#''heros cannot be real / I wasn't who i am / i don't know who i am''

[hi-rt]

WAIT. PVP! EVBO WITH HERO BY MILI

[literaryvein-reblogs]

Hey, there. Can you help me with this? I am stuck on creating with this motivation for my WIP.

Those who seek death shall live, and those who seek lives shall die How do you create a character with this type of character motivation? either is an important side character, villain, mentor, or even main character?

Hi! Some writers like to use character tropes as inspiration when they get stuck with a certain idea. Here are some examples I found for you that you can use as a guide. And alter as needed for your story:

"Death Seeker" Trope

At some point in the past, some characters have had a traumatic experience, found themselves dishonored, committed a crime they could not repay, lost everything worth living for, caught an incurable disease or just became bored with continued existence.

For whatever reason, rather than turning to suicide, they went off seeking battles to fight, hoping to find an enemy who would kill them, and achieve an honorable, heroic, awesome, or otherwise acceptable death, sometimes going as far as outright surrendering and offering their life to their enemies. 

Martyrdom Cultures may regard such a character as a role model, even if upon closer examination they might seem like a Martyr Without a Cause.

In cases of cruel Irony, the characters who snap out of it and find something to live for often end up dying or getting killed shortly afterwards anyway.

A real life example:

Jeffrey Dahmer frequently expressed his wish to die for his crimes while in prison. When he was attacked by another prisoner who attempted to slit his throat, he refused to press charges and requested to be returned to the general prison population. Only a few months later, he was beaten to death by another prisoner. His last words were, reportedly: "I don't care if I live or die — go ahead and kill me."

"I Cannot Self-Terminate" Trope

Perhaps they've just been wounded in a vital area and know they are going to die slowly and in agony, and just want to die with dignity/end the pain quickly. Perhaps they are prisoners and being tortured, and the hero cannot break them free but could shoot them.

In any case, while they're ready or even eager to die, they cannot do it on their own. This can also count as a Heroic Sacrifice, sometimes.

If the character is robotic, this may occur due to influence from Asimov's Laws. Specifically, the Third Law states that a robot may not harm itself, or through inaction allow itself to be harmed, unless doing so is required to uphold the First or Second Law. Even when not following the hierarchical laws of robotics, it could still occur if a robot is simply programmed for self-preservation.

The victim may plead for death even when it is possible for them to be saved, owing to the pain. The hero is likely to override that, often saying No One Gets Left Behind.

Accidental Murder: Occurs when a situation that wasn't intended to be lethal ends with the death of someone anyway.

Anyone Can Die: This is easily defined as definite Truth in Television, because all living organisms are mortal and are bound to, by statistics at least, eventually die for any number of reasons, with no fiction writers to determine how it happens. When used poorly or too frequently, this trope can cause Too Bleak, Stopped Caring, possibly with audiences uttering the Eight Deadly Words, as the audience won't see any point in getting attached to characters that they expect to die sooner or later. A good way to check if this trope applies is to see if who survives is an important plot point, rather than only how they survive.

Cheated Death, Died Anyway: When a character narrowly escapes death on occasion (and perhaps more than one occasion), only to die shortly thereafter anyway…in a completely different way. Exactly how close the two incidents have to be varies, so the important factor in this trope is the presence of irony. This can apply in a matter of minutes, months, or even (in rare cases) years; the deciding factor is the Bait-and-Switch element of the death.

Death Is the Only Option: The only way to achieve victory is to die.

Forgiveness Requires Death: In order to be forgiven of their crimes, the character must die.

Heroic Sacrifice: Sacrificing your own life for the greater good.

Jumping on a Grenade: Sacrificing oneself by using one's own body as a shield against a deadly threat in hopes of sparing others.

Metaphorical Suicide: A despondent character willingly resigns themself to a fate similar to death without actually dying.

The Problem with Fighting Death: …is that even if you win, you'll still eventually lose. Killing or imprisoning Death might not offer protection either, as his sister Entropy goes around making everyone grow old and wish to die while Death Takes a Holiday or cause a plague of ghosts as the souls of the dead get stuck on Earth. This is the problem with fighting Death, Hades, The Devil, Psychopomps, Anthropomorphic Personifications or even God; you just can't win. However, a draw may be possible with creativity. If all that matters is that there be a Death, then replacing him with someone friendlier or someone with whom deals can be struck and honored can be a way to go. This can be done by appealing to someone higher on the divinity ladder, getting someone else to kill and replace Death (or doing so yourself, if you're willing to accept the job for the rest of eternity), and flying out of Hell are all possibilities. In this way, one can say Living Forever Is Awesome.

Who Wants to Live Forever?: If an immortal being grows so sick of eternal life that they just want it to end already.

Sources: 1 2 3 4 ⚜ More: Notes & References ⚜ Writing Resources PDFs

Hope this helps inspire your writing! You can look through the sources for more information on each trope.

[mirensiart]

i heard you wish for knowledge on roolie. and for today i shall forbid my role as a ghost and become a genie. :D

SO. Hyrule's games don't really have too much of a story on their own, my guy is hcs galore here. But what is canon is that after he killed ganon, his blood became cursed, meaning if he dies ganon will be brought back from the dead to reign terror over hyrule, with no hero to stop him.

Now in Zelda 2 (the adventure of link) he successfully defeats all Ganons servants who know the ritual to bring back ganon, saving hyrule and ensuring its safety. but people saw that and went "nah" so in most hcs he can still be used to bring back the ugly blue pig.

this means that monsters and a cult called "The Eyes of Ganon" most often are constantly hunting him down to kill him and use his blood to bring back their master, meaning poor dude is always on the run and has no real area to call home. some people hc that he also stays away from towns for this reason, to not draw monsters there like the selfless hero he is

he also is often in fanfic deathly afraid of bleeding, because it draws monsters to him. in the pain-share au this might also add emotional pain onto physical pain because first he gets a wound bad enough to bleed, and then he's freaking out and panicking on top of that

onto his spells. hyrule in-game has a fire spell, a thunder spell, a life spell, a jump spell and a fairy spell. the jump spell isnt really mentioned because in most stories this guy is already capable of jumping without magic. his fire spell casts fire around him, thunder spell strikes lighting all around (which could be pretty risky for fighting in groups), life spell heals himself or others as we see with twi in the lu comic, and fairy spell turns him into a fairy. (a lot of people hc him to be a fae because of this)

he has a magic bar though, and a limited amount of magic he can use. many people hc that if he gets too low on magic it could be dangerous, but thats not canon in the game.

zelda 1's plot is pretty much just "get triangle, kill pig" and thats it. zelda 2 is that princess zelda has been cursed to fall asleep and cannot be woken up, so to save her sleeping beauty ass hyrule goes and gets the triforce. along the way he finds ganons servants in dungeons, and defeats them so ganon cannot be ressurected. he eventually finds an old man in a dungeon, and has to fight his shadow (which btw is the hardest bossfight ever like wtf) and upon defeating it, proves himself worthy of the triforce and gets it. he then cures zelda of the curse, wakes her up, and they make out. yes the last part was actually in the game.

hyrules placement in the timeline is right after legends in the downfall timeline, so they get to be the downfall duo together. also hyrule is often hc with a huge hero-worship thing going on with legend, and he's afraid to dishonor or disappoint his ancestor.

and thats about all i know at least, i may be wrong and im sure someone will correct me if i am, but i wanted to provide info anyways! im sorry for the huge ask btw ;-;

Wow, ok! First of all, thank u very much for all this, like this has been super helpful!

Like, seriously, tysm for taking ur time to explain everything to me, I really appreciate it 🥹💖

I did know some of these things so I suppose I wasn't that lost on hyrule's lore!

I do enjoy the downfall duo tbh, I did know beforehand that hyrule is the last one in the downfall timeline, since I used to own hyrule historia ages ago (it got lost during one of the many times I changed apartments 😔) I think it's cute for hyrule to have a hero worship on him and for legend to be soft to hyrule too lol

Anyway! This has been super informative, I'll make sure to keep it in mind from now on, thank you!

