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filmhead-productions · 1 month

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I know everyone and their mom has already said Snivy, Torchic, and Piplup will be the legends z-a starters. And they're completely 100% right, and here's why. Remember, this is only speculation, please don't take some rando's word as fact.

First off, evidence. I'm sure we've all already seen the Indigo Disk trailer with Snivy, Torchic, and Piplup with the previous legends starters, Rowlet, Cyndaquil, and Oshawott respectively.

But has anyone said anything about the tera raids events? The first was Mighty Blaziken from January 19th to 21st; it's tera type was Flying type. And you're probably asking "but the new starters are probably getting megas and Blaziken already has one." Yes, but why can't he have two? Charizard and Mewtwo do, and Blaziken's quite popular, so a second mega isn't out of the question in my eyes.

Next was Mighty Empoleon from February 9th to 11th. It's tera type was Ice type.

As of this post, Serperior has yet to get a raid event, but I believe the next starter tera raid will be this haughty plant snake, and I believe it's tera type will be Fighting. Why? Because it completes this type trio:

Fighting > Ice > Flying

So we have three starters who final evolutions will be Fire/Flying, Water/Ice, and Grass/Fighting. But why these types specifically? Strap in, because this is where things get interesting.

Everyone knows that Empoleon is based on Napoleon Bonaparte, infamous general and emperor of France. So why not Water/Fighting? Because in 1812, Napoleon attempted to lead an army into Russia to conquer it. What he failed to account for was the frigid weather, which took out the majority of his troops and forced them to retreat. So maybe Kalosian Empoleon will be in this constant state of near freezing based on this event, it would be a glass cannon.

People chose Torchic as the fire starter since the rooster is France's national animal. It became France's symbol because in ancient times, when the Roman Empire occupied France (then named Gaul), the rooster wasn't worshipped, but rather the god it symbolized, Mercury, the Roman god of travelers, communication, and many others things. Mercury was also known for being very, very fast. So maybe Kalosian Blaziken will be a speedy pokemon.

About the travelers and communication bit, perhaps this oversized chicken will also be inspired by messenger pigeons, which were used during World War I to send messages across countries. (Let's hope that if abilities come back, this doesn't get speed boost again, lmao)

Finally, we come to Serperior. Pokemon designer Ken Sugimori said that Serperior was inspired by a manga called The Rose of Versailles, we all know this. It's about a woman raised as a boy trained to be a royal guard, who later leaves to join the side of the revolution. Kalosian Serperior could look more like a literal rose, covered in thorns, and will probably have a lance for a tail. This snake will definitely be both offensive and defensive, best of both worlds.

So we have a general, a guard, and a messenger. The theme surrounding these three things seems to be wartimes. A hint at the story maybe? Honestly, I could be dead wrong on this, but I don't care, I love this trio, I hope I at least get close. I might make another post speculating with other starters. Any thoughts?

EDIT 3/31/24: Ok so the next tera raid was announced, and I was kind of right. It is a grass type starter. However, it's Meganium with Psychic tera type...

Y'know what? I think I'll try and make a post predicting what this is about later.

#pokemon #pokemon legends #pokemon legends z-a #pokemon starters #snivy #oshawott #piplup #cyndaquil #torchic #rowlet #blaziken #empoleon #serperior #chikorita #meganium

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gabu-draws · 6 months

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I've been rewatching 02 with my sister whose never seen it and we finally got to Ken's backstory, one of my favorite characters. Since I can't go see the new movie I made this. I was listening to Cast the Bronze by Raynes and thought it fit him well. How he tries to fill the hole in his family after Sam died even if it meant wiping out his own interests or how the dark spore and grief twisted his personality during the first arc of the show. How rightfully he needs to earn the trust of the other digidestined while still feeling that he doesn't deserve their forgiveness. How Wormmon stands by him even as the Digimon Emperor because he knows that Ken is still that kind boy he met so long ago. That Ken needs to find his heart again after so many years of burying it under anger. Honestly when Ken said that when he's sad he's just numb killed me. I'm glad the boy's got a solid support system now.

#digimon #digimon 02 #ken ichijouji #stingmon #digimon adventure 02 #A lot of Ken's scenes hit when I was younger but know that I know what those feelings are they hit a lot harder

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digitaldavis · 6 months

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A Daiken Evil!Boyfriends/Soulmates AU I'll Probably Never Write

because it’s kind of too much is: an AU universe where soulmates exist and everyone knows they exist but either it’s really rare to meet your soulmate or only a small percentage of the population has them.

Ken and Davis are soulmates and when they shake hands during their soccer match they realize it. Later that day, Davis finds out Ken is the Digimon Emperor and confides in Tai because he looks up to him and doesn’t know what to do and needs advice - being soulmates makes him hesitate to tell the others openly who Ken is because there is a general belief amongst the population that soulmates are a perfect match for one another and he’s worried about what the other’s will think of him if his soulmate is a bad person.

