#That whole sword making scene was a choice but I wanted to focus on this | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

stunfiskz · 28 days

Note

Please tell me about the deltarune pokemon au. I wanna know about the teams

apologies this took me a bit to put together, i have had a Night LOL

this started as just a thing i like to do for a lot of fandoms where i make a handful of pokemon teams for characters, but it’s kind of expanded into its own concept in my head now X) i’ve been watching a lot of pchal’s videos lately and so my image for a full project with this au would likely be a romhack but i doubt it’ll ever actually get made lmao

basically, you play as kris still in it. they’re beginning their journey as a pokemon trainer a couple years after their brother asriel left on his own. almost all of their party will depend on what the player catches, but they have a starter honedge (can fully evolve it) that you cannot remove from the party. honedge is a fun choice to me because it doubles as both the knife they have in the light world and their weapon being a sword in the dark world.

susie, ralsei, noelle, and berdly are rivals. the latter two are more of the professors assistant (professor is alphys probably) type rivals, though- berdly in particular would focus on filling up his pokédex and would brag about all the pokemon he’s caught. susie is your traditional asshole rival and ralsei your friendly one. the idea i have for noelle is that she is like… a walking glitch cause, lmao. i always loved watching pokemon glitch compilations when i was little and think its a really fun idea for her. it could start with small things- like, a scene in the school where the curtains turn black when she enters and go back to normal when she leaves, up until she starts getting some REALLY weird shit like the bad egg in her party. unsure what exactly the climax would be for that but i think it’ll be really fun to mess with haha

i think that each chapters main boss would be leaders of their own evil team. i could see it like… king leader of team spade and queen leader of team cyber, maybe? rouxls could be a team spade admin (and maybe lancer i initially didn’t think of that but the idea of there being a like 8 year old as an evil team admin makes me lose it) and swatch & tasque manager as team cyber admins. unfortunately being rouxls brained means i’ve thought quite a bit for him in this au lmao, i think it’d be funny if he was a former member of basically every evil team imaginable but just kept getting kicked out for being incompetent 😭

as for the teams, i currently have

kris with their starter honedge

susie with a final team of hydreigon, hydrapple, druddigon, tyrantrum, scrafty, and toxtricity. all funny lizards, lol. in particular, hydreigon was chosen for a few reasons- one, i’m biased because the deino line is one of my favorites, but also because the progression of deino and zweilous having their eyes covered, the whole ravenously hungry thing, and all that fit susie very well imo. hydrapple was also chosen specifically because of the whole apple thing she has with kris.

ralsei has an umbreon, absol, altaria, cacturne, comfey, and zoroark. i initially wanted to give him a mono dark team but felt altaria and comfey fit him better than my previous picks. umbreon is a cute dark type with a fluffy prevo, absol is a fluffy dark type and i feel that its whole omen of disaster thing fits nicely with ralsei delivering the prophecy, altaria is fluffy + the whole soothing song thing fits well with ralsei’s pacify spell, cacturne looks like his hat lol, comfey is a healer and has the flowers thing like that one fuckass fangamer shirt i think about constantly, and zoroark is fluffy and ralsei himself has his whole mimicry thing going on.

noelle has an alolan ninetales, sawsbuck winter form, venusaur, azumarill, kabutops, and mew. alolan ninetales was chosen because she needs at least one ice type lmao, sawsbuck because Winter Deer, venusaur because a lot of glitch Pokémon will default to using bulbasaur’s sprite due to it being first in the dex, azumarill both because of the transgender marill glitch and the pikablu rumors pre gsc, and kabutops because one of the sprites that missingno can use in gen 1 is a fossil resembling it, and mew because Mew Under The Truck. i really want her team to be mostly themed around glitch/playground runor stuff but i'm a bit worried that these picks aren’t that recognizable/don’t make as much sense for her because of that 😅

rouxls has a leavanny, vivillon (polar), frosmoth, larvesta, dunsparce, and orthworm. leavanny has the Sewing/Caretaker thing as well as being an early bug evo, vivillon polar form in particular looks like him and is an early bug (easy to get), frosmoth is shiny and is a friendship evo meaning it doesn’t take much effort to evolve, larvesta is little worm, dunsparce is worm adjacent and has the whole “useless silly thing” going on as well, and orthworm is big silly worm. i tried to only chose evolutions that wouldn’t require a lot of effort, which is why larvesta and dunsparce are both unevolved. additionally, i didn’t actually realize this til i was sharing the team with gummy and it pointed it out, but he has a couple friendship evos, which is just always fun when evil team members have those lol.

lancer has a gastly, spheal, voltorb, gible, galarian darumaka, and munchlax. silly and round….

the rest i don’t have full teams for yet, but have some sort of idea for

i want king to have a mono dark team, particularly of more imposing pokemon. i currently have him down with a pangoro, obstagoon, and tyranitar. i really want to give him a guzzlord but im unsure how to be able to justify him having an ultra beast in universe haha. maybe the fountains could be like ultra wormholes and each main boss could have one?

queen has an electivire because. wires lol. and also a tsareena because queen pokemon + kick attack + i like it a lot that’s always been one of my favs lol

swatch has a smeargle, staraptor, porygon 2, indeedee, and spritzee (thank you jay for helping me with the last one lol). i still feel like im struggling a bit to find a real direction for their team though :p

i think it would be funny if tasque manager had a team full of luxray but im unsure how much im willing to commit to it lol

in theory i want berdly to be a bird trainer, but he could also fit well with other pokemon like alakazam for his smart boy gimmick. unsure what direction to go for him as well

ah, also! i think it would be very funny if jevil, spamton, and any other secret bosses had their own weird mechanics for fights, but im unsure exactly what. my first thought was jevil’s fight locking you into hardcore nuzlocke rules and spamton trying to steal your pokemon throughout the fight but the first feels a bit too morbid and the second im unsure how that would actually work so XD will probably go for something different there lol. also reminds me, i think it would be fun for the shopkeepers to still be shopkeepers, and each sell different items like tms or held items used for competitive play!

thank you for enabling me to ramble abt this lol

#ask #deltarune #uhhhh i feel like i should give this au its own tag as i probably will try drawing stuff for it at some point. lets go with uhhh #pokerune #is that taken yet. idk

9 notes · View notes

joculine · 2 days

Text

DIE Issue #1 Reread (Gillen & Hans)

What an excellent series that keeps on giving. For those not in the know, DIE is a really incredible fantasy horror comic about a group of teenagers who were sucked into a tabletop roleplaying game and spent two years in the bodies of their characters. They got out eventually, but lost one member of their party—25 years later, they are sucked back in. It's fucking great.

Art

First things first, the extreme shadows and harsh lighting from above in the 1991 sequence add so much atmosphere. The whole thing feels like a dream, or perhaps a stage play. Stephanie Hans always does fantastic things with light in her work, but this is something else. Here, it gives the effect of the world melting away, the focus turns to the players and the game, nothing else. Great introduction.

(Scans don't quite do this scene justice. I've done a bit of Photoshop to try to darken the colors to match my trade, but there is a subtle flow between the colors that is missing from a digital image.)

The colors in the section outside the bar are jaw dropping. Blacks, reds, and blue make such a dynamic scene.

I really like how much it reflects the Neo's costume. What do we take from that? This is, after all, the future for these characters. Rainy, flooding lights and glass, new technology. No more swords, dragons, or taverns, just cars, smartphones, and cities. I think the Neo's role as the "future" will remain relevant as we get deeper.

Ash's Name

Ash (I'm going to be calling the lead character Ash, she/her) notes that the only person outside her family to use her first name is Sol's mother—a fact that seems pretty true in 1991 but no longer in 2018. As we see, her wife, sister, and several other members of the party call her Dominic in this time period, at least before the game starts. Chuck doesn't, though she asks him too. Izzy starts to, then switches to Dominic. She also apologizes for not being "woke" in the 90s, which is very funny to me.

Something interesting—Izzy is also the first one to switch back to Ash after using Dominic. When she is mad, upset that Ash is starting to form another plan, she calls her Dominic. When she seems to show pity towards her over Sol, she calls her Ash. Very interesting. If memory serves, we will see Izzy act in a similar way through the comic, mostly accepting Ash's status as a trans woman, but occasionally alienating her, intentionally or not. At least, I think this comes up a few times, I could be misremembering.

I'll be watching Izzy a lot this reread. I like her and I want to see if I can get more out of her story.

Of course, we don't yet know that Ash is trans, nor do we get explicit textual confirmation that she's a trans woman. But I mean, look at her.

One more thing about her name—the double meaning here is intense:

We find later that the word "party" in use to a group of people is one of the things stopped by Ash's geas. Given that Chuck and Izzy both call her Ash, that name is not prohibited by the spell, but it sure seems like Ash has done a lot to distance herself from it even without magic.

This interaction with a bartender is really the perfect spark to reintroduce the game. The gift he has is not for Dominic or his friends—it's for Ash's party, the people who made their way through the world of Die 25 years ago. That act of naming (unknowing by the bartender's part!) sets them down that path again.

ONCE MORE...

There's a question I do have here—did they have a choice? Obviously, Ash could have tried getting rid of the die. She didn't have to get the band back together either. Did she need to grasp it?

Yes and no, it seems. She's the only one reaching for it, everyone else is thrown back at the force. On the one hand, it we can read this as a heroic attempt to hold back the object of danger. On the other, we can see it as more desperate, a fight against the flow to take back former glory. You can pretty easily read Gollum jumping into Mount Doom here—LOTR will be invited as a metaphor a lot more soon.

This also speaks to the trans experience quite a bit. The feeling of pain, the feeling of impending death, the choice that is not really a choice at all. Her life is hollow, surrounded by depressing reminders, an occupation that doesn't appear fulfilling, a lack of friends, and an inability to move forward.

Transitioning saves lives—it's going to save Ash's. It's a shame she has to go through a whole dark fantasy adventure to get there, but everyone's path is different.

We'll see if anyone else in the party has such a strong longing for the game. Angela probably has things the worst out of the party, but currently Ash's problems are the only ones that don't get immediately worse (better in fact!) by entering the game again.

Final arc spoilers here, but Chloe also pointed out the double meaning of "THE GRANDMASTER THREATENS THE REALM"—Of course, you can read this as Sol causing chaos on Die, but as we learn, the original Grandmaster is just a cover for Die itself. The realm stated here isn't the game, it's Earth.

(Also, note the glitch effects around the d20... there's that Neo future motif again.)

It's All For You

I had honestly forgotten that Ash and Sol shared a birthday. It makes a lot of things click into place. Sol tells Ash that the game was made for her. He says it was made for the party. He does not (or at least not often) say it was made for himself.

I don't think this is entirely true. Did Sol want to create something where Ash could find herself? Where the party could achieve their dreams? Perhaps. But I think the game is as much a gift for Sol as it is for Ash. He certainly seems to be excited to play it.

There's still a lot more that could be dug into this issue, especially surrounding Matt and Angela, but I'll save it for now.

All in all, it's a really fantastic opener for the story. It hooked me on a first read (Almost six years ago now! Wow!) and it still holds up, especially on a reread.

#die comic #die reread

2 notes · View notes

henrike-does-writing-sometimes · 6 months

Note

i got a LOOOOONG list for ya 👀

the fool, the magician, the lovers, strength, justice, death, 7 of cups, ace of swords, 3 of wands, 5 of wands, knight of wands! :’)

REN :D !!!

Thank you for asking, this took ages <3

00. THE FOOL: BEGINNINGS (What is the opening line to your current work?)

Very few of my wips have their opening lines written, and those that do have already been shared. So instead, here’s a bit of an exchange from Garden of Corpses that is currently the “opening lines”.

"Oh, we must be roommates!" the boy gasped. "Hi, I'm Nils!" he smiled widely, and held out his hand for Isak to take. "Um, Isak." he said and carefully took the other boy's hand. Which immediately sent a small shock through both of their arms. "Woah," Nils said as Isak quickly retracted his hand. "Wait, you have an Aether affinity?" "Uh, yeah?" "That's so cool! I've never seen Aether magic in real life before! My affinity is Fire, by the way." "That's… nice."

01. THE MAGICIAN: SPARK OF MAGIC (What inspired you to write your novel?)

Going with Wayward Carnival and uhh…

You know the circus scene in Madagascar 3 where they play ‘Firework’ by Katy Perry ?? That. That is what sparked this whole mess. Because yes, originally it was supposed to be a circus and not a whole carnival.

I honestly have no idea where the rest came from.

06. THE LOVERS: RELATIONSHIPS (What are your favorite relationships to write about, whether romantic, familial, or platonic?)

Honestly relationships that are unclear whether they’re romantic or platonic and bonds that go deeper than labels can describe are my shit. I like the ambiguity of it, I like when love runs so deep that it almost becomes unclear what it is. That “I would both kill and die for you, I love you, we’re partners in crime, you’re my brother, we’re best friends, home is in your arms, I’d marry you for tax benefits, I’ve never felt safer than when I’m with you, you make me insane, you’re the only thing keeping me sane.”.

I’m not fully sure why these are my favorites to write, but they are <3

08. STRENGTH: COURAGE (What has been the hardest part of being a writer?)

I think believing that there is an audience for my stories, and keeping to it. That is basically every writer's concern but like, it’s scary when you don’t really see said audience, if that makes sense lmao

11. JUSTICE: TRUTH (What is the 'truth' of your novel i.e the prevalent themes or overarching motifs?)

Going with The Divine for this one, because I don’t know if I’ve mentioned it before. Light and Darkness are equals, you can’t have one without the other.

While I was figuring out some character arcs details I came up with this “mantra” of sorts;

Find the Light within the Darkness. Accept the Darkness within the Light.

Trying to translate that would take forever but trust me it makes sense.

13. DEATH: ENDINGS (What is your favorite ending to write i.e happy, sad, bittersweet?)

I like my endings happy. My characters go through a lot of bullshit and I can’t just be mean to them, there has to be proper closure and a light at the end of the darkness. That being said the ending always depends on the story and what is both satisfying and in line with the rest.

Gamellunden has a happy ending because it’s a love story that focuses on falling in love with yourself through someone else.

To The End has a seemingly happy ending, until you start to think about it. Because that story is all about questioning reality.

Realm of Mirrors has a sad/bittersweet ending because it’s a tragedy that tells the tale of losing ones innocence and being forced to leave things one otherwise wouldn’t want to leave.

28. SEVEN OF CUPS: OVERWHELMED BY CHOICE (How do you decide which story idea to pursue? How many do you have?)

I fight for my life. There are times when a wip enters ‘main’ territory and I’m able to focus on it for long periods of time, as was the case with To The End. But now she’s gone with the Alpha reader and I don’t know what to work on. So I’m just hunting down motivation and inspiration and writing a little here and there. Which, tbf is how it usually goes if the wips arent in rotation lol.

