#but alas i am too broke to move out and i have 0 friend making skills so | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

darthchic · 4 years

Text

Character War: Zoro vs Sanji

Trying to put my own bias aside, and because I’m bored here in quarantine, I was thinking about how I could fairly break down parts of Zoro and Sanji’s characters and compare them. I want to see if I can analytically decide which character is more well realised or well written (just because there’s always that rivalry between both the characters and the fans, you often can’t help but ask yourself these kinds of questions).

EDIT: OH, and SPOILERS if you wish to read this and are not up to date

If the question was “Who’s the more popular character?” though, Zoro wins hands down, no contest.

So, I broke the two characters down into categories:

– Design

– Fighting Style

– Fights/Achievements

– Coolness

– Backstory

– Gag

– Development

Design: Neither Zoro or Sanji have designs that particularly stand out to me, not within their own universe or in anime in general. Seriously, think of some crazy-ass looking characters you've seen in other anime and Zoro and Sanji simply pale in comparison. Heck, they pale in comparison to some of their fellow crewmates (Usopp, Chopper, Franky, Brook etc.) and over time their designs have probably been... how to put this... made more attractive as time goes on? Cause you know, you gotta let the female fans have some eye candy too. And with attractiveness tends to come more “normalness” (not a word but whatever) cause you can't go too crazy with the overall design in case it becomes off-putting. The only thing that really stands out for Zoro and Sanji respectively is hair colour and eyebrows.

– Still if I had to declare one of them the winner... I'd have to say Sanji, just for his more 'unique' eyebrows. We've seen plenty of anime/manga featuring characters with hair colours that match every colour in the rainbow, so it's commonplace for someone to have green or pink hair and no-one really bats an eye. Peculiar eyebrows however are less common, although not rare (as far as I can tell), but for anime fans, it's something I think people still instantly notice more so than a character's hair colour. So.... point to SANJI! But barely, and it’s not much of a win.

Sanji 1/0 Zoro

Fighting Style: Again, neither a sword fighting style or kicking fight style is exactly uncommon, but I am edging towards Sanji's fighting style and I'll try to justify why, even if it is due to my own personal preferences. To me, sword fighting is often the go-to 'bad-ass' method of fighting, cause, come on, SWORDS ARE COOL (can't help but think about the overwhelming popularity of Pokemon Sword vs Pokemon Shield for example). Sword fights/fighters are iconic and that’s the issue at times for me because I feel like I've seen enough sword fights at this point, and not just in anime. So, while they're fun, their overexposure makes me appreciate something different a lot more.

– To me, Sanji's style has a bit more 'kick' to it (oh yes!) and his reasons for using a kicking style are a bit more unique and interesting as well (being that he’s a cook and can’t damage his hands, the tools to his craft). His style is fun to watch, requires a bit more imagination when designing his moves, but it also has a strange kind of elegance to it which I appreciate. Not that sword fighting can't look elegant (Hello, ‘Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon’), but I love that people often joke that some shots of Sanji make it look like he could be a dancer which I find amusing, because it’s true. Plus, I admire the fact that he's the only Straw-hat that fights without either a magic power/devil fruit or a literal weapon (though he has now grown accustomed to the raid suit, so…). But, for the majority of the story so far, the dude has just used his legs and that’s it. And is the 3rd (or fourth if you count Jinbei now) most powerful member of the crew, and still impressively strong overall amongst a massive cast of crazy powerful characters. Also, dude can fly. Actually fly. He can fight in the skies, sing “Walking in the Air” and it would not seem completely ridiculous. So, people reading this may not agree, but, point to SANJI!

Sanji 2/0 Zoro

Fights/Achievements: I feel that most fans prefer Zoro's fights as he tends to take on the second strongest villains of each arc (with Luffy obviously taking on the strongest), which is automatic epicness. I know some fans even argue that Zoro would have no problems taking on the strongest villains in Luffy's place anyway, though I would disagree simply due to the fact that if Luffy were weaker/equal in strength to Zoro then why would he even be captain? The guy who's gonna be the Pirate King can hardly be weaker than one of his own crewmates, it ain't right!

– Anyway, Zoro's battles tend to be straight-up badass one-on-one feats of strength, while Sanji's can be a mix of badass and sometimes plain goofy (thinking of Sanji vs Mr. 2 here or Sanji vs Wanze). And I do think Oda makes it clear that Zoro is the more powerful of the two, making his wins a lot more impressive, awe-inspiring, and show how physically far he’ll go in order to succeed (man should really have no blood left in his body). For me personally though, I often found many of Zoro’s fights a bit dull, like his fight with Mr. 1 for e.g. (ha, ironic), and when I watch his big battle with Kaku, while I like Kaku as a character, I had a hard time taking the image of Zoro fighting a sword-wielding Giraffe seriously. Sanji fighting a wolf with a moustache often looks goofy as well, but at least wolves come across as a bit more threatening (unless you have been on a scary Safari tour o__O…).

– Alas, I would give Zoro the point for fights simply because I know how much the fandom appreciates them and the effort he puts in, BUT.... as for achievements... Maybe I'm being sneaky with this, but for me, while Sanji's fights maybe aren't considered as iconic as Zoro's, his actions towards helping the crew solidified Sanji's usefulness to the crew as not only a fighter but a tactician, and without him at a certain point, there wouldn't be any epic Zoro fights to appreciate. Sanji's rescue of the crew in Alabasta was pretty damn awesome, the fact they wouldn't have even reached Alabasta in the first place if Sanji hadn't gotten a hold of the Alabasta eternal log pose is hilarious, his saving of Usopp and Nami in Skypeia, his enabling of the Merry to escape without being blown to smithereens in the Enies Lobby arc, it's all just undeniably awesome. And to me, just as equally iconic and important as Zoro's fights, sooooo... I'm calling it a TIE!

Sanji 3/1 Zoro

Coolness: HAHA! Ok, come on, I love Sanji, but Oda's portrayal of him can get a bit ridiculous at times and sometimes rob him of his dignity, whereas with Zoro, Oda really doesn't humiliate him that much. He's usually always cool and epic and never seems to leave a negative impression in the eyes of fans. So, no question about it, point to ZORO!

