#the good intentions are what make that failure tragic
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See I honestly do find the prequels-era Jedi an interesting (and at times painfully recognizable) portrait of institutional violence in that...they aren't cackling villains. They're mostly sympathetic well-intentioned individuals who via a combo of traditionalist inertia, ideological blinders, proximity to power, a dash of plain old arrogance and a liberal seasoning of end-justifies-the-means compromise end up being at best indifferent to and at worst deeply complicit in some pretty heinous injustice. I don't even think this is a completely against-the-grain reading on my part. At the end of the day it's a pretty mild critique, but it's hard to argue that the PT is entirely uncritical of the Jedi imo.
Unfortunately the narrative is never interested in really sinking its teeth into that. And even more unfortunately, a chunk of the fandom will clutch its pearls in horrified outrage if anybody else is interested in sinking their teeth into that
#i recognize that isn't lucas' reading but (1) the author is dead (2) his is not the sole creative vision at work in those films#and (3) george ''i'm a methodist buddhist benevolent dictatorship is the best form of govt ewoks are my vietnam metaphor'' lucas#says some brain-breakingly stupid shit and i'm under no obligation to accept his takes as gospel#anyway. i don't think you have to hate or lack sympathy for the characters to think that as presented in the pt#the jedi order is sort of a fucked up institution within (and doing the bidding of and dedicated to perpetuating) a deeply fucked up system#fundamentally it's a story about structural failure!!!#the good intentions are what make that failure tragic#star wars#aggressive negotiations#my posts
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Interpreting Aventurine's Situation
(HSR 2.1 spoilers, watch out!) I think one of my favorite things to come out of Penacony is that the plot has left us with two completely opposite but equally valid interpretations of Aventurine's character. Is he a chosen child or just a "lucky" dog? The story leaves the door wide open for both possibilities.
Under a read more for space:
One Interpretation: Unfortunately for Him, Aventurine is Actually Blessed by an Aeon
If you work from the assumption that the Avgin mythology is correct, and Gaiathra Triclops is actually real (possibly a minor aeon of an unknown path or Ena, if you're on that train), then it's entirely possible, in game, that Aventurine has been blessed by a goddess to the point that he functionally cannot lose any gamble he makes. The odds are, literally, ever in his favor. In this interpretation, it doesn't matter how many gambles he takes with his life as the chip because he will always succeed. Despite how risky his behavior looks to everyone else, he's actually been perfectly safe all along.
But this is especially tragic because it means that, despite his mother's and sister's belief that his blessing will help everyone in their tribe, Aventurine's blessing has only ever extended to himself. He's not an omen of good fortune for his people. His luck was never going to protect his parents, sister, or friends. The goddess of the Avgin chose just one person and left the rest of her people to die.
This is where Aventurine's doubts stem from. He asks repeatedly: If the goddess can bless people, then why is life so miserable for the Avgin? Why do they have to live in pain, suffering, fear, and abject poverty if she could make them lucky enough to thrive? Why do people live if it's just going to be horrible?
(To be honest, I don't think this is out of line for the behavior we've seen of aeons so far. Even with aeons like Yaoshi, described as gentle and benevolent, with no intention to cause harm, their gifts often create horror in the human world.)
Aventurine's hands still tremble when he bets. He doesn't really believe he's blessed and still expects his own downfall at every turn--but it's never going to come because he is one of the few human beings in the entire universe with the direct favor of an aeon. Even Ratio, a skeptical, evidence-based genius, seems to think this might be the case.
(Choosing the Chinese because the text is a little clearer than the English, but basically: "This guy always has a way of dragging himself up out of the abyss, which can't be explained by just 'good luck.' Everyone is waiting to see him fail... Maybe even he's waiting too. But as time passed, I couldn't help but wonder: Will that day really come?")
This means Aventurine has lived a life of fear and uncertainty for nothing. He's spent his entire life awaiting a failure and painful death that will never come. He can't recognize the love of his own goddess nor trust in the faith of his own family.
The central question of this interpretation becomes "What does it mean for a single human to be favored by an aeon?" Can Aventurine really be called lucky after losing every single thing that has meaning in his life--all because an aeon chose him and only him? Should that be called a blessing or a curse?
The Opposite Interpretation: Aventurine Isn't Lucky At All, He's Just Skilled
On the other hand, the story leaves the door open to interpret Aventurine's situation in the complete opposite manner too. If, as the IPC seems to think, Gaiathra Triclops isn't real and Aventurine isn't blessed at all, then that means every single risk Aventurine has taken has actually been life-threatening--and that every single achievement he's reached has been by his own merits alone.
If Gaiathra's blessing isn't real, then Aventurine's life becomes one long self-run psyop: Everyone tells him he's blessed, he's lucky, he's favored--so young Kakavasha starts gambling early. Banking on this idea that he's favored, that he's chosen, he starts paying attention, he learns the tricks of the trade, figures out how to slip cards up his sleeves, how to word things just right so people will take his bait--he practices, practices, practices, until he can spot winning odds a mile away, until he can predict every possible outcome, until he's seen it all before.
In this situation, every single gamble he's ever made or will make carries a very, very real risk of failure--but Aventurine continues to succeed because he's just that quick-witted, just that aware, just that good at reading people. (He's been doing it for so much longer than everyone else he meets, after all.) He is the gambler extraordinaire, the archetypal charming rogue who can squirm his way out of any tight spot he gets into, time and time again.
He fears every gamble he makes because he has good reason to--there's literally never any guarantee that he will succeed, and he's constantly just flipping a coin to see what outcome he'll get. His personal skill and quick wit continue to turn things in his favor, but it's inevitable that one day he'll meet a situation that outwits him, a gamble where only a supernatural force could have saved him. And if you take this second interpretation, Gaiathra isn't real, so there won't be one.
This story choice would be interesting because it implies a greater degree of responsibility for everything that happens. If it's Aventurine's own quick wit and skill that continually save him, shouldn't he be able to help others with that skill? Shouldn't he have been able to help himself? How was he able to save himself from death but not from slavery? If it was skill, not luck, all along, then who do you blame for all the misery he still experienced?
This interpretation leads to greater questions of self-doubt and anxiety: Is it actual skill or just sheer dumb luck? Does Aventurine have what it takes mentally, psychologically, emotionally, and even physically to always come out on top by his own merits, or is he just the benefit of the wheel of fortune--statistically speaking, a one in a million chance still has to come through for that one, right? And when it all comes crumbling down eventually, will he have only himself to blame?
A Life of Uncertainty
The story doesn't actually give us any firm indication whether Gaiathra is real or not, or--even if she is real--if Aventurine is actually genuinely blessed. We just don't know, as players.
And Aventurine doesn't know either.
His faith in the goddess of the Avgin is shaky. He seems to want to believe and hold on to his people's mythology, but he has valid doubts that a goddess would choose to bless one person while leaving everyone else to suffer.
Is he the chosen of an aeon? And if he isn't chosen, then what meaning does any of it have? Is he just unbelievably skilled? Has he merely been lucky up to now? When will this blessing or luck or skill finally fail him?
