#the way she clearly respected and cared more for him than her other allies
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What I say: I'm fine
What I mean:
It exists a version of TBOSAS where Mizzen had to see Coral die and a version of TBOSAS where Coral had to see Mizzen die
#the d4 duo of the 10th hunger games mean a lot to me#they were just kids and the way they looked out for each other through the game#I don't get when people say movie coral didn't care about Mizzen like she did in the book#like did we watch the same movie??#the way she clearly respected and cared more for him than her other allies#she never gives him shit in the movie like yes we don't get some of their moments in the books#but she clearly cares more about him than the other tributes#and her face when she can't save him#the way his last words in the movie is screaming her name nghhhh#the hunger games#the ballad of songbirds and snakes#tbosas#thg#mizzen#coral#mizzen tbosas#coral tbosas#my ramblings#district 4
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I found myself thinking back to that interview today because it had me thinking that Nintendo just doesn't seem to have the chops to write a compelling villain. They utilized Ganondorf in TotK because he is easily identifiable as a villain; in other words, the narrative did not have to do much work to prove his villainous nature. Ganondorf is evil, anyone who sees him knows he's the big LoZ villain, so they could just write him in as a bad guy with no justification at all to his actions apart from "Ganondorf bad" and everyone would buy it. It drives me insane because it feels like Nintendo themselves does not recognize, or fails to recognize, the sort of position they wrote Ganondorf into in their stories that allows him to be compelling and an interesting villain.
Then, the whole bit about Zelda going to the founding of Hyrule to see what a kingdom and a respected king are supposed to be like just sort of...doesn't make sense to me? How is what Rauru did any different than what her father did as king? How was Rhoam viewed as any less respected as a king of his time? Rhoam was working with what he knew at the time; that Shiekah technology was what would destroy the Calamity and so he put everything on the line, himself and his daughter included, in order to see it through. He was harsh with Zelda because he saw it as her duty, as the duty of Hyrule's monarchy, to protect Hyrule even at the cost of his relationship with his daughter and at the cost of her personhood. Rauru was kinder to her and showed interest in what she said, but did he really do *that* much better than Rhoam when it came to taking her word seriously, especially when it came to her misgivings around Ganondorf? At the end, both Rauru and Rhoam failed, leaving Zelda to hold back the Calamity so that Link could take care of it and leaving Rauru to seal Ganondorf until Link could take care of it. Both Rhoam and Rauru's miscalculations led to the death of many people.
And finally, having Ganondorf being an absolute evil king in contrast to Rauru, the respected king. Again, TotK leans far too much into people simply recognizing that Ganondorf is the titular villain of LoZ. However, apart from the game's narrative constantly reminding us that Rauru is the good king and Ganondorf just loves to destroy things, I find very little proof in game that tells me that Ganondorf is this absolute evil king that stands in contrast to Rauru. The Gerudo followed him when he attacked Hyrule, and they did not seem like they were coerced in any way. Rauru called him a hero to his people, indicating that he had the respect of the Gerudo. Even as Demon King, I would argue that Ganondorf did something immediately that Rauru did not; he lent his power to his servants so that they could be powerful service to him. Rauru only lent his power to the allied tribes once he needed their assistance to push Ganondorf back. You want to tell me that Ganondorf is an absolute tyrant of a king? Show me then, because what I see so far from the story I've been presented is that he seems to be respected by the people he claims to rule over, the Gerudo at first and then the demons.
One more thing, and it's this: I find it incredibly funny that we keep learning lore through interviews that has like, a drop of evidence in the game itself. Is this normal? Is this how we're supposed to consume stories? If you didn't put it in the game it's clearly not important enough to mention. I could infer lore from TotK the same way these interviews are inferring to lore. For example, some people argued, when it came to learning about the Sheikah tech just disappearing from an interview, if it would have made that big of a difference if an npc in game had said it. My answer is yes? The characters in the game should mention it? This to me shows laziness in story writing; I mean why even include a story? I'll just tell you the whole story in an interview! Should suffice.
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As much as Koisenu Futari is a show about love, or the lack thereof, it also does show how it can show up in many ways.
The focus is aromanticism and asexuality, yes, but also, we see the different points of view of the people around and how they relate to those types of love.
We have the junior, who thought that there was a spark between them and instead of dealing with the rejection and misunderstanding like a man he just... took some time off work and asked to change departments.
We have Minori (the sister) who seems to live the perfect romantic life and is following what society (and her parents) ask of her, and at the end, despite her love and her dutiful follow of those rules, she's being cheated on and breaks from what society demands (the divorce).
We have Kazu, who sees romantic love in a very weird lense (in my opinion) but slowly, while still holding his ideals, he understands that others are not necessarily like him and not only he ends up by respecting them and more or less understanding them, but he also is a (somewhat) good ally.
We have Chizuru, who does love but is lesbian. She is bound (through her love for Sakuko) to suffer because of a love that cannot be reciprocated. We see her deeply love and feel, and yet we do not see this love being satisfied.
A good point here is that the blame is not brought to Sakuko. Chizuru clearly says that she, herself, is the one to love and the one to get away because she rather have a friend live her life without having to worry about something she doesn't care about than forcing an unwanted love on her (Sakuko).
We have Sakuko's parents too, who seem to live the perfect traditional life. The mother doesn't seem too old, which would suggest that she followed the advice she gave to her daughters: marry and have children young. And through the series, she shows rejection, because aromanticism doesn't fit her understanding of life, then a slight acceptation: she still doesn't get it and wishes for Sakuko to marry and have children, but she also understands that cutting ties with her daughter for not accepting her making her own choices is stupid at worse, foolish at best, especially since at the end she just wants her daughter to be happy.
Last but not least, we have Takahashi. He is the textbook of "older queer" as in he knows where he stands, he understands how he feels about what, he has a way to show and share his experience to others (the blog), he clearly is used (and bored/annoyed) by the world's romanticism etc and he had cut ties with his parents. We don't have much on the parents' thing, but, or he left them because he couldn't be bothered with them being such a pain, or his parents rejected him because he's aroace. Either way, he is a pillar for Sakuko while she goes through her own aroace journey.
So at the end, we not only have a show about aromanticism and asexuality, but we also see how this pressure, this allocisheteronormativity of society, makes it hard on everyone and not just those who do not fit/do not follow those invisible rules.
The aroace narrative is wholesome and very well done, but it would be foolish to turn a blind eye on those other details (and growth) of the characters, which makes this series punch you in the gut so hard.
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Sukuna vs Gojo/ Gojo's Narrative Development
So, I wanted to put some of my thoughts here regarding the fight and mainly how I would like the outcome. This is in no way a theory that I believe will come true but something I would personally like to see. At the end of the day Gege is gonna do whatever he has in mind for his story and I would respect it.
So far, I love the fight, Gege is literally giving a cinematic experience with this, especially when we are reading it weekly, chapter after chapter it ends with so much speculations and excitement that it’s crazy. I am not lying when I say very, very few series can pull out such level of excitement from me. As for the outcome of this fight, like many have speculated for various and reasonable reasons that Gojo should lose. I don’t disagree. But…
Gojo as a character has always revolved around strength, his friendship with Geto also existed because he thought both him and Geto were above everyone else so naturally they would understand each other. Its not like other people were not ready to understand him, it’s just that Gojo never let them in, for Gojo anyone weaker than him cannot understand him and that’s why he wants to raise equally powerful allies so that no one is ever alone.
But this is delusion from part of Gojo, people don’t need to be his equal in strength to understand him, but his is stuck in his own head regarding the idea of strength. Gojo cares about people, yes, but he values and have always valued strength the most. That’s why he still considers the one person that ever came to his level, Geto Suguru, as his only best friend.
