#Finally this arc can begin I'm so hype

[genericpuff]

The Extended Mishandling of LO's S3 Midseason Finale Premiere

Alright, so I had mentioned leading up to the release of the newest LO episode that my feelings regarding LO returning were pretty "meh". Not hyped, but not completely back of mind either. Just sort of a weird calm before the storm type feeling that could go either way.

I'm glad I got to have that moment of calmness because good god, this episode was an absolute shitshow. And honestly, I'm not surprised, for several reasons:

Rachel has never been good at maintaining a buffer, even back at the start of the series she only ever had 2-3 episodes ready ahead of her schedule which is NOT an ideal buffer for an originals series.

Rachel has never been good at writing, she's very "draw first write later" and has stated as such in interviews that when she gets 'stuck' on what she's writing, she'll just start drawing and fit the pieces in later.

Four months is NOT enough time to both rest, attend massive conventions, and work on improving a project while also getting buffer episodes ready.

Because of the FP episodes remaining locked over the hiatus, technically Rachel only needed to have ONE episode ready upon return for the newest FP release, not multiple like she'd usually need like in the past during the S2 midseason hiatus or the season finale episodes which would unlock those FP releases like normal - so for all we know, she could have drawn this episode literally last week, especially when the promo material was so last minute. Frankly I think it was REALLY stupid for whoever it was who decided to keep these FP episodes locked (whether it was her or WT, it was more likely WT) but you can read all I have to say about that in my review of the midseason finale episodes.

All that's to say, no, there was never any guarantee Rachel was going to somehow "turn around" the ride we're currently on. I know that many of the critics were hoping for that to happen, but with the circumstances of the hiatus mixed with Rachel's bad habits of putting her best efforts into the procrastination projects that aren't her actual comic (ex. the few original pieces and LO sketches she put out during the hiatus) it just wasn't in the cards. This is where the comic is at and this is where it will remain until it's over.

I want to also point something out about this episode that was... really glaring to me.

As with all of these hiatus returns, LO got priority advertising in the first two banner slots and push notifications AND a popup ad within the app. This is unsurprising, Webtoons is still trying to milk this thing for what it's worth.

I know a lot of people are gonna focus on the art, or the fact that WT is continuing to shill LO, but I wanna point out the part that WT implemented specifically - "NEW SEASON".

This is literally just false. At best I'd like to think some intern just messed up and thought this was a new season, but it's literally not, the episode designation still says "S3". Note that the creators only design the banner art, the actual labels on top are put there by Webtoons.

But at worst, this feels like blatant lying to continue to hide the fact that LO is ending. Mind you, Rachel and Webtoons have still not put out official posts stating that this is the final arc. There is NOTHING from either of them to communicate to the audience that the comic is ending next year. It feels like they're trying to avoid the topic altogether out of fear of losing the fanbase they still have, rather than hyping up the comic's end for those who have stuck around to see how it all wraps up. And honestly, I wouldn't be surprised if this was the case, considering they're now trying to funnel the fanbase into Penguin/Inklore with new marketing deals and the whole Rachel Smythe Presents thing. They're trying to make this seem like the beginning of something "new" when it's really just a quiet shifting of management (Penguin House).

But all that aside, let's actually get into the episode. It's one episode after 4 months, which is not standard for LO's hiatuses, typically FP episodes release on schedule (meaning free readers start hiatuses 3 weeks after FP readers do), the only time this has been an exception has been with the 2 week breaks because the whole point of those was to build a buffer (which you can't do if you're going ahead and releasing the FP episodes anyways). For extended hiatuses like these, usually free readers still get their FP episodes, but that wasn't the case here. That means Rachel technically only needed one episode ready for the comic's return, and it shows. It really fucking shows.

FROM HERE ON OUT THERE WILL BE FASTPASS SPOILERS REGARDING EPISODE 254. DO NOT CONTINUE IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO BE SPOILED !!!

As per tradition, we get a title that means nothing at all. It just says what we already know.

Our collective husband Zeus is dying, no thanks to the poison cupcake fed to him by Apollo. For those who don't remember, Apollo had tricked Zeus into eating the cupcake by making him believe it was from Hebe. We are fully aware that it was Apollo who poisoned him. Remember that for later in this review.

Right off the bat we're off to a hilarious start, both with a cryptid appearance from Apollo in the background (lmao) who is, for some reason, ALREADY returning to the scene of the crime he just committed because... who knows at this point. Apollo and Psyche know it was Apollo at this point, I might add, but I have no clue why Apollo is actually returning to the scene of the crime when he has no idea Eros and Psyche know.

Moving on from that, can we talk about this hilarious dialogue?

"We have to call a doctor! Let's call Asclepius!"

"No, we can't trust him! Gosh darn it, why are we only bothering to think of ONE doctor in this universe where we've seen more than one doctor?? Guess Zeus is just gonna die! What a horribly contrived situation this is!"

And that's literally how I can best describe most of this episode. Contrived. There is a LOT of manufactured drama in this that makes ZERO sense even on a surface level.

And what do you mean exactly, Eros? "What a terrible system!" Is this supposed to be a joke? Lampshading? We've seen Persephone go to the gynecologist. There are non-god doctors who tend to gods all the time here.

Eros just doesn't seem to be that pressed over this, he sounds like Ned Flanders and that's NOT a good way to open up a scene like this... let alone an episode people have been waiting four months for.

Anyways, after a few pointless reaction panels (again remember I have to cut a lot of what I show here for Tumblr image limitations but I promise you, I'm keeping as much important stuff as I can in this, there's just THAT MUCH filler at this point), Eros and Psyche confront Apollo and he is... good god.

There is... so much to unpack here.

First of all, remember those theories about how Rachel was clearly trying to write Apollo as this "secret twist villain" the whole time but it doesn't work because Apollo is simultaneously written as both a 'conniving villain' and a massive dumbass at the same time?

Well, I finally have a more appropriate term for him. He's your average red pill redditor - someone who thinks he's smarter than everyone else when really all he does is sit on reddit all day using big words incorrectly in arguments he gets himself into with a bunch of equally-air-headed dumbasses.

"You can't possibly understand the nuances of the Olympian political system," Apollo said proudly, a man who had, ironically and obliviously, run for president in a monarchy. The union of kettle and pot is eternal.

He's the Slappable Jerk but instead of it being a painfully hilarious impression, it's just painful and hilarious for all the wrong reasons.

this is so stupid because it's 1.) Eros pointing out how obvious Apollo's plan was, despite Apollo acting smart two seconds ago with a goddess who, mind you, has been a goddess for ten years, and 2.) patricide isn't even intrinsically linked to politics, there's nothing 'political' about a guy trying to kill his dad except in, idk, a monarchy, which again, Apollo has spent ten years trying to rise to power in as a president which is a completely different form of government.

If I wanted to be really granular with this, I'd like to think Apollo is making some kind of point about the critics who call out LO's whack as fuck political system (especially in the trial arc) - as if he's saying "well you're just a stupid reader and this is fantasy where you don't understand exactly what political system we're using, so shut the fuck up you stupid twig" - but I don't think it's meant to be that deep. I think it's just Rachel trying to write a smart character and then failing at it because she, herself, is not a smart writer. And I'm really inclined to believe that more than the theory about this being some kind of meta-narrative about the critics because this entire plotline is contrived and stupid down to its core.

I did not cut anything out here, that's the pacing. Leto literally just appears out of nowhere and uh oh spaghettio's, she has Kassandra! Remember Leto? The character we were led to believe was truly "pulling the strings" until she disappeared from the story completely after she realized that Apollo and Persephone weren't a thing, even going so far as to call out her own son for being a fucking dumbass? Well, she's back and once again she's being involved as some kind of "double agent" in this whole thing, even though we literally haven't seen her since halfway through S2.

"Mm yes, you're so stupid, falling into my trap! Even though you had no reason to remember Kassandra anyways because she's literally a mortal woman you just met and you yourself have committed acts of violence against mortals without a shred of care! I'm so smart! My plan is all coming together!"

We've never seen Apollo do anything except cry and poop his pants, the closest he got to being "powerful" was his attempts to murder Daphne (who he seems to have forgotten about in this "master plan" of his) but ultimately he's literally just a piss ant baby and there's no reason to believe that he could somehow outmatch the God of Love who can literally manipulate people's emotions and states of mind with his arrows. But yeah sure go off, you're so powerful and smart.

The worst part is, I can't even buy this as the narrative trying to be like "see how manipulative and conniving he is?" because it's just silly. We've SEEN this man cry with his victim complex, we've seen him say and do the DUMBEST things that don't lend to any amount of "intelligence" he may have, it comes across less as him being "smart the whole time" and more as him trying to sound smart but ultimately sounding incredibly stupid. And I can't even immerse myself into it and buy that maybe that's the point, because it doesn't feel like the point, it just feels like inconsistent writing, he doesn't feel like a 'threat', he's just monologuing.

Bad art and Apollo literally just repeating what Leto already implied so this is a waste of the audience's time.

This is the funniest panel in the whole episode because I can't tell if Apollo is supposed to be in the background (for some reason, despite him literally being in front of Eros and Psyche two seconds ago) or if he's in the foreground and just REALLY small for some reason. This is so off-putting. And of course, it's just Apollo explaining what we're ALREADY SEEING ONSCREEN.

You see, in addition to this episode being contrived, it also talks down to its audience a LOT by explaining exactly what we're seeing onscreen. It's like Rachel saw the criticisms about her not including enough to depict what's actually going on in her head and so she thought the solution was to spoon feed information over pictures that are already doing the job of explaining what's going on. Rachel really doesn't know how to write and even when she tries to implement changes that reflect criticisms that have been made of her writing, she somehow makes things worse because she completely misses the point of what those criticisms are trying to get across.

Anyways, without even trying to resist (for some reason) Eros and Psyche get sentenced to horny jail.

They're now trapped in a basement that Leto somehow has in her home. How do we know that?

HAHAHA FUNNY LAMPSHADING SO FUNNNYYYYYYY

Leto claims that they shouldn't try to escape because the dungeon is "enchanted", but she doesn't even bother to explain what that means. So they literally don't bother trying. They don't try to call her bluff, they don't try to teleport out of there, they literally just go "well shoot", shrug their shoulders, and accept their fate. Just like with the whole "we can't trust the only doctor we bothered to think of" situation, Eros and Psyche are turning out to be some of the stupidest, lowest-effort characters in this comic who literally can't be bothered to try because that would require too much brain power.

Notice how much time we've spent on this and we haven't gotten back to where the cliffhanger of the last episode left off? Well buckle up because there's still more to cover.

So it turns out Hebe was still inside with her dad, in FULL VIEW of what was going on through glass which is somehow COMPLETELY soundproof, and when Apollo steps inside, she just has no idea what happened. She never bothered to even look outside to see what was going on with Eros and Psyche, she's just been sitting on the floor staring at Zeus' dead face for what was likely several minutes, unless Rachel is seriously trying to convince us that conversation and hostage negotiation from earlier only took 2 seconds. The timeline is such a mess at this point that characters basically freeze in place as soon as they're not the focus of the scene.

Apollo rushes inside, acting shocked over the situation, and when Hebe asks where Eros and Psyche are (again, she could have just looked out the window at any time), he's just like "dur idk they just left lol" which Hebe just... buys, I guess.

That's just Persephone but yellow. She's even missing her beauty mark.

See how Apollo put his hand on Zeus' chest/shoulder by the way?

