#'the opposite of love is indifference' and then that backstory of him being abandoned where we dont know whats real and what isnt | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

blvckhvert · 4 years

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[ DAVID CASTAÑEDA. CIS MALE. 29. ] Welcome to New York City, [ ANTONIO SUÁREZ ]. [ HE ] is affiliated with [ THE HORSEMEN ] and spend their days as a [ BOXER ]. They have lived in New York City for [ EIGHT YEARS ] and are known for being [ STAUNCH & RESOURCEFUL ], as well as [ FLIPPANT & VENGEFUL ]. They were [ FIFTEEN ] when they found out they had the power of [ DARKNESS MANIPULATION ] and have been classified a [ LEVEL 3 ]. (KIP. 24. SHE/THEM. EST) / [ HITMAN ]

murder tw & death tw !

Basics !

Name: Antonio Suárez (will respond to Tony but prefers Antonio) Age: Twenty-nine Hometown: Chicago, Illinois Sexual Orientation: Bisexual Ability: Darkness manipulation Occupation(s): Boxer & hitman for the Horsemen Education Level: High school (made it to senior year, but never graduated) + Traits: Staunch, resourceful, & assertive - Traits: Flippant, vengeful, & cocky Mini Playlist: Another One Bites the Dust -- Queen // Dirty Deeds Done Dirt Cheap -- AC/DC // Kill of the Night -- Gin Wigmore // Cold Blood -- Dave Not Dave // Used to the Darkness -- Des Rocs // Dead Inside -- Younger Hunger // Everything Black -- Unlike Pluto & Mike Taylor // Don’t Stop Me Now -- Queen

Backstory !

Born to two loving parents on a hot August night fifteen minutes after his twin, Marco -- Antonio never knew a moment without the other.

As they grew and developed their personalities, it became clear the pair couldn’t be more different from each other. Marco was always so serious while Antonio couldn’t help cracking a joke -- even in the most inappropriate times. Overwhelming pessimism and never ending optimism, cautious and reckless, reserved and loud mouthed -- whatever Marco was, Antonio wasn’t and vice versa. Despite all their differences, the brothers got along well -- balanced each other out even. Every time Antonio was ready to leap in head first, there was a gentle hand to hold him back and give some thought to what he was actually about to do and in turn Antonio would be one of the few to get Marco to actually loosen up.

Of course it’s not all sunshine and rainbows with siblings -- arguments are bound to happen. It was a particularly heated one over some dumb stunt Antonio pulled during a warm September afternoon that triggered everything. Antonio disappeared in a cloud of darkness only to reappear a few feet away and Marco accidentally shot a beam of light a few inches to the left of where Antonio was standing. Once the shock wore off -- Marco decided it was best if they kept this between them, to which Antonio agreed. Who knew if both their parents were gifted or not -- best not to risk it.

It seemed fitting that they find out at the same time and that their abilities be polar opposites of not only each other, but also their own personalities. If nothing else, Antonio thought it was another humorous stunt pulled by the universe.

A few days and minor accidents passed and Marco finally decided it’d be best if the pair (Antonio really) were more responsible with their newfound abilities. So they started practicing in an abandoned warehouse (it’s truly a miracle neither one accidentally killed the other one).

Antonio and Marco weren’t from the best neighborhood in the city so it wasn’t uncommon to see crimes (mostly small ones) take part around them. Rather impulsively, Antonio suggested that they actually put their abilities to good use rather than simply fucking around in a warehouse. Plus, two young gifted doing the city a bunch of favors couldn’t hurt the gifted public image. Marco wasn’t for the plan, but Antonio told him he was going to do it regardless so Marco decided to tag along -- if not only to ensure Antonio didn’t get himself killed.

So there they were -- two dumb kids in even dumber outfits armed with nothing but a very amateur handling of their powers out to deal with some crime in the streets of Chicago. And it surprisingly worked for a little over two years. It wasn’t a every night thing -- Marco insisted that they get rest and not neglect their school work (if Antonio’s grades got any worse there would be no hope for passing) and Antonio insisted he maintain some sort of social life. They largely went after smaller criminals -- knowing better than to bit off more than they could chew. If either were noticeably injured, they told their parents that they were jumped while walking back home (their parents definitely started getting suspicious towards the end).

It was all fun and games until it wasn’t. The fated night came when the duo bit off more than they could chew. It happened in a flash -- Antonio got careless and naturally Marco stepped in and ultimately paid a price for it. Antonio tried his best to get Marco to the nearest hospital in time via shadow teleporting several times, but it was too late -- Marco died in his arms.

The first few months after Marco’s death passed slowly. Antonio was consumed by his grief and guilt -- rarely leaving his dark bedroom. The rest of the world carried on as if nothing had happened. Sure, the justice system was “looking into it”, but it wasn’t going to likely end with any real justice -- not when Marco was a gifted. His grief started to twist into a dark need for retribution where the justice system was failing to deliver.

Several more months passed by -- all a dark blur of lurking in the shadows in an attempt to find the man responsible for Marco’s death. Still only a teenager, he relied heavily on using his ability to intimidate and harm whoever he could get his hands on for information. Eventually he came face to face with the man he was seeking and after quite the struggle, he got his revenge. It wasn’t what he expected though -- he thought he’d feel better, but he didn’t. Feeling even more confused and lost, he fled and never looked back.

The years in between running away and reaching New York are a hazy mess of fruitless efforts to fill some kind of void. He worked a few odd jobs here and there and sought out all kinds of distractions in places he never intended to stay before up and leaving again.

Eventually he found himself in New York. The first year was more of the same purposeless motions until he caught wind of the Horsemen. Fighting for mutant rights -- sounded like something Marco and him would’ve done had they been more mature, more realistic in their dreams, so he said fuck it and joined up with them.

Having a purpose, a direction to follow -- it was good for him. He seemed more like himself than he had in years -- even if it was initially just for appearance’s sake. He even got a steady job boxing (lack of a diploma or GED and odd job experience left him pretty limited -- but hey, he could take and throw some punches).

Now he’s living it up with the Horsemen and ya know, disposing of anyone he’s told to.

Headcanons !

This guy is obnoxious with his shadow teleporting whenever he’s somewhere where he knows he’s not going to have to put up with prejudice for being a gifted. Like need him to go somewhere more than ten steps? He’s going to shadow teleport.

His role in the Horsemen is rather dark, but he cracks jokes or makes smartass remarks about it all the time. Very “If you’re going to kill a bunch of people -- you might as well have some fun with it.” kinda has some Zsasz energy from Gotham tbh.

He keeps most of the details of his life before New York vague -- claiming he’d like to keep an air of mystery around himself to keep things exciting, but in reality there isn’t much of his life that didn’t involve Marco and it’s a subject he’d still rather not touch.

Antonio is a real ride or die bitch for all members of the Horsemen. It doesn’t really matter to him if they don’t have a close personal relationship or if they don’t necessarily get along -- he’ll still put his ass on the line for any of them without a second thought.

“Am I a murderer? Yes, but I’m a loyal murderer so I still think I deserve nice things.”

Again, he’s pretty indifferent to his role in the Horsemen -- sometimes the ends justify the means and it’s not as if he’s a stranger to violence or a little murder.

There really is no color in his wardrobe -- which in his defense is smart because he blends into shadows easier when dressed in black from head to toe but still.

He has a little minimalist light bulb tattooed on his wrist for Marco, but if asked about it he simply shrugs and says he was drunk and blindly pointed to something on the wall to get tattooed.

Listen, my man only has resources from his role in The Umbrella Academy so we’re just going to roll with the facial scars. When you live a dangerous life (amateur vigilantism, boxing, contract killing...) you’re bound to get a few anyway!

Wanted Connections !

Can be found here !

Anything you want to throw at me!

#gifted:intro #murder tw #death tw

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driftinglightofthewoods · 4 years

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🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️🖊️

Send me a “🖊+an OC“ and I will talk about that OC! It can be a headcanon, a fun fact, a small paragraph of backstory- anything!Alternatively, send in just a “🖊“ and I will talk about any one of my OCs at random!

You sendin’ 20 pencils? you gettin’ 20 ocs. You asked for this.

1. Sileves

I love Sileves, I love her big generous heart and how eagerly she accepts friends of her children and her husband as honorary family members. I wish I could talk more about her job as a healer because she takes such immense pride in it and she is what I would want any nurse or doctor to be; so caring and patient and kind.

