I talked about it with someone, so i felt it might be interesting to write it down. in essence though, well jujutsu kaisen is indeed good its also not something that particularly grips my soul and keeps me interested outside of a cursory sense. and that comes down to three things

its character writing is really incredibly solid, best thing about it. its plotting feels meandering and slapdash, to the point i would say it ends up detracting from the solid characterization.

its fights well beautifully illustrated, really only have that beautiful presentation to them. on a mechanical and writing sense a lot of them are just kinda duds or underwhelming for whats backing them up. certainly not the worst in its genre, but its also not hard to find better is all.

for all the technical explanations going into the powers at play, a lot of them are pretty simple at the end of the day. gojo's a pretty prime example here, as his power is literally just space manipulation but its explained in such a way that when i first saw it i had no idea what the hell i was looking at or being told. and that style of writing isn't necessarily uncommon since everyone wants to ape papa araki, but i would say that jujutsu is particularly bad in this regard.

still, its certainly better material then most in its genre, so im sure as hell not gonna begrudge its success.

-blushes intensely-

... yeah that might be nice. especially if hes gotta flustered lil tsundere face on well hes wearing it. trying to retain his dignity well flustered to hell and back. adorable.

on a side note, lena, criminal mastermind extraordinaire, and her heroes quote there become extra funny when you consider that canonically she left macedon during michalises reign specifically to spite michalis sending her a marriage proposal for political manipulations sake [her dads big in macedon at the time], and that she also canonically "brutally" turned him down well doing so.

but then this is the same woman who tried to organize a heist of the CURRENTLY OCCUPIED pales palace so she could spread some money around robin hood style.

@ezralahm One for your collection?

listen, did michalis do anything wrong?

Yes, and that was not being a cute anime girl

Clearly as you can see that makes all the difference. Although it would make his hooker boot artwork all the more scandalous.

(I do rather like michalis and the whole messed up situation going on between the macedon royal family, and I would even argue that michalis ironically enough shows a lot more concern and awareness over his own actions then edelgard ever really does. Which is ironic cause his whole thing is suppose to be a self deliberating mixture of pride and ambition that makes it impossible to interact with people and his family in particular like a normal person, and also makes him so pliable to gharnefs manipulations. Yet in both those regards, ambition and pride, edelgard who is suppose to be more sympathetic has him beat.)

@ezralahm One for your collection?

shes doing her best.

PLAYING A RANDOMIZED RADIANT DAWN FILE WITH RANDOMIZED PROMOTION PATHS AND UH

IS: oh goooood... pleaselikedorotheapleaselikedorotheapleaselikedorothea-

Fans: ... I think i like her even less now

IS: GOD FUCKING DAMNIT!!

I really "love" how Azura's FB was hijacked by Dorothea and her issues so that we can talk about her world's plastic writing where somehow the concept of "orphan" only exists because of magic dragon blood (which is downright contradicted by other Fodlan characters' existence, but of course we never confront her with this contradiction) and then uwu all over Dorothea's tragic backstory. Would have been nice if Azura was allowed to talk about the tragedies she had to endure like Valla's destruction, the abuse she suffered in Nohr, the xenophobia she faced in Hoshido or the tragic end that awaits her if she sings the cursed plot song too hard. But I guess she should be happy that she can sing for a loved one.

Poor Azura. Reduced to Corrin's side piece and used for more Fodlan uwu nonsense.

