#In conclusion the main villains gang are winning

[fandom-with-no-hope]

Forever haunted by the fact that Other Side of the Screen (the wonderful story that I never got to write) was heavily inspired by HLVRAI. Like. What do you mean the main villain was originally supposed to be like Benrey. What is this.

[loudcollection]

The Best and Worst of "Sons of Anarchy"

Sons of Anarchy" is not your average TV series. It's a thrilling, gut-wrenching, and often controversial ride through the world of SAMCRO (Sons of Anarchy Motorcycle Club, Redwood Original). With seven seasons of outlaw motorcycle club drama, it has its highs and lows. Let's explore the best and worst aspects of this unforgettable show.

The Best: Complex Characters

One of the show's greatest strengths is its characters. From Jax Teller (played by Charlie Hunnam), the conflicted club president, to Gemma Teller Morrow (Katey Sagal), the matriarch with secrets aplenty, the characters are multi-dimensional and deeply flawed. Their evolution over the series keeps viewers engaged.

The Worst: Excessive Violence

"Sons of Anarchy" doesn't hold back on violence. Some scenes are so gruesome that they make you look away. While this brutality adds realism to the outlaw world, it can be stomach-turning at times.

The Best: Authentic Biker Culture

The show's creators did their homework when it came to portraying biker culture. From the Leather vests adorned with patches to the codes of brotherhood, they nailed the gritty and authentic feel of the motorcycle club world.

The Worst: Questionable Moral Compass

SAMCRO operates on a questionable moral compass. While they may have good intentions at times, their actions often blur the line between anti-hero and villain. Rooting for characters who commit crimes can be morally challenging.

The Best: Loyalty and Brotherhood

At its core, "Sons of Anarchy" is about loyalty and brotherhood. The bonds between club members run deep, and their willingness to sacrifice for one another is both touching and inspiring.

The Worst: Destructive Relationships

While the show explores various types of relationships, many of them are toxic and destructive. From Jax and Tara's tumultuous love story to Gemma's manipulative tactics, the relationships often end in tragedy.

The Best: Gripping Storylines

"Sons of Anarchy" knows how to keep you on the edge of your seat. The intricate plotlines involving rival gangs, power struggles, and personal vendettas make for riveting storytelling.

The Worst: Pacing Issues

At times, the show's pacing can be uneven. Some seasons drag on with seemingly endless subplots, while others rush through major events. Finding the right balance proved challenging.

The Best: Strong Performances

The cast of "Sons of Anarchy" delivers exceptional performances. Charlie Hunnam's portrayal of Jax Teller, in particular, is a standout. Katey Sagal's Emmy-winning performance as Gemma adds depth to the series.

The Worst: Gratuitous Sex and Nudity

The show doesn't shy away from explicit content, including explicit sex scenes and nudity. While it may cater to some viewers, it can feel gratuitous and distracting from the main storyline.

The Best: Thought-Provoking Themes

"Sons of Anarchy" delves into thought-provoking themes like the consequences of one's actions, the price of power, and the impact of family legacy. It offers viewers more than just mindless entertainment.

The Worst: Overwhelming Tragedy

Be prepared for heartbreak. "Sons of Anarchy" doesn't hesitate to kill off major characters, often in devastating ways. These losses can leave viewers emotionally drained.

In conclusion, "Sons of Anarchy" is a show that thrills and challenges its audience. Its complex characters, authentic portrayal of biker culture, and gripping storylines are some of its best qualities. However, its excessive violence, moral ambiguity, and destructive relationships can be difficult to digest. Ultimately, it's a series that leaves a lasting impression, for better or worse, and that's precisely what makes it unforgettable.

[jourke-rourke]

Okay so this post May have led me to the somewhat inadvisable decision to watch all five seasons of Leverage over the past eight days and I gotta say: I’m not sure I see the resemblance? Don’t get me wrong, I do quite enjoy both shows, and I think Leverage might well become one of the shows that I rewatch individual episodes of whenever I want a fun, self-contained storyline, but the two shows come across as very different to me. Now, admittedly I haven’t seen the newer show (and probably won’t in the near future as I’m itching to get back to dark matter) so maybe I’m missing important context. But to me the appeal of Leverage comes from the upbeat tone, general trickster hijinks, and the heist-of-the-week structure with consistent group dynamics and little overarching plot. Whereas DM focuses much more on character-driven storytelling that trends way darker, has tightly interwoven storylines that generally span multiple episodes if not seasons, and almost the entire main cast is just miserable for a solid 95% of the show. I can see the connection in the ‘former criminals trying to do good.’ But for the Raza most of the show is focused on, like, ‘is it even possible for us to become good people, or are we all doomed to fall back into old patterns,’ and ‘what does it even mean to be good when the world is so twisted that the best-intended actions still leave blood on your hands,’ and ‘just because you’re trying to be a better person doesn’t mean you’re forgiven for the harm you’ve caused, and in many people’s eyes you will never escape the role of villain’. Whereas in Leverage they get past most of that in… the first half of episode 1, and then the rest of the show is them continually outsmarting the bad guys to help innocent people and always landing on top. Unless you’re Nate in which case you can torture yourself about it forever while the rest of your crew is stuck going 'dude PLEASE get over yourself we've got sh*t to do' (six-core). Anyways, all this to say: (a) I appreciate this post for finally getting me to watch Leverage, because even though my conclusions were different, I really enjoyed it! And (b) I do actually wish that DM had some episodes that were more like Leverage in tone. The Leverage crew genuinely feel like they’re all friends, and they’re constantly joking around and teasing each other during ops even while they’re working together, and I feel like that sort of playful dynamic is disappointingly scarce in DM. The Raza gang deserves a couple episodes where they do just take some easy, fun op where everything cleans up nicely and the good guys wind up with a real win. Would make them all way less miserable.

Dark Matter is like, very obviously inspired by Firefly but I think it's also worth noting that a fair number of episodes have as much, maybe more, Leverage in their DNA. It is cyberpunk Firefly but it is also Leverage with sci-fi tech.

[inky-duchess]

The Villain's Ending: How to Serve Your Villain Their Comeuppance

The Villain is one of the most important characters in your story, the driving force for everything that happens your heroes and your world. The Villain must be dealt with, we can all agree on this one point. The Villain has been tormenting our hero and they must be punished. And not by a falling brick, Dave and Dan. The audience deserves a real ending and your villain must be punished accordingly for their actions.

Punishment fits the crime/ Poetic Justic

The Villain has been cruel, they have done horrible things to our hero. The world decides to get its own back in the most ironic and poetic way possible. These endings are perhaps the most enjoyable to both read and write, they allow both you and the audience to have closure but while making echoes in the story.

Carrie is one of my favourite novels. Carrie has been pushed far past breaking point by the conclusion of her story, she has been bullied, humiliated and betrayed. Every character who has ever hurt Carrie (either physically, emotionally, mentally or spiritually) gets their just desserts. She has been tortured for her strangeness and inability to fit in... and now, her strangeness is what she wields against her villains. She destroys her bullies at the school dance (wiping them put at an event which was meant to be the happiest night of their life), getting rid of Chris Hargensen and Billy Nolan, the puppeteers of her humiliation (using Chris and Billy's status symbol [the car] against them and taking control of it away from them to hurt them with it) and good ol' Mama Margaret White dies at her daughter's hands, slowing her heartbeat with her TK (Margaret is punished by her own daughter, her life taken by the gene she passed to her own daughter and via the symbol of love, a commodity she denied her own child).

Disney's The Hunchback of Notre Dame is a beautifully shot film and one of Disney's gems. At the film's climax, Frollo is trying to kill Esmeralda and Quasimodo atop the apex of Notre Dame. Frollo has a sword in his hand and seems to be winning, raising his sword to smite Esmeralda as she tries to help Quasimodo, reciting "And He shall smite the wicked and plunge them into the fiery pit!" But he has weakened the stone gargoyle he stands on and his movements cause him to fall and cling to the gargoyle as it cracks, its eyes glowing with sudden divine rage. Frollo falls backwards into the fiery blaze of Paris to his death. Justice is served.

In Game of Thrones/ASOIAF, we see this in spades. Ramsay Snow has hunted down young women in the woods with his hounds, tormented Theon Greyjoy into madness, had his stepmother and half brother fed to his hounds only minutes after the boy is born, killed his father (though this is a service to society), might have killed his own elder half brother, burned Winterfell, raped Jeyne/Sansa and being a pretty bad human being. In the show, Ramsay is fed to his own dogs while Sansa watches. Tywin Lannister has also been a terrible human being: having his son's wife raped while he watches, arranging the Red Wedding, allowing Cersei to set Tyrion up for murder, punishing Alayaya, his actions against the Reynes and Tarbecks, his terrible parenting and his general evilness. He is shot while taking a dump by Tyrion, the child he disparaged most in a rather inglorious fashion. Tywin dies leaving his dreams of dynasty to crumble, his unsavory relationship with Shae to be uncovered and humiliated after his death. The Seven were truly good that day. And not to mention Walder Frey, being served his own dead sons in a pie and killed by the daughter and sister of the woman he had slain in the very room he sits in. You can see the confusion and fear in his face as he tries to work out why this is happening, mirroring Catelyn and Robb's own horror and fear. Arya cuts his throat, echoing her mother's death.

In Jurassic World: Fallen Kingdom, we are introduced to the hunter Ken Wheatley. He hunts the dinosaurs, helping the main villain in rounding them up. He has a habit of collecting the teeth of the animals he hunts. He pulls out a Stegosaurus's tooth, relishing in the prize without caring for the creature's fear and pain. Wheatley tries to do the same with the Indoraptor, thinking the beast has been tranquilized but Indy was just playing. The Indoraptor bites his arm off as he tries to pull her tooth, killing him in gory glorious fashion. Indy was a very good and clever girl.

Book Ends

The Villain sometimes is treated to a walk down memory lane in their final moments. The beginning of their story is echoed in their final moments, bringing the circle to a finish and creating a nice clean break. The end feels earned in these circumstances, rounding off the arc nicely.

In Harry Potter, Voldemort fears death. He has done all he has done for his preservation and longevity. Voldemort faces off Harry in the Great Hall of Hogwarts, one on one as it had been when Voldemort stood in Harry's bedroom in Godric's Hollow. As before, the action that begun the tale ends it for Voldemort. He fires the Killing Curse at Harry and it gets turned on him. Voldemort dies simply, with no thunderous drama. He gets both his worst fears wrapped up in some poetic justice. The circle is complete.

Arya Stark faces all kinds of villains in her trek across the riverlands in A Clash of Kings. She and her gang of misfits (Gendry, Hotpie and an injured Lommy) are cornered by Lannister soldiers. The soldiers gather the gang to send them to Harrenhal. Raff the Sweetling, one of the soldiers asks Lommy "Is there something wrong with your leg, boy?" And Lommy replies, that yes he is hurt and he has to be carried. Raff stabs the boy through the throat and jokingly repeats Lommy's request. Arya encounters him again in Braavos in the Mercy Chapter of Winds of Winter. She stabs him in the thigh and feigns worry for his condition, asking him whether she should help him to the physician. Instead, Arya stabs him in the throat. The circle is complete.

Though Braveheart is a rather mixed bag of tricks, it does get this echo right. Muireann has her throat cut for both marrying without the Lord's permission and attacking the English soldier who tried to rape her. Enter William Wallace who takes on the garrison and raises the village to utterly destroy the soldiers. He marches into the Lord's fort (the place he felt safest in as Muireann did in her village and metaphorically in her marriage to Wallace) and drags the fucker to the same post he executed Muireann at, cutting the Lord's throat. The circle is complete.

In Captive Prince, the whole conflict of the series kicks off at Marlas where Damen kills the Veretian Prince in battle, brother to Prince Laurent. Kastor has taken his brother Damen's throne and forced him into slavery. Damen's opening chapter has him being readied for his ordeals in the slave's baths before being sent off to Vere to serve Laurent. Fast forward to our ending and Damen has come home for his throne. He confronts Kastor in the slave baths where Kastor tries to kill him. Laurent steps in and delivers a killing blow, killing Damen's brother as Damen killed his. Two circles are fulfilled.

In The Heroes of Olympus: The Blood of Olympus, Gaia has begun to destroy Camp Half Blood, levelling the forces of the gods and demigods. Gaia began the first first cycle of the PJO Universe by having her husband, Ouranos/Uranus killed. Gaia had Ouranos come down from his domain the sky, away from his source of power. She had him ambushed and killed, her son Kronos, the original antagonist do the deed. We fast forward to the present and Kronos has been taken down by Camp Half Blood and Camp Jupiter. Gaia is mad af and rises to take out the heroes. In the end, Gaia's fate is that of Ouranos, driven from her point of power, the earth and destroyed. The bookends are a couple of millennia apart but the circle is complete.

There is always somebody else.

The Villain and hero are mortal enemies. The Hero has suffered at the Villain's hand for the length of the story, battling them in tests of strength, power and wills. The Hero must over come the Villain... or do they? The Villain must be beaten, that is a fact or else the story has no purpose or no meaning. One must triumph over the other. But there is no written rule that states that it must be the protagonist who must deal the blow and here is where justice can be done for even the most minor character.

The Captive Prince series has this ending in spades. Throughout the story we are pelted with the Regent's evil actions: Hurting Erasmus, killing Laurent's horse, setting his own nephew up to be sexually assaulted and murdered at the hands of the man who killed his brother, constantly being creepy, keeping children as pets, taunting Laurent about abusing him, killing his own brother the King, ordering the death of Pashcal's brother who knew the Regent ordered the King's death, of the killing Nicaise, corrupting Aimeric and his takeover of the Kingdoms of Vere and Akielon. We spend the story waiting for his downfall, waiting for Laurent or Damen to strike the blow. But it isn't them. Instead, the Regent seems to have won, trapping both heroes. Then comes the justice. The truth comes to light. Aimeric's mother testifies against the Regent. Evidence gathered by Nicaise and Pashcal's testimony of his brother's actions both prove to be a nail in the Regent's coffin. In the end, it is the ghosts of three of the Regent's victims who beat him and drive his supporters to abandon him. The victims get the revenge, not just the heroes. It isn't an empty victory for them.

