#BK Army

[the-hilda-librarians-wife]

I already said this in the tags of waddles’ post but I feel like this deserves its own post because it’s an actual Thought and I have very few of these.

But I just find it downright hilarious to think about the shift the Hilda fandom has been through during its existence from “mostly simping for Kaisa” to “mostly simping for Johanna”. Because my brain is so stuck in s1 fandom mode that sometimes I forget it’s not really the case anymore, but I swear you could not escape the Kaisa fans. All the banger fanart was hers, all the meta posts. Everyone wanted to know what was up with the beautiful, mysterious, alluring librarian character. Johanna posts were very few and far between, and only really started coming more often when sketchbook became a popular ship. But even then, you’d mostly see Johanna content in the context of her relationship with Hilda and/or a possible relationship with Kaisa. Not a lot was said about her on her own.

Now, though. Now I look around and I get whiplash at how the scales were completely changed. One by one the people with Kaisa pfps became inactive or changed their themes. Johanna is everywhere. The posts are all about her, everyone is screaming. I see the words “Johanna with a buzzsaw” at least twice a day. People stopped holding back on calling her a milf. Kaisa became our resident wet sad cat of a character. Does it ever drive you crazy-

[slip-stitch]

[harmless-variety-of-garden-snake]

It's time for BuckTommy Fluffebruary Day Twenty: Baby Fever. These two are so ready to be dads, and I'm ready to see them be dads or at least cool uncles. This was so close to being a breeding king fic, but it's really just fluff about them wanting to start a family. Who am I anymore? Also, I fixed Melton not being a captain, ya boy is getting the promotion he already had in canon. I'm a hack, and I know it. This is also on AO3 over here. Tagging @bucktommyfluffebruary

Buck likes Tommy's captain, because even from the start he had been a nice guy, and over time Buck’s found out that Bryant protects the hell out of his team. He's been on the city about safety regulations to a degree that he has a routine for going in and raising hell, they have the lowest instance of equipment failure in any Air Ops division in the state, and he'd fired no less than three people for bigoted statements or actions toward members of the team or people being rescued. One of those guys had said something to Tommy, who'd brushed it off, but Bryant had overheard and come down on the man like the hammer of God.

When Bryant has to announce his retirement, Buck is sad to see him go. The man's health has taken a hit after some hazardous material exposure earlier in his career came back to haunt him in the form of a (thankfully early stage and already in remission) cancer that he's had treated, but the treatment was aggressive and visibly weakened him. Tommy is devastated and helps organize a party to send him off, and Buck is happy to lend his planning and cooking skills. He shows up to Harbor with ten dozen cookies, four sheet cakes, three trays of lasagna (regular, plant-based, and gluten free), and enough crudité trays to feed a small army.

“I know I should be alarmed, but we really were worried we wouldn't have enough food,” Lucy says as she grabs the lasagnas from the bed of Tommy's truck and walks into the engine bay. “BK, your man's here!”

Tommy's head appears from around a corner, and Buck grins and waves at his husband. When the rest of Tommy appears, he has a baby in the crook of his arm, and Buck feels his heart melt.

“Who's this?” he asks as he approaches Tommy.

“Cap’s granddaughter,” Tommy replies, picking up a chubby hand and waving it at Buck. “Nicola, this is Evan. Evan, Nicola.”

“A pleasure to meet you, ma’am,” Buck says, kissing the back of her hand and grinning at her toothless smile. “Can I steal you from the nice man?”

“As long as you promise to give her back,” Tommy says, carefully transferring her to Buck’s arms.

He bounces her and raises his brows when hers go up, laughing when she giggles. “Okay, silly girl, let's go get cookies from Uncle Tommy's truck.”

Tommy's hand rests between his shoulder blades as they walk out to the truck, which has already been largely cleared out. The cookies are in bakery boxes, and Tommy grabs them so Buck can flip the tailgate back up as he talks to Nicola about all of the stuff he made and how Bobby had helped out with the lasagna.

He feels a tug behind his belly button sometimes, like a hook’s been attached, and he's started realizing what it is. He wants this. He wants to hold a baby and then a toddler and then a child and talk to them and console them and love them and teach them. He wants to see Tommy do the same. He wants them to do it together. They've talked about it at length, and they're on the same page that sometime before Tommy turns forty-five, they'll be fathers. Tommy's forty-two and makes jokes about being one of those elderly dads one day, and Buck wants that. Every time a baby or toddler is in his vicinity, he wants to hold them and interact with them and make them smile and show them to his husband.

He holds Nicola close and kisses her fine hair and inhales the smell of baby soap and lotion and powder and milk that always clings to them when they're this young. A hand settles on his back again and he blinks at his husband. He's been blindly following Tommy and hadn't realized that he’d led them to the hangar where the party’s happening and had set the cookies down on a table.

Buck knows Tommy better than anyone probably ever has, something he's fought for and felt honored to achieve. When he looks at him, he can see a reflection of what he's feeling, having seen it more than a few times. Tommy tells him about every baby or toddler or kid who interacts with him while he's at the store, which is a lot. Kids gravitate toward Tommy, and Buck’s turned a corner in the grocery store more than once to see Tommy engaged in a conversation with a six-year-old who's explaining why their dog is named what they're named. He knows it’s what they want one day, but that one day doesn’t feel that far off anymore.

“Melton’s taking over Bryant’s spot as Captain, Jack’s taking over as First L-T,” Tommy says, reaching up to rub Nicola’s back as she wobbles a bit trying to look around at all of the people walking past them. “So the Training Captain job will be opening up. I was thinking of applying.”

Training Captain would mean Tommy is taken off rescues, that he'd only be flying to train, that his hours would be a little more regular. It’s been their first step in starting their family ever since they mapped out what that might look like for them.

“Yeah?” Buck asks, feeling his chest swell with something like hope.

Tommy’s gaze meets his, and his husband looks happy at the idea. “Yeah.”

Nicola squirms against Buck’s chest, and he turns his attention back to her. She's getting a little pouty, and Buck soothes her softly, bouncing her a bit and talking quietly to her.

“Sorry,” a woman says, smiling. “I need to feed her. You're Tommy’s husband, right?”

Buck grins and nods, still not able to tamp down the thrill that goes through him at being able to say he's Tommy's husband. “Yeah, that's me. Evan Buckley-Kinard. Does this young lady belong to you?”

“She does,” she confirms, giving her daughter a smile filled with so much love that it lights up her face. “I'm Mary, Cap’s kid. You guys don’t have any yet, right?”

