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randomnameless · 4 months

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Fates unironically did the "muhritocracy" schtick better than 3H lol; the vast majority of the playable Nohrian characters are commoners who got into high-ranking positions in the Nohrian army due to being exceptional soldiers and getting rewarded as such, whereas the only commoners on Adrestia's side that aren't turncoats (or fodder soldiers that are stated to exist only in throwaway dialogue from faceless NPCs) are Ladislava (non-character with no screentime, personality or even feats to support that she did anything to help the Adrestian army in any significant way), Fleche (slightly more of a character, still does nothing to help Adrestia), Randolph (does nothing to help and isn't even particularly well-recognized or rewarded for his skills, if him being jealous of his superiors is any indication), and Dorothea (only got to a high-ranking position due to prostituting herself in order to get into Garreg Mach, befriending the crown princess of the Empire, and being made into a general of the Adrestian army due to nepotism from that same crown princess).

What makes it even worse is that Nohr rewarding merit for anyone and everyone, regardless of social class or status, is an irrelevant bit of background worldbuilding, whereas Edelgard wanting to reward commoners' merits is one of her most consistently-repeated ideals, but the only non-nobleborn CF playable character only got so far in life due to (literal) peepee-sucking and nepotism, and even the NPCs are either featless non-characters (Fleche and Ladislava) or complain about not being recognized enough despite his skill/is recognized enough and Edelgard just decided a power-hungry, immoral dumbass was meritant enough to be made into a general in her army (Randolph); shouldn't the order have been reversed? Like, the game where one of the main characters' principle ideals is to recognize and reward anyone who's skilled should be the one to have most of her allies be commoners, whereas the one where the concept of merit is completely irrelevant to the story, themes and characters could have just had the characters be mostly nobles instead of consistently making them commoners just for subtle worldbuilding? It's weird.

Want to see an upstanding posterchild of Nohrian muhritocracy?

Chaos will always topple the ones who don't earn their status. It's folks like you and me who rise to the top. And the way we do that is by cutting down all our enemies.

I won't stop at captain. I will keep on climbing!

I'll be a king someday. I'll make it happen—you wait and see.

More seriously -

It's all about the what is actually rewarded.

I've already joked a bit about it, but basically Randolph and Nopes!Caspar want to demonstrate their muhrit by... invading countries, killing refugees or randoms who returned in their home after being ousted by the Imperial army.

Much muhrit, very uwu.

Take Whodislava, as you mentioned, bar being a named NPC who as less screentime than Kronya and is supposed to be a sad casualty for war, while being the posterchild of Supreme Leader's muhritocracy, we don't a thing about her. What has she done to be granted the rank of general? What are her achievements?

At times I'm pretty sure TS was partly written to laugh and mock FE16, but Avlora is basically in the same situation, save that Avlora has more plot relevance and exists bar being a sign the devs hold that's written "please feel bad about this character you've never interacted with and only has 5 lines of dialogue and is only here to garner sympathy when she dies I mean even Fates!Candace had more presence than her".

Avlora was an orphan, trained under Groma - a famous general - who continued to train even when Groma retired, became Adre- Aesfrost's top general and defeated Maxwell in a duel. We have her story - she came from nothing - her feats - she defeated the strongest warrior in Glenbrook - and the entire meritocracy angle sticks : Avlora was a nobody made general because she kicked asses.

The meritocratic Adrestia NPCs?

Randolph... tries to get muhrit, but fails as we protect people and only laments about his status in his House (as he is fucking killing people to gain more status, like dude, priorities?) - so in way, both Randy and Flèche are imo, counterexemples of Supreme Leader's muhritocracy : Randolph kills peons and invades an orphanage to demonstrate his "muhrit" because, otherwise, without any muhrit, iirc it's implied he and his sister will be demoted to randoms in House Bergliez (even if Flèche is supposed to be younger than Cyril iirc? Like how the frick do you want a kid of 12 to demonstrate her muhrit, else she'll be kicked out of her house?).

Whodislava... dies heroically, at least that's what we're supposed to get from her very "please cry" cutscene when she dies in front of Supreme Leader in Tru Piss - as Rhea and her family + knights tried to retake their ancestral home and she prevented them from doing so - or it's the same nonsense as "we killed Ferdie professor :(", we are supposed to feel bad about people who were fighting alongside a demonic beast when, in FE16, we fucking know what they are.

Since the FE5 banner released earlier this week, FE5 paints "honorable" Reinhardt as a pitiful man, because no matter how honorable or kickass or kind Reinhardt was, when it came to defect to protect children from being kidnapped or stop the general nonsense the Empire was pulling in Thracia... Reinhardt refused to do so, pretexting remaining by Ishtar's side, and when that became impossible, he choose death over rescuing toddlers. His situation is supposed to be compared to his sister's Olwen, who, when she discovers the truth of what is happening in Thracia, ditches the Empire to help Leif rescue the children - and, imo, Amalda (who's not in FEH yet!) who is also, basically, a commander who plays a larger Camus role as in, she tries to appeal to her Lord to stop the child hunts, her Lord tells her to eat shit, and when asked why she still fights and why she doesn't defect, Amalda says if she does so, her knights will be killed + Amalda appears as a NPC allied unit in a map to hunt bandits to save a village.

So, compared to those ladies who defect or try to protect whoever they can protect - their soldiers AND civilians who are being trampled by their own army - Reinhardt who doesn't do a thing and picks "death" is, as Olwen's ending puts it "pitiful".

Back to your ask anon, even if I disgress from the meritocracy angle - Flèche, Whodislava and Randy are such non-entities compared to characters with 6 lines from FE5 that even if they try to pull the "I have to do this for my family" or the "I came from nothing and still help my emperor because I am thankful to her for having raised me from being a commoner to a general", our Adrestians NPC feel very, very flat.

Are we supposed to cry for Hans's failed dreams of becoming a king when we kill him? No, but Randy and Whodislava's deaths are overplayed with so much pathos that the game is basically telling you "and here you should feel bad because they died" but... what is more important, the fact they tried to unlock a lot of achievments to demonstrate their "muhrit", or what the hell they were ready to do to unlock said achievments?

As for Doro needing to befriend people to enter Garreg Mach, remember that Doro, being touted as another example of the muhritocracy Supreme Leader's Adrestia aims to be, had to engage in sex work from a young age, to reach the diva status - which has very disturbing implications, that are glossed over because that's FE16 for you. Are we supposed to believe Doro "worked hard" to be able to catch the eye of some deranged fucks when she was a pre-teen to become a diva - or, as Manu puts it in a support that cannot be achieved in Tru Piss, muhrit alone doesn't work to become a diva, and it's actually a pretty font to hide the "dark" deeds young singers in Mittelfrank have to do to reach the "diva" status?

Minor tidbit though, Doro is famous enough for being Supreme Leader's dearest friend but she isn't promoted to "general" in Tru Piss, she's only BESF who's not, at least in her bio, a general Post TS.

Imo the question you raise is actually relevant to how empty Supreme Leader's muhritocracy's ideal is - in both game Ferdie has to remind her that to build "muhrit" or for commoners to be able to gather "muhrit" as nobles do, they have to start at the same lever, and receive education as nobles do.

IIRC, in Supreme Bullshit, despite their feats, Hubert tells Barney they're only a commoner - not even a worthy commoner like Doro - but a fucking random - when muhrit wise, Barney should at least be named general!

In both games, Linhardt is a general... but we don't see anything from him, bar his tropey "i want to study crests and nap and i dgaf about anything else" traits - if that's all there is to him, how and why the crap was he made general??

Why, it's almost as if "muhrit" is a smokescreen to hide the fact that the one who chooses/picks who gets to be important from who isn't does it on their own terms just like irl

What is merit, really? Who gets to decide what is merit from what isn't? Or who is the "best" at doing things, from another?

It's another instance of, imo, Fodlan's artificial feel, the game raises a question/issue, and starts some smoke about it, but without tackling said issues seriously we're left with "I agree and think starvation shouldn't exist anymore" milquetoast and cliché opinions that give the illusion this game is "very deep" when it's just, a puff of smoke.

