#because she's my favorite of these characters and having HER be the first sidekick + the one who has a mentor/older sister relationship | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

apopcornkernel · 3 days

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been thinking too hard about my batman mob au. so i would like to share it. this is so long im sorry let me put it under a cut

i want to begin by saying that i think the only way bruce could feasibly become a mob boss is if he was able to be swayed to see that "clean" methods would genuinely do no good and in fact succeed in achieving more harm due to how much corruption and crime permeates the system. i think it would take a LOT to convince bruce of this, so he's kind of the hardest character to put in a mob au. however for the sake of fun we will suspend our disbelief a little bit!

okay, moving on, alfred: he's long been proven to be bruce's biggest enabler. i think he would get over it and end up helping him as he does as batman

as for dick: ooh boy. okay. so first of all i DO think bruce would let him kill zucco. however!! i think as dick grows up within the mob his strong code of morals will also begin to conflict with the lifestyle. but he's stuck there because bruce. insert all those posts about how dick grayson loves freedom and he also loves bruce and those things are at constant war with each other and because he loves bruce he sometimes clips his own wings. etc etc. i think he is the talia al ghul of this whole sitch if you get what i mean

speaking of talia!!! i believe her father would still be at odds with bruce bc yes, bruce is in crime, but bruce refuses to join with the league. so they semi-preserve their canon dynamic, except i think there's more opportunity for cooperation between talia and bruce considering talia's lexcorp era. in fact i do believe that lexcorp and waynecorp would become business allies during talia's time as ceo

but jason isn't dead. what his kidnappers hoped to do was turn him against his benefactor, taunt him about how it's been months and bruce still hasn't been able to save him, had refused to save him. but one night the door's left ajar and the sound of the TV drifts in, talking about how bruce is waging a bloody gang war, the first he's ever instigated, and jason... well. :)

as for jason—i think he would be the most loyal of the bunch. the first thing i actually dreamed up wrt this AU was a reimagining of ditf/utrh! in here, he's kidnapped by a rival gang. they demand bruce an impossible ransom, and bruce has no choice but to refuse. so bruce is sent a video of jason being killed.

"but poppy," you ask. "where's babs? tim? steph? cass? helena? jpv?" ok let's be real people aren't usually asking about the last 2 rip my babygirls BUT ANYWAYS—

the most important figure is HELENA. in the absence of batman, guess who's becoming the foremost protector of gotham??? EXACTLY. HELENA BERTINELLI. her whole backstory is that she wants to bring organized crime down SO WHO BETTER TO BE THE MAIN ENEMY IN A BATMAN MOB AU.

also because i love her.

im not biased i swear.

ALSO HER FIRST "ROBIN" (not necessarily named robin i just mean like. sidekick) IS JAMES COOPER FROM CAVALIERI'S HUNTRESS. CHUCK DIXON I HAVE NOT FORGIVEN YOU FROM ERASING HIM FROM MAIN CONTINUITY. he doesn't go out into the field that much bc he's still baby but he's the oracle before oracle. although when he does go into the field he's like. remember in cavalieri huntress where he was scurrying arohnd in the sewers and planting fucking grenades and shit. yeah.

later on he and babs will be best buddies <3 babs is his favorite aunt

ALSO!!! the rest of james' family will still be alive. idgaf. it's MY au and i can randomly reveal that his family has been alive all along IF I WANT TO. comic writers stop killing black people off for shock value challenge 2k24

also, james is ABSOLUTELY the one who wheedled helena into making a lair

babs does join the fray still! her story arc is mostly the same except that she partners with the huntress instead of batman. their ages are closer together so it's a slightly different dynamic

tim will remain a civilian. he will, however, be a very helpful civilian, in that he's the one who's stalking dick grayson & trying to prove that dick's involved in organized crime. him and dick will have the saddest tragickest "we could've been brothers. but not in this life. not ever." type of relationship. like jaderoy but platonic.

also tim & helena will have the same littlebrothernephew relationship that they have in canon 🫶🫶🫶🫶🫶

i guess jpv will get roped in in a similar way to canon, but the idea of bane doing what he did to helena makes me so so sad :( however since she is taking batman's narrative space in this story then i think it should still proceed. i will then also insert a little bit of the vichelena agenda here—

in the wake of bane, JPV WILL STILL STEP IN AS HUNTRESS. "but they'll know he's not a woman" COWARDS. just give him a dye job and he'll look like helena. all white people look the same. he can pad the fucking suit or he can get the fuck out.

as for steph, she will absolutely be a vigilante alongside the huntress. her father is still cluemaster, after all, so she'll follow a similar arc to canon except it's helena and not bruce that she'll develop a complex mentor relationship with!!

i think helena can see a little of herself in steph. i think part of helena envies steph's moral compass also. iirc at steph's age, helena still thought her mafia family was okay & that it was just the people who killed them that were bad. yet steph, who's half her age, has no such illusions about her father, and is already fighting to try and bring him down

cass!!!! cass will still come to gotham!!!!! i can't see a way for cass to be on bruce's side in this au simply bc of how strong her morals are. she killed a man and never ever wanted to kill again, even with shiva where it was kill or be killed, she had already made up her mind to let herself be killed in the end. so she is going to be on the vigilante side :]

also, it would be amazing for me personally if cass came to gotham during azbats (...azhuntress?) era. ohhh lord. a situation RIPE for incredible interactions

i still haven't read damian & duke comics properly yet so that's going to have to be added in the future. but that's what's been rattling around in my brain so far!

#dcposting #batman mob au #dc #batman #bruce wayne #alfred pennyworth #dick grayson #jason todd #helena bertinelli #james cooper #barbara gordon #tim drake #jean-paul valley #stephanie brown #cassandra cain

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cluescorner · 2 months

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I gave myself a writing challenge and I am fascinated by it

So basically I put the robins in a randomizer to give them a new order/role (because I just...kinda wanted to see what would happen + I like role-reversal AUs) and got results that are giving me a fucking brain blast.

Stephanie, the first sidekick who defines the role

Tim, the sidekick who dies and comes back wrong

Dick, the sidekick who saves Batman from himself

Damian, the sidekick who was never supposed to be a sidekick but would go on to prove everyone wrong

Jason, the youngest sidekick who is still the Kid Wonder

...So this is fucking wild. I've got some ideas and several of these fit perfectly (Dick's role is pretty similar to his one in canon), but some of these are fucking INCREDIBLE to explore (Steph being the first Robin is something I never even considered but tbh I kinda love it).

I probably won't write a fic or anything because tbh I don't like publishing my writing that much, but I might expand this into a full AU and post about it. I might randomize other stuff too (ie, stuff that I cannot change vs stuff that I cannot keep the same) but this fucking rules as a starting point.

#uhhh what am I calling this??#randomizedrobinsau #stephanie brown #oh my god I am so excited to figure out how tf to write this.#because she's my favorite of these characters and having HER be the first sidekick + the one who has a mentor/older sister relationship #with the others?? kickass. though I'll probably keep her and Tim's relationship as 'dating-then-exes' because I think it's funny #and then SHE can be the Robin who Tim got fixated on + figured out her identity?? holy fuck and then the angst of Tim later dying #Tim Drake #tbh I kinda wish he'd gotten a different position because 'sidekick who dies' Tim has kinda been done a lot with the standard #reverse robin aus. But it'll still be fun to write. Definitely going the Joker Junior route with this because Batman Beyond kicks ass #Dick Grayson #He'll honestly probably be the easiest. Like...his role has not changed much outside of being younger/not the one who defines this #But I still think it'll be good to see how well I know Dick beyond his eldest brother thing (which is my best way of relating to him)#Damian al ghul #damian wayne #oh this is gonna kick ass #Bruce does not want his son to be a sidekick but Damian just kinda forces his way into that role #and everybody doubts him because of his history with the league but he later proves himself more than capable #to the point that he can set out mostly on his own and still thrive #Jason Todd #Jason being the baby of the family is also something I have never thought about but holy shit it could kick ass #I really hope that I don't roll 'Jason must die' or 'Robin 5 must die' on the randomizer. I just kinda want Jason to live this time #But unfortunately I double-screwed him because he's on the 'must happen' wheel twice now. I did not think these prompts through #TBH I am so happy that none of them rolled their OG roles. because that would have been so fucking boring

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cosmonadarovicarts · 2 months

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Series/webtoons if you like Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss

Lovely hell

I'll start right away with the probably least known AND best of all - at least in terms of being similar to the universe of HH and HB-.

"Tanz, a powerful creature of pure evil, is vanished to Earth agaist her will. Weak and without a plan, she'll have to rely to Cain, a human, to guide her throught the world and figure a way back to her home: Hell."

First of all, it's a webtoon, so you can read it for free on Webtoon! Created by Tita (stage name Lorsupp), the story takes place in the present day. our protagonists are biblical characters (I won't give spoilers about who Tanz is. Cain, you guys must have already understood...).

This webtoon deserves much more recognition! the story is organic and well-paced, funny and tense when necessary. The characters are super charismatic and have chemistry, the Lore of Hell is super interesting and with a different approach from HH/HB. I love the character design - you can see the evolution of the author's traits as the chapters go by.

It's great to see other ways of approaching well-known characters -like the Jewish/Christian angels and demons-. A emphasis for Gabriel, ahhh this character hahah Anyway, this webtoon is the one I most recommend!

You can read it -> Webtoon account

When Instagram starts working again, I'll share the creator's account here!

Vilanius

This series - with just a few episodes left - is a Mexican animation released for Cartoon Network. Compared to HH's type of humor, here it is much more toned down, as it is aimed at a younger audience.

"Villainous is the story of Black Hat Org., run by Black Hat (whose name is synonymous with villain, a reference to the evil black-hatted cowboys of Western films) and his team of three less evil sidekicks. Black Hat is trying to sell various evil inventions created by Dr. Flug and is desperate to fulfill his evil aspirations. However, things often end badly for him, as brilliant innovations tend to have small and often comical flaws."

The lore has nothing related to the Hell, but it still focuses on the evil side of the story. I love the character designs, very similar to HH. It's worth checking out, even more Latin animation!

The Good Place

A series already consolidated and finished. One of my favorites on Netflix!

Even though it's not exactly Heaven and Hell, the concept is very similar. but what stands out here is the philosophical debate about what is right and wrong, how to be a good person in a world marked by individualism, competition and exploitation so that a person can have the basics to survive? -neoliberalism cough cough-.

"Eleanor Shellstrop wakes up to discover that she has died and entered the afterlife. But when she is told by her mentor Michael that she is in the "Good Place" because of her good deeds, helping to get innocent people off death row, she realizes that a mistake has been made because the people They think she is someone else with the same name."

Question about existentialism, ethics and the meaning of life debated in a fun way! A quick comparison to Bojack Horseman, a series that I love. in The Good Place, the existentialism, life and death are treated in a much more optimistic and... beautiful way, while in Bojack it is pessimistic and heavy. the debates on human existence can have lighter conclusions - this is not a criticism of Bojack, just a different approach.

Guardians of the Mansion of Horror

This recommendation won't have a personal review because... I still need to watch it! but I saw so many people recommending it, saying that it has good LGBT+ representation that I thought it would be interesting to bring it here. If anyone has already watched it and wants to say something about it...

"Guardians of the Mansion of Horror follows friends Barney and Norma as they work at a theme park during the summer. The two take the night shift and are responsible for organizing the place while it is empty. What they didn't expect is that this fun place is actually an interdimensional portal to hell. Suddenly, several supernatural creatures appear to haunt the Earth and the two friends must join forces to stop them. To do this, they receive help from the talking dog, Pugsley."

Inside Job

Here we have the biggest injustice in the history of Netflix, the cancellation of this series! I brought it here because of their type of acidic and critical humor towards society - not that this criticism is present in HH-. An adult animation, with swear words and the same irreverent touch as HH, following the shadow side of society.

"A dysfunctional team working in a hidden government department is tasked with keeping conspiracies around the secret world. From complicated attacks to secret societies, anti-social technology genius Reagan Ridley will need to work in a place full of shapeshifting reptilians and psychic mushrooms, at the same time as she must deal with an unbalanced father, in order to achieve the dream she dreams of. promotion."

Emphasis to the animation itself and the character design. When it comes to other species, we have unique designs, they even resemble the design of demons in HH.

irreverent, intelligent and humorous. 🤌

Good Omens

It's almost a rule, if you watched Hazbin Hotel/Helluva Boss, you also watched Good Omens!

For those who have never given the series a chance, here are some reasons to watch it now: Inspired by Neil Gaiman's work - and approved by him! -!. It is focused entirely on this universe of Jewish/Christian characters - and it is possible to see how well they are studied! There are references that only those who have studied demology or the sacred writings of these religions will understand-

The first season has a wonderful rhythm with captivating characters - the second lacks this a little. The angel and devil couple are super charismatic and you root for them.

Watching some of the biblical events from the point of view of the questioning and sinister demon Crowley and the good lamb Aziraphale is wonderful!

#hazbin hotel #hazbin hotel fandom #hazbin #the good place #good omens #inside job #cartoon #cartoon network #crowley #aziraphale #crowly x aziraphale #lucifer morningstar #hellaverse #helluva boss #series recommendations #series

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barblaz-arts · 1 month

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Last Hazbin character ask, thoughts on Emily, Sera, Lute, and Pentious (you forgot him when talking about main characters)?

Emily

You mean the love of my life???? I am very normal about her.

Lol but fr tho she's in my top favorite characters right after Vaggie and Charlie. She's just so sweet and kind. I love characters who remain that way even after their world view is challenged, just with less naivety. Characters who are so morally good are just so especially interesting to me in a show like Hazbin Hotel that's just filled with assholes of every flavor(with some more redeemable than the others ofc).

Seeing her get mad at Sera was so satisfying btw. Righteous/protective anger looks so good on sweet characters like Charlie and Emily.

