#but his past and the worldview it's given him of how people only ever have ulterior motives and want to use each other
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one of the (many) reasons why this exchange makes me so emotional is that Dazai knows very well the feeling of only ever being used and taken advantage of as a tool, and not knowing anything other than that life. He understands that Sigma can’t yet comprehend the notion of someone wanting you without any ulterior motives, of people just having natural relationships that don’t involve wanting to get something out of each other, because that was his life before he met Oda, who was a “balm for the soul” (in his own words) for him; hence, he doesn’t try to explain it to Sigma at first. But he does relent once Sigma takes Dazai’s initial silence as him being unworthy for an explanation... He doesn’t go into more detail as to why “understanding would be difficult”, because that would require opening up about himself which is something Dazai is still far from ready for, and because he knows Sigma wouldn’t be able to fully understand or accept all of this yet, but just the two reasons he does give for choosing him are already causing Sigma to start to rethink everything he’s ever known about the world and how people treat each other.
Dazai chose him to use his ability, just like everyone who’s always used Sigma has -- but he also chose him to save his life, and to help the agency, people he cares about and wants to help for completely selfless reasons, without expecting anything in return (sure, Dazai jokes about him being on the agency’s payroll, but that’s just his usual deflecting to avoid admitting that he cares :’). This is completely foreign behavior in Sigma’s world, where everyone has to use each other in order to survive, but he’s realizing that Dazai is different from them: he’s realizing what it feels like to be wanted simply out of compassion and love, and not because of how valuable he may be. Sigma isn’t just any other ordinary orphan Dazai saves; he wants to save him particularly because he empathizes with him and sees his old, hurt, jaded self in him, and he’s slowly becoming the balm for the soul for Sigma that Oda was for himself back then, which is truly touching.
#bungou stray dogs#bungou stray dogs spoilers#meta#bsd 105.5#Sigma is 100% joining the ADA by the end 😭😭😭 I just know Dazai has already adopted him#look at the softness in his face!!! he's making this Sigma's entrance exam you cannot tell me otherwise!!!#i know people like to say that Dazai sees his younger self in Atsushi#and yeah in a general more broad sense you could argue that#but Sigma is really who he can empathize with#even though Sigma personality-wise is more similar to Atsushi#but his past and the worldview it's given him of how people only ever have ulterior motives and want to use each other#is more similar to pre-Oda Dazai#he has Atsushi's anxiety and low self-esteem issues but his life experiences are Dazai's#he fought so hard for a home on his own - the casino - because no one else would ever give him one#he never had any reason to believe anyone ever would give him one#he's always wanted a HOME but never expected a FAMILY#but now Dazai is the first person who's ever chosen him for /him/#Atsushi showed him kindness earlier too but Dazai CHOSE him#both are so important and are having such a profound effect on Sigma#I'm also convinced that Sigma's ability got information from Atsushi before he thought he was going to die about his purpose or something#in exchange for the info about the page#and that that's going to come into play here during the peak of Sigma's development#it all just makes me so emotional ahhhhhhhh 😭🥺💜 i love these two so much *CRIES*
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How do you think Makoto`s and Nagito`s luck work?
*deeep breath*
*Slams my ruler onto the whiteboard* ALRIGHT
To understand Makoto and Nagito's luck, we must first understand Luck in the Danganronpa universe.
First off their are multiple types of luck, and not all luck talents are built the same. That's the first thing you need to understand, every luck talent is a unique personal talent to each individual. Luck talents can't really be compared because they're so different from each other and can even create other talents.
Case in point the true second luck talent we had in the series...CELESTIA LUDENBERG. While not the ultimate lucky student, her gambling talent is NEAR COMPLETE LUCK, something she FREELY ADMITS.
While this kind of thinking is more associated with Komaeda, it is actually CELESTE who first brings up luck as something beyond just chance, but instead as something more akin to religion. She even compares it to fate, Celestia will tell us in her FIRST free time event exactly what she thinks of luck. Which correlates well with Komaeda’s thinking. First of all the immutability of it, that you are simply born with that luck and nothing can ever change it, then there is the thought there is no inbetween luck it is only Good luck or Bad luck and it’s those two things that determine basically everything. Celestia and Komaeda have a very similar worldview, the only difference is the fact Celeste’s luck is only good and has such given her a much more positive view of it. Celeste seems to have spent a lot of time thinking about luck, and has a lot of faith in it, seen how in another free time events despite not knowing how to even play, she won a Shogi gambling competition.
While Celeste has a habit of exaggerating and dramatics, I think she’s telling the truth about this story, it matches up with her beliefs after all. No skill or talent carried her through to the end and to victory, just pure luck, her gambling luck that is the basis of her talent.
From this we learn that luck talents are much broader then just ‘lucky student’ and can make up a lot of different talents based on how it presents themselves with everyone having unique sets of luck and activation requirements. With both her and Komaeda sharing similar views on luck, it’s clear that those with lucky talents tend to find luck to be immutable and simply just a piece of ones self that can never be changed. Luck is everything to those with powerful enough luck, to the point it becomes almost blinding and overshadows skill, though Celeste seems to feel a bit ashamed that she didn’t at least make an attempt at having skill at Shogi. A little dog can’t become a big dog, and someone with bad gambling luck can never have good gambling luck and vice versa.
This isn’t true.
As you may have noticed if her gambling luck is that good that it overrides skill completely, then how did she lose? By how her talent works as long as it’s a gamble, she wins. Period. Nothing to be done about it. How did she lose the gamble of her life?
Easy, Makoto’s luck works as a luck nullifier.
You may be asking what the hell I’m talking about and I redirect your attention to the short story of Makoto Naegi’s Worst Day Ever.
“People often say that men are defined by their names, and indeed, in his thirty-two years on Earth, Jutarou had never once thought of himself as unlucky. In fact, he had been blessed with abnormally good luck. By the very nature of his work, he had found himself in a number of dangerous situations in the past, but every time—without fail—a series of fortunate flukes guided him to safety.
While his luck could be considered one of his strengths, he wasn’t fond of admitting it.
Rather, allowing himself to end up in situations where the outcome was in fate’s hands was unacceptable to him. He knew good and well that, in his line of work, even the smallest of slip-ups could mean disaster.
Jutarou was a thief.
The most important thing to him when he was on a job was reducing the potential influence of forces outside his control—luck, other people—to an absolute minimum. In his mind, a thorough, well crafted plan was the cornerstone of any job. He always formulated and executed his plans by himself, and any job for which that wasn’t possible, he wouldn’t take. There was nothing worse than being betrayed by a partner who let his greed get to his head, and besides, Jutarou didn’t need anyone slowing him down. And he especially didn’t need to be asking for help from on high.
Naturally, his current job was no different. He had planned everything and put that plan into action all by himself. His target had been a small jewelry store in a nearby shopping district. Jutarou had received information that, despite looking run-down, the store had a hidden stash of extremely valuable jewels. And to top it off, the owner was a bit of a penny-pincher, so security was light.
It was an incredible opportunity—the kind that you only ever got once or twice.
So Jutarou crafted an intricate, but bold, plan, and then he went through with it. Naturally—as far as he was concerned—everything went without a hitch, exactly as it was supposed to. His plan was perfect, leaving no room whatsoever for outside interference. And there had been none.
Spoils tucked away in his bag, he calmly stepped onto the bus. Jutarou liked to make use of public transportation as much as possible while on a job. It was easier to blend into the crowd in a bustling city by riding a bus or train than it was driving a car or motorcycle, and by dressing like a businessman on the job, he practically disappeared.
The disguise worked, too. Not a person on that bus gave him a second look as he took an open seat at the front.
Finally certain he had completed his work, Jutarou let out a small sigh of relief. As the bus vibrated gently beneath him, he silently basked in the satisfaction of a job well done.
And then, a sick twist of fate made quick work of everything he had accomplished. Only, it wasn’t his luck that laid everything to waste—rather, he was just caught in the crossfire of some teenage boy’s misfortune. Some boy who just happened to climb onto the same bus as him. It was a stroke of bad luck so overwhelming that even Jutarou who, up to that point, had been blessed with such incredibly good luck, was helpless to prevent it”
Meet Jutarou who appears to have a luck talent of his own, the main antagonist in the short story. While he doesn’t like purely to rely on it, he notes that he is a very lucky man and multiple times in the story comments about how his luck never fails him. Until it does. Makoto Naegi’s bad luck was so strong, it had OVERRIDDEN his good luck, giving Jutarou bad luck to give Makoto WORSE luck.
This trend continues throughout the story, despite Jutarou’s best efforts and best luck to get himself not arrested, Makoto’s sheer bad luck is enough to dissuade EVERY attempt as the situation only gets worse and worse for Makoto until it ends up with the groceries that Makoto was ORIGINALLY SENT TO GET ending up basically exploding.
This incident directly leads into Makoto getting into Hope’s Peak, as his luck is SO BAD that in that same explosion the original lottery winners invitation gets destroyed and they do a new drawing, this time pulling Makoto’s name.
Luck talents have no effect on Makoto because his luck counteracts it, it doesnt matter how good your luck is, if Makoto’s luck wants to involve you, you have no control over the luck in the situation anymore. From this we learn Luck talents interacting with each other can have odd effects, especially if Makoto is involved.
There is a second piece of evidence that Luck talents aren’t quite as straightforward as “you’re born with it” and his name, is the mortal god himself, Izuru Kamukura
As Hajime Hinata, his luck is well, it’s not great, but I wouldn’t call it bad either. He’s average, very plainly average. Then he got a lobotomy and became Izuru, and suddenly something has changed. Izuru DOES have good luck, and he has an intense amount of control over his luck that he can even can beat Komaeda in a gun fight. Which means not only is Luck a real talent despite how Komaeda bemoans, it has some way to quantifiably measure and implant it as his Luck talent is just as artificial as the rest of his talents. Luck isn’t just chance or fate, it’s a legitimate part of someones body that can be implanted into someone else with the right tools. Which is, SO MUCH TO UNPACK.
We don’t learn HOW they implanted luck, so we can only guess where luck resides within a human body. Wherever it is though, this implies while people are indeed born with a specific luck pattern that is otherwise immutable this pattern can be tampered and changed by an outside source with the right know how. Celeste is essentially correct in the fact humans are born programmed with the luck they have, but we lack the specifics. I am pointing a gun at the hope cultivation program if you’re going to break the geneva convention at least LET ME KNOW how you implanted fucking LUCK!
Luck is beyond just how we view luck in our world, luck is an inherent part of them, I’d dare to even call it another sense. Like a sense of sight or sense of direction, everyone has a sense of luck. Some don’t have much of it, some of them have little, and some of them have enough of it that it almost seems like a magical power.
Of course now that we have a loose understanding of how luck just works in this setting, this tells us little on how luck works for those two specifically.
Makoto’s luck is known to be the most confusing even in universe, as his luck is a liar. Bad luck often is good luck often is bad luck. It is impossible to tell if something is good or bad when it comes to his luck until like three years later after all the dominoes and butterfly effects have mostly settled. Celeste says there is no in-betweens but Makoto’s luck LOVES its grey areas. Making things be both bad and good at the same time, Makoto’s luck cannot be divided into good or bad because it’s always both at the same damn time. The only think about his luck that’s in any way clear is that it refuses to let him die. No matter how bad his luck seems, the moment he could genuinely die, his luck swoops in to grab him from the brink.
