#ESCAPE PLAN ESCAPE GOAL ESCAPE EXECUTION

[dumbgoondog]

Heian!Uraume X Reader

I’m not good with titles. Have some good heian!Uraume Face fuckin ya. There is some plot, reader is gender neutral/undisclosed. Uraume uses they/them here. NSFW MDNI +18 ya hear? Scram.

Summary —

After being captured you were going to become Ryomen Sukuna’s next meal, but his personal attendant had other plans for you. After months, you are ready to escape only stumble into something you weren’t expecting.

“My Lord Sukuna-sama,” Uraume’s hands folded together as they bowed eyes shut waiting for their lord’s answer. The lord in question, the massive monsterous man, Ryomen Sukuna. One of his eyes lazily rolls to look towards them, sharp and bored, he’s hungry waiting for a meal.

“What is it?” His voice gravels in his chest and filled them room even when not trying to speak loud. Uraume kept their head lowered, as they answered, “One of the sorcerers brought in, I wish to have them for myself.”

Sukuna sits up quickly a massive toothy grin pulling onto his face, “Uraume!” He barks and begins to laugh extending one of his four hands to smack their shoulder playfully, “finally found your appetite eh? Finally got through to you! Good! That’s it Uraume, go ahead, pick any you want and it’s yours. The whole thing. Go on, bwahahaha!”

Uraume’s smiles to themself, it’s small, and hidden but they dip a lower bow to Sukuna before turning away to go collect the gift. Sukuna’s laughter echoes as they walk away, they can almost hear him talking to the other servants probably startling them as usual. As they walked they didn’t pay enough mind to what he was saying to the others, a goal on their mind.

You on the other hand, sat bound up in ice, just your head above it. Some of your squad members had already succumb to the cold, the light leaving their eyes. The only reason you were alive was thanks to your cursed technique, temperature manipulation.

By touching something you could raise or lower the temperature of something by 10°F degrees. Including your own body, while the amount wasn’t much, you were clever and adept with it. By raising your body’s external temperature you’ve been slowly melting the ice and staving off the cold that threatened you.

The small building was full of ice, from that ice manipulator. A fabled being, not to well known about, Ryomen Sukuna’s personal attendant and chef. Some say he kidnapped them and forces them to work others say that’s his kid.

But speak of the devil and here they come, pulling back the pelts insulating the shack. Their eyes almost glow in the dark, that deep plum color would be so pretty if it were anyone else. You lock eyes, and for a moment you think they’re going to go for one of the others who are dead, but they move for you instead.

Panic sets in, being immobilized you couldn’t do much, was this really the end? They move forward and stop in front of you, that stoic and cold look on their face matching their technique, it was a cruel joke. “You,” they speak, voice a lot softer than you were imagining and lighter, “you’ll be spared on one condition. That is, you belong to me.”

…?

“Huh?” You breathe, incredulous. “Is the alternative death?”

“Yes.”

You stare, trying to not show any of your fright or anger, what the hell. Becoming their slave leaves the chance of escape… and spying. Swallowing and as flat as you can you answer, “fine then.”

That was 6 months ago. In those 6 months, you’ve been housed, clothed, fed, bathed, every need was met, Uraume took you in and began to teach you to cook as well. You even have seen Sukuna up close now, but you’ve yet to talk to him, however he does seem… amused by you in particular?

You’ve been planning the escape route and are pretty sure you’ve got it down now, all that’s left is to execute it! … there is one issue. Uraume has you glued to their hip. Constantly. The only private moments you’ve had is when you need to sleep, but that’s the shared servants room so you’re surrounded by people, and when you’re using the chamber pot. Not a single good window.

Tonight however, Sukuna had gone off to go hunting, and he usually takes Uraume, who takes you with. However this time, you seemed to have been left behind! You’ve finally gained enough trust!

Grabbing the secret emergency bag you begin to sneak, readying to leave. In the west wing of the shrine, there’s a room you never see being used, it’s basically empty of everything, and only has a single closet. It’s just an extra room, but it does have a screen that lead into the garden, where there are trees you can climb to scale the wall.

Swift meet carry you as quietly as possible as you hurry through the halls rounding to the door of the room. You reach out and start pulling it open but freeze once you spot them. There in the center, with a bed roll laid out, is Uraume.

That isn’t what startled you the most however. If they were sleeping you were confident enough that you could sneak past. No, what startles you is what Uraume is doing.

A small ice formation supports them as they are hunched over it, naked, hand reached down and stroking along their cock. They’re squeezing and milking out thick sticky ropes of pre that dangles in the bare illumination of the room. You watch them give long, firm strokes their hips giving small jerks each time they reach their tip.

“Ngh- haaahhh, just-just like that,” they hum, and you can see the hot breaths of air, the clouds fading away and you feel yourself give a small sharp intake. Which was loud enough that Uraume’s sensitive ears could hear, to your demise. In a blink, they’re in your face with ice capturing you and holding a sharpened ice blade to your throat.

Both of your eyes widen when you see each other and realization settles in. You’re pulled in to their room, the door sealing behind you with ice, and you’re thrown to the bamboo mats the ice cracking off of you. You scramble to flip around not sure if you’re about to be killed and need to fight-

Uraume has just a blanket loosely pulled around themself and look… embarrassed but there’s something else. You stare eyes betraying and slowly moving to look them over, or what you can see of them. Despite the deceptively thin looking frame they’re strong, like the dancers you’ve seen, they look slim but are so strong. Uraume, unlike many others, was also quite pale, with their stark white hair that only some sorcerers had but theirs seemed different. Then the tent being pitched it the blanket, that was far bigger than you thought it’d be.

Heat builds in your cheeks when you look back up and see the slight smug smile on their face, “ you’ve finally come to see me, or… am I misreading things?”

‘Finally’ come to see them? Were they… thinking of you?! Their feet are quiet moving to stand in front of you as you swallow looking up not sure what to do but gods they did look good. Uraume looks down calculating and stepping to the side offering a path to the door, “if you, do not wish to bed with me, please take your leave and we can pretend this never happened. Just forget of my feelings and of this.”

Your face burns more glancing between the door and them, you bite your lip and say fuck it to everything. You shift more to be on your knees facing them and they give a small smile. Uraume moves letting the blanket slip away from their body as they move to stand in front of you, their tip tapping against your lips, a string of gooey pre slick between your lips.

Tentatively you lick it from your lips almost expecting it to be cold or frosting but no, it was warm but lacked any flavor. A hand finds its way to resting on your head to guide and urge you to do more, take more. Pushing past your lips their smooth length glides along your tongue till it bumps the back of your throat making you gag a bit.

“Almost to the base, impressive,” Uraume praises but it feels like taunting more than anything. You’re about to move but they surprise you again, taking initiative Uraume starts pumping their cock into your mouth.

They’re holding your head still with one hand and the other has reached down to stroke themself halfway while the other half pushes in and out of your mouth. They pull out to make you kiss their tip before pushing back in with an excited little jerk of their hips, greedy for pleasure. With each kiss to their leaking cock you swallow the cream they were leaving in your mouth.

“Filthy, you’re just letting me use your mouth,” Uraume hisses, panting with each thrust. Your warm, wet mouth squeezing around their cock and watching you swallow while kissing their tip. A fire lit under their feet moving both hands to your head to fuck into your face, loving your look of surprise.

“You-you, look good sucking me off, with- mmmh- my juices all over your pretty lips, “ they praise their voice starting to shake much like their rhyth. You could tell they were getting close so you eagerly start squeezing and squishing your tongue against their cock milking every drop you can as they gasp before smirking and starting to fuck into you mouth harder not caring if they were hurting your throat, just lost in pleasure.

Tears pricked in your eyes as you grabbed their hips trying to urge them to slow but they barely relented watching you squirm. You hear their breathing hitch and their hips stutter more frequently in your grasp their cock twitching in your mouth. In a swift motion they pull out reaching down to jerk themself as ropes of hot sticky cum spurt onto your face and lips, dripping onto your chest and hands that move to catch what falls.

Uraume pants milking and squeezing, their balls tightening and pulsing, while their tip oozes strings of cum. You’re a mess, covered in thick ropes of cum, sweaty, face burning and the heat between your own legs very much there. Finally those beautiful plum eyes open to look to you, “get yourself cleaned, you were… wonderful. Good job.”

You get up readying to leave to wash off licking at some of the cum on your face when they call for you, “once finished, return here.”

You blink before nodding, “yes, Master Uraume-“

“Just, just Uraume is fine. When we’re alone together.”

[fruitsywriting]

AVRP AU:

This is just some more information on the au before I release sketches or more story details. Feel free to send me questions if you have any!

Tag list: @hennybgolden

How does the AVRP work?

The AVRP (Alternate Variant Reformation Program) is working to reform all the variants caught from the invincible war. They’re trying using to keep this a secret because they don’t think the public would react well.

The board cannot seem to agree on which approach they should use to reform them. The whole point is to try and get them to fight FOR Earth against Viltrum which most of them serve for in their dimensions- plus some board members think they should be punished for the damage they’ve done while others think that if they punish them it’ll cause a guarantee of betrayal from them in the future. So far, staff are trying a kinder approach- providing therapy, nice rooms inside the facility, human interaction, tv and books, etc,.

How does this AU differ from the canon?

Everything all the way up to the invincible war is canon. During the invincible war, there were more variants in this au. Every variant we’ve seen in the show during the fight is alive- the other variants that exist in this au are the ones killed. The AVRP did some major covering and reported half of the variants they caught as dead, and governments assumed whoever was behind this (angstrom levy) took the rest with him- like when he through the 8 remaining into the wasteland.

Damage has also been to the lesser extent because they worked on catching the stronger variants first. The war still lasted three days but that’s because there was more variants and it was hard to keep track of what was going on with conflicting orders being sent out.

Do they have a contingency plan?

Yes and no. It’s almost like a contingency theory. If a variant were to escape and kill up to 5 people, they would most likely incapicate them and lock them up, not giving them a second chance. If it gets up to 50 people, they will execute them. They don’t have it meticulously planned out on how to do so as they can’t agree on what method to capture, or execute.

Are they getting new names?

Yes. I wrote this down just in case nobody saw my polls but I did do polls for the variants and am picking names based on what won. Some variants I chose myself. These are just the names of a few of them, not all of them.

Some variants refused to be called anything but Mark, and some were okay with getting a new name. Due to some refusing, names were kind of forced onto them. Some are actual names, some are more so nicknames because they couldn’t pick.

Sinister mark- sinister (I feel like the name was given to him because the staff didn’t like his vibe)

Mohawk Mark- Mitch

Maskless Mark- Miller

Full Mask Mark- Miles

Retro Mark- Marcellus

Shiesty Mark- Mikey

(Yes if you’re confused by the polls, I flipped retro and sheisty’s winning names because I don’t think Marcellus fits Sheisty but Mikey does)

Omni-Mark- Min-Sung

Cap Mark/Cowl Mark- Reed

Will they interact with canon characters other than the variants?

Yes, eventually. Right now they won’t be but the first two to be introduced into the AU will be Debbie and Amber- to show the more human side of them if it’s still in there.

Staff’s favorite variants?

I feel like it’s obviously Miles (full mask) because his goal is the closest within reach, and they can give it to him. So, he mostly doesn’t get violent or retaliate. Second is Viltrum Mark (no name yet) because he keeps to himself and doesn’t retaliate against female staff or nursing staff.

And now a question for y’all. Should I do some x reader fics along with this au?

Thanks for listening to my insane ramblings about my au lol

[heartlogan]

alexei's void (short)

✮-- thunderbolts x platonic!reader

✮-- summary: alexei reveals some of what he saw in the void

✮-- a/n: this is a lil drabble of what i think alexei saw in the void! i didnt execute it very well :( but it's been ages since i have written fr so go easy

✮-- warnings: THUNDERBOLTS SPOILERS!, black widow (2021) references!!!, grief, angst, character death, near death experiences, the void (mentioned, references), bad ending, not executed well!!, not proofread xoxo

MASTERLIST

✶⊶⊷⊶⊷❍⊶⊷⊶⊷✶⊶⊷⊶⊷❍⊶⊷⊶⊷✶⊶⊷⊶⊷❍⊶⊷⊶⊷✶

This wasn't what you had expected to come from that day. You could never have expected this, especially not in your line of work. Mercenary, gun for hire, clean up crew -- whatever you liked to call it. It was dirty work, not made for good people, which is why you were so adept at it.

You didn't work for Valentina, not like the others did. You were outsourced, selected for one specific job on a one-time basis. She had hired you when her incinerator plan failed, had paid you almost a fortune up front to ensure you were committed to her goal. Kill her mercs.

There was only three of them -- one had already been eliminated -- so it should've been easy. Pick them off. Or, take them out in one go.

Except it didn't go like that. You knew of each of them, so you should've expected it. In fact, you had prepared for one of them, hell, even multiple of them to do something dumb or unexpected. There was just one variable you hadn't accounted for... one that Valentina hadn't told you about, one that hadn't even come up in your own research.

Alexei Shostakov.

Sure, you had known about his connection to one of your targets, Yelena Belova, but you knew that they hadn't been in contact. Their last mission together had been in Budapest, and they hadn't even seen each other in well over a year.

