#And at points more of a tragic figure than the fuck has any right to be. Where's the satire?

[procrastinationaccount]

Production of American Psycho where all the instrumental tracks are just played from yt or spotify and Bateman goes on semi-scripted tangents about each product, and a few nonsensical ads for poisons industrial weapons etc are sprinkled in with increasing frequency as it goes on. Also all the songs are different because I fucking hate what they did with that show.

[gremlinmodetweeker]

okay okay, it's a lil silly but hear me out konig + phantom of the opera au

man's got it all; need to cover his face, obsessive tendencies, and the need to be a secretive lil (big) weirdo *chef's kiss*

NO NO NO HOLD ON YOU'RE COOKIN. NOT SILLY AT ALL.

Now look here, I dunno if you know this, but I am a sucker for classic literature. One of my top three favourite books of all time is Frankenstein by Mary Shelly. That woman ate when she wrote that book and I will listen to nothing else. I also really want to write an essay about how Frankenstein is Mary Shelly discussing the inherent horror of motherhood in those times and how the lack of a mother figure shapes an individual. I think it's an extremely layered book, but I like to see the parenthood lens of the book.

Now now now, this is about Phantom of the Opera. I do know a bit about the original phantom, and I don't like to think König or reader dies in the end (just personally, I can't write a tragic ending. I really need a happy ending, not for the reader, but because I need a happy ending). So, let me introduce the idea that this is a version where the phantom wins.

This is one where the phantom was fucking right and actually, freak of nature as he is, maybe he had a point!!! Maybe, reader shouldn't be dating someone twice their age. Maybe, though König is a bit older for sure, he's actually not that old and a more appropriate age. Albeit, though now recovered, König still suffered a case of leprosy after being exposed during a war. He considers himself hideous, but maybe reader would be able to look past his sickness?

Now, is König appropriate as a lover? Probably not. He's obsessive, jealous, and a borderline stalker. He's determined to kill off the man who's trying to seduce her ('How dare you try and take my little songbird away from me!!!') and will do anything to keep reader to himself. However, he's also saving reader from a far worse fate with someone worse than him.

Reader is enchanted by Makarov of course, but König knows better and is determined to show her the light. He desperately wants to just talk to her and explain everything to her, but at this point he's committed to what he's doing and social anxiety makes him unable to just knock on her door and talk to her like a regular person.

Once again, like every incredible story in the English language, if you guys just talked everything would be fine but nobody knows how to be an adult.

Anyways, König loves reader dearly. Watching her perform makes his heart ache. His one saving grace is a beautiful voice he uses to enchant her. If his face is nothing but sickness, let him sing to his little songbird and help her connection to music. He'll do what he can to cling to any connections he has to her. He's desperate to hold her, and he'll do whatever he needs to to get to her.

IMPORTANT EDIT:

König with the phantom mask but he has two long red ribbons coming out the bottom of the eyes and the rest of his face is hidden under a dark hood. Consider it.

[lemonhemlock]

Hi Lemon! It's always a pleasure to read your thoughts on hotd so I just want to share mine and ask for your opinion :)

First of all, I completely agree with one of the recent anons about helaemond and how it would have made the story better and more logical, the characters involved more engaging and human and ofc, the motivations more clear. And yes, it's ridiculous how my fellow greenies have been screeching about it making the greens look bad and hypocritical when in reality it would have only endeared them more to the GA (if done right, of course). Aemond would have been a multi layered character, Helaena would have had more relevance and Aegon and Aemond's fallout would have been more convincing. Oh well, a missed opportunity, unfortunately. But the greens are the ones who were damaged.

Second of all, Helaena is such a mystery to me and not in a good way. She has the same gift as Daenys the dreamer and yet she won't do anything with it? Why? To make her a constantly doomed and tragic figure who can't avoid her destiny? Because that's not the best explanation and just seems lazy. She is completely detached from the narrative. I thought at first that she couldn't interpret her dreams and visions, but after the balcony scene with Aemond it's obvious she can. Also, the way she apathetically talked to Aemond abut him dying and (sort of ) no one caring rubbed me the wrong way and I actually felt bad for him in that scene, not her, even though it obviously wasn't the writers' intention (and I agree with you, %his request wasn't unreasonable at all).

Finally, them using Helaena in Daemon's vision made my blood boil. Apparently, she can be Bran like toward her own brother because he "deserves" it, but it's OK to use her to "light the way" for Daemon in his "redemption" arc. It's unbelievable and straight up offensive . What is actually the point of her character and her ability then? Anyway, I would love to read your thoughts on this. Thanks.

first of all, anon, hello & thank you & i hope you enjoy your stay on my blog! 💚

PREFACING this by saying that the full helaena-aemond scenes might offer a bit more context than we already have, but, basically, here are my takes, as of now, the friday before the season finale. subject to change!

i guess my thesis statement is that this whole season kind of destroys helaena's character, as well.

let's look at her relationship with aegon:

from what i understand, she says she was "happy" before the war. a helaegon win perhaps? if she was "happy", then she must have been content enough with her position as aegon's wife, no? that doesn't seem like a huge logical leap to make. so, whatever aegon did or didn't do, it must just not have bothered her that much to impinge on her "happiness", even if perhaps she wouldn't necessarily rate him very highly as a husband either.

but, then again, she never mentions him. he just suffered a traumatic injury and is in constant pain. helaena is not besieged by grief this season, she is not catatonic with her own trauma, she is very lucid and calm and acting normally, yet she doesn't once ask about him or visit him or offer SOME kind of condolences or feel any kind of way about him being a cripple. he is still her brother, though? and apparently she has no particular beef with him? she shares a daughter with him, yet never even considers how it will be difficult for jaehaera to see her father like that. she just doesn't give a shit. and, i have to say, this makes her look rather sociopathic.

now let's look at her relationship with aemond. she is apparently so dismissive and gives zero fucks about the concept of aemond's death. like with aegon, there is a version in which helaena could have real grievances with aemond that could lead her to act like this. does she, though?

she doesn't give a shit that aemond burned aegon

she doesn't give a shit that aemond instigated the blacks into assassinating her son

she doesn't give a shit that aemond dismissed alicent from the council

what other reason could there possibly be? does she disagree with his war strategy? does she care that he burned a village? is she a secret rhaenyra stan? did he step on her favourite cockroach when they were kids and now it's payback time?

so, to be so indifferent and apathetic and downright heartless towards her brothers for no reason, again, paints her like a sociopath. what does she even care about? just her bugs? what in the seven hells? i'm not even sure that was the writers' intention anyway, they just truly have no idea what to do with her character. she is there so her interlocutor might exhibit some of their own character traits, but it's like talking to an android.

there are also ways in which one could show helaena's reluctance regarding flying dreamfyre to war, not just "lol i don't want to be bothered" when her family's lives are at stake. at the very least show her terrified of dying or squeamish about violence or something.

and her assisting daemon's redemption arc is downright nauseating. she gives zero fucks about her brothers, but DAEMON is the one she elects to help??

from a watsonian POV, she is not likeable or understandable at all, they are basically turning her into a selfish coward infantilising herself and not bothering to take the slightest initiative to change or influence the things she disagrees with, who just wants to sit on her arse all day waiting to die. but can she truly be analysed through a watsonian POV? was this the intention of the writers? (death of the author and all - what other in-universe characterisation could you give her based on her inaction on all fronts?)

like with alicent, i, for one, cannot apply watsonian analysis to helaena, because that's not how a human person would believably act in those situations. that's not how neuro-divergent people act! they cannot keep using this as an excuse. i don't want to hear the "everyone grieves in different ways" pretext. controversial opinion, but it's downright offensive to neuro-divergent people to claim they are so soulless and don't care about anything other than their hyper-fixations and would not blink if their family were in mortal danger or lift a finger to help in any kind of way

[gremoria411]

*The following contains spoilers for Mobile Suit Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance*

This is a follow-up post to my earlier one covering the first two episodes of Mobile Suit Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance. I’ll link it here but I’ll probably be covering a lot of the same points

I’m also going to completely give the game away right now: I don’t find Requiem for Vengeance to be a good show. Probably the nicest thing I could say is that that the designs are nice. It has some good ideas, it just really mangles the execution.

A lot of these are notes I made as I was watching the episodes, and I specifically rewatched episodes 4 and 6, because I’ve got a lot to say about them relative to everything else.

Characters

Is the only reason they made Iria a mother so they could justify her empathy towards the enemy pilot!? Like motherhood isn’t a necessary component of caring about other humans. You can just do that.

Follow-up: Iria doesn’t really express much affection towards her actual flesh-and-blood child during the show. He’s presumably in Zeon somewhere, but he never appears except in photograph. But her actions at the end of the show….. really don’t help.

Major Ronnay’s odd. Because he kinda feels like the only sensible character/the only character who’s aware of the wider situation - the war’s starting to turn against Zeon, and shifting to shepherding his resources to compensate for disrupted supply lines feels like a good decision at this point, not picking fights with the Earth federation’s newest prototype. Ronnay also marshalls the group’s evacuation from Earth. Yeah, he’s mean to the protagonists, but he’s under a lot of stress and he’s in charge of a worsening was situation. It’s just quite odd to see the only character who indicates a wider understanding of the conflict presented so negatively. That said, it’s not like he’s really immune to the bad acting and dialogue. When talking about dead civilians in episode 4, he sounds more bothered that they died for something so measly, as opposed to the fact that they were innocent people caught up in a war that had nothing to do with them.