Like yeah he lived thats good but now he has trauma and thats bad and now he can help and thats good but that helping is also being used as propaganda and that’s bad. Makoto lives in a state of greys, his luck refuses the black and white views of Celeste or Komaeda, everything his luck does will be both bad and good, creating mostly just confusion. It’s easy to see how Makoto just kinda shrugs it off as just unfortunate and moves on with his life, his luck keeps trying to be good and bad at the same time.
Then there’s Komaeda, who has only bad luck. Which you may be saying “what? But his luck can be good!” and I ask you how good his luck really is? His luck constantly kills the people around him and even killed him. Sure sometimes he gets paltry rewards like money or freedom, but in reality, the scales are NOT balanced. An inheritance can’t make up for dead parents, winning the lottery doesn’t erase the trauma of being kidnapped.
Even moments where his luck seems to work in his favor only makes him miserable, winning russian roulette wasn’t a triumph or good luck for him really, it only drove him insane.
If I had to name Komaeda’s luck I’d go for something like short term benefits with long term consequences. The bad effects of his luck always echo farther and go on for longer then the good effects which are often quick distractions or quick victories. However Komaeda lets himself settle for this, pretending like the scales actually have any meaning, letting himself have bad luck and thinking the small rewards of it measures up to the sheer amount of bad luck it took.
Komaeda’s luck can give him the things he needs in the moment, but there is always consequences for it’s use. Komaeda pretends like it's an equivalent exchange, but actually looking at, even the 'good' parts often brings him suffering. Like yeah he's rich and has freedom, but he's lonely and unable to connect to people. Even the best parts of his luck are only good short term before also becoming more akin to bad luck.
His luck is basically a deal with the devil, he receives pain and suffering, and he receives... a whole bunch of sodas! Just ignore the fact the scars will last longer then the soda and you can pretend it all balanced out.
It’s easy to see how he fell into the viewpoints he did when he basically has to lie to himself to make his luck more tolerable or seem fair. Especially because unlike Makoto's, his luck seems perfectly willing to kill him if he's not careful.
Of course these are only my current views on their luck cycles, my mind and thoughts are CONSTANTLY changing on this, because it’s just, so nebulous. One of these days I’d love to do a luck deep dive on all the characters and see what other talents are secretly luck talents.
#LUCK IN DANGANRONPA THE FUCKS YOUR DEAL#makoto naegi#danganronpa meta#trigger happy havoc#goodbye despair#danganronpa 3#meta#goodbye despair meta#trigger happy havoc meta#danganronpa 3 meta#musings from the music manager#nagito komaeda#celestia ludenberg#izuru kamukura#hajime hinata#anon chaos
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One last post before I turn for the night. You know how projection is one hell of a drug? And that Kotoko doesn’t like Mikoto at all while Mikoto keeps trying to befriend her? Maybe it’s because Kotoko sees the worst of herself in Mikoto and rejecting him is how she rejects that part of herself, while Mikoto sees the most pitiable parts of himself in her (like her self-imposed isolation and high standards) and is trying to give her the treatment he wished others had given him?
Don’t get me wrong. I’m still firmly in the camp of “Mikoto killed somebody and John covered for him well enough that denying it ever happened wasn’t that hard,” but you guys ever hear that one saying: that the water that boiled the egg, softens the potato? Some people face adversity and when they see others face that same sort of adversity, they say, “I managed just fine on my own/I pulled myself up by my bootstraps so why won’t you?” Others face adversity and when they see others face it as well, their instinct is “I wish I had had help so I’m going to try and help.”
Now, let me be clear, I am not using childhood trauma to excuse what Kotoko did. But I’m extremely curious as to what you have to do to a kid to make them grow up to become what Kotoko is. Same with Mikoto. It’s less of an “I want an easy excuse to justify it,” and more of a “I want context to better understand what led up to this.”
From what I remember reading about the articles shown in Harrow, the pedophile she killed had a rich daddy who was implied to have swept it under the rug and got him released. For completely understandable reasons, Kotoko is pissed. Not only does he not show any remorse, but he is a repeat offender who will continue to hurt other young girls. I could understand why the cops decided not to look a gift horse in the mouth and wash their hands of the whole debacle by agreeing with Kotoko and the girl’s story that it was all justifiable within self-defense. The problem Kotoko then faced was that the pedophile had a rich father who could and did pay for an independent review. And then upon hearing that the injuries his son faced before he died exceeded what one could claim self-defense, went on to publish the hell out of the story to get Kotoko punished. In Harrow, when we see her storm the warehouse, there are frames showing a partial overhead view of a woman lying on the ground, a partial view of a man with a hammer who looks very similar to the pedophile, and a clear view of a young girl bound and gagged in a dark room. Did something similar happen in Kotoko’s past and that’s why she’s so stuck in her views on strength, pain, and penance?
Same with Mikoto. DID is a rare condition that usually forms in response to extreme childhood trauma. Mikoto could be one of the unlucky few that developed it past the normal point, but it’s more likely that something happened to him when he was young. Maybe whatever happened was the reason why his parents divorced and not because his father worked all the time. Mikoto clings to his view that if he follows the rules, works hard, and checks off the boxes to the “respectability” checklist that he will be fine. Almost as much as Kotoko clings to her worldviews. It sounds like gossip-mongering I know, but I want to know to try and understand how what happened had happened the way it did and if it could have been prevented.
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it really was pointless!!!! Toga has his blood, he should have anticipated it! The first clone Toga makes (not her actually transforming) WILL have Jin's personality, memories, etc. He'll be "back" temporarily, and could make infinite clones ESPECIALLY since we know Jin's clones can be used for blood transfusions so she could potentially harvest infinite amounts of blood for keeping the transformation/making sure she can constantly create more clones. There was literally NO point. And Hawks is supposed to be smart enough to have realized this was a possibility given he knew their abilities.
I agree. Hawks should have seen this coming, but I think his oversight (and the Commission's) actually works with his characterization, not in spite of it.
(I hope you don't mind a longer and ramblier response, but your ask gave me food for thought)
Iirc, Toga's powerup, the ability to use the quirk of the people she transforms into, relies on the strong love she feels for them. But Toga is widely perceived as a deviant, and no one except for Jin and the League was ever able to accept her definition of love. In this light, I think it makes a lot of sense for Hawks to underestimate the threat her quirk awakening poses. Hawks never really understood the League as people, or the ties between them as care.
After all, we already have an example of Hawks Othering Dabi because he can't understand his reaction to Twice's death. He never got to know Dabi well enough to learn that he smiles when he cries, and in absence of tears he's just left grinning manically. So when Hawks sees an expression that he cannot immediately categorize as grief, he tells Dabi that this is not what loss should look like, implying that his reaction is heartless, that Dabi's the monster here, not the person who actually struck the killing blow.
Imho Hawks' failure to read any humanity in the League is supposed to mirror hero society's rejection of those that don't fit in. Compare for example his horrified and judgemental shock to the reaction Toga always receives when she drinks blood or otherwise experiences her version of love:
The dehumanization at play is very similar. The basics are: "you're emoting in a way that doesn't fit social norms I'm accustomed to, thus you're a deviant that doesn't conform, and as such, a monster".
Considering how Hawks only offered a chance for a fresh start to Twice, despite his time with them he never really got to see past that superficial impression of the League as violent freaks and murderers. It wouldn't surprise me if his idea of Toga is not to far off from that of the people who covered her childhood home in offensive graffiti.
I'm mentioning all of this because Hawks refused to acknowledge Jin's dying words. The hankie story.
In his dying breaths, Jin was trying to make Hawks see the humanity of the people he befriended in his time with the League. He tells him that heroes always divide people into "the virtuous," aka those deserving their help, and the "downtrodden folk" like the League, who don't. And he tells him that even if society sees his friends as hopelessly inhumane, beyond salvation, it was Toga who helped him at his lowest point, lending him a handkerchief to wrap around his head and ease his fear of splitting up. When the heroes left him to fend for himself until he lost his mind, it was a villain who cared to put him back together.
But Hawks never got to see that side of Toga, or that side of everyone else beyond Jin. He never acknowledged Toga's love as care the same way he recognized Twice's genuine love for his friends.
Hawks' worldview isn't wide enough to accommodate for such gray areas. I've written a post before on how I think Hawks functions on a categorization of people into "good" and "bad" boxes because that's what helped him survive the abuse, and imho this is just another example of it in practice. So he decides that Jin is a good man who was led astray by bad company, and only sees the rest of the League as monsters incapable of being as "good" as Jin.
I think Hawks' failure to foresee the consequences of killing Twice might fit into this narrative. It's not that he lacked any intel to make the connection, or that he had an uncharacteristic moment of stupidity and didn't think of the ramifications of murdering him. But if we read him as sufficiently socially inept to miscalculate the bond between lov members as purely transactional, like his reading of Dabi in relation to Jin, I think it helps understanding his incompetence better.
To put it in simpler terms, maybe it's not that he didn't anticipate that Toga could turn into the people she loves, but he simply didn't think that Toga could love Jin. Cause he assumed her version of caring was something more twisted and freaky than a "normal person's." That it had to be fundamentally different from the way people like him and Twice experienced it.
It's true enough that Toga only ever verbalized her romantic love/obsession for Deku and Ochako. We readers of course know that's not the whole extent of it, and that she draws even more strength and growth from the platonic bonds with the Lov. But it's also true that Hawks never acknowledged the League as a group of people brought together by the necessity of belonging with someone who can accept them for who they are. He just sees the villains, but not the humans underneath. Jin could,
But Hawks doesn't.
In that light, then, when Toga will bring back Twice, that won't just be a moral slap in the face that shows the force of the bond they shared, but it will also nullify Hawks' efforts towards protecting the greater good at the expense of the "downtrodden folks" like Jin.
And in doing so, it might show old guard heroes like Hawks, who represents the HPSC and thus the system itself, the fatal mistake of believing villains aren't human at the end of the day, and exactly what needs changing to have a better future
#Ali replies#Bnha meta#Bnha spoilers#My post#Idk how coherent this is or if it makes sense to you#But once the thought struck me I wanted to write it out
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Would Griffith and Guts ever actually work as a pair or even just friends? Even if they got past their own issues, would that relationship had any chance of blossoming into something more? I remember reading someone talking about if they got their issues resolved they would just found out they are completely incompatible witch each other. The only thing holding them together is basically their miscommunications. Idk what to think about it myself
Well I definitely disagree with whoever's take you were reading. I absolutely think they're very compatible interpersonally.
Granted I can see why others might not see that, because we don't get many scenes of them just hanging out - rather we're told that they happen all the time, and we have to fill in the blanks ourselves.
But we are told that they happen. Guts has visted Griffith in his fancy nobleman room enough times to notice when he buys new books. Owen's strongest memory of Guts is seeing him at Griffith's side all the time, chilling with him. Griffith's climactic memory of Guts when he's about to sacrifice him is a mundane moment where they're just hanging out after a battle.
We don't get to see these moments, but they're given a lot of narrative significance, because they reflect Guts and Griffith's relationship.
They're comfortable with each other - the way Guts casually wants to visit Griffith after Zodd and has to be punched out so he doesn't interrupt the noblemen visiting him already. Relatedly, the way Griffith's ascension into the nobility drives a little artificial wedge between them that frustrates both of them (see Griffith bitching about the noblemen when he visits Guts on the stairs). They hang out and share porn before Griffith asks Guts to kill a guy lol. Their first bonding moment was a waterfight in which Griffith was naked. Guts spends like half the time between the rescue and the Eclipse holding Griffith. They're pretty emotionally and physically intimate.
