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#will I keep this post or nuke it later? who knows
professor-glasses · 1 year
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man I got my doctor report and I didnt even post congrats on the autism cake. I was planning to do that but I was just so like. Unprepared for my own brain going
:}
Need another week to process that
I just kinda was like Yep. And put it aside
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cerastes · 2 months
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I've seen people before saying that, in terms of presentation, NIKKE delivers it better than Arknights in telling what they want to tell. And I still see this occasionally whenever people start comparing stories in gacha games. Looking at your post, seems like that wasn't a lie at all.
Right, this is an interesting topic for me, so let me give my two cents on this.
I would say that statement is generally true. Nikke's main strengths are its presentation and knowing how to leverage its strengths in general, but let's focus on presentation: It's story is nothing to write home to (note that I am up to Chapter 18), neither are its events (on this regard, take me lightly, I've only read three), but what Nikke wants to say, you will very clearly understand. It's good at telling its story. Sometimes the localization will have Localization Moments (Chatterbox is described as female in the first cutscene he is mentioned, male every time afterwards; there's a lot of clearly literally translated little expressions that make no sense in the flow of the conversations), but overall, even though you're looking at a story that in a lot of ways you've seen a lot of times, its particularities stand out because Nikke tells them properly, concisely, and clearly. Characterization is consistent, and there's a good amount of care clearly put into both consistency and overarching important parts of the narrative; a favorite example of mine is how, in the tutorial, if you pay close attention, you can actually see Marian's eyes glow red during her reload animation, foreshadowing something pretty important that happens with her later.
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So even if the story beats are not particularly good or intriguing -- and sometimes, outright terrible, like in Chapter 18 oh god I hate Chapter 18 -- you at least can tell with clarity what's going on and why it's going on.
Arknights has the yang to the yin here, somewhat: The stories on Arknights tend to range from okay to great, and AK events have a habit of going pretty damn hard, either as a whole or at least parts of them. Sometimes, however, they have a weakness, and this weakness is that the actual story telling can be dense. Density is often attributed to good writing, but the truth is, sometimes, the text isn't advanced, it's simply clumsy, and the prose in Arknights is decidedly clumsy. But when you actually untangle the spaghetti of clumsy prose, you find some strong story telling, strong characterization, and topics you don't often find discussed in video games, less so in gacha. You kinda have to work for it, basically.
Something Nikke does good is also that it keeps its relevant cast at any given story beat low, giving it more cohesion, or rather, making it easy to stay cohesive, because Arknights can handle larger casts pretty well sometimes, but I'll be frank, the current main story has so many literal whos to keep track of that I'm supposed to be invested in that I don't really bother. I'm sorry, but I can't really feel a damn thing about Outcast when she showed up for a few scenes and then got nuked off by a contrivance while fighting some faceless nobodies we are told we should fear.
But on the other hand, Nikke narrative, again, despite its strong delivery, is still built on a feeble base for the most part. I only think of a few characters I care about in Nikke, because a lot of the cast is just fluff and Obligatory Archetypes (bunny girls, school girls, maids, etc), whereas in Arknights, I care about a whole damn lot of them, even those without events, because their files and modules paint a very integral and intriguing picture of them. Even smaller scenes in Arknights sometimes can have a big emotional impact, due to its extensive and well crafted worldbuilding and its clever use of its elements in every event, something Nikke cannot claim, because worldbuilding in Nikke is almost non existent.
They both have their strengths, basically, and it's fascinating to me, a writer, to take a deeper look at them.
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idcallmyselfhuman · 6 months
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Xiao/Aether 👹⛅ Masterlist 2.0
A compilation of moments between Xiao and Aether through the years. The last revamp I did on the old post got nuked by Tumblr, so I just made a new one.
I tried to be as complete as I can, but there's probably some stuff I still missed. The shipping wiki is great for compiling stuff, but I felt it wasn't very detailed. Soooo here ya go
Lover's Oath (Lone Tower in the West)
Thank you @kristalijah for the reminder!
On Aether's journey through Liyue, he was tasked to inform the Adepti of Rex Lapis' "death". The Wangshu quest is the first time he meets Xiao in the game, and a certain detail didn't catch a lot of people's attention until the soundtrack got released a while later.
"Lover's Oath" is the song that plays in the background the very first time Xiao appears in front of Aether. On one hand, this could very well just be in reference to the place they were in, as the balcony of Wangshu Inn is known to be where lovers spend time together. However, this theme never plays for any other scene again, nor is it the background music for the balcony in general.
The only time this track is used again is during Tuned to the World's Sounds, an event in-game where Xiao and Aether duet this song on the very place they met, with Xiao playing a lyre, and Aether, a zither.
This theme has only every been used when they are together. So, Lover's Oath can be considered "their" theme. I adore this tidbit of information because it fits their future relationship so well, as the game constantly reminds us now of Xiao's promise to Aether.
Battle of Osial
If you're a fan of this ship, I'm sure you already know. This was the moment the fandom went, "wait a minute...", essentially the birth of the ship itself.
This cutscene is just [chef's kiss], its existence makes me so happy. The Aether community in 2020 has never been the same.
Aether's feet were already steadied. Xiao could have let go already, or let him fall as gracefully as Mountain Shaper did to that guard (I would have hated him). There was no reason to hold on. In fact, he had every excuse to release his hold the moment they got to safety because he was the one who kept insisting that contact with mortals, or even being near them was something he absolutely Did Not Want. But he didn't let go. No, even more— he tightened his hold, squeezing Aether's hand and telling him to be careful. HUH?!?!
Looking back on this scene also made me think of Aether's unique ability to purify things he touches, something that still hasn't been explained. I wonder if Xiao was already gravitating towards Aether because of it, finding comfort in his contact without knowing why, just yet.
Lantern Rite 1.3
I'm sure we're all familiar with this scene, right?
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The very first time Xiao promised Ae that no matter what, as long as he calls his name, he will be there. I think the game showed how special that promise is really well.
Moonlight Merriment
On the same year, they released Moonlight Merriment. The first time Aether summoned him was here, when Xiangling was looking for a 'customer' with mild tastes. While Xiao told Ae to call for him when there's trouble, it's really cute that he doesn't really mind what sort of 'trouble' it is.
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Whether it be actual danger, or a small dilemma that Aether needs help with, he's there. (Though I guess you can see it as anything that is bothering Ae is considered trouble enough, no matter the scale :))
This scene also clarifies that the promise was specifically made to Aether, and no one else, not even Paimon. The fact that they went so far as to have Paimon call for Xiao multiple times only for nothing to happen is... so fucking funny. Aether says his name once and he's already there.
Just... your commitment is really subtle, Xiao. Keep at it.
Baizhu's Story Quest
The second time Aether summons him is during Baizhu's story quest, and I think this part is what really cemented the weight of that promise for me.
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Every single time Aether brings up that he can contact our resident yaksha so easily, they're always surprised. The adepti are known for wanting to keep to themselves that even Changsheng thought it would be impossible for them to meet, but here Xiao was, just one word away for one special traveler.
It's an oath that was made with such... devotion? Loyalty?
It would have been a little more distant had it just been for protection, something like "when you're on the brink of death, you may call for me." but it isn't. This was literally a promise that whenever Ae needed him, Xiao will be there, "Anywhere. Anytime."
It's also sweet how Xiao's departing words are always a reminder to call him whenever needed, to the point where Aether has to say "Yeah, we know." If that promise had an expiration, it sure as hell doesn't matter because Xiao keeps renewing it anyway.
Perilous Trail (Interlude)
Unfortunately, there was one time where Xiao failed to get to Aether, but only because he physically wasn’t able to. The only time he couldn’t fulfill his promise was because he was stuck in a different plane of existence. But even then, once he heard that Aether was in trouble, he was persuaded to cross a literal fucking spacerift to get to them.
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You absolutely cannot tell me they aren't in love because you would be wrong.
Also Yanfei being perceptive enough to use Aether being in trouble to convince Xiao? Bless. Where else did we see someone pull out the 'Aether' card on Xiao recently...?
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god he's so fucking easy and everyone knows
Anyway, this quest also showed how protective Ae is of Xiao, constantly asking how he is or if he was okay, ignoring Xiao's warnings entirely.
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He even gets mad when Xiao brings up creating a will.
Just— a lot of things happened in this quest. While I can't add all of them, do yourself a favor and either play this or check it out in the archives. Yanfei knows what's up
Also there's a part where Aether looks over Xiao's sleeping face and wonders to himself if a person who's always wary is capable of dreams.
To finish off the Chasm segment, it ended with a conversation that had Xiao realizing a lot of things he was lost to because of his grief: that there are people who will always care about him, and in his words, "Even the darkest hearts have room for those they cherish.
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"Will Xiao be ravaged by the unending war he wages and be plunged into despair? Or... will he meet someone who understands his sacrifice, and can shine a ray of light into his dark world..." —Dainsleif, Collected Miscellany - "Xiao: Conqueror of Demons"
I think... it was important for him to have had this conversation with Aether. Zhongli acknowledges this as well in the most recent Lantern Rite, but the beginning of the changes within Xiao started because of Aether constantly pushing him to see the light.
Bonus! Xiao being a dumbass
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WHAT THE FUCK DO YOU MEAN "...Really..." YOU WERE JUST STANDING THERE?!?!!??!??
Companion Voicelines
Aether: "How do you like it here?", "Want to chat?"
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To bring up Aether's ability to purify things again (Dvalin's Tear), it could be related to that. Or, maybe Xiao just gets so in his head about Aether in his presence that his Karmic Debt just gets insta-blocked. Who knows?
Aether: Is there anything you'd like to do?
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For the first and second Lantern Rite, Xiao was still adamant on not even stepping foot in Liyue Harbor, declining every invitation to go there because of how much he disliked being near mortals.
Yet in his teapot voicelines, once you reach a high enough friendship with him, Xiao actually takes the initiative to invite Aether to go to the city, if only to understand him better. Xiao explicitly says that his willingness to go to the harbor was for him.
This isn’t the first time Xiao brings up his wish to get to know Aether better. At first, he kept saying that he has no interest in human affairs, but in his voicelines, as the two of them get closer and closer, he says that he would like to know more about Aether.
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I also really like Shenhe's voiceline. Aether's effect on Xiao benefited not only him, but the people surrounding Xiao as well. It's shown in the way Xiao's become softer, and more open to being in social gatherings. We see it the most in Lantern Rite 3.4, Waterborne Poetry, and the biggest one that point towards the cause being Aether is Xiao's birthday letter of 2023.
Birthdays
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If Moon Carver's reaction is anything to go by, the old Xiao doing this for his birthday was unfathomable. As Xiao allowed himself to open up to the world, the people around him were also able to enjoy their old friend's presence as well.
Dainsleif said that the cost of his duty was perpetual solitude, but it seems that that's no longer true.
Fun little note: The fact that he went to Moon Carver first is funny to me, since Aether and Moon Carver are both voiced by Zach Aguilar.
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I was reminded by @comfortingnightmare that Aether was the first person to celebrate Xiao's birthday in a thousand years :>
Which brings me to another topic! Gifts!
