#in the context how they deal with potential allies
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Mandalorians and thrones
I’ve already talked about the funny implication about Darksaber created by New Canon sources. The other hilariously ironic detail comes from the symbolism of the throne.
Duchess Satine has one
as Countess Ursa Wren
and even Princess Bo-Katan
all of those thrones were a symbol of their leadership (political position) and weren't on screen shared with other Mandalorians (of lower status than them).
Then we have Boba Fett’s throne - and mind you, I didn’t watch the Book of Boba Fett beside premiere episode and few scenes here and there, so my knowledge may be wrong in regard to this specific show, but on the teaser in The Mandalorian he did visually sorta “share” it with Fennec Shand.
Then we have Pre Vizsla who in “A Friend in Need” had his special chair (symbolic throne)
that during the talk with Maul was A) not used by Pre to highlight his leadership between Mandalorians and B) other warrior was sitting there like it was nothing
(or at least I assume it was the same chair due to specific shape)
And I find it ironic and hilarious, as all women have connection to aristocracy judging by their titles alone (duchess, countess and princess) and did not share their thrones on screen with their subordinates as far as I can remember. Meanwhile both Boba and Pre belong to famous Mandalorian families (Fett name itself dates back to at least Mandalorian Wars from ~4.000 years ago while Vizsla clan is said to be one of the oldest clans) but none of them has or use aristocratic titles AND shared their “thrones” with their subordinates. Boba more in the visual/symbolic way which suggests his relationship with Fennec is less formal than of “king” and those beneath him. Pre Vizsla on another hand had no reaction to one of his men sitting on “throne” what implies this is pretty normal occurrence in Death Watch camp?
And even though Pre didn’t visually (or physically) share the acquired Satine’s throne with other Mandalorians, the Death Watch seemed to have a “council meeting” straight after Vizsla gained control of Mandalore. Before Maul challenged Pre, the Mandalorians sit almost in circle (which usually create the feeling of “round table”, a sense of equality between the ”leader” and subordinates)
in similar fashion as New Mandalorian Ruling Council's chairs were seen in the same episode.
There is a chance that Death Watch just used the chairs as they were already here when Pre forced Satine to abdicate. Either way, he did not remove the symbolic objects of “shared” power/equality. Interestingly, the members of the New Mandalorian Council did not have the same arrangement when they debated at current situation on Mandalore in previous season, highlighting the feeling that Satine was the central (dominant) person in the meeting while the chairs in “circle” were seen just before she was arrested by Death Watch.
This may be just the matter of perspective used by creators, but though the chairs were presented like in the picture below
-- it seems the New Mandalorian Council’s chairs were put then more in the same line before Satine’s throne (the Mandalorians did not face each other but sit more arm to arm if you get what I mean?) than in a circle as Death Watch did?
Another interesting implication coming from those “throne” scenes in regard to Boba and Pre is that the moment we see them on a real trone, they share it on spot (Boba with Fennyc) or at least visually share their power by having the “war council” (chairs arrangement in almost circle) straight after gaining the control (Pre on Mandalore). And yes, Satine too was shown to counsel the situation with other New Mandalorian high-ranked officials, but after passing time. She debuted in season two but TCW showed the Council meeting in season three. In meanwhile her political activity (S02E13) focused on gaining allies for neutrality in war looked like this:
Her, in center, sitting in a special place while the potential allies all standing around in clear power imbalance between Duchess and others. In contrast, when Pre was making an alliance with Maul, he invited the Sith to the table, offered tea and in general created the feeling of some sort of equality instead of talking to him from the throne (the special seat already occupied by some Mandalorian?).
What in itself adds a nice nuance to Pre character and in general to the repeating patterns of Mandalorian women sitting on thrones as a symbol of their position AND connection to aristocracy while Pre and Boba A) lack such bloodties, B) doesn’t care for such titles and C) visually at least the animated and TV show imply they are either willing to share the power (within their own group) or just doesn’t care for thrones as a symbols (thus are okay if some of their trusted men casually will sit on special seat/ on the backrest.
Thinking more about it, the Armorer share with Pre this trait to talk with people (her subordinates/allies) on more equal ground, like by sitting with Din at the same table when he seeks her wisdom or judgment
Dunno how much of this was intentional on creators’ part and how much it is just a coincidence but I guess that is what happens when you try to make barbarian-like Mandalorians more medieval and put any pressure on aristocratic blood ties. Those who don’t use them or don’t care at all in the source material (like Pre and Boba and the Armorer) will stand out more.
(Not to say that Ursa or Bo-Katan care in any special manner about their titles as both are very skilled warriors and strong leaders. I just find it unusual how source material highlight their connection to aristocracy via titles and thrones while Pre has none and doesn’t care to get one)
#star wars#mandalorians#new canon mandalorians#pre vizsla#bo katan#satine kryze#boba fett#the armorer#i'm still trying to figure out the new canon mandalorian culture#i will stand forever by the feeling mandalorians have the barbarian tribes feeling about them#so i don't like much the medieval stuff like houses and thrones and all aristocracy bullshit#but i really feel like i should finish the old meta about pre and satine#in the context how they deal with potential allies#i totally hate the way satine tries to gain allies lol
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We're getting to close to seeing how Callum and Runaan are going to interact! They both love Rayla, but will they let that outweigh the fact that Runaan killed King Harrow?
Rayla and Callum love each other, but their fathers were on opposite sides of a deadly clash, and one of them didn't survive. It's going to be intense, no matter how it falls out.
But we've seen this particular tangle come up before. And there's a wide range of results so far:
Zym and Ezran are bonded closely and can read each other's thoughts when they want to. But Ez's dad killed Zym's dad, and before that, Zym's dad killed Ez's mom. Yet that doesn't stop them from seeing each other as friends. They don't blame each other for the choices their parents made.
Rayla and Soren have talked through what Viren did to Runaan in TTM - as far as Soren knew and could guess at, which was that Runaan was messily dead dead at Viren's hands. And Rayla was still happy to be his friend, when he showed his true colors. She didn't blame him for what his dad did to hers, even when she still thought Runaan was gone.
These friendly pairings are all about people from the same generation, people who were hurt by or who were not involved in the deaths that occurred.
It's a little different for Claudia and Rayla. They've generally been on opposite sides all along, and we might see some closer context for Rayla and Callum from looking at their situation.
On one hand, they both know that Viren cursed Lain, Tiadrin, and Runaan into coins. There could be plenty of fallout to come from this knowledge on Rayla's part, and maybe even on Claudia's if she gave those coins away when Viren had some kind of plans in mind.
On the other hand, they also both know that Rayla tackled Viren off the Storm Spire, and he died, and it took Claudia two years to fix that.
Just like it's been taking Rayla two years to "fix" Runaan's coin situation (with vengeance, which will probably now shift to rescue instead?)
But when Claudia and Rayla clashed in S4E9, their issues with each other stuck to what they had done, not what their fathers had done.
And though the angst potential is great with Runaan and Callum potentially squaring off and forcing Rayla to choose a side, etc etc, I think there might be one more example to look at first:
Ezran and Rayla.
They've already bonded as children made to carry a heavy burden of responsibility by their fathers, of feeling separate and weird, not fitting in. They both know what it feels like to have a father who takes lives, a warrior who defends his people - and who kills the fathers of other children. And they're still friends. They're very good friends.
I think Callum has every right to be angry at Runaan, when they meet again. I think he will be angry. He's an angry person with a lot of hurt and stress. And that might be how he deals for a while, because I don't know that Rayla or Runaan himself will really be in a position to help smooth things out.
But Ezran could be, possibly more than anyone else. Harrow was his father, too, so he can speak to Callum from a place of true empathy. But Harrow took Avizandum's life and left Zym without his dad, too. Ezran could help Callum see their shared pain from the outside, even when he's angry. Ezran is the King of Katolis - made so by Runaan's attack, in fact. Ezran rules because of Runaan's actions as much as by the good people who rescued him from Viren's cell.
Oh yeah, how about that: Ezran knows what it's like to be locked up by Viren, too.
They were both betrayed by supposed allies, and Viren pounced on the opportunity to lock them both up.
Bringing Runaan back might divide Rayla and Callum for a while, if Callum can't sort through his feelings. But I think Ezran is the key to helping everyone involved move forward.
#runaan#rayla#callum#ezran#release the drafts#the way i've totally flipped on who's gonna take rayla's side now lol
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ATLA rewatch: The Blue Spirit
One of the best Zukaang episodes, if not THE Zukaang episode!!
First off, absolutely LOVING how the intrigue between Zhao vs Zuko/Blue Spirit is threaded throughout all of Book 1.
When Zuko tells Zhao's men that "I have nothing to report (to him)," we see only the unscarred side of his face - this seems like a subtle hint that Zuko is genuinely "showing his face" and telling the truth in this moment, especially in the context of all the intrigue that follows.
The Blue Spirit is really a continuation of The Storm, the culmination of the connection that Aang and Zuko made when they shared a look in the eye of the storm. "Stay close to me!" Aang says, followed by Aang going back to save the Blue Spirit from being surrounded by soldiers. The way they seamlessly work together as allies is incredible, but the kind of alliance they have isn't clear until the moment the Blue Spirit holds his swords to Aang's neck - and it turns out it's an alliance that's balanced (literally) on the edge of a blade and is potentially very dangerous.
And then the famous scene where Aang asks Zuko, "Do you think we could have been friends, too?" I am OBSESSED with this scene, and there's so much that can be said that I've already written a meta and a fic about this scene alone.
Also the way that Aang and Zuko can only work together and communicate while Zuko masks himself from Aang is just 🤌🤌🤌 And when Zuko's mask is finally removed (by Aang!!), he can't deal with the vulnerability that Aang offers, and he cannot handle his own vulnerability and can only respond in the way he's always responded to Aang: with violence.
Ok and then Zuko returning to his ship, and Iroh mentions that he had missed music night where Lt. Jee sang "a stirring love song"???
Aang returning to his friends and giving them the frozen wood frogs saying "this will help you feel better" while looking absolutely dejected???
The way Aang turns away from his friends and Zuko turns away from the Fire Nation flag as they both ruminate on their encounter????
UGH IT'S JUST SO GOOD
#am I rewatching atla for the zukaang?#you bet I am#the blue spirit#zukaang thoughts#zukaang#chocomd rewatches atla
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Gabriel moments that make me ragingly feral (1)
The Noose;
I think for this to be emphasised best it’s missing a little extra context, not that it’s needed but it certainly adds to the direness of the situation and Dean’s intentions with Gabriel.
