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#fighting for an order that shuns him
epiclad · 1 month
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"Godrick the Golden. Miquella and Malenia. General Radahn. Praetor Rykard. Lunar Princess Ranni.
Willful traitors all."
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gnomishcunning · 19 days
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zevlor’s a hopeless romantic. bruised and beaten, but still achingly tender.
more than anything, zevlor’s a man of faith. that doesn’t necessarily mean religion, even if it once did. but devotion? belief? working, fighting, living, dying for a cause?
think about it. he was a hellrider, a title that a soldier would hold for life - literally. if you wanted to try to quite, you’d be given a suicide mission, and if you succeeded? you’d be stripped of everything you’d ever acquired and shunned as an outcast. moreso, he was a paladin, too - a warrior who empowers themselves with a promise, who draws favor from the gods through sheer force of personality. even moreso, he was follower of Helm, the god of guardians! every bit of living he’s ever done has been for was for the sake of protecting his city and his people.
(even if he wanted to prove the world wrong, that tieflings weren’t thieves and heretics, that doesn’t discredit the way he chose to prove the world otherwise: by giving all of himself)
and then Elturel fell to the hells.
we hear his thoughts in the depths of the mindflayer colony. it wasn't his oath that shattered, it was his faith itself - in the good of his paladin order and the people of Elturel himself. regardless of title or dedication, he was stripped of everything he'd worked towards, and cast out of the city for the singular crime of being born of infernal blood.
and at the end of the day, he still found the good faith to lead his people from Elturel to Baldur's Gate.
he's still a man that endeavors to do good. to bring goodness into the world of his own volition, to keep innocents and innocence alive in the face of so much tragedy. if not for himself - he'd undoubtedly see himself past the point of redemption - but for the good of others.
and it's not like he's naive or in-denial. zevlor is painfully, painfully aware of the way the world views him and his kin. it's part of why he endeavors so hard to do good, to prove the assumptions of the world wrong at every turn.
but it boxes him in, too. he goes to every length to present himself as the infallible leader and the wise paladin, no matter what he's lost or how much it hurts him to occupy a mockery of his former self, just so his people have something to believe in. and gods, do they need something to believe in after everything they've been through.
think about that type of man. brow-beaten, back-broken, stripped of every accolade and merit ever earned; and still endeavoring to make right, to be someone he thinks he's not for the sake of others.
think about that man, and tell me he's anything less than a hopeless romantic.
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1800jjbarnes · 1 year
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𝐀𝐥𝐩𝐡𝐚 𝐀𝐧𝐝 𝐁𝐮𝐧𝐧𝐲 𝐔𝐧𝐢𝐯𝐞𝐫𝐬𝐞 | 𝐌𝐢𝐧𝐢 𝐒𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐞𝐬
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【Note】 : None of the fics are written in order. This is basically a continuing story about Alpha Bucky and Bunny (the reader). If you wish to read them in a timeline "order". I have them in timeline order on this post.
『Word count』 : 8.69k and counting
-> Genre: Fantasy, Smut, Angst, Fluff, Gore, Romance.
Paring: Alpha!Wolf!Bucky x Bunny!Hybrid!Reader.
[Warnings] : Each part will have its own warnings.
Masterlist | Navigation
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1. They Met In The Night
↳ 【Synopsis】 : Being shunned and outcasted by your parents, the king and queen. You live in hope for love, so what happens when he comes knocking on your door one late night.
2. You're My Prey
↳ 【Synopsis】 : Bunnies shouldn't be wondering on their own. A big bad wolf is stalking the forest, and he will do anything to protect what is his.
3. Awake
↳ 【Synopsis】 :  Bucky's brain can't seem to go to sleep, and what's worse, are cute little noises you keep whimpering in your sleep, keeping him wide awake.
4. Stay Home
↳ 【Synopsis】 : Tonight was supposed to be filled with laughter and memories, but two nobodies had to turn the night upside-down.
5. Safe
↳ 【Synopsis】 : A rat in the pack left the world coming to a stretching halt. And now you have to live another's mark on your skin...
6. Nothing But Disrespect
↳ 【Synopsis】 : You and Bucky have a huge fight just before your heat starts. Now you have to choose; lose the argument and apologise or be a brat and see what happens.
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mhsdatgo · 3 months
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Hotd writers choosing to adapt Mushroom's records out of everything they had in hand is the worst decision they could've ever come up with btw.
It's been stated time and time again that while F&B is purely built on records and gossip and morphed retelling of events out of bias and propaganda, Mushroom is the LEAST reliable of all the sources. He's a fool at Rhaenyra's court, his job is make people gasp and laugh, not retell historical events.
We're talking about the same guy who said that he had a penis large enough to match the size of his head, mind you. Also, he's obsessed with little girls giving BJs to Targaryen men somewhere in Flea Bottom. It's happened twice according to him.
The writers' reasoning for this choice is basically that F&B was written by Maesters and Septons, who were all greedy men, apart from being Green supporters. So anything they say is false, anything they say is written with sexist intent. Writer's intention was to do the exact opposite.
Then tell me, for the love of God, tell me, why is every woman apart from Rhaenyra, who is clearly whitewashed and I can go into heavy detail about that, basically shunned?
The Maesters claim Alicent left Viserys' body to rot and swell for days preparing and LEADING Rhaenyra's usurpation. She's the leader of the Greens, she and she alone. Not Otto. The Green Council answers only to her orders, they are loyal to HER.
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I've seen people argue that since Alicent is what Maesters view as an "ideal" woman, then they would try anything to paint her in the best light possible. While I agree that this may be true, I don't think this is the case. In history books, even in real life, women are rarely painted as leaders or important figures.
For Queen Alicent to be written as THE face of the Greens, you know this mama wasn't playing around.
Now, how is this:
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In ANY WAY, even comparable to THIS?:
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At the end of ep.8 and quite literally the entirety of ep.9, Alicent is shown as a lost woman who doesn't even seem to know what she's doing, pushed by Viserys' last words about prophecy rather than SHEER DESIRE to get her hands dirty for her children's safety (which by the way will always be superior imo). The Green Council conspires behind her back, and on top of it all, she's yelled at by one of her own men and is made to take it like a beaten dog.
Moreover, we had Helaena's ROAST (yes it was a roast, my Queen inherited cunty lines from her cunty mother) against Aegon and her coronation, the latter being addressed as something quite wholesome, if you ask me. Alicent places her own crown upon her daughter's head and calls her "my Queen" after kissing her cheeks and kneeling. Afterwards, her and Alicent are literally written to be the only ones who could get through Aegon II's thick skull when he wanted to start the war right then and there as a result of Rhaenyra crowning herself on Dragonstone.
You hear me??? Aegon sat down and fucking listened to the two women in his life. Not the Council, them. These two were dogwalking him, the KING, on the daily, how is that sexist writing on the Maesters' part????
Yet these things are nowhere to be seen in Ryan Condal and Sara Hess' "progressive" show. We got beaten dog Alicent and Helaena being nothing but a walking spoiler machine other than yet another instrument to paint Aegon as the big bad wolf and usurper. Not a single scene of them counseling Aegon.
Baela and Rhaena have nearly no lines or scenes that don't show them in the presence of the Strongs. They are seemingly okay with anything Rhae throws their way because it's Rhae. The one and only scene about Baela openly speaking to her grandma about her wish to fight for Rhaenyra was deleted.
Meanwhile, Rhaenyra is stripped of her rage and thirst for vengeance, and instead made to negotiate for peace while in the books she was the one pushing to go to war first.
Can you tell me, again, how the fanfiction that is Hotd supposed to prove that they want to be "progressive" in contrast to the Maesters' "sexist" work, when literally all they do is whitewash Rhaenyra and sideline any woman who isn't her?
