#IDC ABOUT ANY OTHER VERSION OF THE CHARACTER THERE'S A REASON WHY IT'S ONE OF MY MOST USED TAGS

[the-acid-pear]

No way home was such a movie I be having NWH flashbacks like i was in the war because fr that literally happened idk how I moved on I should be posting 59 pics of Norman Osborn a day

[iscopeee]

my null playlist is finished yayayayay

(warning for loud and glitchy sounds through most of these songs. it's NULL what did you except lol)

yapping about my song choices/reasonings for way too long under the cut

ok as a preamble a lot of my song choices here are for the interpretation that NULL is a real person trapped inside the game, which for some reason seems to be a controversial take for some people from what I've seen, so I feel the need to explain why I think that (also i'm just using this as an excuse to infodump lol). skip this next paragraph for the song reasonings if you dgaf

so basically i've seen a lot of people being like "UM well NULL licherally says he ISN'T a person trapped in a game, so of course he isn't, duhhhh 🤓" which. I don't wanna be too harsh considering how much of this game's fanbase is literal children but characters are in fact capable of being untruthful. the way I see it the fact that NULL randomly says apropo of nothing "oh nooo I'm TOTALLY not a real person trapped in a game haha, that'd be RIDICULOUS lol" (suspiciouslyspecificdenial tvtropes dot com) immediately followed by explaining that he "can't talk normally" and has to be "vague intentionally" because "some stuff is classified" combined with other hints he gives of his speech being censored by the game in later dialogue makes it clear that he obviously can't directly say what he is. the fact that he's using reverse psychology to get around the game's censorship seems pretty clear to me. (there's also the specific word choice of him calling the idea of being trapped inside a game "ridiculous" when he also describes himself as "ridiculous" earlier in his monologue but that's a bit of a stretch lol). The lake image clearly showing NULL standing by a lake in the real world is another obvious hint to NULL originally being a real person as well. his pain is neverending LOLLLLLLL (this isn't shitting on ppl who have different interpretations of NULL obviously!!! in his own words he's "vague intentionally". this is just my thoughtz :3)

ANYWAY onto da music YAY

UZUMAKI - Machine Girl -

very erratic/glitchy sound obviously. also themes of cycles, feeling trapped in negative spirals, hopelessness.

hand crushed by a mallet (N0THANKY0U remix) - 100 gecs -

any version of this song probably would have worked but I chose the N0THANKY0U remix for the compressed sound which seemed the most fitting. the themes of grief could tie into NULL's longing for his old life but I mainly chose it for these lyrics which are very NULLcore methinks

"I don't want you to think I got bad intentions/Never wanted you inside, you made it your mission, yeah/Didn't wanna hurt no one/But you just went and made it fun"

"I'll never go, I'll haunt your studio/You won't think of words when you write at all/You'll just hear me singing this song/You'll think that's okay, you'll just sing along"

i love this song ^_^

Final Transmission (The Living Tombstone remix) - Temporal Walker & [voodoopony] -

more glitchy electronic sound, as well as the lyrics being about a man getting in over his head and stranded away from his old life. regret as he realizes he's beyond the point of no return. maybe being trapped inside videos game is just like suffocating to death in space.

maybe he knew something that we didn't/staring at the mirror with a different kind of vision

Couture - Epsyle -

he's stuck on this fucking planet. he's stuck on this god damn earth. not much else to say for this one

The Mind Electric - Miracle Musical -

maybe a cliche choice for a character playlist but idc :P picked the distorted version for obvious reasons.

this pick is mainly about the power the game (?) holds over NULL (the whole censorship thing i mentioned in the preamble and the mentions of things being "classified" and "not being allowed" to do certain things in his dialogue) and the impact this must have on his mental state.

Child Protective Services Theme Song and Action Winter Journey - Nero's Day at Disneyland -

lumping these two together because both lack lyrics for me to go over. both have a very erratic, almost desperate feel to me. as the glitching which goes without saying at this point

BTSTU - Jai Paul -

WATER IMAGERY 🎉 also feelings of angry determination and of feeling lost

Cabinet Man - Lemon Demon -

i fully admit this one is a stretch buuut it's Guy Trapped In Video Game. I kinda had to lol

computer vision - sunsetcorp -

a gentle nostalgic sound is quickly cut short by dizzying electronic noise. the imagery is obvious i think

TIME STAND STILL - sunsetcorp -

feeling trapped in time. forced to stay in one place and reflect on the past endlessly by being trapped in an outdated game (I'm looking back) and being unable to progress forward and make meaningful change by destroying it and escaping (but I want to look around)

angel - sunsetcorp -

the death imagery appearing at the end of the playlist. The end of NULL style is approaching. more feelings of being trapped in the past.

END OF LIFE ENTERTAINMENT SCENARIO #1 - sunsetcorp-

the death imagery is even more blatant now. the past is looping in on itself. Escape is impossible now.

NULL tries in vain to calm himself to stop the worst from happening. One, two, three, four...

cemetary 4 - osno1 -

It's too late.

[rpfshippingpolls]

Do you ship it?- RPF edition!

Heya gamers- do you like rpf? If so, send in a ship and we’ll see what others think!

Inspired by @do-you-ship-it-polls but not associated with them!

Also check out @new-proshipping-polls!

RULES

NO DISCOURSE REGARDING RPF ITSELF. If you don’t like rpf, please just block this blog and move on with your day. I won’t engage in any discourse, but any hate sent to me will be deleted and anyone being a dick in the notes of a poll will be blocked. This is meant to be a positive space

This should go without saying but nothing pedophilic or involving minors in general. Also, no incest (I’m personally uncomfortable with it but if you ship it yall are fine idc)

Originally I had a rule about no ultra-pieces of shit but then I started getting a lot of Stalin yaoi so honestly no rules anymore. I’ll decline things that make me personally uncomfortable tho

Don’t just submit some of your friends or random people you know irl

Regarding MCYT ships: I’ll be polling based on the content creators and NOT the characterized versions they play. If you ship the content creators, then send them my way! But if you just ship the characters, then don’t submit them here

I literally always screw up when getting pictures or writing names btw sorry gang

I don’t have discord so if you submit an image that’s a discord link odds are I probably won’t be able to access it, so I’d rather you use other image sources. If you really want to use that image and can’t find another way, just dm it to me.

Also: the key word in “real person fiction” is “fiction.” In the end, we all need to acknowledge that these ships aren’t real (and if the people in question are together irl, understand that their relationship is different than how it is in your head). These are fictionalized versions of celebrities and we shouldn’t intrude on their personal lives by harassing them or their loved ones- especially their partners. No matter what side of the argument you’re on for rpf, just be civil and respectful and we’ll all be fine!

SUBMISSIONS

And here’s the google sheet for this blog! Submissions in green have been posted, submissions in grey are posts that have been queued, submissions in yellow are ones with an image link I can’t access so are on hold, and submissions in red are ones I’ve rejected for any reason (the last column is one I’ve added to explain why). This is manually updated by me, so don’t expect this to be accurate 100% of the time.