Her singing voice is also one of my favorites, along with Charlie, Lucifer and Carmilla. Recently found out that she was one of the talented ladies who sang in the First Burn mv for Hamilton too. She's the third girl that appears, coming in for the harmony. Seeing her sing in a song with Rachel Ann Go feels like a crazy crossover for a Filipino like me because Rachel Ann is a famous singer over here.

youtube

Sera

I think she's a neat character! The type of self-righteous, classist christian I'd avoid like the plague irl, but so fascinating as a character. I'm really curious as to what direction the story will take her to. I can more or less guess the case for other characters, but I can't quite pinpoint the goal for Sera, because I'm not quite sure yet if she's gonna be truly a bad person like Adam and Lute. She could either double down on refusing to let sinners into heaven or see the error of her ways. The former is probably more likely, but I'm not opposed to idea of the latter happening.

Lute

Logical brain: she deserves to suffer so much more for what she did to Vaggie and calling her love for Charlie "vile and blasphemous"

Sapphic brain: ... Scary angel lady hot tho...

Jokes aside, I'd love to see what kinda antagonist she'd be as the one calling the shots instead of just being Adam's sidekick this time. I wanna see her spiral and just become worse and worse. I also need a rematch between her and Vaggie that's a little more fair, where Vaggie is now more used to fighting again. With the whole one-eye VS one-arm thing making it even more even.

Sir Pentious

My boy!!!!! I really didn't expect to like him as much as I do. I liked him fine in the pilot, but they made him so dang cute in the show. You can tell Alex Brightman loved voicing him too. I really hope we get to see what he's up to in heaven. I'm proud of him for being first to ascend, but im scared some angels might be wary or even threatened by his presence in heaven. They do have a pretty bad track record with snakes after all.

#asks #hazbin hotel

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romiantic · 8 months

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HEART BEATING PINK !

atsv characters crushing on barbie!reader

→ INCLUDING earth 1610!miles, gwen, nerd!miguel

→ READING: barbie-coded!black!reader

→ GENRE + WARNINGS: fluff + mentions of anxiety and insecurity in gwen’s part

→ A/N: this is part of my 3k barbie party ! sorry I’ve been lacking on writing, my energy hasn’t been the best :(. also miguel a college student in this !

𖦹 ₊˚. MILES MORALES

— being best friends with miles is quite an adventure, probably because he’s spiderman and you’re his non-spider person assistant sidekick. you two have grown up being next door neighbors and it doesn’t help that your moms have been best friends since the morales moved in

— the first few days of the move in, miles wasn’t really shy and encouraged the both of you to play together. he showed you his hot wheels and action figures while you showed him your dolls. as the both of you were playing, miles noticed how very pink your room was; the pink bed set, pink dresser, all your dolls dressed up in pink and white dresses, a lot of pink pajamas, just a very pink room for a small girl but he didn’t mind. however, miles did tease you a bit on having such a pink room

— the both of you had so much fun playing with each other's toys and creating funny scenarios as time passed, until mile’s mom interrupted the both of you and said it was mile’s bedtime. the both of you didn’t want miles to leave but he had to, sadly. as he was leaving, you gave him a pink sticker and made him pinky promise to come again to play, and he never broke that promise

— now years later, miles is drawing another sketch of you in his sketch pad, his favorite photo of you but the background is pink. the infamous picture of you and miles being rained on at coney island, but you looked so happy and miles didn’t mind the rain so yall just went with it, dancing and goofing around until rio yelled at you two to take shelter

— that day might have been the day miles realized he had a crush on his best friend. watching you dance around in the gloomy sky with happiness on display, and with no worry shown on your face, made mile’s wish to see that every day. actually, he wanted to be the cause of that happiness, he longed for seeing that sort of happiness from you every day until the end of time

— but as months and years go by, mile’s feelings grow stronger and his heart wishes that he would confess how he felt about you. but instead, he draws it; he draws the two of you sitting at the park, small drawings of your best smiles, drawings of when you’re mad, he draws the two of you swinging around new york with your fake spider suits on, and he draws a potential spider kiss scene. any and everything that makes mile’s heart race a thousand miles per minute, he draws it

— every page of his sketchbook has a small drawing of you him with y’all initials at the bottom <3

— his favorite drawing will always be of you two on the rooftop, laying down on a blanket as you were stargazing and he confesses that he’s spiderman. it wasn’t an easy task, you were mad at him for lying and keeping this hidden but you also sympathized with him carrying that weight of being new york’s favorite hero

— so instead of confession, there is only drawings of y/n l/n, her favorite color pink, and little hearts as different sides of her are sketched away. but miles doesn’t, well sort of, cause he refuses to tamper his friendship with you over a crush. it sucks but that’s the decision he’ll make until he grows the courage to ask you on a date

𖦹 ₊˚. MIGUEL O’HARA

— he is brains and he is brauns, but when it comes to his emotions, miguel is distressed and face is growing hot like a sauna

— it doesn’t help that his classmate is the reason for all this as well, y/n, everyone’s favorite person who always has a sort of pink on her person. she’s bubbly, kind, and very smart, not many can speak badly of them cause they treat everyone like the person is their best friend. boys and girls either wanna befriend them or fall in love with them, and miguel o’hara is surely on that list

— miguel always adored the way you spoke with such confidence, rarely stutters in your speech, doesn’t mind lending a helping hand, you were like a blessing from the heavens above. a blessing that he would wish is his and his only, oh he wished to surround himself with you all day and all night

— he would get flushed at the way you praised his work in class or how you’d give small compliments to his features, calling him handsome whenever you two passed by on campus and how his teeth are so perfect and fascinating. his face would be painted a deep red as he gives a thank you with a gentle smile

— it doesn’t help that miguel can barely focus on his studies when all he can think about is the person with a beauty that could make the angels sing and a soul crafted perfectly by God Himself. while trying to figure out a formula for his next physics exam, all he can think of is kissing you, hugging you, making you laugh with bad physics jokes, going on dates, how you would look in his clothes, how your name would sound with his last name, and the cute family you two could have…yeah miguel is in too deep

— but he should’ve known after you spent some time in his apartment for a physics project. one day specifically, you were in the middle of trying to figure out this formula your professor sent you two for the project but you could not get it, nothing could help, not even miguel himself. you tried everything that you can find in your textbooks but became frustrated and broke down in tears, your rarely-used reaction to a difficult assignment

— you tried to hide your face from miguel but instead, he allowed you to lean into his arms and continued crying until you became sleepy. you wiped any remaining tears and apologized to miguel. he did nothing but smile, assure you that it was alright to cry, and that you can cry to him any time, any day. in reality, he fell deeper as he watched you become vulnerable and found safety in his arms as you cried, a piece of you that he wishes to hold and cherish

— ever since that day, miguel wishes and hopes of becoming your lover as time passes and you two grow closer

𖦹 ₊˚. GWEN STACY

— falling for the new recruit at spider society wasn’t something gwen didn’t expect at all. In fact, she thought they would rather be more associates than friends, possibly even lovers. but falling for the new spider person with blonde and pink locs and a pink spider suit? definitely not

— but she was wrong the second you introduced yourself and complimented her suit, some sort of emotion grew but she couldn’t figure out what it is. was it anxiousness, nervous, flustered? what could it possibly be?

— she ranted to hobie about the new spider person and he was no help, instead of advice he said teased about gwen’s “crush” on you. which gwen constantly denied but hobie refused to believe it and pavitr made it no better

— you were partnered up on a missions with her and that made everything worse for gwen and this mysterious feeling. gwen found you incredible while you were fighting bad guys and the fact that you still looked perfect after brutal battles made gwen fall deeper

— some days of no crimes and just patrolling, you two would sit on top of a building and watch the city pass with its luminous billboard signs of ads, top artists, and fast food displays. you two would play a game of “I Spy” to make time pass, a mundane game but it was fun as the clues became more difficult

— some days you two would just sit and rant on about life, gwen was shocked that your life isn’t what it seems, no matter how positive you try to be and you comforted her as she talked about her friend miles. she feels regret for not seeing him and feels like she did a terrible job at being his friend. you continued to listen until the streetlights came on, also making gwen realize how your skin radiates in the moonlight. she studied the way your face softened as she was talking, the way your blonde and pink locs made your skin color stand out more, and how your pink suit made you look so much like a barbie doll. well, a spider doll I should say

— instead of talking, gwen wanted to kiss you and lay in your arms, she wanted to embrace your beauty and soul until time separates you both. the mysterious feeling grew more and more as missions continued on and you opened up more sides to her as she did to you. She realized that you’re human and far from perfect, but she didn’t mind

— but also her nerves messed with her as questions started to arise in her head. “do they like me back? am I worthy of having another friend? Would they still like me if they found out about peter? do I deserve to be loved and cared for?” but gwen pushed them and showed no sign of them as you spent time with her

— days where she’s walking mindlessly around new york, she finds herself thinking about you, everything about you. from your soft smile to your alluring personality, how intelligent and critical you can be in certain situations, to your great obsession with pink, any and everything of y/n <3

⭑ EEEEEK NEW WORK, pretty satisfied how this turned out :)

⭑ lemme know which one was y’all favorite and send me requests for more !

𝐕𝐎𝐓𝐏 💗: 1 Corinthians 13:13

SPIDERMAN: ATSV MASTERLIST + MAIN MASTERLIST

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lxdymoon0357 · 10 months

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The three main male characters of Novel Miss Not Sidekick and yandere who are love enemies? *I forgot their names- hehe* If it's too much, you can change the request however you want!

(god fucking job!!! My first request for my favorite manhwa!!! I love this!)

Yandere! Male leads X Reader HCs

Rondemio De Helone

♕You were probably Ibelin’s friend and you both were students in the empire, you both were invited to the crown prince’s ball, but Ibelin being herself didn’t wanted to participate, but instead read a fucking book….Like who reads a book at a banquet or ball?!

♕But, due to this she caught the crown prince’s eye as he walked towards you; you immediately recognized him and bowed, because you decided to educate yourself about this place, and knew about the nobles and royals here, as your dear friend didn’t even glance his way….She was always like this towards everyone, including you, she never really showed any affection or anything a friend would, but you were used to this…….

♕But, there was a certain someone whom you both got a bit attached to, your dear friend latte, who was certainly the funniest person you ever met. You learnt that when you three were at Ibelin’s place, when the prince was there and she referred to a rabbit as a beast trying to attack you, this was the first time the prince actually acknowledged you both, which was noted considering Ibelin always caught the attention of everyone she met, making the person often forget other people standing with her.

♕He stared at you for some time and after you waving your hand in front of his face, making him come out of a trance, he immediately smiled warmly at you before apologizing to you three with a blush on his face before you three took your leave.

♕When Ibelin catches on the fact that he’s fallen out of love for her and developed an obsession of you, she’s gonna confront you about it and that’s when she starts to insult you and slapped you, before the crown prince (who was visiting you) got to the situation, he escorted her out and put her in a dungeon before torturing her over a matter of time before killing her.

♕Okay, let’s do a time skip to when he kidnaps you, because otherwise it’s just how he met you scenario……. He kidnapped you due to the friendship you formed with his sister, Lady Rosealia, she invited you to have tea with her and her brother, she left for a minute when you finished your tea for a few minutes, giving the drug in your tea the perfect amount of time to work and make your faint, then he asks his most loyal guards to take you to a room prepared just for you, where no one else is allowed.

♕After his kidnapping, he would show you so much affection, it feels like you both are married, not to worry he made the rumor that you ended up going back to your continent because you had fallen in love with someone and decided to marry them. Nobody is gonna find you….

♕ He keeps you in a soundproof room, so nobody can hear you scream or shout nor the banging on the door because your shackled to you the bed, it lets you roam around the room but not to the door and balcony which is sealed tight

♕ Rondemio bring many gifts and writes many love letters to remind you of him, when’s not there, he’s left you so many books, mostly Latte’s many bimors and sometimes Rosealia comes to visits you because well her brother allows you, she is also partly a yandere and thinks it’s for the better of you to stay at the palace..

♕ You and Rosealia often paint pictures while looking out the balcony and talk about random things, Rosealia tells you all about things around outside and gossips with you all the time. And most of the time, Rosealia makes you listen to her ideas for bimors, she tells you all the troupe of a cheesy Dom and tsundere sub and intimidating sub and sunshine Dom and whatever stirs up in her mind

♕ You and Rosealia have matching friendship necklaces, hairbands, rings, bracelets, anklets and so much more, because well Rosealia is a clingy friend and her brother is quite happy you get along with her, you have many matching jewellery.

♕ Dating Rondemio is also partly dating Rosealia, because ain’t no way does she leaves her brother’s S/Os alone, she becomes very close friends with them, and if she doesn’t approve of them, Rondemio drops them, well, in this case if she doesn’t approve of you, you both won’t see each-other again, let me tell you, she’s an entertaining person..

♕ She tells you cheesy stories, brings you games, books, fruits, sweets, teas, cakes, snacks, and so much more, she had matching outfits with you as well, one outfit matching her aesthetic and one matching your aesthetic, it looks adorable, but sometimes it’s too much and it feels like you were kidnapped by her instead of Rondemio.

♕ Rondemio doesn’t punish you badly, maybe starving you, or leaving you in a dark locked room for days or maybe killing one of your friends, mostly that, he isn’t too much of a yandere, very devoted and care-free, nothing too extreme.

♕ Rondemio honestly kills every man who you look at or who look at you, or anyone in fact, he will kill them, he praises you so much, basically worshipping you and that stuff, but nothing too extreme, he brings you gifts, whether they be large diamonds or tiny flowers!

Kenneth Esbande

✠ Kenneth’s love story starts because you were a friend of Latte and you both annoyed the shit out of him and until he starts falling out of love with Ibelin.

✠ He became a close friend even though you were social distancing with each-other. You were annoying to him, but still very close to him, you would often help him train his sword-fighting when he realized his feelings for you one day, when you fell and he caught and you both fell over with him laying over you, when he didn’t feel chill upon touching you.

✠ He would be able to touch Ibelin, but that reduced slowly-slowly, when he started gaining feelings for you, he wouldn’t be able to touch her without feeling disgusted and violated and feeling as though spiders were crawling over him.

✠ Slowly he didn’t realize how strong his feelings got, until he saw you walking around with Ibelin, when she caught his eye and she excitedly waved at him only for her to be ignored because you walked over and greeted him sweetly with a pretty smile.

