#( this went in a whole nother direction as i intended at first )

[drachcnblut]

❝ let’s go to the haunted house! oh, please, please, please, please?! ❞

How could he say no when Vika was showing such excitement? Tiernan was sure she meant the haunted house at the funfair but had a much better idea. "Sure thing, but let's go to the real deal." He cocked an eyebrow with a promising smile on his lips. It was easy to find an actually haunted house in Scotland and Tiernan had a few on his hands to choose from - one of them happened to be just a few minutes nearby.

"I hope you're ready for some ghosts and spooky stuff!" The house was huge, moreso a mansion and he recalled the stories his mother used to tell him about the property. Tiernan believed in ghosts and anything supernatural or paranormal, how could he not? His sister was somewhat of a witch and he had dragons as companions, so the existence of ghosts wasn't something to rule out. Plus, there was a fairy standing right next to him, so things couldn't get any crazier.

His voice dropped and he tried to sound tempting and mysterious at the same time but he couldn't help but grin sheepishly. "Beware of the ghosts that wander through the house and condemn anyone to madness who dares to disturb them." Obviously, he was joking and tried to create an amusing, yet pleasent atmosphere.

He pushed open the heavy wooden door, only to be greeted with a cloud of dust and musty smell. "God, someone hasn't cleaned their house in a long time." In an attempt to cover up his own growing fear, he nudged her with his elbow. Believing in ghosts led to a fear of the unseen and he wasn't very fond of anything horror related. Tiernan enjoyed to watch a thriller or horror movie from time to time (especially during the autumn and halloween season), but encountering real ghosts wasn't necessarily a need he wanted to fulfil.

"The honor is yours, ma'am." In a sweeping gesture he pointed to the open door of the haunted house, waiting for Vika's reaction. He wondered if she would actually be brave enough to enter the haunted house.

[vyladromeave]

26 and 28?

26. you're tasked with writing an official side story/spin-off roleplay (void paradox, mermaid tale, upside-down story), what would that look like?

Every day I am haunted by the fact that the original mcd spin-off stuff just became mystreet and i know I could do a modern au of MCD better than jess. I know it. but i cant pick that as my answer because mystreet already exists and is bad.

I kinda struggled with this for a while ngl, i have a lot of reject answers that will not be seeing the light of day. I'm an MCD guy, so my instinct is to do something more MCD-based, potentially still set in MCD's world. But keeping it within the same world but different characters usually makes series that are boring and hard for people to get attached to (for an Aphmau-specific example, see Phoenix Drop Days). But series with characters that are AU-ified and altered are often very hit or miss for me... I really didn't like how series like mermaid tale and royal tale treated returning characters, and mystreet is a whole separate train wreck entirely.. It's very hard to make things different but also respectful to the original source.

BUT. THAT BEING SAID. In the middle of this i was reminded of the au behind this post, the role swap of The Jury and Shadowknights, and I feel like that would be fun to cover!!! I need to make a whole nother post about the au as a whole just to solidify my ideas about it tbh. i have ideas.

But i think overall just covering like a short retelling (its just a spinoff, unfortunately I cannot cover all of MCD) of a time where we get a bunch of people involved on both sides on screen would be fun. I'm specifically thinking of the arc at the end of S1 with Katelyn and Lillian in town. I think a lot of the shadowknights and jury share a lot of parallels with each other already, which would be fun to explore, but also fun to look into how these people being a part of different organizations would change who they are and how they act massively.

28. if you could ask jess one question about the series and recieve a direct answer, what would it be? 

now here is where i get to cheat. because

i was asked this question TWO ADDITIONAL TIMES. so I get 3 questions total now. thats how this works. yes this is just straight up cheating. thank you.

QUESTION 1: i gotta give it to stellisketches. this is exactly where my mind went first too. i wish i could just say "Give me all your planning notes and script documents because I know you have them you mentioned them on stream years ago please let me see them." But that is unfortunately a demand, not a question. So asking about the intended direction and ending of S3/MCD as a whole will have to do.

