#they will be included in actual storylines and be defended in GOOD matches

[lightningarmour]

Pictured above: On the left, the first poster that was used to promote ROH Final Battle back in late october. On the right, the current version of that poster about a month later. We're just under 20 days until the event and I can't help but wonder how many more faces are going to change on this graphic between now and then.

I must say that I have been more or less enjoying Ring of Honor since it was purchased by Tony Khan and folded into the AEW tent. It's pretty light on promos or storylines, which is not terrible, and results in a far higher quantity of just pretty dang good wrestling, not to mention, probably the best women's division that is being utilized by Mr. Khan & co.

The fact that ROH is actually pretty good is why I've been getting really pissed off with how they seem to treat it as the embarrassing step sibling to AEW. Over the past year, more and more frequently AEW has made incredibly liberal use of ROH belts for their own promotion, to the point of making them seem fairly worthless.

I loved the MJF/Adam Cole bromance as much as the next guy, and them winning the tag belts (at an AEW ppv) was a fine decision, and could have been a way to kind of elevate the status of the titles... if Adam Cole hadn't busted his ankle. Now they've been treating the ROH tag team championship like it's their property and have just refused to let them lose it because what, it would be unfair if Adam couldn't defend his title? So what's the answer? They just get to have their reign artificially extended indefinitely, meanwhile every tag team in ROH can just kind of fuck themselves?

Then it seemed almost as a follow-up to Better than you Bay Bay winning those titles, the Hung Bucks got to dethrone the Embassy for the trios belts (on an episode of AEW), which they held on to for just long enough to be included in the promotional art for Final Battle before just dropping the belts directly back to the Embassy again. What an utter waste of a reign.

Then, after MONTHS of building up Dalton Castle as the heir in waiting to the ROH TV Championship, with the promise of a Castle vs Samoa Joe rematch, they instead just have Joe, the KING OF TELEVISION unceremoniously forfeit his title (on an episode of AEW) and now our promised clash of Dalton and Joe just isn't going to happen, and allegedly there's supposed to be a tournament or something to see who gets to claim the vacated title, but it's been like 3 weeks and zero mention of who gets the shot at that belt or when.

Then, Eddie Kingston(who defeated Claudio to become ROH world Champion on an episode of AEW) just gets to go ahead and put the ROH World Championship up as a prize for the fucking Continental Classic tournament, which is exclusively happening during AEW tv shows, featuring amost exclusively AEW roster. Which ends at the next AEW ppv, World's End on December 30th.

And the latest utter bullshit example of the ROH titles being thrown around like a prize from a gumball machine, with less than a week's worth of build up to the match, Wheeler Yuta, the charisma vacuum, defeats Katsuyori Shibata for the ROH Pure championship (on an episode of AEW) And before anyone um actually's me, I know that Shibata had to go back to Japan for personal reasons, but the handling of this title change was lazy and serves as another example of how little of a shit they seem to give about ROH as a promotion.

Every single ROH title win since like, May has happened on a televised AEW program. Neither Better Than You Bay Bay or The Hung Bucks ever once defended their Ring of Honor titles on Ring of Honor. No member of Ring Of Honor's roster has ever gotten to win an AEW belt and represent it on ROH. It's a completely one-way street where all the biggest stars in AEW, main eventers like MJF, The Young Bucks, Eddie Kingston, get to win ROH titles as a way to make them seem important, but nobody from ROH ever gets to be put over by defeating them.

Of the SIX championships ROH has, Three are currently unavailable to any ROH competitors. The World Championship is now a door prize for an AEW tournament, which means Eddie presumably will not be defending it at Final Battle. And even if he does, he's guaranteed to retain so that it can then be given to the winner of the Continental Classic. Or, some shmuck wins it from him only to have to forfeit it to the winner of said tournament. The ROH TV Championship is in limbo. no one possesses it and can't until they announce some kind of gimmick match to see who gets it. And the ROH Tag Team championship is a big shrug emoji. MJF tore his shoulder at Full Gear, so in all likelihood, he's losing his AEW World Championship to Samoa Joe at World's end. But are they going to bother having him and a mystery partner defend the ROH belts at Final Battle? Given that entirely zero top guys from AEW ever dirty themselves by appearing on ROH, I would be shocked if MJF set foot in an ROH ring. More than likely, he's going to have to do a solo defence again on an episode of Dynamite and lose, or maybe he and Adam Cole will just forfeit the titles and we'll have another stupid tournament or royal rumble to fill more empty belts.

Of the remaining three belts, only the Women's World Championship title is ever regularly defended on ROH. The Embassy are currently on leave because Gates of Agony are in some NJPW tag team event. And Wheeler Yuta only appears on ROH to do Pure Rules squash matches and even then only if he's being used for a replacement pure champ.

Quite frankly Athena is carrying the entire promotion on her god damn shoulders and frankly she does not get nearly the respect she deserves for doing so. She has single handedly made the ROH Women's championship feel like a more important title than either the AEW Women's Championship or the TBS Championship.

They've updated this poster for the event every time one of these titles has changed hands since they first announced it and I really can't help but wonder if it was all just to try and drum up hype and try and trick some people into early ticket sales because frankly I'd ask for my money back at this point between what this event was originally advertised as vs what it's looking like now, vs how it's going to look in 2 weeks.

In short, Tony Khan, please stop treating Ring of Honor like the red headed step child to AEW. It just makes the entire promotion and all the talented wrestlers who work there seem like fucking chumps who just weren't good enough to move up to the big leagues. You're squandering so many good names by stealing belts from ROH to use as fucking accessories to guys who are already in incredibly safe positions.

Like, incredibly unfair to like, Top Flight, The Workhorsemen, Iron Savages, even the fucking Outrunners that none of them have been able to get a shot at those titles because TK or MJF or whoever are unwilling to make their big names lose to the fucking nobodies in ROH?

Incredibly unfair to set up Dalton Castle as the next in line for the TV Belt but then have him go and job to fucking Nick Wayne on AEW.

Why the fuck would anyone want to spend 15 dollars a month subscribing to Honor Club to watch a show that is treated like shit by it's own promotion? Like, ROH used to mean something? Some of the biggest names in the industry got their start there, but it's hardly a place for new, young talent to be able to make a name for themselves when it's just being treated like the kids table for AEW.

#wrestling #pro wrestling #professional wrestling #rant #ROH #Ring of Honor #AEW #all elite wrestling #tony khan #Honor club #MJF #Eddie Kingston #Athena #Katsuyori Shibata #wheeler yuta #The Hung Bucks #The Embassy #ROH Final Battle #ROH Athena

[the-blue-brand-wrestling-blog]

The Blue Brand Wrestling Blog #1 - Wrestling News From This Past Weekend (WWE Payback, CM Punk & Tony Khan)

The Blue Brand Wrestling Blog

THEBLUEBRANDWRESTLINGBLOG.BLOGSPOT.COM

The Blue Brand Wrestling Blog #1 

Wrestling News From This Past Weekend (WWE Payback, CM Punk & Tony Khan)

Hey there guys & girls,

I’m Andy Mac, AKA The Blue Brand owner and creator (@The_Blue_Brand) on X / Twitter. I thought I would delve into the world of blog writing and what better thing to write about than my favourite pastime Professional Wrestling.

I started watching WWF back in early 2000 around the time of the Royal Rumble. I was instantly hooked and became an avid fan of the great one, the brahma bull – The Rock! I was 100% invested in his battle with the Big Show around this time before heading towards WrestleMania 2000’s fatal four-way (McMahon in each corner) match against the champ Triple H, Mick Foley and The Big Show. 

Since then, I’ve never looked back really, and I’ve been watching WWE for 23 years and counting. During this time, I’ve checked out TNA / Impact Wrestling, AEW and most recently Pro-Wrestling NOAH from Japan.

Anyway, maybe for a future blog I’ll write more about my introduction to the world of professional wrestling as a 9-year-old in the year 2000 and tell you who my favourites were. For now, I’m here to talk about this past weekend – 2nd & 3rd September and two stories I’ve decided to give my views on. Obviously, all opinions given are my own. Let’s get started –

WWE Payback – Saturday 2nd September 2023.  Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania at the PPG Paints Arena. 

Seth “Freakin” Rollins (C) Vs Shinsuke Nakamura – Winner, Seth “Freakin” Rollins. 

Match Length – 26:05.

I know most people coming out of this PLE are talking primarily about the women’s steel cage match between WWE Hall of Famer Trish Stratus and “The Man” Becky Lynch. Don’t get me wrong, this match was great and deserves all the praise and plaudits that is currently receiving, but for me personally the main event was the highlight.

First of all, it was extremely refreshing to see a different main event match at a PLE that didn’t include Roman Reigns or the Bloodline. Of course, I’m a huge fan of this storyline and the journey we’ve all been on the past few years, but it was nice to explore and experience something different.

In the build up to this match we got to see a ruthless and more aggressive side of Nakamura that we haven’t seen in a very long time. On top of that on the night of the PLE the company released an awesome animated promo package with Nakamura narrating over the top of it about what he planned to do to Rollins in their match. Rollins sold this well during the match – I also enjoyed the personal touch with Nakamura taking aim at Rollins family in the build-up.

Both men made their way to the ring, went through the usual introductions before the match got underway. Heading in to this one I had put money on Nakamura winning, especially with The Great Muta being in attendance. But in the end after a match that lasted just over 25 minutes, Seth Rollins managed to get the win with a curb stomp. This match was refreshing in sense that we had a babyface champion defending his title successfully in the main event of a WWE PLE. I also loved the fact that the pacing of the match was really well laid out. The match was telling the story of an injured Seth Rollins dealing with severe back issues that had been highlighted in the lead up to this match – So naturally as any good heel should do, Nakamura attacked and went on the offence with strong moves on the champions back. I’ve got to also give Michael Cole and Corey Graves huge credit for really selling the severity of the back injury and the pain Seth Rollins was having to deal with. My only critique of this match was the actual end, it felt quite abrupt, not due to match length, but maybe I’ve become to accustomed to multiple kick outs from finisher after finisher in Roman Reigns and AEW main event matches.

Initially I was disappointed it also ended the way it did for Nakamura, a clean loss after being so savage before and during the match. But thankfully once the PLE went off air Nakamura assaulted Rollins on the ramp. This feud still has legs, Nakamura can be a whiny but savage heel who feels embarrassed losing this World Title match in front of The Great Muta.

Let’s see how this one plays out on Monday Night RAW tonight!

Tony Khan and CM Punk – AEW Release CM Punk after (another) backstage fight

I’ll start this with Tony Khan – The list of job titles this man holds within the company alone should show why this doesn’t work. I know people will be quick to tell me The Elite are VP’s and have different roles within the company… But let’s face it, Tony holds all the real power and authority and he’s shown multiple times that he isn’t capable of being a strong leader or showing true authority to members of his roster who act out or behave unprofessionally. Let’s be honest, CM Punk should have been gone after the press conference and fight afterwards with The Elite last year, this all occurred after he defeated Jon Moxley for the AEW Championship at All Out 2022 last September. The fact Khan was willing to bring him back, basically create a whole new show for him and allow the carnage to continue and expected it to be smooth sailing says it all. What did he expect to happen? Can you imagine Vince McMahon allowing this to occur?

Now I’ll quickly discuss CM Punk – As I write this there are reports online about WWE actually being interested in CM Punk last year before WrestleMania. The idea of him returning at the Royal Rumble 2023 and being eliminated by Kevin Owens was proposed. This would supposedly lead to him facing Owens in the main event of WrestleMania night one. This apparently was actually considered by Vince McMahon and Triple H. These reports also note that Vince McMahon is open to Punk returning and Triple H would consider it, however he would want long-term story plans etc… in place. All of this makes sense if you consider Punk showed up at a Monday Night RAW earlier this year in the parking lot.

In conclusion, Tony Khan in my opinion needs to hire proper management that can be in between himself and the talent – Omega and The Young Bucks don’t count, sorry Tony. CM Punk, well, if he really does get one last chance with WWE, my advice would be –

Make a deal like Brock Lesnar / Goldberg – Work a set amount of dates, only work in the ring on PLE and have a set amount of TV appearances. Be a special attraction, be the star that you were between 2011 & 2014 in WWE.

 Do as you’re told by Vince McMahon and Triple H – Learn from your mistakes in AEW. Yes, I blame Tony Khan for not being able to control his roster, but CM Punk also has to take responsibility for being a veteran who handles disagreements with fist fights. You can’t settle disagreements in this way in 2023.

I was a huge CM Punk fan back in his run with WWE, I couldn’t wait to see him in AEW. But due to a couple of fights and injuries, we were robbed of a full two year run and got a stop / start one year run. It’s a real shame, his career deserves to end better than this.

Anyway guys, I’ll stop rambling now. Thanks for reading if you managed to get through it all. I intend on trying to do between 2 to 3 of these posts per week as well as a few personal blogs and maybe even some gaming blogs (WWE 2K23 ‘My GM’ & TEW 2020 ‘Pro-Wrestling NOAH’ saves)

Please leave feedback, if it’s constructive then I’ll always appreciate it. I’m always happy to learn and to become better. Please keep it respectful though, everyone is entitled to an opinion.

Take it easy guys,

Andy

#wwe #aew #wwe nxt #wwe raw #wwe smackdown #aew dynamite #aew rampage #aew collision #all elite wrestling #aew all in #tony khan #wwe payback #seth rollins #shinsuke nakamura #cm punk

[the-kipsabian]

coughedfeathers replied to your post: coughedfeathers replied to your post: ...

im sorry that I spoiled that bit oops but MY MAN DID IT AND THINGS ARE GOOD

i said it then and i’ll say it again, youre all good no worries with that! tbh it eased my anxiety about this a lot cause lol im apparently way too serious when it comes to wrestling and ive been waiting for this happen for months now so the reign of terror that is lesnar finally being over is. such a relief tbh lol

#coughedfeathers #like. in a sense that things and titles finally mean something again #they will be included in actual storylines and be defended in GOOD matches #by people who deserve them #and not. whatever this shit with lesnar has been so far #i get it unbeatable beast and all that is fun and lames for a while but #its been way too long #so bless drew for releasing us from this nightmare finally

[me4ml]

Why don't you like Maribat? Why do you think it's a spite or salt ship?

This is presumably because of my Adrigaminette post or the whole Maribat being on the ship list thing.

Quick disclaimer: if you read/ship/write/like Maribat, cool! This is not an attack. This is me answering why I, personally, do not like it. It’s tagged anti, and salt, so it should be filtered. Please don’t harass me over it.

Another note before we start: a lot of what I’m about to write is based on what I’ve read, fic wise or meta, and I blocked off the Maribat tag and fandom a long time ago. It may have changed over there-I doubt it, and I have zero desire to go and look-but this is based on what I’ve seen and read about.

There are, principally, three reasons I can’t stand Maribat, why I think it’s a spite/salt ship.

1). I don’t like Damian Wayne.

2). I don’t like how Damian and the DCU are written in Maribat.

3). Maribat is a mutated salt fic.

If you want to see my reasons why, the rest is under the read more.

1). I don’t like Damian Wayne.

Damian’s not just my least favorite Robin, ranking behind any of the others who have born the name. He’s my least favorite Batfam sidekick overall.

Part of this is his introduction, where he’s a violent, murderous, arrogant, entitled, snotty little brat of a thug. Lest we forget, one of his first acts is to go out, kill a guy, cut off his head, stuff a grenade into the decapitated head’s mouth, and try to blow up Tim. This is his introduction! There are a number of other occasions, including how he treats Jon, his best friend, and the rest of his siblings.

Another part is that he believes that he deserves to be Robin simply because he’s Bruce’s son, and therefore has the blood right to be Robin, to become Batman, and damn anyone else, who are all pretenders. Doesn’t matter that those characters might have a right to become Robin, or the future Batman, he’s the bio son, he deserves it!

Additionally, Damian feels.....not unnecessary, but repetitive, in his actions/characterization. There are other characters who can perform pretty much the same way for whatever storyline is necessary, without including Damian.

Trained by an abusive family to be the best, as an assassin and warrior? Cassandra.

A killer who breaks the main rule of his mentor, which causes tension and strain in the family? Jason.

Incredibly intelligent and talented? Tim.

Damian isn’t unique in what he does, and while that can make him an interesting character, it can also make the focus on him unnecessary.

As well, so much of Damian’s actions and motivations feels like he gets away with stuff, in-universe, because he’s Bruce’s biological son, and so Bruce gives him too much slack, and out-universe, because the writers let him/the fans will defend him. He gets woobified, or leather pantsed. Which leads to:

2). I don’t like how Damian and the DCU are written for Maribat.

For all his (numerous) faults, when written well, Damian can be an interesting character. For example: How does he deal with being deeply insecure? By putting on a mask of arrogance and overconfidence.

Some more examples: How does Damian act like an actual child, when he’s never had a childhood? How can he be a hero, if he’s been trained to be a killer? Can he ever catch up to his siblings, or will he feel like they’re always better than him?

Damian’s sense of being Batman’s son, of being the heir to the Cowl, slams right up against the idea of the Batfam: that there are people who have just as much of a right to call Batman their father/father figure, people who are just as talented and skilled and capable as Damian himself is, if not more. Watching Damian develop, when he’s written right, is actually enjoyable; mainly because when it’s done right, it shows Damian actually progressing and growing, becoming more of a person, with friends and interests. Most times, seeing Damian with his pets can be adorable, same with when he hangs out with Jon.

Is he still a brat? Still sometimes a bit too much of a Demon, an al-Ghul? Yes, but that’s always going to be part of him, and as long as he’s shown to try and grow, or gets called out on that, it’s less of an issue (There’s a completely different rant to be written about how DC likes to chuck character development or backstory into the trash when it suits them for a new run. Damian gets hit with this, as does Tim, or they get handed the idiot/conflict ball, but not the space for it).

Maribat hurls this all out the window. Damian’s bad traits are all “fixed” offscreen-he’s developed, matured, gotten better, whatever you want to call it. It’s basically a writer’s hand wave to make Damian into the character who will be the lead of the story, perfectly suited for his main role of being Marinette’s boyfriend and utterly devoted to her every whim and will. He’s enchanted by her at first glimpse, and defends her against everyone who hates her, because no one can understand her like he can!

Uh, what? This is not Damian Wayne. Even at his best, he’s no broody boy, pulled from his “dark path” by the love of a gentle girl. He’s a Jerk with a Heart of Gold-emphasis on the Jerk. There’s a reason his nickname usually involves “Demon.” Is Damian trying to get better? Yes. But even then, he’s not the type to immediately fall in love. He takes a while to warm up to people, for them to earn his trust, and Marinette would not be like that?

