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t-n-c · 10 months

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The sexual/sensual coding in Aaravos and Viren's interactions: The Sequel

Also known as "Why I don't like the revelation in s5."

Trigger warning--This discussion is going to mention manipulation/coercion, homophobic stereotypes, and sexually-charged abusive/invasive behavior under the read more so please proceed with caution.

Alrighty so before I start talking about tdp s5's major reveal in the Viren + Aaravos relationship I'd like to discuss the interactions they had with each other before and after the reveal and my thoughts on them. Here we go:

First thing I'd like to note is that Aaravos is still showing the creepy, invasive behavior that concerned me in my original post. Throughout the scene he and Viren share he:

Touches Viren

Invades Viren's space

And manipulates/controls Viren's body

And in addition to controlling Viren's body, we've also find out that Aaravos can straight up move Viren's very soul if he wants.

And like I addressed in my previous post, he does all of this without asking for Viren's permission and/or showing any care for Viren's wishes--hell, he explicitly ignores Viren when the latter says he doesn't want to be in the prison with him.

That being said, these actions alone aren't the most concerning issue for me; that isn't to say that they're not concerning to me all, but it's nothing that hasn't been done before in their relationship--it's nothing new is what I'm trying to say.

However, the revelation about Sir Sparklepuff being their child is new--and imo it adds a whole new level of creepiness to the relationship.

Allow me to rehash what went down a bit:

Aaravos reveals to Viren that in order for his resurrection to be permanent, he needs to preform a spell that requires the "blood of his child"--Viren protests and claims that he'd never sacrifice his children.

Aaravos responds that he never expected him to hurt Claudia or Soren and reveals that he has a third child he can use--

Viren is confused and claims he doesn't have any other children--then Aaravos reveals that Sir Sparklepuff is his and Aaravos' child

He tells Viren that Sir Sparklepuff is there for him to use for the spell and that he will teach Viren how to use his "living essence" to reclaim both his life and his "future."

There's a lot (and I mean A LOT) of things about this scene/reveal that worry me; I'll try to sum it up neatly, but it's probably going to be pretty lengthy regardless. Here we go:

Concern 1) Viren had no idea that Sir Sparklepuff with his child, but Aaravos did

No matter how many angles I try to see it from, this feels violating to me; considering how Viren didn't know what the spell would do and how desperate he was at the time, his willingness to perform the original spell is dubious enough already--to then have it revealed that the spell produced a child that's biologically his really disturbs me. It might just be my opinion, but I feel that it adds a level of predatory to Aaravos that's unnecessary at best and horrifying at worst.

Concern 2) The lengths Aaravos has gone to keep Viren alive (and presumedly on his side).

This includes:

a) Telling Claudia the spell that would resurrect Viren.

b) Preserving Viren's body for 2 years while Claudia gathered everything necessary

c) When they first met, he chose a spell that would create a being that would not only allow them to communicate, but could also be used to resurrect Viren if the need arose.

Now assuming the writers planned this all from the beginning (I have my doubts, ngl) this shows a great deal of effort and premeditation on Aaravos's part to make sure Viren sticks around--whatever his plans may be, Viren must play a pretty big role in them or else he would have just moved on when Viren died the first time. (It's either that or he has some strange sort of fondness for Viren, which leads me to Concern # 3)

Concern 3) As of now, we have absolutely no info about how their relationship is going to be portrayed going forward

While Viren's fate is a bit ambiguous at the end of s5, I'm 90% confident that he's going to live through s6 in one way or another and assuming I'm right and that happens, there are a few paths the writers could take in how they depict the relationship

Option A) They sweep everything under the rug and pretend the sexual coding in the relationship never existed.

Option B) They portray Aaravos as a complete monster who was just using Viren for one thing or another and has now discarded him since he got what he wanted from him.

Option C) They portray Aaravos as having some dark sort of attachment to Viren--one that won't allow him to let Viren "leave him"

All these possibilities are iffy imho, but I'm honestly not sure which would be worse.

Going with Option A feels lazy--like the writers don't want to deal with the dark themes they chose to put in and decided to take the easy out.

(Granted, it wouldn't be the first time the show has dropped important plot points/developments--no one seems to have found out that Viren and Aaravos sent the assassins at the end of s2, for example--but it would still feel cowardly to me)

Going with Options B or C both feel gross--with Option B it feels like Aaravos would be the epitome of the Predatory Queer-Coded Villain--he would have effectively used and abused Viren in a violating way (i.e coerced/forced him to bear their child) and abandoned him once he was done with him. It would be pretty hard to make a case for him having a "kind side" after that.

That being said, Option C isn't really any better--Aarvos would still be following the "Predatory Villain" stereotype, the only difference would be that he'd fall more into the role of an abusive partner than the "pure evil" role that some older queer-coded villains were placed in.

TLDR: I don't like the revelation of Sir Sparklepuff being Viren and Aaravos' child because I feel it follows the reoccurring theme of possessive/violating actions from Aaravos toward Viren that I've worried about all the way back in s3.

#tdp critical #manipulation tw #coercion tw #like I said in my first post on this subject I know their relationship was never healthy #but they didn't have to go this route #to be clear this isn't me judging anybody who likes this twist or anything #I'm just giving my 2 cents #TNC analyzes cartoons #TNC theorizes #Writing this felt like being in The Twilight Zone #I started remembering all the emotions I felt after s3 was released/when I wrote Part One #It was weird but also kind of nostalgic #upcoming tags added after I mulled over my thoughts some more #if I'm honest I'm not worried ONLY about what's going to happen to Viren's character in future seasons #I'm also worried about AARAVOS'S character too--namely that he doesn't HAVE much of character outside of this relationship #we know next to nothing about him #and what we DO know feels 2-dimensional (and pretty iffy)#I'm honestly not terribly confident that they'll be able to change that and develop him too much in the 2 remaining seasons

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viscountessevie · 2 years

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“Yes there are brown villains and no these are not the brown people to villainise”

I am confused though. Are they not allowed to be villainised at all? Doesn’t that depend on how one views their character?

I get that you like them. And that’s fine! But… I don’t. I do see them as people who were unfair and unjust to Kate and highly mistreated her. Just as I see Anthony’s faults in this entire situation as well.

That post, while making a valid point about white saviour complex, isn’t applicable to all fics I have read (of course, I have no way of telling which fic(s) OP was talking about when they wrote that). For example, a recent fic that I read dedicated 7 chapters to Anthony grovelling for forgiveness, whilst also recognising the mistreatment Kate faced at the hands of Edwina and Mary. The author went a bit further, and made Edwina say some awful things that makes Simon banish her from his house (that is where the fic is set).

Look. I am a brown person. Indian, in fact. I have absolutely no reason to hate Edwina for being brown since a) I love Kate b) I am brown myself. I don’t like her because of her actions in the show, and I don’t mind seeing versions of her that a bit more negative than what we saw in the show. Not every fic can be a fix it. That is why your sentence - these are not the brown people to villainise - didn’t make sense to me. It’s possible that I didn’t understand it correctly, and I apologise if that is the case. And I also recognise that the characterisation in the dark au had problematic undertones. But I am not talking about that.

Related to the tags on this post, similar comments on these two posts: #1 & #2

Hey anon, thanks for taking the time to write this in respectfully. (Just an update from last night: I am okay, everyone! But I was at a funeral and wake for my family friend great grandma who I also grew up with so I took some time to focus on that before answering this) Anyways anon, I think you kind of answered your own question and laid out both sides of the argument very well! However, I still would like to answer your first two questions and give my two cents on why I am pretty sensitive about the show portrayal of The Sharmas in post S2 fics:

I think seeing interpretations of The Sharmas being just godawful family members and how some writers push extreme & harmful tropes on them (will give more examples below) gets me upset. This is based on my definition/scale of what "villainising" is. Personally, the word villain has extreme negative connotations. When I think of villains - my mind goes to truly horrible people who have committed vile actions that actively antagonises innocent people and the protagonists. [I also think of antiheroes but that's besides the point of this ask and post.]

Whereas I think Eddie and Mary are fallible and flawed characters though they come off two dimensional on the show (thank you writers -.-) and when some fic writers add the 3rd dimension that come across as portraying Eddie or Mary as villainous people who are actively antagonising Kathony, it just feels iffy to me. Because while Mary ignored Kate (and most likely Edwina at some points) cos of her grief, and Edwina throwing deep cut comments out of anger (I say shitty things to my sibs too but never that awful - my brothers do that to me tho soo,,,anyways that's for another time but I ALWAYS apologise)

I said 'these' brown people in the original tags as reference to the Sharmas (Papa included) shouldn’t be villianised to the extreme I’ve seen them portrayed. They aren't the cartoon villains that some people are making them out to be!

Do you guys remember that crack theory going around a while ago where Edwina comes back in S3 to kidnap Neddy like what the fuck is that?? And I know some of my mutuals took part in this ironically and I was just able to block the tags at the time (I do not respect the people who ran with it unironically tho)

But I think something about Papa Sharma, sweet sweet Papa Sharma who reminds me of my dad from the way Kate describes him and also me imagining him as Sendhil Ramamurthy, I mean look at him:

Just having THIS GUY being portrayed as a kidnapper and murderer in the Dark AU was not it! I know we aren’t talking about that in this post but I want to explain why after all this time I spoke out to Mimi’s anons about the portrayals of The Sharmas. This was me being pushed off the edge after turning a blind eye for months and the frustration just build up, accumulating into the ask I sent in the ‘#1′ post linked above. Hence, I brought up the portrayals of Edwina and Mary too.

That being said, I will back up these sections of this ask:

Doesn’t that depend on how one views their character?.... I do see them as people who were unfair and unjust to Kate and highly mistreated her. Just as I see Anthony’s faults in this entire situation as well.... I don’t like her [Edwina] because of her actions in the show, and I don’t mind seeing versions of her that a bit more negative than what we saw in the show.

You’re absolutely right that interpretations come from how people view them and of course, people are welcomed and allowed to have their own opinions. I did preface my original ask on Mimi’s blog saying as much that no one should be policing anything. I just wanted to point out how harmful the extreme ends of the Sharma portrayals in fics have been lately which is why I don’t read them at all. I only read authors who mesh Book and Show Sharmas well or Pre-S2 fics because I know majority of the S2 fics will make me upset.

I think the fic you referenced sounds okay because of course Miss Edwina ‘Half-sister’ and ‘More kind hearted than you’ Sharma would make comments that would have her yeeted from Simon’s home.

For me personally, I just need/will read fics that acknowledge that yes, Edwina and Mary fucked up but are trying to do better. Some people reducing them to one dimensional villains is just reductive to me. I agree not everything can be a fix it but I just feel robbed that we never got a full resolution on the show and everyone was just ‘okay’ so fix it fics fulfil that for me which is why I don’t read the ‘break it more’ fics as I call them ahhaha. But yeah they make me uncomfortable.

