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#like i can go ''this feels like it's Too Far serving the plot or conflict at the expense of character'' other times w/other roles but like

junnieverse · 7 months

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✧ — JUNNIEVERSE PRODUCTIONS

PRESENTS !

" spill your guts "

... Olivia Rodrigo's GUTS album

x ENHYPEN !

WELCOME 💌 : hi everyone, so this is officially my first ever series so thank you very much for being here. I am without a doubt in love with not only olivia's sour album but her guts album too that has been on repeat on my spotify every day. I soon grew inspired to write some oneshots for the enhypen members with songs from this album and I can only hope you all like them.

I also wanted to make sure that these songs gave off a vibe that linked to a certain member and I could easily think of a plot with that member and the song so it wasn't easy since I wanted it to all come out 'perfect' but albeit it was also really fun to immerse myself into these songs and write the stories so I just hope that you all enjoy my work.

I do want to give a small disclaimer too that this is ofcourse pure fictional work and I do not in any way perceive the members to be as toxic or have any traits like how they are in these stories. (Y/n) isn't much of a saint either in a few of these but they are simply a wounded character. Don't hate the character, hate their actions (well maybe we can tomato this toxic enha /hj).

once again, thank you all so much, I appreciate your support greatly :)

— this is mars signing out !

PAIRING : enhypen x reader

GENRE : angst , slightly suggestive , very little to no fluff

WARNINGS : toxic enhypen , mentions of infidelity , mentions of alcohol/drinking , swearing , mentions of insecurities , possibly suggestive language being used , etc

STATUS : ongoing

TAGLIST : open

(either comment or send an ask to be added, no dms pls)

✧ — [ 6 / 7 ] members completed !

✦ track 01 : logical

⨾ featuring yang jungwon

— you had known from the beginning that your relationship with jungwon was far from perfect, many would simply put it as toxic because of how manipulative he was but you were too blinded by love that all the lies and deceit felt meaningless. it was too late before you realised how dysfunctional it all was, love wasn't logical after all.

ꗃ you can read it [ here ]

✦ track 02 : making the bed

⨾ featuring lee heeseung

— he was unattainable and yet you still wanted him. pretending to be someone you weren't putting yourself in difficult positions simply for his attention. with every move you made, it seemed you were digging yourself a deeper hole for a one sided love and through it all you were losing not only the people who cared about you but yourself.

ꗃ you can read it [ here ]

✦ track 03 : the grudge

⨾ featuring park jongseong

— "forgive and forget" they'd say, if only they knew it wasn't that easy. jay was one of the people you trusted the most and he only betrayed your trust, no matter how much you tried to forgive him, you knew it would take alot of strength to heal from what he put you through and letting go of the grudge you held against him would be a long journey.

ꗃ you can read it [ here ]

✦ track 04 : get him back !

⨾ featuring sim jaeyun

— despite having ended things with jake you were conflicted between hating the man and loving him all in one. you missed all the happy memories between the two of you but it was even harder to forget all the hurt he put you through. revenge is best served sweet, maybe it's time you get him back!

ꗃ you can read it [ here ]

✦ track 05 : bad idea right ?

⨾ featuring park sunghoon

— you were completely over sunghoon, no feelings for him whatsoever... or atleast that's what you would tell your friends. he was no good for you and yet no matter how many other guys came your way, sunghoon was the only one on your mind, maybe reconnecting as 'friends' would be fine, it wasn't a bad idea... right?

ꗃ you can read it [ here ]

✦ track 06 : love is embarrassing

⨾ featuring kim sunoo

— you felt like a complete fool. you told everyone he was 'the one' but seeing sunoo with someone else hit you like a truck. it was humiliating having to deal with the fact that you so easily fell for him and yet he had his eyes set on someone else. you knew you had to let him go and yet you were still holding on onto false hope.

ꗃ you can read it [ here ]

✦ track 07 : vampire

⨾ featuring nishimura riki

— the ever so loved and popular ni-ki, cherished and adored by everyone for his fame and popularity and yet here you were laughing bitterly at how naïve and blinded you were by him. he would tell you how much he loved you but it had already been too late before you realised how he used you to get where he was, draining everything in you like a vampire.

ꗃ you can read it [ here ]

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moony-2001 · 5 months

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Lore Olympus ep. 252 critique

Before all you stans get mad I generally thought this episode was pretty okay. But maybe that’s because not a whole lot happened.

Cassandra

So going in the order of events, first up is our favorite gal Cassandra.

Gotta say, already like her loads.

I don’t have a whole lot to say about her general existence, beyond the fact that it’s stupid that Apollo is using her as a walking incognito tab. My main criticism more lies around the idea of when did Apollo even meet her? He obviously couldn’t have met her during the time skip because there were no interactions allowed between realms during that time and he was kicking it in Olympus.

We also have no indication of when he actually met her post-punishment. There’s no definitive timeline for how far we are post-time skip, but by my estimation, we can’t be more than a month past when the embargo officially lifted. Idk I can already smell the mess that is this storyline a mile away.

The SA plot line

Holy fuck. I don’t exactly know what the hell Rachel is exactly trying to achieve with the SA plot line but I can tell you that the handling of it has been piss poor.

Uhhh... this is great and all except for the fact that Persephone never thought this. There is not one shred of evidence that Persephone ever liked or actually found Apollo handsome. Not even in the very early chapters. She didn't even say that he made her feel special. She said that she liked the way Hades made her feel. Hades made her feel special by grooming her but that's a whole-ass post on its own.

Even after her assault, she continued to express at minimum a clear discomfort for him in front of others and at maximum immense hatred for him when by herself or with only him. And now suddenly Rachel wants to flip the script? Why? What purpose would that serve? Why is she suddenly backpedaling on a plotline that was established within the first 25 episodes/the second day Persephone is on Olympus? The SA plotline is the longest-running and the "big bad" that has yet to be resolved. But now it only pops up when the story needs a little conflict or an extra boost to drive it forward. Plus now she wants to portray Apollo as this misunderstood ex-love interest/boyfriend with whom the audience is supposed to sympathize? It's disgusting. @genericpuff who I really need to stop tagging in these posts I'm so sorry made an excellent essay about how Rachel is burying the SA plot line that basically takes what I've said above and greatly expands it. Go read it, they made a lot of excellent points.

Melinoe

Ah yes. The mystery deity that was really Hades’ inner child/actual child all along!

So I actually had a conversation with another LO critic about how weird I thought this "inner child -> actual canonical child" pipeline was. Now, granted, I could be reading into this way too much but when I first read this, I honestly thought it was some kind of weird/unintentional representation of parents projecting their trauma onto their children.

We've seen this little ghost buddy in past chapters and a lot of people (myself included) thought that our ghost buddy was a representation of Hades' inner child. A little Hades if you will. And it was portrayed that way. We often saw our little ghost buddy/little Hades who was extremely traumatized by Hades' past experiences. The part of Hades that just can't let go despite what he may claim about "moving on" or "being better". But if this little ghost/Hades is actually their kid Melinoe, that means they saw everything that Hades went through. All his traumas, all his struggles. Everything. And now also with Persephone and her little jaunt through the mind-scape and the shit she saw. So now we have to recontextualize all of those scenes where Hades interacts with this being and tbh the scenes kind of become very ick? This is such a strange direction to take this particular storyline. Something about it just rubs me the wrong way and I don't know if it's my above complaint or something else.

But yeah. Pretty tame in comparison to some of my past posts and posts that will come. Until the next chapter and/or my next post.

#anti lore olympus #lore olympus #anti lo persephone #anti lo #lore olympus critical #lo criticism #lo critic #lo critical #lo hate #unpopular lo #unpopular lore olympus

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kimbureh · 10 months

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Teamplay explosive as Ipsium, TBB S2E9&10

So far I managed to evade spoilers for season 2, but I picked up on fandom being sort of frustrated with the lack of Crosshair's appearances. Which, yes, it's factually true as of S2E10 Crosshair appeared in only one episode. But on the other hand, episodes 9 and especially 10 are direct metaphors for Crosshair's arc, the text itself all but says so.

But one thing at a time.

It's fascinating to see the Batch slowly disintegrate, because the conflict further reveals every Batcher's ideals and coping mechanisms. Wrecker is the sensitive one of the group, and when he tells Omega she will get used to Echo's absence, he's assuring himself with that just as much. He also begins messing up during the missions. Think of Wrecker in Clone Wars: his unpredictability is integral part of the team's successful exploits. Once Crosshair and the amicable rivalry with him is gone, Wrecker lacks focus during missions, even if Echo explains the plan to him over and over again. With Echo gone as well, his stabilizing influence is sorely missed, with grave consequences. When the stampede in S2E9 hits them, and they have to leave behind the ipsium, Wrecker chooses to save his friend instead of going for the riches, and is criticized by Tech.

Tech's coping mechanism is to cling to facts. They needed the ipsium, and Wrecker lost it. They end up being trapped in another mine. These are all facts, and under duress, more and more facts pour out of Tech. Their ship is gone, they're unable to track it, Echo can't be reached for help. All these things are facts to Tech, and he sees no harm in asserting those, even though this gravely upsets Omega. Omega's coping mechanism is to be and feel useful. Her ideals lie in seeing the Batch as a family, and she suffers because they don't act accordingly. Tech shares her family ideals, but voices an inability to act on them, as well as the need to stay pragmatic in order to not further destabilize the squad; Tech holds onto facts so desperately, he is unwilling to allow the emotional impact of the change to come to the surface, instead opting to compartmentalize the issue for a nebulous 'later'.

Hunter, I honestly have no thoughts about. At this point he is a pure plot device to me that will re-activate itself once Crosshair comes into play again. Until then, his sole narrative purpose lies in being an ineffective leader and well-meaning but ill-equipped father. His coping mechanisms? Sucking everything up, I guess. His ideals? Hell if he knows himself. His whole identity is arranged around Omega's existence, but not exactly in a familial kind of way, it's a rather desperate act and Omega seems to serve as a substitute for Crosshair.

Speaking of Crosshair. As I said, he doesn't appear in S2E9&10, but the story is definitively about him. Mokko and his exploitative mining operation is directly compared to the Empire twice, and Benni serves as a stand-in for Crosshair. Benni's arc affords him to reject being a willing part of his own enslavement; the great obstacle for him to overcome is personified in the slaver Mokko and his lies.

Transferred to Crosshair, this means he too can leave behind the Empire, if only he can overcome the obstacles. Which bears the question, who is Crosshair's Mokko? And the answer is, he himself is. Crosshair convinced himself that he has got no choice anymore, that he can't return to the Batch, that being a willing tool to the Empire is what he wants or at least what keeps him alive. The way for him to see through his own lies isn't by acquiring new facts, like Benni had to do by learning about Mokko's exploitative profit margins. But Crosshair needs to learn something still, which is (not incidentally) something Omega had to learn in the opening story of season 2: which is the ability to overcome one's shame (I've already written about this at length). Omega can be interpreted as Crosshair's inner child, and as such her character development prepares the path for Crosshair's development.

(pls not season 2 spoilers, I haven't fully watched it yet)

#star wars #star wars the bad batch #star wars bad batch #tbb meta #tbb echo #tbb hunter #tbb wrecker #tbb crosshair #tbb tech #tbb omega #tbb #pls no s2 spoilers #clone force 99

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robinreflects · 2 months

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I got an ask for you!

For both Hazbin and Helluva, what episodes of each respective series do you hate/are your least favorites thus far? And what are the main issues you have with them, if any specifically call out to you?

Personally for Hazbin it's Episode 3. It feels the weakest to me structurally speaking compared to most of the other episodes, like Alastor was going and doing this thing he's up to while the B plot does fuck all to actually show the characters bonding together. Charlie and Vaggie's conflict there felt like the most nothing thing ever, too. Zestial deserved way more than Episode 3, I hope he has something to do in Season 2.

I think Carmilla definitely needed to have more time at that point to have the Vaggie parallel as well -- Whatever It Takes was a great song but the parallel felt kinda out of left field to me beyond the premise of the two having people to defend/protect (though I suppose it could be interpreted as foreshadowing for the characters' interaction later on). Until Episode 7 with Out For Love, not only are the two characters actually interacting with each other, but Vaggie's character is a lot stronger here, and her conflict with Charlie was stronger than the one in Episode 3.

For Helluva, GOD it's a 1v1 against S2E4 and S2E5. Besides the stupid dick joke that killed the energy for S2E3 I liked the rest of it enough compared to these ones. It felt like they kinda character assassinated Striker for the sake of, yet again, ANOTHER dick joke despite...Also making him hate sex/dick jokes???

And the camp one was fun but just felt really unproductive to the narrative besides the stuff with Blitz and Barbie. Then again, I thought that should've been its own episode, instead of some forced B plot in an episode that could've easily been more like S1E1, where we get to see the characters actively doing their job and it being actually funny and entertaining. (Murder Family is one of my favorites btw, I've seen it several times when we only had the first few episodes out. I wish the show had a bit more episodes like it.)

Hello! Thanks so much for the ask anon! I started writing this as a short post, but it ended up being way longer than I intended so... the Keep Reading option it is!

I don't particularly hate any episode of either show, but there are a few where I stopped and thought this... isn't that important in an 8 episode season, especially for Hazbin Hotel. Both of those shows are framed like sitcoms; where you have an ensemble cast of characters in the same setting and put them into semi-realistic situations which creates a comedic effect, the problem is sitcoms are usually at least 13 episodes a season long, but most times one season of a sitcom has the standard of making their season a 20-25 episode one (or... at least they did before).

For Hazbin Hotel, the lack of extra episodes shows very much, episodes 3 and 5 are so far the best examples of this in my opinion, they both very much feel like filler episodes. There are some very important establishments in both of those episodes, as you mentioned for episode 3. The setting up for Vaggie and Carmilla as an interactable duo later on in the show, as well as most likely foreshadowing Vaggie's and Charlie's argument later on in the season. Alastor's plot serves as a "subtle" hint for his ties to Heaven, which is (I'd confidently say) revealed in the last episode.

The song between Carmilla and Vaggie felt really forced and it's my least favorite of the bunch, I have a general problem with the songs in the show, which I will talk about later on. Carmilla's part of the song I understood or rather I understood why she was singing her parts; Vaggie's worry came out of nowhere. It can be argued that the entire B plot of Vaggie trying and failing to take on Charlie's role served as build-up, which then culminated into her part of the song, however, it didn't come across that way. Characters trying something that is typically not in their comfort zone and failing due to the circumstances or characters around them is a popular tactic in sitcoms for a funny scene (I mean the reason why s6 ep15 of Brooklyn 99 is funny is because Rosa needs help but is unwilling to ask for it and it gets to an absurd point) so seeing Vaggie trying and failing didn't come across as serious and as of deeply ingrained insecurity of her's as it was intended, which adds to the song feeling forced on her part. The problem isn't the fact that her plot of the episode had that surprise sad moment, but rather the fact that it went way too deep into her insecurities; the start of this was the "never fail you" part, and most that came after.