Aside from the adorable fact that every character in the game gifts Aether something on their birthday, Xiao gives him a butterfly made from leaves in his voiceline.
From what I've read, butterflies supposedly mean conjugal love, freedom, and vulnerability of life in Chinese culture. I'm really no expert on this so take that with a grain of salt.
There's also the more obvious meaning, which is transformation in one's self. I really don't like tackling this kind of thing because it's very "the curtain was blue", but if we take their relationship in consideration, it fits.
Lucent Crescent
Big thank you to @spiderskull142 because I didn't even know about this.
In this year's TPRGT image, we see that Paimon is holding a red box—Aether's gift for Xiao. I didn't really pay much attention to it at the time since I thought it was just a regular gift box... and also because I was distracted by Xiao pretending to sleep. It's about the closest we can get to Xiao feigning illness to get pampered LMAO
Anyway, I looked it up and apparently those specific boxes are used to keep jewelry. I looked around Liyue to see if any other store used this box for anything else, but the only one that seemed to have it is Mingxing Jewelry, a boutique that specialized in an ornament called "Lucent Crescent".
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Note: The closest I could get to a box that was similar-looking were the red stacked boxes outside of random houses. No other store seemed to have them, so I can only assume that's where the box was from.
When you interact with Xingxi, the person who runs the shop, she tells you about the meaning of Lucent Crescents.
Xingxi: Have you ever heard anyone mention our Lucent Crescent ornaments? They are especially popular with young people. We produce a very limited quantity of Lucent Crescent – only ten per month. People say that if you manage to purchase one of them, you are sure to win the heart of your beloved.
As we know, Aether is very mindful with the gifts he gives every year. I don’t think it’s too far-fetched to think he would order something as valuable as this for Xiao.
And speaking of Aether's gifts...
Teyvat Food Notes: Sweet Dream, Adeptus' Temptation, Mint Jelly, Unagi Chazuke, Satisfying Salad
Alongside Xiao's birthday art are articles from the Teyvat Food Notes, where real-life recipes of in-game food are made, and it also has interactions between XiaoAe on his birthday.
Sweet Dream (Almond Tofu)
Note: Both google translate and Papago seem to use Mandrill instead of Xiao, so... just know that’s who it’s talking about.
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This is where we learn that Xiao didn’t even make Sweet Dream; this dish was Aether’s thank you gift to him. Xiao’s specialty dish is a gift from Aether. I’m—aGH! ANYWAY.
Sweet Dream also makes an appearance in Childe’s birthday art in 2022. And— I’m really sorry to Tartaglia, but seeing that dish stole all his thunder I just couldn’t get over it.
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I like to think that Aether was so preoccupied with making Childe his birthday feast that he began to absentmindedly prepare Almond Tofu in the way he’s most used to (because of how often Xiao requests it.)
Additional:
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Adeptus Temptation
This one in particular isn’t from one of his birthdays, but a special they put out for the first Lantern Rite, which includes every released Liyue character at the time. I was initially going to write it off, but I thought hey what the hell, what are the odds that there’s gonna be a XiaoAether moment in here?
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Of course there was. With these two, I should have known.
Note: “Fairy/Buddha Jump over the Wall” is apparently an actual Chinese delicacy that the Adeptus’ Temptation is based on!
A little more additional context, I added the part where Zhongli was going full English teacher at the beginning because everyone was spouting poetry so passionately with every bite of the dish. That’s why Aether wonders, “Do all Liyue people eat like this?”
That’s also why Aether asked Xiao to give him an evaluation of the food, hoping he’d be the same as the others. I found it really cute, especially right now as we just finished Waterborne Poetry.
From the very beginning, Aether caught a glimpse of Xiao’s affinity to being poetic (Isolation does that to ya, who knew?), which is why in the event, he encourages him to write poems. With enough encouragement, along with Xiao pondering over Aether’s words and advice, he eventually does write a poem.
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Frost-Coated Slime (Mint Jelly)
For this Teyvat Food Note (2021), Aether laments that he doesn’t really know Xiao very well when he realized that the only gift he can think of giving him is almond tofu.
“Although it is not impossible to continue to treat [Xiao] to eat almond tofu, there is a stubbornness in my heart that has been preventing me from continuing to serve almond tofu.
I don’t want to be the same as usual, I don’t want to give [Xiao] the same gift as everyone else.”
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Aether realizes that almond tofu has become somewhat basic, since everyone else gives the same thing, and it’s no longer a gift he considers to be special enough. He then remembers the mint jelly he once tasted in Mondstadt, and thought it was similar enough to the texture and taste of almond tofu. He decides that that’s what he wants to give him.
Once he meets with Xiao, Xiao gives him the ‘butterflies’ he caught (I assume this actually refers to the crystalflies he gives along with the letter?) Aether thinks wearing [crystalflies] on his head doesn’t suit him, but Xiao seems to expect him to wear it judging by his silence. This also fits his letter that year, where he admits he was actively looking for crystalflies for Aether to put on his hair, thinking it would look nice on him.
The last part of the food note is so heartwarming. After Aether has him help prepare the mint jelly, they finally settle down to eat it.
Xiao: It doesn’t look like I want to eat it. I’d better order almond tofu.
[Aether] grabs Xiao and explained that it actually tasted very good, and the texture should be similar to almond tofu.
Aether: The most important thing is that for Xiao’s birthday, I want to make something different as a gift...
Xiao stopped.
Xiao: I don’t worry about the taste of the food you cook. I just want to collect it.
They are so cute?!?!?!?!
Later on, Xiao confesses that he doesn’t like almond tofu just because he likes the taste, but because of the memories that accompany it.
Aether then looks at Xiao, but Xiao doesn’t look at him. Instead, he says “The jelly I made today is a special memory. Thank you.”
Unagi Chazuke
Thank you @dragon-type-nuggetz for sending this one because this is what reminded me that the other teyvat food notes existed aside from almond tofu and adeptus temptation lol
Last one for the Teyvat Food Notes! There’s none for 2023, because they seem to have discontinued it entirely after 2022. This one’s a lot shorter than the other ones, but no less sweet.
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Aether knows that with Xiao’s dedication to Liyue, he works non-stop to defend the nation and has never experienced anything as leisurely as going on a vacation for the sake of relaxing. So instead, Aether tells him stories of his travels, and he decides to cook a dish that gives the feeling of traveling with him.
Xiao also says something here that I found really funny.
“Let me start by saying that I have no interest in human food. Even if the food you make doesn’t taste good, I won’t eat it.” CAP. You’ve gone this long eating Aether’s food, who the hell are you trying to fool?
In the end, Xiao finishes the entire bowl to Aether’s shock, but he says he’s sorry as he can’t think of any words to praise the food.
Aether then says that the fact that Xiao finished it at all is the greatest compliment.
Satisfying Salad
This isn’t connected to the food notes this time, but just the dish in general. Satisfying Salad and Almond Tofu are the first dishes that Aether has ever given Xiao in-game to convince him to talk to them. I thought it was a pretty minor thing and didn’t think much of it at the time, up until Smiley Yanxiao brings it up again in Moonlight Merriment.
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Everyone around Xiao thought that almond tofu really was the only thing he can eat, only for Aether to prove otherwise. While he claims that he has no interest in human food, and the only thing he can possibly stomach is almond tofu, he has never denied anything that Aether offers him, even when the two of them didn’t even know each other very well yet.
So, for all of Xiao’s talk, he has shown in his actions pretty clearly that Aether is and has always been an exception for him. Whether that be for food, or anything else...
Lantern Rite 3.4
I am here to remind you all of a beautiful scene that should never be forgotten for years to come.
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Regardless of Genshin trying to be mysterious and making us guess who saved Aether, the fact that they both came rushing over is incredible on its own. They know that Aether isn't a damsel in distress, and Paimon's acting was so on the nose, but they still couldn't allow even the slightest possibility of harm to come to him.
Xiao looking away and talking in circles just to say he really was worried is the funniest fucking thing.
As for the Lantern Rite dinner... well, first things first. We say thank you to Hu Tao for her services as a professional wing-woman (It's her side-job to advertise the parlor)
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Moving on! Remember when Aether told Xiao he'll bail him out of uncomfortable social situations? (Companion voicelines)
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There really isn't much I could say that I haven't already said before. For XiaoAether shippers, this was Hoyo spoon-feeding content on a silver spoon. It's Aether and Xiao at their most comfortable with each other, talking and spending time with the people they care about.
It's years of talking to each other, of Xiao realizing that he's at ease when he's speaking to Aether, of learning to talk more about himself to the point where he starts talking about his past and the people in it...
It'll be awhile until Xiao will ever be comfortable with large crowds, but as long as Aether's there who knows when it's becoming 'too much', he'll be fine.
Aether is also, in Xiao's eyes, the most distinguished guest among them all.
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I couldn't add it but Xiao also says "I trust Aether's judgement." in this scene.
This Lantern Rite is also where Zhongli acknowledges what Aether has done for Xiao :")
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(Suspiciously on the last screenshot, the perspective makes Zhongli look like a pastor wedding the two of them)
Waterborne Poetry
The catalyst for this post. The reminder of how lovely this ship is, and how far these two have come.
As we have all learned from Xiangling, Yanfei, Venti and Hu Tao, you only need to mention Aether's name to convince Xiao of whatever it is you're planning. The part where Aether and Team Chongyun were trying to convince him to come with them and touch some fucking grass was really cute.
This event and the previous Lantern Rite also had Aether and Xiao talking privately, only to get interrupted by Paimon/Xiangling (as well as calling them out lmao)
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And, of course, the scene that everyone freaked out over,
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A short, but sweet moment where Aether looks at Xiao from afar and immediately gets inspired, performing a poem where the real meaning is shared only between the two of them...
And Xiao's smile.
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An expression that Aether had done so well to bring out.
Xiao in a Commission
One last thing! Xiao appears in the Liyue Commission "Uninvited Guests". It's very short, but cute
Xiao: Oh, it’s you.
Aether: What brings you here?
Xiao: I encountered these monsters by chance and defeated them.
Xiao: This area is not safe. So...
Aether: I’ll be careful.
Xiao: Right. I have other matters to attend to. See you.
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...There are still things I couldn't add, but that's okay. I got mostly everything this time so I'm satisfied. Very grateful to the people who reblogged the old post to add more stuff :))
Some things I didn't add were trivia from the shipping wiki. For one, apparently Xiao's JP voice actor was told by the director to be gentler when speaking to the Traveler. There's also a small part of the Lantern Rite animation where as Xiao and Aether watch the lanterns side by side, Xiao turns to look at Aether right as Paimon blocks his head from view :")
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theposhperyton · 2 months
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if you have the time could you tell me literally everything you know about isfd?
I found your blog through the one piece posts and now need to learn anything I can about this obscure fandom
An ISFD ask from someone who isn't already lost in the sauce? (<-Self call-out) O glorious day!