They might not seem that compatible at a glance, but there's a reason "opposites attract" is a cliche.
Also on a surface level I think they make sense as good friends (or more) honestly - they actually remind me of several friendships I've had lol. As someone who, like Guts, has very little ambition, is chill, down to earth, and a bit introverted, and has several much more ambitious, more charismatic, more sociable friends, it's a pretty workable dynamic. I do more stuff and get more opportunities to try new things with those friends, and they get to relax and enjoy a low pressure environment with me. And I think in the story we can see shades of that vibe.
Though that said, I don't think it really matters whether they'd make sense as good friends/lovers if they were real, because a) the world is a vast place and contains multitudes and I'm sure you can take any two types of people and find them in a happy relationship somewhere, and b) it's a fictional story. We're essentially told that they love each other and had the potential to be very happy together in some capacity, we occasionally see glimpses that show us that they work well together interpersonally, and that's all we should need. If it goes against what someone might expect from a real life couple, well, that reflects more on their worldview and their experiences than it reflects on the characters in the story, imo.
If you're interested in more takes on their dynamic and how they could work as a couple btw, I have a headcanons tag where I've discussed them as a ship quite a bit in more hypothetical ways. And I have a couple posts of compiled links to griffguts headcanon posts here and here.
Anyway thanks for the ask!
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Chapter 4.
- Good evening, Aspenville! Today is November 9th 1960, I am your host - Alistair Mayers, and welcome to today’s audition!
Another week had passed - I assumed this schedule to become a norm from now on - and Alistair seemed to have taken a more professional approach to his program since he began his work with Virgil Montgomery. I wasn’t sure whether I prefer it over the less organized and more spontaneous feel of the past auditions, but knew that there’s nothing I can do but accept it. I could just assume his reasoning behind this sudden change.
- The weather today appears slightly more foggy than the last time we spoke, yet the sky is still a lot clearer than would be expected from our lovely town - the host went on - The wind also seems to be more present lately, which I personally do not mind; cold weather always helps me think. Speaking of which, I’ve been thinking a lot the past few days. I’m doing my best to stay focused on my work no matter what. Now that I have a great scientist helping me out I cannot allow myself any distractions. I can’t risk slowing us down, after all we’re talking about the survival of the human race. Dr. Montgomery says that we’re the only ones who can save the world, only ones not ignorant enough to to forget how many human lives are at stake, not blind enough not to see the massacre happening around us and not cowardly enough to do nothing about it. He says that the two of us are superior to all of those who decided to give up already. I know that he says it purely to motivate me, in case I did decide that what we’re doing is pointless, yet I have to admit, his view on the role we’re playing in all of this is rather terrifying to me. I never viewed my actions as a matter of being exceptional as opposed to simply trying to help people out and make the best out of our current situation. I never viewed myself as a god or anything alike, and I never wanted to do so. The idea of taking control over other people’s fate deeply disturbs me. I just don’t want any more innocent people to die.
This short monologue of Alistair’s was enough to reassure me in one of my earlier judgments - I do not like Virgil Montgomery one bit. As much as I respected his dedication to his work, the motivation behind it seemed entirely wrong to me. I trusted Alistair, because I saw how pure his intentions are. Every radio audition, all the effort he had put into this project, his seemingly undying hope and the ever-present optimism. It might not have been a long time since the calamity started and Alistair’s will power is yet to be put to a test, however most of us never even considered fighting, he was right about that. Alistair did fight. Not out of the selfish desire to survive of simple fear, but out of love for the people.
And then… then there was Virgil. I could empathize with his desire for his work to be understood and recognized. It was likely wrong of me to judge his actions and mindset without knowing the background behind them, and yet I found it incredibly difficult to trust a person who puts himself before all else. Could Alistair be in the wrong for trusting him?
- I may not fully agree with Dr. Montgomery’s worldview, but nonetheless I do have the utmost respect for him and his work. I find it admirable that even at times when most scientists have already given up, quietly avoiding any mentions of the problem and hoping for it to simply fix itself, he decided to stick to what he believed was right and get to the bottom of it at all costs. It might be foolish of me to think so, but I sincerely believe that there must be more to his motif than simply wanting to play god. I don’t know whether he loves this town and its people the same way that I do, I can’t assume how pure his intentions really are, however what I do know for sure is that he is already doing more good for our current situation than most would ever bother to. Even if his reasons may not be the most noble, his actions are, and that is why I’m not going to give up on working with him any time soon. We have a common goal and our differing worldviews shouldn’t be getting in our way to achieving it.
After all the terrible things he saw and experienced lately, after all the trauma he’d been through, his soft and even temperament felt odd or even bizarre. I find it nearly intriguing how despite how horribly this world may seem he never fails to see the good in it; to see the good in its people. Where most would see a stranger Alistair sees a potential ally, what may seem like danger to others to him looks like an opportunity. His pure and innocent naivety likely comes from a place of fear and yet paradoxically it might end up putting him in more danger than if he simply kept to himself.
- Oh listeners, what am I even doing? - Alistair interrupted my ruminations with a noticeable shift in the tone of his voice - This broadcast had been going on for so long and I haven’t even touched on what I was actually about to share with you. Silly me, just rambling and rambling without mentioning anything of any actual meaning - I wouldn’t consider his previous words meaningless - As for our research, Dr. Montgomery is currently working on some major discovery in regards to Strangers’ DNA and potential origin. Unfortunately, I cannot share with you any more details of it since I haven’t been made aware of them quite yet. Dr. Montgomery says that he doesn’t want to confuse me and have me disturbing his work, and as much as I understand the reasoning behind this decision, shouldn’t it be considered a contradiction to the transparency rule we agreed on? Well, it doesn’t matter either way. After all, I’m here to spread his research to the wider public, not to question his methods.
From what I am allowed to share with you, we were to observe some recent weather anomalies, if you can even call them that. The two of us decided to have a closer look into it, because of the late absence of fog around Aspenville, as well as a means to collect some data for the potential verification of the sunflowers theory (which I’m still not in favour of). He asked me to plant the seeds of two different kinds of flowers which both aren’t currently in season. I chose narcissus and white lily as our test subject, since they were the only ones I could find around the station. After several days of observation nothing had happened to the white lily, just as expected. The narcissus however, much to my surprise, actually began to grow!
We still don’t understand the reason for this development and we’re still trying to figure out its potential connection to Strangers and the sunflower theory. In the meantime, I will be checking on both flowers and reporting every change I notice to Dr. Montgomery. After all, we still need a significant amount of time for the flowers to bloom. No matter how much we desire to see the development, we have no means of shortening the waiting time. Even if the suspense and uncertainty feels draining, we have no choice, but to stay patient and hope for the best outcome. And with that thought, I think we should call it a day. A lot has been going on lately and I understand the overwhelming nature of the late events, however please keep in mind that losing hope is the worst we can do right now. Until next, listeners!
And all of a sudden the day turned into night.
#writing#original story#creative writing#original work#writeblr#writblr#writers of tumblr#tumblr writers#writersociety#bookblr
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sorting the gang: mac
Previously: Dennis
We started with a non-obvious sorting so now let's move on to one of the easier ones.
PRIMARY: Snake (extremely dysfunctional), Bird model (extremely dysfunctional) (or the other way around?)
OK maybe it isn't THAT easy. Honestly you could go either way on this. I think part of it is that Mac's character gets written really differently depending on the episode/season (and a lot of fans LOVE complaining about this, "omg they ruined Mac's character" etc., despite both sides of his character being there early on)
Mac obviously is pretty attached to his worldview, usually his religion. He builds his entire identity around it and spends a lot of energy trying to work out the contradictions, the biggest example being being gay vs. being Catholic. He is very proud of how he can view the whole world through whatever lens he has glommed onto at any given point.
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science is a LIAR sometimes
Idk I had an entire paragraph here about how everything he says in that video is wrong and how malleable these identities actually are for him in practice until I thought maybe that was still what Birds do especially less mature ones so idk. (Full disclosure I don't really "get" Bird primaries so I might not just be good at recognizing them?)
But I think a picture speaks a thousand words, especially when it is a picture that contains a thousand words:
"just like everyone else in the group" lol ok mac
Mac is a Snake whose people don't give a shit about him. His people are his dad, his mom, Dennis, and to a lesser degree Charlie. "The Gang" isn't really a thing for him as a unit, those are the only people he cares about. And he really cares. ("We're like the best friends in the whole goddamn world and goddamn them for making me think otherwise!")
It isn't a good kind of caring. On his end, they are deeply codependent up to the point where he smuggles drugs for his dad because he's his dad, calls the cops on Dennis when he is out of the apartment for an hour, poisons Dennis to try to make him dependent on him... (Can you be Exploded about more than one person?) And obviously on their end all these people either openly hate Mac to an abusive extent or only give a shit insofar as they can use him. And Mac is deeply in denial that this is possible for his people.
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like, even just the idea that OBVIOUSLY Luther wants to see this picture of his mom because OBVIOUSLY she's really important to Luther just like Mac is OBVIOUSLY important to him because OBVIOUSLY he would also care as much, that's how relationships OBVIOUSLY work...
And most importantly, the idea that other people in the world have things to offer does not register. It's not on YouTube but there's a legit tragic scene in the last season where Mac meets his uncle Donald. Donald is a family scapegoat for all the same reasons Mac is, and he is lonely and eager to connect. He is the perfect father figure for Mac, who desperately wants a father figure... and Mac doesn't give a shit about him. He sits through all of this with total disinterest. Charlie sits there the entire scene getting increasingly frustrated: "You have everything you've ever dreamed of right here, but we're gonna just blow right past it, aren't we?"
SECONDARY: Lion (Snake model except he is bad at it?)
This is the easy part, I mean like do I even have to explain it? Mac reacts to things. He reacts to things like a bomb does. Or like whatever the most badass and/or powerful action is at the time. ("Mac sees himself as the boss in most situations and the gang constantly complains about his bossiness.")
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it like personally offends him that the mafia does things other than be badass at people
There are three common Mac plots. One is that Mac and someone else (usually Charlie) escalate each other into chaos. Two, someone (almost anyone) manipulates him with zero effort. Three, someone (usually Dennis) attempts to do a scheme with him that he derails loudly. Basically Mac is earnest, in a way that only Charlie really matches. I think that's probably part of why they're the two members of the Gang most likely to be interpreted as kinda-maybe-salvageable deep down even when they objectively do just as bad things as everyone else.
This is Sunny so Mac has a baseline ambient level of lying and scheming, i.e. lowkey Snake modeling. Notably he got a double dose of that model from hanging out with the Gang and beforehand from growing up with career criminals as parents. But he's the worst person in the Gang at scheming and it isn't remotely close. Which is not to say that he doesn't try to manipulate people, he just....... fundamentally doesn't get the concept:
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"Oh shit... right, don't give away the information." feel like I'm using all my memes on these
Obligatory disclaimer that again this is the most exaggerated and cartoonish and just incredibly dumb version of Lioning so just like if you're a Bird secondary don't be offended about sharing it with a serial predator, don't be offended about sharing Lion with this incredibly dumb individual
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Twewy native Pre week 2 neku and kh1 Riku would be the most toxic friend group ever
I had to specify neku as twewy native because in dream drop josh straight up said they all died and that's why they got sent to traverse town. But given his lines it's clear he's at least past peak asshole neku.