Episode 5 is way more of a character-focused episode and a filler episode than episode 3. Again, it is an important episode and serves as a very nice segue to episode 6 (my personal favorite), as well as giving us, the viewers (not the fandom, but new viewers who have found this show and decided to watch it, maybe having not even seen the pilot) some context into Alastor's character and status. Which is a good thing, Alastor's backstory is good character-building. And of course, introduces Lucifer to us for the first time, we finally see the King of Hell.

But that's.... just what it is, establishing. I can establish Character A in my own personal story, however, if I don't use or mention said character at all until later on in the story, so much so that people might have even forgotten about them, then I didn't do a really good job. I believe it's safe to say that Carmilla and Lucifer are both iconic characters within the show, so I don't believe people have forgotten about them, but I don't remember Carmilla or her weapons being mentioned once throughout episodes 4-6 when she and her weapons were an essential part in the finale. These points apply to Zestial as well, as you said I really do hope he gets at least somewhat of a bigger role within the show in the second season.

I genuinely hate being a person who says this, as I am a big musical theatre fan, but the songs come out of nowhere; the characters just start singing for no reason whatsoever other than the crew saying "I'd like a song here", most of them are really good (and I won't even go into the fact they got so many Broadway legends on the show), but that doesn't take away from the fact that most of the time there is no reason for a song to be placed in that scene. As well as most of the visuals of the songs looking like a mesh of those cool shots we've all seen in animatics on YouTube.

For Helluva... Fuck that'll be somewhat of a convoluted answer. The entire show kind of got away from what it was presented as in the pilot, so I have very much a hard time picking out which episodes are my least favorite. What I got from the pilot (which is always there to set the overall tone of the show and characters, as well as just test out how successful the show/premise would be) is that it's a modern sitcom-y spin-off (think Brooklyn 99, New Girl, Modern Family, etc; also those sitcoms that have cut to the funny event mentioned scenes) of Hazbin Hotel. So I went into it with that mindset, and the first episode does keep up with the premise we were originally given, which is why I like it so much. As well as Unhappy Campers, I really enjoyed that episode because it felt like it was keeping true to the original premise of the show. The other episodes... it's not that I dislike them, I dislike the abrupt tonal shifts the episodes give us; for example, Murder Family (as I mentioned) gives us that funny quirky sitcom tone the pilot gave us, but then Loo Loo Land is a much more serious episode. It's not a bad thing for a comedy series or a sitcom to have serious moments or serious episodes, it's great in fact. That being said, those scenes/episodes need to be done either later on in the show when we are already connected with the characters (such as Marvin's death in HIMYM) or have to be shown later on in the episode itself (Angel's abuse in episode 4) because the introduction scene (or first scene) introduces us to the tone of the episode and most of the time in sitcoms or comedy series the tone of the episode is supposed to be comedic. The serious scenes hit so hard because of the emotional plot twist we as the viewers are experiencing. In Helluva Boss though, most of the "serious" episodes' intros already have a serious introduction scene, which gives off the effect of drastic episodic tonal shifts.

#hazbin hotel critical #hazbin hotel criticism #helluva boss critical #helluva boss criticism #robin reflects on hellaverse #robin reflects asks

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attorneys-against-court-violence · 9 months

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Alright sit down I'm ranking Dual Destinies culprits. Spoilers abound!

Just going to list my thoughts on all 5 culprits in order of beloved to beloathed. Expect me to be mean.

Marlon Rimes

Easily the most nuanced and sympathetic of them all, and a well-written one to boot! His grudge against the orca is understandable, yet flawed in a very human way. He had no intentions of harming anyone - in fact he wanted to save his co-workers from what he saw as a dangerous animal. When Sasha was arrested he went out of his way to lie in order to get her off the hook. When push came to shove, he accepted his sentence to save her and punish himself for unintentionally setting up the Captain's death. It's all the more heartbreaking that Azura wasn't even killed by the previous orca, rendering all of his hatred and actions resulting from it irrational and unfounded. He sort of reminds me of both Simon and Aura in a few ways; taking the fall to save a friend, trying to enact revenge on someone he saw as a crazed, emotionless animal... his plight has plenty in common with both. 5-DLC gets a lot of praise in my books for its parallels to the main conflict (not that the other cases lack them) and Marlon is no exception.

The thing that makes Marlon so compelling is that he isn't a monster. He doesn't even have much of an ego, calling himself too weak to save anyone. He's a man who acted on his rage and made a dreadful mistake in doing so, trying to right his wrongs and eventually being forced to give up and admit that he had no right to do what he had done. Even agreeing that he had no right pruely on the basis of it causing someone to die inderectly. Him being rehabilitated at the end is the feather-on-the-cap to show that he's someone the characters genuinely care about and wish to do better in spite of his flaws. It took a while and plenty of evidence, but the Captain's words finally got through to him and he's a lot better for it. His animations are wonderfully creative, by the way! Turning the spyglass into a faux microphone, re-using the bucket of fish for a Popeye-esque transformation, the name-tag turning into a rapper's gold chain, his breakdown turning the witness stand into both a helm and a set of prison bars - so much visual creativity with this guy! It's such a treat.

The worst I can say about him is that the rapping is a bit of a stereotype. Yes, this is the same game that body-shames the one fat character, has no idea what a trans person is, and... well we'll save that part for later. No one enjoys that. That said, I'm willing to say the good far outways the bad here. It lead to one of the funniest witness testimonies in the series so I can't be too mad!

2. Ted Tonate

What a peculiar character... semi-verbal, anti-social, obsessed with explosives, and overall a strange specimen to behold. It doesn't feel like he has a specific quirk more than it feels like everything about him is off-beat, ranging from uncomfortably still to absolutely feral. I like it!

More importantly - while he did commit murder and assault - he does serve an important role in the plot and is not completely incompetent or heartless. That courtroom would have become a graveyard without his warning, after all! He's a bit like Frank Sawhit where he'll resort to physical violence under pressure but doesn't seem to have intended to kill necessarily. Difference is Frank was a common thief, while Ted's a bona-fide member of the police's bomb disposal unit who - black market deals aside - actually carries his duties out and does a good job. Nice little misdirection there too. That opening monologue fits the phantom better than Ted but we don't figure that until near the end. It doesn't erase the fact he's done some terrible things but at he's not a monster. Just a woefully anti-social guy who doesn't respond well to being called out.

Dual Destinies gets a surprising amount of mileage out of its Case 1 antagonist and it's a treat to watch. There's plenty that case does to give the game a bad first impression, but Ted's not one of them. He can stay!

3. Aristotle Means Aaaaaaaand we've nose-dived. Prepare for snark.

Means is emblematic of a much larger issue with Dual Destinies; it doesn't seem interested in treating the main conflicts of its cases as much more than generic good vs evil despite having an abundance of material to make things more interesting. Yes, I know Ace Attorney culprits aren't the most 3-dimensional bunch - usually the character conflicts they cause are the most interesting parts. Though they usually make things fun by being smarmy bastards. Means is just repeatitive. It's one thing to be a shallow bad guy, it's another thing entirely to beat you over the head with a single catchphrase without putting any spins on it. Manfred has the same one-track mind in his philosophy but he never felt this aggressively tedious about it. There's also the fact that, well... the ends DID justify the means in the end. Dual Destinies' main conflict would not have been solved without Aura taking extreme measures to save Simon. Having that while saying "doing bad things is bad no matter what!" with this guy makes him feel all the more flimsy and misguided. Him wanting to save Juniper and honour her wishes by any means necessary is a nice way to add flavour to the conflict but it's grossly overshadowed by him being a flat cartoon for the most part.

I feel like there's a sorely missed opportunity here for him to point out that Phoenix Wright also exercised that philosophy at times. Yes I'm talking about forging evidence in 4-1, it would have been a nice way to make his conflict with Athena more interesting. Pointing out that her boss is an exemplar of "the ends justifies the means" - especially with Apollo in the same room - is an idea that fills my brain with thinks. Might have even been the reason why he invited Nick to the academy too... oh well. It takes a lot to bouy a one-track villain like him up as it is without actively adding more baggage through redundancy and lack of presence. He doesn't even do much of anything or have a chance to BE evil before his hair stands up like other villains. He's just. Annoying. I know I keep comparing him to Manfred, but imagine a version of him that didn't do anything until the tail-end of the last trial and with none of the backstory and gravitas. That's the level Means is at.

A crappier Manfred. Joy to the world!

4. ???

YOU COULD HAVE BEEN SOMEBODY! YOU HAD SO MUCH POTENTIAL! Hell, he arguably does have dramatic weight as-written. He's the embodiment of the distrust and denial of ones true feelings/identity that has caused this racket in the first place. Dual Destinies as a whole is a game about people who put on masks to do what they feel is right or necessary, then being forced to take the mask off, confront themselves and their actions for what they truly are. Having a villain who's hidden his identity this entire time is such a fitting choice! It's just a shame that he, oh you know, it's small thing it doesn't really matter... DIDN'T HAVE AN IDENTITY WORTH HIDING TO BEGIN WITH!!! Dual Destinies beats you over the head about how scary this guy is for having no personality. And that's exactly the problem. When you spend that much time telling people the villain isn't worth caring about then that's what people are going to take away. Nevermind that his personality for most of the game was a goofy detective man who valued JUSTICE! above all else, a man who is willing to question his own definitions of it despite what others may think but still allows it to justify doing awful things like zapping Simon. Maybe that could have been the answer! That he allowed his perception of JUSTICE! to warp so much that he became this ghoulish ghost who kills and commits acts of terrorism without remorse. His life being threatened when his literal mask falls acting as a metaphor for how he is unable to confront himself for who he is and what he's done; he, in his own eyes, would be the least justified of them all, and so he has forsaken his identity to avoid that truth. A truth that would spell the end both within and without.

But no. The game does everything in its power to tell you he's a hollow, empty husk of a human being. More importantly, even if the above was the case it doesn't do anything at all with the concept. It just comes across that his main conflict is "who tf am I?" Which is... oddly sad and worrying? Yes, I do think the idea of letting your true self go leading to awful, terrible things and the horror of realising that that's exactly what you did - even denying it or using it as a point of strength - is an interesting and befitting idea. They just don't do anything with it before he's already carted off to the pile of characters we'll never hear from again. There's nothing there by design to the point where it doesn't feel like there was anything he COULD have discarded in the first place. His lack of identity feels less like a concept the writers wanted to explore and more of an excuse to get a twist villain who could pretend to be anybody.

It's a diservice to both the story and to the false identity he had before this. "Bobby Fulbright" somehow ended up a more interesting character and he's the one who's chastised by other characters for being a simple idiot! And he was discarded for this guy! "Bobby" should have mattered more, both to the characters and to the phantom's identity. Not get an unceremonial "he was dead the whole time" reveal and be completely divorced from the phantom's character in every way the story can think to do. Erasure in more ways than one... no wonder people felt betrayed. In a bad way. You shouldn't feel betrayed by the writing if it's any good and that's how plenty - myself included - felt. Oh, and having the only character who's low/no emotion be the shallow bad guy is not a great look... I'll say it again; the problem isn't that he's the antagonist. It's that he's not a well-written one. A psychopath would be fascinating as a character in ANY role in this psychology-focused mystery game if Dual Destinies had the gall to make one that's actually interesting. Remember what I said about Means crushing the conflict into something too simple for the concept behind it? The phantom does that on a wider scale and it deals a massive blow to Dual Destinies to have its overarching villain so infuriatingly empty and disposable. It makes themes of trust and masks I mentioned fall flat.

I'd rather Athena kill Metis over this. It'd be a similar concept with more justification behind it without completely dismissing the players emotional investment or cheapening the themes of the game. Or at least execute those things in a better way than this. In justice we trusted...

Sidenote: I was torn between ranking Means or the phantom here. While Phanty is definitely more interesting to talk about than the living staute, him sucking hurts more than Means due to his status as the main villain. It's easier to get away with being a shallow puddle when you weren't meant to swim much in it to begin with.

5. Florent L'belle

You'll notice I didn't put an emotional marker on this guy. That should tell you everything you need to know. At least the phantom makes me feel something, even if it is abject despair at how much of a gaping hole he leaves in the story. Florent just... I mean he's... His breakdown's creepy, that's kinda fun... I got nothing, he's just sort of there.

Lick a toad, you inferior Redd White. I'm going need to borrow Bobby's Jolt of Justice next time you show up.

At least I'd feel something that way.

#dual destinies analysis #dual destinies spoilers #ace attorney spoilers #aa5 spoilers #aa4 spoilers #marlon rimes #ted tonate #aristotle means #the phantom ace attorney #florent l'belle #lotta text in this one watch out! oooooo!

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lilac-5ky · 1 year

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The Embodiment of a Dream, pt.2 (Takasugi x Courtesan Fem!Reader)

A/N: WELL, I said I'd finish this in February, but somehow it's April now?!?! Crazy, I know right .-. I'm so bad with deadlines, sue me or straight up murder me, I'll take either ;-; On another note, THIS AIN'T THE LAST PART OF THE FIC, there was a change in plans. The third part will be the final one, decided to break it into two pieces since I wanted the word count to stay in the 7k-8k words. Hoping this turned out good enough!

Plot: The continuation of the relationship between Takasugi and a Yoshiwara courtesan.

Warning: Similar to the first part, but this one actually includes smut.

Part 1

In the wake of Shinsuke’s injury, you found yourself running through the halls like a headless chicken, struggling your hardest to prevent an unprecedented situation from blowing up. The Shinsengumi were gone, but the hunt was far from over. If someone had seen him enter your room all bloodied up, someone who knew both his face and the name Takasugi Shinsuke put two and two together, then your heads wouldn’t be the only ones to roll. You sure didn’t hold the people of this house in high esteem, but you weren’t too keen on unnecessary bloodshed either.

Shinsuke’s coming occurred in secrecy, and a secret it shall remain until all conflict can be avoided.

Your first initiative was to weasel your way out of tonight’s workload. Fortunately, one look at your recolored kimono was enough to convince Boss to exempt you. Miscarriages were somewhat of a common trade feature, and judging by the sheer volume of red splattered across your skirt, yours must have been quite the excruciating one.

To say this was part of a bigger, elaborate plan would be a lie. But his false interpretation was most convenient when it came to limiting your quarter’s traffic and definitely earned you more time —three days off, to be precise— than any half-assed sniffling would.

He promised that a hearty dinner be delivered to your doorstep, and you graciously departed, leaving him to smoke through the contents of his hidden stash of Amanto-produced tobacco in peace.

