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marvelousmagicalaura · 3 months

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Thoughts on Mistborn: Shadows of Self

Shadows of Self is incredibly great, heartbreaking, and thought-provoking!

I'm hurt and confused. And I'm not sure how to feel, and I love it for that. Shadows of Self is completely different than its preceding book. It is different from even the Mistborn trilogy. There are themes of the stagnation of political systems, religious tension, the ethics and morals of what line God should, could, might have on interfering with the lives of his creations. After finishing off the book, I genuinely had no idea what to think about Harmony, Trell's puppeteering, Bleeder's campaign, or the state of Elendel.

Something that annoyed me about Era 2's books off the bat was the noble system. There's no state sponsored murder or rape, and the nobles are more like businessmen. But it still felt like nothing changed over the last 340 years. I kept thinking... wow, this is what Kelsier died for?! This is what Vin and Elend fought to protect?! I started off hating everyone - Harmony, the Senate, constables, Wax, even Spook - for not erasing the noble system. But while reading the book I kept thinking about Sazed's limitations due to wielding the Shard of Harmony, his stance on free will, his subtle maneuvering of Wax and Marasi... and kept thinking about real life. I came to the realization that being in the role of God comes with a lot of nuance on guiding mortals. I connected the stagnation of Elendel back to the history of the US... how even though centuries has passed, many abhorrent systems are masked by seemingly more human systems. Governments are still being controlled by nobles and aristocrats, just in a different flavor. Policing has so many issues it could take 1000 years to solve.

Even after finishing the book, I still think the noble system should've been completely erased. But now I'm thinking if that would've fundamentally changed things. The US doesn't have monarchs, nobles, slave plantations, or aristocrats. But corporations, billionaires, politicians, and the upper class get away with a lot, they find ways to obtain power and avoid accountability. Would Harmony be right if he gave the divine mandate of "I DECREE NO NOBLES FOR ALL OF TIME!" At that point is free will a choice?

I started off blaming Harmony for not making a democratic world with no nobles. Ended off having… weird feelings about him. Like... MeLann brings up a great point about the kandra impersonating witnesses to testify against people. If Harmony allowed that, that could be a dangerous precedent.

But then there's Bleeder. Bleeder is easily my favorite antagonist in the series. She's incredibly competent, her body horror is gruesome horrific, and her climax is depressingly tragic. May she rest in the Beyond. Poor Wax. This is the thing that has me feeling weird about Harmony. This hurts cuz of Sazed. Fuck Sazed. Fuck Sazed. I knew Harmony would’ve become a Chessmaster, but not like this. Sazed isn’t supposed to manipulate people. Sazed isn’t supposed to cause trauma to people 😭😢💔💔

But Sazed is, unfortunately, the Hero of Ages. Harmony seems to be foreseeing a great disaster caused by Trell. I’m pretty sure he’s trying to thread towards a future possibility that will save Scadrial from this disaster. He must think about the future of the entire world. It hurts that he moved Wax this way, but would there really have been any difference if he left Wax completely alone? The Set - puppets of a Shard of Adonalsium - would've subtly caused turmoil on Elendel. What if he told Wax he was hunting Lessie? TenSoon said it himself. Harmony saw the future, saw that Wax wouldn't go through with it. Bleeder - another puppet of a Shard - would've succeeded in her goals. Sure he could've maneuvered someone else, but it opens a new can of worms!

I love the hints of Trell being a far scarier antagonist than it appears. I love the advancements and possibilities of Hemalurgy Trell is responsible for. Shadows of Self does a far better job than The Hero of Ages presenting gray morality in the motives and plans of gods. It also does a far better job at presenting a smart and clever antagonistic deity. I think with the conflict between Ruin and Preservation, Sanderson wrote many things that made Ruin appear too much like "the bad guy." He can say Preservation has a dark side, but we never saw it. The one reprehensible thing Preservation could've been completely responsible for - the Deepness killing people - ended up being the result of his frayed mind. He could've been solely responsible for the Deepness covering the Sun and killing plants, but that ended up being caused by Ruin. Ruin spoke with too much malice and joy of killing all life and destroying everything. Apart from his attributes being fundamental aspects of life and the Universe, there was no possible way I could've seen his stance as having any sort of value. Sanderson also wrote too many things that made Ruin's planning so far behind Preservation's. Preservation felt like a Xanatosian genius even on his deathbed. Ruin was a petulant child. Ruin wasn't kind, or patient, or particularly clever, or have long-spanning schemes when Sanderson presented him in the spotlight. Don't even get me started on his futuresight lmao. And tbh I don’t get why Sanderson wrote a being of death and destruction as the opposite of stasis and stability. Is he trying to say in life and creation, everything either stays the same or everything dies?

I know that wasn’t his intent, but it came across that way. It’s haphazard in retrospect, and I don’t understand why that was the direction after the beauty of Kelsier’s rebellion. I still love the concept of Ruin and Preservation’s conflict, but I think it could’ve been much more developed. More nuanced. Ruin could’ve been far more of a Chessmaster or represented a different concept.

With Harmony and Trell... I'm not as certain who's the good or bad guy. And so far, Trell's schemes are genuinely complex, layered, and terrifying. Even the Set are scary.

Marasi grew a lot, as expected. Wayne didn't grow but he was still so much fun. Love the new dynamic of Wayne and MeLaan, who's also pretty great. ARADEL IS A MAN!!!

There wasn't much of Steris this book. But she vastly improved in such a short time! Feels like she hides a lot but is actually a warm person. Look at the ending 🥺

Well done, Sanderson. I give Shadows of Self ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️/5.

#mistborn #mistborn era two #wax and wayne #shadows of self #cosmere #brandon sanderson #paalm #bleeder #lessie #rip lessie #rip paalm #poor wax :(#go steris!#mistborn wayne #marasi colms

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bracketsoffear · 11 months

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Lonely: Slugpelt (Pinepaw and the Forgotten World) "she is lonely--her mother was cruel, favoring her brother rainhaze whilst treating her like shit, and the group where she lives is very isolated. also her boyfriend left her to raise her kids alone

she spreads loneliness--while she is less of an antagonist and more of a tragic hero in her own right (and she's at least trying to get better), she does somewhat pass her loneliness down to her kids, being... rather neglectful and barely connecting with them (generational cycles of abuse are somewhat of a. theme in patfw). the comic's author, Raz, is also a big tma fan and has explicitly described her as Lonely-aligned."

Stranger: Hologram Professor/The Substitute/Concupiscence McNasty (Puppet History) "Called The Substitute by the fandom (because he replaces The Professor and it's a play on "substitute teacher"). Stranger by human standards because he is a talking puppet, and also Stranger by living puppet standards because he’s a hologram pretending to be a puppet, and all of the musical guests from his season aren’t really living puppets (in the sense that they were existing animals/objects turned into puppets by The Professor) but just holograms he pretends are “people.” Moisturizes Ryan so he can turn his skin into a suit and become “real,” which as Nikola shows is peak Stranger—he’s basically turning Ryan into a “puppet”. Stranger is also associated with theatre and music, which The Substitute is quite adept at, as shown by him impersonating the musical guests and then having a trippy musical number about skinning Ryan featuring lyrics like “But I think, I think / At least, I think I think / Therefore I kinda think I think that I am.” Also wants to turn all living beings on Earth into puppets using a genie wish, which is basically a Stranger ritual."

#the magnus archives #poll #winners' bracket #the lonely #the stranger #pinepaw and the forgotten world #pinepaw #puppet history

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avelera · 1 year

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OK, let's do this one more time....

NEW THEORIES for the "Beyond the Spider-Verse" after seeing "Spider-Man: Across the Spider-Verse" a second time...

1 ) We're setting up a whooooole thing where Prowlers are the dark mirrors of Spider-People

2 ) Miguel's got claws, as Miles points out with surprise, because he's not a "Spider-Man" originally, he was a Prowler who saw that Spider-Man had died in another universe and took over his life and his identity. The fact that Miguel began as a villain has compounded his sense of guilt over that universe getting destroyed and his adoptive daughter being unmade: he was never supposed to be there in the first place. But he has since developed a strong sense of right and wrong based in that trauma and is sincerely trying to be a better person / save the universe.

3 ) This is going to be important because Miles G., the Miles Morales from Universe 42 who is now Prowler, is going to pull the same stunt. That's why he asks if Jefferson, Miles' dad, is still alive in the other universe. Miles G. comes from a shit universe and he feels robbed (or he will) when he learns that original Miles has all the happiness he deserved. He's going to lock up original Miles in his universe and go to take his place, just like Miguel did. This puts Miles in the further awkward position of needing to parrot what Miguel said about how disruptive Miles G. going to his universe and disrupting his life would be.

