#i think it is a fun aspect of his character that is well known but very underused | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

doitforbangchan · 3 months

Text

All Bark and No Bite : Meet the pack

Helloooooo! Welcome to my new series titled All Bark and No Bite. Before the series officially begins I want to give a quick overview of the SKZ pack members and their roles within the pack! This is how I view the pack dynamics working and my own personal thoughts. I have sorted them based on where I think they would fall. I have also included what tendencies I think some of them would have. I am also including a small background for the story. Please let me know your thoughts as well! I’d love to discuss :)

Disclaimer: The names and faces used here are just that, names and faces, and in no way reflect the real people the characters were designed after. The views and actions of these characters do not reflect the real Stray Kids in any way shape or form. This is all for fun let’s keep it that way please.

My content is always for 18+ ONLY. If you are not 18+ please see yourselves out thanks

Background info: This story takes place in an alternate universe where people eventually present as one of three presentations: Alpha, beta and omega. Omegas are incredibly rare and many people have never even seen an omega in their lives. The new tradition is if an alpha does get an omega then that Omega does become the packs, though they will mainly ‘belong’ to the main alpha of the pack. Due to the submissive nature of the omegas this has turned many alphas and betas very misogynistic.

Next Series masterlist Masterlist

Bang Chan aka Chris -Pack Main Alpha

Chris is the head alpha of the SKZ pack. He is strong willed and carries the weight of the world on his shoulders. Head of the pack and also unofficial head of the neighboring town has taken its toll on Chan mentally and emotionally. He is known as a strong leader who would and has done anything to protect his people. Other packs have heard of him and know better than to challenge him… Mostly anyways. The stupid few usually don’t make it home after coming for Chan. He is used to obedience and expects it in all aspects.

Lee Minho -Beta

Minho can be hard to read sometimes, he gives off such a serious vibe but once you get to know him and how he interacts with the pack it’s clear he really cares for them. Minho is very blunt and will tell you exactly how he sees it. Even though he’s a beta he is still Chan's second in command in the pack. Minho is often there to remind Chan that he’s allowed to be a human and not a machine. Main cook for the pack.

Seo Changbin -Alpha

The main muscle (other than chan) of the pack. He takes pride in his strength and his ability to protect the pack as well as offer a shoulder to cry on. Changbin is often the one the pack goes too when they are down and just need a hug. According to them he gives the best hugs. Also really good for a laugh as he never stops joking around.

Hwang Hyunjin -Beta

Hyunjin is a true romantic through and through. When he’s not helping out at home with the pack you could usually find him painting out in a field somewhere or in town helping the townsfolk. He can often be found running errands for the elderly in town. He is a true artist and loves to do portraits of his fellow pack mates.

Han Jisung -Beta with Omega tendencies

Precious Hannie, always so helpful and supportive. It was a surprise to his family he didn’t present as an omega growing up given how submissive he can be. He just wants to please the people he cares about! He can be a little introverted and shy around new people but once he warms up to you he never stops talking or joking around. Sunshine boy :)

Lee Felix -Beta Omega tendencies

Felix is another ray of sunshine for the pack. He is very dainty like a fairy and dances around like one too, despite his deep voice! His bubbly personality is contagious and anyone he meets is enamored by him. He can often be found in the kitchen baking during the day and singing along to whatever song is stuck in his head. Sometimes the pack wonders how he didn’t end up an omega.

Kim Seungmin -Beta with Alpha tendencies

This boy is very smart and is one of Chan's right hand men in the pack. He pays attention better than anyone else to small details and is good with strategy. He can come off as aloof and rude when you don’t know him yet, but once his shell is broken through he is actually a very caring person. He always tries to do right by his pack and would stop at nothing to protect them.

Yang Jeongin -Alpha

The youngest member of the pack and newest to present as an Alpha. He is very easy going and doesn’t have many responsibilities yet as he’s still trying to find himself as an alpha. He really looks up to the other members, especially Chan as he is a prime example of who Jeongin wants to become. The least experienced of the pack. One thing about him is he is very quick on his feet and even though he is young he knows he would die for the pack’s safety.

If you got this far thank you :') I am not the best writer but I do enjoy it and hope you do too!

©doitforbangchan

------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Taglist

@ihrtlix

#stray kids #stray kids x reader #straykids abo #skz smut #stray kids smut #bang chan #lee know #han jisung #changbin #jeongin #felix lee #seungmin #hyunjin

374 notes · View notes

azulsluver · 8 months

Text

Slasher!twst introduction…graphic for those who are sensitive to murder and overall fucked up shit in general.

I do not condone or support this behavior in any way, this is for entertainment purposes and for those who enjoy slasher films (it's where I got inspired off of) and not glorify actual serial killers.

basic tw. murder, human trafficking, abuse of power, clearly unhinged and purposely not good characters, mentions of snuff films, stalking, cannibalism, mentioned beheading.

Note: might come back to add more stuff and fix grammar lolz

Riddle

A doctor who craves to see his patients insides. Riddle finds everyone to be unique, during his years in the medical field he’s seen it all. Unlike most people he’s intrigued on the human body, almost taking the role as a psychiatrist but it’s nice to be up and personal with a corpse.

He wishes to understand every single aspect of the human body and brain, there is so much to learn and see. He’s kept a couple of his patients eyes in his lab, staring back at his favorites in remembrance of their once living memory.

Hot tempered however. Abuses the power that he’s a doctor, someone you should trust in health and well being. It kinda gets him off. Besides that he can’t stand patients who don’t listen, snobby and lack manners when he’s asking questions. An easy killer to avoid, just don’t catch his attention.

Trey

Did you see it coming? The friendly baker who’s pastries taste so good yet different no matter the brand. Trey is great at avoiding conflict, his victims are loners, people who don’t have much of a name. No one would suspect him because Trey made it his duty to befriend the law, clean from their records.

Trey had killed off a classmate that bothered him or snuck their nose in places it shouldn’t be. Resulting his decision to hide the evidence by making it into deserts. Or better, meals prepped for guests he plans on bringing over. When he doesn’t need to use his unique magic he eats it as it is. Human flesh doesn’t taste as bad as media says.

Calm and friendly. Someone you wouldn’t expect. Probably lures his victims by giving false hope, he can help you with anything you need. Seduction if needed, get you to isolate yourself so no one would suspect he was behind it. Another easy killer to avoid, don’t pry into his business.

Cater

Makes snuff films. Pretty popular for his cherry attitude and quirky kills. Got into this kind of stuff in high school, at first he was disturbed, but it grew on him the more his curiosity got the better of him. Becomes more self aware of people’s likes and dislikes, this sick thought that he can harm someone. Kill, someone’s daughter, son, and baby he could kill. With hopes and dreams, he can take it all.

Two-faced, he’s great at pretending, a little too good at being your trendy friend who enjoys giving his fans what they want. And he does exactly that. It was the attention he never thought he’d be addicted to. The praise and vulgar language, amusing.

Victims range from how popular and known you are, or if you really caught his eye and he thinks you can scream just right. His unique magic makes great use, multitasking on being in places he shouldn’t be, getting information and learning his victim’s routines. Those who love dressing cute, may you never cross this man.

Ace

A shitty killer, does it for fun. There’s nothing tragic for him he just thinks breaking the law is great….when he’s not caught, thanks to a little friend of his. Likes the adrenaline of a fight, resistance gets him off badly. Pants like a fucking dog if you’re bitchy, finds it hot when his victim can bite back. Brings him more of a challenge.

Picks up his victims from diners or the bar late at night. He’s got charm, unlike his high school years he’s learned to bite back his tongue and instead seduce his way through in situations. Here to impress, after a couple of failed attempts he’s gotten rid of he knows how to play his cards.

Gotten away with a lot of things. Like Trey he has befriended the law, the more corrupted side. The one that enjoys hurting the innocent, that understand the power trip of accusing and punishing. Deuce is his partner in crime, the two are almost regularly seen together.

Deuce

Genuinely wanted to help those in need. He saw himself as the savior in the story, he’s doing good by getting rid of the bad guys. But it’s starting to get boring. No matter how many times he’s slapped himself with water or stare at the cells. The way some more of his aggressive officers handle their suspect started to irl him. In a way others would deem normal.

Man did he miss the feeling of slamming his fist into another’s, the crunching sound of his knuckles and their jaw was exciting. Like a rush of youth, their cowering expression brings him memories that he didn’t know existed. Who is he to lie to himself that what he’s doing is wrong, it feels right to put criminals back in their place.

Respected by all. No one would bat an eye regarding his past records of violence during his school years. Deuce is a changed man they say, even when he’s with that play boy friend of his. He’s gotten better at controlling his bloodlust, the law honors a great officer like him.

Leona

It’s gotten rather lonely and boring lately. Leona had gone into some shady places to get the things he wanted. He’s no stranger to things such as assassins and human trafficking. That was something he was interested in, you only live once to do something fun. Such as owning a person. He’s a prince, it’s the least they can do to shut their mouth and let him have this moment.

Just as him, his family is corrupted, turning a blind eye to Leona’s hobby in collecting different types of victims to play with before discarding. Too many times did he wash the blood away and under his nails. Ravishing in their cries and last moments before taking it. Maybe it was the hunt he was after, but thinking about it that way reminded him of that hunter. Possible chance of them hunting together for sport.

No law can touch him. Not when hush hush money is being covered. Every eye witness is ordered to be silenced with threats and a wad of cash hovering above. Leona takes great interest in enthusiastic people, they rub him off in a nice way that makes him want to see them squirm.

Ruggie

Works for Leona. When Leona doesn’t find the time to buy his next toy that’s where Ruggie comes in. Ruggie has a good eye for candy that’s either sweet or sour, didn’t matter as long as they’re warm and breathing. Ruggie had dug himself deep into things he shouldn't at a young age, but the money was tempting, food was scarce so often relied on the dead people left behind after harvesting their organs.

Leona often gives him a treat for a job well done, getting rid of witnesses or naughty toys. Hyenas have teeth that can easily chew through bone, he's basically a garbage disposal for him. Not that he minds. In fact he loves the lifestyle he has at the moment.

This can go multiple ways, Ruggie is either Leona's personal assassin/helper or a cannibal by heart. But he prefers to work in the crowd, working all alone can have it's flaws, no better way than to have easy access. It's simple, when Leona is happy so is he.

Jack

Some sort of vigilant. Unlike the rest, he beats himself up for not controlling his emotions better. His more animalistic side gets the better of him when he sees the weak get pushed around. Multiple times has he actually tried to stop and get help, but his brain mushes and stretches each time he's seen something dead, unmoving, bloodied and crying in front of him. As if it was right to hurt them. There's so many people who are bad, he'll do the right thing by getting rid of them one by one.

This doesn't go as planned, he's built up some degree of blood lust, a need to excuse his behavior. Slowly getting into denial that what he's doing is ok, as long as no one knows. From killing off bad people to taking in those he deemed interesting. It was normal he said, a wolf needed to protect the weak. Whether they want it or not.

Jack isn't dumb but his victims are usually scared shitless to reason with him. But with a more collected person they can try talking it out with him. Jack however can get possessive because said victim has a point. You understand Jack, you helped him with all the burden and worry. He can't let you leave now tho...

Azul

Everything Azul had was all built up from scratch. He's made some unpleasant decisions to get to where he is now. High off of power and greed he cared little. His morals stripped the second he shakes hand with governments officials. They pay large sums to trade, buy, and sell things for the sake of their country. Organs play a great game into his empire, with the help of the twins social net work he was able to be top dog. Yet up in the surface he's nothing but a gentleman.

Azul gets his hands dirty by obtaining illegal substance and trafficking. Getting himself into these types of business opened his eyes to a whole new world, people are willing to do anything to survive, it's horrible and harsh. But it's starting to grow on him.

He's built connections with corrupted officials for the sake of enjoyment, it's nothing but fun for his customers. He's all too happy to supply them with things that'll keep them satisfied. All of this influenced him to have a cute thing of his own. Wouldn't it show just how much power he has?

Jade and Floyd

They work for Azul, he's just full of surprises! Jade and Floyd are kept busy with doing Azul's dirty work, relieving in targeting their newest victim so they can be sold off. Or knocking at a mans doorstep because he didn't pay Azul back on time. It's a sense of rush, the urge to harm and cause chaos among the innocent. Their job is to keep tabs on clients for any potential scammers, snatching people off the street in the middle of the night, sort of like the mafia but worse.

There is a low chance in encountering them or becoming their victim because of connections to their business. Alter egos, well associated with celebrities or people in power. And they're mostly seen with Azul as body guards, the ones actually doing the more "dirty work" for him. Discarding bodies or simply eating them to quickly get the job done.

Jade is interested in keeping something for the sake of experimenting or true relations. Floyd often have quick hook ups with people he finds interesting before getting bored again. Horrible and cruel with their things, none yet to survive, their parents have yet to complain in need of grandchildren and to further expand family business.

Kalim

Has some type of connection with Azul. Not much besides the trafficking. Something much more sinister under all those smiles, either because of his position or he's great and should do theater is the reason he faces no consequences. Family like the Leech are similar when it comes to traditions, keeping those in power satisfied with twisted and inhumane products. Kalim is probably desensitized, because at a young age it was taught to be normal to traffic those paid high enough. No longer seen as human.

Still very kind to others however, just much more aware and less dense when it comes to more darker subjects. Doesn't get his hands dirty, controls what route or person is taken in, receipts and what not. No hard feelings, maybe just don't be poor/jk

Encountering him is hard, must be related through connections or snooping too much. Like Leona, had many playthings in the past almost like a harem of those who passed his test. Nothing but sweet to his victims because he believes they get to experience pleasure before dying.

Jamil

Plays the same role in canon, Kalim's bodyguard/servant. In this AU he has not yet to envy Kalim as they set foot in the same page. Instead understanding each other through words and acts of loyalty. Has killed at a young age in order to protect Kalim, finds it his purpose to enjoy life while he has the chance. Disturbingly enjoys his job because he has an urge for bloodlust, possible sociopath. Helps get rid of unwanted enemies that are after Kalim in revenge.

Taunts his victims a lot, usually uncaring unlike Kalim. Innocent or not he's ruthless when it comes to disposing of them, gives him a sense of adrenaline in hurting those who did no wrong. Power abusing his status and strength for the fun of it. When not protecting Kalim he goes on his way to meet potential clients who wish to buy someone off or have them killed.

Stalks his victims and always a step ahead, interestingly enough if he finds them intriguing he might just keep them alive for a while. It's nice getting to know someone unwillingly before taking their lives, the thought of their future and life in his hands irks him to continue. Until he gets attached.

Vil

A killer who nobody would suspect as well. Vil is a famous and well known celebrity, who knew his hobby was stalking some more attractive fans and committing unspeakable crimes. Started this hobby in high school. Was somewhat detached as a child as he used to kill small rodents and was home schooled by private and strict teachers. As an actor he does an amazing job in not getting suspected of things people wouldn't think he had the guts to do.

With his magic in going undercover the paparazzi have trouble finding him, they're exhausting so he takes out his frustrations by eyeing pretty things that either adore him or unsuspecting. His reasons are fueled with envy towards those who are kind and considerate, a nobody that catches his eye. So he starts going for both.