Sanji 3/2 Zoro

Backstory: Ok, maybe it's just me, but I don't think many are gonna argue that Sanji has the better backstory? There's just more of it, it's better fleshed out, it establishes his character relationships and motives far better, it's just... better? Zoro's backstory perhaps is still to be further developed, but as it stands...

– Zoro = Wants to become the greatest swordsman because of a promise he made to his dead rival/childhood friend. Nice, but doesn’t feel very original or special. Where did he come from before all that? Where/who is Zoro's family? Why did he want to be a swordsman in the first place? Cause it's cool? It just leaves me feeling annoyed because there’s these gaps and things left unanswered within his story and I can't tell if Oda's even going to give us any answers! But with a possibility that Zoro is from Wano, maybe something is eventually going to be explained? Still, I feel like Oda needs to be careful he doesn't make a repetitive tragic backstory, cause I worry that at some point he's going to run out of ideas on how to make each new backstory more uniquely depressing than the last, to the point where it's gonna be a 'been there, done that' kind of deal. Or maybe he’ll actually reveal that Zoro has a DUN-DUN-DUN living mother. I mean, that’s rarely done in this series, so that would be pretty shocking.

– Sanji = Born as a quadruplet (still so weird to me) to a royal family, kind mother but douche-bag father. Mother dies saving Sanji's humanity because said douche-bag father violated mother and children by tampering with them before birth in order to make his children into sociopathic weapons. Sanji grew up emotionally and physically abused by father and brothers because he had kindness and compassion, and the abuse got so bad that he was even locked in a jail cell with an iron mask on his face because his father was ashamed of his existence. Mother, of course, dies, leaving Sanji with only an older sister to turn to, who could only be nice to him in secret and laugh at him in public. He decided to become a chef during imprisonment due to his mother giving him the only praise he had ever received and he enjoyed making her happy. Finally escapes douche-bag family thanks to decent sister freeing him, but only after promising to never admit he was related to his douche-bag father, further destroying him emotionally. Next, the ship he worked on was destroyed in a tidal wave, killing all his friends at the time, and left him alone on a rock with little food and a pirate who recently kicked the crap out of him. Went months without food only to find out that the pirate he hated had given him all the food, forcing him to cannibalize himself to survive. And all this happened before he was just 10 years old. So, from then on Sanji grew up with a fixed dedication/appreciation for food, but a clearly messed up self-image due to years of abuse and being told he was a failure by his biological father. Not to mention the man who saved his life, while a good man at heart, kinda has a messed up moral compass of his own, and kinda f**ked up Sanji's head in his own way (seriously, Sanji can't bring himself to hit a woman to save his own life cause he can't bear disappointing/disobeying Zeff, the man who actually loved him like a son? Jeez).

– For real, Sanji's story is a doozy, and Zoro's just doesn't compare (at least not at the moment). Sorry, but clear point goes to SANJI!

Sanji 4/2 Zoro

Gag: Possibly debatable again, but I honestly do prefer (and the fandom majority seem to prefer) Zoro's whole getting lost gag to Sanji being a looney tunes pervert (some of the faces Oda draws, I swear!) I don't mind anime perverts so long as they have some substance to their character, but Oda places ‘Pervert Sanji’ in some situations where you're left screaming, “NOW'S NOT THE TIME DAMMIT!” Some moments can be thrown off kilter by the perverseness and/or fanservice to the point where you're just left face-palming. Arguably, the same can be said for Zoro, especially with his wandering off and getting lost in Wano right before Luffy faced off against Kaido (not that Zoro could do much about that anyway if he hadn't gotten lost), but just how easily he gets lost is so ridiculous that it veers right around from being annoying and returns straight back to being hilarious because of how mind-boggling it is. xD So, point to ZZZZZORO!

Sanji 4/3 Zoro

Development: Once again, another debatable one. Too debatable! There's no way around it; some may say Sanji's ‘self-rediscovery’ arc in Whole Cake Island made him the better developed character (or didn’t develop him at all) and some will say that Zoro's “Nothing happened” moment is the pinnacle of character development in One Piece, and to me, too much of it comes down to preference and I find it hard to justify why one is potentially better developed than the other. Especially when there could still be further development for them to come. So.... yeah, another TIE!

Sanji 5/4 Zoro

So, there it is, I killed some great time in quarantine with this(!) Maybe there’s more ‘categories’ I could have added, but with what I came up with, I really did try not to be bias here. I do think it’s important to have a character that can hit ‘all the beats’, deliver in terms of action scenes, comedy and the emotional hard-hitting moments too. I can’t help but appreciate the male characters who are more in touch with their emotions and show vulnerability, which is what I appreciate with Sanji, and why I probably don’t connect with Zoro as much as I’d like to?

Going through all of this however has made me think that I'm actually fairer than I thought I was. No? Yes? Close call anyway.

#one piece #sanji #zoro #my ramblings #one piece spoilers

8 notes · View notes

airlock · 5 years

Text

airlock grades the Punchable archetype

so far, a majority of the Fire Emblem villains I’ve covered in this series are the sort who are meant to be liked, forgiven, sympathized with... these here are not those ones. these are the ones whose singular purpose in the narrative is to piss you the hell off. so, which of them played that role to excellence?

(do note: under cut are spoilers for… everything, and also a significant amount of me criticizing or blamming characters that you might- okay, yeah, no, you probably don’t like anybody on this list, but you may still strongly disagree with my opinions of them. you’ve been warned! ha, no way these fools would set about reading the whole post now... what!? impossible!)

a foreword

so, to be very specific, I’m not rating every flatly irritating miniboss here; the definitive aspect here is that the character has to be a recurring one, whose extended screentime never quite ends up giving them a chance to be something other than vile. but more important than the hair-splitting here is giving some consideration to how exactly I’ll be doing the rating; after all, I’m not supposed to like any of these people, but there’s still better and worse ways to be despicable as a character.