Meanwhile, Ken is mad after the soccer match because how can someone who isn’t perfect like him be his soulmate? Davis clearly isn’t good enough for him but because it’s Ken, he very quickly convinces himself that he can change Davis by infecting him with a dark spore (because Ken is aware of the one in his neck and has been studying it for awhile) and make him better until he’s up to Ken’s absurd standards which leads to:

Ken offering Davis the opportunity to join him in his quest to conquer the Digital World when he realizes who Ken is and Davis agreeing to do it days later at the insistence of Tai (and reluctantly, Izzy, because they're BFFs/Boyfriends?) who think they can use this situation to their advantage and defeat Ken who has been thwarting them for maybe years at this point; it's an aged up AU and Ken's identity is secret longer.

Davis ends up convincing Ken that he wants to join him because his family and the other Digi-Destined don’t respect/care about him and Ken is his soulmates so that means if any one will, it’s Ken. I like to think Tai stages some kind of fight between them in the Digital World, probably about how his soulmate is evil and that make Davis a bad person, that Ken witnesses to make it more convincing but no one else besides Tai, Izzy and Davis are aware that the fight is staged so everyone else thinks Tai really thinks Davis is untrustworthy and Davis really has betrayed them when he joins the Emperor.

Tai and Izzy basically send Davis to get inside information to help them defeat Ken and he is supposed to report back to them about the Emperor’s activities to give them an advantage - to do this Davis insists he wants to continue school and living in the real world - but Ken doesn’t immediately trust Davis because of his lack of commitment after he joins him so Davis doesn’t know much at first and also Davis says he isn’t going to help Ken conquer the Digital World - he doesn’t want to hurt Digimon or the other Digi-Destined even if they all hate him and he openly tells Ken he only wants to help Ken because they’re soulmates which Ken laughs at.

Ken, thinking he’ll manipulate Davis until he’s on his side for real, tells him that’s fine and that he’ll come around. Meanwhile he makes it clear he thinks Davis is useless to him the way he is and Davis needs to be better to be worthy of being Ken’s soulmate and to do that Ken comes up with a series of training exercises to “help” Davis be better.

Davis is really stubborn and knows Ken isn’t convinced of his loyalty to him and, because he looks up to Tai so much and wants his respect and approval via doing what Tai wants him to do (and also he really wants to find a way to stop Ken and stop him being evil and thinks this is the best way to do it) Davis pushes himself to meet all of Ken’s absurd standards and challenges which basically amount to torture for a normal person without a spore.

This leads to a period of many many months where Davis goes to the Digital World after school every day to meet Ken, is basically put through the ringer until eventually his health starts to decline visibly because he’s trying to do things he physically can’t do and studying all the time to be smarter for Ken to the point where Tai and Izzy are like “this was a bad idea” and Ken, meanwhile is angrier and angrier that Davis is so bad by his estimates but also because of the spore he also thinks watching Davis struggle impossibly is really really funny so he keeps making everything harder and harder for Davis - moving the goalpost whenever Davis actually manages to meet one of his absurd goals naturally - while he works on a way to spread the spore to Davis which he eventually manages to do.

Davis has been giving Tai and Izzy info in secret when he can but suddenly drops off the face of the earth when Ken infects him with a dark spore. The spore has the desired effect from Ken’s perspective and Davis becomes able to match Ken intellectually and physically and is more willing to help Ken by conquering areas in the digital world and fighting the other digi-destined in earnest who, thanks to the spore, he’s started to think of as inferior to himself and Ken.

Only it’s Davis and he’d been very serious about his goal of gaining Ken’s trust in order to save the Digital World and save Ken/stop him being evil before being infected with the spore so now that he knows about the spore he immediately comes to the conclusion that it’s responsible for Ken’s behavior and is aware that it’s not only made him smarter and stronger/more athletic - which is useful - but is also making him think thoughts he wouldn’t normally think and unlike Ken who is completely oblivious to how he’s changed as a person by it, Davis is at least aware of how it has affected him.

Quite a bit of the fic I’d want to write would just be Davis’ struggle with fighting the influence of the spore trying to change him completely while trying to figure out how best to go about freeing Ken and dealing with his growing feelings towards him and how all of this is perceived and effects the other Digi-Destined who do or don’t know that what is going on.

Little scenes I thought about writing were things like: Davis shows up after having gone completely off-grid for a few days/weeks while the spore took hold and it’s the first time any of the other kids have seen him besides once when he fought them in the Digital World for Ken (without holding back for once) and he’s just genuinely nasty towards T.K. who he has never gotten along with at this point and he gets into an actual fight with Matt who jumps to T.K.’s defense but easily wins having learned how to fight from Ken over the last few months.