Most of all, I think my frustration and sadness comes from missing the era before S2 where the main Sharma (well Book!Sheffield) fics in the tag were wholesome family ones and now I can barely find any in the flood of the S2 canon fics.

Hope I got my view across and why I don’t think they should be villianised they way I define it in my head at least! Thanks to everyone for reading this and again to the anon for giving me their pov I appreciate it even if I don’t fully agree!

#Bridgerton #Bridgerton Fanfic Discourse #The Sharmas #Bookie 📖 Anon #Bridgerton Asks

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marvelvsmarvel · 3 years

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MCU Sinister Six Roster Speculation (long-form)

Spider-Man No Way Home is all but confirmed to include the multiverse, Doctor Strange, and the Sinister Six which features three of the previous Sony cinematic Spidey villains:

Alfred Molina’s Doc Ock

Jamie Foxx’s Electro

& William Dafoe’s Green Goblin

If we take into consideration that this is in fact the MCU’s Sinister Six and not to be part of the Sony-Disney joint custody Venom/Morbius limbo then we should also include:

Michael Keaton’s Vulture

& Jake Gyllenhaal’s Mysterio

Four out of these five make up the original Six from the comics (no Goblin) with Sandman and Kraven the Hunter rounding them off. Here’s where it does get iffy because if he do consider limbo picks we know that Sony recently cast the real MCU Quicksilver actor Aaron Taylor-Johnson as its Kraven the Hunter for a solo film. And then we also know that MCU Vulture was supposed to crossover in Sony’s Morbius presumably in a prison scene where Vulture and Morbius meet.

Either one makes Six but now let’s focus back on the MCU. There is Bokeem Woodbine’s Shocker and Michael Mando’s Mac Gargan who is set up to be Scorpion both of whom could possibly reprise their roles but where either one of them make Six again. So what options are there to kinda limit this search for Six?

My guess is that whoever the mystery Sixth person is would be in charge seemingly cancelling out thugs like Shocker and Scorpion. They would also need to be able to have the capabilities of accessing the multiverse to cross over the previous villains which cancels out the Kraven and Morbius as well. So while that doesn’t seem to have limited the guesses I have three that I feel incredibly strong about:

Kingpin Wilson Fisk: You mean like what Sony’s Spider-Man Into the Spider-Verse did? I mean EXACTLY like the Academy Award Winning Best Animated Feature Film that beat not one but TWO Disney movies! Vincent D’Onofrio’s Wilson Fisk already exists in the MCU proper but recently he was rumored to have been added to the Hawkeye series as well. I have been rambling how Sonny Burch (Ant-Man and The Wasp) works for someone pretty powerful but he also made note to Hope “You think that I don't know what you've been building with all of this Quantum Technology? You can forget nano-tech. Forget A.I. Forget cryptocurrency. Quantum Energy is the future. It's the next gold rush. I want in.” That’s some serious knowledge for a mid-level shot-caller. What if Fisk is Burch’s boss? You follow the general plot that Fisk wants to reclaim legitimate power and authority behind philanthropic/business fronts. One of his investments is in a crazy former AIM (bring them back) Quantum Physicist named Dr Otto Octavius (Molina) who is trying to crack Quantum Energy. Octavius uses a harness he wears that controls four powerful limbs that assist in building massive Quantum tunnels because in no way can you get Quantum Energy from a machine that fits in the back of a truck... Anyways Octavius succeeds in finding a way into another dimension. Fisk takes this news and instead of simply running to a big press conference he sees an opportunity to become a hero to society if he can kill this public menace who murdered the superhero Mysterio assuming he actually died. In order to not have the murder trace back to him he doesn’t just use out of town killers but out of dimension killers which includes Green Goblin and Electro, and now a real multiversal Mysterio Daniel Berkhart (not Quentin Beck but still played by Gyllenhaal) who has some crazy illusion tech from his own dimension. Fisk also financially leverages a reluctant Vulture because he has experience against Spidey. This plays out level boss battle style with Kingpin being the final boss. This guess supports the rumor the Charlie Cox will reprise his role as Daredevil Matt Murdock within the film.

MCU Norman Osborn (not played by Dafoe): Talk about multiverse! Continuing me doubling down on my big guesses have Osborn be the person who bought Avengers Tower in Spider-Man Homecoming and rename it OSCORP. Within it and over the past 5+ MCU years Norman Osborn has been experimenting with Quantum Energy with the goal of solving time travel much like Tony Stark did (that no one knows about but the brilliant Norman Osborn came to that conclusion with Quantum tech himself). Have him succeed only then fall under Doctor Strange’s radar. Strange who then has his hands full with what Loki and Wanda are doing to the multiverse decides to ask Peter to stop Norman from messing with things beyond his control because “the universe depends on it”. Spidey agrees and does it in the most Spidey way which is just unintentional destruction of property seemingly destroying the machine which ends in an accident that exposes Norman to Quantum Energy that will later turn him into the Goblin. Norman starts to hear voices believing he is going crazy when it is really Quantum Entanglement just like between Janet Van Dyne and Scott Lang. Villains from other universes are calling out to kill the bug and so Norman gets back to work rebuilding the Quantum tunnel like a maniac to silence the voices. Doc Ock and Electro are brought to the MCU along with another Norman Osborn (Dafoe) who is already full on crazy. Mysterio Quentin Beck is revealed to have only faked his death and comes to MCU Norman with a plan to kill Spidey after learning about what he did at Oscorp. Vulture is again reluctantly recruited with money because of his previous experience. This plays out mob style with relentless combinations of team up attacks the ultimately leads to a Six on bug boss battle. This guess supports the growing concept of multiverse in the MCU by having two Norman’s from different timelines while also bringing the franchise in full circle paying off the moving day from Homecoming.

Nightmare/Other: Ultimately this would be the Doctor Strange 2 villain who is rumored to be Nightmare but regardless should be a multidimensional threat but I’ll use him for now. With Wanda and Loki breaking the timelines this threat is freed from the limits of or the imprisonment of their dimension and are out to send the multiverse into madness. In doing so they find themselves on earth where they will begin their takeover but must first defeat their greatest threat there. Tracing power back to the Sanctum Sanctorum they find Peter Parker hiding out there instead of Strange. Mistakening Peter for Strange in the case of Nightmare he feeds on Peter’s fears which after recent events is that ALL his villains would come after his friends and family. Nightmare existing as a multi-dimensional being therefore summons Spidey rogues Green Goblin, Doc Ock, and Electro from multiple timelines and a couple from the MCU which in turn frees Vulture from jail and reveals Mysterio as alive from wherever he was hiding out at. Nightmare incites the rest of the Six to do his bidding through their own fears but Strange of course returns in time to reclaim Nightmare back into his own dimension for a future showdown. This plays out Nightmare of Elm Street (horror) style with the villains hiding out for Peter and attacking when he least expects it with the goal for Peter to survive the night until Strange arrives as opposed to battles to win. This guess doubles down on Strange’s confirmed cameo in the film because why else need the help of the Sorcerer Supreme if not because of a threat that “could destroy life on a scale hitherto undreamt of”.

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danwhobrowses · 3 years

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Castlevania Season 4 - My Thoughts

So we return, for the end Well, the 'end', there's possibility for expanded universe stories they say but for our current trio this is how we finish it

I've just binged it all so it's fresh in the mind, so I'm gonna look at the ups and downs of it all

You can also look at my review of season 3 if you'd like

Spoilers for Season 4, Watch it and get back here

So yeah, another great season, it had its downs but a lot of it had its ups too, which we will get to soon - but first let's get the negatives out of the way

What wasn't so good Nothing is perfect, and while a lot of these will be negatives they are mostly small negatives, stuff I felt could've been done a little bit better.

Saint Germain's heel turn could've been hidden So Saint Germain turning bad under the deception of death was a good way to establish conflict and pull back the rebus thing he mentioned in Season 3. But I kinda wish we didn't immediately know that he had broke bad, like we could've been super sly and coy about the fact that he's back and this time encountering Alucard only to be the orchestrator, like imagine the shock we could've had with learning what he was doing in the Castle then getting the flashback which drove him to it.

The rules of the ring change Last season Hector made the foolish decision of trusting Lenore, and while he got to bed a sexy vampire it had cost him all his freedom and the ring would prevent Hector acting against the coven of four sisters. But come this season it turns out that Hector was easily able to scheme against the sisters and invite the downfall of Camilla. Was a bit weird to establish that last season only to ignore it in the next.

The Patented Slow Start Castlevania has had a bit of a knack for starting slowly and Season 4 kinda did the same, things only really kicked off halfway through. Now of course we had to establish things; Trevor and Sypha being exhausted, the plans to resurrect Dracula, Alucard taking in the village and whatnot but we did linger on it a bit too much.

Striga's 'Day Armor' doesn't get enough time Striga took an ambush like a champ with a specialized armor that allowed her to fight in daylight. It was awesome and striking and looked absolutely badass...but that's the only time we saw it. It was just a shame really, granted it ended up that this was Striga's only time to fight, but we could've then used it for other characters, like the ambush dude who had his armor picked apart by the trio, or the Slavic vampire, just felt we could've done more with it.

CGI is sometimes a little shoddy The animation quality was mostly excellent, but that made it very glaring when some of the 3D rendering kinda hit an uncanny valley. I think the one that was most iffy was when Varney jumped into the mirror and then the mirror fragments just kinda wiped into the ground - even though Isaac's mirror tore a hole in the air - it was just a bit off-putting at times.

Couple of things left behind So when we ended it felt like we wrapped a lot of things up...except 2 things. One, where is Saint Germain's unnamed kickass lover? We caught her silhouette just walk away so we know she wasn't killed by Death, she's just 'out there' now. We also never got back to Targoviste, whose survivors must be wondering how to function since Sypha their only hope kinda disappeared on them, they'll also learn that their royals are dead, so it would've been nice to wrap that up.

Our heroes decide to use weapons sparingly In terms of arsenal we knew that our trio had a lot. The weird thing is that in some fights they just wouldn't use what would've been handy to them. There's of course Chekov's god dagger - which we didn't get too much explaining on - but Trevor would often just not use his Morningstar or Vampire Killer at times, even against two vampires, Sypha also seems to have forgotten how to use her wind magic or used her ice buzzsaw extremely sparingly and now Alucard can suddenly have bird wings...which could've been useful in prior fights.

We still lacked intelligent Night Creatures, and the badass vampires were underused So I still feel like it was very missed that the sentient night creatures of Season 1 didn't return still, especially since they were death's creatures. The one's dialogue with the priest is still among Castlevania's best and it's a shame we missed out on seeing more of it. In addition, the Ambusher's squad of vampires looked pretty cool, but like Dracula's council ended up just being swatted away after one fight, the same can be said with the Slavic vampire that was rolling with Varney. They didn't even get the pre-battle slaughter that Dracula's council did, Godbrand got more than these guys and that's a shame.