It’s not like Shoko was not there, but he never let her in, cause probably to him she is not strong enough to understand him.
Contrary to the belief many people, Gojo in fact did NOT raise Megumi, and Megumi considers him a benefactor or a teacher at best.
In the fanbook it is clearly mentioned that he saves students especially when they are strong. And I think with exception of Yuta and Yuji no one genuinely respects him, they saved Gojo because they thought he will solve all the problems. What Gojo raised are mini versions of himself, they do not have any goals which align with his own, none of them particularly care about changing the jujutsu society, even maki just wanted to be the head of Zenin clan to spite others and to make a safe space for Mai. Gojo’s students are strong but they don’t work together that well, its hard to call all of them friends, these kids instead of valuing their friendships value their strength more, just like their teacher. And this is a blunder and huge mistake from Gojo’s part.
Gojo’s ideology is heavily flawed and does not really help change the system, he is just replacing cogs with another cogs, like higherups with people who agree with Gojo, and this high emphasis on strength being so important, its not helping at all, it’s what the society already values. Gojo is not really changing the system when he believes in the same things that system requires of him. He is the perfect embodiment of the system itself. That is part of the reason why I don’t subscribe to his philosophy.
And now let’s come to the actual part I gave so much background to, i.e., Sukuna vs Gojo
Sukuna in many ways is Gojo’s true equal, both are THE strongest, they both suffer from isolation that comes with being the strongest, both value strength the most. So, in many ways they truly understand each other. Both are probably having time of their entire life fighting each other and from the looks of it, enjoying themselves to the fullest. For the first time in both their existence they have someone who can give them a great match and even defeat them.
This is the best time to question the idea of strength itself and possibly make Gojo realise that maybe it was not strength that was important in relationships, but the personal feelings. I want Gojo to lose and I want him to realise how flawed his thinking was and how badly he has failed the students whom he was nurturing to stand beside him. I want him to realise that he completely failed Megumi because the end of Megumi’s side of bargain was the safety of Tsumiki, which Gojo failed to give him.
Sukuna and Yorozu fight made me realise that the concept of 'love' of going to be brought again in this fight, their fight makes it clear that the love yorozu has for sukuna is more related to isolation sukuna feels because he is the strongest, yorozu wanted to fill that isolation by showing him the ultimate expression of love that is being equal to sukuna and defeating him. Yorozu realises that the ultimate way to show sukuna that she loves him is by defeating him, but she was unable to show him that ‘love’ because she was not his equal.
Sukuna thinks about that line yorozu said to him about love during his encounter with gojo, well it can’t be a coincidence. In sukunas head maybe its gojo who will show him the ‘true love’ which is the overpowering strength in a fight.
I want Gojo to look at sukuna and realise that even though Sukuna is the true equal of Gojo, that he is not like him, he does not consider Sukuna a pal, even though this is his most enjoyable fight because it actually has stakes, he realises it’s at the expense of the first ever student he scouted and someone he failed as teacher.
Narratively Gojo losing makes sense, but I don’t want him to go down without having this realisation that maybe strength was not the only important thing, personal connection, teamwork and relationships were too. I want him to realise how he pushed people away when he could have had so many friends genuinely caring about him and correcting him, sharing his burden and covering his blind spots. How he could have been a respected and beloved teacher of students, how it was not just strength that made Geto understand him but also their personal connection as humans. That he is not above these people he deemed weak, he is very much like them, I want him to be grounded and this is the best time for this character development from Gojo.
I mean I will still like him as a character even if Gege takes some other route, but to be honest I would really like a good conclusion for his character, I want him to realise his flaws and then go down, more like how a sorcerer never dies without regrets. And he should have many many of them, afterall he is the strongest. I know this is less than ideal ending for his fans, bur story wise I think it would make a lot of sense.
If you guys have some thoughts let me know, and please be civil here, I don't hate him, he is one of my favs too, I just wanted to share some of my personal thoughts, I know I could be proven wrong at the end but that's fine, that's the fun of theorizing.
#jjk#jujutsu kaisen#jjk meta#gojo satoru#ryomen sukuna#sukuna vs gojo#so i am finally thinking of writing more#this is one of my first metas and since i had some things going on in my head i just dumped them#i would like to improve my writing and theorizing as well#sukuna#jjk manga spoilers
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you know i love that the fact that we don't know anything about canon!clato pre-games gives us the freedom to give them whichever backstories we want and have them in fanfiction as wholesome childhood besties/training buddies to crazy messed up lovers but... to me the idea that they didn't even know one another before volunteering is so interesting. i go to a school of like 4000 kids so i don't know everyone there, and it's entirely plausible that cato & clove didn't know each other/hadn't crossed paths before 74th.
and that kind of makes "cato kneels beside clove" all the more intense. katniss (with her limited first person Main Character narrator worldview) sees him as this insane brutal monstrous person that gleefully kills children. and maybe she's not far off, but like. from his pov clove is just this random kid from home turned fellow competitor. he's spent the majority of his life making it a goal to murder 23 other children and is clearly extremely violent and has a lethal temper. he's not above making weaker children suffer, because that's what he's taught is the ticket to a successful life of wealth and honor, and clove is just an obstacle to that.
but then they have to spend every day in that arena watching each other's backs, and becoming a team, and while killing people is a messed up way to bond they would begin to become something close to friends and tentatively trust each other. even have affection and respect for one another. there are several canonical examples of tributes from the same district bonding that way (mizzen & coral / jessup & lucy gray -10th hunger games, haymitch & maysilee - 50th hunger games, and then most obviously everlark.)
so clove goes from random stranger/competitor, and thus enemy, to ally and partner and probably friend. and they get so excited about the rule change because they can benefit from it, their district can get 2 victors, and they let their guards down and begin to care and look out for each other's safety. they had no reason not to believe the capitol's new rule because children from district 2 grow up believing that loyalty to the capitol will favor them.
they clearly let themselves get much closer than they should have, and had hope to get out alive together and faith in each other. cato was her last hope when she was dying and afraid. seeing clove lying on the ground literally pained cato (so much that katniss, who thinks of them as vile and horrible murderers, who had no reason to care about any of this and was running away from all of it, who doesn't really read other people's emotions well, noticed). and this brutal and monstrous and apparently manic killer got down on his knees to beg a girl that he didn't know a few weeks ago to stay with him. someone he never would have cared about ordinarily, whose death he at one point viewed as a perfectly acceptable outcome. in just a few short weeks, she went from random girl that lives in his district to someone he would get down on his knees on live television for.
#yeah I can ramble about two side characters that barely got three lines of dialogue for hours sry about it#the hunger games#clato#anna speaks
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Wandered Rakha around the rest of the tiefling party. She's not overly interested in a ton of interaction with the tieflings themselves (because she's still pretty worried she's going to lash out at them).
It's weird not having Rolan and his siblings here. :(
Rakha mostly hangs around with her companions.
Chatted with Shadowheart about how she never expected to care about the refugees or want to help them - that she was trained not to focus on anything that distracted from Shar. Rakha feels pretty odd about that too; she isn't particularly good at altruism, yet, but she recognizes that they did a good thing for these people, even if the beast's bloodthirst was involved half the time.
(I had to reload because I accidentally had Rakha agree to share some wine with her, because I thought she meant just sharing a drink while they were chatting, but she actually meant the cutscene wine later where you can make out with her, and all the other companions started talking about how cute we looked together. XD LEAVE ME ALONE I HAD A NICE MOMENT WITH WYLL AND THAT'S ALL THAT'S HAPPENING.)
Astarion is, as usual, having a terrible time at the party. Rakha kind of doesn't blame him, but they had a nice moment of connection thinking about all the goblins they killed. Astarion tried to come onto her and suggested they find each other after the party, which she found kind of baffling and shut him down directly. He got grumpy about it. She decides it was probably the wine talking and moves on.