[gregorera]

MILI-HERO LYRICS We're swaying on horseback 우린 말 위에서 흔들리는 중이야 The hills are green 언덕은 푸르고 And the birdies sing 새님들은 노래를 지저귀고 And roses are pink 장미들은 온통 분홍빛 Experience I never had 이런 모험은 처음이야 I'm so happy 난 너무 행복해 Happy to just be part of your story 행복해, 당신 이야기의 일부가 될 수 있기에 After you I follow 당신의 뒤를 따르며 After you I follow 당신의 뒤를 따르며 The world you show me broaden my horizon 그대가 보여준 세상에 나의 시야가 트여와 Forever my hero 나의 영원한 영웅 Forever my hero 나의 영원한 영웅 I am your biggest fan 나는 당신의 가장 열렬한 팬 I am your biggest fan 나는 당신의 가장 열렬한 팬 Merry-go-round 회전목마를 타고 In a circle I run 빙글빙글 달려나가 It's so much fun leaving reality behind 즐겁잖아, 현실을 뒤로하고 달리는 건 I fall down the horseback 말 위에서 떨어진다 With my crippled legs 다리는 벌써 부러졌고 And then it starts to rain 비가 쏟아지며 Showing me it's all fake 모두 허상이였다는게 드러��지 Raindrops wash down the facade 빗방울은 허울을 씻겨냈어 Hills are painted 언덕의 푸르름은 페인트에 불과했고 Birdies are robotic 새들은 기계에 Roses are made of clay 장미들은 점토로 만든 조화 Excitement that I feel 내가 느꼈던 설렘 Excitement that I feel 내가 느꼈던 설렘 Return them to the shelf 전부 선반에 다시 돌려 뒀어 Cause now I understand 이제 깨달았으니까 Heroes cannot be real 영웅이라는 건 있을 수 없다는 걸 Heroes cannot be real 영웅이라는 건 있을 수 없다는 걸 I wasn't who I am 나는 내가 아니었고 I don't know who I am 내가 누군지도 모르지 ¿Who am I? ¿나는 누구지? ¿Who am I? ¿나는 누구지? ¿Who am I? ¿나는 누구지? Here we go, another lap 다시 한 바퀴 돌아보자, 한 번 더 Prizes to claim 찾아야 할 보물이 있잖아 Here's a dream for you 네게 꿈 하나 Here's a dream for me 내게도 꿈 하나 Golden tickets in my bag stay unexchanged 가방 안의 황금 티켓들은 내팽겨 놓은 채로 Don't you love the thrill of the chase? 그냥 돌고 있는 채로도 좋지 않아? Just let me be your fan 내가 당신의 팬이 될 수 있게 해 줘 I wanna be your fan 당신의 팬이 되고 싶어 I'm still your biggest fan 난 여전히 당신의 가장 열렬한 팬이란 말이야 Why is it that some were given the role of villian 왜 어떤 이들은 이 시스템에 태어나는 순간부터 The moment they were released into this system? 악당의 역할을 부여 받을 수밖에 없었던 걸까? Stand up 일어서 Gallop on 달려나가 Nothing can be done by feeling so sorry for myself 자기연민에 파묻혀서는 아무 일도 일어나지 않아 Hero 영웅 On a plastic horse 플라스틱 말을 타고 Fighting like it's real 진짜인듯 싸워나가네 With a cardboard sword 골판지 검을 든 채로 I know 나도 알아 Successful or not, I am who I am 성공하든 실패하든 나는 나일 뿐 I am my biggest fan 나는 나의 가장 열렬한 팬 I am my biggest fan 나는 나의 가장 열렬한 팬 I am my enemy and my friend 나는 나의 적이자 친구 Hero 영웅 Gonna prove my version of justice 증명하겠네, 나의 정의가 Is more just than yours 그대의 것보다 정의로웠음을 Uno 하나 Remaining on this stage, I am the only one 이 무대 위에 남은 건 나 하나 I am my biggest fan 나는 나의 가장 열렬한 팬 I am my biggest fan 나는 나의 가장 열렬한 팬 I am my enemy and my friend 나는 나의 적이자 친구

[save-the-villainous-cat]

Okay so how about a delirious or gravely injured hero / villain who starts telling the other details about their secret identity because they’re so sure they’re not going to make it while the other is like don’t even think about dying on me ?

"Look," the villain hissed. They pressed their hand into the wound the supervillain had stabbed into them. Flesh had ripped open and blood had been mercilessly dropping to the ground for the last few minutes. It was fair to say that the hero had...overdone it. The villain knew they could forget their own strength every now and then but they hadn't expected them to kill the supervillain that brutally. "I am dying."

The villain leaned their head back but the headache would not die. They dared to peek at the supervillain's body and somehow allowed themselves to relax. Years of anger and anxiety were gone now. Some peace was a good thing. Ignoring the tears and the pain, their eyes found the hero.

"Don't be ridiculous," the hero said but still, the villain could hear their voice shake. Whenever the hero's wall which they had built around their heart crumbled like this, the villain felt some weird sense of accomplishment. Wasn't this their job? Changing the hero? Even if the villain wasn't a good person, was this a good deed?

"No," the villain said. They grabbed the hero's wrist. Their nemesis was panicking, staring at the villain's wound in shock. "I am dying, love."

The hero shook their head and the villain wasn't sure if the pain made them hallucinate the tears in the hero's eyes or if those were actually real. They had never seen the hero this emotional.

"My parents aren't buried in the city," the villain said. "But I wouldn't mind if you chose a cemetery here."

"No."

"I have a cat, also. You need to take care of her. She's only five months old. I found her on the streets a while ago." The villain's hand crawled up the hero's arm until they found their hand and squeezed. "God, I thought I'd have some more time."

They couldn't even stop the tears. Couldn't control anything. Their vision spun and they felt bad for forcing the hero to watch them die. It was a little selfish, wasn't it? But wasn't it also a human desire?

Not to die alone?

"I have a sister, too. She lives far away, though. Maybe you'll find her phone number in my apartment? Could you take care of that? I know it's a lot to ask..."

"Don't you dare. I didn't murder someone for you to die now. I didn't protect you all these months for you to..." The hero swallowed and wiped thick tears away. For a second, the villain seriously thought they were dead already. I didn't protect you... "You cannot die now. I won't let you. You're too important to me."

"It's fine, I..." The hero pulled out their phone and dialed 911 with shaky fingers. The villain's eyes widened but they were too weak to protest. The hero tried to breathe but it was clear that it was quite troubling for them to take normal breaths. They were fighting just as much as the villain.

The villain had given up already, though.

"Yes, hello. I would like to report a murder. I killed someone. I also need an ambulance...I injured someone else, too," the hero said. "Locate my position."

They hung up.

"Fuck, what are you...?" The villain's heart was beating faster than ever. They couldn't believe what the hero had just told the authorities. Confessing a murder like this...asking for an ambulance? The villain wouldn't make it in time and the hero would go to jail either way.

This couldn't be happening. The villain had wanted them to live a quiet life, not dying young in prison. The amount of villain's the hero had already sent to jail was impressive and if the hero joined them, they wouldn't survive the first night.

The villain moaned when they moved. Pain was taking over and they weren't sure if they wanted to throw up or pass out.

"They won't put you in jail when you're injured like this. Especially not when I am the one who's responsible. They've been hunting you for quite a while now but in this case I am the criminal. This buys you time and they can actually save you at the hospital." The hero took in a greedy breath and closed their eyes. More tears.

"You're insane, you're-" The hero took their hand.

"It's the only way to save you. Your blood type is A+, right?" Perhaps? The villain wanted to throw up. This wasn't happening, the hero hadn't just pulled their Go to Jail Card intentionally.

"I think so?" The villain started to sweat and suddenly, it felt as if the world wanted to push them into the afterlife. They refused to die, now that the hero had confessed to a crime. But they feared they had no control over that either.

"Mine is A-, so I can donate. I'll try to stay on the ambulance, if they let me." The hero seemed to be back in their cold self. Always calculating, always thinking. Their poor hero. Always fighting.

"You'll go to prison," the villain whispered.

"And I will find a way to crawl back to you," the hero said. "I always will."

[glux2]

Musing: Emotional connection

Recently a very close person to me suggested i binge watch "Angel Hare", before that day my only exposure to that project was a fan game that had a very funny punchline in lampooning the "cursed videogame" genre.

So i watched the whole thing and it was great.

This scene right here made me feel more feelings than most of the media i have watched/played/read in like the last 5 years or so.

So it made my mind wonder, like, "hold on, when was the last time i felt this strongly about a piece of entertainment?"

Sure, if you know me, i felt strongly about the ongoing plotline for Noelle on Deltarune, so one would think "2021 when chapter two came out", right? but no, i got very invested but it wasn't it.

The last time i felt so strongly about a piece of media was actually Deltarune's predecesor, Undertale in 2015.

I finished Undertale in tears, i got in a very bad funk when i found out about the genocide ending, it truly made me feel emotions.

So i began to ponder, just what really moves me?

Full disclosure: I don't cry at movies. This is not a "look at me i am a badass who is not beheld by feelings" statement, no, i kinda just dont connect emotionally with movies as easily as other people.

I have talked about this, many times actually, Toy Story 3 did not make me cry, it always bothers me how people at the time were like "if TS3 didn't make you cry, you have no soul" and shit like that, so let me repeat something i have said many times before:

Toy Story 3 was a movie i went to see the day doctors had informed me my mother had entered terminal phase of cancer.

My friends took me to see TS3 when i felt the greatest sadness i have ever felt in my entire life. And im glad TS3 was a pretty funny movie that managed to distract me from what i was going through. TS3 uplifted me when i had a very real reason to cry.

So what im getting at is, i rarely connect emotionally with what conventionally makes people emotionally connected, not that i havent felt strong emotions from movies, but as we'll get to later, it's just not the stuff you would expect, when we get back to movies you'll be thinking, "what the fuck, Toy story 3 did not make you emotional but THIS THING DID?!"

So, if traditional "emotional things" rarely have moved me i began to think to myself, "what are things that have made me feel this strongly?"