Apparently, despite Mr. Smarter Than Everyone Else trying to pretend it wasn't him, he's able to discern that Zeus is dying from a toxic and rare poison just from touching him. He doesn't even really seem to use his powers, he just touches him and goes "welp he's dead i guess lol don't bother asking me how I know that".

But oh nooo remember that note from before? Well gasp Apollo's gonna use it to frame Hebe! In front of no one else at all!

Hebe of course says she didn't write it, but Apollo continues to try and frame her anyways, even though, again, there's no one else present here, and so it effectively just becomes the most absurd form of gaslighting I've ever seen.

Again, THERE IS NO ONE ELSE HERE IN THE SCENE. He's just trying to claim she did it to absolutely no one at all, in the hopes of... what exactly? That she'll just take the fall for something she knows she didn't do? That she'll somehow be convinced? It's not like Hebe has the same thing going on as Persephone where she has a 'wrathful dark side' he could pin it on, this is just a criminal who just robbed a building pointing at the first person they see and yelling "YOU DID IT!"

All I'm saying is that Apollo would be really bad at Among Us. He'd be the type of player to kill someone, hit the report button, then claim yellow did it which, even if he DID convince the rest of the team, would still get kicked anyways as soon as yellow was proven through the eject to not be the imp and everyone would go "okay cool so yellow wasn't the imp, that means obviously it's purple self-reporting." It's a trick that doesn't even work anymore because of how old it is. Hebe isn't a child here, she's an 18 year old woman who should be fully capable of raising an eyebrow and wondering why Apollo is this quick to accuse her - almost like he's trying to hide the fact that he did it.

But Hebe can't catch onto this, just like Eros and Psyche, she has to act stupid for the sake of the plot.

At first I thought maybe Rachel was trying to do some "whodunit" scenario, but that doesn't work here because we already know who did it. And while there are stories that exist like that that pull it off (ex. Knives Out) the problem with trying to do this the way Rachel did is that the person being framed has to have this thing called motive. The reason why Knives Out and Glass Onion work so well is because the person who was murdered (or conspired against) is someone who is being targeted by multiple people who could all be the murderer. It's quite literally called out in Glass Onion as a form of smart lampshading. "It's like putting a loaded gun on the table, and turning off the lights."

But it doesn't work here because Hebe does not have motive. If you're going to attempt to frame a murder on someone, it has to be someone who would have reasonable motive to commit that murder, even if they didn't actually commit it.

And who among Zeus' children has motive?

What about the war-mongering bloodthirsty god of war who has been regularly sentenced to time in the Mortal Realm to fight in wars in which he's been regularly injured?

What about the chaos-seeking wrathful goddess who would do it to get revenge on the parental figure who cast her aside, or even just for the fun of saying she did it?

Why try and pin it on Hebe, the doting daughter of Zeus who's only had a collective of maybe 20 panels in the entire comic?

But then I realized... it's not Knives Out, it's the fucking Lion King.

Which is just as contrived - if not more - than the assumption this was gonna be some attempt to frame Hebe. It's not. He's literally just trying to keep her from assuming it was him. He could have just as easily played dumb without calling attention to the note but he intentionally went out of his way to try and be Scar from The Lion King , while completely missing the point of why that scene worked in the original movie.

Scar wasn't trying to 'frame' Simba for Mufasa's murder. He was trying to hide the murder, while also attempting to get the only heir to the throne out of the picture, so he passed the guilt of the death onto Simba - a child who, unlike Hebe, wouldn't have the ability to rationalize or realize his uncle his a scumbag - who then ran away from home because he was too terrified to face his family for what happened, assuming that it was all his fault when it wasn't.

That's not how this is panning out here. Hebe is the now 18 year old daughter of Zeus, and not one of his only children. She doesn't even fit into the whole "sons overthrowing their fathers" prophecy like Aries would. Apollo is literally just being a big idiot here by saying "well I'm gonna give you a headstart to run away, because if you stay, I might hurt you" (which btw, should be MORE of a smoking gun that Apollo did it??)

And again, it's all so contrived so that the plot can move forward. "Well I'm going to frame you for this murder, but y'know, you should just leave, I'm not gonna try and press it further lmao"

Again, Apollo is a fucking idiot here, because he just attempted to frame someone who has NO MOTIVE to harm Zeus, to absolutely NO ONE at all who would side with him, only to let her go which would leave her to question why Apollo would try to accuse and harm her in the first place before considering other options. And through ALL this he claims he's the smart one, which I can't even be bothered to "love to hate" because it's written so poorly.

And really it all comes down to how everyone else behaves in relation to Apollo that makes it so stupid and unbelievable. Apollo, you're not smart just because all the characters around you are intentionally being written to be as stupid and non-confrontation as possible. If you can only write a smart villain by making everyone else stupid, you haven't written a smart villain, you've written a dumbass whose victory only happens due to contrived plot convenience. It's not even done well like in Glass Onion, it's just bad writing, full stop.

And who does he call to report this emergency? The satyr police? His son the doctor?

No.

The media. Literally just "hello, the media?? I need your best journalist here stat!"

I need you to understand, even if he were calling a tabloid magazine like The Weekly Nark, you don't just... call a journalist to report a murder. These are not the actions of someone who's trying to absolve himself of guilt, these are the actions of a complete dumbass trying to get news coverage of his trophy kill who would be better off just playing dumb instead of trying to play smart. Even Walter White wasn't this fucking stupid despite all the times he fell on his own sword, Apollo is literally just instigating suspicion towards himself for no reason at all. He's self-reporting so hard and worst of all, you can't even take any of this seriously because of how corny it is. There's no dramatic tension, no stakes, it's just a bunch of characters performing in a really bad stage play and reducing every conflict to "well I guess Zeus is just dead now because no one's bothering to make an effort to stop Apollo or ask questions lmao"

It's truly the epitome of "this plot wouldn't exist if characters would just talk to each other."

But finally, FINALLY we mention the thing this episode is named after, the transition point to Persephone.

Just like with the midseason finale episode, there's a lot to cover here, so I'm gonna get more into it in a part two post.

That said, you can see already this is the messiest, most contrived bullshit to ever wind up in LO. It's trying so hard to be smart and it just comes across as a bunch of toddlers in the world's worst stage play rendition of Clue. None of what was done here was in any way dramatic or tense, it's just a bunch of characters infodumping shit we already know, trying to set up new plot threads that don't make any sense, and allowing one another to get away with what they're doing because they don't bother to even try.

It's completely manufactured, contrived nonsense. It's not "smart", it's not "so dumb it's brilliant", it's just dumb.

[bubblesxo]

I love your fic!!! I fucking adore de-aged Bruce fics and Gotham!Bruce is such a fun way to go about it!! And oh, is there anything in particular you’re looking forward to writing with Bruce and everybody? Or anything you wanna share about the process? I’m super curious!!!

oh thank you so much!!! that means so much to me to hear <33 i'm really glad that you're enjoying the story! i agree, gotham!bruce is a really fun way to tackle the topic of bruce's youth.

i'm really excited to write more bonding between bruce and his kids, as well as some alfred and jim scenes coming up!! (of course, harvey will be making another appearance, don't worry! he's just basically in dix's position in gotham canon here---very knowledgeable, very seasoned, but a bit older at this point. he's happily retired with a wife, and is distinctly spending it away from gotham XD) this fic was made with family relationships in mind, so i'm excited for when bruce finally begins to trust them a bit and starts to care about them more. (as a sneak peak for the next chapter, i'll say now that damian makes an appearance very soon!)

speaking of alfred, i really need to lore drop about him more coming up.

anyway, one of my favorite things ever to include in the fic is bruce random lore-dropping. like, his family has NO IDEA about most of the stuff he casually says, it's just such good comedy fuel for me XD i need some comedy to offset the trauma that all of the characters have, after all!

i have some plot points coming up that i am so so so excited to write!!! more short-term, i have a character coming up that's been mentioned a few times in-fic already as a bit of foreshadowing. he's only in like one chapter atm but miiightt make an appearance later. *wink wink*

more middle-term, there's an arc coming up soon that is gonna be both angst and comedy gold. it includes a character who has been mentioned by name but not discussed haha. he's around for a while (meaning at least a few chapters as a very very prominent character and probably a few as more of a background character) and i know that people are probably gonna be super hype when i introduce him, especially from the time period i'm taking him from!!

finally, i have an important long-term plotline that's going to go on in the background for most of the fic. i was thinking about writing it in a bit more blatantly in about 4 chapters, but now looking at all of this written down, i think i'll shove that chapter into the next round and write something a bit more foreshadowy for now and less obvious. i don't wanna give the plot away too soon, after all! (if you try, you can probably guess the character i'm referring to here, though probably not his name...)

i'm thinking of doing a special babs chapter coming up to talk about her whole parentage thing in this ficverse, too! do you think that would be interesting to anyone? LOL

i also am going to start tying selina in more often in the future, which is going to be a ton of fun!! and looking back on all of this, i'm starting to worry about just *how long* this fic is going to be XD but hey, whatever! i'll go with my muse.

looking back on what i wrote, this seems to be suuuuper vague, and i'm sorry about that!! but mid-term and long-term ones are a bit of a surprise and a mystery, respectively, and i don't want to spoil the fun too much XD

thank you so much for the ask!! i love talking about things on here, especially my fic! feel free to send more asks if you ever feel like it<33 and of course thank you so much for reading and enjoying my fic !!<33

[yumeka-sxf]

A chronological analysis on Twilight and Yor - Season 1 Wrap-Up

*This is a wrap-up post for my Twiyor analysis series. If you missed the Introduction/Part 1, click here*

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As some of you may know, I'm fairly new to the SxF fandom, having only started watching the anime in October of last year. But it didn't take long for me to become hyperfixated enough to binge the manga, start my own blog, and develop ideas for analysis posts.

I've always enjoyed meta writing for my favorite fandoms, and SxF is definitely one of those! While I like many things about the story and characters, the Forgers overall, especially Twiyor, are my favorite thing about it, so I wanted to focus my first analysis posts on them. During my early months in the fandom, I found lots of good analyses and was impressed by the amount of talented fan writers out there. But rather than write random stand-alone posts, I wanted to express all my thoughts in chronological order. I eventually came up with the idea for this post series in December of last year, and after spending a solid month of writing during most of my free time, I finally felt I had enough to begin posting on a weekly basis.

Now that I've come to the end of the season 1 posts, I want to express my sincerest thanks to everyone who read them, especially those who left nice comments and reblogs. Even for those of you who only left likes, I appreciate it! I pay attention to the notes on my blog and it always makes my day to see the same people interacting with each new post every week. It's especially gratifying when I see a new person come along and leave a like on each post in order, one after another! In the many fandoms I've been in over the years, I always write for myself and my own enjoyment first, regardless of whether other people will enjoy my writing too. But it's nice to know that other people can also appreciate how I interpret things.

So here's what's going to happen with the post series going forward…

Since I want to continue keeping the posts as manga spoiler-free as possible, I won't start releasing the next batch of posts until season 2 airs (it's scheduled to air in October). I'll most likely release part 19 and onward towards the middle or end of season 2's run. I already have a good idea of what manga chapters will be adapted and will get them queued up beforehand.

