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superluigiglitchy · 2 days

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Triple Dose Timeline (canon is puddy in my hands)

here's an explanation on how exactly Meggy got fucked over by the universe 3 times

note: The following events replace the anime arc because everyone was to busy searching for Meggy that the anime challenge never happened

Meggy was kidnapped by a group of octarians (who were ordered to do so because DJ Octavia discovered Agent 3 had a sister and had a big brained idea to not only brainwash Callie but also her as well) and got brainwashed by a second pair of hypnoshades that Octavia made (though she didn't quite go down without a fight, Octavia can attest to that)

Agent 3 (Paige) was too busy on a separate mission to go looking for Meggy much to their frustration so Marie recruiting Harbor as Agent 4 came in clutch and also Mario coming along because of course he does which both makes things easier but also more complicated

However during the final battle around the time Marie and Sheldon came barging in the platform Meggy was on ended up collapsing and she fell into the abyss below much to Mario's and everyone else's horror

Fast forward a couple weeks and after hundreds of dead ends and countless sleepless nights, the NSS were finally able to find a lead to where Meggy ended up (and also got confirmation that she still lives thank god, Paige cried a lot at the news out of relief) and so Cuttlefish and Agent 3 are off without hesitation to search for Agent 3's sister in the Metro

Meanwhile Meggy has been Sanitised by Commander Tartar who found her unconscious in the subway, and is currently accompanying Cuttlefish, 8, Desti and The Octoposse who are all stuck in this medical nightmare hell hole because of course and all (well except cuttlefish) of them are missing their memories

Cuttlefish is really worried how 3 will react to their sister being well, green now and zombie like

However despite being sanitised, partially emotionless and amnesiac she is still technically Meggy so sparks still fly between her and Desti much to the others chagrin

At least it makes solving the puzzles easier (especially the 8 ball thank GOD)

The plot of octo expansion stays relatively the same albeit with more people and a more chaotic group chat

They all end up having to team up against a partially sanitised Paige who is somehow stronger than in canon which is terrifying, and it took everything to knock them out

When the boss fight with the giant statue and Tartar happens (who wants to blow up the world because it's gone insane and so has he from the meme energy) Meggy, Desti and the Octoposse jump in the assist 8 in inking the statue to high heaven

Sanitised Meggy is basically a watered down version of canon Meggy having her emotions and memories stripped from her, she still has the desire to win splatfest ofc but she doesn't quite have the drive that made her want her to, and this deeply scares Paige and Mario

A couple years have passed since the incident and Meggy is MOSTLY back to her old self, still a bit amnesiac and lacks the reaction speed for certain emotions but better now

Then she gets fuzzified by Mr. Grizz

Meggy started to work at Grizzco. Via the suggestion of Harbor because she felt self conscious about how she looks during turf wars now cause well she looks like a zombie and it went pretty well for about 3 years

Harbor did a total fuck up and Meggy not wanting him to get fired ended up taking the fall for him

unfortunately this ended up with Mr. Grizz fucking up her back a bit, kidnapping her and then getting fuzzified which FINE

and somewhere during that struggle Meggy ends up in the Splatlands an FAR from Grizzco. and ends up running into Andi and being found thankfully by Cuttlefish

unfortunately they all soon end up falling into Alterna but hey at least she reunited with the others!

splatoon 3 remains relatively the same albiet they know mr. grizz's plan to rid he world of sea life MUCH sooner

#triple dose au #triple dose meggy #smg4 au #smg4 #i wish squid memes were real au #harbor current #paige spletzer #meggy spletzer #andi finn #new squidbeak splatoon

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gayemeralds · 14 days

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what are the things you hate most about shadow? i think i was mostly neutral-negative towards him but fandom blorbofication made me so instinctually averse to anything about him i cant really pinpot the ones that annoy me the most

i'll admit at first it was mostly because i was annoyed by the fandom's approach to him but i try my best not to get swayed by other peoples perception of sonic and i went back to look at the source material so i can bitch and back myself up. lmao.

i think i just really hate the direction of his character post sa2. i think there's plenty of story to be wrought from shadow- i say i wish he stayed dead after sa2 but thats not 100% true. i think the amnesia arc they went with post sa2 was the dumbest fucking thing they could do with a character who we spent an entire game (sa2) figuring out his past in. like sa2 is so lore heavy that having the core character of the game become amnesiac was stupid i fucking hate it. and it doesnt even get resolved in sonic heroes we have to get shadow the hedgehog 2005 to get a better answer and if im honest even then its still immensely confusing on what, exactly, they're trying to do with shadow.

like imagine if they didnt go the route of amnesia. a shadow that has to fully reckon with the fact that he nearly ended the world. a shadow that has to immediately acknowledge the events of sa2, his grief, geralds actions, and where this leaves him. amnesia shadow jsut doesnt do shadow figuring out where he stands in regard to his past enough justice. idk i just with the amnesia thing literally never happened it was so stupid and i think it fucked up his character post sa2.

but other than that, i really do hate how he keeps getting pushed into things that he really shouldnt be pushed in. i think the sonic movies and sonic prime are the most egregorious examples. i really dont understand why sonic prime, who's purpose was to explore alternative dimensions, didn't focus on sonic and blaze. why was shadow a core part of this show. and the sonic movies skipping sa1 just to get to sa2 to have shadow in the universe to milk as much money as they can frustrates me so fucking much. why is shadow confirmed before amy. also shadow in the twitter take overs when hes not even in the fucking games??? like sonic frontiers and sonic colors... i'll admit i hate sega using him as a marketing ploy. shadow to me is a character that should be placed in the reserves- he's really only useful for big, world ending events. otherwise whats the point of having him around, especially since they don't want to be consistent in his characterization.

speaking of charaterization... im not sure how to phrase this but i think a lot of modern presentations of shadow, in fandom and through sega, really forget how sa2 presented shadow, and his relationship to sonic. i hate how shadow keeps getting casted as sonic's edgy doppleganger whos just picking fights for the sake of a fight. like if you want that metal sonic is right fucking there and always has a good reason to pick a fight with sonic. and i really hate how sonic & shadow are not always casted as equals. theres an underlying respect to their relationship that i think gets forgotten. shadow does respect sonic- he calls him the ultimate lifeform during the finalhazard battle- he acknowledges and respects sonics ability, tenacity, and simplicity. he respects sonic! and the two are equals! they're supposed to be foils of each other- of what letting your losses define you as. they're equals! they're two sides of the same coin! i don't know how to phrase this without going on an insane tangent i just feel like people don't entirely encompass what them being foils means.

anyway. idk. i don't like shadow post sa2 is the simplest answer to this lol.

#master emerald brothel #sighs #. shadow.....

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qqueenofhades · 9 months

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Honestly thank goodness Neil Gaiman is already on it by saying season 3 is planned, this is NOT the ending because that's a gift in of itself with that cliffhanger. The story wasn't my absolute favorite overall, but damn I just didn't give a shit between Jon Hamm being a hilarious amnesiac plus the EVERYONE IS GAY IN THIS SHOW OBVIOUSNESS. Inject it all into my veins please and thank you.

