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bugs1nmybrain · 2 months

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Shigaraki's Psychological Conditions Headcanons - (a long ass post)

So, I'll preface this by saying I am NOT a psychiatrist and am not qualified to diagnose shit. I do however have a history of personal mental health disorders and am going to school for mental health work. This is mostly just for theory sake. My word is not absolute

Let's begin

warnings: mental illness as title suggests, not proofread and probably has typos

Antisocial Personality Disorder / Conduct Disorder

This one sort of goes without saying cuz duh he's a villain or whatever. I want to specify that in terms of Antisocial Personality, he likely is a sociopath, NOT a psychopath

I hear people call him a psychopath all the time and it's infuriating because people throw around labels without understanding what they mean. Psychopaths are more cunning and charming, and very manipulative. This isn't to say that Tomura is none of those things. Psychopath, however, applies to people like All For One. Almost diplomatic and very persuasive.

Tomura is a sociopath because he's known for recklessness and abrasive behavior. Psychopaths often pretend to have feelings, but for sociopaths aggression is a key emotion that's visibly displayed. They are also able to feel remorse in some cases, and I run this back to Shigaraki because he spent years in what was implied to be repressed guilt regarding the death of his family. Tomura admits it himself in his flashbacks, but ultimately decides to let go of that guilt (that he still fucking feels and is in DENIAL but that's another post). Hence, his forgiving nature toward his mother and sister when he's dreaming during surgery.

Even after Tomura let that burden go, he has no desire to be cool and collected, he just fucks around and finds out. Overall, though, he disregards people's lives and doesn't have remorse for what he's done because he throws his trauma and desires over it as a bandaid. He does show care and consideration to people in the League, though.

The conduct disorder part of it is self-explanatory. He's a violent criminal, lol.

Post Traumatic Stress Disorder (PTSD)

Duh.

Trauma is pretty much all Tomura has known. I won't reiterate his backstory, but being physically abused and rejected as a child, the murder of his family, being blatantly ignored by people on the streets, and AFO's upbringing? That's a lot

His PTSD is so dehibilitating that it took hold of his body language and behavior. Before the end of s5, Tomura was rigid and hunched over. In the MHA video games, he's also seen as very restless and moving his body around (until s4 era in One's Justice 2). I'll attach a video below.

He's also just very irritable and easily set off at the reminders of his trauma and rejection. "I HATE YOU" is a key example, as up to that point Tomura had been improving his rash behavior, but he's very unsettled by his past and continues to be now.

Obsessive Compulsive Disorder

His case of OCD is connected to his trauma and emotions. You'll find that a lot of his conditions feed into one another. For him, he has a variant of dermatillomania (often known as the skin picking disorder). For him, that is in the form of scratching rather than picking. But he does it compulsively and without thought, and he does it in attempts to self soothe. I believe he does it occasionally as a self injurious behavior, resulting in itching himself rather than lashing out. He even just does it when he's only moderately anxious or irritated.

Depression

While we don't see Shigaraki slumped in bed or feeling sad in the ways we see in many cases of depression, his "I hate everything" mentality puts him here. Actually, it's safe to say he experiences anhedonia, which is the lack of enjoyment in anything. He seems to somewhat enjoy video games, but his bio states "nothing" as his likes. I'm inclined to believe he feels no personal joy or happiness, and tries to attain that through murderous rage. Never works tho, does it Tomura?

Bipolar Disorder and Unspecified Psychotic Disorder

This one might stir some debates, but I do genuinely think he has a mood disorder. I don't want to feed into stigma that bipolar and psychotic people are "evil," because I myself have these conditions, so maybe I'm projecting lmao. He's definitely not medicated, and so I'd say his case is Bipolar Type 1. This type is characterized by intense manic symptoms, though depressive symptoms can be severe, too.

Tomura has manic tendencies, and he's impacted by mania in that he seems to get spontaneous motivation, but he also will stay stagnant for some time. I saw this as the case when Spinner literally went at Shiggy for putting the League in a complacent stage, but he's done this before, such as when he was in a slump about Stain. When his motivation surges, though, he goes above and beyond and doesn't put extensive thought into it. He just lunges into his desires in pursuit of satisfaction. He also has delusions of grandoisity to some degree and has a moment where he treats himself as invincible. He fought Gigantomachia for almost two months, and kept fucking going at him. Surely, he could've asked the doctor to call him off, but Tomura wanted that power so bad. Tomura also went into his surgery without asking many questions about it. He makes very impulsive decisions, even after people insist that he "matured." He also gets flicked into motivation like a snap of a finger, and proceeds to be lead mostly by endorphins and gratification.

When Tomura experiences what he perceives as a "positive" emotion, it overtakes him. He becomes pretty much engrossed in his bodily sensations. Through maniacal laughter and taunting language that's charged in a hate induced fuel. When Shigaraki has "voila" moments, he has a surge in neuroactivity and gets into aggressive mood stages, but I guess that could apply to most of the villains. I saw this when Deku told him the difference between him and Stain, and Tomura had a surge in manic-like bliss and drive.

I'm not sure if Tomura hearing the voices of his family before his epiphany was just intrusive thoughts, but I thought they may have been auditory hallucinations. Tomura admits to hearing things that aren't there and seeing visual hallucinations, too. Evidenced by:

I hate how the dub translated this into "when you're this tired" as a broad statement. The manga gives this more personal association to Shigaraki, and he says that it happens when he's sleepy, and doesn't specify if it's only when he's extremely sleep deprived or just tired. Also, him staying up for days on end and smiling his ass off reeks of mania. He has delusional sprinkles in his thinking process, but they're not of bizarre nature, and are usually tied to his trauma. At this point in the manga he's very psychotic, though. That has a lot to do with him being fueled with adrenaline and also just breaking out of AFO's control.

I think he is either bipolar type 1 with psychotic features or has a mild case of schizoaffective disorder. Probably the first one, but I'm not sure.

ADHD (Attention Deficit Hyperactive Disorder)

This one is more of a gut feeling for me, but I see Tomura as being easily distracted and aloof to his surroundings at times. He's fidgety and does shit on whim.

Also, look at his room.

I'm not saying that everyone with ADHD has a messy room, but from what I can see, he goes from one task, drops it entirely without picking up, and goes to the next. Some could argue that Tomura simply doesn't care, and that's true, but he's at least got some decency to put the shit in trash bags. Trash bags that he HASN'T EVEN TAKEN OUT. I think he gets too caught up in the shit he's focused on that it slips his mind to do simple things like that.

He has spontaneous interests from what I can tell from the many books and toys he has that seem to have gone untouched for some time. He also hyperfixates, and I don't mean interest wise. I mean that when he's dwelling on something, it doesn't leave his mind for DAYS, until he gets some gratification. All Might in s1 and Stain s2 for example.

In conclusion, this boy has a grocery list of conditions, but I love Tomura. I love my beautiful prince with a disorder, and he is so dear to me.

I'm open to discussions about this, but please keep them respectful.

#shiggy #shigaraki tomura #shigaraki tomura headcanons #shigaraki headcanons #tomura shigaraki #shigaraki x reader #shimura tenko

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ystrike1 · 5 months

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From Maid to Queen - By Woo su bin (8/10)

The King won't let her die. The yandere in this case is a villain and a loser. A man with too much power, who cannot accept the fact that he is not the right man for the woman he adores. He doesn't let go. She dies dozens of times. He keeps bringing her back, but he grows tired. He gives up on her, and in that life she thrives. She finds love.

Urania was a fool. She played around with the King. King Kraus the third isn't the strongest King, but the country is rich. Urania is a mere maid. No special backstory. No magic. Kraus fell for her when he showed her his secret magic, and she wasn't afraid. Wizards are feared as pagan curse-bearers in this universe. Young Urania forgot about her magic friend. She forgot about Kraus, but he remembered her.

She foolishly, foolishly took the chance. The chance to be wealthy, lazy and spoiled. Kraus spoiled her utterly. He made her his concubine right away, without any real dating. When he saw her all grown up and pretty he realized he adored her, even if she didn't feel as strongly for him. He accepted all of her selfishness. He seemed aware that her love wasn't that deep...but he indulged her anyway.........and she died.

The Queen killed her.

Queen Stacia is the perfect woman for Kraus. He does not deserve her. She loves him obsessively. I'm not saying she is a perfect person, but she knows how to run a country. Her unconditional love made her strong, but she never had a child. Why? Kraus denied her. You see, he's been creepily in love with Urania the maid since his childhood. He loves Stacia....like a sister. Stacia loves him as her husband. She never cheated. She worked hard. She did ALL of the work when Kraus was busy lavishingUrania with presents. If Kraus was just a little reasonable. If he gave his wife SOME of his time, Urania would not have died. Alas, Kraus is even more obsessive than his wife. He did not give Stacia a royal heir because of his obsession. She did not cheat or force him to get one, so the country was in trouble.

Stacia did what she had to do.

She got rid of Urania, in an attempt to fix the future. She was also jealous of course, but literally if Urania did not exist her life would be perfect.

Kraus admits that Stacia is an exemplary queen many times, and he feels platonic love for her. But, oops he loves Urania the maid...so he rejects her and treats her like a sibling.

Urania was a total fool. She had no clue about any of this before her death.

A mysterious light gives Urania another chance. She wakes up in her ugly maid outfit with no money. With memories of being executed thanks to Stacia's meddlesome teason accusations. Urania is not special. The only thing she has in life is the love of the King.

She plans to seduce him again.

It doesn't work, but the Queen still hates her.

Why? Well her attempts to seduce the King are obvious and tacky this time. Also, he's not taking the bait??? The obsessed boy who refused to lie with his own wife for her seems to be no more???

(By the way Urania really never learns the depth of his obsession. He ignores her in this life because he's trying to give up on her, as she has already died too many times. He's mentally broken...)

Urania is screwed. The Queen has told the other maids to kill her off, because of her sad attempts at flirting.

She runs into Oscar. A minister with a low noble title. He's of common blood (not really there's a secret deposed magical royal family but the point is he had to start from the bottom. No family. No money.)

Oscar is a hard, strict, excellent teacher.

She hides from the maids with him, and she begs for his help.

He tells her to fake her own death. If she can do that he will take her on as his assistant.

Urania proves she has a brain, and he takes her in as promised. She gets a magic potion to blur her face, and her new life begins.

She starts to feel disgusted by her past self. She's grateful for the light that gave her another chance (she doesn’t know the light is Kraus).

Oscar shows her how to weild a blade.

She no longer needs to be saved...as much.

She makes friends.

She's stops being snobby to people who want her to improve. When she was Kraus's only beloved concubine she consistently ignored good advice, and she became dumber than a rock.

Oscar makes her want to be more.

Kraus starts to make her downright uncomfortable.

She becomes a government official on her own merit. Urania was always smart, but as a common maid she wasn't allowed to grow.

She loves to grow.

Kraus starts to flirt and distract her...or he tries.

