#and now the others are ready to be bait and to die and they're like 'guess we'll survive then?!' | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

inkblackorchid · 3 months

Text

What the hell happened with Crow: an autopsy (Part 3)

Trying my absolute damnedest to finish this one and part four sooner now that I've finally covered the Pearson backstory. *Ehem* Hello again! I hope you're ready for more yelling about a certain spiky-haired Blackbird aficionado, because I sure am.

To get some things out of the way first, though, here come the usual disclaimers:

This is part three of a series of posts about hpw Crow's character was handled during 5Ds' whole run. You can find part one here and part two here. Reading them technically isn't required, but things sure will make a whole lot more sense if you do. (Bring snacks, they're long.)

This post isn't meant as a Crow hate post, nor is it meant to convince people who didn't vibe with his character to change their mind. This is my very long winded-attempt to analyse the writing decisions surrounding his character as best I can, without too much bias. That said, full disclosure, I do personally like Crow, so there's a good chance that will shine through whether I want it to or not. But also, I'm trying to have fun here, so please cut me some slack.

In case you haven't read my previous Crow posts (no shade there) and/or still believe the many, many production rumours that have been haunting the 5Ds fandom since the show's original run, please let me burst your bubble(s) with some insanely comprehensive research by someone over on Reddit (thanks again to @mbg159, who's also here on tumblr): No, Crow was not meant to be a dark signer, or the final boss of season 1, and his spike in screentime has nothing to do with his cards. And also, No, Aki didn't get less presence in the narrative because her VA got pregnant. What if you don't have the time to read either of those long posts? In that case, please take away this simple, very easy rebuttal of why the above theories are bullshit: Their would-be "key points" don't line up with the 5Ds production timeline. At all. Not even vaguely. So please, ditch them, let them die, seeing them still talked about makes me feel like I'm gonna break out in hives. And for the love of god, don't use this post or in fact anything else I post to pit Aki and Crow against each other. Both characters have their strengths and their reasons to love them. I am not the least bit interested in starting any character discourse. So please, spare my sanity. Ok? Thank you.

And now, we can get to the good part at last. In my previous post in this series, I stopped my analysis at episode 95, a.k.a. part two of the Pearson backstory. In this post, I will thus be picking up right after, at the very start of the WRGP—with the Team Unicorn match. The goal for this post is to analyse Crow's part in this particular arc, then provide some food for thought/ideas on how things that rubbed some people the wrong way could have been improved.

More below the readmore, and I give you not just my usual warning, but an extra warning, too: The universe will not let me write short things, so tread with caution, stay hydrated, and expect a veritable dissertation below, because this post feels long even to me, who has long since lost her sense of length when it comes to text. (But I'm well aware this is the result of me refusing to split the WRGP part into two separate posts, so I take full responsibility for that.)

Since we left off right after I chewed through all the issues with Crow's rather belated backstory and especially Black-Winged Dragon last time, we jump right into the thick of things now, with episodes 96 and 97, which serve as the preamble to Team 5Ds' first WRGP duel against Team Unicorn. Crow only gets two major things to do during this short stretch of episodes, the first being that he's Team Unicorn's gateway into roping Yusei into a duel during practice, which helps them set up a ruse that baits the 5Ds gang into sending Jack as their first wheeler because they think Jack's deck is best suited to countering Andre's—which, as it later turns out, it is not.

(Arguably the screenshot where Crow gives off the strongest Youngest Sibling Vibes during the entire show. Look at him, all chastised.)

Crow's second role is an odd one that I argue only he out of the main three guys could fulfill at this point: He's the one to get injured right before the Team Unicorn match, rendering him unable to compete, which leads to Aki offering to take his place for that particular match.

(Pictured: Bird Boy regretting all his life choices up until that point simultaneously.)

Here's the first moment I have to talk about in greater detail. See, the thing is, I don't know what the fandom consensus on Crow getting injured here is, but I argue that this moment was a (rare) strategic decision made by the writers at this point. Crow's injury accomplished several things: 1. It sets up the mystery of why his back wheel locked up out of nowhere, which is later paid off through Team Catastrophe's shenanigans. 2. It organically allows Aki to take his spot without introducing any argument about which of them is "worthier" of having that third spot. 3. Through this, it also allows him to actually bounce off Aki for once (a point I will come back to below, during the Team Catastrophe section). And 4. It allows the show to (TECHNICALLY) pay off the setup they did in letting Aki get her turbo duelling license and train with the boys. (Generally, Crow's and Aki's character writing intersects a bit during the pre-Diablo incident WRGP section, something I'll touch on below.)

Moreover, I think this is also the only match where they could have done something like this, and the reason for it is very simple: Team Unicorn are one-off opponents whose presence in the narrative is only relevant as far as it concerns the WRGP, and they are also one of the first teams the 5Ds gang faces. If we think about the opponents Team 5Ds has after this, it becomes very obvious why Crow could only be injured during this duel: If they had tried pulling this stunt later, it would have forced the writers to pull Aki centre stage during a much more plot-relevant duel than this one (which they were apparently allergic to, but let's not go there), not to speak of the fact that it would have forced them to sideline someone they were definitely trying to sell as the third portion of their protagonist trifecta, which would have probably been awkward. (If not for the fact that they literally did this to Crow later in the show, but I'll get there. Yes, I know there's a lot already that I'll still be "getting to".)

The thing is, whether or not it feels like an awkward writing choice to make so early in the big tournament of this arc (you be the judge of that), Crow's injury finally allows him to have a few interesting character moments for once. For one, there is his immediate disappointment about being forced to stay on the sidelines. Aside from the fact that this is a human and relatable reaction to his injury, it stings even more for the character than it does for us as the audience, because Crow got a moment where the Satellite orphans he previously took care of cheer him on for the tournament literally within the same two Team Unicorn preamble episodes.

(Say what you will, this is just stupid cute.)

So when Aki eventually offers to take his place during the match, he's understandably apprehensive—and again, this is human. It may seem mean in the moment, but from a character writing standpoint, it's a natural response. Plus, it's certainly more interesting to watch the group have a bit of conflict among themselves, rather than everyone immediately jumping straight to acceptance. It introduces tension, and, for however brief a moment, raises the question of whether Crow might refuse to let Aki take his spot. This is also the point where Aki and Crow's character writing officially intertwines, at least for the stretch of episodes between the Team Unicorn duel and the Team Catastrophe duel. And you know what? Say what you will, but I think it does a world of good for both of them. The 5Ds cast, as lovely as it is, doesn't get a lot of room to bounce off one another where it concerns personal matters anymore, once the WRGP starts. Arguably, they get little time to bounce off one another outside of plot-related discussions at all once this portion of the show comes around. The characters are treated as "fully developed", and thus, the writing largely doesn't take the time to show us how the group naturally interacts with one another anymore, especially not with how many side characters (chiefly Bruno and Sherry), antagonists, and duels the show now has to juggle. So Aki and Crow getting even a smidgen of personal conflict here is honestly a breath of fresh air. The interaction kicked off by Crow's injury isn't completely plot-irrelevant, like most character interactions during the pre-WRGP were, but it's not something that feels like it's only there to explain the machinations of the antagonists to the audience, either.

Let me go through this in a little more detail to illustrate my point.

So, episode 97. Crow storms off after Aki offers to take his spot, while Aki heads out to prepare her runner, intent on helping her team. The personal motivations here are already very nice and reflective of these characters as we've gotten to know them up until this point: Crow's angry and disappointed (mostly at himself, which is noteworthy!) because he can't compete. And specifically, he's angry because not being able to compete in the first match means he can't show the kids his duelling like he wanted to. Then there's Aki, whose offer to take Crow's place is every bit as much of a strategic suggestion as it is a bid for acceptance from her. Acceptance, which is the thing she's been all about ever since she was introduced, basically. So she pleads with her friends to accept her, see her as an equal, and allow her to duel for the team, which they do. And Crow initially throws a fit, but then...

(Listen. You have no idea how much Crow and Aki getting to actually be friends means to me.)

He comes around to the idea and not only gives Aki his express permission to take his spot, he even coaches her a bit right before the match. Moreover, as his text states above, he literally entrusts her with the kids' hopes, as well as his own. This quickly brings both of them full circle: Crow, who already has a theme of legacy attached to him, passes the torch to Aki for this match, and in so doing, offers her the acceptance she asked her teammates for. (Frankly, stuff like this makes me wonder why on earth people were so eager to pit these two against each other, when their shared moments are actually some of the best-written during the often rocky WRGP arc.) So, though this injury pulls Crow out of the duel, it, funnily enough, ties him better into the story and to the other characters.

From there, we then dive into the Team Unicorn match proper. And well, being injured as he is, Crow doesn't exactly get a whole lot to do there. However, since we're in the portion where his and Aki's writing overlaps a bit, I do need to go on a quick tangent about what Aki's portion of this duel means for Crow.

(Sigh. Okay, buckle up for a quick and rough detour.)

First, something I need to get out of the way and off my chest: I have made no secret out of the fact that I hate Aki's portion of this duel, save for the moment where she summons Stardust. Hell, this duel segment is pretty much universally hated by anone who has even a smidgen of sympathy for Aki. It's regarded by many as the very moment the writers axed Aki's character, and for good reason: After all the buildup surrounding her getting her turbo duelling license, the supposed "payoff" of it all is that she gets to duel against Andre for a depressing four turns before being defeated immediately, which leads into Yusei's frustrating portion of this duel, which, to my knowledge, isn't regarded any more kindly by fans than Aki's segment. It's a massive let-down, simply put. But the thing is, it's not just a let-down for Aki. After all, the brief character conflict she had with Crow about taking his spot here can and should be regarded as part of the setup for this moment, and as such, it can also be considered to be wasted the second Aki leaves the track after barely making an impact whatsoever.

However, I do need to mention that I have a theory on why this segment was handled the way it was, mostly because I feel like Crow's later interaction with Aki, shortly after she's out of the duel, underlines it (mind that this is just my personal theory, though, after having watched the show perhaps more times than can be considered sane): I think there is a cultural aspect to this duel. See, the word ganbaru, which anime subtitles often like to translate with "do your best" or something along the lines, has a greater significance than the translation implies. Though it's not inaccurate per se, there's more than just the idea of doing your best behind ganbaru, because it's something like an umbrella term not just for doing your best and succeeding, it's also the idea that you have to keep trying, even if you don't succeed. It's related to tenacity, to persistence, even in the face of terrible odds. And make no mistake, I don't mean the Japanese equivalent of "if at first you don't succeed, try again" here. I genuinely do mean "you have to keep trying, even if you fail". There is no guarantee of success here. And for that reason, the idea behind ganbaru is also that it's not simply the success that has value, but the effort made in the attempt to attain it, regardless of the result. (Side note: I tried to scrounge up a resource I could link to that nicely explains this concept, but unfortunately, all the promising articles were paywalled and the ones I learned it from require institutional access to lecture materials.) And this is where I will posit the tentative theory that this is exactly what the 5Ds writers were going for with Aki's segment of the duel—it was very much meant to be the payoff for her turbo duelling license setup and her plea to take Crow's place, but it wasn't so much her success that was meant to be valued, as the effort she (and by extension, Crow) made for and during this duel. And this is where Crow's little pep-talk with Aki after she's out of the duel comes in, because it feels like it supports exactly this interpretation:

(This is essentially the whole sequence. Note how Crow, despite so fervently entrusting Aki with his and his kids' hopes prior, doesn't admonish her for making a bad showing in the slightest.)

I don't think it gets any clearer than it is here. During this sequence, Aki is painfully aware of how poor her performance was against Andre, especially after she was so insistent on duelling at first, and despite having been entrusted with Stardust by Yusei, to boot. Yet, Crow doesn't have a single word of criticism to offer her. Instead, he even tells her she did well and that nobody's perfect. It very much reads as valuing Aki's effort over the result she achieved to me, and thus seems perfectly in line with the idea behind ganbaru.

However, if we assume I'm correct about the intentions behind this writing choice, we come back to why Aki's segment of the duel is so hotly debated and why it may have arguably been a disservice not just to her, but to Crow, too, character-wise. Because the majority of non-Japanese watchers of the show culturally don't have a 1:1 applicable concept like ganbaru, this writing choice was more likely to fall flat for them, because to someone who wasn't raised to understand the idea behind it, Aki's portion of the duel doesn't register as a payoff; it registers as a massive disappointment, because it feels like the writers, who had so much setup already done for her, let her fail on purpose, just to later let Yusei attain his arguably dumbest victory of the entire show. Thus, they also essentially waste the conflict she had with Crow about whether she would be allowed to take his spot in the first place, because with how little she achieved during the duel, she may as well not have gotten on the track. (Figuratively speaking. Please Do Not take this to mean I would prefer a version where Aki hadn't duelled at all. That would be worse. It would be infinitely worse.)

(Also, side note: If this post reaches anyone who's actually Japanese and still remembers this duel, I would genuinely love your input on whether my interpretation is feasible or just wishful thinking. Did you interpret Aki's part of the duel the way I did here? Or did it fall flat for you, too? If what I'm saying here feels like an absolute reach, please tell me. I'm honestly just trying my best to make things make sense here and remembered this concept from some classes I took in Japanese studies at uni.)

With all that in mind, it doesn't come as a surprise that some people were just as frustrated with the way Crow was barred from duelling here as they were with Aki's segment or Yusei's later victory. But it is what it is—the Unicorn duel concludes the way we all know it to, and with that, the show begins setting up the following duel with Team Catastrophe.

