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#they have flaws in every degree which is why i like them very much
tazmiilly · 2 years
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i wonder if ford believes in the 5 second rule
LMAO imagine he picks up some jelly beans he spilt and fiddleford is just absolutely disgusted watching him eat them
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they both have equally bad eating habits
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nika-vincent · 7 months
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Some of our reflections on the development of Halsin's personality in Bg3. Long post warning.
I can say that this post is something like a continuation of my previous one, which was devoted mainly to romance with Halsin. This time I gathered some more thoughts from my recent discussions with the guys who love this wonderful character, but this time the main topic will be the development of Halsin's personality in the game. Some things about romance will also be mentioned here a little, the moments we found in the game files, and a few more facts from the datamine. So if you haven't completed the game and don't want to get spoilers, then I suggest skipping this article for now. We will be very happy if this review can also help Larian to see some points that could be supplemented or repaired with patches and also look at how the players perceive our beloved bear and what they would like to see with him in the future.
I would like to start by saying that if we compare Minthara and Halsin in terms of the degree of personality development throughout the game, Minthara is prescribed better and even has her own different ways: to change herself for the better or to remain a bad girl. And I'm not gonna say that she doesn't deserve this because most players choose the path of good and there is no point in investing in the development of her character. Not at all. On the contrary, it shows that it is important for developers to take into account every detail in the game, and if players want to play the game differently for a change, they will discover a lot of new things and say: "Oh, dude! Minthara turns out to be not as bad as she seemed at first glance!". And this is really a wonderful move by Larian, which doesn't allow players to get bored and makes them look at situations and the characters themselves differently. (And by the way, if some character is in the minority according to the preferences of the players, this does not mean that it deserves to receive poor development.)
As for Halsin in this case, at the moment not only his romantic content is missing, but also his very development as a character and a full-fledged companion. This can be explained by the fact that he was probably recently added as a companion, and there simply wasn't time for him to prescribe more things that would reveal his character and potential to the fullest. Considering Sven Winke's recent post on Twitter, where he announced that Larian will again involve voice actors to record new content, there is a chance that these flaws will be fixed in patches and Halsin will get more interactive scenes than those he has now. (As far as I know, Minthara is also suffers from a lack of romantic content, as does Halsin, so I suggest waiting for now and following the official news from Larian …)
It's sad to see that new players who don't experience early access called Halsin a rather boring companion compared to others. However, players from early access spoke about him much higher and more positively, otherwise he wouldn't have become one of the popular characters of the community. So, why did this happen? I can explain this by saying that at that time Halsin was just something like an episodic character that we just had to rescue from the goblin camp and he would tell us everything he knows about our parasite and where we should go for further answers then. (And for an episodic character, that would be enough.) After that, we witness how he scolds Kagha because of the rite of thorns. And I think a particularly strong point was that in the case of Arabella's death, Halsin says in raised tones: "As for the Idol? It's nothing compared to life! A mere object, next to one nature's creations! You showed no pity, no remorse. I cannot absolve you!" I've seen people write admiring comments like: "Until that moment, I thought I couldn't love him even more!". The way he expresses his thoughts, shows concern, compassion, or regret and disappointment mixed with anger (because of the death of a little girl that Kagha allowed) - all this showed us the traits of Halsin's character and caused emotions among the players. Someone thought he was too soft, and someone admired his kindness. And that's how it should work, so that the character evokes different or even contradictory emotions in people, anything but boredom or the feeling that something is missing. This is what makes the character interesting, we want to learn more about him, see how he will behave in other situations and especially how he will react to the Baldur Gate City itself. And I can also note that we were particularly interested in his story with Ketheric Thorm, which he tells us about after the Tiefling party, as well as what he feels guilty about and what unfinished business he mentioned.
Unfortunately, much of what concerned Halsin's personal growth in the release version of the game remained not fully disclosed and seemed unfinished, especially in act 3. His quest during act 2 was challenging from a gameplay point of view, but from a story one it was quite touching and helped us learn a little more about Halsin's past and that the spirit of the land named Thaniel was his only childhood friend. We also learned a little about his parents, as well as the reason why he became the archdruid.
But the story of the shadow curse still remained as if unsaid, and also we didn't see any of his interactions with Ketheriс Thorm, which I think deserved to be realized, and were not limited to Halsin's stories only about Ketheric if we ask him. An interesting fact is that for a long time there were hints in the datamine that Ketheric's daughter Isobel died because of Halsin (correct me if I made a mistake somewhere, please). And I remember, I saw there that Isobel was killed by the spear 'Sorrow', the same spear that we can get in the secret vault in the emerald grove. Not to mention that in Halsin's room we can even find his diaries, in which Isobel was mentioned several times. This would have added a lot of intrigue and special opportunities for Halsin's interactions in the plot of Act 2 itself, but for some reason it remained behind the scenes and even if we ask Isobel about how she died, she cannot remember her killer. Although there are some special dialogues between Halsin and Isobel in the game files themselves at the moment, but there are none of them during the gameplay. I dunno why it was necessary to cut or change these things, and it is not for me to decide what to do here after all. But in my humble opinion, it would have added fire to Halsin's plot in act 2. I would regard this as a fact that even such a good and kind character as Halsin can make mistakes, has his own shortcomings and even dark sides. Therefore, before the release of the game, I had high expectations that Halsin would play a much bigger plot role in Act 2 because of these intrigues between him, Ketheric and Isobel than what we have in the game at the moment. The feeling of the whole story being left unsaid is still present in Act 2, but who knows, maybe it can be improved in patches?
When Halsin became our full-fledged companion in the game, we got new options for the dialogues, but very few of his interactions in the future. It's as if the development of his personality in the second act ended along with his quest. Remember what wonderful scenes with companions in Act 1 we watched over and over again when we stayed overnight in the camp. It helped us to get to know them better, to love someone or hate someone. Halsin definitely should not be deprived of this, we still want to get to know him so that later we can draw conclusions about him in Act 3 and help him find his own path, as it was with the other companions. We got to know our companions during acts 1 and 2 to see the end result of what we experienced together in act 3.
What confuses me is that the developers seem to have paid more attention to his sexuality than the development of his personality instead (not to mention that scandalous story of his sexual slavery to drows in his past, and he only tells us about it after we sleep with the drow twins in a brothel in his company). This looks especially sad for romance, because it looks like Tav fell in love with Halsin more for his sexy muscular body, and not for what kind of person he is. After all, even in real life, we fall in love with someone not for having a fine big booty, but for how a person presents themself to the world and how they treats us. I want to add here one quote that I just remembered: 'Personality is much more important, because the external beauty of a person is taken away by old age, but the beauty of the soul will remain forever.'
In act 3, at the moment, Halsin reveals much less, but we can still see some hints. After he appoints a successor to the Emerald grove in his place, and after we help heal the lands from the shadow curse, Halsin apparently has a conflict with himself about finding a new goal. He notes that he does not like the city of Baldur's Gate, he is saddened by the fate of orphans here, he would also like people to see a friend in nature. And there are also curious moments in his reasoning about shadow druids and their methods. But all this remains so far only at the level of discussions and comments that pop up sometimes. And we can only find out at the very end that he decided to find a new goal in helping people and orphans from the city in Thaniel's world. And you know, it's a really great idea, but I have this feeling again that in act 3 we missed a lot before he came to find this goal in his ending. The idea of his personal path still remained unfinished to the end. I also heard that he was supposed to have some kind of quest with a druid circle in the city, well, let's see if we'll have a chance to see it in patches.
Сomparing Halsin with the rest of the party, he still looks pretty unfinished in terms of development by the end of the game. Because each companion has their own personal options for the path of development, which we are able to influence, and we can notice the difference in the change in the character of a certain companion comparing with what they were in act 1 and what they became by the end of act 3. We can see what Shadowheart can be like if she rejects Shar, or what she will be like in the future if she becomes a dark justiciar. Astarion can remain as a spawn, but at the same time preserving himself as a person and not turn into the likeness of Cazador, whom he hated so much. Or we can help him become a Vampire Lord and the power will intoxicate him so much that he will even begin to dream of taking the city itself in the end. Even Minthara, the companion opposite to Halsin, also has her own personal path of development. But with Halsin himself, unfortunately, this is happening pretty weakly at the moment...
We have been discussing a lot lately what would help for the development of Halsin's personality, so that he could be on a par with the rest of the companions. And I'll start with an excellent thought from my dear friend @merrinla, which would give an excellent opportunity for the development of his personal path, which at the moment in the game looks somewhat unfinished (but I still believe in the power of patches, official writers and the love of fans!❤).
Considering that his background is labeled 'outlander', this makes him a person who grew up in a wild environment, wandering a lot, living in harmony with nature, free as the wind. And even his best friend is the spirit of the land, not from the ordinary people. In his youth, he lived this life, unencumbered by responsibilities, exactly before the crisis moment happened, which was a shadow curse that abruptly changed his usual life. And for 100 years, his goal was to heal the lands from this curse. Plus, his duties as an archdruid piled up here and he didn't have time for his own desires at all. "I was forgetting who I was," as he once told us. After the events in Act 2, he does not seem to be eager to return to the emerald grove, but keeps in touch with Francesca to find out news from there. He speaks quite critically about the city of Baldur's Gate, but he has a desire to help people here and make life in the city better. And I think it would be appropriate here to let Tav tell him something like: 'You know, Halsin, it's not for nothing that people say that everything can be found in Baldur's Gate. Maybe you can find yourself here too?' and also try to change his views on the civilized world, because at the moment he is not familiar with this world too well, and we could help him adapt, convince him that the city itself is not so bad, and find himself here. Even the romance with him will look great with this option.
So it would be a suitable solution if Halsin also had his own development paths: 1 - if he trusts our advice and assistance in adapting to the city, which will allow him to become more civilized. 2 - we agree that he is right in his critical views on the city and civilization, and ultimately he decides to remain an outlander.
I think that even his ending with the orphans could also look different depending on the choice of his personal path, as well as in the case of the romance with him. This is a really great idea, and thank you @merrinla so much for sharing it with me!🙏❤
I would also like to give my comment about Halsin's role in our party. Considering that we have often witnessed conflicts between our companions, in Halsin I see something like scales holding the balance. Someone like the 'father' of our party, an adult wise mentor with whom we could consult about our experiences and ask for his advice. And I would also be very happy to see how he will try to calm our companions in case of any conflict.😂 His wisdom and mentoring experience just have to play a role in our party. If we go on a romance path with him, I would really like him to let us know that he will always listen to us at any moment and support us. Maybe we could even unobtrusively take his hand in return for a while to show how much it means to us. It would also be nice if Thaniel could communicate more with Halsin in the camp, and, in the case of romance, in a dialogue with us, he would notice that Halsin cares about us. These cute moments and his modesty suit Halsin much more than excessive sexual innuendos.
I dunno if Larian will do something about the fact that in the game files Halsin should have received more interactions with Isobel. But I think it would be great and intriguing. And interactions with Ketheric would also be perfect here (Girls, don't start a fight until I find my popcorn😅). And it also seemed strange to me that Halsin had no reaction to Zevlor's betrayal. Maybe it's a bug or just another flaw, who knows. But it would also be good to get this scene, even if he was at our party at the time of the showdown with Zevlor. Maybe it would be nice to organize some kind of his reaction to Nightsong, too, given that Halsin learned about her from Aradin, but he thought she was an artifact, not a living angel. Some interactions with our pets in the camp, I think they should be for Halsin too. (Let him stroke Scratch's belly, haha) And also… the arm wrestling scene of Minsc and Halsin when? Just imagine how funny it might look, 'cause even the dialogue with Minsc about it was hilarious.😁
That's all for today! Thank you guys for reading this review to the end, and also join us in discussions in the feedback about Halsin of the official Larian's discord club! I wish great success to Larian and I thank them for creating this wonderful game for us, which unites people and allows us to discuss many things. We love you and hope that you will also succeed in your future projects, and I also wish you good luck and inspiration in working on new content for BG3!❤🙏
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ceasarslegion · 7 months
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Ive made my stance on oppenheimer discourse very clear but one detail of it that really bothers me is the "movies about sad white men are always bad" attitude, and i didnt really know why until i was able to sit down and parse it out.
Here's the thing. I have a film degree, I've spent more time in movie theaters than I have sleeping and I've easily seen more films and shows than all of my peers combined. Which isn't a flex btw, I'm a little hermit who prefers the warm embrace of a cinema seat to human connection and is the most annoying mfer imaginable during family movie night; don't be like me.
But I know hollywood, I know cinema history, and I know the legitimate frustration this attitude comes from. Hollywood doesn't like to take risks, they have to historically be dragged kicking and screaming into any territory that isn't a guaranteed profit, which usually means that we get periods of stagnation where every film is the same goddamn formula over and over again until audiences get sick of it and stop buying tickets en masse. Hollywood also tends to reflect the dominant culture and the sociopolitical issues of the time, but not SOOO much that you'd rock the boat. As an exec, you wanna hit that sweet spot where audiences relate to your films without them being so blatant that they'd cause them to question things that weren't acceptable to question. Noir was a picture-perfect example of that.
And in the modern day, that DOES tend to translate into the weird genre of Sad White Man Who Regrets Killing Foreigners movies. Like American Sniper. But I've seen American Sniper, so I can speak on how lowkey disturbing I found it, and the history it's based in and the goals it had as an art piece were to make you sympathize with a system of corruption. And here's my unpopular opinion: if done RIGHT, those films still have a place within the cinematic sphere of influence, like if you made a film exploring the psyche and experiences of what leads a man to willingly participate in a system like that, but that's not really what it was.
Now let's move onto Oppenheimer and other films like it. I don't think these films are at ALL equivalent to films like American Sniper, even if they follow a sad white man who regrets killing foreigners. You are looking at the bare bones surface level of it and assuming its contents both real world and dramatized and judging it based on that instead of the, well, actual film.
One of the biggest differences here is that Oppenheimer WAS an important historical figure just, objectively. Even removing all western racial influence from the equation, you can not look me in the eyes and tell me that the man who invented the atomic bomb in the middle of the largest world war of modern history was not an important historical figure. If you try to make THAT argument just based on the sad white man-ness of him, I'm sorry but your point is already moot, because it's not based in historical fact anymore but your own personal subjective feelings. He IS an important historical figure, he's not soldier number 648 in the middle of a massive battlefield who followed other peoples orders.
And also to be completely honest, you are a huge fucking liar if you try to claim that people like Dr. Oppenheimer are not interesting. Flawed people who make flawed decisions with complicated variables are what make for good fiction, so when one exists in the historical record, of course they are going to interest people. They are going to be studied and interviewed if they're still alive and have their entire lives and every word they said picked apart and analyzed because they are interesting. You are straight up lying if you try to act like these people arent interesting enough on their own to have media made about them, regardless of what identity they had that fits into the opposing side of the 21st centure culture wars. This attitude reminds me a lot of the people who claim that the only reason anybody could find true crime interesting is because they MUST want to fuck jeffrey dahmer or whatever. The argument just doesnt hold up because all it takes is one person going "thats not what i find interesting about them" to collapse that entire absolutist argument.