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mixelation · 2 months
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on sakura in reborn au
i was considering team 7 dynamics and going into it, minato & kakashi both assume the issues will be a sasuke-naruto thing. they annoy each other, and naruto considers sasuke a romantic rival and will actively pick fights with him, and sasuke is ready and willing to escalate those fights. minato & kakashi knows naruto likes sakura and sakura likes sasuke (because naruto won't shut up about it), but i don't think they've considered sakura's role in the dynamic beyond "idk, maybe she'll act weird around him"
i think a lot of sakura's canon annoyances with naruto were organic (as in, she just found him annoying, regardless of any social cues about how he was Bad News she was additionally picking up). aside from that one awful comment she made to sasuke, the only times we see sakura being "mean" to naruto are after he's been obnoxious to/around her. she tells him off for trying to prank kakashi because she's a teacher's pet, but she ALSO privately thinks this is funny. we also see multiple instances in part 1 of her actively trying to protect him. in the manga, she tackles naruto out of the way to save him from zabuza. she is ready and willing to tank her own promotion to chunin and sasuke's in order to protect naruto's dream of being hokage (she's told they can't retake the chunin exams if they fail the written test, but they CAN retake if they drop out, and even though she's confident she will pass, she starts to raise her hand to drop out so NARUTO will get a second shot). she gets beat up in the forest of death trying to protect naruto (and sasuke) and then afterwards attempts to protect naruto emotionally by telling him she cut her hair because she "felt like a change" and not explaining what happened (i don't think not telling him is a good call, but i do think she did it because she wanted to protect him). i think her awful comment about naruto not having parents was maybe something she felt was socially normal/acceptable to say because everyone did hate naruto, which was why she thoughtlessly blabbed it to sasuke. she'd maybe even heard other people saying similar things and thought this was just how she's supposed to think about him. but i don't think she ever truly hated him; she just found him kind of annoying
the point of all this is that i don't think sakura dislikes naruto the way some people write her to. but she doesn't like him hitting on her, and she doesn't like when he does crude stuff around her.
so, given that, now imagine a situation where there's not random society-wide shunning of naruto. he's still loud and obnoxious, so i think sakura would find him grating even if she secretly thinks some of his pranks are funny. she doesn't even consider returning his crush. that is not on the table for her. she still likes sasuke. she still breaks up with ino because i maintain that that was an act of sakura trying to make herself an independent agent from ino and not ino's sidekick. but. but. she has fewer overall problems with naruto. naruto is the class clown but he's not a pariah; he's the hokage's kid and he has social clout
so maybe. consider this. sakura does not return naruto's crush, but his attention is now sort of fun and exciting. she's twelve, after all-- this is new to her, and she's feeling out what she likes and she's not necessarily mature or emotionally aware enough to not be a huge brat. it's fun when naruto brings her flowers and she gets to turn him down in front of other people. it's fun that everyone knows the hokage's son is in love with her, and that she doesn't have to love him back to keep this attention on her.
it is extremely fun when naruto sees her sighing over sasuke and then goes to fight him and then sasuke escalates.
kakashi gets his team and is told there might be some typical twelve year old crush drama, but sakura's personality is predicted to balance out naruto and sasuke's tendency towards fist fights.
and then kakashi watches her intentionally goad them into a fight and then fucking preen and he's like. oh. oh no.
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prezaki · 21 days
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Bucchigiri?! and 'being Honki' - a Show about Identity and Human Connection
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With Hiroko Utsumi's newest work as a director now completed, I want to take a moment to discuss the thematic through-lines of Bucchigiri?! and explain why I think that the story was very coherent even if it first seemed erratic.
At the heart of the series is the concept of the Honki Person(TM) - and that's where the confusion starts. Leaving the word 'Honki' in Japanese for the subs suggests a lore-heavy emphasis on some kind of supernatural mechanic in-story. It caused many viewers expected a well-defined shounen-typical power system - but that isn't what Honki is nor what it was ever meant to be.
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"Honki" is the Japanese word 本気, which means Seriousness, Earnestness (or doing something 'in earnest, for real' if used as an adverb). 'Honki People' literally just means 'Earnest People'
And thus "Honki" is doing double duty as a red herring Lore Concept and a regular word - an intentional ambiguity that is inevitably lost by translation.
In the show, the characters do initially think of the 'Honki Person' as a literal thing to become (a supernaturally powerful master martial artist) rather than as a state of being in which one is earnest - but the thing is that the narrative proves them wrong.
But before we get to that, we need to dig a little bit deeper into what a Honki Person is thought to be in-universe:
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"Historically", those thought of as Honki were fighters who participated in conflicts 300 years ago - a bit after the end of the Sengoku Period, the continuously warring states that had defined Japan for two centuries. With the advent of the rigidly structured Edo Period, honorable fighters with no clear systemic alliance were no longer needed and the aspiring Honki People(TM) were mercilessly gunned down. This feels out of left field for an anime like Bucchigiri?! to focus on, so I propose a second more allegorical layer to impose over the literal pseudo-historical read.
Even beyond the historical fact that gun imports changed warfare, the usage of guns here is deliberate to represent something. Guns are associated with authorities, and contrasted against the Honki People(TM) shunning weapons and fighting only with their own bodies.
To be Honki(TM) means to be true to yourself and secure in your own identity - this is something that is a hindrance to a social system that relies on rules and groupthink to sustain itself. Supporting this assumption, the theme of 'death' by weapon/authority is mirrored in the show several times:
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On the one hand, we have the NG Boys, a gang set apart from the other gangs in the story by their even more rigid hierarchical structure and their willingness to use weaponry. They all follow one leader, have one uniform look, and appear basically brainwashed into blind obedience.
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The association of weapons=structure and authority is made pretty clearly through that alone, but is also enhanced by all the members of the NG Boys living under constant threat of being fed to the real authorities of society: the police. Fear keeps everyone in line.
And further, the idea of society as an oppressive force (especially to the lower class) is put into direct focus through Mitsukuni and Matakara. Poverty is brought up briefly before through Senya (our main Honki Person(TM) was a nameless orphan after all) and brought back with the Asamine brothers:
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Mitsukuni wishes to escape his social status in order to offer a better life to his brother - and he's forcibly held down by the oppressive system around him.
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The cop that causes Mitsukuni to go to jail is equivalent to the guns that shot Senya and Ichiya.
(Utsumi has explored this underlying socially critical current before. Not for nothing, her previous series SK8 opens with the memorable bridge of the title song reading: "before society can kill us".)
But Bucchigiri?! isn't about overthrowing the system. It's about the individual. Understanding the context about authority just helps setting the real theme into focus.
And that theme is to hold on steadfast to who you are and allow yourself to connect with others, even in various kinds of adversity.
After this long, long preamble, let's get to the actual main characters!!
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Matakara and Arajin are people who are ruled by fear and who spend 11 episodes running from others and themselves in two very different ways.
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Arajin is pretty hated as a protagonist, which amuses me a little, because nobody hates Arajin more than Arajin hates Arajin.
His past cowardice in failing to protect Matakara has clearly shown him that he is a pathetic person and he's spent his whole life since then trying to avoid being reminded of this. He avoids Matakara, the strongest reminder of his failure, but further than that he avoids connection with anybody that he could see as a peer.
Arajin is solely focused on finding love and romance because he feels inherently inferior to every person he would be invited to contrast himself against. He avoids other guys because he hates himself. He shuns connection and pursues only people (girls) he views as different enough to not invite any comparison.
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Matakara meanwhile has major abandonment issues - he's lost his parents, Arajin, and his brother. Everyone important to him keeps vanishing from his life and in order to keep himself from feeling powerless about this he decides to blame himself.
If it's his own fault that people leave him (because he's weak) then there is something in his power that he can do in order to avoid being hurt again (becoming stronger). In order to maintain this state of motivational self-hatred, he puts others on a pedestal.
Matakara needs Arajin to be strong, powerful, honest and admirable... because that is the image he holds himself up by. In Mitsukuni and Arajin, Matakara creates god-like icons to chase after. And by doing so, he also shuns genuine connection.
Being confronted with Arajin as a flawed person gives Matakara a breakdown because it makes it harder to run from his own loneliness by focusing on chasing after Arajin.
Arajin is always running, but Matakara is always chasing... because he can't stand to look behind and face his monster.
In a lot of ways, Arajin and Matakara can't connect because they care about each other. Arajin can't stand what he allowed to happen to Matakara because he cared about Matakara. Matakara clings to Arajin because he loves him.
This theme of love hindering connection is again mirrored in two other characters - Senya and Ichiya, of course.
