#I want villains to actually be really bad again

[iamnotanelk]

Oh god I'm seeing it even here, ok, so I know the common story about this show was that it was really good but it got bad at the very end, and I need people to understand that that isn't the case. Wonder Egg Priority's cracks started to show in episode 2 and I'd say by episode 4 or so it had already become a pretty bad show, but episode 1 had been so good that it rode that goodwill as far as possible and most people didn't go back and look at the rest of the show and go "oh huh, that explains a lot actually."

Like, the show is ostensibly about the reasons that teen girls commit suicide, and episode 1 was really good about it. When Ai goes to the dream dimension and meets Kurumi, the monster they have to fight is just this like, vague faceless girl meant to depict bullying as a general concept. It's unclear why she uses hand axes as a weapon but y'know whatever, it works because it's not particularly literal. Episode 2's monster starts similarly, vague faceless lady, but she's not supposed to represent pressures on this girl as a gymnast, she's more just, the actual specific coach that abused her. And this becomes a lot more obvious when the real monster explodes out of the more human body: a giant yellow lady with floppy boobs that she shoots paint out of. All of the monsters from this point on are colorful, goofy, and talk. This in and of itself isn't necessarily a problem, like it's a massive tone shift given the heavy subject matter to make the Monster That Represents Why Teen Girls Commit Suicide a goofy Saturday morning cartoon villain, but it's indicative of a problem, namely that the writer, Shinji Nojima, doesn't really understand the gravity of the thing he's talking about.

It starts to go off the rails from this point. Episode 3's Wonder Killer (the monsters are called Wonder Killers) is a lady that stalked an idol, and the girls that Ai and Rika are protecting are also idol fans, but they didn't like, personally know this lady, so she's not like, the perpetrator like with the previous 2. She's I guess vaguely representative of idol fanaticism, which is the reason that the girls they're protecting committed suicide, but it's noticeably more tenuous than the previous episodes, and the girls are treated more like a joke, rather than actual tragic characters.

Episode 4 has a girl who was sexually assaulted by her dad's boss and a bizarre line about how "boys commit suicide for logical reasons whereas girls commit suicide for emotional reasons." (this line is said by characters who initially seem like they might be untrustworthy, but who later turn out to be fine, and no one in the scene refutes this weird gender essentialist nonsense, so it seems like this is actually the opinion that the show's putting across). Episode 5 has a girl who killed herself because she decided, at 14 years old, that she was at her peak and wanted to "preserve her beauty," a sentiment that the show is weirdly incapable of refuting. Like the only thing Neiru, the character protecting her, has to say to that is "now that you're dead no one will ever call you beautiful again."

It keeps getting worse, episode 9 has Neiru and her friend defeat a Wonder Killer by solving a riddle, causing it to kill itself, just a catastrophically awful way to solve a problem in a show like this. Episode 10 is the episode with the transmasc character and it's just horrendous. Like, I can't believe that people say that this show has good trans rep just because this guy is confirmed in canon to be trans. His plot point is that he came out to his teacher, the teacher raped him, and he killed himself as a result, which is why he's in the Dimension For Girls Who've Committed Suicide. It's extremely noticeable that the only male character in this world is trans. His Wonder Killer also like, attacks him with a sword made of a Y Chromosome and has a weird big drippy tengu nose, it's awful. At the very least he kisses Momoe and she does blush about it, and considering most of Momoe's plot is about how gay people make her uncomfortable, we can at least surmise that she does see him as a boy. Small comforts.

Anyway sorry this went on so long this anime just... does this to me, I can't handle people saying it was good. All this stuff I mentioned happens solidly during the portions that people say were amazing, and there's a bunch I didn't even mention. Episode 1 was good and the show pretends to have things to say about heavy topics, so everyone just gave it the benefit of the doubt (hell it took until episode 10 til I was willing to admit that the show sucked).

Please don't watch Wonder Egg Priority, it'll break your brain.

Do You Know This Anime?

[inhurtandincomfort]

Forced trauma reveal my beloved <3

Character A was captured and tortured for weeks at the hands of a Villain. A is rescued by xyr team; they patch xyr wounds, try to talk about it but A says everything was fine, that xyr fine, it really wasn't as bad as they think and xyr just happy to be home. Everything's fine.

