#and want to be like; and the villain has all the traits you're supposed to know are Bad (mean greedy selfish lazy etc) AND NOTHING ELSE.

[proposalanonaita]

FINE.

The date is fast approaching (seven and a half weeks left), I've had sufficient quantities of Malbec, and I'm realizing that whoever suggested that writing my vows would be MUCH more harrowing than talking about my feelings to internet nobodies.....had a fair point; I should at least attempt to put it all to words before I write the real drafts.

Ugh.

I should probably start by stating that I'm WELL aware of who I am. Rest assured, I know that I'm stunningly abrasive. And controlling. And petty, conniving, misanthropic, or whatever other adjectives you've been calling me in the tags (yes, I DID read those, and it IS weird of so many of you to be calling for my divorce. I thought you were supposed to be nicer than I am?).

All this to say, I've always been cognizant of being an acquired taste. Partly because I've always BEEN an acquired taste. I tone it down in public, and in most of my personal relationships, but I am, down to my core, a Mean Mother Fucker.

With partners before my fiancé, I had to make myself more palatable to stay together. The men I dated were FAR too nice, and snipping with them at all felt like I was a heavyweight champion facing off against a toddler. So I reigned it in. It worked, but no matter how well things were going on paper, I didn't feel like I was myself with any of them.

I was even less myself with The Shithead. I'm NOT getting into the entirety of that particular tire fire here, you little freaks already know FAR too much about me and I won't have you tagging the gory details of the worst part of my life with #bob the builder/fuzzy wuzzy or whatever you're into.

He was horrible to me, I turned dangerously timid, I'm lucky I had enough Mean left in me to get the fuck out. He's changed enough by now that I considered inviting him to the wedding, it was bad enough back then I'm very glad I didn't. Enough said.

...I'm talking quite a bit up here because I still hate having to say any of the next part. Call me an emotionless villain for that if you want to, I am far too employed and 30 to care very much.

Ugh, ugh, ugh.

So.

The thing is, there are people that KNOW me, and there are people who LIKE me. My parents know me, and I've never doubted they love me, but that's not LIKING me as a person. That's a contractual obligation of birthing me. My friends like me, some even like me when I'm catty, but I need to be careful to hold myself back, at the risk of losing them. At best, people loved "me", not ME.

For decades, this was just the way the world was. It was a fact of life- The sky is blue, I'm secretly unlovable, the Earth goes around the sun.

And then, against all odds, I found my fiancé, who manages to do both.

He sees ALL of me. Every square inch, every fleeting thought, every horrible little quirk of my rotten personality. And THEN, as if that weren't bad enough, he turns around and ENJOYS it all. He's not just tolerant of my least palatable traits, he's delighted. The more I show him, the more he likes.

It's awful. I'd say he stole my heart, but that sounds too pleasant. It's more like my heart is a cockroach he could squish at any moment, and I trust him not to, and I'm just supposed to wake up every morning and do the dishes and go to work as if this doesn't mean we're clearly orbiting Saturn. The sky is PURPLE now. What the fuck.

He could at least do me the favor of being completely, 100% perfect, because then I could blame his total lapse in judgement on that, but NO. He's a BASTARD.

I'm engaged to a big sweaty idiot who annoys me on purpose. He's terrible with his money. He tries to take me on HIKES, and JOGS, and CAMPING TRIPS. His taste in every single art form known to man is GARBAGE, he's constantly leaving his dirty socks on the floor, and he's such a bad driver I'm amazed he still has a license.

I've told him all of that to his face, and I've MEANT it, and he's just called me a bitch and asked me what I want for dinner. He knows that I'm unlovable, agrees that all those parts of me are in here, and then loves me anyway.

He loves me. He LOVES me. He loves ME.

I don't know what I'm meant to do with it all, but there's clearly SOMETHING wrong with his brain, so I guess I'll have to keep him, if only for his sake.

[antianakin]

Bringing back Maul was just as bad for what Maul's character originally represented and the negative impact it had on Obi-Wan's characterization as bringing back Palpatine was for what Palpatine represented and the resolution his death brought to Anakin's story.

Maul is the beginning of the end, he is CURRENTLY defeatable, but he can still kill a Jedi, he still kills Qui-Gon because he represents what the darkness can become and what we all know that it WILL ultimately become. He is a harbinger of death. Bringing him back takes away ALL OF THAT. He's no longer connected to Palpatine as the first indication of that oncoming darkness and Palpatine's reach, he's just... flitting around sort-of randomly with no actual purpose or meaning to the narrative around him.

And Maul represents the darkness that Obi-Wan PERSONALLY overcomes. That fear of loss, the fear of moving beyond his teacher, of being forced to grow up early and take on a responsibility you aren't sure you're ready to bear, the anger at the unfairness of it all. Obi-Wan faces it all and overcomes it. It's redundant to show that struggle to us again. And again. And again. And again. Unless the character has something that causes him to completely fail and fall to darkness, I don't need to see him overcome it twice within the same narrative. I already know this about the character. Yes, realistically, people have to keep overcoming the flaw and sometimes they struggle with it more than others, but this is a narrative, it's a fable, I only NEED to be told this character trait once to understand that it's still true.

It also removes a lot of the earned confidence Obi-Wan has later on. Obi-Wan is a Sith Killer, the ONLY Sith Killer in the Order for 13 years and the first in 1000 years. When Obi-Wan faces Dooku with a certain level of confidence, we're supposed to remember that Obi-Wan has earned that confidence in himself. When he goes up against Anakin in the finale, we're supposed to remember that he's killed a Sith before. We're supposed to remember that he's ALREADY OVERCOME HIS OWN FEAR OF LOSS, he already learned that lesson, and that is what will grant him a victory against Anakin in this moment. Instead, Obi-Wan ends up looking like a joke because that Sith he thought he killed just keeps coming back like a bad penny. Why should anyone in-universe or out of it believe Obi-Wan has even a chance against Anakin or Dooku when we know that the Sith he thought he killed is still alive out there?

Bringing back Palpatine is pretty uniformly recognized as a stupid, lazy decision on the part of the filmmakers for the sequel trilogy. No one wanted him back and it truly adds nothing to the story for him to still be alive. What it DOES do is fuck up the entire resolution of Anakin's storyline. Palpatine represents Anakin's demons, his temptations, his weakness and selfishness. When he kills Palpatine, he's not just killing a villain, he's literally supposed to be overcoming that selfishness, rejecting the temptation to do the easy thing, just for a moment. Bringing Palpatine back means that those demons weren't really vanquished, the entire point of overcoming them visually is now gone. The symbolism is lost by saying he wasn't actually dead and he's still around. Palpatine can't just stop representing those things in order to be in the sequel trilogy, that's not how it works.

And it's the same for Maul. Neither character should've been revived because what their deaths represent for the characters who kill them is too important to the narrative's themes to undo out of pure laziness.

#star wars #obi-wan kenobi #anakin skywalker #sheev palpatine #darth maul #sorry maul girlies #idgaf if you think he's hot or tragic or both #the man should've stayed dead #maul critical #darth maul critical #sequel trilogy #star wars sequel trilogy #sequels critical #sequel trilogy critical #star wars sequel trilogy critical

[egg-emperor]

do you think Eggman actually wants to kill/torture sonic? The sonic channel says in eggmans bio that he doesn’t hate sonic deep down in his heart, does Eggman have morals??

That's what the Sonic Channel bio says with Google translate, which is the most unreliable form of translation and in this case very inaccurate for Eggman's character. I rely more on DeepL but it's having trouble with this, it just says "deep down he hates him" lol

But in more reliable translation it doesn't seem to state that he doesn't actually hate him, which I think is an important distinction to make. Here's an example of a human translation of that part, which is always better than a machine one:

"Tender" doesn't feel like a fitting word at all though. This is the absolute closest you've ever got to him being somewhat... affectionate?... towards Sonic in a genuine way in the games, I suppose:

I mean, he's saying he finds him admirable. And it's funny because this is as he's attempting to blow him up to kill him and really thinks he's succeeded this time. I guess you can say that's kind of affectionate in his own twisted way by declaring it in his send-off, that works lol

Now in his Origins bio, they're very clearly referring to this same aspect in that bio but with a huge rephrasing that feels muuuch more fitting than "tender":

You can tell because it's beat for beat with the whole "he wants to defeat Sonic, but deep down-" phrasing

In this case, kinship clearly refers to the feeling of "a sharing of characteristics/other similarities." (Not the other way in being related in a familial sense, no way in hell lol) This is a massive improvement, absolutely PERFECT phrasing Imo.

This makes a lot more sense because it has game evidence. I look at what's in the games to support any outside word. If there isn't any, I don't accept it, canon is what's in the source media/text, any word outside has to be at least heavily supported by/align with it.

This scene specifically has him explain his feelings on Sonic in his own words perfectly. You're not gonna get it from a better place than the horse's mouth. It also shows where I feel the "kinship" is:

It reaffirms that he absolutely does hate him and makes sure to specifically heavily emphasize it. You can hear it in his voice and it's not just in his words, he shows it in his actions, his dislike and threats aren't empty as he tries to outright hurt and kill Sonic all the time.