I realized it's the damn weirdest things.

I'll try to list things that i can remember making me feel this emotional.

Now i'll be upfront, im not a very cultured person, so you'll notice most of this is...not very high brow.

Also, obviously spoilers for all this stuff im about to talk about.

Before we begin: Honorable mention goes to me finding out i had repressed memories of being traumatized as a kid by being show an animated adaptation of "Pilgrim's progress" by an aunt, which disturbed me greatly towards the end as the main character dies and before it the souls of two people he met are condemned to eternal damnation from making MISTAKES, not sins, not evil, but THE FUCKING MISTAKE of exploring alternate routes before them.

-Yoshi's Island, 1994 When i was a wee one Yoshi was one of my fave videogame characters, so of course i was beyond hype when a game where you play as yoshi came out, the ending is one of the greatest moments in videogame history, the beautiful music, the journey of the stork, and finally the classic Mario fan fare playing as baby mario and baby luigi being held by their parents with the words "Heroes are born", it's such a powerful moment. To this day i still cannot listen to that credits music without tearing up.

Sequel? Retcon?! I DON'T KNOW WHAT YOU ARE TALKING ABOUT, SHUT UP, THIS IS THE PERFECT ENDING AND NOTHING ELSE HAPPENED AFTER IT!

-The bicentennial man, 1999 The bicentennial man is one of the biggest examples of a movie being fucking mischaracterized in the marketing, this movie is based on Isaac Asimov's short story and later novel, it stars Robin Williams, so all marketing was presenting the movie as Robin Williams comedy movie, IT. IS. NOT. The bicentennial man is a scifi drama about the existential search for meaning and the nature of what truly is to be alive. You get invested on the quest of this robot trying to find humanity for 200 years, and the punchline to this movie is, in his quest for humanity he forgoes the immortality being a machine provides him as he had developed the way to turn himself biological, still artificial but biological, and he dies peacefully on his sleep before he can be told that humanity had declared him, legally, a human being. To me it was such a powerful moment, he found true meaning to his life, became human, yet died before knowing so.

-Courage the cowardly dog, "The Mask", 2002 This is a legendary episode of an already great show that has a lot of very good emotional moments, some may cite episodes like "the giving tree" or "the last star maker", but for me it's this one. For those who have never experienced this episode, it revolves around a cat girl named Kitty who one day shows up at Courage's farm and she's wearing an upsetting mask, she abuses courage because she believes all dogs are bad. The mask serves 2 purposes, one is metaphorical, "her inability to face reality", the second is to hide her identity as she believes she is in danger. The thing is, she is on the run because her lover best friend Bunny is trapped in an abusive relationship with a gangster dog who threatened to kill her if she was seen near Bunny ever again, the episode coats the whole situation with a ton of goofiness, but it's actually very fucking dark: A young lesbian is trapped against her will on an abusive relationship with a toxic, violent man who threatened to kill her girlfriend if she refused to date him. Courage, being a good little dog ventures to save Bunny and have her reunite with Kitty because, despite how bad Kitty was to him, he recognizes that Kitty is a victim and she and Bunny deserve better, leading to Courage letting them escape away together, to live happy and free. I don't think it's just me, but the final image of Kitty and Bunny hugging as the train takes them to freedom felt so powerful to me.

-Twisted Metal Head-on, 2002 This is one of the weirdest things i have ever gotten emotionally invested, but honestly? i love when some shitposting franchise suddenly manages to pull this off, specially given the set up for this whole thing im going to describe starts in an early game as a fucking joke. So to contextualize this, the first two Twisted metal games were helmed by the og creators of the franchise, TM 3, 4 and small brawl were made by different developers when the creators lost the rights, but during the PS2 era when the og developers came back and created TM: Black, and TM: Head-on, Black was a reboot, Head-on was a retcon sequel to TM 2 that eliminated TM3 from the timeline, but not TM 4. Still with me? Okay so TM2 had this character, Krista Sparks, who was the revealed to be the daughter of the main antagonist of the game, Calypso, but hold on? wasn't Calypso's backstory that his family died in a tragic accident which lead him to become evil? So turns out, the FBI retrieved his daughter's corpse, turned it into a robot with a bomb with the intend to make her get close to Calypso and blow him up. The ending ends comically with a message reading "The FBI wishes to thank you for putting an end to Twisted metal". Stil Still with me?!?!?! ok! so Head on! In this game Krista is back, as a ghost, her ending consists on her confronting her dad, who has now brought up so much pain, misery and death to the world, Calypso tries to explain that the nature of his powers mean he has to do this otherwise he cannot use his powers, and his plan was for Krista to win so he could bring her back and her mom to life, but Krista is so horrified with what has happened that she refuses and blurts "I wish the accident that killed me and mom never happened" the intention being impeding Calypso from becoming this evil super natural villian, but as per all endings, it's always a monkey paw affair and Calypso knows it, looking saddened he grants the wish because he has no option, his powers force him to. Briefly Krista has a vision of her childhood with her dad before he became evil as they share a sweet moment playing on a swing set. HARD CUT TO A HOSPITAL, Krista is on a bed in coma, Calypso is there and whispers to her something along the lines of "Sleep tight my dear, may you finally find peace", as Calypso is leaving the hospital you can hear 2 doctors talking, mentioning that Krista had been in coma for more than a decade and apparently Calypso just had found out. Excuse me Twisted Metal, but WHAT THE FUCK? You are a dumb fucking edgy car combat game, how dare you make me feel these things?

-Mother 3, 2006 (translation on 2008) Mother 3 hopefully needs no introduction, or maybe it does, because many people have reduced it to a joke due to how nintendo stubbornly refuses to give us an official release, but also many of you must know this franchise is the spark that ignited the flame of the absolute Juggernaut Undertale would become, as well as many other games influenced by it. The Mother/Earthbound games were known for being quirky and deviating from the standard conventions of the game, notably for the modern day setting and unorthodox choices of how you deal with the villians, they were always billed as emotional, but i feel they did not live up to that...until 3. The general narrative to Mother 3 is about how greed is destroying the world, the main villian corrupting what we see of the world (a paradise little town where everybody is nice) by introducing luxury, money and status....and also stomping everything with his fascist army and cyborg mutants. Mother 3 is a game about how the worst traits of humanity are destroying the world and upsetting nature. Mother 3 is also the story of 2 twin brothers who suffer tragedy after tragedy after tragedy that ultimately pits them one against the other with the fate of the world at stake. Mother 3 punches you almost immediately by killing the mother character (which i might mention you're encouraged to name after your own mother) at the end of the first chapter and how this affects her surviving family. one of the Twins, Claus, is so disturbed that he decides to on on his own to try to kill the monster that took his mom, while the other, Lucas, was too afraid and weak to stop his brother, resulting on Claus dying as well...but the badguys take his corpse and reanimate it into a cold, emotionless cyborg who follow's the big bad's order and is using him to try to cause the end of the world. In the climax of the story Lucas is force to confront Claus, clause is a brain washed cyborg, his master is out of the picture and all he can do is fight, you can't reason with him...and then.... Lucas and Claus begin to hear a voice, a familiar voice, it's their mother, reaching for them from beyond the grave, pleading for them to stop fighting, suddenly Lucas and Claus both have a flash back to when they were babies, overhearing their parents talk about the hopes they have for them, the many things they will be able to achieve together, this makes Clause snap out of his brain washing, removing the helmet that had been hiding his face since he was resurrected, Lucas and him have a moment as they are finally reunited, Claus realizes all the bad things he has done while under control of the bad guy and realizes he must atone for his crimes, he prepares a lightning attack he knows cannot hurt Lucas and cause HIM to die. "Im sorry for all the problems i caused" he says as he is dying on his dad's arm, "I must go to where mom is now", as he passes away he can hear his mother calling for him, "You just be so tired" she says. Now i know it will sound insane for people to hear a videogame of all things can make one so emotional, but damn, just recollecting these scenes for this dumb post has made me start to cry, the emotional punch of this scene is very strong, it demolished me when i played the game back in the day, but now? After my own mother passed away? I have been scared of playing this game again. I mot sure if im emotionally prepare to go though that again, even 10+ years later. That's how powerful this scene was to me.

-Elite Beat Agents, 2007 If you have played this game, you know were im going, for those who dont, EBA is a silly rhythm game about secret agent cheer leaders that are dispatched around the world to help people in need by raising their spirit and allow them to overcome adversity, the game is insanely wacky and have scenarios like helping a ninja car salesman prevent a company from stealing his company's secrets, helping a washed up baseball star fight a lava spitting golem rampaging on an amusement park and traveling back in time to help davinci paint the mona lisa. EBA is also the second game in the Ouendan series, and there is something you need to know about this series: They all include tearjerker levels to contrast with all the goofiness. "A christmas Wish" is a christmas themed level set to Chicago's "You are the inspiration" and the story to this level is positively DEVASTATING: A few months before christmas a business man tells his daughter and wife he has to go on a business trip but he promises he'll be back just in time for christmas, the girl asks him to bring back a "girlfriend" for her teddy bear. The father dies on a plane crash. When the mother breaks the news to the little girl she gets angry, crying to the skies that her dad promised he would be back for christmas. The backdrop of the stage is set the girl and the mom doing things to remember the dad, like looking through a photo album and baking a cake for his birthday, it's very sweet, but...this is EBA, if you're doing poorly you see the "bad" versions of these scenes, and in this one, one is very devastating, the little girl is having a dream where she's chasing the spirit of her dad, if you're doing well she calls for him and for a brief moment the dad stops and starts turning towards her, if you're doing bad the spirit fades away and the girl wakes up in tears. Dear goodness. But of course, if you beat the level you get this sequence of the ghost of the dad showing up on chrismas morning to fullfil his promise, giving the little girl the teddy bear he promised and having the chance to say good bye to his family.