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Ichiya, unwilling to confront his own terminal illness head-on, wishes to avoid it by goading Senya into killing him. By doing this, he can run from his own weakness and put Senya on a pedestal instead.
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Meanwhile Senya is attached to their connection as-is and wishes to maintain this master-disciple dynamic forever - going so far as to deny his own strength in order to avoid acknowledging their changing dynamic.
Both of them are denying something about themselves.
It is their self-denial that makes their communication and thus connection break down.
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Ichiya can't make Senya go Honki(TM) (which should have definitely been translated as an adverb here, e.g. 'failing to make him get serious') because he is also not HONEST with him or himself.
In the finale, Senya finally admits his motivations (his illness, his perceived weakness) and he is rewarded with the honest fight he'd been craving. They both stopped running.
This theme becomes even clearer through the two leads, of course, but even earlier than that it exists in Mahoro.
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Mahoro's scene in episode 6 is the thematic linchpin that carried the whole show on its shoulders. Through Mahoro, everyone in the cast gets their first glimpse at true unrelenting Honki(tm) - and it is something totally unrelated to fighting prowess.
Mahoro is physically powerless against Akutaro, but she won't run. She has a heart that won't run away, the key quality of the Honki Person(TM), because she has an unshakable sense of self-identity.
It would be easy to dismiss her cutesy design as a contrivance to give Arajin a conventional-looking love interest despite going to Delinquent Academy - but it also says something about HER. Mahoro marches to the beat of her own drum. She does not care that she does not fit in, she does not mind being alone - she'll stick right to her own aesthetic and priorities.
So it's easy for her to call out Akutaro - and in doing so, call out the whole cast along with him:
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You're empty. You are nothing but a shell, shaped by how you relate to those around you. You have nothing to offer.
And how are you supposed to connect with anybody, when you don't even know who you are?
(Notably, Mahoro is also a character who refuses to compromise on her self even for love - she knows she does not appeal to Marito, but she's not changing herself to be more his type. Her Honki does not budge, even for him.)
And lest you think I am exaggerating by connecting the theme of identity and emptiness back to all of the cast instead of just Akutaro: it does come back with Matakara.
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Matakara can't believe anybody would know him and care for him, because he doesn't know himself.
For Matakara, facing himself means acknowledging his fear of abandonment rather than externalizing it as a hallucination of a literal monster.
But facing yourself doesn't just mean facing your demons, it also means facing your own positive qualities. And that is Arajin's story.
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Even as Arajin turned into a scummy, evasive and selfish guy, there is a part of him that has a throughline to who he always was. He's someone who can get invested in others with reckless abandon.
Whether as a child with Matakara, or in the present with Mahoro... Arajin wants to connect.
Bucchigiri?! is a show full of innuendo and sexual gags. Merging with a genie gets equated to sex, fighting gets equated to sex... and of course this is for laughs, but it's also thematic.
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Because all these things are about connection. About facing someone else with your whole self.
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On a literal level, yes, Arajin absolutely wants to get laid. This is his sincere desire, and good for him.
But at the same time, his battle cry of 'I want to lose my virginity!' is him crying out for a real connection, even at a time when he shunned the idea thereof.
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In the end, being a Honki Person(TM) has nothing to do with fighting. Fighting is the way a lot of the rough and tumble guys on the show like to connect, but it is not the only way to do so and not the only way to be Honki(TM).
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Arajin never learns to love brawling - he did it out of circumstance and necessity, but it's not his hobby. He does not need to discover some hidden love of fighting, because this show fundamentally isn't about how 'fighting is inherently good' or anything.
It's a show about how even when you hate yourself and think you're as low as it can get, acknowledging your own self in full is the first step to finding a real bond with somebody else.
It just also happens to feature a bunch of delinquents who love to punch a lot.
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youryurigoddess · 29 days
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On love and sacrifices
There’s so much more to this scapegoating business and big sacrifices referenced in the Good Omens narrative than the literal goats. And they’re only getting bigger, louder, final.
But let’s take it slow and start with the beginning, quite literally — i.e., with the Good Omens 2 title sequence. As we follow Aziraphale and Crowley on their journey, the universe warps and their usual left and right side positioning switches during the magic show (not accidentally an act of trust and sacrifice required both from the angel and the demon). They stay so throughout the next scene, which is their little dance in the air, and after they seemingly get settled on the A. Z. Fell and Co.’s roof and back to normal, the flipped sky in the background suggests that something’s not quite right yet. In the central part of the shot looms a large, humanlike shadow of the Elephant Trunk Nebula.
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The nebula is a part of a constellation called Cepheus, after an Ethiopian king from the Greek mythology who agreed to sacrifice his only daughter in order to appease the gods and end a local calamity started by her mother and his wife, Cassiopeia (talk about generational responsibility). With time and a delightfully ironic twist of fate, the name of said daughter, Andromeda, became more famous than that of her father. Although she was chained up to a rock and offered to the sea serpent Cetus, the girl was spotted by the warrior Perseus, casually flying over the sea — either on the back of the Pegasus or thanks to a pair of winged sandals — after his victory over Medusa. He fell in love on the spot, defeated the serpent (with the help of a magical sword or Medusa’s severed head, depending on the varying sources), and freed the princess. That’s not exactly where their story ends, but we won’t be getting into the rest here.
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Not surprisingly, Neil has mentioned two parallel child sacrifice stories from the biblical context back in August. The first is one of the big ones — The Binding of Isaac. God's command to sacrifice Isaac, his only son, was a test of Abraham's faith. The angel of the Lord intervenes and provides a ram to be sacrificed in the boy’s place.
The second one isn’t nearly as popular, but you might have heard a variant of it in fairy tales or as the Law of Surprise invoked in The Witcher saga. In exchange for Israel’s victory over its enemies in battle, Jephthah had rashly promised God to repay the debt with the first thing seen on his return back home. The victorious warrior didn’t suspect to see his only child moving innocently "to meet him with timbrels and with dances" though. In horror, Jephthah covered his eyes with his cloak, but to no avail: ultimately, he was forced to honor his vow to God, and the girl was sacrificed. As grisly as it might look like in the Old Master’s paintings, it’s important to remember that human sacrifices weren’t limited to physical offerings only — Jephthah’s daughter might have been offered to God in the sense of officially shunning her family and dedicating her life to service instead, probably sequestered in a temple somewhere.
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Interestingly, the main character of a big chunk of the Bible and the reason for the Second Coming happens to be THE most influential child sacrifice in the modern history. You know, a certain 33-year-old carpenter sent by his Heavenly Father to die on a cross for the sins of the mankind? Someone better call Aubrey Thyme ASAP.
Circling back to Aziraphale, he could be also seen as a representative of the concept of filial piety, since Eden willing to personally take a Fall not only for the humanity’s collective or individual transgressions, but the shortcomings of his Ineffable Parental Figure as well. Our favorite angel angel always fights for what is right and good, sure, but why would that be even a thing if God was truly omniscient, omnipresent, and omnipotent?
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If Aziraphale’s medal is anything to go by, it looks like we might get an answer from the way it’s introducing another mythological narrative into the game, that is the story of Daedalus and Icarus. The most absorbing thing about this is the stark contrast to the recurring child sacrifice references for S3 mentioned in this post — Daedalus isn’t a father who wanted to sacrifice his son, it was his attempt to save him from imprisonment that ultimately drove Icarus to his death. The boy ignored his father’s explicit instructions, committing the grave and culturally universal sin of disobedience to one's parents that simply couldn’t go unpunished, one way or another.
But Icarus’s transgression could be seen both as high-flying ambition and striving for personal accomplishment as well as humanitarian sacrifice for knowledge and humanity’s advancement in general.
Similarly to a certain angel who left everything for what superficially seems like a work promotion, but is the ultimate act of love — both for his demon and the children they have been protecting and nurturing together for six thousand years. From the very Beginning, his white wings have been shielding everything he holds dear in this world.
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yandere-toons · 1 year
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ANAKIN SKYWALKER
Platonic & Romantic Headcanons – Yandere
WARNING: abuse of power, fantasy violence, stalking.
Based on Clone Wars Anakin.