Lae'zel is ABSOLUTELY acting like a spurned lover and I feel bad for finding it quite funny - not because she's clearly upset (I love Lae'zel far too much for that) but because Rakha is SO fucking confused about it.
Lae'zel> "I have seen the kith'raki tear a screaming neogi's legs from its belly to fashion into blades. Yet they could not match your nerve today. It was enough to drive me to madness. I smell their blood on you still. I smell your moisture. How torturous for us both that I'll never get a taste. Oh, but do enjoy yourself this night. I intend to, myself."
Rakha, inwardly> Look, I respect and trust you more than basically anyone in camp and I don't know how we got onto such completely different pages on this, but also WHAT are you talking about?
Gale told Rakha about Tara - how he locked himself in his tower in a depressive haze after his failure with the orb, and how Tara helped him discover the treatment and find magical items to help him. He says she would be proud of them for helping the tieflings. Rakha... frankly doesn't much care what Gale's cat would think of her, but it does make her think more about Wyll telling her he was proud of her, earlier in the evening.
(He also went down the dialogue pathway of talking about how phenomenal she is and stuff like that - the romance setup. I had Rakha basically tell him it's not happening, but realistically I don't think, for her story, that that part of the conversation happened at all; she and Gale are cautious allies and definitely connected over some things today, but neither of them feels that way about each other.)
Karlach, as usual, is just a total sweetheart about the whole thing. She's incredibly excited about seeing the refugees safe, about her own freedom, about her friendship with Rakha and the others. Rakha is considerably less effusive... but Karlach has, in her own way, had almost as much of an effect on her as Lae'zel and Wyll have, purely by virtue of how her kindness comes as naturally to her as breathing.
Narrator: The buzz of celebration quiets to a soothing hum as you approach your bunk. You've picked up a few pleasant memories on your journey, amongst your struggles.
Go to bed, hoping to dream of Wyll.
Narrator: Somewhere, in the corner of your heart, you suspect he might be dreaming of you too.
-----
When bedtime rolls around, I think Rakha asks the others to post a guard over her. It's been a good night, and the beast has quieted since her interaction with Wyll... but she doesn't trust it and has no reason to. And for once she is absolutely determined that she will not spill blood tonight.
In the end, Lae'zel keeps watch the whole night, her eyes fixed unblinkingly on Rakha as she sleeps. Wyll tries to take over from her halfway to morning and she snarls at him and tells him she has the matter handled.
#bjk plays bg3 durge#rakha the dark urge#more tomorrow most likely#clearing out the remainder of the first map and starting towards the creche i think#although i really do have to do some move prep >.<
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The Skewed Dynamic Between Jake Sully and Neytiri Tskaha.
I've seen a few people within the fandom also pointing out this decision of Jake moving his family out of the clan which should've been seen as odd and irresponsible, and to a certain extent, individualistic behavior which I assume would be out of place in a Na'vi society.
Did nobody in the Omatikaya clan oppose to this? Not even Mo'at? Sure his family is now being targeted by Quaritch and there's Jake not wanting to attract the enemy to wipe out the clan and their allies but then due to poor hindsight, Jake brought trouble over to the Metkayina as well (calling Norm & Max over is completely unnecessary when Ronal can heal Kiri just fine). It took him suffering a devastating loss of his first son to realize that running away is not the solution.
Like…sure man. You could've just listened to Neytiri in the first place. 🤦🏻♀️
And don't get me wrong, I ADORE Jaytiri/Jeytiri and the good moments with their kids, but it's Jake that needs to get his shit together and rely even less on his patriarchal tendencies.
This is a YouTube comment under the Cinema Therapy video on ATWOW .
From @/kathymills3737
Wow, I had a very different interpretation of Neytiri and Jake's interactions in this movie.
I thought she was 100% correct in saying, "You cannot ask this". He should have respected not only her feelings, but responsibilities to the [Forest] People and back down from that plan. He might have asked about her thoughts and feelings [on the matter], but he never treated her as an equal partner with equal input.
Instead he acted like a child in a "but I really REALLY want this more than you" way. It's total arrogance that he thought he knew how to care for his family better away from the safety of their home and people. The [Forest] People live in a warrior society. They could've had help from their own people [so] why was Jake the only one making decisions?
I understand needing a plot change for the movie but if we're focusing on relationships, Neytiri was completely bulldozed by Jake throughout this entire movie and the repercussions of his decisions led to his child getting killed.
He should have relied on her [intuition] and opinions more and made decisions together. She was trying to show him love and trust by going along with all of these crazy bad decisions she clearly didn't agree with, but HE WAS WRONG and that was never addressed in the movie, and I'm surprised that never got recognized here.
From @/Sevoris on Kelutral Discord
[….] Jake has problems really acknowledging Neytiri‘s experiences and her agency within the writing A2 gives us.
Others have also pointed out (and as a Force Recon marine Jake should have understood this) that the western policy for [….] centuries isn't to leave enemy leadership of unconventional combatant groups alone. The military keeps on hunting them.
Displace to a new position maybe, but few chances he'd actually quell the threat by running and Neytiri understood this and what it meant.
And like, yes this is Jake's character arc, he is a flawed character, and in of itself that's fine - but it centers his agency and the consequences to his choices and denies other characters the same.
#avatar the way of water#avatar: the way of water#atwow#james cameron avatar#james cameron's avatar#jake sully#neytiri#neytiri te tskaha mo'at'ite#jeytiri#jaytiri
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Lanolin being a killjoy definitely stands out due to her complete lack of any good qualities to make up for it. Shadow definitely can be a killjoy: he's also simply cool and firmly on the side of good, though different and more forceful in his methods than how Sonic tends to tackle things. Same for Knuckles with his gruffness and short temper, but you can easily see how much he cares about his friends and that he is someone straightforward and honest. Hell, Espio is absolutely the occasional killjoy of the Chaotix, but if you look at him for two seconds you see he's just as zany and silly as the other two! But Lanolin does not have that. If you told me that she hated Tangle and couldn't stand to be in her vicinity I would 100% believe you. There's not a single moment of friendship built up between Lanolin, Tangle, and Whisper (that doesn't paint at least one as an idiot or insensitive jerk, like Tangle when picking the Diamond Cutters name). No reason is given as to why Lanolin suddenly is the Stern Boss Lady of the bunch. And she's got no positive qualities that make her even remotely distinct and memorable. Even her justification as to why she is doing this is just a very basic ' was scared now must protec world from bad egg man'. There is nothing fun, enjoyable, or likeable about her, because she comes with nothing of the sort attached, and no-one calls her out for her bad behaviour so we don't even get the catharsis there either.
Shadow calls Casino Park "cool city" when you start the level. That alone gives him more charm than Lanolin.
You make a good point. Shadow and Espio are the serious guys of the team, but they don't come off as sour killjoys. They have their comically serious moments, for starters - Shadow has scenes like the computer karate chopping, and Espio can be very overdramatic with his ninja schtick. They don't boss the others around, because they're not the leaders of their groups: Rouge is the most relaxed member of Team Dark, and Vector is a goofball. Shadow and Espio are treated as equals, to balance the trio. And like you said, they are friends! Team Dark and Team Chaotix have chemistry! Rouge has comforted Shadow when he had moments of doubt! Espio very clearly respects Vector and Charmy, even with their over-the-top personalities!
Lanolin is a noboby that butted her way into the group, and is now dictating the good and the bad weather, not just to Whisper and Tangle, but to the canon characters as well. Again: who are you?