Let’s say that Robin is in Paris for a case, he runs into Ladybug and Chat, and after they explains what’s going on, Robin gives them a stare over his mask, and goes “TT! What a worthless hero, I would have caught him already.” LB and Chat would probably want to deck him, and that’s before he keeps talking.

Same with if Damian transfers to the class, or they meet on a field trip to Gotham. Damian’s not gonna care about some random French teenagers on a tour, or if he was transferred he’s gonna be trying to figure out why his father sent him to Paris, and be focused on the mission, not making friends.

Of all of the Robins, the ones that would be the most likely to capture Marinette’s interest would be Dick or Tim, not Damian. He would remind her too much of Chloe, as Damian, and as Robin, he would be dismissive of Ladybug’s abilities, which would absolutely piss her, and Chat Noir, off.

In characters that aren’t Damian, no one seems to be written properly over in Maribatland. One huge example is that Marinette is so beloved, so pure, that she can make any character fall in love with her, and reform by her pure goodness, including a fic where the Joker-THE JOKER!-becomes her “Uncle J,” and pranks Lila on her behalf.

Uh-huh. Sure. Completely and totally something that one of the biggest, most sadistic twisted, notorious villains in pop culture would do. Maribat winds up worshipping the ground that Marinette walks on, cause she’s “Teh best evar!”

Which then leads to my third and final point:

3). The whole Maribat concept is a mutated salt fic.

Most of the themes you’ll find in Maribat? You will find in nearly every salt fic.

Maybe my biggest issue with the whole Maribat idea is that it doesn’t feel like a proper crossover, which, at their best, explore how characters from one universe and their rules would interact with characters from another universe, and the rules of that one. Putting ML and DC together is a rich opportunity to play with concepts in both worlds!

And yet, it’s mainly used to bash ML characters who the writers despise, predominantly Adrien, Alya, and Lila, with members of the class thrown in depending on feeling, and potentially even Marinette’s parents! The only “good” ML characters are the ones who are on Marinette’s side, usually Luka, Kagami, a Chloe who for some reason has been redeemed and is now Marinette’s best friend, and whatever members of the class the writer decides to throw in there.

You’ll notice it’s not called “MiracuBat”, or LadyBat and Bat Noir-it’s MariBat. It’s meant as a focus on Marinette, making her-the hero of the Miraculous Ladybug franchise, someone in-story in story who is incredibly smart and talented and the leader of her team, future Guardian-even more awesome.....by beating down everyone else around her.

Marinette is simultaneously treated as an beaten-up, beaten-down walked-on carpet, and the best person to ever exist ever, go who only needs a group of new, different, better people to recognize that and save her from the clutches of those greedy and ungrateful assholes! That doesn’t include the fics where she’s the unknown child of a superhero or supervillain, making her even more special.

It’s Chameleon salt, class salt, with pointy ears and a cape on.

Some specific examples.

Adrien: Adrien is a spineless doormat who prioritizes Lila over Marinette, or an entitled bastard sexual harasser, only fixated on Ladybug, or even both. Sometimes it’ll get worse, as Adrien will threaten or abandon Marinette if she steps off of his “high road,” and Chat will be a budding rapist, stalking or capturing Marinette after he’s learned she’s Ladybug, while ignoring her prior to that. He will, of course, have his ring stripped and handed off to Damian, who is the “true” soul of Destruction and so therefore a “perfect match” to Marinette’s Creation soul. Occasionally it will be Jason, or Tim, or Dick, but the key thing is that it’s not Adrien!

While Damian’s issues are magically fixed, Adrien gets no such courtesy. Adrien has been abused, just like Damian, and while Damian’s abuse is more extensive and extreme, abuse is abuse. If anything, if Damian met Adrien, he would probably see another abused kid, and want to be his friend/have his “adopt stray person!” Instincts go off. I can much more imagine Damian dragging a bewildered Adrien into the Batcave and yelling “Father I’ve found another one for you to adopt!” than I can Damian immediately hating Adrien, or Chat, simply for breathing.

We never see Clark taking Adrien under his wing, or Bruce, or any of the other Batfam; nor any of the other Justice Leaguers. We never see Selina try to fight Bruce over the kid, because he’s cat-themed, and Selina can train him, this one’s hers Bat, get off!

Adrien’s never treated as a kid, or given actual development. A major complaint among salters is that Adrien is treated as perfect and never develops, and in fic, rather than developing him, Adrien either remains static, with his flaws narratively exploded, or is developed negatively. He’s there to be beaten up on and punished by the writers, if not actually physically beaten up by characters in the fic.

Alya: the not-so-good friend, the cheap excuse for a journalist, the awful person who abandons Marinette for Lila and her “connections.” Never mind that Alya was Marinette’s friend from the beginning, or that Marinette’s chosen her multiple times for a Miraculous. One instance of questioning Marinette about Lila, and Alya’s a backstabbing bitch.

Maribat treats Alya as neglectful, bossy, domineering and submissive at the same time to Marinette and Lila respectively, and as a journalist, the worst of the worst. She’s played as a two-bit paparazzo, and once again, the DCU is used to punish her. We don’t see Alya get mentored by Lois or Clark-indeed, if they notice her, it’s with disdain or disappointment. Often, they’re crushing her under their heel, calling her not only a bad journalist, but a bad friend/person. This forgetting, of course, that Alya runs her blog as a hobby so far, she’s only a teenager, and that she’s had Marinette’s back against Chloe and Lila.

The Class: the dupes or allies as needed. Class salt levels depend on what the writer needs. If they’re pro-class, they’re all on Marinette’s side, aside from Alya Adrien and Lila. Chloe, for some ungodly reason, is “redeemed” nigh instantaneously, and often will become Marinette’s best friend, if that isn’t Kagami already. Kagami will drop Adrien like a wet tissue, never trying to reconcile him with the clas, or encourage him to stand up for himself, or if she does, Adrien, of course, will not listen.

If the writer is anti-class, whoo boy. Openly mentally, emotionally, physically abusive to Marinette, the worst gang of people you would ever have the displeasure of meeting, they all need to be in Arkham.

We never see any of the class make friends with the Batfam, the Titans, Young Justice-unless they’re on Marinette’s side, of course. There’s no Alix stopping Selina at the Louvre, for instance, or Max hanging out with Babs. It’s all based on how Marinette is treated as to whether or not the class is portrayed as being worse than the worst of the Rogues Gallery.

Wrapping it all up, Maribat has made me dislike the entire concept of a DC/ML crossover.

Even if someone had written an non-salt, in-character crossover, I don’t know if I would read it, simply because the well has been that poisoned.

#anti maribat #anti maridami #anti daminette #maribat salt #daminette salt #maridami salt #anti damian wayne #Damian Wayne salt #ml fandom salt #anonymous #ask answered #long post

[yellow-mapleleaves]

Realistic Personalities in Characters: Alice in Borderland

⚠ Spoilers ⚠

Short Summary

Alice in Borderland  今際の国のアリス  is a Netflix original series about a young boy called Alice (Arisu) and his two friends who happens to find themselves trapped in an abandoned version of Tokyo in which they must take part in many life threatening games to survive.

I wanted to do a review on this series because I noticed that there were some characters that possessed very accurate and realistic behaviours and others that didn’t convey any emotion the entire show. I found it interesting that the mix of very different levels of well-displayed people was able to add to the already amazing plot of the series.

Characters Present:

Alice, Karube, Chota, Usagi, Kuina, Chishiya, Niragi

Alice - Protagonist

The main protagonist of the series is not always the favourite in most tv shows, but from looking at different reviews and people’s comments about Yamazaki’s character Alice, I’ve noticed that he is actually rather popular in his own fictional world. He is honestly probably one of my favourite characters as well, and that’s based on how realistic his behaviours and emotions are conveyed.

Some aspects and scenes of Alice that makes him a more convincing and realistic personality:

Being a normal young boy with no incredibly amazing skills

Not having god-like survival abilities just from being able to play battle-royal videogames well

Having flaws

Having only two close friends rather than a huge friendship group

Not being incredibly attractive and well-groomed

Not having a close relationship with his brother (not all siblings get along)

Having a bad relationship with his father

Having the very human instinct of survival by becoming willing to kill his friends to save his own life out of panic

Reacting badly to watching someone being killed (vomiting, screaming, trauma etc)

Not being incredibly serious all the time; actually having a sense of humour

Showing respect towards Usagi’s privacy

Having a very average style of clothing

Being awkward around people he doesn’t know

Excelling in one area (puzzles) but being quite disadvantaged at the rest

Making mistakes E.g. during the distance game, he doesn’t realize the trick of the game until it ends

Not being able to defend himself physically due to lack of strength

Not moving on after his friends’ deaths immediately like as if it doesn’t happen (it takes him a few days to even develop the energy to get up off the floor)

I would say I personally believe that Alice’s character has a strong and realistic personality, as Yamazaki’s acting and Alice’s reactions to certain experiences creates a sympathetic response from the audience.

____

Karube - Deuteragonist

Let’s be honest, everyone loves a bad boy character. During the short time that Karube was present during the show, I think he conveys both strong and weak personality traits. At some points I think the producers were trying too hard to bring a “tough man” façade to him, when I think he could show more realistic emotions and reactions.

Some aspects and scenes of Karube that makes him a more convincing and realistic personality:

Having a fiery and defensive personality (although it can more than often come across as immature)

Having a sense of humour even in tough times

Having obvious advantage in strength related survival skills

Not being invincible to fear E.g. running from the tagger during the “Tag” game and not even trying to fight back at first

Dealing with work related issues

Actually having a realistic dream life rather than one that sounds almost impossible

Being flawed but not too flawed

Having a love interest that he is forbidden to love (she is with another man)

Conveying fear through anger when Alice tries to kill him to save himself

Not having the nicest of personalities (not everyone is friendly to everyone)

Not having a overly selfless personality

I think Karube should’ve been included in the series more than he is, because his character is very lovable and many fans of this show obviously show sympathy when he dies. His character has a big, extroverted and blunt personality, and I think it is conveyed very well during the time he is present.

____

Chota - Tertiary

Although Chota is one of the main three characters in the beginning of the series, I honestly never felt that sympathetic for him. His character comes across as rather more annoying than weak to me. I understand that the point of his character is to have a weak and smaller personality to match Karube and Alice’s loud energy, but I think this person is kind of just there. He doesn’t do much, considering he almost loses his leg in the first episode and having to use crutches for the rest of the time he is alive.

Some aspects and scenes of Chota that makes him less realistic:

Being friends with people who obviously have dodgy jobs or no jobs at all when he is a successful technician himself

Doesn’t seem to have much of a life outside work and his friends, what are his hobbies?

Not exactly having much of a purpose in the show

Constantly having his guard up and being anxious or worried

Having too many flaws

Following a very different religion to that of his mother

Generally being incredibly different to Alice and Karube (I believe if their personalities were actually friends in real life, they would have too many arguments).

During the short time on the show that Chota had, it was more the point that his personality felt incredibly unneeded. It didn’t exactly serve a huge purpose in the storyline. As well as, he was hard to sympathize for.

____

Usagi - Love Interest / Deuteragonist

Usagi definitely has my most favourite back story of the series. Although, when researching about her I noticed that she is actually one of the characters that get the least recognition by the viewers, despite being in basically every episode and always being beside Alice. I have mixed emotions about the realism in her character, so I made both a positive and negative list to state both sides.

Some aspects and scenes of Usagi that makes her a more convincing and realistic personality:

Having a tragic yet realistic backstory

Using her mountain climbing skills as a huge advantage during physically challenging games

Showing obvious signs of grief for her father, even during the time she was placed in the game

Being insecure of her body

Fighting back against Niragi even when it’s obvious she won’t win

Having good survival instincts from past experiences

Willing to help others out when they need it E.g. during the “Tag” game she went along with Alice’s plan for everyone to work together

Having a obvious more introverted personality

Being too trusting, which ends up getting her hurt

Some aspects and scenes of Usagi that makes her a more unrealistic and poorly convincing personality:

Having too serious of a personality, not seeming to lay back and laugh for even a second

Seeming to have an unrealistic bravery E.g. during the tagger game, she didn’t seemed frightened at all despite that the tagger had a machine gun

Doesn’t react to graphic violent sights that would be traumatizing to humans

Not knowing what “The Beach” was despite being in the game for god knows how long

Overall, I think she is the awesome strong female character that a lot of thriller genres have. Although, I would love if for once a strong yet bad ass character didn’t act so mysterious and quiet all the time. But regardless, she is a good character that shows very human qualities.

____

Kuina - Confidante

Kuina is one of the more popular characters in the show, which I honestly can understand. She has obvious very strong manipulation skills as well as physical strengths like martial arts. Although, I believe her backstory is what truly shapes her as a character and is the reason why the audience develops such an emotional connection with her.

Some aspects and scenes of Kuina that makes her a more convincing a realistic personality:

Having a trusting and good relationship with Chishiya

Having a personality that conveys carelessness

Both social butterfly and keeps to herself

Being a character part of the LGBTQ+ community

Having a realistic backstory

Although having a bad relationship with her Dad, she still respects what he taught her

Having a parent that accepts her rather than just being abandoned, which is what a lot of Transgender characters have been stereotyped as

Being able to defend herself incredibly well

Giving her a human flaw (smoking addiction)

Having a elaborate hairstyle

Showing that she is not mysterious, she just has a lot of walls up

Showing care for people she doesn’t know E.g. warning Alice and Usagi about the militants

I really like Kuina’s character for her strong personality and her ability to build good relationships with the members at the beach paradise. Although she is not featured a lot during season one, the times we have seen her have obviously been enough to make her character very loved by the audience.

____

Chishiya - Confidante

I honestly could not find a more loved character if I tried. This character is such a small part of the show and yet you’d think he was the protagonist. I honestly think anyone would love a sly fox character though, because that’s exactly what he is. Although his personality would probably become annoying if he was a real person, in a genre like this he fits perfectly. So personally, I have mixed emotions about him, because I honestly didn’t get that emotionally attached to him as other audiences may have.

Some aspects and scenes of Chishiya that makes him a more convincing and realistic personality:

Having a cocky attitude at times

Has a underdog appeal to him

Mimics that of a selfish manipulative personality

Showing obvious signs of high intelligence, yet doesn’t blab it around like it’s a trophy

Gives the audience some entertainment

Having a sassy remark, even when his life is on the line

Going out of his way to do things that only benefit him

Having a personality that everyone loves and hates at the same time

Having that personality in which you can’t tell if he’s a good guy or a bad guy

Having a trademark, his white hoodie

Having a caring relationship towards Kuina

Some aspects and scenes of Chishiya that makes him a more unrealistic and less convincing personality:

Attempting to kill Niragi with no hesitation after knowing him personally for so long (that would be difficult to do even if you hated the person)

Not showing human emotions such as fear, worry or anger

Sometimes his personality came across as too selfish to be realistic

Not showing any signs of fear E.g. when Niragi waved a machine gun in his face, he didn’t even flinch

Sometimes his fancy words became a bit annoying

Everyone trusts him, regardless of how manipulative they know he is

Overall, he is a very entertaining character. In my opinion he’s like the personality that throws a match into gasoline then walks away like he didn’t start it. Although his realism in character isn’t exactly good, he is definitely loved for his good looks and sly actions by the audience.

____

Niragi - Antagonist

As much as I dislike this guy as a person in general, when it comes to creating a interesting and great character, he hit the nail on the head. He has one of the most realistic evil character developments probably in the whole series. His personality is so complicated and psychotic, which is what makes him an amazing antagonist and probably the second most popular character among the audience.

Some aspects and scenes of Niragi that makes him a more convincing and realistic personality:

Has a tragic backstory, making the audience believe that’s why he’s so psychotic

Having the delusional mindset that human nature is violence

Makes the audience feel bad for him, despite being a horrible person

Being a hidden antagonist (didn’t expect him to cause all the trouble in the end)

Showing obvious signs of psychological trauma

Conveys positive (yet destructive) emotions and behaviour, which is always a good break when all the characters are serious 24/7

Hits a breaking point in his emotions and goes on a killing spree

Shows loyalty to Aguni

Being awful to everyone, probably due to the fact that everyone was awful to him when he was younger. It’s a way of revenge

Becoming embarrassed when someone challenges him

Scaring people into submission (tactic for some leaders)

Conveys no care for anyone, honestly just uses everyone for either his own entertainment or his own benefit

Has a trademark, his machine gun and checkered shirt

Being self-aware of how evil he is

As evil and bad as he is, he’s one  of the most endearing antagonists I’ve seen in a while. He is a very psychotic and emotionally wrecked personality to him, as if you know something traumatizing must have occurred in his life for him to be able to murder anyone without batting an eye.

#characterreview #character #aliceinborderland #alice #aib #writing #netflixoriginals #netflix #tvshows #characterreviews #usagi #karube #chota #kuina #chishiya #niragi

[lunarfly]

Defending Harmione part 3!

I'm back to defend my fav ship!

I have a part 1 where I debunked some of the most popular arguments against Harmione and in part 2 I debunked the "siblings" argument. Time for part 3! This one is going to be about a video on YouTube titled "Why Harry and Hermione Wouldn't Work - Harry Potter Video Essay" and I'll go over the points the YouTuber made and try my best to debunk them. 💘

Also, I accept that there's still a few minor flaws to the ship, but these little flaws and obstacles make every ship beautiful. 🥀

1. "It would be too cliche. The hero gets the smartest and prettiest girl as a trophy."

This is a fair argument to the whole story itself, but it doesn't defeat the ship in any way. If you put it in other words: "Harry and Hermione wouldn't work together because they're both very powerful and great and that would make it very cliche." That's silly. But even that isn't right. The situation isn't exactly how people make it seem.

Hermione isn't the all-perfect girl, the most beautiful, the most intelligent, everything perfect. She has flaws, many flaws (which weren't portrayed in the movies) and she is a very realistic character. She is intelligent and productive, she is a perfectionist in a way, but that also causes her to be very anxious and stressed out at moments, she puts too much pressure on herself, and she's also insecure! Who said Hermione was the most beautiful one? Just because Emma Watson was gorgeous doesn't mean Hermione was too. Of course, Harry thought she was pretty according to OotP, but it's clearly stated in the books that she wasn't the prettiest girl in the series. Fleur, Cho and even Ginny were much more beautiful. Hermione is NOT the perfect superstar.

You might say that even if she's not perfect, she's still the female lead. But the actual "cliche" part is about the hero ending up with the perfect superstar and not necessarily with the other lead hero.