So yes, hollywood absolutely has a racism and war glorification issue. But I take issue when these accusations are just made blindly against any historical dramatization based on nothing but the poster. If you're going to talk about hollywoods sad white men issue, at least make sure the films youre citing actually fit that bill AND that you actually understand whats WRONG with those sad white men movies, because its not just the presence of a sad white male protagonist, its a conglomerate of various sociopolitical issues that must be present within those characters and what they represent.
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kenmaiii · 1 year
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MOOVEEE IM CURIOUS!! please do tell why you think each of the boys would flop in dating I'd love to hear an indepth! like as a huge levi fan I'm extremely patient with him as is because same hat with stuff he goes and struggles through but just know I have to put my foot down because he'll eventually be too much and won't accept we definitely got some unhealthy dynamic going on down the line
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YOU'VE COME TO THE RIGHT PLACE ANON. kind of a coin toss here tho cuz I think every character in any property should have flaws to some degree! Even if they are a 'perfect' character bcuz no one can actually be entirely 'perfect', but its like. a double edged sword with OM cuz thats either admitting that the writers kind of did their thing for once OR is it just that they completely fumbled in approaching these flaws properly
and reminder this is not me saying they wouldnt have ANY good dateable qualities at all, just pointing out why you'd look at one of them and think Hm. This Is Kinda. Not As Fun As I Wouldve Thought.
BUT YEA. WHY I THINK CHARACTERS WOULD FLOP AT DATING U
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LUCIFER: oh boy where do i start. I dont know about the rest of you but I fear that this old man is way TOO strict and domineering most of the time. (not always.................. of course. he has a silly side for sure but good lord...) 😒 like I am nawt trying to date a prison warden can you ease up off me a bit sir... I know the game has taken more care to editing his dialogue in a respectful way but my gawd does this guy demand things from you so much. Like VERY demanding in not tolerating certain things from you, literally it's his way or the highway and you have GOT to do it right too or else. he's like that with everyone sure but with the MC? dating? yeesh! I think if you are the type that doesn't like being told what to do or being talked over you'd get annoyed with him very quickly.
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Like the writers unfortunately nailed having someone be so prideful to such blazing smoldering degrees that it ended up overshadowing a lot of his good parts. Getting him to admit things/wrongdoings is so very hard. He's VERY emotionally constipated as hell on top of that. I know he can actually set aside the time to say things to you while being genuine. occasionally. rarely. but he's way more likely to mainly ONLY be open while DRUNK. and while i think its kind of cute as a trait somewhat, are YOU willing to wait for him to be extremely real mainly when he's too drunk to possibly remember every time.
Speaking of getting drunk though he's also like- ridiculously horny a lot which?F?DSf is a bonus if you like that but it can come across as him being overly pushy in many many cases. but once again i can acknowledge the writers/translators have been better at adding in clear consent to choices. 👍🏿 Another thing is that you'd have to deal with him always being busy and overworking himself. and constantly. And as someone that also has very questionable sleeping/eating/overworking habits you are going to have a very hard time getting through to him about this bcuz he puts way too much responsibility on himself AND he has a tendency to forget that he hasnt slept/eaten. It would be a very nasty combo if youre ALSO like that (even if he would scold you for doing the same and take care of you)
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Also he cares about them sure but he's most definitely always gonna be complaining about his brothers and Diavolo to you constantly. Are you ready to sit through that. More than usual that is.
Speaking of the brothers being a package deal they will most definitely interrupt any peace and quiet you and the eldest both rarely get, like the mood will just nawt be right im sorry.
Oh and if youre not a dog person I cannot imagine how you are even going to tackle time with him and a giant three-headed demon dog bcuz that would also have to be your baby by default. Walks must be absolutely something! Like I love dogs but really think about it. An actual life-sized Clifford. But a demon dog. I do not have the strength to deal with regularly sized dogs even
MAMMON: he was one of the slightly higher ones on that 'worst to date' poll (nowhere near Luci or Belphie ofc), but it was only people listing about money problems or going 'Ha. imagine sharing a bank account with that guy. it'd be drained so fast'. And yea sure I hear that. u-u All that guy really needs is someone to properly manage and limit his funds and advise him really (but I mentioned before that Mammon shouldnt just be limited to money or material valuable like the writers always do. His fatal flaw is his greed! and greed can encompass many things not just material (There's power, love, friendships, food etc).
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His flop when dating you, I would think is being too overprotective and possessive of your time. As much as I love him he DOES overstep quite a bit with the 'being your first'. Sometimes he simply does not consider YOUR feelings on situations and schemes first. Though that's a flaw of most of the people in the devildom have by law of the Main Character Curse™. You must be put into situations I get that -w- But like I said yea he really does have a really big problem with possessiveness and always wanting your time and attention. Which- could get tiring if you're not in the frame of mind to deal with clinginess or possessiveness! Because I totally get that it's a lot for some people.
Harking back to the money thing though I genuinely dont think it'd actually be a SUPER DUPER MAJOR problem with your relationship? He's shown to be quite considerate on that aspect when it really comes down to it. Like he HAS worked a couple extra shifts at a job in canon just to save up and buy gifts before. And he's literally a highly sought after model! And surprisingly good at math when he has the opportunity (though it def still has to relate to him positively $$$) so he could stack his dough pretty normally. He just needs someone to keep an eye on his funds + other sources to balance out his Greed more! 😅
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Somehow he manages to be both capable and completely hopeless also which is very impressive! You would have to help him out with a lot of things since he IS used to being spoiled, in a way. He does get treated very poorly by a lot of the characters BUT he clearly still has very lavish tastes and was both a very high-ranking angel AND demon so combined with greed he's used to the good stuff (thus me thinking he's fairly spoiled still- so he will expect a lot of you lowkey) Also I know I said he's well capable of finding his own source of income but he IS canonically bad at saving... and added with the thing above ^ well... If you've watched Abbott Elementary at all he WILL be the Tariq to your Janine, sorry!
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TBH.. I cant really think of any other flaws atm besides over-asserting himself to your time and attention
LEVI: grabbing you by the shoulders- THATS IT THATS EXACTLY WHY ANON!!!! his flopping is mainly coming from the fact that he always puts himself down so very much!!! his head is literally his biggest enemy! its natural for people to have insecurities or doubts about things. and that can be especially heightened in relationships; whether platonic or romantic! but oh mein gottness does that guy put himself down so much.
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I also struggle with the same things (believe it or not Levi was my wife for a good while like he used to make me teehee giggle like crazy so i get it i relate heavily). But at some point you ARE going to feel a bit drained or tired constantly hearing negative things about someone you care about and love! Supporting and providing reassurance or denying the negative stuff is a given, and can go on for as long as time would permit! But at some point you have got to start believing in yourself a little more and serve cuntress or something, Levi!
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If levi was able to work on believing himself more and being more confident (which he has shown himself to do in quite a few cases) I think it can flop a little less!
His gaming time might cut quite a bit into your romantic time as well, especially if youre not the type thats super into gaming. Also considering that this is definitely his first real relationship (compared to the others) and not an ingame one I feel like there would need to be a serious chat at some point over ideals and expectations that he's picked up in game. Or how things possibly work irl. I must be honest, while it is cute for him to get so excited or irl achievements and progress with you he does unintentionally compare that to his gaming experiences quite a bit (even out loud in front of you). Not babying him or shaming him but it's still nice to talk about the things you expect or want relationship-wise and I know he'd be out of his depth with that.
his only other flaw (to some, not me 🤔) might be his avid infodumping and explaining of shows/anime/games/manga IF you arent interested in hearing about that a lot. What else do you guys have in common that you can relate with I suppose? A very minor thing though as I think many of us like a little infodumping nerd as long as they arent being pretentious about it! ^_^
<- she is not going into detail on Rurichan since there's too much debating on if its weird or simply his special interest/comfort character. them artists (especially in the anime) really keep trying to set him up tho..
SATAN: oooh boy. I recognize that Satan's character (ignoring Nightbringer) is for the most part stuck in a limbo of constantly having ties to Luci and his insecurities around that. Not necessarily a flop since I do believe that he would confide in you about it a fair amount buttttt he definitely loses points for constantly bringing up Lucifer. -100 EXP
People are always making him out to be extremely angry at the drop of a pin, which yea does get angry about things, but also he? don't be getting angry all that often? especially when he gets his little annual pockets of character development? angry and annoyed occasionally sure but its not his ONLY trait. now if he's raging 24/7 and could barely have a convo with anyone that'd be red flag dating flop city! but since he is not we can slide him further down the least to being less of a dating flop with you. (we're ignoring the NB version of him btw)
Now an actual flaw I can actually point out is he's also quite selfish... but he can surprisingly own up to it most of the time. sorta. kinda. well-
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and to a degree he definitely seems to be lacking in awareness in certain social aspects. He's just a silly guy on the spectrum like most of his brothers tho: he gets a pass. Plus he's a socialite he's got a lot of fun connections, what does it matter that he can meow on command in the middle of this fancy dinner. Sure the other guests are looking at us weird and he's a little bit of a freak but he can meow-
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His biggest flaw is being funny actually. That pisses me off stop making me laugh ✋🏿🙄 and if you hate him making cat puns i suppaws that would get under your skin too
ASMO: Asmo's insecurities are gonna get the better of him every now n again also, so while he's not quite in the same self-deprecating league as Levi, he definitely needs a lot of reassurance and compliments to stay grounded. So if that's not something you can keep up with it could prove to be a lot considering he's so obsessed with himself. Just like Mammon he has a lot of possessive tendencies, but it comes out in interesting ways unlike Mammon's ig. He's covertly silly with it since he'd say it with a cute smile on his face. He's a little insane also. I think it's just cuz the version of Asmo I have in my head is drenched in blood I hope you understand. Something isn't right up there (affectionate) so you would also have to get used to the most insane things being said with a smile. Not a flaw to most people of course but to ppl that are normal... well... it would be a lot
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But Imagine youre dating him, you walk into his room and you see him quietly mumbling to himself in a ring of mirrors to cheer himself up. I'd be like hey um. Do we need to talk about this.
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And to finish it off he does have a quite a bit of selfish moments considering he loves to put himself first (common theme with the ppl in the devildom hm...) and a lot of times where he gets unreasonably angry! But to be fair I love selfish angry characters IF they fit the right boxes, so I cheer whenever he gets like that bcuz I love studying him 🔍. Dealing with it in real life tho well... hm. who's to say how one would handle that! He's still my little sweetie tho and he would eat up the romancing and wining & dining and know HOW you need to be loved, there's just the other things to deal with when it comes to dating him!
BEEL: he's on the LEAST likely to flop while dating you scale honestly cuz he's literally just a chill sweet guy when he's trying his best. I think his only problem would be in not understanding you sometimes. Im sure he listens but will he really GET everything. Bcuz there are a few moments in game where Beel seems to be a lot more internally insightful even if he's not as vocal about his thoughts. And he's clearly very considerate abt the people he cares about, but ultimately there's a lot he just wouldn't get unless you sit down and clearly explain it to him. Bcuz otherwise it could come off as him not caring or being indifferent since he's pretty nonchalant. Blunt at times but still, easy-going and fairly perceptive.
And he's very much also a guy that just charges into things, though it's kind of a give-or-take thing. He is equally the guy that worries and stresses about something in silence if it's serious enough or he does not dwell on something for too long at all- which! could possibly be something that annoys you as once again, it could come off as him seeming too nonchalant or unintentionally dismissive. Or well. the things he charges into might have to be something you talk him out of. You're gonna hear shit like this on the regular and he's gonna wonder why youre staring at him funny
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Another flaw is his sin i supposeeeeee but i'd rather not just dumb him down to guy who eats a lot cant stop eating food food food yknow -w- but well yknow. just how much WOULD his sin get in the way of things, bcuz it seems to consume him in a way thats wayyyy more intense than any of the other brothers sins interestingly enough
You'd have to deal with Belphie by extension too since they LOVE having the twins as a set that simply cannot be separated...... That also means having to always be dealing with Beel babying Belphie even though that man is very well GROWN. -100 EXP
he's crazy for saying this kinda thing all casual like also. do that in private man ☝🏿
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Belphie: Sorry I have to bring it up again even tho i know ppl are dead tired of hearing about but i STILLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL think there shouldve been an actual proper talk and the appropriate amount of time given abt the killing instead of them moving right past it and MC being like 'it was just a lil oopsie we all have our bad days teehee ^-^'. if i got into a relationship with someone that tried and SUCCEEDED in killing me in this little magicverse i'd be like um. can we idk. talk about this in depth. You're not gonna kill me again in the future somehow right. Right?
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Also I see and understand people saying that quality time, words of affirmation and acts of service are very clearly things Belphie likes since he's constantly asking to be around you/hear our opinions on things and ask if you need help with things (even tho he can be kinda lousy at helping out honestly -_-) but he also has a problem with demanding things of the player.. not quite in the same way as Lucifer, but it's close. Like if I do not want you to head over to my room to sleep together (literal sleeping) then why are you inviting yourself over? 🗣️📣📣📣📣LISTEN TO MEEEEEEE & STAY IN YA ROOM❗ ❗ ❗❗
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He's a spoiled brat also! Like actual brat! Youngest syndrome is so very real with him, so if you're alright with being the main. well. person that has to do nearly everything then good'onya. I cannot imagine getting this dude dressed AND lugging this dude to classes all bcuz he wants to sleep in a little more ☝🏿 GET UP but if youre into being the main caregiver then shrugs
-10 MILLION POINTS DEDUCTED for being funnier than me also. thats a mistake no one should ever make ☝🏿
DIAVOLO: well. you see. so. there's. well. so um.