36. ACE OF SWORDS: NEW PROJECTS (What project/WIP do you want to work on next?)

I don’t have one answer for this lmao.

I’d like to workout the plot more for The Garden of Corpses, and get back into my Swedish wips. I also have some wip art to get to, including just drawing the Divine boys more.

66. THREE OF WANDS: FORESIGHT (Do you know what your book cover is going to look like? Do you have a color in mind?)

Kinda ? I have idea but they’re both hard to explain and get down on paper. Though the general list for To The End is gold, eyes, and loose threads. Those are the important ones that need to be on the cover.

68. FIVE OF WANDS: DISAGREEMENT (Do your characters ever act of their own accord? Or do you find that adage false or silly?)

All the time ! It’s actually quite handy when it comes to figuring out arcs and dynamics. Some examples;

Doto was originally supposed to be more in line with Mike’s personality (passionate, creative, reliable), but when I began writing them they turned into this dramatic, rebellious, snobby diva type. Which honestly works much better considering the Lumens are supposed to complement their Wielder. This also made their dynamic infinitely more interesting than if Doto hadn’t gotten a life of their own.

Asher’s abusive parents was never intended. I knew most of the Martyrs gang would have strained parental relationships, but then Asher showed up in Thea’s apartment crying because his parents were being manipulative assholes and, yeah it added a lot to his character and helped solidify his backstory.

And on the topic of To The End, Thea’s Borderline Personality Disorder. It’s honestly funny because I kinda had to do a whole evaluation of her, because some things just came a bit too naturally for her. This is usually how it goes when it comes to mental disorders with my characters; they show signs and I’ll be like “Hold up-” (See Robin’s schizophrenia and Janan’s autism). And sometimes you have cases like Ruben, where him being autistic worked better with the story than if he was neurotypical so no evaluation was needed.

75. KNIGHT OF WANDS: PASSION (What are you passionate about other than writing?)

Filmmaking ! Drawing ! Photography ! and a bit of design too ! I just love to create, don’t know what else to say <3

#ask game

4 notes · View notes

krisiverse · 3 months

Note

loz. which one had the best gameplay and which one had the best story in your opinion (+ worst of these too if you want?)

i hope you know how difficult of a question this is to answer concisely. not just because i have so much love in my heart for all of these games and it's impossible to pick a favorite but because i can be so petty sometimes. 1 million opinions under the cut

storywise i think wind waker is the strongest. i love the themes of it explores and the rich history of the world (especially now that i'm replaying it with the context of oot), i love the individuality of all the characters, i love how there's a clear throughline of motivation for link through the entire game. skyward sword is also really good, it's more focused on interpersonal connections and it has sort of the opposite approach to history and prophecy and it's neat!

i feel like the clear choice for worst story is triforce heroes which i don't think even other triforce heroes fans will disagree with, it's incredibly shallow by design and wasn't really MEANT to hold up at all. it's supposed to be silly! it's supposed to be not even secondary but tertiary to the cool puzzles and dress-up!

so my true worst story will be tears of the kingdom. it might have been good if the game had been designed around it more, but as-is it's a linear storyline stuffed into an open-world game, all the important story beats are cutscenes you watch that link and the player aren't even involved in, you can spoil the entire storyline for yourself just by viewing a single memory out of order, it's SUPER repetitive with the sages, and you can't use the information you actually learn until the "appropriate" part in the story. everything with the arm also makes me SO MAD, the very first thing i thought of with him waking up to it was how fucked up and traumatic that would be, and then i saw a post that said "yeah they literally grafted a dead hand to me irl without my consent and it was extremely fucked up and traumatic and this scene and all the focus on this arm following it was really triggering". and then they bullshit regrow his whole entire arm at the end. cowards. let link be an amputee, you don't even have an excuse of "but the gameplay" because the game is OVER and you even OUTRIGHT said you aren't going to put this one in more games. the only high point of this story is the light dragon and i love her. but she is not enough sorry

ANYWAY i think a link between worlds is still the absolute best in terms of gameplay. it's just so smooth and quick and snappy, you can get really creative with how you do fights and progression too! totk has similar levels of creativity and freedom which is neat.

for 3d games, skyward sword wii has some of the worst gameplay purely due to the control scheme, the motion control is somehow both oversensitive and imprecise and almost every enemy requires you to react quickly and slash in a specific direction... it adds up to a really bad experience. the switch version helped a lot just thanks to the joycons being more accurate and being able to recalibrate on the fly

twilight princess is honestly a slog to get through imo. it has the "huge, empty overworld" problem that absolutely every 3d zelda game has, but without access to at-will fast travel for the first half of the game until you get the master sword, and there don't even seem to be any shortcuts between areas like in ocarina of time?? or any way to pass the time between day and night? the main things i remember from playing twipri are spending ages running across hyrule field to get somewhere, spending ages waiting just outside kakariko village for it to become daytime so i can go in the shop, spending ages CLOMP CLOMP CLOMPing across the magnetic ceiling in my big metal boots in the goron mines long after the novelty of walking on the ceiling has worn off...

the worst gameplay in the top-down zelda games is unfortunately the gb/gbc games (link's awakening, oracle of seasons, and oracle of ages) having two buttons total for your sword, interacting with things, and ALL items in a lttp-style gameplay where you're constantly rotating between different items... it's not user friendly! which sucks because the dungeons are really good, and LAHD proved what a big difference it makes to have extra buttons to bind to and a little bit of extra polish... OOA and OOS really need the remake treatment. also, i didn't have any particular problems with it when i played, but shoutouts to the mermaid's dungeon in oracle of ages for having the single worst level design i've seen in any video game ever

(shoutouts also to zelda 2, for having such different gameplay from every other game in the franchise that i don't have any idea how to rank it)

#obvious disclaimer that this is my personal opinion based on my own preferences

4 notes · View notes

liminalpsych-in-teyvat · 11 months

Text

It occurred to me I can post the rambling notes at the end of each fanfic chapter here on Tumblr and just link to the post so that I don't overfill the whole AO3 end notes box. And then I can be EVEN MORE RAMBLING if I want to be, without feeling stressed about it! *lets ADHD brain off the leash*

...anyway, um. I contained myself to a sentence or two with chapters 1 and 2, but it started getting out of control with chapter 3.

Notes for A Matter of Duty - Chapter 3: May have overestimated myself

Someday I will end a chapter on a positive note, but today is not that day. Tomorrow isn't looking so good either. It'll get better eventually, I promise a happy (ish?) ending and some comfort for all the hurt, it's just... going to get a lot worse before we get there.

My Google search history is a ride right now. This fic is spurring the strangest research. Have a sampling of the more interesting stuff for this chapter:

Ichigenkin: A video of someone playing the single-string zither that Ayato prefers.

Koto: The most *delightful* video of a koto master teaching a very enthusiastic, nerdy guitar player about the koto and how to play it. Their joy is infectious.

MA - The Japanese concept of space and time: A beautiful reflection on ma.

The history of lube: Genshin has elemental oils and they're too easy to incorporate into porn, but I found this fascinating. The equivalent period in Japan (Edo period / Tokugawa Shogunate) would have used tororo-jiru, a substance made from grated and mashed yams. Or clove oil (...I feel like that would burn? Mixed with camellia oil, it's traditional for lubricating Samurai swords and knives from tarnish and rust, so maybe the camellia oil makes it less, uh. Burning?). Before that, they used carrageenan from seaweed (also in China).

Japanese sex toys as portrayed in ancient Shunga: NSFW Edo-period graphic texts about sex toys in Edo period Japan. It's fascinating. I can't find any evidence of butt plugs in that period of Japan but they had them in Han dynasty China, and I'm sure Fontaine has had something like that for ages, so we're going with it for the sake of convenience.

A Beginner's Guide to Bottoming During Sex: I had an entirely different plan for this chapter, but then I learned it can take up to 3-6 weeks of consistent dilating practice to be comfortably ready to have anal sex. Plenty of people get there much faster, obviously, and Thoma probably won't take that long. But not being able to jump right to anal sex immediately made for better story anyway, and the fact that pushing too fast can injure you opened up story potential such as, well... what happened in the above scene.

At the beginning of the chapter, Ayato is practicing mindfulness meditation, and he's labeling thoughts that he notices before returning his attention to the object of focus (his breath). Specifically, he's practicing Ānāpānasati, because that's the kind of meditation I was trained in and know intimately (thanks, hippie Tibetan Buddhist-founded graduate counseling program), so it's easier for me to write about. Historically speaking, he'd probably be more likely to practice the Japanese Zazen meditation, or maybe a Zen version of anapana, but I'm unfamiliar with how it shows up in Zen; the version I wrote is probably closer to anapana in the Theravadan (common to south and southeast Asia) or Tibetan traditions.

Fanfic summary, warnings, and link beneath the cut before you decide whether or not you want to read it.

A Matter of Duty

"Back then, I had no choice but to accept the position I was in. While I desperately looked around for powerful supporters, I endured smear campaigns and attempts to exploit me. I had no other choice... I didn't mind what became of me, but my family... No one can ever be allowed to trample over my precious family."

How Ayato secured powerful supporters, endured exploitation, and weathered the storm of the years following the death of his parents... and how Thoma helped him contend with a bunch of self-serving, degenerate public officials.

And how, after much stilted fumbling and well-intended sacrifice, they learned the truth of one another's hearts.

Note: Mind the tags. More specific content warnings will be given at the beginning of each chapter, and the story tags will be updated as needed. All characters involved in any sex scenes are adults.

Rating: Explicit. It's porn with plot. Porn as a vehicle for plot, or plot as a vehicle for porn, you can interpret it either way. (I prefer: porn and plot as a vehicle for ~feels~)

Tags that I'm not actually turning into tags here, but it gives you an idea of what you're in for: Kamisato Ayato/Thoma (Genshin Impact), dubious consent but not between Ayato and Thoma, slow burn, sex ed, first time, self-sacrifice, humiliation, exhibitionism, oral sex, anal sex, bdsm, bad bdsm etiquette, rough sex, breath play, impact play, bondage, service kink, abuse, sadism, codependency, shame, guilt, jealousy, possessiveness, trauma, ptsd, dissociation, political sex work, or sex work for political maneuvering, or political survival sex work if that’s a thing, exploitation, blackmail, political machinations, political intrigue, no aftercare, maybe someday some aftercare, hurt/comfort, mostly hurt for a long time but eventually comfort, oblivious disaster gays, for such socially savvy people they are terrible at personal relationships, dominant Ayato, submissive Thoma, top Ayato, bottom Thoma, Ayato is incredibly parentified, Thoma has no sense of self-preservation, self-sacrifice isn't a contest but don't tell Ayato and Thoma that, it's like the snipe-the-check game at restaurants but with sex and politics, Kushiel's Impact, no really this was in my drafts for the longest time as Kusheline Thomato Fic, everyone's an adult in this timeline except Ayaka, she gets protected at all costs, original characters out of necessity, finding appropriate existing Inazuma npcs for some of these roles was impossible, no beta we die like ayato's parents

Full fic: A Matter of Duty on Archive Of Our Own

Chapter 3: May have overestimated myself: Ayato helps Thoma prepare for a meeting with a Kanjou Commission official. It doesn't go well.

Chapter 3 contains: sex education, first time anal play, anal fingering, unspoken D/s dynamics, teasing (verbal and sexual), sensation play, sex toys (butt plugs), oral sex, poor communication, guilt/shame, hints/allusions to past sexual trauma, crossing one's own boundaries / pushing oneself too far to try to please the other person (it's not really self-harm but it's possibly something in the neighborhood), feelings of betrayal and rejection

#a matter of duty #AMOD chapter 3 #genshin impact #genshin fanfic #ayathoma #thomato #kushiel's impact #kamisato ayato #thoma #writing #my writing #ayato #fanfic

2 notes · View notes

dustward · 9 months

Text

This part’s gonna basically be a misc. section for anything that doesn’t fit in the other parts. We’re almost done, trust me. (I’m as surprised as you that I could make so many posts about this game)

Didn’t care for Rauru. Not sure if it’s fully the fault of the VA, but the character felt very dry to me, and so it was unfortunate they were a major focus of the memory cutscenes this time around. Found myself wishing there was more time to tell the story in general. Sonia needed more scenes for me to care about her demise. Definitely felt like scenes were missing for Mineru. Given the similarities to the masked ancestor sages (Rito, Gerudo, and Goron), I was starting to think they weren’t given any focus because they’d turned out to be Riju and co. of the present, sent back in time. ..Was still kinda banking on that even after seeing the Zora ancestor. Nope, they’re just nothing characters, making me wish they reused the champions whose personalities were already established (and in all but Sidon’s case, stood out more than their present day counterparts in BotW1) (Riju’s story arc really elevated her this time around on that note)

Cannot believe they copypasted Zelda’s role from BotW1 with the whole “you get to see her doing stuff, but it’s in the distant(er) past.” It’s so damn apparent fans want more for her, from her, but Nintendo will never allow it for some inconceivable reason. She had a noteworthy showing in the finale, and her major sacrifice was one of the better moments of this game, but the fact they undid her choice at the end without any visible consequences (horns, tatoos, anything) undermines her arc somewhat for me.

One of the best parts of the game came in the form of figuring out what happened to her after only viewing 2 specific cutscenes, ones that did not outright spell it. I tracked down my quarry and was ready to find the Master Sword, and sure enough...very happy it was a stamina requirement this time as well. Shame this insight and knowledge seems to only be held by the player and not Link, even after finding all the memory cutscenes in the wild that point out exactly what happened to her. Being led around the various main quests by Purah and not being able to interject with a “this can’t be Zelda” was pretty damn frustrating.

Also what IS Purah’s deal? I found the book explaining she Aged Herself Up, but I still find that choice very weird. She also had a newfound focus of a role as the leader ordering Link around, and being the only non-sage present in the ending. Was expecting Mineru to pass off her role to her, which would’ve explained everything, but instead she merely comes off as a beneficiary of dev bias.

Hate weapon durability, especially when Elden Ring did away with it. You know, the Souls series was kinda one of the go to examples of that system in recent years, and the fact they got rid of it while BotW2 tries so hard to justify using it confuses me more than anything else. Remapping the world via new Ubisoft towers did not feel right, but they needed a way to shoot Link into the air I guess.

Most sidequests, like shrines, felt like tutorials. The game’s content felt like nothing but ‘em half the time. I was so dumbfounded when the Sensor+ tutorial resulted in finding a Nothing Shrine I had to pause the game. Pretty damn sure that didn’t happen in BotW1.

Needing to rebuy/acquire all the old gear and materials is one of those harder to handwave facets of a direct sequel. No way Link got rid of all of that stuff. I feel like revisiting Zelda/Link’s house in Hateno should’ve netted at least some kind of material-based nest egg.

