#he’s trying to rationalize this whole situation and by extent the whole plot of his life
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i'm so curious: what's your favorite thing you've written? something that makes you nod and go, "yeah, that's it right there. i did that." just the best combination of words you've ever churned out in your personal opinion. it makes you proud just Thinking about it. could be a sentence, a paragraph, etc.
very cute ask anon, thank you. im going to assume for your benefit that you mean specifically my icemav writing—obviously I write outside of top gun and am very proud of that stuff but it wouldn’t make sense out of context.
There’s a lot of more recent stuff that I’m extremely extremely proud of on a technical level, but I’m prouder of this paragraph below on a deeper more existential level.
This paragraph was one of the first parts of WWGATTAI i ever wrote—august 12, i think, well before I had fully realized the characters’ voices or their attitudes towards life/each other; I only had about 5k written of what is now a 300k+ project (at the time of writing this paragraph i wanted it to be 10k max) and had no real outline, didn’t know who or what I was dealing with, hadnt seen TGM in two months, had done no research (so it’s not at all politically/militarily accurate or anything, why the FUCK is ice going to fucking GUAM)—and STILL this wound up being my favorite paragraph in the entire fucking series. not to suck my own dick or anything. I’m STILL so proud of this paragraph, 9 months and 275k+ words later, even though i Absolutely Would Not write it this way now.
#narrative distance both incredibly close and incredibly far#he’s trying to rationalize this whole situation and by extent the whole plot of his life#we’re inside his head as he tries to convince both Pete and himself of this huge huge lie#which is that leaving (right after he fucked their relationship and their best friend just died) is worth it for the navy’s sake#and it will make him a good man#in the masculine strong man leadership sense#and Pete (first name instead of last name; über vulnerable in the worst way because he’s crying yet doesn’t want to be seen crying)#counters all of this lie with—does it? does it really mean you’re a good man? it means you’re the weakest most subservient man i know#bending over backwards for the navy instead of your FAMILY#yeah i would absolutely not write this paragraph this way NOW but i am still so proud of what it represents in the story#& the very experimental 2nd person without quotation marks is i think done very well#at least for august 2022 me#some wording/phrasing/detail issues but other than that—a great paragraph!#again not to suck my own dick but you asked!#pete maverick mitchell#tom iceman kazansky#icemav#top gun#top gun maverick#top gun fanfiction#edts notes#asks#this is a terrible chapter in aggregate but it has some of the best diamond-in-the-rough moments in the whole series#ughhh the Pete this has nothing to do with Afghanistan; pete this has nothing to do with iraq etc line…. SOO good omg i love it sorry
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Adversityfought! c:
My Opinion on URL: @adversityfought
Character in general:I say this a lot, but I adore how you write Chris. You really get into his head and write out his emotions incredibly. Chris is such a hard Character at times to write for because so much of his emotions are more internal later on in his life. You balance out all sides of him, but also expand on the character with head canons that really fit with him. I enjoy listening to you gush about his character because you’ve so feelings about the things he has been through.
You really think about how he would react to certain situations and take time to answer things. Which like I said before, your stuff is always worth the wait because everything turns out so beautiful.
How they play them: I love the different sides of Chris that you tackle with each thread. You capture the hardships he’s been through and really think how that has stayed with him. I adore seeing you on the dash because the way you write out scenes truly paints a picture in my head. You describe things so well, and with Chris you don’t place him into just being a sunshine boy. You have things you want to show that has truly lingered inside his heart. The guilt he has kept for years. Which is rare to see with muses, the depth you go into to learn more about him or refresh on certain things to keep showing who he is. All parts that make Chris and that is really beautiful to me.
The Mun: I adore you to pieces like I know we met a year ago, but taking a break, I was hardly around for a while but coming back to things and getting times to hang out are so fun. You have so many thoughts about characters, and the fact that we both love the dynamics are characters have mean so much. I hardly have anyone that really loves ships that I write to extent that I do too. I always fear that I may’be pushing things sometimes, but it makes me happy you like how the relationship with Jill and Chris is going. That we both have made playlists for them. I am also so thankful you were one of the people who helped me get back into writing. As you know, I dealt with a lot of stuff recently, so to have you encourage me to write for Resident Evil has helped so much. I love the server we are both on so much and being able to hang out and just talk with you is something I cherish rather it’s rp stuff or anything.
Your art is so beautiful, and I smile every time I see you on the dash because you put so much love into your work. I know you worry sometimes about not being around at times but you and your content are worth the wait. You matter the most and when you need time to rest that is valid. Just know I love you and your Chris to ends of the earth. All your muses you pull off so beauituflly too.
Do I:
Rp with them: Yes, I do. I know we have so many threads and small drabbles going, but it’s fun to have different types of writing to work on for these characters. I did mention it before but anytime you want to try something like a certain type of thread you are always welcome to plot stuff with me. I like love the dark verse threads we have because it’s such an amazing concept. The fact that it’s still Chris, but he’s not making most rational choices. The whole concept that he still is protective but his choices can lead to others getting hurt. The man has lost so much and just wants a break. The hero that chose a different path than others. The tension that can cause and ideas toss into that thread are endless.
I also just want to appreciate you for always sending stuff into me. It makes me happy that you want to write with me because sometimes I struggle with feeling like I write things well.
Want to Rp with them: I always want to rp with you because you’ve such a beautiful way of bring Chris to life. To really dig deep into his emotions and understanding how he works. I hope we can do more threads in the future where we can delve into topics that we talked about. Like the whole them splitting up to go separate ways to find Wesker. How hard and emotional that would be for both of them.
What is my;
Overall Opinion: I will never not gush about how talented and incredible you are, Helian like you have always been so good at forming together threads that flow so well. The details put into each one and how you have so much love for your muses, especially Chris, who I know was a bit of surprise. You write him so well and like I always hear him in everything you write for him. You really put so much love into his blog and character. I love listening to you gush and ramble about ideas you’ve for them because all of it makes sense for his character. You are playing outside the sandbox and making this character into something even more incredible. Like I always loved Chris but writing with you makes me love him even more. He’s done so much for others and has always been the type to be protective.
Never let go of the love and passion you’ve for him because it’s beautiful to see and I’m beyond grateful to have you as someone I consider a close friend. I trust you and care about you endlessly. I love the nights we can play games and just gush about things or even ideas we have for futrue stuff. It’s really fun and helped me feel happier. Thank you from the bottom of my heart for being such a sweetie.
#Echo of the Ocean(Answered Asks)#ooc:Hnnng I cried while writing this but I'll always gush about you and your work
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Yandere England HCs
I remember somewhere around here in my inbox somebody requested yandere England hcs. If I recall correctly, there handle was @hehehhewaitwhat Sadly, the ask has vanished from the box, but I still recall receiving it! So here you go:
Yandere England
Arthur would be one of the yanderes that would play it cool at first. No cool isn’t the right word – it is cold. He would believe in keeping a tight control on his emotions, least they take over him and he is no longer his own master. All in all, a very good idea, it is just the matter of execution that matters – Arthur would be doing this in a very unhealthy way. He’d bottle up his feeling on a large part, refusing to analysis them and locate the source, not to mention expressing his emotions in healthy ways. And here would be where the yandere tendencies start to blossom.
It would result in all his ignored and unacknowledged feelings for you start to seep through in the most eery ways, ways that would be borderline toxic. What could have potentially been love would become twisted and wrapped, some of Arthur’s other issues just amplifying this. In the end, he wouldn’t be able to prevent himself from either manipulating you into his web, or outright kidnapping you.
The insistent burning in his veins never ceased, rather it grew even worse when you weren’t close to him. It was magma rolling in his veins, eradicating even more of his rational thoughts the longer he attempted to ignore it.
In an attempt to remedy it, Arthur turned the water in the shower to ice-cold. A mistake on his part. It had gave a sharp contrast and thus made the concoction of emotions stand out all the sharper. It made him wonder if the only cure would be to give into them and let nature take its course.
Yet that was something he couldn’t allow. Emotions were the leftovers of a primordial past – notions that didn’t follow any logic or decency. If they weren’t controlled, then they would control.
He turned his face up to the stream of water, as if it could wash away all the sinful thoughts about you that had begun to haunt him. That was a tragedy on its own – he never could be rid of you. You would come to haunt his dreams uninvited, invade his thoughts unwelcomed. He remembered when his interest in you had just been a mere sapling. Now it was a field of weeds, a contagion that was completely out of his control and still demanded his attention.
He shouldn’t have ignored his love when it had started to sprout, for now it had turned into obsession.
Of course, he’ll try the former way first before anything else – he would know that you wouldn’t really appreciate it if he abducted you. England would turn the charm on and boy, can he be charming when he wants to be. It wouldn’t be in grand, over the top gestures – that is for amateurs. It would come in small, effective gestures that would become bigger over time – freshly picked flowers from his garden, biscuits he made himself and then he would go over to bigger presents like a dinner in a fancy restaurant. His aim would be to have you completely smittened before he would start to cut you off from the rest of the world and to mould you into what constitutes for a perfect person.
It was a fine day; the sun painting the sky in a kaleidoscope of warm colours and caused the green of the hills to become so saturated. Or maybe it was because you were in love that the world was all the more vivid, that the air smelled sweeter and the arm that was curled around your waist felt so right.
Arthur was being charming, a good-natured smile making his sharp features softer. He had taken you out to dinner tonight, a brief affair at a rustic inn out in a no-name little village. Yet the simple meal had been the best you had had in a long time.
So, with a full stomach in satisfaction in your heart, Arthur was accompanying you back home on this summer’s evening.
“My dear, that was a very wonderful day with you”, he remarked warmly, echoing your thoughts.
“Yes, it was. You couldn’t have picked a better place to go out. I would like to do such a thing again.”
He chuckled lowly at your affirmation. “Oh, love. I wouldn’t mind doing that every day with you for the rest of our lives.”
Under other circumstances, if you weren’t so smittened with him, you would realise that what he had said couldn’t be right. Good days can’t be copy-pasted on the future forever, happiness can’t be played constantly on repeat. It has to be experienced, the cause ever varied and reinvented so that it doesn’t become dull.
Yet you weren’t not in love with him. You were neither alarmed by the clinginess the statement implied or by how sappy it was. And that was exactly what Arthur wanted.
To be clear, he wouldn’t want a weak, stupid lover. There would be nothing more off-putting to him than a whiny, spineless idiot who can’t do anything on their own. In that way, you could say he’d have high standards. He’d want somebody who is a challenge, you’d be tactful in their conduct and somebody who’d have wit to match his. Arthur has a sharp tongue and even with you he wouldn’t shy away from dispensing chidings and sharp remarks. He’d also demand you have a spine of steel, that you wouldn’t simply cave in the face of danger. If you wouldn’t have these qualities, then you’d have to adopt them, and he would be never uncompromising about that.
Ironically, while he would manipulate you into having these qualities, he wouldn’t tolerate you having them to the extent would make your relationship impossible. He wouldn’t want to be taken care of in the terms of you being the breadwinner, doing business and all that. He would want to fulfil that roles for you, whether you’re a woman or a man. It would be a chronic need to provide for you, to be the dominate one in the relationship.
You sighed for the untempt time this afternoon. No matter how much you read the page of the book, the meaning of the passages eluded you. At this point, you only had a gist of what was going on and it frustrated you to no end.
Carefully, you placed a bookmark on the page that you had been busy with and closed the hard-cover novel quietly. You knew all to well that one of the easiest ways to get Arthur in a hissy fit was to maltreat one of his books. He claimed that books had to be treated with respect, because somebody had once put a lot of effort and time into writing it. A disrespect to the book was therefore an indirect disrespect to the author.
You leaned back in your chair and stared up at the decorations of the room. Arthur of course had to live in a mansion that seemingly was a time capsule for the age of Empire. Talk about being attracted to the glorious old days.
Carding your fingers through your hair, you cursed yourself. When did you get the brilliant idea to study the classics? Oh yes, it was when Arthur mentioned the benefits of higher literature while the two you had been cleaning. He had claimed that the complex characters made the reader better at socializing, at understanding that even the most despicable characters had softer sides. That it made a person for eloquent and at understanding the nuances of reality.
And of course, since you were constantly seeking to improve yourself, you had asked him if you could peruse his library. Arthur had whole-heartedly encouraged you and you knew that he would be extremely disappointed if you abandoned this chance to grow.
So, you opened the book again and reassumed the torture.
The need for dominance would be a manifestation for Arthur’s addiction to be in control. He is sort of the opinion that power is best left in his hands, and that nobody except him can properly wield it. And if he’d have the feeling that his control over would be slipping, then he would lash out. The most physical he’d get with his punishments would be caning. All in all, punishments would always be along the lines of what detention looked like in the old public schools during the Empire.
He would also have a certain image of what intelligent would look like. That would mean restrictions in your activities: no comics, no cartoons, no fizzy drinks, god have mercy on you is you have an addiction because he would have none, he says which parties you’re allowed to go to (that would be more in the beginning of the relationship), no sleeping in, no being lazy. And if you wouldn’t conform, then he’d manipulate you into doing so.
Arthur is a man who would quickly become jealous. He’d be scared if you’d be plotting to leave him, or worse, rope other’s in into helping you plunge a knife in his back. So, he would be quick to convincing you to cut of contact with people that he wouldn’t like. This would be a win-win situation for him because the less social contact you’d have beside him, the deeper your bond with him would become. Further on in your relationship, he’d convince you to rely solely on him and that other people wouldn’t be trustworthy. That he’d be the only person that would ever truly understand you, that would have your best interests at heart, that would help you grow into the best person you could be. That the world is a shit place and that you should be grateful that he is there to shield you from it. In order to encourage that last one, he would allow you to watch the news, extensively.
If wooing you into being with him wouldn’t work, then he would coerce you into a relationship. However, he wouldn’t do anything drastic such as threatening your loved ones, rather the threats would be hidden, or he would present himself as the best option of getting you out a ditch (such as financial issues). He’d try his best to construct the situation so that you would be inclined to trick yourself into thinking you wanted it. Kidnapping would be a last resort for him.
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Spoiler Warning!!! - This review will contain spoilers for all of SDR2 and the first chapter of DRV3 as well as slight spoilers for DR1. You’ve been warned.
I see no god up here other than me
Gundham Tanaka- His name is GUNDHam TaNAKA
Sonia Nevermind- This is my third time typing this rant. I literally don’t know why people hate her so much?? There are two main arguments that I’ve come across. The first is that she is boring and shouldn’t have survived, but that’s the same as Asahina and everyone seems to love her. (Don’t get me wrong, I also love her, but all she had were donuts and her relationship with Sakura) She’s just a cute girl with some occult-ish quirks and I don’t see why that has to be such a bad thing. The other, more prevalent, argument is that since she’s at the center of the infamous love triangle, she must be the root of all its problems. It’s really frustrating when people blame her for Kazuichi’s faults. I’ll talk more about Kazuichi later, but his terrible qualities are a result of his own actions, and Sonia shouldn’t be blamed for being the object of his affections. It’s honestly blaming the victim and I’m sick of it. Obviously, she hasn’t treated him perfectly and I understand why people are frustrated with it. The only example of this, though, is in chapter four when she goes back-and-forth between treating him coldly and praising him when she should’ve just rejected him a long time ago. However, I think I can understand where she’s coming from in this chapter. I think it was kind of a Shuichi/Kaede situation. She had already figured out that Gundham was the killer, but didn’t want to admit it to herself, and definitely didn’t want to tell everyone else even though he was more than ready to admit it. Therefore, she treated Kazuichi coldly whenever he was getting close to the truth (or treating her poorly) and praised him whenever he was leading the group in the wrong direction. I don’t have any evidence that these were the times she treated him this way, but that’s how I remember it. Anyway, Kazuichi should stop being a creep, and apologists should stop rationalizing it. Her one slip-up in this case when she was panicked and worried for her closest friend does not make up for all of the other times Kazuichi treated her terribly.