I do think he has a bittttt of an issue with choosing to completely overlook things. Diavolo is on a very thin line to me as a character bcuz I do think he is silly and fun at times and not 'AS' quick to read the room... and really is just essentially like... experiencing things for the first time and causing unintentional chaos because he's been so tied to his duties all his life but he's also like? Still very grown, smart and capable of quiet observation of others. (gestures to NB currently)
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I feel like he would be analyzing you all the time whether you realize it or not (for good or bad). He's just a lot more observant about things than you realize so while he WOULD use this for good to spoil you he would probably be reading into you as a person way too much. But in a lowkey manner. Not manipulatively per se just,,, I think you are still mainly like an intriguing pet to him at times, or something to study and take note of. Like he really just does whatever the hell he wants for his own pleasure. He made an entire fake beach and sun just cuz he wanted a beach day yknow what the hell. I get it but how did he do that. What other powers do you have
Impressing you could come off as belitting you unintentionally (not always but sometimes). OKAY WALK WITH ME HERE- for example. That one scene from Ouran High School when Tamaki is making a big show of trying 'commoners coffee'. I know what youre saying ur sayin 'But Carly that sounds more like something Mephisto would do' nonono I shake my head. Mephisto is not going to make a show of trying it he'll just outright be recommending YOU a specially made blend of his tastes to put YOU onto better things FIRST. Diavolo's DIVING IN first though. Dia would absolutely think it's some great big fun adventure to try 'normal' human world tea or coffee and comment on it. But like, if i was sitting across from this big hulking guy complimenting tea I drink normally in a 'Wow, so this is what humans drink. How inspiring.' I'd want to shake him since it unintentionally sounds like im being belittled -_-. Give me back my damn instant blend! ❗ ❗ He's thinking he's bonding with you and trying something from your culture (which yes he is), but does it warrant such grand showboating and amazement. It's just tea man. Just silently enjoy a cuppa instead of patting yourself on the back for being brave enough to try human tea </3
Or. Or. demanding your time on his schedule at the wrong times. He's The Prince why wouldn't you wanna drop everything and have dinner with him. 'Oh,,, you're busy 👉👈 oh what a shame.👉👈 we (Barbatos) prepared a nice lovely dinner! 👉👈 However, I suppose its quite alright if you do what you need to do. 👉👈 Eating alone tonight, be safe 👉👈' And then he sends a picture of the meal with eye emojis, do you get what im putting down
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One big flop for certain tho is him always being oh so busy. Like sit there and really imagine it. Dating a royal is already something but a Prince? Soon to be King? thats a lot of responsibility to juggle I know it'd get crazy balancing attention and schedules.
Also lets be real yall he's so used to being babied quite a bit, mainly by Barbatos. Barbatos is tough on him at times for his own good sure but he more-so spoils him still (hypocrite that he is!). are you ready to unintentionally be compared to that in terms of being able to care for Diavolo. Barbatos won't technically be competing with you either but as his main caregiver he'll still be inserting a lot of himself between the two of you. Also, that man is lowkey needy and has some lingering childhood issues you will have to be very careful with talking abt and comforting him for once he gets to a point to actually open up about it- so be mindful of these things
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Also he's insane. But if you're into insanity it's probably whatever.
BARBATOS: I know I am '''''''''barbatos ceo''''''''' so i have been very very very delusional about him but aside from being so very 'malewifecore' i'd place him on a scale of 1 -10 at a 8.5 (1 being worst mostl likely to flop partner ever, 10 being best). Looking at his character he's very much set on keeping a very decent distance between him and the player for quite some time so i think dating wise there's just so many things he'd never properly open up about. Or it'd take so very impossibly long.
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I remember reading his wiki one day and seeing this ^ (which btw theres a lot going on there.) so I feel like, even if he did really like you, he would most definitely always prioritize his work to the royal family first so.... he might potentially? be on the fence about further pursuing things with you even at one point??? Not to say that he isn't caring and attentive but I think he would greatly struggle with balancing his openness and affection towards you. And we must keep in mind that just like Mammon he ALSO has the Greed sin. He is a lot less likely to show it around others but he is very secretly possessive and makes it known occasionally so if you have problems with that it'd be interesting finding a balance with him. Secretly he 'will he or wont he' dude internally. But yea I've always thought it's so interesting that he'd say he just gives up. Makes you wonder and think more... but yet he wants to be bound by his lover. Very conflicting right? Which explains his struggles with desires and duty very well!
More on his duties though he's gonna overwork himself like crazy and it would be so tricky making plans or spending time together. Also he lowkey has insecurities about ONLY being tied to the butler role, much like how Leviathan will always bring up being a shut in. Like you are more than that cmon -_- youre gonna make MC feel bad! He must still be reassured a fair amount!
Something is also terribly wrong with him. but if you are insane like me you find that fun. Like oh he's tortured people? God forbid women do anything in this economy 🙄
Actual in person dating though <- she would be perplexed by his mysterious unnerving ways
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SIMEON: Simeon definitely high on the scale of being a good partner so he's A LOT less likely to flop on this list. BUT, he definitely seems to hold back on sharing his opinions or opening up about certain things with himself quite a bit. 😮 And I feel like he might be the type to try and keep the mood content and peaceful so it would be a bit hard to talk about the unpleasant things. He CAN talk about unpleasant things, dont get me wrong, but I get the feeling he'd be good at dodging certain things and saying what you feel like should be said. Especially if he isn't particularly ready to talk about something YET. Big emphasis on the YET. I imagine as his partner, if you are aware that he's constantly being a bit dodgy about certain topics constantly you would feel some way about it since it's easy to recognize when he's doing it. This isn't to say he's manipulative or a dishonest character, but I find that it would take a long time to really get to his core even if things are genuinely sweet and easygoing between you two.
Also its a genuine pet-peeve for some people to deal with others that arent all that tech savvy? If you show him a meme on your phone he's gonna grab the whole thing, not get it at all, say 'who is this?' in confusion, try to zoom in and when he taps the screen it's gonna switch to a different picture/app and he'll be like 'What happened to it :(' which I think is hilarious and cute; but once again, could be something that genuinely annoys ppl, and annoyances over little quirks DO build up over time! Still adore him tho mwah
SOLOMON: Something is wrong with him. 🚶🏿‍♀️ That's his flaw. 🚶🏿‍♀️ Like something is just deeply wrong with him and he's way too casual about it. 🚶🏿‍♀️ He's literally that post where it's like 'yea something happened to your boyfriend and he came back all wrong. yea. sorry. we don't know what happened.'
If you're the type that stresses about things or worries a lot or finds that very easy-going people annoy you then well... Solomon will annoy you.
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Im not saying he's not going to be attentive to you because he's shown to be very active and forward in a lot of ways, but I'm talking more along the lines of unintentionally dismissing things. Like for me personally I need a bit of guidance and structure and direction and if I don't see that I will be forced to take the lead. Just depends on how you are as a person really!
Let's get the most obvious thing out of the way though he can never cook you a fancy meal. Not everyone can cook we all have our different strengths that is for certain but if you don't tell him straight up, or constantly You're Going To Have To Eat His Food.
He may or may not be the reason you constantly get into situations also, in between Levi's games and Diavolo's chaos, Solomon is pretty much the main reason so many situations happen in events!? fhskfs I think that would increase in dating him even if he does actually do his best to look out for you in his own way.
But he's also like. Just a guy to me. Which is crazy because besides the mental illness + genuinely being playful with the MC, there is surprisingly a lot to him that is just. not touched on writing wise. or not explored. so I can admit there are other things that aren't coming to mind really. He's just there to me.
Apparently he's very forgetful with important dates also so if thats something that bothers you then well </3
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MEPHY: of course in comparison to the others we do not know AS much abt Mephisto but looking a mile away you know his elitism is his main flaw. He would be very uppity with you and not realize whats wrong with that per se, even though he's so quick to call out the rudeness or impoliteness of others
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his main flop is that he's going to be dramatic as hell at some point whether intentionally or not. he is definitely the guy to tell you he's fine while he's visibly shaking fists clenched trying to act unbothered when he really wants to complain to someone. He may very well go running to Satan or Dia for advice regarding the two of you if he really needs a second opinion without directly consulting you. So yes, those guys will also be privy to your business by extension. I know Belphie's also in the anti-luci league but can we really count on him for advice when Satan is most definitely the more dependable choice? anyways
Mephisto is also literally the image of the boyfriend walking with his girlfriend looking back at another girl. But the other girl is Dia. He's looking back at Dia sorry... that's his childhood buddy. He's so obsessed with that guy.............. You're gonna hear him going woe is me a lot over losing his buddy to his duties and the Prince always having his attention on Luci.... it just is what it is :/ Me personally also I just feel like I would get into mini arguments with him a lot. he is my rival and my bestie in my mind that I want to strangle whenever he opens his mouth
Like he is a BRAGGER by nature. And if you do not like people that brag about the littlest things he is going to get on your nerves. And since he also seems to come from a royal/rich background he is most definitely spoiled and parades through life with the expectation that others will treat him with appropriate amounts of respect. And due to his riches he could indirectly insult you at some point no matter what your financial status is, he may unintentionally make a comment that's in poor taste. Like if you take him to your favorite hole in the wall restaurant for a chill date he's going to say things even if he doesn't actually mean to come off as prudish.
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He'd make an effort at least if youre getting him to try new things and he's not necessarily THAT uptight. He gets involved with things and has fun still!.... sometimes! But in reference to what I mentioned about Dia earlier with the whole commoners coffee thing this is another example to compare. Dia trying a burger for the first time would be like: "Ah! So this is what it's like to enjoy something this simple. The taste is rather interesting but I quite like it! Perhaps I will ask Barbatos if he can add this homestyle method to our regular menu :D" Whereas Meph is taking bites with his knife and fork like: "Hm. They really ought to improve the production cost and quality for these things. Oh, No I never said i disliked it, I'm merely making a note of something. Not bad though."
RAPHAEL: once again in comparison to the others we do not know AS much about him compared to the 'main' group. so im going off the little that i have witnessed in game and trying my hardest not to confuse that with fanposts but... He's so terribly blunt and unaware of things. He's a bit similar to Beel in that regard that he dives first into things and seems rather uncaring or dismissive about something due to his bluntness. But he's like BLUNT blunt, like blunt to the max even. Like this is crazy to me. how is it that LUCIFER is saying you're too much for him.
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So he would most definitely struggle with being way too blunt towards YOU... it would take awhile for him to ease up on that I believe.
I'll be honest he kinda just. Sits there quietly really. I imagine trying to talk to him can feel a little bit like dealing with a brick wall, because I think it would be hard to understand what's going on in his mind at times, not to mention being tied down with his strictness.
And not to mention his sense of justice and penchant for casually mentioning violence seems to completely overpower him at the flip of a switch. I mean if you're cool with him threatening to use his spear on people that annoy you then so be it.
I don't know really, he's just so neurodivergent to me so i cant really call him a flop for that he just exhibits so many of those traits, it's just something you'd have to work on with him or get accustomed to
-ONE BILLION TRILLION POINTS DEDUCTED FOR LIKING SOLOMONS FOOD THO 100000000000000 EXP
THIRTEEN: once again in comparison to the others we do not know AS much about her compared to the 'main' group.
but she is most def on the LEAST likely to flop at dating you end of the list, cuz she quite LITERALLY is upfront about liking the player a lot more quickly than the others. she's literally so cute and just minds her business until OTHER people bother her peace. She does have tsundere-like qualities sure, but if you're direct with her she does eventually come around to expressing why she does what she does. And I don't think she would ever mess with the length of your lifespan just bcuz the two of you have a little disagreement or something. To someone else though for fun, sure:
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that aside tho i can't particularly point out any major flaws in the moment i love her so bad. someone would have to sell me on it, but also why arent you supporting womens wrongs hm? 🤨🤨🤨🤨
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turntechtestifi3d · 3 months
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Brodirk. Idk. It's living in my head idk what to do with it you take it
sorry i fell asleep halfway through answering this last night. CW abuse in general, mild nsfw, etc
i've vaguely talked about this before i think but i imagine brodirk has the potential to just be. so insanely fucked up. i mean you’ve got the obvious issues w Bro being. Bro. paired with alllllll of Dirk’s shit. i can swing two ways for this, either gross hatefucking or the world’s worst moirails (which coincidentally is also how i feel about dirkhal lmao) 
so like the hatefucking is very clearly the worse scenario for everyone here, it’s gonna be the most uncomfortable unhealthy shit ever. Bro is just a massive fucking asshole—out of all the kids, Dirk probably has the best odds at handling his bullshit, but he’s still very much 16 and also an idiot. Bro would rip him apart. but Mr. Dirk “passive self harm” Strider is just gonna keep going back, because he hates himself, and bc he thinks the two of them deserve each other. 
also Dirk’s whole self-obsessed egoism thing. he’s already got a tendency to cling to people he’s interested in (see: Jake) + his own self absorption = completely 100% obsessed with Bro. like it’s really bad. and Bro is aware of this too so he’s DEFINITELY taking advantage of allat to get his dick wet because he sucks and he’s mean and he hates Dirk. i don’t think Bro would be able to handle seeing any younger version of himself because that’s like…..the weak version. the unfinished model. it’s fucking embarrassing for him and it reminds him of all the flaws and insecurities that he managed to shove down over the years but that Dirk just hasn’t quite gotten to yet. so he’s gonna take advantage of whatever situation they end up in to belittle the shit out of Dirk and mold him into another Bro copy (like he tried to do with Daaaaaveee). or just be really mean to him and not even do anything substantial, bc he doesn’t CARE about Dirk, which honestly might be worse for Dirk rip
man honestly on that subject. Dave would be the elephant in the room any time they’re fucking. Dirk would be so insanely guilty for doing ANYTHING with Bro when he knows full well that this guy abused Dave, but of course that’s why he’s doing it in the first place lol (fueling his own incessant guilt complex). Bro is also completely fucking obsessed with Dave to frankly sickening levels. everything they do to each other is About Dave, somehow. he’s the honorary 3rd member in this relationship (he is not aware of this)
Cal is also the elephant in the room because um. sorry i don’t think you can separate Bro from That Damn Puppet i think they r always gonna be intertwined to a terrifying degree. Bro would be very resentful/jealous/disturbed/disgusted by the fact that Dirk doesn’t have a Cal in his brain telling him what to do, and so Bro’s gonna step up to the plate and try to fill that role. because in his mind every Dirk needs a Cal, and not having one is so Wrong that he needs to double down and MAKE this shit happen. also, like….his attitude towards sex and intimacy in general is probably completely fucked (lol) due to Cal, sooo. make of that what you will. i think brodirk would just be doing oroborus shit tbh two black holes trying to swallow each other etc etc
lmao i have vague recollection of a fic where Dirk goes ult on earth-c because his Bro Strider splinter handjob’d him over to the dark side. but i think i may have just dreamed that like i’m not sure that’s a real thing that exists. either way that’s what i’m imagining here, Dirk flies too close to the sun trying to understand himself and ends up getting completely decimated by Bro because he overestimated his ability to handle his own shit.
aight anyways moving on from that, the godawful moirails thing is dependent on a version of Bro who is slightly less of an asshole (my personal interpretation of him!!) he’s gotta have at least SOME form of puppet rehab and like maybe some armchair therapy. enough to where Dirk can dig his fingers in and start picking at this guy’s brain (his burning need to analyze himself at all costs) 
honestly i was gonna go more in depth with this but it would probably just be a summary for the fic dualshock desertbloom by geometrician. that’s like….yeah. that nails it. Dirk needs Bro to be better because he needs HIMSELF to be better, and in trying to pick him apart to find out what makes him tick, the two of them somehow end up improving each other. every conversation they have is a philosophical argument that makes them both miserable but somehow it’s working so like. just let them keep doing whatever they’re doing. 
there’s another fic that’s pretty close to my interpretation of a semi-healthy brodirk scenario, which would be Spurn My Natural Emotions by Laurasaurus. it’s also got some of my fav guardian Striders (after the run and go, obviously) and i like how it deals w Bro’s sexuality. fun stuff
sorry this is kinda all over the place bcuz i don’t have, like, a solid opinion on brodirk. i think there’s a ton of different directions you can take it and i can be persuaded to agree with most of them if your argument is good enough. so this is all kinda just spitballing LMAO
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its-a-branwen-thing · 11 months
Text
Just the Way You Are
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This volume of RWBY isn't one that I've felt like writing a ton about. It's existed as a bit of background noise to my weekends, a must watch but in passing. It was a wonderful journey, but not as impactful as I thought it should be to me. It hit all the right marks. Well-written, well-animated, great music. It wasn't until the finale, where I was reminded, again, of why I loved this show in the first place.