[lowkeyrobin]

hello! i absolutely love your writing and i was wondering if you could do something with mcyts, especially slimecicle and foolish (if you can’t think of anything for them don’t feel pressured! i don’t mind), and anyone else you want to write for x a reader that has a career in musical theatre? maybe something about them seeing shows reader is in and just overall hyping them up? feel free to ignore this, it’s just a little thought i had! have a good day 🫶

oooo yeah sure!! ; idk much ab musical theater but I tried lmao ; also added tommy bc I had leftover ideas + I was mostly only focused on charlie and foolish lol

MCYT ; musical theater

includes ; tommyinnit, slimecicle, & foolish gamers

warnings ; language

masterlist

TOMMYINNIT

"mean girls musical?? the fuck"

"my show is better, L"

he's secretly your biggest fan let's be honest

CHARLIE SLIMECICLE

he'll sit off somewhere you won't see him after the first night so he can just stare at you without you noticing, since you like to tease him about it afterward

taking pictures of you then posting them during the show like hyping you up and talking about the plot

there's one of you singing and looking up toward the sky and he posted a tweet w a pic that says "me praying to god" and it dramatically left the mcyt circle 💀

he'll go and watch the source material before show dates just to see what you're performing and he'll talk about the plot with you

"why the hell are you walking down the yellow brick road?? THERES AN EVIL WIZARD, GO THE OTHER WAY???"

he shuts up immediately when you're practicing vocals at home just to listen to you

sometimes he'll buy extra tickets last minute to get you guys some more money LMAO

he definitely helped with prop making idc

at least painting the backgrounds and set things

your biggest supporter istg

always hyping you up

helps you improv act within the character to get used to the character themselves to not make them another version of you

he can sing too, so yk damn well he's helping you sing/getting into another character to help you rehearse the singing parts at home

shows up to every show to cheer you and your colleagues on

he's all smiles and like in a trance watching you on stage

like literal stars in his eyes

after every show he gives you the biggest hug and literally bombards you with compliments

he's secretly taking pictures and recording the whole way through, he doesn't care about those rules /j

attempts to try on your outfit/s at home if you get to take them with you as well

he can literally pull off anything wtf

it's like that video of mckenna grace and aryan simhadri where they're both wearing red dresses and they both killed it like?? okay, power couple who??

he's always posting shit ab you online as well, pictures videos, just talking about how cool you are etc

you two do theater karaoke every once in a while on stream and its the funniest thing

FOOLISH GAMERS

"how do you sing like that??"

"magic"

also tries on your outfits 💀

if you're in newsies... it's over

he seems like the biggest newsies fan for some reason LMAO

he's always hyping you up before rehearsals/shows and showing off his support for you ❤️

he is mesmerized by your performance, hearts and stars in his eyes the whole time

you almost went on stage w his snapback on because you were messing around with your friends backstage 💀

the second you got a part in the mean girls musical, he was jumping up and down

he'd probably never seen the musical but 100% watched the original movie 9477391 times

you show off your theater singing to him every once in a while and he's just like 🤨😨

he gives the biggest hugs after a performance

"Oh my God that was awesome!!"

if there's any merch, yk damn well he's buying it

he'll watch your performances on stream as well 😭 just to show you off

your contact name is probably "Broadway star"

you have to make Broadway Baby jokes after that (broadway baby was abby lee millers dog back in the day, only dance moms haters would get it 😔🙏)

[darkseed-two]

tehe

I'm also not up to standard on the Darkseed Lore rn (been a couple of years or so since I watched through the longplays) but I was rotating it in my brain last night and thinking it would be kind of funny if Rita was just like. A misidentification of the Sue from DS1 seeing as it is more than implied that she relates to the Keeper of the Scrolls.

If there is any pyhsical connection between the light and dark counterparts, like there is with regular objects*, then Eliminating Sue would probably have been a good idea. Not sure if it would kill the Keeper outright or just weaken her but it was a funny thought. Like the Ancients thougt that (DS2) Mike was simply to cringe to possibly have more than one (1) Female Interest so it was an easy error to make. /lh

*(I genuinely cant remember how that part works rn but it would also mean Jack couldnt have actually killed Mike without dying himself, so it is a flawed take but idc. Maybe he is just that much of a hater)

Also the Clown just Fucking Dying is still insane to me, I have never recovered from it. They just Did That.

gonna be honest with you it is really hard for me to remember the names and faces of these beautiful biomechanical women because they all start with "Keeper of" or something similar, plus they're all modeled after h.r. giger's significant other as well (Also, funnily enough, Sue's normal world counterpart was apparently a dev's girlfriend) so bear-> 🐻 with me

the first game overlays the keeper of the scrolls over sue's head at the end of the game, but then the strategy guide claims that its pandora (which is probably just an oversight imo), and the strategy guide also claims that the high priestess is rita's counterpart. Which tells me that this is also probably bullshit. I'd have to really sit down and refresh my memory about those specifics because I've been drip feeding myself darkseed ii as i havent actually went through the game in like ten years (and played a russian version for some reason at that?) and i would like to take this opportunity to reexperience it in the slowest possible manner, to really stretch it out for what its worth, as its highly unlikely this series will be ever picked up or rereleased ever again. But, honestly, I really do feel like rita would be the keeper of the scrolls if anyone. They ignored sue's existence completely in the darkseed ii manual story preface,

(See Here: No Mention of Sue Fuckin' ANYWHERE, as he just talks about rita in the next paragraph after this screenshot ends) so they probably were just rewriting sue's character with rita. (They did this with the Blade series of films, too. Why does this keep happening?!) However, I feel like killing the keeper of the scrolls wouldn't be like a huge deal to the Ancients. We're talking like, interdimensional evil alien dictators. They already got the Necronomicon (which seems to be some sort of history book in this universe???) so knocking off yoda/bride of pinbot would not be a big deal to them imo

In regards to objects/people connections, this is what the high priestess says:

which is basically just code for "we didnt feel like fixing all the plotholes" and in the first game, it seems to affect mainly just objects and not beings; things like doors, and the gun on the wall in both police stations for some reason? im not sure how that would logisically work, because if you dont take the gun in the normal world, the darkworld cop shoots you. Where did the dark world gun go? The cop recognizes it as his if you have the normal world gun. Maybe normal world objects morph into dark world objects upon entering the dark world? Or maybe the darkworld cop just has dogshit eyesight. I dont know. What does this mean for Dark Fido?

also Yeah, the clown dying was actually the most realistic part of Darkseed ii. An incredibly depressed, self shaming clown too apathetic to go and get his own medication from his booth (or afraid of losing his job) so he just Dies. All because mike couldnt like, tip the anvil over or something. Amazing

[gracebethartacc]

Give it up for part 3, anyone?? Anyways this is basically just me rambling and sharing my own ideas atp I hope you don't mind sobs but uhh Ocellus should've been related to Thorax. Give her the princess treatment /silly

Even better, give her trauma. She's Thorax' little sister ( I know she has an actual family I DON'T CARE let me be delusional /silly ) and also Chrysalis' designated favorite ( heir ), and perhaps was always meant to be a princess from the start due to that, being chosen to be next in line etc etc. Chrysalis took her in at a very very young age methinks. That would make her fear of literally becoming Chrysalis much more real ( which we see in the "What Lies Beneath" ep ) and also just give me like one royal character who's actually avoidant / doesn't want to be royalty pretty pleaseee ( Twi doesn't count imo she warmed up to the idea like really fast ).

Uhhh something something that would mean she starts off as an antagonist and also angst for Thorax because his little sister is being manipulated to be evil and do evil deeds. No idea how that would work with the actual school of magic plot though, maybe she doesn't start off as like the designated reformed Changeling for obvious reasons ( she's not reformed yet because again, still under Chrysalis grasp / control ), but rather infiltrates the school as a spy ( can changelings shapeshift into reformed versions of themselves? Is that ever mentioned in the show? ).

Maybe the actual designated changeling goes on to befriend her which is how she becomes part of the young six ™ ( I don't care about numbers why does it always have to be six, can't a gal have a group of seven ) and they have a Barbie: Princess and the Pauper type friendship. So cool. Also gives a bit of a reason as to why Ocellus is shy. So cool.