4 ) There are numerous clues pointing towards this "You become Spider-Man or you live long enough to see yourself become the Prowler" dichotomy where there's more than one Spider-Man who was once Prowler. Hobie Brown is canonically a Prowler, originally, who impersonated Spider-Man. So hidden in Spider-Punk's name is this set up for the dark and the light side of Spider-Man being Prowler. But also hidden Hobie Brown's character is the fact that you don't have to stay Prowler. With a little dose of anarchy and bucking the system, the original thesis of Spider-Verse is reasserted: anyone can wear the mask. Even Prowler. Even a villain.

5 ) Miguel is not actually entirely wrong. We are going to tragically learn that for all his villainy at the end of ATSV, he's still an antagonist, not a villain. On the re-watch it really stuck out to me how much he's not a mustache-twirling villain. He's not being a jerk for the sake of it. He's traumatized and he is, genuinely, trying to help others and save other universes.

Most interestingly of all the narrative has not proved him wrong yet. For all Miles' optimism about altering the canon, he's not been proven right yet that disaster can be prevented. We didn't see Pavitr Prabhakar's Mumbattan get rescued! We don't know if Miles was right yet! Gwen's dad might be saved because he resigned the badge, but just rescuing them might not be enough. Miguel might still be proven right or, more likely, something more complex needs to happen to alter the canon without risking disaster.

6 ) Part of the lesson Miguel is going to learn is just because he was once Prowler, doesn't mean he was damned by the narrative for taking Spider-Man's place. He can still wear the mask. Anyone can wear the mask. IMO, he will be redeemed along these lines but we are going to learn about his guilt and sense of being a Prowler who doesn't belong among Spider-People and how he's overcompensating to overcome that.

One reason being that if he's some other villain, like Venom, and his intentions were to destroy the Spider-People of the multiverse, which I originally suspected, it means every single Spider-Person got duped, which is hard to believe when they're all heroes. IMO, the only way to trick them all from a narrative morality standpoint, is if Miguel is sincere and really is a Spider-Man trying to make the world a better place. Then the other Spider-People's weakness isn't being stupid, it's that they gave in to the sense of being doomed by the narrative, of despair, that they couldn't try to save the lives and lessen the tragedy of their multi-verse counterparts.

TL;DR - Next film we're getting Miles G. trying to steal Miles's life, while Miles is also trying to save his dad's life and stop the Spot. We're going to learn all about how over and over, it's Prowler vs. Spider-Man/Person, how Spider-Man can become Prowler, how Prowler can become Spider-Man, how you're not doomed to be a hero or a villain, that anyone can be Spider-Man, and indeed, we're gonna get some redemptions. Miles G. is almost certainly going to become Spider-Man in his universe by the end. Miguel is going to possibly get his family back and learn he can be Spider-Man without guilt. We're gonna learn how to save the world, save Uncle Ben, and not disrupt the canon. We're going to learn that the Spider-People are stronger together and that the only way to be doomed by the narrative is to give in to despair.

Ok, I think that's all I got for now!

Edit: OH, PS!

I'm not convinced that Miles G. is actually a bad guy. A lot of his scoffing at Miles and a lot of Uncle Aaron's scoffing at Miles is very ominous but it could also be them laughing because Miles is telling them they don't have to be bad guys.

But for all we know, Prowler and Uncle Aaron might be the only ones protecting New York from the bad guys! They might be angry at Miles for insinuating that they're bad guys when in truth they're busting their asses trying to save the world.

That still doesn't mean that Miles G. is going to like Miles. He might be pissed off at him, actually, for robbing him of the super powers he was supposed to have that would make his life easier. He might still want to steal Miles's life! But on the re-watch I a much, much less convinced that Miles G is actually a bad guy and not that we're supposed to think he is because we're seeing the scene from Miles's point of view, and he's scared and alone and seeing enemies everywhere. Miles G. might actually be a hero in his universe and it's a bait-and-switch.

#spider-man #spider man: across the spider verse #spiderverse #spider verse #atsv spoilers #atsv

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the-antiapocalyptic-man · 1 year

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Eobard Thawne and “Martin Stein” aka Professor Zoom the Reverse-Flash and Deathstorm the Infernal Man

Curator of the Flash Museum in his home time period of the 25th Century, Eobard’s life changed forever when he discovered a time capsule with one of Barry Allen’s actual suits. A descendant of the Allen family through Barry’s brother Malcolm, Eobard had always felt an affinity for his ancestor, heightened by the tragic loss of his parents at a young age. Soon after, Eobard was delighted to meet Barry himself, the older speedster having traveled to the future. While they went on many adventures together, Barry had a dark secret: he was Eobard himself, back from massacring every person he’d ever had a personal relationship with in his life and impersonating Barry Allen to strengthen his past self’s enmity against The Flash.

The plan worked too well, as Eobard thanked his future self before killing him and adding his speed to his own. After using his bare hands and rapid healing to reshape his face to once again resemble Barry’s, Eobard journeyed back into the past to strengthen his old hero as well...

Deathstorm began as an idea--the hurt and pain of a young Ronnie Raymond festering inside the Firestorm Matrix--before being given form as a desperate Ronnie attempted to use the Matrix’s full power without a partner. Offering himself as a host, Martin Stein bonded to the Deathstorm Matrix, using the mere moments of control he had to teleport himself as far away from Earth as he could, leaving a heartbroken Ronnie, Jason, and Maddie to pick up the pieces.

However, Deathstorm survived, alive in the dark multiverse and rapidly mutating into something else entirely. Quickly collected by the forces of Apokolips, Deathstorm rebuilt a human body as Dr. Martin Stein, returning to Earth to begin mass producing Firestorm Protocol soldiers, each unknowingly carrying a piece of the Anti-Life Equation to be activated in the event of an Apokoliptan Invasion of Earth.

#dc #headverse #fanart #au #eobard thawne #reverse flash #zoom #professor zoom #martin stein #infernal #deathstorm

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grandhotelabyss · 4 months

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Is there, atleast in mainstream comics from back in your day, a significant amount of "redemption" or "forgivness" in story - I mean actuall super villians being forgiven and not just a good guy having an arc of being a dick and realising its wrong?

This may seem like a weird question, but having watched anime as a kid I kinda noticed how many of them have this theme of quasi-christian "anybody can be saved" thing and thought if it was just a common aspect of childrens media worldwide or if japan subconsiously cared more of this ethic atleast in this aspect.

Yes, there was. I'd say it started in the soap-operatic Silver Age Stan Lee style of Marvel Comics where both the heroes and villains received more complex representations in the ongoing continuity than the older Golden Age one-shot stories offered. You would generally be given the villain's often tragic background and sometimes persuasive side of the story, as with Dr. Doom or Magneto, along with a sense that the heroes may want to reform or convert rather than just defeat these villains. Characters in Claremont's X-Men were always going from hero to villain and back again. It's a sensibility that was more common at Marvel than DC, where the more pulp-like and starker Golden Age morality was deeper in the DNA. Notice how Kirby goes from Galactus to Darkseid as he goes from Marvel to DC, from an impersonal force to an actively evil one. The Batman mythos in particular deals mostly in sort of ontological grotesques, the idea of whose reform is often teased and mocked. But in general, once the idea of long-running continuities got established in mainstream comics, a more novelistic attitude toward character and its potential for growth and change tended to prevail.

#comics

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docgold13 · 1 year

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365 Marvel Comics Paper Cut-Out SuperHeroes - One Hero, Every Day, All Year…

December 16th - Ant Man / Hank Pym

Doctor Henry ‘Hank’ Pym was an American entomologist, biochemist, roboticist, engineer, physicist and superhero adventurer. Early in his career as an experimental physicist, he discovered a rare subatomic matter he named ‘Pym Particles.’ These particles can be used to increase or decrease the size and mass of objects or living beings without negatively affecting the physical integrity of the mass. Pym was able synthesize the particles thus enabling him to decrease his size to mere millimeters or grown into a towering giant. Inexplicably, this size-alteration does not affect the integrity of mass; hence Pym maintained his regular-sized strength when shrunken down nor was his lungs or skeletal structure overtaxed while in giant form.

Pym married Maria Trovaya, the daughter of an acclaimed Hungarian entomologist. Maria was abducted by agents of an unspecified foreign government on the couple’s honeymoon, believing that Pym worked U.S. State department and he would offer up state secrets in exchange for her release. Maria attempted to escape and was tragically killed.

Pym returned home and, as a means to try to cope with his bereavement, threw himself into his work. He ended up devising a special helmet that enabled him to communicate and control insects of the formicidae family (any breed of ant). Pym would go on build a specialized suit and used his Pym Particles to become the super hero known as Ant-Man. Battling crime beside his future second wife, Janet Van Dyne, who had taken on the mantle of the Wasp, the pair would have numerous adventures together. Later the two became founding members of the Avengers, ‘Earth's Mightiest Heroes.’ Pym remained a member of the Avengers for many years.

Throughout much of his life, Pym had coped with undiagnosed bipolar disorder. He experienced crippling episodes of depression and self-hatred followed by times of manic energy directed toward scientific discovery and invention. Pym’s times of self reproach often resulted in efforts to reinvent his super hero guise and he cycled through numerous alternate hero identities (including Giant Man, Goliath and Yellowjacket). Whereas his times of manic ingenuity often resulted in poor judgement and impulsive decisions where his scientific genius created dangerous machines and inventions.

