#I never really did any attacks other than one that was on my own team so this year i at least want to do three really good ones

[artfartt]

why artfart why it can be fartyarty??? pls explain!!!

Ya’know what yeah why not? My new name is now fartyarty thank you!!! (On the serious note idk really it was just a name I came up with for artfight and I just stuck with it lol)

[wickjump]

i think people really sweep dream’s trauma under the rug wayyy too much to focus on nightmare’s. NOT to say his trauma is invalid but Dream definitely had it worse did you know that he wasn’t asleep when he was in stone. for like those 500 years he wasn’t asleep.

like he could sense stuff. think a coma patient who can hear and feel the outside world despite not being able to move or function. sure he probably slept the time away but imagine how traumatizing.

AND THEN he had to fight a war in which his BROTHER NOW KILLS PEOPLE and he is desperately trying to save his brother because he knows nightmare isn’t like this, his big brother is sweet and kind and he’d never do something like this, and he just doesn’t understand and he wants his family back, but all his hope repeatedly gets stomped on because his brother tries to kill him and the team he conjured up like on the daily, and dream’s awakening LITERALLY turned nightmare’s one goal into killing him because of his soul that he wants to take to destroy all positivity in the world (sorry chat the balance isn’t real and if anything nigjtmare is the one fucking it up).

NOT TO MENTION that dream is CONSISTENTLY DRAINED because there are BARELY ANY POSITIVE UNIVERSES in the WHOLE MULTIVERSE. think of more than 2 total positive aus out there. classic/swap aus don’t count because undertale is inherently a depressing game and thousands of genocide timelines exist for each and every au of those. if you had any difficulty my point is proven. NOT TO MENTION that dream is IN A LITERAL WAR. MOTHERFUCKER HAS PTSD !!!!! nightmare is the AGGRESSOR!!!!!!!!!!!

and as much as i ADORE fanon in order for me to like truce aus something i need is Dream bawling and shaking and having panic attacks and nightmares and barely being able to look his brother in the eye because he’s terrified of him and he hates it because he just wants to hug his brother but he can’t shake the intense terror that comes with staring at the same tentacles that were sharp and pointed at his chest time and time again, or closing around his neck with the intent of suffocation. and nightmare def has some apologizing to do

orrrr you know. we could,, haha idk,,, mmmm,,,,,, make the,, the ‘nightmare is freed from his corrupted and isn’t 6 purely bc i need him to heal with his brother with no angst about lost childhoods and having to raise your own twin pls and thank you’ more of a,,, a popular trope,,,, idk,,,,,,,,,,,, all im saying is that Dream deserves to cry in his brother’s arms—his brother, the way he remembers him, and they should both get to cry and latch onto each other like they’re terrified the other will disappear the moment they let go, and they just sob over what happened to them both.

[simonisferal]

view me as a god — self aware (yandere) wanderer x gn reader

warnings: self aware au, reader is viewed as the player, reader is obsessed with genshin in the beginning, codependency (aether and wanderer), wanderer develops a victim mentality, traveler is a goat, aether is he/they (you'll know what I'm talking about)

notes: wanderer lore spoilers to those who haven't read, that one event in 1.6 spoilers to those who haven't played; if my account were self aware, i'd actually kms — the characters don't need to see my bio 😭 / i didnt know what team to put him with so i used my own / congrats king on your second rerun 🙏

it was never intended to be taken this far. this little game you've played for years without end had begun to take your social life away and left you in the dark, the only light you saw was the one on your screen.

the sweet voices of the characters , the beautiful scenery and designs, and the story of the fictional world was so alluring you barely slept. thank god your career had the option of working at home so no other potential coworker could've said something about your disheveled hair or your unpleasant smell.

your life was as perfect as can be as long as you see a picture or anything related to your video game! codependency? what is that? shh, you can survive an hour without it!

fuck. once in his many lives, he had never felt so cold. what was wrong with him?

with every name he gained, another tie to his joints tightened its grip on the wanderer, trapping him from the pleasant feel on calmness but the name the traveler gave it felt so pure and warm like a toasty fireplace during the snow. the puppet hadn't felt any warmth in his body since niwa's irreversible death as his still-beating and bleeding heart has been put inside the chest of wanderer. but now it was gone, just like the other feelings of happiness and sweet childish dreams.

"traveler? why'd we stop?" xiangling asks as she helped bennett sit down beside the anemo statue of seven in windrise to heal his injuries as quickly as possible. layla helps the poor boy eat something she packed into her inventory.

the traveler could only stay silent before letting out a small whisper as the wind slows down, the statue of seven only shining so dimly, not like it does when it feels something — someone greater. "i don't feel it anymore." they sit down on the broken stone steps leading to the statue.

"feel? feel what?" layla mutters, laying her head on the globe she keeps near as she rests her eyes. the traveler doesn't respond as they look through their bag for something. they obviously panic, their chest falling down and rising up quicker than a rabbit's. their golden chest plaque dims ever so slightly, just as the windrise statue's light. "the, uhh... uhm, the wind."

of course the idiots fell for it, wanderer thinks as he hears the collective agreement from his party. he doesn't bother setting down his hat as he sits beside a totem near the staircase, not bothering to show his respect to the anemo god or his peers. they're just there to help him please them, to eliminate any obstacle in the traveler's way as their form of appreciation for what they've done for their accounted nations. but they, not the traveler but they weren't pleased.

is that the reason wanderer couldn't feel their warmth? he didn't attack fast enough, hit hard enough, dodge quick enough? was he not enough for the person behind the stars? the dweller who called "earth" their home?

"why are we in windrise, if i can ask?" layla sits beside the traveler. her curls curl around her while her golden accents let out small hymns. "to... to uhh...heal bennett. i do feel very bad for him with his bad luck and all..."

wanderer knew it was a white lie. sure, bennett had been hurt badly even with layla's shielding and guoba's defensive demeanor towards the poor child and his bad luck was only getting worse with the amount of constant traveling the party did but really, all the traveler wanted to do was rest and wait for that feeling.

the feeling of being monitored, not as a prisoner but as a fragile thing, to be cared for and used as a hollow doll—no need to lift a finger unless told to and loved for their hard work—the work they didn't even do. to be drowned in affection, suffocated with praises, and shot with care and pity. something that the wanderer despised so much but craved so badly.

not by anyone, no. no one, no mortal or god could make him feel this way, but something hidden, someone hidden behind a mask, the stars, and celestia itself was waiting for him, wanting him, caring for him like he was.

when he couldn't dodge an attack, he was healed instantly. when he had no energy, it was replenished right before his eyes. when he wanted to be stronger, he became just that. it was a complicated choice between his morals and integrity or his selfish desires and temptations.

bennett didn't heal as fast as he does when the greater person behind the screen is there. he blames it on his bad luck but both the traveler and wanderer know what's really wrong. his pale face slowly turns back to his tanner complexion as time moves forward and everyone decides to rest up a bit before the night ends.

it's been too long since the feeling went away.

"[wanderer]! is it okay if you're on watch duty?" that name. it felt like a childhood lullaby, something the elderly women of tatarasuna would sing him to sleep when he was awoken by nightmares. that name was his, something he held to with genuine pride, not like his other disdainful names that were given by cruel people or joking jesters.

"alright." there's no sigh, groan, or remark afterwards to everyone's surprise. it only happens once in a blue moon and you know damn well that they took it to heart.

layla and xiangling slept beside bennett while aether sat where he was with his eyes closed. there was a moment of silence where it was just beautiful.

the crystalflies didn’t hide from the characters, an anemo one landing on layla’s nose and on the top of the wanderer’s hat. the wind blew ever so softly and for a moment, the wanderer could feel that warmth again.

“what’s up with you?” the traveler asked. his eyes stayed close but they were attentive like always.

“nothing.”

“liar.”

wanderer frowns and slightly turns his head to see them. a smile grew on their face and they sat up, opening their eyes and looking directly at him. “you felt it, didn’t you?” the wanderer looks away.

“do you always ask dumb questions?”

the traveler beside him stifles a laugh. “they’re not dumb,” they pause. they have a visible frown painted on their face now. “you know, don’t you?”

“what? that there’s some being out there controlling us, that the world shifts to their liking, or that you can practically see their face written in those damned stars?”

they stay silent. how’d he even know? was it that meteorite from long ago? “yeah, i guess.”

the wanderer scoffs at his companion's vagueness. “i’m tired of being a vessel.” that was obviously a lie. he can’t remember the last time he actually enjoyed serving someone, let alone helping if it wasn’t for his own personal gain. it felt nice being used (which is something he never thought he’d ever think).

aether sighs, leaning on the totem. they closed their eyes, "wake me up later then."

the wanderer scoffed. "i'm not your alarm," he says but he doesn't complain any further, simply watching over his teammates, the ones you assigned him, with a faint frown on his face. just where were you?

you quickly sweep your phone off of your desk once you come back from an errand. it was only a few minutes but still! you need your game to thrive at work, remember?

it had been days to them. they were at windrise, where you left them, your whole team. thank the gods. everyone was awake and ready to be used as characters.

you continued what you were doing prior to your errand, collecting crystalflies and flowers for your characters' ascensions.

wanderer didn't tell anyone he felt your warmth.

he shouldn't, he couldn't—wouldn't. no one else had suffered like him, it was unfair for those who didn't deserve it to bask in the sweet feeling of your muse. everything bad happened to him; nothing ever bad happened to anyone else.

nahida was right; he needs help!

your help. you were the only one who could help him, help the poor wanderer who had cried and groveled at your feet centuries ago, begging for a god greater than the gods to take care of him and help him—you!

you put him through all this pain to help him in the end, right? to free him, make him truly himself and not part human or puppet but himself again.

his salvation wasn't leaving him; he wouldn't let it happen.

[l0v3tast3]

141 men finding out military!reader is only 19 after they break down from being overwhelmed and overworked??

✎ this idea bounces around my head a lot actually and now i have a reason to write it down finally :) i wasn't sure if you wanted them altogether or separately so i did it separately because it's easier lol. i kept it platonic and sfw!

✎ tags : gender neutral!reader, reader has a panic attack, descriptions of violence/injury/death, swearing, hurt to comfort, all platonic relationships, only half proofread

you're barging into the safehouse where he had said to rendezvous, gasping for air that your closed throat won't let through. the rifle held in your dominant hand is dropped as soon as the door is shut behind you, and you're clawing at the straps of your helmet and chest armor to get them off because it's too tight and it's too much and you can't breathe.

this wasn't your first mission. it wasn't even the bloodiest one you'd been on thus far. you could handle the gore and the death and the pure misery of the victims of these situations, because at the end of the day, you were helping them, right?

unless you were too late.

the family had been huddled in a corner, two children laying underneath their parents. there had still been two other rooms to check in the house, but you were running out on shaky legs.

he's in front of you now, looking down at you and asking if you're injured. you're sitting on the floor, heaving for breath and tears pouring from your glassy eyes.

"it's not- it's not fucking fair!" you cried out finally, trying desperately to wipe your face dry on your sleeves, but it only worked to redden your skin further. "why are these people doing this? how could someone be so cruel?"

he sighed softly, not knowing how to respond. the team didn't show emotions like this, they didn't deal with them, not like this. but they had all been here, where you are now. they had all asked why, again and again and again until the word lost all meaning.

"i mean, are we even really helping? god, these people are all already dead! why are we here? why- jesus fucking christ, why am i here?" you rambled; you weren't talking to him anymore. your voice was fizzling out, getting quiet enough that he had to lean closer to hear your unsteady words.

"i can't help these people," you sobbed. "i'm just a kid, i'm only nineteen, i can't- i don't know what i'm supposed to do! they said i was special! they told me- said i was so much better and smarter than everyone else, what a fucking joke!"

☆ simon "ghost" riley

he knew you were young, but fuck, if that didn't break his heart, there was nothing left that would. simon didn't talk to you more than any of the others on the team, but you were special, like a little sibling to the team, to him. always having enough energy and kindness to make up for the rest of them.

seeing you like this was a first, even for him, the man who had seen the worst of the worst. it wasn't like he was immune to emotions, but he had spent so long pressing them all down until he couldn't feel them that this was new to him again. all he could do was offer a hand on your knee that he hoped resembled something like comfort.

"we're almost done here. the heli will come for us soon," he said quietly. "you did good, like always."

he watched and waited with you while your sobs whittled away to sniffles, never moving his hand from your knee, where you had grabbed onto it with one of your own. most people knew not to touch him, that they'd end up with one less hand if they did, but you were an exception.

☆ john "soap" mactavish

at first, he doesn't do anything, just kneels in front of you and stares in shock. you're nineteen? you had always danced around the question that the team would tease you with, asking if you still had to work on your homework, but it was always a joke. now it wasn't.

instead of dwelling, john shifts and sits in front of you, almost hovering over you awkwardly as he tried to figure out what to do. sure, he was one of the more open people on the team, but when you're standing next to ghost, just smiling makes you look emotionally vulnerable.

he takes your hands away from your face and into his, placing them on your lap before gently holding your shoulders. "look, we're almost done here, alright? we'll be far away before you know it." that didn't help much, so he paused again.

the almost-distraught look on his face forced a giggle out of you. his worry turned to confusion, why are you laughing now? you probably shouldn't have been, but the big, scottish military-man fretting over you was kind of funny.

"alrigh', lass, at least something cheered ya up," he grumbled, but turned serious again right after. "higher-ups were right, ya know. you are smarter than the rest of 'em. maybe even smarter than us, yeah?" he said with a smile.

☆ kyle "gaz" garrick

it wasn't that long ago that kyle was where you are now, fresh out of school and eager to prove himself in the military. except it had taken him several years longer than you to reach where you both were now; he had had plenty of time to come to terms with the horrors he saw.

now he realized that you hadn't, because you were smart and you were better than most other people, so they had thrown you in, like a minnow in a piranha pond. by all means, you were doing wonderfully for your circumstances, but you could only keep going for so long.

he sat down beside you, shoulder-to-shoulder, and wrapped an arm around you to bring your head down to rest on him. he sat with you quietly, giving you the time you needed to just get it all out.

eventually, once you're more calm, he breaks the silence with bad jokes that he definitely stole from simon.

"why do twitter users make bad soldiers?" you lifted your head to stare at him incredulously before he continued, "because, they're too quick to retweet."

☆ john price

the captain knew how young you were. he never told you, but he hadn't wanted you on the team at first; the second he was handed your file and saw your birthdate, he started protesting. but it wasn't up to him this time. he couldn't spare you from this, and he knew that it would always weigh on him. he knew he would always remember this, you, crumbling in on yourself in a heap on the floor.

john came down on one knee in front of you and started telling you a story about when he had started, how one of his first missions had gone so terribly wrong. you honestly thought he was just going to tell you to "suck it up" until he told you about one family he had saved during that mission, one that was still alive today. they still sent him letters, even.

"all you need is one good save, kid. and you've got dozens already," he murmured. he wouldn't say it outright, but you really were one of his best.

you remembered the child clinging to your back as you ran out of a collapsing building, the woman who's leg you had managed to get unstuck from fallen debris, the man you had stopped from being executed just in time.

price smiled once he saw he had gotten through to you and helped, at least a little, and roughly patted your shoulder. "evac will be here soon, chin up now."

[jp---v]

I don't need to, but I'll explain my Bakugou hate because I want to.

Long post. Beware

When I started reading the series I was the same age as the characters. Looking at my interests you can probably guess that I was bullied, but instead of getting all sad, I got angry at the people treating me poorly.

So as soon as Bakugou was introduced, I didn't like him. Seeing someone my age verbally threaten and physically attacking people without being punished just really put me in a bad mood whenever he showed up.

Then certain parts of the fandom got incredibly toxic, and suddenly the author is pandering to the worst of them

But the problem keeps getting worse. The entire world warps to kiss his ass. He got everything he wanted at every turn. He deserved nothing and got everything.

Immediately established as a long-term bully. His bullying is then retroactively justified by the world itself saying that Midoriya is worth less than Bakugou as a person.

Why did Aizawa, who was famous for expelling students, not so much as give Bakugou detention for trying to attack Midoriya on the first day of school?

Why didn't All Might punish him for using that gauntlet in the Battle Trials?

Despite all of his actions so far, just since being accepted into UA, the other students still want to be friends with him. They actively choose to spend time near him.

Why is it never mentioned how him(and Kirishima) attacking Kurogiri and getting in Thirteen's way is a large part of why the USJ played out how it did?

His speech at the Sports Festival

Everyone wanting to be on his team, but he doesn't know any of their names or quirks.

Trying to make an unconscious Todoroki fight back in the finals

Aizawa constantly excusing all of his behavior, circling back to my point about the world itself justifying Bakugou's shitty behavior

Attacking Midoriya in the Final Exam.

How did Sero fail his exam by being carried out but Bakugou passed?

At the Training Camp, he actively tried to go fight the villains that have openly stated were trying to capture him. Making himself an easy target and hindering the people trying to protect him

During the Rescue Operation he somehow managed to hold his own against the majority of the League of Villains on his own? Really?

He forced Midoriya to break curfew and just starts attacking him until Midoriya fights back. It's caught on camera and Midoriya somehow gets in the same amount of trouble?

And for some reason he gets let in on the secret of One for All after being such a monumental asshole since forever, despite the fact that even Inko doesn't know? Or literally anyone who would be, like, supportive of Midoriya?

He failed the Provisional License Exam, but don't worry there's a special make-up class just for the people that made it into the second half. Everyone who failed in the first half will have to wait for the next exam.

Oh wow, flawless victory in the Joint Training Arc by displaying teamwork out of thin fucking air that was really just him barking orders at the others.

For a while we just get his usual brand of egotistical asshole-ery and now being needlessly shoved into places where Midoriya's actual friends should be. Or even any of the other side characters. Horikoshi, give them some screen time

But then the war arc and the vigilante Deku arc all just get down on their knees to suck his dick so hard that his quirk evolves and his heart explodes. And I finally get a glimmer of hope for the series to finally stop shoving him down our throats, but no.

Edgeshot decides that this one kid is so important that he will sacrifice his own life to save Bakugou specifically and no one else is on his level of importance.

Going back a step; That apology was pure fucking lip service. Not a single goddamn thing changed in the way he acted afterward. He had a couple of "soft" moments when he wasn't actively screaming and cursing, but that's it.

And Horikoshi keeps fucking doing it.

Somehow each and every thing has to include Bakugou or be about how it's effecting Bakugou or has to mention Bakugou.

The majority of the (much more interesting) cast has been completely forgotten, and Midoriya's characterization got taken out back, given three rounds to the head, skinned, washed in bleach, and hung out to dry, but Oh Wow! BAKUGOU'S HERE!

I said it before and I'll say it again, I'd throw a brick at him.

These are only the broadest strokes of what happened too. If I reread the entire series I could write a massive in-depth character analysis, but that's too much even for me.

[clockwayswrites]

A Broken Sort of Normal Part 12

WC:1376, Masterpost

“Danny, come on,” Wally said, laughter clear in his voice. “There will be time to stare at the stars after.”

“But Flash, space,” Danny said with what he would readily admit as a whine as he motioned to the expansive view of space with earth floating in the bottom of the window. Danny didn’t know if the Zeta tube had been exactly worth the trip (he had nearly had a panic attack), but the view made a pretty compelling argument. The urge to go intangible and phase through the acrylic to be in space was so strong that Danny didn't even dare touch the window.

“But your meeting, Danny. Flash is going to be waiting for you, and you how how us Flashes get.”

Danny sighed but turned away from the window with one lingering look.

“Go and be great. After we can stare at space some and, maybe… if you’re up to it, meet some of my friends?”

“Like the infamous Nightwing?”

“Shush,” Wally said, placing a finger to his lips. “He’s like Beetlejuice, you might summon him just by saying his name.”

“Pretty sure you need to do that three times,” Danny pointed out, following Wally to the door.

“Oh yeah? You up on ghost lore?”

“Oh, yeah, I’m an expert,” Danny said dryly. If only Wally knew.

(Well, then Danny would be dead.)

“We can watch it next date night. Right now, you go be awesome, hero.”

“Flash, you really cannot call me a hero when we’re in the Justice League base.”

“Can and will, now go, hero,” Wally said, shooing Danny down the hall to where Barry was waiting.

“Gonna give me any hints about what’s going on?” Danny asked the older Flash once they had started walking.

“Just to be yourself,” Barry said. “You’re a good person and you know what you’re doing out there in the field. I wouldn’t’ve recommended you for this otherwise. And I meant what I said, your ability to take no crap is part of why I did. You don’t have to take any crap from anyone in there either, no matter who they are.”

Who they were turned out to be many of the founding members: Batman, Wonder Woman, Superman, and of course Flash… Flash who really thought too highly of him. (What was with the Flashes doing that?)

There were also three other people not dressed in supersuits, who Danny figured were there for the same reason he was. Whatever that was.

“Flash,” Superman said with a nod to the hero and then a smile to Danny. “And you must be Mr. Fenton.”

“Just Danny is fine, thank you for the invitation,” Danny said, shaking Superman’s hand, continually reminding himself not to use any of his strength all the while.

“Of course, have a seat. We’re just waiting on… well, never mind,” Superman said cheerfully as the Martian Manhunter swept into the room. (Danny help back the excite squeak he wanted to make.) “J’onn.”

“Superman. Am I late?”

“Just on time. We can go ahead and get started.”

Everyone settled around the table, the normal people waiting for the heroes to take their preferred seats before settling together on the other side over the oval table.

“Thank you all for coming here today,” Wonder Woman said with a warm smile. “As you know, we’ve asked you here today based on your capabilities. Specifically, to help us build an emergency response team that can act in aid of crises the Justice League responds to.”

“We’ve already been doing this in some places at the city level,” Barry said, leaning forward. His hands were clasped on the table. Danny knew from experience that it was just so that he didn’t fidget from having to sit still. “Central City has been operating with our own set up for two years now and we’ve seen huge success in both lives saved, but also a bigger level of overall personal safety during attacks. People are getting out of the way faster, safer, and more often than before.”

“So we’re looking to do the same thing on a bigger level and we’d like your advice,” Superman said. “Right now, you’re here as consultants and will be paid for your time. Assuming we all work well together, you’ll have a chance to sign on once things are officially underway.”

Danny raised his hand.

“You can just talk, Danny, this isn’t school,” Flash said.

Danny felt a blush crawl up his cheeks and sat up straighter, stylus tapping nervously against his tablet. “I know this is putting the cart before the horse, but you can’t need us all the time. If we choose to sign up, will we still be able to work our current jobs? I don’t want to abandon Central. I mean, not that they can’t do without me, I have great coworkers, but it’s… you know, home.”

“A noble want,” Wonder Woman said. “The reality of it would depend on the level of administration work you are in charge of, but no. You should be able to continue working in Central and be on call for other emergencies, or that is our assumption. You all are the experts, though, which is why you are here. Perhaps introductions are in order?”

“Brent Green,” the one furthest from Danny cut in without hesitation. He was the most formally dressed of all of them, suit jacket and all, and had that air of superiority that made Danny want to bristle. “Director of Star City’s emergency response team.”