#anon #replies #fodlan nonsense #those games are so ridiculous tbh trying to 'tackle' this issue with a spoon #and then people buy the 'see this game tackles this issue'#you won't drill a hole in a wall of concrete with a plastic spoon #Hans represents muhrit as in ok he can kill things dead yay #but morality wise? No matter how many people he can kill in one day he was arrested because there are more important things than #this 'he's the best at killing' muhritocratic angle #Amalda and Olwen defect when they are given the occasion and learn abotu the Empire's nonsense #but when Whodislava and Ferdie (and the BESF in general) side with Baldo'n'Waldi they don't?#And we're supposed to cry about their deaths when they fucking use mutated humans as fodder?#like I'm not following jjk that well #but i'm pretty sure Doro's not supposed to go full sad uwus “we've killed mahito professor :'( ”#FE5 #FE5 bestest game ever #they made me merciless on the Camus archetype lol #I really love Amalda and hope she'll eventually be added in FE heroes #FE16 #Avlora kicked ass in TS and even she has the realisation that the fuck she was doing was horrible #and faces consequences for demosntrating her 'muhrit' by slaughtering people

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punkranger · 1 year

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I always forget how bad things are at the beginning of Rebirth...

#fallen hero #prepare for retribution #antoine duman #'Pretend that the best times in your life aren't fodder for your nightmares'#It's okay antoine im gonna give you so many friends

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fantastic-nonsense · 5 months

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I think people who genuinely wanted Percy to rebel against the gods and overthrow the system kind of...miss the whole point of the series

The question is not whether or not the gods deserve to rule; the books are kind of unambiguous that they don't! That the gods are generally undeserving of their children's loyalty is the one thing that Percy and Luke both agree on! But PJO is less about divine right to rule vs. ruling via consent of the governed and more about improving dysfunctional family systems. It's not about whether unfair rulers deserve to continue ruling; it's about forcing the gods to be better, fairer rulers and a better, fairer family given limited alternatives.

Because what are the alternatives, as presented to us within the scope of the original PJO series?

Option 1: allow Kronos to topple Olympus and take over. Clearly not a viable alternative for all of the reasons the books show us.

Option 2: the demigods overthrow the Olympians and rule the world themselves. Okay. How's that going to work out long-term, given demigods are mortal and cannot control or protect their parents' domains? Demigods will die out within a generation or two, so that's potentially a one-generation short-term solution, and then everyone's right back where they started. Except worse, because now the world has been out of divine balance for a century and the gods have a completely legitimate bone to pick with all demigods. Materially worse outcome.

Option 3: demigods ignore the gods and their will entirely. They integrate into the mortal world, refuse to participate in quests or talk to their parents, and pretend prophecies don't exist. Except that's clearly not a viable option, since we see that demigods usually can't safely exist in the mortal world without monsters coming after them, the gods are cruel enough to use blackmail and engage in hostage situations to get demigods to act as heroes, and prophecies have a way of coming true regardless of everyone's best attempts to circumvent them. Again: materially worse outcome.

And for Percy, for the demigods at Camp Half-Blood, for Luke and for everyone else who defected....for the most part, they don't actually have an inherent problem with the gods ruling them. They just want to be acknowledged, valued, and loved by their families, to be treated as more than a tool for their parents to wield whenever their services are needed. That was the core thesis of the demigod rebellion, which was wholly separate from Kronos' specific motivations for overthrowing the Olympians, and it's why Percy's asks at the end of TLO were what they were.

The point was always that had Percy grown up in a slightly more dysfunctional family environment...had he grown up with Frederick Chase's seemingly conditional love or May Castellan's madness instead of Sally Jackson's steady, quiet, unconditional love...he could have turned out like Luke. Like Ethan. Like the dozens of demigods who defected from camp to join Luke's cause. Percy could have turned out just as a bitter and angry and vengeful. Just as ready to tear down the system. Just as willing to betray and kill his own family for the sake of making a point.

But instead, Percy openly reprimands the gods for abandoning their families and using them as cannon fodder in their own petty disagreements. He forces them to acknowledge and claim their children. He demands that everyone who is part of the godly family be recognized and accepted, not just those related to the Twelve Olympians. He asks for those unjustly punished (like Calypso) to be set free and accepted back into the family. Because that's the point at the end of the day: not forcing bad rulers to step down, but changing an insanely dysfunctional family system that the gods and demigods are all members of into a better, safer, and more accepting environment for demigods to grow up and live in.

Overthrowing the gods wouldn't solve the problem at the heart of the series, which is the gods' shitty parenting and family management skills. It would only exacerbate the massive familial fault-lines that Kronos exploited and leave the demigods open to more godly manipulation. Which is why the series ends as it does, with Percy using his wish to tangibly improve the lives of his family instead of selfishly improving his own life (via accepting immortality/godhood) or overthrowing the gods. Because the conflict isn't about the gods as rulers. It's about the gods as parents.

PJO's core thesis is Percy, who grew up knowing unconditional familial love, looking at this whole world of children who didn't and saying "that's not fair. Gods should be better than this!" But instead of destroying them the way Luke wants to, instead of overthrowing them and putting himself on the throne, he instead challenges them to be better parents and family members. To be part of the solution instead of the problem. And Percy's demands don't solve everything, but they were necessary first steps! Without forcing the gods to acknowledge a bare minimum floor of inclusion, the cycle would simply begin all over again the next time a major conflict popped up.

So that's the problem Percy solves and how he successfully fulfills the prophecy: by believing that the gods had the capacity to change and forcing them to break the cycle of familial abandonment, he preserves Olympus and takes the first steps towards a new status quo, one that is objectively better for demigods than the one he grew up in. That's why he succeeds, and it's why Percy overthrowing the gods would have made for a much less satisfying ending than what actually happened.

#pjo #pjo meta #percy jackson #luke castellan #ethan nakamura #annabeth chase #long post #pjo tv #wow it's been awhile since I've written proper pjo meta lmfao

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dgrailwar · 25 days

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Round 4, Day 4 - ALL TEAMS (Event)

The Gunner sat on the shoulder of the massive mechanized entity, grinning.

"Ah… let's get comfortable. Participating Masters, are you here? Let's do a check in with the Servants-- shall we?"

The Ruler stood strong, summoning her banner as she blocked incoming fire and pushed back the advancing militia.

"They're on par with Servants! These aren't normal enemies!"

The Foreigner floated high in the air, bullets whizzing past him as he tumbled in the sky, panicked.

"There's a lot…! Too many… too many…!"

The MoonCancer sat perfectly still, watching as the armed warriors passed by.

"…Just ignore the statue… just ignore the statue…"

The Alter-Ego stabbed into the approaching onslaught, gritting her teeth as she found herself slightly overwhelmed.

"Damn it, I'll drain you all and turn you into EXP! You're fodder to me!"

The Pretender looked down, smiling ruefully as he shook his head.

"Uh-oh. Looks like we're fighting against a pretty focused fighting force. What to do…"

The Avenger burst forth, shrouded in flames as he began to rip through the enemies, even him finding their numbers overwhelming.

"Kuhahaha! Where is the summoned hero! Where is Gunner!?"

"Looks like they're trying to put up a fight. But I apologize, I haven't introduced myself. My True Name is Takasugi Shinsaku. However, as this is a war of Extra-Classes… the most interesting of the Servant Classes…"

"…Just call me the exemplary Gunner! I heard that you knocked out Faker, therefore in this bout, I shall be your seventh! So-- Let's make this fun! If you all work together, then everybody will have the best chance of victory. Still… glory is pretty tempting. So if you want to go for the head, as in myself, and leave everyone else to handle the dirty work… well, it might harm the others, but you'll feel like a winner! Oh- but if you're going to sell out your friends or enemies, make it interesting!"

"So, what's it gonna be? You gonna try to work together, or is greed gonna take over? This is still a competition with a winner, after all. Why mess up the chance? Let's see what happens."

Rules:

Try your best to balance the polls (there's a grace zone of 2% in either direction)! If you do so, everyone will be granted a boon! If you can't, then everyone will be hit by a punishment!

However… If you want to win on your own, it has to be definitive, as in: by greater than 7% of your closest competitor, and then only your team will get a major boon and the rest will be punished! But if you try to win but can't hit that metric, only you'll get smacked with a punishment!

Will you work together, or will you try to go for the glory on your own?

#extra summon event #team ruler #team alter ego #team avenger #team foreigner #team mooncancer #team pretender

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lizzaneia-elizalde · 6 months

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Male Yandere Adventurer x Female Magical Maiden Reader

Just imagine a man who’s on an adventure or is like a hunter or something, coming across a magical maiden bathing in a body of water, and he just has to make her his

I was inspired by all those beautiful water nymph/maiden oil paintings that I thought this would be a cool concept if reader darling was the magical one for a change. Or what if yandere also secretly had some magic blood in him!?

Thanks!!! 💝

Yandere! Male! Hero! Isekai'ed Adventurer x Fem! Elementalist mage! Reader

💝 ANON! I love this request so much because I love worldbuilding. Making your own lore to magical worlds is just-- ack!

This time, this world will be the same as Yan! Villain's world. Hope you don't mind me putting more elements to the fic.

