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mdhwrites · 3 months

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Thought you might want to know, but all of Season 2A was written without knowledge of the shortening. Dana Terrace says this at the 16 minute mark of the April 28th Post Hoot.

Thank you! It's neat to know and kind of the assumption I'd had for a long time. In production and being written should be two different phases for a show after all. For the Amphibia outline I did earlier today, it'd mean losing an episode which.... *sigh* But yeah, I've effectively always treated it mostly like S2A was unaffected by the shortening and there are some plotlines I'm sympathetic about with that... But not by much.

Again, I've gone harder into this in the past but S2B had to mostly be the way it was for the sake of S3, full or shortened, unless S3 was DRASTICALLY different than what we got. Hunter needed to be an ally enough to go with them all into the portal so Sport in a Storm, Hollow Mind and Labyrinth Runners would have still happened. You do need to explore Belos and prepare for King's Tide with him so Hollow Mind bare minimum still needs to exist but also for Luz's angst arc, Elsewhere Elsewhen needs to exist. King being a titan needs to be confirmed so Edge of the World needs to exist. We also need to make King the most patient, kind, wisest person to exist so Titan, Where Art Thou needs to happen. And Clouds on the Horizon leads directly into the finale so while a lot of the A plot of that episode is pretty wasteful and lacks payoffs, you definitely still need to include it for where everyone is for the finale unless you alter the finale a lot. And Falls and Follies is a good recap of position and sets the stakes for Raine but... It'd pretty questionable too.

This makes the only episodes who's main plots could really be altered to a drastic degree be:

Reaching Out: Amity's relationship with her father barely pays off and frankly it'd have been almost just as jarring to have King do his conversation during Clouds on the Horizon even without this episode. Otherwise, it shoots the worldbuilding in the head and harms Lumity for the sake of double daddy issues. You also have the confirmation for Eda that The Day of Unity is bad news but no one who lives at The Owl House does anything with that. So let's of setup for effectively no payoff.

Them's the Breaks: I hate that I cannot justify this episode because it is EASILY the most of S2B but... It damages Raine's character, only really shows a potential reason why Eda gave up on the covens but the only story part is the last two minutes. You could have done ANYTHING else, like I dunno, an episode actually about Darius and Hunter/the rebel coven heads, and ended it with the Raine reveal.

That is two episodes. The fact that there are two episodes even is... OOPH, especially when Reaching Out at least has arguments but Them's the Breaks is just Dana gushing about the fanfic she wants to write for her own series. The fact that there are only two, with maybe being able to cut one of Hunter's episodes for his arc, is not good. Not unless the Day of Unity wasn't supposed to be the S2 finale.

And if it wasn't... What the fuck was the original plan?

This is a lot of why I talk about not wanting three seasons. It wanted WAY MORE. I think Dana assumed it'd be so popular and big as to have five or more. There are PLENTY of issues with that conceptually (again, S3 could never have been great) but it is the vibe the story gives. It is too redundant and too slow to be otherwise. TOH's biggest argument against being claimed as having a lot of filler is mostly in that a lot of episodes get a LITTLE done in way or another but it takes very few leaps. When it could do that, actually have a big payoff and move along, it cuts it off at the knees for the sake of 'realism'. This happened with Willow... and also fucking happened with ALADOR. IN SEASON 2B. WHY!? Why would you make a plot point specifically say more work and time will be needed when you DON'T HAVE TIME!?

Even S3 has this. In a season with THREE. EPISODES. Luz has THREE finishes to her arc. In Thanks to Them, she gets reassured by quite literally everyone that she did nothing wrong and should feel confident about her choices before she confidently prepares to head into the demon realm! Then... In show it's like five, ten minutes tops when Luz is self hating and self martyring herself again until the end of the episode has her confidently state that she wants to be understood! And with her friends and new palisman by her side, she will face the Collector!

Only to start the next episode with a dream sequence where she believes everyone fucking hates her, doesn't understand her and that she deserves to be hated. This only gets resolved when the FUCKING GOD of the show tells her she's A-Okay and she has nothing to fear. She's just too gosh darn good in order to have any reason to every doubt herself!

I'm not going to even ask why this happened. I can actually tell you mostly why because Luz is the only character besides Hunter with any character payoffs left to do. So if you want each episode to have a big character moment, Hunter can only replace one of those. They still tried to have Willow do one anyways by dredging up something that hadn't been a thing for TWO. SEASONS. But Luz was still given three different endings.

No, the bigger question to me just fucking HOW!? this sort of thing happens. This has fuck all to do with the shortening after all. Wasted time at this point, moments that mean literally and do nothing, are their choice. They are still the writers who decided to waste all this time despite claiming how much they wanted more time.

It makes it look like any potential S3 would have just been... Well, more of this. More repetition that dilutes its themes and doesn't really go anywhere. After all, if they couldn't fill three hours with actual story and pushing forward the narrative and themes... Why should we assume eight hours would have been suddenly so much better?

I didn't mean to go so hard on this. Sigh. But yeah, there's a lot of reasons why the shortening is not the excuse that people think it is. Why it honestly feels so much like a blessing to the show because people just have this go to statement to try and shut people or shut their own brains up from any issues they might have, even if those issues are self contained to a single episode.

TOH was never perfect and has flaws that run incredibly deep and start early on. No excuse will ever change those facts.

======+++++======

I have a public Discord for any and all who want to join!

I also have an Amazon page for all of my original works in various forms of character focused romances from cute, teenage romance to erotica series of my past. I have an Ao3 for my fanfiction projects as well if that catches your fancy instead. If you want to hang out with me, I stream from time to time and love to chat with chat.

A Twitter you can follow too

And a Kofi if you like what I do and want to help out with the fact that disability doesn’t pay much.

#the owl house criticism #toh critical #toh #the owl house

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soggywert · 2 years

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Top Gun: Maverick hcs that are on my mind (based off of imos and me and my life) Pt 3

holy shit, we’re up to part 3! hope you’ve enjoyed the series so far! :)

- top gun to me at this point is just a gay club you gotta try really hard to get into

- mav has thunder thighs

- ^^ he has tried crushing so many fruits between his thighs throughout his life ^^

- mav doesnt have a doorknob for his bedroom; because it broke once and he keeps forgetting to repair it. he usually hangs his towel on the doorway to cushion it from any dramatic slam he does so very often (he's a theatre kid)

- slider is actually really good at art. he usually surprises everyone by suddenly drawing a very detailed landscape during a lecture. Iceman is also good at art, but he doesn't do landscapes. He draws Maverick. Doodles of Maverick. Everywhere.

-Pratically Slider and Iceman are the arty kids

- mav has some(multiple even) form(s) of anxiety disorder(s). he acts all big, but he’s usually only a little bit away from having a bit of an anxiety attack (from what Viper said, he has a confidence issue; made me think and all that :,) )

- wolfman and hollywood have the biggest bromance the world can offer. they’re the type of people to make out in front of everyone then say ‘no homo’ right after and proceed like nothing happened.

- maverick has definitely had some slip ups on the bike. he does NOT like to go to someone about it, because he likes to prove he can do it himself because he is a stubborn bastard boy.

- most people in top gun are bastard boys

- mav had a wolverine phase because i said so

- mav cant sit in a chair normally, he has to be sitting on an angle, cross legged, etc. ice is just bloody used to it by now

-Hehe mav sits on ices lap thats just one hc i go back to constantly.

- rooster and hangman usually sit together nowadays and just whisper into one anothers ear and start giggling like a bunch of school girls.

- ever since hangman became mavs son-in-law (cause hangster), hes fucking terrified of the guy and is instantly suckers up to him. rooster has never seen this before in his life but uses it to his advantage

- goose is probably the origin story for most teachers talking about students falling back on their seat because he did it once and just landed square on his ass

- ROOSTER IS A COPY AND PASTE OF GOOSE AND MAV LITERALLY HAS TO BRING HIMSELF BACK TO THE PRESENT TO REMIND HIMSELF THAT 'NO THAT ISN'T MY DEAD BEST FRIEND, ITS MY DEAD BEST FRIENDS SON' but ofc they become best friends AND father son because I said so

-Penny has a picture of rooster and hangman hanging out in her bar and printed it out for both of them to have. They both secretly have it and obsess over it

-Rooster watches crime documentaries religiously

-Mav isn't actually 5"7, he's shorter. He just wears lifts and has heels on his boots. He wears his boots everywhere to prove this. We dont know his true height, it just isn't 5"7

-Maverick gets motion sickness, so there's that danger to flying that he might accidently throw up on himself.

- everyone remember when ice was playing with the pen and doing all those tricks? well when i was rewatching a bit of pewdiepie, i saw him doing those knife tricks with the butterfly knife and all i could think was ice does that and mav is worried it is a real knife

- cyclone is actually, most probably, the biggest ally in the book because he has to deal with the two love birds, ice and mav, all the time

(Part 3/?) Hcs

I want to do one part strictly icemav or hangster so please help me choose id appreciate it :)

Start here at part 1: https://www.tumblr.com/blog/view/hangman-puzzlesolver/692152151697473536?source=share

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kana-muchi-midori · 9 months

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Any HCs for older Kanabun?

Uhhhhhhhh

-He eventually regrows his hair out. I know he cut his hair at the end of the film so he can fully embrace his masculinity, but let’s be honest here, long hair is much more easy to handle then short hair.

-He looks intimidating when you first see him, you’ll find him sitting in an ally way smoking cigarettes or something and you’ll think “wow that’s one sketchy guy” and while he can be for some (like children around Midori’s age), if you’re an adult or a mature teen once you get to know him he’s just a big ol’ doofus who hasn’t matured from the teenage edgelord phase

-Still be careful around him because that dude can still punch O_0 (did you SEE how he smashed those puppies?!)

-Bro has been in jail a few times, we don’t need to elaborate on that

-He has resorted to his good ol’ classic puppy killing for food on days where he has no money

-He lives in an apartment, but it’s a really terrible low quality ghetto unsafe crime filled neighborhood with low rent

-My dude’s always committing tax evasion despite living in an extremely low rent sad excuse of an apartment smh

-Dude’s kind of messy too, you kind of feel bad for him at one point, he’s a druggie, deals drugs for a living, has noticeable sh scars all over him, and has attempted suicide in the past

-He has commited prostitution a couple times, mostly when he was a teen

-He’s molested both young boys and girls because with dealing with Mr. Arashi’s abuse at such a young age, that’s all he knows

-Despite it all, he’s still kind of hot

#Help do I ruin Kanabun’s original charm and charisma with these hcs #I mean that’s how I see him ending up #Teenage and early twenties Kanabun was like a edgy Aladdin and kind of cool in a way #What comes after that not-so-much #shoujo tsubaki

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sideeffx · 1 year

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Intelligent systems probably took the idea for 3H to koei tecmo because of them basically being one of the biggest adaptors of Romance of the Three Kingdoms as an IP but it also exposes the hood of their storywriting conventions. I think a lot of The Discourse(tm) we had for years exposed a fundamental misunderstanding when it came to what they were pulling from. Namely, grafting a very popular asian war narrative onto Europe and trying to obscure this with poorly thought out plot points (Those Who Slither in the Dark).

The dynamics of Wei, Wu and Shu as written in KT's primary adaptation Dynasty Warriors can be pretty easily related to each Lord and the general blueprint of their story arc and how they're supposed to be perceived. Romance of the three kingdoms is a prolific novel that's been referenced into the ground and everyone's interpretation of it is going to be different so I am purely sticking to how koei represents each of them and not any possible inconsistencies re: the actual story itself.

For one thing, unification is viewed as an inevitability no matter which route you pick. Much like how in the Three Kingdoms the ultimate goal of each faction was to unify China under their banner, depending on your choice of lord Fodlan presents itself as a single unified continent rather than the splinters of kingdoms it was in the past. In every route except Edelgard's much of this power goes through Byleth and a "reformed" church. Whilst in Edelgard's the kingdom is beholden to Adrestia until she structures it into a republic and abdicates.

Wei

Shown to have a brilliant but brutal warlord at the helm and is by far the most powerful in the narrative. Cao Cao's design and characterization portrays him as a villain at his worst and an anti hero at his best. Wei ultimately triumphs in the Three Kingdoms conflict due to their underhanded tactics and being the most politically savvy. Cao Cao's main tactician is a sly snakelike schemer named Sima Yi who is instrumental in helping his victory but will also do anything to win.