The only other, non duel-related, noteworthy thing that happens between the Unicorn and the Catastrophe match is a brief appearance at the Poppo Time by Sherry, who admonishes the signers for celebrating their victory early and warns them about Iliaster. Why do I bring this up? Because it's one of less than five times that Crow is in the same room with Sherry. Remember, Sherry. The girl he later, during the finale, talks out of working for the big bad evil guy because he suddenly seems to have such a deep understanding of her motivations and character that he can accurately deduce what argument will make her understand that working with Z-ONE won't give her what she's looking for. So, does Crow get a meaningful interaction with her during this scene, then? Nope. Not even in the slightest. Crow says exactly one sentence that is aimed at Sherry during her appearance, and that sentence is this:

(What a meaningful conversation!)

And yes, I will come back to Crow and Sherry's dynamic in particular. But we'll save that for the Ark Cradle arc post. For now, just keep it in mind as we move along to the other WRGP duels.

So. Team Catasrophe.

During the duel against this team, which was previously only hinted at ominously, the writing for Crow and Aki overlaps again, and this starts with the writers essentially doing a complete switcheroo of what came before: Instead of Crow getting injured and being unable to compete, it's Aki who crashes, ends up in the hospital, and is thus forced to give up her spot during the duel. (This also goes hand in hand with her suddenly losing her powers, which we are given absolutely zero explanation for, but let's not talk about that clusterfuck here. If you're interested in my opinions about that particular trainwreck, I have a rant for you.) Additionally, it's during this stretch of episodes (103-105, which is a whopping four episodes less than Team Unicorn got) that we find out that not only Aki's crash, but Crow's previous one, too, were both sabotage, caused by the rather unscrupulous Team Catastrophe by way of a special card that can cause real damage even when there is no psychic duellist present. (A card we also find out was given to them by Placido/Primo, but this is irrelevant for both Aki and Crow.) Crow's reaction to this piece of information, particularly once Aki gets injured due to the same thing, is where things get interesting for him again, because he gets pissed, to say the least.

(A moment I imagine firebirdshippers must have been positively delighted about.)

Here, I have to reiterate an earlier point: Think what you will of Team Catastrophe, of Aki's crash, and of the sequence where her powers suddenly don't work, but this moment here, where Crow gets angry on her behalf and swears to duel Team Catastrophe into submission—not because he wants his kids to cheer for him, or because he wants to prove himself, but as revenge for his friend—is one of sadly only a handful of moments the writers use to show the strengthened relationships between the individual members of Team 5Ds after the dark signers arc. It's one of the precious few scenes that actually shows, rather than tells us or lets us search for scraps in the subtext, that the signers, and the members of Team 5Ds as a whole, care for each other outside of revolving around Yusei like planets around the sun. Even if it's laughably small, it's at least a hint that there are individual friendships between the other signers, too, that they all stick around one another for reasons beyond gravitating towards Yusei for one reason or another. And for that alone, I'm grateful that they put this here, even if Team Catastrophe was otherwise so ridiculous and made such a bad showing at their actual match that they could barely be taken seriously as antagonists at all.

Speaking of which. The actual meat of the matter. The Team Catastrophe match. What does Crow do here? Well, he duels! Even though he wasn't supposed to, for injury-related reasons. What both his participation as well as the actual duel accomplish, though, are that they not only showcase previously established character traits of Crow's again, but they also make a (possibly unintended) callback to a previous, major duel Crow took part in: His dark signer duel against Bommer/Greiger. Where and how? Let's see.

Firstly, Crow's participation. The reactions of the other characters to this make it very evident that Team 5Ds did not plan for this, with Yusei and Jack even going as far as to say they "had no choice" but to let Crow duel, because he insisted. This is perfectly in line with the stubbornness we already know from him at this point—a stubbornness that was also a major reason for why he took Bommer on and later continued his duel with said man, despite Yusei showing up and telling him he shouldn't be duelling a dark signer.

Secondly, there's the manoeuvring thing, and here's where I can call attention to a fun tidbit: The WRGP isn't what introduces the concept of manual mode during turbo duels to the audience. It's Crow. During his duel with Bommer. Being crafty and a bit shrewd as he is, Crow, during said duel in the DS arc, purposefully switches to manual mode when he duels Bommer, because he figures that attacks that can deal real damage can probably be evaded if you actually have control over your runner and aren't stuck in autopilot.

(Don't believe me? Here it is. And frankly, it is somewhat hilarious, yet also very fitting that Crow is the only one who thinks to do this during a duel with a dark signer.)

The reason this particular bit is relevant during the Team Catastrophe duel is because Crow essentially repeats this trick here. Of course, it's a bit less impactful now, given that manual mode is standard for WRGP duels, but still: Due to Hook, the Hidden Knight, Crow is forced to pay attention to the track and manually evade the monster's attempts to make his back wheel lock up during the duel, mirroring how he thought to manually evade Bommer's attacks during the DS arc.

Thirdly, there's the revenge angle, and this one is a particularly juicy callback. Remember, Crow's major reason for taking on Team Catastrophe, despite being injured, is that he wants to get revenge for Aki. This directly parallels how his major reason for duelling Bommer during the DS arc was that he wanted revenge for his kids, whom he believed to be dead at that point in time. (It also, interestingly, establishes a bit of a connection to his deck, which boasts a fair amount of revenge effects, but I'll not get into that here, seeing as I've talked about Crow's cards a bit before.)

Keep in mind, despite all the things listed above that this duel accomplishes, it's also by far the shortest WRGP duel. It lasts a whole six turns, total, which is ludicrous compared to the likes of 27-turn Team Unicorn, 26-turn Team Taiyou, or 25-turn Team Ragnarok. And I don't think it's controversial to say that the Catastrophe guys are probably the most forgettable WRGP Team, too. Yet, somehow, despite all its shortcomings in terms of memorable antagonists and plot relevance, this is one of the best duels of the WRGP where Crow's character writing is concerned. Now, I'll be perfectly candid: Coming into this post, I did not expect the Team Catastrophe duel, of all things, to end up being as good at actually showcasing Crow's character and his ties to other characters (who aren't Yusei) as it was, but here we are. And we had better hold on to the good the Team Unicorn - Catastrophe segment did for Crow, because the next thing that's coming up is a harsh break from the WRGP, starting with the sudden appearance of Placido's home-engineered army of killer duel robots. And what does Crow get to do during this part?

Uh. Well.

(Pictured: Bird Boy being demoted to benchwarmer while the city's being ransacked by murder duel robots.)

Nothing. A whole lot of nothing, is what.

During the duel robot invasion, we only ever flash back to Crow to ascertain that he is, in fact, useless during this part of the show, something he shares in common with Ruka, Rua, and Aki here, because all of them get pretty much nothing to do while Yusei finally gets the hang of accel synchro. Granted, Aki gets to save a little girl at the hospital, but in comparison to Yusei's lengthy, plot-heavy duel with Placido, this feels like a consolation prize. And for once, Jack is only marginally better off, too, because sure, he gets to beat up a couple of robots, but that's it, really.

Where Crow is concerned, his plot relevance doesn't actually resume once the Placido duel finishes, though. (And neither does Rua's, Ruka's, or Aki's, while we're at it.) Because wouldn't you know it, the next big thing directly after the duel robot invasion are the Red Nova episodes, where three out of five signers (Crow, Aki, and Ruka, unsurprisingly) are removed from the screen almost in their entirety again while Jack gets his much-needed dragon upgrade so he can keep up with Yusei, in order to uphold his status as a classic, almost-evenly-matched yugioh rival.

Speaking of upgrades and dragons, let's make a quick detour while our protag and rival duo take their express vacation to the Nazca plains. It is, of course, no secret that no signer outside of Yusei and Jack ever got a dragon upgrade within the anime. (No, I'm not forgetting about Life Stream Dragon. But that one, unlike Shooting Star Dragon and Red Nova Dragon, was a.) teased all the way back in the DS arc and b.) didn't have a unique summoning method or some other gimmick that made it an "elevated" synchro. So I'm discounting Life Stream as a "proper" dragon upgrade on purpose.) Is this the point where I start arguing that Crow should have gotten one, then? Well, not quite. Not with the writing the show canonically gave us, at least—after all, with how late Black-Winged Dragon was introduced, it would have been bonkers to upgrade him here already, if even at all. However, I do argue that the way the show hands only Yusei and Jack upgrades seems a bit... off. Now, I know why only those two get upgrades, or at least I think I do. After all, they're the central protag/rival duo, and within the framework of the character archetypes the larger yugioh canon has created for itself, this would have always made them the first, if not the only candidates for dragon upgrades. What feels a bit off to me, though, is that specifically the 5Ds cast feels like it... chafes a bit against those character archetypes, for lack of a better word. The problem is this: The signers, as far as the first two arcs are concerned, are sold to us as equals who all have very powerful ace monsters. Yes, Jack and Yusei are still undoubtedly the best duellists among them, but not on account of having uber-powerful extra special monsters that were acquired through supernatural means that are categorically inaccessible to the other signers. However, with the appearance of Shooting Star and Red Nova, this changes. While Yusei and Jack were previously and would have always been the two guys who had a Special dynamic with a capital "S" on account of their character archetypes, their acquisition of the dragon upgrades—and even more so, the lack of upgrades their fellow signers receive—now decidedly puts them in a different power bracket and skews the balance between previous, supposedly "equal" characters. (Which, unfortunately, is yet another thing that makes everyone else easier to sideline.)

Why do I bring all this up in a post dedicated to Crow? Because this new power imbalance arguably impacts him more than the other signers—because he's Team 5Ds' second wheeler and doesn't miss another WRGP match from here on out. Thus, that power imbalance is felt in the upcoming duels, where Yusei and Jack bust out Shooting Star and Red Nova like it's nothing, while Crow is left manoeuvring with the somewhat underpowered Black-Winged Dragon and whatever else he can come up with. This is also why I claimed that the show did sideline Crow in some aspects further above. Because while some parts of his writing go to great pains to establish him as part of a protagonist trifecta that is now supposed to take centre stage before the other characters, he also permanently lives in Jack and Yusei's shadow, ultimately barred not just from reaching equal status as a signer (due to his late and rocky introduction and dragon acquisition), but also barred from becoming the equal of his foster brothers as a duellist. Frankly, I'm surprised the show didn't make this a plot point, because the first thing my mind jumps to when I think about this is whether Crow felt left behind after his brothers acquired such immensely powerful, special cards. But more on my personal writing ideas later. For now, let's just put a pin in the power-imbalance thing.

So, when is Crow back on screen in any meaningful role, then? (Note that I mean this as literally as possible. As per my discussion about "screentime" and my gripes about it in part two, I gloss over the parts where Crow is on screen, but could be traded for any other signer or even a lamppost without affecting the scene at all.)

Well, the next thing Crow gets to do isn't exactly glorious, but it sure is funny.

(I want you all to remember that he has to wear this costume and play this part in Team 5Ds' absurd plan to capture Yaeger/Lazar because he lost at rock-paper-scissors. This will never not be funny to me.)

Ignoring the hilarious outfit and Crow playing the bait at a fabricated cup ramen promo event meant to lure Yaeger in, bird boy does actually get something that's not just for funsies to do during the two episodes where Team 5Ds is trying to get more information about Iliaster: He gets to have a duel revanche against Yaeger, who, if we remember the DS arc, ditched him the last time they squared off. Much like the Team Catastrophe duel, this one, too, calls back to previous duels Crow has had: For one, it's the obvious conclusion to his unfinished, first duel with Yaeger. And for two, Crow repeats a "trick" (for lack of a better term) here that is also unique to him: losing on purpose, which we remember from his duel with Lyndon.

(Identical-looking clown family jumpscare be upon ye.)

And again, much like getting injured for the Team Unicorn duel, I argue that this story beat here is something that could also only have been accomplished with Crow. Because he's the only one who has previously duelled Yaeger, firstly, because not wanting to make a child cry by beating their dad in a duel makes sense for him as a character due to him being a family-oriented person who loves children, secondly, and because losing on purpose in this scenario is a tactic that would seem out of character from anyone else, thirdly. (We recall, the only times Jack and Yusei, respectively, ever consider/offer to lose on purpose is when the lives of people close to them are on the line, in the shape of Carly/Rally. As for the others, aside from not being present, Aki, Rua, and Ruka are so heavily sidelined at this point that they would have never been an option for this. And if his writing is anything to go by, Bruno is mostly purposefully forbidden from accomplishing Plot Things, especially through duels, while he's Bruno.) But hey, due to the way this episode is set up, losing on purpose works out for Crow, because it convinces Yaeger to stop hiding and actually share his knowledge about Iliaster. This, by the way, is the second scene where Crow gets to be in a room with Sherry for a longer stretch of time. And look, him joking that Sherry might kill Yaeger if he doesn't spill the beans about Iliaster soon is fun and all, but in light of the Ark Cradle duel later, I have to point out that he, again, doesn't get to have so much as a shred of a meaningful conversation with Sherry here. Again. But moving on. The scene with Yaeger at the Poppo Time then leads us first to the small sequence in the arcade where the gang has to win a simulated duel to get Yaeger's encoded intel, then to episode 116—the Moment Express episode, where, due to this being a Yusei, Sherry, and Bruno-focussed episode, Crow gets nothing to do again. (And also doesn't get to interact with Sherry again.)

Congrats! We've survived the WRGP break. This leaves us with three more WRGP duels before shit hits the fan and the Ark Cradle arc commences. And full disclosure, I'll be doing a bit of a quick-fire round of those three duels. Why? Because despite them all having their merits in their own rights (they're the better liked duels of the WRGP for a reason), there honestly isn't that much focus on Crow during them. He duels, yes, and I've seen people point this out over and over again as the supposed smoking gun that shows how Crow had so much more relevance and screentime than Aki and yadda, yadda. We've been there. And it's not that I can't see where this argument is coming from—I'll be the first to tell you that it's a travesty that Aki never got to duel in the WRGP again outside of the Unicorn match. But I want to use the final three matches to dig into how the way these matches—and especially the opponents to go with them—were set up made it nearly impossible for Aki to replace Crow again during any point of the WRGP finals.

