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fictionalrambles · 5 years ago

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Shadowhunters Fandom Story - Part Twelve

Submitted by notquiteascrazy

Five Favourite Stories

The Stars Aligned series by @lecrit

WHY I LOVE THIS FIC: The only thing I knew for certain coming into this “picking faves process” was that there had to be something by Lecrit on this list. The way Lu writes Magnus & Alec enraptures me every single damn time and to narrow it down to just one was so hard. So I cheated & picked a series ;) It was one of the first Malec fics I read and just the whole AU is perfect.

I re-read it when Oscar Nominations are announced and on the day of the ceremony (I don’t even care about the Oscars). And probably 5 or 6 times throughout the year on top of that. The mutual pining is so strong to begin with, there’s some very light angst with some classic “bad guy” action by Camille and when they finally get their shit together, well, it’s just beautiful. Jace being an idiot, Izzy being the most supportive ever, nerd Simon… It’s got the works. If you haven’t already read it, why the hell not? Go. Now.

FAVORITE QUOTE: “I know we usually don’t thank our agents in these things,” he says, still scanning the room, “but my agent is also my PA and one of my best friends, and I just won an Oscar so I think I can do whatever I want tonight and he won’t hold it against me.” The audience laughs, as much in amusement as it is in surprise but Magnus doesn’t really notice, finally giving up. “Okay,” he exclaims in the mic, “I can’t find him. Has anyone seen Alec? Tall, dark, handsome and probably glued to his phone right now?” [Trying to cut this entire speech down into the best bit? Impossible but I decided to go with the start]

2C by Oumy

WHY I LOVE THIS FIC: I love the antagonism between Alec & Magnus to begin with and while the source of this is revealed in an additional fic later on, while reading 2C you can entirely predict what started it all. And within the main work itself, it doesn’t need saying because the way the characters are written subtly folds in all these personality traits that we know & love. Even before they finally get it together, they’re pushing each other & challenging each other to be the best versions of themselves. The way it builds from rivalry to romance is just *chefs kiss*

Plus, the mental image of Alec & Magnus as incredibly skilled musicians is Hot. We’ll ignore the slight “Magnus can’t play the charango and it’s awful every time he tries going near an instrument” thing… In this universe, they’re musical maestros!

FAVORITE QUOTE: Alec moved from the door, his long legs already eating up the distance to the entrance, and the competitive side of Magnus, the one that reluctantly thrived on their rivalry, refused to let him have the last word, so he blurted out at the retreating figure “Bite me, Lightwood” Alec turned around, walking backwards and spread his free hand, that perpetual half smile still etched on his face “Only if you ask nicely”

Between the Lines by @msalexiscriss

WHY I LOVE THIS FIC: The plot is fantastic. The entire concept that Magnus is a criminal didn’t necessarily sit well with me at first but then as the story progresses and you realise why, it all starts to come together. And so much of their characteristics & traits are woven into it in a really fun way, e.g. Magnus’ love of glitter. From the very beginning the chemistry between them is so well written considering they’ve barely interacted in person. The way Magnus taunts Alec, the way they play this cat & mouse game. About halfway through I had this sudden fear that I would not enjoy the ending. I just couldn’t see a satisfying conclusion where no-one’s morals were compromised and they still got their happy ending but it really came together and did all the characters justice!

FAVORITE SCENE: The entire “first date” on the rooftop. The way Alec ends up there, the way Magnus has it all planned out. The conversation & the teasing from Magnus. The prying for information from Alec. The way they both dance around each other while enjoying the company & getting to know one another.

Deeper Than the Truth by insieme

WHY I LOVE THIS FIC: Can you really compile a list of favourite fics without including at least one coffee shop AU?! And this one is so much more than just a coffee shop AU. I love how Magnus’ unbridled passion & enthusiasm jumpstarts Alec. I love the slow burn that builds up between them & how their relationship develops. I love the quiet moments of their relationship that are interwoven with the bigger moments. I love the balance between Alec hating the lies he’s telling and knowing that he could hurt Magnus and the inner turmoil he goes through. I love that the reveal is realistically handled and not just swept under a rug but they actually talk about the communication issues. I just love it all.

FAVORITE QUOTE: “Well Alexander, I would love to continue this conversation at the present except I have a whole room of ladies with sharp sewing needles who are not going to be too pleased with me if I keep them waiting any longer. Perhaps if you’re here tomorrow, around the same time, we could bump into each other again, and you could tell me your ridiculous dislike for Mr. Archer over a cup of coffee?” Magnus looked at Alec confidently, like he had no reservations whatsoever that Alec wouldn’t accept his offer. He was right. “Tomorrow. Yeah, okay. I’ll be here.” Alec said, unable to stop the smile that crept onto his face. Magnus was already on his way out the store when Alec realized what Magnus had said. He called out after him, “My name is Alec!” Magnus just waved over his shoulder, calling out “See you tomorrow, Alexander!” He was so screwed. [What I have learnt about myself going through this exercise is the early moment of relationships in fics are my favourites. They set the tone of what’s to come & build the chemistry from there!]

Choose your weapon by @steakandvodka

WHY I LOVE THIS FIC: Clalec BROTP ftw. Honestly, this is just cute and shows such lovely character growth & their relationship develops so beautifully. Alec is shown as supportive & a good leader and very typically Alec in response to Clary. But it also shows a softer side & how him & Fray become friends.

Meanwhile, we see a struggle from Clary that isn’t shown in the show about how not being brought up in the shadow world means working harder to get up to scratch & her insecurities around it.

FAVORITE QUOTE: “Look, I know better than anyone how much pressure it can be to be perfect all the time. Especially when you have people doubting you — the drive to prove them wrong can overshadow every other responsibility in your life. But hard work isn’t always a good thing, not if you don’t go about it in a healthy way. It can set you back, and more importantly, you can get hurt” [Alec Lightwood finally embracing healthy work-life balance <3]

Author Story

At first I felt a little bit like a fraud trying to write this. I’d hardly consider myself an author - I’ve barely really written anything (politely ignoring my terrible contributions to the HP fandom well over a decade ago)

I’d never really considered myself particularly creative, much happier to just absorb the fruits of other people’s creativity and be glad that there are so many talented people in the world writing stories and making art. Shadowhunters changed that for me. The characters have resonated with me and I found myself inspired on a couple of occasions to actually put pen to paper (Well, fingers to keyboard)

I still consider myself very creatively challenged but I’m enjoying exploring the little bursts of inspiration, even if I find myself wishing I’d paid more attention in English class! Reading has always been my escape from reality, writing is now giving me that opportunity to create my own escapes. So if there’s anyone else who’s new to this and nervous about trying to write/sharing their writing, I feel you! But if you have a story you want to tell - go for it! You might surprise yourself :)

#shadowhunters #shadowhunters fanfiction #fanfiction #fanfiction blog

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lavenderlight · 4 years ago

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1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7, 9, 11, 12, 13, 14, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22, 23, 24, 25, 26, 27, 29, 31, 33, 34, 35, 36, 39, 40 >:)

Ahdgkhh okay here we go!!!

1: Which TES games have you played?

All 5 main series games, ESO, and Blades!

2: Favorite TES game?

Oblivion........ like the other games have traits I like more, but also cons. Like... if I had to pick a game to just play with only the Unofficial Patch, it’d be that one.

3: When and how you got into TES? I was at a game store with my brother and we saw Oblivion with all these award “amazing game” stickers on it on clearance. So picked it up. I wasn’t impressed right away (remember picking dark elf tho) so put it down. My bro played it and said “omg you have to get out of the tutorial dungeon that sucks but the rest of the game is so good!” So I made a bosmer and did and there rest is history. TES has been a special interest of mine and a big comfort series for a decade now! 4: Favorite race Bosmer! Dunmer are a close second though. Thanks Morrowind. 5: Favorite province Valenwood........... love it............ Cyrodiil too because I’m basic. 6: Favorite character Ahdjgh hard to pick because there are so many! Off the top of my head, Dagoth Ur/Voryn Dagoth, Indoril Nerevar (what a shock, I know), Serana Volkihar, Glarthir, The Adoring Fan (don’t @ me), The Jemane Brothers, Marcurio, really all the characters from ESO’s main quest and the ending side quests who help you 😭😭. 7. Favorite faction

Thieves’ Guild, minus Skyrim’s. Skyrim’s Thieves’ Guild was awful eww.

8: Which province you would like to live in

If the lore and history and stuff weren’t a thing, Summerset because it’s aesthetic and has nice beaches. Realistically, probs Cyrodiil because I’m basic and I like how it’s a melting pot of various races and cultures!

As much as I love Valenwood, wouldn’t be able to handle the Green Pact

9: Which deity/deities would you worship?

Dibella - because I like how she’s the divine for the arts, and actual true love and beauty in the world (feel like she’s the divine most likely to say gay rights and trans rights). That vibes with me.

Makes me sad that both in the games and in the fandom, she’s reduced to “ha ha slutty sex goddess”.

10: Favorite Divine

Dibella because see above.

11: Favorite Daedric Prince

Oh boy... hajdg I love Daedra (except Molag Bal - eww)!!! So it’s hard to pick. Just rapid fire listing some favs: Sheogorath, Meridia, Azura, Barbas (does he count?), Hircine...

12: Favorite enemy

Dagoth Ur

13: Favorite dungeon

Hmmm, I feel like I’m forgetting some, but I enjoyed Nocturnal’s trial dungeon in Skyrim because I like sneaking and it was all based on that.

14. You have awakened and you are a Cliff Racer. What do you do?

Hunt and kill anyone who dares to step outside Seyda Neen lol

15: What would you do if you contracted vampirism?

C u r e

16: What would you do if you contracted lycanthropy?

C u r e

17: Are there any characters you have crushes on?

Not rly because I’m ace.

If so, who?

18: Favorite Great House

The Sixth House. The Tribe Unmourned. The-

Honestly all of them are whack and have... issues. When I played Morrowind, I didn’t join any of them lol. Telvanni is at least entertaining and very out there which makes them cool. So I guess them?

19: Favorite TES music

Ahaha... I sold my soul to Jeremy Soule... I have so so many... :’)

“The Road Most Travelled”, “Peaceful Waters”, “Stilt Sunrise”, “Auri-El’s Ascension”, “Sunrise of Flutes”, “Harvest Dawn”, “All’s Well” “The Streets of Whiterun”, “Secunda” (this is one of my all time favourite video game songs!), “Sovngarde”, “One They Fear”

Then from ESO which has other composers too: “Northpoint Nocturne”, “Moth, Butterfly, and Torchbug”, and “Grazelands Dawn” (mostly because it’s a remix of “The Road Most Travelled” 🥺)

Oh, and this song from the Morrowind dlc because the remaster of “Nerevar Rising” from 2:54 onward. (which how could I forget “Nerevar Rising”? Ugh it gives me feels! The Oblivion and Skyrim main themes are very near and dear to me too)

Also really enjoyed this song from Clockwork City - captures the melancholy vibe and I like the clock noises in it.

20: In your opinion, what is the scariest thing in TES?

I can’t stand spiders so anytime anything having to do with them shows up... I play with mods that remove them and in ESO, I have a list of dungeons and places to avoid. If I have to do one, I make someone go with me and kill them for me lol.

The Lighthouse Quest in Skyrim was also mega spooky. As for lore, soul trapping and the Soul Cairn really freaks me out! I can’t bring myself to use soul trapping because it bothers me :( I headcanon that when a soul gem runs out of charge, the soul is freed because it’s the only way I can sleep at nigh leave me alone lol 21: Favorite main quest Morrowind, hands down. I will infodump and discuss that game’s plot forever. 22: Favorite side quest

I really like the Daedric Shrine quests, they’re always fun. Also love the silly little short quests like in Morrowind when you have to help the guy get his pants back, or in ESO where you gotta find the lost dog in Valenwood and pet it.

Oblivion has loads of side quests I loved... the missing dunmer painter, Hackdirt, that quest with the ladies who are killing men, the Floating Bowl quest... the mystery at Chorrol Castle....

23: Most frustrating experience in a TES game

I get mad any time the sneaking mechanics in ESO don’t work like the main games. Because I always play an archer-thief lol.

That one fabricant machine puzzle in Tribunal.... oh man........ I had to look it up.

And also the final boss for Clockwork City was annoying. Don’t go to the Clockwork City!

24: Funniest experience in a TES game

Other than moments intended to be funny, I sometimes laugh whenever I miss a jump and end up dying from fall damage. It’s so ridiculous.

Dagoth Ur’s “What are you doing?!” when you first attack the Heart always gets a chuckle out of me too. He sounds so... upset and disappointed in you? Lol

25: Most badass moment in a TES game

The ending to ESO’s main quest was a rly big power fantasy moment for me.

Also more mundane, but I felt really cool and powerful when I got to the point in Morrowind where I could one shot kill cliff racers lol

26: Saddest experience in a TES game

The ESO side quest, “The Soul-Meld Mage” in Coldharbour. After that one, I had to step away for a bit.... man. It hurt my heart and I still feel so bad. That was a case in the game where I really felt impacted by how cruel and awful Molag Bal is. Like I *knew* but that quest played with my emotions and made it personal.

27: Favorite area/region

Valenwood from ESO. I spend all my time there, and sometimes go to Summerset or Vvardenfell lol.

28: Least favorite character

Vivec.

Also don’t like Maven-Black Briar. :I

29: In-game food item you want to eat the most

Sweetroll!

Also this one recipe for a beef dish I found in Valenwood sounded good. Maybe also the Sunrise Souffle mentioned in Skyrim?

30: If you could try skooma, would you?

No. Don’t do drugs, kids.

31: If you had the skills and resources to do a perfect cosplay of any TES character who would it be?

Probs Serana

32: Have you read any of the novels?

No, but I’ve been thinking about it!

33: Favorite class to play

Thief, or a thief-similar class like agent or rogue.

34: Which type of magic would you most like using?

Alteration seems the most useful for everyday life lol. But illusion would be fun.

35: Favorite weapon

I use bows all the time!

36: Favorite spell

Levitate from Morrowind - it’s so much fun to use!

37: Favorite artifact

Nerevar’s Moon-And-Star Ring. It’s cute lol and I like the lore behind it!

Also enjoy the Wabbajack because of how silly it is, and Dibella’s Brush of Truepaint.

38: You have awakened to find you’re in Tamriel. How do you react?

Because yeah I love TES but also the world of it is scary with gods and monsters constantly trying to kill you lol

39: Thoughts on ESO so far

I really enjoy the world and writing! But I’m still cranky over some moments where it’s an MMO and not a normal TES game :I

I also hate that we can’t have NPC companions. You really gonna give me a clockwork nix-hound named Snuffler and not let me travel with him? For shame.

40: Character you’d most like to hang out with

Nerevar, because I’m very awkward and shy and bad at peopleing and I would hope he could teach me how to improve lol.

But to actually hang out and chill, Marcurio would be pretty fun lol

#thank you!!!#asks #rucow

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recentanimenews · 5 years ago

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The 42 Greatest Anime Moments of Monkey D. Luffy

May 5 is the birthday of One Piece's main character Monkey D. Luffy, and over the past couple of decades of his existence, he's given us some moments that will stay in our minds forever. And so I've decided to chronicle 42 of his best ones, antics that will hopefully remind you how much you love the free-spirited, determined, ridiculous Birthday Best Boy. One note, though — while this list does contain some of those sweet, sweet fight scenes, I've already written a list that ranked his 20 greatest knockouts against bad guys. So, in order to not repeat that list entirely, I've tried to mix it up a little bit.

1. Luffy Wakes Up From A Great Nap

I can't think of a better anime debut for Monkey D. Luffy than "wakes up in the barrel that he miraculously survived a whirlpool in and immediately knocks out some pirates by accident." It's everything fun about the dude rolled into one.

2. Luffy Gets Coby To Hit Him

One thing that doesn't get mentioned enough about Luffy is his haphazard, yet skillful ingenuity. He knows that Koby will never get to join the Marines if he's associated with pirates, so Luffy, his one brain cell working overtime, gets Koby to punch him in order to prove that they're not friends because would friends brawl on the floor of a restaurant?

3. Luffy Gets The Straw Hat

A moment from the first chapter of the manga that was delayed until Episode 4 of the anime, Luffy getting the straw hat from Shanks is iconic. It sets in motion his entire journey and creates a symbol that represents freedom, adventure, and destiny.

4. Luffy Gives Nami The Straw Hat

Luffy giving Nami his straw hat is more than just a simple, comforting gesture. It's Luffy telling Nami that if she wants, she'll be a Straw Hat now and for the rest of her life. Nami may have problems, but she'll never have to deal with them alone ever again.

5. Luffy Gets His First Bounty

By gaining a bounty when he takes down Arlong, Luffy is introduced to the wider world of pirating, the World Government, and eventually the Grand Line. Though Buggy's reveal that he knew Shanks and Mihawk's appearance hinted at a wider world, this is Luffy's first real step into it.

6. Luffy Smiles At Death

Luffy obviously doesn't want to die. But as he smiles at the crowd and his crew while Buggy brings a sword down onto his neck, he grins. Because he didn't die in vain. He never became Pirate King and he never found the One Piece, but he did live his life exactly the way that he wanted to. And that's more important than any title or treasure. I'm glad he didn't die, though. They never would've found the Grand Line if Zoro had ascended to the role of Captain. They'd probably still be arguing in the Loguetown harbor.

7. Luffy Holds Up Hiriluk's Flag

Wapol wanted to destroy Hiriluk's flag and thus eliminate his legacy. But Luffy — smoking due to being recently shot by a cannon and holding up the flag — proved that's not something you can just do. As long as someone is there to fight for it, a flag is forever.

8. Luffy Disagrees With Vivi

Vivi, frustrated, enraged, and embarrassed about the treatment of her country, was more than ready to sacrifice herself for it ... and only herself. But Luffy wasn't hearing it. If she was going down, they were all going down. It wasn't just Vivi's fight anymore. The Straw Hats had reached Ride or Die status.

9. Luffy Beats Crocodile

I did a list of Luffy's best knockouts so I'm not gonna list every major punch here. However, the ones that are especially meaningful deserve recognition. And this one, where, after two defeats, Luffy battered Crocodile up through the streets of Alubarna, is inarguably one of the most memorable. It's a triumph that's a long time coming, equal parts brutal and satisfying.

10. Luffy Lets Himself Get Beat Up And Meets Blackbeard

Mirroring Shanks' restraint when he let himself get harassed by the Mountain Bandits, here we see Luffy decide not to fight Bellamy and instead he listens to Bellamy's foolish proclamations about why dreams suck and why you shouldn't have them and why Mylo Xyloto is the best Coldplay album, probably. However, even if he didn't need the pick-me-up, Blackbeard meets him outside to reaffirm that dreams never die. It would be a super nice remark ... if anyone but Blackbeard was saying it.

11. Luffy Is Immune To Enel

Until this point, Enel is borderline unstoppable, able to strike down anyone in his path and — with the help of his "mantra" — barely takes any damage in the process. And it's made him pretty cocky. But to see Enel's face distort in cartoonish disbelief when he realizes that Luffy is a Rubber Type Pokemon and that he's impervious to Electric Types is so joyously satisfying.

12. Luffy Decides To Get Rid Of The Going Merry

With the Going Merry slowly becoming unusable and actually becoming a handicap to the crew, Luffy figures that it's time to find a new ship. It's a sad moment, but you can't help but see Luffy's side. A good pirate crew needs a good pirate ship. And if the Going Merry suddenly sinks, Luffy is dead. Like very, very dead.

13. Luffy Faces Usopp

Usopp relates to the Going Merry, fearing that its "weakness" and "inadequacy" represents his own. And so when Luffy decides to get rid of the ship, Usopp lashes out, causing Luffy to have to "put down" Usopp. It's a difficult decision, but it shows that Luffy isn't all laughs and "I'm gonna be King of the Pirates!" declarations.

14. Luffy Does Not Recognize Sogeking

And then, after the most heartfelt showdown in the series, Luffy doesn't even recognize Usopp's Sogeking disguise, despite the fact that he has most of Usopp's traits, most of Usopp's weapons, and showed up only a little while after Usopp left. Oh, Luffy. Never stop being you.

15. Luffy Goes Second Gear

Power-ups are pretty common in anime. But Luffy saying that he needs to take his skills up another level so that he won't lose his friends still feels pretty special. And then the music kicks in and Luffy beats Blueno to a pulp and it's one of the most hype scenes in the entire series.

16. Luffy Declares War On The World

He'll always have a target on his back, he'll never be able to rest easy again, and the World Government will pursue him as long as he draws breath. Luffy knows this, but when the time comes to save Robin from CP9 in Enies Lobby, he doesn't hesitate to take on the whole world. It's just what friends do.

17. Luffy Refuses To Fall

When Luffy and Lucci fight, it isn't a quick contest. They go to absolute war on one another. And when Lucci thinks he's won, having left Luffy spitting up blood on the floor, we see that ... no. Luffy will not leave his feet. He has too much pride, too much grit, and too much determination. Defeat is not an option here. He will stop fighting to retrieve Robin when he's dead.

18. Luffy Is Reunited With Garp

For a long time, Luffy's actual flesh and blood family was a mystery. Shanks is kind of a cool uncle and Ace is someone that Luffy considers his brother, but where did Luffy, ya know, come from? As it turns out, his grandpa is the cannonball-throwing Marine Vice Admiral Garp, who is not only just as goofy as Luffy, but also really, really, really strong for being 76. What's his secret? Low carbs? Eiichiro Oda, please let me know.

19. Luffy Punches The Celestial Dragon

Luffy can't stand bullies or anyone that relishes the misery of others. So when a Celestial Dragon shoots Hatchan in the auctioneering house, Luffy walks right up to him and turns his face into a catcher's mitt.

20. Luffy Loses His Crew

Luffy's darkest hour (so far) comes when, in a fight with Kuma, Kizaru and the Pacifistas, his whole crew eventually gets wiped out and spread across the world. All the while, Luffy is powerless to stop it — his Gum Gum skills no match for Kuma's abilities. It's a truly pitiable thing to see Luffy beat his fists on the ground in futility, something entirely unlike any scene in the series before.

21. Luffy Covers Sandersonia

Back in Little Garden, Luffy agreed it wasn't necessary to actually have a reason for the fight between the giants. They were having an honorable contest between warriors. That was enough. Later when Sandersonia's scars were about to be revealed after a battle, Luffy covered them up. He had no interest in killing them or exposing their secrets. That is not what the battle was for. The contest was simply one that he wanted to win so he'd eventually get back to his crew.