I’m running pretty much on two central critteria: is this character entertaining, and is that character satisfying to take down. it’s more important to hit one than to hit both; a character who hits neither is significantly more likely to be a pure waste of bile, however.

without further ado, let’s start gritting those teeth!

fuck this guy

(9/10)

directly enabling the single most badass scene in all of Book II obviously lands you on the upper echelons of this here character type. but that’s just the effect; we should peer into the cause of what makes him work so well!

of the critteria I mentioned, Lang goes for the latter: he’s not only quite satisfying to defeat, it’s also great anytime someone finally talks back to him and puts him in his place. that’s because he’s not the sort of character for whom this sort of thing is a given. a lot of the ones we’ll see ahead of him are incompetent toadies on top of being amoral, but not this guy; he knows exactly what he’s doing, relying on the backing of the most powerful nation in the continent to plunder, raze, and oppress to his heart’s content. the business of doing something about this dipshit gets severely delayed by the dire consequences of crossing him -- until Marth finally decides that enough is enough.

and THEN Jagen tells him to meet him 9 PM at the Grustian denny’s parking lot for an old man brawl-

fuck this chin

(3/10)

I struggle to understand ol’ Kaga’s obssession with jealousy as a villainous character motivation, I really do. it’s one entirely realistic thing to envy someone for having riches, fame, status, influence, the attention of one’s crush, or other such things that are more or less objective and palpable. it’s also entirely a thing to have an inferiority complex and fear or spite people one perceives as being more talented, better looking, stronger, smarter than oneself. but the way these characters are written tends to come across like they’re furious because they’re underwritten gonk and not everyone else is.

... which hey, would be a pretty upsetting thing if it happened to a real person, but I don’t think meta-commentary is the point here, is it? I sincerely hope it isn’t...

fuck this lady

(7/10)

the second leg of Genealogy of the Holy War finds you facing the same sorts of enemies most of the time: half of them are Satanists, and the other half are unfortunate innocents trapped in the crossfire of courtly intrigue. it’s exactly because of this that the arc desperately needs a villain like Hilda.

Hilda is just someone who doesn’t particularly mind if the most effective path up the social ladder involves destroying her relatives, daughter included, or capturing children and forcing them into murder tournaments. how is the imperial machinery of tragedy and death supposed to run without someone like her cranking a couple of the levers? er, I mean, you don’t really crank levers unless you’re doing something weird, but... okay, moving on

amidst all of the battles you might struggle to feel were worth fighting, Hilda here serves as a reminder, as a face of every reason why the Empire is the enemy and must be defeated.

and yes, making Tinny kill her rocks

fuck this guy IN AMERICA

(2.5/10)

not too long ago I would have dropped him a straight zero, but I’ve recently been reading through the Project Exile text dumps for a new Thracia 776 fanslation and what can I say, they put good work into making him tick properly and I essentially have no choice but to keep that sort of thing in consideration when making the ratings, being that all of the other villains are also characters I only have indirect contact with through a translation that may have improved or worsened things.

but the good work is no miracle -- although given much-needed entertainment value, this guy is still who he is: practically a standard-fare asshole miniboss who ends up getting three whole chapters to chirp into. and to make matters worse, you only actually get the payoff to him in one of two possible routes!

I am strong, I am clever, I am handsome, and most importantly, fuck me

(4/10)

I can’t possibly deny that his antics are some of the most hilarious on this list; the ridiculous speeches, the facial expressions from the manga, the fact that he gets demoted on screen... and I mean, they got Kaiji Tang to put voice to his high drama on Heroes, on top of it all!

alas, it just really spoils the fun to a significant extent that his very introduction in Binding Blade sees him macking on a captive prepubescent girl. however entertaining it may be that she snatches his wig on that occasion anyway.

fuck this morph

(5/10)

yeah, some people wish. notably including Brendan Reed-

the thing with Sonia is that she’s a little less believable than most folks in this archetype -- specifically because she’s not, like, working within the structures of power that would let her get away with being as much of a dip as she wants to; she’s earned her influential position by seducing the boss, which is hard to buy when, however attractive she may be, she never has a single positive interaction with anyone and nobody trusts her (barring Ursula on both counts, but she’s not the one who needs to be brought on board anyway). I realize what a phenomenon it is to think with one’s dick, but come on; surely, you don’t let your new friend with benefits tell you how to do your job just because she’s that good in bed or something.

that said, although her overall spot on the plot feels weakly implemented, she still makes for a tremendous bulwark to overcome specifically within Nino’s subplot. what a powerful confrontation against a lifelong abuser she provides in the end!

do not fuck this guy what is wrong with you

(3/10)

Valter is just uncomfortable as a character, which is limbo as far as emotion-inducing goes; it’s not particularly entertaining, and nor is it artfully terrifying in the way that Orson is. furthermore, I normally praise Sacred Stones’s antagonists for averting the way of behaving like a plot device, but this guy is the exception; he seems to primarily show up to cause trouble because trouble needs to be caused.

I feel like he’d have made for a far stronger character concept if his backstory had been handled differently, being more specific in what part of his mind broke when he held the cursed lance, instead of just being “now he does bad things and talks like he’s vaguely horny throughout”.

at least he’s quite a bit entertaining in Heroes where he gets voiced lines and no particular characters or plots to interact with -- but if that’s what it takes to make the character shine, it doesn’t really say good things about him.

fuck beauty

(5.5/10)

so, the truth come out: does this guy is deserve becoming the absolute teacher’s pet he’s been since Radiant Dawn? my verdict on the matter is: not really.