But it also shines more light on the way that he can also have respect for him, similarly to the way that he called him his admirable adversary in SA2. He can acknowledge that he has talent and admirable tenacity without liking him.

These are closest to "tender" they've gotten with him towards Sonic in canon if we're going to try assign anything to that at all. But again, I feel the rephrasing of it being him feeling a kinship is a lot more accurate with all things considered.

It fits perfectly because Eggman is exactly the same. He also has raw talent with his genius IQ and his creations and plans and tenacity to keep trying and never give up on his goals.

They've always been like two sides of the same coin, drastic opposites of traits in some aspects but also very similar in others, such as tenacity and skill level. This is what makes them perfect narrative foils to each other.

It shows they're a match in battle. Proves he's smart too in recognizing it, if he wasn't he wouldn't stand a chance against Sonic but instead he puts up the greatest fight of all villains and the one that still lives to fight again and again.

I talked a bit more about how even the way that they're opposites in themes yet can have an interesting overlap into almost similarities in the way they go about it at the same time in this post, which I feel is also worth mentioning.

Sage recognizes and praises Eggman's tenacity in the next cutscene they're together after he specifically mentions and praises Sonic for his, so she notices similarity between them too:

So to sum up my stance- the idea of it being "tenderness" on Eggman's part feels inaccurate too, unless you're saying it's like, the closest he can get in his own twisted way then sure lol. But it certainly isn't in the way that fits the genuine definition with the ways he's actually shown to feel and think about him.

I feel the words kinship and respect are the most accurate descriptors by definition though. He does indeed feel those towards him but he absolutely hates his guts at the same time. And that's what makes that Frontiers scene so good for summing it up so perfectly. I think it really is that simple at its core.

And he absolutely does hate him and makes it very clear constantly in the games, as recently as Frontiers, so it hasn't changed at all over time either. He's been very violent and shown eagerness and attempt various kinds of graphic injury and death to Sonic and often attempts to act on those threats.

He has taken great delight in Sonic seemingly meeting his demise twice, so it doesn't get any more blatant than that:

He has also been very unenthused and expressed disappointment when he survives his attempts to kill him multiple times:

Lol

And no, Eggman doesn't have any known good morals that ever limit him from doing anything bad and harmful in the games. His only limit is what results in the world he wants to rule being completely destroyed so he can no longer rule it, also the only reason he teams up to save the world, besides to save himself too of course.

Case in point- Eggman saying that he doesn't want to destroy the planet completely:

Yet also showing little care for the state of it when the damage is done, as long as there's still enough for him to conquer:

Sums it up because this is within the same game too, though there are many examples of this throughout the series. Where he'll cause mass amounts of destruction to get what he wants but if another bad guy threatens to completely destroy it to the point it ceases to exist so he can't rule it and of course puts him in danger, he'll team up to stop it.

He also tries to kill Sonic and co all the time, even characters as young as 8 and 6 and has no hesitation or remorse. Sage also hasn't changed this at all, as Dream Team is canon and takes place after Frontiers.

So if he doesn't have good moral standards that stop him from targeting actual children then yeah, makes sense for him to not have them anywhere else either. You can't really stoop any lower.

Which is why I think the concept of him torturing Sonic in Forces makes a lot of sense too. There's never been anything to say he wouldn't. Certainly not any moral limits. I can imagine he'd jump at the chance to torture Sonic in at least some way when he gets his hands on him for that long.

Eggman's character when broken down to its essentials are very simple. Hating Sonic is one of them. But his feelings and actions in how he actually goes about them are a lot more complex and complicated. In the way he's still able to recognize his ability and give him credit where it's due and have respect for him from a formidable adversary standpoint.

The man's got a point

Simple when it comes to his core traits, personality, and motives. Can be much more complex and complicated in his feelings and actions. That's what gives him such compelling depth to me. He's super interesting to analyze and it's so much more fun and eye opening when viewing his character with this nuance. He's not to be oversimplified or overcomplicated.

I like Eggman's dynamic with Sonic because it's not simplistic in the "he hates him so much he can't recognize and respect any of his abilities/skills" nor "he can recognize and respect any of his abilities/skills, so that means he doesn't really hate him". It's more complex and nuanced than that and I like it.

It shows he's smart when he can recognize and respect Sonic's skills so he can stand a chance against him. It also benefits him by proving his intelligence and strength in being able to continue to challenge him after all this time, so it's a way for him to take pride in it too.

If he denied them, it would also make himself look weak for being able to defeat him but he's far from it. If Sonic wasn't as strong and skilled as he is, Eggman would easily be able to take over the world. He proved it in Forces, if it wasn't for Sonic it would've been a permanent victory.

Having a powerful enemy proves he's a powerful threat. Having what it takes to take on a guy who's been able to kill beings of god-like power says a lot about his own too, so acknowledging it benefits himself in multiple ways and that's always an important factor when it comes to him lol

The Sonic Channel commentary at the end of this Sonic and Eggman cover story describes Eggman's feelings on Sonic and their roles in each other's lives perfectly (excerpt from the "what really entertains him" section):

I also like how it notes that Eggman can enjoy the thrill of the battles as he is seen having as great of a time with it as often as he can be fueled by rage during them. Just like Sonic can too, another of their similarities there 💜

#asks #dr eggman #eggman #dr robotnik #dr. eggman #my post #analysis #sonic frontiers #sne #eggman is evil

[avelera]

"The Regime" (starring Kate Winslet and Matthias Schoenaerts) Episode 2 Review

So last week I gave my review of this first episode of this.... rather perplexing show. And this week, mostly out of morbid curiosity, I tried out episode 2 and thought I'd share my impressions of it.

Once again, let's start with the good:

Matthias Schoenaerts (aka, Booker from The Old Guard) is acting his face off in this. So is Kate Winslet.

That said, they are acting their faces off in completely different shows.

But it kinda works?

Hold on, wait a minute, let me start again, because like this show, I'm immediately completely muddled by how I feel about all this or what the fuck is going on.

Let me put it this way. I thought I was signing up for a sort of "Death of Stalin" political satire, with fictionalized object lessons that clearly applied as cautionary tales to modern political issues like Trump, or Putin, or the Royal Family or whatever, using a heaping side helping of comedy.

That's not quite what we got. And I think the people who signed up for that are going to be... at least a little disappointed. The comedy is absurdist and definitely relies on the cringiness of the big personalities involved. But for me, at least, there wasn't quite enough comedy to say this is, well, a comedy.

If you have historical familiarity with various historical regimes and dictators, you'll definitely get a "Where's Waldo" of traits and idiosyncrasies of various dictators all blended together into Kate Winslet's character as she portrays this fictionalized regime head. You'll get your standard cast of various Political Advisors all tutting over her actions and which way this fictional country should go.

But since it is fictional (it seems based heavily on Moldova as of this episode?) a lot of the political clout, to me, didn't exactly land because again, it's not based on real events so I really don't know where any of this is going or which decisions are actually good or bad in the long run.

And if the show was just going to be about that, I definitely would have quit out of it by now, pending good reviews of the finale somehow pulling everything together.

But now for the really unexpected bit.

Because if you signed up for a dark romance between an absurd, psychologically irregular, frankly bizarre would-be dictator who has the occasional moment of pathos, as played by the stunning and talented Kate Winslet, and her psychosexual relationship with her violently masculine, brooding, and supremely fucked-up self-appointed guard dog with the occasional moment of pathos, as played with dark and terrifying intensity by Matthias Schoenaerts, holy fuck do I think you're about to have the time of your life.

Like, I think the show wants to resonate with Veep audiences who are here for a cringey absurd political comedy, but I think the people who are actually going to be absolutely frothing-at-the-mouth obsessed with this show are like... your Reylo shipping Dark Fucked Up Romance people and Tumblr fandom in general who would really enjoy Villain/Sidekick or Villain/Bodyguard romances as seen when this Possibly Evil Dictator and her Possibly Evil Guard Dog/Advisor are being completely obsessed with each other, all with a rather small side of absurdist comedy as things continue to spiral and get gradually more fucked up.

Now, this is just my review as of 1.02. I have no idea if that's where this show is going because the problem I have with this episode is kinda just a slightly lesser version of the problem I had with 1.01, which could be a matter of taste, in that I really have no fucking clue what this show is going for or what it's trying to accomplish. It's not really laugh out loud funny. It hasn't really said anything political yet. We can't really tell yet what cautionary tales we're supposed to take away, if any?

But in the meantime, there's Winslet and Schoenaerts performing in completely different genres being darkly obsessed with each other and, y'know what, I might stick around just for the slow-motion-trainwreck fascination with whatever the fuck they've got going on.

#the regime #kate winslet #matthias schoenaerts

[lucem-stellarum]

So this is what, the 3rd time Porter has been decked by a character because of his attitude? At minimum?