Special heroes bringing smiles are coming soon to a Day of Devotion near you! (I wish)

for fun, thoughts on each of the original gotei 13's captains and lieutenants in relation to the soul society arc

yamamoto: for the kind of character he is, i've always rather liked him. he hits the kubo sweet spot of a sympathetic monster, and overall he serves as an effective symbol of the calcification thats gripped soul society for thousands of years but without being completely unreasonable in the process. ontop of that i do appreciate the suprise of the tybw noting how the original gotei 13 were far stronger then the modern gotei, but because of the intervening centuries they lost the blood thirsty edge of warlords that made them so terrifying, because it adds an interesting dimensionality to the sentimentality yamamoto often displays to that modern gotei 13 and what distinguishes him from ywach despite being similarly brutal, overpowering authoritarian figures. which can be further complicated by reading into yamamoto and his history as a stand in figure for japan and its history as a whole, though obviously thats just reading into things.

sasakibe: like so many figures in bleach, more a plot device then a man. i like his design, i like his power, i like his relation to yamamoto and the grief that his death inspires in the resolute head captain. but hes otherwise such a non entity that theres not much else to say.

soifon: shes cute and i find it absolutely adorable how shes a murder simp for yoroichi. aside from that serves as a pretty fun minor antagonist in the soul society arc, and i enjoy how shes very a 'do as i say not as i do' kinda person who cares waaaay to much for her subordinates despite being the head of the gotei black ops murder squad. which arguably ties into her complicated feelings regarding yoroichi and the feeling of being abandoned when yoroichi had to go into exile [which makes it all the cuter that they patch things up, albeit off screen].

omaeda: not a fan as i think he can be a bit too annoying compared to his moments of competence, and the joke of 'big goofball is actually an elite assassin' does wear thin for me. i do appreciate how hes genuinely devoted to his captain and how that feeds back into soifon being more willing to do stupid things to keep his ass alive due to her own history.

gin: gin saaaaaan! always been a fan of the shit stirrer and his grins and constantly closed eyes. gin is one of the characters kubo used to best effect in all of bleach i'll go out and say, serving as an excellent red herring in the soul society arc, and a strong third party looking for the right opportunity in the winter war ontop of his tragic and well presented death. plus hes just a fun unnerving dude who can easily go from goofy to terrifying looking at the drop of a hat and for whatever kubo needed him to do.

kira: hes okay, helping to make the soul society arc and its mysteries all the more intriguing, and his power is neat. plus his gloomy demeanour does well at hiding how intelligent and decisive he is in a fight which is nice. as it stands however hes one of many characters that feels unfulfilled in terms of potential, not helped by whatever the fuck was going on with him in the tybw.

unohana: theres a reason everyone liked her even before the tybw and kenpachi 'mc fucking losing it' unohana became realized. kubo just did a really good job at giving a character with such a non threatening design overall the atmosphere of such a potential dangerous person well still overall acting in a kind and mothering way in most of her interactions. i still find her shikai kinda confusing in relation to her bankai though, but thats retroactive writing for ya.

isane: i get why she ended up being pushed into the role of fourth division captain at the end of the series as there really wasn't any other option for it that would make sense. but at the same time it does frustrate me because i feel like with that end in mind it would have been amazing to see kotetsu develop the confidence or display the combat skills that speak of potential captaincy over the course of the series, but she ultimately just kinda white mages it up well deferring to her captain. which is even more of a shame because i love her personality and her design.

aizen: aizen is amazing in the soul society arc, because hes an incredibly successful twist villain whos plan makes sense and is intimidating not because of its complexity but because of its simplicity. hes unnerving because of how he combines the captain aizen qualities we briefly glimpse of affability and politeness, even kindness, with casual and monstrous cruelty and overwhelming power once the mask comes off. aizen is fantastic in the soul society arc. that all goes out the window following the soul society arc, where after he just walks around preening like any other peacock chess master villainous overlord about how everything is going according to keikaku, not helped by his plans and what influence hes had on things becoming progressively more complex, far reaching, and stupid as the series progresses. its really not surprising why hes such a contentious villain for so many people.

hinamori: man she gets the shit kicked out of her, to the point that it gets really cruel and sad. and the worst part is that theres never really a sense of pay off for all that suffering either, she gets the shit kicked out of her and then fades into the background of relevancy. i feel it woulda been cool if instead she got to be a captain following the timeskip into the fullbringer arc, get some satisfying sense of karmic self actualization following all the shit she gets pushed through. woulda been more interesting then just dumping the visored into the empty spots anyways.