Also, my ask box is going to be open again! Finally. Lol. :3

Yan! Isekai'ed Adventurer's name: Aeron

A great Adventurer. Someone who defeated the Demon King by his own hands without any help.

From a nobody to the Hero everyone looked up to, Aeron shot up through the ranks of the Empire.

Charismatic, brave, strong, and determined, Aeron was somebody people underestimated before.

After all, he just suddenly appeared one day. In the middle of the throne room, nonetheless.

Begging for his life, Aeron pleaded the Emperor to not put him in jail for trespassing the palace. So, with the Emperor looking to take advantage of this man, he assigned Aeron to kill the Demon King by himself.

"Isn't that suicide?"

Yes, it was.

But Aeron is desperate. So he agreed to the quest and set off with only a few copper coins, a sword, bow, shield, stale bread, and the clothes on his back.

He's legitimately sent to die.

Only a human. Without any powers, nor he didn't go to the gym that much to have the physical prowess to even have a chance of fighting back.

He was so scared. So small, so powerless in a world filled with unknown magic that he didn't encounter back in earth at all.

He's someone who hopped from party to party, as people only saw him as fodder, or they just scammed him of free labor. Then abandoned once they realized he's off to kill the Demon King.

He tried so hard.

So hard for people to take him seriously.

But all he received was ridicule, harsh words, and spits or beatings for the people who went too far.

Humans, all they cared about are themselves and nobody else.

Selfish, hateful, and evil.

Are they sure the Demon King is the evil one and not them?

His body screamed in pain everyday as he hiked alone and taken advantage of. His wounds severe, his leg cut off. He tried so hard to be so understanding, but what is there to understand of hearts so filled with vile intentions?

Revenge, he was fueled with it.

He wants to see blood, he wants to see them suffering for the suffering he got. Tenfold.

Hero? He was no hero as he cut off the head of the Demon King who was innocent, and didn't do anything wrong.

Does he feel bad?

He feels too bad for himself to feel bad for others.

Waving the head of the Demon King, he trudges back to the Palace. Throwing the head at the feet of the fearful Emperor. Aeron sighs, knowing everything is finally going to his direction as the Emperor grants him Marquess status, after kicking the previous Marquess for corruption.

As the hero, he was regarded as a celebrity. Everyone loved him, and everyone revered him. Those who wronged him before though, now boasts of being his ex-party mates, and that they were the best of friends. Singing praises as if they didn't sling hurtful words to his way before.

Let's just say, they ended up dead the next day for even trying to say those words.

There's only one person who genuinely helped Aeron.

A mage, living alone in the woods on the foot of the Demon King's castle. She's somewhat of an enigma, capable of holding off monsters from trying to invade the Empire, especially the Demon King himself. Sure, the King is innocent, but only because he was not successful in invading the Empire yet due to her.

And she was you.

Truthfully, you were only a bored, overpowered mage who decided to protect the Empire one day. You wield all the main elements in a precision that nobody has topped off before, and sub-elementals in a way that other master wizards only dream of wielding.

OP, sure, but you didn't care about other people's feelings.

So, how did Aeron meet you?

On the way to the top of the castle, he had to take a bath due to being rancid. Showered with monsters' blood left and right, he hadn't had a bath for so long too, focused on killing the Demon King and nothing more. He didn't even care about his leg being gone as he hopped towards the stream.

Then, he saw you. Beautiful, ethereal you.

Bathing under the moonlight, the water cascaded down your skin and onto your curves, and down to the stream once more. Your hair, wet, shines as if stars sparkled within them.

Then your eyes. Deep, sharp, bored.

He was captivated.

"Who are you?" You asked, not even looking at him as you continued to wield the stream's water to make a pseudo shower. "Do not look at me like that, lecher."

Aeron froze, embarassed.

"Ah no, I just... Want to take a bath too when I saw you."

Your gaze looked at him.

"I can see that you really need a bath."

Aeron flushed red once more.

You cracked your neck before standing up. Aeron's eyes followed your every movement as you went up to him.

He could feel his heart beat increase in speed.

Then, feeling an itch on his leg stump, his eyes widened as a grotesque yet mesmerizing event happened. His leg is reforming once more.

"How did you..." He flexed his leg, in awe.

"Take a bath, you smell bad." You dismissed him before going away.

"Your name! Miss..." He yells, eyes erratic.

"Y/N. See you around, future hero."

And you left with a bag of gold, a mana infused sword, bow with mana arrows, and a shield made of obsidian.

The complete opposite of the Emperor.

His heart raced once more as tears fell from his eyes.

The first act of kindness he received in this world.

He vowed to repay you, so he took a bath, and headed straight to the Demon King to fight.

Now, he's here to pay back the kindness you gave him.

And he just hopes you recognize the man in front of you.

Or else.

After helping the Duke Eros in the war and earning another victory in his belt, Aeron rested his body in his chateau once more.

He placed his arm over his eyes, sighing deeply.

little dancing black sprites danced all around him as the sun filtered through the arched windows. These sprites started following him after he defeated the Demon King, and now he wields them like how a magic user does. He's still completely magic-less, but thanks to the sprites, he got to wield magic.

It was sunset, and Aeron just got back from reporting to the Emperor who gloated about the fact that this Empire just won another war.

"That freak." He muttered.

The current Emperor, who just succeeded the previous Emperor who mysteriously died with black sprites latched on his body, was a warfreak who wanted to spread his territory for fun, and spills bloodshed for the thrill of it. He's just the same age as Eros and Aeron, but god is he a crazy motherfucker.

Aeron stood up, letting the sprites dance around his palm as he casted magic on his hand. The sprite absorbed into his skin, making his arm pitch black with his veins dying the dark color. Creeping up to his arm.

"Portal."

The spatial frame cracked, forming a what looked like a broken glass opening.

It opens to the forest, the foot of the Demon King's castle.

His heart rate picked up once more.

He stepped forward, entering into the portal and being teleported into the forest.

One thing he got from the war he was forced to join is a ring with a jewel the same color as your eyes. One with an intricate carving and a unique design. As if veins popped out of the jewel, which was the centerpiece. It's embedded with fae magic that Aeron hopes is useful for you.

His steps heavy, the crunch of the leaves under you filled his ears. He's quiet, even his breathing light and seemingly not there. His time in the war, and fighting different beasts after the Demon King trained his body to perfection.

He stopped in front of the stream once more, a sense of dejavu knocked into him as he watched you bath once more there.

The moonlight filtered through the much bigger trees and into you below. You were much more magnificent than he remembers.

He gulped, itching to touch you, kiss you, feel you.

He felt pent up. But he knows that he should stop himself.

"*ehem*, my lady." He said, back straight and chest out. His eyes sparkling with warmth. "Remember me?"

You, startled as you didn't feel a presence, whipped your body towards him. A stark contrast to how you reacted before.

But, he felt his stomach drop when you looked at him all confused.

"Who are you?"

He suddenly clammed up.

Sweat started to riddle his face, eyes wide with betrayal.

This...

"I'm the person you helped before, my lady. The one without a leg?"

You hummed.

"I don't really recognize you..."

He started to breath heavily and shakily. His eyes, trembling, he tried to find signs of your form if you were joking.

But no, you were serious.

He took a step forward, his lips trying to say something. Anything.

You shrugged at his reaction.

"I help a lot of people, really. So I don't recognize you. Have I helped you? I assume I did, as you said."

But all he could utter was a helpless, silent cry.

This was worse than being exploited.

The only person who was nice to him when he got isekai'ed into this godforsaken world forgot him.

And you helped other people?

Not just him?

Something unknown bubbled deep into his stomach painfully. It felt like it was wrenching into a boulder he can't seem to lift away.

"My Lady... I..." His mouth felt dry.

You shrugged, snapping your fingers and making you instantly dry after you went up to the shore.

Wearing your clothes, you waved to him before going away once more.

Aeron felt sick to his stomach as he keeled over.

He never cried.

He refused to cry for the people who wronged him.

But now, tears flowed down from his eyes as he started to go under a panic attack.

"My Lady... Why... Why don't you remember me..." He sobbed out, his throat painfully clawing out cries of desperation. The tears soaked his cheeks but he didn't care. "You were so nice to me... Why?"

The fantasy he built inside your mind was now broken completely. He thought you will remember him. He didn't consider that you won't remember him.

He felt so lost.

What's all this for?

What is he fighting for?

When his lady doesn't even remember him?

He gripped the grass beneath him. A strangled cry finally gargling out of his mouth.

Why did he feel so attached to you?

Just because you were the nicest to him?

So what? You chose to be nice in this place filled with vile people.