Under the cut for long and rambling character and literary analysis

We have the initial fight 4-5 years ago between Porter and Vincent

We have Lovely getting him during their "Switzerland" talk before the Summit

Now we have Asher at the Summit (part II electric boogaloo)

At this point, I'm starting to wonder if we're even supposed to like him as a character. Sure, he's charismatic. Porter got Treasure wrapped around his finger in less than an hour. But Mr. Redacted is usually pretty clear about delineating between who is intended to be the characters we're supposed to be supporting (with enough moral grayness to make them complex and interesting). So many of his characters are a great example of the difference between the narrative 'protagonist' and the narrative 'hero'. Going back to the more technical literary term, a protagonist* is the character the story is about, but they're not necessarily the same as the hero of the story. Yandere!Ivan was a great protagonist, but he's very obviously the villain of that plotline. If you want a classic example, Michael Corleone (The Godfather) is a villain protagonist.

*I'll point out that depending on what exact definition you're using for "protagonist" that you can argue that the listener character is supposed to be the main character. I don't think that fits because in many of Redacted's cases the listener falls into the "sexy lamp" trope, where by design they have few if any character traits of their own so we as listeners can project on them. To me, they're the point of view character, which though usually is not always the same as the protagonist. IMO, a protagonist should play a more active role in the story. Overall it's a fascinating way of capitalizing on the limitations of Mr. Redacted's chosen medium, and I'd love to hear other people's thoughts on this phenomenon.

Most characters fall into either the 'hero' or 'villain' category. Characters like David, Asher, Vincent, Elliott, Guy, Ollie, and Gavin are all clearly hero protagonists**. Their respective stories revolve around their interactions with the listener character, they're the good, upstanding citizens that we want to support. They've got flaws, sure, but for the most part they're meant to be appealing characters that we agree with. Characters like Marcus, Yandere!Ivan, and Regulus are clearly the villain protagonists; they're the "bad guys", we want them to fail in whatever terrible thing they're trying to do. (Which isn't to say you can't enjoy their particular brand of twisted. Dark characters and themes are important and have their place).

**with the caveat that different focal length of a particular story can change who is the technical 'protagonist' and 'antagonist'. Kody, in his Water Elemental videos, is a 'villain protagonist'; when you look at the DAMN series overall he's better classified an antagonist of season 1. The fact that there's so many perspective changes across Mr. Redacted's overall work means that a lot of these terms can get muddied depending on which specific set of videos you're referring to.

Which brings me to the 3rd type of protagonist, the anti-hero. The anti-hero is a protagonist that the reader/listener wants to succeed, but generally lacks the traditional/universal moral traits that usually define the classic hero protagonist. Examples of an anti-hero protagonist include: Deadpool, Walter White (Breaking Bad), Huckleberry Finn. In particular, the mark of a well-written antihero protagonist is the fact that it can be difficult to distinguish them from a villain protagonist. Vega is a good example of this; in the Sadism's Hold/DAMN S1 series he's an antagonist for Freelancer and Yandere!Ivan. He graduates to a villain protagonist in early Carpe Deus, and with his stated goal of preventing another Cacophony he's morphing into an anti-hero in the more recent videos. I'm sure you can get hyper-specific if you start going through all the TVTropes pages to find the perfect flavor for individual characters, but most major protagonists can be classified as one of those three groups (with eternal, ongoing debates on where specifically you draw those particular lines based on your particular morals).

Bringing it back to Porter, I'm not sure that he's meant to be an anti-hero. He's charming, intelligent, capable, and likeable (to those not biased by his history like Vincent and Sam). But I don't think we're supposed to support him as a character overall. We've had too many "hero" characters come to conflict with him; Vincent, Asher, and Lovely explicitly. Even without getting into the fine distinctions between a protagonist/supporting character/POV character that's an awful lot of animosity from some very well established people. We might not know all of his goals/motives yet because they haven't been revealed to us (Porter wants to support William, wants to gain 'power', but why? What history drives him? What is his specific end goal with that power?) but his manipulation of other people, ruthlessness, and his own acknowledged boot-licking to increase his own social power disqualify him from a traditional "hero protagonist" role. An anti-hero is one we still are intended by the author to want to support, a character we want to see succeed. But because Mr. Redacted keeps putting Porter into direct conflict with more traditional protagonists it sets him up to be an opposing force; by definition he is an antagonist to our established hero protagonists.

I've talked a lot about the different types of protagonists and some of the minute distinctions between the different types of protagonists. Antagonists can be even more variable; you have your classic Devil, Sauron, and Darth Vader trying to kill your protagonist heroes. Technically speaking, antagonists don't necessarily have to be characters, either, they can be forces or concepts. An antagonist is just someone or something that opposes the protagonist. I won't divert into the different types of conflict in a story, but I'll point out how much more variety there is for your villains than your heroes based on their particular blend of moral alignment and narrative framing. (It's a lot easier to make things go wrong than it is to make things go well). You can also have sympathetic antagonists, where the villain has acceptable motives even if their methods are objectionable and cement their status as villains. Think the Wicked Witch of the West; Dorothy killed her sister, revenge is an entirely reasonable motive even if we're not supposed to be on her side. Adam and Quinn are the clearest unsympathetic antagonist villain characters in Redacted-verse. Blake is a sympathetic antagonist, vacillating between a villain and an anti-hero depending on whether we're looking at him from Sunshine or Bestie's POV.

As far as my initial claim that we're not supposed to like Porter, we have to consider which lens we're looking at him through. From Vincent's perspective he's an unredeemable asshole. William, however, clearly sees something in him. Other characters we trust that don't have that skewed perspective because of baggage, like Asher, don't like him either. While Porter is the protagonist of his own videos (you are the main character inside your own head) he's not being cast as a classical hero. Morality wise, even in his own story he's an anti-hero at best (he wasn't honestly trying to warn Treasure off, he was luring them in to SkySide). He's got the potential to be sympathetic (at least, according to Sam and William) but he's outnumbered in the narrative of protagonists (at the very least, by Vincent, Lovely, Asher, and there's evidence for Milo and David because of what he put Sweetheart up to) who consider him an antagonist, causing them problems or otherwise being obstructive. Considering the weight of numbers and length of existence in the overall story Mr Redacted is telling, Porter so far is generally being portrayed as an antagonist to our hero protagonists but not necessarily as a villain (like Vincent wants him to be) of Close Knit's caliber. So, this leaves him in a very interesting position on the morality/perspective spectrum. Essentially:

[Photo ID: a graph running from Villain to Hero along the horizontal axis and Protagonist to Antagonist along the vertical axis. Gavin, Lasko, Guy, Ollie, Caelum, David, Asher, Milo, Vincent (post-Adam) are in the Hero-Protagonist Corner. Regulus, Yandere!Ivan, Kody, Vega (DAMN S1) are in the Villain-Antagonist Corner. Vega (early) is in the Villain Protagonist Corner. Vincent (early) and Vega (later) are in the Protagonist Antihero area. Porter is in the Antagonist Antihero area. /end ID]

Because of these mostly negative relationships to our established characters I don't think he's meant to be "supportable". There's too many reasons someone could write him off as unredeemable, based off of his history, his current actions, and his morals. Mr Redacted obviously intended us to be pitted against certain characters like Adam, Kody, and Yandere!Ivan in the same way the author intends us to like and support wholesome characters like David, Huxley, and Guy. I think Porter was written in such a way that we're supposed to disapprove of him despite his likeability in the same way we're "supposed to" disapprove of most of the Imperium characters or Alexis. There's a glimmer of "redemption" deep down for how good they could be if the universe was a little kinder towards them and they didn't have to resort to morally questionable (at best) actions and perspectives, but harsh circumstances left them protecting themselves with sharp edges designed to make anyone who gets too close bleed. Character complexity is attractive, but that's not the same thing as being sympathetic.

After all of this I have to say, death of the author is 100% valid as a concept. At least half of a story is determined by the reader themselves, and this in particular is just my interpretation of these particular facts and classifications. Depending on how you want to weight certain factors and perspectives you can come to a completely different conclusion. By trying to define a particular character the act of applying a definition means you have to be reductive; making a decision on which box to put them in flattens out their complexities. You don't have to APPROVE of a character to LIKE them. There's also a difference between a morally GOOD character and a COMPELLING character. Not every character has to be redeemed, it's not a prerequisite for finding them interesting. Just because Mr Redacted wants us to hate certain characters doesn't mean everyone is obligated to; you're entitled to your own opinion.