Aventurine's most defining character trait is the extreme uncertainty that has plagued his whole life. What is true? What should he believe? Is he blessed or cursed? Does he have the talent to back up his massive boasts? Should others put any faith in him--should he put any faith in himself? Should he cling to his people's beliefs or reject the goddess that left him the sole survivor of a cultural extinction?
He can't trust anything. He can't trust his family's faith; he can't trust that he's actually a "chosen one" (because how could he chosen and his family be left to die?). He can't even trust that he's lucky because maybe it was just the years of suffering practice he put in. Then again, he can't trust in his own skill because maybe he's just blessed?
Which is it? Which is it? Which is it?
Nothing is certain. Nothing can be taken for granted. Nothing can be proven empirically true or false. There are no guarantees for Aventurine.
Every single thing in his life is a gamble, and none of that is his fault.
What an amazing character. What a great story. Thank you for the treat, Hoyo!
#aventurine#honkai star rail#hsr meta#aventurine meta#alternate character interpretations#gaiathra#damned if you do#damned if you don't#2.1 spoilers#penacony spoilers
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Sorry if someone has already asked but what’s your opinion on WinderWaker Ganondorf?
I think he’s sort of tragic in a way, at least
Oh nonnie I LOVE WindWaker Ganondorf. He's IS very tragic and he's my favorite one next to OoTdorf, and my #1 favorite in terms of in-game character development and storytelling. He gave so much context and heart to Gan's character in OoT (which Eiji Aonuma also directed) and was really the first to make Ganondorf a complex antagonist who did really care about his people, and about his role as a leader.
WW Ganon is 100% responsible for informing my headcanons that even if his actions were ultimately selfish, the initial intention for Ganondorf seeking power came from a place of helplessness and love and fear and failure that a leader faces when his people are dying from something a human being can't control or stop. He's the driving force behind my headcanons that Ganondorf taking the triforce wasn't for a war against Hyrule, it was for a war against the gods themselves, and demanding to be heard, and finally being in control of something you were handed responsibility for.
(He's also one of the reasons I regularly draw Ganondorf with sharp teeth, haha.)
I also just love his vibe. When I was younger I didn't appreciate the shape language and art direction in Wind Waker as much as I do now, and I just love his design, and his dialogue, and how casually dangerous his energy is, even when he's sympathetic. The music, the lighting, the dialogue, the cinematic cuts, god. What a great game that was. If you can forgive sailing around in nothing for six hundred years (which I can, just because the wind and the music and the atmosphere is so good), it's one of my all time favorite games, ever.
I just absolutely adore WW!Ganondorf, and how he's presented as sorrowful but not sorry, ykwim? One of my favorite things about Gan is that even as a complex villain he is sympathetic without being remorseful, and WW Gan did that so well. "Sorry it had to come to this, but, I'm still going through with it" is such a good fucking energy for a complex villain to have, especially when the gods keep putting literal children in your way, despite knowing you can and will go through them if need be.
Thank you for asking op I!!!!! Love Him!!!!!!!!!
#ganondorf#i don't have any art again but i'm cry i love him so so much nonnie#WW made him a PERSON and I LOVE THEM FOR IT#lozhc
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So I'm re-reading the series, trying to look at characters and plots in different ways and look for symbolism. I am doubtful of Dany, not full anti rn but wary. Do you think she could do good? Or is she doomed, always planned to be a dark/villain that used to be a naive child?
Dany was always meant to be a villain in the end.
This is in no way diminished by the fact that she started out as a helpless victim in a horrific situation. These circumstances inform her arc, they are part of what sets her on this path. But being a victim is not a qualification for goodness, it does not make people stronger or better. Suffering makes us weaker and worse. It is kindness and compassion that make us strong and that help us grow and heal.
Dany barely got any of that in her life. The things she does directly relate to that, to the poisonous way she was raised. She is a tragedy.
We are not meant to hate her. (I strongly dislike her, but that's my personal taste.) She is a figure to be pitied, even as we slowly discover her to be a monster shedding its veneer.
She wants to be happy, she wants to be a force of good. But she has no real concept of what that actually is because she was raised to view herself as inherently separate from other human beings, as a superior Targaryen catergory of her own, and being raised on the run with only Viserys her brother-king, she never had a chance to understand what connection and community actually are. But we need these things to properly function, they are the basis of survival, peace and justice.
Dany could hear the singing of the red priests as they lit their night fires and the shouts of ragged children playing games beyond the walls of the estate. For a moment she wished she could be out there with them, barefoot and breathless and dressed in tatters, with no past and no future and no feast to attend at Khal Drogo's manse. (AGOT, Daenerys I)
It is tragic when she believes her actions to be good and helpful, when they are often at least partly horrific, and she cannot see past her intentions and her own point of view. She is blind to her own hypocrisy. And it keeps getting worse instead of better because her inevitable failures meet "if I look back I am lost". Once she starts to truly question herself, she slips into an existential crisis that she quickly shuts down. The blood of the dragon does not weep. Her self-worth is too tied up in her dragon identity and the goal of reconquest - inevitable war, inevitable destruction, inevitable recreations of her past failures. She cannot let go of that goal, so she can never be free, and she can never be good.
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One of the things I really love about Pitch Black, aside from being just a fun, multilayered, and entertaining villain, is that what makes him so sympathetic is also what makes him irredeemable.
He thinks he's right! He fully believes, with his whole heart, that children should be raised in fear. He is the perfect metaphor for outdated harmful parenting in a children's movie. Kids should be raised with love and care! if you work too hard to give your kids material things, even with good intentions, you may miss out on actually spending time with them! Great lessons, with the villain being a sympathetic lonely man who is being forgotten by everyone, why? Because he thinks children should be raised in fear.
And he's so good at it. Other villains/antagonist parental figures in kids media like Mother Gothel (tangled) and Claude Frollo (hunchbac of notre dame) use the same tactics but they, unlike Pitch, are easily seen through by the audience because they lack that one thing Pitch has. Pitch CARES. Pitch is sad, he's tragic, he's lonely. It's not that you believe him, it's that you WANT to believe him. You don't want him to hurt, You feel guilty. You believe he is capable of being better, you want to give him the chance. He's that sad old man in the nursing home whose kids never visit him. You feel bad for him, you're supposed to, even though his loneliness is the result of his own actions.
Pitch's difference with Gothel and Frollo are not enough to save him, because unlike the antagonist parental figures that do get redemption like Ming Lee (turning red) and Alma Madrigal (encanto) is his refusal to change. His reaction to Jack's rejection is to flinch in pain, yes, then to threaten Jack's best friend, break his possessions, and physically assault him before dumping him down into a crevice of ice.
He manipulates, he picks at Jack's insecurities, tearing him down bit by bit with his words so Jack feels worthless, then sets him up for failure, to take the blame for Pitch's own actions. He lures him into a trap then throws him out to face the consequences, then after Jack has faced the backlash of the 'cruel world' he comes back in with sweet words of comfort and affirmation.