“Debra Day,” the woman next to Danny said next. There was a southern twang to her words. “Thirty years of search and rescue experience, ex Coast Guard, currently focused on instruction.”

“Leo Klein, they/them,” the last said. “Emergency management and prevention training.”

“Danny Fenton.” He felt out of place compared to all the other skill sets. “Team lead and field medic in Central City.”

“And I’m sure you know us,” Superman said with a chuckle. “Now, what are your thoughts.”

“First we have to establish a system of hierarchy and devision of labor,” Brent said, once again jumping in before anyone else. “It is important to know who has right away in the field.”

Danny resisted the urge to raise his hand again and took the chance of Brent pausing to speak. “Those are all good thoughts, but you’re getting ahead of things. Cities and countries will already have established teams, even if it’s just police and fire fighters. Are you all wanting us to come in and work with them? Ahead of them? Under their leadership? When we started in Central there were a lot of accidental hurts because the two sides didn’t sit down and talk enough at first, and this is on an even bigger scale.”

“He’s right,” Debra said. “The National Guard could be a good model both for the US, but also for any other nations you might want to explore into to see how things are handled there.”

“And you’ll need to get started on PR right away no matter the choice,” Leo said, leaning forward ad engaging now. “Like Danny said, it’s easy to step on toes and we don’t want to do any of that.”

Brent was frowning, slightly, then sighed and nodded. His shoulders relaxed a little. “No, good points. PR for the citizens too, to know to look out for us. We could get feed back on what worked in the cities with teams set up.”

“And places that have seen attacks outside of there. It’s easy to focus on big cities, but smaller towns and rural areas still can see attacks and have different needs,” Danny added to considering nods.

Now that they were all working together, Danny felt himself relaxing too. There were a lot of nerves for most people to get over working with heroes, Danny guess. Even he wasn’t immune to caliber of people that they were in the room with and he ate dinner with the one at least once a month.

Also Batman seemed to be watching him.

Well, whatever, talk was flowing easily now. They’d get their feet under them. They’d have to if they wanted this to work.

-----

AN: And some food for all of you here too! Danny learns why he's at the Watchtower! And manages to not be too distracted by space- a true accomplishment.

Sorry if there are more issues than normal, my letter swapping/word salad has been a bit bad lately. And I've really messed up my one finger ;-;

But anyways! Slower part but next chapter.... nightwing. Dundundun Stay delightful, darlings!

I no longer tag, but you can subscribe to the master post!

[cheshirebitch]

Here me outtttttttt, Alastor or Lucifer (your choice) with a reader who has dabi’s power from MHA🫢

This actually sounded so good that I HAD to immediately put this power with Lucifer. I love that depressed duck man. I hope you enjoy this as much as I enjoyed writing it!

𝔹𝕦𝕣𝕟 𝕄𝕖 𝔹𝕒𝕓𝕪

Lucifer x Reader (with Dabi’s powers)

As an overlord, you become used to people offering to team up with you, threats and attacks, and finding people to make contracts with. I normally was categorized as one of the “better” ones to have your soul sold to, unlike the Vee’s. Alastor was the one below me, but still wasn’t the best with how he treated his poor souls under his contract. What really scared people was when they heard why I was in hell instead of heaven with how I treated other souls here.

I died in an ironic way, burning from my own arson. My abuser was caught with another victim, but didn’t face any consequences for his actions. Therefore, I made sure he did by burning his home down while he was sleeping in it. I knew I would face murder charges and never see the sun again, so I burned inside with him, holding the door shut to the bedroom after nailing his windows shut. Due to my arson crime, I was sent to hell with the “gift” of blue flame. It looked beautiful but burned anyone who came too close. I was currently in a meeting with the overlords, playing with my blue flames on my fingers when Valentino came up to me, Lucifer watching from behind.

“So, how much did you say for Angel Dust’s soul?” His shit eating grin sparkling with the golden tooth. A polite smile twitched before I calmly responded.

”I would like to simply have his contract under myself instead of you with a buy-out price of the soul of Velvette’s.” I smiled with lidded eyes watching his cocky attitude melt away. All he knew was that I was interested in buying Angel Dust’s soul from him, never knew with what.

“Velvette didn’t sell her soul?” He sounded unsure as he glanced over my shoulder to Vox and Velvette waiting by the door to leave.

”You really think she had those powers when she came down here a couple years ago? You really are foolish.” I went to turn around, making Valentino panic. He gripped my arm, burning his hand instantly with my blue flame. My eyes were glowing an electric blue as the blue flames replaced my hair, flickering in the air. Valentino pulled back, holding his hand and looking in fear. He immediately fixed his tone, switching to an angry one.

“You bitch!” I was quickly losing my temper with how he was acting. If I slipped up and let my anger take over, I was doomed to explode blue flames everywhere. Lucifer was watching still from behind Valentino, ready to step in if I looked any more agitated than I already was.

“Do we have a deal or not, Valentino?” I stressed with my eyes and hair a flaming blue, the King of Hell already cutting off his current conversation. Valentino looked like he was actually considering taking my offer but was still angry with my skin burning him.

“Fine, I will release Angel Dust under you if you release Velvette to me.” My hand stuck out quickly in front of him and I made sure to burn his hand again, scarring one of his fingers as a reminder of this deal. Permanently burned into his memory that I was not a friend but an enemy that will always have the upper hand. Lucifer was by my side watching Valentino shake his hand violently in pain, hissing out curses. Vox and Velvette also joined, Vox aggressively inspecting his hand.

“What did you do?” Velvette started accusing me, pointing a finger in my face.

“We traded you.” I spoke simply as Lucifer caught up on what was going on.

I met Lucifer two weeks ago, outside of the professional setting, when Charlie and Vaggie asked for my help on something. They were referred to me by Alastor and Rosie, saying I was the only one with the power to get Angel Dust out of his abusive contract with the Vee’s. Lucifer had the power too, but it would cause an uprising. Of course I agreed for many reasons. But, it also got me involved in her hotel idea. I didn’t mind at all since it got me to become closer to Lucifer, even though we only met outside of meetings a couple times now.

“Who did you trade Val?” Vox grabbed his shoulders, getting in his face while his voice distorted with his anger. Lucifer glanced at me, silently approving of the accomplishment for his daughter.

“Listen, what’s done is done. You can’t undo it and it was his choice. If you have a problem, handle it outside of here.” He ushered the rest of the overlords out of the meeting room, shutting the door with both of us still inside. I took a couple deep breaths knowing I needed to calm down before I blew a fuse, literally.

”Did you get it?” Lucifer turned around, taking long strides to close the distance between us. He was smiling excitedly, enough that I felt like his eyes were stars. My laugh slipped out before I look at him, feeling comfortable.

”Did you doubt me? Of course I have his contract now. It cost me one of my upper hands over the Vee’s but anything is worth it for your daughter and her dream.” I smiled at Lucifer, holding my palm out to show a miniature Angel Dust in my blue flames form. I closed my palm when he leaned in a little too close for my comfort. I didn’t want to burn him.

”I still can’t believe you even had that girl’s soul!” I watched him take off his white hat, placing it calmly onto the table where we all gathered just a few minutes ago. My fingertips glided over the glass top, melting the glass slightly. The feeling of it melting and the smell of char forced my reflexes to kick in, pulling my hand away before I damaged it more. Lucifer, of course, noticed how it was molted now.

“Do you always get hot when you’re mad?” He spoke casually before turning as red as the apple on his hat. Immediately stuttering and waving his hands dismissively, realizing how it sounded. I watched him stutter through an explanation of what he meant with an upside down smile.

”I- uh- I- I didn’t- ha ha- I meant temperature. Anger causes high temperatures.” I laughed, deciding to put him out of his embarrassing misery.

“Thank you and yes.” I flicked my fingers to show the tips of them lit with the blue flame. Lucifer looked enchanted by the flames and before I could stop him, he reached out and touched them with his bare hands. I tried putting my flames out but what I noticed stopped me dead in my tracks.

”Why aren’t you being burnt horrifically?” I watched as my flames licked his skin, not burning it to a crisp. Lucifer watched as his hand held my flame instead. Truly, it astounded me considering no one could handle my flames, absolutely nothing could. What made it worse was trying to keep myself under control as I felt Lucifer’s hands softly graze my own. I didn’t know if it was just the fact that no one else has been able to even touch me without being burned by the heat of my body, the way the flame reflected in his golden and crimson eyes, or maybe it was the way I couldn’t ever keep my eyes off of him in the first place. Especially working with him outside of professional work, I have been able to look at him as more than just someone higher than me.

“It really is a beautiful flame.” His eyes were so enamored by it, he didn’t even get embarrassed or nervous. It was like we both were lost in something truly breathtaking, him with my unique flame and myself with how he looked illuminated by it. Lucifer glanced at me twice before he completely looked away from the blue flame on each of my fingertips. Gentle pale fingers pushed a hair out of my face, blue flames that were pieces of my hair. My hair and eyes were fully enflamed. I was increasing in temperature, which was dangerous considering the last man I thought I could attempt something with, was burned alive after our first kiss.

”You really are something, (Y/n).” He knew the right words to say to win my heart, but the wrong one to not make me burst into complete flames. What surprised me was how he still was able to hold his hand to my cheek.

“Seriously, how are you doing that?” I nervously laughed, awaiting for me to set the King of Hell ablaze.

“What do you mean?” He furrowed his brows, absentmindedly still holding my cheek. I could feel myself burn hotter from it.

”Everyone else who has even stood too close to me when I was like this, were burned to a crisp.” Maybe that was too blunt. Did I just scare him away?

”Wow! Really? That’s actually really interesting. Can you burn hotter?” His eyes were full of curiosity like a child. This man was really crazy if he expected me to try and kill him. I closed my eyes and took a couple deep breaths to extinguish myself.

“Too far?” He laughed nervously, pulling his hand away from me.

“I don’t feel like trying to kill the King of Hell today, I’m sure Alastor would love to do that though.” I teased, attempting to distract the poor thing from being too self conscious. I must’ve hit a nerve though, triggering a rant instead.

”Don’t get me started on that wannabe!” He rolled his eyes and took a couple steps, gaining me the moment and space to clear my thoughts better. Deep breaths, I need to take deep breaths and stop letting a man who probably doesn’t feel the same fluster me like that. I stood up and fixed mty outfit, smoothing my appearance out. By the time Lucifer turned back around, I had myself looking sharp and proper.

“He has been provoking me on purpose! You saw how he acts with Char Char! It’s like he only wants to act like her father figure just to get under my skin.” He ran his hands down his face. Metal glistened in the light, catching my eyes rather efficiently.

Oh. That’s right.

”Speaking of Charlie, I should probably head over to the hotel to pass along the news that I was successful in her request.” Averting my eyes from the man in front of me, I felt the choking reality that he was probably still in love with his extremely long term marriage partner and mother to his only child. I sucked a deep breath in before flashing a small polite smile.

”Oh, yeah. I’m sure she will be excited to hear the news.” I felt the room turn into an uncomfortable atmosphere. I looked at him in pity before sighing and sitting back down.

”Can I ask you a personal question?” I crossed one leg over the other, motioning for him to take a seat.

“uh- sure…?” He sat down, crossing his legs and leaning back fully in the chair. He was rolling up his sleeves then he ran his hands down the arms of the chair before gripping the ends in his hands nervously.

”Why do you still wear the ring? I think we both know she isn’t coming back, sweetheart.” Maybe that was also too blunt but I think he might need a shove into reality. He has been kind of in limbo for seven years. Last I checked, even Charlie had come to terms that her mom wasn’t coming back, at least not any time soon. I have had extensive conversations about it with her, even helping her realize her feelings of abandonment were valid.

“I don’t know.” He looked lost and his fingers traced over the metal, sliding it off. I stuck my hand out and stared at him, not once looking at the metal itself. He held it tighter in his hand before seeming to realize something internally.

”Lucifer, you need to let go at least enough to take care of yourself. It really isn’t healthy to hold on to something that is only causing pain and misery, now is it?” He looked defensive at first before blinking it away, replacing it with defeat and placing the ring in my hand. It instantly melted to liquid before I delicately morphed it into an “L” pendant with a thin chain. I may have helped him make the first step, but I wasn’t about to get rid of something so familiar to him. He would have to make that decision himself one day, I just nudged him in the right direction. Especially if he is still in deep love with her.

”I can give it to Charlie, see what she thinks the ‘L’ stands for. If she chooses me, that’s great, but if she chooses her mother, that’s also great that she can find it in herself to forgive her.” He hesitated, holding the chain.

”I don’t think I can ever forgive her for it, nor want to.” His eyes looked back up to mine, holding the gaze as he whispers, “I’m actually okay with her being gone now.” My brows furrowed as I waited for him to elaborate.

”I would’ve never had the chance to notice a beautifully complicated woman.” I felt my face burn, along with my whole body. I couldn’t control the high temperature and involuntarily burnt the chair completely before I was able to put myself out.

“I’m sorry, I can get a new chair!”

(As always, characters belong to their owner and the story belongs to me. If you have any requests or ideas, send them over :)! I will gladly try to write things for my supporters! Thank you for the love and have a great day <3!)

[chamomiletealeaf]

Simon Riley teaching you how to shoot his gun.

warnings: kinda nsfw, suggestive, mentions of weapons, size kink, Simon is a cocky little slut and a bit more playful than he is originally, reader has Laswell's job (I'M SORRY LASWELL I LOVE YOU MY LOVE)

wc: 2,367

a/n: Sorry this prompt was so late. Final papers and stuff have been taking up my time so I haven't had much time to write full fics like this. I wanted to wait until I could really engage in it for y'all. Hope you guys enjoy 🫡 I tried my best and researched what I thought was necessary to be as accurate as possible when it comes to ranks, positions, and responsibilities of certain spots and jobs in the military. I apologize for any inaccuracies.

You are CIA. You're no stranger to the atrocities of the world, nor are you a stranger on how to deal with them. Your special skills in strategizing missions and intelligence analysis was something you were well known and respected for and did not go unnoticed by Captain John Price, which is how you got recruited as a Communications Analyst and Operation Overseer for Task Force 141.

You loved your job. The men you worked with on the Task Force became more than just coworkers and rather close friends over time.

You worked on base most of the time while the team was out in the field during missions, so with you being their boots on the ground and the birdie in their ears, you're like an omniscient entity, which they saw you as. You needed them and they needed you.

However, it was difficult being apart during missions knowing that if anything happened to you or them, you couldn't do anything to physically help each other in that moment, which is why you all needed to know how to handle personal enemy attacks on your own if needed. Luckily, you were all pretty good at that.

You knew how to shoot a gun, fight, outsmart captors, and take care of the team. You could definitely handle and take care of yourself pretty well. However, you still thought to yourself:

"There's always more to learn, right?"

-

"Oh c'mon Simon how hard could it be, you forget who I am." You laugh as you go to drink from your glass of iced tea.

You and the Task Force were celebrating your victory on your most recent mission in the common area of the base. The men had most of their gear off leaving their gloves and holsters on and Simon also with his signature skull balaclava and hoodie.

You sat on one of the couches in the common area next to Johnny with his arm sprawled across the back of it behind your neck. Your white button down was tucked into your black dress pants and you had the first few buttons undone, leaving less to the imagination. You also had on your black slightly heeled shoes, which were surprisingly very comfortable.

Simon sat across from you, body turned in your direction. Gaz sat next to him and Price leaned on the couch behind the two with a glass in hand.

"I'm just saying. Such a small thing probably couldn't handle something so big." Simon says and smirks under his balaclava as he looks at you, clearly amused by his innuendo.

You roll your eyes and Johnny laughs.

Simon didn't mean it, and you knew. He saw the way you handled things so efficiently and skillfully, whether it be a knife, a gun, intel, missions, or even himself, It's one of the main things he loved and admired about you, though he would never say it.

"I don't know L.T., you forget when she pinned me in seconds last time we sparred." Johnny says.

"I wouldn't underestimate the gal Lieutenant. You've seen what happens to the men who do." Price says, smirking and taking a swig of his drink.

"Who got you around those guards by hacking into the cameras and telling you where to go hm?" You ask Simon.

"You did lass." Johnny says as he lifts his arm to playfully poke your cheek.

You giggle and push his hand away.

"I'm not doubting her, it's just harder than it looks. Don't think she could do it as easily as she says she can."

"That's literally the definition of doubt L.T." Gaz says.

You scoff with your mouth open, smiling in surprise.

"Wow, ok, I see how it is, Lieutenant." You emphasized the title you called him to tease him, as you were the only one who ever called him Simon. Calling him Lieutenant meant you were either being dead serious, angry with him, or teasing him. And Simon would be lying if he told himself he didn't like it when you called him by his ranked position. He also loved how you were the only one who called him by his name.

"Oooohh fuck yer in trouble now L.T." Johnny said.

As the night went on and got older, you could feel your heart getting lighter as you forgot about the stresses of life for a while.

After a few more hours of harmless banter and laughs between the five of you, the men decided to help you clean the common area up and head back to their quarters.

Simon, however, was the last to leave.

As you placed your glass in the sink with the other dishes and glasses, another glass was placed in the sink by another hand.

"Thanks love." Simon said as he gently placed his glass down in the sink next to yours.

"For what?" you said.

"For getting us to forget for a while. For getting me to relax."

Simon never really was one to speak much about anything really. You weren't sure if it was the bourbon speaking but regardless, you melted at his vulnerability he trusted you with.

"You're welcome Simon." You turn to smile at him, both staring in each others eyes for a few seconds in silence.

"But you know what I didn't forget?" You ask, smirk creeping onto your face.

Simon raises his eyebrows in anticipation awaiting your answer.

"That you think I can't shoot a gun bigger than a pistol."

Simon laughs, throwing his head back causing your eyes to lose contact with his honey-colored ones, the sound causing your heart to drop with the weight of your lust like a star falling out of the sky.

"Ok, well, how 'bout you prove me wrong then?" Simon asks, a mischievous look in his eye.

"Challenge accepted, Lieutenant." You said, walking past him and making your way to the shooting range, expecting him to follow.

This time, it was Simon's heart's turn to drop.

-

Simon enters the range after you, and you've already got your safety glasses and headphones on, leaning against one of the dividers of the range with your hands on your hips looking at him as if you've been waiting for hours.

"Well Lieutenant, show me what you think I can't do." You say, and Simon doesn't say anything. He stops in the door frame and after a second, he silently goes to choose a weapon. He picks up a big gun, one of his, purposefully picking one that would be difficult for you just to prove that you couldn't do it. He was such a cocky bitch.

He approaches you with the weapon, and you look at it in his hands, stiffening up a bit at the intimidating sight of it, and Simon chuckles.

"This" Simon says, lifting the gun up for you to get a better look, "is an AR-15. It was created for ad-"

"Advantage over the AK-47." You cut him off, smirking in triumph as you once again catch the soldier in front of you off guard and he looks at you with an amused raised eyebrow.

"Ok smartass. Since you know so much, show me how to hold it then." Simon drops the weapon in your hands and crosses his arms, spreading his legs a little, standing in an even more intimidating position. The gun is heavy and big, causing you to stumble due to Simon catching you off guard this time. It's safety was on, as Simon would never put you in any danger, which is why he was so comfortable with teasing you in this setting.

He laughs to himself, thinking how cute you look with such a big weapon.

You look at the gun, then up at Simon, then to the target in the range. You make your way to one of the spaces between the dividers and lift the gun. It's heavier than you thought, but nothing you couldn't handle.

Simon follows behind, standing behind you with his arms still crossed and legs apart.

"Well go on, if it's so easy." Simon teases.

"Oh relax." You playfully snap back at him.

You lift up the weapon, and look through the sight, aiming at the target.

You look through the sight a bit longer, making sure you're lined up, as you feel Simon's presence even closer.

He comes up behind you, pressing his front against your back as he reaches an arm around to turn off the safety. You lift your head from the sight and lower the weapon a little, giving him room to access whatever he was reaching for.

"Safety is still on sweetheart." Simon says, voice dripping with cockiness as he continues to tease you.

"I knew that." You mumble. "Just testing the sight."

"Mhm sure bunny." He says, the nickname making your eyes widen a bit and your cheeks flush red as you look down at the weapon, not daring to look back at him.

You lift the gun back up, and you feel Simon move behind you once again as he kicks your legs apart and places his hands firmly on your hips. You feel him press his front against you once again, making you gasp.

"Here, spread your legs a bit. Left foot slightly in front of your right." He tells you lowly and softly in your ear, and you let him adjust your body, praying he doesn't feel the increasing heat radiating off of you.

He grips your hips and pulls them back against him so you're pressing directly into him.

"There you go, just like that." He says, and your breath hitches at the suggestive words and how he's handling you.

"The recoil can be a lot, so keeping your hips back and one leg slightly in front will keep you stable when you shoot." He says into your ear, hand still tightly gripping your hips, and you bite your lip and nod your head, afraid to make a sound that could possibly give away how nervous and aroused you were in this moment. You could feel him getting hard behind you, and you could feel how big he was, but you resisted grinding back into him.

Simon released his hold on your hips and brought his hands up and around yours. You noted how big his hands were compared to yours, making you blush yet again. He was so close and just so big compared to you, and you yourself weren't even that small.

"Now, lift this up a little more." He says, lifting the weapon up higher in your grasp.

He moves his left hand up yours up under the barrel of the gun a little more, helping you hold it as his right helps you keep your hand in place off the trigger until ready to shoot.

"There we go, atta girl, just like that." He says, and you swear he's gotta be doing this on purpose now. You feel yourself start to grow wetter between your legs as you start to throb, biting your lip even harder now, trying your hardest to not let out a moan at his words.

"Now." he says, as he moves his finger over yours to place it on the trigger.

"Shoot." He says into your headphone-covered ear.

As you press the trigger, the recoil thrusts you back, making you grind back into Simon abruptly, and he lets out a soft groan, and his hands fly back to your hips after you shoot. His noise almost distracting you from your perfect shot on the target, hitting the bullseye.

"Ha!" You yell out in excitement seeing your successful shot.

"Look Simon! bullseye!" You giggle and jump a little with joy, forgetting that your ass is literally pressed up against Simon's cock through his cargos. Your ass rubs against him as you hop and he ruts his hips into you and lets out a sharp moan, squeezing your hips again.

"Good job bunny." He says and smiles, and you remember the position you both are in, and you feel the shyness creep back into you.

You turn your head around to look up at him, still holding the weapon with both hands.

"Told you I could do it." You smirk up at him.

You notice Simon doesn't move from his position and how his hands don't leave their place on your hips. You're not oblivious to what he's doing either, but it's fun to tease him and act like you have no clue.

You go to turn the safety off, and as you do, you lean forward a bit more than needed just to press against him again, and you feel him twitch in his pants this time.

You turn around, and place the gun in his hands that left your hips for a second due to your new position.

"What's the matter Lieutenant, can't handle being wrong?" You tease.