22. Luffy Decides To Save His Brother Before Reuniting With His Crew

When Luffy learns that Ace is to be put to death, he must make a choice: Get the gang back together or dive into the depths of Impel Down and try to rescue his brother. He ends up choosing the latter, which shows a great deal of trust and respect for his crewmates. He knows they're strong enough to be OK without him for now.

23. Luffy Embraces Mr. 2

This is just plain wholesome. Luffy's love for his friends is might be the best thing about him.

24.Luffy Falls From The Sky

Luffy's story isn't just about his quest to find the One Piece, but the formation of a legend. And when Luffy and the other Impel Down escapees plummet from the sky into the Marineford war, you can practically see that legend being written.

25. Luffy Faces The Admirals

Yes, Luffy's attempts to kick a frozen log at them goes nowhere. And yes, Luffy is almost immediately knocked down by Kizaru when he tries to rush past him. But the guts in that kid! Facing down three of the most powerful men in the One Piece universe and demanding they give Ace back to him. That is moxie, my dudes.

26. Luffy Goes Comatose

Ace is dead. The mission has failed. A brother is lost. And all Luffy can do is go numb and lifeless. He has no words or actions to explain or react. A chunk of his soul has been ripped away.

27. Luffy Realizes He Still Has His Friends

Yes, his attempt to save Ace was a bust. But in the most hopeless of times, Jimbei asks him what he still has. And Luffy remembers he still has his friends — friends he has been there for in the past and who will most certainly be there for him later. They are still there. And because they are still there, Luffy's existence has worth.

28. Luffy Gets An Upgrade

Reuniting with his crew in Sabaody, it doesn't take too long for Luffy to find a way to show off the results of two years of training. He's been doing some grinding, so his skill tree has some new branches. He's unlocked some new abilities, and he's reached his evolved form. When a Pacifista comes at the Monster Trio (Luffy, Zoro, and Sanji,) they beat the bear out of it.

29. Luffy Decides To Make Fish-Man Island His Territory

For the most part, Luffy doesn't really care about the dominance sought by other powerful characters. But after he's gotten to know the citizens of Fish-Man Island and he sees the terror caused by Big Mom, he tells her straight-up he's gonna defeat her and take Fish-Man Island under his protection. It's the closest that Luffy has ever gotten to being a character in Goodfellas.

30. Luffy Allies With Law

And then, shortly after talking trash to Big Mom, Luffy teams up with Trafalgar Law in a plot to overthrow Kaido, another Emperor of the Sea. It's a real leap forward for Luffy. One day, you're just a kid from East Blue punching everyone that seems mean. The next, you're taking an active role in changing the power structure of the entire world. That's just how it is sometimes, though. As Logic once said, "Who can relate?"

31. Luffy Has Been "Picking Fights All Along"

Luffy knows he doesn't just tumble from one situation to another. He isn't just a poor guy caught up in the gambits of powerful evil forces. No, Luffy has definitely chosen to live a life where he will interfere with your best-laid plans if he feels inclined to. And if that includes a lot of fighting, well, so be it.

32. Luffy Reunites With Sabo

It's been pretty much non-stop action since the beginning of the Post Time Skip era, and that hasn't really allowed for a ton of emotional moments for Luffy. But when he reunites with Sabo in the coliseum and his scream comes out as a mix of happiness, confusion, and surprise, he finally gets one. Cry it out, buddy. We love ya.

33. Luffy And His Allies Head For Doflamingo

From orchestrating a breakout in Impel Down to creating a charge toward Doflamingo with all the allies he met in the tournament to win the Flame-Flame Fruit, Luffy has slowly gone from being the captain of a small crew on a ship with an animal head on the front to being the full-on leader of a Pirate Alliance. Luffy 2020 is what I say.

34. Luffy Goes Fourth Gear

Years after the reveal of Second and Third Gear, we get Fourth Gear, a power-up that even more freakishly transforms Luffy's body. It's not graceful, nor is it particularly beautiful to behold, but it gets the job done.

35. Luffy Beats Doflamingo

Doflamingo — a man that's been a thorn in the side of nearly everyone in the world for about 15 years of anime history — finally gets taken down. And still, it's only a stepping stone to Wano. Somehow, Eiichiro Oda creates these moments that seem like the biggest events in history, and yet, they're only just the beginning.

36. Luffy Refuses To Fight Sanji

Luffy knows Sanji is conflicted and not really a bad guy. And he's also aware of the fact that he'll be creating an even bigger issue if he fights back against his chef. So he just takes the kicks, hoping Sanji sees there's another way out of this. Sadly, it'll be a few episodes before he realizes that.

37. Luffy Waits For Sanji — And Then Punches — Sanji

Sanji finding Luffy because his captain's stomach is grumbling super loud is so cartoonish and lovely — because what is Sanji's role if not to feed his captain? Of course, Luffy enjoys Sanji's rain-soaked cookin' and then he punches Sanji for still being a twerp that won't admit what he really feels.

38. Luffy Clashes With Big Mom

Luffy stood beside Whitebeard, but this is his first real showdown with a Yonko. And it doesn't go very well. Big Mom is easily able to block him, which shows that, while Luffy has come a long way, he's still got a bit farther to go.

39. Luffy Places The Hat On Katakuri

Much like the previous covering of Sandersonia's shame, Luffy covers Katakuri's mouth with his hat after their duel. The two combatants fought and earned each other's respect. And so Luffy leaves Katakuri with his pride.

40. Luffy Knows He's Arrived In Wano Due To The Swords

That giant baboon is using a sword? Obviously this must be Wano, the land of samurai. That's Luffy logic at its most pure.

41. Luffy Promises Tama She Will Not Be Hungry Again

For the most part, heading to Wano seemed like a pretty impersonal act. The only reason he thought about going there in the first place was because Law seemed pretty confident it was a solid idea. But then he meets Tama and learns that she — along with most of the country — is starving. So his journey to take down Kaido gets some personal stakes. He's now shouldering the hopes of an entire group of people.

42. Luffy Is Beaten By Kaido

OK, so Round 1 didn't go so well. Luffy pummeled Kaido with everything he had and Kaido one-shotted him with a melee weapon attack. Luffy has to rethink his strategy and expand his move-set and maybe, with some luck, Round 2 will be a tad more even. I can't wait to see what Luffy moments we have in store when One Piece returns!

What is your favorite Luffy moment? Do any on this list stand out to you? Let me know in the comments!

Daniel Dockery is a Senior Staff Writer for Crunchyroll. Follow him on Twitter!

Do you love writing? Do you love anime? If you have an idea for a features story, pitch it to Crunchyroll Features!

By: [email protected]

#Anime #News #Latest in Anime News by Crunchyroll!

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kinetic-elaboration · 4 years ago

Text

August 28: 1x12 The Menagerie Part Two

Spock commits mutiny part two, where I realize I forgot some important stuff about this episode. Oh well.

Kirk’s personal log??? Is that like his diary lol?

I know it’s just a previously on segment but I don’t even care. The one thing this episode is missing is enough Kirk. Also I enjoy how he goes out of his way to mention he’s watching footage “of Spock in those days.”

Spock is not good at sounding apologetic. That is the least sorry I’m sorry I’ve ever heard.

The aesthetics of The Cage are SO dated.

Space vehicle??

Pike is a pretty hilarious specimen. “I know what telepathy is!!” And yet he continues to do exactly what they predict even as he can hear them predicting it.

“Buzzing about.”

“Hand lasers.”

So apparently there are literally “thousands” of Talosians. (”Thousands of us are reading his mind.”) Like, can you imagine if we could have seen that?

Pike just lacks charisma tbh. He couldn’t have carried this show.

“Brilliant deduction”--lol okay, Spock. I’d say it was pretty obvious that he’s in an elaborate illusion but I appreciate your unerring love for your Captain.

I agree with my mom’s assessment that there should have been a dragon in this medieval fantasy

Honestly, this sequence is so bizarre, because this is the pilot to a sci fi show but this set piece is a random medieval fantasy, with a castle and a princess. Like you’re going to show us new planets and aliens and stuff and you choose.... fake medieval?

Love Vina just in the background uselessly hitting this guy with a stick.

Spock: “Simply answering your questions outright would not provide the necessary Drama, so I decline.”

Reminds me of “You will... answer me.”

Lol at Vina’s “I’m here to please you” line. Pike is in fact there to please HER. That’s the whole point of him.

Pike trying to figure out what the Talosians get out of watching humans’ fantasies, and I feel like he’s one censor away from asking, “Is this a sex fantasy of theirs?”

Ridiculous giant sci fi gun.

Number One has blue painted nails.

“We can’t be sure of anything we do or anything we see.”

I totally forgot the Talosians’ backstory. One of my favorite Star Trek variants: they destroyed themselves, and then became something else as they adapted.

I know Pike is trying not to be too distracted by the Talosians as he realizes how to stop the thought intrusion--but he is actually being told important information about Vina lol.

The Talosians just really like humans! Perhaps.... more similar to the Talosians than humans would like to admit?

The fakery of this farm background.

Horsie!

Chris Pike, the perfect man? I mean to each her own lol.

“Orion slave girl” is such an awkward concept lol... Hard pass on that. It does make me miss Gaila and feel really bitter we didn’t get a proper back story on her.

Love Pike’s necklace in this fantasy though.

THE WOMEN!

Poor Vina, cock-blocked by the new women.

No cell service! Damn.

Or the illusion of no cell service.

“Number One is very smart and the redhead is very horny.”

“They don’t mean to be evil.”

I appreciate how Roddenberry really worked through all of the implications, or a lot of varied implications at least, of the power-of-illusion concept. Not just the fake survivors of the various set pieces, but the illusion punishments, the crew not being able to see their own successful use of their weapons, the Talosian turning into a gorilla, etc.

So they find Spock guilty and then just like continue having the trial anyway I guess.

I know the transporter system is still blocked but I don’t really think Pike needs to bargain that hard. I think he just really wants to leave Starfleet and stay with Vina tbh.

A twist! They didn’t realize humans hate captivity. How awkward. I guess they have reason to fear beings who are too violent, as they themselves were too violent once.

I don’t know why I thought they wanted the people to work underground (getting it confused with What Are Little Girls Made Of??) but I guess they wanted them to rebuild the surface. Which somehow makes a difference to me.

“No apology?” / “You have condemned the Talosian race to death. Isn’t that enough?”

Woah wait what.

I COMPLETELY forgot this part. Completely forgot Jose was an illusion. I remembered there was something fake about the court martial but not that the something was....everything actually. He really was just doing it ALL for the sake of the drama.

Spock’s a good actor.

“He is welcome to spend the rest of his life with us unfettered by his physical body.”

“I’ve been completely logical.” Yeah, right, okay.

How did Pike get down there so fast lol? Did the Talosians beam him down from right outside the door?

Okay, so. There’s still some stuff that needs untangling. I feel like I don’t entirely understand why Spock went to ALL the trouble he did to set up the fake court martial. I guess he knew that Kirk would follow him, and he wanted him distracted so, if the Talosians’ transmissions to Mendez didn’t work to get him special permission, Kirk wouldn’t get in trouble. Like, he’d have been bamboozled by the Talosians too? Alternately, he didn’t know Kirk would follow him (since I still think he seemed surprised when the vessel didn’t turn back), and the Talosians were initially only supposed to broadcast to the colony. But that doesn’t entirely explain why the Mendez illusion was on the shuttle. Perhaps to try to convince him to turn back?

Also... the only way the Talosians could have known Pike was injured is if Spock reached out and told them. Which is honestly a conversation I would have loved to hear.

And finally, why did the Talosians want Pike back? I feel like it had to be just compassion, both for him and for Vina. They have already decided people aren’t good successors to the planet. They can’t be trusted, and they wouldn’t be happy. And even if they had changed their mind and wanted their alleged human colony--Pike’s not going to father any children now. (Which is honestly probably part of why he’s allowed to go--the Federation can make a single exception for him without running the risk of some kind of accidental human colony being created on a forbidden planet.) But they still took care of Vina, and she still needs a companion. So why not Pike?

Also, not finally, one more thing. The Talosians realize they might really die out now, but they don’t want to form alliances with the Federation, and the Federation doesn’t ever want to communicate with them again, and ultimately, I have decided I do think this makes sense. If the Talosians could use people as just inferior labor--”directing” their activities, giving them whatever they want, but not treating them as equals in any way--then the people could live happy lives working for their own and the Talosians’ benefit, without ever learning or even asking for skills or knowledge the Talosians don’t want to give. But if they interact with the Federation as equals, in a negotiation setting, that opens up the possibility that humans or other aliens would want to learn the skill of illusion, or might inevitably learn it in some way. I mean what I’m saying is it doesn’t matter how obviously dangerous it is, there is gonna be SOME bozo out there who’s like “well maybe it will be different this time” and insist on picking up the skill.

Overall, this is a great episode, but I will say, the CONCEPT of The Cage specifically is better than the execution. Jeffrey Hunter just wasn’t a charismatic, relatable, lovable main character, and the show wouldn’t have worked with him. Sorry, Jeffrey. So in a way I liked Part One better because there was more Spock and I enjoyed all of his manipulations and lying.

Next up: The Conscience of the King, one of the first TOS eps I ever saw.

#star trek tos #the year 2020 #2020: star trek #2020: fandom thoughts

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smokeybrandreviews · 4 years ago

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The King of Iron Fist

I don’t talk about this much but i am a massive, massive, fan of fighting games. I’ve been playing these things for decades, since all the way back in ‘92 with the release of the original Mortal Kombat. Watching the growth, decline, and then resurgence of the fighting game community has been a goddamn treat for me. Admittedly, i suck at the Capcom titles. Absolutely terrible. I do okay with the Rival Schools franchise, but outside of that, straight up balls, man. Never my forte. I’m pretty good with the original MK trilogy, the sprite based one, but absolutely awful with Deadly Alliance through Deception. I hated the fighting styles in those games. They were so goddamn awful, it was sickening. I do okay with the MKIX, MKX, and MKXI titles, though. They feel like the old games which lends itself to my old timey skill set. That said, my strength lies with the two Namco headliners; Tekken and Soul Calibur.

I mastered every Tekken title through 7, though, admittedly, I'm not so godly in the newest release, only great. Personally. For me, Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection is the title I'm best with. I love that game, man. I can use literally everyone in the roster to perfection. All of their moves. All of their ten-hits. I maxed out my rank in the Ghost Battles with several of the characters and ranked in the top-10, worldwide, leader boards when it was first released. I was feeling a bit nostalgic and wanted to revisit my favorite fighting franchise, giving a little love to my favorite fighters, kind of like how i did with my Persona 5 mains. They are ranked, top to bottom, in order of my skill with them. I even threw in the rank i reached in their respective Tekken games, just for good measure. Since 6 is the last one i really spent any time with and there might be a few characters introduced in 7 or, like, the Tag titles that I'm pretty good with but don’t really have a correlation in rank, I'll have to approximate my skill with a Tekken 6 rank, just to keep things equal.

1. Emilie De Rochefort - Tekken 5 - Tekken God

Lili is my main from 5 onward. Her speed, power, and cross-ups are ridiculous. There is a fluidity to her style that makes for an amazing number of possibilities. All of those flips, somersaults, and hopping knee pokes make for a varying arsenal of devastating stuns. If you can time your attacks right, you can string one, long ass, chain of hits that will deplete an enemy with a Perfect within seconds. Her strength carried over into Tekken 6, easily winning me over in that title, too. I haven’t played much of 7 but what i did get into, Lili feels a little nerfed. She just feels a bit slower than she should. That’s not a problem or whatever, but it is kind of annoying that have to have so many gaps in my assault.

2. Hwoarang - Tekken 3 - Tekken God

Hwoarang was my main for years. He was the very first character that i mastered in any Tekken title. See, my older brother would come over with his PlayStation and commence to beat my ass in Tekken 3 for hours. One day, he told me to actually get good and lent me his Sony for a week. Welp, i did just that. I got good. Real f*cking good. Hwoarang uses Tae Kwon Do, which is dope because it’s easy to combo with, but this dude’s strength is in his juggle potential. His kicks lack the power of his master, Baek Doo San, but they come out faster and in more numbers. Within that week, i was able to string together a flurry of devastating kicks that not even my big brother could counter. Twenty-three years later, he still hasn’t beat me in a single game. If Lili isn’t available, Hwoarang is my guy. Even so, i am probably equally skilled with both, i just prefer the stylish flourish my darling Emilie has with her style.

3. Steve Fox - Tekken 4 - Tekken God

Steve was a quandary when he first released. Dude has no kicks and it was ridiculous to see in a game with such an expansive roster of fighters like Tekken, especially in the fourth iteration. His addition was ridiculous to me. And then i tried him. My, god, was his speed stupid. See, in a fighter like this, speed kills. If you can bust a quick combo, maybe juggle a cat, maybe fired off a quick combo before retreating out of counter range, you can destroy an opponent in seconds. That’s why i love Lili. That’s why i love Hwoarang. Steve Fox has that same potential but it’s different. You can’t launch characters too easily and being a puncher, his reach is limited, but you can juggle the f*ck out of them if they end up airborne. Steve has a lot of weapons to f*ck you up in a near infinite juggle if you’re not careful and i know all of them. Interestingly enough, he’s gotten better with age. I prefer his 5 version but 6 and 7 are pretty beefy, too.

4. Kazuya Mishima - Tekken - Tekken Lord

Kazuya is my power hitter. I’m a speed guy, admittedly. I love the juggle. I love the chains. I love the artistry in forging a string of consecutive, devastating, combo hits. The issue is, there are motherf*ckers like Paul Phoenix who can punch a planet into retrograde in this game. Now, against a computer, I'm fine with my main three Tekken Gods. I’ll dog walk a computer, no matter how high the difficulty. Once you’ve beaten Jinpachi on the highest setting in Tekken 5, you are ready for anything. However, against a real person who knows how to use a power character like the f*cking bears or goddamn Jack? Nah. If they’re good with that heavy-hitter, i have to bring in my own and Kazuya is that ringer. Dude’s probably the second strongest character in the the game after his pops, Heihachi Mishima. The difference? Kazuya’s cross ups are f*cking ridiculous. All of that twirling and overhead kicks make for some confusing hurt when you know how to execute.

5. Eliza - Tekken 7 - Tekken Lord

Eliza was an interesting character for me to pick up. I was curious about her so i bought that money pit Tekken Revolution or whatever. I hated that game so much but i played enough Eliza to feel borderline conceited in my ability. Imagine my elation when my darling drowsy vampire made her cannon appearance in Tekken 7. Again, i didn’t play much, but i did find that my Revolution skills translated well and i was even able to pick up a few new tricks. Eliza, admittedly, is super wonky to master, she’s similar to Alisa Bosconovitch that way, but her mix ups are superb. If you put in the time, Eliza is a very rewarding character to play.

6. Marshall Law - Tekken - Tekken Lord

The elder Law is my guy. I’m a sucker for a Bruce Lee facsimile and Marshall is one of the best out there. He has a good combination of speed and power but it’s his mix ups that endear him to my heart. That and i learned how to play with him because Forest Law, Lee’s son, was the character my brother beat my ass so handily with for months in Tekken 3. I learned Forest out of spite but, when his pops returned in 4, i made sure to master that version, as well. Over time, i grew to love playing with Marshall. He has a very unique, very acrobatic and showy style, like his real life inspiration.

7. Jun Kazama - Tekken - Tekken Lord

Jun ain’t no joke. That Kazama style martial art is something nasty. I could have probably put Asuka here, i am about as good with her as i am Jun considering how similar their styles are, but i have to give respect to the original tooth fairy. Jun Kazama is a f*cking problem, man, She’s deceptively powerful but quick with those hands. She will poke the f*ck out of you with such insidious precision, you won’t even realize you died even after the match is called. The way her blows flow make for some unwieldy mix ups and stupid juggle stuns. I hated fighting her in 2. I hated fighting her even more in the Tag titles. But i love fighting WITH her, especially if you can master that funky timing she has.

8. Lee Chaolan - Tekken 4 - Tekken Lord

Lee is bit of a detraction form my usual fighting fare. He’s kind of a gag character. A little effeminate and a little cruel, Lee’s kicks are the real deal. This cat sends those footsy out at blinding speed and you know how much i love my speed. The thing is, he lacks the power of, say, Hwoarang, Baek, or Bruce. I actually picked up Lee n 4, then Violet, on a whim because i thought it would be funny to beat someone with a character i had no idea how to play. After that first round, though, i was on it.Dude felt good in my hands. I knew Lee was something special and spent the rest of the night with his pokey kicks and flying drop kicks. It was f*cking incredible. I couldn’t believe i slept on such an amazing character for so long. I went back to Tekken 2 and spent weeks with him just to get a proper feel from start to finish. Now, he’s a staple of my rotation. Only when I'm feeling flamboyant, though.

9. Devil Kazuya - Tekken 2 - Dragon Lord

I picked up Devil Kazuya way back in Tekken 2 because i liked the design. Also, the face laser. That sh*t was stupid. As time went on, and the games advanced, i always went back to Tekken 2 in an effort to hone my skills with the original Devil. To my surprise, when Tekken 7 dropped, Devil Kazuya was playable once again and my skills translated perfectly. Dude has a few new tricks and i immediately ate those f*ckers up but it felt so good taking to the air once more. It sucks he only has two, official, appearances but this is one of those cats that i played a lot with in the Tag titles. Like, SO much. Devi was my second choice after Hwoarang in the original Tekken Tag and, like, my fourth in Tekken Tag 2. Obviously, I'm just as good with Angel, too. I mean, they’re the same f*cking character so i better be!

10. Anna Williams - Tekken 2 - Dragon Lord

Oh, the Williams sisters. Similar to the case of Jun and Asuka, I'm probably equally as good with both the Williams but Anna is my preferred character. I just like her design better. That and her deceptive ass sexuality. Anna is gorgeous but she will f*ck you the f*ck up. The Williams sisters are power characters and you can’t tell me otherwise. These chicks will ruin your life as a fast as Paul Phoenix if you’re facing off against someone who knows how to use them. I know how to use them very well. Again, Anna over Nina, but I'll mess you up regardless.