In Outlander, Claire is kidnapped and subjected to torture and abuse at the hands of Lionel and his men. He broke into her home, snatched her, beat Marsali and tortured her. When Claire is rescued by the men of the Ridge, Jamie asks her which men attacked her but she cannot recall so he has them all killed excepting Lionel that is. He is kept because of his value to his brother and Claire's belief that a patient shouldn't be harmed by the doctor. Enter Marsali. She has hurt in the kidnapping and had to watch the strongest woman she has ever known subjected to horrors. She understands Claire will not take revenge because of her Hippocratic oath but she swore no such vow. Even the speech, is striking reminding us that Claire is not just the only one has hurt. "I've been learning the art of healing. Mistress Fraser taught me well. She took an oath to do no harm... I have taken no such oath. You hurt me, you hurt my family, you hurt my ma. I will watch you burn in hell before I let you harm another soul in this house..." Also, she kills him with a syringe which is a nod to his destruction of the one at the battle with the regulators. I for one hope it hurt.

In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, we see this happen a lot. Neville takes out the sword of Gryffindor and fucking charges at Nagini, a piece of Voldemort, avenging his parents' torture and his own brutal treatment in his final year. Bellatrix has killed Sirius and Dobby, both two characters very dear to Harry and his friends. They do not get to bring her down. It is Molly Weasley who gets to do it, a mother who has lost her brother, her son and almost her world to the ideals of Bellatrix. She fucking snaps and we cheered her on.

In the Lion King, we watch waiting for Scar to get his comeuppance after he pushes his brother off a cliff, chases away his nephew and destroys the pride lands. Though Simba fights a good fight, he gets a case of Hero-itus and decides not to kill his uncle (it is a Disney movie after all) but events transpire and then Scar is trapped with the hyenas, the same hyenas he just tried to throw under the bus only a few seconds before this.

[bubbloquacious]

🌻

So I've been rewatching Ben 10, which I watched as a kid, and recently I reached the second series, Ben 10: Alien Force. I always liked this series better as a kid (I preferred slightly edgier cartoons I guess) but what struck me about the start of the first season is that it's so much more thoughtful and subtle than the original series.

There's a scene in an early episode where the three main characters (Ben, Gwen, and Kevin) are looking around this warehouse at night, and Gwen makes a glowing pink ball of her magical energy powers to get some light in the room. When they hear the bad guy approach the door, there's a shot where they all look at the door, and then Gwen turns off her light and the screen goes black. A second after the door cracks open and lights the place up again but they have all silently agreed to hide somewhere. I thought that was a surprisingly cool moment for what is still very much a children's cartoon.

Another thing that has stuck with me is episode 5: All That Glitters, which is notable because none of the characters ever really make a stupid mistake. What usually happens in Ben 10 is that someone gets passed the idiot ball and that allows the villain/heroes to escape and curse the other team for getting in their way or whatever. In this one, the gang meet another superpowered kid who has inherited a plumber's badge from one of their space cop parents, which is a big thing in season one.

He's named Mike Morningstar (lol), and he can fly and shoots energy beams and he pretty much uses his powers to be a superhero, so Ben is instantly like let's get this guy on the team we need all the help we can get. Gwen thinks he's kind of cute and also she wants to make Kevin jealous because he didn't ask her out (she literally said "why haven't you asked me out yet?" at the start of the episode, when has there been a teenage romance like this?). Kevin doesn't trust him both because he's jealous and because Mike is kind of sleazy, but Ben and Gwen both have their reasons to not be that suspicious. Turns out he is obviously bad and he puts some mind control thing on Gwen.

After they fight some zombified teenage girls Mike asks Gwen out and they go for a drive, and after they've left Kevin tries to convince Ben that he's bad for business. They puzzle out the clues and chase after Mike and Gwen, where they discover he's an energy vampire and has sucked Gwen dry. Gwen is like mega powerful so Mike wipes the floor with Ben and Kevin, but then Gwen grabs Mike's arm and absorbs her own powers back, which takes out Mike and he's swarmed by the other girls whose energy he stole. At the end Ben is like "I should have listened to Kevin and not be so quick to trust" and like yeah! That's exactly what went wrong and the lesson you should take!

Gwen was hypnotized before she reasonably could've been suspicious. Ben was understandably eager to get someone powerful on the team, but also in the face of the evidence he was convinced and came to the rescue. Kevin was suspicious but couldn't quite place the evidence, so he let his gut feeling lead him to the correct conclusion. Mike had a perfect plan, and he was winning, he just did not know that Gwen was part magical alien and could just absorb her energy back when she snuck up on him. No one was an idiot!

Anyway I'm in season 2 now and there's definitely some more idiocy lmao, gonna keep watching though.

[garak]

BATMAN THE LONG HALLOWEEN PART ONE REVIEW:

as a known long halloweener i feel i have the right to say this one should have stuck closer to the script.

jensen ackles as batman sucks shit. he is putting on a really bad fake deep voice

the cityscapes are very nice and the opening credits are mwah. perfect

they switched out the irish racism (mild and largely inconsequential) for asian racism which seems like an. absurd choice. especially when the gang they swapped out are established batman lore characters afaik

they did not understand what made catwoman’s design good and gave her a very default catsuit AND got rid of her cool hair AND samefaced her. what the fuck

the joker kisses a man onscreen AND gets to keep his new years kiss line so i count it as a win for gay coded joker enjoyers

also in regards to the joker i’m glad they kept some elements to what made his long halloween design so memorable. mostly this movie stuck to the modern batman animated style which is fine, but i was glad to see more elements of the original designs

they made calendar man sexy

i love jim gordons design and how they play more into his drama with his family and how it contrasts with dent even if it is a little heavy handed

roberto my friend roberto .... they made him sexy as well

they pronounce it falconey in this movie? is that real? i always read it as falcohn and gotham said it that way too... italians let me know

robertos romance subplot thing. what was that. 

whyyyy did they reveal him so early too!!! where is the riddler! where is scarecrow! where is mad hatter! i assume they’ll come in in part two but like why would you reveal him so early especially when it doesn’t make sense that batman OR the joker would know this! 

why with the unknown masked assailant when roberto faked his death in the original? and with the super conclusive death. like how is he supposed to come back from this. are they changing the main villain? why? that ruins the whole set up of the story!!!!!

also batman listing his original motives and then him being like “what? no!” is such a punch in the face for people who genuinely liked the original plotline. like why are you saying its stupid or unfounded its literally the plot of the book.

my prediction for part two is they’ll switch to gilda being the holiday killer, which is fine i guess but theyve made her even more sympathetic this movie and it’s just sort of a stupid and cliché take on what was a complex story, especially now that roberto is gone.

selena and bruce knowing each others secret identities is also a boring change and only used for shock value. stupid. i will not forgive them for what they have done to catwoman

also robertos killer was a blonde guy so who the fuck was that. 

CONCLUSION: good for if you like long halloween joker. bad if you like long halloween catwoman or the plot of the long halloween. we will see how part two plays out. hoping for more grundy 

[hispydamy618]

She-Ra and the Princesses of Power x Spaceling: Glitch in Space

Summary: After opening the portal, it tears a hole across the dimensions giving an entrance for the New York heroes: Utopix Jones, Georgine Wilson, Gabriel Rodriguez, Oliver Schmidt and Makena Jones, to fall right through. Together, they'll need to recreate the disaster that brought them to Etheria alongside the Princess' Rebellion in order to go back home and fix what was broken... but not before defeating the obstacles on the way.

Disclaimer: Contains spoilers for She-Ra’s season 3 finale and Spaceling’s issue 10-12 events.

(Thank you so much to @catlliecal​ for co-writing this with me!)

Masterlist: Chapter 1 (you’re here!) // Chapter 2 // Chapter 3 // Chapter 4 // Chapter 5 // Chapter 6 // Chapter 7

Word Count: 3.2k 

Check Spaceling out!

Chapter 1: And We Must Be Brave

Sunrise in Ethernia was always a sight to behold, bringing out the beauty of the land. Even the Horde infested Fright Zone looked nice at this time of day. The Kingdom of Snows sparkled like a diamond, the rays of the sun making the ice shine. The flowers in Plumeria reach up to soak in the light, opening up their petals and showing off their color. Salinaes' waters began to twinkle in the light as they kept hitting the city walls. Shadows stretched over Dryl, the sun showing off the kingdom's grand architecture. The hidden kingdom of Mystacor danced in the sky, floating in place as the sun came up and passed them. None of these places compared to Bright Moon at sunrise. every nook and cranny came alive with energy and life, glimmering with hope for all to see. 

Which did not include Adora, who was currently fast asleep. 

She began squirming around, trying to grab something without waking up. Unfortunately, she squirmed around too much and fell out of her bed and onto the floor.

"Urg..." Adora regretfully opened up her eyes, groaning and moaning as she tried to get a sense of her surroundings. Hadn't she gotten over the whole 'falling out of the very tall bed thing' already? According to today, apparently not.

"Oh, I didn't think it could get worse..." she slowly stood up and began stretching, trying to lessen the aches running up and down her. That last fight with Catra really put her through the ringer, even putting aside the whole realty-crumbling-as-far-as-the-eye-can-see fact. Falling onto the floor only aggravated those pains. A hot bath was certainly in order, especially if the First Ones wanted to go over more physical combat skills with She-Ra later on.

Adora let out a huge yawn before she felt her a couple of her bones pop. Going back to sleep now was pointless since the sun was up. She'd only get a few more moments before Bow came in telling her not to sleep the day away, followed up by Glimmer teleporting onto her bed and yanking the sheets off.

"Morning, Adora."

"Morning, Glimmer. Good to see you– what are you doing in here?"

Adora rubbed her eyes to make sure she wasn't imagining things. There Glimmer was, sitting on the window seat, looking over Bright Moon.

"Oh, you know," Glimmer shrugged. "Just... thinking."

"What kind of thinking?" Adora plopped down on the other side of the window seat.

"Just normal thinking about normal stuff."

"Right, normal thinking. Not processing-what-just-happened thinking."

"Totally not that!" Glimmer's voice cracked on the last word.The two sat in silence, watching what remained of the sunrise.

"You know," Adora began, "if you wanna talk about it, I'm here to listen."

"Not really," Glimmer pulled her legs to her chest.

"You sure?" Adora asked, trying to push the envelope as much as she could.

"I'm sure... I don't wanna think about it unless I have to."

"Got it..." Adora clicked her tongue. She shuffled around a little, the air heavy with unspoken words. It's not like Adora could blame Glimmer. Even if Angelica was alive, she was sealed away. Sure, Etheria was safe from being ripped apart by space-time itself, but nothing felt right. It had barely been a day and the lack of one prominent face was already very noticeable. While Adora had never had a good mother, she couldn't help but think about how heartbroken Glimmer must be.

Hopefully she would open up soon.

And yet, dozens of dimensions away, another planet dealt with a less disastrous situation. Most specifically at New York... on a young girl's house. Makena's.

"Make yourselves at home!" Makena smiled at her two guests, Georgine and Utopix, while trying to unlock the door. 

"Oh, this'll be fun!" Utopix excitedly waited by Georgine's side, who kept him close at all times. It hadn't been weeks since she decided to confess her love to him by printing her lips on his... yet she decided to protect him with such ferocity and valor. 

"Why, hello!" Gabriel greeted the two lovebirds, leaning near Oliver's grumpy self.

"Hello, guys!" Utopix immediately reacted at his interaction by happily waving at him, unlike Georgine who glanced away at the discomfort of noticing Oliver there. Not that she cared, but she'd rather not deal with it right now.

"Oh, shoot..." she spoke out like a curse. 

Hours have passed and Georgine had explained the uncomfortable situation that Utopix and her had to face earlier that week: a doppelgänger barging in her house and intimidating Utopix... letting him know of his existence. 

"A doppelgänger?" Makena asked in concern.

"Yeah... We saw him a few days ago," Georgine replied, keeping her head low.

"What did he look like?" Makena added another question as she handed her a pencil and a blank piece of paper for her to sketch the stranger's face. She knew that such ability was one of Georgine's skills, so it'd be easy for her to try and replicate the unwanted individual's features. It wasn't that hard to remember it either. She had checked Uto's, as she called him, video log to understand what had happened that night. 

"Kinda like Uto, but his hair was..." Georgine allowed the pencil to do the work for her.

After she was done sketching, she allowed her body to rest against the chair she was sitting on. Makena's hand rested on Georgine's shoulders as she contemplated the illustration. 

"Oh." Makena didn't know what else to expect. The illustration looked quite like Utopix, just a tad bit different.

"Every good villain needs a name!" Gabriel interfered into their conversation as he prepared a chess board to keep Oliver entertained. "What about 'Otu'?" Gabriel's imagination run wild as the doppelgänger-needs-to-kill-the-hero situation was placed upon him. It bothered Georgine at times, but for once she'd let it pass.

"I guess so..." she said, holding the illustration near her face. "Takara must have sent him to take us off guard." Georgine assumed. "'Otu' managed to turn off Sabrina..." she added.

"That's awful..." Makena's concern instantly invaded her once more. "I-Is she okay? Oliver can fix her!!"

"Enlighten me," Georgine held Sabrina's... body up which was covered by a blanket which easily slipped off.

Oliver immediately analyzed the problem and decided to reveal his diagnosis. "If she's turned off, then she'll eventually turn back on. We can't force it." 

Utopix's curiosity jumped at his words. "How do you know that?" It's not that he was amused that a foreigner knew basic Sardkenofian technology. It was the fact that he quickly came to a conclusion without hesitating... why? Oliver nearly stuttered, his head trying to come up with an excuse to satisfy the robot's curiosity.