^this is the main one that i would most want an answer to. The rest of these definitely aren't as important, but they do haunt me personally:

QUESTION 2: WHO THE FUCK ARE THE OTHER JURY MEMBERS AND WHAT ARE ALL THEIR TITLES. Its called the fucking Jury Of Nine, we're still very notably missing a whole third of their members. No, Garroth doesn't count, he was a temporary sub-in. We have 6 official members. We almost have more people on the official "could have been a jury member if we needed one replaced" list than there are actual jury members. Well ok not really, but it's closer than it should be. We didn't even know Ivan was supposed to be a jury member until Rebirth. Have we seen the others in og mcd (or other series?) and Jess just forgot to mention they were Jury like Ivan, or was Ivan a last-minute promotion plotwise? Is Zane supposed to be a member? To me it seemed like he was supposed to be leading them, but not strictly a part of them. They just answered to him. But was that me misreading things? Is Zane the secret 9th member? (I know a lot of people consider him one because of the S1 finale, since he powers up like Garroth does and Garroth seems to have Katelyn's like weird jury-relic thing. but ONE: the jury-relic things are stupid and never brought up again and TWO: Zane has Esmund's relic at this point, that's what's powering him up, not a jury-relic-thing. So?????) ARE there even other plans for the Jury members we haven't seen? Do they exist to Jess? Does she have any others in mind at all? I need to know these things. Also why do so many of them use scythes or have scythe in their titles. That's stupid. Stop that.

QUESTION 3: WHO THE FUCK IS VYLAD'S BIOLOGICAL FATHER, WERE THERE ANY PLANS FOR HIS (biological) PATERNAL SIDE OF THE FAMILY. Is this a bad question? Yes. Does Jess likely actually have any plans here? Probably not. Was obscuring Vylad's bio dad's name done so that Jess didn't have to invent a whole new character, and not because she had someone in mind and wanted to obscure who it was? Yeah probably. Are there better things to ask? Yeah. But this haunts me every single day. We don't even know if he's alive. We don't even know his fucking name. Is there an actual reason he looks like every other brown haired character in the series, or did Jess just want those sweet sweet Jeffory parallels? I need to know if there was at least some plan here, even if it was stupid. I need to know if Jess was just pulling shit directly out of her ass or not. It's important. I'm the Vylad guy you have to let me have this.

(ask prompts from here!)

[luasworkshop]

Oh man you guys are curious! Ok so...

The following take may be wrong - I'm just doing my best to express a feeling:

Tinfoil hat 'Was Valerius Supposed to be the 6th LI instead of Lucio?' rambling beneath the cut:

*Puts on tinfoil hat* Ok... so... like, I don't know if I can attribute this to more than 'vibes' but I feel like at SOME point Valerius was meant as the 6th route instead of Lucio. He seems better developed within the prologue and other LIs routes to exist as a full on LI than Lucio who seems to initially just be poised as a secondary villain (to the Devil - not fundamentally a bad thing, secondary villains can be a lot of fun).

All of the routes of the Arcana are focused around helping self-actualize the LI's and helping them cope with and manage their responses to previous traumas. To get to the upright ending you interact with them in ways that support their own personal growth away from their most self-destructive tendencies. To get the reversed endings you let them sink further into precisely that. Valerius is perfectly poised to fill out this route just the same as the other LI's - we know from canon he made his deal in desperation, being overwhelmed when Lucio passed and Nadia was unconscious. He bristles with agitation and anger at anything that upsets the hegemony he feels is established and keeps Vesuvia running (as the 'reversed' heirophant would - sticking to traditions that no longer work.) He has chained himself to order and security - and in a possible upright for him we could see him break from tradition and conformity to (as with all the routes except Portia) solve the Count's murder and reverse the fallout of Lucio's poor decision making. In his reversed we could see him fail to break away from tradition and seize control over a corrupted and decaying Vesuvia spiraling into his demon form. To me - these seem like super familiar character beats to the first three routes (Nadia, Azra, and Julian).

Cases for Valerius:

A) There's more than enough of him the prologue to put in a Memory image, moreso than the other courtiers and certainly as much as say, Muriel.

B) He shows up in all of the routes almost as much as the various other LIs do, his story intertwining with everything else in complex ways that reveal bits of his background and motivations (it varies and of course his presence leans heavily into Nadia's route BUT he's still in say, Muriel's route having his own little redemption arc.)

C) He has potential for a mark - given his deal, chains, and eventual demon form.

D) This is a bit negated by the fact he's a courtier (and there are secondary characters that do) but he has his own sprites, unique design, and distinct character (unlike, say, the guards or other palace staff).

E) He doesn't just 'fit' with the other courtiers and their theming - he is unique in being brought into all this recently and trying to make his way through a lot more than he's able to (boy is in over his head).

F) He has an intense, personal relationship to his patron Arcana, the same as all the other LIs EXCEPT LUCIO (who is the Fool - not the Devil, until the Devil is using him as a puppet).