Urania really never loved him. As soon as she doesn’t need his money she has no interest. Kraus realllllyyyy should try to love his loyal and gorgeous wife but whatever I guess...

Oscar wins her with pure sincerity. It's sweet and goofy and ridiculous and they continue to grow as politicians together. I won't go into too much detail but Oscar is a loyal sap, and Urania falls in love for the first time.

She wants to make Oscar more successful. Better. She doesn't just want his money. It's great.

Oscar and Urania become lovers. Very pure and trusting lovers. Kraus isn't even a temptation. Urania doesn't actually like him on a personal level. She just thinks he's an ok king. Kraus forces her to become his personal aid. Then he brings her to a special religious ceremony that involves gold light.

Kraus doesn't stop.

It gets less and less funny.

The truth comes out.

Urania is disgusted. Kraus killed countless people to bring her back, over and over.

Kraus doesn't think it matters, because it's time magic. All of the people who die by his sword come back too.

This issue is...obviously...the King became more evil with every cycle. Now he's basically a God that kills everybody when things aren't going his way.

He even turns on Stacia. The woman who supported him back when he was a weak King in his first life. Kraus is overpowered now, but in the beginning he was kinda a shitty King (that secretly had magic). Most people use magic stones, so nobody suspected that Kraus was the real deal. He claims he was obsessed with Urania because she didn’t fear him, but magic is pretty normal in this universe. He's just a wackjob who cheated on his fiance emotionally and physically after a maid thanked him???

It gets even worse.

Kraus chases Oscar and his own wife out of the palace, because he's nearly impossible to beat. After a couple dozen lives he's unnaturally smart and ruthless.

He forces Urania into the position of Queen...even though she's pregnant and it's Oscar's baby. He says he will accept the child because he'll do anything to finally have a life with Urania...

Urania, of course, plans to overthrow him with Oscar. He's also secretly magical how convenient. Urania promises to return to Oscar someday, and he trusts her!!! He trusts her because their relationship is really great and they're in love. He's also kinda obsessed with her but he has morals. So it's fine.

It's painful to watch Urania sit by Kraus as his Queen. He is a splendidly crazy villain.

He was going to give up on Urania, but then she fell in love with somebody else.

So, everyone must suffer.

#From Maid to Queen #yandere #male yandere #yandere male #yandere boy #recommendations #recs #rec #recommended

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strawberryjamsara · 1 year

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Sara and Kanna

Your Turn To Die has a lot of relationships that are important to the story, but one that goes ignored in many instances is Sara and Kanna

It’s odd, because their relationship plays such a juxtapositional role in the story. It’s highlighted constantly and it plays a role in one of the most important decisions in the game. So this is a post trying to look at their relationship and dissect it.

So, I’m going to start with the point the game shoves in your face. Sara reminds Kanna of her sister. Though, that can be complicated. Since we learn in Kannas backstory that Kugie wasn’t always perfect. And Sara is not perfect to Kanna.

I am not trying to condemn Sara or Kanna with this. But I think Kugie taught Kanna an important lesson: people are always capable of becoming more kind. And sure enough, after this interaction, Sara treats Kanna with kindness.

… Though you still have the option to be mean.

We’ll put a pin in why I think these options exist, but for now let’s focus on Kanna.

Kanna still cares about Sara regardless of your choices. She still thinks of her as a sister. And regardless of her choices… she takes the sacrifice from Sara and she says this.

Now this is not the truth of the situation. Sara was not reluctant to give away the sacrifice because of kindness. If you have the tokens for it, she’ll immediately rush to find her wallet for a trade, and if not, she’ll try to loot the corpse of her dead friend. But Kanna has this idea because… put simply she idolizes Sara.

Kanna has been working with Sou, and Kanna isn’t stupid. She knows he’s the groups villain. But Sara is different. Sara is the kind leader of the group, and she’s helped Kanna explore, she’s held Kanna’s hand, and she’s so protective! Just like her big sister…

In the end, Kanna has Sara high up on a pedestal marked “Kugie” and doesn’t even realize it. While Sara and Kanna want to reach out and connect to each other, it’s something that (at least until emotion route) is strained by the hole in Kanna that Kugie left. Even Mishima in the beginning asked Sara to fulfill this role and it was yet another thing she felt she had to live up to while Joe was given the role of younger brother. It’s played as a joke but it speaks a lot to how these two are treated in the story. Joe is underestimated in his intelligence and Sara is given the responsibility

And if you play logic route… that’s it. Kanna goes out with a hug for Sara, accepting that she’s deemed her life useless. The sister who she’s fine with killing her. A twisted reflection of Kugie.

Anyways I’m gonna talk about Sara and Kannas parallels now.

So, Sara and Kanna both feel a sense of duty and responsibility towards the others. We see Kannas need to be useful to others as far back as her backstory, where she never let herself act sad for the sake of her adoptive family. Though it echoes within the game as well.

Sara’s backstory is something the player is given a lot more pieces to put together for themselves at this stage of the game, but we do know things. We know she gets anxious when she isn’t studying for school, and that bad grades make her nervous, that she wanted to change the way she acted before she met Joe because it wasn’t like how most teens acted, that she’s avoidant of conflict, and that even before the death game, she had a sense of duty to others that was magnified

From this we can glean Sara, like Kanna, has a sense of responsibility that’s followed her for a lot of her life (most likely exacerbated by Meister but besides the point, I guess you could add points that Meister is not her biological dad, but I feel like that’s paper thin and I don’t think Kannas parents were the problem in her life, I think most likely she came from the Asunaro orphanage and that’s where the issues came from side tangent over.) she’s afraid of stepping on others toes, she doesn’t want to make herself a nuisance, she has to be strong hardworking and useful, a normal good kid, the best kid in the world, and she has to be capable enough to make others like her.

It echoes startlingly close to Kannas ideology. The two of them are awfully alike. Now let’s go back to that screenshot from earlier. When Kanna is berating herself for not being useful, Sara tells her to reflect. The option there, appears to be Sara reflecting her own thoughts about herself onto Kanna (and possibly echoing her dads words… I hate Mr Chidouin.)

We also have another parallel in these two with… the men they stick around

Keiji and Sara and Shin and Kannas relationship has been pointed to as a parallel constantly and I’m nowhere close to the first person to make this observation.

Many people point to the parallels Keiji and Shin have with each other. They took a girl under their wing for the sake of manipulation but began to grow a familial relationship and grew as a person but let’s look at Kanna and Sara’s parallels.

In ways, Keiji and Shin were both “Teachers” to Kanna and Sara in negative ways. Although they did come to care about them, there were things passed down that did the damage by the time it was too late.

Keiji’s is obvious. Sara’s role as leader and hallucinations. Keiji trying to prop her up as one led to her crippling guilt over Joe, and that lead to hallucinations and a need to keep going. Keiji asked to make her leader and now she is one, and he can’t stop it.

Shin also passed down things to Kanna. If you need any proof whatsoever look at the second main game. Shin calls her useless the entire time, and she ends it trying to sacrifice herself for being useless. Not only does she use that argument, but one of logic vs emotion. Shin, despite being an emotional person, has been using logic this game. Despite his breakdown in chapter 1 being fueled by emotion he is making arguments that appeal to a sense of logic: “don’t you doubt when others are kind?” Etc. etc. and he emotionally distances himself from her seen post dream sequence in 2-2. Kanna at the end of the main game is a more cynical person, thanks to Shin.

Despite the harm caused, both girls are willing to die for these people, Kanna in the main game, and Sara when she signs the Asunaro vow on the vaguest chance she could save Keiji. Their self sacrificial tendencies come in fourfold for these two, even when they, by all accounts shouldn’t.

I’m going to close off this analysis with a scene from emotion route.

This scene, I think, is a nice resolution to Sara and Kannas conflict. While they do have later scenes together (the lantern is very cute with them) I think this is a very good moment. Kanna sees Sara in a moment of weakness, vulnerable, and then, she does something to recall what Sara has done. Not Kugie. Sara. Kanna has acknowledged that she loves and cares about Sara’s actions and from there, they can take the steps forward.

#your turn to die #kimi ga shine #yttd #kanna kizuchi #sara chidouin #shin tsukimi #keiji shinogi #tag this as ship and I’ll block you #gothitxt

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trollol360 · 8 months

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396, 397, 399

398

"Toshinori Yagi: Rising/Origin" Just that title. Embrace it. Take it in.

"Let me be your pupil." He doesn't even have a quirk and he wants to train under Nana's wing. Also, the multiple flashbacks throughout the fight are amazing (plus, the people have been wanting to know Toshi's backstory for ages!!)

"Superacid Injection: Pinky" Eighth move; Mina.

"Aw, just after rewinding some damage... You're dissolving away now?!" Toshinori literally injects acid into All for One. It's a brutal way to do damage; get him from the inside out. Toshinori is a just person, and he doesn't kill, but it seems like All for One just tips him over the edge just a little. He lets his attacks be a bit questionable because it's fucking All for One. Who the hell would defend his ass? Toshinori has smashed his skull to pieces and now injected acid into his body to dissolve him inside out. Both attacks are villain-esc, but that does not make Toshi a villain.

"All Might..." Again. All Might, not Toshi.

"I'm 'trash,' right? So much for that theory!!" Despite All for One being so damn certain he could get rid of Toshinori so easily, he keeps on getting proven wrong (and I live for it).

"Let me assist you." "Without a quirk? Ridiculous. (Quit following me)" "Please, I mean it." "Go defend a three-meter radius with that rusty pipe of yours. Good luck." A three-meter area is another way of saying home/loved ones. Nana's using her quirk right in front of him, because not only are they physically apart, but biologically as well.

"My family was killed a while back." ORPHAN TOSHI. Also, he says a while, not long ago. Chances are that it was recent, but he didn't feel entirely loved by his own family.

"Mine too. But I don't have the luxury to join your little quest for vengeance." Nana's too busy working as a hero to get revenge (something Toshi deals with later on).

"I just can't accept a world... Where those who take from others come out on top. And then those who've had everything stolen... Their grief turns to hatered, in an endless spiraling cycle." Toshinori could've very well become a villain, but he doesn't. He's not bitter or resentful. Yes, he's upset at All for One for bringing up Nana during Kamino, but he doesn't let him/it overwhelm him (with sadness).

"Yeah? And what's your solution?" Nana seems to lose hope for society, but then Toshi shows up.

"I want to make the world a place where everyone can live with a smile. And for that... The world needs a symbol." "A symbol of what?" "Of peace. Even with plenty of new buildings... And visible restoration efforts... People have been living in fear for a while now. Their hearts and minds are shrouded in darkness." The shot doesn't change until Toshi says peace. We don't see how fucked up the world he grew up in is until he talks about wanting to bring peace to everyone.

Nana looks at her hand. She knows she can pass One for All down.