Cao Cao kickstarts the Three Kingdoms conflict and exploits the other regional lords complacency via this headstart. The idea of unifying China does not cross the other two main factions' minds until he's already in the ending phase of his formal campaign coming to fruition.

Black Eagles

If we're to look at Adrestia's position when war is declared and how things fair without Byleth's interference. Edelgard is by far in the best position to win the war and nearly does before Byleth awakens 5 years later. To view the story objectively, it seems as if she was intended to be an antagonist that was (gasp) a villain at her worst and an anti hero at her best. The other two Lords in the story are complacent in the idea of unifying Fodlan until her campaign has already begun and they have no choice to participate in it.

Edelgard makes an objectionable move in allying herself with TWSITD despite their being evil to ensure that she's able to formally put an end to the church's stranglehold on the continent. Her primary retainer is Hubert, a sly snakelike schemer who will do anything to win and isn't above getting his hands dirty. Byleth's presence in Crimson Flower is thus not an against all odds miracle, rather it's a victory lap meant to help Edelgard push herself over the finish line without completely shirking her morals. As she's able to immediately turn on TWISTD and begin expelling them from her ranks in the epilogue. When you look at her side of things and dig into the general lore of the church's formation and how they've managed to consolidate power, it makes sense why this war began in the first place. But this is only if you play her route first.

Shu

A faction led by Liu Bei that prioritizes the common people. In Shu stories, Liu Bei is looked upon as a benevolent almost saintlike figure who is so down to earth that even peasants will follow his ideals. He is surrounded by a group of loyal retainers, inparticular, Zhang Fei and Guan Yu who are also his sworn brothers. And a brilliant tactician in Zhuge Liang. Shu is not an appeal to politics, rather their narrative is focused on emotion and how that is their downfall. They may be the most honorable, but they certainly aren't the winners. Because that's not how war works.

Much like how Cao Cao looks objectively evil when not seeing things through his eyes (best example, Changban is a high profile battle in every single Dynasty Warriors game where the Wei army brazenly cuts down peasants to prevent Liu Bei, the man of the "honorable" Shu faction from escaping). Edelgard is at her proverbial worse in Azure Moon. Where she's backed Dimitri so far into a corner that he has no choice but to take refuge in the ruins of his church due to his kingdom being fully taken over.

Liu Bei's emotion being his downfall displays itself best at the battle of Yi Ling, where in every Dynasty Warriors narrative. A moment of sincere anger at the faction of Wu betraying his sworn brother Guan Yu and killing him at Fan Castle turns into a catastrophic loss at Yi Ling where a fire attack wipes out a majority of his forces.

Blue Lions

In Azure Moon, Edelgard is in the middle of her victory lap. Faerghus has been completely taken over by the Adrestia backed Cordelia in a coup. Dimitri's forces have scattered throughout the continent. And your first real meeting with Claude is him making a last stand against her army as they close in on fully assimilating the Leicester Alliance into the Empire. When you begin turning the tides, it culminates in her willingly turning herself into a monster in a last bid to defeat you. Then subsequently dying on her own terms instead of being imprisoned. Edelgard comes off as unreasonable, tone deaf and fundamentally misunderstanding what the common people want. Because that's the way Dimitri sees her.

Putting aside the fact I find Dimitri's route to be the SECOND least politically involved one (least politically involved goes to Claude, who does everything he can to ignore the war for some reason), mainly due to it shoehorning his political philosophy into the back half of the game after you spend most of it watching him live out a psychotic break. It's no surprise if you play this route first you end up having a poor opinion of Edelgard.

She's a beat for beat copy of Cao Cao's playbook where despite her not being heroic about it, her victory in this war is assured. If not for you and your Sothis nepotism baby powers swooping in to save Faerghus from total annihilation. The narrative's primary function here is to appeal to emotion, you've spent the last 20+ chapters personally connecting with Dimitri and handling his struggles. You don't completely understand why Edelgard masqueraded as the Flame Emperor, and her kickstarting this war feels as if it's brought forth senseless violence. She's cast as the undisputed villain, and while the game "attempts" to make a play at grey morality, the morals here are quite interestingly black and white. Edelgard is wrong and you are right, by virtue of Byleth's existence you can reform the church.

A bit of a wrench thrown into the traditional three kingdoms narrative here, because in all canonical retellings, Cao Cao wins the war. Shu and Wu's bids for unification are nothing but a pipe dream as they completely crumble and eventually surrender to Wei.

Personally perceived by me as the biggest do nothing faction in the franchise. Wu's biggest reputation within the narrative is consistently joining the winning side to preserve themselves instead of being proactive. In the battle of Chi Bi Cao Cao suffers a defeat at the hands of a Shu/Wu alliance. Sun Shang Xiang is betrothed to Liu Bei in an effort to unite the two factions. Yet Wu turns around and sets a trap at Fan Castle to kill Guan Yu and cripple Liu Bei's forces and therefore becomes his worst enemy.

Their leader, Sun Quan is shouldering the ambitions of both his brother Sun Ce and his father Sun Jian who have both died during the campaign. Instead of pushing forward in a serious campaign for unification. Sun Quan's decisions are firmly to protect his own home and thus save his skin (probably something to do with the fact he was only 18 when Sun Ce was assassinated and thus wasn't exactly the most experienced leader). As such you could probably cast Wu as the ones who favor "neutrality" over active participation.

Interestingly, Sun Quan's biggest trait despite being young and inexperienced was his ability to find brilliant men to serve under him and thus handle political affairs. He was well liked by the common people because of this.

Golden Deer

Like I alluded to above, Claude is so hilariously irrelevant I almost question why his route was added if Silver Snow was always intended to be a thing. Verdant Wind is Silver Snow reskinned with a few Claude specific events stapled on. The unification of Fodlan practically falls into his lap because he is purely reactive and due to Byleth's interference once again, Leicester is able to maintain its idea of self preservation above all else. Claude's main interests beyond learning of the church's secrets is preserving his home whilst the other two factions tear each other apart. The narrative forces him into a predicament where securing Leicester's continued existence involves fighting Edelgard due to Adrestia's meddling causing the nobles to splinter off into two different factions.

You probably see the similarity to Sun Quan almost immediately here. Because while Claude has his reputation as a schemer whose not totally forthcoming about everything, his participation politically is all in the name of self preservation rather than any real ambitions.

Interestingly, his prioritizing the winning side is able to be utilized in Three Hopes particularly. Golden Wildfire is actually my favorite version of Claude, if only because he takes a much more active role in the story and backs up the hot air he blew in Three Houses about sorta kinda maybe doing something morally questionable to get ahead. In his own route and Scarlet Blaze, he joins the Empire because they're the most poised to win the war and he has personal beef with Rhea. A mirror of the Wei/Wu alliance, where Claude is purely participating out of self interest to protect his homeland rather than pure ambition. Though he does progress past this as the story goes on. Admittedly, this is kinda where my match gets a little flimsy. But you've been with me on this crackpot theory long enough, so I'm sure some of it made sense.

TBH...

Me writing all this out doesn't really have a real conclusion. I mean the Three Kingdoms was a literal cultural reset for all of Asia. Most people have read it and if they haven't they've probably heard of it considering how many east asian writers are addicted to referencing passages of it. I just found it interesting how so much of the makeup of the war and the story format so closely followed those conventions right down to them having an identifying color (though tbh this is something that's more done for easy recognizability, it's a video game after all but so was Dynasty Warriors).

I still maintain this story sucks, because grey morality does not mean not taking a firm stance on anything and KT keeps playing this back and forth depending on which route you pick where the Church isn't all bad so that's justification to defend them but also you have to take them down to have the continent meaningfully move forward. Not to mention the ridiculous plot holes. Great worldbuilding and characters (not all of them were even great, mind you) ruined by absolute dogshit storytelling. But I got to use my RoTK knowledge on something!

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screechingnebula · 2 years

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Sanzu Haruchiyo

▶PART -3: Sanzu ‘s actions (chapters 256-258)

A. Sanzu is not the main villain. He is not another or a better version of Kisaki or Izana.

B. What exactly is the “Train plan”? I don’t exactly know, okay? I’m just trying to figure out from what I’m seeing. Wakui puts a lot of details and none are for nothing.

Details under the cut so you can read further if you want.

A little recap till chapter 256: Sanzu was on the train, trying to get it moving (and failing), and when Takemichy confronted him, said that he is going to run it over everyone and kill them (both Toman and KMG members). No reason was given. He also says he neither cares about allies nor enemies and only Mikey matters to him.

A) Sanzu is not the main villain or a villain at all.

He made it clear earlier, that others don’t matter to him and now he makes it clear that he doesn’t care about this conflict/fight either. “I won’t let anyone get the king”. King is Mikey. Mikey is strong. He doesn’t need Sanzu to do this. Also, how does running a train over everyone and killing them stop anyone from “getting the King”? What does “getting the King” even mean? Physically defeating Mikey? Not possible. Toman making Mikey snap out of this “dark impulses” phase he is in right now? Hmmm makes sense if you consider Sanzu a villain who is manipulating Mikey. But first…

Think about why is he with Mikey? I’ve only seen 2 arguments up till now and both are being proved wrong by Sanzu’ s actual actions as well as words in the recent chapters.

1) He is another Kisaki and wants Mikey to become a crime lord.

2) He is taking revenge on Mikey by hurting and isolating him.

First of all, Sanzu is loyal to Mikey. There shouldn’t be any doubt about it at this point. If he wanted to hurt Mikey, he could have done that at any point in the past. If you say he wants Mikey to become a crime lord and Bonten is a proof for that, read the next point-

To make Mikey a crime lord, what are the requirements- Mikey (alive) and a gang (alive). What is he doing? Killing both the requirements. Even if we assume that Mikey knew about the “train plan” and was not going to get hurt somehow, the gang still dies. How is Mikey supposed to become a crime lord if there’s no gang?

If it’s the 2nd option and the gang dying is just collateral damage and he only wants to kill Toman people so that Mikey is completely alone and broken, why not kill them earlier? If this is the case, then he must have had a hand in Baji and Emma’s death as well so why leave others. He has a katana and a shady moral code. They were all out of gang lives. He could have gone and killed them before any of them even had a chance to say a word to Mikey. Sanzu saw Takemichy trying to stop Mikey during the 3D fight. Why take the risk of letting him (or anyone else) come close to Mikey even for a minute? What if Pah managed to stir up some emotions in Mikey during his fight? Or Takemichy dose something? I know he is attacking Takemichy now but only when Takemichy came to him himself, there was no guarantee Takemichy wouldn’t have won Mikey over while he was busy playing “Train Master”.

What will he even do once everyone is dead? Mikey is sad and broken and there’s no gang. What then? Both Kisaki and Izana had plans when they tried to isolate Mikey - they wanted to form a crime syndicate with him as the leader but Sanzu can’t have the same plan coz he is killing the gang as well. So neither he is hurting Mikey, nor trying to make him a crime lord. Then what is he doing? And why?

He wasn't present in other future timelines right? Either he was and we simply didn't see him, which is weird at least for Manila future coz he was introduced just after that so Wakui could have just made him stand somewhere in the future but didn't. Or he is dead in all the futures or he just drifted away from Mikey.

In past timelines, he could have just joined his siblings coz senju was still there along with waka and Benkie and Takeomi still comes back in 2006. In this timeline, he stepped in only because Mikey was completely alone in every sense (in other futures Toman was there. Maybe only in physical sense but they were still there with him) and hence, "I'm your only ally, Mikey". So if he never chooses Mikey, brahman never forms and 3D fight doesn't happen. This is why no brahman member is present with future Mikey before Bonten just like no Tenjiku member was present in the future before Manila bcoz Tenjiku incident doesn't happen if Kisaki doesn't gets kicked out.

B) What exactly is the “Train plan”? Why Sanzu was doing what he was doing and what exactly was he doing?