"Checkmate!" Gabriel shouted; easily winning the chess game that Oliver barely paid attention to. 

"Let's just get to fight practice already." Georgine merely seemed to suggest.

Once they were all at the bluntly painted basement, Georgine began wrapping some sport tape around her knuckles. 

"Tsk... Mine is a lot better," Oliver commented on Makena's basement, as if there was supposed to be something more than just that.

"Lil' brat." Georgine shook her head as a mere reaction. "Either way, just watch and learn for now."

Makena giggled at their interaction, attracting her sweet kitten Smokey who simply posed by her. "Aww, Smokey..." she caressed him, attempting to make him sleepy.

But miles above the sky, that intimidating doppelgänger was being submitted to horrid punishment. His skin barely holding itself together after the many punches and slaps that Takara exposed him to. His target of destroying Utopix Alle Jones had been consumed by the slightest feeling in his non-existent heart. But he hadn't shown any sign of it when he paid him a visit, so what was really going on?

"I gave you a target and you failed miserably, 36." Takara angrily spoke to "Otu", a.k.a. as Experiment 36, merely giving the idea that she had tried this sort-of thing before. "Hit it." Takara ordered Blu, her other henchman, to activate the oh-so-painful electricity that ran across Otu's body mercilessly. "I hope that you don't disappoint me again," her voice delivering a statement and a threat.

"Ma'am... It seems that the squad has moved location." Blu pointed out as he observed the main screen.

"Where are they right now?"

"Ameritania Hotel."

"Okay, 36." Takara glanced at him, who was trying his best to recover from such treatment. "This'll be your chance to prove that you're not useless," she said, assigning him his next mission. "Make sure Uto suffers." Her usage of Georgine's nickname for Utopix in Otu's ears made him tremble, fully engaging into his armor.

The gang, unbothered by any of the events that had happened during that week, decided to sneak in one of the bedrooms at Ameritania Hotel, one of the most prestigious hotels in New York. They didn't complain... Georgine had done some very sketchy in the past: breaking into cars of her friends' exes, graffiting a bully's garage door, among other things.

"How come that they let us in?" Utopix watched the rain slipping down the window's glass.

"The receptionist's a friend of mine." Georgine replied, as if their presence wasn't a problem that could said person fired.

"Oh, that's cool!" Utopix united to the unbothered feeling that the others were in. 

"So, why are we here exactly?"

"You kidding? Free food!" Gabriel cheered up, as Oliver was munching on a couple of chips from a big bowl.

Suddenly, a lightning stroke in the sky, catching Utopix's attention but also making him flinch. Georgine found it adorable. She'd assume that Sardkenof had a climate similar to Earth's, but it seemed that he was mostly bothered by the sound than anything else. 

"It happens when it rains," she simply commented on it, placing a hand on his shoulder for reassurance.

"Well, it's horrible..." Utopix caressed his other arm in discomfort, despite feeling Georgine's.

"It doesn't have to be if you don't want it to." Georgine's fingers gently brushed his hand, meaning to intertwine said fingers with his. 

"You look so adorable together!" Makena's head popped from underneath the sheets she was hiding in. 

"Oh, shut up. We were too." Georgine objected, recalling the time that they used to share said feelings back in their youth.

"Earthlings date the same gender?" Utopix learned something new from their culture, to say the least.

"Yeah, but some are picky about it." Georgine added to said information.

But their heartfelt moment was interrupted by a blurry dark maroon sight from the other side of the window. "Uh, guys... Is that who I think it is?" Gabriel commented on it.

"Oh no..." Georgine instinctively placed her arm in front of Utopix, despite the other not having entered the building yet.

How horrid was it for Utopix to be able to contemplate Otu's smirk from afar, letting him know that something was going to be wrong, that something was going to happen. Either to him, or his new friends. As if called by a cue, Utopix's arms were wrapped around Georgine's chest to stop her from any sudden movement. 

"Goddamn it. It's that punk again!" Georgine leaned against the window, bringing Utopix forward with her. 

Makena's motherly nature kicked in. "Georgie, language!"

Takara thought that she had them all under her grasp, that she'd finally be crowned victorious after many weeks of wanting to eliminate what was, supposedly, left of the Jones family. But not just yet. Before Oliver could create any plan of defense, a big blast of lightning had hit the sky once again, making Utopix flinch yet again and refuge on Georgine's strong arms. 

And suddenly... silence. 

The gang took a better look at the sky from the window. Four of them knew what New York's weather was like, and it clearly wasn't like that. Seconds later, a minuscule purple light appeared on the center of gray cloudy sky, obliterating every piece of darkness 'round every corner in seconds. 

"What in the name of the sweet heck is that!?" Gabriel shouted in both fear and excitement. 

Oliver quickly jumped to a conclusion. Again. "It's a wormhole... A portal! Get out of here! Now!" He pressed a button on his smart watch; equipping Makena, Gabriel and Georgine with special gear that they had grabbed beforehand.

Georgine immediately scooped Utopix in her arms, running downstairs and to the hotel's entrance. As they joined the sea of people evacuating the hotel, the bright light shone brighter, vacuuming everything on its way. Cars, signs, trees... even people.

"Makena!" Georgine shouted in desperation, witnessing how her friends were lifted up into the sky and disappearing into the hole in the sky. Her feet meant to stick to the ground to the best of her ability, but a fire hydrant had prevented her from doing so. 

"W-Where are we going!?" Utopix's eyes were closed, his hands gripped onto Georgine's back whenever he felt their weight being lighted. His eyes shredding tears, fearing what might happen next. 

"Just... close your eyes." Georgine, out of options, embraced him closely as their bodies entered the purple-esque portal.

Otu observed in shock, until a dreadful voice in his communicator snapped him back to reality. "Well!? What are you waiting for, 36? Follow them!" Takara demanded from him, meaning to sacrifice him if it meant that the others had been obliterated by whatever there was in that portal. Hesitantly, but firmly, Otu rocketed from the roof he was standing on and onto the remaining waves of the terrifying portal. 

And just like that, the portal was closed. As if someone had pulled a switch and turned it off... or more likely, a sword.

The tan-haired girl had waited for a light... a soft voice that'd wake her up saying 'Welcome to Heaven', or anything at all. Instead, her eyes had opened to a soft colored sky. Gentle chirps and water waves made her realize that she was somewhere else. A pair of blinks helped her double-vision adjust to a strange one-eyed creature that shouted once it notice that she was conscious to which she yelled and slapped it off, making it run off to the purple-tainted trees. "W-What is...?" her hands felt the sharp glass around her but also alerted her of something else. "Utopix... Uto! UTO!"

"G-Georgie!" Utopix's frighted voice cried out from one of the trees, holding onto one of its branches for dear life. "H-Help..."

"It's okay, baby. Just let go," her arms were open-wide to catch him in case he fell.

Utopix's eyes widened at the idea and immediately shook his head in disapproval. "H-Hmm!"

"It's okay, sweetie. I'll catch you, I promise." 

"G-Georg-AH!!" 

Without any more words escaping from his mouth, the branch decided to break. Thankfully, his loved one had catch him perfectly, avoiding any accidents. "Are you okay, lovely?" Her emerald eyes stared into his with an expression of I-told-you-so, nearly smirking at his reaction. 

"D-Don't do that..." 

"Do what? Hmm?" Her nose ran up his sensitive neck, occasionally peppering it with gentle kisses, making him giggle as a soft tone of green appeared on his cheeks. 

"Utopix? Georgine?" Oliver grunted as he massaged his head from the rough landing. "W-What? Where are we?"

"OLIVER!" Gabriel ran up to him, hugging his sides, not wanting to let go. "I thought you were dead! I thought I was dead!"

"What the- uh! Let go of me!"

"Never!"

Georgine snickered at their somewhat-sweet reunion, placing Utopix to a side as she helped Makena get up from the strangely colored grass. "Are you okay?"

"Y-Yes... Where are we?"

"I have no idea," she clenched her fists as she observed the unntreathening space. "We better get moving." 

Once again, Georgine scooped Utopix from the ground, keeping him close to her warm chest. "Sorry, I should've asked."

"N-No. It's okay. I-I like it."

Her voice lowly hummed, turning into a chuckle. Her face leaned once again near his, planting a kiss on his triangle-painted cheek. Once she started walking, the others followed closed by... not noticing who had followed them.

"36. State your location," Takara's face appeared on Otu's wrist communicator.

"Unknown." Otu quietly spoke. Probably one of the few times he was allowed to do so.

"If you survived, then that means they did too! Follow them and wait for instructions. Is that clear?" 

Otu took a deep breath. Despite being born a few days ago, his opinion of Takara had quickly worsened with time. "Yes." He immediately ended their interaction, making sure to go unnoticed  as he sneaked around the shadows of the forest.

Eventually, the five individuals reached the entrance of the gorgeous golden castle, unsure of what to expect. "Halt there!" General Juliet stopped them from going any further. "What is your business in Bright Moon?"

"Bright Moon?" Georgine concluded that that's where they have ended up at.

"We just want to know what's going on," Makena kindly asked. "I don't think we're supposed to be here."

"Think!?" The guard seemed to nearly fly away when she flinched. "What is that even supposed to-?" 

"Calm down, general." A shadowy figure approached the entrance, but didn't seem to change any of its appearance once it stepped into the light... Shadow Weaver. "I'll take it from here. You go fetch... Princess Glimmer." The general left after letting out a long sigh and doing as she was told. "I don't take orders from you. I shall look for Bow who can look for Glimmer with more ease." Shadow Weaver rolled her eyes upon her statement.

Georgine's trust pattern was instantly altered upon Shadow Weaver's attitude. The way she spoke, the manner of her walking, how her hair swung around like a sharpen knife... she had seen it all before. Her hands gently gripped Utopix's thigh and arm... once he felt it, he looked up at her, then at Shadow Weaver. A similar pattern had fallen onto him as well... oh, brother. 

"I apologize for the unfelt welcoming, though I must ask... what brings you here so unexpectedly?" her dark eyes narrowed at that last word."I think we'll wait for the princess' arrival to discuss that matter," Georgine refrained from answering the question. Her hands kept Utopix even closer to her than ever.

"Very well, then. I suggest you wait in the throne room unless you wanna be seen by... unexpected guests." Shadow Weaver turned around, leaving them to their amusement. 

Unexpected guests? Georgine then considered that there might have been something else in that region even worse than her... Not liked she trusted the other's jurisdiction, but she'd want to avoid any casualties for Utopix's sake, so she entered the palace after the others had gone in.

"Oh. My. Gosh." Bow nearly jumped on his toes as General Juliet gave him the news. "New people!? L-Like- what? Horde soldiers? Princesses?" he then gasped as an epiphany hit him. "What if they're here from a broken dimension and want to take our souls!?"

"Bow! Just go find the princess, please! Once we know what's going on with... them, I'll decide what to do."

"Okay!" he then stopped his tracks and turned around to see her. "...why are you making me get Glimmer and not you?"

"Just GO!" Juliet seemed to nearly spit fire at him.

After Bow finally snapped from his fanboying illusions, he breathed deeply before entering Glimmer's room, noticing Adora and Glimmer standing near each other... and rightfully so. 

"Uh, guys...  there's some people here that I think you may want to meet."

[diavolosauceboss]

Hey everyone. It's me, Diavolosauceboss, your local Boss stan. Since I haven't slept I thought it would be fun to type a bunch of words about Diavolo's fate in Vento Aureo. Join me on another tired meandering through thoughts on the Boss, won't you?

I'll start this by saying it should be obvious that I have a bias towards the character but at the same I like to think that this is more of an objective look at the matter. My issue, at the core, is that I find Diavolo's "death" to be unsatisfying as a viewer and one of the few unfitting ends in the series.

Villains are great. They can often be more interesting and layered than the heroes and serve as a needed foil. As a villain Diavolo is a fun one; he's an unsteady bastard and a threat that kills your faves and serves as a contrast to Bruno and Giorno's ideals. He dresses like an aging raver.  

Diavolo deserved to be defeated, that's not the issue for me. When I first read VA I was excited for the end as everything was coming to a head. When GER started messing with reality itself, taking that fated outcome that Diavolo saw and dangling it out of reach as he turned an inevitability into an unattainable future, I was pumped. How cool, I thought, and was equally pumped when the mudas came out. He dun goofed and there he went, into the canal to be washed away. Then... a twist? He's still alive? How much more could there be?

When Diavolo was stabbed by that drug addict I was completely satisfied with that as an ending. How utterly fitting for him to die a victim to his own evils, bleeding out in a gutter like some nobody. What better way to have such an arrogant character brought low than by the by product of his own gang? He didn't even get the dignity of being finished off by that usurper.

Then those death loops started and as it became clear what was going on that sense of pleasure at seeing someone get their comeuppance turned to dissatisfaction. Really? Tortured in the most horrific ways for the remainder of GER's existence? To me that seemed simply unfair and with that came the loss of enjoyment I could get from it.

As contrast let's bring up my favorite "final battle" in all of jjba: Joseph vs. Kars. Kars is an incredible threat and seemed to have all but won the day before an unlikely convergence of events that sends him into space where he floats away forever. I love Kars as a villain but I still felt satisfied when he lost and could be happy along with the main characters- the evil was defeated. Kars who brought our heroes so much pain, who trampled on an entire civilization, who let his comrades die. Seeing victory snatched from such a fiend as he was launched into space to eventually "stop thinking" felt appropriate and rewarding to me as a viewer. Never once have I felt bad for Kars.

Or Dio. Or Kira, Pucci, or Valentine, They all met well deserved ends for the pain they were shown to have caused. Unfortunately, and back to the crux of the matter, I can't say that about Diavolo. For every major antagonist in the series I've been happy to see their end despite their being some of my favorite characters. Diavolo, however... I feel bad for him. I feel sorry for him and sympathetic over this fresh hell he's ended up in which is something that really shouldn't come up over a villain's death.