Gosh, there's so much, I don't really know where to start. I've been following this micro-fandom for YEARS now, and it's one of those things that just keeps on giving. The amount of lost/missing content and the frickin nuked forum (I'm a survivor, baebee!!) really does sometimes make it feel like the universe is trying to wipe us out, but hey. ISFD fans are basically cockroaches. Killable in theory, but surprisingly hearty in an actual life or death of a fandom scenario.
As for the actual content of ISFD that I engage in, I'm a rare(?) case where I kinda dabble in everything. I can confidently say I'm a member of the ** original ** gen of fans, so I've been around for the noteable eras, and have obsessed over every major character group at one time or another, as well as some niche characters (Cyan and his 2 other fans, rise up 🔥🔥)
I gotta say though, I am currently obsessed with the mafia portion of the universe (and, tbh, by extension, the Marama family. They are to me what the Kardashians are to some)
In particular, Phillip Varic has been my consistent blorbo since last September. It is not an exaggeration to say I've averaged about 40 drawings of him a month since then (my friends and I have counted. I should be on my strange addiction at this point, tbh. Or seeking other professional insight)
Here's some of the doodles in question! I am not terribly good at finishing art of him, I just sketch him loosely and rotate him rapidly in my head
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I just think he's so neat. And I think his stupid, codependant, and mildly dysfunctional mafia found-family are so neat. And I think his husband (seraphine) and wife (abram) are so neat. And all his kids, both the legal kids and the ones whom he mostly just pays college tuition for, they're neat to. And the echos of Magnolia throughout his life and the larger narrative, even decades later. That's also very neat (my heart doesn't hurt at all!)
I realize I kinda derailed from answering your original ask because the mafia brainrot is debilitating and chronic, but I'm not entirely sure how I'd go about answering it anyway because there is just. So, so much world and lore to glean from ISFD, and none of it in any easy or direct way. Honestly though? The mafia might not be a bad place to start? If you want, I can tell you as much as I know about the cast and dynamics of the mafia, because I feel like a lot of the mafia character's lore and backgrounds act as a good segway to other noteable aspects of the larger ISFD narratives and the in-world political climate as a whole (Especially Mask and Howard. Not to single those poor souls out, but genuinely. How are they both gonna be so afflicted by the narrative like that)
If you're still interested after I practically talked your ear off, I could totally make a larger post about the whole mafia :3 They're my special blorbos ❤️ I would not feel safe around them IRL, but trapped within the confines of fiction, they're all free for me to babygirlify with almost no consequences
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shuttershocky · 11 months
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So, I have a question. I recently E2 Bibeak for the sweet, sweet Trading Post combo. That said, I have no idea how to use her in normal gameplay. I can see that her S2 has it's uses with the stun, but I haven't found a situation where I'd use her? Am I missing something?
Bibeak is one of those oddball characters who's weaker the easier a stage is, and gets stronger the harder a stage gets as long as the enemies can be stunned. Unlike every other Swordmaster in the game, she has poor nuking potential but killer control, meaning that in most stages it's simply easier to just DPS most enemies... Until they're too tanky to nuke down, and then you're hoping to stall and whittle them down over time.
This is why you never see Bibeak in any clear videos for standard event stages, but then you see her pop up in shit like CC Lead Seal World Record Max Risk where she's solo carries the clear so hard that other clears have to put a (No Bibeak) tag on their videos to look more impressive.
There's also another thing Bibeak is famous for, but we'll talk about that later.
So, here's her secret:
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At level 7, her S2 is a very humble skill. It has an SP cost of 10 on an attack recovery SP, meaning she has to attack to do 10 attacks just to get 1 charge for a stun that only lasts for 1.2 seconds. It's good, but not great.
But at S2M3,
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Now we're talking. Each specialization level lowers the SP cost by 1 until it only costs 7, and increases the stun time from 1.2 to 1.8 seconds, a huge 50% increase on stun time.
However, you still have to do 7 attacks just to get 1 charge. This is helped by her talent.
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You thought Bibeak was a shy tailor? Only half true. This is a shy tailor that devours the souls of the damned, apparently. Every time she kills an enemy she gets +6 ASPD for up to 6 kills, meaning she can get +36 ASPD, in other words she attacks 36% faster. This helps her build S2 charges much faster than you might anticipate, and if you decide to get her module upgrade she increases her maximum stack cap by 1 and also gets +ATK per stack, so she moves /very/ fast.
When dealing with a tough enemy, Bibeak can pre-build 3 charges off the weak spawn while amping her ASPD, then once the enemy comes, pop S2 while theyre in the middle of their attack animation. This forces the enemy to do the windup again, but oops, you got 2 more charges. They think you're out of charges? Wrong. While doing all that Bibeak hit 7 times and now she's got another stun.
This is how she keeps a whole crowd locked down.
But I know what you're thinking. "That sounds like a lot of effort for me, a casual Arknights player not looking to break any world records or my fingers. What can Bibeak offer to someone like me?"
So you know how a skill with an instant burst of damage, a moderately low SP cost, and charges via attacks sounds like something highly abusable in IS, a game mode that lets you get ASPD relics, +ATK for 1s after skill activation, and SP relics?
That's right. As soon as you get the Bend Spears - Bloodbath relic, your goose girl becomes a whole different beast. The bone of her sword even. Creating over a thousand blades, and yet those hands will never hold anything.
So, as she prays,
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UNLIMITED BIBEAK WORKS
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kadextra · 5 months
Text
I couldn’t watch the q!Bad lore stream live today and don’t feel like putting a bunch of vodblogs in the main tag, so I’m gonna try something new and put it all in one massive post
so if you missed seeing me on the dash and wanna read about me maybe losing my mind (depending on what happens as I watch) here ya go :D
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WAIT WHAT??? Q!BAD IN LIMBO DEATH LIMINAL SPACE AGAIN AT THE START OF STREAM?????
MY GUY THERE IS SOMETHING SERIOUSLY WRONG WITH YOU‼️‼️‼️
oh there’s a second him that’s so trippy. he doesn’t recognize himself again, they’re walking together.
THIS IS SO COOL OH MY GOD?!?!?!? now they are digging in the sand??
ah so the corpse of… also himself is still at the deserted village, but its decomposed into a skeleton now. interesting DONT DRINK THE POISONED WATER NOT AGAIN ok good phew. good confirmation this is not a loop, there is new stuff happening that didn’t last time
dude this is so awesome he is cooking so hard. I’m gonna rewatch this whole part again later, I really love surreal stuff like this
nevermind it might actually be a loop? we went back right to where we were at the start. why does he keep sitting outside of the temple, and doesn’t go inside?
TOP FUNNEL 🕺🕺🕺
and we’re back. he can’t remember how to use the warp stone again :( the memory book is not in his hotbar uh oh.
Hi Ben o/
he doesn’t know the eggxhibition… you built this man, I’m gonna cry. NOOO HE DOESNT KNOW BOBBY IS DEAD AGAINNNNN
POMME. “MY DAUGHTER” WAAAAAHHH
“too early to put this up” <- referring to the día de los muertos decor. dude what time and day are you in
he found the egg hospital!!! oh no now he’s looking around erratically. I think he’s panicking :(((( and once again picked some flowers to self-soothe :((( god the flowers are so special to him, they seem to be like his main grounding thing. q!forever doesn’t even know the impact he made
he’s home!!!
dark matter by the vulture lab door uh? a knight armor guy sweeping??? is that a ghost??? what just happened?
oh god the vulture lab
IT WAS A GHOST THE ARMOR IS THERE AND THE BROOM IS IN THE CHEST. possessed armor that’s fun! :D
DAPPERRRRRRRRRR DAPPER MY BABY IS AWAKE AND ALIVE
dapper looks so horrible omg also her name is lowercased?
vacation. sure
“I didn’t get to keep it (the eye guy) as a pet.” yeah that’s definitely dapper.
also he doesn’t want to wear armor like the new eggs that’s weird
T E A. and q!bad’s memory is still fudged.
dapper your dad is very sick….
he remembers its been 2 months dapper has been gone! :0 DAPPER WAS NOT IN PURGATORY THE WHOLE TIME??? JUST A FEW DAYS???? EXPLAIN WHY NOW
q!bad keeps forgetting what they’re doing, and then goes off and does something else….. I don’t know if dapper fully realizes what’s going on, maybe she’s just too tired themselves to pay close attention to her dad?
“Since when did we have a farm?” Buddy.
PHILZA IS SOOOOO HAPPY TO SEE DAPPER LETS GOOO
“we hid him (dapper) underground, we weren’t sure if the island was safe” We? you and…? cucurucho?
DAPPER GOT YEETED INTO THE BOAT AHAHAHA
oh they really did get launched by the nuke and hit the boat I knew it. also I see you…. zooming into the back wound when phil said “you made it in one piece”
PRIVILEGED LOBSTER IS BACK REJOICE
chayanne was who led the eggs to leave? huh. chayanne you’ve got some explaining to do
not them talking about the eye guy’s snatched waist 💀💀💀💀 tbh they did slay
philza wants to beat up the eye guy and elquackity I support him so much
dapper hitting his dad off the top of the wall we’re so back!!!
ETOILES SEEING DAPPER and then fell off the wall LMAOOO
q!bad forgot that he forgot his memory
(I am so engrossed in the conversations I am forgetting to write things here lol)
“can we teach etoiles to cope” (with losing to the code) then they make him break a sign with 1s and 0s on it and he logs LMAO
q!bad just mentally zoned out and stared once again at flowers….. oh. the coughing :(
pomme was the leader when the eggs went surviving in the wilderness :3 that’s my girl!!!!!!
everyone just bouncing on the trampoline and chit-chatting is so sweet, I missed this <3
dapper is so based all the time
roier seeing dapper again awwwww
ough I really really missed dapper’s out of pocket jokes :(((
“I’ll get cleaned up for tomorrow, I’m sure it’ll turn out fine!” *hits F5* “I need pomme and the rest of the eggs to wake up, and I’ll probably feel right as rain…” haha stop it q!bad I don’t like this!!!!! 😃
he just said he didnt know a church was built here. now they’re at the graveyard talking about how he saw the dead eggs at día de los muertos </3 sobs sobs
Q!MAX T-T I miss you king o7
“learning how to raise the dead might come in handy” “we will worry about that later” ??? Please Stop That!
CODEBREAKERS JUMPSCARE
“I kinda won in this whole situation!” (the eggs being back) Sure bud. You aren’t dying or anything. You definitely have not entered limbo twice.
DAPPER PUTTING FLOWERS BY EACH EGG IN THE HOSPITAL. THE CROWN BY CHAYANNE GAHHHH AUGHHH GGUGHHG 💥💥💥
honey for smelly richas :3
q!bad saying dapper will like bagi and that she’s a really good friend, and will be his aunt. cries and punches a hole into the wall
More Coughing 👁️ dapper please help your father he needs serious medical attention.
BAD FORGOT ABOUT THE GHOSTIES THIS WHOLE TIME. BUT WE ARE FREE ONCE MORE!!
quit saying things are going to be okay I know you are jinxing something and it’s scary. there is a giant hole in your head and your back is turning green.
they’re going to see the prison and courtroom!!