“Not yet,” Buck says with full confidence that he'll be able to give a different answer one day. One day, he'll be able to say ‘yes’ and pull out his phone to show a million pictures to someone who will coo politely and ask about milestones and how old and names and sleep schedules. And he'll be able to turn to Tommy and commiserate about sleepless nights and quiet moments and—

“Yeah, you've got it bad,” Mary says, laughing. Buck flushes and hands the baby over to her patient mother. “Don't worry, you'll probably get her back until my dad gets her. Thanks for keeping an eye on her.”

“Not a problem,” Tommy says, slipping an arm around Buck’s waist. “Tell your dad to share. He's about to get all the time in the world with her.”

Mary looks between them with a smile. “You guys know they don't sleep, diaper blow-outs are a ‘when’ not ‘if’ situation—not to take the shine off the idea, but I feel like everyone just gassed me up until it was too late, then I got all the horror stories.”

“Oh, we know,” Buck says, sighing happily as he reaches over to brush a thumb over Nicola’s petal soft cheek. “But look at that face.”

She tucks herself against her mom, and Mary kisses the top of her head. “Yeah,” she says softly. “It's the best one. Nice meeting you, Evan.”

“You, too,” Buck says, watching them leave. He waves sadly at Nicola when she peeks at him from over Mary’s shoulder. “One?”

“Or two,” Tommy says, kissing his temple. “We'll see. But at least one. I always wished I had a sibling.”

“They're great,” Buck confirms, even though Maddie is going to be so smug, because she'd called him wanting kids right after marriage and he'd denied it vehemently, saying they’d wait another two to three years. “Mostly.”

“You'll be a great dad.”

Buck smiles at his husband and presses their foreheads together. “So will you.”

He sees a bit of the fear and doubt and knows it's the spirit of Tommy's dad looming over him. He wants to reach back in time and throw the man down a mountain.

“You're one of the best people I've ever known,” Buck reminds him. “And I love you and will love you even when you let our kids get paint on the walls.”

Tommy chuckles and squeezes his waist. “It'll add character to the house. And I'd give them washable paint.”

“That stuff is bullshit and you know it and I know it and so does Crayola, because the stains—” Buck’s cut off from his rant by a pair of lips, and he sighs against his husband's mouth.

“Wanna practice after the party?” Tommy asks softly.

“Stain removal?” Buck asks faintly.

“No,” Tommy says, looking between Buck’s eyes with an intensity that burns straight through him. “Making a baby.”

Buck’s heart stutters in his chest and heat shoots through him. “Neither of us really has the right—but we could try.”

Tommy nods and kisses him again, and it's only the distant voice of the fire chief that keeps Buck from slipping him any tongue.

[szynkaaa]

The Tragedy of Bull King, Red Boy and Princess Iron-Fan

me: does a poll for people to vote on between the Daoist Mi Lore or Kingdom of the Flowing Sand rats Also me: alright imma write about something else entirely

I will be tackling the Bull King's Family lore according to Black Myth Wukong, since the devs did change some things from the original JTTW books + my own interpretation and thoughts. You can find my other posts under the Black Myth Rambling tag

TW: Rape, forced childbirth, suicide

Will be abbreviating some names or calling them by a different name: Bull King = BK Princess Rakshasi = Princess Iron Fan Sun Wukong =SWK Red Boy = RB Mount Lingshan = Western Heaven Celestial Court = Eastern Heaven Taishang Laojun (the furnace guy) = TSLJ Keeper of the Flaming Mountain = furnace boy

I will try my best to tell all of this in chronological order to make sense of the timeline. Some events it is not very clear if it happened before or after this and that, so I listed them up in the order that I think it happened.

Some Backstory:

Both the Yaksha Kingdom and Kingdom of Rakshasa were destroyed by Mt. Lingshan

In the past, the Yaksha King was betrayed by the celestial beings, leading to the massacre of the royal family and the downfall of the Yaksha Kingdom. After the kingdom's collapse, the yakshas were forced into exile.

Yaksha Archer journal entry

When a formidable enemy attacked, the Yaksha King appointed Mi Yan as the vanguard general. [...] Despite their valor, the Kingdom of Yaksha was ultimately destroyed, but not a single soldier from Mi Yan's army deserted.

Red-haired Yaksha journal entry

Along with the fall of the Yaksha Kingdom, the Rakshasa Kingdom, due to their kinship with the yakshas, also met its end.

Thunder Rhino Master journal entry

From the Sea Rakshasa Journal entry:

from the entry, we gather that Princess Iron Fan was a princess of the kingdom of Rakshasa beyond the Western sea

Kingdom fell, they escorted the princess eastwards, and made a new home in the Flaming Mountains. Strongly assuming this all happened before fire rained down to the mountain from the furnace being kicked over by SWK

Princess Iron Fan is described to have a kind heart

After her eastward migration, Rakshasi had a new Daoist master in the Celestial Court. Practicing Daoism in Buddhism's stead, Rakshasi marked a departure from her past.

also from the Thunder Rhino Journal entry

From the Keeper of the Flaming Mountain Entry

he's a bitch and doesn't give a shit about human lives lol

also hazed Princess Iron Fan

calling him furnace boy because that was literally his job in heaven lol, fanning the furnace. the same furnace SWK was cooking in for 40 days

His master is TSLJ, introduces him to Princess Iron Fan. She is his new disciple, but also furnace boy's senior. He calls her 师姐 shī jiě, with jiě meaning 'older sister'.

which, he is not happy about. and then says well since she is the senior she should be fanning the furnace.

and Princess Iron Fan being the queen she is, goes alright bet and does her job.

does NOT tattle on furnace boy. instead asks for a bigger fan because the one the boy gave her is too small.

and old man gives her hher signature Iron Fan.

Enter SWK, who springs outta the furnace, and flames fell down to Earth creating the Flaming Mountain.

Furnace boy is demoted to Keeper of Flaming Mountains

Iron Fan volunteered to go to mortal realm to help him. what a queen he did not deserve her

he learns then that the princess already has a cave where she chills and loyal followers (the Sea rakshasa)

TSLJ arranged the marriage between her and BK

realizes no matter how many dirty works he does for TSLJ, his master will never think furnace boy is worthy to be with her LOL. even his master knows what a trash he is

So we know that Princess Iron Fan and BK got married after SWK jumped out of the furnace

Here is a pic of Princess Iron Fan. Ain't putting one of Furnace Boy because he doesn't deserve it

The Yaksha King Lore

2nd phase of the Red Boy final boss battle in chapter 5.