On that note, I did end up having to tag a few of the season 1 posts for manga spoilers. I tried to avoid it as much as possible; I only discussed manga spoilers if I felt not doing so would be a disservice to my analysis. However, once season 2 airs, all but part 18 should be safe for anime-only fans! (I'll go back to those posts and remove the spoiler tags)

At some point during or slightly before season 2's airing, I plan to reblog all of my Twiyor analysis posts in order. If I can get the timing right, I hope to reblog part 18 (the last season 1 post) right before my start date for the first season 2 post. I'll probably do the reblogs just a few days apart before doing weekly releases again when I get to the new posts (for the reblogs, I'll be using the hashtag "#reblog for season 2 hype")

I don't have any other big analysis posts planned until then, with one exception…I do plan to write a post about Anya. I originally wanted to include her in the chronological series, but since her character arc is simpler and more straight-forward compared to Twilight's and Yor's, I didn't have nearly as much to say about her and figured it'd be best to talk about her in a separate post. Not sure when I'll release that post but should be sometime before season 2 as well.

Guess that's all for now! Thank you again to everyone who read this post series and I look forward to more compelling discussions in season 2!

[tokiro07]

Undead Unluck ch.218 thoughts

[We Have a Title]

(Contents: Immediate reactions - excitement, character analysis - Ruin; thematic analysis - unity; speculation - Ruin/arc progression)

Hype

I think I've made it clear that I'm not a fan of hype. I don't like when expectations are constantly being built up and blown out of proportion, as that can only lead to disappointment. I much prefer a pleasant surprise where I can be proportionally excited with what's happening in the moment rather than allowing the pressure to build beyond what can be reasonably maintained

UU doesn't usually have a spoiler problem, at least not in my personal circles, so I was surprised that there was someone passing around leaks for this chapter. I managed to avoid them, and boy am I glad I did, cus this was the hypest god damn chapter in the whole run so far

Ruin's comeback, Fuuko's brutal display, and of course, Andy's return! I've said a thousand times that Tozuka is a master of iconic panel composition, and not only were there a ton of great panels here, but that final two-pager was just absolutely sick!

Fuuko's hair fluttering in the wind, Andy's blazing descent from the sun, the symbol of Fuuko's Unluck pinned to Ruin's back by the symbol of Juiz's Unjustice, the Sun and Moon both positioned at the top of the page as if watching on as everything unfolds. This is the end of an era and the beginning of a new one - no longer is Fuuko the lone leader of the Union, her right hand is returning to usher in the final phase, and everyone is bearing witness, the heavens themselves shining a spotlight on this momentous occasion

I kid you not, I was shaking when I realized what Fuuko was doing, and it took everything I had not to scream and jump with excitement when Fuuko dropped what will no doubt become her most iconic line in the series (my wife was still asleep, I didn't want to wake her). If I'd seen any spoilers, my realtime reaction would have been split up between knowing what happens out of context and then seeing it in context, and neither would have been nearly as fun, so I'm so glad I got to have the experience I did

Ruin

Onto the chapter itself, I definitely wasn't expecting to see Ruin this soon. I thought for sure we'd get a breather chapter or two to hang out with Tatiana, but I think Ruin is a character we can make an exception for

The first time Ruin showed up during the falling action of an arc, it felt a little like drama for drama's sake at first; I got over it pretty quickly, since it was clearly being used as a narrative device for transitioning into the next phase, but I could understand if people felt like a new character being introduced as a game changer is a bit of an asspull

This time, though, Ruin doing that is a callback to his introduction, an established modus operandi for the character to serve as an explicit agent of the narrative towards...well, ruin. Frankly I would have been disappointed if he'd come back any other way, as this way allows us to see the difference in how the Union responds to him

Before, no one saw him coming, and Fuuko got killed for it. Now, while no one was "ready" for him, Fuuko was able to react in time to make sure that no one died and then even got to retaliate in a way that demonstrated shocking level-headedness in the face of her own killer. Whereas Andy struck in a blind rage without any concern for what kind of ability Ruin might have, Fuuko immediately and brutally removed his head with the intention of inhibiting his regeneration. She was wrong, of course, but she made a conscious effort to win the fight rather than simply reacting on instinct as Andy did

While Chikara and Gina did end up getting hurt, they're not dead and likely not permanently wounded either (corneal damage is perfectly healable, it's retinal damage we'd need to worry about). Ruin is still very much a credible threat, but the Union of today is not the Union of yesterday, and they're definitely fit to overcome the so-called King of Negators

Ruin's Redesign

That said, I am left to wonder if the Ruin of today is the one of yesterday. His design has undergone some interesting changes, all of which completely incongruent with his own ability

Not only is his hair shorter, it's also lost color on one side, and the scar over his left eye has started to spread down his torso and arm, almost like it's metastisizing. Unruin's name implies it's supposed to keep its user perfect and pristine, but Ruin himself has only gotten worse for ware over the course of the loop. I'm wondering if this is a side effect of Unruin, like the more he uses it the more corrupt his body becomes, and it isn't negated by Unruin specifically because it's the cost of the ability and therefore the proper judgment of God or something

The fact that his hair has started to lose color further cements the parallels between him and Andy. Previously he just had the scar over the same eye, but now his hair has become short and slicked back, split between black and white while his scar creates a delineation in his skin tone, not unlike when Andy's personality reemerged from his Remember wound when Victor was in control of their body. The scar moving down the left side of his body also means it now covers the areas of Andy's 1985 and DEAD END tattoos, suggesting that perhaps his personal journey that we haven't been privy to is a parallel to Andy's after waking up from his own grave

Speaking of tattoos...I haven't seen anyone mention that Ruin is missing his Sun tattoo. What this means is unclear, but if I had to guess, it's a sign that Ruin does not currently occupy the role of Regulator. He hasn't been "chosen" by God yet, which I think suggests that this isn't L100 Ruin crossing between loops, it's L101 Ruin, whose life hasn't quite taken the same path as it did before. This might even explain his body - L100 Ruin told us he was sickly, so perhaps L101 Ruin simply got Unruin later this time around. Perhaps that scar is the deterioration of his body from his illness prior to gaining Unruin, and therefore either outside of the ability's purview or, again, seen as God's will and therefore not an imperfection

Ruin's fighting style also seems to be a bit different, as not only does he not seem to be making blood claws or moving through shadows, he also removed his shirt (which was UMA Blood last time) without turning it into some kind of construct first, suggesting that he doesn't have Blood or Shadow with him this time around. Instead, he seems to be fighting more like Andy, using his Soul to fire his own blood as a weapon, as evidenced by the fact that his fingernails were bleeding after attacking the Union

It's definitely possible that I'm misinterpreting it, but I have to imagine that this is a new Ruin being manipulated by Soul rather than the same Ruin going about business as usual. We'll most likely get that answered for us next week, so I wanted to get my speculations out of the way now

Ruin's Future

So if Ruin doesn't have his UMA friends with him and isn't a Regulator, what does that mean for his role going forward?

I don't think any of you will be surprised to hear that my thinking is that he's going to join the Union, as I've been speculating that for a long time and other folks have definitely followed suit since. I am saddened by the idea that he won't have his companions with him, but they could easily serve as an upgrade/character moment for him later, so I'll take it for now

The main crux of my thinking right now is that Ruin is clearly poised to undergo a character arc. As I said, he's starting to resemble Andy more and more and Victor less and less, suggesting that he's going to transition from being the one Negator that serves God and become the final Negator that opposes him

If the Union is a collective of the oppressed rising up against their oppressor, then Ruin is a bootlicker who fell for the propaganda that there was nothing he could do to resist the powers that be and joined them out of a sense of learned helplessness. The idea that Tozuka or Fuuko would see someone so brainwashed that they embrace their own enslavement and just leave them to blissfully suffer their fate runs pretty antithetical to the story we've been told so far, so I think it's far more likely that the coming chapters will be used a way to change Ruin's mind and teach him that he has the agency to live for himself and not live as the cultish servitude of a God he's never met and who clearly is willing to sacrifice him at a moment's notice

When Fuuko said there was still one member left to recruit, obviously she meant Andy, but the timing of that statement immediately preceding her noticing Ruin seems quite deliberate. Andy isn't present, sure, but for all intents and purposes, he's already part of the Union. He doesn't need to be recruited, just retrieved, and that could feasibly happen at any time since Andy could probably just decide to come back on his own. Instead, Ruin is the only Negator that still needs to be shown which side is correct, so while Fuuko may not know it, she was most likely talking about him, not Andy

Even her line about completing the Union with Andy's return can be left open to interpretation, as the act of his returning could either complete the Union with his arrival or with his help in proving the lie that Ruin believes in to be wrong

Of course, I don't think that can happen with just Andy showing up; rather, I think that the most recent additions of Tatiana and Kururu ideally would play a part to help flesh out their inclusions, though I wouldn't object to Julia getting Unjustice here. If absolutely nothing else, I'm banking on Chikara using Unmove, eyes or no eyes. What better time to learn how to use his soul to overcome his weaknesses than when he literally doesn't have eyes?

Unity

Whoever participates in fighting Ruin, I'm kind of hoping it ends up being a Summer or a Sick situation, where the group is so well coordinated that they basically just combo Ruin to hell and back. While the alternative of either Andy soloing Ruin or Andy and Fuuko tag-teaming him would be sick as hell, it wouldn't do much to further the themes of unity overcoming oppression, so it'd be much better for everyone involved to get to participate

Like I said before, the Union serves as a symbol of overcoming oppression through unification, so we can't have one or two members carrying everyone else - they all need to contribute to the whole, at least in some small way. After all, that's what Soul is afraid of, the Union having enough members to overcome anything that's thrown at them

Given the current political climate, Fuuko's retort to Ruin's claim that humanity has no hope of beating God struck a chord with me.

"It's the opposite. They're afraid of the Union being complete. The Ten Superior Rules normally only intervene during Quests. The mere fact that they've sent you here as an assassin is proof that they're panicking."

Union-busting, voter suppression, gerrymandering; those in power make a concerted effort to ensure that the masses believe that opposition is useless by removing every means of opposition available to them, but the message it should send is actually the reverse. Why are they taking away the means of opposition if opposition is useless? If it wouldn't work, why do they care? Why not let us struggle in vain until we learn on our own that it's pointless to try, that we're wasting our time?

Because we're not wasting our time. Our struggles may seem pointless, taking years and years, generation after generation, but change is inevitable. A stone is not split in two by the final blow, but the hundred that had gone before. So long as humanity perseveres, we move ever closer to happiness, even if the path there is arduous

Every loop, the Union has managed to hold back Sun from destroying Ark. And yet, the Regulators were new to Juiz in the 100th. Sun's most direct agents, with the ability to permanently remove players from the game, only became a problem at the end. Why? Because the Union isn't the only one running out of time

If Sun managed to destroy Ark even once in the last 100 loops, the game would be over, just as it would be if Juiz had managed to kill Sun, but neither of them have succeeded. Which is to say, both sides have reason to be desperate, to be feeling the pressure now. And between the two, only one has been getting stronger, by amassing more allies

Meanwhile, Soul's the only one who seems to think of his team as friends. He mourned the loss of Beast and Language, he offered to keep major enemies alive for the sake of Change and War's whims, and he tried to enable his entire team to escape Andy's defenses by rallying them to work together. The rest of the Master Rules, though?

Infighting for who gets which seat, abandoning Soul when he was trying to benefit everyone, insisting on taking glory for themselves. Everything that God designed the Roundtable system to do to the Union, it ended up doing to the Master Rules instead; it divided them, when it should have unified them

Just like Ruin is a demonstration of the Negators falling for God's propaganda, the Master Rules are a demonstration of the Union falling prey to the rigged system. Fortunately, the Union are Negators; the Rules were never going to be a problem for them in the first place, now were they?