#redacted asmr #redacted porter #character analysis #character criticism #to be safe #I'm trying to keep an open mind #I don't like him #but I find him fascinating #i want to put him under a microscope and study him #nuance is important #idk if anything I've said here about authorial intentions is contradicted by the podcast but #word of god is NOT the same thing as canon #i was thinking my thoughts and came up with this

[davekat-sucks]

I think i definitely would've liked Calliope more if she was presented as a bad person. I love how she absolutely malded (this term works here (wig)) when she was losing that chess game. Beforehand she was acting all snide and flirty towards Caliborn, like come on, "you're being such a good sport now finally", sending hearts <3 to him, saying weirdly suggestive shit. Like damn girl you're usually not this upfront. Then she gets thrown off guard and gets extremely defensive, it's hilarious. I really liked her when she acted two-faced, you can even take this literally, she's delusional. She dresses up as a troll because she has a fetish for them then starts shipping herself and friends together, no wonder why Caliborn sees her as so pathetic. All she has is ruses, i don't even think that SHE THINKS that she's all that strong. She pretty much relies on other's to get her through stuff and she even pretends to be someone else to progress the story. I've said it in the past but i think she should've been a misandrist, i think it would be funny for her to enable her female friends obsessive dispositions towards their crushes. Remember her drawing of Roxy trying to kiss Dirk while he looks visibly uncomfortable? It's stuff like that, have her perception on men be that they're props for the girls and you need to get a one-up on them in anyway to control them. Like drawing Dirk in a pink costume and being called something as gay as "the prince of heart" as an attempt at emasculating him. There's potential for this idea. She's better at being more composed and tactful than Caliborn, a good set up for being manipulative, she uses her fake politeness to slither her way onto C-Earth where i think she would have great potential to become a villain.

Just a bunch a thoughts about her bleh, she was kinda boring half of the time in the comic, stuff just gets handed to her and she's supposed to be a good guy despite forcefully separating Roxy and Rose that one time. Gave off control freak vibes. Her character feels inconsistent, like Hussie couldn't choose what he wanted her to be. I feel like her potential was underutilized

While Caliborn tries to be more in your face direct kind of deal, Calliope would have been someone who plays the more passive role. Doing her best to hide her true intentions or feelings and only showing her true colors when she is not able see the results she wanted or something else beyond her control comes her way. Calliope would shown to be no better than Caliborn and prove show how Cherubs are awful species. Sure there could be a chance of good Cherub, but like with trolls, there is some trait that would be frowned upon by human standards. Like you got Nepeta, she is playful and sweet, yes, but people forget she still hunts animals for food and PAINT. Some may find FLARP sessions that Tavros, Terezi, Aradia, Vriska, and Eridan engage in to be dangerous since it can lead to physical harm, be it from other players or the monsters they had set up. To trolls, such activities like this are a norm because they had been conditioned to live under it. But perhaps for Cherubs case, it might as well be in genetics as a species themselves that they act this way. If she is also represents the 'good' side of the fandom, then one should show toxic positivity is just as bad. People who have good intentions, but their noble deeds can lead to harm if the intent behind it is still selfish, consciously or subconsciously. Maybe those who are part of the good fandom side that may disagree with certain opinions, everyone else immediately goes against them instantly at the drop of dime because they fear they instantly become bad, when there is more to it than that. Actually show the grey morality on both sides of the fandom that would represent people like 4chan & old MSPA fans with Caliborn and Calliope with Tumblr.

#HS Calliope #HS Caliborn #Caliborn #Calliope #Homestuck #Homestuck fandom #Caliborn Cherub #Calliope Cherub

[safety-writes-noms]

It's October, so how about big vampire? Little one is safe ofc, maybe it'd be cold in there tho...

ooh vampires? I love vampires theyre so cool. Maybe Miguel since he’s already got the teeth for it anyway.

THIS IS NOT NSFW AT ALL!!! KINK BLOGS AND NSFW BLOGS DNI

I feel like he’d hate himself for becoming a vampire and then turn to becoming Spider-Man/saving the city as a sort of atonement for becoming a “monster”. And then he creates the society and realizes “oh damn, no one is like me theyre still human” so he just decides not to really talk about his vampiric traits since he never really talks to anyone anyways (except maybe Peter or Jess)

he hides it well enough, resorting to blood bags for sustenance or maybe even just going out hunting at night to quickly satisfy his thirst with a to-be villain, careful not to take too much.

slowly over time he grows more attached to the people who regularly interact with him or bother him (he doesn’t actually mind too much anymore). The problem is that his vampire instincts have also gotten attached to these humans. He doesn’t realize it until he feels that urge, deep in his gut, that whisper of ‘they could always be safer’ and the empty feeling in his stomach all the more prominent.

it terrifies him at first. He’s like ‘I already have to drink blood to sustain myself and now I want to eat the people who are closest to me? Wtaf?’ And then begins to distance himself in an attempt to prevent some sort of situation where he loses control and noms someone. he just gets more and more irritated and upset bc he wants to be near Peter and Jess and the spiderlings but he’s also scared he’s going to snap and his instincts are slowly getting increasingly worse as time goes by without him caring for them —

and then that leads up to him nomming someone. Maybe he’s gotten a code red alert on his watch, sees that’s it’s a spiderling and his instincts just immediately take over bc one of his precious kids are hurt?? All of his earlier reservations staying away have vanished completely. All he knows now is that he has to get in there, get his kid/kids out of that dangerous situation.

(I like to imagine that miguek can shift his size, like from his normal huge 6'9 height to even bigger. idk chalk it up to funky vampire magic 🙂)

so now there's a huge territorial and protective vampire dropping down out of nowhere. imagine being an anomaly and being so sure that you're going to win this fight and escape and then a giant monster-man hellbent on protecting his kids depends from the sky. what are you even supposed to do at that point? pull out the white flags ig.

either way, Miguel finally manages to satisfy his instincts and gulps down one of the kids. I feel like there's great opportunities for angst too, whether that be Miguel not being able to explain that they're safe and won't be hurt bc of how deep he's into his instincts, that basic sort of trope.

but for at least that moment he can relax, slink back to his office and curl up somewhere his vampire instincts deem safe enough and settle down to metaphorically lick his wounds, happy with the prospect of his belly finally full and his chest warm. he'll probably freak out when he snaps out of it tho

#sfw vore #extreme cuddling #s: spidervores #spidervore #spidervores #nonsexual vore

[supersecretnerd]

I am a novice in Darkwing Duck lore but oooo do I want to make and develop the friendly four versions of the main villains so bad-

Like a egotistical superhero ending up adopting a kid and finding love a sidekick? Amazing, awesome, I love that.

But FOUR misfit superheros finding each other and sticking together, even when everything is going against them, and adopting TWO kids?! Even more amazing, lovely, I adore that, I want more of that.

Anyways take a sketch of Friendly Four Quacker Jack- and some small ideas + brainstorming I have for now

So basically for them, I wanna do the same approach they did with Negaduck; same personality traits, flaws and all, just different scenarios.

Nega Megavolt and Nega Liquidator are easy enough to make heroic; both have a reason to be against Negaduck (don't want to make Nega Liquidator want to poison his competitors tho -even with me going with a corrupt business forced to turn good in harsh situations- probably will be Nega Liquidator trying to stop Negaduck from messing with his products and ends up getting murdered) (Nega Megavolt I can just change Negaduck into being his bully instead of Friend, and the cause of his powers). Also Megavolt already has heroic actions towards his electronics, so that helps (Negavolt still views electronics stuff as sentient, just doesn't think of them as enslaved; maybe he views them as workers or something)

Now for Nega Quackerjack I'm thinking that the Wiffle Boy company still took down his company and drove him to villainy for a bit- but when Negaduck's raise began (and toy bans) Quackerjack turn heroic to stop him; maybe Negaduck even tried to make him serve him while he was still a villain, but that went very very poorly (maybe he somehow met Gosalyn that way, dunno yet). He still holds his grudges against Wiffle Boy, but isn't going to go into a violent rampage over someone playing the game (probably just get judgy about it, unless it's his kids then he'll just try to show him how much better his toys are and eventually one of the other of the four just gotta drag him away and let him mope)

Now for Nega Bushroot, Rhonda was the one who was cruel to him and Gary and Larson were chill. He still wanted to solve world hunger but got rejected still (dunno if it's cause of Negaduck involvement this time or just of the funders greed). That's all I got backstory wise. Thinking of either having him have a lower murder count (or zero murder) or having him murder someone before joining the Friendly Four and it just absolutely worsening into his low self esteem (maybe the guilt is what pushes him towards good and makes him want to stop Negaduck). However I don't want Rhonda dead cause I think she'd be a cool lil villain, so I don't know.

Oh I also got some ideas for Nega Gosalyn's character and Negaduck's relationship with her. So basically Negaduck, as we know, is highly egotistical and craves power and violence. So, in his eyes caring for someone is a sign of weakness; he absolutely refuses to do anything you're supposed to do with a kid (tuck them in, comfort them when scared, be emotionally available for them, etc.) cause it embarrasses him and makes him feel weak. So instead, he just gives Gosalyn all the toys confiscated and lets her live there, thinking that's enough (spoiler alert, it's not enough and leads to Gosalyn feeling both unsafe and unloved). Also, Negaduck being a tyrant and seeing all the havoc he and Nega Launchpad has caused for the town (some frist hand experiences) reaaaally doesn't help her feel any safer.

