#his arc just pains me

[lovehours]

i don’t even fucking care

#house md #house spoilers #hilson #the fact that house is consistently selfish. that he’s an addict. he’s always in pain #but he gave up his vicodin for wilson. mind you the pain in his thigh must have been excruciating #bc consistently whenever he’s extremely stressed or worried the pain gets worse #but wilson is still his priority. he put wilson above the burning pain god man😭 #him giving up his freedom HIS LIFE for someone who has less than half a year to live like oh my god #the love house has for wilson actually makes me sick bc even outside of the cancer arc house has done things for wilsons sake #like almost killing himself just to help him and amber. drugging him at that one conference from s6 #he’s an asshole often times but he truly is the only constant in his life. they both are for each other #i actually feel sick. im not on everybody dies yet (im on the c word rn) but god idk how im gonna get thru this😭 #5x13 big baby #8x19 the c word #1x01 everybody lies #8x22 everybody dies #7x15 bombshells #8x21 holding on #where the quotes are from btw #sorry for the essay in tags

[sinnbaddie]

I don’t understand why Kishimoto never added Kakashi having thoughts about Gai when he died in the pain assault. It’s like he doesn’t want his relationship with Gai to have depth but then adds all these interactions and feelings that show how much he means to Kakashi.

He thinks of his dead friends and family, he thinks of Konoha 11, but he doesn’t think about his longest and biggest support? Not even a passing thought?

Might Gai is Kakashi’s best friend and rival, he isn’t a nuisance to him and he doesn’t think he’s less than him. Their relationship has substance and evidence to show how much they care about one another, im sick of Kishimoto and his constant need to diminish it then prop it up and then diminish it again. How can he be so inconsistent with relationships and character writing??

#kakashi hatake #might guy #maito gai #pain arc #kakagai #not even shipping in this instance just their canon relationship atp #I get Kishimoto probably didn’t think that far ahead in the series because so much of their dynamic is explained later #it aggravates me that Gai’s support is constantly made minuscule in reference to others #Gai - the one who was their since he was 5 years old and immediately supported and cared for Kakashi #Gai - the one who Kakashi has leaned on so frequently that he’ll pass out after Gai arrives because he knows he’ll handle it #yeah I’m glad he showed appreciation for his support after the pain assault #but it still irks me real bad that his relationship w Gai is diminished #ESPECIALLY in favor to Obito who he wasn’t even truly best friends with and only carried his legacy out of guilt #Gai IS Kakashi’s true best friend and rival and I’m very happy it’s expanded on later #but it doesn’t take away how Kishimoto centers Obito as his best friend and biggest influence #I’m not taking away from his influence at all but I’m angry that everyone thinks Kakashi’s relationship w him is so deep #compared to Gai #I feel it always comes back to the fact that everyone thinks Gai is ugly and a joke #anti kishimoto

[earlgodwin]

I genuinely wish Cesare and Juan's dynamic was explored more since their brotherly bickering, conflicts and competitiveness was absolutely interesting to watch, and Juan's immaturity is very balanced with Cesare's leadership, thanks to David Oakes and François Arnaud's natural and amazing chemistry. Juan's death being very rushed will always annoy me and the show was never the same without him, knowing that Juan's solution at relieving his pain is through closeness with Cesare and loving him. He just wanted to be a part of the family and at every turn they’ve not allowed him. They’ve always pushed him away. when he forgave Cesare at the end saying how they're brothers and wants to be together, It was genuine which makes Juan's death even sadder than ever that Cesare stabbed him when he was just opening up and wanted harmony between himself and Cesare.

#i glimpse us cesare two brothers in harmony walking together #cesare's attempt to relieve his pain through murder and fratricide oooh he's so deranged i love him and hate him at the same time #it just fucks me up how pathetic juan was to cesare and being embarrassing just for cesare to stab him like !??!?!?! #anyway let's go back to juan and cesare they're the best brothers of all time and we've been robbed of their reconciliation arc #rodrigo gives affection to juan but he trusts and depends on cesare while juan has never had the closeness cesare had with their family #juan borgia #cesare borgia #the borgias #david oakes #francois arnaud #françois arnaud #period drama #period dramas #text post #by jen

[imminent-danger-came]

I THINK I FINALLY PUT TOGETHER WHY LUZ'S ARC IN S3 OF THE OWL HOUSE BUGGED ME SO MUCH.