You’re the best
Fuyuhiko Kuzuryuu- Boss baby boss baby boss baby. Also, he’s a fantastically fleshed out character and his relationship with Peko makes me cry literally every time :) I just wish his character development had been a bit more stretched out, instead of on-the-spot like it was. I also kinda wish his sudden development had been a result of the despair disease, but you can’t have everything.
Nagito Komaeda- Recently, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about how SimpleFlips calls softlocking in SM64 “gay baby jail” and Komaeda makes me think of that.
Chiaki Nanami- I’m not quite as attached to her as everyone else seems to be, but I totally see the appeal. Cute girl, cute backpack, and plot-relevant??? Incredible.
Ibuki Mioda- She’s just so fun. I don’t typically like characters who are loud for the sake of being loud, but I can’t help but love her. This was the first game I fully voice-acted for fun (the girls, at least) and Ibuki was definitely one of my favorites. It just feels good to yell sometimes, you know?
Hey, I think you’re pretty cool, I like you a lot
Peko Pekoyama- I’m a simple woman. I think of chapter two, I cry. At least, the epilogue of that case. I wasn’t the biggest fan of Twilight Syndrome Murder Case and I definitely didn’t like the, albeit fake, serial killer twist. It didn’t feel natural and just felt bad. Loved hearing Sonia say “Sparkling Justice!”, though.
Hiyoko Saionji- I totally understand why people hate her. I get it, I do. But I just can’t bring myself to hate her. She’s obviously not a good person, but I have shit taste. Byakuya and Kokichi aren’t good people, but everyone loves them anyway. I just think she’s so funny and terrible, I can’t help but get attached. I’m not usually the type to like little sister characters, or even bullies, but she’s just such a perfect combination of the two that I can’t help but love her. I also obviously am not the biggest fan of Mikan (I’ll explain, I swear) so the bullying didn’t really affect me too much.
Hajime Hinata- He’s the protagonist. I don’t really know what to tell you. I used to believe in Hajime supremacy, but I’m starting to understand the Shuichi supremacy now, so idk, Hajime might end up lower after I finish V3.
Byakuya Togami/Ultimate Imposter- He’s just such a good guy. I know that the real Byakuya is an ass, but the imposter is so nice and supportive. I can’t even take him seriously as Byakuya anymore because of how supportive he is. The real Byakuya could never. I just finished his last free-time event and he really feels like his own person now, which I can imagine is all he’s ever wanted. He isn’t Byakuya to me anymore, he’s himself. I just don’t have a unique name to call him by.
I remember you
Mahiru Koizumi- Her photography thing was cute, I liked it a lot. I don’t know the basic stance people take on her crush on Hajime, but I thought it was really cute and believable. I don’t know if I ship it, but I can see it in canon. It makes sense and works well.
Akane Owari- She’s a jock. I feel pretty neutral about jocks unless they have another prevalent thing that fits my interests.
Nekomaru Nidai- Again, a jock. I’m just not the biggest fan. I know that his backstory makes up for a lot of his inherent jock boringness, but I just can’t get into him as much as some other people can. I definitely see the appeal, though.
Usami/Monomi- She’s a mascot. Cool. Honestly preferred Monophanie.
You are literally the worst. Actual scum. Leave this planet and never return
Mikan Tsumiki- I told you I’d explain. First, I need to explain some personal reasons I didn’t like her, rather than objective characteristics. Like I mentioned with Ibuki, I voice-acted the whole game with each of the girls. Never before has a voice physically affected me as much as Mikan’s. In order to make her voice so high and quiet, I have to close my throat and tighten my jaw. It makes my throat, jaw, and head hurt all at the same time and it feels awful. The only time this wasn’t the case was during her breakdown and that’s because I couldn’t make her say those things with that voice, it didn’t make sense. Which brings me to my next point: her breakdown. I didn’t like it. At all. It wasn’t interesting and it didn’t make sense. I know that everyone else was sad because she was bullied a bunch and began to romanticize it, and yeah, I feel bad, but it wasn’t enough to make me like her. Her breakdown made a little more sense after watching the anime, believe it or not, but it was still not great. She could’ve been easily redeemed for me if she had a different motive for killing Hiyoko. I don’t really have an opinion on whether or not Ibuki should’ve lived longer, or even survived, but I definitely agree with Hiyoko dying during the third case, I just wish the motive had been different. It would’ve been so powerful if Mikan’s despair disease had made her remember her past with the bullying, and then she realized how much she hated it. She started to notice how Hiyoko was treating her and finally snaps. She kills Hiyoko in cold blood on purpose, instead of on accident, and covers it up in a more reasonable way instead the literal impossibility that we actually got. Then, in her breakdown, instead of pleading for forgiveness, she tries to rationalize her actions and convince everyone else that she was in the right by killing her. It would’ve been much more interesting and would’ve made much more sense. I also wish she had made use of Ibuki’s despair disease (which made her gullible) and commanded her to hang herself instead of staging the other thing, because it was a lot of extra work that was really unnecessary and it would’ve made more use of the despair disease other than a plot contrivance for Junko’s entrance. This kind of turned into my review for the third chapter, but still. Killers are always more fleshed out in their respective chapters, so their existence is often pretty much tied to the events of that chapter, since everything typically revolves around them. I might as well add here that her execution was really basic and underwhelming, but as far as I’ve seen, I’m not alone in that opinion.
Monokuma- It’s kind of an ironic hate with Monokuma. Sure, he makes me laugh, but he’s also fuel for the killing game, so... I don’t know. He pisses me off sometimes, but he’s also pretty funny at other times.
Kazuichi Souda- This is basically a continuation of the Sonia rant, so here we go. I would like to preface this by saying that in the context of Kazuichi’s free-time events, he’s one of my favorite characters. However, in the main story, I placed him here. I would normally average out my opinions of his different forms, but his optional events don’t make up for his actions that are required to be experienced. While some of his quips toward Sonia made me laugh, they still made me uncomfortable to some extent. It’s honestly frustrating to see him try so hard when she obviously isn’t interested in him. Some people choose to see this as an underdog story, but I think it’s just annoying and low-key creepy. He’s constantly fetishizing Sonia and keeps making moves on her even after she treats him coldly. He isn’t brave or cool for doing this, like the media would like you to believe, he’s creepy and persistent, and not in a good way. While I do agree that Sonia should’ve just turned him down from the very beginning, I still don’t put all of that blame on her. I’m sure she’s had her fair share of creepy guys making advances on her and she’s just had to take it, since she’s a princess and it would hurt her noble reputation. Kazuichi should also be able to think for himself and see that she’s not interested. It shouldn’t be completely up to her to get him to stop. He should be able to take a hint and back off, whether she tells him directly or otherwise. She definitely hints to him that she’s not interested in some of the later chapters, but he completely ignores it and keeps trying anyway. I wouldn’t have such a problem with him if he didn’t represent a very real issue that we are facing in the world today. Nice guys will, unfortunately, always be plaguing our society and it doesn’t look like they’re getting any better. It doesn’t help that the media continually raises them up and convinces them that they are in the right, even though they definitely aren’t. No man is entitled to any woman and people need to stop sympathizing with men who are rejected and keep pushing. In almost every post I’ve seen from Kazuichi apologists, they explain that Sonia should’ve given him a chance. Really? She did give him a chance. She gave him several chances, in fact, more than she was entitled to. The first time she acted coldly towards him was at the end of chapter 4. That’s four entire chapters, plus a prologue, of chances that she gave him. She was always polite and talked to him when he approached her. Maybe she saw this as her noble duty, but either way, she didn’t reject him outright the first time she saw him. She tried to be friends, he was creepy, and then she started to hint that she wasn’t interested. This is a natural progression for her character and is in no way wrong of her. He is not entitled to her attention and should learn to back off when he’s not wanted. The other big reason I see that people don’t like Sonia is because she basically ruined any chance of Kazuichi and Gundham having any sort of relationship other than rivals. Again, it’s not Sonia’s fault that they both liked her. It’s also not her fault for choosing Gundham over Kazuichi, since he treated her respectfully and they also shared interests. She also didn’t need a specific reason to choose Gundham over Kazuichi, because she is free to make her own choices based on anything she wants, including nothing. Even though I said all of this, I do actually wish that Gundham and Kazuichi could’ve had some kind of relationship. I think it could’ve been very interesting, but it didn’t need to be devoid of Sonia. I think it would’ve been just as interesting for Gundham and Kazuichi to talk with Sonia as it would’ve been for her to introduce them to each other more formally and get them to become friends. I think it could’ve been fun for Kazuichi to have a little playful resentment towards Gundham for getting the girl, but instead, he went completely off the deep end. If he had just backed off like I suggested earlier, maybe they could’ve had that relationship that everyone longed for. I am also obligated to say here that I think all of his free-time events were absolutely adorable and the fact that he gets motion sickness is the single best piece of comedy every written.
Teruteru Hanamura- I’ve been doing a lot of rants and I’m kind of tired of it. You know why I don’t like him, I don’t need to explain it. He’s shitty, blah blah blah. His tiny bit of plot with his mother didn’t really do anything to redeem him for me and I just plain don’t like him. Sorry, not sorry.
Wow, this took way too long. I forgot I had so many opinions on these characters. I would’ve said a lot more about Gundham, but it’s kind of my thing here to say more about my second favorite characters and characters that I don’t like than my favorite characters, and I knew there were going to be several rants, so I decided to keep his very short. My definitive favorites list is Gundham and then Sonia, with a pending Fuyuhiko in third. The four dark devas are the best characters and I’m so upset they weren’t on here. I would apologize for my Kazuichi rant, since it had two parts, both of which were very long, but it all needed to be said because I’m sick and tired of Kazuichi apologists. They keep coming across my dash and I would like to be rid of them. If you like Kazuichi, that’s fine, I actually quite like him, too, you just need to acknowledge his faults instead of just rationalizing them in a bad way. If someone wants to send me reasons why Sonia is terrible, I’ll listen, because I’m sure I’m probably being a bit of a Sonia apologist, although I feel like her actions were a lot less impactful. Sondam supremacy, thank you, goodnight.
#bullshittierlists#danganronpa#super danganronpa 2#sdr2#drv3#dr1#gundham tanaka#sonia nevermind#fuyuhiko kuzuryuu#nagito komaeda#chiaki nanami#ibuki mioda#peko pekoyama#hiyoko saionji#hajime hinata#byakuya togami#ultimate imposter#mahiru koizumi#akane owari#nekomaru nidai#monomi#usami#mikan tsumiki#monokuma#kazuichi souda#teruteru hanamura#sondam#sondam supremacy#fuyupeko#kuzupeko
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What do you think of Q?
Hello anon!
I think Q is a character with the potential of being very rich symbolically and I hope they come back soon.
It is clear from their appearance that they are a character who represents duality:
Their hair are half-white and half-black and after seeing them for the first time Dazai is unable to define their gender. This duality emerges also by their profile where it is stated that Yumeno both loves and hates themselves.
Especially this last contradiction says something about Yumeno’s interiority and this something is made clear in the story itself:
Q might act sadistically, but deep down it is obvious that they are just reacting to a world which has been tormenting and dehumanizing them because of their diversity. This dehumanization appears also in the way other characters refer to them. As a matter of fact the other mafia members prefer to use the letter Q to call them, despite them having a proper name. What is more, the way basically every adult has reacted to Q so far clearly shows that Q really represents for the other characters what they repress.
This is made clear by their ability as well:
Their power is called by Dazai mind-control, but what it does is actually to let every person face the things they refuse to accept about themselves. This is perfectly shown when Atsushi is cursed.
The whole scene is pretty well made and explicative, so I hope you don’t mind if I take the chance to comment it a little.
First of all, Q opens their attack by chanting a song which is used in a game:
According to the translator’s notes, the game has a group of people surrounding a person who has their eyes closed. They are the oni and while they can’t see the others start moving in a circle chanting the song. When the song is over, the oni has to guess who is the person behind them.
The description of the game is meaningful for the battle on multiple levels. On one hand the song talking about the person behind Atsushi seems to underline the fact that Haruno is brainwashed, so it is as if Yumeno is telling Atsushi to watch his back. On the other hand Atsushi is immediately put in the position of the Oni who is blind. In other words, it is clear that the song foreshadows that Atsushi is really the one who can’t see properly and can’t recognize neither himself nor his surroundings:
At the same time, Oni means demon in Japanese (if I am not wrong) and this could be a reference to Atsushi’s violent side. We can also say that the whole scene shows Atsushi’s way to cope with his own violence. As a matter of fact Atsushi justifies it only if necessary to protect others. This is why Yumeno’s illusion tricking him into attacking his two colleagues is especially fitting to show the limits of such a mindset.
On one hand Atsushi frames himself as heroic because he is trying to protect others. On the other hand we are clearly shown how this is hypocritical to an extent:
Even if Haruno and Naomi were brainwashed Atsushi would have still used violence and even his ability against two people with no combat experience and far weaker than him. At the same time, the fact that he hurt them doesn’t change the fact that he was animated by the best intentions and that it was not his fault that he was brainwashed. However, he is fast to justify his violence when he thinks that the others are the ones manipulated, but he immediately blames himself when he turns out to have been the target. This highlights Atsushi’s complicated relationship with strength and weakness and his need to feel in the right.
Atsushi falls in the illusion’s trap because of his bias in perceiving both himself and others and this is what he must overcome with time.
So this example makes clear that Q is so hated because they represent what people want to forget about. This is probably true for Dazai as well, despite the fact that Q’s ability doesn’t work on him:
We don’t have many details, but it is easy to infer that Dazai used to be close to Q probably because he was the only person who could go near them without fearing Dogra Magra. However, something happened and Q ended up misusing their power, so Dazai “sealed them away”. It is not a secret that a part of Dazai’s arc will be about facing his past in the mafia and Q represents a part of this past Dazai would very much like to leave behind.
Generally speaking, Yumeno is the child nobody wants to save because it is too troublesome. Dazai left them behind, the mafia imprisoned them and weaponized them and nobody seems to care. Because of this, it is fitting that it is Yumeno’s ability the one which risks to destroy the city:
What Steinbeck says here perfectly shows the problem. He is in front of a child who is crying and screaming and who is asking why they have to suffer and all Steinbeck has to offer as a reply is that it is because it has been decided this way. This is a very fatalistic outlook which fits with this character who says to hate capitalism, but accepts to work for a capitalist and takes on the renmants of said capitalist’s organization. Steinbeck might dislike some parts of society, but rather than trying to change them he has accepted them as unavoidable and has tried to modify his social standing to be on the side of those who use others rather than on the one of those who get used.