I really don’t like Captain Zydoss. He kinda just exists to verbally explain other characters backstories, or to tell other characters that they’re in the right. There’s no real character here. Man straight-up says: “Those soldiers? They were just doing their jobs.” That is not a line I’m really enthused about hearing in a show like this, because it makes me question what the fuck the writers were trying to say here.

I kinda already made a post about this, but I really don’t like Yuri Kellerne in this. The design’s awful, he only shows up to say to the viewers “Yeah, Iria was right, also she’s a cool dude who doesn’t afraid of anything”. He doesn’t really do anything, and it just feels like a “see 08th MS team fans, it’s that character you like!”.

To be honest, I didn’t really have strong opinions on the other characters. There just isn’t a lot there to care about honestly.

Story

Okay, so “War is Hell” just isn’t a theme here. That’s kinda the main problem. There’s no real attempt to humanise the Earth Federation or present them as anything other than largely faceless. I’ve noted before that “War is Hell” is kinda the main thing that makes Gundam work in my opinion, because it’s really noticeable if it isn’t there. It’s just a very by-the-numbers military series. There’s no real “hook” or idea that it’s putting forward. It might’ve helped if Iria’s squad mates had been better characterised, so there’d be a sense of them having actual plans beyond the war. But, ultimately, they die because of the federation’s new mobile suit - not because war is an ultimately horrifying and tragic thing. The presentation just doesn’t line up for me at all.

I do think the emphasis on the watch is good, because it emphasises that time is running out for Zeon. But it never really comes up again after the first two episodes.

The voice work really brings it down, because there’s just no way for the scenes to have any real gravitas or impact when the voices are this poor.

I think another problem is that the opening episode(s) with the Gundam sell it as a threat too well - it effortlessly wiped out Iria’s entire team, as well as numerous other Zaku’s that challenge it while Iria’s scrambling around in recovery. It shrugs off machineguns, bazooka’s, a fuel tanker…… so any attempts by Iria to bring the fight to it just feels utterly stupid, because there’s no real reason it shouldn’t just wipe out another two Zaku’s. The fight in episode 4 is particularly obvious - the Gundam just slowly approaches, it’s doesn’t exhibit any of its trademark speed and never presses the advantage. There’s never a sense that any damage dealt to it is “earned”, it just takes a hit because the plot demands it.

Okay, the dress turning to blood thing was ambitious, and if it had worked would’ve been really cool. But fabric and liquid are hard to animate at the best of times, so one to the other in a show like this was never going to pan out.

You can really tell this was made by former transformers alumni. Not that that’s necessarily a bad thing, just some of the shots are very transformers-esque.

Wait, doesn’t Iria’s comment about not shooting disembarking pilots directly contradict the actions of the federation forces earlier in the show? Also didn’t she just tell her squadmate to kill him? Oh, getting out of his mobile suit and trying to escape in order to come back in a fresh suit? Oh well, it just wouldn’t be sporting to kill him now, better let him go.

“I wasn’t aiming to take out the pilot! This is our best chance to take out the Gundam!” “At what price, lieutenant?” I dunno, two enemy combatants that were just trying to kill you? And have killed your allies? In a warzone? Seems like an odd time to develop a conscience, Iria. It’s not necessarily off-brand for Gundam, but it’s just so hackneyed. Iria recognises the Gm pilot and later the Gundam pilot as human exclusively, but the infantry and tank gunners were apparently fair game.

Follow-up: Iria also randomly spares a Guntank in episode 6. A Guntank that could very easily shoot down Zeon HLV’s that Iria is currently defending. I feel like that was unwise.

To be clear here, I’m not criticising the decision to have Iria spare characters, I’m criticising the decision to present it in this way - it causes Iria to come off as hypocritical and careless to ignore active threats, and the rationale of why she’s sparing them never comes up.

The URMC guy helps the cast attack the enemy (such as in episode 4). Doesn’t that kinda spit in the face of his neutrality?

Oh hey, I was so busy talking about the poor character writing that I almost forgot to mention the false flag operation. Y’know, that thing that is illegal under wartime law? That the characters commit when they dress up as Federation forces in order to steal the GMs? Yeah, that. Like, I know it’s par for the course in shows like this (like 0080), but it still feels odd to see it presented in such a heroic fashion. It just would’ve felt better if the characters had acknowledged that it was a sketchy/desperate thing to do (like 0080), rather than playing it completely straight.

It kinda feels like they came up with the title first, and then introduced elements to fit with it - Iria being a violinist just feels very vestigial, and vengeance…… either isn’t a theme or it’s badly executed enough that I didn’t notice it (characters talk about it a lot, but not to any real purpose).

Okay, the combination of character animation, voice work dialogue and the fact that Iria probably has a concussion makes the fact that Iria decides to pilot her Zaku in episode 6 (unintentionally) really funny. Because she’s giving this big dramatic speech with swelling music, but it genuinely just feels like this is the shock and concussion talking, so I just expect her to step on to the truck and fall flat on her face.

We can swear now, great, good for us. That isn’t an excuse for the dialogue to be as bad as it is.

Alright, I fully fell off on episode 6. I’m sorry, it crosses the line from plain old regular bad to hilariously bad for me. It’s like the hyper-realistic faces coupled with the absolutely terrible animation and voice acting just blends together into something completely farcical.

“Machineguns are not effective, aim for the treads” *continues firing*. Also, did they just forget that guntanks have missile launchers?

There’s kind of no real sense of flow to the fights either. Everything moves as fast as it needs to. Stopping stock-still in the middle of a combat zone is a death sentence, so it’s really noticeable how frequently Requiem for Vengeance stops fights so its characters can have dramatic conversations. This is very, very noticeable in episode 6.

Wait hang on. Iria: “The Earth Federation’s Won, We’re just trying to retreat, please let us go” Gundam Pilot: “Then surrender, if we let you terrorists go you’ll just attack us again later” Iria then proceeds to not surrender. Furthermore, Zeon is withdrawing military personnel and war material like mobile suits, which they will use against the Earth Federation in the last months of the war. Isn’t the Gundam pilot completely in the right here? But the presentation of the scene seems to be trying to put Iria in the right. But what the Gundam pilot’s saying is correct. Zeon did start the war, and will continue attacking the Earth. So it feels like the narrative is presenting the Gundam pilot as being in the wrong simply by their nature as a child soldier thrust into this war. They didn’t have a choice, they need Iria (who’s a mother, by the way) to tell them they have a choice. The narrative places the fact that they’re a mother and child over the fact that they share a common humanity. It’s such a stupid choice.

“Zeon forces were driven completely out of Europe and Asia” that’s a funny way of saying “we were driven off the entire Earth”.

Other stuff (mostly Setting and Visuals)

I do like the little Zaku ears, they’re nice.

So why is the character covered in highly identifiable Zeon tattoos considered for an infiltration? Just a note.

The mobile suits are pretty dang gorgeous.

The Gundam pilot has a Nintendo switch.

Sooooo…… no mention of why they’re going to Odessa? No reason that might be relevant to anything?

I will probably do a small post on Loum. Because this is gonna annoy me.

Can the Gouf’s fly in this? It’s really throwing me. Because they shouldn’t be able to, but it looks really cool? Maybe they just didn’t want to model Gouf flight types.

Yes, Requiem for Vengeance, I enjoyed the Gouf Custom in 08th MS team as well. Can I please have literally any other mobile suit. (Yeah, it’s cool, but it’s not cool enough to carry your entire show).

Follow-up: it feels like the writers wanted to emphasise that the Gouf Custom in 08th ms team could totally have beaten the Gundam if it had needed to. Like yeah, but that’s not important. The point of that scene (in 08th Ms Team) isn’t some kind of dick-measuring of mobile suits, it’s to emphasise Norris Packard’s character and skill, that he made those decisions in service to the wider objective (and to iterate on Ramba Ral and Amuro’s relationship from 0079). It’s not there to demonstrate how strong the Gouf is. I mean, yeah they want you to buy the models, but come on.

In case the ratio of criticism-to-praise above didn’t give it away, I really didn’t like Requiem for Vengeance. It just fails to engage with the theme I consider central to Gundam: “War is hell”. It also doesn’t really humanise any of the opposing side, which while not a deal-breaker, certainly doesn’t help its position. There just really isn’t a lot of character on display here, so there’s little to distract from the bad dialogue, stiff animation and near-comedically poor line deliveries. The human animation and writing really kill the series for me, since they just cripple the shows ability to deliver any kind of impact on its points. Then again, when its points are “The Earth Federation is just SO MEAN you guys”, it’s probably best the delivery’s as poor as it is. I don’t really know what the shows trying to say but it certainly doesn’t seem to be “War is bad”.

It feels like the writers were able to grasp gundam’s thesis of “child soldiers are bad”, but took that to be “people who use child soldiers are bad”, not “the circumstances that war creates will eventually cause children to take up arms for a cause they don’t fully understand, leaving them to have short miserable live of perpetuating the harm they have suffered upon others, as just one part of the horror that war visits upon its victims”. This is emphasised by the ending, which is pretty shit. Despite the opportunity to return home and retire, like multiple other Zeon aces did. Iria instead fucks off and joins the Zeon remnant in Africa, while stating that many of the other soldiers there “don’t have a home to return to, are consumed by hatred or yearning only for a glorious death on the battlefeild”. THEN WHY ARE YOU THERE. Why are you perpetuating the conflict by throwing in with remnant groups? How the hell is this supposed to prevent child soldiers from happening? Go home.