Found multiple areas/puzzles I could not finish because I did not find the corresponding sidequest for it first (Eventide pirates, a skeleton in a Gerudo desert cave as a couple examples)

Was enjoying 2nd phase Ganondorf till I accidentally tried arrows and nearly oneshot him..

While I didn’t look into what the various armor sets might do, it seemed like the nostalgia rewards, all variations of old Link outfits offered little beyond being cosmetic. In a game that’s already overburdened with armor set clutter. Menu clutter, in every menu..

Lastly: where the fuck is Kass??? Best BotW1 character and one of the few to not make it to the sequel (even if I liked his replacement, Penn, along with going around solving the stable mysteries)

#dustward played botw2 #dusty text #botw2 spoilers #long post

0 notes

nelll101 · 1 year

Text

Sword Art Online (ep.1,2,5,8)

Very interesting show so far, I can see why so many people like it so much. I'm eager to watch it through fully on my own time one day so I can decide for myself if it really is just that good like people say lol.

The plot is immediately engaging, it centers around video games and the effects of it and technology has on people's reality/lives. The focus is on mostly Kirito and Asuna but the show shows how the video games affects the other players of the game as a whole. Kirito was one of the first few to get to play the first shipment of the game and has some experience in it already. We find out that when it officially launched and people started playing it, they cannot log out of the game and are stuck in this new reality until they complete all 100 levels. Also if they die in the game, they die in real life. Kirito so far tries to play this "game of life" solo and wants to get out of the game. He meets Asuna who also wants to get out of the game and she is more goal driven and determined than Kirito about it.

In episode 1, which is some foreshadowing to what will be said in episode 8, Kirito tells the guy he met, "Even though it's a virtual world, I feel more alive in here than I ever did in the real one”. Kirito cannot be alone in feeling like that, and we see here for the very first time which the show introduces to you very early that people find a reality in something that isn't reality at all.

In episode 5, we see that the players have created loopholes to gain more XP. Sleep PK abuses the duel system. You can challenge a sleeping person by manipulating that persons finger to click the OK button, and then attack one-sidedly and kill other players by doing so. This shows the lengths people will go to in desperation. Is it the right thing to do? No. But when put into a world that was created upon all things unethical, what makes the actions and choices you take in that world right or wrong? If this world technically isn't the real world, does it matter? Unfortunately by dying in the game, you die in real life so the mixture of what is real and what is not becomes intertwined into something the players become so immersed in, they can't tell the difference.

In episode 8, it shows that the players have become so consumed by the game. Kirito and Asuna agree that they both feel like they’ve been living in this game their whole life and more and more people don’t seem to care about clearing the game and getting back to the real world. I figured thats what would happen since episode 1. I thought, by all the rules of the game, can't they just choose not to fight and instead build another life in that game as if it were their normal life from the beginning? The players are technically able to live a whole different but “normal” life in this game if they don’t try to complete floors and kill bosses. This opportunity can be seen as a blessing or curse. Are they lazy/too afraid or just want to live a life of comfortability? Its an escape of an escape of reality. People enter VR games and “escape” from their own reality but are technically still in it, but in SAO they escape from their reality from two levels, the video game, and their real life. Kirito in the scene of him laying on the grass and taking in the day can be seen as him accepting the new reality he is living in. He starts to take the environment around him, in, and "appreciate" it. The author in the reading talks about reality and uses the example of whoever fakes an illness can just stay in bed and make everyone believe that they are ill. “Therefore, pretending, or dissimulating, leaves the principle of reality intact: the difference is always clear, it is simply masked, whereas simulation threatens the difference between the "true" and the "false," the "real" and the "imaginary." Is the simulator sick or not, given that he produces "true" symptoms? Objectively one cannot treat him as being either ill or not ill.” The author is saying that pretending and simulating are different. Simulation ends up threatening what is considered real and imaginary. Is the simulator sick or not means is the simulator in a "reality" if it seems like reality (true symptoms)?.

1 note · View note

perpetual-stories · 3 years

Text

Story Structures for your Next WIP

hello, hello. this post will be mostly for my notes. this is something I need in to be reminded of for my business, but it can also be very useful and beneficial for you guys as well.

everything in life has structure and storytelling is no different, so let’s dive right in :)

First off let’s just review what a story structure is :

a story is the backbone of the story, the skeleton if you will. It hold the entire story together.

the structure in which you choose your story will effectively determine how you create drama and depending on the structure you choose it should help you align your story and sequence it with the conflict, climax, and resolution.

1. Freytag's Pyramid

this first story structure i will be talking about was named after 19th century German novelist and playwright.

it is a five point structure that is based off classical Greek tragedies such as Sophocles, Aeschylus and Euripedes.

Freytag's Pyramid structure consists of:

Introduction: the status quo has been established and an inciting incident occurs.

Rise or rising action: the protagonist will search and try to achieve their goal, heightening the stakes,

Climax: the protagonist can no longer go back, the point of no return if you will.

Return or fall: after the climax of the story, tension builds and the story inevitably heads towards...

Catastrophe: the main character has reached their lowest point and their greatest fears have come into fruition.

this structure is used less and less nowadays in modern storytelling mainly due to readers lack of appetite for tragic narratives.

2. The Hero's Journey

the hero's journey is a very well known and popular form of storytelling.

it is very popular in modern stories such as Star Wars, and movies in the MCU.

although the hero's journey was inspired by Joseph Campbell's concept, a Disney executive Christopher Vogler has created a simplified version:

The Ordinary World: The hero's everyday routine and life is established.

The Call of Adventure: the inciting incident.

Refusal of the Call: the hero / protagonist is hesitant or reluctant to take on the challenges.

Meeting the Mentor: the hero meets someone who will help them and prepare them for the dangers ahead.

Crossing the First Threshold: first steps out of the comfort zone are taken.

Tests, Allie, Enemies: new challenges occur, and maybe new friends or enemies.

Approach to the Inmost Cave: hero approaches goal.

The Ordeal: the hero faces their biggest challenge.

Reward (Seizing the Sword): the hero manages to get ahold of what they were after.

The Road Back: they realize that their goal was not the final hurdle, but may have actually caused a bigger problem than before.

Resurrection: a final challenge, testing them on everything they've learned.

Return with the Elixir: after succeeding they return to their old life.

the hero's journey can be applied to any genre of fiction.

3. Three Act Structure:

this structure splits the story into the 'beginning, middle and end' but with in-depth components for each act.

Act 1: Setup:

exposition: the status quo or the ordinary life is established.

inciting incident: an event sets the whole story into motion.

plot point one: the main character decided to take on the challenge head on and she crosses the threshold and the story is now progressing forward.

Act 2: Confrontation:

rising action: the stakes are clearer and the hero has started to become familiar with the new world and begins to encounter enemies, allies and tests.

midpoint: an event that derails the protagonists mission.

plot point two: the hero is tested and fails, and begins to doubt themselves.

Act 3: Resolution:

pre-climax: the hero must chose between acting or failing.

climax: they fights against the antagonist or danger one last time, but will they succeed?

Denouement: loose ends are tied up and the reader discovers the consequences of the climax, and return to ordinary life.

4. Dan Harmon's Story Circle

it surprised me to know the creator of Rick and Morty had their own variation of Campbell's hero's journey.

the benefit of Harmon's approach is that is focuses on the main character's arc.

it makes sense that he has such a successful structure, after all the show has multiple seasons, five or six seasons? i don't know not a fan of the show.

the character is in their comfort zone: also known as the status quo or ordinary life.

they want something: this is a longing and it can be brought forth by an inciting incident.

the character enters and unfamiliar situation: they must take action and do something new to pursue what they want.

adapt to it: of course there are challenges, there is struggle and begin to succeed.

they get what they want: often a false victory.

a heavy price is paid: a realization of what they wanted isn't what they needed.

back to the good old ways: they return to their familiar situation yet with a new truth.

having changed: was it for the better or worse?

i might actually make a operate post going more in depth about dan harmon's story circle.

5. Fichtean Curve:

the fichtean curve places the main character in a series of obstacles in order to achieve their goal.

this structure encourages writers to write a story packed with tension and mini-crises to keep the reader engaged.

The Rising Action

the story must start with an inciting indecent.

then a series of crisis arise.

there are often four crises.

2. The Climax:

3. Falling Action

this type of story telling structure goes very well with flash-back structured story as well as in theatre.

6. Save the Cat Beat Sheet:

this is another variation of a three act structure created by screenwriter Blake Snyder, and is praised widely by champion storytellers.

Structure for Save the Cat is as follows: (the numbers in the brackets are for the number of pages required, assuming you're writing a 110 page screenplay)

Opening Image [1]: The first shot of the film. If you’re starting a novel, this would be an opening paragraph or scene that sucks readers into the world of your story.

Set-up [1-10]. Establishing the ‘ordinary world’ of your protagonist. What does he want? What is he missing out on?

Theme Stated [5]. During the setup, hint at what your story is really about — the truth that your protagonist will discover by the end.

Catalyst [12]. The inciting incident!

Debate [12-25]. The hero refuses the call to adventure. He tries to avoid the conflict before they are forced into action.

Break into Two [25]. The protagonist makes an active choice and the journey begins in earnest.

B Story [30]. A subplot kicks in. Often romantic in nature, the protagonist’s subplot should serve to highlight the theme.

The Promise of the Premise [30-55]. Often called the ‘fun and games’ stage, this is usually a highly entertaining section where the writer delivers the goods. If you promised an exciting detective story, we’d see the detective in action. If you promised a goofy story of people falling in love, let’s go on some charmingly awkward dates.

Midpoint [55]. A plot twist occurs that ups the stakes and makes the hero’s goal harder to achieve — or makes them focus on a new, more important goal.

Bad Guys Close In [55-75]. The tension ratchets up. The hero’s obstacles become greater, his plan falls apart, and he is on the back foot.

All is Lost [75]. The hero hits rock bottom. He loses everything he’s gained so far, and things are looking bleak. The hero is overpowered by the villain; a mentor dies; our lovebirds have an argument and break up.

Dark Night of the Soul [75-85-ish]. Having just lost everything, the hero shambles around the city in a minor-key musical montage before discovering some “new information” that reveals exactly what he needs to do if he wants to take another crack at success. (This new information is often delivered through the B-Story)

Break into Three [85]. Armed with this new information, our protagonist decides to try once more!

Finale [85-110]. The hero confronts the antagonist or whatever the source of the primary conflict is. The truth that eluded him at the start of the story (established in step three and accentuated by the B Story) is now clear, allowing him to resolve their story.

Final Image [110]. A final moment or scene that crystallizes how the character has changed. It’s a reflection, in some way, of the opening image.

(all information regarding the save the cat beat sheet was copy and pasted directly from reedsy!)

7. Seven Point Story Structure:

this structure encourages writers to start with the at the end, with the resolution, and work their way back to the starting point.

this structure is about dramatic changes from beginning to end

The Hook. Draw readers in by explaining the protagonist’s current situation. Their state of being at the beginning of the novel should be in direct contrast to what it will be at the end of the novel.

Plot Point 1. Whether it’s a person, an idea, an inciting incident, or something else — there should be a "Call to Adventure" of sorts that sets the narrative and character development in motion.

Pinch Point 1. Things can’t be all sunshine and roses for your protagonist. Something should go wrong here that applies pressure to the main character, forcing them to step up and solve the problem.

Midpoint. A “Turning Point” wherein the main character changes from a passive force to an active force in the story. Whatever the narrative’s main conflict is, the protagonist decides to start meeting it head-on.

Pinch Point 2. The second pinch point involves another blow to the protagonist — things go even more awry than they did during the first pinch point. This might involve the passing of a mentor, the failure of a plan, the reveal of a traitor, etc.

Plot Point 2. After the calamity of Pinch Point 2, the protagonist learns that they’ve actually had the key to solving the conflict the whole time.

Resolution. The story’s primary conflict is resolved — and the character goes through the final bit of development necessary to transform them from who they were at the start of the novel.

(all information regarding the seven point story structure was copy and pasted directly from reedsy!)

i decided to fit all of them in one post instead of making it a two part post.

i hope you all enjoy this post and feel free to comment or reblog which structure you use the most, or if you have your own you prefer to use! please share with me!

if you find this useful feel free to reblog on instagram and tag me at perpetualstories

Follow my tumblr and instagram for more writing and grammar tips and more!

#writing #writing advice #writing tips #original writing #writers on tumblr #writerscommunity #writersconnection #writersofig #writersofinstagram #writings

13K notes · View notes

kxmikomrade · 2 years

Text

✧˖*°࿐SMAU - Kazuha

╰┈➤Kaedehara Kazuha x Reader Order: Maple Leaf (Kazuha) Genre: Fluff Gn!reader Pronouns: Y/P (your Pronouns) Type: Headcannons Requested! by 💜Anon on Discord Warnings: !Kazuha Story quest/Inazuma Archon Quest Prologue SPOILERS! Request:'cream/maple leaf (2 ones can be ur choice) jasmine tea/mint tea hm maybe this is too basic ;-; i can change it if u want' Waiter's Notes: Your second order is served, Traveler :D Author's Notes: I actually changed it up from angst to fluff to just fluff, cuz I cant do angst as a starting (or I just had no ideas lmao), ANYWAY I haven't seen any SMAU with Kazuha so here u go! :)) no onion chopping today

•His username is either 'Maple_boi' or 'Maple_Kazoo'

•He streams every other day or every 2 days. He also mostly streams poetry reading which is why 99% of his viewers are students who need help.

•He helps them with their poetry homework and assignments and sometimes Math and Science too. He is so patient and understanding with every one of his viewers that he makes a schedule so it blends with their timezones and his.

•Sometimes streams games to help his viewers forget of all their responsibilities and stress.

•Idk why but he gives me the Minecraft architect vibes.

•he's SO GOOD at building in Minecraft that he has a GIANT server filled with all the great builds he's built.

•I BET THAT HE HAS BUILT SMTH LIKE THIS BEFORE

•Talk about mad building skills, I could never

•Then some of his viewers requested him to play Genshin Impact. He's heard of it before and he saw Mondstadt once so he decided to try it out.

•cue to him keeping calm besides seeing the UNGODLY amount of space it takes. 'It will be worth it' he says.

•He joined during Zhongli's rerun

•Remember that one scene when Paimon showed us the pretty view of the statue of the seven from the cliff? Yeah, he's planning on building that in Minecraft 💀.

•Jumped off the cliff to test if there was fall dmg.

•Cue to Aether nearly dying

•When he reached Mondstadt, he KNEW he had to build it. His viewers are already crying in the chat, telling him to just focus on the goddamn game.