You had the three of them dead to rights, about to take them all out, until it hit you. And that was to say, literally hit you. A limousine came hurtling out of nowhere, sending you flying across the road, at least three ribs broken upon impact.

Now, you were strong, but not being hit by a limo going 50 miles an hour and getting straight back up-strong.

From there, it had all spiralled. They took you along with them, debating on whether or not to kill you, while you stared in shock the entire time. These were the infamous mercenaries you had been hired to kill? How they had escaped before, you had no idea. Pure chaos, you'd have to guess. They didn't seem to have an organised thought between them, and that was including the new addition of the Red Guardian.

Still, they won you over, which had pissed Valentina off to no end, especially when that meant you were included in 'her' new team.

You were pretty sure that the group of you had simply trauma bonded from the entire experience, finally finding kindred spirits due to the horror that sweet Bob had induced.

That wasn't to say that the whole group got along -- in fact, there was plenty of heated arguments and malice between everyone, but it worked. Somehow. Regardless, everybody had one another's backs. Even the likes of US Agent.

Most of you had only grown closer since the fallout, all living in a newly refurbished Avengers tower. This much was true even for you and the very man who had hit you with his limo. It wasn't a pairing most people expected, but Alexei was good to you... when he wasn't running you over, that is.

The two of you often found each other when the evening was beginning to bleed into the night. It started off as an accident, then eventually became more of a habit than anything else. He'd pass a bottle of vodka to you, and you'd give it back after at least two big gulps.

The drinking started off the bat, but the talking came later.

He started it, reminiscing on his Red Guardian days, his voice wistful but also more hopeful now. You could tell he was proud to be a part of this new team. Alexei wanted to help people. He wanted to be a hero.

And then you started talking, too. You told him snippets of your training, mostly sticking to stories that could be twisted into something humorous, rather than the horrifying tales of torture and abuse you still kept buried. The ones that you had relived in the void.

Alexei always had big feelings. He was loud about them, especially when it came to his daughter, and the team.

But this... this wasn't big.

You could see the feelings all over his face, the shame, the guilt. He was being quiet. It wasn't like him, not at all. Every wrinkle in his skin was layered with copious amounts of pain, clearly something that had been brewing over the course of years.

"Thanks," You murmured as you took the near-empty bottle of vodka from his outstretched hand. It was usually at least half-full when you arrived, but not today. "You gonna start?" You asked quietly, the burn in your throat easily ignored after opting for a heavy few swigs.

It was quiet, a long pause between the two of you as the bottle hovered between you. Then, it dawned on you.

"The void?"

A silent nod, followed by the swish of liquid in an upturned bottle. He sniffled.

"It is my fault." Alexei said softly, though his voice was rough, and you wondered if it had been him that you had heard yelling earlier on in the day. You waited for him to continue, unsure what to say otherwise. None of you were good people. Not really, despite the implications of the A on your uniforms. The likelihood was that, yeah, it probably was his fault.

You took the bottle when he offered it. Silent, trying to be nothing more than a listening ear. A supportive friend. However that worked.

"What happened to Yelena," He continued finally, his eyes staring ahead, never once having glanced at you. "It is my fault. I did that to her."

You hummed when he was silent after his statements, passing the bottle back. "Wasn't she trained in the red room?" You questioned quietly, not wanting to disrupt the gentle atmosphere between the two of you. It seemed as though if you were too loud, the man beside you may just fall apart.

"Because of me." He spat out, his words filled with more vitriol than you had ever heard from him.

After a moment, you rested your hand on top of his around the bottle of vodka, and you pulled it away from his lips. You left your hand there, against his. "What did you see?" You asked him gently, looking at the side of his face.

He heaved a shuddering breath.

"That day. After we left America." There were tears shining in his eyes, but he still refused to look at you.

"Alexei, you were on a mission. You..."

He cut you off. "You do not understand." Alexei shook his head, pulling his hand away from yours, and taking a swig from the bottle. "Natasha. She begged me not to let them take Yelena. I told her, I said, my girls... my girls are strong."

There was something haunted in his voice. You had never heard him like this before. Throughout all of your talks, discussions, vents, it had never been this.

You knew he was filled with grief, much like Yelena, but he had never revealed how much that grief was brimming within him. This was a crack in his loud persona, and it revealed an inside just waiting to burst. You had no idea he was holding all of this in. He always seemed so... not content with his choices, but something close to it.

"They are strong." You told him hesitantly, because you didn't know what to say to him. There was nothing you could do to heal this wound.

"They had no choice." He answered. "And now, my daughter... Natasha is gone. I nearly lost Yelena," He barely held in a sob at the memory. "Ever since the void, I think, I say what if. If I protected my girls that day, they would both be here. No?"

There was no hesitation from you now. "Or, all of you could have been killed that very day." You told him firmly, brows furrowed as you watched him stare down at the now empty bottle. "Alexei, you can't think like that. Everyone in this building has suffered, and we all should've been protected from it, but we weren't. We learn to live with it. Natasha made something of herself, something she was proud of. And Yelena is doing that, too."

"But that happy little girl... she will never return." Alexei sniffled, closing his eyes.

You frowned, torn between what you should say, unsure if this was a conversation he should be having with Yelena herself.

And then she appeared.

Waltzed through the door as if her father figure wasn't about to have a mental breakdown. "Hey! There you are," She greeted, cheerful considering the time of night and the sight before her. She paused, eyebrows raising. "Is... everything alright?"

You leaned closer to Alexei, knocking his shoulder with your own. "I wouldn't be too sure of that." You murmured to him, seeing that glow within her that he often spoke of.

Alexei nodded to Yelena, smiling tightly, but it seemed mostly genuine.

"Come, it is dinner time. Barnes cooked." She said, seeming amused. And even though it was way later than dinner time, you and Alexei both got up together, following after her.

[warwickroyals]

Shelby Elizabeth Sykes was born OTD in 1985

On a rainy April afternoon, a little girl was born to a sales executive and his wife, who taught grade ten biology. The baby was named Shelby after her great-grandfather, a mechanic from King City, Missoria. Elizabeth was in honour of an aunt who'd died in a car accident four years prior. Shelby had a brother, Eric, who was five years older. As the youngest, Shelby was known as "Baby Bee", a nickname she would grow to resent.

The little girl grew up in a three-bedroom farmhouse nestled in the Sunderlandian pariries. Her hometown was described as "so flat you could see the horizon bend on a clear day." Fort Stone had a population of just under 3,000, the majority of them descendants of the Polish and Dutch immigrants that had made their way west in the early 20th century. The Sykeses were one of few WASP families in town and proud of it; the family shunned Fort Stone's Catholic chapel and drove every Sunday to an Episcopal church 20 kilometres south.

As Shelby grew, she outgrew Fort Stone. Schooling had consisted of a handful of co-ed prep schools—schools way nicer than the ones her mother taught at—and a neighbour girl who came over to tutor the Sykes children every Friday evening. In 2003, Shelby moved to Sunderland's largest city, Warwick, to pursue a career in communications. Her subsequent job in public relations careers took her around the world, from Austria to New Zealand, but by 2014, she had returned to Warwick. "She'd wanted to escape Fort Stone—not the whole country."

In 2016, Shelby was comfortable in her career at a mid-level public relations firm. Her red hair, still slightly fried from being bleached throughout her twenties, was long, and she made just enough money to afford a wardrobe inspired by Alexa Chung, who she described as "everything goals". She owned a condo with a balcony that overlooked Sunderland's King Street financial district. She Skyped her parents every weekend, and her brother was just thirty minutes away if she ever grew lonely, although she rarely did—Shelby also had a boyfriend. She had met Prince Henry, the youngest son of Louis V, in June 2013. Shelby's firm had been managing the promotion of one of Henry's non-profit events, and the pair got to talking during cocktail hour.

Henry was different from his two older brothers. He wore glasses. He had infamously flunked out of military school in September 2001. His degree was in musical theory, and he had no plans to return to the service, a fact that put him at loggerheads with his father. He worked, as best as any royal could, for the crown but was often overshadowed by his siblings. Even as a relatively handsome, thirty-something-year-old bachelor, Henry kept a low profile. Off-duty, he wore jeans and collared shirts underneath chunky wool sweaters made in Scotland. His mother called him Baby, a nickname he adored. When Henry finally brought Shelby home, the Prince of Danforth remarked, "even beside a redhead he disappers."

Rumours of marriage hounded the couple throughout the late 2010s. When news of an engagement broke in early 2019, Shelby generated significant interest. Louis V's biographer described her as the first "truly middle class" woman to marry into the family. In the runup to the wedding, the Daily Charlaten published several articles about "Shelby the all-Sunderlandian girl". The wedding was the first large royal gathering since the funerals of James, the Prince of Danforth, and Queen Katherine. The couple were created Duke and Duchess of Sherbourne after the ceremony.

On her 40th birthday, Tatler Sunderland ran a cover story entitled The Rise and Rise of the Duchess of Sherbourne, the Royals' Secret Weapon. As duchess, Shelby is patron of over 70 charities and undertakes over 400 engagements a year. Her charity work focuses on women's rights, especially in regard to fertility and post-partum care. She is widely believed to be the King and Queen's favourite daughter-in-law.

[goldensunset]

while i’m getting overly analytical about pokémon gen 5 let’s yap about how cool the differences between team plasma and neo team plasma are purely on an aesthetic and symbolic level

bulbapedia gets full credit for this part of the analysis but it is so cool how the og team has a medieval royalty aesthetic to represent how they see themselves as noble and honorable with the right to rule and conquer. they put a whole lot into appearing as virtuous as possible and they convince the hearts of the people of unova to let them do their thing. meanwhile neo team plasma are pirates. known criminals. generally considered to be an unsavory folk who steal for a living. this is team plasma with the mask off. there’s no greater cause to adhere to (or pretend to adhere to) anymore. they’re just evil! and they have new black drip to prove it! slay

but moreover i’m thinking specifically about the contrast between a castle and a ship as a home base. a castle is stationary- planted firmly in the earth with a deep foundation. (and we know it was underground lol! and it sank back into the ground afterwards! could represent at least having some sort of shame about the execution of the plan both before and after…) it stands proud and visible at the top of unova. that sort of stability to me represents truly having an ideal that you never give up on. it will always be there. lots of members of og team plasma truly believed in their cause and some of them even dedicate their lives to making amends and protecting pokémon afterwards, like they thought they were doing while on the team. even if it was based on a lie, the heart of the original team plasma never truly disappears. the castle remains, though deep underground. n still goes back there because it’s all he knows. etc. you know?

meanwhile the plasma frigate goes all over the place, escaping as soon as it’s caught. it doesn’t hold still. it has no roots. it doesn’t stand for anything. neo team plasma doesn’t bother arguing or persuading people- it just does its thing freely and does whatever it takes to achieve a given goal. there is no deeper meaning to it other than a bunch of thugs wanting to get in on that whole world domination scheme and maybe getting a chance to hang out with some friends and have a fun time. with no moral boundaries it can go fly about wherever it likes. and when the team is disbanded again where does the ship go? some backwater little island off of an insignificant hidden route. nothing there. it’s just hiding in shame. because it is fundamentally nothing. except insane amounts of aura obviously

[tangentiallly]

what i love about jinshi's move with the brand is that it's not just about maomao. undeniably it is partly about her, and he does want her, does love her, and absolutely does plan to remove every obstacle that's in the way for them getting together. that's true. but also even aside from that he has never wanted the throne himself, and has been trying to leave the line of succession for years. spent years in the rear palace pretending to be a eunuch. he did not want to be emperor, never has. they bet on the outcome of the game of go long ago, and has never really got his wish, but now that both gyokuyou and lihua have sons, he's going to seize this moment and execute this plan

"if i don't settle this matter swiftly, i'll lose my chance to escape"

it's partly for maomao, he wants to reassure her because she'd previously voice the concern of becoming gyokuyou's enemy, and also this makes him marrying anyone else becoming impossible since it needs to be someone he can trust, someone who's already seen this. but it's also for him, too. he's spent so many years trying to get the emperor to grant him his wish to become a commoner, and now that he's reaching the age of marriage as well. the line "i'll lose my chance to escape" really just. Gets To Me. he's achieving multiple goals all at once and it's exceedingly clever - a masochist move, admittedly. but if the alternative is staying where he is now, with a likelihood of becoming the emperor one day, stuck in a job he doesn't want for the rest of the life, with all the pain and responsibilities that came with it - it's understandable, really. perhaps selfish in a way - considering the princes are still so young, etc, but he's been shouldering so many expectations and responsibility with his role since he was a child, as well. he's choosing what he wants, what he needs, the escape he desires, planning to work hard to minimize any fallout but he is doing this, no question about it.

and also, maomao thinking that what jinshi had done was insane but "was it any less mad, what jinshi had been forced to live with?" also just kills me. she's angry at his move at the way he hurt himself but, she understands where it's coming from, too. it's so good

it's also a very smart move in the sense that, yes he's swearing loyalty to gyokuyou, yes he's branding himself with her crest - but this secret is a double-edged sword, because if it got out that he has that branded on him, it looks very damning for her, with all the adultery implications. he's swearing loyalty to her but she also can't move against him. it's very clever. i love it.

[octosan]

I've been wanting to find a way to articulate more of my thoughts about what Veilguard ultimately did with Solas and why it feels like they did and did not take him out of character to me, because said thoughts are a mess.