Nega Gosalyn's well mannered personality is a direct result of these feelings of unsafeness. She still has her spirit (and mischievous nature) and wants to do good, but she's also very scared if she acts out she'll hurt or killed (Negaduck wouldn't actually physically hurt her, but he does verbally threaten to do so when she messes up; yeeeah he should have never gotten a child). So she tries to help the side of good from a safe distance where Negaduck and Launchpad don't notice. Over the time she's adopted by The Friendly Four, her mischievous personality starts to slowly come back.

The Friendly Four is a poly couple.

I think it would be insanely funny if one day, after Nega Gosalyn (and everyone else in the town for that matter) gets readjusted to daily life and schools being open, that her class gets a new student and she turns her head only to see Nega Honker at the door. And they both just stare at each other like

Naturally they do not get along (their poor teacher, first had to deal with teaching a bunch of behind students who most definitely are still traumatized from Negaduck's rule, and now she gotta keep Nega Gosalyn and Nega Honker from beating each other to a pulp) (Nega Gosalyn would totally throw hands for her close friend and now brother Tank) (Nega Tank is older so he's in a higher grade)

It's like 1am, this post might be a jamble of a mess but I'm sleepy so I'm leaving it as is. If you actually read this far, thank you and I hope you like my lil ideas!

#darkwing duck #darkwing duck 1991 #the friendly four #probably will develop these ideas much later- super duper busy with college #also i call myself a novice cause i haven't seen every episode #so feel free to call me out if certain ideas don't fit

[arttrampbelle]

Shang tsung doesn't need to be a "good guy" to be sympathetic or do nice or "good" deeds.

Y'all should understand that not everyone needs to be a hero to be redeemed.

That's some bullshit propaganda that y'all tend to fall for.

It's like that feeling of "if you pray to jesus,all you're sins in OUR eyes will be forgiven" type indoctrinated shit. Like no shade thrown,even as someone who is spiritual myself. I find people thinking that a villain in a story should become a hero in order to be redeemed,kinda suspicious.

Shang tsung,to me,has ALWAYS BEEN NUANCED. And already had benevolent qualities and traits. Y'all just only see one damn part of it because the writers suck at showing them properly.

Not to mention if a character isn't obnoxiously nice or mean,y'all don't pay attention to them.

It's like most of mk fans I've noticed,at least as of late. Feels like I'm talking to 3yr olds in media literacy.

So no. Shang tsung needs to be a NEUTRAL CHARACTER. not good,not evil,just self serving and even quite helpful as a tournament master as he is supposed to fucking be.

He is supposed to be that "keep your friends close,keep you enemies closer" type. He is the "the enemy of my enemies are my friends" type. He's scary intelligent,cunning,a master martial artist,a brilliant alchemist,and one badass mofo you do not wanna cross.

But most of all,he is courteous,a gracious host on his island,and his punishments are as great as his rewards. He does keep his end of the bargain,but he also gets compensation.

If anything you need to worry about earthrealms warriors more than him. Half of them now(due to piss poor writing) are hiding behind heroic deeds and false statements of peace yet they have unclean hands too.

With Shang tsung you know what you are dealing with,it's on the table. If you cant read the obvious,you are indeed a foolish one.

No matter what iteration of shang tsung you have. One thing is clear,made clear,and that is when you deal with him. You deal with the devil so to speak.

So if you're not smart nor prepared. That's on your ass honey. Not his. Do not blame him for your stupidity.

But if you know how to play the game,play chess with the serpent. And know these archetypes. Then you may have a better shot. But that's all on you.

Either way,in your favor or not. Do not blame him for telling you exactly what is needed to be said,not what you wanna hear. Honeyed words or not,there's always a sliver of truth and bitter pill of truth in his words. And he's good at making either people hate his guts or bow and worship him.

THAT IS WHY HE'S DANGEROUS. not because of magic,or experiments and other trival bullshit.

Nah.

It's because shang tsung is good at talking. Good at trades and making you believe whatever is what he wants you to see.

Even if it may go against him. He wants you to fuck up,get angry at him,attack,be unbalanced,so he can fuck your shit right up!

Holy shit this mans whole ass moveset is zoning and keeping you in a certain place in the stage even!

It's part of his whole damb character.

I could go on and on. But do not blame to serpent for telling you information for questions you ask him. You're the one who chose to bite his apple of enlightenment and knowledge so to speak.

Which is why the gods,titans,etc want these kombatants,warriors to be stupid. So they are easy to control,to get what they want.

Like it's glaringly obvious that mortal kombats story has these type of tropes and symbolism in it. But people are too blind,for various reasons. To see it.

I could get deep. It's a videogame,i know. It is what it is.

But the more i look at mk12/mk1 shang tsung. The more i feel its a missed opportunity to showcase these themes better for him.

Like holy shit dude. Shang tsung pointing out the hypocrisy of the gods. And whispers in our earthrealm warriors ears. And maybe convincing a few to join his side. Or even better. Our heroes,kung lao and mortal raiden to question liu kang and not blindly follow like fucking idiots. Sure just trust this dude right? Bruh.

Shang tsung is the only one with a brain once again. And i hate them making everyone else so stupid to make him seem better in the shithole plot of theirs. If you can call it a plot.

It burns me,that it's a waste of potential.

But i digress.

Anyways. Shang tsung,way more than an evil conjurer of tricks my dudes. Waaaaaay fucking more.

#mortal kombat #shang tsung #mini vent #mortal kombat shang tsung #mk12/mk1 #mk12/mk1 shang tsung #mk1 shang tsung #mk1 2023 shang tsung #mk1 2023 #like god damn it y'all love these type why can't you seem to write them better?! #y'all seem to take stupid pills around this shang tsung for why? like y'all wrote devil and luciferian characters so damn well.... #why not apply that to shang tsung? like it's obviously right there in plain sight of what that is #ugh #i dunno guys i just feel there can be so much more for shang than “all evil” or “ all good” it's boring #like he doesn't need to change his whole fucking character to have sympathy or do heroic things ffs like let my dude be neutral! #i feel people throw around antihero too fucking much to a point that archetype lost it's meaning #he is by no means a fucking antihero nor will he ever be #if anything he's a tragic villain or just a neutral grey character period

[aspoonofsugar]

Blake and Weiss vs Beast and Queen

This is just a short meta, which wants to focus on 2 specific Mistral fights:

Blake and Sun vs Sea Feilong and Weiss vs Queen Lancer are 2 parallels battles, which foreshadow Blake and Weiss's arcs in Mistral and their climaxes at Haven.

First of all, the set up for the fights is similar. Both Blake and Weiss are on important opposite journeys, as Blake is trying to go back to her family and Weiss is trying to escape hers. However, to reach their destinations they have to overcome a dangerous Grimm: the Sea Feilong and the Queen Lancer.

The choice of such Grimms to stand in Blake and Weiss's path is not accidental and ties with their fairy tale's motif. To be specific, the Sea Feilong is a reference to the Beast, while the Queen Lancer embodies the Evil Queen. In short, they are symbolic of the villains of Blake and Weiss's stories.

BLAKE VS SEA FEILONG

The Sea Feilong is the combination of several dragons of mythology, so of several beasts/monsters and when it appears its shadow covers Blake:

It is then clearly representative of Blake's state of mind. She is caught in the shadow Adam has spread all around her, to the point she is scared to interact with others:

Captain: Traveling alone? Now, now, no threat here. Just here to chat. Blake: And why is that? Captain: Well, not many people travel by boat on their own. It can be quite a lonely voyage. But I found those that do tend to have the more… interesting stories. Blake: Maybe it's just… better for some people to be alone. Captain: Maybe, but with your paranoia, I think a few friendly faces wouldn't hurt. Blake: Who says I'm paranoid?! Captain: No one, dear, no one. I'll leave you be.

And yet, she can't hope to deal with her shadows alone:

Blake: I need to sort some things out. Sun: Then why not do it with your team? Your friends?

This fight is in the end about this:

Blake: You're not supposed to be here! Sun: Yeah!? Well, it looks like you can use all the help you can get!

Blake can't kill the Sea Feilong alone, just like she can't defeat Adam nor the White Feng alone. She needs others: her friends, her family and even her community. This is why in the end the Grimm is taken down not even by Blake and Sun working together, but rather by the collective strength of the 2 Hunstmen in training and of the ship crew:

Other than this, the fight is full of symbols and motifs dear to Blake. Like, for example the twilight, where shadow and light meet:

(Notice that this fight, the Black Trailer and Blake's appearance in Ruby's volume 4 short all have the twilight in it)

Moreover, there are also other shadows and beasts:

Blake takes away her ribbon, which is there to hide her Faunus Trait. So, even if she is very down, she is starting to face all that has been repressed.

Sun is another beast/shadow following Blake, but once he is uncovered it turns out he is really not threathening, but quite the opposite! He is helpful and a literal "sun" :P So, not all that is hidden is dangerous, not all relationships are scary and not all beasts are evil.