•He mains Aether because his chat keeps on pestering him to main him because they look like lost brothers.

•He's also f2p, and forever will be

•istg, he's so calm that he just there with a small smile on his face in every scene- HE BARELY HAS ANY ENTERTAINING REACTION. Like when it was revealed that Venti is barbatos? 🙂 (he already knew that because of the statue). Childe's betrayal? 🙂, revealing that Zhongli is Morax? 🙂, Dain being originally from Khaenri'ah? 🙂, Kaeya being from Khaenri'ah? 🙂, Lumine being the abyss princess? 🙂

•Though he got interested in Inazuma because its based off Japan.

•He's saving for Venti and Ayaka because of the powerful duo they are.

•Until you came in with the sick demo you had.

•LIKE- WHEN U WENT WOOSH AND SWOOSH AND THEN YOU KNEW BEIDOU??? THE PIRATE QUEEN HERSELF??? THEN YOU SPUN YOUR SWORD LIKE IT WAS CHILDE'S PLAY

•He was SHOOK but like a bit wide-eyed. No, his jaw didn't drop just like how everyone else's did when you were introduced.

•But he did drop something, and that's all his plans on getting Venti and Ayaka.

•He was convinced to get your C6 and Signature weapon.

•Pre-farmed all your mats

•When you're banner dropped, his wallet also dropped.

•He WHALED just to get your C6. He got C1 mona, C0 jean, and C3 qiqi before getting your C6. His chat were either wheezing at it or spamming 'come home'

•Nobody talk about his wallet or bank account.

•It was all worth it, man's smitten for you.

•You have such a cool design, and cool gameplay, that he absolutely ADORES you

•When he saw the cutscene of your backstory, he felt bad for you. Having to have lost someone dear to you. He always thought that your friend was like a sibling to you. So seeing your devastated face made him go from, :)) to :((

•So guess what he did

•He decorated his whole teapot PROFESSIONALLY with your aesthetic <33 and put you in a balcony with a beautiful view of it all.

Random Extra Headcanons

•His current party is You (Main Dps), Aether (Sub dps), Jean (Healer) and Zhongli (Shield and Burst)

•He has your merch, Posters, clothes, figurines, plushies, you name it

•HAS A Y/N PLUSHIE AND HE HUGS IT FOR GOOD LUCK

•When he goes for a break, he displays his screen with a live wallpaper of you sitting on a tree and just [favorite hobby]. His viewers dont mind at all

•Speaking of his viewers, they're called 'Maple leaves' dont ask why

•He built Mondstadt

Part 2 with Inazuma act 2-3?

(911 Words)

#kaedehara kazuha #kaedehara kazuha x reader #kazuha x reader #genshin smau

57 notes · View notes

invisibleanonymousmonsters · 3 years

Text

All Men Have Limits - IX

Character: Dick Grayson x Reader x Bruce Wayne

Summary: A certain bat believes that Y/N is in way over her head, that she’s too naive to act in her best interest. So, whether she wants it or not, the vigilante family is going to help and protect her before she gets herself killed.

Word Count: 2,800+

Warning: Violence, Mentions of past domestic abuse

Previously on…

A WEEK LATER...

Of course it had to be raining the night they needed to execute their plan.

Y/N didn’t know if she was shaking because she was freezing or because she was so nervous. Even with all the layers and her knit hat, she couldn’t seem to warm up.

Y/N had been walking around for half an hour. They’d mapped out her route so her face would get picked up by as many street cameras as possible. If The Court was as sinister as rumored, they’d be watching.

“Scratch your nose if you’re doing alright,” Dick said in Y/N’s ear.

The whole family had explained how imperative it was for Y/N not to speak. They had to assume that Y/N was being watched the moment she left the manor. And if her lips moved, the Talons would know something was up.

So Y/N scratched her nose and looked over her shoulder suspiciously, just like they had talked about.

“Remember: you want out at any moment, just press the distress button on your watch,” Dick added for good measure.

Y/N wanted to roll her eyes at his worry and overprotectiveness, and say, ‘I know. I know.’ But she knew better than that.

“Someone’s tracking her,” Jason spoke up in the comms. “Civilian clothing.”

Jason started calling out the identifiers to his family, and in 30 seconds everyone spotted the man that was tailing Y/N.

But this was all part of the plan.

“I still don’t like this,” Dick muttered to his family, making sure he cut Y/N’s connection off so she didn’t hear his nervousness.

“’Course you are. We’re throwing your girlfriend to the wolves,” Jason commented.

“She’s not my girlfriend,” Dick muttered with annoyance.

“Focus,” Bruce chimed in for the first time.

“She’s stuck to the route we gave her,” Tim commented. “All well-lit and crowded with people. They won’t make a scene with this many witnesses.”

The family moved across rooftops, following Y/N’s path from their designated points.

Dick and Bruce both hated this plan, but they were handling it in different ways.

Bruce had become almost mute with focus. He didn’t want a single thing to slip past him. His senses were acute as ever. He was barely communicating with them because he was too busy keeping an eye on Y/N. His eyes hadn’t stopping shooting around, making sure to cover all angles.

“She’s entering the warehouse,” Damian announced.

Everyone shifted their focus and made their moves.

Y/N stopped at the computers she had set up. Or really that Bruce had hired men to set up for her.

She started typing away rapidly, not sure how much time she’d have before deadly ninjas would start dropping on her.

With one final slam of a key, she let out a shallow breath. “Signal’s been sent out. We’re live.”

“Nice!” Tim answered.

Jason started to chime in, but suddenly his voice became crackly and then the line went silent.

“Red Hood?” Y/N asked.

Nothing.

“Anyone read?”

Nothing.

Y/N felt a chill go up her spine.

She whipped around to find three Talons awaiting her attention.

Y/N quickly took a step back and pressed the panic button on her watch. She hoped The Court hadn’t somehow intercepted that signal as well.

“You were lucky with our last encounter,” a Talon stepped forward to speak.

Y/N ignored him and took out both of the guns that had been hiding in her trench coat.

He laughed at the weapons. “Have we not already tried this?”

“At least I’m not a coward hiding behind a mask. Won’t even let me see the faces of the idiots who want to kill me?”

They all ignored her attempt to get them to unmask themselves, but started stepping toward her. “Not want. We will kill you this time.”

But before Y/N could answer or the Talons could get any closer, a smoke bomb was dropped in the space between her and her enemy.

Just as it erupted, Dick dropped down from the bannister above and shoved a gas mask over Y/N’s face.

This wasn’t just any usual gas bomb that Batman and the family used as a distraction. No, this was a special formula designed to burn eyes and cause coughing fits.

One thing was made quite clear, the Talon’s masks were not used to protect them from such attacks. They were meant to hide their identity and nothing else.

Y/N smirked when she heard the sudden coughing and groans of pain. They weren’t muffled by fabric, meaning they had no choice but to remove their masks.

“Stay back,” Dick warned her before lightly pushing her behind a pillar as the smoke bomb started to settle.

Barely giving them a chance, Dick attacked the weakened Talons.

But now the three of them were unmasked. Their eyes were burned red and watery with tears.

And their faces were exposed.

Y/N’s stomach dropped as she saw Dick flip to them and attack.

But she had a job to do and started tapping away on the high-tech watch around her wrist. She was walking backwards, staying away from the fight, just as Dick had instructed.

But then she backed into a body.

“Fuck,” Y/N muttered as she froze and her eyes widened in panic.

She whipped around to find a Talon with his sword drawn.

Then other blurs were dropping down from the banisters, more were joining the fight.

Y/N reached for both of her guns and was ready to start firing – despite that not benefiting her in the slightest bit last time.

But before she could take even one shot, someone dropped in front of her protectively.

Bruce was a like a wall of shadow, blocking Y/N from the enemy.

“Run, Y/N.” He demanded without breaking eye contact with his opponent.

She knew better than to fight him on it. This was what they had agreed upon: Y/N was to be used as bait and do her job, then get the hell out.

“No matter what you hear or see, you run like hell,” Dick had told her. His eyes had been desperate and his grip on her shoulders had been tight. Y/N hadn’t been able to find it in her to do anything but give a slow nod.

Barely a second passed after Bruce’s warning before multiple Talons were on him. But Bruce was a worthy opponent and was able to distract them enough for Y/N to get away.

She ran for the nearest exit.

But the warehouse was now crawling with Talons.

Two more blocked her path, making her screech to a stop and turn around, facing Jason.

“Get down,” he told her calmly as he raised two guns.

She dove to the ground and covered her ears as Jason cleared out his ammo.

Without waiting for further instruct, Y/N jumped back onto her feet and tried to find the least chaotic route out.

Tim was using his bow staff almost like a windmill, taking out multiple Talons at a time with just a simple swing.

Y/N looked across the warehouse to see Damian and Dick fighting alongside each other. Despite Damian’s capabilities, Dick couldn’t help but look out for the boy, and he was never far from his side during a fight.

Damian slashed down opponent after opponent with his Katana sword. Meanwhile, Dick had the boy’s back, using his escrima sticks and countless acrobatic kicks and flips.

They were all holding their own, which further urged Y/N to get out of the way.

‘Run, Y/N. Run!’ Her brain screamed at her.

She spotted her opening and sprinted for it.

With only a few yards to go, Y/N felt a sting in the back of her leg.

No.

It was more than a sting. It was a lightning strike of pain that threw her to the floor.

As she sat up, Y/N looked up to see that a knife had clattered to the floor with blood staining it. Her blood.

Then she looked at the back of her thigh to see that she was bleeding from an open wound. It could’ve been worse. The knife could’ve embedded into her muscle and flesh. But she had gotten away with a graze – but one that brought her to the ground.

It all happened so quickly.

One moment Y/N was looking at the blood dripping from her leg. And the next, there was a Talon standing above her – unmasked – with his sword about to swing down on her.

Y/N winced and shielded herself as best as she could. But there was no saving her from such a blade – and a blade wielded by a Talon of The Court.

Just when Y/N thought she’d feel the sword strike her, a presence flew between them.

Y/N opened her eyes when she heard the sound of metal clashing with metal.

Bruce’s forearms were crossed into an X, with his gauntlets intercepting the Talon’s sword swing.

Y/N crawled back to get out of the way, ignoring the screaming pain from her leg.

All she could do was watch as Bruce now fought the Talon one on one. They wielded two katana swords – one in each hand.

Meanwhile, Bruce was using his gauntlets and therefore could really only be on the defense.

It was clear that he was trying to disarm them and make the fight even.

Eventually, through many complicated maneuvers, Bruce knocked one of the swords out of the Talon’s grip. He picked it up.

Y/N didn’t know why it was so surprising to see Bruce wield a katana. Of course he had been trained in sword fighting. That just wasn’t his chosen weapon. It didn’t stop her from being amazed by his skill with the blade.

But Bruce was getting tired. Y/N could see it.

His movements were still quick, but they had slowed since the beginning of this particular fight.

Y/N managed to clench her teeth and fight through the pain of her leg, slowly bringing herself to a standing position.

But just as she did so, Bruce’s sword was knocked clear out of his hands and the Talon followed it with a kick to Bruce’s abdomen and a punch to his face.

Y/N’s stomach dropped at seeing the infamous Batman get knocked to the ground.

Of all the footage she’d seen, Batman always seemed to have the upper hand. She never doubted that he was going to win a fight – and he was going to do so without killing the enemy, which as always impressive.

“Get up, get up,” Y/N hissed to herself as she watched Bruce struggle to get back on his feet.

“So much time spent protecting her,” the Talon patronized. “Such a waste.”

He landed yet another punch across Bruce’s face. A punch that was harder than anything Y/N had seen before.

And it knocked Bruce out cold.

Y/N felt it – the death in the air.

Time seemed to slow.

She was about to watch Batman get slaughtered right in front of her.

Her eyes raced around her, looking for one of the boys to call for help or anything that could be used as a distraction. But Dick and Damian were suddenly being overpowered. Tim wasn’t even in Y/N’s eyesight. And Jason was failing to shoot every Talon that surrounded him.

Then Y/N saw the katana that had been ripped from Bruce’s grip. It lay just a foot away from her.

Without thinking, Y/N picked it up.

She lunged forward just as the Talon was bringing his sword down to finish Bruce.

With just an inch away from his victim, Y/N’s sword intercepted the final attack.

The Talon gaze whipped to her. And Bruce was oblivious to his life being saved.

Y/N’s eyes widened, realizing she acted without any sort of plan. And now she had the Talon’s full attention and she had no clue how to wield a sword of any kind – or how to physically offend herself to any degree.

“You have been a nuisance long enough,” the Talon growled.

“Oh, but I’m not even done yet,” Y/N smirked wickedly.

He tilted his head to the side, choosing to amuse her instead of strike her down immediately.

“You really think I can hack the oldest and most powerful secret, but not every major news network in the country?” She asked offensively.

But then she smiled and tapped a button on her watch.

The screens in the warehouse flickered to life and their volume was turned all the way up.

Everyone ceased their fighting.

Each screen showed that every network was hacked, their signals interrupted with Y/N’s own broadcast.

It was live footage from inside the top secret base for The Court of Owls. All of its members were unmasked, either being gathered by FBI and Gotham PD or pinned to the floor, getting handcuffed.

“That’s not possible,” the Talon gasped.

Y/N tapped her watch and a tiny drone, almost the size of a bumblebee zoomed in front of his face. Then his face was being broadcasted across the world.

“Say hello to America, Calvin Rose,” Y/N announced as her face-recognition system instantly identified him and his name appeared on her watch.

Then the camera moved to another unmasked Talon in the warehouse. “William Cobb,” Y/N announced, adding his name to the screen when he appeared.

As her footage was live-streaming on all major networks, the names of each member were appearing on the screen as well.

Calvin Rose screamed in frustration.

“Detonate the bomb!” He yelled to his men.

“You mean the bomb you first threatened me with?” Y/N cooed.

He whipped back around to glare at her, not understanding her meaning.

“You really think we wouldn’t be able to find it? After you gave us weeks to track it down?” She teased. “The bomb is in the possession of the FBI, safely neutralized. But not before I helped them reverse trace a signal back to the detonator.”

They knew they lost. But they had not only lost, they had been discovered.

There would be no recovering from such exposure.

And Y/N hadn’t even told them about all the evidence she had stored that tied The Court of Owls to every corrupt act they had performed in the last 20 years.

Sirens suddenly blared in the distance.

All the boys had stopped to look at Y/N, realizing that their plan was coming together.

“You lost,” Y/N declared as she lowered the sword to her side. “And they’re coming for you, too.”

That was finally what set him off.

He growled before stomping to her.

Y/N was surprised by this new attack and quickly stepped backwards, but not nearly fast enough.

In one motion, he grabbed Y/N by the neck with one hand, lifting her off the ground with his sheer strength and rage.