So back to Hermione being the brightest witch of her age. But her being very bright and powerful doesn't make her a bad match for Harry. Ginny was very smart in fact, she was beautiful and funny, very sassy and confident. Why isn't she considered as a trophy for Harry?

The point is, NO, Hermione is NOT a perfect all-star and their relationship wouldn't even have to be built on the hero and the heroine being perfect, their relationship would be built on trust and loyalty.

2. "Harry and Hermione's relationship prove that a male and a female can be friends without having a romantic relationship, so we shouldn't ruin that."

Yes, it's truly a beautiful demonstration that a male and a female can be best friends, but this says nothing that's actually against the ship, just like the previous one. If you put this in other words, it would sound like this: "Harry and Hermione were amazing best friends so they can't date." I understand that their friendship was amazing, but that in no way means their relationship would be bad. Of course, you don't have to see their relationship as romantic just because they were good friends, you can see it as platonic, but I'm just saying that the argument makes no sense.

Besides, was Hermione really the only female friend Harry had? What about Luna? What about Ginny (if you consider Harry and Hermione start dating and Ginny remains a friend, she was clearly very included after OoTP)? What about Ron's friendship with Hermione? What about Ron and Luna's friendship? What about Neville and Luna's friendship? What about Harry's quidditch teammates (Alicia, Katie, Angelina)? Why does everyone always make it seem like Hermione was the only female friend he had? Surely she was his only BEST friend but then Ron and Hermione were best friends too...

3. "It ruins the dynamic of the story. Harry's relationships were never meant to be the main focus, just a demonstration of his maturity. While Ron and Hermione's relationship developing in the background is nice to see."

I really didn't want to drag Romione into this because it's my second favorite ship from the entire Harry Potter universe. Just a disclaimer that anything I say here is not meant to bash Romione and hate on it because I'm truly a big fan of them and their love is undeniable.

I also mention Ginny and Harry's relationship in this and I have to say they're ALSO one of my favorite ships in the entire hp universe so no hate to them either. 🥺

Okay, so, basically every point he made in his video was about the story and not their actual relationship. The title is wrong, this doesn't show why Harry and Hermione wouldn't work, he's just saying how it would change the storyline. But I think we are all already aware that Harry and Hermione getting together would change a lot in the story. But I'll go over it anyways.

First of all, I don't entirely agree that Harry's relationships weren't the main focus, I mean half of the half-blood prince was about him developing feelings for Ginny-

But anyways, if Harry and Hermione were going to end up together, it would still happen in a similar way. We have all read the beautiful moments they shared together throughout the books, and those would've been enough for them to develop their feelings, but just not realize it until the last 2 books. We wouldn't have to add in any scenes that would change the story massively to lead them to falling in love, honestly, we had enough already in the books. So the only thing that would change would be probably Harry not developing feelings for Ginny, but instead slowly realizing his feelings for Hermione. Simple!

And as for Romione, I agree, the slowburn was beautiful, but we could've had the same thing, same development but as a friendship! Ron's character arc is one of my favorite things about the series and nobody can convince me that it wasn't amazing. Instead of Ron changing for Hermione to become her lover, we could have Ron changing for her to become a better friend. His character arc remains the same and Ron Hermione become best friends. Of course this would change many scenes and the storyline would've changed a lot as I already mentioned, but hey! At least we wouldn't have Ron haters who bash him for mAkInG hErMiOnE cRy. 🤡 And JKR could add different scenes instead of the ones hinting at Ron and Hermione's romantic relationship. We still would have had a beautiful story with a VERY SIMILAR dynamic.

4. "Harry wasn't the kind of guy Hermione was looking for. She already made a mistake with dating Viktor Krum, and she realized she didn't need a hero. She was a hero herself. Although Harry ≠ Viktor, they have very similar qualities like: bravery, loyalty and they are both heroes."

This is probably the best argument of the entire *almost* 5 minute video.

But there's still so much wrong with this.

Bravery and loyalty are literally Ron's best traits lmao. That's exactly why she chose him. 🤣 Every Romione shipper knows she doesn't value intelligence and looks, she values bravery, courage, loyalty. That's exactly what she said in the first book and stuck by it until the end.

She didn't need a hero? She was a hero herself? - Then why are we forgetting that Ron was also a hero? Everyone always makes it seem like Harry and Hermione are the mighty heroes and Ron is their goofy sidekick. He was also a hero! I believe he is even on the chocolate frog cards (correct me if I'm wrong)! And we all know that's the biggest flex. 😌

But besides that, Ron and Harry are very similar in many ways. They're both brave, they're both loyal, they both like to have fun, they're both lazy, they're both amazing at quidditch, they're both talented (Harry is very powerful and he's good at DADA, while Ron can do many impressive things like mimic voices and come up with quick solutions even when he's under pressure and his life depends on it!). So if Hermione liked one and thought he was her "type", then there's a hight possibility she liked the other too. In canon, she only likes Ron obviously, but I'm saying that since Ron and Harry are so similar and share the same traits, Hermione could've chosen Harry too.

Anyways, that's all that the video included, it was very nice hearing different opinions and I actually wasn't writing this out of anger like I wrote the post about defending Romione against *the ridiculously stupid* arguments that Dr*mione shippers like to use.

Once again, if it isn't clear, I STAN both Romione and Hinny, but Harmione definitely could've worked. :)

Thanks for reading! ~ Lia <3

Art: Asha47110 on DeviantArt :)

#harmonyposts #harry and hermione #harmione #hermione x harry #harry x hermione #hermione and harry #harry potter ships #harry potter #harry potter series #hermione granger #harry/hermione #hermione/harry #harmony #hp ships #hp ship #harry potter ship #harry #hermione #wait are you actually looking through the tags or did you just see this- #harry potter opinions #hp books #harry potter books

[xiyao-feels]

A Comparison of the Stairs Dialogue in CQL vs MDZS, Pt 1

(Pt 2)

A few introductory notes:

-This wasn't intended to be a big project post; I was just doing the comparison because I thought it was interesting. As I went I thought other people would probably find it interesting too, and it would be worth having it all written down, so I did turn it into a post after all. But I'm not really arguing any central point or anything; I'm really just comparing the dialogue and writing down my thoughts as I go.

-This also of course means my usual pro-JGY and consequently very annoyed at NMJ biases are on display. As ever, if this will upset you, please don't read!!

-This is a comparison of the text of the dialogue, not everything about their interaction; I don't necessarily note it if e.g. the acting doesn't match the dialogue tags in MDZS, or what have you.

-To do a proper comparison, you really need to compare the Chinese text, not the English translation; this is what I'm doing, though of course I've included the English from the Youtube subs, for CQL, and from the Exiled Rebels translation for MDZS. (For the Youtube subs I recorded "Yao" as A-Yao and used da-ge instead of Big brother when 大哥 was used and er-ge when 二哥 was used, just because this is my habit when copying down the dialogue.)

-Speaking of which: for MDZS, I just copied from the text, but for the CQL dialogue both English and Chinese I copied down the subs. I don't actually speak Chinese, but fortunately CQL on Youtube has the Chinese subs as well; my reading level in Chinese is also completely terrible, but I can often recognize most or many of the characters, and what I can't I can find by identifying radicals or drawing it in a handwriting recognition thing, etc. I did my best to be careful and thorough, and I also checked it against the Chinese subs I downloaded from Netflix, but there may still be some errors, fair warning. This also means that, unlike the Chinese from MDZS, the CQL Chinese dialogue isn't punctuated beyond spacing it out as it appeared on the screen; this is because the Chinese subs aren't punctuated, and I am certainly not going to make that judgement myself.

-The characters that differ in a given line between the MDZS and CQL versions are bolded, to help make the difference visually clear.

With that aside, the comparison is below the cut.

CQL  

LXC: 阿瑶 大哥他心性不比从前 你千万不要再惹怒他了 他最近深受刀灵侵扰之苦 若不是你日日给他弹清心音的话 恐怕他 A-Yao. Da-ge's temperament is getting worse. Don't ever displease him again. He's been subject to the harassment of his blade lately. If you hadn't been playing Cleansing Music for him everyday, I'm afraid he'd be…  

MDZS  

LXC: 只是一时气愤，口不择言罢了。大哥现在心性不比从前， 你千万不要再惹怒他了。他最近深受刀灵侵扰之苦， 怀桑又和他争吵置气，到今天还没和好。 His anger was simply too great for him to have thought before speaking. Brother’s temper cannot compare to how it was in the past. You must not provoke him again. These past few days, he has been deeply troubled by the saber spirit, and HuaiSang has argued with him again. They still have not made up yet, even today.

I'm comparing the CQL dialogue to the equivalent dialogue in MDZS, but of course in MDZS this exchange isn't before the stairs in ch 49; rather it's part of a broader conversation NMJ hears before he bursts in to try and kill JGY on the spot, because he doesn't like how JGY is talking to LXC about him, in ch 50. (Note, incidentally, how obviously impossible this renders the task of not displeasing da-ge, even aside from his not being satisfied with anything less than Xue Yang's head, as JGY and LXC were having a private conversation at the time.) The mention of NMJ and NHS' falling out is removed, replaced with the information that JGY has been playing to MMJ "every day"; the reference to NMJ calling JGY son of a whore is of course removed, since it hasn't happened yet. One effect of this relocation is on our understanding of LXC's injunction not to "displease him again/provoke him again" (再惹怒他 in both). In MDZS, this seems to refer to the stairs incident where JGY talked back (as the text notes, unusually); here perhaps it might be read as suggesting that JGY somehow has a habit of avoidably displeasing NMJ, which I think is absurd.

However, that's not the only possible interpretation. Although CQL doesn't quite give us the scene mentioned in chapter 30, where NMJ shows up and lectures JGS into announcing XY would be executed (…and heaps abuse on JGY when he tries to intervene, terrifying JGY sufficiently that he hides behind LXC—observe that in the sentence immediately prior to this we are also told that NMJ had unsheathed his sabre), in episode 35 we are told that all the clans wanted to punish XY except for JGS, and given a brief flashback to JGS yelling. Therefore, I think, it's not unreasonable to assume that something like the scene described in ch 30 occurred in CQL. Perhaps LXC is referring to this, although of course JGY would still be held between the fatal opposition of NMJ's and his father's wishes.

It's also relevant of course that in removing the surrounding context, CQL removes the context of the conversation of JGY expressing his pain about how NMJ treats him, and LXC replying, and rather turns it into an apparently unprompted expression of concern on LXC's part.

CQL  

NMJ: 金光瑶 Jin Guangyao!   

MDZS  

-

It's worth noting, I think, that in MDZS NMJ never refers to JGY as "Jin Guangyao" throughout the entire stairs encounter. 

CQL  

LXC: 大哥 怎么了 Da-ge, what's wrong?   

MDZS  

LXC: 大哥 Da-ge?

CQL  

NMJ: 你别动 你出来 (to LXC) Don't move. (to JGY) Come out. 

MDZS  

NMJ: 你别动 你出来 (to LXC) Don't move. (To JGY) Come out.  

CQL  

JGY: 二哥 劳烦你帮我再过一眼 百花宴贵宾的名单 我先去和大哥说点私事 回头再请你讲解 Er-ge, please check the list of guests of the Floral Banquet for me. I need to talk some private affairs with da-ge. I'll explain it to you later.  

MDZS  

JGY: 二哥劳烦你再帮我理一理这条，我先去和大哥说点私事，回头再请你讲解 Brother, could you please help me go through this one? I have some private matters to discuss with our eldest brother. I’ll have to ask for your explanation at a later time. 

Interestingly the exact same sentence in the Chinese, 回头再请你讲解, is translated in CQL as JGY's promise to explain later—where the implication seems to be he'll explain about what he's discussing with NMJ, perhaps?—and in MDZS as JGY's intention to ask /LXC/ to explain (the work he's going over in JGY's absence) later. In MDZS, of course, they're working on the watchtowers…while in CQL host with the most LXC is /helping JGY put his banquet guest lists together/, omg. I wish they'd kept more about the watchtowers but I admit I enjoy this as well. They plan parties together!

In both CQL and MDZS NMJ tries to hit JGY after they are outside and before further words are exchanged.

CQL  

JGY: 大哥 何必如此 有话好说 Da-ge. Why act like this? We can talk nicely, can't we?   

MDZS  

JGY: 大哥，何必如此，有话好说。 Brother, why the rage? Let’s calm down. 

CQL  

NMJ: 薛洋呢 Where is Xue Yang?   

MDZS  

NMJ: 薛洋呢 Where's Xue Yang? 

CQL  

JGY: 他已被关入地牢 终身不释 He's been shut up in the dungeon, for life time.   

MDZS  

JGY: 他已被关入地牢，终身不释…… He’s already been locked inside the dungeon, imprisoned for life… 

CQL  

NMJ: 我当年在不净世是怎么跟你说的 我要他血债血偿 你却给他来个终身不释 What did I tell you in the Yet Clean Realm at that time? I want him to pay his killing debts. You now give him life imprisonment.   

MDZS  

NMJ: 当初你在我面前是怎么说的 (JGY is silent) 我要他血债血偿，你却给他个终身不释？ What did you say to me back then? (JGY is silent) I wanted him to pay blood with blood, yet you have him imprisoned for life? 

"What did you say to me back then" is interesting; we're not actually given a specific time or a specific thing said, which means we must speculate. An obvious candidate for 'back then' would be the ch 30 scene previously mentioned, when NMJ convinces the Jin to announce that they'll execute XY. Yet the Jin giving in on executing XY seems to come /after/ JGY is sufficiently frightened by NMJ that he hides behind LXC, "not daring to say anything else." NMJ is perhaps conflating JGY with JGY's father, or perhaps assigning to JGY an authority he does not in fact possess, as though JGY and not JGS was the person who made decisions for the Jin.

In CQL of course NMJ takes the position that /Jin Guangyao/ owes him obedience because Meng Yao used to be NMJ's servant—not even just that, but that Jin Guangyao must display obedience to orders NMJ gave several years ago, when JGY was MY. This is absurd and insulting, and even before NMJ actually calls him Meng Yao it demonstrates that NMJ does not actually recognize JGY's legitimacy /as/ Jin Guangyao. Honestly, I don't have the words.

CQL  

JGY: 只要他受到惩罚 无法再犯 终身不释和血债血偿也并无 As long as he's punished, and can't recommit crimes, I can't see the difference between life imprisonment and death sentence.    

MDZS  

JGY: 只要他受到惩罚，无法再犯，终身不释与血债血偿也并无…… As long as he receives his punishment and can’t offend again, perhaps paying blood with blood and being imprisoned for life is… 

CQL  

NMJ: 我问你 当年在不净世 究竟是谁放走了薛洋 是我的总领 还是你 Tell me. When we were at Yet Clean Realm, who on earth released Xue Yang? It was my captain, or you?   

MDZS  

NMJ: 你举荐的好客卿，做出的好事情！事到如今你还敢袒护他！ The good things that the good guest cultivator whom you recommended has done! Things are already like this and you still dare defend him! 

Imho, this gets to a central fault in the CQL XY storyline—why the heck is NMJ trying to have XY killed for the Chang killings, instead of for collaborating with the Wen and/or for killing a bunch of his men??????

I tend to put that aside because it doesn't… actually… make any sense at all, especially since CQL NMJ is quite clearly still preoccupied with XY's old crimes.

CQL  

JGY: 我没有 我为什么要放走他 不过当初是当初 现在常萍已经翻供 没有任何明确证据证明 薛洋屠杀了常氏五十人 而我父亲又一定要留下这个人 It wasn't me. Why should I let him go? But the past is in the past, Chang Ping had withdrawn his confession. No certain evidence can prove that Xue Yang had massacred 50 people of Chang clan. And my father insists on keeping him alive.   

MDZS  

JGY: 我没有袒护他，栎阳常氏那件事我也很震惊，我怎会料到薛洋会杀了人全家五十多口人？可我父亲一定要留着这个人…… I didn’t defend him. I was also shocked by the case of the Changyang Yue Sect. How could I have known that Xue Yang would kill more than fifty people? But my father was set on keeping him… 

So—I'm sorry, that in CQL Chang Ping has already withdrawn his testimony makes this completely absurd. In MDZS, that doesn't happen until /after/ NMJ's death, after the Jin have been hounding him! In CQL, the situation appears to be that they have officially condemned him to the dungeons for life /purely based on NMJ's pressure/, with no actual clear evidence at all—and note that unlike in MDZS, where the Chang killings happened like a month beforehand and XXC presents the evidence that it was XY to the assembled clans, in CQL the killings happened /several years ago before a war/ and Songxiao didn't present any evidence it was XY to anyone else at the time that we saw. I mean, they didn't need to because at the time he confessed when challenged,* but it's not at all clear to me what if any evidence is left! And—in this situation where the one surviving victim is publically saying it wasn't XY, and they're /still officially locking him up for life on NMJ's say-so/—NMJ thinks that JGY should nevertheless go and execute XY.

*To an audience that if I am not misremembering included JC, who was alive and a sect leader independent from NMJ and could presumably have been asked to testify at the trial. This doesn't seem to ever be mentioned, however. Again, the CQL XY subplot doesn't make a huge amount of sense.

I can only guess that they moved up the Chang Ping revokes his testimony timeline to emphasize Jin power? But to me it has almost the opposite effect, since if they're still locking XY up on NMJ's say-so it rather suggests /NMJ's/ power; and more to the point it makes NMJ's already frankly unreasonable demand completely and ludicrously absurd.

CQL  

NMJ: 为什么 他身上还有一块阴铁你不知道吗 你把他重新招揽回来 究竟是为了什么你自己心里清楚 Why? Don't you know he's got a shard of Yin Iron on him? You're trying to reclaim him now. I can clearly see what you have in mind.   

MDZS  

NMJ: 震惊？招揽他的是谁？举荐他的是谁？重用他的是谁？少拿你父亲当幌子，薛洋在干什么，你会不知道吗？！ Shocked? Who was the one that invited him? Who was the one that recommended him? Who was the one that regarded him highly? Don’t use your father as excuse. How could you not have known what Xue Yang was doing?! 

English of course doesn't distinguish between plural and singular second-person, but I think it's worth noting that NMJ is using singular here, 你, and not plural. This is true in both CQL and MDZS. In MDZS, I think the problem is that, although he is in fact referring to things JGY individually did, he refuses to accept the truth of JGY's position: that whatever JGY knew or did not know, he can't actually afford to kill XY if that's not what JGS wants. In CQL, by contrast, the problem is that he's locating the desire to obtain the Yin Iron specifically in JGY, despite JGS'…well, JGS' entire everything.