First, episode 118. This is the only preamble episode we get for the first two WRGP finals teams, and here, our group is split in two: Yusei, Bruno, and Rua introduce us to Team Taiyou, while Jack, Aki, and Crow introduce us to Team Ragnarok. There isn't much to say here, because the only thing this episode does for Crow is a shallow repeat of what the Team Catastrophe duel did: By putting him in a group with Aki and Jack, and letting them decide among themselves, independently, to check out the exhibition match, it implies that he voluntarily spends time with signers who aren't Yusei. Thumbs up. Gold star. You made an effort (I guess). Then, the real fun starts.

Round one. Team Taiyou.

(Pictured: The sweetest country bumpkins to ever grace this earth. Yes, I'm biased.)

So here's the deal with Team Taiyou, from a narrative standpoint, as best as I can grasp it: They are a callback to Team 5Ds' roots. Specifically, to the boys' Satellite roots. The Taiyou boys come from humble origins, have only one, mostly home-engineered duel runner, and play using old cards that are widely considered shitty, as 5Ds canon tells us. They are essentially the non-signer, countryside version of what Jack, Crow, and Yusei once were, which is why this is the first duel where the duellist constellation on Team 5Ds' end couldn't possibly have been altered. Team Taiyou is there to remind us where our boys started, so it has to be our boys duelling them. This also goes for Crow, even though this duel otherwise doesn't accomplish much for him, character-wise. Instead, it's more of a narrative wink at the audience, as well as providing a breather between otherwise extremely tense, plot-focussed duels. But yeah, Crow's part in this match isn't much to write home about; he doesn't get any verbal interactions that are very meaningful to his character, can't get so much as a scratch in on Zushin, even with Black-Winged Dragon, and is defeated so Yusei can take out the legendary giant.

Round two. Team Ragnarok.

(Behold the pizzazz of at least two contenders for Haircuts With The Most Spikes in the show.)

Though this duel is framed as being even more so aimed towards bolstering Jack's character writing than Crow's, given the inclusion of Dragan's personal history with Jack, Team Ragnarok gets significantly more interesting for Crow again than Team Taiyou did. This is, of course, mainly because of Brave/Broder. Where Team Taiyou were a callback to the 5Ds boys' roots, Team Ragnarok are their narrative foils. Dragan is the duellist who lost his pride to contrast Jack, who's brimming with pride at all times, and Harald/Halldor is essentially the rich, "destiny isn't bullshit, actually" version of Yusei. Meanwhile, unlike the first two, who highlight our 5Ds boys' characteristics by contrasting them, Brave acts as Crow's mirror. Through Team Ragnarok's flashbacks, we see that he gets almost exactly the same, lovable-rogue-type backstory that Crow did during the DS arc, just in a different setting. The only, major difference between them is that while Crow is more down-to-earth, Brave likes to be pretty flashy.

(Keep in mind that he's doing this on a runner. Is there such a thing as courses on how to do acrobatics on your runner? Like there are courses for vaulting on horseback irl? I'm overthinking this again.)

Unsurprisingly, the duel thus ends up addressing the similarities between Crow and Brave, mostly through two things: One, the duel essentially becomes a contest of who can out-trickster who, culminating in the famous, ridiculous-in-the-good-way sequence where Crow activates a trap from his graveyard, to the shock of pretty much everyone present. And two, despite being on opposite sides, the two bond over their concern for the children they took care of and their concern for children in general, which is expressed most clearly in the scene where Crow's kids, in an attempt to hold the poster they made for him higher, very nearly fall over the barricade in the WRGP stands. Despite the hefty length of the full duel, these are pretty much the only things actually related to Crow's character that come up, though. They're good, don't get me wrong, but in a duel that is otherwise this dense with plot, Aesir shenanigans, and Iliaster foreshadowing, it's no surprise that the duel doesn't add that much to Crow's character, outside of giving him someone he can bounce off very well and relate to. Again, though, we are faced with the same situation as with Team Taiyou: Due to the way the members of Team Ragnarok are written, meant to contrast/parallel one male duellist each from Team 5Ds, nobody other than Crow could have taken the third spot here, either. It would have felt awkward from a narrative standpoint (as much as I would have loved to see Aki duel more).

Now, finally. Round three. Team New World.

(Welp. Here come the robots.)

I had to check to make sure I wasn't misremembering this, but due to the way this duel was set up so José/Jakob could bust out Meklord Emperor Granel with a ridiculous amount of attack points, Crow gets a resounding four turns total in this duel. (Gee, I wonder which other character got this treatment during a WRGP duel.) During those four turns, there are only two things he accomplishes: One, leaving behind two combo pieces Yusei later uses, and two, showcasing the shrewd tactics that earned him the label of "trickster" during the Ragnarok duel by bringing out a non-synchro monster that can take advantage of a synchro monster's attack points and effects—Aurora the Northern Lights. And arguably, this is a very smart play, moreover, it's the only time anyone in the show has the bright idea to not use synchro monsters against the known and feared synchro-killer Meklords. Unfortunately, as smart as it is, the narrative doesn't reward Crow for this play—José all but shrugs what could have been a turning point in the duel off, then proceeds to steamroll Crow the next turn, leaving Yusei to score the win, as usual. To get back to the "Crow got so much more screentime than Aki during the WRGP" thing for a second, of all the duels in the WRGP finals, this is arguably the one where Aki could still most easily have taken Crow's spot again, because here, it doesn't matter whether it's him or someone else, as this duel isn't tied to his character in any way. Unfortunately, due to the Granel-steamroller-strategy, this is also the duel where letting Aki take his spot again would have been the biggest shot in the foot, because unless they had changed Team New World's strategy, Aki would have gotten brutally guillotined here, same as Crow—something I can't imagine anyone, not even people who hate Crow, being happy about.

With that, though, we've finally made it through the WRGP. So, what's the bottom line here? Frankly, speaking from my own interpretation, Crow occupies an... odd spot during this tournament, to say the least. Though he does get to duel the majority of the time, few of the duels actually cater to his character in any way. Moreover, he only gets to be the star of the show in a WRGP duel once, during the by far most forgettable match against Team Catastrophe. And mind that I use the term "star of the show" very loosely here, because the problem the WRGP arc as a whole has, in my opinion, is that the rather lame Team Catastrophe duel is the only one in the whole tournament that isn't won by Yusei, which categorically means that any of the other character's big moments are usually undermined by the fact that they ultimately still need him to save the day. Thus, moments like Aki summoning Stardust Dragon and Crow using an anti-synchro-killer strategy that for once actually forgoes synchros are somewhat cheapened by the fact that they're not actually the turning-point moments they're initially painted as, because ultimately, Yusei always has to be the one to save the day. What's worse is that this almost feels like a bit of a non-issue that could have easily been fixed—given that the show tells us that teams can shuffle around their line-up for a match any time. But unfortunately, the writing never interacts with this as a possible strategic element, nor does it ever seem to consider letting Yusei lose, or forcing him to give up his spot for a match. I feel the need to say that I don't put the blame at Yusei's feet here, though: This strongly feels like an oversight by the writers, and perhaps a disproportionate need to have a nigh-infallible protagonist (on the duelling side of things) that their audience would never run the risk of calling "lame". For Crow, though, this chiefly means one thing: In any duel other than the Catastrophe one, it was always clear that even if he partook, he would never finish the match. And yes, this is technically an issue Jack has, too. But this is where the character writing outside of the duels comes into play, too.

Unlike Jack, who actually gets to do something during the Diablo invasion (albeit very little), who gets his very own dragon upgrade and who gets a very personal, pre-duel plot with Dragan, the show's writing doesn't bother giving Crow a lot of plot- or character-relevant things to do, once the WRGP starts. This is also why I was so surprised at how much the Unicorn and Catastrophe duels embrace his interactions with Aki—compared to the later duels in the finals, this portion still makes Crow feel genuinely relevant and interwoven with the other characters. Meanwhile, out of the three final duels, only the Ragnarok one actually tries to establish a connection to his characterisation, through Brave. The Taiyou duel only sets itself up in such a way that Aki partaking instead of him would have been awkward. Meanwhile, the New World duel just has him being treated like a floormat in a sad parallel to Aki during the Unicorn duel, seeing as they both get a nice moment where it looks like they might turn the duel around (Aki summoning Stardust Dragon and Black Rose Dragon onto the field at the same time; Crow summoning Aurora the Northern Lights, which couldn't be absorbed by the Meklords), only to have their hopes dashed as they're mercilessly cleared off the track. Outside of the duels, many scenes sadly give the impression that they may as well not have included Crow, though—he often gets so little to contribute to a moment or even to say at all that substituting him with a cardboard box seems like it would not have impacted the scene in any way. And that's without addressing his non-existent connection to Sherry, which feels extra glaring, given his later interactions with her on the Ark Cradle.

All in all, the WRGP feels like a very mixed bag, where Crow's character writing is concerned. His belated backstory, which I talked about in part two, is front-loaded and asks as many questions as it answers. Then the tournament commences, gives him some actually decent character interplay with Aki for once (at the cost of letting her succeed in the tournament, it seems), only for him to be basically irrelevant during the WRGP pause again. And once the whole thing resumes, it becomes this hot-and-cold thing where some duel aspects seem tailored to him, while others treat him as completely expendable. The end result is an arc where I'm left wondering why exactly the writers felt the need to make it seem like Crow made up one portion of a protagonist trifecta, if they never actually bothered treating him as equal to the other two. (The answer, I believe, lies somewhere between the fumbled setup they did for him during the Fortune Cup and DS arc, and the way yugioh in general treats its character archetypes. But that's just speculation on my part.) The one, saving grace the WRGP (outside of the Pearson backstory) has for Crow is that it at least doesn't introduce any new character- and/or timeline inconsistencies. In fact, his character stays remarkably true to form once the tournament begins.

Okay, onto the final bit, then. As I've done in both previous posts, let me delve into completely subjective territory and offer some ideas on how this arc could have been handled to make it seem a little less all over the place with Crow. And since his writing here canonically intersects with Aki's several times, let me try to do it while offering the best of both worlds to both characters, if I can.

As far as Crow's backstory is concerned, I've already offered my solutions to that in part two. Now, to stay consistent with my own suggestions, I'll try to branch off what I wrote in the last post. This means that, as per my previous two analyses, we're dealing with two scenarios again: One, Crow stays a signer and we try to touch canon as little as possible. Two, Crow isn't a signer and we adjust canon in whatever way we need to to make him feel interesting and necessary despite/because of that.

First, though, let's get two adjustments I personally would have made in both versions out of the way:

The way the WRGP is structured puts every character that isn't Yusei at a massive disadvantage, where character moments in duels are concerned. Thus, I propose an overhaul. Among the changes I think could have benefitted the characters (yes, all of them) are: One - Aki actually getting to accomplish something during the Unicorn duel (she can and should still have her moments with Crow, but maybe let her portion of the duel end in her thanking him for coaching her, creating a more upbeat scene that strengthens their friendship, which could double as good setup for their later double-duel against Sherry). Two - letting the Team Catastrophe duel actually play out properly (as in, they become more meaningful as opponents by having a better strategy, for example, and Crow could stick it out longer against them, in order to make this more so his win than Jack's. Also, why not let Aki actually see him get back at Team Catastrophe for her?). Three - giving Crow an actual character moment during the Taiyou duel (what if one of the country boys had played a card or two of the ones he learned to read from? It could have helped drive the parallel between the two teams home.) Four - letting Crow's anti-Meklord strategy get at least a little payoff, if only for two turns (show us at least proof of concept, damn it!). Yes, the Ragnarok duel is the only one I wouldn't rewrite (unless special circumstances are introduced, see below). Additionally, let Team 5Ds alter their line-up more than once, damn it. Let them actually strategise about the duels, let them take into consideration who should go first when and whose deck might be better suited to which scenario. Also, remove Yusei from at least one duel. Doesn't matter how, just let him not partake once. Perfect setup to let Aki duel again, and would also allow for spicy character interactions. (Arguably the best duels where this could have been done would have been any of the final duels, though it would have also required rewriting the antagonists somewhat in any case.)

For the love of god, give Sherry and Crow some setup. Let them actually interact, let them introduce their philosophies to one another, just do something, anything to make Crow understanding and talking sense into her during the finale seem earned. A few chance meetings, or maybe even a tiny side-plot could have done so much here. And if you can't let them interact outright, at least let Aki and Crow talk about Sherry! Double whammy! The two characters who end up duelling against her are made to seem even more like a team, and Crow actually gets to find out what Sherry's deal is on-screen. Just. Set. it. up. I beg you.

There we go. Now, onto the two branches.

Option A: Crow stays a signer and obtained Black-Winged Dragon.

Seeing as Crow's signer status, funnily enough, isn't all that relevant during the tournament itself (save for two notable exceptions), there aren't that many fixes to be made here. Crow can still get injured, miss out on the Unicorn duel and be the star of the Catastrophe duel. But giving him something to do during the duel robot invasion that isn't standing around and hoping Yusei will fix everything would also be nice. It's fine if he can't drive out there and duel, but why not let him do something else? He's a crafty guy, why not let him find, say, a way to fry the Diablos' runners, taking a few of them out even from a semi-stationary position without duelling them? He could at least get as much of a consolation prize scene as Aki got with her saving that child. Then there's Team Taiyou, which, save for what I proposed above, is a duel that doesn't feel like it needs changes. Crow does his thing here. That's it. The same goes for Team Ragnarok, especially given that they're specifically written to oppose an all-signers Team 5Ds. Finally, there's Team New World, which, if I'm being completely candid, I would personally overhaul to change the cyborgs' strategy entirely in order to actually let all three members of Team 5Ds shine. But this is the version where I touch canon as little as possible, so... Aside from what I wrote above, no changes needed. Just make Crow seem a little more relevant, make his strategy have at least a little payoff, even if Granel's back out and menacing literally two turns later.