In short, it is because of the way society works that Q has been suffering and so it makes perfect sense that society risks to be destroyed by them. All the people who unknowingly get cursed by them are people who have hurt them without realizing it. This is perfect to metaphorically show that it is the citizens not caring which lets mechanisms damaging the weak survive. Q almost destroys the city because the city has almost destroyed them with its indifference.
This is why it is interesting and potentially meaningful the fact that Yumeno is finally saved by an alliance born between two enemy organizations and by two people who seem to have been connected with them in some way:
However, even if they are saved, they are not really safe because the two people who should take care of them are still stuck in their own limitations:
Chuuya is still too blinded by his emotions to recognize in Q a person who needs help and Dazai still leaves them behind. In other words, these two adults are still too wrapped up in their respective extreme perspectives and do not really manage to integrate them. On one hand Chuuya is animated by deep emotions, but he is limited by the fact that he applies them only to his little group of loved ones. On the other hand Dazai has a better rational understanding of the fact that people of different groups are still people, but he has trouble expressing healthy feelings towards them and so he goes back to logical solutions which make sense, but are also pretty cold.
In short, Q is a person who is not given the help they need and this is why they are who they are. As a matter of fact it is obvious that Q’s ability which targets people after they have been hurt is meant to be read as a defense mechanism. Q will hurt the people who make them suffer and not others. However, Q uses their ability in an overly-sensitive way and doesn’t discriminate among their targets. Yumeno puts themselves in a situation where they will always be wounded, no matter what others do. Q is so scared and diffident towards people that they have chosen to consider every person an enemy. This is something which ends up hurting them more than what it helps them. This is made obvious both symbolically and plot-wise.
1) The symbolic representation of Yumeno’s complicated situation is highlighted by their doll. The doll appears as a monstruous version of Q themselves since they wear similar clothes. This means that the doll being broken to unleash the curse represents Q themselves being hurt by this whole vicious cycle which keeps damaging them.
2) Yumeno ends up in a dire situation because of their own actions. As a matter of fact they provoke Lovecraft and end up paying the price for this. This is important because of several reasons.
First of all, both Yumeno and Lovecraft are representative of the horror genre and they are both associated with the montrousity, but in different ways. Yumeno’s monstrousity is linked to the mind and to one’s interioriy, while Lovecraft is monstrous because he is not properly human and so he is far stronger than humans and somehow difficult to properly understand.
Because of this, Yumeno’s meeting with Lovecraft shows how the former can’t expect to face the world alone helped only by their power because Dogra Magra has limits and there are forces against which it won’t work.
At the same time, Yumeno is also punished because of their insensitivity towards others. They have fun torturing people with the things they are mostly tormented by, but Lovecraft shows them that a person’s darkest side can be dangerous not only for the person themselves, but for Yumeno too. Because of that, Yumeno should show empathy towards people’s struggle and not approach them in a light-hearted way.
In conclusion, it is true that people must learn to face their fears and short-comings, but Yumeno too should learn not to toy with these things because it could be dangerous and it won’t let them develop healthy relationships and they need them.
I hope this answer your question!
Thank you for the ask!
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SNK 128 Review
Attack on Titan/Terminator crossover when?
The last two chapters were an inexplicable low point for the series. Quality storytelling zoomed by us and jumped right out the window.
It was like the opposite of how most fans viewed the early days of the series. In those days, the story was good, but the art was atrocious. Now the art is great, but the storytelling is atrocious.
Characters said things without explanation, events happened without explanation, there might have been a teleporting horse or two at some point. I don’t know, but it was bad.
Now, I’m happy to say this chapter is SNK back in full form. This was peak Attack on Titan.
…For good and ill.
Let’s start with the good.
One of the best things about this series is the action. The action is almost always great, and a big reason why is that Isayama isn’t afraid to go big.
There were lots of big moments in this fight sequence.
Mikasa crashing through the window, Armin shot full of bullets, Annie and Reiner, Kiyomi beating Floch’s ass. It all made for an exhilarating read.
Isayama also understands how to pace an action scene.
Unlike every other part of his story. This was an obligatory potshot sorry not sorry.
There’s a beat to the sequence. Big moments punctuate lengths of relatively calmer action.
Mikasa crashes through the window and saves everyone. Next big thing is Armin getting shot down, but in between the two moments is Mikasa and everyone fleeing the thunder spears. It’s something of a reprieve between major plot beats.
There are reprieves like that between all the major moments. Isayama is inexplicably uneven with applying these principles to the whole story, but he typically does it well in action sequences.
See: the last two chapters.
Relatedly, another great thing about the chapter is the stakes. This is also to do with the pacing.
There’s a great escalation to this chapter.
Armin and Connie try to trick Floch because they want to avoid a fight, Floch doesn’t take it, Kiyomi fights back unexpectedly, Mikasa steps in, they flee for their lives, Armin is taken out, Annie and Reiner step in with their titans, and Connie kills in cold blood.
The stakes get higher and higher. That’s what good pacing looks like.
And on a more macro scale, we get an update on Eren’s progress and it’s worse than we thought. He’s already reached the mainland. Millions are probably dead.
That’s a big thing to drop on us just before a make or break action sequence.
Stakes have been risen.
Ok, now for the bad.
First off, Magath.
I mean, he’s saying things that make sense, but you can’t just have a character do a 180 with no build up.
Magath is talking like he’s thought a lot about this. Sure would have been nice to see some of that thinking.
The fatal flaw for this chapter is that it’s just a retread of the Uprising arc. All this action is cool and well done, but at base, it’s all stuff we’ve seen before.
Once again, we’re faced with a brother vs brother kind of conflict. People who should be comrades in arms are forced to turn their arms against each other. The only difference is that this time the government our heroes rebel against is a bit too in love with fighting for survival.
This could have been an interesting contrast. Attack on Titan has usually been emphatically supportive of fighting for survival. The OG Uprising happened because the government refused to fight and the Survey Corps decided they had to overthrow them.
This time, the government is so in love with fighting that death means nothing to them. Floch kills people just for talking back to him. I’m sure he’ll gladly die if he thought it’d help his race.
This was a great opportunity for the series to explore a new angle on its usual themes.
To some extent, the series has already touched upon this. That’s why Eren is a 3000 lbs. dino-titan right now. He took the SNK mantra too close to heart; now he’s a lumbering monstrosity bearing down on innocent lives.
So put this down as a missed opportunity to expand on that.
Instead of that, this chapter is spinning its thematic wheels, stuck in Uprising-era thinking.
“O, woe is me, must I really turn thine arms on my fellow countrymen? Must the world be so cruel?”
That is the conflict of this chapter in a nutshell.
Totally a retread of the Uprising arc.
The final scene, where Connie has to kill a compatriot in order to save Armin’s life, is exactly the same as the scene in Uprising where Armin had to kill the soldier threatening Jean.
Same setup. The killer, Armin in Uprising and Connie in this arc, has expressed reservations about harming his compatriots even to achieve his goals.
That person finds themselves in a situation where the life of a comrade is threatened by a compatriot.
They have no choice but to take a gun and shoot the compatriot in the head, killing them in cold blood.
The moral is the same too: sometimes, you have to kill to survive.
The character writing suffers because of this.
For some reason, Isayama decided be wanted to make the exact same point again, but he didn’t want to put any fresh spin on it.
Thus we are served with the absolute disservice of Jean, Connie, Armin, and Mikasa forgetting the Uprising Arc ever happened, and the lessons they learned from it.
Their experiences from Uprising are directly and obviously applicable to this current situation, but it never occurs to them. It’s honestly stupid of them.
That’s a problem with Isayama. It’s really hard for him to present a viewpoint genuinely opposed to his own in good faith.
There is no debate in this manga. Characters disagree sometimes, but one side is always obviously wrong and one side is always obviously right, and you can tell because the wrong side is always struck silent when confronted by the right side’s #truth.
I get that the point is that they don’t want to kill their compatriots, but still, Jean, Connie, Armin, and Mikasa…are adults, right?
They should be able to articulate a strategic vision that doesn’t entail killing people, even if it’s just to avoid doing something they don’t want to do, shouldn’t they?
In fact, I’ll do that right now.
“We want to be at full strength when we face Eren, so we should avoid a fight at all costs.”
I came up with that on the fly! -flexes-
When Reiner tells them to just hang back and let the warriors fight, Connie rightfully points out they’re basically being infantilized, so I guess that Isayama’s point is that they are being childish, but still, their characters should be past that point.
(Mikasa gets points, though, for coming closest to a smart rationalization.)
The strongest example of this character regression is Connie’s outburst. Connie is pressed on avoiding a fight and he explodes on them.
“You know we’re here in order to save people, right?! So, why are you making it sound like we’re going to have to slaughter all these people on the island?! How did it turn into this?!”
Da fuck is he talking about?
How, indeed.
No one is talking about slaughtering everyone on the island. Where is this even coming from?
Well, maybe that’s the point. Isayama, flawed writer that he is, can only think of Connie’s reluctance to kill his compatriots as deranged, so he’s having Connie talk like a deranged man.
Yeah, that would make sense, if only…
Annie: You’re right.
No, he’s not! What are you doing!?
Look, maybe I just have the wrong perspective on this, but I think Annie is completely fucking wrong.
It’s true the warriors are the only ones with a personal stake in this. They’re fighting for their homeland’s survival; the 104th is not. So she’s right, the warriors have no right to make them kill their fellow countrymen.
But that lack of a right goes deeper than that. The warriors have to right to force the 104th to help them at all.
And you know what that means?
It means no one is forcing the 104th to be here.
The warriors can’t ask them to fight their compatriots because more broadly they can’t ask them to fight Eren. They chose to stand against Eren anyway.
Choosing to fight Eren very clearly extends to fighting his pissant lackeys.
The warriors cannot ask them to fight the Yeagerists because that is an extension of not being able to ask them to fight Eren. Naturally, them choosing to fight Eren means they’ve chosen to fight the pro-Eren Yeagerists.
So, ok, our heroes are forced to dirty their hands, and the series wants us to think about why that is. Why did it have to come to violence?
K, I’ll bite. Let’s think about this.
Let’s dive in deep on this. Why does this violence keep happening?
And don’t say it’s because of the cycle of violence Isayama talks about.
I’m talking even deeper than that.
Why does the cycle happen in the first place? And what perpetuates it?
It happens because people always forget the past. They don’t remember history.
Ok. And why don’t they remember?
They don’t remember because of a complex web of factors, some personal and others structural.
Think about it this way:
Right now, brothers are killing brothers. Why? To get an answer, why don’t we look at another time when brother killed brother.
In the 1860s, a war was fought in the United States. Many states tried to destroy the country to preserve their fundamentally racist way of life.
Brother killing brother. Why did it have to come to that?
I think Abraham Lincoln said it best.
“On the occasion corresponding to this four years ago [1861] all thoughts were anxiously directed to an impending civil war. All dreaded it, all sought to avert it. While the inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war—seeking to dissolve the Union and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.”
This is from a speech he gave in 1865, a month and a half before his death, and a few weeks before the end of the war.
The war happened for structural reasons and personal ones.
For both sides, war was acceptable as a means to an end because of the incentives of the moment. The situation was structured to make war an option.
At the same time, there were personal factors involved. It’s not that the war would have happened no matter what personalities were involved. Indeed, the right man at the right time can make a big difference.
Why did Connie and Samuel have to fight?
Part of it is because there’re hotheads like Floch calling the shots.
Floch is the absolute worst man for this moment.
But so far, this has been purely descriptive. Ethically speaking, one side is clearly in the right.
Lincoln nailed it in his speech:
“Both parties deprecated war, but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive, and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.”
One side countenances war, while the other merely tolerates it.
So why do you think this had to happen?
I’ll tell you what not to think.
“Violence is one thing you can’t take from humanity.”
Thinking about it in terms of violence and being violent, as Yelena does, is lazy.
There are reasons why the world is cruel, but that’s actually a good thing, because if the world is so cruel for a reason, that means we can change the world and make it less cruel.
And that, if you squint really hard, is another theme of Attack on Titan.
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[LET’S TALK RE2MAKE] Ada and Leon
There is so much I want to talk about regarding this game, that I’ve decided to just divide it in different posts because, wow, there is A LOT to unpack here. It’s no surprise that I started playing Leon’s scenario, mainly because I wanted to see Ada in this new rendition (and also Leon and Ada/Leon, of course!). A heads-up: this is probably going to be very convoluted and not-at-all-organized, but I need to get it out and talk about these two.
I’ll admit my main fear was that Capcom could’ve butchered Ada’s characterization, but in the end I had nothing to worry about because we could argue this Ada is even better than in any previous appearances. Mainly because RE2make has probably the best writing/acting in the series (it’s still campy at times and that’s good as well! but you know what I mean). This also applies to her relationship with Leon, which also has been improved and now feels more grounded.
First things first, I love the original RE2 to pieces. It was my favourite game in the series, it was the first I played, Leon and Ada are literally the first ship that I ever shipped without knowing what that was. But when you look at it now, even if the writing is good in certain scenes, it’s… well, it’s not RE forte. I mean, Ada goes from running away from Leon to sticking with him and then saying she cared about him all of a sudden. It’s not that you can’t believe it, but because the game is too short, she gets very intense very quickly. Again, we have to suspend our disbelief here a bit because this game was made back in 1998, and narrative in games was limited. For its time, it was kinda good—but some of those scenes would have looked a bit out of place under the tone RE2make has set. Like the “I’m just a woman who fell in love with you”. I mean, I love it in its original context, but it was cheesy af at its time and I don’t think they could have pulled it off here in a believable way.
(I also think Capcom wants to keep the romance tone very subtle, as they have always said they don’t “include” them in their RE games <s>except they kinda do but anyway</s> and that love confession was by far the most blatant romantic scene in a RE game).
But I digress, since this is about what RE2make does well in regards to Leon and Ada, and I’d say pretty much everything.
The first thing I noticed I quite liked about this Ada was the contrast between her demeanor and what she was doing: she acted cold and distant, but still kept saving Leon’s ass (and she does save him here a lot, more than in the original). This really resonates with their later interactions in other games, even though here she is colder than usual because, well, this is their first meeting so they still don’t have that history and shared background.
[And they keep pointing guns at each other (another great detail, since this is pretty much their dynamic when they meet).]
Now, in the original we know Ada tried to leave Leon behind multiple times— she had a job to do, and having a rookie cop with her wouldn’t help. But she just kept running away without saying anything and since we don’t know her true intentions until the end, it may come across as a bit strange, given her supposed circumstances. In RE2make this is more nuanced, I think. You can see she’s trying to push him off constantly, telling him to leave as soon as he can and escape the city. Some people always bring up that Ada manipulates Leon into doing things so she can accomplish her mission— and that is true to an extent (let’s remember, again, that she also keeps saving him just as much before even accepting his help). But you can also see that wasn’t her first intention, she just wanted to get rid of him and continue her mission. However, Leon is very adamant about not leaving her behind and helping her, because he wants do something for the city and bring those responsible down (I love that he repeats it like two o three times, the “you’re stuck with me” line basically).