Journal entry does not talk about the RB though, rather talks about the Red Boy's bio father. yes folk that's right, BK is not his bio dad in BMW

Mt. Lingshan wages war against the Yaksha Kingdom. Mount Lingshan is where Buddha resides and the final destination of the pilgrims in JTTW to retrieve the scriptures.

Yaksha King's son, a baby, recently died. Father is still carrying the infant in his arms. The King himself is gravely wounded

creepy ass dude shows up and is like "yeah I can help you to carry on your royal line and save your son, trust me bro"

"Whether the Yaksha royal lineage continues or ends depends entirely on your decision today." [...]

they extract the dead baby's soul into a red lotus flower before it could enter the cycle of reincarnation

They also need the life and the water of child-bearing river in

The figure clapped, and a white-clad Daoist emerged from behind. The Daoist approached the Yaksha King, bowed, then sat cross-legged on the ground. He extended his hands above the boy's head and began to chant softly. Before long, a small, blood-red lotus flower emerged slowly from the boy's forehead, crystal clear and vibrant. The Daoist carefully plucked the lotus and placed it into a bowl he carried. The Yaksha King fixed his unblinking gaze intently at the lotus. The figure said, "This red lotus is the essence of your son's soul. To ensure it does not dissipate before successful reincarnation, we will need your life and the water from the River of Childbearing."

White figure is Furnace Boy and his master is TSLJ. probably also what furnace boy refers to doing his master's dirty work

This is the same way Red Boy kills himself at the end of chapter 5, thus ending the royal Yaksha lineage

Here is an image of Red Boy

Princess Iron Fan was forced to drink the child-bearing water and give birth to the Red Boy

BK and SWK are sworn brothers, and he aids him fighting against the court, before SWK rebellion in heaven and was buried under a mountain for 500 years

We learn in the chapter 5 ending animation, that she was forced to drink from the water and give birth to Red Boy. BTW Highly recommend watching the ending animation

The way I understood this scene is that if it wasn't SWK, none of this would have happened, hence I believe they forced her to do it as a punishment for BK and probably to also keep his family in check

Princess Iron Fan says herself that carrying and giving birth to this child gave her a lot of pain, toppled with the fact that her husband doesn't really look at her anymore and pretends he doesn't know about Red Boy's origin and just overall keeps his distance. They still had a good relationship though as father and son

She still loved Red Boy very much and raised her like a son

"I ordered you to raise a child, but I did not ask you to be a true mother. Let the boy stir his trouble; as long as you and your husband stay out of it, you will be safe."

From Princess Rakshasi journal entry

Princess Iron Fan mentions that if the truth about Red Boy's origin gets exposed, the whole family is doomed. so yeah imo that's another thing pointing towards the court trying to control BK

This is also where Furnace Boy says that when Red Boy grows up, he is the living proof of the genocide that the Mount Lingshan committed ("He will be living proof... of the dark deeds of Mount Lingshan..")

TL;DR Western heaven destroyed the Yaksha and Rakshasa Kingdom, Eastern Heaven swooped in to claim the soul of the last Yaksha royal as blackmail material

BK has a fox lover, with him he conceives a child too: Pingping. We love Pingping, she has never done anything wrong in her life. We never meet the "real" Pingping in the game rip

Gang arrives, SWK wants to borrow the Iron Fan to get rid of the fire (his fault they rained down there btw LOL)

Princess Iron Fan was ready to hand out cause she knows if she doesn't there will be problem

Bull King cannot decide whose side to pick, which I guess demonstrate his indecision here, and also no choice is still a choice, which in turn turns into a bad one in this case here

Red Boy says no fuck that you can't have it. gets his ass beaten by monkey, and is then sent to be a disciple under Guanyin along with Black bear guai

Princess Iron Fan seeing her sweet sweet boy beaten refuses to hand out the fan now, gets attacked by the King.

The fox mistress is killed by Zhu Bajie

SWK tells him he should find a master to serve

BK pissed at how his wife and mistress were treated, lashes out.

Heavenly Court gets involved in the battle, Nezha subdues BK and beheads BK but don't worry he is not dead

BK is taken to heaven, converts to buddhism, serves heaven and then returns home

Pingping lives with Princess Iron Fan

enter the happy family era

From that day on, the Bull King's temperament changed drastically. His former wild and unrestrained nature was no longer seen. He declined all invitations, ceased his travels, and instead stayed in Flaming Mountains, helping Rakshasi with household affairs and training the bull soldiers, living a very peaceful life.

Bull King journal entry

red boy then also returns from Guanyin and they live happily together as a family of four for some time being

The he get summoned by the court to fight against SWK. by that tiem SWK has already attained buddahood, realized it's not for him and went back to Mt Huaguo. The heaven was not happy about that

SWK warns BK to not absorb the artifact, because that will fuck him up.

BK swallows the artifact, becomes depressed

At some point Red Boy also learns the truth about his origin, and demands the BK give him the artifact so he can take revenge on Heaven and avenge his bloodline

BK refuses

Red Boy wages war against BK

he also knocks out Pingping so he can take her form to mess with SWK and get the artifact from BK

and then pretty much everything from Chapter 5 happens, Red Boy's army fighting against BK's Army. BK himself is sitting depressed on the mouintain, injured and looking very skinny. We defeat Red Boy, BK spits out the artifact, Red Boy was not defeated and gets the artifact and aborbs it, turning into the Yaksha King

MEANWHILE our QUEEN Rakshasi tries to get help from her master and Buddha to stop the fight between father and son

she went to her master TSLJ, who is a dick and said. just let them do whatever, didn't ask you to raise the kid as your own son anyway. You just needed to give birth

she knows her son well and knows that the only way the siege would end is if he would die

Then goes to Mt Lingshan, to get revenge, carrying her fan, but she was not able to get revenge and is laughed at by everyone

A booming laughter echoed, deafening. Within that laughter, she heard the cries of an infant, the innocent giggles of a child, the roars of an adolescent, and the cycle of blooming and withering flowers, the growth of grass and the flight of orioles over millennia. She heard the embers extinguishing in the Flaming Mountains.