I mean yeah; the plot wasn't my favorite (though I was honestly very glad not to have Anathema/Newt and the Precocious Kidlets); the pacing was off and the emotional beats a little skewed, and there was definitely some tonal whiplash. BUT:

Must a television show be GOOD, or WELL PLOTTED? Is it not enough to have six episodes of Amnesiac Jon Hamm and Two Gay Ineffable Morons Being Absolute In Love Weapons Grade Idiots While Making Very Poor Life Decisions? An anon last night said it felt like watching one of those AO3 fics with angsty lowercase Taylor Swift-lyric titles, and that, imho, was exactly it. It was the kind of deep-dive queer character/relationship focus you usually only get in fanfic, it set up for another arc/season with confirmed-canon Ineffable Husbands and a lot of character beats that we would all WANT to see before their happily-ever-after, and as such, I ain't mad at all.

#anonymous #ask #good omens spoilers #ineffable husbands

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hezuart · 1 year

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Mono and 6.) Identity? And/or 8.) Past?

This one intrigues me, what kind of person do you think he was before he met Six?

It always surprised and sadden me that he already uses his hats as a coping mechanism because he already knows how harsh the world is and yet he couldn’t be much older than Six.

Headcanon Ask game:

IDENTITY. Any headcanons about who they are? Have they figured themself out (if they even want to or have ever thought about it)?

