hint at things, make his lover’s mind go straight to conclusions about Rook being unfair and cruel. If Rook can make his partner hate him with passion while also fiercely, actively and desperately enjoying his dick even for a minute or two of confusion, Rook is happy~ Also, does chasing someone in a forest count as bullying?

Ortho – in general he is around 4-6, you know, more playful and mischievous than mean, but he has the potential to be a lot meaner. Especially when he gets carried away… He gets a lot of ideas from the internet and gets experimental, especially with Idia. The more sex they have, the meaner Ortho gets because bullying provides new reactions, new sensations and new data. And it could be both verbal and physical… well, we have an entire post about just how mean Ortho could potentially get lol

Lilia – 8-10, he is one of the meanest ones for sure. And if he was his younger self, he would definitely be the meanest. We talked about him being sadistic a lot of times, in this reply for example, but these days he mostly teases his bottoms verbally, pranks them, makes them do embarrassing kinky stuff that could easily get them caught and overstimulates them. You know, like asking Silver not to wear underwear, forcing Idia to meow while he is being fucked or even saying that Malleus seemed way too happy about getting attention and therefore should show how much he wants him to continue fucking him (although the last one is very dangerous; Lilia is very careful with Malleus lol). Similarly to Rook, he thinks it’s just him being playful~

Sebek – as things always are with Sebek, it depends on who he is with. Because if it’s Malleus, he wouldn’t dare to be mean to him, at least intentionally, so that would make him a 0… but with Silver or Idia or anyone else I can see him getting very cocky. Despite how physical Sebek always is, he is surprisingly into verbal degradation, so Silver is going to hear a lot of comments about him not being able to handle Sebek and his legs being shaky because of them having sex, and Idia is going to hear a lot of... all kinds of mean stuff about how pathetic he is to be honest lol But Sebek also gets overstimulated easily, so he’ll either start spouting nonsense or will proceed with physical bullying – hair pulling, smacking and stuff. So either 0 or 8 for him lol

#replies #headcanons

[altocat]

i don't think anyone should be sympathizing with Sephiroth after the Rhadorans

That's up to the viewer to decide. Please keep in mind that Sephiroth is 1.) A minor, 2.) Did not willingly enlist in SOLDIER, 3.) Was raised to do this since birth, and 4.) Does not want to be here. The fact that he has a breakdown at the end of Chapter Five is evidence that the horrors and trauma of doing Shinra's dirty work is eating at him, and that he has to force himself to act ruthless for the sake of survival.

Now you could take some of his more callous dialogue from the chapter and say he's unempathetic, but it honestly reads like he's just parroting Shinra propaganda as a reflex. It's very vaguely implied he got hurt because he hesitated when attacking the other kids. And considering how exceedingly empathetic he would be in Crisis Core, it all points to the idea of Sephiroth just saying and acting how he needs to in order to cope with his incredibly lonely and violent lifestyle. He said point blank that he only just wanted a normal life. He wouldn't be here if Shinra hadn't shoved him into the mission and had made him the face of their company. Sephiroth never consented to this life.

You could make more of a case for disliking Glenn, Matt, and Lucia for their actions. They're all consenting adults who willingly enlisted. And they still help Sephiroth wipe out the Rhadorans while knowing about Rosen's situation. Now I've personally grown fond of them. But that's in acknowledging that they've still done some pretty horrible things. They have less of an excuse than Sephiroth....but they also have a duality in that they are capable of kindness and compassion. War is complicated. There's a moral intricacy that comes with the concept of warring factions. Shinra is unmistakably evil and the villain of the story. But when we're looking at the human aspect of the story, there's more shades of gray. And it's up to you to decide how to go about studying these characters.

#asks #ff7 #ffvii #final fantasy 7 #crisis core #sephcanons #sephiroth #ffvii ever crisis #ever crisis #ffvii first soldier #First soldier #Ff7ec #glenn lodbrok #matt winsord #Lucia lin

[justatalkingface]

The 'Great' MHA Read Along, Part Five (Chapters 22-44): The Mandatory Exploitive Tournament Arc

Been awhile, huh? Let's see if I can still pull this off. I'm warning you, this is probably going to have a bit of heft to it.

We start off people trying (and failing) to investigate Shigarki and the Villains and, first off, a couple of things. The whole, 'Quirk Registry' shit? Very X-Men. I'm... kinda mixed feelings on it. It makes sense for a government to try and keep track of this kind of shit, but at the same time it feels like a whole lot, you know? That said... the way the guy in the suit phrased it makes it seem like they only searched for 'Shigaraki/Disintegration' and 'Kurogiri/OP warping' pairings, which seems... dumb. Like, really dumb.

Are they.... are they not going to search for anyone with a similar Quirk? Because it sounds like there are other people with similar Quirks, so... what about them? Oh, this pale haired guy who mutters a lot about how horrible heroes are isn't named Shigaraki, so clearly this isn't the guy? Do some ground work or something, man, bloody hell.

*spits out drink*

Even All-Might thinks Shigaraki is a man-child, lol. Brutal. That said... Vlad goes, 'You mean he's just like a kid with a 'power' or something?!'

And I. My dude. You're just some guy with a power. It feels like some depersonalization of the 'villains' because, yeah, everyone in this story is, in fact, just some rando human, 99.9% of the time with super powers. I don't know, it just feels like that's this really concerning perspective for someone in authority to have.

'I keep forgetting this is an actual school!'

That. That's... actually really concerning? Everyone, literally everyone, from Aizawa, to the students, to the actual author, can't seem to figure out if UA is some military academy meant to pump out child soldiers, or an actual high school meant to prepare children to go into society. And not to belabor the point here, one I've talking about on and off again for awhile, but that's fucked up.

I can't help but get the impression that UA (and presumably every other hero academy) is some military complex, setting up the students to live a life where the only way they know how to live is through violence and trying to be famous, but it's just... pretending to have standards, pretending to care for the kids as anything more than the next generation of... idol-police, or something. The way every school related thing is so out of place, the way their grades are so unimportant... it's very telling.

And like. It's not a bad thing, per say. Morally bad, sure, but from a story telling perspective? For a story like this, the way the heroic's school is morally dubious is actually a really good plot point to work off of. But... that's the problem. It never happens.

If the setting was fucked up enough, it'd be understandable if it wasn't explored, but it's not. I feel like there's some fertile ground to talk about... how heroes don't know how to handle living normal lives. How to cook, clean, do taxes, hIstory (which is, of course, very loaded sort of topic in a more dystopian kind of a set up) and so on. There's no way they have the time and energy to do all the thing a normal kid should do at their age, and as they grow up, and get these dangerous, fucked up jobs? There has to be consequences to that.

And the next line later, they bring up, you know, a bunch of terrorists just attacked the school. Which is, in fact, a serious fucking concern! What does Aizawa say?

'No no, we're only doing because we're so sure we have this shit locked down.'

Spoiler alert: They did not, in fact, have this shit locked down. In the least.

My god, this is so fucked up. It's pretty clear that the fact this is still happening is because UA, and heroics as a whole, honestly, is doing a show of force to try and make all the bad things go away. In all honesty, they're putting these kids lives at risk; the only reason nothing went wrong isn't because 'the school had all its ducks in a row when it comes to crisis control' or what the fuck ever, but because AFO didn't want to do anything. And you know why he doesn't interfere?

Because it's so damn useful for him that they flat out broadcast the details of the students and what their Quirks are!