We don't get Bloody Tears or the Full Opening So the music was good, but we didn't get Bloody Tears again. For the final chapter of this saga it would've been better than using the opening song when the trio were together. Speaking of the opening song, we could've had the full length opening that we loved to see, small stuff but it would've elevated it.

Sypha is pregnant, because...because! So Sypha being pregnant is sweet, but it wasn't really needed aside from the throwaway 'trefor' joke which Alucard did better. Also that baby has gone through a lot, it's not like Sypha's been skipping in a meadow these past few weeks. Also they really gloss over how Trevor knows this and she doesn't

Some of this could've been done in a Season 5 This is more the fault of Netflix I'm guessing, since it does feel like after Season 3 we had much more to tell, but it did feel like some of the characters skipped a load of development. At the end of Season 3, Hector was beside himself in the fact that Lenore enslaved him, Isaac was still very bent on killing everything, Camilla is soaking in her genius and Alucard is more closed off than ever, but in Season 4 Hector is much more content and now has some legitimate connection to Lenore, Lenore is treated as sympathetic, Isaac is eating berries with a new outlook and Alucard decides to rescue a village because they asked, also he has a shield now. It does feel like half of what Season 4 had could've been in a Season 5, and then Season 4 could've built between having the growth be showed; Lenore feeling left out and confiding in Hector, Isaac deciding to bury the dead and rebuild the city, Trevor and Sypha having some friction in their relationship and Alucard not helping someone in need and then regretting it. As I said, this is probably not the show's fault, they were likely told that Season 4 would be it and they had to make do with it but in a vacuum it would've been nice to have had a little more build.

What was Awesome about it So I could easily just say 'the rest of it' but I guess I can afford to be a little more detailed.

Great Animation Aside from the CGI at times the animation was a top grade of excellence. I mean I watched the current My Hero Academia episode which really was pushing its budget and still I'm impressed by this animation, the artwork and settings were excellent too.

Downside: You're turning into Trevor, Upside: You get a strong warrior woman as a love interest While Alucard could've used some more time to go from emotionally scarred by 'the twins' to sympathizing with the town's plight, his character dynamic with Greta was great. Greta herself proved an excellent late addition being both a capable fighter, a strong independent leader and someone who was more than just an Alucard love interest. If you don't like strong women you're doing it wrong basically, and Alucard realising how he's turning into Trevor was some lightheartedness to Alucard combatting his loneliness and depression.

The Dialogue remains just as enthralling as the combat One of Castlevania's great strengths especially in seasons 1 and 3 were their use of gripping dialogue, the philosophical confrontations of different parties envelop the characters in greater depth thanks to the excellent script, primarily for Isaac and his chat with the bug man. The Slav Vampire also had a fantastic monologue.

Characters remain complex After four seasons it would've been easy to make some characters one dimensional, including the side villains, but Castlevania kept with the morally grey. The psycho noble clung hard to her delusions but her motives remained pure, as much as she was someone on the heroes' side she also infuriated Sypha, Saint Germain was driven to evil out of desperation but he still believably made amends in the very very end, Striga, Lenore and Morana were all on the side of the villains but had doubt about the scope of Camilla's ambition and made them consider their very nature. Simply put, it bodes well when characters have struggles that affect their motivation.

Layered Scheming 'Bring Back Dracula' was a simple premise, but the show did really well in connecting the channels between 3 plot areas, Trevor and Sypha learned of the plot by continually walking into scholar vampires attempt it, in Season 3 it was via a Night Creature in Isaac's name to start it all too, this connects to the Hector & Isaac story through Varney who schemes with the former to enact the plan, but this also connects to Alucard's story thanks to Saint Germain also plotting too. It was a clever way to entwine all three separate stories which would eventually bring things together.

Action still kicks a lot of ass Castlevania has good action? In other news water makes things wet. But still we got some great brutal action we've come familiar with in Castlevania. It could've been easy to go overboard like other shows had, which'd zone in on one thing like gore or nudity but Castlevania remained consistent in their action, looking for new lengths of creativity that never pushed its bounds. Of course building up to the final battle where we took it up a notch for the crescendo. Also I continue to call her Sypha 'Fatality' Belnades because god she kicks ass.

Isaac and Hector grow up It could've been easy and satisfying for Isaac to just roll up to Styria, take his revenge on Hector and leave, acting in both anger and mercy. But instead the characters grew beyond it, Isaac finally decides to heed what the shopkeeper and ship captain were saying rather than the crazy witch, Hector accepts his fate but works to try and make amends his own way. When the two finally cross again we see that both have accepted their humanity and instead of working for someone else they look to seek their own happiness, they forgive humanity in a way and it saves themselves. Their understanding to 'let Dracula rest' also grants them payoff from being Dracula's loyal commanders.

Camilla goes out swinging Where was this Camilla hiding huh? Brutal, Lightning powers and a crimson sword, I mean the wardrobe seems to be a bit less than last season and not battle-suited but dammit did Camilla grip you in her scenes. Her desperation and madness in taking over the world set her up to her downfall where she was betrayed and overwhelmed by Isaac's forces, but rather than let him have the satisfaction she kills herself. It could've easily fell flat because Camilla had just been sitting around like a vampire Cersei Lannister last season and end up proving her frustrations right by having a man take her life but instead she took control of her life and went out strong.

The bittersweet ending of Lenore At the end of season 3 the scheming Lenore claimed herself 'the diplomat', but having been shelved and fonder of Hector than usual it opened the door to explore her own grasp of control. The theme of enduring being prominent in this season for all the arcs we had. We learned the tragedy of Lenore's situation though, as a child of war diplomacy was her escape, she isn't comfortable with peace or total control, she can only live for conflict. While she does like Hector, she ends up valuing her own freedom in the end; and though we could've given more time to earn that sympathy we still accept it as she decides against a quiet life of surveillance freedom with Hector - ironically as Hector has lived under Camilla's captivity - and instead chose death. It was a much more poetic death than gruesome as well, after mulling how she mourned her sister because she understood the nature of greed she elected to make a choice rather than live without making any, looking at the sun for once and getting one last banter with Hector before immediately fading to dust. In a show that almost prides itself on hypergore and graphic deaths, this one was perhaps the most tranquil deaths of the show.

Striga and Morana overcome the greed Which leads to the final two of the four sisters. Camilla consumed herself with greed and died fighting for it, Lenore had no greed but also had no freedom so chose to die in order to be free, but lovers Striga and Morana were not in Styria for Isaac's attack, they were on the outskirts fighting and seeing the struggle firsthand. Their conflict over how they agreed and disagreed on certain aspects of the fight was intriguing, with the intermission of Striga on a tear in her swanky armour to tilt the tone to Striga's side of the argument. A Soldier and a Politician, both agreed though that Camilla's ambitions only worked on paper, so when confronted with their castle overrun and their sister dead it became a matter of duty or survival. Instead of dying in a good fight, Striga looked past her desire of battle and agreed to follow Morana in living, and Morana gave up any political power she could have under an empire to be a mercenary. They didn't overreach, and it spares them their lives in a surprising conclusion where the 'bad guys' still kinda get to live happily ever after.

The ReHumanization of Alucard Alucard has always been a fan favourite, but in the world of Castlevania he still acts as an outcast. While helping the village and getting close to Greta helps bring out some positive emotions in him, it's his dedication to saving the people that gives the show some of its lightest moments, especially when he toys with the kids. In a way it's what he wanted from the twins, but they had lived to not trust and wanted to kill rather than survive, and he grew a community out of it. Allowing the town to settle is the ultimate payoff for Alucard too, because it fulfills his mother's dream, now there are people who know the knowledge that his father did.

Bringing the old band together We all knew that Trevor and Sypha were gonna reunite with Alucard sometime near the end, I mean it's a shame they ditched a city that cannot organize themselves but they were kinda needed in the castle. What's best is that the moment came in it was like they never left, perfectly in sync and bantering off each other, when they fought the top level vampires it was their teamwork and synergy which made them overcome - which is great battle narrative too because alone they were getting beaten. It's just the stuff you love to see.

Trevor is tougher than Death The final battle being Trevor vs Death was a proper Attack on Titan-esque boss fight, just peeling away at the enemy and trying not to get hit. As well as a feast for the eyes it proved to be an entertaining climax - in spite of the limited info we got on the magic 3-piece dagger - and in a way it paid off Trevor's character journey. When we first met him he was an outcasted drunk that wanted nothing to do with the world let alone his family, but now he's here fighting death to save innocent people, his half-vampire buddy and his pregnant speaker magician girlfriend, being willing to give his own life for something bigger than himself, and succeeding...thanks to Saint Germain who owed him a favour and one very clever unsung hero of a horse. To tell you the truth when I saw the trailer I was expecting Sypha to have died and Trevor to be pulling her out of hell by fighting death, but this still worked really well and was perhaps a bit more logical to the canon they set.

Death is temporary, Dracula is forever With all the attempts to revive Dracula one had to work eventually. But back at Season 3 I'm sure we all thought about what would Dracula's reaction be anyway. I mean, yeah he's dead but his wife is there, you really wanna be the guy who ripped him from his wife a second time? It worked though because the people loyal to Dracula never truly understood his grief, they only wanted to further their own agendas through him. So when Dracula does come back in the final scenes with his wife, we see that Vlad Tepes is no longer the vicious killer he once was, not for now anyway. Reviving Dracula may make people think that Trevor and Sypha's actions in Season 3 and 4 were worthless because he still revives but you do have to remember that they do still save a few lives and make a few less night creatures. In addition if they want to expand the universe long into the future they can bring Dracula back in older and disillusioned again if they see fit.

He has many faces, but you still know him At about episode 8 I was really ramping up to tear into the Alchemist and Varney for being practically useless characters, but then the show went and hit me with a great twist by having both characters being guises of Death itself, the proper big bad of the season. It was a fantastic twist which validates the characters, because it was super suspect that the alchemist know where the girl was and said you can't look at her rebus, and that Varney felt like a beta Godbrand but still managed to slither away from the fights. His design was excellent too, the crown was really menacing.

A Surprise Happy Ending! Like, could any of us imagined that? The fight ends, Trevor and Sypha live happily to make a family, Alucard has his friends, a girlfriend and a community that appreciates him, Isaac has his own kingdom, Hector doesn't get the girl or a finger but he still has his freedom, Striga and Morana have each other, it mostly wrapped up very neatly and was earned, a satisfying end which closes the chapter on our trio.