"But Sauce," you say, becoming awfully familiar, "Diavolo was evil. He sews up kids' lips and burns down towns." That's correct! And I'm not at all saying that Diavolo did no wrong; he's a murderer and his gang peddles drugs. He killed Bruno, the world's most perfect man. Those are the things we're presented within VA but... tortured in an endless rotation forever? Really?

The idea of finite crimes being punished infinitely is no fun as a concept and inherently seems unfair. Especially when the crimes presented are so blase by jojo standards. Murder? Every major antagonist in the series is a murderer. Drugs? Dio turned an entire village into vampires. Kars, as mentioned, destroyed an entire civilization. Valentine was ready to deflect all his country's ills onto innocents elsewhere. All of these things are arguably just as bad if not worse than drug trafficking but only Diavolo gets such a raw deal over his crimes. Jojo on the whole does a great job of making enemy defeats incredibly rewarding. I turn into a chimpanzee whenever Jotaro punches anyone. Seeing Reimi banish Kira to the shadow realm was 10/10. So in that the final outcome of Giorno vs Diavolo was doubly disappointing for me.

In conclusion, it's fun to see the heroes win. It's fun to see the badguy finally get what's coming to them. What isn't so fun to me is when the punishment so far outweighs the crime that it overshadows the sense of victory and changes it to one of pity. I can't feel "good" about seeing Diavolo doomed to some hellish torture that's so miserable as to put a damper on what should be the high point of the series resolution.

[arkus-rhapsode]

Ok. So what do you think of the latest chapters of fairy tail 100 years quests? What what's happening to characters? I think you're so possed that you even stopped reading more

Hoo boy... *Cracks knuckles* We may be here for a while.

So before I start, let me make clear that I actually keep up with 100YQ, though not for any actual interest anymore. I now stay with it for ironic enjoyment. Because I could say EZ has dumb stuff, but at this point, if you’re Hiro Mashima’s main audience, its fine. No, 100YQ is unique in that it has WTF moments that transcend just the FT fandom sensibilities.

Before I dig in, I’m gonna lay out some formatting rules because we’re cover A LOT. Im gonna be fair and split this up into positive and negative aspects of the series. Because I at least try to be intellectually in what I do.

To avoid from going on tangents and jumping around, I’m gonna be going in chronological order of events. Now this will not be an overview of the series up to this point because that’s stuff I’ve already talked about. Instead I’m gonna start from the point this went from genuine interest to ironic interest. That begin the Whited Out FT Guild.

Positives:

The concept of the wood dragon god having a kingdom on his back is really cool world building. Its actually something that I really liked about the Sea Dragon God as well. Having a realm reliant on the dragon as well as a reason to revere them. What with the water dragon god controlling the tides while wood dragon god is the supporting the city on his back actually makes them seem like god figures and adds to the lore of the world of Earthland in a way that Ishgar and Alvarez sorely failed at.

Laxus punching out Kyria. Petty yes, as Kyria is my least favorite dragon slayer. However a lot of Whited out FT mages were getting jobbered like crazy or just given unceremonious defeats. So Laxus actually seeming like an obstacle was good.

The cat twist with Touka is actually a funny bit of trolling and was one of the few times there was effective foreshadowing with Touka having a tail. (Too bad it was suck in the meandering Gajeel plot.)

The Dragon Eater guild is a much better final villain army than Spriggan 12. The 12 had little structure as to who was the stronger members, resulting in multiple Spriggans feeling like such major disappointments.

Most Mashima Villain organizations tend to broken up like this: Boss->Special Units (I.E Spriggan 12, Nine Demon Gates, Element 4)->Fodder Units.

No one cares when the fodder of a villain group is beaten as they’re just faceless minions. However, when you get to the special unit, that’s wheen there are actual obstacles and the villains start becoming more like characters. However, Hiro has been bad at this when he’s dealing with bigger organizations.

He never had to worry about telling you which member of the villain group’s special unit were more powerful than the others. Due to working with units composed of low amounts of characters, such as Team Lyon, Element 4, and Death’s Head.

You could say that all were roughly around the same power threshold. However, where the spriggan 12 royally failed was there were 12 of them in that unit and they were all just given the blanket term of being on the same level of the number 1 wizard saint. Yeah... that’s a check so large that Hiro could not cash it.

Hiro even seemed to retroactively acknowledge this by stating that August, Irene, and Larcarde were the three best to cover his ass for the fact that all the spriggans seemed to be jobbered far easier than ones supposedly equal to the number 1 saint.

However, the Dragon Eaters are opponents we’re gradually introduced to over the storyline and we actually see a demonstration of what a group of them can do, instead of 1 just trying take on all of team Natsu at once. We see that Skullion’s team is roughly equal to Team Natsu, giving us a gauge for the Dragon Eater strength, but then we get both Wraith and Nebal, underlings not part of Skullion’s thre man team, implying that are of a weaker variety and thus serving as a stepping stone to fight Skullion. But also introducing us to the Black Dragon Slayer Cavalry. Members above Skullion’s team that give us an idea if when they show up what the audience should expect of their strength level.

There’s a reason why in One Piece why Yonkou opperations have so many categories. You’re not gonna care about the minor thugs, but by making a distinction between the Headliners and the Disasters in Kaidou’s crew, you’ve made it so that we the audience will not feel disappointed if a Headliner is beat by a weaker character like say Usopp but still know that they are more than a foot soldier so this win meant something.

Now time for the negatives:

The concept of White Out is not awful, and is actually a fairly interesting concept for a villain motivation in FT. However, the White Witch is one of the most transparently evil characters in the series, thus you know that she’s doing this morally ambiguous action because she’s evil. Imagine if this were about humans or royals who feared the growing power of mages. Or a disillusioned mage with the concept of people like Zeref or the GMG, where is seems like magic is endless and how that’s a threat to the world. No, White Witch really seems like she wants to be this grand manipulator and actively enjoys calling heer whited out people, puppets.

However, there’s also the fact the whiting out doesn’t make too much sense. Some characters seem like mind controlled puppets like Juvia, while others are basically the same except their evil now like Gajeel, Mira, Elfman, Laxus. And some are dumb jokes like Jellal.

So there’s no consistency to this brainwashing. Only other time I’ve seen a mind control plot like that in media before is Yugioh GX. Sometimes people act like they’ve been brainwashed into something different like Alexis. But then people like Bastion and a lot of the gag members of the society like Rose and Bob act as if they’re not affected by anything.

Yeah, this white witch plot feels distractedly ripped off from the society of Light from Yugioh GX.

The concept of Team Natsu vs FT in the vain of the fighting festival arc is dumb narratively from two standpoints. First from a story standpoint in the idea that why the battle of FT arc was opportunity, due to the fact they were all willing to fight to free the frozen girls. Which allowed for others to show shades to their motivations Like Alzack willing to mow through his other comrades for Bisca or Thunder God Tribe assisting in protecting Laxus so he’s the last man standing. There’s a tangible reward on th line that motivates the characters to act as do.

Here, the characters are clearly fighting against their will because of an intangible force. This white magic makes them slaves and are fighting because “white doctrine.” Something they only believeebecause brainwashing. As such, you want to see Natsu and gang beat them up to stop the white witch and free them. There’s no force or intrigue that makes the audience care about both sides like seeing Alzack vs Jet and Droy because you know they both want to save their partners but only one can. Instead people only care because a surface level of “friend turned evil” device. It takes the B and C list cast of the FT guild and makes them props.

And from a meta standpoint, there is no tension, due to the fact this is a post final battle with acnologia Team Natsu. The team is bounds ahead of so many guild members like Macao, Reedus, Max etc. that the only real threat is the S class mages. So that makes that big page spread of evil FT in cult robes dull as only like 3 of them are gonna actually matter.

Then there’s Wraith. Nebal was a boring an generic crazy guy is unimpressive, Wriath was actually really interesting at first. Is ghost magic allowed for an interesting fight and his possession actually having limitations on how effective it was made for a cool skill.

But then the reveal about him and Makarov. I eye-rolled at that point, but then I saw the previews and was like, maybe this’ll be the best thing to come out of this series. Everyone wants to know more about past FT around team Makarov’s time.

But all the potential of young Makarov and young Porylusica and the rest of their team is put on fast forward as they’re all suddenly thinking about leaving. But maybe the reveal with Wraith could be interesting. I saw a lot of good theories like Wraith was Makarov’s half brother or Wraith was the son of Makarov and Porylusica who was killed by Ivan.

Well... Any theory would’ve been better than Wraith was some random ass mage and when they say he a Makarov are related its because the bonds of FT that is real family and transcends death itself.

...Gag me...

And and Wraith just fucks off into the afterlife. Because we can’t actually end a fight because of the protagonist’s ingenuity. No, the villain just kills themselves because feels. Isn’t that right August and Irene?

In conclusion

That’s my thoughts as briefly and coherent as I could make them. So if you wanna know my feelings on 100YQ, it can basically be summed in FT being FT. If you expected more, you’re gonna be disappointed. But if you genuinely love the world and character regardless of Hiro’s writing, you’ll probably still enjoy it regardless of what I’m saying

[couriertwelve]

How to Train Your Dragon 3: A Short Review

(WARNING: CONTAIN SPOILERS)

Synopsis

How to Train Your Dragon 3 (HTTYD 3) follows the story of Hiccup learning his new role as the chief of Berk after the death of his father in the last installment. While struggling to learn to be an ideal leader figure for his people, Hiccup must now also facing the inevitable consequences of his principles to encourage people living in unity with dragons. A new threat comes from a prominent dragon hunter-killer, Grimmel, who is aiming to capture the last remaining Night Fury dragon, yes.. not other than our own sweet bun Toothless!

We would then get to see a love-struck Toothless after he met a Light Fury, a she-dragon that looks almost like Toothless himself (only with white scales). In order to save the future of his people and the dragons, Hiccup went on quest to search for a mythical land, The Hidden World, where he expects to build the new Berk.

A little about HTTYD series

HTTYD 3 is the third installment of the DreamWorks’ production movies franchise of “How to Train Your Dragon”. The franchise started with the release of its first installment on 2010. Each of the movies installment always claimed place in box office ranks, while also getting warm reception from critics and audiences. The movies themselves are based on the best-selling children book series with the same title, written by Cressida Cowell.

Review

Though, coming out with quite an interesting premise, the aftertaste of watching HTTYD 3 to me could be summed up as an exciting experience, but not like..”buzzed with happy jolts” level of exciting. In fact, it was sort of a teeny bit letdown as the closure of something so grand as HTTYD series.

So here’s what I thought.. HTTYD 3 offered an alternative to the typical series finale, that’s usually including colossal wars etc. by emphasizing it more on a heart-warming turmoils. Still, since they have decided to keep including a battle scene at the ending, then at the very least they should have made it more fiery than the finals in its predecessors.

I might not be able to point out which formula they use that doesn’t work, but I just think that.. the “victory” in the third installment is somehow won over by Hiccup and the gang in such an over-simplified way. There’s no thrill in it. No sparks of dread (even as Hiccup almost fell down to death). As if it was only an ezpz game for Team Hiccup. They practically didn’t suffer any significant harms or losses in order to “win”. Note that I wasn’t trying to say that I want to see a blood bath, but HTTYD 2 kinda already set a high standard for a great final scene.

Now let’s talk about the main antagonist in the movie, that is Grimmel... There’s nothing wrong with the actors. Basically excellent performance from all the casts. But the basic characterization in the script definitely got many rooms for improvement. I don’t even feel any fear with the portrayal of this hunter-killer. Not because he doesn’t look as menacing as Drago, the villain in HTTYD 2. I know that they try to.. um, use different approach of portraying a villain. In which Drago looks intimidating by his physical built, and Grimmel is (supposedly) even more dangerous because he is some sort of criminal mastermind which doesn’t use power but cunning strategies to get what he wants. Now, the problem with it is... in practice, the plot doesn’t give justice to his charisma. I think, in order to show how threatening the hunter is, they need to give him more scenes that are showcasing the potent danger from his sophisticated ways of thinking.

Furthermore, I feel like the moral messages aren’t quite hitting home as hard as in the (again) previous movies. But then again, I completely understand that eventually this is meant for the family and younger audiences. It’s not about the complexity of plot and characters, but another story that could tell people how goodness always beats evil.

In conclusion, its possible that I don’t like HTTYD 3 that much because I keep comparing it to the previous ones. Especially HTTYD 2, in which I think it got an awesome plot twist (with the appearance of Hiccups mom AND the whole idea of dragons alphas thing). It’s just brilliant, really.

However, what I’d definitely like to appreciate in HTTYD 3 is how they brought out a bittersweet way of ending things (quite unexpectedly, if i may say?). Also a big salute to people working on the animation and graphics because it totally is in the A-class quality, and dare I say is better than the last one! Hiccup and friends also didn’t lose their magic of enchanting us, and Toothless just as adorable as ever!!

Tl;dr

I think you would still have a very good time for watching this movie with your friends, family, and little nieces or nephews! Happy watching~

[gameridernews]

Ex-Aid review: Kamen Sentai Gorider

I was originally lumping this in with the other spinoff material, but then I realized the Gorider stuff was basically movie length, so it makes sense to talk about it on its own. Since this is a crossover... spoilers for Gaim, Blade and Agito! That's completely unavoidable due to one key aspect of this crossover. Let's begin.

Kamen Sentai Gorider is a weird crossover, billed as a sequel to Choh Superhero Taisen, that features 5 returning Riders who... at some point transform into the Goriders, a combination of the original Sentai and the original Rider. I really don't understand the logic of even making these suits, but it's certainly a conversation piece.

This one is currently only available with TV-Nihon's subs but Excite was talking about working on it. It's an interesting one because it was originally released via the au streaming service called Video Pass, and thankfully received a DVD release later. These were released in 3 parts, called Mazes, each being about 30 minutes long and equating to a movie overall. Let's see if it was all worth it.