Not a second later, he shoved his sword into her abdomen.

It seemed like the sound of metal cutting flesh and muscle echoed through the entire warehouse.

“No!” Dick screamed shoving his way across the warehouse to get to her.

In the same moment, Y/N was dropped to the ground like a rag doll.

Chaos had erupted around her, a new fight had begun. But she heard none of it.

Her hands warmed from the blood that was leaking from her abdomen.

The pain was something different to her.

She couldn’t even put a number on how many times her father beat her to a pulp. Nothing could ever compare to the pain of being physically hurt by the person who was supposed to love you the most in the world. This was nothing.

Y/N was just happy she’d die doing something good for the world. A final act of sorts.

Just as she was about to succumb to the tired and dark feeling threatening to envelop her, she felt a warm presence next to her.

“Y/N!” Dick yelled when he reached her side. “You’re OK.” His voice started to shake. “You’re gonna be OK. Y/N, I need you to hold on.”

Police and FBI agents flooded the warehouse as Dick pulled Y/N into his arms.

Y/N looked up to see tears had filled his eyes.

“It’s OK, Dick.” She tried to tell him. “I’ll be fine. I’m fine.”

But when she reached up to cup his cheek, she stained his skin with her own blood.

Y/N was starting to lose her grip on life.

She swore she could feel Jason and Damian’s presence move her side, and then hear Tim talking to the cops. But she could also be imagining it. She could be imagining it all. Maybe she had already died and this was just how she had wanted to go, her mind giving her that final wish.

Things went from being so loud and warm to cold and silent.

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

Part 10

I edited this really quick. And for that, I apologize.

#all men have limits 9 #all men have limits #bruce wayne x reader #dick grayson x reader #dick grayson x reader x bruce wayne #bruce wayne x reader x dick grayson #batboys #batfam #batman x reader #nightwing x reader #dick grayson reader insert #bruce wayne reader insert

435 notes · View notes

gay-snom · 3 years

Text

contextualizing lwj’s coming to terms with his feelings subplot!

i wanna talk about the role of confucianism in this subplot because i think it’s something some western fans might not pick up on. basically, the sociopolitical climate of confucianism in his character arc, and a little bit about his interaction with the public image theme.

disclaimer: i’m not chinese but i do have a double minor in chinese and asian studies and have written a few papers on confucianism.

we’re gonna be talking about the novel bc i feel its a little more in-depth and nuanced than lwj’s “what is black, what is white” monologue in cql. namely the tension and misunderstanding in wwx’s first life and how lwj got his scars. i feel like it’s pretty well accepted that wwx made lwj reconsider his world view, so i’m just gonna expand on it. also i want to point out it's pretty unspoken in most of the text, but lwj is also affected by/used to explore the public image themes, as his image the is ideal confucian scholar.

confucianism is centered around the ideas of how to behave “good” in sociopolitical contexts. basically it boils down to a belief system on how society should be run. if everyone follows confucian beliefs, you will have an ideal society. the main text is the Analects, which you can read here. it’s been around for a few thousand years (like around 200 BCE ish), had a huge revival in the tang dynasty (618-907 CE). it was put on imperial exams, the emperor’s cabinet had confucian scholars, etc. this is just to say confucian values are important to historic society, especially upper-class scholars, which seems to be a role cultivators commonly fill in xianxia. here are some basic tenants:

being a gentleman/scholar/superior man (君子 jūn zǐ) : partly being learned in the arts, literature, music, poetry, etc., mostly behaving righteously and dutifully.

filial piety: usually described as obedience. it's not simply obeying everything elders tell you, it includes doing it with reverence and thankfulness for their sacrifices for you.

leading by example: if leaders/the government is righteous, the people will follow. lwj has his flock of juniors that are all strong cultivators and the lan sect is just generally known for being moral and good.

rites/rituals: a focus on politeness and holding proper ceremonies, sacrifices, and funerals

speech: there’s some great meta about the register he speaks in here, i just want to touch on think carefully before you speak, only speak sincerely, etc.

tldr; lwj is THE perfect gentleman (even his title contains the character suffix 君 -jūn, like lxc. which, while this character is not uncommon for cultivator titles, it wasn’t chosen carelessly either. also not to be confused with 尊 -zūn). seriously, look at almost all of book 10 and you'll see don't do/consume in excess, don't talk during meals, sit only when your mat is straight, etc.

okay, so Why is understanding his feelings for wwx so troublesome?

1.2 "They are few who, being filial and fraternal, are fond of offending against their superiors. There have been none, who, not liking to offend against their superiors, have been fond of stirring up confusion... Filial piety and fraternal submission! - are they not the root of all benevolent actions?"

in other words, people who are filial will never create political tension. so like, morally, wwx should be considered horrible person! he’s not only snubbed the jiang sect. he was a head disciple who undoubtedly had younger students looking up to him. and then he goes and stirs up some huge political issues! he is now a bad role model for the people below him and disrespected the people above him. lwj has an entire image to uphold, he has poured his entire life into following these rules and beliefs, and then wwx comes along. would continuing to be in wwx's life taint lwj? there are some contradicting teachings in regards to interacting with wwx:

15.4: "Do not take counsel with those who follow a different Way"

15.28: "When the multitude hates a person, you must examine them and judge for yourself. The same holds true for someone whom the multitude love."

15.36 "When it comes to being Good, defer to no one, not even your teacher."

this is part of the reason lwj had so much trouble accepting his feelings. he didn’t know how to handle this situation, making him appear distant during/directly after sunshot. if he judges wwx's intentions to be pure, it's then not wrong to be friendly with him. but wwx still is morally wrong by society's standards. now, lwj has to not only figure out his feelings, but also reconcile this with how he still thinks wwx is Not a bad person, despite everything. what if he does get "tainted" by wwx? will it hurt the reputation of his sect? that would be un-filial, right? he spent his whole life memorizing rules that are probably extremely similar to sections in the Analects, and now these mixed messages (coupled with the relatable gay panic) are overwhelming.

onto the next! there’s something unspoken in the scene where wwx discovers why lwj has the whip scars. as other posts have mentioned, lwj taking wwx back to the burial mounds and nursing him is high treason. however, this action is also extremely un-filial. also his entire image is built around being a perfect gentleman, if this were to get out to the public he would lose absolutely everything. he would be just as irreparable as wwx.

“I was worried if those from another sect found you first, WangJi would be considered your accomplice. The best scenario was his name being forever tainted, and the worst was his life being taken away right then. Thus, along with Uncle, we chose thirty three seniors who had always thought highly of WangJi... ”

there’s no way lwj didn’t know what would happen if he did this. obviously as lxc says, if this got out, he would lose basically his entire face. and even though lxc didn’t mention this, it would definitely lose a lot of face for the lan sect as well since lwj is so prominent. the decision about what elders to bring is also notable.

“...As if he knew all along he would be discovered by us, he said that there was nothing to explain, that this was it. Growing up, he had never talked back to Uncle, not even once. But for you, not only did WangJi talk back to him, he even met with his sword the cultivators from the Gusu Lan sect...”

so yeah, he obviously knew they would come for him and what the consequences would be. and he still talked back! that’s already not a good look for the lan sect. but attacking them? totally unforgivable! lwj gives up how he was raised and the importance of filial piety, what he has held on to until this major plot event. since it's basically the biggest "fuck you" to his uncle and his clan, this was not a decision he made lightly. lwj shows them he cares more about wwx and His Own ideas of right and wrong than the sect’s or society’s.

Wei WuXian dug his hands into his hair, “...I-I didn’t know... I really...”

when was the last time wwx was at a loss for words? wwx spends a few paragraphs after this lamenting how he hurt lwj, but he's not unaware of the gravity of what lwj did. it's an underlying assumption from being raised in the culture. i would argue his first instinct is "oh god he gave up what for me?" since those lamenting paragraphs are after lxc finishes speaking.

"But he said... that he could not say with certainty whether what you did was right or wrong..."

this is something thrown around a lot in the Analects, that not even confucius can say for sure what is right or wrong. what better way to show lwj is still a perfect confucian than have him paraphrase confucius himself?

“...WangJi was a model for the disciples when he was young, and a prominent cultivator when he grew up. In his whole life he had been honest and righteous and immaculate--you were the only mistake he made!”

here’s the confirmation that the world and even his family thinks of him as a perfect gentleman, the top tier of society, and it was all thrown away for wwx. this is just so heavy. the mistake thing? thats not only because lwj is fraternizing with an enemy. lxc and the rest of the sect who knew are terrified this will forever corrupt lwj personally, not just publicly. lwj was so devoted to believing this was the right thing to do he offered up everything he had. the gravity of this decision is insane. it’s very obvious that he loves wwx, it’s just that he struggles a lot internally to accept everything that is happening.

as for helping wwx leave after the massacre, is this gentleman-ly of lwj? was it actually in-line with his image? is it more honorable to save someone who is dying, at the cost of your own health, than to look away? isn't looking away a form of resentment? i wasn't able to find a specific passage about bystander-ness, but personally i think it qualifies as "bad intentions." there is also this passage for what it's worth, originally it was about government suppression:

12.19: "...What do you say to killing the unprincipled for the good of the principled?" Confucius replied, "...why should you use killing at all?..."

lwj is always more actions than words, and he was not fucking around. his core beliefs really haven't changed, and remain very strong throughout his life. he is still righteous enough to accept his punishment, graceful enough to search for wwx's body since there was no one else to do the funeral rites (10.22/10.15), caring enough to take in a-yuan, upright enough to still spend his years going where the chaos is.

just with this one action, the audience knows he has come to terms with realizing that authority isn't always just, and neither is the public opinion/opinion of other gentlemen. he has reconciled. this is him standing for what he believes is right. this is his devotion. this is his own choice. just. poetic cinema...

anyway that's it for my first meta post! i would love to hear your thoughts, feelings, opinions, discussions, other meta ideas, whatever! thank u for reading! <3

#its My post and i get to pick the subplot #i have...brainworms #wwx and lwj are foils in the public image theme change my mind #mdzs #mdzs meta #lan wangji #mo dao zu shi #stfu #meta

385 notes · View notes

emblemxeno · 3 years

Text

Show vs. Tell in 3H and Why I Think It’s Important

(This rant is a mess, sorry lmao)

And here’s the thing, y’all. I harp on about “Show, don’t Tell” a lot, but truly? The best works utilize both as best they can. It’s called “Show and Tell” after all.

It’s just... video games as a story telling medium have evolved so much, that you can use so many aspects to help build your story that isn’t just text. It’s the same with movies and TV shows and other media with visuals and sounds. The best actors can convey how their character is feeling with facial expressions. Good visuals and set design, with background characters and things happening around the central focus helps things feel more alive. Music choice and ambient sound design helps the audience feel what the writers/directors/producers want them to feel.

I love 3H’s lore (for the most part), it’s history and special dates/events. I love character backstories. I love how each of Fodlan’s countries are described. They have the “Tell” part done amazingly!

But the show is just that lackluster in comparison.

Why is the monastery visually the same every month despite going through all the seasons? Why are things as important as the Church of Seiros doctrine and other historical facts so disconnected that they had to be reduced to library books? Why do characters that are apparently important (like Count Bergliez and Holst) never appear to us? Why are concerning events caused by the war like economic troubles, mass food shortages and religious persecution reduced to NPC one-off quotes (and one quote from Ashe)? Why is stuff like Bernadetta’s tragic backstory accompanied with ‘Haha, funny music’?

It stings even more because the most recent mainline game before 3H was Echoes, a game that did “Show and Tell” beautifully. Sure, the nature of the game itself helped (not every game has deep explorable towns and dungeons after all) but hell, there’s not even any damn villages to save in 3H. Battles in 3H are only fought in important locations, like forts and capital cities, to justify not having any towns or common folk to comment on it all. There are hardly any CGs to signify important events or show off the general public-except in Blue Lions which has like, at least 5 CGs alone iirc? Why couldn’t the rest of the game have more of those too?

It’s all just unfortunate to me, because I hear what the game is telling me and I love it, I just think it can be even better expressed if some of that were shown well too.

And if I had to choose between Show vs Tell, it would be Show, because showing what the world is like and how characters interacting with it is, in my opinion, a better way to tell the story than a 2 minute narration describing it all. Like, an example. One of the early cutscenes of Xenoblade Chronicles, when Fiora and Shulk are eating in the park, the debris alarm sounds and Colony 9 shoots the falling debris with a defense laser. Fiora and Shulk treat it like no big deal.

Just in that scene alone, you get a sense of the world. Shulk tinkered with old parts before yeah, but now we know that stuff falls from above, showing that Colony 9 is on a lower part of Bionis and that mechon parts are still falling from up at Sword Valley. The characters’ reactions show that it happens regularly too. If I saw that and didn’t know what the hell the world was about, I’d be fucking weirded out and confused. But the characters treat it as normal for them, so there’s no confusion on my end too. And the fact that Colony 9 even has a defense laser in the first place tells you “Oh, that must be used for something like anti air threats too, not just the garbage”.

In an FE example, Chrom and his gang in the very beginning deal with the possibility of Robin being a Plegian spy; Freddy Bear is very insistent on treating it seriously. That’s the “Tell” portion for why the Shepherds and Ylisseans as a whole are wary, but the “Show”? Prologue has Plegian bandits burn a town. Chapter 3 and 4 reveals that Plegia wants to cause tension between Ylisse and Ferox. Chapter 5, Maribelle was dragged out of her home in order to incite war by making it look like it was her doing. These things show why the relationship between Ylisse and Plegia is bad! The lore dump from Chrom is strictly for past events and backstory, and gives Robin (and the player, by extension) more context of the conflict as a whole while giving them time to process it. You can Tell first then Show later, and vice versa as well!

3H just... doesn’t do that very well in my eyes.

I will admit, it’s also a bit of bias on my part. That’s just the kind of storytelling I like the most. If I had it my way I would do both “Show and Tell”. If I had to choose between the two, it would be “Show”. So naturally, 3H appeals to me the least in its storytelling method because it doesn’t do both, and it chose “Tell” over “Show”.

Man, ‘show and tell’ don’t even sound like words anymore, I need a break lol.

#fire emblem #fire emblem three houses #fe3h #fire emblem awakening #chrom fire emblem #frederick fire emblem #robin fire emblem #xenoblade chronicles #Shulk Xenoblade #fiora xenoblade #meta #storytelling #fire emblem storytelling #rant #analysis #long post

79 notes · View notes

itsclydebitches · 3 years

Note

Hi! I was just watching good omens and I came up with some questions, but I didn't know whom to ask, so I was digging around for go analysis blogs and found you. *takes a breath* So, I was wondering if you had any thoughts on why Heaven's camera angles are the way they are. I noticed that, in heaven, the camera tends to focus on the characters' heads specifically, so they fill most of the screen. Either it's a meta reason or a reference to something (like Newt with the Office) that I'm not getting. That's the main thing, but I've also wondered why exactly Aziraphale uses the verb "fraternize" in the 19th century. It seemed an odd pivot from caring about Crowley's safety to Heaven's rules. Thanks so much!