Thoughts?
OH YEAH VERY TRUE. but actually I don't even think they'd be friends, if that makes sense. Riku needs someone kind who looks up to him (like Sora and Kairi), and Neku pre-twewy... isn't that. Neku on the other hands needs people he can relate to and who share his worldviews (ex: how he got along with Joshua in week 2 and was able to have many interesting discussions with him despite, yknow, thinking Joshua murdered him). So it wouldn't actually work if there was only the two of them: Riku doesn't share Neku's values of shutting himself from people because he's scared of getting hurt & hurting them. And Neku only looks up to CAT.
#léa replies#it's interesting to think about tho. if somehow they were hanging out... it would honestly not be very good. for anyone.#now you got me thinking about how Riku's low self-esteem can be a parallel to Beat and Shiki but each have a different way to deal with it#Riku's low self-esteem becomes jealousy when he sees someone else hang out with Sora (he puts the blame on others)#a reaction that appears to be similar to Beat who's angry at for example kariya when Rhyme dies#but it's actually just a facade. and he's mostly angry at himself for his incompetence#and Shiki on the other hand gets jealous of Eri but turns that against herself to the point that she tries to erase her own self#so she can reach Eri's supposed perfection#so we have a broad range of reactions to low sefl-esteem#and while Riku's is obviously the most harmful for others (increased by the fact that Maleficient and Ansem SOD took advantage of it)#i don't want to call him toxic for that. he's just a lost kid who doesn't know how to handle change. just like Kairi is.#and that's why they drift apart with Sora trying to chase both of them because he's the only one who is able to handle change.#his issues lie elsewhere.#anyway i could swear i was going somewhere with this but i had dinner in between so i forgor...#maybe something about how yeah Neku was toxic pre-twewy but i don't think Riku was before it all went downhill in kh1#it's really Maleficient and Ansem's manipulation who made him go the extra mile and hurt others when he only wanted to save Kairi#and yeah i guess making the words fall and trying to kill Sora is pretty toxic at this point lmao#thanks for the ask!#twewy spoilers#twewy#kingdom hearts
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giving the new hellraiser an extra half star on letterboxd just to spite the people who’re being really grumpy about it, because most of the time people are either
a. overly comparing it to the original in a way that doesn’t actually address the lore-building in this movie on its own merits (just “oh the Cenobites don’t look the same as they used to,” “oh this wasn’t how it was in the original,” etc)
b. calling the main character “annoying” which immediately makes me lose interest in a review about a movie with an interesting female protagonist
also some other feelings about it (with heavy spoilers), many of which are sentiments I didn’t see explored on letterboxd (although I didn’t go too far because I’d have just been annoyed):
Horror definitely is too glossy these days as a whole, I will agree with that, and Hellraiser especially is something that could benefit from more grit and sweat and tactile sex, however this one DID give us some wonderful things:
- The conceptual Drag Looks, really fascinating elevated aesthetics (Cenobite Aesthetes - arbiters of Taste - that sounds about right for them). My watch-partner and I loved every Cenobite, they really went off with the designs, and with pushing the genderlessness of them. I wish there were more body-types though, they ought to be past the idea that thinness = elevation, especially since a bunch of them barely look human at all! (I’m going to assume that they’re also around, since there was a fat Cenobite in the original, but wish the movie itself had thought of doing that)
I like the meta-choice of casting Jamie Clayton as well. Since she was playing the lead-priest, there was a sense of worship being placed on her body-as-a-trans-body as well as having achieved the ultimate form of beauty and transformation (in the case of the movie “their body”, since the Cenobites are genderless)
I loved how fundamentally Alien they were once more, fully operating under their own, clear (to them) rules. And I liked that by the end the main character figured out how to play by those rules too.
- Obviously will always think the BDSM/kink "pleasure and pain" element of them ought to be more of a focal point than it's ever been since the first movie, but I was pretty into this idea of being given a gift and it being filtered through this inherently alien worldview (not evil, just alien). The box was always a gift after all.
The gore was fully Happening, a lot of it based in flaying, which is especially yeurgh to me, but like yay for the gore! (even though I was watching with my hands over my eyes). Speaking of “not enough sexy” there was time dedicated and focus and... practically tenderness? to a lot of those scenes that definitely made them feel like BDSM play!
Head-Cenobite genuinely thought the lead was kind of sexy for choosing a lifetime of bitterness and regret, was like "damn that's kinkier than I've ever been."
- Also opens up some interesting questions (that would need a TV series to go into with more depth) about the nature of sensation, power-dynamics, worship, pleasure and pain, and of course about grief. Her brother was dead from almost the beginning and it was her fault, and throughout it all she's spiralling into this desperate attempt to save him somehow despite it all, and she could have ended up taking the Cenobites gift, despite knowing it's poison -- she's a very coherent character who makes a lot of smart decisions, while staving off the reality that her relapsing led to her brother's death, it's a neat arc.
It’s got a lot of questions in it, and a lot of lore to play with
- My one real nitpick (apart from the need for more sexiness of the Actual Sex variety) is that Trevor's motives were too shallow to fully allow his betrayal to feel real. I called him from the start, but kept expecting more of an explanation. The idea that he's willingly engaging in this extreme violence "just" for money, only for him to turn around and seem kind of apologetic was a bit weak. Should've let him go full-bastard OR full-bastard-but-I-love-you-babe-despite-not-planning-to, not this kind of halfway "eh, this maybe went a bit far, but I'll stand by and let it happen I guess?" like... my guy. These people are gonna be doomed to eternal torment and it seems like you knew that. At what point was it too far for you?
Overall this concept: what is life, but one big sensation? savour it all, even (especially) the pain.
My favourite since the original for sure
#hellraiser#hellraiser 2022#the monstrous feminine continues!#im watching movies#also: i downloaded it as 720p rather than the full 1080#and i actually tihnk it may have done it some good because ours was definitely grittier in texture which works for the story
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there's something about how a lot of the more antagonistic dsmp characters view tommy as a "possession," or something to use/own (c!dream, c!wilbur, c!quackity, c!techno, hell even c!bad with wanting to use him for the eggpire....) but all in different ways. tommy isn't a person, he's a toy/doll/knight/pawn. others in the dream smp are people, but so is tommy
Oh yeah! That's actually a really interesting topic so I hope you don't mind me talking about it for a bit...
So, universe wide a lot of people view Tommy as a "hero" because that's what he was painted as to them, which is what brought them to build up unreasonable expectations for him and then be probptly let down when they found out he wasn't as perfect as he was supposed to be (which is one of the things that influenced the general public opinion of Tommy in season 2), that said there are 3 people I'd say that took it a step further:
Dream himself considers Tommy as his favourite plaything, but it's more then just that. Tommy is Dream's only remaining attachment and, with that, comes a whole degree of possessivness and added value given to Tommy. Dream himself described Tommy as the key to absolute power and, in the past, referenced having power over him as enough to make him a God. Tommy isn't just a pawn, because that would mean that being attached to him would make Dream weak (in his own worldview of course), he's special, but not special enough to be a person. He's the key to power and Dream's favourite toy all wrapped up in one which is why he offered him to become immortals together....
Then we got Wilbur. This one is a bit complicated, but I want to remind everyone that all 3 of this people "care or cared" about Tommy in their completely twisted and unhealthy way, that doesn't change anything. That said Wilbur is scared, he's scared of being alone and he's scared of beng insignificant. Tommy is his solution for both of them. Tommy is the only person that truly stuck with him through everything, even when he completely disagreed with what he was doing. Tommy is loyal to a fault, but that's not the only thing he also used to admire Wilbur as basically an idol. If there is anyone who ever made Wilbur feel like he held the world in his hands it's definitely Tommy (and he seems to want to go back to that with the enphasis he put on Tommy truting him, with them being family and with making decisions for him). So, once again, Tommy is less of a person for him and more of a coping mechanism.
Then lastly we have Techno. Techno definitely dehumanized Tommy both by assigning him the "hero" label and by basically treating him as a weapon while they were together. He "cared" about him, but he only started somewhat respecting him once he was violent enough and obedient enough. It took him almost their whole stay together to be even a bit honest with Tommy ("what's the need in being honest with a tool after all?" That's the kind of vibe it gave me) and, even then, he never really took Tommy's own very clear boundaries into consideration at any point (Tommy had been clear from the very beginning that their alliance was under the condition of not harming either Tubbo or L'Manburg) because he didn't care enough to try and compromise. He didn't care enough not to ally himself with Tommy's abuser or even to listen to Tommy during the Community House scene when he begged him to switch sides with him. Tommy wasn't Tommy to him, he was more of a convenient tool.
You did mention Quackity as well in all of this, but he actually doesn't seem to fit this mold, mostly because Quackity's manipulation itself is based on seeing people as people. Find their vulnerabilities and exploit them, that's sh*tty, but still not dehumanizing. That doesn't necessarily means that Quackity respects him or that he's not gonna try and manipulate him, but it is an important difference nonetheless.
#anon ask#dream smp#dreamwastaken#wilbur soot#technoblade#quackity#tommyinnit#c!dream critical#c!wilbur critical#c!techno critical#long post#tw manipulation#tw dehumanization#basically by now I only trust bee duo puffy and foolish around tommy#that's it!#I'm revoking everyone else's tommy priviledges until they learn to treat him as a person
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The one where Kevin Day falls in love with an ice hockey player.
Part 10
Chances
Anything included in this head canon takes place the semester after the Foxes won the championship against the Ravens.
Disclaimer: I know next to nothing about varsity teams in the United States so excuse any false information. Head over to the directory to find the previous parts.
Eventually, Kevin dragged his feet and headed back to the table. As expected, Eric was nowhere to be seen. He couldn’t have gone far, but perhaps he had already retreated to the hotel.
Kevin slumped against his seat, pretending he didn’t notice the looks the foxes gave him. Only Neil was weirdly absent, but Kevin didn’t register it at the moment.
He turned his head away, but that didn’t help him.
Jeremy was on the dance floor, laughing and smiling as he had his arms wrapped around Jean’s neck.
Even Jean had a very faint smile on his face, watching the shorter blond as if he was his whole world. No one around them was paying them any mind.
Kevin turned his gaze away.
So, what is it Day? Are you really on a high horse or are you your own worst critic?
“What the fuck did you say this time?” Allison asked him. Kevin didn’t pay her any mind at first, but then Allison nudged his shoulder and made a gesture with her hand as if urging him to stand up.
“What the fuck do you want?” Kevin snapped at her, but she wasn’t having it. She crossed her arms in front of her chest and waited for Kevin to get up.
He grunted and pushed himself up slowly. No one at the table seemed to be opposed to Allison dealing with this.
“Out. Come on,” She headed towards the exit and Kevin, against his better judgment, followed after her. The cold outside was biting but Kevin embraced it.
Allison sat down on the pavement, completely unbothered. Kevin raised an eyebrow at her but she simply stayed there, waiting for him. She looked almost flawless, her hair braided back, make up on and a tight dress that fit her thin and yet fit form perfectly.
Kevin eventually gave in and tried to get comfortable on the pavement next to her, feeling the need to have his hand closed around a bottle neck, but guessed Allison would be persistent on giving him a piece of her mind.
“Go on, Day. Talk. We don’t have all night and seeing you sulking is ruining everyone’s mood.”