Option B: Crow, as per my previous posts, isn't a signer and doesn't have Black-Winged Dragon.

This is the version that would categorically require heavier changes, though they honestly don't arrive until the break in the tournament. Unicorn and Catastrophe stay the same, I would still propose that Crow gets to be a little more useful during the Diablo invasion. But! In this version, seeing as he never acquired BWD, the break in the WRGP would be an excellent spot to let Crow acquire an upgrade for his beefy Blackwing ace monster of choice. Give him a little side-plot, too, something to do, something where he proves himself. Maybe let him run into Iliaster here, or maybe call back to Pearson again and introduce the new Blackwing upgrade as a treasure Pearson stashed away before he died (maybe this could have even been the card Bolger was actually after; the world is our oyster here). Then he's beefed up, too, and actually feels a little more on the same level as Jack and Yusei. The tournament recommences and again, the Taiyou duel could stay mostly the same, I think. Ragnarok and New World are where it gets really interesting, though. The way I see it, Ragnarok could go two ways with Crow not being a signer: Either he partakes as he did in canon and his non-signer status is called out as a peculiarity by our Swedish boys who happen to be obsessed with fate (which would make his performance against Brave seem all the more impressive), or, due to this being a duel all about destiny and celestial pissing contests, Crow's spot is given to Aki again for this duel due to her signer status (this would, obviously, require rewriting Brave, perhaps even switching him out for a Ragnarok lady instead). As for Team New World, this duel would honestly be a lot more juicy with a non-signer Crow, because much like he was for the dark signers, a non-signer Crow would essentially be an unknown in their plan for the cyborgs. He would be the guy who's Not Supposed To Be Here. Granted, he would still be beaten, but he could still get an excellent moment where his out-of-left-field anti-Meklord strategy genuinely seems to turn the tables for a bit, angering José and providing even stronger setup for Yusei to win later.

Aaaaand that's that. Somehow, I get the feeling the WRGP had the least things that needed fixing because it also had the least actual character writing. But that might just be me. It's late and I have been writing for A While. But hey, I got out part three faster than part two! I consider that an achievement.

Now, while I get my talking points in order for part four, I hope you'll have fun chewing on this one. See you in the grand finale to my Bird Boy dissertation.

42 notes · View notes

isekai-crow · 5 months

Text

Mr. Villain's Day Off / Kyuujitsu no Warumono San Episode 1

Overall Rating So Far: 9/10 (i WILL buy merch for this)

MR. VILLAIN IS TOO MUCH CROW BAIT.

I have a thing for curly bowl cuts. I like goth-coded characters, and this demon does a decent job. I love Yakuza/Gangster/Evil coded villains that have gap-moe (a side to them that seems completely counter to the personality they present). Most of all I LOVE SHINTAROU ASANUMA'S VOICE.

He's probably most famous for being Samatoki, the gangster rapper and leader of the Mad Trigger Crew, from Hypnosis Mic, and I've seen him perform at multiple live viewings and his character has a rabid following. His other famous roles are Saiki Kusuo, Ugetsu from Given, and he's in Ensemble Stars, A!3, and Tokenranbu (can you tell this dude can sing).

He has a lovely deep voice and is an absolute sweetheart, despite being able to growl like a rabid dog. It's the perfect match for the character.

The show itself looks like it will be a cute and fluffy show that is low-risk and chill. Most importantly, it's teaching us the importance of Work-Life balance!

It seems to be based on Sentei/Ranger style shows, but set as if the show is the real world, and the characters are NOT actors. Who knows WHY Mr. Villain and his fellow demons are here to destroy humans, but the Ranger's are here to protect us!

Spoilers and screenshots for episode 1!

Holy shit, Mr. Villain is /adorable/ in both work mode and relax mode.

This almost feels like it's trying to be sexy in the same way the Uramichi Oniisan was, just for the hell of it in a show with almost zero fan service apart from Soft Boys.

The show is basically three little shorts strung together, but gives us a great glimpse of the world.

We get to meet Red Ranger who.... I killed myself laughing over this, but is just as directionally challenged as my Capybara is. We go anywhere together and he starts walking in a direction, and its a 90% chance that it's the exact opposite direction he wants to go in.

Mr. Villain leads him to the train station he was ACTUALLY trying to get to, and as Red Ranger skipped happily through the ticket gate, Capybara said "See, now I'd just get lost and not know what platform to go to."

....only for Red Ranger to have this immediate problem, lmfao. I'm so excidted for more non-existant-sense-of-direction shinanigens, if only to tease the Capybara.

So, Quick Japanese Cultural Lesson -> This is called a Showa Yankee lmao. It's a street gangster / troublemaker with a soft spot for animals. This comes from a brand with cute dogs on it that was popular among the rough and tumble street gangs oh the 1980s and earlier. But you will see this trope across various anime and manga, and I LOVE IT. Gap-Moe at it's finest.

Along with the animal loving, Mr. Villain can't eat spicy curry (Is he British? lololol) and despite getting ready to murder any human at hand because they're sold out of Mild Curry Roux, the panda special immediately calms him down and settles in to watch.

MR. VILLAIN HAS A SPECIAL INTEREST AND I VIBE.

I may not care that much for pandas (Would saying that get my killed by Mr. Villain? Probably, but I'm one of the few people who don't go "awww" when they see a panda, and instead can only remember the baby panda sneeze video lmao) but I hope to keep enjoying all this fluff, especially as I try to push through the last few episodes of Jujutsu Kaisen from last season.

Mr. Villain has his priorities straight, and I'd be happy to hand over the world to his control as long as I don't die :D

Let's hope his faith in humanity continues to grow even as he uncovers more atrocities like the incarceration of predatory beasts for human viewing pleasure.

ep2 ep3 ep4 ep5 ep6 <- these will eventually become links, I hope.

#mr. villain's day off #kyuujitsu no warumono san #休日のわるものさん #anime winter 2024 #asanuma shintaro #uramichi oniisan #pandas #demon lord

22 notes · View notes

kedreeva · 2 years

Note

I don't know if anyone's touched on this yet, I'm incredibly late to the party, but I only noticed this just now. Looking at Nancy and Eddie's hair this season (and I know Steve and Nancy dated in season one shhh just let me spin this yarn) one might think Steve has a type.

Listen. Listen ok. First of all welcome to the club, here's your walkie! Second. Listen.

The hair is not a coincidence all things considered but also look at them, at Nancy and Eddie. Two people who looked at society's expectations of them, how they're supposed to behave, how they're supposed to conform, and they both said 'fuck that' in the way Steve desperately wishes he could?

Look at Robin, who talks too much and doesn't love the way society says she should and likes weird movies and is 100% ready to throw in with him the second she learns about the Russians or thinks he needs help underwater. Nancy, who took one look at monsters and picked up a gun, who said "we're bullshit" but still dove after him with no hesitation. Dustin, who got into his car and said Get in loser, we're going monster hunting, and "if you die I die" and refuses to stop being friends with him even when they have almost nothing in common. Max, who heard a completely batshit story and not only came with Lucas anyway, but continued helping Steve even after Dustin and Lucas stopped, who writes him a letter, who says it's gotta be her baiting Vecna so no one else gets hurt. Hell, even Erica, who bargains her way into their shenanigans but shows up, stubborn to the end.

Steve has a type of person. It's "immediately and fiercely loyal" and watching Eddie learn about all the horrors and go "well, that's terrible and also I'm in" was no exception.

And is it any wonder? After the way things fell out with Tommy and Carol? How quickly the kids at school dropped him in favor of Billy? Knowing what we know about his parents? Of course Steve values loyalty, in himself and in others.

The hair is just a nice, soft bonus.

#Steve Harrington #stranger things #asks #anon asks #stranger things meta

143 notes · View notes

saints-who-never-existed · 4 months

Text

Rereading The Terror

Chapter Forty-Nine: Crozier

The southward journey continues, or at least tries to...

Whether asleep or awake, Crozier is beset on all sides by nightmares. In the few minutes of sleep he can catch, he has visions of his Memo Moira sending him up to receive the Eucharist from a giant, dripping Tuunbaq-like priest who rises up out of the floor and reeks of blood. "He knows that his life will never be the same after receiving the Papist Eucharist. And he also knows that his life will end if he does not receive it." And in his waking hours, he and the men are subjected to the constant, terrifying feeling that the ice beneath them is breaking up to swallow them whole, as well as the news from Goodsir that their constant ice-slicked, sweat-dampened state is ruining the men's feet, rotting them gangrenously away and necessitating amputations.

Those unimaginably awful conditions are one thing I do feel the book captures better than the show often is able to (for obvious practical reasons, but still...). "The Holland tents were soaked and never dried. The sleeping bags...were soaked and frozen inside and out and never dried. When the men awoke in the morning after a few stolen minutes of fitful sleep - no amount of shivering could make one warmer..." Like, just the mental toll of being that cold for that long alone is bad enough! :(((

They're constantly trying to hunt but are constantly unsuccessful. They've shot at a few seals on the ice floes but the animals have always managed to escape down into the water to die before the men can reach them. ("Sometimes the hunters knelt on the ice to lap at the blood.")

One bright spot in all the darkness is the legendary Mr Diggle, who somehow manages to remain "the same energetic, obscene, efficient, bellowing, and somehow reassuring figure he had been for three years at his post... aboard HMS Terror." "...always the optimist...", Diggle has even cobbled together a crude seal-oil stove so as to be ready in the event that one of the hunting parties finally sees some success.

Still, even that optimism isn't enough and Crozier's thoughts grow darker... He reasons that the only thing that would really help them now would be to finally manage to kill Tuunbaq, who continues to stalk them. He still believes Tuunbaq to be a real animal of flesh and blood (unlike the rest of the men who believe it a wrathful god) and can't help but think not only of the feast Tuunbaq's body would provide but of the morale boost too. "So they would eat well for many week if they did manage to murder their murderer. And with every bite, Crozier knew, even eating the thing-flesh as they were the salt pork while on the march, there would be the pleasure of revenge, even if it had to be a dish best served cold."

The lengths he contemplates going to in order to accomplish this almost don't bear thinking about. First, he considers using himself as bait: "If it would work, Francis Crozier knew he would set himself out onto the ice as bait. If it would work. If it would save and feed even a few of his men."

Then, he thinks about bodies... He remembers Private Wilkes, who was pulled from the water just before the ice closed back over the drowned Marines, but who died from the cold shortly afterwards anyway. He thinks of how they just his left his body out on the ice when they moved on when they could've used it for bait. And he thinks of David Leys now - the man who's lain catatonic and useless since Tuunbaq's attack on Blanky. Not even the likes of Hickey and Aylmore seem to have thought of leaving Leys behind (or worse) but Crozier has... "But everyone must have had the same thought..." "Eat them." "Eat Leys first, then the others when they die." "Francis Crozier was so hungry that he could imagine eating human flesh. He would not kill a man in order to devour him - not yet - but once dead, why should all that meat be left behind to rot in the arctic summer sun?"

Crozier thinks briefly of the whaling ship Essex, the one famously sunk by a sperm whale in 1820, leaving her crew to drift and descend into cannibalism and almost all perish in their tiny whaleboats in the Pacific. Hard to tell whether it comes from Simmons himself, or is more on Crozier's part as a character but there's a bit that strikes me as amusing. Crozier recalls that the Essex's crew made landfall on Henderson Island but quickly found that the animals and plant life there would not be enough to sustain them. Conveniently left out is the fact that there wasn't enough animal and plant life because the crew went absolutely fuckin' hog-wild and burnt through it all, depleting all of the island's natural resources in the space of barely a fuckin' week! Like, God love them the poor bugger's were starving, but even still, they were the reason there wasn't enough food to last on that island!

Back in colder climes, the Expedition's men continue to drift, the ice being too weirdly broken up for them to row/sail/haul with any kind of purpose. Crozier maps their position as best he can and eventually realises just where they are: "We're in the strait. And since we have to be north of the Adelaide Peninsula, we've completed the goal of the Sir John Franklin Expedition. This is the North-West Passage. By God, you've done it." "There was a weak cheer followed by some coughing."

And finally, a short while later, they're able to make landfall again. The men are so exhausted that they don't even put up tents or pull out sleeping bags, just collapsed and sleep in piles on the bare rocks with only their mate's bodies for warmth. Crozier doesn't assign a watch - "If the thing wanted them tonight, it could have them." He checks their position once more, figures out that they're still 900 miles from Great Slave Lake, and throws himself down on the ground to sleep too and dream again of Memo Moira - "Crozier closed his eyes and extended his tongue to receive the Body of Christ."

#The Terror #The Terror AMC #Observations #Random Observations #Meta #Rereading the Terror #Terror Spoilers #Pain again #Pure unadulterated pain as always!#Francis Crozier #John Diggle though #What a legend #Absolute MVP #And I'm always a sucker for the religion/cannibalism parallels #'He knows his life will never be the same if he consumes the Body of Christ'#'But he also knows he'll die if he doesn't consume it'#Ooft #Outstanding stuff

12 notes · View notes

batmanrogues-scenarios · 1 year

Note

I ran the moment I saw requests were open how ab the dork squad + two face w a ex robin (maybe they got the jason Todd treatment or not your choice ) y/n who they take care of as a like sidekick + kid

Happy to hear that!

Rogues with Ex Robin Reader

Riddler

Ok, so the kid annoyed the shit out of him

They would always fight, even more than with Batman but he saw kid potential

When Y/N turned his puzzle against him almost cutting his head off, he was only pissed for a moment before rolling his eyes at Barman for giving Robin a lecture

Kid actually showed some brain, what is his problem?