2. Methenor

Methenor is a soft boi hidden under layers of icy indifference, sarcasm and dry etiquette and I love it. He cares for his family so much ;-; And like I feel incredibly bad for him because no wonder he’s cold as ice when pretty much his entire family left him in Rivendell; His parents sailed, his older sister is who knows where, his younger brother ran for Lothlorien and now his only son left him too.

3. Malgelir

Chirpy social butterfly with a small bit of a “ME FIRST” complex towards her siblings. Malgelir always wanted to get married and have a child, and the fact that she did so before her siblings does make her prouder than she probably should be. Thankfully this isnt out of pure malicious intent because I don’t think she ever had an evil thought in her life.

She also cares so much about her hubby and her son ;-; i cry

4. Rhoscthel

Fun fact I aint got a single clue about what goes into fashion design and yet here Rhoscthel is being a tailor. Send help. Plz. I’m making this up as I go and I just hope nobody notices I’m bluffing my way through anything that takes half a glance at her skill as a tailor.

I also wish I knew how people Actually Flirt TM because Rhos is supposed to be a charming she-elf with bargaining powers that could almost rival Caranthir’s but idk anything about either flirting or haggling. The woes of an introvert trying to play a socially savvy extrovert TM

5. Amathel

With Amathel I’ve been contemplating switching her social status of engaged to married but Amathel kind of has concerns and worries about the act of getting married so idk how to really.. change her status? Like should I just change it or drabble it or..

Like it’s not that she doesnt want to be married to Lagoron, she loves him very dearly, but there’s certain expectations that comes with having a wedding especially as a highly valued member of the Rivendell guard.

Idk I kinda want to dive more into the complex nature of her always wanting to be on top and number one in her class despite the fact that she has a lot of… performance anxiety, I guess you could call it?

She doesnt like to be put on the spot or even necessarily in the spotlight even though she has an ambitious drive and is always looking to improve as a guard.

6. Innith

With Innith I’m kinda having the opposite problem I do with Rhoscthel. I don’t get to use her much because she’s a shy, introverted scholar who would really only want to interact with coworkers and patrons of the library in Rivendell; and unfortunately there’s not a lot of those muses around.

this is very much me asking you to throw Pan at her sometimes I think they could be fun together plz

I’m also a bit sad the one ship I had for her has long since sailed away. F/F ships are so hard to come by.

7. Nethel

You would think I have a similar problem with Nethel like I do with Innith but since Nethel is such a drastically different character I actually dont find it hard to find interactions for her lol. People seem to be rather drawn to her even though she’s brutally blunt. I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again, Nethel is a lot like Feanor just minus the genius linguistic part.

Plus while Nethel is cooped up in her workshop most of the time she does need to come out and tend to her biological needs like eating, bathing, sleeping, much to her dismay as she has little patience for small talk.

Aside from that I think most of the muns I toss her at are aware that she’s a deeply insecure person under all that brutal facade, and people generally seem to have a little more patience with a character like that? like idk, just something I noticed.

8. Miston

Honestly without Miston this blog wouldnt exist and I wouldn’t be here to gush about all my characters, so needless to say Miston is incredibly important to me. I feel like he has grown as a character a lot since the beginning of this blog but that he has also remained true to the description I give him in his about section. He is still a character who doesn’t like sharing his feelings and rather deflect them, ignore them entirely or distract you with conversations about literally anything else.

Miston is very near and dear to my heart.

9. Eredhon

Baby. Precious soft child. Eredhon is such a sweetheart and it’s truly thanks to a lot of brainstorming with @legolasgoldy that he has been crawling out of his shell because for quite a while I myself didnt even know all that much about Eredhon.

He is a soft, gentle soul with a lot of deep running emotions and his social anxiety can definitely play cruel tricks on him, but with the right support system he blossoms into a very sweet and devoted friend who will always try to help you through any emotional problems. He’s also a lot more emotionally intelligent than I originally gave him credit for. He’s usually paired with social butterflies (see Malgelir) because he does get those type of characters to kind of.. relent the walls they build around themselves and let him see the emotional struggles they tend to ignore

He’ll also never apologises for feeling his emotions. He’ll apologize for snapping, for raising his voice, for letting his anxiety drive him up a wall and for anything that deserves an apology, but he won’t apologize for feeling sad or anxious or happy or in need of comfort.

10. Calithilon

I’ve been thinking about aging canon Cali up to at least a talkative elfling because honestly because he is so young in canon I haven’t really gotten a chance to use him all that effectively in the main storyline.

Most of Cali’s development comes from modern aus with @hclliish where he’s a teen, dating her Sleipnir (another precious child, just not one of mine lol)Cali takes after his mom in looks and unfortunately for him after his dad in personality, making him a rather shy and quiet person with a lot of insecurities. Being born to two singers makes him a natural singer as well, and his voice is higher in tone than that of his father.

Despite being an anxious teen (because when is puberty ever kind) he does find a lot of comfort in his parents unconditional love for him. They’re a very solid parents-child unit tbh.

11. Lagoron

Another character that I don’t get to use all that much, which is unfortunate because I find Lagoron an incredibly funny and interesting character. He’s a very un-elvish elf, in fact he’s more a hobbit in an elven disguise. While also being a guard, he is an entirely different type than Amathel; where Amathel yearns to be the best and the strongest, Lagoron is a team player who believes in the strength of numbers and strong bonds between guards to drag them through the most difficult situations; and that hasn’t exactly made him the top performer of the class.

He is however truly the kind of person you want on your team, and in a fight he’s surprisingly endurant and likely to exhaust his opponent by focusing on dodging their power attacks rather than wasting his energy in fighting back.

Always has food on him and will offer it to anyone he feels like stricking up a friendly conversation with. 10/10 good friend.

12. Hinnoron

Hinnoron is definitely more of the tradtional elf. He’s radiant, and ethereal, and pleasant to be around. He also has a natural calmness about him and a certain kind of wisdom. Y’know, typical Tolkien Elf TM stuff.

Hinnoron gets interesting when you dive into his deeper relationships. His relationship with his eldest sister is on a very low pit, and the one he has with Methenor has definitely taken some blows. When Gelwenil left to follow the stars, Methenor got rather clingy towards Hinnoron, who felt suffocated in return.

Hinnoron left for Lothlorien, and to this day regrets that he abandoned Methenor when Methenor was clearly struggling with the departure of their parents and their sister. While they have mended their bond since, this kind of guilt does seem to creep into his relationships with Haldir ( @thehiddenhero ) and Oropher ( @oropherrrrr ) He often doesn’t tell them when things about the relationship upset him and bottles his emotions up to an unhealthy degree, all because he fears of upsetting their feelings or even damaging the image they have of him if he’s not the perfect, ethereal and unconditionally supportive partner. For someone who gives love so easily and unconditionally, he seems to have a hard time believing that the love he receives doesn’t come with the condition that he has to be a perfect lover or it’ll be revoked.

Someone plz teach him that he’s allowed to have needs and that he’s allowed to have those needs tended to.

13. Gelwenil

Ah yes. The lost one. Well no, not lost, she knows exactly where she’s going but nobody else does. Gelwenil honestly never meant to upset Methenor or Hinnoron when she left to follow the stars. Like Methenor was definitely struggling when his parents left for Valinor, but in retrospect Gelwenil left several years after that. Maybe not enough for him to have healed and moved on, but I don’t blame her for thinking that with his wife, children and their youngest brother Methenor would have enough of a support net to justify her wanting to explore the skies.

Gelwenil is an avid believer in the power of Varda, and also deeply respects Tilion and Arien. Any type of celestial Maia can be expected to be treated with the deepest respect from her.

Out of all my characters Gelwenil deserves the most TLC tbh I feel like she’s underdeveloped compared to everyone else because I dont use her a lot.

14. Faerveren

Uuuugh I miss Faerveren so much. Mistons second cousin twice removed, and probably the only person to ever leave him flabbergasted and when Miston is the voice of reason in a duo, you know somethings up.

Faerveren is also an interesting character because with her I wanted to present the idea of people assuming you’re always emotionally fine as long as you’re physically strong enough to be virtually invincible.

15. Nengelon

Local edition of the “I’m so fucking done with this shit I don’t get paid enough to deal with” club, together with Feren and Lindir. Nengelon tends to fall into an elven variety of Welsh when he runs upset with the leader of the Sabaid elves, and just about no one knows what he’s saying.

There’s also the implication that he basically ran away from the Riunnag (waterelves, maybe related to the Teleri through distant blood but sources (ie me) dont confirm that yet so its just rumors) tribe he belonged to because of his secret romantic ties to said leader, but Nengelon doesn’t speak of his romantic outings to anyone so it’s just a rumor.