Money can do a lot to satisfy his killing spree taking those he favorites and keep their bodies somewhere in one of his penthouses. In a room hidden underground, their body is plastered in a way he'd call art, hanging on the ceiling or kept in glass containers.

Rook

Family tradition to take unsuspecting hikers or foreigners as a sport. Instead of hunting for animals they hunt for people. Once a year the Hunt family meet up with their victims to set them free in whichever area was picked to search for them later on. A game of cat in mouse and usually Rook beats his siblings to these types of games. Can get very attached to his victims, finds every one of them beautiful when alive and dead.

He lives rather far from the city, having to move place to place because of his family's games. This gives him more opportunities to meet new people and find potential victims. Like any hunter, he's sharp and gets straight to the point, police have trouble finding the killer that's been abducting random hikers.

Pretty basic to encounter, because he spends most of his times living in the middle of the woods far away from civilization. I've seen the trend of Rook being a slasher like ghostface and I'm here for it, this is just my take on him in this au, much more darker.

Epel

The type of slasher to get away with everything because of pretty privilege. In this au Epel willingly cross dresses to trick his victims. Bias he was inspired to become a slasher because of movies. What exactly spiraled him to get into these type of things was for the sake of petty revenge. Tired of being seen as weak and fragile, he finds it amusing to see the confused and terrified look on their face when he's revealed to be their misfortune.

He gets really into his hobby, deceiving men who assumed he was a girl and easily befriending their families in case fingers were pointed at him. In fact Epel actually has several identities regarding cross dressing. He doesn't stay very long in places and tends to move when he can.

Victims? Majority are men he dislikes when first meeting. It's rare of him to go after girls, at times he will correct them if they misgender him or he plays along. Meaning putting up the act of a girl best friend. This usually happens if he's interested.

Idia and Ortho

Corrupted during his childhood. Had access to the internet and parents just weren't watching what he was looking at. Idia has seen it all, with the murders, snuff films, and inappropriate ads. It stuck with Idia through adult hood, all his years he's lived in guilt and fear, he's more unstable and lets his thoughts get the better of him. And Ortho makes it worse. It's unsure if Idia is seeing Ortho and hallucinating his voice, he blames that he's the source for all of his killings. All of the failed experiment and loved ones that "passed" away.

Ortho is dead in this au, Idia just can't accept that. But this forms him into who he is now, his family cover up whatever shit he's done, in fact they encourage Idia to do what he must if it made him happy. I wouldn't say they are shitty, because they know exactly what they're doing.

Idia had grown an obsession with trying to revive the dead, or make humans stay longer, he already failed with Ortho and is willing to spare more lives for the sake of science. His victims are people he met online, trollers or crushes to be exact.

Malleus

Malleus is a powerful fae who is influenced by his status, with that power comes a tendency for arrogance and a sense of being above the rules and law. This can be seen in his treatment of others in his kingdom, but it's (not) safe to say he prefers to go after humans instead. it could certainly lead to a sense of entitlement and a lack of regard for the lives of others. Additionally, he is a very passionate character who can easily become consumed by his emotions, and if those emotions are negative, it can lead to a desire for revenge or a need to assert his power and authority through violent means.

After years of being neglected only anger was left, he doesn't see people around him as equal rather than pawns. It's due to jealousy does he tend to lash out on those who either wronged him, throwing fits and tantrums when things don't go his way. Malleus has a glimpse of a child-like behavior when consumed by these emotions, having to replace one too many maids when crossed his paths.

He may be attracted to targets that are also powerful or notable in some way. This could include powerful magic users, royalty, or prominent figures within the magical community. Alternatively, he may also target those who have wronged him in some way, whether intentionally or unintentionally.

Lilia

war veteran that craves the glory and violence when it came to the human and fae war. He’s not like crazy sadistic or anything but killing when “necessary.” Which is a bad excuse because he doesn’t feel bad when harming bystanders that accidentally trip their way into his business. Also being a war veteran he’s highly respected so no one is on his ass when suspecting.

I’d say he’d miss the way skin goes under his nails, having a life in your hands is exhilarating to say the least. It’s almost comforting to him because of how harsh his days were back then. Headcanon that Lilia fought in war at a very young age, traumatic yet he’s addicted to the very thing that harms him. It’s unhealthy but I think he’s in a position to not care, being highly respected of his status is a free way ticket.

Silver

Not a slasher. A poor unexpecting citizen who’s friends with psychos. Silver is kind of a victim in this AU…? Sometimes Silver finds things he should’ve left behind, but in the goodness of his heart he seeks out the problem of his “friends” disappearance. Because of this Lilia regularly has to keep up with Silver so he doesn’t make those mistakes again. Using magic to reduce his memory of the night he saw a woman get beheaded, his son too kind for this world.

But he can be your friend in here!!! Befriending Silver is almost like a golden token, less likely to be victim depending on who’s eye you’ve caught. Some won’t care if you’re under his protection and Lilia’s. Silver could get attached to you tho, causing him to get unpleasant thoughts of wanting to keep you safe, even by force.

Slasher of a making? Lilia would find this an opportunity to fill his head with scenarios and create a false impression of his doings. He’s right to keep you, it’s for your own good and everyone around him keeps leaving. You’re all he has left.

Sebek

By slasher I mean background character lmaoo. As usual, works with Malleus as his personal guard. You could’ve been so many things to get in a situation with Sebek/Malleus, having been bought or maybe a friend of Malleus that he grows to resent. Sebek knows better then to let anger get the best of him, having blood on his hands are a normal occurrence especially when assassins tend to come left and right. So he’s always alert and very distanced when it comes to forming a relationship.

Some sort of executer, gets rid of any evidence from either within the castle or a good hunt. Much more connected to his animalistic urges but can easily overcome them. Anything grotesque sets him off to harm those around him. His hunger for any sort of flesh is unmatched, worse than any other beastfolk as he consumes it raw and alive.

Sebek would be the last person you’ll ever meet because encountering him is very very random. He’s a busy person who is barely seen in public unless it’s for important events that includes Malleus being there.

506 notes · View notes

or0ch1maru · 3 months

Note

akatsukis kinks and turn offs?

18+, full blown smut, kinks, and more smut

•

Omg omg omg, I had wayyyy too much fun writing these. Also! If anyone wants a one shot of a specific character with the kinks I’ve listed, pleaseeeeee let me know and I’d be more than happy to write it, especially for Tobi, Hidan, or Zetsu🫶🏻

I feel like Hidan has done everything at least once, and if there’s something he hasn’t done, he’s more than willing to try. This man is KINKY. I imagine his favorites are period play(or anything involving blood), s&m, fucking outside with the thrill of getting caught, knife play, and threesomes. I believe his turn off’s would be the “I don’t use safe words” thing. Hidan is intense when it comes to sex, and he won’t do it with just anybody either. He must have a safe word for his sessions and if you refuse to use one, just know you won’t be getting in his pants.

Kakuzu is similar to Hidan, has done everything at least once and isn’t close minded about trying new things. I know for a fact his tendrils would definitely come into play, whether it’s him tying you up, or toying with your clit. He’s definitely partnered up with Hidan for three ways, and just like him, also requires a safe word. I imagine Kakuzu enjoying a daddy kink as well, would lose his composure the second the word slips from your lips four orgasms in. Big into brat taming, but when it comes to turn off’s, just like with Hidan, if you have the no safe word mindset, he won’t be down.

I’ve mentioned this before but I truly believe Konan is into Shibari. Has a whole collection of ropes, of all different colors too. Mostly pastels; pinks, blue’s, and purple’s. I see her as being a passionate lover, with intense sessions time to time. Loves bringing toys into the bedroom, and her favorite to use on you would be her Hitachi. I can imagine Konan being into impact play as well, using only her hand or her paddle, likes seeing little pink marks on your ass or thighs. Would primarily be the top with you and unless she has stated it otherwise, WILL NOT be down to be topped. She needs absolute trust in her partner before allowing them access to her that way. If you try to top her during sex, it’ll turn her off.

Sessions with Pain can last relatively long, only because he loves to draw it out. Mixing pleasure with pain, but it’s never done to hurt you, wants you to experience pleasure in all aspects. I believe he’s into piercing play, also known as recreational acupuncture, or needle play. Aftercare is a very important thing to Pain, especially with the minor wounds that were inflicted during your session. I think his only turn off would be if you thought aftercare was stupid or unnecessary. Especially the times when he requires aftercare too.

Our sweet explosive loving babe. I feel like Deidara hasn’t experimented much with kinks, and the few he has tried, he wasn’t crazy about. How some people are into riding their partners fingers, you’d be riding his hand. Could cum just from watching you ride the appendage that sits between the lips on his palm. As stated in the show, Deidara isn’t into s&m. I feel like he tried it once but the thought of inflicting pain on his partner was too much for him and visa versa. Even though he loves bombs and explosions, I feel like he’s more of a gentle partner.

I can see Sasori absolutely loving when his partner sits on his face. Is the type to get upset if you don’t sit your entire body weight down on him, would grab hold of your thighs, pulling you down onto him and holding you there. Loves looking up and seeing your eyes rolled back, tears streaming down your face as you continuously cum on his tongue. Bonus points if you end up squirting. Apart from that, I can imagine him using his chakra threads on you, whether it’s holding you still when you start to squirm, or when you start faltering when riding his cock, his threads would help keep you balanced. I don’t think he’s be into food play. Since Sasori doesn’t need to eat like others do, he sees no use for it, in or outside of the bedroom.

Breeding kink, I repeat, BREEDING KINK. With Uchiha’s, they form deep bonds, and love the hardest. So naturally, that would be reflected during sex. Itachi loves filling you up, and then watching as you go about your business throughout the compound full of him. I think he also enjoys when you ride his thighs. If he’s busy working on something at his desk, best believe one hand will be holding your lower back, helping you keep your rhythm. I personally think Itachi’s turn off would be Dacryphilia. Only because he doesn’t like seeing you cry. He strives for his partner’s happiness.

Just like Hidan, I feel like Kisa enjoys period sex. Has a container under his bed full of towels specifically for that time of the month. Apart from that, I imagine he likes choking, Dacryphilia, and rough sex in general. Loves seeing the scratches you leave on his back or the bite marks left on him. When he has you in doggy or bent over any hard surface, best believe his large hand will have a fistful of your hair. Now for turn offs, I don’t think he’d do anything risky where he could get caught. Just like a lot of his comrades, he’s protective over his partner and doesn’t want anyone seeing what’s his. Especially in such a vulnerable state.

Now, you can get either Tobi, or Obito, it truly depends on his mood, or situation. Our sweet gentle Tobi loves seeing his partner in cute little outfits, especially a maid outfit. I see Tobi as more of a sub honestly and if he acts out, and you want to punish him for it, his all time favorite is edging. If you happen to act like a brat, just know Obito won’t hesitate to grip you by the hair and walk you back to your shared room. Rough sex, double penetration, and surprisingly exhibitionism. As long as others don’t see his face/scarring, he will fuck you senseless in front of others/doesn’t care if someone walks in during. Will even hold a conversation with said person while he fucks you. Even when alone, loves fingering you with his gloves on. Tobi wouldn’t want to see you cry, just like Itachi, he doesn’t like seeing his partner upset. With Obito, I don’t think he’d like sensory deprivation. Doesn’t enjoy having any of his senses taken away, wants to be able to hear, and see every reaction he pulls from you.

Just like Tobi, you can get either Black or white Zetsu. All depends on their mood & said situation. White Zetsu loves nothing more than praising you, especially when his cock is buried deep in your throat, with tears threatening to fall, black Zetsu is all for degrading you. Will mush your face into a wall, a desk, the mattress, and take you from behind, whispering dirty words as you take him fully. I also fully believe Zetsu is into having sex outside, and orgasm control/denial. Enjoys hearing you beg to cum, bucking your hips into him or the toy just to get yourself off when you can’t take it. As well as quickie’s. Won’t hesitate to pull you into a bathroom and fuck you silly before walking about like he didn’t do anything. I think his only turn off would be being bitten. For some reason I imagine Zetsu being really sensitive and doesn’t like the blunt pain one can inflict by digging their teeth into him.

•

#akatsuki #akatsuki members #konan headcanons #zetsu x reader #kakuzu headcanons #sasori akatsuki #hidan headcanon #itachi uchiha smut #itachi headcanons #kisame headcanons #obito smut #pain akatsuki #deidara smut #akatsuki smut #hidan smut #sasori smut

204 notes · View notes

cerastes · 6 months

Text

Bro any time I think about Valkyria Chronicles I laugh my nipples off, the game is fundamentally flawed gameplaywise but, simultaneously, it's stupidly fun, which is the recipe for any club banger, it has a story that weaves flawlessly between "that's pretty poignant" and "this is some goofy goober shit", it's got the horrors of war but also this fucking pig piece of shit mascot, Hans,

It's an amalgam of white and black without any gray: It exists on extremes, and it never intersects, it's playing two parallel lines and coming to terms with the fact that you'll never see cohesion but that somehow enhances the end product in ways evidently no one intended. You have narrative comparisons with the persecution of jews and, at the same time, the game ends with the bad guy getting German Suplexed.

But I think the funniest aspect of Valkyria Chronicles The First is that the main character is the farthest thing from a war hero they could possibly muster with the expertise of a stoic Japanese swordsmith from the mountains crafting a god-cleaving blade: Welkin.

This Scout From TF2 Put Through An Anime Filter looking mother fucker was chilling in his hometown talking about how much he wanted to be a teacher and showing people his really good sketches of animals because he's also a gifted artist, when suddenly, the Dudes attack, and his reaction to the Dudes attacking is "hang on, I recall my dad hiding his actual service tank in the shed in the back" so he goes and, yeah, his dad's tank from a previous war is just there, chilling, so he takes it for a joy ride while the town baker, Alicia, armed with a rifle and infinite action economy due to the afore mentioned flawed gameplay, sweeps the entire god damn platoon of heavily armed machine gun troops.

The entire game is Welkin using his love for nature and his baker love interest to inflict insane personnel and materiel damage to an entire empire: Welkin and Alicia will come across a heavily fortified bridge, and the dialogue will go something like

"Welkin! They will pulverize us with the heaviest machine guns known to man if we step one foot in that bridge! They practically developed wooden low-orbit bombardment stations! What's the plan!"

"Well... Look at that duck over there. It's flying from the east to the west, right? Well, YOU SEE, that duck is known as a Balkunese Socioduck, and those, during this season, migrate from west to east, and they only exhibit this irregular flight path if a Matrisgel Weasel family is molting by the juniper berry bushes, their favorite food. Matrisgel Weasels only ever molt if they are put under the exact amount of stress caused to them by the sound of distant tank threads on the road, and they are known to hide in sturdy, stable soil."

"Welkin, SIR, what the fuck does this all mean?"

"If we follow the smoldering shrieking of the molting weasels, we'll find a SECRET PATH that will, as always, let us ambush, flank, and surprise our foes! Alicia, you know what to do."