Simon doesn't say anything and he goes to put the gun away. You turn back around to admire your perfect hit, and soon feel that familiar warmth behind you again as Simon presses himself into you again.

"Can't handle you looking so fucking good all the time and just being so perfect at everything." He says.

You laugh. "Was this your plan hm? To get me down here just to have me alone?" You ask.

"Maybe." Simon answers and smiles into your neck, hands going back to your hips again.

"Slut." You say.

Simon then bends you over the shelf of the shooting range booth as much as he can and he grabs your hair.

"Fuck you're such a tease aren't you?" He says.

You moan at the feeling of him manhandling you and pressing his weight into you.

"Only to you." You smile.

"God you're so fuckin small against me. And that fuckin shirt. Was practically eye fucking you all night." Simon continues to grind into your ass.

You let out a little whine at his words, pressing back into him, feeling him get fully hard this time.

"Yeah? show me what you were thinking of then Lieutenant." You say, and you know this was just the beginning of the night for the both of you.

a/n: There could very possibly be a pt 2 to this. Lmk if y'all would want that 🫣

[hana-no-seiiki]

might be running a little late on the spiderverse post (and by little i mean it’ll prolly be posted this weekend instead when all of us are free) cause i got assigned a task for skewl last minute 😭😭😭😭 so ill just give you guys this short fic/drabble w/ Cat Villain Reader for now that has been rotting in drafts for a bit.

please read my previous cat villain posts for more context !!

If you were to give a rank of the most punchable face in the Batfam, it’d be Damian. No surprise there in hindsight, but the fact that he managed to beat his own dad — the one that left your one true love to die — still astounded you.

Despite his reputation and the fact above, Damian had more calm moments with you than any of his predecessors. It may have been due to other factors; you being older and more mature (less of a brat), that you didn’t hate his guts, or that he wasn’t a masochist like Tim.

But the biggest reason was Talia.

You don’t get how the woman fell for Bruce but she did, and you knew she would do anything for him. You’ve fought her before and she was no joke.

And, she was the only person who helped you with Jason. Who didn’t scoff at your violent reaction towards his death. Who actually understood you, rather than ply you with words of comfort.

So, of course, you were a lot more gentle when it came to her son. Even during his more verbally abusive phase.

Recently however, you’ve noticed a change.

“What?” Damian glared at you (I say as if he looks at you in any other way other than glaring)

“Nothing.” You looked away, your mouth forming a pout. Damn him for having great observational skills even through both of your masks and while you guys were in the middle of a fight.

“Were you just staring at my arms?”

“No!” You shouted in offence. “. . . Yes.”

But how dare of him to be right anyways! It wasn’t your fault his new fit looked tighter on his toned biceps.

In any case, that’s where the change really started to be obvious. Usually after that he’d knock you out or screech curses, but now… now he’d —

“Keep looking. You’re easier to catch when distracted.”

You immediately felt your knees go weak.

The nicknames, too. Good god the nicknames. Some of them were still as degrading as ever, but you also noticed a sudden rise of sweeter ones, some in his mother tongue, others just plain corny.

“Hey Kitty, get your food elsewhere.” Damian greeted you from behind.

Damian never greeted you.

Your fights and/or meet-ups always started with a little roughhousing.

Which, as of the moment, was not happening just yet. Not to mention he didn’t even take advantage of your surprised state.

And so you turn invisible.

Ever the sharp eyed man that he was, he quickly spotted you from the sound of your movements. Yet he doesn’t attack. In the blink of an eye, he appeared right behind you, seizing your arms and whispered, “Did that make you purr?”

You licked him in response. Safe to say that you were smacked down afterwards.

You were starting to think that Damian liked you.

Of course, even though you were confident to a fault, you weren’t conceited. So in order to test that theory, you managed to switch your heists up for when he wasn’t on duty.

And from what you hear from Tim, he hasn’t been doing so great.

So terrible his days have been in fact that he had been sloppy enough to get caught. While the rest of his team was busy fighting you took the opportunity to sneak in. A favour for Talia’s help, you thought.

“Fool! What are you—“ Damian shouted at you. The villain they were fighting was no joke. If you had gotten caught —

His sermon gets interrupted by a kiss from you to the lips. You even shove your tongue down his throat for good measure.

You separate from him after a few minutes.

You think from the fact that he pulls you back in and kisses you as his friends were screaming in the background made it clear that he more than just liked you.

Maybe even loved you…

— to be continued

[stillness-in-green]

Counting Cliffhangers: The Heroes Are Not the Underdogs in BNHA's War Arcs

(Being a project to tally up which side, if either, of Team Hero or Team Villain is "on top" at the end of each chapter in the war arcs, in consideration of the impact of the overall totals. This is one of those mega-long list posts; do not click the Expand/Read More unless you're prepared for a lot of reading and/or scrolling.)

One of the things that bothered me throughout both of the war arcs was the persistent sense that, for all that the manga was trying very hard to convince me that the Heroes were up against the wall and really having to give it everything they had, I never really felt that level of danger.  Of course, one always expects a degree of that—it’s not as though any sensible reader would really think this manga could end with the Villains winning!—but the problem went beyond that.  Expecting that the protagonist will win out in the end is the standard, after all, but good stories still find ways to keep readers engaged and believing in the stakes.

So why didn’t I?  I certainly believed in the stakes for the Villains—Twice’s death happens very early in the first war, and it sets the stakes quite clearly!  Was it just the difference between my own engagement with the Villains compared to the Heroes?  That didn’t seem quite right—even if I cared about one side for more than the other, it shouldn’t have been the case that that affection alone was skewing my suspension of disbelief about the dangers faced by the Heroes.  The threat posed to Midnight certainly seemed real enough, as was also the case for the Heroes left trampled in Gigantomachia’s wake, like Gang Orca and Fatgum.  As I’ve had to tell the occasional asker here before, just because I don’t particularly care about a character doesn’t mean I become incapable of evaluating their story beats!

What was the problem, then?  Why did the dangers to the Villains seem so desperately real, while the dangers to the Heroes, for the most part, just had me rolling my eyes and waiting for the next asspull that would save them?

I think there are two primary factors.  The first and biggest factor is simply baked into the worldbuilding and the decisions made in the writing: the sides are poorly matched.  I’m not going to go into all of that here, but as a thought exercise, go through the arcs of the story that contain active conflict and consider which side has the advantage in each of the following categories: individual combatant quality (stuff like raw power, endurance, and training/experience to improve upon their inherent capabilities), equipment quality, information about the opponent, ability to set the terms of engagement, and raw numbers of warm bodies to throw at a fight. 

By my measure, much of the early confrontations in BNHA work because these advantages are divided evenly between the Heroes and Villains.  Likewise, My Villain Academia is so gripping because the Meta Liberation Army has virtually every advantage over the League, making the League really and truly feel like the underdogs in the fight.  Conversely, the Heroes are the ones with virtually every advantage in the war arcs,[1] meaning they cannot convincingly be the underdogs the story so desperately wants us to believe they are.

1:  I swear I’m not going to go into all of it, at least not in this post, but to be very brief, I think the only advantages the Villains could even kind of claim during the war arcs are numbers and combatant quality.  The numbers advantage is mostly illusory; the PLF are leveled in the cursory mass arrest of the first war and, despite repeated insistence otherwise, the only place where the Villains’ numbers are a true threat in the second war is at the hospital attack, where said numbers consist chiefly of untrained and easily swayed civilians in a battle it’s desperately unclear why the Heroes allowed to take place at all.  The quality advantage, meanwhile, is heavily concentrated in only a handful of hard-hitting, A-to-S-rank threats on the Villains’ side, while the Heroes maintain clear quality supremacy in rank-and-file or side character battles.

The other factor, and the one this post concerns, is the structure of the chapters themselves, to wit, the way that they end.  In a serialized story being published and read week to week, each installment’s ending is a crucial factor in the story’s overall tone.  What happens on the last page is a major factor in the impact each chapter makes, the feeling the reader is left with while they wait for the next part.  If the intent, therefore, is for the Heroes to feel threatened, pushed to the very edge of their endurance, then a very basic thing needs to be observed: don’t end every fucking chapter with the Heroes having the fucking advantage.

I’m so serious here, guys.  It’s not that the Villains never have the advantage, never get twists or reveals or reinforcements that turn the tide of the battle in their favor.  It’s that, by and large, those advantages come in the middle of chapters, while the Heroes’ twists and reveals and reinforcements get the benefit of being at the end of chapters, so the dominant feeling—the side that’s left wildly cheering for their “team” at the end of the week—is usually the Heroes.  While it’s possible that the impression left is different when reading the story in volume form,[2] when reading week to week, that imbalance critically damages the story’s ability to portray the desperation and strain of the Heroes’ struggle.

2: Having not read the arcs in this fashion, I couldn't say. Obviously I don't know how a volume-only reader would experience this aspect of the story, but even reading (or rereading) a bunch of chapters all in one go online suffers from some impaired momentum between chapters by having to specifically navigate to the next chapter webpage and wait for it to load rather than just being able to turn pages freely.

That, in any case, was my thesis when I first started this count, listing which side has the upper hand at the end of each chapter of the two war arcs, as well as the total overall.  With the second war arc finally having ended, I figured I’d go ahead and post my results. 

Hit the jump!

For each arc, I started counting at the chapter where active conflict breaks out, including as a dramatic end cliffhanger.  Thus, for the first war, I didn’t start in Chapter 258, where the groups are still gathering, but rather in Chapter 259, when the forward momentum begins and the first Villain (Ujiko) is confronted.  Likewise, the second war count begins with Chapter 343, when the armies confront each other.  The counts end with the last chapter containing active Hero/Villain conflict rather than narrated montage.  Thus, the first war ends in 295, when AFO and the League flee the field, not in 296 with the looming threat of the long-awaited jailbreak.  The second war ends with Deku’s weather-clearing fist in 423.

My basic categories are Hero Advantage, Villain Advantage, and Neither.  Fake-outs are categorized as they are perceived in the moment of reading them, not as they read in retrospect.  Further, I do not categorize based on the overall tenor of the chapter, but only the impact of the final page.  This is by nature somewhat subjective, but I’ve done my best to call them as I think they’re meant to be read.

What is the feeling the reader takes with them into the next chapter?  Excitement for the heroes?  Dismay and fear?  A simmering tension?  Which side, if either, got the HELL YEAH HELL YEAH fist-pump?  If there's a relative clear answer, I'll call it for one side of the other; chapters that end with no particular new reveals, arrivals, power-ups, or other such shifts in the tides with be called as neither.

Finally, for ease of tracking and reading, my tallies and accompanying brief explanations are separated by volume. I'll provide totals for each category at the end of each volume, and full totals, as well as a total count for which category the volumes end in, at the end of the arcs. Final counts and commentary will close the post.

Let's get started.

FIRST WAR ARC

Volume 27: 259: Hero Advantage.  Endeavor and company confront (apparently) Ujiko, catching him completely flat-footed.

260: Hero.  Mirko crashes into Ujiko’s lab, to his horror, and kills John-chan in doing so.

261: Neither.  Mirko and the High Ends square up for their Round 2.

262: Hero.  The Villa gets cracked open like an egg, catching its inhabitants entirely off-guard.

263: Hero.  If they were on more level footing, I’d call this Neither, but given the positions Hawks and Twice end the chapter in, and the clear difference in emotional preparedness, this one goes to the Heroes.

264: Neither.  The Hawks/Twice fight continues inconclusively; Dabi is revealed to be on his way, but has not yet arrived on-scene to affect any changes.

265: Villain.  Dabi makes a strong and, for Hawks, unexpected entrance, pinning Hawks beneath his boot.

266: Neither.  Twice dies, which is a huge hit to the Villains, but the narrative sympathy is so clearly with Twice and Toga that it’s impossible to describe the chapter as ending on a fist-pumping note for anyone.

267: Hero.  Doubly so, as Endeavor and Tokoyami both show up to intervene in fights that were about to go to the villains, but we'll be fair and only count it as one anyway.

                   Heroes 5 | Villains 1 | Neither 3 | Total 9     

Volume 28: 268: Neither.  Basement action.  The tube gets cracked; Aizawa and Mic are told not to let Shigaraki wake up.  Nothing conclusive.

269: Hero Advantage.  Literally ends with Ujiko wailing that the Lord of Evil’s dream is over.

270: Villain.  It ends with Deku getting a warning about Shigaraki, which makes it a bit borderline, but Shigaraki being awake at all has to count for the Villains.

271: Villain.  Gigantomachia stands up.

272: Neither.  The kids start rallying against the Decay wave.  Deku gets a new move that doesn’t seem like it should have any effect but is played as being effective.  Shigaraki’s Decay wave is being monstrously effective, even apocalyptic, but the tone of the last page is ambiguous.

273: Neither.  Shigaraki faces off with Endeavor.  Both are known factors on this field of battle.

274: Neither.  Deku is on the move in hopes of leading Shigaraki to a more deserted area.

275: Hero.  Aizawa arrives at the Shigaraki fight, locking down his quirk use.

276: Hero.  Deku and Bakugou arrive in time to save Aizawa from what likely would have been the same kind of blow that will later cost him his eye.

                   Heroes 3 | Villains 2 | Neither 4 | Total 9     

Volume 29: 277: Neither.  Mount Lady attempts to stop Gigantomachia.  Results inconclusive; both known factors.

278: Neither.  Leans a bit Hero side because it’s Momo dramatically getting her head on straight, but it’s really just more preparations for a face-off.

279: Hero Advantage.  The League is getting swarmed and Mina is on the brink of delivering what’s framed as a knock-out blow to Machia.

280: Neither.  Shigaraki laboriously gathers himself, preparing to monologue.

281: Villain.  Shigaraki readies a quirk-destroying bullet with Aizawa’s name on it.

282: Villain.  Gigantomachia, who is very much not knocked out,  looms over an unsuspecting city.

283: Hero.  Deku negates the (immediate) danger of Decay by activating Float.

284: Hero.  Deku lands a full-power blow on Shigaraki, who’s been largely unable to fend him off in the air.

285: Villain.  It pains me to grant this because I knew good and well Bakugou would be completely fine.  But he is a major combatant and face for the Hero side and this is clearly intended to look like it will take him out, at least for the fight.

                   Heroes 3 | Villains 3 | Neither 3 | Total 9     

Volume 30: 286: Hero Advantage.  The action moves to the vestige realm.  Very borderline, but Nana’s words are definitive: “Let us handle this.”  The implication is very much that there’s no need to fear because the vestiges have got this.

287: Neither.  Chapter ends with Toga reflecting on heroes and the weight they give to the lives of Villains.  Could represent a major turning point for Toga, but it’s still soft-pedaled by making that turning point dependent on a Hero’s yet-unspoken words.

288: Neither.  Chapter ends mid-dialogue in the Toga/Ochaco fight.

289: Villain.  Machia and his passengers arrive.

290: Villain.  A little borderline because the actual very last panel is the plane containing Best Jeanist, but the audience doesn’t know that yet, and the bulk of the final page is dedicated the devastation of the Touya Reveal, so I have to give this one to them.

291: Hero.  Best Jeanist arrives.

292: Hero.  Mirio arrives with his quirk restored.

293: Hero.  Machia goes down because the sedative finally kicks in.

294: Villain.  Mr. Compress backstory reveal and big escape moment.

295: Neither.  The battle ends save for the wrap-up.  The villains are neither victorious nor defeated.

                   Heroes 4 | Villains 3 | Neither 3 | Total 10

FIRST WAR TOTAL: Heroes 15 | Villains 9 | Neither 13 | Total 37 Volume End Advantage Count: Heroes 2  |  Villains 1  |  Neither 1

                       

SECOND WAR ARC

Volume 35: 343: Hero Advantage.  The Heroes counter AFO’s army by “unexpectedly” whipping out their own via Warp Gate.

344: Hero.  The Heroes take the offensive and split up the villains’ army.

345: Villain.  Toga lassos Deku through a gate, separating him from the field he’s supposed to be on.

346: Villain.  The beginning of Fingervetr.

347: Neither.  Borderline because it’s a big dramatic page of Toga, but it’s more conversational then confrontational to me, and isn’t revealing anything particularly new.

348: Neither.  Deku flees the island, leaving Toga to Ochaco.

349: Neither.  Dabi gears up to provide the answers Shouto has specifically asked for.

350: Neither.  Dabi’s coming on strong, but Shouto remains undaunted.  I’d give it to the Villains if the last page were Dabi liquidating the All Might statue, though.

                   Heroes 2 | Villains 2 | Neither 4 | Total 8                    

Volume 36: 351: Hero Advantage.  Shouto unleashes Phosphor.

352: Hero.  Shouto appears to beat Dabi.

353: Neither.  AFO is talking a lot, but not about anything groundbreaking.

354: Neither.  AFO and Jirou exchange smacktalk.

355: Hero.  Hawks and Jirou combine efforts to break AFO’s mask.

356: Neither.  Endeavor has a big moment, but AFO gets his hands up in time to block and is still shown intact at the end of the chapter.  Borderline, but I’d say not quite definitive enough to qualify it for the hero side.

357: Villain.  AFO regenerates.  A little borderline because it actually ends with Deku, and the approach of what I guessed at the time were the American jets, but I think it’s a similar enough scenario as the end of Chapter 270 to call it for the Villains as well.

358: Neither.  No impact from the Hero attack leaves it a little unclear how much effect it will have, and a new attack is not a big enough game changer for me to really count it even unproven.  It’d be easy to call it for the Heroes, though.

359: Hero.  Return of the Big Three.

360: Hero.  Bakugou’s in rough shape, but there’s a hint that he’s noticed something important, which could foreshadow a change in the tides of the battle.

361: Hero.  Suneater’s Chimera Cannon, which certainly looks incredibly hype and impressive in the moment.

362: Villain.  Bakugou’s “death.”

                   Heroes 6 | Villains 2 | Neither 4 | Total 12                    

Volume 37: 363: Villain Advantage.  AFO finishes regenerating; full face reveal.

364: Hero.  The impossibly moronic Edgeshot-as-Bakugou’s-heart business.  Not conclusive, but it steals one of the Villains’ victories out from under from them.

365: Villain.  A shift in Inner Tenko’s emotional state heralds Shigaraki’s next form.

366: Hero.  Deku arrives at the Sky Coffin.

367: Neither.  Deku attempts conversation to ask about Shigaraki’s status.

368: Hero.  Deku lands a full-power hit on ShigAFO while Yoichi talks to his big brother about letting this being the day that their battle ends.

369: Villain.  A scene change to Spinner that’s timed in such a way that it could really only foreshadow Spinner’s victory.

370: Neither.  It’s very close to a Hero call, but mostly what Shouji’s doing is shaking off mundane attackers and making a dramatic proclamation.  Not quite enough direct impact for an end-of-chapter Hero Advantage.

371: Neither.  Even closer than the last one, but neither blow the kids are gearing up for actually connect on-page.  I wouldn’t fault anyone who called it for the Heroes, though.

372: Neither.  An extremely effective cliffhanger, for once, as Spinner and Mic call out to Kurogiri simultaneously.

373: Villain.  Kurogiri gets up, calling himself the protector of Shigaraki Tomura.

374: Villain.  Toga deploys Sad Man’s Death Parade; Hawks proves he hasn’t learned jack shit from the last time he faced this question.

                   Heroes 3 | Villains 5 | Neither 4 | Total 12                    

Volume 38: 375: Hero Advantage.  Toga’s narrative-destined rival manages to follow her off the island and to the Villa ruins.  Close to a Neither call.

376: Neither.  Setting up a Dabi/Endeavor clash with Endeavor not caught on the back foot.

377: Hero.  Return of La Brava.

378: Hero.  Return of Lady Nagant.

379: Neither.  Sets up a reengaged clash between Shigaraki and Deku.

380: Hero.  Arrival of Shiketsu.

381: Hero.  Tokoyami lands a blow that AFO is explicitly afraid to get hit with.

382: Hero.  Shinsou and Kirishima arrive with a brainwashed Gigantomachia.

383: Neither.  Reiterates that AFO is in trouble, but it’s not new information, and the choppers coming in at the very end are an unpredictable element.

384: Hero.  The choppers are full of Hero-supporting journalists here to tell the world how incredibly hard-working and earnest and admirable Heroes are.  Gag.

385: Neither.  AFO’s belated but impressive show of force gets dampened somewhat by the Heroes refusing to give in, and even getting one of their number back.  It’s back and forth, but Stain really tips it for good over to a neutral chapter ending.  While he’s obviously not aligned with the Villains, he’s far too murderous to chalk him up as a Hero yet, either, especially on-scene watching two kids he tried to kill last time he saw them.

386: Hero.  All Might gets a cool robot suit and the last-page chapter title drop references his iconic catchphrase.

                   Heroes 8 | Villains 0 | Neither 4 | Total 12                    

Volume 39: 387: Hero Advantage.  Rei is, of course, a civilian, not a hero, but she’s clearly aligned on the Team Good Guy, so I have to give it to them.  It’s not a hill I’d die on, however, particularly with the very last panel being the flashback to Touya emphasizing Rei’s culpability.

388: Neither.  What a nice vision of hell as everyone burns to death, including Dabi.  If I gave it to anyone, I’d lean Villain, because it’s certainly more in line with what Dabi wants—what he’s always wanted.  But in terms of impact on the reader, it certainly isn’t going to get anyone whooping and cheering for the Villains.

389: Neither.  It’s a good last few pages of Shouto and Iida, but the reader already knows they’re on their way, so it’s not a pleasant surprise to see them enroute.  The fact that they are still enroute rather than dramatically arriving to save the day keeps this from being a full Hero moment ending.

390: Neither.  Teasing more of the fight between Toga and Uraraka, but no sudden turns, new elements, or grand statements on either side.

391: Neither.  Ongoing fight; while Ochaco gets the stirring line, the actual last page is Toga lashing out.

392: Villain.  While I’m loathe to give it to them on the basis of an injury I was not for one second actually worried about, the chapter does end with Toga putting a knife into Uraraka’s gut and a flashback to Twice asking Toga about a Villain name.  A clear Villain-upper-hand ending.

393: Hero.  Ochaco comes through with flying colors, getting a quirk awakening and making Toga an offer she’s dreamed of her whole life.

394: BOTH.  For literally the first time in this whole count, I can’t count this against either side.  If pressed, I’d call it a Hero win, but it’s a win because it validates both sides.

395: Neither.  Sorry, gang.  I’m utterly incapable of calling this one in an unbiased way.  It’s an all-too-real death scare for Toga and, regardless of how happy she is in the moment, I can’t call her potential death a victory.  But since Ochaco obviously feels the same, it’s not a Hero win, either.

396: Hero.  And get ready, ‘cause there're about to be a whole lot of them.  Good god, but I hate this All Mech sequence.

397: Neither.  Ongoing battle, no major tides turning in the final page.

398: Neither.  As above.

                   Heroes 3 | Villains 1 | Neither 7 | Both 1 | Total 12                    

Volume 40: 399: Hero Advantage.  The big turn-around with Aoyama, with All Might dropping the Aoyama-themed laser of AFO.