Maze 1: Emu died?

Well, with a title like that, who could resist checking this out?

The story is entirely set within an amusement park that's just in the middle of nothingness. Emu wakes up here and finds a small hut with a fancy candlelit table. Poppy is here in a kimono, calmly serving drinks in a robotic fashion, then walks away. Then a figure enters the room - an older man that Emu immediately recognizes as a guy named Kino. He transforms into Another Agito, which is another Agito from Kamen Rider Agito.

... Okay, lemme just explain that a bit better - they don’t really explain it. Basically, the term "Agito" in that series is used to refer to someone who’s been gifted with special powers, more or less. The titular hero and this guy are both classified as Agitos, and since Kino appeared later as another Agito, it makes sense that his name in later promotional material was... Another Agito. It's easy for that to be a "IS this a Kamen Rider?" debate, but with the current Buttobasoul games, he actually got the full title "Kamen Rider Another Agito". Very cool he actually got picked for this crossover, out of all the green Riders.

Since Kino is suspicious about basically being summoned from death, he transforms into Another Agito and tries fighting Ex-Aid outside, only for another introduction from a man named Kenzaki; Kamen Rider Blade.

So, the ending of Kamen Rider Blade is interesting and I am gonna have trouble shucking and jiving my way around it since this crossover heavily makes use of this. Kenzaki explains how he's technically dead because he allowed himself to become an Undead, the monsters of Kamen Rider Blade's series. It... makes sense in toku terms, but as we learn later, we don't need to think too much about that logic. Until now, I never had strong feelings about the main character one way or the other, outside of my lukewarm feelings on the show itself. But that will change once we get to the third part of this.

Despite Emu having this unexplainable feeling that there's no way out, Kino and Kenzaki decide that the best course of action is to simply leave the amusement park, but they find themselves coming back to the same spot everytime. Meanwhile, we get a couple lovely returning people from Gaim! Minato (Kamen Rider Malika) appears, putting Emu into a tight grip as Kaito (Kamen Rider Baron) stands before him with judging eyes.

Let's talk about Gaim. Gaim is still my top favorite show, but the more I hear other people share their thoughts on it, the more I'm realizing Kaito is... a problematic anti-hero/villain. I think he had a good character at the start but it's once he becomes a villain that his motivations become one-dimensional, and in some ways, confusing. Minato likewise is a pretty great badass character, but there's a section of fandom that believes she has some lousy gender representation to her, which I feel is probably just what happens when you interpret her motivations as romantic when they really don’t seem to be. But that’s as much as I’m gonna humor that discussion. In any case, Minato died to protect Kaito, and in the final battle with Gaim, the titular hero obviously needed to win. So out of the Riders so far, these are certainly the furthest from heroic deaths.

Despite that introduction, Kaito and Minato sit at the table with drinks, just in time for Kino and Kenzaki to come back from their endless walk. With all these people in a room together, they try to figure out what they must have in common in order to be gathered in one spot by some omnipotent force, and make one conclusion so far: All of them are Riders.

However, Kaito is never one to play nice, so he tries finding an escape. Minato follows and we get some nice banter, which is interrupted by the appearance of Shocker monsters... and it's here I also notice Kino specifically identifies these as Shocker, which gives me wonderful headcanons about Another Agito having dealt with them in the past. Must’ve mistaken him for Hongo.

Everyone gets a piece of the action, and finally... Kiriya appears, who transforms into Kamen Rider Lazer and finishes off the last monster. Meanwhile, back at the ranch hut, Emu questions how Kiriya is here after he died, which makes everyone realize the other connection they have: They all died in some way, which means Emu must’ve died as well.

Kino, however, is not convinced. He talks about how suspicious Emu has been up to this point, experiencing an inexplicable case of deja vu this entire time, and the clencher is the fact that there's a large mirror in the room that only Emu can see himself in. He seems to be the only one that stands out, which is reason enough for returning characters in a crossover to beat him up.

Maze 2: Escape

Everyone gangs up on Ex-Aid outside, until Lazer gives him the chance to escape and calm everyone down. They have some discussion, with Kaito criticizing Kiriya's trust in others, while Kenzaki finds Emu and encourages him. As they take on more of Shocker's disposables, the others talk and develop reasons to stop targeting Emu, and eventually show up to help him. Finally, directly at the halfway point, everyone is on the same page.

At the hut, Emu pieces some things together. They can't leave. Poppy in the hut repeats the same greeting everytime they enter. This, along with other things in the room that have reset themselves, reads like an RPG of some sort.

With that realization, Poppy enters the room again and transforms into a monster, which we learn is the final boss of this game. As they fight it outside it proves to be formidable against 6 Riders. While the others are distracted, Blade stabs Ex-Aid in the gut, giving him a nearly fatal wound. When questioned about it after Kenzaki trusted in him, Kenzaki reveals he's actually someone else in disguise - someone whose true identity is cropped off screen, but we can tell he's a crazy man in skinny jeans, so that narrows it down. Honestly though, I kinda expected Emu to be the actual fake, so kudos to them on that!

Emu is told that this game is designed to be unbeatable, and that everytime he plays it, he forgets all he learned, so he's doomed to repeat the same mistakes over and over. Emu tries to hide, but the final boss tracks him down, delivering the final blow.

That's when we get a twist I actually didn't know about. Emu wakes up in CR, with Asuna being concerned about the current situation. We learn that Bugsters have suddenly been reviving all over the place, and Brave and Snipe can only hold them off for so long. Emu has to enter this game, represented in the real world by Genm Corp's console with a monster claw growing out of it. However, Emu recognizes the game is unbeatable... so do they even have a chance?

Maze 3: Forever Gorider

Emu tries playing through this game once more, while Asuna and a weakened Hiro are unsure about what to do. Just then, a mysterious person enters CR...

It's when Emu enters the hut, for the first time in his experience, he finds a mirror shard with some numbers written in blood - he saw this previously, but it was very unclear what these meant. I... think the idea is that time has resumed where he died before, because once he realizes what the numbers mean, the other Riders enter the room after being beaten up by the final boss. Initially, Emu has forgotten who they are, but one by one, they get him to remember. Once Kenzaki tries, however, Emu remembers who he really is and calls him out as a fake.

This is confirmed once a differently dressed Kenzaki walks into the room - the same person who came to CR just moments ago! It's revealed that he has a reflection like Emu, meaning he's very much alive, and the fake Kenzaki is (according to Emu's complex number code) none other than... Kuroto Dan.

Kuroto laughs maniacally and puts away this facade, revealing his true face. Emu knew that his actions were different than the others, so he left a clue for himself that would remain even if the room reset. Kuroto is impressed, but questions just how the real Kenzaki got here.

It's at this point I learned that this writer, Kento Shimoyama, must be the hugest fan of Kamen Rider Blade, because what happens next is Kenzaki appreciation fanfiction. Hell, this makes ME wanna use Kenzaki in some fanfiction.

Even though this is just a game world, Kuroto still used Undead abilities as a fake Blade. Undead are drawn to other Undead, so Kenzaki sensed this and came to the source in CR and had them send him into the game world. Clever stuff.

Kuroto reveals that he prepared this game in the event he dies, and that he intended to gather the despair of all these dead Riders and turn that into the power needed to resurrect himself - sure! That sounds like Shocker talk to me. Of course, since Kiriya was here, he had to disguise himself as Kenzaki-- Now, remember how I said it makes sense in a toku way that Kamen Rider Blade was considered "dead" because he was no longer human? Kuroto reveals here that he was taking on the form of Kenzaki, a Kamen Rider whose whereabouts were unknown - so that whole "technically I'm dead" stuff was Kuroto spouting bullshit. Took what I would disregard as toku logic and used it against me! I can respect that.

Kuroto thinks he's won, so he absorbs the life out of these Riders, but... then parts of the room get destroyed, causing cards to rain from the sky for some more brilliant Kenzaki dialogue.

Kenzaki tells Kuroto that he fucked up by taking on Kenzaki's likeness. Not only is Kenzaki an Undead, he's also a Joker specifically. The logic behind Undead dictates that once only one Joker remains, the world comes to an end. Since Kuroto revealed himself to be a fake, Kenzaki is now the only Undead left in this game world, therefore it is doomed to destruction. FUCKING. BRILLIANT. WRITING. Kenzaki is a badass.

The Bugster threat leaves the real world, and the amusement park in the game world has been reduced to a wasteland. Kuroto isn't done yet, however, as he transforms into his classic Zombie Gamer form, summons the final boss and more Shocker minions, then a big fight takes place. This ultimately culminates in Genm absorbing the power of the final boss, donning some crazy armor on top of his Rider suit.

Once it seems they've been cornered, Ex-Aid throws the Riders some cards from the events of Choh Superhero Taisen - using these, they transform into the Goriders, which was wholly unnecessary but at least they get more use here than in the movie. In the last fight. Of a three part special. Named after them.

The Goriders do three very Showa finishers, finally finishing off all of the enemies. However, Genm still won't stay down, and he attempts threaten them by warning that they won't be able to come back to life if they destroy him. Unfortunately for him, this whole experience has given them all acceptance in their deaths. So, Genm decides he wants to destroy the rest of this game world, along with all of them.

However, in one last noble sacrifice, Another Agito, Baron, Malika and Lazer hold Genm back and allow themselves to die with him, giving Ex-Aid and Blade the chance to escape and live on.

And so... we cut to later. Emu is back in the real world, and after telling Hiro and Asuna about what happened, he concludes that the Riders sacrificed themselves willingly and they shouldn't be too upset over it. We get a happy stroll downtown, bringing Gorider to an end.

So... how was it? Well, I'm pleasantly surprised at how well it works.

I mean, okay. Okay-okay-okay. Let me be clear about this: Crossovers in Rider are not on the same level of writing as the shows, so I’m a little less critical of them. They’ve gotta do a lot and you can’t expect the person writing this to fully GET the personalities of the characters they’re working with. Not to mention, you gotta do some weird shit to create higher stakes and justify a huge gathering of heroes. 

What I think saves it for me is just how... fanfic-y it is, out of all the crossovers. They all have this certain vibe to them but this one is different. 

Like, Gaim characters, sure they were popular so they make sense. Lazer’s from the current show and he’s dead, so bring him in. When you start working things in like Another Agito and the fucking brilliant use of Blade, it feels more like someone with a passion was involved and wanted to give their favorites a chance in the spotlight. Which is even cooler when you realize these actors weren’t even in the movie this special is a sequel to, so they were brought back just for this.

Also the Gorider stuff is a total “I wonder how this gets used!” gimmick that has very little relevance. I’m not gonna disagree on that. It really has no reason to exist, other than probably to give this an extra push. 

Despite all that, it feels like fanfiction I can get behind, and I gotta say again, the stuff they did with Blade might be the most meaningful thing I’ve seen from these crossovers since Kamen Rider Taisen’s use of Faiz - and that’s going several years back to when they started really getting actors to come back.

I enjoyed this. It's got this odd somber atmosphere and it has some cool twists to it that don't usually happen with crossover material. They not only picked some interesting returning Riders, but also, Blade technically exists in the world of Ex-Aid and it kinda actually works!

At the end of the day, it's a crossover that has very little impact on anything and is completely optional, just like the Choh Superhero Taisen movie it's an indirect sequel to, but it’s enjoyable if you just want a little crossover action. I'm gonna miss the spring crossover movies since they've been getting lots of actors to come back and make the stories a little more meaningful - it makes a huge difference when you're seeing actual Kenzaki and actual Kino on screen instead of having them be in Rider suits the whole time with a soundalike.

So... now that I've finished going through the bonus material for Ex-Aid, it's time we have a look at the next thing on the list to review.

That review will be on @buildridernews and will be linked here. 

See you Next Build.

[ayellowbirds]

Keshet Rewatches All of Scooby-Doo, Pt. 5: “Decoy For a Dognapper”

(”Scooby-Doo, Where Are You”, Season 1 Episode 5)

AKA “That Old-Fashioned Racism”

I’m trying out a format change, starting with this post, because the errors that I was seeing with Read Mores only seem to affect Text Posts and not Image Posts, even if the only difference is whether there’s a text header or a main image. If y’all prefer this style or the text posts, let me know!

The episode opens on a crisp Autumn day, and unlike the norm the four prior episodes established, nothing immediately spooky happens. Instead, we’re reminded that yes, Scooby is a dog, as his sniffing about in the leaves of an affluent-looking neighborhood leads to him catching sight of a well-groomed poodle being walked by an old lady. Scooby pulls up some flowers and tries his best to look charming.

He’s ignored, the poor hump-backed bow-legged mole-chinned fella. Takamoto's intent for Scooby to be a less than ideal specimen really shines through in moments like this, though I suppose his iconic status has dulled that idea over the decades. That said, i am reminded that one of the few times a dog reciprocates Scooby’s romantic intent, she turned out to be a space alien in disguise.

Just after Scooby is rejected, karma strikes: “Princess” is snatched up by a masked dognapper just as she and her owner walk behind some bushes that conveniently save on the animation budget by not showing the complex motion of grabbing the dog i mean, hide the details of the dognapping.

By the time Scooby rejoins the gang at yet another beach party (consisting of Fred and Daphne dancing while Velma and Shaggy roast weenies), the sky has darkened. Instead of explaining why he’s upset using his words, Scooby utilizes his eldritch powers once more and turns on the radio just in time to tune into a flash bulletin announcing the third theft of a prize-winning dog in as many days.

Scooby is very serious about this, pushing the gang to investigate. But his determination has its limits when it turns out that the next dog in line to win an upcoming competition is a Great Dane, well, you can see where this is going.

Fred has a “tiny” transmitter to plant on Scooby, which must have seemed impressive by the standards of 1969. It’s as big as a bath bomb.