And fair warning that this is going to be critical of Veilguard (and Inquisition a little bit) because essentially I feel like what they did is soft-retconned key parts of the narrative to make Solas both more sympathetic and less sympathetic in ways that are (imo) a disservice to the character.

Let me explain,

Part 0: This is the page I am on

First off let me open by saying that I always thought of Solas as someone who, in regards to his main plans, knew exactly what he was doing. I think it makes the most sense that someone who has been waging a war against vastly more powerful opponents for literal millennia be intelligent, decisive, manipulative, and unwilling to leave things to chance. I think it makes the most sense for such a person to rarely be wrong in evaluating and executing his intended plans, because against someone with literal godlike power being wrong would presumably mean being dead.

I also think it makes the most sense that such a person, who was continually given extremely difficult choices during his years of leadership, to have gained a level of ruthlessness that few other characters in the setting can claim. I think it makes sense that such a character could become horrendously bigoted, as well as jaded, by their own (again, millennia of) negative life experience. I think it makes sense for such a character to become proud to a fault, convinced that they are correct in what they do, even at times when they don't want to be.

At the same time, Solas is also portrayed as being highly principled. At least, I think that was Weekes' intention with the character. You can see at multiple points in Inquisition, through banter and approval, what things he feels the most strongly about and how he does not like to compromise on them. Protecting and nurturing free will, doing your duty to your people, and never doing harm (without a good cause rlly important clause there lmao) are common points suggested with him. Slavery in all its forms is a particularly sore point with him.

I've always thought that Solas' biggest flaws interacted with his guiding principles in interesting ways. That both combined to make him into an extremely dangerous, but understandable (if not sympathetic) antagonist.

I don't vibe with takes that all of Solas' principles are a smokescreen and he's just selfish or just nursing a bruised ego. Don't get me wrong, he says some thoughtlessly cruel things in Inquisition that I can see why the most critical fans feel the ways they do about him. But imo there's a lot of stuff he says and does that is narratively meaningless if caring about people (his people first and foremost, but other people as well) is not a core part of his character. For all his flaws, I personally never got the impression that this was the intention.

Though I also don't vibe with takes that Solas, in his goals and plans to achieve them, is objectively correct either. I think a lot of it comes down to what Solas' actual plan for the veil is and why he's tearing it down in the first place.

Part 1: Solas' Plan (and Lack Thereof)

Veilguard portrays (or at least casts judgement on) a version of Solas who is going at the Veil without much of an actual plan. He is demonstrated as having made a prison to keep the Evanuris from escaping when it comes down, yes, but that's clearly a side concern. He claims he will try to minimize the damage to Thedas, and this is explained to mean that he planned to have spirits intervene to protect people from demons, which is an extremely uncertain method of limiting casualties.

The game refuses to even address what he thinks is going to happen to the elves when the Veil comes down. To go by Epler's AMA response, he seems to just be blindly assuming that all elves will become immortal again when exposed to that much magic, and the game does not suggest one way or the other if that is actually true--the motive to give elves back their immortality is only even suggested in one missable sidequest cutscene.

It's very strange to me that now, with the story finished and the franchise never planning to come back to it, we still don't get an elaboration on what Solas planned. What he was expecting to happen. Unless I missed it, the only explanations we get of what will happen when the Veil comes down, and thus the only thing we can accept as being true, is that the world will be "flooded with demons" and the result of this will be that "thousands of people" will die, and ostensibly the elves will regain their immortality (and command of magic, but iirc even that isn't stated and is just an assumption.)

I absolutely did not think that was the entirety of Solas' plan to bring back the old world. You know why I didn't think that?

Because we heard Solas' original plans in Inquisition.

Low approval dialogue, if you argue with Solas that he should be helping the elves, has this gem of a line:

PC: The man who has lived half his life in the Fade has no ideas? Solas: Not unless we collapse the Veil and bring the Fade here so I can casually reshape reality, no.

At the time, this line is treated as sarcasm or an intentionally absurd suggestion he made because he's irritated with you. But in Trespasser, once you learn the truth about who he is, there is another line of dialogue that suggests that this was actually what Solas intended initially.

PC: What would have happened if Corypheus had died and you’d recovered the orb? Solas: I would have entered the Fade, using the mark you now bear. Then I would have torn down the Veil. As this world burned in the raw chaos, I would have restored the world of my time… the world of the elves.

Isn't this wild?

His plan was actually even worse than Veilguard suggested it to be. It's not that he's okay with some collateral damage to (somehow) restore the elves. He was okay with the entirety of Thedas as being collateral damage. To me it doesn't even sound like the demons themselves would have been the problem, moreso the primordial energy that would spill back in.

And we'll get into what else Trespasser suggested about his plan in Part 2 but the point is that the Veil coming down is portrayed as only being step 1, and step 2 is something that Solas has to guide himself. Even the ending of Veilguard suggests this a little bit? I don't know if intentionally, though. Solas, in the ending where you attack him, has a throwaway line about the "enchantments" needing a "delicate touch" as he goes to finish his ritual, which strikes me as an odd thing to say when the Veil was already falling down and that was the only part of his plan that the game dwelled on. It only makes sense in light of the Trespasser conversation, but I feel like the rest of the game ignores parts of the Trespasser conversation, so I don't know what to think.

Veilguard just isn't interested in exploring what this guidance on Solas' part looks like or what it would actually do to the world. It's content to be vague about it. I am not. I did not want it to stay vague at this last stage of the story.

What enchantments? What are the limits to this reality reshaping he mentioned in Inquisition? How did he intend to restore the Old World? How, specifically, did he think this would be helping the elves? Is there a way that the Veil can come down and not kill everyone in Thedas?

The intelligence of Solas' plan, and therefore his character, depends on the answers to these questions and I never got them! The game won't reward me for making assumptions on them either because the overriding narrative here is "the Veil can't come down, no matter what" so there's no reason to examine what he wants to do with it.

I also think it's weird that they changed it to a comparatively flimsier "thousands of people will die" anyway. I've seen multiple players point out that likely way more people died in the Double Blight that came from disrupting Solas' ritual than the amount of people the characters say would have died if we hadn't. Players who suggest that the resultant disruption to Thedas was so great and the Veil coming down so undersold as a threat that they actually blame Rook not helping Solas with his ritual in the beginning. Which is obviously not the narrative the devs wanted here. If they'd made it clear that Solas planned to destroy all/most of modern Thedas (even if reluctantly) then we wouldn't have this dissonance with players so much, I think.

But in regards to "getting him his goals", I think the intelligence of the plan also relies on figuring out what those goals even are. Veilguard was not terribly interested in those either.

Part 2: Solas' Motivations (and Lack Thereof)

Much like Veilguard evades telling the player what specifically Solas was planning to do with the Veil coming down, it also doesn't really touch on his motivations?

Harding suggests at the opening that he wants to bring back the old world because it is "beautiful". Solas himself claims he has to take down the Veil purely because it is "unnatural", a neutral fact that doesn't address anything, and because it is a "wound" on the world, a negative phrase which is nonetheless not defined. What does it mean that it's a wound? What is happening to Thedas because the Veil is in place? What are the ramifications of leaving it up? I saw little explanation of that in this game, despite previous entries leaving a lot of interesting details to draw on.

We know from the introduction that Solas bringing the Veil up made the elves mortal and destroyed their world, and one of the mural cutscenes suggests that taking it down might give elves their immortality back. So that's another one.

But his main motivation in Veilguard is presented to be simply the fact that Solas regrets having put it up in the first place. In the ending of the game, when he is trying to explain his reasons to (potentially) the literal love of his life who is begging him to stop what he's doing, the reason Solas gives is that if he doesn't take down the Veil then Mythal will have died for nothing. It's the Sunken Cost Fallacy. Yes, he also says that he will "destroy the world [Mythal] loved" but he doesn't elaborate on what this means, just like the "wound" comment, even when it would have been extremely relevant and helpful to his cause to lay his cards on the table here and be honest about what he wants if there is more to it.

So players who have never played prior games are forced to conclude that Solas has no good reason to take down the Veil.

Which might work well enough for Veilguard's narrative of Solas, but it certainly makes his "don't you think if I had another way I would have done it?" to Varric and his "I would treasure the chance to be proven wrong" to a friendly Inquisitor meaningless phrases in retrospect. I personally don't find it more compelling when a heretofore intelligent and principled character breaks their principles for no good reason. I prefer a principled antagonist who breaks their principles for an understandable reason, a reason that the protagonists will have to put in real work to challenge if their goal is to redeem said antagonist.

And I think prior to Veilguard, Solas' motivations were ones that were worth challenging.

Part 2A: Solas' People (and Lack Thereof)

For example, he wants to bring down the Veil to help spirits. There is dialogue between him and the Inquisitor early on that in the days of Elvhenan, spirits were everywhere in the waking world because the waking world was filled with magic. Cole in Trespasser can suggest this too, as a spirit Cole is ecstatic to realize that he "belongs" in the mortal world as much as he does the Fade once they learn that the two were once the same thing. There is an implication that spirits who wish to visit the mortal world become demons because they can't do so without possessing something (unless they are extremely powerful.) Similarly, in Inquisition many spirits were forcibly pulled into the mortal world and twisted into demons in places where the Veil was torn, because they couldn't handle the existential crisis that is a world without magic. The most spirits who show up in Thedas in this setting, do so in places where the Veil is thin, and the Veil is only ever thin in places of great suffering, meaning those spirits reflect that suffering themselves.

Not only does Veilguard never examine this concept as one of Solas' motivations, but they seem to have tried very hard to erase the validity of it from previous games. You would not know, playing Veilguard, that most spirits cannot enter the mortal world without a physical vessel, or that the Veil has been detrimental for spirits. Spirits are all over the Crossroads, and the implication is that they could always go there. You encounter plenty of them in Rivain, Nevarra, and Tevinter, and they are happy, healthy, free, uncontained to a vessel, and even largely capable of retaining their selves under pressure. This is entirely at odds with previous depictions of Thedas and its relationship with spirits. Yes, Nevarra and Rivain have more welcoming cultures and so it makes a little more sense (though not terribly so imo) for you to see more of them around and treated better, but it's not like anyone acknowledges this as outside the norm for the rest of Thedas. Inquisition in particular made a point about how much people hate and distrust them because they're such an unknown to mortals. In Tevinter, they are technically as much victims of magister slavery as elves, at least so Dorian and Solas' banter suggests.

Solas wanting to make the world better for spirits is a particularly important goal for him in retrospect because he was once a spirit, so it's a low blow to his character that it's never acknowledged in this game about stopping him.

But anyway, now we have the whole deal with the elves. This is where I see a lot of the discussion divide. I've seen people argue that Solas should have been allowed to enact his plan because it would end the very real oppression and cultural genocide that elves are facing, and I've seen people say that his plan would not have actually helped the elves at all and so it was a bad plan. I'm not sure how I feel about these takes.

Mostly because I personally did not think that Solas' plan, at least initially, was to end the oppression of elves. I think that if he'd been allowed to carry his plan out, the oppression of elves would end, but only because the entirety of Thedas' oppressive power structures would cease to exist along with its society. I did not think his true goal was to give modern elves their immortality back either, though I guess I can say I judged him wrong on that front in Veilguard. I thought, at best, that helping modern elves became a secondary goal for him later down the line, once he realized modern Thedosians are people--and for a low approval Solas may he rest in retconned peace it was a benefit to help him recruit. In The Dread Wolf Take You, for example, he does have a comment to Charter that the "elves that remain" like her might think his world is a better place when he's done. This could have been a lie to let her think better of his goal, or it could have been the truth and his intention was to somehow spare at least some of the elves what is coming.

The reason I believe that it is only secondary, however, is because Solas for most of Inquisition does not consider modern elves to be his people. He makes it clear he does not identify with the Dalish early on, but even when it comes to non-Dalish elves, which he ostensibly is, he has this line towards the Inquisitor after the Wicked Hearts quest:

PC: I hope Briala uses her position to help your people. Solas: How would helping Briala help… Oh, you mean elves! Solas: I’m sorry, I was confused. I do not consider myself to have much in common with the elves.

PC: Nor should you. You’re not defined by the shape of your ears. They’re not your people. Solas: No, they are not.

This whole exchange can be kind of dfgkdfkgksd ehhh but I think the salient point is that Solas does not identify with modern elves and slipped up when he made this clear.

And yet, he does have people, he isn't just a solitary misanthrope like he tries to shake that off with. He clearly does have people and moreover it is for them that he is doing what he's doing.

Trespasser has this line, for example:

PC: You’d murder countless people? Solas: Wouldn’t you, to save your own?

Consider also that there is an aspect to his motivations that he deliberately refused to tell the Inquisitor at the end of Trespasser.

PC: Why does this world have to die for the elves to return? Solas: A good question, but not one I will answer. Solas (high approval): You have always shown a thoughtfulness I respected. It would be too easy to tell you too much. Solas (low approval): You will survive this day, Inquisitor, and though I owed you an explanation, I will not give you tools to use against me.

I find this exchange so very interesting. There is a reason why the restoration of his world has to result in the end of ours, but he won't tell us because he believes it would give us the tools to stop him. Even on low approval he is comfortable with us knowing that he intends to destroy the world, but not the reason why he has to.