It's the same thing your parents use against you. They love you. They want what's best for you. They just want to keep you safe, keep you on the right path, keep you in line and obedient.
It's not FAIR that you won't let him hurt you, it's not FAIR that you want to be safe and loved, that you want to set boundaries, that you want to be treated with kindness and respect.
Then, once you get into the books you start to really peel back those layers into the why, he's a war veteran who believed in the goodness of others, in treating people with kindness and dignity, in giving grace and humanity to your enemies, and that reputation got his family killed. From his perspective, his lesson, is that the belief in goodness will get you and everyone you love DEAD. He is a perfect metaphor for the traumatized survivor trying to beat all the weakness out of the next generation, but what did that do? What did his crusade against the light do? His descent into his madness? His lashing out in his grief? It destroyed everything. He, the humanitarian who lost his family and became the mass murderer of the entire Golden Age.
But if you just let him tourment a few kids on this planet he's totally not going to repeat that process. Promise. Stop being mean to me. All of you are so mean to me. Just let me raise my kids my way. I have parental rights!
Pitch is so believable in his loneliness in the movie because he does absolutely think it is unjust and unfair that he is not allowed to abuse kids. The first steps to any redemption he would have needs to rest entirely on his understanding that how he treats children is Wrong. Its the same crisis that many parents whose kids grew up and moved away and cut ties with them face. But instead of owning up to their mistakes in how they raised their kids they lash out and place blame. It's the gay agenda. It's woke brainwashing. It's this soft weak coddling society that convinces everyone they are a victim. It's not - ever - because I was in the wrong.
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Time to overthink the Silent King!
Aw yeah, @angoryt got their request in first, so sure. Szarekh—second coolest necron centerpiece model—is up to be psychoanalyzed by me, a rando on the internet.
Szarekh is interesting for a lot of reasons, and a lot of that stems from how mysterious he is. He's relatively new to the game as it were and he has basically no story appearances because GW hates xenos and also me. Still we have some things to go on...
So what do we know? He was the one that made the deal with the Deceiver (who tbf was not called the Deceiver at the time) to turn the necrontyr into the necrons we know and love today. He had full control of everything single necron via command protocols, but he surrendered that power after the War in Heaven. He ordered the Great Sleep. He entered a self imposed exile and now has returned because he saw something out in the universe that he deemed a great enough threat to return (it's the Tyranids put a pin in that).
He may or may not have met Sanguinias. He may or may not have a plan to reverse biotransference. He has a thing for pylons. That's about all we get.
I see a character here that tried to be a good king. In many ways he was, but he failed in the most catastrophic way. Every single action he's taken has been an attempt to protect his empire and his people and all of them backfired. Biotransference was... biotransference. The Great Sleep caused so many dynasties to be lost to planetary death, scavengers, and madness. And the galaxy they are waking up to is arguably even worse than the one they hibernated to escape. Even Szarekh's attempt to atone for his mistakes by exiling himself left a power vacuum that the triarchy couldn't fully fill. The necrons are completely fractured, their empire is significantly weaker as a result, and it's partially because of Szarekh's choice.
But he still isn't giving up. Despite being haunted by his failures, he's still trying to unite his people and save them from the mistakes he's made. He's trying to protect the whole galaxy from the Tyranids, even though he and the other necrons could just let them devour everything and move on. Tyranids avoid necrons and tombworlds because they have no biomass. Szarekh doesn't have to fight them, but he chooses to because he believes that if he doesn't, he can never reverse biotransference. The necrons will just die a slow death to entropy and Szarekh will have a front row seat to watch the decay of everything he loved.
He's motivated by profound guilt and desire to protect his people, but it constantly ends in tragedy. Do I think this makes him a "good" person? No, not really. He's deeply shrewd and manipulative. He used Dante's and the other Blood Angels love and grief for Sanguinias to essentially turn them into bait for his fight with some Tyranids. Szarekh survived necron court politics for millennia, he doesn't f*ck around.
Note, Szarekh didn't just show up and try to take over immediately. He built up support, a new court, he allied with everyone's favorite robot murder scientist Illuminor Szeras. The guy isn't an idiot. He made a lot of wrong choices, but those choices came from good intentions rather than incompetence.
It's infuriating GW isn't doing more with Szarekh as a character. He's a tragic king! Loved and hated by his own empire with equal intensity. He should at least have one novel where he features (if not multiple). If they want to maintain the mystery around him (which is fair) make him an antagonist for someone like Imotekh or even Dante, Lion, or Guilliman if they insist of featuring the Imperium. Do some uneasy alliances. Get the aeldar in here! Szarekh also shows just how dangerous and terrifying the tyranids are, which is great if GW wants tyranids to be the Big Bad of 10th. You want some extra horror attached to the space bugs? Just give a hint of what Szarekh saw out in the universe that terrified him enough to break a 65 million year exile.
Szarekh is a walking Shakespearean tragedy with a sick model, and I hope he gets more love in the lore.
If you like how I think about characters l, read my AO3 nonsense. Leave a comment, I live for those.
Next on the list: Anrakyr the Traveler! As requested by @fobosfear
#warhammer 40k#necrons#the silent king#Szarekh#more character rambles#the coolest centerpiece model is the monolith#just look at that big trangle#love me a tragic king trying a failing to right the wrongs of his past#yes i am still taking requests for who to overanalyze next#i will get to Trazyn#he is inevitable
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"To eat your cake and still have it" – Mary Sues VS Misunderstood MCs
I started wondering about something recently. Namely, why isn't Cale Henituse a Mary Sue?
"Gasp! But Blue Teller!" – you say. "How could you possibly accuse Cale of being a Mary Sue?! No one would dare say such a thing!" Just, hear me out for a moment.
While people's opinions vary on what exactly a "Mary Sue" is, I think most of use have the basics down: it's basically the type of protagonist you see in badly written fiction (commonly fanfiction specifically) – usually female, but can be male as well (although it's rarer to see male characters openly condemned by the audience for being Over-Powered and One-Dimensional due to stereotypes). Male counterpart is sometimes called "Gary Stue", but I'll keep using MS for simplicity.
MS is perfect, doesn't have flaws – or at least any "real" flaws, for example she's allowed to be "clumsy" or have "low self-esteem" because those traits still make her attractive. She is gifted, talented, beautiful (although she's mostly unaware of it) and everything goes right for her. Everybody adores her and she is objectively The Best. Anyone who disagrees with her is the Bag Guy. Often the object of romantic interest for many, MANY people around her, because of course everybody is attracted to Mary Sue! She's allowed to have a tragic backstory, but within the story itself she rarely experiences any hardships or failures. The world itself seems to be only interested in her alone, even reality bends in order for her to be successful.
You know, that type of character.
So now you might be thinking: doesn't that sound suspiciously close to a certain favorite red-head of ours??
So we go back to the main question – how is Cale not a MS?? Because most of the typical MS traits I pointed out seem to be true for him! Even how he has very few "real" flaws, but those usually make him only more attractive!
