I didn't get him (and I need to save my keys for Silver's birthday, sob) so I looked up his groovy, and I'm not over how incredibly dramatic and epic and cool it looks in direct contrast to the absolutely ridiculous context. just look at that dynamic action and his majestic sparkling tears and keep in mind that this is pretty much right after a bunch of characters have been dance battling for his soul.
and then even the actual moment of the groovy is just like
this is NOT a negative in the slightest, I love it all, this truly was an incredible update in so many ways
was watching tiktok the other day and came across one of the "rottmnt boys must save poor little innocent '12!mikey from his evil big brothers >:(" videos and was compelled to make this bc i hate to break it to y'all but '12 mikey would go absolutely ape shit if he saw how people were treating his siblings (esp. raph)
Got tagged a while back by the brilliant @theredscreech and @hawthornsword (thank you both!!), and today I had a good few hours to block out for writing, and, well, since I got tagged twice, I feel it only makes sense for me to share a longer section...
When he turns around, plates in hand, Cody is smiling.
Obi-Wan nearly drops the dishes.
He has a list of Cody’s smiles by now. He’d thought he’d known them. There was the I have a reputation to maintain smile. Mostly in his eyes, with only the barest angling of the lips. The this is so not funny, can’t you tell how not funny it is smile, usually accompanied by a twitch of a muscle in his cheek. The really, sir? smile, usually accompanied by a proffered lightsaber and/or a roll of his eyes. The okay, maybe this is a little bit funny smile, with his lips pressed together in a thin line that curved upwards despite his best efforts. The I can’t believe we’re still alive smile– shattered with shock, bared teeth and cracked eyes.
His favorites, though, have always been the unguarded ones.
Mostly surprised, at the beginning. The first time Obi-Wan had called him by his name. The first time Cody had called him by name instead of title. The first time Obi-Wan had brought him caf, and the first time he’d asked for his opinion on a new flavor of tea. The moment he’d realized Obi-Wan’s tentative offers of library log-ins and rec equipment and holomovies for the rest of the battalion weren’t carefully-set traps.
Then, later, as trust had been earned and given and shared–
The exhausted ones. Broad and uninhibited, too tired for restraint. The kinder smiles, too, the ones saved for shell-shocked shinies and wary civilians, filled to bursting with confident reassurance that he would never save for himself. Soft smiles that shone like a lantern in the dark, the memories of which Obi-Wan kept tucked tight and bright behind his ribs.
This one, though–
Peacetime smiles, he decides, might be his new favorite.
No-pressure tags for @themonopolyhat, @aquaticflames, @bumbledees, @foreverchangingfandomsao3, @shadow-pixelle, @knittedgauntlets, and anyone else who wants to participate!
I know downfall duo has been posted about so much from this update but I've got another thought ok
Remember this? Last update before, here's them, questioning and wanting answers
Downfall duo wanting answers:
Legend and Hyrule when trying to find answers:
Downfall duo when they're being given the answers:
Really guys? Agents of sheer chaos right there
Literally the last time we heard from you you were serious detective wanting answers and then you're just cackling like maniacs what happened do you just get high from being near each other after not being within five inches for a few days YOU SAID YOU WANTED ANSWERS YOU POSERS
Art, comic, and adorable unhinged characters from Jojo @linkeduniverse :D
the love this team has for him is amazing. the ully hug is so soft. the carlo encouragement. acknowledging that they let him down and he was amazing. this whole behind the B episode ripped me to shreds.
writing raine and eda fighting is fascinating thus far because they are both people who are trying So Hard to keep their composure (raine bc they simply dont want to lose control and eda because she..... doesnt want to be the only person yelling), and yet. it's at a point where it's like. this argument would actually be more functional if you guys just gave in and shouted at each other. right now you're both pretending you're therapy-speak protags except neither of you has ever gone to therapy and neither of you will admit you have issues. like. good god could you just try to kill each other......