PAST. How were they growing up? Is the past something they like to reflect upon, or do they try not to think about it?

~~~

Mono's official description is:

"His thin paper mask offers some respite, helping him forget that the world outside hates him and wants him to fail- but he can't stay hidden forever."

Some of the official descriptions are odd and are subject to change and may be taken out of context, but this description confirms to me that Mono's memories are wiped everytime he is sent back in time. He just knows he needs to keep his face covered, otherwise, the people of the outside might... recognize him? It isn't until the end, he takes off his hat, deciding not to hide anymore and face himself head-on.

Six's description: "Awakening in a world she cannot recognize," which indicates she too might be amnesiac, however, she has drawings on the walls of the signal tower, meaning it is very likely both she, and perhaps Mono, retain some subconscious memory of what happened to them before.

The website also claims that "Six is fading from this world and her only hope is to guide Mono to the Signal Tower" which... doesn't make sense to me. But otherwise, her being caught by the HUnter, and the Hunter keeping her alive as... a trophy??? Is fascinating. She appears to have been there for a long time, and may even be somewhat cared for, considering he gave her a music box, and presumably food. (Originally, Mono is captured and kept alive by the HUnter too; tied to a chair)

Anyway, we're supposed to be talking about Mono! Mono seems to have forgotten his past. In the comics, it's shown him in a building with several other kids. He decides to hide in a tv, not helping any others as they are snatched away. (if this comic is canon is up for debate) But it can be inferred Mono is a very insecure individual. He used to hide and save himself. Perhaps that lead to guilt and loneliness, realizing no one else is around anymore, so perhaps he feels the need to make up for that? Which is why, no matter how odd or cautious Six is, Mono persists in helping her, because he knows he can't back down anymore. He's tired of hiding away.

Perhaps why he always hid away was because of trauma he endured. He went from a flight response to a fight response, an arc of overcoming one's fears and standing up for not only yourself, but also others.

Six on the other hand, her response to trauma appears to be a form of sociopathy(?). She has numbed herself to the world around her. She doesn't form attachments because she knows lives are fleeting. Perhaps she was betrayed in the past, or feels like people weigh her down, emotionally and physically, especially if she befriends them.

Mono uses his trauma to become a hero.

Six uses her trauma to numb and distance herself.

Seven uses his trauma as a way to connect with others. He uses them as a support group, and feels better knowing they're all in it together.

#little nightmares #little nightmares 2 #ask #text post #ln mono #ln six #ln seven

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cleave-and-plough · 6 months

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a man worthy of you

after the conclusion of the black rose arc, another palette-cleansing recap episode, this time from tsuwabuki's perspective as interpreted by utena, anthy, and nanami while they read his diary of the events so far. this recap serves as a more humorous complement to akio's in episode 13, as tsuwabuki inserts himself rosencrantz-and-guildenstern-style into the background of the previous nanami-centric episodes. ultimately, it's a lot lighter and simpler than what's come before, but there are still some nice stylistic flourishes that keep it from being dull.

chief among these is the positioning of nanami, utena, and anthy as standing behind tsuwabuki's hospital curtain, forming a diegetic version of the silhouettes. though their antics aren't as outlandish or prop-based as the usual silhouettes, the poses communicate a lot both comedically and narratively - nanami standoffishly to the side, utena and anthy nose-first in the diary. tsuwabuki's account is both damning and exonerating, offering explicit confirmation of nanami's wrongdoings while defending her as suffering from the pains of unrequited love.

tsuwabuki's intrusion on the story extends to the fictional as the diary goes on to detail his own fantasies of other versions of the show's events: he sees himself replacing touga for an amnesiac nanami, soothing her cow form and even becoming a cow himself. at last, he can take no more of his heart being laid bare and leaps from the hospital bed, though his gown falls, rendering him both emotionally and physically naked. nanami faints and falls out a window, waking up in a hospital bed of her own. it's almost a chance for tsuwabuki's savior dreams to come true, until she steals his diary for the final time. as her trio of followers restrain him, nanami flips through the diary to a page titled "strategic plan number 24," which is conspicuously also the episode number. tsuwabuki wails, "if she reads that page, i'm finished!" and his words come true - the episode ends thereafter with the silhouettes once more ascending in a spaceship.

just another day at ohtori academy.

stray thoughts:

the increased presence of the elephants and nanami's three admirers was another fun addition to tsuwabuki's accounts, bordering on the surreal. i especially enjoy their barbershop trio ambitions.

next episode: AGH

#revolutionary girl utena #shoujo kakumei utena #utena project #my writing #duel 24

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hallowed-nebulae · 2 years

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for @digiweek 22, day four (drama)!

my topic of today is not, in fact, decode, but rather tamers. specifically: ryou and cyberdramon. ( @digi-noir, you’ll like this post)

now, you may be asking, “simon, how is that sad?” well, since i am the chief of Thinking About Ryou And Cyberdramon And Being Sad, let me explain to you.

Fact: at the end of the Brave Tamer game, after defeating Milleniummon, Ryou gets thrown to another world. It’s confirmed within Tamers anime that Ryou is amnesiac, and likely does not remember anything from the events of before his entering the Tamers universe. Therefore, we can extrapolate that Ryou, an amnesiac, likely had struggles trying to integrate into this world he does not remember, with parents, friends, and an entire life he likely does not remember.

Fact: Cyberdramon is the result of a jogress between Milleniummon and Monodramon; said jogress turns into an egg, out of which hatches a Ketomon that becomes the Cyberdramon we know and love today. Cyberdramon canonically does not have Milleniummon or Monodramon’s memories; he is his own person. However, it can be assumed that, due to being made of Milleniummon’s data (as well as Monodramon’s), Cyberdramon likely has a similar connection with Ryou that exists between, say, Taichi and Agumon -- that is, the connection of a Chosen Child and their fated Digimon partner.

Fact: in one of the Tamers audio dramas, it’s revealed that Ryou entered the Digital World when a digital field opens up, and Cyberdramon cannot cross into the human world. It’s also implied that Ryou spent at least 8 months in the digital world with Cyberdramon, since when told the date by Ruki, Hirokazu, and Kenta, he remarks that it’d been “almost a year” since he entered the Digital World (though my memory may be off slightly). It’s also canon that Ryou and Cyberdramon have been constantly moving, as Cyberdramon feels compelled to fight other digimon. The above-mentioned audio drama confirms that Cyberdramon feels compelled to do this due to a desire to protect Ryou, which manifests as attempting to remove any threats.

Therefore, with this information in mind: we can assume that Ryou awoke in the world, amnesiac with no knowledge or familiarity with much, if anything at all. We can also assume that Cyberdramon, born in the digital world, felt a need to search for Ryou without knowing why or who he was actually searching for (as implied of what happens when a digimon does not meet their Chosen Child, by Tailmon’s account in the Odaiba Arc of Adventure). We can assume that Ryou also went to the digital world because of this connection (left over from Milleniummon and Ryou’s original home dimension). We can assume that Ryou and Cyberdramon were each other’s only consistent company for about eight months, and we know canonically that Cyberdramon was incredibly protective of Ryou, and that Ryou eventually saw things such as a possible death as no big deal (evidenced by his lack of worry regarding Knightmon possibly beheading him, within the Tamers anime). We also know that Ryou’s first introduction back to the human world was when he had to fight for his life and the lives of others due to the D-Reaper’s presence.

To summarize: Ryou gets amnesia, he and his soul-bonded dragon Cyberdramon end up meeting, Ryou goes to Digital World, full of monsters, and ends up finding home there with said dragon. Cyberdramon fights frequently because he wants to keep Ryou alive, while Ryou eventually finds nothing upsetting about the threat of death. Ryou’s first time in the human world in months is one where he has to fight for his life. When the evil is defeated, Ryou is forcibly separated from Cyberdramon, his partner by soul and also by choice at this point. In a short time, Ryou is ripped away from the one person he’s closest two, the home he’s lived in for the past months, and is expected to slot right into human society perfectly.

And that’s not even mentioning the whole deal that happens to Ryou beforehand in the games, when he’s still Adventureverse Ryou rather than Tamers Ryou (very important distinctions, I assure you). Is that not tragic?