Even in her attempts at getting rid of him, there’s a difference between their first interactions and the ones they share later, from the sewers on. When he finds her in the dumpster wounded, she stills tells him something like “get out of here”, even if she knows she needs his help now to survive.
When finishing Ada’s segment, you can even see she’s scared at the end after the fall (and, indeed, where’s Leon when she needs him xD). But what Leon says here is one of my favourite things:
Now this is not only about uncovering Umbrella’s plot and bringin them to justice for him: they are a team and they protect each other to survive the hell they have been thrown into (which is very reminiscent of their interactions in the original game aka “We’re a team. I can’t just leave you behind”, even Leon points at this with his “Y’know we make a good team”, which only makes it all sadder because yes, they do, but now the truth has come out and they are “enemies”).
So, yeah, what was Ada supposed to say here? She goes along with it, and yes, she tricks him into retrieving the G virus for her, but that’s to be expected because she’s just not going to drop her whole mission and leave everything she’s ever known “for a pair of pretty eyes”, as Luke Skywalker would say, when we can see she’s very reserved and hides her true feelings/intentions constantly.
Yet she doesn’t want to hurt him (as she admits during their confrontation and this is genuine, no lies here), so that’s the best scenario in play: Leon gets the G virus, he gives it to her under the pretense of taking it back to the FBI, they escape, go their separate ways, she succeeds in her mission. End of story. Thankfully, Leon is not such a naïve ass in this game. Seriously, I replayed the original RE2 just before the remake’s launch and Leon is incredibly gullible to the point of no reason— though it’s endearing in its own way too. But I definitely appreciate more that this Leon still has a hopeful, positive vibe and he really wants to trust Ada, without coming off as an utter fool.
Then the confrontation comes (in a walkway with no railing, guys, haven’t you seen Star Wars??? THAT DOESN’T BODE WELL, NEVER) and it’s beautifully made. They could have gone the Leon B route with Ada dying in his arms, but the Leon A version was incredibly poignant— and it remains the same here, even more so because the acting was top notch for me here. (It’s true Ada “died” in Leon B to save him and that’s powerful as well, but… she has saved him so many times in the remake, it wouldn’t have felt that “special” I guess?). Even though Ada has been actively more deceitful in the remake (she takes advantage of the FBI lie much more than she did with the “worried girlfriend” thing), in the end she is not able to shoot Leon— and he knows she won’t.
The moment he says “but I don’t think you can” and lowers his weapon is SO GREAT and is a perfect summary of their whole dynamic: they are usually on opposing sides, yet he still trusts she will never harm him; because she can’t. They always walk a very thin line between friend and foe. We as the audience know Ada won’t shoot him, but it’s a such leap of faith for Leon here, at this moment— especially because now he is certain of what Ada is and what she is doing with the G virus. Rationally, there’d no reason for her not to shoot him and get the virus— but despite Ada’s lie, the connection they have developed is real. And Leon knows this, trusts his instincts and it pays off. It’s so much more fulfilling than the original scenes or even later ones.
Then we have Ada’s “death” and it’s heart-breaking. That “Shut up I’ve got you” from Leon KILLS me every time, and Ada’s “it’s not worth it” says so much about her, as I understand the implication is that she thinks saving her is not worth it.
Again, this is something that was also present in the original, so I think they’ve managed to blend all versions of Ada quite well (she can be standoffish, independent and sassy, but also show warmth, sadness and compassion). Not only that, I found it quite endearing that she also comes off as very proud and hates feeling weak, rejecting Leon’s gestures of kindness when he finds her wounded in the sewers. There’s the “don’t push it, rookie” and she claims she would feel even worse if Leon carried her. I don’t think this was a trait we had witnessed before in Ada, even though you could assume she doesn’t like being thought of as weak. But it was really nice to see that on screen and it’s just another detail that helps to make her feel more human.
What about the kiss? I’ve seen some people having mixed feelings about it, but I actually liked what they did— again, because this time it all feels more grounded and less “melodramatic” (which isn’t bad per se, but the tone is different, as I’ve mentioned). We weren’t getting a love confession out of nowhere because it didn’t fit the character, so… how can we get a kiss in this situation? Well, now it’s part of Ada’s manipulation in a way— but that doesn’t invalidate that she’s starting to care about him in some way and viceverse.
But they are still walking on thin ice: Leon wants to trust her, but he doesn’t know if he should, and she knows she’s lying to him. So she just shuts him up when he starts blabbering about keeping her safe. I don’t mind that it’s part of the manipulation because, once more, this is their first meeting and I also think part of her was also being genuine about it, like she thinks he’s very sweet for worrying so much about her. This is my interpretation, of course, but I think it fits the scene when she says “don’t worry about me” and claiming she’d like to see him again, that she has plenty to live for. This is of course all up to debate, because it’s made ambiguous on purpose, to make us feel as confused as Leon is. But, in the end, we know what happens in later games (even in this one, when she is unable to shoot him), and whether you like Ada or not, we can’t argue that she cares about him enough to put him before any mission.
Leon’s line in the train is also very telling and so much better than the original “Goodbye, Ada” or “I’ll always remember you”, in my opinion. He says “I can’t believe I actually miss her” and that rings so true, because, despite the deception, the connection they had was true, they worked well together, they teased each other, they bantered. They made a good team, and Leon made it out alive thanks to her as well. It reflects much better that duality they have, whether they can trust each other or not (as he says in RE6: it’s complicated).
Just to end this, because I’ve been blabbering long enough, the other thing I’m forever grateful this remake has given us is Leon and Ada bantering and even their own sort of recurring catch phrase, with the whole “keeping scores” that comes full circle: first in a negative way, then it shows up again in a moment of tenderness between the two.
It’s also such a nice way to tie all their history together, because that’s what they always do: they might be on opposing sides, but they always end up saving each other.
#ada wong#leon scott kenendy#aeon#resident evil 2 remake#resident evil 2#meta#mine: meta#my reylo might have shown here a bit with the sw references
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Y'all The White Privilege/Victimhood on Good Girls Jumped Out!!
Season 2 Finale Spoilers below.
Good Girls is my show, and I enjoy the heck out of and always will, but I'm about to get Peak Tumblr analyzing this finale... so let's just go over this. I'm trying to process how this played out because ...
Dean was a serial cheater who cheated on his wife even when she was struggling with post-Partum depression. Beth didn't even find out the full-extent of his cheating because he only copped to his secretary AFTER Beth found out about it on her own. And that same secretary told Beth about all the other women this season because Dean never told her the truth. Plus he faked cancer to manipulate Beth and that was not addressed once all season.
Instead Dean got a soft edit where he became the rational, responsible adult and doting, dedicated father. He was the one to show Beth all the ways in which she erred with her criminal activities and putting them at risk. His infidelity was softened by adding backstory about how Beth closed herself off when she was battling post partum depression and beyond and he felt his emotional needs weren't being met and he felt inadequate because of how she treated him.
He took her kids as if to imply she was a terrible mother despite her being the primary caretaking parent to all four of their children since they were born up until she chose to take on the dealership. He took her kids away from her. But he never really suffered any consequences for how terrible he was and he ended the season in a comfortable friendship with Beth despite all the ways he wronged her as if he's the ideal, supportive husband. And he got redemption without earning it or acknowledging the extent of his shortcomings.
Boomer is the trashiest most despicable character of them all. He knew about the money laundering and had other illegal activities going on at the store. He attempted to rape Annie and did rape and emotionally abuse and manipulate Mary Pat. And Turner KNEW all of this but didn't care if it meant he could leverage Boomer to get to Beth. No charges for anything since he helped. And that's disturbing AF.
Boomer stole money from his grandmother constantly and blackmailed everyone. He was forcing Mary Pat to marry him. Then he bolted after he was presumed dead and was willing to let the girls go to prison for his murder. But despite everything he has done, the rape, the abuse, all the illegal crap he would've gotten off Scott free if not for Nana forcing him to take responsibility. He's still facing NO repercussions. What?
Mary Pat had ample time to get out of the business or turn the girls in, but she chose to blackmail them for more money instead even though it clearly isn't what Jesus would do.
She chopped up her husband's body and put him in the freezer so she could keep collecting his veteran benefits. She enlisted the girls to take Boomer out for her, but then ran Boomer over with her car, wrapped his body up in tarp and planned to dispose of him too. But when she found out he was alive and gone, she didn't tell the FBI or the girls. Instead she had them dispose of her husband's body thinking it was Boomer's.
Her part in the operation was dismissed by Turner as long as he could use her to take down Beth. So Mary Pat did all of that and got off Scott damn free. Because she was cast as victim. She was a victim long before she actually was one (regarding her abuse by Boomer). And nothing came from any of her actions. Victim or not there are still consequences, right? Apparently not.
Noah tampered with evidence and botched his own investigation based on his relationship with Annie. He jeopardized the entire case more than once. He slept with his mark and caught feelings. He openly lied and deceived both the agency and Annie and ... nothing comes from it? No consequences at all, huh? He gets to relocate to Arizona to be with his kid.
These are all characters have done varying degrees of bad to despicable things that should have resulted in some form of repercussions and yet they face none. Why?
Turner's obsessive focus on Beth in part has to do with his disgust over her pretending to be the white suburban mom and stepford wife entangled in all of this. He recognizes that she is the sort to get away with things because of who and what she is and the image she projects.
But then he also caters to this pervasive white (woman) victimhood issue that happens a lot. He never viewed Mary Pat as anything but a desperate single mom who is a victim no matter what she did, and he absolved her of her wrong doing and slapped her on the wrist just to get to Beth which counters everything he's intending to do with Beth. Hold her accountable image be damned.
Then there is Annie who is also a single mom who gets the sympathetic play to potentially turn on her own sister. She gets the doting boyfriend and companionship to make her consider it or to get information out of her. She gets the soft play. Like she doesn't have agency in her criminal plots with her sister and Ruby. Like she too is a victim of Beth's or whomever and warrants sympathy and the benefit of the doubt.
Contrast that with what Ruby gets. Ruby got harassed for months to the point of her having case to file a complaint. She got Turner putting the squeeze on her and her husband and family repeatedly and consistently.
And worse yet, Turner did this under the guise of "doing them a solid because he didn't want them to go down for this white woman" so to speak, but he still was willing to ruin them for her anyway.
Stan is the only one who got arrested and humiliated in front of his colleagues. He's the only one who went to jail. STAN whose connection to this is flimsy. The sole black man on their side of things got hauled into jail.
And then Ruby with the sick daughter who needs meds and the husband who was hauled away is treated like a demon by Beth for considering turning on her when Ruby was the only one facing any fire or harassment.
Ruby and Stan the most wholesome and logical and least problematic had their entire world upended and ruined and faced the brunt of the repercussions. Ruby and Stan were both facing charges and jail time while Beth faced nothing while they worked to build a case against her and Annie never was considered as a threat.
If Ruby didn't turn on Beth she and Stan could be sitting in prison while everyone else roamed free. Like, YIKES!
And the way Turner is both the guy who wants to take down this white woman who would likely catch a break in the system but also the means by which he does it by his abhorrent treatment of POC is disturbing.
The first season established that Rio was basically untouchable. The second season confirmed it when Rio was literally playing tennis with an attorney filling him on things and he has connections in the FBI.
So Turner never wants to go after Rio specifically because of this even though he knows Rio is Beth's boss and the bigger fish. No, he wants to take down Beth.
So that brings me to the final Rio scene that was the most disturbing of all. Turner has played fast and loose with the rules but still tried to come across as an earnest lawman wanting to do his job.
But Turner watches Beth shoot Rio multiple times because "Rio is her problem" and to save Turner.
And if it was really about doing what was right, he could have had her arrested right then and there. He heard their conversations. Knew about their connection. All of it.
But instead he sends her home. He keeps the gun with her prints on it as something else to hold over her I'm sure, but for what?
And then he kneels down, as a law enforcement person whose sole job is to protect and serve, justice and equality, fairness ... and he taunted a dying brown man instead of calling 911. We got a brown man gurgling, his life at the mercy of the law (made all the worse with it being an agent of color), and he toys with him, toys with the idea of whether or not he should call the ambulance and phone it in... assist him before he dies. He wants something out of Rio first before he can help.
Hella more Yikes. And what a brutal takedown of Rio. The potential death of a brown man at the hands of a white woman convinced she was victimized by him or the exploited potential death of a brown man by a cop. Yikes!
Then there is Beth who somehow throughout all of this walked away convinced that she was Rio's victim when she kept going back to HIM. They made their amends and made up for taking his money, and he said they were good. BETH was the one who went to him and left a string of pearls. She's the one who wanted more work and opportunities.
She was the one who wanted the keys to the kingdom. She's the one who wanted more work. She's the one who wanted a bigger role. She sought him out repeatedly.
She's the one who initiated their sexual relationship both times. She is who broke things off, but she is also who came back looking for more. She's the one who convinced herself she was his equal and his partner, but then shied away whenever he told her to prove it. She played hot and cold this whole time, and he went along with it anyway.
She claimed he never helped her when he did. He doesn't owe her anything at all but still did more than she ever gave him credit for. When she botched that situation with those druggies and thought they kidnapped her daughter, Rio did look into it. He even got her daughter's toy back for her.
Beth's biggest issue with Rio is she mistook Rio's silence for inaction.
She assumed because he wasn't giving her play by plays that he wasn't helping her, but that was the thing to, why did he need to help her?
She wanted to be Queen but didn't want the hard work. He recognized that she wanted this and he fostered it. He told her to take care of her rotten eggs. He encouraged her to fix her own problems. He held her accountable for her own actions.
And in turn, the man who actually listened to her. The one who actually treated her as an equal and respected her is who she shot because she claimed she was his victim.
He told her this shit is medieval. He told her if she wanted to be the king she had to kill the king. But a real queen would at least own her shit instead of pretending to be a victim.
She wanted a kingdom HE built without any of the dirty work and effort. She felt entitled to it.
And then she shot him hoping she killed him and Christopher Columbus appropriated his empire.
Is this your Queen?
That finale highlighted just how interesting this season has been. So in the end, Rio is the only who didn't "win" but too many of these other terrible characters get passes? Hm.
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Regarding the problematic dilemma that is SnA’s eight episode
“The source of every crime, is some defect of the understanding; or some error in reasoning; or some sudden force of the passions.”
― Thomas Hobbes
..Okay, so, here I am again with a long-ass critic post about Shoukoku no Altair’s anime release. Yes. It has been a while and the anime had long ended. I know. Maybe some of you would say that roasting the anime again after all of this time is moot point, since it’s less likely that many people will come and search for it as it’s already out of season. But then again... compulsory community service in the middle of holiday time unfortunately can’t manage to shift my saltiness towards SnA anime, and once again I decided to resume doing this review that I initially thought I would abandon at the pilot episode.
Whew. Okay then, OOT rant out, now time for some content.
Warning: Spoilers, as usual. Also, quite more opinionated than the first review. Differing opinions are welcome, but please relay it with class.