Plus, the way Zeon’s presented here seems kind of…… dishonest. Like it’s not incorrect or canon-breaking, it just seems to skirt around a lot of details in order to paint Zeon as, for want of a better term, “less evil”. So, we have characters mention The Battle of Loum, without mentioning what Loum was. We have characters note the worsening war situation, without engaging with why Zeon’s on the back foot. The characters retreat back up into space, but it isn’t stated what they’re retreating from. You’d expect someone to mention the actual wider war situation. I know they’re soldiers, and they’re likely fed a steady diet of Zeon propaganda - but then why not let us see that propaganda, note how the characters engage with it. Do they agree, disagree? Do they take it as gospel, accept that the principality is covering up some things or rage that it’s blatant lies? How does Zeon, the nation, its leaders and its governance affect these characters? The choice to completely ignore it seems wrongheaded and, as above, dishonest. There’s no hint of Zeon’s fractious command structure here, that the upper brass are too consumed by infighting to heed the wider war situation. There’s no mention of Garma Zabi, late commander of the Earth Attack Force, who presumably the characters would have a lot of opinions on. Requiem for Vengeance doesn’t exactly paper over Zeon’s failings, it just doesn’t mention them. I find it interesting that of the “big three” Zeon Earth Commanders (Garma Zabi, Yuri Kellerne, and M’Quve) we only see Yuri, who’s arguably the softest of the three. Like, M’Quve is right there, you guys. There’s even a Tony Takezaki illustration that could be used as a basis to adapt his design to the new style:

And M’Quve would have been the perfect opportunity to showcase Zeon’s fractious upper command. So his omission just feels glaring (much like the illustration). Major Ronnay’s perhaps the closest to being a member of Zeon High Command, but he’s essentially the stock “Commander whose orders the protagonist disregards” archetype. I *could* describe him as the most humanised out of the cast, but that feels like I’m reaching. There is Joshua Stein (the commander in the first episode, who originally calls the Red Wolves in), but he feels more genuinely incompetent, rather than saying anything meaningful about Zeon as a whole - his failings are more personal, rather than symptoms of a wider problem with Zeon Command (and in any case he’s only got around three scenes, so it’s difficult to glean anything from him).

Slight follow-up, but we’re also not told anything about the Battle of Odessa. I noted in my posts in the run-up to the release of Requiem for Vengeance that it takes place shortly before the Battle of Odessa, which was the big turnaround for Zeon’s fortunes on Earth, leading to a mass retreat back up into space. This is a *big thing* in the wider war, because it is where the Federation finally gets its momentum (and mobile suits) going and essentially forces Zeon into the back foot, a position they never really recover from. For all the series loves to bang on about Loum, it never mentions Odessa. Part of this is excusable - Zeon would likely downplay its loss as Odessa to keep morale high, and the characters may not have received accurate reports yet, but I’d just like someone to mention it - “seems Odessa didn’t go to plan” or just something like that. Because it’s the whole reason they’re retreating in the last few episodes and no-one says anything.

I’d ordinarily be pretty easy on the whole “Zeon’s War for Independence” thing, since it’s an example of how the populace of Zeon was motivated to fight, but it’s a lie. It’s a lie told to justify the One Year War (and subsequent acts of spacenoid aggression). Like, there’s no problem with the characters believing the lie, but presenting it completely straight feels off. Like, if there was just one instance where it was acknowledged that maybe we shouldn’t trust the motivation of the guys who declared war and dress like space nazi’s, then cool, but the series doubles down on this impression by Iria’s statement at the end that the war didn’t really end as far as she’s concerned. Again, no problem with Iria believing that, by all accounts that’s how a lot of Zeon Remnant Groups saw the situation but it just reads oddly when talking about the One Year War. It kinda makes the series feel like in-universe propaganda or revisionist history, because at no point does it acknowledge that maybe Iria isn’t that reliable of a narrator.

Iria: “and so, to prevent more children from becoming child soldiers, I became a deadbeat mom.”

So yeah, Mobile Suit Gundam: Requiem for Vengeance - the mechanical design and opening’s pretty nice, but they really can’t carry the rest of the show and over time the dull plot, uninteresting characters and awful voice acting really just sap away any initial goodwill I possessed. The fact that it seems utterly unwilling to engage with *why* the war happened and *why* Zeon lost is particularly irritating, since (by its nature as a Zeon-focused show) it’s in the perfect position to talk about those questions.

[skyberia]

[Knocking on ur door] hi I’m interested in nephos. What’s this abt a death curse?

[SLAMS THE DOOR OPEN] hiii omg [GRABS YOU BY THE COLLARS] GET IN HERE RIGHT NOW

so, for starters, their general Tragic Backstory goes something like:

néphos was born cursed, or was cursed really shortly after birth.

their parents abandoned them basically immediately after they were born, presumably because they didn't want to deal with a Literal Cursed Child (or maybe because they had something to do with it…?)

by the time he was found by another person, he was nearly completely overtaken by this curse, his body almost entirely covered in these dark marks shaped like tendrils.

luckily the person who found him was a good samaritan-- a kind old halfling cleric who took them in and decided to try her best to help them, whatever the cost.

she couldn't find a way to dispel the curse through the usual means. hard to when you don't even know what the hell you're dealing with, she's never seen anything like this before

it's obvious that she's running out of time though, and that if something wasn't done soon they'd die. so she did the only thing she could think to do, which was buy them time.

ultimately she managed to take the curse and "isolate" it to his left eye, rendering it blind and darkened, but effectively slowing down its progress and making it so he could at least have a proper chance at living!

however doing this took a Lot out of her, basically seeping her of nearly all of her energy and magic and rendering her really weak and sickly as a result.

she managed to care for and raise them for a few years, but when they were a child still she became too ill to continue doing so and had to be taken for basically permanent care at a local house of healing, leaving them to fend for themselves in the streets.

thankfully what she did was pretty effective, making it so the worst they had to deal with (curse wise. they still had a pretty rough time in other aspects) for the first like two decades of their life was weird looks and a lack of depth perception.

but then one day he looks in the mirror and finds dark marks coming out of their left eye, reminding them that all that was done was just a measure to Slow Down the progress of the curse, and that he's still bound to succumb to it someday soon...

he tries to look for cures, goes to every curse specialist he can find, then to whatever expert cleric or wizard that's around, and none of them can even tell him what the curse even is. nobody's ever seen anything like it, and so obviously nobody has any fucking clue how to get rid of it!

so eventually they just give up. accept the fact that their lifespan is going to be significantly shorter than most other elves, that they're going to suffer a horrible and unknown fate at some point, and decide to just make the most out of whatever time they do have left

and that's it :) that's their whole deal. he then spends the rest of his days in baldur's gate fucking around and narrowly escaping finding out, placing bets on what'll get to him first the authorities or the curse, Except that's not what happens at all and instead they get abducted by mind flayers and get a tadpole inserted in their brain, and when they next manage a glimpse in the mirror Oh! Lol! the curse's suddenly spreading a lot faster than before huh! but they can't spend too long worrying about that because they suddenly have a bunch of new friends with a lot of problems and issues that are more pressing than his own and on top of that the world's falling apart and they're the only ones who can save it and Oh, uh, he just nearly died in combat and somehow that made the marks from the curse worse, and it's kind of starting to react weirdly with his lightning magic? and-- hey, you know now that you mention it, his whole life he just went along with this story his mother figure told him about his origins but the more he thinks about it the more holes he finds in it and it starts making less and less sense, and ha ha haa haaaaaaaa

(insert the whole companion questline i made up for them here. in order to not keep both of us here all day and also immediately contradict all the information i just gave you and overcomplicate everything, the really short version is: the woman he thought saved his life lied. Among other things)

anyway. Some other general things about them:

their full name is néphos huan

they're 54 years old

they don't know this but they're like elf mixed-race. their father was a sun elf, and their mother was a drow. he gets the red eyes (...eye...) and grey hair (and the penchant for ruthlessness, probably) from his mom.

their "job" pre-events essentially consisted of them seeking out people with issues and offering to help sort them out, for a price. Usually a quite high one.

he has a sort of reputation around baldur's gate as someone who can "solve any problem with a snap of their fingers!" because of this, which kind of makes him sound like a djinni. he is not. it just turns out that a lot of problems can be solved by frying whoever's causing them with a concentrated lightning storm lol

they're really reckless. i cannot understate this. At every turn they will see something that has a high chance of killing them (but that has some potential reward) and they will run straight at it. This was already a problem before but the tadpole makes it SO much worse

he's a real "what's in it for me?"/"where's my reward?" type bitch. refuses to do anything without knowledge that there will be some type of compensation for him at the end. This is a fine attitude to have and definitely doesn't have consequences that carry over to his personal relationships making them more difficult than they should otherwise be

i could go on for ages longer abt their general dynamics with the other characters and also their fake companion quest and so on but i will . leave it here for now. Thank you for asking. i love you

[rrosiepetals]

don't know if you do ask but got curious what some of your favorite things about Marlon and also maybe your favorite pics of him in game

AAAA love this ask, thank you so much anon!!! I love Marlon and I will take any opportunity there is to gush about him!