"Ogggeyyyyy"

and then, invariably, no matter the level, thanks to Welkin's impressive knowledge of fauna and flora, and Alicia's literally infinite action economy in a game that wasn't properly beta tested in-house during development, they combine their powers like a piss poor Captain Planet and kill the absolute shit out of an entire Empire's worth of dudes, and it's legitimately one of the most fun and charming games you'll ever touch if you remember to not take it too seriously. I fucking hate Hans but I love this game.

#valkyria chronicles

361 notes · View notes

moonlightdancer26 · 10 months

Text

I will never in my life be able to understand the people who say “well okay Sirius wanted to kill someone but it’s Snape’s fault for going into the Willow.” I find it so insane because… Sirius, at the mere age of 16, had just proven that he had no regard for human life and was willing to have someone else’s blood on his hands… and all you have to say on the matter is the fact that the victim went down there in the first place? It’s just such blatant victim-blaming and I can’t even fathom how on earth they deem their argument reasonable.

What also really bugs me about their claim is that it was so normal for Snape—a teenage boy—to do. Of course a teenager would hear about/suspect something “spooky” and then would want to go to the area to check it out. Of course his curiosity would get the best of him. He’s a teenage boy, just because he made a risky mistake does not mean attempted murder is justified. It’s like kids or teens hearing about haunted houses and wanting to go there; it’s a pretty stupid idea but it’s a normal one for them to have. So many Marauder stans use “oh but they just made a mistake when they were teens” as a response to SA and waterboarding, but when the character they dislike does something that has actually been done by many teenagers and kids, they can’t feel any sympathy whatsoever? Sirius, unlike Severus, has no excuse for what he did. It wasn’t normal for his age, there’s no somewhat logical reason, and it was downright inhuman. And no, saying “but Snape followed Remus around and tried to get the Marauders expelled!” just goes right back to the fact that, had Sirius and James not started bullying Snape years prior, Severus would have had no reason to want them to get in trouble/expelled.

Another seriously messed up fact involving the prank is when you remember that if the prank had succeeded (= Snape ending up dead/mauled/infected), that meant that Remus—who would’ve been in no control of his actions and completely unable to stop it—would have been used as a murder weapon and would’ve faced dangerous consequences for Sirius’s doing. A known trait of Remus is his extreme self-loathing, which is derived from his hatred of being a “monster.” To think about how one of his best friends was willing to freely exploit his condition and use it to harm someone else “just for fun” when he knows what Remus would do to himself when he finds out is sickening. You can hate Severus all you want, but you absolutely cannot try to pin this on him when it was the most vile act Sirius had ever done in his life and an extremely important aspect of his character.

#y’all freak me out #in a horrible please-get-help kind of way #anti sirius black #the effect it would’ve had on remus is NOT talked about enough #i saw a post trying to justify this and wanted to 🥰🔫#anti snaters #anti marauders stan #severus snape #anti marauderfen #anti marauder stans #anti marauders stans #pro snape #pro severus snape #snape #harry potter #hp

301 notes · View notes

etoilesombre · 5 months

Text

Hey, do you guys want to hear a story? Let me tell you about the romance between Lancelot and Guinevere, as recounted in Sir Thomas Malory's Le Morte d'Arthur.

So, I thought I knew the basics. I grew up reading modern versions of Arthurian legend that focused on other aspects, but had a general knowledge of the Arthur-Guinever-Lancelot love triangle. It didn't show up too much, but I assumed it was subtext in some other versions. What I picked up was that it was sort of pure, almost an ot3, and not the cause of a lot of problems.

My friends. In this version it is NOT SUBTEXT, it DEFINITELY CAUSED PROBLEMS, and it is WILD. It is a true will-they-won't-they drama fest soap opera romance, and I need to share. So please, come on this journey with me.

[I’m looking at you, Black Sails fandom people. I need you to know that Flint canonically would have read this. He would almost certainly have also grown up hearing these stories. I’m not saying he’s Lancelot coded, but I am saying it's interesting that he would have been aware that was something it was possible to be.]

A couple notes, before we dive in. I am very much just summarizing what happened in the book. The thing is, the book is a million pages long and also in Middle English, and this is just one of many plots, which I think is why it's not more widely known. I will show some excerpts so you can get a feel for the text, but you don’t need to read them to understand the story. I'm referring to a version that is as close to the manuscript as I can find, though with spelling regularized. For real fun, see what the original looked like. Malory purports to be translating part of the French Vulgate cycle, which likely is where the character of Lancelot originates, but in fact he is doing much more than translating, and compiles other stories as well. Point being, when he says “so the French book sayeth” etc, that is the “book” to which he is referring. Because of my lack of knowledge about the language and cultural context, this lecture series from Mythgard Academy was absolutely invaluable to my understanding. I cannot recommend it highly enough. Inevitably, some of the opinions of the prof are reflected here. I do not have it in me to compare the scholarship of various medievalists right now, I just want to tell you about this DRAMA.

Let’s start with a prophecy. When Arthur decides he wishes to marry Guinevere, Merlin advises him to take someone else, because if he takes her, she will betray him with Lancelot and it will destroy his kingdom. All of this is foretold, not only to us, but to Arthur himself. Of course he takes her anyway, and all is doomed from the start.

As we begin the main arc of this story (several books after the prophecy), Lancelot is widely acknowledged to be the best and most renowned knight of Arthur’s court. He is plainly and hopelessly in love with Guinevere, and she loves him in return. Arthur doesn’t have a problem with this - who wouldn’t love Guinevere? This sort of love is socially acceptable, so long as they do not sleep together, which would be treason. Arthur in fact seems to support their love, because it means that Lancelot will be Guinevere’s champion should she need one. This is a role Arthur himself legally cannot fill because he is the king, and so would have to be the judge. Lancelot is indeed a good champion for her, and fights for her when she is wrongly accused of murder.

Lancelot is deeply chivalrous, in a way that seems sincere. This is a great place for a first excerpt, a conversation with a Random Damsel Lancelot has been helping:

‘Now, damosel,’ said Sir Lancelot, ‘will ye any more service of me?’ ‘Nay, sir,’ she said, ‘at this time, but almighty Jesu preserve you wheresoever ye ride or go, for the most courteous knight thou art and meekest unto all ladies and gentlewomen that now liveth. But one thing, sir knight, me thinks ye lack, ye that are a knight wifeless, that ye will not love some maiden or gentlewoman. For I could never hear say that ever ye loved any of no manner of degree, and that is great pity. But it is noised that ye love Queen Guenivere, and that she hath ordained by enchantment that ye shall never love no other but her, nor no other damosel nor lady shall rejoice you; wherefore there be many in this land of high estate and low that make great sorrow.’ ‘Fair damosel,’ said Sir Lancelot, ‘I may not warn* people to speak of me what it pleaseth them; but for to be a wedded man, I think it not; for then I must couch with her, and leave arms and tournaments, battles and adventures. And as for to say to take my pleasance with paramours, that will I refuse, in principal for dread of God. For knights that be adventurous should not be adulterers nor lecherous, for then they be not happy nor fortunate unto the wars; for either they shall be overcome with a simpler knight than they be themselves, or else they shall slay by unhap and their cursedness better men than they be themselves. And so who that useth paramours shall be unhappy, and all thing unhappy that is about them.’

So after doing his Knightly Deeds for this damsel, Lancelot asks if she needs anything else. She says no, but you are lacking one thing, which is the love of a woman. It is rumored that is because Guinevere has through sorcery made you love only her, and that causes all of the women great sorrow. In reply Lancelot makes this speech about how he cannot have a wife or paramour and be a good knight, but everyone thinks it is at least in part because his love is reserved for Guinevere.

Now, throughout the book his chastity DOES notably cause all of the women great sorrow. Everyone wants to sleep with Lancelot. Literally he is kidnapped by the four most beautiful queens other than Guinevere, and they say he has to choose one of them as a lover (not even a wife, a lover) or else die. He says he would rather die, though in the end he escapes. This is just an example, truly it is a recurring problem for him. He is, at one point, tricked into sleeping with a woman with whom he conceives his son Galahad (as was prophesied, it's a long story and the romance is only part of it. It is worth mentioning that something similar happens to Arthur, which is how Mordred is sired.) When Guinevere learns that Lancelot has been with someone else, she is angry and banishes him from the court. They still love each other and eventually reconcile.

So, Lancelot goes on the quest for the holy grail. But he fails, specifically because while he is outwardly dedicated to God, in his private heart he is still dedicated to Guinevere. And so he makes a vow to renounce his love for her, acknowledging that it is beyond measure (beyond what is right, even if they have not technically done anything wrong.) However when he returns to Camelot, he cannot keep this vow, as we see.

Then, as the book saith, Sir Lancelot began to resort unto Queen Guenivere again, and forgot the promise and the perfection that he made in the quest. For, as the book saith, had not Sir Lancelot been in his privy thoughts and in his mind so set inwardly to the Queen as he was in seeming outward to God, there had no knight passed him in the quest of the Sangrail, but ever his thoughts were privily on the Queen. And so they loved together more hotter than they did beforehand, and had many such privy draughts together that many in the court spoke of it, and in especial Sir Agravain, Sir Gawain’s brother, for he was ever open-mouthed. So it befell that Sir Lancelot had many resorts of ladies and damosels that daily resorted unto him to be their champion: in all such matters of right Sir Lancelot applied him daily to do for the pleasure of Our Lord Jesu Christ. And ever as much as he might he withdrew him from the company of Queen Guenivere for to eschew the slander and noise, wherefore the Queen waxed wroth with Sir Lancelot.

He and Guinevere start spending a lot of time alone together, and so there are rumors circulating about them in court. In order to put a stop to the rumors, Lancelot starts paying other women attention and doing more good knightly deeds for them. Guinevere is terribly jealous, but he tells her it's for their own good, and also tells her about the vow he made, and his concern that their love is beyond what is appropriate. She is devastated, and weeping banishes him from the court (again).

Lancelot then rides in a tournament, disguised. (Why? Because this is simply a thing knights do.) To make it an effective disguise he takes the token of a woman, the sleeve of the fair maid of Astolat to wear on his helm. When she discovers that he was only using it for the disguise, and he does not indeed love her, she is so heartbroken that she says if he will not marry her or be her lover, she will die. He refuses, on the grounds that love must not be constrained and should arise from the heart, and offers her a thousand pounds a year instead if she marries anyone else. Properly insulted by this, she does indeed die. She has her body sent in a boat to Camelot, with a letter in her hand, saying that she died of her love for him, that he would not return.

Seeing this, Guinevere reconciles with Lancelot, presumably reassured by the fact that he would let this very beautiful much younger woman die of her love rather than being with her. She insists that from now on he will not fight in disguise, and will openly bear her token.

Then Queen Guenivere sent for Sir Lancelot, and said thus: ‘I warn you that ye ride no more in no jousts nor tournaments but that your kinsmen may know you; and at these jousts that shall be ye shall have of me a sleeve of gold. And I pray you for my sake to force* yourself there, that men may speak you worship. But I charge you as ye will have my love, that ye warn your kinsmen that ye will bear that day the sleeve of gold upon your helmet.’ ‘Madam,’ said Sir Lancelot, ‘it shall be done.’ And either made great joy of other.

It is important to keep in mind that, to this point, there is no textual evidence that they were sleeping together, and a great deal of evidence that it was important to Lancelot that they not cross that line. There is much less evidence that this is important to Guinevere.

So then one fateful day in May, Guinevere goes picnicing with an entourage of knights. They are captured by someone else who is in love with Guinevere, and taken back to his castle, but she manages to send a message to Lancelot. At the castle, she insists that her knights sleep in her bedchamber on the grounds that they were wounded in the battle when she was captured and need tending, but truly she wants them there to keep her captor from raping her.

Lancelot arrives to rescue her, and the person who kidnapped her agrees to give her back in the morning. She tells Lancelot to visit her room in the night. He climbs up to her window, which is barred. They have a heartfelt reunion and she says she wishes he could come in to her. He acquiesces and breaks the bars to get into her room, cutting his hand to the bone to do so. Despite the profusely bleeding wound and the ten other men sleeping in the room, they at last do sleep together, in this passionate blood covered consummation. He sneaks back out and replaces the bars.

In the morning, the man who kidnapped Guinevere comes in and sees blood all over the bed. He accuses her of being unfaithful to the king, saying she lay with one of the knights who had been sleeping in her room. She denies it, but it is very clear that she did sleep with someone who was bleeding.

Lancelot says he will fight to defend her from this accusation, which is right and proper because he is her champion. In this story people take trial by combat and oaths before God very seriously, especially Lancelot. He really does try. So he swears an oath that he will prove with his life that Guinevere did not sleep with one of the wounded knights who lay in her room. This of course is TRUE, but only on a technicality. Lancelot, having slept with her himself the night before, is also the one who defends her honor after. I love this story so much.

Instead of fighting him, the kidnapper takes Lancelot captive. In captivity he encounters ANOTHER damsel who insists that sleep with her in order for her to help him. He refuses, still faithful in his heart to Guinevere. Eventually she settles for him holding and kissing her, which is not across the line of appropriateness apparently, giving us some idea of where that line is drawn. Anyway, Lancelot gets out, fights for Guinevere and wins. There are indications that he feels like he barely dodged a devine bullet.

Guinevere and Lancelot return to Camelot. Finally the rumors about them are true, the deed has been done, but of course nothing appears particularly different as there were already rumors about them. Two knights, Mordred and Agravaine, who have been intriguing against Arthur already, go and tell Arthur that Guinevere is being untrue to him. Here is his response:

‘If it be so,’ said the King, ‘wit you well, he is none other; but I would be loath to begin such a thing but I might have proofs of it. For Sir Lancelot is a hardy knight, and all ye know that he is the best knight among us all; and but if he be taken with the deed he will fight with him that bringeth up the noise, and I know no knight that is able to match him. Therefore, and it be sooth as ye say, I would that he were taken with the deed.’ For as the French book saith, the King was full loath that such a noise should be upon Sir Lancelot and his queen. For the King had a deeming of it; but he would not hear thereof, for Sir Lancelot had done so much for him and for the Queen so many times that, wit you well, the King loved him passingly well.

Arthur says he will not hear of this without proof, because if Lancelot is accused and allowed to fight he would beat anyone. And, it is said that Arthur had some idea of the affair, but would not credit it because Lancelot had done so much for him and Guinevere, and he loved Lancelot greatly.

So, one night when the king is away hunting, the two accusers contrive to catch them in the act, with a group of twelve armed knights. They do find Lancelot in Guinevere’s chamber, but the text is notably, pointedly vague about whether they are actually in bed. In any case, Lancelot asks for a trial. The knights say no, they have caught him and so may kill him. He is Lancelot, so he kills all of them instead, save one (Mordred) whom he leaves wounded. Lancelot flees, intending to return to rescue Guinevere and take her to his own castle to protect her from Arthur’s wrath. He maintains her innocence, and still intends that they will all reconcile.

