#he was playing a Main Character Boy archetype

[aspoonofsugar]

Have yo read Captive Prince? What do you think of Laurent's character? Does he foil any other characters (besides being mind to Damen's heart)?

Hi!

Yes, I have and I love Laurent <3 He has the most complex arc and is at the centre of the major conflict, so he foils several characters, who are used to explore his personality and to progress his arc.

In general, I would say three major jungian archetypes are used in Laurent's story:

Inner Child = the childish and most vulnerable part of a person, which is influenced by one's younger years. Laurent's inner child is embodied primarily by Nicaise, but also by every boy abused and raped by the Regent.

Shadow = the repressed part, which the person doesn't want to aknowledge. Laurent has severals: the Regent himself, Aimeric and Jokaste. They all embody Laurent's most negative side.

Anima/Animus = the anima is the female side of a man and the animus is the male side of a woman. It is usually used in romantic subplots to show two characters growing closer. Here, it is embodied by the bond between Laurent and Damen.

Laurent's arc is one where he integrates with Damen, but to succeed he also needs to save his inner child and to face his shadow. Or to fail and try again.

BROTHERS AND LOVERS

Laurent and Damen foil each others' brothers:

Laurent foils Kastor: both are the unfavourite child, but Laurent adores Auguste, while Kastor resents Damen. At the same time, Damen perceives them in opposite ways. Damen initially doesn't aknowledge the good in Laurent, while he doesn't see the evil in Kastor. It is as Nikandros says. At the beginning of the story, Damen sees things in black and white. By getting to know Laurent he learns complexity and that the world is in shades of grey. He integrates his own heart with Laurent's mind. His own idealism with Laurent's wisdom.

Damen foils Auguste: both are strong fighters and beloved leaders, able to inspire others. The moment Auguste dies, Laurent loses his heart and it is only with Damen that he learns to trust and to open up again. It is also through Damen that he overcomes Auguste's death and his sense of inferiority, which is carefully nurtured by the Regent. Laurent is brilliant, but his arc is about showing vulnerability and find new faith in others. He integrates his mind with Damen's heart. His wisdom with Damen's idealism.

So, as you said, Laurent is the mind to Damen's heart and has to rediscover his own interiority. He needs to love himself again. Only by doing so he can truly escape the Regent and grow up. This process of growth is the main focus of the trilogy and it happens twice:

Laurent fails to grow in the second book

Laurent succeeds and completes his growth in the third book

Let's see how.

NICAISE AND AIMERIC = LAURENT'S DARKEST HOUR

Laurent's darkest hour happens at the end of the second book. This is common for a trilogy. It is not rare for the second installement to end in a negative way. Now, The Prince's Gambit doesn't end badly. Laurent and Damen win and grow closer. Laurent even frees Damen and they have sex for the first time. Still, psychologically, Laurent risks a huge brakdown because of Nicaise and Aimeric's deaths.

Nicaise and Aimeric are two parts of Laurent:

-Nicaise is Laurent's child-self. He is petty and capricious, but he cares deeply. And yet, he can't show any vulnerability. The moment he does, he is killed. Moreover, Nicaise plaids for Laurent because he deep down thinks the Regent won't kill him. This is true for Laurent, as well:

"I didn't think he's really try to kill me" Laurent said "After everything... even after everything".

-Aimeric is Laurent's shadow. He is a young man, whose life is defined by the Regent's sexual abuse. Aimeric confuses the Regent's imitation of love with true care and fights to get it back, even if it means hurting people, who truly love him. Unconsciously, this is true for Laurent too:

"You play his games like you want to show him you can. Like you're trying to impress him. Is that it? You need to beat him at his own game? You want him to see you do it? At the expense of your positions and the lives of your men? Are you that desperate for his attention? Well, you have it. Congratulations. You must have loved it that he was obsessed enough with you that he killed his own boy to get at you. You win."

Damen's speech to Laurent is basically the same one Laurent gives Aimeric. Aimeric shines light on this specific aspect of Laurent. Laurent too still loves his uncle. He too wants his attention and on some level thinks of his uncle as his only family:

"When you lost your brother, was there someone to confort you?" "Yes," said Laurent. "In a way".

So, Nicaise and Aimeric embody Laurent's vulnerability. Nicaise is the child who still feels safe with the Regent. Aimeric is the young adult, who wants the Regent back. Both are Laurent. This is why Laurent wants to rescue them both. He grows close to Nicaise and tells him he will buy his contract and free him. He accepts Aimeric into his guard and refuses Damen's advice to send him away. And yet, the Regent uses them both against Laurent. He kills Nicaise and has Aimeric betray Laurent.

Laurent wants to help both Nicaise and Aimeric and the Regent tells him he can't. Just like he can't save himself.

According to the Regent's narrative:

Laurent is fond of Nicaise, but eventually leaves him alone out of selfishness

Laurent welcomes Aimeric in, but this is a blind spot that is used against him

By using vulnerable and abused kids, the Regent conveys to Laurent two messages. On the one hand Laurent isn't selfless enough to truly save anyone. He isn't good enough to be a protector like Auguste. On the other hand he is still foolish enough to trust others. He isn't smart enough to be a mastermind like the Regent. Too cruel and too foolish is how the Regent wants Laurent to see himself. So, that Laurent would feel trapped and cut others out.

And Laurent almost gives in, but is stopped by Damen:

"You tried to hurt me, and you have. I wish you would see that what you have just done to me is what your uncle is doing to you."

Damen goes through to Laurent and stops him from losing himself. He saves him from turning into a copy of the Regent.

THE REGENT

The Regent is Laurent's negative foil. He is who Laurent could become if he gave in to his worst instincts. As a matter of fact Laurent shares many similarities with his uncle:

Both are very intelligent master manipulators

Both are able to seize people's weaknesses and to use them

Both can be cruel and ruthless

Both tend to complicate things

This isn't by chance because the Regent does his best to break Laurent's heart and to warp his mind into a frailer copy of his own. He needs Laurent to think like him and to follow his rules, so that he can beat his nephew. This is why the Regent spends the years after Marlas by abusing Laurent in different ways.

The Regent's abuse has a double nature:

It has a sexual component: the Regent rapes Laurent multiple times as a child and shows possessiveness of him as a young adult. For example, many of his assassin attempts come with a sexual element. The assassins instructed to rape Laurent by using a drogue the Regent clearly used on his nephew as a child. Having Laurent and Damen sleep together, so that Laurent would eventually kill himself. Twisting Laurent and Damen's love story, as if to frame Laurent as dirty and despicable. Spreading voices about Laurent's supposed romantic feelings for Auguste. And so on...

It has an emotional component: the Regent keeps mentioning Auguste, which hurts Laurent in two ways. On the one hand it doesn't let him move on from his brother's death. On the other hand it drills into Laurent he isn't as good as the previous prince

"I hate to see you grown up like this," said the Regent, "when you were such a lovely boy."

The Regent basically blames Laurent for both growing up (physically) and not growing up (psychologically). He manipulates him by treating him as a child, while implying he isn't pure as a child anymore. The result is that Laurent hates himself.

This self-hate manifests itself in recklessness, suicidal tendencies and self-destroying behaviors. Like Laurent lashing out at others, when he is actually furious at himself. This is why specifically Laurent breaks Aimeric by using their shared trauma as a weapon. He hurts both Aimeric and Jord (who hasn't done anything, but being loyal to Laurent) because to truly face Aimeric means to accept himself and he can't.

Symbolically, Laurent kills Aimeric like he is slowly killing himself. This is why Aimeric's death happens after the reveal of Nicaise's murder by the Regent. Laurent kills Aimeric, just like the Regent kills Nicaise. Both victims are abused kids with frail and unstable senses of self, who deep down seek love and vulnerability. The lesson Laurent needs to learn is that he can't save the Nicaise within himself, if he doesn't help the Aimeric too. This is why it is important that Laurent is able to express empathy for Aimeric and to recognize he is a wounded person, just like Nicaise:

"Nicaise knew that when he got too old, he would be replaced." "Like Aimeric," said Damen. Into the long silence that stretched out between them, Laurent said: "Like Aimeric."

It is the first step to aknowledge his own hurt too.

AUGUSTE WASN'T GOOD ENOUGH

The second step is instead to face Auguste's ghost. Laurent's big brother is a double edged sword for the Prince. On the one hand Laurent deeply loves Auguste and is devastated by his dead. On the other hand his idealization of Auguste is unhealthy and leads to Laurent undervaluing himself.

These powerful contradictive feelings come to the surface in his "sparring" match with Damen. There, Laurent for once is able to show all his anger and grief. He lets it all out and is forced to accept he would have never been able to kill Damen in a fight. Still, another realization comes to the surface:

"I know," said Laurent, "that I was never good enough." Damen said, "Neither was your brother." "You're wrong. He was -" "What?" "Better than I am. He would have -" Laurent cut himself off. He pressed his eyes closed, with a breath of something like laughter. "Stopped you." He said it as though he could hear the ludicrousness of it.

Damen's words might seem cruel, but they are actually necessary because they break Laurent's internalised idolisation of Auguste. Laurent has been brought up with the convinction that Auguste is somehow better than him. This idea is present even before Auguste's death because of their father's favouritism. The early loss of his brother and subsequent abuse only makes this feeling stronger. Hence why Damen refusing this helps Laurent grow. Damen is the first one to see Laurent as his own person and to give him a choice:

Damen picked up the discarded knife, and when Laurent's eyes opened, he put it in Laurent's hand. Braced it. Drew it to his own abdomen, so that they stood in a familiar posture. Laurent's back was to the post. "Stop me," said Damen.

Laurent chooses to give up on his revenge. He chooses his present relationship with Damen over Auguste's ghost. He starts wishing for something positive for himself. He starts caring for himself. He starts looking toward a possible future.

JOKASTE = OPENING THE DOOR

To reach this future Laurent has to face Jokaste, who is really another version of Laurent:

"You're lucky we're alike," Jokaste said, stepping down. She and Laurent looked at one another like two reptiles.

Not only that, though, she is Aimeric and Nicaise combined in a single character:

Like Aimeric, she betrays a lover for selfish reasons (apparently)

Like Nicaise, she is caught up in a power struggle and has to choose the side, which ensures her survival, even if it means negate her heart to do so

"You mean, the only difference between us is that I chose the wrong brother?" As the stars began to drift across the sky, Laurent thought of Nicaise, standing in the courtyard with a handful of sapphires. "I don't think you chose," said Laurent.

This time Laurent is able to see this. He empathizes with Jokaste and gives her freedom. He opens her the door:

"We're alike. You said that. Would you have opened the door for me? I don't know. But you opened one for him."

In this way Laurent understands the Aimeric he could not understand and saves the Nicaise he could not save. By the end, Aimeric (Jokaste) is shown mercy and Nicaise (her baby) survives. Laurent gives Jokaste and her family a future. And in this way, he symbolically gives himself a future and a family. He opens his own door.

THE TRIAL

The climax of the trilogy is Laurent's trial in Ios. This choice is interesting on multiple levels:

It is an inversion of the ending of book 1, where Damen is blamed for the assassination attempt on Laurent's life and Laurent protects him. In fatc, it is not by chance that Damen mentions the episode in his initial defense of Laurent.

It shows Damen and Laurent's integration. As a matter of fact Damen is the one who realizes Paschal has the key to dethrone the Regent. He is able to do so because through Laurent he has learnt to observe others, to understand them and to empathize with them. Laurent instead selflessly gives everything up for the person he loves and bravely faces off the Regent with no plan, but simply with his heart. The Regent tries to turn it into a weakness and to force Laurent to give it up, but fails. Finally, he and not Damen is the one who fights Kastor and kills him. He uses the skills he has learnt for his revenge and uses them to protect Damen, instead. He chooses life and love over death and hate.