Fast forward a few months. A and team encounter the Villain again. Maybe its just a battle, maybe the good guys all got captured, or maybe the villain was captured by the good guys. It doesn’t matter. 

The team don't notice A's trembling hands. They don't see the way xe tries to avoid the villains gaze, the way xyr fists clench around xyr weapon - but the villain does. And with the way the usually close, caring team are so casual, so ignorant of As plight, the villain realises they don’t know. 

So Villain takes great pleasure in recounting the torture they put A through in graphic detail, delighting in the teams horrified faces. Relishing the way A’s breathing stops, xyr face burning in shame. The tears xe tried so hard to keep in all these months past, slipping onto the floor as xyr forced to confront their trauma with everyone else in the room. Xe wonders if xyr team will ever look at xem the same.

-

This is actually a repost of a post from my old blog! It did pretty well but I wanted to redo it a little. I never knew my grammar and spelling was so appalling those years ago lmao.

ANYWAY, though I did not want to reblog it I couldn't leave off this wonderful addition from @bones-and-bruises

[sonicboomrevisited]

I'll understand if you wanna keep those answers to yoursleves, but in case it's ok to ask, this question is for mama, Star, multi and everyone else who wanna answer.

Wich Sonic Boom episode is your favorite, wich one you find the funniest and wich one is your least favorite?

Reasons why would be appreciate but not nescessary

Three megafans with many thoughts = long post! Buckle up!

MULTI:

FAVORITE: A tie between "The Meteor" and "In the Midnight Hour". I'm a sucker for body swapping tropes. Hearing Roger Craig Smith and Mike Pollock take on each others roles was a lot of fun. The animation team also put in a lot of work to have them swap mannerisms such as Eggman reaching for a moustache he didn't have in Sonic's body or Sonic trying to run like himself in Eggman's. "In the Midnight Hour" was a solid Stick's centered episode with a really cool robot as the main antagonist. I love Dreamcaster's design. The mind control plot also helped inspire Robo-Sonic 1.0!

FUNNIEST: Probably "Alone Again, Unnaturally". There's specific scenes in other episodes that make me laugh harder, but this episode generally makes me smile throughout. Sonic being completely oblivious to why he's trapped out of phase and his "haunting" of Eggman's lair always cracks me up.

LEAST FAVORITE: Another tie, this time between "Counter-Productive" or "Knuck Knuck! Who's Here?" Both these episode base their plots around Knuckles just... being an idiot. I can't stand plots that are only motivated by characters being dumb, especially coming from someone that really shouldn't be. Charlie and his wife are fun villains, but I hate that I sympathize more with them than I do Knuckles when watching these episodes. I'm not laughing. I just feel bad for everyone.

STAR:

FAVORITE: A tie between "Fiend Bot" and "Role Models". Sonic acquiring a giant killer robot that wants nothing but his safety and to follow him everywhere is one of the cutest concepts in the show. "Role Models" was a fun episode because of the ridiculous premise that I find hilarious. I also love "Robots From the Sky" Especially because of Mighton and Bolts <3

FUNNIEST: A tie between "Double Doomsday" and "Alone Again, Unnaturally". I agree with all the reasons Multi said about the latter. My favorite joke in the entire show is Sonic trashing Eggman's lair while he's invisible. It's too good. "Double Doomsday" is also hilarious. From the banter between Eggman and Dave through the door Dave locked himself behind, to Eggman getting offended at the way Sonic made a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.

LEAST FAVORITE: "The Biggest Fan" (I can't watch this one). "Late Night Wars" for making Knuckles look stupid for jokes and both the episodes that Multi mentioned--for the reasons she mentioned--they are unwatchable. I also hate "Knine-to-Five Knuckles" for these reasons as well. I also dislike "Do Not Disturb" for the way the Unbreakable Bond was written.

QWERTY:

FAVORITE: Oh, I have a few that I would watch over and over.

"Cowbot" - Eggman actually made a giant robot cow

"It Takes a Village to Defeat a Hedgehog" - Shadow's just THERE, and just has this beef with Sonic for no reason

"Anything You Can Do I Can Do Worser" - Tails' over competitive nature at play.