16. Braigon

Ah, big, bulky, burly, 7 foot something Sabaid leader Braigon. Rides a grizzly bear as a warmount, wields a gigantic twohanded battle axe, and is an absolute terror on the battlefield… when he bothers to get his tribe of warrior travelers involved. Braigon tends to stroll around like he owns the place, because not many dare to defy this mountain of an elf.

Maybe thats why people are so bewildered when 5′9 sized Nengelon curses him out on his bullshit in some incomprehensible tongue they don’t know.

Braigon is actually a pretty solid leader of a tribe where elves can pretty much do as they please as long as they do their job as either warrior or provider (finding food and other supplies) outstandingly. The Sabaids aren’t a big tribe, there’s only a couple hundred of them, but they make for fantastic allies… but only if you can manage to convince Braigon to risk any of his people in any given war; and he usually isn’t concerned with fighting the battles of others for them without a good reason.

17. Bereneth

Bereneth is an interesting case. An accident between a Sinda lady and a Noldo refugee, at a time when those relationships weren’t exactly accepted after the reign of destruction left by the line of Finwe. (I like to believe thats something that took a generation or two for elves to get over dont @ me.)

Because of this, Bereneth was relentlessly bullied to the point where as soon as the oppertunity rose, her mother left for then newly settled Rivendell. Being under the rule of Elrond, she figured her daughter would be safe there. Bereneth remained there and bore three children to Carandolon and sailed to Valinor when their daughter in law was pregnant with her first child

18. Carandolon

Chieftain of a squadron while Greenwood was under the rule of Oropher, Carandolon was a bright eyed and wanderlust filled soul, born to two fullblooded Silvan elves. When on a mission to Rivendell, where he had to accompany a diplomat, he saw Bereneth and for him it was love at first sight.

When the mission was over and he returned to Greenwood, he immediately requested to be dismissed from his chieftain status and to be allowed to move and live to Rivendell.

A reckless and bold move, and it did take him a while to woo Bereneth, but they ultimately fell in love, got married, and had three children. He sailed with his wife when their daughter in law was pregnant with her first child

19. Nemiron

The missing link that connects Miston to the line of Finwe. Nemiron is the bastard son of Írimë and an unknown father of Vanyarin descent. Nemiron lost complete vision in his right eye when the healer tent he worked at got raided by the enemy in that war; and he threw himself as a shield between the blade and the wounded soldier it was aiming for.

During the war, he was usually found in the company of either Finrod or Edrahil, as he needed help to adjust to his new lack of depth perception. Sometimes during that same war, he left to settle in Lothlorien, where he met the weaver apprentice Dillothés. They married and moved to Rivendell as a position for an experienced healer was open there, and they had their family there.

Nemiron remained in Rivendell, despite yearning to sail, for the sake of his only daughter, and he ultimately sailed for Valinor when she was pregnant with her third child.

I havent decided if the power of Valinor heals Nemiron’s injury, but if it does (and I doubt it), it would do so only partially. His right eye will never be 100% functional.

20. Dillothés

The third and last born daughter of her parents, Dillothés worked as a weaver’s apprentice in Lothlorien before moving up to becoming a weaver of her own, selling her selfmade fabrics to tailors and others interested and making a comfortable living out of it

She became infatuated with Nemiron, who was often found in the library studying Lothlorien native herbs to aid in his small healer practice. After she learned of his injury she never backed away from him once, and helps and supports him to the best of her ability. This remains the case when they went to Valinor and whether or not he partially heals from his injury

#cuilpantielthesleepyscribe #THERE. I DID IT #-flops-#all my bbys

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chibivesicle · 5 years

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Both Ogata and Koito seems have “brother issues” specifically with Ogata’s being about his little brother and Koito’s being about his older brother. Do you think this is a coincidence? If it isn’t, how do you think this will affect their development in the forthcoming chapters?

Hello Anon,

Thanks for your question.

Since Koito was introduced, I was under the indication that he was to serve as a foil with Ogata. Both men are skilled in their own right but one was raised as an elite while the other was raised in poverty despite being the child of an elite.

Ogata is super pale, Koito is very tan, Ogata is quiet, Koito is loud, Ogata is plain looking while Koito is dapper etc.

Koito is the character who first questions why Ogata deserted despite who his father is. So Koito first serves as the introduction to Ogata’s first flashback.

This conversation shows us that Koito strongly feels that it is in his duty to serve his father. This then leads to the formal introduction of Koito, the son of an admiral in the navy. After his conversation with Tsurumi, this leads into Ogata’s flashback with Hanazawa in chapter 103. I’ve spent a lot of time discussing this in the past so I’ll just leave it with this summary. Ogata was abandoned by his father once he had his legal son, Yuusaku.

Therefore, this gives enough info to conclude why Ogata may not see it to his benefit or gain to do things as a result of his father. It was clear he never met his father until he killed him and part of his reason for killing Yuusaku was for a chance at a “blessed” path. He got nothing he wanted from this. He wanted his father to acknowledge him. All he can conclude is that his father hurt him by abandoning him and he grew up in poverty as a result of this abandonment by Yuusaku’s birth.

Koito then is the exact opposite of him - he had everything he needed to succeed, money, support, swordsmanship training etc. He begins to indicate that he’s not thrilled with the things that his father wants him to do.

And Admiral Koito is really dedicated to making Koito learn how to be a leader so he sends him off to Karafuto for some tough love/learning leadership lessons journey.

Koito Sr. then indicates that Hanazawa was close enough of a friend (or something like that) to send one of his “suicide” letters to him.

The suicide letter makes it clear that whether made up or not, the public knowledge was that Hanazawa was proud of Yuusaku’s honorable death on 203m hill.

For the rest of the Karafuto arc, Koito acts like a spoiled brat - he runs off to drink the wine, gets in fights with Sugimoto, is the “prince” at the circus, has to be protected by Tsukishima, mocks Sugimoto, Tanigaki, Cikapasi in the snow squall while sipping tea like an elite etc. And then he drops this info about Ogata.

By first telling Sugimoto that he’s the son of a “loose” geisha and it was a joke made in reference to him in the 27th. He not only brings this up but the fact that lots of people dislike his personality and he’s one of them - not like he made fun of Ogata but he didn’t disagree with it. This then leads to his idea that there is only one thing to do with Ogata.

We still don’t know the full backstory of these two. But it is clear that Koito more than just dislikes Ogata. He hates him.

So up until chapter 197, I was under the indication that Ogata and Koito are foils for characters who are disliked or ignored by their comrades but one is poor and the other is rich, and one is good at analyzing things and the other is good and fast actions.

Ogata knew who he was when they were rescuing Shiraishi and he got Koito all riled up on the airship to help out Sugimoto and Shiraishi where Koito immediately got super flustered by Ogata making fun of his accent. I thought that this was just Ogata pissing someone off by knowing a weakness …

But then boom - this happens! Ogata has him at gunpoint and he calls him a bon bon in Russian! And Ogata flat out insults him as a rich brat in another language - is this to mock his Satsuma-ben? Or to show he can mock him in more than one language?

And with this, it leads into a - Koito flashback. And now there is a clear link - Koito leads to Ogata’s flashback in 103, and Ogata to Koito’s in 197.

By Ogata calling him a bon bon, he’s showing that he’s not just indifferent to Koito, it looks like the dislike goes both directions. Now, we don’t have enough information to determine if Ogata hates Koito - as far as we can tell Ogata likely hates Tsurumi but the rest of the people he’s dealt with - he doesn’t seem to show a strong feeling of dislike or hatred towards them. As Ogata’s emotions are understated and Koito’s overstated - perhaps Ogata hates him back too.

The flashback then introduces his older brother who has died (unknown circumstances) but his loss is enough that Koito feels like the wrong son died and that he’s got all the material possessions he could want but he isn’t being paid to by his parent(s). It is unclear if his mother is alive or dead - we just know his father is still serving in the military.

So now Ogata and Koito are linked by the fact that they are the “ignored” or “forgotten” son of their fathers.

Finally getting to answer your question - this is no coincidence.

Noda had already set them up to be foils, he’s just added depth to their characters and their opposition yet similarities. We both feel sympathy for them - even though they grew up in different circumstances we now know that both at some point in time did not get the attention they desired from their family. Ogata being a child raised in poverty wanted his father’s love and attention (likely not material wealth though he’d certainly take if if offered I’d guess). Koito a child raised in wealth and likely his parents were either too busy to notice him, grieving the loss of his brother and unable to know what to do with him or were unable to respond to the fact that all of their hopes for the family honor were resting on him vs his brother.

