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gffa · 8 months

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Hi Lumi. This year I’ve watched The Clone Wars, Rebels, Mandalorian, Book of Boba Fett, and Tales of the Jedi and I’m watching Ahsoka as episodes are released. But I feel like I’m missing some context as to why people are wary of Filoni. What things should I know so I’m caught up, so to speak, in the fandom discussions?

Hi! That's a lot of Star Wars to watch in a year, I hope you're having fun with it all! And I will gently remind everyone that Filoni is not the be-all-end-all of Star Wars creators--Henry Gilroy was there for TCW and Rebels, too. George Lucas was holding writers' meetings years after the show started (at least into 2010!). The Mandalorian and The Book of Boba Fett are far more Jon Favreau's shows. The Bad Batch is Brad Rau and Jennifer Corbett. Resistance was developed by him, but was run by other producers. It's just that Filoni tends to get the most camera time and has become the face of Star Wars creators. That said, the issue with Filoni is kind of two-pronged, though, they overlap. 1. He's done a lot of interviews where he's said a lot of anti-Jedi things that have drifted from reasonable critiques in the beginning to eventually "Qui-Gon Jinn was the only true Jedi. [blatantly wrong citations]" This has put a lot of people off him as a creator, because we love the Jedi Order that Lucas talks about and established, which Filoni has actively contradicted over the years, despite being promoted as someone who follows Lucas' themes. And it's hard not to be aware of his interviews when watching his shows and it's hard to enjoy shows that do your faves dirty, you know? 2. His writing has become weaker over the years for a lot of us--Rebels is a show most of us love and found to be incredible. Many of us really love The Clone Wars, which he was heavily involved in/was probably the central voice after Lucas started phasing out. But his biggest story told over the course of those series--basically, the story of Mandalore's history and fall to the Empire--has been extremely thin for a lot of us. And a lot of us get frustrated at his inability to be objective when it comes to Ahsoka's character, that we love her as a character very much, but it hasn't felt like Filoni really knows what to do with her character arc and yet almost everything he writes is centered around her. His final season of The Clone Wars? Gave her the walkabout arc and the Siege of Mandalore arc, both of which often did not hold up well under scrutiny. His episode of The Book of Boba Fett? I actually really loved it, but it absolutely just stopped the pacing of that show to focus a lot on her. More on Luke, but he couldn't resist putting her in there, either. Tales of the Jedi was half devoted to Ahsoka and so much of it wasn't even about her time as a Jedi! We're frustrated because he doesn't set things up well anymore--Morgan Elsbeth is a Nightsister?? Why wasn't that established in The Mandalorian instead of pulling out randomly in Ahsoka? Why does Sabine Wren suddenly so badly want Jedi training, when they barely even had a conversation in Rebels?? There's a lot of good that Filoni has given to Star Wars, I think he genuinely cares about the Force and what it means--he's very consistent on how it's not easy and how it takes discipline and control, that he has been consistent on how anger and fear are paths to the dark side, even his episode of TBOBF had Ahsoka saying, yeah, attachment is a path to the dark side, because the Jedi mean "attachment" in a more Buddhist-aligned way. A lot of his writing for the character of Ahsoka is actually pretty good, like I've been enjoying her being a prickly, traumatized hot mess in the show! It's just that I kind of hate all the interviews he gives and I think he's a lot less objective than a lot of fans and media coverage that would hold him up as a perfect writer/interviewee about all things Star Wars, and it all comes together to make him kind of a hot-button topic.

So, a lot of people LOVE Filoni's work, a lot of people are frustrated by it, a lot of people are casually fine about it, a lot of people HATE Filoni's work and it can be a fun mix of any of the above or even other issues that come up. (And that's all fine! I have my views on Filoni's work, but it's fine if others hate it more than I do or love it more than I do, there's room for us all, all of it is valid.)

But I think if you want to understand some of the roots of this corner of fandom's frustration, two (admittedly long as heck) homework assignment reads would be:

- My own rebuttal to Dave's behind the scenes Mandalorian Gallery talk (this is jokingly referred to as "Davegate" because I refused to take it too seriously) - @david-talks-sw's collection of comparisons between Lucas' commentary on the Jedi and Filoni's commentary on the Jedi

This response itself is more focused on laying out the problems a lot of people have with Filoni's writing, but also honestly I still have my giant collection of Jedi source material citations that quotes his commentary, I still bring up Filoni's quotes in current meta a lot, I still talk positively about the things I enjoy from his shows, so overall there's equal amounts of both praise and criticism here. So, as short as I can make it (which isn't very, shut up, I know! XD), that's basically what people mean when they say they're wary of Filoni.

#star wars #dave filoni #meta

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megoomy · 7 months

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got a request for my vesperia berseria au designs and i do have character sheets for them so: everyone is free to draw these if they want! credit is nice but, well, these all heavily reference official tales designs so i dont want to take too much credit for them lol. you can also write about the au and take any amount of what we've come up with, i really don't care, it's all for fun.

UNDER THE CUT: a vague summary of the concept. warning for Profound Self Indulgence and Somewhat Half-Assed Worldbuilding (world...changing? world editing? whatever)

okay basically flynn and yuri met as kids in a village that basically serves as the lower quarter of the au, but after spending a few years together daemons attack the village and nearly everyone dies. yuri survives, but in the process he’s become a daemon. flynn also survives, but is deeply traumatized and gets picked up by the exorcists (conveniently too late to save anyone in typical form). neither knows the other survived. to make matters worse, flynns trauma causes some memory loss…he still definitely remembers that time in the village but its very fuzzy now and as he gets older that only gets worse. and like he thinks all those people died so hes not really trying to remember them.

flynn becomes an exorcist (some flavor of legate) and is going around eradicating daemons when he runs into yuri. he doesnt recognize yuri but yuri is pretty sure he recognizes flynn. but yuri isnt about to say that when flynn is trying to kill him LOL. the general arc is that yuri keeps slipping away and flynn keeps seeing more about him in his efforts to hunt him down, realizing that this strikingly handsome strangely familiar daemon is actually...very kind? takes care of children? helps people for no gain? and this calls into question everything that he thought he understood about the world which is quite troubling.

you can think of them as similar to velvet and eleanor. but I think when flynn joins yuri it's by choice, not because yuri's forced him to be a vessel or because flynn's a spy or anything like that. or at least, he's been thrown out by the abbey for one reason or another and joins yuri instead. (we've tossed around quite a few versions of this. we love playing in the space.)

we've bounced around ideas about the rest of the cast but i only have a sheet for estelle, who is a malak controlled by the abbey ala phi. assigned to flynn, ends up with yuri one way or another. i think rita sees that malaks are people and while she wants to coordinate with them to use their strength she doesn't like how they're treated as tools (the way she feels about blastia more or less).

if you're curious about why flynn and yuri have different fates, like, in terms of lore compliance. i think yuri seeing the thing he holds most dear, the community that cared for him, destroyed in an instant, would probably fill him with malevolence no matter what, especially depending on the circumstances. (like, if the abbey was manipulating things to create daemons or therions) yuri's like...a deeply conflicted character full of self loathing, so, being a daemon really suits him. i think that malevolence would only grow as he sees the world and the abbey for what it really is. unlike someone like rose, yuri NEVER feels unconflicted about Doing Murders.

flynn in canon is pretty conflicted himself of course but i see him as similar to eleanor who can sometimes produce malevolence but has a certain purity of heart that keeps them as pretty good vessel material. nowhere near someone like sorey or rose, and definitely wouldn't have had enough resonance pre-artorius' plot to see anything. also i think the brain trauma and being picked up by the abbey leads to him having very clear purpose and a black and white view for some time, so that helps. (look, let me be real with you, half of the impetus for this au was "it would be funny if flynn had like, religious trauma")

design notes not on the sheets: - yuri's daemonblighted skin is cooler to the touch than his regular skin. but he's a guy with cold hands regardless - i've got purple highlights in his eyes but i think of them as glinting purple in the light. like an animal i guess? - yuri's outfit is mostly inspired by his spirit gear in rays, aside from his normal game canon outfit. - estelle is pulling from a lot of different abbey associated characters but mostly her own design...i didn't want to give her something weird like A FUCKING COLLAR especially bc she's not given to A WEIRDO EXORCIST but i wanted some kind of symbol of captivity so i went instead for a golden mask. pulling from the common malak's gold mask/helmets and seres' mask. in canon a lot of estelle's arc is about being sheltered so i feel like covering her eyes feels, appropriate? idk. - i think yuri still gives estelle her nickname but she wouldn't start out as estellise so its more like yuri gives her a name - you may notice she has the flame of purification (does that have a different proper name? blanking on it) which kind of implies that she's connected to innominat. please don't ask me to elaborate on that point because i literally don't know yet. i think if i were to make her a normal elementally aligned malak she'd be water like her spirit gear in rays, but it feels like she should be Special just like how she's a child of the full moon in canon. we just, haven't really figured out, does the berseria cast still exist, are we replacing them, what would that look like, etc. sorry that stuff should be more important to the concept but we are simply playing with the dolls. teehee

#tales of vesperia #tales of berseria #yuri lowell #flynn scifo #estellise sidos heurassein #tovb au