#rambles #digiweek 2022 #akiyama ryou #ryo akiyama #cyberdramon #listen i have many many feelings about ryou and cyberdramon and that whole situation #meta #i guess??#kinda wild that this is my longest meta-y post. and that all of my meta-y posts are all digimon-related #anyways hi. think about ryou and cyberdramon and how sad their situation is. because i cannot Stop thinking about it

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azurenightowl · 8 months

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Notes on the show Gravity Falls,

written by someone who didn’t watch the show until 2023 but was in the fandom through osmosis because of mutuals and irl friends who watched it. Binged it in a week.

damn it really do live up to the hype

pacifica is a way smaller part of the show than i realised, and candy and grenda have a way larger presence. (not to be like. annoying but. i wonder why the rich white girl is prioritised over the asian girl and the trans-coded girl. hmm. forget the author, this is the real mystery.)

the mystery and romance elements are actually pretty much equally balanced. there’s more romance than i realised; then again, i guess bingeing the show and already knowing the big mysteries (stanford, who is bill, what is his plan, etc.) means that the mystery element seems much smaller because there’s nothing to guess, only evidence that confirms what i know as fact.

i love that emotionally speaking, everyone’s arcs are complete, but there are still some mysteries left hanging. like the axolotl. whats up with that guy?

i kept waiting for the other shoe to drop regarding mabel, but she’s just like… a really optimistic positive person? like she can be annoying but she’s not evil or self-serving or unnecessarily selfish.

compared to dipper, the show is "nicer" to her in that she has less episodes where we focus on one of her personal problems like we do dipper, so her flaws are less explored. this makes her less interesting, and so potentially people go looking for flaws in other places?

most of the times where she’s shown to be concerned about boys over dipper’s problems (eg sock opera) she has like, half a second of deliberation before she does the right thing. she’s 12! and a lot of the time doesn’t have the same information as the viewer does, hence doesn’t have the same sense of urgency.

i kind of get the frustration, especially about the finale and the end of episode 17; personally i think it’s wrong of mabel to ask dipper not to take the opportunity, because adulthood and planning for it is important, as well as following your passion. dipper made the right choice for him (in that moment), and was explicit about still being in contact with mabel.

HOWEVER mabel is totally entitled to feeling hurt and upset about this! and she was preyed upon by a monster in a moment of weakness; it is a little bit selfish, and a little bit naive, yes, to want summer to last forever. but these are normal, human traits.

also, it’s very important that she didn’t even know what the snowglobe was when she gave it to ‘blendin.’ she was emotionally distraught and was told that a small trinket no one would miss could make her happy and prevent what she saw as a disastrous future. no one told her—granted she didn’t seek the knowledge out either. no one is at fault for her not knowing the value of the snowglobe.

i really love the depth of the show’s world. by which i mean; we don’t get to see everything. i’ve seen many instances where you see everything, except one thing called "the incident" thats inevitably a recurring joke. here, we get references to a bunch of stuff that never appears onscreen—mabel’s encounters with vampires, dipper fighting a demon bat, the family bonding day that ended with a night in county jail. you get the impression that the characters have rich and full lives outside of this.

this show is SO funny. like—

s2e6, that crack about animators and the fact that they can’t afford stop-motion.

s2e12, talking about the in-universe show they’re watching, there’s a twist where the main character has an identical twin and the characters voice different opinions the writers predict the fandom will have: from "bullshit" to "i predicted that a year ago."

s2e16, stan says "do i look like an amnesiac?" LMAO. i mean not funny but like such fun foreshadowing played off as a joke.

i got TOTALLY misled about what bill’s personality was like, and i’m so, so pleased. i cannot explain how cool show!bill is. i thought he was--well standard tumblr sexyman. suave and dapper and whatnot.

bill doesn’t actually have that much screen time, but he has so much presence from the triangles everywhere to the effect he has on the characters—and then, you know, the whole finale. but im thinking, especially early on before he’s a named character, the fact that he’s present is really ominous, especially for someone who doesn’t actually know what happens in the show, only that he shows up at some point and starts the apocalypse.

bill just doesn’t care about dipper basically at all and it’s great! you can construct an argument that he cares (in a really fucked up way) for ford, paying him special attention and having spent a lot of time building the portal. mabel, too—the deal they make, he gives her the nicest prison, he didn’t have to, you know? in-show, based on how worried ford+stan are than bill won’t honour his deal to leave the kids alone, you learn he’s not actually bound by the deal. also when he possessed dipper and straight gave him nothing in return. but yeah bill is just off doing his own thing and you really get a sense that he's above all of this. everyone is a pawn to him, he just wants to party!

im getting off track. in all honesty, bill straight doesn’t care for anyone except himself and it’s amazing. no creeping on the 12 year olds—based off fanart i thought there was some sort of rapey vibes, but nope he’s just here to have fun and cause chaos. 10/10.

all in all, even knowing the big mysteries, this was a blast. for people who feel like they won’t enjoy the show because it’s been spoiled, definitely check it out anyway.

#gravity falls

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ahumblenipple · 2 years

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hi hi! anon again! pls write as much as you want, I love reading opinions! yes it's unfortunate that we didn't get moreau and heisen parts once we were in the beneviento manor i thought we were going to go through them too, or that we'd get anything on the lords (you can only hear heisenberg at the beginning during the fall) but alas :(

about the duke, that wasn't the duke, that was a creature made by mirander in her first experiment to see if she could glue a person back together and/or replicate them out of the parts she could find within the megamycete, same thing as the many roses: amnesiac beings with some chunks of original personality and some power (it's all in the lore dump lab + some notes in the castle)

and Ethan? an rose? Ethan ;_; ;____; sasdfghjhg my precious little moldy babies - the return to the Winters' house and the letter* killed me dead and the convo and hug at the end! i just - tears, tears everywhere

*confirmed: Ethan takes care of Rose most of the time, sings her to sleep, wants to make her breakfast and take her to school

also chris and mia confirmed terrible guardians: never told Rose anything about Ethan other than 'he died protecting you', like she literally says 'i don't know the first thing about him'. like how just HOW could they for 16 years not say anything else wtF man. also ok mia was in the picture until she was 5 at least and then rose later says 'haven't seen mom in ages' so mia went mia for some years til the dlc happens... and Rose doesn't exactly sound all that broken up about it. also also chris trying to reclute her into hws... knowing how she feels about her powers/self and about her wanting to be a normal teen... *sigh* *grabs m and c and punts them towards the sun* sorry for the rant! just needed it out

Also no apologies for writing a lot! I clearly have too much of my brain fixated on these weirdos so I love hearing about it too.

MORE THOUGHTS BELOW

With the duke it was more so that the image was there and he was MEAN that got me all sad. I love that chubby bastard and it hurt having him as an antagonist

You're right though with the whole megamycete saving consciousness of whoever it interacts with, so of course it had chunks of him Miranda could play with too

AND AS FOR FATHER OF THE YEAR HIMSELF

I once again feel fucking robbed by Capcom. A lovely character that was reduced to nothing more than a plot device for the sake of the overarching story of the rest of the series

They don't exactly have the greatest history of treating characters well, but considering the survival of so many other protagonists in the games (Carlos and Sheva who were also just sort of side protagonists who live) It's frustrating that they had to nuke Ethan like that.

AND MIA AND CHRIS

I had heard rumor about Chris potentially being used as a villain? Corruption arc? Idk, but it makes sense they would use this as a bit of a set up if that's the case

The man who spent the last 20 years fighting everything imaginable and getting betrayed along the way may or may not start to slip

But to keep information about Rose's dad away from her??? When the guy was a one man army??? Full of love???? Rude.

And then Mia of course. 😬

So much of her at this point just feels villainous to me, considering how Rose was made, her involvement with the connections, being in Romania, knowing Miranda prior to everything

Idk if there will be further answers on her lack of involvement but yeah, not the iddeal parent