✠ Ibelin tried to insult you and she died….:P sad for her, but anyways she was mad because he was meant to be hers and she liked his attention and you were taking away the attention from her even though she wasn’t gonna choose him, it was very annoying….Kenneth stabbed her multiple times and she died…

✠ Kenneth visited Latte the next day for advice, because well though he was bearing her, he couldn’t deny that she didn’t give good advice, she helped him understand his feelings better but he didn’t tell her about the things he stole from your bedroom and how he stalks you or has someone do that nearly every day…

✠ Kenneth also saw you with Latte and he honestly did hunt a huuuuuge animal for you, probably the largest one and confessed then and there and you became the lady/lord/grace of the hunt.

✠ Kenneth really often puts gifts in your room as he stalks you and puts his name as “Secret Admirer” you know the usual and his gifts though they may seem nice at first glance take a dark turn in a matter of seconds, like a knife but with a handle which is filled with the blood of you latest suitor who went missing or maybe a beating box which is beating because of a literal heart…..

✠ Once Latte puts in the law of stopping all those advances to Kenneth, he will finally confess, does not matter if you’d reject him or accept him as either way you’ll be kidnapped by him the next day and kept in a room for a few weeks which is supplied with food and water every few hours or whenever you ask for it.

✠ Kenneth for somebody who pretends to hate being teased I mean, he’d never find it endearing, unless it’s you whose teasing him and annoying him, you can poke his cheeks, pinch him, pull his hair and bite his shoulders as a form of love language, he will always find it loving and endearing and what not

✠ Kenneth would love to do your hair and he WILL do it, because you’re gonna be restrained and what are you gonna do, fight back, when you don’t have hands? I mean they’re tied but you can’t feel your hands so you’re basically decapitated and can’t use your hands.

✠ Definitely makes the maid clean around and talk around with you, you enjoy it and so you end up helping them most of the times and he feel like he’s married to you as he helps you and the maids clean around the place and then he gives higher pay to the maids for continuing this thing you help them and he gets to not only keep an eye on you but also feel like a husband to you.

✠ Kenneth despite being the youngest duke of the entire empire, is very lonely because no person actually becomes friends with him for the sake of friendship, people earn many social benefits from being close to him and so when you and Latte come into his life, you weren’t afraid to tell what you both thought and that is what drew him closer to you. He is afraid you will leave him and he will be lonely again…

✠ Kenneth very much makes sure that everything is to your liking, dresses, tea, biscuits, flowers, rain, lights, temperature of the atmosphere, the book ending, bed, blanket, the amount of rice in your plate, the crystals of salt put into the food, and what not, he’s there to fix everything in case anything wrong happens.

✠ He brings you so many gifts, it’s tiring keep a tack of them and he also goes to Latte for advice on you, does not matter what she says, he will not let you go and he will surely do not reveal how he keeps you chained up, but he will ask how he should get gifts to his lover who is upset with him

Arwin Hebrim

☠ Arwin Hebrim, he is such a sweet asshole, kills everyone he can but yeah, anyways he saw you with Latte, and yeah he found you interesting when you tried beating him up for annoying you cause you didn’t give a shit about being alive and you decided Arwin should be taught that the world doesn’t revolve around him (it does, it probably does….)

☠ Yeah, he ended up falling for you and became possessive and obsessive because he knew how hard the world is and so he slowly gives you gifts of appreciation but they all are for stalking and watching you throughout the day, he is just worried for his spouse that’s all, it is bad for him to not be worried for the one he loves the most?? :<

☠ Arwin actually gifted you a doll similar to Latte, but yours had cameras in it and it showed him what you were doing every day, anywhere, all the time, does not matter! He is watching you as your stalker, and when he knows you’re deep asleep, he will come, maybe put you under a spell of deep sleep for some time while he cuddles, kisses, squeezes you or strokes your hair, he does not care, I mean what are people gonna do? Arrest him? Kill him? Banish him?? He can kill, end and remake the whole universe, because of how strong he is….

☠ Arwin when he kidnapped you, to say is kind of a sweetheart, the only person he allows himself to be vulnerable to is you, he would do anything, praises you and buys you treats and this scares the shit out of you more than when he is being angry…..Because who the fuck has taken over his BODY?! THE FUCK?! It’s fine though, he gets you your favourite desserts and snacks and fried foods!!!!

☠ He also loves to leaves hickeys on your thighs while you sleep your ass off, don’t ask why….He will blame it on the bedbugs, but red-purple hickeys some in the shape of a cat’s paw are littered on your back, neck, thighs MOST IMPORTANTLY, and chest….he does it because he finds your skin to be plushy and pudgy…

☠ Oh and the moment someone takes your attention, they don’t exist anymore, depends on how much you talk about them, you talk amazingly about them, they die a horrible death, you talk how they hurt you, they die a horrible death, you talk shit about them cause they’re annoying, they die normally, you like them as a friend, they die normally, you don’t know them, they die normally, people are gonna die anyways, so don’t mention them….JUST DON’T!

☠ Oh, Arwin would buy you literally whatever you desire, the moon, another galaxy, someone’s black coloured heart, seven eyes balls, or anything you want, he is ready to get it for you!! Arwin is a very gift giving type of yandere, I mean all my yandere are, ngl…

☠ He will make you watch him practice spells and you’re the mistress/master of the Arcane tower as well, so you’re under the eye of everybody, everybody knows about you and they’ve been told not to help you….not like anybody could…

☠ Anyways, Arwin is fucking obsessed, he spent a whole week AWAKE enchanting gifts for you and is always there to make sure he’s immune to all the spells he put into your gifts, so you can’t and won’t attack him, that will hurt his heart!! Also he makes sure you like his gifts, if you don’t, he can always replace it, give him a whole day to enchant it like crazy…

☠ If you try to fight back using magic or being physical, he finds you to be so cute like a kitten trying to fight a plushies, all you’re gonna achieve from doing that is being stuck in Arwin’s grip and lap for a few hours as he cuddles you, pulls you into make out sessions or plays around with you….It’s pretty nice, ngl…

☠ Oh, also for some reason, I think maybe he will make sure all your lipsticks or tinted lip-glosses are not gonna be transfer proof, cause so when he kisses you, it leaves marks on him, he wears them sometimes as well, only to leave multiple marks on you at every fragment of skin present on you!

☠ Arwin is also a pretty amazing husband and a sweetheart, only to you though, he would give you enchanted gifts to know you’re whereabouts every second of day, how you’re feeling through like a ring which has a matching pair he’s wearing or something or maybe something which shows how you’re health is, etc…I can’t elaborate and won’t elaborate.

☠ You're mainly under the eyes of Memoria and Arobrock, cause he's probably the only one Arwin trusts enough to not give you a migraine and also open up a bit!! He doesn't trusts Berrylreed and Straighbov.....nor anyone else, cause everyone is crazy!!!

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theerurishipper · 4 months

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Hi~ Hope you have a lovely day. I want to get your opinions on my rant lol and ask.

Marinette is such a disappointment of a lead female character in a western magical girl cartoon. She isn't a good leader and all her team consist of yes men and women and sidekick Chat Noir where her real partner Alya is standing over to the side. I liked her in the first two season and maybe some in s3 but the s4 and onward just got to me ngl. It's her world and we're all just living in it. Miraculous is so weird when it comes to team dynamics because I get she's guardian but I really wished it were someone else and not her because she chooses people she already get along great with. It fun for team dynamics to add be different and broader.

The whole she's just 14 the fandom spouts only goes so far how many messes do you do until you realise you need to own up to them even at that age when you should know better on your conduct ?

I get it hard to communicate but onwards I always thought the bigger of the two in the conflict was her because of her secrecy and her controlling tendencies. I disliked it so much in the ephemeral episode and her betraying her partner disgusted me. Sorry to those who like or defend her character this much but I can't stan or like a character that does this much crap to a friend let alone a love interest and then gloss over or minimize it and not be called out for it. Like, are people standards that low they think she's a good leader or a good proper representation on feminism when this show reeks of misogyny and misandry. She's the ultimatum voice for Astruc.

A communication issue with her Chat was fine a long time ago but now in s5 she crossed it hell nah how do people still support a ship with her knowing she followed Hawkmoth command for Adrien. I literally can't anymore with this show. Every guy she likes gotta be so 100 percent in effort and like in the Shadybug special him always comforting her makes me so jaded whenever she cries what about a change in dynamics had we ever seen her comfort him in turn how are people invested in this ship? Like that time in the bench and she just thought of ways to woo or give presents instead of just comforting him is so sad to watch.

She really followed in Master Fu steps. The bar is in hell and she crossed it in the finale. There is no excuse no handwaving it away and i know in my heart they gonna minimize it for Adrien own good. Everything is for his own good huh? What good is it rooting for a ship that just reeks of pity points. Like, she was never my favorite but who knew 8 years ago she'd pull a stunt like this and people bending over and doing mental gymnastics to rationalise this insanity. She really is a good foil to Gabriel ironically to bad she has no sway in this family drama we call the Agreste.

I know she has good intentions and it's not wrong for her to wish to save her prince but like thats all that is intention. Her actions are also important and the effects she's done is so bad that if she weren't the Main character and we haven't spent the chunk of the majority in her pov alone she'd be disliked.

I feel like compared to other respective series Winx Club s1-3 Bloom, Danny Phantom, Ben 10, Totally Spies they have it much more harder and so many more all show the consequences of your actions and how you do them right and they're her age. I feel like whenever someone bring up consequences it's like people in this particular fandom think we do it to punish Marinette but no I just never ever saw it properly done in this show because she's very coddled in the narrative. I don't see other MC as coddled as her before in a show where when they MESS UP it's actually integral and important.

Rant over.

You encapsulated all my thoughts perfectly, anon. I've said so many times before that I loved Marinette from Season 1-3 and even during Season 4 as it aired. What made me fall out of love with her character post Season 4 was the utter lack of acknowledgement of her actions and the insistence in portraying her as in the right at all times. Like you said, it's not just your intentions that matter. Your actions and the effects that they have on the people around you also matter. The writers don't seem to understand this, and it hits Marinette's character worst of all. She had so much potential to be such a great character, which is why I feel so sad seeing just how badly the writing failed her. Marinette deserved better.

Thank you for your ask!

#MLB #ML Salt #ML Writing Salt #ML Writers Salt #Marinette Salt #Meta #Asks

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pluckyredhead · 2 years

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The Arrowfamily Is Comically Terrible at Secret Identities

I’ve mentioned a few times that I headcanon that the Arrowfam doesn’t actually have functional secret identities but think they do, but that’s...basically canon. So I figured I’d share the evidence!

There’s a lot of evidence.

Ollie has never been stupendous at maintaining a secret identity, but the whole thing fell apart completely in 1989, when the CIA asked Oliver Queen to assist them with a case. Ollie agreed, but wanted to know how they knew he was Green Arrow:

Please note that he’s talking to a CIA agent here. This man deals in information, and Ollie’s identity was so obvious he didn’t even realize it was a secret. Incredible.

Absolutely one of the funniest things Ollie has ever said. Bless his heart.

And when Ollie finally suits up for the mission...

...he decides not to put on the mask. He continues to not bother with it until his death, so for another five years.

(Dinah also seems to drop her secret identity around this time, though it’s not commented on. She pretty much continues not to have one to this day.)

But what about his boys?

Well, Roy is a government agent in the late 80s and 90s, and "Agent Harper’s” former life as a sidekick is no secret:

You could argue that Roy’s file is classified and so no one outside of Checkmate/the CBI knows it, but that’s pretty clearly not true. First of all, every babysitter Lian has ever had has known both of Roy’s identities. Second, by 1998, he’s wearing this costume:

No mask. Just occasional sunglasses. Please note Vic dunking on him for them. (This whole exchange is golden. “You’re not supposed to say his name” lololol.)

And then there’s Connor, who wears a mask, but doesn’t seem to realize that it’s for anything other than decoration and tradition. Here he is introducing himself by name while in costume:

(This is one of my all-time favorite Connor panels, by the way. “Are you Robin Hood?” “I’m his son.” Just shoot me in the heart, why don’t you?)

And in case you’re thinking, well, that’s a child, who’s she going to tell...here’s Connor being totally unconcerned about being addressed by his real name while in costume while on television:

It’s hard to convey with just a few panels here and there, but I want to make this very clear: from at least 1994 to 2001, Roy and Connor simply did not have secret identities. They walked around in costume without masks, sometimes with a jacket on top if it was chilly but clearly not to hide the costume. They introduced themselves by name while in costume and by codename while out of it. Heroes with secret identities (Dick, Kyle, etc.) had to remind them to be discreet when they were hanging out together. Literally every supporting character in both of their books knew who they really were, including villains. They weren’t super public figures, but they weren’t hiding things, either.

(Connor’s existence also really reinforces that Ollie never had a good secret identity, because he always knew Ollie was his father, which according to the timeline of that era means that Moonday saw Green Arrow on TV one day and said “Huh, that’s the guy who got me pregnant.”)

And then Ollie comes back. Now, when he returns from the dead he has amnesia for basically everything after his road trip with Hal in the 70s, which means he doesn’t remember getting rid of his mask, and he certainly doesn’t know that Roy and Connor were running around identity-less for years while he was dead. None of that makes this scene any less funny:

Mia has encountered both Green Arrow and Oliver Queen exactly once each and she instantly knows they’re the same person. Like the scene with the CIA agent, this scene is important because it establishes not that Ollie’s identity is known, but that it is easy to know. HE IS OBVIOUSLY GREEN ARROW. IF HE DOES NOT CHANGE HIS BEHAVIOR, HE WILL ALWAYS BE OBVIOUSLY GREEN ARROW.

(Spoiler: he does not change his behavior.)

A couple storylines later, Ollie becomes inexplicably obsessed with his secret identity. You know, the one he doesn’t have.

This is Ollie standing at his own grave. [Insert Grant Gustin meme here.] He is there to meet Clark and ask him who attended his funeral. Clark provides him with paparazzi photos, and Ollie absolutely freaks the fuck out because he doesn’t recognize one of the attendees, and why would someone he doesn’t know be at his funeral? Maybe they know his secret???

Oliver. THERE IS AN ARROW ON YOUR TOMBSTONE AND IT SAYS “ALWAYS MADE THE RIGHT ENEMIES.” YOU DIED IN A HELICOPTER EXPLOSION. WHAT FUCKING SECRET?