Fitpac fans really be writing entire essays about the meaningful symbolism and story relevance of them sitting next to each other in a chair huh (it's me I'm fitpac fans)
thinking about how dongsik and joowon are the inverse of each other. thinking about joowon's journey realizing that blood is not thicker than water, ties can be severed from abusive family members (no matter how painful that is) and that among many things, his father's cruelty is what took away and destroyed dongsik's family who actually were a positive force in his life. many things about beyond evil appeal to me, but i mainly want to put a pin on the central themes of the show, particularly the failures of adults and parental figures, how that ripples through the lives of their successors in an especially vicious and self-destructive manner. this is a commonality found between multiple characters in the show (minjeong, joowon and jeongje) - but i want to put emphasis on joowon's struggle with this because his path to freedom was walked to completion, in comparison to minjeong whose life was cut short and jeongje who we part with carrying the painful knowledge that he may never achieve absolution, as his journey has only begun.
the show, technically starts at the beginning of joowon's journey/arc. unfamiliarity and discomfort force him to adapt and self-reflect, because the only way joowon was able to free himself was by breaking every rule his father set for him, going beyond his selfish confines and breaking down the walls he built. joowon is unable to get his physical body dirty, he is emotionally closed-off and is incapable of understanding why the people in manyang, particularly dongsik, would look out for anyone other than themselves. he is selfish, rigid, guilt-ridden and bashful; but it is exposure to dongsik's unwavering faith in and patience for others (for jeongje, for sangbae, for the people of manyang that have wronged him for years) that erode his harsh edges. dongsik, although not without flaws and contrary to what his outer appearance and manner of speech radiate, is kind and forgiving. that kindess, that forgiveness, as well as joowon's own guilt and shame is essential to getting him to a point where he is comfortable bloodying his hands, his clothes, and his face to protect dongsik (+ jihwa and her partner. to protect his friends).
dongsik recognizes joowon's pain too ("i know what it's like to be blamed for something you didn't do"). he sees his guilt, it's not inordinate to what joowon's done per se but a large portion of it brings so much shame to joowon ("please, stop doing unnecessary things out of guilt.") how could i have been so self-righteous when the man who bore me is responsible for so much misery? how do i rectify this, how do i absolve myself from the guilt? all dilemmas joowon grapples with, and dongsik, knowing pain and shame all too well does not grant joowon mercy when he is bowed down, forehead to cuffed hands while joowon's own are also cupping dongsik's, begging for it. mercy is letting joowon go, it's lifting the burden of responsibility off his shoulders - but instead, dongsik’s final request ensures that joowon truly atones ("i ask you to arrest me" - "no, how could i do that? i have no right") by informing him that the only way to live with guilt is to try and do right by the people who expect something from him. "joowon-ah", dongsik says as he softly picks up joowon's clenched fist, the look they share informs joowon that going through with the arrest is how he'll do dongsik right. it's what dongsik, his now friend, expects from him. that's what their final scene as partners is all about, in my opinion.
and something good does come out of dongsik's firm but tender confrontation. joowon gradually becomes a better person who seeks community and whose life, in return, is enriched by the friends that forming community gave him. dongsik and joowon's parting is bittersweet, but in letting joowon know that his actions matter to others and that he is wanted and expected by others - (jihwa, as part of the larger collective whose feelings towards joowon are influenced by dongsik's, texts him and checks in - that expectation to show up and empathy for when he does not respond is an invitation letting him know that there is a place for him if he chooses to occupy any) - dongsik sets him free.
its 1 am and im reading The Hidden Dossier and thinnking about Ticker and how these are both games about hope. what is evil if not indifference. stars only shine at night. irrational hope is the only rational end. and in existing, it survives. feeling things tonight
>extinguished entire galaxies of allied life, but before they came, those ecumenes accomplished titanic works. What do they have to show for all their conquest?
>>the value of stories isn't in telling you there are monsters
>no matter what one prisoner does, the other benefits from turning on their ally. So both players will rationally defect, and rationally doom each other to five years
>it is only by disregarding the logic of mere survival that we can create a possibility of existence outside that logic
>>we have more binding us together than pushing us apart
>>every one of them workin' against the impossible to make things right for them and theirs.
>never give up hope. If it is possible to live well, then it is worthwhile to try
>>when we had all given up for so long, you lot came along and said: "Let's see what happens if we don't." And the whole world turned 90 degrees in a brighter direction
>by acting unreasonably, we escape reasonable limits.
>>it sometimes feels a shame that it took a time of conflict to know you. I suppose it's true what they say. That a certain darkness is required if one is to see the stars.
>darkness helps us avoid death. It helps us to go on existing. It is necessary. We must remember what hurt us so that we will not be hurt again.
>but darkness alone points to an eternal existence of mere survival
>the question of how to live well in a universe of indifference, cruelty, and deprivation is the ONLY question
>the most formidable blow we can strike against our true enemy, is to offer irrational grace: to choose unreasonable hope and unreasoning compassion even if it goes against calculated advantage
>>someone like you faced up to what might as well have been a god - never blinked, saved a world
>"purposefully making a suboptimal move in order to make a game more 'interesting' is a misunderstanding of the nature of a game"
>one move's grace, so both of us could play a better game