Maybe some of you would be surprised when this particular episode became the next choice for my reluctant SnA anime bashing session: after all, compared to the other ones, this one is quite tame and consistent in regards to pacing, nothing out of ordinary as it was basically adapted from the interlude-type story of 4th volume of the manga. No sloppy scene cuts and merge like the ones littering the pilot episode, the seiyuus’ expertise shining through their well-executed lines delivered with emotive and fitting voice acting, fairly decent editing for supposedly dynamic scenes like Mahmut’s gambling parade (though a dark glittery effect and Katou-sensei used in the manga would make it 100X more awesome, as it added to Manga!Mahmut’s rightfully conspiratory look when he swindled the bar patrons’ money), the smoothness of it would not give the impression of another episode that messed up so bad that it needed a bashing post of its own.
Except that that was apparently not the case. As with most of its notable adaptations recently, there is a disturbing theme that repeats itself across some of Mappa’s recent adaptation works: For some god-knows-why reason, Mappa reeeally likes to change some aspect of the story, so that it diverges from the original source material and transform the show’s overall tone. This, in my opinion, is a kind of hit-or-miss situation; when it’s done well, it can make the story even more interesting and/or bringing out a kind of freshness to it, but when done poorly, it can destroy it into barely recognizable piece of... whatever it is instead.
Two of the most apparent examples of this theme is how Mappa did Dororo and Kakegurui’s anime adaptation. In Dororo, the important, plot-relevant differences shown since the beginning created a darker story that has a whole unique and interesting nuance compared to the more lighthearted original source. Meanwhile, in Kakegurui, in which the noisy, fanservice-laden changes only happened at the very end of the season, it felt abrupt and destroyed the tension that had been building since the first episode. For me, it gave an anti-climatic impression like the ending was written from a completely different story altogether and just slapped on the rest of the season like some kind of poorly made band-aid.
Apparently, it turns out that SnA anime also followed (or maybe some would say preceded, as it was aired even before Mappa!Dororo and aired together with Kakegurui) the same trend. To some extent. Here I see that SnA anime, as I had written about in the pilot episode critique, had changed some components of the story, in which the change didn’t really stem from technicalities and more of an artistic license to change the story’s overall tone. The problem is, the way that the anime changed scenes here and there is not consistent and overall not suited to the kind of story SnA is trying to tell us: the anime tried to somehow mix an image of Mahmut as a righteous, morally superior protagonist that always thrive in his every impulsive, ego-driven endeavors with a particular shape of world- building that centers on realpolitik-esque international politics, in which the highest reward would go to the actor that appeals the most to pragmatic rationality in ensuring their goal’s attainment. In this work, this mostly meant the characters’ goals regarding the wellbeing of their respective nations (i.e. national interest). In other words, the anime tried to blend two things that was supposedly not put together, and somehow tried to make it work. This made the overall tone inconsistent, as the anime was not clear on what kind of message it wanted to tell us.
This flaw was, in my opinion, most apparent in this particular episode. Why, you ask?
Because of this sly, sly, fabulous piece of work.
As some of you might already know, this magnificent bastard of a doge above is one of the, if not THE one, most pragmatic character SnA had to offer. Even more Machiavellian than other magnificent bastards such as Zaganos and Louis that has their own momentary emotion-controlled decision resulting in abject barbarism, Lucio for the most part managed to keep his underlying human emotions to himself, dividing his emotions as a human being with his rationality as a statesman with such surgical precision that even some of us sometimes forgot that he, like all other characters in the series, still has a heart underneath all of that smug diplomatic farce of his.
On one side the manga showcased his ability to create carefully balanced moves, crafted in order to maximize his city-state’s gain as a middle power with decent defensive capabilities and flourishing economy, but otherwise not immune to the effects of Turkiye and Baltrhein’s power struggle that reverberated throughout the region.
On the other hand, the manga also explored his inner, more vurnerable moments through carefully placed flashbacks and delicate showcase of blink-and-you’ll-miss micro-expression from time to time, creating a subtle nuance of conflicting desires in his mind that never truly surfaced for the whole world to see, painstakingly contained lest it becomes a crack that will rupture the delicate balance of his conscience and affect his decision-making abilities.
This two images of Lucio that the manga expertly portrayed, to me, is a good crystalization of the implicit rules of pragmatism present in the SnA universe already mentioned above. The ‘rewards’ for his ideal behaviour are readily apparent throughout the storyline, up until now. Venedik, the city-state that Lucio currently leads, always occupies ‘safe zone’ in the manga’s plot progression: it never suffered a crippling destruction that robs it of its sovereignty (compare to Phoenicia and some of Rumeliana mainland’s city states); haven’t experienced the kind of back-and-forth win-and-losses that causes drastic depletion of its resources (compare to Baltrhein that lost a lot of human and material resources along with their territories, and Turkiye that also lost a lot of human resources, intellectual properties, and arguably their subjects’ trust); and last but not least, it is able to participate actively, according to its own terms, in securing its interest throughout the great war that engulfes the entire region (somewhat of a luxury, certainly not possessed by the Cuore that depends on the Alliance to conclude the war in favorable terms for them).
In my opinion, those advantages that Venedik has would not be there without Lucio’s careful and logic-driven way of directing Venedik’s domestic and foreign affairs and masterful management of his personal sentiments. This is especially apparent when we compare Lucio with other policy makers in the story, that more often than not commited grave errors when they let their personal sentiments cloud their judgement (Mahmut’s impatience to save Ibrahim regardless of his position that led to his demotion in the story’s early stages; Zaganos’ thirst for revenge that led to many unnecessary sacrifices in recent chapters; Constantinos’ pride that led to Phoenicia’s harsh subjugation by Lerederik’s troops; Louis’ apparent prejudice at other other states that emptied Baltrhein’s coffers to fund a costly war, et cetera). The message is quite clear: as a statesman/woman, it’s imperative to separate one’s personal sentiments from his/her job as clean as possible; or else he/she will suffer grave consequences as a result; it doesn’t care what kind of personal morality or quirks you have, it decides that you’re finished when you let them dictate your actions (although still, being shonen manga, Mahmut as the protagonist still gets more ‘redemption’ than most...). Despite it being a value that is somewhat a bit foreign and outdated in manga world, (especially when considering the modern world’s worship of Romanticism and animanga’s reputation as one of the most expressive medium of storytelling), this subtle nuance is what separates SnA from another works in the same medium, even the ones with the same umbrella genre of historical fiction.
It’s this whole nuance that the anime failed to capture in its entirety, thus creating an underwhelmingly generic show of shonen adventure that moves because of Hero vs. Villain plot based on black-and-white morality. The drastic change they did to Lucio’s character, the character that I thought of as the ‘It’ standard of the manga’s reward-and-punishment system, presented this error clearer especially when combined with their hideous portrayal of Mahmut throughout the series already realized by a lot of other manga reader. In the anime, I didn’t see the realpolitik-savvy, confidently prudent Doge that I know and admire. In here, I saw a man so insecure about his own political inclinations that his most trusted subordinate deliberately hid a crucial intel in anticipation of an error in his judgement.
As this is already quite long, here are some screenshots to ponder on. Go figure.
Manga:
An elaborate, brilliant piece of roasting that we never knew we needed, yet the anime never gives
Anime:
Seriously? That’s all?? How about.. the Magistros’ death?
Totally blindsided by an unanticipated jab on your personal sentiments thanks to some missing intels, possibly showing your weakness and incompetence in front of foreign politicians and your own subordinates. Fun indeed.
Um... I think this is not a matter of personal preferences anymore... do you really not trust each other that much??
....Who are you, and what have you done to Lucio?
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My current thoughts on Boruto. It's long and hard please be patient.
(please note, this is MY personal opinion, it doesn't matter and it will effect nothing in your life, we're all mature rational people. If you plan on sending me death threats over an anime, you really shouldn't be on the internet. This is an extremely long post, don't try to be a smartass and say "lol too long not going to read" in the comment section, you're not proving that you're more smarter than me or have a better argument, you're just kind of proving that you're not intellectually stimulated enough to have a decent conversation or discuss about the issue oh, it's also not a good way to win an argument because that just kind of makes you out to look like an idiot. And the last thing you need when making an argument is look like an idiot of yourself.)
So, as the Boruto series progresses...it's...not... improving....and I'm now starting to realize that there was a reason why nobody actually talked about the written novelisation of Gai, Kakashi and Asuma's daughter's mission.... because it was balls.
The shows development at this point is now solely depending on filling up a quota of episodes before they can officially start making episodes based on the manga, as a result, the show is now purely just filler and arguably filled with unnecessary development. The issue is that this development should be coming in at a gradual and moderate pace. Unfortunately most of the development is going towards characters that may not actually affect the series as a whole, unlike in the Naruto and Naruto Shippuden series, the development of the characters went directly towards individuals that were affecting the story at the moment. I'm starting to realize that this type of development in Access can create and effect I like to call "the procrastinated essay" effective writing.
It just basically means that they're just throwing in pointless character, World, and story development that may be harmful to the end result of the story. Character development isn't bad, the problem is when it's starting to become so vapid and it starts to pollute the basic plot of the story. If all of these filler episodes were appearing sometime in the middle of the initial manga story, this wouldn't be a problem. In fact this may be a reason as to why some of the filler episodes in the original Naruto series may have been more enjoyable and bearable than it was now. This is a real shame because this is also in invertedly ruining the development of the characters, we have an entirely new cast of characters but it seems that the entire show is depending on rehashing the characters Andre casting them as old characters from the series. Basically giving the newest characters the same kind of silly issues that were originally resolved in the original series, bringing in villain characters that are practically identical to the original villain characters we were presented, and even presenting the same issues there were in the original series but in a different guise. so what were actually seeing is a very poorly written in poorly constructed version of the original series in the end, which is why everything feels so boring, cringy and arguably comes off as repetitive. We have four arcs that are completely dedicated to the same issues we were given in the original series but given to us any vapid and somewhat disjointed manner. It also presents the characters as far too developed for their age, I understand that the constant argument people have given me for this is that they're supposed to be the children of the main characters those they're supposed to surpass them, but that just makes the newest cast of characters to be overpowered and also present the question of "if they're the newest generation and they have to surpass the eldest generation, why are they so powerful if they grew up in a time of Peace, why did they surpass their parents without any real effort and why do they need it even surprised their parents if they don't even need to fight".... This ultimately creates a situation where it is extremely unrealistic that an individual will surpass a previous generation if they have no need to surpass them.
This brings up the type of theme, growing up in a time of peace, instead of focusing on issues that may stem from this kind of theme, we're focusing on basically stuff that may not be even that important rivers ends or maybe it doesn't even happen in a situation like this. There are characters who literally do not know what a Jutsu is and yet for some strange reason it's still being taught, there are characters who don't even do anything yet there in ninja teams and they are expected to perform ninja duties. Instead of a look into a world where now basically becoming a ninja isn't a necessity, we're being treated to the same type of story that we previously had but now we're put into a situation that this would have never happened in the first place.
As for both the story itself, it's clearly going on solutely nowhere, the manga itself does have a plot and I will acknowledge that there is something going on. However, seeing how the series is just going off on a filler tangent, I'm wondering if all this unnecessary story development will affect the primary plot. the original reason why the Naruto series was so good was because that it began with a very basic quest based plot and gradually started to present itself with a deeper story, The fillers were just a break from that and also to create a breath within story writing. this is going to be extremely important for the readers to remember, the fillers aren't meant to waste time, they're meant to create enough time for the writer to create Amore organized story.
boruto is heading towards a wall with all of these fillers and I'm pretty certain that it's going to be its downfall, as for animating the novels, this should have been something they've done at the end of Shippuden and not within more than a hundred episodes of boruto. At first I thought it was going to actually enjoy the animated novels, however I'm starting to realize how extremely pointless and they are. I don't really have any gripes or ill contempt towards any of the characters, I just find it that there is a lot of unnecessary pieces of information that the series is trying to peddle towards the audience.
This brings me to my next point, the whole purpose of all these pointless filler episodes is purely to fill in for time for the manga to start having some growth to it. Which kind of bothers me because Naruto in the original since never actually had the luxury of having a bunch of filler episodes before Kishimoto could come up with a few novels. In fact which brings me to another detail of my point, Kishimoto had to write new chapters almost every two weeks or less in order to keep up with scheduling. Towards the end of the series this may have affected the quality of the story to a very small extent but overall it never truly affected the series as a whole, in fact it may have helped it. Ikemoto is going on the same route as the Steven universe writers, they're taking way too much time to come up with a story those creating a really poorly constructed in poorly organized story.
So for those were reading the manga, you all are obligated to wait for new information for the manga by having to succumb to watching really poor quality writing for the anime, which goes back to the manga itself as it can also suffer from poor writing.
do not get me wrong, I really wanted to like the series, I really wanted it to be the next step in my life as a fan of the show, unfortunately it is starting to kind of proved to me that it's not only not up to the same quality as the original series and Shippuden but it is also going through basically what creates a mundane and mediocre anime. Instead of coming up with an animated boruto series so early on in its development, it should have waited for a few volumes to come out before I could even come up with a fully-fledged anime. Will we have currently now is basically an entire anime consisting of fillers that are not only ruining the Canon of the series but are sort of a massive waste of time.
To make a long story short and I deeply apologize for such an unnecessarily long post, but my point is that the series is going to crash and by the time it's getting to its primary plot, it's going to lose a lot of popularity, and it's ultimately going to fail. it's depending way too much on the previous material to even focus on its own story and it is simultaneously ruining the previous series by presenting information that is contradictory to what the original rules were. unfortunately, there is a chance that the boruto series may never improve, it is just going to continue driving itself into the mud until nobody watches it anymore. There is a chance for it to improve by ceasing these endless filler episodes and just start getting on with the original plot of the series, they may lose a few people waiting, but at least it'll get to its points and I'll get to actually tell the story has been meaning to tell for a while. what they should probably do is stop now, reorganize the story with what ridiculous information they've already given us, and maybe even focus on making an animated series on the other novels. Now I understand that a previous point I made in this post was what was going wrong with this idea, however there could be some form of benefit to go back into the series and answer a few questions before going on to boruto. Basically, what I'm trying to say is maybe even doing this will lighten the amount of information the series is giving us by presenting us with a proper transitioning explanation. You can't give us a character like Hidan, then at one point in the novel say that he just made up the religion on his own accord then give us an entirely new character to replace him but at the same time using the aspects that made Hidan so unique. That's called character recycling, that's not introducing us to a new villain, that's just pissing everyone off. Especially me because I've taken enough writing classes to smell a bad plot of mile away.
P.s) I'm just extremely tired of really inappropriately annoying people tell me that I'm too stupid to understand boruto and that I need a 300-point IQ to like it. seriously this isn't Rick and Morty, it's a spin-off of Naruto for fucksake it's supposed to be a little more of a higher standard
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(pt 1 of 2) So I've got a character (A) that gets snagged by this group of mercenaries/assassins in the hope of drawing out this other character (B) they've been trying to kill. B is telepathic, so the group is hoping that by torturing A he'll have to come and save her. It doesn't work, and A goes through about three days of torture (beatings, mostly) before she's rescued by another character, C.
(pt 2 of 2) C and A are from different races that are mortal enemies, but C saves A because torture is something he wouldn't wish on his worst enemy. Granted, he does the bare minimum to save her, but could that sort of thing be enough to shake A's firmly held beliefs about C's whole race? Secondly, how do I patch things up between A and B? I've got a lot of people being unreasonable, especially in the short term, but I'm not sure how reconciliation should go, since A is mad and B is ashamed.