11. Zafina - Tekken 6 - Dragon Lord

Zafina was a surprise. Her style is all over the place. I read somewhere it was designed after a snake or something. That sh*t is fitting because she is a slippery motherf*cker, man. Zafina took me a while to master, kind of like Eliza, but once you understand her strengths, this chick can be a proper powerhouse. She’s quick, juggles well, but pokes like a f*cking champ. If your poke game is strong with her, there’s a good chance you can stun lock an opponent into a perfect or two.

12. Devil Jin - Tekken 5 - Dragon Lord

Admittedly, i wanted to put Jin from Tekken 3 on this list. His mixture of Kazama and Mishima style martial arts is mad potent. I love the way dude plays. It’s like fighting with Jun and Kazuya at the same time. However, with the release of Tekken 4, Jin unlearned literally everything about the Mishima style and decided to master normal karate. That sh*t was whack, man. I mean, it was fine, i learned the new Jin fine, but it wasn’t MY Jin. That said, my Jin was in the game, only he took the form of a devil. Devil Jin is f*cking ridiculous. I understood a lot of his abilities because of my mastery of Devil Kazuya but, with the addition of the Kazama style martial arts, Devil Jin was a f*cking beast in that game. He’s kind of a beast in every game he makes an appearance. between the two, i prefer Devil Kazuya, but I'll wreck a guy with Jin if necessary.

13. Bryan Fury - Tekken Tag Tournament - Dragon Lord

I love Bryan Fury. The design, the inspiration, the brutal fighting style, that ridiculously evil laugh; Dude is just amazing. I got pretty good with Bruce Irvin in Tekken 2 so when he wasn’t around in Tekken 3, i was a little bummed. It took awhile for me to pick of Fury, i actually first really got into the character in Tag but i did fool around with him in 3 a little bit. That was after i was surprised by how effortlessly powerful he was in Tag. Dude ain’t Bruce, but he’s still pretty dope.

Honorable Mentions: Unknown, Armor King, Ling Xiaoyu, Alisa Bosconovitch, Heihachi Mishima, Bruce Irvin, Kazumi Mishima, Miguel Caballero Rojo, Josie Rizal, Eddy Gordo

#Tekken #Mishima Zaibatsu #G Corporation

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smokeybrand · 4 years ago

Text

The King of Iron Fist

I don’t talk about this much but i am a massive. massive fan of fighting games. I’ve been playing these things for decades, since all the way back in ‘92 with the release of the original Mortal Kombat. Watching the growth, decline, and then resurgence of the fighting game community has been a goddamn treat for me. Admittedly, i suck at the Capcom titles. Absolutely terrible. I do okay with the Rival Schools franchise, but outside of that, straight up balls, man. Never my forte. I’m pretty good with the original MK trilogy, the sprite based one, but absolutely awful with Deadly Alliance through Deception. I hated the fighting styles in those games. They were so goddamn awful, it was sickening. I do okay with the MKIX, MKX, and MKXI titles, though. They feel like the old games which lends itself to my old timey skill set. That said, my strength lies with the two Namco headliners; Tekken and Soul Calibur.

I mastered every Tekken title through 7, though, admittedly, I'm not so godly in the newest release, just great. Personally. For me, Tekken 5: Dark Resurrection is the title I'm best with. I love that game, man. I can use literally everyone in the roster to perfection. All of their moves. All of their ten-hits. I maxed out my rank in the Ghost Battles with several of the characters and ranked in the top-10, worldwide, leader boards when it was first released. I was feeling a bit nostalgic and wanted to revisit my favorite fighting franchise, giving a little love to my favorite fighters, kind of like how i did with my Persona 5 mains. They are ranked, top to bottom, in order of my skill with them. I even threw in the rank i reached in their respective Tekken games, just for good measure. Since 6 is the last one i really spent any time with and there might be a few characters introduced in 7 or, like, the Tag titles that I'm pretty good with but don’t really have a correlation in rank, I'll have to approximate my skill with a Tekken 6 rank, just to keep things equal.

Emilie De Rochefort - Tekken 5 Dark - Tekken God

Lili is my main from 5 onward. Her speed, power, and cross-ups are ridiculous. There is a fluidity to her style that makes for an amazing number of possibilities. All of those flips, somersaults, and hopping knee pokes make for a varying arsenal of devastating stuns. If you can time your attacks right, you can string one, long ass, chain of hits that will deplete an enemy with a perfect within seconds. Her strength carried over into Tekken 6, easily winning me over in that title, too. I haven’t played much of 7 but what i did get into, Lili feels a little nerfed. She just feels a bit slower than she should. That’s not a problem or whatever, but it is kind of annoying that have to have so many gaps in my assault.

Hwoarang - Tekken 3 - Tekken God

Hwoarang was my main for years. He was the very first character that i mastered in any Tekken title. See, my older brother would come over with his PlayStation and commence to beat my ass in Tekken 3 for hours. One day, he told me to actually get good and lent me his Sony for a week. Welp, i did just that. I got good. Real f*cking good. Hwoarang uses Tae Kwon Do, which is dope because it’s easy to combo with, but this dude’s strength is in his juggle potential. His kicks lack the power of his master, Baek Doo San, but they come out faster and in more numbers. Within that week, i was able to string together a flurry of devastating kicks that not even my bog brother could counter. Twenty-three years later, he still hasn’t beat me in a single game. If Lili isn’t available, Hwoarang is my guy. Even so, i am probably equally skilled with both, i just prefer the stylish flourish my darling Emilie has with her style.

Steve Fox - Tekken 4 - Tekken God

Steve was a quandary when he first released. Dude has no kicks and it was ridiculous to see in a game with such an expansive roster of fighters like Tekken, especially in the fourth iteration. His addition was ridiculous to me. And then i tried him. My, god, was his speed stupid. See, in a fighter like this, speed kills. If you can bust a quick combo, maybe juggle a cat, you can destroy an opponent in seconds. That’s why i love Lili. That’s why i love Hwoarang. Steve Fox has that same potential but it’s different. You can’t launch characters too easily but you can juggle the f*ck out of them if they end up airborne. Steve has a lot of weapons to f*ck you up in a near infinite juggle if you’re not careful and i know all of them. Interestingly enough, he’s gotten better with age. I prefer his 5 version but 6 and 7 are pretty beefy, too.

Kazuya Mishima - Tekken - Tekken Lord

Kazuya is my power hitter. I’m a speed guy, admittedly. I love the juggle. I love the chains. I love the artistry in forging a string of consecutive, devastating, combo hits. The issue is, there are motherf*ckers like Paul Phoenix who can punch a planet into retrograde in this game. Now, against a computer, I'm fine with my main three Tekken Gods. I’ll dog walk a computer, no matter how high the difficulty. Once you’ve beaten Jinpachi on the highest setting in Tekken 5, you are ready for anything. However, against a real person who knows how to used a power character like the f*cking bears or goddamn Jack? Nah. If they’re good with that heavy-hitter, i have to bring in my own and Kazuya is that ringer. Dude’s probably the second strongest character in the the game after his pops, Heihachi Mishima. The difference? Kazuya’s cross ups are f*cking ridiculous. All of that twirling and over head kicks make for some confusing hurt when you know how to execute.

Eliza - Tekken 7 - Tekken Lord

Eliza was an interesting character for me to pick up. I was curious about her so i bought that money pit Tekken Revolution or whatever. I hated that game so much but i played enough Eliza to fell borderline conceited in my ability. Imagine my elation when my darling drowsy vampire made her cannon appearance in Tekken 7. Again, i didn’t play much, but i did find that my Revolution skills translated well and i was even able to pick up a few new tricks. Eliza, admittedly, is super wonky to master, she’s similar to Alisa Bosconovitch that way, but her mix ups are superb. If you put in the time, Eliza is a very rewarding character to play.

Marshall Law - Tekken - Tekken Lord

The elder Law is my guy. I’m a sucker for a Bruce Lee facsimile and Marshall is one of the best out there. He has a good mix of speed and power but it’s his mix ups that endear him to my heart. That and i learned how to play with him because Forest Law, Lee’s son, was the character my brother beat my ass so handily with for months in Tekken 3. I learned Forest out of spite but, when his pops returned in 4, i made sure it master that version, as well. Over time, i grew to love playing with Marshall. He has a very unique, very acrobatic and showy style, like his real life inspiration.

Jun Kazama - Tekken - Tekken Lord

Jun ain’t no joke. That Kazama style martial art is something nasty. I could have probably put Asuka here, i am about as good with her as i am Jun considering how similar their styles are, but i have to give respect to the original tooth fairy. Jun Kazama is a f*cking problem, man, She’s deceptively powerful but quick with those hands. The way her blows flow make for some unwieldy mix ups and stupid juggle stuns. I hated fighting her in 2. I hated fighting her even more in the Tag titles. But i love fighting WITH her, especially if you can master that funky timing she has.

Lee Chaolan - Tekken 4 - Tekken Lord

Lee is bit of a detraction form my usual fighting fare. He’s kind of a gag character. A little effeminate and a little cruel, Lee’s kicks are the real deal. This cat send those footsy out at blinding speed and you know how much i love my speed. The thing is, he lacks the power of, say, Hwoarang, Baek, or Bruce. I actually picked up Lee n 4, then Violet, on a whim because i thought it would be funny to beat someone with a character i had n idea how to play. After that first round, though, i was on it. I knew Lee was something special and spent the rest of the night with his pokey kicks and flying drop kicks. It was f*cking incredible. I couldn’t believe i slept on such an amazing character for so long. I went back to Tekken 2 and spent weeks with the character just to get a proper feel with I'm from start to finish. Now, he’s one that’s in my rotation. When I'm feeling flamboyant.

Devil Kazuya - Tekken 2 - Dragon Lord

I picked up Devil Kazuya way back in Tekken 2 because i liked the design. Also, the face laser. That sh*t was stupid. As time went on, and the games advanced, i always went back to Tekken 2 in an effort to hone my skills with the original Devil. To my surprise, when Tekken 7 dropped, Devil Kazuya was playable once again and my skills translated perfectly. Due has a few new tricks and i immediately ate those f*cker up but it felt so good taking to the air once more. It sucks he only has two, official, appearances but this is one of those cats that i played a lot with in the Tag titles. Like, SO much. Devi was my second choice after Hwoarang in the original Tekken Tag and, like, my fourth in Tekken Tag 2. Obviously, I'm just as good with Angel, too. I mean, they’re the same f*cking character so i better be!

Anna Williams - Tekken 2 - Dragon Lord

Zafina - Tekken 6 - Dragon Lord

Devil Jin - Tekken 5 - Dragon Lord

Admittedly, i wanted to put Jin from Tekken 3 on this list. His mixture of Kazama and Mishima style martial arts is mad potent. I love the way dude plays. It’s like fighting with Jun and Kazuya at the same time. However, with the release of Tekken 4, Jin unlearned literally everything about the Mishima style and decided to master normal karate. That sh*t was whack, man. I mean, it was fine, i learned the new Jin fine, but it was MY Jin. That said, my Jin was in the game, only he took the form of a devil. Devil Jin is f*cking ridiculous. I understood a lot of his abilities because of my mastery of Devil Kazuya but, with the addition of the Kazama style martial arts, Devil Jin was a f*cking beast in that game. He’s kind of a beast in every game he makes an appearance. between the two, i prefer Devil Kazuya, but I'll wreck a guy with Jin if necessary.

Bryan Fury - Tekken Tag Tournament - Dragon Lord

I love Bryan Fury. The design, the inspiration, the brutal fighting style, that ridiculously evil laugh; Dude is just amazing. I got pretty good with Bruce Irvin in Tekken 2 so when he wasn’t around in Tekken 3, i was a little bummed. It took awhile for me to pick of Fury, actually i first really got into the character in Tag. I fooled around with him in 3, sure, but that was after i was surprised by how effortlessly powerful he was in Tag. Dude ain’t Bruce, but he’s still pretty dope.

Honorable Mentions: Unknown, Armor King, Ling Xiaoyu, Alisa Bosconovitch, Heihachi Mishima, Bruce Irvin, Kazumi Mishima, Miguel Caballero Rojo, Josie Rizal, Eddy Gordo

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imdoingthismspaintadventure · 5 years ago

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Worm 1.6 - In which we meet futuristic techno Dredd

II heard the cape arrive on his souped up motorcycle. I didn’t want to be seen fleeing the scene of a fight, and risk being labeled one of the bad guys by yet another person, but I wasn’t about to get closer to the street either, in case Lung was feeling better. Since there was nowhere to go, I just stayed put. Just resting felt good.

Yeah it’s better you stay and try to explain what went down. Fleeing after all this..wouldn’t be a good look. And let’s try to stay far away from the knocked-out fire demon while we’re at it.

If you’d asked me just a few hours ago about how I thought I would feel meeting a big name superhero, I would have used words like excited and giddy. The reality was that I was almost too exhausted to care.

You have experienced a loooot of things just today girl. It’s not everyday you get into a life or death fight and then meet some people of dubious character, all in the span of like 20 minutes. Shame your first encounter with a bona-fide superhero is in a situation like this.

It looked as though he flew up onto the roof, but the six-foot long weapon the man held kind of jerked as he landed. I was pretty sure I saw the tines of a grappling hook retreating back into the end of the weapon. So this was what Armsmaster looked like in person, I thought.

Armsmaster! So...master of weapons? He seems to have a pretty badass one in one arm, which seems to have multiple uses. Good old Grappling Hooks! The way for grounded super heroes to keep up with flight-types!

The largest superhero organization in the world was the Protectorate, spanning Canada and the States, with ongoing talks about including Mexico in the deal. It was a government sponsored league of superheroes with a base in each ‘cape city’. That is, they had a team set up in each city with a sizable population of heroes and villains. Brockton Bay’s team was officially ‘The Protectorate East-North-East’, and were headquartered in the floating, forcefield-shrouded island that you could see from the Boardwalk. This guy, Armsmaster, was the guy in charge of the local team. When the core group of the top Protectorate members from around Canada and the States assembled in that classic ‘v’ formation for the photo shoots, Armsmaster was one of the guys in the wings. This was a guy who had his own action figures. Poseable Armsmaster with interchangeable Halberd parts.

Wooaaah. So he’s a really big shot! Leader of the local Protectorate which seems to be this universe’s version of the Avengers/Justice League/big main hero organization. He lives in that badass flying fortess! And seems to be pretty marketable as well. Meeting him in the flesh like this in your first day, woah .

He really did look like a superhero, not like some guy in a costume. It was an important distinction. He wore body armor, dark blue with silver highlights, had a sharply angled v-shaped visor covering his eyes and nose. With only the lower half of his face exposed, I could see a beard trimmed to trace the edges of his jaw. If I had to judge, with only the lower half of his face to go by, I’d guess he was in his late twenties or early thirties.

High-tech superhero armor and professional gear! Sweet!

He’s giving me a mix of iron man and judge dredd vibes with that costume. Either way he seems to exude “veteran and skilled super” a lot.

His trademark and weapon was his Halberd, which was basically a spear with an axe head on the end, souped up with gadgets and the kind of technology you generally only saw in science fiction. He was the kind of guy who appeared on magazine covers and did interviews on TV, so you could find almost anything about Armsmaster through various media, short of his secret identity. I knew his weapon could cut through steel as though it was butter, that it had plasma injectors for stuff that the blade alone couldn’t cut and that he could fire off directed electromagnetic pulses to shut down forcefields and mechanical devices.

HE HAS A MASTER WEAPON WHICH CAN ACT AS ALL OF THE WEAPONS AT THE SAME TIME. THAT’S SO AWESOME

I knew he was gonna be technologically-focused, with that badass floating island and all!

A spear-axe hybrid strong enough to cut through steel, with plasma injectors and EMP blasts?? Fucking sweet.

“You gonna fight me?” He called out.

“I’m a good guy,” I said.

Stepping closer to me, he tilted his head, “You don’t look like one.”

Oof. That’s true. Miss looking-like-a-living-bug with dark colors and yellow lenses doesn’t seem very heroic at... all

Also I really like how that line was delivered for some reason. You don’t look like one

That stung, especially coming from him. It was like Michael Jordan saying you sucked at basketball. “That’s… not intentional,” I responded, not a little defensively, “I was more than halfway done putting the costume together when I realized it was already looking more edgy than I’d intended, and I couldn’t do anything about it by then.”

Your power is very hard to use in a kid-friendly way! You command a swarm of biting, stinging, maybe-venomous, maybe-flesh eating bugs! That grimdark look is actually apropiate

I wonder if this work will explore heroes who want to do good things but have characteristically “evil powers”. Taylor could easily be one!

There was a long pause. Nervously, I turned my eyes from that opaque visor. I glanced at his chest emblem, a silhouette of his visor in blue against a silver background, and was struck with the ridiculous thought that I had once owned a pair of underpants with his emblem on the front.

Pfft! Taylor your young fangirl self is adorable

Also gave me Deku flashbacks, as with the hero journals

“You’re telling the truth,” he said. It was a definitive statement, which startled me. I wanted to ask how he knew, but I wasn’t about to do or say anything that might change his mind.

Lie-detector?? God his suit just has everything

I love technology based powers by the way. When a hero stacks himself up to the teeth in sweet tech it’s a sight to behold

He approached closer, looking me over as I sat there with my arms around my knees, he asked, “You need a hospital?”

“No,” I said. “Don’t think so. I’m as surprised as you are.”

“You’re a new face,” he said.

“I haven’t even come up with a name yet. You know how hard it is to come up with a bug-themed name that doesn’t make me sound like a supervillain or a complete dork?”

Hmm that’s true! Swarm sounds villanous, same with Plague, Sting, Hivemind, Pestilence...

Bug is probably too simple. (Insect) Queen maybe? Eh Queen is so general that it’s probably taken already. Control? Probably taken and sounds villanous.

He chuckled, and it sounded warm, very normal, “I wouldn’t know. I got into the game early enough that I didn’t have to worry about missing out on all of the good names.”

There was a pause in the conversation. I suddenly felt awkward. I don’t know why, but I admitted to him, “I almost died.”

“That’s why we have the Ward program,” he said. There was no judgement in his tone, no pressure. Just a statement.

Hmm, what is that? Some sort of superhero training?

I nodded, more to give a response than out of any agreement with the answer. The Wards were the under-eighteen subdivision of the Protectorate, and Brockton Bay did have its own team of Wards, with the same naming convention as the Protectorate; The Wards East-North-East. I had considered applying to join, but the notion of escaping the stresses of high school by flinging myself into a mess of teenage drama, adult oversight and schedules seemed self-defeating.

Oooh so it’s like the Teen Titans, and other young superhero groups! Young teenage superheroes! Nice!

Also yeah, that would probably be similar to school, and you wanted escapism with this. I don’t think you would get bullied though, but I understand your reticence.

“You get Lung?” I asked, to change the subject from the Wards. I was pretty sure that he was obligated to try and induct new heroes into either the Protectorate or the Wards, depending on their age, to promote the whole agenda of organized heroes who are accountable for their actions, and I really didn’t want him to get on my case about joining.

He probably is obligated to ask, yeah. I suppose they don’t condone vigilantism. So changing the subject to the dragon man is probably a good idea!

“Lung was unconscious, beaten and battered when I arrived. I pumped him full of tranquilizers to be safe and temporarily restrained him under a steel cage I welded to the sidewalk. I’ll pick him up on my way back.”

“Good,” I said, “With him in jail, I’ll feel like I accomplished something today. Only reason I started the fight was because I overheard him telling his men to shoot some kids. Only realized later that he was talking about some other villains.”

Armsmaster turned to look at me. So I told him, walking him through the fight in general, the arrival of the teenage bad guys, and their general descriptions. Before I finished, he was pacing back and forth on the roof.

“These guys. They knew I was coming?”

Yeeah that was a pretty epic misunderstanding there.

Also they probably knew you were coming thanks to the kinda-omniscient know-it-all in their team soooo yeah.

I nodded, once. As much respect as I had for Armsmaster, I wasn’t in much of a mood to repeat myself.

“That explains a lot,” he said, staring off into the distance. After a few moments, he went on to explain, “They’re slippery. On those few occasions we do manage to get in a toe to toe fight with them, they either win, or they get away more or less unscathed, or both. We know so little about them. Grue and Hellhound were working on their own before they joined the group, so there’s some information there, but the other two? They’re nonentities. If the girl Tattletale has some way of detecting or tracking us, it would go a long way towards explaining why they’re doing as well as they are.”

Insteresting! So Regent and Tattletale are very well hidden! I imagine it must be easy for Tattletale to do so, but I still don’t know what Regent does... He’s definitely the most misterious of them all at the moment.

Heh, and he uses Hellhound for Bitch, he’s a hero so of course

It kind of surprised me to hear one of the top level heroes admitting to being anything less than perfectly on top of things.

“It’s funny,” I said, after a few moment’s thought, “They didn’t seem that hardcore. Grue said they were kind of panicking when they heard Lung was coming after them, and they were casually joking around while the fight was going on. Grue was making fun of Regent.”

“They said all this in front of you?” he asked.

I shrugged, “I think they thought I was helping them out. The way Tattletale talked, I think she thought I was a bad guy too or something.” With a touch of bitterness, I said, “Dunno, I guess it was the costume that led them to that assumption.”

“Could you have taken them in a fight?” Armsmaster asked me.

I started to shrug, and winced a little. I was feeling a little sore in the shoulder, where I’d tumbled on the roof after being blasted by Lung’s flames. I said, “Like you said, we don’t know a lot about them, but I think that girl with the dogs-”

“Hellhound,” Armsmaster said.

“I think she could have kicked my ass on her own, so no. I probably couldn’t have fought them.”

Yeah they didn’t really seem evil per se, they were pretty nice to us! Maybe because they confused us for a villain...

And yeah I don’t think you could have beaten them. Of the two powers I sorta know of them, hellbeasts and kinda-omniscience beat bugs, I’m pretty sure. So yeah.

“Then count it as a good thing that they got the wrong impression,” Armsmaster said.

“I’ll try to look at it that way,” I said, struck by how he easily he was able to employ the whole ‘take a negative and turn it into a positive’ mindset I’d been trying to maintain. I envied that.

Heroes tends to be more optimistic than most.

“That a girl,” he said, “And while we’re looking forward, we need to decide where we go from here.”

My heart sank. I knew he was going to bring up the Wards again.

Yeaah and he’ll put you in an awkward spot again...

What do you want to do Taylor? Start as a standalone hero and then work your way up through your acts and deeds? Could you even do that and still be well-regarded by the Protectorate?

“Who gets the credit for Lung?”

Caught off guard, I looked up at him. I started to speak, but he held up his hand.