WEISS VS QUEEN LANCER

The Queen Lancer embodies Snowhite's Evil Queen, so it makes sense it attacks Weiss the moment she is escaping Jacques:

It is a test to see if Weiss can really carve her own path. By this point our Queen is just moving the first steps as her own person and is clearly full of doubts, as her interaction with the pilot shows:

Weiss: It's fine. I… just hope I haven't been a burden. Pilot: You and your money are more than welcome on this ship, kid.

In particular, Weiss should stop letting a corrupted and selfish society choose for her, which is what she struggles with this time, as well:

Weiss: We're going to help them, right? Pilot: What? No. I'm trying to avoid them. Weiss: But… they'll die. Pilot: Look, if we picked up their transmission, I'm sure someone else did, too. Besides, this is a cargo ship. She's not much good in a fight. I just wanna finish this job and get home. Sorry, kid. My ship, my rules.

The moment they hear the request for help, Weiss wants to answer it, but the pilot refuses. In a sense, this is the opposite of what happens in Blake' fight. There, the people come together against a common enemy, while here people selfishly decide to only think about themselves. Someone else will do the right thing. Someone else will answer the call.

The result is that when the pilot himself is the one in need for help, nobody comes to the rescue. This is when Weiss takes charge:

Pilot: What are you doing? Weiss: What we should've done in the first place!

She faces the Lancers with the pilot's help and manages to defeat them. Then, the final boss arrives and Weiss is forced to go all out:

She symbolically sacrifices the Dust Cargo, just like she is stepping into a new unknown life with no privilege. And yet, even that is not enough. This is because the question the narrative asks Weiss is: "Who are you without your Family name?". This is Weiss's answer:

She is a Brave Knight who trusts her heart and succeeds at slaying the Evil Queen. And yet, the Knight breaks too and the Princess falls:

Weiss finds herself asking for help, but the world is a very cruel place:

Weiss: Help… please.

The Branwen Tribe kidnaps Weiss for ransom. Weiss's journey to become her own person is still not over and she still has to struggle against a cold and selfish society. Both in Atlas and in Mistral. And yet, she has started to trust her heart:

A BEAUTY AND A QUEEN AT HAVEN

The Battle of Haven is where Blake and Weiss's struggle throughout the Mistral arc gives fruit. On the one hand Blake unites the Menagerie Faunus against the White Feng and she herself faces Adam. On the other hand Weiss finds a strong support system, which accepts her for who she is and shines by fighting by their side.

Interestingly, their 2 big moments call back to elements found in the fights above.

Blake doesn't act alone, but has a whole movement supporting her:

It is also telling and a nice nod that they are able to bring all the Faunus to Haven thanks to the captain's help:

Kali: We'll need transportation too. For everyone. Blake: I think I know a ship captain who owes us a favor.

Weiss is able to summon the Queen Lancer to fight by her side:

She has found her corner of warm world, which supports her in doing the right thing. She now knows who she is: she is both a Queen and a Lancer.

This is a nice top off for Blake and Weiss's parallel journeys, which is made even more powerful by them clearly being connected symbolically.

On the one hand Weiss's Lancer breaks the wall and reunites Blake with her team:

On the other hand when Weiss's Lancer is destroyed, Blake is quick to take its place in the fight:

If you open up to others and follow your heart, more people willing to do the right thing will come and support you. Blake and Weiss learn this lesson by freeing themselves from abuse and by facing their inner demons. As a result they bloom in 2 queen lancers and in 2 beauiful and brave beasts.

#rwby #blake belladonna #weiss schnee #rwby meta #my meta #i am kind of in a blake meta roll #expect 3 or 4 more metas on her

[attorneys-against-court-violence]

The Magical Turnabout: Cleared!

Whoo! I haven't had a shot of the old AA charm in a while, but something about Case 6-2 clicked for me in that front! I suppose I should go through the old bullet points then, shall I? Let's do this!

(Cutting this off here because GOOD GRIEF are there a lot of thinks about this case)

TRUCYYYYYYYY! I'm so sorry for what DD has done to you, but I really liked her and Apollo here! Who knew that giving your character a stake in the plot and room to breathe actually makes them an interesting person to watch and root for? The legacy of the Gramaryes weighing on her shoulders, her dedication to her magic, her wonderful bond with Apollo... it all shines through, giving me a lot more to grab on to emotionally than in the prior game. In Trucy We Trust!

APOLLO JUSTICE IS DOING FINE! He's got something of a legacy to hold up himself, being the only one alongside Athena to hold the fort while Wright's away. And they were under serious attack, too - losing out on the office and a dear friend & daughter of Wright is a hefty thing to deal with. And yes, he's as jaded and snarky as he ever has been.

Athena's here. That's pretty cool. I'm not going to complain much about her not getting too much here, since this isn't really her story. She's still a god-damn riot and keeps up a charming dynamic with Apollo, and her righteous indignation at Retinz's shenanigans is pretty cathartic.

Ema gets a nice look here too! Showing her in a much happier tune after achieving her dream job - a little reminiscent of her younger years - while still keeping the snide built up from AJ. I do like the conflict of interest her with Trucy on the line. Seems detectives can't go a trilogy without someone they actually like being put in the slammer, but it's a nice crumb.

Case 2-3 was pretty fun in how it faked a magic trick to hide the real murder, but a lot problems got in the way of fully appreciating it. This doesn't have nearly the same issues and manages to make use of the inherent mysteries and mechanics of the magic tricks performed to its advantage. Even the main villain had a grander illusion to unravel at the very end - that being the mystery of how the victim truly perished. It was fun following along & seeing the show behind-the-scenes!

Bonny & Betty are fine. Both are sympathetic enough being admirers tricked into being accomplices in muder. Betty in particular seems scorned to all get-out, having to pretend to be the other for so long. Bonny has to deal with self-esteem issues and a slightly controlling twin sister. I liked them!

Roger. Motherfucking. Retinz. The man's got intelligence up the wazoo but that's about the only admirable trait I can assign to him. This man is easily the most despisable AA villain I've seen in a long time - not counting ones that are hateable due to bad writing, Dual Destinies - who almost managed to get one last cut in on Trucy before he vanished for good. He doesn't make his grudge a secret and his actions - both in setting up his schemes and his general behaviour - make him one awful son of a bitch. A mistrusting, dishonest, egocentric magician who stands in stark contrast to Trucy. Pretty dang good for a one-off villain!

Now then... you're probably wondering what I think of Nahyuta Sahdmadhi. While I'm not going to make sweeping judgements until I see the whole story, I do have some thoughts. Just bare with me.

Khura'in is a country that hasn't seen a Not Guilty verdict in over 20 years. Nahyuta didn't oversee Phoenix's first trial there and the next has yet to come. They have a poor opinion of defense attorneys and a deeply religious reason to want justice for the victim in order to bring them peace. Nahyuta is an asshole. I will make no illusions to the contrary. He is the product of a country that has - at this point - not had any reason to believe the accused isn't the culprit. It's probably not a fair system at all; Manfred's perfect record didn't come about by playing fair, after all. But that's the environment Nahyuta practices and was likely raised in as well. He's got good reason to be an insufferable prat at this point and it's clear we haven't seen the full extent of his character. His cultrue may have largely informed this side of him, but I do enjoy him being in conflict with Ema over indicting someone she knows and cares about. Ones duty taking priority over ones emotions seems like a hint at something... tragic. This is a man who's probably had to push similar feelings down and is well practiced in that, to the point where he's completely shut-off from someone he used to know. We have seen, however, that he is very open to learning about different cultures when the need arises. He went so far as to wait an hour to sample something as simple to L.A. as a burger - enough to be able to recommend a particular flavour. He's researched television programs, social customs, and is even willing to admit that cultrual differences means he might not carry things out as expected. It's one of the more charming parts of his character and I really do enjoy it.

His connection to Apollo... I don't really know what to say at this point. It feels like he occupies an odd middle-ground between Edgeworth and Simon in their debuts. Edgeworth because he actually bothers to talk with Apollo in the lobby, Simon because he's so closed-off that nothing really comes of that. I get what they're doing here - telling us that the prosecutor is someone from the attorney's past and telling us they used to be different - though it's missing something from Phoenix's and Edgeworth's spat in Case 1-2 that gave that scene more to chew on.

Frankly, I think I'll have to check out the rest of SoJ just to figure out if I like the guy or not. Dual Destinies - for as many mistakes it made at the end - did manage to get me to give a hoot about Simon, so maybe SoJ can do something nice with this guy. I've heard the contrary enough times to be cautious but I can't let outside opinion and heresay sway me on these things. Not anymore, at any rate. As before, I want to be damn sure my feelings are my own.

But first! Case 6-4. I've heard many a divisive thing about it - from the wonderful cast to the unfortunate treatment of its leading lady. I'll let you know what side of the coin I land on when I get to the end there.

Until next time! In justice we trust!

#case 6 2 watchthrough #spirit of justice spoilers #ace attorney spoilers

[kingboohoo37]

KBH RANDOM RANT

I'M BACK... at least I try to post more often. Streams will also come more regularly (surely...).

I'm slowly getting back to work so my time is still very limited. I thought this was a good time to bring back my random rants about fandoms since I just revisited an old classic from my childhood.