Daphne tosses him a Scooby Snack for courage, though Shaggy catches and eats the first one she pitches, rationalizing that he’s going to have to be the one walking the decoy dog, and then it’s time to wash and groom Scooby. Cleaned up and given a shiny new collar, Scooby strikes his best possible posture while out on the town, and even manages to attract some attention.

When this random pink pooch tries and fails to get Scooby’s attention, she kicks a whole bin’s worth of garbage at the duo in a fit of rage. It’s an extended sequence that doesn’t seem to add anything to the plot except suggesting that Scooby is, however briefly, convincing as a show dog. But it’s really weird, because, well... look at this dog. She has a collar, so she’s not just a stray. She's pink, at odds with the vaguely naturalistic color schemes of, well... any other animal in the entire show.

The entire scene could be cut for time without losing anything in the episode, so the best i can figure is that it’s literal filler.

Soon after, the dognappers snatch Scooby amidst a smokescreen, and Shaggy gives chase on a borrowed motor-scooter. While the Mystery Machine reroutes to follow Scooby’s signal, Shaggy sees something unexpected just as he’s catching up to the dognappers:

Yes, this is bound to be a thematically consistent episode. The whooping, shrieking image of a stereotypical Native of the Great Plains appears, causing Shaggy to crash. Shaggy identifies this figure as “Geronimo” for no reason except that he’s a stupid white kid in the sixties.

Meanwhile, Scooby winds up in the villains’ hideout, where he’s quickly identified as a fake by the costumed mastermind, who is similarly clad in a bad caricature of indigenous American garb, looking like some white animator’s idea of what a traditional dance costume might resemble.

In an especially bizarre moment, Scooby resists being tossed out by extending his previously unseen claws to hold tight onto the wooden floor. Scooby has retractable claws. WHAT IS THIS DOG?

The gang finds no sign of the native who spooked Shaggy, but Velma does find a stone tomahawk just laying in the dirt by some train tracks. She identifies this as “an authentic Indian relic, at least 1000 years old”.

Without any testing or reference materials.

Without questioning why it was just sitting around in the open.

A thousand years old, she says.

Guay de mi. Shaggy concludes that this means ghosts, but the gang pick up on Scooby’s signal again and follow it, while Scooby once again demonstrates his retractable claws by extending an especially long one to cut a hole in the wooden crate he’s trapped in.

SCOOBY-DOO, WHAT ARE YOU?

After Scooby’s rescue, the gang backtracks, and are shot at with arrows—that Fred identifies as factory-made and inauthentic, because I guess he thinks no self-respecting native would use anything other than home-made traditionally-crafted arrows. Shaggy and Scooby cry out in terror over the prospect of being scalped.

Interesting fact about the practice of scalp-taking: there’s evidence to suggest that it was introduced to the Americas by white people, and that it was much more widely practiced by settlers—colonial authorities offered bounties on native scalps, and both Confederate and Union soldiers are documented to have engaged in the gruesome practice on people of all ethnicities.

But Shaggy’s a white dude in the Sixties, so we just get to see him being a racist making jokes about his hair being scared.

The gang look to where the arrows came from, and catch sight of the remains of a cliffside city in the general Southwestern style, looking like it may have been referenced directly from “Montezuma’s Castle”. As they make their way up to it, they catch sigh of the lead villain, who is shaking some maracas and affecting a stereotypical accent completely unlike the way he was speaking in front of Scooby earlier.

As he disappears, Velma comments that he speaks excellent English “considering he’s supposed to be 1000 years old.” Again, how is she drawing this conclusion? There’s nothing in the episode to suggest it, and Velma just comes off as spouting the typical attitudes of white American culture that indigenous peoples are long dead and gone.

As the gang continue onward in spite of their ignorance, they rouse a colony of adorable bats, that start chattering and flying around.

Shaggy and Velma start to flail madly in spite of the bats not being animated as actually flying at them, just around... until one snatches Velma’s glasses right off her face, and then drops them on Scooby. There’s a great shot from Scooby’s perspective through the lenses of a bat zooming right at him, and he flees.

But even better is the one moment when Shaggy follows Scooby into shelter. “Ri, Raggy,” says Scooby in his usual distorted doggy speech. Without missing a beat or any sense of it being unusual Shaggy responds in kind:

“Ri, Rooby.”

It’s a weird little moment of Shaggy’s guard being down so much that he picks up on Scooby’s vocal tics, and to be honest, it’s adorable.

The “thousand years” bit continues as the gang explores and "Geronimo” (again, they have no reason to call him that) continues to warn them away with fakey accents and flashy displays.

The weirdest moment of the episode comes during their explorations, while Shaggy is distracted with raiding the dognapper’s food supplies to make an overwhelmingly meaty sandwich with every kind of cold cut i’ve ever heard of. Scooby investigates a cabinet, and then, behind him, a stone in the wall opens up to reveal a secret hole...

...and a hand reaches out to shove Scooby into the cabinet, sending him through another passage and down a chute that leads right to the room where the stolen dogs are kept, along with Daphne after she got caught in another secret passage trap herself. But nothing’s holding Scooby, and he’s able to easily untie Daphne and set the dogs free.

So... what was the point of pushing him? Whose hand was that?

After a few more secret passage antics, the dogs are freed, and—hey, wait a minute, how’d all these secret passages get into these ancient ruins? There’s more of a story here than just the dognappers, but the episode never goes into it.

The dogs chase down the main villain (his henchman is never seen again, and there’s no evidence he’s ever caught), who is revealed as Buck Masters, a dog owner himself who had pretended his own dog was stolen and put on a pretense of offering a reward for the crooks. Buck had extensively interacted with the gang earlier in the episode, so it’s not too surprising he immediately recognized Scooby, but one has to wonder why he didn’t warn his own henchman of the gang’s involvement. 

In any case, his incompetent racist deception is revealed, and the gang have foiled his plan! Oh zoinks, are we going to finally hear it, that immortal line?

Hey, that’s not how you pronounce “meddling”!

In a heartwarming moment, Fred explains that they had to get involved, because they had a dog of their own, and “we love him very much.”

The episode ends on one last little stereotypical gag, as Scooby makes a feathered headdress shadow on the wall by posing with a duster and toy tomahawk.

Oy.

(like what i’m doing here? It’s not what pays the bills, so i’d really appreciate it if you could send me a bit at my paypal.me or via my ko-fi. Click here to see more entries in this series of posts, or here to go in chronological order)

[commenter2]

Ideas for R&C series finale trilogy

Awhile ago I made a list of things I want to see happen in the R&C series, some of which before the people at Insomniac decide to do a reboot (here is a link to it if you want to read it: https://commentron.tumblr.com/post/169710363708/ideas-for-the-ratchet-clank-series) but out of all the things I want to happen before said reboot, I want the people at Insomniac Games to make one more game trilogy that also wraps up the series with a fitting conclusion, cause the idea of them ending the franchise with just one game is a waste.

So as promised here is (in my opinion) how I think the plot a trilogy like that should play out. Long post warning !

The main summary of the trilogy would be about how after Percival Tachyon returns to the R&C universe with a strange new army consisting of powerful beings from the dimension he was trapped in, Ratchet and Clank along with the other heroes must now travel throughout the universe in order to find a device that will stop him before he can rule the universe with an iron fist.

Here is a small summary about the plot of each game.

The first game would mostly consist of setting the main story of the series.

During a celebration of some kind, a portal opens and Tachyon, who looks a but different as he is midway through his Cragmite metamorphosis, comes out declaring his return and states his plan on re-ruling the universe but before anyone can stop him his army comes out ands starts attacking. Though Ratchet & Clank try and stop his forces there eventually overwhelmed and fallback. Then after doing a few things to preparing the galaxy from an attack from Tachyons forces (which can happen for a level or two) the gang eventually realizes they need to find information about this mysterious race and how to defeat them.          

The heroes eventually find out that this species is actually a (at the time) mythical, ancient race that use to live in there own universe, and were almost as powerful as the Zoni as not only were they smart but they have the ability to control energy which they used to build amazing machines more advance then what other races in the universe had, however unlike the Zoni they were very destructive and what they build would eventually get destroyed causing harm to other races. It wasn’t until the arrival of the Zoni when the Zoni, with the help of the ancestors of several races from across the universe, built a device that banished the race to another dimension and how after that, the races separated the device into several pieces (maybe like 5 or 7 total) and hid them across the universe in order to prevent other people from either using this power for evil or bringing the race back. The rest of the first game would then be about the gang finding the first few pieces and then it ends with them starting to look for another piece, maybe there could be a cliffhanger end credit where we see Tachyon talking to Dr. Nefarious.

At this point I should mention that after the gang start looking for the pieces, throughout the trilogy, Ratchet and the gang would get help from time to time by a masked figure (that’s not the plumber) who does things such as tell them what Tachyon is doing, give them clues about what they should do or get Ratchet out of a sticky situation, more on him later.

 The 2nd game takes place on a planet where R&C are following a lead on where a piece can be which they do as its revealed that Max Apogee found an important piece of the dimension machine a long time ago and hid it, so Ratchet and the others must retrace Max Apogee’s steps in order to find it and along the way they slowly find out what really happened to Max Apogee all those years ago.  This would be good cause not only would it resolve one of the biggest questions that the series has but also give Talwyn some good character development.

Also similar to UYA, from time to time in the game Ratchet and others will have to travel to other worlds in order to help the army stop Tachyon’s plan to rule the universe which are stronger then in the first game as the heroes find out that Dr. Nefarious has teamed up with Tachyon, but its hinted in the 2nd and 3rd game that they don’t get along all the time as they fight and hurt one another especially tachyon. However unlike in UYA, the fights (though mandatory) are shorter and don’t have multiple optional missions, and there free roam (think of them as going through Igliak in TOD and ITN).

Then maybe at the end of the 2nd game Tachyon not only does something bad like kill a minor/new character or blow up the Apogee Space Station, but also reveals that he completely retook most of the Polaris Galaxy, causing the gang to retreat to either another galaxy or to an unknown planet/space.

The 3rd game would be the most epic of the trilogy, and maybe the longest of the series, as a lot should happen in it ? This part gets very long so heads up.

Though the gang sulks a bit after what happened at the end of the last game they go back to there goal of defeating Tachyon and go looking for the last piece or pieces, either way its turns out the Lombaxes have a piece, so after going to a few planets, some which were Lombax populated ones they eventually discover that the Lombaxes took the piece with them when they were escaping from Tachyon.

The mask figure appears to comfort Ratchet after finding out the news, but Ratchet is too angry to deal with him and starts to fight the mysterious guy and after winning a boss fight with him, Ratchet takes off his mask and its revealed that the mysterious figure was his father, Kaden ! At first everyone is shocked but the gang learns what happened. 

Turns out after Kaden got the Dimensionator from the fleeing Lombaxes he originally planned on taking himself, Ratchet, and the Dimensionator far away from Polaris but troopers were starting to break into the base where there ship was and not wanting to see his son hurt or Tachyon’s forces getting the Dimensinator, he decided to send his son to the nearest habitable plant that wasn’t in Polaris, and took the Dimensinator and started attacking Tachyons forces with Aphelion (which he owned before Ratchet) in order to cover the ship that held Ratchet which worked but he got shot down but survived and also helped him fake his death. After eventually getting off the planet that he went into hiding and did what he could to prevent Tachyon from finding the Dimensinator like hiding the Dimensinator and deleting the info on where the Lombaxes were on the Iris Supercomputer, but even after hearing that his son had defeated Tachyon and freed Polaris he was too ashamed to try and meet him cause he still felt guilty of not only making him an orphan but never trying to reach him when he got older, but after hearing that Tachyon was back, he decided to come out of hiding and help his son anyway he can as a way of not being there for him in the past. At first this is shocking to Ratchet as he experiences a lot of emotions even looking mad at Kaden, but hugs him and we get a cute moment.

After that the gang decide on what they should do next, Kaden suggest they try using the Dimensionator but learns that its broken and though bummed at first, Clank remembers the Chronoscepter, and suggests that they go to the Great Clock to fix the Dimensinator (which he has on him which surprises everyone) which they do. However when they get there they discover it’s under attack by a small squadron of Nefarious Troopers, which they destroy and get the chronoscepter, fixing the Dimensinator. But before everyone can go through the portal more soldiers appear, so while the others go hold them off, Ratchet and Clank, and maybe Kaden goes through the portal. While there he runs into a squad of Lombax soldier but stops them when he sees Max Apogee leading or standing among them, saying he is friends with Talwyn.

They then go to a council (or something like that) where our heroes tell the Lombax leaders there plan, but even though there shocked that they defeated Tachyon before they refuse to given them the part, but then after Ratchet and the others fight off a hoard of creatures that attack the Lombaxes once in awhile, the Lombaxes give them the piece and before they go into the portal with Max Apogee joining them (as he wants to see his daughter again) Ratchet ask the others to come join in the fight but the Lombaxes say no as there still afraid, then Ratchet gives a speech of sorts saying they should at least try or something among those words, then they leave.

They return seeing there friends have stopped to troops, and they cheer a bit now that they have all the pieces, and we also get a sweet moment between Talwyn and Max. After that the gang goes to the planet where the machine was used millennia ago (as it’s the only place where the machine can be used properly without endangering the universe) and start building it but when almost complete they deal with waves of Tachyons forces. Though they fight well there forces fall and when it looks like there about to be killed Lawrence says a witty remake to an already angry Tachyon who destroys him and as a result an angry Nefarious attacks him and in the chaos frees the gang, this could also count as a small redemption for him if the writers want to do that. While the others hold the forces back Ratchet & Clank run to the activate the machine but there stopped by Tachyon who fights them but of course he is defeated and Ratchet activates the machine which works and banishes the creatures back to there own dimension, leaving Tachyon alone. In the end we see Tachyon taken to prison (cause it be a good change to see the villain go to jail instead of destroyed) along with Nefarious who willing chose to go but later escapes and we see the gang party or something, maybe see Talwyn and Rachet kiss ?

