#and yet he still has arguably the saddest backstory of them all | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

akatsukitrash · 3 months

Note

1 - 19. all the numbers >:^)

most overrated character?

Doing this again because there are so many of those : Shikamaru and Hinata. Before someone kills me I do like Hinata, I just hate her fans. Like in what way did she surpass Neji when she can't be arsed to run without falling. Bffr Neji's the strongest Hyuuga. And Shikamaru isn't smart when his entire victory hinges on dumbing down and nerfing both Hidan and Kakuzu.

2. was sasuke right?

Answered

3. were naruto's intentions with sasuke selfish?

Answered

4. are the romantic undertones between naruto and sasuke intentional or accidental?

Accidental. Kishimoto's misogyny made him fly too close to the sun of yaoi.

5. can kishi write romance?

When he wants to? Yes. It's not the wildest romance, but he showed he can write a decent one with Tsunade and Dan (and arguable Minato and Kushina although I hate that couple for other reasons). Even ShikaTema aren't too bad. He's just clearly not interested in writing romance

6. what makes the Naruto ending bad?

Everything leading up to it. The way the antagonists (especially Madara) were treated both by the narrative and characters, the way Kaguya came out of nowhere, the way Naruto and Sasuke kept getting unearned power ups. Hell on earth. Then all this culminates into a VOTE2 fight I never wanted to see with a Sasuke who's blabbering nonsense, and then suddenly, skyscrapers and ugly ass kids of ships that got little to no development. None of the questions brought up by the story got resolved

7. should Naruto have become hokage ?

Answered

8. show a screenshot of your latest draft with no context

9. which Naruto fandom words are you allergic to?

"deserve" (always used in ship wars), "who has the saddest backstory", "babygirl", "yandere", "actually kishi didn't intend-" (amazing under theory posts /s) and such

10. is sakura a shitty character or shitty-ly written?

Shittily written. That girl did not catch a break from the moment she got introduced, and she's not the only one, pretty much every female character is shittily written. They're just one of two misogynistic stereotypes, with no fulfilling arc, no space to throw hands like the male characters etc etc. Yeah yeah Tsunade isn't too bad but she still suffers from misogynistic writing

11. is Itachi a martyr, a victim, or a perpetrator?

Perpetrator. There could've been an argument for him being a victim, but adult Itachi does say he regrets nothing so clearly he's fine with the massacre and would've made the same decision as an adult aka he's nothing but a shameless genocidal murderer. I'm not very interested in waxing poetry about how hard it was for him to kill his own parents when he had like, so many choices to make, and I think such discussions are stupid when Sasuke (and the Uchiha clan) are the biggest victims of both Itachi and Konoha and yet don't get a fraction of the sympathy that Itachi gets

12. who should've died in war arc?

Gai first of all. Why the hell did he survive 8 gates? What was the point? It cheapened his sacrifice, and made it obvious that the stakes, no matter how high, are never that serious. Frankly I didn't even want him to be the one to open the 8 gates, it should've been Lee's moment (and yes, death) but well. At least one of the Gokage (preferably Onoki and/or Gaara) should've also died. And Hinata or Hiashi should've died to protect Neji, it would've been THE perfect symbolic end to the Hyuuga issue. Oh Shikamaru should've also died, he was useless and it would've made more impact. Probs another death in Konoha 12 would be great (like Kiba maybe?) but Lee's and Shikamaru's deaths (with potentially Hinata also dying) would've been great for tension and emotional impact. Oh also neither Obito nor Madara should've died

13. was kakashi trying his best? / was he a "good" sensei?

He was a good sensei bc he made good child soldiers. He was also a good sensei bc he did try his best to keep them safe. I don't know why people argue he's the worst. Gai, Asuma, and Jiraiya are fucked up, and Kurenai got 0 screentime teaching. Kakashi also trained Sakura, and recommended her to Tsunade. The idea that he completly neglected her is fanon

14. openings or endings?

Openings, most of them are so iconic

15. Is naruto white coded for having blonde hair blue eyes?

No??? his name is literally Uzumaki Naruto, and he has monolids. He's Japanese.

16. Is tobirama racist against uchihas?

Tobirama is Japanese. The Uchiha are Japanese. No he was not racist, and he didn't do half the shit people claim he did (he didn't disrespect Madara's body or Uchiha's funeral practices, he didn't segregate them, he didn't force them to be in the Police Force, he didn't focus solely on the Uchiha and no other threats, he didn't call them slurs (cant believe i even need to say that), he didnt hunt them specifically, he didn't kill Izuna for shits and giggles, he didnt seek out Kagami to use him as the "black friend", he didnt spread rumors, he didnt spy on them, he didnt blame them for Madara's actions etc etc etc. He was prejudiced, as was Madara (who even went as far as to cut Tsunade in half just bc she's Senju. That's way more violent than Tobirama calling Sasuke an evil brat). I think it's perfectly understable why he was so cautious about them, and I wish he was given half the understanding the Uchiha get for their own backstories and actions, considering he too was a traumatized child soldiers who watched his siblings die and was abused by his father. He's a product of his times, and even he acknowledges that. That's why he has faith in the younger generations, and why he died for them twice.