Like. Archer’s Quest is an idiotic storyline and riddled with character assassination, but the fact that Ollie is upset that a stranger was at his funeral when the paparazzi, who are presumably also strangers, were also there is extra dumb. But my Archer’s Quest rant is a separate post.

Anyway, Ollie and Roy decide to go on a road trip to find various things that may or may not compromise Ollie’s secret identity. Before they set out, Ollie gives Roy a present:

This makes me laugh so hard. It’s so fucking stupid. Truly what do you think that is going to do, Ollie? Is it a magic mask? If Roy puts it on, will it give the entire world amnesia? That cat is FULLY out of the bag, my friends!

It’s also funny because eight months later, Roy switched to this costume:

This one doesn’t even have sunglasses! Screw you, Ollie!

Oh, and just in case you think that Mia is better about all of this because she’s seen how obvious Ollie is...nope.

That is Mia making a trick arrow IN SHOP CLASS while loudly talking to Roy about the Fortress of Solitude on the phone. And then Bart shows up IN COSTUME to take her to a Teen Titans mission and it’s pretty clear that she is not at all concerned about the impact this will have on her secret identity. So yeah, she’s just as bad as the rest of them.

(Yes, Roy did steal a Phantom Zone arrow from the Fortress of Solitude as a teenager and then gift it to Mia a decade later. I love him.)

But then Identity Crisis happened, and all of a sudden everyone had to be super duper worried about their secret identity, even people who had not had one since 1989. And thus we get a hilariously dumb storyline where the Arrowfamily’s house gets blown up and Ollie spirals into hysterics about it:

If the next words out of Hideous Wally’s mouth weren’t going to be “...have a secret identity,” I will be so disappointed in him. EVERYONE KNOWS WHO YOU ARE, OLIVER.

Connor is not exempt from the hysterics, which is in a lot of ways even funnier because he never had a secret identity:

Well, gee, Connor, maybe you shouldn’t have told every single person you met your real name for seven years! Maybe that would have helped!

(This is all triply funny because these histrionics are being written by Judd Winick, who was simultaneously writing Roy the Maskless Wonder over in Outsiders.)

I’m assuming this was all intended to be a soft retcon and we just...weren’t supposed to remember or notice that the Arrowfam didn’t have secret identities once they started caring about them again. But again: it was firmly established not once but twice that Ollie’s secret identity can be detected by literally just looking at him, Roy’s ID is a matter of public record, and the amount of government agents, supervillains, and utter randos scattered around the world who know at least one Arrowfam ID is literally uncountable. And Oliver is still publicly dating Black Canary, Green Arrow’s girlfriend. And yet they still think they have secret identities.

In conclusion: they’re stupid and I love them, your honor. And this is why I choose to believe that everyone in Star City 100% knows who every single member of the Arrowfamily is and they are just allowing them to keep their illusions out of affection for their dumb, melodramatic, ridiculous superheroes.

#green arrow #oliver queen #connor hawke #arsenal #roy harper #speedy #mia dearden #meta

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thankskenpenders · 2 years

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IDW Sonic: Imposter Syndrome and #50

It’s finally here! IDW Sonic #50! I waited to talk about the Imposter Syndrome miniseries until after #50 dropped, and it turns out #50 has, uh... well, it’s made a big splash. I’m not sure I’ve seen this many people talking about (and/or arguing over) a single issue of Sonic in a long time.

As expected, in this post I’ll be talking about Surge, Kit, and Starline, but #50 has also given us a ton to chew on regarding Sonic and Eggman, Belle, and the overarching themes of the entire IDW series.

Let’s start out with the miniseries!

IMPOSTER SYNDROME

Surge rules

Can I just say that up front? That’s my main takeaway. Surge fucking rules

She was popular from the very second the first images of her dropped because Evan and Mauro came up with an extremely sick design, and the actual story does not disappoint. She borrows liberally from delinquent rival anime tropes (except, you know, she’s a girl, so it’s instantly even better), but that’s such a natural and fun addition to the Sonic cast that she instantly grabs you

And boy, if the writing and the strength of the design weren’t already enough, Thomas Rothlisberger’s art throughout the arc sure does. I’ve seen a lot of comparisons to Rise of the TMNT, which I can see. But Surge just makes so many good faces, constantly, and everything she does is cool. She’s angry teenage rebellion personified and she’s instantly become one of my favorite characters in the entire franchise, period. (Tangle and Whisper are also up there, so it’s safe to say the IDW comics have an extremely good track record when it comes to comic-original characters.)

Like seriously just look at her faces and tell me she isn’t the best

Kit, AKA “Aw Little Guy!!! Oh He's A Little Bit Fucked Up Actually”

There were always hints that Kit had a sinister side to him - he is a villain, after all - but Surge stole the show at the start of the miniseries. This left Kit mostly as her meager sidekick struggling to please both her and Starline. In this way, he’s a dark reflection of Tails. Where Tails has become more independent over time, becoming more of an equal to Sonic, Kit exists entirely to support Surge. Starline made him this way, because this is how Starline perceives Sonic and Tails’ relationship. Starline doesn’t really understand people despite thinking he does, and this is what ultimately damns all of them

Naturally, this has left Kit kind of fucked up. Over the course of the arc, it becomes clear that he’s probably the scarier of the two. Surge might be stronger, but like Sonic, she wears her emotions and her intentions on her sleeve. But Kit? Kit suppresses his violent urges, until they build to a point where he can’t anymore

(these panels from #50 but still)

Holy shit, Starline???

I touched on Starline’s very meta plan earlier. I would have honestly been happy if Ian and co. had just added these cool new rivals for Sonic and Tails and let them duke it out, because they are, in fact, cool as hell. But the actual plot of the arc is more intriguing than that

Starline has always been a very meta character, with his main trait as a character basically being that he can zoom out and notice patterns in the franchise that other characters either can’t or won’t. He’s the guy who watches a movie and says how he would make smarter decisions than the characters the whole time. Early on, he did this with Eggman. He tried to “fix” Eggman’s methods so that he could finally succeed in beating Sonic and taking over the world, but this didn’t work out, and Eggman kicked him to the curb. He then decided that he would simply go solo and take over the world for Eggman. He finally reveals his true plan for doing so here: create his own “heroes” who can replace Sonic and Tails, the main heroes who always stand in the way of “progress” (Eggman taking over the world). In theory, this will allow Starline to control the hero/villain dynamic from both sides, ending the cycle of Eggman trying to “change the world” and Sonic stopping him

And of course, Starline calls this cycle he intends to break...

“The Sonic Cycle.”

I love you Ian

It quickly becomes apparently, though, that Starline’s plan here is, uh. Extremely fucked up! Wow! Early on it’s revealed that Starline has repeatedly been “rebooting” Surge and Kit. Any time the cracks start to show in their conditioning and they question their life stories, Starline’s orders, or their innate desires to defeat Sonic and Tails, Starline edits their memories. They do start to put two and two together, though, and eventually they learn the truth: they’re just two random kids Starline kidnapped and experimented on. They don’t remember their actual pasts, and Starline didn’t bother to keep track of who they originally were because he doesn’t care. They’ve been modified with cyborg endoskeletons and even have some of the Metal Virus in them, making them nigh-unkillable. Which Starline tested by... well, killing them repeatedly to make sure they always bounced back.

This is... so much darker than I would have ever expected? But in a fantastic way. It makes Starline SO absolutely despicable, and it gives Surge and Kit this pathos that makes you want to root for them, even as they set out to go rogue and burn the whole world down. Surge is very much set up as her own antihero in the buildup to her showdown with Sonic, which is a choice that I think leads to some fascinating character juxtaposition when it finally happens in issue #50.

Really, my only complaint about the miniseries was that the marketing made it seem like Sonic and Tails would be dealing with these two sooner, when in reality this is all the setup. The extremely hype wrestling promos for the climactic Wrestlemania that is Sonic #50. (My other complaint, I suppose, is that IDW is still having multiple artists trade off in a single story, which can be a bit jarring. But that’s a publisher-wide issue.)

But MAN. When we finally do get that big showdown? It does not disappoint.

SONIC #50

As with Imposter Syndrome, I went in expecting Sonic and Tails to fight Surge and Kit. And we absolutely got that with this extra-long issue penciled by Adam Bryce Thomas. Adam’s always been an A-lister on the IDW series, especially when it comes to bombastic shounen manga-inspired battles, but this issue might just be his best Sonic work yet

But like I said at the start, the issue is more than just some cool fights.

Sonic vs. Surge

Surge’s entire life, or at least what little of her life she can remember thanks to Starline, has been building up to this moment. Whoever she was before is gone, replaced with one purpose. She’s been impatiently awaiting the day she's finally allowed to fight Sonic to the death. We’ve followed her through Starline’s inhumane training, the audience being equally antsy after months of buildup. At long last, she confronts him. She delivers an impassioned speech about what she stands for, how she curses the world that discarded her, how she’s going to tear Sonic and anyone else who stands in her way a new one...

And Sonic... doesn’t really give that much of a shit.

They do fight, of course. Boy, do they ever. But Sonic has never met this girl before and has no animosity towards her. He’s also done this too many times and would like to skip to the part where they’re friends, or at least frenemies. And this is just... tragic for Surge. For her, this is the most important day in her life. But for Sonic, it’s Tuesday. For Surge, this is a duel to the death. But Sonic, ever the unflappably positive shounen protagonist, is just having fun fighting someone who keeps him on his toes. He refuses to validate her on her terms.

(There are also a lot of interesting parallels with Tails’ simultaneous fight with Kit, where the kindhearted Tails is trying to be extremely nice and defuse the situation when he realizes that Kit is just some poor, fucked up kid. But instead of going on my own tangent I’ll link this very good TikTok analyzing Sonic’s social skills and the interesting ways his blunt, brash attitude can clash with the fact that he does genuinely care a lot.)

I even feel like Adam’s art is playing up the idea that Sonic’s attitude continues to make him the villain for Surge. His speech about his ideals places him above Surge, with a smug expression on his face and sunbeams shining down over him. Adam’s own (extremely sick) variant cover is framed very similarly, showing us the smug and above-it-all Sonic from Surge’s perspective.

Why does Surge think Sonic is so holier-than-thou? And why does she still care about fighting him if she just wants to defy Starline’s brainwashing? Well, she directly calls out his belief in the power of second chances, blaming Sonic for her very existence. Which ties back into what’s become one of the main recurring themes of the IDW series.

Sonic’s Characterization

As Ian’s explained, Sonic’s characterization in the IDW series has been informed by a number of factors. For one, more compassionate heroes are just landing better with audiences these days, including in shounen manga. Your Dekus, your Tanjiros, etc. But beyond that, Sega explicitly forbids Sonic and friends from proactively seeking out Eggman. Sonic is never looking for a fight. Eggman simply causes trouble, Sonic shows up to stop him, and he returns to being a free-spirited roamer.

Really, Sonic’s attitude in the current comics isn’t much different from how he acts in the games. Ian just decided to draw more attention to this behavior, and turn it into an explicit character trait that impacts the story.

I don’t really know what games people have been playing where Sonic DOESN’T act like this? Sure, there are a few games where a villain dies. There are always going to be counterexamples in a series as inconsistent as this. But look at how many characters Sonic has given second chances, and how lightly Sonic often takes threats to the world. Shadow was trying to blow up the damn planet and Sonic was still just having fun racing him on the ARK. Chaos destroyed a whole major metropolitan city and Sonic is like “hold on, Chaos is just hurt, we need to break this cycle of violence.” He’s ended up working with Eggman plenty of times to stop a greater threat. Even when this doesn’t happen, Eggman tends to just fly away at the end. Sonic never hunts him down. Again, Sega forbids him from doing this. It’s not in his character. The IDW comics just explore why.

At the same time, bad faith criticisms of Sonic’s willingness to give villains second chances tend to ignore the very important second part of this mantra, which this issue has Sonic spell out explicitly. Yes, he believes in giving people personal freedom. But the second they use that freedom to hurt people, Sonic is going to beat their asses again. He doesn’t have qualms about using violence in that way. He is, by no definition of the word, a pacifist. Sonic understands that Surge is traumatized, and tries to give her the chance to back down. She refuses, so he kicks her ass, because she’s a threat. Sonic sort of took mercy on the Zeti, in that he didn’t fucking execute them or whatever... but they also got banished back to the Lost Hex where they can’t hurt anyone. Tails disarmed Metal Sonic before they let him go. Sonic let Eggman go only because he had amnesia and Mr. Tinker was, by all accounts, a literal different person. The second he came back? Sonic gladly went right back to blowing his shit up. He is not out here handwringing about Eggman Empire property damage, he’s destroying his bases and smashing his mechs again.

Sonic also isn’t just any regular guy, and can’t always be judged as such. He’s a larger-than-life hero. He’s the embodiment of freedom, of endless adventure, of the power of friendship, of other idealized... well, ideals. This is the very core of his character. He’s the unshakably positive hero who never blinks in the face of danger, who the other, more realistically fallible characters can lean on. He’s a force of nature. He’s not perfect, and he doesn’t always handle things the right way, and other characters will bring up valid counterpoints to his way of life. Like other shounen heroes like Goku or Luffy, he might be a hero due to his actions, but he’s not concerned about being the world’s savior or its god. He doesn’t want to dictate how people live their lives. He leaves decisions about how to run society to other, smarter people, like the Restoration. He just wants to be free to go on adventures and to help his friends when they’re in need. His theme song spells out his whole deal, clear as day: It doesn’t matter who’s wrong and who’s right. He’s just living by his own feelings, and he won’t give in, won’t compromise. He only has a steadfast heart of gold.

Surge can’t stand this, though. The two just can’t see eye to eye. And so she zaps Sonic when he takes a time out in their fight to help her out of a chasm, getting the last laugh and seemingly falling to her doom. “That’s the real problem with giving people a choice,” Sonic solemnly says. “You can’t stop them from making the wrong ones.”