Guinevere is to be burned at the stake (normal in this situation). Lancelot rescues her from the burning at the last moment, killing a number of knights of the round table. Arthur seems to blame the accusers more than Guinevere and Lancelot (for good reason; keep in mind that the romance is a subplot, there is a great deal of political intrigue going on.) Now a war will begin, whether anyone wants it or not, because of the people Lancelot killed. Lancelot takes Guinevere to his own castle. Battle lines are drawn, and Lancelot and Arthur confront each other in the fighting:

And ever was King Arthur about Sir Lancelot to have slain him, and ever Sir Lancelot suffered him and would not strike again. So Sir Bors encountered with King Arthur; and Sir Bors smote him, and so he alit and drew his sword and said to Sir Lancelot, ‘Sir, shall I make an end of this war?’—for he meant to have slain him. ‘Not so hardy,’ said Sir Lancelot, ‘upon pain of thy head, that thou touch him no more! For I will never see that most noble king that made me knight neither slain nor shamed.’ And therewith Sir Lancelot alit off his horse and took up the King and horsed him again, and said thus: ‘My lord the king, for God’s love, stint this strife, for ye get here no worship and I would do my utterance. But always I forbear you, and ye nor none of yours forbear not me. And therefore, my lord, I pray you remember what I have done in many places, and now am I evil rewarded.’ So when King Arthur was on horseback he looked on Sir Lancelot; then the tears burst out of his eyes, thinking of the great courtesy that was in Sir Lancelot more than in any other man. And therewith the King rode his way and might no longer behold him, saying to himself, ‘Alas, alas, that yet this war began!’

So Arthur tries to slay Lancelot, but Lancelot, the better fighter, refuses to slay him and indeed when Arthur is unhorsed Lancelot forbids that he be slain, and gives him his own horse. Arthur weeps for the honor that is in Lancelot, and laments that the war began.

The pope intervenes and tries to negotiate an end. Lancelot confirms that he is willing to return Guinevere to Arthur, and says he has always been willing to do this and will still defend her honor, but that he does not feel he can do so because Arthur has listened to liars and been misled, and he had more reason to take her away than the accusation of adultery - he does not trust she can be safe in that court, with things as they are.

Eventually they do make a deal, with some assurances, and he surrenders Guinevere to the king. He kisses her openly, says that he will leave, but should she be in danger or ever again accused of being untrue, he will fight for her as he always has. He departs the court forever, to much great sorrow, and returns to his own lands.

The war continues - eventually Mordred seizes the throne, Arthur kills him in battle but is mortally wounded himself and passes to Avalon. Following the king’s death, although her love would no longer be adulterous, Guinevere retires to a convent rather than reuniting with Lancelot. He seeks her out, and this is her reaction:

Sir Lancelot was brought before her; then the Queen said to all those ladies, ‘Through this same man and me hath all this war been wrought, and the death of the most noblest knights of the world; for through our love that we have loved together is my most noble lord slain. Therefore, Sir Lancelot, wit thou well I am set in such a plight to get my soul health; and yet I trust through God’s grace and through His Passion of His wounds wide, that after my death I may have a sight of the blessed face of Christ Jesu, and at Doomsday to sit on His right side;* for as sinful as ever I was, now are saints in heaven. And therefore, Sir Lancelot, I require thee and beseech thee heartily, for all the love that ever was betwixt us, that thou never see me no more in the visage. And I command thee, on God’s behalf, that thou forsake my company; and to thy kingdom look thou turn again, and keep well thy realm from war and wrack. For as well as I have loved thee heretofore, my heart will not serve now to see thee, for through thee and me is the flower of kings and knights destroyed. And therefore go thou to thy realm, and there take ye a wife and live with her with joy and bliss. And I pray thee heartily to pray for me to the everlasting Lord that I may amend my misliving.’ ‘Now, my sweet madam,’ said Sir Lancelot, ‘would ye that I should turn again unto my country, and there to wed a lady? Nay, madam, wit you well, that shall I never do, for I shall never be so false unto you of that I have promised. But the self* destiny that ye have taken you to, I will take me to, for the pleasure of Jesu; and ever for you I cast me specially to pray.

Rather than rejoicing in Lancelot’s presence, Guinevere laments that their love brought about the downfall of the Arthurian court, and the deaths of the knights of the round table and King Arthur. She calls upon Lancelot, by all the love that was ever between them to leave her presence, telling him to marry someone else if he wishes and see her no more. Lancelot replies that he wants no one else, and that he will respect her wishes, but will also renounce the world and join a religious order. He asks Guinevere for a final parting kiss, which she denies him.

When Guinevere lies dying of illness, Lancelot sets out to go to her, having had a vision. She knows of his coming, and prays to die before she sees him, because she cannot bear it. She dies a half hour before he arrives, leaving instruction that he is to tend to her body, and then lay it to rest beside that of her lord King Arthur. Lancelot does this with great sorrow, and after ceases to eat or drink, and within weeks is dead himself.

And there you have it, the love affair that doomed Camelot.

HUGE DISCLAIMER: Any and all mistakes or misinterpretations are my own. This is what I gathered, but I am not a medievalist. I am barely an interested layperson. I’m just a random fic writer who got obsessed with research for a story, and had to share this tragic mess.

#i have a million thoughts about this #and there is a great deal of context that would be helpful #but i this doesnt need to be more than 4k words long so #i may do a followup post if there is interest #but black sails folks #i'm writing a lot of flintmadi convos right now #and vaguely planned to have them talk about this book #as a way to discuss their own situation and values #but i had not actually read it #and it is WAY MORE than i expected #anyway they are going to refer back to it #so i figured i should write it down so i can point at it if readers want to know wtf they are talking about #is there an #arthurian legend #tag?#i purposefully haven't looked i don't go here if there is a here to go #but fuck it that was a lot of work might as well see #anyway there are so many things to dig into here #arthur's role or lack thereof #(the rest of the book has a lot more to do with him)#the treatment of fate and prophesy #the courtly love tradition #how this fits into the arthurian tradition as a whole #and the clear french influence #vs the old celtic stories #also so many fun things about language in general #did you know that paramour is derived basically the same way as paramilitary?#'para' as 'beyond that which is regular'#also in middle english negatives are additive rather than canceling each out out!#fun facts

83 notes · View notes

sunniedesi · 2 months

Text

Future Diary "The Live World"

Did you know that back on July 29th, 2012, there was a live concert for almost all Future Diary songs? Well, this little gem in Future Diary history is known as The Live World, a concert held at Shibuya AX to promote the Future Diary anime. It featured not just Yousei Teikoku and Faylan (the artists who made the OPs and EDs for the show), but also the voice actors and singers of the character theme songs.

For those unaware, each Future Diary character has at least one theme song to their name. These songs come from the “Future Diary Inspired Album,” which had two volumes. Yuno and Minene were the only characters to receive two songs each, as well as an extra song with their love interest. You can find the first and second volumes of this album on Youtube thanks to SingerOfW.

All of the character themes were performed at the live event along with the OPs and EDs, except for the 4th’s and 5th’s themes. “The Creator,” a song attached to the pilot of the show, was also not performed at the event. The reason why these three songs were discarded from the concert are unknown; however, I assume it had something to do with time constraints and lower popularity than the rest of the songs.

The event was recorded and sold as a Blu-Ray with almost three hours of content. The Blu-Ray disks of the performance began sales on November 29th, 2013, along with the sale of the Future Diary Blu-Ray Box. The recording was divided into two disks. It also included two bonus gifts: an eight-page booklet and an additional 9-minute recording of the making of the event. This 9-minute recording has yet to surface online.

There was also a raffle for a free ticket to the event. To enter the raffle you had to get the three volumes of the limited edition Blu-Ray CDs. Volumes 1 and 2 came with application tickets, while volume 3 came with the postcard you were supposed to mail the tickets in.

One of the more important aspects of this concert is that Madness Rain and HAPPY END, the OP and ED for Redial, were first unveiled at the event. Future Diary’s “Next Project” (which we now know as Redial) had recently been announced by that time, and the release of these two songs made anticipation for this project grow bigger. This is evidenced by a blog post I found from a girl who attended the concert, who shared her own thoughts of what she speculated this “next project” to be:

It seems like the ‘next project’ isn’t a ‘Paradox’ story, but an original story; however, since I saw Akise-kun on the visuals of the OP, it can’t be about the first world, so I think it might be related to the third world… (Source.)

Speaking of blog posts, Esuno also made an entry on his blog talking about his time at the event! The entry reads:

Today I went to ‘Future Diary’ The Live World at Shibuya AX. We were not allowed to take pictures inside so I only have a picture of the entrance (insert photo that wasn’t archived by the Wayback Machine T-T). It was a passionate and fun concert. I enjoyed the performances from a seat on the second floor. Both Kawahara-san (12th’s VA) and Shiraishi-san (Kousaka’s VA) made great MCs, the music and the visuals from the anime were wonderful; a very fulfilling three hours. Thank you to all of the performers, and especially the audience who came all the way in this heat! (Source. Side note: Esuno’s blog doesn’t exist anymore, so that’s why the link is on the Wayback Machine).

The Live World also had some of my favorite Future Diary merchandise. Here’s a list of all the merch sold at the event:

A pamphlet, neck strap and clear file with the same image as the event poster:

A purple T-shirt inspired by Uryuu Minene, which has an image of speakers blasting on the front, and an image of a grenade on the back:

The event set included a black T-shirt, a drawstring bag, and a waterproof phone pouch (you could use your phone screen even if it was inside the pouch):

A pink sign light:

A pink towel scarf:

A “neck cooler” (a type of scarf filled with cooling beads):

There were also two T-shirts sold, unrelated to the event, made by a company called MARS SIXTEEN. This company makes anime-related goods, like these MN inspired T-shirts. Sadly, there are no pictures of the red shirt, though it is said that it had the DEAD END graphic on the front, while the picture of the 12 diary owners was on the back. The Yuno shirt also came in gray instead of purple:

Bonus: not merch, but here's a random staff shirt I found (terrible picture quality, I know):

Videos of the event can be found on Youtube, namely of Yousei Teikoku’s performance of Kuusou Mesorogiwi, and also all of Faylan’s performances. However, none of the character theme songs played at the event have surfaced on Youtube.

… That being said, the contents of both Blu-Ray disks have been uploaded to a site called BiliBili (it’s like a Chinese NicoNicoDouga). Here are the links for disk 1 and disk 2.

Before I end this post, I have to talk about the 12th’s theme, performed by his voice actor: Kawahara Yoshihisa. When I tell you my jaw dropped to the floor… this man showed up on the stage, fully decked out in 12th’s costume. Mask, belt, tights, everything. Kousaka’s VA, Shiraishi Minoru, also showed up dressed like a middle schooler. Let me tell you, Esuno wasn’t lying when he called them great MCs, they absolutely stole the show. The backstory of why they agreed to dress up for the concert is in the second track of the Radio CDs, which I talked about on my last post, for anyone interested.

#future diary #mirai nikki #anime #future diary live world #anime concert #the future diary #long post #the live world

36 notes · View notes

galactic-glamour-girl-posts · 7 months

Text

In celebration of Animaniacs' 30th Anniversary...

I'm gonna list some of my favourite segments/episodes from the franchise and explain why they're my favourites! The segments/episodes will be listed in order of their debut in their respective series.

I'll start with my favourite episodes from the original Animaniacs:

Taming of the Screwy

I see this episode as the turning point of Warners' and Scratchy's relationship. Before they'd drive him crazy and he'd want nothing to do with them, but because of his job he's forced to deal with them. This episode was the start of Scratchansniff realizing that the Warners' aren't all bad, which eventually leads to them to getting along a bit better later on. The Warners still mess with Scratchy a lot because, as they say in this episode, it's their way of showing affection, but he genuinely tries to tolerate them (key word being "try"), and they even help him a bit ("La La Law"), until eventually he starts acting somewhat like a guardian to them and he's even willingly choosing to hang out with them (like in "I'm Mad", "Fake", "The Party", etc).

This episode also puts the Warners' characters in a new perspective, being the first that tries to get the audience to genuinely sympathize with them. We knew about them being locked in the water tower, but that wasn't taken too seriously and (because of how "Newsreel of the Stars" presented their origin) you could argue the studio's treatment of the Warners was just a reaction to the Warners' antics. Here the Warners kept their end of the deal and were well behaved, yet were betrayed anyway. They had gone up against a "special friend" before this episode, but this episode was pretty much the first to firmly establish that the Warners are capable of behaving if treated fairly (although they'd rather mess about, not out of maliciousness, but because they just wanna have fun), but if not they're not afraid to fight back and wreak havoc.

A big reason why I like the Warners so much is that they seem like simple characters on the surface, but there is nuance to how they act, and this episode is a good example of that ("The Sound of Warners" also being a good example). It would've been easy to write the Warners as one-dimensional characters who all act the same, are completely incapable and/or unwilling to behave and do nothing but make anyone and everyone's lives worse for no reason, especially since it's a variety show, but they didn't and I appreciate that. I also think the way they're drawn in this episode is adorable! They don't look how they usually do when animated by TMS, but I still like it.

The Warners' 65th Anniversary Special

This episode gives a more detailed retelling of the Warners' origin story. This time it is presented as a "live" TV special, which is a unique premise for this show that helps this episode stand out. I like how "Newsreel of the Stars" tries to make the studio look as good and reasonable as possible, only for that to be flipped on its head in this episode which makes it clear that really the problem was that Memlo and Plotz were the unreasonable ones. The Warners' backstory itself expertly manages to be both comedic yet sad at the same time in a way that doesn't feel tonally inconsistent at all. I still find it hilarious that they took an actual Looney Tunes character and made them into a twist villain just because they were unpopular in real life (let it be known that Animaniacs did that joke before the 2002 Scooby Doo movie did). Combine all that with some fun cameos and beautiful TMS animation, and you've got one of the show's best episodes.

Episode 92

Yup-the whole episode. This episodes is a great summary of Animaniacs' strengths, because each segment is a perfect example of an aspect (or multiple) of Animaniacs that the show does expertly well. "It" has some of the best animation in the whole show, "Dot-The Macadamia Nut" is one of the best parody songs in the show, and "Bully for Skippy" provides some of the best meta humour, political satire, slapstick, and irreverent humour in the show. It's one of my favourite Slappy segments, and although I think the message isn't supposed to be taken seriously...I legitimately think it's a good moral? After seeing other shows/movies/etc (particularly since the 2010's) have their protagonists easily talk down and redeem multiple incredibly vile villains, or sometimes just outright let the villain get away for the sake of keeping them passive/non-violent, this episode's conclusion was incredibly satisfying.

Children's media will often tell kids to just ignore bullies or to constantly try to "get through to them" no matter what, because if they don't that makes them "just as bad" and I'm sorry but that's not something we should be teaching kids, and I'd argue they're not just bad but straight up dangerous messages. Ignoring bullies doesn't work most of the time, it just makes them try harder to get your attention, which often means acting more aggressive and malicious. I do think teaching kids to try and make peace with people non-violently is very important, but if the bully keeps harassing them, at some point you have to draw the line and stand up for yourself. Sometimes you have to yell. Sometimes you have to fight. It sucks but that's life...so anyway, back to Animaniacs. Duke seemingly does learn his lesson in the end, because he's seen helping Slappy, but only after getting his butt kicked, and it's not like him and Skippy are BFFs or anything.