CQL  

JGY: 大哥 真的是我父亲的命令 我无法拒绝 你现在要我处置薛洋 我该怎么去跟他交代 Da-ge, this is really my father's order. I couldn't deny. If you want me to execute Xue Yang now, in which way can I report this to him?    

MDZS  

JGY: 大哥，真的是我父亲的命令。我没法拒绝。你现在要我处置薛洋，你让我怎么跟他交代 Brother, it really was my father’s orders. I couldn’t refuse. Now, if you want me to take care of Xue Yang, what would I say to him? 

The use of 你 vs the more formal 您 throughout this exchange is interesting. In their exchange before JGY goes outside with NMJ, he uses 你 for LXC; here, he uses 你 for NMJ, but you can see throughout the exchange he seems to use both. It would probably be very interesting to go through the text and observe which JGY uses, to whom, and when.

CQL  

-  

MDZS  

NMJ: 不必废话，提薛洋头来见。 There’s no need for explanations. Come back to me with Xue Yang’s head in your hand. 

CQL  

—  

MDZS  

JGY "wanted to speak"

I think the upshot of these exchanges is much the same in CQL and in MDZS, despite its shortening in CQL: NMJ utterly rejects the validity of JGY's desire to give NMJ a /reason/ for going against JGS' explicit wishes, the explicit wishes, I remind you, of a man he has a moral duty to obey as his clan head and father. Truly, we can only imagine how NMJ would react to JGY killing someone against the wishes of the leader of the clan he served because he deserves it in JGY's own moral judgement… Except of course we don't have to imagine it, because it occurs in both CQL and MDZS, albeit differently. It's not that NMJ recognizes as a general principle that subordinates should be allowed to kill people against their leader's wishes if that subordinate judges their victim deserves it; it's simply that he believes in the primacy of his own, obviously righteous judgement. (And in CQL, again, there isn't any actual definite evidence, and Chang Ping has retracted his testimony.)

I think the main things the slightly more extended MDZS version has, not present in CQL, is, first, the explicit visual of XY's head, and second, that NMJ's subsequent response isn't a response to JGY's actual speech; JGY was about to speak in reply, and NMJ responds in irritation to what he thinks JGY is going to say—responds, indeed, by calling him 'Meng Yao'.

(Next)

#long meta #anger burned in his heart #more than one tag could contain #we can't change places

[themanicgalaxy]

SPN 7X4 Defending Your Life

I'm making an exception today, because I've figured out QUITE a bit about my own stress response

oh right the monster Dean killed

also to recap: my period has every sign of starting(including cramps) but nothing, I've been horribly nauseous all day, I feel a hunger response when I'm DEFINITELY not hungry(stress eating and it's the only thing that makes the nausea subside) and headache(altho that could be the lack of sleep). Also emotions all over the place(Crying, happy, very on the hat etc)

and the WORST part is I can NEVER tell until I have physical reactions. I can NEVER TELL WHAT MY EMOTIONS ARE WHAT DOES THAT MEAN I THOUGHT I WAS PERFECTLY OK OR NOT FEELING ANYTHING

ooo chase scene

gHOST CAR

ooo good segway into intro

that cut coping mechanism does NOT seem like it's healthy

mONSTER OF THE WEEK

oh COME ON HERE's THE LYING

the visuals are cool

"license to kill"

no come on sam that was a good one.

"dead and sober, dead and crappy" no Dean, please, you need to figure that out

ah yes tortured soul

FL OW ER SH O P

that was suspicious

oh

it's just because she's dead and dead at 10

oh

the CAr

"makes you wonder if the guy who was drunk ran her over" *drinks beer*

O H H H H H HSIDOFAHPAS

GHOST RIDER

at least I know they're nerds, whoever wrote this

is it manifesting their guilty conscience

aw but the dog is so fluffy

*lies down, bounces back up again* lmaooo

Dean is Tired

didn't they DEAL With a ghost car?

it's people that kept going?

DEAN IS RUNNING ON SO MUCH EMPTY AHAHAHA

A H CUZ HE DIDN'T SLEEP BECAUSE THE GIRL HE KILLED

that took me as second

"If I ate apples" DEAN

also they're really doing license plate shots above how Cool the Impala is shots now, lil thing

"you won't even believe me" ahaha

...courtroom?

fUCKING NEAL'S TAVERNNNN

we kind of specialize in crazy ahaaha

"except that's complete crap"

"everyone judges all day long"

He just..takes punishment?

ahahah N O P E GREY AREA

no this is way more watchable

SA M SOUNDS SO TIRED AHAHA

*whispers* "stay put"

he DOES look good though

ok fine just gonna tune out the flirting

they ARE both pretty

is it that guy

the creepy guy in the shadows

how much is in scotch I have no idea

ah the red, what people were clawing

THAT'S NOT HOW OSIRIS WORKS but fine ok let's go

THAT'S NOT

ok fine

"it hones in on people who feel guilty, N OW WHO DOES THAT SOUND LIKE TO YOU" oh boy literally both of them got it that was hilarious

this does seem like he's talking himself into a role

the salt...might not work for osiris

shit she really is pretty

AH RED SAND ok ok yeah I see it ok

a h egyptian shit

ALL YOU NOTICED WERE THE SYMBOLS LMAOOO

THAT DOOR SLIDE WAS SO FUNNY

He's cool though, I like the pagan shit

"Sam, you're not a lawyer" "yes I was pre law" "pre"

"good one" "I saw that on the good wife"

THIS IS HILARIOUS

J O

oh no

the mining itself sucks but this concept is good

took his breathing away?

It reads a bit as excusing them for everything

She backs them up at least?

I miss her

see here's the thing, it kinda reads like they're out of ideas, but like...it's a good concept

ah so the stuff at the beginning was them showing their guilt

I like how he just says "them's the breaks"

yeah like Dean is ever gonna believe he's innocent

"dog food" oh they so desperately wanna say dog shit

"they want to be judged" echoes Dean

SAM IS TALKING COMPLETELY OUT OF HIS ASS

HE'S GETTING HIM OUT OF HIS GUILT COMPLEX OH THANK GOD FINALLY

"that it just...blows"

no one, including Dean, ever questions it, so the grief stews

oh

he does actually have some way with words

Dean please tell the truth

mate I get the impulse but still

dammit

ahaha Temporary but Long Temporary

"make sure it's a sharp piece" lmaoo

man I miss Jo

ah here we go

sam: u h

JOOOO

"you deserve better" on both ends

Dean Eldest Daughter Syndrome

"hunters are never kids, I never was"

he does Internalize things

that's why we kin

90% crap

"i get rid of that what then" "you really wanna die not knowing" HOLY SHIT

HOLYSHIT OH MY GOD OH MYGOD

ah the gas stove

"he's making me do this" oH NO

"just kind of faded...maybe a little bit happier"

hell was Sam's slate? huh

"I kind of feel good, Dean" I am glad he's happy, I don't know if I agree with the message

1. SAMMM. Dean was acting off the shits, so he had to step up and exasperatedly handle everything, and piece stuff together. Like mans is actually quite smart and quite resourceful when he has to be, and it's nice seeing that. It's also fun FINALLY seeing him lighthearted again, even if I don't like how.

2. Dean's guilt complex. Man internalizes a lot of things, and while they BARELY make sense(thin veneer, easily cracked) he hides it enough so that no one asks(and he represses so he certainly doesn't), and he can continue feeling guilty. Now here's the thing. He feels guilty, Sam doesn't, the middle ground is where they should be(taking responsibility) and they like...never do it.

3. monster of the week. No but having monsters switch to grey instead of black and white, and having Dean comment on it is SO good, because he's like...that Masculine Parody/Ideal depending on who's writing him, and like he was written to be the hero. any gray was always overridden by that. But with kripke gone, they start actually doing grey, and there's nothing simple anymore. Like I like with how off the shits it got, they still kept the theme of "it's more grey now" but like kinda for real(where Dean and Osiris said the same thing). ALSO, I think it would be useful as a scale back. I know they'll not do it because EVEN BIGGER DBZ LAZER is fun, but I think having more monsters of the week by choice and not "oh god we have runtime" would be really good, because that's where this storyline SHINES! it's got a lot of characters, a lot of lore, and a lot of issues to pick through, a monster of the week is WAY more effective than a longer story, and would help the scaling back issue.

4. pontificating about the season/why it's easier to watch. Like is this season as good/vibey? probably not really, but honestly I can actually stand watching it. Like it's very cringe in places but also, it doesn't hurt me or make me feel uncomfortable as kripke stuff does. It matches the vibe of "after work/school show" perfectly for what it is.

5. the vibes/Osiris. I like the idea of osiris and going to the bars, and the courtroom and the RED! SAND!! I got that one. But I'd also like to say that Dean saying the SAME thing that osiris said was like...he's not villainized, but I think they're trying to make him slowly grow as a character. It's like sympathy/he sucks kinda/we like him for him a sa character and I think that was really neat.

also barkeep lady pretty holy hell

6. it felt a little bit like excusing tho. Like if Sam is the good one, then it felt like excusing them of the harm they cause people. I want them to change their behavior! not beat themselves up over it or think it's fine cuz he went to hell because of it!

I'm so glad Sam is happy again but N O

7. J O. the "no autonomy, he's making me do this," the being able to see through things(and no longer hungering for something that she doesn't really know) (like...she wants SOMETHING, has it crawling under her skin but doesn't know what, and that's gone when she's dead) and that whole thing where she asked Dean if he wanted to die as a persona. Oh my god.

8. Dean persona. Yeah the whole thing where he had to convince himself to be a womanizer, the "I"m 90% crap line" OH MY GODD THAT HIT. That man is also a persona. maybe a commentary on american masculinity in general, maybe not. Also, eldest daughter syndrome, he internalizes everything and everything is his responsibility("I didn't get a childhood")

I feel like you can also make an argument how trauma makes you the extreme of something(uncaring for smol sam, internalizing for Eldest Dean), and it breaks your ability to do what you need to(empathetically do your fucking job and not be pieces of shit).

I see why this show was so popular amongst mentally ill people(myself included) holy christ

#pawswatchesspn #7X4 Defending Your Life #tbh once I realized that Dean was tired because he'd gone out and secretly killed someone #I knew that someone was actually paying attention behind the scenes #I can't wait to watch this one again holy FIUCK IT WAS GOOD #I feel much better #also I have found out that Adam Glass's later episodes were Not Great #but based on the Dean they're going for now #This makes sense in context and while I don't like the message there are parts of this episode I really like #some of those fucking lines GOT me

[megashadowdragon]

coldhands identity is brave danny flint

Could Coldhands be Brave Danny Flint? It sounds crackpot, and very likely is, but the more I thought about it the more it appealed to me. I've done a quick search, one or two people seem to have floated this before but it's never had much in-depth analysis. This is my first meta, so please be gentle and C&C welcome.

The Gender Agenda To start with, I'll start with the elephant in the room - Danny Flint was a girl, Coldhands is male. Or is he? Gilly, Meera, and Bran all refer to him as male, but they have no idea who he is, so would see Night's Watch clothes and assume. He wears a scarf over his face, and while they can see his eyes and that his face is pale, it took Bran's gang a decent amount of time to work out he was a walking corpse, so I'm not sure I trust them to figure out niceties like gender. Leaf's "They killed him long ago" is more of a problem - she's a colleague, she would probably know. My best defence is that maybe Children of the Forest don't do gender in the same way as humans? This feels like a reach, but we have had another magical species with sexual fluidity leading to trouble with pronouns in the series. Otherwise, Leaf tends to hang out in the cave, Coldhands can't get in, maybe they're just not that close. Finally, the main person to ask - Coldhands his or her self. The only other post I could see on reddit about this theory had someone respond with the quote "Once the heart has ceased to beat, a man's blood runs down into his extremities, where it thickens and congeals. His hands and feet swell up and turn as black as pudding. The rest of him becomes as white as milk", but I'd point out this is in third person and a generalization - "a man", not "me, Coldhands, the man".

Okay, now I've convinced everyone my theory is terrible, let's get into the meat of it.

Hands cold as stone This was what got me into this rabbit hole in the first place - House Flint's sigil is "A grey stone hand upon a white inverted pall on paly black and grey". A stone hand would be pretty cold, right? In point of fact, when we first met Coldhands, the final line of the chapter describes "fingers hard as stone." On top of that, the white and black background seems to fit the Night's Watch blacks, pale face, black hands, white snow, etc.

Who the hell else could it be? This has always been the weird thing about Coldhands for me. Honestly, there's a very good chance this is a non mystery mystery, he's a zombie Night's watch ranger riding an elk, do we really need a secret identity? However, "who is Coldhands?" is one of the most commonly asked questions in the fandom, so let's assume it's getting an answer. We know: a) night's watch member b) killed a long time ago, as reckoned by a 200 year old, c) not Benjen. There are essentially 3 historical periods where we know any specifics about the Night's Watch: 1) the long night/age of heroes, 2) Targaryen era, 3) recent history. If we work through these backwards, we can pretty much rule out the recent era for not meeting the criteria of "killed a long time ago". The Targaryen era didn't have much Night's Watch drama, a few kings sent to the wall at Aegon's conquest, Raymun Redbeard's invasion is wall related but the whole point of that story is that the Night's Watch failed to really get involved... the only strong contender from this period is a mysterious magical Targaryen bastard who went to the wall and went missing... but he's the other mysterious good zombie wandering around up north. The long night has a lot of Night's Watch focus, but it was 10,000 years ago. Allowing for this being in-universe exaggeration, it's still ~2,000 years ago, and if Coldhands were that old, I'm not sure he'd be in elk-riding mutineer-killing form, or at least not look passably human to Bran and co. This rules out specific timeline characters, which leaves more folkloric characters like Danny Flint, who isn't associated to any one point in time. There's a song, and she's treated as a well-known tale, which implies a fairly long time, but overall could be whenever. This works for any of the folkloric Night's Watch characters, but the Rat King is already otherwise occupied with a different cannibalistic pseudo immortality, leaving Mad Axe, who does have the massacring fellow brothers down pat, but doesn't feel thematically right to me. This section really grew in the writing, but TL;DR - assuming Coldhands is someone we've heard of before, no specific historical figures seem to match up chronologically, leaving figures from folk tales and songs, which there are only so many of.

Mutineer Massacre For a character we've all obsessed over so much, it's easy to forget how little we've seen of Coldhands. His role in the story has effectively been "transport Sam and Gilly to the wall, transport Bran and co to Bloodraven, massacre the Night's Watch mutineers". Hold up, one of those things is not like the others. During his quest to get Bran to Bloodraven, to awake the messiah and save the world, Coldhands takes a break and makes a detour to kill the Night's Watch Mutineers from Crasters. This is explicitly noted to be something they slow down for, when time is critical. Admittedly, it secures the party some delicious Long Pork when supplies are low, but even in aDwD it seems like there are other ways to get meat than to hunt humans, besides which he kills not one but five mutineers. He claims it is because the mutineers are following them, but Meera points out they've been circling for days - it seems Coldhands deliberately sought the mutineers out. The brutality of the kills also suggests more than utilitarian pragmatism - there are entrails slung through branches and severed heads! All of this to say, Coldhands is deliberately shown as both a member of the Night's Watch, and willing/going out of his way to punish Night's Watch brothers who break their vows and harm their fellow brothers, something Danny Flint might take personally. Basically, it's a classic exploitation movie with an elk-riding zombie as the wronged woman hunting down wrongdoers. Someone call Tarantino to direct this.

A True Night's Watch One of the big themes GRRM loves is the idea that outsiders to an institution can be the truest embodiment of that institution - Dunk and Brienne are the truest Knights, Davos is the truest lord, the Manderlys are the most loyal northerners. Coldhands already seems to tie into this - the Night's Watch are tireless defenders from the Others and their Wights, so ironically the staunchest ranger is undead as well. It would only emphasise this theme if this ultimate Night's Watch ranger was someone who was barred from entry, had to sneak in, and was murdered by their brothers for not belonging. There also seems to be a thematic tie in that Danny Flint had to essentially infiltrate the Night's Watch and keep her cover in hostile terrain, much like Coldhands in the Others controlled north.

Bonding over being murdered by your brothers Coldhands has so far been very much one of Bran's cast, but it's worth noting characters can switch storylines, and we have someone else in the North who can soon relate to being a back-from-the-dead Night's Watchman fighting the Others - I'm hardly the first to note the Coldhands/Jon parallels, but Coldhands being another character who was murdered by the Night's Watch due to their conservatism and hatred of outsiders would add another layer.

Miscellany A couple of quotes I found while researching for this: “Did Mance ever sing of Brave Danny Flint?” “Not as I recall. Who was he?” (ADWD Jon XII) - Tormund and Jon talking, Tormund mistaking Danny Flint for a man, this feels like one of those throw-away lines GRRM likes to include to make a little double meaning once the truth is out, or just seeding the idea of mistaking Danny Flint for a man. “The ranger wore the black of the Night’s Watch, but what if he was not a man at all?" (ADWD Bran I) - again, I could see GRRM giggling as he typed that if this theory were true.

Conclusion Honestly, there is every chance this is absolute nonsense, and I've just lost it waiting for TWoW. I tend to lean towards Coldhands not having a big identity reveal, he's an undead ranger co-opted by Bloodraven and that's enough. However, if Coldhands is to have an identity reveal, I think Danny Flint deserves consideration: there aren't that many viable candidates, her story is emotionally intense enough and has been referred to often enough that a casual fan could be expected to go "oh!" instead of "...let me google that", and it would fit with existing themes of the story. The angle of Jon parallels even gives an opening for the reveal to be natural and facilitate character and thematic arcs, which is what I look for in a theory.

comment on reddit

Yeah, the Flint (of Flint's Finger) sigil literally being a Cold Hand is what sold me on this when I started looking into it. There's also some other intriguing textual stuff about it...

The weird thing about Danny Flint is that she is only mentioned three times in all of ASOIAF. Three! Bran recounts her tale in Bran IV, ASOS; Theon hears Wyman Manderly demand her song in The Prince of Winterfell, ADWD; and Jon discusses her tale with Tormund in Jon XII, ADWD.

This was kind of shocking to me. Danny Flint is a pretty recognizable name to, I’d figure, the majority of attentive readers. I thought she must have been mentioned before the third book, at least, but… nope. Her tale is first introduced to us in Bran IV, ASOS, the Nightfort chapter… Oh, what’s that? Wait, isn’t that… the very same Nightfort chapter where we first hear about Coldhands? (Well, no, actually, he appears at the end of Samwell III before that, but this is the first chapter where he is identified as Coldhands.) Chronologically, Sam meets Coldhands, Bran thinks about Danny Flint, and then Sam introduces Bran to Coldhands, in fairly quick succession.

