#but i also dislike 'mercy kill' tropes a lot so

[xx-vergil-xx]

Can I ask what pushed you to end Hounds the way you did? It's a fantastic ending, but I'm curious. I expected the Fates to revive Dream, or allow him to inhabit a new form (such as one made by Daniel, so that Dream becomes a dreamthing), etc. But instead, his death is made to have never happened. Which makes it partly feels like Hob's whole road trip journey was for nothing since he lost all those memories and connections with Matthew, the Corinthian, Delirium, Despair, Desire, Death, etc. (thank god he kept the farmhouse). But it's almost like he traded all those memories and connections for Dream. Unless I missed something while reading (I was crying very hard).

Again, fantastic ending, and I'm also glad it's a happy ending. But I'm curious as to why you didn't go in the other direction

howdy! thanks very much for the ask — an excellent query, one which i’m happy to answer

(verg of the future: this answer ended up long! there’s a short form at the top here and at the end <3)

in brief: he did make that trade you described! but not strictly for dream — it was the price of swapping genres!

an explanation:

what i had in mind while planning and writing was less the idea of erasure of prior narrative action and more a subversion of the expected genre, in particular the genre tropes that follow dream in the original arc of the comics, where his story is very classically tragic (with the understood weaving of hob into that tragedy, this being a dream/hob telling and all)

for reference, i also drew a lot of inspiration for hob’s road trip odyssey from the aeneid, an epic that is, yes, about the founding of rome but also (at least to my reading) a fundamental tragedy — the cost of founding rome is aeneas’ home, many of his friends, much of his core family, and the very end of the story is not some victorious depiction of the glory of rome to be (which we do get earlier in the book, with the ekphrasis on his shield) but aeneas, overcome with fury and loss, killing a man who begs his mercy. i’ve always felt that the aeneid, while certainly stepped in the expected amount of roman nationalism, is centrally about a single man and his singular suffering as an instrument of higher destiny.

i wanted to model hob’s arc around the aeneid (minus, y’know, some of the chunks that are strictly battle sequences <3) both because intertextuality is a huge part of how i wanted to handle hounds (story about stories, made of other stories, etc), but also because hob and aeneas are fundamentally parallel characters — nomads with exceptional ordinances, permanently displaced by the passing whims of higher powers, men who are made to reckon with both extraordinary wonder and extraordinary tragedy regularly while still, at their core, just being human. that’s what makes aeneas so compelling — he’s just a man. and so is our beloved hob — that’s his whole thing, his whole narrative function and his whole central ideal, humanity

so then, approaching hounds with both the thought of the sandman’s original tragic contours (see: the whole lead-in to daniel. christ above is the way that goes devastating to read) and the man vs fate core of the aeneid, i was considering a lot of things about how to mess around with both notions without gutting them entirely. i tend to dislike tragedies that become un-tragic without some sort of Serious Payment For It (not to say i don’t like happy stories because i very much do! but i get ticked off when high stakes get deflated too quickly) and i didn’t want to undermine the very real fact that the Fates are typically not versed in notions of empathy and/or leniency, and that dream and hob and those around them did experience and endure devastation and loss, and that death is a fact typically immune to argument.

the world of sandman is not one with easy answers, and to my mind there’s no such thing as a bargain with the Fates where you break even. for hob to get what he wanted, something had to be given, something dear and vital and real. there’s more to what hob actually gives the Fates than he verbally stipulates, which i tried to address largely via the corinthian and his perception of the situation, especially those last conversations with dream in the “swamp”. i have a lot of options about the corinthian in his function as “dark mirror” having a blistering clarity of understanding much of the time, which is why i foisted the onus of those complexities onto his dialogue, rather than hob, who (and i say this with love) is a creature of bias and often blinded to greater repercussions of his actions insofar as they extend beyond his immediate objectives/enjoyments, or dream, who can see the bigger picture but i think often really keeps himself from doing so when it comes to anything at all that’s personal (king of stories has a blindspot for his own). what hob gives the Fates actually costs him almost nothing, in the long run, if we operate with the idea that he cannot remember, nor is there any lasting effect from, his 600-ish heavily-relived years. there’s narrative and symbolic weight, of course — he gives them love as an oath and as nostalgia (sidebar: his driving force is an almost pre-nostalgia, a continual love of the moment as the moment is passing, but anyway) (cuff links), he gives them in a captured moment the lovely discomfort and simultaneous brilliance of being alive (the hook, the finger prick the blood), and he gives them a rich and complicated experience of humanity (those 600 years). but practically, what is actually taken from him that he doesn’t just get back?

only those few months — and in them, a web of real and known connections, all of which matter, and all of which change his understanding of and relationship to things like grief, and loneliness, and fear, and forgiveness. those are important changes, real changes, that would affect how he operates in the world going forward. that development is gone. he returns instead to the (of course, fought-for and hard-won) stasis of what was, which becomes what will always be. in making the Fates and their judgement more complex, he has actually made his own life less complex. now, i’m not going to sit here and argue that “suffering has inherent value” or some shit like that because i think that’s bullshit! pain is just pain. but he does lose experiences which would have shaped him in new ways, and, i think, good ways. even important ways

and he may well be shaped towards similar courses with dream (especially re: learning that lesson about loneliness — i think hob suffers from the curse of always, ultimately, being alone (immortality etc there’s so much discourse about this), and the road trip was in part about him learning that though it is the simplest path it is neither the sole nor the best path), but he certainly doesn’t learn them the same way, with the same faces, with the same acuity and clarity and intensity.

the thing with the Fates (to me anyway) is that you don’t ever just win. maybe you can get what you want, but it’s not easy (it make take a thousand repetitions of your lifetime until friction and the touch of your hands wears the sisyphean boulder down to a pebble — like the parable of the bird scraping its beak on the mountain), and it’s sure not free.

so yes, those months are lost. that’s a big part of the price. and we don’t know, at the end, how much of that thing he really gave ultimately comes back — his new relationship depths with deanna or cori or the other endless, those things aren’t seen. the main arc is resolved — hob and dream — but there are still pieces missing. he loses a piece of his human experience, he gets tossed back around through the wringer of his life (which is often distinctly not pleasant), and he is, as he ever was, a character with a path whose impetus and dictation rest heavily on external forces. even in attempting to channel his life elsewhere, he still has to bargain, and is still subject to the choices of the fates, and in some ways the story remains irrevocably a tragedy, in that one way or another it has loss in a central place. in the latter half of hounds hob really became my attempted version of an aeneas type — a man with a quest and a fated directive, a deeply human and flawed individual, who can alter the path and even irrevocably change the genre of his own narrative, but only at cost.

of course let’s be clear! some of all the actual rendering of this ended up as it did partly because i am not always a clean writer, and for that i apologize! but i did genuinely want that sense of gaps — of faces and voices given over to the gravitational well of the principal narrative arc of hob/dream versus the Fates. i think those things are gone. the narrative is forcibly re-centered around hob and dream, and in doing this — in shifting the story genre — other ties and bonds are not just cut, but unwoven entirely. when you change the kind of story you’re telling, the change is done at the expense of something else. kind of like how there’s a fixed amount of matter in the universe? you can’t create or destroy matter — to make something new you have to take from another place. (sidebar: wow i’m realizing something about my fundamental storytelling beliefs right now! laws of physics! anon your ask has really got my cylinders firing, and most sincerely thank you <3)

still, they might come back. though i didn’t write it as fully as i could have (i will freely admit there was a great deal of burnout at play towards the end there), i had a lot of thoughts re: repetition and density, namely that if you stack a thousand repetitions of a lifetime against each other it’s the equivalent of writing a word over and over and over on a page. when you erase it, the channels remain. language flows most naturally in the direction once etched for it. maybe hob learns those same lessons and knows the same people in the same way — maybe he and the corinthian find that odd patch of common ground, maybe he takes a long drive with delirium through rural maryland. maybe there are echoes. maybe even if it is gone what was still shapes the topography. maybe a kindness or a word exchanged still ring out when you can’t see them or remember them. while the milestones of our lives rippled the most visibly, i think we’re shaped a thousandfold ways by accumulations of small things we can’t distinctly remember. only a feeling of a thing, or the negative space it leaves.

well. tl;dr — i didn’t want to let hob get away without actually giving anything up, nor without his choice to bargain affecting others besides himself in equally irrevocable ways (sidebar: at his core is a selfishness that is both charming and ignoble — he wants to do a good thing for dream but also he makes a call that changes a plenitude of lives other than his own, and i don’t think he really asks, he just does — grey areas are his whole gig to me), because nobody makes a deal with the Fates for free, and changing genre has a price tag. it was my effort to make the tone of the whole beast more authentically sandman-esque, since sandman does a lot of that sort of water-muddying, especially when using understood narrative models/archetypes/etc etc

i am. sorry this was as long as it is! jesus! but i’m sending it off all the same. anyways, anon, thanks very much not only for your lovely kind words and the high honor of your tears (no pulitzer could mean more to me than knowing a thing i wrote really moved someone, seriously thank you) but also for giving me a blank check to go buck wild and ramble about my own damn writing and Things I Just Think <3 i hope you have a lovely day/morning/noon/night, and thanks a bunch for dropping by <3 <3 <3

#the sandman #hob gadling #dream of the endless #dreamling #hounds #vergil says hello #vergil says way more than fuckin hello tbh #vergil writes a manifesto woukd be a better line for this #anon has given me the greatest gift: License To Monologue #fingers crossed any of that actually answered the question at hand #thanks for saying hi and asking things because i love both experiences immensely #<3 <3 <3 <3 <3

[fatalism-and-villainy]

choose violence! 2, 8, (is there any specific one you're really hoping for the chance to grumble about)?

a compelling argument for why your fave would never top or bottom

I'll answer a variation on this one. I might be more compelled by sub!Hannibal if he actually behaved the way he does when restrained or overpowered or captive in canon, i.e. continuing to be cool and collected and trying to influence the situation to his advantage, rather than turning into a puddle of goo. And if it were Will tying him up and hurting him? Someone he loves and knows can't bring himself to really hurt him and someone whose aggressive side he's been trying to tease out since day one? He'd be DELIGHTED. He'd be UNBEARABLY smug. He wouldn't be able to resist egging Will on and asking him if it felt good to torture him and have him at his mercy. He is immune to subspace.

Which is to say I think he can bottom in stuff like rope or painplay (I think he actively enjoys a good invigorating beating) but he can't submit to save his life.

common fandom opinion that everyone is wrong about

You've seen me talk about this in your vicinity before, I think, but the idea of Will as being ~so jealous and possessive~ towards Hannibal, and this being a primary element in how he relates to Hannibal.

Yeah, you can pinpoint contexts in which that arguably bubbles up, particularly with Bedelia, but she's also a person he's got plenty of other moral reasons to dislike - it's not as if jealousy is the sum total of why he hates her. And most of the other attributions of his behaviour around/about Hannibal to "jealousy" are nonsense imo.

But what really drives me up the wall is that Will is somehow equally jealous/possessive to Hannibal, or even more so! Or that this somehow makes him "just as bad as" or worse than Hannibal! i.e. "people think Hannibal is the jealous one, but it's actually Will"/"ok, but Will is jealous too!"/"Hannibal might be evil but Will is ~jealous~ so it balances out" and whatnot.

Yeah sorry but I think the guy who engineers a situation in which Will's unborn child gets aborted, stabs Will and then kills someone Will cares about right in front of him as punishment for Will betraying him (and for valuing getting justice for the previous-presumed-dead person Hannibal kills more than he values going with Hannibal), AND tries to have the family that Will formed without him killed... might be a little bit possessive towards Will! That's not actually a wild and crazy extrapolation! And those actions are unequivocally worse than Will being bitchy with Bedelia in season 3.

(Yeah, there's the leg post-fall, which could be said to be an escalation of Will's antagonism towards her. But that comes after the events of canon and doesn't represent a tendency Will displays throughout the show. And furthermore, while it's reasonable to assume Will is an active participant in that, I'm pretty convinced that going after Bedelia was Hannibal's idea - there are a lot of hints dropped in 3A that Hannibal's been planning to eat her Abel Gideon-style for a long time. I might make a post about that later.)

A lot of this stems from people wanting to avoid interpreting the characters through very narrow archetypal lenses. And to some degree, that's understandable, because neither Will not Hannibal is just one thing, and they both defy categorization in a lot of ways. But sometimes people resist common character tropes a bit too extensively, in ways that also ignore canon characterization. Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar, and sometimes the serial killer dude who displays a complete lack of regard for others' boundaries over the course of the show is jealous and possessive. It happens.