I think this is one of the most well-balanced non-singular story episode of the show, quality wise that is. Most Animaniacs episodes with multiple segments have at least one that is mediocre or straight up bad in comparison to the other(s), but that's not the case here. They're all great.

Honourable Mentions: The Sound of Warners, La La Law, Meatballs or Consequences, A Christmas Plotz, Super Strong Warner Siblings, Morning Malaise, Season 3's Finale (Episode 82), Win Big, Puppet Rulers, Bubba Bo Bob Brain, Yes, Always, Bumbie's Mom, ...And Justice for Slappy, One Flew Over the Cuckoo Clock, Critical Condition, Woodstock Slappy, When Rita Met Runt, Smitten With Kittens, Phranken-Runt

Best Songs: Yakko's World, Wakko's America, I'm Cute, Yakko's Universe, The Ballad of Magellan, Variety Speak, I'm Nobody's Mama, Let's Try for Two, Humans Ain't What They Seem to Be, A Quake! A Quake!, The Senses Song, There's Only One of You

Now on to Pinky and the Brain:

A Pinky and the Brain Christmas

Yeah, yeah. I'm just gonna get this one out of the way now. You love it, I love it, and we all know why...but I'll explain anyway!

For one, this is the only episode TMS animated for the spin off, and it looks gorgeous. The writing's as good as ever. I'd like to point out the Donner Party joke for being clever; but Bill Clinton being unable to open the window is the joke that gets me to chuckle when I think about it. Although let's be honest, people mostly like this episode because of the ending. I get it though, it's touching! It shows just how much Pinky loves Brain and how selfless he can be, dedicating what was supposed to be his Christmas list to Brain. Then the smashing, the keychain, the credits, blah blah blah we know how it goes.

I mean if you're reading this then chances are I don't need to convince you; it's the show's most well-known episode, and it's really good.

Welcome to the Jungle

This episodes flipped Pinky and Brain's dynamic on it's head. Brain was out of his element, meanwhile Pinky took charge. This is the main reason it's one of the most memorable episodes of the show, although another is that Snowball makes his grand return in this episode, and is even more antagonistic this time by trying to get Pinky and the Brain killed, whereas last time he was really only trying to one-up Brain. I find it interesting that Brain’s more sympathetic towards Snowball this time around, insisting that he needs help and attempting to save his life. Perhaps he always missed Snowball as a friend (and still cares about him deep down), perhaps being so out of his element softened him, maybe both? And when Brain defeated Snowball towards the end, after what he went through in the episode that genuinely felt triumphant and deserved.

This episode really shows off how Pinky and the Brain is distinct from Animaniacs. The Warners don't take serious situations seriously, they're always on top of things and are ultimately winners. Pinky and the Brain are kind of the inverse; mice wanting to take over the world is ridiculous, but they take it completely seriously, and fail every time. Though it is exactly that that allows the protagonists to be vulnerable and struggle more often, hence allowing the characters and their stories to often times be slightly less zany and a bit more sincere.

Star Warners

This episode was just fun, what more can I say? It was nice to see many of the Animaniacs characters again, especially the Warners and Slappy, but we even got to see the more obscure characters like Pip, Zalgar, the aliens from “Space-Probed”, Sid the Squid and Beanie the Braindead Bison. Some Looney Tunes characters and Freakazoid appear too. I also like a lot of the "castings": in particular Yakko as Han, Wakko as Luke and Dot as Leia are perfect choices.

There's more to this episode than cameos though, like the interactions between characters who pretty much never interact. Dot and Brain, Wakko and Mindy, etc. My absolute favourite aspect of this episode is that the Warners, Pinky, Brain and Slappy all got to star alongside each other throughout the episode! The Warners have interacted with Slappy a few times, they've also interacted with Pinky and the Brain too, as has Slappy (very briefly in "Spell-Bound"), but they've never all interacted as a group for an extended period of time. I haven't kept it a secret they're my favourite Animaniacs characters (and also have pretty much the only segments I truly care about aside from maybe also Rita and Runt), so to see them interact as a group was great!

Also, the final credits gag was “Nympholepsy - To have a desire for an unattainable idea”. That's a perfect Brain’s Word to end the show on, and this episode was a pretty good way to end the show. Sure, something with higher stakes that takes place in the main setting of PatB (as in an episode where Pinky and the Brain live in Acme Labs in the modern day) like the "Brainwashed" trilogy would've made for a good finale too, but honestly having the final episode of the show essentially be a crossover between it and its parent series is cute. In fact it's probably...eh screw it, it IS the best Animaniacs-related series finale there is.

Honourable Mentions: TV or not TV, Snowball, The Pink Candidate, Pinky and the Brain…and Larry, This Old Mouse, A Pinky and the Brain Halloween, You’ll Never Eat Food Pellets In This Town Again, The Family That Poits Together, Narfs Together

Best Songs: Brainstem, Cheese Roll Call, Just Say Narf!, A Meticulous Analysis of History

And now, because I haven't seen "Pinky, Elmyra and the Brain" and don't plan to, the Animaniacs reboot:

Fear and Laughter in Burbank

I love that the Warners' Halloween costumes were the Marx brothers, it's a cute reference to the fact that Yakko and Wakko were partially inspired by Groucho and Harpo respectfully. That and I really like segments where the Warners torment some evil supernatural being. The fact that these literal children can not only hold their own against but outright best beings like a soul-sucking clown, the Devil or even Death himself is both hilarious and admirable. They're not just pests, they're powerful pests.

It's pretty interesting that Yakko is the only one of the siblings who falls victim to Nickelwise, before being narrowly saved by Dot. His encounter with Nickelwise reveals a few things about him: that he hates being alone, fears losing his voice, and is at least a little insecure about his comedic skills whilst seeking validation via comedy. It also implies that despite the fact that he acts as the most mature, experienced and the de facto leader, he may be the most anxious and have the most self-worth issues of the three. This would make sense since he's the eldest, and therefore presumably has a lot more worries on his mind than Wakko and Dot. I do like this segment overall, but this moment is what made it one of my favourites. It provides depth to Yakko's character like never before, which I appreciate given that he's my favourite.

Rome Sweet Rome

This segment had a lot of good gags, solid satire, a fun song, and each Warner shows off their skillset pretty well: Yakko using his words and not his fists in a fight, Dot weaponizes cuteness to blindside an opponent, Wakko has an endless appetite and is really destructive. Titmouse animated this one so of course the animation was great. Pretty much everything I like about the Warners' segments is here and in top form. Not much more to say other than that, it's just...really good!

The Island of Dr. Warneau

Titmouse animated so once again there's great animation (Jurgen's lab was wonderfully creepy), and I really liked how the Warners were written in this one. I like that Yakko has a picture of Scratchy in his wallet (I'll take all the "Scratchansniff is their dad" crumbs that I can get), the clones are adorable, and of course the comedy was as good as ever ("You're living beings, not unpaid interns!" in particular got me).

Jürgen seems to be depiction of what an abusive family member might act like (although obviously exaggerated, since this show is a zany cartoon and all). In addition to forcing them to do whatever he wants whilst giving no love in return, Jürgen makes the clones call him "brother" to condition them into thinking he's family so they'll feel obligated to associate with him, has convinced them that he's their "protector" so they'll feel helpless without him (unfortunately that worked because Ratto straight up says they're helpless in his first line), and when the clones finally do stand up for themselves he tries to bribe Ditto towards the end by offering her a strawberry, whilst claiming she was always the "sensible one". The ending was very satisfying, with Ditto refusing to call Jürgen "brother" anymore and switching to using his first name (basically disowning him) and calling the Warners her real family. The six of them hug and just before things get a bit too cute-Jürgen gets eaten by a whale. The ending, like the whole segment really, is a perfect mix of both wholesomeness and dark humour.

This segment essentially emphasizes the importance of who the Warners are as characters. It explored the idea of what the Warners would be like if instead of being chaotic and rebellious, they were meek and well behaved, essentially the opposite of themselves, and it made for an interesting watch! It shows the importance of being assertive, and why being "perfectly behaved" and "obedient" isn't always a good thing. In hindsight, had Scratchansniff actually managed to successfully "de-zanitize" the Warners, it might've been the worst thing to have happened to them.

The Warners aren't perfectly behaved. They're snarky. They're chaotic. They're insane(-y). They're a lot of things, BUT when they see something wrong they don't stand aside, they fight back and make it right, just in a comedic way (they're like the embodiment of karma). Their backbone is one of their biggest redeeming qualities, and although people in-universe give them a hard time over their chaotic and irreverent nature, they'll always be better than the corrupt authority figures (like Jürgen, or many of their "special friends") they tend to take down.

Honourable Mentions: Suspended Animation Part 1, Ralph Cam, That's Not the Issue, Future Brain, Roadent Trip, Yakko Amakko, Christopher Columbusted, Reichenbrain Falls, 23 and WB, Planet Warner, Talladega Mice: The Ballad of Pinky Brainy, Fantasy, Teeniacs, Animaliens, Global Warnering, Slappy's Return

Best Songs: Suffragette Song, The Cutening, Be Like Me, A Zit!, I Am The Very Model of an Ancient Roman Emperor, Yakko's Big Idea (Yakko's Big Song), Magna Cartoon, Warner's Ark, D.I.WHY?, Here Comes the Sea!, Some of Humanity's Wins

Before Animaniacs, many syndicated cartoons (specifically ones from the 60's to the 80's) had either a) good writing but cheap animation or b) more expensive and impressive looking animation but were essentially over glorified toy commercials. Animaniacs had both witty, intelligent writing and downright beautiful animation (seriously, the segments animated by TMS are some of the best hand drawn animation I've ever seen in a TV show). This wasn't unheard of by the early 90's, but only a handful of other cartoons could claim the same at the time. It's higher budget compared to a lot of other contemporary cartoons also meant it could afford a 25-to-40-piece orchestra, and that (along with the extremely talented staff) allowed Animaniacs to have one of the best soundtracks from any cartoon ever. Not to mention it was one of the first TV shows to garner an interactive online audience. Animaniacs was one of the first examples of internet fandom culture. Think about that. That is huge.

The Warners, Pinky and the Brain and Slappy are unironically some of my favourite characters of all time. I love that that the Warners are chaotic, nigh-omnipotent beings who can do anything, but also non-conforming outcasts who look out for each other because no one else will, but also well-meaning rebels, but also cute silly little children all at the same time. And that's just what they have in common, that's not even getting into their individual personalities. To put it very briefly (because I literally already wrote an essay about Dot so if you've read that you know how long I can go on about them but this post is long enough already and I'm still not done) I admire Yakko's wit, Wakko's optimism, and Dot's confidence.

I love that Pinky and The Brain are complete opposites in every sense of the word yet still manage to have an unbreakable bond. I love Slappy's unapologetically violent but never too meanspirited sense of humour (even though she's only one in-universe I genuinely think she makes for a better female Looney Tunes character than most of the actual female Looney Tunes characters) and how despite how bitter and cranky she is, she never lets that get in the way of her bond with Skippy.

Both the original Animaniacs and the reboot are some of my favourite shows of all time. I love their sense of humour, I love the main characters, I love that they never hold back and go places/accomplish things that a lot of other kids shows wouldn't even dare to. Not only was Animaniacs heavily influenced by Looney Tunes but it (and a series of Looney Tunes television spin-offs) helped bring Looney Tunes back from a period of stagnation by popularising its sense of humour (particularly its type of snark, wordplay, slapstick and visual gags). I feel like not enough people talk about just how influential the original show was; not only did it have more pop culture references and social commentary than pretty much any children's cartoon had before it, it played a big part in popularising those two things as well as sharp satire, cynical irony, meta humour, self awareness, and just witty humour in general being in children's cartoons, if not TV as a whole.

And above all else...it was fun. It was a fun show that just wanted to make you laugh above all else. It knew what it wanted to do and was good at it, and sometimes that's all you need for success.

I love this franchise, and I can't wait to see what it does next.

67 notes · View notes

skygemspeaks · 8 months

Text

opla episode 6 is definitely my favourite so far. here are some thoughts:

the music in this is so good! i'm the kind of person who doesn't often notice the soundtrack unless it's a song i know well (like binks' sake or we are, both of which we've heard snippets of so far), but i did really like the funky beat we got in the luffy vs arlong fight

the character work in this was well done, specifically when it comes to luffy and sanji! one really good way to have emotional impact is to establish a certain aspect of a character's personality, and then subvert it to make a point. like we all know that luffy loves to eat, but then at the beginning of the episode when nami tells him to go to the baratie and he replies that he's not hungry right now? that's really cute. but later on in the episode, when sanji is preparing food for them, and luffy doesn't even notice it, because he needs to properly care for "wada itchy monkey" (ASKDLJASDJK) for zoro, that made my heart melt. he loves his crew SO much

and i really like that sanji was there to see it! it really gives more credence to his decision to leave his father and his whole life behind to sail off with a crew he's known for like two days. he sees luffy struggling with making the tough decisions, he hears luffy say that he would eat both arms and legs to save zoro's life, and he sees potential in him as a captain. he trusts luffy with his dream

also, the relationship between zeff and sanji was subtle but very sweet. sanji says "oregano is for savages" and you kinda laugh, but then you see in the flashback that it's a callback to the very first interaction he ever had with zeff, and it takes on new meaning. you hear them calling each other "shitty old man" and "little eggplant" and at the end of the episode when zeff finally calls sanji by name, it hits you like a punch in the heart. and sanji immediately picks up on that and calls zeff by name too! their love for each other is so obvious, and i really appreciate it.

it was really cool to see nami reading the story of noland to zoro! what a fun little thing, and again, i would love it if we ever got to see the payoff for this!

the live action really benefited from having the context of worldbuilding that's established later on in the series, namely what we learn about fishmen in the sabaody arc. i like that they included those scenes of arlong interacting with the humans, and it was especially cool to see the interplay between him and the fishman that works as the maitre d' for the baratie. it's playing on this whole feeling where when you're a person of colour who takes pride in your heritage, it can feel almost like a betrayal when you see another person from your culture just throwing it all away and adapting to the culture that they live in. there's nothing wrong with either of those choices, but for the person who takes pride in their culture, it feels almost like losing to the racists who want you to "just be normal" (ie assimilate). it's a very complicated and nuanced topic, and i like how they addressed it in the show.

