#(And instead of repeatedly saying)

[ilk-insolence]

Raph Is A Great Strategist

Numerous times in the show Raph has shown to have a preference for straightforwardly punching his problems away rather than think up a more complex solution. Like how his immediate fix to getting Mayhem out of the mirror in Mystic Library was to punch everything in the bathroom but the mirror. However, when Raph understands the situation requires more in depth strategy, he’s shown to be an incredibly capable tactician.

(long post ahead!)

In nearly all the plot heavy episodes like Shadow of Evil, Many Unhappy Returns, and the season finales, Raph gets moments where he’s highlighted for his strategic thinking. In Insane in the Mama Train, he’s the one who figures out which eyeball-button goes to the front car with the dark armor, because “‘it was the only button [the Foot Clan] didn’t want me to press!’” [21:05]. He’s also the one who came up with the scheme to defeat all the (known) combatants in the train, with Leo specifically attributing Raph as the deviser during their mind meld [19:46]. In Many Unhappy Returns, after spending a single night waylaying the Shredder, Raph formulated a plan using all the tricks the team learned, seamlessly transitioning the mystic collar Leo acquired into it [19:53], to defeating the Shredder. Additionally, he’s repeatedly called for a retreat during fights, like in Shadow of Evil, Shreddy or Not (Finale pt 2), and the movie, when he can tactically recognize that a battle couldn’t be won. Each time, the show/movie implied that that was the right call, for the family to lose the fight but win the war.

And it’s not just that Raph is good at strategy when he’s pushed to be more serious; the show characterizes him as passionate about creating plans, he enjoys doing it. Literally in the first episode, Mystic Mayhem, after the turtles’ initial plan failed of getting Splinter out of the living room to touch his Do-Not-Touch Cabinet, Raph immediately started devising a new plan that involved “ten chickens [and] a gallon of rubber cement” [9:35]. It was convoluted, sure, and they didn’t end up using it, but it was inventive and the opposite of reluctant. This is also shown in Bug Busters, where Raph planned out dousing Mikey in honey to attract the oozequitoes [2:52]; Snow Day, with the idea to freeze Ghost Bear like in Jupiter Jim Pluto Vacation 4; and Raph’s Ride-Along (and also Bad Hair Day), where Mind Raph created multiple schemes to get the criminals arrested. The show wouldn’t have made Raph be so creative with his plans if they were trying to characterize him as someone who didn’t like strategizing.

So does why Raph do stupid shit sometimes where he doesn’t think things through at all? Well, even though Raph is good at strategy and enjoys doing it, it’s clear his immediate impulse is still “punch the problem in the face”. In fact, all the turtle boys contain the fascinating dichotomy of being incredibly smart in some areas, and the dumbest teenagers alive in others. Just look at Donnie. It’s also how Raph is a loving protective older brother, and the guy who shoved Leo into a wall so hard he disappeared in one frame for shits and giggles (The Mutant Menace x). None of this means that Raph is bad at strategy though.

tldr: Yeah, Raph has a lot of dumb and, frankly, insane moments in the show, but he’s still an incredible tactician who’s plans consistently saved his family and sometimes the world. He's a great strategist.

[mishy-mashy]

Something I made in a post that I think'll be lost in the texts + expanded a bit more

These panels are chronological events following AFO's pursuit of Yoichi's Factor.

AFO could tell if people were related through a Quirk. AFO and OFA also are connected to each other. In Kamino, AFO could confidently tell All Might that OFA had been passed on, so all that All Might had left were leftover embers.

When AFO killed Kudo, he asked where Yoichi was. He knew Kudo wasn't the holder of Yoichi's Factor at that time. He also realized when looking at Yoichi's hand that Yoichi's natural Factor was so weak he hadn't registered its existence. This implies AFO could sense Factors since he was young, and Yoichi's natural Factor never stood out to him.

Below are three panels of Bruce (right to left). Bruce fought, AFO killed him, and looked away in disinterest.

When he beat down Bruce, he already had a sense that Bruce didn't hold the Factor anymore. That's why, rather than yell in his face to figure out where it is and interrogate for a long time, he pulled up his corpse to inspect him better.