How will their similarities impact their development in the future?

Well this can go all sorts of ways -

1.) They could find out that both of them have the same pain and feelings of not being loved by their fathers. I don’t see this happening anytime soon … . but we can hope. But this could help them not feel as alone - since both of them are clearly hurting. Just like Sugimoto and Ogata make a good team - Koito would work well with someone like Ogata - but I think the ultimate team would be Ogata and Sugimoto as two main characters working with Asirpa.

2.) This never gets resolved and they remain polar opposites - Ogata is north and Koito is south and only the reader sees their bittersweet connection. If Ogata has some Karafuto roots this would make it even more of a stronger distance between the two of them.

Seeing that Ogata has had a much rougher go at things, ya know shooting people for strategic reasons, being manipulated to kill his father and brother, losing an eye to Asirpa… . I don’t see him being very sympathetic towards Koito. If he were to tell him how lonely he was and how much it hurt - Ogata is likely going to be like - Tsurumi didn’t use you to murder your relatives (as far as we know).

Or since Koito will suffer the tiger’s curse maybe he’ll catch up to Ogata in regards to shitty things that have happened to him?

Or Ogata’s life moves in a positive direction and he slowly improves and learns to be accepted and gains a found family while Koito loses it b/c of the curse until he feels totally alone (this would require Tsukishima to abandon him).

3.) Koito eventually joins Ogata and they fight Tsurumi together based on how much he realizes Tsurumi used him? The would have to have quite the information reveal/heart to heart to get to this point. I don’t see how this happens easily - Ogata may not have been fond of Asirpa at first but he worked will with her - Koito doesn’t seem to know what to do with her now that Sugimoto has “gotten her back”.

For either #1 or #3 to happen, Koito is going to have to get over the whole wildcat/scammer thing in regards to Ogata. Until then, Koito will keep judging Ogata and he won’t be able to move forward. Based on Ogata’s bon bon comment in Russian, he’s not changing his opinion on Koito anytime soon either… .

Learning more about Koito’s backstory may help us to figure out if any of these are possibilities.

Noda is only teasing us right now - he knows many people are now going to wonder where this goes with another similarity between their characters - but he needs to come back to Tsukishima and Ogata’s terrible father link too …

#golden kamuy #gk meta #koito otonoshin #ogata hyakunosuke #hanazawakoujiro #hanazawayuusaku #koito heiji

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iztarshi · 6 years

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The Boy Princess

An analysis of Saionji that Saionji himself would hate. Collected into one post at the request of an anon.

Once upon a time all the girls of the world were princesses. But what does that mean?

Princesses are saved by princes. Princesses are cherished, not for any particular qualities they have, but by their nature1. A princess’ suffering is never met with indifference and they’re allowed to want someone else to solve their problems. They’re allowed to be passive and dependent, but not allowed to stop being those things. And they are devoted to their prince.

Once upon a time Saionji had a friend he thought the world of. Touga was stronger, smarter, braver, always ahead of him in some indefineable way, and none of this was a reason to feel anything but glad that Touga had singled him out for attention. Then, one stormy night, he was suddenly faced with the awareness of fear and despair, with things people might need saving from, things that could make a child younger than him want to die. Also, with the awareness that Touga had already known, that he could face these things without fear2.

Saionji’s distress, though, doesn’t matter. Touga declares himself an ally to all girls, but his best friend calling out for him to stop doesn’t affect him. It’s with the logic of a child in the throes of hero worship that Saionji concludes that Touga had something eternal to show and showed it to a strange girl rather than him. He’s not wrong, though, to think that Touga wants to save, specifically, girls.

Before that Saionji trusted Touga enough that Touga being stronger and more driven didn’t matter. If Touga accidentally hurt him he would bandage him too. Touga might keep them out late, but he’d be the one to get them home3.

Afterwards, he loses that trust. Whatever Touga gains by being stronger will not be shared with Saionji. Saionji cannot be weak and still be worth something.

As a boy, if he wants to matter to Touga, he has to be his equal.

Saionji’s career as a duelist is ignominious from start to finish. He’s trying to be a stoic warrior type4, which – since he’s a very emotional person – results in vaccillating between anger and vicious glee.

Being equal to Touga is now necessary to even be safe around him. Saionji isn’t, so he isn’t, and even his scrambling to gain equality has become something for Touga to use against him. The first time we see them alone together Saionji whips a sword at Touga’s face and Touga doesn’t even flinch. No matter how often Saionji takes his frustration with Touga out on others, Touga’s the one person he would never willingly hurt, and Touga knows it.

The person Saionji mostly hurts is Anthy, who he’s convinced himself that he loves. She’s everything he thinks he ought to want, and Touga wants her enough to duel for her which makes her irresistible. He tries to convince himself she loves him, too, but never quite manages to forget she’s only with him because he owns her.

Saionji’s duels are “friendship” and “choice” in opposition to Touga’s duels of “self” and “conviction”. The qualities he’s trying to act on, though, are Touga’s not his own. The result is that he doesn’t successfully show any. He craves emotional connection but is, for good reason, widely disliked. Yet his sense of who he is alone is muddled at best. He stubbornly sticks to the duels but has no plan for how to accomplish things within them and winds up manipulated by anyone who offers him an opportunity – whether it’s dubious letters or Mikage bargaining for Wakaba’s hairclip.

Saionji’s final duel isn’t the conclusion of his character arc, but his lowest point. In an arc where the duels are based around relationships he enters the arena alone and “his” duel is really Utena and Anthy’s5.

Touga talks him into the duel, a role which will later be the bride’s, but leaves him to fight it alone6. As the only one who doesn’t have his sword, Saionji’s heart is quite literally not in the duel.

Saionji enters the last duel as a lone warrior who lets nothing stand in his way, especially such petty considerations as decency or feelings, and is promptly flattened by the developing relationship between Utena and Anthy.

Finally Saionji has failed hard enough for it to stick. He accepts that he’s done. He won’t be Touga’s equal, he won’t win Anthy, he won’t gain eternity. But what will he do?

The woods in a fairy tale are always a liminal place. Even more so woods where an unwanted "child" has been abandoned. So it's fitting that Nanami stumbles across Saionji in a state of transition from duelist to outsider.

In a series where clothing and gender presentation are important, Saionji has decided to do some cooking in a frilly apron7. There's even a lacey table cloth under his hot plate. A lot of anger seems to have been shed with the role of duelist and, even though Nanami hits him, he seems mostly confused and worried about her. He even offers to cook her an egg.

While he keeps the slightly ambiguous presentation for camping out where he doesn't expect to be seen, Saionji does start taking on a role similar to Utena's early one as Touga draws him back into the duels. Utena never cared about the power to revolutionise the world. While it's not entirely that straightforward, she's been fighting for Anthy. As a result she's often been snarky as hell about it, able to see through some of the bullshit but not avoid it completely. A female prince, and therefore anomalous to Ohtori's systems, but still a prince, and therefore part of them.

Touga and Saionji also can't move outside Ohtori's systems. They meet on the student council balcony to discuss Touga's upcoming duel and letters from Ends of the World. Touga provides an ersatz car ride with his motorbike, following the pattern of the other duels deliberately. But, like Utena, Saionji now has enough distance to question the system even as he participates, and he's here solely for Touga's sake.

Like the other brides, Saionji is there to delve into his duelist's feelings and motivations, but he's not doing it to tempt or manipulate8. Touga needs to understand his own motivation if he's going to be effective -- it's the less metaphorical counterpart to pulling his sword. And they manage to leave Akio out of the process.

Touga takes Saionji more seriously in this role than he ever did as a rival. Feelings, especially his own feelings, are not Touga's area of expertise. He needs a bride by the nature of the duels and he needs a friend because he's in over his head. Saionji, for his part, seems content with being needed rather than being equal. In a way it's what he's always wanted.

Saionji drawing Touga's sword is animated with a real tenderness that both echoes Anthy drawing Utena's and contrasts Saionji drawing Anthy's, where his expression was angry and his focus on his opponent. It's fitting, in a way, that the pair that comes closest to what Utena and Anthy have is the other same sex couple9.

Saionji makes a good princess in the same way Utena makes a good prince -- although, unlike her, he'd certainly object if you told him that's what the role was. He's comfortable in it and it brings out mostly good things in him, letting him be insightful and supportive. It's a bad role in itself, though. Saionji doesn't need to fight for power over others, but he shouldn't let himself be completely passive and dependant, or rely on other people's goals to give him purpose.