byakuya: pretty boy pretty man. an effective rival antagonist for ichigo to match up against in the soul society arc, and i find his development from cold and ruthless to finally displaying the buried emotions and affections he has for others in his life to be some strongly compelling stuff given the heartbreak and tragedy in his life, as well as an effective commentary on class, position and the stifling effect that rules and the expectations of conformity and propriety can have on individuals.

renji: he deserves to be one of the main characters i'd say. overall solid stuff.

komamura: big fluffy dog man ruff ruff. theres a lot to unpack with komamura that i feel bleach never really did, but what was done with him was at least compelling and interesting to see. plus he fights far more intelligently then his broiling blood and brute force powers might suggest he would which is fun to watch. plus hes a big dog man! whos a good boy? he is!

iba: well an easily likeable character, being a gruff exterior dude with a surprisingly insightful mind on people and their character, like isane he doesn't really... do much outside of accompanying his captain. and well hes a total devoted bro, it is frustrating the he ends the series in a captains seat without being allowed to showcase the kind of potential that would inspire that positioning.

kyoraku: an effective captain jack sparrow type, who gets more compelling but also scarier the more insight we get into the tragedies that have befallen his own life which tend to scale with how viscous he can be in proportion during combat.

nanao: i feel like her fight in the tybw really helped salvage her as a character, because well she was perfectly acceptable until then she was also kinda just background noise as kyorakus secretary like lieutenant who freaked out hard to show off how powerful yamamoto is. her fight with the chicken god angel however opened a lot more compelling aspects of her character and the ending involving gaining courage from kyoraku assuring her he'll always support her is sweet in relation to how their character dynamic is a lot more give and take equally between the two.

tosen: i feel like kubo ran into the problem of what to do with tosen when it came to how aizens power works, and so he just kinda gave up and made tosen a surprise third bad guy as a character. i say this because he gets his ass handed to him quite brutally by zaraki and has a whole little character thing during that fight, and then the betrayal happens and he suddenly feels like a completly different character acting like he shouldn't be keeled over/nearly dead from being almost killed by kenpachi like ten minutes ago. doesnt help that his contributions during the winter war are mostly just to fuel komamura and hisagis own angst by being as villainously despicable as possible in the brief ten minutes he has showing off weird new powers that never really get expanded on again and then unceremoniously killed off in an abrupt and cruel fashion to have aizen be a cheeky bastard.

hisagi: i feel like kubo wanted hisagi to be more of a thing then he ended up being, but what is there is a solid character nonetheless who ends the series getting a bit of a yamcha treatment unfortunately. which is rather frustrating.

hitsuyaga: theres a lot more anger and impatience in him when we first meet him compared to later, which could arguably be said as character development or could be called out as inconsistent but im not gonna split hairs. hes the kind of character the inevitably gets popular and in his particular case i do rather like him so thats a plus.

rangiku: like gin shes great though for different reasons, and like a lot of characters like her i feel her more interesting qualities, the ruthlessness she often displays in combat, her intelligence and master of social situations, often get lost in favour of people slobbering over her sex appeal. shes a real fun character overall though.

zaraki: a bit overhyped if im being honest, but as far as battle maniac intense bloodlust dudes go hes a solid 8/10. it helps that hes a lot more emotionally vulnerable and complex in that regard then shonen battle maniac bloodlust dudes can often be.

yachiru: adorable murder girl is an adorable murder girl mascot. the stuff in regards to her relation to kenpachi not just as a girl he takes care off but a manifestation of his inner desire for companionship and the sword spirit stuff are i feel more interesting then she herself is.