And don't even get me started on this 'Olympics have fallen out of favor' bullshit. It's a world wide event, and it doesn't matter if the population has... shrunk (? That's what my translation says, anyways. Is this honestly saying that so many people died that the Olympics no longer holds any attraction? I mean.. what? What the fuck? What happened???? Why in the hell is this getting brushed over?! Or is that just a bad translation, and if so what is he saying is the reason the Olympics no longer have any appeal?) or whatever, because that's just... bullshit. That's just bullshit. If super powers happen, and they get at all stabilized and regulated like they are in here, all that's going to happen is that the powers are going to be part of the Olympics, and a lower population count really isn't going to change the fundamental reasons why it's popular in the first place.

Speedster racing, various forms of competitive flying (racing (in all its variations), acrobatics, mid-air dancing, synchronized flying.... flight along has dozens of potential new Olympics sports, easy), something like shot-put hurling but with some kind of projectiles, fire, lasers, whatever? Oh yeah, the Olympics are going to be just fine.

So please, Hori, spare me your obsessive need to make heroics the most important thing EVAH all of the time.

But, wait, there's more! It's not just, the new super Olympics, oh no, this is for their careers. In high school. This is, apparenlty, a make or break moment for the rest of their lives (again, with however that undefined heroics ranking and what not works). How old are they? What, fifteen? 'Here, go do bloodsports, and if you fuck up, you're going to be a menial, loser fry-cook of a wannabe police officer, dressed in brightly colored spandex for the rest of your life, barely making any money, and never getting any real respect or validation for putting your life at risk'.

Oh, I have opinions on the Sports Festival, believe me, I have a lot of opinions, but I'd like to save at least some of these more for when the actual Sports Festival starts, and not, like, five pages into the first chapter out of what, twenty two? We've got the time.

Uraraka! You're an actual character! My, this is nostalgic. I always loved the contrast between her hyper cute-zied design of her and the fact she's down to beat the living shit out of someone at the drop of a hat, and it's nice to have that again.

(Also, she's showing more ability to inspire the class here than Bakugou has shown literally the entire series, no matter how much Hori goes on about his 'charisma' or whatever.)

And then we get into her "impure" motivations to be a hero, (which I've also talked about on occasion), and it's very humanizing, both for Uraraka as a character, and the industry as a whole. It's one of those great set ups Hori ended up dropping on world building, which sucks because it'd be so interesting if he got into the nuts and bolts of the world a bit. I'm not saying we need to see the tax code or anything, but for a series that's about corruption and what not, some more detail would really help pull all of this together.

Ah, Dumb Might. I didn't miss you, except I kind of did because Dumb Might is still better than Useless-Side-Character Might.

Also, can I talk about how stupid it is that Dumb Might is burning his less than an hour's worth of time 'teaching' students again? Because holy fuck that's such a waste it's honestly criminal.

And what the hell is this switch in motivations, here? All Might never mentioned, you know, replacing him is the Symbol of Peace before now. Before this point, the whole reason he chose Izuku is that he'd be worthy user of his power, not, what, replacing him. If Izuku never gained any real fame, but still managed to save a lot of people? Before-this-point All Might would have been fine with that. More than that, he would have been proud of it, proud his successor was humble and chose to focus on doing good rather than fame. Hell, not too long ago it was pointing out by All Might that Izuku wouldn't want to use All Might's fame to benefit himself, to go slow and steady and earn his success rather than relying on fame.

Where the fuck did this come from? What the fuck kind of pressure is he trying to put on this kid?

And then right after that, we see flashes of who All Might used to be with the whole 'don't forget how you felt at the seaside park, that day', bit. Because, like, that's good. That's great! It's real, and deep, and gritty, and I'd love it if it wasn't being use with this set up, because those expectations work in other shonens, but they don't work here. Izuku can't do what All Might did, because he can't stop damn hurting himself. Going Plus Ultra, here, now, for this? It could cause real, serious harm to him for the rest of his life! And for what? To make a good impression?

And if something would call him on that, it could still work, because All Might is canonly shit at taking care of himself, that could, like, close the circle for all of this, bring it together with the two them as shit at at self care as a place to build them improving off of, but for whatever reason, Hori never went all the way on that because he was too damn afraid to commit to it, commit to a story, commit to a theme, commit to a moral.

...Holy shit, how many pages is this? We haven't even gotten to actual Sports Festival yet in the post about the damn Sports Festival.

And now we have this creepy, kind of morbid mob of people filling the hallway to stare at Class 1-A for.... being attacked by terrorists.

*what the fuck.jpeg*

What is wrong with you people?! What the actual hell is wrong with you???

And then Shinso rolls up:

"Wow. Look at these arrogant assholes, so excited about not getting killed. I'm going to declare war on them, because they deserve it for getting all high and mighty."

...

You know, I completely forgot about the epic story of, 'Shinso Hitoshi and his Completely Unmerited Persecution Complex'. I'm sad that I remember that now.

Bakugou: "People's opinions don't matter once your at the top."

Me: *looks at how much people's opinions matter to getting to the top, and staying there*

Me: ...Uh.

Thank you, Kaminari, for pointing out his edgy bullshit is, in fact, actually bullshit, and is only going to make his life more difficult for no reason. I like you as an actual person who does things other than cheerlead for Bakugou.

Izuku. Izuku no, Izuku...! Damn it. Bad Izuku. Bad! Stop getting inspired by the festering waste spewing out of Bakugou's mouth!

Cue all of two panels of the media being absolute assholes only out to make ratings with no redeeming features.

And... here's the actual Sports Festival, god knows how long into this post later!

(if you believe the text editor I just posted all of this into? Well into four pages. ...Even with my generous use of spacing, I think I have a problem.)

..Wait. Wait. Where the hell is this happening?

*does five seconds of research on the wiki*

I'm right. They have a stadium for this. Like, a giant ass sports stadium that exists for this. Only for this. That is used once a year.

At this point, I'm honestly wondering why UA isn't just it's own city. Like, Izuku should have moved here, along with the rest of the students, and all the families and various staff needed to run this just.... live on site. It's not like it'd cost them anything, since they apparently have spare cities sitting around for the kids to trash.

That's... that's actually a really interesting idea? Because it'd be a hero run city, then, which feels like it'd work well into the over commercialized, corrupted state heroics is supposed to be like, their overwhelming level of influence. I don't think that's what Hori was going for, to be clear, I think he has no idea just how much space he's causally put on UA's campus and didn't think through the implications... at all.

Ooh, and here comes Todoroki's characterization.

And... here comes the bloodsport, because that's what all of this is: bloodsport. They're throwing a bunch of teenagers onto this stage, broadcast them to the entire country, and have them fight against each other for fame. This society is so fucked up.

Random Gen Ed kid: Yeah, he placed first in the Heroics Entance Exam.

...Yeah. As fucking stupid as it is that Bakugou somehow placed first, it does make sense the person who place first in the Heroics Entrance Exam would be class representative in a school for heroics. Damn, you're salty, kid, but you're also kinda dumb, not going to lie.

Bakugou: *opens his mouth on live TV*

Bakugou: *vomits diarrhea for the entire country to see*

Izuku: ...Wow, Bakugou's so cool! He's grown up and mature now!

...Izuku. Izuku, buddy, please, stop doing this to yourself.

As yet another thing I've mentioned before, a lot of our views on Bakugou comes from Izuku. Izuku who has, from chapter one, all but worshipped Bakugou. Even when he does things wrong, even when he's actively fighting against him, Izuku can't stop himself from going on and on about how great Bakugou is, how cool and tough and determined he is. Izuku's hero worship of his abuser is sheltering Bakugou's actions from the readers, papering over all of his worst traits with a a transparent facade that he's this glorious figure. It's the narrative going the extra mile to cover his arrogant ass, to make him seem like a rival instead of an bully, someone worthy of respect rather than contempt.