Conclusion

It is sad to see great shows end, Castlevania's use of anime-style animation with gore and a strong voice cast has done extremely well, especially for a show who only got 4 episodes for a first season. It did feel like Netflix didn't give it a chance, but it pulled it off big time and escaped Netflix's cancel hammer long enough to bring a satisfying story, and one can hope we see more of this style and universe either in more Castlevania stories or even the rumored Devil May Cry adaptation.

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siswritesyanderes · 3 years

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This is a series of asks bc, while I do LIKE all the charas of Fantastic Beasts individually, much of the romantic pairings dont sit well with me. By that mean the messy love polygon w Newt & I think I finally figured out why & I'd like another's opinion on it. For starters, Newt's attraction with Tina is too fast for me considering he was friends w Leta, got expelled out of Hogwarts for Leta, carried Leta's photo in his case, & basically loved her for YEARS. But this is all undone by a [1]

jaunt in NY having met a woman, who he admittedly went on a huge adventure w, over the course of maybe a few weeks. He's so taken w her she replaces Leta's photo w her own &, after refusing to go to Paris for Dumbledore, leaves immediately once he finds out she's there. I just find this unbelievable. I can rationalize it from Newt's perspective where Tina is a fresh breeze sweeping into his life on (percieved) unrequited pining, but this is my conjecture based on my understanding of Newt. [2]

The audience shouldnt be left to rationalize endgame couple of the mc on their own. & the whole thing w Leta is so messily handled I dont think they can save it even if they bring her back in FB3. How she feels for Newt vs Theseus & unresolved lingering affection, etc. She & Newt were SO important to each other & we SEE that & they dont HAVE to get together, but they need proper resolution bc they have actual history between them. God Leta in general deserved so much better. [3]

But my main gripe is that this love polygon serves no purpose to what I believe is the main selling point of FB: the world. HP having love stories makes sense bc we're following the story of a boy as he goes through adolescence & his journey through that via school is part of that, which is why the romance feels fitting. It's a very personal story. FB on the otherhand is the best peak we have at the wider wizarding world beyond school. HP introduces the world of magic, but FB rlly expands it [4]

To that end Jakob & Queenie's relationship is the only one I find myself liking, bc it's deeply tied to the world setting, the series' biggest selling point (in my opinion, should have said this earlier). It underscores the attitudes of the period & the conflict they face feels suitably substantial & not like filler. There's a moral question between them of are they worth it? And how far should they go to be together?

Imma be real hear & say FB2 was rlly Queenie's movie & they should have been ballsy & just make Queenie the mc for FB2, bc her story was actually considerably more important to the overall development of the story than Newt's, which mostly came off as a rushed & a tad clichè soap drama. & making it about Queenie I think builds more room for good conflict & independent narrative for Tina that would serve her chara better. [5? 6?]

If I bad to be REAL ballsy, I'd say my big issue w/ the relationships in the FB series & how it enhances or impedes the main story & what I believe to be it's biggest attracter (the setting) could have been solved if they made Newt's romantic interest a muggle. It attaches a deeper meaning & relevance to them & the story so it felt more deeply that they truly moved WITH the narrative rather than beside it but I guess Im just picky. Thx for putting up w this! [Final]

(My response below the cut.)

Yeah, pretty much all of this is right.

Regarding the Tina thing, it was definitely rushed, especially since there was literally nothing romantic between them in the whole first movie, except maybe the end part where they're stumbling over their words. Despite knowing how movies work and knowing that they were the male and female lead, I still found that completely out of left field, because they don't really share any interests and I didn't feel like they felt anything in particular for each other before that. She really wants to be an auror and feels really intensely about it; he just wants to travel the world and write about magical creatures and take care of them. I don't see a lot of compatibility there, and the movie didn't really do anything to reconcile that gap.

Jacob and Queenie made sense, because they actually sowed some seeds for it. It's not even about the fact that they both like to cook; they showed an interest in each other throughout. They noticeably like each other. Newt and Tina never really had that, to me, so it was bizarre for her to become his primary motivation in the second movie.

Queenie's trajectory in movie 2 overall bothers me, so while I agree it would have been better if they'd centered it more around her, I definitely think they needed to drastically rewrite pretty much everything she did. Enchanting Jacob at the beginning never sat well with me; I usually only have to say this in the Descendants fandom, but if one half of the ship is magical and the other half isn't, we can't have the magical one enchanting the non-magical one for romantic reasons without addressing what a violation of trust that is. Like, Jacob would be justified for never trusting her again, over that. Also, the fact that she apparently holds it against people if they think bad things about her is not something I would expect from someone who has been a Legilimens as long as she has, and not a detail I like, at all. Especially since it was used to give her justification to be mad at Jacob after she enchanted him in the first place. I find it sad, because Queenie was definitely my favorite character in the first movie. (Also, joining Grindelwald was a nonsensical thing to do. I can only assume she's there to spy on him or something, because it makes literally no sense.)

As for Leta, I really don't like how that was approached. First of all, I don't like how their mention of her in the first movie was "She was a taker; you need a giver," because once we actually met the character, that only made me resent Queenie for representing her that way. Leta deserved better in pretty much every way, and they definitely shouldn't have killed her off like that. I find the whole situation really iffy from a racial standpoint. The first black character to be written three-dimensionally in all of HP lore, and they make sure to preemptively tell the audience that she's a "taker", kill her in the same movie we meet her, and manage to trivialize her death by turning it into a little "Who was she saying 'I love you' to?" mystery. I like her relationship with Newt and Theseus, and I'd definitely want to see more of it.

Yes, it definitely would have been better, thematically, if they'd made the love interest a Muggle. (I'd honestly say they should've paired Newt with Jacob, but I know they're unwilling to do that. That would be kind of cool, though, to see the movie shaping up with two male characters and two female characters and have the men end up with each other and the women just live their lives as humans.)

With the story they ended up telling, though, I don't think that is needed; since Queenie is already dealing with the wizard/Muggle storyline, Newt could have a different conflict. Maybe his love interest should be a werewolf or something, to tie in the wizarding world's unresolved dislike for "half-breeds". And if he were in a relationship with someone already regarded as a creature, the wider wizarding world might take a different view to his studies and look down on him a lot more. Idk, a thought.

And then, with Leta/Theseus and Grindelwald/Dumbledore (if they were willing to actually deal with that), they'd pretty much hit every controversial beat they've got: wizard/Muggle, wizard/"half-breed", interracial, homosexual. Credence and Nagini are both creatures, kind of, but I still like them together, so their relationship doesn't have to tie into any theme; it just has to be developed way more.

On the whole, Crimes of Grindelwald felt like they skipped a movie. It feels like they needed a middle installment to make these relationships happen, instead of jumping from "Do Newt and Tina maybe have feelings for each other?" to "Newt loves Tina and Tina is possessive enough of Newt to be outwardly upset with him when she thinks he's engaged to someone else," and creating a whole relationship between Credence and Nagini that we see none of.

The fact that Queenie and Jacob were done well in the first movie gives me a fair amount of goodwill for them, but that goodwill only offers enough cushioning from the botching that movie 2 did that I'm near-indifferent to the ship, now, instead of actively opposed. I'd like to see things improved, but as it currently stands, I'd be just as happy seeing them end up not together as together. The fact that Leta's relationships with Newt and Theseus were more interesting than any of the aforementioned makes it that much more ridiculous that they killed her. What ship am I supposed to care about how? If I can't go into the next movie delusionally hoping Newt and Leta will get some moments, or enjoying the Theseus and Leta content, then I'll just be sitting there waiting for Credence and Nagini to share a screen, and who knows when that'll happen?

#long post #fantastic beasts and where to find them #crimes of grindelwald #newt scamander #leta lestrange #theseus scamander #jacob kowalski #queenie goldstein #tina goldstein #credence barebone #nagini

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peppersonironi · 3 years

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12, 21, 19

(Is this late? Oops. Sorry!)

12: Favourite character to write about this year

Stephanie Brown, easy. She's my spirit animal, so I might be doing a touch of projecting, but I honestly don't care. She's just pure chaos in the best way. Some of my favourite lines that I've written are for her. Such as:

"What's up bitches? I brought donuts!"

"My waffles await!"

"FEAR ME!"

"Welcome to Steph’s Glitter Bomb Palace, Where Snitches get Stitches™! So don’t tell Bruce or I’ll sic Jason on you."

She's also the character I've gotten the most comments on. People really seen to enjoy how I write her!

A close second would be Duke Thomas. Bliss, a fic I wrote for the 2020 Duke Week, was one of my favourites! Or maybe Damian? His dialogue just comes easy to me.

21: Most memorable comment/review

the batfamily exist:

everyone: is,,is that allowed?

On Code Orange (Batfam/Young Justice Crossover)

*Or*

I have wanted to read a DCU/MCU crossover for a VERY long time. This story is such a delight. Your characterisation (and for me an introduction to The Signal) was fascinating in the extreme. I loved the game playing and the fact that I could watch (open-mouthed) as Bruce Wayne enjoyed childlike fun with his children and Alfred(!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!) was the cherry on top of the icing on top of the cake. I look forward to your updates in a way that you wouldn't believe.

On Batfam/Avengers Crossover

19: Any new fics to start next year

Oh boy. So many. You know what? Here's a list. It'll be good to get these ideas out. Plus, you guys can tell me what you'd rather see first!

Gen/just Batfam

Crack fic based off this piece of dialogue (came from a convo between my sister and I): Tim reached forward and poked Duke's face. "You're right!" He exclaimed. "You really *do* squish like a block of wood!" Duke Centric.

Based on THIS Incorrect Quotes. Talia moves into the Manor because she's sick of Ra's. Featuring a bunch of good mom!Talia.

Based off THIS Incorrect Quotes. Jason runs for President as Red Hood. I have so many ideas! This'll be really fun.

Loosely based on THIS post. It explores Jason and Cassandra's relationship, and how it evolves.

Duke Thomas Big Bang Fic (can't say much, but it'll be great!)

Platonic (need to be certain you understand that. There were some misconceptions w/ my Discord server) Slow Burn between Tim and Damian. At the beginning the absolutely despise each other. But over time they realise their own insecurities, and how they don't actually hate the other. And by the end they fully admit and embrace their being brothers.

Reverse Robins with Damian as the oldest (I made THIS post talking about it a while back. But I've highly revised it.)

Reverse Robins with Duke as the oldest (I wrote THIS fic, but I think I want to change this into a series!)

Cassandra as Batman. Stephanie as Catwoman. Carrie Kelley as Robin.

5 Times Bette Kane was the mastermind behind the batkids' pranks without Bruce's knowledge, and 1 Time her brilliance was brought to light.