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PLATONIC:
Anakin has tasted loss one time too many to treat this bond as anything other than a closely guarded treasure, one that he will break a great many rules to prolong. But the restrictive Jedi Order takes every opportunity to remind him: "The Jedi Code comes before friendship". Be that as it may, Anakin considers them family and will now guard them with his life.
If his friend claims someone is harassing them or Anakin witnesses what he considers blatant disrespect, he offers to straighten out the problem in a way that seems like a joke but is deathly sincere.
Once the offender suffers a mysterious injury or sudden change of heart, Anakin cannot resist making a cheeky remark that arouses the suspicion of all who hear.
Obi-Wan senses his burning resentment towards the person and confronts him about harbouring forbidden attachments, which Anakin only proves by denying with such fervour.
Chancellor Palpatine enables this volatility, pushing Anakin to take whatever extreme measures he feels necessary to exact justice, no matter how much it alienates him from the other Jedi.
If properly motivated, he will defend his friend's honour with a barrage of lightsaber strikes, cruel for a Jedi, or blows with his cybernetic fist at the hapless fool who crossed the line that day.
The attack ends when he feels he has made his point and not a second sooner, not one punch less, because Anakin is not afraid to beat some people to death if he is not stopped or given a powerful incentive to restrain himself.
For lesser offences and when the object of his wrath is out of reach, Anakin practices passive aggression. He secludes himself in storerooms to tinker with various machinery, lies about his troubles to anyone who asks but Padmé, and later demands that this offender be shunned and distrusted by his colleagues.
Anakin lends his Padawan Ahsoka Tano a disturbing insight into the brunt of his protective fury when his friend comes under fire, whether from battle droids or Republic officials.
He does his best to limit their role in missions he deems dangerous, and his voice of determination to expose and punish the culprit rings out after a threat falls upon them.
He proclaims their innocence in the face of accusations and rages at those who doubt them. Obi-Wan cautions him to have better control over his temper, but Anakin is outspoken about how absurd he finds the charges and will not rest until he has dragged the serpent who wants to scapegoat his friend into the light.
Until the rightful culprit from whom he wrings a confession is dead or rotting in prison, a cloaked menace that assaults and interrogates their known enemies besets the galaxy's underworld.
Criminals are Force-choked left and right, while Chancellor Palpatine feeds Anakin's darkest urges after he storms into the Senate Building in search of guidance and validation.
Anakin will not hesitate to take the leaps no one else will when it comes to the special people in his life, and if his friend is a fellow Force user, he will abuse his ability to monitor them in this way.
Anakin sees this as ensuring their protection from a hostile world hell-bent on making good people suffer, no matter that his retribution against those who try their luck with his friend grows worse with each passing day.
His perception of them holds more value in his eyes than their true nature. Even if they show a spiteful streak or manipulative tendencies, Anakin has long since convinced himself of their admirable character and springs into action to help them whenever possible.
Perhaps he trusts them to make the right decisions after fighting together in the war, but Anakin tends not to think twice about the morally questionable actions they take on or off the battlefield.
Palpatine notices and exploits Anakin's willingness to bend and break the rules for someone, pulling some strings to put Anakin's friend in perpetual danger. He uses his network of cronies to force Anakin to make uncomfortable choices, such as sacrificing the life of another for his friend, which strains his other relationships and reflects poorly on the Jedi.
ROMANTIC:
Every time some piece of scum manages to wound his partner, Anakin relives the agony of his mother's death and drowns in the fear that he will once again fail to save those closest to him. This desperation drives him to steamroll over entire battalions and lay waste to anyone who tries to dispute his right to act, Jedi or Sith.
For Anakin, losing another person he holds dear is far more frightening than any punishment the Jedi Order could mete out.
Suppose he is indicted on war crimes or threatened with expulsion from the Order for leaving a trail of severed heads and limbs on his unauthorised journey to rescue the partner he is not allowed to have. In this case, Anakin calls the Jedi Council blind for not seeing things from his perspective and understanding why he had to defy orders and cut down that Separatist sympathiser.
Chancellor Palpatine informs Anakin that the Council must not trust him if it disregards his argument so thoughtlessly. On the other hand, he commends Anakin's resolve to fight for his emotions rather than against them.
Palpatine even encourages him to follow his anger to its natural conclusions when he spots his partner in trouble, which nurtures further conflict in Anakin as the Jedi Order insists he does the opposite.
Anakin believes he is partly responsible for his mother's death. He blames himself because, as his guilty conscience tells him, he left her behind to pursue his own goals and returned only with weakness and insufficient urgency to help her.
As a result, Anakin struggles with the lingering paranoia that he will make the same mistake twice when he cannot readily locate and confirm his partner's safety.
On the battlefield, Obi-Wan is one of the few people who can successfully talk Anakin out of putting the entire mission on hold until he finds them.
On starships, clone troopers obey without question when General Skywalker gives the order to leave the room while he tortures a prisoner of war for information on their whereabouts and health.
Between missions, Anakin reaffirms that he values this relationship above all else in the galaxy, even promising to abandon the Order if his involvement in it becomes too great a hindrance.
He fights for his comrades more than he fights for some grand peace, and if the options are honouring the Jedi Code or keeping his partner out of danger, Anakin will maim and intimidate his way to victory.
In his younger, more impulsive hours, he gave little thought to who might see his brazen displays, rushing to embrace his partner after long separations.
As the war progresses, he grows more adept at hiding his affections from the stoic eye of the Council, even though his frustration at this leads him to arrange secret meetings and become increasingly defensive towards anyone who suspects the truth.
Of all his confidants, Anakin trusts no one more than his partner, but Captain Rex is a close second. Respecting his orders to comb the area whenever they stray a little too far from Anakin's field of vision, Rex does his part to watch over one of his commander and friend's favourite people.
Captain Rex makes no judgements of his own, though he does mediate between Anakin and other Jedi who might tell Anakin to cut his losses.
The clones under his command are not inclined to rebel when Anakin orders them to round up the populace he believes is involved in his partner's disappearance.
Some troopers may be a little shaken when he starts strangling civilians with the Force until someone gives a lead; however, their training has taught them to follow all orders, even if it means raiding buildings and dragging people to face an enraged Anakin.
Too sick of the Council's deception to subject Padmé to the same backstabbing treatment, Anakin one day broaches the idea of bringing a third person into the relationship.
He pretends not to have anyone specific in mind so that he can dismiss it as simple curiosity, only to betray his eagerness when Padmé asks for details. She wants to see him happy, so she agrees to Anakin spending more time with them.
However, Anakin applies a double standard: he would never tolerate Padmé or his partner being interested in someone else, let alone inviting that person into the relationship. This takes time and attention away from his emotionally starved self and implies to his abandonment-fearing mind that he is not good enough.
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Do anything you want with my work, but never make me boring!
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xinamie · 2 months
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💋 — dark red.
pairing: raiden x gn! reader
summary: after training with the shirai ryu, raiden seeks out the one person he could depend on for comfort. ♡
tags: fighting (training), fluff, raiden is feeling romantical but still sfw tbh
Ever since meeting his godly alternate self, Raiden took to training with Grandmaster Kuai Liang. He needed that extra push to fuel the flame within him and who better to ask than the pyromancer himself? He was aware of Lord Liu Kang's stories about how the god fell into rage; the reason for being made mortal this time was to prevent him from going through such anger and destruction.
There were so many factors to consider, but he was devoted to this path— to learn more about himself and his capabilities. If he figures out how to activate these feats and learn how to work with them, he could be of better use to Earthrealm's defense. Battles could rise on a whim and he wanted to get a grip on that potential rage rather than be afraid or to shun it.
In between his work with the Shaolin, Raiden made frequent trips over to Japan. The Shirai Ryu’s Grandmaster would hold sessions with him whenever he was available; other times he sparred with Smoke, helped young Hanzo or went over strategies with Harumi.
There were days he would catch you around the clan’s base of operations, indulging in small talk and peaceful walks around their garden. Little memories like those were cherished for someone who carried the weight of his title.
Lord Liu Kang told him that it was possible to train too much, and he was right.
Yet, here he was, circling around Kuai Liang as the two of them observed each other. They were waiting for the right opportunity to strike, focused on every breath falling from their chest.