Soul

Of course, since Soul is the only one to actually be trying to operate as a team player, naturally he's taken all of this into account already. Sure, the Union's about to be complete, but we all saw him smiling as Andy finally left his post

Soul's plan was never to have Ruin kill off the Union, though it would have been nice if he had; no, his plan was to get Andy's crispy, bare ass off of his goddamn house!

With Ruin attacking, Andy is a must for fending him off, so Fuuko was forced to bring him back. Now that he's gone, the Master Rules aren't restricted by his soul, and can leave the Master Room whenever they please (though they may still be restricted to acting during Quests, it's somewhat unclear). What this means that while the Union is complete, so too is their opposition

Really that's the perfect scenario, though. The Union has to beat back all of the Master Rules sooner or later anyway, so why not just make it a battle royale, huh? A bit more of a traditional shonen battle format, like with the fight against Under during the Spring Arc. And I'm willing to bet Fuuko considered that when deciding to bring back Andy

Speculation

With Andy's return and the Master Rules set free, we're just about to enter what I presume to be the penultimate phase of the story, as all that will be left after defeating the MRs is to face the Gods. I don't know how Tozuka plans to pace this, whether it's going to be a free-for-all like I said or if the MRs are going to have individual arcs with some breather chapters in between, but it's clear that we're moving into the endgame

Personally, I'm hoping for the latter. I shudder to think that that brief moment of Tatiana looking at Chikara's photo of her is the last bit of downtime we'll get before the epilogue, but it's definitely possible. After all, after Spring we had the Final Cherry Blossom Viewing, and then suddenly we were dealing with Revolution and Ragnarok. If we're going to have another high-tension, no-breaks stretch like that, Ruin's return is the most appropriate time for it

That said, I wouldn't hate it. That was a super exciting time, and some of the best story beats in the whole series came up during that storyline, so I have faith Tozuka can handle it just fine. I just want to see some more chill moments, y'know? Especially since Andy's coming back! No one knows him yet! We need him to reestablish his dynamics with everyone!

I want him to be happy to see everyone! I want memories to stir in Yusai's soul of a love long lost! I want Gina to see what her past self saw and angle for a triad with Fuuko! I want Julia to see Victor in Andy and form a bond with him as an altered soul!

Rip, Billy, Shen, Feng, Nico, hell even Void - there's so many opportunities for resolving rivalries and grudges, I need Tozuka to give us at least a couple of them before we hurtle into the endgame and no one has time to say anything fun to each other ever again!

But I suppose I'm looking a little too far ahead. We still need to deal with Ruin right now, and after that we should be seeing how everyone reacts to Remember. Hm, I wonder if maybe we're going to have an entire Remember Arc, actually, like a macro-version of Gina going into Fuuko's book and meeting her past self? I'm not gonna hold my breath for that, but that'd be a neat way to extend the runtime while also finding a perfect excuse to get some more characterization for everyone

Until next time, let's enjoy life!

[watertribe-enya]

ygo5dsmonth/Week 2024 Day 4 - iDuel

Since the prompt is music, I thought we could talk about the visuals in the 5D's openings maybe? So here are my favorite parts, and some things I noticed in general

Opening 1 Kizuna

The beginning with the Signers, Godwin and the dragon marks looks super cool. Too bad I don't like the music that goes along with it, haha. A little Jack and Yusei heavy, but it's alright, at least the side characters get time to shine too

Opening 2 Last Train

It's soooo good, a like practically everything here. The new characters and monsters get presented well, and everyone has some solid screen presence. The coolest parts are the view of the Dark Signers in their lair, Kiryu appearing on his D-Wheel, and the Signers at the end (the Dark Signers look cooler though, sorry fellas)

Only thing that bothers me is how Godwin shows up so little in the opening, he's (barely) more in the ending ffs, and he's the final villain of this arc. I know that was a twisted plot twist and I'm the only one who cares, but still

Opening 3 Freedom

Phew, the opening wastes no time to tell you that this is the Yusei/Jack/Crow show now, Rua, Ruka and Aki get into the back right now! And if you're focusing so heavily on the boys at least let them do something other than standing/driving casually, you're not really hyping me up like this OP. Fun fact: this was the first japanese opeining the german dub decided to leave in, after they started dubbing the 4kids version and did their own synchro

Sherry's face looks fuckin weird in this

Why should I care about the stupid WRGP (You're a grand prick!) again? Sigh, tournaments for the sole sake of getting better at something work better before you save the world from certain doom (but that's a writing problem not an opening problem)

The Majestic/Savior dragons look cool at least, and I like that this sequence kinda mirrors the dragons from Last Train, just in their evolved forms

Opening 4 Believe in Nexus

The villains get to look cool for a hot minute, damn. Although Lucciano is the only one with rollerblades, so him sliding and everything makes sense. The other two...are robots and ignore how uncomfortable this should be

Sherry too? They must feel really sorry for having to remove her from the plot

Ally of Justice monsters, so scary! Isn't that the archetype that only ever had one good monster, a generic synchro? But of course everyone has to be dumbass in this arc and plays light monsters, which Ally of Justice is strong against

Opening 5 Road to Tomorrow-Going My Way!!

This is intense as you can see on the two exclamation marks in the title. At long last the other Signers get to be something other than background filler. Also it's so fuckin funny how Yusei and Crow roll out all their Synchros, even those they don't use anymore

and meanwhile Jack...

I refuse to play anything besides Red Demon's Dragon!!!

Jack: Man, I'm sure gonna miss to have someone to stand on rooftops with, once Arc V rolls arround

@ygo5dsmonth-week

[genericnam]

I haven't made a character study in ages, so I think I'm gonna do that and more, by discussing every single villain from my favorite piece of Anime/TV show in general: Digimon Adventure (01)

This is going to be pretty long, so look under the cut.

Digimon Adventure is a flawed show with relatively choppy, repetitive animation, too short fight scenes, and a generally poor soundtrack inn the Dub (looking at you, Hey Digimon!), but I adore it for the characters and story. Digimon tells a tale of trauma, hope, the effects of loss and grief on children, and what it means to be brave, and the villains that push the plot forward and reflect all of this are some of my favorite villains and characters of all time. So I'm going to break them down now, in mostly chronological order (I'll be using Dub names and info since that what I grew up on and have always used, sorry if that offends you for some reason)

Villain number 1: Ogremon

Ogremon appears pretty early in the first arc as a recurring enemy and baddy. He serves as the rival and foil to the character of Leomon. Leomon gets hyped up by the main characters as the strongest active good guy on File Island, and if Ogremon is his equal, that makes Ogremon automatically intimidating.

However, Ogremon is dumb. He's easy to trick, and not too strategic, but he is full of willpower and fighting spirit, allowing him to tail the Digidestined across the entire island pretty ceaselessly. But that isn't for no reason, as Ogremon begins to work for someone pretty quick into his introduction... Devimon.

What makes Devimon intimidating is his sheer presence, the respect he demands. The entire arc up until his introduction, every foe they battled (other than Ogremon), had been animalistic, or a good person at heart. Devimon himself is pure evil, he has no redeeming qualities, no light in his soul or kindness in his heart.

Devimon uses his Black Gears and Hand of Evil to brainwash and torture countless digimon across File Island, and his gears are so spread through the island that he can control the very land itself.

Unlike Ogremon, who is gullible and somewhat cowardly, Devimon is a cunning monster. Devimon tricks and manipulates the Digitdestined, brainwashes Leomon twice, and easily beats all of their Digimon when they finally fight him.

The only reason Devimon lost is because of the way Angemon fights. As revealed in 02, the Hand of Fate's power increases the more evil your opponent is, and Devimon is just so pure evil that it was a oneshot.

While Ogremon was there as a brute force enemy, Devimon is the first of many insurmountable terrors that really shows the Digidestined how small they really are in the grand scheme of things...

Moving on to one of my favorite characters of all time, and the second arc villain: Etemon!

Etemon is goofy, that much is never hidden. He's a monkey that does an Elvis impression and rides around in a trailer performing music for his bumbling minions, but Etemon serves as a lesson that not every dangerous foe is so obviously dangerous. Etemon has a monopoly of the Desert of Server thanks to his Dark Network.

The Digital World uses a lot of crossovers from the real internet, and the Dark Network seems to be an embodiment of THE Dark Web. And Etemon controls it. The Dark Network allows Etemon to see just about anywhere and to take away the power that the Digidestined rely upon to survive: their digivolution.

Etemon is seemingly average on his own, but his true power comes in his coordination. Etemon's army is spread out, but it is powerful, and he can arrive just about anywhere with great speed thanks to how he sees everything there is to see. Piximon's hidden forest is the only place Etemon doesn't really have eyes.

Etemon serves as the mirror foil to Tai. While Tai is the Digidestined of Courage, Etemon represents hubris and arrogance. This leads Etemon to push a lot of Tai's character arc into place.

Now, once the Digidestined infiltrate Etemon's pyramid and get tricked by Datamon, Etemon shows up, and all seems lost. Datamon was the only digimon who was even close to Etemon's level, and he goes down pretty quick, but it's what Datamon does that really gives Etemon all of his best clout. Datamon fills the Dark Network with viruses that will make it destroy and consume everything they touch, before dropping himself and Etemon into it.

This seems to beat him, but NO. Etemon is too AMAZING to go out like a chump (or at least, that's what he thinks). Etemon bends the Dark Network to his will and instead fuses with it, becoming Etemon Chaos Mode

When Etemon is finally defeated, his sheer power rips a whole in reality that sends Tai and Agumon back to Earth, leading to the whole reason DemiDevimon is able to sew chaos amongst the others. But at least Etemon's gone for good, right?

Anyways, Etemon looks and acts goofy, but that's because he's strong enough that he has nothing to fear in the slightest!

Next up is DemiDevimon!

DemiDevimon isn't strong, or intimidating in the slightest. In fact, he's rather bumbling, but what DemiDevimon is good at is making other people better. Out of all the characters in the Digidestined, DemiDevimon is a major player in the arcs of Sora, T.K., Izzy, and to a lesser extent, Mimi and Matt. DemiDevimon doesn't have a whole lot going for himself, but he excells at making others look good, such as his boss...

Say hello to Myotismon...

Myotismon is THE strongest Digimon in the world at the time of his introdction. Other characters eventually become stronger, but before Megas get involved, no one was better than Myotismon. He was part of the exclusive club of characters who got TWO signature moves, which include his Crimson Lightning and Grizzly Wing.

Myotismon is unique from other villains in just how well put together his plan and army is. Devimon had Ogremon and mind control, and Etemon has a good group of lackeys, Myotismon has a veritable army with enough firepower to conquer the entire city and kidnap 99.9% of its inhabitants within days.

What makes him even more fearsome is his personal feats. Myotismon is the character who really steps up the tone, killing several of his own minions on screen when they begin to turn on him or fail. But perhaps his greatest feat is that he got Gatomon to work for him.

Gatomon is a Digidestined Digimon, and the embodiement of LIGHT itself. Throughout the series, Light has regularly been shown to be the second strongest of all the elements, only behind Hope. Myotismon was powerful enough, EVIL enough that he sucessfully tortured the embodiement of all Light into being his right hand woman.

And when every member of the Digidestined team up to beat him, Myotismon reveals that he's done all of this in a weaker host, and he reveals his TRUE form: Venommyotismon.