Tai corners him at some point to be like “what was that? What did Ken do to you? You’re not acting like yourself” while Davis laughs off Tai’s concerns before becoming angry because, isn’t this what Tai wanted?, at which point Izzy has to stop Tai from fighting with Davis, because this was Tai’s idea to not tell the other’s that Davis wasn’t really on Ken’s side and Ken clearly trusts Davis which means Davis is now in a position to do what they wanted even if things hadn’t gone how Tai imagined they would.

Matt is absolutely livid when he learns that everything that has happened was some hair-brained scheme of Tai’s that has gone off the rails and resulted in Davis going from the honest, well-meaning, happy-go-lucky kid they’d known to being depressed and angry and manipulative because Tai had unintentionally or otherwise made him feel like he would be letting everyone down if he didn’t use his position as Ken’s soulmate to their benefit. Matt, bearer of the crest of Friendship, never would have allowed them to go through with such a stupid and dangerous plan that has obviously hurt one of their friends and this causes a brief rift between Tai and Matt.

Because of the spores influence, Davis doesn’t really consider what has happened to him both before he was infected and after to have hurt him in anyway - Ken was just trying to make him better and now he is - and he doesn’t really care about why everyone is upset on his behalf but, unlike Ken, he’s self-aware in regards to the spore so he knows he probably should and would have cared before all this.

All he wants to do is save Ken now, though. He’s gone over Ken’s research on the spore and it’s clear the spore is growing and is dangerous and if it continues it might kill Ken (and now him) and Davis doesn’t know how to stop it yet but he still thinks the best thing to do is to make Ken see sense about the Digital World being real and not just a game Ken is playing.

I’ve thought about a lot of little scenes between Ken and Davis where Davis tries to understand Ken better and slowly learns that Ken isn’t actually as awful as he pretends/appears to be and then comes to the conclusion that the spore is responsible - maybe he stumbles across Ken’s research on it before he even understands what the spore does or is.

I haven’t mentioned any of the digimon in this yet but they’re there and Veemon obviously goes with Davis when he joins the Emperor and is in on their plan to gain Ken’s trust to ultimately win against him via getting inside info on Ken’s actions and the location of the base and all that good stuff that would obviously eventually happen. I like to think that while things are going really badly initially after Davis first joins Ken and is basically being put through torture Veemon does his best to help and encourage him or, alternatively, convince Davis he doesn’t have to do this and they should call the whole thing off.

Wormmon is also there a lot and becomes friends with Davis and Veemon. Wormmon tells Davis about how Ken used to be a kind and gentle person but changed and Wormmon still believes Ken will go back to the way he was before which is something Davis takes to heart and holds onto.

Wormmon tries to make Davis feel better when things are going particularly bad between himself and Ken or after Ken has put Davis through hell “training” him and Davis tells Wormmon he’s going to save Ken no matter what and they agree to work together for Ken’s benefit.

I have some thoughts about, like, if/when they manage to make Ken see sense and he’s freed from the spore’s influence.

The dub is really unclear but there are some parts of it that imply that once the spore goes dormant it’s effects end and Ken becomes a normal kid - no longer understanding how the control spires work, failing all his school tests etc etc - but there are also scenes where it’s like “actually he’s still a genius” - so it’s kinda up in the air and even though it is probably the former bit I like to think that the effects are permanent, so even when the spores are no longer active, Davis and Ken are still a couple of genius soulmates which would be really fun and useful for them but there would be a lot of trauma processing necessary for everyone involved.

Once Davis is able to think clearly he’d be aware of exactly how bad things had been and how different he was towards everyone as a result but Davis would put it on himself that it happened in the first place instead of blaming Ken or Tai the way that Ken and Tai definitely would blame themselves - although during the height of necessity when Ken was still evil Tai would be willing to put his own culpability on the back burner because they needed this to work or it would all be for nothing but he’d feel immensely guilty afterwards.

Ken would definitely be miserable every time Davis did or said something he wouldn’t have done or said before Ken had infected him with the spore or tried to make him better and Davis would eventually get fed up at everyone because this was how things were now and Ken and Tai and everyone needed to just accept that it happened and move on and focus on making things better for themselves and the Digital World.

The majority of the fic is quite dark and is based on things I felt were obvious in the dub, like Davis having really low self-esteem / self-worth and seeming to think of himself as undeserving of having friends or as not being a very good friend and that leads to this desire to please the people he looks up to and gain their approval - often to his own detriment.

The fic started out as just a Daiken soulmates AU about Davis dealing with the knowledge that Ken might be evil and just spiraled out of control and became this slow decent into the murky waters of depression for Davis as he tries to meet the unreasonably high expectations of a soulmate who doesn’t think he’s good enough and a senior that he looks up to who has good intentions but inadvertently puts Davis into a situation that leads to physical and emotional trauma and Davis putting up with it because he doesn’t want to let Tai down and this might really be their best chance to help Ken who Davis refuses to believe is pure evil.