Hello! Omg yes, let's talk Good Omens cinematography.

First, the obligatory Analysis Disclaimer: I doubt there's a specific interpretation that you're just not getting, some singular, "correct" reading of the scene(s). Two years past release, I'm positive the fandom as a whole has come up with plenty of ideas (I mostly hang on the periphery. I'm far from up to date with GO meta), but any and all of it will, by nature, be subjective. Thus, all I can offer is my own, personal interpretation.

So for me? It's about intimacy.

Not intimacy in the sense of friendship, but rather the broad idea of closeness. Confidentiality. Emotion. Knowledge. Understanding by means of literally getting into the thick of these conversations. I love the camerawork in Heaven (and elsewhere) because the camera itself acts like a person — an additional party to these interactions. And, since we're the ones watching this show via the camera, it makes it feel as if we're peeking into scenes that are otherwise private. Obviously all cinematography does this to a certain extent, the camera is always watching someone or something without acknowledging that we're doing the watching (outside of documentary-esque filmmaking), but GO uses angles and closeups to mimic another person observing these scenes, someone other than the characters involved.

The easiest example I can give here is when Michael makes their call to Ligur. Here, the camera is positioned up on the next landing of the staircase, as if we're sneaking a look down at this otherwise secret call. There's even a moment when the camera pans to the right to look at them through the gap in the railing, briefly obscuring Michael from our view.

Here, a standard expectation of any scene — keep your character in focus — is done away with to instead mimic the movements of someone actually hiding in the stairwell, listening in on the conversation. It creates that feeling of intimacy, as if we're really there with Michael, not just watching Michael through a screen. The camerawork acts like a person overhearing an illicit conversation prior to falling back on mid/closeup shots. We're spying on them.

To give a non-Heaven example, the camera helps us connect with Aziraphale during Gabriel's jogging scene. It's hard to show through screenshots, but if you re-watch you'll see that the camera initially keeps them both in the frame with full body shots, allowing us to compare things like Gabriel's unadorned gray workout clothes with Aziraphale's more stylish outfit; one's good jogging form and the other's awkward shuffle. However, this distance also creates the sense that we're jogging with them, we're keeping pace.

That is, until Aziraphale begins to lag. Then the camera lags too, giving them both the chance to catch up, so to speak.

Until, finally, Aziraphale has to stop completely and the camera, of course, stops with him. We're emotionally attuned to Aziraphale, not Gabriel, and the camerawork reflects that. Even more-so when we cut to a low shot of Gabriel's annoyed huff at having to stop at all, making him appear larger and more imposing. Because to Aziraphale, he is.

This work carries over into Heaven's other scenes. The closeups are pretty much a given since, whether it's Gabriel realizing Aziraphale has been "fraternizing" with Crowley (more on that below!), or Aziraphale choosing to go back to Earth, the scenes in Heaven are incredibly important to the narrative. Closeups allow the viewer to get a good read on each character's emotional state — focusing on minute facial changes as opposed to overall body language — and that fly-on-the-wall feeling is increased as we literally get an up close and personal look at these pivotal moments.

Compare a shot like this one of Gabriel to the line of angels ready for battle. We don't get closeups on any of their faces because their emotions aren't important. Yes, that's in part because they're background characters, not main characters, but a lack of emotion — their willingness to enter this war without question — is also the point of their presence in this scene. So they remain a semi-identical, nearly faceless mass that runs off into infinity down that hallway, not any individual whose inner life we get a peek at via a closeup.

I particularly like Aziraphale's conversation with the angel... general? Idk what to call this guy. He's just gonna be Mustache Angel. But, getting back on track, his scene has a lot of over the shoulder shots which, admittedly, are pretty common. From a practical perspective they're used to help the audience situate both characters in the scene — you're here, you're there, this is how you're spaced during this conversation — but it can also help emphasize that closeness between them. Keeping both characters in the shot connects them and though Aziraphale and Mustache Angel definitely aren't on the same page here, those shots help cue us in to the unwanted intimacy of this moment. They're both angels... even though Aziraphale no longer aligns himself with them. They're both soldiers in a war... but Aziraphale will not fight. This angel has a list of Aziraphale's secrets, including that he once had a flaming sword and lost it... but Aziraphale doesn't want to admit those circumstances to him. This angel wouldn't understand, even if he did. Intimacy here, connection and closeness, is something discomforting because Aziraphale can no longer embrace those similarities. They put him (and us) out of sorts, so when we get them both in frame, that connection creates tension, not relief.

And many of those over the shoulder shots are given sharp angels, or the camera is placed too close to the "off screen" party. Compare a shot like Luke and Rey to Aziraphale and Mustache Angel. Here, Luke is a clean, solid line on the left side of the screen, just enough there to cue us in to where he is in relationship to Ray, In contrast, Mustache Angel's mustache is Too Close and proves rather distracting. Rey and Luke are connecting here over being Jedi with responsibilities to uphold (or at least, Luke will acknowledge that connection later lol); Mustache Angel is forcing a connection with Aziraphale that makes everyone uncomfortable.

We are too close to him here. He feels too close to Aziraphale too. This whole conversation is upsetting and discomforting, pushing Aziraphale to finally choose which side he's on (his own with Crowley). The shots aren't meant to subtly keep the audience from getting lost and then otherwise be unobtrusive, we're supposed to be Very Aware of this angel's body and how close he's getting to the character we've come to identify with — both literally (he's leaning in) and in terms of forcing Aziraphale to finally make his choice.

When Mustache Angel marches forward and gets all up in Aziraphale's face, the camera positions itself behind Aziraphale in a way that makes it feel like we're hiding behind him, with Aziraphale taking up far more of the screen than Luke does. Like the scene with Michael or running with Gabriel, the camera often likes to mimic a "realistic" response to these events. This angry, shouty angel is getting closer, best take a step back and stay out of sight behind Aziraphale, holding his ground.

These closeups also serve as a nice contrast to the wide and longshots we get of Heaven. It's an imposing place with skyscrapers in the distance, lots of steel, immaculate floors, and endless white. It's overwhelming and it's cold. But then we cut to those mid-shots of Gabriel and Michael, telling us that they're in control of it all.

Aziraphale? Aziraphale is not in control. Not now, anyway. When he appears in Heaven we get a longshot to show off this endless void and he's just another, tiny speck in it. If he weren't flailing around — an acting move that likewise helps sell how out of his depth he is — it's unlikely you'd even notice him. Aziraphale's clothing and hair blends in perfectly with the background. He's forgettable. Easily overlooked. Someone to underestimate. And when he moves, he has to come to the camera. We don't cut to Aziraphale to establish control like we do with Gabriel. He's left to awkwardly shuffle up to Mustache Angel until he's finally come into view.

Yet when Aziraphale makes his decision, he aligns himself with the brightest, most colorful, most interesting thing in the room: Earth. Earth, with all its messy individuality, is the antithesis to Heaven's controlled uniformity and a bright blue orb hanging in the midst of all this white helps remind us of that. Aziraphale rejects becoming one of the identical soldiers and instead literally reaches out for the one thing in Heaven that doesn't fit in.

When he leaves, we get an extreme closeup for the first time. Mustache Angel is pissed and as such we not only get a good look at his face in the aftermath of Aziraphale's choice, but that extreme closeup on his mouth as he's shouting too. It's like he's shouting directly at us, the viewer who is currently cheering on Aziraphale's decision. There's a war, dammit... but we don't care. Not in the way he cares, anyway.

So there's a lot! And I could probably go on, but apparently I'm only allowed to add 10 images per post now (tumblr what the actual fuck if anyone knows a way around this please share!) and I've already had to merge a bunch of images like an animal. So let's awkwardly finish up with the duck pond scene.

...without a GIF because they apparently count as images too 🙃

Simply put, I don't think Aziraphale bringing up fraternizing is a pivot from one to the other — from caring about Crowley to caring about Heaven's rules. I mean yes, Aziraphale is lagging behind Crowley in terms of rebellion and a part of him is, at this point, absolutely concerned with how he'll come across to the higherups, but that worry doesn't stem solely from a (now very shaky) desire to obey for the sake of obeying. The thing is, Aziraphale's disobedience is, by default, also Crowley's disobedience. If they're friends and they're ever found out, they'll both get in trouble. Which, we know from the end of Season One, basically means being wiped from existence. That's horrifying! And it's a horror that threatens them both. I don't think Aziraphale cares about rules for the sake of rules; after all, he started off by giving away his sword, lying to God, is currently meeting with Crowley anyway... this angel has always ignored/bent the rules — established and implied — that don't suit him. Rather, he cares about the rules if he thinks they have a chance of being enforced. If there will be consequences for breaking and bending them. This is still about caring for Crowley (as well as saving his own, angelic skin). If they're found out, Crowley dies. And, as we the viewer learn, Heaven was indeed observing them that whole time. There was always legitimate risk attached to this relationship. Aziraphale's fear, hesitance, and at times forceful pleas to stop this stem as much from Aziraphale worrying about Crowley's safety as they do a learned instinct to obey the rules without question. He pushes to end the relationship because the relationship threatens the only thing Aziraphale cares about more than that: Crowley himself.

As for the term "fraternizing," that's a loaded one! I won't go into a whole history lesson here, but suffice to say it has military roots: to sympathize as brothers with an opponent. That is literally what Crowley and Aziraphale are doing. They are an angel and a demon, supposedly innate enemies, supposedly poised for an inevitable war... yet they've formed an incredibly strong kinship. They've both learned to love their enemy, the thing every army fears because, well, then your army won't fight (just as Aziraphale won't). However, beyond the enemy implications, "to fraternize" eventually took on a sexual meaning: to not merely love as a brother, but to lay with the enemy too, usually women from enemy countries (because, you know, heteronormativity). Nowadays, "to fraternize" often implies a sexual component. I've been rewatching The Good Wife lately and in one subplot, the State's Attorney cracks down on fraternization in his office. He doesn't mean his employees are forming bonds with assumed enemies, he means his employees are having sex on his office couch. So Aziraphale's phrasing here carries a LOT of weight. He's both reminding Crowley of their stations in the world — you are a demon, I am an angel, us meeting like this can have formal, irrevocable consequences for us both — as well as, given the fact that this is a love story, drawing attention to the depth of this relationship. They love one another, as more than just friends. Though whether Crowley's scathing "Fraternizing?" is a response to Aziraphale falling back on the technicalities of their positions, or acknowledging a love he's yet to overtly admit and commit to — or both! — is definitely up for debate.

#Good Omens #Ineffable Husbands #Air Conditioning #mymetas #whew #long post!#with too few images imo #with this done I'm gonna steam #about tumblr's absurd limitations #how's a girl supposed to do meta on this website anyway

86 notes · View notes

riathedreamer · 3 years

Text

Zero is Null

A discussion of Zero’s love-hate-relationship with RvB and struggling independence; including a hotdog too big for the bun, tragic backstories, a single bow-chicka-bow-wow, and a cookie at the very end.

Welcome to what will be a lot of text. Basically, it will explore why Zero fails as an RvB (with emphasis on RvB) season. I will not be the first one to bring forth some of the points, and I promise to be fair and civil and fun. This isn’t supposed to be a piece of hate – in fact, I’m writing this because I love Red vs. Blue.

Okay, first of all, to increase your fun – take a guess on just how much of Zero is spent on fight scenes. You see, I’ve calculated the exact amount, and I will reveal it later, but for now, take a guess and remember the number. Maybe you are the winner!

Alright, time to share my thoughts. Wait! Since I suffer from anxiety and have this one annoying voice pretending to be all those critical statements my opinion could be met with, let’s give it an actual voice and address the points throughout this review.

“Why would I care about your opinion, Ria?” – I don’t know, you’re the one who clicked Read More.

“Your opinion doesn’t matter!” – Of course, it doesn’t! Geez. Do you think your opinion matters, though? Listen, we’re on Tumblr, the actual equivalent of screaming into the void. And it’s fun, too!

“If you don’t like it, don’t watch!” - *activates Uno Reverse Card* “You can’t talk about something you haven’t watched!”

“You’re just a Hater” – Actually, this is a point I’ll come back to. Like a cliffhanger. Also, at the end of this, there’ll be a cookie. But this will also include me talking about the stuff I like, because, surprise, Zero is not without talent!

“You just don’t like it because the Reds and Blues aren’t in it!” – Actually, that’s a good point, so instead, this review will start with a sole focus on Zero and discuss the problem that lies within that story. Then we can address why the lack of OG cast is understandable and problematic and weird.

But first! Backstory.

When the first 5 second teaser dropped back in spring (you know, when we were young and innocent and the world didn’t feel like an apocalyptic movie yet), I held onto that one image of what I thought (hoped) to be Grif and Simmons in the sunset, hopefully addressing Grif’s hateglue arc, but boy was I wrong because a) that’s not Simmons, that’s Sarge, and b) the image was from a PSA since the Reds are not in Zero.

Actual face-reveal of me below:

Admittedly, when I heard that the Reds and Blues were not going to be the main characters (or even show up), it felt like a gut punch. However, I actually found myself getting excited due to the creators’ hype. I want to praise them for this. It’s been a while since an RvB season was talked so much ABOUT before its release; it had advertisements, it had creators and voice-actors talking about it. Please. More of that in the future. Their passion rubbed off on me, and that deserves recognition. So it pains me that this was clearly a passion-project, and then when I gave it a try, I didn’t want to touch it again for weeks.

Here’s the thing. I cannot whole-heartedly say that Zero is bad. It’s not gonna melt your eyes. It’s not even so-bad-it’s-good. For me, it’s meh. It’s a Saturday-morning-cartoon aimed for a younger audience with a rushed plot and clichéd characters. The problem is that it calls itself RvB, and with that title comes something to live up to – but more importantly, something to continue.

My main issue is that Zero forces its story into existence by ignoring established content rather than adjusting to it. Let’s call this for the hotdog-too-big-for-the-bun syndrome solely for the sake of the bow-chicka-bow-wow that’s coming now. Bow-chicka-bow-wow. Many of the separate issues I will dive into all add to this hotdog-issue, so I will scream “Hotdog!” whenever this is the case so we can all keep track of my argument.

You can continue the story of Red vs. Blue without the Reds and Blues. While that would personally crush my heart, it can be done. There’s a story of Red vs. Blue that can be continued. The world can be expanded, the previous actions of the Reds and Blues can be explored from another angle.

So.

How does Zero do this? It doesn’t.