Most importanlty, though, the trial starts as a farce, but by the end it becomes a fair administration of justice, which punishes the criminal and recognizes the innocent. Let's see how this change happens.

NICAISE = VICTORY

Laurent wins not because of his mind, but because of his heart. Specifically, he wins because of the relationships he builds and of his ability to empathize with the humblest people, those nobody cares about.

First of all, Laurent obviously wins thanks to Damen. It is Damen choosing him over his kingdom that makes it possible to the tides to turn. So, it is because Laurent overcome his internalized hate for Damianos and slowly comes to accept and love him, that he is saved in the end. In a sense, the night where he has to choose if to let Damen die or to save him out of loyalty in volume 1 is when Laurent chooses who he wants to be. He can let a man he hates die without risking anything, like the Regent would. Or he can save that man our of a sense of fairness, like Auguste would. Laurent chooses the latter and makes the first true move towards his victory.

Secondly, Laurent is able to touch the councilors' sense of morality thanks to Loyse, Aimeric's mother. She reveals that her husband basically sold Aimeric to the Regent in exchange of power. She also explains how the Regent conspired with Kastor to kill Theodemes. This testimony isn't decisive because the assassination of Theodemes is a matter of Akielos. Nonetheless, Loyse re-opens the trial and gives importance to Aimeric's story and pain. It is also important that she is a woman because the Regent hates women. She is the character nobody considers, as everyone is focused on Guion's, the powerful councilor. And yet, Laurent does and convinces her to break free from her husband influence for the sake of her son.

Thirdly, Laurent is saved by Paschal's testimony. That said, Paschal is only able to reveal the truth about the Regent's murder of the King only because of Nicaise. In general, Nicaise is a character, who ends up being important in the finales of all three books:

In book one, Nicaise goes to Laurent's apartments after the attempted murder. He is clearly worried and can't decide if to openly switch sides and tell Laurent the truth or not. He also appears to tell Laurent goodbye and to give him his earrings. Symbolically, Laurent is saying goodbye to his younger and most innocent self, as he prepares to enter war with his uncle.

In book two, Nicaise's death is revealed in the climax and it leads to Laurent's decision to march on Charcy. It also kickstarts Laurent's deepest psychological crisis, as he struggles to keep a clean mind and shows how deep he is hurt and desperate.

In book three, Nicaise is the one who indirectly hands Laurent victory, as it is him who stole Govart's papers and gave him to Paschal.

In other words, Nicaise is the one who leads to victory, which fits his name. As a matter of fact Nicaise means "victorious", the person who brings victory and he delivers.

Thematically, this is very important, as Laurent initially regrets to have grown close to Nicaise:

"I killed Nicaise when I left it half done. I should have either stayed away from him, or broken his faith in my uncle. I didn't plan it out, I left it to chance. I wasn't thinking. I wasn't thinking about him like that. I just... I liked him."

He believes that because of their sibling-like bond Nicaise is now dead. He believes his influence isn't enough to break the Regent's control over Nicaise. And yet, it is precisely because of Laurent's love and care for Nicaise that the boy is able to rebel himself enough to steal key documents and to hand them to Laurent's side. Nicaise dies tragically, but his life and Laurent's kindness to him are not in vain. They change the destiny of two kingdoms. Laurent isn't able to save his child-self, but his child-self is strong enough to save him. Just like Laurent might not cancel what happened to him in the past, but can still move forward:

"Stop it, you're hurting him. You're hurting him. Let him go." A soldier was holding him back, and the boy was fighting him. Laurent looked at the boy, and in his eyes was the knowledge that some things couldn't be fixed. He said, "Get that boy out of here."

The new Regent pet once again mirrors a part of Laurent. The side of him that still sees the Regent at family. And yet, Laurent is finally able to accept this part of himself, but is strong enough to start healing. Just like as King he has now the chance to help as many children as the Regent hurt. Laurent ends is arc by growing up. He isn't a child anymore:

"You think you can defy me?" the Regent said to Laurent. "You think you can rule Vere? You?" Laurent said, "I'm not a boy anymore."

He isn't a boy anymore, he can't be controlled by the Regent anymore. He can now start a new life as his own person, free from the Regent and from Auguste's ghost. A life of love and new relationships.

#the captive prince #captive prince #laurent #damen #damianos #the regent #aimeric #nicaise #jokaste #my meta #the captive prince meta #asksfullofsugar #anonymous

[absolutebl]

Be My Favorite - Flaming Hot Trash Watch Action

Ready for this?

Adapted from the y-novel You Are My Favorite by JittiRain this is one of those “rewrite the past to change the future.” Starring Krist (SOTUS) + Fluke Gawin (DBK, Not Me). I expect this to be low heat, full of LIES and manipulation.

12 eps of approx 45 min fresh content each, and I guess I am drinking on frigay for the next 3 damn months 

Main tropes: time travel/slip/loop, paranormal, university setting, soft romance, low heat, sunshine/tsundere with GMMTV’s heavy hand on classic Thai BL tropes, product placement, and high production values.

Trailer | MDL

I’m getting some shizz outta my system before I start putting the alcohol into it...

Story issues 

Let’s get this on the table. I have a mixed relationship with Jittirain’s stuff because unlike Mame who is trash to her characters with plot, Jittirain is trash to plot with characters. All characters (what limited characterization there is) will be obedient to the plot and act against personality the moment it is necessary for whatever insanity is required for audience manipulation. We The Watchers WILL feel jerked around by these jerks (but as this is GMMTV there will be no actual jerking). We WILL be lied to, and the characters will lie to each other FOR NO GOOD REASON. 

In addition to Be My Favorite JittiRain is behind: Vice Versa, 2gether, Fish Upon the Sky, and Theory of Love. Mmm humm. Yeah. Drinks are defiantly required. 

Actor issues: 

Krist: Who knew Krist would do a BL again? Like seriously? His career has been riddled with controversy and his skills as an actor widely challenged. Regarding the first, this is not that blog, take that discourse/cancel culture elsewhere. For the second? I will judged his acting based on the usual criteria: this BL, this role, this pairing, this script, and the fact that this is Thai style acting. Okay?

Gawin/Fluke: I will likely slip and call him Gawin because that’s what he used when he first crossed my radar. I have said this before but he looks like an ex of mine. So my baggage with him is all personal. Said ex and I are amicable, but it wigs me out sometimes. They even have a similar voice. I will try to get over this. 

Also the both SCREAM straight. I mean I don’t wanna judge insult or anything but these boys got breeder smeared all over them. 

Okay, so what are we doing here?

Well, as previously established: DRINKING.

AND

A new trash watch! 

Although there is always the (however faint) possibility it will become a praise watch. Sometimes that happens. But this is Jittirain so... I doubt it. 

Ready?

Here we go! 

Episode 1: Sake & Fear 

I have heartburn already. Or maybe that’s the extra chili I put on my noodles + booze + EXISTENTIAL DREAD. 

Kawi = loser, poor, stupid, shy, and friendless (AKA Japan’s ordinary bottom uke archetype) - he’s a downer, this is an issue with this kind of character, not likable. 

Pearmai = the sunshine faen fatale Kawi has a crush on 

Piseang = the tall handsome cute popular perfect seme, plays basketball perfectly (waves at Love O2O), is also a DJ (nash)

Most of this ep was spent establishing this dynamic and some kind of secret santa for college kids, a magic time travel snow globe, and the fact that the wrong couple got together. 

Why is there a dandelion in the snow globe? 

Is it a wishes thing? Do they have that superstition in Thailand?

A 12 year time jump is v Japanese. Which life-point is closer to Krist’s actual age? Ooo, half a bottle of sake and I’m salty af. 

Apparently Kawi still has same problems and the same haircut as he did as a fresher.

Could we please talk about this? It’s in ALL BL. Why does NO ONE change their hair as they age? My hair changes by the week. 

Meanwhile our ordinary bottom has turned into a wild imbecilic tsundere and our seme clearly likes that and I am too drunk for this. So is Kawi. 

You know what, it’s not as terrible as I thought it would be. I don’t like it but I can see the characters becoming appealing. Maybe? Hopefully? Why do I do this to myself?

I’m not a monster, I will give it a chance. 

At least no one has yet picked up a guitar.

See you next week, same Jittirain time, same Jittiran place, new bottle of sake.  

Episode 2: Nigori & Serenity 

The sake I’m drinking tonight is described on the bottle “silky & mild” which is also a legit review of Gawin’s acting. 

WAIT A MINUTE.

What is going on? 

What am I feeling? 

They’re lying on the grass talking to each other in a meaningful way. It’s cute. I am enjoying it. How appropriately collegiate. 

Is this... enjoyment?

Am I enjoying this show?

OMG I AM. 

help 

I ate booze-filled chocolates AS WELL AS SAKE. 

Maybe it’s the double dose? 

Am I becoming silky & mild?

I got a slow down. I can’t do this every week for 12 weeks in a row. I’m not in uni anymore. I might end up being a nice person if I continue down this road. Can’t have that.  

Honestly, I do like the fantasy of getting to re-live your college years as a cooler version of yourself. 

Although, frankly, I did fine with mine. 

(Oh thank fuck, asshole me is back.) 

I don’t know where Max came from but he is officially the most interesting character in this show. 

Also... does he look a bit like a bad boy bunny to anyone else? 

It isn’t actually like it, but I am getting a distinct 2gether vibes from this show. It makes it feel kinda dated for BL. What a fucking crazy thing to say. Ignore me, I’m drunk. 

OOOOO.... Nong teasing. Very nice.  

The over dramatic drunken kiss made me giggle. First time Krist has been properly kissed in a BL.

Sigh. 

What do I do? 

I’m enjoying it! 

Damn it. 

Episode 3: Tipsy Waffling 

I was out at the club, came home faintly tipsy. Frankly I feel a little unwell, so I’m not gonna drink anymore. So this is an unprecedented semi-sober trash watch. I’m not sure if I’m ready but so far this show been beating expectations, and I don’t expect a derailment until next ep so I’m feel okay about my life choices. 

Okay Gawin is good. I’ll give you that . His little moment if realization (and giving up). The “oh shit” look. 

Wait.

That’s Title! 

When did he leave Wabi Sabi and join GMMTV’s stable? 

Look I kinda enjoyed this bit, because it was a joke.

BUT I AM NOT HAPPY WITH THE ENDING.

Is this the beginning of the JittiRain of Doom? Or it this just good angsty story telling?

No way to know until next week.

(JittiRain of Doom - see what I did there? Aren’t I a clever little lush dragon?) 

I should go to bed now. 

I think we can safely say clouds are on the horizon and whether this is good storytelling or bad, only episode 4 will tell. 

Episode 4: It’s Happened! The Suck! 

not in a good way @heretherebedork​ said ep 4, can they call it or WHAT?! 

I’m officially calling Kwai’s pink haired Maximum hotness bestie “my café fae” and YOU can’t stop me. I love him. Or I want to be him? Or I AM him?

Difficult to know.

Checks own hair.

Not pick at at the moment. Mostly blue actually.

(I weirdly adore that blue open weave draw-string vest thing he’s rocking. Checks own closet. Wonders idly about turning a mesh laundry bag into a shirt.) 

Anygay... Café fae and I are running away together and not putting up with any of this Jittirain nonsense.

Right? 

Because this beach frolic...?  

Too cringe. Too awkward. I really don’t like all of embarrassment factor for everyone, not to mention humiliation and hazing and older kids picking on younger kids.