More manipulation from Chrysalis, less cool, she tells Ocellus to betray / backstab the young six. Mother Gothel type vibes for Chrys. Gaslighting... Can we teach the kids about that? Yes we can! Especially given how relevant it is because like parental figure gaslighting. And we ( the viewer ) see it and realize that it's bad because Chrys is Chrys and she's evil and everything but for Ocellus it's less obvious because Chrys is the only parental figure she's ever had and Chrys reinforces the idea that Ocellus is just young and naive with her ideas of friendship and that she knows better and also she has to do what she says "because family". So much angst potential it's crazy... But yeah Chrys is essentially very much trying to brainwash little Ocellus. Bonus point for similarities with Starlight, making their whole disdain for one another that much uhh, logical I guess.

Angst two part epic episode where Ocellus does end up completely brainwashed ( be it literally or not ) and she actually betrays the young six ( didn't expect that plot twist huh! ) buuuuut of course in cliche fashion Thorax is there and he recognizes his sister and he's like "Stop... This isn't who you are..." And Ocellus goes "I don't know who I am!" ( this goes crazy with the changeling parallels ) because she actually doesn't have any other "real" identity due to being raised by and living most of her life thus far with Chrysi. Her friends / young six go "But we know who you are, you're our friend! :]" and blah blah blah she gets redeemed. Boom. Epic reformed changeling transformation, bonus points if it's much more colorful and bright than her initial reformed disguise. She learns to stand up against toxic parental figure, and she gets the redemption and not Chrys ( imo Chrys really should never get redeemed idc ), and she gets reunited with her brother, Thorax. Big celebration. Yay.

Bonus episodes where she learns to adapt to an actual like, non-toxic environment.

She still has nightmares and fears about Chrys.

Thorax legally adopts her and he's now her guardian because she's still a minor. Family :]

Bonus angst idea being that the designated changeling is an orphan that Thorax chose because they reminded him of Ocellus. Hence why they and Ocellus immediately got along so well from the start. Found family goes crazy fr.

Ocellus is still a ball of anxiety and very much shy, but she learns to overcome that and heal from her traumas by the end of the show. Drops mic. Hire me Lauren Faust. I'm going to take a nap now, ramble over but please do share your thoughts and opinions on this whole plot I came up with on the spot sobs /lh

THIS IS SOOOO FIREEEEEEEEEEE YESSSSSSSSS if I wasn’t so deep into my rw already I’d make this real. My compromise is I’ve been debating flutterpony ocellus as sunrax daughter bc ocellus shimmer has a really good ring to it and lets her still have becoming chrys angst and I love ocellus and wanna use her anyway EATS AND CHEWS ON THIS YEAHHHG WOOOOO

[garrothromeave]

Hi! I just wanted to say I randomly stumbled upon your post about people’s reactions to the aphtwt confession about Laurance as a love interest and the reaction he had during the pregnancy arc and I have a lot to say but have a lot of nerves, so I’m doing it like this. So I hope you don’t mind! This is probably super long, and I really apologize for that.

I think one of the reasons people brought up Garroth so much is that people see a lot of the romance drama as ridiculous (at least I do), and Garroth and Laurance are incredibly similar in some regards when it comes to Laurance. So even if it was unintentional, people wanted to pull them onto the same level.

Laurance has a charming character, it grabs viewer’s attention and keeps it. But I bet one of the reasons people probably like him so much is probably because they like the version of him that they made up in their head. That's why there's people who say stuff like "no one understands this character like I do.” people pretty much accidentally create their own version of their favorites the deeper they are into a fandom. Yes, everyone uses the same canon, but it doesn’t mean everyone sees those events the same. This fandom, especially here on aphblr is FILLED with rewrites.

Laurance is an odd character. He does questionable things for questionable reasons, but seems to get away with it more than other character. Especially if you scope into end of season two. I think one of the reasons for this is because we never truly see the fallout of what his actions after the pregnancy announcement caused.

There's this thing l've noticed in media that two characters can to the exact same bad thing but one will be brushed off and the other will be more focused on. The character whose bad action has the fallout more focused on ends up becoming more disliked for that action than any other character who did the same thing. It's hard for people to criticize certain aspects of a character's decision if the after effects of that decision are never truly explained or focused on, and what their intention for doing said thing was. It doesn't mean they're exempt from criticism, but people tend to focus less on those things because there's simply less to look at. But we'lI never get those answers about Laurance, and people know that. So it’s easier for us to turn a blind eye and focus on other things or characters.

I’ll end this similar to how you did: Laurance fans (like myself), it’s okay to criticize one of your favorite characters. Even if you’re like me and create a justifiable reason for why one might do what he did in some of his situations, it doesn’t mean it’s a good decision. It just means it’s explained. Thank you for your time :)

very well said :) thanks for getting out your thoughts homedawg.

i genuinely don’t have AS much of a problem with the end of season two and him leaving. he had shadow knight shit to deal with, he left to protect aphmau, i really do get that. that’s not actually what i think laurance fans try to unnecessarily defend—i’d honestly defend that too. i think you’re very right to say that fans will criticize characters for the same things that others do—i’ve fallen victim to this too, with the whole aaron vs gene in pdh. double standards, yk?

but when it gets to the point that laurance criticisms are ridiculed and it’s an excuse of “um, idc what he did he was hot while he did it” it gets SO fucking annoying so fucking fast. like you can like a character with flaws. like that is perfectly ok.

laurance is a charmer, he’s flirty, he’s loyal. but yeah, let’s not talk about how he’s also obsessive and creepy, making advances on aphmau after she shows no interest. let’s not talk about his “i’ll wait for you” mentality. because no! as you pointed out, fans love to keep this very specific interpretation of him in their heads, so that none of that is acknowledged—because it’s seen as romantic. that is so infuriating. behavior like this in real life is gross.

and then there’s like “okay, laurance did all of that, but garroth LITERALLY BETRAYED PHEONIX DROP OVER A KISS” no! he didn’t, that’s literally a scapegoat i see ALL the time—but in reality, with some general paying attention to his character, that misinterpretation could genuinely be worked out. does that excuse his actions? no. does it make them more clearly understood? yes. but i can still acknowledge, as a garroth fan, that he did betray them and does need consequences for his actions. he’s not free from doing bad things just because he’s my favorite character. but people also won’t look at his character like that because they just don’t give a shit, so?? don’t know what to tell you there, buddy! i’d just say it’s not fair to criticize a character without fully understanding the situation lmfao. like, i’ve been a diehard laurance fan. i know that he does not have bad intentions. there’s just things that should be talked about

we can do stuff like this with laurance. someone mentioned this under my last post, that every single character is honestly quite shit. the best thing we can do is acknowledge those flaws, and then portray our interpretations and explanations as to why this character did this. but it’s not an excuse. it’s an explanation. i saw under that aphtwt thing A LOT the saying “idc, im still a laurance dickrider” LIKE IM NOT SAYING YOU CANT BE. JUST PLEASE UNDERSTAND THAT HE’S DONE BAD THINGS. it’s INFURIATING watching people continue to brush off what he did without at least trying to work out explanations?? and doing a, “okay but he did worse” is NOT a good excuse im sorry its fuckin not

you made a really good point with the fact that we just don’t get explanations for laurance, hence why it’s ignored. and the hard truth is the fact that he was just genuinely like that. jess wrote him. of COURSE he’s going to suck.

but yeah anyways ill eventually drop the laurance doc i have going over him as a character but lord almighty folks, pleaseee take an unbiased look at him. he’s not the knight in shining armour that you thought he was when you were twelve. thanks

[save-the-villainous-cat]

You used latin proverb “Homo Homini lupus” as the main inspiration for your snippet, I just look it up, and there's another line to it, "Lupus est homo homini, non homo, quom qualis sit non novit", which has been translated as "A man is a wolf rather than a man to another man, when he hasn't yet found out what he's like."

so , taking the "when he hasn't yet found out what he's like",

What if the Villain had a psychological condition? Like MPD (Multiple Personality Disorder).