Not all of the things I described MS with line up with Cale, obviously; he experiences failure, both past and present, and he suffers a lot. More importantly, Cale is by no means a badly-written character.
MS is a typical Good Protagonist. Her intentions are pure, or at least mostly. We take it at face value that she's In The Right, or at least we're supposed to. Cale is more morally complex than a typical Good Protagonist from the get go, but that's not what makes him different: it's the fact that he acknowledges the complexities of morality. He doesn't simply seperate people by them being "good" and "bad". Everybody has their own goals and interests, including Cale. Just because other people's opinions don't align with him 100% doesn't make them his enemies. He is also often biased, or even wrong.
We are set up to root for him, obviously, but he's not Unquestionably in the Right. However, he still receives the same amount of glory and attention that a MS gets for being the Perfect Protagonist.
But just what is it about him that makes him work, though? What makes him different? Why is a typical MS considered "shallow" and "badly written", while Cale is one of the best and most compelling characters I've seen in a while?
Well, most of the answers to those questions can be summed up in a single word: misunderstandings.
Let's face it – having a character we root for receive fame and attention can be very gratifying. But it's exactly that feeling which some (usually amateur) authors get drunk on, and eventually go too far with it, creating an Unrealistically Perfect Objects of Admiration – which in turn makes them too feel too fake to make them relatable, especially if they are too pretty and OP on the top of everything. They stop being a fun character, and become One-Dimensional like a stock image, a statue; basically a caricature of the very good protagonist they're supposed to be.
However, there is a solution to that: to make a character receive all the glory while not being a MS. And that's the Power of Misunderstandings!
Yes, the way to eat your cake and still have it in your possession… Have a character who is in fact flawed and commits errors. But due to circumstances and wacky hijinks, as well as some seriously thick Rose Glasses on, the MC's companions constantly misunderstand the situation! Now the MC still gets all the credit without sacrificing their character for the sake of fanservice!
It's the perfect solution!
It's not the only story where I've seen this trope, but TCF excels at it. The story thrives on the comedy of misuderstandings, creating fabulous scenarios. Cale gets misunderstood by countless people in countless ways throughout the novel. All of these accidentally create the image of a MS-worthy hero, except he's not like that at all! Furthermore, he hates it! He hates being percieved as something he is NOT! And it's hilarious!
That is how it is done in modern era, my friends. We no longer need to deprive ourselves of cake in order to still have it. After all… now CTRL+C exists, hahaha!
🎂🎂🎂
#tcf#trash of the count's family#lcf#lout of the count’s family#mary sues#cale henituse#analysis#character analysis#misunderstandings#the power of misuderstandings#tcf humor#writing
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'In its 60-year history, Doctor Who has seen a number of wonderful companions go on incredible adventures with the Doctor. While many have left the TARDIS with their own fairytale endings in hand, others have not been quite so lucky. It’s hardly the worst way to end an adventure with the Doctor — as some paid the price with their lives — but there’s something especially tragic in the original ending of Donna Noble’s (Catherine Tate) time in the TARDIS. Once the most important woman in the universe, Donna Noble was left without a single memory of her time among the stars.
When Donna collided with the regeneration energy of the Doctor (David Tennant) her mind took on all the information in his brain, creating a human-time lord meta-crisis. To save her life, the Doctor wiped her mind of all her memories with him and everything that would send the meta-crisis into a cascading failure. Now, to quote the Doctor in "The End of Time," "If she ever remembers [him] her mind will burn, and she will die."
Doctor Who is on the cusp of a new era, with Ncuti Gatwa set to take over as the Fifteenth Doctor, but before he arrives, the face of Ten must deal with some unfinished business with his best friend. The series often bridges the time between new doctors and companions with a special episode, and this year’s specials fall upon the 60th anniversary of the franchise. Writer Russell T. Davies has returned as showrunner to celebrate the event with three special episodes that see David Tennant return as the Fourteenth Doctor as he’s set on a collision course with Donna Noble.
Donna Noble Made Ten a Better Person in 'Doctor Who'
The curse of the Doctor’s immortality means that he’s hardly a stranger to loss. After losing Rose (Billie Piper) to an alternate universe in “Doomsday” and later, when Martha (Freema Aygeman) chooses to walk away, he becomes understandably jaded. When Donna Noble suddenly appears in the TARDIS thanks to some wibbly wobbly space magic, the Doctor is forcibly reminded that with all that power, he needs someone to keep him grounded. And Donna, with her good heart and good intentions, is exactly the kind of person he wants to be.
From her very first (intentional) trip in the TARDIS, Donna immediately prioritizes saving people. When the Doctor and Donna end up at Pompeii, days before the volcanic eruption, Donna’s immediate goal is to evacuate the city and save everyone from the horrible fate she knows they’ll face when the volcano blows, timeline be damned. Over the course of the episode, Donna and the Doctor come to realize that they have to sacrifice the people of Pompeii in order to save the rest of the world. Even in the face of that devastating decision, Donna begs the Doctor, “Just save someone.” Later, when the Doctor regenerates into Twelve (Peter Capaldi), he chooses the face of the man they saved in “The Fires of Pompeii,” as a reminder of what Donna taught him. “I’m the Doctor, and I save people,” he says. She brings out the best in him even thousands of years later.
For the entirety of Series 4, Donna is constantly going out of her way to help people. She’s essential in liberating the Ood — an innocent race of alien creatures turned into slaves by future humans — rescuing the citizens of the library, and putting no less than 27 planets back in their rightful places in the galaxy. As the Doctor tells Donna's family after he’s wiped her memory:
“There are worlds out there, safe in the sky because of her. There are people living in the light and singing songs of Donna Noble, a thousand million lightyears away. They will never forget her, while she can never remember. And for one shining moment, she was the most important woman in the whole wide universe.”
'Doctor Who's Original Ending for Donna Noble Is Devastating
While it’s a blessing that Donna makes it out of Series 4 alive and with a standard happily ever after — she gets married, wins the lottery, and eventually has a beautiful daughter named Rose — the great tragedy of Donna being the only one to not know what she’s lost is heartbreaking. She’s saved the universe, not just her own planet, and she’s the “most important woman in the whole of creation,” but she can’t even remember having saved them all.
All Donna ever wanted to do was save people and see the galaxy, traveling in the TARDIS and making the universe a better place. When she realizes what the Doctor will have to do to save her life, she begs him not to damn her back to a life of being ordinary, a life where she’s always missing out on the things everyone else gets to enjoy. The real clincher for that scene in "Journey's End" is the way that Tennant and Tate play Donna’s final moments in the TARDIS. Tennant is devastating as it breaks the Doctor’s heart to have to take her memories away, but he’d do anything to keep her safe, even if it meant never seeing her again. And Tate imbues Donna with this innocence that makes the audience ache for what she’s losing.