Furthermore, I think that Hannibal's possessive behaviour is extremely sexy of him and a major part of the appeal of his character, to me. It's a gothic romance! We do not need it to be egalitarian.

[free space]

This is also relating to Will, but something that's been getting my goat frequently is the idea that because Will has a penchant for manipulation (which, yeah, he does), everything he says and any emotion or vulnerability or inner conflict he shows must be a lie. As I argued in this post (and touched on it here too), Will doesn't like being perceived as weak, and with very few exceptions, his active manipulations are about playing up his confidence and certainty. (The deleted scene from season 2 where he plots with Mason Verger is a good example of this - the sort of faux-joviality and barely masked contempt of his affect are a pretty clear indication of how he performs). And while he's often unforthcoming about his own motives, like when he talks to Pazzi and says "you don't know whose side I'm on", he doesn't usually show the inner conflict turmoil he's actually feeling.

All of that is to say - when Will does outwardly express fear or uncertainty, he usually means it! I've seen a lot of takes that downplay the degree to which he's conflicted about Hannibal, especially in 3B - like, the idea that he was "manipulating" Bedelia in their therapy sessions and wasn't actually unsure at all as to whether Hannibal was in love with him (which... manipulating her to what end??? he doesn't need anything from her other than therapy at that point. he hates her! why would he subject himself to her company if not for the simple reason that she might be the only person on Earth who has any capacity to possibly understand what he went through with Hannibal?) Or that he wasn't actually conflicted about getting involved with criminal investigation again (and by extension, seeing Hannibal again) at the beginning of 3B, and he was just "manipulating Jack" (again, why??? Why not just readily agree to Jack's request, and claim he's invested in saving lives, if he really is super murder happy at that point and wants to hide that? And if he was truly so uncomplicatedly eager to see Hannibal again, then... why didn't he just visit him? Why wait until another murderer needed to be caught?)

Those are just a few examples of that sort of thing, and they stick in my mind because season 3B is just more interesting to me if Will was sincere about wanting to break free of Hannibal at the end of Digestivo, got pulled back into Hannibal's world in a way he couldn't bring himself to say no to, and seeing him against brought up long-denied personal feelings and inner urges. But it does crop up in plenty of other contexts too, and it just seems like such a flattening take on his character. Will being constantly torn in two and at war with himself and his own impulses is such a fundamental element of his character! What's the point of even having a story if he doesn't feel at all conflicted about Hannibal and his own darker side?

#the rest is under a cut and got long #menciemeer #my meta #hannibal talk #will graham #hannibal lecter #awkwardly memes #replies #also do NOT try to tell me that 'bottom' is not a kink term. you are simply incorrect

[iztopher]

sits coquettishly. bats eyelashes. i'm not going to say answer every question this time because i respect that you have many others thing to do over answering 48 questions in a row, and thus: 5, 12, 15, 24, 36, 42, 50!

EHEHE THANK U BOTH FOR UR MERCY AND UR ENTHUSIASM

5. What do you wish someone would ask you about [insert fic]? Answer it now! (don't you dare go down)

"Hey, Iz, you frequently list don't you dare go down as your favorite fic you've written, even though it's years old at this point. Why?"

I'm really proud of this fic for several reasons: I overall still really like the writing, people consistently compliment my favorite lines on it so it makes me confident I got across what I wanted to say, it covers some of my favorite te'ijalahad concepts.

I love this fic because, more than any fic I've written, it's essentially distilled headcanons. I knew, for years, that I wanted to write a fic about Te'ijal patching up Galahad after the fight where he got the scar across his eye, and a fic about Galahad reflecting on Te'ijal after the tower scene. I came up with the idea of Te'ijal getting scarred from the tower scene and realized I had the opportunity to put it in a fic. I kept thinking up ideas about Te'ijal helping Galahad with his injuries, and then about him always wearing armor and how that reflects on his (dis)comfort with her. I love the genre of te'ijalahad fic that's understated improvement in their relationship simply through the contrast of how it used to be and how it is now. And I got to include all of that in this fic!! I love it, and it means that people reading it are essentially listening to me ramble about a lot of my favorite ideas for my favorite characters.

12. Are there any tropes you used to dislike but have grown on you?

I answered meta already - but I'm blanking on others, honestly. I feel like trope-wise my tastes have narrowed, but more generally they've broadened and I like reading about more characters/ships/headcanons than I used to.

15. What’s your favorite AU that you’ve written?

"AU" is a hard genre for this question actually. If we mean strictly alternative universe, I've only ever written one, which wins by default: left undead.

If we expand it to "canon divergence", then my favorite AU I've written is one I never cleaned up or, uh, finished well enough to post, called only "stella kills gyendal AU". I don't think I'll ever end up finishing it, but mostly because I think I'm going to end up mixing it into my TDP rewrite!

24. Are there any easter eggs in [insert fic], and if so, what are they? (now we're two of a crime)

okay this does not have any easter eggs but while rereading it to confirm that i jumpscared myself with myst referring to banana boy, so i guess it's a reverse easter egg LMAO

36. Do you visualize what you read/write?

I genuinely have no idea how to answer this question. I think I do, but my visualization is so clipped and vague that calling it that doesn't feel fully accurate. I have to make a point to visualize when I'm writing, but I do make that point a lot.

42. Have you ever received a comment that particularly stood out to you for whatever reason?

I've had comments on both ill-conceived and you try so loud to love me that feel too personal to repeat here, generally stuff where my fic really resonated with someone or made them rethink something, and that feeling is maybe the best feeling I've ever had as a result of writing.

50. Answer any question of your choice, or talk about anything you want to talk about!

i miss writing (sobs) i haven't had the time and/or brain energy for it since classes started back up! i also really want to finish the fic i'm currently working on, i started it like two years ago and i'm so ready for it to be done jksdfld but i'm just having so much trouble getting the tone right. i hope i can knock it out in the next month or so

#dear mel #thank u so much omg!!!

[selfshippinglover]

All the s/i asks with ur Undertale s/i??? >:33

THANK YOU SOOOO MUCH ANON I OWE YOU MY LIFFE RNNN QWQ,, (Just gonna copy and paste the other two answers since it was only two)

✍️: Overall, how does the fandom trait you? Are you a beloved character, or hated? Are you popular, or a minor side character? Anything in between?

~As for traits? Well,. she is a soul of kindness so hopefully stuff correlating to that? Probvs cuteified too tbh cause I know I look naive to outsiders so i bet she does too

~In my inserts design I was aiming for her to be more of a side character but I think she teeters the line cause of development lol. So I'd guess she'd be taken as one of the two. She followed the skele bros around a lot, and is generally in their section. She'll also be in Hotland visiting Alphys tho <3

~I hope she's beloved but she could also just be the, "annoying love interest every story has for some reason" and I'd say that's fair.

📝: How would your story in canon go? How would you influence the events of the original story?

~Obviously there would be new dialogue options, character interactions, a whole third bedroom in the skele bros house, a side mission, aaaand different stuff per which route the player is playing

🤪: What is your trait that fanon would exaggerate?

~Probably naivety since that happens to me irl =-='

🥰: How would someone who loved you portray you?

~With lots of emotions, essays, silly edits, screenshots, and excitement! Just, real accurate portrayal, death fodder, or the silly <3

😡: How would someone who hated you portray you?

~haha guess just kill me off and make me being too stupid too understand shit?

👯: What canon character are you most similar to?

~Alphys 1000%! Our insecurities, flaws, and interests align too well afgkjg

🌦️: Would you be accompanied by mostly fluff or angst fanfics? Both? Explain why.

~I'm hoping fluff but every fandom has people that thrive off angst soooo. Plus, hard to resist a good, "partner dies in their arms fic" right?

🏷️: What is you and your f/o’s ship name?

~ Not anything special, just combining names like "CiRus" or "PapCi"

❤️: How popular is you x your f/o? Are you a rarepair?

~Not sure? tbh I worry people would find the ship boring cause we're a lot alike

💞: Aside from with your f/o, who else would you commonly be shipped with? Why?

~Maybe Alphys or Sans sense we're besties? Tsunderplane cause I think their cute and would say so? idk really dsfkjsdg

☕️: What are the most common plots of shipping fics between you and your f/o?

~Heehee most likely friends to lovers going along with the source! More specifically, I bet there would be a lot of first confessions, pining, and/or angst involving their relationship in No Mercy timelines. (In a no mercy run she helps Alphys evacuate the citizens and is too late to save Papyrus. Instead, she ends up watching him die on Alphys lab screen :(( )

🛌: What tropes show up in fics involving your ship?

~Friends to Lovers

~Mutual Pining

~Endearingly Dorky

~ Insecure Love Interest

~Eh, stuff like that

💘: Why would people love your ship? Why would people dislike your ship? How might it start debates?

~The hopeless romantics like myself will appreciate the the facial expressions, the descriptors, and the the general fluff of it all <3

~Dislike it for feeling shoehorned, or uninteresting most likely

~I can't see it starting debates tbh. Just like, some people are more interested than others and/or some don't care either way.(It's a background thing anyways)

🙈: Why would your ship be thought of as cute/fluffy? Why would your ship be considered problematic?

~WE ARE THE CUTE FLUFFY SHIP EVER! THAT'S WHY!! No problems, just two mentally ill skeletons vibing and kissing sometimes <333

🎞️: What ‘canon’ scenes would the fandom point to as evidence for the validity of your ship?

~Cici clearly excited whenever he's around

~VCi getting all nervous around

~She brings him a lot

~Idk it's everything with her tbh

~On Papyrus's end it's more subtle though. Little things like him offhandedly mentioning her unprompted in a phone call

~Saying how he wishes she was there to share something with him

~Waiting to do things until she's around

~For him it would be little text stuff

💌: How would your dynamic be portrayed? What might people focus on most? Any misconceptions?

~I imagine it being shown over time or maybe in a slow burn kind of style? Lots of stuttering and red blush, stuff like that <33

~Strong focus on death or pining no in between gkjslgkh

~(Insert the many misconceptions with Papyrus here)

👀: How does your ship with your f/o influence both of your characterizations and the world? Would there be any interesting metas written about your dynamic?

~I mean, I'll be more willing to try things and be more silly in general. A bit more open with the things I usually feel insecure about sharing cause' they're viewed as childish. Really, they make me feel safe so I'd be more unabashed in everything.

~Papyrus would have a forever friend! Someone that can help with his low self-esteem and wants, hopes, and dreams!

~Won't affect the world so much. Paps and I are just seen walking together a lot and the townsfolk probably gossip(especially the bar-goers and Mettaton dkjgsd) (Did I ever mention that Alphys, Undyne, and Mettaton are dying for us to hook up? )

~I work at grillby's so he has more help and the player can talk to me there? idk lol

~I mean, there's lots that could be drawn from that considering Ci is a hacked in self insert that was added in by a human

~She has human memories but also lives with the monsters so she'll have a unque perspective on things for the time

~But idk if it would be too meta heavy??

#cicisays #self insert #ut self insert #WHOOSH! #HELL YEEAH THIS IS FUUUUN #SPAM ME PLEASE #THESE ARE SOOO CUTE YA'LL

[disregardcanon]

Oh oh how did you like Shadow and Bone? I've been meaning to read it ever since I watched the show but I haven't quite found the time yet however I'm very interested in hearing your thoughts on it!

i decided to read the books before i watch the show, so i can't say anything in regards to the show. i can say that while i liked it, my own feelings on the book were mixed.

i'm definitely not going to say that i hated it or anything, but i wouldn't say i loved it either. it hit a few tropes i'm really interested in (romancing the villain, being manipulated into becoming the bringer of destruction, power dynamics, super powers, european high fantasy aesthetic, subconsciously pushing down your own superpowers). i really liked genya and thought her whole situation was interesting. i liked the deal with showing mercy to the stag granting alina a power over it, and her powers are VERY visually appealing. i wish we got more with her map making background because i think that would be really cool. i also find myself both interested and baffled by the darkling. i'm not sure i can really figure out what his deal is and it frustrates me?

it's not that he's not interesting, but there's something that feels... inconsistent in his motivations. like, sure, "ruling everything" seems like a fair enough assessment, bringing his own oppressed people to power tracks, but it just doesn't make sense to me why these are the particular measures that he's taking. and it's hard for me to feel like he's.. so much worse than the king? because he's... not? the king is also bad? the whole system is very bad and maybe the solution isn't "darkling takes alina's power over" but the current system IS bad and DOES need fixing. which makes my feelings... conflicted. especially since i just didn't feel like the reveal of the baghra stuff and "darkling is evil, actually" tracked all that well.

like why is his elderly mother just somehow still alive too? did she do a special immortality thing? if he dislikes her so much why did he keep her around in his special grisha palace? can he not kill her? why did he specifically have alina train with her anyway? there's a lot of things that just don't quite. line up for me.

plus, i didn't find alina all that interesting and actively disliked mal until like... 20 pages from the end? maybe? where i became fairly neutral towards him.

it's definitely not "bad" and i plan to keep reading, but if you're a show fan i'm not sure how much i'd say "YOU NEED TO READ THESE BOOKS ASAP". i've heard that mal, at least, is far more likeable in the show.