"So you would put on a grand display of power?" "Everyone's got a tough enough time with their own three-[meter] radius. So yes. I would step up. A quirkless guy like me... Has no role otherwise." Toshinori was quirkless. He would've been ignored or killed, and he probably knows/knew that. Yet, he still wants to protect everyone. To be kind to them and provide the safety that he never had.

"All for One is even closer to U.A. now!! But he's veered off course!! He's pursuing All Might instead!!" We're shown why All Might put himself up and in the way of All for One. He wouldn't have chased anyone else, but he's fixated on Toshinori right now that he's lost sight of his actual goal.

"Fractured ribs. Full-body contusions." If his rib fractures are severe, the can cause breathing issues (like Toshi doesn't struggle with that already). When untreated, rib fractures will lead to serious short-term consequences (severe pain when breathing, pneumonia), but rarely death. Full-body contusions are bruises by direct and/or multiple blows (no doubt from Toshi flying through the air and some buildings).

"Respiratory malfunction." The one time Toshi has lost his smile (so far) throughout this fight. No doubt he's remembering the damage All for One did to him. Malfunction means it's failing to function in a normal or satisfactory manner (but, it can be fixed).

"I, too, was once brimming with youth." "The man we knew as All Might... Could not live his life any other way." Toshinori is out looking the very same rooftop where he talked to Deku. While Toshinori and All Might aren't directly the same, they're still part of on another. There's Toshinori in All Might and there's All Might in Toshinori.

"Is he even younger now? Maybe he's not aware of it? Better not probe or he might come to his senses. He had to use quirks to expel the Pinky Superacid from his body, but the strain is hurting him. Does taking damage speed up the rewinding process?" Toshi is still figuring out how to better fuck up All for One, not just emotionally, but far more physically too. It's similar to the Nomu incident at the USJ; when it got dire, All Might figured out how to distribute the force of his punches to override shock absorption. He's analyzing the changes in All for One because of him.

"Haha... Hahaha. Hahaha. HAHAHA! Don't stop now, Hercules! Keep it coming!!" Every. Single. Flashback. Is. Toshinori. Not All Might. But Toshinori.

"To be of service to others... What a joy! Fight on! Together!!"Toshinori bases himself on how useful he is to others. He doesn't say it's a joy to help others but to be of service. He still views himself below everyone else, like the same quirkless boy with no other role or place in the world. While All for One is physically de-aging, Toshinori is mentally, getting back in the mindset he had pre-One for All. He's selfless to the point that it's damaging (literally). His own life, his health, and his happiness aren't considered (rarely even by his friends). Because, to him, it's not important. It never has been. Toshinori has always had this sacrificial mindset. He's always been like this and now he seems worse than ever. He's happy, yes, but his own self-worth is at rock bottom because he isn't fighting for himself. He's fighting for everyone once again.

"Thrusters: Uravity... And Ingenium! Full throttle!!" Ninth and Tenth; Ochacko and Iida.

"You hear me?! To victory!" Not to the end. To victory. Toshi's victory. Everyone's victory.

"... He's fighting!" Aura Might is so pretty, and he senses that Toshinori is in battle. Not Deku, but Aura Might.

"All Might!!" "Midoriya, kid!!" It seems like they're able to communicate, or at least sense each other. Toshinori is still smiling (despite the fact that he's spitting out blood). He won't choose to give up. He won't give up. HE WON'T FAIL.

#t speaks #mha #bnha #mha spoilers #mha manga spoilers #mha 398 #bnha 398 #my hero academia #boku no hero acedamia #yagi toshinori #toshinoi yagi #mha all might #bnha all might #all might #iron might #armored all might

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corvus-heliantheae · 1 year

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Present Mic - the sad happy one

For one of my first texts, I want to talk about one of the most underrated, and sometimes borderline forgotten, characters in My Hero Academia, Hizashi Yamada aka Present Mic. This will contain spoilers for the MHA manga, the anime, and the MHA Vigilante manga. Let me start with a brief recap of what we learn about him early on. Mic is a pro hero and a member of the UA staff who teaches English. Like most teachers, he was a student of UA. Besides teaching, he is also the announcer of UA events, probably because of his voice quirk which allows him to amplify his voice to the point of creating a dangerous shock wave or sonic boom. And because two highly stressful jobs aren’t enough, he also has a weekly radio show called “Put your hands up radio”, where he broadcasts nonstop music every Friday. He presents himself mostly as an extrovert, loud and enthusiastic guy who wants to pull everyone around him into his excitement, which leads to him actually being mistaken for an announcer rather than a pro hero. He is the hype man of UA, no matter what, being a perfect contrast to Aizawas stoic and rational approach to everything. But is that correct? I think the fandom perspective on him is “the golden retriever to black cat Aizawa” doesn’t do him any justice and ignores some feature plot points!

Before I get into the bigger theme I want to focus on, I’d like to call out how perceptive Mic is and how analytical he works, because after the incident at the training camp arc, where the League of Villains attacked the secret location of where it was held, he called out the logical thing. In the staff meeting happening in Chapter 83 he was the first to coin the theory of the UA traitor, because if just the people inside UA knew about the specifics, one of them had to leak it. He is proven right in chapter 336, but nobody ever talks about it in this context. As much as I love the plot of Class 1-A being one united front, a bit of recognition towards Mic would’ve been nice. But the biggest misinterpretation of his characters stems from his and Aizawa’s shared backstory, including Oboro Shikamaru, the later Nomu called Kurogiri. In the prequel manga MHA Vigilantes, set a few years before the main series where Aizawa just starts teaching, we get a detailed flashback in chapters 59-65. They are shown as second year students at UA, with their struggles with planning their future, school work and of course becoming pro heroes. Calling themselves the rooftop trio, they dreamt of opening an agency and adopting stray cats. In every hero student's career comes the days of the work studies, when they do internships with experienced heroes, so they get some practical experience. Unfortunately, a catastrophe happens while Aizawa and Oboro were together in their work study, and Oboro died tragically when a building collapsed onto him. Aizawa wasn’t able to save him and Mic came much later to the scene and couldn’t do anything. The first time, Mic was not there to safe a friend and could just deal with the aftermath.

The second time something like this happens is in the war arc, where the conflict between heroes and villains gets to an unknown height till this day. In the conflict in the Paranormal Liberation Arc there were a lot of casualties and one of them was the pro hero Midnight, fellow UA teacher, and someone the rooftop trio knew from school, because she was just a little older. The mistreatment of Midnight and other female heroes is maybe a topic for another day, so I focus back on Mic. Again, he wasn’t by his friend's side. In the same arc Aizawa loses an eye and his leg, by cutting it off himself, when he was hit by a quirk erasing bullet and wanted to prevent himself from losing his quirk. Aizawa is stable and has accommodations, but Mic was not with him. He fought Kyudai, the doctor who helped OFA creating the Nomus. But still, he was unharmed while one of his friends died and the other one was gravely injured. And at this point you can’t tell me that on top of the trauma of being a pro hero, being in a war and losing people, the fact that he is fine while others aren’t, isn’t fucking a person up. One thing that feels weird and outrageous to be, but really unsurprising when I look at the real world, is that there seems to be no actual support system or help for the pro heroes because all of them should have therapy. The amount of trauma, stress, probably PTSD, they have must be unbearable, but for them, it’s probably just a part of the job. I mean, we also see this very early on in the young students, but it’s easier to recognize it in them, than it is in the pros. I think Aizawa and Mic are not so very different, I even think they are two sides of the same coin, because while Aizawa went into isolation after Oboro’s death, Mic went on throwing himself into work to drown out the thoughts and the pain. He kinda lost two friends with this incident because Vigilantes shows how Mic and Aizawa are distant from each other. They both have to deal with very similar pain, but not one of them talks about it, because they have to go on being heroes. The thing is, I wouldn’t be writing this is Aizawa just naturally got more screen time because of his home room teacher position and that’s why we don’t see as much of Mic, but in Vigilante and in the Kurogiri/Oboro reveal they are focussed equally but still, we ignore the guy who just seems more happy and energetic. I don’t think the final chapters we are now getting, because the manga will end this year, will give Mic and Aizawa time and focus to deal with Kurogiri, but if it happens, I can just see a few options that would make sense for Mic. He may break down, if he loses another person and let’s be honest that could be Aizawa because things are bad enough as it is. What I consider more realistic is that he will not break down passively, but just the danger of loosing another will fuse his anger and his survivor guilt, and he will throw himself into danger, protecting others and may be even killing himself in the progress just to not having to watch another one die in front of him. I think each one of the characters is tragic in their one way because of how hero society works, but as in real life we tend to ignore the people who say that they are fine, which makes Present Mic as a character so much more bitter.

#helia #corvus heliantheae #mha #bnha #my hero academia #present mic #yamada hizashi #hizashi yamada #analysis #opinion piece #oboro #midnight #kurogiri #aizawa

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aho-dapa · 10 months

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Tamlin x king of hybern

i dare you to make a ship fic out of this XD surprise me! Take me off guard! Make it sad, or toxic, or a surprise fluff! Go crazy!

Also I LOVE YOUR PFP, PENELOPE IS BEST GIRL!

#DeathIsTheOnlyEndingForAVillainess

TW: uh dark themes like corruption and what it takes to get there, vague dddne vibe

Okay okay so like any villain flavored ship, it can go three ways: horribly, tenderly, or both.

Horribly

Let's see, could go really dddne the way it could would Amarantha, mind break flavors, or even the slow corruption arc that's only painful (meaning Tamlin looses his sense of self completely)

Both

This is still a mind break corruption route, but if we used canon: since we never actually see the KoH until ACOMAF and he's described as someone plain in the books (please sjm I'm gonna start a petition to allow your villains to hot fr)

Let's have KoH infiltrate the Spring Court during ACOWAR as Just Some Guy who gradually gains the trust of the Spring Court and integrates himself pretty well in their daily life. Maybe he went there to see the situation and maybe even take down the Spring Court, but guess what? Hilariously, he doesn't even have to lift a finger. Feyre destroys it herself and not just the Spring Court, but also deals a devastating mental blow to Tamlin. This leaves him open to manipulation even especially if Lucien leaves with Feyre. Especially if he spirals into what we saw in ACOFAS where Rhys eluded to Tamlin not even protecting himself by keeping the manor unguarded.

Meaning that this gives the KoH plenty to time to literally be the sole person by Tamlin’s side especially if he can glamor himself or even has some new ability like the ability to possess people (which could explain his age and why he might be older than Beron).

Maybe it even goes so far that Tamlin begins to rely solely on the KoH and falls for him because he just wants to be cared for rn and no longer have to push himself to be someone he's not as the High Lord of Spring

Plot twist?? Maybe (in sjm's all fae but villains are carved by the Mother herself) the KoH was actually human and was the first to use the Cauldron to become fae and that's why he knew he could change Nesta and Elain. And that's why he just knows how to use it.