"Multi-Tails" - Knux being the bestest babysitter ever

"Cabin Fever" - love eps where they just act like kids

FUNNIEST: I think I have to say "Cabin Fever" is one I just love

LEAST FAVORITE: There are a number I don't like, mostly because they feature characters I don't like, or portray Knux as SUPER dumb, or are just boring. Anything with Nominatus is a hard pass for me. And those frog people.

[onedeadkitty]

Kinda off topic cause I haven’t talked about owl house in a while but…

God the grimwalker scenario with belos was the most fucked up b-plot for a villain I’ve ever seen… especially for a show with that rating…

Cause Killing a guy cause he fell in love and keeping his corps for 400 years…

making copies of the person you killed using his bones…

Specifically making them child versions so he could have control over them…

Brainwashing and indoctrinating them to basically worship him…

Isolating them from speaking with others so they never get a good grasp of how badly they are being abused…

And killing them the second they get old enough to stand up to him….

And repeating this process one by one almost 80 times…

(That gives the grimwalkers an average lifespan of 5 years)

What the hell was his damage????

Why’d he do that??

What’s wrong with him ??? smh 🤦‍♂️

Oh and it’s a TV7 show on Disney Chanel

[pa-pa-plasma]

hey i feel like we're really sleeping on that time Danny possessed Vlad & framed him for assaulting a minor

Editing with the clip because people don't believe me. Episode is 41: Eye for an Eye.

[lord-squiggletits]

I think the proof that dominant fandom opinion is run by contrarians who want to feel counterculture/"revolutionary" at all costs is how we finally got the working class, blue collar, himbo jock Orion Pax who defends the oppressed and fights against bad systems in Transformers: One...

...He was breaking protocol to save his friends from mining accidents even when everyone else ran away like cowards and got mad at him or punished him for doing so. He wanted to enter the race to improve the social standing of miners/cogless bots and challenge the status quo. He believed he and his friends were capable of finding the lost Primes even though they weren't Sentinel. As soon as he found out Sentinel was evil he wanted to stop him.

...but LITERALLY just because Orion drew the line at an execution without trial done out of wild hatred and Dee's personal vendetta, people trash TF:O OP soooooo hard and pick up their "Megatron was right" picket signs literally just because Megatron's solution was to be angry and indiscriminately destroy/murder everything in his way. Just. Like. Ignore the fact that Dee/Megatron was an absolute simp for the Primes/Sentinel and spent the whole movie getting mad at Orion for breaking protocol even when it was stuff like entering the race on behalf of all miners.

Somehow the guy who literally wanted to uphold the status quo until he felt personally wronged by it is "right" in the eyes of this fandom.

I literally give up with this fandom askldfjlksd, the writers will give these people the exact thing they asked for and they'll still find a way to trash it. Blatant political theming will be shoved in their face with the simplicity of a literal child's/family-friendly movie and (short of the early draft versions where Orion literally has to monologue about the dangers of execution without trial) they will literally still find ways to nitpick OP specifically and try to slander him as a bad guy who just doesn't understand and doesn't care about Dee at all!!!!11!!!!

[puhpandas]

Hii Percy!! I'm curious- what would be your ideal fnaf game after SOTM releases?

HI CHIP!! of course theres so many things I want to see after waiting so long but honestly I think a ggy game is what I'm expecting next. honest to god anything ranging from vanny!cassie to ggy and all the (human and not Cassies dad) characters in between I would be very happy with. it's why I'm so excited for sotm to finally release and end the mimic incorporation era. literally everything else it has left to cover are things that I would love

but yeah I think a ggy game would be absolutely hype and is actually very likely because of the THREE references/easter eggs weve gotten for him in a row!! I'm very excited to see what they're doing for him because damn ggy for Gregory's backstory has gone untouched for so long

I would love to see it explored in a campaign scenario of Gregory himself finding out about it but tbh I'm honestly expecting some prequel game about it that mostly just confirms it exists and expands upon content we dont know about from ggy like Rabs design and how he interacts with vanny. campaign would obviously be so much better for everyone involved but any ggy content is a win in my book

[bonefall]

Voted for Bumble bc of course but also if you think Alex would not pspsps Bumble you are wrong. If they could communicate they would go to therapy together /s

If then could communicate they would go to therapy together

/GEN

Kyle/Green Lantern resurrects her but then he becomes convinced that she's not the same person she was before the incident, OR SOMETHING SOMETHING Black Lanterns aren't ACTUALLY bad they're just misunderstood Grim Reaper types, in either case Alex ends up breaking it off with Kyle because they've become very different people.