#ask a sarah

[ssaalexblake]

I finished 11! I was never super into him during his run, i didn’t dislike him but i didn’t care much either, but during rewatch i actually came to like him a lot? I think hindsight is helpful here, because i could see the building blocks being laid that take the doctor further away from ten’s more toxic traits and actions, because for being Wildly irresponsible, 11 was actually making a concerted effort to Try to be better even if he rarely in practice succeeds. 

He tries to do right by Amy and Rory, and like i said, he may not always succeed and he may say stupid things but he honestly tried to make it so they’d have a healthy relationship with him. A town called mercy showed us shades of the doctor’s realisation that their actions have consequences, he even calls himself out for how ten acted around the master, which will bring us into s8 with Missy and 12. 

His relationship with Clara is also less *side eye* if only because now i Know full well where they go and it wasn’t happy go lucky masquerading as reasonable as much as it was the prelude to some meaty and self aware character plots to come with clara and 12. 

I can’t necessarily pick out things i’d say ‘wow i love that’ about it, but a vast majority of it was very watchable and i’m not actually looking for peak brilliance in dw, so i call this a win actually. Some episodes i Do really love, even if i actually don’t love the vincent one as much as everybody else? I find tthe fact that they kill the creature that’s just scared and disabled pretty... not great. But??? The Doctor’s Wife is my favourite, still. The vampires of venice was a totally forgotten jem, i Loved the ‘you should be in a museum... or mausoleum’ scrap of dialogue, McCrory killed that performance. 

Also liked Amy and Rory more as people this time, i actually think they’re easier to relate to now i’ve almost lived their age through? Didn’t really Get them back when i was in my early 20′s, couldn’t really place amy’s early 20′’s immaturity and the tension between her and rory because of it. Now it’s vastly clear that as we meet amy for the first time as an adult, their problem was that Rory had been made mature more quickly Probably due to his career choices and the gulf was wide until amy caught him up, which moved her from 11 to rory and so on. 

Though, I do believe the low point was either A) how he treats river, B) the use of the whole mystical pregnancy trope or C) that time 11 did a genocide but used humans as the weapons in it and forced murder upon like... everyone on earth. I’m still not sure if the narrative even realised either of those things were bad. I know 12′s resolution with River has him realise the damage he did to her, but it’s a bit Vague to the point that i know the doctor is Aware their behaviour was bad but depending on what the writers at the time may have thought was bad or not in their writing,still may not really be calling out everything that was a problem? 

11′s last few eps were deeply questionable from a writing standpoint, tbh, his very last episode was Much better than the three previous but they kind of spoilt it for me with the whole unnecessary and uncomfortably sexual nakedness thing that had like... No baring on the plot and just made what would have been normal, sweet scenes just creepy. They were so close on this one. 

The name of the doctor was a fine episode if i ignore any and all feminist ideals i possess and conveniently ignore that the plot of the episode isn’t Actually resolved at all and honestly, the 50th anniversary was kind of fun as well, except they used the zygon plot as a vehicle for the emotional story surrounding the doctors and their choice to destroy gallifrey and then... Totally abandon That plot as well when they don’t want it anymore. 

and that’s a shame, genuinely, because they really pulled him down at the uh... eleventh hour. Bad plot resolutions are better than No plot resolutions and they weren’t even giving us Anything. 

But all in all, i found very few episodes hard to get through and while it was a nightmare in terms of casual offensiveness increasingly as time went on, the episode morals themselves were rarely questionable if at times badly executed to the point it mangled the moral. The River Amy thing is a whole can of worms on its own, which would involve a detailed take down of the mystical pregnancy trope and it’s late so no, but it’s awful and should never exist and it did here. 

idk, i didn’t hate it, and i kind of did by the end of 11′s run back in the day, but my criticisms are more founded in actual critical thinking now and are ironically probably more scathing for the emotional detachment. I’m left with that frustrated feeling of ‘the bones are good but if it could just be Tweaked i’d properly like it’ mostly, i think. idk.

i rambled but that’s fine who needs sleep anyway 

#dw shit #i Didn't hate it but if i cared i think i might have #idk on to 12 now i guess

[kallypsowrites]

Ruin and Rising Chapter 17

Our climactic chapter and *deep breath* AAAAAAAAAAAAAAAHHHHHHHHH

Okay, so I have some feelings. Many are good feelings. Many are bad but in a fun way. A couple of them are just bad. But let’s start with the good.

It’s a very well written battle and I imagine a visual delight when it gets brought into the show. I could picture a lot of it very clearly because Leigh does great action scenes. The Darkling’s confrontation with Alina is amazing. Their clash. And I do love that he wasn’t actually holding the Grisha children hostage. Basically he’s like ‘I’m bad, but not that bad, but I know you want to BELIEVE I’m that bad, cause it makes it less complicated’ and honestly I wish she played with that concept a little more, cause its great.

His reaction to her losing her powers. Being scared and frantic. Cause he doesn’t want to defeat her. He doesn’t want her to lose her light even though she’s a threat to him because she was what he considered the ONE CHANCE he had to have anyone like him who would stay and remain that he wouldn’t have to lose, but she gave it up. It’s an unexpected reaction for a villain but such a great one for THEM.

Aleksander’s death as well was SAD and I am SAD. Now, first off, I love that the only power she had left was a shard of HIS power that she took from him and she used THAT to kill him because goddamn, like calls to like indeed. The shadows and the knife. That was some great shit. And him asking her to mourn him, to say his name and then going. Tender. That’s the sort of tragic ending shit I want for my fucked up romance.

So mostly good. But I have two gripes. Listen. If you’re going to say ‘this character needs to die in order to claim the power’ COMMIT TO IT. Don’t back down. Look, on one hand, I disliked the necessity of ‘he must die’ to up the stakes because it took away the significance of mercy. But if you ARE going to have him die you stick with that. Character sacrifices themselves but turns out to be alive is my LEAST FAVORITE trope. It really is. If you’re going to do it, you do it and you give us that tragic ending.

Also, the loss of Alina’s power. I am mixed on ‘losing power narratives’. There are times I think it can be powerful. For instance: Edward Elric in FMA: Brotherhood. He makes a conscious choice to exchange his power, which he’s built much of his identity on, for his brother’s life. But that’s kind of the key for me. The choice. And for Alina, it wasn’t a choice. It was an accident. If she KNEW that she had to lose her power and gave it up, then maybe I’d like it better but instead that agency is taken away from her.

And the fact that her power is tied to her health, to her wellbeing. Something that she loved that made her sick to suppress. Something that she was learning to love in herself. The fact that she must give it up to win and go back to the beginning doesn’t feel satisfying to me. If Alina truly was power hungry or her arc led to that maybe, but she never was. She did not misuse her power. Her losing her power doesn’t feel like a culmination but a regression.

So, mixed feelings at the end of the day, but still a lot that I liked. One more chapter to go!

#r&r liveblog #ruin and rising #shadow and bone #the grishaverse

[gayregis]

what are your opinions on the rats? especially mistle and ciri.

incredibly good question thank you anon

i feel that the arc should be taken for what it is: an impressionable teenager who has lost everybody. i feel that it was a great way to take ciri’s character in. when we meet her, we have this prissy princess who has a strong personality but little to back it up because she’s just a child. then then experiences a horrible trauma, one that scars her for life. she could have perished, but she survives, and under the training from both of her parents, she matures and learns self-discipline. but then she loses everything, again. and this time, in constrast, she does not have anyone to rely upon and guide her. so, she buckles and becomes the opposite of what her parents guided her to be. lost and alone, she turns to the company of cruel banditry and adopts their ways of dealing with things. she uses the skills she learned to defend herself in attack against others. then, when she is confronted with evil, she turns from this self and tries to chase what she had learned in the beginning from her parents, and it’s left ambiguous as to if she ever achieved it again. 

it’s a fantastic concept of a character arc and i feel it goes under the radar because she is just a child in the beginning of it, so people mistake her as not being the focus of the series. but slowly, she gains agency in time of contempt, and then you realize that she really is the point of the series.

so, it’s a great concept. but how about how it was executed? i feel like it was done about 90% well, but there were parts that made me cringe. 

to begin with, let’s consider ciri’s character and how it is treated a little more:

ciri already exhibits many of the traits that came out in her during her time with the rats. when she meets geralt, she threatens to chop of his head. then in time of contempt, she has that vision in the korath desert about sending all of her loved ones to the gallows. i think there was good buildup to her being as horrible as we see her in the rats arc. 

not only her pieces in the story, but others speaking ABOUT her; triss in blood of elves having the vision where ciri is dubbed the elder blood, dandelion’s chapter prelude in time of contempt which is an excerpt from half a century of poetry where he says that she just looked like a regular girl, but no one could have ever predicted what she would bring upon them. 

and geralt and ciri having that argument in blood of elves when they disagree about the purpose of a sword. geralt sees it as a burden, because it was placed upon him without a choice as a child. it is something he carried out of obligation. ciri sees it as freedom because it is something she learned to make her feel strong and confident and to heal from her trauma at cintra. she sees it as the solution to her problems, revenge will solve everything. though we see her deviate from this mindset in time of contempt when she refuses to kill cahir in cold blood, it comes back to her in the form of plain all-out violence. 

it’s not revenge against just the black knight who has wronged her and haunted her nightmares, because he never existed. without someone to direct her anger to now, she is taking revenge out on THE WHOLE WORLD for hurting her. she explains so in tower of the swallow when she speaks with vysogota, that not only her parents who she had found and had a chance to love, but all of her ideals and values had abandoned her. it’s the perfect setup. she has clear character motivations. 

i used to be upset because i simplified this in my mind to being just sapkowski saying that revenge is bad and trauma makes you a bad person, but it’s really not that at all. instead, i feel like he is arguing that BLIND revenge on a person is a bad thing. cahir didn’t deserve death at thanedd, so ciri spared him in mercy which was good. she thought before she killed. but once she started taking her pain out on the world, the innocent, the scared just as she was, that was wrong. trauma didn’t make her into a bad person, she just fell into bad ways because she was experiencing such a harsh life and was surrounded by bad influences. in the end, you get to decide if she ever became a better person after this and healed/redeemed herself. 

so the fact that the rats existed is good. it helps ciri develop as a character.

something that makes me cringe is how ciri/mistle was treated. i read in an interview that was translated on reddit that sapkowski wanted to invert the trope of the princess/Really Important Superpower Girl always falling in love with a knight/a bunch of male love interests, so he said, surprise, she’s a lesbian. this i think is a really good idea, as a lesbian i support this and think it is a good inversion of the stale trope. what i do not appreciate is almost everything about how it was handled.

for starters, let’s think about mistle’s character. she used to be a noble, but then became a bandit so she could continue to live a life of luxury. what? that is a very poor representation of why crime happens. the rats pretty much all follow this idea of robbing so they can have a little luxury, which is... just a little illogical. i much more appreciate what he did with angouleme’s character, where she and her fellow orphans became bandits out of necessity because they were escaping from evil and needed to survive, and then faced many hardships. i think it was meant to be this way though, because the rats are pretty much meant to be really dislikable and have few redeeming qualities.

i don’t think the way ciri joins the rats is horrible, i think it was one of her lowest points, and it makes sense for her to be at her lowest, most desperate point when she, a former princess, joins banditry. but ok. im gonna talk about the thing that no one ever wants to talk about

why did there have to be a r*pe scene, sapkowski??? why????? this was so unnecessary and stupid and out of place! ciri is like 15 here too! it’s just like ughhhh... i get that it was intended to be more trauma for ciri (because she totally doesn’t have enough of that already /sarcasm) but it was really... just gross to read... even as a 17 yo reading it, i felt gross and skipped a lot. i feel like sapkowski wanted to create very unredeemable characters, and he succeeded with this, but it was just a little much. but more importantly, this sets ciri and mistle’s relationship up to be horrifically unhealthy. 