mayuri: if his first appearance hadn't been so harrowing i feel he would have ended up being more popular then he is. he serves as a personal demon for uryu to fight very effectively, but as others have pointed out he quite obviously gets reconnected to be more charming and goofy then he originally was in later appearances. i actually find his tybw role to be the most interesting however, as it often feels hes at something of a crossroads there still embodying the older gotei mindset of peace at any cost, that older darkness, thats coming into conflict with the newer ideals and gentleness the gotei is starting to move towards thanks to figures like ichigo, a conflict he only resolves on a personal level upon nemu's death by not so much repenting as resolving that hes not gonna wallow in the old darkness and change with the times instead. that's the way i interpretted it anyways, which i feel gels with how he seems far more gentle with hachigo nemuri then he was with nemu from what little of them we see. also, i do find it interesting how he seems genuinely taken aback to some extent by ikkaku genuinely thanking him for saving zaraki, which when combing through what details we have of his past suggests some desire to actually connect with the people around him that he tends to bury due to his research and troubles with interpersonal relations in the past. which is all fascinating in its own way, but also as noted before, all comes from his post uryu fight soft character retcon where he becomes goofy murder scientist as opposed to horrific murder scientist.

nemu: eh. in her first appearence shes more so there to remind us that mayuris a monster. and in later appearances shes just kinda there to be weird fetish bait for villain powers, and unnaturally strong. and then she blows up. point being i feel like she never really finds solid footing as a character, which makes it difficult for me to really care all that much. it kinda happens at the very end, but again... she blows up pretty quickly after. essentially needed more time to cook as it were.

ukitake: less developed kyoraku but instead of being a jack sparrow type hes a sickly man whos secretly a bad ass. i dont dislike him, i just kinda wish we got to see more of him before he croaked.

kaien: is black haired ichigo. effective in relation to rukia and her character journey and story, but i dont personally have much interest in him.

sorry i hadn't been much paying attention to this, but i will admit that that gharnef image is one of the best fuckin things i've ever seen. its just so gharnef. so thank you for that alone.

The Gharnef Marathon

Results

It's time to go other the results!

Gharnef: Originally he had a score of 4/5/2, but thanks to the "You cannot beat Gharnef" meme (recommended by @randomnameless, for the rest of this post named "fwend) and the evil opera he gets in TMS (thanks to @zeroabyss), he gets an additional Extra Point boosting his result to 4/5/3 for a total of 12 points.

Jedah: His score stays at 5/2/3 for a total of 10 points

Manfroy: As my fwend pointed out, Manfroy gave us Sara and he's the bestest grandfather for her, earning him half an additional point. Furthermore @kyogre-blue pointed out that his robe does have a nice shade of red which is true and earns him another 0.5 points in the drip category. His original score was 1/4/3, but with the extra points it's lifted to 1.5/4/3.5 which is 9 points in total.

Veld: His score stays at 2/2/5 and 9 points in total.

Nergal: His score was 3/3/3, but @sealofreconciliation rightfully pointed out that getting injured by a half dead old man is pretty pathetic which means Nergal loses half a point for his coolness. However my fwend also brought up his banger battle theme, which earns him half an extra point. Adjusted this means his score is 3/2.5/3.5, also 9 points in total

Riev: His score stays at 4/3/2 which are 9 points in total

Izuka: Nothing is added or taken away from his 4/4/2 score, thus he gets 10 points in total.

Validar: Also nothing is changed about his 5/1/3 score, 9 points in total.

Iago: After some reconsideration, I decided to hand out an additional Extra Point to him because he's just so funny to use in Heroes. As such his ranking goes from 3/2/2 to 3/2/3 for 8 points in total.

Solon: My fwend reminded me of the Smash meme that was funny for 2 days, but well. A Smash meme is a Smash meme which earns Solon 0.5 extra to his score, going from 2/2/2 to 2/2/2.5 for a total of 6.5.

Thales: He stays a loser. 2/1/1 for a total of 4 points.

And with this, we have a winner! It's Gharnef! 🥳🥳🎉🎉🎊 Congratulations to the legend.

Still, it was very close and shows that each and every Gharnef has something you can love them for....except Thales. Don't like Thales.