Gabriel is not their friend. Gabriel is not even their ally. Freshly freed from torture and imprisonment, Gabriel has run off to try and break the last of his chains which proves more difficult than anticipated when he’s as weak and vulnerable as he is (physically and mentally). His choice to seek out the Winchesters isn’t born of trust or love but pure desperation, and Gabriel wasn’t around to witness Dean’s temper tantrum over him exercising his freedom to go deal with his own personal dramas- because that’s what this is for the Winchesters as well, they can talk big game about Michael but things would be fine if they left it alone, they want their mom. It’s understandable, they love her. But let’s not pretend anything about wanting to break open rifts between worlds in s13 is anything but them refusing to mourn a mother that never existed. Gabriel’s motives are no more petty than Dean’s, and I stand by that. If they had righteous motives they would leave their mother and keep the wall between worlds sealed.
So Gabriel doesn’t know that he is not walking back into a tense but still there allyship, like how he left things after Sam nursed him back and to return the favour Gabriel snapped out of his stupor to fight back to save him and Castiel. Sure he ran away and this is not friendship, but it’s something. He doesn’t know things have changed personally, because of Mary, because of a woman that looks like a friend Dean used to have but isn’t.
So when Sleipnir and Narfi come kicking in their door and start attacking the Winchesters, Gabriel (after taking a brief respite to panic in the bathroom) again steps between Sam and the enemy. Could simply be that he acknowledges he needs numbers on his side and if Sam and Dean die now it’ll be 1v2, or he’s still trying to pay Sam back for his kindness. Either way, he fights alongside them again.
After a little camaraderie, Dean is quick to pull out binding cuffs he’d been stashing which could be considered pretty overkill when Gabriel is already powerless and bleeding out, and the frame centers the cuff around Gabriel’s throat like he’s caught in a noose. Along with the framing of Gabriel as captured and subdued here they’ve also set Dean alone and Sam side by side with Gabriel, since he’s going to be the one fighting for Gabriel’s autonomy and recovery in upcoming scenes against Dean’s harsh Take What We “Deserve” method.
Here he’s trading one master for another potential one if Dean were to get his way here (restraining him, beating him, taking what Dean feels he deserves from body while he’s too weak to fight back), all because he came back to ask for help.
Ironically, it’s the exact same thing he did when he ran back to another old friend and asked him for help only to wind up contained, powerless, and stripped of his grace for someone else’s personal use.
Seems Gabriel is the worst of them all at learning his lesson.
#by the end of my little series of rants you will agree with me that one of Gabriel’s core personality traits is in fact naïveté#he loves a lot more than he’s willing to say with words and he shows it by repeatedly turning up for those things only to get slapped down#gabriel spn#spn#supernatural#I’m gonna tag this as Dean crit even though I love him because this is pretty snippy I just love my boy so much ok#dean critical#supernatural 13x20#sona’s lore
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PROPAGANDA
TERESA (MAZE RUNNER SERIES)
1.) One of only two relevant female characters in a primarily male cast. In the first book, she is a mysterious ally and potential love interest of the protagonist, which is inoffensive on its own. In the second book, she decides to cooperate with the villains in order to get herself and her friends out of a terrible situation. In practice, a lot of this is framed as her having some secret plan to work against the protagonist, despite the fact that not only was she promised cooperating wouldn’t hurt him, it actually doesn’t! Her choice makes perfect sense, yet the narrative frames her as an almost seductive traitor, disqualifying her from love interest status and replacing her with another underdeveloped female character as the main lead. In the final book, instead of attempting to write anything interesting with her, the author decides she’s worthless if she’s no longer the love interest and barely includes her, only having her in one scene where she sort of makes up with the protagonist and then. Literally three pages before the end of the book. KILLS HER. Because she’s no longer the love interest, she doesn’t get to come with the rest of the cast to the happy ending!! It really seems like this guy doesn’t know how to write a woman the protagonist isn’t into, and it SUCKS.
2.) very quickly became the ‘girl who is just an attachment to the main character and has little to no personality or importance outside of that’
STEPHANIE (EVERYMANHYBRID)
1.) Aw jeez. Starts out as a really interesting peripheral character with a lot of knowledge the main (male) characters don’t have and a unique voice and perspective, but almost as soon as she meets the main guys her role is reduced to Girlfriend, she gets vanishingly little screen time, and almost no attention is paid to her role in the larger plot. The story instead favors the male characters and their relationships. This is despite the fact that she’s metaphysically tied to the guys in the same way they are to each other (past life multiple reincarnations deal) - much attention is paid to the fact that the dude characters have this relationship to each other but this gets almost completely ignored for Steph! And then her boyfriend gets her pregnant (we hear nothing about it or her feelings on the situation until after her death) and THEN her boyfriend gets possessed by an evil murder entity who kills her. Also cannibalizes her infant daughter (yeah, for a misogyny bonus round, we know that the dead baby is a girl). After this, Steph disappears from the story completely - the next time she gets mentioned again is her boyfriend monologuing about how bad he feels about getting possessed and killing her. It’s a horror story, and during that point in the plot a lot of characters get killed off in grotesque and cruel ways - but it’s especially bad to the point of misogyny for Steph because 1. she’s the only woman at that point, every other female character has also been killed and 2. she gets so little focus and is not mentioned after her death except in the context of her boyfriend’s manpain. The other major character that gets murdered concurrent with this gets an eight minute video all to himself - Steph’s last appearance before she’s confirmed dead is less than a minute long and she shares the video with the death of a much more minor male character. It fucking sucks man. And we do know that her actress wanted to leave the project and had to be written out, but doing it in such a shitty, perfunctory way, having it be at the hands of her boyfriend, focusing on her baby and her boyfriend’s pain as if all that matters about women is their reproductive capacity and the fact that men have feelings about them sometimes - it’s bad! They put her in the fucking fridge dude!!! As an addendum - this one can’t be entirely blamed on the series itself because the fans came up with the nickname and the character approved it in the fiction, but still - before we knew her actual name, Steph was known as DAMSEL. christ alive.
2.) Completely Fridged. she was a promising standalone character and then the actress left the project and she went from Cool Artist with A Bone-Deep Lifelong Struggle with the paranormal to She Gave Birth And Then Died ¯(ツ)/¯ free my girl she should’ve done so much more shit
3.) She was killed by a demon possessing her boyfriend right after having their child and then both she and the child were literally never mentioned again except to underscore the boyfriend’s pain
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Heller: Explain to me how Dean wasn't totes in lurve with the angel when he went into a deep depression every time Castiel died and was totes happy every time the angel came back?!?
Why bother? It's not like they listened the first fifty times, but hey, I'm bored today. Let's ignore the blatantly wrong hyperbole of Dean doing anything "every time" Castiel died. Fundamentally, you can break this down into two equally stupid categories of assertions:
How People Work: A person would only be devastated by the death of someone they were in love with.
What Even Is Canon: Dean was genuinely devastated by Castiel's deaths even given the comparisons to times we saw Dean actually devastated, devastated by Castiel's death alone in any of those situations, and glad to have Castiel back for himself and not what he could do for them as a semi-indestructible ally.
The first is hellers demonstrating their usual pointed ignorance of normal human behavior and relationships in service of pretending their ship is the undeniable center of the universe. Only someone who has never had a genuinely good friend - or is too young and/or lucky to have never lost one - would assert you can only be devastated by losing a romantic love. Whether it was pure lipservice or not, the show repeatedly told us Castiel was the Winchesters' "best friend" who was "like a brother". So the only thing further thing that needs to be said about it this is: fuck right on out of here with that weird-ass antisocial bullshit.
The second is hellers ignoring literally everything in the canon that they can't make about Dean and Castiel - so they can pretend a storyline actually exists between Dean and Castiel. They can keep acting like context is an entirely foreign concept, but that doesn't do anything but make them look like fools over and over.
We've seen Dean actually devastated - when he lost or was going to lose Sam. He told Bobby to let the world end, sold his soul, made deals with Death and random angels, etc. I could go on, but the basic underlying point was that he literally never went to similar lengths over Castiel. Not only that, but for every single time Castiel died and Dean was upset? Bigger and far more devastating things were going on contributing to his overall mindset and alcohol abuse.
The first two angel explosions, Dean barely has time to react. So let's jump directly to the Leviathan fiasco. First, Dean's not just upset Castiel's dead, he's upset Castiel was fucking lying and going behind their backs for a year and is now dead after breaking Sam's brain and declaring himself God. Again, going back to a lack of understanding of how people work? If you don't get why being mad at a dead friend would fuck you right up ... well. Which doesn't even get into the fact that Dean is ALSO very upset about having to go on the run from seemingly invincible monsters from Purgatory (including ditching his beloved car), Sam currently barely holding on to his sanity, more guilt over lying to Sam about Amy, and then Bobby dying on top of it. As to him being happy to have Castiel back? He's happy - to find someone with the potential to fix Sam, after which he ditches Castiel's comatose ass with Meg in an asylum without looking back. When the tablet wakes the angel back up? I'm not even sure you could call his reaction "happy" so much as willing to take advantage of someone with knowledge and powers to try and fix the still ongoing shitstorm of the Leviathans.
There's an interim death where April the reaper stabs him, but since Gadreel immediately heals him - just as he did with Charlie an episode later, except Dean actually asks for Charlie to be resurrected, Gadreel brings Castiel back on his own initiative? There's again not much of a reaction to speak of. Except in the sense that Dean's very next action, after seeing the consequences of Castiel being on his own mostly human in a world full of angels out for his head? Is to kick Castiel out of the bunker without even giving him money or pointing him towards one of their safe houses because he's not as important to Dean as Sam continuing to be healed.
When Castiel is stabbed by Lucifer at the end of season 12, sure Dean is upset. But it's fucking insane to pretend that he's not more upset about his recently-returned-to-life mother, the trauma of whose original loss basically shaped his entire fucking life, being yanked into a rift to an alternate universe with Lucifer! FFS. Then there's the part where Lucifer's super powerful Nephilim child has just been born and might kill just them or maybe the whole world, too. Sure he prays to Chuck for Castiel's return - right along with Mary's and even Crowley's. But he doesn't offer anything for it and immediately gives up when there's no answer. When he meets up with Billie a few episodes later after temporarily killing himself on a case, despite their meta it was in despair over the angel? He asks immediately to go back to life, and when Billie prevaricates? He asks for the ghosts in the house to be freed. He admits to feeling fatalistic because of his inability to save Castiel BUT ALSO Mary AND EVEN the rando VotW kid that just died in the house with equal weight. He asks for information about Mary. He does not ask for Castiel to be resurrected or to be reunited with him in any other way. Sure he's glad Castiel returns shortly thereafter - but it does not stop any of his angsting the rest of the season over Mary and Jack. I think his pulling a gun on Kaia is deeply OOC, but that's well after Castiel's resurrection and they're gonna pretend that's happy, well-adjusted Dean totes fixed by Castiel's return? LOL. Not even to mention that after one episode of the angel being back, Dean is perfectly happy for Castiel to fuck off out of his presence to search for Jack - and when Castiel promptly gets himself kidnapped? Dean doesn't notice the person who is calling to check in every single day about the search, who it is explicitly canon he personally talked to on the phone, is not Castiel. Just like Dean didn't notice him being possessed by Lucifer in season 11, oops.