YEP we're talking about Kim Possible one of the most ludicrous fictional universes I've ever seen... In a good way!

First up: This show is FUDGING 22 YEARS OLD THIS YEAR... I'm really getting old...

The funny part about that is it was made during the peak of the 2000s... and you really notice that. The language that most teenagers use in this show is so stereotypical for that time it feels so nostalgic even watching it XD

Anyway, let's get the obvious out of the way. I know this is supposed to be a kids cartoon and I know that I'm an adult man but that doesn't stop me from watching it.

So, why is this show so great?

Good question! Its primary charm probably comes from its simple comedic attitude of telling a story.

The characters are so ridiculous that you should never be able to take this show seriously simply because most of their actions or the situations around them don't even make sense. This show just requires you to take in its vibe and go with the flow. I mean... a teenager knowing 16 forms of Kung Fu and saving the world on any given occasion is nothing that can possibly make sense. Don't forget: "Anything's possible for a Possible!"

Let's get into the characters:

Kim is your basic teenage girl, and she's here to save the world. You can't stop her 'cause...

Okay I'll stop xD

Apart from her being an ass-kicking girl boss, her main character traits are kinda the things you expect from a main character. She saves the world out of sheer will to stick to her morals. In short: she wants to help people. That obviously doesn't always work out and she sometimes ends up judging people by what they are instead of who they are. On top of that, she gets jealous easily.

BUT she is brave, smart, and makes usually good choices in the heat of the moment (except when it comes to love xD), and is otherwise very mature for her age.

Well... the opening song didn't lie. She really is your basic teenage girl. That doesn't mean she isn't cool xD

Well, obviously I can't end it without talking about the man and his very smart and hungry naked little friend.

What makes this show so funny is well... its ability to deliver comedy simply by a character existing and Ron Stoppable plays a big part in that.

He is pretty much a normal guy who just happens to be Kim's childhood friend and later somehow steals her heart xD

He is an absolute doofus. He is silly and rarely takes anything seriously. He is also lazy and loves his favorite junk food joint Bueno Nacho.

Despite all that he still cares for his friends, his naked mole rat Rufus, and usually learns a very important lesson after an episode.

He accompanies Kim on pretty much every mission and is usually more of a hindrance than a help. Despite all that Kim still loves him in her own way. And he also saves the day a couple of times, so it's not like he is a complete slob.

Rufus is just the cherry on top. Both of these guys are hilarious and I was honestly surprised by how much I laughed watching this show.

I could go on and on but I'm gonna try to finish up this post here before it gets too long xD

Even though every episode has kind of a similar structure, it never gets boring. The villains, the side characters... all of them add something very unique to the table. You just throw some characters together and boom the story kind of writes itself XD

Season 4 was my absolute favorite part of the show since guess what ... that was when Kim and Ron started dating and BOY DO THEY MAKE A CUTE COUPLE.

Ahem... anyways. I do not regret watching all 87 episodes in the last 2-3 weeks. If you're looking for a comfortable. goofy and funny way to escape reality for a moment I can only recommend this old classic.

#kim possible #show #rant #kingboohoorants #fandom #recommendation

[orchideae]

salt meme *cracks knuckles*: ☠ What does someone have to do for an instant unfollow from you? ☼ How long do you stay mad? ☢ What fads/trends are you so over (What is a fad)? ♨ Have you ever made a public call out post? ❥ Has someone ever ruined an FC or character for you? ❣ How salty are you feeling right now (Please give a comparison beginning of writing the answer to this and after you wrote it, for science purposes)?

— @delusionaid // Prompt: The salty AF meme

❣ How salty are you feeling right now? (1) I can't believe Youtube is playing a song called 'Do or Die' as I'm typing this up. Youtube wants me to go hard, but I dunno how much I can live up to that. But currently, salt levels are around 7/10.

☠ What does someone have to do for an instant unfollow from you? Show a genuine lack of respect across the board. This plays into numerous elements of social interaction, but more so than anything, it plays into the element of taking away someone's autonomy to how they run their blog. See, this is actually also something that more so makes it that I'll never follow you in the first place, but I guess that'll also work as salt too, right? Right, autonomy, I hate that we live in 2024, and people have been all about "it's your blog, you have the freedom to do what you want!" Yeah, except, ding, ding, 'do what you want' doesn't quite mean what we all think it does. You know, that little thing called its official definition? Yeah, not a thing. Have your liberty, however, you can't write with this person or that muse because they're problematic (correction: this person 'feels' that they're problematic) or have done some questionably morally grey things in their lifetime, you can't write a character with any of these 375 faceclaims that you're supposed to keep track of and agree with, if you write a villain then you should obviously ignore all of these villainous traits that make them villains because why would you ever write a villain who does bad things? (Unless he's hot or said villain is a female character, of course), on that note, please ignore this and this bit of canon because it makes me (personally) very uncomfortable. And to expand on the last two in specific, obviously you can't ever write or acknowledge these (dark) things any way, because if you write a character who even did something less bad, like spoke rudely to anyone, you obviously do the same thing in life outside of Tumblr.com and so I will write a callout about you. But apart from all of that and more things that are coincidentally hidden behind a little 'etc.', you can do whatever you want! Have fun!!

❣ How salty are you feeling right now? (2) About... 9/10.

☼ How long do you stay mad? Unless it's something really trivial, I'll usually sleep and my brain will process it back into non-existence the next day or the one after. But I do however, hold a grudge like none other. Granted, getting to that point is rather difficult to do, but if you do genuinely wrong me in some capacity, then I will remember that. Now, I believe in second chances, but those can't apply everywhere, for I do firmly believe that there are lines that truly shouldn't ever be crossed. Overall however, I'm not an angry person and to anger me in the first place is quite difficult. And you know, you especially do like to say that even when I'm angry, I'm smiling and laughing and 'don't really sound any different', so how mad/angry am I really? I think I really am just the 'No talk me I angy' cat meme in the flesh.

☢ What fads/trends are you so over? I still hate the concept of 'censorship'. I'm sorry, but if I dislike a character, a culture, a character trait, a show, book, an adaptation, I have every right to say so and I can even talk about it on my blog for hours if I so choose to do so, just like others are allowed to do the exact opposite. It is a two-way street. I shouldn't have to adhere to some system of social politics of, well, you're allowed to complain or talk about how this and this is bad, but if you want to touch on that, well no, we can't quite let you do that one! That's not exactly fitting in the current social political climate. Because here's my thing with it in general, if anyone for example told me that they disliked Yelan, I think that it would be a shame, if someone told me that, for example, they disapprove of my take of her sleeping around (again: not done in promiscuity); that's perfectly fine, tell me why and we can have a friendly talk about it. Because last I checked, discussion is incredibly healthy for our mental development. I want to know why people think differently, and I love the challenge of even possibly changing their perspective on the matter. But if everything is censored from the get-go, then there's no discussion, no potential for growth or understanding. I'm sad that this mere concept is still as prevalent in all fandoms as it seems to be.

♨ Have you ever made a public call out post? Can salt posts like this entire ask response be considered as a public call out post of bad behavior across the board? Yes? Okay great, then yes, I absolutely have. I reblog a salt meme like this at least once every 2/3 months when my activity isn't entirely shot into the depths of hell itself

❥ Has someone ever ruined an FC or character for you? Meh, I don't care much about FCs, at least not like I used to when I actively used them, nor did I ever really feel like any FC was ever 'ruined' for me. I just get very tired of people overusing specific characters or roles, but I'm very easily affected by overexposure or over-hype in general, so this isn't surprising.

❣ How salty are you feeling right now? (3). 6/10 or so, I'd say.

#[ answered: ooc. ] finding her is no easy task either. for it is always she who finds you when she wishes to; not the other way around. #[ salt. ] that's the worst-case scenario. but all too often; the most pessimistic speculation turns out to be the closest to the truth. #delusionaid

[tciddaemina]

One trait, that if a character has it, you immediately hate them. Doesn't matter if they are a villain, a hero, a sidekick, a love interest, in the background, a cryptid wizard moving the plot along, if they have this trait you hate them and want them gone yesterday.

urg just being too fawning. like, if a character has nothing going for them except to be obsessed with the main character it's just so boring and dull and i find them so annoying. like okay if its a very creepy 'the text recognizes that this person is obsessive over the MC and that's like that intentionally bc its supposed to be disturbing' then its one thing. i can vibe that. they're doing something interesting. they're playing with some concepts and ideas there.

but like, if the character is just, literally nothing but fluff, being all about being into another character, with literally no other defining characteristics, and everything they do just being about them being into or interested in the other character its just like- god, you're annoying. particularly hateful when it happens in anime. particularly particularly hateful in anime women and girls, for whom it is an unfortunate staple

like i'm sorry hinata, i know you tried to have a big moment in the spotlight when you stood up to pein, but the fact that it was all about you being into naruto so so undercut any meaning or weight that whole thing had. it was cringe. it sucked so bad. it could have been so, so interesting but it just wasn't. i could name a hundred thousand other examples, each as egregious.

it's just infuriating when a character who could be interesting and have stuff going on in their own right is flattened out to just being a love interest side-piece. immediately can't stand to have them onscreen. they're annoying and i would literally rather they weren't there.