and when i think about that interview i read where he said he wanted to invert the tropes and make ciri a lesbian, this is what hurts, because he could have actually had her have a healthy lesbian relationship, but instead the lesbian relationship was predatory and gross, and even more, the only time we see her in love with a woman is during this arc. this arc, when she is not only misguided and impressionable, but cruel, vicious, and being a horrible person. then it’s suggested she begins to like the knights that sapkowski was supposedly trying to not make her fall in love with (this is why the interview confuses me) in lady of the lake when she admires cahir’s eyes and has that awkward run-in with galahad (and in something ends, something begins when she fights alongside galahad and sits next to him at the wedding feast, etc). in the end, it doesn’t come off as bisexuality, instead it just comes off as “when you’re evil and killing people, you are a nasty lesbian,” and “when you are smart and have redeemed yourself to fight for the forces of good, you fall in love with men.” it’s weird how the only time she is in love with a woman is when she is in her “rebellious teenager phase,” it sounds like when some women say, “i was a lesbian in high school/college.” it doesn’t help that practically the only other lesbian in the series is philippa eilhart, who devoted her time to trying to abduct ciri away from her parents so she could use her as a political pawn. so yeah, it’s horrible representation. the OTHER thing i hate is that the gender non-conforming lesbian, mistle, is like the evil one who kills and r*pes. like, seriously? what could have been done to make this better would be to have other highly-coded lesbian characters (cough, cough... milva barring... cough) be butch lesbians, to show representation that isn’t wholly violent. it’s also because mistle is the one that initiates the relationship with ciri, that mistle is the homophobic ‘predatory lesbian’ trope who ‘turned ciri lesbian’ lol. it’s pretty fucked up.

what could have been done to make it better would be to just make ciri have a consentful relationship with mistle (and lower their age gap, i think mistle is around 19???) and for ciri to have feelings for other women or admire women’s looks outside of this time of her life. i think it was a nice/funny touch when she was stunned by margarita laux-antille’s body in time of contempt, but i am wary of this too because i don’t know if sapkowski’s intention here was to just say that margarita was sexy or that ciri was a gay child lol.

i feel like mistle sexually assaulting ciri was a later addition to the story, because they interact pretty healthily otherwise? it doesn’t seem like mistle is overly manipulating ciri in like, any other scene. in something ends, something begins, ciri speaks of her in tones of respect and like, wanting revenge because she loved her, and in the saga she wants revenge for all the rats but specifically for mistle. it’s just super weird to have what started their relationship be sexual assault, because it just makes the whole thing rotten. 

i feel the rats overall got very little development and time as characters, which is probably for the best because they really can be summarized with ease as bad influences to ciri, there’s not much else needed to elaborate upon. i don’t feel mad about not getting a lot of time with the rats. baptism of fire largely follows geralt and the company he is accruing, who actually have like, backstories and drama and things. 

as for the rats’ deaths, this is a parallel between ciri and geralt. when the rats died *, i knew that the hansa was fated to die, as well. geralt and ciri both lose their companies that influenced them heavily in contrasting manners (geralt became a better person and let people into his life and took responsibility, ciri absorbed cruelty and violent ways of venting her aggression and feelings of being wronged). sapkowski went total gore-filled anime scene when depicting their deaths, and really set up bonhart as the absolute vilest antagonist. of course it was horrific, this is an adult’s fantasy series after all, and even though it was nauseating to read, i don’t think they could have died in any other way. they did not have noble deaths, for they were not noble people. and sapkowski depicted violent death in a very realistic way, that is what slaughter is like.

i think ciri mourning the rats even though they were bad people is appropriate. just because they were bad people and influenced her in bad ways does not necessarily mean that she realizes this and views them poorly. if you read her statement to vysogota in time of contempt about when all her values failed her but she found support in the most surprising of places, it makes sense that she would care for them even if they were horrible.

* even though it was already insinuated to me that the hansa would die because i just began blood & wine when i started to read the witcher books (i mean, milva and cahir are not mentioned by geralt & regis within the beginning scenes of blood & wine (i had yet to meet angouleme in tos) so it is suggested that they died). 

TLDR: remove the r*pe scene and it’s fine...?

an afterthought and footnote: that scene with hotspurn was NOT necessary. or more specifically, the idea that a 15/16 yo girl could catch feelings for some 30-yo man and have those feelings deeply and explicitly elaborated upon is really stupid, but more importantly, out of place in the narrative, it was completely useless. it’s creepy and gross. 

#long post / #ask #anon #the rats #ciri #the witcher #Anonymous

[thephantomporg84]

As much as I love the trope of characters that hide that they have a lot of negative feelings by putting on an act, I really wish it was made more obvious Dante's cuhrayzee wahoo pizza man act is partly a front, since it kinda seems like people don't notice? Sure there was DMC2 but DMC2 is treated as barely canon by most, and Dante's characterization was one of many big complaints about it.

Oh god I totally feel this Anon. 1,000% agree, as someone who love love loves this trope, too. Lol. It’s why I devour a good DMC story on AO3, especially if the writer knocks this trope out of the park.

But yeah. That was sort of one of my bigger nitpicks about DMC5 as a whole. Like. While I do appreciate that the game (and series, really) can be played and the story does mostly work if you’re not invested in it and taking it at face value / just want a good action game — which is a super helpful tactic to bring new people in with such a gap between titles — I hate how it ruins the context of a lot of stuff.

Vergil (as V) all but looks directly at the camera and says ‘I’m a bastard and did what I did because I was afraid/wanted to be loved and protected’ but Dante’s internal conflict is wayyyy more subtle and it’s cheapened if you really have to spell it out, imo — because I feel like the ‘negative feelings behind a goofy exterior’ thing is easy to portray hard to give real depth to. As in, it’s easy to make Dante be cuhrayzee and swing his chainsaw motorcycle around, but hard to show that it’s an act to fool others (as well as himself, probably to some degree). Unfortunately, on top of all that, lot of people aren’t gonna wanna bend over backwards like you, me, and others have done to discuss and pick Dante’s (or any character from any series, really) personality apart.

That said: I don’t think there are nearly enough contextual clues present in any of the games to make this more apparent, either. I remember some guy made a pretty good video a few years back about how the anime proves Dante is actually depressed on YT, and that video blew up and got nearly 100-150k views (which is a lot, esp. when you consider how dead this series was ‘till E3 2018), and a lot of people were ‘shocked’ and ‘never noticed xyz indicator’ before.

Like... If you give me a scene and have given me all the clues I need, but they’re super vague and I miss it? That’s on me, and totally my bad — another reason to replay the game with a more watchful eye. But I feel like DMC has left way, wayyyy too much out about how Dante feels to even do that, now.

I think one of the best examples of that lack of any kind of solid clues about Dante’s personality is in DMC5: In game, Patty calls to invite him to her birthday, and is loud and chatty and kind of annoying. Dante just seems to cringe and brush it off/hang up. If you weren’t familiar with the anime, then you might just brush it off as a gag, or see it as a brief throwback/cameo if you were. Either way, you could chalk it up to ‘oh wow wrong number / what an annoying girl haha.’ But then if you look in Before the Nightmare, which isn’t even available in any language except Japanese, we see that Dante is incredibly uncomfortable at the idea of being around ‘normal’ people, and I believe it even mentions that he plans to make it up to her.

This ties back into my complaints about putting so much meat from the story in the side material, and then not even making the side material available with the game or even easy to access. I feel like putting that kind of interesting characterization in side material is almost criminal lol. Because that makes the whole scene have so much more weight — especially because it sets up that this man is clearly uncomfortable with what he is, possibly now more than ever, and is about to be asked to kill his brother, again... because of what they both are. You also lose that family dynamic of Nero experiencing the same type of isolation as Dante without even fully understanding why.

And if that wasn’t enough, you also lose some AMAZING bits of characterization if you never read Before the Nightmare like:

Dante still sending Grue’s (from the DMC1 novel) two living daughters / their other caretaker (Morrison looks after them, too) money. Dante also had to mercy kill Grue’s oldest daughter. He sends it to them from using money out of his own savings.

The former patrons of Bobby’s Cellar (re-named Grue’s Cellar) and those in the mercenary world immensely disliking Dante, and fully blaming him for the deaths in that bar, Grue’s death, Nell Goldstein’s death, and the hospital invasion/massacre that happened in the DMC1 novel. So, Dante is even hated in the mercenary world, and shoulders the blame for a lot of stuff that he didn’t do / has probably lost a lot of work because of this — and a lot of it is stuff that Gliver (👀) did or instigated.

The caretaker of Grue’s girls absolutely hating Dante, even though the sisters defend him, and he most likely knows and just says nothing. The caretaker even remarks that she thinks he’s a bad omen and she ‘Hopes he’s dead’ and that ‘If he’s alive, I’d love to stick a shotgun up his ass’.

Lady noticing that the qliphoth is growing in Redgrave City, and then noticing the name on Dante’s guns later — then wondering what the connection was there — indicating how little even people like Lady really know about him.

Like, holy shit that’s just a few things and it already adds so much depth to Dante’s character that’s not there in the games alone. I know I’ve said a million times not to take the series that seriously or in realistic terms, but... I mean... even ridiculously goofy stuff like JoJo’s has really well developed, layered characters that will surprise you / break your heart in the blink of an eye. So it’s not impossible for something like DMC to make some stuff a little more apparent.

Oh, and as for DMC2 — if it hadn’t followed the trend at the time of randomly making your protagonist into a dark/angsty/edgelord version of themselves, and had given the angsty turn some logical explanation, then I don’t think it would have been quite so hated (at least, janky gameplay and rushed design aside). Itsuno said that’s the one he’d remake if given a choice to do a remake, and I can’t help but think he wouldn’t say thay without having some ideas on what he’d do differently.

(SORRY I KNOW THIS IS SUPER LONG. But it’s something that really irks me a lot because it could be SO GOOD if handled a little better lol.)

#long post #dmc meta #anonymous #replies #dmc #devil may cry #before the nightmare #dmc before the nightmare #dmc5 #devil may cry 5 #dante #dmc dante #dante sparda

[ramblings-of-a-mad-cat]

How do you feel about Catra, Shadow Weaver, and Hordak? I know you said you find SW interesting but like on a scale how redeemable do you think these characters are. Ive seen a lot of infighting in the fandom cause some people love one and hate another and I just figured you would approach the topic nicely

Oh damn, happy to respond! (Under the cut because I don’t know how to shut up.) 

I think I’ve seen some of the posts that you’re talking about, and my friend did tell me that there was apparently tension between Entrapdak and Catradora shippers for that very reason. Still, I should start off by saying that the only character who is probably completely irredeemable is Horde Prime. And knowing this show, they’ll find a way to humanize even him if they are so inclined. The great thing about She-Ra is that there aren’t so much heroes and villains as there are complicated people. Undertale is the same way. This might sound weird, but I legitimately hope Horde Prime does get humanized, because otherwise it’s just way too easy for all of the characters to band together and take him out for a happy ending. This show has never had a character that was pure evil before, know what I mean? 

With that in mind...let’s talk about Hordak. 

I know, I know...before Horde Prime was known to us...Hordak basically was Horde Prime. That’s the role he played in the show, and it’s not like he isn’t guilty of countless war crimes. He’s a conqueror, and yeah, conquerors should not get off scot-free. But...Hordak is also clearly an abuse victim. That doesn’t excuse him from what he’s done, but I can’t just ignore it. He was so eager to get back to Horde Prime, so determined to please him and prove himself to his “big brother.” and the moment that they’re reunited? We see what a nightmare it is for Hordak, see him get mentally violated and brain-washed. This can’t be the first time it’s happened, and yet all Hordak wanted was to return to Horde Prime. This man is so sheltered and so emotionally stunted in relationships, that I doubt he understands the full ramifications of his actions. He certainly doesn’t understand that he’s in abusive relationship. Hordak is just doing what he knows. He could learn better, if he learns to accept what a monster Horde Prime is. (But first he’ll need to break from the conditioning.)