17. Is Sakura useless?

Not at all. Naruto would've died in the Waves arc without her, and that's just the first arc. People just hate female characters, and belittle healers.

18. ship wars or power scaling debates?

I prefer ship wars bc I'm not rlly a shipper so I don't get annoyed and can make fun of people who get mad at me for my opinions. Power scaling tho....I'm a great power scalers and when ppl just make shit up (like saying Hinata is stronger than Neji or Itachi than Obito) I get pissed.

19. pettiest fandom opinion you've blocked someone for?

not an opinion but i've blocked people for misspelling kakuzu's name

#naruto #anti itachi #anti hinata #im not anti hinata i just dont want her fans calling me slurs in my inbox #tobirama senju

13 notes · View notes

sage-nebula · 5 years

Note

pokemon (games) and/or pokeani for the meme?

I’ll go ahead and answer for the anime, since although I prefer the games, I think the anime works better for memes like this.

the first character i ever fell in love with:

Ash Ketchum, way back in 1998. He was pretty much an instant fave for me, and no doubt contributed to my love of snark and sass (given that his name could have just as easily been Sass Ketchum and would have arguably been more accurate).

a character that i used to love/like, but now do not:

Manon. I liked her well enough at first, but the way her stans constantly bashed and degraded Alan while using that degradation to prop Manon up (often by making him her trophy boyfriend, which is really disgusting when you consider not only the age, but the maturity difference between them) quickly ruined any fondness I had for her. The fact that she got off scot-free in the show without having to realize or own up to any of her own mistakes or shortcomings (while Alan took the fall for all of them instead) didn’t help.

a ship that i used to love/like, but now do not:

Mmm, I can’t really think of anything for this one. I don’t think there’s anything that I used to seriously ship in this show that I don’t ship now. There are casual ones I can think of that I no longer even casually ship, but even those were more of a shrug and acceptance rather than something I actively liked.

my ultimate favorite character™:

ALAN [SYCAMORE], FIRST OF HIS NAME, HEART OF A CHAMPION, SOUL OF A DRAGON. It’s honestly no contest. I cannot think of a single character in the whole of the PokéAni that could come even close to comparing with him. I still block on sight for any nonsense hatred or condemnation thrown his way, and I regret nothing.

prettiest character:

I mean … I know I’m biased, but …

My valiant dragon son is beautiful. I mean, in particular, his eyes …

He has dragon fire in his eyes. You don’t get much prettier than that.

my most hated character:

Paul. He’s straight up abusive to his pokémon, and him learning to give them the absolute bare minimum of care and praise at the end of a match (or losing to Ash at the League, which I literally do not care about at all) is not enough for him to curry favor or earn forgiveness in my eyes. He can go burn, and for that matter, he can take that bastard Damian from the OS right along with him as he does.

my OTP:

Ash/Misty will always be endgame to me, as well as Jessie/James.

I do think that it’s probable that Ash and Misty would end up dating other people as they grow older—that Ash would date Dawn for a while, for instance, and that Misty would have a relationship with Lana—but at the end of it all I think they’d find their way back to each other, once they’ve grown up and matured and realized that, while their first crushes on each other might have been puppy love back when they were kids, now that they’re older … it’s deeper and more meaningful than that. It’s real.

As for Jessie/James, I think those two are soulmates, however you want to interpret it. Maybe their relationship stays platonic forever. Maybe their relationship is romantic. Maybe their relationship floats in a nebulous space between platonic and romantic, undefined as Meowth rolls his eyes from the other side of the balloon. Whatever the case, I don’t really care as long as they’re together. That’s what matters most.

my NOTP:

Aside from the obvious ones of bestiality, incest, and pedophilia, my answer to this would have to be Alan/Manon. I never liked it to begin with because of the age / maturity gap between them (honestly, Manon acts like Bonnie, the show parallels her to Bonnie, and Alan is so mature people often mistake him for an adult despite Malva referring to him as a boy, how is this even a question), but between how the show handled their relationship and how the ship’s stans (who are always Manon stans, from my experience) handle it / treat Alan, I honestly want to scrape my brain out with an ice pick every time I’m reminded this ship exists. It’s a trashboat of epic proportions as far as I’m concerned.

favorite episode:

It’s less one single episode, and more one trio of episodes: OS022 - OS024, a.k.a. “Abra and the Psychic Showdown”, “The Tower of Terror”, and “Haunter vs. Kadabra.” Those three episodes left a major lasting impression on me as a kid, in a good way. That depiction of Sabrina as a villain with a creepy monotone, who had a small “doll” that represented her childlike innocence (that was still villainous in her innocence!), and the way she presented a formidable threat that no one else in the series had managed until that point … not to mention the backstory with how she drove her own parents away (and turned her own mother into a doll), how she was always waiting for her father to show himself again, how she drove herself to that point by obsessing over her powers (I would too, ngl) … man. I loved everything about that trio of episodes. I still love that trio of episodes. There are quite a few episodes in the OS that I turn to regularly whenever I just need something to watch, but I think those three are extra special.