As far as I can tell Veilguard didn't do anything interesting with this. But originally I thought it had to do specifically with his people, the ancient immortal elves, and what he would do to get them back. To bring it back to a previous point, I did not think that it was just in giving the modern day elves their immortality back because I can't see how telling the Inquisitor this would give them the tools to use against him, especially if you yourself are an elf.

I know I saw some people speculate that Solas was trying to bring them back with time travel, as a reference to the Hushed Whispers quest, but even though I could see the Dragon Age devs doing that because the time travel stuff was silly in the first place and yet they decided it was a good plot point anyway I didn't think that was it either? It didn't feel thematically punchy enough.

And as a warning the next section will be getting into more speculative territory, but

Part 2B: The Ancient Elvhen (and Lack Thereof)

So, I don't think it's a huge secret that Inquisition presented the idea that the immortal elves of Arlathan never entirely went away.

We see this in the fact that there are immortal elves, obviously. Solas, Felassan, Abelas, and the rest of the sentinels at the Temple of Mythal are all elves who lived in the days of Arlathan, and yet are still alive thousands of years later, walking about in modern day Thedas. Furthermore, Solas in particular hints to Abelas that there are even more immortal elves than him. Consider the fact that if you're a Lavellan in the temple, Abelas distinctly denies that you number among his people, and in fact if I'm remembering rightly, calls you a shemlen regardless of your race.

And yet when speaking with Solas, he has this to say:

Solas: There are other places, friend. Other duties. Your people yet linger. Abelas: Elvhen such as you? Solas: Yes. Such as I.

Solas who is, of course, an immortal elf. It's even possible that he is one Abelas knows personally, given the importance Solas once had to Mythal. My Lavellan listening to that like wtf :(

Consider also the banter that Solas can have with Cole, if you romanced him and got to the breakup scene after this quest:

Cole: He hurts, an old pain from before, when everything sang the same. Cole: You're real, and it means everyone could be real. It changes everything, but it can't. Cole: They sleep, masked in a mirror, hiding, hurting, and to wake them... (Gasps.) Where did it go? Solas: I apologize, Cole. That is not a pain you can heal.

This banter is never examined in Veilguard! Who is hiding? Who is hurting? The fact that "waking" them is on the table suggests to me that it is sleeping elves, perhaps like the sentinels who only woke to defend Mythal's temple and slept the rest of the time. In the context of Cole trying to explain to Lavellan why Solas broke up with her (and more important, Solas wanting to make sure she does not know this information,) I thought this line referred specifically to Solas' true people, the reason he was doing all of this.

The idea that there are other ancient elves out there, sleeping somewhere, suffering for some reason, as they wait for the Dread Wolf to bring the Veil down and wake them. The "masked in a mirror" part felt especially interesting to me because there's a part in the Masked Empire novel where Briala and Felassan (among other people) come across a couple elves that were allegedly sleeping in Uthenara, in a location they were only able to get to by traveling the Crossroads, which are located through eluvians. In that scene, Felassan gets very upset to see that these particular elves have apparently been killed in their sleep.

It makes me wonder if this is why Solas had to hide this possibility from the Inquisitor at all costs, especially from a low-approval Inquisitor. His motivations for doing all of this are the countless elves, his version of elves, who are scattered all over and currently helpless as they sleep. I can't help but imagine that a particularly desperate modern Thedosian might consider if removing the Dread Wolf's reason to bring down the Veil might not be the only way of stopping him from doing it.

Veilguard doesn't follow up on any of these plot threads. In fact, someone who has never read the novel might even come away from the game with the impression that Solas and the Evanuris are the only immortal elves that survived to Modern Thedas, as even Felassan's role in The Masked Empire is obscured from the player.

It's a shame because if they'd kept this plot point relevant it would have been a major challenge to overcome in persuading Solas not to bring down the Veil. Presuming he is talking about the ancient elves, Cole's dialogue suggests to me that it is the process of waking them, or some element of it, which necessitates that Solas destroy the rest of Thedas.

This brings up an important question, potentially even a difficult choice. Which society do you think is worth saving? Would you be willing to let an entire people sleep and suffer for eternity just to preserve your way of life? Could you convince Solas to allow that? Solas, who sees Thedas as so corrupt and terrible to elves and spirits, who fought so hard to give his fellow elves a more ideal world which never came to fruition?

Also yes the sleeping and suffering to preserve your way of life thing IS ironic because that is exactly what he did to the titans but the game was so uninterested in exploring that too.

And like, to be clear, I never thought that Dragon Age would actually have the player make that kind of terrible choice. Even in Origins you were sometimes given the chance to take a third option that benefited everyone if you did a bit of digging. And both Inquisition and the opening of this game teased the idea of you convincing Solas there was another way. I guess what that third option actually looked like would have depended on more specifics. Mainly, why waking them requires that modern Thedas be destroyed.

Ehh I wonder if any of this was even on the table when Trespasser was written. Maybe I read it all wrong.

Edit: crying and screaming because I apparently DID NOT read it wrong and Veilguard did intentionally retcon that plot point.

-----------

All in all, I personally did not really have a problem with what Solas was willing to do in this game. But when it came to the "why", I found myself really struggling with it after thinking about it for a while.

At the very least, I feel as though what I speculated above would have made Solas' motivations more understandable, even if, again, it did not ultimately make them sympathetic. Going just by what is shown in the game, Solas' actual motivations in Veilguard are not nearly as understandable to me, especially because not even a single elf or spirit is shown as wanting him to do it dfkgksdfk.

And clearly that is what they wanted for this narrative, but I can't believe it makes him more compelling as an antagonist in the franchise as a whole. I like him as a classic trolley problem dude.

Also he literally ignored Mythal when she told him not to do it in the regret mural and yet it's Mythal telling him he doesn't have to do it later that finally makes him stop? I guess Flemythal didn't realize the code word was "I release you from my service" or smth

Also,

Idk man. Thinking about it and I'm still so sad the ancient elves were a dropped plot point. I guess it's possible, with all the racism already shoved offscreen in this game, that onscreen racial tension between even these two different factions of elves was too tall an order.

[mooniety]

susie become egg. wonder what the yolk is made out of.

anyways, guys look it's mechanized susie "The Secretary"!!!!!!!!!!

CONTENT WARNING: Below the cut is a description of her which contains body horror & minor mentions of gore.

after kirby fails to defeat star dream, star dream decides to immediately mechanize susie before she can escape, recognizing that without her direction, it won't be able to successfully achieve its goal in creating what it deems the perfect universe

thus susie--or i should say, what remains of her--is now confined in a body that lacks any & all autonomy besides being able to still somewhat if barely move, the ability to see, hear, & speak (as seen by the lens & mic/speaker right below her head where her neck is), can call for mecha knight (who has been unfortunately remechanized) as her only form of protection, & can do...whatever the bottom right hand corner is.

this new body is designed to have her "eyes" appear permanently closed, showcasing her involuntary submission to star dream & in a way, loss of all mortal sight, trading it in for the possession of knowledge that she shouldn't have had in the first place as well as now see the entire universe...'s destruction first hand‼️‼️‼️💯💯💯🔥🔥🔥

but most importantly of all, she has CAT EARS‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️ (they were supposed to be alarm clock ears but the intrusive thoughts won 😭) don't worry though, as you can see on the bottom right, she can...remove them :)

despite being able to open her head to reveal her core (as shown in bottom right), the process is SLOW & EXTREMELY PAINFUL with no sense of relief until star dream puts her core into a new body or someone destroys it. while she's in this vulnerable state, her body is set to automatically cry to draw in sympathy as a last ditch effort from star dream if all else fails

her core was designed to look like a cartridge from made in abyss duct taped onto an iv drip stand, & if you know what a cartridge from made in abyss is then you already know what's inside: it's where all her main or i should say remaining organs are located.

furthermore, it's near impossible for someone else to crack her open due to her body being entirely being made out of haltonium--intentionally designed to be an indestructible cage for her

& if susie, star dream, or mk senses that someone's going to attempt to destroy her, mk is obligated to prevent that from happening via fighting & executing them, even if he doesn't want to (& clearly, susie doesn't want him to do so either)

the reason why she has no one (not even the haltworkers) besides mk & maybe star dream as a form of protection is because she's typically locked her away in a hidden area of the access ark, the idea was to make her a princess locked away in a tower with no one but her noble knight in shining armor to "protect" her --unfortunately it seems that this knight is technically also on the side of her captor lol

anyways this entire thing is about how susie isn't really vibing with existence now that her father's dead, she's been turned into a useless machine stripped of all autonomy whose only purpose is to peer edit & approve plans of destroying the world as well as unconsensually watch & partake in the entire destruction of the universe until something is able to confront this monster of a supercomputer YAHOOOOOOOO‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️‼️💯💯💯💯💯💯💯

[hanakihan]

oh my fucking god

my friend just texted me after finishing watching Monte Cristo adaptations and asked me why man went so hard on revenge shit because it’s not like his time in prison was that bad and he had treasure on him why not just move on or do it other way

head in hands

see that’s what I mean by adaptations missing the key point of his imprisonment time

without knowing what happened in château d’if, without understanding how much of his life was destroyed here along with his psyche and morals, without understanding that he was so destroyed that by the time he met abbe faria, even faria himself high key was regretting teaching/telling dantes who screwed him over because at this point he helped to finalize monster in dantes, because if faria didn’t tell him that, dantes would’ve never even decided to have revenge because he didn’t had need/target for it

i just keep noticing that people who watch adaptations without reading source material always get confused on ‘why’ of his revenge because the start and result don’t weight the same for them and such people more than right to ask the question what stopped him from starting new life with treasures faria left him

dantes with his wealth honestly could’ve simply hired assassins or mercenaries to kill people he deems responsible for his demise and call it a day. but no, he wastes even more of his years for a revenge and even went overboard with it because it’s extremely personal for him in his broken unhinged mind. his broken psyche concluded that death would be too easy for them, they need to go through equal amounts of hell he went through. because his revenge is more psychological torture focused than physical one, he is a broken man who doesn’t understand he overstepped boundaries of equal revenge and only snaps out of it when his plans backfire on people uninvolved.

his hyperfixation on such hard to execute and too complex revenge is pretty much what is keeping what remains of his broken mind and morals intact, since he in his head (as well as narrative) justifies his actions and goals based on what he went trough in prison. because if abbe faria didn’t unintentionally given him a goal, a target of revenge, even if he proceeded to escape and find a treasure, he simply would’ve started his life anew.

so yea adaptations missing on fatalism and mindfuckery of his time in château d’if is what ruins them all. book really gives you time to savor the shit he went through here, starting from time passage, changing of his cells and how ‘life’ around goes up to his mood and behavior changes through years, from hopeful hysterical boy to depressed apathetic half corpse who ironically considered his jailers as some sort of friends he can talk to even if they don’t talk back to him anymore

[viradahlen]

✨️Wesker is totally not a brilliant mastermind with a plan. (and absolutely a pathetic and very dangerous and very unhinged creature designed by Umbrella)✨️

1. Pre RE1 goals :

* Pre meeting Birkin : "My name is Albert Wesker. I originally aspired as a researcher to become an executive in the pharmaceutical company Umbrella, which also covertly dealt in the development of Bio Organic Weapons. However, encountering William Birkin at the executive training school in Raccoon City spurred my resolve to alter my course." (Source)

* Pre 1983 : "Spencer placed all his hopes on us. He tasked us with the burden of making him a god. And foolishly, compulsively, we scrambled to follow his orders" (Note that only Alex was trusted enough by Spencer to know this. Albert spent his whole life wondering Why The Fuck It Is what It Is But Still Obeying) (source) (+ Alex is speaking here)

* 1983 : "I needed to get myself a position that had more access to information that would reveal Spencer's true objective" (Wesker's report II)

* 1996 : "Well if I am not the captain of STARS, still doing whatever Umbrella tells me to do at the respectable age of 36, living a Fake Real Life getting acquainted with non Umbrella people for the 1st time in my life and basically getting paychecks for keeping the STARS under control for whatever purpose Umbrella may have for them"

2. RE 0 goal : The Leech Incident happens. "If the old conspiracy against Dr. Marcus is revealed, Mr. Spencer's career will be over. Not to mention ours, too. (...) I will simply say goodbye to Umbrella. The biological weapon utilizing the t-Virus has almost been completed. Our only remaining task is to acquire combat data." (Resident Evil 0)

3. RE1 goal : "Receiving orders from Umbrella, fully aware of what was occurring, Wesker began planning for the investigation mission dubbed "X-Day". These orders were to make his way into the laboratory, destroy the complex to contain the outbreak, and escape with biological samples. To silence any witnesses, it was imperative S.T.A.R.S. be destroyed during the mission." (Source)

>> ATP he goes so far as to risk dying for real. His only hope to survive the Mansion Incident and get under Umbrella's radar is Birkin's prototype. However, it happens that even this part of his plan was planned from the start by Spencer lmao. He was, once again, Out Gambitted.