So it seems GRRM came up with Danny Flint and Coldhands around the exact same time. Interesting. Danny Flint is then not mentioned again until ADWD, when the Coldhands mystery is developed further. Double interesting.

Also, the Bran chapter directly preceding the Nightfort chapter– our first introduction to Danny Flint– is the one where Meera tells him the story of the Knight of the Laughing Tree, another tale of a northern warrior woman dressing as a man and hiding her face in service of some greater goal. Stretch? Maybe.

And why would Coldhands' face be covered at all if there WASN'T some big reveal upcoming? What utility would that have? That scarf clearly seems like a setup for SOMETHING. He doesn't need it for warmth. He's likely hiding a face that would make him recognizable to Bran/Meera/Jojen (and the readers), but died long ago... the only way that reveal could work without a ton of laborious exposition is if he took off the scarf and it was obviously a 'female' face, making it obviously Danny. It also seems likely Coldhands will interact with at least Bran and Meera again, both of whom are somewhat connected to Danny Flint’s story– Bran via his love of stories and legends, and Meera via the breaking of gender roles. So there's thematic levels to it as well.

source www . reddit . com/r/asoiaf/comments/llwm8m/coldhands_identity_spoilers_extended/

#asoiaf #A Song of Ice and Fire #asoiaf theories #asoiaf theory #asoiaf coldhands #danny flint

[dalekofchaos]

Undertaker’s Streak never should have been broken

Nearly 7 years later and I still think it was dumb to end the streak. I even think it was dumber to let that steroided freak of a part timer be the one to do it. It did not help or elevate anyone. It ended one of the few things I had to watch on Wrestlemania every year. 

The Streak was special, sacred, a spectacle and important. 

It was stupid. Brock Lesnar did not need it. He’s Brock fucking Lesnar, the Beast Incarnate. There was absolutely NOTHING he needed to build up. All he needed was to look good trying to end The Streak.

Someone like CM Punk or Bray Wyatt, yes I agree they would’ve been better, but considering how both men were treated by WWE, do you think it would’ve done anything for them when it’s all said and done?

You killed the golden goose. You killed the one reason why old school fans like me actually fucking gave a fucking damn year after year after shitty storyline after shitty storyline. I was done with WWE after the Benoit murders due to how they cultivated an environment that allowed Benoit to lose his fucking mind. But I had one bright spot. The Undertaker and his Streak. And you killed it for Brock?

I don’t care if it was Vince or Taker’s call. Letting Lesnar to be the one to do it was fucking stupid. Where in the  hell did anyone involved with this stupid decision think this was a remotely good idea? You would have thought that if going into it you knew that this special thing was going to come to an end, this special thing that so many wrestling fans like myself and so many more held near and dear and sacred to their hearts, you would go out of your way to make this feel like something truly transcended, something truly iconic, something that truly would stand the test of time. But instead what you decide to do was drop The Streak after TWO DECADES of fucking investment to a guy who's a part-timer that advertises a sandwich shop on his short pants and his matches. Bad build up in a bad match and a bad decision as it happened. It's one, it's two and it's three! It was surreal not only because the streak was over and the realization the truth smacked us across the face like a ton of bricks, but it's over like after two decades and THIS is how it ends after over two decades after so many memorable moments and so many memorable matches and so many times where you feel it was this close ti veubg vrijeb abd then somehow someway it wasn't. This is how it's decided that it's gonna end? This is gonna be the nightcap to over two decades of fucking legend? Over two decades of awesome? Over two decades of accomplishment? Over two decades of something that will never ever be touched again by anything in the WWE or professional wrestling as a whole? This unfullfilling, unsatisfying completely idiotic piece of shit is what we got instead and to me the truth of the matter is it will always feel like it was a great big slap in the fucking face. It's like after all this time, Vince laughed and was like "eh, fuck you fans, who needs you, this is how we're gonna do it" and this is dumb on so many different levels. Of all people, Taker decided he wanted to drop his streak to Brock fucking Lesnar...why? Let's evaluate this for a second. This is the same Brock less near the heading into Wrestlemania XXX was 1-2 and from a logic standpoint this sure as shit doesn't make any sense at Wrestlemania. Need I remind everybody that this is the same Brock Lesnar that just one year earlier couldn't beat Triple H at Wrestlemania 29. The SAME Triple H, OH THAT BY THE WAY The Undertaker beaten him in back to back years at Wrestlemania!Including what was a glorified two-on-one handicap match the end of an era Hell In A Cell Match where Shawn Michaels was a special guest referee and not to mention he beat him in 2001 at Wrestlemania 17. So Brock Lesnar, a guy with a career losing record at Wrestlemania, the guy that couldn't beat Triple H, another part-time wrestler at Wrestlemania 29, is now able to beat The Undertaker who was 21-0 at Wrestlemania and had beaten Triple H THREE TIMES at the biggest even of the year...THREE FUCKING TIMES! And Lesnar couldn't do it once.... 7 years fucking later and it didn't do shit for Lesnar or shit for WWE in general. Need I remind you WWE gave it to someone who left the WWE high and motherfucking dry after Wrestlemania 20. Do we all forget how much time and energy and investment the WWE put behind Brock Lesnar in his first two years on the main roster in the WWE for all the people who still defend this bullshit decision, these are all the same idiots who pissed and moaned about Cena and Roman. DING DONG DUMB DICKS. Do you not realize if Brock Lesnar didn't leave the company high and dry after Wrestlemania 20, they wouldn't have had to sit there and build up John Cena and later Roman Reigns to the point where they had to play it safe with them so they wouldn't be big enough to leave?? At least Cena stayed until he felt his time was over. Roman is awesome and his status is well deserved. Brock did not deserve it. It was dumb 7 years ago and it's still incredibly dumb and stupid. Of all the people in the Streak who could've beaten it, you're telling me Brock Lesnar is greater than CM Punk, Batista, HHH or Shawn Michaels. I would've accepted John Cena or Roman Reigns and it actually would've fucking meant something. Brock was never around much, he's made it pretty fucking clear he doesn't care about WWE, the fans or wrestling in general, all he cares about is fucking money. You wasted two decades of build up for this part-timer and waste of fucking money and again, it was not worth it and incredibly stupid. You could've given it to CM Punk and he would've stayed. You could've had HHH win at at the end of an era match and it still would've meant something. At least with HHH being involved in the day to day operations of the WWE, imagine how much more it would mean if HHH had actually been the one to end the Strak at Wrestlemania 28 end of an era match and then he turns around and loses to Daniel Bryan at Wrestlemania 30 But no, you gave it to someone who didn't give a flying shit about the fans or professional wrestling. 7 years later and this decision was still fucking dumb. You can say whatever you want about Cena and trust me I was not a fan and I would've been just as mad 7 years ago if he was the one to end the streak because of what it represented to me as a wrestling fan, at least I would've known that he would have respected it, he would have appreciated it, he would have understood it and you actually would have gotten more long-term return on that very very long-term inveestment that you made as the WWE into that Undertaker character into the freaking streak! And what did it end up doing? Really at the end of the day what was the point of this? I mean if you really think about it, here's some things that have just really stand out to me. The fact that it was The Undertaker's call doesn't make it the right call. 7 years later I don't believe it was the right decision. Even those people that we respect the most sometimes make the dumbest decisions possible. This was dumb, it's just one of these things, well it was a great, shocking and surprising moment in Wrestlemania, well I bet it fucking was and the reason nobody saw it coming was because of a bad build up, a bad match in a dumb booking decision. It was a bad post-match reaction to it. It created a terrible Wrestlemania moment and some very detrimental dire bad consequences to the night to think about it. Instead of talking about Daniel Bryan's victory, they would be talking about Undertakjer's streak being broken and the shock and awe. Shock and surprise is not always good. You could take a shit or yank out your privates in the ring and I promise you tons of fans in that arena would be thinking what the fuck just happened? That's pretty much what happened. Who did this benefit? NO ONE! Did the fans want this? NO ONE FUCKING WANTED IT! Did it benefit the WWE? ABSOLUTELY FUCKING NOT! The decision to end the streak was incredibily selfish. This was something a lot of fans were incredibily emotionally invested in. This was the only thing that kept me interested in WWE and Vince just had to ruin it. Vince just had to go with his old "eat shit and like the taste of it mentality" and shove this fucking part timer down our fucking throats for the next 6 fucking years. Choosing to end The Streak was selfish, incredibily selfish and incredibily stupid. I don't care if Undertaker wanted it to be over, The Streak still mattered. Why not preserve your legacy with the streak intact? Let's look at your career after the streak. Bad matches and you still come back every year. Taker was very loyal to Vince and the WWE, so why the fuck would you choose to let the asshole who left WWE 10 years ago when they clearly needed a star for the tremendous honor of breaking your legendary undefeated streak? You could've chosen a young guy who needed and deserved the honor to enhance his career. If The Undertaker doesn't care about his Streak, Legacy or career, then why should we? Why the fuck should I? 20 years and it was for nothing. Taker might be at peace with it, but I never will be. 7 Years and I am still pissed. It was incredibily selfish for Taker, Vince and the WWE to sit there and decide at Wrestlemania 30 to end it when it should have been all about Daniel Bryan and it should have been all about him overcoming the odds and obstacles. It ultimately became about The Undertaker  and his Streak ending. I will always believe the decision was a dumb one and I will never accept it.

Undertaker never should have lost. As Arn Anderson said “He should still be sitting here unbeaten. It's as special as anything has ever been, it's more special than anybody that won a world title. It's one of those things that comes along every so often and the character fits the angle. Leaving him undefeated would've been perfect. Let him walk away, let him retire, let him get put in the hall of fame all in one year and let that record, whether it would be 30-0, that's something monumental.”

And yes, I do believe Undertaker should have been undefeated with 30-0 and retire with the Streak in tact. After defeating Brock, these are potential Streak victims I could foresee

Wrestlemania 31:Sting(JUST THINK ABOUT IT. Undertaker returns after Wrestlemania XXX, no Bray Wyatt and we’re on the road to Wrestlemania, before he could even make his announcement. All of a sudden everything goes black. And we hear this  “When a man's heart is full of deceit... It burns up, dies... And a dark shadow falls over his soul... From the ashes of a once great man, has risen a curse...A wrong that must be righted... We look to the skies for a vindicator, someone to strike fear into the black hearts of the same man who created him... The battle between good, and evil has begun... Against an army of shadows, lies a dark warrior...The prevailer of good... With a voice of silence... And a mission of justice... This is Sting.” Sting’s classic Crow theme plays and as he makes his entrance to the ring. The stare off happens. Sting aims his bat at Taker and challenges him to Wrestlemania. Undertaker’s eyes goes white and gives him the throat cross. Sting vs Undertaker at Wrestlemania 31. Sting makes his debut in a way he should have appeared in WWE challenging The Undertaker at Wrestlemania. The Pheonom vs The Icon. WWE’s legend vs WCW’s legend. Perfect.)

Wrestlemania 32:Braun Strowman

Wrestlemania 33:Roman Reigns

Wrestlemania 34:Kurt Angle(Ronda would be facing Stephanie in a singles match instead, so we get the match we should have gotten at Wrestlemania 22)

Wrestlemania 35:Elias

Wrestlemania 36:AJ Styles

Wrestlemania 37:Aleister Black

Wrestlemania 38:The Fiend

The night prior, Undertaker is inducted into the WWE Hall Of Fame. At Wrestlemania, Undertaker beats The Fiend and becomes 30-0. The night after he announces his retirement and a tribute show for The Undertaker goes off. The perfect send off for The Undertaker.

#WWE #The Undertaker #Undertaker #Sting #Braun Strowman #Roman Reigns #Kurt Angle #Elias #AJ Styles #Aleister Black #Bray Wyatt

[voltagesmutter]

Yoosung’s Match

Doing something different-ish, focusing on a series without the smut, lolol. After starting Yoosung’s route, I am so soft for him! I wanted to a series where him and mc share interests, including LoLoL. 

Pairing: Yoosung x OC (Dove)

Summary: When a stranger enters the RFA chat, no-one expected an almost female version of Yoosung to be the participant who would be the key to beginning their parties one more. Will their similarities pull them together or will another come in and sweep her away?

Warnings: None, only reference to game from day 1-11 so spoilers for those not played Yoosung.

Note: This chapter is based off day’s 1 and then day 5 from Yoosungs route. Written in the form like the chatroom. Features clips and conversations from the game but also own created content. Focuses on certain chatrooms rather than every individual one, wish to focus more on developing a storyline with Yoosung than the whole party and gameplay.

Chapter 1: Dove has entered the chatroom.

[Dove has entered the chat]

 Yoosung★: Failed my midterms fml T_T

707: Cuz u played LOLOL all night lol.

Jumin: If you want to work for our company, you should take care of your GPA.

Yoosung★: I’m still on the list?! +_+

Jumin: Yes.

707: Nice~ Can’t believe u get to work straight after college lol

707: In this day and age!

Zen: Lame. It’s nepotism.

Jumin: It’s called recruitment actually.

Zen: It’s giving a free pass instead of actually training the worker.

Jumin: Whatever. I couldn’t care less what you say.

Zen: What’s the difference between recruitment and nepotism?

707: Thought they r the same? O_O?

Jumin: It’s nepotism if you recruit a person you know and they aren’t of any help.

Yoosung★: Oh… So you become a candidate for nepotism the same time you’re recruited!

Zen: 

707: Wait!!

Yoosung★: Why?

Zen: ??

707: Think someone entered the chat room;;

Jumin: Dove…?

Zen: Wtf. How did it get in here?

707: Hacker!

Yoosung★: Hacker!? Therae’s a hacker in ouer room!!!

Yoosung★: Sevnee do somethign!!

Zen: Hey, typos. -_-;;

707: Wait a sec. I’m searching.

Jumin: Who are you? Reveal yourself. Hey, Assistant Kang.

Jaehee: Yes, I am here.

Zen: You were so quiet I thought you went somewhere.

Jaehee: Nothing was out of the ordinary so I was just watching

Jaehee: but I see something has just happened.

Yoosung★: omg

Jumin: Why is a stranger in our chatroom?

Jaehee: No one can enter this chatroom without installing the private app we use… It seems someone has downloaded the RFA Messenger.

Yoosung★: I thought Seven let only us download it?

Dove: Hello…

707: I traced the IP…

707: It’s from Rika’s apartment.

Yoosung★: Rika’s apartment?

Jumin: Where was it?

Jaehee: The location is not revealed. I know it to be classified.

707: Anyways, someone must have broken into her apt.

707: It talked now, so it must be a person ^^;

Jumin: Quit shitting around.

Jumin: Dove… Who are you?

Jumin: Reveal yourself, stranger.

Jumin: If you do not reveal yourself, you will pay.

Yoosung★: Yeees! Who are u?!

Zen: Use proper english please.

707: If it doesn’t say anything I’ll hack in and find out.

Zen: …Maybe

Zen: one of my fans?

Dove: Reveal yourselves first. I’m the most confused one here…

Jumin: How fierce.

Zen: Are you a woman?

707: Zen. Be more serious, plz?

707: And wait a sec on the woman thing.

707: Looking it up.

Yoosung★: Should we… introduce ourselves?

Jumin: Are you serious…?

Jaehee: I think it is a bit too early for that.

Zen: Hi. I’m Zen. (24 yrs old) Musical actor… Don’t look me up on the internet.

Zen: It’s embarrassing.

Yoosung★: Zen, you’re so brave!

Jumin: Guess he wanted to show himself off.

Zen: No way~!

Zen: 

Yoosung★: Omg… a photo too.

Jaehee: My eyes have been cleansed.

Jaehee:

Dove: Oh, I haven’t heard of you, sorry…

Dove: Yes to before, I am woman.

Zen: What?!

*Heart break appears on screen*

Jumin: I see that he has zero interest in his privacy.

707: Lolol

707: My nickname’s 707.

707: Real name is a secret.

707: Fyi, Zen’s real name is Hyun Ryu.

Zen: Your name’s a secret but not mine?;

707: U don’t care anyways lol.

Jaehee: 707 does have the strangest name so I understand the secrecy.

707:  The name’s too holy to be spread around~ I’m gonna pray after I finish hacking.

707: Just remember me as the 22yr old young hacker lol

707: Where I live is also a secret.

Zen: So many secrets;;

Yoosung★: I’m Yoosung Kim! I’m a college student… 21 yrs old.

Yoosung★: 

707: So warm and fuzzy here

Zen: Lol. Seven, you don’t have any selfies to show?

707: Nothing recent.

707: Oh and also!

707: Jumin’s the heir of a pretty famous corporation and Jaehee is his assistant. 27 and 26 yrs old respectively.

707: You have a better sense of who we are now, Dove?

Jumin: Why did you say that…?

707: Doubted you’d do it urself.

Jumin: Stop shitting around.

707: Oh, fyi, Jumin has the cutest cat.

Jumin: Hey.

Jumin: Why are we talking about Elizabeth the 3rd to a stranger?

707: The cat’s name is Elizabeth the 3rd.

707: 

Yoosung★: That info’s a bit useless…

Yoosung★: We’re not even close with this Dove person yet lol

Jumin: Can’t believe he showed a photo of Elizabeth the 3rd to a stranger…

Jumin: Idiot…

Zen: Stop talking about cats. Giving me goosebumps.

Jaehee: I suggest that we take care of this stranger first.

Jaehee: Could it be that we have a security breach?

Zen: True. Dove, how did you get in here?

Yoosung★: Is it really in Rika’s apartment?

707: Yup. It’s for sure…

707: How did it get the apartment password?!

Zen: Where the hell is the apartment?

Dove: I came here while chatting with a personal called ‘Unknown’. Do you know him by any chance?

Dove: But anyway, I’m Dove. 

Jumin: Unknown?

Zen: Maybe he just didn’t set a username?

707: It’s mandatory to set a username so he must have set it that way.

707: Maybe…

Yoosung★: How did you end up chatting with that person?

Jaehee: I see.

Jaehee: Where did you download this messenger app?

Jaehee: Dove, you are quite strange as well.

Zen: Do you think this person’s a creep? No way.

Dove: I got it in the app store, I just downloaded it and then was suddenly in a room with unknown and now all of you…

Dove: I just wanted to play games lolol

Yoosung★: You like games too!

Yoosung★: I love games.

Yoosung★: Wait!

Yoosung★: Did you say lolol as in LoLoL?!

Zen: Dude. A girl won’t play that game;

Zen: Don’t ask stupid questions.

Yoosung★: T_T

Dove: Does the wizard of Tarth ever lie?