From her journal entry

so she senses that her son lost the battle or is close to death, so she rushes back home, like the fantastic mom she is

You can watch the cutscene here starting at 28:30 - highly recommend watching it to the end

She is begging DO to spare her son's life, and in return, she and her whole family will go into secluded meditation (exile?) and he can have her fan

Red Boy, refusing to be shackled and chained again, kills himself the same way the Yaksha King killed himself

we still get to keep the iron fan LOL

My thoughts and rambling: This whole family story is one fucking tragedy after another. Princess Raskshasi / Iron Fan, who lost her kingdom, moved east and then was used as a pawn by her master. Firstly wed to the Bull King and then forced to give birth to Red Boy - and suffered much pain carrying giving birth to Red Boy. It's never explained why her master set her up to marry the Bull King, but given how everyone in the famils is used as chest pieces, I strongly assume it is also a way to control BK.

Unconfirmed but this is the timeline I pieces together in TL;DR

SWK jumps out of the furnace

Princess Iron Fan follows Furnace Boy to the mortal realm. Is set up to marry Bull King

Bull King aids SWK in fight against the Court

SWK loses against Buddha of the West, is buried under the mountain

Princess Iron Fan has to drink the pregnancy water and gives birth to Red Boy

They used his wife as punishment for his action

While it doesn't sounds like it is a marriage out of love (which, to be fair not a lot of marriages back then were), I do think that both Bull King and Princess Iron greatly cared for each other. I'd say even boldly that Princess Iron Fan cared more LOL because Bull king had a mistress with whom he had a child. It can be argues that because he knows Red Boy is not his, he seek solace in the arms of another woman (and then has another child with her.

Princess Iron Fan has like every reason to turn into an evil stepmother or bitter woman, but she didn't.

Bull king has never made a right choice in his life, according to SWK

SWK and BK vs the Court

SWK and the court vs BK

the court and BK vs SWK

And the Red Boy... last of his lineage and used as a pawn by the court. Also interesting to note that in his design, he looks half "human" half bull, with his lower half being the bull part.

Overall another tragic love story in BMW.

And that's it from me, thank you for reading!

[horizon-verizon]

The showrunners just continue to steal from TV Daenerys’s characterization and final storyline to improve their Rhaenyra (a self righteous Targaryen woman with delusions of grandeur ? Groundbreaking), but she remains completely boring and forgettable. Dust in the wind.

And even though TV Daenerys is radically and entirely different from her book counterpart (as much as I love Emilia Clarke), TV Daenerys’ daddy didn’t tell her she’s special, unlike Rhaenyra, Daenerys realized she’s special when she brought back dragons from extinction and walked out of fire utterly unharmed, please can people stop compare her to any of the mid characters from HOTD ??

Speak it again, anon, bc what?! It's quite obvious that they are trying to inject as much a literal magic layer of significance in Rhaenyra's story as magic was in Dany's Or they are trying to make Rhaenyra more "important" in the Targ lineage & "interesting" to those who loved Dany (which is most of the fandom, lets' bfr) to promote the show. And yet at every turn they have also excused D&D's atrocious illogical writing of Daenerys' core traits and convictions behind the ol' "GRRM has not finished his series".

We know that there are only 2 books left of this series and Dany is still very NOT like her show counterpart's more...demanding isn't the right word but for now, we'll go with it. Based on this fact alone, people are so much more willing to believe that Dany will turn a 180 somewhere in these last 2 bks and destroy KL or do something akin to Mad!Aerys "bc Targs are crazy and she seeks to be a white savior while profiting from slaves". That this extreme turn for her will not happen for someone like Jon Snow who literally came back from the dead after nearly all under his command killed him. That they don't feel it rather be Cersei, not Dany, who'd blow up KL despite all the comparisons and actions she has similar to Aerys in the text, word for word verbatim. No it has to be Dany, bec she is a "foreign invader" come to ruin the good town of Westeros with her slave-owning ways.

Ryan Condal recently said as much about the D&D defense on BigThink:

Besides, there were a lot other instances where it's clear the real reason why they demolished her was to move on from the project and they just didn't like Dany. Go on over to ozymalek/PhoenixAshes' Youtube and search through to see how they broke it all down.

And yes, Dany actually showed/has very good reason to believe her singularity and even this pseudo-religious quality from her revitalizing dragons, effectively patching up a lot of the magical balance of the world by doing so.

What's also pretty cool is that bk!her still doesn't think of herself as a "god" the way Euron Greyjoy is kinda heading towards/is already at.

So it's so fucking weird how they are trying to re-capitalize on Dany's effect and show!character (and before that, her nonviolenet ADwD arc about the pits) for their false version of Rhaenyra bc apparently we can tolerate and even like ambitious, vengeful, cruel, or just selfish men like Euron, Robert B, Robb (not evil, but went to war for his own ends and his armies also raped indiscriminately), TYWIN [Rains of Castamere, everything else], etc. BUT a woman who has even just the mere self-concern to want to claim back a throne that was DEFINITIVELY usurped?! Nah, apparently, that's too much. She's unsympatheziable.

For a woman, she HAS to be "unselfish", trying to prove a point to men--dead or alive--of her strength 24/7, but unable to settle with an idea of her own "strength" or worthiness, and thus eventually be lead into semi-unintentionally building some strange "cult" around dragons from Westerosi religiosity to feel in control & for people to sympathize with her. She HAS to--as one Twitter user said--have a problem with her gender identity so as to attribute "womanly" stuff as "weak" to want the same things as what a man are granted.

If the audience is stupid, does that mean you should be as well and perpetuate MORE sexist stereotypes/frameworks? No; HotD is for the money and comes form a place of ignorant "women guide violent men" narrative, no matter much it claims it is "feminist" or how lore-knowledgeable Condal says he is.

We all know this is a media company and Condal is more businessman than creator and that you need sorta both a business/production sense as well as a creative spirit for TV/film. Problem is that Condal is inevitably and attempting to build an ethos and ethical narrative while also treating the org stories and GoT as material to re-market through his own "vision" of what he'd personally like to see as a ASoIaF story.

Just bc this is a huge media company doesn't mean whatever they say is "God" for the actual story they were tasked to adapt! You can enjoy that and still recognize nothing about it or most of it informs the orig story or "proves" anything of it WITHOUT bringing up good reasoning and comparisons as to how-why!

Much of the characterization/writing/plot decisions he makes are not about feminism or making the characters palatable for others but to--like with a lot of censorship--just make it so that as many people as possible are watching and are comfortable with the most popular but incorrect ideas of what ASoIaF & feminism or sexism is about, etc.. those of which have already been in fandom and larger life/online circulation for YEARS.