WHAT DID HE JUST SAY
“forever for the crime of looking too handsome I sentence you to 10 years in prison!” UNPROMPTED? I know what you are 🏳️‍🌈‼️
I CANT DO THIS
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FINALLY THE BIRTHDAY PARTY CELEBRATION FOR DAPPER. so many nights. so many nights where we’d watch him sit awake, crying at that table. waiting, waiting for something that would never come. but now it’s here. I’m in anguish
“once the eggs wake up we’ll have a big birthday party! a big ol birthday party. yep. a party.” why did you say that with such a weird tone sir?
DAPPER BURYING THEMSELVES WHEN HE FOUND OUT ALL THE MACHINES BROKE KKKKKKK
he reintroduced skeppy to dapper…
he is explaining the great furniture stealing to dapper. who was there when it happened and already knows. “my memory hasn’t been very good lately, I think.” Yeah You Think? I wonder q!bad forgot he’s the one who stole it all?
DAPPER IS BACK TIME
the child is locked outside
PFFT HES CHAINSAWING THE DOOR <3333 AND HAS AN ELEPHANT
yes dapper be salty at your dad for accidentally locking you out
REAL DAPPER TIME!!!!!!!
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the sunshine recording omg. he played it for company the entire time they were alone… AAAAAAAAAAAAAUGHH HGHGHGHHGHGHGHGHGHHHGHGHGHGGHHGHFHFHGGFHFGHHHGHHBSBENFMFKS
dapper doesn’t know why q!bad is blue 😀 he doesn’t know…….. haha head in hands
they are going to visit Niki :3
OHHH HER REACTION TO DAPPER <333 she’s such a sweetheart. have I ever said how much I love niki? she was so great in purgatory, and earlier today I got to watch her meet empanada and bond over baking and sweets <3
nice look at the head wound from the inside
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q!bad’s been so insistent on dapper going to the eye doctor, I have heard him say this so much over the last several days. even in his memory lapses he remembers it. Why? mr. colorblind YOU need to go to the eye doctor. go hospital.
yeah the alien ships from the map do look like eyes don’t they
based niki her favorite animal is elephants :3 SHUT UP Q!BAD YOU DEMON don’t eat the elephants
the hungriest little guy on the island strikes again
I’m just chilling listening rn, bad dapper and niki are so late night podcast vibes
perry the schnabeltier
TREASURE PLANET >>>>
in the dark of the night is kind of a q!bad song ngl
let’s go a washing machine in dapper’s lab :D oh that was a weird pause in the middle of your sentence bad :D
dapper is running on the ceiling!! they are so talented!
OH MY GOD.
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SUNSHINE
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bawling my eyes out hold on
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the 3 months where q!bad has been so depressed and suffering just went flashing through my mind. every time he had sang the song in a teary broken voice, with nobody across from him listening. in the graveyard as a rainstorm raged above. but now his sunshine is back… hit me like a truck
they are gonna sleep hugging together tonight :’3
“I know it seems I’ve been out of character (since the beginning of the stream) but trust me, I haven’t. I’ve been in character this whole time…”
“Goodbye, see you tomorrow ….I’m sure everything is going to be just fine. :)”
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I’m scared
well I guess this is the end of my vodblogging lore post!!! I hope it was fun to read jfjdjshdh it was just the thoughts I Would have posted if I was liveblogging. my eyes are still watery :’)
see you all tomorrow for whatever horrors await
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possiblylando · 11 months
Text
Chainsaw Man Chapter 131 'Early' Analysis.
Bit later than usual with this one cause- I didn't feel like writing it earlier- Feels like a cheep excuse but whatever.
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It's really interesting seeing the contrast between the two confirmed Primordials. Darkness doesn't speak a language we can understand but it still speaks. It seemed like a hyper intelligent beast which acted on a type of intelligent impulse almost like majin buu. Who I could make an entire post talking about the intelligence and mentality of because of how people misunderstand him. But I'll not do that for now since this is about Chainsaw Man. However Falling completely juxtaposes Darkness because she's basically it's polar opposite. Not fear wise but personality and the way she conducts herself. This panel is the one that really cemented it in my mind because this is her showing the ability to reason. It's weird- She's weird right? She's brutal but not cruel. She's willing to let her previous rule slide because the situation has changed. She doesn't immediately kill the devil (WHO'S NAME WE NEVER LEARN GOD DAMN IT FUJIMOTO) because it didn't finish it's meal. Also their designs which I feel I've pointed out before but I don't wanna look back for if I did or if it was in a specific post.
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They're completely different but they share motifs between eachother. I'll go through some of those cause I didn't actually put them together until I was writing this so I feel it's an observation that you guys also might want to hear. 1. They both have several extra arms. 2. They both have dismembered heads as apart of their body. 3. Their arms are double jointed. (Shown Below)
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I feel these are going to be reoccurring themes throughout most (maybe even all) of the primordial devils we see. Additionally this isn't a full on pattern but it seems like a Primordial appears roughly every 60 chapters. Darkness first appeared in 65, Falling first appeared in 122 (Full appearance in 123). Back to the chapter itself.
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I find it interesting that Falling begins to bleed more profusely when she gets upset. Based on what I've previously said and what we saw at the end of the chapter it's possible her degree over this overworld vessel lessens and thus it's bleeding begins to worsen when she grows upset. Like it requires a degree of concentration to keep together. Which I think is interesting but will likely not be the key to winning any singular fight. Falling nukes the UNNAMED DEVIL and we get the weirdest scene in awhile.
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This scene answers 1 question. Yet it raises several more. So let's lightning round it. 1. Why did falling take orders from Famine? 2. Why did her vessel turn into a weird shrunken doll? 3. Uh- Actually no thats- Thats it. Huh. So less questions than I thought and more like just one question. Huh. well key things. I think this is what Falling's truest hell form (Like Darkness) looks like.
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It would fit more with the primordial sort of warped appearance we've seen before. It's also the form she appeared in 122 and the beginning of 123 as. So I feel pretty confident in that assumption.
The silly girl is back.
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Fucking smugass dickhead smirk she's so fucking good
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So this is- Weird right? Nayuta definitely has the ability to identify other Horsemen since she was able to sniff out Famine instantly. So she must know about Asa and Yoru in some vague sense. I guess having that confirmation also sorta shifts that end of chapter reveal. Yeah remember "Thief." it probably wasn't just about Denji having a girlfriend but Nayuta not wanting another Horseman to steal Denji from her. Also it's interesting that aside from War (Maybe), All the horsemen we've seen up until this point have been somewhat benevolent. Ah- Maybe not- Okay lemme rephrase. They've been on the side of humanity. Makima despite being- Makima, She was still trying to aid humanity in her own twisted way. Now Famine is trying to save humanity from the apocalypse in her own twisted way. It's possible that Yoru wants nuclear weapons so she can save humanity from destruction- In her own twisted way. And lemme also make this prediction now. The final horseman will also be trying to save humanity in their own twisted way. (I'm still not making a claim on what the final horseman could be I've elaborated on it in the past if you're a true fan of these you'll know the basic gist Tl;Dr there have been several 4th horsemen in history depending on the source).
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This was pretty funny honestly. Nayuta's arm is drawn sorta weird which is abit distracting cause it's the only thing I can stare at now that I've seen it. It doesn't really detract and it's a weekly manga so I can't really complain that much either. Also that girl in the back the one with white hair reminds me of Snake Girl from part 1.
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No shot they're actually related in anyway tho- This chapter actually only has low quality faces in the final school drawing so no need to compile them this week. So instead Nayuta silly compilation.
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She really is just Power if she wasn't Racist. Okay- Listen- We don't have confirmation that Nayuta isn't racist. But she would have to pick that up herself since I doubt Denji would teach her to be racist because Denji isn't racist.
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bnhaobservation · 3 months
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Why does Endeavor keep freezing when it comes to saving his family?
Hum...
... we've 2, maybe 3, stretching 4 cases in which this canonically happens.
Enji gives his explanations for each of them.
1) Chap 251, he froze and failed to save Natsuo.
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Enji's explanation is:
‘Warukatta…! Isshun kangaete shimatta ore ga tasuketara konosaki omae wa ore ni nani mo ienaku natte shimau node wanai ka to’ 「悪かった…! 一瞬考えてしまった俺が助けたらこの先おまえは俺に何も言えなくなってしまうのではないかと」 “It was my bad…! I thought for a moment that if I helped you, you might not be able to say anything to me from now on.”
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The implication seems to be he wants Natsuo to continue telling straight to his face how much he messed up but that, if he had saved Natsuo, Natsuo would have felt obliged to keep his feelings for himself.
2) Chap 293. Tōya is trying to cremate Shōto (and himself).
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There are two implication here, the first is what Tōya says, Enji is broken, discovering the truth was traumatic to him.
Even though he said originally he couldn't believe his son died, at the same time Enji can't believe his son is Dabi.
It's not just that he has grown to accept the idea Tōya died, the real problem is who Tōya became (and how it was due to him). I've discussed about it in another post but having a family member who's a murderer it's the end for a Japanese family.
Remember how Gran Torino was angry because Shigaraki was 'trampling all over Shimura's memory'?
That's why, even if Shimura Nana is dead, it's still socially terrible she has a relative who's a murderer.
But there's also a second implication done later on in chap 300.
'Ore wa ikinobi temo... ENDEAVOR wa shinda. Tairyō satsujin-sha (read: musuko) to tatakaenai.' 「俺は生き延びても... エンデヴァーは死んだ。大量殺人者(むすこ)と戦えない」 "Even if I survive...Endeavor is dead. I can't fight against a mass murderer (read: my son)"
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What's the problem here?
Enji was raised into the idea that Heroes fight Villains, there's no something like 'saving Villains'. Heroes normally shouldn't kill Villains but considering how Hawks went for the kill with Twice and how Enji tried his hardest to murder Shigaraki and he probably wasn't the only one.
When they find Shigaraki, Mirko attacks the tube saying Shigaraki can't be released into the world, then urges the others to finish Shigaraki and Garaki off, claiming they can't let Shigaraki wake up.
When X-less discovers Shigaraki isn't breathing and his heart isn't beating and Garaki explains the capsule would have revived him, they don't try to revive him themselves giving him CPR.
Present Mic tells X-less to take Shigaraki away, but they are clearly in no hurry to give him medical care, X-less even waste time thinking he has to destroy the machines around them.
In order to save Shōto Enji should fight (and likely kill) Tōya... and he can't. He doesn't want to hurt his son, he doesn't want to attack him with his fire aware that Tōya isn't even fire resistant. He can't think any other way to deal with Tōya and he just can't bring himself to attack it, we'll see it even when Tōya is threatening to nuke Japan.
But he can't think of anything else he could do that could stop the situation, like, for example, trying to talk to Touya. After all, he never did it and he has no idea how to deal with his son turned Villain.
Villains were just something Heroes would beat.
Hence he froze.
We've two more possible cases, though in them he didn't exactly froze... or, if he did, we don't know about it.