Hmm. I don't want to go too much into the nuts and bolts of the event, I think, since I've done that before, so let's try something else: How Many Times Could This Kill A Literal Child? Where I, you guessed it, count how many times a teenager could have been killed, on national television, in this event.

Count one: The start of the race itself, where... *counts how many kids are in 1-A, multiplies by eleven*... two hundred and twenty kids run forward at the same time, trying to force themselves through the same opening. This shit is why it's illegal to shout fire in a theater, because a stampede like this could get someone trampled to death, or maybe crushed by the sheer weight of the crowd (which is something that happens, someone getting killed by the a crowd of unruly people just... squeezing them on accident).

*stares at Shinso being carried around like a wannabe king instead of using his own damn legs judgingly*

Count Two: Mineta gets bitched slapped by a robotic arm bigger than he is. I don't think I have to get into how that could be fatal.

Count Three: The army of Zero Pointers who could easily step on someone.

*Momo wondering about how UA can fund this makes me feel very validated, BTW*

Count Four: Todoroki dumping the Zero Pointer on the rest of the competition to block the way, again for obvious reasons. He obviously doesn't meant to, but this kid isn't even looking back. This is both lamp shaded and then dismissed because it happens to the only two people who could shrug that off, but holy shit that could have killed so many of them.

...The cameras are robots. The cameras are robots with AIs that are cheering on the other robots. I- I can't- what?!?

And then everyone can't stop themselves from praising Bakugou for the radical idea of going over a problem instead of blasting through it. Wow, Bakugou. Amazing. Such brains, such smarts.

Count Five: The Fall. Because there's no way that anyone could get themselves killed by. You know. Falling. If I was more generous, I'd say something like, 'There's probably something down there to catch them if they fall', but I'm not terribly impressed by UA's ability to actually keep these kids safe, so that doesn't make me think they'd have thought that through that much.

Grudgingly, I'm going to give a landmines a pass, because they're explicitly supposed to be non-lethal, and them blowing up didn't do any real damage. Burns, maybe, possibly a broken limb, probably some scars, but this count is about people dying. Izuku's pile could have been, maybe, but that's a level of deliberate action on his part big enough that I can't really blame UA, per say.

Eraserhead, on how 1-A has improved: I didn't do anything.

...Well. At least he's honest.

One other thing: I've said before how bullshit All Might telling Izuku to 'fight to win' was, and right here, here's the proof: All Might explicitly going, "I was afraid you'd be too nice to try and beat other people in competitions, but you proved me wrong! I'm so proud!". You know, fighting to win. Like he later says Izuku doesn't for some mysterious reason *cough*, to make him seem at the same level as Bakugou, *cough*. Poor, poor All Might, yet another victim of Bakugou's narrative warping favoritism.

And here we see the management kids going all out in how to sell Izuku and his brand, which is so very fucked up, for them and the people they're 'selling'. I'm aware this is something that celebrities go through, (which is fucked up for them as well, don't get me wrong; I'm an equal opportunity 'this is fucked up' call out-er), but these kids are in high school. The fact that they're doing this, and getting this done to them, in such numbers, in such an early age... yeah. There's no way this could give them lots and lots of long term stress and psychological problems, right?

Meanwhile, as we get to the offical rankings, I think it's time go back over the 'How Many Times Could This Kill A Literal Child?' count... at five. Five times they could have been killed on complete accident.

That is not a good score.

I'm stopping it here because the other events don't have the same problem, but instead of a whole new problem of delibrately pitting them against each other. On live TV. With minimal supervison. Cementoss popping in at the last second in Izuku vs Todoroki, considering how badly Izuku got hurt in the process, does not fill me with a great sense of these fights being well monitored.

*gets an omake chapter*

*Bakugou gets called Izuku's childhood 'friend'. Bitch, please.*

So. Here's a new point: the million point bullshit is... well. Bullshit. It's the snitch in Quiddich all over again, giving the hero something both super import, with an extra layer of difficulty, to drive up the stress and stakes, only kicked up by a million. Making more than the others makes sense, and making it enough to pass by itself is still pretty reasonable, but making it so excessively much has no point other making Izuku feel isolated from his peers and hunted by his classmates.

Also, Mt Lady going on about how 'great' an exercise the second round is is missing the point that this is literally a thing Japanese kids do in school. Literally, this is a game they're playing with Quirks, not some tactical exercise; it's like saying that playing hide and seek makes you great at hunting people down or something. Again, Hori, dial back your constant need to tell us how great the Sports Festival is. Because it isn't. It really, really isn't.

More doses of everything drooling over how great Bakugou is, and how much of a total shit of a human being he is, joy. Mineta and Shouji's teamup is actually pretty damn brilliant, even though it's tainted by how much of a one-dimensional character Mineta is. Iida is getting shown as Izuku's enemy, but honestly it looks more like he's just trying to improve himself more than anything, while acknowledging how competent Izuku is. Not just that he won the first round, or has a lot points but that Izuku, as a person, is the goal he wants to surpass; there's some good shit there, and pretty validating, if Izuku could allow himself to accept it.

Oh Mei! Mei... actually, I have a post I need to do about the Mei and Izuku dynamic at some point, how they're so designed to work together, but yeah she's fun.

And then Uraraka thinks about how strategic Izuku is being and again, I can't help but contrast this with how things happen later on; even if Izuku never lets himself really feel the respect people have for him, people at this point in time really, honestly seem to respect him, not for his Quirk, but for his brain, his determination, his heroism; it's so well setup for Izuku to stand on his own two feet without OFA and it's some really good stuff. It's a shame Hori gets rid of it.

Hmm. Class B. Class B is... interesting. They're set up as rivals but after this it never goes anywhere, and just leaves us with a bad impression of Monoma, without letting him get a good chance to get past it. I don't like him, honestly, his personality grates at me and he needs to get over himself, but he doesn't deserve the hate he gets from the fandom.

That said, though, the Class A vs Class B victory philosphy is honestly just another example of destroying yourself vs having realistic limits, how All Might and Izuku keep destroying themselves vs everyone else not doing that. The fact Class B is actually thinking ahead is smart, but the series doesn't give them that credit because it's not ambitious enough... even though that runs straight into conflicting with Izuku and his issues.

Hori, fucking commit already. In all honesty, it feels like 1-B should have won over Bakugou and knocked him out of the compition; they planned it out, and played him like a sucker, because he's a bullheaded moron. It's all right there, but right as they win... Eraserhead shows up in the booth and says, 'Yes, you've won, but actually no, because Bakugou need to win anyways. So he is. Because REASONS!' Then All Might gets dragged into that same bullshit just to make it really clear that no, Bakugou is right. Planning? Strategy? That's for losers. Real winners just need to want it hard enough, and no one wants things more than Bakugou!

It would have been better, as a story, and for everyone's character development, if that had happened. Bakugou would have lost to some 'nobodies', Izuku would have gone past him without even validating him with a fight, and Class B and Monoma would have gotten a better chance to show themselves as characters; win win win.

And then Endeavour shows up. Fuck Endeavour. Also that is a man who looks like a serial killer. Dumb Might continues to reign and be completely unable to recognize when someone hates him when he monologues about it right in front of him.

Meanwhile, Bakugou is just... there. For some reason. Why? Why does he need to be there for this? It makes his hissy fit later even worse when you realize he knows why Todoroki doesn't use his fire, and it has literally nothing to do with him. Ignoring him, though, Todoroki and Izuku's moment here is some good stuff, a nice setup for a healthy rivalry based on mutual respect, rather than the toxic mess he has with Bakugou.

Ugh. That cheerleader bullshit. Honestly, it says a lot that they can be told that, 'Aizawa says you need to dress up as cheerleaders', and apparently no one questions this, because of course Aizawa would pull some kind of weird bullshit on them with absolutely no warning at what anyone else would think is the worst possible time.