Venommyotismon is a Kaiju, and the first Mega level digimon in the series. He can very reasonably be argued to be the 3rd or 4th strongest Digimon in the entire show, depending on how you think he'd do against characters like MagnaAngemon and Piedmon. To beat him, the Digidestined had to activate the prophecy in order to unlock their own Megas, and it took a 2 on 1 for Venommyotismon to finally go down. This undead vampire king really just was That Guy.

And yet, he's not the strongest villain in the series...

Moving on, we have the Dark Masters!

The Dark Masters consist of four Digimon:

MetalSeadramon

Puppetmon

Machinedramon

and their leader, Piedmon.

The Dark Masters took over the entire digital world while the Digidestined were off fighting Myotismon, and they tore reality to pieces, reshaping the entire world into Spiral Mountain, a giant mountain of four zones, each ruled by one Dark Master, with their castle sitting on the peak.

The Dark Masters are the first digimon to use the power of teamwork in battle, and it really shows. They mop the floor with the Digidestined, and if not for Piximon's sacrifice, that would have been the end of the series. The Dark Masters arc is brutal, and with every member the heroes beat, it costs the lives of more and more of their friends. Sukamon, ShogunGekomon, Chuumon, Piximon, Whamon, the Numemon, they and many others were all victims of the Dark Masters.

The digidestined are only capable of beating individual members one at a time. MetalSeadramon gets beat, then Puppetmon, and then Machinedramon, until only Piedmon remains.

And yet, Piedmon still wins. He defeats every single Digimon the heroes have, including their Megas. And he turns them into keychains that he wears on his belt.

What finally puts down Piedmon is the power of the strongest crest unlocking its true potential. Hope. The embodiement of Hope itself, MagnaAngemon appears, and sends Piedmon through the Gate of Destiny, a portal to oblivion itself. NOTHING goes through that gate and survives. That is the only way that he could be defeated.

And yet, he is still not the strongest...

But we'll get to the final villain later, first... IT'S ETEMON'S COMEBACK TOUR, BABY!

Oh, you thought he was gone!? NO! During the mini-arc where the Digidestined are battling Puppetmon, it is revealed that within the afterlife, Etemon has been putting himself back together molecule by molecule. Etemon is so willful, and so confidant, that he reversed his own death.

Etemon fuses with his Dark Network fully, becoming MetalEtemon, a being capable of rivaling Puppetmon in power. MetalEtemon doesn't stay alive for too long, but in his short few episodes, he kills SaberLeomon with relative ease and sends Ogremon into his entire character arc. Etemon decided that dying twice still wasn't good enough, and he cheated death for the sole petty purpose of traumatizing his enemies more.

But now, let's get to the final boss...

This is Apocalymon. Apocalymon is the anit-thesis to EVERYTHING the digidestined are. While the heroes represent Courage, Friendship, Love, Knowledge, Reliability, Sincerity, Light and Hope; Apocalymon is Fear, Paranoia, Hate, Misinformation, Betrayal, Lies, Darkness and Apathy incarnate. He is made of the souls of every Digimon who died in the process of Digivolution, which means he is made of everything that the Digidestined relied upon to win.

Apocalymon created the big bads of every single arc on his own. Devimon, Etemon, Myotismon, the Dark Masters, they are all his creations. He is the ultimate darkness, so hateful and full of so much pure misery that he can do nothing except wish for the end of all life.

And he wins. Not in the Piedmon way where he beats almost everyone, no. Apocalymon KILLS every one of the digidestined and their digimon. He rends them apart, splits their molecules and data into nothing.

The only reason he didn't win right then and there is because of MetalEtemon. MetalEtemon's creation was foreshadowing, a sign that with enough willpower, you can cheat death. And that's just what the Digidestined do. With the power of friendship, they put themselves back together and reform their bodies, starting the fight against Apocalymon anew.

But they still don't beat him.

They can only fight Apocalymon to a draw, and he will not let that stand. Apocalymon unleashes his true ultimate ability: his self destruct sequence. Apocalymon possesses enough power that when he self destructs, the explosion will destroy TWO DIMENSIONS in the process, both Earth and the Digital World. If not for the Digivices containing the explosion, he would have gotten the last laugh.

Digimon Adventure is unique in that, out of every Digimon in the series, the VILLAIN is the strongest. Even MagnaAngemon in second place is nowhere even close to Apocalymon's level.

Apocalymon is the death of hope, the end of light, he is everything that has suffered brought to life, and he could only be defeated when he allowed himself to die.

Every villain represented something. Ogremon was the first showing of a threat that cannot be reasoned with. Devimon is the first brush with the harsh reality of the real world. Etemon shows that overconfidence will kill you. DemiDevimon shows that even people who seem like no threat can still sew the seeds of your downfall. Myotismon is the all too real chance that no matter what you do, some people will always seem to be stronger. The Dark Masters are a corruption of what can be achieved by working together. And Apocalymon? Apocalymon is the END. No matter how strong you are or how hard you work, there are foes who you cannot beat, and that you can only hope to cause their downfall. Apocalymon is the hopelessness that has condemed billions of souls, the misery and rage that will kill billions more. Apocalymon is nothing but the embodiement of everything that has ever caused sorrow... And that is something that cannot be beaten.

[theographos]

Have you heard of Inazuma ?

Ahhh Inazuma... Land of eternity, who was mainly inspired by Japan and its culture.

I play the game since 2020, and I can say that Inazuma was a pretty big deal when it got out. First of all, it was the first big region that we were introduced to since the beginning of the game. Yes there was Liyue and Mondstadt, but they came with the game so... No real reason to get hyped about them.

It was also a region who got talked about a lot, like I remember that most of the Youtubers I was watching at the time were sponsorized by Hoyoverse to talk about it's region. And just the fact that it was based on japan made it even popular on the internet. What I want to say by that is that it was of course a trap for all of the weebs to fall into.

A good trap really, the region had a lot of new content, a bunch of really good characters like Arataki Itto (my lovely main) and the final result is just so pretty.

It was a lovely gift, made with the finest wrap and the biggest promises towards the players of the game. And when they all got rid of that wrap to actually get into the plot content of Inazuma, they (and me included) were delighted to see a plot line full of junk.

So a few disclaimers before we dive into why Inazuma's archon quest was a mess :

I am not blaming anyone for liking Inazuma. Just because you like something doesn't mean it's flawless, so don't come at me for that. I have no say over what anyone likes or dislikes as long as it's not illegal or obviously endangering someone's mental or physical health. And liking a region in Genshin Impact is none of that, so don't see any slander on any character of the game. I'm pointing fingers at the writers behind the region and most importantly Hoyoverse itself.

I will also criticize how they used Raiden Shogun's character quest to make most of the evolution of Inazuma. A character quest is not accessible by people under the level of 40, so there is no real reason as to why they did that. It just makes the main plot less accessible to the main players, and so I don't consider what happens in the Raiden Shogun's character quest as a valid part of the main plot line.

There will contain spoilers about Sumeru's archon quest, but none about Fontaine. For personal reasons that are too long to talk about in this post I haven't played Fontaine's archon quest yet. Yes, even the first act. And no, I do not wish to be spoiled about anything about Fontaine.

My whole rant, including the introduction and the disclaimers, is over 2.3K long, take it or leave it. I also happen to believe that longer is better. Yes it is time consuming to read all of this, but this is my way of showing that I care. Plus good storytelling needs time. Like I said, take it or leave it, if you don't want to read this whole rant then it's okay, as long as you don't blame me for not doing something shorter.

So now that we are clear on those points, we shall begin.

My first point is that the archon quest is too short.

Like way too short. We barely have time to get a proper tase of what Inazuma is like, and we also barely have time to process our traveler's character arc. The first part of the archon quest screams of how much the writers knew they had to add the part in which the Traveler refused to help anyone, but they were bothered by it. So they tried to wrap it up quickly by making the traveler see the problem directly. The second part is laughable at best, I mean we all saw the memes about how the war cinematic looked off, like we just have 10 soldiers and 10 rebels against one another and we're supposed to understand that the conflict is big ? And the last part is confusing, mainly because of the sudden apparition of Kazuha, who got a whole character arc while we trying to beat up Signora.

And it's not like Hoyoverse isn't capable of making a character arc during an archon quest. Venti had his little character arc, Scaramouche has his character arc behind the scenes during the Sumeru Archon Quest, but us player are still aware of its evolution, with for example the visions of that one npc researcher. And if we take a look at Honkai : Star Rail, Dan Heng also got to have a whole character arc really similar to the one with Kazuha, but they made it relevant to the plot.

They are capable of all of that, if they gave more time to develop it by having a bigger archon quest. Either by making a part 4 and maybe a part 5, either by making longer archon quests.

My second point is that there is too much unnecessary quests.

Sure, for gameplay purposes it's perfect to have a lot of quest, because it means a lot of content. But with Inazuma it really isn't the case.

We had a whole archon quest, well more like a prologue quest, to introduce Kazuha's motivations through Beidou's fighting competition. I would understand if it was a world quest, i mean they did that with the chasm : an archon quest locked behind a world quest. The world quest could have been about the whole trip towards Inazuma, with the beginning about the fighting tournament. But nope, it's overly long for almost nothing, and it raises another point of mine

They based their whole plot on making the players like their characters. It's not a bad thing, I love Kazuha with all my heart, but our time with him isn't making the plot come forward. Just like, having to do Yoimiya and Ayaka's character quest have nothing to do with plot. You just hang out with them and learn a bit about their personal lives. It's great, but what about the plot ? Okay cool you made a deep dive into Raiden Shogun's motivations during her character quest, but what about the plot ?

They gave too much time over things that weren't necessary for the plot, and like I said previously, didn't give enough time to important parts.

My third point is that it doesn't even fufill the concept of an Archon Quest.

Every archon quest makes a deep dive into the Archon's motivation, how it affected their land and how they'll arrange the situation. For example :

Venti's entire core is to fight to let his people be free. He gave them everything they needed, and let them take their own decisions in order to not become another tyrant. But some people, like Dvalin, saw that move as him giving up on them. So, he made everything clear towards Dvalin and stayed to help him get better.

Zhongli's entire core is to fight to protect his people. He saw war, he saw death but he survived. He created the Adepti to help him, he also sort of created the Qixing to help him rule over Liyue. But now he becomes old, and doesn't want to see everything that he has done come to rot after he passes away. So he decides to retire himself from his position to force the Qixing and the Adepti to work together without him to help Liyue.

And if we compare Raiden to that well... She makes her people suffer, only she is happy with eternity, and she reflects upon that after the archon quest. But she has the potential to be so much more than that, heck it's not like she didn't become popular with the few times we see her in the archon quest, so looking back now there was no point in making her not that present in her own archon quest. Even Nahida, who is locked inside her own temple at the time we meet her, gets to have an equal amount of screentime as every other archon during their quest.

And also every archon quest shows how much every archon is different by their way of ruling :

Venti thought the bestest thing for his people was to leave and give them the freedom to do anything.

Zhongli thought the bestest thing for his people was to give them a safe haven and to dedicate his whole life to serve them instead of trying to really "rule" over them.

Nahida's people never gave her a chance to actually try to be their leader. They stayed focused on the past and let bad people morphed the values of Sumeru into something horrible.

And Raiden Shogun was supposed to show that for her the bestest thing was to keep her land in check, to make sure everything stays at the right place, so that no one has to ever feel grief and feel "nostalgic" of the past like she did.

Which brings me to my fourth point, which is that Raiden Shogun has control over nothing.