Next we will take a look at the "religious-old-man-who-joins-late-and-the-fanbase-never-cares-for-them" archetype. Jk. Or am I?

marth giving chrom, lissa and emmeryn's dad the stink eye/rolling in his grave with papas assertion there. it really is maximum shadening thrown not just at edelgard but the entire adrestian imperial family huh.

>| This poor pitiable child knows not how she is oppressed and servile to the Gods and how unification and violent force will ultimately benefit all. How can she not desire freedom from responsibility and to correct the wrongs of the world forced upon it by lying beasts disguised as humans?

gerad im somewhat indifferent to, but yeah i dont think anyone at all likes pepe. kubo might be pretty good at wringing sympathy out of characters that are otherwise awful people, bambi being a good example but he even managed to get me to kinda care about mayuri "unethical human experimentation and warcrimes are my hobby" kurotsuchi being if not sad then emotionally confused when nemuri died in the pernida fight [also of the ywachs top four i would honestly say that only pernida and askin were any fun, well lilie and gerard were mediocre at pest].

but yeah thats not a bad way to describe them, a cool concept with some really stand out individual characters, but sullied by every other asshole being an annoying hate sink or otherwise completely forgettable.

Help me, i've been looking at bleach stuff again and suddenly feel that i was too harsh on the thousand year blood war when it first published, and now im desperately scrounging for good byakuya/hisana content.

so with that in mind, what do ya think about the sternritter in bleach? personally i've always felt that for all the cool aesthetics and powers at play, they're just a bit too unsympathetic/monsterous in terms of character writing that it hurts a lot of the drama of the tybw. But also recently I have considered how that was arguably the point in terms of ywach creating an army of metaphorical and literal monsters because the value of their lives mattered so little to him that all he looked for was strength. which... seems somewhat obvious in retrospect but still. idk, i guess all these years later bambiettas fate still unnerves me. and i wasn't even much of a fan of her until all that happened to her.

You asking this on the SAME DAY that I bought six zanpakuto at a con is HILARIOUS timing lmao

The Sternritter are in a sort of weird spot for me. There was always a hint of sympathy from me to them just on the basis of what had happened to so many Quincy by the hands of the Shinigami, and how on top of that many were under the culture Yhwach cultivated of pure-blooded Quincy needing to rule over everyone else as the strongest and if they can't live up to his exacting standards they will be considered just as worthless as impure-blooded Quincy/non-Quincy - for the majority of them it's kinda just a no-brainer that they would end up being as cruel as they are even to each other, after living in what is essentially a dog-eat-dog world filled with Uber Racism. And you can see how deeply some of the Sternritters buy into this, how even being sentenced to death or having their powers stolen from them does nothing to shake their belief in this man who stabbed them in the back. The dogmatism is engraved into some of these characters, to the point where literally nothing will make them ever see Yhwach as anything other than their leader.

Along with that, some of the Quincy, like Bazz-B and Liltotto and others, realize (at least somewhat) how shit their system was once they see how easily they are thrown away after doing everything right (or, if nothing else, never doing anything more wrong than the Quincy Yhwach chose as "the best"); they're willing to work with Shinigami to get justice against what was done to them by a leader they genuinely saw as god.

And in the middle of absolute dogmatism and rebellion, there are ones like BG9 and As Nodt, who seem to follow Yhwach not out of outright loyalty but out of a fear of death itself. Given who they're fighting (literal death gods) and who they both are as characters (As Nodt being someone who induces fear into others, BG9 being a robotic lifeform), it's definitely A Neat Choice to have these two specifically follow Yhwach not out of a sense of loyalty but out of an intense internal fear that they feel Yhwach both alleviates (by giving them the means to avoid death) and induces (by promising to kill them should they fail him).

They aren't all a monolith even with how deliberately isolated they were from pretty much all non-Quincy society, which honestly makes them pretty interesting as a total group.