This punches you really fucking hard in the gut. I am incapable of doing this level without ending in tears. For a time i could not even listen to this song without tearing up until, i shit you now, the deadpool movie used it on a comedy scene.

-Punch out!!, 2009 This one is one i know got me because of personal nostalgia, when i was a wee one the og NES punch out was a big part of my childhood, Punch Out!! on the wii was a masterfully crafted tribute to the franchise. To not dwell too much time on this, this game has an interesting quirk, the ending is a downer ending and it's the only ending you can get. After you beat the last opponent there is a sequence where Mac and Doc seemingly are having a disagreement, where Mac seemingly has decided that if he loses 3 times, he'll retire from boxing completely. After this you face randomly opponents from the game, the first time you lose in this mode you lose your champion title, after three loses, it's game over and the story mode becomes locked for that save file. The final cutscene is Doc walking through what seems to be a gallery with boxing memorabilia, and untold number of years later, he is alone, he spots his old bike on this gallery and rings the bell, he looks up and speak to an absent Mac, "Good job son, good job", as he leaves the camera pans to reveal he was looking at a framed photo of him and Mac on one of their training sessions. The music on this sequence is so perfect, and it was aimed at people like me, people who grew up with the franchise, the idea was making it feel like Doc was reminiscing of YOUR time with punch out when you were a kid, and to make you think about how far YOU have come since the first time you played the games in an arcade, or your nes, or snes. It's actually pretty effective and it got me.

-Regular Show, "Trucker Hall of Fame", 2012 What makes this one different from others instances of me making me emotional, it's, much like the "Angel Hare" example at the top, this one is all about WARM HAPPY FEELINGS, so for those who did not watch this episode, let me summarize it for you: One day Muscleman gets word that his dad, who was his personal hero, has passed away, and he's tasked with carrying his final wish, spread his [hat's] ashes in a place called "Trucker hall of fame", you see, Muscleman was lead to believe his dad was a legendary trucker and that earned him his admiration, but during the episode Muscleman finds out he was lied to, his dad was a forklift driver that the truckers belittled, altho feeling cheated for having been lied to he carries on with his father's wishes. Now because this is regular show, when they arrive at the trucker's hall of fame they are immediately attacked by ghost trucker for "desecrating the hall of fame" as they spread the ashes something happens: The ghost of Muscleman's dad manifests himself and saves his son, taking the chance to apologize to his son and having the chance to say his final good bye personally. Despite the inherent silliness of the show's premise, i think this episode really did a good job on expressing that sense of catharsis of making peace with the passing of a love one.

-The Final Girls, 2015 A friend suggested we watched this movie, and much like Twisted metal up there, i absolutely did not expect for this incredibly stupid comedy horror movie to hit me with any sort of emotional connection, and yet... The Final Girls opens with the main character in a car with her mom, who is an struggling C-tier actress whose biggest achievement ever was appearing on a Friday the 13th knock off movie, during this sequence they get in an accident where the mom dies and even after it's been some time since the accident the main character has not properly moved on from the passing of her mom. Her friends and some people at the college she attends are preparing this horror movie festival where the main event is they are going to play the movies from the franchise her mom was on, and they suggest she should come. Then some bullshit happens and they all end up somehow trapped in the world of the movie. A quick rundown of the rules of horror movies is explained to them, the monster cannot be defeated by fighting it, it's only the final girl who can defeat the killer, and unfortunately for them they accidentally killed the character that, in the canon of the movie, is the final girl, so they believe one of them has to become the final girl and end the movie to hopefully get out of it. The problem is, the main character is experimenting shock from interacting with her mom's character, she is not taking well to seeing her mom on the flesh and she dedicates the entire movie to "save her mom", in the climax of the movie the mom character begins to understand that she is a fictional character and the nature of her attachment to the main character, understanding that they cannot be both the final girl and if then main character wants to make it back to the real world she has to learn "To let go", choosing to sacrifice herself so there is only one final girl. It's kinda weird, that of all possible premises, this managed to make a "You need to move on" message that somehow managed to resonate with me, you might have figured out by now a running theme here, but, i was really hard for me to deal with my mother's passing even if it's been years since it happened, so it's kinda funny for me to think these are the places i have found comfort from.

-Undertale, 2015 Okay this is tumblr, i already talked about Undertale on the prologue to, whatever the fuck im doing here, you know what undertale is, you know how effective it is, Undertale is really well designed for you to grow emotionally attached to these characters, so being able to see all these characters you know have grown attached to have their happy ending on the pacifist ending does fill one with a very satisfactory warm happy feeling that can move you to tears. ...Or you can be bummed out by being a little greedy gaming bitch and taking a look at the bad ending. Because you just couldn't help yourself, could you?

-Onward, 2020 This movie did not hit me as hard as the most emotional entries on this, but it still got me, because in the end of the day the main motivation of the characters on this movie is experiencing closure, catharsis over the death of their father, for Ian it's the fact that he died before he was born so he never met him and is driven by this desire to finally see the father who he shares such a connection with on the stories everybody who knew him in life have told him, and then there is Barley, the elder brother, who did know his dad in life, but is tortured by how, as a kid, he did not properly say good bye to him because he was terrified of death and avoided being there for him in his final days. The ending for this movie is very powerful, Ian choosing to sacrifice being able to meet his dad in the flesh, even for a few minutes, in order to give Barley the chance to being able to properly make peace with his dad and properly say good bye to him. Ian doesn't even get to SEE this, he does not get to see his dad even tho it was what he wanted most of all, but he understood bringing closure to Barley was more important than his selfish desire to see his dad, someone he never knew in life.

So what have i learned from whatever the hell this trainwreck of a post is...i guess that what really gets to me, what really moves me, is when a character, maybe not even someone i can realistically relate to, gets to experience closure, catharsis and be in peace with the people who are missing on their life. The majority of these things in here, even the Angel Hare example, relate to a character being able to experience catharsis by being able to properly make pace or otherwise contact someone they lost, or their ability to move on from this world, so to speak, knowing that their affairs and in order and that their loved ones will be okay.

Things can always look dark, the world may be trying to keep you down, maybe losing someone has been specially hard for you, but it's not the end of the world, you are loved and things can get better, it always hurts and we'll never stop missing what we have lost, but the memories of happier times are there to remind us, we can be happy again, and we can move on, use those memories as your motivation, you can lead yourself to a future filled with light.

[lacedteatime]

"Lazy" is your first and only thought, really?

I've had an issue with this for a while. In the first few days of UA, Aizawa assumed that Izuku was lazy in not training his quirk, and Bakugou assumed that Izuku had been hiding his quirk.

These conclusions are lackluster.

Late bloomers are a fanon thing, so I'll leave that out, but there are multiple other explanations that the other characters could have come to if they were as smart as Horikoshi tried to write them as.

OFA was shown to break Izuku horribly. What parent would let their child use their quirk if it had that effect? Medical costs are low in Japan, but it would build up, and it would leave Izuku with permanent damage (and has, so it is a valid concern). It would have been better writing for Aizawa to have "realized" this. Bakugou canonically wouldn't due to his belief that everything and everyone revolves around him, but... Actually, Aizawa wasn't narratively written as introspective in that arc, just as someone who says a lot of things learned from experience. That isn't a true indicator of forward thinking. So perhaps this whole post is pointless.

Who cares, I'm petty.

Another reason could have been that he saw Ochako about to be crushed by the 0-pointer and had a quirk awakening, causing a minor strength quirk to evolve into a major strength quirk without the protections the body of someone who originally had such a quirk would have. This would be a less likely conclusion to come to, but it would be something a teacher might consider while wondering why a kid with no control of his quirk due to "laziness" would go to such extremes to save someone in a test for no points after not getting any points with that power. This is probably the weakest explanation because of how quirk awakenings seemed to have been thought up by the author well past these arcs, and theytherefore might not have existed in canon before their introduction.

A third reason could just be that the Midoriyas are a law-abiding family. Quirks cannot be used publicly without a license, and using OFA (Superpower to those not in the know) in private would likely destroy their apartment and the ones around it. There isn't really a way around this. The first reason combined with this one would be a very reasonable and responsible explanation for why Izuku might have not touched it outside of its activation.

This becomes a little more complicated when you factor in Bakugou and try to question his reaction, as I am doing. What comes next will likely be pointless due to how Bakugou reacted without thinking in the scenes during Aizawa's and All Night's classes (I use Eraserhead's real name because he teaches as himself instead of his hero persona while All Might teaches as his hero persona).