saddest death:

LATIOS IN THE GUARDIANS OF ALTO MARE. At first I was like, “wait, did anyone who wasn’t a villain ever even permanently die?” AND THEN I REMEMBERED LATIOS AND HAD TO CLUTCH AT MY HEART FOR A SECOND. RIP LATIOS, YOU ARE MISSED.

favorite season:

It’s a tie between the very first season (Kanto), and the second season (Orange Islands). While both had their faults, what I like most about those two seasons that latter seasons (even in the OS, with Johto!) lack is how organic they feel. Kanto especially was created before the Pokémon Anime really decided on its identity, and chose a formula to stick to for successive seasons, most likely because they weren’t sure they were even going to get successive seasons back when they were making it (the series was supposed to end with Mewtwo Strikes Back, after all). As a result of this, we had some truly original episodes. We had the three episodes with Sabrina that I mentioned above, but we also had episodes like “The Ghost of Maiden’s Peak” with a Gastly that could talk for reasons unexplained and who impersonated humans to keep a dead girl’s legend alive; we had episodes like “Mystery at the Lighthouse” with a giant Dragonite that was never explained or seen again (also, still mad at Team Rocket to this day for attacking that poor baby); we had episodes like “Electric Soldier Porygon” where everyone traveled into the internet with Porygon to stop a computer virus (and give 800+ Japanese children seizures, but that wasn’t supposed to be part of it); and we had episodes like “Attack of the Prehistoric Pokémon” where Ash discovered that a bunch of fossil pokémon were living underground and, in the process of all this, almost got eaten by an Aerodactyl. And the Orange Islands, while slightly more tame, was similarly allowed to be pretty free and fun given that it didn’t follow the badge quest formula, and the Orange Islands weren’t drawn from the games, meaning that the anime team could do whatever they wanted with them. So between the anime not yet having a set formula in season one, and the anime being set somewhere completely new in season two, seasons one and two of the PokéAni had plots that were basically like:

That was every day in the first two seasons of the PokéAni, because the first two seasons of the PokéAni were already so goddamn weird, and they were better off for it.

Aside from how weird and strange the plot could get, though, I also feel that the first season especially felt a lot more organic than even the second because the effects of the journey were regularly shown on the main characters. They were lost pretty much all the time (which is why they needed to keep Tracey for Johto, tbqh; he was the only one who had a sense of direction). They were often dirty and longing for baths and laundromats. In “Wake Up Snorlax” they’re out of food and practically crying as the town they reach doesn’t have anything to offer them because it’s been so long since they’ve eaten. Ash, Brock, and Misty are two children and a teenager traveling across the continent by themselves. It makes sense that they wouldn’t always have a nice place to sleep, that they’d run out of food, that they’d be grimy and exhausted a good deal of the time, especially since they’re always lost. (They were lost for like 70% of the first season istg. The narrator even lampshades when it takes them two weeks to reach Vermilion City and they all cheer.) I really liked how the first season in particular showed them tired, grody, hungry, and lost for a good portion of the journey. It felt so much more realistic than the perfect, spotless journeys that came later on.

least favorite season:

Outside of Alan and everything to do with him, I’m not much of a fan of Kalos. I’m also not really a fan of Alola because I don’t think slice of life really suits this series as much as the adventure genre does, but it had some good cameo episodes and also has Gladion, so it has its good points, too.

character that everyone else in the fandom loves, but i hate:

Paul and Manon. Paul in particular is incredibly popular and I will never understand it.

my ‘you’re piece of trash, but you’re still a fave’ fave:

Honestly, I’m not sure? I think the closest I get to this is Jessie and James, since they’re two grown adults constantly stalking and bullying a ten year old boy, which would be insanely worrying if not for the fact that said ten year old put them in their place literally every other day. (Plus I like to think they actually do really care about him at this point. It’s what I’d like to believe, anyway.) Maybe Cassidy and Botch would be better contenders, though. They have no redeeming qualities, they’re just assholes, but I’d still be super mega excited to see them come back.

my ‘beautiful cinnamon roll who deserves better than this’ fave:

ALAN deserves better than all he has suffered, and definitely deserves better than this goddamn unappreciative fandom. He is a burned cinnamon roll, been through hell and back, slightly charred, and he deserves the world.