Cases against Lucio:

A) What even WAS his route? I'm sorry I don't think 'vague adventure story' is appropriate for a character who is the secondary antagonist in four out of six routes - especially someone guilty of kidnapping, coercion, blackmail, and, literally the source of the plague which killed many MANY people. Go full villain or go full redemption, not just... what smacks of pandering (I can't support this - it's just... vibes... yanno? I've seen when writers fandom pander before and this feels like trying to tread the most boring middle road to appeal to the widest audience and totally loosing the character somewhere in the middle. Death by committee and all that.)

B) He has very little personality (outside of hedonist asshole) in the routes up until we get to half-way through Portia's route and then in his own - he's simply a stooge for the Devil in all of the other routes (most of his character building in Muriel's route is... well it's MORGA'S character building, the devil is wearing Lucio like a festive little coat).

C) He serves as a better foil for Valerius than the other way round - he represents the traditions that Valerius seeks to uphold, but has so badly corrupted them that the city is falling into ruin. Lucio seems to just see Valerius as a party favor or general nuisance (which explains why he doesn't really show in Lucio's route)... I'm trying to say it's weird to underutilize a fairly major side-character in a route focused on a former count.

D) Back to those Upright and Reversed endings... sure his fit alright enough (either fucking off to do whatever, or turning into a pretty pet who doesn't have to make decisions) but compared to the ways in which say - Nadia either takes on all responsibility herself or allows you to help and lets herself become a fully complex person of her own making... Lucio's are very much simply reactionary rather than internal growth. His character either wasn't given or never was intended to have enough depth to carry the weight of a full story-line.

So what do I think happened? I think somewhere between the first three routes and deciding on the second three a decision was made to make Lucio a love interest over Valerius. I don't think Nyx Hydra anticipated his popularity as a character off the bat, but when looking to expand the story had some choices to make with their direction - they went with (what I feel is) the weaker of two story options due to Lucio's popularity in the fandom (and then took his story a whole... direction which is a whole 'nother rant.) Valerius would have been in keeping with the other LIs, Lucio had potential but it didn't come to much (especially as his development is otherwise rather lackluster.)

So ANYWAY I think maybe at some point Valerius was slated as a love interest (given his development) but it got scrapped in favor of Lucio (due to fandom popularity).

*Takes off tinfoil hat*

But... that's just my own rambling - I could be wrong, maybe they DID plan a Lucio route from the start and I'm just off my nut, but something smells like milquetoast fan-service on his route to me.

[man-i-dont-know]

BNHA Chapter 160: Thoughts and Spoilers

Holy crap, a chapter with just villains is just as horrifying as it sounds. So lets get right into it.

Compress is really starting to seem like a humble dude, complimenting Toga and calling himself and old man. I am genuinely curious as to what made him turn towards villainy. And while I was just saying that Compress was being humble, the fact that Twice brought Toga back to her senses and the fact that Toga was able to deduce how the police would move Overhaul and his crew is really incredible. It shows an in depth knowledge of how the police system works, and I am not sure if Toga has that knowledge because she is super smart, has a ton of experience already, or if she somehow started with knowledge of how police officers work (this option is scariest to me, cause the only way I can imagine this is if she is related to a police authority, which might explain why her face is under wraps).

So we found out their goal now, The Villain Alliance wanted the serum, which is damn horrifying. Since Shigaraki is the main antagonist in this series, he will inevitably use the serum much more effectively than Overhaul managed to. So... logically... that means someone much more prominent to the story will lose their quirk. Unfortunately, that means a repeat of Mirio, but probably even worse. Jeez, I’m scaring myself. Moving on.

Spinner seems to have cold feet, which is an incredibly good sign for the protagonists. Spinner was inspired by Stain’s words like Dabi and Toga, but he was affected much more purely than either of them. Spinner genuinely seems to want to improve the Hero society while Shigaraki wants to destroy, Toga wants to do whatever pleases her, and Dabi... I am still unsure about his motivation, he seems only loosely inspired by Stain. Maybe Dabi liked the fact that someone was able to stand up to society’s norms, fight for his beliefs, and is willing to die for them. That guess is based on Dabi’s first encounter with Shigaraki, “I don’t know, do these guys really stand for anything?” Or something like that. But back to the point, if Spinner is not on Shigaraki’s side, it is possible that he will change sides or become a mole. He has already saved Deku once, so I think it is likely.