3) Tōya 'died' because Enji avoided going to see him, and therefore got on Sekoto Peak too late to save him.
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Enji's explanation is:
'...Maki wo kubete shimau dake da to... Iya... Nanto koe wo kaketara ī no ka wakaranakattanda 「...薪をくべてしまうだけだと... いや... 何と声を掛けたらいいのかわからなかったんだ」 "...I thought I would just end up burning more firewood (inside him)... no... I didn't know what to say."
The whole 'burning more firewood' implies that he believed he would just encourage the fire inside Tōya of which Tōya kept talking about through the two chapters, in short that he would encourage him to continue... but then he admits the more relevant reason, he has no idea what to say.
Enji (and Rei) never knew what to tell to Tōya beyond stop, they didn't want to tackle their responsibilities in Tōya's situation nor wanted to offer real support, they just wanted him to accept what they told him and stop. Hence Enji doesn't face his son but avoids him, telling himself this is for the better.
4) While the story doesn't really tell us if Enji froze, the implication of the scene seems to be he didn't act when his father fought a Villain, but remained there frozen on the scene.
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It's something I've discussed in the past here and it's not super well explained by Horikoshi but it can be the root that explains all the other times Enji remains frozen.
Enji is not a natural born Hero because, differently from Midoriya, he doesn't have inside himself the instinct to save people even when the situation could be fatal to him.
He does it out of duty, raging against himself to give himself courage but, when push comes to shove and a situation becomes emotionally very difficult for him, he doesn't want to face it and freeze.
It's not so much the fear of death, he doesn't hesitate at all when facing Shigaraki even though the latter could murder him, but the fear of being emotionally hurt.
Even All for One will try to exploit it by attacking him on an emotional level.
When his family and his emotions toward his family are on the table he doesn't know how to handle them and his option is to avoid things, which is something he'll admit through the story.
Enji is an evolving character so ultimately he'll face things but I think it's a good guess to assume that the times he froze were due to this.
Of course though, since there's not a canon explanation, this is just my guess and I might be wrong. Still thank you for your ask!
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mychoombatheroomba · 2 months
Text
Things I Love About the Shitty Live Action Resident Evil Movies
So, it was my birthday recently and my roommates asked if I wanted to do anything fun. My response, of course, was to suggest getting drunk and watching the live action Resident Evil movies and like, damn, I love those stupid ass movies so much. So I wanted to make a really dumb (and lengthy) post about the goofy things I like, whether for legit or meme reasons.
Y'all, I know they're bad, that is, in fact, why I love them.
1 - The opening is genuinely kinda freaky, like, the elevator scene? Oof, well done suspense
2 - Michelle Rodriguez. That's it, that's the post.
3- The LASER ROOM - so iconic they used it in the games. The first movie came out in 2002, RE4 then used the laser room in 2005, like, y'all, they took that from the goddamn movie, that's how much of a vibe it was
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(And honestly, just the Red Queen in general, what an absolute icon, love that her appearance changes in every movie she's in)
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4 - Alice is the most fanfic Mary Sue character I've perhaps ever seen on-screen, and I love that for her. Look at her kicking this zombie dog in the face, it's hilarious
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5 - Pretty game-accurate costuming? I can dig it
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6 - They're gay, your honor
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7 - Bad CGI on the Licker, I would expect nothing less
8 - Alice is at her most powerful when she finds a white bathrobe just lying around somewhere
9 - Raccoon City gets destroyed in the course of, like, a day if I'm understanding the timeline right. Like, first infection to nuking the city seems to be about 24 hours. Incredible.
10 - Leon fucking wishes he was Alice, miss ma'am out here driving motorcycles into buildings and then launching them at a monster just to shoot it and blow it up.
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(Special mention for another "they're gay, your honor"
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11 - You'd think the kid they have to rescue from Raccoon City is Sherry, wouldn't you? An Umbrella scientist's daughter who the gang have to save? NOPE it's Angela Ashford. Not to be confused with the game's Alexia Ashford. Is it an easter egg? A botched cameo? IDK bro, you think they know the lore?
12 - "GTA MOTHERFUCKER" - LJ, before running over a zombie
13 - THEY GAVE NEMESIS A REDEMPTION ARC??? Incredible (not before making him and Alice fist-fight each other)
14 - Keeping with RE tradition, the helicopter almost always crashes.
15 - They just decided, fuck it, let's give Alice superpowers. Also the stupid Umbrella eyes, literally whenever they come up.
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16 - The third movie is just Mad Max and Fallout: New Vegas merged together. Also the way they say the whole earth withered and died but later movies very clearly show flora still alive
17 - Why is Jorah Mormont from Game of Thrones here? WHY IS JOHNNY CAGE FROM MORTAL KOMBAT 1995 HERE???
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Also why does Wesker look a little like Eminem to me in the third movie?
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18 - The amount of just, like, "hey, this monster/character was in the games, let's just put them in the movie anywhere!"
19 - Carlos gets one of the only satisfying death scenes for a named character from the games. And by that I mean he gets one of the only on-screen death scenes for a named character from the games. Slay, king.
20 - Why does the Tyrant look like that?
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21 - The army of Alice clones were blonde originally, but all went out and dyed their hair together between movies and I think that's cute.
22 - The timeline is so fucked up, I don't think they even knew how long was supposed to pass between the movies
23 - The way they shoehorned Chris in so bad that, as a kid, I thought he had no importance and they just wanted to give Claire a character to help her with her amnesia (also, Claire having amnesia). The Redfields do get to shoot the shit out of Wesker at the end though, good for them.
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24 - THEY'RE GAY, YOUR HONOR
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25 - The Executioner from RE5 just like, is in Los Angeles for some reason?
26 - This shot of Wesker.
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27 - Wesker takes Alice's powers away in the beginning of the 4th movie, then at the end of the 5th movie he reinfects her with the T-Virus so she can be a superhuman again and just like, bud, you're wildin'. Also it's mentioned in the 3rd movie that Alice's blood could be the cure, and that she could synthesize it once the Tyrant is dealt with? But she doesn't? She just takes the clones of her in the facility instead of using the equipment to make a cure? I know they cure it in the last movie but like, girlie, you could have tried earlier idk. Fascinating.
28 - The opening credits scene for the 5th movie is actually pretty cool
29 - The rest of the fifth movie . . . whatever those writers were smoking, I want some. I know there's literally an Umbrella base in Antarctica in the game but like, idk, having an underwater base where you have multiple city simulations running for BOW production is so funny to me. They've got clones of Carlos and the whole team from the first movie, a random child Alice adopts, Las Plagas lads on motorcycles, more Executioners, Barry (oh, hi Barry!) and damn I love every terrible minute of it.
30 - "The Leon you ordered from AliExpress"
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31 - Li Bingbing as Ada, my beloved
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32 - Whatever the hell this fight scene is (I am obsessed with it). The sapphic energy of Jill v Alice. Las Plagas giving you instant superpowers. Michelle Rodriguez beating the shit out of Leon Kennedy (mans draws his knife and immediately gets disarmed, Krauser would be so disappointed). Ada just snoozing in the snow the whole time. Cinema.
The music kinda slaps though.
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The second half of this where Michelle gets clocked in the face with a fire extinguisher and just looks offended? Immaculate.
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33 - Wesker saying that he, Alice, Jill, Leon and Ada are the last hope for humanity from the roof of the White House. What a team.
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34 - AND THEN LEON, ADA AND JILL FUCKING DIE OFF SCREEN BETWEEN MOVIES ARE YOU KIDDING ME???? Peak writing right there.
35 - I have never seen the Final Chapter, but I do know that Claire is the only (known) surviving original RE character. Chris is MIA and everyone else is dead. The lesbians win again.
36 - Also there's a character named K-Mart. No notes.
37 - WESKER GETS KILLED BY A DOOR LMFAO
I cannot say I would recommend these movies without the consumption of alcohol involved. Once that's in the mix? They're a great time.
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playertwotails · 1 year
Text
Okay I got thoughts about Tails and how much of a little badass he is and this is gonna be a long ramble with spoilers for like most everything I can think of so buckle up if you keep reading.
The villains of the Sonic universe are doing themselves a disservice by only seeing Sonic as a threat and that if they take them out they’re good to go. But Tails is arguably the main problem to all their plans going south and none of them have really taken that into account in any media that I can remember.
Like okay Forces didn’t do a great job of portraying this side of Tails and they murdered his characterization in that game. Frontiers had to backpedal hard to try and fix it, I think they did a pretty good job for the the band-aid they had to slap on for an explanation as to why Tails was like that in that game honestly. Saying he was essentially overwhelmed and couldn’t be brave and fell apart cause he is you know still just an 8 year old child, is a pretty solid explanation honestly. But still Forces really didn’t know how to write Tails around the Sonic OC monstrosity I know most of us made. If they wrote Tails with his previous characterization in mind there wouldn’t have been a point to the player character cause Tails probably would have kept Eggman at like 50% and saved Sonic. (side note making the OC player character lowkey terrify was hilarious in cut scenes if you went that route and if you didn’t go back and play the game and just make the most terrifying creature game lets you trust me it’s worth the laugh).
But stumbling off my Forces soapbox, none of their rogues gallery seems to put two and two together that they’d probably win if Tails wasn’t there to come up with a counter plan to theirs.
Just to like build on why Tails is such a threat the their villains I’m gonna start with just Tails’ physical traits:
To start, Tails can keep up with Sonic. Very few characters are listed as being able to do that (granted most game mechanics have to make it so other characters can also keep up with Sonic). But in all the written out lore and characterization it's usually mentioned that Tails is an outlier in how he can keep up with Sonic and that's part of the reason they became friends.
Obvious one, Tails can fly. Meaning he has a whole other terrain he can fight in and leaving it to gravity in a fight with him will fail. And combine that with his speed being up there with Sonic's and now nowhere is safe from him.
Tails can pack a punch. He's been fighting since a young age, younger than most of the older characters even, and is best friends with Sonic and Knuckles so of course the kid knows how to hit something and fight.
Tails is really strong. I know that one twitter take over has a joke that Tails is ripped but like he'd kinda have to be. We've seen him able to carry both Sonic and Knuckles at the same time and not to mention all the heavy machinery he works with regularly. That 8 year old is pure fluff and muscle.
Now here's where Tails goes from menace to threat for their rogues gallery:
To start with Tails is a super genius. At 8 he's on par with Eggman in intelligence, a man with a doctorate and who's been at this for years, and at times out out classes him (i.e. see the zombot arc Tails figured out a cure when Eggman couldn't against his own virus)
He's made a fake chaos emerald that was next to indistinguishable from a real one. Like I might make a whole separate post about this one later but this child made something that was essentially close in power to a god-like entity, like what the actual fuck.
He's defused a nuke. Eggman did not foresee a baby that apparently has a part time job as a one man bomb squad wrecking his plans.
Ace pilot skills. Wasn't sure if I should put this here or the list above, but I'm putting it here cause my list. But just any sort of air battle Tails has covered either with his own tails or a plane, the sky's are his.