" This virus was administered to screen out the more gifted of the Wesker children. Some took the virus on the recommendation of a friend; others were given the virus as part of their medical treatment; still other had it forcibly administered to them. Albert Wesker was not different. His partner, William Birkin, gave him the experimental virus, and he administered it to himself." (Source)

September 1998 : he already works with the Organization and gives Ada orders on their behalf. Well, if our boy isn't still a useful tool for another shady company ("I had to SELL my SouL tO anOthEr oRganIzaTion")

4. CVX goal : does basically whatever the Organization demands.

5. RE : UC : "Wesker was the one who sent Ada Wong to retrieve the G-virus and was involved in the incidents at Rockfort Island. He appears intent on gathering as much data as possible on viral weaponry". (Source > he is still doing this on the behalf of this mysterious unnamed Organization)

"My dear Spencer, how the mighty have fallen. Your Umbrella has folded and now you are a fugitive in the same world you once sought to control. *looks over all the companies research and notes over the course of nearly fifty years* We shall meet again, before the conclusion of this drama. Then...you will learn of the history...I will write for this world. *smirks* (cut to black)"

>> OK, so ATP it seems like he wants to reshape the World with viruses already. But er... well man you could have remained with Umbrella but ok whatever. Prior to his death, this never ever transpired, interestingly. He was much more like his son, Jake. An amoral guy who wanted to be free (and, consequently, rich).

6. RE4 / RE4RE :

"Pity. But after all, just another expendable grunt. Thanks to you, however, Umbrella's one step closer to its reestablishment. And once it is, there will be significant changes in our world."

Oook so after destroying Umbrella he now wants it back. For himself *sighs*

"I do not pay you to ask questions. All you need to know is a new dawn is breaking. A hundred will give their lives so that just one may live. I am expediting that change."

"There's no room for half measures. The weak exist to serve the strong."

OK ok so he totally shares Spencer's vision unbeknownst to him ATP...

LOST IN NIGHTMARES / RE 5:

- finds Daddy

- Daddy tells him he is a good boy who dutifully followed the script

- kills daddy

- immediately continues to walk in Spencer's footsteps despite just learning that he has done this all his life and, well... Umbrella lives on !

[hadesknockedupintheunderworld]

Okay, so. Now that I have more of my feelings and thoughts sorted out, I would like to talk about the ending of the Nanbaka manga.

The End: Re-Nanbaka Chapter 423

(From chapter 36 of "Nanbaka" by Shō Futamata)

Disclaimer: Though this goes without saying, this impromptu essay post will contain spoilers for Nanbaka—the ending, primarily. It's worth reading the major plot twists without being spoiled if you can, so if you're not finished reading the manga, I wouldn't suggest reading this (can't stop you if you decide to anyways though 🤷). Suffice to say, the target audience is people who have finished reading the Nanbaka manga.

ㅤ

So, it's finally here, right? You decided to read the Nanbaka manga some time ago. There's a pretty good possibility you watched the anime at some point and found the manga afterwards, just needing to know what happens after Season 2 (potentially even after growing tired of waiting for season 3).

But, of course, the "why" doesn't matter. You picked up the Nanbaka manga, drank up every chapter you could. Maybe you're like me. You got to around chapter 193 and stopped for a while, unable to find translation past that point. But you got lucky one day looking, wondering if anyone ever picked up that translation again. So again, you drank up chapter after chapter (whether you binged it or waited patiently for fan translators to translate the chapters bit by bit), until you finally arrived...

At the end.

(From chapter 423 of "Nanbaka" by Shō Futamata)

And I surmise (largely based upon what I've seen perusing the fandom tag) that your thoughts upon reaching this point amount to "HUH?! WHAT?!" It seemed like we were just in the middle of a major arc. We've learned so many things, the nature of the world of "Nanbaka" and the overal conflicts have been revealed. New questions have risen, certain recent mysteries have yet to be answered, new information has come to light, there are characters whose status is unclear.

But despite all of this, it's over. The end.

Jyugo escapes Nanba, and the manga ends, heedless of everything else.

"Does the mangaka even care?" you could be wondering.

"Maybe it's just on hiatus, and we'll get a follow up at some point!" you could be hoping.

"Why did I get invested if it was going to end so poorly? Was it just a badly written story after all?" you may be feeling inside.

I can't tell you what Shō Futamata's feelings or what their future plans are beyond what they've officially put out. I can't give a truly objective answer that proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that Nanbaka is written well, and that the ending is good actually™.

But what I can do is express my own subjective point of view. After all, I'm only human too. Beyond that, I can hope someone reads this.

. . .

Now, my view and opinion is as follows:

As a whole, I loved the Nanbaka manga. I think the ending is good, and that it makes sense.

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I can already hear the thoughts forming in the heads of some of you reading this.

"What? Why? Isn't it sudden?? With everything introduced and all the plot threads left hanging, how could it be a good end? How could this make sense?"

Here's my short answer for the "why".

Because none of those things matter.

"But how could none of that matter? What would be the point of building up the narrative, getting us attached to all these characters and invested in the mysteries if it didn't all matter? Wouldn't it be simpler to say that the mangaka was tired of writing? Even so, what was the point of introducing all of these things if they don't matter as you say??"

Let me clarify that statement:

None of those things matter to the ending.

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Let's take a step back for a moment.

Despite the chapters upon chapters of angst and the character death we've experienced, Nanbaka is, at its core, a comedy manga (there are times I'd even call it a parody). Its goal with its gags and references, and even its execution of characters and arcs, is often to play genre expectations for laughs and/or to turn them on their head. It's unserious at times, and yet the entire premise (even jokes based on common genre tropes or anime happenings) are played completely straight.

Jyugo, our main character, (just based on design and expectations) seems to have all of the setup at of a more edgy shonen protagonist—the world's specialest boy with the tragic backstory, who is doubtless overpowered.

Both the manga and the anime adaptation dispell this notion pretty quickly. Jyugo can open any lock and escape from any prison, but he's pathetic outside of this. In the anime this means he can move past every obstacle to escaping Nanba along with his friends, but he always gets stuck at the final one because of his poor physical prowess (and inability to throw even a single punch). His backstory isn't tragic so much as...empty. In his head early in the story, he's just some inmate who woke up one day with shackles he can't remove, right? He has this clear glimpse of the man who shackled him (the man with the scar on the back of his neck). Does he have any real passion for revenge at the start? No, not really. He just wants to find this guy so he'll remove the shackles. In his memory, he's both escaped from every prison he's been to so he could find the man with the scar, and so he could just kill time. His memories are hazy, he doesn't know his parents or his home. As far as official records are concerned, he was born in prison and his father abandoned him. He has no hobbies, likes or dislikes.

It's against the character of Jyugo, our main character with few qualities and no real dreams or aspirations, that the rest of Cell 13 (his friends, Nico, Rock, and Uno) stand out. Compared to him, who is just killing time, who is bored and doesn't improve his practical skils, who wears the classic black and white striped prison garb, just about everyone in the story stands out more. They're visually colorful and dynamic. They have obsessions, dreams, aspirations, likes, and dislikes. For many of the supporting cast, their backstories and ambitions are enough that they could be the star of their own story.

And back to the comedy aspect, just like with Jyugo, one of the earlier gags in the story is when the mangaka contrives an excuse to explain cell 13's basic characters and backstories via the warden meeting with Hajime. In the manga, Hajime explains "what is up with them", just before shocking Samon and Warden Momoko with the "stupid" reasons Uno, Rock, and Nico kept escaping prison. In the anime adaptation, Samon plays the role of stand in for the audience expectations, assuming each one of these characters ended up becoming criminals due to their tragic backstories, with these reasons for becoming criminals feeding deeply into their aspirations. He sets up fantasy stories of men who go to prison in the process of caring for their sick/disabled girlfriend, or whom want to get revenge for fallen comrades, just before Hajime tears it down by dropping the truth.

Nico has a past of being experimented on and drugged. He has multiple food ilnesses and unidentified diseases. But no matter his dark past, his reason for escaping prisons was due to his hatred of needles and badly tasting medicine.

Rock was reportedly imprisoned after starting a gang riot. He didn't escape prison for any normal reasons though. Not out of any obligation to groups he could be affiliated with or because he just wants out. He escaped because the prison food sucked.

Uno is a compulsive gambler who was sent to juvie for frequenting underground casinos. Rather than escape prison for normal reasons, such as wanting to be out of prison, or even so he could continue to gamble, he escaped because he had a hot date.

It's easy to forget when you get wrapped up in the angst, the characters backstories, the overarching struggle between two organizations who wish to decide the fate of the world, etc that Nanbaka is a parody. From the very beginning, it plays into our suspension of disbelief for manga/anime shenanigans to its advantage (for example, being meta about how Uno, Rock, and Jyugo have to work together to censor Nico's anime references, or forcing the audience to accept that Shiki's security was shitty for a brief moment just so Taura specifically could infiltrate their headquarters with ease), and it turns our expectations on their heads (ex. Enki's rumor about being abusive to inmates stemming from how he would rough them up a bit to protect them from inhumane experimentation, or Warden Momoko appearing to be a stern dom with sharp edges but turning out to be someone who is gushy and soft and blushy thinking about her crush).

We expect the plot twists of Nanbaka's final arc to be a climax of the story, or something which leads into a final confrontation of ideals. We expect the manga to end with an answer to the fate of Togabito worldwide, a victor to emerge between Shiki and Kaazu's war with each other. We perhaps even expect Jyugo to be at the center of this, for him to decide whether the world should change in favor or against Togabito existing, or even for him to make a third choice separate from Hiiro and Mashiro's skirmish. We expect for a thrilling final conclusion which wraps up most of the obvious hanging plot threads, makes a statement for how the world should be, and gives us some happy or tragic (solid) ending for our main cast and their fates.

So, with all of that in mind:

Why would Nanbaka, as a parody manga, end as we expect it to?

. . .

Okay, now I hear you thinking:

"Tumblr user hadesknockedupintheunderworld...that is such a stupid excuse. You seriously expect us to believe that this ending is masterful and amazing because the fact that we didn't expect it to leave off on so many cliffhangers makes it a parody executed at a genius level?? Even a good parody manga that subverts our expectations should have a proper ending. Again, wouldn't this constitute an excuse for the mangaka's laziniess?"

And to this, I say: Please bear with me.

Nanbaka's genre status is only one piece of the puzzle, the "why" of the execution of the manga's ending.

The rest is related to our little pathetic (yet kind of endearing) jail breaker of a main character.

(From Season 1 Episode 1 of the anime adaptation of Nanbaka)

So, Jyugo. Inmate 15, cell 13, building 13. He's our main character.

His status as the main character may not be so obvious at first, especially given how often cell 13 appears as a group early on in the story, but I would say that it at least becomes clear by the time the end of the New Year's Tournament ark (the first one) comes around. Namely, the reveal of Jyugo's special abilities, the fight between Jyugo and Musashi, and the scene where Jyugo ultimately chooses to stay at building 13 after the tournament.

Despite Nanbaka's large cast of characters and its tendencies to focus on everyone but Jyugo at times, though, Jyugo is the main character. Nanbaka is a comedy/parody manga, yes, but it's also about Jyugo's personal journey, the way he changes as a person over the course of the manga. Hiiro kind of spells this out for us in chapter 422, when he reveals that Nanba was also created for Jyugo—his playground, his ideal world, a place where he could be himself.

. . .

For a moment, let's return to my previous statement:

None of those things matter to the ending.

Much of what's going on in the world of Nanbaka is bigger than one person, of course. In the later parts especially, we start to be able to see more and more outside the prison. We're introduced to Nanba's women prison, Shiki, the Zodiac Police, and even to Rokuto and Mikadzuki. The world outside Nanba prison comes into greater focus at this point, especially as we begin to see more details of the struggle between Shiki and Kaazu. There are multiple story arcs towards the end focusing on multiple different characters where Jyugo and cell 13 aren't present.

As such, I can understand how easy it becomes to get wrapped up in this story as it ramps up. The problems of Kaazu vs Shiki begin to infiltrate into Nanba more and more, and this building of tension is joined by the revelations surrounding Kaazu, Shiki, and Jyugo. I, too, while reading, was waiting at the edge of my seat to get a follow up on the inmates disappearing during the New Year's Tournament (second time), the future of Orochi, Midzuchi, and Murakami, the fates of Trois, Zakuro, etc, the information on Rock, Uno, and Nico's true first meetings with Jyugo, etc.

So I know it sounds strange when I say that none of these things matter to the ending.

But, consider this. Outside of gags, outside of Jyugo, the arks we see involving Shiki, the Zodiak police, Taura, and others, often serve two purposes.

To flesh out the narrative, to make all of the characters in the wider cast feel like people as opposed to tools or just colorful characters playing roles, and to provide background on events relating to Jyugo's past.

To make some sort of point.

Showing us the backstories of members of Shiki, inmates at Nanba, and some for the Nanba guards and Zodiac Police members allows us to see these characters as people, to put away the idea that everyone affiliated with Nanba or Shiki or Kaazu is either a "good person/hero" or "bad person/villain". One of the commonly recurring themes in Nanbaka (supported by the backstories of Togabito and regular inmates alike) is the lack of prisoners' rights. Imprisonment is often used as a method of covering up inhumane experimentation or treatment of characters. Multiple characters were framed for imprisonment with the express purpose of some group getting to get away with their treatment of them (such as Kaazu imprisoning Togabito so they could get away with executing them, or Elf framing Musashi for arson so Mashiro and Isou could experiment and gather data using him). A good deal of character arcs towards the end also have a particular focus on the inmates, members of Shiki, and Togabito deciding their futures or the ideal worlds they'd like to create.