It's because they made her defining moment helping Belos meet the collector—which feels disconnected from the core of her character (and also it happened in an episode over halfway through season 2). That's not her defining moment, and it never has been: it was her choice to walk through the portal door, and become a witch.

That's what makes her similar to Philip, right? Like, Luz has this grand idea in her mind of becoming a witch. Philip has his own grand idea of being a heroic witch hunter and saving the human realm from this great evil. That's what the line "I am the great witch Azura, warrior of piece!" is meant to communicate. It's the idea in her head vs reality. That's what s1 of toh explores.

Luz choosing to walk through the portal door and become a witch is what leads to...well, everything. It leads to her not being able to go back. It leads to her mother's grief. It leads to Eda losing her magic. It turns Amity's life upside down. It leads to Belos meeting the collector. It leads to the near destruction of the Isles.

And that ties in with her foil to Philip WAY better, and it makes her decision to stay in the human realm at the end of 3x01 actually relevant. She wanted to be this great witch, to follow in Philip's footsteps creating a portal door and learning about the isles, she wanted to live her dream...and look what that lead too.

So, Luz feeling like her and Belos are both motivated by love and by their own childish notions...like that would have been SO interesting. She wasn't becoming the villain and didn't wake up one morning evil, but some of her decisions undeniably hurt others. But it also lead to some good things. And that's life, isn't it? Taking the good with the bad and accepting that.

But idk, instead it was like a "blah blah your one single mistake makes YOU the true villain!", which just isn't compelling or at the core of Luz character.

#toh critical #imp tag #obviously these are just my opinions #But I feel like I cracked the fucking code gamers #me rambling to my friend at 3:00am about why MK does this arc way fucking better in s4 of LMK: pepe silvia #IT'S BECAUSE THEY MADE HIS DEFINING MOMENT PICKING UP THE STAFF. SOMETHING THAT WAS ACTUALLY SIGNIFICANT TO HIM AS A CHARACTER. #But it also wasn't about his intent. His intent didn't matter. It was that everything he did lead to pain anyways. #So he's hurting others by just being himself. being MK. And THAT's why he feels like he'll cause chaos and destruction. #Like god why is lmk so fucking good I'm fucking screaming #Like I'm really going through it over my shows rn #MK you are a character that captures what it's like being mentally ill so perfectly. I'm dying #2 steps forward 4 steps back the character. My favorite lego squimbus #Every mental illness truly #toh could fucking never. and it will never #shera couldn't either #throwing punches everywhere tonight I guess

[transmasccofee]

thw more I think about them the worse it gets

#I should have never made the effort to understand Kusuo and Kuusuke’s deal now I’m never gonna be happy again #FUCJJCJCJCKCKKKK #did you know? The realization that Kuusuke genuinely loves his brother makes the catgun arc so much worse? It makes it so much more painful #It also makes the time travel arc so much worse #It actually just ruins your life forever and you’re just walking to the store and you think “he’s loving him like a god and not a brother” #And you can’t be normal ever again #Someone sedate me

[3lostyears]

i can’t gif but the way the doctor literally starts SHIELDING rose with his body (and frankly everyone else’s body he literally pushes her in the middle of the crowd) is making me feral

#this entire sequence actually #he’s like i can’t save any of these people but if there is one thing i’m gonna do #it’s get rose out alive #like even before they break into the house he comes downstairs #with one intention and one concern and it is rose #and then he never lets go of her hand #until pete turns up and like…we don’t have time to unpack All of That #but in an AU where rose isn’t so emotional over her parents and mickey #and they are already shagging. the doctor is ripping that waitress outfit off with his teeth when they’re back in the tardis #and whispering that he can’t lose her #i am just saying #these episodes are the actual turning point in ten's arc to me #the most human doctor repressing his emotions going up against humans with no emotions #and saying fuck it i choose PAIN i choose GRIEF. that is his turning point #that's why idiot's lantern is a straight up date and he loses it when she's not safe #but that is another post lol my bad #timepetals #doctor who #tenrose