Yes she controls what the commission do, yes she has the power to do a vision hunt decree. But, when we take a look at Inazuma, we can see that she do not have any actual control. Four of the six islands in Inazuma are not liveable, and the fifth island is actually full of people who do not worship her, who do not want her. There is a rebellion going on, and she hasn't done anything more than send her army. The magical sakura tree in Narukami is slowly decaying, but nope there's nothing she can do about apparently. It's as if she doesn't even know it's happening.

She is described as omnipresent over the mortals. She is described as always making sure Inazuma reaches the goal of "eternity", and yet everything is going nuts, she doesn't have full control over who goes in and out of her country since there are still immigrants in Rito. I would have understood if Monstadt was in that state for example. After all most of the problems in the islands are god-related, so really no one except a god can do anything about it.

And I would have understood if the main problem was that she thinks she is omnipresent but really everything is out of control, but no, the point of the archon quest is to make us understand that the people want things to change, they don't want her to be overly in control.

I'm not against the fact that the Traveler is often the one who has to do everything, but at least make it understandable. For example, ofr the Aranara world quests, the traveler has to be the one who does that because Nahida isn't capable of helping the aranara, and because the traveler is an adult who can still see the aranara, it makes him important to them.

But in Inazuma we're just doing Ei's dirty work, as if an omnipresent deity would want someone other than them to be supervising big problems.

My last point is that the archon quest doesn't feel like it's happening in Inazuma.

None of the problems in the archon quest are talked about in the world quests, it's barely mentioned in some small quests, and the archon quest is royally ignoring all the problems of the world quests. Sumeru doesn't do that for example : it talks about the decaying of pretty much everything in the archon quest AND the world quests, aranaras are showed in the archon quest, and really the archon quest goes to a lot of key points in sumeru, meanwhile for the archon quest in Inazuma it's only 4 different places, 6 if we count the comissions.

Inazuma have so many different species cohabiting together, has a lot of mysticals things happening everywhere, there are even cat who can talk and yet none of this magic is showed in the archon quest.

Honestly it just looks like a showcase of everything that Japan has to offer and that's it. Yes I see tanukis, I see sakura trees, i see the clothings and the buildings. But what else ? What is the core of anything that Inazuma has to offer ? When we take a look at every other region, we see that they at least tried to give them a proper identity with the inspiration material. Meanwhile Inazuma is just the inspirational material.

When they included nobility in Monstadt, they really did it. They showed how much they were accepted into present society (plot twist they aren't), their role in history, how they feel about a society where no one wants them anymore (with some clans who are okay, clashing with the Lawrence clan who aren't ready to admit 'defeat' yet), they included etiquette and made them active in society.

This just doesn't happen with the tanukis, the onis or the kitsunes. The onis have a bit more depth since they have Itto to develop this part, but really unless you go into the forest you will not encounter kitsunes or tanukis in inazuma.

My conclusion,

The main problem with Inazuma's archon quest is that they didn't give enough time. They didn't give enough time for the plot to unfold correctly, they didn't gave enough time to the worldbuilding, and dare I say Hoyoverse didn't gave enought time to the writers to be able to do anything more than the minimum. I have seen what these writers could do and it is so much worth it, but damn Inazuma is to me, something that Hoyoverse should be ashamed of in terms of storytelling.

And I feel like no one is talking about that. As of now the only things I found on the internet about it are slanders of some characters, or really just people who hate the whole "inspired by japan" thingy, and are just mad about that.

Hoyoverse is a big enough company to have decent storytelling, to give a decent amount of time for their writers to work, and so on and so forth.

To be honest I feel like that if you truly care about Japan and its culture, you should be mad at Inazuma for doing a poor job at representing it, but that's just my opinion.

[mysteryshoptls]

SR Jamil Viper Gala Couture Personal Story: Part 2

"So crisp...!"

(Part 1) Part 2

[Courtyard]

Idia: Panther! Bomber! Thunder! Fighter! Riser! Hyper!

Idia: DAH DAH!!

Jamil: That's a strange dance.

Jamil: But his dance movements are so crisp…! Just watching it makes me want to start moving, too!

Jamil: Hm? Is that a tablet lying at Idia-senpai's feet?

Jamil: I guess he's dancing while watching a video.

Idia: Whew～ As always, Premo's performances are the best.

Jamil: "Premo"? I'll look it up on my phone.

Jamil: Uh, is this it? The full name is… "Precipice Moirai"?

Jamil: "An idol unit of three girls bound by the thread of fate."

Jamil: "Their performances entertain not only their fans, but all who watch them."

Jamil: "In addition, the ages of each member is kept private. Although their wrinkles are very noticeable, their fans pretend to not see them…"

Jamil: Don't really care much for idols, but that dance seems interesting. It may be worth looking into.

Jamil: …Alright.

Jamil: Idia-senpai!

Idia: Uwaaaaaaaaahhh!? Y-Y-Y-Y-Y-You're Jamil-shi from Scarabia!?

Idia: Ah, uh… Th-This is, uh, what should I say… Yeah, I-I'm practicing the dance from P.E.!

Jamil: It looks like a very different choreography from what we were taught in class.

Idia: Guh, urrghhhh…! I thought there wouldn't be anyone here at this time, but I severely miscalculated…!

Idia: A-A different type of person like this couldn't possibly understand my sublime hobby…

Idia: And this is how it begins, he'll spread it all over the school what he just saw, and I'll go through my school days here with everyone pointing their fingers at my back…

Idia: …Haaaah, it's all over… Goodbye, my rose-colored academy life… Oh, right, that wasn't a thing to begin with, anyway.

Jamil: (I knew he was odd, but I didn't expect it to be to this extent…)

Jamil: That's a Premo performance you're watching on that tablet, right?

Idia: Y-You know them!?

Jamil: (He took the bait. This is all for the sake of my dancing abilities. I'll chat him up and try to get some info out of him.)

Jamil: Actually, I've taken a bit of an interest in Premo, and…

Idia: H-Huh… Someone like you liking them is pretty rare.

Idia: …D-Do you, uh… Do you also mix?

Jamil: "Mix"?

Idia: Y-You don't know? Ah, of course you don't…

Idia: No question. Yep, you're one of those bandwagon fans. You gotta be joking if you think you can pretend you know everything without going to a single performance.

Idia: Mixing it up for Premo at a live concert is the best thing we as fans can do to form this sense of unity for them.

Idia: Siiiiiigh～ This is why I can't stand fake fans. They don't ever realize that they're the reason why people stop creating content.

Jamil: (Why is he suddenly looking down on me? Well, whatever…)

Jamil: (It seems those movements earlier were part of a dance call to cheer on the idols called "mixing.")

Jamil: (Honestly, I don't understand why that's a thing.)

Jamil: (But it's definitely true that Idia-senpai's burning passion and wholehearted mixing call did reach me.)

Jamil: (So maybe with this…)

Jamil: Idia-senpai.

Idia: What?

Jamil: Please teach me more about this "mixing."

Idia: …Hah? What new arc is about to unfold here!?

[Botanical Garden – Runway]

Jamil: It's finally time, Kalim. Leave it to me to draw in the audience.

Kalim: Yeah! I'm relying on you!

Kalim: Make sure you do that awesomely sharp and crisp dance moves you showed during practice!

Jamil: Right, it's not even worth reminding me.

Leona: I don't really know what happened, but…

Leona: Ever since you came back to practice last night, you've been pretty motivated, huh.

Jamil: That's right. It's all thanks to Premo.

Leona: Huh? What's that?

Jamil: Our turn is coming up. Let's go!

Kalim: Yeah!

Jamil: (After mixing with Idia-senpai against and again, I finally grasped it.)

Jamil: (A show is not just about dancing perfectly. What's important is the one special ingredient to pull people in…)

Jamil: (And that's passion!!!)

Jamil: (Okay, everyone… Get hyped! Let's all become one to the sway of my dance!)

[Classroom]

Vil: I can completely see it in how sharp his moves are. Jamil was able to grasp what he needed.

Vil: That's right. The most important thing in a show is releasing the passion that sleeps within you.

Vil: That is what drives the audience wild and creates a sense of unity among them.

Vil: Jamil. Your passion has reached everyone in the venue.

Vil: …However, I am curious what he could have experienced in one night in order to grow so much…

Vil: Aren't you, Idia?

Idia: Wh-Who knows?

Idia: …Good going, Jamil-shi. You're shining so brightly, sweating it up together with everyone…!

(Part 1) Part 2

[aerithium]

FFXIV Endwalker Review!

*Spoilers Ahead*

★ Score: 10/10 ★ Date Finished: May 30th, 2024 ★ Final Thoughts: I'm not entirely sure words can describe how I feel about this expansion. I feel as though my haste to get through the expansion speaks volumes, completing one of the longer expansion in just over a week. This expansion is the (nearly) perfect finale to every single one that lies before it, there was no better way for this story to end, and begin again. The overall story flows perfectly, with very few moments of "low" energy. Each of its own quest lines serve greatly to the overarching story of the expansion, my favorite being the time the WOL spends with the ancients. To be there with characters that are once your enemies and allies, yet before they even know, creates strong emotions and the entirely seperate world is easy to fall in love with. The area designs overall are fucking phenomenal, each on is so different from the others and have their own beauties with in. The characters, both new and old, are so incredibly written a factor of media that means the most to me. I've felt this in the previous expansions but it seems to shine well here, each close ally of the player's is their individual person and they are all so different from one another. Such as the ways they talk to their allies, the player, and the choices they make during the expansion. The new characters recieve this treatment as well, and have great development across the expansion's story. My only problems with characters rely with the twin's father, who has a distinct moment that I felt didn't align with his overall writing as a character. The music in this expansion also utterly smashes the music from all the expansions before it. And I mean SMASH. Every song is so perfect for the moment in game that it plays, and the music is used in a way that truly amplifies the events that unfold in the story. The ending of the expansion leaves so much to look forward to without making anything feel incomplete, which solidifies the end of the current story arc but still leaves much to look forward to in the next expansion. I was seriously just blown away with this one. That's the only way I can put it. Following up to talk about the post Endwalker content, the story overall didn't have me as roped in but its rather hard to follow up the expansion that Endwalker is. The existing characters were still as great as ever (I'm lookin at you Estinien) and the newly introduced characters were very enjoyable. Zero's character development across the post-EW quests was really well done and you could slowly see her begin to make more sense of human feelings such as trust. The dungeons and trials were also fantastic, some being among my favorite in the game. The Dawntrail build up quests are small but they do a great job of ramping up the players hype for the coming expansion and feeds into the spontaneous nature of everything. This side content alongside post-EW (normal and alliance raids) were also really awesome, getting to spend more time in Elpis and meet more of our former enemies was just what I wanted and then to get to learn more of the Twelve. It was the perfect time to expand upon their existence after both Hydaelyn and Zodiark's defeat. Finally, the music is actually insane for these set of patches. I constantly found myself jamming out to the music in the new content I was doing. The post content has only further solidified my desire to give Endwalker the 10/10 it deserves.

[amethystina]

i understand this question may end up leading you to reveal something you're not ready to reveal yet, but can we expect the kidnapping arc soon? Considering according to the timeline there's little over a week left of yohan and Elijah's stay. This is also assuming gaon is the one being kidnapped (?) Probably asking you to reveal too much but I'm genuinely very curious about the timeline and had to ask. No pressure to give me a response though😭

You guys really are excited about the kidnapping tag. And I admit that I'm beginning to fear that you all are going to hype it up way too much and then be disappointed when the moment finally arrives since it's not going to be all that spectacular. Like, calling it an "arc" might be giving it too much weight x'D

But, to answer your question: No, it's not going to happen anytime soon. There's a long way to go, in fact, with a lot of plot points that need to happen first.