5 Times Duke thought that he couldn't possibly get any more siblings and 1 Time he met the cousins (AKA: Duke meets the extended family)

Birdflash

Birdflash in the JL/JLU universe (based off that one hexagon by @novaviis ! Super fun!). The league is inviting potential members to the Watchtower one day. Except Wally wasn't there during the choosing of said members. So he's completely shocked when his husband Nightwing shows up. They have to act like they don't know each other, which basically involves Dick flirting his butt off with Wally, Wally trying desperately to remain professional, Bruce digging in the corner, the rest of the League in varying degrees of disapproval and confusion (at least a couple have seen Wally's wedding ring. So that adds a while 'nother layer).

Young Justice soulmate au. Dick, and eventually everyone else, knows that Wally is his soulmate. Wally is oblivious. Lots of pining and angst in this one. Slow burn to an extent (depends on how long I make it). But definitely a happy fluffy ending in sight!

Batfam Meets Young Justice

THIS fic.

Duke gets yeeted into the YJ universe, and promptly passes out. He wakes up in the Watchtower, and breaks out of the confinement the Team has set up for him. Pulls shenanigans (some unwittingly) and used his powers. The Team and JL are confused, and panicking. Because this guy keeps muttering things about the Batfam. And he has a bat on his chest.

The Team break into some ancient temple after getting info on a new Supervillian plot. They find purple clothed woman draped across a throne. She talks, and they panic, as she knows all their secret identities. The only one who isn't, is Tim. He looks bored. Alternatively: Steph needs Tim's credit card to take his sister out on a date, and absolutely refuses to text.

While the Team is on a mission to stop Lady Shiva, a dimensional portal opens up and spits out a strange Robin (Damian) and what seemed to be a female Batman (Cass as Black Bat). This new dynamic due promptly defeats Lady Shiva and all the goons. The Team is freaked out, and 'apprehends' the dimensional anomalies, bringing them back to the Watchtower. Where the due promptly break and and start chaos. Featuring "Toxic" by Britney Spears. I will not explain why.

The Watchtower gets a sudden emergency message from the Batcave. They accept, to find a stranger calling himself Signal panicking about Robin being missing. They all look at Tim, who ignores them, and says that he doesn't know where Robin is. Some naming shenanigans occur.

(Not sure if this fits here, oh well) Set in Season One, Bruce is tired of Clark's attitude towards Superboy, and adopts the clone himself. Not sure how far this'll go, but at least goes through Dick's time as Robin. (Based on THIS Tumblr post)

(Also iffy on placement) a continuation of one (not sure which? Probably Damian as older) Reverse Robins fics. It's a retelling of Season One of YJ, with Dick as Robin. Nightwing (Damian) feels protective of his brother, and so takes on the role Black Canary had in the show, training the Team. But as time goes on, he ends up being more of a big brother to the group. Cameos from the rest of the Batfam as well! And an Identity Reveal (including finding out Dick and Dami are brothers) at the end!

Batfam Meets the Justice League

Cass takes over being Batman for a bit, because Bruce was an idiot and broke his leg. This happens to line up with when the Justice League reach out to the Dark Knight, in order to extend an invitation to the league. They eventually meet Bruce as Batman, and are confused as to why he is so tall. And male.

Joyfire

Lian accidentally reveals her three parents' relationship by calling Bruce 'grandpa' over dinner.

Museum Heist

THIS fic

Operation: Seduce Nightwing. Based on a post for an ATLA ot3, Wally and Artemis realise silumaneously “Hey, we kinda have the hots for Dick” and decide together to see if he likes them back. Which involves a heck ton of over the top flirting, and shenanigans. The Team is sighing on the sidelines at their idiocy. Dick is internally combusting and thinking “Do they like me back? I’’m not sure.”

5 times Dick and Wally fought over being the middle spoon, and one time Artemis had had enough.

Set in Season 3 (but ignores some canon), Bart is kidnapped by some mad scientist obsessed with the Speed Force. The Team mobilizes, and gets Bart back from the evil base. But when they get there, they find Wally West freed from the Speed Force. He and Artemis reunite, and everyone is happy. They prepare to leave. Then the Pick-up Squad arrive in the bioship, and Dick gets out. Everyone is expecting Dick to give Wally a hug, because hey, he's his best friend! What they weren't expecting was him to run forward and pull the speedster into a passionate kiss. They go back to the Watchtower, and some more stuff happens.

Soulmate AU where the first thing your soulmate says to you after they fall in love with you is tattooed on your body.

Post Season Two Get Together. Starts with Artemis living with Dick as opposed to Will. Might be Slow Burn? (They come pretty close to kissing) Eventually Wally comes back. Arty and Wally are back together. They both live in the same house as Dick, for convenience. Then some more Slow Burn happens. Maybe some Birdflash moments. Arty tells Wally she kinda had a thing for Dick. Wally admits the same. Maybe a touch more Slow Burn. They Eventually get together.

Batlantern

AU where Bruce met Hal back when he first came back to Gotham. Fic goes through how their relationship evolves over the years (up until current time, when Damian is 13). I'm considering a relationship reveal with the Justice League.

Hal's interactions with Bruce's kids.

Green Lantern Corp acting protective of Hal when Bruce comes to Oa. This was an ask that I got, and I'm holding off on writing it till I get as much into on the GL's as possible, as all I know if their characterization comes from that animated series, and Guy Gardener's (Hilarious!) parts on Young Justice.

Marvel

Like 3 different versions of the Peter Parker Field Trip to Stark Tower Trope.

2-part Crossover with the Batfam (they exist in the same universe), where the Avengers go to a Wayne Gala, and interact with the family. The second chapter involves them heading out the next night to try and contact Batman.

THIS fic.

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lazywhaler · 5 years

Text

Serious actual Dishonored 2 Thoughts

I played through Dishonored 2 completely for a second time and paid a lot more attention this time around and as promised here are some thoughts under the cut (some 1700+ words of thoughts). This post is primarily meant to be like a journal-type thing for my thoughts, but I’ve tried to organize it as best I can with my minimal writing skills:

I was initially disappointed by Dishonored 2: I didn’t play this game at launch in 2016 because at that point I had a laptop that could only run Dishonored on low graphics in low chaos. I watched a bunch of walkthroughs on Youtube, read people’s thoughts on the comments in the wiki and all the meta here. I thought, and continue to think that mechanically, and gameplay-wise it’s vastly superior to the first game.

I was disappointed by the story which was basically a retread of the first but somehow even more simplified. (which even though I love with all my heart, come on, Dishonored doesn’t have a groundbreaking story). The Daud DLCs were so much better in that regard, that I blindly trusted that Arkane would continue to move in that direction.

The characters in this game felt a little more one-dimensional. It felt like almost all the targets were expies of characters from the first game in one way or another, and the Clockwork Mansion level seemed to say that they didn’t care.

Apologies to Stephen Russel, but Corvo’s voice acting is not good at all. Corvo just sounds like he’s staring down a long Monday at the office with a hangover. I might said that maybe that grizzled raspy voice just doesn’t work for Dishonored but Michael Madsen’s performance of Daud pretty much assassinates that argument.

Don’t like what they did with the Void or characterising the Outsider, but this one’s just a personal preference. I can see why people would like it or not care, even if I don’t.

The story also felt much much lower-stakes than the first one. Dunwall really felt if you pushed it with a feather, it would fall over the edge. Karnaca, in contrast felt like a vibrant, ascendant city being held back by gangs and corruption. Even the bloodflies aren’t that much of a calamity.

Having paid closer attention to the story, and other peoples’ readings of this game, I’ve realised that the ‘low stakes-ness’ of Dishonored 2 is intentional.

Arkane could have chosen to show Karnaca as a city on the brink of utter collapse. The bloodfly epidemic could have been bad enough that instead of buildings, entire streets or districts had to be blocked off. I haven’t done a high chaos run, but in my playthroughs, I’ve never seen Nest Keepers in groups of more than two, in stark contrast to the pant-shitting Weeper hordes from the first game. Dunwall was literally blockaded, so there was no escaping your fate. The docks at Karnaca are wide open for anyone who wants to arrive. This is all intentional.

So, the stakes are low. But why would Arkane intentionally make that choice? I think they intentionally lowered the stakes so that all the instances of corruption that you encounter or hear about are thrown into starker relief

In the first game, against the backdrop of a cataclysmic plague that made life very hard for non-aristocrats, it’s pretty easy to see why the City Watch would turn to crime. The plague if not excused, at least justified, a lot of shady behaviour from characters up to and including Sokolov experimenting on healthy people. In contrast, without the threat of the city descending into utter chaos hanging over everyone’s heads, when you try and pull the same shady crap that people did in the first game, now you just look greedy. And I think this game tries to bring that theme right to your doorstep, by letting Corvo/Emily participate in making things worse.

Robbing people’s houses in this game feels a lot worse than it did in the first one. The majority of the apartments that you rob don’t belong to people who are outrageously wealthy and haven’t been abandoned. These are people who are already getting screwed over and you can help make it worse. In Lower Aventa, you get a whole cutscene with the Lady Gaga Black Market woman being threatened by the Howlers and you have the choice to rob her (very likely) after witnessing that.

Dishonored 2 focuses more on repairing damage done rather than avenging it

A bulk of the problems that happen in this game can be attributed to Corvo and Emily not being good at their jobs and more importantly, not being a good rulers. The game highlights the moral failures of Corvo and Emily to turn a blind eye to Luca Abele’s antics and the problems in Karnaca. They fucked up and they can’t really take revenge because they played a part in it too. That’s why instead of the poetic justice fate-worse-than-death types of nonlethal eliminations from the first game, we have more, for lack of a better word, corrective, options. The Crown Killer is cured. Breanna Ashworth can’t do witch stuff anymore. Knocking out Stilton improves so much stuff and literally heals Billie Lurk. Even Delilah gets an ending that kind of rewards her for all the crap she’s been through, without letting her hurt other people. Kirin Jindosh’s elimination comes across like this, but it’s emphasized that we’re taking him out purely so that we can stop him from mass-producing clockwork soldiers, not out of revenge, For my money, the only poetic justice-type nonlethal elimination is Luca’s even if he’s not really going to be in a situation where he’s better off dead.

But here’s the thing: even though I ‘get’ Dishonored 2 a little better now, I still think they did a terrible job of trying to convey a lot of this!

I said that I think the low stakes nature was intentional and I think there’s reasonable evidence to support that claim. But there’s also evidence to contradict it. The Outsider keeps talking about Karnaca being on the brink of collapse. So do a lot of NPCs (I’m looking at you, beggar near the Aventa District Black Market). Am I supposed to take that at face value, ignoring what’s being shown to me in favour of what’s being told? Am I supposed to be like ‘Classic emo drama queen Outsider’ and slap my knee, and marvel at humanity’s propensity to make things out to be worse than they seem? I don’t know????