She has no charm, she has no likeable qualities (and being a strong fighter is not enough), 99% of her dialogue is her commanding around or reprimanding her allies, that one moment of weakness in #58 came out of nowhere and lead to nowhere, and as I said before, I don't know if we're meant to see her as a lousy leader who is trying too hard to be taken seriously. The other characters sure don't seem to have a problem with her! Am I right, Whisper who for some reason didn't have the courage to stand up for Silver when you saw that Duo kicked him? I know that you're introverted, but just because you speak in a low voice doesn't mean you have to be a coward! You can be confrontational when you want to!
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Name: Eldrigma
Nickname: Shadow Man, The Mystery, Forgotten One, The Last Tacenscous
Age: 4598
Gender: Male
Birthday: ???
Sexual Orientation: Heterosexual
Ethnicity/Specie: Tacenscous
Personality: Cold, Quiet, Stern, Focused, Intelligent, Direct, Loyal, Protective, Private, Vindictive, Resourceful, Alert, Empathic.
Hobbies: He’s not seen to have a lot of hobbies outside of his mission of revenge, mostly spending his free time training, reading spells and upgrading his tools, weapons and armour. However, he does seem to be into stargazing, and enjoys reading a book or two here.
Family:
??? - (Wife*Deceased*/While very little is known about him and his species, it is discovered that he did once have a family, with a loving wife that’s name has yet to be revealed. But it’s clear he loved her, as the metal bands around his horns are actually his species version of wedding rings. He has not taken them off since the day his family died, and has no urge to find another lover.)
??? - (Son *Deceased*/Similar to his wife, it’s been found he once had a son, who was a young child by the time he died. While still being rather private about his past, Eldrigma has mentioned to Vesper that his son suffered from a birth defect, and he always despised how people looked down on his own child. So it’s clear he was a loving and protective father.)
Friends:
Vesper - (Ally/Friend?/Eldrigma came across Vesper after she had a brief fight with the Omni Squad kids, almost dying due to her condition. He ended up taking petty on her, sharing his own mana/magic to save her, and in return she now assists him on his path of revenge, as no one has shown her this kind of kindness with the state she was in. Their dynamic is rather complicated, starting off as strictly professional, planning to part ways once they achieved what they wanted. But as time passes, there’s signs they’re starting to care for each other, being two lost souls that might find peace in each other. But with Eldrigma always being so distant, and Vesper untrusting of people, it’s hard to say where it might go.)
Enemies:
Jay Tennyson - (Enemies/Admitly, out of anyone in the Omni Squad, Eldrigma seems to not like fighting Jay the most. He sees the boy as a good person, one with ideals that wants people to follow, and appreciates the kind and forgiving person he is. But sadly they are always bound to fight, with Jay always wanting to get in the way, trying to learn more about Eldrigma, believing he can help. It’s a complicated villain vs hero dynamic, but not even Jay can make Eldrigma stop his path of vengeance.)
Thea Levin - (Enemies/While he doesn’t like fighting Thea, like the rest of the crew, he’s not particularly fond of her either. She’s loud, brash, and clearly doesn’t understand that things she says can sound more rude or hateful than she realises. Given Thea seems to have an issue of seeing things black and white, it sets Eldrigma off, reminding him too much of certain incidents in his past. Also doesn’t help that she is an anodite, another creature from his grim past.)
Malax Shard - (Enemies/He is rather conflicted with Malax, because on one hand her two alien sides he hates, having connections to his past. But on the other hand he knows she is not to be planned for what happened to him, and does take into account how good she is as a leader and person, respecting her choice to fight and protect. So he often stays quiet around her, unsure what to say to her.)
Rook Rilla - (Enemies/He interacts with her the least out of the team, but they still have their opinions on each other. While she can be standoffish, he can tell she is a caring person, given she is the team’s medic. He’s seen her throw herself in danger to protect people, often innocents around them, and that sometimes makes him hesitate. Unlike the others on the team, she can’t really fight him, so he never feels fair to get her involved. But if she chooses to, he can’t really stop her, as she too will get in his way.)
Vanessa - (Enemies/Like Thea, he doesn’t seem too fond of her. Both because of her heratidy and because of her actions and personality. She’s flighty, unsure, and sometimes pushes her luck, with him finding her childish at times. He can respect that she is willing to help out the group when they need it, but highly doubts she has what it takes to be the ruler of Ledgerdomain one day, not unless she cleans up her act.)
Many Alien Species - (Enemies/Whatever happened in his past seems to be connected to many alien species across the galaxy. Such as anodites, galvans, necrofriggins and so on. It’s unknown as to how many he has issues with, or what connects them, but it’s clear he’s out for revenge, and that they did something to him a long time ago. Something that seems to have been erased by history somehow, and it looks like he wants to put them through the same treatment. He sometimes loses his cool around these people, especially those in leadership positions, or old enough to know what might be going on.)
Representing Song: Conquest of Spaces - Woodkid
Skills: Natural Magic/Spell Casting, Enhanced Intelligence, Flight, Natural Strength/Endurance, Knowledgeable On Technology (Even from other races), Crafting/Creating, Minor Regeneration, Represents/Has Powers in Biology, Magic and Technology, Multilinguist, Marksmanship, The gems that grow in between his horns can be harvested to make talismans and runes, Prehensile Tail, Anti-Magic Cloak.
Weakness/Flaws/Fears: He does seem to suffer from a form of PTSD and Depression, still dealing with grief and anger from his past. He can sometimes lose his cool around certain people, making him briefly lose control over himself. While he can regrow the gems in between his horns, if he loses them all his magic will struggle to work properly. He’s not good with connecting with people, even someone like Vesper, preferring to suffer silently, and never wants to choose another option that isn’t revenge.
#ben 10#b10#ben 10 alien force#ben 10 ultimate alien#ben 10 omniverse#ben 10 original series#oc#creature design#character design#Ben 10 next Gen#Gen 10#Next Gen#Next Generation#Ben 10 OC#My Art
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Covering their names just in case but
Explain CF then.
Byleth sides with Edelgard before the timeskip. Byleth chooses Edelgard’s violent ways of disposing of Rhea, which are extremely similar to Hopes!Claude’s way of disposing of Rhea (invade the Kingdom that gave her refuge and kill her). So if Byleth is the key factor here in Claude choosing or not choosing to enact violence onto Rhea, then why would Byleth themselves choosing violence not thus influence Claude to enact violence? Why would Claude oppose Edelgard for the entire war, up until she quite literally forces him out of Fodlan altogether?
Byleth would’ve clearly lost Rhea’s approval after siding with the one side of Fodlan trying to murder her, which would mean that Claude would’ve also, by this logic, been influenced to also try to murder her since now there’s no successor to take on Fodlan after Rhea. If his Hopes and 3H versions were genuinely in line with each other, then CF!Claude would’ve joined Edelgard off the rip. If Claude feels that Byleth not being approved by Rhea would make him get rid of her by force... then why does Byleth not getting approved by Rhea NOT make him get rid of her by force?
Like, I can post shit that comes from WC, VW, AM, SS, I can even post shit he mentions that happens well before the game’s plot and story. But the thing that arguably most definitively debunks Hopes!Claude’s existence (past Part 2) is actually CF. Rhea is depicted as the big bad that has to be killed to gain peace, Byleth is opposing Rhea and has this be a known fact since before the five year timeskip, and Edelgard - just like she does in Hopes - doesn’t bother talking with Claude even the slightest until AFTER she’d already invaded his land. But despite that, Claude - despite having no wins against the Empire unlike in Hopes, and despite having far fewer people on his side unlike in Hopes, and despite not having to deal with Almyra unlike in Hopes (and in fact having them be straight up ALLIES here who are NEVER said to have invaded during the timeskip) - does. Not. Side. With. Edelgard.