400: Hero.  Stain’s return.  Stain’s a Villain himself, but far too aligned with Hero orthodoxy for me to count him returning to help All Might as anything but a Hero-side victory.

401: Neither.  All Might’s still kicking, AFO is within range of Shigaraki, but nothing decisive deployed on the final page.

402: Neither.  To all appearances, All Might continues to shovel more battle damage onto AFO.  There’s a death threat in the explosion, one I don’t think I took very seriously at the time, though plenty of others did.  Left to my own devices, I’d call it for Team Hero, but I’ll err on the side of restraint and call it a hero equivalent of Toga’s death threat.

403: Hero.  Unequivocal Hero victory—Bakugou’s back up.

404: Hero.  Saving All Might with the literal power of prayer.

405: Hero.  If I wanted to be snide, I’d point out that Final Boss is definitionally a Villain role, so Bakugou enthusiastically claiming it for himself implicates Heroes as having been the Villains all along, while the Villains are the clear heroic underdogs struggling against a corrupt, violent system.  But that’s just my bitterness making me perverse; this is a clear Hero victory.

406: Neither.  Exchanging of smack talk, Bakugou gets a good but not definitive hit in.

407: Neither.  AFO’s flashback ends with one of the most crushing emotional defeats of his life, but you can hardly call AFO slice-and-dicing Yoichi a Hero win, either.

408: Neither.  AFO’s going all-out, but Bakugou remains undaunted.

409: Hero.  AFO’s effective defeat at Bakugou’s hands.  Yoichi’s regretful glance is not enough to shift the needle.

410: Villain.  Shigaraki does what the narrative has long been warning that he can and steals a portion of One For All, grabbing Danger Sense for himself and stealing Shinomori from the OFA collective.

                   Heroes 6 | Villains 1 | Neither 5 | Total 12                    

Volume 41: 411: Neither.  Deku’s readying an offensive that gives Shigaraki lots of Danger Sense tinglies, but nothing definitive.

412: Neither.  The temptation is strong to call this for the Hero side, as it’s the moment Kudou formulates the plan that will soon be leading to Shigaraki’s ultimate defeat, but the caveat that the plan requires losing One For All kiboshes that feeling very triumphant.

413: Hero.  There’s some nominal sadness for Deku gearing up to lose OFA, but the tone here is much more about how great and awesome Deku is for being willing to do it, on top of how incredibly fucking rad the art plainly wants us to think that he looks.

414: Hero.  I’d normally call it Neither for lacking new elements or definitive actions, but I have to acknowledge the sheer disparity between, on the one hand, the vestiges telling Deku that it’s working and to keep going as Deku gears up to unleash another punch while, on the other hand, all Shigaraki can manage is huddling in on himself and choking out a few pained grunts.

415: Neither.  Borderline in that Eri is a clear Hero-side ally with an absolutely game-changing power, but the truth is that she’s at U.A. with no immediately clear way to make it to the battle even if anyone were to let her go, so it’s not too different from any other chapter that ended with a major player en route but not yet arriving.

416: Hero.  Deku finally breaks into Shigaraki’s inner mind, over Shigaraki’s protestations.

417: Neither.  Deku and Nana make a major breakthrough, but Shigaraki’s backstory yet has terrible bombs to drop.  I can’t call it a Villain advantage, though, because it’s still stuff Shigaraki very much does not want Deku meddling with.

418: Villain.  AFO returns yet again, spoiling Deku’s hard-won moment of equilibrium and understanding with Shigaraki.

419: Hero.  We can’t even get a week to savor/freak out over Deku losing his arms because the actual last beat of the chapter is Aizawa bringing in a pair of classmates via Kurogiri’s warp gate, suggesting (albeit inaccurately) that Kurogiri has settled as a Hero ally.

420: Hero.  More of the above and Deku gets his arms back after a world-shakingly relevant and momentous chapter and a half.

421: Hero.  All around Hero support, now including from civilians too.

422: Hero.  More of the above and now Deku’s punching Shigaraki at the end of it under a chapter title of Midoriya Izuku Rising.

423: Hero.  Deku’s triumphantly raised fist clears storm clouds, changes the weather, and kills the man he was trying to save.  This is framed as a victory anyway.

                   Heroes 8 | Villains 1 | Neither 4 | Total 13

SECOND WAR TOTAL: Heroes 36 | Villains 12 | Neither 32 | BOTH 1 | Total 81 Volume Count Total: Heroes 2 | Villains 3 | Neither 2

                   

TOTAL CHAPTER COUNT FOR BOTH WAR ARCS: 118 CHAPTERS Final Page Hero Advantage: 51 Final Page Villain Advantage: 21 Final Page Neither: 45 Final Page Both: 1

Total Volume Count: 11 Volumes Last Page Hero Advantage: 4 Last Page Villain Advantage: 4 Last Page Neither: 3

---------------------

Now, you could (and I might) write a whole different post about the unbalanced strategic advantages that I discussed at the beginning of the post, but I think this breakdown also serves to illustrate the scope of the problem with raw numbers (percentages rounded off a bit such that they total to neat 100s).

In the first war, 40.5% of the chapters end with the Heroes on the upswing, 35% have no clear advantage, and only 24.5% end with the Villains waxing triumphant. Despite Hawks reflecting at the end of My Villain Academia about how the Paranormal Liberation Front was a power on par with, or possibly even greater than, that of Hero Society, the numbers don't really back that up. Instead, Heroes have the advantage over half again as often as Villains do, and even the uncertain chapters are still more numerous.

The second war is worse—much worse. Hero Advantage chapters account for nearly half of the arc at 44.5%, while chapters where Neither side clears account for the bulk of the remaining chapters at 39.5%. Only 15% of the chapters, well under a quarter, are Villain Advantage. For an endgame that wants to be about "saving Villains," only one single chapter (1%) ends with something you could credibly call both sides winning.

Now, of course, the second war is the climax of the whole series, so of you might say that of course the Heroes are going to ultimately do better. They have to win in the end, after all, so of course the arc will eventually feature mostly Hero victories.

I would counter that, while that is true, the story repeatedly tries to convince us that the Heroes are really struggling, that they've lost so many people, that they're at this huge disadvantage that neccessitates the extreme measures they use. And the numbers simply don't back that up, even less than they did in the first war!

If you look at the totals for each volume, Heroes have a wild advantage in two of the first four volumes (the arc is seven volumes in total), numbers the Villains never come close to meeting. There's one volume (the third, Volume 37) where they have the majority of the chapter-ending advantages, and even there, it's a narrow margin. Volume 38 is then a blow-out with not a single Villain Advantage chapter cliffhanger in the whole book, and in the final three volumes of the arc, the Villains get exactly one Advantage chapter per volume.

Not very convincing numbers, if the aim is to convince the reader of how much Plus Extra effort the Heroes are going to have to exert, if you ask me!

Between them, Hero Advantage and Neither chapters make up a shocking 81% of the two war arcs, with merely 18%, less than fifth, of the chapters ending on Villain Advantage beats that could serve to freshly drum up, "Our heroes are really in trouble now!" anxiety.

Looking back to what I said about the Heroes having the bulk of the strategic advantages for both arcs, that surely can't be all that surprising. You can't expect a set-up that slanted to leave much room at all for Villains to get time to shine; they simply don't have the room in the story for that when, for everything they try, the Heroes already have some countermeasure.

As a final comparison, remember I praised MVA back at the start for being gripping in large part because the "Heroes" of that arc, the League of Villains, were at such a disadvantage?

I briefly ran the numbers there, and I'd say, of nineteen chapters that contain active confrontation of some sort between the League and an antagonistic force (Gigantomachia, Ujiko, and the MLA), the League have the chapter-ending advantage beat in four of those chapters: Toga's victory in 226, Twice overcoming his mental block and starting to replicate himself in 229, and the two chapters covering Shigaraki's ultimate victory over Re-Destro, 238 and 239. That's a grand total of 20% "Hero" Advantage chapters for them, and half of those are the arc climax chapters.

The "Villains" for the arc likewise have the ending advantage in 20% of the arc, four chapters: Machia having comprehensively whipped the League at the end of 419, RD making the League an offer they can't refuse in 223, Skeptic pushing all of Twice's buttons in 228, and RD plucking off Shigaraki's fingers in 233.

The remaining eleven chapters—60%—go to the Neither category. Compare that back to the percentages for the war arcs, and you can see that, while the Villain Advantage percentage is similar (~5% higher in the first war and likewise lower in the second), the Hero Advantage is twice the percentage (40+%) in both arcs, while the Neither chapters are accordingly lower (the war arcs are 35% and ~40% Neither respectively).

In other words, the Heroes in the war arcs just straight-up have more chapter-ending awesome moments and reveals, and spend less time facing chapter-ending uncertainty, compared to not just the Villains they're fighting in those arcs, but also compared to what those same Villains got when they were being Heroes for an arc.

And to think, Horikoshi wants me to think his Heroes are being challenged. Pull the other one, Sensei; it's got bells on.

(I welcome anyone else to run similar numbers with e.g. the trainng camp attack or the Hassaikai base raid. For myself, I'm too sleepy to figure out a better ending for this post, so I'm just turning out the lights and hitting the sack. Sorry if there's any formatting wigginess or the closing analysis is lacking; I will clean it up later if need be.)

[active-mind-15]

Headcanons for Akashi when he's angry? 😡

Been a hot min since I've done one of these long ass headcanon posts exploring different Akashi emotions/scenarios, so here I am again. Anger was per the suggestion of @japeneselunchtimerush, so shout out to Aura for once again feeding my Akashi brainrot. Let's get into it!

Usually, before I get into the headcanons, I talk about if there have been any examples of it happening in canon, and for anger, there have been! The most prominent example was during the Teiko arc, when Murasakibara was not listening to Akashi anymore and later confronted him, causing Akashi to switch for the first time. The anger I would argue is more apparent in the anime version, but it's still there in the manga, just as more of an undertone, though. Aside from that, though there aren't really many other instances I can think of apart from during the Winter Cup finals when Akashi realized his team was being overwhelmed and tried to make a comeback. Although, I'm debating classifying that purely as anger since he was clearly having a breakdown. But let's move on to the actual headcanons, I've rambled on this bullet point for long enough.

Firstly, what would make Akashi angry? Going off canon, we already know that one of these things is disobedience/belittling, especially when it comes to Akashi's own authority, but what else can we say makes him angry? I would say he's similar to Kuroko in the sense that he can't stand when he sees people being rude to others. I can imagine him seeing someone being the victim of harassment and bullying and he stands up for them, kinda like how everyone stood up for Kuroko in Extra/Last Game when Team Jabberwock attacked him. He's especially protective over his friends and would never let anyone say one bad word against them, lest they face his wrath.

(^^ As an extra thought to my previous point, I wonder if he ever had to reckon with being angry at himself for the scissors incident during the Winter Cup. I'm sure he's probably beaten himself up over it many times over.)

The examples I've given thus far are all serious things to get angry over, though. So, to lighten it up, I'm going to talk about situations in which I think Akashi would get mad for pettier reasons.

He'd for sure get mad at people disrespecting his height. Y'all saw how he dunked on Seirin in the WC finals just to show off and said "Did you think that was a move for tall people?" Technically he's above average height for his age, but when you put him next to his teammates, he looks so tiny since everyone else is freakishly tall. I'm sure his intimidating captain aura prevents most people from making jokes about his height anyway, but someone on an opposing team might be meanspirited enough to do it and he'd get pissed, like how Kuroko got pissed when Papa mistook him for a child.

Another petty reason I think he'd get mad is if someone isn't paying attention to him while he's speaking. I can especially imagine this happening with the Teiko gang because you know them mfs cannot collectively focus on something for more than five seconds. So imagine him talking about something serious only for him to turn around and almost nobody is paying attention. I've said once before that I think Akashi would be petty enough to pinch or kick somebody for something, so I think that this would be one of the times where this is applicable. He seems like an ear-puller to me, too. Just saying.

I'll give one more petty example for funsies, but I think he'd be mad if he didn't get what he wanted/things are not going his way. Not in the "I'm on the brink of defeat and the meaning of my existence is about to be nullified" type of way we've always seen for him, but in a "the cafe I frequent is out of my favorite drink and I'm about to make it everybody's problem" type of way. He just gets dramatic about minor inconveniences.

So now that we've talked about what could make Akashi angry, let's talk about what he would look like if he was angry. From what we've seen in the series, even when he's angry, he remains calm. He chooses his words carefully and is not the type to shout. The only time he's really raised his voice is when he was arguing with himself in his own headspace, but raising his voice at other people seems like a serious no-no for him. Even though he's calm while he's angry, the anger will still show on his face. The knitted brows, the deep disapproving scowl, anybody would be able to tell that Akashi is mad from a mile away. But if he's only mildly angry, I bet he'd look more pouty than actually mad, much to Mibuchi's delight because it makes Akashi look very adorable.

Come on. Look at that face. You're telling me you wouldn't pinch his cheeks?

How do other people react to him being mad, though? If he's seriously angry, it's like the air shifts. Nobody gets in his way when he's really angry. But when he's just mildly irritated, I think as time goes on, his friends will try and make him feel better, especially if the reason why he's mad is trivial and something that can easily be remedied. Like "Oh, Midorima's not free to play a game of online shogi with you right now? You can play shogi with me instead!" or "You forgot something in the gymnasium? I'll go get it for you!" I just like the idea of Akashi's friends, especially Rakuzan, going out of their way to do things for Akashi the way he does things for other people. It's what he deserves.

Overall, Akashi is a person who does not get angry often, and I feel like part of that reason is because he's always been taught to compose himself and not express emotions that can be perceived as negative. So, I can imagine what a struggle that must be for him, especially when he truly is angry but feels like he's not allowed to show it. So I would hope as time goes on that he feels more comfortable being open with that while still being able to show emotions in a healthy manner.

Alright, I've yapped enough, time to pack it up. Hope you guys enjoyed.

[s10127470]

Nicktoons Unite: Rewritten

I'm pretty sure most of you reading this know about the Nicktoons Unite series.

Running from 2005 to 2008 with a total of four games, the series saw some of Nickelodeon's most popular Nicktoons coming together to stop whatever the big threat of the game there was.

Even after almost 20 years, these games are still fondly remembered for how well they utilized the crossover aspect and how cool it was to see so many of Nickelodeon's most popular characters actually interacting with each other.

But apart from that, the games are pretty mid (specifically in terms of gameplay).

So recently, I've been thinking about what the Nicktoons Unite series would've been like if it actually had good gameplay and even went a little more all-out with the crossover aspect than it already did.

And being the madman that I am, I'm gonna make this a 4-part series!

Starting off with the game that started it all, Nicktoons Unite!

So without further ado, let's get this party started!

Gameplay and Presentation:

Nicktoons Unite! would still have the action-RPG style, but a little better.

And for a few reasons.

For starters, the characters will move much faster than they previously did.

Which is something I appreciate the later games for doing.

And the combat is a lot more fleshed-out.

Each character has a light attack, a heavy attack, a grab and a throw, a trip, a stun, a pop-up, an aerial attack, a block, a dodge, a ground slam, a double jump (though that varies between characters), 6 or 7 special attacks, one or two boosts, a few passive abilities, and a super attack that is able to unleash an insane amount of damage across a wider range.

Along with that, there will be enemies with specific resistances.

For example, say you’re dealing with an enemy that’s heavily resistant to energy/elemental/magical attacks.

So in order to beat that enemy, you’ll have to switch to a character who’s heavily reliant on physical attacks.

Since this is an action RPG, there will be tons of strategy.

And in terms of presentation, the worlds would be more expanded than they originally were.

Including major locations and characters that weren't in the original.

But biggest glow-up in the presentation would be with the music.

Everybody knows that Nicktoons Unite's music is pretty weak.

It's basically elevator music, and doesn't really fit the worlds we go to at all.

But here, the music would actually strive to replicate the scores of each Nicktoon.

So much so that I could imagine they would even receive help from the composers of those respective Nicktoons.

But don't worry, Guy Moon isn't gonna be giving every action its own music cue here.

The Story:

The overall story is more or less the same, but has a lot more content here.

First off, let's talk about the Nicktoons themselves.

The team still consists of Jimmy Neutron, SpongeBob SquarePants, Timmy Turner and Danny Phantom.

But this version would see five more members of the team.

These being Jenny Wakeman, Otto Rocket, Tommy Pickles (the All Grown Up! one), Tak and Avatar Aang.

As for why they're here.

I remember reading something somewhere about how Rocket Power, All Grown Up!, and Tak and the Power of Juju were all meant to be featured in Nicktoons Unite!

As for Jenny and Aang.....why shouldn't they be here?

Jenny especially since at the time of this game's release, My Life as a Teenage Robot has been around for two years.

I've always found it weird how she was never included in the main stories of any of the games.

I'm guessing that they wanted the Nicktoons to be a boys-only thing.

And given Nickelodeon's track record, I could definitely see that being the case....

Though I have no clue why Aang was never included in these games, especially since Avatar: The Last Airbender was one of the biggest Nicktoons on the channel during its run.

Maybe it has to do with the fact that it is was the only Nicktoon at the time at was primarily serialized.

So trying to figure out where the games could take place during the three Books would've been tricky.

But given that Avatar has comics in the Nickelodeon Magazine that took place between their adventures and are presumably canon, I think they could've pulled it off.

Anyway, just like the original version of the game, these nine have teamed up thanks to The Syndicate.

Which now consists of Professor Calamitous, Plankton, Mr. Crocker, Vlad Plasmius, Vexus, Tlaloc and Zuko.

As for how they're each contributing to their team.

Calamitous is who's creating The Doomsday Machine.

Plankton, Crocker, Vlad, Tlaloc and Zuko are each obtaining energy from their respective worlds to power it.

Those energy sources being jellyfish electricity, fairy magic, ghost energy, juju magic, and waterbending & earthbending.

And Vexus is creating an army of special robots for The Syndicate to use in their respective worlds.

Thought with all being said, you're probably wondering why the hell Otto and Tommy are here since they have no notable villains to speak of.

Well it's because The Syndicate have already conquer their respective worlds and are planning to make the inhabitants into cybernetic slaves.

And so, with our heroes united, they decide to head to Ocean Shores and Eucaipah (the All Grown Up! world) to free them first from The Syndicate's rule.

Upon arriving in Ocean Shores, they find the city to be particularly deserted.

But soon enough, they do manage to run into Twister and Sam.

The two reveal that the people of Ocean Shores have been captured by the Syndicate's troops and taken away.

Luckily, Twister and Sam were able to escape.

But the likes of Reggie, Raymundo, Tito and Noelani weren't so lucky....

And with the knowledge of The Syndicate planning on turning the residents into cybernetic slaves, the Nicktoons concur that there's some kind of base in this world where the process is bound to take place.

And so, our heroes decide to search around the city in order to find said base.

The world of Ocean Shores would consist of the following sub-areas:

The Cul-de-sac, Ocean Streets, Madtown, Rocket Beach, The Boardwalk, The Woods and The Town Dump.

And during their search, The Nicktoons find themselves fighting off Syndicate Bots resembling skateboarders, roller-skaters and surfers.

After some time, our heroes run into Eddie, who also escaped capture.

He reveals that the citizens of Ocean Shores have been taken to The Pier, which has been turned into factory.

And with that, The Nicktoons decide to head there.

The Pier Factory would sport a circus/carnival theming to it.

With Syndicate Bots resembling clowns constantly attacking you.

After fighting through the hordes of robo-clowns, our heroes eventually make it to the holding area where the citizens of Ocean Shores are being kept.

Before they can free them, The Nicktoons find themselves having to fight a robotic extreme sports star known Rad-Tron 3000 (who would be voiced by Rob Paulsen).

Rad-Tron attacks with four different modes.

Skateboard mode has him speeding all over the place on his board, all while ramming you his helmeted head.

Roller-skate mode is pretty similar to skateboard mode, but he attacks you with kicks and swings from a hockey stick.

Surfing mode has him ride a surfboard that can automatically create an actual wave of water.

And snowboard is pretty similar to surfing mode, but does it with a wave of snow that can slow down The Nicktoons.

Luckily, our heroes are able to defeat Rad-Tron and free the citizens of Ocean Shores.

And with Ocean Shore now free, they decide to head to Eucaipah next.

Upon arriving there, just like with Ocean Shores, they find the place completely deserted.

However, they would soon run into Chuckie and Susie, who reveal that same thing that happened in Ocean Shores happened to them as well, and that they were only ones who manage to avoid capture.

And so, our heroes head off to find where the citizens are being taken.

The areas of this world include:

The Pickles' House, The Neighborhood, Eucaipah Streets, Jim Jr. Junior High School, and The Mall.

The Nicktoons eventually find the factory, which is now where The Java Lava used to be.

The factory here has an overall fruit-theme to it, and the Syndicate Bots use special guns that shoot juice.

As for the boss here, it's a robotic fat guy known as The Juicer (voiced by Kevin Michael Richardson).

He attacks with punches, charges, throwing large fruits, and shoot powerful streams of juice out of his mouth.

Luckily, our heroes defeat him and free the people of Eucaipah.

With that out of the way, The Nicktoons finally decided it's time to take on their villains.

Their first stop is Tremorton, so they can stop Vexus.

Upon arriving, they come across a shocking sight….

Cluster Prime flying high the above the city.

Soon enough, they find themselves surrounded by Cluster Drones.

Thanks to them, our heroes find out that with the help of The Syndicate, Vexus has reclaimed her throne as the ruler of Cluster Prime.

Along with overthrowing and imprisoning the current ruler (and her daughter) Vega in the process.

But she’s not the only one.

Vexus has also imprison Nora, Brad, Sheldon and Tuck.

And if that wasn’t bad enough, Vexus has also conquered all of Tremorton and are forcing the residents to work in the factory creating the Syndicate Bots.

And so, our heroes decide to first free Tremorton from the rule of The Cluster, fighting off Cluster Drones and Syndicate Bots along the way.

The areas of this world include:

Downtown, Tremorton High School, and The Neighborhood.

After defeating all the Drones and Bots and freeing the city, The Nicktoons decide to head to Cluster Prime to confront Vexus and free Jenny’s mother and friends.

Along the way, they fight themselves fighting even more Cluster Drones.

They even run into a mini-boss against Smytus and Krackus.

Krackus attacks with a electricity ray, and Smytus attacks with punches, ground pounds, flying charges, and when he enters his rage mode, claw slashes and shooting spikes.

After defeating those two, our heroes finally reach Vexus, who has her captives right next her and starts threatening their lives.

And soon enough, the battle begins.

For her boss fight, Vexus attacks with punches, kicks, ground smashes, flying charges, teleporting attacks and energy blasts.

After defeating her, Vexus declares that the Nicktoons may’ve stopped here, they still have the rest of The Syndicate to worry about, right before fleeing through a portal.

And with Tremorton, Cluster Prime, and Jenny’s loved ones now freed, The Nicktoons decided to head to Amity Park next to stop Vlad.

Some time later, the team land in Casper High…..or where it used to be.