You climbed the stairs back to your room, cradling your stomach and wincing in feigned anguish whenever one of the girls happened to pass you by. None offered help, and none dared make any inquiries. Under the guise of serving Yoshiwara’s much-treasured laws of privacy, they refused to admit their unwillingness to see past the ends of their noses. Not that you blamed them. You were all too familiar with the concept, and if it weren’t for a certain brooding patient confined within the four walls of your bedroom, then you could claim to abide by such rules yourself.

You caught Shinsuke sleeping a deep slumber, his breath quietly sizzling in his nostrils. The painkillers must have finally kicked in. Drowsiness was among the first side effects listed in the box’s endless list of instructions, though as far as you were concerned, the pills’ actual effect on him remained unknown.

What great irony, you sneered. To think that all this medicine that was once meant for you has now returned to him. Truly ironic.

Around him, torn pieces of cotton were sprinkled all over the floor like confetti; the kimono they composed no longer in existence. He wasn’t so provident as to carry extra dressings on him, and you weren’t about to go pharmacy scavenging in the middle of the night. And so, your precious customer’s precious gift ended in thin strips of amputated cranes and decomposing camellias, the first of which stared at you with an accusatory look that begged you to feel something other than the sickening delight you got from snipping them.

After successfully discarding them, you dragged your dresser upon that one stubborn bloodstain on the carpet, grimacing at every instance of shrill sound that threatened to wake him up, and once that was out of the way, you picked out a clean outfit and headed into the bathroom, finding him in the exact same spot you’d left him, with the only indication of his being alive that of his consistently sharp breathing.

There was little you could do at this point. All that was left was to participate in this dull game of wait-and-see until he could confirm his own condition himself.

But what if he didn’t wake up? What if it took him longer than three days to recover? What if he never woke up? Not after three days, not ever again?

Thoughts of equal concern festered in your mind all the while you watched after him, your fingers itching to drop the sewing kit and shake him awake. Unlike that time you’d mistook him for asleep, his current expression appeared thoroughly serene. His identically shut eyelids could very easily be home to a pair of identically green orbs, and as for his lips… his gaping lips were almost calling out to yours.

You sighed loudly and crossed the thread through another hole in his yukata. Without its owner wearing it, the fabric hung lifeless in your hands, creasing and crumpling at your needle’s disposal as you tended to each and every damaged butterfly wing. One would think these were a shogun’s or even an emperor’s garments, for such was your reverence, and yet the color of the patches regrettably turned out a shade too light.

Another sigh followed, joined by a deeper one that was certainly not yours.

“How are you feeling?”

His eye fluttered slowly enough to remind you of its singularity “Like I should be dead instead.”

“I’m glad you aren’t,” you grinned, feeling a weight dropping off your shoulders. “I’d hate to lose my favorite customer.”

“And here I thought you simply wanted to avoid getting jumped by a mob of samurai,” he said, his voice gruff from sleep. “So? Have you grown tired of playing nurse yet?”

“Not at all. If it pleases you, I can dress the part too.” You joked.

A dry chuckle scraped his throat. “Almost forgot we were in Yoshiwara.”

Securing the thread into a knot, you snapped the loose end with your teeth. The job was done, and while you wouldn’t call it as good as new, it seemed decent enough to carry him home— wherever that was.

“How about some water?” You proposed, but Shinsuke didn’t answer.

His interest was drawn past the window sill and the neon-light signs of the opposing building to the charcoal sky above. It was pitch black. No moon nor star dared peak beneath the clouds for fear of leading his pursuers back to him. All was shrouded in a veil of perfect stillness that fed into his gaze, creating a seemingly bottomless vortex at the center of his eye.

“Shinsuke…?”

As if an imaginary plug were pulled, the darkness began to dissipate, unclear whether it poured back out or further in. His shoulders rose up to his ears, although, no later than a second passed, a parched cough came to contradict his shrug.

You folded the yukata to the side and fetched him a flask of cold water. First, he groaned, and then his eye rolled in seeming disdain, but eventually his lips parted and let you tilt the sprout between, his hand forcing yours away once he’d had enough.

“You know, you try too hard to be insufferable.”

“And I’m not?” He smirked.

“Far from it,” you shook your head. “I happen to find your whims quite—”

Before you could finish your sentence, a knock against the door’s frame came to interrupt. Must be dinner, you instinctively thought and jumped up, motioning him to keep quiet, just in case.

Right outside the threshold, a tray that contained one steaming bowl of beef udon awaited, the rich aroma of its broth spiraling into your nostrils. Thick noodles, miso soup, shiitake mushrooms, freshly chopped scallions, and golden-brown sesame oil drizzled on top; the signature dish of the corner eatery. Boss didn’t kid when he dubbed this a “hearty dinner.” It almost pained you to part from it, but between the two of you, Shinsuke was the one who needed strength the most.

“Room service,” you declared, sliding through the door. “Please, quit being stubborn and have something to eat.”

He glanced your way apathetically, neither declining nor accepting your offer until a spoon was aimed at his mouth.

“That won’t be needed,” he propped himself onto his elbows.“I’d rather save myself some dignity.”

As he sat up, the sheets receded down his thighs, revealing a series of neatly wrapped dressings whose color gradiented to dark brown. Thank goodness, he must have stopped bleeding out.

You nodded in respect to his request and transferred the tray to his lap, watching each spoonful succeed over another and coughing loudly whenever your stomach dared act up. It felt so empty— your body, that was. Drool drained backward in your throat, your mouth gradually assuming the raw dryness of cotton. Was this the taste of abnegation, you mused.

Becoming aware of your indiscreet stare, he suggested that you split the noodles in half, but when he did, you found it much easier to ball your sleeve over your fist and wipe the corner of his mouth with a smile on yours, ushering him to eat more.

Soon, the bowl emptied and Shinsuke reclined back to his previous position, whilst you sat to his right like a watchful sentry. The minute his head hit the pillow, the light in his eye dimmed, suggesting his exhaustion. Again, he seemed so worn out, that your name barely echoed as a faint whisper past his sealed lips.

“Anything else you need?”

“Undress.” The clear spelling of the word left little room for interpretation. Still, your first instinct was to cower in your corner.

“Don’t get any weird ideas,” he smirked.“Even if I wanted to express my… profound gratitude, those pills you fed me would stand in the way.”

“Then—”

“I’ve already indebted myself borrowing your food and bedding. Least I can do is return one of the two,” he continued. “Take your clothes off, or keep them on, if that’s what suits you. Just come lie down beside me.”

Your eyes locked to affirm the certainty of his tone. He was dead serious about his intentions, though the prospect of sharing a bed was perhaps more tantalizing than he’d intended it to be. It gave reason for your heart to beat faster and for a certain familiar tingle to surge between your thighs, ushering you to acknowledge it— which you unwittingly did, as you shifted in your place and pressed your knees together.

Your habit of fidgeting with your clothes in stressful times resumed, except this once, your fingers were tugging at the obi to loosen it up, each layer uncoiling into a pile of huddled snakes for you to stomp on, as you rose to your feet and shed off your kimono. You had his attention. No, more than that, you had his eye entirely hooked on you, studying each curve of your body with unmistakable interest and fascination, as if it were an art piece for him to appraise. And when he looked at you like that, you realized just how much you longed to be seen.

A little smile stretched from the corners of your lips to his, as you circled around the futon and slipped beneath the covers. Even when he’d barely budged from bed, your side of the linen remained excruciatingly cold for your skin to handle. You tried shriveling in half, but in doing so you bumped your head against his arm. You spluttered an apology and turned the other way, only to conclude the position was equally discourteous.

And thus, you ended up with your arms crossed over your breasts, your conscience idly counting wooden tiles in the ceiling and praying that their numbers were great enough for you to doze off— they weren’t. They didn’t exceed the double digits, and when you finished counting each about five times, you understood that sleep was never an option. Not when you insisted on stealing furtive glances at him, one patch of skin at a time.

You didn’t have the chance to fully appreciate it earlier, but Gods, he looked even better without a darn thing on. His body was the perfect continuation of his beautiful face. Lean, but not actually scrawny. Toned, but not too brawny either. Arms that were tried in strenuous swordsmanship and delicate collarbones that framed his pecs. A thin sheen of sweat coated his abs to the point where you could see them. It made his skin subtly glisten in the dark, and it made you want to skim over him; first with your palms, and then with your lips— if he allowed.

The chilly air subdued to the kind of unsettling heat that had your breath hitching up your throat, restless exhales eventually shaping up into becoming his name.

“Why me?” At last, the question burned its fuse. “There are plenty of women in Yoshiwara— why me?”

“Because,” the sheets to your right rustled, “you were the only one not affiliated with some Bakufu dog.”

“Is that… all?”

“That’s the reason why I chose you,” he confirmed your disappointment, “but aren’t you more curious as to why I kept coming back?”

Your cheek tilted in a cushion of sudden warmth, his palm holding the weight of your gazes together. He leaned closer, so close that you could no longer see him, but feel him. The feathery touch of his purple strands over your forehead, the leftover tobacco essence in his breath, and the shared heartbeat as it pounded in your chests. He prevailed against all senses, common and uncommon, getting the better, if not the best, of you.

“Your eyes,” you heard him say, and popped them open. “A skilled courtesan knows to orchestrate the perfect lie with body, soul, and mind, and yet, your eyes refuse to coordinate. Your distaste, your distrust, and your hatred. The true colors you think the red lights hide,” the smile rang in his voice. “You really think those are hidden from me?”

The very object of his judgment must have betrayed your surprise, considering he was the one to answer his own question.

“Relax. I don’t see beyond what you choose to reveal.”

“And what do you see now?” A shaky voice asked.

“Myself.”

His next breath stole the oxygen from yours, with his lips deliberately ghosting over your jaw in a fleeting motion that escorted him back to his pillow. Was this seduction? If so, it felt an awful lot like frustration.

“This is the second time you question my skills.”

“Does it bother you?” Shinsuke asked. “In any case, what I’m questioning isn’t your skills as a courtesan, but your nature as one.”

“I wasn’t born into it,” you admitted, knitting your fingers over your stomach. “A prostitute, a terrorist, some…. ‘Bakufu dog.’ Nobody is born into nothing. We get assigned to these roles and are expected to play them up to the final round of applause. Some are just lucky enough to fit the part.”

“Turns out I was right, after all.”

“What do you mean?”

“Those who are interesting either have one screw too loose or have suffered a great deal.”

“And what makes you think I’ve suffered?”

You didn’t expect an answer—not truly, at least. And so, you skipped over to the next question, the one whose answer itched you the most to find. “Have you suffered a lot?”

“Kind of you to exempt me from the first category,” he jested, his light-hearted chuckle barely matching the solemn expression on his face. “Most would assume a man seeking to destroy the world is bat-shit crazy.”

“Because I’ve come to know a Shinsuke, most don’t. To tell you the truth, I…” you bit your lips into a straight line and rolled to face him. He was curious enough to return the gesture, his shoulders shifting in your direction as he balanced himself on his good side.

“I’ve seen you. Way before we were acquainted, I saw you walk those very same streets with people that accompany you no longer. You were admired, and you were praised, and you— I didn’t get the chance to see your face, back then, but I know you must’ve had at least one good reason to smile, didn’t you?

“I don’t mean to pry into your past, and I won’t ask what happened between the two versions of you. But the Shinsuke who brought a lowly courtesan medicine for her sickness; the Shinsuke who told me to live as a woman rather than a puppet; the Shinsuke who in the face of death sought my company instead of a doctor’s; the Shinsuke who gave me a reason to laugh, and sing, and a reason to get out of bed and to endure all the vileness of men, and taught me there’s kindness in the night— Those versions of you are far more precious to me than any war-general or world-class terrorist I could meet.

“And I don’t mean to repeat myself, but I’d like to ask a final time. Have you suffered on your way here? Has it been hard on you?”

A pained smile was all he could muster to reply.

You sighed for him, for the man he was and the man he’d become, and for the little girl whose face still gleamed in your memory between trawlers and rows of fishing poles in her father’s shed, free of tarnish. Someone had to mourn for those and the futures they’d lost, and seeing as he was there right now, you guessed he didn’t have anyone else to do that in his stead.

“If you keep at it, you might convince me that it’s real.” He quietly mumbled.

“Is it not?”

In no time, you’d crossed over to his side, your fingers palpitating between his neck and jawline. It was as if gravity pulled you down to him, a force of attraction so great that when your eyes settled on his lips, your tongue begged to tease them apart. And when they did part, all doubt and uncertainty were negated, for this was no matter of sentiment or intentions, but of bodies coming together.

His hands spanned from your shoulders to your waist and to your thighs below, the softness of your moan meeting with the hoarseness of his groan as wetness met with firmness. He was dragging you closer by any means possible, hips joining and then thrusting in futility of his clothed cock. You opened up for him, your knee coiling around his torso as your fingers slid across his stomach, reveling in how his muscles tightened and tensed up until they gave way to a violent jolt.

“Sh-Shinsuke-san!” You immediately unraveled, your eyes searching for signs of pain in his stiffened expression. “Are you okay?”

“I thought we moved past this.” His lips curled into a grimace as he followed your stare to his bandages. They were still intact, albeit slightly wrinkled. You lowered a hand over his wound and he gulped down hard, his shaky breath contradicting the “I’m fine” he was about to utter.

But when you pulled your fingers off and attempted to return to your pillow, he refused to separate from your waist and held you even tighter, pairing your chin with his shoulder and the small of your back with both his arms. You couldn’t object, or rather, you didn’t want to object. In his embrace, you felt so small that no reason seemed big enough to leave it.

“I couldn’t care less if it isn’t,” Shinsuke whispered, circling back to his previous question. “I don’t care if you are a Yoshiwara woman, and I don’t care how many men you’ve slept with or deceived either. From this moment onward, you can lie all you want. Lie and I’ll believe, because… you are mine.”

Before you knew it, tears began welling in your eyes for a reason you could hardly define. A woman who’d spend her entire life in possession of another, a woman whose body was hardly hers, to begin with, a woman that had nothing to her name— What could such a woman aspire to give? If all parts of you were bought out, what could he possibly hope to own?

However, his words had already seeped under your skin, traversing from one ear to the other, down your spine, and up your head again, as you hesitantly came to confirm his notion with the meekest of nods.

The last thing you made of that night was the shape of his lips against your skin, along with the oath that accompanied them: Even if no part of me belongs to me, whatever fragment of my heart remains is yours to keep. Because… I am yours.

He was gone the morning after.

And the morning after that.

And the morning after the morning after that.

You counted a total of 36 mornings where he didn’t give a single sign of life. Mornings that were succeeded by insufferable noons full of idle girl talk in the balcony, and evenings where the alcohol was nearly not enough to blur out the faces of those around you. But far more intolerable than hearing the same story about some silver-haired scoundrel trying to trade pachinko balls for cash, and pretending to find joy in the way some sleazy merchant plowed you on all four, was not knowing whether Shinsuke was alive or dead.