Later, between Utena's victory over them and her final duel, we see Touga riding a bike across the balcony with Saionji on the back. Saionji seems more content with this than Touga, totally relaxed while Touga struggles to move forward providing motive force for them both. There's not much Saionji can do, though, even if he wanted to. Touga's bike has never been a tandem.

Maybe they should get one.

1I just pictured Dios on tumblr telling all the girls of the world they’re valid.

2Touga’s abuse backstory does a lot to explain his unchildlike reaction here. But even without that, Touga canonically shows less emotion when distressed until he dissociates altogether. He’s almost certainly more affected than Saionji thinks.

3Who drives is very important in Utena, and it’s Touga’s bike. Nanami has a picture of herself perched on the back, too.

4Only Utena and Touga frame themselves as aspiring princes. Saionji’s gender essentialism has a more Japanese flavour.

5Which is why Virtual Star Embryology becomes the new ending theme.

6And then complains about everything he did to be Saionji’s friend while in bed with Akio. Jerk.

7He's still wearing his student council uniform underneath, though, so he hasn't totally moved on yet.

8Although he probably gets some satisfaction out of brutal honesty.

9I wonder if this explains Ruka, since Juri and Shiori would have been another same sex couple either less effective or too early in the sequence.

#utena #revolutionary girl utena #saionji #long post

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pinksweatergettingbetter · 6 years

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// The Rotten Royals - A look at how fucked up the ‘good’ Royal Family of Spirit of Justice really is.

So having finished SOJ and having had a little time to mull it over, I gotta say that I still find a lot of the antics of the supposed “good” royal family pretty fucking fishy.

We’ve got an emotionally insensitive king-consort, a skeevy prince and a woefully useless queen, all of whom are fiercely protected by the writers’ mouthpieces in the game.

The title is a little misleading as only one of the people mentioned actually has any royal duties, but the point here is to point out how the writers accidentally made their supposed ‘complicated heroes’ into straight up assholes.

Each section will be prefaced by a name in case you’d rather just read one section rather than all of them (cause there’s a lot to write)

So, as promised, here’s my little analysis of the Royal Family of Spirit of Justice.

DHURKE

So let’s start off with Dhurke, shall we? Because Dhurke sucks.

Now I’m going to be as fair as I can while still maintaining my grievances. As I��ve mentioned before, I can see where they were going with Dhurke. They wanted him to be the awesome rebel leader who laughs in the face of death and danger, and who roguishly rescues the poor endangered hostages. etc.

And I can accept him as that. I can accept him as a rebel leader. What I can’t accept him as is a reliable, caring or competent father figure.

Since the points are numerous, I’ll put them in bullet form and then expound. Oh look! One bullet per shot in Dhurke’s chest. Nice!

•Dhurke provided no emotional security for either of his sons, sometimes even the exact opposite

Early on, Apollo recounts a particular story that happened in his childhood; when he was small, he and his foster brother Nahyuta were playing by a river when the two of them fell in. Dhurke quickly rushed to their rescue and scooped them out of the water, insisting that any time they need him, they should call, and he’ll come running (a little hard to pull off for a kid with a lung full of water, but i digress). However, he also proceeds to essentially tell his two toddler aged sons to “suck it up; boys don’t cry” about nearly dying. This kind of ‘manly man’ behaviour persists for the length of his character, despite the fact that he lived in a Matriarchal society that most likely wouldn’t have those kind of roles enforced on their boys.

Later on in the case, Apollo nearly drowns again, and while Dhurke saves him a second time, the moment Apollo comes to, Dhurke proceeds to make light of the situation. One could say he was trying to lighten the mood and comfort Apollo, but the fact that he allows Datz to howl with laughter at Apollo’s expense (not to mention Trucy if I remember correctly,) proves that he doesn't see the situation as very upsetting because Apollo survived, despite what Apollo might feel on the subject.

Dhurke also appears to Apollo right the fuck out of nowhere, without a single word of warning, after FIFTEEN years of complete radio silence. Apollo is understandably pissed off, but Dhurke makes no attempt to talk Apollo’s feelings through with him OR apologize– he simply does everything he can to play off this awful behaviour as no big deal, and even asks Apollo for a favour. When Trucy gives Dhurke the benefit of the doubt, not knowing their shared history very well (and having Daddy issues of her own), Dhurke immediately suggests Apollo marry her, apropos of nothing– implying he wants nothing more than Apollo to immediately accept him, rather than confronting the emotional issues he started in the first place.

Apollo isn’t the only victim of this either; when Dhurke interacts with Nahyuta, both his tone of voice and sprites indicate a bewildered sort of patronizing air. He asks why Nahyuta has betrayed his cause, but doesn’t seem to show much actual betrayal or hurt on the subject. The way he treats Nahyuta while talking about his motivations and morality makes it seem like he doesn’t actually care about how Nahyuta feels or thinks– he sees him as more of a piece in his game rather than a beloved member of his family.

This seems even harsher when we take into account the fact that Nahyuta is doing all of this against his own will– so not only does Dhurke seem completely indifferent to him, but he admonishes him like a child when Nahyuta himself is going through an incredibly difficult time.

Dhurke doesn’t even trust his own son, not for a second wondering if perhaps there are extenuating circumstances behind his supposed betrayal, despite knowing what kind of a woman Ga’ran is.

•Dhurke often undermined Apollo’s skills, and kept glaring secrets from him

One of Dhurke’s first orders of business on arrival to America is to give Apollo a plate of sushi and say something to the affect of “wow! you’re doing WAY better than i imagined you would be, son!” which, to someone like Apollo, must sting a lot. Dhurke does say that he believes in Apollo later on, during the trial, but considering the other evidence, it seems disingenuous, and more like he was just trying to pep him up so that he could achieve his desired result.

Continuing a point from the previous bullet, Dhurke pops right the hell out of nowhere to visit Apollo after years of neglect. Sure, he may not have been able to leave the country, but considering the stuff he did manage to do, there was nothing stopping him from secreting letters to his son. Either way, his motivation to finally visit his son was the fact that he’d run out of time to do just that. He was DEAD, and he knew he had to see his son one last time before he went. Seems kinda sweet.... until you remember that he also went to secure Apollo’s services to help him in the final trial against Ga’ran.

And thats what brings us to his ridiculous secret keeping– the fact that he kept his death a secret made a load of the final trial an absolute chore to get through. If he’d simply explained to Apollo that he was already dead, a lot of the contradictions in the trial would have been removed, thus making it easier to come to the truth. He actively sabotaged his son’s chances of winning to keep up a useless charade. Because whether he told him then or after, Apollo would have to live with the fact that Dhurke got himself killed before he ever managed to see Apollo again. Sure, letting Apollo believe he was alive at first might have spared him a large amount of initial angst– but in the long run it was an absolutely idiotic move. It put Apollo in deep emotional turmoil while in the middle of a very sensitive case, and directly decreased his chances at surviving the ordeal.

One could say that Dhurke simply kept the secret so that Apollo would cooperate with him more willingly, thus giving the trial (and therefor the revolution) a better chance at succeeding... but that would simply support my point by showing that Dhurke’s a cold, calculating bastard who used Apollo as an unwitting pawn.

Either way, his decision to keep his death a secret was deeply disrespectful to Apollo’s feelings, and his refusal to grant important information nearly killed his entire family.

•Dhurke often put people in needless danger for absolutely no reason at all and performs insanely boneheaded moves for the supposed head of a revolution.

Let’s start chronologically with a problem that’s been glaring at me from day one.

Upon becoming a fugitive, Dhurke sent Apollo to America to keep him safe from the dangers in his country. This, at first, seems like a kindly move on his part. But it falls apart when you consider the fact that he kept Nahyuta with him, and the consequences it had.

His decision doesn’t work emotionally or practically, because....

-On the practical side, he sent Apollo away to keep him safe, but keeping Nahyuta meant putting Nahyuta through the very danger he wanted to protect Apollo from. Not only did Nahyuta risk imprisonment or death by his association with Dhurke, but he was also canonically ostracized by all members of his society and affectively made a pariah until he became Ga’ran’s right hand man. This makes Dhurke look like he considers Nahyuta his property (being his biological son) rather than a loved member of his family. Sure, sending Nahyuta away to America would leave him childless, but it would assure Nahyuta’s safety, and being with Apollo would mean he wouldn’t be alone. Practically, this would also mean Dhurke wouldn’t have to actively worry about his children’s safety while rescuing Amara and getting the revolution underway.