And then the dark spore comes into play and for a bit it becomes a fun evil genius boyfriends AU where Davis’ maintains that he wants to help Tai stop Ken but because of the spore his words and actions are often not in line with his goal of saving Ken or helping his fellow Digi-Destined and eventually when he pulls a miracle out of his hat as he tends to do, and manages to free Ken everything should go back to normal, only it doesn’t because he’s unintentionally alienated his friends and the ones who knew what was really going on have difficulty adjusting to the changes in Davis after everything that’s happened so for a bit he’s achieved his goal but he’s still depressed.

The ending of the fic is overwhelmingly positive, though, because it’s about Davis dealing with everything he did under the spore's influence and everything that was done to him and the reasons he felt like he didn't have another choice and had to go through with things that weren’t good for him and then, eventually, repairing his relationships with Ken and Tai and the other (mainly) 02 Digi-Destined and them all dealing with and processing everything that has happened in the past, like, six+ months and learning to love and care about one another in spite of it all - it’s just really dark until the end of it.

It’s a very cathartic fic for me to think about but the majority of it being dark and depressing is why I haven’t/won’t be writing it because it’s an emotional mess and I wouldn’t even know where to begin but I woke up thinking about it and I thought, I just want to get this all out somewhere so here it is.

Also it's not the focus of this fic but Davis is trans and his parents are based on the few scenes of them in the dub that due to cultural differences unintentionally paints them as kind of flaky and, in the case of Davis' dad especially as a contributor to Davis' low self-esteem issues so they're not super bothered or observant when it comes to Davis' emotional state and probably don't notice or care that he disappears for days on end.

#Davis Motomiya #Ken Ichijouji #Daiken #Tai Kamiya #digific #Matt Ishida #Izzy Izumi #Taishiro #Wormmon #Veemon #Digimon Adventure 02

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izvmimi · 8 months

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cw: sexual references but not outright smut, minors dni. polygamy. infidelity. mention of pregnancy. ANGST. a/n: Reposted. Part of a palace drama AU, originally posted last year, the goal is for four main characters, whose stories would intertwine. Idk if I'll ever do profiles for everyone.

From the perspective of the Third Royal Consort of Manji Palace, during the fifth year of the reign of Emperor Manjiro:

---

Your entry into the palace was a smooth, streamlined affair.

As the third wife to a man as exalted, revered and busy as the Emperor, you’d expected a grandiose entrance, and your arrival at Manji Palace was exactly that, filled with food, drink, merriment and ceremony, but you had not particularly expected any personal, pointed attention.

And as you expected, once the festivities had died down, and after you’d received titles and gifts aplenty from him, the Empress, and the Imperial Noble Consort, two and more ranks above you, and the remaining important figures of the locked-in palace, things grew sufficiently quiet. You’d expected to be forgotten.

Wives who enter the palace on treatises often turn out like this - used as a pawn to prevent impending war or to secure power, with little merit on their own aside from being pretty keepsakes of a far away land visited, and somewhat conquered. You weren’t that aware of the customs of this land, and while you spoke the language, your accent gave away the fact that you weren’t really from there, not the way the Empress and her co-wife had grown up together and seemed to understand each other without even speaking.

His Majesty was polite, however, being polite enough to spend the night with you to keep up appearances, and knowing immediately, as you recoiled from him in the dead of the night, that you hadn’t exactly been willing, even if you weren’t exactly unwilling.

Putting his clothes back onto his person, he ended that heavily anticipated portion of the honeymoon and sat at the edge of the bed.

To your surprise, he smiled.

“I suppose I’ll give you a chance to decide if you want me or not,” he reassured you. Not a single kiss, not even a graze of your skin. You would have to be willing if he were ever to take you, even if now he owned your body by virtue of you becoming his wife.

He somehow understood.

“I can be a good consort… in other ways,” you promised.

Manjiro again smiled, something warmer than should be expected of a man in his position.

“I look forward to it.”

In order not to embarrass you, he still spent the night, leaving in the morning. Spots of red blood spilled on the sheets to prove your virginity came from the pass of a dagger on the pale skin of the dorsum of his hand.

He promised you safety and camaraderie within the palace. His other wives were kind. He, too, was kind. He simply could not promise you that you would fall in love with him.

He didn’t need love either - at least not from you. He had love aplenty from the Imperial Noble Consort, and even if it were a long shot, his Empress would learn to love him eventually. You were someone who he could be friends with, if it were even worth being friends with members of his harem.

You were a good friend, rather.

The Emperor visited you often thereafter, but to play chess, to read, to discuss matters of the palace that weren’t under the realm of the harem, and he appreciated your perspectives on economic strategy and war and politics, one of an outsider.

Appreciating your mind and without feelings muddled by the filth of love and sex and producing heirs, he allowed his favorite generals to meet you.

This is where your tragedy began -

The moment you lay eyes on Imperial Guard Ken Ryuguji.