Marlon is devoted, he’s got a good heart and wears it right on his sleeve. Take one good look at him and you see someone who’s (trying) to keep it all together. He was genuinely so passionate when talking about how well fortified Ericson’s had become. It was endearing seeing how much he boasted to Clementine about running the place and how he and all the other kids had worked so hard over the years to protect the school. 

He is a tragic character, and although only appearing in one episode, you can sense there is more to him than meets the eye. He is someone who has been weighed down by responsibility and by the world he was forced to grow up in. These kids had been sheltered, most of their lives had been spent surviving at the school. The teachers and other staff they'd looked up to… the ones that were entrusted to take care of them had abandoned them, leaving them for dead. As a result, they had no adult figure to look up to and seek guidance from.

Who could they lean on now?

This is where Marlon comes in; I like how despite his feelings of sorrow and betrayal, he decided to step up and take action, even though he was just as scared and confused as the other kids. It highlights just how much he cares for his friends; he doesn’t want to see them suffer and live in fear. It's a scary world out there; practically anywhere they go, it could mean death. However, as determined as ever, Marlon strives to make the best of their situation, and they work together to make Ericson the home that they never truly had before the apocalypse. The fondness in Louis' voice when he talks about him is really heartwarming and goes to show how dedicated he was when playing into the leader role.

Marlon is a person who will do anything in his position to protect his friend's safety. As the self-proclaimed leader of the abandoned boarding school, he goes to great lengths to ensure that everyone is well fed and has a good night’s sleep. When he speaks with Clementine, you can see the desperation in his eyes; shouldering so much responsibility alone for so many years is hard. Despite his doubts that cloud him, he attempts to make it work with the limited resources they have.

The situation involving the twins is extremely heartbreaking from both perspectives. Some people paint Marlon as this “heartless villain” who will just willingly hand over his friends like it’s nothing. I want to pose some questions. Do you think he wanted to hand them over? Did you think he hasn’t gone days upon days without sleeping? Wrecked with the guilt of his decision? Spending hours trying to come up with some sort of rescue plan to get them back? It doesn’t erase the fact that he knew these kids… he grew up with them in this fucked up world. He’s literally still a kid himself! What was he to do in a situation where all he had was a gun practically pointed at him by adults who could easily overpower them? Perhaps he could’ve handed himself over, however what would happen then? They’d just come back anyways and take the rest of the kids without a second thought.

At the end of the day, he wanted to be a good leader and good friend to everyone at the school. He kept all his worries and stress to himself so that the spirits of the school weren't weighed down because of him. He was so insistent that everyone abided by the safe zone rule so much to avoid any conflicts that could disrupt the peace they made for themselves. Thus, these built up emotions/worries caused his eventual downfall and he died thinking that all his friends potentially hated him for what he did. Watching those hurt and dejected looks on their faces when being confronted.. especially the look of sadness from his best friend. It hurt more than anything. I love how they handled Marlon, even if I wished he and many others had more screen time to truly shine, the amount of impact they had is worth it. Also many love towards his va Ray Chase, he put in his all with that performance!!!! 👏

A bit of a side note as well: Marlon had broken his own rule regarding the safe zone as he managed to save Clementine and AJ outside the train station. Why was he out there in the first place? I believe that he was actually planning to scout the Delta from afar, finding any weak spots necessary before making a solid rescue plan to get Sophie and Minnie back. No one else was with Marlon at the time as far as we know, only him and Rosie when he refers to "when we found you." I could be wrong but that’s what I’d like to think.

As far as picture wise go I have a few of them! Mainly love the ones where he’s smiling!!!

[swallowtailed]

palisade 42 (!) part 2/2: the character arcs of it all. also, rule of three.

at a certain point in this episode, i paused it and made the following voice to text note: "it does kind of feel like the third beat here is for brnine to die". (except voice to text rendered "brnine" as "brian".) then i put the episode back on and one second later ali said she had a move that let brnine put themself in peril to protect someone else. at this point i got off the highway and got taco bell because the only alternative was to scream forever and also i thought it would feel right to listen to brnine's death scene in a taco bell parking lot.

anyway, the rule of three. brnine has borne witness to a lot of self-sacrifice—or, well, almost. they weren't there when valence died. they were there with phrygian, until the very end. and then they're in the cockpit with jesset as he tries to throw his life away. there were two outcomes, as i see it, to resolve this arc. brnine could sacrifice themself to save jesset (die to break the cycle of their friends' deaths and essentially pass their torch to jesset), or they could stop jesset from sacrificing himself and survive as well (outright break the cycle of self-sacrifice among millennium break). i would've supported the first option! it's resonant and tragic! but i do think that, once brnine didn't bite it while stopping jesset, it felt more right for them to survive. because that arc is then an arc toward survival, toward staying alive to fight on.

(if brnine were to die in the finale, i would sort of hope that thisbe would also die, because it would be incredible for cori to be the last survivor of the original blue channel crew. not that i want thisbe to die (at all, even a little bit). but just imagine.)

also it was just a very good scene in general. jesset stopping as soon as he felt brnine touch his hand. squished together in the cockpit debating self-sacrifice. also, the little affirmation of thisbe not leaving this time (not like with valence); brnine not leaving without thisbe (not like with valence).

lastly: brnine getting an extra risk slot aboard the blue channel was suddenly heartwrenching. that's the ship valence gave them to escape... and it's not even that they're any safer or stronger on board, they can just survive a little longer. one more breath. i think the only way would be for brnine and the blue channel to go down together.

cori this episode: (deep breath) FUCK YEAHHHHHHHHH. three sets of black wings babey!!! we love to see it. sylvi's line about it—"not content are they with chaining our wings down, they are chaining the wings of the god we're supposed to be worshipping"—absolute banger. i don't think we knew (or maybe i just forgot) that original devotion had wings, but it's a beautiful touch alongside cori's wings. a chained angel under the eye of a dark sun. i'm so excited to see where she goes next. with, now, another grief to bear. (also, hey—is she older than any of her siblings now? since she's been outside the mirage?)

thisbe this episode: nonstop slay. it is so great to see thisbe unleashed. illusion strats as compelling as always. her faith in figure at the very end, her steadiness while brnine and jesset balance on a knife's edge—thisbe is so important. janine remarked that she's underutilizing integrity, but i think this episode really showed that new confidence thisbe has gained with it. i'm really interested to see where that relationship goes. it seems like thisbe is treating integrity like a seedling to nurture. ultimately, i think thisbe might still need to confront her conflation of personhood and use; it works for her, but it's not gonna fly with every divine. also: shrieked with laughter at the return of the concrete hamburger seatbelt. everything that has happened before will happen again, we're going back to the mirage, etc etc. attached to that, though—ebullience being turned into corporate art genuinely feels like a fate worse than death.

i don't know where this leaves us with figure's death, frankly. perennial's grief felt like it paid off their last roll, and we got a brief scene with the crew finding out, but it still doesn't feel resolved to me. i think i'm looking for wherever cori and brnine, in particular, go with this. we'll see. (would be neat if cori went over to perennial.)

now, with all that said, imo the last 90 minutes of this episode were maybe some of the best palisade has been. the weight of the whole divine cycle came to bear on those moments. (it might just be that i'm listening to counterweight right now, but i'm feeling counterweight, too.) i think i'm at a point with this season where i'm genuinely open to whatever ending comes, because there's so much material that it'll resonate forward either way.

and they’re going into the mirage.

[onepunchcatboi]

PATCH STORY SPOILERS

I have thoughts! They are below! Please remember that we are a DawnTrail-Critical household!

[Not in the sense that I hate it but I actually really loved a lot about it but that I think the writing was extremely mixed]

WE FINALLY. GOT TO HAVE. OUR TACOS.

!!!!

Ok for real now-first of all really loving everything going on with my beloved Dawn Throne family. Wuk Lamat is being amazing as usual. I love that we got closure about Koanas folks [cuz like, c'mon there was no way it went down as he remembered as like 2 year old LOL;;]. LOVE THAT HE REALLY STOOD BETWEEN A RONEEK AND A GIANT CHARGING DINO OF DOOM LIKE THAT WAS GOING TO STOP IT YOU WEIGHT LIKE 120LBS KOANA LOL

And I love that we've finally got something about Galool Ja and who his mom was, even if everything about it was so sad and broken from the start. I figured it would have to be, given Zoraal Ja's staunch denial of the child's presence. It still hits the right amount of tragic in the reveal of it all.

Also very excited that yes, Y'Shtola will be bothering me to examine the magical maguffin, even if I still don't like that it exists lol.

But also

You know

SO LIKE

Yo.

I can't even.

And I'm not even talking about hologram Sphene. BUT ALSO I AM 100% SURE HER ATTENDANT DID IT. OR SOMEONE CLOSE TO HER. Someone rebooted the system and then yoinked themselves back into the matrix.

ANYWAYS. I MEAN THE REAL SPHENE. THE ONE Y'SHTOLA JUST FOUND IN LIVING MEMORY.

I just. Its gotta be her, bleary eyed and confused about where the fuck she is. I'M CONFUSED TOO THE AETHER JUST SPAT HER BACK OUT FULLY FORMED. She sounds like she just woke up from dying!

At first I was just too mad about the whole thing with AI Sphene being back to think too much on it. On the extremely sus set up of it all, and what those neo regulators are *really for* bc you know Wuk Lamat is right. The AI Sphene we know was prepared to sacrifice the whole damn universe to save all her people, not just a few. Whoever this is realizes they only have so many resources to do this with.