Apart from him, though, Ash every time he gets put through some hell because of fate or destiny or legendaries or whoever the hell has decided to mess with him this week. After everything that went down in Kalos, can we really blame him for going to Alola for a vacation? And yet he’s STILL pulled into Ultra Wormhole nonsense! My god, just let this poor boy rest, he deserves it!!

my ‘this ship is wrong, nasty, and makes me want to cleanse my soul, but i still love it’ ship:

Listen, I’m not one of those fools that thinks it’s canon, but I always loved the fic trope of Giovanni being Ash’s father because he and Delia had a fling way back in the day and I am grateful to that awful musical for giving it to us. The angst potential is real for this one, and I also like the idea of Giovanni allowing Jessie and James to chase Ash all over creation despite how it completely tanked their careers and potential not just because it “keeps them out of the way,” but also because it’s a way for him to keep an eye on his son without them ever knowing that’s his son. There’s some good fic potential there.

On a more serious note, while I don’t think it’s “wrong,” or “nasty,” or “makes me want to cleanse my soul,” I’ve always kind of shipped Spencer/Delia, too. The idea of Spencer Hale and Delia Ketchum finding love together later in life, and Ash and Molly becoming step-siblings as a result, is one that warms my heart. I know that Molly’s mother comes back at the end of Spell of the Unown, but … well, that was just a post-credits scene and so it’s easy to ignore. Come on, let Ash have a little step-sister. Let Molly have the mother she always wanted. It’s what they deserve.

my ‘they’re kind of cute, and i lowkey ship them, but i’m not too invested’ ship:

I wouldn’t say I’m highkey invested in any romantic ship in this show, haha. I mean, let’s be honest, it’s not like any of them have a chance at development outside of small hints here or there, you know? So there’s no reason to get all up in a twist about it. So I think that most ships I ship could fall into this category. Cute, but no need to make a fuss about them.

#fandom meme #pokemon #pokeani #tangelomadness

7 notes · View notes

tommykaine · 6 years

Text

Till Death Do Us Part ramblings

Now that I’ve been tinkering with the game for a bit (two days I have no shame) I feel that I can ramble a bit about it

Warnings for assorted spoilers under the cut and also mentions of things of distasteful nature due to the game in question

First things first I’m gonna get this out of the way because I know it’s just unescapable: whether this is “another BTD”, and just the general comparison that is bound to happen between the two BTD games and TDDUP.

My answer to that is no, it’s very much not “BTD 3 but with a different name”.

Yes, the “genre” is of the same nature, and the way the game functions is similar (but it’s a visual novel pretty much, all visual novels have multiple choices and different story outcomes at the end depending on previous choices). However, there are significant differences, enough to make me come to the conclusion that this is only superficially related to the first games.

Firstly, TDDUP is a lot more story-driven. You still have several choices, but there is a lot more reading involved than in the BTD games. Besides the amount of text, however, the main difference is with the MC:

In BTD, the MC was more or less a blank state. Yes, there was a hint of pre existing characterization (in BTD 1 we know they are a drinker and have trouble socializing) and some that would come up depending on the choices (in one route it comes up that the BTD 2 MC likes to paint, for example), but for the most part, you could imagine whatever backstory and it would fit.

In TDDUP, you still have room for your own headcanons and some degree of customization (name and gender - note that the gender option influences more than just pronouns/titles. If you want to headcanon the MC as a pre-op trans character you might want to pick the “they” option), but there is a whole pre-existing set-up that is different in each story.

So basically in BTD it was more like the MC was a self-insert/your own OC in a story, whereas in TDDUP it’s more like you are playing a pre-existing character.

Same with the relationships - in BTD, you’re just getting to know the guys, and even with the more “romantic” outcomes there is no pre-set relationship. In TDDUP, each pairing has a more specific setting. Either you’ve recently escaped a relationship with an obsessive partner who just can’t let you go, or you’re the main asshole in what ends up being a mutually destructive relationship, or you’re in a loving marriage that is suddenly shattered by a dangerous secret. The same is true in the scenarios with Aria and Ellen, albeit a bit less so in Ellen case as she knows about you but you barely do.

Another major difference is that in BTD, your “goal” was to survive (even if that was not the real goal for most of the players let’s be real ;) ). Most of the endings involved the MC being killed for failing, with a few harder to get ones where you get to survive (albeit how “good” of an ending you’d get was quite arguable). In TDDUP however, there isn’t really a “goal” towards getting any specific ending. In one of the routes it’s not possible to be killed in the first place so all endings are survival endings, in another there are a few death endings but they’re not necessarily the most likely endings you’re gonna get. So the “goal” is not really to survive, but to advance the story (or for a “final goal”, to unlock all the endings and get the bonus content, if you’re a completionist).

Finally, there is as far as I can tell no connection between the BTD characters and the TDDUP characters. Whereas in BTD 2, you had some characters being connected to and/or mentioning BTD 1 characters, so there was an explicit connection between the stories. In fact, TDDUP might not even take place in the same universe as the BTD games, as evidenced by the fact that there are no supernatural elements in it (even Strade, who was the closest to a “regular human” you’d get in the BTD universe aside from the MCs, had a supernatural creature as a pet).