But, yeah, on the other hand a lot of them don't really have much in terms of individual personality outside of cool one-liners or My Power Is My Personality. And some others have that issue and their power is just fuckin' annoying as shit and makes them inherently unlikeable GERARD. FUCK YOU GERARD HOLY GOD WERE YOU THE ACTUALLY THE WORST QUINCY EVER. There will be Bazz-B and Jugram's immensely interesting dynamic with each other, there will be Bambietta's genuinely tragic fate despite how deeply despicable she was as a character, there will be the Femritters' absolute determination to continue living and not letting anyone including Yhwach kill them... and then there's fuckin'. Pepe, the Bootleg Zommari that Kubo bought on the black market loose in an envelope. Or The Yapper who literally died in a montage and whose name no one gives a shit to remember. Some who really have nothing to them at all despite being elite enough Quincy to be given Schrift at all.

So, like. Overall I actually like them quite a bit? At least definitely as a generalized group. Individually there are some really really good stand-outs here and some really really wet farts there. And Gerard fucking sucks and I hate him

monopolies are as bad for art as they are for business in many ways. not because art is intrinsically business mind, but because monopolies always push out smaller voices in a field which leads to homogeneity.

So support efforts to break up monopolies wherever ya can everyone!!

Honestly when I learned more about the Peltz guy trying to infiltrate Disneys board and replace Iger, the worse the guy sounds. I was honestly unsurprised when I learned his granddaughter was Katara in the Avatar movie and the nepotism involved, Or that George Lucas himself has come out to support Iger. A number of people really don’t like the guy and would prefer him getting anywhere near it.

Oh he's definitely Not A Good Guy, for sure. But neither is Iger methinks - Disney under Iger made a concentrated effort to eat up all competition and even now has said more than a few white lies about how well things are going and how they're totally in control all while thanking China for letting them film near internment camps...

I'd be lying if I said I had any affection for Hollywood / the entertainment industry, especially when you have Big Name Stars that knowingly and willingly covered up years of exploitation and abuse to raise their own profiles. And for all that it's supposedly "better" now with certain figures dead / in jail / ousted... that sort of industry that so often relies on association and affiliation is pretty much going to continue to have problems.

Not to say "hah hah let it all burn down" but... now's a good time for indie filmmaking and smaller studios to make a comeback over the big ones that are continuously monopolizing.

what interactions I have had with him were similarly pretty vile to add some further testimonial as it were to this, and i imagine the only reason why I've 'flown under his radar' so to speak is because im not a big enough name for him to bother targeting.

which kinda says it all about this whole god damn mess. at this point its less about proving the haters wrong, as i would probably slot into his definition of a hater, so much as it is maintaining a narrative wherein figures like butwhatifidothis, ezralahm, teaveetamer and others slot in comfortably as villainous faces to be defeated. In that light it doesn't matter what they do, because raxis will likely keep doing what hes doing regardless of how they approach the situation, because the problems entirely on his end.

Honestly, can we maybe just… Not talk any further about the latest of Raxis’ attempts at PR stunting to stay relevant? He’s just getting what he wants, and while I’m glad it got called out — there are more important things than harping on this.

Like, how is your day going? Done anything nice today? What’s your favorite color? That kinda stuff.

I go back and forth on this but the thing is - We tried that. For over a year. I can't speak for everyone because I hope you guys know I don't actually know everyone, the idea that there is in fact a Seekrit Edelcrit Community that all get together and have brownies and hate on YKB is... kind of a made-up strawman - but those of us who he first went after hard, tended to either not acknowledge him or do so only in passing.

He used the opportunity to double down on his behavior, to the point where he helped harass / direct harassment towards at least two people who were bullied off social media.

So staying silent... tends to work in his favor insomuch as he's shown that blocking, no contact'ing, etc. does not affect his behavior at all, and he still takes the opportunity to take screencaps, name drop, break fandom norms, etc. Damned if we do, damned if we don't, but at least if I do maybe someone else will pre-emptively block or recognize the guy as the permanently online, permanently badly behaving manchild? Who knows. I definitely don't want it to take precedence over things like my job, my IRL habits, etc. which is one reason I haven't been around this week in general.