ESPECIALLY WHEN ETHAN WAS AN OPTION

Again just feels like the characters were reduced to plot points rather than allowing them the chance to develop. But hey, maybe that's a good thing considering how Chris is apparently moving.

I have so many other thoughts that just sound like unholy screeching at this point that I'll figure out how to put into words later.

ALWAYS feel free to harass me. I am a nerd and love talking about these idiots (obviously)

#karl heisenberg #re8 village #resident evil village #ethan winters #re8 #resident evil #re8 spoilers #shadows of rose

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tenebraevesper · 2 years

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Sonic the Hedgehog Analyzer, Issue #5: The Fate of Dr. Eggman (Part 1)

Welcome to The Fate of Dr. Eggman Arc, where we will finally learn what exactly happened to Dr. Eggman and how Sonic and his friends are going to deal with him.

We are immediately thrown into action as Sonic and Espio take care of several Badniks. Sonic had been investigating whether Dr. Eggman was behind the recent attacks, learning that Team Chaotix has something of a lead on what is going on. However, it is kept a little vague, as Espio explains that Dr. Eggman had no contingency plan in case he lost in Sonic Forces, which leaves Sonic (and the reader) wondering what exactly is going on.

Now, I’ll just take a moment here and say that I love Team Chaotix - Vector, Espio and, yes, even Charmy - and that they’re really fun characters to read about. They may be broke, by that doesn’t detract from being the world’s greatest detectives (or the only detectives Sonic knows of).

Speaking of detectives, they actually did find Dr. Eggman, but...

Yeah, as it turns out, Dr. Eggman remembers absolutely nothing about what had happened in Sonic Forces, having a severe case of amnesia. Instead, he introduces himself as Mr. Tinker, having taken on the personality of a friendly man who loves to fix stuff. However, Sonic is not sold on this new personality, being quite suspicious of this being just an act.

Sonic decides to question him about his past, but Mr. Tinker has no clue what Sonic is talking about. Vector and Espio then confirm that Mr. Tinker isn’t faking his amnesia and that he legit doesn’t remember being Dr. Eggman. Sonic remains miffed, remembering all the crimes Dr. Eggman had done (like blowing up the moon in Sonic Adventure 2) and remains suspicious Mr. Tinker.

The conversation leads up to a debate that became quite a conundrum among IDW!Sonic readers - what is Sonic supposed to do with Dr. Eggman/Mr. Tinker? As a matter of fact, that’s why Team Chaotix has reached out for him, as they themselves have no idea whether they should even punish a guy who doesn’t even remember what he had done. Espio notes that justice needs to be served, but Mr. Tinker isn’t the same person as Dr. Eggman, leaving him musing.

They’re approached by the head of the village, who explains how they found an amnesiac Dr. Eggman and did lock him up, only for the latter to reinforce his own cell door. They questioned him about his memories, but there was no sign of the old villain everyone knew. Therefore, they let him live in the village, with Mr. Tinker repairing everything the villagers brought him. He literally calls Mr. Tinker a blessing to their village and vouches for him to let him stay instead of leaving him rot in a prison cell.

Sonic is still unsure what to do about this situation, being clearly stressed out on what he’s supposed to do with Mr. Tinker. While Vector offers to keep an eye on him, Sonic wants to make a set decision. They’re interrupted by Badniks, with Sonic figuring they’ve come to save Amnesiac!Eggman, only to see the latter cowering in fear and begging Sonic to defend the village.

Sonic, being the hero he is, accepts with zero argument. After Sonic and Team Chaotix smash the Badniks (and we get a panel of whoever took over Eggman’s base complaining about Sonic’ and the Chaotix’s interference), they realize that Dr. Eggman is indeed a changed person, one who has fully settled in as Mr. Tinker.

In the end, Sonic decides to allow Mr. Tinker to live his life peacefully. Now, this becomes a problem later on, but I will only focus on Sonic’s decision in this Issue alone.

I know that there had been a huge disagreement between people regarding Sonic showing mercy to the villains and giving them second chances, the prime example being Dr. Eggman/Mr. Tinker (something Shadow, Espio and Surge will call him out on later). Sonic knows exactly what Dr. Eggman had done; he had personally battled him countless times, saving the world over and over again from the mad scientist.

Therefore, when Dr. Eggman is found, he’s called in to deliver a judgement. However, instead of finding the same man who caused him so much grief, he finds a man who has no memory of his past, whose accumulated hatred has been erased and who is using his brilliance to help other people. Now, Sonic has to decide whether he can judge and punish Eggman for his crimes despite the fact that he is literally a different person now, really struggling with coming to a conclusion.

Some people would say that Sonic should place Dr. Eggman/Mr. Tinker into jail and throw away the key. Some even suggested that he should just kill the man and be over with it (SEGA mandates forbid against killing off any of the video game characters, but that’s for a different discussion). In any case, the common consensus was that Sonic’s decision here was wrong, that he’s too merciful and that letting Dr. Eggman/Mr. Tinker off the hook seemingly excuses all of his past crimes. Hell, they would even argue how Sonic had no issue killing off past enemies (like Erazor Djinn, whom he trapped in the lamp and then dropped into lava), so why can’t he do the same with Dr. Eggman?

As for me, I completely understand Sonic’s point of view. Hear me out.

We see in this comic that Sonic is a bit more compassionate than he was before, showing mercy to his arch-enemy, and I’m completely fine with this. Sonic did never strike me as someone who’d just willy-nilly punish (or kill) whichever enemy he comes across. He has shown several times that he’s more than willing to forgive his enemies, especially if he sees them as misguided (like in the case of Merlina). As explained in Issue #50 (which I’ll get to eventually, don’t worry), he gives everyone the freedom of choice to turn their life around. However, if they decide to cause chaos, he’ll be there to stop them, and that is fine. I don’t mind the way how Sonic has been written here.

He had been told by Team Chaotix that Dr. Eggman has turned over a new leaf, the village head has also vouched for him and Mr. Tinker himself showed that his evil side is gone. In Sonic’s mind, if everyone agrees that Mr. Tinker is indeed a new person and that it would be better for him to use his skills to do good, then why not? Let him actually do good.

We can still see that Sonic has his doubts and we know that there’s no way Mr. Tinker is going to remain like this forever, but for now, this is how it is. I believe that Sonic’s decision was perfectly reasonable regarding the position he was put in (not to mention the fact that there’s no way he could’ve predicted what would happen in the future).

However, this doesn’t mean that I’ll be now putting Sonic on a pedestal for his decision, because there is still another side to this argument I also agree on and will cover in the next Issue. I just want to note here that I don’t see Sonic as some kind of paragon of good and that whatever he does or says is 100% correct and that no one is allowed to argue against him. As a matter of fact, even if I agree with his decisions, I have no trouble contesting them. Sonic himself said in Sonic & The Black Knight that, even if he has to play the villain in the eyes of other people, he’ll always do the right thing.

Now, speaking of challenging Sonic views, we are introduced to a very familiar duo, that being Rouge and, more importantly, Shadow the Hedgehog!

This should be fun. (￢‿￢ )

Now, excuse me while I go fangirl over my favorite Sonic!Character.

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#Sonic the Hedgehog Analyzer (Masterlist)

#Sonic the Hedgehog Analyzer #sonic the hedgehog #espio the chameleon #charmy bee #vector the crocodile #team chaotix #dr eggman #mr tinker #rouge the bat #shadow the hedgehog #team dark #sonic idw #sonic forces

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5-7-9 · 3 months

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So Joker’s civilian alter-ego was kinda difficult to figure out. I know fans like to keep Joker as Joker completely, but my narrative and themes work better with a “nobody.”

See, Joker is mysterious, a blank canvas, and he’s the Joker 🃏 which can become anyone *jazz hands* Yes, Joker absolutely should have a consistent personality just like any other well written character, but I just find it strange to think Joker being toxic is an innate personality trait. I’ve never understood whats so interesting about toxicity, but I do know Joker’s personality or psychology and behavior is neat. (Honestly the most weirdest part was finding too many people actual start saying redemption was boring??? Weird excuse).