My point with this is to say that, despite the ending, all of these things do matter to the narrative. And they don't suddenly cease to have meant anything because of how the manga ending left narrative threads unresolved.

They had a purpose.

"So why is there no clear conclusion to these?"

I'll explain it like this. Since Jyugo is the main character, no matter what is happening in the world of Nanbaka, everything comes back to him. All of the narrative threads and story arcs that occur without his presence have a purpose and do matter, but the happenings outside of Nanba (within the entire world) in general are just, well, a part of the world. Regardless of what Jyugo does after the manga's ending, the world will continue to turn. Those narrative threads will come to their conclusions. Hiiro and Mashiro will continue to oppose each other.

They are just things that happen to be happening in the world around Jyugo. But the end of the manga focuses on Jyugo, the culmination of his arc.

And when it comes to reaching the conclusion of Jyugo's character arc, things not pertaining to this do not matter. It doesn't matter what Murakami's fate is. It doesn't matter whether Kaazu or Shiki win their war of ideals. It doesn't matter whether Zakuro died or not, only that Jyugo's fight with him and interactions with him and Elf set off the introspection which causes Jyugo to change further as a person.

Chapter 423 was not planned as "the end" so we could get the thrilling conclusion of major happenings in the world of Nanbaka. It was planned as "the end", so we could see "the end" of Jyugo's development.

Allow me to explain this a bit more clearly.

And ultimately, this is why I think the ending of Nanbaka is both good and fitting. The ending is unexpected, yes, but it challenges you to think, to wonder just what makes chapter 423 "The End". It leaves the surface narrative (the literal happenings in the story) unfinished, yet it resolves it's underlying narrative featuring the main character's evolution. Rather than the end of Nanbaka, being about who will change the world and how, or about a perfect happy or tragic ending, it's about Jyugo accepting himself, it's about him growing into his complete and complicated self despite (and sometimes because of) outside interference.

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Thinking back to the beginning of the story, we are given our very first truth.

Jyugo cannot/will not escape Nanba.

This is very clearly shown in the opening of the anime adaptation, where we're introduced to a typical day of Cell 13 evading all manner of traps to escape Nanba. The four of them each use their unique skills and knowledge (both inherent to them and due to their experiences escaping from various prisons) to get all the way to the final obstacle inside the prison. Then, after Jyugo opens the final door, locked with all manner of special locking mechanisms, the group is faced with Hajime. Ultimately, of course, when Jyugo is the last to face him, Hajime beats Jyugo up, which shows the audience that Jyugo cannot yet escape (in this case, he physically cannot defeat their final obstacle).

As Hajime says in the opening of the anime's first episode:

"That is because this is Nanba prison. No one has ever escaped successfully from this prison."

The manga also starts out showing "the typical day" of cell 13. However, while the anime does this by showing a group escape attempt, the manga starts out showing the four as they converse in their cell with each other and with Hajime.

(From chapter 1 of "Nanbaka" by Shō Futamata)

The anime presents a Jyugo who initially wants to escape (he's escaped from every other prison after all) but doesn't have the ability. The additional anime opening scenes flow (more or less) into the scenes presented in the opening of the manga, which presents a Jyugo who doesn't actually want to leave Nanba.

"I just remembered I'll be released soon. Hey, Hajime. I'm gonna escape now, so will ya extend my sentence?"

In addition, both the manga and the anime end up with Cell 13 instead deciding to stay in Nanba for the time being (finding it more comfortable and livable than the real world).

(From chapter 1 of "Nanbaka" by Shō Futamata. This same scene can be found in Season 1 Episode 1 of the anime adaptation)

So, we start out with a Jyugo who does not/cannot leave Nanba. Although he eventually comes to confide in Hitoshi Sugoroku about the man with the scar and his shackles, removing those shackles is more of a far off goal. For now, he can live comfortably in Nanba, not having to worry about the troubles he'd have outside the prison.

Then, we get this moment of introspection from Jyugo in Chapter 36:

(From chapter 36 of "Nanbaka" by Shō Futamata)

During the end of part 1 here, Jyugo realizes that he's been running away ("the man with the scar" listed as among the things he's been running from while in Nanba), and he realizes he wants to live like his friends (his friends who are "so full of life").

Though we expect Jyugo to begin to physically improve himself (like other main characters in his position who often resolve to do this to protect the things, people, and futures they care about with their own hands), he doesn't make major strides over the course of the manga in improving his physical strength, skill, or becoming proficient in using his blades. Rather, his journey is a more internal one.

(From chapter 36 of "Nanbaka" by Shō Futamata)

To put it plainly, as of Chapter 36, to "run away" as he always has for Jyugo means both to accept his fate (in this case, to allow himself to simply stay in prison, or to allow himself to live an empty life in the underground cells of Nanba) and to escape Nanba (to run away from a place that now has both people who enrich his life (attachments) and his past encroaching on it).

While Jyugo takes some steps forward and backwards over the course of the manga (often during major events of introspection and dealing with his fears), everything comes to head in the last part of the manga.

Or, rather, it's Chapter 423 (the ending), that brings Jyugo's internal journey full circle.

Jyugo learns about himself—the truth about his origins, his powers, his shackles—and chooses to continue on.

Jyugo accepts himself—his "original personality", his past self, his missing piece—becoming someone who is both the "Jyugo" who is human and contains life, and the "Jyugo" who is the Togabito of emptiness, who can hardly recognize himself as existing.

And, most notably:

Jyugo finally escapes Nanba prison with his own power, and he faces "the man with the scar" head on.

This is the point I intended to make.

Chapter 423 of Nanbaka's ending is set up the way it is to subvert our expectations due to its affinity for parody. Chapter 423's ending does not mark the ending of the story of Nanba prison or the war between Shiki and Kaazu. Rather, it marks "The End" of the Jyugo we knew.

It marks the moment Jyugo finally escapes the inescapable prison, the moment he truly resolves to face the man with the scar, the moment he's completed his internal development the manga has been leading up to.

Or, to put this in the shortest words I possibly can:

The story began setting up Nanba as an inescapable prison. The story ends now that our main character has finally achieved this feat and escaped it.

(From chapter 423 of "Nanbaka" by Shō Futamata)

The other things do not matter to the conclusion of Jyugo's story.

. . .

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. . .

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. . .

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end.

[randomfoggytiger]

Mulder's Alien Baby Baby Trauma (Part XXIV): "There Has to Be an End"

This part of Essence and Existence is, quite frankly, exhausting, illogical, and lopsided. To solve existing problems, the characters make the worst possible choices without properly addressing or explaining other more reasonable alternatives. Further, the one justification these choices could have had-- Mulder in a state of panic brought on by a flair of fight-or-flight PTSD-- is not only underutilized but shamefully forgotten.

However: this meta is not focusing on the demerits of Season 8's finale; instead, we shall follow the thread of Mulder's choices, their outcomes, and their (too late) retraction. Even though this two-parter bungles its arc and its characters, it also attempts to course-correct its flaws (which is even more frustrating, since the corrective measures are not only in-character but should have been planned and executed from the start.)

A (SINGULAR) HELPING HAND

Scully's car won't budge-- more accurately, it can't: Billy Miles (we are left to assume) has blocked its exit by shoving two cars close to its front and bumper. Mulder and Scully begin to silently panic as he bashes the car backward, forward, and backward again.

"Mulder, lock your door," she says, jamming her fingers down in an automatic motion.

His "I don't think that matters much, Scully" assertion is immediately proven correct: Billy Miles appears from the building, laser-focused on his targets.

They remain like sitting ducks: Scully clinging to the false illusion of safety (i.e. the locked car), Mulder frozen in place as the threat advances (a combination of rational motives-- unable to move his partner quickly to safety-- and irrational reactions-- his freeze response, post here.)

And then Krycek appears, running Billy Miles over with his car and rolling down his window with theatrical aplomb. "We haven't got much time-- get in," he announces; "Let's go!" he repeats when both agents stare back in stunned stupor.

Seeing their pursuer begin to rise from the asphalt, Mulder and Scully flee, she vaulting over the dividing panel in her eager scramble to safety and he steering her from his door to Krycek's backseat.

All three are shut in the escape vehicle and peeling away into the night before Billy-Miles-That-Was stands to his full, posturing height.

THE DESOLATION OF INTELLIGENT LIFE

The next scene is a cornerstone in the insane reasoning (or lack thereof) that guides the rest of the two-parter: Mulder entertaining Krycek's rambling about aliens and God in an effort to find the truth, Mulder and Scully splitting up, Scully willingly driving off with Agent Reyes to hole up in the middle of nowhere.

There's a logical explanation that could have explained most of, though not all, of Mulder's and Scully's and Skinner's and Doggett's decisions and actions: discouragement. We see the signs plainly-- Scully slumping in a chair at the FBI, Scully ripping off the band aid no one wants to touch ("They want my baby-- why?"), Mulder switching into easy belief rather than analytical denial, Skinner pulling the trigger on Krycek, Doggett losing trust in his friends at the Bureau, and other, littler signs. Near hopelessness, grasping at any opportunity to set the world right and make it make sense.

Because the writers don't flesh out those reasons, the goal for each character is lost in a sludge of narrow-minded unfeasibility; and, ultimately, it doesn't matter which particular argument moved the needle or not because Existence erases all of it by killing off Krycek and revealing the baby is a normal miracle and giving Mulder and Scully a happy ending.

Mulder listens to Krycek's grand and glorious surmisings of the aliens' beliefs in the baby, and their fear of its larger meaning-- a sign of God, a miraculous existence, an impossible happening any which way you slice it. He, like his partner, is discouraged: Mulder came back from the dead, resigned from the files, and did his best to move forward; but his efforts weren't enough, not for those who will endlessly take and take and take. And in this sense of defeat, he makes two self-destructive choices: Scully and the baby need to disappear for the birth, and he must be as far away (and ignorant) as possible to not pose a threat to their welfare.

Mulder, in short, knows the Conspiracy-That-Be keeps close tabs on them both; and lopsidedly leaps to the conclusion that he can stay behind-- a distraction--- while Scully sneaks ahead with her life, safe. (The truth is, he needs to move forward with her, a lesson he finally learns at the climax of this episode.)

"Agent Doggett. Get on the phone," he commands, sharp and succinct above everyone's temper. 'If we're going to get Scully out of here we're going to need some help."

And everyone, without a better idea, follows his plan.

Yes, it's a stupid strategy. That aside, why did Mulder decide it was safer for he and Scully to be separated instead of disappearing together?

Although Canon never clearly answers the question, Existence fleetingly touches on a clue: Mulder turns on Doggett when the latter speculates if all the secrecy is worth it ("I'm beginning to think that the fact that I know is going to catch up with me if AD Skinner's any indication.") Snapping ferociously-- panicked-- he demands, "You don't tell anybody where she is. That's the deal, right? Not even me." This leads us to infer two important narrative details:

Mulder not only created a ruse for his partner to escape, but he also considers himself a liability to Scully's safety, unwilling to definitively believe that he won't give up her location if caught or interrogated. That is a startling thought: that Mulder, a man who would rather sacrifice himself than harm his partner, is now denying himself out of that same sacrificial nature in an effort to protect her. That is a new development; that is a juicy insight; that is never touched on ever again.

Mulder placed greater faith in Doggett's circumspection than his own instincts. Perhaps he believed Doggett had greater protection because of his friends inside the FBI; perhaps he believed in Doggett's capabilities after testing them in Vienen and Alone and Essence one-on-on (posts here and here.) Or perhaps it's a lesser of two evils: that Doggett would be a better bet than himself. That, again, is significant; and that, again, is never developed.

These inferences point to characterological changes, ones still in line with his old tendencies-- new branches grafted onto recent bark scars. They inform Mulder's actions in every episode after Deadalive; and materialize unavoidably in Essence and Existence. They are crucial to understanding why he made these idiotic choices-- offshoots of his trauma and reactionary gambles-- but are only examined minutely in the first part and mentioned once in the second.

Doggett and Reyes call up from the ground level: Billy Miles is on his way up-- time for a quick reroute. Thinking on his feet, Mulder decides to enact his role as a distraction... by shoving his pregnant, very wanted partner right into the hands of his sworn nemesis.

The ridiculousness of this scenario isn't just that Mulder shoved his pregnant partner over to Alex Krycek: the group let the latter into their plans; then iced him out from the elevator; then came back and redirected Scully towards him, needing help. They lucked out: if Krycek had had an ace up his sleeve, Scully and her baby would have been handed over to the enemy in three seconds flat.

As a side note: Is it out of the realm of possibility that Mulder and Scully and Skinner and Doggett would trust Krycek in this situation? Perhaps not; and it worked out in this case (to a degree.) But it was a risky maneuver that Mulder wouldn't have committed unless under extreme circumstances, and Scully wouldn't have agreed to unless in the direst of straights-- this was neither. There were many other options he (and Scully) could have resorted to: most obviously, it would be in Mulder's best interest to ferry his partner around, since he knows the FBI's layout more thoroughly than Alex Krycek (theoretically) and would be able to slip away with his partner and Monica Reyes had the chance arisen. And while this plan is one he'd already decided against, it would have been part of his inherent nature to escort her as far as he could, regardless, rather than hand his family over to the backstabber that got both X-Files investigators abducted. This action was not justified; and was corrected extremely late, and to little effect. Poor writing all around.