Therefore, there is much superficiality as well as what could have been fleshed out and nuanced ideas or directions the current writing HotD has AS WELL AS Condal's/Hess' own biases written into the very fabric of this show that mark it as just ASoIaF "fanfiction" instead of a strict "adaptation". I know people get annoyed with the fanfic allegations, but if you have an "adaptation" that no longer has most-to-any of the core ideas, themes, characterizations, EVENTS, etc. as its original, you call that a fanfic, not an adaptation. Just bc it came from a prestige major studio/company and had a lot of money thrown at it, doesn't make it actually an adaptation.

If the author themselves--even though they should know better bc look what happened with Dany, Euron, Cersei-Jaime, etc.--say something is egregiously wrong with how they written a certain thing in the show, it is not actually using the orig lore and therefore it is more fanfic than adaptation:

Dany--unlike any other Targ, which includes Rhaenyra--has a relationship with 3 separate dragons even though she will only ride one. Vermithor should NOT have been as "docile" with Rhaenyra as they were in the show (saw another clip online, still haven't watched the episode). There is still a reason why Jace tried to get her out TWICE, why Viserys was upset at Aemond for going down to the Dragonpit alone, why Rhaena nearly died trying to bond with some, , why Nettles approach and SUCCESS with Sheepstealer is so amazing, why Baelon bumping a dragon on the nose gave him the moniker "Baelon the Brave", etc. Dragons are damned dangerous to anyone who aren't their rider! And Rhaenyra's "specialness" was evident in the plethora and rise of dragon eggs....you want to show her as such? Have dialogue about the trajectory of dragon eggs laid compared to now vs 40/30/20/10 yrs ago!

Yes, most of the Targ women are connected and esp through magic and fertility & expressed "Targaryen woman's strength" and agency in unique but still related ways. But as rhaenin-time once said:

HotD thinks it's somehow an improvement to insist that actually, no, they're all just (by circumstance) variations of a "generic targ girl" template.

You could have even have Rhaenyra stumble on something a GoT character later finds but not have her go into that deep about it bc she's focused on the war/usurpation if you really want to stick with the whole oversimplified "distracted by selfish stuff" going on. Point is, Rhaenyra's significance was meager compared to Dany's SPECIFICALLY when we talk about active and participatory spiritutality/magic. Passively and more subtly, Rhaenyra dying spelled the end of dragons...so be subtle about it and stop with the whole "religious cult" nonsense that really is just a continuation of the whole Dany-is-a-facist nonsense we got in the final season of GoT. "Targ madness" and all that.

Of course they won't bc this is Condal's "vision", but hey, got things off my chest.

[ashfluffys]

so I just got brainworms, and I'm gonna write out what I think all the ahit characters (that I can remember XP) would be if they were darkners

Hk- probably an alien plushie or an eraser or something, wearing a top hat. Her umbrella could be one of those little toothpick umbrellas that you put in a drink

Bk- same deal but wearing a bow, maybe hk and bk were a matching set? (Itd be kinda funny if hk was trans, and originally intended to be a man [thus the top hat] but just kinda went "nah, girl time")

Mu- she could be a little red riding hood plush, with some embroidered details on her face that started unraveling, that look like a mustache

I just realized that all of the characters are a form of toy, or something that could reasonably be found in a kids toybox, so I guess I'm gonna run with that theme now :D. Playing with my touys

The mafia- a set of lil plastic toys, kinda like those little green army men. The mafia boss could be a squishy toy that's also a mafia toy, full of goop (kinda like gumby, or a stretch armstrong. Something like that) so once everyone is back in the light world they are like "what are we supposed to do with this guy, we don't know how to fix this" and they just stuff him in a jar

Cooking cat- cat plush, friends with seam perhaps?

Dj grooves- plastic penguin that has a pompom and goofy glasses glued to it. Part of a set of a bunch of plastic penguins, he's the biggest one in the set.

The conductor guy- (I forgot his name) little clay model, made to be the conductor for a trainset (either a model railway, or one of those wooden trainsets) later on whoever owned the ahit toybox™ acquired a bunch of toy owls and decided to make them the railway workers

Maybe the railway is how you get around this dark world (kinda like the boat person from undertale)

Snatcher- probably a goofy Halloween decoration (I remember when I was younger sometimes id see some random decoration or something in a store and ask my parents for it even though it wasn't technically a toy) sitting next to a bunch of tags from other toys n stuff (I remember I would save tags from plushies and things in a drawer somewhere when I was younger) he has hk's tag, which is where the whole "I OWN YOU" thing comes in. (Maybe he's the secret boss, kinda like spamton, where you always fight him once normally, but fight him a second time optionally)

Queen Vanessa- (I think that's her name) y'know when a little girl has a doll and plays with it really roughly and is constantly bringing it everywhere so it gets kinda crusty and weird, basically that. She's still covered in mud, and is angry because she was dropped under a cabinet or something and then forgotten. Her area is a spooky mansion where the game unexpectedly gets way scarier that usual (think the true lab from undertale) and how you beat her peacefully is cleaning her up and bringing her back out from under there, so she chills out :)

Hat kids rocket ship is a cardboard box decorated to look kinda like a weird house, with paint and stuff. It probably has those little glowy stars stickers on it. (Or those are stuck to the ceiling of the room they're in, and hat kid [my brain just malfunctioned and mashed hat kid together into "kat" while typing, so I guess I have a new hc for their name kshdjdk. Human au hk named Kathrine ig X∆] wants to Get Up There)

anyway I can't remember anyone else rn, cus the memory storage department of my brain is a half full can of baked beans with a hole in the side so yeah 👍

Have a nice day, hope you like my autism fueled wall of text ':D. (Also btw IDK what happens after ch2 in deltarune cus I haven't been able to buy it yet, so if anything is weird with the lore then sorry ig? I've been trying not to look at spoilers but half of my moots have been obsessed with deltarune, so I keep checking my feed to see a wall of greyed out posts [I have deltarune spoilers blocked] and I'm so tempted to see what they're talking about but No, I must Resist. I'm fine with minor spoilers but I don't want to see "btw asriel comes home and then he falls down the staircase and breaks his ankle, and then it turns out that gaster pushed him down the stairs so half the chapter is everyone hitting him with wiffleball bats" or something [if that's what actually happens in chapter six of something I will laugh so hard but I doubt it XP])

I just spent a while getting funky with the text, that was fun :)

I actually have a theme idea: storybooks! Fits with the ahit base game and doesn't feel out of place for deltarune darkners! And I want the protags to NOT fit in because they wouldn’t be from that darkworld to match how they weren’t from the planet in their game. My thoughts are this;

Hk: “It’s a matching alien eraser, this one has a fancy hat. Susie swiped it from your brother’s pocket, but you don’t think he’ll really care… huh, when did it get a drink umbrella in its arm?”