Anyway, Telltale was interesting and did have a sympathetic lesser criminal, but he focuses more on a misunderstood mentally ill type so he has a different personality and he actually cares about justice. He’s fun tho, autistic swag or somethin i think? There’s Eric Border as a disingenuous well meaning doctor from Metropolis, but that’s focused on tricking Batman to think- well actually idk- to prove he can seem normal??? Well I did like how they were sorta consistently interacting enough for Batman to like him as a work friend. Lastly, amnesiac Joker is probably the closest to just regular Joker but subtle-r. Unfortunately, i still have plans for Joker characterization beyond the comics, so while it’s good, I’ll still have to figure out a work around. Personally, I think Joker as a civilian should be sorta awkward shy-ish like from TKJ flashbacks and Eric Border and Telltale and Amnesiac arc, but not in a social anxiety way just in a hiding a secret way.

My Joker’s civilian alter ego is affiliated with his queerness in a subtle way where it’s obvious to anyone who notices, but he never confirms it and it kinda is ambiguous. He deserves to be fun tho so he has to at least seem like a really close ally that’s sorta comfortable standing out. Also fashion, my mind can’t handle a boring outfit visually or narratively, the outfits accidentally became narratively important.

#my reclamation AU

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seven-homosexual-dinosaurs · 2 years

Text

So if I’m not wrong, last time on Empires SMP:

Pearl fucking died

Lizzie became an amnesiac for the second time

Shrub noped out into the nether to look for gnomes

Joey is either dead, concussed, or in a coma

Gem and Fwhip confirmed roseblings and then proceeded to ride off into the sunset on the back of a dragon

Scott got isekai’d into his 30k flower husbands Xornoth redemption fanfiction where nothing went wrong ever

Joel finally noticed the crazy shit happening and immediately dropped an f bomb

Jimmy and Katherine got their turns on the self exile arc

Sausage fucking died(?)

Pix is either MIA or simply cannot be bothered

Am I getting all this right?

#empires smp #dangthatsalongname #scott smajor #shubble #shubbleyt #shrub berry #joey graceffa #joel smallishbeans #smallishbeans #jimmy solidarity #solidarity gaming #solidaritygaming #ldshadowlady #geminitay #fwhip #mythical sausage #mythicalsausage #pixlriffs #pearlescentmoon

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amarriageoftrueminds · 3 years

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At the risk of jumping down a conspiracy rabbit hole- what do you want to bet that Cynthia Glass was who they had in mind when hiring Atwell, but changed the script later so that the romance could be “real”?

Ooof you know you’re poking the bear asking me about Saint Margaret don’t you?? 😅

I’ve got to say, when you look at them: there's no ambiguity there.

HA looks more like Cynthia Glass than Cynthia does.

And there's physically no way to mistake this ^

(A brown-eyed brunette Englishwoman, doing an English accent...)

For a blonde, blue-eyed, American Southerner, is there?

I mean, they would never have even looked at someone like HA or Emily Blunt in casting, if that was the case, would they?

If they wanted Peggy in a Rebirth comic arc all they had to do was get a blonde American and put her in Cynthia's place, and not include everything else that made her Cynthia-ish.

They could've still had her being a Virginian, later embedded with the French Resistance, wearing the beret, etc.

There was no reason to keep any Cynthia traits at all unless they started out with a Nazi and made a swap at the last minute, but were just too damn lazy to do a proper job of it.

If the looks were just meant to be an Easter Egg, there’d be no need for the English accent, either.

(And the guy who directed CATFA was also involved in the Indiana Jones movies, which include a... female Nazi spy love interest... who switches at the last minute. Hmm...)

If Peggy was originally meant to be revealed as a Nazi, it would even explain why Steve seems so un-bothered about her during CATFA (and why Cevans seems to pull so hard for Stucky in comparison).

It would scan, if Steve’s indifference was originally in the script to make it deliberately ambiguous and distance him from any later claims to loving a Nazi (while, of course, simultaneously allowing nutjob rightwingers to imagine that Captain 'Murica would love a Nazi, so the Rat can still take their money.)

ed: I’ve been informed that the Agent Carter: Season One book confirms that she is, indeed, based on Cynthia Glass, as you can see here on Gbooks. So there it is. 🤷🏼‍♀️

You don't even need to change anything about MCU!Peggy’s personality in the scripts to turn her into full blown Nazi Cynthia, either.

You could keep her unassailable belief in her own worthiness despite repeated incompetence, her violent jealous temper, the fact that she interacts with Hodge (who was a Nazi defector in the same comic!), her friendship with the self-interested scientists, repeated wilful endangerment of her own allies, the fixation on blonde blue-eyed ubermensch (viz: Aryan wet dream) Steve, the hiring of Zola, the worshipping of strength...

All of it would dovetail exactly with actually being a Nazi; if she was secretly a bad person and only playing at being a liability.

All you'd need to add is her saying 'I'm a Nazi' at some point and all the rest of her characterisation would fit?

The MCU ran into a problem when it decided that it was only people who knew Steve pre-serum who really appreciated him as a person (so, just Sarah, Bucky, and Erskine).

Only… that rules out both the Carters.

Comics Peggy didn’t know Steve at all pre-serum; they only met in France (where she was part of the Resistance), they never knew each others’ names, and she never even saw what he looked like under the mask.

So her attraction to him was based entirely on what he was post-serum; on Captain America.

(And they were separated because she got amnesia, btw; amnesiac love interest. Who’s that remind you of? They also stole Bucky’s reunion with his only surviving relative, his little sister Becky, with Alzheimer's... to give it to Peggy... )

And that’s embarrassing for the writers, because it means their big female Love Interest is canonically as shallow as a puddle compared to MCU Bucky.

But they can’t admit such a dangerous queer truth, and because they’re idiots, they think that a Nazi (Cynthia Glass) would be looking at a disabled man for the same reasons that a non-Nazi person would.

That she could therefore be put in the same category as people who appreciated Steve for who he is as a person.

(Just as they take Arnie Roth and his ‘gay man pretending to be a lady killer to cover the fact that he’s gay’ personality but call him ‘Bucky’, and pretend the underlying origin doesn’t exist, they take Cynthia’s- well, everything -but call it Peggy.)

So they shoehorn her in (and cast a Cynthia lookalike, not a Peggy!) to patch the gap and try to claim something for Peggy’s character that was never true.

In the comics, Steve awoke in the 1960s, and immediately two-timed Peggy with her younger sister Sharon (who was killed off for twenty plus years, and even after resurrection was still never framed as being a happy match, for Steve, because of the constant soldier/spy conflict.)

The irony is, blonde American comics-Peggy, who’s all over Steve post-fame, does appear in the movie; but she’s called ‘Lorraine’, and she’s a creep, and still not the right woman for Steve.

(Making MCU-Peggy unlike her just proves even more that they think the Nazi girl is the best match?!)

Like Peggy’s intro where she punches Hodge, they set MCU-Peggy against ‘evil’ analogues of herself from the comics, to make her look good.

Since we know comics Peggy was only in Europe during the war, that clear cut off point, where Nazi-Cynthia ends and comics Peggy begins, is covered by Project Rebirth.

So all the times ‘Peggy’ is looking at pre-serum Steve, in the film…

That’s not Peggy, that’s Cynthia.

That’s a direct adaptation of a Nazi character.

That is a person who is not looking at pre-serum Steve because she appreciates his values (since hers are diametrically opposed).

She is not seeing a hero, but someone the Nazis would’ve considered a candidate for infant euthanasia.

And that’s why she comes across so pitying and patronisingly maternal, before Steve looks like an Ubermensch.

(No wonder she changed her tune; in her eyes, he had gone from a subhuman to a superhuman. And that’s the character pre-Europe Peggy is meant to embody!

They expect us to believe Peggy wasn’t shallow or only appreciative of Steve post-serum, and yet they maintain this sudden lurch forwards in interest from her, after Steve looks like an Aryan wet dream?

She goes from not seeking Steve out, even though he ‘saved’ her from the grenade, and only speaking to him when he speaks to her, to actively seeking him out to speak to him.

If she appreciated him just as much after serum as she did before, there ought to have been no discernible alteration in her behaviour towards him, before and after. But there very clearly is. And that’s Nazi behaviour!

And any sweet, cloying, empathetic mannerisms, pre-serum? If that’s Cynthia, then that’s not genuine. That’s a Nazi trying to endear herself to the people she’s infiltrating, by acting like a nice person; that’s not her true personality. Sure makes MCU Peggy’s Jekyll & Hyde act make sense though.)

The proof that these pre-serum interactions were intended to come off as maternal is in the original script, where Steve links dancing with women explicitly to dancing with his own mother:

So this split personality in PC also accounts for how AC the show is so desperately anti- everything about Peggy in the films; because the show is adapting Peggy, but the films are adapting Cynthia.

(Hence, they’re lumbered with a random Englishwoman, plonked down in the middle of American intelligence organisations, who is clearly supposed to be American??)

So when we say, eg. Peggy didn’t appreciate pre-serum Steve.

Well… no. No she didn’t.

Neither of the characters she’s based on was ever supposed to.