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thranduel · 2 years

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another thing that shows that el will always feel different and "out of place" compared to everyone else is because no one has ever actually called her by her birth name except for her mother and aunt. and obviously el is a cute nickname and it makes her feel more human in a way, but it's still short for 011, her subject number from the lab. brenner has always called her eleven, but sometimes other characters even blurt it out without thinking too (like when mike is upset with her or when they're arguing) and it just feels so dehumanising, even if they don't mean for it to sound that way. she even admitted it herself. "i am different. i do not belong." no matter how long she's been with everyone and no matter how long she dates mike, unfortunately he will never fully understand what she has experienced and she has so much unresolved trauma that's bottled up inside. a romantic relationship where they BOTH don't feel like equals (because even mike admitted he feels inferior to her because she's a "superhero" with powers) is the last thing they both needed and they rushed into it way too quickly. it's just unhealthy and unfair and i don't understand how anyone could want these kids to continue being forced in a relationship that they weren't even ready for

and during their fight in 4x03, mike called her eleven instead of el and he kept calling her that afterwards too. it's like a harsh reminder of being in the lab and also a reminder that so many people just see her for her powers. they look at her and they see the superhero that saves the day, but not jane as a person. and although some people might say "but it's nice how she's their superhero" or "they're just reminding her that she's not a monster", it's not always what she wants to hear, and she is so much more than her powers. people also need to remember that she got her powers because of abuse and she had no choice. she was abducted, abused and traumatised and they destroyed her mother's life as well. eleven had no say and never wanted any of this. she never asked for powers. then to make things worse she struggled physically and mentally in the lab, couldn't develop or learn about the real world like other kids her age and had to be locked up in a dark, claustrophobic room whenever brenner wasn't happy with her

so no, "you're my superhero" is not what she wanted to hear especially during a forced monologue where her boyfriend finally tells her he loves her right AFTER she gets her powers back. she was crying in her room begging to hear the words, not as eleven, but as jane, and mike couldn't do it then (he couldn't even write it on paper), so how do people think the monologue is genuine when he was lying the whole time and had to be pushed into it? not only that, but he didn't even list things about her as a person. he only spoke about her powers, which was actually a parallel to brenner. it truly boggles my mind that people say things like "oh, you don't like mike and el's relationship which means you hate el" like are you kidding me??! why do people act like her entire character is based around her relationship with mike?? not only that, but that is so wrong on so many levels. i love her and care about her so much, and i think anyone that actually watches the show and understands what she's been through would know that she wasn't ready for a romantic relationship with mike and she deserves someone that will see her for who she is as jane rather than just eleven. mike and el met during a traumatic time (el just escaped the lab and mike was searching for will who was missing and suffering in the upside down) and mike only ended up letting her stay with them when he found out the bad guys were after her and when he found out she had powers and could help find will. they've always had a trauma bond and mike heavily associates her with her powers and idolises her for being a superhero and it's just not healthy or fair to either of them

and no, i'm not just saying this because of byler. i know a lot of people immediately assume "oh you hate mike and el together just because you want byler", and that's not true. obviously i do think mike and will belong together because they have the closest relationship and they understand each other better than anyone else, but even if byler didn't happen, i still don't want mike and el to stay together. it's that simple. it's not because they're "in the way" of byler, it's because their relationship just simply isn't healthy for many reasons and mike's character got so much worse when they started dating. i think they have a beautiful friendship and they love each other so much but they don't belong together romantically and that's okay. it doesn't make their love any less strong. if anything, i think being friends would actually make them stronger

#this isn't specifically byler but i only feel comfortable posting here lol #mike wheeler #byler #anyways she deserves someone that will love her for who she is #btw i call her el because it’s easier but in this post i’m talking about the characters #like the people in her life constantly calling her eleven and reminding her of the lab #if that makes sense lol

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parentsday · 1 month

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I once saw someone say that after Parents Day (the episode, not you), they never really touched on Max’s familial situation again. And while I agree that episodes like With Friends Like These could have paid a little lip service to it (why David just sent Max back home to what he knew were neglectful parents is beyond me, maybe he didn’t think there was anything he could do about it?), it feels to me like one of those things where once you know about it, you start seeing the character in a whole new light. Like you see what Max does in older and newer episodes and you rationalize it as “Oh, I see, he acts that way because his parents neglect him. Stuff like him not knowing how to swim or having a teddy bear when he’s theoretically too old for one.

i agree with you on many of your points and disagree heavily on the use of them you make later on. to start off max is an incredibly dear character to me, like painfully so. if i had the chance to i would love to dissect his head like one of a frog in a lab and see what makes his brain tick in ways it does, and of course one of the reasons is the abstract emotional state of mind any victim like him would have. one that sometimes gets more kafkaesque the longer i stare at him. so please bear in mind that i love the subtext his character possesses, i just can’t always rely on it to explain anything.

if you know me you know i like to complain about this shows writing, not out of hate for it but rather out of love for the material and what it started off as and has ability to be still (stuff like heavier writing that holds narrative weight, david being an asshole, the whole harrison thing that is lost to time now etc etc). whenever i watch this show with someone i usually opt to rewatch several earlier episodes after we finish parents day. it gets praised a lot but i don’t often see people mention how well it recontextualizes a lot of stuff previously shown to us, not only for max but other cast members too. a lot of the problems that stem from this is the fact that most other characters whose issues were presented to us in this episode are strawman connected to their family by the writers in a way that laters on allows for progress without relying on mention or presence of their parental figures (proper examples of this are preston, ered, nerris, somewhat harrison). max doesn’t get that simply by the virtue of the fact that his issues cannot exist in a vacuum and are inherently connected to his family. max’s parents haunting all of the narrative surrounding him has enough psychoanalytical subtext for it to traumatize several men and leave freud rolling in his grave, so i believe that you cannot in good faith progress his character without mentioning them or their actions or lack thereof towards him once or twice. that’s pretty much why i think that the topic of his abuse has not been brought up in a meaningful way since parents day. from where i stand i view abuse as one of the focus themes in this show, so poor treatment of it is very obvious to pin point to me as it usually drags most characters down with it the less it is respected in a way it should be.

like i said, the way the show recontextualizes max’s behavior leaves way for interpretation of the viewer on the way why he is the way he is, it’s easy for us to understand why he can’t swim or why he can’t fathom the idea of moving on and letting go on several occasions. the thing is in a perfect world we don’t have to do all of this. it can be attributed to good writing for making the audience be able to perceive any part of the characters psyche without the authors help, but in reality it’s lazy to expect everyone to treat the characters from a watsonian perspective and view their every move as a meta reference towards their trauma when not everyone cares enough to do so. the writer referencing child abuse and not adding onto it aside from the mention of its existence is exploitative of the viewers personal care for the character, it’s bad writing. you obviously can interpret what max does as a result of neglect (and you should!) with the power of subtext, implications and critical thinking, but what you also should think about is what does it tell you about his character aside from the fact that he is neglected. do we ever find out something new about his home situation or do scenes like these give us any discussion inside the show about the fact that he is still actively a victim of neglect? (the answer is most always gonna be no, maybe just always)

tldr; stuff like child abuse is heavy, writing it is hard and treating it the way rooster teeth does is not only poor writing but also disrespectful to the very real human trauma they are inserting into their show on more than one occasion

i would also love to discuss the david stuff you brought up and why him acting towards max and others in a way that he does in recent seasons is a long standing issue rather than a new problem but thats genuinely a conversation for another day as this post is already long enough as it is. thank you for the ask :3c

#i want to make a tag for these #camp camp meta analysis #that will work #camp camp #max cc

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1moreff-creator · 9 months

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Happy Birthday, Veronika Grebenshchikova!

I have a confession to make. Despite my account being themed after Min and having made several posts analyzing her... I may like Veronika just as much, if not more than Min. Ever since her introduction, this Horror Fanatic has brought a smile to my face every time she comes on screen. Literally. Whenever I see her, my face immediately splits into the dumbest grin, I just adore her far too much. There's a lot we still haven't seen about her, but in honor of her birthday, I shall give a few of the reasons I love this freak to the death, and make a sort of birthday playlist as a gift.

+The main motivation for everything she does is boredom, as stated in her conversation with Teruko on Ch 2 Ep 7. Her profile states she took on her talent to seek thrills.

+This obsession with entertainment twists her personality quite a bit. “I don't care about morals. I don’t care whether people get hurt or whether they die. I just need to be entertained”. She’s honestly such a queen.

+Her twisted morals lead to her hanging out with people based on how entertaining they are instead of, like, normal standards for hanging out with people. Arturo is example number one.

"If you become more and more irredeemable, then I'll only love you more. I want to hear all about those horrible things you did with no justification".

She would be a standard Danganronpa fan, is what I get from this line.

+She has claimed she “used to be an outdoors person”, but apparently isn’t anymore. Whether she simply got bored of the outdoors, or there was something more traumatic at play, is still unclear.

+Her profile states she likes skateboarding. I adore this fact. Why there aren’t piles of fanart where she’s skateboarding, I don’t know. Get on it, people! /j. Unless?