And then Bumble's there

And then they go to therapy or Alex adopts Bumble, and then uhhh Bumble's like one of the superpets. Like Krypto the Superdog. Free premise go forth and play with it if ur a DC fan

[tenojan-in-tevinter]

Honestly I really want to be able to side with Solas in dreadwolf. I think it'd be super interesting to play as an elf in Tevinter and be able to just go "yeah actually I think Fen'Harel is right let's tear down that veil." I mean I assume the main conflict will be Solas trying to convince your character to join him, or your character being told they have to try and stop him, and there are not enough games that let you side with the presented "villain" character. I want to see what the world is like with no veil I'm so interested. Also so interested to see what full-on Fen'Harel Solas is like. Is he still as empathetic? Or is he more conniving and distanced from "mortals" like the old stories would have us believe?

[silverselfshippingchaos]

there's been this character that's been driving me NUTS as of late.. I hate him, but why is he handsome?!

[francy-sketches]

Look I love alicent she’s my meow meow but why are some of her stans so against her being compared to cersei they just objectively share similarities it’s not an insult to her I prommy. Like seeing them get upset at the comparison between the eye funni in hotd and the trident oopsie in got is just. Girl calm down nobody’s saying they’re the exact same but the pararell is so obvious lmao. Not everything is an attack on your fave hotd twitter is rotting your brain please go oustide we’re worried about you

[smol-tired-binch-blog]

It baffles me sometimes how Yakuza 0 is about the weight of taking a life and how death and killing is a big deal and then the rest of the series it's like lol no.

Female character? Kill her off with little fanfare and development. Helpful side character? Dies for the protag. Antagonist? Have them off themselves.

Characters whose deaths could've and probably should've carried more weight but we don't get enough focus or development on their character. Potential is often squandered. And yes, there is something hard hitting about losing a character before they truly had the chance to flourish, but when it keeps happening? We can't build on character bonds, that'd mean cutting down on substories!! What do you mean we've done this one before it's different now!!!

Not to mention when the franchise decides that completely fatal wounds Are Fine Actually They're Alive And Well All Along. And, y'know. The Heat Actions. Akiyama has kicked many men to death and you won't convince me otherwise.

Idk I like the franchise but I feel there's a bit of lack of tonal cohesion here and there. Notably.

[ohhgingersnaps]

THIS CAME TO ME IN A DREAM (and by that i mean i was listening to set it off's partners in crime) supervillain au for wdstf. would it fit their characters, maybe not. would it be fun and hot and cool. Maybe.

Okay, so this is a phenomenal idea, thank you for providing me with such a fun sandbox to play in!! My brain immediately latched onto this and decided that I had to find a way to make it line up with canon. I’ve been rotating this in my mind for like six hours now

You’re right that Ava and Sebastian wouldn’t choose to become supervillains in the traditional sense, because they both try very hard to be good people, but also consider: The categorization of supers into “hero” or “villain” in WDSTF!verse is socially-constructed, and is less about whether they’re actually good people and more about like… Whether their vigilante activity is seen as “acceptable” by the general populace of Zuzu City. A lot of things factor into that (e.g. how much collateral damage is caused, who materially benefits, whether it’s pro bono, and— frankly— how the super in question chooses to present themselves to the public).