Then we get to the final one. Yeah, Dean is upset Castiel died after his brain reboots from having to listen to Misha queerbait the shit out of his sheep Castiel's derpy, rambling goodbye speech about ambiguous love. But he was already upset and drinking for pulling a gun on Sam, for Billie's plan being a double-cross, for Chuck having turned full villain and absorbed Amara making him more powerful than ever while Jack got de-powered, for the overall questions he's struggling with about destiny and free will when Chuck has been manipulating their entire lives, for Chuck disappearing seemingly every-fucking-body on the planet except him, Sam, and Jack. Sure Dean mentions Castiel specifically when he and Sam offer to fight to the death for Chuck's amusement if he puts everything back - probably because he was killed in a different way from the rest of the vanished. But it's not more of an impassioned plea than Dean gives birds or showing more upset than when Chuck vanishes Miracle right after they find him. Then there's having to deal with Michael again, so sure, Dean is hopeful that Castiel might return for a hot second when they need all the help they can get. But once it's all said and done and they've tricked Chuck and installed Jack as the new God who brings the rest of the planet back? Dean doesn't ask Jack to bring Castiel back one last time. When Sam is sad about missing Jack and Castiel, Dean waxes philosophical about how they need to just enjoy their lives without them and is more interested in his pie. They can write all the bad meta they want about Dean intentionally impaling himself on that rebar, but he's clearly happy with no Castiel in sight. When Dean arrives in heaven, even when Bobby explicitly mentions Castiel, Dean shows literally no interest in asking about or seeking out the angel. His car, on the other hand comes immediately to mind. If that isn't clear enough, we see exactly what reunion makes Dean's heaven more than "almost perfect" and brings full closure to his story. Since they desperately wanted to count TW when they had delusions of it canonizing their ship, let's throw in that TW's meddling ghost Dean is still fixing things so Sam can have a full life, looking up random AU versions of his parents, and hanging out with ghost Bobby - while literally no one even mentions Castiel anywhere in his vicinity. Everything he could ever want or need or dream? Doesn't include Castiel. Totes twue lurve, yeah?
While I think that makes the point as clearly as anything could, I'd also like to mention in passing that I didn't even go over several additional times when Castiel was maybe going to die and/or Dean basically shrugged it off because he didn't care that much or bigger shit was going down elsewhere. This is already long enough already, and ultimately no amount of actual canon is ever going to matter to people who pretend anything that doesn't fit into their fantasies about YA romance tropes and the secret meaning of wardrobe and pastry magically doesn't exist.
Still, it's very easy to explain, it's all right there in a basic human understanding of relationships and the show's canon.
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Moon Knight City of the Dead Issue 1… why…?
So. New MK side run has begun, the hyped up full on debut of Layla/new Scarlet Scarab in the comics, with a premise that most writers would twist into an epic and breathtaking journey.
We don’t get that here.
And I have a lot of thoughts on why and how I feel so frustrated with what we got. There’s pieces of something awesome, potential to go to some really fascinating places, and yet it is held back in almost every aspect, creating something messy and clunky that makes me mad to read.
(This is long btw)
First off though, some things I did enjoy!
I really love the art and coloring of this issue. The anatomy and movement and shadows, the stylization of character’s faces and costumes, the sprawling city with its deep reds and blues that feel saturated and weighty. It’s great. Besides a few moments that it comes out of left field with some bad stuff (Layla’s whole face at the end or the MK mask w teeth during the memory slideshow like whaTtt is that), it’s super solid and made for a very enjoyable looking comic.
It was also really fun to see Badr for a little. I think it would’ve been cool to get more, and the pacing of things as I’ll get to later sapped his importance in the story for me some, making him feel more like a prop or a plot device to get it going, but overall it was lovely to see him again. And it was cool to see him being a doctor as well, as we haven’t seen that as recently in MacKay! Always a joy my dear sir please come back soon.
The story in concept. Going to the underworld, detaching a headmate supernaturally to journey to a different plane of reality to save one life, and meeting a dead ally along the way is fascinating stuff, an idea that inspires me to want to explore it myself.
Because (and now it’s time to get into the stuff I didn’t like) the writing doesn’t do this idea justice at all.
This is not the worst MK comic ever rn, not their worst writing. It’s not as violently ableist or antisemitic as things like Bemis or making a joke out of MK like some others, but it’s just stupid, and what it glosses over or gets wrong is weird and uncomfortable and harmful in its own right.
To start this isn’t my Marc. His guilt is not one of punishment for penance, of believing he’s sinned and needs to be washed clean by pain. He is a man stuck in bad coping mechanisms and trying to pretend he’s not. He’s a man who hates himself and uses violence as what I would describe as a form of self harm. But it is not with the goal of erasing his past.
Yes, he runs from the person of Marc Spector, he runs from the idea and the responsibility, but Marc doesn’t try to forget. He holds onto things with a vice grip and never lets himself drop it. He believes in his own mythos and is grappling with his complicated and traumatized history to remember he can love and care and trust people again, that the work of making his life better is not solely on his shoulders. That’s what MacKay’s been dealing with.
MacKay Marc is guilty and self flagellating but in a way he tries not to think about, that he brushes over. He puts on an air of confident collectedness and has more hate for Marc as a concept then specifically his actions, and he’s still able to move forward and find a type of momentum and bravado in the MK suit.
Or in simpler terms: yes Marc has guilt. He does not have this kind of guilt.
The first few pages read so strangely, just this over dramatic spiel that feels more like daredevil than moon knight, like a rehashed dramatic intro to a moody sad 90s comic. And not in a good way. It’s not deep it’s just annoying and tedious and the prose is clunky and again, extremely off in its vibes and message. I think it could’ve been alright, if some of the talk of his guilt had been shifted and the narration hadn’t continued constantly throughout the rest of the issue (which I’ll get to later), but as is in its full context it’s just… weird.
In addition to the weird guilt vibes, there’s further issues with the Khonshu religiosity in this.
Khonshu isn’t something Marc worships, he’s something he uses for his own means. He’ll call on him or talk about being the priest of the mission, but that’s because Khonshu doesn’t have oversight, he’s a tool and form of direction and theming, and at the story’s core Marc is the priest for his mission, not this god’s.
At points in this issue he genuinely sounds dedicated though, and it shifts the flavor of earlier pieces more in line with his usual monologuing to seeming more like strange spiritual devotion. Especially calling Khonshu the greatest of great gods, or saying that him being in the underworld is Khonshu’s mission. It changes his actions from that of Marc to that of a real Khonshu follower and its…. Just weird. It’s all just weird and very ooc.
On top of that, there’s no mention or interrogation or even presence of discussing Judaism alongside all of this. I’m not Jewish myself but have had multiple convos around the topic w those who are n who have made their own posts discussing it and can add on more nuance n info to this should they like (bc more thoughts for discussion are always awesome), but just on a surface level it’s strange. It’s strange to have a plot revolving around going to another belief system’s afterlife and not at all bringing up how it clashes or relates to Jewish beliefs. Yes Marc isn’t really actively practicing anymore but I’d hazard Jake probably is, and Marc has still talked about his connection to his faith and how it’s impacted his time as moon knight and serving Khonshu.
The text treats the Egyptian pantheon belief system as the True and Accepted default here, with Marc not even discussing anything about going to an afterlife he doesn’t belong in (and shouldn’t even have) as a Jewish man, or even thinking about how Badr discussing Ka conflicts with Jewish beliefs on the soul and how Neshamah differ.
And yes, Marc works regularly with the very real Egyptian pantheon and mystical systems but it’s in a different way, and under a different context and understanding by readers of his acceptance of it.
A whole other layer of depth, conflict, and exploration could’ve been added by really digging into the theological implications of this plot, of a Jewish soul in the Egyptian afterlife, and yet it’s not brought up at all, not referenced or mentioned and it makes it all feel weirdly out of place, or like stuff is being glossed over.
That, on top of Jake and Steven (not to mention the entire rest of the main mission cast) being completely absent in mention, consultation, presence, or anything just feeds into this strange sense of Pepose wanting Marc to be the idea he has of him in his head, this guilty, sad, and violent merc serving a moon god with not a ton else. And yes again those are all aspects of Marc, but there is nuance to each of those aspects and treating him as a singlet with no thoughts on the conflicts in faith of his present is… just weird.
I don’t know if he’ll be treated as a singlet the whole run, but the fact that the body’s soul being sent into the afterlife has not already brought in any system conflict at all is an issue. Is it their collective soul? Is it just Marc’s? How does this comic understand alter soul distinction? Has it thought about it at all? I mean the answer is no but the thing is it should’ve.
That’s where so many of my issues with this come from though: choices just being… not good. Not thought out or in line with the characters and world. The writing is off and out of place and gOD THE CONSTANT NARRATION IS GRATING!!
I don’t know why it was chosen for Marc to novel write his thoughts and observations the whole issue but it’s bad. It goes past introducing plots or observations that can’t be shown in text to either:
1. Filling space that doesn’t need to be filled
2. Restating what has just been said or shown in a panel (“we have the power of the four horsemen” “wow they just got the power of the four horsemen”)
3. At worst, telling us stuff that was not indicated at all by anything else (“oh I know something is wrong here even though I have not been given enough reason to pique that suspicion” “oh I reunite with Layla and hold her and take her in but haha you don’t see that ig”)
It’s annoying and makes reading things difficult because he’s blabbering on the whole time in places he DOESNT NEED TO!! And it makes the action and emotional movement feel awkward and forced. I don’t need to know every second of Marc’s thoughts Pepose I can parse out things with my eyes I promise you that. Also can he stop talking about penance for TWO SECONDS!!!
The worst part is narration works when done well! When it highlights things that can’t be shown in art or gives some bits of exploration into feelings or exposition, but we don’t need it in every panel. It actually confused some parts of where to look for me by telling me what was about to happen before it did. Stop being like “I thought it was over but—“ JUST LET US SEE ITS NOT OVER!!
Another moment (similar ish to the start) where the narration would’ve worked for me (if it was not surrounded by just more constant narrating monologue) is when Marc first arrives in the Duat. The prose is pretty, it’s vibrant, it describes things the audience wouldn’t be able to pick up from static pictures and helps to set the scene. The only issue is that it doesn’t stand on its own, it’s not an interjection of observations and thoughts, it’s another entry in the never ending cycle of Marc just talking. And it loses some of its luster because of that.
There’s also just a handful of pieces of either dialogue or thoughts that (in the context of Steven and Jake being absent at the moment despite not being absent at the point in time this should be taking place) make me feel very uncomfortable with Pepose’s vibes on their mental health. Some lines that rubbed me the wrong way in context include “The rage fills within me—and suddenly I have a plan. That said, it would help if my plan wasn’t dangerously insane.” “You know me Badr, mental discipline is my middle name.” And a few similar ones I don’t want to reread again for.
They’re just unnecessary man. We don’t need vaguely or directly ableist vibes in words with MK anymore. It works if it feels like it’s coming from Marc’s internalized ableism IE when he was talking about being called crazy during the discussion with Steven and Jake and Jake called him out for it, but when it’s obvious it’s just how the author sees things it sucks!