Whenit comes to strongly held beliefs I don’t think there are many firmanswers.
Evidencealone generally doesn’tshake our beliefs and we have a marked tendency to pick and choosethe evidence we cite, emphasising and giving more weight to thingsthat support what we believe. We do this even when we’re aware ofthis effect. It seems to be a universally human trait.
Butevidence coupled with emotional appeals canchange people’s minds. People can also gradually change over time.
Thekey word here is ‘can’. It is possible.That doesn’t mean it happens every time.
Thingslike de-radicalisation programs domake a measurable difference in the broad sense. But they don’treach everyone they interact with.
Andthe things which trigger a change of heart are not always fastacting. They can be things that gnaw at a person over a course ofyears, gradually prompting them to shift their stance.
Essentiallyyou could choose to take this either way. You could have A’s viewof C’s people changing, either abruptly or gradually. But you couldalso have A write the incident off as an exception to the rule orotherwise dismiss it. Either response can happen in real life.
Let’sstep back from the success rates of organisations like After Hate fora moment and address this as writers.
Ifyou wantA to have a massive change of heart then however quick the change itcan’t feel like it comes out of nowhere. The readers have tounderstand the process A goes through emotionally.
Whichmeans the reason behind this has to be more than C’s actions: itneeds to be the feelings and thoughts those actions prompt in A.Otherwise the change is going to come across emotionally flat.
ShowA struggling with these thoughts and feelings, swinging betweendoubting what they were taught and what they experienced. Don’t betempted to make this change easy and don’t be afraid to show Afalling back on old, toxic patterns occasionally.
Movingon from these sorts of hateful idea isn’t easy. It means aconcerted choice every day to address your own toxicity and dedicateyourself to being a better person.
Thatsort of introspection, judgement and emotional work is always inprogress. People often slide back a little even if they’re makingprogress over all. That isn’t unusual.
AndI honestly think that this change will read better if it involvessome internal struggle. The best way to present that will vary withhow you write. If it’s from A’s point of view you can show it asis. You might be able to work it in to conversation with C.
Youmight find having B pick up on it works as well, because that thengives you a way to tie these separate sub-plots together. It mightwell be easier for A and B to argue about how A feels about C/C’speople then it is for them to address their problems with each other.
Whichleads us to A and B’s relationship.
HonestlyI think this is something you should be tailoring to the charactersbecause the ‘right’ answer is going to vary with the individualsinvolved. It might be helpful to unpack some ‘logical knowledge’vs ‘emotional assumptions’ on the part of both characters though.
Let’sstart with A.
NowA probably knowsthat rescuing her wasn’t just a question of skill or bravery. Arescue mission is a difficult and risky prospect, highly likely tofail and extremely rare in reality.
She’dknow that B would find it difficult to rescue A. If B doesn’t havean organisation backing them up then a rescue would have been almostimpossible to pull off successfully.
She’dknow that a rescue attempt could result in B being captured andtortured too. She’d know that an unsuccessful rescue attempt couldeasily lead to A herself being killed.
AdditionallyA would also be aware that torture was warping her perception of theworld. A would probably not always be awareof where She was being held or many of the details of herimprisonment.
Ifall B has to go on for a rescue mission is A’s thoughts then A mustknow that B would have had trouble finding her.
Awould also know that the more B connected with A’s mind the moreimpaired B would be. Because B would also be experiencing thedisorientation, confusion and delirium the pain of torture causes.This sort of confused thinking would leak through and create animpairment even if B couldn’t experience A’s pain.
Bwould also know, logically, all the reasons they couldn’tpractically have rescued A.
Bwould be in the unfortunate position of having a second-handexperience of A’s trauma throughout. The threat of torture is veryreal here. It’s immediate. B’s fear of that is legitimate andshouldn’t be dismissed.
Butthat logic doesn’t trump the emotional side of all this.
Andthe emotional side is that B probably feels like they let A down. Aprobably feel betrayed and hurt and abandoned. They bothprobably feel isolated from each other and like it’s harder totalk.
Neitherof these sets of feelings are logical or rational. But there’s anextent to which that doesn’t matter.
Ithink the best way to address it is directly. Which doesn’t providean easy resolution.
Thething is- most torture victims don’texpect to be rescued. They are not in a position to…. think there’sany possibility of rescue. A’s position here is unusual and thatcomes in part from her being privileged enough to know powerfulpeople. Contact with other survivors might help A realise this andprocess a little of how she feels emotionally. It might help heremotionally accept that the expectations she had of B wereunreasonable.
Havingthem talk about it, the reasons why A expected something and thereasons B couldn’t provide it is an important first step. But thisisn’t something that’s going to resolve overnight. Oneconversation, even if they do listen and understand each other, isn’tgoing to resolve everything.
OnA’s side it’s a case of rebuilding trust. I think that’s ofteneasier to write because we see so many examples of it in literature:trust lost and rebuilt. It’s something that’s best built upslowly over time with a lot of actions on B’s part rather than withsome kind of ‘Big Damn Heroes’ moment.
Agood starting point would probably be helping A with her recovery.Consistent help with the little things she’s struggling with (whichinitially may include eating, getting dressed and moving about) wouldgo a long way.
Shemight not forgive B quickly or at all. She may stop relying on B toprotect her. But care is important too. It’s possible to trustsomeone with some things, some aspects of life and not others.
Partof this depends on how deep you want their reconciliation to go. It’sperfectly possible for them to completely rebuild their relationshipso it’s just as strong as before, but it would take more work thenrebuilding something shallower.
Ithink in some ways B’s side of this emotional problem is harder. Acan meet other torture or trauma survivors and learn that theexpectation of rescue is a fantasy out of most people’s reach. Shecan gradually come to trust B again if they both communicate honestlyand B takes the time to try and care for her, to try and build thatfriendship back.
ButI get the impression B has lost their trust in themselves and that’sa lot harder to regain.
Angerruns out of steam eventually. And sick angry people still need to eator help getting out of bed.
Shamecan eat at someone for the rest of their life.
Myhonest instinct is that if these were real people they’d both needtherapy. A lot of therapy. And while that’s not something that wecan work in to every setting emotional support definitely is.
Bis going to have to forgive themselves for what happened. A big partof that means accepting their own powerlessness in this situation,which is a terrifying thing. It create a sort of emotional push-pulleffect, forgiving themselves means accepting something incrediblyfrightening so it’s easier to avoid those feelings and hold on toarrogance.
Itcan sometimes be easier to tell ourselves we’re cowards or badpeople then it is to accept our own limits.
EarningA’s trust again may not necessarily combat these feelings, B mightcontinue to feel unworthy of that trust.
Thereare a lot of ways to write a set up like this convincingly and well.I think you’ll get the best results by trying to tie thecharacters’ progress to both the overall story and the charactersas individuals.
They’reprobably going to go mess up a few times. They’re probably going toheal at different rates and be ready for different things atdifferent times. Try to be aware of how other things that arehappening in the narrative might effect the characters emotionally.Because the other things going on in their lives could be useful toprompt this kind of emotional growth.
WhenI’m trying to reconcile characters I often try to think about whatthe root of the problem is. It’s often not what the characters areexpressing or consciously aware of as the ‘problem’.
Inthis case I’d guess that it’s ideas of safety and security on A’spart and ideas of duty and bravery on B’s. Those ideas are thingsall of us can understand but the ways they’re expressed areparticular to your characters.
Ihope that helps. :)
Availableon Wordpress.
Disclaimer
#tw torture#writing victims#writing carers#writing witnesses#effects of torture#torture and belief#torture and relationships#Anonymous
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More Steven!!
This is a response for @im-bad-at-life in regards to this post.
Firstly, here are links to where I bought The Nightmare TV Special and the The Last Temptation comic book. I got both off of Amazon, and they were reasonably inexpensive.
I’m throwing the response under a read-more again because it’s long again!
Who is Alice to Steven? Through the albums, it is clear that Alice is restricted to the Nightmare realm (or whatever you want to call it). Steven has a very black and white view of morality, so I like to think of Alice as the dark half of Steven. Steven really wants to be a good person, so he tries to box away his negative thoughts and this becomes Alice, who is constantly trying to get Steven to give in to that part of himself. In that respect, Alice and the Showman are the same person. Thus, Steven really wouldn’t be “saving” Alice, per-say, but by giving into Alice, Steven would be letting him out of the proverbial box. But as I said, Steven’s morals are black and white. Since he has no grey area in his views, if Steven decides to entertain the thoughts and feelings of Alice, then Alice has full control. I’ve never seen the twin theory, and I honestly don’t quite like it. The line, “You’ve only lived a minute of your life,” to me refers to how young Steven was when his life fell apart since he’d be about 7 or 8 years old (though his age at the time of When Hell Comes Home is unknown). This could also mean that Steven realizes that any chance of having a normal life died when he was that child. There is also no other reference to a sibling in any of the albums, so I don’t really see how that could work, because if that was the intent, it would DEFINITELY have come up in multiple songs.
“Which” Steven is Wind-Up Toy written for/by? To me, Wind-Up Toy comes from the point of view of older Steven (see my timeline below). He’s old enough to be self-aware of what is happening to him in the hospital, and why (to an extent). He says that he’s lost in his nightmares, so he has to be at least old enough for the first Nightmare to have come and gone. He also has to be old enough for the death penalty to have been considered for him (per the lyric, “Warden wants to fry me”). I think the lines about his parents come from him trying to rationalize his situation. He’s probably trying to repress whatever happened between himself and his parents, so he believes that they just didn’t want him, rather than him having to face whatever terror is described in When Hell Comes Home.
Who is the Black Widow? As far as the Black Widow as a character, I’ve always interpreted him as a demon/Devil sort of entity. The character is sort of drifted over in the album and movie; spiders are a very common phobia, so I think that honestly he’s mostly there for the, “OooooOOOoooO ~scary~,” shock factor. Considering the amount of time between the two albums, I doubt that The Black Widow was written with the intention of foreshadowing, but there are certainly some tie-ins to Along Came A Spider, and I wouldn’t be surprised if the album was purposely written around this character. There’s the general disrespect for humanity, as well as references to being a master manipulator (which Spider certainly is, since he’s written to be one of those disarmingly charming killers). The line, “He sits upon his throne and picks at all the bones of his husbands and his wives he’s devoured,” all but confirms the cannibalism insinuated in the Spider album (again, if you’re taking that in the literal sense). Steven is a very flighty, timid character, so I’m sure that the experience with the Widow would likely haunt him for a very long time. I have many headcannons as to how the Widow character relates to Steven and Spider, but that in itself could be its own essay-length own post.
What is the timeline of the albums in relation to Steven? This is my personal timeline for Steven, based on how I’ve been interpreting the character:
The Last Temptation: I honestly have issues placing this album. Steven is a child in this album (and in the comic), so I see this as sort of his first encounter with his nightmares, and whatever entity (Alice? The Showman? The Black Widow?) is trying to woo him down whatever dark path it has planned for him. Steven thinks he’s won and then thinks nothing of it. The muttering and disembodied voices at the end of the last track suggest otherwise.
Welcome to My Nightmare: Steven’t first nightmare of considerable magnitude. His wife tries to wake him up too suddenly and it causes him to lash out in his sleep (Steven/Years Ago/The Awakening), then he flees in realization of what he’s done (Escape). The trauma of realizing what he’s done knocks him back into his mental age regression (to approximately the same age he was when he was still at the mercy of his father), so he doesn’t get very far in his escape and the authorities catch up with him.
Wind-Up Toy: A backstory for Steven as well as an update on where he is/where he’s been. Believes his parents to still be around, and confirms that he’s still in and out of his nightmares.
Goes to Hell: A continuation of his nightmares, most likely still hospitalized. Steven gives into the insidious entity of Alice in his nightmares, and goes from being the innocent, child-minded boy to what eventually becomes the Spider and escapes OR Steven gets totally lost in the part of his psyche that wants vengeance for all of the abuse he’s endure in his life and has the Spider nightmare (depending on your interpretation).
Along Came A Spider: The Spider plot line. Spider commits his crimes after escaping at the end of Goes to Hell and is captured, and the album is told from his point of view as a confession OR Steven is narrating his most violent nightmare, still being hospitalized. I like the idea of the last victim in this nightmare being the projection of his wife.
Welcome 2 My Nightmare: Spider escapes OR Steven is released. This nightmare is him looking over his life experiences, and he must know his death is coming because he so aggressively avoids falling asleep for one last time. Steven finally falls asleep after trying to stay awake on caffeine pills and shocking himself awake in the cold shower, so I think his whole system finally gave out from the stress (maybe a combination of caffeine overdose and hypothermia?). Someone gets to him in time to get him to a hospital, or at least an ambulance, because he dies on a monitor (Flatline).
Quick Answers:These are just answers so some of the “quick” questions posed in that response. Who is the voice at the end of Wind-Up Toy? Honestly, I don’t really know! It sounds like a child, for sure. As I like to view the song being written from the point of view of older Steven (in the hospital), I like to see that voice as being Steven’s younger self calling out to him. Disembodied voices are featured a lot in Steven songs (i.e. Years Ago, Steven, Wind-Up Toy, I Am the Spider, etc.), and I honestly think that it’s mostly for the creepy effect, if anything (which is nice because it leaves them open to interpretation). Could there be a connection to Ballad of Dwight Fry? Obviously, Dwight Fry predates Steven by a few years, but I do agree that the character in the song and Steven are eerily similar. It is very likely that Dwight Fry was the prequel/inspiration for the direction Steven’s character would take. What about DaDa? I have ALWAYS loved DaDa, and honestly YES, there are some spots on there that I personally think connect to Steven (mind you, this was the last of the” blackout” era albums, and Alice says he doesn’t even remember making or touring those albums, so if there was some connection there, it was probably unintentional). The three tracks that I always zero in on are Dada, Enough’s Enough (another look into Steven’s family life?), and Dyslexia (which talks about his world constantly “going upside-down”, seeing things “backwards”, and a potential love interest).
#ok so its not as long at the first one but still lmao#alice cooper#steven bby#sorry this took so long!! i had a take home exam last weekend that threw me off my game!
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A Mortal Engines Review/Outrage
Here thar be spoilers.
When I saw that Mortal Engines was finally getting a film, I was super excited. I finished the last book 7 years ago and always thought they had great cinematic potential. The film has finally come and, while as a standalone film it’s fun - and don’t get me wrong, visually gorgeous, basically exactly what I imagined it would look like - it doesn’t do the books justice. Like, at all.
I understand that there’s only so much time in a film and there is a lot that happens in the books, so naturally some things were cut or changed - things that immediately spring to mind:
the fairly natural introduction of Bevis Pod at a more audience-appropriate time so that he’s actually a character of reasonable significance when his time in the spotlight comes.
The removal of Chrysler Peevey - the pirates are a fun diversion but don’t contribute a huge amount overall to the plot at large I guess.
Less time spent in Batmunkh Gompa (erroneously referred by characters in the film as Shan Guo even though that refers to the land BEYOND the wall and it appears on a MAP in the film as Batmunkh Gompa so???????)