One such invention was the deadly android, Ultron, who would go on to become a terrible threat and reoccurring foe to The Avengers.

Pym’s difficulties worsened after the creation of Ultron and he became more unstable and even violent. He lashed out at his wife, Janet, striking her in the face and built a robotic weapon he planned on unleashing on the Avengers so he could defeat it and show his worth. It all went very poorly and it led to Pym being kicked out of the Avengers. Soon thereafter, Jan filed for divorce.

Pym finally entered into treatment and made vast improvements. He went on to become a member of the West Coast Iteration of The Avengers before finally returning to the main Avengers team. Although he was not able to fully reconcile with his ex-wife, Janet, the two did manage to rekindle their friendship.

Some time thereafter, Pym was abducted by a Super Skrull agent who replaced him in the build up to the Skrull’s Secret Invasion. This Skrull version of Pym entered into a romance with fellow Avenger, Tigra, and their affair resulted in Tygra becoming pregnant.

The real Pym finally returned and went on to establish the Avengers Academy. He met Tigra’s son and determined that Skrull who had impersonated him did so on an entirely genetic level, leaving no trace of Skrull DNA and making the lad Pym’s biological son. It made for a peculiar situation but Pym was willing to be as involved in his son’s life as Tigra wanted him to be.

Some time thereafter, Pym perished in battle, sacrificing himself to put a stop to a deadly scheme orchestrated by Ultron. Following his death, it was discovered that his first wife, Maria, was pregnant at the time of her abduction and bore a daughter named Nadia just prior to her death. Nadia was raised in Russia but emigrated to the United States and has gone on to become the young heroine known as the second Wasp.

Actor Michael Douglas portrays a version of Hank Pym in the Marvel Cinematic Universe. The troubled hero first appeared in the pages of Strange Tales #75 (1960).

#365 Marvel Comics Heroes #Ant Man #Hank Pym #Avengers #Michael Douglas #cut-out #paper art

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maxwell-grant · 2 years

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If you're still doing the character opinion bingo... N'Doul, please? :D

The N'Doul fight is an all-timer in the series for sure and a pretty stark contrast with later Stand battles, where 90% of the challenge was figuring out how the Stand works so they can counter it. Geb is as simple as Stands can get, conceptually, it’s major advantage being how it benefits from the terrain and N'Doul's own cleverness. He's an excellent introduction to Egypt as the place where shit is gonna get real for the Crusaders, almost taking out the entire party and even disabling Kakyoin all the way to the finale, only beaten by the recent addition of Iggy into the mix. He's a very solid villain and an optimal choice as a entry-level showcase of "this is what a JJBA fight looks like", not surprising that this was the first fight to be adapted into animation as well.

N'Doul and most of the other 9 Glory Gods benefit a lot from Part 3 being saturated with colorful one-note baddies for the Crusaders to routinely beat, because it does wind up making him stick out all the more with his taciturn, focused personality, perfectly befitting a fight that’s entirely based on tense silence punctuated by sudden quick viciousness. A lot of what makes N'Doul memorable is because of that contrast between him and most of the other minions of DIO personality-wise as well as visually, because he's designed to be attractive in a way comparable to Kakyoin, and that throws off your brain a little when you're used to the Crusaders dealing with terribly-dressed sneering cartoons.

To a better extent than Hol Horse, N'Doul wouldn't look at all out of place among the Crusaders as an ally. I’d even say that, in a way, N’Doul reads to me now as a prototype for Enrico Pucci, in the sense of him being this solemn, driven young man with a tragic background driven into DIO’s arms by a need for salvation, and having a number of similarities with the heroes that only serve to punctuate the tragedy that is their suicidal allegiance to evil. I think it’s something that Araki’s been flirting with since Bruford in Part 1 and that saw it’s real potential taking form with Pucci, with N’Doul as the important middle step as someone who was driven to evil out of loneliness and lack of purpose and despair and being manipulated by someone who knew how to prey on his basic human needs. It’s with characters like N’Doul and Wammu that you see Araki first experimenting with that moral greyness he’d eventually make much more extensive use of as the series went along.

What I like most about N'Doul, though, is what he does for the narrative as an enemy for Jotaro to overcome in particular. As the Samurai to Jotaro’s Cowboy, the two get to have a wonderful showdown moment befitting that vibe, and more so than that, I think N’Doul works great as a showcase for Jotaro’s character development because he’s an enemy that Jotaro ends up getting emotionally invested in, an enemy that does go some way towards changing him. More specifically, I think of N’Doul as kind of the benchmark for Jotaro’s growth, the point that fully marks how Jotaro stopped being “just” the next JoJo and fully cemented himself as Jotaro Kujo, the iconic hero in his own right.

This probably has more to do with Araki’s changing tastes and likely not intentional but, I’ve been rewatching Part 3 recently and it just never stops feeling weird hearing Jotaro be called “JoJo” for much of the beginning. Obviously the series needs to keep the JoJo name going, and we’d sat through two other sagas starring guys everyone called JoJo, but with Jotaro, it just constantly feels discomforting, impersonal even. It’s a name that nobody actually close to him calls him, tied to a bloodline he has no connection to until that connection starts killing his mom. He gets called JoJo by his annoying classmates and his distant grandfather and the Crusaders he barely knows at first, and as the part progresses and they become closer and we spend more time with Jotaro, everyone calls him by his actual name. But at first, that name is an antiquated leftover, something that just points to Jotaro as just The Next JoJo and not his own person, a guy who’s just part of the story without belonging in it, if that makes sense.

Because Jotaro’s initially defined a lot by that distance between him and the greater history of conflict he’s getting dragged into. He didn’t grow up with Dio or stories about him, he didn’t take up martial arts to save the world, and unlike with Joseph, the vampire asshole hurting his family didn’t even have the decency to show up at his front door first before trying to kill him. He was just a high school student with an attitude problem one day, and then out of nowhere he gets “possessed” by an unfathomably dangerous thing that pushes him to lock himself up in jail for everyone else’s sake, and next thing he knows, he has to travel across the world with his grandpa and some other guys he barely knows, avoiding superpowered murderers every hour of every day with no rest, so he can go kill some evil thing he didn’t even know existed, because otherwise his mom’s gonna die.

And it’s through the course of Part 3 that we see him grow as a person and as a fighter, grow closer to the Crusaders who all start to know him better than anyone else ever did. We see him become the guy that evildoers around the world fear, we see how he owns that legacy he has within the Joestar bloodline and the destiny that comes with it, and in the following parts Jotaro takes over Joseph’s role as the main tether to it that everyone else has, older and more responsible and carrying that weight on his shoulders (for better or worse and, by the time of Part 6, definitely for the worse).

And I think it is N’Doul who really starts this transition for him on-screen because of how he shakes things up, not merely because he’s more than just another bloodthirsty maniac among the dozens Jotaro’s beaten up over the past days, but because he’s someone so devoted to that evil thing that he kills himself in front of Jotaro. Jotaro had seen people die, he’d seen DIO’s subordinates be offed in front of him, but this is the first time he sees someone commit actual suicide in front of him over DIO, and he’s powerless to save him as he did for Kakyoin and Polnareff (while this is probably not intentional, the fact that Star Platinum exhibited enough strength to smash car-sized diamonds and punch holes straight through DIO definitely makes it seem like Jotaro was pulling his punches quite a bit over the part)

Jotaro meets N’Doul, a man with virtues and qualities that Jotaro recognizes enough to feel some kind of kinship towards him, and he has to watch that man skewer his brains out in front of him using his own Stand. We don’t really get much talkative introspection out of Jotaro in general because of the way he’s written but, prior to the N’Doul fight, the only other time we’d been allowed enough into Jotaro’s headspace was a brief moment in the Death 13 arc where Jotaro reflects that he’s 4.000 miles from home and it’s been 4 weeks and he’s getting worried they won’t make it in time. As in, his driving motivation still remains just getting to DIO in time to save his mom. Obviously not something anyone can criticize him for worrying about but,

In the aftermath of the N’Doul fight, we see Jotaro thinking about DIO specifically, really the first time we see him even address him proper after the beginning where he doesn’t even think DIO exists. DIO is weighing on his mind, he wonders what kind of man is he, the kind of power he has over people’s minds, what other horrors he’s gonna throw their way. He gets emotional yelling at a dying N’Doul and asking him to tell him why, why are you killing yourselves for that man, why is this worth dying for to you people, and N’Doul uses his dying breath to open up about his background and power, and give him the Evil Savior speech. And I think this is kind of when Jotaro finally internalizes what kind of power DIO has, something that makes him existentially monstrous and dangerous on a bigger level than just the things he’s done to his family and friends, or to countless others before and now, or that he’s causing to his mom right this second, or even that he’s done to the fanatics under his thrall he’d sent to die fighting them.