I've been seeing an outpouring of love for V9 that seemed to spur a re-examination of it as a series, in both what RWBY means to fans and what Ruby means to the audience. This whole volume she's been a proxy facing the show's vocally decried imperfections: for what the could have beens and should have beens keep saying. In Ruby's own personal doubt, we see the seeds of the show's very own history of grappling with fan expectations, critical analysis, commercial success, and the complicated legacy of the tragic passing of the show's creator.
But CRWBY's love for this volume is so evident it seemed to drown out any bad faith arguments: this is RWBY as it was always meant to be.
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In finishing this volume, I see once more that fiction can help us suture the parts of us that seep. That its creators are people we may never know but whose ideas we stitch into the membranes of our core. RWBY doesn't have to be a masterpiece emerging fully formed from the minds of its writers and animators. It is a vision expanded upon, a messy beginning built up, a work of surfeit love, flawed and lovely in the mess.
As a perfectionist I tend to chase that critical clout, to draw from external sources the meaning of my own art, to wonder if the interpretations are good enough, if the writing and characters are done with enough mastery that I can succeed in other's eyes. But RWBY will never be a success to some, and in that we see that even the most collectively beloved things are criticized by their detractors. We will never create a bulletproof thing.
Life is exposure. Love is vulnerability and art in service to that love - of self, of others, of vision - exacts the same toll of knowing. Even against the diatribes on Youtube that have stated otherwise, RWBY's heart is worn on its sleeve. It is a show fully sure of its sincerity. This volume seems meant to present that to us and to Ruby, as a character. She has always been the heart of the show. Pursuant of hope in the face of insurmountable odds, always picking up the pieces of others, always with the weight of the world on her shoulders. But, at her core, she has always been a simple, more honest soul.
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RWBY and Ruby have faced failure after perceived failure. Ruby always tried hard but never quite got it and now, in the sea of her doubt and the under the current of others' expectations, she sees herself as less than. As incapable of serving the people she loves most. Ruby's fear of failure does not come from her need to be beloved, it doesn't come from a selfish interest in public opinion, but rather from a stalwart need to do what she believes in.
RWBY has long been the scruffy underdog of the animation world, an easy little show to poke fun at. This isn't to say that critiquing is inherently bad faith, or that there's no place for it. There is, and there always will be things that irk or bother us to some degree with every piece of media we consume. But, much like the people we love in our lives, those imperfections are part of them, and we can either take them as is and have faith enough that they'll grow just as we do, that their center is good and worth it, or we can simply let them go.
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Choose for yourself one who can leave your burdens behind, or chose one who can be enough to bare them.
There's something to be said about the moral simplicity of a show like RWBY, in which things don't always work out, but in which the characters have enough faith in themselves, and the world, to still seek to save it. This is a fairytale, but it is one that hopes to impart on reality a little bit of that kindness.
It is wholly intentional that RWBY is thus stylized as a children's fairytale. It lacks the tonal shift of grit and anger that adulthood seems to impart on innocence, and posits that: no, you don't need to be anything else, even if others decry that self as naive or emotional or exposed. There is a beauty to RWBY's vulnerability and it's always been there, baked into the show itself.
V9 feels like a love letter to RWBY as a whole. It has always been a show set on positivity, on pursing that goodness at all costs. RWBY does not partake in the labor of being something else more gritty or mature or indifferent. It is what it's always been.
A simple, more honest show.
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raayllum · 5 months
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I know you love The dragon prince and that’s great. I binged the show after season three released. I listened to podcasts about the show . I listened to yours and felt really happy when I found people who also liked the show. Unfortunately I fell of during the hiatus between season three and four. I am patient person but three years was long. Also I watched the show for rallylum and through the moon just kind killed my love for them.Then I found your blog and was really happy. Then I saw how you felt about the owl house and it bothered me. As a neurodivergent person the show made me feel really seen. I know it’s stupid to be upset about an opinion. As a person who wants to be an English major how do find parallels between relationships and characters. You talk about certain ones and I don’t see them at all. Your probably more seasoned as a writer than I am so
Ps : sorry this is long and hope tdp ends well in your opinion
Few things:
1) I'm also neurodivergent (hi!) - specifically Autistic - and I have also largely wanted to be understood my whole life, much like Luz (according to S3). While a show making you feel seen can certainly be wonderful, meaningful, and sometimes even life changing, to me that's not enough to make it a Good (per my subjective tastes) Show. That's not to say TOH is a bad show - far from it - but it's one that didn't appeal to my particular tastes due to 1) too many characters and not enough screentime, 2) a lack of theme (which many kids shows don't have a ton of because they're, y'know, for kids), and 3) all of the characters have very black and white morality, and that's just less interesting to me.
Being upset about opinions is very natural, and it's not stupid, but it is also important to acknowledge that 1) you can't control how anyone else feels or interprets things and 2) no one else can control how you feel or interpret things.
2) I adored Through the Moon. Rayla's tendency to leave (and why) is always a hurdle I expected them to have to tackle at one point, and given that it's her main character flaw, I'm really excited and happy with the way it's been handled so far and how TTM kicked it off. The graphic novel also really resonated with me in Callum's place, as I too have loved many of my loved ones through incredibly difficult periods regarding their mental health, and the graphic novel felt very honest about the toll that can take on both parties in different ways, and how love/support can help, but ultimately isn't enough if the person isn't ready (or willing) to start trying to get better. It's not an easy pill to swallow, but it is a realistic and important one and I've enjoyed how the show has continued that storyline with Rayla (and Callum) into S4 and S5
3) Being an English major is not for everyone! I know many people who love to read and who are very good writers where an English degree would not suit them at all. It's a lot of reading (by my final year, there were some weeks where I was reading an entire 400 page book roughly every week, if not multiple at the same time). It is also a lot of writing (and my professors regularly chewed me out for my grammar). You also tend to kind of double being a history major as depending on what you're reading, you learn a lot of the religious/historical/cultural context in order to understand the language, references, and messaging intended by the author (and then whether or how much to disregard it, lmao). Being able to analyze — to see connections between characters and themes in particular, but other forms of symbolism and messaging — quickly is probably the main thing that saved my ass and let me stay on Honour Roll throughout my undergrad.
I have also been writing pretty seriously for a long time (I 'started' at age 10 but only really count age 12 onwards, cause that's when I first started writing 70k+ drafts every 1-2 years for original WIP stuff). A lot of what makes a good writer is being a good reader, taking your favourite stories (books or otherwise — movies, musicals, tv shows, etc can be gold mines) and figuring out what works in them and why, or why you like them (or don't like them), etc.
For example: The Owl House is a primarily character driven > plot driven story. In book form, it'd likely be Middle Grade to early YA. It's interested in character relationships among the main cast (any of the more villainous characters like Belos are never given the same amount of development or screentime) and some mild worldbuilding. It has some social commentary (mostly on the school systems through Luz and mental health through Eda) and an overall theme of "being different is good," breaking away from abusive systems/dynamics, and the importance of solidarity.
If I compare and contrast this to TDP, The Dragon Prince is far driven in equal parts by the plot (because it's wholly serialized) and by character. It is also very thematically driven — most notably how to break intergenerational cycles of trauma and violence, but also self-destructive tendencies, abuse, responsibility, power, grief, and concepts of justice and punishment. This is also reflected in the fact numerous villainous characters (Viren, Claudia, etc.) share close to equal screentime with the 'good guy' protagonists and heavily explores morality across a decently wide spectrum. It thereby has a more mature tone in its subject matter and would easily be YA in book form.
Which is to say: the best way to get better at analyzing is to break characters down to their basic plot structures (Character A does this, they want that, Character B does this, they want that, etc.) and see what pops up (for example, in Avatar The Last Airbender, Aang and Zuko both cannot go home, and duel Ozai when they're 13 years old, ultimately refusing to be violent against their opponent). You can also look at similar personality traits (curiosity, selflessness, carelessness, etc). Practice looking at the stories you love and figuring out what works and doesn't work for you personally — and then go beyond relatability to look more at subtext and symbols. Some of the best things I've ever read were books that had nothing relatable to my personal experiences in them (like The Kite Runner by Khaled Hosseini), and that was why I loved them because they got to broaden my horizons.
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utilitycaster · 1 year
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A lot of people who try to analyze religion in Exandria need to watch the Adventuring Academy episode where Brennan and Matt talked about worldbuilding, specifically when Matt said “In a game like dungeons and dragons, or a lot of role playing games where ultimately part of the game is to overcome villains and rise up and become a hero, there has to be some level of universal antagonism… there is a pure and defined entity or force that is evil, it may not be realistic to some stories out there, but that’s [how it works in DND].”
This is true, and it's really interesting to watch this happen because Matt will make a huge, unambiguous evil like Lucien or the Vanguard, or Brennan will do so with Asmodeus and people will do everything they can to try to come up with reasons to woobify them or argue why they're justified...but I haven't seen this happen in most of the D20 seasons, and I think it's because the villains in most D20 seasons have been things that reinforce people's beliefs, namely, capitalism and abuse of religious power. And to be clear, capitalism and abuse of religious power fucking suck, but it's telling that people assume the villain is capitalism in places where that doesn't apply on a wide scale, or in some cases, exist (EXU Calamity, Neverafter); or that the Ruby Vanguard or Tomb Takers, both of which have pretty much every single hallmark of a cult but just aren't affiliated with the main pantheon, are actually the good guys.
Incidentally: this is like, quite literally how people get sucked into cults. One of the leading cult researchers in the world, Janja Lalich, is a survivor of a now dissolved explicitly leftist/anti-capitalist cult. Abuses of power, which is, ultimately, what both Brennan and Matt lean on as their Universal Antagonist traits, rely on confirming people's existing biases and exploiting them - even if those biases are broadly good! This is in fact why I can get so fucking adamant about what is mostly silly fandom shit, because I do, on some level, look at some takes that completely lack critical thinking and am like oh you'd 100% buy into all kinds of dangerous patterns of thought if someone packaged it nicely; even something as stupid as the Caleb Werewolf Theory relied on circumstantial evidence and false information that you could easily verify was false. And it's annoying but mostly harmless in the context of fandom, but it always makes me wonder - does this person do this with political posts on social media?
Anyway getting back to the main point, I think watching/listening to Brennan commentary on Adventuring Academy is generally a really good idea because he is a very smart guy with a philosophy degree and has a strong grasp of the genres in which he works as well as TTRPGs as a storytelling medium, and talks to other people who also have a good understanding of the morality of fantasy stories. And if you listen to this, you will in fact get that the basis of evil in these stories is not something as specific as "capitalism" or "religion"; it's quite literally as basic as "exploiting other people simply because that is an option available to you and you don't care about them." And obviously that's the whole basis of capitalism, and it's a serious problem that exists within organized religion, but like...not to repeat myself from this weekend but I keep thinking about the "Suvi without the imperialism" and it's like...she is a 20 year old woman whose parents died for a cause and we have had ONE episode with her as an adult. We know nothing about the Empire except that it's an empire and it is at war. Like, can you look at imperialism and understand why it's bad? Can you separate the concept of imperalism - which, to be clear, is based on power structures - from say, your 21st century understanding of empires in the real world? Or do you see the word Empire and go "Bad Thing" without any capacity to analyze because that's how you end up looking at two flawed things in a story (well, if we're lucky; see the middle paragraph) and deciding one is perfect and correct for no reason other than because it opposes the thing you think is worse. And Brennan is REALLY good at skewering that, and Matt is REALLY good at portraying multiple complicated and flawed perspectives, but you do have to like, use your brain slightly.
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empressofthewind · 2 months
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It states that in every classic romantic relationship, one party is the reacher, the other the settler. IYO which one do you think is the reacher and settler? (Mello and Near). You need to pick one, can't say they are equal xD
ooh what an interesting question!! this is really tough to answer because i do honestly think they are equal, but i suppose i will outline exactly what i think each of them brings to the table, and then i'll try to assign them roles after i've written it all out.
since Near has trouble taking care of himself, Mello would be able to look after him (and i absolutely think he'd insist on doing this himself, even if they have more than enough money to pay a housekeeper - partly because bringing a third party into their lives is extremely dangerous, partly because he hates asking other people for help, and he likes the idea of being needed). he'd be there to keep Near company so he isn't alone all the time, and would also bring some degree of excitement to Near's life, which i think is one thing Near would really appreciate. without Mello, Near's routine would pretty much consist of working, eating, bathing and sleeping, and i tend to imagine that most cases after Kira's death would be fairly tedious in comparison. having Mello around keeps things interesting. he's one of the few people in the world who can challenge Near intellectually, and i think he's unpredictable in a way that Near would find thrilling.