“Hear me out. What you’ve done tonight is spectacular. You played a part in getting a major villain into custody. You just need to consider the consequences.”

“Consequences,” I muttered, even as the word spectacular rang in my ears.

Oh, so he wants to talk about who gets the credit? Huh, didn’t expect that. It could be a good first step for her hero career, but it could also be dangerous to let villains know about her existence, especially if she’s going solo

“Lung has an extensive gang throughout Brockton Bay and neighboring cities. More than that, he has two superpowered flunkies. Oni Lee and Bakuda.”

I shook my head, “I know about Oni Lee, and Grue mentioned fighting him. I’ve never heard of Bakuda.”

So he has two liutenants with powers! Oni Lee was mentioned before and now... Bakuda. Baku- makes me think explosions from Bakuha, so it could be explosions-based?

Seems to be a new member, anyways.

Armsmaster nodded, “Not surprising. She’s new. What we know about her is limited. She made her first appearance and demonstration of her powers by way of a drawn out terrorism campaign against Cornell University. Lung apparently recruited her and brought her to Brockton Bay after her plans were foiled by the New York Protectorate. This is… something of a concern.”

Damn, terrorism against a University and a conforntation with the New York Protectorate? She seems to have some infamy even before joining

“What are her powers?”

“Are you aware of the Tinker classification?”

I started to shrug, but remembered my sore shoulder and nodded instead. It was probably more polite, too. I said, “Covers anyone with powers that give them an advanced grasp of science. Lets them make technology years ahead of its time. Ray guns, ice blasters, mechanized suits of armor, advanced computers.”

Oh sweet

So tinkers are the inventors, the tech-based superheroes who use futuristic technology and all kinds of high-specs gear, and that is their superpower?

Oh I love technology-based powers so much.

“Close enough,” Armsmaster said. It struck me he would be a Tinker, if his Halberd and armor were any indication. That, or he got his stuff from someone else. He elaborated, “Well, most Tinkers have a specialty or a special trick. Something they’re particualrly good at or something that they can do, which other Tinkers can’t. Bakuda’s specialty is bombs.”

I stared at him. A woman with a power that let her make bombs that were technologically decades ahead of their time. No wonder he saw it as a concern.

So Armsmaster is a tinker! Makes sense with his impossibly-amazing plasma spear-axe, lie detector and super armor. I suppose a tinker’s threat can vary a lot depending on prep time and current gear. I like them!

Super-advanced explosives? Oh boy, that sounds like potencially a fucking nightmare

“Now I want you to consider the danger involved in taking the credit for Lung’s capture. Without a doubt, Oni Lee and Bakuda will be looking to accomplish two goals. Freeing their boss and getting vengeance on the one responsible. I suspect you’re now aware… these are scary people. Scarier in some ways than their boss.”

“You’re saying I shouldn’t take the credit,” I said.

“I’m saying you have two options. Option one is to join the Wards, where you’ll have support and protection in the event of an altercation. Option two is to keep your head down. Don’t take the credit. Fly under the radar.”

Yeah I could see how Taylor could become the target of these two underlings, which would probably be more than she can handle.

So Armsmaster is offering her the possibilities of

a) Joining the teenage super-squad and take the credit for Lung or

b)Keep going solo but maintain your involvment in this a secret

I wasn’t prepared to make a decision like that. Usually, I went to sleep at eleven or so, waking up at six thirty to get ready for my morning run. At my best guess, it was somewhere between one and two in the morning. I was emotionally exhausted from the highs and lows of the evening, and I could barely wrap my head around the complications and headaches that would come from joining the Wards, let alone having two insanely dangerous sociopaths coming after me.

Aand one of those options is already giving Taylor a headache

On top of that, I wasn’t so ignorant as to miss Armsmaster’s motives. If I opted to not take the credit for Lung’s capture, Armsmaster would, I was sure. I didn’t want to get on the bad side of a major player.

....True, politics could be at play here

Athough I don’t know if Taylor has just a bad view of power structures in general, considering she thought that autobiographical book she read was probably all propaganda

...Which could be true, and the whole system could be corrupt at least a little, and Armsmaster is offering her two options where he hopes he gets the credit and the glory

“Please keep my involvement in Lung’s capture secret,” I told him, painfully disappointed to have to say it, even as I knew it made the most sense.

He smiled, which I hadn’t expected. He had a nice smile. It made me think that he could win the hearts of a lot of women, whatever the top two-thirds of his face looked like. “I think you’ll look back and see this was a smart decision,” Armsmaster said, turning to walk to the other end of the roof, “Call me at the PHQ if you’re ever in a pinch.” He stepped off the edge of the roof and dropped out of sight.

He seems very pleased at her decision, which reinforces my belief that he did want to get the credit after all. Or he’s happy she doesn’t get in trouble. Or both.

Armsmaster seems like an ok guy, probably a little vain, or glory-seeking, but in a way, all superheroes are a bit like that. I have defintely seen much worse examples.

You get a thumbs-up, cool plasma-spear man

Call me if you’re ever in a pinch. He’d been saying, without openly admitting, that he owed me one. He would take the lion’s share of the credit for Lung’s capture, but he owed me one.

Before I was all the way down the fire escape, I heard the thrum of his motorcycle, presumably carrying Lung towards a life of confinement. I could hope.

Oh true! Nice, you can call in a favour of a team leader of the superhero mega-alliance! Good start to your superhero career, Taylor!

And he just took away Lung so it seems she was indeed the push the situation needed to get him into custody! Yes!

It would take me a half hour to get home. On the way, I would stop and pull on the sweatshirt and jeans I had hidden. I knew my dad went to sleep even earlier than I did, and he slept like a log, so I had nothing to worry about as far as wrapping up the night.

It could have gone worse. Strange as it sounds, those words were a security blanket I wrapped around myself to keep myself from dwelling on the fact that tomorrow was a school day.

It could have gone worse is a good mentality to have!

Let’s hope the three bitches aren’t too insufferable tomorrow.

#worm #worm liveblog #parahumans #parahumans liveblog #worm parahumans #wildbow #worm 1.6 #arc 1

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paulisweeabootrash · 6 years ago

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First Impression: Neon Genesis Evangelion

Get in your robots, audience, it's time for Paul is Weeaboo Trash! And today, I'm finally watching a show it seems like everyone just... assumes I must've seen:

Neon Genesis Evangelion (1995)

Episodes watched: 8

Platform: Netflix

The idea of something being a "classic" may be in decline in the anime fandom, or at least be getting very specialized, since "anime" no longer implies a narrow interest in specific sci-fi and fantasy subgenres like it used to, but certain shows still manage to pervade the pop culture indirectly. Neon Genesis Evangelion is one such show, enduring in the modern fandom and general internet culture because of its status as one of those old sci-fi anime classics. It has contributed memes — not just as in image macros or running jokes, but as in units of culture in the form of iconic quotes or character designs or elements of the plot — to the point that you have certainly been in some way exposed to them without any knowledge of the source material. But despite its reputation as a must-see cultural touchstone, it has been out of print in America for years. Used copies of the DVDs sell for absurd prices, and I don't think I knew anyone who owned it when I was a young weeb in the mid-2000s. I'm fairly sure my family did not have cable during the one specific season it was on Adult Swim, and there's no chance I would have been up at 12:30AM on Thursdays to watch it anyway. I am not much of a fan of media piracy and wasn't even aware of that option when it was apparently everyone else's favorite pastime to ruin their computers with sketchy torrents. So there was never a reasonable way for me to watch it, only for me to be dimly aware that this was An Important Show I Need To See. Until now. Because it's on Netflix. As if I hadn't already been awaiting it, I was aggressively reminded of it, because social media and geeky news outlets were soon blowing up with retrospectives and Very Serious Analyses — and fans of the old ADV translation were offering hot takes on how Netflix's release compares. So let me finally check this out for myself.

We start out in the distant future of... 2015, where UN forces are defending Tokyo-3 ("Old Tokyo" is mentioned and depicted later; no mention yet of Tokyo-2 unless I somehow already forgot it) against an attacking "angel", an immensely powerful alien with barely-comprehensible powers. Meanwhile, an officer of a UN agency called NERV, Misato Katsuragi, brings our main character, 14-year-old Shinji Ikari, to an underground NERV base under Tokyo-3 on the instructions of Shinji's father Gendo, who runs a secret research project. Shinji has been brought there to pilot an Evangelion, or Eva for short, a giant robot operated by some sort of neural interface. In combat. With no training. He is, understandably, not happy about this. After seeing how badly injured the other available pilot, Rei Ayanami, is, however, he agrees to do it — and it works far better than he or anyone else expected. He apparently has an innately great ability to "sync" with however exactly the Eva's interface works. But this only gets him as far as starting the thing up. When he actually engages the angel, he has trouble just getting the Eva to walk, and he feels the pain of the Eva taking damage once attacked, a frankly horrifying feature of the interface. We cut to him waking up in a hospital, but having surprisingly won because his Eva "went berserk", operating on its own. A flashback later shows what happened when he lost control of the Eva: it fought the angel by itself, but also took heavy damage, and we see its visor? faceplate? sōmen? of the Eva's armor come off to reveal a fleshy-looking face and a very biological-looking eye. At this point Shinji blacked out, which is really the only reasonable response to this situation.

Over the next several weeks (the time scale is vague, but since Rei apparently fully recovers from the injuries she had when we first saw her before the time she and Shinji are both deployed, it must be at least 3 weeks between eps. 1 and 5), more angels appear, to the surprise of civilians and UN forces alike. The Evas continue to be excellent weapons against them (though Shinji himself is still, uh, not great at using them), but despite having now killed several angels, the Evas are considered a ridiculous boondoggle by personnel of other UN branches, and Gendo's sinister superiors seem to be losing patience with his project. In the words of... uh... that UN navy guy in ep. 8, "Shit! A bunch of kids are supposed to save the world?" The alternatives are wildly ineffective conventional weapons and a remote-controlled nuclear-powered giant robot that almost had a literal Chernobyl-style meltdown, which was averted by Misato and Shinji. Although repairs are expensive, injuries common, and pilots in short supply, Evas indeed seem to be the only effective weapon against the invading cosmic horror, the barely-comprehensible aliens that are impervious to ordinary human technology and also don't fit our concepts of life or... uh... possibly physics. So, instead, in the words of Misato later in the same episode, "This plan may be insane, but I don't think it's impossible."

While this is going on, Shinji has been adjusting to this new life poorly and slowly. Despite being a pilot, he is still after all a 14-year-old, so he is enrolled into the same class as Rei at a local school whose student body has dwindled as more people evacuate over the initial angel attack. He also needs somewhere to live, so Misato arranges for him to move into her apartment. Some of Shinji's classmates think he's incredibly lucky to live with her, and spend a good deal of their screen time drooling over her, but Shinji is highly uncomfortable around her not just because Captain Katsuragi is his commanding officer, but also because she has a tendency to not wear much clothing around the house and is, er, a bit of a drunk and a slob. Oh, and she has an inexplicable, clawed, beer-drinking penguin. You know, all stuff that would make a nervous, lonely, scared 14-year-old completely at home.

Neither NERV training nor school guarantee a community, though, and Shinji, isolated and confused, could sure use one right about now. He seems quite likely traumatized from the first battle. He keeps ending up in situations that make him wildly uncomfortable while other characters take them in stride. He repeatedly attempts to quit NERV or at least defy orders before backing out (or... backing back in?) at the last moment. It would frankly be bizarre that they accept him doing this, except that (1) nobody really seems to take Shinji that seriously anyway, (2) he's the boss's kid, and (3) most importantly, it seems that only a small number of pilots, all the same age as Shinji and Rei, are even capable of using Evas. (Wife and I are starting to suspect reasons why this might be, especially given the whole cyborgs with neural interfaces thing, but... uh... let's not embarrass ourselves with public speculations about the plot of a ridiculously famous show almost as old as we are.) He only slowly gains any support or comfort from his new classmates and colleagues. They don't reach out to him, and he certainly doesn't reach out to them, because who is he supposed to talk to? His roommate/commanding officer who is twice his age? His classmates who treat him as a celebrity, not a person, once they find out he's an Eva pilot? Even if his default state since the very first episode hadn't been basically imploding into despair with no idea how to communicate that anything's wrong, there's nobody that really makes sense for him to try to communicate it to. Except one person: Rei. He notices that she's also isolated at school, and especially after seeing her dark, miserable, unmaintained apartment, he attempts to be friendly towards her. I thought this might be a hint of growth indicating that he understands she is possibly the only person more isolated than him and the only one who might be able to relate to him, but then the next time he threatens to quit NERV after that conversation, he explicitly claims she doesn't know what he's going though, so ¯\_(ツ)_/¯ maybe he just has bad social skills.

Sigh.

Shinji does start to make friends with Aida and Suzuhara, two of his classmates, though. And it's interesting because they contrast against him in their reactions to the conflict outside. Aida roleplays being in the military and finds Shinji's role as an Eva pilot glorious and enviable. Suzuhara is initially furious at Shinji because his sister was collateral damage — she was injured when Shinji fought the angel — and his mind is changed only after Shinji rescues him (and Aida) from an angel. Shinji, though, having been thrust into a role he doesn't even understand and about which he is ambivalent and unstable, lacks Aida's optimistic admiration of his role and a full appreciation of either Suzuhara's resentment or gratitude. He not only rejects their praise, he calls himself a coward during (sigh) one of his attempts to quit NERV. It occurs to me that this could be seen as indicating different perspectives about the military (ask any American vet who's sick of being "thanked for their service"), or even different perspectives about adulthood itself — I'll bet any millennial who did not achieve their dreams can recognize Aida's "wow this is amazing I can't wait to be a grownup too" roleplaying vs. Shinji's "I am doomed and isolated by the responsibility that has been thrown at me" actual experience in NERV.

Also thanks to the school scenes, we start to learn some backstory, including the famous "Second Impact". A catastrophic asteroid impact in 2000 melted Antarctica's glaciers, which led to unprecedentedly rapid sea level rise, leading to mass extinction, including that of half of humanity through not only direct climate change impacts like displaced populations and crop failures but also conflict stemming from it. Or so the official story goes. It is later revealed that the Second Impact actually involved somehow the previous arrival of angels on Earth, although this has yet to be explained in detail. (Actually, I accidentally saw spoilers about more detail about this while revising this review, because I went to sanity-check myself about some other detail on one of the fan wikis, so I know part of where this is going, but only part.)

Over the first eight episodes, which must be several weeks at least after the start of the show given that Rei has recovered from her initial injuries (although the time scale is very vague), Shinji fights four angels total and gradually improves, but the biggest improvement comes not from him being an individual hero but from finally working well with others. For example, the octahedral angel that drills into NERV's base has incredible abilities to detect and counter incoming attacks. It kicks Shinji's ass on the first attempt, because duh. But Misato devises a plan to test its abilities and concentrate the power of... uh... Japan's entire electrical grid(?!) at it from a safe distance, and the plan succeeds only because of Rei giving Shinji cover. An angel attacks a UN ship convoy transporting the third pilot, Asuka Langley Soryu, and her Eva, and she and Shinji fight the angel together in a ludicrous fight that involves both cramming in to pilot the same Eva together (which, interestingly, requires them to give it the same, or maybe just compatible, instructions together in the same language for it to work... yay neural interfaces). So maybe/hopefully the direction this is going is "the chosen one is a stupid idea and even talented people need both training and cooperation to not suck at things"?

Episode 8 leaves off with Asuka joining Shinji and Rei's school class, and with the dramatic and creepy reveal of an embryo encased in bakelite which is described by Gendo as "Adam, the first human"... Well. That comes off as the kind of thing that would drive the future plot, and hopefully all the Biblical imagery will finally start to converge into something coherent instead of just sort of serving to draw extra attention to the fact that the humans refer to the aliens as "angels". I've been wondering about that since the beginning. There's the title, of course, but also the sefirot in the opening and on Gendo's office ceiling, the first angel's attacks using what appears to be a directed energy weapon which invariably forms glowing crosses, and the fact that most of the angels themselves are wildly non-humanoid (a choice which echoes the rather... eldritch... classical depictions of angels — see also the seraph in the opening). NERV's motto is even explicitly, well, monotheistic at least, if not sectarian: "God's in his heaven. All's right with the world!", which is counterintuitive at best with the idea of calling the alien invaders "angels".

Well. I'll find out, and I plan to write a followup like I did with Re:ZERO, going into the broad swaths of the rest of the plot and my overall impressions of how they handled things. Especially given that this show has a famously-controversial ending. I jumped into this determined to watch the whole series, so I'm not backing out.

I'll just threaten to quit repeatedly then almost immediately come back.

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W/A/S: 4 / 3 / I feel kinda bad about this but 4?

Weeb: I mean, anything with giant robots fighting giant monsters deserves a few points just for that, right? I don't think this requires much by way of Japanese cultural references or assumptions to watch, though.

Ass: Nudity so far has been brief, partial, censored by convenient angles and object placement, and not remotely sexy. Thanks to another contextless spoiler I happen to have picked up, I expect an infamous later scene that is clearly supposed to be sad and disturbing in context, which is, again, not the kind of thing this scale was originally designed to describe.

Shit (writing): Even though I tend to overall like their plots, I always sort of sigh and eyeroll at the "let's put children/teens in combat and/or experiment on and/or just plain torture them to force them to become powerful" storyline formula that’s been semi-popular for the last few decades, and Evangelion is definitely in that category. Friends have said the story is confusing or poorly-paced, and I kind of agree but also think some of the confusion is warranted by the choice to enter the story in media res in order to reveal what's going on to the audience at about the same time it's revealed to Shinji. As for the tendency to have some long shots where literally nothing happens, that does get annoying, and I suspect its primary motivation was to save money, but I think it also usually emphasizes how lonely the whole situation is, at least before Shinji starts to warm up to Misato and Rei to Shinji in the last couple of episodes I've watched so far (which have, appropriately, had much more action and interaction). Mainly, my writing complaints are actually about translation, because there are some noticeable and consequential differences between translations for the sub and dub. Yeah, yeah, I've heard of the love vs. like thing everyone on the internet is already upset about, but I haven't gotten to that episode yet. I'm talking about things like Misato saying "it will work!" in the sub vs. just "okay!" in the dub when Shinji is first able to control his Eva, a choice which suggests very different things about both her level of knowledge of the project and why Shinji has been called on for it at all. The new dub also feels... uh... too at home as a dub of a '90s anime, as it prioritizes matching lip flaps over flowing like believable speech. Having not seen the old dub, of course, I can't make any kind of judgement about whether this is a step up, down, or sideways from how ADV did it. And the sub has many on-screen captions in Japanese are left untranslated — not things like signs in the background, but actual captions the audience is meant to get information from.

Shit (other): Maybe we're spoiled in this age of computer-aided art, but i's surprising to see a show with such limited animation — speech conveyed only with lip flaps, obviously reused shots within the same episode, foreground objects gracelessly sliding against a background to indicate movement — and so I'm willing to give the show a pass on most of that, especially since the characters are distinctive and the setting and aliens and robots so interesting. Much of the limited animation actually serves to show the vast scale of NERV's facilities and the Evas vs. the humans and/or to emphasize loneliness like the pacing. But there really are some painful mistakes from time to time in the art: objects and faces that look utterly wrong, like the artists just did not successfully figure out how to draw that particular character or vehicle from that particular angle. The legendary opening theme is certainly catchy — it’s been stuck in my head almost continuously for the past week — but I just don’t think I enjoy it as much as other people do. Some of the immediate complaints that were apparently worthy of news media attention were about the replacement of Fly Me to the Moon with a piece from the show's soundtrack as the ending theme. I understand why people would be upset by that kind of change, but I am willing to take the controversial stand that it's not a bad change. The piece they chose as a replacement is haunting and tense, which fits in with the mood of most of the episodes so far, while Fly Me to the Moon feels to me like an inappropriate mood change from that.

Content: Actually among the least graphic of the various shows I've covered involving violent or horrifying elements.

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Stray observations:

- God it was weird to write this by constantly abbreviating “Evangelion” as “Eva”, considering that Wife's name is Eva.

- A lot of people seem to hate Shinji as a character, but I find him understandable in a way that probably implies uncomfortable things about my own sanity. I just... I understand that sheer degree of doom and misery and indecision and inability to articulate any of those. Man. Ugh.

- I don't know if you've ever seen an undisguised angel, but trust me: they're horrifying. (link NSFW)

#weeaboo trash #anime review #first impression review #neon genesis evangelion #evangelion

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lil-miss-methodical · 7 years ago

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Season two has recently dropped and they’re stronger than ever. They’ve graduated into story form, taking our archetypes and fleshing them out a bit while still keeping the center that makes them so damn relatable.

This season the theme of looking back to understand the now was still very present, but this time instead of it being about the individual black person it was about our history in a collective form. This concept of an elite black society is hopeful and beautiful and I hope they go good places with it, they’ve set up the work to go good places with it.

I could speak on the genius of the soundtrack, the ridiculous awesomeness of that directing and camera work but we all know about that good shit. So instead I wanna focus on something I don’t think everyone understands. The messages.

To understand the main message of this season, I think its imperative to understand season one. When the show first came out the characters were archetypes of black people. Those people we become in America because of the race relations, how those things affect who we are, how they are heavily leading in our make up.

- The mixed woman that over compensates for her white genetics. - The unappreciated/overlooked black woman - The black woman who hates living the black struggle - The outlier black (woman) - The carefree light skinned boy - The black (boy) who does not understand surface black culture - The moldable black (boy) who seems to fit in both worlds but finds himself comfortable in neither - The African (male) who has not lived the African American experience - The strong headed black man - The white (man) who means well

The first season presented us with this group and then put them in a position where they had to not only interact with white but with one another as well. The former is important because the interactions with the white is to show the everyday, on ever level, shit blacks have to put up with when it comes to race relations. The latter is important because its where the message hides. We watch these black students maneuver, all wanting a bit of the same thing but they hack away at one another constantly at ends with each other. Judging one another and always finding the other not worthy. We’re at constant stage of eliminating who gets to be apart of our black circle - even when it comes to other blacks (terms like Revoked and Cancelled) (we also have ‘you’re uninvited to the cookout’ for all other none blacks). But season one is not about mending fences with the non blacks, thats not the imagery they leave you with. No, season one presents us with this concept that we pick one another apart and instead of using our differences to get to where we're trying to go we often let it distance us, causing distinction between us as a whole. It highlights how we don’t give our people enough empathy while giving them this perspective lens that allows their story to be told from their view, showing them in their rawest most vulnerable moments. Its through the honest moments that the characters themselves start to understand one another.