I mean, Path of Radiance actually writes him into a solid niche; for all the big words he emits about being a patron of beauty, he’s ultimately just the same kind of petty, ostentatious garbage that poisons the governance of Begnion, and finally taking him down for good and all makes for an excellent dive after all the work it takes to set the light of justice on him -- not just in Day Breaks (oh gooooooooddd) but over the course of the several chapters it takes.

it’s all downhill from there, though. his appareance in Radiant Dawn is not only unecessary, but also a deviation from the established writing to focus on pallid, ineffective jokes, like someone invented Heroes writing before the thing itself happened. he fights on your side because now he genuinely cares about beauty and art to the point he’ll fight a goddess over it? yeah, that’s not who he was.

and seriously, one strongly gets the impression that, in that appearance onwards, the punchline is just supposed to be that he’s fat, bald, wordy, and has a shitty mustache -- which, besides being blatant fatphobia, is seriously stale; “it’s funny because he’s ugly” is, like, at least two random minibosses per game, usually more.

fuck the senate

(2/10)

although he jabs a lot of the buttons that should make for an entertaining and stalwart hate sink, it ends up not really working.

his narcisism lacks the performatic grandeur of the likes of Narcian; it lands as pastiche at best, and common annoying smugness at worst. and although he’s powerful and influential enough to cause a bunch of problems, he’s introduced at a weird time that fails to make his specfic capabilties relevant to opposing the protagonists, and he ends up not doing a lot more than severely inconveniencing Zelgius (who is on his team) a couple times.

at least, the battle dialogue against him in Part 4 still provides some of the most fierce drags in Radiant Dawn

fuck the valm arc

(0/10)

seriously, fuck it

but ahem, onto the guy in question: he’s an annoying waste of writing space that doesn’t seem to be intended for any reason other than making the rest of Team Bad Guy look good, plain and simple.

you might be thinking, airlock, this is the third Awakening villain you blammed in four posts, are you just biased? the answer is: yes, but even if I were being perfectly fair, let’s be real, antagonists are just not one of that game’s strengths, overall. that just happens sometimes; I can really say the same thing of like Thracia 776, y’know?

fuck playing f- yeah, okay, that’s just low-hanging fruit

(??/10)

honestly, from this distance, none of Fates’s fixed antagonists bar Anankos really give me the impression of not just being despicable pastiche, but I’m guessing he’s supposed to be the one who actually intended to take it as a niche?

so, I’m just going to assume you hated this, but how was it? are you glad it’s over, or do you regret having read it at all? we’re probably not going to be spared from one of these characters on Three Houses, but specifically how much would you like to hate the one that comes along? to be honest, your thoughts aren’t remotely as good as mine, so I wouldn’t bother replying or reblogging to share them, worm. what? you’ll do it anyway!? how dare you! do you know what I’m capable of!?

#airlock grades the villain archetypes #fire emblem is tagged in this post

17 notes · View notes

sevensity · 7 years

Note

RFA * V* Saeran overhearing their female s/o on the phone telling another boy she loves them but it's actually just one of the s/o's family members ?

hey it’s been like five years but I finally wrote it and I’m sorryI had no idea what to do for Baehee >.

I love how they get progressively long as you go have fun reading

YOOᔕᑌᑎG:

· You’re playing LOLOL together when suddenly you get a phone call,and pause the game while you answer

· Yoosung’s doing some quick character customization while yourconversation goes on, but he’s getting the feeling that you’re talking toanother man

· And someone close to your age, at that

· He’s been working hard at controlling his jealousy, but it’s sodifficult, especially now that you’re speaking such gentle words, your pretty eyessoft and twinkling

· Who is it you’re talking to that would warrant such anexpression? Such words that spoke of warmth and tender love?

· Yeah so it was impossible for Yoosung to keep his switch off

· Can you stabsomeone through the phone? How can I perform simple voodoo? became hisnewest google searches

· “Take care of yourself, I’ll come see you soon, I love you!” you hang up with a wistful sigh.

· “The old geezer went and fell down the stairs…again…honestly heneeds to be more careful.”

· “Old…geezer?” Yoosung asks tentatively, slowly putting his phonedown

· “Yeah, my grandfather went and broke up hip by tripping on astep. Luckily he didn’t fall a whole flight, but still, at his age….”

· Yoosung discreetly closes his ‘Voodoo for Beginners’ tab andcoughs lightly

· “Right well, let’s continue our match, shall we? I’ll crush you!Ha-ha, I’m kidding?”

· The battle begins once more, you having already forgotten aboutthe phone call, but somewhere in Yoosung’s mind, he’s thinking about the webpage he’d closed

· Maybe it wouldbe useful to look through

· For futurereferences…

ᘔEᑎ:

· Y’all are rehearsing some lines

· or taking selfies

· or working out

· or trying to summon Satan idk but your phone rings and youexcuse yourself from your current activity to answer it

· lmao though imagine you actually summon Satan and he’s trying totake your soul or smthing but then you’re like ok hold up my dude I got a phonecall the delivery guy might have gotten lost and Satan is just left standingthere like ??? do I get food too or

· anyways hi hello it’s your /actual/ father calling about thefamily reunion on Saturday

· Zen’s sneaking glances your way because what’s with this sweettone of yours

· is i T A mE m Be R of Th eOpPOSi t E SE x????????

· basically he’s trying to listen to the voice on the other end ofthe line but being sneaky about it

· we all know that ‘subtlety’ is not part of Hyun Ryu’svocabulary, let alone life skills

· so he’s basally draped himself over you like some sort offallen tree trunk

· im good at analogies alright

· you’re trying to focus on the call but at the same time Zen whatthe flippity fuck are you doing you’re making me have to pee

· he’s already suspicious but when you hang up with acheery “love ya daddy!” Zen malfunctions and doesn’t know whether to cryor yell

· “Who was that why do you love that person was it a guy wh-”

· “Zen, chill that was my dad.”

· :0

· :000000

· you can see him dying a bit inside because oh no I got jealous over her F A THER??????

· but then Zen is Suddenly Inspired

· “Hey,” he whispers in a sultry voice, his lips pressed againstyour ear, “how about you call me daddy too?”

ᒍᑌᗰIᑎ:

· contrary to popular belief, Jumin is actually cool with youtalking to other dudes

· as long as it’s strictly professional, that is

· he’s never heard you talk to your family before, so heisn’t aware just how close you allare

· the both of you are attending a meeting, and during the coffeebreak you receive a call

· ‘Jongin’ is the caller’s name, which Jumin manages to catch aglimpse of flashing across your phone’s screen before you deftly answer thecall

· “Yeah? Hello!” you say, before excusing yourself from theroom

· Jumin is left wondering whether he should follow you or justignore it

· but there’s just something about the delicate shift in your tone that puts him ill at ease

· because you should only be speaking to him that way

· side note I reallllllly want to see some yandere Jumin but notlike weird prison guard Jumin but actual Yoosung level yandere

· alas, the meeting starts again, yet you don’t return to the room

· he hears you giggle occasionally from the hallway, but tries notto focus on it too much because the meeting is about the future of C&R’scat projects and therefore of uttermost importance

· needless to say, his mind is quite preoccupied

· one of the chairmen asks him “What do you believe would bethe total production cost for this particular plan?”