Bruce's corpse isn't resisting anything. Look at his feet; AFO literally dragged him. Bruce is already dead. Yet he's looking for something from him.

Bruce doesn't have anything for him. Nothing AFO wants.

When he looks away, he's dismissing Bruce, because Bruce doesn't hold Yoichi. AFO is wondering where Yoichi is, because he knows now that he's out there somewhere. Thus the pensive look to the wind.

After Bruce is killed, AFO and Garaki meet for the first time. Shinomori has Yoichi at this time, and AFO never comes close to him, so AFO is lost. He doesn't have any leads, and Yoichi has vanished.

Now that he knows Yoichi can transfer, it's possible for Yoichi to be kept out of his reach for the rest of his life. So meeting Garaki and having access to Life Force gives AFO more time to search.

Yoichi is still missing for 18 years though, because Shinomori is in hiding. AFO couldn't find him during the Fourth's turn.

This is why, when he encounters Banjo, the Fifth and active wielder of OFA [Yoichi], AFO is smiling.

It's been a long time, but Yoichi's in reach again. He knows where he is now. And this is the first time he's encountered the current holder.

Thus his shock.

[Yet... you never behave as I wish.]

It was the first time a Quirk wouldn't let itself be stolen. This was AFO's first encounter with this wall: it doesn't transfer without the holder's consent, and requires willpower stronger than all the holders combined to override that.

The holder is never going to give him that consent. To override the collective willpower, he's going to need something greater.

Meanwhile, look at Banjo's arms. Shinomori is the catalyst to tip OFA over the edge, that an unprepared vessel will be destroyed by how strong the Quirk is.

Banjo's arms are both messed up below the shoulder, just like Midoriya used to be. And like Midoriya uses Blackwhip to reinforce himself and stay standing, Banjo uses Blackwhip to hold his fist / arm together. His hand is being wrapped to stay in a fist.

(What I think is) The reason the limbs turn red, and then purple, from breakage, is a matter of blood vessels. Small, itty bitty, fragile things.

Using OFA breaks the whole area, from bones to blood vessels, causing internal bleeding. Thus the redness. But breaking those vessels again in a second go turns the area purple, because it causes instantaneous internal bruising.

But En wasn't ripped apart by using OFA. There's a cut on his thumb that lines up with the path of destruction; AFO sliced him in half. Otherwise, he wouldn't have that cut if it were just OFA.

It's hidden by the text in [... you never behave as I wish], but depending on where you see this chapter, you can see he got cut on the thumb. It's clearer where we see Nana take his hair from him, in [I only want... to make you mine!]

I have a post in drafts about En being cut in half rather than it being because of OFA, but I also hit an image limit, so I'm gonna end here. Ta.

[nerdstify]

day in

day out

likes do nothing!

[hypervoxel]

Oh, so, like, the entire first season's establishment of the characters and their interactions don't actually matter in Helluva Boss. Okay, cool.

Like, I get that characterization develops over time and the writers come up with new ideas and places they want to take the story, but. So much of the Stolas/Blitzø stuff recently isn't character development: it's retconning.

[jasontoddenthusiastt]

The compelling thing about Jason as a character is that I never doubted that he cared about the world just because there weren’t panels of him being overly zealous about “restorative community care”

I’m not coming after anyone who wants to see that kind of stuff, but I do think seeking | that | as confirmation that Jason cares about the world is pretty narrow

[teacupsandcyanide]

being someone who was a massive gothy Tim Burton fan throughout their teens, spending the last several years seeing Burton turn out soulless dry biscuit film after soulless dry biscuit film, then going into the cinema and watching Beetlejuice Beetlejuice and discovering it to be the most deliciously barmy, left-out-in-the-rain, toxic green slime cake I ever et, was such a delight for me. It was wonderful. I cut into that cake and it was full of real sets and B-movie makeup and soul. I felt like Gordon Ramsay when he goes back to the failing restaurant after they've gotten their shit together and he eats their revitalised menu and it's completely unrecognisable from the slop he was served before. I felt like breaking into Tim Burton's kitchen with my licked-clean plate and yelling, "Yes! Thank FUCK! Finally some passion in your fucking work, Tim!"