BUT NOW WE HAVE REAL SPHENE IN THE MIX TOO. AND GUYS I UH...REALLY HOPE THIS PLAYS OFF WELL.

Because AI Sphene was a monster, cute smile and all, and I did not enjoy how hard the narrative tried to make us see her as a good person, or how inactive we were about it. Wuk Lamat is new to this, but we, and not just the WoL, but Alisae too, were right there and never said anything about how much this resembles past foes.

But guys. Real Sphene has the possibility of making all that just...a little bit less annoying. I hope. It wont fix the first half's writing issues, but it can turn it in a better direction. Especially if what it is, is that the writers decided to play the long game in terms of their two story halves more so than they have in the past.

Imagine. Queen Sphene wakes up. Finds the kingdom has lived far beyond her expectations. They survived and are wondrous and innovative...and they are also throwing the cycle of life and death out of wack. They are forgetting themselves and each other for the solace of avoiding death and pain. They are hurting others to do it. They are being lead by someone who looks like her, but has no compassion for anyone outside her own kingdom. If Sphene is even half the person the AI made her out to be...then she would be heartbroken to see what has become of her kingdom. And she has the power and authority to stop it.

The story has made a point to say "we don't know what the real Sphene would have wanted". Well shes here now, and boy wouldn't it be fucking amazing, if she said "not any of this".

It has real potential now too, to talk about the difference between the memory and actuality. How memory can distort and change over time, be a shadow of the truth. And...idk that they are going to go this route, but if Sphene is not going to be the only one to come back from Living Memory-then all the Alexandrians have to be confronted with those they forgot. Fucking imagine coming back from the dead only to find none of your loved ones even remember who you are?? What would even be the point?

I also. Really just want this to happen in the middle of the square in Solution 9:

WE COULD BE GOING PLACES PEOPLE!!!

[comicbookhyperfixationtime]

An Important Aside

CW: Statutory Rape

So, the next issue I have to cover is #197, and it focuses on Kitty Pryde and Colossus. I've briefly mentioned my very strong thoughts on their relationship before, but I think I need to go into more detail about this topic, and I don't want it sandwiched between a bunch of bad jokes and philistine art opinions. When Kitty and Piotr's romance began, she was 14. He was 19. This is statutory assault.

This is definitely ephebophilia and I'm not sure but it may be considered pedophilia as well. Its really, really awful. But the narrative never treats it that way. They write Kitty as a child for sure, she acts in a very childish and immature manner throughout this romance. Its pretty clear Piotr's on a completely different maturity level than her. But he is never portrayed as the absolute monster he is for taking advantage of that. And its not that he doesn't know this is wrong, he angsts plenty about his feelings for Kitty. At one point, the two are in a precarious situation they're not sure they'll live through, and Kitty asks Piotr to have sex with her before they die. He refuses, because he knows she's too young and immature. He knows its wrong and he does it anyway. Which means that the writer and artist of that issue, Chris Claremont and John Byrne, would have to know it was wrong too.

None of the other X-men ever take issue with this. In fact, multiple other X-men encourage their relationship. This includes characters like Storm and Wolverine, Kitty's parental figures on the team. It also includes Professor X, who, may I remind you, has a doctorate in psychology (of course, I shouldn't be surprised Chuck is so blasé considering he had a hots for a teenage Jean Grey and only refrained from pursuing her because of his disability). Eventually, however, somebody finally did take issue with this disgusting situation; the Marvel higher ups.

Claremont was pressured by his bosses to break up the pair, so he did, in the most convoluted, comic book-y way possible; during the Secret Wars event, Colossus is separated from Kitty and meets and falls in love with an alien woman who dies tragically at the end of the event. When he returns to Earth he realizes he's still in mourning for her and has fallen out of love with Kitty. And you'd think that, that's it right? It sucks that they didn't break up because, like, you know, Piotr finally got his head out of his ass and realized he was dating a child, but at least we can move on! But no, we can't, because they reactions that the other X-men have, especially Wolverine are fucking appalling.

They're finally angry at Piotr. But not for starting a relationship with a literal child, no, they're angry at him for finally doing the right thing and ending that relationship. Wolverine especially goes off on him for breaking Kitty's heart. Again, Wolverine who is supposed to be Kitty's mentor and father figure.

I don't really know how to end this because I don't have any important insights aside from "this is fucked up, I hope you know this fucked up, fuck the people who made this." There's definitely a lot more to say about how Kitty Pryde and other teenage characters are sexualized in comics. There's a lot more to say about age-gap relationships in comics (this wasn't the first time a superhero committed statutory rape and wouldn't be the last). But I really don't want to say any of this. I'm not sure now if I want to write a full review of X-men #197 now, because I would rather not spend any more time on this. I might do a mini post about some of the specific panels or scenes I have opinions on.

This whole thing has really ruined 616 Colossus for me, and its tainted other versions too. But I want to make it clear, if he's still a character you like, that's ok. If (adult!) Kitty x Colossus is still one of your ships, that's ok! You can like problematic characters. In long running comic books especially, you can ignore problematic actions or personality traits of your favorite characters, God knows I do all the time. I just needed to get this off my chest.

[king0fcrows]

The whole subplot with Isha was trite and boring as hell.

It felt like the writers of Arcane suddenly didn’t know how to make Jinx “quirky” and sympathetic again after she blew up the council—so they just went:

“Hey! Let’s give her a lovable kid sidekick dog to showcase her “soft” side that we kill for sadness points! That’s always works at making dark characters seems more lovable, right?!”

And what sucks is that I think they actually *could* have made that interesting—if they had just tried harder?

Like the element of a tragic story dealing with an unnecessary suicide in a bid to marty oneself for the love/approval of a beloved mentor is absolutely there—It clearly was there in Jinx herself before Silco died and was endgame for Isha—but it feels there in the way a ghost is there: barely.

Like, we could have had Jinx actually lean *into* the adulation that comes with being the face of a revolution, taking advantage of the hero worship a young street kid-turned-protege presents to fulfill her own deep need to be wanted.

They should have show her *actively* egging that protégé on in increasingly questionable ways on the city streets—exactly like Silco did to her as she grew up—rather than passively having her witness Isha’s actions while she hides from the world.

This would have mirrored Silco’s own actions towards Jinx when she was a child, reinforcing a narrative about cycles of abuse and—better yet—culminating in Isha’s death directly paralleling Felicia’s death, with Jinx metaphorically becoming Silco.

(And we could have had some truely cool as fuck scene of Jinx hallucinating Silco speaking to her, in the process.)

Instead, everything was about Isha wanting to push Jinx into being the revolutionary figure all of Zaun and Isha herself saw her as—while Jinx clearly didn’t want that for herself and actively avoided it.

And while I absolutely don’t think Jinx would have ever intentionally sought out to be such a figure on her own, she has a literal pathological need to be wanted/not be abandoned. I could easily see her conforming into that role if it meant any traces of love and acceptance.

(After all, she had no problem immediately literally cuddling up to Silco—the man who she actively knew murdered Benzo (a close friend’s adopted father) and kidnapped, tortured, and directly caused the circumstances that resulted in her inadvertently killing her entire adopted family—the second she was faced with abandonment.)

So instead of a meatier storyline—we got: sad little kid who doesn’t have any characterization except “sad orphan girl” died to make sad girl even sadder.

[firebirdsdaughter]

I really…

… Love T&B s2 for exploring Yuri a bit more.

I was already fond of him from s1, but I just got more and more attached in s2 (and then they had to go and do that).

I think, in his own, slightly messed up way, he does actually like Kotetsu. While watching I joke about Tiger being his favourite hero, but I think, in a way, he is, because of how honest he is. Tiger has an idea of 'justice,' and he'll argue w/ Yuri, both as Lunatic and as a judge, about it. Yuri doesn't get a lot of people debating w/ him. In addition, I think he does genuinely consider Kotetsu a noble person, despite his own twisted up priorities and ideals. That's not to say he'll hesitate to fight him if they're on opposite sides, but I think he puts stock in Kotetsu's convictions and values even more than some of the other characters.

And on the flip side, I think part of the reason Kotetsu also bothers him is that he's not just reminded of his father, but I think he sees who his father was once/should have been. Even though they argue some of the same concepts, and even though Yuri gets a bit riled up when his view is challenged (bc it brings his own conflicts and self loathing to the surface), Kotetsu never gives any indication of actually ending up like Legend. He tries to retire, then is fine sticking in Second League, and just continues adjusting and doing what he can w/ the one minute he has. He doesn't take the frustration out on other people. And I think that's part of what gets under Yuri's skin when that conversation comes to a head bc in a way, it proves it is possible. Maybe that his father's fall from grace could have been avoided. Maybe that his stance is wrong, and he's got so much untreated mental and emotional trauma balled up in there that he's just straight up not ready to deal w/ it (gods, that man needs therapy so badly).

And that's part of what makes the official ending (barring any continuations that produce any miracles [no, I have not already Fixed It in my headcanon, leave me alone!]) so tragic, is that maybe, honestly, Kotetsu and Barnaby could have helped him get to the help he definitely needed. I actually really liked their interactions—and while I'm mainly talking about Kotetsu in this post, I do think Yuri also… Kinda identifies w/ Barnaby (abused by a father [figure] who espoused noble ideals while doing terrible things), and genuinely meant to 'help' by going after Maverick… Except of course that answer didn't help Barnaby any more than it's helped him.