(Also, I like to headcanon that she used to skateboard with Whit in their time at Hope’s Peak, but she was actually really bad at it. She constantly fell on her face, but always got back up laughing her ass off)

+The upper part of her dress is black and white, colors associated with the Tragedy and horror in the DRDT universe. This is stated by Veronika herself in Ch 2 Ep 2. However, this color scheme also kickstarts what I like to call:

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Mastermind Bingo! Ft Veronika

>She wears black and white, like Monokuma and MonoTV.

>She gets bored easily, and it drives her actions, like Junko and especially Izuru.

>She constantly psychoanalizes people, again like Junko.

>She has childish tendencies (read: likes the playground), which can be connected back to the Warriors of Hope and Monaca.

>"If I wore contacts, a wig, and different clothes, would you recognize me?"

So, thinking a bit like Tsumugi there.

>"That's why I liked horror for such a long time. The genre seeks to elicit base, negative emotions out of you, like fear, disgust, or sadness... That's exciting"

She is one step removed from outright claiming she likes despair! What is this?!

Also, liked, horror? As in, past tense? Is that implying she doesn't feel satisfied with horror anymore?

>"But after a while, fiction is only fiction..."

You look me in the eyes and tell me that's not something Tsumugi would say. She has aspects of every main-line mastermind! I wouldn't be surprised if she starts taking notes from other fangans, I'm half expecting her to start talking about "the resurrection of Divine Luck" or something.

>And that's not even mentioning things like her quote for Mai; "A girl who didn't foresee the consequences". Right, because Veronika would be the one to get the most ominous quote after MonoTV's "It's all your fault".

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To be clear, I don’t actually think Veronika’s the mastermind. I just find it funny how incredibly suspicious she is, to the point of not being suspicious in the slightest.

+CW for self-harm for this one. It is heavily theorized her secret is "You only took on your talent to distract from your incessant need to harm yourself for fun". After all, she is one of the only remaining characters who covers her wrists and most of her body, and doing something like that "for fun"... sort of only fits Veronika, as far as we know.

+Her secret quote is: "Once something is broken, it can never be pieced together in quite the same way again. The same goes for people." Whether she's talking about herself or someone else is unclear.

+The recent Q&A confirmed the following:

•Veronika is pansexual! Congrats on getting her, pansexual community! A true win for you.

•The earing she wears (a small green triangle) was given to her by her “dearest friend”. This friend's name is apparently Alyssa Belyaeva, taking the dubious honor of having a weirder last name than even Grebenshchikova.

•Her favorite color is white with other colors, since it makes the others stand out more, and her least favorite is white by itself, since it’s “soulless”. That’s… huh. Is that meant to mean anything? Could it be she sees herself as the color white; uninteresting and boring on her own, but helps other people seem more interesting by association? Am I reading too much into this? Probably, but that’s sort of my shtick at this point.

•Her favorite ice cream flavor is funfetti. Based.

•She smells strongly like women’s perfume. I guess, why not, right? Notably, Hu smells like women’s perfume as well, but it’s apparently fainter. Doubt it means anything, but it’s there.

+Veronika can do no wrong. This is an objective truth. Slay queen (but, wait to like, chapter five. I really, really hope you don’t die at three).

And finally, like I did with Min, here's a few songs which remind me of Veronika! And as you're gonna see, my music taste sort of really aligns with the kind of songs one would assign Veronika.

CW, some of these can include topics like murder and extremely disturbing imagery.

-The Chattering Lack of Common Sense, by Ghost & Pals

-End World Normophaty, by Ghost & Pals

-Hide And Seek (English cover by Lizz Robinet), original by Ho-Ong-i

-Corrosion, by Riproducer / RIP

-Chronic Wasting Disease, by Riproducer / RIP

-The Spider and the Kitsune-Like Lion, by MASA Works (CW for this one in particular, it's really fucked up. Cannibalism, torture, necrophilia, etc)

-Hi-fi Evolution Theory, by Keu Studio (probably her character playlist song)

-What Gave it Away, by Riproducer / RIP

-Matryoshka, by Hachi

-Honey I'm Home, by Ghost & Pals

-Entomologists, by Ghost & Pals

-The Experiment, by Steampianist

-The Boy who Went to Hell, by SHUDDER

-Secrets of Wysteria, by Steampianist (CW, this one is based on real events of violent crimes)

-The Dismemberment Song, by Blue Kid

-Mad Hatter, by Melanie Martinez

-Uncanny, by Ghost & Pals

-God-ish, by PinocchioP

-I Can't Fix You, by The Living Tombstone (Veronika loves FNAF, you can’t convince me otherwise)

-Always Wanted, by MiatriSs - SayMaxWell

-The Red Means I Love You, by Madds Buckley

-Already Dead, by KittenSneeze

Alright, I'll stop there. With the final song:

-Happy Birthday! (but, like, a creepy cover or something)

#drdt #danganronpa despair time #fanganronpa #veronika grebenshchikova

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slocumjoe · 11 months

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If you were to rate the Fo4 companions from most to least favourite how would you rate them?

I can't list them in order, because I have too many feelings on them....and also, I love them all! It's just...there's such a Rollercoaster of quality of writing, of character concept, of VA performance, of actual attention and care given to the meat-and-potatoes aspects...

Like, I can say I have a favorite (Danse) and a least favorite (Piper) and a dude in the middle who I give not a crap about (Deacon), but I still like these characters??? They're fun! Its just, I like my idea of them more than what's actually there.

So, uhhhh

RORY TALKS ABOUT THE COMPANIONS 2 ELECTRIC BOOGALOO

this is basically a long-post of a bunch of mini-essays, so grab a snack or nice bev and get cozy

Cait, to me, is a prime example of "this character sounds better on paper". I've already complained about her three greatest flaws; being bloated, being mishandled, and being a very confused character. If I were to describe Cait, it would be that she's a troubled young woman who was traumatized all her life, but understands that it's effected her heavily and wants to work past it and better herself.

In game, she's...an Irish Girl. She talks about drinking and fucking and fighting. If not that, she's detailing her absolutely horrific life. It gives me tonal whiplash. I feel like they were too busy adding things on rather than fleshing her out. I mean, really...what is the significance of the Tough Irish Girl type in the wasteland, where everyone acts that way? Is Cait an example of your average wastelander, someone whos supposed to show the daily life in this world? Well...no, that can't be it, she's put away from others, an outsider who doesn't fit in whatever circumstances she finds herself in. She doesn't belong with raiders, she doesn't fit into the average civilian life. So, is she about ostracization and how even after being nuked, there still is a society to ostracize people? That is brought up in text, but that's not at all Cait's thing, that concept is with Hancock.

I travel with Cait to quickly get her affinity up to speedrun her "recovery" (see the Cait breakdown to learn my thoughts on That Fucking Chair) because I want her to get better...but I don't like traveling with her that much. It's not just that she often disagrees with my usual choices, she's just rather flat. I don't get the impression that the writers really considered her psychology, what she stood for, what someone should or could take away from her.

But I like her conceptually. There's a lot of fun and emotional catharsis to be had with a traumatized character like her, someone who has to navigate life after escaping her bad situations, and not knowing what to do with the survival instincts she had to cultivate, but no longer needs.

Codsworth is inoffensive to me, and I like sassy but polite characters. I find them refreshing in settings like Fallout. I had more fun imagining his lines as thinly-veiled bitching than sincerity, though. I think he's fine, just simple. Simple is best, sometimes. I wouldn't trust Beth to give the indentured servitude robot an even remotely palatable story, given how they handled the synths and their whole thing...

But Codsworth, I like having him around. He's the lemon water to the black coffee, sugary soda, whiskey, and occasional cups of tar. He's needed at a palette cleanser.

Curie should have been a main plot companion, argue with the wall. She's a Ms. Nanny who becomes a synth, which are functionally human beings. She has a lot of narrative potential, being an example and counterargument for many different things.

Unfortunately, she's kept mostly a secret, being the most hidden companion, and she's left as a simple French maid fantasy. I'm not even sure why they bothered to make her a doctor. It has nothing to do with how she's actually handled and presented. Curie's more often blushing than meaningfully interacting with the world. She talks to Amari, she becomes a synth, and the rest of her story is just her going KYAA~ at the SS. I wish they gave her some edge, some weirdness. I like my version where she's this slightly pretentious, condescending, incredibly old-seeming entity that clearly doesnt come from around here.

Danse...my boy. My boy. I adore him. You don't need me to explain why. And you don't need me to explain why his incomplete writing infuriates me.

I've said before he's very similar to Hancock, and since I have something else I want to discuss about with Johnny down in this, I'll use Danse's slot to discuss it, very quickly.

Danse and Hancock are remarkably similar people and characters, even there is parts that drift or parallel in their differences.

Substance dependency (Hancock does chems, Danse is a canonical alcoholic)

They both struggled to find their footing and place in the world, and hate the people they were in their act 1's (Hancock's takes place during his founding of Goodneighbor, Danse's after BB)

They're fiercely loyal and protective of 'their people', even if it can take a LOT for them to consider someone 'their people'

Both are suicidal and identity plays a huge part (Hancock pretends to be someone he isn't, Danse is desperate to be the person he thought he was this whole time/hates that he isn't who he thought he was)

Both of these characters are two sides of the same coin. It's just that Danse's upbringing led him to believe in authority and control being the best way to help and take care of the wasteland, Hancock's upbringing (filled with corrupt authority and control) led him to believe in an egalitarian, we-all-lift mindset where the people have the power, he's just the guy who people talk to about any issues. It's somewhat implied that Cutler was similar to Hancock, judging by Danse's few lines about Cutler.