You were watching on the side, entranced by their intricate dance. Raiden was the first to charge while the other man remained on defense. It was always a show with these two, a display of thunder and fire clashing together. Paired with Scorpion’s trusted kusarigama, it was as if nature’s elemental symphony reverberated through the metal and into the surrounding atmosphere.
At one point, the chain latched onto Raiden’s ankles and he moved to secure it down, not wanting to be pulled towards the warrior. When he lifted his head to look towards Kuai Liang, he noticed an intense, stern look in his opponent’s sharp gaze. In a split second, flames began to travel down the metal, spreading closer and closer to his very form.
He was going to be harmed if he wasn’t careful.
Raiden gripped the chain harder, digging his soles into the ground and allowed sparks to gather in his palms. Metal was a great conductor of electricity, thus the lightning he conjured bounced, shooting out towards Kuai Liang. This forced the Grandmaster to halt his embers in order to escape the wrath. Raiden took this chance to kick the kama away, only to forget how fast the trained warrior recovers.
He was pinned within seconds of letting his sight falter, groaning as his shoulders were pressed into the courtyard.
Upset at having let his guard down, his fingers clenched into the ground and began to generate heat. He should have known better, to always keep his eyes on his opponent…
Raiden’s attention was on his hand, watching as the light flickered around his skin. A new hue joined the display, faint and taunting, but it was unmistakably there. It was blurred and any average person would have trouble detecting it. Though, as someone who had studied his newfound powers the moment he was given the amulet, he knew what it was— it just had to be.
“Yield.” The order came from the masked opponent.
Taking a steady breath, willing his strength to compose himself, he placed his palm down. He relaxed his muscles, resting against the floor as he pondered. The brief disappointment in himself was replaced by curiosity and intrigue.
“I yield.”
-
After the session, Raiden decided to clean up since he had dust and dirt all over him. Training had always garnered sweat and he took pride in his ability to remain hygienic, especially in a home he was a guest of.
Fresh and clean, he goes about his usual routine and enters the garden. He knew he would find you here, but he was really hoping to see you even more after his latest discovery. He couldn't help the way his body buzzed, images of that light scarlet color replaying every other minute.
“Raiden?” Your voice called out to him, breaking him out of his trance as he offered a kind bow and then joined your side.
There was something different about him; it was as obvious as day and night. Whenever he would spar with the others and found himself losing, he would either ask to go again or thank them for their time. Now, he seemed… miles away.
“What's troubling you?” You had asked as he averted his gaze to the blooming plant in front of you.
“There's… well, I…”
It wasn’t unnatural for him to be at a loss for words, and he was truly grateful for your patience as he gathered himself. A few minutes passed and his gentle voice had a hint of shakiness to it, an effect of using the amulet as much as he had.
“May I hold you?”
His request sits in the air between you both, the inhale not going unnoticed by him as he tilted his head in a manner that was far too precious. He merely chuckled and began to explain himself further.
“I am quite energized still. I can feel it coursing within me.” He stated, hinting at his wish to find a way to ground himself back into reality. To think he would ask you rather than his usual meditation added a certain warmth to your cheeks.
The second you agree, his smile is nearly blinding. He was careful with his first touch, fingertips caressing the back of your hand and over your knuckles. They smoothed up towards your wrist and along your forearm when he was met with no resistance.
Raiden had visibly melted when he tugged you closer to his body, arms circled around your waist and head tucked on your shoulder. A content breath tickled your neck as he held you there, basking in the shared warmth and comfort.
“I've made progress today.” He hummed out, leaning into you further when you began brushing his hair back in a soothing motion. His chest was pressed against yours, every breath and exhale easily detected from such proximity.
He briefly removed himself to gaze at you, only inches apart from being able to rest his forehead on yours. His voice lingered on a lower tone, set on you and you alone. “Were you watching?”
You could only nod, mesmerized by the searing look behind those usually soft, brown eyes of his. A pleased thrum vibrated through him and into you, eyelashes fluttering as he locked his hands on the curve of your back.
It was just the two of you in the gardens, lost in each other’s presence with an unspoken heat rising. He watched you for what felt like forever, analyzing your features and committing them to his mind for safe keeping.
“Allow me…” He spoke up, your focus snapping back to him as he brought himself close enough to brush his nose along yours. “Please.”
His plea left you near breathless, eyes trying to search for answers. You could feel his breath tease your lips, making them quiver in anticipation. Gathering your courage, you finally respond with a command he has wanted to hear since entering the garden.
“Kiss me.”
He didn't need to be told twice, keeping one arm secure around your hips as the other slid up to cup your cheek. Raiden kept you there as his eager lips captured yours in a kiss he had only ever dreamed of.
It was exhilarating; both yours and his eyes closing shut to embrace the intimacy of it all. He tasted sweet like a divine treat that was immensely invigorating and rousing to your senses. Trying to part from him only lasted for two seconds as he chased after you, planting his lips upon yours and stealing your breath yet again.
Earthrealm’s Champion wanted— or more so needed you, in his arms and covered in his affection. He would ensure that you were treated to the highest degree that only someone like him could ever deliver to you.
Only you could keep him stable while he made you feel as if you were floating within all the realms.
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colourstreakgryffin · 7 months
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Spoiled, whiney, and bratty younger brother Tomura Shigaraki and reader being the older sister of this whiney villain headcannons? Please🥺
Oooh! Another Mha request! It’s been some time since I got anything, other than KNY!
Shigaraki Tomura- Cracking Bond
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Tomura is a big bratty manbaby. He always gets what he wants from the League he leads, and he throws a temperamental fit when anybody dares to refuse him
Tomura came into your life when All for One adopted him, only two years after adopting you. He suffered a intense, traumatic childhood with his quirk’s development, where he was left all alone and All for One decided to send you with Tomura to take care of him
Tomura doesn’t listen to you when you try tell him to consider a different option when his current one could cause heavy damage. He is less rude to you as opposed to everybody else but still, he will be harsh if he must since he won’t take any shit from anybody, not even his precious big sister
Tomura is a affectionate little brother. He is very attached to you and relies on you, even more than Kurogiri. He feels like you’re the only one who truly understands him and with his petty whiney nature, he demands you accompany him over any other villain
When it comes to Tomura, you always have to remind him to use a few fingers/wear gloves and seal his identity, whenever he decides to go in public outside of the League’s typical missions. Tomura wants to stalk his worst enemies but you won’t let him get caught anytime soon
Tomura is protective over you. Yeah, you can fully take care of yourself, thanks to your impeccable quirk but you’re the most important thing to him, his adoptive big sister. He feels entitled to what he wants so he tries to keep you at the League building for your ‘safety’
Tomura whines and complains to you about everything that annoys him, laying his head on your lap whilst he rants. He trusts you so much, he trusts you with his life so he likes to tell you about his issues since you listen patiently and offer counters that are always logical and witty
Tomura is far too attached to you to get into a proper fight. He may argue and disagree but he couldn’t get so angry at you that he’d attack or shun you out, no, he truly needs you to function and he loves you, as his one and only sibling. His loving big sister!
“Nee-san! Hurry up, we got a important raid on those heroes to tend to now and I suspect you to follow my every order. It doesn’t matter if you’re older, I am in charge here and you must listen to me!”
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sellensand · 1 year
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The truth about the Golden Lineage
Ok sooo I've just had a MASSIVE realization about Godfrey's children with Marika and I need to share it with the Elden Ring lore community. I have no idea if anyone has already put this theory forward, but as soon as it crossed my mind I knew I had to write it down before I forgot about it.
ELDEN RING SPOILERS BELOW.
I had always kind of assumed that Godwyn the Golden was Godfrey and Marika's firstborn child. This is not stated anywhere though, it was no more than an assumption on my behalf. So I began to wonder... what if the omen twins were actually older than Godwyn? What if they were Marika's first children with Godfrey? The Crucible predates the Golden Age of the Erdtree after all...
Once again, I had always assumed that Morgott and Mohg were thrown into the sewers of Leyndell as soon as they were born, which doesn't really make any sense considering:
- They are both quite well-spoken. They don't act like they were brought up by giant slugs and rats with no contact with the outside world. They are not like the feral omens we fight in the sewers.