I just want to make it clear that new elements can definitely be added when it comes to worldbuilding. That’s literally the point of sequels. But Zero’s settings are presented with so little grace and with no connection to previously established worldbuilding. We get Alliance of Defense and GLASS thrown in our face as very big important organizations – yet we’ve never heard of them before. A big central plot point of RvB is the UNSC and Project Freelancers, and those were introduced naturally with the plot. We already have big established intergalactic organizations. What is AOD’s connection with those? We aren’t told. We are just told they exist and expected to accept it, no questions asked. If this was a whole new world and story – fine. But when you need to build on an already established worldbuilding, you need more grace than this. Chorus was a whole new setting, but it was explained, and it was connected to the previous plot. Same with Iris. Same with Desert Gulch. In Zero, it feels lazy. It feels forced. These organizations are just there because the story is built around them (HOTDOG).

This vagueness when it comes to wordbuilding is also reflected in the settings - we have a desert, a training base, a lab, temples, Tucker’s workplace, and we do not know if all those are set place on the same planet. If that is the case, what is this planet’s relationship with Chorus? Is it Earth? And most importantly, what is the deal with the temples? Why are they connected to Tucker’s sword if it isn’t the same planet. Are they made by the same aliens? Are people okay with this? Why haven’t these temples been explored before? Chorus makes sure to establish this, while Zero doesn’t, adding to a growing amount of confusion.

Okay, so no connection with previous worldbuilding. What about characters? I mean, we got Wash and Carolina and Tucker! So we have RvB characters, it gotta be RvB! Technically – yeah. But it feels dirty. These three characters are not here to be characters. They are here to be props to the new cast. They are not given any development. Their presence isn’t even that important, and if this was a whole new show, they could easily have been replaced with an unknown face. Worst of all, they feel miswritten.

Carolina and Wash are working at a new military organization? Leaving the Reds and Blues behind? To help people? First of all, fucking bad idea, Carolina, the last time you left the Reds and Blues alone, they changed the timeline. But most importantly – Carolina and Wash just joined this new super elite military organization? After being mistreated and manipulated by such an organization in the past?

Carolina is there to introduce the characters. That’s it. We are force-fed their personality by having her literally read out loud their personality. There is no gentle introduction to the new cast. We are not allowed to get to know them naturally. Why show when you can tell, huh? That’s Carolina’s role. That’s why she is there. To introduce the cast and explain their story. That’s it. (HOTDOG).

How about Wash? He is there to get beat up and be a damsel in distress so that the new cast has a reason to explore the plot. Oh, and that brain damage that was the consequence of previous seasons – gone now. The guy who literally has trauma from having an AI explode inside his head is fine with having a computer inserted into it instead. Because that’s needed. To explore his brain damage wouldn’t work now when his role is to be a prop to lure the new cast for one episode and then be put onto the bench for the rest of the runtime (HOTDOG).

And Tucker – he is there to die for a second and have his sword taken from him. That’s literally it. And for the few moments he is there, he feels like old super flirty Tucker, which erases the character development he went through in previous seasons. Okay, so Tucker dies, and then not dies, and then he is put on the bench with Wash where they can sit and talk or whatever (‘cause holy shit, the new cast is not allowed to that), because he isn’t important. The sword is. Tucker is just a prop, even more than his sword is (HOTDOG).

Damn. Wash gets beat up. Tucker gets beat up. Dies. Gets his sword taken away. Almost seems like a Red’s wet dream. Sorry not sorry, Blues, you were done dirty.

So there are miswritten old characters. Even worse is the retconning. The plot needs a “normal” Wash, so, bam, magic computer solution. Never mind Wash’s trauma and character traits. Never mind the logic of the new worldbuilding which also includes a character suffering for years to heal an illness. But the brain damage that was such a big consequence that it became the main part of the plot of the last two seasons – gone. I mean, a gunshot to the head can be healed by CPR. That’s canon. But no one gave Wash CPR so it’s a big thing, okay. It was canonically a big thing, and Zero erased that. This is not me saying that a Cerebral Enhancer couldn’t work in the RvB universe. Imagine it being done right. Wash struggling with the choice of getting used to his disability or accepting the possibility of help - at the cost of reliving his trauma. The struggle between what to choose - what should he choose when he wants to help as many as possible, the sacrifices he thinks he has to make, the way it could have been used as a part of his character growth. But in Zero, the enhancer isn’t a part of Wash’s character. It’s there so the story can work without having to deal with the previous plot’s consequence (HOTDOG).

Same with the sword thing. They sorta explain it by having Tucker flatline, but it’s weak. Honestly, I find it sorta offensive. What about Locus’ sword as well? It’s twisting previous lore to make the new plot work (HOTDOG). (Also, are we not gonna talk about the ultimate power being Spencer Porkensenson’s helmet? Have the writers forgotten Spencer Porkensenson? Have we as a community forgotten Spencer Porkensenson?)

If you have Red vs. Blue in your title, you cannot ignore what you inherit from it. You need to respect the worldbuilding, the established characters, and the previous plot. Zero does not do this.

Let’s talk about the Triplets. No, really, let’s do it. I don’t think I’ve ever talked about them before, because season 14 was a mixed bag for me (that I have now learned to appreciate. Thank you, Zero.) because I have heart at the size of the Grinch and can only love a few characters at a time, and that did not include the Triplets. Can’t even remember their names. Well, I can, but I can’t for the love of me remember which state is which, and my tongue is twisted every time I try to say Ohio, Iowa, and Idaho, and I know it’s on purpose. I know it is. And it got me good. That being said, the fandom actually embraced them really, really well! Seriously, I’ve seen more content for the Triplets than for Zero as a whole.

Why talk about the Triplets? (Was Iowa the lesbian? Or was it Ohio? Fuck.) Because like Zero, they introduced new characters with a story of their own. The Reds and Blues didn’t play a role. But here’s what I feel like the Triplets got right. They didn’t change the settings to force their narrative. They used stuff already established (Project Freelancer), added their own story as a continuation of that. They even included old characters in the beginning (Wash and some other Freelancers) but it felt natural and it didn’t feel like it happened at the expense of the old characters. Wash’s writing felt natural, and his presence wasn’t needed to tell these new character’s stories. He wasn’t a prop to them. He was there to establish the setting and to establish the relationship with these new characters, and then he and the other familiar faces (helmets??) left, and we as the viewers were left with these new characters. And the new characters told their own story by themselves. It felt like, hey, here’s something you know – remember Mother of Invention, and remember Wash’ lower rank, but now, try to imagine being even lower rank than him, aren’t you curious about those fates? Now let’s hear their story! It was new, it was something else, but it didn’t wreck what came before it, and it stayed true to the classic vibes of RvB.

As I said before, the hotdog-issue is my biggest problem with Zero. It infuriates me. I will return to this. But there are more issues, even if we try to look past the title-related problems.

If we try to imagine Zero as its own story and universe (as it should be, in my opinion), it still earns the meh review from me.

These isolated issues include awkwardness, the writing, lack of self-awareness, and pacing. First of all, holy shit, this is a tell, don’t show. Nothing is subtle, nothing is allowed to develop. It’s like the show thinks you are six years old with an attention span of a goldfish. You are not just led by the hand – they have literally pulled off your arm by the end of the show. We are force-fed every bit of information, every bit of personality from these new characters.

The voice-acting is a mixed bag for me. Sometimes it’s pretty good, sometimes it’s not. Some of the problems can definitely be blamed on the dialogue that you can only do so much with. It’s not good. I can’t remember any good jokes (the one joke I really appreciate was the cast on armor, and that was freaking visual humor. That was so RvB. Kudos to that. It was fun. More of that, please.), and RvB is known for having memorably good lines. This is a show built on good, clever, funny dialogue. Zero does not deliver. You have to sit through clichéd lines – “You’re not my dad”, “I trusted you”, “Come with me”, “It can’t be!”, “She’s way too powerful”, and “We have to do this together” – performed unironically. I cringed more than I laughed. Worst thing is that Zero could be a good parody. Sometimes, it feels like it is. One-dimensional characters, a villain wanting ‘the ultimate power’, very overpowered characters, bad one-liners, etc. But Zero takes itself seriously, and I was one of the people rooting for Jax to show up at the end and yell “Cut”. That would have been a funny-as-fuck twist. A spin-off parody. If I can’t have “Sarge the Movie”, I would have taken that and loved it. I would have forgiven everything. “We put so much info into finding that power, but we had no idea what it was” is really a line in the finale, and I cannot believe this is real in a show that somehow still tries to present itself as serious. What a plot.

We have to talk about pacing. God, first of all it should be stated that RvB is a mess when it comes to pacing. I honestly get what they were going for. Sometimes, RvB has come across as a bit boring when you get three episodes stretched over three weeks without much going on. I know season 11 did not have the warmest welcome because it was seen as boring until the finale. But when you see season 11 as a whole, as a movie, as a part of a trilogy, it works so well. Zero is more focused on being episodic. They want something to happen all the time so we will stay tuned. The thing that will happen – a fight. Oh god. The fight scenes.

I have done the math. I have run the numbers. I deserve a freaking cookie for this. Are you ready?

If you put all the episodes together, you have a runtime of 106 minutes. HOWEVER, with the introduction of credits in every episode, you gotta account for this. Removing the credits, this gives us 94 minutes of actual runtime. Out of that, 45 minutes are dedicated to fight scenes. That means 48% of the show is fight scenes.

If I wanted that many fight scenes, I’d watch Death Battle. Except the actual RvB Death Battle episode has a runtime of 20 minutes, and out of that, 5 minutes is dedicated to the actual battle. For the people who hate math – that’s 25% of the actual runtime.

RvB Zero has more fight scenes than a show called Death Battle. Take that in.

The pace suffers from this. Where’s the time to explore the characters? Where’s the time for good dialogue? All I can think of is this:

I get that RvB is a show that’s literally making fun of itself by acknowledging all their characters do is stand around and talk. I get that you want characters to do more than that. But for the love of Church, would it kill the new characters to stand around and talk? For just a minute? Stop fighting, I am begging you, stop fighting! Am I a pacifist now? Am I purple? Have I joined Doc’s team? What has Zero done to me?!

The good thing though is that fight scenes are very good. They’re entertaining. However, they seem to deconstruct themselves when we need to get a fight scene in every episode. Usually, the few fight scenes in an RvB season were in some of the most climatic episodes. In Zero, I can hardly keep up with the pace because they won’t stop moving. Fight scenes aren’t plot. They aren’t character development. You need more than just fight scenes. They entertain, but there’s a limit to that.

Noël Wiggins, the co-writer, stated the inspiration was a Saturday-morning cartoon. They nailed that vibe. If that was their goal, hurray, they have accomplished something! Because of the poor plot and constant fight scenes, it feels like you could just switch on the TV and drop in at any moment and let yourself be entertained by the cool and colorful soldiers punching and kicking each other. I will admit that the fight scenes entertained me. But they don’t make it a good season.

If I were the six-year-old with the attention span of a goldfish that the show believes I am, I honestly would enjoy it. The stiff dialogue and the constant tell-don’t-show makes you feel like an audience that’s not supposed to do anything else but admire the flashy fight scenes. I miss the cleverness of RvB. I miss the characters I get to connect with as I see them grow.

I miss the tone of RvB. Because this isn’t RvB to me.

It’s not that RvB hasn’t changed its tone before. Holy shit, I sorta do want to experience the absolute shock the RvB fandom went through when s6 aired and they were given new characters and serious plot. I would have loved to experience that, but I was too busy being ten years old. The Freelancers seasons also introduced a new tone and more fight scenes with very talented fighters compared to the Blood Gulch gang, but a balance was kept by having half of the season still revolving around the Reds and Blues. But Zero – Zero is so much change. And it’s on purpose. At least this has been made very clear from the beginning.

They constantly seem to appeal to new fans, rather than be directed towards older fans of the show. If you want an entirely new audience with a season with a new cast, new worldbuilding, and new tone, I’m confused as to why they don’t just make a new show. The hotdog-problem begs for this solution. This story and environment and characters feel so out of touch with the original RvB, that with a few rewrites and lack of Halo-armor, it could just be a new show. Problem solved.

If not this, then present it as a spin-off. In all ways, it feels like a spin-off (again, see everything marked HOTDOG). But the creators refuse to do this, and I don’t understand why. I could forgive many of these issues, had they officially separated themselves from canon.

Ah, what’s the idiom? You can’t both swallow and blow? (You can hear the Bow-chicka-bow-wow in the distance). Something about eating cake and having it. Forgive me, English isn’t my native language. POINT IS why are you calling yourself RvB while actively fighting against the core essence of RvB? In my humble opinion, you can’t be both. Marketing it as a spin-off would have granted it some defense when changing, well, literally everything, and I just, would someone please properly describe why it isn’t a spin-off? Isn’t this season marked by its association with the plot of RvB rather than a continuation of it? Zero presenting itself as not a spinoff feels like a toddler clinging to the hem of its mother’s dress while forcefully running away from her, ripping the dress in the process.

When they do connect with the original RvB, it leaves a bitter taste in my mouth. When they let Carolina, Wash, and Tucker appear for a moment, it feels like luring viewers in with the RvB title. Look at me. Look at me! I’m not saying this is the case. I say that it gives me the annoying vibes of being lured, rather than letting the characters be a part of the show for their own development, rather than having RvB in the title to continue its story. I should not be getting these vibes at all. But I am.

If you want to use RvB in the title, something from the core of RvB needs to be embraced. Things can be changed. They should. Something new should be brought in. But there’s a limit to how much you can change and replace and twist until it would have been better with an original show. As a season of RvB, it should tell the story of Red vs. Blue.

From my perspective, Zero fails to do so.

It pains me that the old cast has been replaced, but as stated earlier, a season could have worked without them. However, I do not like the take that one should be excited about all the new characters. That it isn’t a big thing that the OG cast got replaced. That we should just deal with it. Just, try to imagine another show suddenly replacing the main characters with characters we’ve never met before. Imagine RWBY suddenly only focusing on a new team of huntresses with the previous main characters reduced to an Easter Egg presence, or Camp Camp suddenly being about a new team of campers, no warning given. Can you imagine the outcry? So maybe let’s agree that a replacement of the main cast is a big thing and should be addressed and it’s valid to be upset about this change.

Could Zero have worked? It’s hard to answer this. How can I accept something as RvB if the season actively pushes away the core of RvB aside for an isolated story that could have been told in any other media? As a spinoff, I could have ignored it. To enjoy Zero, I have to fully separate it from RvB in my mind, and then it’s alright. S’not good. But it’s not bad. It’s entertaining enough. I really ended up liking Raymond and Tiny, and there were a few good jokes, and the fight scenes were admirable (but too much) and I love the creators’ passion. But it’s not RvB. I also wish that the new characters had been attached to previous worldbuilding, for example soldiers on Chorus or agents from Project Freelancer. That way we could build on familiar lore which would have decreased the confusion and added a much needed connection with the previous seasons of RvB.