People with this condition (im a psychology student so u can trust me) often have different names for all their personalities. For eg, if you have seen the 2021 movie Cruella (its my favorite movie in the entire universe pls watch it) the main character, Cruella, has 2 personalities. One named Estella who is polite, soft-spoken, and compassionate, and the other named Cruella who is bold, unapologetic, and very, very, VERY driven for revenge.

The villain in the story of yours, their (say personality A) tells them to seek revenge and kill the hero, which will thus reward them with the feeling of "Oh yeah I succeeded in my mission by killing my hero, I lost my lover but I stayed true to myself but im crying"

basically this personality of their's gets emotional. They understand feelings, however the other B completely lacks emotions and has no concern for feelings.

However their more scary (personality B) tells them that "okay but why kill the hero? Ill lock the hero up, go kill my entire family, and hero won't be able to stop me, I over power them anyway."

Their personality B sort of disregards hero's feelings of heroism, where the hero goes "I won't let you do that!!" Their pers.B goes "What will you do about it idc im stronger than you anyways"

So, in that moment, where you are ending the story, pers.A that wants to kill the hero, is overpowered by pers.B

And then they knock out the hero and leave them unconscious (and trapped) in their lair. Then they go kill their entire family with absolutely no concern or emotions (another trait of someone who is a psychopath acc to psychology)

And when they return to their lair, they are covered in blood. They go to check up on the hero who is safe and sound. And they are satisfied cuz their plan was successful and hero is safe, they didnt get to shed any blood.

Mmmm very detailed, very interesting.

However. I know homo homini lupus is from Plautus, not Hobbes. I used Hobbes’ interpretation though because I think that specific opinion on humanity is fucking wild and definitely something a villain would come up with too.

Man is violent. Man is aggressive. Man is wolf to man.

Plautus wrote something similar but his view on mankind’s nature is more like “as long as man doesn’t know man, he will be a wolf.” Which includes a reason for this behaviour at least, even though it’s still fucked up. But also valid? I see every man I see as a threat and I have good reason to.

I was more going for the Hobbes version because that’s such a raw and negative view on mankind that the villain uses this as excuse and the hero forgives them for their actions by saying it.

Homo homini lupus, I get it. The hero knows what the villain is like, they know they have this insane worldview of “man is destroying his own species if he has to.” And the hero uses that to build some lost connection between them. I get it. They understand. And that’s how they try to get the villain on their side again, despite knowing that it’s too late. Last hope, I guess.

The villain using homo homini lupus in the end could either be them explaining their next action (killing the hero) or them devaluing it. They say it and they actually believed in it but they don’t kill the hero because they’ve outgrown that statement.

And that’s why I was curious on your opinions hihihi.

I didn’t write the characters to have mpd (it would be more obvious if I had) but I think your thoughts are really interesting!

Also I will never watch Cruella because I truly believe that every Disney life-action remake or movie that focuses on old Disney characters is killing most of my brain cells ten minutes into the movie. But it’s good that this movie makes you happy!

[gilly-moon]

[5 Characters & 5 Tags]

Tagged by @harleyshahas (thank you ♡!!!!)

Riku/Sora (Kingdom Hearts) - KH is the game that got me into video games, and inspired me all the way to getting my current job in game dev, and Riku is at the heart of why I love the games so much. But I had to put Sora too, because one without the other just doesn't work. Without Riku, Sora couldn't have his arc of "I want to be better than Riku" to "I want to be better with Riku". And for Riku, his transition from dark & edgy to chosen keyblade weilder all ties back to how he looked down on Sora, then tried to make up for his mistakes, and finally trusted and loved Sora completely. They complete each other and challenge each other to grow and become better at every turn. Also their reunion in 2 absolutely ruins me every time. Sora crying on his knees will be burned in my brain forever.

Zack Fair (FFVII) - Crisis Core was at one point the only game that would work on my PSP lol. But I didn't need any other games because Zack the puppy was everything to me. Watching him struggle with the morality of being a SOLDIER, all while desperately trying to protect his friends and failing at every turn...that shit hurts, and yet he keeps his smile and honor right up til the end. He is THE sunshine boy of sunshine boys and I could gush about him all day long. His scenes in Advent Children destroy me.

Oikawa Tooru (Haikyuu) - the real blorbo of my heart, the bitch I latched onto and will love to the end of my days. His ability to take even a team of strangers and lead them flawlessly within just a few minutes is so admirable. He knows exactly how to bring out the best in everyone on the court. It hurts me to this day that he never got to wreck Shiratorizawa before he graduated (also that moment where he falls and slips in season 2 uggghhhhh) but jokes on them because he's the one who got an honorable position on an irl team!! I get some people call him an insufferable asshole but thats exactly why I like him! Let characters be insufferable!!!!! Its fun!!!!! And besides, when it comes down to it, he's genuinely a good person who wants everyone on his team to be involved and be their best. Love of my life. No Oikawa haters allowed on my blog.

Pitch Black/Kozmotis Pitchiner (RoTG) - basically since the movie came out I have been ready with a "Pitch did nothing wrong" speech at all times. I feel like I don't even really have to explain this one, I mean....yall get it. You know why we're all still here, loving him and the Guardians to the end of our days. I will say, though - idc if it's book version or movie version, my love for this asshole remains the same.

Nico di Angelo (Percy Jackson) - ah, the original blorbo. The queer awakening for so many people even before he was out in the books. This is another "I love him because he's kinda rude" character. His hatred towards other characters is always warranted tbh, because they ostracize him for?? No good reason at all???? No one wants to or tries to be his friend in heros of olympus for the first four books (except Hazel, who practically has to force others to talk to him) and it pisses me off to no end. Percy spent battle of the labyrinth hunting him down, but would he have been so dedicated if he wasn't getting the iris messages??? Doubt it. Anyway. I adore Nico, he deserved better, and I'm so glad he's got a wonderful bf and his own book now. I will never get tired of him and I really hope the tv series goes well so he can finally come to life in live action ♡

Honorable Mentions: Ronan Lynch, Cloud Strife, Roxas, Hiccup Haddock, Sasuke Uchiha, Portgas D. Ace, Killua Zoldyck, Allen Walker, Vlad Masters

I don't rlly talk to many people on here so...if one of my picks was also yours, consider yourself tagged!