Equally, some things of real consequence were cut or changed to the significant detriment of the film:
Magnus Chrome being completely sidelined as a villain and all of his maniacal power being transferred to Thaddeus Valentine. Chrome instead just kind of appears and is ineffectual for two scenes, when actually he’s meant to be a key message carrier for the book - weapons of mass destruction are a BAD idea and you shouldn’t play with forces you don’t understand.
Continuing with the role swap of Magnus and Thaddeus, Thaddeus was absolutely a villain in the books but he was a bit more sympathetic. The one thing that the film DID get right is that Thaddeus was ambitious - but mostly because he wanted the best for Kate, not because he actually particularly cared about London. He was an out-country scav who had something that Chrome wanted (also touched on in the film), which afforded him the life of luxury he never could have had otherwise. He had a charade to keep up that got well out of hand.
Literally everyone hating Tom on Airhaven for being a Londoner. Yes, there are some people who are suspicious of him, but aeronauts are the driving neutral trade force of the world. Captain Kora is a warm and friendly man AND an anti-tractionist - the whole point of it all was to give Tom a reason to question Municipal Darwinism and challenge his convictions and stereotypes that AT’s are vicious and savage.
And then, there’s the absolutely unforgivable sins...
The extent to which London survives. London is meant to be obliterated by the meltdown of Medusa, taking the vast majority of its population with it. Chrome and Thaddeus are meant to be two sides of the same coin when it comes to facing their demise as a result of their hubris - Chrome weeping that he “only wanted to make London strong,” and Thaddeus clutching his dead daughter, the one thing he wanted to keep safe, watching the Jenny Haniver fly away with his other daughter, the one he treated so badly, and coming to terms with the fact that he did some pretty shitty things and that, really, a lot of this was his fault. And then dying in a fire. London was meant to be absolutely obliterated by MEDUSA and its survivors were meant to learn from its mistakes. More on the absolutely nuking of the series later though...
K-Division. This is meant to epitomise the degree to which Chrome’s reign had gone absolutely batshit. The creation of stalkers from Deep Gut prisoners was meant to be absolutely abhorrent and show how totalitarian and authoritarian Chrome’s madness for power had become. And speaking of K-Division and stalkers...
Shrike. Oh my God, Shrike. So, fair play to Jackson et al. - Shrike looks and feels absolutely fantastic in the film. He is terrifying, utterly unstoppable (but is apparently weak to a boot to the chest? More on that in a sec...) and exactly as uncanny as he is supposed to be. Also his war-shriek? Terrifying. Kudos there. But his characterisation is soooooo lacking and flawed. Shrike was meant to be an aged relic, relatively harmless unless you got in his way, to the point that he actually lived on a settlement. He helped out, didn’t need food and generally kept to himself, so what was the problem with him being there? While he was distinctly no longer human, he was, to a degree, able to think rationally - and the film does, I will concede, do a reasonable job of showing that it is specifically his dangerous obsession and confusion around Hester that activates the insane killing machine part of his head. Ok, sure, in the film he has his own little microtown and he takes Hester on board, exactly like he’s meant to, and they did a good job of showing how something deep within him is stirred by Hester’s ‘brokenness’ and his latent memories of his own child. But here’s the real problem I have, back to that point on the chest-boot - I was so incredibly disappointed to have Shrike die half way through the film? He’s the fucking NARRATOR of the ENTIRE SERIES! He survives THOUSANDS OF YEARS, experiencing and relaying emotion in a way that is so brilliantly uncanny and murderous and complex that... anyway. They done fucked up Shrike by having him be a metal Freddie Kruger for about half of the film and then suddenly and inexplicably having Anna Fang kill him with a This Is Sparta kick. Absolutely ridiculous.
Oh, but Shrike’s leitmotif? Brilliant. Absolutely terrifying musical queue. Good job on that one.
And last of all...
Hester. You knew this was coming. What have they done to you, Hester? First of all, ok, maybe it was difficult to give her a literally disfiguring face scar. But she is meant to be literally broken. She’s meant to have a crooked smile and one eye permanently locked in a scowl. I told myself that it was fine and that they only changed that to make Hester a bit more relatable and main-character material. It was a long shot and a vain hope but hey, I hoped to be proved wrong.
Hester is meant to be an insecure, selfish, murderous and wild girl. And they did a reasonable job of showing this at the very beginning of the film. They even included the bit where she robs Tom! Nice! But then they make her far too nice far too quickly in the subsequent sequences. And Tom doesn’t even like her all that much to begin with! More importantly though, Tom and Hester’s relationship develops much more organically in the books. Again, screen time, yada yada, but there’s so much important stuff! Hester’s desire for revenge is so strong that she sabotages so much just to get even an inch closer to Valentine, which really pisses Tom off when he’s trying to show her what is, to him, a more reasoned point of view. Hester has no qualms with killing - Tom does. In fact, unless I’m much mistaken, Tom scarcely raises a hand to anyone. Ever. In fact, one of the main things that happens is him getting shot and developing a heart condition as a result. Tom is absolutely a pacifist, give-peace-a-chance kind of guy, who may fantasise in the same way that many young people do about going on grand adventures, but never actually WANTS to kill anyone. Part of his arc with Hester is that, while he disagrees with a lot of the things she does, he never stops trying to see the good and shows her humanity and compassion. Again, Batmunkh Gompa was glossed over, but Tom is meant to buy Hester a new scarf, showing acceptance of her insecurities and empathy, if not agreement, with her situation.
All of this is for the sake of making Hester a bland dull tough girl Katniss Everdeen young adult protag. She is not a hero. She is not a good person. She is deeply flawed and scarred and traumatised... but she’s still human! As valentine is trying desperately to save Kate, Hester comes to help, and the book highlights how confusing this is for her!! I could go on and on about how the main characters of the book are so badly butchered by the entire thing but I’m acutely aware of how long this post is already.
So that’s my verdict. It’s a fun film. It’s a good watch. But honestly, as a huge fan of the books, it’s left a sour taste. The ending even conveniently ties everything up in a half-arsed bow that destroys the entire overarching plot of the series through to the 4th book. I suspect that they had so little faith in the committee-approved screwup of a script that they made sure there was no precedent for a sequel.
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Trust Issues
This was requested by the lovely @channelxblue. It got slightly more angsty than I hoped but, hey ho. I hope you all enjoy it! Also, thank you so much for the anonymous love guys, it makes my day!
Masterlist – Plot: Tom has difficulties opening up about serious situations.
Trust Issues (One-Shot)
After being together for years, Zendaya had come to one very certain conclusion – Tom Holland had a short temper.
And it wasn’t in the typical sense either. Most usual people grew angry and it was noticeable; they’d snap, and they’d scream, they’d throw things and storm out. Tom, on the other hand, was a very subtle angry person. Yes, he grew angry quick, but it was the smallest change in his facial expression that gave his fowl mood away. His eyes would move into narrow slits, a red tinge to them, and his lips would settle into a thin, all most non-existent line. It kind of bothered Zendaya, at times. She’d all most prefer for her boyfriend to lash out here and there and be conventionally angry. It always made her feel guilty, to watch him sit there and suffer silently.
Today was one of those moments.
“Come ‘ere.” Zendaya glanced about the opulent ballroom they were in, making sure that nobody witnessed them making a speedy departure. Despite her and Tom being the focal reason behind today’s gathering, people were seemingly engulfed in their own conversations and hadn’t noticed Tom and Zendaya scutter away into the darkness. With her hand in his, Zendaya escorted Tom outside and onto a secluded balcony. The spot outlooked an extensive stretch of green foliage and Zendaya leaned against the railing, her eyes settling on the darkened natural beauty in front of her. “What’s bothering you?”
“What? Nothing.” Tom rested his back beside Zendaya on the railing, both of them looking out in opposing directions.
Zendaya sighed heavily. He was always like this, the type to shy away from real conversations. It had been easy during the infancy of their relationship; neither of them had been in the mental capacity to settle down and so serious conversations were a rarity. However, now was meant to be the time for them to start a family, discuss the changes in their careers, sharing finances. Right now, was when Zendaya needed him to talk, really talk, and like always, he was pushing her away.
“Tom, we can’t keep doing this.” Her voice was barely a whisper above the wind sweeping through the trees. Zendaya felt tears well in the depths of her eyes but she pushed them away stubbornly.
“Doing what?”
“Avoiding each other-“ Her voice, now, was everything but a whisper. It was shaky and broken, loud and fearful.
“We’re not avoiding each other.” Tom scoffed, his head shaking in disbelief. “What are you talking about?” And once again, Tom was trying his hardest not to address the elephant in the room. He was a prideful man and confessing the insecurities plaguing his mind wasn’t something he was happy admitting out loud.
“I’m talking about the fact that you won’t talk to me!” Zendaya turned her frame so that she was facing him. Her body curled into his, her eyes boring through the side of his still face. He was avoiding eye contact with her and that was seemingly pissing her off some more. “Something’s clearly up with you tonight and if you can’t confide in me and tell me what’s going on, maybe we shouldn’t be here.”
With a ring the size of a large pebble on her finger and their friends and family together, Zendaya would have thought that this day would be one of the happiest days of her life. But, Tom wasn’t having it, not when her douchebag of an ex-boyfriend was floating around the room. Tom considered himself to be a rational guy, he really did. But he wasn’t trying to hide the fact that he was angry at Trevor Jackson for being at his engagement party. And, why wouldn’t he be? Trevor had been the only other committed relationship that Zendaya had had and he was ashamed to say that he was threatened by this prospect. If there was any guy on the planet that could split up Tom and Zendaya, Tom believed it to be Trevor. He and Z had been childhood sweethearts and forgetting your first love was feat that was virtually impossible; a thought that made Tom excessively nauseous.
“Oh, come on, Z-“ This time Tom turned to look at Zendaya, his eyes widening at the seriousness evident on her face. He reached for her, his heart begging him to pull her into his arms and confess the extent of his stupid insecurities. But, she pushed his hand away, her body subconsciously taking a step away from him.
“No, Tom, I’m serious, we can’t get married if we’re going to keep act like this. We can’t keep dodging these all important conversations because you don’t want to have them.” This time a rogue tear slipped from Zendaya’s eye and Tom wasn’t taking no for an answer, he forcefully tugged at her waist, pulling her into him. And this time, she didn’t fight him. She let him settle his bulky arms around her torso and she let her face nuzzle warmly into his neck. Tom loved this girl and she loved him; he wasn’t going to let any lousy insecurity stop him from getting his happy ending.
“I’m sorry.” Tom cupped either side of Zendaya’s face, his nose brushing against hers softly. “It’s hard for me sometimes, you know?” Growing up around boys meant that Tom’s business was always his own. He never had to over indulge and spill on how he was feeling because frankly, Harry, Sam, Paddy or Harrison didn’t really care all that much. But with Zendaya, the whole dynamic was different. She was such a vocal person – someone who thrived of spoken reassurance – and that was hard for Tom sometimes. He wanted to open up to her entirely, but he was scared. He was scared his insecurities would push her away, scared she’d see how damaged he was and find someone else, scared that’d he’d have to go back to a life without her.
“I know it is, I get it but I just want you to trust me, Tom-“
“I do, baby, I promise you, I do.” Tom kissed the tip of her nose gingerly before transcending down her cheek, her jaw and her neck. He peppered her exposed skin with kisses, reassuring her that he wanted this, wanted her. “If I tell you what’s up, you promise not think I’m being stupid-“
“Thomas Stanley Holland,” Zendaya huffed, her hands resting against his shoulders as she pulled away from him momentarily. “You know me, I would never … I just want you to talk to me, tell me what’s wrong.” With the tip of her finger, Zendaya moved a stray curl of Tom’s from his forehead. There was just something about his long, curly hair that made her smile and he watched her curiously before deciding to speak his mind.
“I’m angry that Trevor’s here.” Tom stated, and the gears clicked in Zendaya’s head. She despised Trevor, even after all this time, but he had been someone’s plus one to their party and she hadn’t wanted to cause a scene by kicking him out. She’d just done her best to avoid him all night, Tom in tow. Tom’s dislike for Trevor was clear and Zendaya had just thought keeping the two apart would be enough for Tom and her to enjoy their engagement party together. Trevor had once meant a significant deal to Zendaya but she wasn’t going to let him do that to her now. He was a little smudge in the big, extravagant painting that was Tom and Zendaya. “I know it was an ambush on us both but I hate that he’s here and his smug self and-“
“Is that what’s been on your mind this whole time? Tom, why would I think your reaction was stupid? I’m mad he’s here, you’re allowed to be too.” Zendaya didn’t think Tom’s insecurity regarding Trevor was anything out of the ordinary; if Elle was at their engagement party, she would react the same way. Maybe even worse. Zendaya was a possessive girl, after all.
“I just … there’s something in me that always thinks he can take you away from me.” Zendaya was going to interrupt him but Tom silenced her with a quick peck to the lips. “And I know it’s silly because you love me and I love you but I can’t help it. It’s just something that’s been on my mind all night.”
“I am here, with you, I am marrying you. I would never, never let anything as mediocre as Trevor get in between us, okay?” And just like Zendaya herself, words of reassurance were all he needed to enjoy the rest of his night. “I love you, Tom Holland.”
“I love you too,” Tom pulled Zendaya in for an earth-shattering kiss. He dipped her body slowly, his buff chest pressing tightly against her as their lips moved harmonically. She could taste the subtle flavour of beer on his tongue and he was desperate to get more of that mint that was evidently always on hers. They were grabby and desperate; absolutely breathless when they pulled apart. “Future Mrs Holland.”
#tomdaya#tomdaya fanfiction#tomdaya fan fic#tomdaya fan fiction#tomdaya fanfic#ritebeforeyoureyes#oneshot#one-shot#trust issues
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Batman Loves Superman #3
Superman rubbing his nipples raw.
Maybe in this issue, Batman will figure out who the infected super heroes are by looking at the Batarang molds. But then again, probably not. Or he could just look at the solicits in Previews to see what special one-shot Infected comic books are being released in the near future.
On the first page, Batman explains to the reader why he's an asshole.
This is why writers should stay out of the heads of the heroes they write. Because they suck at understanding them and can't help projecting their own beliefs onto the heroes.
Have I mentioned that I don't care for Joshua Williamson's writing style?
In this scene, we see Batman explaining (to himself, I guess?) how trying to protect the world has led him down a dark path of invasion of privacy and broken trust. It's not totally Williamson's fault that he believes this is Batman. At some point, Batman became the greatest hero in the DC Universe because fangenders couldn't stop jerking themselves off about how he's just this normal man, you know, but he can defeat Superman! And to believe that, they had to believe that Batman is prepared to destroy every single hero in the DC Universe if it should come to that. Instead of just being this guy who is protecting Gotham and trying to serve justice, he's now this paranoid asshole who thinks he's the only person who can save the world. And being responsible for that means allowing yourself great latitude with your ethical and moral rationalizations. I'd argue that's not Batman though. That's what Batman has become as writers continually try to make sense of the character other writers have fucked up by trying to make sense of him.