- They had to use special shackles in order to keep them down there. As if... they would try to escape. To go back home. Someone had to make sure they never got out.
- They brought at least one doll with them. Newborn babies don't play with dolls, children do.
- Godfrey's words towards Morgott ("It's been a long while...") and the way he holds his son's dead body imply they once knew each other. They once had some kind of relationship. And I'm inclined to believe that Morgott remembers and loves his father too: as SmoughTown points out in his latest video, the magic seal from which Godfrey's golden ghost appears is the exact same Crucible seal that Morgott uses when he "teleports". Morgott created a spectral protector of the Erdtree in the image of his father (I'm about to cry).
So, if Mo & Mo once lived in the surface, why were they shunned? Well, here comes the crazy part. Once upon a time, in the Age of the Crucible, horns, scales, wings and other beastly parts were considered sacred, divine. They were the manifestation of the power of the Tree, from which all life begins, where all life is blended together. With Godfrey being a man from the Age of the Crucible (his knights are the Crucible Knights), it is possible that his first children with Marika, Mo & Mo, were actually revered when they were born.
However, at some point, something motivated Marika to change the dogma. The conquest of the Mountaintops of the Giants gave way to the Golden Age of the Erdtree. All things Crucible were suddenly frown upon. Lord Godfrey and his warriors were exiled from the Lands Between. And the omen twins had to be forsaken.
LUCKILY the royal couple had produced another child, one more in line with the religious ideals of the new age: Godwyn, a perfectly built golden boy, without any Crucible in him. A strikingly handsome prince, with a gorgeous set of long, androginous, golden hair, who we've only seen wearing a beautifully embroidered skirt. His looks and his fashion sense always reminded me of a certain red-headed champion of the Golden Age of the Erdtree...
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Has anyone else noticed that the items related to the Prince of Death require both Faith and Intelligence? I'm talking about the Prince of Death's Staff (allegedly made out of a fragment of Godwyn's corpse) and all of the Death sorceries (which said staff boosts). You know which other items also require both of those stats, right? Well, as far as I know, only Rykard's Magma sorceries and the Golden Order incantations need both Fai and Int to be used. And the Sword of Night and Flame, yes, a Carian heirloom hidden in their Manor.
HUH. I wonder what the Carian royal family and Golden Order Fundamentalism have in common... OH, I KNOW. They are both connected to Radagon, the champion who aspired to be complete by dominating both sorceries and incantations.
My point is... What if Godwyn is not Godfrey's? What if he's Radagon's? What if he was Marika's first attempt at having descendants by herself? She was devastated by Godwyn's death because he was her favorite, her perfect golden boy, a personification of the Golden Order and a living proof that she was the One True God.
Now let's have some fun with this theory. We all know about Miquella's obsession with Godwyn ("O brother, lord brother..."). Some have speculated that the statue of the older figure embracing young Miquella and Malenia in Loretta's arena in the Haligtree might be Godwyn, because it doesn't sport Marika/Radagon's signature braid and the asset is apparently flat-chested (according to Vaati's Miquella Lore video).
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Did either Miquella or Godwyn know the truth? Was Godwyn particularly protective of the Empyrean twins because they were more than just his half-siblings? I honestly don't know, buy it's not hard to imagine what they felt after their older brother's murder...
I obviously don't have all the answers, but if all of the above was true, it would mean that the whole Golden Lineage is built on a lie, because the firstborn male heir of Godfrey was not only not the firstborn at all, but he was also not Godfrey's! This would be so GRRM it's insane! Even Godrick's pride and his fondness of Lion iconography becomes all the more ridiculous!
Am I going too far with this? Please let me know if I'm losing my mind over this game.
(Oh and link me to any similar theories if you know of any, because I can't be the only one crazy enough to have thought about this).
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eldenringslut · 1 year
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I like how the ‘Mad taint’ of the Great runes power doesn’t just make the demigods murderous, but instead affects them by enhancing their existing qualities in excess.
Godrick’s inferiority complex is enhanced to the point of him turning to grafting for power, calling himself ‘the lord of all that is golden’ to affirm his strength to himself.
Rennala had great love for her family and children, and this is ironically turned against her as she repeatedly births and rebirths the scholars, believing the Amber egg to be her ‘beloved’.
We have to speculate a bit for Radahn, but I think it’s likely that the rune enhanced his aggression and willingness to go into battle. I believe this because I think it would likely be a contributing factor into his battle with Malenia, and his earlier battle with Leyndell (that we see in the opening cinematic with him fighting Margit).
Morgott is a deeply loving and protective individual, even when those he loves do not deserve it. So he defends Leyndell, a city full if people that would hate him if they knew he was an omen, under an order that shuns his kind. He even goes so far as to defend the weakest demigod Godrick in spite of his disgusting grafting (which I believe he does particularly out of love for his family, perhaps subconsciously).
Rykard has a multitude of different traits that could be made excessive by the Great Rune. His innate cruelty (evidenced by the inquisition he controlled even before the shattering), his anger at the Golden Order (likely him projecting his hatred of Radagon for abandoning Rennala) and his desperation to gain enough power to fight back against the Erdtree (which eventually leads to him becoming impatient enough to feed himself to the God-Devouring Serpent).
Malenia takes immense pride in her skill with a blade, as this is what allows her to stand alongside her brother as his blade. It also gives her something to focus on besides the rot, even helping stave it off through the waterfowl dance. Additionally she is absolutely devoted to her brother Miquella and will do anything for him. It is a combination of these factors that I believe led to her conflict with Radahn and her unleashing of the scarlet rot. It is also why the dreaded phrase ‘I am Malenia, Blade of Miquella’ is the sentence she chooses to fixate on to help retain her mind from the rot.
Miquella is similar to Malenia in that he is absolutely devoted to his sister and finding a cure for her rot, going so far as to try and establish a replacement erdtree and embed himself in it to overcome both his and her respective curses.
Mohg is interesting because aside from his rejection of the Golden Order we know little of his characterisation before being enthralled by Miquella’s power and becoming obsessed. Although I speculate that he, much like Morgott, is a deeply loving person who unlike his brother chose to abandon those who clearly did not love him and give himself to the Formless Mother (I don’t think it is a coincidence that his mother Marika cast him aside and he chooses to serve a different, surrogate mother).
Ranni is a slightly ironic figure in this regard as her obsession is with freeing herself and the Lands Batween from the outer gods (as well as fulfilling her fate). But this obsession leads her to ironically abandon her Great Rune, which I believe allows her to play the long game and not get caught up in the shattering like the rest of the demigods.
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animeyanderelover · 6 months
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What would inuyasha be like as a yandere?
Tw: Yandere themes, unhealthy mindset, unhealthy relationship, possessive behavior, obsession, clinginess, abduction, death
Yandere Inuyasha Hc’s
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🔴My god, the denial is strong with Inuyasha when it comes to his strong feelings he keeps in his heart for his darling. You can't fully blame him though. Shunned by humans and demons alike for his heritage and troubled past, he has about zero social interaction skills and is very wary. Inuyasha doesn't want to trust you for he fears that you'll push him away for his blood just like so many before you did. Why would he need you after all? He tries to play it down and intentionally acts mean to you. Does it work though? No. Instead his heart trembles after he's spit rude words at you and watches you walk away. Do you hate him? Will you leave him? Such intrusive thoughts trouble the half-demon through days and night yet he's also too proud to appear before you and apologize. It results in the possibly worst attempts to stalk you which always embarrass him as he just has to always say something in a loud and aggressive voice when he witnesses you spending time with someone else. He's so jealous!
🔴I'd say his strongest traits would be his very protective instincts, his very childish possessive streak and his jealousy. Inuyasha will always be around, whether in terrible disguises in order to stalk you or by really just trailing visibly behind you, yelling at you that he's free to go wherever he wants to go. He's not following you, you idiot! He's just walking into the same direction! He's acting like a brat most of the time but the moment he does sense something bad, he will fight with his teeth and claws to protect you. He's already lost enough in his life and protecting you becomes eventually a basic instinct. Whilst I see Sesshomaru being possessive in the sense of being downright territorial, Inuyasha shows a more 'harmless' way of being possessive. That is not to say that he can't act more scarily possessive in certain situations but most of the time he's just acting immature with his temper tantrums when you ignore him or don't want to see him in favor of meeting with someone else. Oh, he'll absolutely crash every activities of yours so he can be included.