Would offer kid work and, after few beat upsby them, they accept it

It's at first secret but Bayman finds out and tries to talk to Y/N but they had enough of being holded back; the fight broke off and Batman lost Robin but Riddler got new sidekick

He teaches them everything he knows, makes them new costume

Still keep fighting but now it's verbal fight

He gets used to them being there and while he bitches about them from time to time he is only one allowed to do that

If anyone is saying bad stuff about his new sidekick he whips out full blown argument why they're wrong and how Y/N is brilliant while other person is stupid

Doesn't think of himself as father but it's clear to everyone else that he is

Scarecrow

This Robin was weird, they were scared of his toxin yet they always tried to work around it, examine it, once even purposely walked into it

It got his attention

When he kidnapped them once he started talking about fear, how it pushes people and Y/N was listening with interest

He just smirked and after getting arrested he told them he can't wait for their next meeting

Next time he hears about them they're dead

He isn't shoked but definitely didn't liked that

There was finally someone else who saw his vision and of course they had to die; he would remind Dark Knight about it next time

He honesty was suprised when he saw them again, they looked think and dirty but they were alive

Scoops them and starts asking questions, turns out there were ways to come back; kid says at least now they aren't afraid of death

Jon would be the judge of that

Since they basically started a new life he asks if they're interested in a new identity as his sidekick, they were already interested in his toxin, might as well use their death reason to pursue it

Robin becomes a Crow

Most people aren't even aware of it at first because of their costume but when Batman unmasks them it's clear

"I knew this kid was a freak." One of the police officers said and Jon got to him before Batman.

While Y/N tries to get ahold of being scary, Jon is standing behind them, making sure everyone is covering in fear

Seems cold but knows when to push and when to let go

The kid isn't getting killed for 2nd time

Mad Hatter

Robin was sweet kid, he honesty had nothing against them; sure they bear him up but so did every other Robin

One day there was an accident and Y/N got separated from Batman

Jervis found them in rumbles with henchmen

He came closer to inspect them, they started moving and jumped on him

He let out a yelp and told his henchmen to get them off but they hold strong to him and he realized they were crying

Said to let them go and Robin just kept holding him, he asked what's happened and Y/N said "Batman- left m-me" sobbing

His heart break for the poor kid so he tried to hug him, Y/N seemingly not having enough strength to protest

He took them with him and gave them clothes, tea anything they need

He didn't know what to do, he didn't want to hypnotize the kid and use it as bait, they said Batman abounded them, how can he just give them back?

Thinks it's over and after few nights of talking and playing he decides to let them stay if they now will be helping him

Is so excited about it, asks if they know about Wonderland and who they would like to be; it's ends up on the mouse

Is having so much fun with them, and is ready to teach them everything; when they hypnotize someone for the first time he realized he was proud

Then they met with Batman again and he recognized his sidekick trying to get them to home just for Y/N to have panic attack

Something in Jervis just wanted to make it go away so he straight up jumped on Batman saying to let them go

They managed to get away and he is immediately looking after Y/N, making sure they're alright

Kid just hugs him saying everything is good now and he hugs back

There's no paperwork or anything official, but from that point on, everyone knows it's his kid now

Two-Face

Ok, so this Robin was pretty nice to him honesty, always refers to him as Sir, asking if he's alright after beating

Harvey likes the kid while Harv just wants to murder them even more

He kinda gets his wish when Robin falls down and breaks his neck

Harvey is running to them while shouting for Batman but it's too late

Honesty feels bad for them, Y/N was one of the most innocent kids he has met

Even Harv admits after a while that it wasn't that bad to treated with respect

So when the kid just walks past him he almost has a heart attack

Harvey grabs their arm and takes a good look to make sure he sees it right

Asks how it is possible, who, when

Wonders if that means they're going back to being a Robin but they surprisingly refuse

They tried to be understanding to rogues and it got them killed, how they can do it again?

They both understand him so after a moment of thinking they toss a coin, he either leaves them to figure this stuff out or he's taking them under the wing

Guess which won?

Harv teaches them about guns and their safety, Harvey about loopholes in law if they got caught

He's honesty pretty understanding and nice

Looks after them while on robberies, if something can threaten their lives he gets them out of them

Starts treating them with time more like his own kid which Harv makes fun of just to be shut down when Harvey points out that he asked for Y/N birthday to give them a guns with their initials

He actually goes threw with adoptions papers; probably not legal since he is criminal but they exist

From now on it's Y/N Dent

#father mad hatter #father scarecrow #father riddler #father two face #mad hatter x platonic!reader #scarecrow x platonic!reader #riddler x platonic!reader #two face x platonic!reader #pati writes

80 notes · View notes

scaly-freaks · 3 hours

Note

I was not the anon who brought this Au up originally, but yeah props to them for making us both obsessed i guess. There is just something about amara being the only one on aegons mind while she couldn’t really care less about him that makes me crazyyy like, I can see aemond genuinely starting to move on from alys, seeing a future with amara and just generally being a nice and respectable man wanting to date amara and even being ready to leave the bad. So amara has the choice of ending up in a healthy and good relationship with aemond but somehow the thought turns her completely off and she's like 'wtf no I can’t do this'. And somehow she lands in aegons arms, the little pervy creep who is like 'yaay she doesn’t wanna be happy she wants me!'. (I wouldn’t put it past aegon to carry a paper face-mask of amaras face with him at all times so he can put it on whoever he's hooking up with, and all the girls tolerate it so they can tell everyone they slept with someone famous. But if they’re being real with themselves they’re all super weirded out by him)

Interesting, interesting. Because I do not see Aemond getting over Alys at allllll. Hear me out -

He's the kid who was turned into the emotional support by their mother, so he looks to an older woman to for once support his emotions and help him get them out. We're not going to get into what kind of kinks he and Alys get into when they sleep together but iykyk. And to me, it's like Amara can't hope to match up. She would be the normal relationship for him, the one without any objection from anyone (except Aegon but who gives af about him), but Aemond just...can't. Alys calls, his insides pull tight, and even though he knows he's so close to falling in love with Amara, he can't step over the edge.

Off topic, but so many 'A' names in this thing - Alicent, Alys, Aemond, Aegon, Amara - anyway -

The paper mask thing made me giggle so hard because oooh ofc he does. At this point he's probably built up quite a bit of resentment, and if he gets to fuck her, he's not just doing it because he thinks she's hot, he's violating his brother's "sanctified relationship" that everyone in their family approve of. Amara is still very much in an on-again, off-again thing with Aemond, because she refuses to accept she can't turn him away from Alys, and Aemond still has a huge weak spot for her and when they're together, things just click.

But anyway, she ends up on the roof of the bar they're at one night, alone and upset and crying into her sleeves with the cigarettes she stole from Aemond (she never used to smoke, but picked up the habit because the smell of the brand reminded her of him). She hears the doors to the roof open and close, and stands up like, "Aemond?" and there's so much hope in her eyes, Aegon just feels sick to his stomach. He kinda came up there to comfort her, but hearing his brother's name from that sweet little voice pisses him off real quick.

Now fictional intrusive thoughts say that Amara ends up being shoved over that ledge by accident that night, probably in a tussle to get Aegon off her (they're both drunk) but woah, I don't want her to die.

He gets all stroppy and weird about why she wants Aemond so bad when she knows he's got his head split between her and Alys, and she's like, "Oh sure, and if I went with you, I'd have your head split between me and any woman who'll open her legs, yes?"

He doesn't take the bait, and leans in to light his cigarette with the end of hers, and the wind slows down as they stare at each other. She doesn't pull away when his hand brushes her ankle, so he plays with it a bit, kneading the bone through the skin, until she fidgets to make him get off. That triggers something, and he grabs the end of her net kimono as she gets up to go back down, and as Amara shoves him, SOMEHOW, their lips end up colliding (oh yeah, wonder how that happened).

And it's literally all Aegon needs. Because for about five seconds, she kisses him back, and she does it the way you do when you're into someone. Obviously, she's horrified, and leaves instantly, but now he knows.

Let the games begin, as they say.

#aegon x amara #aegon ii x oc #modern aegon #modern aemond #scalyfreakswrites #rockstar aegon

3 notes · View notes

obsessedwiththedragonprince · 10 months

Text

Se4 ep4 thoughts

First of all, i just realised Ibis's message reminds me very much of Kingsley's patronus in HP and the Deathly Hallows saying the ministry has fallen😂

Random but I don't really get why Ezran has a telephatic connection to Zym? Like okay he can talk to animals which includes Zym(which I too don't really know where it came from but ok) but does this connection add anything besides being an deus ex machina at the end of book 2? And then they couldn't just write it off so it just shows up randomly? Idk myb it leads somewhere and i hadn't gotten there yet.

Human-elf argument? Is it to show they aren't ready to truly accept one another? Where's this going?

Why does Ezran going with them solve anything? Like it's a gesture of good will but he can't really help them fight Viren. He can just die and then Katolis will be without a king. Myb just I dunno, send your High Mage with them? It's a gesture of good will and he can actually defend himself. And isn't an eleven y/o! Opeli get your head on straight!

I really like the cook but he comes in at most random moments? Like I think brown sludge tarts can wait my friend.

Oh so others are coming. Kinda makes sense.

Damn architect i get where ur coming from but have a heart! Why doesn't he take his mother's spirit flame out of the camp?

Love how much Callum cares about Bait. Even tho he's just endangering him.

Ohhh we're getting Aaravos backstory!!

Wait how long do elves live? Aditi is Janai's grandmother right? And this was hundreds of years ago. I love how they couldn't just talk about who'll ascend the throne. Do you even get that many benefits from it?

Young human girl? Looks like some ancestor of Katolis leaders. And was that before dark magic and banishment of humans? Cause otherwise why did she even know about this? The cube!! Thousand years??? Do all elves live this long or just Great Ones(who are they btw?)

What exactly was Aaravos's goal with causing all these crisises? Now ig it's getting free but what about before?

New transition i love: Aaravos still shown whispering when it switches to Claudia to show how he's manipulating her.

Omgg is this a Viren - Terry bonding moment is see in the near future??

Oh fuck off Viren. Just. Fuck off. Like I didn't think it would be all sweet and this but at least something? Get a grip?? Idk if u read my post for ep3 but i imagined Viren would myb find some new respect for Terry after learning what he did but no.

Shit shit shit stupid architect woman why would u do that!? I feel so bad for the elf i started crying😭 honestly his voice actor really convinced me of his anguish and it makes the whole scene(same with Janai when her sister died these actors are doing a fine job) did the whole bucket just turn to ash? Damn. Why doesn't it happen to humans tho? Bucket more flammable? I like that he immediately regrets burning her even if he was in the wrong, but honestly the animation doesn't sell it as much as the voice actor would i think. Why is there no gasp or sth?

Are they hinting Aaravos could turn his attention to Callum? I mean he'd certainly be interesting as a human who knows an arcanum.

Damn. I mean we knew Aaravos was powerful but a being from the heavens? Dragons combined couldn’t risk a confrontation?

Okay that scene talking about the magical prison has me more and more convinced that my far-fetched thought was right and the cube is the prison lmao. Like it looked like sth tiny? Idk.

They found Ibis's body! With blood mysteriously gone but ok. If we're being honest Zym should prolly be more attached to Ibis than Ez cause he spent way more time with him. But he wasn't a MC so tough luck. Where's Callum? Oh they're late. Idk why but in my mind Rayla was riding with Callum and Soren.

Viren's hesitating! I mean I get it if magic got me killed I wouldn't be so eager to pick it up again.

Dragons can do magic? Huh.

What the fuck is he doing to Callum? I mean possession was my first thought but. Couldn't he have done it before to anyone? I mean he prolly didn't want to reveal what he can do while still in prison before he was ready.

Damn for whatever reason I love him talking to Ezran. Ig it shows sth but i don't have the brains right now to figure out what.

Bait being moral support to Soren so cute!!

I love how he blew them a kiss and broke the mirror lmao. Drama queen.

#tdp #the dragon prince #aaravos #ezran #king ezran #callum #tdp viren #viren #the ministry has fallen #opeli get ur head on straight #Callum and Bait besties #wasted viren - terry bonding moment #stupid architect woman #love the voice actors in this series #if ur not a MC tough luck #bait being moral support #we love bait #aaravos is a drama queen

9 notes · View notes

danganronpa96 · 1 year

Note

So I saw in another post that Greg Heffley was originally intended to be in dr69 and possibly a culprit? If you managed to add him how would you go about doing it??

I know I answered a question similar to this one about Greg, but I wanted to go into more detail about how I would try and implement him in the killing game. Bear in mind I haven't read the books in years and only skimmed his wiki page (and the sociopath theory doc cuz that one's pretty useful for this lol).

Greg, would be granted (by himself, following the DR69 lore) as the Ultimate Writer, Video Game Expert, or Autobiographer (the former would clash a bit with Brian's talent so I'm a bit unsure). I think, being put into a life or death situation, he would be a bit more paranoid... or so we think. On the outside, he makes it out that he believes it's all a big prank or joke by someone, hiding any nerves to make himself look better in front of everyone else.

Through any daily life, hell, even investigations and trials, he does all he can to make himself look as impressive as possible, stretching the truth on his sleuthing skills. He paints himself as a brave representative, however when faced with a hard logical aspect of a case, casually tips it off to someone else, only to claim full credit for himself. I feel like some people would fall for it, while others roll their eyes and grit their teeth just so they can move on for the sake of the trial.