There are some other differences (the obvious one being that this is @electricpuke’s fully own creation of course) but I think that these are the main ones that bring me to consider TDDUP as a completely different creation than the two BTD titles, rather than a spin off or a sequel in all but name.

Now that that’s out of the way, I’m gonna talk about some of my first impressions. Please note that this is all very subjective and mostly based on personal taste!

I’m also using pronouns based on which ones I picked in each route, as those are kind of my own “headcanon” for the situations, so it’s not gonna be gender neutral in all of them for that reason.

Also, this is where the most spoilery part starts, so be warned for that!

My first reaction was that I really loved the first endings I got for both Chris and Jack. They are also my two favourites out of the four characters, followed by Aria and Marcus. I don’t know why, but I just couldn’t get into Ellen (no pun intended). Her storyline just didn’t click with me for some reason.

I think my absolute favourite storyline and pair out of the three might be the one with Jack (unfortunately he hates the memes - btw the first time I arrived at the “stab me daddy” option I was unable to continue for like 5 mins cause I was just stuck there laughing at it). I’m a sucker for fictional serial killers, and as unrealistic as that’d be IRL I love the “one exception” type of dynamic with a serial killer and another character. I really liked how Jack was genuinely in love with the MC, the fact that it wasn’t just an act for him to act like the caring husband. In my first playthrough with him my character was trying to reach out to his caring side, to still accept him to some degree, but in the end Jack couldn’t kill him nor keep him - therefore, the only thing he could do was leave. It was really sad, but I liked that ending the most. I was expecting to prefer the one where MC snaps and comes to love the twisted side of Jack (for example the survival ending in BTD 1 where MC snaps and joins Sano as a fellow killer is still my favorite one out of all the endings in that game) but I actually didn’t. I didn’t dislike it, but I didn’t love it either.

I just really like that the ending where he leaves was the closest Jack could get to a genuine love for his partner, as he realizes he cannot have him like he’d want to, and that MC will never see him in the same way he did before, but he doesn’t want to kill him to save himself from the consequences, so the only thing he can do is leave.

The first ending I got with Chris (by the way I hadn’t understood from the warnings that the temperament referred to how MC acted, so I went in thinking “I kind of want my character to be a dick to him” and it turned out that was exactly the case, lol) was the one where he gets his revenge, then he just leaves. It felt like the best culmination of their dynamic, honestly. It just was doomed to not end well, and in the end it doesn’t - not because Chris kills MC or tells him off and says they both need help, but he just has had enough, and that’s it. There’s no closure, no lesson to learn, no attempt to salvage what’s left. MC destroyed what they had built together and was left with nothing, and no one to blame for that but himself - if he even could have the self-awareness to do that.

I also really like the ending where he decides to leave but explains you why, and you repent for your actions but too late, which is probably the closest thing to an actual good ending you can get in the entire game with any character. Arguably the one where you stay together and agree to work on your issues is the “actual good ending” but I’m honestly too jaded to believe it. In my opinion it’s just not going to work out, either MC is going to slip back into his old habits and Chris will either tolerate it or break it off, or if things go a bit better then they’re just gonna end up breaking up because they each bring out the worst in the other. It’s also why it’s not one of my favourites, even if I do like it. My third favourite is the one where Chris turns himself in, which is also the saddest in my opinion. MC doesn’t have the self awareness nor the care to realize their wrong-doings in years (unless someone else forces them to), yet Chris cannot cope with what he has done in maybe a couple days, he’d rather face the consequences of that and be done with it. You could argue there is a big disproportion between what Chris and MC did, but also consider that especially in Aria’s route it comes up that MC sexually assaults Chris, and we do not know whether MC has ever been physically abusive as well, plus MC has been abusing Chris for years whereas Chris snaps after years of mistreatment from pretty much everyone (not saying he’s right to be violent, in an IRL situation no one would be innocent, but in the contest of the story it’s hard to argue that Chris is the one to blame).

I don’t love any of Aria’s endings to the same extent, but I do like her route nonetheless. I think my favourite ending is the one where you are trapped in her basement until you die and she wants both herself and Chris to forget about you. It’s just so tragic and twisted, plus it low-key references Poe so that’s a plus (I loved the Poe reference in BTD 2 too - sorry for comparing the games again but I’m just a sucker for this kind of thing, plus The Pit and The Pendulum is my favorite of Poe’s tales). I like how her confrontation of the MC comes both from a loving place but also from a selfish one - that’s why you don’t get any “good” endings in her route, not even a sad one. She never actually wants MC to do things right, she just wants her gone so that she can no longer hurt her brother, and she wants her to pay for what she has done.

I kind of would have liked to have a survival ending in which she keeps MC for herself but I definitely understand why that’s not an option. Probably wouldn’t have suited the storyline if there was.