To try and get to what I think my point was, the two of them likely stood the best chance of getting through to him. One, in a way, knows a little bit of what he's going through (including 'traumatised at a young age') and the other is straight up a good fucking person who I think personifies (if a little more of a dumbass than intended) what Yuri initially considered heroes to be/thinks they should be, deep down. It was enough to make me wish those three had gotten more, in depth interactions on their own, makes me think that they really would have had the best chance to talk him off that ledge… If it hadn't been for Other Factors.

If any of that made sense? Listen, it's late, I'm on my second rewatch right before I go to bed, I have Thoughts.

[dragonflight203]

This week’s comic is Batman: Mad Love and Other Stories.

It collects Paul Dini’s comics for Batman: The Animated Series and The New Batman Adventures.

I’m quite the fan of Paul Dini’s writing and I recently finished watching both series, so I figured it would be a good read.

Comic

Title: Batman: Mad Love and Other Stories

Author: Paul Dini

Artist: Bruce Tim

Year: 1994-1999, 2003

Overall Opinion

A good read but not a must have. While I enjoyed the various stories nothing stood out to me as spectacular or critical to understanding the characters. If you can get it for cheap it’s worth a look.

General/Plot

Mad Love

This is the comic that the TNBA episode of the same name is based on.

For the most part they’re quite similar, but one of the major differences between them is that in the comic Harley earned her degree by sleeping with her professors.

TNBA, thankfully, cut that out. I much prefer the interpretation that Harley genuinely earned her degree. It eliminates the old trope of a woman sleeping her way to get a position, and it makes Joker more dangerous if he can drive a properly-credentialed doctor insane.

Going Straight

I quite like the idea of Catwoman disguising herself as other criminals when committing crimes so she doesn’t get the blame. Feels very in-character for her to be so deceptive.

It’s also hilarious that even when she on the right side of the law, Roxy Rocket still flies around in the rocket. How is it legal for her to do so?

That must violate some kind of air traffic law, but everyone’s totally chill with it. I suppose with the Bats grappling and gliding around air controllers gave up on Gotham years ago.

Puppet Show

This one is just so damn sad.

I question how well Wesker is at the start of it – from the beginning he’s having conversations with Croaky. He still needed a bit more support, I think.

And Croaky representing Wesker’s better intentions throughout to the point Wesker called Croaky his only friend just for Scarface to win – argh.

Wesker’s such a tragic character. I’m glad he got a happy ending TNBA, at least.

24 Hours

This is another sad one that makes me question Arkham’s abilities.

Harley’s out of Arkham for what, less than an hour before she hooks back up with Joker?

And from there it’s less than the titular 24 hours before she’s back in Arkham.

While it makes for a humorous comic, it also makes the universe look ridiculous that the criminals keep going back to Arkham when it’s that shitty. At least make Harley struggle a bit before reverting to form.

Study Hall

This is just Jonathan out here living his best life and I’m here for it.

Crane deciding to retire and become an academic again and choosing to become an English professor of all things? Does he even have the qualifications for that? Fuck it, why not.

Crane saying he wrote “a new set of release papers” and the panel showing him climbing over Arkham Asylum’s fence? Life’s short, live your dreams.

I’m a bit leery of his relationship with Molly. The trope of the professor hitting on a student is an old one. Fortunately, the comic doesn’t explicitly go there – you can read it as a crush or as paternal and I am choosing to read it as the latter.

It’s hilarious that Jonathan was able to go full Scarecrow on an apparent whim. Did he already have the costume or did he create it spur of the moment? I suppose an advantage of a costume that’s rags is you can create it on demand.

And why the hell is Batman stalking Scarecrow at an ‘upstate college’? Yes, he’s a Gotham rogue but he’s no longer in Gotham. He’s out of Batman’s ‘jurisdiction’, such as he has one. And considering Jonathan broke out of Arkham, Batman could have just reported him to the police or taken him back by force at any time. Following him around for weeks wasn’t necessary.

Jonathan even asks if Batman couldn’t have just left him alone to teach and Batman retorts that he knew Jonathan would eventually revert to being Scarecrow again. And given Jonathan was in full costume and terrorizing an (admittedly asshole of a) student, he’s not wrong.

It ends on Batman noting that Bromley and Jonathan both use ‘fear, intimidation, and force’ to achieve their ends.

Study Hall – Batman Digression

The question I ask is – what then of Batman?

The entire purpose of Batman is to frighten, intimidate, and force criminals into submission. If Batman judges Bromley and Jonathan as equally at fault for their methods, then how should he be judged for his?

The logical answer is Batman should be judged differently because his motives differ. However, Batman often claims himself to be ‘Vengeance’ – that is, he is acting on behalf of the wronged. In this story, Jonathan’s entire reason for terrorizing Bromley is because of how he treated Molly. Bromley victimized Molly, so Jonathan will victimize him. Batman interrupts because he deems that insufficient cause for Jonathan’s behavior.

So for all that Batman likes to introduce himself as ‘Vengeance’, that alone isn’t enough to justify the use of fear/intimidation/force in his mind.

Ultimately I think it comes back to a deeper motive: Justice. To Batman, vengeance should be enacted through the law as possible. He uses the necessary amount of fear/intimidate/force required to have criminals arrested so they can be tried in a court of law. In an ideal world, justice is blind and will enact proper punishment for the criminals provide the proper restitution to victims.

Of course, Batman knows damn well Gotham is far from ‘ideal’, but he still believes it’s necessary to try. No one person should act as jury, judge, and executioner.

So Batman’s behavior gets a pass because he’s doing it for the right reasons.

Still, I think Batman should be more discriminate when judging others for using fear/intimidation/force. That house of his is fairly transparent.

Laughter After Midnight

This is the kind of Joker story I like. He’s gloriously chaotic and most importantly having fun. It’s not about being evil for the sake of evil, it’s about Joker enjoying himself.

This is also a properly frightening Joker. It’s understandable why Gotham quakes at his name watching this Joker move through the world. He very casually leaves a trail of destruction in his wake – not so much out malice as just because that’s who he is.

Cruise to Nightmare

This episode reminds me of the TNBA episode Chemistry, although it differs from it much more than Mad Love does its adaptation. Both involve Poison Ivy attacking a cruse ship Bruce is on.

I do enjoy it when Batman stories permit Bruce to take a moral stand, even if he is ultimately ineffectual as himself. I think it’s important to Gotham for the Waynes to at least be perceived as caring about the city and its people. As a bonus it usually gives him an opportunity to make Bruce look stupid.

Otherwise this is just a standard Batman-and-Rogue caper, where the Rogues make trouble and Batman saves the day.

Jolly Ol’ St. Nicholas

This comic was adapted into TNBA as one of the shorts in Holiday Knights. The adaptation stuck close to the source material, so if you’ve scene the episode there’s not much new here.

The graphic novel I have, however, notes that the original page where Barbara changed into her costume had her doing it in the crowd. Apparently this was a homage to a Supergirl comic, but I’m glad they switched it to her doing it in the changing room.

Demons

Given the other comics adopted into TNBA episodes, I’m surprised this one was not. I think an episode with both Ra’s Al Ghul and Jason Blood would have been quite popular.

This is a good introduction to Jason Blood, with a flashback to his earlier years and the ending showing a clear distinction between him and Etrigan. Etrigan’s choice to destroy the tablet despite knowing Jason would want it makes clear that the two are fundamentally different.

There’s an odd interlude in the middle where Batman and Jason are hallucinating that adds nothing to the story. The graphic novel I have clears this up – the comic was written on a tight deadline, and the interlude was filler to make sure it meant the required page length. Still, I think it could have been done better; even on my first read I was baffled by its inclusion.

Two of a Kind

The basis of this comic is one I fundamentally dislike – that fixing Harvey Dent’s face makes Two-Face go away.

I much prefer the interpretation that Two-Face is an alter of Harvey’s, and the acid thrown in Harvey’s face is just the traumatic experience that brings him to the front. Fixing Harvey’s face won’t make Two-Face disappear.

Still, Harvey’s darkness is implied throughout this comic, with his cheating on Maryilyn and choosing to rescar himself at the end. Two-Face was never as far from the surface as he wanted to believe.

Harvey’s waiting for Batman at the end reminds me of him turning himself in at the end of The Long Halloween. It’s part of his tragedy – he gives into despair, but can’t quite let go of his belief that the world should be better.

I do quite like this line:

Harvey Dent: “Then I just waited for you to show up – as you always do – to take me back to where I belong… with the rest of the crazy people.”

However much the rest of his life falls apart, Batman is still a constant in it.

[swoomoo]

Amare got called the fuck out by her ghoul last session so hard that I ooc was speechless and didn't know how to respond. I just went "......yeah".

This is a bit wordy as I am talking about my emotional state around the game.

So, if you didn't know. Amare's ghoul Koda is the one that was dominated and blew half of Vesper's face off. Amare freaked out and tried to cut his head off because of it. I was however, 1 die short and just gashed his throat open. She wasn't going to save him until Niccolo said that the whole thing would bother Vesper if he knew she did that. She begrudgingly saved him.

Afterward, once Vesper recovered, she was thankful Koda was alive because she does love Koda and felt horrible that she crossed a line she thought she never would have. She thought she was better than other Lasombra in this way.

Koda was in the hospital for a while and came back with a bit of pep in his step. Before, he was very quiet, monotone and surface level. Afterward, he was obviously pissed at Amare and let her know it (He even has a dragon-breath shotgun he was sure to point out to her). He didn't want to leave her though because he still cared about her.