Near meets Mello's emotional needs, being a calm voice of reason for him and helping to keep him somewhat sane. Mello is a very insecure person and this is the basis for all of his primary character flaws. being desired by someone would be good for his ego as is, but being desired by Near i think would be the absolute best-case scenario. Near is the reason why Mello feels so bad about himself in the first place, and of everyone in his life, Near's opinion about him matters most. having Near show interest in him and treat him like an equal would do wonders for his self-esteem. i suppose if you go by the extremely traditional breadwinner x homemaker relationship model then you could also say Near has a lot to offer in terms of wealth, although i personally think they both have a right to L's fortune, since they were both technically chosen (and i think Near would say the same).
ultimately, if i really had to pick, i would probably say Near is the settler and Mello is the reacher, because i genuinely believe that in canon, Mello couldn't possibly be as fulfilled in a relationship with anyone else. Near could, theoretically, find someone who can take care of him, keep him company, and match his intelligence on some level, even if it wouldn't quite be the same. Mello, on the other hand, has essentially based his entire life and personality around Near, and thus i don't think there's a way for him to ever fully resolve his insecurities without a relationship with Near. he could potentially benefit from a friendship or a working relationship, but i think a romantic relationship best suits his needs because of the element of being desired, and the knowledge that Near wants him around constantly.
i do definitely believe that Mello thinks he's the reacher, and that has a huge influence on his behaviour in their relationship. i think he'd struggle a lot with feeling unworthy of Near, and would try to go above and beyond for him to prove himself - though i don't imagine he'd admit it if Near were to point it out. but realistically i think there's a good balance in the relationship, and they would both get something out of it that they couldn't get from anyone else.
thank you for the ask! :-)
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rangespacer · 5 months
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i've been picking away at this meta for days now, wondering why i couldn't seem to write, and i think it boils down to me blowing it way out of proportion in my mind. i don't usually participate in events, so i was making it out to be this whole Thing that had to be polished and coherent, when that's not how i operate and is also frankly not in the spirit of blosc. and so, instead, for @warpolomewdarkmatter 's blosctober, i present my stream-of-consciousness rambling.
on sadness, and grieving something that's still alive, and having to pick up the pieces of your life and reevaluate who you are. on having your foundations rocked in your thirties, and still being able to find something new. on infinite potential, and how things might come back around, with a bit of patience and understanding, though never in the same way. on sitting with loss. on new beginnings.
i'll open this by saying that blosc is a piece of media for children. sometimes it teaches kids about right and wrong but mostly it's for entertainment. like the ratio isn't even in education's favour it's majority whacky shit, and must a cartoon be educational all the time to be fun? i didn't think so, and i still don't. blosc also spawns from a franchise that used to be well known for being something that both children and adults can enjoy, with parts of the content specifically geared towards adults. while i don't think the themes i read into blosc now were ever intended to be there, i'm enjoying returning to it as an adult and seeing how i can apply what i've learned in the last two decades to it, and what it gives me in return. my general approach to media is that as long as it makes sense with what's presented in the piece, you're good. even if it contradicts someone else's reading. even if it contradicts your own! and right now, meeting it halfway from where i'm at, i'm thinking about how life goes on after a change that feels like it should be the end of the world, and coming to terms with the fact that you're going to have to keep grieving and growing for the rest of your life and it will feel fresh, every time, but will also bring joy.
what i was trying to get at in my meta, in far too many words, is how the series is bookended (maybe not perfectly, depending on how you order the episodes, but generally) by buzz losing warp, and by the two of them reaching, at the very least, a cordial acceptance of the way things are. i read more into that, i'm sure a lot of people on here do, but i'm going to keep my language neutral because i really want to dig at what the show is presenting us, factually. that said buzz and warps' romance is real to me, so sorry for the divorce and congrats on maybe getting remarried. regardless of how you read it, this is indisputable: blosc opens ( or is prequeled -- prequeled? preceded? prequeled, i'll mint that ) by establishing what buzz's life has been for the past two decades, then tearing it apart. he has, to the best of our knowledge, been partnered with warp since they were in the academy. we see how well they work together, communicating without words, enjoying each other's presence, relying wholly on one another.
this is key to me, because the show will go on to establish buzz as being fully capable of working independently, especially in episodes like lone ranger, haunted moon, and shiv katall. and i do think he's always been like this. it was the writer's intention that buzz be the most static, the most 'perfect', the ideal towards which everybody else was striving ( or the thing to destroy, and i have so, so much to say about how buzz represents star command to a detrimental degree to both himself and the alliance, but that's another post ); simultaneously, they go out of their way to show that buzz is not perfect. he has flaws, he's egotistical, prideful, at times even unreliable in some very specific, very interesting ways that we'll get back to. but i say all this because i often think about what it must have been like for buzz to have lived twenty years with warp, what deficits warp was covering, how intimately they must have known one another, and how his presence could have been taken for granted. this is some extrapolation on my part, though we do see them to continue to work well together over the course of the series, and one of zurg's goals with 'agent z' was to have someone who knew buzz well enough to defeat him. given that zurg has known buzz for at least as long as warp has ( i think of their teamwork in war and peace and war and their intuitive understanding of one another in stress test and the main event ), that's saying something. my point is, twenty years represents the majority of my life. unless you believe buzz is over forty ( he could be! but i don't think so ), it's the majority of his life. and when you meet someone young, especially in a learning environment, you grow around them like a vine. there are grooves in buzz's personality in the shape of warp. sorry that was two steps over the homosexual line and i don't know how to gracefully extract myself from this paragraph. two trucks having sex. okay moving on.
what i'm driving at is that i believe there are ways buzz, perfect ranger, recipient of the order of galactic merit first class, representative of star command at 99% efficiency when riding solo, came to rely on warp that even he didn't know. it just happened. twenty years. teenagers to well-established adults. you'd know them like you knew your right hand ( you'd blow your right arm off to extricate yourself from them ). and then warp was gone. and while the violence of that loss is not negligible when considering buzz's response, understand that it would have been violence unto buzz either way, because that was a part of him. consider the sudden feeling of vulnerability, on top of the grief. you were one half of a whole, so you, by definition, are lesser now. you'll never be as good as you were with them. you wonder how much of your partnership was just them, or the thing that was greater than the sum of your combined parts. that's two out of three on it not having been just you, which is what you're left with.
blosc loves to be genre fiction, does not matter what genre, and it dabbles in noir more than once, and more broadly police fiction -- buddy cops without the humour. it gives maltese falcon. rush hour. eddie valiant at the bar. he was your partner and you're supposed to do something about it. hector kills patroclus and it's achilles' undoing. buzz has made-to-order cop backstory, and what holds this trope together in every incarnation, to me, is the depth of feeling. you cannot shrug this off and shed a single tear. you have to get pathetic with it. cry, lose your job, lose your other friends, spiral into alcoholism and debt; the loss of the partner precipitates absolute upheaval in the survivor's life.
how could a replacement compare? even if they could do everything your partner could do on paper, they don't know you. they'll never know you like that, not even if you spend twenty years together, because the person you are now is not the person you were when you first met your original partner twenty years before. this isn't inference at this point, it's not even analysis, this is textual to the film. again, genre. none of this is new. but damn if it's not done well. but what i think the movie misses, because it's busy making its actual point and not the point i want it to make, is the chance to more directly address the death of buzz's sense of self. if you have spent your adult developmental years shaped by someone, if you owe a great percentage of who you are to them, and then they're ripped away, what's left? it's barbie and ken. it's buzz and warp. in the same way there is no 'just warp', there is no 'just buzz'. it doesn't matter that buzz is the one casting the shadow that rangers like ty live in. there can only be comparison with multiple individuals. the inverse is true: for buzz to be great, someone has to be less great ( let's not say 'bad', zurg has that covered, or 'incompetent', because no ranger is, not even the rookies ). i don't think buzz ever viewed warp as lesser. that doesn't even seem to be an issue on their radar, ever, not like it is with buzz and ty. but my point is buzz's partnership with warp made him shine. what was the deciding factor in that splendour? would buzz shine alone? ( yes. ) would buzz ever shine as brightly without warp? well...
so you've lost your spouse partner. you're at least in your thirties and the routine of your life for as long as you have been an adult is gone. blown to bits. cosmic dust. you launched an empty casket into space and the pictures you picked for the memorial show you as secondary to your spouse friend. it centers them and their achievements entirely. the love you felt was all-encompassing. and now you want to be alone, to grieve, to come to terms with what happened, and to get a sense of where you stand in an unfamiliar galaxy. it's a shame, then, that life goes on. there are patrols to do and taxes to file and hyper death rays to address, and the universe cannot sit and wait for you to do things like process the greatest upheaval of your adult life. you're out of your partnered era and into... what?
you were a student and then you were someone's equal, so maybe now you should be someone's teacher! that's reasonable. that's a natural progression. there's a rookie ripe for you! she's young but she's the best in her class, smart as a whip, and she has a lot in common with you ( she always knows best! she's two times too clever for the rules she enforces ), so why not take her? no, you're still grieving. no partners. what about this guy? he's wanted to be a ranger for forever, he has passion, he's been studying up, and he idolises you! would that work? no. no partners! okay, fine, a robot, then, if you can't handle a person. the robot is just like you, the robot will idolise you, will you take this? and because the robot cannot die, sure, okay. and you open the door a crack to being a teacher. and when you and the three newbies are the only people left in the universe, no, for real, you step up, you take control, and you see what they have to offer and you appreciate it.
SIMULTANEOUSLY. you discover that the partner you've been trying to find time to grieve is not actually dead. and we veer back into hard analysis territory here, because that's another emotional undercurrent that i wish had been delved into more. i mean, there are layers to that shit. the initial grief of having to bury someone you loved. the guilt of feeling that it was your fault, that they died so you could live, in part because there is an insane person who is obsessed with you ( again, meta for another day ). and now they're alive, and the circumstances of that revelation do not soothe the grief, they transform it. there's the immediate, the obvious: the pain that comes with any betrayal, especially that of your best friend leaving you for your worst enemy. the confusion over being left to deal with all of that initial grief -- how could they do that to you, didn't they know how much it would hurt? that's rhetorical, they know you better than anybody else, they knew exactly how much it would hurt, and they did it anyways. and they seem to be happy about it. now there's anger, and disbelief, and on top of it all you still feel lost. but you still have a job to do, so you fight, and you win. you save the day. you positive-mental-attitude the universe back to normalcy despite the emotional turmoil because it needs to get done and for all your flaws you have a heart of pure gold.
and that should put a cap on that situation! but... it doesn't. because the story doesn't end there. there's a whole series to get through. so what we've seen is the death of the old status quo and the establishment of the new. zurg is still there, buzz is still the pride of star command, but now he's got three kids and warp is on the other side.
i'm struggling to put to words the feeling that that evokes in me. i think it's relatable to anyone who's lost a best friend, not to death, but to time. they're gone, but they're still there. close enough to touch, but you can't. and you know them, but they're a stranger to you. you know the way they speak ( just like they know the way you speak - 'to infinity... and beyond : /' ), how they move, how they think. you know them, but there's a new side to them, one you don't recognise. and it's sickening, in a way, because it shouldn't be there. i had this whole multi-paragraph passage planned in the original version of this post, about The Gaze as a concept, and ego( -death ) and perception and all that fun philosophical nonsense. but i am not a philosopher, and we don't have time for all that, so i'll boil it down to what's relevant. we cannot ever fully know another person because we are hamstrung by our own limited point of view. there is no way to completely bridge the gap between the totality of what somebody else is, and what we perceive them to be. and i don't even mean this in a chiding, reductive way, this isn't something we do out of malice. the fact of the matter is, we cannot live inside another person's brain the way we live inside our own. the best we can do is acknowledge that they are as nuanced as we are, and that we'll never grasp all of them because we just can't. again, such is existing via comparison, such is being individual organisms.
buzz knew warp really, really, really well, but even if warp hadn't been lying, the warp in buzz's head and the warp that exists in reality are two very different things. it's not buzz's fault, it's not even a matter of fault, it just is. buzz could only ever take all that data gathered via observation and make predictions about what warp would do next. twenty years offered up a lot of data, but the issue is, warp is a person. people can change. people can act unpredictably. people can even act willingly against their own nature. as we cannot control other people's actions, there's nothing we can do about this, and that can be maddening. when a loved one suddenly acts 'unlike themselves', the sudden shift can have a dizzying effect. you think, 'where am i,' and 'who are they,' and try to reorient yourself. but anyone can act any way, anytime. i think of one bad day, or the breaking point. you would, if you were hungry enough. you would, if you were tired enough. we are flexible creatures. what was in warp was in warp for a long time, but it didn't fully show until he let it. and buzz's feeling of vertigo is completely understandable.
and then buzz tries to cope. he swings wildly between being angry with warp, missing warp, and deluding himself into thinking that this is just a phase, that the 'old warp', the 'real' warp, will come back. think of how he exhausts the list of evil clones and mind control before even approaching considering that warp just, y'know, did that. and even past that, he thinks warp is going to come back. he wants it sooo bad. up until their very last episode together ( ancient evil ) he wants it, and booster gets to spell that out for xr and the audience. but... this is wrong. i did not go into all of the above to crank my own hog, i wanted to make a point: buzz is seething sick because his image of warp does not line up with the reality of warp, and that's a major shortcoming that he's going to have to buck by the end of their mutual arc. because, morality and the idea of objective good aside, warp is not brainwashed, and he isn't being coerced. this is a choice he made with a clear head and time to consider the pros and cons. he says as much repeatedly, and buzz does not want to hear it. he's understandable! he's relatable! but he's also unfair here. he loves warp very much -- i'll even argue that he loves parts of warp that warp himself doesn't want to acknowledge -- but this is who warp is, and as long as buzz keeps rejecting that, they aren't going to be able to move past the break.
and buzz isn't the only one fucking up. oh, warp wants so badly to put star command behind him. he wants it to have been a front. he wants to be Thee Bad Boy, and sure, he's good at being bad, but on the scale of evil motivation in this show where zurg and nos-4-a2 and evilyear exist, warp's really boils down to, 'i want as much money as possible as quickly as possible so i can enjoy myself as soon as possible.' and is he willing to do fucked up shit to accomplish that? oh, yes. but post-movie, he never does anything quite as bad as the unimind. his goal isn't to cause pain, he's just willing to do that to get what he wants. splitting hairs? yeah, maybe, but there is a substantial difference between a sadist and someone without many qualms. and here's the thing. as much as buzz's perception of warp is a construct, it isn't a baseless one. buzz is insane! and we love him for it! but his understanding of who warp is is based off of observation, he's not pulling the veneer of nobility out of his ass. warp did the job for twenty years. and he dealt with zurg behind the scenes, sold weapons, sold information, but he also earned the order of galactic merit second class and the bronze cluster. he had buzz, who worked with him on a daily basis, convinced that he was not just good, but dedicated to the galactic alliance. there were positive, tangible results of his actions as a space ranger, and by my count, harm and help do not cancel each other out barring specific circumstances. you cannot unrescue that cat from that tree. you cannot unhelp that old lady across the street. 'you can't take it back, your actions have consequences' applies to the good as well as the bad, and isn't that a blessed relief.
and our actions make up who we are. so as much as warp wants to pretend that he has always been bad to the bone, we know that that isn't true. and buzz knows that that isn't true. so buzz has one half of the picture and refuses to see the other, and the same for warp on the opposite side. and their progression throughout the series, especially from tag team to ancient evil, is, to me, them slowly coming to terms with what they have become -- and more importantly, growing to understand one another better and in ways that their partnership in star command could not have allowed. yes, buzz has lost his routine, and some comfort with it, but he has gained a truer, fuller understanding of who warp is, and that in and of itself is rewarding. buzz didn't not know warp, but he also didn't have all the facts; there was a lie at the core of their relationship, and they couldn't be completely honest with one another so long as warp was a ranger, because warp just doesn't want to be part of star command. ( and good for him! good for him! ) if warp had stayed for buzz's sake, he would have been betraying himself, and even if they'd been happy, i think they're better off with everything out in the open. i think their relationship is stronger and more genuine for it.
buzz spends the series struggling with his rookies ( and maybe i'll make a different post, because this one is already too long, about buzz as a teacher and how that's a learning experience for him too ), but, eventually, he gets it down -- or he's on the road to getting it down. he isn't the buzz he was with warp, he's a different buzz, but not a worse buzz. not lesser. can buzz shine as brightly without warp? yes! differently. it will never be the same, but that doesn't mean it won't be good. and in the end, in ancient evil, when buzz literally gets 'old warp' and it's horrible and nearly kills him and their victory is reliant on letting warp be his sneaky self to steal the youth back from natron, they come back together. and it's good. it's real good.
man. i don't know. the older you get the more you will grieve experiences. we were too young to know, before. we learn how to deal with death, and then we learn how to deal with not-death, with the loss of someone who's still around, but they're not a part of your life anymore. maybe a relationship will change and you will grieve the empty space where someone used to be. and maybe they'll come back into your life and create a different space for themselves, and you will simultaneously mourn the old and celebrate the new. you'll make room to feel both at once and accept the contradiction. it's a feeling i've had as i've gotten older, nostalgic grief, and i'm starting to come to terms with the fact that i will keep feeling it, and keep changing. that i will grow accustomed to something and it might last twenty years but it won't last forever. that i will be uprooted at some point and that it will be painful and that i will survive it. i watched blosc when i was a child and i came back to it and i'm glad i can still get something from it. i'm glad the children's show has an adult protagonist who's going through some sort of quarter- / mid-life crisis. i'm glad it told the gayest love story of our time for no reason. i'm glad this tag is still active. i'm glad this post is over.