“You can’t live in carnage” “You have no chance to win against Mikey”

Sanzu says Takemichy can’t live in carnage and bloodshed. Correct. Takemichy can’t. No one in Toman can. He also says Takemichy can’t defeat Mikey because he can’t live in the carnage. Okay. What is he doing? I mean Sanzu? Trying to kill everyone. Cause a carnage. Why? He says Takemichi can’t defeat Mikey because he can’t live in carnage but is trying to cause a carnage himself. Can he live in a carnage? If he is causing it then he probably can right? Does this mean he can defeat Mikey since he can live in the carnage? Get it?

Sanzu is trying to defeat “Mikey” (probably the Mikey under dark impulses, the current Mikey) by doing whatever he is doing. Sanzu probably knows about “Mikey” and Manjiro. Manjiro is his childhood friend. Haruchiyo’ s friend. He knows Manjiro and he knows “Mikey” and when "Mikey" showed up for the first time. He probably knows the reason as well. Think about it what would be more interesting than Mikey's "most loyal dog" turning out to be the one working against him, the one going on about loyalty turning out to be the actual “traitor”.

The next question is how does this work? See trains and train tracks are important to TR. There is a reason they are fighting on the train tracks. There has to be a reason Sanzu is doing this with a train. This is not an impulsive decision, he planned this out. It might have been his decision to fight here on the tracks as well.

So how did it all start? A train accident? Takemichi got hit by a train, died and time leaped to the past. That particular time leap is the only exception where there was no (human) trigger and handshake.

Could it be that train accidents are a way to time leap? Could it be that Sanzu is trying to trigger it? Trying to send everyone to the past or just himself or Mikey, to the time when things weren't so bad or Mikey still had hope. Maybe to the year 2000 when "Mikey" showed up for first time. Maybe all he knows is that a train accident will lead to a time leap. Or he knows and this is the way to do something, to fix something. (If someone wants to hear another dumb theory about this, involving Kisaki, let me know lol)

As I said earlier I don’t exactly know and for now there’s no way to say what he is doing but I’m sure it involves time leaping and is not simple mass murder for no reason.

Also there are 3 three train tracks. The train was on the middle and Sanzu’ s plan was to derail it to the third track. Meaning of Sanzu’ s name is “Three/ third way”.

Or maybe Hanma is a reaper and is using Sanzu to get his work done (of collecting the survivors of death). Can’t help coming back to Hanma at the end lol.

▶PART-1: Sanzu is protecting Mikey

▶PART 2 : Sanzu & Haruchiyo and Senju

▶PART- 4: Sanzu & Takemichy

#tokyo revengers #tokyo revengers spoilers #sanzu haruchiyo #mikey #haruchiyo sanzu #sano manjiro #tokyo revengers theory

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rocksandrobots · 1 year

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Phantoms of the Past - Chapter 46: Mission Possible: Part 5

Big Hero Six and their allies fought the horde of super powered clones tirelessly but it was no use. Combined with Hardlight's light monsters and Drakken's plant creatures, the heroes were losing ground and fast.

They were huddled together and forced into a corner.

Suddenly the sea of monsters parted and they saw Tadashi fighting Shego. He tried to hold her off, but despite all the practice he had received the past few months it was clear that he was out matched by the veteran supervillain.

With a kick to the chest Tadashi went flying and landed in front of his friends.

Varian and Gogo were there to help him back up as Kim and Ron rushed to take a defensive stand in front of them.

However, Shego didn't move to attack. In fact everyone and everything stopped.

"I think it's time to end this charade, don't you?" Dr. Drakken haughtily called out as he floated above the battle in his hovercraft. "You're outnumbered, outwitted, and out classed."

The heroes stared at him ruefully as he snapped his fingers and the light clones began to advance once more.

"Did you manage to damage the machine any?" Gogo hastily whispered as she and Varian dragged Tadashi away from the worst of the fighting.

Tadashi shook his head. "I wasn't trying to damage it. I was trying to reprogram it. I even managed to re-write the code, but it needs a system reboot to finish loading. I was in the middle of doing that when that Shego woman attacked me."

He rubbed the back of neck, then he caught sight of Hiro and Baymax being flung into one of the glass containers by Drakken's vines.

"Hiro!"

Varian and Gogo held him back, even as Wasabi was captured and shoved into a container of his own by several of the light clones.

"How do we reboot it?" Varian pressed.

"In the back, there's a reset button."

"So someone has to, ugh, has to make their way to the other side of the room to press it." Kim grunted as she punched away one of Hardlight's light bats.

The heroes that were left were being pushed even further back into the corner.

Then suddenly a purple pterodactyl swooped down and picked up Kim and flung her into one of the waiting glass tubes.

"Kim!" Ron cashed after her only to be captured himself by one of the clones.

Soon, one by one, each of the heroes were picked off and trapped in their own glass containers.

Drakken laughed victoriously as he landed his hovercraft and walked over to Kim's tube as robotic appendages started to fitt a nero-headband on her crown.

"Hahaha, ooooh it feels good to finally win! How does it feel Kim Possible? Hmm? How does it feel to be the loser for once?

Kim gritted her teeth and was going to snap back, when a buzzing noise sounded in her ears and a bright light obscured her sight.

---------------------

"At last!" Drakken crowed as he watched as his rival's mind was uploaded to the machine. "Now we can proceed to phase two of my plan for world conquest!"

"Which is?" Hardlight asked.

"We build projectors, at key locations around the globe. With your hard light constructs and my neurospace-combulator, we'll create an army of super powered light clones to attack all at once. Earth's forces will be overwhelmed."

"Until they knock out the projectors." Hardlight pointed out, and Drakken's face fell.

"Well, I'm glad you're thinking ahead," He sneered. "Fortunately, so am I. I'll have shields built to protect the needed projectors, and of course once we've secured new areas we'll build more neurospace containers to add to our army. See? It's all very simple."

"Hmm-mmm... and what's in it for me?"

"Well, that's gratitude for you." Drakken rolled his eyes. "Of course there'll be nice promotions in store for my most loyal followers. Shego's already claimed Iceland, but you can have your pick of the rest."

He wrapped a friendly arm around Hardlight's shoulder. "How about someplace tropical... like Costa Rica, perhaps. Hmmm?"

Hardlight's electronic face display on his mask, raised an artificial eyebrow. "Iceland?"

Drakken shrugged. "Don't ask me. She's the one that has her heart set on it for years now. Haven't you dear?"

Shego however wasn't paying any attention to their conversation. She was counting the nero-containers. "twelve... thirteen... fourtee-... Someone's missing."

This announcement put the other villians on alert, as they counted the glass tubes themselves.

"I see all the heroes here..." Hardlight said, bewildered.

"Wait... where's the naked mole rat?" Shego asked, suddenly realizing who was missing.

"The naked mole rat?" Hardlight slowly echoed.

"Arrrgh! That accursed rodent has destroyed my glorious plans time and time again!" Drakken growled. "Quick we must find the pest!"

The villains scurried around the room hunting the creature. Then Hardlight spotted it.

It was pink and hairless with bucked teeth, and it 'waved' at him!

The pet happily chirped before hopping around on the main control board, randomly pressing buttons and setting off various alarms.

The villains scrambled to stop this nuisance, but they only stumbled over each other, accidently pressing more unwanted buttons and switches, as the mole rat evaded capture.

It would bounce on their heads and run underneath their feet knocking them off balance.

"Gottcha!" Hardlight yelled in triumph as he encased the rodent within a bubble of light.

His euphoria was short lived though when a furry raccoon popped it's head out from behind the computer.

All the three villains collectively gasped in horror.

The raccoon ducked back down behind the controls and both Shego and Drakken rushed to stop this newest menace.

They were too late.

With a mischievous grin, the raccoon hit the reboot button with its little paw.

Everything then happened at once.

First the alarms blared even louder as warning lights flickered on and off all around the machine.

Then the glass tubes opened up with a rush of steam as sparks randomly lit all around the complex.

Finally, as the superheroes woke up, Ruddiger ran over to Hardlight and before the villain knew what was happening crawled up his pants leg.

Ian tried to shake the creature off him, but Ruddiger pulled himself up onto Hardlight's gauntlet and ripped the exposed wire with his teeth.

"Ah!" Hardlight stumbled back as his gauntlet sparked and smoked.

The light shield around Ruffus faded away, and he and Ruddiger greeted each other with a fist bump as they watched the chaos unfold.

---------------------

"No! All my glorious plans!" Drakken moaned as the supers woke up and slowly stumbled out of their glass cages in a stupor.

More sparks flared, and the machine rumbled. A bit of the roof fell in and light streamed in from the outside.

"Well I'm out." Hardlight announced as he hopped on to his hover disk.

"Wait! You can't go now. We- We just- nee-"

"Face it. Your plan is a bust." Hardlight pulled out the spy microchip from his glove. "But thanks anyways for the new tech. I'm sure I can put it to good use."

The villain's display on his helmet lit up into a sly smile.

"Yooooou! You planted the disc into the system and stole my schematics!"

"Of course! Haha! That was the idea all along. See ya in the funny papers, Drakken!"

He cheekily waved as he flew away through the hole in the roof.

'B-but what about... Ohhh! You're fired from your internship!" He called back to the empty space where the other villain had been, before spreading his arms wide and wailing, "Is there no honor among thieves anymore!?"

Shego ignored his pity party as she grabbed him by his shirt collar and dragged him to their hovercraft. "Time to go Doc!"

As he recovered from being thrown like a sack of potatoes into the back of the escape vehicle, Drakken noticed the heroes coming too, and they did not look happy.

Kim was the quickest to recover. She jumped across the machine even as it started to smoke and flame, hopping from pipe to tube before grabbing hold of the rim of the craft as it began to fly away.

Shego however, kicked her off, even as the supervillainess struggled at the controls.

Fortunately, Baymax was quick to catch her when she fell.

"Ha! You think you're all that, Kim Possible! But You're NOT!"

Drakken's taunt was a bit premature as, a weakened, but very much aware, Fearless Ferret launched a miniature grenade he pulled out of his utility belt using his grappling hook.

The little disk attached itself to the rear stabilizer of the hovercraft right as it made it through the roof. A small explosion ripped apart one of the back thrusters and the escape pod tilted widely to the right.

Both villains had to fight with the controls to keep the craft in the air as they flew away in an erratic pattern.

"Uhhh... shouldn't we go after them?" Wasabi asked.

His answer was in the form of a small earthquake, as explosions ruptured all over the machine and more of the roof came down, blocking off the side of the room where the hole had been.

"I think we'd better get out of here instead." Hiro said as the room shook a second time. "This whole place is about to blow."

Varian whistled for Ruddiger as the rest of the heroes ran out of the room; the younger ones helping the elder supers out, who still hadn't fully recovered yet. The raccoon scurried over the rocks with Rufus on his back. Varian scooped both pets up and was the last to dash out of the door as the rest of the control room burst into flames behind him.

---------------------

"Shego?" Drakken whined as he he hugged her legs tighter. "That shark is eying me awfully suspiciously again."

"For the last time, grr, sharks don't eat people." Shego rolled her eyes as she fought against the waves.

Fortunately the hovercraft could double as a boat, but with one of the motors now missing she was stuck at the wheel, constantly forcing the craft back on course.

Drakken meanwhile was less than useless during the whole ordeal and it was up to her to save both their necks yet once again.

Why did she put up with him again? What was it Hardlight had said? 'Why play second fiddle?'

"I know they don't." Drakken whimpered again, breaking through her thoughts. "b-but what if the shark doesn't know that? You'll fight him off, oh won't you? For me? Please?"

She looked down to see him looking up at her with pleading eyes. She'd never admit it, not even to herself, but he did look cute when he was being so pathetic.

"And do I get raise for fighting off the big bad fish?" She sarcastically asked.

"A Raise!?'---Ahh! He nibbled me! Did you see it?... Finefinefine. Yes you'll get a raise."

"Alight. I'll protect you from the shark." She grunted again, she fought with the steering wheel. "assuming we don't capsize first."

Drakken hugged her legs even tighter. "Oh thank you Shego. Thank you. You're the strongest, bravest, most wonderf-"

"Okay... I get it!" She yelled back to shut up his groveling... but she couldn't fully hide her smile as she steered them towards land, far away from the city's outskirts.

---------------------

Hiro, Baymax, and Captain Fancy flew down to meet the rest of the heroes in the park under a large elm tree.