I’ve been done with this plot divice since SOTUS. And I’ll take it in small doses from Korea but no more Thailand. Stop it. And...

is that...

A GUITAR 

!!!

NO SINGING.

Oh, I hate this show.

Everyone listening in on the phone while he’s humiliating himself with a girl? This is fully terrible. 

I’m so uncomfortable with this whole episode. 

And yet. Secure. Because finally we are in the territory I was expecting. But ALSO I can’t bear it. 

Please make it stop.

At least Piseng is a decent human being.

And Pair. 

Screw all y’all. I’m eloping with Pair.

Wait.

What about my cafe fae? Hummmm. 

Ah! Got it. Thrupple! 

I’m not gonna lie. That was rough going. 

And I am not OK.

Although I’m digging this thrupple scheme of mine. 

Episode 5: I Am V Drunk

For those of you following the soga of ABL is a lush... 

I got my cocktail! 

Then got distracted by meeting colleagues at the bar. 

Then went for dinner and wine.

Then got another cocktail and finally made it back to the room. 

So by the time I started watching this week’s installment I was... quite drunk. 

Take this recap with a grain of salt margarita salt rim... no... not that kind of rimming, that’s just in KP, sadly... wait... what am I doing? I got distracted. This is GMMTV. Def no rimming. 

So! 

Kawi deserves his new asshole friends (stop it ABL no rimming). 

I just don’t like him. He’s too straight and whiney and homophobic. 

Could we have a romance between Pisang and Max? 

Asking for a friend me. 

Bet there would be rimming. They both seem very game. Just saying.

Different show ABL. Different show. 

Where was I? Apparently I went to the land of Bed Friends for a moment there. 

Why does anyone like Kawi? 

Max deserves better.  

Pear deserves better. 

Pisang deserves better. 

OMG!!! His utter wistful yearning over the happy gay bar. Poor baby. 

Awe don’t run away from Max. We love Max. Max is the best. You NEED a Max in your life. We all do! 

Someone described Max as “tired gay,” and I feel this keenly. 

NO SINGING. 

I DON’T LIKE WHERE THIS THREAD IS GOING. 

NO NO NO NO NO 

SKIP! Skipskipskip. 

Next week look like a classic ep 6 kiss then angst. Whatever. 

It was fine. 

This was a fine installment. 

I’m very drunk. 

Hotel all spinny. 

Hi, bed! Make me a sammitch. 

Episode 6: I Am Less Drunk Than I Should Be

I just wish this were Pisaeng’s story instead of Kawi’s. It would be a lot better. In fact, it is a lot better. Any time we get PS alone or with any other character it’s a better narrative. Any time with him and Max talking it’s the best of everything, That’s all I want on my screen.

In fact, Max is all I want. 

I love his “care bear kpop” clothes. 

This is definitely one of those shows where I don’t understand why anyone likes the central character - his friends, his love interests, his father, his audience, tumblr. 

No one should like him. He started out a loser and he’s only getting worse, and nasty to boot. 

Yes, it’s good we see him apologize, but there’s no logic behind the choices that led him to needing to make the apology in the first place! 

(No one does, honey.) 

We are heading into classic Jitiirain where are the characters are going to betray us and themselves in order to serve the narrative. 

And I’m not drunk enough for this. 

Honestly? I think Krist what is miss-cast as well. 

I’m not in the anti-Krist faction but just imagine... what if Kawi had been played by Khaotung? He has a much softer more dynamic screen presence. I think he could’ve carried even Jittirain’s patented nonsense. KT is... in fact... CUTE. 

Gawin is not an issue. (Which surprises me, since I came into this with a bias against him.) 

Because we can see PS thinks that K is cute even before the script felt the need to tell us this. 

Even when he’s being an arsehole, PS’s eyes are all soft for him. I guess some guys just are attracted to arseholes. 

Heh. 

See what I did there?

Meanwhile I hate PS’s mother! 

She = evil. 

I RECOGNIZE that balcony!

PS’s house/apartment thingy is the same as MaxNat celebrity pad in Y-Destiny. Another one for the location trackers.

That’s it, that’s all I got. 

Only one gay pun for you this evening. 

I have one job to do and I’m blowing it.

snerk

Nighty night. Don’t let the mosquitos bite leave hickeys. 

Episode 7: NO SINGING

I guess Kawi is one of those “straights” who just gets gayer the drunker he is. I know the type. 

Boozing the Kinsey Scale. 

Beer goggle queers. 

Cockeyed. 

Three sheets to the flame. 

Dick wasted. 

What else do we call them?

Oh yeah... cock tease. 

Episode 8: STOP SINGING 

Pisaeng for these last two episodes...

(singing cat never gets old, bite me) 

Good for you Pisaeng for standing up for yourself. Stop letting the straight boy jerk you around. 

(I see you in your matched couple shirts.) 

Omg I HATE Kawi just WHY IS ANYONE FRIENDS WIH HIM? 

Stop. Just this show would be so much better if he weren’t in it. 

I’m glad he lost Pisaeng and I enjoyed watching him cry. 

Even if he still made everything about himself. 

We return yet again to the fact that I love Max. Max and I are running away together. 

Pisaeng is just never Kawi’s priority, whereas the opposite is always the case. Talk about one sided love friendship relationship everything.  

Kawi the coward. 

To little too late. 

I do keep thinking about Big Eden with this series, Kawi just seems so straight no matter what he says or does or kisses.  

Poor Pisaeng he gets what he wants but it’s all out of pity, fear, and desperation. 

And all he wants is a chance to flirt? 

Is he an actual saint?

Fuck this damn show. 

(source)

As always with these trash watches, I update the original post until Tumblr has a brain fry and won’t let me anymore. Then it becomes an updated repost. Life in the dumpster fire is never dull. 

#Be My Favorite #Thai BL #GMMTV #Krist Perawat #fluke gawin #trash watches #ABL trash watches BL #save me from myself #trash watch #JittiRain #thai drama #thaibl #You Are My Favorite

[comradekatara]

if you had to give bolin a good personality/arc, what would it be? mako has (hardly touched) parallels as the repressed, protective older sibling. bolin, like katara, is the younger sib who wears their heart on their sleeve. but while she's a prodigy on top of being the last bender of her tribe, he has mediocre skill, and probably would get looked down upon as a mixed earthbender in neocolonial republic city. but instead he's just written in cringy ships that are esp hard to watch

this is a great question. the thing about bolin is, he’s actually a pretty talented earthbender. obviously not toph level, but you know, good enough to be a pro athlete, and to lavabend! the problem with bolin isn’t that he’s untalented per se, it’s that he’s stupid. katara may be naive, but she’s still incredibly smart, witty, and practical. no one in atla is straight up dumb tbh (even zuko has his moments). but plenty of characters in lok are dumb and serve no narrative purpose other to be annoying UHH I MEAN “”funny”” . bolin was actually fine at first. in the first couple episodes, he’s confident, outgoing, and optimistic, but he’s also grounded and has at least one brain cell. then i guess they decided they wanted bolin and mako to fight over korra but for mako to “win” korra in the end, and so they had to nerf (or perhaps lobotomize) him. which makes perfect sense, of course. it’s clear from then on that the show never really has any idea of what to do with him, which is a problem with pretty much every facet of lok.

bolin reaches his peak of character usefulness in the book 3 subplot wherein he and mako get stranded in the lower ring and run into their extended family. this is a very good mini-arc and exactly what i wish we had seen from mako and bolin throughout the entire show. i don’t care about their misguided career choices (apart from insofar as it is informed by their trauma), i care about their roles as they problematize the neoliberal fantasy lok largely uncritically glamorizes. not saying that all my favorite children’s cartoons need to be marxist propaganda (although……… im not NOT saying that), but their entire backstory conflicts w the ideologies being presented in the show, and they’re ostensibly main characters!!! so where is that tension???? why are we focalizing capitalists and nepobabies (sorry tenzin i forgot ur not actually defined by ur famous parents) when mako and bolin are supposed to be significant players?? and not just in a “oh teenage boy romantic drama” or “wacky buddy cop sideplot” way. in a “how do they reflect the themes” way.

i don’t really know what exactly i’d do with bolin if i rewrote lok right now (because i tend to forget he exists tbh), but i do know that he NEEDS to have more depth, nuance, and like… a modicum of intelligence. the class, racial, familial, and romantic aspects of his character would need to be teased out more and actually cohere. he would need to have feelings that aren’t simply played for laughs, and his role in the narrative would have to be more than simply being the show’s little jangling jester. maybe some people enjoy the “dumb comic relief” archetype (and if anyone says “but what about sokka? you like sokka” i will find where you sleep) but he literally has no depth. and what’s the point of a PRIMARY CHARACTER who serves no thematic function. his function is mainly to be proximate to mako, and of course to annoy the viewer with his wacky subplots. also i guess to introduce the avatar world to red pandas, but again, that first happens before they nerfed him, so im not even gonna count it as a positive. actually you know what? since the beginning of writing this paragraph ive given it some thought and decided that bolin should’ve been a communist revolutionary 👍🏼

#surelyjtemple #asks #bolin #lok crit #the last sentence is a joke if you disagree and dead serious if you agree. btw

[acutecoral]

I really want to vod Foolish so much and catch up to what he's been up to

Mostly because there's something about the way he roleplays that I became very aware with, especially after OPQ

He is extremely conscious and deliberate when it comes to his roleplay of his characters.

Every choice, every act, everything he says and doesn't say? That's all him playing to his character, and oh boy is his character is so subtle and nuanced beneath the silly goofy side that most people know him by on the server

He's amazing at roleplay! It kind of blew me away when he played in OPQ!

He did things that he as a person would probably likely not do, but his character definitely would! And he stuck to them! That's not easy! I mean I personally had trouble doing that when I was first starting out playing ttrpgs. It's hard to stick to a character choice when you know it's not the smart thing to do as the player. It’s hard to detach yourself from your personal motivations and fully immerse yourself in your character's, but he does it so well! He's absolutely underrated!

Ever since I realised that, I've been keeping a closer eye to Foolish recently and what he's saying, not saying, and subtly hinting...and maybe not so subtly hinting

Like the exchange between him and Cellbit yesterday

Like!!! I don’t know how every Foolish mains feel, but THIS MANS IS TRYING SO HARD TO CLUE CELLBIT IN THAT THEY’RE ON THE SAME TEAM, BUT!!! CELLBIT JUST DOESN'T GET IT!!! I'M SO!!!! RHRHEGRH

Like I get it from Cellbit perspective, because there was always the intention of taking down the Federation completely, there's that rage and anger and vengeance to destroy an establishment that's hurt you and countless others, but from the conversations Bad and Foolish were having before with aquariums and fish, Foolish seeks to reform the Federation from the inside and become the head of it even if he knows it's unlikely, but I find his steady climb to the top absolutely fascinating, and I'm excited!!! Because this ties in so well with what we've been getting about how federation workers ARE PEOPLE. They have feelings and families and friends and hopes and dreams and desires!!! Not that I'm saying that he's doing it for them, but! I just find his approach extremely interesting and just plays to those themes we've been getting really well.

His character motivations are so subtle because unless you let go of your perception of him being a silly goofy chaotic guy, and pull back what says and pick on what he doesn't say, or here where he's absolutely directly telling someone his deal, then you won't catch it what he's trying to tell you. He hides it so well that not even the Feds or Resistance or everyone else besides Bad and Jaiden know what to make of him.

For me, he's definitely playing to the character archetype of Crouching Moron, Hidden Badass and just!!!! Foolish is so good guys, I need to watch him and catch up on his streams, he has been COOKING for a while and I'm so ready for what else will happen to him going forward!!!