Yoosung★:

Yoosung★: Yoousung.exe has stopped working.

Yoosung★: You play?!

707: Anyways.

707: I should trace the person who distributed the app.

 [Day 1]

[7:00 am]

Yoosung★ entered the chat

Dove entered the chat

Yoosung★: Do you know that Zen always complains about being single these days?

Yoosung★: But I’ve never even been in a relationship T_T

Dove: Are you not interested in girls?

Yoosung★: …I guess…

Yoosung★: I feel better when I team up with a girl character when playing games.

Yoosung★: And it makes it more interesting if there’s a girl in the guild…

Yoosung★: Was you serious when you said you played?

Dove: Level 69 Mage at your service

Yoosung★: I…

Yoosung★: I’ve rarely met a girl who plays! 

Yoosung★: Are you in a guild?!

Yoosung★: I’m hoping to be a guildmaster one day.

Dove: Ever heard of ‘Tribe of War’?

Yoosung★: We are sworn enemies!

Yoosung★:...

Yoosung★: But my special talent is defending the peace! So I guess I can let our guild war slide

Dove: You bring peace to the world young sir!

Yoosung★: 707 play’s sometimes!

Yoosung★: Maybe we could have an online meet up!

Yoosung★: Since we can’t in real life.

Yoosung★: I wish he would give us the address to Rika’s apartment…

Dove: I’d like that!

Dove: But we have the party to focus on!

Yoosung★: I really like you T_T

Yoosung★: It’s only been a day and I can’t wait to meet you lolol.

Yoosung★: I have class at 9 so I have to go take the bus now.

Yoosung★: The poor fate of a college student…!

Yoosung★: I have to go now. I’m almost running late!

Yoosung★: Dove, let’s talk soon! >_<

Yoosung★ has left the chatroom.

 [18:02pm]

 Dove entered the chat

Yoosung★ entered the chat

 Dove: Hey Yoosung★.

Yoosung★: Dove, hey^^.

Yoosung★: Today’s the day you joined the organization.

Yoosung★: Usually at this hour, I would have been playing games…

Yoosung★: but I couldn’t really calm myself down.

Yoosung★: Why don’t we talk more about ourselves?

Dove: Well what would you like to know?

Yoosung★: Well, all Seven told us is that

Yoosung★: you’re a cute girl.

Yoosung★: I want to know… your interests, what you do, and things like that in detail.

Yoosung★: I do want to ask you directly.

Yoosung★: But it does feel a bit too soon for that…

Yoosung★: I would just like to talk to you like this and get to know you gradually.

Dove: I’d like to get to know you better as well.

Yoosung★: A girl who plays lolol and wants to know me

Yoosung★: Are you really real? 

Yoosung★: This isn’t a whole thing of 707 playing a prank is it…?

Dove: Lol I hope not.

Dove: I’m very real, even though I don’t really feel real living in someone else's apartment…

Dove: But I’m excited for the party, I hope I do right by you all.

Yoosung★: I think all the organization members are thinking the same thing.

Yoosung★: If you could do what Rika used to do

Yoosung★: we’d get to host parties again!

Dove: I’ll do my best!

Yoosung★: Do you feel pressured because of everything I’m saying?

Yoosung★: If V donates his photographs, then I’m sure a lot of people will come.

Yoosung★: So you don’t have to worry so much.

Dove: Thank you! 

Yoosung★: Sure!

Yoosung★: Tell me whenever it gets hard!

Yoosung★: I should go play games now!

Yoosung★: There’s a pretty important showdown today.

Yoosung★: Wish me luck so I can win!

Dove: Good luck oh mighty defender of peace!

Yoosung★: Thank u >_<

Yoosung★: Then see ya~!

Yoosung★ has left the chatroom.

 [22:30] 

Yoosung★ entered the chatroom.

 Dove: Yoosung★ your still up?

Yoosung★: Hey, you here too! 

Yoosung★: I can’t believe I’m talking to the new member~

Yoosung★: I still feel dazed.

Yoosung★: I can’t even focus on gaming today.

Yoosung★: I have so much on my mind because of you…

Dove: All good I hope Lolol.

Yoosung★:

Yoosung★:  My mind’s going blank now -_-…

Yoosung★: I can’t get thoughts of you out of my head…

Yoosung★: Haha

Yoosung★: Thank you so much for helping.

Yoosung★: Even tomorrow… you could escape Rika’s apartment…

Yoosung★: Delete this app

Yoosung★: and never talk to us again.

Yoosung★: I would really miss you if that happens.

Yoosung★: Please… don’t abandon us.

Dove: I won’t.

Dove: I promise.

Dove: Beside you owe me a meet up on LoLol!

Yoosung★: Yes! Yes. 

Yoosung★: As soon as everything is settled with party.

Yoosung★: I don’t want to feel like I’m pressuring you too much.

Yoosung★: Oh the time! I best be off, I have an early start tomorrow.

Dove: Goodnight~

Yoosung★: Goodnight!

Yoosung★ has left the chatroom.

[Day 5]

[9:40]

Yoosung★ entered the chat

 Dove: Goodmorning Yoosung!

Yoosung★: Dove, goodmorning^^

Yoosung★: I’m just brushing my teeth!

Yoosung★: Did you… see the photo Seven posted?

Yoosung★: I really miss it…

Yoosung★: It would have been nice if Rika was in the photo too…!

Yoosung★: Seeing the photo makes me get excited about the next party ^^

Dove: You looked so young and different!

Dove: I like your hair blonde, it suits you better!

Yoosung★: You do?!

Yoosung★: I kinda dyed it because....

Yoosung★: I thought it would help get a girlfriend.

Yoosung★: But since you like, that’s got to be a good sign right?

Yoosung★: I’m curious to know what colour hair you have.

Dove: I mean I would show you if 707 gave me image permission.

Dove: But I guess for now you see me like this Dove: [Website Link]

Yoosung★: THAT'S YOU?!

Dove: That was me at the LoLoL convention in the fall.

Dove: I cosplayed as my character.

Yoosung★: C-Cosplay!

Yoosung★: This is all too much.

Yoosung★: A pretty girl who plays LoLoL and cosplays.

Yoosung★: I-

Yoosung★: I have to go! My break is almost over!

Yoosung★: And just when it was all getting good.

Yoosung★: Bye Dove! Yoosung★★ has left the chatroom.

 [14:36]

707 entered the chat.

 Dove: 707~ Hello!

707: Hello!

707: I was scrolling through the chatrooms and saw you almost kill Yoosung★ earlier.

707: I’m still struggling to believe that that's you.

707: Especially since I’m the only one whos seen the real you.

Dove: Well if I could send photos to you all.

Dove: You can’t laugh but…

Dove: I love sharing photos of my food.

Dove: I really want to send some to Yoosung★, he’s always asking and checking I’m eating.

707: For the sake of the apartment location I can’t allow it.

Dove: Oh come on, Mr.Defender of justice!

Dove: I just want to share some snack photos every now and then.

Dove: There’s a vender outside who sells these buns in the shape of fish, stuffed with chocolate!

707: They are-

707: My favourite.

707: Beside HoneyBuddha Chips.

Dove: HoneyBuddha Chips…?

707: You’ve never…?

707: I’ll bring you a bag to the party.

707: Only a bag though.

707: But once you start them, you’ll be addicted to them.

707: Like me.

Dove: I look forward to it!

707: Gahhh.

707: Just got work again….

707: About the photo’s… I’ll see what I can do.

Dove: Thank you 707~

Dove: You're the best!

707: Lol, tell me something I don’t know.

 707 left the chat.

[18:25]

 Dove entered the chat.

 Dove: Yoosung, how was the library?

Yoosung★: Dove, you're here!

Yoosung★: I missed you hehe.

Jumin: You two are really warming it up.

Yoosung★: What are you talking about~!

Dove: Did you guys see about Zen?

Jumin: I saw Zen injuries himself.

Yoosung★: Yeah I saw too.

Yoosung★: Don’t worry Dove, Zen is the kinda guy to bounce straight back!

Jumin: I’m sure it’s torture for him to rest right now.

Jumin: Haha…

Yoosung★: Jumin… I feel like you’re enjoying this…;;

Jumin: Being with Elizabeth the 3rd is always enjoyable.

Yoosung★: Oh, you’re with your cat right now;;

Dove: I once went to a cat cafe!

Dove: I feel like you’d enjoy it Jumin.

Jumin: A cat cafe…

Jumin: I’d rather spend time with that narcissist then eat cat.

Dove: No you silly!

Dove: It’s a cafe where you get to go and eat with cats.

Dove: You can feed them, pet them whilst taking loads of cute photos! It’s really cute.

Dove: Hold up, let me just…

Dove: Look the one fell asleep atop of my head!

Yoosung★: Wait, you can send us photos now?!

Jumin: I need…

Jumin: To ask assistant Kang about investing into one of these…

Jumin: I fear if I went to one, Miss.Elizabeth would become jealous of smelling other cats upon me.

Jumin: But I like this, very much.

Jumin: If you’ll excuse me, I need to make a phone call about producing one of these for Miss.Elizabeth.

Jumin left the chat.

Yoosung★: You are really cute~

Dove: Aha thank you! 

Dove: I had the best time when I went.

Yoosung★: I can’t believe I get to see the real you.

Yoosung★: Before anyone else as well!

Yoosung★: Well except 707 and Jumin… 

Yoosung★: But before the others and the party as well!

Dove: I asked 707 about it earlier.

Dove: I wanted to be able to send you photos of my food, to prove to you I’m eating.

Yoosung★: You asked him so you could send me photos?

Yoosung★: Thank you. MC.

Yoosung★: For appearing in front of me.

MC: Yoosung, you’re cute.

Yoosung★: Me?!

Yoosung★: Guys tend to not like being called cute…

Yoosung★: but why do I feel so strange hearing it from you?

Yoosung★: I should go to bed now. I don’t know if I’ll sleep though…

Yoosung★: Are you going to stay up?

MC: Yes.

Yoosung★: Okay.

Yoosung★: Don’t work too hard ^^

Yoosung★: I feel bad if you’re tired.

Yoosung★: Then I’ll get going!

Yoosung★ has left the chatroom

#mysme #mysme yoosung #mystic messenger #mystic messenger yoosung #yoosung kim #mysme zen #mysme jumin #mysme 707 #mysme jaehee #sfw

[insfiringyou]

How would the guys respond to the question: "what do you love most about her?" Like if one of their family members asked them that Q re: their GFs? Or maybe the members asking each other this Q? Like we are obvs inside the guys' minds when we read the chapters, so we have a sense of what they seem to notice and cherish, but there's something so touching and interesting about listening to someone try to articulate, out loud, what they love about another person. No pressure to answer!

Hi, such a good request! We thought hard about this because we don’t think all of them would feel the need to wax lyrical about their girlfriends to the other members, or need to defend why they like them. 

Yoongi, for example, would find it hard to articulate to the others why he loves Jeong-sun so much, as it is just such a deep connection they have that might not necessarily be obvious when people see them together. In fact, in A Reunion, Min-seo picks up on the fact that they seem really independent of each other when together in public and are happy to have separate conversations with different people. Yoongi thinks the world of her - he thinks she’s intelligent, warm, loving, caring towards other people, cool-headed and practical, sexy, beautiful and witty. But if asked why he likes her, he’d probably just say that ‘she’s funny.’ I actually think if anyone asked whether he found her physically attractive he’d be quite annoyed because it should be obvious he thinks she’s beautiful and I don’t think he’d like anyone to dictate who he should and shouldn’t fancy. 

Namjoon would also not go on and on about why he loves Ji-eun, knowing the others would either get it or not, but if asked he would comment on how driven and ambitious she is. I don’t think he would need to elaborate on her intelligence, because that would be obvious from her educational background and the job she is in. Of course, he is also very physically attracted to Ji-eun and often tells her how sexy he finds her/she looks, but I think he’d be cautious about using this as a ‘reason’ as to why he finds her attractive with the other members. Mostly because even though it is true, he might think he’s somehow belittling her.

I don’t necessarily think Jin would need to explain why he loves Min-seo because, of all the couples, they would be among the easiest to see why they are together and the other members would think them a good match almost from the moment they met her. If pressed, however, he’d say she was a really kind person and that she makes him happy. 

Taehyung would love to talk about why he loves Cassandra and what he loves about her. His expression would often become quite dreamy when he discusses her, which would probably warrant a lot of snickering from the members which would make him annoyed, feeling they ‘don’t get it’. I do think, however, the members would get it - or at least get why he loves her/why they make sense as a couple. He’d say how beautiful she was - including her body and parts of her body. He might get a bit TMI about this which would be cringe-inducing for the members.He’d also say how passionate she was (with it being strongly implied he means inside the bedroom as well as outside) and what a dedicated artist she is. 

Jungkook would definitely get really bashful and flustered when talking about what he loves about Young-soon, often just reverting to ‘she’s perfect’ with a blush. He’d also say how patient and compassionate she was and, if pressed, shyly grin and say she’s really pretty too. If Young-soon was present for the conversation, she’d be a bit embarrassed but secretly find it really endearing how earnest he is being. 

Jimin would love talking about how cute he finds Ara and, of all members along with Taehyung, might annoy the other members a bit early in their relationship with how much he talks about her. He’d say how pretty and cute he finds her, as well as how sweet she is. He might also describe her as ‘a bit goofy’ in a really endearing way, as well as go on about her likes and hobbies. He’s also most likely to detail his dates with her to the members though, as they become closer and he matures, he would stop sharing as many details. 

Hoseok is definitely not shy about telling everyone what he loves about Nana as well as proudly boasting of her achievements like he does in A Reunion when she wins a teaching award. He would say how ‘smart’ and ‘funny’ and ‘nice’ she is, as well as telling the members how great she is at seemingly everything. When he talks about her, he would speak so fast he’d become quite breathless - talking about what a great cook she is or how good she is at making birthday cards or candles or soaps. The others would definitely find it sweet and funny how much Hoseok clearly loves her. Yoongi would especially love knowing how happy Nana makes his best friend. 

Thanks so much for the ask!

New readers can find out more about our headcanon universe and ongoing storyline here and more about our headcanon girlfriends here. To read each member & their girlfriend’s headcanon universe fics in order, follow the links here: RM   /   Jin /   Suga /   J-Hope   /   Jimin   /   V   /   Jungkook & our full masterlist of fics and art can be found here

#bts #bts x oc #bts fluff #bts cute #bts girlfriends #bts girlfriend #rm #jin #suga #j-hope #jimin #v #jungkook #bts scenarios #bts fanfiction #bts fan fiction #bts ask #bts asks #bts rm #bts jin #bts suga #bts j-hope #bts jimin #bts v #bts jungkook #bts ask anything #bts ship #bts ships #bts couples #bts preferences

[short-wooloo]

Adam defender’s double standard

sigh

A few weeks ago I made a post about how in the current point where the story is at, the Bees are better fighters than Adam was (https://short-wooloo.tumblr.com/post/190810618519/the-bees-are-better-fighters-than-adam-now)

Of course, I encountered idiots hellbent on sucking adam’s dick, naturally arguing that adam is in fact the most powerful kewlest character in the show uwu, and the reason is because he has so many fights against enemies he’s leagues above in skill and power, or just having an aura, never-mind the fact that he runs away when he doesn’t have the advantage

But one of the weirdest, and most frustrating arguments, is and I quote:

“Blake didn’t train at all during vol.4-6 so she won’t be able to take Adam down. Yang only had couple days of train still won’t match someone with high level years of training.”

So let me get this straight: because the show didn’t actually depict Blake and Yang training, or in Yang’s case “only a few days”, that means they didn’t (we’ve seen this dumb argument before and I’ll get to it in a sec), but Adam on the other hand is “high level” and has “years of training”,

“Years of training”, something we never once see Adam partake in, ah I see now, if the show doesn’t actually depict Blake and Yang getting lots of training, that means it didn’t happen/doesn’t count, but Adam?  Someone who has never been shown or said to have years of training?  He has it, obviously

As for the “high level” comment, Adam opponents include: robots (we specifically see Blake and Weiss destroy the upgraded newer models), an uber-laser beam robot, which he specifically needed Blake’s help to defeat (we never see it again and the victory here is less skill and more a power perfectly suited to negate the opponents primary attack), people without aura (average military grunts, white fang goons, and human thugs), unarmed people, people who are at a disadvantage/are weaker than he is, people who’s aura is depleted, or people who he knows how to fight and get into their head because he’s familiar with them and their fighting style

Clearly the earmarks of someone on the highest of levels

Now lets get back to the supposed “lack of training” comment

I feel like this should be obvious but clearly it needs to be asked, Ya’ll realize that the scene of Yang training with Tai is not meant to be seen as the only time she trained right?  The scene is meant to convey that she has been training, not that this is the sum of all the training she has done, we don’t need several episodes of her training or a montage, is that what people seriously expect and want the show to do?  Just keep cutting to training fights that have no stakes between the same people over and over?  Just a continuous string of mindless fights that don’t contribute to the story but in fact distract from the story being told-

Oooooooooh wait, I just remember what fandom this is, “hur dur, show don’t tell, me want more fights, stop talking, why talking? where fight? me want fights me can’t follow basic storytelling, but me hide it by claiming the show is only telling and not showing”

ahem

Anyways, the amount training Yang has received is implied, the training fight between her and Tai is not meant to be see as taking place immediately following Vol 4 chapter 4, the 4 storylines of Vol 4 are not meant to be seen as happening 1 to 1 on the timeline

But aside from her training with Tai, Yang also trains with Oz, Ruby and her friends, the show makes a point in Vol 5 to say that RNJR is spending its time practicing and training, and if I recall correctly, this is supposed to have taken place over the course of a month, in short the points where RNJR meets up with Oscar/Ozpin, when Yang and Weiss reunite with them, and the battle for Haven are not meant to be seen as all happening immediately following each other, there are days/weeks between the events, do you really think Yang would just be doing nothing for all that time?