Koda used to be in the FBI and specifically met Amare when she was 18. She had just escaped the (secret) blood-cult she grew up in and he helped get her situated with moving on (relocating, changing her name etc.) He is the only father figure she has ever had. Amare ghouled him because she has issues with letting things that make her feel human go.

Amare has had an (over the top I admit) tragic, cruel and sad life so when she finds anything that makes her happy, she refuses to let it go. It is actually why she had a very difficult time adapting to the Sabbat (and eventually fled). Koda was the first thing that brought her any sort of stability which at that time was a foreign concept to her. So without going on too long about it, she does care a lot about him.

Amare stayed back to talk to him last session while the others stepped out. She was going to ask him what he wanted for the future and how she could help him accomplish it. Just moments prior, he heard her say, "I cannot think of any uses for him so you can just kill him". This was scourge business and she was talking to the sheriff in regards to a kindred that was breaking progeny and hospitality that she staked and brought in.

Koda was like, "Hey that is not a normal thing to say. You are really starting to lose yourself." Amare tried to retort "I have no sympathy for kindred, we are not actual people anymore and all we do is hurt actual people. The less of us there are around, the better. I know this because I am on of them. I likely wont be here for very long but if I can make the world slightly better, than so be it. I've been thinking, and I want to reconnect with the things I used to do... the journalism, like activism stuff. I want to try and start exposing corruption in the church again."

Koda nodded to the second portion but told her, "Don't give me this, 'your a monster and not a person' bullshit. You are still a person. If you weren't then you wouldn't want to help people still, you wouldn't have asked me to stay with you, you wouldn't have adopted your daughter, you wouldn't have tracked Vesper halfway across the world. I am staying by you because I want to be around you and I will not work for a monster."

"......yeah". It's all I could think to say. I feel both Amare and I would only really be able to think that in the moment because he was right and in character, out of character I just knew it. I literally couldn't argue. Thankfully he had more to say.

He basically went on how he had two rules for us to work together. The first was basically not to attack him, and the second was to take him along with her more often. The second one really took me by surprise but I was there for it. He wanted to be close to her more often, and not just on ghoul duty. We have to break into somewhere after this so I invited him and he hopped up and tagged along.

I didn't write Koda to have a lot of personality or give him a deep characterization when I wrote my backstory because I knew the ST was going to have a LOT of work at the start of the campaign. I gave him motive and connection to Amare but I never expected him to become a legitimate character to this extent. He is literally 1 of 3 currently in London that knows Amare's real name and is only 1 of 3 people to have known her while she was alive.

I think my story teller really wanted to show that he still saw Amare as his daughter and was super protective over her and I think that might have done me in emotionally?? It is sweet and I guess I am sensitive around family concepts with acceptance but it was a really nice feeling and despite last session being really slow in terms of action and events, I have been stuck on this. I am excited to continue to explore their relationship but the power dynamic is unsettling still and honestly fucked up but I suppose it wouldn't be WoD without that.

[woodchipp]

hoo boy

"it's fiction, it's supposed to/has the right to be extreme!"

Omocat herself said the plotline of "Sunny kills Mari" that's featured in the final product was chosen primarily because it was considered "a believable circumstance" lmao. because a 12 yo kid improvising a cover-up for his bestie's manslaughter sure does sound believable. happened to my buddy Eric once

Secondly, the entire theme of the game is guilt and forgiving yourself and making Mari's death intentional will minimize the message.

If you want a story that handles themes of guilt and forgiveness with actual nuance and tact, you already have Silent Hill 2. Or even Bojack Horseman, for that matter. OMORI having a different message won't be a significant loss because it can't even handle those themes right.

Just make Sunny's arc about trying to deal with that "I made her feel unloved before she died, I should've noticed she was unwell, I should have died instead" type of guilt and understanding there's no point in beating himself up over Mari killing herself because it wasn't his fault. Characters tend to elicit more sympathy when they're fucked over by circumstances they couldn't control (as an example, this is why what happens with Lucas' family in Mother 3 is so tragic in the first place), and since OMORI really wants you to see Sunny as the Poow Widdle Bapy who was dealt a bad hand (even though he was responsible for killing Mari and thus created most of his problems himself), the only feasible way to rewrite the game without deviating from the game's original framework would be to screw Sunny over by circumstances he couldn't control.

the Mewo room in black space orchestrates and demonstrates the feeling of hopelessness

If you don't remember about the "Stab" option, that is. Speaking of that

It orchestrates and demonstrates the feeling of hopelessness, and that ending your life (choosing the stab option) is a much better option than facing whatever horrible reality (cutting Mewo). However, if you do in fact cut open Mewo, you are shamed.

Okay, wait. I need to unpack this.

The post asserts that cutting Mewo open represents "facing horrible reality" right before mentioning that you're shamed for cutting Mewo open. So the game actually insinuates that ending your life would be the better option in this case. bruh

If this game had better writing, I'd be able to write that off as Sunny's thought process being warped by his suicidal ideation. But since the narrative (how the story is presented to the player) never contradicts Sunny's unreliable narration (and even reinforces it at some points), I can't.

It's also important to note that the interpretation of the Mewo room presented in this post is just that- an interpretation. The game itself doesn't give you any solid clues to figure out why it suddenly wants you to kill a cat.

So, how does the "truth" help amplify the guilt? Simply by making the player blame Sunny

Name one OMORI fan who played the game and blamed Sunny. I'd give them head

If the game's intention really was to make the player blame him, one look at the fandom will tell you that it failed. Horribly.

Coming back to the intentional death option, I think it would be a more realistic approach, but it lacks the psychological turn (not events, but emotions!)

"Psychological turn" is quite a fancy way to say that the game pulls a plot twist out of its ass just for the sake of subverting the audience's expectations without regard to how it might impact the story.

Ah, but of course

(not events, but emotions!)

Whether a plot point logically makes sense for the story you're telling doesn't matter. It's all about the emotional impact said plot point will have.

Feels before Reals.

It's straightforward, and the player would sympathize with Sunny. They know, for a fact, that it wouldn't be his fault if Mari took her own life.

Sometimes, "straightforward" doesn't mean "bad."

"the player would sympathize with Sunny" OMORI's entire plot is built around pushing you to sympathize with him lmao

But with the other scenario, we get a deeper understanding of Sunny's guilt/fears from his perspective.

And we wouldn't be able to get a deeper understanding of Sunny if his sister killed herself because...?

No, seriously, what is this point even supposed to insinuate? Do you really think that the pain of losing a loved one to suicide is somehow less complex and easier to deal with?

I like that this post never mentions that having Mari commit suicide would've allowed the story to take a deeper look into Mari herself by elaborating on the reasons why she felt compelled to take her life.

But of course Mari's never relevant in such discussions. She's just the girl in the fridge, after all.

[barbatos-sama]

the boss and prince's dynamic in this show is essentially that they have a transactional sexual relationship where boss is required to sleep with prince once a month in exchange for the prince allowing boss to use his magic book that allows him to teleport to the living world. this relationship is unhealthy because boss literally needs this book to do his job; it basically makes the dynamic "fuck me or your career is over". this power imbalance is made worse by the fact that even beyond being able to hold his livelihood over his head, the prince is, yknow, A Prince. royalty. one of the more powerful beings in hell. compared to boss whose species is treated like dirt. it's very hard for an imp to earn any kind of respect or to make a name for themself like boss is trying to do. so this relationship is unbalanced in more way than one.

the thing about prince is that from the description of this arrangement you'd think he's well aware of this power imbalance and is taking full advantage of it; that he doesn't care about boss and sees him as a plaything. it's not true though. prince wants to have an actual partnership with boss, he is someone who craves intimacy beyond just meaningless sex. he's a tragic figure whos spent his life yearning and reading romance novels but had the traumatic reality of being a gay man forced into a marriage with a woman who didn't love him. so he does crave a partner who actually loves him. a lot of people on the fandom side with him because of this; he's done a couple of weak attempts at trying to be something beyond sex with boss and they weren't reciprocated, so a lot of people view boss as the bad guy. but they're not, yknow, taking into account the fact that this whole arrangement they had going on put so much power in prince's hands and left boss feeling like his life is basically at the mercy of this prince.

the prince tried to rectify this in the latest episode: he got a crystal for boss that fulfills the same purpose the book did, so boss no longer needs to rely on prince to do his job. prince did this with the hope that they could still continue their relationship, just as one that was no longer transactional. basically, prince was trying to make it healthy, which is good on him! the problem is that boss has a Lot of issues and trauma!

boss believes that prince could never truly love him, so when presented with this crystal and the prince's speech about how he's no longer obligated to be there but he still hopes he'll stay because he wants to stay: boss assumes it's some kind of weird roleplay thing. the gears in his brain are basically grinding horribly doing mental gymnastics trying to fathom what this could mean. prince can't possibly mean this, prince only wants sex, he definitely doesn't love him, so it's gotta be some weird roleplay thing.