He just wished you didn't.

He just wished you left him alone, maybe even be rude to him like others did if you would just forget him.

But no, you used your magic on him. A pathetic alien in this grotesque world filled with magic and discrimination.

He just wished he would die then and there.

As negative thoughts filled him, the darkness around him seeped into his legs and arms. Like the sprites, black veins crept around his limbs painfully and into his neck.

What is a hero?

His sclera turned black, his breathing became shorter and shorter.

Does a hero need to be always good?

Something poured inside him, making him gargle in pain. Drool dripped down his chin as he snapped out of it. He writhed in pain from the sudden influx of mana inside his body.

Why was he sent to this goddamn world in the first place?

He curled his toes, his body becoming rigid. Like a leech sprinkled with salt, he painfully clawed at his face as he moved around the place. His heart pounding fast, his mind pulsing all over the place.

Is the purpose of him being isekai'ed here is to save the world?

He hacked up blood, keeling over. The boulder in his stomach now a fiery acid he wished to dispel from his body. He vomits out blood again, but it was pitch black.

But if he was destined to be a hero, why is he suffering so much?

He wants the pain to be gone, he wants it off. He wants to ask for your help, to scream for your name to alleviate his pain like you did before. But no sound came from his mouth. Only black and purple smoke as his body underwent changes he never thought would happen.

Please, will you help this poor man?

After an hour, he shakily stood up. He felt that his senses got more sensitive, tenfold. He can feel every beast's emotion. He can feel overwhelming power inside him, same as authority.

After all, you were the light to his world.

And, as hundreds of beasts surround him, a sprite descended from above and placed a crown on his head. The monsters bowed to him. He numbly stood there, looking so disheveled but so ominous as he took a deep sigh.

Give this Demon King a chance, yes?

You flipped through your mythology book, lazily drinking tea.

You just finished eating dinner, and is now lounging at the roof of your treehouse. Intaking the mana into your body slowly, you had a relaxed form as you yawned from tiredness.

Then you felt it.

The sudden influx of demonic power converging into one place.

Your body shivered, goosebumps riddling your skin.

Coincidentally, the page you stopped on had the ritual of birthing the new Demon King.

After defeating the previous Demon King, a person experiencing the worst grief there is, someone who only received harshness and no kindness in his life, will be able to become the Demon King if a trigger happened. May it be betrayal of feelings, or if one act of kindness inside his unfortunate life suddenly turned sour. Creating the Ultimate Grief, the catalyst of the demonic power to surge inside that person.

Will you run away, or investigate, or stay?

You froze, not knowing what to do.

The only person inside the forest is the Empire's Hero earlier, who introduced himself to you.

What happened?

Is this related to you?

But you seriously don't remember him.

Or did you, and just don't want to acknowledge it by some reason?

Your trembling hand reached for your bag and hastily packed up your stuff. The previous Demon King was weak, somebody who lived for so long that his negative Demonic Powers were slowly depleting.

And the birth of a new Demon King is never a good sign.

This is one of the few times you cursed yourself for not learning how to do teleportation.

Two bags. Not enough but will do for now.

You need to warn the Empire.

"AH!"

As you grabbed the bags and tried to get out of your house, you stopped in your tracks when black veins crept on the floorboards, trying to reach your legs.

Heart rate picking up, you got up the couch.

You just knew that if these veins reached you, you are a gonner.

You clutched your bag, hearing a sorrowful moan outside the treehouse.

"My Lady... Why don't you recognize me?"

You're powerless against a newly awakened Demon King.

You can't escape him.

"You're my light, why did you forget me..."

Your walls creaked and moaned under the intense pressure Aeron was emitting. As if they were yelling at you for forgetting him.

"Was it because I was scrawny and dirty back then?"

He continued to wail outside of the treehouse. You tried casting light magic and dark magic, but they didn't do jackshit on the veins. They continued to try and wrap around your legs.

"My lady... Should I bathe myself in blood for you to recognize me?!"

Powerful wind blew away your front door as you screamed in terror.

Aeron stood on the archway, eyes bloodshot and crazy as his handsome visage was filled with grief, longing, love, anger, sadness...

"You're the same as them my lady..."

You searched his face, trying to recognize him. Your body was struggling to stay standing from the amount of pressure being pressed on your body.

Wait, something's coming in your mind.

As an attempt to speed up your memory, you hit your head with the heel of your palm. In a state of panic of wanting to remember immediately.

The floorboards groaned under his weight as Aeron stepped forward to you.

"Remember me, my lady. Please." Dark tears fell on his cheeks. "Please..."

"Ah! You... The man with the bloodiest stench, with the leg stump that I fixed!"

You spoke so fast that Aeron almost didn't catch it.

The wind stopped howling.

"You... You remembered me..." Aeron laughed, his eyes wide with manic desperation. "Oh my god, you do..."

Aeron slumped down, hugging your waist as he wept.

"My lady, you're too much! You should have told me that you remember me sooner!" He laughed lightly, holding your hand as he buried his face on your stomach.

The sudden shift in mood sent you into a harsh whiplash.

"I-I'm sorry." You whispered, not getting this man in front of you at all.

"I forgive you." He whispered, hands wrapped around you tight.

He feels so good now. No more grief, no more crying.

He just knows you remember him now. Nobody matters but you, and your recognition of him.

"My Lady, i'm here to propose." He suddenly said, making your blood run cold.

And, as he separated himself from you, he kneeled down on both knees, as if pleading you to say yes.

This man, the greatest hero of the Empire, was now kneeling in front of you. Awakened as a Demon King from the grief you caused. His eyes hooded, dripping with overwhelming affection for you.

What have you done?

You've condemned the Empire, this world to a Demon King once more.

"My life here in this Empire was the worst. Everyone hated me, took advantage of me, stole from me, abused me in every way possible. I lost hope, and was driven with revenge. But you, my lady. You showed me kindness when no one did, and I knew you are my soulmate." He confessed passionately, his voice dripping honey sweet with delusional feelings for you. "So, be my wife, my marchioness, my queen..."

You've got the Demon King and the Greatest Hero wrapped around your finger.

Be proud.

And, as you nodded hesitantly, he slipped in the ring he was fidgeting with earlier.

You flinched, feeling it tighten around your digit. Spikes digging slightly, making sure you cannot take it off of you no matter what.

You want to scream at him for this absurd ring, but the ominous smile he had made you clam up.

You are his salvation, and he would die without you.

So chin up, and hold onto the leash tight,

You won't know when this rabid dog will bite the hand that feeds him.

And you don't intend to fuck around and find out.

#yandere boyfriend #yandere imagines #yandere male #yandere writing #male yandere x reader #tw yandere #yandere x darling #yandere fic #yandere x you #lizzaneiaelizalde

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profoundmakerdreamerss-blog · 1 month

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Tomarry AU

Where Tom wakes up in a world as a canon fodder, no named villain who is fated to die a horrible death in the hands of the hero. He is that one villain that is just destined to die and oh boy, does he hate it.

And so, like the logical man he is; he decides to kill the hero. Or to be more precise, he tries to. But, he is stopped. No, no not by the hero. The hero is weak, still. He hasn't gone through his “character development arc” which happens after the hero's best friend dies. And you see, that is the problem. The problem is the hero's best friend. Everytime, every single time, when Tom is sure that he will be successful, that damn Harry Potter has to come running.

Poison? Harry is the one who gets poisoned because he decides to eat what was meant for the hero. Assassination? Harry pushes the hero away. A burning tower? Harry jumps in and saves the guy.

And Tom hated that guy. The guy who literally wasn't given a personality in the book. The guy who's personality was basically "sacrificed himself for the hero". The guy who looks at Tom like he knows what he is doing. The guy, Harry Potter was infuriating.

But does it stop Tom from killing the main character? No. Cue to him making the most convoluted plan there is to get the hero to die. And the plan? Get Harry kidnapped. And lure the hero into a place where he could finally get him to die.

Alas, as always — it doesn't work. And just like always, Harry Potter finds a way to destroy his plans. Again.

Because,

“I know what you are, Riddle.” Harry, with blood dripping down his chin and green eyes glowing (always glowing), says as he stares at him from the place Tom had him tied.

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acowardinmordor · 6 months

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Wayne Munson never graduated high school. Neither did his piece of shit brother, but unlike Al, Wayne had the good sense to keep his nose out of trouble. That wasn’t to say he’d let something bad happen in front of him, but he didn’t grab a flashlight and go looking if he heard something strange in the trees.

He tried to teach Eddie any of that common sense, but his kid loved the idea of adventure too much for it to stick. Since there wasn’t any stopping the kid going looking, best Wayne could do was teach him how to handle himself.