-On the emotional side, he sent Apollo (his adopted son, therefor not his flesh and blood) away to a place the child knew nothing of, to grow up an orphan abandoned by his birth and adoptive parents. It’s notable that during flashbacks, Nahyuta calls Dhurke ‘father’, while Apollo simply calls him ‘Dhurke’. These two together make Dhurke look like a callous man who didn’t consider Apollo his real son, or a valid member of his society, and simply sent him away to prevent him from becoming a hindrance.

Neither option paints him in a kind light, and it makes you wonder what was going through his head at the time. To be a little more meta on the subject; the decision makes sense to the writers, who have to shoehorn this backstory into Apollo’s established past, but they failed to realize how awful it made Dhurke look as a human being.

Now onto the next point. During the trial, Dhurke keeps numerous important secrets, mouths off at the queen and generally behaves very difficultly the whole time. This would be nothing more than an annoyance during a normal trial... except this is a trial where the DC act is in place. And Dhurke knows that.

Dhurke knows full well that if they lose, Apollo, Phoenix, and his entire rebel group (if captured) will be put to death. Yet he continues to act like a roguish piece of shit the entire time.

This makes Dhurke look almost sociopathic– he cares more about being rebellious than the safety of his own son and numerous other people. Because he’s already dead, his line of reasoning appears to be “well, i’m dead! who cares if they kill me?” which once again means that he’s completely disregarding the other lives he has on the line by putting them in this predicament in the first place.

As mentioned above, not telling Apollo about his death put major obstacles in Apollo’s way to winning the trial, thus putting him in grave danger. If we assume that Dhurke was trying to spare Apollo’s feelings for as long as possible, you just want to shout “Apollo’s life might be a little more important than his emotions right now, Dhurke!”

This leads me to my second... third? Point.

Correct me if I’m wrong, because I’m still totally mystified on this…

Why did Dhurke take Maya back to the hostage situation?

Dhurke rescued Maya from Inga and got himself killed (in the most idiotic and short-sighted way possible– good job o glorious rebel leader) and then asked Maya to channel him so that he could visit Apollo for the last time.

Ok, that seems all very well and good. Except... why would he take Maya back to the hostage situation he rescued her from?!

This was days after he’d saved her life, and even more importantly, he knew that he had done so. It wasn’t like with Dahlia, where she didn’t realize Maya was the one channeling her– Dhurke knew full well why he was still on earth, and who he was cruising around inside (which also makes his actions in the cave a little nasty too– being pretty careless with MAYA’s body, aren’t you, Dhurke?).

Returning Maya to the hostage situation not only put her in danger, but it also allowed Ga’ran to put forth her evil plan in the first place. It’s not clear if Dhurke knew about the plan from the beginning, but if he didn’t, there’s literally NO reason for him to make the “exchange” for a girl who isn’t there. In fact, why did Inga even think he still had a hostage? Dhurke rescued Maya days ago. What the hell was anyone thinking?!

Let’s say this does make sense; let’s say that both sides “collaborated” for different reasons to bring this sham together so that we could have the trial of our final case (Ga’ran wanting to crush the rebels, and Dhurke wanting to crush Ga’ran).

- If Ga’ran knew Maya was already rescued, what reason would she have to assume that Dhurke would return with her, rather than taking her to safety?

-If Dhurke knew about Ga’ran’s plan, why wouldn’t he try to sabotage it and expose Ga’ran right then and there?

The entire ending of the game, including Ga’ran’s plot, seems to hinge on completely backwards actions. I really cannot fathom why Dhurke would bring Maya back to a hostage situation he’d already rescued her from.

Granted, for this point I will say that the plot is so convoluted that I may be missing something that makes sense of it... But considering the quality of the writing, I doubt it.

The final point I will save for Amara’s section, as it concerns her. But rest assured, it is an ENORMOUS plot hole.

NAHYUTA

Nahyuta Sahdmadhi. Sad-mad indeed. Not only is Nahyuta a complete ripoff of Simon Blackquill (who in turn is a ripoff of Miles Edgeworth and Jowd) but he’s an even more unlikeable ripoff of said character.

Right from the beginning, Nahyuta is presented as a smug, holier-than-thou douchebag who uses the excuse of “it’s my religion!” to treat people abominably.

His accusations are shaky at best, and his reasoning seems to be less fuelled by logic and more by malice. During the two turnabouts he faces in America, Nahyuta claims the defendant would kill over incredibly trivial or easily manageable matters, and claims that he's completely right because... karma..? Yeah– his Prosecutor Power isn’t even ever explained, and rarely brought up. We know Simon is a manipulative bastard, but Nahyuta’s “karma” powers are never satisfactorily explained in any way, shape or form.

His odious nature is amazingly difficult to deal with, and the poor attempts of Lol Foreign Guy humour they throw in barely makes up for it. Godot was an asshole, but he was charmingly eccentric and charismatic. Edgeworth was an asshole, but he showed proper logical thought in his deductions. Franziska was an asshole, but she and Edgeworth share the Von Karma excuse, as well as also being quite clever in her rebuttals. Simon was an asshole, but he had a generally good reason to keep up his nasty behaviour.

Nahyuta? Well, he shares the same excuse– he’s trying to protect someone by acting the part of the evil prosecutor. Except... he only really has to do that while he’s under Ga’ran’s eyes, e.g., in Khura’in.

While in America, Nahyuta has NO excuse to act like such an insufferable prick. Not only does he force his religion’s dogma down others’ throats (which would be equally obnoxious if it were any other religion, say, Christianity) but he’s actively malicious for no good reason. As I’ve mentioned before, but must mention again– He directly tries to use Athena’s PTSD against her to make her unfit to act as Defence.

When we get to the reveal, Nahyuta claims he’s being blackmailed with his sister’s safety into submission by Ga’ran. However, this doesn’t explain WHY he has to act like such a terrible person. He could very well have simply acted as a devout, if civil prosecutor, doing what Ga’ran asked of him without any further malice. But let’s say he put on a horrible facade to further placate Ga’ran.

Then why does he keep up the charade while out of her line of sight? If he truly hates his situation, as he says, one would think he’d find foreign trials to be a welcome respite from his terrible, exhausting act of villainy.

But no– he gleefully flings self-righteous abuse at foreign lawyers, while in THEIR COUNTRY, serving under THEIR LAWS. And this, combined with the fact that he only puts up a resistance to Ga’ran when Apollo already has her on the ropes makes him look like a bully who actively enjoys his power, and quickly defects to align himself with whoever is suddenly on the winning side.

AMARA

And at last we come to Amara, who is the least malicious and most mysterious of the three.

Amara is held up by the people of Kura’in as a just, benevolent queen who brought them prosperity and peace. Her death is greatly mourned by her people, and much rejoicing is had when she returns to them.

But is Amara really that great? Well, considering the circumstances, no.

Amara’s excuse for siding with her villainous sister is the same as her sons; she’s scared of what will happen to Rayfa if she disobeys.

Now, while it’s never directly stated, this is supposedly what prevented Amara from simply revealing herself to be still alive, thus dethroning her horrible sister.

But there’s a window of time that doesn’t match up with this excuse– and that’s during her pregnancy.

Here’s the excuse the game gives us:

- Amara claims that she didn't trust Dhurke when he rescued her, which is why she returned to her sister’s service.

This is most likely a lie, because she says so while still under Ga’ran’s power. But if it IS a lie, it makes no sense why she wouldn’t out her sister at the nearest available moment.

If she trusted Dhurke, it would be easy to deduce that Ga’ran was behind the initial arson. After all, the chain of events went thusly:

Amara’s house nearly burns down, but she miraculously survives. Her sister claims that Dhurke caused the blaze, and encourages Amara to fake her own death to ward of any further assassinations, meanwhile giving Ga’ran the crown. Ga’ran keeps Amara under house arrest and has her make it look like Ga’ran can channel spirits. Ga’ran puts a law in place that outlaws defence attorneys, and makes defence of criminals punishable by death.

When Dhurke convinces Amara that he didn’t set the blaze, then the only logical (or at least, deeply suspicious) culprit is Ga’ran.

If neither Amara nor Dhurke realized this, when putting their respective stories together, they’re colossal idiots. If Amara DID realize this, then her inaction is inexplicable. And finally, if Amara really didn’t trust Dhurke... then the writers of Spirit of Justice are implying that Rayfa is a child of rape. Because I highly doubt a woman would willingly consent to sex with a man she believed tried to kill her.

Later on, there’s a second excuse for why Amara didn’t try to challenge her sister.

- Amara was a kind soul who loved her sister, and didn’t want to hurt or mistrust her.