Despite “but he was under duress from the Empire!” being MORE TRUE IN 3H than in Hopes, and despite Byleth ACTIVELY APPROVING OF KILLING RHEA unlike in Hopes, he doesn’t side with Edelgard! Even to try and trick her! Almost like that ain’t had SHIT to do with why he did or didn’t side with her, and it was HIS BASE MORALS THAT HE HAS IN HIS BASE CHARACTER THAT NO ONE INSTILLED INTO HIM that influenced him to not side with Edelgard! Crazy idea, but Claude’s his own character with his own internal reasoning for doing things that don’t have to necessarily be tied with Byleth, or Rhea, or the Church, or anything or anyone else for him to have!
And also, Hopes!Edelgard may not have ever been the Flame Emperor to the students of Garreg Mach, but “never did fishy things”? Bruh, did you forget the whole part where she
RANDOMLY WAGED WAR ON EVERYONE???
When she invaded the Alliance and Claude says, quote, “The Central Church is headquartered at Garreg Mach. And the fastest way to get there is straight through Alliance territory. So far, the Empire hasn’t tried to negotiate with us at all. Which means they plan to force their way through here”? That thing that Edelgard literally does, and then literally goes on to lie about? Those things that Hopes!Claude just doesn’t give a shit about for no reason, and then GOES ON TO DO HIMSELF TOWARDS THE KINGDOM?
And Edelgard’s “compromise” isn’t even that great considering that both Claude and Holst know that once the Kingdom is gone the Empire will likely use their superior might to force over majority/complete reign over the Faerghus region before making Leicester into a vassal state. In Hopes!Claude’s own mind, she still doesn’t genuinely respect Leicester as an independent state - he just... doesn’t give a shit about doing anything about that. He just keeps going on mindlessly attacking the Kingdom anyway because, at this point, Who Fuckin’ Cares Lol.
Hopes!Claude is intrinsically contradictory and thus can not and does not make sense. To himself or to 3H!Claude. His character’s writing is treated with no respect and only has the purpose of “giving something different” without any care put into making that different thing any kind of sensical. Sorry, but I’m just not gonna bother trying to make sense of a character the writers clearly didn’t give a shit about after a very blatant point in their story
#Clyde discourse#Fire Emblem Warriors Three Hopes spoilers#Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes spoilers#his Part 1 self is fine. Part 2 is garbage#looking into 3H's iteration of Claude only further highlights how little fucks were given to Hopes!Claude#because we can very clearly see Hopes gives us a version of him that is nothing like what he is in his base game#but we don't even NEED that because HOPES BY ITSELF does a fine job of showcasing how shitty of a character Hopes!Claude is#sorry replier person this is a bit heated but like. not at you specifically just the arguments you make lmao i am Not A Fan of them
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So, I'll admit that I'm not the biggest fan of Community (I like it, but I don't love it), nor have I watched very much of it (some random full episodes and clip compilations they put on YouTube), and of the core cast Britta might be my least favorite specifically because I really dislike the "straw feminist/liberal rebel without a cause" character archetype, but I have to admit that she might be one of the best written and least offensive versions of that archetype because the writers clearly understand why the kind of person she is parodying is annoying.
See, the tropes Britta embodies are almost always used to belittle or minimize real activism and feminism. Characters who fit them almost always either make actual real good points that are implied by the narrative to be foolish, naive, or harmful, or they are making actual strawman arguments but are painted as accurately representing the entire movement thy parody.
Britta, however, is neither of these. What she is instead is a somewhat heightened but generally true to form depiction of a White Feminist™ who has never once examined her own biases or heard the word "intersectionality". When she is the butt of the joke, the point is almost always not the idea of activism, but the fact that she herself is so obviously bad at it.
A great example of this is this classic scene:
The butt of the joke here is not the concept of opposing animal cruelty, but that Britta finds it more offensive than racism.
Her approach to Abed's neurodivergence, and disability in general, is similar. Community has often been lauded for it's autistic representation, and I think it's worth noting that one of the ways that the representation is good is the way other characters, especially Britta, have a tendency to infantilize and patronize Abed and are almost always shown to be in the wrong and/or working under false premises. Again, in cases like these, the butt of the joke isn't disability activism, but the fact that Britta's conception of disability activism doesn't include disabled people.
Her approach to queerness is also like this, with the clearest example being her depiction of the Dean in her imagined season 7 in the finale. Her decision to make him a trans woman and the speech about "not [being] a joke anymore" the clarification that this is a "real thing" and the claim of "representing the trans community" is both a specific betrayal of every aspect of the Dean's complex relationship with gender, sexuality, and the highlighting of such (he has repeatedly refused to explicitly label his gender and sexuality because he doesn't like to be put in a box and there is at least one episode entirely about him not wanting to be the token sanitized queer) and a general demonstration of her inability to respect or admit the reality and validity of any queer identity other than binary trans person, gay person, and maybe bisexual. And, again, the implication of the scene is not "trans funny" or "nonconforming genders funny" but "lets all point and laugh at the idiot who is so small minded and dedicated to the idea of using the 'right' language while just remaking the gender binary that despite claiming to be an ally her attempt to demonstrate her allyship only leads to her explicitly misgendering and fundamentally demonstrating a disrespect for someone she has known for years because she refuses to acknowledge the infinite complexity of human gender and sexuality".
And the thing about Britta is that, unlike most straw feminist characters, there are actual people like her, and many of them are on tumblr right now sending anon hate to gay people for using what they refer to as "the q-slur".
And yes, that's right, I did just write a multi-paragraph character analysis for a character I don't really care about from a show I don't really watch purely as a preamble to probably the coldest take anyone has ever had on this website.
#literary analysis#lit crit#community#my writing#I guess#the fact that I wrote this is probably a good sign#it means my executive dysfunction knows I'm getting close to being a productive human again and is flailing around to stop me#Soon I might even clean something
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i am dead set on the post-canon headcanon that when hector tells the quagmire triplets of his vfd (organization) past, duncan and isadora while upset with hector, completely understand why he kept it hidden from him, and forgive hector rather fast; about a day or two later.
the research the two done on vfd has them agreeing that hell yes, hector was right to keep quiet. especially since they realize he’s one the few to actually get out of it 100%. duncan and isadora when thinking of hector’s decision and how he successfully left vfd, think of their parents. duncan and isadora think how their parents sometimes get phone calls at random times and go on lunch dates they don’t give much information on when ask. duncan and isadora think of their tutors and how their parents would get snippy at them about ‘furthering their education’. duncan and isadora think of particular topics regarding their parent’s past that now make sense.
their dad for instance, doesn’t talk much of his adoptive family; only that their adopted parents left him the sapphires, and that he has cousins who are also triplets, and dad think they would like as their honorary uncles. their dad talks even less of his biological family. particular his brother, who’s death/murder on a train hurt him so much, dad only brings him up whenever duncan talks/looks at a particular photo their dad has left of his biological family. their mom tells stories of her and a man she calls jack. jack once worked alongside their mom, and she talks fondly of jack, calling him her closest friend (though mom once admitted maybe he never view her as such, for he was closer to others), and wishes how sometimes they could work again or have him meeting the triplets (for she knows jack would love them like an honorary uncle), but knows it’s impossible.
duncan and isadora see all of this as their parents as while leaving vfd, also never left. vfd was in their lives in the smallest of ways.
hector when revealing his past, admits he’s telling them now so they wouldn’t find out later on their own. and hector tells them that he’s okay with the triplets hating him, and that he has to re-earn their trust and like again, even if it takes a long, long time. he accepts how things will never be the same anymore due to his selfish decision of keeping secrets like their parents. and duncan and isadora tell hector that they don’t hate him. upset yes, but they understand hector’s logic of it all. they wish hector told them sooner than later, but are happy he just told them later than never, unlike their parents, who clearly were willing to take their past to their graves if it means having peace for their family.
as for quigley, i have two headcanon routes.