Stop using insane, stop using crazy, stop being like “oh I’m so good at keeping myself in check,” WE DONT NEED IT!! ALSO THEY R AT A GENERAL POINT OF SYSTEM COMMUNICATION N HARMONY RN!!
Which also just… man this feels like it’s trying to introduce MK instead of continuing an already established and well under way arc. Yea, this isn’t MacKay writing it, but it’s still in the continuity and set up for his run and like… sorry not sorry but I think you should take that context into account if you’re going to be working within it???
Instead the story props itself up by trying to introduce everything at once and Marc feels like he’s starting from the bottom of development.
And speaking of introducing everything at once! Oh boy the pacing!
No one besides Badr is consulted before Marc goes into the Duat, Badr just. Sends him there. There’s no real build up for why there’s a need go that far, for what the threat is or why Marc would go to these lengths so suddenly. Like yeah I know he wants to save a kid who’s a traveler of the night, but like… Others have died or almost died on his watch and he’s never gone to this point before, even though it seems like it’s always something they’ve had as an option. Like… ok ig if Soldier hadn’t been vamped he would just be dead lmao (though also hey! Why and how do souls end up in this afterlife? Do they have to believe in the gods? Do they have to be in some way tied to the pantheon? Is it just where souls go if they’re near moon knight lmaO? If you want to have your afterlife plot you have to do the worldbuilding for it)
And while yes, a lot of this is because This Plot Wasnt Thought Up During Earlier Parts Of Mackay, it also isn’t introduced in a way that feels natural or makes sense.
Events just Happen. Mysteries or drives are just Said without a good basis for why they’re there. Again, this cult was talked about as just kinda a sadistic gang but then they’re a big deal? And oh the kid is dying and oh he’s worth going to the afterlife for and OH WERE JUST HERE NOW and “oh there’s a conspiracy I’ve decided with no real evidence” and HEY FOUND THE GUY and—Suddenly a whole lot of what is happening. God heart full on cult horsemen of the apocalypse memory flashback and BOMBS NOW APPARENTLY and LAYLA and MK BIG PAST BADDIES BOSS FIGHT INCOMING!!
Like ohhhh my god stuff is so rushed and happens so inorganically and with no time to really understand what’s happening. It’s a type of story where my suspension of disbelief isn’t there and it fully just feels like seeing the writer trying to get to the end goal of what they want to write about (moon knight fighting old villains) as quickly as possible. And it SUCKS! Like this genuinely should’ve been more than one issue, there should’ve been at least sOme more build up to gEtting to the city of the dead in the first place, no matter additionally uncovering a plot of some sort happening and Layla turning up.
It’s just…. It’s so rushed and strange and forced and it didn’t have to be and IT MAKES ME MAD IT IS and it’s just not enjoyable to read. It all feels so shallow and stilted and weird, all while having this underlying idea with so much weight, some generally gorgeous art, some moments that could’ve been really awesome, and last but not least…. Literally a good reference to doing a Duat plot well.
This whole mini run is for MCU synergy, bringing Layla in, exploring the Duat and it’s lore, and again yes, the run isn’t done, but it just…. Compared to the MCU plot for the Duat this feels so…. GraaggHhggh. Especially when it comes to system interaction and exploring different painful memories that effect headmates in different ways.
It’s just. It was an extremely frustrating read from both a technical writing standpoint and a character exploration standpoint, and it worries me and doesn’t excite me at all for future issues. Like we’ll sEe but goddamn this is not a good start no matter how it plays out and it doesn’t give me confidence if it turns out I have to read several more issues of this kind of stuff.
Petty nitpicks speed run because there wasn’t enough enjoyable padding for them to not stand out!
I don’t know if Pepose could’ve specified or not but Marc’s not drinking vodka in the opening scene, it looks more like whiskey or something similar by the bottle, again nailing home how strangely off this Marc is from the Marc he’s meant to be with how Mackay has built him up.
Why do they use Duat and City of the Dead like they’re interchangeable titles it’s just the Duat like I get calling it “the city of the dead” since it is that but like. Let that just b the run title they shouldn’t be calling it that like it’s a final name.
They misspell Dr. Alraune’s name lmao
How did the kid get… hurt..? The only point in the opening fight I can think he maybe got hit was with the gunfire but it didn’t seem like that was aimed towards him and there wasn’t any moment of having a detail in the background showing him get injured. And he wasn’t lethally injured at the start so ???
What… is the continuity between the Hydra vs Karnak Cowboys fight we see in MacKay and the flashback here. They were on an empty road there when they crashed? And now they’re in the heart of the city? AlsO bOMBS???
Anyway all I’ll wrap it up with is when the only thing I genuinely smile at is the cameo and namedrop of Apocalypse you know something is wrong with your story lmaO
#moon knight#moon knight comics#moon knight city of the dead#the fruit is talking again#marc spector#mikes mk meta
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Musing about the forbidden appeal of stalkers and how Mirai Nikki's framework benefits the overall love story
Something I think is unspoken about the appeal of... oh, let's politely say off-kilter *cough* love stories such as the one at the center of Future Diary is that, for many people, the idea of having a stalker can sound... appealing? Romantic, even?
Let me explain what I mean in more detail: If you've never truly experienced the horror/stress of having a stalker? The idea of someone choosing YOU to fixate upon as the object of their unyielding love/lust can actually sound pretty nice, in concept. Hell — even moreso if you've never had anyone openly and proudly declare their love for you. The notion of having a stalker can feel VALIDATING, even! The less luck you have in love, the more that discovering you have your own stalker can sound like a weird, wonderful fantasy. Or, shit... even if you're doing just fine in the dating/romance department, imagining someone harboring an undying obsession/devotion can still feel like a massive ego boost.
My point is: When dealing with a stalker is only a distant, abstract and purely theoretical concept, the "horror" side of it can easily fade into the far background. So yeah, I think there's a certain Forbidden Appeal to stalker-romances for many, despite the inherent darkness and danger that could/should logically come with such a thing. (Especially in RL, of course.)
In that context, the way Mirai Nikki's central love story is presented and framed is especially genius. And I say that for two primary reasons:
First reason — Mirai Nikki taps into that Forbidden Appeal partly by giving Yuno an increasingly sympathetic portrayal, but importantly also by placing this unhinged stalker character into a framework where her biggest downsides become comprehensible or even beneficial. Sure, Yuno seems to have a taste for violence and blood, but she's trapped in a goddamn Killing Game where both her own life and the fate of the fucking world is at stake. Furthermore, we later learn there's a ticking clock element that demands the "game" crown a victor ASAP. Against this background, Yuno's violence and darkness becomes, at worst, a bit of evil that's also handily beneficial. And at best? Her behavior becomes totally understandable due to contextual morality. (Besides, it also provides us with a reason to exploit yet another off-kilter romantic concept that can hold a dark appeal for some: the "willing to kill for you"-level love.)
Second reason — Yet in spite of what I just said, Future Diary doesn't shy away (...much*) from the threat inherent to having someone develop an unhealthy obsession with another. Yuno isn't some harmlessly funny sitcom stalker, nor is she the kind of stalker who the narrative fails to ever acknowledge as such in order preserve the "purity" of the central relationship's appeal. Yuki recognizes her as an obsessive stalker from the very beginning! There's no denying that she's violent and clearly dangerous! The fact that she's mentally unstable and therefore seems unpredictable is absolutely core to her character! The story is utterly up-front about these things... and it never lets us forget that, for all that we may feel bad for her or understand her actions, she's still a threat/potential threat to EVERYBODY around her.
Long after it's clear that the bizarre situation makes Yuno's worst traits much more positive, there are still MANY instances when the narrative reminds us of just how much of an unpredictable threat she is to even her supposed allies.
However...
*...I added that "(...much*)" caveat because there are some rare exceptions . A signature aspect of every Sakae Esuno story to date is the way he delights in swerving from the primary horror/suspense/action focus over to sudden bursts of comedy. For that reason, Mirai Nikki is definitely guilty of playing Yuno's stalking as mere 'wacky hijinx' on select occasions — for better or worse. For me, these sudden breaks in the tension are quirky and delightful, but I can understand if individual mileage varies.
All of this is really just me thinking out loud about why the portrayal of such a clearly "problematic" relationship works so well for me and many others. It isn't afraid to confront the inherent problems, but it also provides a (totally unrealistic) framework in which the problems are more tolerable, maybe even acceptable. It makes the stalker sympathetic via the gradual reveal of her backstory, but it also never lets us forget that's she's legit dangerous. And it does all of this while showing us a twisted relationship that might already be oddly appealing to some members of the audience.
Besides, look — Esuno knows this is pretty "out there" stuff. He was once asked if he'd want to date someone like Yuno himself. In that interview, he laughed before replying, "It's probably best we keep that kind of relationship in the realm of fiction." So it's not like he's legitimately recommending that anyone go out and date a crazed stalker. That's part of why the framework has to be SO extreme and SO fantastical for it work so well, IMO.
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Realistically do you think Guts would have been abusive towards Isidro? I know Guts has the rpg group around to make him chill out when he gets too aggressive but I still think the trauma from his own upbringing would worm it's way into his relationship with Isidro much more than what's depicted. I know it sounds awful but I would have liked to see a scene where Guts slaps the shit of him and everyone is like 'WTF THAT'S A KID' and Guts is just like 'You think he has it tough compared to me?"
Honestly no, but I'm not really in the business of discussing fiction realistically, because I don't really think there's much point to talking about characters as if they're real people. Realistically someone like Guts could be abusive, or he might not be. Who knows? Too many factors go into people's behaviour irl for me to assume anything about a real person.
And as for Guts as he's presented in the manga, enh I think the story rushed his character development a bit, but no I don't think it feels wrong that he isn't abusive to Isidro, especially not in the way you describe where he like, hurts Isidro and defensively doubles down. I do think that you could make a case either way in terms of what would fit his character and the themes of the story though.
Like on the one hand his callous behaviour towards Theresia and the way he projected his own self-loathing on her certainly suggests that he could be abusive to kids potentially. I don't think he has enough of a relationship with Theresia to really call his behaviour abusive rather than dickish lol, but he was certainly a dick to her. His advice to Jill to stick with her abusive family wasn't great either.
I can imagine him projecting onto a kid he has a relationship with, like Isidro, and treating him poorly without thinking because of that. Viewing his own child self as weak and trying to stamp it out in the kids he's in charge of, eg. Hurting Isidro would also be thematically relevant, because one of Guts' personal moral boundaries is hurting kids, it's one of the things that makes him hate himself most. His self loathing when he killed Adonis, his hesitation when fighting Rosine, the self-loathing the ghosts express to him after killing a bunch of Rosine's monster children, etc.
In this context I could see Guts pushing Isidro too far during training the way Gambino used to with him, maybe, then realizing what he's doing when Isidro gets hurt and falling into a fit of self-loathing. I think that could've been a very emotionally and thematically relevant scene.