#qsmp videos #qsmp foolish gamers #mcyt #qsmp cellbit #qsmp liveblog #qsmp #honestly I would really kill for a foolish and cellbit teamup??? #because!!! #newsflash dude!!! you're his son in law!! you're his family!!! and he always takes care of his family #i would love for cellbit to actually pick up what foolish has been putting down #i think it'll be so much fun also i want a moment where cellbit sort of kicks himself from not listening lmao #he's been trying to get it through to cellbit for a bit now

[maxwell-grant]

Any thoughts on Doctor Sivana?

Nothing too extensive but Sivana rules in a way that doesn't really invite too much introspection. He's THE archetypal mad scientist comic book supervillain and he's more or less stayed as that, arguably the most influential of them after Luthor if not outright on par with him, because while Luthor is the comic book supervillain template, the pop culture image of a mad scientist (big head short body, ugly, big glasses, always with a labcoat, hunchback and big teeth optional) is pretty much taken from Sivana. But Luthor's status atop the ladder and position opposite Superman mutated him into varying kinds of villain and a complicated character over time, where as Sivana is Sivana and never really needed to be anything else, there's just a purity to him. They've tried to make him a Luthor clone and the movie ran with that, but who cares, we all know what Sivana is, you're not fooling anyone with that guy.

He's got a pretty great thing going as not just an evil scientist, but the evil scientist head of an evil scientist family, with children split in either looking exactly like him or looking like chiseled models who look brutally dissonant next to their dad, and he genuinely loves his kids (at least usually or in his own way), in fact he's even show loving the ones that don't support him and turned good. If he's going to be the arch-nemesis of the superhero who introduced the concept of a superhero family, he can't exactly be lacking in one of his own, and that familial aspect he has towards his children has become just as important to his characterization as the fact that he spends most of his waking hours trying to destroy a child and failing.

They get some mileage out of how ruthless he can be despite his image (and people's tendency to overlook how dark Captain Marvel stories could get), he has enough basic standards to not go as low as other DCU supervillains and Thunderworld establishes a Hannibal Lecter-esque Sivana to hammer in contrast with the main one finding him unnerving, but I'll never forget this panel:

Like I said, there's a lot of dark stuff in Captain Marvel/Shazam that gets forgotten, but I also like this about Sivana, that's the flip-side of that purity I mentioned. That he can and does have almost a Doofenshmirtz-thing going on, where he's playing such an over-the-top cartoon villain 24/7 that every mundane or decent thing he does becomes inherently funny via contrast, as is his loving relationship with his own family, but he is a guy who's very serious about taking over the world and very serious about destroying Captain Marvel even if that means killing the boy Billy Batson to do it and doesn't think for one second about that contradiction. Contradictions are for chumps. He may love HIS kids, other kids are just a thing in the way. Sivana doesn't need to explain himself, like some OTHER inferior bald guy who sold out to become a CEO or something, Sivana lets his deeds do the talking.

Besides, evil is his family activity, who's to deny the joys of it to him?

#replies tag #superheroes #dc comics #comic books #captain marvel #shazam #dr sivana #dc #billy batson

[daylighteclipsed]

@generatedreflection Hope you don’t mind if I respond to your tags this way, since my og post is already kind of long! So running on the assumption that KH is a video game, or at least fiction/a story, in-universe and the characters are waking up and changing when they’re not “supposed” to…

I guess it depends on when the initial divergence from fate/the narrative/the program happened and how much it affected. Was Riku supposed to be our player character? If so, did Sora and Riku only swap physical places/external roles, or did their writing or programming adjust their personalities to fit their new places in the story/game so as to keep the narrative from diverging too much? Is this the first run through the story, or have there been multiple past loops we’re not privy to and that the characters don’t consciously remember but which still affect their hearts?

I’m thinking of ReCoded specifically, when Data Sora and Data Riku go on this whole adventure that’s similar to KH1 but different enough to shape them into their own people. Even after they’re reset to follow what’s written in the Journal, we know those memories remain in their hearts and in the hearts of their newfound Disney friends from the ‘real’ world, Mickey, Donald, and Goofy. So data KH1 will never truly reflect KH1 as we know it.

If ReCoded is spelling the big picture out for us, do Sora and Riku only start awakening during the one run of KH1 that we play… or have they been waking up because of one or more resets before that we haven’t seen? Is fate, destiny, the narrative, the program trying really hard to make this story play out the way it’s “supposed” to, but the boys keep swerving, developing more awareness and free will with every reset? Or is this the first run where things are different because of something the Master of Masters most likely set in motion? Or maybe what he set in motion has taken all these resets to come to fruition?

It’s a lot to think about. And I don’t have any answers. Certainly it’s interesting to consider all the different ways the story could go/is maybe “supposed” to go… If Sora and Riku’s roles are supposed to be flipped, with Riku as the champion of light and Sora as the one who falls to darkness… then it’s kind of ironic that they seem to be circling back to that now. Like rather than completely changing or swapping destinies, they just took a detour. They took the long way around, but the road still leads to the same place. Fate is fighting to correct course.

But I also think, you know, Sora could’ve always been meant to be the Hero and embody that archetype even if the Keyblade was not “supposed” to be his. I don’t think the one who wields Kingdom Key Light is synonymous necessarily with the Hero of the story or even the main protagonist. It’s also possible for Riku to pass on the Keyblade to Sora without falling to darkness.

Either way, the idea of Riku giving his crown/destiny to Sora, rewriting the story and essentially acting as the narrative for Sora in this sense, usurping fate, is interesting. Especially when you compare this to Data Riku’s role in ReCoded. He’s the vessel for the Journals, for the entire digital universe they create, and he protects it. He protects Sora’s story, the one we see in the games, which plays out how it does because Riku gives Sora the Keyblade.

The one thing I feel for sure — a lot of this, the story changing and characters waking up/coming alive, comes back to Riku. From what we see of him as a little kid, Riku’s always been more “awake,” it seems, than his peers. Always questioning things and possessing a wisdom beyond his years. It’s like he almost knows (or remembers) things he shouldn’t. As Sora puts it, Riku says “some weird stuff sometimes.” And I think Riku is the one who starts waking Sora up. He encourages Sora to think about things that it doesn’t seem Sora would think about on his own. To ask questions. To see their world differently. And to consider worlds beyond their own.

I think he’s why Sora’s first line in the series is about awakening. “I’ve been having these weird thoughts lately. Like — Is any of this for real or not?” And I think Riku’s why Sora’s able to connect with and awaken/bring to life so many characters in the story. That might even be canon, actually, if Riku encouraging Sora to open his heart to Ventus when they’re little kids is what teaches Sora how to... By empowering Sora, Riku is the catalyst for a ripple effect of change that defies destiny and universal law. And it culminates in his KH3 sacrifice which allows Sora to rewrite how the Book of Prophecies ends.

I think that’s what Riku has always represented: Awakening. Truth. The outside world — whether that means adulthood, reality, new perspectives, or lands yet untraveled. He makes the darkness conscious by bringing it to light. Especially for Sora. Riku quite literally wakes Sora up after CoM and in DDD, and his light pulls forgotten/repressed memories up from the depths. Riku’s often associated with the sun — the kind of bright, harsh light that hurts to look at. That makes it hard, if not impossible, to fall back asleep.

Riku’s the sudden light in your eyes that has you groaning and rolling away when someone has to get you out of bed in the morning lol He’s the rude awakening. The truth is often not pleasant or easy. It often hurts. But inevitably, it becomes known. Inevitably, the sun rises and illuminates the dark. Dawn breaks, and the day and all its challenges must be faced. No slacking off. Chop, chop. It’s time to wake up, Sora. Destati!

Even Data Riku in ReCoded is the one who lifts the curtain for Data Sora and ‘reveals the matrix’ so to speak. “It’s time for you to learn the truth.” Riku offers the truth, perhaps quite literally sometimes if that’s what his iconic outstretched hand gesture represents — and it definitely seems to given how KH3’s tutorial/awakening parallels Sora’s dream in the KH1 opening. But it’s up to Sora to accept the truth. To face it. To take Riku’s hand and awaken. It’s Sora’s choice.

Anyway. Whether Riku is “supposed” to be the Hero or was always meant to be the Rival, he’s not supposed to love Sora as much as he does, and certainly not in the romantic way the games suggest he does… I understand your hesitation about gay intent in KH… But it really feels like the “missing”/unspoken piece here that makes so many people scratch their heads over Riku’s character arc. For Sora, it’s less clear (especially in English), but I do think Riku is in love with him. And I truly believe so much of “destiny” changing and characters awakening, Sora awakening, comes back to that.

Destiny in this case would be the typical formula of Disney fairy tales and the expectations of our heteronormative society. And awakening would be developing awareness of these limitations and smashing them… Perhaps reflected through Riku and Sora exposing the flaws in the Light and Dark binary that’s dictated Keyblade society and caused many of the problems their generation has to contend with.

Perhaps the door to the light, to truth, to awakening IS the closet door, then (insert joke here about Riku literally being the gay awakening)… But it’s a lot of other things as well. Awakening is discovering any truth. Every truth. It’s knowledge of the systems that limit and control you, of any unseen force that holds you back. It’s power to see through illusions and lies, distortions and distractions. It’s free will and independent thought. It’s self-actualization and true freedom. After all, you cannot break free of chains you don’t know are there.

That certainly makes the Master of Masters an interesting fellow… It seems like he wants change. He wants the characters to deviate from the script, to awaken, to develop free will… But at the same time, he’s pulling all the strings. He’s the eye always watching them... Does he truly want freedom, or does he want to be the one who decides what freedom looks like?

#I’m just goin all in now. let’s get crazy. #kingdom hearts #soriku #i think kh is the kind of series that demands you be open minded to understand it #if you’re not willing to get deep or crazy or have your perception challenged #you’re gonna be really confused and frustrated lol #i mean there are still things i can’t wrap my head around #but i mostly understand it. recoded is when everything started making sense for me #it was my ‘aha!’ moment

[look-how-they-massacred-them]

Preliminary Poll

Steve Palchuk

Submission reason:

Steve was created as a narrative foil to Trollhunters main character Jim Lake and was a GENUINELY good character for the majority of the franchise, where he grew from a one dimensional bully archetype to a fleshed out ally to the main characters!! It all starts to go downhill in the sequel series Wizards where Steve's personality seems slightly regressed, the writers use him as the butt of a lot of jokes ect. but it's tolerable because the cast is slightly different to previous seasons and someone needs to fill the comedic relief role. At his core Steve was still the same character! I think it would be morally correct of me to give content warnings now: mpreg, general mentions of pregnancy and childbirth. Then the franchise swapped out nearly all of their original writers for the finale movie Rise of the Titans and every character got absolutely fucked over by it. Steve ended up entirely gutted of character motivation that had been built up in previous seasons (he wanted to become a knight and help in the fight to stop the Arcane Order) and became the victim of an mpreg "comedy" side plot. The writers made it so this teenage boy was pregnant with alien babies neither he or his partner consented to. He gives birth slightly off screen and it's a JOKE? Lots of throwaway gags about weird food cravings and stretch marks over the course of this few day long alien pregnancy. I genuinely cannot fathom what went on in the writers room for them to think this would he a funny B-plot to contrast against major character deaths and a race against the bad guys who want to explode the world. Feels disrespectful to any person who goes through the stress of carrying a child, and is just fucking weird to end Steve's character arc with. He doesn't even get to raise his kids after all this because the timeline gets reset - probably because the writers didn't want to deal with the REALITY of after someone has given birth. Worst possible character massacre I've ever witnessed.

ok so in Trollhunters, the first installment of Tales of Arcadia, he has a great character arc of going from an absolute asshat to someone who deeply and genuinely cares about his friends and who actively tries to unlearn his ideals of toxic masculinity. In the two following series, he devolves more and more into a joke character to be made fun of, and it all culminates in the final movie, Rise of the Titans, where he gets pregnant (not a joke. not an exaggeration. he is completely cis btw) and his entire character does nothing except play the butt of the joke over and over and over again. pretty much every character was fucked over in that movie, but like. him especially.