· Jumin answers with a distracted “Oh, no I rather do like red wine with my pasta.”

�� basically he’s really not himself what’s gotten into himhe’s usually an unstoppable force in meetings but now???

- the meeting is adjourned, and he rushes out the door

· as soon as he spots you in he hallway, he’s marching straighttowards you, reaching for your arm right when you say “Okay bye! I’llsee you tomorrow, love you!”

· “What’s this about loving who now?” Jumin hisses, his hand closing lightly, but firmly, around your wrist

· “It’s me telling a family member that I care about them?” yousay, confused as to why he’s reacting in such a way

· “You - what? family member?”

· Yeah, that was my uncle. We usually go shopping together everyfew weeks, and we’re due to go again tomorrow.”

· Jumin’s emotions quiet down in an instant, however his heart isstill running rampant like a wild beast in his chest

· he slides his fingers down to envelop your hand, and gentlyrests his forehead atop yours

· “Please, my love, don’t scare my like that again, you are myone, my everything…”

· you’re getting ready to whisper your own cheesy loving sentence, but hecontinues

· “Also you should bring your uncle shopping in this building. Wehave over 200 different stores, and maybe he would be willing to lead our catcampaign-”

· you poke his stomach

· “You are not bringing myuncle into this cat thing…but if you want, you can tag along and comeshopping with us.”

· he agrees, which is a bad idea

· cuz you and your uncle tag team him

· and he ends up wearing some sort of cat/maid outfit that showsskin in just the right places

· yeah but it’s a good buy

· Jumin actually wears it around the penthouse

· Driver Kim once saw him in it

· “The young master has rather particular interests….”

· lowkey approves and wants one himself

ᔕᗩEYOᑌᑎG:

· mmmmmmkay well honestly he’s heard you say “I love you” toseveral people already, but he doesn’t get jealous because you’re always showering him with your affection

· but he’s had one of his bad days, old emotions and thoughts andinsecurities are already chasing each other in his mind

· so it isn’t helping him much when he can just tell you’re talking to another boy

· terrible thoughts swarm his head, and he cannot stop fretting about all the bad things that could possibly be happening

· What if he hadn’t been looking enough into things? What ifhe’s being played? Are you going around behind his back? Betraying him?

· but for every one of these thoughts, he lashes out athimself, thinking things along the lines of don’t I trust her? Do I reallythink she’s that bad a person? She’s given me all this love, would she reallyjust abandom me like that?

· Or maybe now I’m reading too much into things?

· “Alright, bye Kyungsoo, I love you!”

· He winces, not wanting to face you, afraid that the bile in histhroat will lead him to say harsh things

· “What’s wrong, Saeyoung?”

· “Who…” he croaks, a faint pain etched across his face, “Whowere you talking to?”

· “Oh that? It was my brother!”

· “You…your…ah.”

· “Is something the matter?”

· “No, I’m just a huge idiotis all.”

· “Now tell me something I don’t know,” you say with a sly smile,wrapping your arms around his waist, “you might be the world’s biggest idiot,but at the very least, you’re myidiot.”

· Saeyoung instinctively returns the embrace, holding you tightagainst his chest. “Likewise.”

ᐯ:

· oh my hea RT lmao what heart haha I just roasted myself

· y’all are just chillin’, looking through his pictures when youget a phone call

· V is fine with you talking on the phone right beside him, so youanswer right there

· Heck, you could even be riding the shit out of him and he’d stillbe chill with you calling your friend

· MC orders pizza while getting laid lolololol

· He gets momentarily nervous, though, when he hears a deepervoice on the other end of the line

· But V, he tells himself, don’t discriminate maybeit’s a girl with a deeper voice you never know

· “Who is that?” V mouths, just to be safe

· “Oh, he’s just –” you start to say before you getcut off by the person you’re talking to

· a b OY?!

· “Okay! I love you!” you say before hanging up

· V’s all ༼ ºل͟º ༼ ºل͟º ༼ ºل͟º ༽ ºل͟º ༽ ºل͟º ༽

· it takes him a moment to calm down, at which point he’sconvinced himself that you’re moving on, which is fine, because he’s not goodenough for you he wasn’t good enough for Rika you’ll be happier without himyou–

· “V you’re turning blue I don’t think you’re breathing.”

· He inhales sharply and looks at you with tears in his eyes

· it makes sense, he concludes, trying to hold backthe waterworks

· “You should have told me sooner,” he says softly

· “Told you what?”

· “That you’ve…found someone else.”

· seriously V I thought I jumped to conclusions toofast but you really take the cake

· you just stare at him, then look at the phone in your hand, thenback at V

· whoops

· “Sweetheart no that was my cousin!”

· V just blanches

· I am horrible how dare I get jealous so easily and I thought shewas in love with another family member what am I –

· “V if you stop breathing like that you’ll actually die.”

· without a word, V reaches over to you and pulls you into hischest

· there’s a strange elation sensation inside his body, and herealizes that he had unconsciously been so stressed, a knot of worry had formedin the pit of his stomach

· his worry is replaced by a realization

· the realization that

· he’s not okay with you leaving him after all

ᔕᗩEᖇᗩᑎ:

· He ain’t taking none of that shit

· the moment he hears you say “Hi!” in such a sweetvoice because MC you’re only supposed to talk like that with me h o w dare you, he practically launches himself at your phone and does awicked somersault landing

· Where did he go?

· Surely not inside the kitchen cabinets

· oh

· but there he is

· crouching between cereal boxes and jars of tomato sauce,just emanating dark waves of furious doom

· They’re so tangible for a second you worry they might stain thewalls

· “She’s mine,” he hisses into the receiver, “and I’m notgonna let you lay a single hand on her.”

· “Well…” the voice answers, “that’s fine and all but I’m herbrother so we do occasionally hug sometimes.”