So uuuhhh Todd where the fuck is the last 2 arcs for danse and last arc for hancock? todd? todd where the fu

As said above, Deacon is nothing to me. I like him. I don't care about him much. I think he's fun to play with, but the moment you start getting into his backstory/angst, I slide right the fuck off.

Okay, the Barb thing. Dead wife. Fucking boring story, done to death. At the point I met Deacon, I had already met Mac, Nick, knew of Longfellow and his deal. So it was like "JESUS they really dont know any other reason for a dude to be sad, do they." But the thing that keeps me from caring about Deacon is that no one can agree if Barb is real. If that actually happened.

...his backstory is supposed to inform his character. Why is Deacon doing this? Because of his backstory. If his backstory isn't real, we know nothing about Deacon, and he is, functionally, not a character. Why does Deacon lie if Barb didnt happen? Dunno. He just...does. Why is Deacon helping synths? Uhh...we needed an RR companion? Deacon's character rides or dies on Barb. If she's real, then the rest of him makes sense. She's the windex and towel to the cloudy glass house that is the rest of him. If she isn't, Deacon...doesn't matter, in any meaningful way. He's a guy in the RR who lies about everything, which means you can't care about him. Because there is nothing to care about, because it's all bullshit.

So, that's my thoughts on Deacon, in-canon. I don't know what his deal is or if his proposed deal is genuine, so I can't click with him. But in my own canon, Barb is real, so my Deacon ken-doll does appeal to me. But in Fallout 4, in text, I regard him the same as I do Tom Bombadil. To give you an idea of how flimsy Deacon is in text, a prevailing fan theory from around 2017-18 was that Deacon was Mrs. Rosa's son. Mrs. Rosa was a pre-war neighbor. Her son was a kid. The fact that Deacon is so weird and fluid and almost omniscient isn't a plus for me, it isn't a point of fascination. It's a puzzle that I know doesn't have a finished product, so I leave and go hang out with Danse, who can't speak if he isn't being absurdly blunt.

Gage is a character that deserved a better DLC. The more I think about Nuka World the more I kinda wish it was just Gage and the handmade rifle, instead the map...but that's about Nuka World. Gage himself could have easily been a swing and a miss and fall face-first into the dirt, but he's a surprisingly well-written character? There are layers of psychology with him. You can look at an action or opinion he has, and map it to something that happened to him. You can literally unravel why he does what he does, is who he is. His writers had a concept for him, and they worked backwards to understand why he would become that way.

What really sells him is his VA. Rolston put his whole pussy into that performance. Gage has so many lines that would be utter cringe if not full-assed. The "That vault suit makes your ass look great" line comes to mind...i've seen modded followers with similar lines, and jesus christ i want to pepper spray some of them. It helps that Gage has multiple faucets to his personality. It also helps that he is intentionally distinct from the other raiders, and occasionally doesn't associate with them, himself. It gives him standards and principles, which help give him shape and dimension. Good character. He isn't my favorite, that's Danse, but he's up there.

Hancock is such a waste of a character and it boggles me no one else seems to think so.

He starts on a bad note because his core reason for existing, is Beth wanted a historical figure reference. There's a reason he gives you a history lesson about John Hancock, it's so everyone knows exaclty what Johnny Ghoulie is a reference to. It's not even so much a reference, because it is a direct mimicking. I cannot stand the moments in 4 where something exists because the team learned a fun historical trivia fact, and wanted to pepper in that they did research. I've already bitched about their love of this with the Railroad at some point on this blog.

I genuinely wouldn't mind Hancock if he wasn't pulling so limp-dickedly. It's specifically the contrivance of explaining why this dude is called John Hancock, in John Hancock's clothing. It's okay if they pull from history and allude to it, But Hancock is just...some history stuff tacked on, with no real thought or care. The clothing, the name, the catchphrase. I feel like this is Disney's Hamilton on Ice.

But moving away from that...what is the point of Hancock?

Is his character about drug use and addiction? NOPE, only Cait's addiction is noteworthy. Okay...idenity issues, since he's larping? Not really. It could be, but that's not at all of interest to the story/writing itself. The Hancock thing is an aesthetic, not a trait. So, don't have that either. Is his character about leadership, in any capacity? Kinda, I guess. He briefly mentions insecurities and guilt about it a few times. But if I said "Hancock's story is about leadership", most people would raise an eyebrow and ask why. Not because it's...wrong, it's just not prominent enough to say that's his story, definitively.

So...what is the point of him? What should I take away from Hancock? Duty to the people? Preston does that, and does it better/more explicitly. Regret about past actions? Mac does that. Protecting the people from political corruption? Piper's thing (AND WE'LL GET TO FUCKING PIPER.) What is there to Hancock that isn't done by another companion? It isn't his depression because ALL these bitches be suicidal. What is unique to Hancock? Pretending to be someone else? Deacon. Drugs? Cait. Trying to figure out who you are, removed from the expections that come with having been someone else? Nick. Leadership, and the failures of it? Danse. Struggling to navigate the world in a new, different body, as a new person, functionally? Curie.

The only thing I can think of is mentioned only twice, and is immediately brushed off; the questionable nature of your leader being buddy-buddy with you, and acting like 'one of the bros' even as they hold power over you and have resources you don't. Parasocial government, if you will. It's brought up by Finn and Bobby No-Nose and is shut down/forgotten.

So...the only thing unique to Hancock, and it's regulated to, like, 3 individual throw-away lines. 2 of which you can miss.

Great.

Again, I like him. I just like him when I'm writing him, and can actually have him work through his shit and concepts. But as he stands, he's just...hey, y'know John Hancock? New Vegas also pulled from history, but New Vegas had shit to say about it. There was debating. There was actual philosophy and politics. There wasn't some dude named Caesar who was just...hanging out. What does Fallout 4 say about John Hancock?

Here's something you can say about Hancock; Hancock owned slaves. He inherited them from his uncle, Thomas Hancock. He later freed them due to terms in Thomas' will. But the guy Fallout 4 meagerly puts up as a figure of freedom and independence, and duty to fellow man, was a slave owner, and had slave owning family.

So, what does that mean for our Hancock? Who looked up to this guy, mantled him, and this guy is, in some way, a perversion of his own ideals.

And our Hancock's favorite quote is from Lincoln. Who started the Civil War. Did Lincoln own slaves? Contested, i couldn't find any clear answers. But Hancock mantles a slave owner, using a quote from the president that would try to outlaw slavery, while pushing for freedom and independence and anarchist rhetoric.

Is that the best you can do with Hancock? No. But it's an example.

MacCready, I've compared to a can of Campbell's soup. He's simple, he's decently-done. He's not Codsworth's lemon water but he isn't Cait's tar. I often struggle to write MacCready because he's so simple. There's not much there, he isn't a complex character. He's not even a complex person. And I like that! I like that the grumpy mercenary is a normal guy, who's just going through the motions and has simple desires. His type is often tar and I'm happy to see that subverted.

Its just that his lack of complexity means there's not much to say about him that you don't already know. He's accessible, which is a good thing. Most people don't want to drink tar, but if you're reaching for a fun beverage, you're not often reaching for water, either.

I think the best thing about MacCready is how excellent he is as a romance option. I think he's the strongest romantic choice in the game, period, largely due to him being a simple guy. I would go for MacCready IRL, because he's a good dad, he has good work ethic, and he's emotionally available and isn't afraid to talk feelings, without being a clusterfuck of issues. I love Danse, but you have to talk him out of suicide before you do anything, and he himself will admit that there's going to be a lot of issues simply because he doesn't know what he's doing or what he wants out of his new life.

You don't get that with MacCready. He knows what he wants and who he is and what he cares about. He's such a solid romantic interest, and there's incredible fic potential with the Sole Survivor and MacCready both as soon-to-be grieving parents.

On the flipside, I can't understand people who romance Nick and think its all sunshine and roses. Mini-rant, but /rad-roche (i think thats their user?) has the right idea, with Nick being a hot mess of unresolved issues who is never not projecting or in denial. Nick is not fit for a romantic relationship, not in the state you see him in game. Especially not before Far Harbor. Especially if you don't get the good ending of Far Harbor. I know, bisexual women, I'm sorry. He's got more shit than Danse and Hancock combined. I write romantic Nick prompts as if this isn't the case, but make no mistake. Me giving yall what you want is not me under the impression that this is a good idea.

Anyway. Nick himself.

Dead wife. Booo. I've already complained about his dumbass quest, which i really dislike for all its contrivances. Also, I find him mismatched with the world around him, and I wish there was more attention paid to that. He's a stock character playing out in real life (in Fallout 4's real life, that is). He's a 40's noir flick detective. This character does not belong in a post-apocalypse. This is an urban setting character. Fallout is not urban.