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justatalkingface · 11 months
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Can I vent one thing? I kind hate the hipocrisy of some (a big number here) fans on regards Izu and Endeavour.
Like it goes more or less like this:
Fans:😒look at Izu defending Endeavour even through Dabi told how abusive he is.
Me: what you want Izu to do punch Endeavour and praise Dabi? A fucking villain who killed and has no remorse?
The hipocrisy here is how they blame Izu for "siding with an abuser" but Shot befriend BK is cute.
Following that logic, they should hate Shoto too as he is Bk's friends...somehow. BK for all his many flaws, I say this, he is honest in his hate for Izu. Never tried to mask.
As for the other ask I sent and yoy answer. Look, Hori just hates Izu and at this point is just easier to say he is a bad writer (feels lazy but I swear this is the easiest and real explanation here) we dont know why Izu wants to be a hero or anything about his family. His complex of martyr makes no sense (does AM have the same thing? It also makes no sense ....bc we know 0 about AM)
There is so much cognitive dissonance baked into Bakugou and how much people love him, there really is; he hits Izuku and there are Bakugou fans that basiclly say Izuku should thank him for the privilege.
Relatedly, a lot of people apparently find him attractive which... I don't get. But hot people do get away with a lot more than unattractive people, so I could see some unconscious biases on the fact that they think he looks hot, and is therefore more tolerable than if he looked like Mineta but acted like he does in canon.
To be fair, a lot of it is ultimately on Hori himself and the writing; no matter how bad I find his character arc at times, Endeavour's abuse and behaviour was never treated like a joke. Brushed over, sure, but it was never funny. Meanwhile, we passed a point in the story, long before Endeavour's redemption kicked in, and suddenly every abusive thing that Bakugou had been doing, bad things which were Serious Problems he was supposed to deal with, was nothing but a joke, even while Endeavour was still on and off being given shit for being an abuser; it's annoying, but I don't find it surprising people don't take Bakugou's behavior seriously if the story itself doesn't.
Meanwhile, while people's interest in Izuku has died to some extent because of how bad his writing got, I've seen people saying (and I'm not completely disagreeing with them) that Dabi has been carrying a lot of Post War, with all the focus on him and his tragic backstory being something that's actually interesting, and how much character he's allowed to have compared to everyone else, which, ironically enough, is probably enough to make him a more sympathetic victim to a lot of people over Izuku, who isn't even allowed to think about his past abuse with how much his traumatic backstory is being suppressed by the writing.
Granted, it feels like a lot of that was altered to make Endeavour (and Dabi) more tolerable to the readers, and while Dabi is supposed to be a villain with sympathetic origins, some people forget he's very much an unsympathetic person at this point, by his own design, and that would probably be insulted by some of the nicer takes on him.
Ultimately, what Endeavour did was worse than Bakugou, yeah, and I see people say that for why Bakugou is more defensible, but it's not a matter of degree; Endeavour doing shitty things doesn't excuse Bakugou doing shitty things, though there's also the fact that abusive fathers are more universally loathed than bullies, especially with all the extra stuff going on with Bakugou to try and mitigate him.
On the other thing....
Izuku is easy. Izuku wants to be a hero because: societal brainwashing about the heroic system as a whole making the system popular to the people, wanting to help people, and wanting acceptance from others. Being a hero, for him, is wrapped up with all three of those causes.
On All Might... Well. It's been awhile, but back when All Might was allowed to be a character, it was pointed out multiple times that Izuku is, in fact, exactly like All Might (seriously, if we look at what we know about Young!All Might, and it sounds like he's basically taller, more muscular, and to some degree more confident Izuku from the start of the story. He's basiclly Izuku if Izuku never had Bakugou in his life, constantly knocking him down, and maybe had an extra foot or two in height), and while Izuku liked being like his idol, everyone else in the know was worried because All Might went exactly down this road Izuku's going down.
That is to say, All Might is now a lonely old man, scarred and broken, without a life of his own, and the fact he's still alive means this is the good ending for him, compared to him getting himself killed.
(looks at the newer manga chapters meaningfully)
The Izuku and All Might self-destruction parallels is something that came up within the first couple of chapters; it was a very deliberate choice, and it seemed clear, at some point, that All Might was supposed to help Izuku be better than him, temper his natural martyr tendencies, and not get himself killed or horribly maimed, a process that would help the both of them grow past these tendencies.
And yes, we know little about All Might, but after a certain point his development stopped and... in all honesty, as much as Hori seems to hate Izuku, he seems to hate All Might just as much, if not more (or at least All Might isn't mandated to be strong and victorious, anyways, in ways that give Izuku some protections). All Might took this scrawny little boy to the beach and over the course of a summer bulked him up to the point where he could host OFA; he's not this horribly incompetent person that the later parts of the story seem to want us to see him as.
And yet, the more he's developed the more Hori just adds flaw upon flaw to the poor man, starting with being completely incapable of helping Izuku in pretty much any way all of a sudden ('clench your butt' my ass) and turning more and more pathetic over time as his powers waned, and he never got to grow as a character to filled the void in his characterization.
Presumably, mixed with the part where he was meant to teach Izuku... literally anything, All Might's backstory (beyond being basiclly tall Izuku, anyways) was probably going to be organically expanded on over time as their mentor and mentee based relationship developed, but that never happened, and so we have a character whose defining traits are largely having super powers, who no longer has those super powers.
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cipheramnesia · 1 year
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I guess the complicated bollocks of it all is like, okay, if someone is a queer creator (or indeed any disenfranchised group) who wants to reach a wide audience and also afford to live, it means working for a huge company which 100% hates them and all the work they do.
And that's okay, because working for most companies is pretty much that experience. The larger the company, the more certain you can be it hates you, the employee, whether it's out in the open or behind layers of protective HR and PR. Can't blame a queer for working and existing in the world we all live in, while trying to use that to angle a little more good stuff towards the rest of us, right? Right. Shouldn't be, is, we try and do better, capitalism sucks, etc etc. We know.
Not only that but it's kind of a double bind can't win situation. Give money to the big faceless monopoly that hates all queers, minorities, poor people, etc and show them shows made for queers, minorities, poor people etc are profitable and get more widely distributed media of that type OR don't give any money to said monopolies and never see any mass distribution of media et al because it's not profitable. I'm writing this on a phone made by a faceless megacorp, or I could write it on a computer made by a faceless megacorp, using internet services also provided by faceless megacorps. We live in a society, etc. Again, you get it, we all get it. If not, welcome to the shit side of "no ethical consumption under capitalism." There's ways out of all this, but not everyone can dump energy into the full time job of "no capitalism life "
Media produced by monopolies, in addition, is often going to be more polished, both easier to engage with as an audience and having fewer technical flaws. This is related to large corporations having the capacity to pay qualified professionals for services like editing, or to exploit other workers en masse for similar services. In tandem those cut on cost and production time and it's one reason why mass produced media feels more "finished" in many cases, and moves faster. Two guys writing, editing, voicing, and animating a cartoon might put out five minutes of decent quality material every few months if they're very industrious, while Disney can produce media on a schedule delivering multiple weekly animated series continuously thanks to the combination of scale, massive wealth, and exploitative business practices. To varying degrees, this applies to writing, music, and any media with mass distribution. If you ever look at the difference between an independent work and a mass market one, it's useful to remember that even something at a scale as small as a book with one author is worlds apart between one author publish by a small press, versus any author published by a large company that will use better quality materials for the physical book, multiple editors to avoid minor formatting or spelling mistakes, and so on. It's a difference in scale always.
I think everyone knows this in theory but sometimes it helps to lay it out. The scales are tipped in the favor of mass production and mass incorporation from both the perspective of the creator and the audience. Not insurmountably so, not for everyone, but very close and actually insurmountably tipped for a lot of people. It's easy to pay ten bucks a month for Netflix and forget what that easy and cheap access is attached to, and in some cases that's someone's best bet for a little escape from this motherfucker of a system.
Why all this preamble? Because I need to be clear that with all of this understood by me, and as someone who makes concerted efforts to find independent creators (in my area of interest, horror movies, I'm not made of infinite time), that it does get extremely frustrating to get barraged with posts that feel mmm not demanding but let's say pushy, a little pushy about Disney content. Not in the same way people push their own independent content, but in a mass, from multiple people who are independent but unified in support of queer stuff, yes, but Disney queer stuff. And, I cannot emphasize enough, who all understand the preamble above, whose support is for the creators we love and not the corporations who hate us.
And all I really want is just to see support for independent creators blow up that way. There's a few here, Tumblr has the ability to throw its obsessive love of weird found family wet rag murder gremlin blorbos behind independent creators, we've seen it, and we can make more of it, just y'know, see a post about some little no budget horror with the gays, reblog that shit. See a post about a queer novel, share that shit. Spread the emotional investment out from the middle, sometimes.
I dunno. I'm a little over sensitive just because my jam is a smaller piece of the toast. Not as many people wanna get excited about the Sawyers from Texas Chainsaw Massacre as camp queers, or hyped about Erin, the first name only one movie protagonist of You're Next. That's fair, but we can still get more hype for other little movies, other authors. They're always out there. For every other big hype mass media production there's always gotta be like, I dunno, an alternative? I just want an umbrella for when it starts raining "See the New Big Thing."
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timeskip · 1 year
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Zero Time Dilemma roles analysis (and other discussion of how ZTD is set up)
So I finished replaying ZTD the other day. And I have a lot of thoughts about it, like “why did it end up so bad when it had so much potential” and “god I wish the characters were written better.”
And you know, I like thinking about ways I could rewrite ZTD to be better. But as much as I think about it, I don’t think I could ever fully rewrite ZTD. I’m not sure any of the rewrites I’ve read (not that I’ve read many) has come close to my “ideal ZTD” but also, I don’t think “ideal ZTD” exists in any form. So instead of thinking about rewrites, I’ve started thinking about what role each character plays in the story.
This is so long and rambling. But I’m posting it anyways.
When it comes to 999 and VLR, every character plays a role which is clearly illustrated. 999 is easy, because every character has SOME connection to what happened 9 years ago, and that’s why they’re there in the first place. VLR is similar, because all of them were brought into the game for a reason, albeit some just being waved away as “well, it increases the resonance of the other espers” which works well enough that it shouldn’t pull you out of the story. But even outside of the in-universe explanations, every character plays an important part in getting across the story; ex: Tenmyouji being Junpei, and his distrust due to Akane’s death affecting how the AB game plays out, etc.
There’s a lot of different ways this manifests, but I think it’s particularly interesting to look at how ZTD doesn’t make the roles clear.
I mean, to some degree, they actually do. D Team’s role in the story is VERY clear, that being them creating Delta, whether you like that twist or hate it. I’m personally in the “hate it” camp, but hey, to each their own. It’s the other teams that mostly don’t quite fit, that feel out of place. You get the sense that it DIDN’T need to be these exact people, the way it was in 999 and VLR. I mean, if 999 had replaced Seven with someone else, the story would shift dramatically, and not in a good way. Even if D Team are essential to ZTD, and maybe C Team are essential to the continuation of Akane and Junpei’s story, but like, all the new characters? Their roles are vague and largely circumstantial. If I, say, switched Junpei with Aoi, would that be different? I don’t think it would change the course of the story that much, other than the specific character moments. Of course, ZTD isn’t all flaws, so each character does have a role to play, but it’s a lot less dramatic than the interconnected pieces that built up 999 and VLR.
First: what is ESSENTIAL to ZTD’s story (as set up by VLR)?
- There’s a mars mission test site in the Nevada desert, where Radical-6 escaped from.
- Diana is the one who let it escape, and she KNEW it would kill 6 billion people.
- Sigma and Phi came from the future. Akane set up this plan, and will come with them.
- Sigma and Diana have some kind of connection. Enough for Sigma to make Luna based on Diana.
- The one who released Radical-6 is Brother from Free the Soul, who believes in cleansing Earth, and will want to stop Sigma/Akane/Phi from stopping his plan in 2029.
- Sigma lost his eye and both his arms, somehow.
- None of them remember anything that happened, or at least they don’t know anything that can help their past selves when they go back in time.
That is a lot of interesting things. I might be missing a few details, but it definitely sets ZTD up in an interesting way, which obviously is why we wanted ZTD in the first place. This doesn’t really tell us much about how ZTD would end up, but it’s an important base on what the stakes are: our heroes (Sigma, Phi, Akane) want to stop Diana (who is a good person but let it out knowingly) and Delta (who is acting maliciously) from releasing Radical-6.
I don’t think ZTD goes against this central goal. That’s a good thing! Overall the structure of the story supports this, because Delta was always going to be Zero for ZTD. There’s no doubt in my mind that however they would’ve played it, Brother being Zero is the only way things could have gone, even if they decided to change Delta as a character completely. Even if Delta went by a different name, had different motives (as complex as they are), and lived a completely different life pre- Decision Game, he’d still end up being Brother. In that way, Delta is kind of a central pillar to ZTD as we know it. It’s HIS complex motives that shape the entire story, even if they’re difficult to understand.
Of course, ZTD shifts the point of view from our previous heroes (Sigma, Phi, Akane) to our new heroes (Carlos, Diana, Sean) which is interesting because a) Diana is previously established to be the one to release the pandemic and b) Sean is literally subordinate to Delta. But more importantly, shifting the choices to those three takes away some of the power of the other character’s decisions, even if they’re supposed to be actively trying to stop Delta’s plan.