Donna Noble Deserves to Know She's the Most Important Woman in the Universe
Over the course of her time with the Doctor, Donna found a confidence in herself that she didn’t have before. Sure, she was always loud and a little bit unapologetic, but before she saw the galaxy she was always the first person to disparage her own value. “I’m no one,” she’d say, not knowing the fate of the universe rests in her hands. While the Chekov's Gun of Donna's memories serves as a heartwrenching narrative device, that angst will only pay off in a satisfying way if the Doctor finds a way to save her from that fate once and for all. And well, he's the doctor, and he saves people. The impact Donna Noble had on the universe was unparalleled — and if the series wants to bring her back, the most important woman in the whole of creation deserves to know just how special she truly is.'
#Doctor Who#Donna Noble#Catherine Tate#David Tennant#60th Anniversary#Journey's End#The End of Time#Ncuti Gatwa#Rose Tyler#Billie Piper#Freema Aygeman#Martha Jones#Doomsday#The Fires of Pompeii#Peter Capaldi#TARDIS#Russell T. Davies
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HC/AU: Satan’s Biggest Failure and Schezo’s Corruption
A Headcanon I’ve had for a while, is that for the most part Satan had a hand in or was the one that sealed the Runelord away. In my head this made sense, Satan for all intents and purposes is a God, and if Shin Madou is in anyway canon the Runelord was a threat to multiple universes (Gaia and Madou), so of course Satan had to put a stop to him or something. That’s what it all was for a while until I realized something.
That plan couldn’t’ve failed anymore than it did.
Not only is he no longer imprisoned, he had mentally broken and manipulated a child (Adult at this point), killed multiple mages, stolen undocumented amounts of magic, and managed to get himself into a comfortable place with not only his Jailor, but the descendants of the Betrayer and Goddess of Spacetime(another Headcanon), honestly the only thing that changed for him was a new body that did things on it’s own sometimes.
Which brings me to the topic at hand. Imagine, what would happen if the Runelord had re-emerged from Schezo’s mind (I assumed after finally breaking down, because for someone who was possessed by an ancient all powerful evil mage he’s taking it rather well) and started going on a rampage, how much of that would sting for Satan, A God who had a hand in sealing him away.
(Terrible!Artist rendition of them meeting up)
This soon spiralled in my mind into a more tragic route. Imagine, if you will being Satan, you are now face to face with someone you had to seal away for the betterment of the universe, in the body of someone who you assumed was just power hungry in the literal sense, later realizing the man had almost no control of his actions. Someone who had to be mentally broken down more and more until the Runelord had enough leverage to take full control. And what were you doing between these events.
Making fun of him.
Not just making fun of him, actively encouraging others to do the same, to the point where his own nickname is more well known than his actual name. Sure, for the average man that could just be insulting, but for someone who was being mentally broken down day by day, how much of that would’ve sped up the process. How long has he been helping the man he meant to keep sealed away.
In the end, this could only lead to a loss either way, even when Satan ends up killing the Runelord for good (I mean he’s god and in this headcanon already failed once, he’s definitely killing him for good now) all that’s left is what remains of Schezo. either it could and up like my last HC post where I stated that when Schezo dies his soul ends up in the void and is unresurrectible. Or, more probable he finally gained full control of his body again, and all that’s left is a mentally 14 year old man, riddled with guilt of crimes he very much done, and was mentally tortured for years. Either way, he’s killing what is essentially an innocent man too.
And remember this is Satan, the Dark Prince, someone so hung up on the death of his wife he follows around her own reincarnation and rabbit creature she gave him, because he misses her. If he’s that hung up for something he had no control over, imagine how he’d feel for something he did have control over, something he was actively involved in, something he was suppose to prevent and failed at, ruining the lives of countless people, especially someone who would’ve never done the things he did to begin with if not for his failure.
IT WOULD EAT HIM ALIVE.
good thing this is just a headcanon
#puyo puyo#satan puyo puyo#dark prince puyo puyo#Schezo Wegey#schezo puyo puyo#runelord madou monogatari#call me Kenji Oda cuz wtf did I just write#I gotta stop watching kirby lore videos while playing puyo puyo
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Impossible question: who do you think has the saddest backstory in Vento Aureo?
Ok I've thought about it and I'm gonna rank the backstories by degree of tragedy, with methodology, hold on to your butts:
9. Diavolo - His backstory is fucked up, like it sucks his mom was in jail or whatever, but I have zero pity for Mr. Arson McSmashNDash
8. Trish - She breaks Narancia's arm and demands Chanel and Evian when we meet her. Trish's present may suck but she came up ok.
7. Leone Abbacchio - We've all hit that moment of disillusionment when you grow up and realise the institutions that are designed to support our society are in fact irreparably corrupt, yet managed not to collude with pimps and murderers. Abbacchio's personal pity party is sad but he brought it on himself.
6. Guido Mista - Up until like a year before the part starts he was living an easy breezy life, chasing skirts and picking fights he couldn't win. The failure of the justice system is unfair and unfortunate, but Bucciarati bails him out too soon for me to feel too bad for him.
5. Giorno Giovanna - Not that I want a bunch of Giorno kinnies coming after me (again), but while his early life sucked, Giorno gets a full fledged deus ex machina when he's only 4 or 5 that improves his life practically overnight. That's something that goes completely overlooked when people talk about his story, particularly in comparison to the next ones on this list. It got better for him, in part because of his own gut sense of justice, and he's able to come clear-eyed into the gang, unlike everyone else.
4. Pannacotta Fugo - I've moved Fugo around on this list a little. I don't feel any particular sadness when I think about Fugo's backstory; it sucks but it's complicated. I am not a manga purist by any stretch of the imagination, but I tend to defer to the original IP for authorial intent. And in this case, Fugo wasn't designed to have as tragic of a backstory as the other guys (presumably to make it easier to accept his eventual departure)...so I kind of disagree with the anime adaptation making it sadder? I think Fugo could have been a unique character among the group, one whose own personality flaws (i.e. murderous temper) rather than systemic injustice were the reason for his social ostracism. But the anime made him a victim, which idk seems too easy. That said, there's no question his anime backstory is fucked up.
3. Narancia Ghirga - His mom dies of a slow and painful disease, his father neglects him, he runs off and lives on the streets, gets screwed by the people he's come to trust and also the justice system, and nearly dies from a similar condition to what he'd seen his mom suffer thru. People who are supposed to care for Narancia let him down at every step of his life, taking advantage of his good and trusting nature. That breaks my heart.
2. Bruno Bucciarati - My thoughts on Bucciarati's past are well known at this point lol. This man's whole life is a tragedy.
1. Jean-Pierre Polnareff I ran out of colors idk - surprise right lol. We know the tragedy Pol suffered before Part 3 that led him onto that devastating journey, which ended with even more pain and regret. I imagine Polnareff and Jotaro just sorta..floating thru their 20s, conscripted by the Speedwagon Foundation to keep revisiting the circumstances around that traumatic stardust crusade without any real aim or hope of closure. Then Diavolo nearly kills him, which effectively forces him into hiding. He just lives for so long plagued by the problem of the stand arrows, it dictates his whole life, and that really fucks me up man.