The Bigger Problem

Beyond any fandom bickering over how Sonic should or shouldn’t be characterized, though, this is part of a larger problem that I’ve seen way too frequently in recent years. Adults are engaging with genre fiction for children, and then getting upset when the child protagonists fail to model what they perceive as proper behavior for adults. Particularly, adults are seeing child protagonists learn to solve conflicts nonviolently, or even merely refusing to kill a villain, and interpreting this media as a political playbook for adults telling them that punching Nazis is bad.

That’s not to say that children’s media is never political, of course, or that you can never judge it through a political lens. (Back in the Archie days the direct political allegories were NOT subtle.) But just because some cartoon villains are obvious stand-ins for fascists doesn’t mean that every cartoon with a world-conquering villain is trying to tell you, an adult, how you should deal with fascists, or murderers, or whatever bad faith comparison critics on YouTube and Twitter want to make this time.

This will hopefully be insultingly obvious to most people reading this, but fiction isn’t always literally about the thing it’s depicting, or the closest real world equivalent. In genre fiction, and especially genre fiction for kids, reality is heightened. A fight for the fate of the city or the world or the universe isn’t necessarily about world-scale threats in real life like fascism, or even about real world violent conflicts in general. It’s often more about the emotions than what’s literally happening on screen. In a musical, when the emotions get too strong for words, they break out into song. In an action cartoon, when the emotions get too strong between conflicting characters, they fight. The fantastical violence is just the medium through which the story is conveyed. They trade blows and express their feelings.

Similarly, when the child hero in a series for children saves the day by hugging the right person, or when a villain is redeemed, or when Naruto espouses the power of friendship and uses Talk no Jutsu for the hundredth time, that isn’t telling you, a 30-year-old, that you can go out right now and save America by giving Mitch McConnell a hug. The morals of these stories aren’t necessarily supposed to apply to world-scale conflicts because children are not responsible for saving the world in real life. Instead, the lessons apply more to conflicts that children do deal with. Disputes with friends, or family members, or teachers. Things like that. It’s telling kids that hey, maybe you’ve been mean to people, maybe you’ve acted wrong, but you can learn from your mistakes and do better. That is what lessons about trying to resolve conflicts peacefully, talking about your feelings, empathizing with others, and giving people second chances are supposed to be about. They (usually) aren’t intended as political playbooks for adults telling you not to punch a Nazi, because the people telling these stories are probably hoping that adults aren’t modeling their political behavior after Cartoon Network and Shonen Jump.

But while I generally enjoy this compassionate take on the Sonic series, there is one part of the issue that felt weaker when it comes to the heroes showing compassion towards the villains.

Belle and Metal

If there’s one character from the games that I think Ian has always struggled with more than others, it’s probably Metal Sonic. Of course, not every writer is going to gel with every character, especially on a licensed series where you’re working with someone else’s cast. (Lord knows if I was to write a Sonic series I would play favorites lmao.) And Ian’s definitely put out some great Metal Sonic stories. But he’s also prone to boiling the character down to a simple killer robot for Sonic and co. to repeatedly defeat without any interiority.

Belle has also been a contentious character throughout this season. I’ll reiterate that I think Belle is great, and the big emotional beats with her have been strong. I would say the mixed response to Belle is primarily a matter of pacing, more than anything else. As Evan explained over on her blog, Belle's backstory was originally just going to be a short one-off. When the 2021 Annual was replaced with the Classic Sonic special, Belle’s story got turned into the main overarching subplot connecting the stories of the third season. I do like a lot of the storytelling this allowed for. The buildup to the reveals in the Test Run arc, and her ensuing tearful breakdown; her questioning of her very nature as a Badnik; her heroic moments in Trial by Fire where she’s finally able to prove herself. It’s good stuff! Character arcs like this are why original characters are added to the comics in the first place. But I can also see how the slow and somewhat repetitive rollout of information and emotional beats is a bit much over a year and a half of comics, and it was a little odd to have her stick around as the only consistent main character for every single arc of the season as soon as we met her. But I still enjoyed her arc this season as a whole.

No, where I start to be more mixed on the direction of Belle as a character is this issue. Previously, Belle had made it her mission to try and save as many Badniks as she could. I understand her motivation, and I do think this has potential to be a fun premise. Badniks are EXTREMELY underutilized in the tie-in fiction, and anyone in this corner of the fandom who’s following artists like Hydro knows how fun it is to have Badnik characters around.

But the problem is, of course... if we start to recognize the Badniks that Sonic destroys casually as people, doesn’t that make it wrong for him to destroy them?

I guess it depends on the context, and how it’s executed in the future. Like, Motobud was fine because that’s not just A Motobug, but one that was specifically reprogrammed by Mr. Tinker to be friendly. But what’s Belle’s endgame here? Where is the line drawn between robots that need to be saved and simple obstacles for Sonic to pop in action sequences?

To me, we start to see the cracks in issue #50 with Belle’s attempts to save Metal Sonic. Metal is certainly no stranger to redemption arcs and characters trying to see the good in him - the OVA basically defined him as a character. But still. It’s admirable for Belle to see a robot who’s hurt and want to help, but the sympathy shown for Metal is laying it on a bit thick for me given Ian’s usual characterization of him as a missile with legs. Sonic already let him go once early in the series, but that was specifically because he thought Eggman was gonna remain Mr. Tinker forever at the time, and he and Tails also made sure not to restore his full fighting abilities. (”We’re compassionate, not stupid.”) But in this very different context, with a very different character, it’s just... eh, it didn’t sell me on this as a wise use of Belle’s compassion. If she wants to help the “abandoned” Eggman bots, Metal is very much not one of those. He just happened to have been hurt by Surge when they found him.

Not the end of the world, but it’s the weak part of what’s otherwise an amazing issue, and I worry that Belle showing complete and total sympathy towards every Eggman robot may get old fast. But, like I said, it will depend entirely on the execution. Maybe she’ll only single out the oddballs like herself and Motobud. It may not even be a huge element of the story moving forward, since I know Evan’s outright said Belle would be taking more of a backseat now that her initial arc is completed. (It also seems like Eggman wants to take advantage of the fact that she interfaced with Metal, so her kindness here may backfire...)

If anything, though, I do like the little awkward family reunion where Belle is telling Eggman that she’s done hoping he’ll go back to being Mr. Tinker and is gonna go live her own life and Metal is just kind of standing there because he won’t attack another Eggman creation.

Anyway! I can’t believe I haven’t mentioned the giant robot fight

Starline’s Final Comeuppance

Sonic’s ideals, as explained in his fight with Surge, are also directly contrasted with Starline as he fights Eggman. Sonic stands for personal freedom, for better or worse, but Starline stands for total control, even more so than Eggman. He tries to manipulate people and the very story he exists in to steer everyone in the totalitarian direction he thinks is best. Anything outside of his narrative doesn’t matter. Even as Eggman is fighting him in a giant mech, he’s still under the impression that his actions are justified, that Eggman will be okay with being a pawn in his scheme so long as they get their happy ending ruling the world.

Instead, he loses a sick-ass mech fight, he’s humiliated worse than ever before, and then he dies!

I actually didn’t read it as a death at first because being crushed by rubble is such an easy “death” to write around, and it’s, you know, a comic book. Nobody stays dead in comic books. (We already know Surge survives this issue, regardless of how it looked.) But Ian did, indeed, intend for this to be Starline’s death. He also admits that that’s not entirely up to him since he’s not the only person making story decisions, so I won’t be surprised if he comes back in a year or two. Regardless, as much as I like the character, this is probably the most fitting death Starline possibly could have had. He thought he could outsmart Eggman, and the very nature of the series he’s in. Some readers, too, have accused Ian of writing Eggman as too much of a bumbling oaf in the IDW comics, especially with Starline always pointing out his mistakes. Even the marketing for this arc seems to have played into this, asking if Eggman would “bumble his way to a victory”

All this for the ultimate slam dunk in this issue where Ian definitively reminds us that, even if he can never beat Sonic... no one else can definitively beat Eggman, either.

Because Eggman fucking rules

I said at the top that Starline is damned because he doesn’t understand people as well as he thinks he does. He creates Surge and Kit as dark and deeply broken reflections of Sonic and Tails because he so fundamentally misunderstands how their dynamic works. He thinks he understands Eggman, too, but he doesn’t. He may consider himself Eggman’s #1 fan, but he’s a toxic fanboy with faulty criticisms. He’s CinemaSins. He focuses on the details and the logic, he nitpicks, and he thinks he could do everything better if given the opportunity. He thinks he understands the nature of the series he’s in, but he fails to see the big pictures, the heart. He doesn’t understand why Sonic is really the hero beyond his strength and bravado. He doesn’t understand why Tails is a hero beyond his ability to support Sonic. And he doesn’t understand why, despite his many mistakes, Eggman will always endure as the true big bad of this world. And this leads to his downfall at the hands of his idol

I could say more about this issue and the ones that lead to it! I have obviously already said way too much. I’m gonna cut it off here!

Even with all the hype to live up to, this was an extremely satisfying issue of Sonic. One of the best in a long, long time. This one’s gonna stick with people. I have my quibbles, but it really has it all. Action, humor, drama, heart, stunning artwork, and a whole lot of character work to think about. Can’t really ask for more, can I?

#tkp post

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confusedhummingbird · 6 months

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Mia Dearden needs more appreciation!

Part 1

One of my favorite comic book characters and characters in general is Mia Dearden AKA the second Speedy. However she doesn't see a lot of love or acknowledgement from comic fans outside of the Arrowfam fans. And she's not really shown in a lot of media outside of Smallville and......Arrow(Kill me) So I wanna make some posts about who Mia Dearden is and why she needs so much more love. (And to finally come back to DC!)

History of Mia Dearden

First a quick summary of who Mia Dearden is and how she became Speedy!

(Content Warning mentioning of CSA and Trafficking)

Mia Dearden was first introduced in Green Arrow Volume 3 issue 2. She's 15 years old at the time and is a child runaway after her Father molested and pimped her out to his friends at age of 11. She's currently being trafficked out by a man named Richard. She was hired by a gross politician but thankfully was stopped by Green Arrow.

After this encounter she goes back to her pimp, Richard, and explains what happened. She's taken by how kind Ollie was to her and how he actually treated her like the young girl she is. While with her pimp he attempts to kill her to make everything that went down with Green Arrow can't come back to him. Thankfully Mia fights back and leaves him forever.

She meets up with Ollie and tells him she knows he's Green Arrow having put the obvious together.

After this she stays with him and Connor. She's also dead set on becoming Ollie's sidekick and while he does train her.

He's against her becoming his sidekick both for wanting to have a normal life and for his fear of repeating his actions with Roy in his later years.

This all changes however after a trip the ER reveals that Mia is HIV Positive because of her past on the streets.

After this Mia is firm that with or without Oliver, She will be a hero and help people for however long she has left in life. Ollie finally agrees to make her the new Speedy

And Thus becoming the new Speedy!

A brief history of Mia to Speedy!

Next part I'll get into what I enjoy so much about Mia and why she deserves so much love!

Part 2

#dc comics #Mia Dearden #Green Arrow #Speedy #Speedy II #🏹🏹🏹

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phykios · 4 months

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Review: "I Accidentally Vaporize My Pre-Algebra Teacher"

It was a long wait for the Black Sails reunion tour–but it was worth it!

Jokes aside, I first started to really get excited for Percy Jackson 2023 once I saw the news that Jonathan Steinberg had been tapped as showrunner. (This is the first weekly plug to go watch Black Sails if you haven’t, btw.) Despite a rough and rocky start, Black Sails surpassed the usual limits of a “boobs, blood and sex” costume drama and pivoted into some seriously excellent character-driven drama, and I’m hopeful that Percy Jackson can do the same. Awkward preamble completed, allow me to jump right into the good, the bad, and the as-yet-unquantifiable:

(Because I know this fandom has a tendency to get, uh, wacky, let me preface this by saying that these are my opinions, and they are just opinions. Any comments on acting, writing, directing, etc., are not attacks on the people behind them, and should not be treated as such. I firmly believe critique is an act of love, and that the best reviews don’t change minds, but treat readers to another point of view instead.)

Percy Jackson opens in a dream. Slowly, against the backdrop of thunder and french horns, our hero emerges from the storm, walking slowly to the foreground. This dreamlike quality continues as we are treated to a minute and a half of flashback, the diegetic noises of the world muted in favor of Percy’s narration, and further into the beginnings of the adapted book content. Percy is, of course, immediately drawn to the statue of his namesake, but it’s a motivation more deeply underpinned by Sally, played by the frankly phenomenal Virginia Krull, before the warm, golden memory is rudely interrupted by the present, and the first real glimpse of the mythological world.

As Percy force-shoves Nancy Bobofit into a fountain (the CGI is pretty bad, honestly. But CGI has been bad everywhere, so I’ll let it slide), Megan Mullally’s Mrs. Dodds makes her grand, 30-second appearance. This little encounter–it feels like an overstatement to call it a “fight”–is over almost before it begins. I would have liked this scene to have a little more weight to it, given that it is the first encounter with the mythological world… but at the same time, I think the understated nature works in two ways: first, I am so, so glad to see something other than bog standard action flick fight, and second, the way she moves through the crowd without them noticing her adds to the feelings of isolation and “brokenness” that Percy struggles with. No one else even notices the monster making her way towards him. I think it’s a direction that speaks on multiple levels, recalling particularly the underlying theme of useless/abusive adults in the books.

Which makes it all the sadder when Grover briefly turns on Percy and gets him expelled. I have to commend Aryan here for this scene–he’s clearly struggling with the decision to get Percy out of there, keeping him safe at the expense of their friendship. I really like how Aryan plays Grover’s more anxious side, but also as someone who can step up and push down his fear in order to do his job. It would have really been easy to play him as a one-note, terrified sidekick, and I’m glad Grover has some spine.

And speaking of one note–Gabe. I understand why they downplay some of his more blatantly abusive aspects, and I think they make up for it with the surrounding shots, especially Percy sighing in the hallway as he hears him yelling, and Eddie the plumber apologizing for putting him in a mood, but I’m not sure I’m sold on it, yet. Right now, he doesn’t come off as someone who deserves death-by-Medusa-head, but I wouldn’t be surprised if they dial him up later on.