Speaking of timelines and when things happen, I should get to Blake, now yes, we don’t see Blake training, but its not like she’s sitting around the whole time, she was fighting White Fang members (specifically high-up skilled ones such as the Albains and Ilia) and Grimm, practice is good and all, but there’s no substitute for the real deal, and as for the timeline thing, remember how they transport the Militia from Menagerie by boat?  That’s no speedy trip, and given that said militia had some rudimentary or basic training down by the time they got to Haven, its not much of a jump to assume that during that time in addition to training the militia Blake was also training

But getting back to the real deal vs training thing, that’s the bulk of where team RWBY’s skill and strength come from, they have lots of hands-on real-life experience (this is part of the reason they beat ACE-OPs),

You don’t become a better fighter just from training alone, you need to have experience against real enemies too, a person can train their whole life but that’s no substitute for experience,

Case and point, RWBY spends a lot of time in fights with enemies that are aiming to hurt or kill them, training is good and all, it keeps you in shape and your skills fresh, but outside of accidents you aren’t in any real danger, but in a real fight where the enemy will hurt or kill you, that’s going to push your skills to the limit or even beyond, thus when they beat their enemies the experience has taught them and made them better fighters

Consequently, that’s also why Bumbleby improved and adam stagnated, during their time between Vol 3-6 the Bees have been facing Grimm and Human/Faunus opponents that can match them or give them a run for their money in a fight, as opposed to adam, who’s “fights” are him stabbing an unarmed woman, slaughtering White Fang goons (who everyone beats up with ease) or briefly “fighting” Blake and Sun before running away at the earliest convenience, now the main point of that is in the only instance where Adam came close to being in a fight that could have been an actual challenge he ran away as soon as he could, but every other fight was one where he was in no danger

Now if I could use a video game (rpg?) metaphor, Yang and Blake are like the players who face off against bosses/enemies that are equal or greater to them, a high risk high reward scenario, adam is a player who only fights the weak units that have no real chance of seriously threatening him, low reward, minimal risk,

Now I’m not going to say if one strategy is better than the other, but look at it like this, due to the rewards being higher, Blake and Yang gain more xp from their fights, whereas adam has to face numerous enemies to get the same amount of xp

Translating this back to RWBY’s world, by facing stronger opponents Blake and Yang get pushed to the limit and are forced to worker harder and become better fighters, but because adam fights people weaker than himself he almost never hits the limit (the fight at the end of Vol 6 was probably the only case of such ever happening in his life), and thus doesn’t need to try harder or put effort into improvement

#rwby #adam sucks #Adam is not strong #adam dicksuckers #rwby bumbleby #bumblby #blake bellodona #yang xiao long #taiyang xiao long #wooloo-writes #your narrative comprehension sucks #adam shithead taurus

[twilightofthe]

ahsoka tano for the headcanons

Liz hi!!!! Always wonderful to see you here!!!!! (ask meme here). Let’s do my girl Snips!

AHSOKA TANO

1: sexuality headcanon

Lesbian, demisexual. She just be!

2: otp

I really, REALLY love Kaesoka, E.K. Johnston did an amazing job with their dynamic in the book and I love them so much.

I also love Barrissoka (tragic, whYYYY), Tracesoka is adorable and I’d like to see more of and Riyosoka is super cute!!!!

3: brotp

SNIPS AND SKYGUY ALL THE WAY. WAIT NO NO NO ALSO AHSOKA AND REX OH NO I CAN’T CHOSE HELP. BOTH. (ACTUALLY REX BEATS ANAKIN CURRENTLY BECAUSE ONE OF THEM IS RESPONSIBLE FOR THE ANGST OF TODAY’S TCW EPISODE AND HE KNOWS WHO HE IS THE DUMBASS). BOTH is good tho. I also love Ahsoka with Obi Wan and I wanna see more of them >:( you hear me Kenobi show??? Also the Padmé and Ahsoka mentorship is a blessing and I love that too, she needs a role model like Padmé in her life

4: notp

*inhales* Ok I’ll save y’all a rant. While I like most characters in the Star Wars saga, Lux Bonteri is not one of those people. I do not like his punk ass and I dislike him with Ahsoka even more. Again, sorry if you do, this is just me not vibing. I don’t like Ahsoka with any guy, actually, since I see her as a lesbian.

5: first headcanon that pops into my head

Angsty one coming up with new TCW spoilers inbound. Ahsoka learned Mando’a from all the clones, growing up with them like she did. Her accent perfectly matches their dialect, she can understand and speak it perfectly. The first time she sees death is at fourteen when a guy gets literally blown away directly next to her. She doesn’t even have time to register it before Anakin is yanking her along because this is war and she doesn’t have time to adjust. She still dreams about it sometimes. At the end of that battle, what resonates with her is standing next to Rex while some of the other brothers retrieve the dead off the battlefield and prepare them for burial; they can’t take the bodies with them because there’s no room so they’ll be buried on planet. They start saying the Mando funeral prayer and giving them the final rites, and she doesn’t understand. Rex sees her confusion, and despite their kinda rocky, snippy start, puts a gentle hand on her shoulders and explains the words they speak and what they mean in their culture

Later, after Order 66 when Ahsoka and Rex go down to their crashed Star Destroyer and dig out Jesse’s body and so many others, Rex is sort of falling apart. The bodies need the rites and the traditional Mando’a words, but he doesn’t know, he can’t—

Ahsoka takes over for him, remembering the words by heart after three and a half years, and trained by now to have a Jedi’s stoicness. She says the rites, makes the preparations, as they bury the remains of what they once were

6: one way in which I relate to this character

Again, she’s WAY cooler than me. I guess also because she loves and defends Anakin when he doesn’t deserve it lol. But also, we both can be indecisive because we’re trying to see all the angles and do what we can to help everyone, even if we end up missing the bigger picture sometimes.

7: thing that gives me second hand embarrassment about this character

Hmmm, most of her first and second season goofs when she screwed up and got in trouble and needed to learn a lesson, I always get secondhand embarrassment from characters getting scolded by authority figures bleh.

ALSO her role in the Kadavo arc, as I mentioned, I feel secondhand embarrassment and don’t really like any character storylines from that arc, so hers is included in that. Also when she has to be one of the serving girls when Lux gets her in trouble with Death Watch, really any scenes she’s in with Lux cuz honey nooooo xD

8: cinnamon roll or problematic fave?

She’s a cinnamon roll babey!!! Again, not perfect, but no Star Wars character is. She’s brave and resilient and a hero who saves people!!! I love her Very Much

#i went off on tcw angst woops lol #thanks so much for asking! #snip snap #ask #asks #ahsoka tano #tcw spoilers #the clone wars spoilers

[aire101]

Ferrum Chapter 4

Hey y'all, got this chapter out a bit sooner than the last one!

For those who read the light novels of SAO this chapter will be kinda familiar, for those who have only watched the anime, this is the town where Kirito ran to after leaving Klein in Episode 1, and the quest where he got his Anneal Blade we see in the series.

Also, while I make no promises that it will make it into the story, I am open to suggestions on what kind of adventures or shenanigans you would like to see the boys get up to in SAO. As I've mentioned previously I don't really intend to get the boys mixed up too much in the main canon, so if there's an aspect of the SAO world in general you'd like to see explored outside of the main battles and Kirito's storyline I'm open to considering it. I'm also ok with interactions with known characters, just trying to avoid writing the whole Kirito centric Aincrad arc.

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

Activate-Vertical slash-hold

“Switch!”

1-2

“Switch!”

Defend-rage spike, upward strike—

“SWITCH!”

Peter fell back again, the post motion-delay that set in for a measly few seconds was nevertheless a highly vulnerable moment that he and Mr. Stark had figured out a work around for early on in their trek. The boars from Day 1 had been easy one hit kills, so they hadn’t noticed the system forced post-motion cool down period until they had been fighting on the road the next day. Their tag-team approach served them well, and best that Peter could tell from when they came upon other players in the wild, most of the rest had come to the same conclusion that they had. Because of that, it was unusual these days to find someone soloing in the pvp areas by choice.

Mr. Stark switched in with a strong horizontal slash, bringing the Little Nepenthe's HP down to zero.

“You know, I was never one for plants anyway, but after this quest I swear to god I will never put a single point into the gardening skill,” said Mr. Stark as he sheathed his sword.

“I’ve told you, green stuff is sadness and disappointment solidified,” replied Peter, following suit.

“I still expect you to eat your greens, kid.”

“It’s a tragedy, I tell you. Here we are, trapped in a fantasy game and every meal is still served with vegetables.”

“Yeah, that’s the real tragedy here.”

“I want my money back.”

“You weren’t even the one who bought the game. But either way, I’ll buy you every Playstation, X-Box, and Nintendo game ever in existence when we get back if you just never touch a full dive ever again,” said Mr. Stark, laughing.

And there’s Peter’s daily reminder that he still hadn’t informed Mr. Stark of the horrific truth of his situation.

“I think it’s time to call it a night, Underoos.”

“Is this quest even worth it? We’ve been out here for like three days weeding these things out. The drop rate on this thing is atrocious,” moaned Peter.

“From what our source says, this quest has one of the best weapons you can find on this floor as it’s reward. And while I’ve been funneling as many points as possible into weapon creation, its not quite where it needs to be to match that yet, so better to start with a good blade and just do the enhancement myself. Also, don’t think I didn’t notice that terrible pun, you should be ashamed.”

“Hey, there’s no shame in my pun game.”

Mr. Stark gave a deep sigh/groan before he turned and started walking back towards the direction of Horunka Village. He probably had rolled his eyes too, but it was impossible to tell through the helmet he always wore.

Night had long since fallen over Aincrad, and it had been dark in the forest even before that. Pale blue light slit through the trees overhead, lighting the path, but otherwise they made their way by memory and intuition. A breeze stirred up leaves from the ground, and Peter shivered slightly from the cool night air.

“Do you think its going to snow here in the winter?” asked Peter.

“If we’re all still here in the winter—which all signs point to yes— I think it will. We can see from the thunderstorm last week it has a functioning variable weather simulator. I wasn’t a part of that programing team obviously, so I don’t know for certain just how far that variable goes, but I would think the primary associated weather variations like rain, snow and heat waves will be included. It might also vary by floor. Probably won’t know the answer to that until we get a few floors opened up,” answered Mr. Stark.

“Huh… something to look forward to I guess,” said Peter.

“Why? You don’t get enough snow in Queens?” Mr. Stark said with a joking tone.

“Yeah, but you know in the real world I kinda have to be careful with the cold. My body temperature runs a bit cooler than the average, so unless I’m in the suit I try to keep exposure to a minimum. In here I can probably spend all day in it with out any trouble,” said Peter.

“I didn’t know that, actually,” said Mr. Stark, this time far more seriously. “You haven’t mentioned it, and I hadn’t thought about that at all.”

“Oh. Well, that built in heater and temperature regulator in the suit pretty much took care of the problem. It’s just something I have to keep in mind,” said Peter, awkwardly trying to cover his slip up. Obviously that had been a conversation they had some time after Mr. Stark’s last memory.

It had been almost two weeks since they had been locked in this game, and Peter was still no where close to figuring out how Mr Stark was even here. And he was equally no where closer to telling Mr. Stark the truth about the events in the real world— Thanos and the Infinity Stones, Mrs. Stark and Morgan, Mr. Stark’s death and Peter’s own—

“Anyway, we should definitely make a day of it once it does. I don’t know about you, but its been years since I built a snowman and I kinda want to change that,” said Peter, quickly diverting his thoughts.

“Sure, might as well. Not like we’re going anywhere fast in here. Though if you start singing Frozen songs I might reconsider.”

“You know, they’ve written out your entire life story in news articles and magazines, but they always leave out how much of a killjoy you are.”

“Whatever, kid. I’m the life of the party.”

“A retirement party, maybe.”

Mr. Stark threw the finger back over his shoulder at Peter and kept walking.

Peter was just just about to follow suit when out of the corner of his eye, the sight of polygons coalescing into a hazy form caught his attention.

It was obviously another Little Nepenthe, but above the typical hellish roots and vines and the bizarre, speckled pitcher plant topped with its gaping fanged mouth, was a large, blood red bloom.

Petter inhaled sharply, the sound causing Mr. Stark to spin around as well.

This was it. This is what they were looking for.

Before the creature could attack and he could second guess himself, Peter drew his sword and leapt in with a swift Horizontal Strike at the plant’s weak spot— the joint between the stalk and the pitcher.

The strike hit true, and before the evil hell plant got even a single chance to spew its corrosive liquids, it dissolved back into broken polygons, leaving behind nothing but the delicate flower holding the Ovule they had searched for.

“Whoa! You actually got one!”

Mr. Stark and Peter both spun around, swords raised. Behind them stood another player no older than Peter, with his arms now raised in a sign of surrender.

“Sorry! I was using my hide skill in here. It doesn’t really work on the Little Nepenthes, but it helps avoid other confrontations,” said the player.

Despite what they said, Peter took a good look around, searching for others. The timing and the seeming lack of a party giving good reason for concern. PKers lurking around valuable drop spots to attack and rob unsuspecting players of their loot wasn’t an uncommon thing in PvP games, and unfortunately not even a full two weeks in, SAO was no exception. In any other game, they may simply be considered griefers. But here, to the best of their knowledge it was nothing short of murder.

“Where’s the rest of your party?” asked Mr. Stark, not lowering his blade.

“Eh, I don’t really have one,” said the guy sheepishly

“Forgive me if I find that a little hard to believe,” said Mr. Stark. “Kid, do you see anyone else? Or are they hidden as well?”

“Look, there’s really no one else, its just me. People in here don’t really like my type,” said the guy, with a sad note in his voice.

“Oh…” said Mr. Stark, voice now tinged more compassion than aggression. “You’re a beta tester, aren’t you kid?”

The guy flinched, but nodded. “Please, I promise I’m just doing some light grinding in the area. There’s no one else, and I already have the quest item.”

Mr. Stark didn’t sheath his sword, but he gave a nod and backed away.

“Alright, good luck then,” he said.

The other player nodded in return, turned and walked back into the woods.

“Pocket the ovule quick and keep an eye out. Don’t sheath your sword until we get back into town,” said Mr. Stark before he began running back in the direction of Horunka village.

Peter slipped the item into his inventory and easily kept pace with the other man. After a few minutes of running, Peter finally spoke up, “Do you think he was telling the truth? Pretty surprising he freely admitted to that. For all he knows we could have been Beta Killers.”

“If we had killed someone our player cursors would still be orange. It is unusual though. He must have figured it was worth the risk to try and get us to back off,” said Mr. Stark. “Poor kid, as if being stuck in this game wasn’t bad enough, having to hide a beta status from other players…”

Just as Mr. Stark had expected that first day, it didn’t take long before the terrified and angry masses started looking for someone to blame. And with Kayaba disappearing into the digital ether, apparently the scapegoats they chose were the 700 or so beta testers who had logged in with the rest that day. According to most pub talk, the beta testers had left the rest of the players in the dust of the Town of Beginnings, getting through the most lucrative quests and hunts before most even dared to leave the city. They were condemned as selfish and greedy, and were therefore persona non-gratis in most parties. Even worse were the stories of betas being outright murdered and monster PK’d. Out of the almost 1000 players who were already dead about two weeks in, around 150 had been beta testers. A staggering amount given how few of them there had been. Plenty had undoubtedly met their end due to the game itself, but many had ended up victims of angry mobs.

Peter didn’t understand it. Yeah, the beta testers had more info and experience than the rest, but they had shared much of that info on the internet before the game even began. Then after a few days in game, vendor markets began carrying a free SAO Guide booklet created by someone called ‘The Rat’, who had clearly made and circulated the original file Ned had uploaded to the Nervegear. Almost anything you could want to know was available. It was how they had learned of this quest in the first place.

“Hey Ferrum, why do people have to suck so bad?” asked Peter, mostly rhetorically.

“If I had the answer to that, I wouldn’t have been a weapons manufacturer.”

After a few minutes of running they finally crossed over into the town Safe Zone. Horunka was a small village, with only about ten buildings in all. One of which was the house of the NPC who gave the quest, and their current destination.

As they walked down the road towards the house, several parties milled about, clearly having just returned from their own hunts. A couple eyed the two of them as they walked through.

“Looks like someone finally managed to snag an ovule. Lucky bastards…” someone muttered.

“Who actually wears a helmet in this game?” said another.

“Yikes, imagine being stuck in here with your dad…”

Overhearing that last line caused Peter’s face to flush, which given its digital nature was just plain unfair. Did they have to be that thorough?

No bigger than the town was, they were soon standing in the living area of the house. The lady of the house whom they had met previously still stood stirring a pot of simmering liquid, her expression drawn and tired. The only thing that about her that gave her away as an NPC rather than a player was the exclamation mark hovering above her head in the place of a player cursor, indicating a quest in progress.

“Go on, kid,” said Mr. Stark, staying by the door.

Peter slowly approached. Even knowing that the woman was an NPC, it still felt rude to just barge into the house without invitation. He brought up is inventory and took out the ovule, handing it out to her to take.

Immediately her face brightened, and Peter couldn’t help but wonder just how developed the NPC AIs were. Were they simple rudimentary ones like most games? Or were they more like Mr. Stark’s AIs? Was she aware of what she was?

“Oh, thank you so much, kind swordsman! My daughter has only grown worse since we last spoke, I was beginning to worry she may not make it till your return,” she said, taking the ovule from my hand and adding it to the pot.

I saw my quest log update to the left of my view, but I was distracted by the sound of deep coughs coming from further in the house.

“Here, this blade has been passed down in my family for generations, but I gladly trade it in exchange for your aid saving my child’s life. Take it with my blessing,” said the lady, pulling a blade encased in a worn red sheath from an old trunk. With both hands she extended it out to me to take, a smile still on her lips, tears of gratitude sparkling in her eyes.

“Thank you,” said Peter, perhaps unnecessarily, but old habits die hard.

The lady nodded in response and went back to stirring the pot in the kitchen. The quest was complete.

In the center of his field of vision, Peter received a message declaring as much, along with one noting the EXP points gained.

“Alright, let’s head back to the inn and get some grub and call it a night,” said Mr. Stark, holding the door open for him.

Behind them the lady did not acknowledge them at all, but began carefully ladling the contents of the pot into a cup. Peter wondered if somewhere inside there really was a little NPC girl the lady tended to day in and day out, forever trying to alleviate an illness she was created to suffer through.

As Peter walked through the doorway out into the night, he thought back to Aunt May. Back to when he always seemed to catch whatever bug was going around at the time. She may not be the best cook, but one thing she had down pat was chicken noodle soup. She would stand over a pot in the kitchen just like the NPC had, cooking up a big batch that he could easily heat up through out the day when he felt up to eating. Their finances being what they were, she and Ben could not always get out of work so easily, if at all. They did their best to schedule their work so one could be there with him, but sometimes the overlap just wasn’t quite there. Fortunately, a little old lady all the apartment kids called Nana lived a couple doors down from them and was usually content to be on call for kids who needed it.

He wondered what Aunt May was doing right now. Was she sitting beside his hospital bed, holding his hand, but he couldn’t feel it? Were they literally in the same room with each other, but worlds apart? Would she talk to him like she used to when she thought he was sleeping, hoping against everything that he could somehow hear her? What would she say? They had only just started finding their new normal when this happened…

He looked down at this hands, but all he could feel was the weight of the sword he still held.