Buuut I also think it makes sense that Guts has grown past that behaviour, and honestly I definitely don't think it would be in character for Guts to hit him out of like, irritation or something like that. As much as Guts lashes out physically as part of how he deals with feelings, he focuses that on enemies, people he has an excuse to fight. Like eg he hurt Casca because he specifically wanted her out of his way and a big part of him wanted to kill her and go fight Griffith instead, not because he needed a punching bag for his emotions. That's what apostles are for.
If Guts was going to be abusive to Isidro I think it would be in a subtler, more emotionally abusive way, eg pushing him too hard, maybe calling him weak, berating him for a mistake during a fight, etc. (I mean technically you can argue he is abusive in canon just by letting this kid risk his life fighting trolls and whatever lmao, but allowances have to be made for genre conventions.) But yeah I think it also does make sense that he doesn't act like that, because he is self-aware that it is bad behaviour and he is consciously trying to be better during the Millenium Falcon arc.
He has hurt kids that way before, again Theresia as an example, but he felt bad about it. And Guts doesn't often lash out at friends and allies when he's in a healthier place emotionally. He does a lot during the Black Swordsman arc, or when he's bitter and resentful with Casca in the Golden Age, but with most of the Hawks, or with the RPG group, he tends to think before he speaks imo.
So basically tl;dr I could imagine another version of the story where Guts was more emotionally abusive to Isidro and I think that could work, but I don't think he necessarily ought to be based on his characterization, and I don't think it would manifest in random physical lashing out.
Thanks for the ask, this is something I've never really thought about before and it's interesting to consider.
#ask#anonymous#a#b#character: guts#theme: abuse#arc: mf#headcanons#character details#theme: rpg group
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I want some games where i play as a soldier or civilian in a war y'know?, with all the trauma and war crimes that come with it
THEME: War, Combat, Trauma.
Hello friend. I haven't found any games about civilian trauma yet, but there's certainly plenty of games about soldiers, expecially in revolution. Here are three recommendations for you.
Our Final Struggle, by Loreshaper Games.
You’ve been chosen to lead the assault on the Imperial Palace. After three years of war, the Eighth Shock Legion has arrived on Minaret, to end the Empire’s rule and bring peace.
You will go on ahead. You’ve been chosen for your unique skills, honed during the revolution. Your mission: capture the Imperial family, or eliminate them if capture is impossible.
This game is a quick read: it gives you enough of the setting to tell you where the players start off, without giving you chapters of lore, which means it’s up to the table to decide what the Empire is like, and why it must be brought down. Players will have to answer questions about who they were before they joined up, and the game uses 5d6 as well as a graded level of success.
There’s less about trauma implicitly written into this game, so consider this to be a place where you can decide how much you want to explore or not. What if the Imperials hold innocents amongst their numbers? Does your group have the right to act as jury, judge and executioner? If you are going to explore these themes, I recommend you have a Session 0 with your group before playing, set up some lines and veils, and ensure the use of safety tools throughout the course of play.
Guns Blazing, by Havocfett.
Guns Blazingis a roleplaying game about revolutionaries and freedom fighters at the dusk of the colonial age. Players enter the myriad flashpoints of the age, thrown against the machinations of colonial powers and supernatural monsters from without while navigating the contradictory, seemingly irreconcilable politics of change within.
Guns Blazing runs on an original engine, called Ahadi, styled loosely on Genesys and Storyteller. Characters engage in brutal, tactical gunfights against monstrous foes, where goals are clear, the enemy is obvious, and you can measure success in spent bullets and dead bodies. Then they return to the home front, where their allies hate each other, you don’t know who to trust, and success is a formless dream of a better future.
This game is still in playtest, but even the playtest puts you inside a war zone, with threats both mundane and supernatural. Don’t expect much for layout in the current document, but the Kickstarter shows a lot of promise. I’m fascinated at the potential of this game to talk about war in a context that’s much bigger than just the fights themselves.
Nasty, Brutish & Long, by NotWriting.
Nasty, Brutish, & Long is a tabletop role-playing game about class war and revolution in your own fantastical setting. Based on the Forged in the Dark system, this rules-light game puts characters divided by class and resources front and center in a world on the brink of permanent change. Will your bastard noble defend their small town from the Church's magic-hunting inquisition? Will your character successfully organize their fellow factory workers against the foremen? Or will your merchant wheel and deal to secure themselves in a world torn apart by new Gods? Play to find out how the revolution fares against the world!
Forged in the Dark games do a really good job of putting your characters into dangerous situations and forcing them to wrestle with both physical trauma and the struggle of keeping yourself emotionally intact. In this game, players must expend resources over a period of time in order to reduce the daily stress of partaking in a revolution. If they don’t have time or resources, that stress will manifest as a Vice, an element of that character’s personality that inhibits their ability to get along with other people.
One thing I really like about this game is that it employs something called a Taste Menu, something similar to Lines & Veils in that it asks players to sit down and discuss what subjects they’d like to explore before diving into play. The author also includes a description of the X Card, which is another excellent tool to use at your table.
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Part of recuperating social justice within media is that the media is almost never intersectional, instead opting to deal with one of the intersecting systems of oppression. Race, gender, class, etc.
By choosing to deal with an individual system, the protagonist/antagonist duality means that there are always heroes and villains. Blacks vs whites. Women vs men. Gays vs straights. Poor vs rich. The issue with this is that it kills solidarity, separating the intersectional struggles into individual ones with individual perpetrators (the whites, the men, the straights) rather than the actual perpetrators (the ruling class who made their family wealth through colonialism and exploitation of everyone outside of the ruling class).
These single issue depictions perpetuate infighting within the ranks of the non-ruling class. A film that celebrates women against patriarchy gets read as misandry by indoctrinated men. A film that celebrates black and brown lives againsts white supremacy gets read as reverse racism by indoctrinated whites. A film that celebrates queer liberation against cisheteronormativity gets read as the gay agenda by indoctrinated cishets. A film that celebrates the working class against the wealthy gets read as Socialism (derogatory) by indoctrinated middle class. And I say "indoctrinated" in the sense that they have been socialized not to question why they have gifted privilege within the social hierarchies they have been placed in, and how that hierachical placement, in the middle between the ruling class and the most exploited at the bottom, means that they are an enforcing buffer that keeps the systems working and the ruling class safe from retribution.
All this isn't to say that films that tackle social issues are some kind of cointelpro psyop, controlled by Big Media (with all the anti-semetic connotations that kind of conspiracy thinking brings), but the point is that by not addressing the intersectional nature of the true struggle, these single issue stories are always going to alienate potential allies by seperating all victims within the underclass into warring tribes. The way we can use this media as a tool in our own favour is to use them collectively as a curriculum, and provide the intersectional context to hopefully break the indoctrination that is keeping solidarity from growing.
#keep in mind that there is also the issue that all mainstream media are products within capitalism which means their primary purpose is#to further increase the wealth and power of the ruling class#barbie#they cloned tyrone#severance#black panther#mine
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6 and 12 for the ask game?
6.) Least favorite Arc?
I've only finished the first two all the way through, but as it stands it's most certainly Arc 2 for how much I talk about it, LOL! It's not that I particularly DISLIKE Arc 2, and in fact, as you can tell from how much I talk about it, I really, really love all of the characters. As it stands, however, I also find that is SIGNIFICANTLY weaker than Arc 1 in terms of narrative and coherency and pacing. It's not like Tui just... Forgot how to write. I still had fun. I still think her brilliance in character writing shone through. Winter Turning is one of my favorites of the entire series!! It's just... I think Peril's book makes the pacing weird once you hit halfway through the Arc due to her lacking any sort of... Strong relation for most of the first two books? And I think book 9 is solid but BOOK 10. BOOK 10. MY DARLING BOY QIBLI BUT HIS BOOK IS SO. There is so many issues with the pacing between trying to squeeze both the resolution of Darkstalker's whole deal AND the Scorpion's Den segments it just throws the whole thing off. I just... I love Arc 2 but it is so much wasted potential. Arc 1 is just, so much more solid to me.
12.) One thing you'd add to an arc/ book?
Well. I have an entire AU that's just a rework of Arc 2 in the works with my Partner that's going to have its own dedicated blog, so I'll keep my mouth shut on Arc 2 for the moment, LOL. Instead I'll retread some ground here; I'd add screen time for the love interests in Arc 1 with characters other than the main character they're a love interest for! I'm very passionate about it!! I think Deathbringer and Peril would be a compelling dynamic. I think Riptide is a really interesting character and would love to see him interact with people who aren't Tsunami. I LOVE FATESPEAKER FULL STOP!!!
Also, (with the context of, again, their main series age difference and not the mistake made in the winglet. I forever abide by "main series trumps spin-off works in terms of contradictions" as my canon rules) add more time between Deathbringer and Glory being a proper duo and allies. They don't even have to be romantic, take whatever interpretation of it you want, I just want them to be a slow burn dynamic. Let Glory warm up to him as his true intents becomes clear. Let Deathbringer have time to go from his usual "Well, I don't have to KILL them if they get out of the way" shtick to being specifically invested in the success of Glory and the other DoD. I want more of the fight-banter from them!! Pick your poison for the endgame of it, I just think their dynamic is rushed and deserves a little more build up on both of their end! Give it more time!
The take away from this is I just want more of the love interests as their own characters, basically.
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Did you know there's a tier list maker for Unicorn Overlord classes now? Time to have opinions no one else agrees with!
For context: I am ranking this solely based on combat performance that I achieved. There are classes I have seen people rank far above what I do, and whether that's because they understand something I don't, or they had particular setups I didn't piece together and got better results out of it, it doesn't matter. I am rating this on how I experienced the class playing through twice.
The highest I beat was Tactical. I did try Expert, and beat the maps just fine, but I have this known brain problem where anything timed starts to stress me out if it runs too close, and I was constantly running too close. I never lost a map through the 8 or so hours I played it, but I couldn't stand the time pressure and kicked it down to have a more relaxed time of my life. Make of that what you wish.
S-TIER
Breaker. I feel like the surest indication of an S-tier classification is not having to think about it at all. While some will argue for the best possible performance being the indication of tier, I argue the opposite. I don't think many people are going to dig into the game that hard, and thus many aren't going to see the glory of incredibly fine-tuned tactics that let you beat Arena at level 15 with like three guys. Most are playing normally, and encounter stuff that just naturally works, and that, to me, is the surest sign of potency for a class, because there is nothing hidden that makes it good, you feel it right away. That in mind: Breaker is the most mindless win condition in the game, and my personal assertion for best class. Enrage is dirt cheap at 1PP, stacks, includes accuracy for consistent hit rates, counters armors, and has a row-wide attack that can't even be blocked or guarded. Once armor is removed, Assaulting Blow will recharge 1AP for every KO they land, potentially sweeping the entire enemy team, with no more support than "make sure they don't get hit." Anyone with cover and the tactic of "prioritize Highest Phys Atk" will do the job.