Bow: “It’s a matching alien eraser, this one has a fancy bow. You swiped it from Asriel’s dresser, may as well keep the pair together.” (optional) “You smushed a drink umbrella into the eraser’s arm, now they REALLY match.”

Mu: “It’s a fairytale book. Seems to be about a little girl in a red hood trying to avoid danger, but someone crudely stuck a mustache sticker to the front cover. Weirdly, it kinda looks right.”

Mafia: “It’s a storybook. The story revolves around sailors ‘discovering’ islands and making new homes. You think about how unrealistic it is that islands would be so free for the taking.”

Cc/Nyakuza: “It’s a book about cats. Most of the book talks about street cats and their lifestyles, but some of it talks about proper health and diet for felines. Neat.”

Grooves/penguins: “It’s a silly storybook about penguins living on a moon because it’s as cold as the arctic. You notice someone ‘decorated’ the pages with party stickers.”

Conductor/owls: “It’s a rhyming book. Seems to be a silly story about owls operating a train with a cutesy song tied to the plot. You question why it was owls instead of any other animal.”

Snatcher: “It’s a pop-up book. Looks like a sad story of a prince becoming a ghost ruler, but for some reason laws and politics are involved.”

Vanessa: “It’s a heart breaking tale of a queen losing everyone around her. You don’t fully understand why the writers gave her ice magic, but you didn’t read it so who cares.”

Alpine skyline: “It’s a picture book. The pictures show different species of goats living on mountains. You feel weird about seeing non-bipedal goats and quickly close the book.”

Artic cruise: “It’s a book about artic seals and walruses. You would mention how it explains their ability to live in such cold places, but you’re too distracted by someone’s poorly drawn boats all over every page.”

[mikeellee]

Was debating on this but...it's no brainer how the odds are stacked against Izu. Like Shig is way stronger (and dumb, ofc) bc the story never let Izu be genuinely strong. It certainly stops after overhaul arc...his portion was derailed in favour of bk and his fake friends.

Shiga had a quirk awakening.

Shig got an army

Izu? Feels useless. He trains. He trains but ...Hori doesn't let him win. Izu vs BK should have been the easiest win for him (BK IS NOT THE GENIUS FANDOM SWEARS HE IS NOR IS NECESSARY A SUPER OP QUIRK TO END HIM) hell, even quirkless...but nope!

The only time he used ofa 100% is when Eri, a lil girl, is helping him. That's it.

Again, Shig got a quirk awakening and surprisingly makes some sense narratively speaking (I do have issues with MVA even if is the best arc) but the hero gets absolutely nothing.

He gets no friends.

He get no knowledge.

He gets nothing.

And look Izu ending up as a sensei is not a problem for me, per se, please guys Izu fucking tons of women as some dudebros lament it didn't happened it wouldn't have fix him and...no shonen hero ever ended up with a harem in canon.

Izu was set up for failure...he dares to be smth that was above his position (he doesn't know his place, as BK would put) and...is the odd duck, is the one getting hurt and ...ends up with nothing!

MHA is full of waste opportunities bc was written by an incompetent writer. Izu being a kid with no legacy link, no Inko shimura or dfo or anything like that...just a regular kid who wants to be a hero...would have been so powerful...

Sadly...Hori wrote this instead

[ingravinoveritas]

Why do I feel like this post just got personal and going in for the attack like she did for the radio one on twitter I'm not shocked or surprised by this cos the behaviour is getting more stranger and nasty and a fan on twitter shared this on her page saying we got ur bk u got a whole army behind u. I'm sorry what army and I'm sure if they spilt the fans wouldn't be behind her them they literally making it worst

What do u think ?

So, I saw/got a whole bunch of DMs over this Insta story this morning, but didn't have a chance to talk about it until now.

My first thought was that this was almost certainly in response to the negative reviews and backlash coming out for The Way in the wake of episode 3. The two biggest culprits in terms of media outlets seem to be the Daily Mail (Fail) and the Telegraph, and while I won't link to them here because I don't want to give either site any traffic, both reviews can easily be found via a Google search. Adding to those were a stream of vicious comments, both in the comments sections on the respective websites and on social media, largely from what seem to be right-wing/leaning accounts and public figures.

Knowing that, it made me think that Michael had to have been aware of what the potential reaction to the show could be. We know he was, actually, because he's talked about it in several interviews over the past few weeks, such as this one. And I think with Michael being who he is, he would be entirely amused at knowing he has pissed off exactly the right people. So while I could certainly see him in private having a reaction like the one in AL's story--more than understandably so, given how nasty some of the reviews and comments were--that doesn't necessarily mean it's a good reaction to have publicly. And I think Michael knows that, too.

What also adds to the disconnect for me is that a few hours later, an article that Michael had written as a rebuttal came out in the New Statesman:

What Michael wrote is a brilliant repudiation of remarks made by a Tory MP--a piece that is intelligent, snarky, direct yet unfailingly eloquent. It wasn't just Michael defending his show, but using it (and Nye) to make a point, to make clear what he believes in, and to stand for the truth. And in much the same way that Michael's acting and oratory skills elevate any piece of work he performs, his writing conveyed that same depth, and it came across as effortless as everything else he does.

Which again left me with that feeling of disconnect when looking at Michael's article side-by-side with Anna's Insta story. It's not even that I disagree with her in this instance, as I do think the reviews were unduly harsh and devolved entirely too quickly into personal attacks in the comments. It's that when it comes to acting/directing, criticisms are part of the job, and whether she intended it or not, an Insta story like AL's conveys a sense of unprofessionalism. And when you put it next to Michael's writing, it looks more like a teenager throwing a fit instead of an adult giving a fierce clapback, which again probably was her intention.

Also keep in mind that everything I just wrote is predicated on the idea that someone seeing this story knows what AL is talking about. But I have to wonder how readily apparent it was, because it's so vague that it would probably be difficult for most people to suss out what she is referencing. So it's confusing to me that she is seemingly charging to Michael's defense...but without actually saying his name or the name of the show. Again, it feels like there is a disconnect/sharp contrast between Anna vague-blogging and how specific and incisive Michael was in that article, and it seems like they're not even close to being on the same page.