Simple stuff like rewiring a lamp and how to patch and sew. More complex stuff like repairing his van and how to play the guitar. And since the kid always wanted fodder for those games he played, Wayne taught him bits and pieces that he learned in the war. Some first aid, basics of camping and getting yourself un-lost. Taught him the start of morse code, but the kid liked learning that elf language more.

Wayne knew there was something strange about Hawkins, and would have worried about Eddie snooping around it, but his eyes were on the highway, ready to get gone. Soon as the kid got his diploma, Wayne would hand him the money he’d been saving all these years, and he could stop worrying about Ed’s being too damn curious.

There was never a second where Wayne thought his nephew hurt that girl. Even if it had looked like something a human being could do, Eddie never would. And it certainly didn’t look like anything human. Wayne wasn’t one to go looking in the woods when he heard something. He spent his days trying to find his kid, and hoping that some grain of good sense had stuck, and Eddie wasn’t getting involved in it.

By the time that Henderson kid talked to him, Wayne had already thought it. Didn’t like it. Didn’t acknowledge it. But Wayne had had the thought. The earthquake wasn’t too bad, some feds had announced a copy cat killer and the not as dead as they thought chief of police cleared Eddie’s name.

Eddie would have shown back up by now.

So the kid handed over that guitar pick and told him a story, and Wayne couldn’t say it was a shock. Hearing that his boy was a hero wasn’t a shock either. Eddie always wanted to be the kind of person that protected others.

The feds brought Wayne some paperwork and an offer of compensation. They wanted the trailer, the whole damn thing. Wayne politely told them they could have it when he had the cash in hand. Compensation and restitution. He’d been lied to by the United States government before, and he wouldn’t trust them again.

They said it would take a few days. Wayne didn’t budge.

Now, Wayne knew what a broken heart could do. He knew that it wasn’t just romance and sweethearts that could break a man’s heart. He’d seen his buddies come back haunted, hearing whispers no one else could, jumping at shadows.

The first time the phone rang, Wayne reminded himself of those buddies, and that he was imagining what he wanted to hear.

The second time. Well.

Wayne knew that the Henderson kid was telling what he thought was truth, so he wasn’t going to go yell at him about it. He wasn’t going to go to the damn feds since they would hide his body before they gave him an answer. Henderson wasn’t the only name he heard on the phone though, and Wayne had not a single damn problem yelling at Richard Harrington’s kid. Eddie’s told some gossip the last few years, so maybe Steve wasn’t as much an asshole as his daddy, but that wasn’t going to matter.

Wayne wanted answers.

He didn’t expect the Harrington kid to listen, definitely didn’t expect him to grab a walkie talkie and a go-bag and a weapon as soon as Wayne finished speaking.

Wayne didn’t chase after the weird noises he heard coming from between the trees. Too much sense for that. He wasn’t the curious sort, needing an explanation for everything. Heartbreak did odd things to a man. He knew that lots of folk imagined a bit of hope when they were desperate. Wayne wasn’t one of those.

He was a simple, sensible man, kept his head down and lived his life. He didn’t go chasing adventures and mysteries. He wasn’t like his nephew in almost any measure or mark.

But for Eddie, he would do much stupider things than put aside his common sense.

#Eddie Munson #Wayne Munson #waiting for sleep meds to kick in here #I am always in the mood for Wayne #being the one who Eddie reaches out to #and the one who decides they’re getting him back #fandom loves Eddie going to Steve #no shame cause so do I #but Eddie would go to Wayne #and Wayne wouldn’t doubt it

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qs63 · 2 months

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Basque Grand might be the character who changes the most between FMA 03 and FMA manga. He appears so little on BH that I keep forgetting he's not supposed to be the unhinged villain we see in 03.

For context, in FMA 03 Grand is one of the masterminds of the Ishvalan War, he thinks little of people's lives (Amestrian or Ishvalan), he's the one that orders Roy to kill Winry's parents, and he's very critical of Marcoh leaving the military and tries to hunt him down.

Meanwhile, manga Grand is doing his best to protect lives, charging to the front to protect his subordinates, being pissed at the way they're using them as cannon fodder, and even trying to stop the war without further bloodshed. He takes a big personal risk by committing mutiny and killing his superior officer, all so that he can arrange for Supreme cleric Lowe to meet Bradley for peace negotiations.

Too bad Bradley stomped all over Lowe's and Grand's efforts.

Furthermore, he — not Mustang, not Armstrong — is the one to approach Ed after he gets his State Alchemist certificate and asks him: Did you know many State Alchemists quit after Ishval due to anguish? Which is short from him telling Ed to run because the title isn't worth the trauma.

He was obviously not happy with the Bradley administration, and seems to have fundamentally disagreed with the decisions taken during the war (enough to kill a superior officer to circumvent his orders). It's a shame we didn't see any of these scenes in BH.

His death at the hands of Scar was probably more detrimental than anything in the long run. It's extremely likely he would've sided with the "heroes" against the homunculi, considering his past decisions. They could have all benefitted from his abilities and experience during the Promised Day.

#fullmetal alchemist brotherhood #fullmetal alchemist #fma 03 #fma brotherhood #Basque Grand #fma meta #my work #I have a meta about ishval in the works #it made me think a lot about Grand

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mha-grievances · 5 months

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Alright, I’m bored again so I’m going to rank all of the arcs from best to worst:

Great:

1. Hero Killer Arc: This arc and number 2 on this list proves that MHA had such potential. Watching Izuku grow and his efforts/impact on other people being acknowledged was great to see. We’ve got fantastic growth for the three main characters and a very good antagonist(despite some issues I have with Stain’s goal). Best of all, no Katsuki.

2. Shie Hissaki Arc: another great arc with a lot of great fights and characters. Watching Izuku vs Overhaul was thrilling and being introduced to The Big 3 and some cool pro heroes was a treat. There are some issues I have with this arc, such as how Overhaul’s motivations suck (he sees quirks as cooties when he literally has the best quirk in Japan) and that some characters could’ve been developed more (I would’ve loved to see more from the Eight Bullets and Nejire), but it was overall a good experience. And again, no Katsuki.

3. USJ Arc: Other than Katsuki’s dumbass endangering everyone and not getting called out for it, I had a blast with this arc. Solid character interactions all around and a fantastic fight to end it all off.

4. U.A Festival Arc: Gentle was a breath of fresh air in terms of villains and I really enjoyed his fight with Izuku. This would’ve been number 3 if not for the fact Izuku gets yelled at for doing his job and Katsuki gets another point added to him being a Gary Stu by revealing yet another talent he has that he shouldn’t.

Good:

5. Entrance Exam Arc: It was a solid setup for getting to know Izuku, All Might, and the world of MHA. It was one of the few times that the narrative wasn’t sucking on Katsuki’s dick too.

6. Forest Training Arc: The final arc that I’d consider good. We’ve got some solid moments here. Fumikage going berserk, Mezou carrying everyone to safety being introduced to the main LoV members, Izuku vs Muscular, and the character of Kota were nice additions to the series. We even got to see some of 1-B, even if it wasn’t much.

Alright:

7: Meta Liberation Arc: Now we’re in the area where these arcs aren’t bad, but they clearly exist just to set things up. This is an arc that would’ve been fantastic if it wasn’t for the fact it led nowhere. Yes, a good chunk of the LoV received fantastic development but the MLA were so lame, and by that, I mean they’re introduced here only to serve as canon fodder in the next arc.

8. Pro Hero Arc: I don’t really have any complaints about this arc nor do I have anything to say outside the fact Endeavor’s fight with the High End was pretty neat.

9. Hideout Raid Arc: only reason this isn’t in the “good” or “great “ category is cause it was centered around Katsuki. All Might vs AFO was a fantastic conclusion to the first saga of MHA and I liked seeing the rescue squad in action… even though Katsuki made it a pain to be rescued.

10. U.A traitor Arc: I don’t really care about this arc for two reasons, one is that the foreshadowing leading up to this moment sucked and that we never really got to spend enough time with Yuuga to care much about the reveal.

Bad:

11. Endeavor Agency Arc: Now we’re at the part where I dislike all of these arcs. This is an arc that Katsuki ruins due to him being a shitty character. Him yelling at a trauma victim to stop talking about her trauma in her own damn house was obnoxious. Katsuki didn’t need to be in this arc whatsoever. Remove him and this arc would’ve had a much higher rating for actually tackling Endeavor’s character and relationship with his family in a solid manner.