#when I opened this ask My heart dropped and I put my hand over mouth like#i felt this one deep lmfao#seems kinda long I may add a cut we'll see#jjba#vento aureo#character tagsssssugg#jjba diavolo#trish una#guido mista#giorno giovanna#leone abbacchio#bruno bucciarati#jean pierre polnareff#narancia ghirga#pannacotta fugo#answered ask#anonymous#spam my askbox#with asks like these!
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The End of GLOW
I fucking love GLOW and I recently rewatched it with the intention that I would treat the end of Season 3 as the end of the series because (for now, and probably for a good while) it is.
My conclusion is this: The end of season 3 is a viable, if deeply unsatisfying, end to the series. It’s open-ended, but not a cliffhanger so while there are still problems left over in the world of GLOW, there’s nothing that got well and truly cut-off with the intention of resolution coming in the next episode.
And this is a truly depressing conclusion but at the same time it’s an interesting way to look at the series because it mirrors the way real life tends to have dissatisfying and jagged-edged endings for real chapters of living. Everyone’s character story ends with “As far as we know.”
As far as we know, Ruth and Carmen both realize that GLOW is transforming into something they don’t like and they decide there’s something better out there for themselves. Ruth goes on to try and act in serious, feminist roles, and Carmen joins a men’s wrestling circuit.
In the hypothetical 4th season, the two of them might have returned to GLOw for one reason or another--but ultimately I think at least Ruth would eventually come to the same conclusion that she’s ready to grow beyond the show into something more serious and suited to her talents.
As far as we know, Debbie goes on to become the president of a cable network with Bash as the owner. In many ways, Debbie gets the most satisfying ending: She grows from not caring about the show at all to buying into it completely, and literally. She also gets her dream of leaving the acting side of things behind, and presumably she’s Liberty Belle only a few more times before finally hanging up her star spangled leotard for good.
As far as we know Bash and Rhonda stay married, with Bash firmly in the closet--this is one of the more tragic endings that we get, but Bash is also an interesting mixture of good guy one day/bad guy the next so it makes some sense at least. I think season 4 would have finally explored exposing Bash as a gay man to his mother, the loss of his fortune, the possible destruction of his marriage etc etc--and possibly a long awaited conversation about the death of Florian.
As far as we know Arthie is gay and presumably on her way to getting back together with Yolanda. This, to me at least, was the one part of the ending that felt truly incomplete. A lot of the unspoken tension surrounding Yolanda dumping Arthie centers around the possibility that Arthie is not entirely gay, and that she may be bi, or pan, or something that Yolanda is not equipped to handle. Arthie not taking her rainbow headband off seemed to be a bit of self-convincing on her part, and the fact that Yolanda remained unconvinced implies that there’s more going on there. I think season 3′s finally was setting up a conversation in season 4 around Bi Erasure, and I’m sad that we’re not getting that conversation because now it feels like Yolanda got away with erasing Arthie’s (potential) bisexuality.
Sheila is also an area whose story is incomplete feeling. She’s a more serious actor now, but what does that mean for her? Will she stay on GLOW and pick up a new character? Will she follow in Ruth and Carmen’s footsteps and step up to something more serious? We don’t know and won’t find out without a new season. Personally, the direction I would have gone is to have Sheila be the vehicle for Ruth’s second and final exit from GLOW: Maybe Ruth stays on as an actress and gets a lot of shit for not choosing to direct, maybe she returns after a failure in her career--but it’s Sheila who has been using GLOW to save money and acting more seriously on the side, and Sheila who ultimately leaves the show to pursue a real gig (inspiring or maybe making the opportunity for Ruth to do the same.)
And finally, As far as we know the other girls are set to do the things they set up in season 3: Cherry and Keith are going to adopt, Tamme becomes a manager character so that she stay in GLOW. The rest of the girls don’t really have much story beyond that they’d likely remain on GLOW, largely because GLOW is their found family.
So again, it both does and does not work. It works if you squint and view it as a disappointing mirror of real life and the act of moving on---but from a dramatic and prose standpoint it was clear that there were more stories to tell. The themes of the show did swing back to some of the conversations about life and opportunity that started in GLOW’s pilot--but the conclusion of that conversation as we have it feels rushed. Typical series finales take their time to ruminate on the first and final message of a series--but season 3′s finale did was season finales often do: It reminded us of that central theme in a passing sense, and silently pointed towards the future. In a typical show, the future is the next season--but at the end of GLOW’s unintended finale, that future is our own.
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does ruruka's fear of getting hurt and being abandoned humanize her or does it make her look worse? woudkl you say ouma's willingness to stop the killing game humanizes him or does it also make him look worse because of the sheer ruthlessness he displays in getting what he wants? what about saionji? because she's ironically buddies with mahiru, who is a bullying victim yet refuses to show the same courtesy to anyone else and she's still a rude, selfish asshole even after losing mahiru.
Until we understand that she's so full of fear and self-loathing, Ruruka can seem downright cartoonish in her evil behavior, so I do think it hels humanize her a bit. Not enough to make her sympathetic by any stretch, but it makes her more of a realistic human being. Even so, her selfish/dangerous attitude towards Seiko's allergies is really hard to forgive even if it's depressingly realistic.
Kokichi's "good intention" of stopping the kiling game would hold more weight if he made any effort to actually stop someone from killing when he easily could've. Instead, he both ignores multiple opportunities to stop and then actively helps a fourth murder to occur. So... yeah, it's hard to say that does much for him. You could probably argue that he was just lying again about his hatred of the killing game, because he's such an incredibly unreliable source of info that it's not like there's any reason we should ever trust anything he says (regardless of how emotional he may appear when saying it). But I really believe he hated the killing game and wanted to end, actually! I just think his logic was probably that Miu and Gonta's deaths were sacrifices that served his desire to appear to be the mastermind, which he deemed a necessary part of his plan to end the game. Which is still horrible and illustrates what I once wrote about how trying to stop or face down the Killing Game alone will always get you death and failure, but... there it is.
Hiyoko isn't much more of a reliable source of info than Kokichi is. She's prone to spilling crocodile tears to get what she wants and is content to manipulate people into doing chores/errands for her, so I've always been skeptical of her supposedly tragic backstory of being bullied/threatened. Besides: If someone was really bullied like that and then complains about it, you wouldn't expect them to do the same thing to other people, right? :P You'd think if that really happened to her, she'd have to take a very "that's just how people are, no big deal" attitude in order to justify her own continued behavior. That said: I do think Hiyoko's behavior improves a little after Mahiru dies... but only just a teensy bit. At least she manages to show that she's upset about losing Mahiru, which is more than we got from her in regards to any of the other lost or near-lost lives up to that point. It's not nearly enough to signal to me that she was on track to turn her whole-ass life around, however. Even so: She does expresses mild gratitude to Tsumiki for saving her ass in the DR3 finale. Only AFTER she bitches about it, of course, but...... I guess we could take this as a sign that she might be taking baby steps towards self-improvement?