But that doesn't mean he can't exist! I just wish they went more ham with it. I mean, how does a detective function in a lawless wasteland, full of secrets simply because there's so few people see shit happening, know what goes down? It's an information blackout, out there, and a detective is all about information. Nick deserved to be let loose and go full camp on it all. Instead, we got 2 piddly little piss stains of "mystery" side quests. With someone as clashing as Nick, you really need to either sand down the edges to make him fit, or make the fact he's so weird part of the Thing. Nick is played incredibly straight, and given that that man is clearly lgbtq+, i find that almost a waste. Let this man be deranged. This is why Far Harbor is best Nick. He's holding together in the base game, but i don't want him holding together. I want him to suffer. I want him to monolog like Hamlet before driving a cane into someone's forehead.

Now, as for Piper...

Oh, Piper.

You were doomed.

You were so fucking doomed.

I've written about Piper and her shitty paper multiple times, so if you want a refresher, go to my blog > pinned post > meta section, and find the Piper posts. My peer review of The Synthetic Truth will be your best look into what I think of Piper.

The thing is, if you removed her awfully done journalism aspect, I'd like her base form! When she isn't going on and on about shit that's either wrong, baseless, or presumptuous, she's sassy, she's community-orianted, she's mischievous, she's kinda sardonic. She has a sugar problem. She's a burnt out 20 year old with a parentification issue. There's a lot to like here! The problem is they set up the journalism, fuck it up, and then veer hard-right and crash into the "I'm raising a kid when I'm not even an adult either" thing, where it had no build up or time to unfold naturally.

In my own little world, Piper's journalism fuckups are addressed and have consequences. I don't want her smoothed out and perfect, I want her glaring flaws to be intentional and acknowledged. And that just doesn't happen in text.

Ive also got a ramble on my thoughts on Preston. I've said before I don't like his voice acting most of the time, and I actually got a lot of pushback?? But the people who disagreed didnt...disagree...they just pointed out that John Gentry had a gnarly recording circumstance. I think it was that his first takes weren't supposed to be the final product, because he wasn't really intended to be the VA? Something like that, I forget. Point is, I said John Gentry obviously had a rough time in the booth, and wasn't given a fair shot, and people went "No, his voice acting is good! John Gentry just had a rough time with his line recording and wasn't given a fair shot!"

M-ma'am. Thats...what I said.

If it makes anyone feel better, I don't like the majority of the voice acting in this game...a lot of it is very 'modded skyrim character.' Remember the Skyrim Romance Mod? Thats what most of it sounds like to me. Remember Mrs. Peabody? Holy shit. Do not let anyone involved in that cook ever again. I also have personal beef with Nate. The male VA for the SS...someone, somewhere, made a bunch of choices. It was the wrong one, frequently. (The only good male SS line i can think of is the one romancing Danse. Has some texture to it. It's shy and cute, very good)

As for Preston himself, love him, love my paragon good-guy characters. He's such a sweetheart but he's down for bloodshed. I adore those kinds of characters, those "do no harm, take no shit" types. He's treated as a fluffball by fanon (when not suffering racist ass takes or absolute disregard), but Preston has got some lovely edges to him. If you go through his dialogue page and his approvals, you'll find he can be hard at times. There are moments he approves of 'asshole' choices, which is very fun. I love this dude.

Anyway hot take. IF HE WAS WHITE, ALL OF THESE BITCHES WOULD LIKE HIM. YEAH. I SAID IT. He'd be a depressed white man who's buff and kind and snarky, and you Danse girlies, you Nick girlies, you Deacon girlies, all of them would love him too. He is tailor made for standom but nooo, he isn't #FFFFFF so I guess he's doomed to stupid ass settlement jokes.

Yall lack taste. Hawk puhtoo.

SPEAKING OF AWFUL FUCKING TASTE, LEAVE MY BABY X6-88 ALONE.

X6-88 is so unappreciated. Grotesquely so, by both Bethesda and fans.

X6-88, I've said many times, is a spoiled rich man's cat who sits all poised and hisses if you so much as look at it if you're below a certain tax bracket. He's fussy and egotistical and snippy and dislikes bugs, children, water, heights, and generally anything above ground. He gushes over Danse and thinks he's the coolest. He'll let you kill the Institute if you're Railroad or Minutemen and have high affinity with him. He'll brag about getting to travel with you with his courser buddies. He's a fucking dork.

X6-88 is a nerd/prep who could be goth if left in a Hot Topic to run wild, but until then, he's in a suit for his private school and he's going to sit on HIS bench at recess and snipe at the rival school children with his friends and then he goes home and complains that his english eacher failed him on his Roman history test for writing it in perfect Latin. That is X6-88.

If you don't like X6-88 we cannot be friends. Fuckiung look at him. He's such a little shit. He's perfect.

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louff4tw · 1 year

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"I bet it’s been a long time since someone genuinely told Bruce they loved him. That’s so sad"

WHY DO YOU RIP OUT MY HEART AND STOMP ON IT LIKE THIS???

#I swear the only one that loved Bruce was Tim

Can you expand on this, if you don't mind?? I love Bruce and Tim stuff, but there's almost nothing in the fandom unfortunately.

I rip others hearts out cause it ripped mine out!

When I first realized this it broke me. Bruce never got the help or comfort he needed growing up after his parents died. Alfred like I said in the original didn’t feel it was his place. And Bruce most likely spent a LOT of time alone. Stewing in his emotions. Never letting himself move forward from their death cause it was so traumatizing. And he’s a genius. He has great memory. He can’t even forget.

What he needed was for Alfred to hug him. Tell him he loved him. And that everything was gonna be okay along with therapy. But he didn’t. Alfred kept his distance. He was there but not really THERE if that makes sense. I can picture Bruce self destructing heavily during his teen years and when he originally runs away to train I bet part of him didn’t even want to go back to that big cold house.

Bruce doesn’t blame Alfred for this but I know it’s a regret of Alfred’s. It’s in a comic somewhere where it’s showing him catching young Bruce/Dick crying and in the Bruce side he’s left along. And with Dick he goes and comforts him and in his thoughts says he won’t make the same mistake twice.

Bruce and Alfred will make sure Dick doesn’t turn out like Bruce. Broken.

And I don’t doubt Dick loved Bruce but he carrys a lot of guilt with that cause he feels like he’s replacing his dad. It’s probably part of the reason he left. Bruce tried to get Dick to stop being Robin cause he was shot. So he left and became Nightwing. And for the longest time refused to even see why Bruce did that. Or even talk to him

Jason tho is completely different. He didn’t have much to begin with. He literally lived a fairy tale rescue of being Robin. He’s probably one of the ones that loved Bruce the most and thought Robin was magic, but when he died everything change. He suffered a severe trauma himself and became angry (people say he was the angry Robin but that was actually Dick) like Dick he refused to see why Bruce didn’t kill the Joker (tho I don’t think anyone told him Bruce tried) that if Bruce kills the joker he knows it won’t end with the Joker. Bruce is mentally unstable and Bruce knows that. And even in the iterations where he somewhat comes back. He’s still off with Bruce. While treating Alfred like he’s the only good thing there and why he comes back,

Damian I can understand why he never said it. It’s probably never been said to him. Same with Jason in a way. But much worse also. He was trained not to feel and it’s because of Dick (cause Batman was missing) that he is as open as he is. Cause Dick wanted to be more emotionally available then Bruce. So he sorta teaches that to Damian. And I’m happy about that cause it needed to happen. Damian tho will always prefer Dick to Bruce for that same reason. Cause Bruce has trouble expressing it due to his upbringing and Dick technically had the best childhood till he was 8 so more stable then the rest. Damian after Bruce returned once said he wished Bruce was still Dead. Cause Dick went back to Bludhaven and he had trouble communicating with Bruce.

Tim is different then the rest. They all were taken in and became Robin. I’m not gonna say he let them cause we all know Bruce actually had no say in that. Tim didn’t even initially want to approach Bruce. He came to Dick and tried to say Bruce was self destructing and Dick who was also grieving denied helping in that matter. So Tim took things into his own hands. He wanted to help Bruce and Save him from himself before he became someone he was not. A villain. Cause he was heading that way.

He basically kicked the front door in and was like “bitch it’s a intervention” and he sorta forced his way in and helped Bruce. He saved him and made him want to live again.

A lot of people say Tim got the worst version of Bruce. How Bruce never cared about Tim. How Bruce was way to hard on Tim. And they need to Remember. Tim came to Bruce. Bruce literally didn’t want him around at first cause he was grieving. That Bruce only pushed Tim away at first cause he was terrified. Tim didn’t want to be adopted so he even made up a fake uncle and hired a actor. Despite the fact Tim actually did want to be taken in. He was just scared. And Bruce was hard on him cause he literally watched one of his kids died. So he wanted to make sure Tim was prepared. I don’t believe Tim would have said he loved him out loud. But. I do believe he is the one that loves Bruce the most (platonically I should clarify for the weirdos out there) and Bruce loves him to. He saved Bruce. TWICE! Once from himself and once from Time.

I accidentally clicked the font thing on mobile oops.