Well this is absolutely ridiculous. If Amara simply didn’t out her sister because she loved her, then she’s an absolute shit queen. This means that she cared more for her sister’s peace of mind than the wellbeing and safety of her own people. She was foolish enough to believe that the woman who framed her husband for murder and usurped her crown would be a fair and just ruler. And letting– LETTING her sister impose the DC act meant that she was indirectly responsible for the oppression and death of many of her people.

Her inaction during her time on the run with Dhurke cost her country hundreds if not thousands of lives, culminating with that of her own son.

One might say that Amara might not have been safe enough from Ga’ran’s forces to reveal herself– yet, she was protected by Dhurke’s rebels, and the royal guards would most likely have still been loyal to her at that point, especially if she revealed that her sister couldn’t channel (which appears to be the only reason they follow her. what a delightful system they have in place)

Even during the time when Rayfa’s reputation (and possibly life?) is at stake, Amara makes no attempt to even try to oppose her sister. She simply sits idly by while her people suffer and die under her sister’s iron-fisted regime. Sure, it would probably be dangerous to attempt, and it would be a tragedy if Rayfa’s life was taken in the process... but compared to the hundreds of other families destroyed by the DC act and Ga’ran’s corruption, it seems like a smaller price to pay. Sometimes leaders have to make difficult decisions for the good of their people –something that is deeply impressed upon poor little Rayfa throughout the game– and Amara fails to rise to the challenge.

So in the end, Amara’s portrayal makes her look naive and childish at best, and callous, apathetic and neglectful at worse. She is, at least, certainly not the excellent queen everyone makes her out to be.

In general, the Sahdmadhis are all kind of assholes. And what’s most depressing is that if the writers had put just a little more effort into writing them (instead of having other characters mindlessly extol their virtues), they wouldn't have been. With a few simple dialogue/story tweaks, Dhurke could have been a complicated, but ultimately sympathetic and loving father. Nahyuta could have been a deeply conflicted but ultimately virtuous person in a desperate situation. Amara could have been an intensely tragic character who tried to protect those she loved, but was ultimately rendered powerless by forces beyond her control.

But strangely enough, it seems that all the failings the writers accidentally heaped onto these three are completely absent, or explored in depth in...

RAYFA

Little Rayfa, only fourteen years old, who has been spoiled and abused all her life, somehow manages to be a better person than all her family combined.

Once Rayfa is exposed to a different way of thinking by Phoenix as early as the third case, she begins thinking critically about her situation and actions. Despite being a child, and being raised to think a certain way and never question it on pain of... well, something horrible, Rayfa not only shows a surprising amount of compassion for her stunted moral growth, but actively defies her “mother” several times. She puts herself in a surprising amount of danger to help two people considered criminals in her country– simply because, despite her conditioning, she sees something wrong with the situation, and wishes to fix it.

Rayfa stands tall where Nahyuta cowers, she reaches out where Dhurke pulls back, and she looks deeper where Amara looks away.

If this were intentional on the part of the writers, it would be a deep and interesting moral. But considering the context, Rayfa is just accidentally far more heroic and sympathetic in comparison with her family.

As I said during my play-by-plays, I don’t loathe Spirit of Justice, and I think the game introduced some interesting concepts and ideas. It simply failed to play them out with any sort of competence. I don’t judge anybody for liking Dhurke, Nahyuta or Amara, but I can’t sit idly by without pointing out the piss-poor writing job the characters had.

You can’t just write a character who makes terrible decisions, and then make them “good” just because everybody else says so. A complicated character needs effort put into their portrayal, and this effort is simply something that the SOJ writing team didn’t bother with.

But that doesn’t necessarily mean the characters are out of luck. We’re role-players– writers! We have the power to fill in the gaps the original authors neglected or forgot. There’s hope for the royal family yet– it’s just not in the hands of Capcom.

#ace attorney #ace attorney spirit of justice #spirit of justice spoilers #spirit of justice #long ass post #an essay of sorts #very very brief mention of rape #sulking over SOJ #i didn't include Datz because he's not a royal and he's not too important of a character #but he's still a nutjob]#this has been in my drafts a long time #lemme just dump it out now

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todokori-kun · 7 years

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(Ugh, sorry for this late reply! OTL I’ve been busy and whenever I sat down to try and write this message it would be bedtime before I’d even gotten halfway through)

If we want him to be happy the best, most plausible and canon-compliant choice is Saiko…yet Ishida’s been ignoring her ever since she told Urie she loves him ;-; #IshidaY

Correction: Ishida (like Shuu and Uta) is a picky eater. He’ll only eat human flesh that’s been steadily stewing in misery for at least a year, and the bitterest, saltiest tears are all he ever drinks.

Ishida’s eating habits being similar to Uta’s makes sense though, since he actually said he gave Uta some of his hobbies lol

Just stop hurting us, please…Ishida needs to redeem himself with Hide’s return as quickly as possible. Either that or something bad needs to happen to Furuta (if Rize somehow breaks free and eats him I’m sure at least half of the fandom would realize that they can, in fact, be satisfied).

Hmm, I was fine with Re up until this arc. Touken feels forced, shippy fluff and Mutsuki drama is getting in the way of the ACTUAL plot (even with all his trolling skills, Ishida cannot convince me that sex scenes and love triangles/squares are more important than how the Q squad is dealing with their trauma from the last battle, what Juuzou, Urie and other investigators are going to do now that they suspect Furuta is lying, how the rest of Goat is doing, what Uta and the Clowns are up to, and Furuta finding a way to, oh, I don’t know, BRING BACK THE FREAKING DEAD). It’s like Ishida has a really interesting plot in there somewhere, but he’s buried it beneath the pointless, badly timed romance.

As for Mutsuki, I used to be a bit 'meh' about them (I used to like them, and then I didn’t mind their backstory/the treatment they got at Torso’s hands simply because I got spoiled and knew it was coming from the very beginning, plus the parellels with Kaneki had me thinking they’d get a similar interesting development) but I’m starting to become more and more indifferent towards them because they just feel really flat now- a basic murder-bot, a copy of characters like Yuno Gasai. Maybe I’d sympathize with them more if their love for Sasaki/Kaneki felt a bit more genuine, but as it is, it seems lacking. It feels like we’re viewing Mutsuki from an outsider’s POV; not much about their actual feelings or thought process about the entire situation, just a bunch of crazy, yandere moments with a few

That AU…make it canon, Ishida. (jk, but seriously). I’m one of those people who won’t complain no matter how much the creators pile on the angst as long as it’s plausible angst (I’m afraid I’m a bit of a masochist when it comes to fandoms…) but I like to think of my favorite characters being happy for once ;-;

0/////0 TYSM ;-; You’re so supportive and sweet and just asdfj;lk (it’s not easy to reduce me to keyboard-smashing but I have a lot of feelings right now) <333 I’m still scared because there are two ways this could go (either I somehow get over my fear and do ok, which would probably be really good for the anxiety, or I just freeze the second I step onto the stage…which would probably make things worse) HOWEVER, for Queen Luna I shall do my best !!!! <33333 :D

But wait a sec…‘King’…

Plot Twist: I am the real One-eyed King

Also

‘Urie & Tumblr(Evans): A short story’

-Urie pretends not know what tumblr is

-Only he totally does

-It’s an addictive hole of darkness

-And Luna spends way too much time on it for his liking

-Ok, so it’s not tumblr he’s worried about, really

-It’s this guy called Evans that Luna keeps talking to

-And no, he did not just assume this person’s gender, he (ACCIDENTALLY) saw one of Luna’s messages to them calling them a ‘king’

-She never calls HIM stuff like that there’s only that stupid nickname ‘Oreo Cookie’

-Jealousy?

-N O

-That’s for the common folk like Sasaki

-Look, he’s just worried about his s/o ok

-Then one day he brings it up

-'The 'King’ thing was an inside joke of sorts’

-'Evans is a heterosexual female’

-R.I.P Urie, who must now admit that he was indeed jealous

(super awkward crack that suddenly popped into my head

And aww, I’m really so glad you enjoy the HCs ^^)

Me + a person with Shuu’s personality would be pretty hilarious if we managed to get along well. Since at first sight, I appear like this really quite and polite person who’s way too nice for their own good (sort of like an even more introverted and awkward version of Kuroneki), but with people I’m really close with I suddenly turn into Haise with all of his cringe-worthy moments- plus a little bit of dry humor and sarcasm.