Then the sand hero shows up, honestly, it was not reassuring. it seemed like most of the Alliance was right there and there was one hero. Dabi seemed really happy to be able to open fire, and I am thinking he likes to fight, which may be odd since before he joined the Alliance he wasn’t attached to any big crimes. Not only Dabi opened fire (pun intended), Shigaraki jumped in as well, and this disturbs me. Shigaraki has grown incredibly rapidly  since his first appearance. He gave up really quick during the U.A. raid, now he is one of the first people to attack a police caravan, against someone who is their “natural enemy.” Not only this, but he did it as a distraction, like holy crap, that shows maturity, intelligence, and a willingness to die for his cause, Shigaraki has developed just as quickly if not faster than the 1-A students in the opposite direction. Compress even launched Shigaraki onto the next car, which Shigaraki then freaKING CRASHED WHILE HE WAS STILL INSIDE OF THE VEHICLE.

Dabi then corners the hero and seems pleased with his reputation as a murder has grown. I have no clue were Dabi stands as a character. Does he want to prove himself? Is he just incredibly sadistic? Does he have a cause? I’ll leave the “is he a Todoroki” question out because that is a whole nother can of worms. Back on track, Compress then compresses the hero. We have only ever seen him compress things fully, now we know that it is possible to compress parts, living the victim either dead or wounded (at least that was my impression).

Shigaraki then finds Overhaul, and a scene that should not have been as emotional as it was happened. For starters, Overhaul looks tired and defeated, and he is maskless. Next, Shigaraki states that he is going to do something worse than killing him. Then, Compress takes Overhaul’s left arm. After that, Shigaraki takes the serum that Overhaul had worked on for who knows how long from him. Which Shigaraki follows up with destroying Overhaul’s right arm. Finally, Shigaraki finishes with an extravagant “I’ve destroyed you entirely, I’ve maimed you so you will never be as good as you were, and everything you have worked for will now go to your enemies.” Like holy crap. That is the most thorough dismantling I’ve ever seen a villain accomplish. It was a total victory for the  Alliance. Overhaul knows this, his face says it, and for someone who spent that last some years torturing a little girl, you feel empathy despite knowing that you shouldn’t feel bad. Kai watched his dream die and his means of accomplishing get destroyed, again the most thorough dismantling of anyone by a villain I have ever seen.

Then the Alliance leaves Overhaul to either burn to death or to be collected by police officers again. Compress does a fancy little bow, Dabi stretches out and Shigaraki claims the Alliance will be the “one.” Which again shows more progress on Shigaraki’s side, “for us” rather than “for me.” 

So that is about it, but I want to talk about something, this will be long so you can ignore it if you want. This chapter was such an incredibly display of villains that I was both scared and amazed. Villain in movies, comics, literature and most any medium have a sense to them that I had not noticed until I read this chapter. Villains typically are beaten at most steps of their plan, or at least repressed by the heroes to keep their evil to a minimum, but their plan progresses normally for whatever reason. Ultimately they are defeated before they accomplish their goal, which leaves as people with evil ambitions with very little to actually show for it. They also seem to become sedated or depressed after capture, as if their motivation or personality vanished (of course all of these claims are broad assumptions and generalizations). Shigaraki is not that type of villain. His first plan to raid U.A. and his random destruction with Stain both failed and followed the regular theme, but every action after that was much realer. When he captured Bakugou, his plan eventually failed and he lost All for One, seemingly the only person he has ever cared for. Since that event, he has been learning, he has been active and smart. He doesn’t show his face unless it is a tactical move. The entire arc went exactly according to his plan. It was brilliantly executed in the most underhand way, which is fitting for a villain, let others do the work, and while our aim is at the weakest, strike hard. All of the Alliance members really started to feel like real criminals this round too. Dabi is pleased with his murders, Shigaraki now has an insanity streak that is brighter than a parrot, Compress is seemingly calm but does not care about inflicting deep pain for the sake of a grudge, Toga is brilliantly convoluted, Twice is genuinely disturbed and Shigaraki genuinely loves inflicting pain. None of these traits will disappear. After they are captured, they won’t appear like depressed individuals. Shigaraki will scream himself horse about making a list of his captors and killing them later, Dabi would strike out only when he knows he could hurt someone, Compress will appear calm, but will hold a grudge just like Shigaraki. None of these people will stop being villains, they are genuinely terrifying. Their characters prove that they are villains in nature and not in name.

Whew, now I’ve tired myself out. That is all, and despite how twisted this chapter was (or maybe because it was so twisted), it was fantastic and showed some fantastic villain characters that are so real, so genuine that I am amazed. So thank you for taking your time to read this and have a great day.