—

Every taste of his lips flirted with death - the punishment for an unfaithful concubine would be cruel torture and a cold palace if merciful, family extermination if vengeful. You wondered if it could be different for you - your relationship with Manjiro was different after all, you were friends in the same way he and Ken were friends. Maybe he could understand. He knew you didn’t love him, and he didn’t love you, and your arrangement to be kin in spirit only was unspoken.

But Manjiro had bequeathed a marriage unto his servant, and to his own sister even. A princess. Surely Dragon Ken was highly favored.

And so are you.

But what is the worth of a blessing without love?

“Ken,” you whisper softly, laying between exquisitely woven sheets, wrapped in his arms. He isn’t sleeping, but rather his chin rests atop of yours and he stares at a fixed point far away, beyond your silk curtains, perhaps beyond the realm of this closed off existence.

Any moment he can be snatched away and stripped of his title. Maybe your handmaidens aren’t as loyal as they seem, and although the inner court has not yet filled with scheming women, Empress and Imperial Noble Consort may not be so forgiving once they see how you make a fool out of their husband.

And the truth is, this is a man that in no way belongs to you. Every moment he spends kissing your lips and holding you in his arms, his wife is not held, not loved, not cared for.

Do you care? You should. But when he kisses your forehead, and kisses your lips, and dives beneath to kiss between your thighs, you forget there is another woman who might love him as much as you do.

You want him. You want him enough that you would give everything away. The jewelry, the clothes, the authority.

All for his love.

“___?” he whispers your name back. His eyes fix upon you and they’re heavy and focused, and he’s the only one who truly sees you in this foreign land, who calls you by your name. You wonder if anyone still remembers it, whether it’s the emperor or anyone else in this palace. If not for the way he says it, you too, probably would have forgotten your own name.

“I love you,” you say.

He stiffens, and so do you.

Your words come out as easily as they would any other day. He’s said the same before, that in another life, it would be you and no one else. You’d love freely, not under the cover of night. You’d love him in the same spaces the light touches. You’d love him, you’d love him, you’d love him.

He speaks onto you, holding you tightly as though he were saying something as natural as the sky is blue, or that the birds chirp the morning into rise, and that Manjiro’s influence is as expansive as the sky.

“Forgive me.”

You blink and your throat goes dry.

Maybe your body runs cold against the heat of his body. He sighs and holds you closer, but you can feel it, the fact that he’s about to shatter you in two as though he’s not the only one that has been keeping you together these past few years.

“Emma wants a child.”

And your heart breaks.

#draken x reader #ken ryuuguji x reader #tokrev x reader #daydreams: tokrev #thoughts: draken #mimi's notes

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swearyshera · 8 months

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Ooh, I've got quite a few asks! This is a long one...

Aw, thank you so much! I've always said that I try to turn the subtext into text, but even doing that there's still plenty of subtext!

I come from a place of loving all the characters, so any mocking of them is gentle and light-hearted, but hopefully it has given people a different perspective on a few of them. A big part of the plot I've ended up writing is about loving yourself as you are, and not being ashamed to be true to yourself, and I think Hordak really exemplifies that as someone who very much struggled with that concept in the face of Horde Prime (someone who demands conformity). In that respect, he's very much a character I'm sure some people can relate to. Also I made him a largely incompetent evil emperor because that was just funny, so there's maybe fewer absolutely horrifying things he's done.

One of the advantages of this format is having more time to spend with the characters (I don't have to fit everything into 20 minutes), so that does mean we get more depth to people like Castaspella or the Horde Trio. That's not to criticise the original, there will always have to be side characters and characters who don't get much time, but I get to spend a little more time with them like this.

I'm glad you've come along for the ride, and I hope you enjoy the final week!

He is!

Also this has probably prompted someone to write/draw Entrapdak as Barbie and Ken now...

@tenaciousdecapitator That would have happened if Prime had gone on about how perfect Gateshead is!

@solcaeruleus If I can make people cry, that counts as a victory!

The "I care what she thinks" line had been in my notes for so long - in fact, I think the first time I wrote Entrapta's "We're enough as we are" back in Season 3, I knew this scene would call back to that. It is the full circle of Hordak's character arc, really - he went from trying to be what someone else (Prime) wanted, to someone that he wanted to be. And it's of note that he doesn't entirely reject the 'fuck what anyone else thinks', because he cares what Entrapta thinks - he's taken that and added his own spin to it: You don't have to be anything for anyone, but making someone you care about proud sometimes helps you become who you want to be.

@kirvee ME NEITHER

@gardensofcrystals I'm so glad you could find some catharsis in this!

While I've not specifically written Prime as a particularly religious thing, the image I've had of him as some right-wing, anti-queer, anti-woman person isn't exactly a million miles from some types of Evangelical preachers, and I couldn't completely divorce him from that image because it was intended in the original - he's supposed to be an analogy to that kind of person.

His story is probably familiar to many people, who find something about their identity at odds with what they're told they should be. And that could be about sexuality with homophobic parents, or some aspect of yourself that's considered unacceptable by a religious or societal authority - I'm sure we've all had moments where we've felt we need to hide something about ourselves that we should never have to hide.