#asks#anon#dr2 spoilers#dr3 spoilers#drv3 spoilers#anti-kokichi ouma#anti-kokichi oma#anti-hiyoko saionji#danganronpa
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as much as I might make fun of jaeris for being a poor little meow meow the fact that that he does not succeed in his goal is really interesting to me for a lot of reasons and one of them is just you can have the best intentions, you can be resilient in the face of tragedy, you can be super skilled at what you do, you can be as righteous and good as a person can possibly be
and some times for reasons that arent your fault you're just in the wrong place at the wrong time. life putting you through the ringer doesn't earn you a triumphant moment of deserved victory, or a cathartic tragic hero's death
sometimes you're just traumatized and it sucks
but like! this is not framed as a bad ending or disgrace to the character like! he gets what he wants hes reunited with his beautiful wife and his universe is safe and he can go home again! and every failure and tragedy doesn't detract from this. He's gonna have to deal with everything that happened for the rest of his life
but the narrative ultimately deems him "A Guy Who Tried His Best" and hes still allowed to stand alongside the good guys, redeemed souls, the heroes
thats just so interesting and weirdly comforting
#i maek post#a gun that shoots shitposts#I LOVE IT WHEN JAERIS SHOWS UP DONT GET ME WRONG#but maybe you could like. show how hes changed and grown because of the things thatve happened to him previously#also explain how the FUCK this man can go anywhere near interdimentional travel without having a panic attack
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anyway I guess I should use tumblr to put the lengthy talking to myself bits that nobody cares about instead of just making ten-tweet threads, huh (this may become a ten-tumblr-post thread though)
a thing I like to think about: my queer readings of yowamushi pedal characters. by which I mean something somewhere between headcanon and claims about intent; things that are the obvious to me way to fill in the rest of the story beyond what's on the page but which are still just the product of my own experience and perspective. I make no claims about authorial intent, and I doubt anything more concrete would ever come of it even if he did intend it. (maybe. I mean. if pedal ends with toumaki not at least cohabitating I will be kinda surprised tbqh)
so not just a list of who I think it would be cute if they were dating; more like "I can firmly imagine how this character would grapple with their sexuality(/gender in Yuuto's case) based tangentially on X from canon" which is a much smaller subset than "characters I think it would be cute if they kissed". ("grapple" bc I think everybody has to grapple with it somewhat, at least if it's not what they defaulted to expecting. it doesn't have to be tragic but it is A Process). none of this disclaimer is necessary but it's my tumblr and I feel better if I've stated my framework ahead of time.
anyway. after that stageplay (ETA: I started this post after watching The Day 1. I wish I was watching The Day 1 right now) I gotta start with The OGs, Toudou and Makishima.
toudou is always straightforward and honest with his feelings but also is very proud of his ability to Do Heterosexuality (or at least be desirable to women; there's never any indication of desire going the other way and I'm honestly not sure he's thought about it)
though he's toudou and if he set out to be desirable to men instead he'd probably also be great at that (but also he's very much the type who believes in true love and monogamy imo; he's too serious not to assume that he would fall in love once and forever)
anyway for that reason while I am generally sort of drawn to the classic BL "I'm not necessarily gay, I just love *him*" thing (definitely not going to argue that's an objectively *good* thing, but it feels like my own life experience) I really want toudou to be gay. like I don't think he can imagine being with anyone but makichan once that clicks for him, because that's the kind of person he is, but I want him to grapple with the realization that "I want women to be attracted to me" is not the same as "I am attracted to women" and that maybe his ability to see the whole thing as a job, essentially, should have been a sign to him.
I think he's come to some kind of realization about the nature of his feelings between makishima under the fireworks and him starting at tsukushiba and that's part of his change in tone. bc he is very very serious about this but also suddenly consideing the possibility of failure (which kinda seems like something he's never considered before at anything) and choosing to do it anyway. and I love him going "this is probably objectively stupid but I need something to work towards and I choose him."
the way he talks about the importance of sending something you touched with your own hands when you want your feelings to reach someone... and yeah, that could be just about feeling that he wants to ride together again, but that doesn't feel like an obvious reading does it?
and the way he talks to shuusaku about makichan (and the unsubtle way that toudou's feelings about makichan are always being juxtaposed with shuusaku's feelings about his judo senpai crush)! I absolutely cannot wait for shuusaku to meet makichan and, I mean, if they were ever going to move forward in this relationship shuusaku is always the key to toudou moving forwards, right? sensei always says that.
("why me? why do you always invite me?" "because you're makichan!")
makichan!
on the one hand, I think (with no evidence to be clear) makishima came to terms with his bisexuality very easily. sort of a "sure, that's the sort of thing that would happen to me." a little ruefully maybe, bc it's not like it makes his life any easier and he is a pessimistic guy, but he accepted it as true. (to be clear I am saying this as a bisexual albeit one that did not come to that conclusion anywhere near as directly lol) he also never planned to do anything about it because that sounds complicated and awkward and what if you hit on a guy who turned out to be straight. you'd have to crawl into a hole and die even if they were nice about it.
tbh I'm not sure how he planned to approach dating women either but he's a teen boy so there's probably some amount of at least subconscious like, girls aren't like real people and it's not like you're going to have to be emotionally vulnerable. maybe he didn't really expect that to work either; he does certainly seem to have internalized the idea of himself as a total creepazoid. I wouldn't be surprised if he expected to be single for life.
but then he's got this guy who just keeps showering him with affection and charging through his diversions and actively seeking to spend more time with him no matter how hard he makes it. (and, eventually, trying to meet makichan a little bit more where he is; though I don't know how clear that is from maki's perspective.)
and yeah, it's real easy to read this as stalker behavior. but I don't think that's ever been what's intended (by sensei, if not always by anime staff etc); toudou is not always great at reading cues to dial it back a little, but he's right that makishima feels the same way. and it would take something like toudou's level of stubbornness to break through makishima's reluctance to show emotion.
I can imagine makichan maybe being a little more open to his own queerness in London; not just bc he's more likely to see a rainbow flag in London than in Chiba but more bc he's had the chance to start almost from scratch (even if he does keep going back to Japan any time he is forced to care about people) and maybe it's a little less embarrassing. I mean I don't think he's any more likely to bring anyone home, certainly not while he's living with his brother (I think ren would be nice about it, but that doesn't make it less embarrassing), but maybe he'd like, at least not just stick it in the "not thinking about that" box with all his other feelings.
I don't think there's as much actually there to read his feelings as romantic as there is with toudou; you just kinda have to extrapolate from the fact that makichan does always feel the same way, even if he's reluctant to ever admit it. he won't make the first move, because he's given up on it as soon as he ever thought it, but as long as he responds to toudou's devotion eventually...