 I genuinely like how it took Entrapta, a character who isn’t really loyal to either side, to reach out to him and help him understand how it feels for a person to care about him, and not fear him even when he tries to be intimidating. And whether or not you ship them, (I do, I admit it) Hordak clearly has feelings for her and that guides his character in Season 4. I don’t know if Adora and the others will agree to take him in...but Entrapta will remember the bond they had. I just feel so bad for this guy, even if he has killed countless innocents. My philosophy about redeeming villains is very much a pragmatic one...will Hordak’s redemption spit in the face of all his victims? Perhaps. Will it bring them back to life? No. But neither will executing him or throwing him in prison. If he can heal, if he can learn better, and do better...why should we waste that growth? Why shouldn’t he be allowed the chance to make up for what he’s done? It seems to me like there is everything to be gained, and nothing to be lost, in letting him redeem himself.

Of course, there are many types of crimes...let’s move on to Shadow Weaver.

....She’s a child abuser. Plain and simple. That is a hard pill to swallow, that is a very difficult thing for me to look past. I don’t think I can do it. The way she treated Catra, the way it’s ruined Catra and Adora’s relationship...it’s unspeakable. She manipulates Catra one last time and leaves her high and dry so she can escape and go to Bright Moon...whereupon, she starts grooming Glimmer the same way she did Micah. I know it seems silly to be more upset about child abuse than what probably amounts to genocide on Hordak’s part...but part of it is how relatable the crimes are. There’s a reason most Harry Potter fans hate Umbridge more than Voldemort. Most people don’t know a mass-murderer, and excusing a character like Hordak won’t change their perspective on murder being wrong. But plenty of people might know an abuser, and abusers thrive on a culture that blames victims and downplays the effects of abuse, or otherwise excuses those responsible. We need to get better about sending the message that abuse is real, and wrong. But the great thing about She-Ra is that it depicts the cycle, from Shadow Weaver to Catra. If Catra is redeemable, why not Shadow Weaver? 

And here’s the thing...I’m not saying she isn’t redeemable. Just that I don’t expect this show to fully redeem her, and I’m 100% behind that outcome. She could be allowed to live in peace with the other characters, her victims might forgive or at least tolerate her. (Especially if she wins over Micah again.) But even if I find her genuinely compelling...I’m not seeing too many outcomes where she would deserve this mercy. Shadow Weaver has done terrible, selfish things, and her only loyalties seem to lie with knowledge and power. She’s completely unrepentant, and while she acknowledges that she was “hard on Catra” she also refuses to apologize. Shadow Weaver strikes me very much as a kind of “no regrets” type of person. But she also has a fascination with power, and any time she sees a youngin’ with a lot of potential, (Micah, Adora) she seeks to train them. Considering how poor her record is...she needs to stop doing this. I might be inclined to forgive Shadow Weaver, if she acknowledges her own short-comings, apologizes to the people she’s hurt, and realizes that looking after children is not something she’s cut out to do.  

Finally, there’s Catra. 

In many ways, she’s my favorite character. (Though I also might go with Glimmer.) The story is largely centered around Catra’s journey alongside Adora’s...she might as well be a secondary protagonist. What’s more, she’s a character who we basically know is going to get redeemed, Noelle has all but told us that it’s going to happen. I’m fine with her getting redeemed but so help me god if she dies in the process....if any aspiring writers are reading this, please stop killing your villains to complete their redemption arcs. Let them enjoy being redeemed. Please. Anyway, where was I? Ah that’s right, Catra. There have been times that I was beyond frustrated with her because she was purposefully choosing to be “evil” as Double Trouble lampshades at the end of Season 4. By the time she opened up the Portal, after sentencing Entrapta to die, nearly dooming the entire world, causing Angela’s death, and despite it all she still blamed Adora even though she only did all of this because she wanted to beat Adora...yeah, I was really running out of patience for Catra. And even now, I can’t really bring myself to agree with the fans as they draw parallels between Catra opening the Portal and Glimmer activating the Heart of Etheria. I’m sure this was intentional, too. The echoing of two characters dooming everyone through an impulsive, reckless choice. However...as I said, Catra was pretty much going off the deep end when she opened the Portal. She just wanted to stick it to Adora. I realize I may be biased as a Glimmer stan, but Glimmer was at least trying to defeat the Horde. Her intentions, however misguided, were noble. She thought she was doing the right thing. Catra just didn’t care. 

All this, and you might think I’m Anti-Catra, that I await her inevitable redemption with gritted teeth. But that’s not true at all. Catra is a character who is her own worst enemy, and characters like that have a knack for winning my sympathy. She continues to dig herself into a deeper hole and hurts those around her in the process. Part of her journey is realizing that and presumably working to change it. This is why I love how distant she becomes from Lonnie and the others in S4. Why I love Double Trouble betraying and completely shutting her down with their monologue about her. Why I cheered louder than you can imagine at “You’re a bad friend.” Because it was such an amazing crossroads in the development of both Scorpia and Catra’s characters. To be clear, I love these moments not because I dislike Catra, but because I genuinely like her as a character, and Catra as a “good guy” is a lot of fun. I don’t know how many people remember what it was like in the first episode when Catra and Adora were still besties, but it was just generally fun. I miss that dynamic. I want Catra to learn from her mistakes. Because I rambled on about the terrible things Shadow Weaver has done, and onscreen those were primarily done to Catra. She’s a character that I am rooting for one-hundred percent. A character who is almost a deconstruction of the tired writing trope “They had a hard childhood, and now that you know that, they are redeemed.” Catra turns that on it’s head. “Promise” is one of my favorite episodes for this very reason. Few moments have gotten me as choked up as Adora saying that she thought Catra didn’t care about being Force Captain, and Catra exploding with “Well I was lying, obviously!” It was a reveal that I genuinely didn’t see coming, but it makes so much sense, and demonstrates how much Catra has sacrificed for Adora and how much that weighs on her every time she makes a villainous decision. 

TL;DR: I am one-hundred percent on board with Catra and Hordak redemption, and tentatively on board with Shadow Weaver redemption.

#She-Ra #She-Ra Netflix #SPOP Catra #SPOP Hordak #SPOP Shadow Weaver #Character Analysis

[sometimesrosy]

please abbreviate name and ship

Anonymous said:I’m not trying to be rude as I know you ship Bellarke, but can you explain why you think L/xa was manipulative towards Clarke and why you disliked their relationship? I just don’t see it that way and I would like to hear a different perspective.

Am I ready to go into this? Ok. First, I’m not taking offense. I don’t have a problem discussing different interpretations, however, fandom has a problem with me doing so, which is why I ask everyone to abbreviate Lxa and CL, so that I don’t show up in their ship or stan tags, not because I am disrespecting the character or ship, but because I honestly don’t want the harassment to start up all over again. The history of me and the cl shippers is ugly, with me mostly trying to stay out of it and them coming after me like I was trying to poison their puppy. All the puppies. The CL fandom had a name for me. It was “The Devil.” So you should know that.

Let me begin by telling you that I am the survivor of domestic abuse, and stared watching this show after finally kicking my emotionally, psychologically and economically abusive ex husband out of the house, and what I saw in CL was a reflection of my own relationship, aka, not healthy. I resonated with it as a woman with PTSD recovering from abuse. I tried to explain this in fandom but was ignored and erased and called a lesbophobe instead. I am not. I am an abuse survivor who cares about understanding and unpacking abusive relationships and empowering victims. Abuse is not limited to m/f relationships.

I need to make it clear that my interpretation of CL does not invalidate the interpretation of CL as an epic romance, fantasy story, or wlw empowerment tale. Those are all valid and I recognize the need for the wlw community to have the same kind of stories that straight people have always had, and CL within The 100 was SO CLOSE to being the epic fantasy that was needed. But the canon proved that it never was a romance genre story that allows... DEMANDS the happy ever after ending. So The 100 was a great disappointment to the fans. It failed to give them what they were looking for. CL was a LOT like a very traditional M/F romantic trope that does end up with a HEA lovestory ending, the captive princess and heroic warrior king story. So it’s no wonder they read it as an epic romance just like the ones they’ve been seeing for m/f romances for centuries... MILLENNIA. 

That said, I’m going to put my analysis under the jump, because I don’t want anyone who doesn’t want to hear it have it appear on their dash. This is an entirely opt-in meta, and if reading something critical of a ship you love or like is not what you want to do, then please be a responsible consumer of media and do not opt in.

okay, so op, I GET why you see nothing wrong with this romantic dynamic. I was like you once, and I thought the warrior/princess dynamic was sexy and romantic and the fantasy of being taken away from all your problems so you didn’t have to deal is A+. But ever since I was IN a relationship like that, and realized it wasn’t about love or romance, but rather about power and control, I cannot, AT ALL, find it attractive. It’s painful and harmful to be in. And it’s not great for the dominant lover, either, tbh.

Please note: I do not have a problem with them being wlw. NOT the problem. I’ve been involved with the lgbt community since 1988. I am bisexual, demiace and androgynous myself and my sister was in a long term relationship with a woman and I like other wlw ships just not this one--because for me, it reproduces a harmful m/f romantic trope. When I find m/f ships like this I don’t love them EITHER. (reylo is just as filtered out of my dash as cl is.) So that’s a lot of explaining why I disliked their relationship and it has to do with my experience in an abusive relationship that was about power and domination and how I learned that that is NOT love. So now I’m just gonna make some points about where there was manipulation in the the relationship, some of which came before romance, some of which was the ‘courtship.’

when they first met, L posed on the throne and blamed her for killing the army she’d sent to destroy the delinquents. Clarke WON the battle that L started, and she acted like that was murder. no.

When L told Clarke that Finn would die for HER. although her actions had nothing to do with his massacre.

When L told her that Finn’s mercy killing would haunt Clarke forever.

When L told Clarke that love was a weakness. That is the WORST advice ever and anyone who still stanned L after that nonsense... i just don’t understand why y’all have no sense. I knew from the start that was a sign that L was “in the wrong.” it is CLEARLY a bad life philosophy. (made much worse that she began a courtship with Clarke after using her philosophy to cut Clarke off from her people, thus leaving only HER love as worthy? IDK. But that’s after this timeline.)

When Clarke came running to save TonDC and Lxa from the bombs, and Lxa COERCED Clarke into letting them bomb the village. This was the first REAL sign to me that this relationship was manipulative and abusive and it wasn’t a relationship yet. They weren’t even friends yet. And Lxa used Clarke’s guilt over Finn and LOVE for Bellamy to rush her into a decision that benefitted LXA’s political agenda, to get rid of the troublesome rivals on the coalition. She used methods with Clarke that were the same exact thing that my ex used to do to me. She told her that she had no time to argue, although there was time for L’s argument, and there were no other solutions although Clarke offered like three separate ones (setting a fire as the probable most effective.) That was NEVER Clarke’s decision. Lxa COERCED her. And MANIPULATED her.

WORSE after it was done, LXA BLAMED HER FOR IT. Said it was her action. Forced her to keep it a secret (which only benefitted LXA.) Then tried to kill Octavia. 

Look I totally understand why Lxa was besotted with Clarke. She’s amazing. But she started pursuing her when Clarke was dependent upon Lxa’s army and goodwill. 

She started pushing her about her FEELINGS for Bellamy when they were military allies, AFTER telling her about how her political enemies used her love for Costia to control her, and KILLED her for it. So here she is, a political...associate, questioning her about someone she thinks she loves, after telling her that love is a weakness. Pushing her feelings for Bellamy as a what? Vulnerability? Way to control her? RIVAL FOR HER ROMANTIC ATTENTIONS? 

Then Lxa KISSES HER. IN the MIDDLE OF A CAMPAIGN? Can you freaking imagine? The woman with all the power, who Clarke depends upon for the life of her loved ones, essentially her “boss,” in a way. She makes a move on her. Think about this. “I like you, oh by the way, i hold your people’s life in my hand, so you should come live with me.” Dude. That’s not a sweet romance, it’s sexual harassment. 

Just to bring it to a point. Clarke rejects her advances and then THE NEXT WORDS are “he did it,” because Bellamy has sent up the signal, victorious warrior (rival) and get’s all Clarke’s attention. What happens then? Oh yeah. 

ON the verge of WINNING the freaking mountain completely, Lxa SELLS HER ROMANTIC RIVAL (bellamy) and Clarke’s people, who proved far more formidable and successful than she expected and so are a politcal threat to her, to her GENERATIONAL ENEMIES.  and then. get this.

AND THEN SHE INVITES HER TO COME LIVE WITH HER AGAIN. Oh hey babe, since your people are destroyed and your boyfriend is dead, wanna come to my place? ARE YOU FREAKING KIDDING ME?