"Emergency vehicles showed up and are already putting out the fire. Looks like they got it contained." Fancy said as he landed.

"And more importantly, there were no injuries." Baymax added.

"But it looks like the villains have gotten away again." Hiro sighed. "Baymax and I couldn't find any trace of them."

"That's okay." Kim reassured him. "It'll take awhile for Drakken and Shego to get back on their feet again."

"Though who knows what that Hardlight will be up too." Ron cautioned.

"Don't worry, We can take care of him if he shows up again." Wasabi said.

"Yeah, and Ruddiger messed up his gauntlets so he'll have to fix his tech anyways." Varian added as his faithful pet nuzzled his face.

The raccoon then hopped off his arm and ran to Rufus, where they shared a pawshake.

"Ooohhhh!" Honey Lemon squealed. "And hurray for Ruddiger and Rufus for saving the day!" She scooped the two animals in to a tight hug. "You're both heroes and sooo adorable. Yes you are."

"Yeah!" Ron agreed, "Three cheers for Ruddiger and Rufus!"

Pets beamed at the attention as the supers cheered.

"Yeah, yeah, I'm very happy we're all alive, but can I get back to my vacation now?" Tadashi said, interrupting the moment. "I gotta get back with the milk before Grandma starts wondering where I am."

Varian and Hiro shared an eye roll before Varian, having received his tech from Tadashi earlier, created a new portal, right in front of a Tokyo convenience store.

"See ya Monday!" Tadashi called back to them and hopped through the portal.

Everyone waved back until the portal faded away.

Varian reached down and picked up one of the fallen portal magnets. "Well that's it for the portals for today. I need to recharge these babies back HQ."

"Oh! That reminds me." Ron exclaimed as he looked back at his phone."Arghh! We missed our flight back to Middleton! I guess there's not enough juice to send us across the country, huh?"

"Sorry." Varian apologized.

"Oh, but my finals presentation! How do we get back in time now?" Kim asked, a hit of fear in her voice. "We'll never get new tickets, before then. Everything was booked solid for next three weeks cause of the holidays coming up."

"I think I might know a way." A voice sounded out.

Kim pulled out her communicator, but it was blank. "Wade?"

"Up here!" the voice called out again.

Everyone looked up to see Wade driving a flying convertible!

"YOU HAVE A FLYING CAR!!!???" Fred practically screamed with joy.

"He's so cool." Wasabi whispered in awe, beside him.

"I figured you guys might need a lift." Wade called down towards them.

"And a helping hand." Mole's voice said beside him.

The short pre-teen hopped up from the backseat and stood upon the rim of the door wearing his dinosaur themed super suit.

"Evil villains beware! It's Flamejumper to the rescue!"

He jumped out of the car and landed on the ground safely with a bounce from the hidden armatures inside the suit's legs.

"NO way! Mole got to ride in the flying car before me!" Fred whined.

"Hahaha! Suck it, Ferdricson!" Mole gloated, "Now where are the bad guys?"

"Sorry Mole." Hiro said, "But we already took care of them."

'Aw man."

"Also what did we tell you about the super suit. " Gogo reprimanded him.

"B-but how am I supposed to learn how to use it without hands on experience?"

"You're not." Fred snapped. "You're not joining the team. N-O. No way. Nun-uh. Besides, why would we need another novice when we got the legendary trio themselves to join the team? Right Fearless Ferret?"

Fred laid an arm on the Fearless Ferret's shoulders.

The Ferret shared an awkward glance with his older colleagues, and then removed his mask with a sigh.

"I think... I'll be going back to retirement actually, and you can just call me Mr. North from now on, Frederic."

Fancy joined his friend's side. "Tim's right. I think, if today's little adventure has taught us anything is we should be trusting the future generation of superheroes to carry on our legacies and maintain the good fight."

"Future generations, like potential in-training supers?" Mole hopefully questioned.

Hiro sighed as he tilted his head back. "Fine... I'll set up a training regime in the holoroom at HQ. But you aren't allowed to wear the suit anywhere else."

"You'll mean you'll teach me to be a superhero!? Yes! Hahaha! You lose, Fred!"

"And Fred will be your teacher." Hiro added. "He'll decide when you're ready or not to join us."

"Nooooooooo!"

Both Fred and Mole called out simultaneously.

"Well it looks like a happy ending for all." Ron joked. "Come on Rufus. Next stop home."

"And home work." Kim echoed fearfully as she followed Ron and Rufus to the flying car hovered just above the ground. "Finals, thesis papers, presentation speeches..."

"And you'll ace them all." Ron said with a smile, grabbing her hands into his own.

Kim sighed. "How can you always be so sure?"

"Because, we've tackled supervillains, evil robots, giant bugs, alien invasions, and even rabid ninja monkeys…" he visibly shuttered at that last revelation.

"Aliens?" Honey Lemon whispered to Wasabi who could only shrug, equally confused.

"And no matter what," Ron continued, not hearing them, "no matter how bad things got, we got through it together. You can do anything, Kim Possible, because I got your back. Worse case scenario, you retake the final. No big. Not like you won't pass the first time with flying colors anyways. Am I right, Rufus?"

The mole rat on his shoulder nodded enthusiastically.

"Oh, Ron." Kim exclaimed as she gave him the biggest hug. "You're the best."

"I know it." Ron smiled as he returned the hug, then he looked back to the waiting heroes. "Do you need a lift home, Mr. North?"

"Ah, thank you for the offer, but I think Hank and I had other plans."

Captain Fancy, smiled wide and nonchalantly said, "Oh I thought maybe a fishing trip, or a nice getaway to mountains. Do some skiing. Gotta spend retirement someway right?"

"Speak for yourself." Lima said beside him. She leaned against her staff, fully unamused, as she stared at her phone. "The Mongoose just texted me about Cobra breaking out of jail again. I'm heading to Singapore to investigate."

Mr. North shook his head in bemused resignation. "You don't ever stop, do you?"

"Nope. But I'll give you a lift to the lake in my chopper."

"Chopper?" Varian asked.

"She means her invisible helicopter." Hank explained.

"Hey we can't all fly." Lima defended, as pressed a button on her keychain.

A loud whirling sound soon was heard over head and the wind picked up as the apparent helicopter arrived. Not that anyone could see it.

"Baymax, can you get a read on the chopper?" Hiro asked over the den.

"I can not." The robot replied.

Then the wind died down as the aircraft apparently landed.

"You like?" Lima proudly said as she gestured to what looked like nothing.

"An invisible helicopter!? That is so cool!" Fred exclaimed. "Or, you know, it would be if I could actually see it."

"Eh…" Mole shrugged, "it's not cooler than the flying car."

Lima put her hands on her hips. "Everybody's a critic."

"I think it's pretty neat." Wade said as Ron and Kim finished boarding the car. He gave it a crank and the vehicle hovered off the ground again. "The cloaking tech is a little dated, especially with all the recent progress with nanite technology, but it's a cool vintage piece."

"Vintage!?" Lima fumed, but the car was already flying away.

"Bye!"

"Nice meeting you!"

"If you're ever in Middleton look us up!"

Everyone waved goodbye as they flew away.

"Vintage." Lima huffed again. "Of all the arrogância!"

"Uh-oh, she's cursing in Portuguese again." Hank commented. "We better get going before she breaks out into a full rant."

"Agreed." Mr. North laughed.

"Just one question before you leave." Wasabi interrupted. "I get that Mr. North here invented a bunch of gadgets like us, but where did you two get actual literal super powers. Like how is that even possible?"

"Oh that? Well I used to work as a janitor at a high clearance experimental government facility." Hank explained. "They specialized in nuclear energy and well, heh, OSHA didn't exist back then."

"Wait! That's not what happened in the comics!" Mole snapped.

"Oh the whole alien from space bit a cover up from the government. They didn't want me to sue… and I didn't want to be dissected in a lab. So I agreed."

"So you're really a mutant? Awesome!" Fred said.

"I can't believe the government would just threaten you like that." Honey Lemon bemoaned.

"Oh the US government is covering up things like that all the time." Mr. North shrugged. "Like that alien invasion that happened about eight years ago, remember that, guys?"

"Wait, what?" Honey Lemon blinked as the elder supers nodded in remembrance.

"Oh yeah, they had the test screen cycling for days hypnotizing everyone to forget it." Hank laughed, as he and Tim entered the invisible chopper and disappeared.

"What?" Honey Lemon echoed again as they left.

"I knew it." Mole whispered beside her.

As everyone remained mystified by this latest revelation, Gogo continued the questioning.

"And you? How did you get super strength? The gym?"

"Magic." Lima said, simply.

Hiro rolled his eyes, this being a bridge too far for his sensibilities. "Okay, no. Magic doesn't exist…. Not in this world anyways."

"You think so, mano?" Lima smiled as she walked closer to them, using her staff as a walking cane. The pointed tip began to glow blue. "The world is a much bigger place than you could ever imagine."

She leaned in close as she whispered this, and suddenly Varian's hairstripe began to glow as well.

He clamped his hand down on top of his forehead quickly to try and hide it. Everyone saw anyway.

"Waaaaiit… th-that rock, your spear is made out of," Hiro stuttered. "Wh-where did you get it!?"

Lima either didn't hear him or ignored him as she had already turned away and was walking towards her aircraft.

Hiro ran after her.

"No, please… you don't understand…"

He heard the chopper turn on again and a heavy wind began to blow.

"I need to study-"

"Adeus meus amigos!" Lima called out as she leaned out of the door of the helicopter. She was seemingly hovering several feet off the ground now, and half her body had disappeared from view. "Till we meet again!"

She waved and then ducked back inside, disappearing completely now.

"Wait! L-lima… your spear…. Aaaaand she's gone now."

Hiro said as the wind died back down as the helicopter flew away.

Everyone turned to look at Varian, still standing there with his hand on his head. Varian gulped.

---------------------

Ian finished loading the files onto his computer from the stolen spy chip, and sat down to begin decrypting.

"Now let's see what we can do with you?" He said out loud as he waggled his fingers over the keyboard insides his darkened office.

The light of the computer threw up irregular shadows upon his face as he read through the code.

He broke out into an evil gin.

"Bingo."

#Kim Possible #Varian #tangled the series #big hero 6 the series #Hiro Hamada #BH6 #Shego #dr drakken #baymax #ruddiger #rufus #ron stoppable #hardlight #Tangled #Wade

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harbingerofsoup · 2 years

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Undemonlike Demons (The Misfits)

Undoubtably, the Misfits have only gotten stranger compared to their fellow demons under Iruma’s influence, but all of them, for some reason or another, ended up in the Misfit class before meeting him. Personally, I feel that rather than changing them, Iruma’s presence has amplified traits they already had. It’s an interesting contrast to the main villains of the series, who want demonkind to return to their origins, which, in their minds, seems to refer to rampant violence and anarchy. The question, therefore, becomes one of nature. Are these traits typically unassociated with demons actually natural, or will the villains prove to be correct? I guess the answer is obvious considering we know Iruma will be the demon king, but what’s important is how we get to that conclusion.

We’re consistently told that demons only do what’s interesting to them. Balam is confused when Iruma talks about his improvement in studying. Archery isn’t suitable for demons because of the concentration it requires. Basically, demons are fixated on their own best interest, preferring immediate enjoyment and progress over slow and painful development. However, during the Training Arc the Misfits are put through near endless suffering and failure, pushed past the breaking point where most demons would’ve given up. Yet, these kids got a taste for success and used their frustration to power through in order to meet the expectations of their tutors. Many of them discovered the satisfaction of improvement while studying for their exams, and that, along with their life-or-death escapades, seems to have laid the foundation for their immense growth, which is considered abnormal in demon society.