route one is the idea of quigley going ballistic on being right about his (and fiona; they’re two peas in a pod) theory that hector was once part of vfd, and hating the poor man. quigley already has an subconscious grudge at hector due to his indirect actions of jacques’ death. however, quigley knows that hector took care duncan and isadora, like they’re his own. quigley likes and respect hector for deciding to raise him, duncan, and isadora after everything they went through, instead of just dumping them elsewhere to live his own life (one that quigley admits, was derail due to the he, his siblings, and the baudelaires). and quigley over time does bond with hector (one thing they bond over is whistling), especially after duncan and isadora talked to quigley about his subconscious grudge.
but the reveal has it destroying quickly what was slowly growing over the past year (and a bit more). quigley as it turns out, is not yet over jacques’ death. quigley now sees hector as someone who could have saved jacques had he stood up for the man, but didn’t. his lack of actions did indirectly caused jacques’ direct death by olaf and his allies. hector indirectly stole jacques away from quigley. hector, the man who is now his and his siblings’ unofficial guardian and technical adoptive father, indirectly stole away jacques, the man who quigley thought of his unofficial guardian. quigley is just too hurt how hector indirectly replaced jacques, and it takes a long, long, time for quigley to like and trust hector again, as hector predicted.
route two is the idea that quigley, while going ballistic on being right about his (and fiona) theory that hector was once part of vfd, starts to like hector more after the reveal. sure, it takes time for quigley to forgive hector about hiding his past more than duncan and isadora, like a complete week, but that’s it. the past year (and a bit more) has quigley not only bonding with hector, which helps melts away the subconscious grudge, but also has quigley learning more about vfd from those who were actually part of it via the widdershins family (mainly fiona and widdershins, for they were on the same side as jacques).
having a direct primarily source instead of a secondary outside information has quigley coming, on his own, with a new interpretation. quigley honestly thinks vfd is an organization that could help them. however, he now sees that the organization’s definition of help wouldn’t be helpful and beneficial to them at all. maybe once long ago, yes. but not by the state it was when vfd entered their lives, and especially not the state of their own lives back then.
quigley over the past year (and a bit more), due to his growing bond with hector and being care for by hector, also sees how jacques was not fit to be a guardian, official or unofficial. quigley knows jacques cares and likes him, but it’s in a way how an adult cares and likes a child of their close friend; to be more exact, how an honorary uncle cares for their in-name nephew (for quigley is the only one to figure out jacques is ‘jack’ from mom’s stories). hector, unlike jacques, is willing to take the responsibility of everything that comes with the role of a guardian, official or unofficial, and eventually, technical adoptive father.
and quigley here, due to his and hector’s bond, and duncan and isadora explaining the village situation more slightly more (and perhaps others, like fiona and widdershins, especially the latter talking more of his past with hector and jacques), starts to accept jacques’ unfortunate death, and is able to move on from the pain. quigley here sees jacques’ death was one of those inevitable events. quigley thinks jacques would have been doom had hector stood up for jacques, and the reality that did happened - hector not standing up for jacques- was how the story decided to go.
i like route one for drama-angst what ifs ideas, and route two as how i do headcanon things for my post-canon headcanons + things i will likely publish in a fic (with jokes how everyone assumes quigley would do a 180 against hector a la route one and quigley goes, ‘how angry do you think i can get at a person?’)
#quagmire triplets#duncan quagmire#isadora quagmire#quigley quagmire#hector asoue#hector#mr. quagmire#mrs. quagmire#jacques snicket#book verse#headcanons#ramblings
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YAKSHA LORE !!!
spoilers : 2.7 quest stuff in general
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In case anyone is wondering, my favorite part of genshin lore is mostly the Liyue related stuff, yakshas in particular. I love angst, it’s the first thing I look for in game storylines, books, fanfics, characters ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ Gives me a nice fuzzy feeling lol The whole story of the yaksha and Xiao’s ✨traumatic✨ life draws me in so easily. I have a whole google doc that’s all just my yaksha theory stuff (a lot that was either confirmed or debunked(?) when I did the quest today lol) BUT that’s not the point! THIS EVENT FILLED SOMETHING IN MY HEART IVE BEEN WAITING SO LONG FOR AH I love the yakshas so this entire event has been a blast knowing what it’s about.
I very much so enjoyed each tiny cutscene, all the characters I never thought would interact interacting. I’m sad Itto and Xiao didn’t have a bigger interaction. I love Itto’s whole big brother vibe towards Xiao and I would enjoy a relationship with them where Itto kinda fills a bit of the hole that Xiao’s yaksha siblings left behind after they died.
I really felt like the whole time Xiao was kinda just over it. He wanted to either save or have closure with Bosacius leaving. He didn’t want his friends (a word I think he’s slowly getting comfortable with once again) to die, so he felt like the easiest solution was to sacrifice himself.
I feel like I shouldn’t be saying this because it’s literally Xiao contemplating death but uh he looks so fucking pretty at this part. The way he looks up, lowkey majestic, I love him.
That aside you can tell he thought for a quick moment, probably more “I wonder if I can do it.” rather than “I wonder if I should sacrifice myself to do it.” Mans do not care about himself and he makes it obvious to everyone.
I really enjoyed the moment when Yelan just went ham on him for even considering to sacrifice himself. She didn’t hold back and didn’t try the whole “bUt PeOpLe WiLL miSs YoU!” shit. She said it like a slap to the face and it clearly got through to him. Your sacrifice isn’t worth it if everybody can’t get out, including you. She even pointed out his whole tough exterior being a cover up. While it’s obvious Xiao is a strong much more elite being than others, despite not being a human, he’s still a person, someone with thoughts a feelings and Yelan indirectly pointing that out did make me appreciate her character a little more. She has an interesting approach with those she cares about and knows she can trust that I can somewhat respect.
For some context, I don’t enjoy Yelan’s attitude, her whole “I’m better than everyone because I have experience and trauma” vibes bothers me, but there are things here and there that make me appreciate the tiny details in her character. I’ve yet to do her story quest so mayhaps I will change my mind if it gives us a bit of a better glimpse into her character.
That also brings me to this. WHEN I TELL YOU I ALMOST SOBBED- Again, I don’t like Yelan, but this look on her face made me b r e a k- She barley knows Xiao, but the thought of losing an ally, someone she recognizes her friends value, makes her crumble. It felt very unusual to see her make that face, even though we the players also haven’t known her very long. Xiao u heart breaker smh
The entire cutscene was fucking gorgeous, I loved every moment (kind of, the red blobs were kinda confusing and I was like bro ok I get it they’re fighting while doing this, move on). Aether animated in cutscenes always makes me happy lol he’s so bouncy and excited, ready to fight. Paimon just chillin cause she don’t know wtf to do. Zhongli saving Xiao actually didn’t happen how I thought or wanted it to,,, I had it spoiled for me that he saved him but the way he saved him was kinda lackluster to me ig. While I do think it was really pretty and well done, still a great way for that scene to end, I was still kind of hoping for a lil more dramatics on Zhongli’s side. I suppose he’s not much of a show off anymore ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ I think the whole Xiao’s father figure being Zhongli was in my head and I was like “What? No coming to his aid and heroically rescuing him in the same manner he saved us?
I do think it’s quite poetic to see the way he made no effort to prove it was him who helped other than looking down on Xiao before leaving. I bet he had a tiny smile on his face just as Xiao looked over at him. Xiao’s face looked so sweet. I can’t put a word to the face he made honestly. There was a hint of confusion, disbelief, surprise. Many emotions running thru his tiny little brain. I like seeing him properly animated, it’s nice to see actual expressions rather than the dull face he has as an npc most of the time. I hope we get some sort of scene where we (or even just Xiao) have another interaction about the whole event.