And no, despite all the people who tried to argue that was a WISE political move, no the hell it wasn’t. It was the path to her demise. She broke faith with her allies, not just sky crew but also the coalition and they took her down for it. 

In addition, Lxa herself admitted that was her biggest regret. That was her biggest mistake. WRONG DECISION. Weak leader. And a betrayal.

THEN 3 months later, she kidnaps her and imprisons her. This is not romance. This is not protection. If it WERE protection, she would have sent her back to her people. She was a prisoner. This is not a romantic situation. 

Oh when she told her how PATIENT she’d been for ALLOWING her to not talk to her for two weeks. Bitch. You have her in prison. You aren’t patient. You aren’t kind. You kidnapped her. After your betrayal. YOU’RE the one who should be begging for her forgiveness. Instead you’re acting like she’s an immature child. What? 

She then gaslighted her and told her she didn’t do anything wrong when she betrayed her and she did the same thing anyone would do, in fact, LXA wasn’t the betrayer, CLARKE was the betrayer. She turned her OWN sins around and blamed them on Clarke. She did it. We saw her did it. We saw how she forced Clarke’s hand and made her choose between TERRIBLE choices. 

Then she FORCES her to bend the knee so she doesn’t murder all of sky crew. That was not romantic. That was force. 

And she offers her own private bent knee ceremony with no witnesses and promises we all know she won’t keep because she has no honor and no one there to make sure she does what she promises.

WHICH IS WHY Clarke can’t leave. Because no one else will make sure she keeps her promises.

AND THEN we get to the carrot part of the carrot and stick part of manipulation. You can leave and I’ll kill all your people, or you can STAY and get nice clothes and a safe room and good food and music and be treated like a pampered bird in a golden cage. Do what I say? Get nice things. Just because you are being given nice things and treated nicely doesn’t mean it’s not manipulation and you aren’t being dominated.

I might also add that during this time, L often mentioned her own death. As if it would happen. Now Clarke had to stay not only to save her people from death, but also to save LXA from death. Just so you know, this is a classic psychological abuse technique. The abuser threatens/implies suicide if the abusee ever leaves them. “Oh when you go I will die, that’s the way it is.”  

Reminder, when Clarke wanted to go to Arkadia and fix the massacre, Lxa REFUSED. When Clarke said, “so I’m a prisoner now?” Lxa said straight out in canon. “Yes you are a prisoner.” She had ALWAYS been a prisoner. She was not a guest. She had no freedom to leave. Making her feel like she had to or wanted to stay does not mean she actually had a choice. She did not. (compare this to when Bellamy told Octavia, i understand if you need to go, but you’ll always have a place with me.” O had the FREEDOM to stay or go, and B NEVER gave or withheld permission. She was free. Clarke was not.)

Oh and Clarke is not innocent in the manipulation, either. After the hakeldama massacre, Clarke used her evaluation of Lxa as being proud and concerned with her “legacy” to manipulate her into betraying her OWN people and their beliefs and saying “blood must NOT have blood.” And yes that led to L’s downfall, but to be fair, she already did it by sparing MW. L is vain, and Clarke worked that. To sky crew’s advantage, but she did. 

After they get back from Hakeldama Clarke has given up on Bellamy and their relationship starts being less manipulative. Oh wait. the whole “so wait, you want me to not take vengeance for your people’s crimes by wiping out the village, but you’re going to punish this actual murderer who just tried to kill you, huh? wow hypocrite much?” 

And then when Lxa decides to *surprise surprise* go back on her promise to treat sky crew like her own people and WIPE OUT THE ENTIRE POPULATION, she’s like, okay, I give you permission to leave now and be with your people. Aren’t I kind and merciful to let you go? NO YOU ARE NOT. It isn’t kind and it isn’t merciful and it isn’t loving to ALLOW your beloved to be with her people. before you wipe them out. Or even if you’re not. It shouldn’t be up to you whether she goes or stays. It should be up to HER. But it never was. 

Tbh it wasn’t until Lxa “let her go” after she’d already committed to murdering all Clarke’s people and Clarke couldn’t do anything to stop it anymore that the relationship stopped being manipulative. Their ENTIRE relationship was finding way to work each other. I do not like that kind of relationship. The only wholesome part of their relationship was their time with Pauna (no manipulaton it was a fine story) and the sex, (also a perfectly lovely story. )

Okay. go ahead and hate me now. A couple years after, I rewatched the show to see if I could see that stirring, epic love story in CL that the fans love, and even when I’d worked through my personal abuse issues and was no longer literally triggered by it, I found it to be a thin romance, far too political in nature. Just didn’t do it for me. Was it passionate? Yes. Did they like each other? D: No. I don’t think they were ever intimate enough with each other (except for with Pauna) to actually get to know each other. It was very pretty and glamourous. I am not a fan of glamour. It tends to be all show, little depth. 

all in all, I do NOT think CL is the love story that wlw deserve. I dont’ think it was intended to be. And I think people hungry for a canon fantasy love story believed they were getting their HEA that romances promise. But it wasn’t a romance. (I cannot make excuses for The 100′s social media presence at that time. they fucked up.) I think it was CLARKE’S story of darkness and trauma and recovery, and L was her shadow. She needed to fall n love with her to embrace her own dark side. And she needed to die to push forward both Clarke’s trauma and the plot. Lxa was a tragic hero like Macbeth. Doomed. I don’t like Macbeth as a character, either.

#the 100 #don't read if you get offended by critiques of l or cl #or if you want to be outraged keep me out of it #i'm trying to keep it as far away from the fans as i can #i'm allowed to not like a character you love

[pellicano-sanguino]

Since it’s October, I think it’s time for me to talk about vampires on my main blog again. To be fair, the subject will probably come up all year round, but during this month I feel it’s a good time for making several and longer posts. 

Tonight I’d like to make a short rant post about one thing that I really hate in visual forms of vampire fiction (comics,movies,tv etc.). If you absolutely have to kill your female vampires (I’d prefer you don’t kill them at all, but if for storytelling purposes it can’t be avoided), then please do not make it look like a rape metaphor.

I was a young vampire lover before Twilight and True Blood made vampires cool again, so to get my fix of vampire fiction, I had to take what was available. The selection was scarce and it didn’t always match my tastes perfectly. The first time I gave manga a try was Hellsing. I know I’m going to get rocks thrown at me for dissing this one here, since this series is super popular. But you need to understand that while I love blood, I really, really don’t like gore. At all. Hellsing manga was way too overtly violent for my taste and I hated the character of Alucard, who seemed to me like some nerd’s childish power fantasy OC. I kept reading because I liked Seras and found Integra rather hot (look, I like crossdressing women, shut up). But then I got to the scene where Alucard kills the female vampire known as Rip van Winkle, and I was like “Well, the manga artist apparently doesn’t feel the need to hide the fact that he got his career started by drawing hentai.” Just looking at the page made me feel sick to my stomach, much more so than any of the previous gory deaths in the series. And that is because the rape metaphor wasn’t hidden at all.

Now I know killing a vampire of either sex has a chance of looking like a rape metaphor, since the most classic way to defeat a vampire is by impaling them. But there are still some small details that make it worse and turn it from just taking down a dangerous monster to killing a human-shaped creature and taking pleasure in its suffering. I would never trust a vampire hunter who enjoys his work. They give me the impression of violent men who are delighted that there now exists a type of woman they can now slaughter without mercy and still be considered ethically on the side of good.

Sometimes the vampire killers won’t show that they like what they’re doing, but their actions can still look like a rape to the audience. What methods you use for the killing act and how you frame the killing scene matter a lot. One thing that comes off as rape-like is having the vampire pinned down, having her scream and zooming in on her horrified face. Even if the killers don’t show they are into what they do as overtly as Alucard from Hellsing, making a big show about the suffering of the vampire turns the scene into torture porn for the audience.

Like this photo, from Dracula Prince of Darkness. I saw this screenshot in a book about vampire movies and felt the same sickness and nausea come over me again. They are pinning her down, she screams and her face has an expression of horror. To me, when I saw this photo, it looked like a fucking gang rape. 

One more thing that makes vampire killings look like a rape is the trope of the killer stoicly looming over his victim as they are dying, looking at them. They don’t show excitement about the act of killing, remaining perfectly serious, but it reminds me of men choking women and looking down at them in disgust while they do it. It also brings to my memory the video one of our (fortunately very few) school shooters filmed before going to massacre everyone, where he put the camera on a low angle so that he looked down at it and pointed his gun at the viewer while telling what he was going to do, as if he was talking to a victim lying on the ground that he was going to shoot. I hate the trope of silently watching over your dying enemy so much. It disgusts me.

So, how to kill your female vampires and not make it look like a rape? I wish I had a good answer, but I don’t. The only advise I can give is either put them down swiftly and cleanly like dangerous wild beasts or let them die fighting honorably like a warrior. 

I suppose I should give some examples of killing scenes that I think are done in good taste. I prefer amateur vampire hunters to professional ones, normal people who are forced to defend themselves when suddenly a threat of vampires comes into their lives. 

One such example is the original Fright Night. Yes, I like this stupid, cheesy flick and refuse to be ashamed of it. I know the effects are laughable by today’s standards but they terrified me back when I saw this for the first time. The vampires in this film are male, so it’s a bit of a bad example to show how to not kill female vampires, but I wanted to mention Ed’s death scene, because it’s similar to the “watching silently while your enemy dies”-trope in theory but the tone is something completely different. It’s a perfect example of the fact that how you do a thing is more important than what you do. It’s the most memorable vampire death scene in any movie I’ve seen. In the form of a wolf Ed the vampire attacks Vincent the reluctant vampire hunter, but he miscalculates his leap and smashes into furniture, accidentally impaling himself with a broken table leg. His death is slow, as a wolf he whimpers in pain, and Vincent looks on, horrified at the sight of it. Then Ed begins to slowly turn back into human form, trying weakly to remove the shaft of wood, making pleading gestures towards Vincent. But Vincent knows he can’t do it, if he shows compassion and saves Ed, the vampire will not reward his kindness and will kill him. The emotions Vincent goes through during this make it a very intense scene. The more human-like Ed becomes, the harder it is for Vincent to resist the very humane instinct to answer a call for help. 

Vincent did not enjoy watching a vampire die, nor did he stoicly stare at it while it was dying, he felt sorry for it and horrified at the thought of killing a creature that used to be human. When Ed resumes his human form in death, we are reminded of that fact - vampires aren’t born monsters, they are humans who fell victim to the curse of vampirism and as such, their original humanity should never be forgotten.

Besides death at the hand of vampire hunters who aren’t natural killers, I mentioned that I do respect vampires falling in honorable battle. As an example of this, I could mention the female vampire generals in Dracula’s army in Netflix’s Castlevania. The main characters barge in and engage in a fight scene, where all the generals are defeated (I was a bit disappointed they ended up being just whip fodder, they had cool designs). These are professional vampire hunters, but they don’t stop to admire their work, lingering the death scenes and looming over their fallen enemies. They are efficient and swift, they make quick, clean kills and move on. I was happy that neither of the female vampires got impaled, and their deaths weren’t made into torture porn. However, I must voice my concern regarding this show’s future.

I worry about season three. Namely, I’m worried how they are going to handle Carmilla. She is either going to get killed or forced to be Dracula’s servant. Being a big bad, she won’t get a swift, clean death like the female vampire generals. I’m afraid they are going to draw out her death scene and have some male character (either Hector, Isaac or Dracula) loom over her while she dies and be like “This is what bitches get for betraying the fan favourite male characters.” Despite my dislike for gore, I’ve liked the show very much so far and would be so disappointed for them to stoop to rape metaphor killing scene, but I’ve seen the patterns, I know where they are leading us. They’ve painted Carmilla as oh-so-evil in hopes that fans will think she deserves what she gets when they eventually kill her. They will want fans to cheer on while she is being killed in the most brutal way possible. Or spared and forced to serve the resurrected Dracula (a thing I hated about her in the games). So, I look forward to the third season with mixed feelings. 

#vampire

[neverwatchedonepiece]

613-614: "Showing Off His Techniques! Zoro's Formidable One Sword Style!" and "To Save Her Friends! Mocha Runs at the Risk of Her Life!"

I feel like by the time Luffy finds Caesar, his rage will have reached critical mass.

The best actor awards in episodes 613 and 614 obviously go to Zoro and Chopper. Best supporting actors must also be given credit and the plaudits go to Tashigi and little Mocha.