Enya was one thing, and all the Crusaders were pretty shaken about that even then, but this? That’s the kind of thing that gets Jotaro to make a grave, because there’s nothing else he could possibly do, for a guy he’d just seen rip off the faces of innocent people and blind his friend. For a guy that Jotaro didn’t want to kill, a guy who really, really didn’t have to die, a guy who could have been something else, something better, really just something at all, other than just another corpse with DIO’s name on it.

I think of this as the moment where Jotaro truly internally grows into the hero of the story, as the only one who could stop DIO. Who came to understand DIO a little better than the others. Jotaro grows to be DIO’s nemesis not just because he’s equally powerful, or equally determined, or better at stacking up bullshit tricks to win fights, but because he refuses for even a second to entertain DIO, because he'd seen again and again the horrors DIO can wreak if he gets even an inch worth of breathing room (and it STILL doesn’t stop Jotaro from falling for DIO’s bullshit and almost dying in DIO’s World). There is no history between the two as there was with Jonathan, nothing other than savagery and hatred. DIO’s been shitting over everything and everyone for years and it just so happens that Jotaro was given a mop to clean it up. Jotaro was the enemy DIO deserved.

At no point did Jotaro get a choice in the matter, when it came to entering this journey, it was either this or sitting by watching his family die. But here, we see how personally he’ staking it to oppose DIO for reasons other than his mom’s predictament. Iit’s also important that, immediately following N’Doul’s burial and Jotaro’s thinking, we get the scene where he bonds with Iggy, saying he’s not mad for Iggy having screwed him over during the fight and that he doesn’t blame Iggy for being pissed that he got dragged away from home to fight in the desert, and extending the gum as an olive branch, a pretty far cry from what the self-proclaimed “nobody ever said Jotaro Kujo was nice" guy from early in the part would have done (also not an inaccurate way to describe what Jotaro himself went through, no wonder he’s the first to sympathize with Iggy).

Though his trials were countless, it was N’Doul that most prepared Jotaro mentally for the battle against DIO and his unending evil, not just in Cairo, but in the following decades. And I think of N’Doul’s burial as the moment that made Jotaro choose, of his own volition, to step up into his role as DIO’s Enemy, for all the good that would do him. Maybe evil needs a savior, but so do those who need to be saved from it.

I realize I spent most of this post about N’Doul talking about Jotaro but honestly I do think of that as a mark of him being a great villain, I think he brought out something real special out of Jotaro as a character during that fight.

#replies tag #character opinion bingo #jjba #jojo's bizarre adventure #jojo #stardust crusaders #jojo part 3 #n'doul #jotaro kujo #jotaro

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the-nysh · 2 years

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No proper closure between Bang and Garou. In Bang’s eyes Garou has only hunted heroes but I hope Bomb tells him that he saved his life as well. “I won’t let you throw your life away!” Oh please as if those a class weaklings could actually kill him.

Bang did the same mistake with Garou which he did earlier with Charanko. When Genos assaulted Charanko, the latter’s master did nothing. The A Class heroes ganged up on him and he again did…nothing? Maybe perhaps he internally knew that those heroes couldn’t really kill him even if they tried their hardest.

Hhhhh ;.; considering all the high-hopes I’d been anticipating for Bang to prove himself to his boy, for their long overdue heart-to-heart beyond fists, where Garou can finally be HEARD - to participate in the conversation and be understood for once, to make progress towards their reconciliation and for Bang to show him how much he actually cares in front of everyone (like Tareo), now this is just.....oh dear, tragically inadequate (or narratively cut short) to repair things or give their broken relationship proper closure. ;o; That honestly yes, I’m feeling rather disappointed in Bang for his inaction here...

See, because he basically stood there and watched Garou get beaten by the hero mob per their satisfaction even Metal Bat interjected to say something in disapproval without intervening (guh;;; once again, only affirming Garou's expectations vs what 'god' tried to bait him with Bang’s ‘soft’ behavior otherwise) And for Garou....he let the onslaught happen, fully tanking the punishment (and purposely goading them to deliver more under the ‘act’) while fully expecting the heroes to make the killing blow... Because, as Saitama, Bang, and Zombieman finally realized how odd that is...Garou was accepting the beating with a (suicidal/repentant) death-wish; ‘this guy doesn’t want to live anymore.’

That it was only AFTER Tareo ran in to stop everyone, followed by KING who dispersed everyone's hostility, that Bang bothered to step forth.

And...that is all you have to say to him? (I mean, I’m glad Bang didn’t join in to fruitlessly beat on him too like the wc but) After everything, just a single line to YOUR BOY - practically your own son, even!

[You know, I��m honestly feeling Garou’s expression here, weary of everyone coming in to judge or decide what to make of his life for him, and speaking over him about things he likely already knows] Because maybe Bang is speaking from a place of personal experience - as his reason for his wayward younger self choosing to be a reformed hero, but....(that would still be Bang projecting on Garou without hearing anything he has to say - Garou is still fully silent!! or understanding how he feels ;o;) So how distant and impersonal that line feels, cause honestly it could be said by anyone, from any mentor or authority figure after the fact (rather than Garou’s own surrogate parental figure.)

But it also rings particularly hollow...because ironically that’s what Future Garou already did. :’) He already gave up his life to undo all the harm and save everyone. So even subconsciously, this sentiment doesn’t really tell or inform Garou of anything new that he needs to hear. “I won’t let you” - ok but why though. Because you care for him as a ‘father’? (Make THAT part clear to him! So Garou doesn’t misunderstand!) Or because it’s only part of ‘duty’ and ‘justice’ decided by the current hero value system? Because I tell ya, Garou’s already been prepared to use/throw his life away to ‘save others’ like Tareo and change the world in his own way. :’) So honestly, Bang telling him this feels like it doesn’t tread any new ground, to challenge what Garou’s already come to know & expect, nor does it really resolve or change anything between them to fix their relationship. ;o; Ahhh, it’s been left tragically (purposely?) hanging and incomplete.

#opm #bang #garou #manga spoilers #anonymous #replies #man did i feel very hmmm about that being all bang had to say #that it felt purposely unresolved and incomplete to continue garou's journey later

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shcherbatskya · 2 years

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is there smth wrong w the song of achilles?? genuine question bc i read it like a while ago and i thought it was okay. then again i dont know anything abt greek mythology so thats probably why

okay hiiii!! answering this as impersonally as i can to avoid just being outright mean so bear with me sjdhsjd. there are some yeah! i’ll try and outline them as well as just mentioning how i feel about it (which is just. most of the reason i dislike it.)

i’ll start with my own feelings just to get those out of the way, so number one! it’s a myth retelling. this honestly just means a book is already on my shit list to be quite honest. especially if it doesn’t bring anything new to the table (i guess just because it’s about achilles and patroclus?? i mean like. plot wise. just yk. go read the iliad…) even more when the things that retelling claims makes it different are like “feminist” “queer” “diverse” i get that those things are very important to portray in stories, but they are not often found in greek mythology, queer people, yes! but not in the way we would use the term today. (which is an important distinction to make and also not to label mythological characters as having strict sexual or gender identities. it varies story by story and also!! just. don’t <3 for me <3) but to make those stories from myth into this like. vaguely gentrified versions of themselves takes a lot of the original away. are they always good and moral as we know now? No. but they’re not really supposed to be. also my own personal views on achilles as a “protagonist” but i’ll leave that for later <3

now for the actual issues with it!! number one: achilles mother is seen as trusted and loved by achilles. she is there when he is fighting with Agamemnon in the first book!! he prays to her for help!! she is the one who asks hephaestus to make achilles armor when he rejoins the battle!! and miller portrays her as openly homophobic towards achilles and patroclus?? like! no… not her…

number two: patroclus is seen as like. a soft boy healer and achilles as the masculine fighter of the relationship, which in and of itself falls into a sort of heteronormative way of thinking about gay relationships. not only that but also!! it’s not accurate. achilles genuinely spends most of the book Not Fighting and literally moping around just. because. patroclus on the other hand, is totally a fighter throughout the book (the iliad), he’s managed to fight, and Survive!! the near ten years of war they’ve already been through, and he’s still fighting! he’s shown to be a rash and passionate, so dumbing him down to a cinnamon roll can do nothing wrong character is. irking.

this could be chalked up to the fact the book is told from patroclus’ pov for most of the book, but achilles is not a sympathetic character. he’s not really meant to be! he’s arrogant and mean and spends most of his time wallowing and then he’s brutal and merciless after patroclus dies. i think this is also more of a fan base issue but like. he’s not a sweet character no matter how he acts around his lover. he’s a tragic hero in name alone!!

#hope this all makes sense. mostly im just a madeline miller hater because. well i just don’t like her. also i can link sources !#samael speaks #angel radio

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popculturebuffet · 2 years

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Bubba Ho-Tep Review: A Stark Meditation on Age and Elder Care liberally mixed with talk of Elvis Presley's Diseased Penis (Comission For WeirdKev27)

Happy Halloween all you Happy People! It's time once again for me to review some spooky stuff on this fair blog.