[essektheylyss]

I don't understand how some folks, both people who like and don't like shadowgast, seem to still want me to believe that Liam "caved" to Caleb and Essek being in a relationship because of fandom pressure and continues to go along with it halfheartedly only because of that even though he secretly hates it.

And meanwhile we have entirely unprompted asides like "Imagine two wizards—" "I do. Often."

[mixelation]

hey multilingual people. here's something i've wondered about in tv and movies. so like in english language media, a common joke is for an english speaker to try to say something in another language, and then instead they say something humorously wrong/offensive. for example, if you don't know how spanish phonetics works, you could fuck up saying "my name is" (yo me llamo) as "i lick myself" (yo me lamo).

so my question is: how often is actual thought put into the "mistake"? like is it a mistake a non-native speaker might make (mispronunciation, picking the wrong word, misusing an idiom, etc)? or is it just straight up nonsense?

EDIT: For clarity, I mean in TV/movie writing, how often is "bad at other language" actually written realistically versus the actor just being handed weird nonsense. Like is accidentally saying "I will slap your mother" (or whatever) a realistic thing that could happen.

[moongothic]

[acidicpenumbra]

they get to dance. or. whatevers up with them. this was already sketched like right after finishing the last art wirh the two of them so i had to finish it. i think the dynamic idea is interestinf actuallt irs a shame that like. nothing fuckinf exists but alas i have tje power to create and boy did i do that. erm. hey guys. more infinadow before i fixate on another pairing i suppose

[bylertruther]

crazy how some of y'all (most of y'all) do the most telling people not to draw will in pink or anything girly at all ever, and discourage people from having headcanons that have him doing or liking anything even remotely stereotypically feminine, all in the name of "just because he's gay doesn't mean it's okay for you to do this," (even when it's something pulled directly from canon lmao) but then go and do that to mike to the point where that fanon concept of him gets upheld as canon a lot of the time, even though.... hm.... you guys are operating under the assumption that mike is also gay/mlm, no? so, what's the issue really then? and why is it okay to do that with mike but not will?

[dailykugisaki]

Day 251 | id in alt

Oopsie. Well it's off the technical college grounds so.....

[gay-kurapika]

It's been extremely fun that I've had night terrors where there is definitely something shadowy standing over my bed multiple times this week and typically three or four times a night. But I'm definitely okay lol

[lensdeer]

working with microsoft products is so fucking miserable I have never felt less in control of what I'm doing

like bro why even bother offering an "embed on your site" option if you're gonna demand user sign-in anyways? why did I have to manually fuck with URL query strings to create a direct download link? IF YOUR EMBED SUCKS SO MUCH WHY WON'T YOU LET ME DO IT MANUALLY WITH <object type=application/pdf data=""> AND THE DDL LINK AAAAAAAAAAA

I guess even if I waste multiple days working on this it's still faster than putting up with GoDaddy's dumbass limitations for uploaded files

[darkacademiaarchivist]

maybe it's just because i dont have tiktok but i see more posts being annoyed at people calling Hozier cottagecore (and reducing him to only that) than people actually doing that and like... i get it but i also think it's weird to be mad at people thinking his songs fit a specific vibe? It's not all of them but there are a lot of his songs that i'd classify as "songs I'd listen to while dancing on a field" or something... I just think that you can appreciate an artist for multiple things at once without reducing them to one thing and one thing only...

[pikkish]

Yeah we've already talked about how outright stupid the lore n writing for modern Doom is, but tbh I can understand why they had to do something with Doomguy, why they had to make him The Specialest Boy instead of Just Some Guy. Do I like how they did it? No, I would've taken it a different direction. Do I think that hugo could've done it well even if he took it in the direction I would've? No, I have minimal faith in his story writing. But realistically, how many times can a guy singlehandedly accomplish the impossible before you have to acknowledge he's very much not Just Some Guy who happened to be at the right place at the right time? I think that, with how every single other person on the Phobos UAC base were killed in Doom I, doomguy stopped being Just Some Guy the moment he decided to do anything other than just lie down and die.