Haven’t got the chance to listen to all of those yet but what little I’ve heard sounds lovely! The first three and Soldier Game are my favorites, I think :)

Give it a few weeks and I’ll probably be joining you in Idol hell…

Loki’s hair is actually as long/maybe longer than Thor’s in later movies tho XD but I’m glad Thor’s getting some love! A lot of fans just characterize him as this big blonde idiot who has no clue what he’s doing, when in fact he’s grown quite a bit since the first Thor movie, where he was a reckless, hot-blooded, proud and arrogant person who really did have no clue what he was doing…sort of like musical-verse Hamilton minus his book smart nature and power of speech (isn’t that a terrifying thought?). Never knowing when to shut up and back down, which is coincidentally one of the things that damaged his relationship with Loki- who is his opposite in almost everything.

Without spoiling too much, let’s just say:

Thor is the extrovert, Loki is the introvert. Thor relies mostly on his raw physical power to get the job done (though he’s much more diplomatic now than he was in his first movie), Loki’s power lies in his words (he IS the god of lies after all) and his cunning. Thor can sometimes be a bit thick about the emotions of those around him, Loki reads people like open books and manipulates them like puppets on a string. No matter how much Thor grows up he’ll still have a bit of his old hot-tempered, non-stop personality, while Loki usually prefers to wait for it until he’s sure of the situation.

Unfortunately, Asgard (Thor and Loki’s 'home’- though Loki doesn’t consider Asgard his home anymore) values courageous warriors over quiet scholars and sorcerers like Loki. They praise honesty and boldness; Loki’s lies and illusions make them uneasy and they see him as a coward.

Despite being a prince, Loki has spent almost his whole life being identified as simply 'Thor’s brother’. People tolerate him because he’s a prince and Thor’s Brother, 'friends’ hang out with him because he’s Thor’s Brother, few openly show that they dislike him becuase he’s Thor’s Brother. Heck, when he lands on earth during the first Avengers movie, humans immediately identify him as none other than Thor’s Brother. He’s spent his entire life in Thor’s shadow.

It’s a very Burr-Hamilton relationship, and you can’t really blame Loki for wanting to be in the room where it happens.

(Also, the daddy issues.

I mean, look at what Odin and Laufey did

(SPOILERS for first Thor movie)

What Laufey (king of the frost giants) did:

1: Abandoned Loki because he was a 'runt’

2: Didn’t just abandon him; left him outside in the freezing cold in the middle of a freaking battlefield

What Odin did:

1: He rescued Loki when Laufey abandoned him because he felt sorry for the child…and also because he was planning use him as a pawn to someday make peace with the frost giants.

2: was planning to never, ever have a decent, reasonable 'you’re adopted, but you’re just as much my child as Thor is’ conversation with Loki

3: 'Yes, frost giants are terrible, bloodthirsty creatures, they are completely irredeemable’

4: some years later- 'Am I…? 'Yes, you are also a frost giant’

5: it’s heavily implied that he, like most others, always paid more attention to Thor than Loki

6: 'FATHER! I could have done it! For you…!’ 'No, Loki.’ *lets his adoptive son FALL INTO AN ABYSS IN SPACE. Like, he literally just stands there, watching Loki let go and fall to his death (well, not actually death, but that’s what it looks like)*

6: 'Both of you were born to be kings’

Later: 'All this because Loki desires a throne…YOUR BIRTHRIGHT WAS TO DIE! As a child, cast out on a frozen rock. If I had not taken you in, perhaps you would not be here now to hate me.’

I don’t hate Odin as much as the rest of the fandom seems to, and I do think he had reasons for doing what he did, but the fact still stands that he can be a massive hypocrite (tells Loki that he can’t try to take over the earth because they are no different from humans in the end, then tells Thor he shouldn’t date a human woman and calls her a 'goat’) and the things he did to Loki were just cruel.

Also, Thor, though he never wanted to hurt Loki, didn’t help. From what little we got to see in the Thor movies, it seems he also thought Loki was a bit weird for his quiet nature and interest in books and magic, usually refused to listen to anything he had to say, and just took his presence for granted most of the time so that he never realized how much Loki mattered to him until he lost him.)

Ok, so I’m trying to start the fic and I’m narrowing it down to Urie, Ken, and Shuu. I mean, the obvious choice is Urie since it seems like he’s one of your faves, but Heathers is a bit of a…graphic…story and while I’ve thrown in a bit of extra fluff IT WILL NOT BE A HAPPY FIC. So. Maybe you don’t want to see your favorite character hurt that way…

Also, because it’s HEATHERS, the story that’s set in a normal high school with absolutely no sci-fi or fantasy yet manages to be almost as dark as Black Butler, I guess I should put some warnings…

Slight yandere-ish behavior, murder, bullying, very vague mentions of self-harm and suicide (nobody actually does it or did it though), implied child abuse, sort-of-smut(scene cuts off right before anything smutty actually happens), and a ton of angst

(hint: it’s probably angstier than that thing I wrote about Viktor in a TG AU)

Is this ok with you?

Last note: Heathers and DEH both have a lot of dialogue to fill up the spaces between songs so you might want to either read the plots on wikipedia or talk with me every one or two songs so I can help explain what’s going on ^^

No worries ^^ I was a bit worried though, since I though you interpreted my ‘no new fandoms until the weekend!’ as ‘no messages until the weekend’

About the new chapter (127), has there been another time skip? Also, Shuu’s back! I’m sure you’re happy to see your hubby again (･ω<)☆ And I’m so proud of Naki ;-; My boy’s finally speaking properly.

#bringSaikoback #becauseHe’sEvilThat’sY

Wait, she confessed her love? Man, I’ve forgotten a lot of things…

Yeah, that seems about right… What a gourmet.

Mask making, then? or eating eyeballs, that also wouldn’t be so weird.

I want Hide to come back to life and become the next Jesus or something, saving absolutely everyone, because why not? I mean, he’s Hide after all. Rize eating Furuta would be enough to get me to read the manga again (I already am, tho, at least somewhat. It’s your fault)

Maybe Ishida’s trying to redeem himself by giving us all the lovey-dovey stuff? It’s a shitty redemption attempt, but still… and bringing back the dead certainly is an interesting way to advance the plot. hopefully it turns out to be a good one as well. hopefully.

i understand how/why mutsuki would fall for sasaki, but it was done in a very bad time and generally doesn’t fit with anything. id be a lot happier if they went murder crazy, but without the whole sasaki obsession. just let the guy be happy for fucks sake

You’re definitely a masochist. I mean, anyone who reads TGRe is (does that make me one as well…?). The AU is my pride and joy, the best idea I’ve ever had. I mean, just imagine it. Everyone being happy and enjoying life without suffering.

I’m sure you’ll do just fine ^^ I may not have anxiety but I do know the feeling of stage-fright. I mean, just a few weeks ago, I was at the japanese speaking contest and I still remember how badly I was shaking before, during and after my speech. I was so afraid I’d mess up… and I did! I did not understand any of the questions they asked me. Only later did I realise what they were trying to say, but in the moment, I was too scared to comprehend basically anything. However, I got through it, no matter how scared I was. So I’m sure you’ll do just as well, if not better!

All hail King Evans, the One Eyed King! Now go stop the fighting between ghouls and humans, please.

Yeah, Evans is a bit of a boyish name. My first association with it before I met you was Soul Evans, from Soul Eater, a guy. It’s also part of the reason why I was really afraid to write anything that might delude your gender, since lots of people get mad when people assume.

Jealous Urie would be one of the most hilarious things ever. He’s to awkward to admit it, which means he also doesn’t do anything about it. How fun.

But you still haven’t answered my question… Who would you pick to be your significant other from the other fandoms we share, like Kuroshitsuji, AoT or YoI? Or even the Avengers universe ;) You’re not avoiding it!

Honestly, Shuu is one of those people who get along with basically everyone, so I’m sure you’d get along with him. Besides, he’s empathetic, so he’d give everyone a chance to open up.

IDOL HELL! Join us...

Oh really? Well, I was planning on watching the first Avengers movie and the Thor movies today and tomorrow (and maybe during the next week), so I’ll definitely tell you my opinion, then ^^ But Thor has short hair in the new movie. I am definitely not satisfied =3=

The whole family has some huge issues, doesn’t it? (thor’s family)

I say Kaneki, because it’s not a happy fic and out of the three, I like him the least.

Sure, I’m fine with basically everything at this point. TG has ruined me in the darkness of itself (i don’t know what im typing anymore, don’t question me, please)

Okay, I’ll make sure to ask you about anything I don’t understand when I start listening to it ^^

#evans #submission

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