Last year I took a nice long look at the Evil Dead quadrilogy, soon to be a quintology as Evil Dead Rise is coming next year provided HBO Max dosen't try to shelve that one too. This year there will be some more deadite hyjinks as we take a look at the first arc of the Evil Dead and Army of Darkness comics, and for the unaware those are very diffrent things because Rights Issues are funny that way, it wouldn't be right if I didn't also include the man who made Ash possible, mr. bruce cambell. Kev clearly felt the same way so here we are with Bubba Ho-Tep, a 2002 film starring the chin himself and vetran theater actor, character actor, director, activist and all around awesome dude I just learned about thanks to this film Ozzie Davis as the two play elderly men who may be Elvis, having switched places with an impersonator years before his "death" and JFK having been turned into a black man and given sawdust to replace the rest of his brain as their a bunch of elderly people's only hope against an ancient mummy dressed like a cowboy for reasons only vaugely explained whose after their souls, all directed by the same guy who wrote the horror classic i've never seen Phantasm, while also medetating on the strain of aging, how society treats the elderly, and Elvis' Cancer Riddled Penis

This may be the weridest thing i've covered on this blog and with almost 400 articles under my belt and having covered things like this

Just within this year alone, it's a high achievement. So come along with me as I unpack all of this won't ya?

For starters the film's tone is REALLY weird. I mean you'd think with the subject matter it'd be a campy shlocky action fest and while this is very much a b-movie, it's also one that starkly and depressingly tackles aging. While our hero is indeed probably Elvis, he's on his last legs. He spends most of his days laid up in his bed, depressed, barely moving and talking at length about the growth on his penis.

Now you may think "Jake why did you bring this up at all, surley this is just a throaway gag or something right?". Well no. For one thing, the film OPENS, just throws you into Elvis talking about his sad state of affairs while talking in graphic detail about how bad his johnson is. A sad, long monologue about Elvis feeling so lonely he could cry because his wang can't anymore, Elvis in the middle of a mooving scene we'll get to more in a moment oggling a woman and being glad his burning love can still at least flutter a little. There is an uncomfortable amount of time spent with Elvis' dick, and I suspect it's purposeful, but probably still coudl've been trimmed a little or at least lead into better. It is a LOT and dosen't really make you WANT to watch more. I might not have were I not being paid to hear bruce cambell give an artful silloquy about his dingus. Kev also did not remotely warn me about any of this.

I mean he got a good interaction out of me, mission acomplished there but who does that.

And yet the king's junk ... is an important and tragic part of the film. I didnt think i'd be getting paid to type about the tragedy of Elvis' penis in the same year as a film where Tom Hanks doing some weird undefinatble accent as Col Tom Parker takes you through Elvis' life, goes nearly mad thanks to the hippies and is narrating all of this from some casnio waiting room in the after life while Ross Butler gives a career making performance as the king, but here. We. Are.

But said growth is humilating, has to be treated by a nurse once a day.. and towards the end Elvis reveals it's most likely cancerous, with the staff not having the decency to tell him because they figure he'll die before it gets to that. It sums up Elvis' predicament well: He's not treated as an adult, let alone a person and isn't given any dignity. He's just there to be shuffled about and to get checks from. To stay there till he dies infantalized, humaliated, alone and forgotten. It's a BITING indicment of how the worse retirement home treat people: giant cages for people to rob them of their dignity and what life they have left. The king dosen't move hardly at all or do anything at first, not really needing or wanting to and having none of the spark that made him a star left, in a place where children don't visit, as seen when a friend of Elvis dies and his grandaughter just casually throws away his things and has no actual defense for never visiting. It's a disposal for humans and the film makes a great point both that we just kind of willfully ignore this happens and that we shoudln't: We need to have more empathy.

It's only the thrill of stabbing an ancient scarab trying to steal his soul that reawakens the once and future king's passion

And it's here that Corascelli makes another good point :Just because society gives up on you isn't a reason to give up on yourself. Elvis may be old and likely to die but as he and Jack investigate the mummy what lives in a hole in their yard, you see the life come back in him, life Jack always had. Jack never gave up even as understandably no one belived his story and it's thorugh their honestly sweet friendship and this deering doo that Elvis becomes his old swaggering self again, from gleefully jumping into the investigation because he has nothing better to do to telling his nurse to fuck off for patronizing him. It's a slow progressive change but it's a well done one both in the writing and Cambell's acting. He enters the final act back in his iconic white spangly suit, ready to kick a mummy's ass. not because he needs to for himself: now he and John are aware they can stay away, but because he knows Ho-Tep will just keep feeding and feeding on the lost souls of the retirment home and that no one else is going to protect them: I'ts down to him and while he sadly only barely surivvies, and not for long the process and John very much dosen't, he takes out hotep and wins.. able to die having made sure no one else goes.

It's a powerhouse performance from Bruce, with him even bragging how he made a good performance out of elvis with dick cancer, his words not mine, and manages to be impactful, heartbrekaing and ocasoinally hilarious, like Elvis' disbelief at when trying to find something to watch finding a marathon of his film announcing "all those movies are shit". It's a grea tperformance. Ossie Davis likewise fucking brings it, both being hilarous as Jack completely commits to saying he's JFK, but also being charasmatic, charming and heartbreaking when he finally does leave. The duo's chemstiry is infectious and really carries the film

So while the film has suprising depth, heart and a fun duo it's not without it's issues: The film comes off VERY cheap, and while I don't mind a film having to be made on a budget, it dosen't have to LOOK like it: WHile the effects for the mummy and it's scarab look fine, the rest of the film often looks like a made for tv movie. And I thought for a second Phantasm had a higher budget but no: Phantasm was made for 300 thousand dollars to Bubba Hotep's one milliona nd even adjusted for inflation, it only goes up to 743 thousand, just a bit UNDER Bubba's budget. So while I get using just one setting and what effects he had, It dosen't justify the film being shot so plainly. Just form what i've seen of phantasm in clips the man can do better with less and I expect as much.

The humor is also VERY hit and miss. There is a LOT of dick and ass jokes. One or two work like Elvis for some reason assuming hotep is going to shove his walker up his ass then shove elvis up Jack's ass, but mostly it just comes off a tad gross.

Finally the pacing isn't great. Our heroes don't find out it's a mummy till an hour in and only start investigating after that. I don't mind a slow burn in horror but they coudl've shaved at least 20 minutes off this. There are a LOT of slow shots of people walking which works when it's emphasising the characters age but rarely elsewhere.

Overall Bubba Ho-Tep is a flawed flim.. but it's still one with a lot of heart, some fun elements, and two standout performances. It took a while to really grow on me but by it's badass and oddly tragic finale I was hooked. It's not the best horror film by a mile, but it is one worth your time. Thanks for reading, consider joining my patreon, feel free to check out my bonus halloween reviews on letterboxd all thsi month and hail to the king baby.

#bruce campbell #ossie davis #bubba hotep #don coscarelli #elvis #mummy

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scarletjackal · 2 years

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( UNJUSTIFIED MEANS TO AN UNREALISTIC END, WAYWARD BROTHER, TRAGIC HERO REMADE WITH A GOD COMPLEX )▸ welcome to latverion, BEN REILLY (JACKAL). it’s time to be gracious, for in this vast multiverse, you have been saved by emperor doom. according to records you are 35 and use HE/HIM pronouns. emperor doom expects you’ll enjoy your career as BIOTECHNICIAN (SHERIFF), or else. excellent. we look forward to your contribution. ( BEN BARNES )

ABOUT BASICS

FULL NAME: benjamin reilly

ALIAS: scarlet spider the jackal

AGE: thirty-five

AFFILIATIONS: new u technologies, parker industries

GENDER AND PRONOUNS: cis man, he/him

FACE CLAIM: ben barnes

IN-DEPTH ANALYSIS

POINT OF ORIGIN: comics - clone conspiracy. specifically from a universe whereas ben succeeds in the murder and impersonation of peter parker. it would have followed close enough along to ben’s 616 counterpart (but loose enough for plotting purposes).

ABILITIES/SKILLS: radioactively spawned spider-sense, stickiness, and superhuman strength. natural born (cloned?) intelligence. as scarlet spider: web shooters, knock-out stingers.

HAVE THEY BROUGHT ANY FAMILY OR PETS WITH THEM: no

ANY HEADCANONS YOU WANT OTHERS TO KNOW: the world jackal left was dying, like the others 616-kaine had witnessed, but he wasn’t exactly doing everything in his power to stop it. after years of being the most influential person on the entire planet, atop a legion of followers dependent and forced into loyalty... it got old. so what if the carrion consumed them all?

QUESTIONNAIRE

HOW DOES YOUR CHARACTER FEEL ABOUT EMPEROR DOOM? contempt mostly, but he makes a point to not get worked up over their relationship. as unfamiliar as being a subordinate is, so far he’s had little trouble keeping his helmeted head down and falling in line. this place is unlike any he could have ever imagined, with an unlimited possibilities... that is where his interest truly lies. this new world.