You’re also right that a villain AU would be fun and hot and cool :)

So! In light of the above, consider the following as a possible character-compliant WDSTF Supervillain AU Origin Story (below the cut because this became fic-length (1.5k)) (this is maybe not the fun exciting supervillain shenanigans you originally intended but it sets up the foundation for the shenanigans at least?) (cw: angst, fire, very brief mention of dissociation/panic attack):

Ava/Phoenix

After the JojaCo fire, Phoenix disappears, Ava quits her job, and she’s got two weeks where she’s lying around her house, fruitlessly applying for jobs, with no way to contact the only remaining member of her superhero support system (Memento). She’s burned out! She’s frustrated! She feels like a failure, she feels like she’s lost control, and she wants proof that she can do one thing right.

And she goes, Okay, you know what? I deserve to try doing a little hero work again, as a treat.

She patches up her suit and goes out on a solo patrol, and she sees a civilian, and she smiles and waves, in spite of how exhausted she feels, because that’s what she does. She’s used to the civilians waving back, but this one just goes tense and averts their eyes, hurring away.

They’re scared of me, she realizes, her heart sinking.

(She’s not exactly right. The public isn’t quite scared of her— not yet, at least— because she has a good reputation. What they are is wary. Fire is powerful and intimidating, and the JojaCo incident happened only a few weeks ago, and JojaCo’s smear campaign against her is relentless, mostly because they don’t want folks to start asking why they’re allowed to keep so much flammable material in their dumpsters. Memento’s trying his best to defend her, but there’s only so much he can do.)

Later that night, she finally does help stop some minor crime— she stops some guy from robbing a local corner store, or something— but when she calls the authorities in to collect the perp, they totally ignore the robber and try to arrest her, instead. She escapes, but she realizes that no matter what she does, she’s not going to be seen as a hero again.

She’s so burned out and exhausted, and the whole thing just strikes her as incredibly unfair. And she needs control, right now. She needs to prove she can do something right.

And, well, she does need a way to pay the rent.

You want me to be a villain so bad? she decides, hands prickling with heat as she looks over the city. Fine. Guess I’m a villain.

(Because if she’s choosing to be the villain, that means she has control over the situation. That means it was her choice, and that’s a lot easier for her to swallow than the idea that her actions don’t directly correlate to how she’s perceived or treated.)

She does try dabbling in work as a villain-aligned merc for a bit, but she still sticks to her usual set of principles— protecting civilians is a big one— so she ends up mostly working alone. She tries to operate in a way that results in minimal harm, only stealing from large corporations or rich folks who can afford it…

Working as a villain can be a lot more dangerous than working as a hero, though, and perception is everything, right? So she absolutely plays into the villain role and lets people think she’s a lot scarier and more ruthless than she is. (Think Megamind: Very into pretending he’s going to kill Metro Man and take over the city, but never has any intention of actually doing it.) She plays into the villain persona a little too well, and that’s how she accidentally ends up becoming a supervillain.

Sebastian/Memento

So that’s how Phoenix becomes a villain, but what about Memento? For this to work, we’ve gotta remember three things:

1) In addition to heroes and villains, there are also mercs, who are basically contract-work supers. They’re not categorized as heroes, since they’re paid directly for their work, but a lot of them are considered “hero-aligned” or “villain-aligned” because of the nature of the jobs they choose to accept or reject.

2) Memento started as a hero-aligned merc. This isn’t addressed in the main fic, but before the JojaCo fire, he does merc work as a side gig, in addition to his above-the-board freelancing jobs. (The general populace mostly ends up categorizing him as a hero because he does so much pro bono work with Phoenix lol)

3) Memento loves Phoenix.

So when he hears that Phoenix has finally reappeared, nearly a month after her disappearance, he immediately throws all of his effort into finding her and reestablishing contact. He doesn’t care if she’s a villain now— even if she is, she must have a good reason— but he doesn’t even really believe the rumors at first, because the Phoenix he knows isn’t capable of half of the things people say she’s done.

(He’s right not to believe most of the rumors. She’s really playing up the whole villain thing.)

Still, he wonders: If she’s back, why hasn’t she contacted me?

When he finally does catch up with her a few weeks later— in the middle of stealing something from a museum, of all places, and why is she stealing something from a museum?— he tries to talk to her over the PA system, like he did when they first met. He asks what she’s doing.

Phoenix immediately freezes, as soon as she recognizes his voice, then gets a distant look on her face that he hasn’t seen since right after the fire at the club. She’s panicking, her breathing going funny, and that’s when he realizes that at least some of the rumors were true. She really has become a villain.