[permetscore]

sasuke never intended to destroy konoha

...or at least not the way you think he intended to, and here’s why!

before i get started let me just say that i KNOW this is mostly speculation and headcanoning, and that my friends is why this is a meta on my tumblr and not an interview with kishi himself. it’s called having fun. i also did not work nearly as hard on this as i couldve bc i wanna go watch anime instead of revising this any further. anyway let’s continue

1. sasuke & goals

before we get into his later goals, i'd like to address how sasuke is as a character, and how he treats his ambitions. from the moment we meet him, he's clear and direct in his goals. it's not a 'dream', it's an 'ambition', and he dedicates his entire life to reaching it.

every choice sasuke makes is about his goal and how to logically achieve it. he didn't decide to go with orochimaru willy-nilly - it was the most logical choice for his goal and so he did it. and it's worth noting that until going after itachi, he took his sweet time. this was a decade-long ambition, he worked and worked and waited. sasuke is methodical and patient in his ambitions - or at least, he does his best to

2. sasuke’s revenge 2.0

so this puts us at his new goal - he discovers that itachi was never (solely) to blame for the uchiha massacre, and that he's done away with the wrong enemy, and so he turns his sights to konoha. their government sacrificed his family for their peace, and i dont think i have to explain why he's justified in seeking some form of revenge on them

and i wont deny his anger at all of konoha, because he has it. he feels mocked, he feels an absurd amount of pain and betrayal and has no idea where to direct it. with his first attempt at vengeance, it was easy to pinpoint it on one person. but this is terrifying - this is his entire world that feels like a traitor. 

but this anger doesn’t read to me as the same methodical goal-planning we know to come from sasuke. 

3. why sasuke either didnt intend to wipe out konoha or at the bare minimum is just really really fucking stupid

sasuke uchiha and his merry band of thieves are not equipped to take down an entire village. at all.

granted, itachi is an S-rank criminal, he’s in a whole ‘nother league - but beyond that, sasuke could not manage to best a single ninja genuinely. he went into his battle with itachi - WHICH HE TRAINED FOR, FOR A DECADE - believing he was stronger than he was. in reality he was weaker, and he now knows this. this is not the time for sasuke to be at full confidence. sasuke approaching destruction of konoha would be aware of this, and should, if anything, pull back to train more. 

which brings me to the main basis of my argument

THIS is the fucking STUPIDEST plan you could possibly have to wipe out an entire city-state. kisame's fucking right, all that does it put them on high alert. assassinations don't enable the kind of total annihilation he says he desires. theyre better suited for, well:

again, dont get me wrong, i dont think sasuke was quite calculated in that regard yet, at this point, but i think he was getting there. the real problem with reading sasuke at this stage is he's so erratic. he's so overcome by grief that he has little consistency. but i think at the heart of his goal was always this: not to target the citizens, however betrayed by them he may feel, but to get justice against the system responsible, and to revolutionize the system. konoha, as it stood, DID need to be destroyed - as a system, and rebuilt, from the ground up. which eliminating their elite WOULD be a good step for.

one more thing id add, is that i think within sasuke’s erratic planning, there also was a level of self-destruction to it. he’s not capable enough to accomplish his goals - he only accomplished his prior goal because itachi let him. and he’s not the type to sit to the side and let those who’ve wronged him get away with it. he’ll go after them - or at the very least, die trying. attacking the kage summit - a gathering of the internationally regarded STRONGEST LEGAL NINJA - isn’t wise for his goals, it’s a fucking death wish. sasuke uchiha was off the rails and would rather follow his goals to his inevitable death than to approach it with any of his initial measured composure. 

4. sasuke & killing

sasuke goes out of his way to never kill anyone except itachi. he is a ninja who has literally been instructed from childhood to go at his opponent with the intent to kill like. im gnna be real this is ridiculously soft. he even goes so far as to forbid his team from needlessly killing - he finds murder without good reason distasteful and against his moral code

“but ange!” you say. “thats before killing itachi! it changes after!” and i mean like.... kinda

clearly, his target widens to the elite - in his targeting danzo. and you might remember when he went after the samurai at the kage summit, to which i would counter:

this is fair combat with due warning. while i think this illustrates how erratic sasukes mental state is, it also illustrates that he would rather avoid this if he can. and i think that counts for something!

anyway thanks for coming to my ted talk on why sasuke is a depressing character that is morally grey but would never fucking murder children for his goals and its weird that everyone acts like he actually did in canon. thanks