So season one had two jobs - highlight our separation which is a problem for our people, and also frame them in a way that leads us to empathize and understand the character the best. Now the genius in this last part is they didn’t only do this by giving characters perspective views…but in also not giving them one. For example Joelle presents the unappreciated/overlooked black woman. In season one we get the close up moments of her in other peoples story. We see her overlooked but we really feel it when she doesn’t get her own episode. When she gets her episode this season, its everything. We’ve already built this bond of understanding and empathy with her, there is no outcry of - she’s just low-key jealous, because we’ve been there with her, we know for a fact that she has been overlooked. So again first seasons job is to get us to see our separation and open black people u so we can start to understand one another. The ending leaves us with a taste of seasons two’s mission as Sam sits beside Coco - our two characters that has had the greatest distinction and who knew each other the most but lacked empathy and understanding for each other the most - and she ask “how did the two of us get pitted against one another?”

So season two took on the path to presenting unity (its necessity for our people from one another) and also reenforcing that we as black people actively choose to be for our people, we can all be an asset for our people, no matter what archetype we fit into.

- Sam with her light skinned privilege can us that privilege for her own selfish rise or be a voice for blacks in avenues they can't obtain. - Joelle can let the bitterness of being unappreciated consume her and leave her stagnant or she can push on and keep fighting for her people. - Coco can dream of the white reality or she can look at her own path and realize her obstacles and use all the means necessary to get through or over those obstacles. People like that are the ones to see the obstacles and if they have the drive and the ambition they usually end up being the pocket runner for the culture. - A black man like Lionel can use his lack of education on black culture as an excuse of how he's not tied to its people or he can listen, learn, and still do right by his people (in this case its printing the truth and searching for the truth despite others telling him not to) - A black man like Reggie is seen as a threat and therefore expendable by other races because he's unapologetically black (and educated) and so he bares a brunt of being mistreated. He could let that turn him into what they consider him (a violent animal with no control) or he can stick to the guys of who he really is and excels to be and reach heights for himself and our people (which is the real threat he presents). - A man as moldable and as transitional as Troy can be the black best weapon or their biggest let down (because they can be molded into something for the opposing side). They have to find out who they are, what they want, and learn to use that skill to the best of their ability. - A white person can be well meaning...and problematic. Their job is to continue to question how or why they do or don't do something without assuming or speaking for the black community.

This season showed us their fears - being another dead black man, using her privilege against her people, not understanding and therefore not fitting into either world, being damage and trash to everyone around him, not being chosen always being second string, not achieving being just another marker in the world, being racist. And all these fears correlates to their identities as black people and at least for now none of them have given into or allowed themselves to be overcome with that fear. We see them try to push through and work together on small individual levels as well as the big scheme.

Oh course we are not insta friends. Of course theres still irks, but theres also the reminder to be mindful. When we sit amongst one another trying to come to a solution, don’t cross lines. Coco and Sam aren’t besties…but then what they have is deeper than that. They understand their roles in each others life and how they challenge one another for good instead of bad. Scenes with Coco and Sam feel very different than ones with Coco and Muffy. But Coco & puffy is a pairing that rarely ever work as a success - something else that was shown this season where in Muffy got the invite into the group and Coco of course didn’t. But they presented us with teams that did work - on individual and a mass levels…

Joelle & Coco trying to make Sam feel better and support her: Both admit their form of loving her is different but both can be good for her. Joelle and Sam radio partners: I love seeing Joelle in this light once she got to actually work instead of the friction of not being able to get a point in. Such an amazing concept because this is already how they communicate. Reggie and the Dean - booooy didn't see that one coming til it did, and it was brilliant. The Dean and reggie have different perspective of how to get to the end game, you never expect for their shit to be this damn powerful, but it was. If his treatment of his son and his give in nature to white people made me dislike the Dean, his treatment of Reggie made me question my view of him. Kelsey and Coco: They spent all season letting you down play Kelsey and then showed you just how shitty of a thing that was by showing how giving and great and at peace she is with who she is. Reggie and Troy: I really like the concept of Reggie and Troy being friends. They’re that different line again because the belief that someone like Reggie can respect someone like Troy. Everyone helping Troy realize how horrible of a person he can be: This sounds bad, but the raw honest truth he got in this episode from his old friends…is blessing. They were willing to give it to him in a time when he needed, a time he came in search of it, ready to actually take it in. Which led him to being able to be honest with himself and his own father. Brooke and Lionel: The great thing behind the Brooke and Lionel pair is there highlight on ‘crab in a barrel’ mentality. We’ve all grown up hearing it. This concept that we as black will try to get ahead stepping on, climbing ver, or shutting other blacks out because the opening is so narrow and theres only room enough for one of us. Tho here you have them admitting that they’re getting caught up, but they don’t have to. They can both reap success by working together. Lionel and Sam: I love Lionel and Sam together because the association of them being able to understand one another because of their shared experience of once feeling on the outside of black community/culture. Her because she’s mixed, and him because his lack of shared cultured knowledge and experiences. Theres this primal part of them that understands one another, this need and desire to belong. There is a lack of judgment and fake between them. And of course the main core scheme that took just about all the black faculty: What I loved about this twist - of coming in and sitting instead outside and rallying - is that it faces Rikki with all the blacks she’s hurting. It forces her into a place of having to face that while also not letting her voice get to the other side. She doesn’t have to face the entire of their ire with them outside, they’d just be a jumble of sounds she would us as an example of why they’re unacceptable. This group of black people coming together, its not derogatory, its not shady. They sit there in silence and allow their faces to show how unimpressed they are. And of course the secret black society which is a unity in itself

This season did a great job of pushing the theme throughout the plot, intertwining it into the plot and the characters themselves. They tease us again with the possible message of next season, which I cant wait to see.

Highlights/Moments I loved: Kelsey’s entire flourish. I was genuinely disgusted by how I thought of her last season compared to this season. They did a wonderful job of presented who she was without giving her her own episode and I’m hoping they elevate her up to main core. I liked her and Coco together - it was another pair that seem to have nothing in common but mixed so well.

The reality of Al. Everyone sits around and talk about how they hate Sam for this reason or that, but the shows us how biased we are in the terms of men and women, def light skinned blacks. Because the show is very frank and raw with Sam and her behaviors, but they’ll allow Al to do something reproachable and the audience doesn’t reproach him at all. No complaints about his apparent colorism - I don’t ya’ll didn’t think oh boy out Joelle in small print at the bottom of the page with half of her face covered with bacon because she was ‘new’ to the team. Its not just the problematic its this aspect of freedom of just being a standard we have for the girls but not the boys. Its the same with the dark skinned counterparts.

Rikki: She was just so formidable. So unapologetic and fearfully the shit she said made sense. She exemplified the concept that we black people can view things in so many ways and use that thing to allow us to be who we choose to be. We’re so use to the rhetoric of those blacks that choose that side are lost, ill-informed and know-no-better. Thats in part in think because we as black people don’t want to settle into the reality of our own rejecting us. Look at the thing we Kanye West - he’s in the sunken place we say, he knows nothing of politics we say, those around him has influenced him, he’s lost his way. We don’t take it well when our own reject us, which is understandable - we want there to be a great reason for the chaos. But with Rikki thats not the case. She is well educated, well informed on both sides, she is calm and deliberate. Sam doesn’t know what to do with her at all. Tessa does a great job with Rikki.

I always love in part what they do with Troy - last season they presented a black man conformable in his own sexuality - he is unbothered and unthreatened by Lionel’s. This season they give this black man a journey of self discovery. I don’t think blacks get presented with that imagery enough, def not black men. Getting in touch with yourself, waddling through your own shit, and the shit you’ve out others through. Letting them tell you what was wrong and processing that. Troy is a lost black male and it is imperative that he finds himself, that someone with his gift finds themselves.

The line: “Yes! Slaves being clever and shit!” I love this line because I’ve always felt that we forget how brilliant a mind slaves had to have We get so boggled on the aspect of the cruelty the were in - understandably, but we forget that they had to create secret ways to communicate and exist. They literally had to be creative and shit and they get no shine for that.

Two young black people being on an adventure.

Blacks being passionate about whatever they’re doing - Sam with the radio, Lionel with writing, Joelle with anatomy, Troy with comedy

The aspect of black female friendship and supporting another woman having the moment be uncontested and just about another woman needs. We support everyone but enough medias don’t show that.

The view of understanding ones own past, and then also understand the past of our people, which is often hidden, erased, or retold to better someone else - Listen pay attention and watch closely

This aspect that we are human, we laugh, we shade, we’re flawed, we try, we fail and succeed, and the things others do hurt us and we should not have to pour that shit out there to the ones who want to see us hurt for people to be able to establish that we have these traits.

The concept that it is understandable to be any of these kind of black people, that there is greatness to be found in our brokenness and our lost. The presentation that we should have empathy for one another, to seek understanding instead of being so easily moved to hate because at the core we all want the same thing, fight individually for the same thing - to alleviate ourself of the reality of the black struggle, of being hated, and that feeling of being in quicksand with not enough people caring to help us get out. We have us - and in the end that can get us hella far.

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its-love-u-asshole · 7 years ago

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Twelve Hours [Ch. 5]

Pairings: Kuroo Tetsurou/Tsukishima Kei

Summary: Kuroo Tetsurou has dealt with a lot since he was eighteen, each year bringing the same depressing challenges on the same depressing night. He expects this time to be no different, but the universe is trying desperately to prove him wrong in the most bizarre ways imaginable. So screw it, Kuroo’s only choice is to buckle in and hope he doesn’t die. Easy enough. And hey, with some new allies at his side, maybe he has a chance. Who knows? At least Kuroo is sure of one thing in life when it comes to March 15th, and he stands by this unwritten law, no matter what happens:

If you try to kill pizza delivery boys on Purge Night, you’re irrevocably a bitch.

Rating: T

Tags: Purge AU, mentions of violence but nothing graphic or too bad, no character deaths here okay, this is borderline crack and idk what I was thinking, first meetings, other characters, shenanigans and just…a lot of fun (it seems angsty but its not)

Note: I’m back with another update! In spirit of all the excitement for kurotsuki week I figured I’d post today! But I’m also doing something for Monday’s prompt (and hopefully some more), so I’m super excited! Thanks so much @emeraldwaves for reading this over, and I hope everyone enjoys!

AO3

The tires screeched to a slow halt as Terushima pulled the car into a gas station stall, and the bright artificial lighting did nothing to make them blend in with the surroundings. Their huge, black as tar SUV looked like a giant ink blot against the bright blue colorings of the signs around them, and as Terushima cut the ignition, they all stayed put.

No one dared open a door yet, instead listening for signs of trouble, of anything.

It would've been normal to see some debris, hear some yells nearby, hell maybe even see people raiding the small store. That would've been easier to deal with and process.

Silence...Kuroo was not good with silence anymore. Judging from the way Tsukishima straightened up, neither was he.

Ignoring the way Futakuchi's hand tapped anxiously against the glove compartment, Kuroo followed Tsukishima's gaze.

He peered out through the half-tinted windows, noting the strange pristine condition of the station. The small snack stand in the center looked immaculate, untouched, the displays standing straight and organized with a plethora of snacks and useless magazines.

No other cars were around, unless they counted the abandoned ones across the street, which had been stripped of their parts.

Now, Kuroo knew it was probably rare for people to be getting gas during the Purge (like...c'mon), but to see no one set the alarm bells off in his head. This was so stupid.

More than that, this was not good.

"I don't trust this at all," Tsukishima said finally, echoing Kuroo's thoughts. "Be quick about it."

Though Tsukishima's gaze was occupied, the words were clearly addressed to Terushima, who jumped in his seat, hitting the roof of the car. Such finesse. They were in good hands.

Futakuchi turned to his friend, tense, and a silent telepathic showdown seemed to go on between them. After careful observation, Kuroo concluded it was of the elementary school caliber.

'You go.'

'No you.'

"Seriously?" Suga muttered, and yeah...Kuroo could only imagine what it was like to deal with this on a daily basis. Mind numbing, he guessed, since Suga simply started playing sudoku on his phone.

In their defense, Kuroo did not want to be the one to do this. Not just because of the potential murder, but because this gas station had just about the worst prices he'd ever seen.

I'd rather be stabbed.

Apparently, the other two didn't feel the same way.

Kuroo rolled his eyes when their hands came up, leaving fate in the hands of rock paper scissors. Wow. If it had been Kuroo, and he had to die knowing it was all because of a rock paper scissors game, he'd rise from the dead before accepting it.

He'd pull his own soul right back from the devil himself.

Two stressful rounds later and Futakuchi was declared the winner, smirking due to his expert rock over scissors strategy. It really made Kuroo want to applaud, the true decision making skill couldn't be overlooked.

"It almost makes me want to cry," Tsukishima said, and Kuroo snorted, watching those bright eyes drift back towards the street. Something about watching Tsukishima's brain work hadn't failed to fascinate him.

Always observant, no matter where you are, huh?

In the back of his head, Kuroo wondered how much Tsukishima truly remembered about him, if he'd been analyzed all those years ago without knowing. The musings were cut short by a less than comfortable Yamamoto.

"Can you guys stop stalling? The longer we're here the worse the risk is!" He yelled from the middle row, and all Terushima did was simply raise his hand in a 'can you not' gesture.

If anything, the people in the car would kill each other before anyone else could.

"I don't wanna gooooo," Terushima whined, glancing out on the desolate cement plain before draping himself over the middle console. Futakuchi scooted away, like he was disease ridden. "It's too creepy."

True, but...

"Hm, then maybe you shouldn't have wasted so much gas making wrong turns," Tsukishima hummed, and Terushima raised his middle finger (not that Tsukishima was even looking at him).

"Are you ever going to let that go? News flash, the jokes are getting old."

Pft. Even Kuroo knew the jokes weren't the point, and he adored Tsukishima for it.

"It's not about making jokes, it's about shaming you," Tsukishima stated bluntly. "Also, I let it go when I got in this car."

Despite the need to make a Disney reference, Kuroo's pettiness won out.

"Ditto," Kuroo said, and Yamamoto turned on him, raising an accusatory finger.

"Hush you! It wasn't even your house! You didn't have to come!"

And well...yeah, but it was Tsukishima's house. Tsukishima who got all his jokes and protected him and was all around amazing. So uh, Kuroo was in his right to be mad on his behalf.

"Eh," Suga joined in. "I'd be pretty mad if someone broke my boyfriend's wall."

Again with the boyfriend...

Kuroo's entire face bloomed red, and while he'd never object to being mistaken for such an angelic being's boyfriend, he didn't approve of his own feelings being so blatantly stated for everyone to hear. Especially not when said feelings had hit him like a ton of bricks only in the past few hours.

God. He was turning back into a naive freshman, swooning over every hot guy. Though, Tsukishima wasn't just a hot guy.

Beside him, Tsukishima glared, his own cheeks heating up in a way Kuroo couldn't help but fixate on. The blond's reaction was significantly more violent too, with the way his head whipped around from where he'd been observing the streets to glare at the rest of the car. It made Kuroo's heart race, even as the denial spewed from both their lips.

"He's not my boyfriend," they insisted at the same time, and Kuroo spared a side glance the blond's way, noting his refusal to focus on anything other than the leather seat in front of him.

The tips of his ears turn red when he's embarrassed...

Kuroo, completely fixated, almost didn't register Futakuchi's response. Sadly, it was hard to miss it.

The brunet made a fake, shocked choking noise, his palm flat against his chest. "Oh wow, very convincing! What are you guys? The main pining couple in a romcom?"

"Well that was very specific..." Tsukishima muttered, staring back out of the window, but his obvious lack of comment on the accusation made Kuroo's blush deepen further.

"Shut up!"

"Can someone just get gas please? Last thing we need is some freaks showing up for free blood," Suga sighed, his game long forgotten as the minutes past. Regardless of the bickering, they were all still on edge, so much so they kept their voices low. As ridiculous as the night was, it was still the Purge, it was still real.

"You mean like them," Tsukishima said, tapping his finger against the glass. Freezing, the rest of the group looked to where he was pointing, and immediately groaned at what they saw.

Two figures, faces masked with eerie clown features, stood on the other side of the street staring at them. Just...staring. They stood distorted and tilted, but even with the lame poses Kuroo marveled at how stone like they were, their heads on tilting every now and then in intimidation.

Motherfuckers.

"Great, we waited too long, now what?" Terushima whispered, eyes not leaving the potential murderers.

"Maybe they're just taking a break," Tsukishima said, and the rest of the car, sans Kuroo, looked unamused.

"Is that supposed to be funny?" Yamamoto asked, and his tone could've been bottled and packaged as pure disbelief.

The blond only shrugged. "Well you didn't laugh so I guess not."

It wasn't funny, it was hilarious. Never change.

"Maybe we should move on," Futakuchi suggested, squinting at the way the figures stood. They couldn't afford to do that, and from the way Tsukishima glanced at Kuroo, he knew it too.

"No," Kuroo said, seriousness kicking in. They didn't know when they'd find another empty, working station. Unfortunately, the risk needed to be accepted in this case. "Go take care of it, if they move, we'll shoot."

The sentence made his throat close up, but he stuffed his own reluctance down until it burned. Self-defense, he reminded, self-defense. Tsukishima nodded next to him, expression grim but not unwilling. The blond was already unholstering his weapon, like he was so comfortable with it, so used to clutching it tight.

The rest of the car tensed, but that was fine. It was okay if they weren't ready yet. Kuroo had been referring to himself and Tsukishima anyways. Their innocence around this night had been taken already. Some of Terushima's had too, from the way he steeled himself, hand on the car door handle.

Kuroo inhaled, looking at Terushima expectantly. The other nodded, glancing at his friends one last time, and Suga reached forward, gripping his shoulder in comfort. It never got easy, seeing people thrown into danger, but this time Kuroo was here to help.

They all glanced back out to where the figures stood, and one of them raised a hand, causing Tsukishima to flinch. But he just waved slowly, a friendly gesture corrupted by the menacing air.

"Bastard," Terushima sighed under his breath, getting ready to jump out of the car with his wallet. "Alright, let's do--"

"Wait!" Yamamoto's voice made them all jump, the sound sharp enough to cut the thick fog of nerves around them. Kuroo heard Suga's breathing stutter.

Terushima stared at him, eyes panicked. "W-what?"

They all waited, looking at Yamamoto and anticipating some sort of advice or observation. Only Tsukishima's eyes stayed locked on the figures outside.

With no trace of laughter in his eyes, Yamamoto met Terushima's gaze head on, ready to spill words of warning and care. "I need you to get me a Snickers bar."

Kuroo should've known better than to expect so much from this car.

The vehicle descended into silence and oh--oh okay, maybe he should be concerned about the way Suga wheezed just then.

Even Tsukishima, will his ready-to-kill demeanor, couldn't not throw his hands up in defeat.

Kuroo didn't know what to feel. Annoyance? Awe? Admiration?

He was gonna sit out on this one.

It took about ten more seconds for Terushima to completely process the words, his mouth opening and closing like a fish until they finally settled on the most reasonable question: "Are you fucking kidding me?"

"No wait, just hear me out--"

"Fuck you I won't hear you out!" Terushima went on, his voice hushed but incensed, and Tsukishima just shook his head and waved back at the killers. Yeah, call them over. End it all. Yamamoto raised his hands in placation, but Terushima wasn't having it. "I'm about to go risk my life against Hannibal and Dexter out there and you're asking me to get you a fucking chocolate bar?"

"First of all, you're probably giving those guys too much credit...." Yamamoto offered, which did not make things better but...

Agreed.

"And okay I was just thinking, I was too nervous to eat before we left and if we have to fight more dudes later, I think it would be a good idea to get some food in me." Yamamoto looked around the car for support, but everyone was steadfast in ignoring him.

Kuroo busied himself with other thoughts as much as he could, so much so he had to resort to the car ceiling. Man, this is some nice interior.

"Screw you, if you want it so bad, you get it," Terushima said, and it would've probably helped them all. Yamamoto was by far the most muscular of the group, though he hadn't shown any of the necessary violence Kuroo expected.

"Oh, well that's just real nice. You can't walk twenty feet to grab me one candy bar?"

"It's hard to do anything with stab wounds," Terushima said, gesturing to various parts of his body which apparently would soon be severed.

Kuroo wasn't so sure.

"If they stab you, some people get more creative than that," Kuroo said, and again, Tsukishima raised his finger in agreement.

Suga, eyes dead to the world, turned back to him, shaking his head. "Who hurt you?"

"Life."

"I'm not getting you a Snickers bar," Terushima said with a finality that made Kuroo actually wonder if he had kids. He felt like he'd just been denied McDonalds on a road trip.

Yamamoto was tough though, and his words were almost more ominous than the freaks standing across the street. "If you don't, you'll regret it."

"Oh god, I'm so scared. What--what are you gonna do? Kill me?" Terushima laughed, going as far as to slap his knee, and if Kuroo was being honest he would've gladly gone outside himself just to end this whole conversation.

"You'll see, and you'll regret it." And with that, Yamamoto folded his arms, ending the conversation. Kuroo knew this was far from over, but they kinda had more pressing things to deal with.

Eight more hours of this shit. Eight.

"I'm fucking sure," Terushima muttered, finally opening the car door. At least the tension and fear from earlier had mostly dissipated. Now he just looked pissed.

That’s right, channel that anger.

As if sensing it, Tsukishima probably felt it was his duty to help the cause. That or he was just a little shit, and Kuroo adored him either way.

"Hey if you change your mind, get me one too," the blond called, tapping his nail against his gun impatiently.

"I'll take some chips," Suga said.

Fuck it. "Push Pops please."

"I hate all of you," Terushima said, and with that, he slammed the door without caring who might here. Damn, be that way.

Shockingly, the guys across the street seemed to jump at the actual movement. Granted, no one in their right mind would get out of the car wearing nothing but yellow sweatpants and a high school jersey during the Purge but Terushima was a special person.

The wannabe murderers watched, like they all did, as Terushima fumbled with his wallet, dropped it twice, got his card declined, and struggled through his brain for his pin number.

Yeah, they had to see all that. It was upsetting, and if it had been Kuroo, he would've spared the bastard. He was having a night.

But no shots had been fired, so maybe they were just there for intimidation only. Either way, Tsukishima stayed trained on them, gun in hand.