Now... when does he turn into a killer? Well, out of all the motives in DR69, the most fitting for Greg does feel like the 2nd: the granted wish. After all, all Greg's ever dreamed for is success and riches. I mean, he doesn't have to get his hands that bloody to count as murder, right? (I think the 3rd motive could also work as he feels like the type to get paranoid about someone having dirt on him, but the 4th isn't that strong as he seldom holds many people very close to him).

I'm not sure who exactly he'd kill, but it'd have to be someone that could be easily manipulated. I think anyone from Fluttershy, Parappa, Miku (but probably not, for obvious reasons), 2D, Dedede, or Mr. Krabs would be possible. Of course I'm not saying these guys are easy targets -- they're just very nice people who would unfortunately be victim to Greg's disgusting actions. I'd say Peter too, however he feels a bit too big for Greg to take one alone... who knows. Also Luigi but if he's still protag rights then nah lol.

His main factor for his case would be his lies. He would drench himself in as many alibis and fabricate as much evidence that removes him from the suspect list as possible. He would use anyone that falls for his narratives as bait and tools to further guarantee his safety. The details would be meticulous, or so he thinks.

It's the lies that get him caught, also. A slip of the tongue. An account that doesn't quite add up with another. He tries to stretch it further. He says he was simply forgetting this one part, didn't mean to say another. Eventually, no one is convinced by his fables anymore, and everything starts to fall apart. His facade starts to slip too, showing his true nature: just a young boy who wants validation. A young boy who wanted some recognition.

A young boy who isn't ready to die.

I'd like to think one of the remaining students finds a diary he's been writing in while the killing game was going on. He feels a lot more real through these pages than he ever did around anyone else. You could almost feel sorry for him, as if this was a cry for help.

#this was a lot more than i expected to write #his murder case is quite vague as it depends on the victim how he would actually kill #he'd very much lean into a comic role at first before his murder #he's honestly wild for a kid's book protag isn't he lmao

18 notes · View notes

nolanhollogay · 10 months

Note

❛ i already said i'm sorry! ❜

johnbsarah find out about jjedgar 🩷 for ME

also sarah pov bcuz i lub her

"Are you seriously mad at me? Because I didn't know and I already said I'm sorry!" JJ said, following behind Edgar as they walked into The Chateau. Edgar was holding a box full of four different family sized bags of chips, and frowning. God, Sarah had missed him and his cute little grumpy face.

He sighed, dropping the box onto the kitchen table, turning to face JJ. "I'm not mad at you. I'm just deeply annoyed."

JJ groaned. "No, that's even worse!"

"What's going on?" John B asked, dropping his head onto Sarah's shoulder.

"They're fighting because JJ abandoned Edgar in the grocery store when he knows Edgar gets overwhelmed and then a guy Edgar kissed once at a party tried to talk to him and Edgar almost started to cry," Kie explained, walking in, holding a case of beers. "Also Ryan from the liquor store says hi."

"We're not fighting," JJ said, "Mind your own business, Kie."

"You made it my business when I had to rescue Edgar from Tyler Carmichael."

Pope made a disgusted noise in the back of his throat. "You made out with Tyler Carmichael?"

Edgar nodded. "Yeah, it was whatever. He gave me mono and I thought I was going to die."

"You always think you're going to die," JJ teased.

Edgar rolled his eyes. "I'm not in the mood for you right now." JJ's face fell, but he didn't argue, which was weird because he was always ready to argue with everyone. If he could argue with himself he probably would. But instead of snapping back at Edgar, he held his hands up in surrender, letting him win.

Sarah had forgotten about the situation almost entirely, only really kind of noticing JJ hovering at Edgars side for most of the evening and assuming it was because he was trying to get back into his good graces. Which she understood. Being on the receiving end of an Edgar pout felt like shooting a deer in the face, and she would do everything she could to avoid it too.

But she was swiftly reminded when she walked into the kitchen. She was just trying to find something non alcoholic so she could sober up for the night and instead she was greeted with the sight of Edgar sitting on the counter with JJ standing between his knees.

It was confusing, like one of those optical illusions that made you find a word inside of a drawing. Edgar was sitting there, leaning back on his palms, wearing what was definitely the shirt JJ had been wearing earlier in the day. JJ was holding his thighs, fully invading his personal space.

"Are you finally done being mad at me?" he asked.

Edgar shrugged. "Depends."

JJ snorted. "On what?"

"I haven't decided yet," Edgar teased, fighting a smile.

Sarah wrinkled her nose as she tried to process what was happening. Were they flirting? It sounded like they were flirting.

"I know how I can make it up to you," JJ said, and he was definitely flirting.

She watched with baited breath as JJ wrapped a hand around Edgar's neck, pulling him into a kiss. It didn't look like a flirty little first kiss either, not with the way they seemed to melt into each other.

She should've looked away, especially when JJ slid his tongue into Edgar's mouth, but her feet were rooted to the spot.

Behind her, the familiar sound of John B's footsteps came closer and closer, until he was standing at her back and shouting, "Oh my God!"

She adored him but tact wasn't one of his special skills.

JJ pulled away, an annoyed noise leaving his mouth, and Edgar giggled.

"Don't be rude," he said, holding JJ's face and looking at him with the softest look Sarah had ever seen. "They weren't here when everyone else found out, remember?"

JJ's rage melted away almost immediately. It was like a flip had been switched. What kind of magic powers did Edgar have? "Oh yeah."

"What the hell is going on right now?" John B asked.

JJ smiled, obviously amused by his distress. "Eds and I are dating."

"Since when do you even like guys?"

"Well, not to quote Lady Gaga, but I was born this way, bro."

Edgar laughed, throwing his head back, and smacked it into the cabinet above him. JJ's hand was in his hair in seconds as he muttered, "Jesus Eds, you're going to give yourself another concussion."

John B blinked over and over, as if he couldn't believe his eyes. "I need another beer." He left the kitchen, turning on his heel and walking right back outside.

Sarah sighed, knowing that meant it was her job to go talk to him about the situation. "Y'all are cute," she offered on her way out the door.

"Thanks, princess!" JJ called after her.

#jjedgar #asks #my writing #leaf tag 🌿

3 notes · View notes

shenyaanigans · 1 year

Note

xiao :3c

HELLO SORRY, i had to take three to five business day to reply to this because. you know. you know it was gonna be long. anyways!! under a cut!!

First impression

so unfortunately xiao is like. My Type. he is extremely distant and a bit haughty but on the inside he has this sense of wistfulness, nostalgia, and all around gentle aura. he is self-possessed but his flaw is that he cares a bit too much for others as opposed to too little. and also when you tease him he squawks like a little bird. also he is physically very beautiful in a feminine way, and yet has masculine features (triangular body, well defined muscles typically associated with men).

so all that is to say. i liked him from the jump and i wanted him so fucking bad when he first came out.... he is still one of my best built units, despite that i play on mobile and he is very hard to use there!!

Impression now

BASICALLY exactly the same, except the chasm quest made me have a deeper appreciation for his calmness and also his whump potential.

Favorite moment

THE CHASM THE CHASM THE CHASM THE CHASM!!!!!! LItERALLY THE BEST CUTSCENE IN THE GAME!!!!!!!

i know that's dramatic but i mean it, his attempted sacrifice at the end of the chasm quest where he saves everyone and is ready to die is like. quite literally the best cutscene in the game for me, and it will probably never be outdone. i think what i love so much about it is that like. ok hold on.

not to praise genshin's writing but like, something they've been doing recently, particularly with xiao and now wanderer, is they have quests that read like they're character end points up until there's a bait and switch. with xiao, the entire chasm quest is about him trying to find bosacius, the lost yaksha, and remember what happened to him--it's the promise all the yaksha made with each other, that they would see each other's lives through to the end. and xiao DOES find bosacius, he gets to recreate the battle that happened all those years ago--the one that finally ended bosacius's life, and while it isn't exactly the same, he still gets to fulfill his promise.

and throughout the entire quest, xiao is putting up all sorts of death flags right: asking about creating a will, arguing with everyone about sacrifice, yelan saying, "you only sacrifice yourself when you know for sure it would save everyone; otherwise it's needless" or something to that effect.

so like when xiao does the thing where his power is waning and he realizes he could get everyone out if he sacrificed himself, of course he does it. and narratively, this works REALLY well with everything going on in the scene: we see him repeat the words that he did when he was a yaksha, calling out "general alatus, falling in!" we see his memories with zhongli. we see that he's made his decision. and when the platform breaks and he starts to fall back into darkness, there is a look of utter relief on his face... true peace dawning upon him, knowing his friends are okay, and also--based on everything we've seen--that his suffering can be over.

and then zhongli goes in and saves him.

there's something really really heartwarming about it. like this whole story should be the terminus. he has lived a life of pain and he has been ready to die for it and now he gets to die for it. except zhongli intervenes. and suddenly this event is not documenting the end of his life, but the beginning of a new one. and it just. MAN. EDJHEFJEDSHJS

sorry i knew this answer would get long but i think about this like five times a week. xiao is so beloved in teyvat and it doesn't occur to him for so long that maybe he's allowed to have love. man.

Idea for a story

i rly rly want to write a post chasm fic where he and zhongli go on a walk. like there's a couple of lines that i can see in my head and i just want to write the rest. i want that heartwarming good stuff with xiao.

Unpopular opinion

LOL so i am full of unpopular opinions about xiao but the big one is that i don't think he sees he hates himself the way people categorize self-hatred. he has an ambivalence towards himself and his life that is painful to witness, because the passive suicidal ideation intrinsic in that is very loud, but the very big "omg he hates himself so much, he is so sad all the time" emotions people project onto him make me feel vaguely uncomfortable, because he isn't like that.

the way his repression works as well is very matter of fact. like he does not conceive of these things as pain points, they are straight up facts of life. adepti are above desire, so therefore he does not have any. yaksha were meant for war; therefore he is a weapon, nothing more. if he is around people he will kill them. he needs to keep his distance. the kind of sadness he has is very understated and it isn't something he readily talks about NOR is it something that i think he even acknowledges.

Favorite relationship

VENZHONGXIAOOOO!!!! VENZHONGXIAO!!!! i'm usually not an ot3 kind of guy in fandoms; i've just never had three relationships that i felt were equally interesting to one another. but i like. can't pick between venzhong, venxiao, and zhongxiao; all three of them are so good and interesting and they're even better when combined.

Favorite headcanon

bc xiao is my little skrunkly i unfortunately am obsessed with him being very sensitive like everywhere. not being used to soft touches, i imagine he's quite ticklish. i also think it'd be cute if he had allergies to non-liyuen plants because he's not used to being outside of the country. imagine the traveler takes him to inazuma and he's incapacitated for a few days because he can't stop sneezing LOL

#kat chats #tysm chi sorry for taking so long #as you can see. i had a lot to say.

8 notes · View notes

luminenwalker · 6 months

Text

[13-12-2023]

Your port is strangely both sensitive and numb. Really, you shouldn't be able to feel it, but the nerves are too tightly wound to not feel something. Pain, cold, and the brush of heat. //RRH

Experts say that overuse of SensPerience spikes can lead to memory leakage—by design. Are you aware your childhood might be ripped clean from your skull and sold to elites to devour like candy? Be warned you may be rendered a walking husk, devoid of soul and substance.//TruthWave

Just a tiny spark and it rips through them. They're spasming, voice trembling in a half scream. They're ready to talk, or will be when it's done. You know what you need, and so do they. //RRH

Our correspondents overseas are telling us of a 'Green Plague'—not a disease, but plants refusing to die. Genetically modified vegetation strangling out remote, isolated cities. Foreign bioweapon? State-sanctioned population control? Your guess is as good as mine. //TruthWave

You watch the gathering. Blood splatters the fighters as their razors hit the ground. As one of the fighters hit the ground. Blood mingles on the concrete and money changes hands. Again. //RRH

Ever talked to an AI? Their main asset isn't their intelligence. It's their lack of dignity. //Signet

Don't ever buy no implants from the gas station, bro. My buddy got his done in one dirt cheap. Ordered some system struts; came with a side of cancerswarming fibrodysplasic nanites. Dude's locked in now. Can't even twitch. Just a pair of peepers trapped in a bony cage.//TruthWave

Doctors warn against increasingly popular 'spike roulette' party game: "Getting a bootleg SensX and sensations in orifices you've never felt before—sure. Hilarious. But unlabeled spikes are a gamble. Nobody thinks they've got latent schizophrenia until it's too late." //TruthWave

We've been hearing that some of the ice that's being peddled in town is spiced up with something nasty, and not in a good way. Mercy Crew folks are saying three people down so far; can't say for sure who's selling, but we do know the shit is green. Don't buy that shit, and if you already did, flush it, bait some wild dogs, but don't use it. //Bordertown FM

How do I pause this game? Some shit's always happening. So many new players, so many leavers. I can't keep up. I can't keep up. I can't keep up. // Signet

This MIA ganger chick gone for 20 years showed up outta nowhere at the airport the other day babbling 'bout clawing her way up outta some freaky subterranean maze, ranting of corpo cults, sci-fi critters, extinct civs. Real Jules Vernes shit. Lady should write a book. //TruthWave

#cyberpunkdreams #cyberpunk #text based game

0 notes

the-firebird69 · 1 year

Text

There's a few more things up there but for real we're going to have to start handling it there's too many for them to even think of and it's not enough bait or something no they're moving out finally that was terrible huge numbers okay massive numbers and get all the data any moment now and Trump is up and he's moving out. I say Trump has like 550,000 octillion and BGA is about the same and the rest of his plans and kids have about the same so it's 1.6 million octillion and it's growing it's going to be bigger it is a giant Force and the max are going to move in with fleets and foreigners from the other side and they see the black chips and it's going to be a war were getting ready now. We don't have any more time to wait and they had the Yeager out but we need the Giants there's a ton of stuff up there and I'm tired of them threatening us with the diamonds and it's a whole bunch of assholes right and we have ways of doing things

Hera

That was all her of the above and I agree we need to get those diamonds. And we need to get them soon. And we can't let them build any more stuff so sick of them harass me every few seconds like little a****** kids they're asking for it they're going to get it. Mac never did all this stuff he had a lot more power. Are we going to go up there and take care of business and we're going to make sure that these clones understand that we're of course that you shouldn't mess around with instead of just dumping all over me everyday

Zues

We're going to get it huh you're going to get it

Tommy f

I told you what we do Tommy f you start spouting that s*** we're going to hit you anyways

Zues

I do hear that and I understand it but you're not going to

Tommy f

I realize you had a hard life and you want to die so I'm going to take the easy route and get rid of you some issue to hit now on you it's a big one you'll see it come across the wire

Zues

Olympus we see it in summer accepting and they're going after him right now

0 notes

persephones-wren · 3 years

Note

heyy! Could I request a Kaz brekker and reader fic where shes really sensitive and kind and the opposite of him and they're dating but he seems to be spending more time with inej planning a heist and reader gets jealous and during the heist she saved inej from a bullet, getting hurt in the process and tells Kaz,in a delirious state, that shes happy she saved inej for him and everyone helps him plan a picnic for her while shes healing and suprises her? Its quite a long request but it would be wonderful if you wrote it!! thanks💕

Ends of the Earth (Kaz Brekker x Reader)

Hope you enjoy reading! I had a lot of fun writing it :)

Warnings: reader gets shot, that's about it?