Still, if there is ever a TDDUP 2 or another game involving murder husbandos/waifus, I’d love it if we got a femdom route with that option, JS ;P

I liked Marcus’s route, but just not as much as the other ones. It’s the first one I tried, so if I didn’t like it at all I might not have been so inclined to play the others, but I think it just was overshadowed by how much I liked Jack’s and Chris’s routes. So it’s not like I can find any specific fault to it, I just loved the other ones too much, lol. I definitely liked John’s character too (he’s the one true Cinnamon Roll) and his relationship to the MC. Which works very well to make all of the outcomes for MC all the more tragic.

I like that there are ONLY survival endings to his route. MC doesn’t get to escape their fate, not even by dying. They *are* going to stay with Marcus whether they like it or not. The closest they can get to a “good” ending is by getting mindbroken and accepting the situation, which is arguably the “worst” ending you can possibly get as in all of the other ones MC does at least retain their determination.

As I’ve mentione before, I’m not a great fan of Hellen. I think the ending I liked the most is the one where she lets MC go because she is now obsessed with both Jack and his wife. I don’t foresee a good future for MC there XDOverall, I just wasn’t as invested. I wonder if maybe if I had played her route before Jack I would have liked it more, as by that point I was so enamoured by the Jack/MC dynamic, and maybe I just saw her as getting in the way of that? No idea. I ended up using guides to get most of her endings to see if my opinion of her changed, but it didn’t make much of a difference, aside from the aforementioned survival ending.

That’s just me though, I’ve seen other posts from people who really liked her! I’m glad she’s there for those who do, I’m just not going to be one of her fans XD sorry.

Overall, I really liked the game, might play around with it more (especially if I draw or write something with the characters), it definitely was an experience that I’d like to repeat and a great early Christmas surprise as I only found out about it the other day XD

I’ll definitely be looking forward to other games from EP, whether to continue from where this left off, or to see something new entirely.

#TDDUP spoilers #TDDUP game #not really a review as much as my assorted ramblings on the subject #i just was so hyped up about it and had to let it out lol

45 notes · View notes

nickireadstfc · 7 years

Text

The Raven King, Chapter 1 – The Show Must Go On (And By Show We Mean Exy)

In which practices stop for no one, Wymack rules at pep talks, family sentiments are expressed to Neil via a seating order, and Andrew reaches new levels of Fucking Weird And Disturbing With A Side Of Asshole.

Sounds good? Then it’s time for Nicki to read The Raven King.

Before we begin, let’s take a look back at the foolish predictions I made a while ago about the rest of the first book (which my dumb ass forgot to include in last week’s summary):

Neil will be able to do all of the Raven drills eventually didn’t happen yet, we remain hopeful

Nicky and Neil will talk about the Club Situation yup! (kind of)

Alternatively, and even better: Andrew and Neil will talk about the Club Situation nooo sadly not

MORE KANDREIL TIMES hopefully if you count Neil defending Kevin on national television and Andrew almost punching Riko afterwards then yAAA

Either Riko or Coach Moriyama will appear HO BOIII

We will learn something about Renee’s backstory no snowflake backstory for us yet :(

Coach Wymack will be the best person alive JINX I know that’s gonna happen #dicksoutforwymack “Breaking news: I don’t care” my man

Neil will say more beautiful and savage things, dropping shade left and right HO B O I I I I

Seth will fuck off to somewhere (a girl can dream okay) oh my sweet summer child you were nOT PREPARED

I am starting to get why y’all keep telling me I am not prepared for anything that’s to come. I’M NOT.

And with that said, welcome to The Raven King! Even the cover tells us that playtime is over: It’s not the happy orange we had previously, it’s black and red and no doubt filled with violence, abuse, mean boys, infighting, and heaps of shade.

Let’s fucking go.

It looked like Halloween outside, only two months too early. Last week Palmetto State was covered in orange and white streamers to celebrate the start of the school year. Over the weekend someone had replaced all of the white ribbons with black ones. It gave the impression that the campus was in mourning. Neil Josten thought it a cheap tribute, but that might have been his cynicism talking.

Shut the fuck up, Neil, that’s a cool as shit. My school would have probably put up one or two black ribbons on the flags next to the school gate and that would have been it. Your college decorated the entire campus. That’s a great tribute, shut up.

The book starts off with Neil and the Monster Squad on their way to the first practice after Seth’s death – gracefully scheduled for Wednesday afternoon, which is when Andrew will be in therapy.

Why not sooner, you ask?

Generally, Andrew’s wild mood wasn’t a problem, but Andrew’s cheer didn’t make him at all friendly. An excitable Andrew confronted with the death of his least-favourite teammate was a recipe for disaster. The team should have come together Sunday morning to grieve their loss, but Andrew and Matt got into an ugly brawl instead.

Sigh. ANDREW, WHY.

I have a slight feeling Andrew’s drug-induced moods are going to play an important role this book. Just a hunch.

Seth died Saturday night and was cremated Monday afternoon. From what Neil heard, Seth’s mother signed off on everything, but didn’t even show up at the crematorium to collect her son’s ashes.