Propaganda:

I think I expressed most of my thoughts in the how he got massacred section. He did not deserve that.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4wfQmMxP_oE

#look how they massacred them poll #look how they massacred my boy #trollhunters #tales of arcadia #steve palchuk #trollhunters steve #toa steve #rise of the titans #tw mpreg #tw pregnancy

[cloudsoffire]

Misogyny in Sonic Boom

Most of you are already familiar with the 3d animated Sonic Boom cartoon running from 2014 to 2017. Despite the lackluster critical reception of the games, the show has a dedicated following, and a ton of good reviews. I myself am a fan. However, there are plenty of things to criticize. In the body of this post, I'll be addressing the misogyny present in the series.

To begin, let's talk about that one moment with Amy and Knuckles. Because when feminism is brought up in regards to Sonic Boom, this clip is often what comes to mind.

It's funny, sure, but it's also not an incredible moment. Amy's characterization here is also lackluster, but let's focus on Knuckles. sure, what he's saying sounds good to a general audience, but if you think about it even a little, it quickly falls apart.

In this scene, we see Knuckles, a man, talking down to Amy, a woman, about female empowerment. What he says is wrong as well. Breaking of gender roles is an exception because we live in such a gendered society. It's something that we should call attention to and celebrate. It isn't the status quo, and what he's saying is extremely liberal. We all know women are just as good as men at doing stuff, so why say it? Why draw attention to it? Why disrupt society? They're bad arguments. Arguments that come out of the mouth of a writer instead of Knuckles.

That's not where it starts, though. That episode is actually from season two. But rather than going moment by moment, episode by episode, we'll be breaking down how both Amy and Sticks, are treated by the narrative.

Amy is a feminist. But in an extremely watered down sense. She talks about gender equality, but in a way that's played for laughs. And you know it's just for comedy because of all the other stuff she does. In "My Fair Sticksy," Sticks is invited to an awards ceremony for saving the town. Rather than allowing her to go as herself, Amy takes the opportunity to force femininity and gender roles onto her, a complete 180 from the female liberation she touts throughout the show. Sticks saves the day by tossing Amy's teachings aside, but that doesn't really change anything. It just shows that Sticks herself is unchangeable, not that gender roles imprison society.

So Sticks is the one who breaks away from societal expectations in a meaningful way, right? Well, sort of. She's paranoid, lives in a hole in the ground, digs through the garbage, she's not exactly ladylike. But that doesn't protect her from the writers.

"Blue with Envy." A green shrew named Swifty comes to town, sporting shutter shades and bastardized 90s slang. The episode's twist is that Swifty is actually several robots built by Eggman to usurp Sonic. But before their big race and Sonic's subsequent banishment, Swifty wins over the hearts of the village. This includes both Sticks and Amy, who actually faint over him. Sticks even says she'd disable her traps if he came to visit her, to which Amy responds by saying she never disables her traps.

And there wasn't even any mind control going on there, unlike in "Battle of the Boy Bands." It doesn't speak to Amy or Sticks' characters, specifically because of that, but the episode itself does use them to make fun of the stereotypical "fangirl". Which is at best low hanging fruit and at worst actively misogynistic. There is nothing wrong with liking a boyband or any other media, so long as you don't buy merch with food money or use it to harass people. But that's not a thing unique to women. There are plenty of men who live on instant ramen because they buy stuff for their interests. But the way those men are talked about is way different from how people describe women who are into things like boybands. There's another post I saw a while back that digs into this and it's not the main topic of this one, so I won't go too far into it.

As a whole, Amy's character is "the overbearing feminist," a tired archetype, but she's also meant to be hyper-feminine and proper. This could work if she just found that identity the most comfortable and still supported others, but instead she tries to get people outside the norm, like Sticks, to conform.

Sticks breaks the mold on the surface, but she's still a woman, and you know how women are.

They're treated badly by the plot, the writers make them say things just for the audience to laugh at them for being women, and as a whole it's just kinda gross.

This is getting long but I'm sure there are other things online that go into much more detail that I did. I didn't read any of them so I'm not 100% sure on that, but it's so blatant I'd be genuinely impressed if they didn't exist.

#essay #sonic boom #amy rose #sticks the badger #sth #capital letters to make it seem more professional #these are just my own thoughts #amy and sticks do have good moments throughout the show #but the bad ones shouldn't be ignored #Youtube #fire.txt

[shitpostingkats]

Yu-Gi-Oh Review Roundup: Arc-V!

Favorite main character: Shay Obsidian

Raidraptors slap. Every era of this show has one archetype that makes the twelve year old inside my brain start cheering in adoration, and this time, it’s raidraptors. What can I say. I like birds.

Shay himself also does a whole lot to sell the coolness factor of his mechanical falcons. The blunt, to-the-point, selfassuredness he carries himself with is almost intimidatingly edgelord, but some great voice acting work by Matt Shipman keeps him on the humaner side of anime emos. (Also, if you didn’t know, Matt Shipman, also voice of Reki in SK8 the Infinity, and if you hadn’t made the connection between season one Shay and breakup arc era Reki, I’m sorry that is in your brain now.) 

His design is the wonderful kind of harmonizing amazingly well with his monsters without being overbearing. With all the old fighter plane influence of the raidraptors, it makes perfect sense for Shay to sport his trademark leather trenchcoat that comes complete with the asymmetrical zipper and wide collar of an aviator's jacket. I particularly love the red scarf being the unofficial uniform of the XYZ rebellion, and it going completely unremarked on in the story. It’s clever to see how it’s worked into everyone’s outfit without it being pointed out to the viewer; it’s like an easter egg hunt. On Shay, he wears it in mimicry of a silk flight scarf, another visual nod to WWII pilots. 

And in Shay’s case, it makes perfect sense he would need the outfit of a pilot, because asides from Yuya, he is the one who most routinely rides around on the backs of his monsters. I never get tired of Shay flying onto the scene on a 3,000 pound eagle shaped warmachine, completely nonchalantly. Why is he the only one taking advantage of having his monsters around outside of duels. Let everyone have terrifying monstrosities as their main form of transportation.

Favorite antagonist: Sora Perse

The candy munching warcrime gremlin of all time. While it’s a little weird that Arc-V out the gate started exploring the ramifications of being a card game child soldier, Sora’s arc as he grapples with it is the emotional core of season 1, and it genuinely gets pulled off pretty well. Also, he plays fluffals.

Fluffals is the pitch perfect archetype for Sora. I’ve said before how much I love in yugioh when the cards someone plays tells you more about their character, how I go off the wall when their archetype is a mirror of their personhood. Fluffals is also just great on its own. Perfect yugioh design. Cutesy cuddly monsters that are actually filled with KNIVES and SAWS like they are being dissected by a deranged weird little child. Then the double meaning of fluffals being innocent and adorable, but secretly hiding a darker side, just like Sora. He is constantly switching back and forth between frighteningly competent and “oh my god he’s just a kid”. 

On of my favorite moments in the show is when he and Zuzu reunite and she says farewell by doing the fusion summon salute, only for Sora to jokingly correct her posture. Their friendship is so wholesome okay. Deep down, this kid is genuinely hurt and doesn’t know how to make friends, so he’s reaching out with the only way he knows how, by taking the role of teacher but that's only a facade to get to hang out, and that line is where we first hear them acknowledge it to each other, grins on their faces, happy to still be teacher and student, but also, friends. 

This is in the same stretch of episodes as Sora casually stowing away on a helicopter by jumping fifteen feet into the air and grabbing the wheel well.

Favorite side character: Yugo

I guess they just put a special sauce in the Arc-V blue haired bois.

Why do I list Yugo as a side character? Surely, by virtue of being an au version of the main character, he should be counted with equal narrative status?

Nope! He shows up maybe a dozen times, usually randomly, to yell and crash his motorcycle into things. Then disappears again. I love him.

Yugo has, unlike the other two blue haired bois, this endearing puppy quality that makes every conversation he’s in feel playful and exuberant. And that lends itself well to the few dynamics he does find himself in, whether it’s bouncing off Yuri’s smirky villainy, or having genuinely a more emotionally intelligent discussion with Zuzu about what going on than Yuya ever manages to have with her in the whole series. And while I would have loved to get more time between him and Rin, it’s clear from just a few minutes with him how deeply he cares about her. Winning him the coveted medal of “#1 straight relationship in yugioh I would 100% believe in”. They’re just really sweet. And I would storm the Konami headquarters to get them the happy ending they deserved.

Favorite duel: Shay vs. Sora

They’re my favorites for a reason. 

Shay v. Sora is peak, not only for both characters, but the entire show. It’s certainly in my list of Top 5 Yugioh Duels Ever. Everything about this duel is pure character expression. Shay’s cold and unemotive dueling crashes right up against the peppy dueltaining that Sora has spent the past few weeks learning. At first, Sora doesn’t even seem to take the duel seriously, countering audience expectations that this duel is going to be important. Because we know at this point, that something is up with Sora. That he knows more than he is letting on and this Shay guy is someone who can seriously engage with him about the larger mystery, unlike everyone else who is still in the dark on the dimensional wars.

Then Sora’s slow burn of the facade melting away. All that theatricality can equally double as a dang good yugioh villain performance. The way the duel slides from using its standard duel cinematography to more of a Marik Ishtar unhinged closeup. There is more dramatic tension in the increasing ferocity that Sora chews on his lollipop with than a full fledged horror movie.

On Shay’s side of the duel, we get dramatic monologues of backstory, finally filling in our understanding of the larger plot, delivered by a seriously shaken refugee who is finally able to traumadump about what he and his friends had to live through. It’s chillingly intense, especially contrasted by Sora’s increasing villainous theatricality. While Sora cartwheels and flips around the crumbling city like an acrobat, Shay’s got a utilitarian body language as he dodges debris. He’s not here to put on a show. He is here to survive and get revenge.

And the conclusion. By gods. There’s something haunting about seeing Sora, who has up to this point been laughing and gloating, crack. Not at the thought of being hurt. But at the thought of losing. Of being second best. He screams as Shay walks away, no longer violent and dramatic, but just a broken kid, terrified of receiving a bad grade.

Gods. Good duel.

Favorite arc: Arc league championship

Shay v Sora may be the highlight, but it’s not the only banger duel from that arc. And there’s also a great variety of good duels. From character duels like Julia v. Zuzu, or plot important duels like Sora v Yuto, to just plain fun duels, like Gong v Grizzlepike. And once the finals get going, it’s basically a nonstop duel fest, cutting between a half dozen parties finding eachother and splitting off again, while some duel and others just try to sit down and figure out what on earth is going on. Which shouldn’t work, but it does. 

Listen, if battle city worked the first time, the second time, the third time, and the fourth time, it’ll be good the fifth time. Trust us. We did the math. Now go out and duel in [interesting environment] and wager [this tournament’s gimmick item] on duels until you have [arbitrary number]. 

And hey! The formula works once again! This isn’t sarcasm, I genuinely think this is a great way to make tournament arcs interesting. The citywide split of four biomes allows for some cool backdrops, and every duel being able to happen basically simultaneously means we can simply cut between whatever's most interesting at the moment, instead of having to see every duel start to finish. 