A drawn out chase scene later, Scully and Reyes escape; and Mulder watches them leave with turmoil in his eyes: relief at the plan's success, anguish at not being able to go with his partner.

MULDER'S JOURNEY FROM REQUIEM

Mulder and Doggett have a pivotal exchange while purity testing the latter's source-- one that is lost amidst the wash of bad writing and bad actions scenes. Which is a shame, as it ties in not only Mulder's long-held beliefs about the Conspiracy and his place in it, but his loss on how to break free.

Doggett, not seeing the difference between an entirely truthful or an untrustworthy informant (in the greater scheme of things) barks out, "What difference does it really make?"-- and Mulder points out, "It doesn't make any difference at all. Unless you want to protect Scully and that baby."

"And then what?" Doggett asks, cutting to the heart of the matter-- the heart of Mulder's journey post-Deadalive. In fact, the heart of Mulder's journey since he and Scully trekked back to Bellefleur: "How long can you keep this up? How long until the next Billy Miles rears his head? The next threat? The next phantom? You ever stop to ask yourself?"

Mulder shifts uncomfortably as the other man continues.

"All the sacrifice, the blood spilled-- you've given nearly a decade of your life. Where is it all going to end?"

There's a longer than usual pause before Mulder softly admits, "I don't know. Maybe it doesn't."

I've gone back and forth on the motel conversation in Requiem (post here)-- its purpose, Mulder's meaning, Scully's response-- but Existence, at least, illuminates what the writers (namely, Chris Carter and Frank Spotnitz) meant.

In Requiem, Mulder has been ruminating on Scully's happiness while holding Teresa Hoese's baby when she joins him-- sick and a tad fearful. Both of them connect her abductee status with the Bellefleur case; but only one of them-- Mulder-- is willing to discuss the possibility out loud.

"It's not worth it, Scully," he begins, elaborating his thoughts quietly. "I've been thinking about it. Looking at you tonight, holding that baby... knowing everything that's been taken away from you. A chance for motherhood and your health and that baby. I think that... I don't know, maybe they're right. The FBI. Maybe what they say is true, though for all the wrong reasons. It's the personal costs that are too high. There is so much more you need to do with your life. There's so much more than this. There has to be an end, Scully."

Of note: Mulder concluded his monologue about her losses with "you need to do with your life"-- meaning, Scully needs to break away.

Does that eliminate the possibility that he was planning to step back, too? No-- but the contemplation of his own departure from the files was not as clear-sighted as Scully's. While Mulder was still lost in the realm of theory then, we've seen him use similar, one-sided logic before: in Fight the Future, he "needs" her on this but later tells her to "go be a doctor"; in Amor Fati, he leaves Scully for her own "good" and martyrs himself to a life locked inside his head. Again, that thought process is brought back in Requiem; and Existence pauses for an all-too-brief second to flesh out this reoccurring mindset:

Mulder either hasn't considered walking away from the files, truly, as Doggett posits here; or

Mulder has considered it but sees no way out ("I don't know. Maybe it doesn't.")

Scully can escape-- "Go be a doctor," he insisted in Fight the Future's close; "There has to be an end," he intones in Requiem-- but Mulder believes he cannot. It's no longer a self-sacrificial pursuit (an ugly reality he confronted and overcame in Amor Fati), but it's still no less a chain his parents forged with the Conspiracy through their complicit silence. A chain passed down to the next generation; and one he must break for his own family to live in peace.

(Sidenote: I checked the script-- post here-- and it, too, indirectly confirms that Mulder feels bound to the files. See above.)

How, and when, does he escape?

Existence offers Mulder the way out-- the chance to choose right: abandon the quest and run back to the greater truth, i.e. leave Skinner and Doggett to sort out the mytharc mess and fly as fast as he can to Scully's side. The episode later reinforces that choice as the right one by showing Mulder unlocking Scully's apartment door (post here)-- a pivotal, first-time undertaking that authenticates his new perspective of (and place in) the world-- and holding his normal, everyday miracle while kissing Scully as her equal, loving partner.

"There is so much more you need to do with your life. There's so much more than this. There has to be an end, Scully" transforms into" I'm sorry. I don't mean to be cold or ungrateful. I just... I have no idea where I fit in. Right now"; and finishes a journey of seven years-- a search to find his family and heal them with the truth: "I don't know. Maybe it doesn't"-- with "The truth we both know."

The pieces are there, but not elegantly slotted together-- a missed opportunity for the writers and viewers.

A TOUCH OF TRAUMA

Alex Krycek catches Mulder alone; but before he can complete the kill, Skinner intercepts his efforts and-- after a second's hard deliberation-- sinks a bullet into his skull. The A.D. is freed from Krycek's control.

Mulder spares a lingering glance at his nemesis's body, then shuts out any consideration other than joining Scully-- the decision he should have made from the start. (It's a hacky piece of writing: pretending that Mulder learned a lesson without properly exploring an initial weakness, or sin, and its consequences; but I digress.)

"I'm going to go to the airport. I need that location from Agent Doggett." His face has hardened-- Krycek is dead, and his death was deserved. Mulder will not spare guilt for someone willing to kill his partner or barter over a baby's life.

As he swiftly charges towards the car, Mulder notices Skinner standing in place, still staring down at Krycek's body. His expression shifts again: sharpness melting at the edges in concern.

"Skinner, are you with me?" he asks, eyeing his former boss until the A.D. sweeps his address aside and orders him away ("You just go. I'll get him.") It's an excellent, too-short character beat that could have been more: Mulder recognizing the trauma in someone else and, perhaps, showing what would work for him by offering it to Skinner-- a reversal of their roles in One Breath. But alas, that, too, is a mention-and-gone moment.

TRYING TO MAKE THINGS RIGHT

There are many scenes in Existence that serve to tie up old threads-- Agent Doggett's friendship with the super soldiers, Monica Reyes and Scully's misadventure, Krycek's double-dealing downfall and Skinner's revenge, etc.-- but don't slot thematically with this analysis. What does work (and will remain) is Mulder's panic over Doggett's reconsideration-- see above-- and his realization that everyone has been had by his partner's partner's FBI friends.

After Skinner saves his life, Mulder books it to Georgia as fast as possible. And what is the fastest way to get there? A helicopter.

Mulder arrives minutes-- even seconds-- after the big event, jumping from the hovering cabin into the fleet of cars.

Screaming above the retreating vehicles, he yells at Scully's unwanted visitors, demanding to know if they know where she is.

"Mulder!" Agent Reyes yells from the house, intercepting his increasing frenzy with a come-hither motion.

Darting over, he shouts, "How is she?" above the whir of the chopper wings.

"She's inside. She needs to get to a hospital!" Reyes insists, gripping Mulder's arm before he can whizz past.

Alerted, and alarmed, he stares at her face for a split second before rushing into the dark.

All in all, a sorry conclusion to his child's arrival: not only because Mulder wasn't there for the birth, but also because there was a probability that he could have made it in time-- one that was cruelly dashed for another pseudo-anticipatory "Is the baby all right?" question that is answered two scenes later.

THE BRIGHT SIDE TO THIS DISAPPOINTING CLIMAX

To make up for the rugpull of the first three-fourths of Existence's runtime, the writers etched in some bright spots for the characters.

If Mulder must be away for the birth, he was at least present shortly thereafter, able to whisk his family away to a hospital; and Scully and the baby weren't given the indignity of being stuffed back into a car to drive elsewhere for medical care.

Scully, apparently, had no-- or little-- complications. Travel is not recommended after childbirth; and absolutely discouraged after medical complications, e.g. heavy bleeding or a C-section; yet, within days (or a day) after the baby's arrival, his mother was back in Georgetown amidst her cottons and silks, baby powder and balloons. Either she was passengered nearly twelve hours by car back to D.C. or flew an hour and some minutes commercially (or stayed on the helicopter all the way back to the FBI-- you never know, with canon); but, regardless, Scully arrived home on her feet, whole and contented, for the finale conclusion. (Another miracle?) No matter which way the evidence is scrutinized, it all turns in one direction.

And lastly, the baby was born a normal human being: one the Parenti Project extension hoped would be "A perfect human child but with no human frailties" and one the aliens assumed would be a Messianic threat to their Pinky and the Brain schemes for global domination-- and one that proved them wrong on both counts (if we discard Season 9 onward as canon.) Existence's final lines confirmed this hypothesis, as does the thematic throughline of the entire season: miracles through ordinary means-- an infertile woman, pregnant, and a dead man, alive, through science (and some grounded science fiction.) Even if one were to factor in Season 9's magical baby powers, those were completely neutralized (until the Revival erased that plotline, too): a reset back to the original intent, the "normal" status quo-- a child born from Mulder and Scully's partnership, the most ordinary and beloved truth they'd ever known.

CONCLUSION

There is still one last part to go: Mulder has yet to officially meet his child, after all.

Thanks for reading~

Enjoy!

[polo-drone-069]

The holographic banners rippled and danced above the Galactic Gridiron, their vibrant colors reflecting off the polished metallic field.  The roar of the hundred thousand strong crowd was a physical force, pressing down on the players below.  Announcer Bot’s voice, usually a smooth baritone, was laced with an edge of barely contained excitement.

“Ladies and gentlemen, boys and girls, welcome to the Super Bowl! The pinnacle of the Galactic Gridiron!  The energy here is off the charts! The Golden Knights and the Emerald Titans are locked in a battle for the ages! The score is tied 49 to 49!  Just seconds remain!  Who will claim the coveted Galactic Gridiron trophy?”

The camera swept across the field, showcasing the Emerald Titans.  They stood as a unified force, their emerald and shadow uniforms gleaming under the stadium lights.  Their faces, etched with grim determination, reflected the fire in their eyes.

“They haven’t forgotten our last encounter,” Announcer Bot growled, his voice echoing through the stadium. “They’ve trained, they’ve studied us, they want their revenge. They’re coming at us with everything they’ve got, ready to prove they belong on top.”

The camera then shifted to the Golden Knights’ sideline. The Knights, clad in their gleaming metallic gold and black armor, exuded an aura of confidence.  They were ready.

“But this is our game,” Announcer Bot declared. “This is our house. This is our moment. The stakes have never been higher! This isn’t just another win. This is the Super Bowl! This is for the title! This is for supremacy! This is for GOLD!”

The crowd erupted, a deafening wave of sound washing over the field.

On the field, the Knights felt the energy surge through them.

Number 01 (@polo-drone-001), a compact dynamo of muscle and speed, his movements a blur of gold, bounced on the balls of his feet, his eyes burning with intensity. He remembered his earlier touchdowns. He’d sliced through the Titans’ defense like a laser beam, leaving them grasping at air. His chiseled jaw was set, determination etched in every line of his face. He glanced at the sidelines, seeing the intense focus of his teammates, the fire in their eyes mirroring his own.

Number 09(@goldenherc9), the quarterback, a mountain of a man with broad shoulders and a steely gaze, surveyed the field. Sweat glistened on his skin, highlighting the powerful muscles coiled beneath. He barked out the play call, his voice resonating with authority. The holographic display above him flickered, showing the complex ballet of movement he’d orchestrated. He knew the Titans were formidable, but he also knew his team was ready.

Number 68(@roman-golden-68), tall and lean with arms like steel cables, recalled his incredible catch. He’d leaped over two defenders, his body twisting in mid-air, snatching the ball from seemingly nowhere. His eyes, focused and intense, were locked on the quarterback. He felt the weight of expectation, the pressure to perform, but he also knew he could deliver.

With ten seconds on the clock, the score tied at 49-49, 09 took the snap. The crowd held its breath. He fired a quick pass to 68, who, as planned, drew the attention of two Titans. But instead of holding onto the ball, 68 executed a perfect lateral pass.

“It’s a lateral! A risky play! The Knights are gambling everything!”

The ball spiraled through the air, landing perfectly in the hands of Number 69. He was a relatively new player, smaller than the others, but with an almost uncanny ability to anticipate the flow of the game. He took off, his movements fluid and precise. He dodged a tackle, his body twisting and turning, his gold uniform flashing under the stadium lights. Another Titan lunged, but 69 sidestepped him with an almost balletic grace.

“69! He’s got the ball! He’s at the 20, the 10, the 5…he’s going…going…GONG!”

The buzzer blared just as 69 crossed the goal line. He collapsed to his knees, chest heaving, a triumphant roar escaping his lips.

“Touchdown! Touchdown Golden Knights! 69 with the game-winning score! The Knights are the Super Bowl Champions!”

The stadium erupted in a cacophony of cheers. Gold and black confetti rained down, covering the field in a shimmering blanket. The Knights mobbed 69, their faces alight with joy and relief. They had faced a tough opponent, pushed themselves to their limits, and emerged victorious. It was a game that would be talked about for generations, a testament to the skill, athleticism, and sheer determination of the players. They had fought for gold, and they had earned it.

Join the Golden Army and you will DOMINATE too. Message @brodygold@polo-drone-001@goldenherc9 now!