Then after the credits we would get an epilogue where it shows that time has past and we see what happens to the characters. Ratchet and Talwyn have gotten married and started a family and live on Fastoon, Ratchet is a mechanics but also helps his father and the other Lombaxes rebuild Lombax places across the galaxy. Clank works part time at the Great Clock but makes time to hang out with his friends and nieces/nephews. Qwark is pretty much the same but  a bit less egotistical and is teaching a small group of people on how to be heroes. Dr. Nefarious though not as bad as before is still causing trouble as he fights for the rights of robots all over the universe, Max Apogee lives next door to Ratchet and Talwyn and hangs out with is daughter as much as he can.

After we see Ratchet says goodbye to everyone, an army appears on the ground and a random villain comes forward and says he is going to conquer the universe but then gets a dumbfound look as we see everyone armed with weapons and run up to him, smiling confidently.

Of course this is how I would make the series end and even then I’d be ok if some of the things here never happened like Kaden being alive, Max Apogee returning to see Talwyn or Nefarious redeeming himself/staying alive till the end.

 The following are ideas that I would also like to see happen in the trilogy if possible.

Ratchet getting closure on Alister Azimuth- Personally I think Ratchet got closure about Azimuth a bit too quickly, so maybe at one point in the trilogy we see this brought up again for a bit but also see him get closure for it.

What if for a mission in one of the games, Ratchet goes to an abandoned Lombax planet  and(goes to a military base to retrieve some data on either what the strange race is or where to go next to find a dimension machine part but when he arrives he sees a photo of Alister Azimuth and we see him sad a bit but it doesn’t last long as he runs into AI Lombax robots who are controlled by a hologram recording of either Alister Azimuth. Turns out he ran into a combat testing area for the Praetorian Guard and is told by the hologram to finish it and after Ratchet defeats them, he is made a member of the Lombax Praetorian Guard by the hologram of Alister Azimuth and he gets a speech from the hologram that finally gives Ratchet closure on what happened to him This would be awesome for many reason as not only do we get see Alister again (sorta), learn more about the Lombaxes, but we also get to see Ratchet deal with being taught and rewarded by his former mentor (or at least a recording of him) and see him get more closure, again something not seen a lot in the series. 

Qwark’s face revealed- Not once has Qwark been seen without his mask on, so an event in the last game that results in the reveal of his whole, maskless face would be awesome.

The return of characters that haven’t been in any recent games (not counting the R&C game for PS4)- I’ve said this before but again this idea would be perfect for a trilogy.   Some characters that should are Big Al, Scrunch, and Rusty Pete to name a few. Again maybe one of them is killed off at some part of the trilogy to add drama.

Clank meeting Orvus- While writing this post, it was mentioned by the people at Insomniac Games that Orvus might return one day to the R&C universe, which would be awesome, so why not have him return in a trilogy.

One idea that could involve this idea in my story is that while at a Zoni temple searching for clues to the dimension machine, Clank ends in a meditative state of sorts while in the temple and his soul ends up in the Zoni dimension, while there he meets Orvus. We the player learns what happened to him, which to me is that when Nefarious tortured him, he used his power to destroy his suit thus transporting back to the Zoni dimension to get away from Nefarious and at the time tried to keep Clank safe, and that he can’t go back until he makes a new suit, which he can’t as he was the only one smart enough to make one, which also takes a lot of time to make.

So Clank helps him (which is in the form of a Clank level) and while helping his father, we learn a bit more about the strange species from Orvus, who was there at the time when they were banished. After helping him out Clank learns that it will still take years till Orvus can come back so he says his goodbyes and says he can’t wait to see him again.

The mystery of the Plumber revealed- Next to the mystery behind Max Apogee, a big thing fans of R&C have been wondering for years is what’s up with the Plumber. So I think in the trilogy it should be revealed who he is and why he helps Ratchet & Clank.

The inclusion of multiple and different weapon vendor - In almost every game you can only get weapons from one weapon corporation like Gadegtron for example. So I think it be cool that for all 3 games of the trilogy you can get weapons from multiple, different vendors like Grummelnet, Gadgetron (which now includes weapons from Vox Industries that go to V5 and have no mods from Deadlock, the game could say Gadgetron bought out the company after Vox destroyed himself in Ratchet: Deadlocked) and Megacorp, maybe a 4th vendor if Ratchet and the gang ever go to another galaxy.

Traveling to multiple galaxies in the games- Similar to the last idea, instead of the games taking place in one galaxy, the plot makes you travel to various galaxies in the R&C universe like Solana, Bogan (if the theory of Max helping Angela is used in the Max Apogee mystery) and another galaxy if Insomniac ever does make a game that takes place in one.

So what do you think ? Is there anything here you agree with ? What would you like to see happen in a series finale trilogy ?

[cococrazies]

Lovestruck Series Review: Gangsters in Love (Season 4)

Personal playing order: Chance - Aurora - Ash - Irving - Yoshimitsu - Mateo

Warning! Minor spoilers for all routes ahead, as well as (slightly NSFW) CGs under the cut.

Chance: Again, Chance’s route never fails to deliver on more opportunities for heartbreak; even in this sweet kind-of-HEA epilogue, his worst nightmares continue to haunt him. The first part of this season really left an impact on me, which made the transition to happy family antics even more jarring.

Even so, I still really enjoyed it until Luca decided to combine Chance’s muleheadedness from Season 1 with MC’s complete lack of forethought, with a nice sidedish of bratty temper. (Not really what I was hoping to recognize when it comes to their family resemblance.) At least Giorgio was a sweetheart, and I did like to see how well the kids fit into the gangster environment without it painting MC and Chance as irresponsible parents.

Aurora: Oh, for the love of... I know that permanently offing someone is kind of rare in Lovestruck, but can we please just get rid of Skylar forever? (Because yes, unfortunately she shows up in MC’s and Aurora’s lives even a decade later.) At this point she’s making Zeus look like a freaking cakewalk, and I played through all the stories in the third season of A:FK consecutively.

Beyond that this epilogue gave me so much fuzzy feels -- I love Stella as a teenager, and Aurora/MC are still hot as as ever (plus that I never get tired of seeing them being domestic) -- but Skylar annoyed me so much that I almost ragequit again.

Ash: Each to their own, but any GiL story that has MC not even thinking about the rest of the gang for years and finding it too awkward to even casually text them is not my cup of tea. 

I understand that it would’ve been unrealistic for her and Ash to keep in touch with them if they were really trying to clean their slate, but for the gang to not even know they had a baby... I was already sad about the split-up since the character interrelationships in this series is one of the things that makes it shine, but to burn all bridges like that? Yeah, I’m not a fan. Things did improve by the end, but her and Ash’s lukewarm attitude to the reunion was still painful to read.

Irving: One of my favorite stories of this season! Given the previous track record of Irving’s routes I was fully prepared for a celebrity diva heiress meltdown and MTV rich kid reality drama, but thankfully Jasmine turns out to be one of the cutest Gen 2:ers so far. The actual plot was a little predictable and boring, but writing-wise it was good in terms of execution. All in all a sweet and surprisingly uncrazy conclusion to Irving’s route.

Yoshimitsu: This season left me with kind of... mixed feelings, I guess? There were things I liked, and things I was less fond of.

To start with the good stuff: so many feels. I loved Yoyo and MC as parents, and their kids were adorable. (Tora handled his tween wannabe gangster transition much better than Luca did, fortunately.) The shoutouts to other Lovestruck franchises were also nice; I cracked up at the L&L movie marathon. The story itself was okay -- the plot of previously crossed yakuza coming back for revenge is starting to get old, but it was at least decently paced. The dialogue was also really great in places, too.

For the less positive, however... I feel like the overall writing quality suffered from a noticeable drop, especially since I normally love the writing in Yoshimitsu’s route? There were so many exclamation marks in the early narration I sometimes felt as if I were playing Pokémon, and unnecessary capitalizations were strewn everywhere. The non-hearts options were also pretty bad; usually they aren’t depicted as obviously “negative” in the execution as in the actual choice, but some of the ones here had a really bad outcome. (I’m pretty tired of Sho as a villain as well, although it’s nothing on par with how much Skylar irritates me.)

Yoyo and MC themselves also made some questionable decisions that were a leap in logic for me, more so compared to than previous seasons. At the end of the day the feels still won out as the lasting impression I had of this season, but it had a fair amount of caveats that I hadn’t associated with Yoyo’s routes before.

Mateo: Another season with Mateo, another facepalm. MC’s logic takes another turn for the incomprehensible as she considers quitting the gang, their main means of protection from enemies... because of Mateo being targeted by one of his former fed foes he put in jail?? How does that even make sense??

At least things turned around in the end per usual and they never did their dramatic exit, but I can’t say I was very excited until that point. The villains were also so generic they weren’t even given proper names. 

Another thing worth mentioning was how weirded out I felt by Mateo’s upgraded look vs. MC still having the appearance of a teenager; it made for some pretty awkward CGs. (Granted, she’s still all pink frills in the other routes as well, but at least she mixes up with some more mature outfits in those? Irving doesn’t necessarily look much younger than Mateo in these epilogues, and I don’t remember there being as much of a jarring disparity there.)

To be fair, I’ve never been much of a fan in Mateo in the first place, so I might be slightly biased. To bring up some more positive aspects of his route, I like how he’s toned down a little personality-wise compared to previous seasons. His and MC’s son was also cute; I loved his connection with Ash. 

This route itself wasn’t necessarily bad either, it just didn’t have anything to win me over in the eleventh hour where Mateo’s previous seasons didn’t. In terms of execution the writing was fine beyond MC being stupid again, and how I wish they could’ve at least given the antagonists a more compelling backstory.

Final character ranking: Chance > Irving = Aurora = Yoshimitsu > Ash = Mateo

Conclusion + side-stories review is likely going to be a bit late since I’m in the middle of reinstalling everything on my computer, but I’ll try to get it up as soon as possible. You can follow my tag #coco reviews lovestruck for more reviews of Lovestruck games, or check out the ones I’ve done so far on this list.

[katara0524]

RWBY Speculation: Will Ruby Be Captured in this Volume (or in a Later Volume)? *UPDATED*

So, I’m not a theorist in any way, shape or form, but I really felt like I had to get this off my chest because literally NO ONE has seemed to mention anything about Salem’s intentions for Ruby. So I brought it upon myself to put together this post for ya’ll. You’re welcome. (I think.)

DISCLAIMER: This post is mostly speculation, and not everything is held up by evidence. Some inspiration/speculation for this post came from some of @calxiyn‘s videos.

With Volume 5 now in full swing, fans will be piecing together theories 24/7. But, one theory that I haven’t ever seen talked about is the fact that Salem has plans for our favorite Silver-Eyed warrior (SEW), yet we don’t know what exactly what these plans are. I’ve watched countless theory, reaction, and analysis videos, and read pretty much every speculation thread I can, yet no one has seemed to mention anything about Ruby possibly being taken off to Salem’s castle (is it a castle? I’m calling it a castle.) in the near future, whether it’s in this Volume or a later one.  Of course, there ARE going to be 14 episodes this season, so anything’s possible, I guess… 

Anyways, seeing how things are currently going for Ruby and the gang, we can safely assume that she could very likely be captured this Volume, most likely by someone other than Tyrian since he already failed in retrieving her once.

Even in the last moments of the V5 intro, as RWBY is running towards Salem, Ruby looks a little bit afraid of her, while the rest of her teams just looks determined. Of course, the intro should be taken with a grain of salt, since several things from the last intros never made it into the show (like Weiss vs. Emerald in V2 and V3).

So, I’m basically going to present 4 different scenarios of what could go down once Ruby is taken to Salem’s castle. 

Scenario #1: Cinder will attempt to kill Ruby.

We’re all too familiar with the infamous scene in the Volume 3 finale. Upon seeing Pyrrha’s tragic death, Ruby activates the power of her Silver Eyes in sorrow, unleashing it onto Cinder and Kevin the Dragon.

Then, in the Volume 4 premiere, we see that a now severely debilitated Cinder is itching to get revenge against Ruby, even expressing intense anger towards the other members of Salem’s faction whenever they poke fun at her misfortune. 

Later, in the finale of Volume 4, we see that Cinder’s hatred for the protagonist hasn’t faded one bit. Emerald creates a hallucination of Ruby for Cinder to practice using her Maiden powers on. Even Salem herself watches this, and appears to express some satisfaction in the brutal murder of the vision (though it could be that she’s simple pleased with Cinder’s progress). 

Now, in this scenario, I believe that Ruby will be brought to Salem’s castle (obviously), and thrown into a battle against Cinder. Cinder will go on full-on Fall Maiden (aka “Avatar State”), while Ruby will use the full(?) extent of the SEW powers.

Because of each character’s desire to seek vengeance on the other, this scenario can make a lot of sense. But before we come to any conclusions, let’s take a look at some other probable situation that could explain Salem’s intentions.

Scenario #2: Salem will somehow steal Ruby’s powers.

Now, I know what ya’ll may be thinking:

“Marii, now you’ve REALLY gone crazy! There’s no evidence for this!”

I hear you, comment section. Just let me state my case. Besides, this is all just speculation, so chill out. XD

If you’ve ever seen any theories about Salem, you may know of one that suggests that Salem was once a SEW herself (according to her supposedly having Silver Eyes in the concept art she was seen in).

In this speculation, Salem somehow became corrupted and turned into the evil ruler of the Creatures of Grimm we all know today. It is also theorized that she gained the power to “absorb” or even “steal” the SEW abilities from other Warriors. Some even believe that this is what could have happened to Summer Rose. Perhaps this is what Ruby’s fate could’ve lead to if she wasn’t the main protagonist.

It seems very unlikely, but it’s still a plausible outcome.

Scenario #3: Salem will possess Ruby in order to gain her powers.

This one is pretty similar to the previous scenario, but instead of Salem simply taking Ruby’s powers, she could possibly just straight-up possess her, or absorb her soul in some way.