[iwritenarrativesandstuff]

every once in awhile i go absolutely insane over leopika for literally no reason. it's like i get jumpscared by feelings

#it's weird for me especially because i'm really not much of a shipper #but yeah. do you ever just. they're so good #also they make me feel pain #do you ever think about how kurapika looked for a doctor to help pairo. about how leorio wanted to become a doctor for pietro #do you ever think about how circumstances made it too late to save their friends. but. #the first person kurapika truly meets on his journey to become a hunter is. a future doctor. #and leorio makes kurapika feel calmer. thereby helping him even when he thinks he can't reach him. dfjvhnsifdr #look i just want leorio to play a role in the upcoming succession war arc chapters ok? please. #storyrambles #not putting this in tags i'm just spewing barely connected thoughts

[theskysungqueen]

one thing I hate about the resurgence of the atla fandom is the twitter culture of comparing characters' traumas in which you'll question if people even truly watched the show

if we want to be objective, the title is literally The Last Airbender, Aang suffered from being the last survivor of an extinct nation (none of which was his fault, he was 12 when he ran away and would have died along with the nomads had he stayed), having to shoulder the weight of restoring said nation + saving the world–mind you, war isn't something that's easy to put a stop to, especially if the conquering nation is powerful af.

Katara and Sokka suffered losing their people with each raid; they didn't HAVE their father around, Hakoda literally left to fight in the war and left Sokka to be the man of the village. Katara lived in constant fear of being found out as the last waterbender, she watched her mother die before her eyes, she had to step up to a motherly role at a very young age. Their village is literally defenseless.

I don't see how Zuko's suffering (while it is completely valid!) should be put above theirs. When Ursa left, he had Iroh. He was the crown prince. He was around 13 when he got scarred and banished, but he wasn't alone. He had Iroh and Fire Nation soldiers (in the show, the 41st division) with him. I'm not discounting how much pain Zuko went through–being physically and mentally scarred by your own father and banished from your home is awful. That's what made him such a compelling antagonist in the first place, and why his redemption arc was so satisfying.

But to compare this to Aang, who literally has nowhere to return to, and Katara/Sokka whose village is barely holding up? Zuko is still on the side of the colonizers, he still benefited from that superiority even if he had more compassion and capacity for goodness. Aang, Katara and Sokka are the actual victims on the other side of the war, the ones whose nations are being conquered

#avatar the last airbender #atla #avatar: the last airbender #aang #katara #sokka #zuko #before zuko stans come @ me #i repeat #i am not discounting the pain he went through #ozai sucks #i'm just saying #he had such a great arc #that people forget #who the victims of that war actually were #zuko's trauma wasn't a direct result of the war #it was his ass of a father's treatment of him

[sneez]

a whole bunch of drawings of my warhammer 40k oc tervis :-) they are a tech-priest dominus and they have a horrible life and then they die. i love them extremely. i also put them in pathologic and mechanicus just to see what would happen

/ id in alt text, except the text in the final two images which was too long to fit. the text in the penultimate image reads:

Tervis: “Why do you force me to live? Damn you! Your cure is poison to me. Now I shall never be blessed. You should have left me to bleed.” Below are three dialogue options: “Don’t be absurd. I wasn’t going to watch you die.” / “What makes you think you deserve suffering?” / “I wish I had.” At the bottom of the image is a line of dialogue which Tervis has just spoken: “The air is foul. There is rot in this place. The stench of corruption shall be -- what was it? What was it? The stench of corruption shall be...swept aside...”

The text in the final image reads:

Tervis: “There is no time to delay. This place reeks of corruption. We linger at our peril.”