She’s a villain, and she’s alone, and she’s terrified.

“You should leave,” she snaps, but her voice is shaky. She says should in a way that means, this is what ought to happen, instead of, this is what I want, and is that why she never reached out? Because she knew he’d disapprove? Because she thought he’d abandon her instead of trying to understand?

“I’m not going to do that.”

She throws her hands out. They catch fire. “Don’t you get it? I’m a villain; I’m a bad guy; I’m literally in the middle of robbing the Zuzu City Institute of Art and Antiquities!”

“Yeah, I get it,” he says, even though he doesn’t get why she’s doing it. “Still not leaving.”

She extinguishes her hands. For a minute, it looks like she might cry.

And then he asks: “Do you want help with the security system?”

They meet up, afterwards, at their geocache spot, under the tree on Amber Hill. What good is her civilian identity to her, now that she’s a villain, after all? They spend a very long time just standing there hugging each other, because spirits, they’ve missed each other so much. She cries into his shoulder. He cries into her shoulder a little bit, too.

She tells him everything, and she tries to explain things in a way that he’ll understand. In a way that he’ll accept. He still doesn’t understand, but he does accept it, because he loves her. She’s so convinced she’s a bad person for doing this, but he doesn’t believe that for a second. She’s a good person, so this has to be the right thing to do. Right? (Right?)

He promises to help her with her villain work, despite her protests, because he knows she won’t let anyone get hurt… Aside from maybe herself, that is, which means someone has to look after her. Someone has to support her, protect her, and keep her from self-destructing again. And if aligning himself with a supervillain is the only way for him keep Phoenix safe, it’s not even a question. He’ll do it in a heartbeat.

He holds Phoenix tightly in his arms, stroking her hair, and resolves to pick up some merc work on the side that specifically targets JojaCo. He kind of feels like they deserve it.

Besides, he’s a villain now, isn’t he? He’s allowed to be petty.

(That’s the excuse he’ll use if she ever asks him. The truth is, he doesn’t think he’s being petty at all— JojaCo ruined her life, and he wishes she'd burned it to the ground.)

[awesomestarfighter]

#it's an incredible disservice to the characters because the Fandom Popular Pairings typically are not canon! at all! #so of course there's more to the characters than this hypothetical relationship

It’s not that I don’t LIKE the Fandom Popular Pairings, it’s that I find the assumption that everyone ships them and the general all-consuming nature of said pairings to be kinda exhausting,

[zhelin-thames]

A Ghostly Text Mishap

Danny flopped onto his bed, phone in hand, glaring at the screen. Another long day of dealing with Vlad's manipulative nonsense had left him frustrated beyond belief. He opened his messages, found the contact labeled Trucker, and began furiously typing.

Danny: You will NOT believe what Plasmius did this time. The absolute NERVE of this guy. You’d think being half-dead would make someone LESS petty, but nooo, this man’s ego is bigger than the Ghost Zone.

Danny: He tried to "buy" my parents' company AGAIN. He offered to “help” with ghost containment tech but really just wants to snoop around for weaknesses in the portal.

Danny: AND he had the audacity to call me “Little Badger” like it’s a term of endearment. I swear, if I hear that ONE MORE TIME, I might go full ghost and dropkick him into the Fenton Thermos.

Satisfied with his venting, Danny tossed his phone onto the bed and buried his face in his pillow. Unbeknownst to him, he had made one critical mistake.

Jason Todd, aka Red Hood, was sitting in his safe house, polishing his guns when his phone buzzed. He glanced at the screen.

Unknown Number: You will NOT believe what Plasmius did this time…

Jason raised an eyebrow. “What the hell is this?” he muttered, scrolling through the tirade. By the time he got to “Little Badger”, he was smirking.

He typed back:

Jason: Kid, I think you’ve got the wrong number. Unless this “Plasmius” guy is a Gotham villain I’ve somehow missed.

Danny’s phone buzzed, and he rolled over to check it. His heart dropped when he saw the reply.

Danny: Oh no. This isn’t Trucker, is it?