Also, Virginia Krull is incredible. She was, far and away, my favorite performance of the premiere, particularly in the scene at Montauk. Krull’s Sally has the toughness that the books always implied, at least in the early days, but never really demonstrated until much later in the series, layered beneath an easy sweetness that makes it really, really easy to forgive her for keeping secrets. Ironically, Krull’s performance makes Gabe somewhat more palatable, as it seems like she can go toe-to-toe with him, instead of acting like a more stereotypically “docile” battered spouse.

The Montauk scene is easily an episode highlight. Whether it’s Sally forcing out her unbelievable truth, or visibly crying while Percy pours his heart out to her about being broken, Walker and Krull are fantastic together, even in an exposition-heavy scene like this.

I’m going to gloss over the drive and the Minotaur fight scene, because otherwise I’d just be repeating stuff I’ve already said, namely that Aryan and Krull are great actors, and the CGI is pretty ugly. Instead, I’ll just briefly touch on the fight–very well directed, and I appreciated that they were able to have both the visual of the sword with all its associated gravitas, and also the more visceral stabbing from the book–and point out that we end where we begin, in a hazy, dreamlike state, with the mysterious, shadowed figures of Chiron and the gang welcoming him to camp.

This series feels different than a lot of TV. It definitely has a more cinematic feel, and the tone is much, much less jokey than I had feared. The books have a lot of humor to them, but ironically, the show leaning into the more “magical realism” which Riordan almost studiously avoids in the books helps to keep it balanced and un-cartoonish. Visually, I think the lighting is really emotionally effective, but only for the daytime, and suffers from the same “can’t light night”-ism that plagues modern television. Compare in particular Percy before and after Grover, Percy with his mother at the Met, and then the three of them running from the Minotaur at night.

All in all, a really solid premiere. A little exposition-heavy, which is unfortunately something that carries over into the next one, but when it’s delivered with some excellent performances, it’s easy to overlook.

Stray thoughts:

I need more Mythomagic. I need more Mythomagic

The marble statues are pretty ugly imo, but that might just be because I am currently spoiled for marble statues in my day-to-day

Percy and Grover swap sandwich fillings 🥺 Percy takes Grover’s lunchmeat

Sally bullfighting with Percy’s red coat… so good

Thalia’s tree with lightning crashing overhead!

Hopefully I can get the next review up tomorrow? And I’ll talk more about Walker in that one, along with some other thoughts on costume, set design, and other more technical stuff

#pjo tv #pjo spoilers #pjo tv spoilers #sasha review #the review no one cares about mwah

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artist-issues · 7 months

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For Valentino, in the Wish trailer, I think the problem with him is that he feels so... marketable. The first time I looked at him, my brain automatically spat out, "This is the tie-in plush for this movie they'll sell at Build-a-Bear, $35 for the goat, $5 for a soundchip with five to six of his phrases from the movie, $15-20 for the little romper suit he's wearing." (Saying this as a former employee of that store.)

Flounder, Cinderella's birds and mice, and Abu are all characters their movies could have done without, but they also act as friends, companions, and confidants to the main characters, give them someone to talk to so they can share their inner thoughts with the audience in a way that doesn't feel forced, and lend aid in times of distress (Flounder helps Ariel make it to shore once she's turned human so she doesn't drown in the middle of the ocean and helps her get to Erik's ship to stop Ursula, the mice and Abu both arrive with keys to help free Aladdin and Cinderella when they're imprisoned).

Valentino gives the vibe that he's both meant to riff on this and sell as many toys as possible.

Yeah I keep getting the same feeling from Wish. “Ugh, another [insert Disney formula element here.]” But I can’t figure out why. I remember when Tangled and Frozen and Princess and the Frog hit theaters. I never felt that way looking at the trailers. I never felt that exasperation. I like the formula. I think the formula is good. I really don’t mind it when a character is cute, appealing to watch, and therefore merchandisable because that’s part of all character design principals. I don’t get exasperated by the formula… But I do for Wish’s trailers.

I don’t know if that’s because my opinion on Disney has changed, or because some subtle lazy thing is present in the trailers that I can’t put into words yet.

Anyway. A word on sidekicks (because you brought them up and maybe analyzing them will help us figure out why Valentino feels the way he does:)

Flounder is a great character because he not only gives Ariel someone to talk to and interact with, but because he’s a subtle contrast to her. She is brave and never gives up: he is fearful. He even has a tiny bit of character development from standing in Ariel’s shadow. At the beginning of the movie, she has to coax him to stick with her and enjoy their adventures. At the end, he is towing her along and fighting eels bravely.

Same thing with Abu. He’s what everyone would expect Aladdin the Street Rat to be: a grabby, selfish, greedy little thief who’s only out for himself apart from his friendship with Aladdin. Having Abu to scold and correct and coax brings out the compassion in Aladdin, so that the audience can see: here’s how everyone sees Aladdin, but the monkey proves that he’s the opposite of that.

CINDERELLA is forever my favorite to talk about and one of the best examples of the sidekick formula so excuse me while I geek out for a moment: did you know that in Charles Perrault’s fairy tale story, on which Disney’s Cinderella is based, there are no animal sidekicks? There aren’t any helpful birds or mice in the Perrault version. There are some in the Brothers’ Grimm version, but they’re birds. Not mice.

Walt Disney added mice, not just because they worked for his “animation’s gotta have gags for the kids” philosophy, but because the fact that they’re mice says something about who Cinderella is. The audience gets to see that this girl, who spends all day working for wicked stepsisters, spends her free time doing what? Working some more, on clothes for mice. Even if she weren’t being bossed around, she would still be a hard worker. She would still be kind to the lowest, most pitiable creatures. She would still be helping unfortunate creatures out of traps. She would still be finding the good points in creatures that are usually thought of as vermin, disgusting, nuisances, and thieves.

Maybe that’s it. Maybe Valentino feels annoying because he doesn’t bring anything out of the new princess, Asha…yet. We haven’t seen the movie yet! Hang on to hope. He might still be a character with his own flaws and arc to go through; he might still be one-dimensional, but the opposite of one of Asha’s dimensions.

I do think you can know things about a movie from the trailer, but when you try to analyze Wish’s trailers honestly, you can only get:

Valentino is happy about talking

Valentino apparently has an affinity for wood (or is constantly itchy?)

Valentino is brave (he responds to new things like leaves swirling with wonder-expressions, and he’s chasing the shooting star with interest instead of fear like Asha, and looks confident and sassy on stage when Asha looks a little awkward.)

Valentino has a zest for life. (I think he’s saying “life is to be lived!” to the chickens before Asha opens the door and the chickens do the singing dance number. And then obviously he’s trying to inspire them.)

That’s not much to go on, but then, neither are the things we can learn about Asha, or the King, or anything in those trailers. So I’m trying to stamp down on that sighing thing in my brain that somehow started hating the Disney formula in the trailers, until I watch it.

#Wish #Disney wish #Disneys wish #Asha #princess Asha #Valentino #Alan Tudyk #Disney #asked #answered #flounder #abu #Jacques #Gus Gus #greentrickster #Meta #Disney analysis #sidekicks #Disney sidekicks

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marinaiguess · 1 year

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some thoughts evoked by the poll thingy with blaze being in the finals. It’s not about the polls, I do know these are for funsies and stuff, the thought occured to me though because of it.

I think blaze is a very mistreated and underrated character.

Wow, okay, that was loaded. Still stands though. I guess I have none other than SEGA to blame, but either way, I do wanna analyze her journey in the franchise and also share my thoughts along the way.

Blaze the cat had a great kick-off at the beginning of her career. What better way to introduce her than have her as a playable character alongside the main character in an exclusive game for the massively popular at the time, Nintendo DS. Sonic Rush sold more than a million copies and even though it was a pretty great game, it did more than that: it took care of Blaze. It established her character, her background, her story, it gave her an entire character development arc. What was there not to love about her? Sonic’s rival at first, a girl who could keep up with him in terms of speed and power, a princess from another dimension who could also control fire, having her own set of emeralds of which she was the guardian and even her own super form. So many things to consider. All those things were what made her super likeable back in 2005. Fans were actually obsessed with her. And they needed more. So, SEGA had to do something about it.

Here comes Sonic the Hedgehog (2006), changing quite a few things that we already knew about our favorite blue speedster. Possibly changing the entire franchise irredeemably. You already know where I’m going with this. We’re introduced to a new character, Silver the Hedgehog. Everyone is excited to play through his story and, right off the bat, we meet his company: Blaze. Everyone is cheering beacuse Blaze! She’s here, in a 3D game! Soooo, Silver is a character from Blaze’s dimension? Wrong. They’re from the future. Maybe Blaze’s dimension is from the future? Wrong. Blaze and Sonic don’t even acknowledge each other when they eventually meet, acting like they’ve never met before, like Sonic Rush never happened. Okay, fine, it can’t get worse than that, right? Wrong.

Blaze, for the entirety of the game is treated like a cosmetic, acting solely as Silver’s sidekick, or even as his mentor if you will, and nothing more. We rarely see through her and her thoughts and we’re given little to no means to understand her character. For some people, Blaze was a newly introduced character, since not everyone knew her existence from a year prior. What they get is not the powerful princess we met in Rush, the one who understood the power of friendship and used it in her favour despite her bad past. No, what they got in 06 was a side character, merely existing to give Silver advice and suggestions for his own journey, which she follows no matter what path he chooses to take, even if she disagrees or is not entirely content with it.

Her limited screentime used for fan-service purposes ended with a bang. Despite this huge journey of giving Silver a purpose (or helping him fulfill it), Blaze was the one who saved the future by using Chaos Control and sacrificing herself in the process, turning into a sort of Burning Blaze as she ascends to the sky. The only reason I felt bad about it was because I knew who Blaze was supposed to be, Blaze to me was the character introduced in Rush. But, given all the info from this specific game, I wasn’t really attached to this Blaze, I had no reason to. Her story felt too blank in comparison to everyone else’s for me to feel the impact of her death. I can understand Silver’s pain though.

Which doesn’t matter in the end because the timeline is erased.

So, does that mean Sonic 06 never happened or that it’s not canon? Nope. Everything happened and everything is back to the way it was. Except that the future is saved. How do we know? Sonic Rivals and Sonic Rush Adventure happened.

I will stick to the latter for the time being. Sonic Rush received a not so commerrcially successful as its predecessor sequel, picking up from where it left off. Kind of. The game released in 2007, a year after 06, the events of which were never to be brought up again, at least until Generations (2011). So, as you’d assume, Sonic and Blaze act like 06 never happened to them, continuing their story after Rush’s events. This game gave more in-depth character development to Blaze, who strengthens her bonds with old and new friends. It doesn’t really matter though because this game didn’t sell well, meaning not a lot of people bought it. Basically, no one knew that game existed so they were wondering what the hell happened to Blaze. Was she dead? Was she from the future? Was she from a different dimension? Would we ever see her again?

Uncertainty prevailed and after SEGA realized how bad of an idea it was to release 06 at its terrible state, they decided it would be best to pretend like it never happened. Iizuka (if I’m not mistaken) when asked in an interview, said that the reason Sonic and Blaze didn’t recognize each other in 06 was “amnesia”. Which doesn’t answer anything and I believe an official answer right now would differ a lot from that. Blaze went on to be a playable character in a few racing games, she got a few cameos. 2009, she appears in Sonic and the Black Knight as Sir Percival. Once again, it doesn’t change anything because, this is a storybook game and doesn’t take place in the in-game universe (this is the arthurian kingdom/world/universe).

Many fans theorized that 06 happened before Rush, making Blaze die in 06 and being transeferred to a new dimension while she had used Chaos Control, forgetting about the past, hence why she didn’t know Sonic in Rush. This was further supported by the fact that Blaze and Silver didn’t recognize each other in Sonic Colors DS (2010), meaning they had forgotten each other. Blaze forgot about 06 and traveled to a different dimension and Silver was affected by the timeline erasure. Sounds pretty solid, right?

Sonic Generations (2011). Blaze is there because she is still relevant and a beloved character to the franchise. No one knows how she got there and no one explains it but no one cares, she’s there to celebrate Sonic’s birthday, the Sonic she knows through the Rush games. But stuff happens and she gets trapped, alongside many of Sonic’s friends, into this ‘white limbo’. Sonic saves her...from Crisis City. Which is a stage from the future of Sonic 06. You may think “okay, maybe SEGA just wanted to pay tribute to 06 as well.” and that would be fine, if it weren’t for Blaze stating that she “never thought she’d be here again.” She remembers 06. Theory debunked. This is never mentioned again, in any game ever. It is still canon however.

After that, she appeared in Team Sonic Racing (2019), taking 8 years to appear in a game again...despite it being a spin-off. Nothing happens there really, she’s just there to talk to Silver and Amy who she races against for some reason.

She does appear in IDW, and we now know that the comics are canon to the game timeline. And, I gotta say, I like her there. She hasn’t appeared many times but the writers made those times count. (I think it was Ian who wrote her all of those times, so yeah).

To put it simply, Blaze is a lost opportunity. Talk about having a rough transition into 3D (hehe). SEGA could have used her in many ways and I think they were intending to, they were preparing her for something big. But they didn’t handle her as they were supposed to and this leads to where we are, where Blaze only appears in spin-offs and the comics, as if they are afraid to bring her back in mainline games. They could really capitalize on her character, if used correctly. They could use her as a playable character that uses the boost formula, as a character that has a super form. They could use her world to introduce new level designs, avoiding using Green Hill over and over again, right?

I don’t wanna see her standing on the sidelines, doing nothing. I don’t want her purpose to be mentoring Silver. I don’t want her legacy to be Sonic 06. I don’t her to appear only in dire situations (even though, now that I think about it, she didn’t even appear in Forces despite there being a literal war in Sonic’s world). I don’t want her character development to be forgotten and erased. She was a girl with a unique personality that now feels empty, as if she hides behind the face of being a princess from another dimension and nothing more, barely being Sonic’s or Cream’s friend. Mainly focused on the games right now.

It is said that Blaze is one of the fan-favourite characters of the franchise. But I don’t know if that’s correct. Because I’m not sure if people are a fan of who she is now, of who she is in their minds, or of who she is supposed to be, best depicted in the Rush games. Personally, I believe Blaze still has a lot of uncovered potential that they could take advantage of, so that they can show to everyone who Blaze is supposed to be. Strong and independant, her own character, her own hero.