This would definitely add more layers of complication towards how Tam would eventually grow closer with him because I honestly think he could get to a point where he just wants to rest and be treated kindly so he could ignore what the KoH is doing in Prythian, but that he would have difficultly if he had to live with cruelty surrounding him (given that he's already moved to Hybern). So he would definitely hate it if the KoH didn't rule fairly or reinstated slavery.

Then again, KoH motives for this can be fleshed out into a manipulation tactic or wild, maybe the KoH still actually sees himself as human and is trying to destroy all the fae as like a weird moral excuse. Or it could be that the KoH had the Cauldron before this and actually had slaves as a cover where maybe all the slaves in Hybern are actually a super secret saiyan humans and are undercover to infiltrate courts and all lands because back during his time, humans couldn't move freely in the world without being a slave or subservient to the fae. But at that point, it's getting very conspiracy and ends up trying to excuse a lot for him so that Tamlin can actually have a relationship with him. Tbh, if the slavery thing isn't addressed, I could see Tamlin snapping out of it and in a very climatic battle where everyone thinks Tamlin's basically become the co-ruler of Hybern, he kills the KoH and just sobs over his body

Extra tragic if Tamlin doesn't feel like he can be forgiven and dies with the KoH

Tenderly

Okay so this would rework the KoH and give him an even more tragic backstory. Given that I already mentioned human KoH, what if it's actually where Amarantha and Clythia have been ruling Hybern for over a millenia. And using the KoH as a puppet king they crowned long ago after turning him fae in their Cauldron experiments. And then that neatly explains why Hybern killed all their human slaves before setting them free. They wouldn't want evidence of their world domination plan using human turned fae magically bound to them to get outside of Hybern.

The slave bargains they use on humans still goes over when they're Made fae, similar to how Feyre's bargain with Rhys is still intact after becoming fae. The only way to be free of the bargain is if the ones who made it die.

Of course, there's a limit to how many people they can control and they limit it to a very small group in Hybern.

That also means that they can put themselves in positions of power in their court without having the same risks as a ruler would. Like imagine the multiple assassination attempts and general inhumanization (hah) the KoH would have to go through for what seems like a literal eternity. And their the ones actually starting wars in Prythian and the reason why Hybern surrendered is because Clythia died and Amarantha is the younger sister and she definitely relied on her in their impossibly immortal lives (not before getting personal revenge on Jurian tho who definitely learns about the KoH)

Or Amarantha surrenders after Clythia's death because Jurian found out about the Cauldron and destroyed it into three pieces (like in canon but with it actually being broken not that it needs to stand on three legs) and the humans hid it from her

But Amarantha only discovers this after she kills Jurian and tries to bring Clythia back, effectively killing off the few people that know about the Cauldron

In this, Amarantha would be the main antagonist and she does eventually collect the othe pieces but conquers prythian and utm to find the last. She resurrects Clythia and Jurian (so that he can be tortured more) and they go back to their plan of world domination.

Maybe feylin happens or something else does but Tamlin does eventually takes sides with Hybern and becomes Amarantha's High Consort as the High Queen of Prythian while Clythia goes on to fulfill her childhood dreams of becoming Empress of the Continent.

(Also, kinda nice that the evil sisters always have each other's backs and will never betray each other and that's also what makes them a threat because no one can shake that foundation)

Eventually Jurian does tell Tamlin that the KoH is literally the oldest Cauldron Made Fae outside of Amarantha and Clythia. They scheme to set him free and they eventually kill Amarantha (with the help of literally everyone else).

But before that it plays out that Amarantha sends Tamlin back to Hybern after their wedding ceremony so that she doesn't have to worry about him (both for his life and so that he can't conspire against her) and so that she can secretly move the Cauldron back to Hybern where it's kept safe

But because Clythia and Amarantha are both not at Hybern, the KoH has a little room to act as he wishes. He acts on their orders and can never reveal his true personality but he does strangely enough do his best for Hybern and ruling its people because they've also been living under years and years of tyranny (through him). So when their not watching he can take steps to express some of his desires.

He married only once a long time ago to have a heir but Amarantha killed his child as punishment because he started doing little things that made the court question him. Basically the KoH has no hope for freedom and just lives like an actual puppet and has become somewhat desensitized to his surroundings.

But because Clythia died, Amarantha now is the only one who can actually control the KoH, so now the bargain that was placed on him forever ago is weakened. (Meaning Clythia needs to remake the bargain with the KoH to reinstate her control over him. But because neither Amarantha or Clythia have died of old age, they don't know that the bargain has weakened)

Cue the suspicions Tamlin begins to have about the KoH and Tamlin actually exploring Hybern and learning lore until he eventually finds the Cauldron slowly discovers the truth

He learns that Amarantha and Clythia are the oldest fae alive and can actually steal the powers of others but can only manage one at a time and they have to learn it again once they relinquish it. Amarantha used daemati abilities to literally take complete control over Prythian and even a young Rhys. That's also how she's able to completely control the KoH without anyone knowing because she can command him through her thoughts. She's fully had a leash on the KoH for so long that she feels okay with leaving him be because she can also harm his citizens (who he has somewhat grown attached too)

This would be a great way to actually flesh out Hybern and not have it just be a place of misery and oppression. Even Amarantha and Clythia know how to rule in ways that gives them power. Amarantha uses fear tactics but eventually plans on letting up when her rule stabilizes (even the Romans enjoyed brutality when it wasn't them actually experiencing it). Basically, the people are willing to suffer through a cruelty if they are content and will not endure someone incompetent with their needs. Meaning that the KoH's (forced) cruelty is not just because, it's about gaining and keeping power. Clythia had a great balance of this, while Amarantha prefers more violent tactics (which is also why she had all the slaves be killed instead of giving them up).

It's during this time that the KoH and the other puppet fae begin to hope for the first time for freedom, and the KoH eventually breaks a rule that set up by Clythia and Amarantha.

During this time, Tamlin and the KoH get close. Also, guilty pleasure, but they also have an affair because Tamlin is technically married to Amarantha but neither of them care about that (but they do have to hide it which is honestly the best part).

Eventually, Amarantha dies and Hybern stages a revolt as the KoH is no longer bond in a slave bargain.

Clythia is killed as well after more plot and the KoH eventually explains everything publicly utm. Amren can confirm he's a Made fae and he does eventually get redipped in the Cauldron to become human again. Maybe he stays immortal or maybe not.

Also maybe, to tie a little plot hole, they Made his appearance different as the original KoH (if he was an imposter instead of just a puppet king) and he changed back to what he originally looked like as a human once they both died??

Or it could even be that Hybern was originally a human kingdom before it was conquered by the Fae and the KoH was made a slave after Amarantha and Clythia conquered it with their father (?) the original KoH forever ago. And then that would add another layer that they basically deposed their dad.

This could tie into different endings where either the KoH abdicated and goes with Tam to the Spring Court, or they both fuck off and become wanderers, or the KoH stays the KoH (in a different body) and rules over Hybern peacefully (or enacts a council or does something else) and reclaims Hybern for humans (especially if we're going with the HC that the Treaty only works between Hybern and Prythian and the only current free lands for humans is below the Spring Court).

I'm personally biased to that the KoH was a human king who was conquered by the Fae and then Made Fae (which was forgotten to history) by Amarantha and Clythia after enslaving him into a bargain. That means that the KoH doesn't change his appearance and then reclaims Hybern for humans. And Tamlin rules with him while Lucien OR Feyre (or both who knows) can look after the Spring Court. Especially if it came down to the fact that the KoH can't leave his kingdom to anyone rn but Tamlin can.

It could also be a nice breather for Tamlin especially if he found the Spring Court to hold too many bitter memories for him and/or he doesn't feel like he could go back to the Spring Court as the same person he once was. Also Hybern could just feel more freeing to him personally because he's no longer has to play the part of High Lord with all the expectations of it. He doesn't have to contend with nobles about his status as a bastard that had been conceived on Calanmai outside of wedlock (which would actually make more sense than that all the nobles left because he was a warrior) and never feeling like he could mold himself into the fancy trappings of the spring court.

It would be interesting to have Tamlin see Spring as something eternally stagnant because the seasons don't change. Eternally beautiful and eternally brutal. The Spring Court could be filled to the brim with nobles and there fancy clothing and how Tam sees it all as a farce, as an excuse for cruelty (since i often base my Spring Court on France during the revolution). Maybe because he's spent centuries trying to change it but he never feels like he's making progress. Especially if the succession system is like canon. He couldn't refuse his title, and the nobles were stuck with him and he had to live in paranoia that someone would test the family magic he had to the Court itself and see if they could replace him. (They don't because of their potential fears).

I also like the idea of Tam being demi and genderfluid and just feeling stagnant like the Court itself with their expectations of him. And since I'm petty, I like to think evil Hybern is actually more nuanced and feels more free to Tam. He can remake himself there where no one is looking. He finally gets privacy to be himself. And that's what he found even while as Amarantha's High Consort.

Imagine he was given many of the expectations a woman would be given because his roles were switched with Amarantha. Even if she bears him children, he will be the one to raise them and with how he would have limited say on most things in her High Court.

I'm also a personal fan of soft Tam and just letting him become even softer. In this way, he likes helping the KoH but he doesn't want to rule. Of course they're equals, it just tastes different because Tamlin no longer has to be forced into those expectations. He likes the idea of raising his children instead of spending his days debating with nobles on policies. He likes the idea of tea parties and gossip and things typically feminine in comparison to his peers. Basically, he's just very genderfuck.

basically I wanna see Tam in some historical irish dresses and running barefoot in the rain

Uhhhhh, so I rambled there uh

Hope you enjoyed me spiraling because now I'm definitely planning on writing the tender part of this journey

#pro tamlin #anti sjm #uh i spiraled once again #tamlin x koh #koh x tamlin #i apologize how did it get so long?????????#omg also i forgot #i also love villains are destined to die #already have a fic planned for that fandom actually #acotar era

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jackstheprinceofhearts · 2 years

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my very opinionated review of TBONA by Stephanie Garber

WARNINGS: I'm a person who rambles a lot and I will be trying hard not to in this review (and I'm using Grammarly lol) but I make no promises.

this review contains spoilers for tbona! (i am writing this review on Monday night {the 12th} the official release date is the 13th but I was lucky enough to get an owlcrate edition and I will be posting this review a few days after then.)

i will also be discussing my opinions on some debates I've been seeing about jacks's character in TBONA so if you can't handle my opinion then this isn't for you.

strap in because this'll be a long one lol

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first of all, i do have some criticism for this book so let's get that out of the way.

i felt as if tbona was incredibly fast-paced (just like the first one) and I'm a binge reader so it felt like getting thrown all over the place because of how fast I read it lol so I would recommend this book more for slower readers then I would binge readers if you want to absorb the plot more. but i honestly like how she gets straight to the point with it so that's why i love all of her books!

i also guessed a few of the plot twists from some theories I've made and discussed in the Magnificent North discord server but I do that a lot with books so it doesn't ruin much (it just makes me feel smarter than everyone lmfao)

another thing, I didn't really like how towards the end eva kind of gave off the "I can change him" vibes which I mean makes sense in some ways but still I'm not a huge fan of that BUT I like how Evangeline actually listened to him.