garp's conversation with mihawk was another point of interest for me! i've been joking about it all this time, but i really do think that he's clinging to this idea that if he just manages to apprehend luffy before he reaches the grand line, before any OTHER marines take notice of him, he can still get through to luffy. maybe he can keep his grandson safe. because he knows that luffy already has the odds stacked against him, what with his father being the leader of the revolutionary army, and he doesn't want his grandson to die. then mihawk refuses to bring luffy in, and all garp can do is laugh in despair, and tear his office apart because it feels like everyone in the world is trying to stop him from keeping his grandson safe, and he's running out of TIME as luffy gets embroiled in more and more pirate bullshit and gets closer to the grand line, and he just needs to bring his grandson back. and then koby just pops that bubble by telling garp that luffy would rather die than take orders from anyone else. he'd rather die than be a marine. and garp can't deny it anymore, so he just gives up. and who knows what koby was thinking here. maybe he's still a bit naive. he loves his friend, and he thinks. what. maybe garp will just let luffy go? ignore him because he's not a threat? he's not like OTHER pirates after all. but garp has been a marine for 50 years, and he knows that's not how any of this works. he knows that he did everything he could to stop luffy from being a pirate, and maybe he's feeling a little bitter that luffy never listened to him, maybe he thinks it's what luffy deserves. if luffy wants to be a pirate, then garp will do his fucking damnedest to treat him like a fucking pirate. and later on, you can see koby's despair, because this is not what he wanted, not at all. but what did he want then? this is what i mean when i say i don't know how they're planning on resolving his character arc. because the way things are going now, it would seem to make the most sense for him to become disillusioned with the marines as he realizes they're not what he's been glorifying and idolizing all his life, right? so what happens? maybe it IS a set-up for that kind of story arc, the way it is in the manga. maybe this, plus later during marineford when he stands up to akainu is the setup for the long game. maybe koby's going to become a revolutionary in the endgame of the manga. i think he'd get along well with sabo.

in the aftermath of the arlong fight, when sanji is helping clean up the dining area and he has that conversation with zeff, it becomes obvious that all along, zeff has been trying to push sanji away. zeff demoted him to a waiter because he knows that sanji loves cooking, and zeff wanted him to LEAVE. zeff called his cooking shitty, said it wasn't good enough to serve to guests even though sanji is his sous chef, he was trained by zeff and you know zeff would never accept anything but the best. because zeff is proud of his restaurant, he really is, but he also doesn't want sanji to waste away his life in this little restaurant in the east blue. that's not the future zeff gave up his leg for. and it hurts, but he needs to push sanji out of the nest so that he can fly

the vow that zoro makes to luffy when he wakes up is really nice! i love that zoro seems to have finally accepted that these are his people, these are his family, and he's not trying to hide it anymore. that soft, indulgent little laugh he does when usopp is recounting the fight he totally had with the fishmen is that much sweeter after he's been so aloof and stoic all season. i like seeing him finally loosen up, and it feels so much more deserved now

#opla liveblog #opla spoilers #one piece #opla #spoilers #op spoilers #red leg zeff #sanji #monkey d luffy #roronoa zoro #usopp #arlong #nami #monkey d garp #dracule mihawk #koby op

79 notes · View notes

crusherthedoctor · 8 months

Text

Get a Load of Traits - PART 1: Sonic the Hedgehog

Way back during my Tumblr infancy, I made a series by the mouthful of What Makes For A Good Incarnation, in which I listed the main noteworthy traits that I consider integral for crafting, at the very worst, a still above-average portrayal of the character in question. By "series", I meant I did exactly three of them, then forgot all about it. In the words of Moneybags, I seemed to have temporarily forgotten.

In the years since however, I've went back and forth on going back and redoing them - as well as providing entries for those who didn't get one the first time around - because shall we say, a few recent portrayals have caused me to believe they're in need of some additional points or further elaboration. So now here I am to actually do it.

For the DX: Director's Cut, and for the sake of not dragging them out too much, I've decided to keep it all thematically consistent by sticking with 9 main points per character, in terms of what I personally consider the highest priorities for each of them. These will usually not be listed in any particular order of importance or relevance unless stated otherwise, and while there may be other major traits that might not get mentioned (in which case, feel free to bring them up yourself if you see fit), this keeps things simple and focuses on the points that have the most flexibility with how much of the character they encapsulate.

It should also be noted that these posts will be made with the game portrayals in mind, because the games mark the core of the franchise, and as such, they objectively contain the purest essence of the cast. Adaptations generally like to play by their own rules, some more gratuitously and inexcusably than others, and this will inevitably crop up with certain entries. All that being said however, I'll attempt to stay focused rather than devolve into another rant about this adaptation or that adaptation, only directly referring to them if I feel it's necessary for the point being made.

So without further ado, for today's installment, we're jumping right into the main Crush 40 enthusiast himself: Sonic.

Since Sonic was one of the characters covered in the past, much of this will be retreading old ground. If you know me well though, I'm sure you'll be able to tell which of it is new or expanded upon.

He's meant to be fun.

"Psst, the mandates don't exist."

We'll start with one so easy to get that you'd have to be purposefully contemptuous of the franchise and the character to suggest otherwise: Sonic is a fun character. He's all about having fun. He looks at virtually everything, no matter how precarious, as a thrill ride first and foremost. He is perpetually filled with a carefree love for all that life has to offer, has never been shy about it, and is known to enjoy fighting the baddies as well. Nothing keeps him down.

It's a large factor into why the franchise itself commonly boasts a sense of energy and wonder. If you don't acknowledge this aspect of Sonic's character... what are you even doing here? Why are you writing for him? What character are you seeing?

But he also knows when it's time to get serious.

Oh look, Super Sonic when it still had milk left in it.

Sonic's knack for making snarky quips of debatable quality can lead some into thinking he's incapable of taking anything seriously at all. This is how we get writers who seek to humble him for it... but unfortunately for them, they're not breaking any new ground: Sonic does get down to business when the situation calls for it, and even when he's joking around with whatever villain he's currently facing, he's always got his wits sharp, never going out of his way to be sloppy. And no, this isn't limited to the one-off villains and Godzilla-type Pokemon we know and begrudgingly tolerate: he more than acknowledges the very serious threat and crimes of the deceptively jovial Eggman's actions as well.

After all, do we not recall some of the near-death situations that Eggman has found himself in upon defeat, and how Sonic usually shows no concern over whether he survives or not? Do we not recall Sonic interrogating Zor over what happened to Tails? Do we not recall what he did to the Erazor Djinn when he refused to YouTube Apologise for abusing his former lover?

Sonic takes a lot of things quite seriously. More than he tends to let on. He just also likes to have fun at the same time.

He does not loathe technology.

"You're telling me this board was made with... SCIENCE...?"

Yes, Sonic is the nature foil to Eggman's scientific scheming. It's been a constant with the franchise since its inception, all the way to modern entries like Colours. But if Sonic hated technology itself, he wouldn't be best friends with a tinkerer. Nor would he own a plane.

The series as a whole has always been sensible about the matter compared to other green aesop-spewing media of the 90's. Rather than demonize technology outright, it understood the strengths it had, and how it could be used for nature's benefit rather than its detriment. Sonic CD visualized this wonderfully, as the Good Futures were fond of showing them side-by-side, in perfect harmony, with no cost to the land's health and beauty.

So with Sonic, he doesn't oppose technology. He opposes Eggman, whose methods involve technology. If you want Sonic to preach about the evils of tech as he drops a mahogany log in the woods and scrambles for a leaf to wipe his ass with, just go on DeviantART. Or watch SatAM.

He has selfish needs, but he's not a selfish person.

"Shit, I forgot the third paragraph of my principle monologue."

Sonic knows what he wants, and that something is his freedom. He's not going to be anchored down, he's not going to live a mundane life, and he's going to adventure and explore the world and beyond for as long as he can. This goes both ways: it's further reason why he confronts oppressive sorts like Eggman, but on the other hand, it can be hard to keep up with him at times, and since Amy has a clear vision on how she would want their future lives to be like as a couple, it's no wonder Sonic hasn't shown much serious interest in his friend in that particular way.

Don't get the wrong idea though; this doesn't mean Sonic is a selfish person full stop. In part thanks to several adaptations, a common misconception with the Blue Blur is mistaking him for a pure egotist through and through, who only cares about his adrenaline-fueled ecstasy and nothing else. Cause y'know, he's firm about his needs, and he has a cocky side, therefore he's full of himself, right?

Well no, not at all: his opposition to big bad villains would surely be enough on its own to confirm that he cares about everyone else's freedom too, so long as said people aren't doing anything malicious themselves. Yes, he fights villains because it's fun to him, but he also has a genuine hatred for injustice. He doesn't think like a typical superhero, where he fights evil and saves lives because he feels he has an obligation to do so, he does it simply because he wants to. How is that not selfless?

But it's even more than that: he's proven himself to be humble in spite of his cockiness, right down to dismissing any and all formal terms for himself when others use them. Half the time he tells the people he's saved to not sweat it, and the other half, he's already bolted before they can even thank him. Sonic largely doesn't care about the fame and attention that comes with being a repeated world saviour, and in more intimate situations, he's full of compassion there too. Hell, even in Black Knight, despite initially intending to slice Merlina in half in a furious response to her betrayal, he was later willing to show empathy to her defeated self, recognizing that she was an extremist, but not like the other villains he had faced.

Also, he doesn't have a history of treating his friends and accomplices like garbage. He might not see them all that often due to his globe trotting ways ("Long time no see!"), but he clearly values each of them. Even the ones he pokes light fun at on occasion, like Knuckles and Shadow.

He's impulsive, but intelligent.

Remember when Eggman had a conch? Starline didn't.

Like any character, Sonic does indeed have faults. Sonic is a guy who, when he sets out to do something, he'll do it, no questions asked. If Sonic thinks he knows the solution to sorting everything out, then that's all there is to it. This has worked in his favor more often than not, but it can also just as easily lead to mishaps, like the moment pictured above from Lost World. His cockiness has also been taken advantage of on several occasions, like in SA2 and Unleashed. Both of those were by Eggman, by the way. Just wanted to throw that out there.

However, Sonic is not an idiot. Just because he's a speedster doesn't mean he can't think straight, and his moments of recklessness are often born out of not knowing the full story rather than blindly charging in after already knowing better. If he makes a mistake, he'll acknowledge it and attempt to rectify it as soon as possible, and if he thinks someone else has good advice, then he'll be willing to hear them out, especially if it's coming from his life-long buddy, Tails.

To put it generously, Sonic's intelligence is prone to be heavily downplayed in certain adaptations, most notably in SatAM and Prime. This is usually done for the sake of forcing him to learn a lesson that a character like him doesn't really need to learn, or to prop up another character as the brains behind his operation. Or because Hurr Hurr Vroom Vroom Character Dumb. In reality though, Sonic is actually very intelligent: certainly not a super-genius like Tails or Eggman, but he's quick to pick up on details, and experience has taught him how to optimize his speed and acrobatics effectively and gracefully, while making it look completely effortless. He's also emotionally intelligent, being able to read a room with little issue, and when placed in a new situation, it doesn't take long for him to adapt.

So Sonic is a very bright person who just so happens to occasionally make impulsive decisions, for better or for worse. This does not translate to him being a Funny Penis Man. That's a vast simplification that tends to come from people who take the archetype that describes him at face value.

He only cares about how others perceive him when it's based on deception.

"Surrounded by evil knights and a girl I've never met before... better inhale the worst cuisine they've ever seen with my goatse mouth."

To paraphrase the hedgehog himself, he doesn't mind having to play the bad guy if it's necessary to do what he thinks is right. This doesn't apply in a meta sense - WE know he's doing the right thing - but what it means is that in-universe, he understands that some people might think he's the villain due to their perspective on the situation. And he accepts that, because he doesn't care about how his true blue self is perceived by strangers one way or the other. He doesn't expect or demand the rest of the world to live by his own personal beliefs unlike some iterations, but since they're his own, he holds no shame in sticking with them personally. He can only be who he truly is, and if some people have a problem with that, then he'll just have to take it smoothly with a Winston break.

But, as proven with Shadow inadvertently framing him in SA2, he does care when it involves Shit That Isn't True. Because if you're going to judge him, it better be for stuff he's actually done, and for who he actually is. Sonic doesn't care about attention, but he does evidently care about his identity.

The real super power of teamwork.

"Because... we're Sonic Boom: Rise of Lyric!"

Sonic Heroes is a game that frequently gets referenced in side-material, which is an impressive feat considering it condemned itself by dressing Metal Sonic like a wanker. Yet for some curious reason, despite all the Heroes referencing, writers have trouble remembering the entire theme of the game, because their idea of Sonic needing to learn the benefits of teamwork and friendship is... lol...? Lmao...? Dare I even say... rofl...?

Sonic is the last person on the goddamn planet who needs to learn this, and you'd know that even if you weren't familiar with Heroes. Other games have shown time and time again that he appreciates the contributions of his allies, and gives them the appropriate kudos with no shred of reluctance, all without placing himself above them in the process. And while he may not be quick to ask for help, he's usually willing to accept it when it's offered to him. Like in '06, in which he casually allowed Trunks the Hedgehog to help out despite his attempting to kill him when they last met.

Sonic knows the super power of teamwork just fine. It's in his business card. Him of all people needing to learn this aesop is a non-development, a cheap way to make it seem like the writers are doing something ~deep~ with him. Giving back something he should have had to begin with is not character development.

His thing about emotions.

"A tall girl. My weakness."

Despite his outward demeanour, Sonic has a lot of introversion deep down, what with showing himself a contemplative side on a regular basis, and most of his dialogue being fairly straight and to-the-point. As it happens, this extends to how he manages his emotions, aside from his alleged temper. Sonic is obviously not stoic, but you're not likely to see him break down in hysterics, or publicly show tears at all unless it's in private.

Some writers and artists - or should I say, certain writers and artists - consider this an abominable sin that must be rectified. They'll get it into their heads that Sonic shows no emotion at all, but never fear boys and girls, they'll fix that pronto. They'll give him the emotions that SEGA couldn't. And what do you know, the end results end up looking absolutely ridiculous, and simply not in-line with who and what our hero is. Fact of the matter is, not everyone wears their emotions on their sleeve, and not breaking out the waterworks is not the same as being an unfeeling machine altogether. As it applies to real life, it applies as well to fictional characters. Because they're not all going to be the same.

His introversion doesn't just relate to himself though. It also seeps into his visible discomfort in dealing with the complex emotions of others, especially those who can't shake themselves off as easily as he can. Notice how, during moments where someone else is upset by something he can't easily fix - such as Tails lamenting Emerl's demise, or Shahra grieving over Majin Ganondorf despite him being a terminal shithead - he often finds himself at a loss, needing a moment or two to think of what he should say or do to console them.

It's possible that, with his canonical tendency to not be all that open about whatever might be troubling him, under the belief of not wanting to make his problem their problem by extension, he might not consider himself the most well-equipped for someone else's anguish. Or maybe that's just a Game Theory. Either way, whatever awkwardness there may be on his part, he always does his best regardless, as he would for any other situation.

...unless it involves one-sided sadness. Then he's not as sympathetic.

He's an ideal.

"Fuck sake, another argument over voice actors."

Sonic is a static character. Deliberately so. He is also not meant to be a relatable character, at least not in the sense of what Twitter members who have never played a Sonic game in their life consider relatable, which is basically making the character exactly the same as them, beat for beat, including the mismatched haircut, announcing their pronouns every three sentences, and the compulsive thirst to speak to the manager.

Needless to say, this doesn't work with the fastest thing alive. Everything about Sonic - his refusal to give up, his refusal to let distress overwhelm him, his freedom to go where the wind takes him - all of it, and more, serves to make him an inspiration. And guess what? Characters are allowed to be that. Inspirational characters are just as important as relatable ones, because by seeing what they can accomplish, we can strive to become our best selves. Why would you want to take that away?