As much as you’d like to personally dig into it, snooping around when Shinsengumi’s investigation had just been put on hold was bound to turn all eyes on your back, and if he was to ever return, you didn’t want your lack of discretion to stand in the way. Yoshiwara was treacherous enough as it was. Besides, rumor had it that the cops’ failure in capturing a mere “phantom terrorist” forced the Commissioner to cut down on police funds, along with a few heads of his incompetent men. The latter part sounded mostly fictitious, though part of you did hope that the ill-mannered cop from the other day was among those headless corpses.

In any case, it was safe to assume neither Shinsuke nor his body had been found. Whether he’d made it back to his comrades in one piece or bled out in some dark alleyway, knowing he’d escaped their clutches gave you hope. And perhaps, it was hope that brought you to the aforementioned congregations, whose main gossip topic was your house’s love affairs.

It turned out that more than half of those money-depended relationships you previously mocked were built on a much deeper basis than one would imagine. Each girl had this one patron whose talk alone made their eyes shimmer. Some carried a strand of their hair around their pinky— a promise. Others scarcely held onto their correspondence beneath their undergarments until the paper thinned. One kept an entire box devoted to memorabilia of their beloved: a handkerchief they left behind, a jade ring that was their first gift, and pictures. Far too many pictures of them.

A few months back you would have sneered at their faces, but the longer you spent in their company, the more you began feeling some sort of kinship blossom between you. To have a preference escalate to something more, was a feeling you knew all too well.

It was inevitable that by the fifth time you attended their meetings, you’d be asked about your own affairs, and when that moment came, you chuckled politely and switched the topic back to the previous speaker’s flame. So far this tactic had worked 31 out of 31 times, and while neither side shared the information the other longed to hear —in your case, news about the one that got away,— listening to them read their letters out loud had given birth to a new idea.

Now, you weren’t proficient in literature by no means, and the only letters you’d ever exchanged were based on false attraction. But if you could somehow manage to get a letter delivered and answered, your mind would be put to rest.

Your first efforts were defined by a series of smudged-up writings of his name. “Shinsuke” felt too plain a salutation and “Shinsuke-san” was sure to earn you an earful. “Takasugi,” or “Takasugi-san” came off too formal, while “My beloved” was still a matter of contemplation. Eventually, you decided that “Dear Shinsuke” which your latest attempts featured, was the right amount of personal without sounding too pretentious or unnatural.

Once you’d gotten that down, your primary concern became the letter’s main body. What on earth would you write him? The letters of those girls were heavily dosed with words of eloquent sensibility that a mere “I miss you—I’m worried about you—Please come back” could never hope to compete with. Urgency aside, you didn’t want to come off as an illiterate idiot.

You tried your hardest, crumpling one ball of paper after the other and then cringing equally as hard at what came to be the final product among an abundance of discarded drafts that littered the floor.

Dear Shinsuke,

How strange it is to have written numerous letters for my pen to only tremble now. Ink does sentiment little justice, and yet my entire heart’s contents are summed in that first salutation. Dear’s what I’ve come to call you, for dear’s what you are to me.

And so I call you dear again, twice and then thrice, while watching the sunrise. I used to hate all dawns that led to our nights’ demise, but now each dawn brings me new hope. Hope that you’re safe and in good health, for I dare not imagine you unwell. They say patience is a virtue, but how many more suns need to rise before I become virtuous? How many hollow moons until my longing settles?

The ways to express my desire are as plentiful as the stars written in the skies, and I fear, that for as long as you evade my arms’ embrace they’ll insist to multiply.

Nevertheless, I must draw the line here and convey one final thought. I’ve been pondering on words you’ve said, and have concluded that a dream’s end lies between its fulfillment and the waking of its host. Because a dream completed is no different than a goal achieved, and a dreamer’s awakening shutters all that could have been.

Am I dreaming, my dear Shinsuke? Or will my dream begin when we’re no longer apart? If I’m asleep, don’t wake me up, but if I’m awake, please hurry back.

Faithfully yours,

Your improper courtesan.

You must have folded and unfolded that last piece of paper at least a dozen times, sighing at each interval in between. This is so embarrassing, you ruminated, forehead against the table, and hands thrown over the edge in indication of surrender. An entire day went by and this was the best you could come up with. How very embarrassing; words you must have said out loud for you got an actual response.

“Didn’t know Yoshiwara women were capable of embarrassment.” The voice of a man cooed in your ear, its tone so gentle that if you hadn’t been scared out of your wits, you would have leaned back to relish it.

However, the only thing you managed was to flinch in such rapidness that caused the ink bottle to fly straight into his palm. Wide-eyed, you traced the fingers back to their owner, well aware of whom they belonged to. He looked good. He always did, but what set him apart from the last time you saw him was the significant lack of bandages. Even his damaged eye was left bare on a rare occurrence.

“You’re back!” You gasped.

“I am,” Shinsuke nodded. “Although, I can’t say I remember this place looking like a pigsty.”

You glanced around in horror at what the place you used to call your “room” had become. There were more pages on the floor than there would’ve been if you’d shredded an entire collection of encyclopedias.

“How long have you been standing there?” You asked as you attempted to sweep the papers into one big pile away from his legs.

“Long enough to realize the cause of your embarrassment.” His eye wandered toward your makeshift desk and settled on the letter upon it.

Your arms urged to cover the words from his sight, but unfortunately, he was too fast for your own good.

“This isn’t-”

“A love letter?” He smirked, waving it in the air to unfold it.

“Meant for you!” You protested.

“It has my name on.” His forefinger pointed where the title should be.

“It’s nothing important-”

“If it wasn’t, then why waste all this paper?”

“Please,” you tugged at his yukata. “don’t.”

He lowered the letter for your eyes to meet— his narrowed green orb rotating a full circle. Perhaps it was your pleading tone, or maybe the pup-like stare you were giving him. No matter the cause, he was merciful enough to fold the letter inside his yukata and take a seat beside you, his interest soon drawn by the empty bottle of sake on the table’s corner.

Normally, a girl would’ve brought a refill before a guest arrived, but as fast as you were concerned your night wasn’t booked in advance.

“Should I bring you something to drink?” You tried to change the subject.

“No need,” he shrugged, shifting the bottle between his fingers.

“Have you eaten…?”

“I have.”

Was this his way of keeping a grudge, you wondered, spotting the creased paper corner that peaked from his chest.

“Aren’t you going to read that?”

He let go of the bottle at once, head tilting in your direction. “I don’t see why I should when you don’t want me to.”

“Then why are you keeping it?”

Your question brought forth a smile to his features— one that could be considered equal parts smug as it was coy.

“To commemorate the first love letter I receive,” Shinsuke answered.

“I find it hard to believe no one’s ever written you one before,” you said, adding a second part to your sentence in case he found the first too insolent. “You seem the kind of man who receives lots of letters, is all.”

“None I wasn’t allowed to read,” he retorted. “For that, I consider yours the first.”

Allow is a heavy word, you wished to object, though he wasn’t quite wrong either.

“How are you?” You asked in a cowardly voice and then repeated again.“That’s what the letter says. ‘How are you? I’m fine.’”

“Is that all?” he chuckled. “You wrote me a letter to ask how I’m doing?”

“…And I miss you,” you sighed. “‘I miss you, I’m worried about you, please come back alive.’”

The tone of your complexion was reflected on his cheeks, as an inconspicuous red hue spread upon them. You bet he didn’t blush too often, or else he’d know to hide it. Even his smile seemed mellower than before, lacking the usual cunning sharpness.

“You talk more like a courtesan now.”

“Isn’t it time I acted like one, too?” Your hand moved on top of his own and brought it to your lips, unlocking each of his fingers with a kiss. “I want you.”

He cupped your face in his palm and dragged his thumb over your bottom lip, eyes glinting at what was about to come. “Was this also in the letter?”

“No,” you smiled. “I wanted to say this in person. I want you-”

And suddenly, you understood what being his entailed, for your lips belonged to him, along with your tongue, your breath, and all you had to give. It was all his. The neck his eager palm steadied, the silky hair his fingers carefully untangled, the soft thighs straddling him, and the visceral sounds your mouths exchanged. It was all his to take. Every part of you that once was, no longer were. Only a fervent urge left burning in its place, augmented with every little jab across your velvet skin.

His lips withdrew to your neck, arms tightening around your waist for your chest to rise up against him. You tried to untie your obi, but Shinsuke acted first, sliding your kimono well past your cleavage and attaching himself to your breasts— one at a time. His wet tongue rolled around your nipples, sucking them into hardness, while his eye focused solely on your expressions.

You bit your agape mouth shut, gulping the heaviest of breathings down as his hand crossed between your legs to find the spot that begged for him the most. He circled his thumb over your clit in a way that was awfully similar to how he’d held your lips. He moved it languidly and continuously, again and then all over again until a needy moan was coaxed. And when that happened, he kept on going, ignoring the strain in his fundoshi, and persisting until his face was squeezed between your heaving breasts. He remained kissing them and kissing you down from your high, the final of his tender kisses landing upon your fiery cheeks.

“I’m fine, thank you.”

For a minute, you failed to register what he meant, though when you did, neither had the chance at a chuckle as you fell back onto each other. Insatiable fingers freed him from his obi, exposing his body to your touch. He laid back against his elbows, a hint of surprise widening his eye as you planted your lips on his chest and licked your way around his nipples. You sucked one of them in, gently pinching the other with your thumb and forefinger. Does it feel good, you meant to ask, but seeing as his head arched backward, it was safe to assume he savored this no less than you did.

Your mouth drifted to his stomach, hands pushing the fabric aside only to stop at the first of a series of mismatched patches. He could’ve gotten himself a new yukata, and yet he wore the one you’d fixed him with equal pride.

Fawning over the notion, you didn’t notice him turn the tables on you, just like he didn’t notice his knee nudging the table down, the ink bottle he’d tried so hard to salvage cracking into a pool of ebony black across the tatami your head laid upon. He brushed all hair off your face and stared at you for a good while, his gaze almost pious. You wondered what he thought of— if he thought about anything at all, and what he saw— if he saw anything worth seeing in that impressionable face of yours, though soon, you grew too preoccupied with his actions to care about his thoughts.

He claimed your hand and pushed it above your head, locking his fingers together with yours. His arm felt heavy; not as heavy as his hips and certainly not as heavy as the bundle of nerves in the pit of your stomach, but still, heavy enough to restrain you. It was time. Your knees bent back to your stomach, allowing him to align with your entrance. And when he pushed himself in, gods, he was still looking deep within your eyes, at the soul, you doubted existed. He watched it darken and twist in pleasure that you shared, and if someone asked what he did so differently from all others, you wouldn’t dare to voice that four-letter word at loud.

The difference was never in his thrusts or the way he kissed, so full of ecstasy and life. The difference lay in how he made everything burn brighter and blur murkier at the same time, in how he was capable of anchoring you, as he was in making you soar. Because the answer and the question were both him and if that imaginary, indiscreet stranger pried for more, you’d decided to name this your first time, too.

“If someone walked in right now, they wouldn’t be able to tell the courtesan and the guest apart.”

“If someone walked in right now, they’d be lucky if a courtesan and a guest were all they saw.”

One’s words accompanied a dull trail of smoke and the other’s a vibrant melody, with the first pouring out your lips and the second from his fingers. One sat with their knees apart, and the other lay on their back. One was naked from the waist up, and the other completely bare. One focused on the other, and the other focused on their song, both sharing the same complacent smile on their lips.

“You seem awfully fond of my pipe,” said Shinsuke, strumming one string after the other, while you drew short and frequent puffs.

“My father had a kiseru just like this one,” you exhaled, shifting the pipe between your knuckles. “He loved himself a good smoke after dinner. Called it ‘the last instance of affordable freedom in this shit world.’ Ma’ had different ideas. To put it short, she hated it. Opened all windows and fanned the smoke out as if the house was on fire.

“I remember how, once, sis stole the kiseru from his jacket and we took a puff each, not fully grasping what it was. It was horrible, that’s what it was,” a chuckle broke through your words. “But not as horrible as Mother’s shrieks when she found us puking our guts out on the kitchen floor. She’d made us swear we’d never touch tobacco again, and we took the oath without second-guessing.”

“And here you are breaking it,” he sneered.

“Madam’s the same way,” you went past his interruption. “She hates it when Boss smokes and nags him every chance she gets, even though she was the one who taught us how to handle it, should a guest ask us to indulge. One of the many must-knows of the job,” you explained, closing your fingers over the pipe’s neck. “You’re right. I really am fond of this. Maybe because it’s yours. Maybe because it tastes like you.”

His lips curved into a slight smile, his eye never stirring away from the instrument on his lap. “Keep it. I have no grand memories to back my habit up.”

“I didn’t mean to-”

“Take it,” he insisted. “See it as an addition to your stories, or just something to remember me by.”

“You talk as if you won’t be coming back…”

“‘Increased chances of sudden death’ and ‘low life expectancy’ are both in the job description,” he shrugged. “Who knows when my time to kick the bucket will come? We might not get a chance at goodbye then”

“That’s not fair,” you said in a quiet voice full of complaint, gaze lowering along with the music’s tempo. “Haven’t enough died already?” Haven’t I lost enough already? “Why should you die too?” Why should I lose you too?

“You aren’t wrong. Certainly, more than enough have died to incriminate the Bakufu, but not quite as many shoguns have perished to atone for that sin. I intend to force a draw on the scale. Ten shoguns for each of my fallen soldiers, until no man’s left to step in the ringleader’s shoes. That should be enough to justify their sacrifice, don’t you think? As for me,” his smile turned into a sinister grin while saying those words. “I don’t wish to die in a world where the last instance of affordable freedom is tobacco.”

The lump in your throat began to dissipate with your settling back against the pillow. You knew better than to trust a single word that came out of your guests’ mouths, but his determination convinced you to accept the pipe with a clear conscience.

The music resumed —not that it’d ever stopped—, a tune sweeter than those you were used to. With your chin balanced on your elbow, you found yourself humming in accordance with the notes, nodding along to the mellifluous rhythm he composed.

“This sounds nice,” you smiled once you had his attention. “What is it?”

“Who knows?” He humored you, knowingly triggering your favorite pastime of lyrical guesswork.

“Hmm, it’s soft— like affection, but,” you leaned closer “the way each chord lingers well before giving way to another, is almost like seduction.”

“Are you, now?” He rasped, fingers hesitating to pick the next harmony. “Seduced?”

You stole a playful peck from his lips as an answer, his eye barely given enough time to close.

“Who knows?” you mumbled, his mouth quick to welcome yours with ease. How many kisses had you shared to reach this point of familiarity; a fleeting thought crossed your mind. How many kisses did it take for this to feel like the most natural and right thing in the world?