Asmodeus maintains a perfect demonic image most of the time, so it’s hard to find moments when he can be considered undemonlike, but there are certain aspects of his character that we can look toward within this line of thinking. While Azu rarely lets himself be a regular kid, under Iruma’s influence he’s far more emotionally volatile and does things out of simple enjoyment instead of success and is willing to participate in activities he’s uninterested in for his friends. Ranking up is a huge deal in demon society because the higher your rank, the higher your place is. Yet, due to his fixation of Iruma (which at this point is out of pure devotion instead of personal benefit) Azu completely disregards societal norms. His love for Iruma is also what snaps him out of his wicked phase. I want to talk about his wicked phase on its own though (spoiler warning ahead.) Wicked phases are as close as most demons get to a true “return to origins” and therefore serve as an outburst of desire and emotion. It’s not necessarily a representation of their morals or real personality, it’s more of a release. As much as I’d love to wax poetic about the beauty of its destruction, the real undemonlike qualities of Azu’s wicked phase are revealed in the Heartbreaker arc when we learn that fire isn’t his bloodline magic. That means that even when he entered his wicked phase, which is specifically describes as a freedom from inhibitions, he maintained the self-control to keep it under wraps. Using his bloodline ability would give him an edge in combat, but Azu repeatedly forgoes the easier route, choosing to limit his power where every other demon would win at all costs.

Again, Goemon is an absolute sweetheart. He’s dedicated to the people around him and to strangers, helping them at his own detriment, a concept we were told in the Walter Parc arc that demons don’t understand. There’s never any mention as to why he wants 100 allies, so it seems like the point is just to have others in his life. It’s no something he can just stop doing either. Instead, getting involved in other people’s business is part of who he is, making this undemonlike trait a core aspect of his character.

Jazz is the ultimate example of not giving up when things are tough. He literally lost and decided to keep going. Sure, part of it was revenge, but it was also to help his fellow classmates despite not being strictly necessary for him. Allocer is able to use Jazz’s influence to his advantage, and makes significant gains, but ultimately sees no point in winning without him. In the same situation, I’m sure many demons wouldn’t make the same choice.

Additional examples of Misfit students not using all their advantages include Kerori, Goemon, and Agares. Kerori can’t bring herself to use the beasts that she worked with during the festival despite the bump in points it would give her. Goemon and Agares did receive additional points for helping their fellow students, but it’s clear from their reaction that they genuinely didn’t expect it, meaning they acted out of the kindness of their hearts.

#mairimashita! iruma kun #welcome to demon school iruma kun

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tokiro07 · 8 months

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Cipher Academy ch.37 thoughts

[And the Winner is...]

CLASS A SWEEP, BABY!!!

As if anyone is surprised. Honestly, the bigger surprise is that it happened this fast, but considering that Nisio is a huge fan of anti-climaxes, this was a shockingly strong finale for this battle

Looking over the course of the Trilemma, though, this really was the perfect spot to call it. I talk a lot about narrative utility and focus in these reviews, and this arc is a great example of how those concepts function

Consider what moments in this battle we were and weren't shown

We saw:

Class A capturing enemies (Anonymity vs. 3 Class B students)

Class A evading enemy capture (Nohime vs. 3 Class D students)

Class A losing a guard battle to release their captives (Iroha vs. Rikukeito)

Class A winning a guard battle to free an ally (Iroha vs. Hakanage)

Class A capturing a single enemy (Iroha vs. Yonakiuguisu)

We didn't see:

Class A getting captured (Anonymity vs. 3 Class F students)

Class C capturing Class D students (Yonakiuguisu vs. Class D)

Class A failing to capture a target (Yosaimura vs. Rikukeito)

Class A evading capture again (Toshusai and Yugata vs. Zakuroguchi)

With the exception of Iroha vs. Yonakiuguisu, all of the phases of the battle we saw were wholly unique, and all of the phases we didn't see would have been in some way redundant. We didn't need to see Anonymity's or Class D's captures because we've already seen a capture happen, and simply knowing that they happened is much more dramatically important than dedicating time to watching them happen. Same with Yosaimura failing a capture or Toshusai evading capture; we've already seen that process happen, so aside from the character interactions that likely occurred, those scenes had nothing to offer that would justify drawing out this storyline

Plus this battle hasn't been particularly character-rich in the first place, mostly giving us breadcrumbs that will likely lead to a much bigger payoff later, so I highly doubt that we would have gotten anything mindblowing in the interactions that were skipped. Fights for the sake of fights only create bloat, and it seems pretty clear that this isn't intended to be the venue where the fights exist for the sake of character development

Instead, this was our way of being introduced to the other CLPs rapid-fire beyond just learning their names. No one got a ton of attention, but every CLP laid out the starting points for how they'll contribute to the plot going forward

We already knew Zakuroguchi's goal from her conversation with Kogoe, so she didn't need a lot of screentime here

We learned that Anonymity has a connection to Class F, and Hakanage clearly had another agenda in her fight with Iroha ("I tortured out a ton of lines I wanted to hear")

Rikukeito was the only CLP aside from Iroha who was willing to risk capture to free their allies and delivered a powerful thesis statement for this arc ("You think we can't see people's faces if they aren't visible?") which I'll be taking a closer look at in a moment

Yonakuguisu clearly has some kind of connection to Iroha, and Iroha has requested a deeper conversation later; this is likely going to be the transition point into the next arc and will give us much more opportunity for learning about Iroha's past (which is ultimately more important than spending page time to learn about any other given character)

Of course, I'm always more interested in an arc that uses all of its moments to further each character involved (ex: the Election Battle in Medaka Box developed the heroes, villains and the plot itself with each fight), but the fact that Nisio didn't insist on doing that here strongly suggests that this arc is meant solely to be the preparations for things to come, not the goal in and of itself

This lines up with how the first arc went and what I've been saying would happen this whole time (at least I think I mentioned it...): each arc is meant to be expanding outward. In the first, Iroha was a fish out of water who was viewed as an enemy by his class. In the second, Iroha has become well-respected in his class, but now is an enemy of the rest of the school. While there's still likely some animosity for the moment, this should be more or less resolved with the Baumkuchen baking to come (though I'm willing to bet there's going to be a complication in there), so for all intents and purposes, the next arc will start with the school on Iroha's side and another, greater enemy coming along. Will it perhaps be a rival school? Or will it stay closer to home with Kogoe making her move? Kick Attack Planning? The Nohime Group? Whatever the next step is, the final phase (if we make it that far) is undoubtedly intended to be the Damoclesian World War that keeps being alluded to, which will require all of the allies that have been and will be amassed in the meantime to make it through

Cycling back to the thesis of this arc, I will once again remind everyone that while the first arc was an Effort Arc, this one is a Friendship Arc. The two driving themes that reinforce this are "understanding" and "togetherness," and they're tied together quite beautifully

"You think we can't see people's faces if they aren't visible?"

Iroha began this battle noting that nearly everyone else in the competition was in some way hiding their faces, either through masks, makeup, costumes, or generally distracting accessories, making their expressions harder for him to read. While he took this to be an immediate handicap to his main skill, he was able to apply this lesson immediately and effectively upon learning it, using information that was omitted or obscured to not only save Anonymity from Class F, but also to win the entire Trilemma

I had actually been wondering for a while what the win condition actually was, as I couldn't remember it ever being explicitly stated that the team with the most captives would win, and sure enough, Iroha realized the same thing because he was the only one who was able to understand and grasp the actual point of the contest that the teachers wanted to impart

"Unless everyone's safe, [victory] means nothing to me"

I've mentioned that Friendship, Effort and Victory are all related concepts before, and this is an excellent illustration of the concept. What makes one the victor of a war? Killing the most enemy soldiers, or having the most to show for your efforts? If Iroha had managed to capture Yonakiuguisu but eschewed the opportunity to save Anonymity, then both Class A and BC would have five surviving members and the deciding factor would have been the number of POWs, meaning that Class A would have lost. The reason that Class A won in the end was because Iroha was willing to take a risk for a friend, to ensure that his allies were not abandoned for the sake of a potentially Pyrrhic victory

Of course he still needed to capture someone from BC, as otherwise their number of survivors would have been tied and BC would win because of their POW count again, and that's where Effort comes in. Iroha couldn't just sit around and rest on his laurels, he needed to take action in order to win. This is the main reason that Rikukeito needed to free the captured Class B students, since it forced Iroha into action (if she hadn't done that, BC would only have three surviving members and DF would only have four since Yonakiuguisu was always going to capture the D girls, securing the win for Class A)

By both being someone who would fight for a friend and would only take calculated risks that don't endanger his team, Iroha proved that he was a cunning strategist with the ability to understand his friends, enemies and the situation as a whole, and by extension proved that among the CLPs, he's the one most fit to being the leader of the school, just as he did when he proved to Anonymity that he was the one who could best lead Class A

Iroha continues to be such a great protagonist, I really hope that he ends up getting a similar reputation to Undead Unluck's Fuuko by the end of this story. They're both so endearing, I love them so much

I anticipate that our next arc will be a Victory Arc, but I also get the feeling that we might not be done with this Friendship Arc just yet, and it might end up being a Friendship Saga. Or we'll fluctuate back and forth between all three values until the final arc either settles on one to be the most important or finds a way to perfectly balance all three. Hopefully, CA will stick around long enough for us to find out, and if this week's color page and every volume getting a reprint are any indication, we may just get to!

It's definitely surviving this round of cancelations at least, since one has already been canceled and two others are clearly scrambling towards their own rushed conclusions, so while I mourn for those losing series they wanted to see flourish, I am grateful that one of my favorites gets to live another day

#cipher academy #fouryearsandananime #4y1a reviews #yes i did skip to CA instead of UU this week #i heard the muses calling to me and i already ignore them in every other creative venture in my life so i figured i should listen this time

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travelling-on-the-octopath · 2 years

Note

I thought about it more in depth and I think I understand now why 3H feels odd in how many routes shaft X # of Lords yet the plot accepts it as fine. In looking at previous FE games, there was always a set Lord but also leaders from other nations. Over the plot, they come together to work towards a shared goal of stopping the red emperor archetype + the evil cult/big bad. Think how Eirika and Ephraim join with Innes, Tana, Joshua and La'Rachel. Leaders of different nations come together (1)

Think about how Seliph joins with people from all over Jugdral to defeat Arvis, Manfroy and Julius. Think how Minerva clashed with her own brother to join Marth to seek peace for the continent. In Elibe, people of all nations come together too. This same process happens in almost every FE game. However, 3H is a weird exception. You can recruit Lions, Eagles and Deer but the main Lords are route locked and thus barely work together. Even tho they should in AM, VW and SS, since common enemy (2) The fact that chapter 19 of AM when Dimitri saved Claude and Derdriu is the ONLY example of 2 Lords actually working together directly in any route of 3H feels odd. Because why couldn't they just join their forces immediately once the time skip starts to give both armies the best chance of defeating the Empire? They already work with the church anyway; why not combine to form a 3 part army of Kingdom, Alliance and church? It just feels so contrived to keep them apart vs making them allies (3)

I'm just going to blindly trust you about the Altea and Elibe stuff, but even in Radiant Dawn (current FE game rotting my brain) it's a whole thing that the Laguz Alliance has now formed (leaders of their own tribes coming together for the sake of beating a mutual enemy). Based on what you're saying, it's not novel that factions work together as one unit. At all.

To your point: The Kingdom and Alliance have complementary resources; Leicester with agriculture and Faerghus with military, while both lack in what the other has. They are quite literally primed to work together, and both have canonically bitchy checkpoints between themselves and the Empire: Myrddin and Arianrhod. An alliance with the Kingdom would make it easier to defend Myrddin instead of allowing Gloucester to declare loyalty to the Empire to keep Leicester from being trampled. Add the church's forces (who seem to be willing to throw their weight behind anyone willing to search for Rhea, which Claude canonically does), and you have a pretty solid military to keep the Empire from somehow managing to make a fool of Leicester. If you throw in a partnership with the church you even get Garreg Mach as a middle point instead of Ailell.

Anyway. In my eyes, the reason they maintain such firm distinctions between the factions is because there's supposed to be friction between the fans that choose one over the rest. I really, sincerely hope that FE gets past this phase of creating different routes under the illusion of replayability (because . . . uh, White Clouds four times, or three if you were smart before The Choice in BE-WC, is not that great) and in the name of creating division, and thus engagement, amongst the fans, because it's . . . sigh. It's illogical, that people getting trampled to hell by the Empire would not ally against that Empire when they have the luxury of doing so. We literally got so close to it too, in The Golden Deer's Plea.