People being squeezed dry by the Grand Guard on the left and the Howlers on the right, with a light garnish of Overseer harassment? Definitely something in the game. When you rob them, and especially the Black Market shopkeepers? It’s Bad. But I guess a twinge of guilt and judgement from me is all you get, because the game isn’t going to punish you. They could have really committed and made robbing the Black Markets an action that increase chaos, even if you don’t kill anyone, but that Did Not Happen.

What about Emily (and let’s not even pretend anymore that this story holds together with Corvo as the protagonist) confronting her failures as a leader, realising she’s Not So Different from Luca Abele? Well, she gets called out on it a grand total of, maybe, 3 times by Billie and Sokolov, who immediately go ‘Well anyway, here’s the next thing I want to say’ and then at the end of the game, she’s like “My time here living as a Poor has given me Perspective. I deserve to be Empress now because I Want it”. Combined with how low-stakes this game is, it feels a lot like Emily took a gap year to find herself, except that the whole thing evidently took two months. I don’t think they executed any of this stuff well. The fact that I have to question these decisions were intentional or not doesn’t bode well.

Emily kind of faces some reckoning for her moral failings, turning a blind eye to the crap going down in Karnaca, but what about her incompetence and utter lack of interest in being a ruler? Or Corvo’s failings as a Spymaster (like seriously dude, how did you not know how any of this shit was going on, so much of it was an open secret). But she barely gets called out on her disinterest in ruling and IIRC Corvo pretty much gets away scot-free with not doing his job.

Or maybe I’ve just gotten it wrong. I study computer science. Media criticism is way outside my wheelhouse and so maybe I’ve grossly misinterpreted what this game was going for. But the one thing I’m absolutely, 100% certain about is that this game shouldn’t have been about Corvo and Emily.

Even back when we started getting details about Corvo and Emily, I was a bit...iffy about the whole thing. Their stories wrapped up pretty nicely in the first game. “Emily lived to be a wise, just ruler and things were good” or “Emily is a Murder Empress”. The end. And now suddenly it’s not. I hate it when sequels override the endings to previous concluded arcs, and I think there needs to be good justification for doing it. Arkane didn’t do a good job of it and after the wet hork of spit they lobbed at Daud’s arc in Death of the Outsider it seems to be a problem they have. Their story was completely concluded in the first game. No sequel hooks. This game shouldn’t have been about them.

I feel like Arkane were trying to tell a story about corruption and the decay and damage caused by simple human greed, but felt like they had to shoehorn in Corvo and Emily or we’d lose interest. I think the game would have made way more sense with someone from Karnaca’s underclass as the protagonist, maybe a Mindy Blanchard type. Maybe her plan to craft the Mark works, or maybe the Outsider gives her a little push and then she foils the conspiracy to bring Delilah back, kind of like The Brigmore Witches, except Delilah doesn’t actually come back. The main villian in this game could just be people’s appetite for corruption and Emily’s apathy.

I don’t know. It’s too late for any of that kind of speculation. My faith in Arkane took a huge hit with the one-two of Dishonored 2 and DOTO. It makes me optimistic that Dishonored 3 would have a completely different protagonist, but I’m not going to be blindly trusting, like I was after Brigmore.

#dishonored meta #dishonored 2 #i have never expressed so many thoughts about a thing in one place #and i have a few more thoughts too but i feel like theyre even more subjective than these

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justsomerandomweebo · 5 years

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Wow I’m way to invested in this multiverse business you got going on but-

Timelines. I know it’s an abitrarry thing you’ve defiantly got figured out, but my Brain won’t stop so here we are.

• So we already know that nindrago’s time moves faster then what I’m choosing to call hub ninjago (since the D!ninja are the most well versed in traveling between dimension and Weeb already establishing that there universe Will eventually act as a hub world of sorts), and if we use the updates and how time is passing In the stories, I think it’s safe to assume CI!ninjago is also moving faster the hub ninjago.

• I think the same could be said for H&F ninjago, though I think it’s much less extreme then CI ninjago and nindrgao, I Actialky think the time difference severity is as follows.

-CI ninjago

-Nindrago

-H&F ninjago

• the main reasons I’m only covering theses 3 is because the other stories don’t give as much information on how much time has passed since their respective insiggnting incidents, and H&F is pushing it sicne it’s pretty iffy, but we do know at least a year has passed for them.

• CI ninjago is the most severe since we known at minimum, 8 years have passed, while The fight against the oni in nindrago took several months, and the exact period of time to pass on hub ninjago is unknown, though we can assume it’s a a month or so at very most using Here be dragons as our main reference for time differences

• For one I think theses diffedcnes make traveling Between dimensions slightly disorienting for the Hub ninja and the various other ninja, since a day in hub ninjago could translate to a week or even a month in others, and spending hours in a different ninjago could only be a few seconds in the hub. This kinda makes things more convenient for the Hub ninja sicne they don’t normally have to worry about their world changing very much, but the other ninja will, sicne several days, weeks, or even years could pass on their own ninjago while spending time in the hub.

• it also begs the questing of how aging may work. When the hub ninja travel to another ninjago and vise verse, does their aging sync with the universe they were in it does it stay at the rate it was at in their own ninjago? At the moment D!Kai (or hub!Kai) has spent the longest period of time in an alternate ninjago excluding Vortica. He was in Nindrago for close to year, with a few months passing in his own ninjago. Not long enough for him to visibly age, but now being part dragon and apparently changing further along with the rest of the D/hub!ninja, their aging is probably already out of wack. The same can probably be said for the H&F ninja and the CI!ninja, along with the SDS!ninja, but we’re more concerned with wether or not it syncs with the ninjago their in.

• the short and simple answer is yes, their aging does sync, Though we have no evidence for or against this at the moment. Only time will tell with this one, though it’d be a fun idea to toy with the D/hub!ninja traveling to another realm and aging comparatively slowly. An alternate theory is similar to how pretty longer exposure to another realm seems to change a persons biology (witch will get a Bullet point of it’s own), maybe prolonged exposure to another realm slowly syncs their aging with whatever ninjago their in

• So About those mutations. So for our best example is kai, though he’ll soon be joined by the rest of the D/hub!ninja, but the point is, will it stop there? What would happen if they spent to long in SDS!ninjago, or H&F!ninjago, or god forbid CI!ninjago. The obvious answer is yes, spending to long in another ninjago WILL change you (my current theory is you become more like your alternate self physically, though that’ll defiantly change after the release of the next part of Move on dragons) but i have a feeling it may not be that simple.

• I think it has more to do with anatomical similitsities. The more similar to your own ninjago a different one is, the less you’ll change if you change at all. If the difference is only certain events, then nothing would change at all. This limits who changes and how much they do So, since I Beleive there’s also a hard limit to how much someone Changes. This is because Kai’s dragon transformation seemed to have platued around being what most would call a half dragon.

Wow That was a lot of stuff I’ve been holding in for a while. I’m pretty sure only 2% of it makes sense but I digress. I’d just like to express how much I love your work weeb. Your an amazing writer and I love you!!!!!!

Weeb’s Edit

slow claps in amazement

Wow, you’re really on point here with all the dimensions! I’m amazed you’ve managed to pick all of these up from my fics! Most of there are pretty accurate! Their aging rate doesn’t sync with the dimension they’re in though. Time does flow differently in each dimension. Only rarely you’ll find dimensions that have the exact passage of time and in cases like that, it’s usually because that dimension had an earlier start than the others. Vortica, as well as other dimensional protectors (or rather, police if you will), uses the unique flow of time that a person from another dimension has to more accurately pinpoint which dimension they belong to. While spending too long of a time in a dimension will alter your genetic structure, the passage of time in one’s home dimension will remain in effect permanently.

The mutations for overstaying your welcome in another dimension is actually a means to help ones survival. After all, being a flightless, tiny human in a huge, wide world like Nindrago has many, many disadvantages.Now that I’ve acquired a laptop of my own, I’ll try to pick up on those other aus but if i can’t, the multiverse series is still due so i’ll just expand on them there. I’m working on H&F rn so that’ll be out roughly tomorrow! *casually saves these points to a google docs for later use*

#hgfsdfkfhjskhdfb vlanderzine you're amazing #i enjoyed reading these wayyyy too much #thank you!!!#justsomerandomweebo submissions #submission

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brido · 7 years

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An Exhaustive Look at the 2018 Baseball Hall of Fame Ballot

The 2018 Baseball Hall of Fame ballots were just released. I fucking love that shit. I have time on my hands. And I wanted to weigh in before all the baseball nerds starts going crazy with it in January. Since the writers can only pick 10 guys, that’s what I’ll do too. And I chose Bill James’ Hall of Fame Standards numbers to decide what order I’d go in. I could have picked Jay Jaffe’s JAWS rankings for that. Maybe I will some other year. Maybe that last part about Bill James and Jay Jaffe was just to scare away the people who will complain about Trevor Hoffman because they think the save stat means something. Also, I decided I’ll be skipping over the steroid guys and putting them at the bottom of the list. If there are 10 guys I think should go in before them, I’ll call it a day. Sound fair? Let’s start.

Barry Bonds He goes to the bottom of the list. Let me get back to you on this.

Roger Clemens I’ll have to get back on this too.

Chipper Jones Jones played 19 seasons for the Atlanta Braves. He’s the best N.L. third baseman of his era and the 6th-best third baseman of all time, according to JAWS. Jones is also the 4th-best position player of his era, after Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez and Albert Pujols. Every player with similar stats is either in the Hall of Fame (Mel Ott, Al Kaline, Mike Schmidt, Jeff Bagwell, Billy Williams, Mickey Mantle) or should/will be (Gary Sheffield, Miguel Cabrera, Carlos Beltran, Adrian Beltre). 468 career home runs. 2,726 career hits. He won the N.L. MVP in 1999. The only eligible position player who had a better career is Bonds. This one is easy. My answer: Yes. (1/10).

Manny Ramirez I’ll have to get back to you.

Gary Sheffield Same here.

Vladimir Guerrero Gurrero played for 16 seasons with the Expos, Angels, Rangers and Orioles, swinging at horrible pitches and still hitting .318 on his career. He also hit 449 home runs and collected 2,590 hits, which puts him in selective company with only 20 other players, all of whom are inner-circle Hall of Famers, with the exceptions of Barry Bonds, Alex Rodriguez, Albert Pujols, Rafael Palmeiro, Gary Sheffield, Chipper Jones, Adrian Beltre and Miguel Cabrera. And at least four of those guys will go in once they’re eligible. Guerrero also has similar career stats to Jeff Bagwell, Jim Rice, Willie Stargell, Billy Williams and Duke Snider. All of which makes it really surprising that WAR is not his best friend here.