What the fuck. What the fuck kind of mother is that. What sort of human being cares so little for their own children they won’t even show up to their funeral what the fuck.

This is the saddest shit I’ve read all day. Sure, they’re all from ~broken homes~ and whatever, but still. Some of you were also pointing out that it’s been said before that he was on antidepressants. This and how little fucks his family appears to give about him makes me feel even more sorry for him.

Ughhh. Why do I get them character feels only after his death. This sucks major ass.

The Foxes were already the smallest team in NCAA Class I Exy. Now they were the smallest a team could be and still qualify to play. They’d lost their only fifth-year senior, and their remaining offense team consisted of an injured national champion and an amateur.

Meaning if Neil or Kevin want to take a time-out they just… can’t?

Boy, I’m sure there I absolutely nothing that can go wrong with that.

Kevin’s presence on the team mean the Foxes needed full-time security, but the numbers had doubled over the summer when Kevin’s former team transferred to the southeastern district. Neil was getting used to seeing campus police everywhere he went, but he would always hate the sight of them.

I have a question here, which I’ve thought about before as well: What the hell is campus police? Because Germany doesn’t have that.

Is it just security guards? It’s not actual police, is it? I’m sure those guys will have more important things to do than to play standby watchdogs at a college.

The door code was supposed to change every couple months, but with the Ravens in their district Wymack now changed it every week. This week it was the last four digits of Abby’s phone number. Neil was starting to think his teammates were right about Wymack and Abby’s secret relationship.

Honestly, how have I not seen fanart for those two yet. They’re cute as shit. Everyone, chill it on the Andreil and give me the fluffy Wymabby (Abbymack?) cuddles my heart desperately wants.

Once in the stadium, Neil finds Kevin and Aaron playing interior designers.

“What are you doing?”

“Finding a new way to make us fit,” Andrew said, “unless you want to stare an empty chair in the face all season. (…) Four people barely fit on a coach. Five is out of the question.”

“Five?”

Kevin looked at him like he was stupid. Neil was painfully familiar with that look by now, but even after four months with Kevin he still didn’t appreciate it.

“You do know your place, don’t you?”

Hhhhhhhasdfghjkl.

Another installment in our popular series Neil Doesn’t Realize People Actually Care About Him, episode 3 of a billion.

Neil hesitated a second too long, and Aaron finally spelled it out for him. “You’re on the couch with Kevin and Andrew. Sit down.”

It’s a Kandreil Couch! Yay!

The Kandreil Kouch™, for alliteration’s sake.

“I don’t like being boxed in,” Neil said, “and I don’t want to sit next to your brother.”

“Nicky put up with it for a year,” Aaron said. “You can deal with it.”

“You’re his family,” Neil said, not like it meant a thing to them.

They’re your family as well now, ya dingus.

Neil has something to say about ~families~, though.

Wymack only recruited athletes from broken homes. At the Foxhole Court, “family” was a fantasy invented to make books and Hollywood movies more interesting.

Was someone looking for the Extra™ in this book? Fucking found it.

Also, was someone looking for Wymack? Because I was. Where is my fave.

From what Neil could hear, someone was harassing Wymack about the team’s tiny line-up. Wymack’s obvious irritation made his reassurances less than convincing, but Neil knew he believed every word he was saying. Wymack didn’t care if he had nine Foxes or twenty-five. He’d stand behind them until the bitter, bloody end.

THERE HE IS. <333333

Just in case anyone needed a reminder of why Wymack is, in fact, the best person in this entire series.

He strode into the lounge a couple seconds later and followed Dan’s finger to Neil. He looked from Neil to Kevin to Aaron, then around the room at the new layout, then back at Neil.

“Last I checked Andrew didn’t like you,” Wymack said.

“He still doesn’t,” Neil said, but he didn’t bother to explain.

I’m just imagining Wymack looking around faster and faster like a comic character and I’m enjoying it tremendously.

Also, “he still doesn’t”, sure, honey…

It’s time for arguably the best speech in this chapter: A Grade A Certified Wymack Pep Talk.

Wymack folded his arms across his chest and studied each of his Foxes in turn.

“Abby wrote me a speech to give you this afternoon. It sounded nice, had lots of stuff about courage and loss and coming together in everyone’s time of need. I tore it up and tossed it in the trash can beside my desk.”

Why do I find this so funny. I mean, harsh, dude, she put effort into that and it was actually so sweet of her, but also like. That is such a Wymack move and I love it.

Wymack built the Foxes from the ground up and handpicked Seth for his first starting line. Between the players’ personal problems, a faulty original contract that let players walk out, and the option to graduate in four years instead of five, Seth was the only one who’d made it to a fifth year on the team. Seth had been a lot of things, most of them unpleasant, but he’d definitely been a fighter. Now he was gone.