As they immediately find out, Vlad tore down the school to make way for his new castle.

And he’s captured Danny’s parents Jack and Maddie, Mr. Lancer, and a few of Danny’s classmates such as Dash.

When The Nicktoons try to attack him on the spot, Vlad knocks them all out and banishes them to The Ghost Zone Prison, where they’ll have to deal with Walker.

When they wake up, our heroes find themselves in a prison cell.

Luckily, they manage to escape with some help from The Box Ghost.

And soon enough, they start making their way out the prison, fighting off ghost prison guards along the way.

But right when they’re about finally be free, Walker stops them.

And thus, a boss fight commences.

Walker attacks with punches, kicks, stomps, and ecto-energy beams that he shoots with finger guns.

After defeating him, The Nicktoons finally escape and soon find themselves traversing through The Ghost Zone, trying to find the ghost portal that leads into Fenton Works.

Along the way, they find themselves fighting off all kinds of ghosts.

This section of the game will essentially be a boss-rush, with our heroes having fight against several of Danny's foes.

This include Skulker, The Lunch Lady, Ember McClain, Sidney Poindexter, Technus, Desiree, Johnny 13 and The Dragon Ghost.

As for how each boss would play out.

Skulker attacks with claw slashes, kicks, flying swipes, laser beams and missiles.

The Lunch Lady attacks with charges, throwing fast giant balls of meat, and mini meat monsters.

Ember attacks with guitar swings, sound waves from playing her guitar, and shooting fireballs from her hair.

Sidney attacks with eye beams, ink squirts from his pen, and telekinetically hurling rocks.

Technus (using his robot armor seen in Attack of the Killer Garage Sale and Prisoners of Love) attacks with ground slams, electrical blasts and mechanical tendrils.

Desiree attacks with enlarged fists, energy blasts, and various elemental blasts (fire, ice, wind and electricity)

Johnny 13 attacks with punches, kicks, chain whip strikes, ramming into you with his bike, and commanding his Shadow to attack.

And The Dragon Ghost fights with claw slashes, stomps, tail swipes and fire breath.

After defeating then all, The Nicktoons finally escape The Ghost Zone and make it to Fenton Works.

A short while later, our heroes meet up with Sam, Tucker and Jazz in the Amity Streets.

The trio reveal that they found a way into Vlad's Castle, that being a short-cut through The Graveyard.

And so, The Nicktoons head off to their destination, fighting Syndicate Bots resembling skeletons, vampires and zombies along the way.

But along the way, they actually gain a temporary ally in the form of Valerie, who's also trying to stop Vlad.

Although she refuses at first, she does eventually accept The Nicktoons' help (albeit begrudgingly since they do have the ghost she hates the most as a member of their team).

Valerie herself fights with charges on her hoverboard, her Ecto-Grenade Launcher, ecto guns and missiles.

Upon returning to the castle, the heroes destroy the generators that Vlad's been using to harness the ghost energy from The Ghost Zone.

And soon enough, The Nicktoons finally confront Vlad again in his throne room.

For his boss fight, Vlad attacks with punches, kicks, ecto-energy rays, and duplicates of himself.

He also teleports all over the place and crafts an energy shield around himself sometimes, which Danny will have to use Jack to break through.

After defeating him, Vlad flees through a portal.

And after freeing Danny's close ones, The Nicktoons end up doing the same thing when Jack, Maddie and Valerie decide to jump Danny.

And so, with Amity Park now free, the heroes decide to head to Pupununu next to stop Tlaloc.

Upon arriving in the Pupununu Village, The Nicktoons find out that the villagers have been turned into sheep once again.

Luckily, with the combined magic of Tak and Cosmo & Wanda, they're able to return about half of the village back to normal, including Jibola and Lok.

Thanks to Jibola, the heroes find out that Tlaloc is planning to steal the Tikis in order to summon the Jujus.

And upon doing so, he would instantly capture them and use a special generator to extract their magical energy.

And so, The Nicktoons find themselves having to retrieve the Tikis of Dead Juju, Dinky, Caged Juju, Two-Headed Juju, Belly Juju and Mind-Reading Juju.

This race against time will take our team to The Burial Grounds, Dryrock Canyon, Gloomleaf Swamp, Chicken Island, Wetstone Lake, and Gyre Mountain.

Along the way, they'll be accompanied by Flora and Fauna.

Flora fights with nature energy blasts, whirlwinds, leafy wind blasts and vines that sprout out of the ground and either hit or grab enemies.

Fauna fights by turning into different animals. These include a rhino, an orangutan, a ram, a bear, a boar, a crocodile, a jaguar, a eagle, a python, and an elephant.

And over the course of their journey in this world, The Nicktoons find themselves dealing with Syndicate Bots resembling monkeys, emus, sharks, tigers, alligators, wild dogs and wolves.

Along with some Nerbils.

But unfortunately, everytime, they end up being too late as the Tikis end up getting swiped by Pins and Needles.

Eventually, The Nicktoons head to Tlaloc's lair, The Dark Temple.

There, they find the summoned Jujus, including The Moon Juju, who was captured first via Tlaloc stealing the Moonstones like before, having their energy extracted.

Luckily, our heroes manage to free them and destroy the generators harnessing their energy.

And soon enough, they confront Tlaloc.

Tlaloc attacks with dark magic blasts, lightning bolts, summoning giant thorny tendrils, and casting spells that temporarily turn our heroes into animals.

After defeating him, Tlaloc flees through a portal.

With Jujus now freed and being able to return the rest of the Pupununu people back to normal, The Nicktoons decide to make The Four Nations their next stop in order to stop Zuko.

They arrive at The Southern Air Temple, where they run into Sokka, Momo and Appa.

Sokka reveals that Zuko's crew has kidnapped Katara and the three of them have trying to chase them down.

And with the knowledge of The Syndicate wanting to obtain earthbending to power their Doomsday Machine, our heroes decide to head to both Omashu and The Earth Kingdom Village to save the earthbenders there, namely Bumi and Haru.

Along the way, they find themselves fighting Syndicate-Bots that resemble Eastern dragons and Fire Nation soldiers.

And you would expect, Sokka serves as our ally for this world.

He fights with swings from his club and throws from his boomerang.

Along the way, they also fight against Zhao in Omashu.

He attacks with fiery blasts, fire circles and fire fists.

Unfortunately, the heroes end up too late both times as Zuko's crew manage to take all the earthbenders away.

But not all hope is lost, as while in The Earth Kingdom Village, they received a mysterious note revealing that Katara, Bumi, Haru and the rest of the earthbenders have been taken to The Fire Temple on Crescent Island.

(We would later find out that this note was sent by Iroh)

And so, our heroes head there to free the captives.

After freeing Katara and the earthbenders and destroying the generators, The Nicktoons finally confront Zuko.

Zuko fights with blazing rings, fire fists, fire knives, fire blades, fire streams, fire lashes, and fire walls.

After defeating him, Zuko flees through portal.

With Katara and the earthbenders now free, The Nicktoons head to The Bikini Bottom next to take on Plankton.

Upon arriving at Conch Street, they find the place completely deserted.

And soon enough, they find themselves surrounded by Syndicate-Bots resembling octopuses, eels and barracuda.

Luckily, Sandy comes to help them out.

Sandy fights with punches, kicks, karate chops and lasso grapples & throws.

After going through The Bikini Streets and rendezvousing at The Krusty Krab, Sandy reveals that Plankton has imprisoned the people of The Bikini Bottom, kidnapped Mr. Krabs and has been using jellyfish capturing harvesters to extract their electrical stinging power.

Luckily, she's been trying to take down the harvesters alongside a small resistance she's built.

Soon enough, she sends our heroes to Jellyfish Fields to destroy the harvesters and meet up with the two agents she sent.

Those agents being Patrick and Squidward (who was forced to accompany Patrick).

Unfortunately, the duo end up getting sucked up by one of the harvesters.

Aftering destroying the harvesters and going through Kelp Forest, our heroes find themselves in The Ship Graveyard, where they encounter The Flying Dutchman, who plans on making them his crew for all eternity.

Luckily, Danny persuades him to let them go in exchange for bringing back his old crewmates, which he accepts.

After retrieving all his crewmates, The Flying Dutchman let's our heroes go.

A short while later, they arrive at The Chum Bucket, where they free Patrick, Squidward and the jellyfish, and destroy the generators harnessing the jellyfishes' sting.

And soon enough, they confront Plankton on the roof on his restaurant.

Plankton attacks with a giant robotic crab, which performs swings with its claws, ground slams, and shoots powerful streams of water.

After defeating Plankton, he flees through a portal.

And so, after freeing Mr. Krabs, The Nicktoons head to Dimmsdale to stop Crocker.

Upon arriving there, they find out that Dimmsdale Elementary has been torn down and replaced with a golden fortress built by Crocker.

Soon enough, our heroes find themselves making their way through Crocker's Fortress in order to shut down the power, all while dealing Syndicate Bots resembling elves, pixies and Anti-Fairies.

Along the way, they also free some of the residents of Dimmsdale, who were enslaved by Crocker.

These include the likes of Mr and Mrs. Turner, Chester and AJ, and Trixie Tang.

After doing all that, the heroes finally decided to head to Fairy World to free the fairies and destroyed the generators harnessing their magic.

Along the way, they receive an ally in the form of Jorgen von Strangle.

He attacks with punches, kicks, ground slams and swings from his massive wand.

After that's all done, our heroes finally confront Crocker at The Big Wand.

Crocker attacks with a flying exosuit, which performs punches, flying charges, and magical energy blasts.

After defeating Crocker, he flees through a portal.

A short while later, The Nicktoons finally return back to Retroville.

Jimmy deduces that they need to go the base of The Syndicate and stop them once and for all.

Only problem: they have no clue where it is.

Also, they run into Cindy, who reveals that The Syndicate have also taken over Retroville.

However, their prayers would be answered when Jimmy discovers the Goddard has flea-bots on him, which he deduces that Calamitous had them placed on Goddard in order to spy on Jimmy, hench how he was able to know about the Universal Portal Machine.

And so, our heroes shrink themselves on got onto Goddard and find the main flea-bot.

After battling through swarms of flea-bots, they find the main flea-bot, defeat it, and uses it circuitry to locate Calamitous' lair.

Soon, our heroes make their way through the lair (fighting off all the Syndicate Bots they did before) and finally confront The Syndicate, who proceeded to activate the Doomsday Machine.

Their boss fight has the group constantly switch between member and shooting at The Nicktoons.

Each of the villains' respective dome have some kind of special projectile.

Calamitous shoots electricity, Plankton shoots water, Crocker shoots magical energy stars, Vlad shoots ecto-energy, Vexus shoots energy blasts, Tlaloc shoots dark magic, and Zuko shoots fire.

Luckily, the heroes manage to take down each of the domes' generators, taking down the domes and allowing them to defeat The Syndicate.

A short while later, The Nicktoons have turned Calamitous into the authorities and have trapped each of their respective villains.

Plankton's stuck in a pickle jar.

Crocker's trapped in a Hypercube.

Vlad's been stuffed into the Fenton Thermos.

Vexus has been deactivated and turned into pieces.

Tlaloc's been turned back into a sheep again.

And Zuko's been frozen solid.

And so, our heroes bid each other farewell and return to their respective worlds.

But not before Jimmy gives each of them a Neutronic Recaller, in case something like this happens again.

Playable Characters:

SpongeBob SquarePants:

-Light Attack: A triple karate chop.

-Heavy Attack: A roundhouse kick.

-Grab and Throw: An elastic grab and toss.

-Trip: A sweep kick.

-Stun: A double-handed smack.

-Pop-Up: A high kick.

-Aerial Attack: A drop kick.

-Block: Holding foam-gloved hands out in front.

-Dodge: A roll.

-Ground Slam: An upside-down head smash.

-Double Jump: No.

Special Attacks:

-Chops of Fury: Unleashes a flurry of karate chops onto enemies.

-Water Shoot: Soaks up water whenever they're standing in a body of it and shoots it out as a powerful stream.

-Bubble Bomb: Crafts a solid bubble and when thrown, explodes on impact.

-SpongeBall: Morphs into a ball and bounces all over the place, doing more damage with each drop.

-Jellyfish Swing: Swings a jellyfish net at enemies, trapping them in the process.

-Doodlebob Lure: Uses magical pencil to create Doodlebob, who attacks enemies on sight.

Boosts:

-Kar-Rah-Tay Fury: Taps into heart of karate, increase the damage done by his attacks.

-Bubble Barrier: Crafts bubble shields around himself and allies, decreasing damage taken.

Passive Skills:

-Spongy Skin: Increases all resistances, along with granting a natural increase in attack and defense.

-FUN Mastery: Increases damage and chances for criticals done by FUN attacks.

-Kar-Rah-Tay Master: Increases damage done and chances for criticals done by melee attacks.

-Sailor's Eye: Increases damage done and chances for criticals done by ranged attacks.

-Parachute Pants: Grants the ability to glide via inflated pants.

Super Attack:

-Wipe Out: Absorbs a massive amount of water, jumps into the air and performs a ground slam, unleashing water all over the place, washing enemies away.

Jimmy Neutron:

-Light Attack: A triple laser saber slash.

-Heavy Attack: A dashing laser saber slash.

-Grab and Throw: Goddard rushes in, grabs an enemy with his mouth and throws them.

-Trip: A sweep kick.

-Stun: An electric discharge sent by watch.

-Pop-Up: An upward laser saber slash.

-Aerial Attack: A downward laser saber stab.

-Block: Crafts an energy shield around himself.

-Dodge: A side-step.

-Ground Slam: A smash with the Neutronized Baseball Bat.

-Double Jump: No.

Special Attacks:

-Tornado Blaster: Uses a special gun that shoots a powerful whirlwind, sucking enemies up and throwing them into the air.

-Neutron Flare: Shoots a flare from a repulsor cannon that sets enemies ablaze.

-Quarterback Gear: Uses a football helmet to charge into enemies, knocking them down in the process.

-Hey Batta Batta!: Delivers a powerful swing with his Neutronized Baseball Bat.

-Shrink Ray: Uses Shrink Ray to shrink enemies down, lowering their defenses.

-Plant Attack: Sics the Girl-Eating Plant onto enemies.

-Brain Drain: Uses the Brain Drain 8000 to confuse enemies, lowering their defenses.

Boosts:

-Speed Up: Uses Speed Shoes to increase his movement and attack speed.

-Energy Barricade: Crafts energy shields for himself and the entire team, decreasing damage taken.

Passive Skills:

-Brain Boost: Increases all resistances, along with granting a natural increase in attack and defense.

-Tech Mastery: Increases damage and chances for criticals done by tech attacks.

-Laser Fighter: Increases damage done and chances for criticals done by melee attacks.

-Genius Sight: Increases damage done and chances for criticals done by ranged attacks.

-Jet Pack: Grants the ability to fly via Jet Pack.

Super Attack:

-Think Big: Uses the Shrink Ray to make himself giant, and proceeds to stomp all over the place.

Timmy Turner:

-Light Attack: A triple Cosmo Hammer swing.

-Heavy Attack: A Cosmo Hammer smash.

-Grab and Throw: Wanda turns into a giant hand, grabs an enemy and throws them.

-Trip: A sweep kick.

-Stun: An magical blast sent by Wanda.

-Pop-Up: An upward Cosmo Hammer swing.

-Aerial Attack: A downward Cosmo Hammer swing.

-Block: Crafts an magical shield around himself.

-Dodge: A side-step.

-Ground Slam: A smash with Cosmo Hammer.

-Double Jump: Yes.

Special Attacks:

-Star Flinger: Wanda turns into a special cannon that shoots magical energy stars.

-Freeze Wand: Uses a special wand that freezes enemies, bodies of water, and makes bridges.

-Magical Blast: Shoots a blast of magical energy from his eyes.

-Egg Bomb: Throws an Easter egg, exploding on impact.

-Magic Floss: Uses Magic Floss to lasso, swing around, and throw enemies.

-Magic Chucks: Cosmo and Wanda turn into a pair of nunchunks, which Timmy uses to unleashes a flurry of swings onto enemies.

-Pinata Smash: Has Cosmo and Wanda turn enemies into pinatas, with the possibility of containing goods.

Boosts:

-Cleft the Boy-Chin Wonder: Turns into his famous alter-ego, allowing him to attack enemies with punches, kicks and the Cleft-Arm.

-Crash Nebula: Changes into the costumes of one of his favorite heroes, allowing him to attack enemies with a laser gun and a laser cannon, along with granting the ability of flight.

Passive Skills:

-Godchild's Luck: Increases all resistances, along with granting a natural increase in attack and defense.

-Magic Mastery: Increases damage and chances for criticals done by magic attacks.

-Hammer Time: Increases damage done and chances for criticals done by melee attacks.

-Star Struck: Increases damage done and chances for criticals done by ranged attacks.

-Remedy: 40% chance that Timmy will have Cosmo and Wanda revive a fallen ally.

Super Attack:

-Balloon Bash: Has Cosmo and Wanda summon a whole bunch of balloons, which then explode all over the place.

Otto Rocket:

-Light Attack: A triple punch.

-Heavy Attack: A roundhouse kick with rollerblades.

-Grab and Throw: A simple pull and push.

-Trip: A sweep kick.

-Stun: A double-handed smack.

-Pop-Up: An upward hockey stick swing.

-Aerial Attack: A downward hockey stick swing.

-Block: Immediately puts on hockey gear and holds hands out in front.

-Dodge: A side-step.

-Ground Slam: A smash with hockey stick.

-Double Jump: Yes.

Special Attacks:

-Skate Strike: Performs a double-kick with his skateboard.

-Hockey Bash: Performs a straight of swings with hockey stick.

-Surf's Up: Rides on a surfboard, knocking down enemies in the process.

-Pucker Up: Launches hockey pucks at enemies.

-Snow Surf: Rides on a snowboard, freezing any enemies he hits.

-Alley Oop: Jumps into the air and spikes down a basketball at enemies below.

Boosts:

-Skate Speed: Rides on rollerblades to increase movement and attack speed.

-Safety Gear: Puts on skating gear, decreasing damage taken.

Passive Skills:

-Pro Skater: Increases chances of dodging attacks, along with granting a natural increase in attack and defense.

-Sports Mastery: Increases damage and chances for criticals done by sport attacks.

-Rocket Bash: Increases damage done and chances for criticals done by melee attacks.

-Eye Coordination: Increases damage done and chances for criticals done by ranged attacks.

Super Attack:

-Rocket Rush: Skates all over the place, ramming into and knocking down enemies.

Tommy Pickles:

-Light Attack: A triple screwdriver baton swing.

-Heavy Attack: A double-handed screwdriver baton wack.

-Grab and Throw: A simple pull and push.

-Trip: A sweep kick.

-Stun: A screwdriver baton smack.

-Pop-Up: An upward screwdriver baton swing.

-Aerial Attack: A downward screwdriver baton swing.

-Block: Pulls out a textbook and holds it out in front.

-Dodge: A side-step.

-Ground Slam: A smash with screwdriver baton.

-Double Jump: Yes.

Special Attacks:

-Baton Batter: Repeatedly swings his screwdriver baton at enemies.

-Blinding Shot: Uses camera to temporarily blind and stun enemies.

-Reptar Bike: Rides on a Reptar-themed bike and rams into enemies.

-Soda Shooter: Shoots enemies with a special water gun full of soda.

-Rope Whip: Whips enemies with a jump rope.

-Soda Bomb: Launches a shaken bottle of soda, which explodes upon impact.

Boosts:

-Reptar Rush: Rides around on Reptar Bike to increase movement and attack speed.

-Movie Director: Uses camera to film and distract enemies, lowering their defenses.

Passive Skills:

-Determination: Increases all resistances, along with granting a natural increase in attack and defense.

-Gadget Mastery: Increases damage and chances for criticals done by gadget attacks.

-Screwdrive: Increases damage done and chances for criticals done by melee attacks.

-Carbonated Crush: Increases damage done and chances for criticals done by ranged attacks.

Super Attack:

-Reptar Fire: Rides around the Reptar Bike while it breaths fire all over the place.

Jenny Wakeman:

-Light Attack: A triple punch.

-Heavy Attack: A roundhouse kick.

-Grab and Throw: An Extension Arms grab and toss.

-Trip: A sweep kick.

-Stun: A double-handed smack.

-Pop-Up: A high kick.

-Aerial Attack: A drop kick.

-Block: Holds out the Poppin' Shield.

-Dodge: A side-step.

-Ground Slam: An double-handed ground smash.

-Double Jump: No.

Special Attacks:

-Laser Blaster: Morphs arm into a blaster and shoots at enemies.

-Shiva Swords: Grows more four arms, places scimitars in each one, and rapidly slashes enemies.

-Fire Blaster: Shoots fire from a cannon via her arm, setting enemies ablaze.

-Ice Blaster: Shoots ice from a cannon via her arm, freezing enemies.

-Turbine Hair: Turns her pigtails into massive turbines, blowing enemies away.

-Thunder Fist: Morphs her hand into a giant flail and smashes enemies with it.

-Buzz Saws: Morphs hands into buzz saws and slashes enemies with it.

Boosts:

-Fists of Fury: Makes her fists much bigger and spikier, increasing attack damage.

-Rocket Blades: Morphs her feet into rocket-powered roller blades, increasing her attack speed.

Passive Skills:

-Adolescent Android: Increases all resistances, along with granting a natural increase in attack and defense.

-Weapons Mastery: Increases damage and chances for criticals done by weapon attacks.

-Titanium Tank: Increases damage done and chances for criticals done by melee attacks.

-Precise Aim: Increases damage done and chances for criticals done by ranged attacks.

-Mechanical Might: Grants the ability to lift and move heavy objects.

-Robotic Flight: Grants the ability to fly.

Super Attack:

-Heavy Artillery: Unleashes a barrage of lasers and missiles all over the place.

Danny Phantom:

-Light Attack: A triple punch.

-Heavy Attack: A roundhouse kick.

-Grab and Throw: An simple grab and throw.

-Trip: A sweep kick.

-Stun: A double-handed smack.

-Pop-Up: An uppercut.

-Aerial Attack: A drop kick.

-Block: Crafts an ecto-energy shield around himself.

-Dodge: A phasing side-step.

-Ground Slam: An double-handed ground smash.

-Double Jump: No.

Special Attacks:

-Ecto-Strike: Channels ecto-energy all over his body and delivers a flurry of punches and kicks, doing more damage with each one.

-Ghostly Ray: Blasts a ray of ectoplasmic energy.

-Creepy Charge: Delivers a flying headbutt at enemies, knocking them back.

-Fenton Thermos: Uses the Fenton Thermos to suck enemies up and spit them out.

-Overshadow: Takes over the body of any nearby enemy, gaining their abilities.

-Ecto-Ball: Throws a massive ball of ecto-energy, which explodes upon impact.

-Frightful Flames: Throws green fireballs at enemies, setting them ablaze.

Boosts:

-Disappear: Makes himself and allies invisible, increasing their defenses due to most enemies not being able to detect them.