🔴Inuyasha's jealousy is probably the part that will give you permanently headaches. Because he'd probably get into a brawl with everyone who does as much as looking at you for too long. Just imagine a dog who barks at anyone loudly until they're out of sight and you know what it's like being accompanied by Inuyasha. His childish demands to have you for himself really come through during such moments and if you think that he's been rude to you in the past, just wait until you hear him cussing and disrespecting at whoever irked him. The type to get into a physical fight if someone talks back, although he'd rarely really hurt someone. It's only to scare them away a bit. Literally will drag you away or even carry you away when his not existing patience is at an end. You always feel sharp nails dugging into the skin of your waist or hips before you're either dragged away or lifted up into his arms and he makes a run for it, still yelling at the person that this isn't settled yet.
🔴Inuyasha seems to value life a lot, surprising considering that most demons don't think too much about it. He is certainly someone prone to get into physical fights but most of the time those are evoked by his raging jealousy. That said he throws away all common sense if someone should ever dare to hurt you in which case he goes rather violent which can cause some serious damage to the culprit if he lets his feelings get the better of him. If someone seriously tries to kill you though? He completely loses it and maximum destruction will be achieved if he doesn't have his Tessaigan with him since his sheer wrath alone triggers his demonic blood to take over him. The aftermath is always terrible as he's destroyed in his sheer and suffocating anger the landscape around him and has torn the enemy to shreds, blood covering his hands and coating his mouth. You don't get away unscarred either as you end up getting injured in some way but Inuyasha, even in his full-fledged demon form that only wants to destroy, still makes sure that you're alive. Even in such a savage state, keeping you alive remains his core instinct.
🔴A part of me thinks that he wouldn't be fully willing to kidnap his darling since he probably has some common sense, especially if his darling has the happy family and life he never could have. Thinking about ripping that away from you has him recoiling a bit in disgust as this is a level he doesn't want to sink to. What happens far more often is that Inuyasha sometimes just whisks you away for his own purposes, specifically if he's feeling neglected or has noticed that you've spent very much time with someone else recently. He carries you somewhere away where you won't know the way back home and have to forcefully rely on him and I just know that he'll rub it into your face how you need to have him as your protector now. Considering that Inuyasha has never been someone who could hold back his emotions which oftentimes lead his actions. So it is likely that within the heat of a moment, he might grab you out of overwhelming anger and frustration and bring you somewhere far away from your original home. After he has calmed down a bit, he can't ignore the twinge of guilt but he's too proud to admit it.
🔴He's probably really acting like a dog at times, although he barely notices. Don't you even dare approach him reeking like someone else because it is disgusting. If he could have it his way, he'd burn the clothes right away. Scenting is a thing and whilst he doesn't calculate that humans don't have such enhanced senses as he has, it still satisfies a primal part of him. Your scent is also the one thing he will always detect even amongst a million other aromas. He loves it if you scratch him behind his ears, if you find the right spot his leg is actually stomping. He's instantly embarrassed about it as soon as he snaps out of it though. It's safe to assume that Inuyasha is constantly in a bad mood when other people are around since he sees everyone and everything as a threat that might steal your attention. Those feelings are harmless for the most part though. He usually avoids you during every new moon as he's too ashamed to be seen in his physically weakest state and it is likely that he doesn't even tell you and you have to find out by yourself.
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arguablysomaya · 3 months
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please, elaborate on merlin bbc propaganda and stuff
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okay basically:
bbc merlin is a show taking place during a genocide
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camelot for 20 years has been genociding and ethnically cleansing everyone who can use magic, including magical creatures. They were all either exiled, fled, live in refugee camps or in hiding, and a great many were executed and slaughtered. Generally speaking, life is inhospitable in camelot for magic users.
And the show makes no attempt to hide this fact, either. We see multiple times over the death and destruction this genocide has wraught, and how radicalized most of the remaining magic population is because of it. For the past few decades, camelot has essentially been doing 2 things: persecuting magic users, and defending itself from vengeful/liberationist magic users
the king (uther) believes that magic users are (stop me if you've heard this one) corruptive, shifty, and evil. he's always paranoid that a magic user will take their revenge on him. and in a way, he's right: there are in fact a lot of magic users eager to kill him, but given the whole Great Purge and literally drowning children thing, you'd thing the show would be a bit more sympathetic to their plight. Nope.
in come merlin and gaius, our two main magic users. merlin is the protagonist, and gaius his benevolent mentor, so the audience is primed to be on their side. only one problem: from bascially the beginning of the series, these two are nothing more than agents for the very state carrying out the genocide. they devote their time to wholeheartedly defending camelot, especially from magic users, something they are rightfully called traitors for. they actively intervene to prolong the lives (and therefore regimes) of both arthur and uther, despite neither king showing any real interest in freeing their people. gauis represents the "diversity" of a genocidaire state; as someone uther only keeps around so long as he shuns any involvement with magic except what helps uther carry put his genocide, gaius hides and rejects every marginalized part of himself that threatens his access to power. even as a member of the oppressed class, he aids and abets the oppressors every step of the way. merlin, as an extremely powerful agic user in hiding, follows suit. the thing is, like so many other minority collaborators, this doesn't actually buy them safety, since they are Other, they still have to walk around on eggshells knowing one wrong move could get their heads chopped off. but this action of defending a regime that would kill you without a second's hesitation is presented as noble and heroic in the show, when in reality it's stupid at best and evil at worst. merlin and gaius might save a token kid from being brutally murdered, but they will never let anyone take action, let alone take action themselves, to proactively stop the brutality.
merlin is literally the most powerful sorcerer alive. if he wanted to, he could create a more fair, more just, better world in a blink. instead, he spends his time pretending to be a hapless servent, messing around with his war criminal friends, and killing any freedom fighter who dares to even look at the prince or king. why? well, he believes in the institutions (and a prophecy that never comes true... lol). ultimately, merlin and gauis hold the same prejudices and stereotypes about magic users that uther does: that they're untrustworthy, dangerous, and that it would be better for everyone if all but themselves (the good ones) just died or left.
and all the people they're defending the empire against... are other oppressed magic users. the VAST majority of antagonists are either magicians or magic sympathizers. even in the context of a genocide, the show takes the firm stance that the architects of genocide (the literal kings who order it to happen) are just flawed human beings who still don't deserve to be killed, while when the people they seek to wipe out fight back, our protagonists will happily mow them down. the show has no problem with killing people,and even killing innocents is only worthy of a fingerwag. it's fighting for liberation that the show makes the real problem. even when uther finally dies the show plays it like something sad, as if anyone is supposed to feel anything but joy that this old tyrant genocidaire finally kicked the bucket after having been saved a million times over from getting his comeuppance. Every magic user that has genuinely good reasons to want to tear down the kingdom are all painted with the "crazy evil person" brush.
another thing is that this show likes to get ~quirky~ with their agents of the state. along with arthur and merlin come a colorful cast of characters like the knights that you can laugh and cry with. the only problem is that despite how lovable these people are, they're still actively carrying out and enforcing a genocide. it's a bit like those tiktoks of IDF soldiers dancing or proposing. i can't feel for these people because despite seeming like relatable people, they're still engaging in something horrific. you can't escape the fact that these people can only exist in the relatively easy capacity that they do because the empire they work for is brutally repressing and eliminating entire cultures.
but the thing is, this strategy actually works. the fandom is often so taken in by fun character interactions and shipping moments that you can often witness people literally look past, or even praise their acts of genocide. these characters are so charming with each other that you can look past how awfully they treat oppressed people. yay! the prevalence of merthur brings up too many idf pinkwashing parallels it's actually insufferable. i had hoped we left oppressor/oppressed person ships behind in the 2010s but guess it's still around
by the time he takes over as king, the "great, kind" arthur is essentially an IDF soldier who only realized that Killing Is Bad Actually when he's got crosshairs on a random kid. now Reformed (TM), he takes the brave stance that he should only kill the angry bad magic users who try to exact their revenge for the whole genocide thing on him, and the peaceful (more often than not, harmless) magic users should accept the merciful counterplan of ethnically cleansing themselves from the region, or continuing to live in refugee camps, but this time with less threat of massacre. in this show, the only acceptable answer to being genocided is to either lay down and die, hide forever, or displace yourself hoping the empire doesn't come and kill you anyway. fighting back, getting revenge, defending oneself, trying to change things: these are all reserved only for the genocidal state.
in other words, bbc merlin is the exact type of genocide obfuscation that most modern genocides engage in. the suffering of oppressed peoples, even innocents, is a footnote. when they suffer, sometimes it's presented as sad, and other times it's presented as deserved. meanwhile, the suffering of the oppressors, no matter how justifyable, is always landmark and deserves our full attention and sympathies, because the thing about the oppressors is that it's always their story.