Kevin had never talked alone with Allison. Or at least, he couldn’t remember if they had ever had a civilized conversation. He respected her for her spine and what she had been through, but that was as far as it went.
“There’s nothing to talk about. We ended things. I suppose everyone saw him leave so the press can keep themselves occupied with this stupid break up.”
Allison stared at him, as if Kevin had uttered the stupidest sentence that could come out of his mouth.
“What did you tell him?” She asked and Kevin looked ahead, past the parked buses and out on the road, watching the cars pass by.
“I told him that this meant nothing. I told him I’m straight.”
Allison scoffed; an obnoxious sound Kevin hadn’t expected to hear from someone like her.
“I’ll ask you something, and I want you to be honest with yourself for once. Do you really believe that?”
Kevin halted for a moment, clenching his left hand. Upon doing that, he remembered Eric telling him to stop. He remembered Eric handing him a puck, Eric holding his hand.
“It’s easier being-,”
“Shut up. That shit doesn’t work with me, Day. I’ll give you the benefit of being raised next to someone as fucked up as Riko. But I want you to think about this carefully.
No one cares if you are gay or bi or whatever Kevin. No one. The press doesn’t count, they will always have something to say. But that’s useless noise. Thing is, I think you know that. It’s not the people you are worried about.”
“No. It’s not,” Kevin admitted, which surprised Allison. She probably hadn’t expected that Kevin would blatantly agree with her.
“It doesn’t change anything.”
Kevin had to be perfect. He didn’t need any distractions. Exy was all there was. His career and his future were ahead of him and he couldn’t afford to screw it over.
The two of them remained silent for a few moments, but Kevin could tell that the gear’s in Allison’s head were turning.
“When Seth died-,” Allison started, “- it practically changed my worldview, as silly as that may sound. The two of us were stupid. We didn’t appreciate what we had. We were always caught up in our problems. And just like that-,”
She snapped her fingers.
“Seth was dead. And why? Because a spoiled fucked up kid got offended.”
“He was… he was an asshole. I’m not going to try and justify that. But much like you, he was angrier with himself than with anyone else. Just like every fox, he was given a second chance to live his life, make something of it. A third, a fourth.”
Kevin stared down at his hands, not daring to interrupt her.
“I don’t know if he would ever learn from his mistakes. I don’t know if he would ever stop being so angry. But I know he was trying. You couldn’t see it but I could.”
“I’m not going to sit here and watch you waste away a chance like Seth did. I’m not going to wait and see you realize in a few years that you lost what could have been. Don’t get me wrong, I sometimes can’t even tolerate you, but I also can’t tolerate how stupid you are being.”
She finally stood up and dusted her dress off.
“Priorities, Day. What’s really important? A career that will only last maximum ten years, or a person that could be your only chance at happiness?”
Allison turned, and just like that, she disappeared back inside.
Kevin was still looking at his calloused hands, at the white scar on his left palm. He knew Allison was right.
He was free now, so why was it so hard to escape his own mind?
It hadn’t been just Allison words that had shocked him. It had been the fact that she had even bothered to share this story with Kevin.
Kevin knew he wasn’t exactly… friendly. He pushed people away easier than he pulled them in. Before he met the foxes, he’d been okay with that. Before he saw what the sheer force of will and family could do, he’d thought he was better on his own.
Because people disappoint. A person you thought to be family, can be turned against you and shatter everything you’ve taken for granted only because of jealousy.
People disappoint. People have expectations from you, expect you to carry a whole team on your back, but when you can’t seem to handle the pressure, they dismiss you.
I understand. I didn’t use to, but now I see it.
Perhaps, however, all Kevin had to do, was to give a person the chance to understand him. He’d thought that opening up would show vulnerability, but he’d never felt vulnerable around Eric.
Kevin clenched his hand into a fist again and pushed himself to stand up. He pulled his phone out to find the name of the hotel they would be staying at in his messages with Wymack.
“He left,” someone said. Kevin turned his head and looked at Neil, eyebrows furrowed.
“What?”
“He left. He was apparently already planning on going straight to his parents’ place for the holidays after this. He decided he had overstayed his welcome.”
That’s where Neil had disappeared off to before.
“You talked to him.”
“I did,” Neil said with a shrug of his shoulders.
“And he left?”
“Took a cab and everything.”
Kevin clenched the cellphone in his hand.
Maybe not everyone was worthy of third and fourth chances.
#all for the game#aftg#the foxhole court#kevin day#kevin day x oc#OC: Jiang Eric#andreil#andrew minyard#neil josten#aaron minyard#allison reynolds#aftg headcanons#aftg oc#aftg au#palmetto state university#exy#jerejean#jeremy knox#jean moreau#seth gordon#nicky hemmick#matt boyd#dan wilds#renee walker#the raven king#the kings men
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When it comes to talking about DBH characters who get character growth/a redemption arc, Hank is the obvious person to bring up, and there’s the obvious fandom fixation on Gavin, but what about Adam Chapman? He has an arc in the game that sort of disappears in the fray when compared to other characters but he has the literal journey that everyone wants Gavin to have. But even in comparison to others I feel like Adam completely stands on his own as a good character with so much potential as far as his past, future and motivations.
When Kara, Luther and Alice first show up at Rose’s house, Adam is outside chopping wood and literally turns them away, saying his mom isn’t just too busy to talk to them - she doesn’t WANT to. Of course this isn’t the case and Rose invites everyone inside. And Adam is PISSED.
Also he’s wearing a shirt that says Average Casual Guy which is so funny
Adam is young, probably around twenty, he doesn’t seem to be away at college or anything, rather Rose says they just farm their own food to sell at the market and that’s how they scrape by. Sounds stressful, especially with a bunch of Androids living in their house. It’s obvious Adam doesn’t want them around and definitely doesn’t want any new deviants showing up, after the call for revolution that occurred with Markus’s Stratford Tower speech.
As the scene goes on, you get more information about the Chapman’s and the things they’ve been through. Rose is obviously an incredibly strong and compassionate person to be helping the Androids to this extent, but there’s no denying it’s putting her and Adam in danger. When Kara walks in on their right in the kitchen, Adam is telling Rose they need to stop getting involved, that it’s not safe, and he’s not going to back down about this issue anymore.
His outburst over this is pretty understandable, in the context of the game - even when Kara first shows up asking for Rose, Adam’s first question is, “What do you want with her?” Which I feel like isn’t just about whether Kara is an Android or not, but whether she’s someone there to bust them for having Androids in the house. And of course he’s right, because the cops come by like five minutes later to search the house. They are putting themselves in danger, and even though they’re doing the right thing, it must still be a strain on their family... and it’s clear they’ve fought about this many, many times.
So, yeah, his rejection of his mother’s desire to help the Androids comes from a place of fear for their safety, which is understandable to an extent. But he isn’t just afraid of deviants and doesn’t want to help them - he really seems to hate them, which shouldn’t be an understandable view to hold within the context of the game and the allegory of the Civil Rights Movement, and then the language he uses is like, yikes...
It’s not, I understand they’re in trouble but I’m upset you’re putting us in danger, it’s something else - and of course Adam is really mad, and maybe saying something he doesn’t necessarily mean, but this does seem to reflect his view of the Androids as a whole. At this time, Adam honestly doesn’t see them as being people, which probably makes it even harder for him to understand why Rose goes so far out of her way to help them.
I mean, she sets up trips across the river which have been obviously successful, she drives them to Jericho, she has some kind of contact with or understanding of the revolution leaders because she’s able to direct Kara on where to go, and though not much is explained, her brother (and Adam’s uncle) is obviously totally cool with Androids because he’s willing to help them too. She’s clearly been doing this for a while, or at least is proactive enough to take action and do whatever she has to. She’s even willing to take care of Alice once they get across the border. Literally the hero of DBH but I digress. Adam doesn’t think Androids are worthy of the rights they’re asking for, especially when compared to humans.
What follows this is one of the most intriguing lines in the scene (to me)
What does this mean?? We know his father passed away, and Rose says that ever since then, Adam just boils over sometimes. Maybe it happened suddenly, an accident possibly - or did he get sick? Were Androids involved somehow, like what happened with Cole? What was Rose’s husband’s opinion on Androids? Things have changed since he passed, for sure, but still. Did he hold that same “Androids aren’t alive” opinion that Adam is now expressing? Or is it just that Adam thinks if his dad were still here, he’d be able to solve this issue somehow? Maybe his dad was a politician who ran on pro-Android laws and after he died Adam has become disillusioned with his parents’ worldview ??? Maybe his father died helping Androids too and that’s why Adam rejects them so much. Or maybe his dad hated Androids so much he would have never allowed Rose to help them, and so they wouldn’t have gotten involved in the first place, in Adam’s mind. (Edited to say that apparently it’s canon that Adam’s father died of cancer though I can’t recall it specifically being said in the game, so that is definitely a sad addition to things☹️)
I’m literally just making shit up lol but I really do personally hesitate to give Adam some kind of super traumatic backstory or make him bigoted against Androids because the Black characters are already treated poorly enough in the game when it comes to those things. I’m inclined to think this is just a general outburst of missing his dad and wanting him to be there to ‘fix’ things or at least, maybe, mediate the conversation between Adam and Rose. Idk, it’s cool to speculate on, especially when other characters are given super deep dives into their literally nonexistent canon backstory, it definitely feels like there’s so much that’s unsaid here.
Obviously there’s a couple of different ways the gameplay can go after this - but one other thing I wanted to bring up was what happens if you end up with Kara at the border crossing and run into Rose and Adam there. After talking to Rose in the bathroom and making a plan to all go to her brother’s house, Kara talks to Adam outside-
He says he doesn’t agree with Markus’s methods (which is like.. ok.. a whole other conversation in itself)(EDIT: so apparently the answer is different if you choose the ‘pacifist’ route for Markus- Adam says that ‘seeing what Markus is doing made me realize you’re alive’ !!! Which is cool that it changes and def reflects something different about his character than if his response is always the same!) So anyway he now believes in Androids’ right to freedom and happiness. What made this come about?? Was it after interacting with Alice and Kara and Luther?? I have a theory that Rose knew Alice was an Android as soon as they showed up but just played along - maybe when Adam realized there were Android children mixed up in this too, he began to change his view on things, maybe see himself in them, or see things through his father’s eyes, wanting to protect his family and child. Maybe that’s the lens through which Adam begins to see it. It could be the peaceful pacifist revolution Markus is leading, if he is- but even if not, Adam still changes his mind.
Or, maybe after everything that’s happened, he just realizes he was being kind of an asshole about the whole thing and when it came down to it, a government that was literally going door to door searching for Androids and the people who might help them? That’s probably not the type of place Adam wants to live in. It’s definitely interesting to think about his motivations and what brought him to this point.
And even though it’s sad for Kara and Luther, I find the ending where Alice ends up with the Chapman’s really.. bittersweet-ly satisfying in a narrative way. Found family .... though of course it sounds like they were all planning on meeting at Rose’s brother’s house so they would have all been together anyway☹️
🥲I feel like I had so much more to say but yeah!! I think he’s such a cool interesting character and I love that he ends up on the side of the Androids in the end. And what happens after they escape safely??? Does he start helping deviants too like Rose does? Are they going to settle down and form a commune of sorts with the other Androids who escaped? I love the idea of that loss in Adam’s life being filled up with the addition of new people who care about him, and a little sister in Alice, since he seems to be an only child. The possibilities of it all...