· Saeran had already prepared a nasty comeback, but he wasn’texpecting the call to be from your family

· “Ah uh, okay bye,” he grunts instead in an awkward manner,before promptly hanging up

· “Um…Saeran…I kinda really needed to talk to him though…”

· He whips his gaze towards you

· “The….” he chokes, his eyes wide

· “Huh???”

· “The what???? Hug?????” hefinally whispers, seeming if not a bit panicked by the thought such a thing existing

· you stare at each other blankly for a brief minute before youdouble up in laughter because

· a) he looks like a startled, edgy cat b) he’s in your fucking kitchen cabinets and c) the what??? hug??? wassomething you never thought would come out of his mouth

· but he gets so sour about you laughing at him that he refuses toleave his perch for the next two hours

· #spends the whole time thinking about you hugging him

· *cue the blushies*

· wants to try this ‘hugging’ ordeal

624 notes · View notes

aggressive-p0tat0 · 6 years

Text

My reactions to Trespasser

I don’t expect anyone to read this, but I wanted to get the thoughts out of my system.

I just finished Trespasser. Let it be known that I had QUITE a lot spoiled for me. Solas’ plans, him creating the Veil, truth of the Creators, Inquisition’s fate, something about a dragon, the elves getting their elf-equivalent of the Calling, a few epilogues, and I think that’s it. However, there were things I did not know, and here are my reactions to them. I apologize in advance for this being so damn long. Note that I’m not writing this all after having finished Trespasser. What I’ve written was throughout the time I played it, though I changed the order of a couple of things in each section. I make a couple of references to The Masked Empire, but they’re explained easily enough.

Writing this after the Elven Mountain Ruins:

In general: Well, these are just a few thoughts I already had, rather than related to what happened. And what I’m mainly curious about are the eluvians. Also, slightly annoyed since they contradict the book (in the Crossroads you move much slower if you aren’t an elf), but I understand why we can’t have the elves moving a million times faster than everyone else. Having the Crossroads look more vibrant as an elf makes up for it a bit, though. Anyway, back to my curiosity. In order for the eluvians to function, they need a password (or at least the majority of them do; not 100% sure if it’s all or most). Briala and her spies are the only people with the password. Seeing how many spies she has, it’s definitely feasible that one of them was Solas’ spies, or worked for Briala and then betrayed her. Though I wonder if this is what happened, or if Briala herself decided to work with Solas. This is, of course, if you don’t have Solas help study the eluvians at the War Table. Then it’s basically your fault he has the password. I remember getting the mission (knowing who Solas really was at this point) and being like, “I am not letting Solas within one hundred feet of an eluvian.” For those of you who don’t know, in Dragon Age: The Masked Empire one of his goals was to get the password. Ironically, it ended up being “Fen'Harel enansal”, meaning “the Dread Wolf’s blessing”. How fitting, seeing as he currently has control over them.

Briala looked up to the rebel god. I wonder if she still would if she knew the truth (which I will mention in a moment, for those of you who don’t know). Knowing her, it’s entirely possible. I could see Briala siding with or against Solas in his cause. I don’t know if her getting back together with Celene would change her mind, though. Seeing as Celene purged the alienage and killed Briala’s parents, I’m surprised Briala’s still with her in the first place. …Moving on…

The story: I kind of wish there was more of an option for my Inquisitor to say that s/he (I started two at once because I want to wait for opinions on which companions I should bring here on out) wants the Inquisition to disband. I mean, I get the option to tell Giselle that I think we should disband, but after that? I’m basically acting like the Inquisition is needed and I totally support it.

Next is the part that interests me: dramatic irony. Okay, so I have far more dramatic irony here than most since I know what’s going to happen, but even without that, we still know something the Inquisitor doesn’t: who Solas is. Now honestly, that’s pretty cool. I love the fact that I’m like, “Dude, you don’t know what you’re in for.” Though it also brings me to something else, something I don’t like: I feel helpless. I feel absolutely powerless. Origins? I’m the only Grey Warden left (well, Alistair’s here, too, I guess). It’s up to me to save everyone, and I have the resources! Dragon Age 2? Bitch, I’m an Amell! The Last Court? I don’t really have anything to lose at this point, so... whatever! Inquisition: I have the Anchor and an army! Trespasser: wtf is going on? Solas is powerful, the qunari are attacking, I’m confused, I stubbed my toe and I wanna go home. It’s a huge shift. I mean, we all have control issues in the other games, but overall, I feel that there’s a sense that you know what you’re doing, more or less. In Trespasser, you’re walking in the dark, trying to feel your way around. I feel totally useless. I hate that feeling of helplessness, and I am sure that’s what they were going for. So thanks for making me feel uncomfortable and insecure, BioWare. You did a good job.

Companions: Sera, Blackwall and Vivienne have been the only ones to talk about Solas so far. Thanks for caring about my Inquisitor’s heartbreak after two years, guys. Bull has me internally cringing with his puns and harassing Krem about his love life, Cassandra’s as awkward as ever, Dorian’s still funny, my respect for Blackwall has grown, Vivienne is… well, she’s Vivienne, and Varric’s still Varric despite his new position as Viscount.

Then there’s Sera. Oh, Sera. Maker bless you. Honestly, reading Sera’s journal as an elf who romanced Solas and then talking to her… Just wow. “She all right with the elfy stuff?” “It's all right! Maybe. Be there anyway.” It went from Sera laughing about your vallaslin being slave markings to her asking if you’re alright about learning that your gods aren’t gods, and then adding that she’s sorry Solas (who she hates) broke your heart and left you. WHO AM I TALKING TO RIGHT NOW? I originally hated Sera for hating Cole. Then I got to actually know her, and I fell in love with her character. Still, she could have acted a bit more mature. And now she is still so nonsensical and childish, but she’s a childish ADULT. Sera grew up, and I am so damn proud of her.

I love hearing Cole talk and say all of his strange, seemingly nonsensical stuff. After one particularly meaningful comment, I just kept clicking on him for a while to see if anything else clicked. The three Mass Effect references were heavy, especially the one about Charr and Ereba’s unborn child. I’m curious about who Cole needs to “help… to remember who he is”. I haven’t read Dragon Age: The Last Flight yet, so maybe it’s a reference to that?