Once Bakugou calmed down, he could have come to the same conclusions, though he would still think Izuku had been hiding a quirk. However. Inko would know that Izuku could have been pressured into demonstrating his quirk by his peers, thus breaking him and his surroundings. She might have decided to tell Izuku to pretend he was quirkless at school. This information wouldn't be shared with Bakugou.

It would likely not be shared with Bakugou's parents either, as we have no evidence that the two moms were actually friends. That's another bit of fanon. Sure, Mitsuki was protective of Inko the one time they interacted, but who's to say that she wouldn't have been like that with any other person she just met? If they were friends, I feel like that would have been shown to push the "rivalry" message from Horikoshi. Bakugou and Izuku weren't even shown to be that close of friends either -- Bakugou was arguably closer with mini Tsubasa and finger boy.

Anyway! I'm done, I think, but feel free to come up with your own explanations characters could have considered if you want to talk about it!

My next post will be more anti-Bakugou (I know this one doesn't fit the tag too much, but if I don't include it, I might have to interact with stans), whenever that may be, but I've had this stewing for years

[ratlesshonret]

Gonna post lyrics from each song on Alice's playlist that I think really fit her.

String Theocracy "Down, down, and down I go I tell myself I'm a tough girl Down, down, and down I go I could never, ever, ever touch the soil"

Rosetta "Lonely, lonely Come back to me Rosetta No one, nowhere, nothing Will take anything, anything, anything from me Nobody, nobody, nobody ever Nobody, nobody, nobody other than you"

Lagtrain "Wheeze through the night, as my lungs burn inside As I fake through the day that never subsides If I can't call to mind all the words or the lines I'll try to ride the train wherever it will go tonight"

"The wind will cut to bits the world below Please leave me be, don't go The words I couldn't call to mind It's fine if you just let them be If that would mean that you would stay with me Just like the train I need-"

Hero "I fall down the horseback with my crippled legs And then it starts to rain, showing me it's all fake Raindrops wash down the facade, hills are painted Birdies are robotic, roses are made of clay Excitement that I feel, excitement that I feel Return them to the shelf 'cause now I understand Heroes cannot be real, heroes cannot be real I wasn't who I am, I don't know who I am"

Sustain++ "Hear me out, it's a perfect plan If you'd just SHUT UP SHUT UP Then maybe you'll see what I've endured now Hear me out It's all just sunk cost, I know But I'm not ready to stop I don't wanna stop"

Float Play "My feet in sight that feeling flies, and it floats high And somewhere deep inside, I feel I've been confined My nervous self I cannot hide Please take it somewhere out of mind"

"I really was bored in time Connecting ties that bind There's really no need to try Explaining to anyone outside my mind This feeling that can almost be drawn any way If I don't have what it takes to make it stay Then I'm a victim from today"

Cerebrite "Take my hand Spin and spin, forget all your worries Spin and spin, forget your identity Step on my shoulders Do you see the new lovely, lonely, empty, heavenly world? Captivating, hypnotizing, fascinating utopia"

Rainy Boots The entire song lmao

Lost Umbrella "Leaving soon, pleading with you Right before the rain will soak me through They can still try to kill me while I have no view And there's nothing at all I can do Letting go never came My hands stay dripping with rain Never gained a sense of things I had to face What I'd end up dropping some day"

"I'm only passing time and numbing my hands with ice And I don't like that sweet I never tried From deep inside I turn my eyes From the sight of the mess I find outside Please just take me away, any place To a place in which a flower never fades Within my brain, never knowing what's sane Now I hear just how my heart breaks"

Grown-Up's Paradise "Do you recall? We couldn't wait to become adults We dreamed, we grew And now we are stuck In a grown-up's hellish paradise (I'm down on my knees, carrying our sins)"

Process "Remember when we're young? Even if we're as fair and fair can be Not everyone gets a cookie All along, as the time goes on The river flowing between us has widened the gap"

Holy and Darkness 1 "Maybe you're right I'm not calmed down Afternoon marble tea remedy The dreams they told that you're willing to let go I hold up behind parasitical Pride and ignorance feast upon your ego Below the earth's soil, please let me rot"

[therese-lokidottir]

I think the real reason i find karli is really annoying in fawd is because sam reaction of her. I agree that karli is still young and sam like try be positive and probably thinking can change karli mind give her redemption. But that's not how work.

I feel like they try doing parallel steve- Wanda and sam- karli. But the problem is Wanda and karli have different agenda, Wanda want revenge and karli want.. Evolution?

Also when wanda attack it was only and her brother that doing attack and ultron and peoples that ultron brought but wanda never recruit anyone and beside hulk accident the victims are less and wanda have regret even it was not her fault. She no one innocent peoples died

And karli? She literally said she she will kill innocent to get what she want, and she proofing that. Even zemo literally said karli is to far gone and only death that can stop her and zemo is right.

Now, let's see Steve reaction with wanda when first face to face. Steve giving wanda choice to stop and go and wanda refuse. When they meet again after train accident, Steve clearly still pisses but not immediately attacking wanda.

And how about sam? .... He meet karli several times and even fight with her but..i don't ,it's feel flat then He defend karli when someone said karli is terrorist.... (Eeee sam what karli did basically what terrorist did so yeah she is a terrorist)

I don't know I think rather karli annoying villain situation that make me angry, sam reaction is big factor make karli villain situation getting worst

This is not a blog that care for or gives Zemo any kind of grace. No, Karli did not need to die, she wasn't some unstoppable super being. She was a single person with some enhanced strength and agility. Was she someone who firmly planted her feet in the ground and wasn't going to be talked down, sure, but sure did not need. She could have non-lethally been apprehended. Zemo is a self-important pretentious jackass. Everything that comes out of his mouth is single minded bs. Like whatever crap he said about Captain America or the Avengers being like nazi/hitler because people believe in them so much. Not only is that out of pocket and completely inaccurite, people believing in the avengers had nothing to do with how his wife and kid died. That was because of Tony Stark's hubris, messing with things he shouldn't have and not telling anyone.

This is a Zemo is a pretentions hypocritical entitle jackass, thats what you're gonna get from me

I know from the word go it's never been a thing for the MCU, but I prefer where heroes don't kill. I can accept and enjoy stories where they do, but I like when the don't and I rarely think it's necessary and I think killing the enemy is multiple ways, taking the easy way out. There is nuance and discussion to that, but that's how I feel.

Personally, I am on a very Doylist perspective of Karli. This is a character that has too much of a point. The government is doing nothing and actively pushing them out and doing. The government will not change and will no listen to people's pleads. So, Karli is made a domestic terrorist to make her side the bad guys.

For me it's like the MCU version of Spider-Man' and his's villains. Yes, I understand that in-universe these characters are petty borderline sociopathic people, but I cannot help but view it from a metatextual level in which Spidey's villains went from the rich capitalists and organized crime being the real villains to the working-class that got screwed over being the villains with the rich capitalists never even getting called out.

I stop caring exactly how the individual characters are written, and my focus goes to what the implication of the story ends up saying by making these types of people from these backgrounds the villain of the story. TFATWS has a mix race refugee who's actress is early 20s, character possible younger, who's motivated by wanting a sustainable livable home.

and the fact that TFATWS does show the failures, prejudices and corruption of the government kind of makes the whole thing worse. The radicalized youth needs to die but the politicians just get a firm talking to

[podcasts-rotting-chaos]

So uh I just finished S2 of Dungeons and Daddies and boy do I have some thoughts and feelings about one character in particular.

Normal Oak Swallows Garcia Li Marlowe the Unworthy. I love you and hate the fact you made me cry on so many occasions. I just keep thinking about him my brain is so full with him and the everlasting trauma of his family. So some thoughts that are going to be a jumble and a mess to get out, but here we go.

I don't think I've seen anyone in the fandom talk about this but I think Teenie the Teen is an actual mask that Normal uses. Like we all know he's Neurodivergent like his special interest is the one thing that keeps him grounded and he uses it (the costume) like a shield to deflect and hide his emotions. You cannot tell me once he left school he found it incredible hard as he didn't have a physical object hiding his emotions from everyone and he has so many feelings that this adventure really uncovered for him. I'm not surprised that coming back to school was incredibly difficult for him because this place used to mean so much to him but now he's gone and experienced the real world this is where he first started to realize he wasn't the same as everyone else. ALSO DO YOU THINK ABOUT THE FACT THAT THEY HAD THE REUNION IN THE EXACT SAME PLACE THAT HIS DAD TOLD HIM HE WASNT PROUD OF HIM. BECAUSE I DO.

Even his own name is a slap in the face from his dad. I have this headcannon that Hero cracked under the pressure of trying to save the world because of all of Sparrows hopes and dreams he projected it onto her in hoping she would fix his mistakes, but she couldn't handle all that pressure. In contrast Normal's name is signifier of Sparrow wants him to be, A Normal Person and Normal couldn't even live up to that, so of course his dad was disappointed in him. (This part makes me so fucking angry because no matter the shit he and Lark pulled Henry was always proud of them.) Sparrow wasn't proud of him (in Normal's eyes) until he killed god, which is something he can never recreate.