12. Sports Festival Arc: The Sports Festival Arc would’ve been fantastic it is weren’t for certain points. First off, this is where the Katsuki dick sucking really began. Shota acts like a mouthpiece for Katsuki even though the people booing him were right in the fact that he could’ve ended the fight easily. He also wasn’t taking Ochako seriously at all, literally announcing “it’s time to get serious” once her strat failed. He should’ve lost against Shoto too seeing as Shoto’s ice is a direct counter to his quirk. Finally, Katsuki had no right listening in on Shoto and Izuku’s conversation and demanding anything from Shoto, a point that’s never addressed. Secondly, all the Gen Ed kids were assholes for no reason. Who in their right mind sees 1-A going through a traumatic experience as them seeing themselves better than everyone else? Yeah, Katsuki gave off a bad impression but he’s just one guy. Finally, this was the arc that introduced Hitoshi, a failed attempt by Hori at tackling the idea of prejudice. Instead of someone bitter at the world for being screwed by society, we got an entitled bitch.

13. Remedial Course Arc: as much as I love Gang Orca, this arc served no purpose. Katsuki gives off a line that feels undeserved seeing as he’d go off undermining people afterwards but this arc’s biggest flaw was that it really didn’t have to exist.

Crap:

14. Battle Trial Arc: Now we’re in the really bad arcs. The Battle Trial Arc is once again ruined by Katsuki. Despite being told by All Might not to fire that explosion, he still does. Yes, he aimed it in a way that it wouldn’t kill Izuku, but the fact that All Might was worried that it could’ve killed Izuku meant that firing that thing in a narrow hallway could’ve seriously injured him. Katsuki suddenly switching up his fighting style despite having no formal training’s the first instance of his plot armor showing up, with the second being that he wasn’t disqualified. Katsuki being afraid of 1-A’s potential went nowhere cause he ended up winning the Sports Festival and would undermine 1-A constantly. Finally, Izuku telling Katsuki about his “borrowed power” was dumb. Everything else was fine though, but not enough to make up for Katsuki’s flaws.

15. Paranormal Liberation Arc: Would’ve been much higher but there are several glaring flaws. Izuku defending Endeavor’s character was one of those moments where I audibly groaned. Katsuki’s plot armor kicks it up into turbo gear by having him have a quirk awakening, surviving an attack that should’ve destroyed his stomach with zero consequences, and giving him an unearned “my body moved on its own” moment.

16. Quirk Apprehension Exam: This arc introduces Shota… and makes all of his flaws known to the audience. I have several posts going over why he sucks and this is the episode that shows it all off. Only thing keeping this from being ranked lower is cause we were also introduced to 1-A.

Shit:

17. Star and Stripe Arc: We’re close to the bottom of the barrel now. Hori introduces a character he never foreshadowed once despite Star and Stripe being the top pro hero of another country and immediately kills her. It does nothing to the plot either. “Oh but it nerfed Tomura” that’s what Hori tells us. Do we actually see what quirks Tomura lost? In fact, after this, his quirk evolves to counter Eraserhead’s. At best all this arc did was stall for time.

18. Dark Hero Arc: what a waste of potential. This would’ve been ranked lower if it wasn’t for Ochako’s speech, Izuku vs Muscular 2, and Izuku helping that fox lady. What makes it shit though? First off, Izuku suddenly unlocks the rest of his quirks. Secondly, 1-A thinks that the best way to get Izuku back is to show up, beat him up, and then kidnap him back to U.A. Third, the pros were offering Izuku no support. He was hungry, tired, and dirty, yet not once did any of them think “hey, if we’re using him as bait to draw AFO out, maybe we should keep him healthy so he can help us once we ambush AFO”. Fourth, Katsuki’s role in this arc. He demeans Izuku in front of his friends, daring to compare Izuku’s desire to protect everyone to him having an ego, and then gives an absolutely poorly timed and terrible apology. God this arc sucks.

19. Joint Training Arc: Oh look, another Katsuki dick sucking session. Sorry, but 1-B does not redeem how awful this arc is. Katsuki’s praised to the moon and back, insults his classmates and the former OFA users with no repercussions, and earns yet another victory. “But he saved Kyouka” but not out of being a good person. He only wanted the victory. Maybe this could’ve been a good step if Katsuki’s arc wasn’t Hori’s attempt at speedrunning a character arc. Yui getting beat by Ochako so effortlessly will forever bother me as one of Yui’s 5 fans (this girl has a 5/6 A+ skill stat, which is higher than Ochako’s). Also, Hitoshi’s here, but he’s actually tolerable here so I’m not going to rant about him.

Super Shit:

20. Provisional License Arc: This is going to be a short write cause there’s not much to be said. It’s yet another Katsuki dick sucking session where the narrative wanks him off. Then there’s Kacchan vs Deku 2, which if you’ve read any of my blogs, you know that this was once my least favorite moment of the series. If you wanna know why this moment was so crap, I have dozens of posts about why it does. And yes, I said it was once my least favorite moment. What’s to come somehow managed to beat it in terms of sheer crap.

I can’t think of any singular phrase to describe how terrible this arc is:

21. Final War Arc: How ironic that the end of the series is also at the end of this list. Where do I even begin? Well, there’s Miruko being the subject of someone’s gore fetish for the third time, AFO overstaying his welcome, Izuku hardly even doing anything, Tomura getting BS power ups up the wazoo, AFO and Izuku never meeting, the mutant portion being handled poorly, Dabi somehow gaining a power up that ultimately served no purpose, and Ochako and Himiko’s portion also being wrapped up poorly. However, what really makes this arc the bottom of the barrel is the dick sucking. Somehow, Katsuki’s able to last the longest against Tomura. Somehow Katsuki manages to score a hit just because he scared Tomura. Somehow Katsuki managed to survive having his heart, arm, and chest blown out via amateur surgery with absolutely no injuries despite being dead for like 5 min without a damn heart and heart surgery not being an answer for a broken arm. And finally, Katsuki gets yet another quirk power up and is now able to compete with AFO. This is THE arc where it’s clear Hori wanted Katsuki to be the protagonist and god damn I will argue that The Room and My Immortal is better than this clusterfuck of an arc.

#bnha critical #mha critical #anti bakugo #anti bakugou #anti katsuki bakugou #anti bakugou katsuki #anti bakugo katsuki #anti eraserhead #anti aizawa #anti shinso hitoshi #anti hitoshi shinso #eraserhead critical

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soapskneebrace · 4 months

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same anon who sent the ask abt price: MW3's writing was embarrassing tbh. i agree 100% that narratively, its the most logical and sensible for price to be the one who takes the fall. what you wrote i flat out completely agree with, and its deeply disappointing that we are stuck with an extremely poorly written and rushed story. the game was a hot steamy pile. everyone was slightly out of character, they all growled their lines like mad dogs, and the missions were ass. i cant believe no one talks about the mission where you get anti arab hate crimed. what was that??? what was the reason??? (the only thing i liked about that game were the 9 minutes of nikolai. i just find him entertaining.) i was replaying mw2019 while super high and got to the mission where you threaten the butchers wife and son and just thought to myself; that lady and that kid are gonna have nightmares about price for the rest of their lives. that room is going to come back to them again and again and again. they literally did nothing wrong except the crime of being the butchers family. what price and gaz did is never going to leave them, and gaz was right to question price on that. of course, the game doesn't care at all. they're disposable NPCS for a shock value scene. i dunno, the fact that the game doesn't really give a fuck, and seemingly even condones what happened, just kinda hit different and i had to put the game down for the evening. i guess that hit at that moment bc i had also read a fic a bit earlier where the reader was price's civvy gf and gets kidnapped by his enemies. it bent my brain a bit bc, the thing in the fic is literally a canon event perpetuated by price, portrayed as a good thing by the source material, that now price is the victim of. it was a very weird feeling for my weed addled brain to try and process. think i blue screened actually. i wanna put price in a jar and shake him vigorously. pin him to a board like a entomology insect. i want to bite him. i do love him i swear. but maybe make him actually face a single real consequence for his war crimes? (disappointing that it will never happen on screen bc these games are all gas no breaks outright propaganda. not to mention real war crimes are happening constantly in front of everyone's eyes and going completely unpunished) sorry this is really long, i have no one to talk to abt these games and i dont understand my feelings toward that British man

Yeah. The thing about Price is that he's not a good person in the slightest. We write fiction about the kind of man he can be--the best version of himself, a version we can all stomach--but the real Price is distinct from that, and the best people in this fandom recognize that.

Soap and Ghost have some plausible deniability simply because we haven't seen them doing anything other than action movie stuff. Gaz is on the road to becoming Price--Price is doing his damndest to turn Gaz into himself--but he isn't there yet. (@391780 did a GREAT analysis of the driving scene in mw19 and how Price subtly manipulates Gaz, but I can't find it.)