#fe #fe3h #s responds #anonymous metropolis

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acciotherapists · 2 years

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Far From Home (Chapter 19: The Attack)

Loki x Reader

Y/n Y/l/n never thought her past would come back to find her. After all who would look for her on Midgard? But one day in the small town of Puento Antiguo her world is turned upside down when an old friend turns up, threatening everything she has built and the people she’d fought so hard to protect. What happens when the life she left behind finally catches up with her? What happens when the old flame she thought had burned out reignites within her?

Warnings: language (sorry, Steve), eventual smut (slow burn), angst, some mentions of torture (most things won’t be detailed but anything that gets a bit more specific will be warned at the beginning of the chapter)

The next 20 minutes seemed to pass by agonizingly slow as we waited for any news from Nat. Maria was looking at a screen as a virus had been detected within our servers and Fury left the room, suspecting Stark was the cause. Suddenly our comms crackled to life and Nat’s voice sounded through them.

“Loki means to unleash the Hulk. Keep Banner in the lab. I’m on my way. Send Thor and Y/n as well.”

Thor and I left the room, meeting up with Nat along the way as we headed toward the lab.

“I was wrong, director. The world hasn’t changed a bit,” Steve said as we entered the room. A strange weapon sat on a counter near Steve as Stark stared at a screen. Phase Two stared back at me from the screen as Banner turned to Nat.

“Did you know about this?” he asked her, though she didn’t answer him.

“You want to think about removing yourself from this environment, doctor?” she asked, softly.

“I was in Calcutta. I was pretty well removed,” he spat.

“Loki is manipulating you.”

“And you’ve been doing what exactly?”

“You didn’t come here because I bat my eyelashes at you.”

“Yes, and I’m not leaving because you suddenly get a little twitchy. I’d like to know why SHIELD is using the tesseract to build weapons of mass destruction.”

“Because of them. Him more than her,” Fury hissed, pointing at Thor.

“I suggest you choose your next words carefully,” I spat, moving next to Thor, as Fury continued.

“You lived on Earth for a long time without any problems.”

“I wouldn’t go that far,” I hissed. “You seem to forget the part where I was tortured.”

“I meant post-Hydra,” he retorted. “You lived in peace for years and suddenly he turned up last year, bringing a visitor from another planet who had a grudge match that leveled a small town. We learned that not only are we not alone but we are hopelessly, hilariously, outgunned.”

“My people want nothing but peace with your planet,” Thor interrupted.

“But you’re not the only people out there, are you? And you’re not the only threat. The world’s filling up with people who can’t be matched, that can’t be controlled.”

“Like you controlled the cube?” Steve interrupted.

“Your work with the Tesseract is what drew Loki to it… and his allies. It is a signal to all the realms that the Earth is ready for a higher form of war.” Thor argued.

“You forced our hand. We had to come up with something.”

“How exactly did we force your hand?” I hissed, growing annoyed with his accusatory tone regarding Thor.

“This doesn’t concern you, Agent Y/l/n.”

“No? You sure about that? You’re attacking my brother for something that isn’t his fault! No one saw what Loki did coming! If I would’ve seen it coming I would’ve returned to Asgard 20 years ago! Besides, when has a nuclear deterrent ever solved anything?”

“She’s right. They always calm everything right down,” Stark retorted sarcastically. I tuned out as they began arguing. Something felt off and I couldn’t place what it was. Something was shifting in the air, pulling my attention elsewhere. I couldn’t place exactly what it was that changed but something felt off and it sent a shiver running down my spine.

“The cell was just in case-.”

“In case you needed to kill me but you can’t. I know. I’ve tried,” Bruce spat, pulling me from the strange premonition coursing through me.

“Bruce…”

“I got low. I didn’t see an end so I put a bullet in my mouth and the other guy spit it out. So I moved on. I focused on helping other people. I was good… until you dragged me back into this freak show and put everyone here at risk,” he spat, moving back slowly, his hand finding Loki’s scepter. “You want to know my secret, Agent Romanoff. You want to know how I stay calm?” he hissed, lifting the scepter from its place, his knuckles turning white from the grip. Thor’s fist clenched and Fury and Natasha’s hands instinctively went for their guns.

“Dr. Banner… put down the scepter,” Steve said. I watched as Bruce looked down, seeming confused by Steve’s words. His eyes locked on the scepter and he quickly put it down as the computers across the room beeped, seeming as if he didn’t even realize he was holding it. I breathed a sigh of relief as he made his way over to the computers. Stark and Rogers began arguing as Bruce took off his glasses, seeming confused by what he was seeing.

“Oh my god,” he whispered. I began walking toward the computers before a blast was sent through the lab, knocking all of us off our feet and sending us flying.

****

Smoke swirled in the air, filling my lungs as debris settled around me. I didn’t know where I had landed and I was growing increasingly aware that I could no longer feel my legs. I looked down, noticing a large piece of metal laying across my waist, blood dripping from somewhere underneath.

“Hill!” Fury called through comms.

“External detonation! Number three engine is down!” she called back. “Somebody’s gotta get outside and patch that engine,” she added after a few seconds of silence.

“Stark, you copy that?” Fury asked.

“I’m on it!” Stark replied. I struggled to pull myself out from the large chunk of metal but the structure was far too heavy, holding me in place under its weight. The more I tried to move the less my body responded. My arms were held in place at my sides, though nothing was holding them there. I simply couldn’t move.

“Coulson, initiate defensive lockdown in the detention section, then get to the armory!”

My heart began to race at the thought of Loki escaping and I struggled to free my legs from under the metal.

“Romanoff? Y/l/n?”

“We’re okay,” Nat called. I opened my mouth to speak but no words left my lips.

“Agent Y/l/n, report in!” Fury called as I struggled to make a sound.

“I-I’m ok,” I croaked, my voice coming out hoarse and strange.

“Y/l/n, where are you?” Fury asked frantically. “Y/n?”

It was rare for Fury to use first names and I tried to answer him, not wanting to worry anyone but it was getting harder to make noise as dark spots clouded the edge of my vision.

“Y/n, I’m sending someone to come get you but I need you to tell me where you are!”

“I was blasted j-just below the lab,” I gasped as my breathing became shallow.

“I’m sending someone to find you! Just hang tight, Y/n.”

Yeah, hang tight, I thought to myself as the dark spots began spreading. It’s not like I’m going anywhere.

“Y/n!” a familiar voice called to me and the pressure on my legs was released, followed quickly by a rush of pain as the blood tried to flow through my legs once more.

“Agent Y/l/n!” another voice called. “Thor, is she alright?”

“I’m not sure. Her legs appear to be broken.”

“Agent Y/l/n,” the man called again. I recognized him from a previous mission but we’d never spoken outside of work. A hand grasped mine as the man flashed a light in my eyes. I tried to answer him but the effort it took to speak seemed far too great for me to handle. My lips refused to form the words and my throat tightened.

“Stay with me, Y/n. It’s going to be fine. You’re going to be fine.”

I could hear loud crashing sounds from somewhere nearby as the man began holding pressure to the wound on my waist where the metal had dug into the skin. A growl rumbled through the air and I knew Bruce had turned. I tried to push myself up but Thor gently pushed me down.

“Y/n, you’ve lost a lot of blood and your legs may be broken. You can’t move.”

“Th-Thor… Nat was standing by Bruce when the blast hit. You need to make sure she’s nowhere near Banner!”

“But, Y/n, you’re hurt!”

“I’ll be fine! I’m in good hands.”

“Plus, she’s Asgardian, right? Her wounds should heal faster than a human’s would.”

Thor sighed before gently touching my shoulder, hesitant to leave, but one final push from me and he left, hammer gripped tightly in hand as he prepared to fight Banner.

“L-Loki?” I murmured softly as the Asgardian’s face filled my mind, the blue eyes of the agent reminding me of the color of Loki’s eyes just hours before.

“He’s waiting for us, ma’am. He needs to heal your legs before you bleed out.”

“But I’m Asgardian… you said so yourself,” I said softly. “That’s how you knew,” I whispered as the realization hit me. Loki had sent this man to come find me.

“Yes, ma’am, but your injuries are quite extensive. You’d bleed out before your body had time to heal. We need to get you to Loki.”

He placed an arm beneath my legs, the other under my back, lifting me off the ground and I didn’t have the energy to fight him. My vision grew darker as he carried me through the helicarrier, further from SHIELD and toward Loki.

@purplekitten30 @lokisprettygirl22 @midnights-ramblings @huntress-artemiss @lokis-little-love @lokis-tigress

#loki of asgard #loki laufeyson #loki x y/n #lokixreader #loki odinson #loki x reader #loki friggason #thor odinson #shield #asgard #thor #marvel #marvel mcu #mcu #avengers

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crystalelemental · 2 years

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Legendary Gauntlet - Latios, Azelf, Cobalion

Oh man, Latios is back, we got an easy one now, lads! What’s the guaranteed lucky cookie this time, gimme something good! Healthy Healing? Hey, I’ll take it, man.

Cobalion and Azelf were part of the first Gauntlet, and haven’t been back since. Latios was also pretty far back, so it’s been a while since we’ve seen them. As always, the goal is four generally F2P teams. I’m going to be going off of past clears and make adjustments for other newly acquired options in the F2P bucket, but will not be talking about Lodge characters. At present, we have no idea if it will be reasonable to expect even a single one of those units in our possession, let alone a specific one. I’ll also not be using any of the Master BP Pairs, just in case, but will use Eggmons.

LATIOS Latios is a pushover in the strictest sense of the word.

It’s a 3v3 fight, with two allies that will buff their attack or special attack by 2 every action, while Latios starts the fight with +3 in both offenses. The sides are immune to debuffs on their desired offensive stat, so your solution is to kill them quickly rather than attempt stalling out. Latios doesn’t do a ton. In phase 2, it gets the ability to debuff your team’s defenses, and buff its own offenses, and focuses on a good number of AoE attacks. In phase 3, it gets +4 speed, and can use Stored Power as its scary attack. Nothing too crazy, just buff offense/debuff defense. Which sounds pretty scary if you can’t KO fast enough, right?

Latios is characterized by the weirdest sense of low damage I’ve seen. Its base stats must be garbage, because it’s really not that scary at any phase. It’s just so weird. Like they were trying to control for how fast it could buff or debuff and didn’t want it being scary right out of the gate, but they over-corrected and now it’s just not a problem. To compound Latios’ woes, it’s Dragon/Ice weak. Which means there are exactly three gagillion answers to it in an F2P sense. Latios just gets dunked on from every angle. And those are just specific answers. Any EX Striker is going to have a field day with this one.

Team 1: Cyrus, Drake, Cheryl Cheryl is so good. Basically perfect, really. She’ll get Cyrus up and running efficiently, while all Cyrus needs to do is work on getting that extra crit to start exploding the field. Drake is chosen for defensive bonuses to the team that we desperately need, while Cheryl is a backup healer. She probably doesn’t want to take point, I think Latios has physical moves, but healing Drake is helpful.

Team 2: Candice, Tech Kangaskhan, Maylene Candice is an exceptional tech nuker under Hail, and with Kangaskhan here to debuff defenses of the foe’s team, Candice can reliably sync nuke things out of the sky. Maylene helps with offensive setup, and can keep herself healthy with Drain Punch as needed. Kangaskhan can also flinch Latios when it’s on its own.

Team 3: Zinniquaza, Winona, Support Dragonair Zinniquaza, with mega evolution, hits like a truck. Her EX also means she hits AoE. With weather and flinch support from Winona, this is a pretty clear setup. The only problem is F2P supports that buff crit and like non-existent, and I’m suddenly realizing hey, maybe there is more use for Lodge Cynthia. But in absence of that, Support Dragonair. If you want, the last point of crit can be obtained from Aerial Ace in Zinnia’s grid at the cost of some energy and power. But she should be okay, it’s Latios.

Team 4: BP Candice, BP Janine, Koga With the new BP Candice, we have another great move damage user that can attempt to truck this fight. That’s the good news. The bad news is, no MPR on Hail, which is...concerning to me, slightly. Still, the objective is fairly clear: BP Janine supplies all needed buffs to Candice and Koga both, with Koga debuffing special defense, and Candice using her power to blitz the sides. Toxic damage will wear down Latios quickly, leading to what is hopefully an easy finish.