And the really galling thing about all this ^ is: in the comics, Steve had other brunette love interests, including a war-time fiancée (inspired by a cheesy 1950s Cap movie serial) called Gail.

If they wanted a brunette woman to hang their love interest aesthetic on, it wasn’t just a choice between Cynthia or nothing, there were other options, they didn’t have to pick the Nazi character!

Anyway...

Since fandom has recognised that Peggy is morally charcoal (about damn time!) fandom acts as if it comes down to a choice between ‘knowingly complicit with Nazis’ or ‘aiding Nazis through criminal negligence and wild incompetence.’

But, actually, it doesn't.

Because there’s no way even an incompetent person could be hoodwinked into believing Zola was trustworthy.

He may have been a genius, but there's no way he would've convinced anyone at the SSR or the government that he was a meek, terrified desk jockey who didn't do anything noteworthy.

He was a voluntary foreign (Swiss) member of the Nazi party, responsible for designing the Tesseract bombs to be dropped on America. They knew exactly how dangerous those were.

He was torturing members of the 107 (and the Howlies were still around to say this, don't forget!) with his supersoldier experiments, without orders to do so from Red Skull, while Red Skull wasn't even there, and while he (Zola) was the only man in charge.

(Meta on this here)

So the Nuremberg Defense would not have saved Zola. There would've been witnesses (the Howlies) and records (the Valkyrie base) to prove his cruelty.

In other words: the very deeds which made him of interest to the SSR in the first place-

(and which he'd be boasting about if he wanted to convince them to hire him and not kill him, remember)

-are the same things that he'd have to be denying having a hand in, if he wanted to pass for a trustworthy person.

So he could not have downplayed his own villainy; and he would not, if he wanted to get a job.

It's not possible that Zola even tried to pass for good.

The only way Peggy could've hired him and thought it was an okay decision (and then taken no steps to do away with him, let alone gifting him immortality!) is if she was rotten herself.

And the other reason why it isn't an either/or decision between ‘bad’ or ‘incompetent’ for Peggy:

Is because it can be both.

Peggy can be a deluded villain who wholeheartedly believes she is Good and Decorous and Nobly-Motivated and Basically Irreproachable...

...and also completely fckin’ useless at her job.

I have been thinking lately...

(more in this ask here)

...that there is much in-film evidence to support the idea that she is either

A) nowhere near as important as she claims (and therefore not culpable)

B) just staggeringly inept, at every turn, and yet has an ironclad belief that she's not.

This arrogance carries through to her show, where they try to patch every hole in her previous characterisation (turning her into HA’s Creators’ Pet).

But thereby they inadvertently reveal that they know exactly how deeply she was flawed in CATFA.

Example:

Suddenly she wasn’t discriminated against with every door shut in her face during WWII, because they’ve realised what a nonsense claim that is about the one time when women were legitimately employed everywhere in the workplace... but she was a Super Spy (like Nat, even though she behaved more like a Secretary during work??) and somehow Second in Command?? (Like Maria Hill?? So the whole basis for her alleged appreciation of underdog Steve... the fact that she was discriminated against at that time... never existed, then?)

(And her class privilege got her the job at Bletchley, her brother got her the job at SOE, Phillips said he ‘took a chance’ with hiring her, and it was Stark who gave her the SHIELD position. AND this was the age of jobs for women in WWII. Hmm... Discrimination where? Unique to this one not-like-the-other-girls woman how?)

Suddenly she’s not completely ignoring or competing with other women (in CATFA women can only be Nurses, Sluts, or Not Like the Other Girls), she’s a Feminist who stabs waitress-harassers with forks and gives fat female security guards a chance! (Even though in CATFA she found Steve, she thought, necking with a secretary and didn’t bother to check if she was okay?)

She’s not dependant on surprise or suckerpunches to be effective in combat, she’s a boxer! (welterweight-boxing-champ Bucky erasure but go off I guess; although the show Tells us she boxes but then Shows us her not-boxing but only winning fights via a judo throw her brother taught her, and/or by hitting people with inanimate objects... even when she’s fighting other women?)

She’s been unfairly downgraded to a secretary! (That is literally exactly what they showed her job being in CATFA; she told Howard Stark’s guests when he wanted to see them, and then told them when he was ready for them. Arranging appointments is literally P.A. work. Any spy-like work was framed as her stepping outside her remit, overstepping the bounds of her job description and gets her in trouble.)

She’d never lose her head over a handsome blonde blue-eyed American war hero with a broken nose; she thinks that Jack Thompson guy is a boor!

She’d never make a WWII veteran amputee’s life worse, *cough*Bucky*cough* she’s dating one!

She wouldn��t shoot a man in jealous rage if he liked someone else, she’d be nice to the other woman!! (WOW this is the biggest retcon)

Men aren’t letting her get away with dangerous erratic behaviour; they’re ignoring her (GASP) unless she’s got coffee or their lunch!

(Something she never speaks out against for other women; only for herself, and only once her back is to the wall and she has to because it’s in her own interest. And actually she’s still getting away with shit... Which is absolutely fine (and pretty standard for a comic book character) but not if they’re simultaneously whining that they’re undervalued and overlooked? The show wants to pretend that there’s only deliberate misogyny in its writing, but NO inadvertent misogyny in the writing/worldbuilding of the CATFA movie, when in fact the opposite is true.)

And she wasn’t only interested in Steve and barely interacted with him until after he looked like Cevans, people say he depended on her (How? He ignored every opinion she ever gave unless it was re-framed as her parroting a man’s opinion -- his own, Erskine’s, Stark’s, Bucky’s. And even then it’s using words which the show reveals originated with Peggy’s brother, not herself.)

and she has a photograph of pre-serum Steve!!

She’s not ambiguously romantically linked to Howard Stark, it’s Edwin Jarvis she’s mostly working with!!!

(Why does philanderer Stark suddenly have a male P.A.? To draw attention away from the question of his female P.A.? Cuz surely during the war, Jarvis would’ve been fighting, and his role would’ve been filled by a woman instead. Hmm... I wonder who...)

The show bends over backwards to pretend that everything we were shown of her in the movies didn’t happen.

The sexism towards her of the CATFA writers was far greater than the sexism of the characters.

At one point in the show, Edwin Jarvis said to her 'I can't tell if you're being arrogant or ignorant,' and I feel like that is the only time any person in-universe has ever looked at Peggy with clear eyes, albeit while joking.

(Although there is Johann Fennhoff (sp?) a Soviet Hydra mind-controller who, in the episode where her two-facedness is revealed to her male colleagues, marvels at the way she manages to simply avoid all consequences; "she’s incredible, you present her with this wall of evidence, and she scales it! This woman is an excellent liar." Truer words!)

Natasha once said 'I only act like I know everything.'

Peggy acts like she knows everything because it appears she genuinely believes it.

But here’s the real kicker about Peggy...

If we say, Devil’s Advocate, that despite the movies’ claims she was Director and Founder of SHIELD, of equal power with the two men...

If we say, instead, that she was only ever a secretary, and therefore not culpable for things like Zola’s employment.

That still doesn’t make her a good person.

Y’know why?

Because if she was not powerful, but powerless.

And she knew there was a (single) Nazi torturer of the Howling Commandos, in her workplace.

Imagine what pre-serum Steve would’ve done in that scenario.

You see?

CATFA shows us that it’s guts, not power, that makes you a hero.

If she was powerless, Zola’s rise (while she lives to old age) means Peggy must have done nothing to stop that. Nothing gutsy.

And if she’s not gutsy, according to CATFA, then she’s not a heroine.

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gayemeralds · 2 years

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where does sonic battle fit in the mainline canon games?

sonic battle’s storyline seems to contradict sonic heroes & shadow the hedgehog (2005), at least in the way they treat shadow the hedgehog’s storyline. shadow was no longer amnesiac in sonic battle, which would place this game as taking place after sonic heroes & shth2005. this wouldn’t really be an issue, but he’s still hung up on the idea that he was a “weapon” and is motivated to destroy emerl because he thinks it’s a weapon “just like him”, despite the fact that he supposedly “lets go of his past” and finds his peace with himself after shth2005. shadow no longer lets himself be tied down by his past after shth2005, has grown and learned to let go of his trauma, to not let it control him, and slowly getting on the path of healing.

but in sonic battle, it seems like the resolved storyline & arc hasn’t entirely been resolved?