I want to say it’s my favorite part but it’s not lol The story of the yakshas just fueled my love for them though and it was so excited to actually get to learn more canon information about them. Watching theories get confirmed and sparking even more in the process was neat. I hope we eventually get to learn which yaksha is which other than Bosacius and Xiao of course. My favorite has to be the geo yaksha. Don’t know why ngl I actually thought he was quite ugly the first time I saw him and I was obsessed with the pyro one for the longest time but now he’s growing on me. I think he’s quite pretty and his voice is very calming (despite that we only got like a second of a voiceline from him, I tell you I overanalyze anything and this guys voice is included).
Tbh Bosacius ugliest sibling- no shame. The rest of them are so pretty and Bosacius....... pyro yaksha got me on my knees I swear. The hydro one is cute too I love her she sounds like a sweetheart.
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Alright I’m lowkey tired so that’s all I’ve got to say about the quest. I enjoyed it a lot and hope we get another yaksha centered quest to learn more!
#cryspygi#2.7 update#yaksha#yakshas#bosacius#xiao#alatus#yelan#yanfei#itto#aether#paimon#zhongli#genshin
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Babylon 5 s02E08 Soul Mates
s02 Table of Contents • previous episode
oh god. All three of Londo Mollari's wives. Minus two. Sounds very slightly more manageable. To watch.
What kind of mind trick was that? Stoner, lol. Maybe it’s the scent of dank weed floating off him.
No. I just made a very weird noise. Talia's ex husband Matt Stoner has arrived on B5. This is going to be an episode of all time. I can just tell.
Timov: "I won't bite, Vir."
Vir: “With all due respect, madam, that's not what I heard."
Timov: “All right....that one time."
Vir: “It was...it was twice..."
Oh, Centauri. why. Them Being Like That is, so far, kinda funny, kinda repelling. While being unfairly interesting, actually. I'm getting to be fond of complaining about them. And I also realized today that part of what repels me about them is that I feel unwillingly voyeuristic whenever they get heterosexually dysfunctional.
^ actually me whenever the Centauri whip out a tentacle or overshare about their painfully hetero sex lives
Another wife has arrived! I quite like these two women interacting.
John Sheridan, my heart just grew three sizes. That's so sweet! Friends and allies!
ashfdsjhfd. OK. I have to pause and quote this Ivanova and Delenn interaction because I just put my hands over my face and scream-laughed for a minute over Delenn's hair.
Delenn, all but vibrating in rage: "Commander. I want you to understand. I acquired human characteristics to bring your people and mine closer together. To symbolize our mutuality! It is supposed to be a dignified, inspiring transition for both humans and Minbari. So will you, please, explain to me, why this - this - this *rips at hair*"
Ivanova: "Hair."
Delenn *rips at a trapped hairbrush* "...refuses to cooperate?!"
This is also everything I ever wanted. And also why my hair is never allowed to grow longer than my chin before I whack it off.
Delenn: "Please. I trust you."
my heart
Oh, Talia. My heart again, for totally different reasons. PsiCorps are shits.
And G'Kar!! I've missed G'Kar. His armor is getting prettier and prettier I swear.
So shimmery and shiny!
I could watch Daggair and Timov all day.
Daggair: "Your problem, Timov, is that you've never known your place."
Timov: "My place? You once threatened to break a vase over his head."
Daggair, laughing: "Well, that...that, was the impetuousness of youth."
Timov: "That was last month."
Timov definitely has Londo's number. I agree with her, Daggair is definitely up to something.
Timov: "The secret of our marriage's success, Londo, is our lack of communication. You have jeopardized that success, and I would know why."
This is absolutely, hands down, the funniest, most engaging, and delightful Centauri episode so far. I love Timov so much. She can come back whenever she likes.
Happy 30th Ascension Day, Londo.
Wow, a two-out-of-three divorce is a great 30th Ascension Day gift from the emperor. Well, any one wish within his power is a great gift, but it totally tracks that Londo would use it to get out of as many arranged marriages as possible (while insisting that it's a valid way of life and other people should just shut up and take the marriages).
I like the staggered introduction of Mollari wives.
I bet the props department had a ton of fun coming up with alien artifacts.
Lennier is back!!! He's so sweet. Checking to make sure the hair curlers aren't painful. I must disagree with Delenn: they may not be physically painful, but they're a psychological torment.
This tension between Garibaldi and Matt Stoner is delightful. He's clearly a shit, but he and Garibaldi have banger chemistry.
Londo: "Be careful. I should have warned you. On Earth, you have these creatures - insects attracted to flames?"
Sheridan: "Uh, yes. Moths. They're drawn to flames and bright lights, and get burned."
Londo: "Mariel is drawn to men of power in that same way. But trust me - she burns them."
I like her.
My most insistent inclination right now is that Londo will stay married to Timov. But I could also see him staying with Mariel just because she's the youngest, or he admires her zest for burning powerful men. Or Daggair, since she's flattering his ego on this trip. It'll be interesting to see how this goes! Perhaps this divorce is a fake-out and he'll end up using his favor for something completely unrelated.
Fuck U Matt. Leave her alone.
This is definitely a case of the cure being worse than the sickness. Losing telepathy after a lifetime of having it sounds traumatic. Losing it to get out of PsiCorps grip if there's no other option - potentially worth it, depending on the individual. Having your creepy ex arrange for it, thus giving his obsessed and gross self something to hold over you? Nooo. No thank you.
Talia, to Garibaldi: "Please, keep out of this. It's not your concern."
Garibaldi: "I...I feel it is."
Talia: "Feel differently."
TELL HIM SIS. Fuck yes. Talia telling men to fuck off instead of appeasing them and de-escalating is a glorious thing to behold.
Londo: "You haven't changed."
Timov: "You have. You've devolved."
Your honor, I love her.
:( I'm sorry you're apologizing to Gaibaldi, Talia.
And that you're considering leaving with Matt!
Understandable feelings, F- risk assessment.
Londo and G'Kar's fighting is as delightful as ever! Londo could do so much with his brainpower if he devoted it to anything worthwhile, and this is obvious because he's so good at fucking with G'Kar.
Lennier is so fucking cute. Londo is going to cheat so hard with those marked cards.
Murder via ancient, Centauri artifact is a pretty interesting way to take someone out.
Obviously Matt Stoner sucks, but I continue to love him and Garibaldi interacting.
Awwww, Timov.
"Whatever you think of me, doctor, I have some principles that even twenty years with Londo can't erase."
oh my god. hahahahaha I love her.
Security Officer: "There's just something about [Matt] that makes you wanna like him."
Hmmmm. Residual PsiPowers?
Franklin: "Ambassador Mollari, do you mind if make one personal observation?
Londo: "No, not at all."
Franklin: "Stick it."
Londo: "How odd. I didn't even know we were married."
That's a pretty good one. I tolerate the Centauri Boomer Humor a lot better when it's less hetero.
Matt definitely has some latent PsiPowers. Shake it off, Talia! Kick him in the nads!
Well, setting him up to being hit by Garibaldi is OK too, I guess.
I did wonder if Mariel was responsible for the poisoning. Love her. And G'Kar! He continues to be a total delight and I love seeing him interact with new people.
Matt: "Look into my mind. No shields. No tricks."
Talia: "No chance."
Good plan. A+ risk assessment. That's character growth!
It is slightly laudable that Londo prefers to have honestly over flattery in his stable relationships.
:( oh fuck, poor Delenn. Menstruating is not something you wanna pick up, especially when it comes with cramps. :(
next episode
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I find Frani such a fascinating character.
He does not seem all that great on the first playthrough, when he comes off as rather arrogant and is more than once the butt of the joke. But in hindsight, he seems, to me at least, to be well-intentioned in what he does, even if he oftentimes goes about it the wrong way.