As for the timeline, you have to remember that you got the estimate "a little over a week left" from Ga On, not Yo Han. And Ga On has no idea how long Yo Han and Elijah are actually planning to stay — he's just making assumptions based on his own thoughts and fears. Yo Han said one to two months and Ga On is the one who suddenly decided that, most likely, Yo Han will want to leave as soon as that first month is up.

But he's got no actual proof to support that theory (other than the fact that he broke Yo Han's heart) and also completely ignores the influence Elijah might have over the decision. As in, if Elijah wants to spend more time with Ga On, will Yo Han truly force her to return to Switzerland just because he's heartbroken? Or will he stay for her sake?

Basically, maybe don't trust the depressed and unreliable narrator too much when it comes to this specific subject x'D

And yes, Ga On is the one who's going to be kidnapped. I've already answered that in another ask because I don't think that's a secret, given the source material and type of fanfic this is. Kidnapping is sort of a requirement, I'd say xD Besides, Yo Han is presumed dead so who would even come up with the idea of kidnapping him? And I'm too protective over Elijah to have her be kidnapped. So Ga On it is!

But please don't hype it up too much. I really don't think it will be as cool as some of you seem to hope that it will be >_>

[mixelation]

hi! I love the way you write women in your stories and I've seen you post about Sakura in the past, so I've been wondering how you'd rethink the Sasuke/Sakura ship? I was always really disappointed in canon because Sakura is an ambitious and competitive character with her own goals and motivations but she's always held back either by her teachers, the system (team placement, being civilian born) or her "crush". I completely understand if this is not your jam or not something you like, but if it is, I'd love to hear your perspective! 🫶

Ummm I'm pretty neutral to the ship. IMHO, in part 1 we do see that Sasuke genuinely likes her (platonically, at least), so a billion years ago when I was a kid I shipped them because I wanted to see Sakura "get the guy." Now as an adult and with more canon interactions available to ~analyze~, I don't really like them as a ship but I do like when they're written as close friends. I don't think we see enough growth on Sasuke's end through the war arc or the beginning of Boruto to indicate to me he's at a place where he's willing and able to Treat Sakura Right, or treat like.... anyone right? And the end result is that, from what I've seen of Boruto, Sakura got done real dirty.

So I don't really like SasuSaku, but I can see the bones of something that would make a compelling ship. I do like Sarada a lot, so I have put some thought into how SS could function in a canon-compliant, non-shitty way. First, I don't think Sasuke is really capable of romantic feelings, and that Sakura desperately wants romance. This doesn't mean their marriage to doomed, but it does mean they need time to develop an understanding of one another: Sasuke needs to understand and validate Sakura's feelings and ideally be okay with participating in the sort of romantic gestures she wants, and Sakura needs to come to terms with the idea that Sasuke can love her, but he might not ever be in love with her, and that's okay. In theory this could have happened off-screen during the years they traveled together.

Some tweaks to canon I would make without doing massive rewrites:

*Generally I think Sakura should have gotten more hype, especially from Sasuke. I'm banning myself from massive rewrites, but two places where this could have been fixed with with only some dialogue changes/a handful or panels are:

The scene where she confronts him after he kills Danzo and he tells her to heal Karin. I think this whole subplot with Sakura was pitched in kind of a stupid way, but I do like "Sakura tries to deal with Sasuke herself," and I think to really flesh this out, Sasuke should have treated Sakura as more of a threat. I think when he finally attacked her, we should have gotten at least of couple panels of an even fight before Kakashi stepped in. This isn't ship-material but it sets them up to more "even," rather than Sakura as a passive force begging Sasuke to take her.

Second, I think she should have just gotten more hype in general during the War Arc. If we had more than just the one panel of Sasuke reacting positively to her, it would have at least signaled there's potential he still cares for her the way he did in part one.

*Moving into the end-game of the manga, I think Sasuke should have been the one to ask Sakura to travel with him. She could initiate the conversation, she could make a bunch of faces that indicates that she wants to ask, but Sasuke should have verbalized it.

*Finally, I know there's a panel of Sasuke with Sarada as a toddler, but I would have liked it established that he was around for his wife and kid in the early years. I'll accept "years long mission during her formative years means Sarada barely remembers him" if you REALLY want the family drama, but I just think it's SO shitty that Boruto implies he was barely there for Sakura at all in general, including when she had his baby.

If we go into vaguely canon AUs, I can totally see SasuSaku happening in an AU where Sasuke never goes to Orochimaru. I think Sakura and Naruto were really important social bonds for Sasuke, so I can see him eventually being like, "Yeah, okay, I can take you on a date." I'm imagining they're like 15-16 when this happens, so Sakura herself is more mature, and also in the processing of figuring herself out as a kunoichi, Sasuke finds there's a lot to like/admire about her.

That, or Sasuke abruptly and painfully realizes his true sexuality is "could break me in half"-sexual.

I realize most of my tweaks are on Sasuke's end. That is because loving Sasuke and being willing to sacrifice and compromise for him is like 50% of Sakura's personality. So mostly on her half she just has to learn to prioritize herself and her own feelings and communicate that, and most of these skills I think we see her actively cultivating as she integrates Inner Sakura into her outer personality. So I assume with age she'd only get better and better-- it is needed growth, but also I think it's closer to her canon trajectory that Sasuke's, so the solution is "just write her slightly better" LMAO.

[curious-sootball]

Rewatching the beginning of a campaign with the Deadlands lore and Q&A in mind is An Experience™️

First, Johnny's hints become increasingly hilarious; they're trying so hard to give the rest of the party hints on what's going on while maintaining the bumbling old man persona its a show in itself (also, is it just me or is Jane hell-bent on not metagaming things? She played Deadlands before, she's clearly aware of the meta, and I had no idea until watching the Q&A)

One big, nay, giant "what if" idea that keeps nagging on my brain is Garnet, Nate and Delacy being more social in Dead Man's Worth(ep. 2 and 3) - what if they talked to the other contestants(more than just Slim Hawkins) and tried to tilt the odds in their favour? Like, Andy straight-up said he had written the backstories for all the contestants, and since I watched a good chunk of "The quick and the dead" thanks to this campaign, I have a big thick suspicion about some of them(especially those of Hattie McGuill, Rosa Conamerania and Big Bill). Imagine if all of them decided to talk and agreed on making Ben Bellows's day an absolute nightmare - how much faster and funnier the contest would've been? Andy could even keep the tone whiplash from planning to troll and trolling Bellows to him still straight up slaughtering his opponents anyway(e.g. Delacy shooting the gun out of Rex Randall's hand to rightfully eliminate him from the contest, and Bellows shooting Rex through the throat in an all-out gunfight later anyway. Bonus points if he would've came back as a Harrowed and complained about the bullet wound fucking up his vocal chords).

Also, other contestants could've had clues that Bellows isn't as human as he'd like to appear to tip the players off about what was really going on, and I'm kinda surprised they hadn't tried that line of investigation. (Also#2 - was the bartender supposed to be suspicious??? Because "The quick and the dead" has both a cowed saloon owner and a guy shot in both hands the exact same way The Jewel's bartender is - except the second guy was a cocky trick shooter who falsely claimed credit to one of the villain's kills while being in said villain's hearing range. That guy fucked around and found out; and while I'm reasonably sure it wasn't the case for The Jewel's bartender, was this detail supposed to be a clue that cast decided to ignore???).

Third thing about Dead Man's Worth - I love how Andy tweaked the contest rules from "The quick and the dead" - Bellows gives contestants a clear reason to fight each other over teaming up and fighting him directly(a pre-drawn elimination brackets instead of anyone challenging anyone else and killing being optional and becoming mandatory halfway through the contest). Combine this with the prize and the only way to sow more discord among the contestants would've been to yeet a gilded apple with "for the sharpest aim" written on its side into the crowd on day 1 of the contest. This absolute motherfucker of a character(also, I strongly suspect that his bodyguards/gunmen are people from his cavalry unit and most of the other population of the town is their families). I can see why Andy brought him back in the finale.

One more thing: after I looked up the lore, Johnny's reaction to the Dishonourable judge M.T. Boudreau became comedy gold(judge himself also became funnier, but he's not in the spotlight now). Like, they played Nate so fucking smart in that arc, I love it. (Also - imagine if judge could actually kinda see demons attached to the characters and tried threatening Garnet's demon with arresting them for swearing/murdering their huckster after the trial?). Also - am I the only one that looked up the official illustrations of Hangin' Judges and found it kinda underwhelming? Those tiny blades really don't fit the "sword-gun things that he's trying to shoot you to death with" description; Andy made them sound so goddamn cool and the official illustration didn't live up to hype (to me).

[hershelchocolate]

What are your favorite "chapters" or scenes from each of your stories? Are some of them really long sections while others are short individual moments? Why are they your favorites, and what emotion is does each section aim to make you and/or the reader feel?

Just gonna do this for ones I have figured out enough to answer for-

Villain School: I daydream about the end of year 3 a lot still. It was such a good payoff for stuff hinted at from year *1* (I've already made some of the foreshadowing. At least one person had already guessed it) but also there's so many moving pieces. Wally finally gets the peak of his arc. Maple gets fucking decked harder than she's ever been. Savannah gets confirmed best friend status with Wally (bestie of the besties) and cries about it while everyone is dying. That whole sequence is still so fun, it was going to be the most hype thing ever if i ever rewrite the villain school I'm not changing it

Also this one bit in year 4 where Carmen fucks up trying to do something cause he didn't realize Savannah has gone through 4 years of being the main character and just. COMPLETELY fucks up the evil thing he was trying to do in the worst way possible for everyone involved it's the only time he's genuinely worried about getting caught and it's so funny. Shame about the everything else tho

Whisper Court: many. So many. First one that comes to mind is any scene where anyone dies tbh. It's the same "Oh noooo character is dying :(" kinda sequence but all of them are so uniquely fucked up and horrifying. I don't want to spoil Who Gets Got but man. Man. Oughgg. Fuck dude. I've been hinting at one for ages and I can't wait for everyone to get mad at me

The Hallowed: IRENE GETS TO KILL AND MAIM LET HER KILL!! SHE DESERVES IT!!! I've got an animatic to it in my brain for Can You Hear Me Now by The Score it's so fucking cool. Again. I hesitate to say literally anything about it but it fucks I promise. That's supposed to be the biggest YOOOOOOO GET HER ASS!!!!! moment in the whole series I'm so worried about nailing it tbh. Oughg

Angel Wings: a little odd cause it's a game and that's hard to pinpoint moments for but. Ending 4-2. I will not elaborate. Center Stage by Vocacircus okay there you go that's your hint

Locked Love: Lif scene. That entire sequence. Their whole deal is so. Ohghg. "Alright fine I'll become the antagonist" but it was never supposed to go this way. They should have died before things ever had a chance to go this way. What does it mean to be the consequences of a God suffering from the sunk-cost fallacy. If it costs you your humanity. If it never meant anything at all. It was never supposed to be this way. They can't even be mad

Solitarius: the beginning of the end. They can't even bring themself to be surprised this time, it was a weird run. It was never going to end well, they couldn't even be bothered to pretend. Everything is crumbling to dust but they remain stable. They've died this death a thousand times, it doesn't faze them anymore. The loss she's suffering isn't even close to the lost they've felt and yet they can't help but feel a twinge of regret that she's unknowingly had to live this moment over and over throughout time. There was no way to stop it though, so why bother caring?