Day's going good, although I would very much like to get some inspiration sooner or later so I can make some progress on some fic! My sister and I did a quick grocery run and I've managed to catch Blaziken so that was neat. My favorite color is blue-green but I am very particular of the shade of it.

How are you doing Anon? I hope you have lots of snacks and a lot of blankets.

i have never trusted any avatar media outside of the original cartoon to effectively capture the elements that worked about that cartoon, but just from what i've heard about the live action adaptation i feel like they especially forgot that an important aspect of the original avatar cartoon was how its main caste were mostly bratty and immature kids that well maturing over the course of the narrative were still prone to bouts of foolishness.

that is to say, season 1 katara and ESPECIALLY season 1 sokka were kinda just cringefail preteens having to navigate one hell of an adventure they inserted themselves into.

and i think thats part of why the liveaction ironically fails to capture so many of the original CARTOON FOR CHILDREN's nuances. because it seems so adverse to the idea of its characters being cringefail, which excises so many of the social and character building that was present.

Y’know there’s something the original ATLA just kind of gets about sexism that all adaptations (and tbh most other shows) don’t seem to get

The responsibility for overcoming sexism is not on women proving that they can totes hang with the sexists. The responsibility for overcoming sexism is on the sexists putting together why their ideology is crap

Katara doesn’t win her duel with Pakku. Not by a long shot! And even if she had, he wouldn’t have taught her anyways because he wasn’t open to having his mind changed like that. What does change his mind is the ultimate realization that he drove away the woman he loved and destroyed his own happiness with his mentality

And yeah Katara does defy his stereotypes and become a kickass water bender, but she didn’t have to become a kickass water bender to prove to him that women should be allowed the same opportunities to learn as men. She didn’t actually have to prove anything for Pakku to come to the realization that he was wrong

For as good-natured and open-minded as Alear is, effectively he's still extremely young and easily swayed.

While sweet to his friends, he's not at all merciful to enemies, such as outright saying he's going to kill Nelucce for what he's done to Alfred and Celine's family and home. Similarly, he lacks nuance/perspective on Veyle's situation later, thinking that such a blatant switch in personality was just her being a master manipulator this whole time, and lets his anger take control of what he says to her. A classic, good use of dramatic irony.

He doesn't run from things cuz Lumera told him that a Divine Dragon shouldn't run from anything, but Alear took that to an extreme by walking into danger even when advised against it by someone who absolutely knew better-Marth. It's precisely why Lucina and Lyn later have to explain the difference between running away from everything that scares you, and making a retreat when things don't look good. Courage is knowing the risks and recognizing your fear, but rising up to the challenge when it's still possible to win; folly and stubbornness is ignoring the risks as a whole due to getting a swollen head about your own abilities.

Specifically, what's great about this to me, is that Alear is still a work in progress in the story proper. He's compassionate to not want others to experience the pain he has, but not enough to fully grasp the kinds of things people would do because they, their country, or their families were hurt (Zephia, Hortensia, Hyacinth, etc.). He has much general wisdom and good day-to-day advice, but is still susceptible to being full of himself (Chapters 10 and 11). Even after getting a hold of himself when he lost the first six Emblems, he's still not mature enough to see Veyle as anything other than a selfish, monstrous murderer.

When learning he's a Fell Dragon, he sinks into despair, feeling as if he's been deceiving everyone this whole time, even though that perspective logically doesn't make sense. But it doesn't have to! Alear is convinced that Fell Dragons = Bad News, and that it doesn't matter what kind of person he actually is, his heritage is enough for derision.

That's why it matters so much that his friends immediately reassure him of the opposite! Dude, you just spent the entire game learning and growing with us, helping people from royal to citizen, using your power to protect others. You've proven your own version of Divinity, not just because of your hair color, but because of your unending goodness. You're a good dragon!