Curse you, afterwards character feels! :(((

Wymack cleared his throat and scratched a hand through his short hair. “Look. Shit happened. Shit’s going to keep happening. You don’t need me to tell you life isn’t fair. You’re here because you know it isn’t. Life doesn’t care what we want out of it; it’s up to us to fight for what we want with everything we’ve got. Seth wanted us to win. He wanted us to make it past the fourth match. I think we owe it to him to perform. Let’s show the world what we’ve got. Let’s make this our year.”

An actual leaked picture of me reacting to this speech.

How do I love thee, Wymack? Let me count the ways………. A FUCKTON.

After that rousing example of a pep talk, everyone gets ready for practice, and I discover a completely accidental pun that I can’t believe I witnessed with my own two eyes:

A vanity separated the toilets from the shower stalls, and Neil stopped there on his way back to consider his reflection. (…)

He didn’t realize how long he’d stalled until Matt and Kevin came looking for him.

Get it? Cause he’s in the stalls………….

I’ll see myself out.

“All the way to finals?” Neil asked.

“Miracles happen,” Matt said.

“Don’t rely on something as insubstantial as a miracle,” Kevin said. “You won’t win anything by standing around. Finish getting changed and get down to the court.”

“One day I want you to look up ‘insensitivity’ in the dictionary,” Matt said, annoyed. “I’m sure it’ll do your ego wonders to see your picture printed beside it.”

GET FUCKIN REKT. Matt, baby, I didn’t know you had such hidden sass qualities. Where were you hiding them and how can we see more of them, like, now.

After a bit of training, Nicky and Andrew finally show up, but before Wymack can shoo them out onto the court, something unexpected happens:

Andrew gets a phone call.

If we learnt anything from the last one he got (which was a killer, by the way), it’s that phone calls for Andrew never mean anything fucking good.

“Pig Higgins, is that you?” Andrew asked. “Oh, it is. Yes, I’m surprised. Did you forget I don’t like surprises? What? No, don’t stall. You wouldn’t hunt me down after all this time just to chat, so what do you want?” Andrew went quiet for a few seconds to listen, then said, “No,” and hung up.

What. What the fuck is happening. How does Andrew have this police officer so whipped that he gets to call him Pig.

“What? No, I didn’t hang up on you. I wouldn’t do that. I – no. Shut up.”

Andrew hung up again.

I want to find this funny, but I just find it weird and disturbing, with a side of asshole-ish. He doesn’t seem in the mood for jokes, he seems serious, yet he keeps hanging up and denying it? This is very fishy to me.

“Go back,” Andrew finally said. “Who complained? Oh, Pig, don’t give me the runaround. I know where you work, you see. I know who you work with. That means there’s a child in her house. She isn’t supposed – what? No. Don’t ask me that. I said don’t. Leave me alone. Hey,” Andrew said, a little louder like he was trying to drown the officer’s arguments out. “Call me again and I’ll kill you.”

WHAT IS HAPPENING. Who is “she”? What is she not supposed to do? And a child? Whattt.

“Why is the Oakland PD calling you?”

“The pig and I go way back,” Andrew said. “He just wanted to catch up. (…) He worked with the Oakland PAL program. Thought he could save at-risk kids by teaching them sports after school. Kind of like you, yes? Idealistic to the core.”

Excuse you, bitch, you’re making that sound like an insult and I am not liking it.

After that scene, completely unimpressed by everyone’s gaping mouths and ‘what-the-fuck’ expressions (including mine), Andrew decides to once again demonstrate his absolute indifference to anything Exy and gets the fuck out of there.

Impatience pulled Kevin’s mouth into a hard line. “Knock it off. You can’t leave.”

There was a heartbeat of silence, and Andrew turned around with a wide, wicked smile on his lips. “I can’t, Kevin? I’ll show you what I can’t do. Try and put me on your court today and I’ll take myself off it permanently. Fuck you practice, your line-up, and your stupid fucking game.”

“That’s enough. We don’t have time for your tantrums.”

Andrew twisted and punched the wall hard enough to split the skin along his knuckles.

Oh my god, chill out, my dude, what the fuck, take a chill pill, calm your tatas.

Obviously, everyone lets him go after that, but Wymack isn’t quite ready to let the entire subject off the hook yet:

“Answers, now, Aaron,” Wymack said.

“I don’t know,” Aaron said. (…) “He was Andrew’s mentor, not mine. I only met the guy once.” (…)

“Oh,” Nicky said in startled realization. “Is he – ?”

He didn’t finish, but Aaron understood what he was asking.

“Yeah,” Aaron said. “He’s the one who told me I had a brother.”

OH SHIT. I’m beyond pumped for the explanation of that backstory.

And we’re done! Good first chapter, shade, practice, violence, lil bit of cryptic backstory, standard Fox program as always. Not much has happened yet, though, as it mostly serves to get us back into the story.

I’m excited for more.

#trk #the raven king #aftg #all for the game #nora sakavic #nicki reads tfc #a lil bit late BUT HERE WE ARE SECOND BOOK LETS FUCKING GOOOOOOO #awaiting any and all reblogs and comments with joy as always

124 notes · View notes