[oodlyenough]

the last of us 1x06: kin

surprisingly don't think i have a ton to say about this ep of the last of us but i feel like i should continue posting for posterity at this point lol. (eta: i said that, then started writing my thoughts, and wrote a gazillion words anyway.)

side note: any canadians watching on crave? isn't it fucking terrible. trash service

anyway: 1x06!

continuing to enjoy joel and ellie a lot. the further we get into the show i think the more they've come into the roles and evolved into their own versions of the characters, which is fine. good even. i think bella ramsey and pedro pascal have very fun chemistry together, and i think bella carries the comedy beats really well, which means i've been enjoying seeing more and more of those. i also really like those scenes because they feel familiar without being complete retreads of the game dialogue (which inherently invites me to make comparisons on delivery, etc)

so this joel is much more openly vulnerable. i think this change works to go with what we've seen in the show so far and places where the show is presumably going. and, i'll be honest, i find show joel a much more likable character. 🤷🏼‍♀️

the "not my daughter" scene hit differently... tbh i think it hit less, but not really through any fault of the show's, if that makes sense. it's just one where beat by beat i know the words as delivered by troy and ashley and my brain is super imposing them

loved the opening with the Indigenous couple, they were so funny, and the idea of florence seeing joel puffed up like an angry bird and identifying zero threat and making him soup lmfaoooooo hkghlkg. honestly w game joel i don't think that would work, lol, but w show joel it did. such a funny way to use the map easter egg, and the "there are firefly people?" followed by the couple laughing at their own joke killed me lol

also loved ellie's indignation about how they probably don't know anything because they're "a thousand" and they don't even know the fireflies, who are probably a total nonentity outside select QZs. extreme kid energy. they haven't even HEARD of paw patrol can you believe it. what do they know. also, congrats to them escaping joel and ellie mostly unscathed... minus a rabbit. (rude, ellie.)

show maria was great idc. imo game maria is not much of a character, so the show had plenty of room to expand, and i liked how they did it. i see some people reacting badly to her skepticism of joel and forgiveness of tommy, but we also don't really know what exactly she's been told by tommy. maria being pregnant is also a more solid reason for why tommy can't take ellie than we got in the game.

i can't really evaluate tommy or maria as characters without factoring in part 2 and at this point there's enough difference that who knows where the show will go with tommy and maria in s2, so, it's all kinda fair game imo

the university scene felt a bit rushed but i guess there really isn't that much to do there when you're not rearranging dumpsters and killing infected. it was the first time the show felt notably rushed to me, and i suspect that feeling will get worse in the back third of the show. ah well.

joel's injury and the fight felt anticlimatic compared to the big action set piece of the game, BUT i think it worked much better in context (joel's explicit fears in this ep becoming manifest), and also, game joel's injury is sooooooooooo ludicrous and video game it just wouldn't work on tv lmao. i kind of wish we'd seen ellie land any of her shots on those guys, but i have my theories as to why we didn't. tbd

misc other thoughts:

diva cup scene... excellent. was worried about those musty tampons.

SALLY FUCKIN' RIDE lmaoooooo ellie. u lesbian. ilu

like everyone i was beyonce.gif DINA?!?!?!? in the cafeteria scene. 100% that was dina, there's no way it wasn't. it might not be the final cast actress (i can see them not wanting to cast a major role so far in advance for a cameo, and they have a time skip to justify any appearance changes), but as a character that was surely meant to be dina. ellie that's ur WOMAN

we're 10000% getting some other cameos in the finale. i'm ready 👀👀👀👀👀

lastly: can't wait for this weekend's episode. the one i've most anticipated. left behind DLC my beloved...

[thesopwithcamel]

The Three Hat's AU Subcon forest: characters part 1, the Snatchers.

1HT Snatcher.

his name before he died was Luka (yes its overused but I couldn't think of anything else) so I'll be refering him in that name for clarity's sake as there is three snatcher's.

Luka is retail Snatcher, although he has softened up over the years he is still a force to be rekoned with as the untold ruler of Subcon forest until this mess happened.

Doesn't like the other two Snatcher's and tolerates Moonjumper. he prefers sitting in his tree home and reading his book then taking part in this wondeful giant capture the flag game going on but if any of them fuck with the Dweller's he is gonna bring in the pain train.

Still recognises Caitlyn after three years and is (sorta) true to his word about the bff contract, genuinly cares for her as he hands her a shotgun before she explores the new parts of subcon forest and tells her to be careful (he says hes doing this because it will allow her to survive easier and that he doesn't care about her but we all know he's lying.

Idc what canon bullshit gets in the way I love Datcher so fuck you.

Luka can shapeshift into a snatcherfied version of his past self, really handy when writing contracts.

Deep down he still wishes that things between him and 1HT Vanessa could have been different...

Vanessa and Luka were betroved to each other at the ages of 3 and 5 years old respectively (actually built in some historical context), they never really had any choice in the matter but still loved each other (until the flowers thing happened).

Oh btw 1HT Florist is fucking dead, both she and Luka died of hypothermia.

2HT snatcher.

I'm actually gonna call him Snatcher because he fits the name slightly better.

Acts like the prototype Snatcher, a nuisance character who snatcher thing's you've forgotten about and is a dick but deep down inside him, he has a heart its just really hard to see.

A shadow created by an unknown alien who abandoned him on the planet so he tends to steal shit.

Met the 2HT Prince and actually kinda liked him and its one of the major reasons why he hates Moonjumper because Moonjumper robbed him of his friends body, when MJ tries to rob 2HT Prince's soul he hands it off to Luka for safe keeping and even makes him sign a contract over it.

The 3rd floor of Vanessa's Manor happens briefly but unfortunetally he doesn't hold up well to sudden blinding lights, flashbangs are his cryptonite.

Following Moonjumper's defeat Snatcher attempts to return 2HT Prince's soul to his body but MJ destroys the body, luckily Luka had a spare Dweller body lying around which was patched up, decorated and alived.

2HT Snatcher enjoys annoying 3HT snatcher.

Speak of the devil, 3HT Snatcher or Devil because why not.

Very little information exists about Devil but he is also featured in a Swap AU which I've had in my brain for some time now, 3HT is this au but everything goes horribly wrong.

Devil is an evil bastard due to him taking the role of Vanessa, he is also the cause behind 1HT Vanessa's death and the destruction of the 1HT Manor.

Refers to Natalie and Caitlyn as minions since he believes that they are working for 3HT Hat Kid.

stays in the manor but leaves to terroise the Dwellers, tears Proto kid to pieces and battled Luka which ended in a rather brutal draw.

Defeated by Caitlyn when she tricked him into entering a red time rift, where he ended up or what happened to him is unknown...

Does have a very good evil laugh though :).

[bathroomtrapped]

What if they didnt fight cary and convinced him to return for saw 3... Then, would the scenario "jigsaw kidnaps larrys family" become real? Then, then, would it be more awesome than his coming back in saw 3d? I guess the answers yes. I'll forever hate Larry's treachery.

if it went according to plan, allison is kidnapped again and lawrence takes the role of lynn where he cares for john (iirc). either way, yeah theyre involved again. not sure abt diana tho?

okay so, sorry to be That Guy. but lawrence as an apprentice makes the most sense for his character and the saw universe and im going to use this random ask to voice my opinion so thank you for using my ask box as a saw google lol

A LOT more under the cut

i DO with we got to see that version because it would mean more lawrence screentime and i genuinely do not dislike any saw content. idc how shitty saw x is, it could undo everything and shit all over it but i would NOT care. any content means an avenue to explore saw further

thats one of the main reasons the apprentice reveal was so good, in my opinion. before i get to why its great for lawrence, i want to point out why it works SO well for the other aspects. amanda is johns pseudo-daughter, he LOVED her like a father. we see it at the end of saw iii. no matter what he says, john does not forgive people. he punishes jill for losing their child but at the end of iii, we see him genuinely look at amanda with love and forgiveness. and yet? he never trusted her enough to tell her about lawrence. this random fucking guy who didnt even WIN, is the golden child. trusted with his wife!

as for mark, he is the definition of jigsaws philosophy. he may have jostled his victims around but he had the strongest will to live out of anyone and never relished in hurting them (crying after kidnapping paul + killing seth). another reason i like 3D is that he cant even look at jills corpse. his "game over" wasnt victorious. not like johns always is. YET he is not trusted. hes been there since before amanda, followed his rules, lived his philosophy and he was shafted again. i think the reveal does a lot of good for the apprentice-john dynamic for everyone involved.