Alear doesn't have to be all powerful, he just has to be himself; encouraging, calming, inspiring, leader-like. He just has to connect himself to others so they can overcome challenges together. It's also why his interactions with Veyle (and Mauvier as well tbh) are incredibly well done, since now that Alear's been through the process of healing and accepting who he is versus who he can be, he can do the same for his precious sister.

What a lovely character Alear is.

i havent watched or read the thousand year blood war arc of bleach in a while, and i will say its better then its reputation and my memories suggested it would be. Theres a very palpable sense of tension and drama in the air, and a genuine sense of danger a lot of shonen in their final arc big fuckin hoedowns tend to lack. sure the bodycount isnt as high as it could have possibly been, but compare to say other shonen that take a similar course in their final arcs its far less predictable in what happens and far more earnest in its story telling. an inherent advantage to tite kubo and his works on the whole i will add that has arguably helped bleach on the whole stand the test of time far better then say naruto [despite also being a lot rougher then naruto in its execution].

however the thousand year blood war also has a lot of tite kubos worst habits front and center, which is what i think has contributed to its poor reputation among the general populace. kubo loves escalation gambits, loves em to death as part of his general fondness for surprise and shock in story telling. and to clarify escalation gambits are endemic to most shonen largely for formatting reasons, but man. bleach has it bad and tybw takes it to the extreme, and god does it get stupid sometimes.

... see, part of the problem here is that i dont buy that. Certainly theres an argument to be made in regards to the arbitrary nature of the rules of warfare/engagement, international law and what a warcrime in a practical sense actually is. and often those rules are there more so for the sake of the victor as justification for their own behaviour and power as opposed to appeasing a strict system of morality. its an argument that can be extended to the entirety of law itself in many ways as not a system designed to enact justice and karmic retribution but as a system designed to enforce power and control people.

But from what i've seen and heard of youjo senki i don't think its actually trying to make that argument or even put its horse in that race. what tanya does stretches the letter of the law to its limits certainly, but its still always at least portrayed as within the confines of those laws [at least as understood within the confines of the universe of youjo senki], and in fact, again from what i understand, when the line is actually blurred on whats acceptable or not in confines of warfare not only is tanya portrayed as troubled as opposed to exploitative of that ambiguity but much of the responsibility for that ambiguity is offset onto her enemies.

in short, my impression is that those actions are less there to question the nature of rules of engagement, international law, and what constitutes a warcrime, and more so there to make tanya look clever or exceptional when it comes to conducting war in her hyper rational manner, and by converse make her enemies look foolish and irrational because of how they respond.

which really is more so the actual core theme of youjo senki as a whole from what i've gathered. The irrationality of human beings and how it intensifies under pressure. which isnt a bad theme mind, but then my problem with youjo senki was never really the themes it wanted to play with but as mentioned elsewhere that it feels like it comes short/half assesses what it wants to do. enough so anyways that its attempts to undermine themselves feel undermined because it can't help but adhere to the convention anyways.

I think what keeps stopping me from really sitting down and watching or reading youjo senki (saga of tanya the evil), despite my growing fascination with it the more I learn about it, is that the more I learn about the more I also grow annoyed with it.

Cause sure, it's a black comedy to some extent in all its forms. I get that. At the same time a lot of that comedy it derives comes less from undermining popular conceptions of ww1 and to a lesser extent ww2, and instead more so from reinforcing those misconceptions and blowing them up to a greater extent.

If your going to have a rommel character for instance, why largely play him straight as the genius/competent commander propaganda played him up to be, when the more obvious black comedy choice would, I would wager, be to portray him as an incompetent boob too busy with glamourshots and looking good on the camera to wage an effective war, yet who still gets all the love and prestige of genius back home. Instead youjo senki goes for what effectively mounts to fanboying/celebration of his reputation like any other piece of media.

Now to an extent I can see an arguement as to why it's like that. Youjo senki isnt trying to reflect the reality of the great war(s), its intentionally invoking a pop culture idea of what those wars were like. A perspective on the war that was, arguably still is, popular with armchair wargamers even.

I'm just not yet convinced by that arguement is all.