Those are my thoughts on Anna's Insta story from this morning. It's definitely a fair bit of whiplash, especially given the drastically different tone of her last few recent posts. But I'm interested as always to hear from my followers with your take, regardless of whether you agree or disagree. Thank you for writing in! x

[gamzeenmakara]

PORTER (D20 JUNIOR YEAR SPOILER)

THIS IS A SPOILER LOOK AWAY!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Okay, anyway, I was thinking about the way many teachers and students are centered around the Bad Kids. That the BK are incredibly strong, have deep anger that they've worked through over time, and are terrifyingly unhinged when pushed just right. This then draws my attention to how Porter pushed both Fig and Gorgug towards his preferences weirdly feels like he's hoping to have a set of "high priests" and essential worshipers at the forefront when he takes on Godhood. And I think it would be really interesting to see them trying to corrupt both to make them the heads of Porter's army.

[butterflydm]

Fic bunnies for WoT...

*results not binding

[happytapirstudio]

Tapir Book Review: "Deadlands bk 1: Hunted" by Skye Melki-Wegner

Do you remember when I discovered this book and got super excited that it existed?  Well that's it that's the story.  Was it everything I hoped and dreamed?  I think so!

So this is what the website says: "Wings of Fire meets Jurassic Park in this action-adventure middle grade debut series by Skye Melki-Wegner about five outcasts—and former enemies—who are the only hope to save their warring kingdoms from impending doom."

First off, every piece of dinosaur media in existence feels the need to evoke Jurassic Park as a selling point.   I'll bitch about JP in a separate post, but needless to say, the only thing Deadlands and that movie have in common is dinosaurs.  And I guess being action/adventure stories.  As for Wings of Fire, I can't say...haven't read it!   Going in I figured it would be a lot like Warriors, what with the whole concept of warring factions of animals.  Surprisingly...it wasn't much like Warriors, either!

You know what it *is* like?  Land Before Time.  It's clearly for kids, but it's still a mature story.  It's told from the perspective of dinosaurs (no humans whatsoever! thank christ.)  And the directors/author clearly did some serious research for it.  The world-building in Deadlands is a bit more involved than LBT--it portrays dinosaurs with a distinct culture, a rich oral history, a political system, and a magic stone-based currency--but in the bigger picture, I'd say the level of anthropomorphism is about the same in each.  These are dinosaurs in their natural habitat, engaging primarily in natural behaviors, by which I mean, their main goal in life is to eat leaves.  Everything built around that--rules, rituals, armies--exists only to support that kind of lifestyle.

Another big LBT parallel is that our protagonists are a motley crew of young, abandoned, herbivorous dinosaurs who band together in the face of serious hardships in order to survive.  In Hunted, an Oryctodromeus named Eleri is cast out of his herd and sent to the Deadlands, a carnivore-infested desert wasteland where dinosaurs chuck all their criminals and traitors.  There, he meets several other dinosaurs (not saying what kind - spoilers!!), and found family ensues.

I am trying soooo hard to avoid spoilers here.  But don’t worry, another post is coming up, chock-full of spoilers and rife with myyyyyyyy opinions.  [link forthcoming]  Here's what I have to say in closing:

I'd recommend this book to anyone who loves dinosaurs, especially dinosaurs in their own right, not just as props in a human-centric story (cough, cough...........Jurassic Park.....................) I think the prose is quite lovely, and the premise, themes, and characters are all pretty sound.  That being said, this is, at the end of the day, a chapter book for younger kids.  If you can't hang with that, or the talking animal genre really doesn't appeal to you, then you should probably go back to the library and look for something else.

I had fun reading this--a good before-bed read!--so if you did, too, please hmu and we can chat about dinosaurs together!! <3

[lloydfrontera]

No, no, because like—

You've reminded me that we like. never get to see suho live in his own world for much after he basically Shoots himself into oblivion and returns to korea.

So my question is. if he has the system bumlshit and all that. what is it tied to? like can you imagine him living in his world and upgrading his powers and just Wrecking Shit Up over there? because that. would be Hilarious.

No but seriously what was up with the ending i used to think everything was fine with the novel (reading it but not really reading it because i have no attention span or Will) but discussing it. is really bringing stuff up

it must be tied to his soul right?? like?? that makes the most sense to me from the information we get. i went over ch 401 to see if there's any mention of lloyd trying to use the system in seoul, but the most we get is a mention of him checking for his summons, seeing if he can feel yongyong or the skeleton army and saying he can't feel them, nor his mana heart or circles.

i wonder if he needs to be able to access his mana in order to activate the system?? and he can't do that because he's back in his world where that just isn't a thing? so when he crosses back to lorasia where it is, his body registers the change and is able to interact with its mana the way is normal in that world and so the system comes back??

because, spoilers for the sequel, when rakiel crosses over to seoul he can use the system there. he doesn't lose any of his abilities or summons or anything. which is fascinating, because it means the system and the power supporting it is far more powerful than either the archangel, king of hell or demon king are, because unlike them, it can use its full power without any restrictions in a realm other than its own. so it's not like the system doesn't work in the 'real' world.

so maybe the system needs a host with a body that has already interacted with mana to be able to activate?? like, yeah it's tied to their soul but it stays dormant until they're in a world where mana is actually a thing. and that's why when lloyd's soul got iskeai'd the first time it activated, but when he got sent back to his own body he couldn't access it but could once he went back to the other world??

love to try to make sense of things bk moon probably didn't think about for longer than five seconds ajsdjkaas

i do admit that seeing lloyd use the system in his own world would've been absolutely hilarious tho lol

No but seriously what was up with the ending i used to think everything was fine with the novel (reading it but not really reading it because i have no attention span or Will) but discussing it. is really bringing stuff up

there's actually a term for that. fridge logic. once the show is done and you have time to slow down and think about it more throughly than you did when everything was happening in the moment and you realize that 'wait a minute that doesn't make any sense'.

it can happen with almost every kind of media, but a good writer can justify those ass-pulls either in-universe or by making the results satisfying enough that the audience doesn't really care why they're there, just that they are.

unfortunately. the ending of tged isn't really all that satisfying and fridge logic and fridge horror sets in pretty quickly once you sit down to think about it for longer than five minutes lol

[you-hate-time-travel]

[post i made back in february and never posted. some stuff no longet "canon" but idgaf this is just for me]

caraverse queen stuff... again

queens and kings are not born with the initials of WQ/BQ or WK/BK. instead, they are granted at coronation, as the piece is becoming either the ruler of the entire kingdom, or the chief general of the kingdom's army.

succession: any known aristocratic child of the queen is eligible to be next-in-line for the throne. (change? shouldnt be ANY probably, but they are all still aristocrats.) In lieu of an aristocratic biological child, the former queen will adopt a child into their court.

cloning has changed this somewhat, as now there are cloned a group of potential queens.

a king chosen by the current queen. this decision is extremely important, as they will manage the army and it's many expenses and complexities. almost always they are an already established general.

our WQ used to be WM, Worldly Matriarch-To-Be, and our BQ used to be SB, Sacrosanct/Salient B.