-Phase Shift: Makes himself intangible, allowing him to go through walls.

Passive Skills:

-Halfa Physiology: Increases chances of dodging attacks, along with granting a natural increase in attack and defense.

-Ghost Mastery: Increases damage and chances for criticals done by ghost attacks.

-Phantom Pummel: Increases damage done and chances for criticals done by melee attacks.

-Ectoplasmic Eye: Increases damage done and chances for criticals done by ranged attacks.

-Paranormal Power: Grants the ability to lift and move heavy objects.

-Ghostly Flight: Grants the ability to fly.

Super Attack:

-Ghostly Wail: Unleashes powerful waves of ecto-energy via a scream.

Tak:

-Light Attack: A triple staff swing.

-Heavy Attack: A double-handed staff wack.

-Grab and Throw: A simple pull and push.

-Trip: A sweep kick.

-Stun: A magical discharge.

-Pop-Up: An upward staff swing.

-Aerial Attack: A downward staff swing.

-Block: Crafts a magical shield around himself.

-Dodge: A roll.

-Ground Slam: A smash with staff.

-Double Jump: No.

Special Attacks:

-Juju Blast: Shoots a beam of juju magic.

-Thunder Strike: Summons lightning to strike enemies.

-Juju Bolts: Shoots multiple beams of juju magic at enemies.

-Jaguar Claw: Summons a giant claw to strike enemies.

-Juju Slam: Jumps high into the air and comes back down, delivering a powerful shockwave of juju magic.

-Dragon Breath: Breaths fire, setting enemies ablaze.

-Piranha Swarm: Summons a swarm a magical piranhas to attack enemies.

Boosts:

-Crazy Feet: Uses juju magic to increase the attack and movement speed of himself and his allies.

-Restoration Spell: Uses juju magic to heal himself and allies.

Passive Skills:

-Pupununu Power: Increases all resistances, along with granting a natural increase in attack and defense.

-Juju Mastery: Increases damage and chances for criticals done by juju attacks.

-Staff of Dreams: Increases damage done and chances for criticals done by melee attacks.

-Juju Sight: Increases damage done and chances for criticals done by ranged attacks.

-Glider Cape: Grants the ability to glide via cape.

Super Attack:

-Juju Surge: Unleashes a massive shockwave of juju magic across the battlefield.

Avatar Aang:

-Light Attack: A triple staff swing.

-Heavy Attack: A double-handed staff wack.

-Grab and Throw: A simple pull and push.

-Trip: A sweep kick.

-Stun: A light gust of air.

-Pop-Up: An upward staff swing.

-Aerial Attack: A downward staff swing.

-Block: Crafts a windy barrier around himself.

-Dodge: A side-step.

-Ground Slam: A smash with staff.

-Double Jump: No.

Special Attacks:

-Air Ball: Hurls a powerful ball of air at enemies.

-Air Scooter: Rides on a ball of air, running down any enemies in his way.

-Air Blast: Sends a powerful gust of wind towards enemies.

-Air Cyclone: Creates a whirlwind that sucks up enemies and sends them flying.

-Water Whip: Whips enemies with a think stream of water.

-Ice Spear: Hurls a long icy shard.

-Water Wave: Rides on a wave, knocking down enemies.

Boosts:

-Air Shield: Crafts windy barriers around himself and allies, decreasing taken damage.

-Ice Shield: Crafts icy barriers around himself and allies, decreasing taken damage.

Passive Skills:

-Avatar Spirit: Increases chances of dodging attacks, along with granting a natural increase in attack and defense.

-Airbending Mastery: Increases damage and chances for criticals done by airbending attacks.

-Waterbending Mastery: Increases damage and chances for criticals done by waterbending attacks.

-Airbending Staff: Increases damage done and chances for criticals done by melee attacks.

-Air Aim: Increases damage done and chances for criticals done by ranged attacks.

-Glider Staff: Grants the ability to glide via staff.

Super Attack:

Avatar State: Goes into the Avatar State and unleashes massive amounts of wind and water all over the battlefield.

Well that was Nicktoons Unite: Rewritten!

I really had fun making this one.

Expanding the story and adding more characters and worlds to explore.

You can't tell me this doesn't sound this would be the coolest thing to check out in 2005!

Anyway, let me know what you guys think about it.

And if you could, and me some ideas for the sequels.

Note: Also, I really hope that @nicktoonsunite sees this! I would really like their feedback on this.

[nekohime19]

Macaque study # S3

Sooo Macaque in s2 showed us potential for redemption but again, potential remains wasted without action!

For now I like to think as Macaque evolution in LMK like this :

Macaque S1 : Full fledged villain with some obscured lore. 😈

Macaque S2 : villain but a bit nuanced and maybe a potential for more. 😡

We'll see how S3 handles this evolution and where Macaque is after it.

LMK season 3 is really the payoff of the two previous seasons. While still appearing episodic we actually delve into the main plot that has been brewing since LBD first appeared. Macaque, my main focus here, is also more present in the continuity of the season than in the previous ones. He appears more frequently and I think what is important is that each of his appearances gives us a new layer for his character.

S3 ep1

Macaque appears in the middle of the episode to attack the team while they're fleeing on the airship. He's actually the first person to attack them after the whole LBD fiasco and it's probably why the team, at first, thinks it's LBD that is attacking them. The colors are also very bluish and turn from dawn-like yellow colors to cold-night blue very quickly the second Macaque starts to attack. I think the predominance of the blue at the start of the attack can be a reminder of LBD and her overwhelming presence on both the team and Macaque himself.

The colors change to purple (Macaque's own colors) when Macaque leaves his airship and jumps on the team's airship. Perhaps because Macaque feels more in control at this very moment.

I think what is important in this scene is the banter between Wukong and Macaque which reveals exactly what makes the two monkeys tick and where they stand exactly. We know the two monkeys know how to hurt the other, so we have to see everything they say as a form of personal spite tailored to annoy the other. It's also very interesting how Macaque reacts and how he tries to be in control of the situation.

Also it's just funny how the whole team think LBD is attacking and then they hear :

Macaque : OOOOOH WUKONG!

And they're like : Oh nvm it's Macaque.

The first exchange goes like this :

Wukong : Oh that's a relief, I thought it was someone important.

Macaque : ah, always the comedian, huh. Hey, kiddo, you miss me?

We know Macaque struggles a lot with self-worth and abandonment, especially after analyzing the shadow play. Macaque felt like he was cast away by Wukong, left in the shadows. Wukong knows it, perhaps that's why his immediate answer to hurt Macaque (while still adopting a very laid-back attitude, Wukong tends to use jokes to diffuse and control the situation) is to joke about how Macaque is unimportant.

In response, Macaque calls Wukong a “comedian”, which I think is an insult of Wukong's jokester attitude and how he never takes anything seriously. It's highly probable that Macaque knows Wukong's coping mechanism considering they were very close in their youth, so the fact he still calls out Wukong on his not-so-healthy way of handling any stressful situations might be even more hurtful for Wukong. But Macaque changes the subject afterwards to MK. Perhaps because he doesn't want Wukong to elaborate on Macaque being unimportant or simply because he's focusing on the two targets set by LBD.

The second exchange :

Macaque : ooooh, looking a lil bit banged there Monkey King. The kid too. Looks like our old friend the Lady Bone Demon really did a number on you guys.

Wukong : So what, you're her puppet now? I mean, makes sense you did always have a sidekick kinda vibe.

Again, Macaque uses Wukong's title as some form of insult, the fact he's insisting on the title specifically while also calling out Wukong's injuries might just be a way to hurt Wukong pride as the Monkey King and rile him up. Qualifying LBD as “our old friend” is also very sarcastic. In a way he's calling out how LBD is Wukong's old enemy and so, in a sense, trying to hurt Wukong by guilting him.

In response, Wukong keeps tapping into Macaque's insecurity of being a “shadow” but this time he goes as far as to call him a “puppet” and even a “sidekick”. Macaque is visibly upset by this, he leaps out of his airship and crashes into Wukong to shut him up. But the second he had Wukong pinned on the airship he smiles again, as if trying to regain control of the situation, and resume the banter.

Macaque : eh, You know me. There is a new player in town just feeling out which one is the winning side.

This line will be very important in the later episodes of s3. While it might not seem like much right now, it's important to notice that Macaque doesn't include himself on LBD’s team. Instead he qualifies her as a “player” and justify his actions (him doing her bidding) by saying he's “feeling out the winning side”. This means Macaque hadn't decided which is the winning side yet and this is an important factor to take note of to understand what happens in the later episodes of the season.

Of course, Macaque strategy after jumping on the airship is to separate both MK and Wukong and put some distance between them. But it's interesting to notice that instead of taking them both directly in his airship, he takes the time to address his mission and to belittle them. Of course, I do think this line serves as exposition for the audience as for why Macaque is attacking the team, but I do think it's also a way for Macaque to assert his dominance and try to be in control.

Macaque : the two of you are such a mess, can't imagine why the LBD wants me to bring you back. Look at you, you're all used up.

In the previous seasons Macaque was rarely frowning, he did at some points but, at least when he was fighting, he always put on a fanged smile. But in the beginning of this season Macaque slips up a lot more, his face switches between frowns and smiles. It can be an indicator about how the stress he's put under by LBD is affecting him and makes him more nervous, making his mask of nonchalance crack a lot more. Someone did point out in the comment of my last study that Macaque in general smile to be more threatening and I wholeheartedly agree with this. Macaque “smile” is a way for him to mask how he truly feels and appear more intimidating. We can link this to monkey's behavior (macaques’ in particular) who hiss/smile each time they feel threatened to intimidate their opponents.

If we take this into account, him trying to belittle MK and Wukong and put them down might be a form of reassurance for him, it would explain why he's stalling here instead of directly bringing them to his airship and be done with it.

The last bit of the scene is also very interesting because it really shows Macaque's habit of using quips and belittlement as a way to be in control of the situation and to hide his discomfort.

When Mei attacks Macaque we can clearly see his nervousness despite his smile because of the sweat on his face :

And what does he do after this attack? Immediate sarcastic insults :

Macaque : ah you must be the dragon girl I hear so little about. Lil girl you can shoot me all you want it won't do you any good.

Macaque sarcastic quips and comments are a response to any threats around him. This will be shown many times in this particular season and I think it's very important to notice it. Because he will stop being so sarcastic and smiling so much in later seasons.

S3 ep2

Macaque's appearance in the second episode of the season is very brief and he only attacks Ao Guang. His only purpose here is to be the threat the team had to flee from, he doesn't show much. I was kinda surprised to see him use his shadow staff, one of the rare occasions he does, and I might think it's because he sees Ao Guang as a real threat.

Of course this apparition is meant to establish Macaque as a recurrent villain. He was not defeated after ep1. It put an expectation in the viewer mind that Macaque will reappear a lot afterward and he's not just a one episode villain.

[This is an apparté but Macaque doens't attack Ao Guang because he feel like it. I've seen this misconception of this scene a number of times and I would like to clarify that Macaque is under LBD order here. LBD issued her order before s3 ep1 and gave Macaque the compass to track down MK and Wukong. Here, Macaque objective is to bring back MK and Wukong to LBD. Ao Guang knows Macaque is on the enemy side, and MK and Wukong are leaving. So of course Macaque is not going to pretend and try to befriend Ao Guang. He has to act fast to catch the escaping team. He doesn't have the time to be buddy-buddy with Ao Guang. My guys, Macaque doesn't attack random city in his free time bc he feels like it 😅. Also, I think people greatly exagerate the scene, blowing it out of proportions. Macaque is attacking Ao Guang specifically, he's not doing a full blown genocide inside of the city. Come on, respectfully but also with a grain of salt, did we watch the same show? Or did a more bloody version of LMK exists somewhere and I wasn't aware of it?]

What I think is an interesting detail and something we see a lot in this particular season is the way Macaque's eyes gleams :

He never truly did this in the previous seasons while it happens a lot in this particular one. The only difference between Macaque this season and the previous seasons is the stress he's put under because of LBD. Makes you wonder if Macaque mental stability influences his powers (either it emphasizes them or takes a hold over him). It could also be simply a way for Macaque to appear more threatening and hide the pressures he's putting under.

In any case, LMK doesn't really have a defined magic system so the intricacies of how spells and magic work are a bit lost on us. Macaque's powers however are the most mysterious out of all the cast's because it does not stem from JTTW. I'll come back to that in season 5 because a bit more is revealed about Macaque's powers in it.

S3 ep4

In this episode Macaque appears two times, once at the very beginning and another just after the first half. The episode immediately focuses on Macaque, with the first minutes being of him alone in the desert with the wreckage of his airship, so we can easily assume this takes place right after he was ejected from the team's airship in the first episode of the season.

We can also already tell this episode will focus a lot on Macaque based on the title, “winning side”, which is a call back to Macaque words in episode 1. So we know this episode will be pivotal in our view of Macaque in this season.

It's actually the first time that we see Macaque when he's alone and with no one watching him, all his previous appearances were of him interacting with different people or simply fighting those people. And the first thing we notice in those few minutes of Macaque being alone and how he acts when alone is that he's not smiling, quite the contrary in fact he looks weary and very angry. When he looks at his reflection in the compass (which we don't even know what is yet at this point) it's the angriest expression we ever saw on his face, with his eyebrows twitching and his screams echoing in the background as he's reminded of a memory.

These brief minutes really prove everything we already established at the beginning of this study : Macaque nonchalant, almost sadistic attitude at times, is a show he puts on to appear more intimidating. Same can be said with his fanged smile. It's a way for him to regain control of stressful situations. Proof is, none of them appear when he's alone and thus not feeling threatened.

Sorry to disappoint but if you thought Macaque was a sadist who enjoyed hurting people, you were fooled by his act.

So just after this scene we dive into a memory of Macaque. Presumably the memory takes place just after LBD took over the city and the team escaped on their airship. Since Macaque appears on top of LBD's mech, which was created in season 2 ep 10, and the staff is within her grasp, I think it's a fair assumption.

Macaque's immediate reaction is to : first try to attack the not-mayor (the one who pushed him at LBD's feet via a portal, but the portal closes) then to notice the staff and immediately put on his usual smile :

Macaque : the staff, the city… You've been busy.

The fact the not-mayor had to bring Macaque already tells you Macaque is not very loyal to LBD to begin with, which is the continuation of what we saw in season 2 ep7 where the not-mayor strangled Macaque, a physical act of violence who tells you everything about the relationship beforehand.

The confrontation that follows between LBD and Macaque is the confirmation of all the assumptions we gathered. We even have a neat lil exposition about where Macaque stands in all this when LBD reminds him of his story and why he should be loyal to her.

It's interesting to see that Macaque tries his usual method of controlling the situation (quips, nonchalant attitude, fanged smiles) the way he does with MK and Wukong, but contrary to them LBD is not falling for it and doesn't let him take one breather.

LBD is also floating above him, which is already a physical representation of their relationship, they're not equals.

LBD : Tell me, what madness overcomes you that you would forsake your oath? When did you decide to betray me?

Macaque (trying to be nonchalant) : Listen Lady Bone De-

LBD : Have you forgotten who I am? What I am? I, who returned you to the mortal plane all in exchange for such a little favor that when the time came you would free me, aid in my pursuit, but no, with the first breath of a new life you rebelled against your claims.

The second Macaque tried to hide behind his mask of nonchalance LBD cuts him and reminds him of : 1 a very traumatic experience for him, 2 what she's capable of, 3 the fact he betrayed her and thus she has the right (in her mind) to punish him. I think the sentence “What I am” is probably the most threatening thing she could have said at this moment because it paints her in a very dehumanizing, almost monstrous, way, the use of “what” generally reserved for objects or creatures in this specific context. She doesn't even let him speak nor let him diffuse the situation, she cuts right to the facts to make Macaque uncomfortable, to make him submit to her. It's interesting to see how LBD talks and shifts the blame entirely on Macaque without any speck of empathy for his situation at the time. She uses the adjective “little” to qualify her favor as if to say what she demanded of Macaque wasn't much to begin with and that it was the least he could do after what she did for him. And then she uses the phrasing “rebelling against your claims” to put the blame entirely on Macaque, and how he's disloyal (even if I don't think their deal was fair to begin with. Macaque was in hell, dead, we don't know his mental state when LBD approached him but I warrant it wasn't good and he could have agreed to anything at this point). LBD makes herself the savior and victim in this scenario, the imagery when she evokes how she returned Macaque to the mortal plane paints her as a savior, she basks in white and floats above him while he kneels before her, his chains fading away, I think it's very telling of how she view her relationship with Macaque.

Macaque : You want something?

LBD : I have one more chance for redemption. Bring me the Monkey King and his protégée and perhaps you will be worthy of my mercy.

Macaque : Convenient, alrighty then, seems like they've got a bit of headway so-

The use of “redemption” in LBD speech is once again a way to justify her actions and puts the blame on Macaque, she also paints herself as merciful by letting him go. I think it's very ironic to talk about redemption at this moment with Macaque considering what will happen after and what Macaque true redemption will be like. For LBD, Macaque's redemption is for him to obey her orders and not fail, whereas for MK, Macaque's redemption is to give him the choice by reaching out to him and giving his hand. “Being worthy of mercy” is also such a weird phrasing, normally speaking mercy is something you grant to people you have the power to harm, it's a form of leniency, there is no concept of “worthiness” in it. What LBD offers is not mercy, really.

And then the moments Macaque tried to put on his mask of nonchalance again with the use of funny terms like “alrighty” LBD cut him, again, chains him and threatens him :

Macaque : What is this!?

LBD : a reminder. It seems you cannot be trusted to willingly follow the path of destiny. But know this, if you betray me again, one misstep, one mistake, and I'll erase the very memory of you. Now bring them to me, my champion.

The threat at this point is even more menacing than a simple death threat, especially for Macaque which had already been “forgotten”once by Wukong and, likely, is afraid of being again. LBD ends her speech with a mark of ownership on Macaque with the phrasing “my champion” which really tells you everything about how she treats Macaque, he's an object to her, a possession.

It's, I think, very ironical that in LBD first speech she paints herself as the savior that wiped away Macaque's chains (the image is literally of her breaking those chains) BUT she still puts different chains on Macaque, she didn't free him at all, she broke his chains to recreate them afterwards. And we can see that Macaque is not at all fooled by her hypocritical view of herself and that's perhaps why he casted away the skeleton key when LBD gave it to him.

There is an impossibility of speech between LBD and Macaque, she doesn't let him speak and keeps cutting him over and over again. It's very interesting to notice it because it is a perfect reflection of how LBD controls Macaque : she controls him through violence. Cutting someone so hard each time they try to speak is, in a sense, a form of verbal violence. And LBD is constantly trying to dominate Macaque through violence : When the not-mayor comes to Macaque in season 2 he strangles him, here LBD cuts him everytime he tries to speak, he's put in chains at the end of the scene and the not-mayor pushes his head on the ground while LBD floats above. She forces his loyalty through fear and violence, and that's why it'll never be genuine.

Their relationship is defined by violence. LBD does not view herself as Macaque boss, she view herself as his master. If you want to understand Macaque as a character, you have to talk about this violence. Because, while yes, Macaque will be violent in this season, the most he ever was, and we DO NOT brush his actions aside and coddle him (he's older than all of us I think he doens't need coddling), we have to understand why he's doing it. Now, if the reason why he's doing all this doesn't sway you, and you still think he's irredeemable, then I guess that's your opinion and we have very different views. But, in my case, I think context matters. Because the context tells us about Macaque's character. If you take this violence out when you try to talk about Macaque and specifically what he did in season 3 (I'm not talking about the other seasons) then you're leaving key elements out of your analysis, thus painting Macaque in a wrong sadistic light. Leaving the matter of redemption aside, to understand what drive Macaque this season and the reason behind his actions, we need to take his relationship with LBD seriously, it's the core of everything in S3. You can't talk about Macaque in S3 without talking about LBD. So is Macaque just a sadist who likes to hurt people, or is he trying to survive?

After this scene Macaque reappears in the other half of the episode. He creates a copy of the van to isolate one half of the team and thus have more chances of success in capturing MK. One thing which I think is a cool detail is that Macaque modus operandi is always about tricking and putting on a performance, a show. In season 1, Macaque staged the whole attack on the city with his shadow monster. In season 2, he makes himself appear as a human storyteller and here he's staging yet another performance by tricking half of the team with a perfect copy of their own van.

It shows how Macaque is a highly cautious individual who rarely if ever rush into situations, especially into fights. Maybe that's one of the reasons why he's feeling even more pressured by LBD, he's on a time race because of her and thus has less and less time to put on performances.

Another detail which I think is important to notice is MK's frustration just before the “copied van” scene. MK tries hard to get his powers back but nothing seems to work and he's frustrated about it. He even qualified the only power he got back, gold vision, as a “baby power”. Macaque, once he appears, will directly challenge MK about this struggle.

Of course, the first thing that Macaque does is to seperates Mei and Sandy from MK, once again Macaque is cautious enough to not fight the three of them at the same time if he has the choice to not to. It's also incredibly funny that he imitates Mo's moews to lure Sandy away, it does show he has been observing the team very closely to know their behaviors. For Sandy Macaque's uses Mo, but for Mei he knows she'll never leave MK's side so he uses a more direct approach by separating her physically without even trying to lure her like he did with Sandy.

Once MK is alone Macaque traps him and ties him up with his shadows. I think the dialogue here is very important, especially between MK and Macaque because it does reveal a lot about Macaque himself and where he stands now.

Macaque : You really think you're gonna get away from me, bud? Aw, forget you lost your powers? Careful, you might hurt yourself!

On top of appearing particularly threatening he dug right into MK's insecurities that were exposed the scene before which is his lack of powers. It does make you wonder if he listened to MK raging about the loss of his power. In any case, he's clearly trying to provoke MK here.

MK : What do you-

Macaque : want? What are you doing? Come on kiddo, do I have to explain everything? I'm handing you over, to the lady Bone Demon.

Once again, Macaque is taunting and mocking MK, going as far as to have one of his shadows take MK appearances and imitate his voice with a very ridiculous high-pitch. Contrary to Wukong, MK doesn't answer any jabs with one of his own and remains level headed. Macaque in this episode is really laying on thick with the mocking and the taunting. While he was like that in previous episodes, it was more directed at Wukong specifically, but even then Macaque jabs were more subtle. Here, he's purposefully riling up MK as much as he can.

Macaque : Come on! Fight back. Maybe I'm not giving you the right motivation. Should I bring your big blue friend in here and smack him around? What about the girl? Gold vision? Really? Enough of these baby powers.

MK : stop talking!

Macaque : That's more like it!