But whereas Prime will never be convinced that Hordak is 'good enough', my (admittedly limited) knowledge of religion is that God is kind of a loving guy and was quite hot on not being a judgemental prick to your fellow humans.

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variouscolors · 29 days

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sighs

"I miss my wife, Daisuke. I miss her a lot."

"I'll be back."

#ken; emperor of kindness #crack; glitchy environment

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shihalyfie · 2 years

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Wait wait, WHAT Ken hot take!? 👀

Okay, this is going to be one of my spicier takes here, so please go easy on me ^^ But yes, I do actually believe that the American English dub's take on Ken was arguably more accurate to his original Japanese characterization than the way a lot of the fanbase portrays him, even when they're going off the original Japanese version.

So for context, while the degree and nature of characterization changes in our dub varied from character to character, the part that was most consistently applied was that most of the characters got a lot more outspoken (in terms of criticizing things, speaking their mind, and being sassy or even outright dunking on things). Fundamentally speaking, this is an understandable concept due to cultural differences; anyone who doesn't really have a grasp of Japanese seniority or politeness culture might read the kids as extremely stiff if their dialogue was brought over unaltered.

The part where this posed problems was that our dub overdid it way too much at times, so the kids would just dunk on each other or get really condescending for no good reason, and that often caused quite a bit of damage to character arc integrity or the portrayal of character relationships (or pose issues for characters like Takeru or Hikari, where them not being entirely honest about their feelings is part of the point of their characters). But it's not a fundamental problem at its core to make the kids mouth off or banter a little more; I think Diablomon Strikes Back and Kizuna's dubs did a much better job pulling this off while still staying true to the characters, and I generally consider them my reference for how I'd have been perfectly fine with a lot of things the TV series dub was doing already if they'd only been executed a little differently.

Our Ken was voiced by Derek Stephen Prince, and I suspect they casted him more for “the Digimon Emperor" than they did "Ken". (This happened with a lot of 02 dubs, from what I hear -- the Kaiser having that drastic of a 180 is really that big of a plot twist, so I doubt very many casting directors had enough warning about that. Our Wormmon, voiced by Paul St. Peter, is also a bit too obviously casted and directed under the concept of "evil villain's minion" than the more "pitiful" character he ends up becoming, but he did do his best with what he had.) DSP is an incredible voice actor who adapted to the change very well; he's voiced an absolutely unreal number of completely different roles across the Digimon franchise, including even Veemon in 02, who sounds very distinct from Ken. But since his tone isn't as "soft" as Park Romi's, and because Ken got a certain degree of "sassiness" treatment like everyone else, it's easy to get the impression that our dub's Ken is much harsher while the Japanese version is a soft-spoken kid. That's probably how it seems on the surface, but...

Even in Japanese, even post-turn, Ken was never a saint or anything. Park Romi's delivery may have a bit of a soft timbre to it, but that doesn't preclude Ken from having some choice words or complaining about things when he feels like it -- at most, he's the kind of person who holds his words back until the right time. (In fact, if you look at their speech patterns, his is actually slightly rougher than Takeru's, and he is certainly more likely to be blunt or open about his feelings than Hikari, Takeru, or Iori.) And yes, it's true that our dub made him a lot more vocal, but it's well within the range of necessary localization procedure; his occasional formality would probably be seen as way more stiff in America than it would be in Japan (where he's closer to "well-behaved"), so this level of change is reasonable. There were definitely some hiccups in the first half when they went a little too hard on portraying the Kaiser as more of a composed villain genius rather than a pathetic eleven-year-old throwing a tantrum, but as far as his second-half characterization goes, the dub writers definitely seemed to understand that he was not in a position to harshly criticize or look down on the others when he was trying to patch things up with them, so he actually still comes off as one of the "nicest" kids in the group by virtue of not giving his dialogue the same degree of condescension the others often got.

The problem is, it's unfortunately very common in fandom (in Japanese and English, so this isn't a language-specific problem) to portray Park Romi's Ken as a saintlike doormat who, post-turn, is incapable of doing a single thing wrong, impeccably polite to a fault in all circumstances, and constantly pensive and sad about everything to the point he's completely reliant on other people to snap him out of it. And that's just not the case at all! Throughout the entire latter half of 02, Ken is consistently portrayed as resilient, oftentimes far more put-together and assertive than Daisuke, and still capable of being cold or fierce when the time calls for it (the Kaiser came from somewhere, after all). So even if you do take the dub changes making him ostensibly more aggressive into account, that's still more accurate to the original Japanese portrayal than completely flattening Ken into that kind of saintlike doormat. He chooses to be kind, but the operative word is chooses, and that nuance is present in both versions.

#tomorrows2top #shiha's ask box #dubbing discourse

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themattress · 7 months

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Favorite Redeemed Villains

One who was just redeemed all at once, and another who got the full arc treatment.