Hopefully, we get to see more of that in the future. She definitely deserves it.

#how many words is that holy shit #im sorry #i just...had to i guess #it's past 1am rip my brain #i had to take this off my chest. been holding it for a while #i just care for her yknow #blaze the cat #sth #sonic #character analysis #blaze the cat analysis #sonic the hedgehog #sonic rush

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victimsofyaoipoll · 1 month

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Round 3

Propaganda under the cut

Erina Pendleton

Erina is SO MUCH MORE than just a "Generic Love Interest" that was brought in the story to continue the bloodline after everything that happens (and it's made abundantly clear time and time and TIME AGAIN that she means everything to Jonathan, to a point that she was his exact reason to standing up against Dio for the first time) but without fail she's only ever allowed to be the supportive best friend. Or a wingman for Jonathan and whoever he's being shipped with. Or simply supposed to sit there and allow her husband to have a male lover (the amount of posts I've seen of ppl using the excuse that 'it was very common back in the Victorian Era for men to keep male lovers that their wives were aware of and quietly accepted so it isn't a stretch to say that Erina and Jonathan wouldn't be the same--especially given how progressive she's written". Or of course my favorite when they completely erase her from the narrative and pretends she doesn't exist Jonathan's got their son for some reason, but nope she ain't there!

a lot of times ppl who ship her CANON HUSBAND jonathan joestar with speedwagon will put her on the back burner of HER OWN CANON RELATIONSHIP in favor of propping up jonawagon, to the point where 90% of the archive for jonawagon/jonawagon(eri) is either erina giving jonathan and speedwagon consent to be happy together while she acts like a #LoveIsLove wingman OR they'll have the audacity to write fics where erina comforts speedwagon at HER HUSBAND'S FUNERAL

Our hero’s hot wife who was the first (and arguably) only person to give him the emotional support he needed. She’s the only person who never expects him to fulfill some mythical role, she just loves him for who he is. She’s been his best friend and the love of his life since he was 12 years old. When it comes to hero/sidekick ship, she’s forced to be a wing woman for her own husband, either nobly letting him go or peacefully agreeing to an open relationship but only for him!!! She gets nothing out of it, she’s just a good Victorian wife who is “ahead of her time”. Usually, just so she can provide a womb so that the hero/sidekick can be dads and she can conveniently be offscreen. OR she’s written as a lesbian in order to completely and “justifiably” take her out of the equation but there’s a.) no other woman in her vicinity to even ship her with b.) there’s vaguely some faceless, nameless woman we’re meant to assume she’s pursuing, not even a real OC for her.

Molly Hooper

She's in love with Sherlock, and in fandom she's just considered annoying. Listen, I don't ship them but jesus christ

Honestly I thought her relationship with Sherlock way too abusive (he treated her so badly wth) to turn into a healthy romantic one but the Johnlock shippers were super nasty to the actress -I think she even received dead threats ??? Over playing a fictional character ??? Just because people shipped two dudes ???- and the character deserved better personal development that didn't revolve around her unresolved crush for the main character

Set up as a romantic partner for Sherlock. Often gets shit on for being in the way of Johnlock.

#round 3 #poll #erina pendleton #jojo's bizarre adventure #jjba #jjba part 1 #molly hooper #bbc sherlock #sherlock

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aqua-dan · 1 month

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Fav artist for Garth?

I have been thinking about this ask for multiple hours, and I am unsure if I can pick a true favorite because there are so many wonderful artists who have drawn Garth over the years! However, I think I built a pretty solid list of my top 5 artists for Garth (oops!), so here goes:

#1: Phil Jimenez

I have so much love for the way he draws (and writes) Garth! Of every artist out there, I feel he has the most love for drawing Garth and I can feel that care and attention to detail in all his work. I am absolutely in love with the way he draws Garth's expressions too! He allows him to have exaggerated expressions and really allow us to feel the emotions of the story through the art. He's not afraid of showing him in painful and less than idealistic moments, and allows his face to reflect that. I think it's something that a lot of current comic book artists shy away from for fear of making characters look "ugly." But Jimenez goes all in on it and still makes Garth look stunning 24/7!

#2: Ramona Fradon

Ramona Fradon was one of the co-creators of Garth, and was, in my opinion, one of the most incredible people in the comic's art industry. She sadly passed away last month at age 97, and she only just announced her retirement from art a month prior to her passing. Her influence on the industry, especially for female artists, was monumental, and her art style stood out so uniquely amongst others. I've always loved how fantastical her art is. She creates fascinating underwater creatures and has an absolutely precious way of drawing Garth. I appreciate that she made the decision to draw him looking as young as he was at the time, especially since a lot of other teen sidekicks were drawn to look older. I feel very lucky that I was able to get a piece of art from her (the first pic in this section!) around the time of her passing. I will treasure it forever!

#3: Nick Cardy

There is something so charming about the way that Nick Cardy draws Garth! There's a simplicity and retro feeling to it that comes off as so fun! I don't know exactly what it is about his art, but it always makes me smile!

4: Mark Buckingham

Buckingham's style is like if "stretch and squash animation" was a static art style, and I LOVE it. It looks so funky and bouncy and expressive! It's one of those styles that I don't think everyone loves, but it really works for me and makes the comics extremely enjoyable to read for the art alone! It's not super polished and has some rough edge qualities, but that's precisely why I like it!

5: Lucas Meyer

Meyer is a newcomer in the scene of comics, but WOW! I am not immune to how gorgeous his art style is. I'm so happy that he's been named the ongoing artist for the current series! (Even if I can't get good writing, I'll at least take the nice art!) I think his style is so clean and pretty. I do wish that he went more "all-in" on expressions sometimes, as I do feel that his characters all look slightly generically pretty and don't emote particularly much. That said, the art is undeniably gorgeous, and he's already skyrocketed himself up onto my personal favorites list despite only starting with DC in 2022.

I do have a few honorable mentions as well, which include: Ivan Reis and George Perez.

There have been plenty of artists who did a great job, but these are my personal favorites! Thank you so much for the ask!

#Garth #Garth of Shayeris #Dan Says Shit

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miraculouswolf99 · 5 months

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Season Five Feelings

As someone who has been into this show for a while, I am sure that I was not the only person who did not have high hopes for season five. Especially since after seasons 3 and 4, the show itself had really gone downhill. Especially in terms of character development and storyline.

But, as I watched season 5, it actually became one of my favorite seasons after the first two. There was actual character development, there were moments where characters other than Marinette got time to shine, and we finally got somewhere when it came to the love square.

I will first be honest. I have never been a fan of the love square. Marinette has always been a creepy stalker who seemed to care more about Adrien as the "perfect model" than she cared about Adrien as the "regular person." Also, I never liked how even when she tried to date Luka, she still never gave up on Adrien and that was extremely unfair to Luka since he is by far one of the best characters on the show.

But, given that season 5 had actual character development, the love square actually became something I enjoyed. First, there was the adorable reversal where Adrien liked Marinette and Marinette liked Cat Noir. Gave a lot of "Marichat" fans what they wanted given that it is the corner of the love square that people tend to enjoy the most. It also lead to both Marinette and Adrien going into slight depression because of how their hero lives continued to prevent them from having meaningful relationships with anyone as civilians. But, after the two of them actually got together, without any Cat Blanc or Ephemeral stuff happening, they actually became a really good couple. Marinette was less of a stalker, Adrien started standing up to his father, and the two became more in sync as heroes.

Also, if there is one thing that I have seen a lot, it is people disagreeing with how Lila and Chloe's characters were handled. Honestly, I don't see anything wrong with them. While I get that people were probably excited by Chloe's redemption story and were against how it was "taken from her," I never cared much. Like, even during her "redemption" arc, Chloe was still Chloe. She still bullied others, still got people akumatized, and still treated everyone horribly. There was always the chance that she would turn worse rather than get better. With Lila, I think it is quite realistic that she is as bad as she is. Like, I understand how there are a lot of people that want her to have a reason for her being as bad as she is. But, that is not the case for everyone. Sometimes, people are simply bad without really having a reason. Lila is a classic case of a sociopath or a psychopath with narcissistic personality disorder. She literally can not accept anyone going against her in any way. Which is why she targets Marinette and Ladybug for such petty reasons.

As for each episode, allow me to share my feelings for each one.

Evolution: Probably the episode would have had the most fanfics about if it had not been the first episode of the season. Not only was it fun to see little flashbacks from previous episodes, but it was the start of development for other characters beyond Marinette. Such as how Cat Noir was allowed the rabbit miraculous to duel-wield as Rabbit Noir. Actually giving him a moment where he was treated as Ladybug's partner and not her sidekick. Also, it showed that despite the golden opportunity, Gabriel would choose his obsession with the heroes over everything else. After all, he could have easily given his past self the fix-it spell for the peacock miraculous but instead chose to go after Ladybug and Cat Noir. Plus, I personally also enjoyed Natalie giving him the "you're an idiot" talk. Also, we got the moment of Alix gaining the rabbit miraculous, even if it also took her out of the show, for the most part, to keep Monarch from getting the miraculous back. It was nice to see Alix's father approve of her leaving rather than taking Alix away from her life without letting him know. Multiplication: This episode was the first that started the rest of the real plot of the season. First, it showed the heroes traveling to London to confront Felix about both his betrayal as well as to get the peacock miraculous. His mother lied about him not being there even though the episode ended with him being next to her and then introducing himself to the peacock's kwami. Then, it showed how the other characters, and people in Paris in general, were adjusting to try and keep Monarch from being able to akumatize them. Such as Mylene and Ivan taking up yoga and Alya and Nino taking boxing lessons from Nora. It was shown that a few weeks had passed since Monarch gained the other miraculous, making people originally believe he gave up. Until the attack by Kagami's mom, who had also been given the power of the mouse miraculous. After she had been defeated, she was shown to not have the actual miraculous. This led to the reveal of how she was both aware of Gabriel being Monarch on top of revealing they were designing "smart rings" to give akumas specific miraculous powers without having to give them the actual miraculous. However, my favorite part was Adrien getting his best character development moment when he confronted his father and said he did not want to model anymore. Which, much to his shock, his father agreed to. Even if Gabriel only agreed because he was still using Adrien's image for the Alliance rings.

Destruction: Another episode that was almost like it could have been a fanfic. It was about Monarch trying to force the kwami to lead him to Marinette/Ladybug because he was ordering them to take him to The Guardian. It leads him into what was basically an overly complicated scavenger hunt around Paris that eventually takes him to the wax museum. But, it was then revealed the entire thing was a trap. Ladybug had been prepared in case Monarch, when he was Hawkmoth/Shadow Moth, ever got his hands on the kwami. So, she set up the entire scavenger hunt so that she would know where he would end up and they could ambush him. I thought it was great to have a moment of Cat Noir having actual pity as well as some trauma over Monarch forcing him to use his power on him so that he could get away. Plus, it's also fun to see the heroes be able to plan ahead the way they did to almost be able to defeat him. Especially since there was no way either could predict that he would be so desperate not to lose that he would allow himself to be cataclysmed. This episode also had the moment of when Gabriel and Tomoe changed the miraculous into rings so that they could move forward with their plan. It was great to see the plot slowly unfolding.

Jubilation: Usually, the introduction of a new character this late would not work out. But, I actually ended up really liking Socqueline. It showed an unseen part of Marinette's character when we meet an old friend of hers. Plus, it was also revealed that another usage of the Alliance rings was to track people. That way, if either Ladybug or Cat Noir wore a ring, the rings would detect their faster movements, which would reveal who they were to Monarch. While it was a little unrealistic that only Ladybug and Cat Noir would not wear rings, it makes more sense for Marinette and Adrien since Adrien was shown to not like that his image was still being used and Marinette was shown to not really like Alliance in general. And they were not the only ones since Ivan and Mylene were revealed to not wear rings, either. I also liked that Ladybug and Cat Noir chose to come out of the illusion that the power of the pig miraculous put them in. It shows that they were willing to put aside their own desires to stop the akuma.

Determination: It was not my favorite episode, to be honest. While it has been shown that Luka and Kagami were supportive of Adrien and Marinette getting together, this episode took it a bit too far where the two tricked them into coming to the museum and then locking them in a room. While this had already been done in the New York special, this time it was interrupted by a real akuma instead of the fake one that Jess and Aeon created. The episode also showed how much more hatred Chloe had for the heroes since she was using her father to keep the hero exhibit from being opened. A lot of people disagree with how Chloe has been done, but I have never liked her. Plus, her irrational hatred of the heroes has been shown before. It made more sense for her to hate the museum because I doubt they would have had a Queen Bee statue. I also enjoy that even this far into the show, there are still characters that become akumas for the first time.

Passion: Personally, this is one of my favorite episodes of the season. I really enjoyed the character development of Natalie. She stays at Agreste Mansion solely because she wants to protect Adrien from Gabriel. She even got akumatized on purpose, basically tricking him because she was going to take the miraculous for herself and make a wish to once again keep Adrien safe from Gabriel. Plus, another great part of the episode was Cat Noir taking charge of his and Ladybug's partnership. He was able to use the kwami to switch their miraculous so that he could become Mister Bug and she could become Lady Noir. He made the choice because the paralyzing arrows that Natalie/Safari was using against them would search specifically for Ladybug and Cat Noir, not Mister Bug and Lady Noir. I also enjoyed seeing how much Adrien did care for Natalie. He treats her as a mother figure and going to her for advice on how to ask Marinette out.

Reunion: There are two great things about this episode. The first being that we got to meet a previous holder of the ladybug miraculous, Joan of Arc. Marinette had gone to her for advice since she was the only other previous holder who was involved with that era's black cat holder. The second was how heartfelt it was to see Jalil missing his sister so much that he was willing to believe anything that could explain why she left because didn't want to believe she left her family willingly. He wanted the truth, even if he had originally gone to the wrong source by believing online chats that were filled with people going the "Monarch might want to use the wish for something good and Ladybug and Cat Noir might be the real bad guys" route. It was really funny to also see Joan try to fight Pharaoh, only to pass right through him because she was not actually there. Plus, when Plagg gave Adrien his own kwagatama, I was literally like "Finally!"