Genre: Angst to (minimal) Fluff

Word Count: 2126

You’re not sure how you could have ever expected him to return what you felt for him.

You and Kaz were essentially opposites- he was a hardened criminal, you were more of a person who just ran with the wrong people. He was mean and commanding, you were sweet and endearing. Where he’d kill people with no hesitation, you’d probably be torn over it for the rest of your life.

Though the Barrel seemed to have no room for someone as kind as you, you had found yourself to fit fine along with rest as someone to watch over the rest. Your skill of memorization was appreciated when Kaz needed to reflect back on a certain part of the plan, and besides, having someone counteract his cruelty was appreciated by the others.

Sometimes, like now, it was hard to be a part of the Crows. Watching Inej stand by his side, watching them work together like well-oiled parts of the same machine, it was bittersweet. You couldn’t help the jealousy that overtook you, but kindness was ingrained in you. You couldn’t hate him. You couldn’t hate Inej.

“So we’ll take them out there. Inej, I’m going to need your backup here.” His voice snaps you back into the moment.

“Got it.” She nods.

“Before then, though, You’ll be stationed here. Y/N, I’m going to want you to stick close to her. She can fight for the both of you in case anything goes wrong.”

You’re useless, you berate yourself. You’re going to need Inej to save you. Maybe if you could defend yourself the way she could, he’d like you more.

“Understood.”

“That should wrap everything up. We’ll meet at the usual spot tonight. We’ll take transport there and sneak in. From there, everything should go according to plan.”

…

Night quickly falls, and you’re all gathered.

“To reiterate, I’m going to go grab the paintings. Inej and Y/N, stick together and communicate when it’s safe. Jesper, you’re going to shoot out the lights when signaled, and make sure that carriages are ready when it’s time. Wylan, wait it out here with him. If all goes to shit, blow this place. Clear?”

Echoes of agreement echo from around you, and you nod. This should be an easy heist.

“Y/N, c’mon. Let’s head over this way.”

Inej takes your wrist and leads you to the edge of the building. Her stare is intimidating as she surveys the building, before turning back to you.

“I’ll scale the walls, and then I’ll use the rope to pull you up. We can wait on the top of the building for a bit, before slipping in through a window. That okay?”

Damn her for even being considerate to you. And you still have the nerve to be jealous over her. Her and Kaz are so similar- they’d be perfect for each other.

You still can’t find it in your heart to be completely happy about that.

“Y/N? You alright?”

“Huh?” you snap out of your reverie, and give a bashful smile. “Yeah, that’s good. I’ll spot you. Hopefully I’ll be able to get up there…”

Inej throws you a reassuring smile back. “You’ll be okay.”

You watch with awe as she scales the building with no issue, truly living up to the nickname she had been given. She’s nearly invisible as she reaches the top, you note. She’s incredible.

You wait on the ground patiently as Inej lowers the rope, before you hear voices.

You stare up at her, wide-eyed, before running and diving behind a tree.

“The wine good tonight?”

It’s a guard. Your heart rate quickens, and bring a hand over your mouth. Quiet your breathing. If they catch you, you’re dead, and you’ll be the dead weight of this mission.

“I don’t know, haven’t had a drink yet. Maybe once everyone’s gone. Ha! The Stadwatch won't penalize me if there’s no guests to guard!”

“Yeah, that’s the spirit! All we have to make sure is no scum tries to steal the painting.”

“Like anybody would dare show their face here.”

The other guard laughs, and you wait with baited breath as they finally round the corner.

You check both directions, before you quietly slip out.

“Inej?” you’re quiet and slightly shaken. Death and capture was always palpable on these missions, but it had come swinging at you quicker than you had expected. “You still there?”

“Yeah,” her voice comes from above. “I’m here. You’re fast on your feet. Good thinking.”

“Thank you, and thank you for waiting.”

The rope drops down for the second time, and you take a hold of it, pulling yourself up with a bit of her help. Your hands finally grasp the ledge of the building, and Inej extends one of her hands to help pull you up. You’re hauled onto the rooftop, and though it’s a bit ungraceful, you’re okay.

“Thanks,” you whisper.

“No problem.”

Your eyes are both directed on the walkways below.

“You scout out for guards down there, and I’ll check for guards in the windows? We should signal to Kaz soon.”

“Sure.”

You keep a careful eye down below, hearing Inej scurry to different window points. You watch as she slips to one of them, peering through.

“Just our luck,” she mutters cheerfully. “This window’s fine. Let’s open it. I’ll go first, but send a flare for Kaz. I’m going to need that window open as soon as that flare goes up.”

“Alright.” You take a deep breath, before shooting the flare off. Inej thrusts open the window and pulls you in behind her.

You watch a figure walk past the doorway. That should be Kaz, and now, he should be slipping past you to go to the next doorway to take the painting-

“To the roof again, now-” Inej says, and starts to step out behind the boxes, and the figure turns back.

That’s not Kaz.

A click.

She’s going to be shot.

You’re acting on pure impulse and nerves when you shove her aside, and the bullet pierces through your shoulder. You crumble, and Inej tries to keep you from completely collapsing.

You grit your teeth. You’re trying not to let tears stream down your face, but everything hurts and Inej is over you and she’s saying something but you can’t hear her-

You try to force yourself to sit up, and you see a cane poised to hit the guard over the head. You turn away, and thank your murky hearing that you can’t hear the scream that emits from the guard.

Kaz.

“What happened?” His voice is losing it’s cool quickly.

“She was shot by the guard, I don’t think she’s quite registering it-” Inej’s voice is more panicked, but she forces herself to be analytical. “She’s going to need treatment, and quickly.”

“Okay,” he breathes in sharply. “Okay. Go down the hall, grab the paintings, and meet Jesper by the transportation. I’ll get her out.”

“Okay.”

Inej dashes down the hall, and he takes in your state. Your pupils are blown wide, and you’re trying not to cry, but it hurts.

“Kaz,” you breathe out. “Thank the Saints. Is Inej okay?”

He frowns at that. What about Inej? Inej was fine, you’d been shot. Did you have no self-preservation instincts?

“Inej is fine,” he mutters.

“That’s good,” you sigh out. “That’s good. I don’t quite think I’m going to make it out here alive, so just in case I don’t, I love you. Though I’m glad she’s okay, for your sake.”

His frown deepens. “I’m sorry? For my sake?”

“You’re in love with her. She with you. You guys can live your happy ending. As happy as the Barrel can get, anyway.” Your smile is slightly delirious, and he knows you’re not thinking rationally.

“Stop talking.”

“I’m sorry, are you mad at me? Please don’t be mad at me. I didn’t-” you cough, “think I’d die, but if it’s for you and Inej, then I think it’s worth it.”

“Nobody is worth your life,” he nearly yells. “You’re not going to die, Y/N. I won’t allow it.”

“Please, just let me stay here. They’re going to find you if you don’t.” “I don’t care.”

He’s pulling off his jacket and carefully using it as a tourniquet for your shoulder.

“Can you walk?”

“Kaz, please-”

“Can you walk.” It’s a statement, maybe a threat.

“Maybe- maybe with a bit of support,” your words are weak. You’re running out of time. “The world looks sideways, though- face it, Kaz, I’m not going to make it. I don’t want to be dead weight, your touch aver-”

“I’m not going to combust into fucking flames if you lean on me! Goddamnit, let me help you!”

His anger startles you. You hold back more tears as he pulls you up. At least he took the care to pull you up by the other arm. “Okay.”

The world is spinning and his face isn’t clear, and time seems to speed up as both of you go through the hallways, finally meeting Jesper and Inej in the courtyard.

“Bloody hell,” Jesper mutters.

“Go. To the White Rose. Nina should be able to do something.” Kaz leaves no room for argument. You’re passed out now, and he’s almost thankful you can’t feel anything as the carriage rushes through harsh weather and bumpy roads.

I don’t quite think I’m going to make it out here alive, so just in case I don’t, I love you.

Were you that oblivious? Did you think he was in love with Inej? How could you be so blind?

How could you sacrifice yourself so he could live what you thought to be a “happy ending”?

You didn’t plan it, did you?

He carefully takes off one of his gloves, hovering his hand over your forehead.

You’re still warm.

He doesn’t believe in Saints, but now, he’s almost praying to them that you’ll be okay.

Please be okay.

...

Inej glances at Kaz, standing over her in the White Rose.

She’s been out for days at this point. Nina could only do so much, with whatever corpse-like power she’d gained. The rest had to be natural healing.

Inej clears her throat. “She’d go to the ends of the world for you. For your happiness.” Kaz remains still.

“Don’t make her do so again.”

Your eyes flutter open, the brightness of the room nearly rendering you blind.

Your shoulder hurts like a bitch, but besides that, you’re alive.

Happiness and heaviness fill your heart at once. You’re alive, you’re okay. What had you said to Kaz in your state?

Hopefully nothing stupid.

“You’re awake. I’m glad.”

Kaz’s voice comes from the edge of the room. He’s leaning on the wall, cane in hand. When was Kaz upfront with his emotions?

“Yeah. How long was I out for?”

“A couple of days.”

“Days?” Your voice cracks. “I didn’t think it was that bad.”

That’s a lie. You thought you were dead, for sure. He doesn’t have to know that.

“...Right.” He’s skeptical, but pushes himself off the wall and makes his way over to you. “This may be a bit early, but would you want to go for a walk?”

“Sure.” Is he kicking you out of the Crows? Why would he want to go on a walk just after you’ve woken up? You’re screwed.

He waits for you to stand, and then you’re both walking side by side, into the gardens of the courtyard. He doesn’t say anything, just leads you to a small place under an apple tree. A picnic blanket is spread out, with a small basket laying on top of it.

Your eyes widen in surprise, and a brief smile flashes across his face. “Nice, isn’t it?”

“Kaz- what is all of this?”

“You said you loved me.”

Horror paints across your face, and you lower your head in shame. “I’m sorry, I didn’t, I wasn’t thinking. I’m sorry, I know you love Inej, that- was a bit unprompted of me, I’m sorry-”

He blinks at your rushed words. “Y/N. I’m not in love with Inej. She’s part of the Crows, as are you. Though- if you mean it,” he clears his throat, “that you love me- then take this as a surprise first date.”

Your expression morphs into a shy smile. He’s probably not ready to say it back. It doesn’t matter. He feels the same way.

“Happy first date, then.”

You’re both talking and eating, small smiles on both of your faces, a stark contrast to the harsh atmosphere of Ketterdam. It doesn’t matter to him. You’re alive, you’re safe, and you’re with him. You’d go to the end of the world for him. He’d do the same for you.

He loves you.

#shadow and bone #grishaverse #six of crows #six of crows x reader #soc kaz #soc x reader #kaz x reader #kaz brekker x reader #kaz rietveld #kaz brekker imagine #thank you for the request!#request

245 notes · View notes

bunchofstraydogs · 3 years

Text

BSD SKK and SSKK as Genshin Impact Players

because i finally lost my patience and deleted this damn game, so this is a Au revoir!

Atsushi Nakajima- Casual f2p team player

When i say casual, i mean in terms of him appreciating all the characters, the scenery, the lore and the effort that went into making all of it and being able to play the game with his friends.

Otherwise, there's nothing casual about his gameplay. He's surrounded by three Fatui guards on Dragonspine, slowly freezing to death. He is hesitant to eat food because there will be more important times to use it and food isn't all that cheap. He had eaten a few Sweet Madams and an Almond Tofu, though, because he's literally panicking and crying. In the end, Atsushi marks those spots on the map and leaves them for co-op.

He loves co-op, mostly to explore together and it usually happens in his world. He doesn't mind playing any role the team needs- dps, support or healer. Atsushi is usually on a discord call with Dazai, Kyouka, Ranpo and Lucy. Kenji and Yosano occasionally play as well.

As for his team, he is very loyal to Mondstadt and to people that showed him kindness when he first stumbled there so his most used characters are from Mondstadt.

Main Team: Mc, Jean, Noel, Bennet/Amber

Sub team: Qiqi, Razor, Keqing, Xingqiu

An Mc main.

Akutagawa Ryunosuke- Competitive and impatient

This disaster, i swear. Doesn't play it often, but when he does, he really makes up for the missed time. Unless he has a place to be, leisurely kills everything he comes upon. Not only is he stacked on materials (that he doesn't use properly), but he levels up like it's nobody's business. If he stumbles upon a Lay Line, he'll do them. He doesn't count resin, completely unbothered by primo or level difference.