Also, Moonshadow gets introduced in this tournament, and he is the unsung mvp of the entire series.

Greatest strengths of the series: Polish

The Arc League Championship also stands out to me because I was startled by the quality of its episode-to-episode writing. Plot information is slowly revealed on a regular basis, instead of thirty episodes of Shenanigans that’s interrupted by a lore dump. There’s genuine mystery, and intrigue, as we try to figure out what is up with these mystery xyz summoners and Declan’s master plan. And it’s not just scenario writing that’s received a massive punch-up! Dialogue is flowing better than ever, and effects animation is legible and looks awesome, instead of hyper-compressed pixels. Heck, Yuya has a really good looking 3D model, and his eyes aren’t covered by a helmet, and his jacket realistically flutters with his movement!

This may not sound like that big a deal, but the very premise of Arc-V gives us such a clear point of comparison for “How It Started” versus “How It’s Going”. It warmed my little 5Ds adoring heart to see turbo duels back, and rendered in such believable and genuinely excellent modeling. (Though points off for making Jack’s duel runner drive sideways. You guys know it can’t do that.) Aside from a few minor nitpicks, almost everything that made previous shows awesome is lovingly given a fresh coat of paint, from summoning to landscapes. 

And the writing is also pretty good on the au versions of prior characters! I particularly love Actually Not Problematic Celebrity Jack Atlas, the fun writing challenge of taking a character whose story is so deeply rooted in his setting, then trying to figure out what he’d look like without those factors. Happily Married Crow Hogan. Rebellion Leader Alexis Rhodes. Genuinely Lost His Family And Turned Murderhobo About It Kite Tenjo. There’s something so fun about seeing the paths certain characters could have taken, if only their environments had been different. And it’s a far more challenging premise to convincingly pull off than I see it get credit for. On so many levels, yugioh shows, on a purely technical level, have just gotten better as time goes on, and I absolutely adore seeing what each new series manages to perfect.

Weakest points: Scope

Unfortunately, Arc-V just has a lot to juggle. The devotion to quartets means the math spins out of control. incredibly quickly. Four versions of the protagonist, four versions of the female lead, four story arcs in four separate worlds. A handful of cameo appearances for each dimension, but also two to three original characters as well, bloats the main cast to nearly three times that of any previous show. Four different types of playstyles to write, and for characters that use blends of all four, duels four times as complicated in a single turn. Let’s never forget that this is the era that gave us the infamous D/D/D spreadsheet.

Individual moments stand out as excellent, but there simply isn’t enough time for any of them to really shine. All of the characters I’ve stated as loving, Shay, Sora, Yugo, I love in spite of the fact that their stories never really go anywhere. Shay and Yugos’ primary motivations are to find and reunite with their bracelet girls. And they don’t. Sora? After a wonderful bleed from “no morals allowed” to “one moral allowed”, after struggling for almost a season and a half to rationalize his child soldier upbringing, the camera just stops looking at him. And that’s one of the most complete stories Arc-V manages to tell. Even Yuya, our protagonist, ends the series having not confronted anything about his father, or his blatant mental health issues, both things that he is literally introduced with being shockingly core to his character. Very few plotlines are resolved in a satisfying way, if they’re resolved at all.

In the end, I can’t help but feel that Arc-V wrote more ambitious checks than its writing budget could cash. 

Most yugioh moment:

The entire episode where they break out of prison by hosting a talent show. Specifically, the cheer in Yuya’s voice when he says “Good night, FACILITY! <3”

#spk's ygo reviews #yugioh #yu-gi-oh! #yu gi oh #yu gi oh! #yugioh arc v #ygo arc v #arc v #essays #review #anime #shay obsidian #kurosaki shun #sora perse #sora shiunin #yugo arc v

[kiisaes]

YESSSSS! I will always say deku is sweet uwu sunshine boy but I'll also say he is feral bunny who will fuck your shit up! He is a mix between cute baby boy and feral gremlin! Katsuki is also a feral gremlin but in a different way! Izuku knows how to stand up for himself! He isn't a fragile flower that will brake if yelled at! And bakugo knows this! In an episode katsuki says, if it bothers him he'll tell me!, talking to tsu who was mad at him for yelling at izuku. (It was in the background so it may have been missed by some people)

yea!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I just hate when ppl think deku being soft means he can't defend himself bc like ... cool. did we just completely ignore the entire first chapter/episode entirely. and how deku's stubbornness is literally what keeps him going. are we just making shit up now.

it still baffles me how in 2023, ppl STILL THINK that deku is the definitively weak, fragile, spineless victim that must enact revenge on his bully in order for bkdk's relationship to be valid. mha isn't a fucking revenge story 😭 deku has called out bkg's bullshittery so many times but never wishes ill will on him. he still wants to be bkg's friend and cares about him so so much. he isn't and never was the archetypal weakling that the bully aggressively torments and eventually traumatizes. and like .. sorry he doesn't play ur narrative lol. sorry he can't fulfill ur own bully revenge fantasies bc he chooses to have a good relationship with his former bully. sorry there's genuine mutual respect and care between bkdk now. SORRY THIS CHARACTER ARC ISNT ABOUT U.

I really don't care if ppl dislike bkdk for their own personal reasons but I've seen ppl actively harass and misinterpret bkdks to the point where it makes THEM look bad. u can enjoy ur own ship on ur own time, just don't proudly look like an idiot for essentially butchering ur understanding of the main 2 characters lol

#asks for becki #sorry. im mad. wont happen again #bakudeku #bkdk

[blueiight]

in both the rgu anime + manga, there is a clear triumph over akio that necessitates anthy’s (and utena’s) liberation. at the same time some part of me does think the ending of rgu is more terrifying than the ep38 cliffhanger of the anime end cuz its so open ended… anthy liberating herself from akio is just the end of the beginning. who knows what anthy will see out there? u faced the end of the world and survived. to start anew requires ur creation of a new world. its the beginning of a completely different framework than the one anthy’s been a part of & internalized for an untold number of years. thats why the movie is such a great sequel cuz its just 1 of the many divergent paths these characters couldve gone on.

just looking at appearances for one. utena’s hair is short and her boy’s uniform, while being still distinct from the rest and a cue to the audience, is more archetypically “masculine”and less androgynous. yet she rejects the powerplay of dueling, the trophy bride for performing the “Man’s” role much quicker. anthy has much lighter skin and free falling long hair. unlike her show counterpart’s very dated, carefully pinned hair. ive heard ppl be rightfully upset that anthy was made lighter in the movie, but i find it shows how she further occupies even more of the engendered physical stereotypes culturally associated with the “feminine” in japan (&to a westernized viewer). she plays the role of a modern bride, less of the demure old school archetype & openly teases her husband with herself as the prize, yet she exposes her hollow soul and desire for the end, for death, much earlier. nanami, the broken prissy ojou sama archetype who once wanted to surpass everything bc she couldnt stand what becoming a “Woman” meant has turned into a cow. shes a complete non entity , since touga who she formed so much of who she was, who hurt her so, is dead in the movie. saionji is a complete caricature of himself literally frothing at the mouth. cuz touga saved juri instead of utena, and this time, he died for it. akio commits suicide bc being confronted w drugging and trying to rape his sister tormented him, but he was never alive. dios, who he was, was a hollow body: the prince of flies. touga’s backstory is all but said here: he was a child raped & tricked out by his own adoptive family, which explains his hypersexuality in the show. in the movie, he is a tragic secondary antagonist , a ghost haunting the main narrative of the movie in tandem with shiori, a character now more removed from juri in opposition to her more optimistic ending with juri in the show.

shiori with juri no longer as her beloved is a cruel thing. she ends up baiting utena in the notorious car chase, anthy the driver of the utena car up against the palace of eternity & the ghost of akio ohtori. everything is destroyed beside the framework of the car and utenanthy.

the outside world is in complete ruins. their uniforms lay tattered, gravestones marking the people that once lived here.

utena and anthy stripped bare, long hair tangled into eachother as theyre the only two ppl in these ruins. another beast has been overcome, another world has been destroyed. it is up to u what u make out of these ruins.

#yn. #rgu #adolescence of utena #i also rly like the utena manga lol. like anthy ending up in utena’s clothes n going to find her is rly cute #all of this prince man fem metaphor shit is to ask how n where can u escape gendered violence…. #this is actually how being a teenage girl was like back ina day #this also goes for tvc. i love absurdity& fucked up things even more than i love bad endings. <3 #i try to be a decent person& less of a freakshow but i love weird shit #i cant go back to sleep cuz im getting the shakes& this came to my head lol #anthy himemiya #utena tenjou #shiori takatsuki #touga kiryuu #juri arisugawa #akio ohtori #dios #prince dios #saionji kyouichi #miki kaoru

[smoshling]

REDACTED BOIS DND CLASSES HEADCANON

Lengthy post ahead...

For an upcoming fanfic that I've been wanting to do, I've been planning how I could implement the DND tabletop system to capture as much of the established lore and descriptions of magic canon in the Redactedverse. I'd like to make this post as a way of attracting other people similarly knowledgeable or more experienced in DND as a way to get some feedback on things I may have missed. To the uninitiated, a Class in DND refers to an archetype of standard abilities that a character can do and also defines how they are meant to be played. Each Class also has a Subclass, which is a further categorization that gives specialization and unique flavor to a character. This aspect of character customization is something I hope people would enjoy :D To start, I gave 5 speaker characters what I think would be the best fitting class/classes to fully capture their skills and magical abilities. I've constructed them to be around Level 8 by the start of the DND fic.

David Classes: Barbarian 5, Fighter 3

Picking Barbarian as a base to capture the abilities granted by shifting such as strength, speed and durability was an easy template and standard to portray all the werewolves. Barbarians in DND are able to take a lot of hits, more so than other classes by raw health points but also be physically gifted, their main ability being that they can halve the damage of most incoming attacks and increase their odds at performing physical feats, so this is a great template to give all the wolf bois. As a Barbarian, the werewolves are also have access to the Path of the Beast Subclass, which gives the werewolf fanfare of transforming, having teeth, claws, and a tail as a weapon, etc.

To give David a more unique build, I opted to also give him the Fighter Class with the Rune Knight Subclass. Being a Fighter further complements David's physical prowess but it's in being a Rune Knight that really makes this build a perfect fit. Rune Knights are able to grow in size which is canon in the shifting process in the Redactedverse. The runes also attached to the Subclass can also grant a fitting boost to David's senses and perception without needing to cast a spell.

Strong, tanky, and able to reflect the humungous size that David is implied to be, this build is supported by the fact that shifters don't often rely on other kinds of magic to make their way in the world. I extrapolate on this build with the other werewolves.

2. Asher Classes: Barbarian 5, Fighter 3

Although Asher shares his Classes and one Subclass with David, also being a Path of the Beast Barbarian, I went in a more unorthodox route of theorizing how Asher could work having the Battlemaster Subclass as a Fighter. Battlemasters in DND are described as having superior martial techniques that they use in battle, such as being able to trip or push an opponent. But an often underused ability available to Battlemasters is the Rally maneuver. This maneuver is able to give allies a number of temporary health points equal to 1d8 (one roll of an 8 sided die) plus one's Charisma modifier, with Charisma being a character stat in DND that represents a character's charm, force of personality and pro-social behavior. Barbarians and Fighters focus on their Strength, Dexterity and Constitution stats (Power, Fine Motor Skills, and Health respectively) so the Rally maneuver is a sub-optimal addition to ones character.