Jason: Nope. But you’ve got my attention. Who’s Plasmius, and why does he sound like the type of guy I’d shoot on principle?

Danny hesitated, then decided to just roll with it.

Danny: Short version: he’s a half-ghost fruitloop billionaire who’s obsessed with ruining my life, becoming my creepy stepdad, and taking over the world. Think Lex Luthor but undead and ickier.

Jason burst out laughing, earning a curious glance from Roy Harper, who had just walked in.

“Who’s got you laughing like that?” Roy asked, setting down a bag of takeout.

“Some kid who texted me by mistake,” Jason replied, showing him the messages.

Roy skimmed them and snickered. “Plasmius? Sounds like a knockoff vampire villain.”

Jason’s fingers flew over the keyboard.

Jason: Okay, kid, you’ve officially got my interest. I don’t know who you are, but if this Plasmius guy’s half as bad as you say, I’ve got some creative ways to deal with him. You in Gotham?

Danny stared at the message, blinking. Who even was this guy? But... he did sound like he knew how to handle problems.

Danny: Uh, no. I’m from Amity Park. It’s kind of a supernatural hotspot, so I’ve got it covered. But thanks for the offer, I guess?

Jason smirked.

Jason: Supernatural hotspot? Kid, you’re talking to someone who’s been resurrected. Ghosts don’t scare me.

Danny froze. Resurrected? Oh no. This guy might actually know about the supernatural.

Danny: ...Wait, who ARE you?

Jason: Name’s Jason. Most people call me Red Hood. Ever heard of me?

Danny blinked, then groaned. “Of course. I text a vigilante. Just my luck.”

Danny: ...Yeah, I’ve heard of you. So, uh, thanks for not tracking this number and showing up at my house or something.

Jason: Yet.

Danny felt a shiver run down his spine.

Danny: That’s not funny, dude.

Jason: Relax, Little Badger. Your secret’s safe with me. For now. But hey, if you ever need help dealing with your undead billionaire problem, hit me up.

Danny sighed, shaking his head.

Danny: Sure. Thanks, I guess?

Jason leaned back, grinning as he saved the number under Ghost Kid.

“Roy, I think I just found the weirdest contact in my phone.”

“You say that like it’s a bad thing,” Roy replied, tossing Jason a burger.

“Not bad. Just… different.” Jason chuckled. “Plasmius, huh? Sounds like fun.”

[shellem15]

One thing that kinda frustrates me about Shen Jiu fics is that they so often try to sanitize him. Make him nicer/more misunderstood than he actually is.

Like, he was definitely very misunderstood in source material, but he also was straight up a terrible person too, y'know? Both things can be true at once.

The biggest thing is his treatment of Luo Binghe, playing on the idea that it wasn't *as* bad as the characters thought it was. Now, this is just plain wrong cause we know from the extras that SJ gave Binghe the fake cultivation manual with the intent that it would literally explode him. He really wanted to murder that kid, yall. Loony toonz ass villain. Keep this man away from children

And he was definitely a total asshole to all his coworkers, even during disciple days. The other Peak Lords are under no expectation to like him nor tolerate his behavior, especially since they (except Yue Qingyuan) don't know about his backstory (very intentional on SJs part)! SJ very deliberately ostracized himself. His nasty reputation didn't just spring up out of nowhere. He has agency even in other people's opinions of him.

This is particularly notable in his interactions with Liu Qingge. It wasn't "LQG bullies poor SJ and spreads nasty rumors about him." It was a rivalry, a give and take between the both of them. They were both assholes to each other, but clearly, despite the animosity, there was some deeper feeling (SJ being so affected after LQG's murder accusations and then later death). Again, agency is key here.

He's also completely unrepentant until the very end! He will never apologize ever, so no sudden "oh god, what have I done?" heel-turns for him, buddy. If it was that easy, then he wouldn't have gotten human sticked in the first place.

SJ is tragic and sympathetic. SJ is also an awful person and a complete asshole. He's allowed to be both, and both of these sides of him are what makes him an interesting and engaging character.

Edit: holy shit stop interacting with this post everytime I open my notifications I think I’m getting reactions to my more recent shit and instead it’s just this bs. Anyways thanks for 1k notes