[real-fire-emblem-takes]

guess whos already overthinking the au despite only being 8 chapters into the PoR re-playthrough- i'll only mention a few ideas i've had thus far, as some are more in the maybe stages(like an example being i want to do something with Izuka but i don't know what thus can't get too much into it) well on the good news side of things Naesala never made a blood pact, Greil gets to live(Ike isn't a lord in this au so duh), Kilvas and Crimea have a good relationship after the au's PoR, and i have an excuse to make some Raven Laguz OCs(you cannot tell me that having the king of Kilvas as the lord would not yield more Ravens then Ike as the lord) ...on the bad news side of things Ike made a blood pact, Greil and Ike are both decently injured from a fight with BK, BK is still a threat even to Naesala's army, Mist leaves the Greil Mercenaries, The Greil Mercenaries are enemies even back in the au's PoR, Ike still gets Ragnell- the au is going great btw, and i have accidentally made the final fight with Ashnard funnier because i imagine if this were to be a fangame(its not, it'll likely just be a fanfic or fancomic) you'd have a choice between Tibarn, Giffca(Giffica? i never remember how that guy's name is spelled), and some random troublemaking Beorc with a bigass sword(made even funnier because the last choice is arguably the best choice in that situation) (also emojis stop breaking in the postage impossible challenge 2024) -🐦‍⬛naesala lord anon🐦‍⬛

WHY DOES MIST LEAVE THE MERCS????

[brookstonalmanac]

Events 5.19 (before 1930)

639 – Ashina Jiesheshuai and his tribesmen assaulted Emperor Taizong at Jiucheng Palace. 715 – Pope Gregory II is elected. 1051 – Henry I of France marries the Rus' princess, Anne of Kiev. 1445 – John II of Castile defeats the Infantes of Aragon at the First Battle of Olmedo. 1499 – Catherine of Aragon is married by proxy to Arthur, Prince of Wales. Catherine is 13 and Arthur is 12. 1535 – French explorer Jacques Cartier sets sail on his second voyage to North America with three ships, 110 men, and Chief Donnacona's two sons (whom Cartier had kidnapped during his first voyage). 1536 – Anne Boleyn, the second wife of Henry VIII of England, is beheaded for adultery, treason, and incest. 1542 – The Prome Kingdom falls to the Taungoo Dynasty in present-day Myanmar. 1643 – Thirty Years' War: French forces under the duc d'Enghien decisively defeat Spanish forces at the Battle of Rocroi, marking the symbolic end of Spain as a dominant land power. 1649 – An Act of Parliament declaring England a Commonwealth is passed by the Long Parliament. England would be a republic for the next eleven years. 1655 – The Invasion of Jamaica begins during the Anglo-Spanish War. 1743 – Jean-Pierre Christin developed the centigrade temperature scale. 1749 – King George II of Great Britain grants the Ohio Company a charter of land around the forks of the Ohio River. 1776 – American Revolutionary War: A Continental Army garrison surrenders in the Battle of The Cedars. 1780 – New England's Dark Day, an unusual darkening of the day sky, was observed over the New England states and parts of Canada. 1802 – Napoleon Bonaparte founds the Legion of Honour. 1828 – U.S. President John Quincy Adams signs the Tariff of 1828 into law, protecting wool manufacturers in the United States. 1845 – Captain Sir John Franklin and his ill-fated Arctic expedition depart from Greenhithe, England. 1848 – Mexican–American War: Mexico ratifies the Treaty of Guadalupe Hidalgo thus ending the war and ceding California, Nevada, Utah and parts of four other modern-day U.S. states to the United States for US$15 million. 1883 – Buffalo Bill's first Buffalo Bill's Wild West opens in Omaha, Nebraska. 1900 – Great Britain annexes Tonga Island. 1900 – Second Boer War: British troops relieve Mafeking. 1911 – Parks Canada, the world's first national park service, is established as the Dominion Parks Branch under the Department of the Interior. 1917 – The Norwegian football club Rosenborg BK is founded. 1919 – Mustafa Kemal Atatürk lands at Samsun on the Anatolian Black Sea coast, initiating what is later termed the Turkish War of Independence. 1921 – The United States Congress passes the Emergency Quota Act establishing national quotas on immigration. 1922 – The Young Pioneer Organization of the Soviet Union is established.

[mikeellee]

In all the stories of Shonen I read I think MHA is the only one where the mc should have give up on his dream. Izu as a character is abused and we are meant to laugh.

He didn't became a great hero

He couldn't save shig (who didn't want to be saved)

He has no friends

He has no one.

All his mentors and adults failed him so hard and...for what? Like seriously, let's talk how no one taught him shit about what to do in hero industry or how to save someone...he had no prepare but...sure, let's also hate on him and not on am and Aizawa (and Aldera)

Am is a bad mentor and...amazingly bad in that. I see many sides saying how it was hori's doing, how am is a new mentor...he wasn't(?) Kathy was his student and while one could argue "ah it was easy to tech her" he was her mentor...he did smth at least, with Izu? Nothing. He can't even defend Izu, he is the idiot superman.

Aizawa is Aizawa.

Aldera is Aldera (was it worthy? Sacrifice all the others students for BK? I think not as BK is dropping on the charts)

Like see Naruto, for example, he is a ninja and the story is about that. He couldn't be anything else bc the story wouldn't work

See Bleach, where Ichigo is the cliche of clichês, he couldn't be anything else but a Shinigami.

And so and on...

Hell Luke Skywalker couldn't be a mere farmboy or else we wouldn't have a story.

Izu? Suffering and is not as if we see the corrupt if society bc others characters show that...Izu is his punching bag.

Izu couldn't even win against Shig.

Ironically speaking, Shig had everything to win as a villain...but had everything pull under him and considering shig had no qualms in stealing shit from others villains and never worked for an army (in the sense, he formed by his ideas and actions, not bc a billionaire wanted to fight you out of blue) or power...lose all.

Its poetic. I give that.

But still hate what hori did.