Even as you straddled his lap, Shinsuke still held onto the shamisen, its tuning pegs sharply digging into your flesh. If this turned anything like the previous night —or the one before— did, he’d soon shove it in the corner and pick you up instead. He’d trail the entirety of your skin, from your neck down to your thighs, peppering little purple love bites wherever he saw fit. He’d throw your knees over his shoulders and he’d drink you up, his tongue prying where his eye couldn’t, and once he was sated, he’d lace your bodies together and pace slowly— slowly enough for your hips to melt together while he’d again be kissing your lips.

You knew exactly how it’d go, for you’d learned his preferences by heart, and yet your excitement refused to fizzle out. You shoved the instrument away from his reach, implementing an abrupt and rather rude ending to his concert. His hands slithered behind your back and firmly hugged your bum. It hadn’t been too long since he had his release, though you could very well feel the extent of his impatience.

“I can’t get enough of you,” one of you said, their voice obscured by the not-so-distant knocking on the door.

Cursing under your breath about how one of these days you’d have to rip it into paper shreds, you stumbled outside, your head peaking first over your naked body, in case you had company. All seemed clear, except for the unannounced visitor that awaited at your feet; a large rectangular wooden box.

“I see it finally arrived,” Shinsuke observed once you brought it to his sight. “About time.”

“Is it an explosive device of some sort?” you joked, lightly shaking the box.

“No,” he smirked. “Only a token of my gratitude. Go on, open it.”

A thin layer of wrapping paper covered what was a dark purple fabric. Silk, you realized as you ran your fingers across its length. A kimono, judging by the lighter-colored cuffs. An exquisite kimono, you added, its elegant pattern of pine, bamboo, and plum trees in gold taking you by surprise. An exquisite kimono in his colors, you concluded, comparing it to the yukata he donned.

“This…” you began, though your stupefied expression seemed to have spoken on its own.

“Save it,” he shook his head. “This is just compensation for your ruined dress and your hospitality. Was supposed to arrive weeks ago, but now that it’s here… turn around.”

He pulled the kimono out of the paper and you did as told, setting the box aside. You felt him get closer, his hot breath tingling your nape as the cold sensation of silk spread over your shoulders. His hands flattened it over your curves, sliding down your waist and hips, and then reaching to your front to fix the hem in place. You couldn’t tell if he was doing it on purpose, but when his knuckles ghosted over your nipples, you knew his objective involved more than dressing you up.

“Out of all the men to have stepped in here,” you said as he fished out a yellow obi from the box’s depths “you are the first to dress me rather than undress me.”

At first, he didn’t respond. He proceeded to wrap the obi around you, and once it was securely tied, his voice cooed in your ear “Since when were the two mutually exclusive?”

Your gaze met his briefly, as his lips fell on your own and his hands hiked up your dress. Two fingers slipped within your walls, massaging your insides gently while you brought each other to your knees, his palm carefully sinking your head onto the floor. Your heart beat louder than his voice telling you how well it suited you, though you didn’t need to hear it. His touch said all you need to know, sturdy hips lazily bucking against your own.

“Sh-Shinsuke?” you managed, removing his hand from your body. A darkened green orb peered at you curiously, lust not quite shaken from his stare.

“Have you ever been in love?” you regretted asking as soon as you did.

His curiosity turned into something else, something he can’t explain, just like he can’t give an answer to your question. He almost looked offended and you almost apologized, but then he hushed you with a heady kiss that had your head spinning.

“How does this feel?” he asked, well aware of the effect he had on you.

“G—good,” you panted.

He nodded, carefully dragging his open mouth along your jawline and neck where a second, far more fleeting kiss landed exactly where your breasts began.

“How does this feel?” he asked again.

“Good,” you answered, again with the same elementary term you used before.

His winsome smile hid underneath purple layers of hair, as he lowered his head down between your legs and spread them apart. He trailed a path from one thigh to the other, his lips not once closing to cover his warm breath. His fingers dug at your skin while he pulled you closer, the tip of his nose rubbing against your swollen clit that ached for him to touch it. But before he had the chance to either make contact or ask the final of his questions, you moaned the same word you did before.

It feels good. So, so, so damn good.

“Then,” Shinsuke climbed back up, “let’s call this love.”

#takasugi x reader #takasugi shinsuke x reader #takasugi shinsuke fanfiction #takasugi #takasugi smut #gintama #gintama smut #gintama fanfiction #ginama imagine #takasugi imagine #takasugi reader #takasugi gintama #takasugi shinsuke

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catgirledteach · 8 months

Text

okay ive reached the point where i need to get my season 2 theories out. i am going full red string cork board please feel free to lobotomize me at any time

i'm breaking these down by the batches of episodes as they will be released, as last season they said episodes were broken up very intentionally to convey certain story beats, and i think that's what they're doing this season as well

First three episodes:

we catch up with what each separate crew has been up to since season one left off i.e. a recap of how stede and the folks abandoned on the island managed to make their way back to society, how the now unhinged crew under ed has been running wild, how i suspect a lot of them are enjoying serving under a successful pirate captain but are confused and unsettled by how and why blackbeard has become so aggressive and unstable

i think the above will be the first episode for the most part. i think this will establish their goals/conflict - i predict some of stede's crew will be supportive of trying to go after ed and some won't. particularly i expect pete will get a storyline of him turning on the blackbeard persona he once idolized now that ed potentially did god-knows-what to lucius, and the only way he'll agree to go after blackbeard is if stede agrees to try and find lucius as his first priority and the rest of the crew backs him up

episode two follows stede's crew as they search for lucius and make new allies (lesbian pirates fuck yeah), meanwhile ed becomes more and more unstable and the crew starts to turn. ESPECIALLY izzy, but we'll come back to that. end of episode two they finally find lucius and they're ready to pursue the revenge

episode three ends with stede's crew finally catching up with the revenge, in no small part helped by frenchie, jim, and maybe even izzy quietly trying to sabotage ed so that stede can catch up and hopefully make things right again. izzy at this point is starting to realize that ed has gone off the deep end and not in a good way. he is seeing that underneath the violence and rage that ed is unhappy and he maybe even feels responsible - things have gone too far for even him and it's not what he wanted either. he maybe even confronts ed in a final attempt to set him right and after being unable to get through to ed, knows that stede is the only one who can fix this, much to his disappointment that he can't be that for ed

the reunion goes BAD, a standoff of sorts happens but ed refuses to forgive or listen to stede despite being heartbroken. however at this point his crew has turned on him so much that there's a blowout that separates them again, and stede maybe manages to take back the revenge or at least they manage to get jim and/or frenchie out of there. and MOST importantly i think this is where izzy defects, approaching stede with the deal that he will help him bring ed back, training him to fight and track down ed together

Episodes 4 and 5:

Episode 4 covers izzy and stede having a tenuous relationship, so starkly at odds yet understanding that they need each other to help ed. stede gets better at fighting/strategy, and despite some initial conflict they come to a place of peace and maybe even friendship?? this is also likely helped by lucius once again being the resident therapist onboard and talking izzy through his shit. izzy begins the tentative journey of realizing he was toxic, wanting to make up for that, and also finally acknowledging that his feelings for ed were more than what he originally thought they were.

also side note i think this may be the episode where one of the B plots are lucius and black pete getting married. sort of a "lucius almost died and there's nothing like being separated and potentially losing the love of your life to make you want to commit to each other for the rest of your life" and so they decide to throw the party we saw in the trailer. and also maybe this starts getting stede's mind going in the direction of marital thoughts

meanwhile the remains of ed's crew have had fucking enough, especially after the blowout that just happened, and throw him overboard. and with ed also being thrown into an emotional spiral after seeing stede again and not knowing how to deal with it, he kind of just lets it happen as he feels like giving up

This brings us to episode 5 which i think will be the "ed stranded on an island and slowly losing his mind" episode, which i think will be the main plot after a stede/izzy-centric episode prior. however, the B plot i do think is izzy and stede getting wind of ed being deposed, and going off just the two of them to find him, and again having some more honest conversations between the two of them about their histories and relationships to ed. (izzy maybe starts developing a crush on stede idk????????)

ed is going THROUGH it on the island, reckoning with his past and his shame, very similar to stede's fever dreams in season one. ed's imagining hornigold and maybe other memories that formed this discomfort with being seen as weak, vulnerable, not masculine enough, etc. and i think after going through some rough fucking soul searching and lowkey starving and dehydrating, he realizes he was just scared of stede bringing out this more vulnerable side of him, and that stede leaving was one of his worst fears coming true and that's why he lashed out. he knows he loves stede and deep down he knows stede loves him too but was just as scared as ed was, and that's why he left. episode ends with ed nearly fucking dying and stede and izzy finding and rescuing him

Episode 6:

An interesting choice to have one week with only one episode and im very intrigued. it's either meant to just be kind of a bridge episode that's a lot calmer after the previous intense episode with ed and a calm before the storm of the last two episodes, or it's maybe the most climactic episode yet.

i lean more the former, potentially a very quiet episode that is focusing less on the action and more on the emotional states of characters as ed is reintegrated into the crew, met with mixed reactions from different people. this could be the time for lucius to have his reckoning with ed about, y'know, lowkey trying to kill him after being nothing but supportive.

izzy is also very uncomfortable with his emerging new identity and having defied blackbeard once again being afraid of what ed might do to him now that they're back on the same ship. stede is likely the only one who has faith that ed will be okay and is the only person really defending him and protecting him. this is maybe the episode where stede and ed actually have a conversation about everything that's happened, how they feel about each other, and what this means going forward. things are still uncertain but they're recovering slowly

i also think a side plot that's been going on throughout the season is something related to jim's revenge quest, them maybe running into another one of the bandits who killed their family or maybe even their sibling we saw in the flashback (dear god i hope it's that one). so maybe that becomes the more action-heavy plot for this episode while every other plot is more subdued and emotional.

i think the end of this episode is a catalyst of conflict that will kick off the action for the last two episodes. this is so far out that i can't even begin to predict what that could be, but maybe something about being pursued by another country's navy again (i don't think so though, it would be a bit repetitive from last season's ending) or more likely being pursued by other pirates as word of blackbeard's wild behaviour and then subsequent disappearance after being mutinied got around. also he has a fucking price on his head

Episodes 7 and 8:

Just as the crew is starting to get on the same page again, they're thrown into a conflict of some kind. feelings have to take a backseat for a while, although they're still very much at the forefront of people's minds. more pirate conflict, more of jim's sidequest maybe, more seeking/returning of allies (returning lesbian pirates fuck yeah), very hero's journey-esque. i think this is where the clips with jackie maybe fit in, as the crew reaches out to other pirates and strike deals to get assistance with the brewing conflict? this is also what makes me think that the conflict is likely with other pirates, enemy of my enemy and all that.

episode 7 ends with the crew having put all their ducks in a row and prepare to enter the fray.

episode 8 is the climactic conflict, both in the battle-sense and also the emotional sense. stede and ed (and also maybe izzy?) can't hold back their feelings anymore, even in the midst of the current insanity, and maybe even BECAUSE of the insanity because they're worried what might happen to them going into danger. some sort of emotional confessions or proposals (?!!?!?!) occurs, everything coming to blows at once very dramatic and all that. this is perhaps the dramatic cliff scene that the vogue article mentioned??

and heartbreakingly, because there's still supposed to be one more season, i think it will end on another cliffhanger. my theory is that the revenge crew wins the day, but either stede or ed are captured in the process. the beaten pirates or officers or whatever know one of them is valuable to the other and takes them in hopes of maybe manipulating the other towards some goal or even just ransoming them off as they are both wanted fugitives. and by now stede and ed have had their emotional confession and know how the other feels, so we know that the final season will kick off with one of them forging an intense rescue mission to take them back and rain hell on whoever took the other.

BONUS PREDICTION: season three ends with ed and stede faking both their deaths in order to 'retire' peacefully, no longer wanting to live a life that puts either of them in danger of losing the other. maybe im reaching across the atlantic for this take, but i think the High on a Rocky Ledge song from episode one foreshadows all of this, implying they fake falling to their death together so that they can live out the rest of their lives in peace.

Full disclosure i wrote this all this morning before i even knew the trailer was releasing tomorrow so all of this will likely be completely irrelevant in like 12 hours. i have also intentionally avoided looking at any of the leaks (i liked some posts though to look at after i see its release) so if any of this is already contradicted ssshhhh you saw nothing

we still have three weeks to go gang and i'm literally on the verge of writing the whole fucking thing myself i am unwell please help me

#uh oh boys he's started writing paragraphs-long prediction posts time to put her down #ofmd #ofmd s2 #long post

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warsofasoiaf · 8 months

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I know you're a big Baldur's Gate fan. Did you play Baldur's Gate 3?

I did, yes.

For a long time, I didn't want to play Baldur's Gate 3. For me, Baldur's Gate was the tale of Gorion's Ward, the Bhaalspawn, and it was decisively concluded in Throne of Bhaal. You either ascended to the Throne of Bhaal as a god, or forsook the power, and that's it - the story was over. Initially, hearing about a Baldur's Gate 3 felt like desperation: we don't have a good enough idea to stand on its own so we're going to cleave back to the old success story's brand and hope that you buy it. I also don't go for Early Access games as a general rule even among highly-regarded publishers like Larian. They're janky. But I finished it up, and I can tell you what I think. Spoilers below the cut.

For the most part, I enjoyed myself in Baldur's Gate 3. I found it a great way to introduce people to 5e D&D and found the amount of content and rewards for creativity to be quite gratifying. You were genuinely rewarded for thinking outside the box, exploring the map, and using untraditional uses of spells. Protecting characters in fights so they could provide bonuses or become party members was likewise gratifying, it added a risk/reward ratio that made it *harder* to play a hero. That's rewarding in video games because the game is tying the psychological thrill of beating an encounter to a material reward over and above continued play. Sometimes that could be aggravating - the AI could sometimes do really stupid crap, and sometimes you got screwed on initiative and it seemed like your NPC allies died before you could do anything.

The opening felt a little too gonzo at first. Big illithid invasion where you plane-hop to the Nine Hells is a bit much especially for someone not really well-versed in D&D lore, but I understand what it was going for. It tried to create a main story arc that every character regardless of alignment or personal backstory wants to fulfill - staying alive lest you turn into a nasty squid-creature. By saddling you with a cast of characters with the same ticking clock over their heads (and the mystery of why you haven't converted already), it gets you stoked into going out and digging into the main quest. The hand-waive of the delayed conversion is clearly meant to also provide a Watsonian reason why your character can long rest and spend time dicking around on sidequests like any good RPG, but the actual lore reasons service the story far more than Bethseda's "Find Your Missing Family Member But Also Do Literally Everything in the Wasteland" main plot of their Fallout entries.