When WAR is brought into the equation, Guerrero was only the best right fielder in baseball for one season (2005) and even more surprisingly, in the 1996-2011 timespan, he’s only the 4th-best right fielder behind Manny Ramirez, Bobby Abreu and Brian Giles. And he’s the 17th-best position player of his era. JAWS ranks him as the 21st-best right fielder in history, which would be behind Larry Walker, Shoeless Joe Jackson, Dwight Evans, Reggie Smith and Sammy Sosa. Is it possible that old stats love him more than the new ones?

Guerrero received MVP votes in 12 different seasons. He won the A.L. MVP in 2004. And got very close in 2002, 2005 and 2007. If I wanted to be a dick, I’d say Melvin Mora probably should have won in ’04. And I don’t see Vlad as a good candidate in ’07. Nevertheless, Guerrero consistently hit for power and average, only dipping below .300 in his brief call-up in 1996 and not again until 2009 and 2011). And those numbers added up. I mean, Brian Giles didn’t hit 300 HR or even get 1900 hits. So maybe he wasn’t a first ballot Hall of Famer. But I think he should get in. My Answer: Yes. (2/10).

Larry Walker Walker played for 17 seasons with the Expos, Rockies and Cardinals. During his career (1989-2005), he was the best right fielder in baseball. He’s the 10th best right fielder of all time, according to JAWS and the best right fielder ever not in the Hall of Fame. During his own career, Walker is the 5th-highest in WAR after Barry Bonds, Ken Griffey Jr., Jeff Bagwell and Alex Rodriguez. His career stats (383 HR. 2160 H. .313 AVG) are similar to Duke Snider, Joe DiMaggio, Johnny Mize and Chuck Klein, as well as Vladimir Guerrero. He won the N.L. MVP in 1997. It looks pretty good on paper. You probably just need to decide if you care that Walker was better playing in the thin air of Denver than he was on the road.

If Walker is an iffy Hall of Fame player to begin with, it’s easy to dismiss his numbers as wind-aided. And there’s also the fact that Walker’s career was plagued by injuries (Walker missed 375 games between 1996-2004). So his counting stats are down for the steroid era - an argument that strikes me as fucking idiotic considering we’d be penalizing a player for NOT juicing, while also penalizing players who did. Also, there are stats that exist to adjust for ballparks and Walker still has an OPS+ of 141 for his career. For players with 1900 Games, that’s still 8th among right fielders after Babe Ruth, Stan Musial, Hank Aaron, Mel Ott, Frank Robinson, Harry Heilmann and Sam Crawford. They’re all in the Hall of Fame.

Also, everyone seems to be acting like Walker (who had three batting titles) was a one dimensional player. The guy had seven Gold Gloves in right. He was considered an exceptional baserunner too, as if that’s anything. And why are we treating Coors Field like it had magical fucking powers over one player? If Coors Field is so fantastical, why didn’t Andres Galarraga or Ellis Burks or Dante Bichette do what Walker did? Why do they play games there to begin with or even count those stats as valid? By that logic, the Rockies shouldn’t even have a team. By that logic, why not just have one team (it’s gotta be Oakland) where everyone is allowed to take PEDs?

The truth is, Walker was an elite player in Montreal. If you’re just going off his full time there (1990-94), you’d probably choose Walker as your starting MLB right fielder over Tony Gwynn. Then he went to Colorado and kept being good. Let’s not complicate things. So he didn’t hit .380 on the road. If he did we wouldn’t even be having this debate, we’d be naming the Hall of Fame after him. My answer: Yes. (3/10).

Jim Thome Thome played for 22 seasons with the Indians, Phillies, White Sox, Dodgers, Twins and Orioles. He was universally beloved everywhere he went. I don’t know if we need to delve into things too much here. Thome hit 612 career home runs and he’s not suspected of steroids. That’s automatic. But he also has comparable career stats with Frank Thomas, Reggie Jackson, Ken Griffey Jr., Mickey Mantle, Mike Schmidt and Willie McCovey (plus Sammy Sosa, David Ortiz and Fred McGriff). JAWS ranks him as the 10th-best first baseman of all time. I think he should have been the A.L. MVP in 2002. My answer: Yes. (4/10).

Mike Mussina Mussina pitched for 18 seasons with the Orioles and Yankees. And I’d say he was the ace of his staff 12 of those years, which is incredible. I think that if you finish in the top 10 in your league in WAR, FIP and ERA, you had an elite season. Mussina had 10 of those elite seasons, including his final season in 2008. That’s what you call consistency. He finished in the top 5 in Cy Young balloting six different times. And I think he should have won it in 2001. Mussina has similar career numbers to Juan Marichal, Jim Palmer and Carl Hubbell (as well as Curt Schilling). He’s the 28th-best pitcher of all time, according to JAWS (behind Roger Clemens, Jim McCormick and Schilling). And I’d say for his own playing era (1991-2008), he’s the 5th-best pitcher behind Randy Johnson, Greg Maddux, Clemens and Pedro Martinez. He even won seven Gold Gloves at pitcher. The fact that we’re even entertaining putting in Trevor Hoffman before Mussina is mind boggling to me.

I’d guess the one thing bringing down Messina’s chances might be his ERA (3.68). But his adjusted ERA+ (123) might make up for pitching in the steroid era. And not to beat a dead horse, but Mussina finished 3rd in the American League in ERA in 1992, 4th in 1994, 4th in 1995, 6th in 1997, 6th in 1998, 3rd in 1999, 3rd in 2000, 2nd in 2001, 8th in 2003, 4th in 2006 and 6th in 2008. My answer: Yes. (5/10).

Sammy Sosa Let me get back to you on that.

Jeff Kent Kent played 17 seasons for the Blue Jays, Mets, Indians, Giants, Astros and Dodgers. He was the best second baseman in the Majors in 2000 and 2002. He was the best in the N.L. from 2000-2002 and during the course of his playing era (1992-2008), he was the second-best second baseman after Craig Biggio. Kent’s career numbers are also similar to Jim Rice and Ryne Sandberg. His 377 home runs is the most ever for a second baseman. He won the 2000 N.L. MVP, even though I would have considered him 4th-best in the league that year.

Here’s the thing; since everything Kent did seems to hinge on comparing him to other second basemen, his JAWS ranking finally does him in. He’s 20th-best all-time, behind Bobby Grich, Robinson Cano, Chase Utley, Lou Whitaker, Willie Randolph, Ian Kinsler and Dustin Pedrioa. But, hey, he was on Survior and has the dumbest DL stint I can think of right now. My answer: No.

Edgar Martinez Martinez played for 18 seasons, all with the Seattle Mariners. Even with Ken Griffey Jr. and Alex Rodriguez on his team, Martinez was the best player on the Mariners in 1990, 1992, 1995 and 1999. He was the best third baseman in baseball in 1990. And he was the best DH in 1995, 1996 and 1998. During the time Martinez was a DH (1995-2004), no one was better. And he’s probably the 4th-best DH of all time after Frank Thomas, Jim Thome and Paul Molitor. He’s the only DH to win a batting title and they even named the DH award after him. But first, you just have to decide how you feel about the DH.

I say if American League pitchers (who don’t hit) can get in, so can a DH. At least they play every day. Now that that’s out of the way, we have do decide if Martinez’ numbers good enough. That part’s iffy. No one with similar numbers is in the Hall of Fame. But he did have six elite years between 1990-2000. I would have even given him the A.L. MVP in 1995. And if you look at all players’ WAR during that 11-year span, Martinez would be 5th overall, behind Barry Bonds, Griffey Jr., Jeff Bagwell and Frank Thomas.

Still not convinced? Okay. I already mentioned Major League Baseball naming the DH award after him. That’s gotta be something. And for my closing argument, I’ll use “The Double”. In 1995, Martinez closed out his outstanding ALDS against the Yankees with that famous walk-off double that scored Griffey. It not only sent the Mariners to the ALCS for the first time ever, it also might have saved baseball in Seattle. The excitement surrounding the team led to funding for Safeco Field and the rest is history. There are people in the Hall of Fame for dumber reasons than that. Except in Edgar’s case, you’ve got both Pedro Martinez and Mariano Rivera siting him as one of the toughest batters they ever faced. My answer: Yes (6/10).

Fred McGriff McGriff played for 19 seasons with the Blue Jays, Padres, Braves, Devil Rays, Cubs and Dodgers. He has similar career numbers to Willie McCovey, Willie Stargell, Jeff Bagwell, Frank Thomas and Billy Williams (as well as David Ortiz and Gary Sheffield). He also had five elite seasons between 1988 and 1994. I actually would have given him the A.L. MVP in 1989. And if he hit 7 more home runs in his career, we wouldn’t even be having this discussion.

In the meantime, JAWS isn’t doing McGriff any favors. He’s 31st all-time at first base, behind Albert Pujols, Jim Thome, Miguel Cabrera, Rafael Palmeiro, Todd Helton, Mark McGwire, Keith Hernandez, Joey Votto, John Olerud, Jason Giambi, Will Clark, David Ortiz and Mark Teixeira. I’d say in his own era (1986-2004), he’d be 5th, behind Jeff Bagwell, Palmeiro, Frank Thomas, McGwire and tied with Olerud. None of that is horrible company. Some of those are steroids guys. Some will probably get in at some point or are otherwise worth revisiting. I just wouldn’t say it’s helping.

So I have to go back and stare hard at that 493 number and think about the strike-shortened 1994 season, which was ironically the last year McGriff was an elite player. McGriff had 34 home runs through 113 games. There were 48 games remaining, McGriff had only missed one game that far and he was averaging a home run every 3.4 games. Even if he’d slowed down, seven more home runs in 1994 would have been a lock. McGriff may have been relatively forgotten because of the steroid era. But he was positively fucked by that strike.

If people use ‘Coors Field Logic’ on Larry Walker, why can’t they use ‘Strike Logic’ on McGriff? At least Strike Logic makes actual logical sense. And if baseball turned a blind eye to the very steroid era that erased McGriff from relevancy in order to restore public interest following the strike, that means that not only did the strike fuck the Crime Dog, but the quick fix did too. From 1988-1994, McGriff was the 4th-best position player in overall WAR after Barry Bonds, Rickey Henderson and Cal Ripken. After that, everyone started pumping themselves full of growth hormone and bull semen or whatever until leading the league with 35 home runs seemed more like something that would happen at the All-Star Break. McGriff has been wronged. I think that should be corrected. And I hope he wears that foam Tom Emanski cap on his plaque. My Answer: Yes. (7/10).

Curt Schilling Schilling played for 20 seasons for the Orioles, Astros, Phillies, Diamondbacks and Red Sox. And he’s a fucking asshole. But that’s not really in question here. Schilling was elite for 8 different seasons between 1992 and 2004. He has similar career stats to John Smoltz and Don Drysdale. JAWS ranks him as the 27th-best pitcher of all time (only behind Roger Clemens and Jim McCormick for non-Hall of Famers). In his career (1988-2007), Schilling is the 5th-best, overall in WAR behind Clemens, Greg Maddux, Randy Johnson and Pedro Martinez. He has 3 rings. He has the Bloody Sock game. And he’s a fucking asshole.