end id /

#artwork #warhammer 40k #adeptus mechanicus #tervis!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! :-D :-D :-D #i dont think ive talked about tervis here at all but ive been going insane about them on twitter for a few months. my special girl #i may explain their backstory at some point but it is horrible and awful and people would probably be mad at me for it #that makes it sound bad it's not anything dodgy shes just. Not the best representation for the minority groups of which she is a part #(he uses any and all pronouns btw hes not got a gender so i just use a variety. for funsies) #a big part of their character arc revolves around being disabled and having chronic pain. also they are trans and gay and things #hopefully the fake screenshots give you an idea of his character but mostly hes very snappy and irritable and generally unpleasant to be #around #but he was small and anxious initially and even when hes got 18 arms and legs hes still small and anxious. deep down #OH ALSO they are called tervis because dj named him after a tervis cup so really you can blame dj for this. [pointing at dj] YOU!!!!!!!!!!! #(hi dj kissing you) #ALSO also the fake pathologic screenshot is because i was inspired by emm so you can blame emm also. hi emm kissing you too #anywayUhh i have much more i could say but i will just throw him at you and leave. high-speed tech-priest to the forehead. im gone

[thschei]

I'm sure other people have done this already but I wanted to make my own

(The photo for "everybody lives" isn't the exact frame it's said, but I couldn't get his grin at that frame to look flattering, so I took 1 from right before he says it)

#erin talks #photo #(wait reblog this one instead there was a piece of one of the other photos cutting into 9's face on the right 😭 #what happens when you want to do shit when your body is like <3 no sorry we're in pain we can't do shit <3) #I'll add the same tags as before #I lub him he is everything to me #I'm so happy to see so much love for 9 lately bc back when ppl would say to just skip his season and go straight to 10 #it always made me sad :( I know 9 isn't conventionally attractive & he doesn't communicate his affection the way that 10 does #but I find that really endearing about him & 9's arc is what made way for 10 to let more vulnerability show

[bylertruther]

i don't like season three when viewing it as a continuation of seasons one and two, but i do very much like season three when viewing it as the prequel to seasons four and five... hmmmmm.

#rewatching it bc i wanted to make another foreshadowing compilation post for myself regarding what will's actions will #likely be in season five re: vecna and lmao. so many things are just... it's like. it makes me laugh how In Your Face it is now #that we know all that we know. so many direct parallels both with dialogue and actions. mike/will/lucas/el foreshadowing their s4 roles. #the flaying of the holloways and the creels. the dormancy / activation shit. the building shit. the natural progression of their arcs. #the different ways that their characters approach problem solving and how we see tht reinforced by s4. it's so fascinating #genuinely i think idk it was just such a big culture shock i guess u could say from 1 and 2 that it was hard to digest on its own for me #but now that 4 is in the same vein it's like Oh. Okay. Yeah no. I get it now. That's cool. I'm forever bitter but I get it and respect it. #3 4 and 5 are a package deal considering they also said 4 was like part 1 of 5. #it also makes sense bc the point of 3 was that everyone was changing and building themselves in a new way and that #includes vecna so. just so fascinating how they link everything and how their vision is so consistent with certain plots and characters #like. the lucas max mike n will + el involvement is right there. the idea that they have to kill vecna and not just his puppets is right #there. that 2nd point starts in season two but three is where it really turns into an ''the end justifies the means'' situation #(especially for will which i think is something a lot of people overlook but—) #s3 is painful when considering their personal character arcs but fucking delicious when considering the overarching supernatural vecna plot #bc thts also when he starts his ''there is no stopping this'' shtick and actually enters the story #and he's fucking slimy lol. which i Love #anyway. omg first i defended mike in the rain fight and now i'm saying i kind of like season three who the FUCK am i!!!!! #crazy what feeling the need to defend a white boy's honor will do to you 😳

[mutantfactor]

Princess Silver Rong Qi

#anyone watched this drama? #it was a painful watch because of someone once again #my man was in like 10 episodes but he gave a performance so emotional so tragic i don’t what i’m supposed do with it #like i thought there's no way another character from yunxi exists besides run yu who is just so sad and broken but guess what there are 2!? #this and his character in broker but i can't even talk about that one it traumatized me #in short i feel devastated because yunxi's performance is always too real i physically feel the pain #rong qi's story arc was just so sad #but anyways look at this cutie 🥺 #princess silver #bai fa #白发 #rong qi #luo yunxi #leo luo #mf ps #my:gif