Gryphon Master. Gryphon Master is a bit more dynamic than Breaker, but no less devastating. Row-wide damage for 1AP is exceptionally strong, and they don't suffer the Berserker's accuracy penalty either. Add in cav effectivenss, and they're unspeakably strong. Being flying, they can front row dodge tank. Late in the game, they can pivot to Fatal Dive, dealing true damage to foes and denying guard, which can easily annihilate back-row foes and chip bulkier targets enough for follow-ups to finish. Griyphon Master has so much going for it, and very few legitimate flaws. So long as arrows are covered, they excel.
High Lord. Alain is ridiculous. Not because of anything offensive, but because defensively, he is unparalleled. Blocking is a huge deal to me, I like covering for squishier allies, and Alain's access to specific equipment giving him a much easier time hitting 4/4 means he adds a lot of defensive backbone, without suffering poor Mag Def, and contributing some DPS through anti-cavalry tech and row-wide offense. That anti-cav tech also removes AP and PP both, while inflicting Guard Seal, which is exceptionally potent. His potential to disrupt and defense a team cannot be understated.
Featherbow. At time of writing...this is my favorite class. Consider this bias if you must. Featherbow is S on utility. Row-wide Blindness in response to an attack leaves little room for foes to counter. She is not bound by the Rogues need to hit, and is instant enough that removing this status is impossible prior to them attacking. Photon Arrow hits two targets for -50% Phys Def and Passive Seal, which is devastating if aimed correctly given her high initiative, potentially shutting out a healer completely. Even Saint's Shot can be devastating, just removing 1PP from a target, or 2 if they're non-flying. As a flier themselves, they have evade potential on the front row, and can use their own blind effect to deny archers specifically. Featherbow is a metric ton of fun, and can really disrupt entire teams with good play.
Snow Ranger. Snow White Strike. That alone gets this an S. Follow-up attacks are generally good, accounting for typical shaky accuracy, but Yunifi defies that will solid bow accuracy and a devastating Freeze effect. This is an excellent way to keep an opponent locked down, and the damage doubles if someone else freezes for her. Triple Counter can be devastating as well with enough evasion on her; a full power retaliation that hits three opponents is amazing. Yunifi is interesting in that it really is her passives that make her tick, but Glacial Rain can be used on the back line to really hammer an enemy team with full AoE damage and a freeze effect that shuts down everything. The accuracy is shakier, but to my understanding, only one arrow has to hit for freeze to work. Yunifi is fantastic, and I adore using her.
Dark Marquess. I admit, my first run, I did not really respect Berengeria. I get it now, though. On-entry passive that cuts the initiative and attack of all foes is excellent. So long as foes are afflicted, she recharges PP on multiple attacks, including a 1PP follow up move for infinite regain that also heals her. When she's attacked, she boosts Atk/Initiative and gets 1AP back. She has row-wide offense that inflicts Stun. While it requires afflictions to be present, which can be slightly restrictive, she still has strong options even without that condition met. Dark Marquess is just very persistent and incredibly strong, with a powerful opening move, and it's hard to go wrong with her presence.
Elven Augur. The elf girls are very, very strong, but Augur is definitely stronger. Offensively, an on-entry row-wide attack that inflicts stun if it doesn't kill is great. Much like Sibyl, Augur has a good synergy between skills. Primus Edge restores 1PP if at 100% HP, even if it misses. Elemental Impetus will use 2PP to recharge 1AP, making this a good, steady source of recharge. The main draw, however, is Elemental Roar, a 3AP move that hits all foes and gets stronger with more active fairies. Her opening skill is strong by default, but adding a fairy into an AoE burst is outstanding. Very little investment needs to go into Augur for their magic to devastate, and they even pack a little recovery that can specifically heal up a Cleric-type if they get hit with status, keeping your team rolling without a care.
A-TIER
Shieldshooter. Again, I like blocking. Shieldshooters can block while recovering HP to allies. Shieldshooters also have competent offense in Heavy Bolt, making them a good two-skill focus unit. Their follow-up is fairly weak, but can be nice as I believe it cannot be interrupted, finishing off units that get Holy Cradle or otherwise barely survived. As a bow user in the front, she can aim specifically for back row as well, taking out core supports or big threats with hilarious precision. If anything holds Shieldshooter back, I'd say it's that they don't quite excel at what they aim to do. Heavy Bolt is good damage, but she lacks the same kind of hilarious disruption as Alain does against cavalry, or the row-wide offense he can pack, leading to her being more about sniping a particular target in a match and otherwise existing for defense. Still one of my favorites, though.
Swordmaster. One of my favorites. Swordmasters are about precision removal of specific enemies. By default, this is Scout. In some situations, it can be the fliers. With Runic Sword and some backup with Inspiration, it can include Armor, which legitimately feels like their best utility. But Swordmasters rarely carry. Their damage can be good with proper support, but maintaining that is difficult. And without it, their damage drops precipitously. I do compliment their anti-meta properties, like Meteor Strike being the easiest way to just blow through Galerius' Dark Armor, but they have trouble answering as much as they counter. Outside of Runic Sword, which is a one-time item, they have no means of getting around armor or guards. They're evade tanks whose Parry doesn't work on range, so arrows can break them, and truestrike remains a problem. Their PP generation is a bit challenging as well. Two swords means less flexibility on accessories. But for the sheer depth of what they can do for a team, and how well they can be crafted to serve any comp, A feels right.
Wyvern Master. Look, I don't know why I like Gryphon Master better. I think better early tools, but Fire Breath doesn't take long to unlock and is arguably stronger. Column-piercing is really good too, easily slapping someone out of commission on the back row. I think Wyvern Master is fantastic, but for some reason it just never felt like it worked as well as Gryphon Master, despite having comparable tools. Maybe I'm just biased. Maybe I just really liked Fatal Dive. I cannot give a satisfying answer, because they do rule.
Druid. Druid's great. Probably the strongest on-entry skill in the game, coupled with immediate debuffing of a target's offense as they attack. Defense Curse wildly improves damage and prevents Guard entirely, which is exceptional for offensive cores. I think the only reason I don't respect Druid more is that I didn't use Druid more. Their kit is truly excellent, if hard countered by Clerics.
Prince. Buffing alternative to Druid. Seriously, it's the same thing but reversed. Buffs initiative on entry instead of debuffing, buffs attack instead of debuffing defense, grants truestrike instead of inflicting Guard Seal. Prince does fantastic back-row work. I think I value Druid just a little more, solely because I think the entry skill is stronger, and Guard Seal slightly more valuable than a truestrike.
Elven Sibyl. She's a healing version of the Augur, whose on-entry skill is a heal that provides a nullification to one debuff for a row. She also has Primus Edge/Elemental Impetus, allowing for fantastic generation. However. My problem lies in her AP skills. Elemental Roar remains the boom it is on Augur, but her 2AP skill goes entirely to waste using it, and it's a row-wide heal that provides nullification of one attack to a whole row. To put it bluntly, this is insanely good. Evade tanks have a backup that can now prevent certain death, solely because Eltolinde was present to provide it. And yet...this comes at the cost of Elemental Roar. I talked about this positively in other classes, having strong variability, and I think that's Sibyl's strength too. You can use her as either Elemental Roar AoE damage for a wipe, or you can use her as a healer with built-in blocks to damage for an entire row. But you cannot do both. And that's why she's down here in A. Because the S class options? They can do everything they want in one set. Eltolinde cannot. She makes much harder concessions.
Valkyria. I wish I could put this higher, but I do think it's fairly limited at times. Boosting team defenses and guard rate on entry makes the entire team a lot stronger, and 50% guard rate is percentage points, meaning even your frail back row has better than average odds to guard and reduce a lot of damage. This is not what sells her. What sells her is Maiden's Hammer, a Truestrike move that deals better damage the lower her HP, and is a counterattacking move. This is an excellent utility move. Combined with her natural ability to hit Flying with Vertical Edge, she's like a heavily defensive variation on Swordmaster. But. Swordmaster has that magic attack to blast armor apart, being much more offensively competent. Valkyria relies on Brandish, which is expensive and never deals as much as you want. She can eventually break through, but definitely needs support to see it happen.
Dreadnought. I feel like Dreadnought is a boring, overly straight-forward damage class with exactly one interesting tool. Unfortunately for me, that one interesting tool is hilarious and extremely powerful. When a foe guards an attack, Dreadnought kicks them in the face, inflicting Stun and Guard Seal. That is. EXTREMELY good. It turns a lot of offensive focus options from middling and in need of support, to potentially just blowing right through armors. With her self-buff to get truestrike and sure crit, she's able to obliterate pretty much any individual enemy she sets her sights on. And with greatshields, even in the back row, she tends to be excellent on defense. Initiative can be a problem, but just kicking open a guard for allies is a massive boon.
High Priestess. This may seem a bit mean, but I don't consider Scarlett as potent as other unique classes. Her healing leaves a bit to be desired, and while her main attacks remove buffs, the fact they can miss creates issues. It's not like her damage is exceptional either. What keeps Scarlett in A is really just how rare buff removal is, and how nice having a shield to halve incoming damage while denying status can be in good hands. But the later you get, the more allies can find items that make them immune to status anyway, and thus her shield goes largely to waste. This is especially true for evade tanks, who just...move out of the way of the attack, rendering that shield moot. Scarlett has good tools mired by problems that kept haunting me, but I fully acknowledge what she brings.
B-TIER
Bishop. Standard healer. What gets Bishop in my good graces is Refresh being row-wide, and access to some good AP skills from staves, most notably Lyrical Wand. Most of their AP skills are pretty whatever, so the wand skill is free, and recharges AP of a target. I do think Bishop can be a little finicky, though. Specifically targeting what you want and when can be a challenge on the tactics, with their default sets healing every single hit no matter how minor resulting in consumption of 1PP. It's a necessary class, but not an exceptional one.
Featherstaff. Featherstaff has some solid traits, but I feel like initiative is their worst enemy. Unless they get Overheal or Holy Cradle up right away, it's easy for opponents to just slap something and ruin your plan. Holy Cradle in particular feels like shit outside of PvP/Arena contexts. It's 2AP that could go into just keeping you from dying, and very little in main game can threaten to one-shot you. They're overly specific for single matches, which is why I put them below Bishop.
Wereowl. Very fun but very finicky. Wereowl has basically one truly good trait, and that is granting 1PP to an ally after they use one. This combos into some hilarious shit, especially when you look at things like Featherbow's row-wide blind response, or sustaining healing or guarding, or counterattacks, etc. That said, getting that PP where you want it to go and not having them burn through all of it is very, very challenging. I will give credit for having pretty whatever AP skills. I think they're another that really likes the staff effect to be their primary, though Night Vision for huge accuracy buffs is nice.