And Bruce won’t pick favourites and he’s happy to have them all in his Life (but there will always be a special bond between him and Bruce) especially cause they are so alike in intelligence

But it sucks that no one (not count the ladies he’s been with ) has told him they loved him in any complicity even tho they do but will show it to Alfred. Who is the reason Bruce is so damaged. And don’t get me wrong I love Alfred but Damn. I can picture the first time Alfred says it to Bruce. He’s badly hurt. They aren’t sure he’s gonna make it and he whispers it to Bruce.

I do know one person who will be the one to say it and mean it. Superman. He has canonically said it to Bruce in the comics! More then Bruce’s own family

And I’m gonna leave you off on some pet peeves of mine in the fandom

When people say Bruce made child soldiers even tho he literally has tried to stop each and every one of them. He wasn’t even the one who made Damian Robin.

When Dick was like “you made me Robin and I hate you for it” and then goes “you tried to stop me from being Robin and I hate you for it” LIKE MAKE UP YOUR MIND!

The “everyone shits on Bruce train” like. That’s not funny. It’s shitty af and people who find it funny have daddy issues

The “I wonder who Batman wants to take over for him when he retires” no one. When he told Diana that he took Dick in so he wouldn’t be like him. He meant it. Batman is a symbol that somethings wrong and broken. He knows his kids are better then him in many ways

People who act like Duke isn’t just as unhinged

That Bruce picks a favourite. He really doesn’t he loves them all equally. And people who act like Cass is the only one he cares about

Bruce/Barbara shippers and Batfam shippers

Those are some of my personal pet peeves

#batman #batfam #robin #bruce wayne #damian wayne #tim drake #jason todd #nightwing #red hood #cassandra wayne #Cain #black bat #duke thomas #the signal

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auranovabloggers · 9 months

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Aura's Darkstalkers Tier List

A tier list based on my personal feelings of each character. Looking at their designs and my thoughts on them with a combination of the canon games and OVA and discussions I have had with friends over the years. Note I only hate the character in F tier. With that said, I'd like to give my reasons for each in descending order:

The Shao Siaster, Hsien-Ko and Mei-Ling: Hsien-Ko and Mei-Ling are my favorite characters of all time. They are the reason I even care about this franchise to begin with. When I first did my curious search on the Darkstalkers Wiki about Hsien-Ko in January of 2020, I was hooked on both of them. Their lore, their characteristics, their designs: something just clicked. But not just clicked, something connected to a soul like level. No other fictional characters have I ever obsessed over, made so much art of, thought about straight for years, or spent literally hundreds if not close to thousands on art commissions and merchandise. Hsien-Ko and Mei-Ling mean literally everything to me. They are why I learned about this series, why I met some of the amazing friends I have now, and the inspiration for my drive with art. Hsien-Ko and Mei-Ling are truly the greatest. Equal in my eyes and in my heart.

Felicia: In general, I feel Felicia is a great character. The idea of her backstory, who she is, her goals, and personality are generally winners in my book. Despite likely being hated for purely being what she is, she still preservers and believes that peaceful coexistence can occur with Darkstalkers and humans. Noble are her goals and kind is her soul. Her design is kind of a mixed bag as it definitely has some horn to it, I feel, but I like the overall color scheme to her. Plus, who she is, and her lore heavily carries her.

Lilith: Honestly, she is carried by what I think of in my head. She has a hell of a lot of potential as a character. Design wise, nice juxtaposition from Morrigan. I dunno... I think she is cool the more as time has gone on and the more, I have talked with friends.

Jedah: He is a fascinating individual to think about when you think about the world he grew up in. Makai is a fucked-up realm, and the dude showed some semblance of actually giving a damn about the future of his home. But then he got fucked over by his confidant. All that stuff twisted his mindset and set him on the path for what he believed was the right path for all once he came back from death. Interesting individual indeed and a much more compelling antagonist compared to Pyron.

Jon Talbain: His backstory is fine. His personality is alright. I just really love the idea of a martial artist werewolf. And honestly, the idea of an individual trying to conquer his 'inner demons' is a cool set up. It has potential to be really cool in my head. I do like some of his sprite animations do show a bit of snark to him despite his generally stoic if not angry demeanor. Also the idea he looks after some kids and potentially teaches them martial arts is cute.

Victor: His family dynamic with his big sister Emily is so bloody precious. And Victor himself is a generally nice dude. He just wants to make his creator proud and have a good life with his big sister. Lovable dude.

Zabel: My friends have tainted me, the bastards. But yeah, Zabel has a lot of class and style for being the zany, metalhead that he is. Great animations, lots of energy, and honest to god I love his tongue. Just how he swings it around in a lot of official art. He is a cool dude. Also, his general design has a great unique flair to zombies/ghouls.

Morrigan: Looking into her personality and backstory, she is interesting. Just too bad people only focus on the surface and porn. But for what she is, a hedonistic thrill seeker who is confident in herself, she is neat.

Donovan: The idea behind is backstory is compelling: due to having no control over his vampiric nature, he killed everyone he knew and loved, including his own mother. Traumatized and with a dash of self-hatred, he wants to find a way to right the wrong he did. Cool idea. And then he watches over this child with incredible potential in supernatural powers and has this wacky sword at his disposal. Nice, nice. One thing about his design is that I bloody hate how his top clothing is skintight compared to his clothing down below. It is honestly bad. But he is carried by his backstory.

Huitzil: Robots are cool. He can do cool stuff and one of them looks after this child. I think he is neat.

Anita: The mystery of her backstory and powers are cool and worth thinking about an exploring. But beyond that, not much else her. Sucks what Capcom did to her and ole Donny boi with VSAV.

Sasquatch: Lovable dude. I wanna give him a hug and take him out to get some smoothies and food.

Q-Bee: I have some personal gripes with the character: all petty things. Design wise... why is she the way she is? Considering that Soul Bees reside in Makai, I doubt their disguise would work well when there are not a lot in the way of humans. I mean...unless there are Makains who see them as weak cause they have human like looks to them. I dunno. The 'breasts' on their bodies kinda look dumb. If they really went in with the whole insectoid look, I think they would be cool looking. As is, they have some neat ideas: the fake eyes and face being able to open to a real mouth.

Pyron: He reads to me as a Saiyan. Prideful warrior who wants to be riled up in the heat of battle. Will start slow as he tests his foes. That is neat. But honestly, not much else.

Rikuo, Anakaris, Bishamon: Honestly, they all fall into the category of having some cool things, but not being interesting enough for me. But I like them more than those below them. Rikuo is a goddamn handsome merman with a wife and son, Anakaris has commandments and kingdom, and Bishamon has his dog and wife. Cool dudes.

Bulletta: I mean the idea of her looking innocent but deep down being this psychotic monster is good. But that is it. Not much else going for her. But it is good, just not enough compared to everyone above her.

Demitri: He is a general sore loser and pathetic individual who thinks he is hot shit but has picked fights with people far stronger than him. Dude lost to the literal strongest individual in Makai and held a grudge long enough that when it turns out the dude passed away, he directed his rage at Belial's daughter and heir. And she did nothing to Demitri other than exist and be the heir to the Aensland house. Sure, he gave Pyron a good suck, but he potentially still lost to Jedah if we take into a possible account that one recording where it implies, he was killed by Jedah. Also, I feel his clothing design, while fine, looks fucking stupid with being skintight. Dude is trying to have this sense of class and high society, but he looks ridiculous. He is dumb and terrible and in all that, it makes him fun to absolutely shit on. He is funny and that makes him likeable.

Marionette: The idea of her mirror match thing is interesting and the design if fine. But not much else to go with

Shadow: A tad less than Marionette, but same general premise. Except dude is a body snatcher.

Dee: The concept is sound. The idea of Donovan losing to his inner demons and becoming nothing more but a shell of what he was. Brilliant idea considering the other side of Darkstalkers: Darkstalkers is silly, but it is also grim. But this idea is all completely ruined by an absolutely godawful design. If this guy is a barely functioning shell of an individual, only continuing due to the idea of finding something, why does he try even dress up in the attire he wears? He should be in tatters, his hair unkempt, just overall look like someone who has not taken the time to look after themselves. But no, just take make him look like Demitri, but even worse.

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zestyderg · 1 year

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Some more fossil fighters headcanons because why not:

-There are vivosaurs that exist without being under the care of a single fighter while also not being rogues. These vivosaurs are instead taken care of by small communities. Because multiple people look after them, they don't go rogue, and are more mild-mannered. Most of these community vivosaurs are herbivores (hadrosaurs are especially common). They do not battle and instead live out their lives in peace, being fed and doted on by the humans they live with.

-While abandonment does lead to most cases of rogue vivosaurs, there are a few cases of vivosaurs going rogue due to just as unfortunate circumstances. There are fighters who sometimes suddenly die (usually when out in the wilderness) and their vivosaurs can go rogue in their distress. Sometimes vivosaurs rampage wildly in their grief, other times they guard their fighter's body fiercely and refuse to let anyone come near. Their reactions may be different but it's always heartbreaking to watch. Even when these rogues are rescued it takes a long time for them to get used to having a new fighter, if they get a new fighter at all. There are however groups of fossil fighters that specialize in helping traumatized vivosaurs like these, giving them a second chance at having the happy life that they deserve.