Asher not only having an ability that uses his extrovert and fun-loving personality, but also investing in a stat not often used by Barbarians of Fighters, is something I find so perfectly him. This also aligns with something in the canon, being Asher's disappointment in himself for not knowing healing magic when he couldn't heal Baaabe whenever they're sick.

Ash is similarly built like a brute like David, but through his Battlemaster maneuvers is basically able to give a pep talk so good in a fight that he becomes a "we have healing at home" kinda character.

3. Milo Classes: Barbarian 7 Cleric 1

Milo I believe has the most canon details when comes to casting magic not related to shifting, albeit still being limited. He has offhandedly said that he could 'barely light a candle' with his magic to Sweetheart and along with his exposure to healing through his more magically adept mother Marie, I've opted to give him one level in the Cleric Class, the premiere healing Class in the game. Being able to light a candle is replicable with the low level magic spell (referred to as a Cantrip in DND) called Sacred Flame. But a more notable spell in Milo's arsenal that he gets through the Cleric Class is Ceremony. This spell grants a unique buff whenever it is cast during a particular event, and the event I'm thinking of is the Wedding option included in the spell. This is just a good decision from a roleplay position because, if I'm remembering right, David and Asher want Milo to officiate their double wedding!

Milo's build could certainly use some more work, as aside from a few spells, the only other thing differentiating him from the other werewolves is something unrelated to his Class, which lets him attack 4 times rather than the 3 David or Ash can do. Though some spells and a little bit more damage output is probably enough.

4. Sam Classes: Blood Hunter 3 Cleric 5

Vampires are similar to werewolves in that they focus more in their physical abilities as ones magical ability is weakened upon being turned. This made making Sam's build a little more restrictive as I can't overload him with all the healing options normally open to a Cleric. So I've decided to go a different route. Sam has few healing spells and all the rest are made to tailor to his history as a medical practitioner with spells like Detect Poison and Disease and Purify Food and Drink, which do exactly what their names are. His Cleric Subclass is known as the Order Domain, which along with the Command spell also covers Sam's inherent ability as a vampire maker to invoke certain actions. Since he was able to prevent the deaths of Lovely and Asher, giving him the Revivify spell is fine (a resurrection spell).

Where this build gets more unique is that I've opted to use Homebrew content. Homebrew in DND means the addition of content not present in the official game's rules which can include Classes and Subclasses. The Blood Hunter is a Subclass created by Matthew Mercer, Critical Role Dungeon Master and Voice Actor of Leon S. Kennedy from the Resident Evil Games. This was a choice also made to reflect his turning as its abilities fit the vampire vibe. His Homebrewed Subclass, Order of Hematology (by aisudesu on GM Binder), gives an alternate source for Sam's healing. Sam can basically heal at the cost of his own health points as a way of reflecting how his magic isn't what it used to be.

Sam is built to fill in the role of party healer while also staying as accurate to the drawbacks of his healing has as a vampire.

5. Vincent: Fighter 8

Finally we move on to Vincent, who is a pure Fighter with the Eldritch Knight Subclass. This is basically a Subclass specifically made for people who both want to deck someone in the face but also cast Fireball in the same turn. Being a Level 8 Eldritch Knight gives Vincent a lot of spells that can buff his physical prowess like Longstrider for more speed or Shield for more durability. The other spells that Vincent can know also fill in the role of portraying other vampire abilities such as being able to hypnotize humans through the Charm Person spell (I haven't listened to Vincent's audios in a while so I might be wrong about this one). Other additions to Vincent's spells are Arcane Lock and Alarm, which are similar to the wards that he put up in Lovely's home early in their relationship to protect them.

Vincent can also use some more work to optimize the concept of this build as "a martial character that can do a few spells". Giving Vincent a weapon could be a start as none of the other bois are built with weapons in mind. What do you think would be a perfect weapon for this prince :3

#redacted asmr #redacted audio #redacted headcanons #redacted david #redacted asher #redacted milo #redacted sam #redacted vincent #redactedverse #please nerd out with meeeeee

[papermonkeyism]

Me age 13: "omg, this is the best book ever I love it so much!"

Me age 20: "ugh, this is the worst book I've ever read, I hate it."

Me age 36: "this is a DnD campaign."

So I made it through the second book of the Icewind Dale trilogy, Streams of Silver, in my nostalgia trip.

And yeah. It's a game of DnD.

Specifically, it's a bunch of Tolkien fan boys having fun playing a fantasy fighting game and being awesome, and, yeah, it does its job.

It's still lacking in things I like in stories, but I can see where this is coming from. I prefer characters with more emotional depth and them having more natural feeling interactions, and deeper world building. But this is a game for people who like feeling awesome in a traditionally heroic way, and experience similar stuff as with their favourite books.

The characters are more archetype-ish/stereotypey, because they're written as player characters instead of complex people. There are A LOT of bad guys and evil creatures that the heroes have to fight, because DnD is a game built around a fighting mechanism, and campaigns are built with Random Encounters so the players can engage with the mechanics of the game they're playing. So this area has orcs in it, that will fight you. This bit here has human barbarian tribes that will fight you (and have some Unfortunate Implications about "noble savages" and their belief system being built aroud this monster creature from another plane of existence and other fun eighties tropes, but it's not like they get mentioned again after the encounter.) You failed a persuation roll to let this one town's guards let you pass because your elf hails from an evil elf race even if he himself is a good individual, and him having black skin marks him as dangerous to people (no wonder many modern depictions of drow have them more purple or gray than flat out black), so you are forced to take a detour through this swamp area that's full of trolls that will all attack you. And there's a giant snake that will attack you. And so forth.

And the Tolkien really shows! You could probably make a drinking game out of spotting all the Tolkien references, just the amount of times the word "mithril" gets thrown around could be one on its own.

So one of the main characters is a dwarf king of a lost underground dwarf kingdom, the Mithril Halls, who's ancient home got taken over by a shadow dragon which drove them to exile, and the Main Quest is to go find it and take it back (Hobbit). (None of his other clan mates from the Icewind Dale seem to remember or care enough to join their king in his search, but that's not the point, because you only got four players and they all picked different races. It's a game, your supposed to build it for them to play, that's the whole point.) Once they get to the place, there's a kinda "Mines of Moria" feeling scene of them wondering how to open the door, though the solution to it is more DnD feeling than that of Lord of the Rings. Though, speaking of Moria, remember how awesome the Gandalf vs Balrog scene was? Good news! We liked it too, so much so that we did the whole "beloved hero falls to a 'certain death' in the depths of the mine while fighting a bad guy/evil being" thing TWICE! Oh, and did your players like Galadriel? You have a nice GM who gives you a magical queen NPC (who's name even rhymes with her), who comes to the heroes' aid by giving advice and helpful items, except even better, because what if she also had a crush on your favourite character?

Sprinkle in a group of evil rivals, with a nemesis for the favourite character ("narrative foil" kinda feels like an understatement, though, as Entreri gets introduced as a dark mirror for Drizzt with all the subtlety of a sledgehammer), couple evil wizards, a fun and quirky family of good wizards for a fun interlude for your players, and few other fun and magical encounters, some cool loot, and a classic damsel in distress (though I do give credit for Catti-Brie actually having a role in this book. I hated the way she got kidnapped and damselled when I read the book last time, but on a re-read now, I do see her being clever and using her situation to sabotage her kidnappers, even if teenage me was very disappionted in how she didn't pick up a sword and do the awesome battle stuff herself).

(Okay, so this is just me theorizing, and I don't really have any factual basis for this, but I kinda get the feeling like Wulfgar was originally planned as the "young hero protagonist" of these books, but Drizzt ended up a lot more interesting of a character, and the stories just gravitated to focus on him instead as the author's fave. Not that a similar thing would have ever happened to me or anything, haha...)

Like. This book still isn't my thing, really. I very much prefer deeper and more rounded character writing and more thought out worldbuilding, but I must admit, realizing that this book was basically a game of Dungeons and Dragons kinda made the whole experience so much more enjoyable. Even if I spent the entire time reading thinking about the players of the characters instead of the characters themselves as people, but still.

You made the story out of reshuffled Tolkien tropes but edgier, put in some whimsy nonsense that makes no logical sense, and had tons and tons of really flat enemies that kept spawning and aggroing your party like video game mooks. Aww, sounds like a fun campaign, your players must have had great time!

... I should probably re-read Lord of the Rings one of these days.

#shut up paper #I think I need a tag for these

[strawberrywindow]

This exchange has fascinated and amused me since the first time I played the game. It is such an ODD interaction. Alexander reacts so defensively to Daniel making this observation, instantly becoming suspicious of him which obviously and very fairly confuses and concerns Daniel (to what degree is uncertain as this boi be acting a lot dumber than he really is sometimes lol). And the exchange ends...with Alexander almost flippantly brushing off the entire conversation. It's WEIRD.

That aside, I think on my first and several subsequent playthroughs I interpreted this as Daniel being the Orpheus in our story, after all HE clearly seems to think he is. And I still DO think he's Orpheus - just not quite yet at this point in the game. Daniel is the Eurydice to Alexander's Orpheus here, as he is throughout all of the memories we hear of the first journey to the Inner Sanctum. Daniel is a shade of himself, completely reliant on Alexander and the help he offers to save him from the Shadow/death. Alexander is his 'hero,' leading him through the maze of this castle to salvation, except tragically, Alexander's Eurydice is in another castle 💀 with his love being in the Other World, where our baron pal is truly trying to go. Not gonna look at the Daniel/Alexander ship angle for this even though I do subscribe to it personally and it could be argued that Alex is now torn between TWO loves but anywaaaaaaays lmao his main goal in the game is to reach his love through the Portal and so as we continue through the memories and letters it culminates with the symbolic 'Orpheus turning around and damning Eurydice' moment when Alexander turns and bars Daniel from the Sanctum, dooming him to the approaching Guardian. All in all a tale as tragic as the original myth, peppered with more betrayal this time 🤧

I think Daniel becomes his own Orpheus upon his second descent through the castle where he saves himself. He finally takes his fate into his own hands, no longer looking to another person to save or protect him, and I do think coming to better terms with his own acts of evil, making less excuses. And if we take the Agrippa ending as the canon one then Daniel goes through a rebirth/return to life of sorts as well in a way still ensuring he is both a Eurydice/Orpheus mixed archetype.

Anyways, all this was spawned by the fact that this load screen made me have my own 'it's like Orpheus!' dumb dumb Danny moment

Since it's one of Daniel following Alexander on their journey and seems a very intentional image to choose as the only one to feature a named character in the loading screens - like of all the images, THIS for Alexander - so i was going 'oh, like Orpheus lol....like Orpheus....LIKE ORPHEUS 🤯' 💀

#amnesia the dark descent #daniel of mayfair #alexander of brennenburg #frictional games

[curedigiqueen]

So digimon has a habit of giving their main protagonists goggles, giving them brown hair, and reptilian digimon. They also often make them heroic big brother types (and quite often literally big brothers… or at least caretakers). But digimon also has a habit of having young female characters with mysterious powers and a holy digimon partner. And sometimes, the two characters are related.

Not always directly, and never really in the same way twice, but often the two characters, when both roles exist, play complementary story roles in some way. Especially as the "Goggle boy/Taichi" archetype is consistently at the center of the story, and "Holy Girl/Hikari" archetype varies in relevance. And to be clear, I'm not trying to break down every character into the basic digimon archetypes, but they do exist and they are kind of useful to look at as a point of comparison.