Illusion: Another great thing about the season was that civilians were also trying to fight back against Monarch. Nino had formed a resistance group made up of the class and their friends. They wanted to try and figure out how the akumas were gaining miraculous powers without having the miraculous. Only, they had no idea Lila eavesdropped on them and revealed their plan to Gabriel. It brings me to how I enjoy that Lila was becoming more frequent and less of someone who randomly appears in episodes to cause trouble. She was becoming an actual villain rather than a small-time bad guy. It was a villain's own form of character development.

Elation: I had said earlier, this season had a reversal of the love square. And this episode showcased their changed feelings. Probably the one thing I enjoyed the most about the episode was Marinette reaching her limit with other people telling her who she should love. It was a very human moment that also showed the downside of her falling for Cat Noir since it is dangerous to be with a hero. And despite knowing how dangerous it was, she still loved him. Cat Noir also had his own moment of knowing that it was dangerous for him to love Marinette as a hero. They both did not change their feelings, but they accepted how dangerous their feelings were. It was a great character moment for both of them.

Transmission (The Kwamis’ Choice – Part 1) & Deflagration (The Kwamis’ Choice – Part 2): I thought this two-part episode was a great show of Marinette and Adrien finally allowing themselves to make a selfish choice. Tikki and Plagg had taken it upon themselves to take away their miraculous so that both of them could lead normal lives and have their own love lives. I think it was a great moment to show that even heroes can go through difficult times. I also like how the plot device that was previously shown, the rings tracking the movements of their wearers, was used against instead of being forgotten. That was how Monarch learned the identities of Scarabella and Kitty Noir. Also, the episode included more of the Resistance that Nino started. I definitely enjoyed seeing them fight against Monarch rather than giving up hope once it was known that the new heroes had been defeated. Though, it was funny that while fighting against Monarch, Kim, Ivan, and Rose dogpiled to keep him from moving. The fact that Rose also jumped onto the villain despite being the only one who is almost as small and short as Alix was so funny to me. Plus, despite Marinette and Adrien basically going back to square one by the end of the episodes, they did not choose to go back. They decided to continue to try a relationship despite being heroes again.

Perfection: As I previously pointed out, I enjoyed that Lila was becoming an actual villain. This time, it showed how she was able to trick more than just the class since she was able to lie and trick Kagami. I did feel really bad for Kagami because she made to believe that no one really cared about her. That even when she strived for perfection, it wasn't enough. The plan for helping Kagami break out of Monarch's influence was really sweet. Especially since I enjoyed seeing Socqueline again. And while a little corny, I also think that Adrien's song to Marinette was really sweet, with funny moments as Max, Nino, and Zoe provided the backup vocals. A very random trio.

Migration: Luka is definitely one of my favorite characters. Not to mention also a fan favorite. So, having an episode focused on him was great. Anarka was also HILARIOUS with how many times she threw Bob Roth off the Liberty. And while I hate his character, I did like how Bob got an actual akumaization this time rather than the opening scene one that we got in the Ephemeral episode. I also enjoyed that it was finally brought up how Luka is aware of both Ladybug and Cat Noir's identities from back in the Wishmaker episode. Despite how it forced Luka to have to leave Paris, that was a realistic moment while showing Luka's selflessness when it came to protecting the heroes. Plus, the fact that he gets quality father-son time is a great thing for him that he deserves.

Derision: As someone who does really like Kim, I both loved and hated this episode at the same time. The parts that I loved were showing more about Marinette/the class's past, showing the reason why Marinette and Socqueline had been so close, and also having Adrien end his "friendship" with Chloe for real. I also enjoyed seeing the reason why Marinette was so focused on learning everything about Adrien. As much as I think it doesn't excuse her stalker behavior, it does explain it. I also enjoyed Mylene's line about how just because Chloe's mom left her, it doesn't excuse Chloe's behavior the way everyone says that it does. Chloe's brattiness is her choice and her choice alone. While I liked the additions to Kim's character, what I didn't like was how he was turned into an unknowing bully. Like, he didn't mean to be a bully, but he was one. He took jokes too far, including using Marinette's fear of bugs against her after Chloe tricked him. However, it did explain why Kim had sometimes gone along with Chloe in the past before she broke his heart in Dark Cupid. Such as going along with Chloe and Sabrina when Chloe got Alya suspended in Lady Wifi. I am glad that he learned his lesson by the end.

Intuition: Just like with the power of the rabbit, the power of the snake was another that probably a lot of people thought that Monarch would use a lot. And it was shown that he did use it. Very often. I liked seeing scenes from previous episodes, showing how much he used the power. Plus, it was another example of something from a previous episode not being ignored. This time being the cataclysm scar from Destruction. It showed how he basically was speeding up his injury because time would move for him while it would reverse for everyone else. Also, gotta love Natalie and her once again basically saying "You're an idiot" to Gabriel.

Protection: I know how often Kagami and Luka are used in fanfics as friends of Marinette who see through Lila's lies easily. But, I actually like how Kagami also falls for Lila's lies since it shows both Lila as a threat on top of showing that even someone like Kagami has weaknesses. What I didn't like was how this episode basically ignores Kagami having already learned from Perfection how much others, including Marinette and Adrien, care about her. Another great part was Adrien once against standing up to his father, who had teamed up with Tomoe to get Adrien and Kagami forced back together. Adrien chose not to listen to them, choosing to continue pursuing Marinette. He was really growing into his own character.

Adoration: Lila and Chloe had shown to have teamed up in the previous season. A great detail that was shown to not have been ignored in this new season. This time with them teaming up to get back at Marinette by getting Sabrina akumatized into Vanisher again, with the added addition of the power of the dog miraculous, to frame Marinette for theft. I enjoyed showing how awful these two are on their own with them basically using Monarch to their own advantage rather than the other way around. While I have always liked the inclusion of LGBTQ+ characters, I didn't like how Zoe was made yet another person interested in Marinette. If they really wanted more LGBTQ+ characters, then they could easily have Juleka and Rose or Marc and Nathaniel be actual known couples rather than having them only be known as that through speculation and guesswork. It just makes it seem like they try and force Marinette to appear like a Mary Sue-type character with how many people they have fall for her.

Emotion: Felix is another character that I feel got a lot of much-needed character development. While the entire idea of this episode came out of nowhere, it shows that Felix was more than just a regular villain. He was actually more like an anti-hero, like Red Hood and Harley Quinn. I enjoyed seeing him try and protect Adrien and Kagami by making those who control them vanish. It was also a realistic take on how even when both Adrien and Kagami are aware of the fact their parents are controlling, they still love them. Kagami showing she was even willing to attack a miraculous-wielding "bad guy" to get her mother back. I also enjoyed how Felix ended up changing because he could see how much he upset Adrien with his actions. But, Felix obviously was shown to be a very complex character that I was really looking forward to learning about more.

Pretension: More character development for both Marinette and Felix. Not only was it great to see Marinette standing up to Gabriel, but Felix showed his growth by becoming interested in Kagami. And not just because he liked her, but also because he did not want her to be controlled by her mother. Also, despite not trusting Felix, Kagami learned enough about Felix and why he does what he does that she was able to convince Ladybug and Cat Noir to give him another chance. That allowed them to be able to defeat Kagami's akumatized mother, with Felix allowed to get away. Felix and Kagami were quickly becoming a favorite couple of mine. The way they gave each other development was really good. Also, I enjoyed Adrien now having to deal with his own home-based conflict when Gabriel reveals he is going to demand Adrien go to London right after the end of school. It gives Adrien another reason to start standing up to his father.

Revelation: Lila is shown to really have no real version of herself. Not even with her own family since it is revealed she is juggling three different mothers/lives with her lies. I actually like that detail since it shows how there is really no "real" version of her. She also had really been pushed to the edge in this episode as Gabriel had replaced her with Kagami as an Alliance avatar. Part of which was probably because he wanted to make her angry to akumatize her, but mostly because he no longer found any use for her. However, I liked that it backfired on him since when he did akumatize her, she used her powers to force Natalie to take pictures of all of Gabriel's secrets and send them to her. While others might question how she was able to do that, she still had her free will because she was willingly akumatized. Just like when she was akumatized into Chameleon. I also like how Adrien apologized to Marinette for his "high road" advice. He now knew that Lila was a lot more dangerous than a simple liar. He was another great growth of his character. One thing that I will never understand is why they allowed Lila to run for class representative simply because she did not get the chance before. I mean, it was almost the end of the year, so there wouldn't be much point to have a change. My best guess is simply because they needed a plot device for the next episode.

Confrontation: And I was right about them needing a plot device for the next episode. After all, if they had not allowed Lila and Chloe to take over as class representative and deputy, then they would not have been able to throw away the original school/career forms to replace them with things none of the class would be interested in. After all, even if they replaced the forms while Marinette was still the representative, there is no way that Marinette and Alya would have shown the forms at the school meeting since they would know someone faked them. Also, while I didn't like how Damocles was forgiven for all his past mistakes, I did like that he finally stood up to the mayor. Especially when allowing the class to redo their forms rather than letting the mayor tell him to not allow that because it would "make the school look bad." The added power of the magical charms was also really cool! Lila finally being exposed was also really satisfying, even if it didn't end up doing much since Chloe used her power to keep herself and Lila in school and away from the consequences. But, my favorite part was actually the reveal that Juleka has a speech impediment, which resulted in her previously being held back a year. It was a great explanation as to why Luka was not also in the same school with them even after it was revealed that he and Juleka were twins.

Collusion: It turns out that Damocles' no longer being the principal did not mean much in the long run. Even with him being replaced by Mendeleiev, she also bent to the will of Chloe and the mayor. Even firing Miss.Bustier for no reason other than her trying to stand up for Marinette after Chloe faked getting slapped. As much as I hated how low Monarch was willing to go to akumatized a pregnant woman, I did like how it was one fight that was handled with no violence. Just like when Rose first became Pigella and helped defeat Reflekta without any need for fighting because of her power. However, I honestly did not like the episode much since it really drove home how Chloe literally can get away with ANYTHING! Like, how could it ever be possible for a TEENAGER to become mayor even if her father had been the previous mayor? Even with the usual TV logic, it STILL doesn't make sense.

Revolution: The only thing that makes even less sense than Chloe being the mayor is people being OKAY with her being the mayor and making Ladybug/Cat Noir outlaws along with Monarch. Like, the heroes have been working hard, day and night, to defeat Monarch and his akumas. With a lot of those akumas being CHLOE'S fault. Yet, that is forgotten by so many people when they agree with her decisions. Also, if Sabrina had not already broken her "friendship" with Chloe by exposing her and Lila's plan, then she DEFINITELY would have done it when Chloe replaced the entire police force, including Sabrina's own dad, with robots. Not to mention ruining school by forcing Mendeleiev to "teach" Chloe's fake version of history, which was her family being responsible for everything good in the world. However, I am SO glad that she FINALLY experiences consequences for her actions. Her father finally stands up to her, he kicks her out of Paris to allow Chloe's mother to have full control, and not even Marinette allows Chloe to deal her any more emotional pain. Chloe has reached rock bottom and she knows it. Also, Adrien and Marinette finally getting their kiss will always be adorable!

Representation: I will be honest and admit that I have never liked the whole "Adrien is a sentimonster" theory. But, then I got this episode that revealed how it was true, not to mention Felix and Kagami also being sentimonsters as well. That was definitely not expected. However, it does explain why Felix and Adrien are identical even though their mothers are identical twins. After all, identical cousins are not a real thing. I also really enjoyed the way that Felix and Kagami revealed their origins to Marinette. Telling it as a fairy tale with a sentimonster called "Once Upon A Time." It was fun and creative. I also loved how Cat Noir got to defeat an akuma all on his own, with help from the Resistance. Plus, since I do like Kim, I enjoyed how he was the one who went right to Cat Noir to help bring him out of his nightmare. I also felt SO bad for Adrien and Kagami since their parents wanted to control them so much that they forced them into plain locked rooms since both had escaped their previous new rooms in London.

. Conformation (The Final Day – Part 1) & Re-creation (The Final Day – Part 2): Big season finales have always been a favorite of mine! And this one was REALLY big! First, my heart went out to Adrien because he was constantly being tormented by his nightmare while also locked in his room with no way to seek comfort. Second, I really enjoyed the other heroes from other parts of the world, the United Heroes and Lady Dragon, coming to Paris to help in the final fight. It brings the heroes from the specials even more into the world of Miraculous rather than keeping them as just characters in the specials. Gabriel and Tomoe's plan was honestly brilliant! While Scarlet Moth failed to overwhelm the heroes, this was a global-scale epidemic that was pretty much a guarantee to overwhelm them. If it had not been for Marinette being able to learn who Gabriel really was. Her fusing the black cat and ladybug together was really cool to see! As well as bringing back the detail of the upgrades she and Cat Noir got from "growing up" in the Revolution episode since she used both Lucky Charm and Cataclysm several times without changing back. I also enjoyed how it didn't focus on just her showdown with Monarch, but also her friends dealing with the Alliance soldiers. Especially since Rose being the one to tackle Ivan to the ground when he became a soldier will always be funny to me! Rose is a violent angel and I am here for it! Only three things bothered me about the episodes. One, Marinette trusting Gabriel enough to de-transform in front of him just because he was showing a moment of weakness. That was NOT smart at all. Especially since he had already sown that he was pretty much completely insane with desperation by that point. Two, the fact that Marinette kept her "promise" to Gabriel to not reveal who he was to Adrien. If he ever finds out the truth, he is going to be DESTROYED! Not to mention feel incredibly betrayed by Marinette. Adrien has every right to know who his father was! And three, they seriously took Adrien/Cat Noir out of the final battle! That is NOT RIGHT! He has been a hero from day one and yet they do not even allow him to take part in the final battle! That is NOT okay!

Action: I don't honestly have much to say about this episode. It is simply one of those regular "children's show" episodes that are about teaching kids an important lesson. A lot of kid shows usually have an episode like it. The most I can say is that I enjoyed how it was another example of Adrien standing up to his father.

#ml salt #miraculous #miraculous fandom #i hate chloe #luka is the best #miraculous spoilers #ml spoilers #i have opinions #season five #miraculous season 5 #chloe salt

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