secondly, JOHNS TESTS DONT WORK. CANONICALLY. they do not!! amanda says it herself. jigsaw traps make people worse, and not just bc thats a logical response to trauma. working for john amplifies everyones worst traits. amanda became a killer, mark grew to find some sort of enjoyment in killing (at the very least, it made him dependent on it for power and a sense of identity after the loss of his sister)

lawrences test was designed to show him what john said he was missing: empathy. he has none! he lies and doesnt care, he cant understand other peoples points of view, and he prioritizes his own whims and wants over everyone. CONSISTENTLY. so what happens when his tests presents him with the very definition of his heart and moral core, then asks him to kill him? he gets fucking worse!

lawrence is a narcissist. as in the personality disorder. he has low empathy (this is canonically the reason for his test!! not just "he cheated" or "he ignored john", he does these things for that reason) and god. just look at the symptoms, its like they made every scene an example of them on purpose. the idea that his game would be a wake up call and cause him to reflect and adjust his behaviors is just insane to me! within the canon logic of the story, and when taking into account his clear personality disorder... its the most logical choice (source: i have it and also i have eyes. SIDE SIDE note, my real source is that hes a clear parallel to john and john was evaluated for NPD in his psychiatric files in the saw game. so theres that) i think this has a lot to do with people not understanding low empathy. they cant understand why he would betray adam and join jigsaw

trauma wont change that overnight. getting fixed by john for 2 years without seeing the sun certainly wont help either

lawrence as an apprentice is the most logical progression of his character. he does what he wants and what he has to, at the expense of others. hes isolated from his wife and child. he cant understand other peoples prespective. he has an issue with guilt or feeling empathy for people, including those suffering like john. this wont change bc he experienced his first shred of empathy after MURDERING someone he got to know for 6 hours. low empathy =/= no empathy. thats like saying dude bros who do shrooms and experience empathy for the first time in their life are changed people. they arent lol

also the contrast between his game over vs marks 5 minutes earlier is SO important for their characters. theres so much good shit in that movie. take out the corny lines and jill mistreatment, and u have a lot to work with! so yes i do think that itd be more awesome. i love saw 3D and what it did for his character. im not sure how saw iii hostage lawrence wouldve expanded on his character, but id rather go with saw 3D bc im confident they didnt butcher his character. im glad that a beloved protagonist is a complete narc, and hes still beloved! im never giving that up

[subterra-rose]

The bad bitch was me!!! Anyways thoughts under the cut, idc if it’s stuff that’s already been brought up in fandom bc I’m replaying this after 3 years and wasn’t active in it

I always forget how much I love Zagreus like… I love protags like him especially in games because seeing the changes in characters’ relationships just seem more… realistic? Like he’s nice, funny, yet earnest and pretty understanding? I’m still not 100% finished my replay yet so I might be forgetting stuff but he definitely seems like a character who’s overly sociable and energetic because he’s been isolated so long and feels as though he’s a failure in his father’s eyes. I think one thing that bugs me maybe a little bit is I don’t remember ever getting context for him actually going through Hades’ desk at the beginning? Like did he do it to spite him? Was he doubting his parentage already? Was he looking for ammunition to get more mad at? I don’t think it’s necessarily important that there’s a definitive reason because there’s already issues in their relationship, but it’s bugging me I can’t place why he was initially motivated to do it, especially if it’s plot relevant.

I think it’s funny how Thanatos says that Zagreus looks like Hades but has his mother’s eye(s). Like are you just saying this because you don’t really remember what she possibly looks like or are they actually that similar looking? Do you think other characters see him and see that resemblance bc idk if any other character really comments on that. They’re very obviously related but it’s just funny bc you see his CG next to hers and it’s like. That’s her baby.

I’m almost at the point of finishing Thanatos’ bond but I still… don’t really care for him ngl, even playing through a second time. I don’t think he’s a bad character or that he isn’t interesting, I just don’t have any strong feelings on him like, at all. I think a lot of my issues with his writing is that… I don’t like how he’s introduced because a lot of the past relationship dynamics between Zagreus and Thanatos just feels… idk, glossed over? Obviously there’s no flashback really of them growing up, but I think for me at least it’s really weakens how I’m supposed take this background information because Thanatos just shows up and is kind of standoffish in a way that just doesn’t intrigue me? He’s broody in a way that just feels…. Boring I guess lol

On the flip side, I love what they choose to do with Achilles because of how he’s handled in the traditional myths. It feels very natural because of what happens with Hector in some versions, so his character in the game feels like it was a good progression, especially with the sacrifices he’s had to make. Honestly I really love Patroclus too, I think he’s one of my favourite minor side characters

Meg…. Many thoughts about her but oughhhh, not to be a hater but I feel like a lot of the things I like about her character are similar to Thanatos but they were just more engaging in regards to her character? Like I said, I don’t dislike him at all but I think they were just handled in a way that was bland.

I’m still kind of confused on the handling of Hypnos because I really like him and he’s written to be kind of obnoxious, however I said this the other day but his initial relationship with Zagreus is kind of odd imo? I feel like it’s treated like they’re just acquaintances but if Hypnos is Thanatos’ twin, wouldn’t… he have be raised alongside Zagreus? Not that I think that means they would’ve been super close but it really pales when looking at some of the implications. It seems they were close enough that Hypnos would put the entire house to sleep for him, but then their conversations seem somewhat stilted in the beginning of the game like they’re not super familiar with each other?

Going crazy, need to talk to a bad bitch about Hades while Darien is at work

[swordgayist]

cultural appropriation in ATLA (hinduism edition)

i’m sure there’s already a ton of posts about this, but whatever, i’m still making one idc. 

ATLA’s cultural appropriation, everyone knows about it, the white people don’t speak about it, and the asian and indigenous people get ignored. we know the cycle. but i wanted to come here and highlight some of the most prominent examples of ATLA abusing hinduism, as i am kinda sorta hindu (i was raised in a hindu household, i go to chinmaya mission, that kinda shit). i might forget some things so keep that in mind.

this is gonna be divided into 3 main sections, since there are different ways that they disrespect hinduism that i don’t wanna lump together.

and i’d say i know a lot about hinduism but that doesn’t make me an expert, obviously, so if other hindus have anything to add and/or correct then please do !! and if anyone else wants to share how their cultures were appropriated then please do that as well !!

so let’s get started shall we?

appropriating hinduism

1) the avatar

we’ll start with the most obvious example: the avatar itself

i know that there are parts of the avatar mythos that are taken from other cultures as well but the idea of the avatar itself is primarily from hinduism.

basically in hinduism, the term dashavatara refers to the 10 reincarnations of lord vishnu (the god of preservation), with avatar(a) meaning form or incarnation in sanskrit, and das(a) meaning ten. it was said that whenever the world was out of balance, lord vishnu would come down to earth in a certain form to restore balance. Each reincarnation is considered a different life with a different story. the avatars of lord vishnu are often considered the saviors of the world.

so basically, the central idea of the show and the actual name of the show is largely based on hinduism.

2) chakras

many different indian religions have a concept of chakras (chakra meaning wheel or circle in sanskrit), but hinduism is the one that primarily preaches the system of seven chakras, the version used in ATLA.

chakras connect the physical body to the ‘subtle’ body (referring more to the spirit and the psyche) by connecting parts of the body to aspects of the mind. the idea is that through different forms of steady meditation you can manipulate the different chakras and allow the pure flow of energy through the body.

the whole idea of chakras on ATLA is that aang has to unblock them all to let the cosmic energy flow through him so that he can go into the avatar state at will. so yeah, pretty much that whole idea was taken from hinduism.