when the prince realizes this is the conclusion boss has drawn, he basically pisses his little diaper and starts crying. like "wah wah why can't you see i love you why do you always assume it's about sex" basically making himself the victim now and the biggest problem about this argument is that from this point forward he will not allow boss to get a WORD IN. boss is literally begging like "can you please just give me a minute to fucking absorb what is happening right now, you sprung this on me all at once and i need a minute to process" but prince is like NO YOUVE GIVEN ME YOUR ANSWER YOU NEVER LOVED ME AND YOU REFUSE TO SEE THAT I LOVE YOU

so now boss is just pissed off! the guy won't let him get a word in or talk about his feelings or why he interpreted it the way he did and this is essentially prince breaking up with him because of the 'you've given me your answer' thing, so he's mad so he starts saying shit that he know will hurt prince, because prince is hurting him right now so his hurt animal brain response is to just say anything that'll sting no matter how much he really means it. stuff like "you royals are all the same, you think you can play with our feelings because we're smaller and not as important. you think you can dismiss me like one of your little butler imps, well i'm not letting you bitch" after which prince literally physically dismisses him by teleporting him out of the castle, which kinda proves his point honestly bc he used his royal powers to end the conversation even tho boss literally just said that they still needed to talk and this was Not how their relationship was about to end because he hadn't even been allowed to talk about his own feelings or explain his point of view or Anything.

i will acknowledge that from prince's point of view it's probably frustrating and saddening that ur boytoy won't believe you genuinely love him, but truly there were only a few times prince actually Tried to make an attempt to make things beyond sex happen. one of these occasions was after they'd been publicly humiliated at oz's club, and prince asked if boss maybe wanted to watch a movie or a cuddle, to which boss replied "i'm not in the mood, stop trying to pretend like what we have is anything more than you wanting me to fuck you. you make that really clear all the time." and the conversation ended there. boss sounded very close to crying when he said "you make that really clear all the time" as well. and you wanna know something? THATS TRUE!!! the big thing that annoys me about prince is that in these later episodes he's acting like he was soso normal amount boss and was never obsessively weird and sexual towards him even tho that's ALL HE EVER WAS IN EARLY SHOW!!! and i think ppl who take his side in this argument seem to forget that as well. if you watch early episodes the prince is just Uncomfortably sexual towards boss, like it's all he talks about, he was even talking sexually to him in front of his Daughter. like huh prince, i wonder why boss would be under the impression that you view him as a sexual object? it's not like you answer the phone with "hello my big dicked bliitzy" or anything? no hi hello? just gonna talk about how much you want his cock down your throat? did you forget about that? did you suddenly forget how you behaved towards him during all of season 1?

to defend the prince A Little it seems he was under the impression that boss was in to dirty talk but i can't even use that defense for very long because boss was obviously not reciprocating?? like he was obviously rolling his eyes or being like UGHHHHHH every time prince would talk to him like that in a non-sexual setting, so you can't use the misunderstanding excuse for very long when boss made it so obvious he was Not reciprocating and was telling him to Stop. stop doing that. stop saying those things. they're annoying/cringey/uncomfortable. stop. especially since when he would get really into it, it really made it sound like he was fetishizing boss' species (idk just weird emphasis on his red skin and the fact that he's an imp in general) and the way he spoke just made it really apparent to me why boss would assume prince just has a fetish for imps or has fantasies about peasants rawdogging him. like the way this guy talked really did make it seem like he viewed boss as a sexual object/fantasy. like im begging some ppl to go back and watch season 1 and listen to how this guy spoke about boss, seriously.

so yeah, basically, my conclusion is that while prince was trying to do the right thing by giving boss that crystal and setting him free, he also handled the rest of the argument horribly by not allowing boss to speak or process anything, and isn't doing any introspection on why boss thinks he doesn't love him! he didn't examine his own behavior and think about what possible fault he could have in it, he just started to play victim and cry and sent boss away before they could have any kind of productive conversation.

i do like this argument from a writing standpoint because if this were an an i the asshole post the ruling would probably be the "everyone sucks" result because it's a very messy dynamic they have and they both screwed up. i am not at all saying that even if boss Did truly think prince loved him that he would be the perfect partner; we had an entire episode dedicated to how boss hurts the people who love him. he broke up with verrossika specifically because she told him she loved him. boss isn't a good person! what i am saying is that this argument isn't even close to black and white, and boss isn't this asshole who hurted princey's widdle feelings based entirely on his own insecurities (although his insecurities do play a part in it). basically some people just act like the entire reason boss thinks prince could never truly love him is just because boss is insecure and thinks Nobody could love him because of his own self hatred, but that simply isn't true. prince has displayed plenty of behavior that paints himself unfavorably and supports boss' beliefs that he views him as a sexual object and nothing more. i refuse to allow ppl to paint the bird man as a victim who did nothing wrong in this situation

[sushisocks]

so sorry for this weird ask, i have no idea what else i can try to find this out but you seem like a sean expert. im trying to figure out the year he left ireland, and for that i need his age in 1899.

so, how old do you think sean is?

GOD, this is such a good question, not a weird ask at all, and one I could go on FOREVER about. The question as to Sean's age is one which HAUNTS me, given the ambiguity of it. However we DO have some hints to go off.

First off, we can assume Sean is younger than Arthur, going off his line about Sean being like 'an annoying younger brother' to him. We also can assume he's younger than John, as John refers to him as 'kid' in the game. Javier, who seems to be around John's age as well, also refers to Sean as his 'little friend', most likely referencing the other's age. In that same vein, we can assume Sean is older than Lenny, who he calls kid - and who is the ONLY one Sean calls kid, besides Jack of course.

That all leaves us in an age range of the early to mid 20s - 20-25 is where I usually have him. I also usually veer towards the lower end of that spectrum tbh, and that is in large part because of how he is characterized and clearly supposed to be read. There's not only just a need to prove oneself, but also a youthful exuberance & arrogance to Sean we only really see mirrored in Lenny, though it shows differently between the two it is all CLEARLY there for both of them. And the way Sean treats Lenny as a peer, while still calling him 'kid' at almost every opportunity, very much reads as 'heheh, I am (barely) older than you and finally get to call someone kid instead of being called it' you know?

There's also the matter of his friendship with Mary-Beth, who is presumably about 21-22 like Arthur asked her. The fact that Sean asks her to go with him robbing that one stagecoach is in my opinion a hint of him seeing her as peer as well.

So, like, narratively, characteristically, he SHOULD for all intents and purposes probably be around 21-23. That's what makes sense to me, at least.

WHAT THEN GETS ME is, as you say, when did he leave Ireland?? Because, okay, let's talk about daddy dearest Darragh for a second!!

Note of his death is published in 1889! A full decade before the events of the game!! Which is SUPER surprising considering how Sean talks about him, but also makes it clearer why it's easier for him to speak about him so lightly - that loss has been well-mourned by now, though it makes the fact that Sean speaks so much of him even more tragic imho. They were CLOSE, Darragh was probably Sean's BEST friend growing up, and losing him at that age would've SUCKED so so much!! 10-13 is a very rough age bracket to lose your only guardian and to deal with the amount of upheaval Sean does in the time after.

The timeline given us by the newspaper scrap we can find at Clemens Point is somewhat incongruent with what I found when it came to the history of Fenian activity in Ireland in the 1800s. While there was a Fenian Rising, it was very much in 1867, and I could not find Galway having any significant role to play during it, compared to Dublin, for example. This means we can assume this Fenian Uprising spoken of in the scrap to be a fabrication on R*'s behalf. The Fenian Raids into Canada were VERY much a thing, and in 1866 there even was one in Ridgeway, right by Niagara Falls, as mentioned in the news scrap - though I found a higher death count for the incident on Wikipedia lol

So that gives us a little bit of a timeline! Darragh sets Galway on fire in 1860, fucks off to the US to join a Fenian Raid into Canada, presumably intended to be R*'s version of the Battle of Ridgeway, before eventually RETURNING to Ireland and getting involved in politics as an Irish Republican. What a complicated ass backstory for a character who doesn't even show up in the game beyond his name lmfao

ANYWAY furthermore, the newspaper scrap says the law has been hunting him for years. I mean, that makes sense, given how much back and forth he does over the decades. Let's for arguments' sake say Darragh stayed in the US for a little while before returning to Ireland and getting involved in the political landscape, and that Sean was born ca 1878. Maybe Darragh starts seeing the need to hide some years later; as his past starts closing in on him. They hide out for a while in different locations around Ireland, before the law finds them in Clifden, and THAT'S presumably what makes Darragh flee to the US. We don't know how long the manhunt lasted, but since they'd not gotten past Boston, and specifically quoting Sean's 'we never got that new start' line when talking about his past, I think it's fair to say that they weren't in the US for very long before Darragh died. THOUGH I'd argue they were there long enough for Darragh to lower his shoulders and sleep soundly enough to not hear someone sneak into his bedroom. Also, long enough for him to have found a residence for him and Sean to stay in. So, I'd say they might've had a year or so in the US together?

Now, taking into account the time frame it might've taken for news to get back to the UK, and for it to then be printed, I think it's not unreasonable to believe Darragh died in late 1888, or early 1889. Which means he and Sean probably arrived in the US in the latter half of 1887, while Sean was 9-10.

Anyway, if you're wondering if this changes my thoughts in regard of how long I think Sean was in reform school, I think yeah maybe!! But I still don't think he was there more than 2-3 years max lol. Idk why I thought Sean was older when Darragh died, but the math & research I've now done contradicts that assumption for sure!!

Thank you for the ask!! I definitely went OFF, and if you find my timeline doesn't work for you, that's completely fine!! I had a lot of fun looking into this anywho, and if any one part of it helps you out, that's more than good enough for me!!!!