EDIT: Early kindly provided.

We, as the audience, are not actually supposed to worry that much about the Butcher's family, because Price is one of the Good Guys who would never let something Bad actually happen. Infinity Ward does not take the Butcher's family seriously, and does not want us to take the family seriously, because they are just a convenient vehicle with which to move the plot along. Their presence is, in the end, shock value. We are meant to stare, wide-eyed, wondering is Price really going to go that far? while in the back of our minds knowing of course he's not, because he's our hero. He's just doing whatever it takes. The family is not meant to be anything other than fodder for Price's characterization.

Same with Samara. We are not supposed to care all that much about her, personally--we're supposed to marvel over Makarov's canny brutality, his bRiLLiANcE in recognizing the obvious fact that an Arab woman would make a perfect scapegoat for a plane bombing. Samara does not matter to MW3. Only the shocking way she dies. None of these Arab characters matter to Call of Duty--only the entertainment value of their pain.

Not to put too fine a point on it, but I am reminded of when Price threw a man restrained into a bomb jacket off a balcony, with not a shred of remorse afterword. I'm forced to ask the question--who would Price scapegoat, then, if he felt justified enough?

And yeah, he's never going to suffer the consequences of his actions, because Infinity Ward doesn't think he's actually done anything wrong. We throw the word propaganda around a lot without actually defining it, but Price is emblematic of how the propaganda of Call of Duty works. Price does something reprehensible, and is shown to be justified in doing it--implying that real men like him are justified, too, because don't you understand how little choice Price had? Don't you get that there's no good choice to be made? This is how he has to act, and this is how all soldiers have to act, because war is a dirty business, and someone needs to be willing to do it for the benefit of the ignorant public.

The question of why any of this should be happening at all is never asked.

#answered

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triviallytrue · 1 year

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Korean War just seems so…unmythologizable? like obviously people do. Pro-American liberals and capitalists see it as the defense of an anticommunist free republic, mls see it as the defence of a proletariat state against the encroachment of empire. but really it was just senseless bloodshed. sad, broken hopes of democracy; soldiers fed on the dream of unbridled freedom after a horrendous occupation used as nothing more than cannon fodder by heroes turned rivalling petty despots. i dunno, i’m sorry for drunk ask-ing in ur in box. but like. history sucks. not the academic study. just the knowledge that all these people just like me. and i think my life so big so beautiful. but their lives were too. and they ended, unimportant, unmythologizable. in the cold uncaring mud. and for what? for dfucking what???

Yeah, I think the mythologizing on both sides hits a wall when you dig deeper into the historical realities of the time, which has left me in the somewhat unenviable position of disagreeing with what feels like basically everyone on this

The pro-American liberal idea of the Korean War as a just war in defense of a sovereign nation falls apart pretty easily - the split between North and South Korea was recent and done by imperial powers (the US and USSR) as a means of demarcating their respective zones of control, not a true split in any sense. The US went out of its way to sabotage any attempt at reconciliation in the years following the split, and the guy they put in charge arguably had a lot less popular legitimacy than his communist counterpart (and embarked on a campaign of right wing political violence to shore up his incredibly weak position)

So if you squint and ignore the context, you can say that the US was defending a sovereign nation, but it's one they created with no popular legitimacy at all, with a leader that brutalized his people. And none of it was necessary! The thing about the overwhelming power of the United States and its massive fucking military is that the whole "we need a right wing dictator to shore up this country against communism" routine is so transparently because the US wanted to support right wing dictators, not because it was in any sense necessary to ensure that the country wasn't communist. If anything, doing the whole sham democracy thing where you force everyone to vote for the asshole you put in charge massively benefits the communists! No wonder there was a massive insurgency going on

This is without even getting into the horrifying details of how exactly the war was prosecuted

And then there's the ML narrative, which correctly identifies the mass of popular support behind Kim Il-sung due to his time fighting against the Japanese occupation and conveniently elides historical details like "which side actually invaded the other, starting the full blown war" and other such unimportant details, like the subsequent structure of the North Korean government making it virtually impossible for anything resembling democratic influence on the political process to occur

If there's something to be said for Syngman Rhee, it's that his grandson is not currently ruling SK. He was deposed in 1960, and then after decades of political turmoil and various deeply shitty leaders (again, much of which probably could've been avoided if the US hadn't insisted on Rhee as their man in the 1940s) SK eventually became a place where you could vote and were a lot less likely to be the victim of political violence.

As for Democratic People's Republic of Korea, well. If your take on the Korean War is "I wish that instead of just the people of North Korea, everyone in Korea would have to live under the current North Korean government" I don't really know what to say about that. North Korea is repressive and isolated in the extreme - if you think that is the result of "people's committees" and the North Korean population's natural devotion to the Kim family spanning three generations now, you are at best a mark.

So yeah, it's a tragedy - the Japanese occupation of Korea was fucking horrifying, then the US and USSR arrived to artificially split the country with no serious attempt at reunification while putting two real bastards in charge, and then it escalated into a shooting war where millions of people died just for the 38th parallel to still be the dividing line.

So who benefited? Everyone but the Koreans, I suppose. The US gained a client state, managed to use the UN to do whatever it wanted, and demonstrated its commitment to suppressing communism via military force. The USSR gained a client state and saw the US spend a bunch of its military capacity on a war that cost the USSR very little and wasn't even won by the US. China got a buffer zone between it and the US empire and solidified their victory over the KMT, albeit at tremendous cost.

Hopefully someday the Korean War will end.

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comicaurora · 1 year

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You've mentioned your disinterest in zombie apocalypse scenarios (which is very fair, it's a very bleak scenario), but how do you consider zombie post-apocalypses, where people thrive again, but with the wandering undead as just another fact of life? And have you seen the "blooming undead" concept that's been passed around Tumblr a couple times, with flowers and sweet scents being able to keep hoards of zombies docile, and thus people planting blooms of sweet-smelling flowers in the zombies? I'm curious what you think of these, as they're structurally different from the zombie apocalypse, but still contain the trappings of "zombies"

It's a nice concept, but there's a reason you wouldn't see it as the sequel to a standard zombie movie. The biggest issue with a zombie apocalypse is that people get immersed in the world logic and then lose sight of the fact that it's very explicitly a horror genre, and horror genres are very frequently written as no-win scenarios.

If a zombie apocalypse setting claims to have a cure, no it doesn't. If it claims to have a safe haven, not for long. If it's got someone helpful and kind, just kidding they're either too good for this sinful plot or they're secretly a cannibal murderer. If someone thinks there's a way to successfully treat a bite, enjoy your new friend zombifying at the most inconvenient possible moment. The best the heroes can hope for is getting the Final Girl treatment and successfully escaping to moderate, temporary safety at the cost of everything they love.

If you see this enough times, you start to realize that all these things aren't following from the setting or even the headspace of the specific cast of characters, but are arbitrary Hand Of The Author decisions built to reinforce the bleakness of the setting. The heroes cannot win, not because it makes sense that it would be impossible, but because the writer will not let them.

One of the reasons World War Z is the only pure zombie story I respect is that the author eschewed that approach, because he felt exactly the same way about zombie apocalypses as I do - they're absolutely terrifying and bone-crushingly sad. So he played it out like a game with himself; start with the standard Romero apocalypse, then see if humanity can still win. No cheats, no miracle cures, no isolating it early. It's a fun read precisely because it traces the entire logic puzzle out and it internally makes sense. Even the diabolus ex machinas feel reasonable, like people zombifying from transplants before anyone realized what was going on, or shock-and-awe military tactics absolutely failing against mindless undead. When humanity loses, it feels earned. When humanity wins, it feels doubly earned.

Zombie post-apocalypses are an interesting premise that you could do a lot with. They feel topologically similar to most low-fantasy settings - low-tech pockets of feudal civilization with hordes of cannon-fodder monsters in between. My beef with zombie apocalypses is not that they have zombies in them, it's that they so often cheat to maximize misery. You can't win because the writers won't let you.

#asks #not aurora #writing stuff

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physalian · 3 months

Text

10 Character Dynamics the World Needs More of

Me handing out character dynamics like free samples at the Mall Food Court: “Take one! Or two! You’ll love it!”

I don’t care how many times these tropes have been done – write more of them. Write all of them. Fill out your author bingo card one by one.

1. “No one gets to kill you but me, Old Friend”

This. Right here. Primo rival content that I *live* for. All the juicy history between two old frenemies, the character drama, the backstory, the titillating unknown of what drove these two to rival status, bitter enemies that respect the heck out of each other, to the point that hell hath no fury should one get knocked down without the other’s consent.