Of course this all goes back to Digimon Adventure (film), where Taichi and Hikari a brother and sister, take up opposing roles in regards to the digimon situation. While Hikari was originally imagined to not be a digidestined in the future, her fear of the situation after her original acceptance (as opposed to Taichi's suspicion and later cooperation) clouding her perspective, that really isn't want happened in the final product. Hikari was innately drawn to the digital world. She never forgot. The incident is potentially because of her. And where does that leave Taichi? The (relative) normie who was called because of her, but stepped up to the plate as the one everyone turned to, independent of her. Taichi is their leader, Hikari the 8th child. Taichi (and Yamato) get ultimates. Hikari (and Takeru) have Angels that grant them that power. Hikari is innately powerful, but young, and Taichi is powerful to, but in a slower way born of being the first one to do things and push forward. Consistently the first one to evolve. The first and the last. All of that to say that this is sometimes echoed in later digimon. While nothing has quite reached the levels of original Adventure there are still plot lines and sort of story roles that echo that initial storyline.

While Chika doesn't play a major role in Savers, her role as Suguru's other child, her prodigious amounts of Digisoul, and her role welcoming Ikuto and Falcomon (a la Tailmon), clearly aligns her with Hikari. Even if in show she doesn't play a role that engages with that with the priority on her brother, the Taichi archetype, the main character with the agency that drives the plot, she still echoes Hikari with her surprising chillness with digimon, and a fateful encounter with a digiegg that ends violently.

In Cyber Sleuth, Erika is easily a Hikari archetype, and while her big brother is not the Taichi, she is the driving force behind the Hacker's memory plot. Her relationship with Keisuke (the main character, who you play as) in particular is the center of Hacker's Memory. While Keisuke is absolutely a goggle boy, Keisuke isn't a Taichi, he's the Daisuke to Aiba, the real Taichi. Keisuke and Daisuke are less, larger than life ambitious world changers than Taichi and Aiba. The reason I bring this up, is that even though Aiba and Erika never really meet, they are the focal points of both story halves. Aiba is situated at the focal point where Nokia and Arata, and Yuuko reunite. The focal point between the royal knights, the hackers and Kamishiro. Sure Keisuke is the hacker's memory protag, but it's noted he's not very protagy. Erika is the story's focal point, Keisuke her Daisuke, along for the ride, with his own motivations sure, but in the same way Nokia did, and Nokia was ultimately secondary (though also very important, has some Taichi in her). Aiba and Erika are both dying throughout the events of the game as the result of an accident, but also due to the accident now have some special digital skill. It's also important to note that Erika and Aiba's group are the only two groups that had digital encounters to kick this off. They're the only ones who have been to the digital world prior to this whole situation. In reality the 6 of them are this entries only true "chosen children" so to speak. But even that has its precedent, Hikari being separated from the other digidestined in the beginning. Aiba and Erika do not know each other. Their traumas and their resolutions are both different. Aiba's unremembered trauma was resolved by a rescue and reunion. Aiba's "cyberfication" is a death sentence, despite being relatively well off compared to most victims. Erika remembers her parents death and the resolution is separation from her loved ones, the loss of their memories. Her "cyberfication" is ultimately her salvation and allows her to live on when she would otherwise die.

Of course Survive is one big callback. Takuma literally has goggles, the Ta name and an Agumon. He is the groups leader, even when there are older people he's the one whose character guides the other kids, the first to evolve, the strongest. Miyuki has a holy partner and a literal power to transverse worlds, set apart by the others by her different arrival date (though in her case it was early). Now interestingly Takuma and Miyuki are not siblings. Miyuki is for once no ones little sister and is instead an older sister. (Her little brother, ironically being the Gennai archetype). But they are tied together. Takuma is the one who manages to reach Miyuki and they return to the human world, in an echo of Adventure epsiode 21. Miyuki mysteriously provides additional context to the situation, and demonstrates power (Miyuki and her song, Hikari and her references to the first film) No time has changed at all for Takuma since his departure, though unlike Hikari (who time was flowing normally for), 50 years had passed. While both Takuma and Taichi hestiate to leave the digital world, (in most paths), they ultimately do in order to return to their friends, Agumon returning anyway. In Adventure Taichi leaves Hikari behind (with the promise to the audience she'll return soon). Takuma jumps after Miyuki expecting her to be at his side when they return, but her being taken away. But more than that, Akiharu has Gabumon, and together with Takuma forms Omegamon. Now the Yamato analogue is very much Kaito (and Dracmon even has a wolf evo), though Akiharu has a little bit of Yamato in him, a brother protecting his sister, closed off to himself, having undergone a traumatizing incident as a child. But Takuma and Akiharu are the ones who form Omegamon to save Miyuki in the Moral path. Takuma is the one (granted he has different context from the other kids), who actually got to know the real Miyuki. The one who has the most invested in her due to their brief meeting, and the one most invested in saving her, when the others fear she's a lost cause. Conversely, Takuma is the one Miyuki really calls to from the other kids. Takuma is also the one who gets closest to the professor (asides from Shuuji) and gets to start piecing together things, often finding out truths about 50 years ago before the other kids. Aside from Akiharu, Garurumon, Renamon and Miyuki themselves, Takuma is the most involved in that drama. Granted a lot of this is game play, due to being a video game, as with Cyber Sleuth, but it still is worth noting.

Digimon overall as a franchise has a lot of its own archetypes that may be related to common genre archetypes but have their own sort of flavor to them. This is rather typical of franchises like digimon, but I find its still interesting to look at, whether intentional or not. It makes sense that Taichi and Hikari's characters would

#I could probably say something about Taiki and Kotone and maybe Luche and Mameo #or Mirei with several characters and Haru and Hajime&Yuujin #but anyway #digimon #also probably something to say about the gogglehead archetype predating adventure #thus things like the world games may not be as likely to invoke this trait

[gamesception]

lets read rgu, chapter 26

So, yeah, the main story is complete with chapter 25.  Chapters 26 and 27 are in fact side stories incorporating some elements from the anime that didn’t make it into the manga before.  This chapter, we’re bringing in Ruka, a character who ime is often underrated.  People I’ve watched Utena with in real life often see him as a superfluous blue Touga who randomly shows up 3/4 of the way through the show and disappears without a trace or fanfare two episodes later.  Though my appreciation for him may also be tainted by misinterpretation - the first time I watched the show I thought Ruka was the guy who had come between Juri and Shiori in the first place - the guy who liked Juri but Shiori in her jealously had “stolen”.  That’s not the case, but Ruka was still a lot more than just an unnecessary extra Touga.

Unfortunately, the same difference from the anime that made Manga Juri’s own arc so much less compelling and work so much worse will likely hold back Ruka’s bonus chapter as well.  “The guy I like doesn’t like me” is just so much less compelling as an underlying motivation for manga Juri’s angst than “I can’t confess my feelings to the girl I like because those feelings are a love that ‘dare not speak its name’, so I will keep that love secret and obsess over it, while the girl I love misinterprets my increasingly guarded and withdrawn attitude towards her as condescension and contempt and reacts by trying to hurt me by “stealing” the boy she thinks I like, which none the less succeeds in hurting me by making me see the person I love with someone else, but because it’s all based on misunderstanding I’m still left with the thought that if by some miracle she learned my feelings for her she might return them, and so we spiral around each other in obsession and animosity forever.”

There are different ways to interpret anime Ruka, because the show is deliberately opaque about him, but I always read him as playing a villainous role as an affect hiding a princely motivation.  The dude finds out he's going to die, and his only regret is that the girl he liked was all heartbroken over some falling out between her and her best friend that led to them hating each other, but they’re both too proud to resolve the conflict directly.  So with his last few weeks of life he 1) deliberately becomes a villain, 2) torments both the girl and her former friend, hurting both of them worse than they hurt each other 3) defuses the hatred between them by redirecting it towards himself, and 4) literally takes that hatred with him to the grave, giving them the chance for a fresh start.

If you take all this as deliberate, as I do, then it’s a ridiculous xanatos roulette of a plan, but it succeeds.  By the end Juri’s locket shatters - representing either that she’s given up on Shiori returning her feelings or accepted that she can’t keep her feelings locked up if she hopes anything to come from them, and she publicly expresses her anguish by openly sobbing in front of everyone, the dueling arena metaphorically drenched in her tears.

All the duelists in the show - or at the very least all the student council members - highlight or comment on some aspect of the fairy-tale prince archetype, typically by failing to live up to it in some way.  If the core identity of the Prince is in their selfless, even self sacrificial devotion to the Princess, then Saionji is unfit because his devotion is possessive and cruel.  Likewise Miki's is conditional and idealized, Juri's obsessive and fearful, Nanami's jealous and immature, Touga's ambitious and insincere.  They all demonstrate potential tripping points by which Utena might have failed to live up to the Princely archetype.

Ruka, on the other hand, is more subversive and deconstructive, exposing a tragic aspect of the archetype that had previously gone unexamined: the Prince MUST save the Princess(es), even if they don't want to be saved, even if he will become hated as a result, even if he must die in the process.  Where the other duelists demonstrate ways Utena could have failed to become Anthy's Prince, Ruka foreshadows the dark fate waiting for her when she succeeds.

Though of course that’s all assuming that Ruka’s manipulative villain persona was an affect and he actually was there to help Juri & Shiori by drawing their hatred away from each other and towards himself.  You could just as easily argue that he was sincerely after the power of Dios to cure his illness and save himself, that that any benefit Juri and Shiori experienced in the aftermath of his two week rampage through their lives was purely down to their own growth in the face of the difficulties he selfishly subjected them to.

Manga Ruka is playing out a version of this, but it doesn’t work as well because manga Juri’s anguish - ‘My pride is hurt because Utena beat me in a duel and Touga likes her more than me’ - just isn’t as compelling and really shouldn’t require any sort of grand manipulation to save her from.

But Manga Ruka puts on a grand show of manipulation none the less, getting Juri out of her house by challenging her place in the fencing team, stoking her jealousy of Utena by spending time with the new girl, setting Juri up for an unexpected rematch against Utena in the fencing room which she loses, using the shame and disappointment of that to goad Juri into a match against himself where she wins, and from there getting her to challenge Utena to a proper rematch in the dueling arena.

But before the duel Juri overhears Ruka bragging to Touga about how easy it was to manipulate Juri, and this aggrieves her pride so badly that she refuses to duel Utena again after all.

Which, I mean, good for her.  Even if you accept my reading of Anime Ruka’s motivations, that still leaves this gaping criticism over how he goes about achieving his goals.  The condescension, manipulation, and frankly cruelty of it is anything but Princely, and that the anime /rewards/ his behavior with success, again if you’re assuming as I do that the eventual outcome is what he was aiming for in the first place, is pretty sketchy.  Manga Juri gets the opportunity to call out and reject that manipulation in a way that Anime Juri didn’t really get.

Also, I’m literally all for any of the characters in Utena being on the receiving end of a Dramatic Slap with the soul exception of Anthy.  Ruka’s face is exceptionally slap-worthy.

But there’s gotta be a duel, so Ruka duels Utena in Juri’s place, using imitating Juri’s attacks and style to show her that she could still beat Utena if she wished.

Ruka effectively wins the duel, but at the last moment his unnamed illness catches up to him and he collapses to the ground, forfeiting the match by removing his own rose in a nod to how Juri’s second duel ended in the anime.

And like in the anime Ruka leaves and dies without telling Juri.

On the one hand, a sacrifice to spare her pain, but on the other hand a patronizing kind of manipulative move, making the choice for her and denying her the chance to say goodbye.

The duality of Ruka in a nut shell.

Honestly, this bonus chapter was pretty good, probably the best it could have been given how much less Manga Juri’s character had to work with.

#rgu #revolutionary girl utena #ruka tsuchiya #sception reads rgu