Feathershield. What if your tank could dodge? Feathershield is fun because they are flying armor, which means they both take hits well and can evade, making them excellent at sticking around. That said...is it just me, or are there like no greatshields that have passive abilities to shield allies? Is no one else bothered by this? It's like the one fatal flaw. If I could get this guy to both reflect spells and jump in on attacks against the healer, I think we'd be set. I do want to specifically complement synergy with Valkyria. Iron Will with his buff to Mag Def for the entire party makes for some outrageously tanky units.
Great Knight. Cavalry Call. That's basically the class in a nutshell. They have a great buff that applies to all cavs, and are able to rush a column both with their base move and with a follow-up. In addition, they pack the usual AP recovering stuff, but with two different forms of attack, including a 2AP multi-hit move. Great Knights have a lot in their favor. I don't really respect them. I feel like a lot of their utility relies entirely on a full cav team that makes them hysterically easy to counterpick. I think they put so much in offense that every comp tends to lack wildly for defense, and their results in a map are either a clean sweep of massive damage, or getting half the team killed. I think without someone to proc boosted initiative or debuff foe's initiative, they tend to move too slowly and eat a lot of damage. They live attached to Selvie. Outside of cav comps, while they have decent tools, their offenses are significantly less pronounced, and I feel like they falter. They're really fun and have one of the more mindless overall setups, but it's such a hit and miss tactic that's so, so easy to counter.
Doom Knight. I don't really favor sacrificing HP for power. I admit they have a good system going, as well as good bulk and potential to recover damage they do take. I recognize their fire-base AoE move is tremendous damage with a lot of benefits. I just can't put them higher than this. Similar deal to the Great Knights, I think they tend to be easily bowled over at times. Tactics matter a lot, and if their conditions aren't in place, they falter wildly. Without a Cleric, or at least some means of active healing, they're very easily KOd. I like them well enough, but not all that much.
Sergeant. Granting Sure-crit can be specifically tailed for Maximum Funny. Granting 1AP to any ally at the cost of 2PP is also really nice. Sergeant doesn't have the best offensive profile, but column-piercing and cav effectiveness isn't bad, and they add some response to fliers as well. They're a decent all-arounder with no particularly outstanding traits, but some really fun concepts to play with.
Elven Archer. Ice Arrow is one of my favorites, I love freeze and they have the initiative to back it up. I've also seen talk of their on-entry skill resulting in Scarlett granting a PP back with some healing, kicking off their party-wide heal and instantly recovering the team to full not matter how battered from the last encounter. It's something! But I feel like Elven Archer often fails to dazzle. Damage isn't great, they don't have the same truestrike as base archers, their on-entry skill is nice but not one of the better options out there, etc. I do like them a lot, though.
Elven Fencer. Similar deal but worse. They rely heavily on evasion, and can sure-dodge, but only when conditions occur that grant the effect. Otherwise, they have sub-par evasion for a frontline tank, and are always hoping to recharge AP on successful dodges. They rely heavily on allies to set conditions for dodging, and are as easily bopped by truestrike as other evade tanks. At least they have really good and fun offense that has a magical edge, allowing them to hurt armor types.
C-TIER
Sainted Knight. This one would get me killed on Reddit. I don't think Sainted Knight is all that good. I think the blocking of magic can be divine, and the combo with Legionnaire is obviously decent. But I think their problem is often passivity, and being too cluttered with AP. Yes, they can deal hilarious magical damage. If they aren't using Row Heal. But then you need someone else dedicated to healing. Which causes its own problems. But keeping healing means they don't do much in the way of attacks, and that magic potential goes to waste. But also there's only two magical swords in the game and Swordmaster is way more proficient about removing armor, while their attacks seem to fail to KO anything with reasonable Mag Def. Even in just general runs, I use Sainted Knight often for mobility and reduction of magical assist attacks used against us, but their teams are extremely hit and miss by effectiveness. I struggle to see a situation in which they feel as good as many claim.
Legionnaire. I like blocking, so here they are. I do think they're highly passive, lacking for damage or healing or literally anything but guard. But it's nice to have someone to just block attacks and take like no damage, you know?
Feathersword. Kinda middling. Yes, ranged attack, decent self-buffing, but their kit is kinda whatever. No particularly great attacks, buffs literally everything but stats you really want like straight Atk, Discharge is their only means of offense but it removes literally every other form of buff. They have a Truestrike but its 2AP, and their lack of sheer crit rate means Gambler's Coin isn't even salvaging them. I have yet to feel like Feathersword truly does all that much.
Landsknecht. What if you were a follow-up class, but your follow-up missed? What if Berengeria were kinda bad? Bastard's Cross is huge damage, but easily guarded and then rendered unimportant. Landsknecht does have good damage potential, and the AP regeneration of Breaker and Great Knight, but it tends to fall way behind on every other metric I care about.
Warlock. On the one hand, row-wide move that can stun, and great follow-up and counter attacks with generalized magic. I do think the shaky 90 accuracy is a problem, as is general initiative woes and frailty. Pure magic classes tend to heavy invest in just their magical offense and everything else is kinda whatever. As a result, Warlock can do some nice stuff, but I rarely consider them exceptional.
Sniper. I barely used them. I kinda dislike them, to be honest. I got one to work in the Virginia/Feathershield team comp I used, but I feel like the biggest issue they have is that damage output feels limited. They're kind of another precision removal tool, in that they can aim wherever they want and are specifically good against fliers, but only okay when it's a wyvern without crits. Taking out back row stuff also relies heavily on what the enemy team's composition is. They can work, but they're not a favorite, for reasons that are slightly difficult to parse. I don't think they're that bad, but I've never had good success with them.
Sorceress. This has to be my most contentious opinion. I think Sorceress kinda blows. Stupid frail, horrendous initiative, magic can get completely hard countered by two class types, getting conferrals to land where you want when you want is an exercise in pure frustration, status conferrals take 2PP and a whole accessory slot which is demanding, and while their freeze is an excellent status, I pretty much never see it because the rest of the team does its job first or the witch dies immediately. They can be good. Devastating, even. But I feel like they're very often a liability. Also now that both are on here: I don't respect Trinity Rain. Way, way too much investment of a team's resources for something that can (1) miss, (2) be blocked, and (3) be entirely shut down by Feathershields and Sainted Knights.
D-TIER
Vanguard. They're just not too useful. I give some credit for Arrow Cover blocking flying attacks as well, and being useful alongside Swordmasters and fliers for the specifics of what it does. But that's about all I can really praise it for. Neat concept, very lacking outcomes. There's a reason they're a 25 Honor promotion.
Werelion/Berserker. They are the same goddamn class and I don't like them. Row wide and then full party AoE damage should be great, but their offense is surprisingly low by raw stats, and all of their attacks are base 80% accuracy. Which is, as it turns out, bad. The only good stat they have is HP, and fun fact: no situation in any game I've ever played has allowed high HP but bad defenses and evasion to work out. Ever. I feel like this could be a way better class if their other stats were a little stronger in some places, but as it stands, very underwhelming.
Werebear. I tried, but never found much interest in them. A greatshield class that can't block anything, and instead specs into attempts at offense that are inaccurate, or completely miss anything not on the ground. Wholly unimpressed.
Viking. Their on-entry skill should be a favorite. There's so much that should be fun with this. I have never, even once, found a situation where I think it's worth it. Other on-entry skills just offer a lot more bang for your buck, and letting everyone bypass guard, while nice, often isn't necessary to taking down armor. There are other approaches. Like magic. Even half-magic like the Elven classes will do a better job than bringing a Viking's low initiative and inaccurate shenanigans. I want to respect them, I really do, but I've never found a significant use.
Werefox. Let the broad opinion being: I do not respect units whose life is evasion. "But you like Swordmaster." For the offense. For its ability to remove, with incredible precision, several different types of opponents as you see fit. Werefox does not do that. It has some offensive utility I'm willing to acknowledge, but I didn't have a great time using them ever.
F-TIER
Werewolf. Werewolf is one I wanted to like. A row-wide 15% Phys Atk buff with no other conditions is fairly unique, and they have means of restoring AP for further moves. Unfortunately...I just never encountered success. This feels unfair, I feel like something could've happened if I just found something I liked. But the one (1) time I made a team with one that actually started to work out? It was the Virginia/Fodoquia team. And it turned out the best results for that team? Was dropping the Werewolf for a Cleric. I dunno man! Results don't lie! Maybe I'm using it wrong, but I've yet to see this class accomplish literally anything.
Rogue. _Lucille_ on Reddit has some excellent takes on classes, and some fantastic strategy. They're the kind of person who can beat Arena before breaking level 20 on the highest difficulty, something I legitimately could never piece together. So when they say that dodge tanks are better than physical tanks, and that Rogue is very good, I'm inclined to believe this is true. Evasion likely is more successful overall if outfitted correctly. But personally? I consider tier based on ease of access as much as anything. If something is stupid broken busted, but only once you've been playing for a while and have a working meta knowledge of tactics and how to specifically counteract all the things that otherwise beat you? That to me isn't success. That requires niche knowledge for success. And on that note:
Rogue sucks. Getting it to work is an unending nightmare. So many enemies have Truestrike, and the only means of not dying horribly is knowing AI patters and how to avoid being the target of attacks that threaten, and nothing else. Even outside of this, just letting one (1) attack land the low percentage to hit is instant death, and in general maps, you're encountering so many swings that eventually that 10% will land. It requires a level of precision and calculation that I feel is way beyond what is reasonable as a more casual fan of the game. While their skills feel exciting, I never once found them significant. Row blindness is done infinitely better by Featherbow, and even Druid if you want to use the staff for it. Stealing AP is only ever 1AP despite the translation, and fails entirely if guarded. PP steal can also be guarded against, ruining the attempt. Someone mentioned using them with Viking's War Horn to ensure hits, stealing PP and using that on accessories to buff allies constantly. Great plan! That also cuts into their evade rate because less equipment goes to it, so you get hit more often. Evade stops working the instant archers are introduced, because they just hit you through it. Their bulk is so bad, anything that touches them kills. Their passive skills are bad, with an on-entry that just inflicts Guard/Passive seal on one (1) target, which sucks, but is likely to go first given their high initiative, ruining much better options because only one goes off. I have active contempt for Rogue. I would love to get it to work, just to see what others are seeing, but I feel like their utility ran out before I even finished the demo. I get that no damage is better than chip damage, but you know what's even better than that? Not dying immediately because you failed a roll.
Paladin. I think the basic fact that nothing seems to outline the skills on a Paladin should tell you what you need to know. The class itself is good enough, but Josef is so gimped in the stats department that once you leave Cornia, and start fighting things closer to his level? He's easily overwhelmed on the frontline and contributes very little to a backline. There's no reason to use Josef past the opening. At least the Rogues can be outfitted with something going on, Josef just feels like a burden.
#unicorn overlord#unicorn overlord tier list#i don't expect anyone to care about this#but if I'm going to get yelled at it'll be Radiant Knight Sorceress or Rogue
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What does it take to anger Mortem and what happens when she's reaching that point?