I also wasn't very happy that it wasn't really acknowledged that she made his heart beat??...we're ignoring this again??? homie???

and the scar wasn't really a plot point at all which I found to be a bit weird.

but besides that, i don't really have any more criticism for it.

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here were some of the things i liked a lot:

the ending was IMMACULATE it had so much emotional depth and feeling???? oh my god???

I also liked the backstory we got on Jacks because damn it all makes sense now! and it was interesting to see how he was connected to the north, but now I'm curious about how he got to Valenda and how he ended up in the card.

also, can we just talk about how beautifully tragic that ending was???? like yes it was sad but CAN WE JUST APPRECIATE IT FOR A MINUTE LIKE OMG

moment of silence for jacks......

honestly 5/5 stars. this is definitely my new favorite!

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alright now to get into the stuff about jacks's character that I'm seeing posts about a lot.

so i've seen a lot of people say that they "hate" him or that he's "toxic" or that evajacks is a toxic ship and honestly I disagree and here's why:

the entire point of jacks's character is that he's a heartbroken VILLAIN, not a hero. and he keeps saying that throughout literally every book he's in. he says to tella "I'm the villain, even in my own story." in Finale. we are told over and over again that he's not a hero. "I hurt everyone, little fox." there are a lot more quotes of him literally saying he's the bad guy in TBONA and OUABH 😭 "you need to stop holding me to human standards," jacks drawled. "I'm a fate." and then again with; "I'm not your enemy, little fox. I know you're still angry with me, but you've always known what I am. I never tried to pretend otherwise, you just let yourself believe I was something I'm not." and once again; "I'm not your friend. I'm not some human boy who will tell you pretty lies or bring you flowers or gift you jewels."

(collectors edition of OUABH) him saying he's a bad guy and he'll do whatever it takes to get what he wants.

the entire point of TBONA and OUABH is people making bad choices because of their broken hearts.

also, i don't see how you guys aren't saying anything about LaLa when she betrayed eva as well, like where's the logic??? and what LaLa did was worse in my opinion because it put eva in danger of DYING jacks never did that.

and don't give me the whole "oh she's a fate she doesn't understand human emotions" BUT YOU WANT JACKS TO??? HOW IS THAT FAIR??? if you don't like jacks that's perfectly fine but let's be fair 😭i'm not saying jacks's actions were okay BUT HE'S A VILLAIN YOU CAN'T EXPECT HIM TO COMPLETELY CHANGE IN TWO BOOKS!!!

overall, you can't expect a character to completely change and I'm glad he didn't get some rushed redemption arc in this. you need to look into it a bit more before you just give it a bad review because "jacks was a bad guy"

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believe what you will about TBONA but that's my personal opinion on this book. i think Stephanie did an amazing job writing this and I'm excited to see what's to come next. thank you for reading my review/rant! have a good day!

also, the pumpkin chocolate chip cookie I was eating while writing this was really, really, good.

#tbona #tbona spoilers #jacks prince of hearts #evajacks #the ballad of never after #evangeline fox #jacks x evangeline #stephanie garber #ouabh spoilers #book review #just ranting #LaLa tbona #tbona ending #jacks #ouabh

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luflowerstuffs · 6 months

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I find it hilarious and honestly sad how a lot of people claim marvel is trying to give woman representation in superhero movies while they mishandle their main female characters so much. They constructed such amazing wanda motivations in wandavision with a whole backstory just to ignore and take the most surface level thing from the description and make it her entire character in multiverse of madness( and im ok with villain and mad with power wanda it makes sense but not in the way it was presented like when you know the people didnt watch wandavision everything makes sense). Loki season 2 has two other examples unfortunally: Sylvie and Ravonna. Sylvie was such an important and well contructed character in season 1 she challenged Loki and others to change the status quo. In this season she saw the consequences and yet my girl was not proposing a alternative she was basically set in the same plan that was not working. She had 1 choice right that was not kill Victor Timely because she feel he could change and not become he who remains why isnt she fighting for the change she wants when she was warned again and again that without anything no tva or alternative everyone dies. Girl if you wanna die that is your issue dont drag the rest of the multiverse with you and speak for zillion of people i though not letting people die was the whole motive for this. She was NOT the voice of reason in season 2 like she was in season 1. Like you can not put me on her side this time with what she is saying and honestly i dont think you should be trying to do that at all. She shouldnt be. Maybe it was better if she wasnt in most of season 2 and have the life she always wanted to have i think she could do way better than spend most of her time on mcdonalds now she could actually form relantionships without worrying she was being hunted and just come back in the last episodes and then we end uo with the "should i kill you?". Also the fact she move on could help make the case of loki dont want to move on and dont want his friends to like they were trying to push with one of their last conversations when clearly he was trying to save the multiverse. Honestly by the amount of time they gave her and the way she was thinking since the beginning you would guess she would arrive in the conclusion Loki had and be the one to sacrifice herself( the scenes of her working at mcdonalds her car and being atormented at the music store dont make a case that you are too happy to give your life for the better quite the opposite) but since it was about Loki and he couldnt be free to mess up with the mcu( the irony) she couldnt arrive at this conclusion first so they just stopped her at we cant do this so lets just die until Loki already sacrificed himself.

Im still trying to understand what Ravonna plan was Miss minutes is crazy and i dont care about that but Ravonna is a character that had such potential and she end up not doing anything at all just killing some TVA agents for no gain at all. When i finished season 2 i was sure she was gonna be one of the persons He who remains was talking about his variant. What she expected to do with a He who remains variant without the tva tech why not help Mobius and Loki seriously at the point they were with no more He who remains team up with tva was the best for her she could try twist things later from the inside. Also she was rejected and she got super mad like? People talk a lot about strong woman get crazy but as a trope it makes sense with characters like wanda and Jean Grey because their characters are superpowerful and power demands a price such a ultrapowerful character need a character weakness that is almost as strong as its power. Ravonna payed the price with her humanity like she said so she could control everything with order but then she barks in mad when that should be the moment we saw her control her coldness Loki Sylvie and honestly everyone at the Tva are now emocional shaken with reason of course but she claims its not her way. She was suppose to be the one claiming she does the tough choices like He who remains her invading the TVA was basically because she doesn't like loki and friends so she wanted to antagonize them completely emotional. Just as Sylvie she didnt have a solution she was just a obstacle without much to add. Such a waste. Maybe is because she is so dependent on Miss minutes and the TVA tech to do anything maybe she could had awaken some power she had before not like loki/He who remains but similar something that at the time helped He who remains at the war or something that made her more powerful so at least she would be a bigger difficult when they met.

Tom hiddleston his Loki and Ke Huy Quan delivering so much and B15(Wunmi Mosaku) finally having her sweet moments unfortunally couldnt shake the bittersweet sensation of more than 2 episodes with Sylvie and Ravenna being so pointless and underwhelming and honestly kinda stupid.( i didnt even need to mention a lack of inteligence in the end of the fightbetween these 2 they could had made it make sense somehow)

#sylvie loki #loki disney+#loki show #loki series #loki (marvel)#loki season 2 #loki #ravonna renslayer #sylvie #marvel #marvel mcu #mcu loki #mcu

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rubykgrant · 2 years

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blorbo bingo time!! how we feeling about doc? (and or omalley if you like?)

Oh, Doc... I almost put one for "in the wrong genre", because he probably WISHES he was somewhere else, but being a pacifist stuck in constant conflict actually works REALLY well. I'm sorry Doc, you live here. He started out just kinda to be the guy pointing out how WEIRD everybody else was, and then he was there to round-out Omega like some kinda shoulder-devil and shoulder-angel having a constant argument with each other... but then he became so IMPORTANT! He also matters outside of just being "the nice guy", because he's capable of being a little jerk all on his own, which is actually a GOOD thing, because sometimes the others need to hear some tough-love. He's smart and sensible, but he's also totally ridiculous. Doc is a protagonist that doesn't WANT to be one, and nobody else realizes that's what he is, but he's kinda integral to everything. I think autistic goes without saying. I mean, come on. He's the adult in the room, but more like the oldest cousin that has no authority. For now, he's relying on aroma therapy (maybe this lavender candle will fix everything). Look, he always had potential for angst hidden in there, but I don't think anybody was expecting SAD BROTHER BACKSTORY, and it was like so dramatic and yet so real, it hit pretty hard. He gets lost ALL THE TIME, and it isn't fair! Y'know what, I hereby declare that from now on, they have to use a buddy-system for Doc, somebody always pairs up with him whenever they do anything, no more losing this man!

(I'm going with the O'Malley that continues to be part of Doc). Also started out as a joke, implied to be how Doc vents after being ignored... but there is actually so much DEPTH to that! The fact that before Omega found Doc, the "villain voice" wasn't really a thing (most characters just dropped and octave and sounded angry), and later Omega is gone, but O'Malley still speaks like himself, and it implies that this part of Doc is really unique. He may have become more vocal thanks to Omega, but his attitude and voice are his own. There had also been plenty of times when Doc was angry, but O'Malley only got loud again AFTER an incredibly upsetting event (getting trapped in that nothing-void), which is just so... O'Malley isn't only "mad", he's HURT, and he knows that Doc is hurt, and if nobody is going to notice, then O'Malley will GET THEIR ATTENTION! The fact that O'Malley and Doc disagree and even clash also shows that they DO need each other. If Doc ignores his own problems, he also ignores O'Malley, which isn't good for either of them. They both need to help each other. Sometimes the parts of yourself that are angry need to be comforted, not buried and forgotten or fed to become a rage that burns you from the inside out. Sometimes your anger needs kindness, and your kindness needs to be defended. The autism also extends to O'Malley. I love this cartoon bad guy so much, he is indeed a bastard, and I say that with all the affection in the world. O'Malley is also an Angst Machine, but maybe in a different direction than Doc (like, Doc's tragic aspects hurt himself, while the tragic parts of O'Malley wind up being problems for other people... which again, just repeats how Doc keeps quiet and O'Malley speaks up, but when they don't listen to each other, they aren't able to feel better). Despite all the threats, O'Malley isn't THAT murderous... I mean, stuff happens, but not a LOT. He definitely makes pictures with red paint and lets it drip onto Doc's clothes, just for the Aesthetic~

Thanks for asking!

#red vs blue #rvb #ask #answer #sharkface-daydreams #doc dufresne #rvb o'malley

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fantasyinvader · 2 years

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Let me try to explain some of why I don't feel the writing of TLoU2 does not work. Specifically the idea that the game is about how empty revenge is.