Tears came, unbidden and unwanted.

If that bastard was going to lock them in this prison, the least he could have done was not code in visual emotion effects.

“Awww… look at the little boy crying,” mocked one of the players outside the inn as they passed.

“Don’t be an asshole, Derrig. You cried for two days straight when this shit started,” said one of his party members, while slapping the offender on the back of the head.

“You ok, Peter?” asked Mr. Stark quietly. “I would offer to go beat the shit out of that guy, but not sure if its worth a duel.”

“No, don’t do that. I’m alright,” said Peter. “Let’s just get up to the room.”

“You go on up, I’ll order some dinner to be delivered,” said Mr. Stark.

Peter nodded. They pretty much always ate in a room so that Mr. Stark could remove his helmet. Occasionally Peter wished they could eat with the other players, just to visit with someone else for a change. This wasn’t one of those nights.

Once in their room, Peter quickly removed most of his gear, leaving only his breaches and his tunic. The sword he placed on the table.

Apparently the sword was called ‘Anneal Blade.’

Peter fell back into a chair, letting his head roll back, closing his eyes.

In the real world, he would undoubtedly be able to hear every conversation going on in the rooms around them, as well as whatever hubbub was going on in the main room downstairs. But in here there was naught but silence. It had taken him a bit to get used to not hearing literally everything going on around him. He hadn’t realized just how much noise he was used to constantly filtering through in his day to day life until it was completely removed. He had thought he would love not having to deal with his extra sensitive senses, but come to find out it was pretty anxiety inducing to have them taken away, like an extended bout of sensory deprivation.

If only he had never put on that Nervegear. If he had told Ned that maybe they should wait until the next round of production of SAO to get into the game, let them get the bugs worked out.

Except…

The door opened, and in came Mr. Stark and two plates of whatever today’s special was downstairs.

“They were pretty busy down there, so I just brought it up myself. Figured I’d listen in on a pub talk a minute and see if any news has been circulating,” Mr. Stark said, setting down the plates.

“Did you hear anything interesting?” asked Peter.

“Not much. But one group did mention that there were some rumors floating around about a Log-Out point in a forest west of the Town of Beginnings. No one going in has come out alive though, and the Rat has been trying to get word out that the information is false and didn’t come from her,” said Mr. Stark, sitting in the chair opposite.

“Ugh, that sucks,” said Peter. “What’s the point in starting a rumor like that anyway?”

“Some people get their kicks in screwed up ways, kid. It’s as simple as that.”

The lapsed into silence as they ate their meal. But eventually Peter noticed Mr. Stark looking up at him.

“What?” asked Peter.

“Wanna talk about it?”

Peter swallowed and shook his head, “Not much to talk about. Was just thinking about Aunt May.”

Mr. Stark nodded, “I’m not going to say she’s doing fine, because we both know that’s probably a lie. But I will say that she’s a strong woman, and I know as soon as we get out of here she will be right there waiting for you with some awful attempt at baked food and the world’s longest hug.”

Peter gave a laugh as tears began to spring up again.

“You’re definitely right. Thanks, Mr. Stark.”

“Look kid,” said Mr. Stark with a sigh. “I know you enjoy watching me squirm, but I would really appreciate it if you would switch to just ‘Tony.’ For one thing, there’s millions of Tonys in the world, but with the right info out there the name ‘Mr. Stark’ might become a bit suspicious eventually. We’ve just been calling me by my user name outside of our room, and that’s worked out alright, but eventually you might slip. And given my track record on secret identities, we should probably do everything possible to avoid scrutiny as long as possible.”

“Dude, you never had a secret identity. As soon as Iron Man became a thing you outed yourself on live television,” said Peter with a caustic tone.

“Whatever, my point still stands,” said Mr. Stark, waving off Peter’s remark.

“Does it though?”

“Yes, please, please start calling me Tony.”

“It really bugs you, doesn’t it?” asked Peter with a laugh. “Why?”

Honestly, when he asked he had expected Mr. Stark to blow off the question and change the subject. Because in the real world— back before the Decimation— every time they’d had this conversation and he had asked, that was ultimately what Mr. Stark did.

This time however, a tense silence met his question.

“Growing up, Howard was always ‘Mr. Stark.’”

There was a pause, as if he was unsure whether to continue, or how.

“Pretty much everyone on earth calls me ‘Mr. Stark.’ And that’s who they see— billionaire, playboy, philanthropist, wanna-be hero, narcissist, hedonist. That’s by design. It’s what everyone expected from me—being my father’s son— and I rose to the occasion. There’s only a handful of people who have gotten past ‘Mr. Stark’ and made it to ‘Tony.’ At this point, I’d like to think you’re one of them who has.”

Peter sat in quiet shock. Then slowly his heart filled up to the brim with something warm and sad, until he felt he could have burst.

There were a million things he felt, and only a few he could say. But only one he felt needed to be said right then.

“Ok… Tony. But I don’t want to hear you call yourself a wanna-be hero again. Because you are a hero. To everyone… but especially me.”

Tony didn’t reply for a moment, but eventually settled on a nod.

“Alright, deal,” Tony finally said, turning back to his food.

The got a few more bites in before Tony spoke again.

“I’m thinking of skipping on meals for a while. I’m kinda curious how long it takes to actually start feeling hungry in here.”

Peter looked at him confused, “What do you mean? You haven’t been hungry? Like at all?”

Tony blinked at him, “No, you mean you have?”

“Uh, yeah… several times a day usually.”

“Huh… maybe its because of your real world metabolism bleeding through. But no, haven’t felt it at all yet. Seems like a waste of Cor for me to buy meals if I haven’t actually been hungry,” said Tony, finishing up the last bite of his roast. “Not to say that its a wasted experience. They did a pretty remarkable job on this coding. But it would probably be better to save what money we can for now.”

Peter nodded, turning back to his own plate, but could only bring himself to push the food around a little, his stomach suddenly a bit queasy. Perhaps Tony was right, and it was just because of his RL body needs…

He’d talk to a few other players about their experience. Just to be sure.

“So, ‘Anneal Blade,’ huh?” said Tony, looking over the sword still laying on the table. He brought up its specs to analyze.

“Yeah, not exactly sure what the name is about. I mean, I know about the annealing process in biochemistry. I studied it a bit after the spider bite. But not sure how that would really apply to a sword,” said Peter.

“It was originally a process to remove impurities and harden iron for weapons. That’s where scientists originally pulled the term from that they used for the DNA process,” said Tony offhand, still reading through the sword’s numbers and looking it over in his hands. “The sword is as good as the guide implied. It should definitely hold up for you for a good while. Especially once I can start enhancements on it. Looks like we can attempt up to eight.”

“Does that mean we need to put a blacksmith’s forge on the shortlist?” asked Peter.

“Nah, I still have a few levels before we need to worry about that. Still, like I said, it is probably a good idea to start pinching pennies where we can. Jesus, I haven’t had to save money since that time my old man cut me off for a while back in college. This sucks.”

“Welcome to how the other 99.9% live,” said Peter, not an ounce of sympathy in his voice.

Tony shrugged, “Karma is definitely a bitch.”

“This isn’t karma. You’re just a spoiled brat.”

Tony stuck out his tongue, just like the mature adult he was.

Peter laughed, “Exactly. I’m calling it a night. We good to head out in the morning?”

“Yup, heading west from here to grind a bit on some of the higher level forest mobs. We’ll see where we end up after that.”

Peter nodded. Where ever they went and whatever they faced, they would do it together. They’d make it through this.

Even without his spider powers and Tony’s money, they were still Spider-man and Iron Man. Kayaba couldn’t take that away from them.

#ferrum #aire101 writes #tony stark #peter parker #irondad #spiderson #irondad and spiderson #marvel cinematic universe #mcu #iron man #spider-man #sword art online #sao #mcu/sao #crossover #crossover fanfiction #marvel #ai tony stark #post endgame #mostly canon compliant #not ffh compliant #in Cap voice #lAnGuAgE

[wrestlingisfake]

Bound for Glory preview

Eric Young vs. Rich Swann - Young is defending the Impact Wrestling world championship.  This is only Swann’s second match since suffering a legit knee injury in January.  He returned to the ring for  a five-way title match at Slammiversary on July 18, where he eliminated Young.  Eric “reinjured” Swann’s leg to cost him that match; when Swann was forced to “retire” on August 4, Young assaulted him again.  Since then Young has gone on to win the world title, while Swann has been doing a whole “come out of retirement for revenge” storyline.

It’s funny to think about how these guys are headlining this show, considering that most fans would probably remember them best for being lost in the shuffle at WWE.  But this is Impact’s level, and it has been for years.  Just because these guys would be working a dark match on Smackdown doesn’t mean they can’t have a compelling main event here in a much smaller pond.

The basic “Rocky movie” approach to booking this feud would be to have Swann overcome adversity to conquer his most dangerous rival and finally win the big one.  But Impact has a long history of trying to outthink that logic, and I have a long memory of them swerving away from big coronation moments.  It was only a few months ago, in fact, that they were building up Ace Austin for an inevitable run on top, and then they just...didn’t do that.  So Swann might win, or they might tell a story that he has a lot of ring rust to shake off before he beat Young.  Nevertheless, my gut still says Swann wins the title here.

Alex Shelley & Chris Sabin vs. Doc Gallows & Karl Anderson vs. Ethan Page & Josh Alexander vs. Ace Austin & Madman Fulton - This is a four-way match for the Impact tag team title, currently held by the Motor City Machine Guns (Shelly and Sabin).  Per standard four-way rules, the only way to win is by pinfall or submission, and the first man to score a fall on any opponent wins the match and the title for his team.

The North (Page and Alexander) held the title for just over a full year as various other teams broke up or drifted away from Impact, so they got to be able to say they cleaned out the division.  Then Sabin and Shelley came in as the wily veterans to get a big push (which is sort of ironic when you consider their history with this company).  Austin and Fulton came together earlier this year as a “rising top heel and his enforcer” act, but they ended up as a tag team when they began feuding with the Good Brothers (Gallows and Anderson).  All along, there’s been a sense that the Machine Guns are just keeping the titles warm until they put over the Good Brothers.

I could see any of these teams getting the title, but it’s pretty clear Gallows and Anderson are top attractions in this company, so one way or another the title picture is going to revolve around them.  One interesting wrinkle is that the Good Brothers plan to work for both Impact and New Japan, and New Japan has a tag team tournament coming up, leading into their biggest show of the year.  If I’m Don Callis, I want to send Gallows and Anderson to Japan for a couple of months to soak up that exposure, and I’d want them do it while wearing Impact title belts.  I’m probably getting ahead of myself with that speculation, but since I’ve got no other clear way to pick a winner, I’ll let that be why I’m going with Doc and Karl.

Deonna Purrazzo vs. Kylie Rae - Purrazzo is defending the Impact women’s title.  Kylie earned this title shot by winning a battle royale on July 18, the same night Purrazzo won the championship.  Since then Kylie has won the Warrior Wrestling women’s title, but that belt isn’t at stake here.

It was just about a year ago that Kylie debuted here, coming off a surprisingly abrupt exit from AEW.  It’s always felt like Impact wanted to do a slow build to her as the face of the women’s division.  And yet, Impact has also given Purrazzo a strong push since her debut in May.  Each of them would be my pick to win against any other woman in the company right now.  But against one another, it’s real tough to choose.  Feels like almost every match on this card is a pick-’em, which is a good thing.

I’m gonna go with Kylie to win just because she makes me happy.

EC3 vs. Moose - Moose has spent most of the year as the self-proclaimed “TNA world champion,” but EC3 stole his belt and I’m not sure what happened to it and I’m not sure either guy still cares about it at this point.  EC3 gained his widest exposure to fans in his NXT/WWE run, but Impact viewers know he really made his name in this promotion, back when it was called TNA.  “EC3” literally stands for “Ethan Carter III,” from when his gimmick was that he was the (kayfabe) nephew of longtime TNA owner Dixie Carter.

The story is that after EC3 was laid off from WWE, he decided he had to exorcise his old failures, which I guess are symbolized by Moose carrying around the belt he once held.  So EC3 started interfering in Moose matches and stalking him and playing cryptic videos for him and other weird stuff.  This has been going on since July but EC3 has yet to wrestle for Impact in all that time.  Aside from a couple of indie shows, and some ROH stuff that hasn’t aired yet, this will be his first match in 2020.

Back in July I assumed that EC3 would sign with Impact.  Then when I heard he was doing stuff with ROH, I figured it was a side project before he fully committed to Impact.  But after three months with no Impact matches, I’m starting to wonder if his Impact deal is a one-and-done.  Actually, the fact I’m wondering that helps the match, since if I was sure he was sticking around, it’d be super obvious that he has to beat Moose.  As it is, I’m still leaning toward EC3 winning, but that little doubt in my head will keep it interesting.

Eddie Edwards vs. Ken Shamrock - I lost the plot on this one, but as I recall Edwards had a vicious feud with Sami Callihan in 2018, and then Shamrock had a vicious feud with Callihan earlier this year, and now Shamrock and Callihan both hate Edwards for some reason.  Incidentally Shamrock is being inducted into Impact’s hall of fame this weekend, so it’s kind of weird that they decided now is the time to turn him heel.

I think the easiest way to sum both of these guys up is that neither of them knows when to quit.  They both look grizzled and stopped-giving-a-fuck, which makes them scary in the way that convicts in movies seem scary.  Now that I think about it, I’m surprised it took so long for this match to happen.

The x-factor here is Callihan, who will undoubtedly be interfering on behalf of Shamrock.  I don’t know who the hell Eddie can get to counteract that; usually when he needs backup it ends up being his wife Alisha, which works better than you might expect but still not all that well.  I guess if Davey Richards was going to return, this would be a cool way to set it up.  But failing that, I don’t think Eddie can win this match.

Rohit Raju vs. Chris Bey vs. TJP vs. Jordynne Grace vs. Trey Miguel vs. Willie Mack - Raju’s “X division” title is on the line.  This is being billed as a “six-way scramble match.”  I tend to think that’s just a cute name for a standard six-way match, where whoever scores the first fall on any opponent wins the match and the title.  Of course, in WWE a “scramble match” was a specific stipulation where whoever scores the last fall in a specified time period is the winner.  But I think if Impact was trying to bring those rules back, they’d have made a bigger deal about it, and I would have heard something about it by now.

The backstory here is that Bey was getting a big push and beat Mack for the title, and Raju started lobbying to be his henchman.  This led to Bey vs. Raju vs. TJP, with the idea that Raju would help Bey against TJP, but Raju went into business for himself and won the title.  So now everybody is gunning for Raju, including Trey for some reason I forget, and I think Grace just got thrown in there to make it more interesting.  Basically, Raju was a prelim guy before any of this happened, and he’d be the underdog against any of these opponents, so you’re supposed to think he’s doomed in a match against all of them.

I’m a tad surprised Grace is involved, because it wasn’t all that long ago that it was Tessa Blanchard as the woman chasing the X title, and then the world title, and that didn’t work out so well.  Then again, Tessa’s gender was hardly the reason that run fell apart, so maybe Impact is determined to do it again until they get it right.  Thing is, if you want to seriously present a woman winning a men’s championship, you want the champion that puts her over to be stronger than Rohit Raju.  So if they’re gonna do it, I’d say they should do it later, with Grace challenging one of the other guys for the title one-on-one.

Anyone could win this match, but it’s a real old trick to have the most hated heel be the biggest underdog, and then he steals a win after his opponents destroy each other.  So I’m going with Rohit to retain.

20-person “Call Your Shot” gauntlet match - This is a timed interval gauntlet match, similar to WWE’s Royal Rumble.  Two participants start the match, and each additional participant enters at regular intervals.  (I don’t think they’ve said how long the intervals are, but I’m guessing 90 seconds or two minutes or something.)  For most of the match, a competitor can only be eliminated by leaving the ring over the top rope and placing both feet on the floor; however, once all but two wrestlers are eliminated, the rules change so they can only lose by pinfall or submission.  The last person left in the match is the winner and earns the right to a title match against the champion of their choice.

So far Impact has confirmed eleven participants, seven men and four women:

Acey Romero, of the XXXL tag team

Alisha Edwards, whose last singles victory in this company was in 2018 against AEW’s Rebel/Reba

Brian Myers, formerly known as Curt Hawkins in WWE

Havok, aka Jessicka Havok in the indies

Heath, formerly Heath Slater in WWE, with the gimmick that he hasn’t yet secured a contract to work for Impact

Hernandez, once a rising star in TNA, now some sleazy guy backstage with a giant wad of cash

Larry D, Romero’s partner in XXXL

Rhino, the former ECW/WWE star who’s been trying to help Heath get signed

Taya Valkyrie, probably best known from AAA and Lucha Underground

Tenille Dashwood, formerly Emma in NXT and WWE

Tommy Dreamer, the ECW legend, who has been feuding with Myers

The order of entry is supposed to be random, but the results of an October 20 match slotted Hernandez as the last entrant and Rhino as the first.  The added stipulation for Rhino and Heath is that their jobs are on the line: If either of them wins, Rhino stays and Heath is signed, but if neither of them win, Rhino is fired and Heath can’t keep coming around asking for work.

It feels like this match has to end with Rhino or Heath winning, to pay off that storyline.  In fact, I could easily see it being a deal where one appears to be eliminated, and hides off-camera until the other is thrown out, and then Josh Matthews can play Michael Cole being all shocked that there’s still hope.  It feels so obvious that I’ve seen speculation that Heath needs to turn on Rhino right after one of them wins, to keep it interesting.  But I think we’re all overlooking the alternative, where they’re both kicked out of the company but nevertheless keep appearing in comedy skits for weeks until they get some other chance to earn contracts.  Personally, I’d just keep it simple and have Heath win leading to Heath and Rhino challenging for the tag title.

Dez & Wentz vs. Cody Deaner & Cousin Jake - This is being advertised for the pre-show.  Dez (Desmond Xavier) and Wentz (Zachary Wentz) are, along with Trey Miguel, the stoner team of the Rascalz.  Cody Deaner has been Impact’s resident redneck good-ol’ boy on and off for years.  Jake is better known on the indie scene as Jake Something, the current Black Label Pro champion.  Between the two teams, I think Impact is more committed to pushing the Rascalz, but this is another one where it could really go either way.  This whole show has been really hard to predict.  Let’s hope it still seems unpredictable after it’s over.

#impact wrestling #bound for glory #eric young #rich swann