-Smaller theropod vivosaurs are known for being destructive. Compso in particular love to jump around, knock things over, and rip stuff up with their claws and teeth. They are very nippy and will fearlessly attack vivosaurs far larger than themselves. It's ill advised to keep Compso with other small animals and children.

-Sauropod vivosaurs can be surprisingly ill-tempered. Rogue sauropods are even more destructive than larger theropods like T-Rex. They are known to severely harm or even kill people by kicking them away with one foot or whipping them with their tails due to mere annoyance. Irritated sauropods are some of the most dangerous vivosaurs and so getting them used to people and teaching them patience is extremely important in raising them.

-Smilo are big cuddlebugs. They love getting pats, scritches, and rubs from their fighters, practically turning into putty when given affection. Just watch out for their fangs, claws, and raw strength. They may be smaller than most other vivosaurs but they're heavily muscled, built more like a bear than a cat, so exhibit some caution when handling them.

-It's considered rude to insult an Anato's singing. Yes, their singing is awful by human standards. But they are trying their best, and to insult them anyways will earn you angry glares from those around you, at the very least.

-Paraloph are as friendly as they look. They love people and are extremely social. They are energetic and eager to please, always itching for playtime or a battle. They are however very loud, and that can put some fighters off from keeping one.

-Rogue Coatlus and Hopter are less likely to rampage and are more likely to go around and start stalking other creatures, eating anything smaller than themselves whole (that includes humans and dinaurians). The fact that they can fly long distances does not help.

-Divers, swimmers, and snorkelers are often accompanied by aquatic vivosaurs to keep them safe and especially to prevent drowning. Plesio are the most frequent vivosaurs used for this, but any aquatic vivosaur capable of carrying people will do.

#fossil fighters #fossil fighters champions #zesty's ramblings #ngl writing these is quite fun

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dumping-ideas · 2 years

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Why Wonder Magical Showtime is Tsukasa's Event Pt. 1

There are a lot of comments about Tsukasa’s 1st banner, like how it’s not a Tsukasa event but just a continuation of Emu’s event, or how it’s not a Tsukasa event but a WxS ensemble event due to its scale. While both opinions are valid and aren’t wrong, Wonder Magical Showtime (henceforth shortened as WMS) is actually and appropriately a Tsukasa-focused event—it’s just being told in an unorthodox method. There are three reasons for it, and so I'll be dividing this topic into two or maybe three parts depending on the length.

WMS showcases Tsukasa as other WxS members’ catalyst of growth

Long story short, it’s first and foremost a story about how big Tsukasa’s presence is to other people, especially to WxS members.

I think most of us agree that WxS influence each other to be better with the help of Wonderland Sekai VS. However, Tsukasa is always an integral part of their development pre-WMS. It was in part because Emu, Rui, and Nene had problems that are related to their relationships with other people, and the confident and self-assured Tsukasa made sure that they’re able to open up to others and themselves. It can be said that Tsukasa is the spark for their growth.

Let’s start with Emu. While Emu was the one to invite Tsukasa, he was the one who encouraged her to not give up and to rely on them.

Emu may be sunshine-personified, but she had given up. Because she didn’t want others’ smiles to cloud over, she sacrificed her happiness. Once in the unit story, and almost twice in the Smile of Dreamer. While the second time Nene and Rui also supported her, it was Tsukasa who reminded her that her happiness matters too in both occasions. That everyone who cared about her wouldn’t easily lost their smiles because they would be the ones to make her smile. Because of that, she learned that it’s okay to be greedy about her wishes.

Without his lecture, Emu would most likely give up when other staff and performers in PWL refused to cooperate with WxS. The Emu before the Unit Story wouldn’t be able to ask the other staff and performers to risk their jobs and performances for her wish. The Emu before Smile of Dreamer would back off after she had tried asking for the first time.

The only time when Emu let herself be selfish was when she forced Tsukasa to be a Wonder Stage cast member, and it was because she was desperate. Even so, after their failed show, she gave up. Pop in My Heart gave an insight on why she held on to Tsukasa that first time—because Tsukasa reminded her of the grandfather that she’d lost.

The second one is Nene, whose growth in relation to Tsukasa isn't really visible. While Rui was the one to invite Nene, Tsukasa was the one who encouraged her to stand on the stage as herself and to have pride in her ability.

Nene was shy around people to begin with, and the fact that she pursued theater which forced her to stand in front of other people is a huge thing. She loved singing, so she wanted to share her joy with others. Singing and theater were her ways to connect with others, and she had pride in it because she knew she's good at it. However, her failure due to her stage fright traumatized her so much—enough to make her doubt herself.

I’ve touched on a bit about Tsukasa encouraging Nene in the unit story before, but his encouragement then was only enough to make Nene stood on the stage again. Her confidence in her ability was still heavily damaged from that trauma. It was when Tsukasa loudly declared Nene wouldn’t lose against Sakurako in Christmas event that she started to be confident in her ability.

And it worked because it was Tsukasa—not Rui her childhood friend and not Emu the cheerful friend. Tsukasa isn’t biased like Rui, and he's not as kind as Emu. Nene admitted Tsukasa's theatrical skills, and she knew that he would say it’s bad without hesitation and vice versa. They trusted in each others’ abilities since day 1 and because Tsukasa and WxS had pride in her ability, she began to become proud of it again.

Her accepting Ichika’s request in Twilight Parade is also influenced by said confidence—if she hadn’t regain her pride, she would refuse Ichika due to her own perceived lack of skill. In consequence, she wouldn’t have the confidence to teach other PWL casts.

The last is Rui and well… a lot of Rui’s development pre-WMS heavily involved Tsukasa. Rui is a special case because unlike Nene and Emu who were motivated one way by Tsukasa, Rui needed to answer Tsukasa for him to grow. Thus, their relationship in terms of their growth is a two-way street.

To start with, Tsukasa was the one who invited him, literally barging into the rooftop where Rui had been waiting for someone. When Rui lost the trust he had towards Tsukasa, it was Tsukasa himself who begged for Rui to trust him again. Sure, Tsukasa had help from Emu, Nene, Miku, and Kaito, but Tsukasa was the only one who said that he’d meet all of Rui’s expectations from the first time they talked with each other.

The amazing part of that is that Rui had lost trust in Tsukasa, and the conclusion to the unit story was because Rui decided to trust him again. Even though he had been refused by his peers since he was young, he deemed that Tsukasa might worth it. Without Rui reaching back toward Tsukasa, Rui wouldn’t start to grow.

Wonder Halloween event challenged said trust. Because Tsukasa was injured, he lost Rui’s trust involuntarily. The fact that Rui held himself back was a sign that he didn’t trust Tsukasa to handle riskier productions. And Tsukasa knew that. That’s why he was angry at himself—because he broke Rui’s trust even though it’s not his fault. Thanks to Kaito’s advice, Rui was able to trust Tsukasa again.

Kamikou Fes event also showed how big Tsukasa’s presence is for him who had been alone for so long. Tsukasa accepted all of Rui’s whims and promised to answer Rui’s expectations 12000%. Mizuki even remarked that Rui had changed because he met Tsukasa. In June Bride event, Rui decided to work with other people because he had known the joy of doing it with WxS. Because Tsukasa trusted him after Rui had denied him, Rui learned to trust other people.

If Tsukasa didn’t come to the rooftop that day, Rui would still be stuck there. If Tsukasa didn’t remind Rui that he trusted and accepted Rui through his words and actions multiple times, Rui wouldn’t be that willing to work with others and direct to his heart’s content.

As for Tsukasa himself, WMS shows that WxS has become more important to him than his goal to become a star. In Wonder Halloween and Christmas events, Tsukasa was still more fixated on becoming number 1. It's not that he changed per se, but it's just because he wanted to make Emu, Rui, and Nene smile--thus putting them above his own goal. Well, you can see it as growth from only looking at WxS as fellow showcasts to his important people. Rather than showing his growth, it's more accurate to say WMS showcases his ability as a leader.

However, I'll talk more about Wonder Magical Showtime's importance for Tsukasa in the next part, so please look forward to it!

#pjsekai #proseka #project sekai #hatsune miku colorful stage #wonderlands x showtime #tenma tsukasa #tsukasa tenma #otori emu #emu otori #nene kusanagi #kusanagi nene #rui kamishiro #kamishiro rui #wms is the best event because the vs appears in front of normal people #wondering what people who have sekai think about that #analysis

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edgepunk · 4 months

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I'd like to hear about the fic, especially how it was supposed to tie to the bigger plot!