Midnight being really creepy about how she talks to teenagers, of course, and now... Shinso.

'Consent is for losers' Shinso. 'Everyone is coasting on their Quirks except for me, who only knows how to use my Quirk' Shinso. 'Let me use my Quirk on someone before we even get in the arena so I can blatantly cheat' Shinso. 'No one else has dreams or ambitions' Shinso.

I don't like Shinso. I like the idea of Shinso, sure, but that idea is another one of those paper thing veneers Hori likes to put on his characters, without doing the work to make that match the reality; the only hardship we've seen him go through is his apparent inability to work hard. Like, everyone loves Shinso, in story and out, they can't stop themselves from telling him how great his Quirk is. And you know what? It is. It is a great Quirk.

But Shinso talks like he's had a such a hard time with it, even though he seems to love it, love using it, and the way he acts, like he knows he can go through a career as a hero based only on that Quirk. He's wrong, since he's so out of shape he can't even run, apparently, but he's operating off that assumption at this point, which conflicts with his poor little martyr act.

I want you to look at the iceberg Todoroki makes, and compare it to his efforts against Stain. If he did that against him? That fight would have been over the minute he showed up, and Todoroki ambushed him. This is pretty much our last moments of Todoroki, certified badass, before the nerfs roll in. Savor it, Todoroki fans, because he'll never recover from having to lose against Bakugou.

Another omake, which seems like foreshadowing about Hori deals with women characters: bringing up a good characterization, or valid idea (do women heroes need sexiness to do their jobs?), before throwing it away to fall for the same tropes that he was making a stand against just a minute ago (women getting in a cat fight, which apparently gets really explicit, all of this on a TV before Mineta, Hori's avatar of his own horniness).

Then, as if to prove my point, we get Bakugou vs Uraraka where, like Class B before her, she does everything right, gets the win... and then gets it taken away at the last minute by idiotic bullshit pulled out of nowhere (since when could Bakugou make a blast like that? Why does he need those bomb gauntlets if he can do that?) because Bakugou isn't allowed to lose. And then Eraserhead, Hori's mouthpiece, shouts down the crowd, and us, when we think bad thoughts about it because that isn't allowed either; we need to love Bakugou.

Bakugou respects women! ...Just as much as he respects everyone else. That is to say, he doesn't. Hell, he doesn't respect her enough to think Uraraka planned her own fight! He just gets one line for one second that makes it seem like he respects her, but of course once that moments gone it's back to the normal level of complete disrespect. That's totally character growth right there, one second of acting different before returning right back to standard behavior.

So... Izuku vs Todoroki. I like the fight, it's very dramatic, very cool, but... stop to think about it a second, and about a minute in, Izuku's entire ass hand is broken. That is not OK. Why are they letting it go on? It's simultaneously a great fight, but a seemingly awkward implementation of Izuku having a Quirk, because so much of this arc is built off of him not using a Quirk, not having it. This fight only works with it, though. And it's cool, don't get me wrong, but it's shallow at the same time because of the Quirk, because Izuku has to go Plus Ultra, has to go past his limits. Instead of accepting a more reasonable win, he has to win, period, and he doesn't have the power for that.

There's this awkward conflict here between the story's various narratives, between Izuku needing to suffer, and struggle, and break himself, and his more grounded planning and actions, and you can see Hori's old, better planned out ideas getting replaced with newer, less thought out ones. It's honestly kind of a theme for this arc in it's own right.

Flaws aside, though, the fight is gripping, and it's a great setup for Todoroki, a great starting point in making him an important character, in giving him growth. Shame Hori ends up throwing all that away literally the next fight.

Well, before that happens, let's talk the one two punch of, 1, Izuku having done himself permanent, life long damage, which nobody thought to stop, and 2, the sheer, unmitigated clusterfuck of Recovery Girl going, 'I'm not going to treat wounds like these'.

So. If Izuku breaks anything... well. She's not going to treat that. I guess he has to walk around with a broken finger/hand/arm, without any medical attention whatsoever? Well. I certainly don't see any problems with that.

Then we get Bakugou, who canonly has problems using his Quirk for extended periods of time, outlasting someone by using his Quirk for extended periods of time, before going on to fight someone who uses cold, his canon weakness, and ignoring how it should completely neutralize his Quirk to overpower it, through what I can only call his sheer, narrative warping concentration of favoritism.

On what happens after he wins... I've seen people say that he doesn't mean to attack Todoroki, just try to wake him up, but looking at that scene: he's holding Todoroki's body up with one hand as if to shake him, sure, but it's the other hand that's the problem. The way he's holding it is, for his Quirk, an offensive pose, making it ready to attack his target. I'll give him the benefit of the doubt (against my own opinion) and say it's not proof positive that he was about to attack, but there's no getting around that Bakugou had himself perfectly set up to hit Todoroki, full blast, while he was unconscious. Even if it's the more innocent explanation, that feels like something that should have disqualified him because... that's really concerning. That feels a step away from him threatening victims he thinks should have stood up for themselves or something; it's not heroic, in the slightest. The fact they had to knock him out, presumably for Todoroki's own safety, says enough about how bad that is.

The fact that the ending comment is basiclly lamenting from his perspective, that this 'isn't what he wanted' is... certainly a choice. He won, but, gasp! The person with long held issues in using his full power that long predate him didn't use his full power! The poor baby!

Then we get to the award ceremony where they... chain him up? Why!? If the doesn't want the damn award, don't give it to him; they let those guys earlier give up when they felt they didn't deserve it, why is Bakugou different? It feels like it's Hori tying him up here, against Bakugou's own will, and characterization, to give him that win just so he can win, but also to forcefully set up Bakugou's own importance with the League later. It's ham handed. It's probably child abuse. It's stupid.

It's fucked up all the way down, is what I'm saying.

Then All Might shows up, and fucks up his entrance timing because he's not allowed to win anymore, of course, and then forces that medal on Bakugou.

Uuuugh.

Last couple of panels, though, are pretty nice: we build up Uraraka's character, get the next arc set up, set up Izuku (fucking finally) getting away to use his own damn power, and develop Todoroki a bit.

A nice little cherry on top of the shit sundae.

#long post is coming #bnha critical #mha critical #bakugou critical #aizawa critical #UA critical #shinso critical #endeavour critical #i'm very critical if you haven't noticed #fuck the sports festival #hori's chronic hatred of women #izuku's biased narrative #hori's inability to choose a message #the failure of the development of heroic society and corruption #the constant and overwhelming destruction of All Might's character #Shinso Hitoshi and his Completely Unmerited Persecution Complex #i wrote this in one night off the hype of feeling half decent and caffeine #The 'Great' MHA Read Along #i have no idea what i'm doing #what the fuck did i just bring upon this cursed land

[itsnothingofinterest]

Chapter 407 thoughts:

-I actually really like all this new information we're getting about quirks, and how it all gives off this sense that people...just didn't know what was going on at the time. And still don't. I mean apparently the Shigaraki twin's mother had a quirk before she gave birth to them a year before the "first" quirk of the Glowing Baby was born. I am fascinated by the implications.

-I'm surprised everyone else seems so surprised that AFO was just some naturally born evil thing in a manga that usually explores how a villain becomes evil. I was under the impression that AFO was always meant to contrast this factor to villains such as the League; like, those guys are naturally occurring consequences of the faults of the hero system, while AFO is just a one-of-a-kind asshat who's evil just because.

-I like the kind of political world building of the Glowing Baby being some kind of early Meta Ability leader. That might even be the reason why they're presented as the "first" quirk user in present times, and more or less were presented that way back then too; just for the optics of it all.