Adam has a sad sort of story to his past, he dislikes Androids and then comes around, he has so much potential for what happens after the revolution - and he’s not the only one!!! There are so many characters in the game that deserve a closer look but I just love Adam..
#dbh#adam chapman#he’s just really compelling guys#like. he actually has an Android friendly redemption arc. in canon !!!#Gavin whomst????
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The Voyage So Far: Alabasta (Part Two)
east blue (1 | 2) || alabasta (1 | 2) || skypiea || water 7 || enies lobby || thriller bark || paramount war (1 | 2) || fishman island || punk hazard || dressrosa (1 | 2) || whole cake island || wano (1 | 2)
crocodile is one of my favorite villains in one piece for a number of reasons, and one of them is because he’s such a threat, the first real one faced in the grand line and one of the toughest in all of paradise. the villains from the arcs before this, like wapol or the agents from little garden, could barely even land a hit on luffy in actual combat. so crocodile is introduced here as an absolute force of nature, a complete contrast to recent villains and a very tangible threat.
it’s an impression he very much lives up to later in the arc by crushing luffy not once but twice, which only makes luffy’s ultimate hard-won triumph feel all the better. luffy closes a huge gap over the course of alabasta in order to be able to beat crocodile, and giving us a sense of just how strong he is from the very start gives luffy clawing his way up to that level a lot more weight.
the successive reveals of luffy’s family never fail to absolutely delight me, because in any other series they would almost certainly feel contrived, but knowing luffy, it is absolutely unsurprising he just never happened to mention his relatives. nobody asked! luffy’s unique brand of honesty is one of my favorite character quirks, because he’s very straightforward and in fact can’t lie for shit, but his priorities are so completely off the wall that he winds up omitting highly relevant information completely by accident.
ace’s scene in alabasta really does impress me. oda’s said in an sbs that he knew ace’s fate from his introduction, which i find absolutely unsurprising given the intricacy of his story planning. that means he needed ace’s introduction to make him both likable and memorable enough in the space of just a couple chapters that the audience would be engaged when he became the focus of the story a couple hundred chapters on despite barely appearing at all in the intervening time, and he really succeeded.
kohza is one of my favorite minor characters in the whole series, and i think he’s a big part of why alabasta’s civil war plotline works so well and feels so real. nobody on either side of the war actually wants to fight, but everyone has been driven to such desperation that they feel they have no other choice in order to save their country; and kohza exemplifies that. he's a good person who loves his country a lot, and who genuinely likes and cares about the royal family and vivi especially, and the only option he can see to save alabasta is terrible, but there’s nothing else he can do.
it’s just fun for me to think about the fact that if crocodile was literally anything other than a very skilled logia, vivi would have ended the whole entire arc right here.
i really like civil war storylines when they’re well-done, and i think alabasta is one of the best ones i’ve seen in media. most of it is down to what i mentioned earlier, about how nobody on either side actually wants to fight but feels like they have no choice but to. nobody here is actually in the wrong except for crocodile, and so until crocodile is defeated, nothing can be fixed- which is what luffy, of all people, is the one to realize.
sanji’s mr. prince gambit is probably my single favorite part of alabasta, and i think one of the reasons i like it so much is because he basically beats crocodile at his own game. crocodile is terrifying in battle, but before anything else he’s a manipulator. he’s always working from the shadows, always deceiving people doing what he wants, and sanji manages to turn the tables on him and do the exact same back to him, twice.
also sanji looks great in glasses
smoker and tashigi both get kind of unfortunately sidelined after this saga, but they’re both really great characters in alabasta. (tashigi especially; i’ll get to her later.) much like the rebel army, they’re good people trying to do the right thing in the tangled mess of tension and politics and resentment that is alabasta- and when that means working with pirates, they’ll buckle down and do it, despite how much it might contradict their worldviews.
i love when events align in one piece so that people who don’t particularly like the strawhats wind up working with them for some common goal (as seen most prominently in impel down), and smoker and tashigi in alabasta are the first and still one of the best examples of that.
the entirety of luffy versus crocodile round one is so well done. we’re a hundred and fifty chapters in, and although luffy has struggled in fights before now and then, we get the sense he hasn’t ever really been pushed to the brink, and he’s certainly never lost.
and then he does, completely and absolutely, without ever even landing a hit on his opponent, and it hits like a punch.
oda seems to be a fan of characters just barely missing each other- the similar panel of robin and olvia running past each other from robin’s flashback comes to mind.
i’ve always liked that of all the strawhats, it’s usopp who gets the first “luffy is going to be king of the pirates” moment. they’ve all said it by the current chapters in wano (with the sole exception of robin, i believe), but usopp said it first, and that feels significant to me. he’s always been the one who feels the least secure in his place on the crew, but even so, he has so much faith in luffy.
nami’s fight with miss doublefinger is pretty silly in places and i think it gets frequently (understandably, it must be said) overshadowed by zoro’s fight with mr. 1 directly afterwards, but i really like it nonetheless. it’s nami’s first real solo fight in the whole series, and once she finds her feet she kicks ass, and i really like that. it feels like a very satisfying development for her, to stand up and risk her life in direct combat for vivi’s sake.
we’re now almost a thousand chapters in and its my firm belief that zoro versus mr. 1 is still one of the best fights in the entire series. i definitely think it’s probably zoro’s best fight- only his match with kaku compares. the narrative build over the course of the fight, from zoro struggling just to match mr. 1 (and getting shredded to pieces in the process) to cutting him down in one final stroke, is incredibly cool and satisfying to watch. it feels like a very tangible step forward for zoro in terms of ability, like a massive obstacle has been surmounted and, as he himself says, he’s now stronger for it.
its also very cool that this is, i believe, the first appearance of what is probably observation haki, though it isn’t named or recognized as such. i’m always endlessly impressed by all the little moments of internal consistency that oda manages to sprinkle into his story.
there’s barely any dialogue on these entire two pages, from crocodile dropping vivi to luffy and pell swooping in- the story is briefly told entirely through visuals- and i love that. it gives the impression of a single tense, frozen moment as vivi falls, which is then broken in spectacular fashion when luffy catches her.
i really, really like the progression that runs through all three of luffy’s fights with crocodile. the gap between them goes from being impossible, with luffy unable to even land a hit and crocodile basically toying with him; to surmountable but still huge, with luffy able to land some hits but still outclassed; to finally putting them on basically even ground. and every inch of that growth on luffy’s part is hard-fought and hard-won and well-deserved.
crocodile’s confidence in his abilities isn’t misplaced- he genuinely is that powerful. but if there’s anything we know about luffy by now, it’s that he doesn’t ever give up. it’s very fun to watch crocodile’s dismissiveness turn into disbelief turn into rage and frustration when luffy just won’t die.
luffy is, additionally, pretty clearly a better brawler than crocodile (which makes sense, crocodile is clearly used to devastating long-range attacks with his powers while luffy grew up fighting giant wildlife with his bare hands), which means that by the time of their last fight, where they’re just whaling on each other in the catacombs and crocodile is starting to get sloppy and desperate and lose control, if anything it’s luffy who has the upper hand.
zoro and sanji’s dynamic is always a favorite of mine, and one of the things i like best about them is how perfectly in sync they always manage to be when it comes to things that actually matter, despite fighting like cats and dogs pretty much every other time. i’ll never understand people who think they genuinely aren’t friends.
tashigi is really good in alabasta, okay. she essentially has her own entire character growth arc. she goes from her stance in loguetown, where she isn’t even tolerant of (fully legal!) bounty hunters, to here, where she’s forced to confront that the world isn’t nearly as black and white as she’s always believed it to be, that sometimes pirates are good and allies of the government are bad, and ultimately makes the right choice to help the strawhats even though it clearly pains and frustrates her that she can’t do anything more herself.
i’ll be forever mad that her only really significant appearance after this in punk hazard didn’t really live up to what her character deserved.
i really like how the countdown sequence is done. the tension is ratcheting up and up and up as the clock ticks down in the final seconds, panels cutting all over the city to show all the different characters, everyone who’s caught up in this conflict and everyone who’ll die if the cannon fires-
and then the clock hits zero, and we get this panel that’s just... quiet, after all the madness, as we see how vivi stopped the detonation. i think oda is very good at setting up his pages so they have a flow to them, so no matter how quickly you actually read sometimes things feel like they’re going very fast and all happening at once and then it slows down and gives the reader a chance to breathe, if only to speed up again later. i think oda is really good at pacing in general, really, both on a micro level like this and on a larger scale.
luffy’s greatest strength isn’t really his strength. he’s strong, absolutely, but that’s not really why he wins the fights he shouldn’t win. he wins because he just doesn’t fucking stay down. his fight with katakuri is probably the best example of this, because katakuri has him beat in pretty much every category except sheer endurance, and there as here, it’s that endurance that winds up getting luffy the win in the end.
i do love that it’s the rain that ends the war. not the explosion and pell’s sacrifice, not vivi’s pleading, not even luffy kicking crocodile into the stratosphere, but the rain, the thing alabasta’s been missing for too long, the thing crocodile stole, the only thing all these people are fighting over.
it’s crocodile’s symbolic defeat- at the same moment his power is broken by luffy, the stranglehold of dehydration he’s been using to foment war and rebellion is all at once gone, and he’s left with nothing at all, and alabasta can finally find peace and start to heal again.
i always love the little moments that show, usually without words, just how much the strawhats love each other, and all of them unanimously waiting until vivi is out of sight to collapse so that she won’t worry, won’t see how ragged they ran themselves for their sake, is definitely one of them.
i adore vivi’s sendoff, because while its sad she has to go, the certainty that someday they’ll meet again and that even if not they’ll always be crew manages to make this scene endlessly hopeful instead (which, i think, is also a good summary of one piece’s tone as a whole, at least in its more serious moments). luffy never says goodbye, after all, and nobody ever really leaves the strawhat pirates.
i’m really looking forward to vivi’s re-entry to the story. i really, really want to see her reunion with the strawhats.
hey look, it’s the panel my profile picture is from!
the mystery surrounding robin and her past is built up in little ways long before enies lobby, from her harsh reaction when confronted with by tashigi to her aversion to being called by her given name to this flashback, of her talking to cobra about her dream. of them, the latter is my favorite, because i think it’s probably the most sincere she is until enies lobby- which makes sense, given she thinks she’s about to die.
like many things about robin in alabasta, this gets cast in a new light by her backstory. if she dies here, so too does the entire legacy of ohara- but she’s so beaten down and hopeless that she really doesn’t see any light ahead to strive for. there’s no hope left, for her, and the whole world against her.
and then there’s luffy, who creates hope everywhere he goes, who makes her live anyways.
this is a hell of a spread to hook us very effectively right into the sky island saga. it’s a perfect reminder of just how much we still don’t know about all the endless mysteries of the grand line, and just how many adventures are still yet to be had.
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Here There be Monsters: Mage Basic Intros (Part 1)
Hyousa
She/her, Red Mage.
Her history is fairly normal. While her mother died in Hyousa’s early childhood, she was close with her father and lived happily enough even after the loss. She joined the Organization willingly for the sake of making a difference in the world, even mostly unaware of how difficult that would be. Cream was given to her as a Familiar a couple years in.
Cheerful, energetic, and persistently optimistic, Hyousa is the kind of person who aggressively sees the best in the world and everyone in it. While some people consider her hopelessly naive, her determination can’t be beat. Hyousa is actively, willingly kind to everyone who crosses her path, whether they deserve it or not. She chooses to see the best.