The logic goes like this: Batman was just a guy with loads of money and no super powers. That made him pretty bad-ass. Fans loved him and he made DC a lot of money. Fans believed Batman was smart enough to defeat any hero with super powers and that's what made him so great. So writers began portraying him as being so prepared for any situation that he could defeat any hero gone rogue. DC loved to make heroes go rogue because they don't understand the point of their own heroes. But Batman was always there to stop them! Unless it was Batman who went rogue. But that hardly ever happens because who could stop Batman?! Once it was established that Batman was prepared to defeat any hero, writers began thinking, "Wait. That means Batman has a whole arsenal of weapons to use the heroes' weaknesses against them. Who does that?! A big jerk, that's who!" Which means now writers felt they had to deal with the side of Batman that was betraying the trust of his friends by constantly plotting against them. And the next step? To show Batman himself being aware of what a huge asshole he is and dealing with it!
Although if he saves the world, Batman doesn't really need to deal with the implications of his machinations, does he? He can just gloat and say, "I was right all along! Suck it!"
Last issue, I thought Superman had put on some Bat-Make-Up and gone undercover as a fake Joker version of himself. It turns out, he actually poisoned himself to do it because the risk was worth it, I guess? What a great plan! Have the most dangerous man in the world struggle against turning evil! Hey, why not? It's not like anything bad can happen because this is a story written by a writer who can decide, "Superman is stronger than the poison and what makes him so great is his will to do the right thing!" It's not like it's written by a writer who might think, "Why would Superman and Batman choose this course of action? It's way too fucking risky!"
Man, I wish this comic book were written by that writer.
Superman thinks, "Batman hates this plan. Too risky." But Superman was all in on this plan? Well, I'm glad to know Superman is a bigger asshole than Batman in this comic book. Fucking arrogant bastard is willing to risk the entire world because, as Batman states as his reason to go along with this plan, "We're out of options." Are you though? Are you really? The Joker Who Laughs was captured and the only option was to free him? What about looking at the fucking molds to see what other symbols were carved on the Batarangs-That-Laugh?
Okay fine. I guess I'll just accept that the symbols were carved onto the Batarangs-That-Laugh after they were molded. Although I'm absolutely certain that Josh Williamson never even considered it and he actually just fucked up the entire mystery by putting those symbols on the stupid things.
Of course, The Batman Who Laughs knows they're trying to play him because he's an evil genius and that's the only way a mediocre writer knows how to write one. Wouldn't it have been nice to see the plan actually work for once and they get some information they can use out of him and The Batman Who Laughs says, "What?! No! How dare you?!" And then he escapes to try to escalate his plan because now the good guys know some of the extent of it? No? You'd rather have this trite, overdone bullshit? Okay, okay! I guess I'm wrong! Calm down!
Continuing with this intriguing story that has me so intrigued my butthole has been clenched for the last ten minutes, Batman figures out another person infected by the Batman Who Laughs toxin is Commissioner Gordon. He figures this out from a clue given to him by The Batman Who Laughs. I figured it out two issues ago when Gordon laughed. Jeez, Batman. Take a detective course at Gotham Night College.
Batman is shocked — SHOCKED! — to discover somebody on the Batman Who Laughs toxin can be so darn mean.
The size of the above image, when I first scanned it, was 1776 pixels. That made me realize how crippling it must be for all those people who call into shows like Coast to Coast radio who see meaning in every fucking number they come across. I guess the above image was patriotic. Right up until I resized it down to 620 pixels! I know that statement would have had more impact if I resized it to a number that actually meant something (aside from the founding of Cholula, Mexico, of course).
Gordon's stupid argument (it's also crazy because he's on stupid crazy toxin) is that Batman is the cause of all the chaos in Gotham. Obviously that's wrong but Batman's defense composed of jumping on Gordon's van and causing him to careen wildly about the streets and running people off the road before he yanks Gordon out of the van to send it crashing into a small pile of children isn't great. I mean, I don't know if the van hit a small pile of children or not. The point is, Batman doesn't fucking know what it crashed into either. This scene shows why writers blame Batman for causing all of the chaos in Gotham. It's because idiot fucking writers write him causing fucking chaos in Gotham. Then they blame the character they made do those things! Fucking fuckers!
Is this a reference to The Killing Joke? Is Gordon threatening to shoot his daughter in the back, take naked torture Polaroids of her, and then God knows what else? Is Joshua Williamson that disturbing of a human being? Hmm, maybe I finally respect him.
Superman arrives to help by destroying Gordon's Batsuit and Batman is all, "I'd rather die than get help from you!" But even though he says that, he remains alive so I suspect he actually kind of likes getting help from Superman. Gordon reveals his main complaint about Batman is the way Batman leaves in the middle of every conversation. It's an obvious joke to make but I'd suggest maybe this particular moment isn't the time for jokes! No wait. It's exactly the right time for jokes! Man, The Joker is confusing. Am I supposed to be scared and tense or doubled over in laughter? Maybe if Batman just laughed at a few of The Joker's jokes once in a while, The Joker would calm the fuck down.
Instead of throwing Gordon's Batsuit into the bin behind the police station, Superman and Batman decide to overthink it. "Why would Gordon get out his Batsuit?" they wonder instead of thinking, "I guess Gordon needed extra fire power to battle us. But since Superman turned the Batsuit into a pile of metal, who cares? Get rid of it." Instead of assuming the obvious, they decide to take the suit back to the Fortress of Solitude to examine it. Examine it for what? Gordon was infected and he used his suit because he's a powerless old man. And guess what? That's just what the Batman Who Laughs wanted them to do! His plan was to realize that Superman and Batman would think the armor meant more than it does. And because of that, it does! Because hiding inside of it is Infected Blue Beetle! Ha ha! They fell right into his trap! What dumbies!
Don't think I'm infected because I typed "Ha ha." I assure you, I wasn't really laughing. Or amused in the slightest. I was more sort of exasperated and angry that Williamson wrote such an unbelievable plot point just to get Blue Beetle inside the Fortress of Solitude to take it over.
Batman Loves Superman #3 Final Thoughts: I hate myself because I'm going to keep reading this comic book. It is not well thought out at all. Sort of like my life which is maybe why I'm so intrigued by how it makes me feel (which is a kind of mix between self-loathing and horniness).
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So I finally got around to watching Batman V Superman. Honest opinion? 3/5...
Get ready for a Tangent review. I have ripped in BvS before but hadn’t actually seen it. I find that to be unprofessional of any nerd philosopher. If you are going to dislike something you need to know what you’re disliking. So I watched it… and before the lovers of the film get too excited, my opinion hasn’t changed. A 3/5 for a superhero movie isn’t quite up to par. Call me stubborn but I want a 7/10 or better.
I did watch the directors cut, because that’s all I had access to, so I don’t know what was removed from the theatrical version, please keep that in mind.
So no restraint on spoilers ahead, here we go…
The movie was pretty great… until Batman fought Superman. Even before that it was falling apart, but that is the kryptonite spear that did it in.
Here’s the thing; it’s okay to establish this as an alternate universe, and get away with a lot of character changes, but if you call it “the expanded universe” and never say “this is it’s own thing, not a cinematic earth 1” you’re going to be judged like it’s earth 1.
Let’s start with Batman: ruthless, dark, and no restraint on killing. He didn’t break his golden rule “no killing with guns” but he did in his dreams. That… I guess that’s okay? But Snyder even said that he took inspiration from the original comics; “Batman DID kill people back in the day.”
Okay… I’ll get back to that at the end.
Batman then blamed Superman for the destruction during Zod, and people were divided, with Bats saying “no he’s evil.”
Superman of course confronts him during a reckless chase against Lexcorp’s smuggling operation, somehow miraculously doesn’t destroy his own tracking device when he PLOWED INTO THE TRUCK! And then Superman says “stop it” and Batman says “YOU’RE NOT MY MOM!”
This all blows up when the hearing held by the… Superman senate? Who I really thought was run by his mom… was blown up. Sabotage.
Batman has had enough, and he basically calls Superman down for a death battle….
Let’s pause here for Supes… framed for murder, and not painted in the best light towards the people but completely innocent…. and feeling terrible for all of the people that get hurt…
But here’s probably my first complaint there; in every Superman movie, Superman is super fast, and basically able to do anything… unless someone has plot armor. Seriously Plot armor is a bigger weakness to Supes than Kryptonite in this movie. He didn’t even try to outrun the bomb, he just stood there in shock, when we’ve seen that he’s faster than a speeding bullet… faster than a speeding bullet; fast enough to go “oh shit a bomb!”
Yet he doesn’t. He also doesn’t grab Lex and SHOW HIM AND THE PHOTOS TO BRUCE WITH HIS SUPER STRENGTH AND SPEED, he immediately caves.
He has super hearing too. There are so many times someone could have whispered; “it’s a trap, don’t go…”
But… the plot… it’s called Batman v Superman. They have to fight.
Well then how about Lois Lane? Well Lois Lane used to be the damsel in distress character back in the 60s, but I’m fairly certain that even pre-crisis Lois had already started to become a feminist icon. She’s tough, she’s capable, she can take care of herself, and she’s the daughter of a military general who taught her how to fight……. and while she has situational awareness in this movie, she is somehow overpowered by two hired convicts, even though she recognized the ambush and called it out… and again by a bony, early twenties Lex Luthor… Before that I forgive, the guy at the beginning had a gun and she was surrounded. You’re probably sensing a theme here, and I will get to it in my closing statement.
So finally we have Lex. Despite all of the hate that Jesse Eisenberg got as Lex, I feel like his Lex was the best performance in the movie! “But he had hair!” I hear you say, “And he was wacky and erratic, not cool and collected!” Ah but Lex Luthor used to have hair, in fact he was a redhead before his hair fell out because of kryptonite induced cancer… back in the 60s… So Lex is a difficult character. We’ve all been spoiled by Michael Rosenbaum’s Lex, and why not? He was Lex for 10 years, but we forget that Lex has been changed over 50 years. The original Lex wasn’t a misunderstood genius who thought himself a savior, he was a land owner, a mad scientist/billionaire who wanted more money. A lot of his schemes were based around land ownership, no joke… Jesse Eisenberg’s Lex is like a combination of Gene Hackman and Kevin Spacey, and in that light he was terrific! He was wacky, but always in control, he played himself as a spoiled foolish child, but he was playing the audience the whole time! But… the question is why? He completely Sherlocked the audience with a twist “I planned all of it from the beginning” moment… yet… he… why did he do this? Why did he want to see Superman and Batman fight? He didn’t know about Darkseid until the end of the movie, he wasn’t trying to prevent that. Did he just want to watch them kill each other? Did he think he was saving the world? Did he just want them both out of the way? His original plan was either to get Superman to kill Batman, or have them kill each other… but… if Superman kills Batman, then what? Will you maintain control of him? How? The point of this made no sense, and what made even less sense was initiating plan B before plan A even failed… did the ship tell him something? That’s the only explanation, but again he was already planning to frame Superman, he already HAD framed Superman once. What was the motive?
Backing up from that; here’s my biggest issue with Lex… it felt like Snyder’s solution to make Lex appear smart was to make everyone else in the movie a complete idiot. That’s a great cop-out but it’s kinda obvious. Batman was looking into Lex, but never suspected a setup? Superman was defeated by Martha being kidnapped, and Lex didn’t even have kryptonite as insurance? Lois figured him out and was damseled IMMEDIATELY? Really it felt like Snyder didn’t know how to write Lex as a genius so he settled for writing Lex as smarter than everyone else…
So we get to the moment when Superman is sent to kill Batman… and Superman says “No you need to listen.”
And Batman says, “I’m a detective and have been doing this for years, so of course I’ll hear you out, what do you have to say?”
“F** you I’m Batman” and sets off booby traps…
And Superman says “No listen.”
and Batman thinks he may have some important information, still doesn’t listen, and picks a fight…
And Superman quits trying… for some reason… and batman shoots him with Kryptonite and beats the crap out of him!
Superman starts to get back up! He’s not as powerful, but that’s okay because he still has kryptonite in his system and we watch as the kryptonite wears off and he suddenly has the upper hand… and uses it to talk some sense into batman kicks batman’s ass because that’s what the title is about!
Batman shoots superman with another Kryptonite gas bomb, and superman for some reason hasn’t learned the first time and doesn’t avoid it… maybe he was still a little weak…
But now Batman has an advantage. He’s a genius. He was testing it the first time, counting the seconds! Now he knows how long the kryptonite lasts… wait… it… it just stays permanent this time… no consistency in how long it works…
and suddenly Batman pulls a spear out of nowhere…
and then the Martha scene, and for some reason even though it’s their job to kill her, they put off killing her to try to kill Batman… because movie…
after that though, I think the last segment is pretty decent. Not the best, but not bad, just a bit forced in the writing…
So what’s my takeaway? Well… a lot of Batflek fans have argued that this Batman is the ORIGINAL Batman, and that’s great! Yet they hate Lex… the thing is that for all it’s faults, it seems like Snyder was trying to make a classic DC film; a 1960s pre-crisis Batman and Superman film but set in the 21st century… and that would be okay I guess?
But here’s my opinion on that… Batman, Lex, and Lois all changed for a reason. Batman’s was that gun violence was frowned upon and the publishers asked to get rid of guns. Some people want to rebel against that, but this happened before Batman was 5 years old… the truth is that as a character, he developed into the modern Batman, regardless of the reason. As for Lex and Lois? Their original characters aren’t relevant to the modern world. Lex evolved to appeal to the audience and became a Julius Caesar; someone who wants the best for his people but becomes a tyrant to make it happen, and that version of Lex has become the more popular version. Lois became more capable because of the women’s rights movement, and because a damsel in distress who has to be saved every single issue was going to get stale and unmemorable. These character changes are all relevant to who the characters are, and the fact that it was ignored for this movie was in my personal opinion a bad move.
Lex was handled okay, but it’s obvious that people want Julius Caesar, not Goldfinger, and he was somewhere in between that I could appreciate, but obviously a lot of people didn’t.
This movie, for what it was, was good and enjoyable… but it wasn’t spectacular or memorable. It won’t sink the DCEU, but it didn’t do it any favors. It was just a set up for a grand entrance later down the road, and I honestly think that it would have been a better movie if they took out “Batman vs Superman”
The entire team pushed too hard to make Superman and Batman fight, and I don’t think it was necessary. In the grand scheme of things they damaged both characters by making them fight.
Batman was too stubborn. He wasn’t rational. Batman can kill, sure, and Batman can even have guns to an extent, but he was completely reckless and the only point was to make Superman not like him, and to make him jump the gun. He’s supposed to be clever and forward thinking, but instead he jumps right into things over and over, without any regard for bystanders, his own tracking devices, or what the heck Lex is up to. The fact that he tracked packages back to Lexcorp should have been a red flag that something was amiss. He should have been willing to listen. Instead he became extremely angry and irrational, and yes I recognize that he just lost Robin, but even at his most broken state, he wasn’t this reckless.
Superman gave up too easily. He gave in to Lex’s blackmail, he froze when the bomb went off, he sacrificed himself pretty quickly, and he gave up on trying to talk with Batman… why?
Those two things, even when rationalizing it as a pre-crisis based movie, just don’t fit, and really it could have been written better to come to the same conclusion. However, as the characters that they’re supposed to be, they wouldn’t have fought. It would have made more sense to blackmail Batman into killing Superman than the other way around by having Robin be captive the whole movie…
So yeah, 3/5 good action movie… about as good as any other Batman movie…
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