3) terminologies

these are just a few terms that were taken from hinduism. i’m pretty sure there are more that i can’t think of right now but yeah.

“agni” kai 

i’ll be honest i don’t know where the ‘kai’ part is from, i don’t think it’s from hinduism but if it is well fuck me i guess.  ‘agni’ in hinduism is the god of fire, so the creators used it in ‘agni kai’, the name for a firebending duel.

“bumi”

this is in reference to the hindu word for ‘earth’, which is bhoomi. this is also in reference to our goddess of earth, bhoomi devi. also this doesn’t really bother me but i wonder if the creators knew that bhoomi is a name typically used for women (as are most hindi names ending in ‘i’/‘ee’).

in general, concepts like having multiple complex gods (the spirits) who are capable of good and evil and the reincarnation cycle are prominent in a lot of asian cultures, including (and arguably primarily) hinduism.

mocking hinduism

now we get into the mockery of hinduism in ATLA, because it is very much there.

1) whoever the fuck that baboon guy in the spirit world was

now what the fuck was this.

i mean i wouldn’t say this is the most egregious example of them making fun of brown people but lord why did this even need to be there? this random guy from the spirit world has an indian accent ? and is fervently chanting ‘om’ for some reason, and it’s clearly meant to be seen as comical. also portraying brown people as monkeys....... really.

2) combustion man/sparky sparky boom man

when rewatching ATLA in 2019 i actually had no idea that this was a thing, because the last time i had watched it was as a kid and i didn’t finish it.

so lord was i in for a surprise when i saw...

now... now what.

if you didn’t know, combustion man’s ‘third eye’ is designed to replicate the hindu god of destruction, lord shiva. right down to the vibhuti on his forehead (referring to the three line markings around the third eye).

in hinduism, lord shiva’s third eye is used to reduce people to ashes, though as far as i can recall, not very frequently. the primary significance of the third eye is that it represents the ability of higher spiritual thought and higher consciousness.

the ATLA writers take the ACTUAL significance of the third eye, throw it out the window, and then take its destructive abilities to make a super duper cool and dangerous new firebending technique.

and if that wasn’t bad enough, the actual person who uses this technique, and is meant to emulate a GOD who is PRAISED, is a scary, burly, half metal man who is a villain and an assassin. not to mention the design of his facial hair replicates that super duper scary “terrorist” depiction of brown people, particularly of muslims, that white people are so thoroughly terrified of for no reason. 

this is a parody of a god, and they portrayed him as this terrifying, maniacal fucking assassin who, along with p’li, the combustion bender from LOK, is constantly referred to as a “third-eyed freak”. i’ve made this analogy before and i’ll do it again, this is like making jesus into a hitman.

now onto my favorite example...

3) guru pathik

ah, this motherfucker.

i don’t really have any problems with him as a character, i mean hell, must’ve taken a fuck ton of patience to handle aang’s “why would choose cosmic energy over katara” bullshit.

but we all know it, we see it plain as day, don’t even try to deny it.

“guru” literally just means teacher or guide, so i don’t really know why pathik needed to be referred to as “guru” so distinctively from aang’s other teachers and guides, but that’s just extremely trivial compared to all the other issues with this character.

first of all what is this character design? what is he even wearing? if they’re trying to replicate the clothes of swamis and priests and stuff this is already wrong, realized people don’t dress like this. and why the fuck does he have an indian accent? and why was this indian accent done by a non indian (brian george)?

once again, the poor but extremely heavy indian accent is clearly meant to be mocking, if it wasn’t, they wouldn’t’ve gone out of their way to get a non indian person to DO an indian accent, and instead they would’ve just gotten an actual indian person to play the role. 

and oh yeah, the onion and banana juice. because hindus just eat weird shit right.

whether it’s actually weird or not, the show certainly portrays it as weird. and as far as i know no hindu actually fucking drinks onion and banana juice.

ironic because brown people can absolutely destroy white people in cooking. but i digress.

i know what you’re all waiting for. because the guru apparently didn’t have enough fun with guru pathik, so they just had to come back to him in book 3:

where do i begin.

so this is obviously john o’bryan’s super funny and hilarious depiction of pathik as a hindu god.

usually when a god has multiple arms it’s to carry an array of things, from flowers to weapons to instruments, and one hand is typically free to bless devotees (ie. goddess durga and lord vishnu respectively):

but of course white people see this as weird and so they make fun of it, hence guru pathik having multiple arms just flailing about aimlessly (save for the two that are being used to carry the aforementioned onion and banana juice).

then there’s the whole light behind pathik’s head which is usually depicted in drawings of hindu gods to show that they are celestial.

also what the fuck is he holding? is that supposed to be a veena? because this is what a veena looks like:

and i assume the reason this was added was to mock the design of goddess saraswathi, who carries a veena:

but that right there in the picture of pathik looks more like a tambura than a veena. 

and it also just kinda looks like a banjo?

but i guess the animators just searched up “long indian instrument” and slapped it on there. actually no, that’s giving them too much credit, they probably didn’t search it up at all. 

and then the actual scene is pathik singing crazily about chakras tasting good or something while playing the non-veena and it’s all supposed to be some funky crazy hallucination that aang is having due to sleep deprivation. just some crazy dream, just as crazy as talking appa and momo sparring with swords or tree-ozai coming to life.

our gurus and swamis and sadhus and generally realized people are very respected in hinduism, they’re people we look up to and honor very much. and our GODS are beings that we literally worship. and the writers just take both and make caricatures out of them for other white people to laugh at.

4) other shit

before we move to the next portion i just wanna mention there are also smaller backhanded jabs that i can’t really remember now, but one example was when zuko was all “we’ll be sure to remember that, guru goody goody”. or when a character would meditate and say “om” only when the meditation is supposed to be portrayed as comical or pointless. or in bitter work when sokka was rambling on about karma. small things like that. but moving on.

south asian representation, or lack thereof

now i finally get to the “losing” hinduism part. by this i mean the lack of actual representation there is of south asians (the region where hinduism is primarily practiced) despite the fact that hinduism plays such a big role in the show’s world design.

i think it’s safe to say that broadly the main cast consists of aang, katara, sokka, zuko, toph, azula, iroh, mai, ty lee, and suki. 

a grand total of none of these characters are south asian. the writers don’t even attempt to add any south asian main characters. 

there are characters with dark skin, like haru and jet, but a) they’re not confirmed to be south asian and don’t have any south asian features or south asian names, b) they’re side characters, so they don’t count as representation, and c) even if they were south asian and main characters, jet wouldn’t even count because he’s portrayed as a terrorist.

the ONLY truly south asian character we get is fucking guru pathik. so yeah. not representation.

i don’t get how the creators of this show rip off of hinduism (among many other south asian cultures they rip off of), mock indians, and then don’t even have the decency to HAVE a main character who is south asian.

i’ve never gotten a chance to compile all this, and this definitely isn’t all the creators have done, but i hope this was somewhat informative.

[sarcophagid]

Uhh what’s your favorite TR arc and why??