Her magic is the typical Red— pure power made of her own magical energy. It’s completely suited for physical combat, but somehow, Hyousa manages not to make it violent. She fights to help people!
5′5, 19. Thin, girlish build which nonetheless carries quite a bit of lean muscle. Short, cinnamon brown hair worn mostly slicked back and out of her face, with only a few strands escaping to fall on her forehead. Wide, bright brown eyes, fair skin. She constantly fidgets around.
Sinclair
She/her, Purple Mage.
After growing up at an orphanage following the death of her parents in an unfortunate accident, Sinclair willingly joined the Organization as a way of making use of her magic. She’d mostly taught it to herself as a way of looking after the orphanage’s children, and once she had access to a real way to improve it, she wanted to learn how to use it properly.
Sinclair’s personality is best defined as motherly. She’s an incredibly kind, soft person who others feel innately comfortable around. However, she’s also strict on those who do wrong and wants to see people improve, not be coddled. Caretaking is in her nature. She looks after those around her and does her best to keep everyone happy and well.
Her magic primarily operates around charms imbued with curses and blessings. While she generally prefers to use the blessings to help her allies, when she sets her mind to a curse, it’s deadly.
5′6, early 30′s. Fat, with a pear-shaped, soft build. Wide through the hips and all-around soft. Black, frizzy hair worn around shoulder-length, with shorter-cut bangs. Black eyes, round glasses, and soft, sweet features. Moderately dark brown skin.
Livva
She/her, Yellow Mage.
Born with an innate magic known as the “human sealing container”, Livva was highly valued even from childhood. She spent her early years being passed between “homes” and different people who owned her— usually to use her for her magic or to own an expensive prize—, until the Organization took possession of her instead.
Serious, cold, and disinterested in the world, Livva is the kind of person who rarely shows fondness for anything. She’s seen some of the most selfish sides of humanity, so her worldview is quite corrupted. The things she does are only because she’s forced to, and she has no real attachment or loyalty to anyone or anything. She just exists.
Her magic, as mentioned above, is sealing-based. A seal on her tongue allowed her to hold “objects” inside of her body and release them at will. These things range from artifacts to spells, to even offensive energy.
5′10, mid 20′s. Tall, slightly pear-shaped build with notable curves. White, fluffy hair that falls to her shoulders and has considerably more volume towards the ends. Dark brown, somewhat lifeless eyes, fair skin. Posture is always stiff and near-perfect.
Madeleine
She/her, Orange Mage.
An amnesiac, she lacks any memories from what she assumes to be almost twenty years of life. She only remembers her time with the Organization, and is currently in the process of trying to discover more about her past— including a large, mysterious scar across her chest. However, she doesn’t necessarily want to look too deeply.
Madeleine is friendly, open, and upbeat. Despite her internal issues, she tries to make life better for herself and the people around her. She’s close friends with Sinclair, likes to use her magic for other people’s enjoyment, and is generally a very kind-hearted sort. However, when it comes to missions, she has a serious, brutal side that comes out.
Her magic is similar to Sinclair’s but involves food (specifically sweets) instead of handmade charms. Her desserts have a variety of effects and are more useful in a conflict situation than you’d expect.
5′9, early 30′s. Tall, athletic, curveless build with wide shoulders and strong legs. Dark brown, thigh-length hair worn in thick box braids and a high ponytail. Dark, warm-undertoned skin and sparkling brown eyes. Large, diagonal scar across her chest from collarbone to navel.
Aurora
She/her, Green Mage.
Born without her left leg from the knee down. It took a while to find her a suitable prosthetic, but after getting a highly functional one and practicing plenty, she’s completely adjusted to it. She’s always lived in the shadow of her older sister, Rosaria, who she both adores and resents thanks to a feeling of having to live up to her success.
Strict, intense, and serious, Aurora is the picture of ambition and hard work. She’s always felt a need to compensate for her self-perceived weaknesses and feeling of being “second best”. However, her cold exterior hides a warm heart and burning passion. She’s the type to never give up on anyone or anything when she sets her mind to them.
Aurora’s magic, as Green magic always is, is derived from the world around her. The main way she uses it is to increase her speed, agility, and mobility through absorbed energy from other moving objects.
5′7, early 20′s. Slim, straight build with long legs and a narrow shape. Long, hip-length, white hair worn loose and straight with bangs and shoulder-length sidelocks. Intense gray eyes with pale lashes. Black and silver, high-tech prosthetic from below the knee down on her left leg.
Ranisha
She/they, Blue Mage.
The oldest of many siblings, Ranisha had to grow up fast and take on a lot of responsibility. Developing excessive maturity so early gave her a jaded, logical outlook on the world, where she prioritizes what needs to be done instead of what she wants. She joined the Organization for money as well as something to do with herself that felt like success.
Ranisha is most notably aloof, cold, and efficient. She takes her work very seriously, places her job before any personal desires, and doesn’t make friends easily or well. Seemingly uninterested in anything but what’s assigned to her, many people feel intimidated by her strict nature and harsh standards. She butts heads with Vash quite a bit.
Her magic turns written symbols into weapons manifested solely from her energy. Ranisha favors guns over bladed weapons, can use anything from small pistols to larger rifles, and her accuracy is near-unmatched.
5′8, early-mid 20′s. Fairly average build with slight curves. Somehow petite despite her height. Black, thick hair styled in a short, natural faux hawk with close-cropped sides. Black eyes, dark, cool-toned skin, and pleasant features that are always set in a stern, neutral expression.
Katz
He/him, Brown Mage.
While he grew up as a relatively normal Mage, Katz considers getting involved with the Organization to be the worst mistake he ever made. The job is stable and suits his skills well, but the people he has to deal with drive him absolutely insane. He developed a stress-related drinking habit from a young age, which did nothing to help his nasty attitude.
Katz is the kind of person who’s hit his breaking point. He’s an angry, bitter man who’s perpetually exhausted, short-tempered with everyone around him, and a raging alcoholic on top of all of that. While he’s very good at what he does, Katz is the type who most want to stay far away from. His dead-eyed glare is incredibly intimidating.
His magic focuses on sealing. Specifically, sealing the powers of others. Katz creates items that, when placed on someone’s body, restrain some or all of their magic to whatever extent he crafted them to.
5′11, mid 30′s. Thicker build that’s on the stockier side of muscular. Reddish taupe-colored hair worn in a short style that falls about to his ears and is often slicked back. Fair skin, dark eyes, and a good amount of stubble on his upper lip, cheeks, and chin. Perpetual scowl.
Emilio
He/they, Purple Mage.
A lot of Emilio’s life has been spent wishing he was something other than himself. He grew up relatively average, but underwent a fair amount of bullying for being shy and reclusive. When he learned magic, his main goal was to change himself— and he did that completely. He’s always trying to hide from the person he used to be.
Emilio is best described as a charismatic jokester. Despite being very much a “class clown” type, he exudes so much pleasant, cheerful energy that people can’t help but be drawn to him. However, underneath his sunny disposition is a serious, capable man who wants to give his best to the people close to him... as well as something of a dark side.
The magic he uses revolves around shapeshifting. Emilio can change his own appearance at will and is known to constantly be doing so. No one is sure what his original appearance is, and Emilio isn’t telling.
Mid 20′s. Everything about Emilio’s appearance varies. He can change his height, hair color, eye color, features, build, and more with a simple spell, and he does that frequently. He seems to favor taller, more handsome looks, though, and usually retains bright hair and eye colors.
Vash
He/him, Orange Mage.
Trained in magic from a young age, Vash made it his mission to be as good at it as possible— and gather all the admiration and respect he can. He’s never experienced much in the means of personal hardship, but the standards he’s placed on himself do plenty of damage. He’s been in the organization since he was fifteen, thanks to his family’s choices.
Short-tempered, viciously ambitious, and high-strung to a fault, the main things in life that drive Vash are gaining the approval of everyone around him and making himself look as impressive as possible. He’s a hot-blooded teenager in every sense of the word, and painfully unaware of his own inexperience and how dangerously reckless he can be.
Vash’s magic is typical for the Orange kind. He uses elemental powers; in his case, fire. Despite being made of magic, this fire burns just like the real thing and is every bit as destructive and hard to control.
19, 5′8. Skinny, lanky build with less muscle than you’d expect. Straight, chin-length, black hair usually worn covering one eye. Pale skin, orange eyes, and numerous silver piercings all over his body. Extensive burn scars covering him from his magic going haywire.
Alexander
He/him, Brown Mage.
Born to a prestigious and high-class Mage family, Alexander grew up in the lap of luxury. He was spoiled to a fair extent, but the consequences are fortunately mild. Told from a young age that he’s destined for great things and incredibly capable, Alexander has always felt like he doesn’t have to do much of anything to be successful and loved.
Alexander is friendly, sociable, polite, and generally pleasant to be around. He’s the kind of charismatic person who draws others to him whether he tries to or not. However, he also has an unfortunate tendency of viewing people as lesser than him and expects things that he shouldn’t more often than not. He’s also worryingly naive.
The magic he uses relates to forcefields. Alexander can generate and manipulate forcefields out of his magical energy, and uses them for defense as well as offense. Their purposes are quite varied.
6′1, early 20′s. Tall, broad-shouldered, elegant build. Dark red, wavy hair worn in a short-ish cut and sometimes styled with a low ponytail or pins holding the side back. Dark hazel eyes, handsome features, and fair skin. A perpetually welcoming smile and the posture of a trained nobleman.
#Here There Be Monsters#Hyousa#Sinclair#Livva#Madeleine#Aurora#Ranisha#Katz#Emilio#Vash#Alexander#Character Info
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Tatiana, Belial, and their plans relating Jesse in the past
I’ve dabbled on this topic a few times but your comment really got me thinking. @delilahssbard
This turned out long so I’ll put it beneath the line.
Like, ever since CoI I’ve been highkey thinking Tatiana intended for Jesse to be possessed, but the specific phrasing you used reminded me of a part of ChoG and suddenly everything fits even more now.
- Chain of Gold
Back then, I honestly assumed Belial was talking about preference here, especially since he’s made it clear the reason he could possess James without destroying his body is they share blood, but that’s clearly different in Jesse’s case.
Considering how it’s repeatedly clarified that the anchor was placed on Jesse while he was a baby, that fact is probably significant. If anything, I’d dare say the anchor seems to be a workaround Belial’s destruction not just because he was literally anchored to Jesse’s soul, but by way of tolerance, especially since James also seems to have drawn a similar conclusion.
- Chain of Iron
There it is. Belial would have the anchor and a body to possess, as Jesse grew older. The anchor was in him since almost day one, and Tatiana clearly knew about the anchor, but what’s to say she wasn’t involved? We know the only one who was reluctant to place the anchor on Jesse’s soul was Gast. At no point is Tatiana mentioned in this until Belial outright says that he owed her a favor.
Jesse is just Nephilim, unlike James and Lucie, so by all accounts, a normal possession by Belial would have destroyed him, but the anchor intervened in such a way that there didn’t seem to be any visible consequences at all to him being possessed repeatedly (unless we subscribe to the theory that Jesse’s ghost started fading faster near the end because of the possession, but as of right now we honestly have no way to be sure about that specific fact).