God, the anxious voice is back (by the way, it sounds like Tutter from “Bear in the Blue House”).

“You’re racist” – I hope not. Literally, I do not want to be. Tell me if I’ve ever crossed some lines, because I swear, that is not my intention, I will apologize and most of all, change and do better. I included this because I’ve seen this take thrown around in the big ugly mess that is the fandom clashes regarding Zero. And racism is problem within RT community (this includes AH and RvB, sorry, I just use RT as an umbrella term for the latter), and I’m not saying it hasn’t been a problem with this season. Writers should never be harassed, and never-fucking-ever because of their skin color, and voice actors shouldn’t be treated like they are responsible for the choices of the show. But I was legit nervous to post this review, and I hope it’s been factual without feeling like personal attacks on the creators because that has never been my intention. I was delighted to hear about the diversity behind this project, and Torrian’s passion legit blew me away because it’s been a while since I’ve seen that for an RvB project. I’d hoped for it to be good, and when I feel disappointed, it’s for the reasons stated in this analysis. That said, Zero is made by a diverse cast and it’s made with love, and both of those things are so, so great, but it does not mean that Zero cannot be criticized. It can, and it should. It’s a product, just like all the other seasons, and fans are allowed to discuss it – both what they loved, and both what they found troublesome. And to repeat previous points, and be respectful, always, fuck racists, and never-fucking-ever harass the staff behind a season, what the fuck is wrong with you if you do this.

“Don’t you get it, it’s different because it’s trying something new!” – Hey, remember the philosophical question: if you replace all the parts of a ship one-by-one, is it still the same ship when you’re done? If it doesn’t include the Reds and Blues, if it ignores previous plot, if the old characters feel miswritten, if it values animation over dialogue, if it values fight scenes over comedy, if it wants to be Fast and Furious instead of Red vs. Blue – is it still Red vs. Blue? Because it doesn’t feel like it to me.

“It's been 17 seasons, it’s time to let the Reds and Blues go so someone else can shine!” – I simply do not understand us having been with the Reds and Blues for 17 seasons should be an argument to let them go, rather than be an argument as to why their absence hurt like hell.

“The Reds and Blues ran out of things to do!” – Did- did they, though? I mean, if we were discussing pretty much any other show, I’d probably agree that they were running out of content. But for the Reds and Blues… I think the PSAs nailed it this year! I’m not kidding, I had more fun watching the Reds and Blues discuss how to do laundry than watching Zero. You could literally give me an hour of the Reds and Blues trying to bake a cake or clear a gutter or simply settling down with an ordinary life, and I would trust them to make it worth the watch.

“The flaws were due to the fact it’s only 8 episodes long!” – Look, I can only judge a product the way it’s presented to me. I cannot come up with excuses for it. If they had 8 episodes to work with, they need to come up with a plot that works with this runtime. Seriously, this excuse cannot work when 48% of the season is spent on fight scenes. They could have used more runtime, sure, but the show needs to be able to pace itself and be planned accordingly.

“The OG cast couldn’t be a part of this year, hence Zero!” – That might be true. But. Would one year without RvB kill it? Is Zero necessary? Again, I just can’t judge excuses for the show. But trouble with the cast has been an issue before. Season 15 solves Geoff’s sabbatical by actually making Grif’s absence a part of the plot. Zero’s lack of Reds and Blues just feels like this excuse to tell a story that needn’t be a part of RvB.

Am I a hater? I guess? I greatly dislike Zero for the critique stated above. I do, however, not harass the creators and no one should ever do that. However, I have to admit that I feel there’s been this weird rejection of any critique of Zero where everything’s been brushed off as haters gonna hate, including the critique stated above. And I think that’s a problem because critique, as hard as it can be to hear (and I know this. I’m an author of original works. Weird flex, I know), is valid and necessary and shouldn’t just be shrugged away. As always, both sides of the fandom should always be respectful, but my own opinion is that addressing the flaws of Zero should not be controversial.

Does this super long rant/critique/whatever mean you cannot enjoy Zero? Gods no! I almost envy you if you enjoy this season, but holy shit, feel free to love it and tell the creators that you love it! Me pointing out the issues I have with the season shouldn’t be stopping you. I loved (and still love) s15 when it came out, and it was majorly rejected by the fandom. There were many, many critical posts, people were going on about how RvB should have ended with s13, and it evolved into the writer receiving death threats (me, once again: never ever harass the creators, assholes). But I didn’t tell people to stop being negative. I actually agreed with many of the flaws that were pointed out, and I enjoyed the season despite this, because that is possible. We, as RvB fans, should agree that RvB, is... I mean, it’s not the greatest, most flawless of shows, but we love it nonetheless. So go ahead and love Zero. This is not a stop sign. This is my opinion that you chose to read.

Wait, I promised you a cookie, didn’t I? Well, you’re not getting one. Why? Because I’m a Red and this is my chance to piss off a Blue. As Caboose wisely said: “Well, at least I don't go around... knocking on people's non-doors... and promising them cookies... and then NOT. GIVING. THEM. COOKIES!”

Blue Team sucks.

End speech.

#rvb zero #rvb #rvb zero critical #rvb critical #rvb0 #my rvb stuff #pls dont hate me for this #this is my honest opinion that people apparantly wanted to hear #as a standalone story zero isnt totally bad #as an rvb season it is

273 notes · View notes

ikeromantic · 3 years

Text

Base Villains

A Mitsuhide Akechi fanfic, approx. 1800 words. This scene occurs in Ch. 13 of the romantic route. Spoilers!

First: Mitsuhide and the Maiden

Previous: Following Orders

It was a few hours before dawn when Mitsuhide, Motonari, and Kennyo finally approached the daimyo’s fortress. Mouri and his pirates led the attack. A sensible choice, given the cannon and the fact that no sane person would want any of them behind him. The only sound on that narrow road was the low groan of wooden wheels and the steady beat of marching men.

Mitsuhide was lost in thought, his mind spinning the thousand paths this battle could take. Which led him to rescue his love, and which ended in death, separated by only the slightest action. The most banal of random events. Yet he was the kitsune warlord and he had to know - to plan - and to win.

His thoughts were interrupted by an explosion up ahead. The thundering roar of a ship’s cannon, unleashed at the daimyo’s gate. The reinforced wood didn’t stand a chance. The air around it filled with dust, smoke, and splinters.

Kennyo’s eyes went wide as he surveyed the damage. Mitsuhide didn’t like the shrewd look in his eyes. But whatever Kennyo thought, he kept it to himself. His Ikko Ikki began moving in to fight the daimyo’s forces as they rallied to defend the opening.

Motonari was already moving to the thick of things, plowing through the smoke with his sword drawn. His mad laughter was drowned out by the sound of shouting and the screams of dying men.

“Mouri is a natural at this.” Mitsuhide tracked the opening attack with cautious optimism.

“And you aren’t comfortable with this destruction?” Kennyo’s lips twitched into a brief, mocking smile.

“I never said that.” Mitsuhide drew his sword. “In my blood, in my bones - I want to be here. More than anyone else.” It was a true statement, one that encompassed his nature and his heart’s desire. The battle excited his blood - the contest of man against man, the challenge to survive no matter what stood against you. But beneath that was something even stronger pulling him forward.

A ferocious love for his little one - a need to protect her above all others. The intensity of these feelings surprised him even now. He knew without doubt that he would kill every person inside these walls if it meant she lived. And that he would not stop there, were she still in danger.

Kennyo studied his face for a moment and then shook his head. “You are a frightening man.”

“This from a man that says he willing took up the mantle of demon?” Mitsuhide smiled. “We are all devils here.”

After a beat of silence, the abbot nodded. There wasn’t anything more to say. The two men charged forward into battle.

***

Kyubei was having a very hard time. He’d disguised himself as a servant after stashing the chatelaine earlier. It wasn’t a very good disguise, just a hat and some worn clothing. His sword was replaced with a hidden dagger and a wooden baton. He hadn’t slept - just worked his way through the keep trying to find a way to smuggle the girl out before Ashikaga called for her again.

There were several routes out of the fortress, but all of them were guarded. He could probably get out easily enough - just claim to be another of the messengers sent to gather reinforcements. But the chatelaine . . . with a shaved head, her chest tied down, and some baggy clothes she might pass for a boy. He just needed to find some shears and-

“Put me down!”

He turned to see the shogun’s ‘messenger’ carrying the chatelain like a sack of rice. She was flailing, but he didn’t seem to notice her small fists or kicking feet. Kyubei felt his heart freeze in his chest. This was bad. He had to do something quickly. He drew the small wooden baton and crept forward.

The ‘messenger’ turned and raised an eyebrow. “What are you doing?”

“Ah, she is making so much noise. I thought . . . “ he gestured with the baton as if he meant to hit her.

“Unnecessary. She needs to be awake. To feel every moment of this.” He ran his hand over her rear and squeezed.

The chatelaine shrieked and hit him again, her anger and fear wordless.

Kyubei wasn’t sure how to proceed, but he needed to do something. “I - I can tie her? For you?”

The fortress shuddered from some kind of attack. It sounded like a cannon. Both men turned toward the sound for a brief moment, then the messenger hurried on. Kyubei followed. Whatever his lord’s plan of attack, it had begun. The time to escape was past, and now all he could do was try to protect the chatelaine until Mitsuhide arrived.

Kyubei leapt forward, swinging with all his might at the back of the man’s head.

The messenger sensed the attack and shifted, raising his captive up to catch the blow.

For a moment, Kyubei feared the chatelaine would take the force of it, but he managed to change course mid-swing, his baton whistling through the empty air.

She shrieked and squirmed, trying to get loose. This time, it worked.

The messenger knew he couldn’t fight and hold onto her at the same time. He tossed her aside and drew a dagger. “I don’t know who you are or what you think you are doing, but today you will die.”

“I think not.” Kyubei went on the attack. He had to take the man down fast, before anyone else entered the hall. The wood sang through the air, then collided with one of the daggers. This was only a distraction, the real blow was aimed at the messenger’s knee. Kyubei’s foot connected solidly.

With a grunt of effort, the messenger stayed on his feet. He stabbed toward Kyubei, his intent clear. He wanted to end this fight quickly too. But he lacked the dancer’s grace of his opponent. Despite his rapid thrusts, he could not catch his blade in Kyubei’s flesh.

The chatelaine slowly gathered herself to her feet. Wide eyes tracked the near-silent fight.

Kyubei couldn’t afford to worry about what she would or wouldn’t do while he was occupied. He just hoped she wouldn’t run. That would summon more guards, a complication he couldn’t afford.

The messenger slashed at Kyubei’s throat. He missed, slicing the fabric on Kyubei’s shoulder. A thin welt of blood stained the cloth.

Kyubei struck the man’s hand and heard the satisfying crunch of breaking bones. The knife fell to the floor. This didn’t slow the messenger. Just forced him to attack with the remaining blade. It was all Kyubei could do to hold him off. Pain seemed to enrage the man, making him faster and more savage.

“You will pay for that. A week of torture for every finger,” the man snarled. “You will beg me to die!”

“I never beg.” Kyubei gave the messenger a toothy grin. Despite his brave words, he was beginning to worry. This was dragging on too long. Every second they fought brought him closer to being caught. And to make matters worse, he could see the chatelaine moving. If she ran, he would have to run too.

The messenger rushed Kyubei, using his whole body as a weapon. He slammed him into the wall.

The world narrowed to two points for Kyubei. His left hand, as he fought on that side to keep the dagger from his flesh - and his chest, where the messenger kept pushing forward, crushing him slowly.

Then, with a suddenness that bordered on the miraculous, the pressure eased. The messenger stumbled to his right, dropping his knife. He turned, and Kyubei saw the gaping wound on his back.

Behind the messenger stood the chatelaine. She was gripping the knife with white-knuckled intensity. Blood dripped down the blade and stained her fingers.

Kyubei didn’t hesitate. He grabbed the chatelaine and ran.

She went along with him until they’d left that hallway far behind. After several turns and two staircases up, she pulled away from him. “Y-you get away from me!”

“My lady . . . it’s me.” Kyubei framed his face with his hands, covering the bald spot on top and the beard at the bottom. “I am Kyubei.”

The chatelaine’s eyes narrowed, studying his features. Then she dropped the knife and flung herself at him. “It is you! Did Mitsuhide send you? Where is he?” The questions came between breathy gasps as she gave in to her panic.

Kyubei carefully stroked her back, waiting for her to calm herself. “I will answer all your questions soon. Right now, we must find a way out.”

She nodded, dabbing at her bruised and swollen cheeks to wipe away her tears. “I . . . ok. Where do we go?”

He didn’t know which route to take, but there was a secret exit from the shogun’s rooms. A narrow, hidden passage in the wall that led to the servant quarters. With the fortress under attack, that seemed like the best option. Kyubei grabbed her hand and led her on - up toward the tenshu.

They passed several guard stations, but the tense men only waved them on. A servant and a beaten girl were no threat. They were waiting for the marauders - the enemy. And if the sounds of fighting were any indication, they didn’t have long to wait.

Kyubei and the chatelaine were allowed into the shogun’s tenshu. It was lined with the daimyo’s guards. Ashikaga paced the room.

“How dare they! I am the shogun! They should grovel before me. Beg!” He glanced up as Kyubei entered the room.

Kyubei tried to scuttle to the side with her, bowing low as he sidestepped. They only needed to get close enough to the hidden door to get out. Ashikaga should be too preoccupied with the battle to focus on them - at least, that was his hope. But all those plans went up in smoke as the shogun lunged toward them and grabbed the chatelaine’s arm.

“You! Girl! You are my secret weapon.” Ashikaga jerked her to his side. “The kitsune would never risk you. He is weak. Yes . . .” He studied her bruised face.

“Mitsuhide is ten times the man you will ever be. And he would risk anything for his ideals.” She straightened her back and glared up at him.

“I didn’t give you permission to speak!” Ashikaga lifted a hand to strike her.

That was when the door exploded inward. It made a sound like cannon shot as the wood gave way. In the opening stood two men.

Motonari’s face was lit with a feral snarl. His eyes glowed like coals and his sword dripped redly.

Mitsuhide was equally frightening. His clothes were spattered with ruby droplets, his lips curved in a cruel smile. When his gaze found the chatelaine’s face, his hand tightened on the hilt of his sword.

Kyubei swallowed. This was going to be messy.

Next: Trust

#ikemen sengoku #ikesen mitsuhide #mitsuhide akechi #kyubei #otome guys #otome #fanfiction #fanfic

89 notes · View notes