Another thing that takes away decision making of every single character is the Decision Game itself, ironically. Because they’re all so isolated from each other, it makes everything feel disjointed. And because it’s all part of Delta’s game, his “life is unfair” shtick just ends up making them unable to interact with the other teams.
Think about why VLR’s AB game is interesting. It’s because of the ways the characters interact with each other, the ways they trust (or don’t trust) each other, and the ways that their choices in the AB game affect the game as a whole. It’s a way of building their individual characters through their relationships, always shifting. But ZTD is comparatively static. Even when we learn their backstories, they have little control of this, and them always forgetting makes it difficult to show everything connecting to each other.
And honestly, I’m going to blame VLR for this, because establishing that Akane and the others don’t remember anything of ZTD kind of made it impossible for the apocalypse timeline to have anything but the memory loss drugs as in ZTD, which is kind of sad, but sure, I understand why they chose to do this for the sake of VLR as a story.
Now for actual role discussion. I’m not going to mention every time a character is important, but just their overall part in the story, as well as their team.
C Team
C Team is interesting, because their main role is SHIFTing. Like, really. Their role is to go through the story, SHIFTing the whole time, and sometimes Carlos makes important decisions, but it’s mostly about Carlos learning how to SHIFT, and then using it to remember plot relevant information to (try to) save Akane and Junpei.
Carlos’s main plot role is as stated above. He’s learning how to SHIFT, and... that’s it. His stuff with Maria is background information that doesn’t affect the plot except for giving him a reason to be at Dcom. He may or may not feel out of place, but at least him being a strong SHIFTer is explained by his ability to sense the danger of being a firefighter. I won’t say it’s the cleanest integration, but it works overall even if he feels very unnecessary to Delta’s plan. Why is Carlos here? Why is he important to Delta, specifically? We don’t have an answer. All we see is Delta telling Carlos to choose the coin toss.
Akane, meanwhile, is important 100% because of VLR. Does Akane actually do anything plot important? Well, yes, but it’s all SHIFT related. She teaches Carlos to SHIFT, and she erases Junpei’s memories and starts her VLR plan, which... is all offscreen between ZTD and VLR. Which disappoints me, because she’s supposed to be a huge mastermind but she’s completely without any control in ZTD except for telling everyone that SHIFTing swaps you and could kill your alternate self. Oh, but she totally doesn’t care about that consequence. She’s used to build up that theme, but in a clumsy way. (I really want to like Akane ZTD but... compared to 999 and VLR I think her characterization is strange. That’s all. Plotwise, she’s good at being an explanatory vehicle.)
Junpei is the only part of the team that I’d argue is basically irrelevant to the overall plot. Since Carlos is the point of view guy, and Akane has things to explain and VLR to get to, Junpei only has his own personal story to attend to. I’m not saying he’s a bad character! Actually I think the opposite, if you’d believe me!! But he doesn’t have a lot to do other than give Akane the ring, which means a lot to me, a Junepei fan, but doesn’t mean a lot to. idk. Delta, maybe. Or any of the themes that ZTD is trying to build towards. The other role Junpei plays is that early on he plays an antagonistic role, as compared to Carlos and Akane, who don’t want to kill anyone. It’s not a useless role, but it feels weak compared to what he was in 999 and VLR.
Q Team
Q Team is the least popular team of the three. I don’t think that’s necessarily saying they’re unimportant to the plot of the game, but with Mira and Eric not being espers it kind of makes them feel a little bit unimportant compared to everything else, especially when you get to the end of the game and SHIFTing is the most important thing for all the characters to do. Also, you might notice I’m leaving Delta out of this, but don’t worry. I’ll get back to him later.
Sean has the most clear role of them all. He was created by Delta in order to facilitate the game, and I think this is a good thing! I legitimately like the reveal that he’s a robot, that he hasn’t been dying when we think he has and everything that comes with it. Is it underexplored? Maybe. But him being able to activate the force quit box, or being able to point out who Delta is, those are SUPER important aspects of the story, and him being there as an assistant to Delta makes sense both in universe and out of universe. His place in the story is completely justified. Nice.
Mira serves one main role: chaos. Delta took her into the game on purpose, and the game never really does anything with that other than a mention, but at least him choosing a serial killer makes sense for that goal. Her chaos comes into play in two key parts. One is that she kills Junpei, causing C Team to suspect each other. The other, and arguably more important role, is to inject Radical-6 into Phi, causing the entire apocalypse timeline. Other than that, Mira is just there to drive specific things that happen within ward Q, the most active participant in the early game. Many of the later Q Team segments have her dead, though, because Eric’s role relies on her being dead.
So speaking of Eric, that’s his entire purpose. He knows someone killed Mira, and he wants to get back at them. That is the only reason he’s here. I don’t think that having someone who’s so suspicious that he kills everyone is a bad thing, since it drives the plot, but it’s unfortunate that the only really important thing he does is that. Other than that, he gets killed by Mira a couple times, which does nothing for the overall plot of the game, and... well, what else does he do? SHIFT at the end, with everyone else? Eric is genuinely, really, very replaceable, as long as whoever takes his place has a reason to suspect everyone.
(Back to Mira: she’s very comparable to Dio. Dio is also an antagonist who causes shit, connected to Delta. I’m surprised ZTD doesn’t have more Free the Soul stuff, especially when we have someone working for Delta/Brother just like Dio did. Free the Soul ended up not being important to ZTD overall, but it’s interesting to see that Delta pulled the same stunt with someone entering a game in order to kill as many people as possible twice.
Also, because Delta is manipulating the Decision Game, we can assume that he chooses to kill Mira just because she’s not useful to him, or something similar. Her role being the one needed to inject Phi at least seems useful to Delta, but I’d argue that him being able to kill her whenever he wants is also kind of taking Mira’s choices away from her, even if her choices 9/10 times will be “let’s kill someone just for fun <3″ if that makes any sense. Delta controls the Decision Game entirely, and Q Team is the biggest part of that because 2/3 of them are directly following him.)
D Team
I’d argue that D Team is the central plot. Not only was Sigma the main character of VLR, but Phi and Diana were both important to the things that make up ZTD as established in VLR!!! And then we get to ZTD, and they CREATED DELTA and my god, the two big plots of ZTD are that Delta wants to release Radical-6 and that Delta wants to be born. And I GUESS that he wants to lead them to another timeline where they fight the fanatic, but for D Team, the main thing that matters is them creating everything Delta wants to come to pass. These three have huge roles to play when compared to the other teams (excluding Delta) because while Carlos shifts information around and Akane is somewhat related to VLR timeline, and Sean and Mira are connected to Delta, well. Those are just side things to the real story here.
Diana is the vehicle for the whole story, unless you count Delta. Diana is the mother who made it all happen, by breaking down in the twins ending and causing everything to happen. But also, she’s the one who decides that Phi’s life is more important than the lives of 6 billion people on Earth, condemning humanity to Radical-6 for Phi’s sake. Diana, I’d argue, feels like she has the most personal choice, not as heavily manipulated by Delta even if she does the things that Delta wants her to do. Her choices are what builds the story itself, and her love for Sigma and Phi is what drives the story. I’m not even saying that it’s a good thing for her to have so much control of the plot (I don’t really think it is, but that’s personal preference) but when you look at her letting Radical-6 out, it really is Diana’s choice and Diana’s choice alone.
Is her being left behind with Sigma in the twins ending also, at the same time, a way of taking away her agency? Maybe. But when it comes to Radical-6, that’s all Diana. Whereas Sigma and Phi are unable to do anything to even attempt to stop Delta’s plan (which, remember, is what their goal is supposed to be) Diana is the decision maker for D Team, and she chooses to let it happen.
But of course, Diana didn’t choose to be Delta’s mother. That’s not really something she could have known, this isn’t a path she chose. She’s also a victim of Delta’s “life is simply unfair” mentality, being put into a situation where she and Sigma are trapped, with Akane not coming back for them. It’s a game about decisions, and Diana’s decisions ARE important, but there’s still aspects that make it difficult to believe that choices are what led to this, especially when Delta and Delta’s choices in particular is so unexplored as compared to Diana’s choices and attempts to save people.
Sigma is also a major part of the story. I don’t think that’s up for debate, as Delta’s father. Even though he’s not making that choice, and his role is often relegated to reacting to what other characters do (Diana’s breakdown, Phi’s death, Delta killing Q Team with D Team’s bomb...) that’s not the worst thing the story could do to him. Overall, Sigma is just there to explain timelines and SHIFTing to Diana as well as, um. be a father I guess. But also he’s the one who chooses to use the transporter, so he’s got that going for him. Overall, he feels like a very different character than VLR Sigma, though I think this is understandable as it’s been 45 years since he was the Sigma we saw in VLR. Still, Sigma’s role is less about stopping Radical-6 and more about being there with Diana while the story happens.
And then we have Phi. Phi’s role, to put it bluntly, is to die and be tormented. The most important thing she ever does is to tell Diana to kill her and not shoot Sigma, even if it’s illogical! The second most important thing she does is get injected with Radical-6, becoming patient zero for a disease that she doesn’t want Diana to release! That’s not counting her being born, because her birth is arguably the most important event to the game’s plot, and yet because it wasn’t her choice, that’s more Diana and Sigma’s thing. I love the scene where Phi is trapped in the incinerator, but really, her role is just to be loved so that the story can start in the first place. We don’t even get her emotions on it.
And that’s the tragedy of ZTD. Phi is one of the most important characters, but her kicking Delta doesn’t even change anything. Even if we love the contributions she and all the other characters with only minor roles in the plot make, those choices don’t matter.
Life is, after all, simply unfair. Phi spends a lot of the game dead, and Akane spends a lot of the game passed out, and Carlos spends a lot of the game jumping timelines trying to find ways to save people who will never be saved. In a way, it perfectly fits ZTD’s themes, that Delta wants bad things to happen to people as long as it’s for the greater good (ie: his own birth, and the eventual death of a terrorist who would kill humans.) But he didn’t choose any of these characters in particular, except for D Team, and maybe Mira and Sean since they’re helping him.
Delta’s role is just to make the game happen. His motives don’t connect to the other characters, and no matter the Decision Game’s whole deal being about their decisions, their decisions never matter when Delta has mind hacking and ends up blaming it all on a single solitary snail, anyways. We don’t even learn anything about him as Brother, or why he knows about anything. We needed ZTD to have a complete story, but the story they give us leaves us with both a conclusive ending, and absolutely nothing that satisfies why all these characters are here. Even if it followed through on the things VLR set up, it only feels like an ending, not a full story.
And I’ll admit, I’m being a bit harsh. There’s a lot of interesting things in ZTD that I think are more important than the plot itself. But ZTD doesn’t tie itself together the way 999 and VLR do, and while I’m more than happy to explain that away as the writers not having enough time to develop the story in a good enough way, I also think it’s tragic that the story revolves around an event like Delta and Phi’s birth, something that has nothing to do with Phi as a character and very little to do with Delta, even if he set it up. There’s the bones of something good! Zero Escape as a series IS GOOD! But even if I’m always glad that it was created, even if I love some of the things it gave us, there’s still not enough here for me.
So. How is ZTD set up? Clumsily, for sure. I think it’s interesting to look at how the story has such an uneven focus, if nothing else. I think if they’d been able to work away at the story for longer, maybe the final product would be less clumsy. Or maybe that’s just wishful thinking...
I still think there’s good things, though. C Team has a goal of including SHIFTing and multiple timelines in the story, continuing Akane and Junpei as characters and leading into VLR. Q Team has a goal of being part of Delta’s plan, making things go the way he wants. D Team has the burden of the story placed on them, but if it got spread out among the characters more I’m sure that the secret child twist wouldn’t sting so badly (even if a lot of people still wouldn’t like it, lmao). And even before we get to that, D Team has interesting character moments, and a lot going for them as characters.
Maybe what I’m saying is that I think that ZTD suffers from focusing on the plot and not the characters. I think it’s important in games like this to tie them together, and 999 and VLR did that AMAZINGLY well. Even connections that we didn’t know about at first and all the wild twists make sense in the end and are beloved by fans. ZTD could have had that too, maybe. Even if I don’t have a rewrite for you, and even though the “ideal ZTD” is nonexistant, I think picking apart the way ZTD works makes it easier for me to conceptualize what I like and don’t like about these games.
Thank you for reading something so long that I wrote for my personal enjoyment!
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stranger-rants · 1 year
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Hey 👋
I've seen some recent anti posts where they're like "Dacre did SUCH a good job making us hate Billy" which is... just so wrong lmao.
They act like Dacre didn't put his heart, body, and mind into making Billy a sympathetic character (in contrast to the Duffers wanting another Henry Bowers).
Also... saying Billy is like Bowers is laughable tbh.
Henry targeted each and every kid in the losers club. He didn't have a sister that his father made him watch, like Billy did.
If anything, Bowers is closer to Jason Carver than any other character.
Well, Troy from s1 (and his pal, I think his name was James), too.
But I guess they were forgotten as well *sigh*
I saw someone say that Billy saying "it'll all be over soon" felt r*pish. He was possessed, and that same person also said that he'd told this to Max.
Seems to be a common theme in which some antis haven't actually watched the show.
Some die hard Steve fans who are antis, have even told me they either haven't watched s1, or they just straight up ignore s1 Steve.
As a survivor myself, I really wish antis would stop throwing around words like r*pe and abuse.
When they mention abuse, all they ever mention is Billy being the abuser. They don't talk about Neil, they don't talk about Lonnie, and they don't talk about Brenner (or Vecna).
Another thing I've noticed is that outside of our corner, the only other time this fandom mentions abuse is really just to further prove that a certain ship is canon.
Hey 👋🏻
It is funny, because Dacre has been very vocal about Billy having “flaws” but not being inherently bad or evil. He advocates so hard for imperfect victims, which is what I love about him. Billy would be nothing without Dacre, and I wish more actors had the guts to fight for better writing lol. The Duffers keep making shallow references to Stephen King’s work, and it makes me really wonder if they understood any of the major themes in his books. Granted, King was doing a lot of drugs when he wrote IT, but the story is still solidly inspired by real homophobic and racist violence in a small town as well as the general disregard for children and their safety. Stranger Things is based on conspiracy theories and government experimentation on people. Why they act like these two medias are comparable or need the same kinds of antagonists is just weird to me.