HOW DOES YOUR CHARACTER FEEL ABOUT THE BATTLES? ARE THEY TRYING TO AVOID THEM? OR ARE THEY EAGER TO JUMP IN? the battles fascinate him. perhaps a little to much. he spends plenty of time in the audience.. convinced he prefers the role of spectator. he hasn’t had to fight his own battles for a long time. too long.

WHY HAS YOUR CHARACTER ACCEPTED THEIR JOB POSITION? WILL THEY USE IT TO GET CLOSER TO DOOM? OR WILL THEY USE IT EXPLOIT HIM? OR DO THEY SIMPLY LIKE THEIR JOB? for dr. reilly, dark calling aside.. he’s good at it, and enjoys it. proving himself useful to a malevolent ruler couldn’t hurt, either. if he didn’t think he would be immediately sniffed out, he would continue his work trying to perfect his clones. he’s found new inspiration, buried deep underneath any menial task he’s handed. as the sheriff of the valley, he takes full advantage of the fact no one (doom included) really pays timely much mind. ‘ruling’ with a loose fist. for now.

#latverion:intro

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bravelittlescrib · 1 year

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Hey! Who are your ocs again?

Whew! I have quite a few, but I'll jot the main ones down. The tES ones, at least.

Nyx: My Hero of Daggerfall/Agent. She's a Dunmer who grew up as a street urchin in the Imperial City and became a thief (and later an assassin for the Dark Brotherhood), but she always wanted to be a ballet dancer. After the Dragon Break, she gets married to Llarys, my Dunmer spellsword Vestige, and they start a family together in Vvardenfell. Nyx and her kids die in the eruption of Red Mountain.

Llarys: a House Redoran Dunmer with a career as a gang enforcer, after becoming a Vestige, he experiences a religious revival and becomes a fanatically devoted ALMSIVI worshiper, and also devoted to turning his life around and becoming a beneficial member of society. He hates Mithra for killing Almalexia (and possibly Vivec), and also blames him for Nyx's death.

Mithra: My Nerevarine! He's an Altmer agent who ran away from his noble birthplace as a young man and turned to a life of crime. After being imprisoned for impersonating a government official, he gets sent to Morrowind. In summary, he ends up as a person of some importance in the Morag Tong, House Hlaalu, and even had a short career in the Tribunal Temple. He ends up together with my Dragonborn.

Sora: My Orsimer Hero of Kvatch. I don't want to reveal too much, because her story is being worked on presently, but she's very brawny, not very intelligent, and kind-hearted. A member of the Fighter's Guild and Champion of the Arena, she is incredibly in love with Martin, and his death causes her to go on a rampage that ends with her mantling Sheogorath.

Assabael "Patience" Urshammarnamus: Not actually my OC, actually she belongs to a friend, who made her for my tES D&D 5e campaign a while back, but I basically adopted her. She's an Ashlander with a tragic past who ended up working for the Blades, but got on their bad side after being assigned to work on a messy coup in Hammerfell. Her paranoia drives her to kill an innocent and encounter the Dark Brotherhood, which will also be part of my Oblivion WIP.

Gwenned Ghost-Singer: He's a Reachman that had to flee as a child from his home following the Markarth incident and returned to Skyrim to get his revenge on the Stormcloaks, only to find out along the way that he's the Dragonborn. He gets involved with the Thieves' Guild, and later the Forsworn, after finding out his older sister, Caoimhe, is alive. He has another sister named Saoirse who lives in Cyrodiil with her husband. Following the events of Skyrim and the Dragonborn DLC, he moves back to Markarth and gets named Jarl.

And since I'm working on some Dragon Age fic, I'll give them a mention too!

Hero of Ferelden: Rhodri Cousland. He is incredibly altruistic, and wants the best possible outcome even if it comes at a steep cost for him and those he loves (eg., making Alistair king and having him marry Anora). He romances Zevran.

Hawke: Callum Hawke, snarky mage extraordinaire. He's staunchly anti-Templar, but at the same time wants to put his family first. He romances Fenris, and they are basically Kirkwall's power couple.

Inquisitor: R'hiannon (or just Rhiannon) is a Dalish rogue. She has a hot temper and biases against humans (human mages, most of all), but her time with the Inquisition helps her get over them. Solas, specifically, helps her overcome her distrust of magic-- although when he requests to remove her vallaslin, she cuts off their relationship. She ends up with Cullen, who has been desperately in love with her since she first yelled in his face, and they get married happily ever after... for a little bit, at least.

#asks #oc: nyx #oc: llarys #oc: mithra #oc: patience #oc: sora #oc: gwenned #oc: rhodri #oc: callum #oc: rhiannon #SORRY THIS TOOK ME SO LONG I HAVE BEEN SO BUSY

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davids-cartoon-corkboard · 2 years

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White Bone Spirit’s plan to “rip the memory of [Sun Wukong] from this world” means she’s definitely tampered with Macaque’s memories, as well as others’ memories about Macaque. Qi Xiaotian doesn’t recognize him as one of the villains SWK and company fought on the Journey despite being a major SWK fanboy and seeing him in the golden vision of truth back in “A Hero is Born!”. At first I had thought Macaque’s story just wasn’t well-known in-universe, but his debut episode contradicts this.

He was nervous when he introduced himself to QXT as the Six-Eared Macaque... he thought QXT would react negatively! Enough people know about him being a villain that he expects them to panic or become hostile when they realize who he is. That is, enough people used to know about him before WBS started meddling.

Many folks suspect Macaque lied or twisted the truth in “Shadow Play”, since he is a villain. Others thought Macaque was being honest because SWK was kind of a bastard before his character development on the Journey, so having SWK’s past wrongdoings come back to bite him would highlight that hey, this Super Cool Celebrity Warrior is fundamentally A Person With Flaws. It’s good to look up to him, sure, but it’s not good to idolize him. I think the second option is more likely, with the caveat that what Macaque thinks is the truth isn’t what actually happened.

-----

As for what did happen, Journey to the West itself offers clues. To quickly summarize: If SWK and company successfully help the monk Tripitaka fetch scriptures from the west and bring them to the east, their past misdeeds will be forgiven and they will be rewarded with positions in Heaven. But in chapter 56, SWK unnecessarily killed some bandits, so Tripitaka rejected him and sent him away.

In chapter 57, SWK went to the Bodhisattva Guanyin to tell on his master... while “SWK” attacked the other members of the Journey and planned to replace them with impostors so he could take the Heavenly reward all for himself. Sha Wujing went to the Bodhisattva Guanyin to explain the situation and ask for help, and she told him SWK couldn’t have done those things, since he'd been by her side for the past few days. Sha Wujing and SWK left to go discover the truth.

In chapter 58, they found “SWK”, and he and SWK immediately began fighting. They looked and sounded exactly alike and were evenly matched to the point that no one could tell them apart... so they went to the Buddha himself for help. He explained that the false SWK was a six-eared macaque. The six-eared macaque panicked at being discovered and tried to run, but the Buddha trapped him and revealed his true form. SWK used this opportunity to kill the six-eared macaque. And... that’s the end of that storyline. On to the next adventure!

Taking the text at face value, the six-eared macaque is... Some Guy. He and SWK didn’t know each other personally and had no shared past, he just saw an opportunity to get something good for himself and failed to take it. This gives us half of Lego Monkie Kid Macaque’s backstory; he certainly isn’t Some Guy, but that he disguised himself as QXT to attack SWK and then mocked SWK for not seeing through the illusion suggests he did impersonate SWK and attack his allies during the Journey.

“Seriously? You fell for that?!”

Since Journey to the West is an allegory for enlightenment, we can look at the text- and the shadow play- through an allegorical lens to understand LMK Macaque’s motivation. JttW Macaque represents SWK’s “dark side”, the violent, selfish, deceptive part of himself he needs to overcome before he can continue on the Journey.

And suddenly Macaque’s shadow schtick makes a whole lot more sense.

---

Every goddamn line of the play supports the idea that Macaque is a part of SWK that got separated from him somehow.

Obviously Macaque was referring to SWK when he talked about “the hero” and himself when he talked about “the warrior”, but he gestured at SWK’s silhouette when he said “[the play] follows the tragic tale of a legendary warrior...” (SWK is the hero and the warrior... but Macaque is the warrior and not the hero.)

“...[T]hose who bring light into this world inevitably bring darkness to those they hold dear.” (SWK “brought” Macaque to the other Journey members.)

“Like light, heroes bring warmth, hope, and friendship. But they also give life to the darkness.” (SWK “gave life” to Macaque.)

“The hero and the warrior were like the sun and the moon; their light a protective glow shining upon the world. Together, there was nothing that could stop the two of them, either in the celestial realms or on earth.” (The moon reflects the sun, Macaque reflects SWK. Macaque also considers (or considered...) himself a protector. Macaque was present for/part of SWK’s ruckus in the celestial realms.)