No one really talks about this from Sonic X but Tails built a whole ass functioning space craft Star Trek Enterprise style that they all lived on for months, had artificial gravity, and fuck you levels of weaponry. I know nothing is really canon from that show but I mean how could I not list it.
Tails is the one that comes up with the plan or invention that Sonic and gang use to win (usually he is...Amy seems to have taken over the more plan side of things in IDW comics during/after Forces for big battles, and we love this for her in this house). But like Tails is the one whose invention or plan usually ends up being the main reason they win.
Tails has a super form and can use chaos energy. Like despite what the line up of the cast who can go super form would have people believe, this is actually stated to be a rare trait that few have the ability to actually do. (it's like going super saiyan, cause it ripped it off, stated to be rare then everyone can just do it cause plot)
Tails is just such a one man army at 8 years old that I see him just becoming an even bigger threat as they get older. Cause he's canonically 7 years younger than Sonic and one of the youngest characters in the cast. Meaning he's got room to grow still and if he can keep up with the older character at 8 how strong is this kid gonna be by the time he reaches Sonic's current age of 15.
Like I see it that as they get older Sonic will still be the main protector of the planet and a thorn in all their villains sides. But like if Tails walks up that's it..fight over..you lost..don't stop at go to collect $200 just do your self a favor and go straight to jail.
Out of the whole cast, though they are all young and could only get stronger at this point with age, Tails has the most potential out of all of them with just how many skills this kids has on him.
Also throwing this in here cause I can, Sonic is one of the few if not only person who recognizes this about Tails. It's why he trusts Tails so much and falls back on him when things go bad (also trusts him cause Tails is his best friend/little brother/family figure). Sonic is well aware that his little brother will more than likely one day surpass him and he's proud of that. Sonic pretty much raised Tails so he has a weird combination of proud older brother/almost-parental proud feelings about it. They're brothers you honor.
Welp this is my ramble about Tails cause he's one of my favorite characters ever. Feel free to add on to it if anyone else thinks of anything that I missed. This was all 100% rambles from memory and I have shit memory so I know for a fact I missed something.
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kaijudirector · 10 months
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007 Fest 2023 - Headcanons!
Run out the guns, it's headcanon time! Prepare for barrage! (and my first post, so forgive me if I make a few mistakes, and it's a bit late due to my personal schedule)
Bond Headcanons
James Bond is not a codename. Quite frankly, I've never subscribed to this theory. I've always believed that we jump to a slightly different universe with every actor switch. Each universe shares vaguely the same series of events, with certain commonalities. Such as…
Every film Bond has lost their Tracy, except (maybe) Connery and Craig. Moore still visits his Tracy's grave, Dalton's was mentioned to have been married in LTK. Brosnan we never know flat out, but remember - "Or if you find forgiveness in the arms of those willing women, for all the dead ones you failed to protect…" Connery represents and interesting scenario. Diamonds are Forever can be read in two ways - either Bond is out Spectre-hunting after You Only Live Twice to catch the remains of what remains of Spectre, or he's on the warpath after Tracy died in On Her Majesty's Secret Service. For the sake of this theory, let's say that the latter scenario is canon.
Brosnan's Bond used to have unlimited spending money, but then Dench!M cut the funding, hence her nickname of evil queen of numbers This is something that has some basis in the Fleming books. Bond in Casino Royale is allowed to spend exorbitant amounts of money on the Secret Service's tab - millions of francs that is. Despite the fact that in the 50s 1 pound meant 13 francs, this still constitutes a hefty amount. I remember reading that novel!Bond basically has an unlimited budget in a guidebook. I have a feeling this is similar in the movies - after all, I doubt even a RN commander's pension could afford the hundreds of thousands in monies Bond is bound to lose in the movies. Of course, in Brosnan!Bond's timeline, I have a feeling Dench!M ended up putting an end to that little scenario.
There was no Cuban Missile Crisis in the Fleming books. Rather, Operation Thunderball was the "big nuclear scare that defined the Cold War". In the movies, it's largely kept under wraps, but in the book, it eventually goes public by the end of the story. Of course, the loss of two atomic bombs in the Caribbean may have convinced certain figures in the Soviet Union that keeping their nukes in such an area would be… disastrous to say the least. So with that in mind, they decided not to bite the bullet and kept Cuba nuke-free.
SMERSH was kept around specifically to counter the OO Section in the books. SMERSH in real life was disassembled in 1946, whereupon the MGB took on its counter-intelligence duties before reformatting into the KGB in 1954. We know in later books, specifically The Man With the Golden Gun and Octopussy and the Living Daylights, that the KGB does exist in the Fleming books. However, considering how more proactive the British Secret Service is, especially with the OO section, I would hazard a guess that SMERSH was kept around specifically to combat them, at least until the KGB came into existence (which then absorbed it).
Brosnan's Lleweylln!Q did retire… He took his fishing boat to Wales and lived out the rest of his days somewhere in the countryside where they only speak Welsh (a little something @emiliasilverova and I cooked up a few years ago)
Kincade is (or at least was) married to May Maxwell For those of you who don't know, May Maxwell is Book!Bond's Scottish housekeeper. In between assignments, she and Kincade stay up in Skyfall, before Bond summons her to look after his flat until he returns. Sadly, perhaps the reason we don't see her in Craig!Bond's run is that she may have passed away at some point.
Blofeld was always a megalomaniac, but kept that under wraps... until Bond drove him over the edge
One major line of thinking I remember when I watched Tim Burton's Batman movies is that Batman is always just one step behind his villains in the crazy department, with his morals relatively intact. Conversely, we see Blofeld acting like an absolute machine in Thunderball (and all his appearances in the movies before YOLT), but when Bond foiled his plots, he slowly began to lose it. This gave way into him being more expressive, megalomanaical, and downright unconventional (biological warfare, suicide gardens, and diamond lasers) as time goes on. After all, how would YOU process your hundred-million-dollar master plans going up in smoke at the hands of a suave secret agent who always gets away with it?
Bond's favorite book is Treasure Island
John Gardner mentioned that Robert Louis Stevenson was Bond's favorite author. And with the latter writing a sea story that stars a young orphan named James, who gets involved in some epic swashbuckling adventures, it just feels right.
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nebulouscoffee · 10 months
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Hey! I'm really sorry that life has been so rough lately, I'm keeping you in my thoughts 🙏 here are some things I'd love to hear your thoughts about, & feel free to make it as long & detailed as you want! 1/your favourite piece of Bajoran worldbuilding (from the show or from a fic you've read or from your own headcanons - you decide!); 2/your favourite type of alien clothing on any star trek (or single favourite alien outfit) & why you like it; 3/what your concept for Ben & Kasidy's child is: who they are, who they grow up to be, etc.; & finally, 4/your opinions about the clock Ben builds in "Dramatis personae". Here you go! Take care <3
... this is so incredibly sweet, thank you😭😭 I really truly appreciate it, as well as all of these Very interesting questions❤️❤️
Ahhh it's hard to pick, I love so much about Bajoran worldbuilding! First of all the non-linearity of their religion is SO COOL & mind-blowing to think about, & I really love the way it- by its very nature- allows you to re-contextualise so much of the show's lore. Like- is Joseph Sisko written into ancient Bajoran prophecies thanks to his non-linear affair with a Prophet?? Do those prophecies inform or influence traditional archetypes of love in Bajoran culture?? Did Kira grow up learning about an archetype of corporeal love based entirely on Joseph Sisko, the father of an alien man who would decades later become her boss??? I don't know!! But I can write fic about it!!! (And then not post it!!!🙈😂) I do headcanon that dominant Bajoran cultures all have strong archetypical figures, it just makes sense to me given their caste system & that "three brothers" story Kira tells Ben & just how much emphasis they as people place on roles and duty and their place in the world (and on their world). I also love the recurring theme that they greatly value (and like, listen to) their planet. They talk about Bajor like it's a living organism, one big ecosystem they are all a part of, and whenever there are floods, famines, earthquakes, etc, they pay attention, as if its a bug in the immune system- such an interesting contrast to Cardassia, where they plundered their own resources & then came for others. There's this whole collective spiritual (rather than strictly political or social) connectivity that I find very fascinating- something about Kira thinking of herself as simply an empty "vessel" to the powers that safeguard her planet & connect her to her fellow Bajorans. It makes me wonder about their large diaspora, & the sort of pain Bajorans like Ro may carry around over that forced separation. Oh, and that they have Fire Caves. Like those Fire Caves were really just hanging around the whole time huh. Also that Proper hasperat is apparently supposed to be made with a brine so strong your eyes water. So that's five things!
2. Garak's Watermelon Suit.
3.
Lol jk. Garak does have some fire 'fits tho (that red and black tunic with the embroidery? A Look🙌) Anyway,
2. I also think Lenara's purple formal dress was really pretty! And most of Quark's outfits are killer tbh. The detail!
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Kira's dress from 'Fascination' was fun- and I like both Winn Adami costumes a lot, the vedek robes with the opera house hat & also the golden kai robes. Again, there's a lot of cool details (esp with that elliptical Bajoran symbol & patterned fabric which the 90s quality completely nukes.) Oh, and speaking of hats- all of Guinan's hats are iconic, and Jadzia's Klingon wedding dress was pretty cool too. Basically I am terrible at choosing things; I just now remembered Spock's Goth Chic robe from TMP and that reminded me SNW has been doing some really cool things with T'Pring's wardrobe-
3. The siskasidy baby!!! I have named this baby so many different things in post-canon fics lol, everything from Jennifer to Sarah to Jadzia ("Jazzy", or "Jazz" for short- I think this is my favourite, given how Avery Brooks seems to be irl about jazz.) I don't think I have any real headcanons about who they grow up to be (I'd love to hear any ideas you may have!) but I did come to terms with Ben missing out on their first year(s?) by imagining he sort of spiritually shares consciousness with several Bajorans over that time period (very much consensually, like this is an experience that allows these Bajorans to walk with the Prophets for a time & also enriches Ben's- and the Prophets'- understanding of Bajoran life) and these Bajorans befriend Kasidy & look out for her and the baby <3
4. Lmaooo I have SO many feelings about this clock. Like WHY did he build a CLOCK. *frantic strings across conspiracy board* I know, I know, the writers were probably just going for something random at the time, it was, at heart, a goofysilly s1 episode that easily could've been on TNG or VOY- but it really does become sort of mind-blowing when you consider it in the grander scheme of Ben's arc. Plus- they kept it in his office throughout the series!! They put it in JAKE'S HOME in the alternate 'Visitor' timeline!! I do think that episode implies their weird behaviours also came from somewhere within them (that's how I like to explain Kira Your-taste-in-men-frightens-me Nerys flirting with Weird Aliens Odo & Dax anyway😂), so I like to think Ben just has this deep ponderance of time & temporality just like. Sitting within him somewhere. The clock was actually from an ancient Gamma Quadrant civilisation whose memories possessed them all, but I still feel like that last shot where Ben sets off the timepiece he (for some reason) built from scratch and lets it tick was Symbolic somehow. Like- this man is part-Prophet!! He was conceived non-linearly his birth was arranged he was always meant to discover the Celestial Temple aka the path to- you guessed it- the Gamma Quadrant!! Something something Events Set In Motion
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welcometothejianghu · 11 months
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I can't actually recommend Psych-Hunter, as it's not, strictly speaking, what you'd call good. It has, however, made us laugh out loud several times, and a lot of the visuals are really clever, and it's got to know what it's doing with how gay it's making those main boys (to say nothing of the police captain and that little cop who totally has a crush on him). It's weird and it's fun, and if you're looking for a thing to watch, you could do a lot worse!