[bataranqs]

wang fu who was abandoned by his dad and left to become an attendant from a young age. wang fu who finally gets to meet his dad only to find it's one of the greatest villains of their age. wang fu whose one gift from his dad was taken because it was only gained from murder and crime and his dad never really cared. fang duobing promising wang fu some land and money but wang fu didn't really want that - it wasn't riches he wanted but his dad. wang fu whose whole life is so obviously rich and complex and painfully incomplete and yet is treated as a side note in the whole drama. ohhh i'm going to be crying over this forever

#mysterious lotus casebook #wang fu | happy #HI. BYE. BFWIEOGJDKLGEWIKLD #they literally didn't even have to kill him #that's what really messes me up is that his death is so painfully like. they make SUCH a point of it. #that his death was to cover up someone else's. that the thing leading to his death was obedience to his master. #that his life wasn't his own and even as fang duobing is pained for his death that's even more twisting the knife in the wound #that wang fu's death may not have mattered if it weren't for fang duobing's care #and fang duobing's young and immature care is made all the more prominent and yet there's nobody and nothing to hate for it #li'er makes the most irrational choices because she has the most stake in this death and is hurt the most #li'er is taken out of the picture because this isn't about the servants and it never was #they only existed to show fang duobing's naivity and flaws which he grows out of. forcibly. #wang fu is literally murdered as fang duobing enters the arc of learning and choosing to be his own individual. it's so messed up i'm-- #and the drama is so intimately aware of it but it says nothing. it just shows it to you because it's a quiet little truth. #this life meant something. but to the mains? to us? it means next to nothing. wang fu's death is so quiet despite everything #is fang duobing solving the mystery to avenge wang fu? yes. in part. but also mainly to save li lianhua #thinking of joy of life where fang xian's whole revenge plot is set in motion because of 'a mere dead guard' #but it doesn't change that the guard is dead #lying on my face sobbing brb

[opens-up-4-nobody]

Naruto shippuden things that made me lose my mind (ep 347-365):

Danzo in disguise: I am Kanzo, friend of Hanzo

It makes me feel insane that nagato made the leader of the akatsuki an actual literal corpse

Hiruzen: orochimaru can't be hokage. I sense he's a greedy bitch

Minato looked at kakashi's blossoming suicidal urges and said let's channel that energy into something positive, like becoming a faceless murder machine

An ANBU: Hey, minato, kakashi keeps one shot blasting ppl with chidori. He seems a bit... not good. 3rd hokage @ Minato: Make him guard ur wife from afar. That will keep him from hurting himself but also keep him distant from someone who could help to heal him

Hiruzen (a fucking liar) to dying kushina: sure, I'll protect naruto

Ah now I understand how everyone in the world knows who kakashi is. He never fucking wears his ANBU mask

There is a clan of ppl who turn into smoke and if they got outside they fucking blow away in the wind

OK so tenzo has been twice swallowed by a giant snake

Gai: let me join Root! Danzo: I only employ edgelords

Konoha elders: let us ostracize the eyeball freaks (the uchiha. Not the other eyeball freaks)

Everyone: kakashi is real fucked up, having a set of kids will soften his heart. 3rd hokage: *gives kakashi the most fucked up kids in the whole village* this is a great idea

It's just 2 sad uchiha vs the entire world 🖤

God. I love the way Obito gives Madara the bitchy side eye

Madara abt obliterating the allied shinobi force HQ: yay, they're dead 🤗

And neji's death for hinata is confirmation that in Naruto you truely cannot escape the pull of fate. They are all caged birds and the only escape is death.

#everytime madara opens his dumb bitch mouth i lov him a little more #is it controversial to say that i think hinata and neji shoulf have switched places in 364? bc i feel like that makes more sense for neji's #arc and hinata's. like she gives one big speech and thats it. she sacrifices herself for neji. thereby ushering in a new age for the hyuga #ya kno. just saying #maybe i just want to save hinata from the story. like i cant imagine her treatment getting any better so... ah hinata just makes me uncomfy #i loved the tenzo stuff so much. and kakashi's pain #kakashis delicious delicious pain #his life seems so exhausting #ppl need to stop putting so much pressure on naruto tho. i hate it #justice for neji. like wtf happened kishimoto? why not kill kiba or something. hes got nothing important and world changing going on lmao #naruto #naruto ramblings #unrelated

[leofrith]

acv hate on my dash and i can't even be mad about it because they make some good points 😶