And, of course, the moment where it seems all bets are off, when the rival comes to save their ass only to hand it back to them at a later date. The angst! The shipping fodder! Need I say more?

2. A bigger, badder villain, and their minion

You, reader, spend countless hours hating the guts of the big bad villain. They’re evil, they’re vile, they’re sadistic, heartless, irredeemable bastards. They killed your favorite character for shock value. The big bad moustache-twirling antagonist… is actually not the biggest fish in the story.

Either they’re coerced into doing evil as a puppet of the Bigger Bad, a tragic villain in their own right, or they have some reservation, some line even they won’t cross, someone else’s boots they have to kiss, someone who features in their nightmares, as they feature in the heroes. They end their stories dispatched without a thought by the Bigger Bad, or redeem themselves in death by taking out their masters. It never gets old.

3. A leader and their lancer: besties

You know what’s better than leaders and lancers who have zero faith in each other and are constantly bickering about who should be in charge? Leaders and their right-hands who adore each other (platonically). They have each other’s backs, they know each other’s greatest strengths and weaknesses and are each other’s perfect covers.

They can communicate with looks and vague gestures alone, they compliment each other’s flaws and misgivings, build up the rest of the team when they’re down on their luck, and should misfortune strike either, they pull out all the stops and show off exactly why they’re not to be trifled with, so that even the villain is afraid.

4. “I don’t even know who you are”

Oh, but you will. This one twists the knife, robbing the avenging hero of the importance in this world they’re desperate to maintain. They are their own hero, the sun revolves around them… but not to this one asshat that ruined their life and doesn’t even remember doing it.

An entire identity built upon the finding, fighting, and overcoming of this wrongdoer, every other goal in life cast aside for this one impossibility. Either the villain toys with the hero to make them irate, or gets suckerpunched by some pissant fueled by vengeance and spite and divine purpose to dole justice where justice is due.

6. The jaded badass and their naive ward

If the last 8 years of media is anything to go by, we still love this trope, whether it’s in a galaxy far, far away or a fungi-zombie post-apocalypse, or in the twilight hours of an era of legendary mutants. The best part of this trope? You get two often contradictory character types in one body. The pessimist, PTSD-ridden master of old with no living friends left and at least one dead love interest *and* beneath all that, still lies an atrophied heart of gold just waiting to be nurtured and revived.

The naive ward gets a hard lesson in how crappy the world can be, but also in how there’s still some goodness left, if their guardian cares about them. The jaded badass in turn, learns how good the world can be, that there’s something still worth fighting for beyond the next bottom of a bottle.

6. The enemy of my enemy (is my friend)

Similar to the “old friends”, this trope is often a result of the minioned Big Bad realizing they don’t want to be evil anymore. Or, bitter old rivals, sides of a war that have been fighting for generations, ideological polar opposites, fundamental polar opposites all come together when: Some evil schmuck managed to scare them both.

Doesn’t matter on what shaky ground this temporary alliance is built, or how long it lasts, equally-competent badasses on both sides finally work together and compliment each other’s strengths, and compensate for their weaknesses, in a way their teammates never could.

7. The irredeemable villain’s only wholesome connection

Not so irredeemable anymore, now are they? This trope messes with your head, taking a character you know has done heinous acts of terror, but who cares unflinchingly, unabashedly, about one thing – either their lover, their pet, their relative, or their kid.

This exists independently of the heroes and is not the same as an “oops I guess I’m your father” reveal. I’m talking this character who everyone is convinced cares about nothing and no one but themselves and their ambition still has a place in their soul for something they want to protect, they want to be loved by, or that they must spare from their atrocities.

8. Platonic Heterosexual Friendships

These two have seen each other at their most vulnerable. They’ve shared fears, dreams, desires, know each other’s deepest, darkest secrets. They’ve seen each other exhausted, frazzled, dressed up, dressed down, bloodied and broken and like a raw, open nerve. These two would die for each other, they would live for each other, and yet.

They’re not in love with each other. They’re wholly comfortable in each other’s spaces without lust and desire mucking up the atmosphere. Neither is the one, neither wants to be the one. They remain together not for the bonds of romance, but for the bonds of friendship, and nothing could be stronger.

10. The Ace and their best friend, the Self-Proclaimed Slut

These two respect the f*ck out of each other. One never mocks the other for lacking desire and in return, they’re never mocked for their promiscuity. They’ll never walk in each other’s shoes, but they don’t need to, to understand that’s just how some people are. They’re each other’s safest spaces when the world doesn’t take either of them seriously.

They’re each other’s biggest defenders against the bullies, presumers, the holier-than-thous who think they have it all figured out. They’re the perfect compliment to give advice on everything from relationships to the best outfits for an outing because there’s *zero sexual tension* between them. Or, maybe, if the stars align, they’re something more.

10. The redeeming villain, and their staunchest skeptic

This villain has lost everything – their home, the respect of their people, their worth, their evil ambition, their identity, and has begun working their way up from rock bottom doing everything in their power to show the heroes that they’re serious. They make amends, they break their bones proving themselves, they’ve swayed everyone they’ve wronged in the hero camp.

Except one. The one character that was probably their first defender, and got burned for it. The character that was naive enough to think this villain could be saved, and was wrong. The character that won’t be duped again without some serious drama and soul-bearing between them.

Now tell me which ones I missed!

#writing advice #character design #character development #character dynamics #tropes #archetypes

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incorrect-spideytorch · 9 months

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Hey I’ve had a bad day :(

here’s a free invitation to rant about anything Spideytorch —> 💌

I’m sorry you had a bad day but I am very excited about this invitation!

I have decided to rant about this panel and the trauma our boys got from it

so Red Skull is out here being a villain and uses mind control to f**k with the heroes and we get to this moment where Red Skull is like wow you two are super close gay for each other so I’m gonna make one of you watch the other die and I’m going to use mind control to do it which is so incredibly twisted

like Peter is hearing his best friend the love of his life say (against his will) that he is going to make Peter watch as he end his life. I cannot imagine how terrifying it is to hear the voice of the man you love say that and to know that neither of you have any control

then we get to the Johnny side of things. Johnny had had his free will taken away from him and Red Skull is trying to use that to not only end his life but do so to hurt Peter by making him watch! I am also a winterhawk shipper (Clint Barton x Bucky Barnes) and a lot of fics for that ship talk about their shared trauma of losing free will and not having control over yourself (Loki and Hydra for them) and how much that messes you up, Johnny is dealing with this!! sure it’s not lasting as long and it’s a different situation but my boy is still going through that and he is being used as a weapon to his lover and himself it makes me wanna scream

obviously they’re superheroes and all of this shit with Red Skulk gets resolved but the trauma of this situation I don’t think gets talked about enough in the fandom, specifically spideytorch shippers like this is great angsty fic fodder,

so here’s some of my angsty thoughts about what happens after

Johnny wakes up panicked and holding his head every night for weeks convinced Red Skull is still in there

when the nightmares got really bad Peter had to hold Johnny down so he didn’t try to harm himself in an attempt to get Red Skull out of his head

neither of them feel safe when Johnny has anything that could even remotely be used as a weapon

Johnny avoids the kitchen cause all he sees is ways that Red Skulk can kill him in front of Peter

Peter had an anxiety attack when Johnny was sitting on the roof with him because he could only hear mind controlled Johnny saying he would make Peter watch him die and pictured Johnny falling

they develop code phrases and questions to ask to reassure each other that the other isn’t mind controlled

for at least a year after anytime Johnnys voice sounds different, even if it’s just cause of a cold Peter gets nervous and demands a code phrase

to be honest they spend a lot of days right after the Red Skull incident together on the couch eating takeout and cuddling with minimal conversation

it takes a while for Johnny to trust his own mind and body again afterwards and Peter doesn’t know how to fix that which is really frustrating for him

when Johnny feels out of control he doesn’t want Peter nearby because he doesn’t want Peter to have to watch whatever might happen next

of course Peter can’t bare to leave Johnny so they had to develop a solution for that

Peter will sit around the corner or on the other side of a door so he can still be there but not see Johnny, it’s a weird loophole but it works for them

they do a lot of forehead touches after this

so many forehead touches

thank you again anon for your ask and for permission to rant! I hope this made your day better, even though it was a bit on the angstier side. if you want something fluffier just send another ask my way

EDIT: someone in the tags mentioned that Peter’s spidey senses are going off even though he’s not the one in physical danger and I will be screaming for the next 8 years

#spideytorch #answering my asks #johnny storm #peter parker #red skull #peter x johnny #peter parker x johnny storm #mine :)#my favorites #headcanon #marvel #comics

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