[theshrimp-party]

Hello, hello, I decide to actually post my MCB ocs here! I've been working on their concepts for a while (backstory wise), but i haven't really done their design properly.

But i did do their holoform (?) / human design as that is all i can manage for now.

Anyways, introducing the Star Guardians resident twins, SolarBlitz and Cresent Guard! (Sorry for the quality)

Yes! They are twins! And, they are Blue Cop's senior! (Rank wise, they are friendly to him enough as like an aquintence/friend)

Younger than Flame Nova, though.

SolarBlitz - the older of the two, upbeat personality although a bit clueless about social cues. (Like she can not read the room at all) She overall positive, a bit too positive and always ready to fight and defend Machnia. (It's giving obnoxious ngl, but she has a heart)

She has a great fighting spirit. She should also stop challenging others, though. Beating people up, especially your coworkers, is not a love language. (Please stop looking for fights in the office, and else where)

Alt mode: Flyer type, customised jet

Cresent Guard - the younger one. More quiet and reserved. She keeps to herself most of the time (except w her sis).

She technically is an enabler for Solarblitz in office fights as she is quite judgemental of people, usually with looks and behaviour. She only judges those who are mean and who deserve it. She'd quietly tell her sister about them, and the office fight starts.

She sometimes bend the rules for her own (and her sister's) benefits for themselves. She can be hardworking (if she puts enough effort into it), fulfilling her duties to the fullest and the best that she can. Not as strict as she looks, sometimes slack while doing paperwork, reading, or playing games.

However, in serious situations, she can be quite ruthless in her methods in accomplishing tasks. Very calculative and executes her plans with impeccable efficiency.

Alt mode: customised underwater Seacraft (similar to Deepbite kind of mode)

Also! They are both combiners! They turn into Skysplitter, a more well-known Star Guardian. They use Skysplitter to stake down stronger enemies (other planets?). Skyspiltter is them combined, not a different person entirely, like parts of them combine and create this persona with their memorise. Very serious personality. Idk how to describe it from there lmao.

Also they have a special feature!! Weapon and meiser relationship. (If Shadow X can become invisible, they can do this)

Solarblitz turns into a sword and shield for Cresent Guard. (Huge sword and shield)

Cresent guard turns into a machine gun (inspired by Trigun Wolfwood) (which could also work as a shield) and gun.

They are generally okay people, not the best, though. (They have their flaws)

The events on Machina are not smoothen out but I'll leave it in point form.

- catch criminal

- Cresent gets hurt, coma very long

- Solar sad, depressed. Rage and alcoholism

- Recover with help from love interest

- Fall of Machina, tried to protect the people. Could not, evacuated with her sis and a small group of other bots.

- Crash landed on planet with pod. They all try to fix it. the goal is to find other survivors

-attacked by native species, evacuated to the fixed escape pod.

- they sacrificed themselves to keep the native species away. Their bodies are left stranded on that planet while the others escaped.

That's all for now!! Tata!

- 🦐

[captainventi]

Stars On Ice

The new season of Stars on Ice, a hit reality show where celebrities learn to skate alongside professional figure skaters, kicks off! Fateful encounters, first steps on the ice, grueling training sessions, and dazzling performances await the star-studded participants. And, of course, their main goal is to make an unforgettable first impression.

Episode 1. Love Lee (AKMU)

Pairings: celebrity!Xavier x figure skater!MC

Summary: A former Olympian and a reformed Disney child star stumble — literally — through their first live performance on Stars on Ice, and somehow, it’s perfect.

CW: figure skating!au, fluff, mild performance anxiety

Notes: this is the first figure skating one-shot of the planned series (and my first ever fanfic in English tbh). Post with all episodes (as soon as I write them) here. Xavier header by @izusphii, credits to the author of the star divider as well

We exchange a glance, nervously counting down the seconds before stepping onto the ice. My temples are pounding — it’s been a long time since I felt this kind of thrill before a skate. I glance again at my quiet partner; he smiles knowingly, his grip steady on my hand. He’s holding up well — honestly, he’s the one who should be nervous today, not me. It’s his debut on the ice stage, after all. But somehow, I’m the one jittery enough to forget we’ve had three weeks of training.

As if our meeting backstage happened yesterday. Or just a moment ago.

I’m still grateful there were no cameras nearby back then: the way I outright stared at the blond boy peacefully napping in the corner was definitely not meant for national television. But tell me — who wouldn’t have stared? Everyone has had a guilty crush on someone from a teen Disney or Nickelodeon show. Some liked the Jonas Brothers, some liked Hannah Montana — and some (hi, that’s me) liked Lumière. Yes, that blond superhero kid in the silver mask who looked like a fairy-tale prince. And now here he was, snoring under the bleachers. Put yourself in my place and don’t judge.

To be fair, aside from that deeply embarrassing moment (which, thankfully, Xavier never found out about), our connection was instant. Finding out we’d be skating together came as a pleasant surprise to both of us. He admitted right away — a little shy, a little proud — that he’d seen my Olympic performance, where I took silver, along with many of my other competitive programs. Then he only asked, with an adorably embarrassed smile:

"Just… please don’t suggest using Lumière’s theme song for the first performance, okay?"

"Deal," I nodded. "But then, no Einaudi either."

From that point on, our mutual understanding was almost flawless.

Now, of course, three weeks have passed, and I know that Xavier and Lumière are completely different people. The Disney superhero doesn’t have a supernatural ability to fall asleep anywhere, doesn’t analyze serial killer movies with the world’s most innocent expression, and certainly wouldn’t have caused a full-on explosion in my kitchen because he got lost in an astrophysics article — which, by the way, is his actual field of graduate study. I doubt the showrunners would’ve ever allowed Lumière to kick off a season with carefree K-pop, either. But Xavier, thank God, has grown up and escaped the clutches of network executives, and if graduating from Harvard gave him permission to goof around on the ice with me now — well then, bless Harvard.

The first part of our program goes flawlessly, and I finally relax. Even the upcoming challenging lift — challenging for someone who’s only been skating for three weeks, obviously — doesn’t scare me much anymore. Especially not when he takes me by the waist, and I feel no nervousness in his touch, no fear — just a gentle strength, the way he holds me like something precious, turning slowly and carefully. The music is upbeat, but we’re in no rush. We’re just enjoying life and good company, right?

He sets me down on the ice and gives me a quick, attentive look to make sure I landed safely — from a lift that, by competitive standards, is practically for beginners, and honestly, you’d have to work hard to mess it up. But for some reason, that landing becomes a tripwire for him. He releases me, turns — and suddenly stumbles on absolutely nothing.

And the guilty look on his face just makes me laugh so much that a chuckle escapes me while we’re still dancing in sync to our simple little K-pop routine. From the outside, it must look like sheer joy, perfectly fitting for the performance — and maybe it really is joy. I hope it is. I hope it’s not just hysterical laughter...

And then I trip too. In solidarity.

He catches my hand instantly, and the flicker of confusion and concern in those sky-blue eyes melts into relief. And I’m laughing — actually laughing now — and his shoulders, always so stiff with composure, ease up and tremble with laughter just a bit. Well, at least now he knows that not even an Olympic medal can stop me from messing up in front of a full crowd. Honestly, it’s a great cure for the fear of messing up.

We finish our routine, and he pulls me into a hug like he’s been wanting to do it for all three of those endless minutes we spent on the ice together.

"We did it," he whispers into my hair, holding me tight as I bury my face in his warm sweatshirt, the one that makes him look like a tousled Korean high schooler. "Who cares if it was messy. The point is — we did it."

And judging by the applause and the mostly approving looks from the judges — we really did.

[spectralpixelsredone]

How L.O.V outsmarted an entire country of Heroes

The League of Villains (LOV), led by Tomura Shigaraki and including the Vanguard Action Squad, outsmarted an entire country of heroes in My Hero Academia through a combination of strategic planning, exploiting systemic weaknesses, and leveraging their unique quirks and motivations. Below, I’ll break down how they achieved this, blending canon reasons from the manga/anime with some speculative analysis based on their actions and the broader context of the story.

Canon Reasons for the LOV/Vanguard Action Squad’s Success

Exploitation of Hero Society’s Complacency:

Canon Evidence: The LOV capitalized on the overconfidence of hero society, particularly during the Training Camp Arc (Season 3, manga chapters 70–83). Heroes, especially those at U.A. High, underestimated the threat posed by the LOV, assuming their superior numbers and training would prevent any significant villainous activity. The Vanguard Action Squad’s attack on the training camp was a calculated move to disrupt this sense of security.

Details: The heroes were unprepared for a coordinated assault on a remote location, believing it was a low-risk environment. The LOV’s ability to infiltrate and execute a precise strike demonstrated their understanding of hero society’s reliance on predictable systems and schedules.

Strategic Planning and Intelligence Gathering:

Canon Evidence: The LOV, under Shigaraki’s leadership and All For One’s guidance, conducted thorough reconnaissance. They obtained critical information about U.A.’s training camp location and schedule, likely through spies or hacking (manga chapter 72). This allowed them to strike at a moment when the students were vulnerable and separated from professional heroes.

Details: The Vanguard Action Squad was specifically assembled with members whose quirks were suited for chaos and disruption (e.g., Dabi’s fire, Muscular’s strength, Moonfish’s blade-teeth). Their plan to kidnap Bakugo was a targeted strike to destabilize U.A. and exploit his volatile personality, showing a deep understanding of their targets.

Psychological Warfare and Misdirection:

Canon Evidence: Shigaraki’s leadership evolved to focus on sowing fear and division. The attack on the training camp wasn’t just about physical damage but also about undermining public trust in heroes (/or hero society (manga chapter 83). By targeting students and kidnapping Bakugo, they aimed to expose U.A.’s vulnerabilities, which would shake public confidence in heroes like All Might.

Details: The LOV’s actions were designed to create a spectacle. The media frenzy following the attack amplified their impact, as seen in news reports discussing the failure of heroes to protect their students (anime Season 3, Episode 14). This psychological blow was as critical as the physical one, aligning with Shigaraki’s goal to dismantle the status quo.

Diverse and Powerful Quirks:

Canon Evidence: The Vanguard Action Squad’s members had quirks that gave them a tactical edge. For example, Kurogiri’s Warp Gate quirk allowed for rapid infiltration and escape (manga chapter 73), bypassing hero defenses. Spinner and Magne’s quirks, combined with Dabi’s destructive flames, created chaos that overwhelmed the heroes and students.

Details: The LOV’s ability to coordinate their quirks effectively (e.g., Toga’s blood-based tracking, Twice’s cloning for distraction) made their small group disproportionately effective against a larger, less cohesive force.

All For One’s Backing:

Canon Evidence: The LOV’s operations were supported by All For One, who provided resources, Nomus (artificial super-powered beings), and strategic oversight (manga chapters 89–90). His influence gave the LOV access to advanced technology and quirks that heroes couldn’t anticipate.

Details: The Nomus deployed during the attack were a significant threat, distracting pro heroes like Vlad King and Aizawa, allowing the Vanguard to focus on their objective (kidnapping Bakugo). All For One’s long-term planning ensured the LOV had the tools to execute complex operations.

Speculative Analysis: How They Outsmarted the Heroes

Exploiting Systemic Weaknesses:

Hero society in My Hero Academia is heavily bureaucratic and reliant on a few top heroes like All Might. The LOV likely recognized that smaller, targeted attacks could expose these structural flaws. By hitting a remote training camp, they avoided direct confrontation with top-tier heroes while still achieving a high-impact outcome. This suggests a level of strategic foresight, possibly informed by All For One’s decades of experience in the underworld.

Shigaraki’s Growing Tactical Acumen:

While Shigaraki starts as an impulsive leader, his growth under All For One’s mentorship (manga chapters 68–70) shows him learning to think several steps ahead. His decision to target Bakugo specifically was a calculated move, possibly based on observing Bakugo’s behavior during the Sports Festival (manga chapter 44), where his aggression made him a potential recruit for the LOV’s ideology. This indicates Shigaraki’s ability to exploit psychological profiles, a skill that likely grew as he led more operations.

Small, Agile Team vs. Large, Bureaucratic System:

The Vanguard Action Squad’s small size allowed for flexibility and speed, contrasting with the heroes’ slower, more bureaucratic response. Heroes were spread thin across the country, and the LOV likely anticipated that mobilizing a large hero force to a remote area would take time, giving them a window to act. This speculative advantage mirrors guerrilla warfare tactics, where a smaller force uses surprise and mobility to outmaneuver a larger one.

Underestimation of Shigaraki’s Leadership:

Heroes initially viewed Shigaraki as a disorganized thug (e.g., All Might’s comments in manga chapter 11). This underestimation allowed the LOV to operate under the radar, building their capabilities without drawing full attention until it was too late. The heroes’ focus on All For One as the primary threat blinded them to Shigaraki’s growing competence, a miscalculation the LOV exploited.

Conclusion

The LOV and Vanguard Action Squad outsmarted hero society by exploiting complacency, conducting meticulous planning, using psychological warfare, leveraging powerful quirks, and benefiting from All For One’s resources. Their success stemmed from targeting vulnerabilities in hero society’s structure, using a small but effective team, and capitalizing on the element of surprise. Shigaraki’s evolving leadership and the LOV’s willingness to take bold risks allowed them to achieve outsized impact against a numerically superior but overconfident opponent.