#like yes it was extremely fucking weird to have us play as a viking with all the violence that entails #while conveniently sidestepping any real consequences for that violence or contending with the results of that violence #because you're too afraid that lingering on it for too long might make your protag look bad #it's like they suddenly decided that their audience is too stupid to deal with moral ambiguity. in the moral ambiguity franchise. #this is once again drifting towards my forever argument that making these games rpgs was a mistake #or rather making these games *half-assed* rpgs was a mistake #and weakens the narrative bc there's never any meaningful follow through for any decisions #including some of the decisions that we the player don't even get to make ourselves #like i think having a set narrative would eliminate a lot of the problems with this game's writing #because they clearly weren't willing to take the rpg elements all the way #also just... make it smaller. there's too many arcs and too many diversions from the main narrative #which while a lot of them admittedly have some fun character moments they probably should not have been required to advance the main story #and with no mission replay or ng+ it's just so prohibitive to replay unless you're like me (deeply mentally ill and in love with eivor) #the point being that dissonance has always bugged me about this game. i could fix her i could fix her i could fix her #anyway. hi i'm gonna go do that ask game now ajdgjhdsf #the nerve pain last night was making it difficult to be on the computer. tbh it also is right now but we soldier on 🫠 #ky posts text #ac.txt

[milaza]

thoughts on the racism in DGS (specifically van zieks)

i want to preface this by saying that 1) i’m a chinese person from a western country, and 2) i really like van zieks (outside of his racism of course). but basically, i don’t claim to understand how japanese fans in japan view him, and i also understand that van zieks may be an unforgiveable character for japanese fans who live in the west because his attacks are rather personal. i’m not trying to change anyone’s mind with this... as you’ll see later, i don’t even think his redemption is written well (me liking van zieks is solely based on the other aspects of his character). i’m just thinking out loud

this post contains major DGS2 spoilers.

what does van zieks' racism add to DGS?

i think there are two main reasons van zieks was written as racist towards japanese people in the game. the first logic seems to be that since the game takes place in the 1900s, him being racist is part of the period theme and shows how british people used to be very racist towards japanese people and foreigners. i guess due to cultural differences and looking down on them for not being as ‘technologically advanced’.

however, the thing is that van zieks’ racism doesn’t stem from that. he does talk about it awful lot, but his cultural differences/’lack of advancement’ itself isn’t the reason he hates japanese people. his racism just stems from him being affected by a personal incident where his brother happened to be killed by a japanese guy. the story of “van zieks overcoming his racism” doesn’t have anything to do with the theme of the victorian period, it’s just his own problem. he was perfectly accepting and respectful of japanese people before the incident.

thus to me it’s so weird how his redemption is done by seeing how ryunosuke believes in him/defend him. cool, so he now recognizes that japanese people can be smart and full of heart... even though that’s what he originally believed 10 years ago??? so again, because his racism doesn’t stem from innate/learned bigotry but just that one incident, i don’t think his redemption arc really means anything, if that makes sense! it’s not commentary on victorian england or english/japanese relationships. it’s not a man learning to undo racism he grew up with. like i said before, it’s literally just his own problem, and it’s a problem i think is unnecessary to this game. it would be exactly the same if they made him a regular asshole instead of a racist asshole.

the other reason i believe racism was included in DGS was to serve as a mystery for the player/ryunosuke to wonder why van zieks despises japanese people so much. however, it doesn’t work as a mystery. because the player is just like “? he hates japanese people because he’s a british man from the 1800s” it really doesn’t feel that deep. we figure it’s solved already, it doesn’t matter! so it should’ve been excluded to begin with.

how was his in-game redemption handled?

like i said before, i really think that his ‘redemption’ was not written well and it did make me feel unsatisfied, speaking as an asian in the west. i felt frustrated that it seemed like there was no proper scene where he’s truly sorry for the shit he spouted for so long, and there was no scene where either ryunosuke or asogi address it fully either. (i might be missing something since i can’t look up a transcript ATM, but i feel like i would remember it if there was a scene like that)

the part i dislike the most is when his backstory comes out. ryunosuke, who has spent all this time being verbally abused by van zieks, is just like “oh, well if your brother was killed by a japanese person then i understand why you’d hate us”. like what!?! that’s no excuse to hate japanese people for a decade??? i couldn’t believe i saw that coming from the main character, because i believe that the main character (at least in a game like this) should reflect the values of the author, and this logic of “it’s understandable to hate a race based on one person” is extremely bad IRL.