The Grinch - How The Grinch Stole Christmas by Dr. Seuss delivers redemption in a charming, easily digestible for children way. The Grinch is a curmudgeony loner who hates Christmas for embodying all that he hates about socializing with others: all the noise and the spectacle and the superficiality. This drives him to impersonate Santa Claus and steal all of the presents and food from the Whos down in Whoville. But when the Whos still celebrate Christmas in spite of this, it makes the Grinch's "two sizes too small" heart "grow three sizes" as he realizes that Christmas - and thus social bonds in general - are at their core about love; no misuse can change that nor can any attempt to destroy them succeed. Thus he returns everything to the Whos and becomes a happy member of the community. It's simple and effective, introducing many kids to the concept of a villain who undergoes a change of heart.

Ken Ichijoji - Look, we all love Prince Zuko, but we need to be honest: he only got to spend the second half of the show's third and final season actually redeeming himself. His arc worked due to all of the fantastic build-up, but the pay-off was still remarkably short. Ken Ichijoji, on the other hand, spent the second half of his entire series redeeming himself for the crimes he committed in the first half. And unlike Zuko, Ken was no conflicted villain. As the Digimon Emperor, he was unabashedly evil and cruel, living out his twisted power fantasy without a thought to who might get hurt. But not only was his Heel Realization masterfully executed and his heart-wrenching backstory make his subsequent evil actions make perfect sense all while not justifying them, Ken also went through the emotional ringer several times over as he bent over backwards to redeem himself. He feels so guilty about the suffering he's caused that toward the end of the show we discover his innermost secret desire is to die at the hands of his former victims as a matter of justice. But after this he gets over the notion, realizing that dying solves nothing and that he must continue to live in order to truly make up for his sins, which he does even to adulthood as a detective. Ken went from a truly repulsive monster to someone absolutely worthy of the Crest of Kindness, and that's why he's the best.

#Dr. Seuss #How The Grinch Stole Christmas #Digimon #Digimon Adventure 02 #The Grinch #Ken Ichijoji #Redemption #Evil #Villains #Opinion #Analysis #My All-Time Favorite Villains

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otakween · 9 months

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Digimon 02: D1 Tamers - Final Thoughts

Woohoo! I beat the Ryo trilogy :D -pops a party popper-

I didn't feel the need to make this multiple posts because this game is verrry similar to the last one (Tag Tamers). The main difference is that it's in glorious color! They also added a couple new features for better or for worse.

This game was fun and addicting just like the other two. There was just a little more grinding than I would hope for. The entire game took me 3 weeks to get through because of that. (Still not too shabby). Full thoughts below the cut.

Notes:

-The plot of this one felt kind of weird and forced. Firstly, I immediately got kind of confused about the chronology because the last game ended with Ken becoming the Digimon Emperor yet he's back to normal in this one. I guess either he hasn't progressed too much yet (it's only been a few days) or this is his IRL façade since we don't see him in the digi world. Anyways, the main plot is that Ryo has to fight in a tournament and if he wins said tournament then he'll become a soldier for the ~Harmonious Ones~ against Moon Millennium. I'm honestly not sure why the digi-Gods were included in this. They added nothing.

-Speaking of the Harmonious Ones, they ask you to pick one at the beginning of the game. I picked Qinglongmon because he was the only one I recognized lol. I'm not sure what the point of this choice was other than the fact that he shows up and says a couple things towards the end.

-Ken gets reduced to a guy-in-the-chair, but a very useful guy in the chair! I found the d-terminal way more handy this time around when it came to figuring out digivolution. Ken tells you exactly how many JP (Jogress points) you need to reach the next level. Honestly, it was a relief not having to tag team in this one too, that was kind of an annoying gimmick.

-Although jogress was still annoying in this game, they thankfully added an item that allows you to add +5 JPs to your digimon which made it so much easier to get some megas on my team. Also, digivolution and skills just felt more intuitive and happened faster this time around which is appreciated.

-I think they realized how OP stun was and nerfed it a bit. It's still a good feeling to win by stunning all the enemy digimon, but stun misses like 60% of the time, so you just waste your turn a lot of the time.

-Playing this right after Tag Tamers was pretty magical because I went from black and white to color (a Wizard of Oz moment). Although the inside of the dungeons were still very repetitive, the outsides were beautiful! (Showcasing some of my faves above).

-One stupid addition that made me mad was the D1 Tournament. This is a Digimon World-style AI vs. AI tournament where you just stare at the screen and hope your digimon win. It was just a slog to get through and I just wanted to get back to the dungeons. I really can't see the appeal in that sort of "gameplay." In fact, I fast forwarded or got up for a snack whenever it got to that part.

-Another lame part about this game is that you can't buy multiple items at once anymore! You could do it in Tag Tamers so why did they go backwards!? You seriously have to buy one item at a time. How dumb.