BLACK DRAGONS CHRISTMAS MURDER ARC

i think ive talked abt this b4 but it just has so much stuff i like in it. its my favorite in terms of storytelling i'm not deep i like easily recognizable gimmicks for babies idc. theres a bunch of reasons i like it so:

the kisaki-hanma-chifuyu-takemichi teamup i love their begrudging cooperation and their hostility...i miss them every day... when will C4U/KillemAll/The Hanmas come back from the war... i see them in every group of 4... the wiggles, teletubbies, tmnt... it was a team born to die but what a beautiful birth...

i think the tenuous dynamics between the gangs at the time was fun the suspense was good. baji just died, kisaki and hanma still in toman, black dragons about to go warring with everyone, no one likes each other it was a great spawning ground for drama

yuzuha was one of my favorite main characters of the arc... no one else understands this... her sigma philosphy of killing taiju. i talked about this more in an older ask but in summary: i like the “inescapable violence” theme in the christmas arc. yuzuha kills taiju to protect hakkai, hakkai takes the blame to protect yuzuha and becomes BD leader to end up just as corrupt as taiju, cycle of doom. neither yuzuha and hakkai had any bad intention they had the same ‘desire to protect, to do good’ that got pushed to the point of doing bad things. even taiju seems to have his version of good will but theres just something up with that guy dawg.

i really wish they’d say smth abt yuzuha in the future of the manga bcz what is she even doing while her little brothers in the middle of the chaos but also the plot has expanded so much by now that unfortunately she probably won’t make another major appearance -_-

on the other side, taiju was my favorite antagonist, i never draw him but he has one of my favorite designs in the series even though every panel of his jumpscares you. takemichi saw him once and immediately started getting night terrors

going off on a tangent though, i'm... iffy about the 'redemption'. i like taiju but this is on the level of him being an imaginary dude with a big role in a story. the point of the story is that you dont like him, hes still a huge douchewagon... i don’t think the main cast (including hakkai) would still be cool with him even though its been 2 years it’s not something that just ‘gets better with time’. taiju didn’t even really say he was gonna be a better person (im pretty sure he said smth the opposite lmfao but i don;t remember well). in the timeskip, it could be interpreted that he did make an effort to improve given how seriously he took grieving hakkais death, but thats 10+ years after the affair, and even then it’s only an implication! that sketch of taiju with mana and luna never sat right with me why does mitsuya trust him sm all of a sudden...in my opinion they really didnt need him to return?? there are better candidates to nearly castrate sanzu for threatening takemichi, fight the living legends, etc. (what happened to the rest of toman, or just ask anyone here they’ll nominate their little boyfriend ran haitani or smth) i could talk about this a lot but TLDR i think it’d be fine if he just went away lol you dont need to have them make up it doesnt make sense

honorable mention! tenjiku arc was fun i liked getting to see the stories of the side cast (esp kawata brothers, mucho, emma)

[farvaduvet]

I always thought Dark pit represented the frustration Pit felt about himself, it was interesting how every complain that Pitoo brought up was always about Pit and the way he acted towards Palutena, he never once insulted her directly nor said anything bad about her, rather all of his criticism and complaints were about Pit’s attitude towards her.

I always felt like Dark pit was similar to persona 4 version of shadows, more or less all of Pit’s own frustrations, insecurities and internal desires being exposed without filter.

So,I think that it was very meaningful how they came together and teamed up in order to rescued Palutena together by the end of the game

A lot of my thoughts are things that @descendant-of-truth had already pointed out (I’m a big fan of their analysis)

I found very interesting how Wilted Pit called out Pitoo for working for Viridi and behind the same as him despite Pitoo criticizing Wilted for working with Pandora and being subservient to her.

In a way it still retain the same sentiment that their reflection is still a representation of their own feelings and insecurities.

This makes me wonder it Pitoo will confront Viridi for harming the humans and if Wilted could stand up to Pandora in accord.

look at you making me spontaneously write a frickin essay about alternate universe anime angels. i just have a lot of Thoughts.

yeah man that’s the cool thing about the pits. they’re rather complex characters, even though the game barely skims any of that complexity explicitly (which sucks because please there is so much material for KIU 2)

the tricky part of this au has been figuring out how exactly wilted pit works as a reflection of dark pit. because the mirror is said to create clones based off what’s been repressed in the original’s heart (the truth, ig) but then palutena’s like, ‘oh, that pittoo… he’s manifesting your dark side.’ maybe she’s unfounded in saying that, in which case, that’s a whole different thing to unpack, if she thinks pit’s repressed desire to be independent like dark pit is bad. but. we’re here to talk about my au lmao

so yeah the mirror definitely sounds like a thing that exploits insecurities more than anything else. now, canon dark pit would never work for any of the gods for any reason, that’s his whole M.O (discounting what was said in palutena’s guidance, idc about that), so something’s gotta give in order for this au to work. this is where i start super reading between the lines sksksk

got damn i wrote a lot. putting the rest under read more

dark pit isn’t the endlessly positive and hopeful person pit is. he’s cynical, and he calls things like he sees them. obviously the flight advantage is half of why he’s under viridi in the first place, but i think, in a world where pit doesn’t exist, he’s sort of left in this place of knowing there’s nothing he-- an angel, meant to be in service of the gods-- can do on his own to end any conflict between the gods. and that sucks for him!! he retains that same sense of wanting to fight for good that canon pit has, but no palutena out there to make him feel like he can do that.

but he resigns himself to serving one of them anyway. what else can he do? it’s not like there’s any good pickings-- medusa is literally evil, while palutena, who never went looking for him after he fell out of skyworld, largely ignores the suffering of the humans she’s supposed to protect. viridi at least respects his boundaries and tolerates his rebellious nature, even if she is a misanthropic maniac. i think, underneath all the edginess, he just wants someone to respect him as he actually is, not conditionally on whether he’s a good little servant.

wilted pit, on the other hand, is the version of pit who gives up and resigns himself to being that good little servant. he’s desperate for affection, even if it’s from the obviously evil pandora, and later from medusa and hades, none of whom really treat him like an actual person. i think this is sort of like a toxic version of how pit is in canon (which is admittedly already a lil toxic)-- quite a bit of his self-image is just in being so important to palutena, and without her, he sorta starts losing it (like in chs 20 n 23).

both pit and wilted pit know about the implications of their circumstances. pit’s had longer to justify it to himself-- so when wilty calls him out for being a hypocrite, he’s like, how dare you insinuate that i’m like you… even though you are sorta the embodiment of all my insecurities…

eventually, they’re able to overcome their differences. they’ve got a solidarity in being the only ones of their kind, in a weird sort of spot: too divine for the humans, but too lowly for most of the gods. pit realizes there are people out there who care about him and it’s ok to let his guard down; wilty becomes brave enough to fight for what’s right, even if it seems impossible. this probably happens during the chaos kin arc… i imagine palutena finds wilty when he wakes up, and they find pit together, then they all team up to save viridi.

i haven’t thought as much about what viridi thinks of pit? she acts like she doesn’t care that much, but she’s secretly got a soft spot for him, and sort of pities his circumstances. she of course brushes him off whenever he says, ‘hey, genocide’s not cool,’ but maybe this changes when she’s forced to work with with palutena to defeat hades? pit probably rips her a new one after the chaos kin arc and she’s like, okok, fine. maybe cooperation isn’t bad. maybe the humans can get better.

she’s a little boggled that god-hater pit would go out of his way to save her, though. i imagine viridi’s not used to being cared about, either, as a self-proclaimed enemy of humanity. (on that note, how do phosphora and arlon feel about her? who knows. I’m gonna include them in this au but it’s a little tricky when i can’t make them bosses lmao)

wilted pit of course has a final encounter with pandora at the rewind spring, and things are rather tense… imagine meeting back up with your abusive mom who is now a hot lady. it’s hard, but he is eventually able to fight her. maybe pit helps out too if he gets revived first

i think wilted pit ends up with palutena at the end of everything. she gets one last angel to take care of, and he gets a real mom :)