#te talks #ask #its just sexism #straight up #so fucking annoying #its why i gave esil a character change in caym #i found her so fucking boring as she was given in canon #literally such a waste #lol i wonder if this even counts tho - its less about a trait than a lack of traits

[moreespressoformydepresso]

You think the Descendants books are canon? And who's you're least fave AK and why?

Yes and no. I think the books color in canon, and things like the shrimpy debacle and Cruella’s abhorrent parenting certainly seem to fit in very well with the movies, but I don’t think they’re straight up 100% canon. Mostly because the rotten four in the movies are very close and behave like they’ve been besties since birth. They have a clear, deep bond and behave like they’ve known each other since forever. You cannot tell me with a straight face that they met in the same year that the movies happened. Also, their parents live together in the movies and they don’t in the books. Well I guess it’s not explicitly stated that they do, but how else do we explain them being together whenever they’re onscreen, and stuff like Evil Queen knowing how the “safe” works? It’s the most logical conclusion to me. Aside from that, Ben and Mal give no indication of recognizing each other in the movies, so the dreams aren’t canon either unless I’m supposed to believe that Ben made a declaration based on his dream, partially to get that one girl off the isle, and then didn’t recognize her when she stood in front of his face. To me it seems some parts of the books are canon, some are canon-esque, and the rest are creative liberties for the sake of telling a good story.

My least favorite AK is Chad, I hate his guts. Or rather his lack thereof.

It was a tossup between him and Audrey, but Audrey has redeeming qualities and a reason to be the way she is. I briefly considered going with Jane but she’s only kinda unlikeable in the first movie and just like Audrey has good qualities and a reason to be Like That. Chad does not. Like- at all. He doesn’t have a single good thing about him, he doesn’t do anything other than act horribly, and his only merit is that he’s so unlikeable we can laugh at him every time he face plants into the mud. His main character trait is that he’s mean, he’s judgmental, and he uses his good looks and status to get what he wants (like making girls do his homework and then dumping them/not following through on his end of a deal). Then in D3 he’s lost all the charming front and has turned into a pathetic coward who licks Audrey’s (fabulous) boots and that’s it. That’s all he has. His reason for being that way?

Good question, I’d love to know too!

Actually no at this point I honestly don’t care, but I guess I’d hear it out if we ever got anything. That’s why I dislike Chad so much though, there’s nothing to him. He’s an antagonist making our villain protagonists’ lives harder because he can and he’s something for the audience to laugh at or yell at, but he’s got nothing beyond that. I can’t analyse him, I can’t really talk about him in any meaningful way because there’s nothing to talk about. Audrey, I can talk about for days, because she’s fascinating and a lot deeper than you’d think in the first movie, but Chad just isn’t. Jane was only kinda mean in the first movie and it’s clear that it’s because she’s been an outcast all her life. Of course she’ll do anything to keep her newfound popularity once she’s finally accepted! When you get what you’ve wanted all your life you’ll do stupid shit to not lose that again, especially if you’re an insecure teenager. And Audrey was told since birth she’d be the queen of Auradon, her grandma (who she clearly cares about a lot) puts a lot of pressure on her and even talks down to her when Ben breaks up with her in a way I’d say borders on verbal abuse.

"A lifetime of planning gone. Our family status gone. Audrey you were supposed to be his queen and you let him slip through your fingers."

"Your mother could hold on to a prince her sleep."

Imagine someone you love deeply telling you that because your boyfriend broke up with you. Look at that and tell me queen Leah hasn’t been pushing Audrey to become queen since forever. Audrey herself says she and Ben were supposed to be a couple from an early age, practically betrothed, that whole thing was not her idea and I can imagine her boyfriend singing a love song for another girl in front of the entire school isn’t gonna inspire nice behavior. Was Audrey a little vain? Yes, but again she’s clearly had much pressure put on her to be perfect (she and my Anthony would get along great with the instilled perfectionism, I might write about them bonding one day 👀). Her behavior can be explained, and given her lyrics in Queen of Mean we can assume that she was very nice to people who weren’t the VK’s. As you can tell by the length of this, there’s a lot to talk about with Audrey. I can’t do that with Chad because there’s nothing there. He’s not a good person, and that’s all we get.

The most I can do is tell you he’s a representation of the nature vs nurture themes, with his parents being heroes and him being the way that he is, but not only is that very obviously his purpose in the story aside from driving the drama of the plot, he’s also not the only character serving that purpose. Queen Leah does it better than he does given the way she treats Audrey (her grievances with Mal and her behavior towards here are unjustified, but they do have a basis), and Audrey is just a more interesting angle to take in that theme. Jane’s little “mean girl” phase is better than Chad’s whole character, because it shows in just a few scenes how good people can become assholes in certain circumstances.

So yeah fuck Chad, at least he’s an easy pick for when I wanna write drama and need an inciting incident. He’s perfect for that if nothing else.

#descendants #disney descendants #descendants books #descendants chad #chad charming #chad charming sucks #i hate him #canon or not? both :) #anon ask #ask #uhmmm idk how to tag #how do i tag this #i don’t i guess

[egg-emperor]

I hate to ask this, but do other eggman enjoyers... Want him not to be evil? I mean this in the most respectful way, but eggman doesn't have a whole lot going on canonically besides being evil. If someone doesn't like that part what part are they into?

I regret to inform you that it's been a very shockingly controversial aspect of his character in recent years, despite him being the main villain of the series and it confuses and frustrates me to no end lol. I think part of it is because of small things outside of the game canon media, where he has vastly different portrayals and isn't anywhere near as evil. Which is all fine and good for them to like of course but then they dislike and can't accept that the original Eggman in the games has always been pure evil without any genuine good morals and traits, and no chance of redemption. And they'll get mad and judge one's character over those who actually like it.

And as a result of them liking those lesser evil versions of him more, they will attempt to ignore or highly misinterpret Eggman's scenes in the actual games, because he's one of the most unpopular versions for actually being a lot more evil and doing so is the only way they can like him there at all. And if someone actually likes that he's evil and chooses to acknowledge and embrace those things and correct the misinformation instead, they will tell them to stop ruining their fun and accuse them of being a bad person for caring. I've unfortunately been a target of this for appreciating his evil and making passionate analysis and writings based on that.

Eggman has become the subject of a lot of tropes based around giving him redeeming qualities that he doesn't have that doesn't make sense for the character he was established to be and has remained consistently so. The most popular fanon Eggman interpretation is vastly different from the game canon and liking him as he appears in the games and expressing that openly gets you alienated. It's at the point where I'm being kicked out of the fandom by newer fans that have only liked him for as long as the nicer versions and fanon of the character has existed and some older fans that latched onto them while ignoring and misinterpreting game canon.

And yeah you're absolutely right and that's especially wild about it, he doesn't have anything going on canonically in the games that doesn't involve his evil in any way at all. Even if people like his charming funny and casual moments, his evil is still a part of everything he does, it defines him, his personality, his actions, his beliefs, even his humor. He was even given the first name "Ivo" because its pronunciation is supposed to sound like "evil"! So his name is literally "evil" and 99% of what he does on screen in the games is evil - yet that's controversial, disliked by Eggman fans, and it gets fans that actually enjoy it shamed. It's so ironic.

I can't imagine that fans of him enjoy actually consuming the game media much when they don't actually like anything he's doing. And I don't know what they actually want him to do, if not be evil because they want him to become a better person despite everything he does coming from the fact he's evil, his entire character is built around it as the villain. In all the games where he doesn't have an active villainous role, he's just sat there doing nothing. If he somehow stopped being the villain after 30 years then he'd barely be used as a character anymore. I don't think that's worth occasional scenes of nice pure wholesome Eggman for people to coo at.

All of the things that make Eggman so charming, entertaining, and lovable all stem from his evil and it's involved and evident in every aspect of his characteristics and actions. He's a very evil and selfish character that will gladly do terrible things to accomplish his just as evil goals in conquering the world, he's motivated solely by that and even finds sadistic enjoyment in it. The way most the games' adventures even begin is by Eggman kicking it off with another evil scheme. It's a very important part of his character at the very core and it's important to the overall plot in most games, nothing would be the same without it, there'd be no conflict and nothing interesting left.

It saddens me that it's something that's so disliked or ignored by fandom but you know people can be when it comes to villains, they don't like it when they're genuinely evil and don't have good redeeming traits so they can have something to be interested in and feel justified in liking them because they don't like his evil and think it's wrong to enjoy it like I do. But I love seeing Eggman being his best true self as a super evil and dangerous threat and all the thrilling badass scenes that come out of it when he's in action and being a real diabolical bastard, which is 99% of the time he's on screen, and I'll always give it the love and appreciation it deserves! 🥰💜💕

#asks #dr eggman #eggman #dr robotnik #dr. eggman #my post #rant