Strap in, because this is gonna be a long one! btw the fic's name is/was To The End of The Earth

The basic premise is that it takes place two years after the symbiotes pretty much took over Earth, but it's more akin to a zombie apocalypse where people live in small communities, survivor camps, and the more fortunate ones in underground bunkers (however, the surviving population isn't aware of them, they were built by the likes of Norman Osborn and other big corpo heads). The symbiote invasion and takeover was fast, no one really knows how it started or why it happened in the first place. Spoiler: Norman had the very first symbiote as his research project and it attracted the other ones to Earth. The same symbiote that Peter ended up with.

putting it under a read more bc it's long like REALLY LONG

So, for the last two years, Peter spent wandering the US, helping out where he could and still wearing his Spider-Man suit that got torn and sewn together many times. Though he doesn't care much about keeping his identity secret and the survivors don't either. (lbr we'd be more concerned about food and water than some superhero's identity) The main story starts with a heavily injured Peter being brought to one of the bunkers where both Norman Osborn and Dr. Connors happen to live in. Dr. Connors and his team of medics spend a lot of time and energy to keep Peter alive, but his body gives out. As a last ditch resort, Connors uses the symbiote to revive him. He knows it's not the best idea, but in this universe, him and Peter had a rather strong mentor-student relationship during Peter's university days.

Peter wakes up, has a crisis, but Connors reassures him the symbiote is genetically modified to not to affect his cognitive functions (spoiler: it's not, he said that to calm him down as kind of a placebo effect)

Anyway, Norman finds out what happened and has the genius idea to send Peter on a mission to destroy the symbiotes' nests spread throughout the US, which should weaken them and he now has an immunity, because the symbiotes think he's one of them. Connors is against it, they get into an argument and Peter is like "hey fuck you guys, I will do this mission, but not because Norman told me. I just wanna help people" and Norman gives him everything he needs to finish the mission.

He also gives Peter a side quest to find Harry since they got separated during the chaos, but Peter thinks he's dead, he thinks all of his friends are dead. Also, Aunt May died during the invasion two years ago in Peter's arms. A little parallel: May died of heavy injuries, as did Peter.

Since this is a parksborn fic, Harry's not dead! Who would've thought! He's actually been running with various scavenger and survivor groups where he learned how to fight, use guns and defend himself. Peter accidentally runs into him right int he first abandoned town after leaving the bunker. They reunite, reminisce about their childhoods and fall in love a little later on.

Though the story still focuses on Peter destroying the main four symbiote nests, but!! Instead of blowing them up, he accidentally absorbs their power since him and the symbiote are a little different* than the usual possessed person. He gets more powerful throughout the story, but since he's been so traumatized by everything that had happened, it's slowly corrupting him. It happens gradually, and near the end of the story, which takes place in New York where the last nest is, he's barely keeping it together.

And there was supposed to be a whole plot about how the symbiote and Peter are fusing into one being that's neither symbiote nor human, but uhhh [gestures vaguely] a secret third thing?

I've had planned two endings, because I can't decide. The good ending: Peter destroys the last nest, the thing he's turned into is rather harmless and the symbiotes leave Earth. Humanity starts to rebuild. Everyone is happy.

The bad ending: Peter knows he's slipping and before the final battle asks Harry to kill him if he turns into something unrecognizable. He gives Harry a gun he stole with a single bullet meant for him. After the battle, Harry shoots him. The symbiotes are defeated, humanity starts rebuilding, but Peter is gone for good.

Some other notes:

Most of the other superheroes either died or were turned. Some were supposed to briefly show up during a story arc like Tony Start and Bruce Banner who were supposed to help Peter with destroying the very first nest.

Gwen, MJ and Flash survived, and were supposed to join their group later on.

Peter's "no killing" rule gets challenged a lot, because not every person is friendly. There's lots of raiders and scavengers roaming the US who rob and kill other survivors for supplies. He does break the rule later in the story, after rescuing Harry from raiders that beat him to a bloody pulp, which pushed him over the edge.

Harry himself challenged the rule even before Peter broke it, because Harry admitted to killing people for survival. After Peter kills the raiders who beat Harry, he helps Peter with coping and tells him about his own experience about how he felt when he killed someone for the first time.

There were supposed to be smaller story arcs about other characters they'd come across since this is technically a roadtrip story. One was about a man who was leading a thriving community of survivors, but lost his teenage son during the invasion who was a big Spider-Man fan. Despite that, he kept going, which was supposed to inspire Peter and remind him that good people still exist who are worth fighting for.

There was also a smaller focus on Dr. Connors who was struggling with his decision to revive Peter, because he realized that he turned him into a monster. On the other hand, he didn't want him to die.

More characters were supposed to have smaller arcs, but ahhhhhhh here we are

Annnnnnnnnd that's it. It got really long. Sorry 🧍‍♀️

#ask #spider-xan #yay I managed to put it under a read more #thank you btw!!!! I'm happy I could ramble about my insane fic sajkhsakjh

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watchinglikeafangirl · 2 years

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The eclipse - honesty, purity, understanding

The eclipse caught my eye the first week it aired because it has a certain vibe I just loved but couldn't name. I remember thinking "this show knows exactly what it wants" after the second episode because the overall set-up is a fanfiction and the lines are partly cheesy whilst heavily criticizing an opressive system where rules only overshadow the fact protestors are being harmed. The show doesn't take itself too serious but also doesn't make fun of itself. It's very balanced and the characters are treated with care, everybody matters and has their own role in the plot. There are no unnecessary and nameless roles. This is due to the fact the show follows a mission. There is a story that needs to be told and it's not just about Akk and Ayan developing heart eyes, it's very critical, there is a protest going on and people are not following the ideal and step out of line.

Honesty

The show is very honest about what it wants to portray. It wants to criticize, it wants to tell a love story. And this honesty coming from the characters is what prevents it from crashing down at some point because the characters never betray the audience. There is not gonna be a weird turning point and one of them followed a different plan the whole time. There is no traitor for the drama. No, the characters state their intentions pretty early in the story, thus we know which role each is gonna play in the upcoming fight against the system.

Thua knows the rules don't make sense, he even is a victim of them. The rules of Suppalo protect the bullies and not the victim. The victim can't speak up, so they stay silent. But deep down, Thua wants to fight, just lost his willpower along the way. He is on the side of the protestors but not protesting which makes him tecnically neutral, but as Ayan put it "no better than the other's following the rules".

Kan is afraid to be judged, not just because of his sexuality but also because of his true opinion. That one time the three friends were talking in Akk's room, he implied, the rules don't make sense for him either. But he is too afraid his true self will be judged, so he keeps quiet as well.

Ayan has his personal mission and we know about it the first second we see him. And even though Akk doesn't know the story behind the bond between Ayan and Dika, he knows Ayan is against the rule system. Ayan tells him hundreths of times. He never goes deeper than that, doesn't explain, but his intentions are clearly framed since the start.

And Akk, as I see it, never lied. He was honest this whole time because there is a difference between lying and not telling. Yes, he didn't say he is the one behind the curse but nobody actively asked him about it, so he didn't deny it either. The reveal was shocking, yes, but didn't feel like a betrayal. Akk was always stating his intentions of upholding the system no matter what and no matter if it's right or wrong.

You see, the characters are honest and even if some take longer to open up than others, it all fits with their behavior from before. Akk's explaination makes sense because he always protected the school and students from lashing out.

Purity

This honesty carries a certain purity because even the bad things are talked about. Nothing is left out of the story. The self-doubt, the dark moments, the traumatizing past. It is all dealt with in flashbacks and dialogues and actions.

Kan has to jump across his own shadow but just doesn't know how to. He is lost and Thua thinks Kan doesn't like him but how could Kan not. We see him being very sad about the past and that he just can't bring himself to help Thua. This inner conflict of Kan, coming from his heart, is portrayed in a very pure but painful way. Especially the scene Thua walks away, it hits deep but it is very clear why he does it and why Kan looks after him like a ghost of the past. The feelings are raw but nothing is left out. And even if something is ugly, it can still be pure and so are Kan and Thua.

Akk and Ayan just love to put everything out there. Like their scenes are sometimes so heavy, the rawness just hits me. But those moments are the purest in this show. Ayan crying with his head on Akk's shoulder, them in the gym, Akk crying in Ayan's arms, Ayan having a nightmare. It is raw and pure - just not in the sense of them waving a white flag. The emotions are all over the place, they are there, they talk, they cry, they hug. It's the most honest they can ever be and the most honest they allow themselves to be, so their bond is very important to each other and it's pure since nobody lies.

Understanding

As I have begun to talk about the scene at the bonfire, let me just say, I got goosebumbs right there. Ayan's reaction surprised me a lot and it made this scene even more hurting. Despite Akk confessing he was ready to risk student's lives, Ayan only says once "what you did was a crime" but then switches to "could you take responsibility" which holds so much more power than he ever wanted. Those words are heavy and it leads Akk to confessing all the feelings he has inside. The inner conflict is visible and Ayan understands it. I doubt he really 100% does but he tries so hard to support Akk, it's lovely. "You're allowed to be weak. At least with me" this is another turning point. And that is what I mean, the characters try very hard to understand each other's perspective. They ask questions that make them doubt themselves and make sure the other knows it's a safe space.

Kan tells Thua he is there for him, after realizing how much Thua struggles. He understands his actions now and why he says what he says about Kan. Kan can reminisce now and make it better. Understanding another person makes them understand themselves better. It's what happens with Akk and Ayan as well. It was Ayan's turn to understand Akk but then it was the other way around when Ayan had a nightmare.

Conclusion

The show just cares a lot and that makes it all so lovely.

#the eclipse #the eclipse the series #akkayan #thua x kan #first kanaphan #khaotung thanawat #I just love this show so much #the kiss got me screaming

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