(also i hate how he was like “just as japanese people are the bane of my existence... i am the bane of asogi’s” dude it really is not comparable to say you hate a whole ethnicity to asogi just hating you. and he only knew you existed a month ago)

one thing i noticed about DGS2-5 was that characters were open about not forgiving each other. i was really surprised by that, because it felt unusual to see characters like vigil and asogi be so direct about refusing to forgive those who wronged them. i know asogi had that big scene at the end of the trial, but i also wish either he or ryunosuke had taken the time to address van ziek’s past racism too. i felt like a direct confrontation saying that what van zieks did was wrong was what was missing. something along the lines of “i won’t forgive you for what you said and did in the past, but i respect that you’re trying to get better and we can work together from now on”. like just acknowledge that it IS bad to be racist even if you have a ‘reason’ for it! or better yet, don’t make him racist to begin with!!!

how would i rewrite him?

obviously, i don’t want barok van zieks to be racist because everything else about him is perfect to me and it’s just this one aspect of his character that pisses me off like crazy.

the first way i’d go about it is to make him hate all people who work in law/law enforcement (since genshin was aiming to be a detective). then the mystery would actually work; the player would wonder why such a revered prosecutor despised other lawyers and police so much. it’s just a way better mystery than wondering why a white man in the victorian period hates foreigners. plus, it would be humorous to see van zieks constantly hating on lawyers despite being one.

the second way is to make him hate the asogi family specifically and not other japanese people too. this option would add to the game in multiple ways. for example, isn’t it such a crazy coincidence that he reaper of the bailey just happened to start his prosecuting career again as soon as ryunosuke arrived in london? it would make sense with this one simple fix!

have the reaper find out that the exchange student asogi was due to come to london that day, and have that be the reason he starts prosecuting again. when he arrives at court and finds that ryunosuke is in his place, ryunosuke should be explicit about knowing asogi personally. and there we go, a reason for van zieks to hate ryunsouke/sustato without it being race-based! (of course, replace his awful remarks about japan with remarks about how obviously friends of asogi are all stupid/cruel/whatnot)

the direct jeers against ryunosuke for being asogi’s associate would then serve as a good mystery for the player to wonder why he hates this ‘dead’ defense attorney so much. isn’t asogi just our friend from university? is there something more to his past, that he shares with a prosecutor on the other side of the world...?

(i’d personally go with the lawyer hater one though since it’s funnier + strays further from specifically targeting the japanese characters in the game)

on another note:

the racism in general in DGS is very odd... i suppose it might add to the victorian theme to have these british people talk about cultural differences all the time. but it’s especially odd to me because like, every white character is casually racist out of ignorance while van zieks is racist for plot-induced reasons??? and his racism ‘gets resolved’ while the others are never commented upon. idk it’s tonally weird though i do still like the rest of the cast a lot.

and in conclusion:

i love van zieks and i think he’s intended to be a good and likeable character/person by the end of the story. however to me, the writing never redeems him well and i wish he was written so that he wasn’t racist to begin with. but i’m not the game’s target audience, so i don’t believe i’ll ever have the cultural context to view him in the way a japanese person in japan would see him. he’s still the 2nd most popular DGS character in japan though. i don’t know if that means they accepted his redemption or if they simply think he’s very sexy (he is)

anyway i’ve been thinking about van zieks so much lately and rewrote him enough in my brain to the point where i now self insert ship myself with him so nothing i say is valid

#ace attorney #the great ace attorney #dai gyakuten saiban #barok van zieks #text #barok discourse is so painful to me it's fine to like him just. please god don't act like his redemption arc was good #and it's certainly not the best part of his character... he's literally a vampire+baby boy there are more appealing things than a shittly #written backstory #i'm like actually going thru it on my priv twitter frrrr i don't shut up about this man #i have not drawn anything except me/bvz for the past few days. truly