We know Jesse’s childhood sickness involved fevers, and perhaps weakness, the latter coming from the statements in which he’s specifically referred to as weak. We also now know that the real reason Jesse died was because the rune he was given reacted badly against Belial’s essence inside him. Jesse’s description of his own death is that he collapsed into bed after getting the rune, then woke up feverish and in agony. Honestly, that just sounds like a worse version of his alleged childhood symptoms.
Considering his death was basically the result of a rune’s angelic magic clashing with the demonic essence inside him, it wouldn’t be that much of a stretch to assume his sickness was just his nature as Nephilim having a bad reaction to Belial’s essence, even if he only died because of the rune. I find it frankly impossible to believe that the anchor wasn’t hurting him, because we know under normal circumstances Belial would destroy a body within hours.
And let’s be real, Tatiana knew this. The only question in relation to her is whether she intentionally let him die.
The following are all quotes from A Lightwood Christmas Carol.
“He is very delicate,” said Tatiana. “Nephilim like yourself wish to put Marks on him, because they are intent on killing my boy as they have killed everyone else I love. You sit on the Council, do you not? Then you are his enemy. You may not see him.”
“I would not force Marks on the boy,” protested Gideon. “He’s my nephew. Tatiana, if he is that ill, perhaps he should see the Silent Brothers? One of them is a close friend, and could come to Jesse at our house. And Jesse could know his cousins.”
Before CoI, lines like these could be shrugged off to Tatiana being paranoid about her son being hurt by marks because he’s sickly, but no, we know now that Tatiana is entirely correct.
And it makes perfect sense that she refused to even let the Silent Brothers examine Jesse. No doubt they’d have been able to notice what was wrong with him wasn’t a sickness. Tatiana made a show out of it to exacerbate her own hatred of Nephilim, but she isn’t unaware of things, she just likes to spin them in a way that can be used to blame her enemies for things.
“Father planned alliances for us, when we were children.” Tatiana shrugged. “How ashamed he would be of you. How is your grubby servant?”
Then there’s her attitude, of course. The implication that she thinks it’s perfectly normal to involve children in alliances and plans. We know she didn’t hesitate to have a dark power forced onto Grace, if anything, it’s implied she requested it. We know Tatiana only sees Jesse as something that is hers, not as his own person, so it’s completely within the realm of possibility that she involved him in her own plans for revenge, even if he was just a newborn with no choice in the matter (or perhaps because he had no choice in the matter, considering how badly she reacts to the fact that Jesse *gasp* has a different worldview than her).
“I don’t care!” Tatiana shouted. “My son is of the blood of two of the oldest of the Shadowhunter families. He is not weak like your son. Go back to your weakness, Gideon. Get out of my sight, get out of my house, and do not darken my door again. I have not missed your company, nor your brother’s, and I am relieved that my child will not grow up under the corrupting influence of either of you.”
Now, this one isn’t so relevant as much as it’s interesting, because while it looks like Tatiana is just flexing and being mean to Gideon, that whole implication that Jesse isn’t weak does compare to how Belial views Nephilim in general.
- Chain of Gold
Belial had the anchor placed on Jesse alongside his protections as a newborn. Humans never get such protections against possession, and Belial still chose one of the Nephilim as his alternate vessel. He was that plan of his as completely viable.
And much like Tatiana, Belial clearly sees Jesse as a tool, as a method to push his agenda.
- Chain of Iron
And assuming Tatiana knew of the anchor from the start, that checks out. Belial wanted Jesse as a vessel to get closer to his goal. If he’s never seen him as an end-goal, then he’s always planned for Jesse to be a temporary vessel. Tatiana wants the Nephilim destroyed. Letting Belial possess Jesse probably sounds like a completely reasonable thing to her. It solidifies her alliance with Belial, makes things easier for Belial, and as Belial himself implied, Belial owed Tatiana a favor.
- Chain of Iron
Seriously, I can say with reasonable confidence that Tatiana knew Belial would use Jesse, perhaps even agreed beforehand to the anchor itself being placed, because to the both of them, Jesse was basically a puppet. (I mean, even the clothes she had him dressed in within his coffin literally scream Belial)
Then of course, what I believe to be the nail in the coffin for Tatiana’s involvement is just what she tells Grace near the end.
- Chain of Iron
She literally has the audacity to claim Jesse was to blame for his own death and basically defended Belial. You know, Belial, who was possessing and controlling her son. Belial, who placed an anchor in the soul of her newborn son and has basically robbed him of anything resembling a normal life or even afterlife. Tatiana is taking Belial’s side on that without any hesitation.
If anything, Tatiana might have let Jesse get runed just to be able to tell him off, like “ha, told you you were too weak to be Nephilim” or something like that, despite knowing damn well the reason runes would kill him was Belial. Tatiana had literal demons to do her bidding, I don’t doubt she could have physically prevented Jesse from following up on his threat to run to Alicante if she didn’t let him get runes, had she wanted to.
Belial probably can control the dead like Lucie can, most likely having far more experience at it. Tatiana surely knew that. Belial said Tatiana called him after Jesse died, and that he owed her a favor, hence the preservation of Jesse. Obviously, Belial benefited from this, but clearly Tatiana saw Jesse’s death as an opportunity to bend him to her will, because he never shared her beliefs during his life.
Now, this is actually where I believe Tatiana and Belial’s views of the situation diverge. Belial outright says raising Jesse as Tatiana wanted wouldn’t suit him. He had Jesse kept in that so-called twilight state that certainly proved useful to Belial, but I don’t think whether Jesse was alive or not mattered pre-Cortana. Not only does Belial clearly not care about consent, he also probably wouldn’t need it, because his anchor was already deep within Jesse’s soul. Jesse being dead or alive was likely irrelevant to the possession, since the one part of Tatiana’s statement that’s correct is that Belial probably wouldn’t have guessed Jesse would die as he did.
Tatiana wanted Jesse resurrected for herself, for her own desire to have her son follow her beliefs and intentions. Belial just cares for Jesse as his vessel. While they’re allies, I don’t think those two usages were as compatible as Tatiana thinks they were, which is probably why Belial outright says reviving Jesse wouldn’t have suited him, and honestly both of them seem pretty angry about losing control over Jesse.
(Belial’s clearly salty that Lucie exorcised him and Tatiana’s mad he’s “in the clutches of a Herondale”, but clearly both of them lost something they valued as an instrument, none of them are actually mad about their loss of access to Jesse as a person, because they’re honestly both terrible people, to say the least).
I know I called that other one the nail in the coffin, but in relation to Tatiana letting Jesse be runed even though that was practically bound to kill him, Belial outright says Tatiana killed him, even despite recognizing the rune was technically the cause.
- Chain of Iron
TL;DR: Tatiana definitely knew about the anchor, Tatiana definitely knew Jesse would be possessed and used by Belial, and Tatiana also definitely let her son die just because it suited her.
#coi spoilers#choi spoilers#chain of iron spoilers#tlh#the last hours#tlh theories#jesse blackthorn#belial#james herondale#tatiana blackthorn
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The Angel of Death Pt43
Inspired by this Story Starter by @someone-ev
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“You need to leave.” Watching Damian start before turning towards her in a defensive stance was more amusing than she would have thought. “You’re losing your instincts al Ghul. Living a soft life is going to get you killed again.” Tris watched him settle into his formal ‘holier than thou’ persona and had to fight not to roll her eyes. She didn’t really want him on the defensive but it was his fault for not being more aware of his surroundings.
“How did you get in here?” She just raised an eyebrow at him. Hotel security was the realm of neophytes. She was a bit insulted he still thought so little of her skills. “Blake said you refuse to let them supply you.”
“I refuse to let you buy anything for me. That’s not the same thing. It also doesn’t change the fact that you need to leave.” He simply glared at her but Tris just waited. This nonsense she was used to and she still didn’t understand why he still tried to intimidate her when she’d never once backed down to him. Even when she should have.
“You have no proof that she’s coming for me and I’m not about to leave you here defenseless.” She couldn’t help the eyeroll.
“I assume your father is to blame for this new found sense of responsibility, unnecessary though it may be. I’m far from defenseless and given that I took you down with little effort you’re not the one I would want at my back anyway.” He actually flinched at that and there was something in his eyes that she couldn’t identify. She felt a twinge of guilt but had no idea why.
“I’m sorry.” Tris could only blink at him in confusion. He really had changed. In the past, challenging his worth like that would have resulted in an explosion. The stiffness he was radiating now was discomfort rather than pride. How strange. “I know we’re no longer attached but it was my job to protect you and I failed. I’m not going to leave you to face this threat alone. No matter how capable you may be.” Tris felt her brain just stop. That was the closest he’d ever come to complimenting her.
“You were a child, still are technically. You’d only been exposed to your mother’s worldview. There wasn’t anything you could have done.” Yes she was still bitter about how everything had happened but she knew that it wasn’t his fault. She still didn’t want anything to do with him because of their history, but she wasn’t so stubborn she couldn’t see past her feelings to what had actually happened.
“I should have made her look for you when she took me to Father. If I had refused to go without you she wouldn’t have had a choice.” Tris was fairly certain Talia would have knocked him out before wasting time looking for someone she had deemed worthless. Not to mention she had already run by that point so it wouldn’t have mattered.
“You know she wouldn’t have. I imagine you know better than most the lengths she’ll go to to rid herself of those she considers problems.” The look of shock on his face was all the confirmation she needed that his mother had been instrumental in planning his death. Her guilt came back with a vengeance. He wasn’t the only one who’d been absent when needed. “Besides, I do better on my own. The fewer moving pieces to worry about the better.” And there were already far too many.
“Perhaps, but I know the woman better than anyone. I’m a valuable source of information. Either way, I’m not leaving.” Tris couldn’t help the frustrated sigh that escaped. His amused smile made her want to knock him out and use Kaalki to send him back to Gotham.
“You staying means we won’t know which of us she’s after until it’s too late. Not to mention you’re out of your element here. I have a feeling you have far better protections at home. She’s counting on you being easier to get to and she’s right.” He may be certain his mother was after her but she knew it was likely the opposite. Even the Blakes agreed with her on that. “It’s suicidal for you to stay here given what we know.”
Before he could argue with her the door to the adjoining suite opened admitting his father and another man into the room. Both stopped short as soon as they saw her. She wasn’t certain what to expect but Mr. Wayne seemed to be fighting a smile and the other just looked confused for a moment before excitement took over.
“Oh my god, you’re so cute! And you’ve got the signature hair and eyes. How did you manage to keep Bruce from adopting you immediately?” The man was obviously insane.
“This is why I make sure people know you’re adopted.” For all his huffy tone, Tris could hear some affection in Damian’s voice and when she looked she saw the deep purple string connecting them. She felt jealousy well up but it was the pain that surprised her. She’d been alone so long she thought the hurt from losing her parents was gone.
“Leave, before it’s too late.” She spoke to Damian but didn’t wait for a response before exiting through the window. The last thing she wanted to deal with was one more person trying to take over her life or tell her what to do. She’d never been as willing as Damian to follow orders.
As she made her way across the city she could feel someone following her. Someone she couldn’t get a proper read on. Someone who was extremely well trained. As soon as she noticed she was being followed a string formed. It was light gray, darkening by the minute, but there was no indication of intent. She was fairly certain if they meant to harm her it would be obvious in the string, but she couldn’t chance that she was wrong. So she led them on a random chase across the city in the hopes she could lose them. If that didn’t work… well that was a problem for later.
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