Henry Bowers was abused, too. Like, his father was a racist cop who antagonized Mike’s family for years and he was also violent towards his own son. Obviously, that had an impact on Henry who developed antisocial behavior. On the very surface, that seems similar to Billy. However, there is a big difference between them in terms of agency and the degree of harm. Billy’s violence was mostly reactive. There was a clear trigger (usually his dad). Henry sought out his victims to antagonize and he was very much addicted to the violence. IT was able to weaponize Henry because Henry wanted that power. He ended up killing his father without remorse. In order for the Mindflayer to weaponize Billy, it had to take over his mind and his body completely leaving Billy with little to no agency. Billy was consumed by guilt over what the Mindflayer made him do. His personality and reaction to trauma is nothing like Henry Bowers.
Henry is representative of the fear and hate prevalent in his small town, which is similar to Jason’s role last season in that regard. Their respective roles expose the prejudices of their communities. Billy’s role didn’t really do that. I don’t think the Duffers really thought about his purpose beyond being a “human antagonist” and a source of conflict for Max and Lucas (which…why was this necessary if they were never going to address it again?). There are obviously bigger bads whose entire shtick is Remorseless Abuser, and I’ve said before that this show *could* be about systematic abuse and fighting against it (including government/institutional abuse) but the Duffers hate survivors too much to explore that with any authenticity. So, we end up having to do that for them. This show and its fandom at large really are so shallow. All spectacle and trauma as decoration without critical thought.
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unholy-fabray · 1 month
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When Glee was still airing and I was actively watching the show, I could not STAND Rachel. Like I tuned out every time she was on screen, I was fully on board the Rachel hate train online, etc.
Then something snapped in my brain - or maybe I just got older - and during my recent rewatch of the show, I find myself deeply sympathetic for her as a character.
Setting aside the behind-the-scenes controversies, I think the on-screen character of Rachel Berry gets a little too much hate. I'm sure I'm reading way too much into this ridiculous show, BUT here are some Rachel Berry thoughts I have:
From a young age, she has been wholly dedicated to a very specific goal and encouraged/enabled by her dads to base her entire identity and self worth on this one dream which she then pursues to an abrasive, off-putting degree and is bullied for being "that theater kid". The way her dads handled this almost reminds me of pageant parents, ngl.
Glee is notorious for having it's characters do problematic shit then never really addressing it or calling them out on it, but I've noticed Rachel is very often called out on her bullshit. I know people like to say she gets everything she wants, but (Lea Michelle + RM bts issues aside) Rachel catches a lot of shit in the show - she's just really determined.
Her birth mother breaches a legal contract, manipulates minors to weasel her way into Rachel's life, forcing her into meeting only to REJECT her outright. Shelby describes how she dreamt this moment would go, then basically tells Rachel, "you didn't live up to my dreams, bye". How traumatizing wtf!
Not to mention: Shelby adopts a new baby and lingers around Lima, Ohio where she can continue to traumatize literally every kid she comes in close contact with (Rachel, Quinn, Puck) - but I digress, that's a topic for another post...
Rachel is a teenage girl who is routinely told she is unlikeable and unattractive - even her own boyfriends make comments that put her down compared to other girls. In addition, her satisfaction and pleasure is never considered when it comes to the physical aspects of her relationships (this is a running theme for female characters on this damn show).
On a similar note, Rachel is shown to have very low self esteem and is compensating through her ideas of stardom. She genuinely believes that she is nothing without her singing voice. She has been bullied all her life because she's weird and loud and she comes from a nontraditional family.
Idk man, the way Finn treats her* and the shit with Shelby and how Will + her dads just enable her problematic behavior really makes me sad for her. I think it's easy to forget these characters are teenagers and are so impressionable.
*Rachel also treats Finn badly, I'm not denying that
Anyways, she's a very flawed and at-times aggravating character, but I see her in a different light than I used to. I've developed a sort of soft spot for Miss Rachel Berry. I can better understand why she is the way she is (whether that was intentional or RIB's part or not, idk).
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pandasmagorica · 10 months
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Intro/tracking post
Last updated March 24, 2024.
Older queer white cis dude in California, pronoun he.
Love music.
Enjoy QL, mostly Thai, mostly series. Here to read and comment on posts.
If a series puts me off in the first episode, I will often abandon it, sometimes within the first few minutes. I'm less likely to abandon midway. If I'm considering abandoning a series I've otherwise liked up to that point, I'll often read the reviews on MDL or look up posts on the series, at risk of getting spoilers, to decide whether to go on with it (and it's gone both ways).
Not a fan of spoilers, but recognize it as a risk of engaging so I don't (usually) spoiler-shame. Please don't put them in comments to me, if you would be so kind.
Okay with sad endings if they're earned or otherwise inevitable.
Incomplete watchlist (which I will update from time to time):
Top Ten (in order as best I can, ask me on another day and stuff might move):
Not Me (best QL series ever for plot, acting, cinematography, and music, content warning for violence) (1 re-watch)
Bad Buddy (lots of fun, new discoveries on every re-watch) (3 re-watches)
He's Coming to Me (heartwarming, delightful coming-of-age work. I didn't care for the library raid part and skipped it once on rewatch and there seemed to me to be some inconsistencies with the ghost rules.) (3 re-watches)
Cherry Magic (Japanese version, delightful, looking forward to the Thai remake if they ever settle the rights issues)
To Sir With Love (could get me to try lakorns)
Semantic Error (enemies to lovers comedy that hits all the right notes)
A Tale of a Thousand Stars (fine series, not sure why I haven't rewatched it, need to rewatch after Our Skyy 2)
55:15 Never Too Late (not QL but has a QL subplot, notable for having an older semi-out gay character) (1 re-watch)
Gaya Sa Pelicula (Like in the Movies) (odd couple thrown together, fall in love, hit limits)
Eternal Yesterday (re-watch episode notes) (not usually into high school QL but the plot got me and it blew me away, achingly sad throughout) (1 re-watch)
Much as I love them, I don't automatically recommend every one of them to everyone. The right rec for the right person!
In progress
23.5
Cherry Magic (Thai) (on apparently long-term hold pending rights issues)
Considering
Stay Still
The Player
Shadow (although probably not)
Anti-Reset
1000 Years Old
My Strawberry Film
Old Fashioned Cupcake
Although I Love You, and You?
Our Dating Sim
The Eighth Sense
I Promised You the Moon
1000 Stars rewatch
First episode watched but not committed to
Our Dining Table
Also Completed:
A Cut Above (in alphabetical order):
Near misses for my top 10 - there can only be 10 - but bubbling under that line. Highly recommended.
Formula 17 (campy and fun) (2 or 3 rewatches)
History 3: Trapped (very funny and enjoyable
I Became the Main Role of a BL Drama (feel-good comedy)
The Great Doctor (episode notes) (not QL) (medical/historical/time travel mashup, content warning for violence and gory medical stuff)
Kiseki: Dear to Me (watch notes) (top notch crime drama with a lot of humor - content warning for violence - includes an older gay couple)
Lovely Writer (very meta about the QL industry and quite funny)
Moonlight Chicken (touching and fun)
Once Again (touching time travel, sad throughout) (1 rewatch)
180 Degrees Longitude Passes Through Us (intelligent and a good watch, melancholy, feels very much like a stage play)
The Sign (deeply flawed but wild and enthralling deep dive into northeastern Thai mythology disguised as a cop series - content warning for violence - yeah, it's a mess but it's a glorious mess)
10 Years Ticket (episode notes) (crime drama about two warring families, bittersweet ending - not QL, but there's a QL subplot)
3 Will Be Free (review link) (wild ride with great twists, content warning for violence, yeah I'd call it QL)
Until We Meet Again (fine contrast between the ghosts of the past and the world of today, deep story, but has a few problematic scenes that I cringe at, theme music got repetitive; content warning for suicide) (1 or 2 re-watches)
The Warp Effect (not QL, but some queer characters)
and a fanfic:
What's in Your Head (Bad Buddy zombie fic) (content warning for violence, requires AO3 login)
Others I enjoyed (in alpha order):
I enjoyed these enough to be happy I watched them, but not enough to consider them classics and in no danger of breaching my top 10.
Be My Favorite (fun time-travel fantasy with a strong political viewpoint and good twists, one of the mains is a bit hard to take)
Bed Friend (not sure enjoyed is the right word, has some triggers, but worth seeing, loved the cat role-play)
The Boy Foretold By the Stars (fun, sweet comedy)
Choco Milkshake (fun, touching pet fantasy)
Cupid's Last Wish (fun body-swap plot, insane amount of food and landscape porn, rural settings, content warning for gross cow veterinary scene)
Dark Blue Kiss (pretty good, creepy interloper)
Dear Tenant (enjoyed isn't the right word, and had to pause and walk away from it partway for a major cry, but an excellent film)
DNA Says I Love You (review link) (sweet, sad, interesting gender minority rep)
The End of the World With You (mix of SF and fantasy, good story and relationships)
Eternal Summer (Taiwanese film about youth discovering their identity - bisexual love triangle - well done if a bit melancholy)
Ghost Host, Ghost House (nice supernatural treatment)
Gift Shop for People You Hate (not QL but has two minor gay characters making guest appearances, one evil and one harmless) (horror, with a very dark sense of humor) (this one doesn't show an English title on YouTube, but if you search YouTube under that name you'll find it) (1 rewatch)
Jack O'Frost (melancholy and sweet)
The Man Who Defies the World of BL (very funny after watching several series and becoming aware of the tropes)
The Man Who Defies the World of BL season 2 (okay, maybe a joke can go on long enough)
Me, My Husband and My Husband's Boyfriend (bittersweet poly-ish story)
Midnight Museum (not QL but has a major bromance that could go full QL if there's ever a sequel) (a mess, but a glorious mess)
Mr. Unlucky Has No Choice But to Kiss (quite enjoyable)
My Ride (enjoyable comedy with dramatic moments - includes an older gay couple)
Naked Dining (good fun, lots of misunderstandings and food porn)
Neverland (web series from India, well done and too brief)
Our Dating Sim (fun series about the courage to correct your mistakes from the past, set in the video game workplace - a few cringe moments, but generally a very kind series)
Rainbow Prince (campy and fun, not enough songs for something that's supposed to be a musical, you have to be okay with cheesy)
Rak Diao (funny, very silly, although the harassment jokes got old fast and didn't stop)
Sleep With Me (review link) (sweet lesbian romance, kinda slow for such short episodes, great disability rep)
Something in My Room (the abridged-episode version) (good, not great, ghost story)
Stay By My Side (review link) (fun ghost story version of Mr. Unlucky Has No Choice But to Kiss)
Tale of the Lost Boys (movie) (friendship story between a visiting straight Filipino and a gay Taiwanese aboriginal in Taiwan, heartwarming story)
Tinted with You (a way too short, fun time travel fantasy involving a painting and a mystical art lover that bring an art student together with an ancient deposed prince)
Twilight Kiss aka Suk Suk (fine, bittersweet Hong Kong film about an affair between two heterosexually married men who are actually closeted gay men)
Twins (Thai pulp, fun, not too deep)
Your Name Engraved Herein (not sure enjoyed is the right word but it's fine work)
Zero Photography (from Magic of Zero) (most entertaining product promotion vehicle I've seen in QL, even better than Pran & Pat's product placements in Bad Buddy)
Torn about:
These all had some kind of major issue that prevents me from recommending them.
Fish Upon the Sky (appalled at the racism/punch-down humor in episode 4, otherwise loved its play with form)
Last Twilight (entrancing series, but the characters didn't grow, the ending was poorly set up - needed a few more episodes - and it ultimately fumbled on disability rep)
Mr. Cinderella (nearly abandoned this one because of a supporting toxic character, but kept with it after reading a post about the traditional Vietnamese story it was tracking)
Secret Crush on You (cringed for the first half, considered dropping it, read the defense by trans reviewers, watched the rest, and suddenly it got really good)
Together With Me (mix of great content and really problematic content)
Lukewarm:
I'm more glad than not that I watched these but in retrospect would have been okay if I had missed them:
Bagan Beginning (Not-bad early Myanmar QL, lots of food and antiquity porn, content warning for violence in the last episode)
Color Rush (interesting concept, okay)
Enchanté (not as bad as people say it is, but also just okay)
Gay OK Bangkok and Gay OK Bangkok 2 (definitely gay and, er, okay)
Nitiman (okay enough)
Only Friends (episode notes) (a sex farce with too much toxic behavior for my taste and a last episode choice that left a bad taste in my mouth)
Our Skyy 2 Bad Buddy x Thousand Stars (counting the four episodes as one series even though they have different names, didn't love this but didn't hate it either, very pale compared to the original two separate series)
Our Skyy 2 Vice Versa (was just okay with a really bad idea at the base of its plot)
Star & Sky: Star in My Mind (not great, not bad)
The Tasty Florida (cute enough, just so-so)
Vice Versa (brief notes) (good concept, product placements became way too intrusive for my full enjoyment)
Ones I wish I could watch:
I only watch legit sources, both so the creators get money for it and to reduce the hacking risks that watching gray presents.
Triage (I don't have a Thai phone number to log in to AISPlay, and even if I did not sure if it would have English subtitles)
Manner of Death (I need a WeTV subscription and will check that out) (thank you to @lurkingteapot for this info)
I Feel You Linger in the Air
Peach of Time (supernatural plot) (supposedly I can watch this on WeTV using VPN but I'm not yet ready to make the leap to VPN)
Series I abandoned:
Accomplishment of Fundoshi Bartender (episode 2 when he screamed offstage about not dating married men - I know this series isn't intended to be realistic but I still need the other characters to react to his behavior - this series has gotten entirely too silly for me)
Candy Colored Paradox (bored by episode 2 or 3)
Cooking Crush (a few minutes into episode 1 [2/4] as it is getting way too silly for me, plus we're going to have to put up with hazing/bullying as comedy - at least they had some new sound effects)
Cutie Pie (hated the infantilizing, left by episode 3 or 4)
I Told Sunset About You (left in episode 1, not loving the high school content)
Love by Chance (had someone fall on top of someone else in the first 30 seconds, left immediately)
Love Stage (apparently without most of the music - I'm guessing there's rights issues - but I abandoned it after 2 episodes because one of the lead's acting felt flat and I didn't enjoy the humor)
Lucky My Love (first segment didn't engage me)
Meow Ears Up (lost interest in the first episode with the fangirls in the store incident)
My Secret Love (first segment didn't engage me)
One Room Angel (dropped after episode 3 because it's so depressing; open to returning if it cheers up)
Playboyy (a new record - I got scared away by the content warning before the episode even started - however, based on various posts I might reconsider in for a binge watch once it's over)
SOTUS (not a fan of hazing)
Star & Sky: Sky in Your Heart (abandoned around the time of the outhouse incident)
Theory of Love (abandoned when nearly at the beginning Gun's character was crying in the shower)
VIP Only (failed to engage me in the first episode)
Un-favorite tropes:
Falling on someone
Heavy seme/uke dynamic
Northern rural Thai loan sharks
Evil ex
Boss/Employee
Stuff that I've written as opposed to reblogged I've tagged #pandasmagorica so I can find them easier.
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