From a narrative standpoint, I’d say these episodes continue the “tying up loose ends” theme from the last two. But there’s also a decent chunk of character development here, especially from Zoro in 613.

Cuz You’re My Bro, Bro.

The action picked up with Sanji leading his G5 Fans out of the Biscuit Room and away from “Harpy-chan”. Onward they charged to serve the noblest of causes: impressing Nami and Robin by saving the kids!

The G5 Fans had a teeny problem, though. Why didn’t Sanji, their saviour, help out earlier when Monet was chewing through shoulders?

Sanji told them straight. “Don’t be dumb. I don’t kick women.”

A G5 dude said what we all probably thought, “Then what would you do in a life or death situation?”

Again, Sanji told them straight. “I’d choose death.”

At this point I would normally insert the man blinking gif, but at least I have confirmation that Sanji hasn’t changed that much over the timeskip. It is dumb that he would never fight back (and dangerous, if you remember Kalifa). Also, not a good idea to inform the Marines of your major weakness. Still, it’s a huge part of Sanji’s character, will likely never go away, and as long as he doesn’t endanger another Strawhat by refusing to fight a lady, I guess I’ll just accept it.

The G5 Dudes were surprised to hear this from Sanji. These Strawhats were all so different, even though they work in the same pirate group. That pirate hunter guy, Zoro. He looked like he’d chop up anyone without mercy!

That comment made Sanji laugh. “Surprisingly, he has a soft side too. He’ll find a way out. You can count on him. Don’t worry. And don’t worry about Tashigi-chan, either.”

“You can count on him.”

There you have it, folks. Proof that, even though they rag on each other constantly, it’s more like two really close guys bickering and bantering back and forth, rather than actual dislike. I never ever believed they disliked each other. They just love bickering and noising each other up. Plus, all the bickering pushes them to achieve. Zoro’s success drives Sanji to be better and vice versa.

And Sanji does not dismiss Tashigi either, which is nice. Sanji acknowledged Zoro’s strength by saying, “Yeah, he’ll find a way out.” He also did the same for Tashigi. That could be evidence for the argument that Sanji does not view women as inferior. He’s just an old-fashioned, chivalrous type who feels like must protect women.

Which leads us neatly on to Zoro.

The Jury’s out on This One. Or Is It?

Back in the Biscuit Room, Zoro and Tashigi were already butting heads. Zoro insisted he didn’t need Tashigi’s help. 

She countered with, “You think whatever you want”. 

Zoro shot back with, “you want me to take care of you first, since I’m a pirate, Marine soldier girl?”

And Tashigi revealed what she thought was the root of Zoro’s problem with Monet. “You can’t do that. You are not going to cut me or that woman.”

She believes Zoro looks down on her because she’s a woman.

I’m not sure about that, to be honest. I think Zoro’s better than that. And here’s why.

Tashigi recalled her first encounter with Zoro way back in Loguetown. She was defeated by him then and angrily asked why he wouldn’t finish her, Mortal Kombat style. “Is it because I’m a woman? It’s humiliating that you won’t fight seriously in a game played in earnest just because men are physically stronger than women! I’m sure you don’t understand the feeling that I wish I was born a boy. I don’t carry a sword for pleasure.”

Leaving aside the possibility that Tashigi might one day pay Ivan-san a visit, as a female swordsman and Marine captain, she has obviously come up against the roadblock of sexism time and again. If someone looks down on her, it’s because of that.

I do think Zoro was being honest when he said the reason he couldn’t fight her was because she reminded him of his friend who had died. I think he was genuinely spooked back then.

But Tashigi didn’t believe him. “You view women as inferior. You don’t really try to fight us. You won’t kill us. You might not lose but you won’t win against Monet, either.” She basically said that if she let Monet go after her men, there would be carnage. Which was true.

Zoro said, “Are you looking down on me?”

Tashigi’s reply was a blunt, “Yes.”

“Fine. Do what you want.” Zoro sheathed his swords. “My duty is to keep her again from my friends too. All I have to do is block that path.”

What I think happened here is that Zoro thought, “Fine. I’ll let you handle this and I’ll see how you go.” Not in a patronising way. More like a “big brother” or “senpai” role. Kind of like how he is with Chopper and Usopp and Nami, the slightly weaker members of the crew. He’ll let them do their thing, but if he has to step in for their safety, he will do so without hesitation.

Zoro knows he’s the stronger swordsman here, but did not rub that in Tashigi’s face. He sat back and thought, “Good. You’ve improved a lot since Loguetown. You do have some fighting spirit, after all. Fine, you take this and if I need to, I’ll step in, but only if it gets really bad.”

And that’s pretty much how the fight panned out.

Were These Manga Panels? (Because They’re Awesome)

It was good to see that Tashigi’s confidence has grown. She snapped back at Zoro. Her fight with Monet confirms she has learned haki. (Probably a must for higher ranking officers in the New World.) She is tough, determined and strategic as she would not let go even when Monet was munching her shoulder. Nom, nom, nom.

But what the fight with Monet also confirmed is that if a logia user is fast enough, bog-standard haki will not cut it. I’m actually cool with that because it means Luffy won’t be able to just blitz everyone with Conqueror’s Haki (I know it only works on fodder but still, you know how I like a bit of peril in plot.) This also bodes well for the Smoker fight. Vergo is strong in the way of Haki but Smoker is a fast, tricky Logia type. Should be a good fight, when we get to see the end of it.

The speed differential meant Monet gained the upper hand. The way she gnawed on Tashigi’s shoulder was savage.

This is when Zoro thought, “Okay. Enough. Big brother has seen enough of Tashigi being bullied.”

Even unsheathing his swords, Zoro does damage. (The warning cut on Monet’s face should have been her cue to scarper.)

Still, Zoro would never, ever admit that he likes to help out anyone because that would ruin his pirate-hunter image. So he shit-talked Tashigi a bit. “You talk big but you took so much time. Time’s up. I have to go now.”

And to Monet, he said, “When you thought you couldn’t beat me, you should have run. Of course there are things I don’t wanna cut. But let me ask you something. Have you ever seen a fierce animal you were sure would never bite? Because I haven’t.”

The grey filter descended. Everything was in slow motion. Monet could not move.

Then, with his one-sword style: Great Dragon Shock, Zoro literally ripped Monet a new one.

Honestly, the Zoro and Tashigi fight was so damned savage. There was Monet, lying on the ground in two pieces, twitching and flailing and freaking out because she could no longer control her body (nightmare fuel) and Zoro wise-cracking, like, “Are you two happy now?” xD

And do you know what? Zoro didn’t even use haki. If he had, Monet would probably be dead.

But Monet did get up and tried to strike again - and this time, Tashigi was the one to finish her off. (Laws of shounen. Women have to fight women. The trope was so close to being subverted!)

Of course, Tashigi ragged on Zoro for not killing Monet. “You are like that, after all! You can’t fight seriously against women.”

Nah... I don’t think it’s that, exactly. think Sanji’s right about Zoro. He does have a softer side. But it’s not like Sanji’s, in that he wants to protect women. Zoro just likes to help out deserving people who are not as strong as him. Secretly, though, while maintaining his surly demeanor.  And maybe he just doesn’t like killing all that much. If they’re a good opponent, you can fight them again someday, right? Why waste them?

YMMV, of course, and I don’t mind if anyone disagrees. I can see the evidence for the other side too.

And, of course, Tashigi collapsed from her injuries and Zoro had to lift her out of the Biscuit Room. Just as well, really, because the gas was leaking in and Zoro has no sense of direction. I think this is a new record for Zoro: getting lost in a round room with two doors.

How sweet was that little scene with Tashigi geeking out over Shisui, though?

I think from now on, Zoro and Tashigi will be secret buddies. :)

IT’S SAD CHOPPER, NOOOOOOOO... ;_;

I love Chopper. Ever since I learned about his past back on Drum Island, I have had a major soft spot for Chopper. Fun fact: I own a Chopper key topper, a Chopper roll-up pencil case and a giant Chopper mug I drink coffee from every morning without fail. You could say I am a Chopper fan.

I like his honesty, his cleverness and his kindness. Cleverness is not a rare commodity in scientists at Caesar’s level. But kindness and honesty? Those are first edition shiny Charizard rare qualities.

And I’m gonna frame this bit of discussion of Chopper by comparing him with Caesar. Because Caesar has said the following phrase several times this arc, to the point it stood out to me: “I will treat you at any cost.”

Every time I heard him say that, I was like, “Nice significant omission, Caesar. You’ll treat them with your crazy drugs at any cost. You’ll treat them with that poisoned candy at any cost. You will continue your “treatments” at any cost.” Another sugar-coated lie with a basis in truth. The sort Caesar specialises in.

I was not aware of the actual cost until now.

The morality bar has officially given up and gone home. It’s crying on the sofa now because it can’t deal with Caesar anymore. (@infriga That human garbage comment... Oda is not wrong there. xD)

Mocha Regrets Doing The Chili Pepper Challenge

The action in 614 picked up with Robin and Chopper teaming up to restrain and sedate children. Not in a Nurse Ratchet way. They were helping.

The kids still running free were being held back by Nami and Mocha. Well, Nami tried to hold them back without hurting them (which is nigh impossible with her weather skill set) and Mocha ran with the candy.

Inevitably, the giant kids were the real obstacle. One took a might swing and Nami and suddenly, Mocha was on her own. She ran to a crossroads, and then, like Gandalf at Moria, she was like, “I have no memory of this place.”

But the other kids did. Some looped round and cut her off.

Must admit, at this point I thinking, “Jeez, just let them have the damned candy and you can sedate them later. They’ve been dosed for years. One more won’t kill them.”

Because Mocha knew it was, in fact, the opposite, she decided to take one for the team and NECK THE ENTIRE LOT OF CANDY IN ONE GO.

Even I gasped at that one. That was a major, major overdose. Even Chopper had never seen anyone put away that quantity of drugs before. He was screaming at her to spit them out. He had told her what kind of drug it was! But Mocha hamstered them in her cheeks for a while and I thought, cool, she’ll hold them there until the kids are all sedated. Job done!

Nope. This is Oda we’re talking about.

He was about to engage Sad Chopper and Certain Death and I was not ready for them.

Chopper and Caesar Compared

Remember when Chopper and Mocha were holding the door against the other kids? There was a bit of that conversation OP fans were not party to (Oda’s fave cutaway technique in action again).

Mocha asked Chopper if Caesar really was a bad person. He was always so lovely to them and gave them candy every day. 

“Yes,” Chopper said. “That’s his trick. You kids are his test subjects. You were never sick from the beginning and your giant body is proof. I’ve heard turning people into giants has been a project underway for hundreds of years. No one has ever succeeded. This experiment is a doomed failure too. Caesar knows this. I suppose he’s just collecting data for his next attempt.”

Then poor, little Mocha asked a difficult question. “What’s going to happen to us?”

Chopper dropped the heavy truth bomb.

“You’re all gonna die. None of you will make it home. That candy is a deadly poison. It will destroy your body before you know it. The more you eat, you’ll crave more and the harder it’ll be for you to get away from Caesar. I sedated you already but from the side-effects from the candy... you’ll probably die before you can even become an adult.”

Ouch. 

Huge, huge ouch. 

Especially since Mocha had a short flashback where the kids all got together and promised to go out to sea when they were in their twenties and have an adventure. Once they got better and went home. ;_;

I mean, hefty truth bombs of that magnitude are not normally the way you’d deal with breaking such crushing news to kids. But that’s not Chopper’s way. He is kind and honest, almost to a fault. Plus, they were in a really highly-charged, difficult, life-or-death situation. The truth was probably the quickest way to impress on Mocha the seriousness of what was happening.

Chopper also hinted they might not die, “but only if you kids escape now. You’re not gonna die. We will save you all!” That glimmer of hope led to Mocha making a noble sacrifice for her friends. If she could show them what the candy did, they wouldn’t want to eat it. Then they’d want to go home, just like her.

But here’s the thing... Chopper told Mocha the truth. Even though it shook her to the core and distressed her deeply, it was the right thing to do and helped Mocha take difficult steps to improve her situation. Being carted away by Sanji and his G5 fans to a treatment room, Chopper said: “I will save you at any cost, Mocha!” 

Chopper will do anything to save Mocha, which means getting her better, off the drugs and home to her parents.

This is in stark contrast to Caesar, who always said, “I will treat you at any cost.”