Akutagawa is the type of player that will fight a level 90 monster with level 60 characters, but only if he has an elemental reaction advantage. He's not stupid, just stubborn and really angry.

I know i said he's not stupid (and he's not), but his builds are... not the best. Talent levels almost forgotten, artefacts leave much to be desired, but his weapons are stacked!! Although, usually given to wrong characters...

Fear not, when Gin and Chuuya figured it out, they fixed it up and explained to Aku what artefacts are and which ones to collect. He pays more attention to all of it now.

Akutagawa sometimes buys the monthly card and doesn't want to waste any more money than a few bucks on pixels. He sees the game as the waste of time and money.

That said, he waled for Xiao and Tartaglia.

Main team: Xiao, Tartaglia, Diluc, Rosaria

Doesn't have a sub team.

Mains Xiao.

Dazai Osamu- A waifu collector and a troll

Your typical genshin asshole. Goes to people's worlds, mines their ores, steals their food and leaves when done. He does it primarily to Atsushi and the poor guy doesn't know. Kyouka threatened him, but Atsu said he doesn't mind and is happy to help. Dazai is as much of a leech as a player as he is in person.

He not only trolls ADA members, but PM as well. Doesn't mind playing with Gin, but is mostly there to annoy Chuuya and pressure Akutagawa. They're playing in Akutagawa's world, obviously. Gin wouldn't let him in hers to protect her brother and, well. The only other player is Chuuya and hahahhaa.

Do i need to say that he is spending Kunikida's money on the game or is it obvious for you too? He waled for Ganyu and Hu Tao and almost got killed for it.

This lucky mofo, i hate him so much, got Mona as his first five star on the standard banner. He was wishing for her as well.

Wants Kaqing now but sike, you flat assed mackerel. Have another Xingqiu <3 Super jealous of Akutagawa for having Rosaria because he wanted her and failed to pull her. Got Childe he doesn't use tho lmao.

Main Team: Mona, Lisa, Ganyu, Hu Tao

Sub Team: Jean, Xinyan, Beido and Ningguang

A Mona and Hu Tao main.

yes i said Mona Lisa, bite me

Chuuya Nakahara- cool to play with until Dazai joins the chat

Chuuya is a great player. He is smart so he knows how to choose his battles and fearless when he does, even if he's going against Zhongli's chonkiest pokemon. He likes playing co op with some of his friends and subordinates. Often joins Akutagawa's world with Gin and either Higuchi or Tachihara. He really enjoys these moments because they forget about the mafia and get to have fun together and kick ass without hurting anyone.

These tranquil moments are ruined by one slimy mackerel. All Chuuya's qualities- teamwork, intelligence and casuallness goes out of the window. He is pissed and ready to throw hands. Dazai always baits him and tricks him into the most unsavoury of situations. Great many times will Chuuya drown due to lack of stamina, get rekt by Lawachurl and freeze to death, smack into invisible barriers with no ways of stopping untill he falls head first to the ground... yeah, hands are thrown. And tables.

Main Team: Diluc, Venti, Xiao, Albedo

Sub Team: Ningguang, Zhongli, Albedo, Geo Mc

Mains Diluc and Geo characters

It needs to be said that Chuuya has a weird guilty pleasure of playing Geo Characters. His Noel is tanked as well. Hates playing with Xiao and Venti when Dazai is around because that asshole bullies him-

"Oh, Chuuya-kun, you've found your people!" Die.

He keeps Xiao to kick ass and prove a point, but might change Venti to Zhongli or Jean 😔

#bsd #bungou stray dogs #bungo stray dogs #headcanons #dazai osamu #chuuya nakahara #atsushi nakajima #akutagawa ryunosuke #genshin impact

77 notes · View notes

beautifulterriblequeen · 3 years

Text

The Thief and the Tinker, Part 4: Circles and Cycles

part 3

Part 4

Viren: *smirks and plinks Runaan's coin to Ethari*

Ethari, furious: You throw another Moonshadow at me and I'm gonna lose it.

Circles and Cycles

Angst rating: 8/10

Back to Ethari, because we're not done with him yet. Ethari is soft, but he isn't weak. He won't be a willing pawn for Viren. He loves Runaan to the point of invention, and his devotion is more constant than the moon itself. He'll agree to do what Viren says, and he'll be Very Sad. But his spirit is in no way broken. Viren bribing him with the coins containing his family will only have the opposite effect. It'll give Ethari something to fight for.

We could get Focused Chaos Ethari. We could get Angery Trickster Ethari. We could get Rules, What Rules? Ethari. Let him try to steal the coins, try to break them, try to kill Viren, and be stymied at every turn, until he settles and seems cowed. And then all he does is craft his way out of the problem.

What if we are gifted with Iron Man Elf Ethari, who pretends to build a fake Key for Viren, but meanwhile he's really building a coinbuster with whatever he can get his hands on - primal stones, magically imbued gemstones, stolen artifacts, his own arcanum, his own reputation as the Master Craftsman of the Silvergrove. He'll use almost - almost - anything, to stop Viren and free his family.

Ethari may have to choose between those two things, though. And he's a hero, deep down, just like his family, just like his daughter. If he has to choose, he'll choose to stop Viren and save Xadia. He'll pay the same price as his family has if he must.

He'd let Viren think he was motivated purely by wanting his family back, but Ethari is far too steeped in the illusion and sacrifice for that to be all there is to his motives. It's a so-close-and-yet-so-far thing, how he and Viren almost embody the same ideals. Almost. Ethari would take one look at Viren, who just burnt down his whole Forest, he'd see the biggest threat in Xadia, and he'd say anything to get a chance to stop this juggernaut of destruction from getting his hands on whatever that ultimate power really is, locked behind that missing key. If he has to abandon his people and bawl his eyes out to convince Viren he's in, then he will.

And Viren wouldn't make it easy for him. He knows clever when he sees it. He went through all this trouble to persuade Ethari to work with him. He would need to keep Ethari as off-balance as possible to ensure that he keeps working as he should.

Angsty jewelry, anyone?

Viren giving Ethari his husband in pendant form to remind him what he's working for, when Viren and Ethari both know full well that only dark magic can open the hellcoins. Ethari wearing another pendant of his love, except it's not a metaphor this time. It's literally his love, in a coin around his neck.

Viren would love making Ethari stay close to him of his own free will if he ever hoped to free Runaan. Making people bind themselves to you is a big power flex. Remember that TDP stream future-season teaser note about Bait being in a creepy restraint in a future season?

This card is written on in all-caps, so that really could be "Bait" or "bait," or--knowing this show--both. Viren's been using Runaan as bait for Ethari all along. Putting his coin in a dark magic pendant casing for Ethari to wear would be a great parallel for that. Oh god. Oh man.

Maybe he'll stab the coin's scary casing right through that circle on Ethari's chest, right over his heart, make that Iron Man reference really obvious. Ethari also losing his shirt at some point, for angsty Viren-related reasons? It's more likely than you think. I mean... Ethari is literally involved in both forms of forging at this point. Shirt's gotta come off for uhhhh work reasons. And because he's hot. Because of all the forging. Mmhmm. I mean how else are we finally going to discover what his markings look like this is research I swear

I mentioned that I liked god-tier villains, right? Yeah, this is amazing. I haven't wanted to die and ascend over an idea for quite a while, but Ethari vs Viren in a drawn-out battle of wills would kill me in the best way. Especially since, while it looks like they're essentially fighting for who gets Runaan, they're truly fighting a much larger battle with much higher stakes. They're fighting for the future itself. It's an epic struggle between the Narrative of Strength and the Narrative of Love. And we've seen what happens, over and over, when the Narrative of Strength gets to call the shots.

On a meta note: If Ruthari's story arc isn't a love letter from one trauma survivor to another, and on a broader scope to all survivors who see it, I don't know what is. Sometimes life just chews us up and spits us out and we can't stop it and it breaks us. But sometimes we can reach out and grasp the chance to help each other, even after that, even when it hurts a lot, because we know what it means to be loved, and to love, and to want a safer future for each other and for people we'll never meet. The future is worth standing together for, helping each other back up for, fighting side by side for, even if you can't see how it'll end, or even how to begin. We are stronger together, and sometimes we need to fight for our "together" before we can fight for anything else. And that's worth it, every time.

This is glorious, it's beautiful, it's tragic, it's amazing, it makes me want to dance, it makes me want to scream into the void, it makes me want to slap someone with a semi truck. No, someone specific, don't worry, and he super deserves it.

Because Ethari is going to win. He was always going to win. He's soft, and he's clever, and he hasn't forgotten what love means. It's what he's fighting for. Not power, not control. Love. He doesn't want to dictate Runaan's future or anyone else's. He just wants his husband--and everyone else--to have one at all.

So he's going to win.

What thwarting Viren looks like, I couldn't possibly guess. TDP is no stranger to angst, so there will probably be a high cost involved in outwitting the dark mage. Maybe not everyone can be rescued from the coins. Maybe Ethari will lose his life, or his soul, or his vision, or something else really angsty. Viren could even kill him and resurrect him as a smoky craftsman, or a zombie craftsman, or something equally biddable but horrible. The only thing I'm sure of is that Ethari would never willingly make a working Key of Aaravos Ethari as long as there's a chance Viren could possess it. But I do believe that if he gets the right opportunity while he's busy saving the world from Viren's dark intentions, he'll break his husband's hellcoin open somehow and set him free, even if he has to smile at the devil to do it.

Ethari understands the difference between "you can" and "therefore you should." He might sacrifice his own world to save his husband, but he'd never sacrifice someone else's world. That's one of the Moonshadow cultural limits I've noticed: they accept boundaries when it comes to other people's autonomous rights, especially regarding life and death.

These limits could get pushed. Ethari will be under great duress and emotional strain if he goes through this kind of interaction with Viren. And maybe he will choose some dark things. Everyone else has. But I'm placing all my eggs in the basket labeled "Saved By Love." Either I'm right, or I'll get the best angst omelets in the universe. And I do love omelets. A villain invented them, you know. ;)

Another support for Ethari not making the key for Viren: the real Key exists!

Callum has it right now. The plot doesn't need Ethari's key (yet? ever?), but it does need Ethari to learn what he's made of, to stand up for something, or against something, or both at once. And once he learns what he will and won't do and the universe has rewarded his discovery with the return of his beloved husband then Ethari will be ready to take on whatever else the plot has in mind for him.

Depending on the plan, all of these events could happen in S4, as a setup for even bigger things to follow. Viren's wishes can be thwarted here and the show's overall tension will only continue to rise. It would let Ethari flex yes pls his skills so we know who he is, it would show how driven Viren can be for a long-term goal, it would let Claudia saunter further downwards, it would reveal some human/Moonshadow history, and it would resolve the seasons-long tension regarding Runaan's fate, allowing for the cycle of speculation, feels, angst, and Ruthari fanart to begin again. ;) Viren would need to find another way to pursue his long-term goal. And Callum's Key will get a little more clarity on just how important it is to the fate of the world - which will make everything he does, and everyone he talks to, and anyone who knows what he's carrying, intensely important.

Nyx is gonna steal it isn't she, omg chaos birb

To Viren, Ethari was a main course, meant to be devoured and consumed in his lifelong quest for something that will finally satisfy. But to Ethari, Viren was just empty calories to be passed over in favor of ordering his perennial favorite dish, one more time.

Once Ethari escapes Viren's clutches with as much of his family as he can rescue, Viren may turn back to looking for the real Key, especially if someone's seen it recently. Hunting a kid probably seems easier than hunting a full-grown Moonshadow craftsman who just outsmarted him. okay so maybe Nyx stealing it would be a good thing and save Callum's life

Ethari could go on to help repair the Sunforge, or rebuild the Moonhenge, or work on constructing Moonshadow villages in Katolis if he hasn't been ghosted for abandoning everyone after the forest fire. He might build magical devices for any number of reasons, to help all kinds of characters. Hopefully, wherever he goes, he'll have Runaan with him, in some way, for at least a little while. Cycles be like, and I feel like Runaan will not want to remain still for long, for whatever reason. Does he need revenge, atonement, justice, a new body, to find Rayla, to find Ezran? He'll be back in action as soon as he can, I think.

Okay, but, I'm so soft at the thought of a scene where Runaan and Ethari come before King Ezran. The husbands tried to save their people Runaan's way, the old way, and it only continued to endanger them. Following the cycle, as Moonshadows do, was the wrong move. But the son of the last human Runaan killed reached out with mercy and broke a thousand years of suffering and sorrow and hatred. Ezran did what Runaan couldn't: he saved the Moonshadow elves from total destruction. And that, more than anything else in the world, could soften one very broody assassin's heart toward humans again.

What would Runaan do, if his heart truly changed toward humans? What would he say to Ezran? I could see him struggling for a long moment before dropping to one knee to pledge his heart as he once had to do before the Dragon Throne. He doesn't know any other way but to serve. Ezran, reading the whole room and everyone's feelings before he tells Runaan that No, we don't do that here. That he's free, and free means free. No chains, no oaths. Just trust and friendship. He should get to make his own decisions for a change, even though that can be hard and scary sometimes. Runaan being genuinely scared, because that's too much freedom. But he's not alone. He has Ethari, and Ezran, and Rayla, and Callum, and their people, and their allies. And no matter what else happens, the people of Katolis - elven and human - will find a way forward. Together.

part 5

#tdp #tdp theory #tdp speculation #tdp parallels #tdp angst #heavy angst #viren #ethari #runaan #moonshadow elves #hopepunk #ezran #runaan's super getting a tart of jelly tm

15 notes · View notes