NOTE: The preceding paragraph was written before I watched the last episode.
Look, this show is a hot mess. Let me break it down:
The good: some amazing visuals; excellent costuming (like, even when it's ugly, it's still good?); delightfully batshit worldbuilding decisions; fun short-arc mysteries; hella gay bromance; delicious boy tears; incredibly endearing secondary cast; great Psychonauts-esque plot device; some gorgeous mindscapes done with (mostly) practical effects; did I mention those two boys are real gay for one another?
The bad: little to no narrative cohesion; terribly bad pacing; high body count, especially of ladies; a couple inexplicable heel turns; when the CG is there, it's not great; plenty of unintentional comedy; most overarching mysteries remain completely unsolved.
The ugly: het romance that swings between just plain boring and outright skeevy; absolutely no grasp of the female lead's character; and of course, all the shit it pulls in the last episode.
...But obviously I found the whole mess still pretty compelling despite the flaws, considering I've just written like 1500 words of a Tumblr post that barely anybody else is ever going to read about it! So, uh, maybe that's an endorsement? I can't tell anymore.
Most of those words are beneath the cut, starting with the vaguely spoilery thoughts -- the ones you can read without spoiling yourself for the whole show. I'll mark when the big ones are coming up.
The good and the bad are, I think, somewhat self-explanatory. I want to talk about the ugly a bit, though.
The first two are actually two halves of the same problem. As a character, as she is written, Yuan Muqing sucks. Her entire personality is "whatever we need The Girl to be doing in this scene." She swings from Strong Independent Woman to Damsel In Distress to Spunky Female Police Officer to Spoiled Rich Schoolgirl to Giggling Love Interest with no sense that there should be any consistency between these states. Every detail of her life disappears the second it's not immediately relevant to the plot. She is a selection of two-dimensional objects chosen on a scene-by-scene basis to compliment whatever else is going on around her. I guess you could excuse this by [insert spoilers for the last episode here], but for that to work, the show would have to give off any sense that it understood her characterization was bad in the first place.
Whatever they could have done with the het romance was pretty doomed to fail from the start by having her be so badly written. (There are a few very cute moments they have later on, when they write her like an actual person, but it's too little too late.) She and Jiang Shuo already have little to no actual chemistry together, and the majority of their relationship is artificial overreaction-and-miscommunication conflict. And as though that weren't bad enough, the show keeps making it skeevy by making her so young. She's a high school student who has a very little-girl room, complete with dolls she talks to and petulantly punishes when she has tantrums. Many of her hairstyles and outfits also run young. Nobody gets a canonical age, but she's clearly a teen while both boys seem well into their twenties. The age gap does the relationship no favors.
Worse, the romance largely nukes her relationship to Qin Yiheng. When the show starts, they at least interact with one another, even if it looks like the show's going to get a "girl can't decide which boy she likes!" dynamic going with the main trio. Very quickly, though, she needs to be only The Love Interest for Jiang Shuo, meaning that she barely talks to Qin Yiheng for the whole rest of the show. Even when all three are onscreen together, those two might as well each be invisible to the other. They're not really a triangle -- they're a hinge, and the non-Jiang-Shuo points don't touch.
All that being said, there is such potential in her, and like 95% of that potential comes from the fact that the girl is obviously insane. Beyond even her canonical delusions, That Girl Ain't Right. Everything she does is so much better if you imagine there's a full-on roomba with knives simmering just beneath her bippy, ponytailed surface. She has to be Generalissimo Daddy's good little girl, when deep down she wants to do violence. That's great.
Some of the early promo materials I've seen make mention of how she's supposed to be the muscle of the operation. I wish they'd been far more consistent about that! She should absolutely be the party tank, bounding away from danger with a boy under each arm. All of the "oh no, Muqing got kidnapped/held hostage/threatened!" beats should have been responded to with a shrug.
But of course, it doesn't matter, because...
****MAJOR SPOILERS START HERE****
...it's not real.
Nearly none of it is real. There are two real people in the show, and everyone else is imaginary. Everything Jiang Shuo feels about her is completely one-sided, because she doesn't exist.
I am not categorically opposed to the final plot twist. I actually think, thematically, it makes a fair amount of sense, given how many other dreamscapes and mind-dives we've seen. What I'm opposed to is having it drop in the final episode, when there's no time to deal emotionally with any of it. If you wanted to pull that Inception shit, you should've done it at least halfway through the series. Give poor Jiang Shuo multiple episodes to deal with the truths that a) everyone he loves (minus one person) is a figment of his imagination, b) he is ultimately the one responsible for the horrors he has created, and c) he will have to decide in the end whether to live in the delusion or to destroy it by leaving. Let him wrestle with what he knows vs. what he feels. Give him plenty of time to deal with his guilt about what he's done to Qin'er. That would be delicious. That's not what we got.
Also, you've got to telegraph it, like, at all. As it is, I wondered for a while there whether something weird/bad happened, the real last episode got destroyed, and they had to hastily film an alternate ending. I am all but certain, on reflection, this is not what happened. There are just enough clues planted earlier that, yeah, I'm pretty sure this was the end they meant all along.
Which was such a bad decision. You know all those mysteries you were interested in, the ones driving the plot? Congratulations! You're never going to know! And it's not because the show got canceled or otherwise truncated -- no, it's because the show decided to tell you outright that those mysteries were never meant to be solved. It's a riddle that never had an answer in the first place.
I said at the time that the end feels exactly like an anime that got too far ahead of the manga, ran out of source material, and had to cobble together an ending that wouldn't spoil the manga's eventual logical conclusion. That's not quite what happened, but it's exactly the vibe.
(Not to get too spoilery of other properties here, but yeah, you realize this was the same guy who made Sand Sea, and that actually makes a lot of sense. Speaking of things that ran out the source material...)
My instinct is to tell people not to watch the last episode, to just stop at the end of 35 and make up your own stories about what comes next, but ... you kind of have to see it to believe it. It's worth it for the sheer audacity that would consider this a good ending.
I've seen plenty of people on various sites saying they loved the ending while clamoring in the same breath for a second season. No, friends, you're having the same reaction I did -- you know a twist like that should not be a last-minute drop. It's not a setup for anything; it's what happens when you can't stick the landing, so you throw out a bunch of impressive-sounding nonsense while pretending that was what you'd meant to do all along. A second season wouldn't solve the mysteries, because the show has declared that not only won't they be solved, they weren't even mysteries in the first place. They were fancy shiny meaningless things that made the plot go, and you were stupid for being invested in them.
And by "mysteries" here, I mean the actual things that are being held up as mysterious and in need of a solution, like Liu Zhi's identity and the Yin River treasures and what happened to Papa Qin. I don't mean the things like wtf is going on with Moustache Dad and his weird semi-k*kistan flag -- because those are just fun bits of magical realism worldbuilding. Clearly this is all operating in some urban fantasy next-world-over scenario, where we're in, uhhh, Zhanghai, Zhina. It's real-world enough that we still have the British and the Japanese, but fake enough that whatever was going on with that hypnotism clock and the lake monster skeleton? Totally normal.
I guess that's part of what I find so frustrating, that it made such an interesting world to play around in ... and then took the cop-out "it was all a dream!" explanation. All the trauma and deaths you felt sad about? Irrelevant. All the friends in danger? Who cares! All the stakes you thought mattered? Meaningless. What, you want new stakes to care about? Well, we'd love to, but the last episode's ending. Bye!
Anyway! Frustrating but compelling! I have now burned so many more brain cells on this show than it deserves, and I will probably continue burning more for fanfic purposes. If you made it this far into this nonsense -- both the show and this post -- I salute you.
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consul-valerius · 1 year
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Apprenticember Day Two: Idiots in Love
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Who is their LI? What’s their relationship like?
Not surprising at all, Donna's main love interest is..... Valerius !✨ The snobbiest, prettiest bitch in Vesuvia lmao Donna was always designed to be a Valerius main, and while some other ships take over my brain, they will always be the end result for me lol
I write both Donna and Valerius as being poly, and they have a very open relationship. Diverging a bit from the game in some ways, Donna knew Valerius prior to the game's events and had been in a relationship with him for a few years prior (don't ask me specifics on timelines--I don't know besties LOL). They initially began dating when Valerius (poorly) disguised himself as a commoner and happened on Donna by chance. Sparks erupted during a very intense palm reading, and what was supposed to be a casual fling eventually evolved into a long-term and serious relationship for them.
They both grew A LOT together pre-plague; Donna really helped break down a lot of Valerius's archaic views and motivated him to be more active in his work, and Valerius really pushed Donna to think of themself and their needs first and fight for things they want in their life. While they outwardly seem to be very opposite of one another, they've always been very dedicated to one another and pulling out the best in one another.
Donna brings a sense of spontaneity and excitement to Valerius's life while Valerius brings a calming, reassuring presence to theirs :') They definitely have their moments, and they've had to trial and error their communication skills A LOT, but at the end of the day, they're it for each other lol
A lot of this does wind up getting nuked due to Donna's death; both their memories and Valerius's memories of them are gone when they are resurrected. That means they wind up redoing most of their relationship during the game's events and after. They like to joke that they were ~fated~ due to them repeating their relationship twice essentially lol and they also eventually settle down and have one notorious problem child too ;P
In some continuities, their endgame also involves Nadia! They both care for and adore her as much as she does with them, and their lives are already very intermingled (both pre and post-game events). Donna also is very close (very VERY close hint hint lol) with a few other LIs & courtiers (will expand later) and they are no stranger to smooching another OC lmao
TL;DR: They're queer, they're poly, and they just want to settle down and keep their family together lmao :'))
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sodapackyuri · 1 year
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NEW NUKE AU LORE SUMMARY YAYYYYY written by yours truly and rue @/thatoneconfusedcitrus
OKAY SO BASICALLY!!!!!!!!! THE AU IS BASICALLY LIKE. MR HAND ENDS UP GETTING BACK WITHOUT JOURNAL NOTICING AND FINDING A WAY TO BOMB THE FUCKING EARTH. IT TAKES PLACE RIGHT AFTER PPT2 12, STARTING AT THE ELIMINATION OF JOURNAL / TC IN EP 13
gold ingot is reading the votes and shit when a SIREN GOES OFF, and he's like 'JESUS FUCKING CHRIST IS THAT A NUKE' and then runs to. okay so in this au he has a bomb shelter but it's really fucking tiny. like it barely fits like 10 people.