“The hero attained power beyond comprehension. As the hero’s light grew, so too did his shadow. And soon, the warrior was cast in that shadow.”

(SWK, this blinding light, looms over Macaque menacingly. SWK “cast out” or “cast away” Macaque.)

“In the darkness, the warrior was forgotten by the hero.” (Oh? Forgotten? Wow I wonder how SWK could have forgotten such a dear friend it sure is a mystery.)

-----

Three of QXT’s clones became markedly different over a short period of time, and their reappearance in “This is the End!” means they didn’t stop existing just because QXT poofed them. It’s not a stretch to guess that one of SWK’s clones also became markedly different over a longer period of time and gained a certain amount of permanence.

SWK mostly uses his clones for combat, which explains why Macaque’s lessons to QXT boiled down to “hit stuff really hard”.

“...[Y]ou don’t use a weapon, you are a weapon!” in that context is... disconcerting. It’s not surprising that SWK would consider his clones to be merely weapons, since he can just poof them away when he’s done with them and, well, they are him. Maybe it was odd that this particular clone was The-Violent-Selfish-Deceptive-Parts-Of-SWK rather than SWK-As-A-Whole like all the rest, but he was always good in a fight! SWK had to protect his monkey subjects, after all! And beat up those underworld guys who tried to kidnap him, and also beat up those guys in the celestial realm who disrespected him, and then beat up the guys from the celestial realm who tried to arrest him for that, and then beat up the army from the celestial realm who tried to arrest him for eating a bunch of magic immortality food he wasn’t supposed to eat, and THEN beat up the rest of the celestial army as he escapes from being arrested, and THEN-

He got pinned underneath a mountain for five hundred years with only iron pellets to eat and molten copper to drink, and no visits from anyone. And when Tripitaka finally got him out, he put a magic fillet on SWK’s head that would give him a massive headache whenever Tripitaka felt like he was acting too violently. And sometimes Zhu Bajie would persuade Tripitaka that SWK deserved it even when he didn’t because Zhu Bajie was kind of a little shit.

In a situation like that, it’s only natural SWK wanted to avoid summoning his unusually rowdy clone for fear of him acting out and SWK taking the blame for it, so proto-Macaque was probably floating around in SWK’s subconscious being cranky that he couldn’t Do A Violence for a while until something happened to detach Macaque from SWK.

WBS appeared in chapter 27 of JttW, where she disguised herself as a human three times trying to get close enough to Tripitaka to eat him. But each time, SWK saw through the disguise and destroyed her body, only successfully killing her the third time. Because of Zhu Bajie’s persuasion, Tripitaka didn’t believe SWK when he said the “humans” were a spirit in disguise, so he rejected SWK as a disciple altogether and sent him away, though this rift was mended some chapters later.

LMK SWK clearly didn’t succeed in killing WBS, meaning there’s a space in the narrative between her appearance in chapter 27 and Macaque’s appearance in chapter 57 for her to meddle using her Creepy Ghost Whispers.

She whispered tear it out and crush it tear it out and burn it to SWK because this weapon was too dangerous to use, he ought to get rid of it before it backfired and that monk saw fit to crush his skull with the fillet. She reached deeper and whispered run before he smothers you break free from him and live to what would become Macaque, and trusted his own violent-selfish-deceptive nature would take care of the rest.

Sun Wukong reached into his chest and cracked and coughed and clutched and pulled and tore Six-Eared Macaque tried to breathe and coughed and cracked and kicked and thrashed and tore

and there it was

and there he was

They fought. Macaque lost. He ran.

White Bone Spirit made them forget. But sooner or later, they will remember.

Macaque will spiral for a bit, Not-A-Person-Just-A-Weapon-Made-For-Violence is a terrible thing to think of yourself. But eventually he will realize what he was is not who he is, and let go of his obsession with SWK so he can truly start to figure out who he is! He’ll probably never be a perfect uwu cinnamon roll, but he’s not doomed to be evil forever, either.

It may a while to convince SWK of that, however...

-----

Red Son

Sha Wujing

Zhu Bajie, Tripitaka, and Ao Lie

#lego monkie kid #monkie kid #monkie kid theory #lmk six eared macaque #lmk sun wukong #lmk white bone spirit #lmk lady bone demon #hmmmmm this got kind of edgy #ask to tag #im queueing this late so if you see any mistakes please let me know lol

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impulsivefanwriter · 3 years

Text

A Tiny Spark Leads to a Roaring Flame (But Flames Can Always be Doused by Water)

Heeyyyyy so y’all know the Reverse Thanos Snap AU for SPBNR? Basically everyone but Smith/S!Kai gets sent to the M!verse. Everyone. The entire population of S!verse Ninjago City & a few surrounding areas. Except poor Smith. Essentially it happens because S!Garmadon tries to send Smith to a place where he can't mess with his plans, and ends up sending everyone away from Smith to take him out of the equation.

The second part to this AU is that the S!Ninja end up searching for Kai in the chaos and grab the Red Ninja before jetting out of there with the Bounty. Except... they didn’t grab Smith (who’s still home), but rather Red (M!Kai).

Red thinks the S!Ninja are babysitter clones created by Garmadon after he somehow turned Lloyd younger without his memories & is trying to raise him to be his new General #1. With this in mind, he pretends to be S!Kai, and waits for the moment he can rescue Lloyd.

What would happen in the S!Ninja discovered his deception/their mistake of grabbing a wrong Kai and mistake Red for a recreated Aki (aka Bizarro Evil Clone Kai) before he could enact his plan?

Well, this is that idea. (Title inspired by how a crack AU spiralled into a beautiful angst-fest)

Enjoy. :3

-----*-----

Red was going to get Lloyd out of here tonight.

Away from these Not-Friends made by Garmadon to emulate the Ninjaforce. Away from this flying ship built to emulate Master Wu's ship, so familiar and yet so off. Away from this false reality and back to the real everything where they could hopefully get his memories back and his age back and everything back to the way it was before the city descended into chaos.

He just had to... bide his time. Be patient.

FSM, he was bad at being patient.

His hands itched to grab Lloyd and run now, but he was horribly outnumbered and without his mech. No matter how badly he wanted to, he couldn't rush this. If he did, he would make everything worse. Like he always did.

But fate- or rather, Lloyd- had other plans.

The little version of his younger brother- yes, they were roughly the same age normally, shut up, Lloyd was still his younger brother- had been... eying him weird all morning. Not like Not-Jay and Not-Cole and Not-Zane, but like Not-Nya. Like he actually knew instead of suspected. These babysitter clones seemed to think he was the Not-Kai, and if that was the opportunity the universe was going to give him, then by the flames of the departed world was he going to skip this chance to save Lloyd.

Currently he stood on the deck of the ship as they parked in the sky a few meters above the docks on the outskirts of the city. It wasn't the docks with the Bounty warehouse, curse his luck, but it wasn't the endless sky or the empty ocean (though it was still too close to that murky, haunting water for his liking. Water was his sister's domain for a reason). At least he could sneak Lloyd off in the cover of night, maybe find someone in the city who wouldn't recognize the Son of Garmadon this way and would be willing to help them hide until they could make it back to the real ninja.

"Kai," Not-Zane spoke suddenly next to him.

Red would never get used to the way his voice... lacked the same effect the real Zane's had. The effect that Kai and the rest of his team had assured their friend over and over was unique, special, but in a good way. To embrace it. That it wasn't noticeable, but when it was, that it was so Zane that his friends didn't care that it was different.

This 'Zane' sounded much too different than his own. He hadn't recognized Kai's tested line of 'road work ahead' when they passed one of the many construction signs littering the city (even more so since the chaos happened a week ago), and instead had responded with 'a great deal of work to fix in the city'.

Seriously, Garmadon, do better research on your clones.

Not-Zane was also much too... calm. Too 'wise' compared to the wild teen that was Zane. And he walked without heelies or whatever Zane used to slide around like a boss, though he was still silent. And that meant, like now, he snuck up on Red fairly often- and Red was training to be a Ninja, so that took serious talent.

"Kai," Not-Zane said again, and Red finally broke his gaze from where he'd been staring over the railing, planning tonight's escape route. "Lunch has been made for over an hour. Are you alright?"

Red forced his brightest smile. "Course I'm alright! Just trying to figure out what happened, as usual."

Why Lloyd was suddenly like, 8, and without his memories. Why the Not-Friends were on this Not-Ship and had mistaken him for Not-Kai. Why the city was in a state of disarray and chaos.

Not-Zane studied him, then turned to give the city a sad look. "I'm not sure myself. My scanners can't seem to figure out what is happening. It is as if... blocked by some force."

Red winced, then expertly disguised the move by leaning against the rail. Zane never would use 'my scanners', despite how often Red and the others assured him it was okay. Yet another reason why this wasn't his friend.