-To go into the negatives a bit though: man the writing on the Shigaraki mom is...not good, I will say. Really just threw in a prostitute to have horrible horrible things happen to her and make the twins origins more cut & dry huh? That's pretty objectifying to women Hori, not gonna lie.

-As an aside, I wonder if AFO kept his mother's spike quirk? Probably not. I don't think he has an emotional connection to anything but Yoichi, and Rivet Stab just seems a better version of the spike quirk. And while AFO does have spike quirks, I don't think they look like that one. (Might need to re-read some stuff though). Would be a pleasant surprise if I got proven wrong though; maybe see AFO or even Shigaraki pull it out.

#bnha #bnha 407 #bnha spoilers #all for one #yoichi shigaraki #shigaraki tomura #league of villains #lov #paranormal liberation front #PLF #hero society #quirk analysis

[jasontoddenthusiastt]

BFTC isn’t really a case of terrible characterization for Jason so much as it was a terrible case of victim blaming. Like yeah, some of the things Jason did were a bit extreme compared to his “better” appearances, but that’s nothing new and pretty much true of many stories that aren’t utrh or lost days. The bad parts are are also definitely exaggerated by fans.

The story isn’t centered on Jason. Of course every other character’s description of Jason would be knee-jerk dismissive and misunderstanding, since (again) the intention was to make Jason out to be the cartoony bad guy villain. But if you look past the layers of grime they added, the bare bones of his characterization are not entirely incorrect. It’s a biased story in which their intended criticisms of Jason’s morals often fell short, so to compensate they deliberately cranked up his motivations to be more extreme and unrealistic (but one which, nonetheless got Jason’s overall thoughts and goals relatively consistent with stories that portrayed him accurately).

Yes, him shooting Damian was out of character, but granted we’re all in agreement that it was a true case of “bad writing decision”, I don’t think it’s hard to look past. The only other bit people probably complain about (which felt iffy at worst) was him being “a bit enthusiastic” at times in trying to convince Dick to become another lethal Batman (you can just as easily say Jason wouldn’t have been personally invested enough to have acted in the way he did). I don’t care though because he was probably doing it for shits and giggles, and it was funny watching him push their buttons on his spare time while being excellent at his job. Same old ‘none of them deny that he’s effective, they just can’t get behind the killing’ conflict.

Looking past the fact that Jason still had a valid point, the “he’s the bad guy” plot falls apart for other obvious reasons, which happen in the 3rd issue. It’s kind of hard to focus on how much of a bitch Jason’s being when the other characters are written in an infinitely more problematic way (which ends up happening in most “hate Jason” stories). Not only did they heavily imply Jason is a victim of SA, but the way Dick/the batfamily treats Jason about this is … horrible. Arguing that this was a case of character assassination for Bruce and Dick would be more realistic than using this story to claim Jason is a Bad Person™.

Even though Bruce does have a bad track record with his perspective on victims of SA.

Hey. Maybe listen to the living person begging you to turn it off.

Geez. I wonder why he never felt safe enough to confide in Bruce or any of the rest of them. Implying that enduring what he did made him “broken beyond repair”, that he needs to be “fixed”, and saying verbatim, “you are my greatest failure”, not “I failed you greatly”. Then deciding on behalf of Jason that a bunch of people who weren’t involved in what happened to him should all know about this so they can decide what should be done. And everyone agrees with this garbage. Unbelievable.

Aka, any sort of healing he may have tried to accomplish was ruined by you lot. When exactly am I supposed to see that Jason was evil all along.

The story collapses in on itself in the third issue because where Dick is supposed to be at his prime within the arc, he just sort of rambles about how Jason was a shitty victim and then awkwardly shifts to talking about personal growth and coming to accept his own heroic destiny.

I do resent this, but not because “Jason sucks here”. Jason’s “bad portrayal” pales in comparison to the problematic mindsets given to the other characters (namely Dick) which were framed as good-natured intentions and “tough love”. As for people who describe this as “vilifying Jason to prop up Dick” … I don’t really know what to make of that.

#my post #the way they constantly go out of their way to praise Jason’s marksmanship and overall combat skills #and how everyone he killed died because he meant for them to #and Tim and Damian weren’t critically injured. he didn’t attack them with the intention to kill and it’s obvious #not only that it’s made clear they were both wearing heavy duty kevlar #and considering Jason’s an expert on this stuff himself he knew it wouldn’t really do long term damage. #he also knows how to attack people to do any specific kind of damage. if you claim that about Bruce smashing a dude’s skull #against a brick wall and not killing him then you can claim the same thing for Jason #but of course people will always dwell on inconsequential bullshit and try to make a grand point out of it if it’s about Jason #even as they point out that it was a dumb decision made by the writers #‘Jason was violent towards children' do you want me to never shut up again about who is consistently violent with his own children? #not only was this pretty tame compared to the things Bruce has done to Jason and the other batkids #in the majority of his appearances Jason has always been deeply sympathetic and caring towards kids #hence why people always point out how this is a shitty outlier

[crtvirus]

Hai I'm sorry for the random ask immediately after the follow, but your "stannarrator anti" post speaks to me on such a level and I just wanted to say that I 100% agree.

As much as I love seeing different Narry interpretations, the consistent yoaification of this guy from people in the fandom who also HORRIBLY mischaracterize him is REALLY starting get my nuts in a twist.

I don't think anyone characterizes him perfectly. Narry's a pretty complex character to begin with. Not fully understanding his motivations is what makes him so interesting. But seeing people either make him an overly loving, devoted partner who would never hurt his precious Stanly uwu, or the most fucking evil, horrible, tyrannical man in existence who just straight up wants to abuse Stanley, kinda makes me think some of these people haven't actually played the game. Either that, or they COMPLETELY misinterpreted MANY aspects of it.

I'm obviously not the authority on Narrator characterizations, but I don't think some people who ship stannarrator realize just how unbearable the ship can become when Narrator, Stanley, or both of them are just like...awful in some way, you know? Like if you're gonna make them wildly OOC, the least you can do is make an AU or just straight up make your own OCs.

NO LITERALLY THIS. the fandom will mischaracterize the shit out of both stanley and the narrator in order to ship them and ignore every single other aspect of the game. you tell these people there are characters other than stanley and the narrator and a lot of the time they either don't know or simply don't care.

the fandom feels like a big game of telephone entirely separate from the source material. a lot of individuals seem like they've never even touched the base game, or even watched part of a playthrough. now, don't get me wrong, of course there's going to be SOME deviation from canon in the fandom because of concepts such as gijinkas; the narrator would likely never physically show himself because he's... the narrator. he's not meant to be a physical, visual asset. but that fandomization is mostly harmless and pales in comparison to the things people in the fandom are doing to deviate from his personality as a whole. the fact that people will just take one or two endings and bloat that aspect of him, i.e. seeing the countdown ending and making him into a cunning, tyrannical, heartless villain when that is not what he is. the narrator's entire personality is dependent on what you, as the player, do with him. he isn't innocent, but he's not entirely against you.

and as for the other side of it all, people will woobify both stanley and narrator so much, completely ignoring the fact that they are literally out to get eachother while being so, SO dependent on eachother. stanley and narrator don't HATE eachother, not at all; they're just constantly struggling between a power imbalance- the scales are tipping on either ones' favours constantly. there is instability, there are times in which the scales tip. that doesn't mean incompatibility or even ABUSE (don't even get me started on abuse ships, that's a whole other aspect of mischaracterization), but it certainly does mean that the ship isn't entirely sunshine and rainbows with nothing wrong. by all means have your AUs, but don't let those views overtake the actual game. stanley is also horrendously mischaracterized. he DOES have a personality within the game- granted, that's also influenced by the player, but that doesn't make him into a woobified "soft uwu boyfriend" for the narrator. a lot of the time he disobeys him- that's most of the premise of the game. stanley's existence isn't to be the narrator's boyfriend and i sincerely wish the fandom would realise that

#sorry for the additions i just have alot to say on this AHHHH #also dw about the asks i LOVEEEE asks like these

[lizzylucky]

Thoughts and Observations From the Movie, Part 4/4

Back again one last time for whatever this nonsense compilation is!