ANYWAYS he runs there, and then treasure chest drags journal, who's just entirely shut down at this point, and is like 'WHAT THE FUCK DUDE WERE YOU SERIOUSLY GONNA LEAVE US THERE' and gold ingot is like 'I LITERALLY NEVER SAID YOU CAN'T FOLLOW ME' AND gold ingot runs off again.
post-it note had IMMEDIATELY ran to the lab to find journal when they heard the siren go off, and then once realizing he isnt there, ran back to the elimination area. tc sees her and drags him with them and journal to the bunker. chainsaw, slipper, basketball, cup, and ukulele also get in after.
plasmaball, caramel cube, and knight helmet all run to the bunker together, and gold ingot closes the door after knight helmet gets inside. knight helmet SCREAMS at gold ingot to let them in, while cc and pb try to get the door open themselves. gold ingot snaps at kh that there's no more room inside, and threatens to throw him back out there if he keeps complaining.
the ingot cousins fight over who gets to go in, and none of them end up making it into the bunker.
MEANWHILE. in the dpod. everyone is PANICKING. a few contestants get trampled and shoved out of the way while they go into the lounge for at least a little shelter.
melon ends up getting his head crushed in after getting trampled, and fridge stays outside with melon, holding and kissing him until he soon dies from his injuries.
gong stays outside willingly to close the door. the surviving dpod people are glass shard, brick, shuriken, chip, gbb, milk, malachite, globe, and flashlight
HOWEVER. a few people leave the bunker too early. shuriken rushes out after only a few hours due to feeling too cramped, and flashlight runs out to get him back inside, and both are killed by the radiation.
ukulele had read bubblewrap's letter in the bunker. FOR THE SAKE OF THE PLOT, the letter was a love letter. after only a few days she left the bunker to see if bubblewrap was okay. upon finding her corpse, she laid with her for a few minutes, and then went back into the bunker.
knight helmet did the same right after to see if pb and cc were okay, and stayed out there for an HOUR with their corpses. surprisingly, silent the entire time. aside from his loud crying but yknow. and then he also goes back inside.
the two both die of radiation poisoning, and gold ingot orders post-it note to carry their corpses outside. she refuses, knowing it's still dangerous to go out due to the radiation. basketball calls them a pussy and takes them out zimself. and then also dies of radiation poisoning. slipper is severely grief - stricken, and chainsaw seems to not care at all about basketball's passing, isolating himself from slipper afterwards.
journal has entirely shut himself out from other people, leaving treasure chest and post-it note to spend a lot of time bonding with eachother, and the two become good friends.
ANYWAYS. after about two weeks, they all leave the bunker. a day or so later the dpod survivors leave too. glass shard and chainsaw end up reuniting, chainsaw shows him the bunker, and then they go to see what's going on with gold ingot since he's gathering everyone together.
goldy, unsurprisingly, is trying to get everyone to continue the competition. everyone, unsurprisingly, is against the idea. and then post-it note walks up to him, and SLAPS him. and then starts SCREAMING at gold ingot. treasure chest has to separate the two and calm post-it note down.
oh also ace teleported back there when ze saw the explosion.
then, chainsaw steps up, wanting to take control of the survivors. he starts saying they'll only survive if they pick off the weak. which y'know is really just post-it note and treasure chest in his eyes. he takes post-it note, breaks his glasses, and then proceeds to mutilate his leg. malachite then tackles chainsaw, fighting him for a little while, and chainsaw tells malachite its become weak too.
the groups then split from there. treasure chest's group, and chainsaw's group [which he names team bracket two]
malachite helps tc treat post-it note's leg, which has been severely mangled and broken beyond repair. mal tells tc that they're doubtful she'll make it.
malachite then talks to journal, and journal, finally coming out of his own thoughts for the first time after the weeks spent in the bunker, breaks down, apologizing for not taking care of himself, for letting everyone down, and asking if malachite hates him. malachite says he doesn't, that they're proud of journal for trying so hard, but also telling him there's nothing he could've done.
after talking for a while, malachite assures journal that tc doesn't hate him, and is just worried. journal asks about post-it note, and mal tells him about post-it note's injuries and the low chance of survival they have because of them. journal then remembers the VERY LOUD SCREAMS OF PAIN he heard but didn't really register at first, and goes over anyways.
he makes up with tc, and the two sit together with post-it note, the two and malachite taking care of him. eventually, post-it note wakes up again, though isn't coherent yet. tc had left to go make some crutches for post-it note to use once she's well again.
tb2, growing restless, decide to attack treasure chest. which only chainsaw and glass shard get to do, but they get fought off. tc then decides it's not safe to stay there anymore. once post-it note was well enough to travel and had gotten used to the crutches, the group left the competition area.
tb2 is. a trainwreck really. chainsaw spends most time with glass shard. chip and brick are the only members that really get along aside from chainsaw and glass shard. otherwise, everyone fights a hell of a lot. but they CAN agree on one thing.
the tb2 members are getting more fed up with chainsaw, and ESPECIALLY with how he gives glass shard special treatment. brick decides to confront chainsaw, which leads to chainsaw throwing brick at the ground hard enough to cause a large crack to form over its right eye, as well as threatening to kill brick. chip is worried, and formulates a plan. he decides they need to revolt. by killing glass shard.
they end up kidnapping glass shard, taking him back to the dpod, with intent of leaving him there with no way of escape. chainsaw catches them, however, and after severely injuring chip and arguing with slipper, leaves tb2 with glass shard. left without a leader. tb2 falls into chaos.
initially, gold ingot tries to take control of tb2, but gets ignored by everyone. he then tries to join tc's group, and then gets attacked by post-it note. treasure chest yells at gold ingot, again stating he is NOT welcome there. while tc is helping post-it calm down, they end up confessing to her. post-it returns the feelings of course, and they kiss. WUH WOH JOURNAL WITNESSED, HE'S SAD!!! post-it and tc, both having crushes on journal as well, ask him to join their newly formed relationship, to which he accepts. polycule win
SPEAKING OF BEING FRUITY. meanwhile, brick is taking care of chip the best he can, and the two are getting juuust a liiiiiittle fruity. kind of gay to nurse another man back to health.
ANYWAYS. chainsaw is starting to spiral worse and worse, and is not coping well at ALL. he attacks tc's group with glass shard, with intent of killing ace. ace and malachite stop him and glass shard, and mal breaks glass shard's arm, only fueling chainsaw's rage more and more. ace teleports the two back to the competition grounds, and they decide they need to leave again.
chainsaw gets in a fight with brick, and eventually leaves after taking supplies to treat glass shard's arm. and then chip and brick also have a gay confession scene.
meanwhile, tc's group finds a town in decent shape, and decide to settle down there. journal sees a corpse and starts freaking out also.
after a while, chip heals, and is well enough to walk again. he and brick see gold ingot and slipper fighting, and slipper eventually ends up ripping off gold ingot's fingers, then burying him alive, being cheered on by chip and brick. the three remaining tb2 members decide they need to leave as well. they gather supplies, and slipper makes the mistake of going to gather supplies from the radiation - filled dpod. radiation poisoning quickly sets in as they start to leave.
pink doesn't have time to succumb to the poison, however. chainsaw ambushes them, and slipper tells chip and brick to run, telling them it'd catch up. but slipper knows very well he won't survive the fight with chainsaw with the poison setting in, and so spends pinks last moments yelling at chainsaw about how horrible he's been. chainsaw then rips slipper in half. chip and brick are close enough to hear slipper scream in pain, and the two know that now they're the only ones left. they end up settling down in the ruins of a city.
soon after, chainsaw goes to the town where tc's group resides to try and finish off post-it note. tc catches him, and starts to scream at him. eventually, chainsaw just. leaves without a fight.
[ THIS PART HASN'T BEEN WRITTEN OUT YET, THIS IS JUST A PLOTPOINT THAT WILL HAPPEN ] chip and brick, now left alone with eachother to process everything that's happened, start to become much better people. eventually start to feel guilty for everything that happened with post-it note, too. so they decide to try and find tc's group to apologize and team up. when they do, post-it is anything but thrilled to see them. while brick tries to explain why it and chip are there, and that they've got no intent of hurting anyone, post-it quickly starts to break down. brick tries to reason with the surviving team ? members, but as post-it's meltdown gets worse, and his old teammates wanting nothing to do with him, it gives in and leaves with chip.
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Dying Light Easter Egg Speculations
That one picture with photos on it that can be found on Bazaar is one of my fav parts of Dying Light 2. Mostly because of how mysterious it is considering the lore of the game. So, as it really sparked my imagination, let me speculate a little.
SPOILERS TO DYING LIGHT
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In the picture we can clearly see pictures of Harran’s survivors despite the fact that at the beginning of the second game we are informed of Harran’s definite destruction. Which means: not everyone of Harran’s quarantine zone are dead, there’s at least one person who survived events of the first game (I know what everyone will say: it’s Kyle! But I will speculate on it in later).There are two most probable reasons for someone hanging their faces on the “missing” board: someone is really looking for them, and someone is just remembering them.
The second probability I will discuss first, as it is more cryptic and less possible. There is a possibility that this mysterious someone misses those people and decided to hang their photos on the board in sheer inability to believe they are gone, for example because they were emotionally attached to them (yeah, I know, it screams Kyle Crane, those are Lena and Brecken after all. But in theory, it can be basically anybody from the Tower). This theory can be backed by the fact that their pictures look exactly the same as fifteen years ago (yeah, I know it is most probably just for us to recognise them, but come on, let me have some fun). It is however, on the other hand, quite improbable someone would go to this extent to just memorize their friends. It’s a “missing people” board, after all, not “memory board”.
So, it brings us to the first possibility. Lena and Brecken really survived the fall of Harran despite everything, probably lived through finding a cure and maybe even through the Fall. It is unclear how long they have been missing, so it can be basically ever, but most people would probably post something like that soon after someone’s disappearance. Going by this way of thinking I think it is quite safe to assume they somehow escaped Harran and survived around fifteen years of chaos. I think they have PTSD for life, but to me it is such an interesting and hopeful news. It brings to mind so many angsty stories about what could have happened.
EVEN MORE AND MORE SEVERE SPOILERS
Let’s imagine Kyle really survived and turned into the sentient volatile. Despite that he manages to warn people in the Tower, of whom a really small number survived - Lena and Brecken among them. They escape and soon Harran gets nuked. I personally don’t think finding a cure will help Kyle at this point, but him being half-zombie through the period of peace does not make much sense too, so let’s just assume somehow they all live through that and through the Fall. Maybe Kyle is with Harran survivors. Maybe together they observe the world falling into pieces for the second time in their lives.
Maybe they get separated and Kyle, anxious, keeping himself away from people because of his being zombified issue spends his free time hanging pictures of them, hoping they are somewhere in Villedor, alive and well. Maybe Kyle Crane is not recognised anymore because he is not using this name anymore, maybe he is this one quiet guy in an inn who will help get your kid colour pencils if needed. Maybe he still thinks about those who he had lost, but does not have it in him to get involved again because the last time... it did not really go well.
Thank you for coming to my TED talk, I hope you had fun speculating with me!
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