In this sequence Macaque is at his zenith in terms of threatening. His eyes glows violet, he's smiling as he fight, appearing almost like a sadist. It creates very daunting shots. He also directly makes threats to MK about the one thing Macaque knows MK values more than himself : his friends. We also have the confirmation that Macaque had indeed been listening to MK at the beginning of the episode because he uses the exact same phrasing MK used to describe gold vision which is “baby powers”. But this doesn't make sense. Macaque's goal here is to bring back MK to LBD so why is he trying so hard to rile up MK and make him fight back? Why is he making himself so threatening compared to his other appearances? While it's true that Macaque had always been one to rile up people, especially Wukong, we already established most of his sarcastic quips are a response to any perceived threats around him and a way for him to regain control of the situation. But here Macaque is already in control, he doesn't have to use those quips and insults. Moreover, we established that Macaque is a highly cautious individual by analyzing his modus operandi when it came to fighting, so why is he taking the risk to anger MK?

Macaque clearly has a hidden agenda here.

I also think it's really cool how there is a parallel between MK and Wukong with this shot :

Yet MK is so different from Wukong in the way he responds to Macaque taunts, he never insults back.

MK : Why are you helping her? LBD? Look I get you're a bad guy but you know she wants to destroy everything, right?

Macaque : yeah see I had a taste of dying and you know what not a big fan so I'm choosing to be on the winning side.

MK : She's using you. We have a plan, you could help, we could stop her together.

Macaque : You can't even stop me. Now first I deliver you, then I come back for your hazbin master and finally I'll repay my debt and be free of this nightmare. Anyway I assume you won't’ be coming quietly sooo-

Okay, a lot to unpack here.

First, MK, while still acknowledging that Macaque is a villain, tries to reason with him. And while it's in character for MK to do that, I do also think MK does it because he knows Macaque can be reasoned with and that he's a more confusing individual than a mere one-dimensional villain (as he learned in season 2).

Second, the fact Macaque talks about his death to justify him “being on the winning side” is a clear indication of the drive that pushes Macaque this season : survival. It's not about powers, it's not about tormenting, Macaque this season is about survival. It was established in the scene with LBD and it's confirmed here by Macaque himself through his words. It's important for the audience to know this because it changes everything about how we perceive Macaque from now on in this season. Macaque wants to live, especially after knowing what death feels like, which means that on top of not following LBD willingly, he's also running along to assure his survival. The use of “being free of this nightmare” really drives the point about how Macaque views the situation he's in. It's a nightmare, he doesn't enjoy it one bit which we cannot really fault him for after what we saw at the beginning of the episode and how LBD treats him. It's important for the redemption processus, while it's true you cannot erase your actions, the motives behind the actions are still very important, it's not for nothing that extenuating circumstances exist in court.

Third, Macaque responding to MK by saying “You can't even stop me” is a great indicator about how Macaque currently feels. Right now, with MK powers being gone, LBD is unfortunately the “winning side” for Macaque.

Macaque : What a hero ! Two friends about to be crushed and you do nothing?

MK : Let them go, you can take me I don't care. Just let them go.

Macaque : Or what? You aren't the monkie kid anymore. Your powers are gone, your staff are gone, you're nothing.

MK : No, I'm the monkie kid.

Macaque : What was that now? I couldn't quite hear you!

This exchange right now really is the last push you need to understand Macaque's agenda better. In this moment Macaque could have everything he wanted, MK was literally serving himself on a silver plate yet Macaque still refused and instead kept taunting him with the one thing he knows MK will get angry about (as he learned in season 2) : his friends. Furthermore, the “I couldn't quite hear you!” is clearly a lie for someone called the Six-eared Macaque, we also learn later in the same season that Macaque has sensitive hearing, clearly Macaque could hear MK perfectly.

Macaque : he still has powers. Good. Things got a lot more interesting.

And that's Macaque's hidden agenda. He wants MK to have his powers, he wants the scale between LBD and MK to be more balanced. Because Macaque's agenda all along was choosing the “winning side”, Macaque goal for this season is survival. Since the beginning of the season, in episode 1, Macaque was already talking about the winning side, moreover the very title of this episode is “winning side”. Macaque is playing a two-faced game here. What I think might confuse the audience in this episode is the dichotomy between imagery and dialogue. Macaque is extra threatening here, every shot of him is taken out of a horror movie, he looks like a full-blown sadist and even goes as far as to hurt MK's friends physically. So when you see a Macaque being this menacing you do think he's in full-blown villain mode. Yet when you take a closer look at his actions and at his words you realize that he's playing a far more subtle game in this war. And after seeing how he's treated by LBD you understand why he's playing this two-faced game. LBD is not a stable ally. Her sense of justice is skewed by her perspective and even her definition of mercy is wrong. She thinks she's in the right and that makes her dangerous, because that makes her impossible to be reasoned with. Macaque knows this, he saw it first hand, so he needs to widen his options without expressly angering LBD.

Also, with the first scene of the episode, I think it's fair to assume that Macaque is pushed by a sense of desperation. He doesn't have the time to sugarcoat what he's doing, he needs MK to step up and regain his powers, and if for this he has to go an extra mile he will.

Because he wants to survive this.

Also, MK going for Macaque blinded eye to defeat him was a nice detail, especially since we can heavily speculate that Wukong was the one responsible for this injury. Everytime MK fights with Macaque, the way MK's moves and throws his punches is very reminiscent of Wukong, which is very natural considering MK is Wukong's mentee, so of course he'll pick up Wukong's habits when it comes to fighting . Yet you know MK is different, especially in this episode where instead of responding to Macaque's insults the way Wukong did in the first episode, he instead tries to reach out to him. MK could have been salty about what happened in season 1 (we know the betrayal hurts greatly based on what he says in season 4, about how everyone betrays him and he feels like a fool) yet unlike Wukong he doesn't respond to the quips.

This episode is really important in the redemption processus, it shows that Macaque agenda is different from LBD's and as such he's not really on her side, the only side Macaque is on is the “winning side”. It also shows the very unbalanced, almost slave/master relationship that LBD and Macaque has which will greatly help to understand Macaque's decision at the end of the season.

Macaque this season is running a survival game and he's trying to get all the chances on his side.

S3 ep8

Macaque doesn't reappear after this until the end of the season. The middle of the season is more focused on the samadhi fire and the different rings. Story-wise, it's necessary to involve Macaque with the rings one way or another for the progression of the plot, if the team managed to get all the rings without any difficulty on Macaque's parts it would have been quite odd. If we take into account the locations of the other two rings (DBK forteresse and the moon) which were two very difficult locations for Macaque to even enter, having him appear at Lantern City was really inevitable.

So Macaque first appears when the team are discussing the rings and what to do about the talent show. This serve as an exposition for Macaque to learn about the samadhi fire and the team's plan but it also highlights a few interesting thing :

Macaque is really tailing the team. In this particular scene he's hiding in the ceiling and eavesdropps on them and it's not the first time he does this (we established he eavesdropped on MK when he repeated MK exact phrasing “baby power” in ep4). On one hand it shows his cautiousness, but on another hand it means Macaque doesn't attack the team at every chance he gets. He could have attacked when Wukong was still meditating or when the team was sleeping, yet he never did. Once again because his goals does not align fully with LBD.

Macaque : the samadhi fire, huh. So that's how you're gonna beat the Lady Bone Demon.

Just after this line Macaque hears LBD threats echoing in his ears : “one misstep, one failure and I'll erase the very memory of you.” and mumbles “We'll see about that” with a very threatening shot. I'll like to point out that this shot is the very similar to the one used in ep 2 when Macaque is attacking Ao Guang :

So clearly it's a face that means he's going to take action. The fact he says “we'll see about that” just after being reminded of LBD threats is a way to indicate he's challenging LBD right now. He knows LBD can be destroyed by the samadhi fire and that gives him an outlet, a hope he didn't have before.

So, yes, right now Macaque decides to betray LBD. For the rest of the episode he will act for his own agenda and not on LBD's orders. Which is I think very important to point out, because if Macaque already betrays LBD this early on in the shows it means that, if given the chance, he would be willing to go against her.

He's willing to go against her.

So Macaque follows Tang until they arrive inside of the giant lantern where the ring resides.

And once again Macaque will first try to belittle Tang to assert his dominance but also perhaps to make him agree with his viewpoint and makes this easier for him :

Macaque : have more guts than I thought. It's… Tang, right? You know it's funny, I thought you're smart, I mean look at the guy he got glasses. If anyone knows where the legendary samadhi fire is, it's the guy sitting in the wing while his friends are busy having fun without him.

So first Macaque tries to adopt a more friendly approach. He's not following LBD's orders right now and he doesn't necessarily want to fight with Tang either. He tries to appear friendly by first praising Tang about his guts (which I think is very well-though considering Tang could be seen as the more cowardly of the bunch, thus by acknowledging his “guts” Macaque gives Tang a sense of validation he doesn't often hear). Then he validates and acknowledges him by saying his name and after this he praises another trait of Tang which is his intelligence. Macaque insists on the legendary nature of the samadhi fire to give a sense of pride to Tang (as if the samadhi fire was an incredibly difficult artifact to find) and he ends his lil speech by trying to create a wedge between Tang and the team.

When he sees that his speech didn't have any effect on Tang and, on the contrary, Tang pushes Macaque away, Macaque immediately adopts a more drastic method by kicking Tang away from the ring.

I think it's telling how Macaque approaches situations such as those. His first and foremost method is always tricking. It's not violence but manipulation, trying to make the other agree to his views and resolve the situation efficiently without having to fight, because fighting can be way more unpredictable than manipulation.

After Macaque kicks Tang away, we got this exchange :

Tang : Stop, the samadhi fire is humanity's last chance.

Macaque : Well humanity is gonna have to find something else. The samadhi fire is my best chance to get as far away from her as possible.

Tang : Surely even you can see that unless we stand together..

Macaque : together? Remind me again exactly what it is you contribute to the team? They seem to get along just fine without you. Don't take it personally Tang, you're buddy Wukong values people by how useful they are to him. Take it from me as an expert in what happens when you get too close to the King. Look out for number one, cause if you don't, no one will.

Here, Macaque is not even hiding what he's trying to do anymore. Like I said beforehand his goal in this season is his own survival. He doesn't even want to use the samadhi fire to fight LBD but to escape her. Which I think speaks volumes of Macaque's character, despite hating LBD he doesn't think of hurting her, he's thinking of escaping her, because escaping is less dangerous than fighting and Macaque is a very cautious individual when it comes to those matters.

With that being said, I think Macaque's behavior concerning Wukong spoke volumes of how much Wukong really means to Macaque. The only time Macaque is not as cautious as usual is when he's faced with something related to Wukong. In season 1, he goes above and beyond to angers Wukong and fights with him, going as far as using his mentee. For an individual as cautious as Macaque, angering someone like Wukong, the Great Sage Equal to Heaven, is not very in character. Except that Macaque cautiousness goes out of the window when it concerns Wukong, his logical side is being flooded by his own feelings and he loses sight of anything else. In season 2, MK showcasing the same behavior as Wukong is enough for Macaque to take a very impulsive decision and improvise his whole lesson.

Macaque is logical in everything he does, cautious with every plan, every attack, except when it concerns Wukong. Because in this case, his feelings take over.

Macaque's last line : “together? Remind me again exactly what it is you contribute to the team? They seem to get along just fine without you. Don't take it personally Tang, your buddy Wukong values people by how useful they are to him. Take it from me as an expert in what happens when you get too close to the King. Look out for number one, cause if you don't, no one will.” is very telling about his feelings. First, reminding Tang of his place in the team (or lack thereof) can be seen as him unconsciously relating to Tang, or at least relating to the image of Tang he got in this episode. Tang is benched, “benched” being the title of the episode, and that can remind Macaque of how Wukong also “benched” him in their youth. Then, because of course he did, Macaque keeps going back to Wukong even if Wukong didn't have anything to do with Tang being benched in this episode, it's MK who benched Tang. So not only does it tell that Macaque is not really talking about Tang at this moment but himself, it also shows that at least 70% of Macaque's brain is plagued by thoughts of Wukong (and again 70 is a generous number). Macaque is obviously feeling salty about what happened with Wukong. But beyond that he seems to have a very skewed image of Wukong he created after what happened between them.

We can say that this scene is one of the rare moments of Macaque being genuine, he doesn't smile nor try to be sarcastic, he's genuinely speaking how he feels. He paints Wukong as this cruel person that puts value on people and doesn't care about companionship. He takes his experience with Wukong and tries to justify Wukong’s behavior by saying that Wukong never cared about him. The use of “King” is at the same time meant as an insult but also paints Wukong as this power-driven person who only cared about his position. Macaque constructs an image of Wukong based on everything he lived through and fuels his own hatred with this fake image. Macaque knows Wukong is not like that, he lived with the guy, he knows him, yet he tries to lie to himself, to justify his own hurting and shift the blame entirely on Wukong.

Of course, Tang doesn't agree with this and goes on about the importance of friendship. I think it's a nice detail that Tang defeats Macaque with the help of Pigsy’s singing because it truly does illustrate Tang's speech about standing together with his friends, and winning together.

Moreover, the fact that Macaque was affected by Pigsy's singing is a great callback to his JTTW counterpart. The Six-eared Macaque is canonically described in JTTW as a being with a “sensitive ear”. Having Macaque share the same sensitivity is a nice character trait.

So after this, Tang manages to get a grip on the ring and flee while Macaque is electrocuted by the lantern lighting.

And then, LBD arrives.

Immediately, all lights within the city goes out and everything is plunged in an eerie dark blue.

She knows how to make her entrance.

What is interesting is that contrary to the other interaction between Macaque and LBD, this time Macaque is not even trying to appear intimidating or control the situation. There are no quips, no smiles, no attempts of diffusing the situation, because based on their last interactions he knows it's useless. Macaque is scared and he knows his attempts at being intimidating leads to nothing, so when she chains him, ready to quite literally erase his existence, the only thing he can do is reveal the existence of the samadhi fire.

The situation is even more terrifying because LBD is not even in the frame when she chains Macaque, she gives the illusion of being everywhere and nowhere at the same time.

Then LBD gives a fraction of her power to Macaque (which literally makes him scream in pain) and we are left with this last daunting shot (image 2), with Macaque mask passing purple to blue. I like to think that the last shot is a parallel to the third image, where Macaque decided to betray LBD and work for his own goal. The fact that we get more or less the same close up with Macaque’s mask really emphasizes on how Macaque now doesn't have any choices anymore.

The third image is Macaque being determined to follow his own agenda and betray LBD, and the second image is Macaque being caught up by LBD with no choices anymore.

He's at the end of this two-faced game he has tried to play since the beginning.

S3 ep9

First with the title of the episode being the “King, the prince, the shadow” you know it's going to be about Wukong, MK and Macaque.

After the end of the previous episode Macaque is desperate and it shows. For the first time, he doesn't answer Wukong quips even when they're still tailored to pick at his insecurities.

Wukong : So you got bone demon powers now, huh ? Well it is on brand for you to have a worst version of everyone else’s powers.

This quip is made to pick at the same insecurity :Macaque feeling like he's just a shadow, that he's just following Wukong's leads and that he will never be enough. But Macaque doesn't answer, he doesn't even look at Wukong. Instead he takes the rings from Nezha and turns around. Wukong tries again to rile him up but it doesn't work. The fact that Macaque who until now always took the time to answer Wukong's quips doesn't even take the time here speaks volumes of his desperation.

Then Macaque easily sees through Wukong trick and destroys the rings, who turn out to be just hair. The fact Nezha wasn't able to tell the difference and rushed after Wukong but Macaque recognized Wukong's trick at first glance testify how much Macaque knows Wukong and how his mind works.

Macaque : I couldn't care less about what the Lady Bone Demon wants.

This line is important, because after the end of the previous episode you'll think that Macaque will never rebel against LBD, yet again he's not following her orders, he's still on the mindset of taking the samadhi fire and freeing himself from LBD hold. But now more than ever he's out of time, he's driven by despair.

And then we get this shot as Macaque slowly walks towards the mountain (after realizing the rings are with MK) :

I love this shot because despite Wukong being the one physically trapped in the ice, Macaque is also shown to be trapped in it. His reflection is like enclosed in the ice, showing how even if he's free of movements, in reality he's also trapped by the ice, by LBD, enchained by her.

Macaque's next actions are all driven by despair, he's violent, decisive, he wants the samadhi fire and will not take no as an answer. Yet still he tries to talk, still he tries to convince the others. This shows he doesn't like to hurt people, he doesn't want to hurt them, but he doesn't have the luxury to sugarcoat what he's doing. He needs the fire.

Here are some example of Macaque trying to avoid confrontations :

Macaque : Don't get in my way, kid. I don't have time for you. I'm just here for the samadhi fire then I'm done with you all.

And then when MK does get in his way he grabs him and tries to make him understand how much Wukong doesn't have a plan, how much of a mistake it is to trust him.

Macaque : This was the Monkey King's great plan? How do you still not see that he has no idea what he's doing. How about this for a plan? Stay down MK or I will put you down.

The scene is violent, and Macaque is probably upset that those people trust Wukong so much and are willing to follow his lead without questions (perhaps he sees himself in them, how much he followed Wukong without never denying him anything, how he never questioned his lead).

[This is an apparté but people always put a lot of pressure on Wukong for being the one to fix things, for being the one to lead. And I don't think it's fair.]

After this Macaque catches Mei by the throat and poses an ultimatum to Tang (who is the only one able to move and activate the fire) : give the samadhi fire or Macaque will hurt his friends. Macaque knows Tang values his friends a lot after the previous episode and that's probably why he goes with this particular method.

S3 ep10

So the samadhi fire is freed and Macaque finally achieves his goal. We can see how the ice that was slowly crawling over Macaque arms and consuming more and more of him (a symbol of how much LBD was slowly possessing Macaque) is burnt away along with blue chains, the symbols of LBD hold on Macaque.

Macaque is free!

And Macaque first reaction when Wukong rushes towards him in anger is to flee, even if he hates Wukong, he doesn't want to fight right now, his goal is to flee far away from here. I like the detail that Macaque already prepares himself from Wukong's punch and turns his head the moment Wukong raises his fist. It could be an instinctual response to Wukong's fighting stance considering Macaque was at the receiving end of it quite a number of times.

Then, after Mei is consumed by the fire, we got a particularly meaningful exchange between MK and Macaque, while Wukong tries to protect MK from the fire by placing himself at the front.

Macaque : she's completely out of control. If there is a time to go it's now!

MK : No! Mei is my best friend, I'd never abandon her when she needs me.

The fact that the camera focuses on Wukong when MK says those words and that Wukong himself looks back at Macaque with what could only be described as a pained look (most likely of regret)... It's the first time in the whole series that Wukong shows Macaque something other than spite and annoyance, and in turns Macaque looks shocked and doesn't even know what to think of those words.

They both are thinking of what happened to them at this moment. Of how, somehow, they both failed each other and abandoned the other at their time of needs. And there is a lingering regret between them of what could have been, but also of what is right now. It's important to show us this as an audience, to understand the depth of their relationship and how, despite the apparent hatred, there is still something underneath.

MK : We're heroes, it's what we do.

That, I think, is the nail in the coffin. Macaque spends a whole episode in season 2 telling MK how much heroes leave their friends behind, how much heroes chose the world over their own loved ones, how light inevitably brings darkness and that it is impossible for heroes to save both the world and their friends. And MK, here, is proving Macaque wrong. He's redefining everything that Macaque believed about heroes, everything he thought was true because of his own experience with Wukong.

But Macaque still chose to flee at the end of this, and we really cannot blame him, because from the start his goal was surviving, it was to flee far away from this mess.

Yet he comes back later on in the specials and that's something. For the guy who said “Look out for number one, cause if you don't, no one will” to come back even after being freed, even after achieving his goals, that says something about Macaque as a person and how much he really cares.

So, this post is already quite long and I reached the Tumblr limits on how many images I can put in one post (and I do want to show you guys particular frames and shots in the specials) so I will do a separate post for the season 3 specials!

Thanks for reading this very long rant of mine really, like always you can disagree with me it's really all about interpretations.

S1 / Previous / Next

[emmyrosee]

are u down 4 sum lil angst?? well, i'm just curious how would it be being the famous star volleyball player, Sakusa Kiyoomi's TOTGA?

YOU HAD N O RIGHT MATE

ok so fun emmy history, back when I was a wee child and before the miya twins were even a thing, i wrote a self insert that I’m still weirdly proud of today so congratulations, you scratched that memory HHEISBSOSN-

Hey! Future Emmy here. so... major tw; kiyoomi is very mean, extremely toxic, and i for sure went overboard, but there's a lot of blaming and yelling and just. ugh. this piece hurt my own heart smh.

-

But listen. You slipped into Sakusa Kiyoomi’s life surprisingly. He wasn’t expecting you or even just to date at all, you were just at the right places in the right times where he finally felt at ease in your presence. You just understood who he was beyond surface level, and he’d never had that in someone before.

You loved him before he was cool, before he was anyone other than a top ace in Japan. You were the first to tell him it was okay to mess up, do something other than eat drink and sleep volleyball, even if he wants it to take up most of his time.

Time, he no longer has, when he gets injured.

It wasn't like it was an inopportune time- though, as a college athlete, there really is no good time to get injured- if anything, it was spontaneous and had he not had dreams of making it big, he'd never think twice of it.

But he gets injured. Junior year of college, just as his name starts to grow in the industry, and he gets injured. Bad ankle, it’s actually a former injury from his childhood that apparently didn’t heal right.

There’s articles that spread about Bokuto Koutarou, how he’s climbing the ranks and how Miya Atsumu, the same little rat who bothered him in high school received an offer from god knows what team, and he’s fuming.

That should be him and his setter getting those offers and climbing that ladder, it’s been him and him alone for years, and he knows it's bitter to hate people for their successes, but its not fucking fair, he deserves more than this.

He deserves more than doctors trying to encourage surgery to heal at the sacrifice of volleyball, he deserves more than flowers and cards of best wishes, more than Miya Atsumu texting him to see if he's okay, he deserves more than any being on earth could give him.

And that includes you.

"Baby, did you finally call the surgeon?" You ask, coming in with a water bottle and a cup of his meds.

Apparently, that's more than enough to set him off.

"I don't need surgery."

He hears you sigh, "the doctor says the tear is too big just for physical therapy, you'll need the extra support-"

"In case you forgot, I was fucking there."

His breath becomes hot, and he can't peel his eyes from the commercials playing on the tv. The room suddenly feels suffocating, and of he could will himself to do it, he'd apologize and tell you he loves you, he's just tense and hurt, and he's grateful you're here, and-

"I'm the one who's life is going down the tubes. Fun fact."

The other thoughts in his mind are static. merely an incoherent buzz. You're his victim now, to his ugliest sides that therapy and his family prodded back years ago.

There's no one to prod it back now.

"I... I didn't mean any harm, I promise-"

"You really shouldn't talk to me right now," he snarls, rage bubbling and clawing away at his soul. There's a bubbling of tears that rip at his waterline in a demand to fall, but he's blinded to anything else.

He hates his life. He hates his ankle. He hates his doctors for telling him it may not heal right ever.

He hates you.

"Kiyoomi, please-"

He bears his teeth like a dog in an attack, and you flinch back slightly. "If you hadn't fucking distracted me, this never would've happened." He hears you whine in your throat.

he ignores it.