AZELF The general flow of battle is the first half of the HP bar has 80% physical damage reduction, while the second half has 80% special damage reduction. This reduction only applies to move damage, but does not apply to sync, so sync nukers are a good approach to clearing Azelf. Azelf also packs a ton of nasty tools, including Mind Games and Defense Crush 4, which gets upgraded to their Team versions in bar 2, meaning everyone’s defenses drop fast and hard. It also has On a Roll for debuffs on stuff like Energy Ball, and Hostile Environment for something like Flamethrower, which is…just fantastic. It also switches between special and physical moves with the transition; it’s weak to what it uses. However, sync is always physical. For…some reason. I think just to bother people who bring in special defense buffs and then get blasted.

As noted, sync damage bypasses the reduction, and is a good approach. Trainers with mixed offenses like Classic Blue or Lusamine are also particularly strong. Azelf’s fairly weak to debuffs as well, with offense debuffing mitigating a lot of its potential damage, and defense debuffs really hurting its already limited bulk. And of course, anyone who is immune to defensive debuffs is helpful, so the Stalwart/Unbending combo is incredibly nice on a tank. Disruption like flinch and sleep do not last long, but it can be done for chaining purposes.

Last time Azelf came around, a big issue was lack of F2P bug types, and really bugs in general. But now we’ve had the Teatime Train Bros, and the grid upgrades for Bugsy and Noland on our side. Azelf is still scary, but is in a better position to beat than it once was.

Team 1: Giovanni, Roxanne, Agatha I had to look this up to make sure I knew what I was talking about, but yes, Azelf can be sleep chained. Roxanne provides the offensive buffs Giovanni needs to beat down on Azelf, while Agatha’s naturally high speed and access to Hypnosis serves as the core of the lockdown.

Team 2: Ramos, Skyla, BP Sophocles Ramos can sleep, which means we can get a sleep chain going. Skyla’s got defense boosting to kick off Sophocles’ multipliers, and speed buffs to make sure the sleep is always ready. Potions can heal Sophocles’ recoil damage, and Sophocles can handle his own offensive buffing.

Team 3: Noland, BP Morty, Tech Magneton/Tech Bellsprout Noland has perfect self-setup, and is capable of tearing this fight apart via sync nuke. Tech Magneton can debuff defense to get him set up, while Morty’s job is defensive support. It takes some time to get Noland set up, but once he’s rolling, he’s rolling. Alternatively, you can run Bellsprout for sleep chaining.

Team 4: Bugsy, Hop, Nanu Bugsy needs help with setup, but is a pretty strong option to bring along for sync damage. Definitely want the defense debuffs for maximum damage potential, and Hop’s healing will keep Bugsy from dying early due to low bulk. Ideally, Nanu with some crit rate backing him can stall out some turns to prevent Bugsy from just dropping. Also, Nanu’s new grid means he’s not a bad backup damage dealer at all.

COBALION Cobalion has one clear gimmick in play: 80% damage reduction when it’s not under a status condition. Easy enough. Oh, except that it auto-heals status halfway through each bar, and by the second half of phase two can heal it on sync, and also each heal from status increases its resistance level by 2 until it’s fully immune. Note that the life bar being depleted does not count for “healing status,” and does not improve resistance. As such, when status is applied, if you can go from current state to dead in one sync, that’s huge and prevents immunity increasing.

So you need status, and not all status is created equally. For instance, Cobalion gets enough Poison resistance that you get one application before immunity. If it heals, you can no longer Poison it. Despite being Fire-weak, burn is similarly hosed, starting at Lessen 7 and allowing two heals. So by the second half of bar 2, it’s immune to burn, so good luck Silver. Paralysis and Sleep are the best options. Paralysis seems to start around 2, meaning it will always be able to be paralyzed (effectively), while Sleep doesn’t have any inherent resistance, but waking up naturally increases it. So Sleep has to be applied judiciously. For those wondering, Restrain does not count as status condition, it’s status change, so it is lumped in with confuse, trap, and flinch. Which also don’t count.

Outside of this major gimmick, Cobalion is fairly straight-forward. The second half of Bar 1 has it incorporate Poison Jab into its kit, so poison immunity is nice. Bar 2 introduced Defense Crush, which can quickly tear through a frontline tank’s defensive capabilities. Bar 3 opens with +3 attack, then introduces Beef Up 1, which seems to increase its attack by one stage when hit with an attack move some percentage of the time. This means Cobalion gets substantially stronger over the course of the match, and the last bar gets incredibly scary. Sacred Sword can one-shot your tank if you lost too much defense. Worse, Impervious and defense drop immunity aren’t super common, and many are weak to Fighting (Piers, Leaf). So Cobalion gets really tricky.

Team 1: Marlon, Silver, Blaine Silver is able to burn Cobalion, and while this is not the ideal status for it, the grid expansion has given Silver so much power under Sun that he could explode an entire HP bar with Blaine’s sun support. Marlon is the support, and while I question how well this plays out, he has notably important traits. Defense buffing keeps the team alive, Endure is great due to Cobalion’s high rate of single-target moves, and he’s immune to defense crush/Rock Smash.

Team 2: BP Surge, Brawly, Kahili Correct me if I’m wrong, but I don’t think Cobalion has any resistance to defense debuffs. Which means Brawly can debuff reliably, setting up for Kahili’s sync nuke. Surge supplies the paralysis and added buffs for Kahili.

Team 3: MU Torchic, MU Solgaleo, Mina Solgaleo bypasses the damage reduction effect on Cobalion without the need for status, making it a solid choice against this fight. What it needs is crit support, which can come from MU Torchic here. Solgaleo gets Sharp Entry, which means this can cap its crit rate, allowing for the best damage. Meanwhile, Mina can spam Charm to keep Cobalion’s damage low, and hopefully I’m not misremembering what type its sync nuke was, because I think it’s Fighting. If not, I guess Tech Persian?

Team 4: Ghetsis, Marley, Support Weezing This is a fairly slow grind, but there’s a plan. Ghetsis debuffs offenses, keeping Cobalion’s damage low, while Weezing supplies defense buffs to cap. Marley keeps the team moving quickly and has some gradual healing, but most important, gives Team Sharp Entry, Hostile Environment for the burn, and can buff Ghetsis’ offense over time each Flamethrower use. It scatters her grid, but it can be done. And in a pinch, Weezing can inflict Poison, should Burn run out.

Final Thoughts This is a desperate and perhaps ill-fated attempt to craft a fully F2P approach to a Gauntlet. I feel like we’re getting closer to this being easily managed, but we’re still missing some tools to actually make it work. Crit buffers are still fairly rare, and we’re hurting for healing and special defense debuffs too. But I’m sticking by this, for some reason. I feel like it’s at least doable.

#pokemon masters #legendary gauntlet

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des-whumpin-corner · 2 years

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One Week Later

Eyyyy first fic of the blog! This is a super tame oneshots I wrote for a mob!AU, which I’ll write a summary about in another post if I remember lmao. Tldr, mob boss Whumper has kidnapped Charlie, Terry’s bf, for ransom, in order to force Terry to join them. Terry isn’t taking it well.

(Btw, whenever I use German, I’ll put the translations at the very end of the fic!)

Terry was fine.

Terry was absolutely not freaking the fuck out right now.

…Maybe if he said it enough times it would come true.

In reality, Terry was trying his best not to completely break down. The past couple days, he had come to and from work, trying his best to act normal. But at this point, he was sure everyone noticed how… frazzled he looked. But he was still doing his job as efficiently as ever, so nobody was bringing it up.

In reality, though, Terry had been trying his best to not fall apart over this past week. Obviously, the only person he could talk about this… situation with was Rose, but he had been hesitant to let her know how genuinely panicked he was feeling. While he was at work, he needed to stay professional.

“Belosim, any updates on where he is?”

“No sir.”

“…Seriously? No leads at all?”

“No, Mr. Redovir, sir.”

“Belosim, it’s been a week. How do you guys have nothing?”

“Mr. Redovir, there’s only so much we can do.” He had known Rose for years now, and he could detect her calm voice starting to grow strained. Shit, he was starting to piss her off.

Alright, time to backtrack. “…Okay. Obviously, I’m asking too much of you all. Sorry.”

“Apology accepted, sir.”

Terry slumped back into his chair, trying his best to hold back frustrated tears. “…I don’t know what else to do, Rose.” Okay, the professional act was getting incredibly hard to keep up now, so he just decided to drop it. The pair were on a first name basis in private anyways. “Got any ideas?”

Rose hesitated for a second. Never good. “Well… there’s always the option of just… accepting the offer.”

Terry’s shot right back up in his seat at that. He turned to Rose, unable to hide how incredulous he was at the suggestion. “…Machst du Witze?”

“No, Terry, I’m not.”

“Rose, you know damn well I’m not going to give in that easily!“ He could hear himself starting to get angry, but he didn’t care right now. The thought of allowing those cowards to get away with pressuring him into “becoming allies” was enough to make him want to break something.

Rose, of course, wasn’t phased by his rapidly fouling mood. “Oh yeah? And what, exactly, are you planning on doing against the Whumper family?”

“Ich weiß nicht! But I’m not going to just roll over and let them force me to join them!”

“Even with Charlie’s life on the line?”

Terry felt his blood run cold at that warning. “…They wouldn’t dare. If they kill Charlie, they won’t have anything to hold over my head.”

Rose, obviously, didn’t believe him for a second. “…Terry. You and I both know that if Charlie got killed because of this, you would be so distraught that you’d let them take over without a fight.”

Fuck, she was right. The mere thought of his stubbornness leading to his Leibling’s death was making him tear up all over again. “…That Scheißkerl. If- when- you find them, I’m going to kill them with my bare hands. I swear it.”

Rose didn’t respond for a few seconds. “…Just think it over, Terry. I know that allying with them sounds insane right now, but every day we can find out is another day those assholes get to keep Charlie captive. And if what I know about Whumper is accurate, there’s no way Charlie is coming out of it unscathed. But right now, your decision is the difference between him coming back scarred, or coming back at all.”

For a few seconds, Terry was speechless. Because to his absolute horror, Rose was right.

Terry felt sick. “…Dismissed. I need to… think about some stuff right now.”

“Understood. Have a nice evening, Mr. Redovir.”

“I won’t, but thanks.”

Translation:

“Machst du Witze” = “Are you joking”

“Ich weiß nicht” = “I don’t know”

“Liebling” = “Darling” (in this context, but basically any )

“Scheißkerl” = loosely translates to “shithead”, but literally translates to “shit fellow”, which I think is much funnier

#whumplr #whump writing #mob!au #ask to tag #terry oc #rose oc #charlie oc #…kinda #whump tag

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survivor-marieta-islands · 7 months

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Episode 5: "I'd rather die than grovel to a group of white people."—Raffy

Antigua

Amy

whoopsies.

I simply couldn't do rocks like that

So unfortunately for everyone i am somehow still here 😎

Maddison

tribal days are so stressful PLS i need some reprieve lol. i feel bad for the ellie vote out but! i don't like to be two timed. it also could be someone else doing the two-timing but that's the game. last time i played in an ORG there was the biggest rat of all in my alliance and i was sooo caught off guard sooo tryna not let that happen again. also just so y'all know i actually am great at spelling and grammar but this forum is legitimately a giant brain dump. i hope i didn't ruin my chances to work with colin or raffy but if so, so be it. chat soon!

Amy

okay but for real I can only play with who really wants to work with me at the present and I have the ability to readjust if something goes awry. tell me about alliances that exclude me and I'm tempted to work my way in and correct that. and I don't have the energy for last minute info. i do feel bad for not telling Colin Raffy and Ellie that I wasn't going to do rocks but Ellie was jinx target last go and even Colin said last go that they would vote Ellie but they were in alliances and wanted to go to rocks. Simply my plan became to remove options from Colin and Raffy but also still protect us three, though I also was mess bc I could have just told them whoopsies. They are mad and this could still easily flip onto me but I feel good in my group with jinx and JG and honestly I love other ppl doing the work for me while I sit back and wait. Though yeah I shouldn't have blindsided not going to rocks here 😬 and I do love rocks so it's a tough loss but I told Raffy and Colin from the start i wouldn't vote them but jinx really tried to switch the vote to Colin last minute so I had to stop that lol not happening even if they blindside me next 😅 tbh this vote didn't even need to happen and if raffy would have kept the vote on zo I probably would have voted with that side and got someone else to do so too bc girlie was living her best life when I was working for hours on that puzzle. Anyway I lost some info access but I want to keep the game interesting 🤠 (for me) and give myself space to move when I need to.