"You know Ninjago City," Red said with a weak laugh. "Always one crisis or another. Always those annoying Garmadon Attacks"

This seemed to satisfy Not-Zane, who nodded thoughtfully. "This event definitely seems to have Garmadon's hand in the mess."

He patted Red on the back. "Well, don't worry yourself ragged, Kai. Come in for lunch soon, alright? We have training for Lloyd later."

Ah, right. Training. AKA what Red assumed was how Garmadon was planning to shape this impressionable version of his friend into his new General #1.

"I'm ready for training now, Zane!"

Speaking of Lloyd-

The little gremlin came up from the hull with the rest of the Not-Ninja. Red hated when the entire group was together; it was way more difficult to act as Not-Kai around them, especially around Not-Nya.

For starters, Not-Jay had a notch in his eyebrow that the real Jay never had. He was missing the iconic freckles, and the scarf, and the fluffy hair, though you could always say it was just a wardrobe change. What you couldn't change was the personality differences. This couldn’t be Jay. Jay was anxious and quiet, his jokes (while plentiful) said more timidly and his newest ideas shared with hesitance that only shrank after years of encouragement. He would never be this loud, ever.

Not-Cole was the leader, probably because Lloyd was so young. But even then, in Red's team, Nya would probably take second-command. Cole was their sturdy support, yes, but he was chill, laid-back. Ready to follow and support his friends to the ends of the earth with his tunes and occasional sarcastic wit, but not lead. Not like Not-Cole, who was more serious and commanding and didn't. listen. to. music. Red hadn't spotted a single record or boombox in the room in the hull. That was a tragic oversight on Garmadon's part. The members of his research team should be Fired.

And then there was Not-Nya. Who wore a dress with confidence that his sister would love but never publicly wear. Who had short hair- Nya had tried that style once, and decided it itched around her neck too much- and jewelry, and a giant flying Samurai mech suit. His sister had the Water Strider Mech, and Not-Nya had a flying combat suit. Sure. Close enough. Personality-wise they were similar.

Similar at first glance. Nya was fluid and adaptable to whatever role she needed filling. She was spunky, and as fiery as him when it came to tempers, though she knew how to keep hers in check (she had to, right? No one called her hot-headed and impulsive and reckless and blamed her temper for mistakes or damage or whatever the news comments liked to say about the Fire Mech). Not-Nya was also adaptable and independent-minded, but she seemed more rigid. More doing her own thing.

Point was, everyone wasn't actually his friends, despite how much they tried to prove they were. And they kept acting like he was this Not-Kai, who was just as hot-headed but apparently more mature and training-oriented and basically the better, cooler (or hotter, perhaps, for the fire theme of the red ninja) him, since his acting never seemed to fully convince them. Trying to impersonate a standard he couldn't seem to reach, some legendary hero he wasn't- er, wasn't yet! Yeah! He just needed to prove himself, be better, and he'd be fine. Just... fine. Yeah.

Mini-Lloyd (Red was tempted to call him L'ilyod in his head, but that felt wrong somehow, like he was infringing on some kind of copyright law) stared at him like a goddamn falcon, and he wasn't talking about the bird that circled the ship. He had this bowl-cut Red would tease him about endlessly after all this was over- seriously, how had Mr. Fabulous Hair started with this mess? Garmadon probably didn't even have hair, so there was no way the guy knew how to style it, and it was very evident based on Mini-Lloyd's hairdo.

Red noticed that all of them were staring, actually. Despite his relaxed rest against the rails, his fingers behind his back clutched the cool bar with a dull shake. He didn't notice how the metal seemed to glow red under his touch.

"Training, right, we should get onto that," Red tried. "What do you want to start with, Lloyd?"

"How about a little game?" Lloyd asked with complete innocence. "What we were playing last week before we got interrupted."

Oh sh!t.

"I-I don't know, shouldn't we start with stretches? Or how about some sparring, that's always more fun than a game!"

"But I wanted to continue our game..." Mini Lloyd said, and FSM's sake, he couldn't deal with that pouting look.

Okay. Okay, don't panic. Think logically. What kind of game would an 8-year-old Lloyd like to play with him? Something physical, so no board games- he liked to test his mettle against Zane on those, and sometimes he would almost not-lose. Logic puzzles also fell more on Jay's area. Trivia, especially music trivia, was a bubble between the anxious motormouth and Cole. Video games fell on team building, and wouldn't classify as a training warmup.

"Well," Red said, taking a hopeful stab in the dark. "There's not too much space on the deck for... tag..."

Lloyd nodded, looking satisfied. The Not-Ninja looked- well, their expressions were hard to read because of how different it was compared to his friends. But Red was a master of deception (well, fire, but eh, technicalities), and he had them fooled, and he just had to keep it up until nightfall so he could rescue Lloyd and explain in a safe location-

"HE'S NOT KAI!"

Orrrrr improvise. Okay, yep, he could improvise.

Red lunged forward and grabbed Mini Lloyd's wrist from where he had his hand extended in an accusatory point. He ducked under Not-Jay's attempts to grab him- fast, but not as fast as his Jay, his Jay who could disappear from an awkward social interaction in the span of a flickering lightbulb- and dragged his younger brother with him as he vaulted over the railing. Not-Zane almost managed to yank him back onto the Not-ship, but his icy grip caught only empty air as Red pulled Lloyd into a tight hold and ducked.

He hit the dock below with a stumble, rolling back onto his feet and taking off with a very stubborn green ninja in tow. It took all his strength to drag Lloyd (kicking and screaming like he was being kidnapped or something when Red was just trying to rescue him, for FSM's sake. Lloyd didn't know that, but he could still try to be at least a little more considerate.)

The wooden docks creaked and shuddered underfoot and Red grimaced; whoever rebuilt them after the latest Garmadon attack had shredded them like newspaper clearly hadn't wasted any unnecessary change. It certainly didn't help that Lloyd packed quite the punch for someone so small. Red definitely would come out of this with bruised shins and arms from where Mini Lloyd tried to push him away, but it would be worth it to keep his teammate, his younger brother, safe.

Then green filled his vision and broke his hold on Lloyd's wrist, sending him skidding across the dock planks as he was sent flying. When he finally rolled to a stop, neck and shoulder stinging from where the blast had caught him (no burns, just jitters like he'd been shocked), he had to take a few seconds to re-orient himself. Did the Not-Ship have cannons or something? What hit him from behind, so close it could have hit Lloyd?

Lloyd. Was Lloyd okay?

Red pushed himself to his feet, ignoring the bleeding scrapes on his hands and legs from where he'd gotten banged up by the splintered docks. His gaze, sharp and frantic, searched for signs of green. The warning of more blasts, the flash of the fabric of a gi, anything.

He spotted his brother in the arms of Not-Cole. No, no, no-

And suddenly Not-Nya was there, given a boost by Not-Jay. Her grip was as if she were wearing the robotic mech suit, harsh and powerful and near in-human. She threw Red back to the dock floor as her face twisted with the fury of a storming ocean. A resounding crack rang out over the harbour.

Red couldn't tell if it came from the planks under him or his own shoulder.

She pinned him to the wood, barking accusations and threats in his face faster than Not-Jay could talk. Red blinked through a haze of pain, trying to focus on her face and words. She was missing the beauty mark on her face, he noticed. Yet another tell she wasn't his sister.

"-scar on the wrong side-" And it was hard to hear again over the ringing in his ears. He tried to throw her off, get back to Lloyd, anything, but he was-

Useless.

Her hands suddenly got in his face, slamming his left cheek to the wood. She was close- close to his face, close to his eye, close to his scar- pushing and prying as she tried to do something. Red picked up in his struggling, his attempts to free himself turning to desperate shoves and wild clawing like a trapped animal. He wouldn't let this creation of Garmadon's finish the job that teen had started all those years ago.

"Or better yet, he needs to shut his damn mouth."

The flash of a knife. His vision half-blurry. Blood- so much blood- and a lasting scar.

"-contacts-" "-red-" "-struggling-" "-we know what he- it- is already-" "-not the real Kai-" "-wish-" "-Garmadon-"

He had to get away. Get Lloyd away from them now.

In one surge of strength- and yep, his shoulder definitely wasn't okay after that move, as if he'd ripped it not just from its socket but from its very attachment to his body- he knocked Not-Nya aside. If he could’ve seen through the red haze, he might have noticed red embers dancing around his fingertips as his desperation and fear tapped into something deep in his soul.

He tried to shoot to his feet, tried to run for Lloyd (held so tight in Not-Cole's grip, surely they were hurting him, he couldn't let that happen-). He roared, "LEAVE MY BROTHER ALONE!", but before he could take another step through Not-Jay and Not-Zane in his path, the docks gave one last ominous shudder before deciding it had finally had enough.

The planks crumbled underfoot like charred firewood in a crackling campfire, and Red was sent tumbling into the frigid ocean water below.

#spbnr #reverse Thanos snap au #reverse thanos snap #ninjago #lego ninjago #same People but not really #kai ninjago

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