Act I serves to both flesh out the world and later conflicts and recreate the exploration-based feeling of early Baldur's Gate. Faerun is a place with its own specific lore, and while Bioware might have expected many people that played Baldur's Gate to know about the Forgotten Realms (although given its hit status, they were probably delighted to be wrong about that), Larian knows that gaming is far more mainstream over two decades later and so needs to spend some time immersing the players in the unique cosmology of Faerun itself. Little things like "hyenas can worship the demon lord Yeeonghu and give birth to gnolls" is a nice fascinating piece of horrible lore that is visually presented well on the screen. Auntie Ethel was a delightful little sidequest that was acted well. The Underdark is a bit too overexposed, but the questing and map design were fine, including a fun little puzzle boss in the Adamantine Forge. There's a good blend of quests from puzzles like the Arcane Tower. The main quest is fairly binary good-and-evil, but that's standard fare for D&D. The tiefling refugees are clearly the morally right thing to do, and it's only really secret Shadow Druid Kagha that makes things only slightly grey. Pretty much everyone in the goblin camp is a piece of garbage, only the Priest of Loviatar redeems himself primarily by being hilarious.

Where the moral ambiguity comes to is in the companion characters. In Baldur's Gate I, the many party members were almost completely interchangeable save for some light flavor dialogue. Khalid and Jaheira mattered to the main story, as did Imoen, but you didn't need to take them if you didn't want to. Baldur's Gate II learned from this, every character has their own companion quest that usually ties in with one of the major stronghold-type quests. This isn't the case in Baldur's Gate 3, Larian has clearly invested effort to building these characters, from the morally-upstanding to the callous and practical. Each of the characters have their own opinion, but spend time doing their quests and they generally seem to warm up to you. All of the origin characters have their own long-form quests, while the other characters that join later have quests they're involved with and quests you need to do in order to recruit them (cleaning the Shade-Touched lands, not getting Jaheira killed by the Cult of the Absolute). For the most part, the characters are a little cliché but well done and well-voice acted. Shadowheart acts as a nice little introduction to Selune and Shar, another fun piece of Forgotten Realms cosmology that essentially asks if you're playing good or evil. Astarion's quest is "do the obviously extremely evil ritual or not." Wyll angsts a little too much about the cost of dealing with devils when everyone knows that when you do deal with them, they fuck you over. His lack of regret is honestly more refreshing than when he does feel the sting, I would have liked for Wyll to play that part up a bit more before starting the painful consequences later on; having someone know the other shoe is coming but not have it show up for a third of the game would have been pretty refreshing. Karliah is just a big old sweetheart, a normal trope but an enthusiastic one, solid barbarian trope all around. Lae'zel takes a bit of working to get to know her, but since any good illithid story would deal with the githyanki, having her along is a welcome change of pace, especially when you dissect her story and realize that she's putting on a front - she's a kid trying to act tough because she's a kid that knows she's facing doom, which then segues nicely into shattering the illusion of just how awful Vlaakith is - when Lae'zel finds out she is crushed but shows spirit enough to save the githyanki instead of wallow. Gale at first seems annoying and flippant along with eating my magic items, but eventually you learn about Karsus's folly, the nature of arcane magic, and the fickleness of Mystra.

The other characters aren't as well-developed, which is a pity. Halsin seems like a decent enough chap, just a guy trying to do the best he can. The two characters I found the weakest were ironically enough, supposed to be the strongest because they already were established: Minsc and Jaheira. Jaheira just doesn't seem like herself, there are no good roasts like the classic: "You are amusing, in a 'what the hell is wrong with you' kind of way," like there was in Baldur's Gate. Jaheira in Baldur's Gate faced down dragons and gods, yet she's comparatively fragile (and her own epilogue was ignored). Minsc is shallow, the humor in Minsc is that he's a bit of a punchline, whereas here it's just referential humor regarding Boo. Other returning characters get it even worse: Sarevok and Viconia are specifically brought back to show how much they've regressed, undoing some of Baldur's Gate's best writing. Sarevok was a tormented soul, unsure of what to do after coming back, but he goes back to his old tricks regardless of what I did, which just feels...careless. Sarevok was more than just a glowing-eyed spiky boss monster that he was in BG1, to have him returned to that was dull and uninspired. Viconia had some hints of her self in her regrets for destroying the previous Sharran enclave, but is still happy to be a boss battle for no other reason than to conclude Shadowheart's questline.

Whereas Act I was a bit scattershot, Act II benefitted from incredibly tight focus. JK Simmons did a phenomenal job as Ketheric, and the pacing and threat within the Shade-Cursed Lands is well-earned. You have clear objectives, the antagonists are always properly menacing, and there's still enough time to explore the Monastery and the githyanki creche. You have to do so anyway to start learning more about the Astral Prism, but the githyanki questline comes into its own with Lae'zel's betrayal at the hands of Vlaakith, they actually feel like part of the story and they begin to set up Prince Orpheus's later introduction into the story. It can be a bit jarring going from handling the Nightsong to immediately storming the Moonrise Towers, but it allows Shadowheart's midpoint arc to handle itself. The fight against Z'rell on the bottom layer isn't bad, although the Harper AI keeps doing its best to have Jaheira kill herself. The fight with Ketheric is great from a mechanical standpoint, the avatar of Myrkul fight is a bit easy given it's supposedly an avatar of a god, but Simmons sells Ketheric.

The surprise twist that the Dead Three have enslaved an Elder Brain has me thinking: "Alright, this is a decent enough plan." The Absolute's war creates plenty of death that empowers Myrkul, cults of murder spring up to empower Bhaal, and Gortash takes control of the city and subjects those within it to Bane's tyranny, exporting Bane's power after his success and creating an empire to super-charge Bane. By implanting worshippers of other gods, they deny souls and petitioners due to D&D cosmology which weakens them. That's fine, except all three of their Chosen are looking to betray each other, which would destabilize the Crown's control over the Netherbrain. Gortash at least tries to adjust to his plan falling apart by allying with the player character, grabbing Orin's Netherstone and reuniting the Three to reassert control over the Elder Brain. Orin, however, seems largely to fall into Stupid Evil territory, just happy to murder people for no reason. The revelation that the Dark Urge was the original Chosen of Bhaal actually makes this work since according to the lore, even with the Dark Urge's murderous impulses, they kept them in check. It further cements that the Dark Urge is the canon main character, and it ties neatly back to Baldur's Gate, when you find out in Throne of Bhaal that the Bhaalspawn do have an instinct to kill - one that wasn't expressed mechanically in the game save for the fact that you will easily have a four-figure body count when all's said and done. But that introduces a further wrinkle, Orin was unstable, and if they needed this plan to succeed, they should have opted for Sarevok, not Orin who can't think ahead.

Act III suffers from rushed execution. Several of the climatic moments in the final act are undercut either by bad programming or poor encounter design. Gortash's confrontation is shockingly easy, if you grab the grenades you get free attacks - it's so easy it's almost confusing. Orin's confrontation as the Dark Urge is narratively satisfying but a single Luck of the Far Realms attack can positively melt her health. This isn't the case for all of the fights - when the encounters are good they are really good. The House of Hope was an incredible level from start to finish, capping off in a great fight against Raphael that combines handling the cambions, burning down the pillars, and trying to survive against Raphael (at least until you find out that he has a crappy Wisdom and the game become keep him under Otto's Irresistible Dance or Hold Person), but even that works out well narratively after confronting his incubus lover and realizing that Raphael is a hedonist and thus would have a lower will save.

The final climax of the Emperor vs. Orpheus suffers from incredibly bad writing. The Emperor already has massive lore problems, such as *somehow* miraculously getting off the Island of Balduran so he can become a mindflayer in the Moonrise Towers, without even the barest acknowledgement why, or how. He says: "I never lied to you," except that he *always* lies to you, and when you call him out on it, he basically says: "no, that's just illusion. Not the same thing." At the finale, he's just stupid though. The Emperor has been positioned this entire time as wanting to avoid the slavery of the illithid hive mind, and yet in the final confrontation, if you opt to free Orpheus, he immediately decides to side with the Netherbrain and willingly consign himself to slavery. No chance to see if Orpheus will side with you, not even the ability to say "look, if he doesn't play ball, you can snack on his brain at your heart's content." Nope, he sides with the guy he's been specifically dreading this entire time, something he was so terrified of that he stopped at nothing to stop it. It only makes sense as a binary choice for a video game, to pick which faction rather than actually rewarding the creativity you were previously celebrated for all game.

The mandatory ceremorphosis was likewise stupid. "Somebody's gotta squid up, don't ask questions, it just has to be done. Netherbrain is too smart." For a game that has been giving you creativity this whole time, the entire point is "welp, someone has to make a sacrifice," is just an arbitrary shoe-horned thing to make, to up the stakes for dramatic tension. Why we simply can't use Omelum if we rescue him from the Iron Throne, despite the fact that he has acknowledged teleportation powers? No that's simply foolish, it undercuts the dramatic flair of the ending, I guess. We have to have our tragic ending, but a mandatory tragedy *isn't* tragic, especially when it's railroaded like this. It feels like the Mass Effect 3 ending, a rushed mess out of nowhere. At least Cyberpunk 2077's ending has you trying to fix the problem, only to find that you probably can't, and at best the Nomads might be able to help you or you sell your soul to Arasaka. That actually has some tragedy - do the safe thing and survive, or try to find a solution even if it might not work, and it ends with you wistfully looking out into the horizon. To add to the shoddy nature of it, when you reach your allies, they treat you as if it was you that did it, regardless if Karliah took the bullet to save herself from the Infernal Engine. So much promise and potential, ruined by the rush to get it out the door.

So overall it was a solid game, hampered by a lackluster ending.

Thanks for the question, Anon.

SomethingLikeALawyer, Hand of the King

#baldur's gate 3 #baldur's gate iii #video game reviews

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everythingblreview · 8 months

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A jump back to the past: Re-visiting Dramatical Murder (Review)

This took way too long to write but anyways —

10 years ago (yes, I’m old) I started playing BL games (Yes, I was already legal of age) with my first being Togainu no chi and dmmd shortly after, so as a small “anniversary” I thought I re-visit both games and see how they stood the course of time.

To have no influence on any translation, I played it completely in Japanese and it did affect my opinion.

Just a warning, I’m going to be harsh here, so if you can’t stand me judging your favourite game better not read it, of course not all is going to be negative.

Story

If you ask me what the story of this game is, I would just shrug. “Clown antagonist doing clown things but in most routes it doesn’t even matter”? The story is not really exciting most of the time MC is busy running through the LI routes as far as possible. The game wastes no time getting right to the problem of the route, leaving no time for you to really get to know the characters and develop a bond to them, which leads to you not caring about whatever happens with them. There are more than enough plot-holes, which you have no choice but to accept. Romance is forced and doesn’t feel proper developed, like they had run out of time and decided to end it, leading to my next point: the individual routes are way too short, playing them feels like you’re just checking off things that needed to be included in the story rather than playing a coherent route.

There is no sense of time in this game (especially in the routes), the characters are busy sleeping more than anything, the days feel like they’re only last 2h, you don’t see them do normal things (like eating, showering) often. Also, I hate how they made this cool concept of Rhyme and then just never used it for something more? What was even the point then???

Characters

Aoba

I have conflicted feeling for Aoba, I felt bad for him in some routes. He didn’t do anything wrong, but he was the one who had to apologize for his partner doing shit? But most of the time I didn’t really like him, for once his Tsundere-ness was getting on my nerves, the LI shows him his feeling and this man goes “agdhdhs” and starts blushing, telling his partner he is baka/childish whatever. Him going from “Man don’t kiss each other” to “I love to kiss man” made no sense, I don’t even get why he is running after 80% of the Love interest in the game, half of them treated him like shit and the other half was served to his feet and he just accepted it with no development at all.

Another part I really dislike is how unbelievable stupid he can be, the story would move so much faster if he actually used his brain for once and not spend 70% of the day sleeping. Despite being old enough he acts like a child, especially with Noiz, I don’t know if this was supposed to be “cute” but it sure enough wasn’t for me.

He is just the very stereotypical BL Tsundere MC who is not especially smart but for some reason is super strong (even if he was too much of an idiot to actually use his powers).

Mink

I played Mink’s route first because it the one I remembered almost nothing from. And first I would like to say that I do like routes/ending that go away from the traditional “get to know fall in love” elements in bl routes. And I did like that, but what I didn’t like is the stupid force rape in the middle which is another case of “more forced H-scenes to get them to a certain number”. Yeah, yeah I get it he tried to pull out the other Aoba but it felt just unnecessary.

Despite that I though the ending part of the route was rather interesting showing in a way that Mink cared his teammates and Aoba enough to not get him involved in his revenge part. Sadly, the whole route cuts off before any further explanation from Mink or the full reunion with Aoba is shown, which lets most player being angry at Mink than anything else. And there is no happy end H-scene which kinda sucks because all you get is rape and sex forced by drugs. It's fine if they wanted to write a different kind of story but either pull through with the no romance plot or continue it, don’t just let you player stuck in the middle.

I’m going to jump to Re: connect too because I feel like you can’t talk about Mink’s route without mentioning it.

Aside from the fact that it makes no sense for Aoba to follow a person who hurt him (but we just pretend Aoba is just that kind of a good person, and hey what makes sense in this game anyways) In my personally opinion (before anyone gets the pitchforks ready) I thought they work best as a couple and this is the route, in which Aoba experiences the most grow.

Let me explain, rather than forever living his boring life on the island he actually goes out to see the world and lives in a completely new country, takes on responsibilities and gets to know and (respect) another culture. Not only that but he also drops his Tsundere act, starts to be more demanding of his desires, and gains more confidence. He doesn’t give up even if he is rejected and shows his feelings more open without becoming a blushy mess, and I really appreciated that. In addition, we get so see a complete new (or rather the actual) side of Mink who is a very calm and soft person and normally wouldn’t lay a hand on anyone.

And before I go on a ramble on how much I love their Drama CD I stop here.

Clear

Clear was always my favourite character back in the old days, but his route was never my favourite and now after replaying I know why. The reason is his route sucks, let me explain there is a severe lack of romantic development, from the start on we see Aoba being really rude to Clear, even using violence on him, even though Clear was just trying to be nice, it’s obvious he doesn’t understand certain things, but no-brain Aoba doesn’t seem to get it.

Going from that to him suddenly being in love in like 3 days just doesn’t make any sense, did just a little singing and Clear talking about the meaning of life the trick? or maybe it was his face? Who knows.

And now I will get all the pitchforks turned at me again, but I have to say it: Clear being attracted to Aoba, yes even in the “like” way, felt forced because of the whole “him being his Master thing”. It felt like Clear only like him and was attracted to him because of his voice and not to Aoba as an individual person.