(the last thing is a common fantasy problem, which is that when you create stories where different classes have actual, material, biological distinctions, it can end up justifying the oppression. in the real world, there is a very limited range of innate human abilities, and people from across the world are largely evenly matched. but in merlin, a sorcerer actually does pose an increased threat to those around them. in terms of allegory... kinda not the best thing to so without any real refutation to the idea that magic corrupts)
so yeah. that's why i don't fuck with this show even though it's enjoyable to watch.
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umbrace-rambles · 4 months
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One Piece and Being Different
I could talk long and wide about all the things I love about One Piece, from the worldbuilding to the character writing to the political/darker topics it touches, anything. But one of the main reasons I personally love it so much and I don't believe has been talked about as much as it should, is how much it celebrates otherness. This is very much an overarching theme in the series because pirates by themselves directly go against society's standards, but this is focused more on a character point.
Objectively speaking, most OP characters are freaks and weirdos and strange and off putting, and it's good! Luffy specially, and he is the MAIN character, celebrates and embodies this weirdness to the extreme, and it's incredible how he manages to push this idea to other people around him too. It happens time and time again that he will meet someone and, the more different they are, the more he instantly wants them to join his crew. He is so incredibly driven by the wonder of discovering things different to him that he only feels happy about their existence, he wants to know and have fun with and love them because they're different!
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And it has been acknowledged, the general effect Luffy has on people, how he manages to pull them to him like moth to a flame and recruit them to his side without even trying. It’s such incredible power, but it's also incredible how everybody around him, and especially his crew, always strive to become better for him, and most of the time becoming better, in OP, implies stop being normal. Being human, being acceptable by society's standards.
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Like damn, the whole character plot of Luffy's fight against Katakuri was Katakuri coming to realize that he doesn't have to put up a front for other people, that he can keep going being himself, without hiding his monstrous features. That is when Katakuri stops fighting for his family and starts fighting because he wants to. And even after Luffy wins that fight he is respectful of Katakuri's wishes and covers his mouth with his hat.
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Most of the Strawhat crew are really adopted strays, lost people and old enemies. They were othered, by people or circumstance, and Luffy gave them a home and a purpose. And in their increasing devotion to his cause, and through his constant love towards them, they have learned to stop being afraid of being different. Luffy will always accept them.
Franky had to quite literally rebuild himself into a living weapon, he chose to do that so his Battle Frankies couldn't be used against his will ever again, but despite being a cyborg he still looked mostly human. His pre-time skip design often shows how he pulls off his skin gloves to punch with his real metal hands. He was a criminal and shunned by his city and he was okay with that, but he still chose to blend in. After he joins Luffy he fully embraces himself and becomes quite extravagant in his own design, he is proud to show off his body modifications, he has fun with it, he accepts his cards and decides to use them at their full extent for Luffy. His metal parts in full display, painted with bright colors. Flame-shaped fists, changing his hairstyle at the push of a button, that is not someone trying to blend in anymore.
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Chopper is a character whose biggest fear has always been being an outcast. He was bullied out of his herd for not being reindeer enough, he was hunted down by humans for not being human enough. Eventually, however, he learns that in order to be able to keep going, to defend his newfound family, he will have to become a monster for them, and he is happy to, because he would do anything for them. He knows that they will never think less of him for being a monster, for being different. These are some of the most extreme examples but every single character in the crew reflects this theme in some way.
We have people with extremely bizarre powers, shapeshifters, furries, witches, made up creatures, zombies, talking animals, talking food, living skeletons, a whole kingdom of queers, sea monsters, dragons, human experiments and so much more. In a series that mixes so many genres, so many themes, so many types of characters, such outrageous and unconventional character designs could have been used for mockery, or simply used as villainous traits as so many other stories do. And they are certainly sometimes cause of mockery, but it's rarely ever malign. In OP this extreme otherness is often a source of awe, a positive trait, something to be admired. It certainly is for Luffy.
Luffy is a main character that exclusively judges people by their true selves, beyond what they may be saying or doing, with his very keen emotional intelligence. In the world of One Piece, where the maximum power is held by the World Goverment, an organization that actively shuns everything different and is willing to sacrifice anything for the continuity of censorship, power and control, that turns a blind eye towards unaffiliated countries, the slave trade, and the underworld, that is willing to create agreements with some of the most feared pirates and allow them to continue to exercise fear in exchange for their assistance as brute force, Luffy and his recurring thread of freedom and acceptance is beautifully fitting.
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absolutebl · 5 months
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hi there 🖐🏼 what are your recs for bl movies with great acting?
BL Movies with GREAT Acting
Specifically Movies? Do KBLs that were cut into movies count? Hum, I'm gonna make a judgement call given how few actual movies I have to work with and say if it holds as a "movie going experience" I can count it. I should say in order to really push this into the superlative acting space the BL aspect on many of these is... light.
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His
Japan 2020 Viki
His is about being a grown adult and still struggling with coming out as gay. It addresses the consequences of life choices disingenuous to identity. Nagisa turns up on Shun’s doorstep with his precocious daughter in tow. This is a touch confusing to Shun since they were each others first love and ended badly. Shun has retreated from society, rejecting the world before it can reject him, already brokenhearted because without Nagisa he never had a reason to fight. Nagisa went the opposite way, tried to pretend to be something he was not and ended up with a daughter he adores and a wife who hates him. The acting is killer, Miyazawa Hio is sulky in the best possible way, the filming is beautiful and the setting unique and interesting...
I'm not wild about the ending. Moody arthouse smackdoodle is going to pretend that "ambiguous" is somehow unique and special rather than bog standard commonplace for narratives of this type. But endings are my hangup, not yours?
This is not really BL (the prequel was), so few of the tropes are used. You do not need to have watched the prequel.
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Your Name Engraved Herein
Taiwan 2020 Netflix
This movie is fantastic but it is also seriously depressing. It’s a self acceptance journey that goes emotionally array on the alter of history, but if you wanna wallow in high quality acting and serious gay drama, this’ll do it. I would say it's not really BL, no real trope drops at all.
Okay those two I chose more on the strength of the acting than BL. These others are not going to be at the same standard/style.
If you want moee of the above level of drama, things get very sad in the BL world, so Love of Siam, Dew, Eternal Yesterday, Goodbye Mother, etc...
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Restart After Come Back Home (Risutato wa tadaima no ato de)
Japan 2020 Gaga?
Atmospheric study in rural Japan meets complex family dynamics built on a romance framework of city boy meets country boy, grumpy/sunshine. It’s beautiful and icy sweet. Slow moving in places but ultimately worth the patience, low heat, low angst, and stunning. The acting is a touch stiff, in that Japanese reserved way.
This is the only BL movie, as a movie, that I could pull. There are others, I jsut don't think the acting is good enough.
So here are some highly rated short bingable series that are movie length (1.5-2.5 hours) but not really movies - BUT with killer acting. So they still might satisfy the itch. I places them in order of acting and filming quality, not my own personal preference.
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From Japan
Old Fashion Cupcake
Tokyo in April is...
Life: Love on the Line (director's cut)
My Beautiful Man
I Cannot Reach You
Seven Days
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From Taiwan
Red Balloon
We Best Love (esp part 2)
About Youth
HIStory 2: Crossing the Line
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From Korea
To My Star
Long Time No See
The New Employee
Where Your Eyes Linger
More like this?
I want to shout out The Eighth Sense here too. It's longer than movie length but so well acted.
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(source)
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