If it isn’t immediately recognizable, this is the scene when Leo goes “what you fail to understand is that I missed on purpose”, and he stabs the leg of the mech suit Krang one is in to ensure it goes with him when he teleports to the blade he threw to the other side of the portal. 

And I REALLY wanted to point out this particular shot because of the splatter. It’s kinda gory, but it further implies that the technology used by the Krang is not entirely inanimate; it’s got a biological nature entwined with the technological structure of everything. This is especially interesting to me for another sort-of theory I’ll explain later in the post.

Further content below the cut!

More angst! Delicious. Prepare yourselves, because I have a lot to say about this part of the movie.

Watching the way each brother reacts to what they believe to be Leo’s death sentence, effectively his death, really, given they don’t think he’ll ever exist within their reality again, is… so hard, but it shows a lot about their individual thought processes.

Mikey had his hands clasped over his mouth, fear, anxiety, and disbelief radiating off him. He’s watching that portal shut down in slow motion, already teary eyed and subconsciously trying to will away what just happened. As the portal blinks out of existence, his arms drop to his side and his posture drops and stiffens in tandem with his forefront emotions mixing and making him go numb. Now, he’s just trying to process it, pushing against the reality as it trudges through the gears of his mind, still in fight or flight mode. He’s frozen between his disbelief and the latent need to do something while grief takes the place of all that anxiety he was feeling before.

I think this actually leads pretty seamlessly into his attempts to rescue Leo. It’s established right near the beginning of the movie that Mikey holds so much faith in his family and in himself, believing that your own determination can be stronger than anything that gets in your way. It’s one of his defining character traits; such a fundamental part of who he is that they use it to help introduce him in the movie.

“According to my calculations, as long as you believe in yourself, you can do anything!”

While Mikey is stuck processing what just happened to Leo, stuck in disbelief, his emotions are warring with who he is at heart, and it’s why he goes numb until that desperation to change reality by sheer force of will comes in. Until that point, he seems to struggle a little with differentiating between what he believed should have been the outcome, and what reality was telling him.

Raph, similarly to Mikey, watched the moments before the portal closed with fear and anxiety gripping his heart. He knew and understood what Leo was doing probably better than any of them because that’s what he does. You have to consider that only ten minutes prior to this, Raph had been fighting Leo with intent to kill and no control over that. 

Raph has been fighting for the entire movie, first against some low level villains, then the Foot Clan, then the Krang, then the take over of that horrible Krang biogrowth and against its mind control, and all of it, all of it, was for his brothers. This horrible thing the Krang did to him happened because he chose to protect Leo, and we all know he wouldn’t take it back for anything because his family comes first. He knows that, and he only just overcame all of it only to watch his little brother do something necessary but heartbreaking. 

I think Raph felt it was his job to protect Leo. Forget who’s leader, Raph is Leo’s older brother, and none of them, being kids, should have had to do any of this, so, naturally, it’s Raph’s job to lighten the load for them as much as possible. He thinks it should have been him up there, making sure his siblings never had to bear this particular burden again. Watching someone else do what was normally his job probably leaves him feeling out of place, leaves it all feeling utterly surreal, and when it’s done and their connection to his younger brother is cut off forever, he breaks.

Everything about this is unreal, but watching Leo make a concrete decision and watching the portal close were real, and with all those thoughts about being a protector floating around suddenly having been shut down, it’s all Raph can do to fall to his knees and grieve. Beat the earth for making the worst things a reality, slam his fists for having failed to do their job, curling in on himself because his sense of self, his sense of purpose, is crumbling and he has no other way to hold the pieces together.

He will never even have the opportunity to protect Leo again.

Then, there’s Donnie. I’ve seen a lot of really good interpretations of his reaction to Leo’s sacrifice, and though it isn’t a common one I should admit I disagree with the one where the reason he’s apparently shocked by his own tears is that he doesn’t really cry. He maybe doesn’t cry super often, but Donnie is, despite appearances and behavior, actually a very emotional person, more sentimental than all his family, in some ways. 

Notice that Donnie, at first, is facing the portal, and, for me at least, the expression on his face seems to convey a stream of thought composed entirely of the word “no”, over and over again. Like he’s mentally demanding “what are you doing?” and refusing to acknowledge that he knows exactly what Leo is doing, exactly what’s about to happen, and exactly what it means the rest of life is going to look like for him. 

Donnie, with his highly observational and overworked thought process is analyzing every part of this situation, following the logic of Leo’s decision, looking for any other possible outcome and ruling all ideas out, one by one, as every one of Leo’s words and every element of their circumstances converge on the same result. He’s so busy focusing on the analytical perspective of all the emotion that he doesn’t realize he’s panicking, doesn’t realize it isn’t an effective method against having to feel those emotions.

So, when the portal implodes and destroys every possible future with Leo in it, changes everything about how Donnie thinks and perceives his own reality, it forces every train of thought to a stop and Donnie to confront these emotions with no logical anchor to his new reality. I think that’s why he turns around, because the longer he looks at the last remaining remnants of what took his brother, the more real that all becomes, and it’s overwhelming.

It also seems to be why he’s so shocked by his own tears. He went from being engaged with countless logical trails to follow to overwhelmingly empty in several ways-- none of which he could put words to. Finding the tears on his face and realizing that the emptiness and grief and pain were all he had in that moment, and that they were getting past every failsafe he had to keep them under control, seemed to go against the nature of his own mind and further confirmed that even looking away from what happened made it no less real. 

If he was grieving already, then he couldn’t have imagined what he saw, and that’s just one more piece of logic that clears from his mind and leaves him emotionally stunned.

Okay, that was a little intense, so. Let’s change tracks 😅

Supposedly even the shape of Raph’s and Donnie’s eyes here is a nod to the shape of Leo’s, and this is such a cool thought. Leo and Raph, earlier in the series, briefly had each other’s eyes when Ninja Mind Melding, which symbolized their intense connection to one another.

So the idea that something similar is happening here has me almost giddy. It was Mikey’s desperate attempt to save Leo that triggered the formation of the portal he creates, and Raph and Donnie are just as desperate once they realize all hope is not lost. What you see with their eyes here implies that the reason making this portal was possible is not just Mikey’s mystical prowess or his desire to open a portal to the prison dimension, but the brothers’ intense and deeply emotional attatchment to Leo. The portal worked because Mikey was looking for Leo, NOT the prison dimension. And I just think that’s neat

That little red-ish spot in the center of this screenshot is Krang One, still in his mech suit, which is huge in comparison to the boys. Now look at the figure behind him, and think about how massive and mech-suit-like that thing is.

I don’t have screenshots from the last episodes of the show, but remember that they found the skeleton of a Krang inside the head of the crying titan? Who happens to be ENORMOUS? Yeah, I have some thoughts and concerns alike.

And! A final, much fluffier note to end on! Subtitles don’t show it, and it was quiet enough that I missed it the first few times I watched the movie, but here on this ending scene, actually in the moment before it shows this particular image, you can hear Donnie shout, “all right, big Raphie, let’s do it!” and I just think that’s utterly adorable.