Honestly, with the kind of confidence the blond exuded, Kuroo would feel safe even if they were in a shitty 1998 convertible with three flat tires, as long as Tsukishima was there next to him.

Yamamoto obviously didn't see the beauty of that though.

"Isn't that a little intense?" He said from the row in front of them, twisting just as Tsukishima raised his gun a little higher. The windows weren't so tinted that the men across the street couldn't make out the bodies inside, or Tsukishima's gun. As one stepped forward, they halted immediately at the sight of it before backing off.

"Calm down Rambo," Yamamoto said, but his voice trembled too much to leave an impact.

Tsukishima sighed, rolling his shoulder. "First of all, you've clearly never seen that movie--"

"You--"

"Second, these are rubber bullets." Jostling the gun a bit, Tsukishima's frown grew. "As if I'd let such insignificant people weigh on my conscience."

The unspoken "it's heavy enough as it is" did not go unnoticed by Kuroo, and he wrapped the detail away. There was no judgement on his end, only respect. Nothing he learned about Tsukishima turned him away, if anything, each new fact pulled him in closer.

"Oh, that's cool of you," Yamamoto said, but his brows were still furrowed like more questions were on the tip of his tongue. Kuroo could relate, but at the same time, Tsukishima had proved enough he'd share in his own time.

No one in the car knew that though, so Suga trudged on, curious. "How many times have you done this?"

"Yeah, you sure seem to know a lot," Futakuchi added from where he was tapping his shoe on the dash. Kuroo wondered if they were really listening, or if this conversation was pointless filler until Terushima got back.

Speaking of...

Tsukishima's shoulders tensed as Terushima opened the door, jumping in and locking it immediately after. Kuroo hadn't noticed he'd finished. Guess Tsukishima wouldn't get to answer, but maybe that was best.

Calmly, Kuroo laid his palm flat between Tsukishima shoulder blades, waiting until he felt the muscles relax under his hand. It might've been too forward, too intimate, but it was his instinct and he had to trust those on a night like tonight.

Exhaling, Tsukishima turned back to him, and...oh...please always look at me like that.

"Hello? Hello! Are you guys listening to me?" Terushima's voice came in a hushed whisper from the front. Kuroo had no idea how long they'd been staring at each other but...

"No,” they both responded at once, because honesty was the best policy here.

"I swear, I'm this clos--"

The loud clang across the street made Terushima's threat turn into a high-pitched shriek, but Kuroo hardly tensed. Oh right. Those guys.

One of them must've hit one of their weapons against the nearby fire hydrant. Attention whores.

"God, can't they wait their turn," Kuroo muttered, and naturally, only Tsukishima found it even remotely amusing.

He was right though.

"Maybe we should leave," Suga suggested, and everyone else fiercely agreed, considering all the ground they had yet to cover. Well, almost everyone.

"Did you get my Snickers?" Yamamoto asked, the tremble in his voice gone.

Wow.

"Get out of my car," Terushima deadpanned, not bothering to turn around and grace Yamamoto with any form of expression. At least Kuroo knew Terushima could be cold when he wanted.

But knowing the threat held no bite, Yamamoto just sighed forlornly to himself, crossing his arms and staring out the window. "Fine, but I told you you'd regret it."

"Yeah, can't wait." Terushima chuckled humorlessly, and without giving the warning any more thought, they peeled out of the station, watching the strangers until they were nothing but specks behind them.

They did regret it. Yes, they, as in all.

The silence which had enveloped the car the next twenty minutes would've been normal, standard even given the pressure on all of them. Suga continued to drain his phone battery by playing app after app, and Kuroo fidgeted at the obvious skittishness there, manifesting in the form of Suga cursing under his breath with app switch after app switch. He didn't bother silencing the game's noises, and each one seemed faster and faster than the last. Even still, nothing could distract Suga enough for him to stick to it for longer than five minutes.

No one said anything, if they even heard the high pitched pings at all.

Moving on from that lovely image...

From where Kuroo sat, he could see Terushima's autopilot-like stare out of the windows as he routinely checked all his mirrors, but the pensiveness there told Kuroo the blond's mind was on everything other than driving.

Which yeah...not what he as a passenger wanted to see, but breaking that freakish concentration would probably cause them to swerve into the nearest telephone pole, so nah. Futakuchi steadfastly read the car's manual, maybe because he'd realized neither of them truly knew how to drive this behemoth, and Yamamoto...Yamamoto just stared out the window, searching for something Kuroo didn't feel the need to know about.

So yeah, maybe not a traditionally normal silence, but a fitting one nonetheless.

Oh, but Kuroo sensed it, Kuroo knew something was amiss, but he just couldn't pinpoint it until it was too late. Tsukishima must've though, from where the blond sat beside Kuroo, eyes sharp and stuck on whatever the fuck Yamamoto was trying to find. The blond never missed those mannerisms, and maybe Kuroo should've taken a page from his book, and then he could've saved them all the headache.

The first gas station they passed, with its turned over kiosk and scattered litter, was the spark that lit the kerosene drenched air of their quiet ride.

He heard Tsukishima's sharp inhale as Yamamoto's eyes widened like a predator's, and Kuroo's brain finally got it. Oh, that's what he was waiting for.

"Wow, that station sure looks full still--"

(It didn't.)

"--perfect opportunity to get me some food. A candy perhaps. Chocolate. With caramel. Starting with an S..."

Kuroo could see the moment Terushima visibly tensed, and then the exact moment where his brain flashed the 'stay put or murder' option in front of his eyes.

Suga looked up from whatever pinball shit he was currently losing to stare at his seat buddy with nothing but "I wish we'd left you at home" written on his face. The game noises continued even as Futakuchi threw his manual back into the glove compartment.

Kuroo didn't say shit.

Not yet. But errr, looking back, he probably should've. Because oh, that little interruption was the first of many.

Every gas station they passed, every single one elicited some sort of comment, some sort of demand from Yamamoto which gradually chipped away at Terushima's patience.

"Oh look at that, another empty station, how rare."

"Hey that kiosk isn't as far away from the pumps this time, ey Terushima think you'd walk ten feet instead?"

"Sure wish I had some food right about now."

"Snickers."

And oh, just the one word was worse than any sass imaginable, it was similar to a punch.

Suga tried fiddling with his door to leave, to find it had a child proof lock. Kuroo didn't know which was worse, the discovery or the insult it carried.

Anyways.

It got to the point where every time the neon sign of a station gleamed in the distance, they all winced, dreading the words out of Yamamoto's mouth.

"Why are we in this car?" Kuroo whispered, barely audible, and Tsukishima just shook his head.

"Fuck if I know."

In actuality, it was probably better they act as petty and foolish as usual as opposed to drowning in the sorrow and violence of what they were traveling to do. Terushima needed the distraction before he thought himself into a hole, because for once, treating the matter seriously wasn't always the best option.

That being said, fuck this.

In the distance, another gas station sat, like it was crafted and ordained by the gods themselves. Why. This is worse than waiting for the damn 7 P.M. sirens.

The instinctual need to bolt made Kuroo feel like one of Pavlov's dogs, and he wasn't even getting food for this kind of mental torture.

And that was him, god knew what Terushima was thinking. (Judging from how emotionless his eyes peered into the darkness, not good things).

Kuroo gave him...eh, about five more blocks before he snapped.

Oh. Whoops. Looks like I lost that bet.

"Sni--"

Terushima spun around in his seat, and damn, they all leaned back. "If you fucking say you want a Snickers bar one more time I'm going to turn this car around and--"

"And what? Put another hole in his house?" Yamamoto's finger shot in Tsukishima's direction so fast it could've taken out an eye.

"Um..."

Yeah if Tsukki is speechless, we're all fucked.

"You're making a difficult situation like twenty times harder. You realize that right? Don't you know what holiday it is?"

"How dare--"

"Because it's not fucking Christmas!"

Tsukishima looked to Kuroo with wide eyes, and they were almost impressed. Huh, so Terushima did have a bite to him (when he wasn't a puddle on the floor anyways).

"Should we be trying to stop them?" Kuroo whispered, but before Tsukishima could answer, Suga's hand came between them.

"No...no, no. Let them do this, it's healthy."

"That's a word for it."

Yamamoto powered on, and okay, Terushima hadn't checked the road in at least two minutes. "This would've been a lot easier if I'd gotten my Snickers..."

"Do--do you really wanna keep doing this?"

"I'm just saying, if you had just walked to the kiosk--"

"Because I will stop this car and come open your door, so help me god."

"You could barely get out to get gas, I'd like to see you try it."

"I'm--fuck you! I'll end you!"

"I'm already dying of hunger! Finish the job!"

It went on in much the same fashion for a while, the only changing variable being Kuroo's growing concern for their safety.

Good thing no one else was driving on these roads.

Eventually Terushima did agree to pullover and let Yamamoto get his damn candy bar, but as he munched on the snack, the bickering only accelerated. Whatever, maybe they all had also realized how much better it was to complain about insignificant things than to worry themselves to death.

Bored with the useless arguing, Kuroo sat back, content with returning to his new favorite pastime: watching Tsukishima.

And no, it wasn't creepy. Tsukishima watched him too. So...ha.

To his disappointment, the blond's eyes had drifted though, his soft face twisted into a scowl as he stared at the seat in front of him. All thoughts of nougat and caramel were forgotten in Kuroo's head.

The blond's face had returned to the way it had been after they'd left the first station, stiff and concerned. Tsukishima sat back, detached from the conversation, eyes narrowed as he watched the empty streets pass by. Yamamoto's gas station rant apparently hadn't been enough to shake off whatever brewed in Tsukishima's mind, and Kuroo needed to know.

Tsukishima was the most experienced with the Purge out of all of them. If he had a bad feeling, they couldn't ignore it. It was only then Kuroo noticed the blond's hand hadn't left his gun holster, probably not since they'd left the first station.

Not comforting in the slightest, but that was from his point of view. Who knew what Tsukishima was going through.

Without thinking, Kuroo moved closer to him, placing his own hand over a weapon which he usually hated having to touch.

"Hey, what's wrong?" he whispered, leaning in. Much to his satisfaction, Tsukishima met him halfway, foreheads almost touching. "Did you forget something?"

He knew it couldn't have been so simple, but the need for false hope hadn't totally left him in all these years. Tsukishima must've sensed that, because the hardness in his eyes softened, flooded with compassion Kuroo knew he was blessed to see.

As soothing as that was, the blond didn’t baby him with hesitation or fluffy words. "Something's not right," the blond whispered, and finally, Kuroo felt his blood run cold.

He swallowed thickly, even as the pointless conversations from the other car rows drifted into their space. His focus was solely on Tsukishima.

"What do you mean?" Kuroo's own face hardened as his hand gripped the blond’s, his no-nonsense mode turned back on full force. "Did you see something?"

Tsukishima shook his head. "No, but that doesn't mean anything.”

Yeah, he was right, and it made things twice as terrifying.

“Kuroo...why wouldn't those guys at the station attack us? It doesn't make sense. No one is just standing around tonight, there has to be a purpose to it." The question sounded more like Tsukishima’s own way of processing his thoughts, not as if he was actually interested in Kuroo’s response. Not in a harsh or condescending way, but in a way that told Kuroo the blond had already made up his mind and couldn’t be convinced otherwise.

That wasn’t good.

And yet, Kuroo tried.

Shaking his head, he tried to calm him. Tsukishima was overthinking this, he was being too protective, that’s what he told himself. "Intimidation maybe? Tsukki, some people are just douchebags with no balls, they didn't have it in them to--"

"They were too confident Kuroo," Tsukishima cut him off, tone giving no room for Kuroo to argue. It made his breathing stutter as the words penetrated his thoughts. Problem was yeah, Tsukishima was probably overthinking, but Kuroo couldn't imagine him being wrong. "They stood there, vulnerable, but like nothing could hurt them. They didn’t need to attack us, not yet."

"But--"

"That's not normal, and you know it." Tsukishima looked behind him as an afterthought, shoulders tense, and he was met with nothing but empty alleyways. No threats. No indications of foul play. Everything looked alright, even though he knew nothing ever was.

So why did Kuroo feel so on edge now? Why was he so convinced they needed to gun it out of there?

Kuroo didn't want Tsukishima to be right, but he also knew gut feelings shouldn't have been ignored. Not tonight.

And as Suga tried to interject between the rest of the bickering car, oblivious to Tsukishima's warnings, the blond leaned into him, driving his point home. "Intimidation is nothing without an attack. An end result. I…I would know.”

The blond closed his eyes tight as the next words left his mouth, features trembling, and Kuroo already dreaded them. “I've done it before."

And Kuroo froze at the exact moment they crossed the next four way intersection, barely having time to take a breath before their car was hit from the side, jolting them off the road.

#kurotsuki #adri writing #tsukishima kei #kuroo tetsurou

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theblackpanther · 7 years ago

Note

Hello! I just discovered you and A Professional Observation a few days ago and I LOVE IT! You've got a loyal reader here. :) Can I ask questions 3 & 4 regarding A Professional Observation, please?

Hello Annie. Very happy to hear that! :) Do you happen to be also the Guest who left the review on ff.net on April 23?

Since A Professional Observation is one big author-service (written because 1. things I liked the most about “Arrow” disappeared from the show althogether 2. I couldn’t find fics that explore the tropes I wanted to read about), there is more than one example. Beware, this post is ridiculously long.

3. What’s your favorite line of narration?

“The rain was monotonously beating against the barred windows of the interrogation room. It was small almost to the point of being claustrophobic, heavily shadowed in the corners, but strongly lit in the centre from the ceiling lamps. Currently it was occupied by only one person — a handcuffed man in his early thirties, sitting by the table placed in the center. The bright light gave his costume an unnaturally vivid shade of green. His hood was pulled off his head, lying flat on his back, the mask gone altogether, probably locked up alongside his bow, quiver and other equipment in the evidence locker.”

(Maybe nothing special. But I’m not a native speaker, and those were first lines in English I put conciously after years and year of wanting to write in a foreign language—I think it works well as the opening and sets the tone of the story.).

“He was not mad. He would know if he was, wouldn’t he?”

“How he wished he was still a free man and could just run into the night. He always escaped into night from all he had. Or perhaps the night was all he had.If only he could feel the chill of wind on his face and breathe in rain-soaked air. Look at the city’s skyline from the top of the highest building, the hood down over his head and the reassuring weight of the bow in his hand… He didn’t need it to be efficient in what he was doing; he shaped himself to be the most dangerous weapon. But still he viewed his mastery of archery as something to be proud of.This was making it even more difficult to accept that the part of his life as a vigilante was over. And that he would never again hear the rustle of an arrow’s fletching being taken out of the quiver, when the feathers softly rubbed against each other, or bowstring’s ring when it was released. He loved being the Arrow, he couldn’t deny it. When he observed people from the rooftops, living their normal lives, he knew that it was something he would never have, but accepted it as the consequence of the path he had chosen. It had not only given him the sense of purpose in his once dull existence. It had also provided him with a shot of adrenaline he craved.”

(Some angst, also one of many Archery Is Awesome/Archery Placement scenes.)

“She wanted to break him down and pick through the darkest corners of his mind. Get inside his head and make him believe he was suffering from some psychological disorder. How could he regard her otherwise? Right now Doctor Pressnall, despite her ordinary look, seemed to be a much more dangerous foe than the Dark Archer and Deathstroke put together. They wanted to take everything from him, and in the end kill him. But what she intended to do was even worse. Deprive him of everything that gave meaning to his life and force him to live without it.”

“He raised his eyes slowly and observed Doctor Pressnall for a longer while as she indulged herself in reading some excerpt in his file. Studying her as he would study his quarry, trying to figure out what tactic would be best. Giving some thought to what he already knew about her, what he had learned during their conversation, and what he could make out of her appearance. If she looked at him at this moment, she would probably be greatly surprised that he was watching her like a hawk. Thoughts flashed through his mind one after another, piling up, building up a bigger, more complex picture out of little pieces. Unlike one of his fellow vigilantes, the Arrow was no detective. But still he was able to make some deductions on his own.”

(Ollie’s observations and Sherlock Holmes mode was fun to write. Before the show kind of forget about that, he was able to make some deduction/investigation on his own.)

“While people from City Hall were doing all in their power to lessen the Arrow’s influence on violent crime rates steadily declining, and ignore all the good he was doing, the “little guys” showed their appreciation in whatever way they could. True, there were no cool gadgets like Flash action figures one could buy in a gift shop, or The Flash coffee, but people found other ways to express their gratitude. There was a small tea room on Grell Street, run by an old lady, which was serving Green Arrow tea, which was basically a jasmine green tea with a fancy name. In some stalls one could buy a T-shirt or a green hoodie with an imprint of a hooded man with a bow. He looked more like Robin Hood or a comic book character in those pictures (Oliver had no idea why some artist drew him with a distinctive goatee), but still, there was no doubt that all of those were supposed to represent the local vigilante. Him.

Shortly after the Arrow saved the city from Deathstroke and his Mirakuru soldiers, some street artists painted a huge graffiti on a wall of one of buildings in Glades of the Arrow, watching over the city. Most of his face was covered by the shade of the hood. Someone from City Hall decided to paint it over, but once the people from Glades heard about it , they protested so vigorously that the plan was dropped almost instantly. The mural stayed in place.

Over the years the Arrow, become something more than only an elusive, shadowy figure. Sometimes someone managed to catch a glimpse of him. People were looking up on the roofs or peeking into dark alleys, knowing that those were his “favorite” places. Kids from Glades hoped that if they got lucky, they might find a stray arrow with characteristic green-and-yellowish fletching, or an arrowhead that police overlooked while they were securing the area and gathering the evidence. That part of the public interest was relatively harmless. Oliver was, however, getting more and more annoyed with people who wanted to take a photo of him or record a film on those rare occasions when he had to appear in open space, close to civilians. Not only because the police could use it as evidence against him later on. They put themselves into harm’s way—some were so reckless that they would walk into the middle of shootout just to get that precious photo of the Arrow.One of the most original and unexpected forms of tribute he was given was an unofficial archery contest.”

(At some point in the show people just mysteriously disappeared. The city no longer felt alive. I wanted to show what impact on the life of ordinary normal citizens the existence of vigilante hero would have and how he would fit into the city’s space.)

“Without Mom, Thea and Dad…Or even without Walter, who tried to replace his father in his life the best he could…It’s not the house anymore. He doesn’t care about his ancestors, no matter what they did, or what they achieved. They are just empty names. Probably put a lot of effort to raise themselves up over others. He wouldn’t have the means to finance his crusade without the money he inherited, but he prefers to not think of that. Because it would lead him to thinking that he is no better than other wealthy and well situated people using their position to do whatever they want. But to do what he does nowadays, having a plain English longbow and some wooden arrows wouldn’t be enough.

Damn, he really should go catch some sleep, since he’s comparing himself to Robin Hood now. He doesn’t like this association, because on some level he thinks that Robin Hood should belong to those romantic ballads and stories, where everything was so simple, painted in black and white colors. Robin and his merry men were the good guys, the Sheriff and his thugs the bad ones.

He doesn’t exactly remember when, but he learned that in Robin Hood’s time, the bow was not viewed as a noble weapon. It was associated with peasants, and what’s worse also with thieves and bandits, men who had no honor. No nobleman would touch such a thing. So maybe after all he had more in common with Robin Hood that he wanted to admit. He was no thief, but according to the law he was a bandit, and the fact that he used his skills to fight crime and injustice had no meaning to that law. “

(Robin Hood reference is must-be in “Arrow” story. Also way to slip in an information that in Robin Hood times a bow was not viewed as a noble weapon.)

“Viewed from the high rooftop, with its busy traffic on the main street arteries, Starling looks like every other city aspiring to be a modern metropolis. Long torrents of cars, with gleaming yellow and red lights, from this height small like toys, are streaming in all directions. And for a change it is not even raining today. From this vantage point all dark corners of the city and its poor, badly reputed districts are invisible, hidden in shade of skyscrapers, towering over the whole surrounding area.

Once it was one of the busiest docks on the West Coast. But the last of them were closed in the late nineties, and over the years the former wharfs were redeveloped and turned into a business district. Now it is full of office buildings, as impressive as constructions of metal, glass and concrete can be, and although the revitalization of the area is not a bad thing, on some level Oliver hates those skyscrapers; their only purpose seems to be raising themselves above others. Modern, elegant yachts are moored next to them in newly constructed marinas. The port itself introduced some major changes as well. New quays were constructed in the north part, and all the wet docks were deepened in order to handle vessels with bigger displacement. Only recently four gentry cranes were put into service in the container terminal, though there are still a lot of people who can’t find their place after the last big shipyard was closed down. Oliver poured a lot of money into a program which was supposed to help them retrain and get a new job, but it didn’t work as well as he planned.

So, to put it shortly, Starling pretends quite well to be something more. Something other than what it truly is. However, on a global scale, it means nothing. Just like him.”

“Usually when someone wants him somewhere it means that they want to kill him. Oliver comes well before the time and circles around, checking the surrounding. There is no sign of any trap though. Not many possible hiding places in the area as well, since this part of the port is remarkable mostly for its emptiness. South Pier is just a long strip of metal and concrete stretching out into the Starling Bay. A long time ago it served as the mooring place for a local cruise company. It used to have a number of connections with other port cities of the West Coast, including a ferry going to Coast City two times a day. Unfortunately the company bankrupted years ago. Although a revitalization process of the unused port area has been gradually put into motion, and over time South Pier became an official part of Harbour Green Park, none of the plans to somehow restore it have been so far successful. The sole remnant of its historical significance is an rusty archway, which used to serve as the entrance to the pier. Original shipyard lettering—"White Star Line" is still clearly readable.

Looking up at the company’s name, Oliver briefly remembers the trip to Coast his parents took him and Tommy on when they were both nine or ten years old. Sunny day, gusts of oceanic wind, a huge white ship and both of them ferreting about the deck, getting in every hole—especially if the entrance was prohibited to the passengers. On their return journey they were allowed to the helm though (nobody refuses Robert Queen). During the whole trip his parents looked genuinely happy together. He even saw them holding hands when they stood by the ship’s side, talking about something softly. Much later he was wondering bitterly if at that time his mother was already sleeping with Malcolm. And if his father was cheating on her with his secretary. After all, Isabel Rochev was not the first woman he had an affair with—he knew that there were others “lapses” in his life, much earlier.