"I was fine," he barks. "I was happy before you. I was strong, I was powerful, I was a damned force to be reckoned with." He crawls closer to you on the couch, and when you cower to try and get away, he chases your body with his torso.

When you stand up, he does too. His leg lights every single nerve up in a blaze of agony, but he's too gone in his own rage to think about it.

"I... I know you're mad, but please, sit down Kiyoomi-"

You're right.

"Shut the hell up!"

Even on one foot, he towers over you threateningly. You bring your hands up to try and force distance between you both; your touch does ground him slightly, but not enough to stop his scorn.

You sniffle softly, clearly uncomfortable, "you're just mad... and that's okay. Please stop shouting at me, we can make this work, kiyoomi."

Now, his eyes are scalding with furious tears.

"I want this to work, oomi... please, stop shouting-"

“It doesn’t matter if you want it to work,” he snaps. “I’ve got a plan to stick to that’s already been screwed because of us, AND IT'S YOUR GODDAMNED FAULT!"

When you sob and crumple to your feet, there’s a small part of kiyoomi that comes to, the words suddenly sour on his tongue. He feels… confused, he doesn’t know where it came from inside of him, but the way your eyes water from his words snaps him back to reality.

“I’m… im ruining your plan?” You choke, and god kiyoomi wants the floor to engulf him whole. Because duh, of course now you’re not he’s just the scum of the earth, you’re all he can think of wanting in this shitty life, but he can’t say that, not when your hands cover your mouth in distress and horror, tears slipping over your fingers. He feels the blood leave his face when you take a step back, followed by another, then one as you turn on your heel to leave.

“Wait-“

“No, Kiyoomi,” you snap, and its his turn to feel your rage, your head whipping to look at him in betrayal. “No. I’m officially done waiting for you.”

And despite the fact that he wants to chase you, wants to gather you in his arms and pin you to the wall and demand you listen to him, listen to why his plan has changed and how you’ve completely ruined all of it in the best ways, he can’t. His leg throbs at the mere idea.

He just. Stands there, frozen for god knows how long, staring at the long slammed door, wondering if you’d come back for something you’d forgot in your exit. Something dumb, like a charger or a water bottle, something easily replaceable but you wanted from him just as a last chance makeup.

But you don’t. And once his good leg starts to cramp from standing there, he slowly moves his way to his bedroom.

And he’s fine. Honest!

Sitting by himself in the cold of night gives him more time to think about the future. The one without you, of course. Limping around the dorm on crutches makes his arms ache and knees weak, and the backpack on his shoulders making him fall forwards is plenty to make his elbows strengthen up (they’re withering away) and his breathing circulate (he’s breathing back tears of pain and frustration.)

He can’t… he can’t do this without you.

Call him selfish, but his life was not only easier with you around, it was better, it was fun to love you and have you scream his name from the stands, but now that seat is occupied by someone else when it should be yours and yours alone.

He’s tried to get over it. He’s tried to get everything in line, get you the hell out of his mind but he can’t.

You’re different. He hates you for it. There’s something about you that refused to leave his mind and soul. Every time someone is interested in him, he feels disgusted because every crush is based on appearances now; it never was with you. Every time someone laughs, his first thought is how much he misses yours. When one of those stupid fast food commercials comes on in the late hours of night, he smiles sadly as he remembers the way your eyes would meet his and you’d beg him for some fries at ungodly hours.

He has to move on. It’s been fucking years. Why hasn’t he moved on?

Any sane person by now would have moved on, passed through his heartbreak and try to find another, but he’s so emotionally unavailable at this point. Every thought and every reminder that plagues him continues to hit like a ton of bricks every time.

Maybe it's guilt.

No, its definitely guilt.

He loved you, more than you could imagine, he appreciated you more than he can express, and to show you how much you mean to him, he blamed you for his failures.

No wonder he deserves to be alone.

And just when his exhaustion can't grow, his self destruction and crumbling self worth can't get lower, he gets thrown in another circle of hell that he seems to find himself in; this time, in a coffee shop he frequents. Not too many familiar faces, just a couple blocks from the train, and up until that point, only having known him as an alias.

Until today, when the Gods decide to torture him a bit more.

“Name?”

“Sakusa,” he says, not even thinking as he scrolls on his phone. There’s a high pitched gasp from the girl, and it makes his eye twitch.

“NO WAY!!! Oh my gosh, you’re THE sakusa kiyoomi?! Oh my gosh, wait, hold on- can I get a picture? No, wait, you’re not into those- can I get an autograph? I knew you looked familiar, my sister and I watch you play all the time! I’m such a fan!-“

“Uh… thanks. Can I have my tea-“

The girl doesn’t answer, instead, she calls for her co-worker who barrels out in equal excitement.

On any normal day, kiyoomi would snap. He’d scold and snarl about how rude they were, how he’s still a fucking person who just so happens to be good at volleyball, but he’s like a deer in headlights. He’s too surprised at his own stupidity of not using his usual alias, how damn tired is he?

There’s a weight that feels like a ton of bricks that settles on his chest once he hears the line behind him complaining about how long it’s taking, then people behind the register flashing pictures that have him blinded and asking him questions he doesn’t want to answer, he just wants his tea for God’s sake and-

“HEY!” There’s a snap from someone at a table, and it breaks up the small, impromptu paparazzi at the front. “People are trying to work here, and not get a damn seizure from your damn pictures!” He feels all that anxiety break on his shoulders once they cower away. “And shame on you all!” They continue, the line slowly parting to let them continue shouting. “He may be famous but he’s still a damn person! Make the fucking drink and GO!”

Kiyoomi doesn’t want to look. Even if he’s eternally grateful for them, he knows that scold and he knows that bravery to call out random people for their shiftiness.

Because it’s the same thing you used to do all those years ago.

He winced and pulls the mask higher on his nose to keep himself concealed- as if he’s not a 190.5 cm monster. But you don’t say anything about anything that just happened, you must be deep in your work to not process just exactly who you were defending.

He gets his tea with a quick apology from the baristas, and he heads to the door to leave.

….

…right?

He’s gone. He’s on the bus, headphones in and heading to practice, audiobook putting him in a new world where his only current connection is the hot tea in his hands.

Right?

There’s always been a table on the bus, a table he rudely stalks up to, where you’re sitting and typing away furiously at your laptop and massaging one of your temples, too engrossed in your work to notice the outside hitter standing just in front of you.

“Uh…” he chews his lip nervously. You don’t look up.

This is the chance Komori’s been talking about. If he doesn’t take it, he’s going to hate himself forever.

“Thank you for standing up for me back there.”

“You’re welcome.”

He sighs staggered, “can I… uhm… repay the favor?”

To his extreme relief, you offer him a small chuckle, “maybe you can recommend a coffee shop where random cele…” your voice drifts off when you look up at him, jaw frozen open and eyes wide and dancing all over his face. You’re both just staring at each other, breathing ragged and tense, and his brows furrowing to try and hide the guilt and absolute need he has for you to continue the conversation.

You clear your throat, “your uhm… your foot healed uh… well.”

He wants to, but can’t, fight the snort that sneaks past his lips because that’s about the last thing he thought you’d say. But he sees you crack a smile too, and it’s worth it.

“Yeah,” he says after he clears his throat. “Yeah, I’m playing professionally now. Minor aches here and there, but nothing unusual.”

“So you got to stick with your plan,” you hum sadly, and his heart stops. “That’s wonderful, Sakusa. Im glad to hear it-“

“But my plan never felt complete,” he interrupts, and he sees your nostrils flare in annoyance. “I-I-I thought I knew what I wanted, but god, I didn’t. I don’t, I’ve always only wanted you.”

You offer him a shrug, “Kiyoomi, I was an intruder in your life; I can’t blame you for that, I shouldn’t have been there-“

“I wanted you there.”

“Clearly you didn’t,” you snip, and finally, he sighs in defeat. “You made it just fine without me in your plan.”

Fuck it.

If he’s here, he’s gonna lay all his cards, give you every last thought of his and leave you one more time to pick up your shattered pieces.

“I miss you.”

You freeze, but there’s a glazing of your waterline before you slowly, tensely, turn up to look at him.

“Don’t,” you snap. “Don’t do this, Sakusa.”

“I can’t help it,” he says, own voice twinging raw. "I hate it too. I hate that I've had to carry this weight with me for all these years, years I should've been with you, kept you safe and happy, and I couldn't even do that."

"You shattered what we had. Don't ever forget that."

"I never have been able to."

There's another silence surrounding you both, suffocating and hot and thick, and he gets flashbacks of a scenario not too dissimilar, where you're looking up at him with those same, betrayed eyes.

But your gaze doesn't last. It crumbles before you let out the breath you'd been holding, a sign that you're not going to waste your energy on him anymore, "you're too late, Kiyoomi. You don't get to miss me anymore."

When your hands shift to close your laptop, he sees it. The massive, heavy rock on your finger, glimmering under the soft lights of the coffee shop.

Kiyoomi feels sick. He could faint right now if his pride would let him. Instead, he swallows the bile in his throat and grits his teeth, giving you a smile and a casual scratch of the back of his head, "that's... that's awesome! I'm happy for you."

"Don't be," you smile sadly.

"Why?"

You shurg, "you don’t have to be happy for me. I’m happy for me. He's a friend of Bokuto-San's. Set us up not long after we broke up." Then, you sigh shakily, "I'm just here for work, I won't taint your coffee shops for much longer." It was an attempt to break up the heavy silence.

He could puke right now if he didn't feel completely defeated. He could strangle Bokuto in devastation.

In his younger, naïve efforts to drive you away, he drove you straight to someone else's arms.

He nods and chokes out a small "alright," before spinning on his heel away from you

He makes move to leave the coffee shop, but before he does, but before he can, he turns back to face you, trying to get one final look at you, soaking in your presence and soul before you vanish from his life forever. He calls your name, and you look at him one more time with that big, beautiful gaze.

"Do you believe in the one that got away?" he asks, and you process his answer before slipping your computer in your bag.

"Yeah. And I believe I'm yours- but you were too worried about losing volleyball. Now, I guess we all got what we wanted."

His veins turn icy as he tries to blink back the hot tears searing his waterline, turning his head to dodge your knowing eyes.

Everyone got what they wanted.

Except for his broken heart, of course.

[cross-my-heartt]

Alright, I’m saying it

I hate what they did with Crosshair in season three

Yes, the entirety of season three, barring maybe only the first three episodes. Let me elaborate.

I’ve been seeing people be more open about criticizing the finale and it’s given me the push to be more open about my own thoughts. And since I still advertise myself as a Crosshair girlie, I think this is a good place to start.

I really honestly don’t like the majority of what they did with Crosshair’s character this season. And yes, that includes the hand tremors. From the myriad things that felt out of character for him to making him a walking exposition dump, to completely stripping him of his more interesting qualities I honestly struggle to see him as the same character I loved right up until the end of season two.

I almost understand why so many people have come around on him – it’s because he’s a completely different character. We’re meant to believe that his time on Tantiss and Hemlock’s attempted reconditioning has changed him as a person. Which is all fine and dandy until you realize that this new character we get feels more like he’s gone through therapy rather than trauma.

New Crosshair is much more agreeable. He’s mild, he rolls over at the first sign of conflict, he talks about his emotions at the drop of a hat and there’s barely any meaningful tension between him and the other characters (not one that’s not forced anyways).

And my question is, why? If we’re just going to use off screen trauma (off. screen. trauma???) to change characters willy nilly then what even is the point of watching a show?

Say I suddenly wanted to make Wrecker this very angry character with a short fuse and I decide that he got an injury off screen that’s causing him chronic pain. It makes sense logically while at the same time making zero sense for him, even less so if you don’t see it play out, because it erases core parts of the character that we already know.

One of the first things Crosshair does in tcw is start a fight. Crosshair has always been a belligerent guy. He literally responds to being hurt by attacking. Where is that combativeness now? I would even go as far as to say that he’s been the primary source of conflict for the group since season one and I don’t even mean that in a bad way. Crosshair bites back. He hides pain by trying to inflict it, he talks back, he challenges, he digs his heels in to the point of proactively making bad life choices.

And the reason why he’s worked so well in this team so far is because his tendencies were counteracted by those around him, right up until the inevitable rift caused by the chip. I could go on about Wrecker and Tech but we all know that the main counterbalance, Crosshair’s foil here, is Hunter. Hunter is supposed to be the one that deescalates, they’ve gotten along so far because he’s the one that handled rising tensions (it’s the reason he’s the leader of their group to begin with. Remember who deescalated that fight in tcw? Remember who started it?) Where Crosshair pushes, Hunter puts a stop to it. Where Crosshair attacks, Hunter deflects, maybe sometimes too much.

And these first two season have felt like they were steadily building towards a confrontation between these two. We wanted Hunter to snap at Crosshair on Pabu because we’ve been craving it. This whole time Crosshair’s been saddled with more and more trauma, unresolved tensions from as far back as season one (which we all seem to have forgotten about as if that story never happened, tldr I’m still bitter no one addressed the Crosshair being abandoned subplot, hello remember that) while the narrative has simultaneously been stripping Hunter of his patience; months of anxiety and frustration and stress chipping away at him and wearing him down so that we can finally get to see these characters clash. The perfect recipe for all of that tension exploding and being set loose.

And what did we get instead?

A tiny little spat. An argument that gets interrupted before fizzling out (because Crosshair can talk about feelings all of a sudden). We got Hunter in the exact right position only for the show to purposefully strip Crosshair of his characteristic belligerence because apparently we don’t want to see any conflict. It’s like they’re teasing us – look Hunter’s on the verge of snapping but Crosshair’s the bigger man now so we don’t get to see that! Why??? What part of that was satisfying?? We got Crosshair pushing back for the tiniest of seconds and resolved two seasons of tension in half an episode. Where they had to fight a giant worm. In what universe is that a satisfying conclusion.

The only reason I can think of is that this mirror development is supposed to be some kind of irony or subversion but honestly that explanation falls so flat in the face of our expectations as an audience.

And the thing is, I think even the authors realized that they had nuked their most intriguing character. Because once they removed his established response to trauma, which was all of those wonderfully complex emotional reactions, they realized they needed to manifest it in some other way. So we got the hand tremors.

Now Crosshair doesn’t get angry or stubborn he just gets jittery. And I know this sounds dismissive but the only reason that is is because the show itself deals with it in a completely ham-fisted and surface-level way.

I hated the hand tremor subplot. Me. Someone who spent two years being disabled because of neural damage to my hands that prevented me from doing the hobbies I used to define myself as a person. Someone who spent two years depressed and dysfunctional because of the loss of identity and purpose I suffered because of that disability.

So no I’m not fucking happy that they used something as serious as ptsd to spice up a character they themselves made bland in the first place. For no reason other than a subplot that went literally nowhere. A subplot that was shish kebabed after an underwhelming fight scene.

Don’t even get me started on the pun level writing of chopping said hand off.

But back to Crosshair… or what’s left of him after this season (see I can make a pun too). Crosshair was already interesting enough as a character without the added hand tremor subplot and I'm dying on that hill.

The thing is, they were so intent on pushing this new, watered down version of Crosshair that even more reasonable, level-headed characters had to be thrown under the bus, made irrationally aggressive next to him to try and make us believe it. I have a lot to say about Howzer this season but the only thing I’ll say for now is that he’s the most prominent victim of this, along with his entire retconned season one plotline.

And speaking of victims, I can’t help but feel like I need to apologize to all the Tech fans out there once again. Because what I think actually happened is that Tech was never the writers’ favorite and was never meant to get any sort of satisfying conclusion.

That was always Crosshair.

The focal point of season one. The most prominent source or drama and conflict. The character who drove the plot forward even when he appeared in a fraction of episodes. The character who got the most development (even if that development spiraled wildly out of control at the end). Nearly every major subplot in this show happened in relation to or in favor of Crosshair’s arc. Tech’s death. Omega’s capture. The CX clones. The hand tremors. All of the meaningful developments and events reserved for two characters in this show, Omega and Crosshair. (Some would argue Hunter as well but really, did Hunter get any development as a character? Spoiler alert, a happy ending is not the same as a character arc.)

My guess is that this was always meant to be the case. The writers just weren’t prepared for the fans’ response to Tech’s death, it caught them off guard, and here’s one more reason why I think creators should stay away from social media or any kind of prolonged fan interaction. Because all it got us in the end was some form of cruel teasing, them trying to ride the wave of attention and thinking their original plans would make up for it when that wave inevitably crashed.

But anyway.

What happens when you dump a bunch of pain and suffering onto a character with a problematic response to adversity? Apparently it makes them emotionally intelligent, at least according to this show. Crosshair in season three feels like a shadow of his former self – the combativeness and complex emotional responses that made him so interesting to begin with are gone, replaced with a ham-fisted manifestation of trauma that gets resolved in an equally ham-fisted way.

And I’m just not on board with that. Nor will I ever be. Even if you give me all the supposed emotional payoffs, hugs or whatever.

[hubristicassholefight]

Hubristic Asshole Fight: Round 1 Part 1b

Anakin Skywalker (Star Wars) vs Feanor (The Silmarillion)

Propaganda below cut

Anakin

Decided that he would become stronger than death to stop those he cares about from dying after failing to accept his mother's death. When he begins getting visions/nightmares like he had before losing his mother of his wife dying in childbirth, he decides to team up with an evil sorcerer and mastermind to learn the secret to stopping death. The price he willingly paid was leading the slaughter of the community of peacekeeping monks who had raised him from nine years old, feeling guilt about his heinous betrayal even as he unflichingly continued the massacre (sunk cost fallacy to a very extreme degree). The unintended price he paid was the loss of his limbs and independence after his injuries during a fight with his mentor and brother figure, his wife dying on childbirth due to the great stress of his heinous actions, and being separated from his children until they were adults firmly opposed to the imperial regime he became the attack dog for (only knowing of their survival until after he had personally attacked them both); He literally did not have to do any of that. his wife Padmè very very very very much did not want him to do any of that. He was completely absorbed in his own inability to deal with loss that he deadlock refused to consider losing family again and then he went and killed what amounted to his extended family, his wife and the man who raised and guided him from age 9. And his own kids unknowingly. In terms of accomplishing your goals there really really wasn't much more he could have fucked up. And when it comes down to key moments, all he had to do was not cut off mentor and co-worker Mace Windu's hand with a laser sword and everything would have been fine. He's a nominee for Fail King of All Time to me

He thinks he's hot shit which, he is, but like cool it dude you don't have to mass murder maim mutilate your way through life to prove you're the extra most specialest bestest psychic space wizard;

Hubrised so hard he 1) lost his limbs and his skin 2) became what he hated 3) caused the very death he sought to prevent, betraying and destroying himself for nothing; So soaking wet and self aware that he cried committing atrocities. If he knew what hubris was, he'd agree he has a lot of it

Feanor

The definition of hubris. Created the silmarils who were so perfect even the gods praised them. Got them stolen by the gods evil brother (so essentially fantasy satan). Then decided to go fight the evil god to get the silmarils back and swore an oath binding him and his sons to get them back no matter who would stand in their way. This drastically backfired when some other elves stood in his way so he murdered them. Got cursed by the gods for this (together with his entire family and everyone who followed them). Told the gods that they were of the same kind as fantasy satan and that they would end up following him

Morgoth (a god) shows up at his house and Feanor (professional hater of gods) tells him to get fucked* and slams the door in his face. *”Get thee gone from my gate thou jail-crow of Mandos!”; He has never spent anything wrong ever aside from all the war crimes.

The Valar (gods) asked Feanor for help in saving the world from being in total darkness and he said “no, figure it out yourselves”. Repeatedly and intentionally goes against their orders leading to war and chaos; I know it’s left open ended to what really happened to him after he died, but I hope he never repents. I hope he stays an antagonistic and egotistical bastard after being reimbodied (brought back to life) and continues to make it everyone else’s problem. I love him.

I’m gonna have to try to do this without a sing Tolkien scholarship words so bear with me. Basically my dude is one of the smartest and most talented elves in the world. Unfortunately he has a lot of daddy issues AND mommy issues largely due to the fact that his mom died when he was a kid and decided not to come back (as elves can do). No one else has this problem. He invented a ton of important stuff and had seven sons. His most prized creation was three gems called the Silmarils, which contained the light of the Two Trees, which gave light to the world before they were destroyed. When the Valar (the gods of Tolkien’s world) asked if they could use the Silmarils to potentially create another light source, he emphatically refused and in fact became so jealous of them that he and his sons swore an oath that anyone who so much as touched them would die by their swords. Sauron’s boss steals the gems and Feanor decides that he will lead his people on a crusade to retrieve and avenge them. This results in the death of him, most of his people, and almost his entire family minus one of his sons, Galadriel, and Elrond; He once yelled at the devil to get off his lawn

went to war with morgoth (satan basically) against the will of the gods and made a whole speech to said gods about how they were gonna feel really silly when he killed morgoth and saved the whole world. he never actually did battle with morgoth because he died on like day 1 of getting to middle earth (he left like 2/3 of his forces behind because he didn’t trust them) and spontaneously combusted upon his death; he’s a huge asshole and a mad scientist and linguist and prince with daddy issues and also mommy issues

Dude thought he could win a fight with the devil, tried to just walk into Angband (Mordor before Mordor actually existed), made an oath to kill everyone that tries to take his creations even the Valar (angelic like beings) and ends up causing his death, his sons deaths and a bunch of other deaths; His name is quite literally spirit of fire Is basically regarded as THE greastest elf Is in fact THE best smith of the elves and crafts their most precious jewels (that end up causing so much death) Is THE linguist to the point of creating the alfabet every one uses even after The Crimes, creates a bunch of things that are used even after The Crimes actually Loves his dad more than the things he made Is the only recorded elf with seven kids Is married to a sculpter that is so good that people confuse her statues as actual people (a propaganda because he had to be good to actually bag her you know) Manages to create jewelry so good even the the angelics beings sent by god are surprised he managed to do it So good at making speeches that it leads to a rebellion against said angelic beings and a lot of people to leave paradise with him His mother died because his spirit was too powerful Invented kinslaying after trying to steal some boats for said rebellion Swears an oath that destroys his whole family (but adds a great flavour to the rest of the story) Tells the devil to fuck off and slams his house door on said devils face Dies via auto combustion because his spirit was just too powerful for a normal death Gets stuck in the afterlife (that elves can usually just return from) for spiting the Valar Is said he will have an important role in Tolkien’s version of Ragnarok by letting the jewels he previously promised to kill for be destroyed to defeat the devil

Because of his pride, he went against the gods because the evil god Morgoth stole his life's work (the Silmarils, 3 shiny gems that radiated the light of the two trees that a huge evil spider had sapped dry). Swore (with his 7 sons) an oath to hunt Morgoth and retrieve his shiny gems. Commited kinslaying, burned some boats, combusted to ashes after suffering mortal wounds at the hands of corrupted demi-gods. Consequences of his actions could be seen long long after his death: the oath was passed on to his sons to hopelessly fulfill (failure after failure, including two more kinslayings, one of them casting himself into a fiery volcano, another wandering the shores for eternity);