This is something I feels the game does right...and then undermines itself. With Ellie's side of the story, it works. We see that the new relationship between Ellie and Dina starts to show cracks when Dina is revealed to be pregnant. We see how Ellie gets angry at this, and when Ellie leaves to look for Abby in California Dina takes JJ and leaves. We also see how Tommy's actions destroy his relationship with Maria, or how Ellie nearly died after she broke off with Jesse to go to the aquarium in search of Abby rather than go to after Tommy like she said they were going to. Even Ellie being unable to play guitar after losing her fingers works...if you ignore she could just learn to play left-handed.

That works, but you know whose side doesn't work? Abby. Abby's thirst for revenge doesn't destroy her relationships with those around her, those are taken away from others seeking revenge on Abby and her crew. The thing is though, if Tommy hadn't decided to do a 180 and head out to Seattle or if they were able to keep Ellie from leaving, Abby wouldn't have suffered at all.

Sure, there's Mel being upset over Abby torturing Joel, but Mel doesn't think they were wrong to do it. It's more that Mel knows Owen still carries a torch for Abby despite their breakup and Mel being pregnant with his kid. Owen has also been more distant from her lately as he's planning on abandoning her to go look for the Fireflies and once again be one. If anything, Owen and Abby were getting close again after she got her revenge.

Jordan, Nora, Mel and Owen only died because Ellie killed them, Manny and some other guy to Tommy. Leah did in an unrelated Scar attack. It's not the same as Abby alienating all of her friends, it's making her a victim.

Likewise, it ignores the fact that Abby and her friends traveled over 800 miles to go to Jackson to find Tommy and see if he had any information about Joel's whereabouts (how would they get that info? Possibly torture). They were planning on killing Joel and lucked out. Abby planned to commit murder, meanwhile Joel massacring the hospital to save Ellie is actually justifiable under real world laws.

So... what's the take-away here? Murdering Joel was justified on Abby's part, and then it's wrong to seek retribution against Abby? Unless Abby is the villain here despite "you have to see things from Abby's POV," then that's fucked. Abby loses her friends but we're supposed to be wrong for this, and then she heads off to rejoin a terrorist organization with a minor in her care. People keep saying "the point is you're supposed to understand and forgive Abby," but that just says we're supposed to feel sad for Abby because she suffered consequences and random bad luck with the Rattlers. Abby is sympathetic if you consider her a child soldier being exploited by her commander who happened to be her father, but that doesn't mean what she did was right.

Abby did wrong, and we're just supposed to let it go. But then if Ellie and Tommy had let it go, Abby would not have suffered the loss of her friends (bar Leah) as is depicted in the game. The idea that we're meant to "forgive her" just... no. You can talk about her backstory all you want and try to paint her as a good person despite fighting for a militia that enslaved Seattle and is trying to genocide a cult in the name of controlling the entire city. You see what I just wrote.

The game wants me to forgive someone like that, even though Ellie is left with nothing when she let Abby go at the end. It feels like a literary travesty of justice, all while Abby is free to go back to her terrorist roots.

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aquafaith · 3 years

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My lengthy, angry ACOSF rant review.

Spoilers, TW for mental, emotional, physical, and sexual abuse.

I loved ACOTAR. I still love ACOTAR. I always will love ACOTAR. But every book afterwards made me give up more and more. ACOMAF romanticized an abusive relationship and assassinated characters for the author's convenience. ACOWAR was a bunch of boring and inconsequential death scares. ACOFAS was all-round dreadful. And each book kept shitting on and pushing away Lucien for no reason.

I'd like to preface this by saying I hated Nesta too. I hated the way she treated Feyre in ACOTAR especially, and I wasn't even too excited for this book because I wasn't that keen on Nesta as a character.

Nesta's POV and her backstory changed my perspective. It does not excuse her actions. All Nesta stans can hold these characters accountable for what they do - trauma is a reason, not an excuse. I, and many others, sided with Nesta because of the way she's treated by everyone else in this book. Also, if you're going to hate Nesta for not teaching Feyre how to read and letting her hunt at fourteen, (which I did, and are very valid things to hate), AT LEAST hold Elain accountable too.

This book. This fucking book.

Shall we start with the intervention? Feyre on her little power trip thinks that her boyfriend that hates Nesta and Nesta hates back, Nesta's ex-best friend, and her possible mate who she never talks to should be at this stupid fucking intervention??? Excuse me???

Remember in ACOMAF when Feyre wouldn't shut up about how rich Rhysand is? Feyre literally has four or five houses and is always talking about how much jewelry and lingerie she can afford because Rhysand is so rich??? Well, Nesta has a few shots. So you know what Feyre does? Humiliates Nesta at this "intervention", TEARS DOWN HER HOME, and forces her to go to the Illyrian training camp.

That was the god awful premise for this book.

Did you think Elain wasn't there because she was against the "intervention"? Nope! She was packing Nesta's belongings without permission.

Remember in ACOMAF when it's made a big fucking deal that locking up a traumatised woman is extremely damaging? Well, when Nesta decides she doesn't want to be in Illyria, Feyre locks her in the House of Wind. Nesta can't fly, so her only way of leaving is down the TEN THOUSAND STEPS, that Feyre KNOWS Nesta isn't capable of climbing.

Feyre's pregnant. In ACOFAS she randomly decided that she wanted a baby to remember Rhysand by if he dies. Which doesn't make any sense because they made that stupid fucking death pact in ACOWAR. It's just SJM superimposing her pregnancy onto her early 20's protagonist. Ignoring the fact that Feyre isn't ready for a baby and Rhysand CERTAINLY isn't, and with a war just ended and another looming and so much trauma and a DEATH PACT are all such horrible circumstances to bring a child into, Feyre is already pregnant. Remember when SJM made a big deal about Fae babies being so hard to conceive, and Feyre said in ACOFAS they wouldn't have to worry for a long time because it can take years to conceive your first Fae child? Well it's been no more than 3 or 4 months and Feyre's already pregnant. Yep.

Also the birth will kill her. Because of course it will. Rhysand KNEW this, and still agreed to try for a baby.

There's no solution. Abortions don't exist for some stupid reason, and a C section would apparently kill Feyre?

(Wasn't this book supposed to be about Nessian?)

In ACOWAR, Cassian was on the battlefield with his entrails around his knees. Someone had to literally hold his guts in for him, and he's fine, but you're telling me a C section would kill Feyre?

Don't worry, this is just setting up the AWFUL ending to this book.

ACOSF amounts to Nesta being gaslit into believing her abusers are right. Her friends and family slut shame her and shame her for her lifestyle constantly. Cassian says it took him decades to work through some of his trauma, and he tried to drink and fuck it away too, but suddenly when Nesta does so it's heinous? Nesta's barely twenty five and she's expected to cope better than these ancient immortals.

Hell, didn't SJM write ACOMAF? Nobody expected Feyre to pick herself up so quickly. The IC (excluding Rhysand) respected her boundaries for the most part and understood when it was grief, trauma, and turmoil that made her angry, sad, want to be left alone, etc. But that's all forgotten here.

Amren also compares Nesta to the people in, and says she belongs in, The Court of Nightmares. You know, the murderers, abusers and rapists? This innocent woman who had a few shots and a bit of sex is on par with them, apparently!

The sex scenes.

SJM is scared to say vagina so she says sex.

She says seed to mean semen.

Apparently the word cunt turns SJM on. I just found Cassian saying that kinda cringe because I'm Bri'ish so the word cunt really isn't a big deal.

Back to the baby killing Feyre, because this is definitely what we all wanted from this book as indicated by the change in covers and format and title... Rhysand decides not to tell Feyre. He tells her friends and family, and tells them not to tell her.

SJM loves sweeping Rhysand's abuse from the first book under the rug and claiming it's always about Feyre's choice... where is that here, MAAS? WHERE IS IT?

Anyway, when Nesta rightfully decides to tell Feyre (although it is kind of out of spite), Rhysand threatens to kill Nesta.

And I believed him. With the way he treats his """mAtE tHaT hE lOvEs sO mUcH""" and all the people he's mindlessly killed before, do you really think he wouldn't kill the person who gave Feyre an inch of autonomy?

So what does Cassian do? His lover who he cares deeply about and suspects is his mate has received a death threat from tHe mOsT pOwErFuL hIgH lORd iN hIsToRy.

Cassian simply gets Nesta out of the court.

EXCUSE ME?

He doesn't breathe ONE word to Rhysand about this. This Illyrian WARRIOR who fought with his GUTS HANGING OUT didn't dare step up to the hIGh lOrD who he considers his brother and sparrs and fights with all the time?

Cassian literally does nothing.

Was it not Rhysand himself who said Mated males are dangerous? Can kill anyone who looks at their mate? Can be dangerous simply leaving the house? Rhys and Feyre both pull the Mate card to justify their bad actions on the other's behalf... and Cassian just tried to get Nesta out of the court?

Also, this High King bullshit.

I swear to fucking god, if SJM DARES to make this abusive, power-tripping, mOsT pOwErFuL hIgH lOrD eVEr, husband-insert of hers hIgH kInG, I will fight her in the street.

My beloved Lucien is in this book. Only for him to be used and shat on.

I really liked it when he calmed Cassian down with just a look though. Yes please fox man.

Helion is also in this book. Nothing to do with Lucien.

Eris is also in this book. ERIS. Lucien's eldest brother. The same one who abused him for years, but according to SJM he's slightly better, because at least he didn't agree to kill Lucien's lover. He betrayed his daddy that one time, therefore Eris is good. Y'know, the same Eris who abused Mor? Left her laying on the Autumn Court border with a nail in her womb? Well SJM is going back on her own canon to redeem yet ANOTHER abusive male, while continuing to demonize Tamlin for things he only happened to do when SJM decided the villain from the first book was sexy.

Nesta and Cassian are Mates.

Remember when Mates were supposed to be a rare and sacred thing? Now SJM dishes them out like Oprah.

I don't want these characters to be mates. I want to see them slowly fall in love. But SJM is incapable of writing that so she forces them together with the mAtInG bOnD. That's literally the only basis for most of these relationships, Feysand especially.

The only relationship where the bond would make sense is between Helion and The Lady of Autumn. Who still isn't named. But I will die on the hill that they're mates, I can feel it between them.

I wanted someone to die in this book. I predicted that it would either be Helion or Tarquin, but Tarquin isn't even in this one.

And the ending.

SJM can't write a decent climax, so she kills both Feyre and Rhysand for the second time. Yep.

The baby is being born which stupidly kills Feyre, and thankfully takes Rhysand with them.

Nesta decides to save them. Bad choice. But she decides to save them! Because she's so powerful and she ATE THE CONTENTS OF THE CAULDRON and she's CONNECTED TO THE MOTHER.

Do you know what happens.

Nesta loses her powers.

NESTA.

LOSES.

HER.

POWERS.

The powers we've hardly seen, the powers that were briefly mentioned and used ONCE in ACOWAR, then we saw like two flashes of in this book? They're GONE now. GONE SO NESTA CAN SAVE HER ABUSIVE SISTER AND ABUSIVE HUSBAND WHO ABUSES THEM BOTH.