Every character, the good ones anyway, have a defined purpose. Sonic has his. Other characters in the series might be considered relatable, but that's not where Sonic himself lies. It's better to leave that occupation for others, such as those who were inspired in-universe by Sonic himself, like Tails and Amy.

------

If you understand all of these points, and if you can take to them, then I believe you should have what it takes to write a good, or even great, portrayal of Say Yes to the Dress the Hedgehog. No portrayal is going to be one-and-one with that of another, there'll always be subtle distinctions depending on the writer, but you'll be fine as long as he's not a holier-than-thou dipshit who speaks more words than The Great Gatsby.

#Get a Load of Traits #Opinion #Sonic the Hedgehog

54 notes · View notes

positivelybeastly · 3 months

Text

So, a very dear friend of mine asked me why I think that Hank is such a performer - why he's so good at it, why he enjoys it so much - and it's one of those things that I think is so integral to Hank's character that really determines if you 'get' Beast or not.

I think the brass tacks of it is - he enjoys the attention, he enjoys the affirmation, the praise. There's some lines of dialogue from his parents that state that he was basically the best case scenario they could've hoped for, considering his father's radiation accident - sure, he was weirdly strong, sure, his limbs were oversized, but he was otherwise extremely healthy and intelligent and not deformed like they feared he would be.

So there's a degree of a miracle baby thing going on, where they showered him with love and attention and found it hard to be genuinely angry with him, and especially as he went on, as he got more and more plaudits for being brilliant, I think he chased that high a little bit.

He throttles back a bit when he's older, to try and hide because mutant and he does like being normal even if he loves being praised and affirmed as well, but everyone is telling him to keep going, to be as brilliant as he can be - which, to him, means be VISIBLY brilliant, be VISIBLY great at what you do.

And even when he joins the Avengers, even after he achieves that status symbol, he's STILL chasing that affirmation, he's starting to create impossible standards for himself. He feels notably down when he isn't contributing in fights or with his scientific acumen, he takes it hard when people criticise him, and he starts to feel the need now to be a public face for mutantkind.

It's not really something he mentions as being a thing in Avengers because 70s Avengers wasn't all that interested in addressing the mutant angle, but it does become a plot point in New Defenders, where a college student calls him out for being one of the most public mutant faces there is (remember, this is before Xavier outed himself, so, like, the public mutant faces are probably Hank, Magneto, Scarlet Witch, Quicksilver . . . PROBABLY A LOT OF VILLAINS, and the X-Men, but they're secretive and known only as a weird paramilitary group) but not DOING anything with that status. And then he takes that hard, and forms a mutant advocacy group, because he wants to be good and be seen to be doing good.

There's also the aspect of needing to aggressively perform both masculinity and humanity - especially in Avengers, he's so hypersexual and so casually intelligent (he spends an entire issue just alternating between the dozen languages he knows for fun) because he wants you to consider him a man, and a human, before he's a Beast.

That's an element of his character that you see really obviously in his human form, where he's a fucking walking thesaurus, but there, it's to stand out, to seem smart, there's a degree of smugness and 'look at meeeee,' but the instant he turns blue and furry, it's more about 'look at me not being a freak.'

That only intensifies when he becomes feline, where you see a sort of melding of the two - he's a lot less casual with his speech, he almost slides back into his Big Words mode, but he also wants you to consider him friendly and approachable, so how much he drops a million dollar quote or word starts to oscillate depending on his audience. He changes depending on who he's talking to.

He also almost never shows his teeth when he smiles.

As for why he's so good at it - practice, a lot of reading, and I think a degree of underrated emotional sensitivity. In his way, he's more empathetic and kind and gentle than Jean can be - granted, Jean was fucking MEGA PISSED over the affair with Scott, but if you look at the way he treats Emma, it's very soft and teasing and nurturing, and he stands up for her even against his best friend Jean, who had psychically brutalised Emma.

She has the cheat code of telepathy, but Hank is just - naturally warm and tender. He's a very sensitive soul, not just in terms of being vulnerable but just knowing what people need to hear and being there for them. He's even capable of empathy for Mr. Sinister of all people.

If Percy had even an ounce of this insight into Hank's character, X-Force Beast would just be a performance. "This is what Krakoa needs, so I'll become it," but he just. Doesn't. Get. That. There are glimmers of it! HE'S SO CLOSE. SO CLOSE TO GETTING IT.

This SHOULD be why X-Force Beast is so overtly evil, why he's so despicable, why he's so stupidly villainous - because it's a performance, because that's the only kind of evil Hank can do, and it's KILLING him to do it. One last great performance, to save everyone he loves.

THAT. THAT. WHERE DID IT GO, BEN?

And, like . . . he's getting . . . a reaction. It isn't the reaction he wants, it isn't a reaction he enjoys, but it's a reaction, people . . . ARE paying attention to him, so in a way, that's telling him to keep going. Like, that'd be such an interesting, fucked up dynamic to lean into, that this is just a bit that went too far, that Hank can't stop himself, that his emotions are all fucked up and no-one can tell it's a performance anymore and no-one can pull him out, that he became the performance, but no.

Just evil.

It just sucks because I bet we're not even going to get a resolution on X-Force Beast's feelings about Krakoa and the Hellfire Gala. About the idea that he was the necessary bastard but it didn't keep them all safe, that all of his plans and gambits failed, that he sacrificed everything for nothing. Judging by X-Force #48, he's probably just going to do some Bond villain shit and get taken down. In his own villain turn, he's just - stripped, of all emotional complexity. There isn't a character there. It sucks, man.

It isn't even subtextual. It's just. It's there.

Like, Hank's fatal character flaws are: a complete insecurity in his own self-worth, a worrying fear that he's failed at everything he's ever tried to do, an anxiety that he's not truly human, never will be, never can be, and will in fact only get worse.

THOSE ARE ENOUGH TO BE GETTING ON WITH.

And he ameliorates those things by being charming and funny and playing to type so people like him.

Like, if these writers understood Hank, they would USE that by emphasising the fact that Hank's insecurities and fears and anxieties are growing to such a scale that it's affecting his ability to make emotional reads on people, and thus he's playing the WRONG role that he thinks they want from him, because that's tragic, and that's understandable, but instead they make it that he's just got an ego, or that he's just plain evil.

LIKE.

YOU COULD LITERALLY HAVE HANK BE PAGLIACCI.

"Heard joke once: Man goes to doctor. Says he's depressed. Says life seems harsh and cruel. Says he feels all alone in a threatening world where what lies ahead is vague and uncertain.

Doctor says, "Treatment is simple. Great clown Pagliacci is in town tonight. Go and see him. That should pick you up."

Man bursts into tears.

Says, "But doctor...I am Pagliacci.”

Hank is always playing the clown, because it makes people happy and that makes him happy, but when they aren't happy, when the jokes don't work, there's no clown to make him feel better. That's when the bottom falls out. That's when you start getting the troubles. And that is tragic.

THAT is how you justify Hank doing horrible things, by making him chase ever greater jokes to tell, ever greater acts of devotion and amusement and entertainment for his audience, desperately hoping it'll bring the soothing balm of someone telling him he did good, because that is horrible, and that is real, and that is so sad.

But nah, evil.

#outofmuffins #hank mccoy #long post for ts

38 notes · View notes

springbloggy · 2 months

Text

Steve Theory - an analysis on a peculiar love letter

Another odd theory from me! This one is based on the recent newsletter.

See, for a while, the top leading theories for chapter 3's superboss was either a character inspired by Toy Story's woody or Sonic the hedgehog. Those are pretty decent theories, but I think this newsletter has a new smoking gun that blows both of those out of the water.

I think that people were on the right track of the third superboss being based off a childhood character, but it isn't woody or sonic, it's Steve from Blue's Clues (and a bit of other similar hosts).

For this theory, I will be calling the character Mike, you will see why soon.

Let's analyze Mike's letter shall we? Bit by bit.

But hey, first off, isn't it a bit odd that this reveal is in the form of a Valentine's letter? Yes, that was the most recent holiday, but previous holidays that the newsletter aligned with weren't this overt. Why present this info via love letter?

Well, this is, I believe the first clue (blue's clue if you will). What segment is Blue's Clues (and other childhood shows like it) known for? A mail time segment.

youtube

Mike may have been a tv character, but he knew that the screen wasn't the only way for fans to reach him. Mail Time was an important segment in his show, and right now he needs mail time the most. But why? Well, let's follow Mike's letter and find out.

The first clue is the distinction of the spelling of Delta Rune, with a space. I believe Mike is aware of the importance of the prophecy in the deltarune universe as well as the real world player's wait to fulfill this prophecy. If Mike truly was a Steve-like character, it would explain how he knows both, as the interactive aspect of his show would make Mike forcibly aware of a greater world outside of his show while still having to abide to the rules and storylines of that show.

Another note is how Mike isn't sure if it's the Old Year or New Year, which could reflect both how Feburary isn't close to being a "new year" anymore but also Mike's show being in reruns, where the passage of time is artificial and determined by what networks choose to broadcast.

Here is the most interesting tie to theory, Mike doesn't know what Valentine's Day is. This is odd because Valentine's Day is a common holiday, but in a children's show often times names of holidays will be changed in order for people of many religions to appreciate the episode. Something infamously parodied in Clone High.

youtube

So Mike wouldn't know Valentine's Day, he'd know it by another name.

Below his thoughts on Valentine's Day, he asks the viewer a question in a similar manner that Steve (or similar hosts) would.

youtube

Much like Steve at the beginning of an episode, Mike asks the viewer of the letter for help to find his forgotten friend. In fact, subtracted the odd feel of the letter, one can easily imagine a children's show where the main character is trying to find someone he forgot about in a lighthearted tone.

The top is interesting because the real-life viewer of this letter wouldn't respond out loud (unless you did, which uh, good ig?). But you know who would? The children voice overs used in these interactive shows. They are still there with Mike, even after his show (presumably) ended.

This seems like a silly joke a preschool host would make, poking fun at daily self care lessons for children. But it also reminds me of another children's host before Steve, the king of children's hosts, Mr. Rodgers.

youtube

Putting on the coat could be a reference to how Mr. Rodgers began his show by putting on his sweater, Mike is beginning his adventure with the viewers/players by having them put on their coats with him.

You may have noticed me skipping the text at the top of the letter, this is because I wanted to group these two notes together. I think the letter being "illegible" and Mike misspelling goodbye goes together. I think these are both hints of Mike not being a grown adult, but rather a young child who can barely write and spell writing this letter. It's similar to the writing seen in Disney's Winnie the Pooh movies.

This would make Mike fit right in with modern preschool hosts such as Dora, Bluey, and the kids from Cocomelon. A younger character ensures that younger viewers will be more engaged with the show and its various lessons.

The final note of this letter takes on a different meaning when you view it under the lens of a preschool show. Once an object, like a letter, is no longer needed to be around, writers will simply just have the object go away then stay on screen.

So now the larger theory, this is a bit of a stretch mind you, but these are all of the pointers I think of.

So wait, you're saying this is Mike?

Yes, I do believe this is the same Mike Spamton thinks so fondly about.

There's two reasons why I think this is the case. The first is his name, all the bosses and superbosses so far have had outlandish names: Jevil, Spamton, Lancer, King, and Queen. Mike sticks out like a sore thumb. Unless he was a character that was created for the sole point of being relatable to the audience, and thus shares a normal name that most people have to enforce that.

The second is this quote

This quote becomes scary if attribute it to this theoretical version of Mike. Think about it, you meet a kind man or child who hosts a preschool show, he's kind, warm, trusting. Wouldn't hurt a fly. But then he suddenly backstabs you.

So how did Mike and Spamton know each other? I think Mike (or the producers of Mike's show) gave Spamton the greatest publicity any salesman could, he made Spamton his show's sponsor.

youtube

Once Spamton stopped earning profits, Mike (or his producers) dropped him as a sponsor, leaving Spamton blindsided as a result. Maybe Mike didn't intend to hurt Spamton's feelings, but it was too late by then and Spamton hasn't reached out since.

The Missing Friend

So does that make Spamton Mike's missing friend? I don't think so. I think Mike's missing friend is actually his equivalent to Blue from Blue's Clues or Boots from Dora. A friend he's never without in universe, until one day, they suddenly disappear without a trace. Maybe the loss of Mike's friend parallels that of Noelle losing Dess or Kris missing Asriel from College. Both being events that force both of these characters to grow up and move on in life even if they don't want to. Unlike these two however, Mike will do anything to find this friend, and with some advice from a certain someone, Mike knows what exactly to do.

Take the player's SOUL.

Mike's lack of control

Mike's lack of control is pretty simple yet terrifying. Mike is not only controlled by the in-universe response of yelling children like Steve, but he's also controlled by the whims of the network, forever being taken on and off air, repeated, and more throughout time. I personally believe Mike's show has been long cancelled ever since the sudden disappearance of his friend, yet he's forced to relive moments through reruns. Thus losing track of time itself. This is the secondary reason why Mike wants the player's soul besides a promise to find his lost friend, all he wants is a normal life again, where he doesn't have to relive moments and just hang out with his cartoony friends.

Even if you don't believe in this theory (it is all an admitted stretch based off of one letter), I hope this provided an interesting and entertaining read!

#deltarune #deltarune theory #deltarune meta #deltarune analysis #undertale #undertale theory #undertale meta #undertale analysis #undertale newsletter #utdr theory #utdr meta #utdr analysis #utdr newsletter #deltarune secret boss theory #Youtube #blue's clues #blues clues

23 notes · View notes

thesoulshyperrealaslacreatura · 4 months

Text

Drakenier: Violence as expression and affirmation - Pt.1

It has become a rather well-known piece of trivia (or at least, well-known within the niche internet circles I flow through) that 2010's Nier Replicant / Gestalt had its overall message thoroughly inspired by well, 9/11 - the discourse that produced it, that came of it, and became it. Although it may not be a direct quote, "to kill someone, you don't have to be out of your mind, you just need to believe you are correct" is a sentiment clearly echoed throughout the game; as the many layers of its central and side conflicts drop alongside the curtains to its second, third (and maybe kind of fourth) playthrough, so does what had, for quite a ways into the game, seemed like a story mostly about finding, nurturing and protecting a community - people to call home.

However, the statement above seems to somewhat conceal-so-as-to-merely-hint-at what I'd argue is a much more complex argument the games lay forth, when looked at as one series. I, myself, have found it difficult in the past to distill both Replicant and the wider series as a whole into one coherent message or thematic frame; partly (and beautifully), because there mustn't be one - this singular reading which eclipses the broad range of experiences that people have come to share with the series - such an idea is preposterously reductive. Still, I think that this mish-mash of "the game is about philosophy and tragedy and nihilism and existentialism and society and humanity and life" and whatnot misses a bit of where the different themes intersect, producing further instances of meaning from the text. I hope to discuss the evolution (were I to sound even more pretentious, I might have used the word genealogy, but I would never stoop to that) of a few central concepts surrounding drakenier's "philosophy of violence" and where they seem to have informed or have been informed by other aspects of the works.

Strap in, because just from writing the introduction I can already tell this is gonna have to come in multiple parts. Hopefully my writing can steer away from boring you to tears throughout all of it.