Now all of this seems to have a spectral place in his memories. His parents and Tommy are gone forever, and that ship (he still remembers the name written with golden lettering—"Olympic") was scrapped shortly after the company ceased to exist. That archway and few bleak, distant images in his mind, like a bunch of old photographs, are the only proofs that it ever happened. If he dies tonight—and he can’t exclude that possibility—the only link with that past event will disappear for good, as well as those little parts of his parents and Tommy which are still alive in him.”

“He eventually finds himself around the bay. But instead going to the embankment near Harbour Green Park, he heads to the port, specifically to the part that hasn’t been revitalized yet. And maybe never will. An old abandoned power plant looms in the distance, its striped white and red chimney rising high. He passes a terminal container and enters an area that is a pathetic sight. He goes along a narrow street with cracked asphalt, passing long chains of railway wagons standing on the sidings on his left. On the other side, empty warehouses with broken windows and dirty, shabby-looking walls are towering over him.

He takes a short-cut through the closed ship assembly plant. A half-finished hull, lying under a gantry crane, reminds him of the skeleton of some deep-sea creature, dragged onto the bank. He goes through a large gap in the fence and finds himself under a brick wall of the abandoned power plant. He enters the building through a side entrance—it is one of his alternate hideouts. He is pretty sure that even Amanda Waller doesn’t know about the existence of this one, nor does his former team. Here he keeps some backup gear, even a spare motorcycle. But today he hasn’t come to grab some equipment, but to leave the backpack with the things he took from the foundry.”

(Finally, many descriptions of the city, which is a character on its own. Starling is full of contrasts, modern districts and neglected Glades, revitalized area contrasted with the abandoned places. Also many references to existing places/cities.)

4. What’s your favorite line of dialogue?

“I’m not crazy,” he said through clenched teeth. “So stop talking to me as if I’m one of your patients, living under some delusion and unable to tell lies from reality” An edge of threatening tone crept into his cold voice. It was the Hood speaking all over again. He regretted it almost immediately, seeing anxiety mirrored in the psychiatrist’s eyes. After all, he didn’t want to scare this woman.

“I’m not crazy,” he repeated, his tone much more level. “And contrary to what you might think, I don’t consider myself to be Robin Hood.”

“Then why do you wear this green hood? Why did you choose a bow and arrow?” she pressed on. “Does it have something to do with the island you were marooned on for five years? What exactly happened to you out there?”

(Oliver finally decides to speak with Doctor Pressnall.)

“I’m afraid you’re not in a position to judge anyone, given your own criminal record and how many victims you have on your conscience…I’m sorry for the harsh words, Oliver, but someone has to break it to you. Especially because you act as though you don’t realize how serious the charges against you are.”

He glared at her and retorted: “I’m handcuffed to the table. I get it.”

(One of many exchanges between them.)

“No man is a lonely island, Oliver, if you’ll forgive me bringing up this quote.”

(Putting references to island is always fun, second on the list after Robin Hood references—well, maybe it’s not fun for Oliver, given the situation…)

“That came addressed to you,“ says the Captain, handing the archer an envelope and glancing at him suspiciously. "You don’t seem to be surprised. Don’t say that now I’m your P.O. Box when someone wants to send you feedback or fan mail.”

“ This is not fan mail,” says Oliver grimly.

“ Queen. Oliver. Don’t turn your back on me like that,” says Lance suddenly. There is a hard edge in his voice. It stops the Arrow in place.

“ It was always so obvious, wasn’t it?”, he asks calmly, not shaken by this revelation at all.

“ You don’t seem surprised that I know,” observes the Captain.

“ You are too good a detective to not figure it out. You did a good job pretending that you don’t know.”

“ Yeah, the same goes to you. Keeping up appearances that you were not aware that I know,” sums up Lance. “Now, since it’s clear where we stand with each other and who knows what…”

“ I’ve never thanked you for what have you been doing for this city,” says Lance. His face bears a sour expression.

“ You never had to. I don’t do this for a thank-you.”

(Scenes with Lance and Oliver/the Arrow are my favorite, so of course one of the most imporant part of the story is Quentin’s and the Arrow’s cooperation—for me it was obvious that he had known for a long time who is hiding under the hood, he just didn’t care. Also, reference to Nolan’s Batman, exchange between Gordon and Batman from Batman Begins.)

“ I… I’ll call the cops!” Leeds makes another empty threat.

“ Go ahead,” says Oliver with a mocking tone. “How fast do you think Captain Lance will send his men here after you had proposed to cut down his retirement?”

“ He should be fired from the force for working with you!”

(Who said that Oliver doesn’t have a sense of humor? :p Also reference to Kevin Smith’s Quiver.)

“Sometimes I wonder…” he pauses. Barry is looking at him expectantly, so he swallows hard and goes on: “…how long I’ll be able to carry on. I chose this life. I became a vigilante, I use the night. But sooner or later I’ll go down. It might be the Dark Archer, or Deathstroke, or just some punk who gets lucky. Or perhaps some overzealous cop who’ll shoot me down. And when this moment comes, my last thought will be probably whether I made any difference.”

“ Oliver, the city would fall apart without you.”

“ Maybe. Maybe not. You know what they say… When you look too long into the abyss, the abyss looks back through you. And the longer I look on my city from up here…the less sense in all of this I see.”

“ You know what I think? That you are talking complete rubbish.”

“ That is really reassuring of you to say.”

(Some angst and moment between superfriends—as Barry’s and Oliver’s friendship is another of my favorite parts of the Arrowverse. Also Batman TAS referenced, “I Am The Night” to be precise.)

“He mastered to perfection keeping two halves of his life separate. And he convinced himself that he did this to keep her out of the harm’s way. It was easier to justify not being honest with her that way. It’s quite easy to understand what he was thinking. However, some other things about him are far more intriguing. How did he choose his targets? How did he decide whom to spare, and who deserves the most severe punishment in his book? Did he take pleasure in killing? Or was simply having total control over the situation, something he was deprived of on the island, enough to satisfy him? Those are few of many questions I would like to get an answer for. Maybe by understanding how his mind works, we can understand other people like him. And see the bigger picture.”

(Doctor Pressnall gives her observation.)

“I used to hate him and everything he represented. There was a time I would have sold my badge to nail him,” admitted Lance sincerely. “But… that’s changed. In city like Starling normal methods just… fail. And if we had realized that earlier, maybe we could have avoided tragedy… (…) The lines are getting thinner, the longer I’m in this line of work,” he explained, his tone sounding weary. “I used to think that you don’t need to step outside of the law to get justice. Starling taught me otherwise. And right now all I know is that—no matter how absurd it sounds—a hooded guy with a bow is…was the only one who stood between us and other masks running around the city. And this city is hurting. There were guys like Merlyn, or Wilson, or Brick who wanted to tear it apart. Bertinelli, Triad, Bratva, Los Halcones, Church… The never ending list. Cut off one head, two new take its place… But right now we are about to put away the only guy who could do something about it .”

(This fragment is not yet published, as it’s from chapter 19. Quentin’s thoughts on the Arrow.)

I’ve said it will be long…

#ask me anything #a professional observation #arrow fic #meme #fanfiction #oliver queen #doctor pressnal #quentin lance #angst

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radicaldreamer017 · 7 years ago

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Finished chapter 3 and in the middle of chapter 4 (and things are getting spoilery) :

- found a few more heart to heart. It was quite funny to have Tora laments on feeling useless in battle after I benched him. Guess the game does expect you to bench him for the new character.

- I noticed how these scenes are voiced and involve several characters. In XB1, the scenes are silent and involves only two characters bonding. The voice acting is cool but I think they should have kept the two character bonding thing (group stuff is nice too… but so far, Tora has been starring in all of them… i’m afraid the game may push some characters forward more than others in these heart to heart).

- so, met Zeke (it’s Zek in french apparently) and his blade twice. He’s so over the top lol… i saw people comparing him with Bart from Xenogears, but Bart was down to earth next to him (then again, the over the top shonen humor in XB2 is quite new to Xeno… except maybe when it comes to mascot characters). Bart also had a heavy backstory and duty. That said, eye patch thing, trying to snatch your « weapon » upon the first meeting… I can see why comparaisons are made. I’m waiting to see who Zeke is beyond “comic relief guy” though.

- I don’t know if it’s just me but enemies feel quite spongey compared to previous XB games. In the first game, it was quicker and easier to beat a group of enemies. Not so much here (in fact, I’m dying a lot... and chapter 4 is pissing me off a bit because of this... too many enemies ganging up on you, all spongey... the most annoying thing is getting teleported way back and all enemies getting revived). In the first XB game, I was already going against uniques in the first 10 hours. I never bothered to beat a single one in this one and i’m past 30 hours in. Then again, I was battling uniques in XB1 because it was part of the quests and I knew they were giving capacity points too.

- I really like Uraya overall. The town gives me Skyrim (Solitude) vibe coupled with Baten Kaitos maybe (with a touch of Zora village from Breath of the Wild) ?

- speaking of this town… i’m still clueless where their king or queen even is… where’s the palace ?

- i’m starting to understand maybe why people feel frustrated when exploring in this game. It took me way too much time to understand how to get to Uraya’s main town (and I just quit yesterday playing chapter 4 because a piece of bridge fell while i was walking on it and the only path towards the next main story point I can see is blocked by blade skills i don’t have... that said, maybe this bridge will be whole again when I’ll return to the game... otherwise, that would be bullshit). I also understand why it can feel frustrating to have exploration blocked by requirements that are entirely linked to the blades you managed to get based on pure luck. But I can only encourage Monolith to explore player/environment interactions further. Maybe Zelda’s success will make their next Xeno/jrpg game a lot better on this front (I have lots of gripes about the new Zelda sure… but the way we could interact with the environment, using elements and all, wasn’t one of them).

- so far, town music is definitively more memorable/better than in XB1 (Mitsuda composed them, didn’t he ?).

- while I like towns better in this than XB1, i think it really was a mistake to take the social network thing away. It just makes townies a lot less endearing. It takes away the sense of communities the first two Xenoblade games had. It was really one of Xenoblade’s biggest strength imo.

- returning to Argentum made me realize how nice this place is. A callback to the Thames from Xenogears but with warm Ghibli aesthetics too (love the interior in the upper floors).

- the more I play Tiger Tiger, the more I like it... Dunno if it’s because I was craving for some actual mini games in the modern Xeno games (sick of the hunt/fetch routine) or because the mini game is legit nice. But locking Poppi’s entire upgrade system behind a single mini game probably sucks for anyone who hates playing it.

- I can send blades to expeditions now… between this and the pull to get blades system, the game feels very mobile gacha inspired (by the way, got a rainbow in FFBE the same day I got KOS-MOS). Not that the expedition system was invented by mobile games. It was in FF Tactics on PS1 after all. But the way the characters are sent to missions just remind me of FFBE.

- Also, people sure don’t mind giving command of their military force to a kid they just met lol (old person speaking uhuh).

- this theater thing was nice (and very Baten Kaitos looking).

- the last bosses were brutal… even being higher leveled than them… until I just switched Vandham for Tora (well see, perverted furball… you’re more useful than the big guy with the giant bird after all… crazy).

- speaking of them… I find them quite obnoxious. Maybe it’s the Nomura aesthetics… or the fact they kept wrecking my party… I did feel a bit sorry for Akhos (?) in the end though.

- Malos, or the Sephiroth school of villainy… wearing Gaignun Kukai’s face.

- Giant robot flashback… and a bonus Zohar with a pissy Mithra in it. I love how i’m trying to enjoy this game without comparing it too much to its heavy successors story wise… but the game won’t let me. Oh well…

- hi Mythra… it amused me how she went « fuck off ! I didn’t want to wake up ! I’m out ! » just after being introduced. Also, one of her lines was straight out of Xenosaga 3. As a Xenogears fan, her behavior also reminded me of the « coward ».

- Vandham’s death. I did like the character... but not enough to feel much during this scene apparently (losing the wind bird though... rude... but you get it back quickly anyway). People are not going to feel much when a character they just met dies (unless they’re known to have a close bond with the main character from the get go maybe... which is why killing Alice in Xenogears or Fiora in Xenoblade 1 felt more brutal despite happening very early... because they were introduced as the “childhood friend character/love interest/sister”). Especially if the character is a big bulky guy and the death quite cliché for this kind of character.

- also... did... did they bury him in a freaking concrete/stone ground ?

- I only just remembered Poppi broke at the end of the chapter. But she wasn’t that broken, it seems. They really didn’t make a big fuss about it.

- first time in forever since a character shared a bed with his obvious love interest in a Xeno game. But let’s not expect anything mature here. Mythra was just sleepwalking and happened to end up in Rex’s bed. So, yeah... the whole scene was an entire “you stupid pervert” joke you often see in harem animes (with “omg boobs in front of my face” reaction from Rex). That said, this darn hat that Dromach wears is a thing of glory. Highlight of the scene lol... Ah, and they also acknowledge Mythra/Pyra’s clothing being ridiculous in this scene.

- the whole “thievery” plotline was kind of filler. But still, I guess I’m glad those kids have a place to belong now. Guess I can see the Oliver Twist inspiration here (Takahashi said it was one of the works that made him want to make XB2). And now, the bird is back and Rex can have another 5 stars blade (though, I also managed to get Perceval for him, with a common core crystal).

- Speaking of new rare blade, I also got Boreas for Nia. But controlling Nia with him as her main blade kinda sucks. Boreas is so big that he almost takes the whole screen. But he’s a healer. That’s cool. That’s Nia’s main job.

- Muimui... I’m so glad you’re not the playable mascot character (really, even considering Tora). Seriously, this little guy is like... a nopon version of Peter Pettigrew from Harry Potter (maybe it’s appriopriate, he seems shaddy). But higher pitched. And his name sounds kinda dumb, spoken out loud.

- I like Mor Ardain’s city. Reminds me of Nortune from Xenogears (too bad Mor Ardain’s Titan is a brown wasteland though... but hey, it is dying, after all).

- I really liked the cutscene introducing Mor Ardain’s “emperor”. The music was perfect, Morag and Brighid were there, I generally like child emperor/empress (like say, Larsa from FF12)... and I guess Morag is of royal blood now ?

- Tora’s background story unvealed... and I’m sure it was dramatic... but holy shit, I just wanted to laugh when seeing this small nopon holding a huge gun. Tora is like... Maria Balthasar as a male perverted Chuchu. It’s weird. Now, off to retrieve his giant rob... I mean, gothic lolita robot.

- Hot spring naked time... with convenient censor fog. I knew something like this was in ever since the first trailer. Some people managed to spot a keyword for a bath scene or something. Sigh... What should I say ? I like Persona and they did much worse with this kind of stuff. But it’s still pandering. I don’t even remember what the heck the girls were talking about (expect Poppi maybe... something about being waterproof ?).

- Second battle transition against Zeke was kind of funny. Rex gets bitchslapped by Mythra and the screen breaks, FF10 style.

#xenoblade 2 #thoughts in progress #currently playing

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leftlovetragedy · 8 years ago

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Moffat and his final problem with women

I can’t help but notice that Steven Moffat does have problems with female characters on his shows. Maybe when you watch a lot of his works, only then you’ll notice it, but it is what it is. And the problem is? He writes Faux Strong Female Characters (FSFC). Why Faux? Well, here is why: 1) Irene Adler

In ACD’s canon she works for herself, has her own personal life and doesn’t care romantically for Sherlock, is the one who outsmarted Sherlock, departed on her own terms into sunset and made Sherlock actually have respect for women ( “He used to make merry over the cleverness of women, but I have not heard him do it of late” - Watson about Sherlock in ACD’s lore). ACD wrote this Irene in XIX c. In BBC Sherlock? Yeah, on the surface she is that cool dominatrix, comfortable with her sexuality, who blackmails powerful clients, has a hold of state secrets and even whips Sherlock at one point. But in the end? She doesn’t outsmart Sherlock at all, in fact she loses to him because of her feelings for him! That’s right, Sherlock is so damn cool and special dude, that Irene loses because of her emotions, using his name as a password for her very important mobile, which contains all the important info she uses as her protection. In a blink she is begging Sherlock, with tears in her eyes, saying that she is toast without her mobile. At the end of episode it gets “better” when Sherlock actually rescues her from terrorists in Pakistan in a total classical damsel-in-distress trope. Not only that, but we learn from this episode that Irene works with Moriarty and in fact her plan to trick Holmes brothers wasn’t her plan (”I had all this stuff; never knew what to do with it. Thank God for the consultant criminal. Gave me a lot of advice about how to play the Holmes boys” - says Irene in BBC Sherlock). So Irene in BBC Sherlock needs consulting from Moriarty to work out a cohesive plan, loses to Sherlock in the game of wits because her wits were very much affected by her sentiments towards Sherlock and needs to be saved by him with wielding sword action. Steven Moffat wrote this Irene in XXI c.

2) Mary Morstan | Mary Watson

In ACD’s canon she and Watson met because of the case, she worked for some time as governess, they married and then she died.

In BBC Sherlock on the surface she got an upgrade in badassery. She is a former assassin, who now tries to have a new, normal life with John Watson and has a baby with him, very skilled, very clever, with quick reactions, quite an intellectual match to Sherlock and often more clever than her husband John. Yet in attempts to make a strong skilled character Moffat screws up, cause this really smart, professional trained ex-assassin uses perfume while she goes out to kill a guy who blackmailed her; can’t figure out that her USB flash drive has a tracking device and goes to a meeting with a person, who is responsible for her fellow assassin ex-colleagues being taken down, without any weapons or protection (you know, there’re such things as bullet-proof body armour that could be worn under your clothes in the situation like this, surely ex-assassin should know this ). And the result? Mary is killed in a most ridiculous fashion by some bored secretary, because she jumped in front of the bullet trying to save-you guess it right - Sherlock from being shot. ACD also had Mary dead, however without fanfare, silliness and without Mary dying for Sherlock or without giving Mary a little baby girl, leaving this girl motherless as a result of Mary’s death in the name of Sherlock. Steven Moffat wrote Mary as this super pro, smart and experienced, who at the same time makes spectacular dumb decisions which undermine her supposed smartness and proficiency, who gives up her own agenda, her new life with her husband and daughter, the new life she wanted after retiring and worked for and finally got - because of Sherlock. Because Sherlock is so special and important here, that female character must die for him. 3) Eurus Holmes

The secret sister of Holmes brothers made up by Moffat and Gatiss. Locked in a secret prision (facility), she is a genius from childhood, killed Sherlock’s best friend when they were little kids, manipulator (can actually hypnotise people with talking or something and make them dance to her tune), master of disguise, can arrange wild games of survival, can escape her prision at her own will, etc. On the surface she is uber nemesis to Sherlock, maybe in some ways more dangerous than Moriarty himself! But all her talents and wits in the end were all about getting attention of her brother Sherlock and hanging out with him. Yeah, in the end it was all about Sherlock being so special and important that his super smart sister didn’t really want anything else and as soon as Sherlock got a proper hold of her, Eurus was tamed, cause she pretty much didn’t have any other agenda in life. She has visits from her brother now and they can play their violins together. Awww. That’s it! Apart from making it all about Sherlock (again!) the whole twist with super secret sister who suddenly appeared out of the blue was just bad writing on the level of juvenile fanfiction. But Sherlock is not the only one of Moffat’s title characters who is that damn special and cool, so female characters must bend for him in that way or another. Look at Doctor Who! 4) Missy

Missy, female regeneration of The Master, the old nemesis of The Doctor. On the surface she is dangerous, smart, cunning, with evil glee and no boundaries. She can kill and mock, and scheme. Yet her first plot in the series was to raise the Earth's dead as an army of Cybermen - and give this army as a gift to The Doctor! Missy then suggests that she and the Doctor can still hang out together again and return to Gallifrey together. Eh? Missy’s last plot in the series was to be saved by The Doctor from execution. Then The Doctor locks Missy in his vault under the university campus - and Missy begins to reform and see errors of her ways! Apparantely nothing helps a woman to reform like being put under lock and key by a guy in his basement and giving guidance to this woman! Her arc ends with Missy wanting to help the Doctor and getting killed because she chose The Doctor’s side. In other words, the first ever female version of the Master aka Missy died for the Doctor, was tutored by him and basically wanted to hang out with him more than anything else. Riiight. Cause The Doctor is that special, you know. 5) River Song

Professor River Song. Archaeologist, child of Tardis, has a Time Lord DNA, time traveller. On the surface brave, witty, smart, strong-willed. Still she unfortunately got the shades of Moffat’s treatment of his female characters. She was raised by the Silence to kill the Doctor but fell in love with him and became his wife. In her childhood as Mels she was obsessed with the Doctor, when she regenerated into River Song she entered the University to become archaeologist in order to find the Doctor through time and space. She was ready to screw time and space and history, by defying a fixed point in time because Doctor meant too much too her . As a result time shredded into a reality where all history happened at once. She finally fixed it by fake-killing the Doctor, but then she was sentenced to several life sentences for this murder and served the sentence to make the Silence believe him dead, and though she often escaped her prision to spend time with The Doctor, she always returned to her cel. Like another gig of female character being locked up for the sake of main male protagonist. Okey dokey. In the end River didn’t allow The Doctor to sacrifice himself in the Library in order to save people there, and took his place, dying as a result of this. The thing is Steven Moffat here has a female character who is very much emotionally fixed on his main male protagonist, who can easily become putty in his hands at times because of this. And dies for him. See the trend? That’s why it can be called FSFC. Sure, Moffat’s female characters may use guns or whips, act dangerously and independent on the surface, throw around quirky and quick-witted lines, have some adventures, use word “sexy” a lot , go against main male protagonist, even go after his life - but in the end they get upstaged by this main male protagonist either because it turns out that they have real strong emotional attachment to him and it makes them lose or give up or join his side, or because this main male protagonist is so special and important in general, that they just feel obliged to make sacrifices for him. Or combination of these variants. As a bonus: many of those FSFC can be really flashy and have a “bad girl” vibe. Moffat obviously has a kink for “bad girls” and likes to write them, so the main male protagonist, be it Sherlock or Doctor Who, can get an upper hand over those bad girls. IDK, probably it makes it all the sweeter for Moffat. Irene, Missy, River, Eurus all have it in them. Irene is a dominatrix and string-puller and flaunts it; Missy, while cosplaying Mary Poppins in her looks, openly refers to herself as “bad girl” and surely acts like one; River a playful time travelling criminal/scientist/adventurer has enemies-to-lovers trope played out with the Doctor in spades ( “ They engineered a psychopath to kill you -Totally married her"). Eurus has a lot of very, very bad girl about her. Heck, even Mary Watson has some of it in her, due to her dark past as assasin for hire. This whole thing is very troubling and it seems many of Moffat’s female characters can be "strong” only until they submit (in one form or another) to or in the name of main male protagonist. Because Moffat’s main male protagonists are that cool and special and awesome, so it must be about them and their awesomeness in the end, when the dust settles.