Nesta is just an Amren now. They both fought for their powers, and had to give them up to save people who didn't deserve it. Now they're anticlimactically trapped in powerless bodies.

Also, and I can't BELIEVE I didn't originally include this - do you know what else Nesta TRADED HER POWERS FOR?

Illyrian anatomy so she can carry Cassian's baby one day.

EXCUSE ME?

I am so fucking SICK TO DEATH of the narrative that every woman needs a man and children to be happy. SJM clearly loves this because she's literally only keeping Amren and Nesta alive now to be sex objects to their partners and nothing else seeing as their POWERS WERE RIPPED AWAY FROM THEM, and now NESTA TRADED THOSE POWERS TO HAVE A BABY SHE DOESN'T EVEN KNOW SHE WANTS? Nesta does NOT strike me as a motherly type. She's the wine aunt, she and Cassian are the couple that go on holiday a lot and and babysit their nieces and nephews, but nope. Nesta HAS to have children.

The Feysand baby is called Nyx. That's just so underwhelming, you go from these huge, multiple syllable names like Amarantha and Morrigan and Lucien to Nyx? I get it's supposed to be unique but it's not even meaningful. It's just more shit-flavoured icing on the hAHa nIgHt uWu cake. I prefer Renesmée.

Nesta is wrong somehow. She says she's sorry as she's saving them. FOR WHAT? For being a little rude to Feyre as all sisters are? And rightfully hating your sister's abuser?

Oh yeah, remember in ACOWAR when Nesta took care of a comatose, starving Elain for months? Elain is randomly okay now because she takes care of her mental health the stereotypical way of baking cakes, and not drinking and fucking, which she shames Netsa for.

Remember the slut shaming, demeaning comments that the whole iNnEr cIrClE made about Nesta? They all expect apologies from her. For some reason.

Nesta has done nothing wrong. She coped with her trauma and minded her business in her own ways, and she's expected to apologise to the people who control and emotionally abuse her.

Nothing that any of these characters did to Nesta is right. Nesta wasn't okay at the end, this wasn't Nesta's healing story. This is Nesta being shamed and degraded until she submits.

Oh I can't believe I forgot to write this in my first draft of this review, do you know how Nesta "overcomes" her grief about her Father's death and her conflicting feelings about him and his life and her guilt? When she visits his grave for the first time, she takes Nyx.

NYX.

She holds NYX up to the grave and talks about how it's his grandson.

GO AWAY YOU STUPID DEMON BABY THIS IS NOT YOUR BOOK.

Speaking of, it's revealed that Nesta was abused by her mother and grandmother in this book? Something we were all looking forward to is seeing more of the Archeron's mother seeing as Feyre was so young when she died, but... nope. She gets a few vague mentions, and this newly revealed abuse is entirely glossed over. Nesta was also actively groomed by an older man at 14. But SJM glosses over this because of course she does.

Finally, the bonus chapters.

My edition came with a bonus chapter from Feyre's POV. It was pointless and I hated it.

There's another bonus chapter from Azriel's POV. Once I'd finished this book, he was one of the few characters I still harboured a shred of respect for.

Then I read his bonus chapter.

This exists to purely objectify Elain.

Whether you ship Elain with Azriel, or Lucien, or neither, this chapter is disgusting. He thinks about her coming on his tounge, and other things simply just to please him.

He then dares to suggest that "the Cauldron picked wrong" in choosing Lucien as Elain's mate?

No Azriel, SJM picked RIGHT in not giving each Archeron sister a bAt bOy.

Rhysand does the only right thing he's ever done by telling Azriel to stay away from Elain, but then he has to ruin it by clarifying that it's only so they can manipulate and use Lucien more.

Oh, and Azriel wants to kill Lucien.

Need I remind you that Lucien respects Azriel? Lucien is another victim of the Night Court's needless, baseless torment, and Azriel is no exception.

Lucien stays well out of Elain's way because she makes it clear that she's not interested in a mate, but Azriel wants to kill him simply for being her mate.

Lucien has done nothing. And I mean literally NOTHING to warrant any of this treatment. From the bAt bOyS, from Feyre, from his family, from SJM, from the deluded part of this fandom that think he's done wrong. NOTHING.

All I liked about this book was the Lucien scenes (which is a given), ((although I hated the way everyone talks about him behind his back)), Nesta's relationship with the house, Emerie and Gwyn, the evidence that Gwynriel is endgame and subsequently Elucien, and the book love. Everything else was horrible. Oh, and Nesta hates Rhysand. I love that for her, because everyone else bows at his feet.

Oh yeah, when Nesta DARES suggest that Rhysand is an "arrogant, preening asshole" which I think is a compliment, Cassian can't take Rhys' cock out of his mouth for one second, and has to get mad at her for having an opinion. Don't even get me started on Azriel in that scene.

If each book after ACOTAR made me slowly give up, this book made me give up altogether. I cannot go on to support this victim-blaming, abuse-forgiving, misogynistic series. I've given up on SJM, and the only characters I care about anyone are Lucien, Nesta, Helion, and Tarquin. I'll continue to read this series to see if SJM redeems herself, but I'll be downloading them for free. I'm not giving this piece of shit any more of my money.

I hope we don't get the Lucien book. I don't want her to slaughter my fox in the way she slaughtered LITERALLY EVERYONE ELSE.

Thanks for listening.

Edit: I put the review on Goodreads!

#anti acotar #anti acomaf #anti acowar #anti acofas #anti acosf #anti sjm #anti feysand #anti rhysand

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remnantoforario · 3 years

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I can’t speak for anyone else, but that Ironwood/Winter fight rang EXTREMELY hollow to me. Mostly because it more or less ignores or outright negates pretty much every thing we know about these characters relationship with one another.

It SHOULD have been one of the most emotional fights of the series, but instead it just amounts to Ironwood being a crazed madman and Winter mouthing off a bunch of bullshit about abandoning people and duty like she wasn’t at his side since Volume 3.

Winter left home and abandoned her family’s name and lineage to join with Ironwood because she believed in his cause. When people tried to drag his name through the mud she was the first one to step up and defend him. She started a fight with Qrow almost exclusively BECAUSE he was badmouthing Ironwood.

She supported the actions he was taking in regards to Mantle because she truly believed that what he was doing was right, even if it wasn’t a very popular decision.

Her story with Penny in V7 always rubbed me the wrong way because Winter wasn’t a “robot”. She had her own thoughts and feelings and CHOSE to side with Ironwood. Following orders doesn’t automatically make you a mindless drone, and the show continually trying to push that narrative is groan inducing.

They also seemed to forget that they already tried that nonsense when Winter took Weiss to see the Winter Maiden. Weiss essentially said the same things Penny was trying to convey about Winter not thinking for herself, but there Winter explicitly told Weiss that it was her decision, not Ironwood’s. So why give her that validation only to immediately take away in the same volume?

She berates Ironwood for closing the borders and squeezing Mantle dry, BUT SHE WAS RIGHT THERE WHEN HE MADE THOSE DECISIONS! She even defended them in Volume 7! So how can she throw that back in his face when she made no effort to talk to him about it? It’s this thing with RWBY that the writers almost seem afraid to have characters that SHOULD talk to each other, actually do it and when they do it’s way too late.

Why did we never get a scene with Winter and/or the Ace-Ops talking to Ironwood about his plans? Why did none of them actually try to talk some sense into him?

Because CRWBY had already committed full tilt into making Ironwood evil. Why give actual WEIGHT to future events with set up and pay off when we can spend more time on cringe comedy?

Winter had to watch as Ironwood, the man she respected and followed for years, slowly descended into madness and paranoia. You telling me she felt no sympathy for him? That instead of trying to reason with him and reclaim the man she cared for as a (possible) father figure, she just up and decides “oh no he’s evil now. Fuck him.”.

Now I know some people are going to find this post and comment “we got set up. Winter was scared when Ironwood did bad things.” Looking scared isn’t set up, well it is, but it’s bad set up. We never saw any scenes with Winter conflicted over what to do about Ironwood. No scenes with her coming to terms with this person he had become and finally deciding he needed to be stopped. No scenes of her trying to still defend him from others, but knowing that he was too far gone. There was nothing to add emotional weight to their relationship.

Winter waited until a literal bomb was reintroduced into the plot and an insubordinate soldier was about to get his head blown off before doing something. That’s not coming to her senses, that’s being too much of a coward to look at yourself and instead placing all the blame on someone else.

Winter is just as guilty as Ironwood is for everything. Sure she might not have shot anyone or commissioned a bomb, but she stood by while all of it happened and said nothing. She saw this man was clearly on the edge and instead of trying to pull him back, she let him fall. You can make the same case for the Ace-Ops, but their relationship with Ironwood was not nearly as close as the one he had with Winter. They could afford to stand on the sidelines, she couldn’t.

Ironwood shed a tear at the thought of fighting at Winter because he still TRUSTED her. She was his closest confidant and in his eyes she betrayed him like everyone else. You telling me she felt nothing the entire time they spent together? She’s more of an ice queen than Weiss if that’s the case. Though I guess that’s the case with RWBY, if the villain doesn’t get a sad backstory we’re not supposed to feel sympathy for them.

It just boggles my mind how they squandered what SHOULD have been one of the most emotional fights in the entire series. Right up with Blake and Yang v. Adam and Pyrrha v. Cinder.