@swordduels
Somewhere in the cosmos of this blog I've answered this but for the life of me I cannot find it to link for further details. So I'll just sum up her anger and what not. xD
The truth about Mortem is that she's always angry.
There's no getting around it. Her humor exists solely for her own sanity between how angry she is and her dealing with her own longevity.
It's a different kind of anger from the protagonist, Nestor. Where the agent has lost the ability to really be a person, Mortem hasn't. They both possess a functional anger. For Nestor, it turned her life into solely focusing on her mission. For Mortem, it's more like disease that dormant within until the right factors cause it to resurface and spread throughout her body.
There's a lot of injustice in he veins passed down from her ancestors, that witches have faced across worlds. A lot of anger she has about choices she had to make that she didn't want to and cannot confront. Her anger mostly stems from these such things.
When it comes to people angering her, it takes a lot. She can get annoyed, sure, frustrated. But anger and beyond? It's a rare deal. Mortem is open-minded and understanding about others natures and thus, their behaviors. I'd say continuous woeful ignorance is the fastest way to get there - intentionally being stubborn to the point it's damaging. Why? Because Mortem is about potential. And that 100% interferes with a being's potential when it doesn't need to be. It stunts potential outcomes, as well.
People who lack potential also spark a brief anger. I say brief, because if Mortem comes across these husks she will outright just stab them in the heart and keep going. She views them as wasted space clogging up the planet and hopes in their next eventual life, their souls utilize their potential. To a witch like her, it's recycling.
What happens when she's angry? It is entirely contextual. A king or kingdom angers her after she has given them the chances to alter their course? She'll create a famine or outright burn them all down. But that's also just what she does because her duties and purpose as a witch demands it. So one could say that's just business as usual. There just have been times when she has gotten pissed off.
I'd say, canonically, there's one main person who pisses her the fuck off. He's the second main antagonist, her ally, and the one responsible for both her exile and being hunted. He's responsible for the theft of her mother, for a lot of fuckery to her planet and other worlds - damaging witches across the cosmos.
But her purpose sees the larger picture with his work and thus, she stays allied. Make no mistake, she is absolutely waiting and watching for the moment he slips up and is no longer useful to her duties. Her anger is absolute towards him and it stays that way until she unleashes her wrath at the end of the story.
Her anger manifests in different ways depending on the context. Sometimes it's briefly handled, sometimes it's a long game of waiting. What she does, how she handles it is less often a personal matter and more about what her duty as a witch permits - what will serve best to the larger picture.
Like the murder of children will bring about a swift wrath because children are the future - they house the most potential. It's not even a thought she has so much as it is her just acting on that wrath if she is in the vicinity to witness it.
Mortem is always going to be one of my calmest characters when it comes to anger. It shows subtly in certain ways, if one is perceptive enough to notice her smile doesn't always reach her eyes. Or in other subtle mannerisms she possesses. But it's rarely directed towards someone because of how uncommon it is for others to make her angry - it's more that it's just there, in her bones and moving with her every step.
Alternatively, in the roleplay sphere, since things occur here that don't in her story... She is genuinely protective and even possessive of those she values. Because those she values often have a high potential and she has come to care for them. Mortem will not take kindly to those she deems in her care in some manner; like a romantic partner, a charge of hers, someone she's mentoring, etc. You could just be a recovering hiker that got lost and so long as you're staying with her, you're under her care for the most part.
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What if Jason didn't reveal his identity to the family after coming back from the dead?
He comes back to Gotham, becomes the Red Hood, but doesn't reveal his identity and ends up building a sort of love-hate relationship with the Bats. Over time, Hood end up working with them more often than against them.
Like, one day he's shooting(rubber bullets) at Batman, and the next he's giving Robin advice on his English homework and how to deal with his classmates.
(Damian and Jason met in the League, before Jason left to train more and become the Red Hood. So Damian knows Jason is alive, but thinks he's still traveling, training, and going on missions.)
Hood does somethings that remind Batman and Nightwing of Jason, but they don't dig too deep on it. (Just because someone makes a comment that reminds you of someone who died doesn't mean they're back from the dead.)
Hood does things that remind Damian of Jason as well, but Damian assumes that Hood may have met Jason in the League and they may have fought alongside each other.
Until Hood makes a reference to something that happened in the League, something Jason wouldn't tell a temporary ally.
(At first Jason didn't care if the Bats found out who he was, but after he started spending more (less violent) time with the Bat he started trying harder to hide his identity.) (Like, he felt like revealing who he was would potentially ruin the small amount of good he managed to make with the Bats and Gotham)
Damian spends his free time looking into where Jason could be and finds evidence to support that Jason was not only in the same city, but around the hotel Hood was staying at when he went on a mission in New York.
(Hood is in a good enough place with the Bats to go on missions with them and trust they can watch Crime Alley when he goes on missions without them)
Looking back further, Damian can find something linking Hood and Jason more than half the time he goes on a solo mission outside of Gotham. Things like: Jason showing up on some camera in the city; various receipts paid with an alias that is some variation of Jason Peter Todd; and, the most pressing, security footage of Jason undercover, sitting with the mission targets, then leaving ten minutes before Hood arrives.
Damian doesn't plan on telling his family, but does plan on confronting Hood and convincing him to let him see Jason. What actually happens is, Barbra finds him using her system to find someone using various alias' based around Jason's name and brings it to Dick's attention.
Dick asks him about it, the truth comes out and a family meeting is called.
(Bruce and Alfred are told first and they call a meeting after digging up Jason's grave)
Finding out Jason is alive is, at first, fantastic and then saddening. Talia brought Jason back with the Lazarus Pit and turned him into an assassin, but Jason was well enough to travel and visit Hood at the drop of a hat. Where was he? Why wouldn't he come back to them? If nothing was stopping him from going where he wanted and doing what he wanted, then why wouldn't he come home?
The only connection they have to Jason is the Red Hood, so they dig into it. The only way they're bringing Jason home is if they find out where he is and why he's staying away.
Putting Hoods behavior since he arrived in Gotham under a microscope with the added context of being close to Jason, a few instances seem to make more sense.
The familiar nicknames Hood would occasionally call Bruce, Dick, and Damian could have been picked up from Jason. The Hood's innate hatred for the Joker and intense anger at Batman for not avenging his second Robin's death, he must know Jason was Robin and about his tragic death. Calling Tim "Replacement" was obviously a reference to the second Robin as well.
With the way Hood acts defensively (protectively?) in reference to everything involving Jason and the fact Jason visits him and tells him details about their family, they must be really close.
It's Stephanie who suggests they're dating.
-
Stephanie: "So Hood met Jason in the League, they train and fight people together, fall in love, start dating and stay in touch when Hood comes to Gotham. That still doesn't explain why Hood came to Gotham and Jason didn't."
Tim: "Fall in love?"
Bruce: "You think the Hood is in a relationship with my son?"
Stephanie: "I thought we were all thinking that. I mean, its clear Hood is very protective of Jason."
Damian: "... Well, Todd didn't seem dis-interested in men. Hood could have drawn his interest."
Tim: "So Hood comes to Gotham, cleans up Crime Alley, where Jason grew up. He wanted Batman, Jason's father, to kill the Joker, Jason's murderer, to prove he cared and when B didn't he tried to do it himself. As an act of love and support?"
Dick: "This... makes an unfortunate amount of sense."
Bruce: "How so?"
Dick: "Jason comes back to life and finds out Tim is Robin and the Joker is still alive, thinking B replaced them would be pretty devastating. He might be too scared to come back to Gotham at all with the Joker still alive, even when you put him in Arkham he gets out. Jason tells Hood and eventually Hood comes to clean up Gotham while Jason does his own thing, away from Gotham."
Bruce: *Grunts sadly in Bat*
-
I want to continue writing this at some point, but I feel like I've fleshed out the beginning of the AU
#dc universe#batman#jason todd#batfam#dick grayson#damian wayne#damian al ghul#tim drake#Batman AU#au idea#Jason todd x Red Hood#but not really#assumed relationship#stephanie brown#secret identity#identity reveal#Red Hood AU#Bruce Wayne#Nightwing#Red Hood#Red Robin#Robin
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okay so, the playlist. currently screaming into my pillow about the reinaeiry songs (YES YOU ARE RIGHT THAT LEFT BEHIND AND IMMORTAL ARE TREEBARK SONGS)
the song i recognize here that im not sure why it's here is doubt comes in? i would like to hear your reasoning for it!
(still on the topic of hadestown, i do think for a hypothetical hermit!martyn au, promises would be a good treebark song for that)
YES YES YES GOD THE REINAEIRY SONGS ARE SO PERFECT FOR THEM ITS BEEN DRIVING ME NUTS FOR SO LONG!!! Thank you for understanding my vision.
As for doubt comes in, my reasoning is a bit of a stretch but bare with me. (Also I just realized I put it in the wrong spot on the playlist. It should be at the end of Last Life and I’ll fix that like now lol)
I'll put it below the cut because it's honestly a lot
First, a bit of context: I imagine this song at the end of LL when Scott, Pearl, Ren, and Martyn start their "battle royal". Martyn is singing Orpheus' lines and Ren is Eurydice. The last interaction Martyn and Ren have in LL is Martyn attempting to lure Ren into a trap. He fails but if you watch Ren's POV of this moment, he says he thought Martyn was going to form a last minute alliance with him to take down scott.
Obviously, this and a lot of the other songs on the playlist are my vauge interpretation of these events. And I like to imagine that they were looking for each other in this moment.
OK SO
- I really like how this song starts, the feeling I get from the beginning instrumentals is the vibes I imagine for that anticipation of that final battle
- "who am I to think she would follow me into the cold and dark again?" Is a line that drives me nuts and I would have added this song onto the playlist just for that. Red winter was A LOT so there's this potential doubt of wether Ren would be willing to go as far as they did in 3rd life.
- With Orpheus singing about being alone and unsure, compared to Eurydice trying to let him know that she is there and always will be is just so... renchanting to me. Martyn is and always will be a survivor. I remember in one of Martyn's vods where he talked about his lore in Last Life he discussed how he had planned to betray Ren at the end of 3rd Life if given the chance. Of course he thinks he's alone. On the other hand, Ren gets very very attached to his allies very quickly. I just will never be over Ren wanting to team with Martyn again at the end.
"I am right here, and I will be to then end. And the coldest night of the coldest year comes right before the spring." ARE YOU KIDDING ME ????? I can't express how much I love this line. Not only the phrase "to the end" cutting right into Martyn's whole deal with the watchers, but AGAIN WITH THE TALK OF COLD AND SPRING Im going to be sick /pos.
And the end bit... the sudden stop of Eurydice's singing and music. "It's you" "It's me" "Orpheus" "Eurydice". Replacing that with Ren realizing Martyn was trying to kill him. THE BETRAYAL THE DRAMA
I love taking minecraft moments that were not at all dramatic and angsty then reimagining them as dramatic and angsty. I'm so very good at it.
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