Alphabet RPG has a moment like that (it was all intentional? Were we ever worth more to you than this?) And so does Halloween Town (if I had known, would I have stopped it? Maybe not.) But those aren't solidified enough for me to try going in depth about them

[cursedvibes]

Your post about your favourite protagonists reminded me that once Gege said they didn't like too nice characters they're annoying and it's one thing they don't like about shonen. They tried to avoid that with Yuuji and I think that's why Yuuji feels so real and genuine. I usually like protagonists but Yuuji is one of the few I'd call my favorite. I just love how much care is put into his character. I sometimes wish jjk was more character driven rather than plot driven so we'd get more of Yuuji. But ah well! If we get a proper conclusion to his arc I'll be beyond satisfied and that's my only wish for the ending.

Yes, I very much agree! I usually don't like main characters, that's why I made that post, to figure out to me about characters like Yuuji, Phos etc. All too often they are just too perfect. What they say goes. Even if they have the most idiotic plan imaginable it will somehow work out because they are the protagonist. Everyone loves them because they are just so special and can do no wrong.

Yuuji does feel very realistic considering his circumstances. Just a vaguely suicidal boy who has lost everything and tries to survive in this completely new world he has been thrown into. He doesn't try to be a leader, he has only half a year of experience after all. He isn't the strongest and often has to rely on others, but that is his strength and makes the other characters more important than just empty hype machines. He easily gets along with people, but he has a hard time becoming close friends with them out of fear of hurting them or becoming too vulnerable. There are plenty of people who like him, but he is not worshipped. He wants to help as many people as possible, but he doesn't try to play the hero. Not anymore at least because when he did it in the beginning and blindly trusted into Sukuna or luck carrying him through it, he died. I also really like it when his darker side shines through like in his confrontations with Mahito. He will kill you if he has to or hates you enough, he's not above that.

I appreciate Gege's focus on the plot for the most part, since it never makes the story linger too long on tedious parts (until recently), but sometimes I do wish we would linger a little bit longer with some characters and their experiences, especially with all the dramatic stuff that has been happening since Shibuya. The characters don't have much time to rest and reflect though, so that makes sense. I also like this method of giving quick glimpses of a characters struggle, motivation, thoughts etc and then expanding on it bit by bit as the story progresses, it always gives you something to think about and makes you curious to find out more. Like with the reveal of Yuuji's past for example or Tengen & Kenjaku's relationship. I think Yuuji has gotten some good focus throughout the story though, I don't feel like something is missing, even if I'm of course always happy about more. Gege is at their best when writing (about) him.

Only thing that really bothers me is how everything has been put on hold for the Sukuna vs Gojo fight and how the majority of the main characters are just sitting around doing nothing. That feels very unrealistic, especially for Yuuji. I also would've liked a bit more focus on their reunion with Gojo and preparation for the final arc.

Like you said, my only wish for the final arc is a proper conclusion of Yuuji's character and also Kenjaku. Everything else I can live with.

[duhragonball]

I'm in the middle of reading Luffa's fight with Goku, and this question occurred to me. If you were asked how strong, fast, durable Luffa is, or how many planets she could destroy, what would you say? I know most authors don't think too much about that sorta thing, but I like hearing what they have to say about it nevertheless.

I wouldn't exactly call this a hypothetical situation, as people have asked me about Luffa's power level before. I've always been somewhat vague about it, because I was trying to save my answers for the Luffa/Goku fight that you're currently reading. (Thanks for reading it, by the way.)

My short answer is to reefer to this handy profile sheet I commissioned from the ever-talented Fraulein Pflaume some years ago. Let's just take a quick look and:

I don't know if you can read that text on the right, but it says "Power Level: Maximum". It's a glib answer, but I created the character as a response to Broly hype, so it seems appropriate.

Now that the Luffa/Goku fight chapters are finally published, if someone asked me about it, I'd direct them to that part of the fic. Because that's the first time you really see Luffa fighting at full power against a canon DBZ character in an even match. And maybe it shouldn't have taken 200+ chapters to get to that point, but look at where we've been...

The first 141 chapters are all set centuries before the events of Dragon Ball. There's no frame of reference because everyone is just a character I made up.

Chapters 142-187 feature a Luffa weakened by some unexplained trauma. Maybe it's "jet lag" from being pulled into the future, or the strain of using the Golden Oozaru form, but she's not at 100%, which is why she's struggling against Nappa one day and then holding her own against Buu the next.

Chapters 188-211 feature Luffa more or less back at her full strength, but it doesn't matter because her opponents' powers aren't well-defined. Beerus clears everybody. Demigra and Xeno Trunks are official characters in the franchise, but they've had so few battles that they're in the same boat as all of my own OCs.

In all of this, the only useful point of reference is Goku, who joins the fight against Demigra in Xenoverse 1. He's from a period of time between Battle of Gods and Res F, so we have a decent idea what we're dealing with here. And my goal from the beginning was to set up that Luffa/Goku fight and have them be evenly matched, so that's where Luffa tops out.

That's how I interpret power levels in the Dragon Ball universe. If I make up a new guy, and I want to figure out how powerful they are, I would try to figure out which arc or movie they could be in and stay relevant. I think everyone is accustomed to this idea. I feel like we all agree that Z-Broly vs. Bojack would be a pretty even match because Bojack's movie is sandwiched between two Z-Broly films. And they both lost to Cell-Games-Era Z-Fighters, so it's reasonable to say Perfect Cell is somewhere in that ballpark too.

Shoot, I forgot that Goku even did this himself when he took stock of Dabura's powers in the Buu Saga. The Supreme Kai was terrified at the prospect of fighting Dabura, but Goku explained that he was about the same as Cell, whom they fought against seven years earlier.

This is a much more natural way of addressing power scaling. Later, when Buu shows up, he sweeps Dabura, Gohan, and Vegeta like they're nothing, and that pretty much tells you exactly how high the stakes are. We don't need a scouter to understand Buu's strength and speed. Vegeta hit him with a lot of big power moves and Buu either shrugged it off, regenerated his injuries, or said that it hurt... a little.

I don't understand "How many planets?" as a measure of power. I mean, superficially, it's a cool question. "How many planets can your OC blow up?" That sounds badass, but what are we talking about, exactly? Like Frieza only destroyed two planets in canon. Three if you want to count Earth in Res F. But I'm pretty sure he could destroy a lot more if he had reason to. I don't think destroying more planets than someone else is a measure of power. It just means one of you had more planets you were mad at.

Unless we're talking like... in a row? I'm imagining Luffa lining up a shot like billiard balls. I guess that would be a greater feat of power, but it seems pretty wasteful. I know Cell threatened that his big Kamehameha at the end of the Cell Games could take out the entire solar system, but he never actually got to prove it, so I don't take that very seriously. It's kind of pointless to have characters slinging around that kind of power when they need planets to stand on for their fights.

I guess what I'm saying here is that I do think about this sort of thing a lot, but mainly because this particular character requires it. Luffa's role here is to be analogous to Goku, Vegeta, or Broly, so I have to constantly compare her to those kinds of characters. It's one thing to just have a Saiyan OC who happens to be able to go Super Saiyan. You can make them ridiculously OP, or just have them be kind of low-tier. I have a Time Patroller in the fic named Laddis, and he's a Super Saiyan, but he's just some jerk, which is kind of refreshing. I can do whatever I want with him, and it doesn't matter. Trunks is a big deal, but he's a practical guy, so no matter how strong he is I can just write him as a responsible leader and it works.

But Luffa has to be legendary, so there's this constant need to have her be inspiring or memorable, at least within her own fictional world. So I often look to Goku as a model of how to pull that off without overdoing it.

I don't know why it suddenly popped into my head just now, but a good example of what I'm going for is when Aragorn first appears in Lord of the Rings. The hobbits see him staring at them from the corner of the tavern, and there's this palpable aura of danger around the guy. The innkeeper says he's a Ranger named "Strider", and speaks of him in hushed tones. And over the course of the book you find out all of his backstory, but that first scene is enough to tell you he's no ordinary dude. Once they find out he's an ally they become pals, but in that moment of uncertainty there's no telling what he might do.

That's the sort of aura I want for Luffa, where she's just another Time Patroller on the team, but she's also got this aura about her that makes her seem unapproachable. That's what I'm striving for, and since it's a Dragon Ball fic, I need to give the character certain powers and abilities to make that work. But at the same time, no one ever asks how many planets Aragorn can destroy.

[idreaminmugiwara]

Major Spoilers for Whole Cake Island Arc

Turn back if you haven't gotten into the 800s!!! I'm about to give a TED talk about episode 808, which is arguably one of the most emotional episodes of One Piece.

I FINALLY have my computer back!! Which means I can finally get to the myriad of posts I've been wanting to make over the past few days. I've been able to go from Zou to the beginning of Wano in record time and I have SO MANY THOUGHTS.

Starting with this episode right here.

I had heard some hype about Sanji v Luffy but until I actually watched the episode, I hadn't been terribly excited. I (like many others) have very complicated feelings about Sanji. I loved him before Thriller Bark, after which his predatory nature became impossible to overlook and made the majority of scenes with him uncomfortable to sit through. I've had relationships with guys that seemed amazing save for the fact that they refused to acknowledge and appreciate boundaries around women and femmes, and I've watched those guys get away with their bullshit over and over because no one takes it fucking seriously. Sanji can be borderline triggering for me with the kind of abuse history that I have. With that out of the way....

Whole Cake Island Sanji feels almost like a different person than he did in Thriller Bark and Fishman Island. He ceases to be the token perv and becomes an extremely emotionally complex character in a way we haven't seen up until this point. Normally incredibly sarcastic and stoic in the face of drama and tension, he begins to crack at the seams. Being around his abusers brings out a side of him that I hadn't even imagined up until now. His fight with Luffy is EXTREMELY challenging to watch because this isn't about someone flexing their strength or winning a contest, it's about fucking trauma.

It was difficult enough watching Luffy get the absolute shit kicked out of him by one of his dear friends. Then Sanji had to go and shatter Nami's heart. We've seen Nami (rightfully) slap the shit out of him before when he acts a fool towards women, but this literally hit different. The tears started falling for me after that "Sayonara." It felt so definite, so devastatingly conclusive. I don't think we've ever seen Nami angry like this before, not towards a crew member. As a viewer, I hadn't felt this uncomfortable since Luffy's falling out with Usopp.

I could be wrong, but I think the only other time we've seen Sanji cry was when he was saying goodbye to Zeff at Baratie. One of the things I've always loved about One Piece is how little Oda holds back when it comes to allowing his characters to FEEL. Crying is normalized in this world, no matter what one's gender is. But Sanji is typically presented (much like Zoro) as the stoic butch, the cool as a cucumber James Bond type who doesn't seem nearly as affected as the rest of his compatriots by the crazy shit they go through. Seeing him break down as Luffy cried after him, reminding him of how much he cared about him and how he wouldn't give up on him was fucking powerful and gave Sanji some much needed development after over 800 episodes.

Lastly, I just have to commend all the voice actors in this episode, particularly Hioraki Hirata and Mayumi Tanaka. The amount of nuance that went into these performances gives me goosebumps and cemented this as one of the most powerful episodes of One Piece for me. I wish this was the Sanji that could have stayed with us in Wano, but alas and alack. Watching this arc play out in Live Action is going to be absolutely insane.

Thank you for coming to my TED talk.