Anyway, as for the comment that made me so curious about his dialogue in the first place: One of the times I clicked on him he said, “His friend had to die, because he thought they were people. The slow arrow breaks in the sad wolf's jaws.” Oh my gosh. I kid you not, when Cole said this I started crying. Crying. [EDIT: In my defense it had been a really long day] For those of you who don’t know, in one of the books, a character named Felassan (meaning “slow arrow” in the elven language) was Briala’s mentor. Briala got the eluvians working again, and created a password so that only she and her elven spies could use it. She was going to tell Felassan, but he didn’t want to hear it. Then he entered the Fade, 100% aware of what his fate would be. Because he loved Briala and had faith in her. Now the fact that Solas killed Felassan was always one of the biggest reasons I hated him, to be honest (his god-awful personality and disapproval of every goddamn thing I say or do didn’t help, either). I thought, “This guy’s an awful person. He killed Felassan like it was nothing. They’re just tools to Solas.” Then Cole said “his friend” and “the sad wolf”. I am actually crying as I write this. I don’t know what to think, honestly. People say, “it’s hard for Solas,” and I’m always like, “Fuck that,” but hearing those two things make a world of difference to me. Felassan wasn’t a tool to him, but he killed him anyways. Why? To make an example of him? And what hurts the most from this statement is the reasoning. “Because he thought they were people.” Felassan loved that woman as family, and she gave him hope for the world they lived in. With what Cole’s saying, does that mean Solas doesn’t even see the elves of today as people? I know that he doesn’t see them as his people, but as something even less than a person? That just irks me. Though it also REALLY says a lot about the Inquisitor as a person if Solas loves or respects them. [EDIT: Someone pointed out that, since what Cole said happened BEFORE Solas met the Inquisitor, he may have changed his mind. Only thing that makes me unsure of this is that Solas kept saying “my people” at the end, rather than “elves”.]

I reloaded several times to listen to what Cole had to say. Every time he mentioned Felassan and Solas I took off my headphones and said, “Nope, nope, nope, nope.”

Writing this after going into The Deep Roads:

UGH. That was extremely painful. That lag was AWFUL. I read manga and listened to music from Hamilton to pass the time it took for my Inquisitor to fulfill basic commands after I gave the orders. *clicks button to climb latter and listens to half of “Say No To This” before my Inquisitor actually climbs the damn thing* Though I love how, with all this terrible stuff going on and the immediate danger everyone is, my Inquisitor’s like, “Nah, let’s go explore this irrelevant eluvian that leads into a dark, empty cave first so I can kill high level demons and loot some useless shit.” Cuz priorities.

As for the quest itself, I probably would have enjoyed it a lot more if the lag hadn’t been there. I was surprised to learn the Qunari think that the Inquisition was working with Fen’Harel. I’m guessing their reasoning is because Solas was originally with us? Rana Thanoptis Jerran didn’t have much useful information. I was sad to see that unlike his predecessor, Jerran did not make it out alive after being allowed to escape. Asari: 1, humans: 0.

I heard bad things about Teagan, and I really wanted to be that one person who said, “Come on, guys. He’s not THAT bad,” but OH MY GOD, TEAGAN, WILL YOU SHUT UP FOR FIVE MINUTES? MY DALISH ASS NEVER WANTED TO BE INQUISITOR IN THE FIRST PLACE! THAT’S IT! CULLEN, YOU’RE THE HERALD OF ANDRASTE NOW! I’M OUT!

I wish I could just say, “Bitch, I am the Hero of Ferelden!” so that he would trust me, but alas, I am technically NOT the Hero of Ferelden anymore. The Hero of Ferelden is off… doing whatever it is he does. I don’t even know anymore. Looking for a cure? I’m hoping he’s back with his family.

With the tensions between the Inquisition and Ferelden so great, I sat there for a good three or so minutes trying to decide whether to detain “my” (got her true identity spoiled) soldier or the servant. I figured everyone hates me anyway and would blame me if hell broke loose after releasing the servant. Wine? You were carrying wine? In what just happens to look like the containers Qunari use to keep explosives? Yeah, I don’t think so.

I’m just trying to have some downtime from all my school work that I have to get done soon, and somehow my favorite video game series is managing to stress me out. Seriously, I don’t want to be the Inquisitor anymore. It sucks. This is so stressful that I feel like it’s going to take me another week before I actually manage to finish the DLC. At least I know I’m safe reading my manga. I’m experiencing some Black Lagoon level stress here. Though seriously, I started writing this whole thing about a week ago, and I’m done for the night and have school tomorrow, so I honestly think I’ll be finishing this DLC by the end of the month at the earliest. I just feel so uneasy playing it.

Companions: I took Sera, Cole and Cassandra with me. No dialogue of real significance that I noticed. Though I was, again, impressed with Sera. Cole talked to her and she didn’t freak out. He still clearly made her uncomfortable, but she wasn’t calling him a freak or anything. My girl’s grown up.

I never really bothered reading her notes in the main game, but I am now and they’re interesting. Something’s not normal with Sera. She’s never needed training for her bow, she can sense where the Veil is thin, and she drew a dog’s ear. I’m wondering what kind of dog’s ear. A floppy ear, or a wolf-like ear? I really hope that whatever Sera actually is will one day be explained, or perhaps another character like her will appear and it will be explained for them.

Anyway, I’m glad to get Sera’s insight on things (she seems to always have something to say about what’s going on), but I’d like to hear more from other companions.

Writing this after going into The Shattered Library:

Took me about a month to finish this part since I’ve been trying to find a time when I’m not working or on the verge of falling asleep to play the game. First of all: bonus points for Sandal’s journal. I can just picture him randomly wandering the Cross Roads with no particular destination in mind.

Maybe it’s because I didn’t play it all at once that the quest didn’t seem all that interesting to me. I’ll try doing it all at once on my secondary account.

Anyway, one thing I found very interesting was the spirit left to talk on behalf of the elven people, Ghil-Dirthalen. I found it reminiscent of Vigil from Mass Effect.