Let's start with the scene in the gardens. Here Frani is in opposition to his siblings on the subject on their father. We know that Roland and Cordelia are right. Regna is never showed to care for his children and he seems to mostly ignore them when he is not berating them (at least so it looks from Roland's scenes with him). So why is Frani defending him? Is Regna a better father to him than to his other kids?
Hughette says so in one of her character stories. And yet, I am not so willing to believe her. She hasn't been long at the court and is an outsider to the royal family's affairs. It may seem like that to her, but I don't think that is the true.
Frani seems to be older than Serenoa which means that he was already born during Regna's scandal with Destra. So Regna was more than happy to send both him and his mother, whoever she was, away. (I have my headcanons about her and the role she played in this whole affair.) That is not something a loving father would do. Regna also does not react very strongly when Frani is killed in front of him, but that may be just my interpretation. Overall, Regna seems as indifferent toward Frani as he is toward his other legitimate kids.
Frani himself seems to share his father's sentiment, considering he allies himself with Patriatte against Regna, which would be very unusual if his father was a loving and respected parent.
Despite all of this, Frani is defending him from Roland's accusations. Rather rudely, of course, but he seems bend on convincing his siblings that their father is simply too busy for them. He is not neglecting you, he says, he has more important things to do because he is king and everyone is depending on him.
Which is very funny considering that we find out that Regna holds no real power and is nothing more than a figurehead. I doubt Frani doesn't know this, when he himself is very involved in the matters of the court.
I think he is lying because he cares for his siblings and wants to protect them from the harsh truth. Their father doesn't love them and doesn't want to spend time with them. He is forced to keep them around because they are his legitimate children but he would probably not mind if they were gone. Frani knows all of this because he is older, because he is the heir and is involved in the machinations of the court, because he had more time to notice and accept that his father doesn't love him. And that is a painful process and he wants to spare his siblings from it, if he can.
He seems harsh on them on multiple occasions, but that is clearly just a facade. He even acknowledges it himself when he talks to Serenoa, asking him to remain a friend to Roland and admitting that he cares for him, despite his foibles.
There is another interesting moment during the garden scene. The Wolfforts get mentioned and Frani warns Roland about them and the possibility that their loyalties may change. He tells Roland to be ready crush them, 'if they dare to rise above their station'.
On the first playthrough, the player who identifies with the Wolfforts, of course, may even feel insulted by his words. After the Liberty ending though, we realize that Frani was only speaking the truth, warning Roland of something that had a great likelihood of happening. And indeed, if you go with Benedict, the Wolfforts do exactly what Frani said they would do. They rise above their station and stab Roland in the back in their quest for power. Too bad Roland doesn't follow his brother’s advice and strikes them down at the first sign of disloyalty, however impossible that may have been for him to do.
But how does Frani know that the Wolfforts may betray the royal family? Is it just a general warning about powerful vassals? Does he understand the politics of Glenbrook so well that he realizes how great of a threat the Wolfforts are because of their military might?
Both of these possibilities may be true but I think that the actual reason behind his warning is that he knows about Serenoa's parentage. Why wouldn't he? Surely, there were people at the court who remembered how Regna wished to make some peasant girl his queen. Someone could have easily told him about it. Maybe it was Patriatte with the intention of destroying all trust and respect Frani may have still had for his father.
During the throne room confrontation, Frani is initially calm and seems to understand the situation much better than Regna. He mentions Hyzante and how Gustadolph made an enemy of them, something that could not be advantageous for him, while his father babbles on about the Saltiron War, apparently unable to understand the present situation or Gustadolph's motivations. (Gustadolph even tells Regna that he always lacked imagination which is such a roundabout way to call him an idiot that I can't help but laugh every time I heard it.)
It matters little what he knew. He dies too soon to have any lasting impact upon the story. And it is his death that says the most about him.
The Wolfforts and Roland arrive. Frani berates his brother for returning, but it is clear from the way he says it that he is actually worried about him and would have wished for Roland to remain safe, away from the danger the invading forces represent.
In the end, Gustadolph orders Avlora to kill Roland and the Wolfforts, which makes sense considering they represent a bigger threat than Maxwell does through numbers alone. Frani had been compliant up until this point but when he hears this order, he rushes to stop Avlora. And, in a cruel and unnecessary moment, Avlora cuts him down.
I'm going to go on a tangent here, but I think what Avlora did here is unforgivable. Frani was not a threat. He was unarmed and probably had no real way of stopping Avlora and had acted without much thought about what he was going to do. But Avlora shows him no mercy. I suppose you could argue she only did it on reflex, to defend herself but a trained soldier like she was should be able to control herself in high-stress situations. For a character that is supposed to be redeemed, that is supposed to join the "good guys", she does not give the impression of being a good person in this scene.
This scene is also why I don't buy the common interpretation among the fandom that Avlora and Cordelia are in any way friends. I highly doubt that Cordelia would be willing to forgive and forget her brother's callous murder, especially as she seems to be as bend on revenge as Roland is. I think that her willingness to work with Avlora to achieve her goals is meant to serve as a contrast to Roland's refusal to ally with the people who had wronged him. Cordelia is able to set her feelings aside to attain victory while Roland would abandon everything than do so.
All right, tangent over.
Frani dies to protect his brother. In the end, after everything he said and did during the time we knew him, much of it not very flattering, he shows his true colors in his last moments. Not only he loved his family, he loved it more than he loved himself.
This is his moment of redemption. He may have not been the best son or brother or heir to the throne but he was willing to sacrifice himself for those he cared about.
We don't spend much time with Frani, but in those short chapters he is still with us, the game manages to create a rather complex character, not wholly good, but not wholly evil either. A feat that I find rather impressive.
#triangle strategy#Frani Glenbrook#I may have missed something#Because I still haven't seen everything the game has to offer#If I did#I hope it's a scene where Roland acknowledges what Frani did for him#Because he does not seem to realize it#And that makes me sad
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I have issues with the way Han and Leia’s romance was handled by Disney. Although I do think it is not as bad as Reylos make it, since we clearly see their marriage worked, they had love and respect for each other. I don’t like how Han leaves since his character development is so strongly rooted in the idea of him choosing not to leave and frankly I don’t like the fact that Ben turned and all of Leia’s fears and anxieties regarding her “bloodline” allegedly came true.
But one thing I’ll say that I think Disney handled better than EU is the galaxy’s reaction to their love story. One thing I hated was how in EU all of the high ranking members of the rebellion were so classist about it, how they thought Han was below Leia, how they thought it would hurt her position etc. I feel like that was so against what the rebellion stood for with the ideas of equality and fair treatment that it just didn’t make sense even if look at it from a political perspective of them presenting Leia as symbol and possible card in treaties via marriage. I feel like that idea of them vs the galaxy was just too cheesy and very out of character
Agreed, I don't care much for that trope either. Even keeping in mind that most of the Alliance's High Command / subsequent NR government is probably made up of people from the Organas and Mon Mothma's background, and that the fact that being part of such a political movement doesn't mean everybody is good and progressive and agrees on everything, I still don't believe that that kind of inconsequential snobbery would have a place among High Command / the NR government. It's possible that there's a couple of those people who think like that, and even more likely that there are more people who were allies or want to become part of the NR who think like that and would suggest that the Last Princess of Alderaan gets into a political marriage or simply that she chooses someone "more suitable", because the galaxy is large and varied and this happens even today here on Earth. But I don't believe for a second that anyone around Leia would react with anything but contempt at the idea that Leia, a leader of the rebellion who lost her entire planet and deserves a goddamn happy ending with whoever she chooses, could be used as a bargaining chip. So yeah, I'm really happy especially with the direction that Disney canon took in terms of her relationship with Mon Mothma. Leia deserves a female mentor and friend who cares about her for her.
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