Spoilers for the whole series!

Part 1: Replicant, and the subjective experience gained from that funky 9/11 fun fact

"Blood is sound, sound is words, and words are power"

This quote, almost a chant from Weiss as the player starts to grasp the gameplay loop of attacking enemies to allow for magical attacks, ties in the game's teaching of that system with what I consider to be the most powerful writing from Replicant (I'm going to refer to it as Replicant for the sake of convenience, obviously Gestalt is included in that). And it is deeply tied to what Taro himself has credited as a major source of inspiration for Replicant in relation to his previous game, Drakengard.

In some ways, Nier Replicant isn't introducing a new, foreign idea over the original Drakengard, so much as bringing out new elements from within its predecessors' critiques of the gaming landscape. Though that only really becomes clear by taking future foresights the series would reach into account; this is the point at which it becomes prudent to ask ourselves one question - how might the game's design regulate the player's interaction with the game world? (A question that, if you're at all even familiar with Drakengard, you probably already know the answer to)

From this, we can extrapolate a lot of meaning from how the original Drakengard was conceived: a game about violence, from the perspective of people who were so immersed in their own awfulness and the general precarity of their world that they cannot enact anything but that same violence. And it is that violence which comes to define them.

I'd also like to do the pedantic thing and bring up the fact that violence can be thought of as more than just physical harm, but also in terms of violation. In that sense, when I claim that Drakengard's characters are defined by violence, I mean it in that their reduction of other people to objects serves as an exertion of themselves - the Dynasty Warriors inspired combat of cleansing battlefields as the only win state reflects back at Caim as his only method of building an identity of his own, one based on strength demonstrated from conquering his enemies. You might find that these 'enemies' are violated the moment they're placed into the game as props that sustain its overall narrative.

In fact, this 'loss of personhood as self-affirmation' theme reverberates into another key factor of the game's story: pacts. They explicitly deprive humans of something of themselves - their ability to communicate, to see, to age, to have hair (sure????) -, and reduces both parties into one shared essence, yet it is what permits its characters to have strength through which they find themselves as able to inflict that dehumanization onto others. Dehumanization becomes their characterization, both from the audience's perspective as well as in-world.

Following that, Nier Replicant does not dispute that destruction of the other simultaneously inflicts upon the self both corruption and affirmation. If anything, it only takes measures to strengthen that sentiment, in light of how the added theme of perspective brings forth a need to now more closely study the subjective experience of perpetrating violence. Thus:

"Blood is sound, sound is words, and words are power"

The gameplay system I've anchored this analysis to comes into play; attacking your enemies gives you the literal strength to continue your offense, by design - ridding them of their life force, their blood, perpetuates the narrative, the words being built, the sealed verses of a prophecy you've set for yourself: that of being a hero to your sister/daughter, friends and general community. This even extends to the lyrics of Ashes of Dreams:

"Are we the plaything of fiends or merely the dreams that we're telling ourselves?"

Though we shouldn't forget that Weiss' comment takes the form of X=Y=Z=W, and it seems I've neglected the 'sound' part of the sentence. As I was writing this, my brain immediately made the association between that and Drakengard 3's focus on the power of Song, which, in fairness, definitely was made with the rest of the series in mind - but, in this instance, that sounds like a bit of a lucky coincidence. Still, what the concept of sound brings to the statement doesn't seem too far off from what meaning could be made at a bit more of a general, rudimentary level, that being: our lifeforce (blood) translates into our ability to be heard (sound), thus effectively giving us narratives about the world around us (words), which gives our actions direction, purpose (power).

From that, we can take a closer look into a lot of different aspects of the game. After all, the reason I proclaimed this piece of writing to be so powerful isn't really because I could - and did - stretch its interpretation to its fullest, but also from the way it manifests itself around the struggles of various characters, while being tied to the game's overall systems and world. Emil receding into his identity as a weapon in order to redirect what he sees as his curse onto those who seek to harm his friends - leading to his sacrifice; Weiss, who also goes on to sacrifice himself, does so in the name of putting an end to this now 5-year mission, grown into his own center of existence; Louise, perhaps reacting to the world around her, saw humanity as something to claim from others, and faced erasure upon perceiving herself as incapable of acquiring it. For better or for worse, the moral codes characters create from their own intentions of living become rigid scripts to follow as self-fulfilling prophecies of their own identities.

We can see that, ultimately, characters across both games tend to follow journeys with a general structure of: bleak circumstances > feeling of powerlessness > violence as a misguided means of reclaiming the power to define oneself > entrenchment in violence becomes overbearing, coming to annihilate the very self which sought to instigate it. From the first Drakengard to the first Nier, this hasn't changed a bit. What changed is a distinct awareness in how the self, or what we might call "us" stands in conflict with the generalized other, "them", and where it uses morality as a catalyst for smoothing out the uncomfortable edges of that conflict.

In fact, the annihilation of the self as, paradoxically, an act of self-affirmation is the very core of ending D for Replicant. And this is, partly, where the inciting 9/11 quote comes into play - given our newfound empathetic understanding of where violence comes from, how do we process it? How do we make sense of it? From the way the world is established, the very act of surviving, for both replicants and gestalts, is somewhat tainted as immoral, and predicated on the erasure of an 'other'. It leaves room for later material to find itself more at ease with this question (and those circle back nicely to ending E from the new version, as well). For now, most of what the game feels comfortable in concluding comes from Kainé, who stands in contrast with most characters by fully rejecting the notion of being a moral agent throughout the entire story, yet the game still offers us the chance to save her - it, mirroring the protagonist, relentlessly believes in her. Not even that "she can be better", whatever better might mean, just that "she can be".

And obviously, finally, we can extrapolate plenty of social commentary from this. Playing off of the thematic material introduced in Automata, we could argue that Replicant's plot is, in retrospect, about slowly building up to the depiction of a certain "Death of God" - which, in nietzschean terms, is not merely society straying from religiosity, but represents an irreparable shattering in the very idea of a centralizing narrative that everyone could subscribe to and fit within. So ends humanity, not just as a species, but as a concept; no longer are people able to identify themselves as containing some unified essence of 'humanity', recognizing the other as a complete self in its own right, as they retreat into the violence that was inflicted against them, which they inflict back at the world - to have your totality reduced to a role in a play that the winner gets to write. And in that sense, I'd argue it captures specific facets of a post-9/11 climate pretty well.

Anyway, gonna make a separate post that's just about Drakengard 3, and then one that's just about Automata, but at a later time!

also, this thesis becomes more relevant when the time comes to analyze automata, but it was still helpful in having me think through the previous games, so I'll drop it here as a reference for now, and will mention it more loudly once we come to specific sections later (not about to be the next target for hbomberguy lmao): http://dspace.library.uvic.ca/handle/1828/14525

Cool that there are people writing about it!! Thank you Xinlyu Tan, the goat!!! Would love to go through more material, but I'm writing this for fun on the side... hope anyone reading this has enough fun with it to go looking for more on their own, go extend the discussion further, blah blah blah. Also hope that I make any sort of vaguely coherent point. And, lastly, I hope you enjoy yourself!

#drag on dragoon #drakengard #drakengard 3 #drakenier #nier series #nier #nier automata #nier replicant #nier gestalt #drakenier analysis

31 notes · View notes

theminecraftbee · 2 years

Note

Where did winged!grian come from? I love him but want to know why everyone's art has him with (quite pretty) wings.

came from a lot of things! as it is with many things in the hermitcraft fandom, keep in mind some of this originates from "the hermitcraft fandom really likes non-human characters, as well as giving characters Recognizable Character Trait to make them visible in art, especially if their skin is kind of plain otherwise". (that has generally been my observation at least, keep in mind that i'm new around here.)

so, anyway: season 6! it was grian's first time using an elytra, and he started out pretty bad at it! however, over the course of the season, he got so good at flying it basically became his whole thing. elytra course was very hard and the speeds he could complete it at were impressive. he just... really liked flying, man. he also played a ""superhero"" character called poultry man, who would fly around and throw eggs at people. and, hey, chickens have wings, right? (if you've seen him as a chicken man, hey, now you know who that mysterious chicken man is! nice!)

and sometimes that's enough, you know? however, also big during season six - and i know some people don't like blaming this fic for everything because newer fans haven't read it but from everything i've heard it's still important - there was a popular fic called "and the universe shifts". (it's still the third most kudosed fic on ao3 under the tag, under shells in the foam and a tommy superhero fic i haven't read that apparently must have grian in it.) in it, we find two things that stuck around in fandom: the most common watcher tropes and design, and the original popular "hey grian has wings" fic, where his wings were because he was a watcher. (note that i have no idea if this is the first fic where grian had wings; i wasn't around then. i just know this was the first stupidly popular one.)

if you've seen grian's wings as purple, this is probably the origin point, and at that point, a lot of people started giving him purple wings.

however, then season 7 started! not only did new fans start to come in during season 7, but grian picked up new bird imagery! namely, the entire "pesky bird" thing started to happen during season 7, as well as all of his parrots. grian being a pesky bird (parrot) in the jungle was all a lot of fans needed to start shifting the design - his wings became the parrot wings that are probably his most common wing design because of that during season 7. plus, he was still clearly one of the best fliers out there and enjoyed it, which was enough to keep giving him wings.

at this point, i'd say that within the fandom, the original atus part was lost - new fans just saw people give him wings and were like "heck yeah its a guy with wings, haha, pesky bird" or "ooh watchers have wings" and didn't know there used to be a Big Fic that made that stuff popular fanon. so then, and then especially during season 8, fanon started shifting more directly just... assuming grian has wings.

since then, there have been little things that affirm to the fandom that grian should have wings. he refers to them as such, some comments he made during 100 hours about needing his wings, i think doc just outright called grian a pesky bird in his april fool's episode in season 9 which is really funny to me for some reason. it's become a pretty established part of grian's design, to the point that i'm pretty sure it's known to all of the hermitcraft creators and to the point that some people can't recognize a grian if you don't put wings on him, lol, even though that's not really an aspect of his skin.

i'd say at this point also the wing designs tend to just... vary by artist and what they like! i've seen a lot of people trying to take them from stuff he does every season because it's more fun that way. i know i've joked about grian's wings being shaped wrong and the wrong colors to actually be any real bird, and also the thing where they have eyespots, so that's a thing in my design, although i'm not an artist! at this point the why grian has wings varies too: some will tell you it's because he's a watcher, some will say it's because he's very good at flying, some will say it's because he's a pesky bird. up to the individual, and technically he also doesn't need to have wings! it's just sorta like philza in that it became really established fanon that keeps on skirting the edge of just sorta being canon at this point.

anyone who's been in the fandom longer than me can add to this and i'll reblog it

#answered #dovethedove #hermitcraft #grian #i think i probably wrote too much for this but this is my approximate understanding of where it came from

764 notes · View notes

absolutebl · 1 year

Text

This Week in BL

April 2023 Wk 2

Being a highly subjective assessment of one tiny corner of the interwebs. Organized by which ones (in each category) I’m enjoying most.

Ongoing Series - Thai

Bed Friend (Sat YT, GaGa & iQIYI uncut) ep 9 of 10 - My biggest concern is that Uea left his sister in that house with a known abuser. Meanwhile, the office teasing was cute. I’m thinking that the final two episodes were mostly added to deal with the backstory resolution of the family drama, and to add a sappy proposal thing. I’m not necessarily mad about it, but I do think there’s probably would’ve been a better tighter story at 8 episodes.

Future (Thai Sun YouTube & Gaga) ep 4 of 5 - There is nothing to this show but softness. Also we visited my old exclamation to the BL gods: please don’t make them act crying. It’s so difficult to watch. That said I still love this stupid show.

Pastsenger (Thai Weds Gaga) 6 of 12 eps - Wow. Sides kissing. Brave high school kid! Also mains. Wait. What is happening?

A Boss and a Babe (Fri YouTube) ep 7 of 12 - Having a rich boyfriend sure is clutch. Boss is smart to ingratiate himself with his boyfriend’s gaming team. Also there is no doubt that they are complete and total boyfriends, the most boyfriendly boyfriends ever.

Tin Tam Jai (Tues Gaga & iQIYI) ep 8 of 12 - I’m pretty much fast forwarding anything to do with the main couple I just find them so boring. Although my beloved side dishes have disappeared. So I guess I am watching it for the faen fatal?

Chains of Heart (Sat iQIYI) ep 9 of 10 - Whatever. Good sex scene tho. Bummer about the, ya know, story.

The Promise (Thai Weds YT) ep 6 of 10 - ON HIATUS UNTIL APRIL 19.

Ongoing Series - Not Thai

Our Dining Table AKA Bokura no Shokutaku (Japan Thurs Gaga) ep 2 of 10 - It’s just the best. It’s so sweet. Yutaka’s little smile because the kid likes him and wants to cook with him is probably the warmest most endearing thing ever to happen in JBL.

Unintentional Love Story (Korea Thurs iQIYI) 9-10 fin - sorry I won’t have a chance to watch this until early next week but I promise to post about it!

The Eighth Sense (Korea Weds Viki) eps 5-6 of 10 - Hyung mistakes made by constantly acting EXACTLY like bf in front of their friends is very cute. I don’t have much to say a this time. Narrative and characterization is unfolding as expected, staying tense as we get little nuggets of backstory. Lines will be crossed, one way or another. The trot part was VERY funny. Also we got us a on screen rep of a fairygodBLer. These two kiss well but all I can see when they do is how much pain is incoming. I don’t know what was up with the ending but we do have 4 more to go, so I don’t think we are actually in an H3:MODC situation.

My Story (Pinoy Sat YouTube) - It’s a bit frenetic, camp, crazy, and outrageous, but I’m not mad about any of that because it’s classic Pinoy BL. So I think I’ll keep watching. This is the same characters as My Day. Which means they did break up the main couple from that series. So if that’s going to traumatize you, be aware. There are a lot of storylines going on. And I’m just not sure BL from the Philippines can handle this much at once, they may have bitten of more BL than they can chew.

Naked Dinner AKA Zenra Meshi (Japan Fri Gaga) - Japan is so weird. I mean that in a good way (but also sometimes in a bad way). Also sometimes just weird. Also embarrassing and cringe. I’m going to watch it but I don’t like it very much.

It’s Airing But ...

Love Syndrome (Thai Sat WeTV) stopped at ep 2 of 12 - I’m just not into any aspect of it (except Lee Long Shi and I can watch him in Tin Tem Jai) - saving to binge if the end is solid.

Venus in the Sky (Sat YouTube) pilot/tester?) 0 of 10 - not entirely sure what’s up with this one distribution-wise, but the pilot was cute, classic university-set pulp. I hope it happens because the leads are cute with good chemsitry and I thought it was fun. However, it totally holds together as it’s own little short story too.

Make a Wish (Thai Weds ?) from WaGa Creative staring Fluke Natouch (OhmFluke UWMA etc...) & Judo (The Miracle Of Teddy Bear) in a medical-fantasy. About a doctor who sees ghosts and a deity who resides in a Bodhi tree that earns merits whenever he fulfills a wish based on a y-novel by Sammon (Manner of Death, Triage). Same as above.