#sherlock #bbc sherlock #steven moffat #doctor who #bbc dracula #irene adler #missy #eurus holmes #mary watson #river song

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taleoftheuchihas · 8 years ago

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What kind of wood would Uchihas wands be made of?

So...I kind of went too passionate about this and it’s ridiculously (RIDICULUS!) long but I think it was worth it. I really like the way it turned out and just....enjoy it everyone.

Madara Uchiha

Cedar- perceptive, not easily fooled, very strong

Now the first thing that striked me was Blackthorn for warriors. I highly associated Madara as a warrior mainly because the Warring states period but this is Hogwarts AU, no ninjas in here. Although I still think Madara is definitely warrior even in HP universe (we all know you can have some really good fights with magic) I do not think it would be the main attribute in his character.

I imagine Uchihas as some old, very fancy and very respected family, probably pure blood, and maybe some of them were well-known wizards in magical history. Maybe some of them fought great battles, mainly as some kind of „generals“ and for that they needed to have sharp and strategic mind. So then DNA worked and is no wonder Madara is really perceptive human, even without Sharingan. He can see danger or possible benefits in various types of situations, he knows how to speak to different kinds of people and also when to back off and when step out. He just knows.... naturally he knows.

Also that Madara is no easily fooled is just something that fits him. He thinks a lot and he kind of can be a Ravenclaw but yeah, no one dares to mess with Madara because Madara can see thru all of your shit.

Very strong – can we really need to explain this? He is strong, like DAMN strong. He always was and always will be and that god damn wand would recognize that too.

Izuna Uchiha

Black Walnut- good instincts, powerful insight, sincere, self aware

I kind of see Izuna like someone who relies a lot on his inner feelings, way more than to his heart or his mind. And he is doing right because his instincts and intuition are his biggest weapons.

As for powerful insight, again I choose this mainly because I am used to him as a Sharingan user and we all know his eyes were almost as powerful as Madara’s so I think he kind of preserve this even in HP universe. But of course it is not just about what he can see with eyes, but also what is hidden inside and Izuna is an expert for it. Don’t even try to lie to him, he always see though your words. No verita serum needed.

Sincere – any time, all the time. Madara can be brutally honest but with Izuna I see him as a type of person who will always say a truth but depends on the situation he can give it to you in way you will always love to hear it even it’s something critical. He just knows how to use words and also hate affectation so sincere he will be no matter what.

Self aware oh yeah. Izuna is much more down to Earth than Madara so this applies to him very well. He of course knows he is powerful and talented but he is not cocky and he kind of can get along with everyone thanks to this self aware attitude.

And bonus for Izuna – Black walnut wood is particularly good at charmwork, which I have a feeling would be the field of study he is interested in the most.

Kagami Uchiha

Vine- seeks a greater purpose, vision beyond the ordinary, hidden depths

Sweet oh sweet Kagami! He was always kind of “before his time” guy and all he ever wanted was to make a world the better place. He won’t be somebody to graduate at Hogwarts and then spend the rest of his life in Ministry office. No, no and no. He would seek a grater purpose not just for himself but for everybody on planet and he won’t stop until he finds it.

Vision beyond the ordinary is something that also perfectly matches him because in Warring states period he was the only (or one of the few) Uchiha that was close to Tobirama. So close he trust him with his life and that was probably because he can see further than the rest of the Uchihas – meaning he was well aware of both Uchiha’s best and worst traits and could independently analyze them. I am sure he can do that also in HP universe and not just with his family. He can see beyond lots of things – it’s his biggest talent and something that you would say about him if you need to describe him.

As for hidden depths I think everyone sees Kagami as a moral and loyal guy but I also think he has some pretty dark and rebellious sides inside. He is really multiplexed human and just a few people can see this.

Bonus – vine wood wands can emit magical effects upon the entrance of a suitable owner which I think fits really well cause Kagami also emit almost magical feel of trustfulness around him.

Naori Uchiha

Poplar- clear moral vision, integrity

I personally love Naori to pieces even she is just an anime character I strongly believe someone as she existed in Uchiha history and that also Uchiha history need somebody like her. Considering she was the one who redeemed her friend by creating Izanami she was really kind and selfless. She didn’t want bloodshed but still wanted to end foolish battles for power so she found a way and succeeded. Her moral principles are something that is typical for her as is smile for Naruto.

Also she is a pure soul. Even she is a warrior (and can be really tough and intimidating one) and understands the need of doing difficult decisions from time to time, she always tries to do the compromise and avoid anything kind of evil. Her integrity and sense of honour is legendary.

Fugaku Uchiha

Ebony- courage to be their self, holds to beliefs

When Fugaku was chosen by this wand he was eleven years old but even then he was very strong personality. Somebody that was not afraid of his goals, beliefs and conviction and that is maybe the main reason why he was chosen to be a leader of the Uchiha clan. He was always…how to say it…..himself. And he was never sorry about it.

As a head of Uchiha family he is very traditional and holds to beliefs but again – he was like that even as a child. He always knew what is right and what is wrong and he always did his best to stick on the right path and hold on those traditional virtues even it was the hardest thing to do. Fugaku is not somebody you can convict into doing something he personally consider inaccessible or lame which can makes him boring sometimes but also very loyal.

Bonus – ebony wood wands are really good to all manners of combative magic and Transfiguration which is really handy for a Head of Uchiha family and the future auror to be (yes, Fugaku would definitely be an auror)

Mikoto Uchiha

English Oak- loyal, strength, courage, fidelity, powerful intuition

There is no question Mikoto is loyal. She is the most loyal Uchiha you can ever met, with strong sense of fidelity and for that she is perfect material to be sorted into Hufflepuff but I think that in the end the Gryffindor would be better for her. Why?

Well we did not see that in Naruto but she was a jounin before she gave birth to Itachi and I think she was pretty badass one. The same applies in HP universe as she would be really strong and skilled witch and lot of other girls would be envious to her abilities. That envy will even deepen when Mikoto became Prefect and also Head girl so all the other Gryffindor girls would need to obey her. How spicy.

Oh her lightheartedness... she has it and it’s strongly bonded to her courage. Not always is this courage the best thing for her but it’s one of the main trait in her personality.

Also she is really gifted not just because her perfect charm work but also because of her inner sight. Her intuition is kind of familiar to Kagami’s and it’s mostly the only think that divides her from getting into trouble when she is too courageous.

Bonus – English oak wood should only be collected from winter solstice to summer solnice which makes it as special as Mikoto.

Itachi Uchiha

Cypress- noble, heroic, brave, self sacrificing

As an older brother and successor of Uchiha family Itachi would from the young age needed to understand his position and everything that is associated with it. Not necessarily means he loves it from beginning but he eventually he quickly learns to be proud of his heritage. That noble side is born out of this. He is a future leader and he acts like it. It became a part of his personality and nobody is nobler than this Uchiha. Such perfection.

Heroic of course. Even if Itachi would not be a future head he still has this strong feeling for helping others. Presumably his heroic actions would be first the small things like helping Sasuke to learn the basic charms or helping his classmates with homework to Transfiguration but when he will be adult he for sure would be that hero (auror) who slays every dark wizard he met.

Related to this he is naturally really brave person. Of course he is scared of death but he is way more scared that bad guys destroy this world and for that he is willing to put himself into danger, as long as his loved ones and he whole world is safe – in other words he is self sacrificing as hell.

Sasuke Uchiha

Fir- staying power, strength of purpose, focused, strong-minded, sometimes intimidating

Staying power, strength of purpose and strong-minded is a go for Sasuke. His determination is truly legendary and as soon as he wants something he will get it. There is no other way. It doesn‘t matter how hard it is or how long it will take, it will happen. He would be kind of guy to play hardball but of course would not be literally so drastically – he is not a criminal or death eater okay, but let’s say he would not be afraid, from time to time, use some improper ways to achieve his goals. It feels kind of „marauders-ly“.

Having Itachi as his ideal and also shadow he would be truly focused being at least the same or even better than Itachi ever was. And Sasuke would excel in it. He will overcome Itachi in classes, having the best scores and also would be really charming in his behaviour. Uchiha brothers will simply take over Hogwarts – one as magnificent as the other and the only thing that decide which one you choose to cherish is your age – if you are in the same age or younger than Sasuke, than you will be at Sasuke’s side, the older ones would stick to Itachi – because otherwise there is no other way how to decide which Uchiha bro is better, smarter, more powerful etc. They are equal. End of story.

Funny fact – Itachi and Sasuke are in their house quidditch team (Slytherin) but it would be more like fun for Itachi, failing from time to time and not really doing big deal about it, while for Sasuke it would be main purpose of his life and he would be natural talent for it. He never disappoints and he is aspiring to be one of the best quidditch players in the world.

Other thing that Sasuke has and Itachi is lack of is intimidation. Sasuke does not use it on purpose but sometimes when he has a bad day he just irradiates this intimidation kind of aura and in those moments no one is dare to be around him. But as soon as Sasuke realize he is doing it, he would stop it immediately. But of course if somebody deserves it (for example that somebody bullying others) then Sasuke will get this trait into good use.

Bonus – fir wood suited to Transfiguration. Remember how I wrote Sasuke won’t always play fair? I can perfectly picture him as an Animagus. And in his changed form he can spy on others or maybe sneak into places he is not allowed to go, for example Flitch’s cabinet? Oh yeah, he would be a rebellious brat.

Shisui Uchiha

Dogwood- playful, quirky, mischievous, clever, ingenious

Such an easy pick for Shisui. He is playful like no other Uchiha. Sometimes you have a strong suspicion he is not really Uchiha but that lasts just until you look at his dark eyes and hair haha. But yeah Shisui is definitely a big playful ball of joy and nobody question it.

So if there is some Uchiha that is in one thing way different than the other Uchihas then of course there must be some other ways he is different in. That would be his unconventional personality or if you want – his quirky personality. You can really never tell what he is up to. Yeah, you can say it would probably be something mischievous but he is full of surprises so it can also be something super sweet or super serious. He is a man of various layers.

One of the other things that came up to my mind about Shisui is that he is genius. Like really. His mind is sharp and naturally resourceful, he is witty and brainy and for this he has a lot of fans but also a lot of enemies. You can either love him or hate him, that’s how unfairly gifted he is.

Bonus – dogwood wood is not good for performing non-verbal spells and it’s rather noisy when is used. That’s really not a big deal for Shisui because a) he prefers to talk rather than to be silent and mysterious and b) with his talent he can make even dogwood wand performs a non verbal spells.

Obito Uchiha

Alder- helpful, considerate, likeable

Obito has a big heart and he makes no secret about it. He is there for everybody day and night and he will help you with really everything. Even when it’s something trivial like carry your bag or something he never did before like translating parseltongue to mandarin Chinese, he will do it. In this kind of meaning he can be consider stubborn or strong-minded just as Sasuke, but unlike Sasuke, he helps others simply because it makes him happy.

This Uchiha is also really thoughtful and always think about consequences of his actions. If they may somehow negatively affects others than he will back off. Even if it means he needs to give up on his dreams or desires he would always considerate others well being.

For all of above he is genuinely likeable person. It’s true he would be more like brother to girls rather than objection of their love but it’s just the way he is. The friend of everyone. On other hand boys would like him too there would be no bad blood between him and other guys, all good all good. So yeah…. Obito the one who is always there for the others.

Izumi Uchiha

Rowan- clear-headed, pure-hearted

I see Izumi as a character that has all the shit together. Even as a child. She is smarter than anybody in her age (there can be a healthy rivalry between her and Shisui) but it’s just not about studying or good memory but also about social interactions, seeing bigger picture and being down to earth. She just understands everything without long explanations and don’t over thing things that doesn’t have to be over thing. Mind clear as glass, might be a Ravenclaw.

As her brain can be a little bit “cold” her heart is just the opposite. She is really similar to Obito in these instances but on the other hand she does not do things she knows are beyond her limits (for example translating parseltongue). And besides – she is more like a person who does little invisible acts of kindness – saving a set for you if she knows you are late, filling up your inkwell if she sees it’s empty or leave you a spot near a fireplace if you are sick. In that moment you not always realize that it was her who did it, because she is totally cool or leave before you get all the prompters together but it’s always her. She is the one who percept needs of the others even before they know they have them.

Bonus: Rowan wood is perfect for all manners of defensive charms, and Izumi is for sure a great witch and has the best scores in Defence against Dark Magic but attack is not her first response. She is more defence type of person (but if she chooses attack then you better start praying).

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seyaryminamoto · 8 years ago

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May I ask, why does Azula make you passionate? Not a lot of people has the capability to empathize (NOT sympathize) with the antagonists, or a lot don't have the power to share or sense clearly their thoughts and feelings (for many reasons) as they do with the protagonists. Most people are mersiless toward them, even if they were understandable.

Uh, well, if you want the very honest answer? I saw myself in her. But if you want an in-depth answer, click the Read More.

I didn’t mean to, no. I didn’t go looking for myself in her character, I was uneasy about her, even somewhat worried, in her first episodes. She had been characterized very deliberately as colder, more scheming, more efficient than her brother or Zhao, the only Fire Nation villains we knew so far. She hadn’t quite succeeded at anything yet, but there was no tantrum after her failures, no self-pitying act: she simply kept going relentlessly.

She wouldn’t stop at anything, and after watching her convince Mai so easily that her brother wasn’t worth trading over a king, it’s kind of natural to wonder if she’s really devoid of a conscience… No lie, though, it also reflects heavily on Mai that she agreed so easily. It especially looks like Mai has less of a conscience than Azula, since it’s her brother we’re talking about, and it doesn’t really look like she was scared of contradicting Azula: she had only ever complained about her family ever since she showed up on-screen. In short, I thought they were all weird and mean and morally incorrect! :’D

But I have had a penchant to grow interested in characters who are strong, who are driven to the ends of the earth. I used to think I favored tsundere-types of female characters back when I was in my anime-heavy phase, but soon enough I realized that wasn’t quite right: I was interested in female leaders instead, characters who were often tsundere because they bury their feelings deep down, because their main interests are professional, or academic… basically, they were ambitious people who sometimes went too far in dragging others into stuff they hadn’t signed up for (Ritsu Tainaka, Haruhi Suzumiya, Misaki Ayuzawa, Kyoko Mogami, Natsumi Tsujimoto, and so on…).

Basically, I’ve been appealed by characters who share Azula’s reckless determination, but when I approached Avatar I had also moved on mostly from anime, and I found myself, instead, writing an original story where my protagonist was a princess, hailing from a western nation she was supposed to rule one day. This princess was very determined, physically powerful to the point of being beyond human (then again, she was a literal descendant from gods :’D), with a terrible relationship with her family (in particular fighting with an older half-brother who wants to prove he’s more suitable for the throne than her). Said girl’s priority, first and foremost, is her nation, and she’s willing to go to whatever means she must in order to protect it (even resort to magic, which is frowned upon in her nation of warriors).

Now, after I exposed that character’s main traits to you, don’t you think there’s a few too many similarities with Azula? :’D yep, I thought so too as I continued watching ATLA. Tbh it freaked me out how similar they actually were, since I hadn’t watched the show or been influenced by it at all. I didn’t even know Azula existed!

Anyways! I’ve gone off the rails a bit, but back on track: why did I identify with Azula?

First off, I did start getting the feeling she was similar to those characters I loved, despite she was, obviously, meant to be a villain. But what REALLY did it for me?

It was the scene in Zuko Alone, when Iroh’s gifts arrive. Azula’s dear brother gets something mind-blowing while she gets something pathetic, generic, that someone assumed was going to please her because she’s a girl. Because girls like dolls, right?

Well, in my case, I got play make-up instead. I had a trauma with make-up since age 4, and if people had bothered knowing me, or even talking with my mom about me, they would have known that. They didn’t. It didn’t matter to them either way. Meanwhile, my brother’s gifts were incredible! :’D all sorts of action toys, new Hot Wheels, even remote-controlled cars. And when I wanted to play with them? I got a big ole’ NO from him, along with my parents telling me, often, that the toys were his and that I should let him play instead.

Heck, there was this one time he got this ship-in-a-bottle crafts as a present for his birthday from someone who worked at MY school. When I asked where was mine? Oh, there wasn’t one. My birthday was the day before my brother’s, the guy who made it worked at MY SCHOOL, but he would make a gift of the sort for my brother and not for me. I don’t remember if he even lied saying he’d make one, but fact of the matter is, I never got a handcrafted, special boat-in-a-bottle with my name on it. He did.

Let’s just say… when I saw Azula getting that disappointing doll while Zuko got the incredible knife, my jaw dropped. I literally dropped all my defenses against her along with my jaw, too. I saw that and damn, it put her character in a completely different perspective for me: it made her REAL, her experience with her brother resembled mine so much that I was in genuine shock. The salty “You’re not even good!” comment when he was playing with the knife, spoken with the intent to mask her interest in the weapon and her jealousy? The way she takes the knife later too, smirking and teasing her brother, yet letting him have it back because she knows it’s not supposed to be hers? Anon, I swear that was 100% the way I acted in countless similar situations. And I know, it may make me sound like a very bad sister (in Azula’s defense she’s actually a better sister than I am, in my brother’s defense he’s a better brother than Zuko could ever hope to be), but it’s still how it was.

From there onwards, a lot of my interest in Azula came from seeing how she suddenly stepped out of her “supreme villain overlord” role to prove she was really just a teenager like the rest of the cast. We’re talking about a girl who imitated her brother for shits and giggles, just to amuse herself at the expenses of a completely confused Aang. A girl who made a pun about the Avatar’s fangirls. Her sense of humor, no doubt, is kinda weird and not the sweetest? But she has one! It’s there, and no lie, I laughed my ass off with those two occasions at least.

Eventually, I just found myself more interested in her to the point of recklessly supporting her in the show. Yes, I knew the Gaang would win, and I didn’t mind, I liked them too! But I was slowly and surely loving Azula more with every passing episode, as she proved she was the one villain worth respecting in this entire franchise. And she was a fourteen-year-old girl with zero social skills, self-esteem issues to the ends of the earth, a turbulent relationship with her parents and her brother, and the frankly adorable wish to know if people might like her if they didn’t know she was a princess.

Another big selling point for me, as already stated, was her relationship with her brother. While my brother is a little less of a drag than Zuko can be (meaning, my brother can be happy once in a while :’D he even makes jokes… though seriously bad ones .__. maybe he shouldn’t make them...), their relationship was so similar to ours that it freaked me out. I’ve been competing with my siblings since forever, but when it came to outdoing my oldest sisters I seriously just couldn’t do it (honestly, no 3yo can expect to compete in regards of anything with a 10yo, or can she? :’D and yet I was such a pig-headed brat that I did it all the same). Meanwhile, my brother, only two years older than me, was an easier target to surpass, and I set myself on the task of doing that. Whenever he was better than me at anything, I ridiculed him (remember the knife scene?). Whenever I was better than him at anything, he would try to outdo me again and usually fail, then get annoyed and say it was a stupid thing anyways.

As we grew older, the conflict in our relationship grew a lot uglier in the sense that we didn’t really just snap at each other about toys now. I seriously got so pissed off by how entitled he was acting once that I locked myself up in the bathroom, punched a wall out of sheer frustration and damn near broke my hand in the process. No lie, that helped me vent my frustration real easily :’D

Basically, I’ve experienced the sibling relationship Azula did. My brother is far more popular than I am (well, in regards of people who live in our environment, at least), so everyone flocks to him, and when Azula’s friends betrayed her for Zuko, well… you can imagine how that stung for me :’D I’ve had friends who haven’t quite betrayed me for him or so, but they’ve stopped being my friends and become his, instead. How about that?

Anyways, Azula most likely wasn’t built up to be relatable, she was built to be a rounded character instead. There are more obviously relatable characters in the show, Katara is relatable for most the fandom, Toph is relatable for natural tomboys, and so on. But even then, none of these characters were built to be relatable. They were built to be real and believable, and in being built that way, they became relatable. And that’s what happened to me with Azula.

Honestly, I think I can’t really relate or empathize with Zuko a lot because of my own experiences too. I will judge him harder because yep, I’m biased :’D but I’m not trying to say he’s all bad and Azula is all good or anything. Truth be told, secret I’ve kept to myself for a long time… The finale depressed me for a day or two because I kept wondering if that was the only outcome for someone like Azula. Because in a sense, it looked like the show was saying that was kind of the outcome for someone like me. It felt like it was saying the world would judge me as impossible to save, while my brother got every success I could only dream of.

And... who knows? Maybe that’s what’s happening indeed. He’s certainly doing better than me these days. All I can safely say is I’m glad he is. Despite things were bad between us, they’re not so bad anymore. So if I’m to be left unsuccessful and he’s off to shoot for the stars, I’ll congratulate him instead of holding grudges about why he gets that and I don’t.

Anyways, the finale freaked me out, but I distanced myself from the character to a degree so I wouldn’t project on her so much. Still, the way her ending wrapped up bothered me, and I was very much unwilling to see her life end that way. As the comics have been building her up either for a very bad downfall or for a very long redemption that still is barely beginning, I lose my patience often as I keep wanting something better for her ASAP. Not a lot of positive stuff has happened yet to her… but that’s what fanfiction is for, for me. Ever since I opened FF.net’s ATLA archive, the first thing I did was search for Azula getting happy endings xD

And thus, that’s why I write her as I do and connect with her as I have. Azula seems to gather most the traits of characters I loved, but on top of that, she had an eerily similar sibling relationship to mine with my brother. A lot of my own eternal chase towards polishing and developing my talents came from a rather toxic place of thinking that having lots of skills was the only way I could be valid, somehow. I’m not exempt from self-esteem issues myself, see :’D

Anyways, I realize the majority of people won’t find Azula relatable, acceptable, likeable in any way. I don’t mind, I don’t really think it’s that odd, the show very obviously featured her as a problem that needed to be dealt with. But I’m not one to stick with supporting only the heroes in stories. Very often I’ve liked villains better, whether because they’re complex and worth exploring, as Azula is, or because they’re simply more interesting than their heroic counterparts. I guess I could have said this from the start and spared you the insanely lengthy insight into how my mind works, right? :’D

#anon #boy that got long #sorry about that @_@

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