#RWBY #RWBY Crit #RWDE #I guess #Winter Schnee #James Ironwood #RWBY Volume 8 #spoilers #TLDR WInter and Ironwood deserved better

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honourablejester · 3 years

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Shadow & Bone Reaction

Okay, so I watched Shadow & Bone last night. Stayed up until 5am to manage it, so this is going to be muddled, but howandever. Spoilery and involved first impressions from someone who has not read the books below:

Right, so the Ketterdam crew are my favourites. Obviously. This was guaranteed

All three of them, I cannot decide between them

Jesper is a gambling addict which does grind my miserly gears a bit, but he’s also lovely and adorable and quite possibly the most badass person on the show, which is an achievement, and his interactions with Inej are beyond adorable, so I love him with all my heart

That thing Inej said to Alina? Whenever you need it, my hand is yours? That is me for Inej. More on this later

Kaz is a vicious little gremlin of a man with a badly hidden streak of loyalty, and he’s exactly my stripe of guile antihero, so of course I adore him madly

The absolute chaos of them just … accidentally poking their oars into the entire rest of the plot is beautiful beyond belief. They’re just there and mucking things up for everybody like someone threw a bag of spanners into an engine, and it’s beautiful

I was surprisingly really on board for Mal and Alina. Particularly them as kids, this pair of tiny scrappers against the world

I also loved the whole First Army part at the beginning. Like, Mal’s pair of friends, Mikael and Dubrov, they’re adorable (and I fucking screamed later, with the machine gun, you bet), him and Alina in the camp, his friends teasing him about her, him stealing Grisha grapes for her. The show got right in on the friendship and the love there, and honestly I was there for it

The Darkling, on the other hand …

Right. So. I expected him to maybe be … more subtle than he was? I mean, I think everyone’s expecting him to go villain here, so it probably wasn’t supposed to be that subtle, but …

That moment where Alina decides to kiss him. After being separated from Mal, with no communication with her old life, and with Kirigan being all sad and incredibly intense at her at random moments. Like. Long, long before we get to his whole forcibly altering her body to control her moment, I was looking at her kissing this dude and going ‘Oookay, okay lady, that’s, that’s not a good plan. I get that it’s Ben Barnes, do not blame you there, but that’s so not a good plan’

He just kept coming on so fucking strong, you know? The whole intense ‘I’ve been waiting for you my whole life’. He was bleeding desperation and control from the get go. And like, lots of people have those in this show, but where someone like Kaz or Inej feel like ‘I will stab you in the face right fucking now to get out of this alive’, Kirigan is very much, yes, ‘I will swallow your entire city in darkness and give a nice little speech about it to captive dignitaries who I’ll then murder because they shouldn’t have opened their mouths’

There’s more power there than the others, I think, so it feels less like ‘I’ll do what I have to do’ and more ‘I’ll do what I want’

Which his backstory was an interesting show on, yes, how he started out just as desperate as any of them, and then vengeance and black magic ate him. As it does. But still. He comes on too strong

(And the collar. The collar. Not even the massacre later matched that one for me, though Genya’s casual mention of him ‘gifting’ her at 11 came close. But it didn’t match the collar for visceral no. He mutilated Alina to implant a control device within her body. He can die in a ditch with his head covered in pitch and set on fire now. I can’t with him. No)

So, yes. Excellent villain, definitely, I just expected him to maybe take a bit longer to show it?

His minions are adorable, though. The two married heartrenders, Genya and the Durast she has the biggest danged crush on (gotta say, when Kirigan said he needed him for later, I was honestly expecting him to kill him for something, to hurt Genya, did not expect David to be in on the whole mutilating control collar thing)

The show did a lot of work humanising the various factions, so when you get moments like Jesper vs Ivan, round 1, you don’t want either of them to lose, because Ivan has a husband to go back to, and Jesper is Jesper. And then Jesper can’t shoot a pretty man in the face, and we’re golden

(Sidenote one: that scene was badass, holy shit, Jesper was playing with him, it was incredible)

(Sidenote two: Jesper vs Ivan, round 2? Less sympathetic on Ivan’s part)

(Sidenote three: the Ketterdam three vs Kirigan’s everybody was just, god I love them, we’re going to be straight badass all down the line, can you beat a centuries-old shadow sorcerer with a flashbang? An inferni with a knife? A heartrender with a gun while playing with him the entire time? Come to Ketterdam and find out! I love them)

Now. Now. The main thing for me. Inej. Inej and Alina and Kaz

The scene in the Little Palace where Alina shows her power. Ignoring everything that promptly went tits up for everybody. The look on Inej’s face. The look on her face. Hope and faith. From Inej, who’s been so hurt and desperate so far. Oh, that killed me. So much. I was there like, Alina, Alina, it’s not your fault, but you better be worth it, I know you don’t need the pressure but if you have to let anyone down, let it not be Inej. Not her. And Kaz Brekker, you sociopathic mushroom, do not fuck this up for her. Okay? Not this

And then he doesn’t. He doesn’t. He gives up a million kruge and potentially everything he has so he doesn’t have to break Inej’s faith. I loved him there. Right there

And like, he was trying to weasel something out of it. He was still trying to bully Alina all the way to the end, even after she saved his life, because he didn’t want to lose everything, he wanted to have some way to be able to bring Jesper and Inej back with him, because otherwise he was walking back to a city that hated him with literally nothing, since he’d mortgaged the Crow Club on Inej’s debt, and she’d walked out on him anyway, and he’d let her. So he tried to bully Alina, tried to force some way to let Inej come back, without actually forcing Inej. Just, you know, the saint she loved instead, and a woman who’d also just lost everything, and maybe could have used those jewels to stay ahead of pursuit for a while, but that’s not his problem. That’s not his problem

Kaz Brekker is a vicious horrible gremlin of a man, but not to his own, mostly, as much as he can avoid it, and like … did they know in advance what I like? Because that was it

(Him entering the fight on the skiff solely to save the other two, everyone else can die, but he’s going to dive Jesper clear of the Cut and hammer a volcra’s head in to save an unarmed Inej, that was beautiful. Even if I was a tiny bit annoyed at Inej for panicking and throwing her weapons away while outnumbered by flying things. No. Keep them close to stab anything that comes near you, honey, don’t throw them into the darkness. But Kaz saving his Crows was beautiful)

Also, to go back to Inej and Alina, just a little. How much do I love that Inej’s knife saved them all? Inej kissed her knife and planted in the Darkling’s chest, and it did fuck all to him, but then it’s the knife Alina used to take her freedom back and save them all

Inej’s knife freed Alina. Gave a slave her freedom back. Gave her saint her power. Not by killing, but as a tool to break a chain. I can’t. I really, really can’t. Whoever wrote that episode, thank you a lot

You may have guessed, I have feelings about Inej, and Alina, and Kaz, and freedom, and faith, faith in another power and faith in yourself and those you trust, and it’s all tied up in a knife and a debt, and people offering freedom to each other against their own best interests, and I really can’t with them. I can’t. I’m inarticulate over here

Like, this beautiful man did this hideous thing, made this horrible vicious collar, and then all these scared, battered little outcasts and ex-slaves and current slaves gave each other tiny moment after tiny moment after tiny moment that allowed them all to free each other

I can’t

And then Alina gave Inej her knife. The little letter opener that she’d robbed from the Little Palace. The little symbol of two tiny orphans having each other’s backs against the world. Alina gave that back to Inej

Inej’s knives are a whole thing. Kaz gave Inej a job, a way out of slavery, and it’s both joy and horror to her, freedom and damnation, she doesn’t want to kill people but that’s what knives are for, and it’s a freedom she sometimes forces herself to surrender out of trust in Kaz, and then she does kill people, but it’s to save those she cares for, to save Kaz, and then her knife saves them all as a key, not a murder weapon, and Alina, for whom knives are also a symbol of protection, for herself and those she loves, and now freedom as well, gives Inej hers as this tiny gesture that means so much …

And earlier, Kaz stopping her from killing the Conductor, and it was for his own reasons, it was because he needed the man for a job, but the fact that he did that meant that Inej’s first kill wasn’t a murder, an assassination to save herself, but a clean kill in defense of someone else. A kill she could explain to her saints. Especially the one that showed up, because Alina knows all about that

(And when her knives run out, when she’s lost them all on the skiff and is facing death, it’s Kaz who saves her, who pays his debt and preserves her freedom, because he can be trusted with them, with the knives and all they mean …)

And the two things Alina gives them. The knife for Inej, and the jewels for Kaz. A gift for the woman who saved her, and a bribe for the man who threatened her. And it’s exactly what they need. Both of them. It’s freedom and forgiveness and hope for them both. And she had no idea, she just gave what she had at the time. A saint by pure accident, like she’s been all along, but it meant the world. Sometimes all a person needs is one thing. A knife, a chance. A hope

Whoever was writing the thing with the knives, and the saints, and faith in yourself and those around you, you are a genius and I love you

And, like, I should move on. There were other things in the show. Nina and Matthias, I’ve pretty much not mentioned them at all (they are adorable, even as they’re basically Stockholming each other, and then the last episode hit, and everything was good, more or less, for everyone else, so that last fucking punch was a lot, thank you so much), I just …

Knives and faith. Inej, Alina and Kaz. I love everybody, but that was so much the thing that caught me here. That’s what I’m mostly getting out of this show right now

#shadow and bone #reaction #meta #spoilers #kaz brekker #inej ghafa #aline starkov #those three particularly #oof #this show was incredible #i need to calm down

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valkyrieandstrangeridingaragorn · 2 years

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Here's the thing for all the double standards the MCU has Loki still did bad things and I think a good story would have had him finally fully admit that and stopped deflecting on others. That's what Loki needed to grow. Not learning to love someone else and not saying he's a terrible person. Loki knows he did wrong you can see it on his face and if he stopped using others misdeeds or his sad backstory to try to justify himself that would be development

The LOKI series doesn't even seem to actually care about his actions as it does just calling Loki a bad person. That keep punching down and telling him to shut up but they only talk about Coulson death and blame him for a death that's not even his fault. I think he canonical killed over 200 people in the Avengers but they basically NPC as far as the show cares.

How about instead of asking "Do you enjoy hurting people?" The question was "What gives you the right to hurt people."

The thing is taking responsibility and being held accountable are not what the writers think they are. They think if they grab a villain and punish him unashamedly to the point of him hating himself then that's enough pain and suffering and so healing and growth come right after, but that's religion (christianity to be more precise) not real life.

If you want your character to take responsibility you have to make them face what they did. Funnily enough that would be the first part of Mobius' session with Loki, the very beginning where he's showing him footage of Germany and NYC - because however painful it is for Loki to watch that he did it, he has to look at it, he has to face it.

What Mobius should have done afterwards is two things:

Have a chat with Loki in which he can express himself, what he thought at the time, why he did it, followed by not a single excuse or justification, what he did was wrong, full stop. Then,

Address the fact that the Mind Stone had been influencing him (and finally confirm to the audience just how much of an influence the Stone had on him) and acknowledge the torture Thanos had put him through.

Now this is the part where many fans claim we're coddling him but that's not true. Acknowledging the context of his actions is not excusing him, it's explaining him. If you want your character to see that what they have done is wrong how the hell are they going to do that if they don't understand everything about the actions they took? They can't!

You can't have the first without the second. You can't tell him "you're enjoying it" and "you took that guy's eye!" and "you lose a lot!" then ignore the situation he was in, the mental state he was in... what is he learning at that point? What do you truly want, for him to hate himself or for him to understand himself? Those two are very different things.

A villain doesn't take responsibility the moment he starts hating himself. And he's not held accountable just because you choose to throw him into a time loop where he will be humiliated and beaten repeatedly until he ends up kneeling on the floor and calling himself a narcissist.

They didn't need to break him down to get to the point where he's admitting he doesn't enjoy hurting people. The very moment he says that he should have been asked "so you admit you've been hurting people? Cool, let's move on from there" and then they should have gone through his file addressing everything, from the bad stuff to the good stuff. That's another thing they did wrong, they only mentioned the bad and ignored the good. Again, that's not therapy, that's punishment - no responsibility and no accountability whatsoever.

I too would have wanted to watch a session where Loki admits the bad things he has done, it would have been great for his character, it would have left the haters without any ammunition, and if that had been followed by an explanation of where he comes from, why he acts the way he does, what bad habits he has taken up along the way, and how much he wants to just be himself and stop thirsting for external validation that would have made me very happy. But that's asking too much.

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