Also also. Everyone who ever loved him unconditionally died in front of him. He saw the boy he had a massive crush on bleed out and he couldn't save him and his mother got obliterated in front of him. Like his relationships are fucked. All his friends fought by his side and try to be there for him but he doesn't have the same support network as they do. So of course he distances himself after or probably when they have to go back to school.

I haven't even begun to talk about his relationship with Hermie. Like this only began cuz Hermie was tricking and deceiving him but Normal thought he could fix him. And in the end he killed him. (he technically didn't but Normal has enough guilt around his death to kill the second Hermie (Willy stampler 2.0) over again). And this creation of Hermie like those two tried to be together I know it, but how can you be with someone you remember burying?

(also also also going back to his mom) Do you think he can't trust his mother cuz she also came back when Hermie did and can't stop thinking she might different person to the one Willy obliterated and he cannot tell. Do you ever think about the fact Lark said to Normal never to trust anyone, and after this adventure he never did again. (or it took a lot of time and A LOT of therapy to even start rebuilding those relationships again)

In conclusion: I cannot stop thinking about Normal Oak and how tragic he is. I want to thank and hate Will Campos for writing and acting a fucking dweeb that my brain is going ferral over. I am sorry about the length and the ramble of this post. Normal I am going to write so much fucked up (maybe some fluff because he deserves to be happy) fanfic about you. Apologies again for the ramble and if you've read all of this wtf is wrong with you.

[inflame]

if you knew what laura was like --- what she was really like --- it would Ruin The Vibe. that's something i think about a lot, and i think it's the reason a lot of fw/wm antis hate the movie so much. it's not that "we already know who did it": you kind of don't, until you watch it. not really. there's nothing redundant about it. it turns the popular interpretation of the 'answer' on its head completely.

but, anyway. the point is you cannot romanticize the movie. you cannot spin it into anything palatable. you cannot act like it's all this Exciting Supernatural Mystery and/or that laura's interested in being a part of it. it also refutes pretty much everything people thought they knew about her relationships (unless they read the diary). whether a person went into the movie viewing laura as a hero or a villain, it didn't give them exactly what they wanted. it sides with laura, always --- empathizing with her is the main (and, really, only) point --- but it doesn't pretend she's easy to love, and it makes it impossible to misunderstand where she's coming from. even apart from all the baggage, it's not what most lynch fans want from a narrative. it's really black and white. it Gives All The Answers. it has a completely different objective than the show itself (and from anything else he's ever done, tbqh). and fans say they want to know everything, but they only tend to mean "if my theories are correct and it's all what i want it to be".

which, you know. it wasn't. it wasn't fun. it wasn't romantic. it wasn't 'spooky'. it was ugly. it was also not exploitative of laura which, let us be real, a not-small portion of people were expecting and wanting to see. but it's not sensationalized. it's not even sexualized: all of the scenes that could be described as racy (or Whatever The Fuck) are aggressively uncomfortable to watch. no one in the audience is ever allowed to fool themselves about what's going on. the movie itself is basically designed like a panic attack: like, if you're sensitive, you will physically feel it. it will make you sick. you will feel with her! you will feel like her! which... is the point. but people did not want to do that. no one wanted to associate This Story with their """quirky""" favorite tv show, much less... admit it's what it's all about. that it's all been This Story the whole time and that it always will be. that it's all laura's story, both the best and the worst parts of the fabric of the thing. that you can't take her out of it and understand any of it at all.

idk. just something i think about. i also think about the broader portrait we have of her from the diary / my own Everything About Me And How I Spend My Time and i think if we were like, viewing home videos of laura throughout the show, THEN i think people would have complained that she was like. too funny. but that's just another note on the same thought track, i.e. "people do not like for characters to have more than one aspect to them", which is what this is all about. and what i am constantly yelling about. but i digress

hi :-)

[kzele]

Basic premise that @hermesserpent-stuff and I talked about: (TSSM verse) Spidey gets unmasked by Sinister Six and they decide to perma-kidnap him. This due to a. them not wanting to fight a kid and b. Ock getting obsessive over realizing Spider-Man is actually a really smart/strong kid. The only one not on board with this is Shocker, who decides to liberate the kid and slips him Tombstone's card in the process. He separates from the Six after this and tells Tombstone how young the kid likely falls on the age range. The conversation below is a possible scenario where Tombstone and Spider-Man get real deep here. Tomby asks about why he does this and Peter keeps deflecting with humor until one day he jokingly says "I'll explain my reasons when you explain yours." Tombstone agrees and Peter does a great surprised Pikachu imitation. (I was Peter; they were Tombstone)

P: "I was joking!"

T:"I wasn't."

P: "Well, can't we respect each other's privacy for this topic?"

T: "no."

P: "Why's it so important to you, anyways? I thought we had this great professional antagonism going on. Do you really wanna spoil that?"

T: "Im quite happy to spoil our 'professional antagonism' if it means understanding why a 13 year old has taken it upon himself to fight my empire. and if that means sharing my own history, then I will" *intentially underestimating his age*

P: "I'm older than that and you know it! Try somewhere between the fifteen to twenty range; I'm not narrowing it down any farther. Why do you care about my age, anyways? And why do you think us hearing each other's reasons will change anything?"

T: "Perhaps its because I think your smart enough to understand my perspective on things. Perhaps its because I am genuinely interested to see what would drive a young teen to fight a war in this city alone. If I gave you a true answer, Im not sure youd believe me anyways. so determined to stay antagonistic.

P: "Isn't an honest crime lord an oxymoron? Besides, it doesn't matter how honest you are with me with exact reason being YOU'RE A CRIME LORD. And I wasn't under the impression I was fighting a war against anyone until you told me. My goal was and is helping people one day at a time."

T: "I dont tend to lie in my line of work over things meant to build dialogue. Do I lie as Lincoln? Perhaps. But when you tend to follow through there is much more respect and understanding. and why bother continuing to talk if some part of you wasnt interested. why even talk to me after montana talked to me about discovering your age. What is your goal with this conversation, beyond your usual veil of jokes that you use as a wall of comfort?

P: "Because I'm trying to tell you to drop it and because I don't understand what it is you really want with me anymore! It's confusing and I don't like not knowing what you're thinking. It was a lot simpler to tell when you were trying to off me like everybody else."

T: "what I want is to understand you. What Im thinking is that whatever caused you to be a hero was certainly traumatizing and definitely something that haunts you. and offing you is no longer an option I want on the table. That, and Im fairly sure montana's walk out on the six is indicative of future behavior from him if I wasnt already whole heartedly on board with changing my attitude towards you and telling my men to avoid killing you."

P: "That . . .is not something I've told anyone. Why should you know something like that before anyone else I know? Even if I did tell you, what are you hoping to get from understanding me?"

T: "Spider-man. Teenagers, while rash, dont tend to start fighting without reason. and fighting crime means a bigger reason than most. Im not a fool. and I want to understand you because you are impressive and I find myself wondering exactly who failed you... Perhaps failed is too strong a word. But i cannot help but notice that you stand alone. and I am curious abot the why." *tombstone is not entirely sure what he'll gain from understanding. better manipulation sure. but something else is pushing him to ask and he is unable to lable it*

P: *turns his head away from Tombstone's face* "Why not? No one else has to get hurt this way."

T: *tombstone is speaking softly now* "Yes no one else is hurt. But you are. And you, despite whatever it is that happened in your past, certainly have value. It might be hard to hear, especially if you've been told otherwise. But no teenager should face the wrath and cruelty of the world alone; crime fighting ones included." *A part of him is self reflecting as his own time as a teen, alone and dealing with the world.*

P: "It's my choice to do this, just like it's yours to commit crimes. What are you even trying to say here? It's not like you're going to help me fight crime. Plus, your path makes you even more alone than me. *pause as it kicks in* Is that why you're going through this hyper-focused empathy kick? Because you think that we're similar?"

T: "Im not sure what Im trying to say *shrugs at the admission which is strategic* Maybe seeing someone potentially burn out or get snuffed out by life has broken past my barriers and reached my cold heart. *deflecting*

P: "Uh, huh. Because you haven't seen anything so harsh in your line of work before, right? You have a boatload of supervillains that went through rough times. Marko and O'Hirn, for instance? I don't see you doing any of this for them, so I gotta ask: is this really just a matter of age to you?"

T: "Yes." *lies, he cannot help but see himself in spiderman in some way. he has no idea why*

P: *looks at him* "I call bullcrap, but whatever. Okay, fine. Why do you do what you do? There. I asked it."

T: "Many people told me that I would never amount to anything, and that I shouldnt even try. and i listened to them for a while. till about 21 i ran around under other peoples orders, failed out of school, and was in and out of prison for petty theft, arson, and assault. and then i realized I wanted some control over my life and wanted to fix the problems around me. so i started taking over the underground and fixing it. At least thats the short version of everything."