Raffy

I need to win this tribal immunity or I am going to be a pre-merge flop. I guess I made too many mistakes these past two rounds. First mistake was trying to target JG during the Steven round. That made him not trust me and now I lost an ally. Second mistake, was then trying to work with JG on the Zo vote which gave him ammo against me so that he could throw me under the bus to Zo. Third mistake was even going along with the plan to flip the vote to save Steven as I should have just given Steven up the wolves and not reveal my position. Fourth mistake was actually voting JG instead of Ellie which cements him not working with me. Fifth mistake was not revealing all the info I had to JG about that woman's alliance so that JG would actually trust the info. There definitely could be more, but that's just what I can come up with.

Where do we go from here? I have no idea. I think Amy and Jinx are protecting me, but, at this point, does it really matter? Looking at whose on the tribe, even if they wanted to vote out Colin, Zo is definitely going to want to vote me out more since apparently Zo and Colin have a really tight relationship and JG doesn't trust me at all. So, that's like two people who would most likely push for me to go. Idk if Colin is even going to try to salvage this or throw me to the wolves since he must also be feeling it's either me or him. I think I'm just in a "wait and see" sort of phase since I don't have power, sway, or even a voice on this tribe. So, I have to wait till a tribe swap or merge to even re-establish myself on the social hierarchy.

I don't even really wanna talk to Zo or JG since I don't even know what to say. They obviously both know I came at them at some point and anything I say to them would just be twisted to take me out. I don't really wanna talk to anyone on this tribe either. Cause it's just too difficult. Feels like I'm groveling and I'd rather die than grovel to a group of white people.

Jay you’ll be hearing from my lawyer for that tribal because the literal cardiac arrest i am in still!!!!! But seriously what a rush the passion it was truly incredible I am so sad JG is gone tho :( Here’s hoping for no swap fuck today babes!!

Amy

Tonight was a LOT. What just happened?? Guess who with a disadvantage, then deciding on a live tribal??? I almost voted Colin out but when zo said she couldn't I said oh I guess I'm voting JG out then bc I just couldn't vote Colin. Sucks though the JG Jinx Amy alliance was iconic. Anyway a live tribal while I'm running around in public straight into a mutiny swap?? I just went for it bc I have never mutinied and it sounded fun and chaotic. In the end it's 3 olds to 2 news on 2 of the 3 tribes! Me raffy and jinx together (so jinx and Colin aren't fighting lol) like this is WILD???? Olds control 2 tribes and the other is all Youths. And I think I won Raffy and Colin back over from being mad at me.

But I gotta say the funniest thing of the night. Turns out I thought AJ and Adeline were the same person.

Sin Sazonar

Trinica

Girlllll idk what's happening. I thought JG would be going, instead Els is gone. I *think* that Raffy and Colin and Jinx are working together? Maybe? And they were some of the votes on Els? But I also think I'll need to drop all my preconceived notions because past relationship does NOT equal current alliance. Anyway, bummed to see Els go, they seemed cool 😭

Wow Hairie really pulled through with the puzzle challenge. I was fully ready to go to sleep and wake up to defeat but goddamn. If that round wasn’t a rollercoaster I have no idea what is. But also, I have no clue what the voting sitch is on the other tribe, and that scares me with us potentially going into a swap. Jay turned off chat history today which is like, mmm not sus at all. But I digress. I feel both better and worse since I’ve got this idol in my pocket, but we’ll see how today goes. Trinica’s got a handy dandy spreadsheet but the other tribe has people who’ve been super fans much longer than I have. Wishing us all the luck because I have no idea what’ll happen if we lose. Pandemonium probably.

So I may have just made the biggest mistake of my entire game but…we shall see. I’ve told Trinica about the idol. This might bite me in the ass, but honestly I feel better having someone else who is informed who can help properly use this idol. But also, could bite me in the ass if there’s an attempt to flush it. So honestly who knows. This is either the biggest mistake of my game or a good move. I really hope it’s the latter.

Trinica

Okay not only did AJ find the idol right before me, she also TOLD ME ABOUT IT. Sometimes when I play with AJ I feel like I have to talk to her about security precautions in the same way I had to talk to my old social work clients. Like no, you should not give your new hookup your social security number! No, you should not go buy an iTunes giftcard to send to the stranger texting you! No, you should not tell other players you have an idol until and unless absolutely necessary!

But hey, I'm glad she told me. It's a sign of trust, which is good. Now the question is... do I honor that trust? Or betray it?

In an ideal world, I'd have an F4 with me, Hairie, AJ, and Brandi. But Hairie and AJ are on a "I don't trust the other" spiel with me and Brandi in the middle. I could try to repair that, but idk if that's to my benefit at this point. And it feels irreparable tbh. I really want to tell Hairie about AJ's idol, but I don't think that's a helpful move right now. We will keep that in the back pocket.

Brandi has said she wants to work until the end with me, which honestly was a little unexpected but it's good news. And although I'm definitely working more CLOSELY with Hairie as far as strategy goes, he's not somebody I would necessarily want to sit with at the end.

But I'm getting ahead of myself. For now, surviving this round.

Shawn

I'm really worried about my chances after this. If our tribe doesn't win the next challenge, I feel like my head could be on the chop. Im sitting out this next challenge because I genuinely don't know survivor that well, I liked it as a kid, I like this game. But Im so bad with names and I haven't watched it in years. I hope my tribe understands how badly I want to participate, but how I have NO knowledge. I hope our tribe wins again, and we don't have to go to tribal.

Brandi

I have never known peace like getting to sit out of a challenge. I am just vibing. There are no responsibilities that I have to tend to. No stressing or freaking out. I am just chilling

Arvin

I think I didn't contribute that much to the challenge because I was preparing to go to work. I took a bath during the challenge, so it's hard for me to keep up but yeah, we did it again. We won another challenge and so nervous for the swap. 3 tribe of 5 is a pretty small group and there's no hiding place. I hope I get into a strong tribe that can win challenges.

Shawn

We are about to merge and all I can say is I hope I'm with Trinica I really like them here we go I'm scared !!!! I hope my shhhh! Team can stay together through this time of - oop you posted!

Brandi

I have lots of feelings because my number one alliance member might’ve lied to me eek big feelings but ima keep my head up

#episodes

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regatoni1 · 1 year

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~Chapter Thirteen~

T/W: MENTIONS OF RAPE

Brushing off your thoughts, you waited patiently until your friends arrived. With the timer almost up, you became extremely worried as they had only entered with about a minute to spare.

You rushed over to them. "Gon! Killua!" you yelled happily.

"Hey (y/n)!"

"Gosh don't make me worry like that! I thought I was gonna have to leave you all behind!" you teased, putting Killua in a headlock and ruffling his hair, laughing at his protests.

With you reunited with your friends, you found out why they spent so much time in the tower. Damn horny Leorio... you thought while walking out of the tower with them.

The examiner explained that for the fourth phase, you would all be travelling to Zevil Island, where you would hunt each other, for your tags of course, by using any means necessary. You drew lots, and your target's tag was worth three points, as was your own. You needed six points to pass the phase. Anyone else's tag was only worth one point.

Pretty soon, you were called up to draw your lot. You had to wait in anticipation as everyone drew one, waiting until the last person drew to pull the sticker off, revealing your targets.

Nerves pulsing through you, you pulled the sticker off, to see your target was applicant number 301.

You looked around. Who is that? Most people had already taken off their own badge to hide it, but you really didn't see much point in doing so. Coincidentally, neither did Gittarackur, number 301.

Great. I just had to get pinhead huh? Fuck! This is going to be way more difficult than I thought...

Sighing, you started to think of a plan. Unfortunately, you were probably going to have to use your nen, which you were hoping to keep a secret just a little bit longer.

You were so immersed in forging a plan to get his badge, you didn't even notice the sly clown that was looking over your shoulder at your target number.

"I could help you if you'd like," he said over your shoulder.

"No thanks. Don't need it," you replied, ignoring the way his proximity gave you butterflies, how his scent invaded your nose, clouding any hope for clear judgement. Ignoring that how he offered you help made a blush creep across your cheeks, and definitely ignoring how you had hoped he would continue pestering you.

You even ignored the letdown you had felt when he walked away.

Making your way onto the boat that would take you to the island, you chatted with Gon and Killua about your pasts.

You learned that Killua was from the infamous Zoldyck's, the long time and all powerful family of assasins. You also discovered that Gon was determined to find his father, Ging Freecss, whose name you had heard been mentioned once or twice.

"Tell us about your past, (y/n)!" Gon said excitedly.

"Yeah we know almost nothing about you," Killua added.

"Heh, well you're not the only one."

The boys stared at you confused, waiting for you to continue. Standing up and leaning against the side of the boat, you took a deep breath, inhaling the calming smell of the saltwater below.

"You see, I'm from Meteor City."

"Meteor City?" Gon asked.

"Yes. The city where no one exists. I grew up there by myself. I had almost no friends, no allies, basically no one on my side. But, I did have one person who I could rely on. Someone I could trust," you took another breath and sat back down beside them, ready to dig into your past.

"Basically, my parents had me for the sole reason of becoming the best assassin in the world. They started training me the second I was born. I went through gruelling torture sessions, hours of intensive training, along with some emotional abuse when I didn't learn something fast enough, or when I made a mistake."

"I don't remember much about who my parents were in general, but I always remember sneaking out late at night to meet up with Kiri, my best friend. We had met the first time I ran away. She had been scavenging for food, and we quickly hit it off. We had a designated meeting spot, a secluded ruin of a building."

"Almost every night, we'd meet up there and stare at the stars, or just lay in silence and bask in the comfort of each other. That is until she was killed. After that, I was completely alone until I met you guys."

"One night, I had just been hurled a flurry of curses and swears thrown at me from my father. Stuff like, 'You'll never be good enough!' and 'Stop being so pathetic and take the pain!' It was after I couldn't take any more of the chains, the whips, the stabbing, electrocuting, and had passed out."

"When I had arrived at our spot, Kiri was on the ground, bloodied and barely alive, clothes ripped up. There was a group of mafia men standing over her, one of which was just doing his pants back up. That's all I really remember before I saw nothing but red."

"Before I knew it, all the men were dead, their heads torn off by yours truly. I had run over to her, to see if I could even say sorry for not being there to protect her, but she was already gone. I just hope she saw that I killed them, I killed them all!"

"I should have been there! I should have just left a little earlier, and she-"

You stopped as Killua threw his arms around you, and Gon wiped a tear off your face.

"It's not your fault, (y/n)," Killua said solemnly as Gon silently agreed.

"Yeah, I guess. I just, I need a minute," you said, brushing past them and finding a bathroom.

Finally getting the chance to be alone, you broke down in the small bathroom. You sobbed, sliding against the wall.

I could have saved her. I should have saved her. It's- it's all my fault...

Letting yourself break a little more each tear, you slowly stood back up after you heard the bell ring signalling the ship's arrival.

Looking in the mirror, you despised what you saw. The puffy eyes. The red cheeks. You were not weak. You didn't cry. You looked down at your hands, squeezing the sides of the sink. No remorse. No remorse, you chanted in your head, almost like a mantra. Squeezing so hard, you broke the porcelain of the sink and looked up at yourself one last time, anger rearing it's head. You punched the mirror, shattering it, shards of glass embedding themselves inside of your knuckle.

You left the bathroom and went back to the main deck, ignoring the looks people gave you. Hisoka was already gone, and you were next to leave.

When the girl called your name, you walked towards the forest, knuckles dripping with blood, hoping to see at least one person. You needed to kill.

Killing wasn't something you enjoyed doing, but it was something that you had been trained to do. Something comforting, almost, and whenever you did it, you felt it brought you closer to Kiri.

Not realizing how far you had walked, you hopped into a tree and waited for the poor victim who you would see first.

239? Your lucky day.

You jumped out of the tree and onto his shoulders, ripping his head off like a feral animal.

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