Much like the last situation, there are many theories about Salem possibly being a former SEW. Some of these theories state that Salem could have the ability to absorb the souls of other SEW’s, or even just possess them. This could also possibly explain Summer Rose’s fate.

If you look at one of Salem’s hands, you can see a ring or bracelet resembling a beetle of some sort. This might be just the thing that Salem could use the possess other SEW’s, much like the glove (which might I add also had a beetle in it) that Cinder used to steal the Fall Maiden powers from Amber in V3.

But, of course, we won’t know until more information is revealed about this mysterious villain before we can come to a conclusion like this.

Scenario #4: Salem will manipulate Ruby, and turn her over to their side.

Now, this is the scenario that I’m most on board with. It also seems the most probable to actually happen.

If you recall the World of Remnant episode about the huntsman and huntresses, the final seconds of the video could very well be foreshadowing this exact situation…

Ozpin, the narrator of the V2 WoR episodes, says this: “…all are expected to serve humanity, and never succumb to the darkness.”

As he states this, a silhouette of Ruby in front of the moon is shown on screen. This moment here has to be foreshadowing if I’ve ever seen it. After all, why would RUBY of all people be shown during a statement like this? Seems a little fishy to me… :/

What I predict could happen, is that when Ruby is taken to Salem’s castle, Salem will “push her buttons” and manipulate her into joining Salem, forcing the girl to use her SEW abilities against the rest of our heroes.

In the V4 director commentary (which I had the privilege of seeing during V5 premiere in theatres), Kerry himself talks about Salem being really good at getting others to do her bidding, and she does so by hitting a the “weak spots,” so to speak. For example, she can easily manipulate Tyrian by using his obsession with pleasing her, and she only has to tell him that she’s disappointed in him to set him off, and he’ll punish himself and make sure he doesn’t fail her again.

With this information, we can predict that Salem will use this same tactic on Ruby in order to get her to “succumb to the darkness,” as the WoR episode states.

So far, I can definitely say that this one is my favorite. It has a lot more evidence to back it up than the others do, as well.

If/When Ruby is captured, what will it mean for the others?

Now that I’ve gone through the different scenarios of what could happen to our protagonist, let’s talk about what  Ruby’s capture will mean for the rest of our heroes.

To start out with, Ruby could very well be the only one who’s able to stop Salem, for all we know. And if Ruby’s gone, Salem wins. So, if (or when) Ruby gets taken away, the rest of the crew will HAVE to go after her, no matter what. Even if it means losing a few battles along the way (like the Fall of Haven?). If their only hope of saving the world disappears, then Remnant is royally screwed. (Now, obviously she won’t die or join Salem’s side permanently, because she’s the main character, but that doesn’t mean she’s necessarily invincible, either.)

What will be most interesting to see, however, is how everyone copes with Ruby’s kidnapping. Surely they’d all be sad or angry. Some might even hit a breaking point. However, Miles and Kerry might have other ideas in store for us…either way, it’ll be really interesting to see how our main cast deals with this tragedy, and how they plan to get their friend back (seriously tho i rlly wanna see them all unit and rescue Ruby as a team; make it happen, RT!)

More Evidence *SPOILERS FOR V5C2*

Also, I think Chapter 2 hinted at Ruby’s capture.

Whenever Cinder asks Salem about keeping Ruby alive, Salem says this:

“Never underestimate the usefulness of others. Take Leonardo; he was one of Ozpin’s most trusted, and yet, now…”

“…If Ruby Rose has learned to harness her gift, then you must take care to protect yours.”

Not only is it interesting that Salem says Ruby’s name (though she probably just got it from Cinder), but she also talked about how Lionheart was turned against Ozpin. Sure, she may just be referring to using the bandits to get the Spring Maiden, but I’m pretty sure she means that she’s going to use Ruby against the rest of our heroes. (also I want to know what she meant by Cinder protecting her Maiden powers; maybe it’s the same reason why Cinder got messed up by Ruby?)

Also, the RWBY banner for the RT Site depicts Team RWBY, but the background is of the Grimmscape. I may be looking too far into this, but if Ruby DOES in fact get taken off the Salem, really the only place she’d be is IN the Grimmscape, right?

Now, do I WANT any of these to happen? Well, yes and no. Yes, because it means we’d get some much-needed development for several characters. No, because each scenario involves hurting my favorite character (and all the others, too), which hurts my heart. T-T

What do ya’ll think? Is Ruby going to be capture by Salem and her forces? If so, when do you think it’ll happen; in Volume 5, or later on? Which outcome do you think will come to fruition? Do you have any ideas for other scenarios? Am I just another crazy RWBY fan who needs  to chill out? Let me know in the comments below! Sorry for the super long post, but I hope ya’ll enjoyed my rambling anyway. :)

-Marii

[creative-type]

Building up to Arlong Part II

 In my previous post I started my analysis of the East Blue Saga, looking at the arcs leading up to Arlong Park to see how Eiichiro Oda grew as both an author and an artist in those early chapters as he built the series slowly towards the first “epic” moments of One Piece. 

I ended that post with Orange Town and how Buggy managed to do something no villain before him had done (be memorable and interesting). It’s interesting to see how Oda follows up on this breakthrough with...well, this guy

I don’t really have much to say about Gaimon’s arc...chapter...whatever the heck it is. It’s completely random and doesn’t fit well with the rest of the East Blue chapters.To be fair to Oda, he does  cut loose and show off some of his wacky creativity, and there is some world building as the Red Line gets its first inauspicious mention.

There’s also something to be said about Luffy and Nami getting to know one another better and further insight into Luffy as a character, but it’s not anything that isn’t accomplished better in other places

I will admit this made me laugh, though

Syrup Village

Moving on, we jump to Usopp’s recruitment arc. This one is one of the more intriguing of the East Blue arcs (intriguing not equaling good) in that I liked a lot of the individual pieces but found the overall product to be a little lackluster. 

I think part of this is the setting. One Piece is at its best when it’s exploring wild and crazy new places, but Oda hasn’t gotten to that point in the series yet. This arc’s supporting cast is also pretty generic. Usopp’s Pirate Gang aren’t the most annoying little kids I’ve ever seen, but they are annoying little kids. Kaya is...okay. She shows some real gumption after Kuro shows his true colors, but I’m not sure that makes up for all the time she spent being boring early on.

Usopp himself can be hard to like, but that’s not necessarily a bad thing. Usopp is the everyman of One Piece. He’s not a power fantasy like Luffy or Zoro nor supernaturally talented like Nami. He has the greatest personal flaws of any of the Straw Hats, and his dream is the only one in the crew to be internal rather than external. With that in mind, firmly establishing Usopp’s foibles and his weaknesses makes his victories - both in this arc and later in the series - all the sweeter, even if it makes these chapters a bit of a slog to get through.

This arc does manage two things that would later become staples of the series, and once again we have our villains to thank

There are some very specific trends in One Piece’s villainous organizations. Most are headed by the main antagonist of the arc and are fought by Luffy. Below the leader there’s usually an annoying, but decently strong character taken out relatively early on (think Pearl, Mr.5/Miss Valentine, Satori, etc). This character acts as both hype and a teaser for bigger fights to come, but also carry some narrative weight by giving insight into the plans/mindset/priorities of the enemy organization as a whole. 

Lastly, Oda usually adds a lovable, quirky villain who, if not the second in command, is one of the strongest fighters in the arc. These characters humanize the Straw Hat’s enemies, add levity, and are generally really fun - so much so that more often then not they return later in the series as a recurring character.

The Nyaban brothers fit into the annoying but decently strong category, but Jango steals the show as the first lovable, quirky minion of the series (I think Oda tried with Buggy’s crew, but they lack the necessary charm to pull it off). Heck, the first thing we see him do is accidentally hypnotize himself after moonwalking down the path to Usopp’s village. Later on it’s hard not to feel at least a little bit sorry for the guy when we see the hopeless position Kuro has put him in. Jango may be an antagonist, but he’s fun and likable and honestly having him join the marines through the power of dance is amazing.

Gin, Hatchan, Betham, and Kaku all fit to one degree of another into this mold, and it wouldn’t have been possible without Jango.

Secondly, Kuro is the first cerebral villain of the series. Alvida and Morgan relied on brute strength, and while Buggy exhibited a certain amount of cunning he, too, was focused on overwhelming firepower and his Devil Fruit to win the day. 

Kuro of a Thousand Plans. His epithet says it all. Kuro is conniving, sneaky, underhanded, and without a shred of honor to hold him back as he meticulously plans to murder a sickly girl for nothing more than his own peace and comfort. 

All of Oda’s most memorable villains have this Machiavellian mindset. Crocodile, Doflamingo, and most of all Blackbeard are all chess masters to one degree or another. Though their end goals are completely different, you can see a lot of Crocodile especially in how Kuro built up an unshakable reputation while biding his time to strike. They even share a penchant for breaking speeches

It’s such a little thing, but the words “I suffered” elevate Kuro to one of my favorite East Blue villains, well above even Buggy. It’s so needlessly cruel, twisting the knife right where he knows it will hurt most, just because he can, and I freaking love it.

As a side note before moving on, Oda’s attention to detail is also to be commended during this arc. The way Kuro adjusts his glasses makes for an excellent and chilling re-read bonus, and connecting Morgan’s past to Kuro’s gives the former a little more depth than before.

The Baratie

It’s interesting to compare the Baratie to Syrup village because in many ways these arcs have opposite strengths and weaknesses. Where Syrup village had strong antagonists and a weak setting/side characters, the Baratie is the most memorable locale of the East Blue Saga and has an extremely strong secondary cast.

The Baratie as a concept brilliantly fits into the world of One Piece. The idea of a floating restaurant in a world that’s 90% ocean makes perfect sense, and it’s one of the times that Oda integrates the setting with his characterization. It’s not creativity for creativity’s sake, and unlike Gaimon’s sub-arc...chapter...whatever that was there’s a method behind the madness. 

This excellent setup is the backdrop to some superb character writing. Sanji is by no means my favorite Straw Hat, but his strained relationship between Zeff and the rest of the Baratie is done extremely well. It’s one of those situations where no one is 100% right or wrong and you just wish they’d all enter counseling or something so they could figure out how to talk to one another without resorting to violence.

It doesn’t hurt that this is when Oda figures out how to properly use the power of Tragic Backstory (tm) to its most devastating effect. While no (named) characters die, Sanji’s backstory is raw, painful, and emotional in all the right places. It’s in expressing these extreme emotions where Oda’s cartoony style is at its most effective. Oda’s characters don’t just cry, they cry ugly, and that’s so important when setting the tone of these heavy moments.

I don’t have much to say on Kreig or his crew because he’s boring and I despise Pearl with every fiber of my being, but once again we get some fun fight choreography. I especially like the sequence when Sanji spits his cigarette into Gin’s face before kicking him halfway across the deck, only to get a tonfa to the ribs for his effort. 

Also this happens, and it’s soooo satisfying to see Kreig get punched in the face. 10/10, would watch again

But the one thing that the Baratie does best of all the East Blue arcs - better than even Arlong Park - is world building. The entire series people have been telling Luffy and co. that the Grand Line is super dangerous and that he shouldn’t go, but it’s only here that we see that we see that played out in real time with Mihawk’s introduction to the plot. The Straw Hats have thus far been presented as invincible badasses when they’re nothing more than a big fish in a little pond.

All the stuff with Mihawk is big-picture storytelling and one of Zoro’s best moments. I don’t think that anyone who follows One Piece needs to be told how well Oda does at developing his world. More important to the build up to Arlong Park is Oda’s use of immediate foreshadowing. Right about the time Mihawk shows up Johnny and Yosaku catch Nami checking out bounties, specifically Arlong’s though he’s never named and we don’t see his picture. Immediately after Nami steals the Going Merry so she can run away, and we see her facade start to crack a little under pressure. Note especially how utterly exhausted she looks in this panel here

This all happens in the same chapter Zoro challenges Mihawk, and the action cuts between the swordsman’s pre-fight banter and the story of how Johnny and Yosaku lost the Merry. Zoro’s fight is the more immediate concern, but when constructing the chapter, instead of going out on that high note Oda cuts back to Nami a second time, this time sailing alone on the open ocean

If it weren’t already obvious by the whole rest of the series, this scene proves beyond a shadow of a doubt that there’s more to Nami than meets the eye. This is the first time we see her truly vulnerable, almost to the point of being broken, and it puts a completely different meaning to all her actions previous and what we’ll see coming up in later chapters.

I do think there is some significance to putting the Nami scene last over Zoro’s, because as the last thing the audience reads it’s what tends to stick in their mind longest week to week. We don’t see Nami again for a long time, and when we do all her defensive walls are firmly back in place. This is the Nami Oda wants us to remember when she’s going around Cocoyashi village telling Luffy to leave her the hell alone.

The Conclusion

What really stands out to me when going over these early chapters leading up to Arlong Park is Oda’s vision for the series from the word go, even when his execution isn’t as consistent as later on in the series. The whole East Blue saga exists to do two things 1) build the core of the Straw Hat Pirates 2) answer the question Who is Luffy.

Each antagonist from the lowly Alvida to Arlong himself has a weakness in their leadership ability that directly foils Luffy. These chapters show us what kind of pirate, what kind of captain, and most of all what kind of man Monkey D Luffy is, and what values he will and will not stand for. 

Arlong Park is the emotional peak of the East Blue saga, and it works because Oda has taken the time to build up to that peak. The impact would not have been the same if it had been placed earlier in the series because it would not feel earned without seeing Nami interact with the rest of the crew for as long as she did. Nor would it have worked if Oda hadn’t placed the breadcrumbs of her story for the audience to pick up along the way. 

It’s impossible for every arc to hit all the high points that Arlong Park does, because not all arcs are designed to do so, nor should they. That being said, there’s a steady increase in quality seen even in these early chapters as Oda gets his sea legs and figures out exactly what story he’s trying to tell.