As I’m writing this I have no idea if anyone will read any of these four posts, but if you did, thank you! I like feeling heard :3 If you have any thoughts or add ons, or if you know, like, some super obscure, unknown cool/silly detail from the movie, I’d love to hear it! Additionally, if anyone wants me to expand on any of the things I said, or if you’re curious about my perspective on other theories around these things, my ask box is always open!

Part 1 Part 2 Part 3 Part 4

#rottmnt #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #rise of the tmnt #save rottmnt #save rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles #save rise of the tmnt #analysis #theory #screenshot #rottmnt movie #rise of the teenage mutant ninja turtles movie #rise of the tmnt movie #rise leo #rise donnie #rise raph #rise mikey

[fluffymcu]

Request made by @the-ice-frozen-ground-red-rose I was having difficulties figuring out how to write this so I changed a few things hope you don’t mind. I also don’t know how to write the soulmates trope since I don’t really believe in it, but I tried my best 🥲

Warning: this is a lil spicy, another warning, this is pretty bad💀 I’m horrible at writing spicy stuff and I’m not used to writing such a detailed story like this lol

———

You were a 21 year old scientist at Pym Technologies, working closely with Hank Pym on a project about the quantum realm. Over the years, you grew closer to the Pym and Van Dyne family, and that eventually grew into the Lang family. At 25 years old, on a mission to save Janet, you were able to safely enter the quantum realm. But after a war trying to get home, with an unknown villain at the time, you were captured by the enemy. This story takes place right after these events.

———

You’re curled up on the floor, with your knees to your chest, thinking about the events that just unfolded. You were stuck now. Stuck in the quantum realm destined to a fate that Janet had lived for 30 years. You were so close to getting home, and seeing the Pym and Van Dyne family get reunited. But now, all hope is gone. You’re captured by an enemy you don’t even know.

But Janet knew.

“I can’t believe this.” Janet mumbled. She had her face in her hands and shook her head hopelessly.

You teared up at the sight. “I’m so sorry. I feel like this is all my fault. We were so close to getting home. We were right there. I’m so sorry.” You said, looking at Janet in the cell across from you.

“This is not your fault, y/n. None of it. You tried to get me out. And I thank you for that.” She smiled faintly, but flinched at a sound coming from afar. “But let’s not talk about that right now. Y/n listen; this…this man…he thinks he’s a god. He’s a monster, he’ll get in your head and he’ll manipulate you! You cannot trust him! He-“

“I wouldn’t trust her…” a soft spoken voice came from the shadows, startling the both of you. Heavy footsteps filled the room. A tall, muscular man came out of the shadows, revealing an intriguing and intricate suit. “Me however…. I’m not one to lie,” The man stopped right in the middle of the hallway, blocking your view of Janet. He turned to you, his blue mask dissipating. “Especially to you.”

You were taken aback at how handsome the man was, but that wasn’t the point right now. Right now you were freaked out about the whole ‘kidnapped right before being able to get home’ thing.

BUT….at the same time he was very handsome ANYWAY-

“What does that mean?” You furrowed your eyebrows at that. “Especially to you”? You didn’t know the man.

“Janet however,” he starts, avoiding the question and turning to face her. “She has a way of… shifting the blame. Don’t you?” He slightly smiled at her, but his eyes were filled with rage. In his mind, Janet was the reason they won’t be able to stop what’s coming. He won’t be able to escape this hell and win the battle that will so inevitably come.

Janet was frozen, truly speechless. This was when you started suspecting that they had some history.

“Look,” you started. “We don’t want trouble. We just want to get home.” You bargained, hugging yourself. You couldn’t stop looking at the man. He was so handsome and there was something about him that attracted you so much to him. “Green and purple…” you chuckle, him turning to face you. “Those are my favorite colors.”

For a second, his stone cold stare softens, and he slightly smirks. “I know.”

You blushed at that, looking down at your feet and holding your hands behind your back. You couldn’t explain the feeling you felt for him. You didn’t even know his name! It felt so weird, you’ve never dated; too busy at the lab, not enough time and whatnot, but for once in your life, you had time…

“So you two have history?” You pointed at Janet and the man. Janet was looking at everything but you. “You guys, like… dated or something?” You asked, your tone very protective all of a sudden. “Which I mean, that’s totally cool if you did, I’m just-“ the man smirked at your awkwardness, making your face heat up. “I’m just asking! It- you know what? That’s… none of my business actually, so. Yeah I’m just gonna shut up.” You sighed loudly, crossing your arms, “subtly” making your breasts look bigger, making kang’s smirk grow. He didn’t hide the fact that he was looking either. What could he say, you were sexy in every universe.

“Yes, we have history,” he started. You couldn’t help but falter at that. “But not the kind you think.” He assured, smiling at your sense of relief. He turned to Janet and his gaze hardened once again. “More like, unfinished business.” He sighed. “You see, Janet wants to get out of here.” He turns to you. “And I… need… to get out of here.”

“You must have been here a while, like Janet. I can’t imagine what that must’ve felt like.” You leaned against the wall looking nonchalant. “If only you had a… a special partner to help you pass the time-ahem!” You coughed, covering your mouth and looking the other way. Kang had to find the strength not to laugh at him picking up what you were puttin’ down.

“Well, you know, I managed but… there were times when I’d wish I had a certain someone there with me…” he sighed, turning briefly to Janet. “Anyway,” he started, pacing slowly around the room. “Your friends are likely to come for you both, I reckon very soon…” he smirked. “And I need something from them to help me get my ticket out of here.”

“Why do you need to get out of here now?” You asked. This place didn’t seem so bad, and after 30 years, you’d have gotten used to the place by now.

“I need to stop what’s coming.”

“What’s coming?”

“…..Me.” His smile faded. “A lot of me.”

You shrugged. “I mean, don’t see what’s wrong with that,” you mumbled to yourself but saw his smirk grow. “Heh… but that’s just me.” You smiled awkwardly and internally face palmed at that. I’m really ruining my chance with this man. You thought.

“I wish there wasn’t anything wrong with that,” he mumbled, sadness in his eyes. “But unfortunately, life isn’t so merciful.” He stared into the abyss for a second before snapping out of it and clasping his hands. “So. If you want to stop what coming… and trust me… you do…” he turns to Janet. “You’ll convince your friends to get me what I need.” And with that, he left the room.

You felt like you were at a cliff hanger there. He just..left? And he didn’t even acknowledge you after he talked to Janet?

You slid back down the wall and rested your hands on your knees. “I thought we had something.” You mumbled, clearly a bit confused. This caught Janet’s ear.

“Wait. Y/n… you don’t feel anything for him… right?” She looked at you cautiously. You looked away at the wall for a few moments before shrugging. “No… No y/n you can’t! He’s a liar! He- he- he’s not to be trusted, I told you! You… you cant!” She didn’t know what to say. Right now she was just shocked that you would be considering liking that monster. “How could you like him?!”

“Don’t ask me that!” You snapped. Janet stopped, taken aback. “You call him a monster, a manipulator, a liar, but I didn’t see any of that! I know you spent 30 years down here, and I’m not doubting your judgement but…”

“…But you are…” she gasped, staring at you. “You don’t believe me.”

You sighed, furrowing your brows. “It’s not that I don’t believe you Janet, I just… I’m feeling things. Things I haven’t felt. For anyone. I’m just curious is all. And if he really was such a monster, I don’t see why he would’ve kept you alive all these years- I’m just saying… there may be more sides to him. Everybody has a story.” You mumbles the last part, turning away from Janet and laying on the floor, trying to fall asleep.

Janet was shocked, shaking her head at your inexperience as she settled on the floor, closing her eyes to enter a dreamless sleep.