(and he did try so hard to give toudou the small talk he asked for. he goes out of his comfort zone for toudou, and that's no small thing for him)
sounds like next spare bike we'll have a few pages of makichan on the plane, but I expect he'll mostly be thinking about onoda. but even if he's going to the interhigh for onoda (EVEN IF HE NEVER PLANNED TO TALK TO HIM. FUCK OFF MAKICHAN), he's going on the exchange for toudou. :3 and I cannot wait to see how they end up in the same room please sensei you can't leave that loaded two person wide loft on the wall without firing it
I love them please I know they're gonna continue to talk past each other and
#unsolicited opinions on pedal#toumaki: here comes the summer#pls talk to me if you want they are so important to me#pedal
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Any guesses as to what Rantaro's talent could be?
IM SO GLAD YOU SENT THIS ASK ANON I just got to his body discovery and I need a distraction. I have a few!! This set is ordered from least to most likely:
No ultimate talent: unlikely that they would hype this guy’s talent up for a whole game only for him to not have one without any foreshadowing, but still possible. I think this would most likely be the case in one of my end game theories where none of them are actually ultimates and it’s all fake.. somehow…. Though at this point I’ve mostly put aside that theory for a couple reasons (one big one being that Kiibo is very much a robot, can’t really fake that with memory manipulation)
Ultimate navigator: This one’s another weak guess, I think. He’s very perceptive and good at reading people, so maybe that translates to navigating open seas? Or otherwise difficult to map places? Also, he has what looks like a big compass on his sweater, what’s that about? I also used to think that his necklace was a Boatswain which I now know is not the case. Regardless, if he is the ultimate navigator, I’m picturing him as a ship captain.
Ultimate soldier: I haven’t seen the inside of Rantaro’s lab yet, but the outside of his lab, the door, haunts me constantly. It has a lot of violent warlike imagery (dark red colour, weapons and barbed wire, etc). Also, his necklace IS A little dagger, which also fits. I’m not too sure about this one since Mukuro is already the ultimate soldier, but if Shuichi AND Kyoko can both be the ultimate detective I think it could still work. Who knows, maybe Rantaro was part of Fenrir lol
Ultimate (bounty) hunter: THIS is what I actually think Rantaro’s talent is. And I do mean this as Human hunter, not animals. I have a somewhat elaborate endgame theory relating to this. In short: the other 15 ultimates grouped together to save the world from the incoming apocalypse (project gopher) but failed. The outside world became a wasteland, and the remaining public blamed them and wanted vengeance against them for their failure, starting the ultimate hunt. At the head of the ultimate hunt was Rantaro, and ultimate himself who felt the same guilt as the rest and decided to track down everyone involved in project gopher and capture them before also turning himself in. The 15 ultimates run for a while but end up surrendering to Rantaro and the ultimate hunt, and as punishment for their failure they are all put into a killing game with their memories wiped. Rantaro is either put in also as punishment or alternatively as a warden (alternate title, Ultimate Warden) to watch over the killing game, like a mastermind who was never hiding to begin with. But the monokubs fucked up the memory wipe so bad he also got caught in it and didn’t care to correct it cause it made it all more interesting anyways.
I really like this idea, though there’s a few problems. He seems genuinely nice in chapter 1, especially in his free time events. He is really worried that his talent could make everyone else hate him (though this might just make this all more tragic). I think he had good intentions but might have been corrupted somehow. Also, on a meta level, this is fairly similar to Maki’s talent, and although there’s been overlap like this before (Kyoko and Shuichi, or English Hifumi and Toko for example) bounty hunter and assassin or just barely not the same thing, so I don’t know.
Here’s some more that I thought of, mostly as jokes:
Ultimate gamer: he really liked danganronpa 1 and 2, that’s why he’s so aware of what’s going on in the prologue
Ultimate eboy: just look at him
Ultimate influencer: just look at him
Ultimate fisherman: idk what to tell you I joked about this one time and now every time I think about water-based or water-adjacent activities I think about Rantaro
Ultimate cowboy: he sometimes speaks with a slightly noticeable southern accent?
Ultimate amnesiac: he’s very good at this
Ultimate older brother: He’s so nice, calm, and collected (at least on the surface) and I really found his free time events relaxing. I also know from outside sources that he has sisters. I love hanging out with him. I miss him everyday (UNLESS HES ACTUALLY STILL ALIVE?? 🤔🤔）
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@nyo-ho-hoe / cont. from x.
ㅤ ㅤ His chuckle showed that the sole purpose behind her choice of words had been achieved, to get in Gyro's good graces to ensure the confidentiality of the information. Not that she didn't consider him worthy of being the bearer of her secrets, not at all — since the very beginning he offered her a succession of small acts of kindness and friendship, there was no reason to be any different now. However, his outgoing personality planted the seed of doubt in her afflicted heart, considering that maybe, just maybe he could let some compromising words slip out in front of the others. Intentional or not, the damage would be the same, so she tried to please him with the not-so-subtle mention of their condition, while her body sent the opposite message. Her arms crossed against her chest, her shoulders stiff from a sudden tension that crept up her neck, her brows drawn together in a frown, everything pointed to an important secret, but her protective shield quickly crumbled at his good-natured reassurance. Her shoulders relaxed as her arms fell to her sides, while her features went from unusual seriousness to complete desolation. Reimi sat right next to him, paying little attention to the manual work done with the flowers, her gaze lost in the hallway before them. Arnold was around as always, lying on the floor with his head on top of his paws, a tired expression that made it obvious that what would be told there was no secret to him. This time his loving gaze did little to help her, making her happily turn to the other available option, although her willingness to speak had faded away now that the big moment had finally arrived.
ㅤ ㅤ An awkward silence followed, with no hurried attempt on her part to explain what was going on. Quite the contrary, Reimi was taking her time to find the least embarrassing way to expose her emotions. It sounded so silly now that she was about to speak, it didn't justify all the drama and it certainly wasn't too important to the point of bothering him... But despite all the years that had passed since her tragic death, for all intents and purposes she was still a teenage girl, with the same uncertainties and doubts that came with youth and inexperience. Being a ghost was just the icing on the cake, an extra element of misfortune that made Gyro the only person empowered to offer truly useful advice. ❝ How do you know you have a crush on someone? ❞ Not exactly the bombastic statement he was hoping for, but this crucial question worked just as well. At this point it became clear that her secret was actually a matter of the heart, something she thought he had knowledge of. It wasn't too difficult in the first place, since her love life was down to a few crushes, some dates here and there, and a bitter disappointment. ❝ Ugh, who am I trying to fool— ❞ Her hands covered her face, rubbing her skin almost aggressively as if trying to ward off that little act. Deep down she knew very well what she was feeling, it was the same thing when she was alive — and it kind of took her by surprise. ❝ Is it weird that I feel this way? Knowing it will never work out because I’m... Well, dead? ❞ Ah, there was the real issue. Nurturing romantic feelings for the living seemed doomed to failure, even if her humanity hadn't changed in the slightest.
#nyo-ho-hoe#nyohohoe#( ✥ guardian of memories. / ghost girl. )#( come on gyro the wise share your wisdom with this poor soul )#( but seriously i'm craving for some big bro and lil sis shenanigans 🥺 )
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