P: "Thats sucks, but what makes your story any different from the others I fought? Doctor Octopus has claimed similar things about wanting to better run things, but I think we both know that's his ego and anger issues talking there. From my understanding, he got stepped on a lot, too."

T: "Whats different is I dont go after teenagers intentionally like Ock does. And the changes Ive made have actually improved a lot of this city. You werent alive when I was growing up. Not to come across as egotisical, but the areas of the city under my control are far better than they once were. between removing sellers from schools and controlling where fights of petty thugs occur and removing major gang wars happening every few weeks on most streets and running genuine charity outreach, this city has changed for the better. and maybe you dont see it and/or dont agree with it. But I stand by the work that the big man has been able to do.

P: *frowns under the mask* "Maybe, but why keep being a part of the violence now that you can get out of it? It still hurts people. I know you're certainly not the worst option this city has when it comes to running things, but a lot of death still happens under you both directly and *slight pause* indirectly.

T: "someone will always be the big man. The city will always have crime. People will always be cruel. I made my choice and face my sins, knowing the fate of the city if someone else took my place."

P: "Sins which includes trying to kill me after I scared some of your thugs too much, despite the fact I never hurt them. The only thing I hurt there was your bottom line."

T: "If you think thats all you were doing, I envy your view of the world."

P: *confused tilt of the head* "I'm not following. What's there to envy? What else was I supposedly doing?"

T: *blinks* "You do know that one method of territory encroachment for mobs and mafias is crime prevention. perhaps I can better explain this from a business angle. Do you remember blockbusters?"

P: ""Okay, so I encroached on your territory. I think you're going to explain further because I'm still not getting it. You thought I was part of someone else's organization moving in on your rackets?"

T: Some what. Blockbuster took over the rental market by coming in with lower prices and once the other stores could not compete it took over and jacked up the prices. Often crime lords do the same, come in with protection and then start charging for it once they own the territory. I though you may have been an initial sting operation to test the water. Until I saw you starting to deal with the likes of Vulture. It was rather concerning, given that spiders were the calling card of none of the crime bosses I was familiar with. and unknowns are a lot more dangerous than typical take overs."

P: "I get how protection rackets work. *snorts* It's kinda funny you thought I was part of a rival shadow mob. What about afterwards, though? When you knew otherwise that wasn't just targeting you or trying to take over."

T: "An annoyance that made me network look weak and ripe for taking over. Had more than one gang fight. Montana's Enforcers and Hammerhead had quite a few rough weeks before things resettled into the status quo when everyone realized that you were an exception, not the rule."

P: *looks slightly sheepish* "Uh, not exactly my intention to start gang fights, or at least not like that. I didn't realize they got 'inspired' by my own fights."

T: *attempts to be reassuring* "I can see that now. But back then I wasnt sure what to think. Not like I had the ability to call and ask. Dont stress to much over it. they were small compared to what they could have been."

P: "Fair enough. Were there any casualties?" *a little worried still, but also trying to keep from telling his story for as long as possible*

T: "Not as many as there might have been. Given Montana's new suit, he was able to knock out a lot more people than normal. Now. Enough about my operations and thought on your first forays into the limelight of the underground. Ive shown my cards. might i see yours?"

P: "I was hoping you'd forget. Fine. I got my powers due to a lab accident. I didn't realize what had happened to me until I felt sick. Hot and cold flashes, senses dialed up to the nth degree, and my whole body was in a lot of pain. I passed out and woke up like this."

T: "Forgive my pressing, but I dont think that is enough to drive you to fight criminals all over the city."

P: "It's not. I didn't start out trying to do this; I just wanted to make some money for my family. So, I did some prize-fight type stuff, right up until I was cheated by the manager of this one establishment. Said I needed the money and I won it fair and square. He told me it wasn't his problem, but he sure changed his tune when his money got stolen. He yelled at me to catch the thief as he ran by."

T: *listening without interrupting*

P: *voices catches* "I told him. . .that it wasn't my problem. It felt good at the time to say that to him. I forgot about this when I returned home to the man who raised me; he was shot dead. I followed his murderer to the warehouse where the police had him trapped. Care to take a guess as to the guy's identity?"

Part 1 End

[the-technorats]

percy series ep 3 thoughts

so you can't rate shows on letterbox'd so i'm going to log my pjo thoughts here: (spoilers for ep3) (watched 27 dec 2023)

oracle scene was funny. for all the show onlys, it seems as though grover is the one kind of being built up as the character who's going to betray percy (at least in the beginning of this ep), which is an interesting choice.

on the action sequences (part 1): i do think the action sequences are pretty lackluster. when i rewatched the percy jackson lightning thief movie, the action and violence and reactions seemed very proportionate - like, the appearance of a horrifying monster actually had impact, whereas i feel like in the show, the pacing and choreography make it seem pretty banal.

the fight with the fury on the bus was uninteresting and didn't seem like much of a fight at all. annabeth's supposed to be quick and athletic and a really skilled knife fighter (skilled enough that she can even use a knife as her primary weapon instead of a sword) but there so far hasn't really been any proof of that. i'm willing to be a lot more generous though because the actors are very young and the target audience is clearly much younger than i am as well, and it's obvious that for those reasons they're trying to avoid violence/body horror/gore. however, the fight scene with clarisse in ep 2 was incredibly well-shot and choreographed, and it had action and movements that felt real and impactful, so i don't know why they don't try to achieve the same things with the other fight/action sequences.

on medusa: i was so interested by the way they were going to decide to portray medusa's story, especially because of sally's comment in ep 1 to percy about perseus being a hero because 'he killed monsters' like medusa: "who said she was a monster?"

i loved em's line: "the gift the gods gave me is that I cannot be bullied anymore," which initially insinuated to me that this adaptation of medusa is the one who was sexually assaulted by poseidon in athena's temple, so athena made it so no man could pull that with her ever again, but then they went with the "athena decided I embarrassed her and needed to be punished" story which i kind of feel like isn't totally consistent with the "gift" narrative? i mean they can be mutually exclusive in that what may have been originally a punishment from a god can be taken as a gift since she has to live with and make the best of it, but when medusa called herself "a survivor" and talked about "bullies" (a term that makes sense in the context given that it's a kid's/middle grade show) i will admit i was hoping it would go a different direction. alternately though if she were a SA survivor i don't know if killing her would have been the right move in the end lmao and ik they had to kill her for the plot.

i do think there was a more overarching message of the importance of understanding the unheard/unrepresented sides of stories as well as the lesson for annabeth that the gods aren't infallible and morally just but are petty and vindictive and cruel and humanlike. so i think the story was dealt with pretty well, all things considered.

on medusa and the action sequences (part 2): again, i think medusa's death scene was pretty anticlimactic. (this is not because i see them as adaptations of equal quality or even on the same playing field at all, but again,) to compare it to the pjo:tlt movie - the movie's medusa fight scene had a lot more impact; the tension and fear and stakes felt a lot more heightened and real while still being quite comedic/entertaining.

cool idea, in the show, using the hat to turn medusa invisible, but again, i wasn't ever actually convinced that the characters felt scared, under pressure, winded/tired after fighting, or even emotionally scarred by the intensity of the moment/having to decapitate someone. while all of the other scenes portray high emotions very impactfully and earnestly (i.e. sadness, wistfulness, loneliness, hurt/comfort), i have yet to be convinced that any of the demigods have been even a little bit frightened of any of the monsters, from the first fury attack at the met, and this unfortunately makes the stakes seem much lower.

while i understand the focus of the show is on character building (mainly through the dialogue), i don't see why the fight/action scenes can't be just as visually compelling and impactful. the emotional tension between the characters and the depiction of each character's internal conflicts, while powerful, can only do so much if the plot itself isn't supporting those developments, and I feel like the addition of the action sequences in the books serves to elevate the storyline to match the emotional stakes. they can tell the story as much as they want thru voice-over and dialogue, but the characters' physical actions represent just as much about the characters and their choices and motivations as their direct interactions with each other. i think maybe some of this stems from not wanting the story to be misinterpreted or to in any way resemble the movies, but you have to trust your audience. you can't just say everything explicitly, and if you do have to, then i don't think a tv show is the right medium in which to tell the story, which is typically my main issue with book-to-movie/tv adaptations.

anyway, while this seems like a lot of criticism, it's really only that one overarching problem that stands out to me. i obviously love the source material and (anyway would argue that i have to love it in order to want to think about it this much) the show itself, and the actors, and this has absolutely EVERYTHING to do with the fact that it's extremely extremely obvious how thought-out, how deliberate every single minute detail is. if there's one thing at all that matters to me, it's creators who care about their work, and this is a perfect example of ones who do.

on tv show percabeth: BRO "I CHOSE HER 'CAUSE I COULDN'T IMAGINE WE'D EVER BE FRIENDS" ???? FUCKING INSANE THING TO PUT IN THE SCRIPT LIKE?? they were NEVER this explicitly antagonistic toward each other in the books holy FUCK i mean. this drastically changes the trajectory and future impact of the slow-burn. the books were strangers to friends to lovers - maybe strangers to annoyances to friends to lovers if we're being generous, but the show is really going for that enemies to lovers arc huh. the fan edits are gonna go so fucking crazy once we start getting toward the final 2 books. and for them to only have one itty-bitty kiss midway thru botl with no emotional catharsis or resolution until the tail end of tlo? we're all gonna be absolutely frothing at the mouth for it when it finally finally finally comes around.

excited for next week!! i've been dying for the st. louis arch scene.