————

You were a light sleeper, so you regained consciousness when you heard the wall of your cell dissipate. You instantly felt another person in the room with you so you opened your eyes to see the tall man towering over you. You quickly sat up, confused as to why he was letting you out of your cell. “What’s going on?” You stood up and hugged yourself, feeling a bit insecure now.

The man only stares at you for a few moments, taking in your beauty before speaking. “You know, I find it so…. poetic almost…. how time always brings you to me… in every universe.” He spoke softly, careful not to wake Janet up.

You stood there, processing what he said. “Brings… me? To you?” You pointed at yourself. Kang reached a hand out for you to take.

“I’d like to show you something.” He says, holding his hand out. You should be scared, Janet’s words of caution run through your mind. You should heed them, yet, you don’t. You’re not afraid of the man. You actually trust him. And he hasn’t even given you his name.

Without another thought, you take his hand, and he leads you out of the jail, into what looked like his personal bedroom. Admiring the detail of the palace, you smile slightly at what you’re seeing. “It’s a nice place you got here.” You say awkwardly.

Kang fully smiles at you for the first time, making you smile back. He’s even more handsome when he smiles, god.

“It serves its purpose.” He shrugs, taking this moment to look you up and down, subtly biting his lips. You almost shrink yourself in, blushing under his gaze, feeling nervous almost insecure. But you knew you looked good. And so did he.

“You… wanted to show me something?” You clear your throat, rubbing your hands together.

Kang quickly nods and with a flick of his hand, images out of thin air are shown, not just any images; pictures of you. With him. The pictures were 1, then 2, then 10, then 100 and then thousands of pictures of the both of you flashed in a matter of seconds, each one a different universe…and you were both together. Lovers. In every universe.

You pointed at the screen. “This…… we….. we’re together… in all of these universes?” You whispered, lost in your thoughts. Kang sat on the armrest of the chair, smiling sadly at all the pictures and nodding his head.

“Every single one. We are what’s called an absolute point in time.” He smirks, looking at the last picture shown of him kissing a pregnant you’s belly. You raise your eyebrows at that.

“We have kids…” you laugh softly, feeling butterflies in your stomach. How could a man like the picture be a monster?

“We do.” Kang gets up and walks slowly to you, taking your hand in his and the other hand on your cheek. “It was only a matter of time before time itself brought you to me.”

“So you knew. You knew we were meant to be together and you knew that I was coming here… that’s why you were ready when I came to save Janet.” You said, piecing the puzzle together. He nods and looked into your eyes lovingly.

“I’m just glad I have you now.” He sighed, looking at your lips.

You couldn’t deny it now. This was your destiny. An absolute point in time, there was no escaping it, and not that you wanted to anyway. You smiled and held his face in your hands.

“You have me.”

He softly kissed you and you quickly returned the kiss, melting into him like you’ve done this a million times. (And technically you have!) Kang slowly picks you up by your thighs and leans you against the wall as he kisses you. You’re lost in this bliss now and you no longer believe Janet’s claims of this man being a monster. If he’s capable of loving you like this, there’s no way.

You’re in paradise right now with him pressing his hips against yours, and squeezing your thighs. “I’ve been waiting so long for you.” Kang mumbles in between kisses, kissing you down your neck, hitting your sweet spot. You lay your head back and moan at the sensation, your hand on the back of his neck.

“Then don’t keep yourself waiting.” You teased, gasping as he kisses your sweet spot again.

Kang then walks you over to his bed and gently lowers you down. You smirk and look him up and down. “So uh… does the suit come off? Cause it’s the middle of the night and you don’t have pajamas on.”

With a smirk, kang opens his arms and the suit quickly disappears into metal rings that came out of the floor, leaving him in his under garments. It was then that you saw how truly muscular and how in shape he was. “Damn.” Was all you could say. “I get this in every universe?!” You chuckled breathlessly, gladly returning the kiss and he climbed on top of you. He takes his time, grinding his hips with yours, relishing in the sound of your moans. You’re his now, and with you by his side, he knows he’s unstoppable now.

———

“Oh my god…” you pant, blanket covering your body. “That was….” You look at him with a surprised expression. “Let’s just say I’m glad I’m stuck with you as my soulmate.” You giggle at his smile. “I mean like… you had to have practice down here. You can really have spent 30 years without-“ you pause when he shakes his head. “Really!?!” You gasp. “You waited for me?” Your voice softened.

“Of course. I can’t imagine being with anyone but you, y/n. You’re my heart’s desire.” He said, looking into your soul. Your eyes teared up and you turned your body to face him. You never had someone care for you like this. Ever. It was an honor.

You scooted closer to him and he wrapped his arms around you, pulling you even closer. You ran your thumb over his scars as you looked into his eyes. “I love you and I don’t even know your name.” You whispered breathlessly.

He smiled at how you love him so quickly, so easily, and how you’re already submissive to him. He knows now that you’re with him no matter what. You’re his.

“Kang.” He kisses you softly. “But you can call me Nathaniel.”

—————-

Omg bruh I hate this so much I’m such a crusty writer 😭😭lolll but i did my best I wanna write a second part depending how this one does but it would kinda just be Janet’s reaction to you sleeping with Kang and then maybe Scott and the gang show up and try to go home but then you might not want to go home anymore… you found your soulmate so… 🤷🏽‍♀️ idk SHOULD I? WRITE A SECOND PART?!

#avengers #marvel #marvel mcu #kang the conqueror #kang x reader #jonathan majors

[arceespinkgun]

Can I just say that I really appreciate that Earthspark goes out of its way to make it clear that Megatron doesn't have to be tolerated just because he's trying to do better? In IDW1 there was an unbearable amount of messaging that amounted to "he's so sad ): this guy who killed billions of people is so sad and guilty ): you're so mean and evil if you don't forgive him! ):"

And he barely had any of Megatron's wrestling heel-esque villainous energy, and he took away from time that could have been spent on interesting characters—remember that time he whacked a vulnerable Trailbreaker... er, too used to G1, I mean Trailcutter... on the head to make it so high-grade would never bring him pleasure again, thereby curing his alcoholism just like that? I know there's reason to scrutinize terms like Mary Sue because there's misogynistic history to their use, but that is some Mary Sue shit right there.

Whereas in Earthspark... I mean, probably most obviously Starscream tells Megatron that "Nowhere is safe if it's with you" and is not pushed to forgive Megatron, not pushed to have to work with him, not pushed to have to interact him him again, etc. but of course Starscream is a supporting character, not part of the main cast. So I'm also glad that the Maltos discuss this.

I like that when the Maltos and the show in general talk about second chances, what that seems to mean is not having to stop feeling hurt and angry, and it also doesn't seem to mean excusing people who did horrible things or no longer regarding them with caution and suspicion. Instead, the show seems to be mainly anti-oppressive punishment and pro-prison abolition, and so on, which is pretty radical. Nobody is pushed to like anybody who did wrong. Autobot Megatron in IDW came across as horrendously passive-aggressive to me. He always projected an air of, "Look at how full of self-hatred I am" at all times, which is one of the worst things to do when people are rightfully angry and hurt by your actions. Megatron in Earthspark does not do this and I think that makes him so much more bearable. He is guilty and makes bad choices because of his guilt, and he still falls into his old violent patterns of behavior, but he doesn't sulk constantly. This is a lot more true to what made Megatron entertaining as a bad guy... he doesn't come across as a different character just because he's on a different side. And most importantly of all, the show is barely about Megatron at all. He's a supporting character and doesn't hijack the main characters' arcs! He barely featured in the newest episodes and that's great since I care about the Maltos lol

#earthspark spoilers #transformers earthspark #tranformers idw #Megatron #my analysis #my gifs