I guess starting public feuds with sportswriters isn’t always the best idea when those same sportswriters vote for these kinds of things. He’s also a Born Again Christian Creationist and a Trump guy and a Breitbart guy and a homophobe. And he’s also apparently challenging Elizabeth Warren’s Senate seat in 2018. And he’d probably be a nightmare to the steroids guys on the Veteran’s Committee. Plus, you know his Cooperstown speech would be a goddamned spectacle. And then you start to think of reasons to not vote for the guy. But I honestly liked him as a color commentator on ESPN and I have to keep telling myself that all his extracurriculars have nothing to do with what he did on the mound. He’s still an asshole though. My answer: Yes. (8/10).

Johnny Damon Damon played for 18 seasons with the Royals, Athletics, Red Sox, Yankees, Tigers, Rays and Indians. And he stayed healthy and got a lot of hits. 2,769 to be exact. He was never an elite player or an elite center fielder (I’d have him 5th in his own era behind Andruw Jones, Jim Edmonds, Carlos Beltran and Mike Cameron). He was rarely the best player on his own team. He just happened to get a lot of hits. That puts his career numbers similar to guys like Paul Molitor, Tim Raines, Roberto Alomar, Robin Yount, Lou Brock and Roberto Clemente. But they all had other reasons for getting in. Damon is the 22nd-best center fielder of all time on JAWS. He’s less like those Hall of Fame players than he is Vada Pinson or Steve Finley. I loved some of his big moments on the Red Sox. And his hair was fun. He’s just not getting in. My answer: No.

Omar Vizquel Vizquel played for 24 seasons with the Mariners, Indians, Giants, Rangers, White Sox and Blue Jays. He played in 4 different decades and was the last Major Leaguer born in the 60’s and the last to play in the 80’s. This one is difficult because WAR is not Vizquel’s friend. He was never the best player on his own team. He wasn’t an elite shortstop, overall in his own time. JAWS ranks him as the 42nd-best shortstop of all time. And I don’t feel like naming all the non-Hall-of-Famers ahead of him. In his own lengthy era (1989-2012), he’d be behind Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, Barry Larkin, Cal Ripken and Jimmy Rollins. So what argument is there?

Well, Vizquel has almost identical stats to Luis Aparicio and Rabbit Maranville. Aparicio even allowed his number to be un-retired when Vizquel went to the White. Sox in 2010. He’s also got similar stats to Ozzie Smith, Luke Appling, Pee Wee Reese and Nellie Fox. He was a defensive specialist in an era of big, slugging shortstops. And he has 11 Gold Gloves to show for it. Oh, and on top of that, he collected 2,877 hits over that long career.

But was he Aparicio? Aparicio got MVP votes in 10 different seasons. He finished second in 1959. He was a 10 time All-Star. He led the league in stolen bases his first 9 seasons in the Majors. On top of that, Aparicio had 9 Gold Gloves. From 1956-1973, Aparicio was second in WAR among shortstops to Ernie Banks. Vizquel didn’t do those things. I think I gotta hold off for now. My answer: No. But I could change my mind.

Scott Rolen Rolen played 17 seasons for the Phillies, Cardinals, Blue Jays and Reds. He’s one of the 3-5 best defensive third basemen of all time and, I’d say, the 3rd-best overall third baseman of his era after Alex Rodriguez and Chipper Jones (who will also be on the ballot for the first time). Rolen has a ring with the 2006 Cardinals. And according to JAWS and WAR, he’s the 10th best 3rd baseman of all time. Which all sounds great on paper. I just don’t know if it’s good enough.

Chipper Jones should get in before Rolen. So let’s take Chipper out of the equation for just a second. Rolen was only the best player on his own team in 1997, ’98 and ’04. He was only the best third baseman in baseball in 2002 and 2003. Of the top 10 similar players, only one (Ron Santo) is in the Hall of Fame. His Career Standards Number is a 40, which would make him below average for a Hall of Famer. 316 career home runs and 2,077 hits are good, but not great for his era. And although he ranked among the top 10 in the league in WAR in 1998, 2002, 2003, 2004 and 2006, I would have only considered him a legitimate MVP candidate one time and that’s 2004, when I would have considered him 7th. Now it’s okay to go back and remember that Chipper Jones is also on the ballot.

It’s hard for me to look anyone in the eye and say the 10th-best at any position shouldn’t be in the Hall of Fame. But then again, Ted Simmons, Bobby Grich, Bill Dahlen, Kenny Lofton and Larry Walker, not to mention Roger Clemens, Barry Bonds, Pete Rose, Manny Ramirez and six relief pitchers would all be in the same boat. Maybe that shoulder injury that nagged him throughout his prime got the best of him. But I think he’s gotta sit out at least this round. My Answer: No. But I could easily change my mind.

Jamie Moyer Moyer played for 25 seasons with the Cubs, Rangers, Cardinals, Orioles, Red Sox, Mariners, Phillies and Rockies. That’s an insane amount of seasons. Moyer is the only pitcher to throw shutouts in four different decades. He became the oldest player to do a lot of different things. I mean, he won 100 games after he turned 40. It’s crazy. Especially with that 81 mph fastball. I think Moyer is a great story. And I loved his resurgence on the Mariners. But he’s the 19th-best pitcher of his own era and 132nd all time. I’m impressed. I just wouldn’t put him in the Hall. My answer: No.

Carlos Lee Lee played for 14 seasons with the White Sox, Brewers, Rangers, Astros and Marlins. He hit 358 home runs in his career, but was the 13th-best left fielder of his own era and 72nd-best ever on JAWS. No.

Johan Santana Santana played for 12 seasons with the Twins and Mets, where he was usually the ace of both teams. He won two Cy Young Awards in Minnesota. I think he should have easily won three (the voters fucking BLEW IT in 2005). His peak is phenomenal. His career numbers are not. So you need to figure out how you feel about about that. Just try to keep in mind that a lot of more worthy pitchers (including Roger Clemens, Curt Schilling and Mike Mussina) aren’t in yet.

The go-to guy for a high peak without the career stats is always Sandy Koufax. But Koufax was putting up WARs of 9’s and 10’s. In Santana’s four-year reign of dominance, he had three seasons with a 6.7 WAR or higher and four total with a 5 or higher. That’s really good. But Dwight Gooden did that. Kevin Brown did that. Curt Schilling was above a 6.7 four times and above a 5 WAR six times. And if you just want to start listing guys who were above a 5 WAR on four separate occasions, we can throw in Fernando Valenzuela, Bret Saberhagen (5), Frank Viola, David Cone (5), Mike Mussina (10 fucking times), Kevin Appier, Andy Pettite and Javier Vazquez. I mean, Felix Hernandez has done it five times. Clayton Kershaw has already done it six times. Chris Sale has already done it. And if that many people have done it, it’s not quite great.

Fittingly, Santana is the 6th-best pitcher in WAR over the period of 2000-2012. JAWS ranks him as the 85th-best pitcher of all time. Nobody with similar numbers is in the Hall of Fame. Who knows what would have happened if not for injuries, but fans can still look fondly upon Santana for the first no-hitter in Mets history (even though Carlos Beltran should have broken it up in the 6th), the even-better 17-strikeout, 8 inning gem against the Rangers in 2007 with a 95 Game Score (the highest ever for a non-complete game), the Major League Triple Crown win in 2006, that insane second half in 2004 and that devastating changeup. Unfortunately, he’s just not a Hall of Famer. My Answer: No.

Andruw Jones Jones played for 17 seasons with the Braves, Dodgers, Rangers, White Sox and Yankees. He was hitting home runs in the World Series at 19. He was considered fat, washed-up and lazy by the time he was 30. And yet, he’s the greatest center fielder of his era (1996-2012), he’s the 7th-best overall position player of the same era and he might be the (gasp) greatest defensive center fielder of all time. And he has 10 consecutive Gold Gloves to show for it. JAWS ranks him as the 11th-greatest center fielder in history. Imagine what he would have done if he wasn’t lazy.

First, we probably need to get past the fact that Kenny Lofton (10th on JAWS) and Jim Edmonds (15th) didn’t make it past the first ballot. In Lofton’s own era (1991-2007) he was third in WAR to Ken Griffey Jr. and Jones, himself. In Edmonds’ era (1993-2010) he was second to Jones. Lofton was more of a stolen bases guy. Edmonds has no ‘black ink’ type of honors. Andruw Jones has a home run and an RBI title from 2005, when he hit 51 bombs. He hit 434 on his career. This is a defensive specialist, mind you. His WAR7 peak is 9th-highest in history (everyone above him is in the Hall, except for Mike Trout), while Lofton’s is 13th and Edmonds’ is 17th.

On top of all of that, the Braves made it to the post season every year from 1995-2005. Jones was there every year since ’96. And if you look at the WAR of every Brave from 95-05, Chipper Jones is first with a 57.3. And Andruw Jones is second at 55.0. If you make it 96-05, when he was actually on the roster, Andruw beats Chipper by 0.5 runs. He also beats Greg Maddux (50.0), John Smoltz (39.7) and Tom Glavine (27.1). They're all gonna be in the Hall of Fame. Why not Andruw too? You know, either that or we’re gonna have to wait until 2023 for Carlos Beltran to get in at center field. Or like, whenever Mike Trout retires. My answer: Yes. (9/10).

Wait. Okay, let me go back to Scott Rolen for just a second. I starting to feel bad that I said yes to 4 guys (Edgar Martinez, Andruw Jones, Vladimir Guerrero and Fred McGriff) who had lower career WARs than Rolen's. I also said yes to 3 guys (Jim Thome, Guerrero and McGriff) who had lower peaks than Rolen's. I didn’t like Rolen’s counting numbers (316 HR, 2077 H) but I’d say yes to Martinez (309 HR) and Jones (1933 H). He’s also higher on the JAWS ranking than Martinez by 0.8 points. No, Rolen’s not Chipper Jones. And there’s no award named after him. And he didn’t save baseball in Seattle. And he’s not the very greatest defensively at his position. And he didn’t win an MVP or come painfully close to hitting 500 home runs. But if I’m gonna stay consistent, I have to put him in. Yes. (10/10). I feel okay about that.

So there you have it. My apologies to Chris Carpenter, Billy Wagner, Carlos Zambrano, Hideki Matsui, Aubrey Huff, Kevin Millwood, Trevor Hoffman, Orlando Hudson, Livan Hernandez, Kerry Wood, Brad Lidge, Jason Isringhausen and also Barry Bonds, Roger Clemens, Manny Ramirez, Gary Sheffield and Sammy Sosa for not reviewing your careers. I just found 10 guys more deserving.

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