it slots in pretty well to the mainline games if you take into consideration one key theory- that shadow wasn’t the original ultimate lifeform aboard the ark.

I’m not going to go into the details of this theory bc that requires a whole new post, but the bare bones is that sonic was actually the ultimate lifeform created aboard the ark, the one gerard created to cure maria of her NIDS, and ultimately the one who crashed into earth after the fateful gun raid. shadow was created after, as a means for gerald to get his revenge against humanity. he was fully intended to be used as a weapon of revenge, not a cure. there’s a surprising amount of evidence to support this- notably in sa2, with rouges entire storyline centering around the identity of shadow and still not quite confirming if he was the real shadow or not, though later games even end up supporting this theory,

under the context that shadow has somehow learned of this truth- that he was created as a weapon by gerald instead of a cure- sonic battle makes more sense. his peaceful resolve with his past is shattered by the realization that much of what he thought he knew was actually a lie. that he was a weapon of revenge, not ever intended to be a cure. shaking up his identity, shadow sees himself in gmerl- a weapon without a true soul.

when gmerl proves to be just as “human” as the rest of the main cast, shadows fears of lacking humanity eventually gets swayed. his resolution to help humanity is restored, and this time, he truly does learn to let go of his past. the intention of his creation no longer matters- what does matter is how he choses to go foreward.

sonic battle doesn’t really make sense, considering shadow’s arc was supposed to have relatively been resolved, assuming it takes place after sonic heroes & shth2005, but in conjunction to this theory…. think about it

#OUGH. shadow truly being born to be a weapon but ultimately turning his back on the mission his creator gave him #to instead become a bastion of peace #sonic the hedgehog #shadow the hedgehog #sonic battle #ive been thinking about this theory for SO LONG #sega official speaks #theory

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fayesdiary · 3 years

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Id (Dilemma): The weird and ironic relationship between Robin, Grima, and you

Topic overanalyzing something that the creators probably never even thought about my beloved

Disclaimer: This is an essay analyzing Robin and Awakening in a metanarrative sense when it was clearly never meant to. This is not the kind of series or game to ever truly lean on or break the fourth wall, and the player doesn't exist as an entity in the FEverse beyond the avatar. But bearing this in mind, I'm gonna throw authorial intent out of the window for this whole post to even have a point. Hope you have fun and don't get too much of a headache from my incoherent rambling!

So, you all know the third arc of Awakening: Validar does shenanigans to revive Grima and T-pose over the world but dies like a scrub while complaining about his script being wrong, you find out Robin is an avatar of Grima themselves while future Grima revives the current Grima and goes chilling evilly over the ocean, you chase them, beat them up and tell them to go to sleep. Temporarily or permanently, that's your only choice that actually matters. Anyway, you saved the world and everyone lived happily ever after, until you play Apotheosis and regret everything you've ever done and start hating this series like a true fan.

But jokes aside, one idea that gets reinforced over and over during the arc is that while Robin is the Avatar of Grima and there is a significant overlap between the two of them (to the point where some people interpret it as Robin being an amnesiac Grima), ultimately they are two different people, which is confirmed in the ending where Robin deals the final blow: Grima dies, but Robin lives.

Except, there's something deeply ironic about all of this, especially when you take Awakening's theme of destiny not being written and everyone being able to make their own choices.

Which is, Robin isn't an avatar of just Grima. They're also an avatar of you, the player.

sorry, graphic design is not exactly my talent

Fire Emblem avatars are weird.

They are usually two types:

1) The older one, they are you entirely, but there's nothing about them. No personality, no dialogue, no design, they're not even playable well Kiran is now but ehhh. They are entirely meant to be you, other characters in fact face the screen when talking to them, and you can remove them entirely from the story and the plot still functions perfectly. No really, you can in Blazing Blade! 2) The second one is a fully customizable and playable unit, with their own broken stats and personality and design. Kris was the first one of these, while Robin is the second.

So, you can interpret it two ways: either Robin is an extension of the player or Robin is controlled by you. Both of them are used in the fandom, sometimes interchangeably, and both have... interesting implications.

And you wonder how much of it was intended. Robin's themes are call Id, after all.

Robin as the player (or an extension of them)

This is the first interpretation, and the most common I feel for most players at first, since that's the case for most avatars and customizable characters.

After all, an avatar is meant to represent you, right?

That's how you are meant to see Robin, especially now that marriage mechanics are back in the series, and sure enough, there's plenty you can customize about them from the first screen.

But at the same time, there's plenty that's unique to them, but not you:

Their "canon" name and appearance. In every other appearance, Robin has a distinct look and name taken from their default settings, and the only thing that betrays their former status as an avatar is that they have a male and female variant.

Their backstory. While the amnesia plot is a convenient device to introduce the player to the world and its people, what little we know about it isn't what I'd call relatable, and this is something that gets even more exaggerated with Corrin, the next avatar.

And most important, their personality. This isn't an RPG with dialogue options, and Robin is not a silent protagonist. They're the one who talk, befriend and potentially fall in love with the Shepherds, and most of the choices they make in the plot are completely unprompted. You didn't come up with the idea to set half of your fleet on fire to defeat the Valmese army. Robin did.

So, while there is a significant overlap between the player and Robin, at the end of the day Robin has a significant degree of autonomy of free will (well, in the way a fictional character can at least), which is the same argument the game itself makes with Robin and Grima.

Robin is controlled by the player

But at the same time, in a game that preaches free will and destiny not being set in stone, it's kinda morbid to think about how much control you have over Robin, who we've already established is their own person, despite their link to both you and Grima.

Just stop and think about it for a second how much you can influence them:

You can change their name, appearance and gender, not to mention their proficiencies. You're determining their entire body and physical capabilities just in the first screen.

Likewise, while you can't change how they interact with people, you can decide if they interact at all outside of the plot. Think about all the supports Robin has: you're the one allowing them to happen in the first place.

Going even deeper, you have control over who they fall in love with or if they fall in love at all. You're literally deciding a person's entire love life and if they have a family at all.

Even their final choice, while it's intended to be the final "fuck you" to fate with it being the only choice that actually matters in the plot, if you view the player as an existing entity you can easily twist it into the opposite sense. You're deciding if Robin gets to live or "die" along with Grima, all while making believe they're acting of their own free will.

If you want to get real trippy, since this game is a work of fiction, the irony of it saying fate is not scripted while the story itself is an actual script can be tasted, like mustard of existential crisis.

Grima and the Player

For some reason Tumblr deleted this whole final paragraph so I have to rewrite it. I fucking hate this website sometimes

I'm sure by know you've heard a gazillion times about how Awakening was supposed to be the final game of the franchise and about how the series would have ended if it didn't sell enough, and about how it likely influenced a lot of the final product.

With that in mind, you can easily see Grima as the metaphorical harbinger of Fire Emblem's end #GrimaDidNothingWrong, paralleling how this franchise was on its last legs but refused to give up.

But I want to point out that Awakening doesn't have a postgame. If you beat it, you'll just be sent back to the endgame.

There's nothing left after Grima's death.

The only thing that remains is a small glimmer of hope that the franchise will rise from its ashes if enough people buy the game, or rather, form a bond with it. Which is the same thing that allows Robin to come back after they (or rather, you) choose to kill Grima.

Which leads us to the final link between you, Robin and Grima.

As Robin, you were the last hope of the franchise, its chance to survive almost certain demise.

As Grima, you were its final nail in the coffin, the last thing it needed to truly die, to the joy of Smash and FE fans.

And, provided you actually bought the game...

You made that choice long before you booted it up for the first time.

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