What also really annoyed me was that nothing basically happened, the days were over before they even started. They arrived in platinum jail, went to sleep, woke up, conflict, day over back to bed, repeat. The dying sex scenes was ridiculous too, another case of “I have no idea where to put the sex-scene so let’s make it drama and let them have sex while Clear is basically dying.

I have one positive thing to say, I liked how clear dropped speaking polite when he was talking to Toue and the alphas, it really showed how he disrespected them.

Noiz

From all routes I feel like Noiz got the “best” romance development. (or rather the only with any at all). Even though the plot is rushed as always and immediately tries to show you what’s Noiz life problems are, it didn’t feel out of nowhere and thrown together like the other route, even though the whole thing takes place in like what 3 days?

Personally, it annoyed me how Aoba tried to act as if he is so much older and wiser than Noiz, despite being more immature. How did he even “fix” Noiz? It didn’t look like his problems were only mental related but I guess Aoba’s power is so great it can fix everything, sugoi sugoi ugh.

What I liked about the route is how Noiz slowly (as slow as it gets in 3 days) grew to like and be worried about Aoba, at least if felt like a little romance development compared to the rest that had none. If ask what my favourite part of the route is, I would say when they had the Rhyme rematch at the end of his route and Noiz lost on purpose because he didn’t want Aoba to get hurt, that was really sweet of him and showed how much he cared— before they went and ruined Noiz by making him and asshole who suddenly wanted to show dominance in Re: connect, but that a story for another day.

KoujakuClownjaku

God I can’t stand this man, what a rude asshole, womanizer big ewww and yikes. I don’t get why he needed to be so fucking rude to every one of them, if not Aoba he treats everyone like shit expect his women, talking in a very rude way even though no one did anything to him or Aoba.

This man even got me to feel bad for Aoba, poor Aoba was constantly ditched and Clownjaku didn’t even bother to explain, I don’t care how much he didn’t want Aoba to be involved, he already was, so why did he had to ignore him and treating him like a child who can’t protect himself. They barely set a foot in platinum jail and he already was running, poor Aoba he deserves better, and HE WAS THE ONE WHO HAD TO APOLOGISE FOR KOUJAKU RUNNING OFF I'M—Don’t even get me started how stupid his plot with his “evil tattoo” is, not excuse enough to almost rape Aoba, he doesn’t get enough hate for that in my opinion. “Tattoo” my ass it was obvious he knew what he was doing. -_-

Their romance development was non-exiting and it basically went to hey we’re friend lets be boyfriend, worst writing, fuck him, he deserves all the hate.

Ren

Plotwise the best route. While in other route the whole “Toue wants to control people” felt more like a clown-show than serious threat, here it actually felt like they really were in some kind of danger. Well, I expect at least something from a true route. The pacing was pretty alright (maybe because we didn’t spend most of the time taking care of the problems of the LI) Aoba’s past reveal was kinda just thrown at you. But overall, from the plot I would say this was the best written as far as it goes because this whole game is full of plot holes that just don’t make any sense or are not explained and you just have to accept it as it is.

Romance-wise though, oh boy the whole Ren is a part of myself thing (and later in his twin brother’s body) was just weird to me, as well as playing the H-scenes. I don’t get why Aoba suddenly had all the hots for Ren but ok I guess? Still better than Koujaku HAHAHAH

Artwork

I always wanted to say it, I hate the character designs in this game, especially with Aoba himself, from all colours to choose from they gave him the worst blue for his hair, the worst hair style (a mullet really?) and the worst clothes and decided THE CLOTHES NEED TO BE THE SAME UGLY BLUE ugggghhh. Every time he was on screen, I just wanted to stab my eyes out, the shoes THE SOES the ugly yellow socks WHYY (╯°□°)╯( ┻━┻

Everyone else doesn’t look better, Noiz looks like you let a 14-year-old choose his own clothes, Koujaku looks like he clicked the random button in a thrift store and clear looks like he wore random clothes, he found in his grandpa’s closet (which is fair I guess).

The rest of the game looks to flashy for my liking and the colouring is very simple, which I didn’t like but it’s all up to taste.

Music

I don’t really like the music because I don’t like electro music, but I do like the opening song, which is so bad that it makes it good again. The OST was alright, I guess? Nothing to special, my only complain would be the track used for the H-scenes, sounded just weird.

Conclusion

This game is not good. I don’t understand where the hype comes from, it feels rushed, lacks story and romance development and the characters aren’t especially good. The common route felt more like I was playing a 12+ game than a 18+ BL game, everything feel very goofy and the whole “plot” felt more like they tried make up something so there would be some kind of story.

Yes, this is my way to say this game aged badly, I can only imagine new player, who never played a bl game before would maybe enjoy it (that was me 10 years ago), but if you play it after experiencing actually good games you will be disappointed. Going back to this after so long just showed me how much it’s lacking. A big disappointed and by far the worst written nitrochiral game.

Extra:

From what I remember from the fan-patch the translation was actually pretty well except the obvious part of TL-team hating Mink and making him extra rude—he wasn’t. Koujaku was the rudest character, dropping the most insults. There were parts that weren’t correct but from what I read in Japanese it sounded like what I remembered.

#bl game #boys love game #bl game review #visual novel #boys love #dramatical murder #dmmd #nitrochiral #sorry I was busy with life and could not really play or write anything but I'll try to make more translation soon

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lokislytherin · 1 year

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do you think ptj will do jaeyeol/jay’s character any justice? 🥲 i’ve read so many comments on reddit saying that ptj will just throw jay away because he’s served his purpose (attracting a large enough fanbase through queer-baiting) because jay’s potential to be a great character is just going down the drain (he’s the son of steve hong, he should he able to step in and help right? also big daniel is kidnapped and jay used to have such a strong “daniel is in trouble i gotta go help him” sensor so where tf is he?)

okay, but excluding all that, i think jay should be developed further as a character because he has so much potential that’s being wasted so far. i really hope ptj hasn’t forgotten about him and pulls an eli jang arc for jay because he’s super interesting to me, like i wanna know why he doesn’t talk, why he isn’t acknowledged by his family (?), where tf is he when all this is going down, what does he do in his free time, what are his likes (besides daniel lol)??? i just want to know more about him as a person IS THAT TOO MUCH TO ASK PTJ???

ahem, sorry for the rant, i just caught up to the latest chapter and i am FUMING because the last time we saw jay was in chapter 300+ and he wasn’t even that prominent in the chapter? i just miss when all we had to care about was daniel having to hide his 2 bodies from people, crystal being a snoop, jay and joy fighting over the same man, zack and mira’s relationship, zoe’s inner conflict not knowing she likes the very same person, etc. like what’s with all these new characters i do not give a single shit about? i loved the hostel chapters though but once they got to the worker’s arc, man…. pls just bring the original cast back.. this story is getting too much man..

so what do you think? 😅🥲

hello anon, thank you for the ask! hoo boy this is a big one so imma break it down into bitesized chunks if you don't mind

jay as the queerbait character: honestly i see where those redditors are coming from? insert a hot male character with a good, interesting dynamic with the mc who is also male, and you have the interest of women and queers! even if we don't count me being a jaeseok ship fic writer, i still really enjoy the dynamic they have, the only one that comes close for me is vasco and jace but to me jay's queer energy is too strong to see them as solid bros yk. as a queer who is horrible in social situations i kinda see myself in jay sometimes and it's really nice to have that TT

jay's potential as a character: anon you're so right. jay is the son of steve hong and honestly he could have a much bigger role to play not only as a character who can fight (because hello?? maybe jay's not the best in a dirty street fight but systema and kali are deadly in their own right) but also as a Plot Relevant Character? i've probably mentioned this before in other posts but he reminds me of khun maria agnis from tower of god: both were shown in early chapters and had a decently big impact on at least one of the main characters, both have long bangs and eyes that have not been seen in 300+ chapters, neither character has been seen in 200+ chapters i swear to god. maybe i'm on copium but i still believe that this is bc they're preparing for their comeback as an insanely OP character

more on jay's potential: dear ptj, where is jay's 1) backstory 2) CURRENT SELF. WHERE TF IS HE. as i've said before my predictions are 1) med school so he can be the 'call an ambulance! but not for me! oh wait i am the first aid' guy 2) preparing for his OP character arc

I MISS EARLY LOOKISM CHAPTERS TOO ANON. WHEN ARE ZACK AND MIRA GOING TO GET TOGETHER FOR REAL. LIKE WHERE'S DANIEL'S MOM. unless daniel went 'i'm going to get myself into a shitload of trouble do you mind looking after my mom for me in case things go wrong 🥺' and jay said yes at the cost of his canon appearances bc he's whipped. pathetic gay little man (affectionate)

i hope that answered things? i feel like you sent me a rant and i just ranted back with more speculations and headcanons LMAO

anyway join me let's hold hands and start a prayer circle for hong 'jay' jaeyeol's reappearance in canon anybody who misses jay is more than welcome to join bc i'm p sure jay's fandom is almost as big as samuel seo's tiddies and they're pretty damn massive, so ptj's bound to notice us and bring jay back as an Important Character... right...?

btw i'm not caught up with the manhwa oops. i'm only up to ep 394 but i'm speedrunning the latest chapters and my urge to punch eugene increases every chapter.

#rinanswersthings #lookism #hong jaeyeol #jay hong

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thatonecontainerwithoutalid · 6 months

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FNAF MOVIE THOUGHTS UNDER THE CUT!!! DO NOT READ IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE SPOILED.

I have never felt so conflicted over a movie in my life.

Okay, to give some perspective, there are two sides of me at play here:

1. Film/show critical

2. FNAF Fan

Disclaimer: when I refer to the books, I am referring to Fazbear Fright's and Tales of the Pizzaplex. When I refer to the trilogy, I mean The Silver Eyes, The Twisted Ones, and The Fourth Closet.

I'll be honest. Looking at it from my own critical standpoint, the FNAF movie was not very good. The story was very convoluted, and yes, I am aware that I'm complaining about the convoluted plot of a movie based on the convoluted plot video game. But the thing is, I am an enjoyed of both the games AND the books. And if there's anything to be said about the books, convoluted is one of the first things that comes to mind, so the issues I have are purely about the movie. My main and overall glaring issue was the reveal of William being Vanessa's dad. There was little to no build up to that, and I felt the more reasonable decision was to make her related to one of the missing kids, and perhaps having her see them being lured away. It would serve as a nice parallel to Mike, and her mindset of "letting it go" could still be present as an opposition to Mike's clinging onto the past.

Besides that, another problem I have is the lack of William Afton.

He's in the movie for maybe like 20 minutes? Possibly less. Which wouldn't be too bad if he left a lasting impact and his scenes were sprinkled throughout the movie, rather than condensed in the beginning and end. Seeing Afton in the first trailer got me so hyped I most literally could not function properly, to the point I was stuttering. But to see him not really be in the movie is such a let down. And the scenes he was in, besides the parts at the end, he was not really threatening, just sort of an awkward guy. And this sucks even more because Matthew Lillard did an utterly incredible job being threatening in those parts, and I would've loved to see that more.

Besides that, another character I take issue with is Golden Freddy. We see the five kids in the woods. But Golden Freddy is in this movie for maybe 2-3 minutes, max. Which is annoying, because he was shown far more in the trailers and promotional material. I personally would've like more Golden Freddy, more Willy A, and perhaps to see these two being enemies.

Ending off my negative criticism, the horror. I was not very impressed by the horror of this film. You see, I wasn't one of the people adamantly opposing the film being PG-13, in fact, the people who were so heavily against it annoyed me very much leading up to the film's release. The way I saw it, FNAF was never really a series about the guts and gore. Yes, there were moments that were grotesque, but never in detail (well, besides the descriptions in the books; I'll get to that later.) I expected this film not to scare me, but instead, to disturb me. I cannot count the amount of times the FNAF series has managed to disturb me. Things like the blueprints of Funtime Freddy in FNAF:SL, the ending of Help Wanted where you simulate getting stuffed into a Freddy suit, even down to the jumpscare sounds in the first game, FNAF does an incredible job of disturbing and or otherwise unsettling me, and this isn't even touching upon the anxiety of playing the games, especially FNAF 4, or the absolutely brutal situations in the books. I would honestly argue that the books provide more horror than the movie did. The only times I felt truly disturbed during this movie was when William Afton came in with the Springbonnie suit, and the opening credits with Springbonnie leading the kids away. There were other times that momentarily scared me, yes, but none made me feel a deep rooted discomfort. FNAF can provide a type of horror without guts and gore, but I just feel it didn't transfer well into the movie.

Some things I did enjoy though; the drawings. The whole movie feels center around a theme of drawings, and I may be biased due to being an artist, but I honestly loved it. Drawing being a big part of the story, Abby's character, and the eventual solution felt very smooth.

The practical effects. I have absolutely no complaints. The animatronics looked incredible, and I loved every moment they were on screen.

The integration of the FNAF fandom. This leads me into my FNAF fan section, but before doing that, I would like to acknowledge something.

I came into the movie with high expectations without realizing it. The 9 minute teaser got me way too excited, so being let down in these aspects only hurt more. But the main thing I want to cover is my own bias towards the story of the games.

A few paragraphs ago, I suggested more scenes of William and Golden Freddy/Cassidy being enemies. This is because it's something in the games I adore, and would love to see expanded upon. But looking through my critiques and organizing my thoughts made me realize:

I'm not upset that the movie is convoluted, I'm upset at how it's convoluted.

The books, including the trilogy, are convoluted, yes, but they all have connections to and follow the main story, even just a little bit. The movie has the same premise as the first game with details form the first three, haunted animatronics and springlock suits and what not, but it's an entirely different situation with characters who share little to nothing but names to their in-game characters. This is just one of the theories I've come up with for why I don't like the direction of the movie as much as I could.

Now it's time for the FNAF fan in me to shine.

I'll be honest, I teared up multiple times during this movie simply from nostalgia. After the opening credits, the dream theory book, the MatPat Cameo, the ending credits when it started playing the OG FNAF 1 TLT song - it was all so much and if genuinely touched me. This movie is like the Super Mario Bros. movie in this regard; it's a love letter to the fans. Despite the things I didn't like, I could feel the love for this franchise flowing from the screen. Despite all the things that push me away from this film, I can't help but care for it on a deep level. I feel like crying while typing this. I know the amount of passion and love that went into this and it makes my gripes feel all the more unserious. I'm happy we've just finally gotten this movie, a movie that cares about the fans of this series. This movie doesn't try so hard to be what it isn't, and is just plain, relatively unserious fun rather than a complex masterpiece. I'm feeling tired now and want to finish this up before I sleep.

So, yeah. Those were my thoughts on the movie. Will definitely be watching it again to try and catch more details, and maybe change my opinion on it. For now, that'll be all. Might come back and add more or edit this.