The treatment was the experimental drug and the cost was Mocha’s life.

Caesar wanted data to further his own ambitions. 

Chopper’s motivations are entirely selfless.

Chopper for President.

Oh, and btw, Luffy punched his way out of the garbage pit. The haki use on the fodders and the “Do I have to repeat myself?” moment was badass.

Caesar, you’d better get a jar because you’ll need somewhere to put all your loose teeth.

Caesar has made Luffy so angry he tries punching through the fourth wall to find him.

#one piece #neverwatchedonepiece #nwop #never watched one piece #monkey d. luffy #roronoa zoro #sanji #tony tony chopper #usopp #nami #nico robin #brook #mocha #monet #caesar clown #foxfire kinemon #momonosuke

[broken-clover]

Who are your top three favourite Guilty Gear characters and why!

This question took me out into my backyard and shot me.

Okay, being a little dramatic, but it’s kinda tricky since my opinions on the entire cast basically go (favorites) -> (everyone else is slightly less favorite but I still love them) and then a massive gap, and the Zato. Aside from him, there really aren’t any characters I legitimately dislike. Everyone’s great! I’d say that basically everyone else is tied at #4. But I guess if I had to pick…

3). Venom

Personally, I think Venom has one of the best character arcs across the series. From the beginning he was depicted as a person with a stoic outer persona heavily influenced by and struggling with the ‘kill or be killed’ nature of his upbringing under the assassin’s guild. Despite being a highly trained assassin, he’s a very honest person who puts a great emphasis on morality and politeness.

His character arc has him basically deconstruct everything he has been taught and adhered to- the guild’s way of life and his status as an outsider, his feelings towards his master, and his animosity towards others. I loved his story in Revelator when he finds an unexpected kinship with Robo-Ky in how they share a similar history, having their lives being centered around fighting, and even sharing a sort of ‘us vs them’ mindset that prevented them from truly bonding with other people in different ways (Venom’s valuing the Guild above all else/following Zato vs Robo’s disdain for humanity and narcissism) culminating in a rather beautiful ending where he chooses to disconnect from the Guild and become his own free man.

Plus, his design and playstyle are very striking and unique, which is something that makes him interesting. He’s basically a wizard with an extra-long wand, but the usage and applications of billiards as a fighting style is just weird in the best way possible. Plus, it’s stated that Venom literally created his own type of magic from scratch, which makes him one of the most skilled characters across the series.

2). Zappa

I suppose it’s kind of weird putting him above Venom, since Venom has such a good and complex story while he just kinda doesn’t. But I really like Zappa for the roles he plays and how he basically contrasts against the entire cast by being someone with no capability to fight or a drive to do so. He’s basically the series’ straight man pre-Xrd, being just a normal guy with the normal goal of finding a romantic partner, but whose plans are repeatedly dashed. He adds an odd sort of relatability to the often-ridiculous plots of Guilty Gear, not really knowing what’s going on and not really wanting any part of it. He’s basically what most people would be like if they accidentally stumbled into a fighting game. Plus, I appreciate softer guys, especially in this genre. Zappa doesn’t even really like fighting, does his best to be polite to everyone he meets, and writes letters to his mom. Friggin’ adorable.

Along with that, he’s one of the few characters where we actually get to know what he was up to during the six-year timeskip between Accent core and Xrd. After failing to get help with his ghost-summoning ‘illness’, he not only got rid of the problem on his own, but managed to get enough insight on the Backyard that he played a major role in Revelator basically trying to stop the apocalypse. It was nice to see him have moments showing off his intelligence and aptitude for technology, even if After-Story C showed that he can still be the anxious dork that he was back in the old days.

1). Bedman

…This should probably should not be a surprise to anyone, but still. He’s my favorite. Kinda want to sum it up with a keysmash but I will actually explain a bit, since I know some people aren’t a fan of him and I want to explain why I am

Basically, I like the impression that they give off of him more or less being a deluded, messed-up kid given too much power without a real understanding of what it entails. What exactly does Bedman want? His sister, his only friend, and an Absolute World he can control for the sake of eliminating suffering. Unlike Relius, who I often see him compared to, he shows no interest in using the new world as a way to hurt people. Part of the reason he is so intent on fulfilling that goal is because it would also allow him to resurrect everyone he’s killed in the process of attaining it. His condescending nature is shown to be a side effect of loneliness, having only ever experienced friendship before with Delilah. Nor is he incapable of mercy or kindness in his own ways, showing sympathetic moments with Ramlethal and Axl (if there’s one thing I feel could have used some tweaking, I would have liked to see a more thorough relationship with him and Axl). The fight in Valkyrie Garden against Venom and Robo is by far my favorite across the series, as all three of them come from similar circumstances yet all react to it differently, giving off the implication that all three of them could have been friends if the circumstances behind their meeting was different.

And in general, I just really like his design and imagery he uses. I like nightmare and medical tropes quite a lot, which he uses plenty of. For what little we see of his backstory, there’s some not-so-pleasant implications concerning having a brain that literally works so well that it almost kills you and the medical imagery in his stage which literally exists in his own mental world, and whatever happened that lead to him being physically nailed down to a bedframe. I’m still pretty bummed about him getting offed, but based on the ending we see, there might be more to his storyline, which I am very excited to see more of.

#ask #guilty gear #Venom #Zappa #Bedman

[acatbyanyothername9]

5, 7, and 9 :)

5.       Has fandom ever ruined a pairing for you?

No? It’s actually quite the opposite. I didn’t ship my OTP (QuiObi) until I stepped into the Star Wars prequel fandom. Fandom has a way to makes me see characters in a new light. Characters I wasn’t interested in suddenly became more interesting: I’m thinking about Kylux, or Lando/Han…

I think this is because I curate my reading experience a lot: if I don’t like a pairing or I’m strongly against, I won’t go read it. I began reading fanfiction with Frozen, and the sheer amount of Elsanna was staggering (especially the number of fics in which they were still sisters). Since I absolutely don’t want to read incest fics, I stayed away from them. Same thing with tropes, I won’t go anywhere near a trope I can’t stand (A/B/O or Mpreg for example).

So no, fandom has never ruined a pairing for me, quite the opposite in fact^^

7.       Is there anything you used to like but can’t stand now?

That’s a difficult question. There’s the Reylo pairing that I was somehow interested in after the Last Jedi came out, but I never found any fic really appealing and I lost interest in it pretty quickly especially since I had almost no interest whatsoever in the Sequel Trilogy. Then I began to see posts about how the Relyo pairing was only promoting an abusive relationship, and how fans of this pairing demeaned other pairings, especially Finn/ Rey I think, and I was so glad that this phase was behind me!!

Mostly I drifted away from certain fandoms because I migrated from FFNet to A03 and you don’t find the same content there. So I don’t read much Avatar fics anymore, and same with The Phantom of the Opera, even if there were some absolutely wonderful fics on FFNet. So I still like this medias ( I follow an atla meta tumblr that is absolutely fantastic), but I’m as interested in them as before that’s all.

9.       Most disliked character(s)? Why?

So Star Wars being my main fandom, I’m gonna talk about Anakin Skywalker. I think this is the first time I’ve disliked a character so much. Not because he was a badly written character or because he was not interesting, but because Anakin Skywalker is the type of person I can’t stand.

He refuses to play by the rules, preferring to break them without even trying to see what he can do within the structure given by the rules. Everything with him is personal, as @gffa pointed out in a marvellous meta yesterday. For example, he hates slavery, not because he hates the idea in itself, but because he was a slave once, and his mother was a slave too, and he hates that.

He is also never satisfied with what he has, he always wants more: more power (because you know he’s supposed to be the most powerful force user in the galaxy), more reconnaissance from the Jedi, although he can’t seem to accept their rules and way of life, he wants more freedom to live his life the way he wants to, but doesn’t want to leave the Jedi order…

On some levels, I can relate to him: I think most of his fears are shared by many. We don’t want to see our loved ones die, we want to have some control because not being in control is scary…Personally I know I share his fear of abandonment. He has some serious issues on the subject since he can’t let go of anything. But every single time he is presented with a choice, he makes the wrong one.

His mother was killed? He slaughtered an entire village including the children in retribution. The enemy he has been fighting for years is defenceless and at his mercy? He decapitates him.  He sees his wife dying in his dreams? He doesn’t open up to anyone and makes a deal with the devil to save her, which ultimately kills her.

I know he has some good traits, but it isn’t enough for me to balance all his negatives ones.

#salty asks #I beg and people talk to me!!! #obaewankenope

[vohalika]

I don’t even go here. I know, like, broad strokes over overwatch lore, have been playing the game for... three months or so, am very bad at everything, but something bothered me so much yesterday that I’m... meta’ing. Do you even do that around here?

Anyway, so, that D.Va animated short finally happened. And I loved it. But the youtube comment section sure didn’t. Which, you know, is normal, and to be expected, because I guess gamer bros are everywhere and they don’t get any more pleasant. So yeah, the short mostly showed us D.Va’s job as established so far, and yes, the guy got a bit too much spotlight for my taste. So the roughly 50% comments focusing on the guy and how we all lost another brother to the friendzone were to be expected and just worthy of rolling your eyes at, maybe.

But then people tried to rationalize their dislike. There’s nothing new in the short, D.Va has no depth or development, is a total Mary Sue because she can fix her own mech, the writing was bad and everything was sooo clichéd.

Which. I mean. You can think that. But then, when someone asked OP to name a short that ISN’T clichéd or badly written, OP named... Dragons. And. Whaaaaat.

So maybe it’s my anime background, or the above average amount of other Japanese media I have consumed over my life, but like. No. There is nothing not clichéd about two yakuza ninja brothers feuding, trying to kill each other, and one being burdened by the guilt over it and the other finding spiritual enlightenment. Well, okay, the fact that Genji was turned into a cyborg is somewhat unique to the franchise, and maybe this combination of tropes hasn’t been done quiiiite the same way before. But individually, all of these elements are... The most stereotypical kind of Japanese story you could tell a Western audience without getting into NSFW territory, and slapping a cool story about brother dragons on top of it doesn’t exactly help.

Also, I got every bit of information contained in dragons - sans the wallscroll brother dragons legend, maybe - from the game itself, too. Was the background of the Shimada brothers just not revealed when the short premiered? Remember, I’ve been in this for like 3 months. I know the basics. That’s it. But that short in particular didn’t feel like it told me anything that wasn’t available in in-game dialogue and the small blurps next to the skins in the hero gallery.

So compared to that, I feel like Shooting Star told and showed us A LOT that was not available in the game before. The MEKA squad and D.Va’s friend notwithstanding. Is D.Mon her sister, or is that just a thing they do?

Anyway, the short also established that D.Va has friends, a background with racing futuristic tech before getting her mecha, what the MEKA organization actually looks like, how current-day (...I think?) omnic attacks look, and, oh, yeah, that the MEKA squad is as much a combat unit as it is a propaganda tool to keep the public calm and that D.Va has PTSD from her work, and that her entire attitude? “Are you sure life is not a game” and so on? An act. She actually has more depth to her than being a gimmicky hot girl in a mech to appeal to the Korean fanbase.

(Someone in the comment section argued that one flashback doesn’t mean she has PTSD but like. Dude. 7 minute short. Visual shorthand. Every frame put in there on purpose. Things mean things.)

Like, this short kind of turned everything we knew about her upside down, didn’t it? Pretty much every quip she makes in game? Holy coping mechanisms batman. Assuming, of course, there is some sort of consistent long game going on and her dialogue was written with these motivations on the writers’ minds. And again, I am too new around here to know whether that’s how this entire shebang works or not. From what I hear, consistency is not exactly a thing between shorts and heroes and in-game information, and a lot of people are upset about that time everyone thought Mercy turned Reaper into Reaper and that it turned out to actually have been Moira and oh no how can they. So maybe this is one of those cases, maybe it isn’t.

(For the record, from what I got out of the voice lines and stuff, my take-away was that Mercy probably tried to save him after he blew up but didn’t make it/didn’t want to go there, and then Moira was like “fine, then I’ll just finish what you started” and, like, finished the job.)

(I mean can we talk about how Mercy’s and Reaper’s halloween skins reference each other?)

I mean, as mentioned before, gamer bros are everywhere and will always be rather unpleasant about these things. I’m sure the comment section on Mei’s animated short looks even worse. This just for some reason really bothered me, so yay, venting.

#overwatch #overwatch meta #d.va #d.va meta #or just aimless rambling #I don't even go here #are those the tags