[martsonmars]

Happy Sunday, friends! And happy Easter/bunny day/chocolate day/egg hunt day to those who celebrate <3

Thank you to everyone who keeps tagging me even though I keep going MIA, and thanks @hushed-chorus and @stitchyqueer for the tag today! I'm still struggling with writing, but this past week I started two new WIPs and had some ideas I'm really excited about, so I'm feeling a bit hopeful. Sharing something from both my new WIPs (so a thousand sentences and not 6) because I miss validation hahaha.

1. Story I started writing on Friday to process my feelings about something that happened that day. I don't know when I'll continue it because I need to be in the right headspace. This is the end of it, because it's the happiest part and that's what I needed to write 😂

“Right, sorry, I'll leave you to your...” He waves at the storage unit, and Basil can't blame him for the confusion. What do you call something like this? The physical trace of three generations of nostalgia and silences and grief piling up on the shoulders of one. “I'll leave you be.”

But no, this is wrong.

This isn't what Basil meant.

He cannot stay here alone with the ghosts of his past.

“Are you going home?” he asks Simon.

“Dunno,” Simon shrugs. His entire body goes along with it. It makes Basil hope. “Am I?”

That's an opening. An invitation. The chance for Basil to grasp the moment and let himself be.

“I need to eat so much cake that my stomach will hate me for a month,” he says, and Simon's entire face lights up like a kid's on Christmas morning.

“I know just the place.”

Second WIP and tags under the cut!

2. This one was supposed to be fun and flirty but for now it's mostly melancholy feelings. Sharing two snippets because I can't pick one hahaha.

Nine days since he showed up at their monthly showdown in an apron, his mask barely covering a flushed face and a halo of windswept curls making him look like a warrior angel come to bring an end to all sinners.

“Being a hero doesn't pay the bills,” he shrugged, yanking off the apron and throwing it off the roof. (His bicep flexed even more beautifully when it wasn't covered in red spandex.) “And not all of us have the luxury of daddy's money.”

‘Not all of us’ indeed, Baz thought, but he couldn't let the way those words were affecting him show. He couldn't stop embodying the image of the perfect villain he'd worked so hard on, or what would be left?

//

This shouldn't surprise Baz either. It doesn't.

Of course this is the kind of place that would make him feel at home, because isn't it what heroes do?

The real heroes, not the ones hiding in comic stripes and showy clothes and sensational acts that break more than they fix. Not the untouchable ones.

But the heroes who know that the only way to change the world in a way that matters is to hold out a hand when people fall even though you can't fix the bumps in the road that made them falter.

To help them stay afloat and swim to shore even though you can't relieve them from the weights that are sinking them down.

I hope I can finish this one soon!

@wellbelesbian @urban-sith @tea-brigade @sillyunicorn @mostlymaudlin @facewithoutheart @palimpsessed @otherpeoplesheartachept-2 @you-remind-me-of-the-babe @forabeatofadrum @johnwgrey @fatalfangirl @prettylightsbigcity @whatevertheweather @confused-bi-queer @moodandmist @bookish-bogwitch @letraspal @dragoneggos @captain-aralias @takitalks @cutestkilla @ileadacharmedlife @gekkoinapeartree @bazzybelle @aroace-genderfluid-sheep @basiltonbutliketheherb @ivelovedhimthroughworse @nightimedreamersworld @artsyunderstudy @ionlydrinkhotwater @yellobb @orange-peony @ic3-que3n @whogaveyoupermission @yeonjunenby @erzbethluna @larkral @chen-chen-chen-again-chen @shrekgogurt @raenestee @onepintobean @theearlgreymage @technetiumai @jbrrring @brilla-brilla-estrellita @thewholelemon @theimpossibledemon

[jormofyore]

Mental Illness and TTRPG's

Today's post is a little more serious, and it's something I've wanted to touch upon for years, and that is the inclusion of mental illnesses in TTRPG's. For reference, I have schizoaffective disorder, which is a weird combination of schizophrenia and bipolar type 1, along with ADHD, added onto having a minor in psychology and a lifetime of experienced with this damnable illness.

Last year, I presented at NEPCA, an international pop culture conference, on the representation of schizophrenia in the video game Hellblade: Senua's Sacrifice. Might have even got a couple of awards from it, which is pretty cool. That said, I gave some rather strong critiques of the game, and it isn't the first time I have encountered mental illness in media and games; don't get me started on crime shows. The point I want to make is how clumsy games often are when representing mental illness in their medium, especially TTRPG's. Mental illness is too often treated as a blunt weapon when utilized in games, and I'm not entirely sure of why. Maybe it's because of a lack of a understanding, or maybe it's because it's an edgy inclusion, but too often, these illnesses are meant to create a tragic character of some kind or give their purpose meaning. Give wikipedia a glance when listing fictional characters with schizophrenia, and you'll notice quickly how many of them are villains or used as a kind of comic relief. It's a tiresome trope, I assure you.

The main question you should always ask yourself before "giving" a mental illness to a villain or hero is: "why do they need it?" Sure, it may make the fallen paladin feel more authentic to have PTSD, and rightly so, it would be traumatic to make an error that you are unapologetic about that cost everything that defined you. But what is it about psychosis that draws people to give it to their villains and other characters in an effort to flesh them out? What purpose does it provide? What does it add to the character to make them see or hear things or fall into random, serious depressions? Why does it matter? These are just a smattering of questions that are important before deciding to make a character edgy. Once, a couple decades ago when I wasn't properly medicated, I was in a LARP and became afflicted with a Malkavian's Total Insanity. Lucky for me, I was already in the throes of a psychotic break that evening, and got voted for bonus experience points for what everyone thought was some of the best roleplaying they'd ever seen. Hilarious, I know. But recognize that some people's fiction is another persons real life that they often cannot escape before you include that "fiction" in a game. I'll never forget the mess of a book Hero's of Horror was for Pathfinder 1 and their inclusion of various mental illnesses, including schizophrenia, as a penalty inducing trait. A bit embarrassing to see my illness turned into a game mechanic, bro.

I'm not telling anyone not to include mental illness, because games are about exploration and agency. I want people to experiment and play about with what it means for a fictional world to have aspects of seemingly inescapable realities. It may seem funny to include a clown who is told what pranks to do by the voices he hears, thus foiling all kinds of divination magics. But what I am asking is that you just ask yourself a few questions about the purpose of including mental illness in a game before you pursue making it a theme. Be sensitive that it may cause discomfort due to how close to home it is. It's a tricky topic that is potentially going to upset or offend a person you may never expect, so all I ask is to treat the inclusion of these illnesses responsibly.

[itsuki-minamy]

"AYAKA" (VOICE DRAMA 11)

Translation: Naru-kun

Audio: Here

>> Previous chapters: 01/02/03/04/05/06/07/08/09/10

Jingi: Oooh, it hurts! I'm drowning! It is painful! It is exhausting! What the hell is this?! Can someone explain to me what is happening?!

Give me a break! I mean, please give me a break, really!

I mean, it was Yukito who just showed up?! No doubt about it!

He was responding to me, so it wasn't a hallucination, it was real!

Ah, but what? Like this? I should be dead, right?

I'm dead now, right? But why was he...?

Does he really have psychic powers? Can he communicate with the dead? Because he is a dragon, is everything possible?

No, no, no, no! That's not what's important now!

It doesn't matter what you do right now. So, hurry up! Please help me quickly!

Yukito! Yukito! Yukito!

Shit, it doesn't work! I cannot hold it anymore! I'm drowning! I'm drowning!

No... Wait... What kind of body do I have now?!

Actually, I don't think so, right? After all, I'm dead. In that case, there is no such thing as drowning, right?

This pain is so painful, maybe it's just my mind?

So... I guess if I just go with the flow... Strangely, I didn't back down, I feel comfortable... Relaxed...

Guuaaah... What?! Gaaaah...! Eh?!

No, no! No way! If I give up, I will die!

I'm already dead, but I feel like I'm going to die more seriously!

Damn, why do I have to deal with something like this?!

I have successfully accomplished a once-in-a-lifetime task! I am the savior who sacrificed himself to save the island! What is this treatment towards such a tragic hero?

Normally, I should go to heaven and get drunk with heavenly wine, right?

I don't even know what that means and I'm drowning in gurgles?!

I am doing something wrong?

Damn, if this was the case, I should have done whatever I wanted! Things like that and that...

No, no! I've done everything I can think of right now!

Of course! I was planning to ascend to heaven without any regrets in my life! But seriously, I don't understand why something like this was waiting for me!

Even if it is unreasonable! Anyway, how long will this last? Until next week?

Am I going to be like this until next week? Kaaaah...! It's a joke?!

Yukito, Yukito! Please come quickly! Oh, help me!