-I'm pretty proud of my final team: Metal Greymon, King Etemon, and AeroVeedramon. Metal Greymon had poison and curse, King Etemon had stun and AeroVeedramon had the best all-enemies attack. I could of gotten AeroVeedramon to mega as well, but I realized I didn't need to to win and it would have taken another few hours.

-There was a bit more variety in the dungeons compared to Tag Tamers. They all looked the same, but a lot of them had a gimmick. Some of them had puzzles or various ways you were supposed to interact with the bosses to progress. I'm glad they mixed things up a bit since the last game was really straightforward.

-Pretty hilarious that this game ends all ominously by being like "~And then we never saw Ryo again~" but then you hit the new game plus and Gennai's like "Ah, if it isn't Ryo!" Like, clearly the new game plus bit isn't part of the canon storyline, but it still made me chuckle.

-Apparently the only thing to do in new game plus is just continue raising digimon which...no thanks.

-I've heard that this acts as a prequel to Digimon Tamers which is so exciting! I'm glad that I'm doing things in the proper order. One more game (kinda-sorta?) and then I finally get to move on from Adventure 01/02 ;w;

#digimon 02 d1 tamers #digimon #digimon d1 tamers #video games #gaming

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kob131 · 2 years

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Okay, so I need to make an essay about Deus Ex Machinas.

So, what is a Deus Ex Machina? Being a more..colloqual term, it doesn't have a strong definition, but one consistent factor is that it's a plot point that solves a previously unsolvable issue. It's used as an insult because it seems to cheapen the narrative by having something come out of nowhere to resolve the tension and drama.

For example, in RWBY, many call the Relic of Creation a Deus Ex Machina because it resolves the plot point of 'The people of Mantle vs. the people of Atlas'. And at first glance, this does seem to fit.

...But remember when I said that 'Deus Ex Machina' was a colloqualism? There's a reason for that.

In some of the most famous and well-regarded shows, by this same definition, a Deus Ex Machina exists in them.

Take Dragon Ball for instance. While people would complain about certain characters, very few would say that it uses Deus Ex Machina in its story. However, the most iconic moment of the entire series (Goku's transforming into a Super Saiyan on Namek) is technically a Deus Ex Machina. ... No really. Where was it indicated or implied that 'Super Saiyan' was some transformation like Kaio-Ken and not just some mythical figure? Nowhere. Every time it was brought up by Vegeta (itself out of fucking nowhere), he uses it to refer to PEOPLE THEMSELVES as the legendary Super Saiyan, not their POTENTIAL to achieve it. And is it just convenient that Goku is just the right level of power to beat Freeza even though he was thought to be unbeatable.

Too low of a target? How about Jojo Part 3 with Jotaro's Time Stop? At no point was it ever implied that Star Platinum could stop time. Not once was this implied or hinted at in the whole anime/manga. The only thing that implied it was Araki intending on having The World be a culmination of the Joestars' Stands themselves but that got scrapped. And in fact, this goes against what we know about Stands because NO OTHER STANDS in the entire series share the exact same power. Some may function similarly (like Emperor and Sex Pistols) but none have the same power to a T like Star Platinum and the World. The latter of which seemed impossible to overcome at that point. Fuck, this actually fits the definition MORE than the other two, which had some kind of foreshadowing.

Or hell, why not throw in AoT's Coordinate ability, allowing Eren and co to escape Reiner and the others by having the Titans attack them. This ability comes right the fuck out of nowhere, was treated as always existing and becomes a huge plot point. Even worse, since AoT is more grounded and gritty, making this kind of trope stick out a lot more.

But see, it's pretty rare for someone to call any of these a Deus Ex Machina. At best, you'll get a Jojo fan begrudgingly admitting it before never acknowledging it ever again. So, why is it that these things are called Deus Ex Machinas despite not working with what think of that term?

Again, Deus Ex Machina is not a super defined term. It's used a lot more loosely. And as such, it can have implied parts of its definition beyond the stated. We can find what it's really referring to by the origin of it's use- from old Greek theatres where a crane would bring down a supposed god to make a happy ending. Hence 'God in the Machine.'

And there lies the actual focal point of a Deus Ex Machina- they have to make a happy ending from a bad one.

Goku gaining the Super Saiyan transformation doesn't directly solve his problem, he still has to fight and survive against Freeza.

Jotaro gaining Time Stop doesn't instantly kill DIO. Jotaro still has to outwit DIO as his arrogance causes his downfall.

The Coordinate doesn't resolve the plot of AoT. Fuck, from what I heard, this power becomes a NEGATIVE later on.

And ironically, the Staff of Creation doesn't solve the issue of Atlas. Team RWBY still fall at the end, failing to defeat Cinder and leaving the people in a precarious situation.

A Deus Ex Machina is not inherently bad. It's a tool like any other. It's just used as a buzzword used to invoke indignation and validate one's opinion.

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