Meeting Viddasala was cool, I guess. It was kind of annoying that my only options were, “we don’t have to fight” (really, Inquisitor?), “the anchor isn’t a threat” (bitch, you’ve been in agonizing pain all day) and what was the third one? I don’t know, probably “fuck you” or something.

I found the codex entry where they talked about the Saarebas and it sounded very interesting. In southern society mages are abhorred, viewed as monsters, etc. But in the Qun, at least with people like the Viddasala, they don’t hate the mages at all. They don’t even see them as cursed. They don’t hate the mages, they hate the magic. It even seems like Viddasala actually has respect for them since they’re loyal to the Qun, putting their lives at risk and seem to understand the dangers of magic.

Then there was that final cutscene at Halamshiral. It got me really upset towards the end. I want to go and hug my companions because it really feels like our one last hurrah before we go out. Specifically, the Inquisitor. I mean, I know she doesn’t die, but damn it feels like she’s already dead.

Companions: My party was Blackwall, Dorian and Cole, and I definitely liked having them for this one. The dialogue was interesting, and I liked hearing the different views on the situations.

Dorian’s like, “Ancient magic, let’s play with it!” and Blackwall’s like, “Hell no.” Cole’s like, “Yay, no Veil!” and Dorian’s like, “Hell no.”

It was also pretty adorable seeing Cole so happy to learn that it’s okay for him to be in the real world. Though it was kind of heartbreaking when, while speaking of Solas, he said, “All new, faded for her.”

That little comment Ranier makes before entering the final eluvian was great, as were Dorian and Cole’s responses.

Meanwhile, Sera continues to impress me with her journal. That last sentence really got me. “I will make them know Ethera had HAS friends.” I feel like I just watched my kid graduate or something. I’m so proud of her.

I must admit I’m sad to see I don’t have one last chance to talk to my companions. After all, the Inquisitor thinks she’s going to DIE.

Writing this after going into The Darvaarad:

Well, shit. I knew what was going to happen, but that truth bomb Viddasala dropped still hurt. I can only imagine how much Cassandra would be beating herself up about that.

Then my Inquisitor was like, “Solas betrayed us, let’s save him!” I am amazed Cassandra didn’t beat the shit out of my Inquisitor right then and there. I do, and will always appreciate the little “easter egg” Weekes put in there; it’s so like Cole to be the only one on board with the Inquisitor.

I swear, when Viddasala said, “If it’s any consolation, Solas will not outlive you.” Well, thank you; actually, that DOES make me feel a little better. My Inquisitor is naïve, and I disagree with her immensely. Solas should die. You should stab him, and he should die. Then stab him again for good measure. Why do I make my Inquisitor have different views than me? Cuz roleplaying! My Warden had a happy ending, Hawke had a happy ending, so I was like, “Let’s balance it out. Romance Solas and make your Inquisitor miserable.” So far so good.

Anyway, that dragon was a pain in my ass, and I sincerely hope it is the final boss because this is getting old. Also, it was sad to see all those broken eluvians. So much history lost. Took Merrill like, seven years to fix just one. Hopefully Solas’ ancient magic can fix them. Well, he’s evil so actually I take that back.

Companions: Not much dialogue with the companions in this one, though I did like having Cassandra with me. She provided a little funny dialogue when we were searching in the library and she was like, “Is that a copy of Swords and Shields?” Focus, Cassandra. Focus.

Writing this after finishing Trespasser:

Shit.

That’s it. That’s all I have to say.

Seriously, though, that was some powerful stuff. The music got really intense towards the end, and I liked it. Seeing my Inquisitor step into the eluvian and find herself, shocked, in a maze of qunari statues. The look on her face was great, as was when she heard Solas (btw, that son of a bitch knows Qunlat, too? Talk about op). I could practically feel her desperation as she ran towards the sound of his voice.

I must admit, I was kind of disappointed with Viddasala’s “death”. It felt way too abrupt. I also would’ve liked an explanation as to why only my Inquisitor went through the eluvian. Obviously better for the story, but I would’ve liked to hear an in-game explanation as to why only she could enter.

Solas speaking so dismissively of Felassan made me want to punch him in the face, but you can’t fool me, buddy. Cole told me you were crying inside. Anyway, I guess him overriding the eluvians with his power is an adequate explanation for accessing them, if not slightly annoying. I honestly would’ve preferred one of his spies infiltrating Briala’s spies as opposed to, “Nah, I just got rid of the password cuz magic.”

Question: why does no one have any reaction whatsoever when I walk into the room and my freaking arm has been amputated? Is that not the least bit alarming? But damn, I’ve gotta hand it to the Inquisitor (no pun intended). I mean, you just cut that thing off, put a band-aid on it and went right back to business. That’s impressive.

The epilogues made me feel happy for my companions. They’ve all grown so much, and it just makes me feel so damn proud of them. Hurt to see Cole go back into the Fade, especially the significance of him leaving his hat behind. I wish Rhys knew that it all worked out for Cole in the end. I also loved seeing Aveline and Maevaris in the slides. I would have preferred they made it clear that Ranier dies as a Warden, though. If you romanced him it’s pretty obvious, but they didn’t even hint at it here. I only found out because someone told me.

I must admit, while I enjoyed the epilogues, not being able to speak with my companions one last time kind of made it feel like things didn’t quite get wrapped up. As for the Inquisitor’s epilogue: I didn’t cry during the confrontation with Solas, but I’ll admit the slide about the Inquisitor’s dreams got a few tears out of me.

As for the Elven Calling (that’s what I’m calling it, so there), I’m wondering just how much these elves know. Why help? I’m pretty sure Solas doesn’t give a shit about you. He doesn’t say he wants to help elves. He wants to help his people. All his spies are probably just pawns for him.

Bonus points for Scout Harding remaining to help the Inquisitor even after disbanding the Inquisition.

Conclusion: Purchasing Inquisition for a second time so that I could play the DLCs instead of just watching them on YouTube (thanks a lot, Xbox 360) was 100% worth it. For anyone who actually bothered reading all of my random thoughts, I thank you. You must have been very bored.

Also, I look forward to killing Solas in DA4.

#dragon age inquisition #trespasser dlc

6 notes · View notes