#fnaf movie spoilers #five nights at freddy's movie spoliers #five nights at freddys movie spoilers #fnaf movie

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iamgroot-42 · 7 months

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#9 Captain America: Winter Soldier

Now that we went over my #10, now I'm here to discuss #9, Captain America Winter Soldier. Everything about this movie is almost perfect. The plot line is extremely entertaining, and I LOVE how it explains unanswered questions from previous movies. Plus, it sets up perfect story lines for the upcoming ones with the little easter eggs found within it.

To start off, this movie is really the origin for my crush on Sebastian Stan. As soon as I saw this movie, I immediately was fascinated with his acting skills... and his looks. He made it so I was afraid of his character that doesn't even speak, only because whenever you activate the Winter Soldier, everything goes away, and it's just about the mission. No feelings, no considerations, just the mission, and that's the scariest part about him. However, at the same time, he made me feel sympathy for him because of his sad backstory and the pain he felt because he didn't want this. I'm so upset there isn't more detail about him further on the MCU movies. I would love to have the Winter soldier backstories and side stories in a TV show, not only because of his fascinating character, but because Sebastian Stan portrayed it so well and it would be such an interesting topic.

To continue, I also love the friendship between Bucky (AKA the Winter Soldier) and Sam. The love hate relationship always cracks me up, and they also happen to be the funniest in the movie, so the two bickering is just bound to be hilarious. This aspect of the movie always kind of reminded me of myself and my brother fighting. Not only are we the funniest in the family, but we have that love hate relationship with one and other.

I remember seeing this movie in theatres with my two older brothers and thinking it was the coolest thing in the world. Although I didn't fully understand why the characters were fighting each other no matter how many times my brother explained it, I just watched it for the fight scenes... and Sebastian Stan.

The scenes were so action packed and not really repetitive, which is nice to see. I can really see the emotion in the fights between Cap and Bucky. Cap is just so conflicted, because Bucky was his absolute best friend and he was astounded to see him in this time period and, in this condition, but didn't know how to help him. But part of me would get annoyed because Cap would just let Bucky go every time when he could easily put a stop to him. But then it would make me think of my lifelong best friend, Madison, and how I'd probably do the same in this situation.

···

This movie is also when HYDRA (the villains) are introduced. It gives such a good sneak peek on their power and technology that they have and aren't afraid to use. It's terrifying how undercover their whole system is, so I never knew what they'd do next when the characters and I were least expecting it. Likewise, it doesn't go too far into detail about HYDRA which told me right off the bat that they'd be in further movies and a pretty big deal. (good for me, bad for avengers ;)

To conclude, like any Marvel movie released before 2021, lol, they exuded it perfectly. I love the characters, the intense plot line, and how it's so action packed, it literally never gets boring. Which serves me well, because of my short attention span. I love how it is a movie that leads from other movies and leads into further movies, it's not just something you can watch without seeing other ones first (which gives my mom and I more of an excuse to watch more than one Marvel movie in a day hehe) Although it had some amazing aspects, it is #9 just because I didn't love the ending (I won't spoil it for you guys though, but take it from me)

Don't miss out on #8! Coming out next week!

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stryc-9 · 2 years

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Part 2 in my 5 part series of obvious things Lauren Seal completely misunderstands about storytelling... coherent plot

In a perfect (or even acceptable) story, the plot would be not only coherent, but also compelling and consistent. I think we all know that's far too much to expect in LN's case, so we'll stick with only one C aspect for now.

I'm going to admit something that makes me feel dumb but actually makes LN look dumb... I do not know what season 4 was about. Truly. I could guess at themes (that fall apart if you try to carry them through) and point out messages she thought she was maybe kinda conveying, but I honestly can't give you an elevator pitch to explain the season.

The homages / straight up copies of religious iconographies (which didn't belong in the first place) were so muddled.

The Romeo & Juliet fish tank homage -- both characters die. The scorpion and the frog fable -- both characters die. Cupid and psyche -- they end up together despite all kinds of obstacles and a trip through hell. And don't even get me started on Jesus, especially with how LN has followed up saying Villanelle was too self-serving to sacrifice her life for Eve. That was his whole deal.

So in 2 of these, both characters die. In 1, they end up together. And in Christianity -- why do I even have to address this -- there is the sacrifice of one for all.

I probably missed some of her fables / mythologies because honestly it was too much to keep up with considering the constant conflict. But of the ones I remembered, none fit the story.

And before someone lets her open her dumb mouth again to say something like "well Eve died too. She was being cleansed of all the death to be normal again." Honey, sweetie, darling, precious moron, Eve died A LONG TIME AGO. It was literally the point of her character journey. Her true self was being revealed while her "normal" persona was being stripped away.

She didn't become SOMEONE NEW. She embraced all parts of herself to become SOMETHING ELSE. Not new. Complete.

Now we can now discuss what we were presented with as maybe I guess might have kinda a little bit been the plot for season 4... the 12. They make no sense (in the show) as either an organization or a big bad. One minute they are all knowing and no one can ever break free of them and the next they're sending out e-vites.

Characters were used as objects for no reason. Konstantin was back with the 12. Why couldn't he or Pam decode the text from Helene's phone that apparently only Villanelle could crack in 4 seconds?

You all know I have 9,857 questions about this season. That one happened to pop up simply because I'm trying to find the thread that held together 8 episodes.

But here's the thing... a month and a half post-finale and I still can't. In fact, it only falls apart more on further inspection.

When we finally do "resolve" the storyline of the great and seemingly omnipotent (yet incompetent) 12, there's no point whatsoever. They never had faces that mattered to us or the characters. They had no bearing on the actual story. They just kinda existed, I guess? The only purpose ever given in the show was that they "create chaos," whatever the fuck that means.

Luke Jennings, at the very least, understood the concept of plot. His 12 are cunning and competent and they HAVE A PURPOSE. They're largely faceless still (as any actual secret cabal should be), but their presence is FELT and their reach is CLEAR. Their kills are strategic and each one is part of a bigger picture to crumble world governments. In short, they're terrifying.

Oh and I do hate to slap this point on with little to no transition, but I'm just following LN's lead: time jumps should be used incredibly sparingly and only by the best writers. If, however, one absolutely must (against all sound advice in this case) toss one in a narrative -- it is 1000% that person's responsibility to show the audience how we got from point A to point B in order to pick up the story further down the road.

There wasn't even an attempt at that, which honestly gave the plot no chance from the get go. Addressing 3 things in a short amount of time would've been a jumping off point: 1. What happened between Eve and V after they looked back on the bridge? 2. Why is Eve indifferent toward V as if she's an annoying kid sister and not a formidable foe / equal love interest and V essentially begging for scraps of attention? 3. Why church camp? (I can't even with that, and would've settled for the first 2 answers.)

It would've taken under 5 minutes to lay that groundwork, but instead we got half an episode of Carolyn in the 70s, new characters all the way through the finale, and a relationship between Villaneve that's never been more contentious while they hooked up with everyone else and never had an honest conversation. BUT WHY?!?!

And I've failed to mention how the time jump wasn't discussed IRL either. Sally said 7-8 months, Sandra said 2 years, and Jodie said 4-5 months. Those are VASTLY different timeframes. No blame on the actors whatsoever, but WHAT?! Kind of important facts to the plot of filming too.

The long and short of it is this: if all anyone is left with after your story is questions, you didn't have a coherent plot. And if this post lacks one, blame LN.

Part 1 | Part 3 | Part 4

#killing eve #villanelle #oksana astankova #eve polastri #villaneve #killing eve season four #as always fuck lauren seal #fuck laura and sally and sid gentle and and and

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peninkwrites · 1 year

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📓!!

OKAY. I've talked about this AU before but I'm gonna go into more detail. It's an AU for this cancelled BBC show about gay zombies called "In the Flesh".

Essential need-to-know about the world:

The Rising happened a few years ago, it was a zombie apocalypse in the sense that everyone who died in the year before crawled out of their graves. Zombies did eat people's brains (and sheep brains) but bites did not "turn" you, there was a finite number of resurrected. Zombies are now treatable, so the dead can go home to their families.

But of course there's mistrust and conflict because the things that were eating people's families are now just waltzing back into society.

As for plot: (some stuff carries over like directly from the show when I say this show was sooo c!Wilbur core. whew)

Wilbur killed himself and was resurrected during the Rising. He's been treated and can now go home to his small town with his family. His family includes his dad Phil, his dad's best friend who moved in with them during the Rising, and his little brother Tommy.

Tommy joined the militia during the Rising. He hates zombies, and he especially hates his brother for abandoning him. Most militias are shut down, but Tommy and some others are still patrolling the woods, killing zombies, and of course led by Dream, who Tommy seriously looks up to. (I'm thinking Sam and Sapnap are also part of the militia, Sapnap stops though once Quackity comes home, Tommy doesn't stop when Wilbur does because he's mad at him) Sam isn't like, bigoted against the resurrected, just obsessed with keeping people safe.

Quackity is also resurrected. He came home from the treatment center to find that his two fiances got married without him (because as far as they were concerned, he was dead, they were trying to live again) but he's still hurt and feels like he doesn't belong there anymore. He's more radical, he doesn't try to hide he's resurrected, so he gets a lot of shit in this tiny town. (Schlatt is a fanatical preacher claiming the resurrected are demons from hell)

Tubbo is new on the town council, assisting Schlatt, but he's not one of the fanatics, instead he's volunteered to serve as a nurse helping the resurrected with their treatments in secret, something that if found out would lose him his job and probably worse. In his rounds, he befriends Ranboo, a resurrected who is desperately trying to hide what he is. He doesn't remember his life before the Rising, and he doesn't have anyone.

Some fucking Insane scenes from the show I intend to carry over:

(SPOILERS for the show in the flesh and this AU if I ever get around to it lmao)

Wilbur disappearing for a few days and scaring the shit out of his family, because the last time that happened, well. Techno goes after him, they have a talk, and when he returns Phil is too calm, so Wilbur goads him into yelling at him so Phil finally breaks down and screams himself hoarse about finding Wilbur's body and carrying him home. Genuinely, the scene from the show is one of my favorites of anything ever.

Quackity is having some tension with Sapnap and Karl, he's resentful, they're unsure. (Okay, in the show, it was this guy who came home to find his wife remarried with his best friend, so polyamory wasn't the solution. I haven't decided if I'm going that route or making it them all being engaged but it still being complicated because Feelings) But basically, Quackity and Karl (maybe Sapnap? I haven't decided) accidentally get locked in a garage. At which point, Quackity's watch starts beeping reminding him he needs his shot. Because the Resurrected Need to have their medicine administered once a day or they Will go rabid again. At which point Quackity is freaking out, he gives Karl a wrench and tells him if he starts acting weird he needs to be ready to bash his skull in, Karl is freaking out because he doesn't want to do this, and at the last second, Sapnap breaks down the door and tackles Quackity to the ground. But after that, Quackity is the one who doesn't feel like he should be there, because he thinks he's too dangerous (that, or I think in the show the guy was arrested and sent back to the treatment center which is so bad, haven't decided yet)

Dream gets pissed off and defensive when Tommy starts to forgive his brother, so he kidnaps Wilbur and drugs him with something that negates the effect of the treatment, hoping he'll go rabid and Tommy will be forced to kill him, but Tommy can't shoot his brother, and Wilbur somehow manages to stop himself from attacking him until. Idk maybe Techno tackles him before someone else can shoot Wilbur.

#ask games #utlana #AH love this show #in the flesh au #this is so much and basically spoils everyhting I might have planned but I'm not writing this any time soon so #thanks for the ask!!#my writing #(sorta)

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lore-of-the-silvereyes-rwby · 1 year

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I'm probably in the minority on this but I actually don't think Blake has dropped her goal of equality. I think that, right now, she realizes that if she's gonna help anyone? She needs to work on herself first. Which she's done. She's still striving for equality, it's just not her ONLY goal. Yeah yeah, I know that "she should have been in the mantle team" but that's just mantel. Her goal is equality, meaning everyone is equal. So her being focused on a single local would, this volume anyway, be no different than focusing on Atlas alone. Just my thoughts anyways

I'm probably in the minority on this but I actually don't think Blake has dropped her goal of equality.

She probably hasn’t dropped them but unlike the first 3-5 volumes of the show they aren’t as central or important as they were in the beginning as opposed to now

I think that, right now, she realizes that if she's gonna help anyone? She needs to work on herself first. Which she's done.

Not sure by what you mean by she needs to work on herself or that she did succeed in doing so, but at this point as a character Blake has essentially lost all sense of agency and relevance to the plot and is now either.

A.) Yang’s Love interest or

B.) One of Ruby’s many glorified sidekicks

And this is pretty sad when you think about how Blake and her story in the first 3 Volumes essentially served as the catalyst and instigating incident that got all of the main characters involved with the overall plot of the show in the first place

Seriously I don’t think people realize this but the whole reason why the main characters got involved and are on the villains radar is because of Blake and her subplot

She's still striving for equality, it's just not her ONLY goal.

It's fine to have other goals but Blakes whole thing and purpose was that whole racial equality thing which got swept under the rug as CRWBY realized in their own worlds that “They were too young and inexperienced to write a racism subplot.”

Yeah yeah, I know that "she should have been in the mantle team" but that's just mantel.

Not sure where you got the idea that she should have been with the Mantle team in V8 but Blakes expertise for breaking into Atlas facilities that she got while she was still a terrorist was more needed and useful with Ruby’s team than Yangs mantle escort team so besides Yang, I really don’t see any reason why Blake would be a part of the mantle team in the first place.

Her goal is equality, meaning everyone is equal.

Nobody is ever going to be equal, life's way too complicated for that and in the end as far as most equal rights and freedom movements go they are just a means for better and fair living standards and life opportunities for people who have been treated like $#!7 by the standards of the time and ruling class and in Blake’s case it’s more or less having a wide variety of choices to live life that don’t border on either hazardous dangers or seedy and undesirable professions to make ends meet

So her being focused on a single local would, this volume anyway, be no different than focusing on Atlas alone.

Not sure what you mean by that by as I stated before Blake’s overall arc with equality is more or less irrelevant to non-existent now and probably will remain that way as CRWBY most likely has no intention of ever revisiting that especially now since the stakes are literally raised to the point that total world destruction is well within the realm of possibility that more or less overshadows and makes every other subplot or conflict either pointless or irrelevant Like nobody is going to care or give their full attention to these subplots when the main plot can result in overall destruction of the world and kill everyone which would and will make all of them both pointless and irrelevant

Just my thoughts anyways

Thank you for your thoughts and questions I hope my responses are satisfactory or understandable and feel free to ask any more questions as I do like to explore and give deep thoughts to these topics as to help understand and learn from.

#rwby thoughts #rwby #rwby analysis #rwby theories #rwbyv8 #rwby blake #blake bellodona

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