#Like the story potential is actually great. But i just dont see that happening in the comics cuz of the sheer scale of it)

[krisseratops]

Why do they always do my boy dirty

HE'S BAAAAAAACK!!!!!!

HOLY FUCKING SHIT

🤍🖤🤍

[nekropsii]

I'm sorry to bother with my ask, but you are the most trustworthy mituna/ alpha trolls writer and I need to hear your thoughts.

How do you think mituna Pre-game life has been based on his classpect? Heirs usually have a certain privilege over the aspect they inherit, they dont have to work hard like a page to get it, however they either dont know what to do with it or the aspect get to take control of the heir. Do you think Tuna got to live a more comfortable life for beforus standards? How would the doom manifest in him? John became wind, equius became irrelevant, pehaps mituna great act of heroism was doom taking control of him instead of him learning how to take control of doom.

We actually can infer quite a bit about this. He was Cassandra. The logical conclusion is to keep adapting the Cassandra myth, and to assume his Doom is being Cassandra.

Mituna was an incredibly powerful psionic and basically an oracle. In the game, he knew whenever something bad was going to happen, and tried desperately to tell people. They never listened. I wouldn’t say his story follows 1:1 with that of Cassandra’s, where his Doom Vision was granted to him by an Apollo figure… But it’s pretty damn close, and I’d have to assume part of why they never listened was because he still got Apollo’s subsequent curse - to see the future, but never be believed. Considering this is a destruction of others’s belief, and the curse came as a punishment for Cassandra telling Apollo she doesn’t want to date or have sex with him… We already know who the Alpha Trolls’s Apollo figure is. It’s Cronus, Bard of Hope. Destroyer of Beliefs, and Known Sex Criminal. Due to the severity of the abuse he inflicts upon Mituna on screen - the violent bigotry and insults, the blatant disregard for his clear, desperate, repeated exclamations of his lack of consent, the molestation - we must also assume he fulfills the role of Ajax the Lesser as well.

Following this train of thought is the idea that people would actually readily listen to Mituna’s advice on Beforus. If he told someone to cut shit out, they’d listen to him. He likely didn’t have all that much mysticism surrounding him, considering he entered his SGRUB session at 13 years of age - it likely would’ve manifested in the same way Jade’s friends listen to her because she tends to be right about everything, inexplicably. They think it’s weird he can do that, but just shrug their shoulders, puzzle about it, or think he’s cooler for it.

Although he was an able-bodied male and carries an extremely useful ability, he was still a Goldblood, so his life was not privileged. He was pretty high on the Culling block, with him actually likely being specifically sought after due to his unique ability. Perhaps he evaded this through means of reclusion.

Getting culled might, theoretically, adopt you into the potential for wealth of a Highblood, but your autonomy is still getting stripped away from you quite violently. You are a trophy. You show wealth and status. You’re a novelty toy. You’re shown off like a cool knickknack, as if you’re not a person with a life and feelings. Everything is decided for you - what you wear, where you can go, what symptoms you’re allowed to have and express, what you eat, etc. - your control of your own life harshly limited to the whims of the Highblood. You are a foster child in middle class white suburbia, and your life is hell.

So, his life before the game was theoretically not as bad as it was in and after the game. He had yet to meet his combination of Apollo and Ajax the Lesser. He had yet to sacrifice himself for people who he called friends, yet who discarded him the second he stopped being what they wanted. He had yet to get locked with these people for eternity, still never listened to. But it still sucked. He’s an Heir of Doom, and a Lowblood on Beforus. It all still sucked.

[lyss-sketchbox]

My thoughts on Inazuma vs Natlan so far. Is that Inazuma dropped the ball. There's no questioning that. It was rushed and the resolution lacked weight, and it almost definitely needed a lot more space to breathe and probably would've benefited from the 5 act structure instead of speedrunning with 3 acts (such as needing actual time spent with the Watatsumi Resistance rather than spending like 30 minutes tops).

HOWEVER. I feel like the initial Act I-II of Inazuma did a great job established the STAKES. It showed us the very real damage being caused by the various unjust decrees and why people are fighting. Natlan I kinda felt like did a lot of telling instead of showing, and any potential stakes feel kinda... Unserious? Because no one's really seriously hurt and even if they're saying Natlan will explode soon, I'm not really feeling like it's as dire as they're trying to sell it.

BUT IVE BEEN INFORMED YOU CAN DO NATLAN OUT OF ORDER??? Like you could in theory do Natlan BEFORE Inazuma thru Fontaine (with the quick-start function) which is why Natlan is more 'self-contained' which is absolutely insane to me?? Like HELLO???

Overall, I feel like the concepts and plot presented in Natlan is fine. But they didn't do a good enough job of selling to me these things. Like the whole child soldiers stuff kjadf like we actually dwelled on it for longer than a millisecond, we'd probably realize that's super fucked up!! But instead we gloss over it, making the whole quest seem fairly light-hearted despite everything.

Rubs my hands together ok anon lets talk cuz yeah i have thoughts

About inazuma

I definitely agree with you that Act 1-2 (especially 1) of inazuma did well setting up and showing how much negative impact the shogun's rule has impacted the people:

Vision holders literally losing a chunk of themselves (or worst, their lives) from their vision being confiscated.

Non-vision holders risking their lives for helping said vision holders (the resistance)

International traders being stuck in the nation, repressed by local government, and scammed by local traders just to keep business alive.

Local government bloating the price of everything!!! (And being able to get discounts only if you have connections)

Corruption even in the highest positions (gestures at the Kujou clan)

Fatui meddling that lead to the deaths of many for profit

The shogun literally programmed her robot to be that heartless because she herself dont give a shit about any of these issues. As long as her eternity stays.

Fr after venti and zhongli, getting an archon that acts as a proper ruler of a nation AND an antagonist sounds COOL AS FUCK. The booba sword scene while yeah, boobs wooo, also was a wonderful show of her authority over her nation.

After that they tripped and fell in Watatsumi. While i appreciate the environmental story telling of Watatsumi's and Shogunate's bases during the war, we barely get enough time to do... ANYTHING of substance. If i remember correctly, we became team captain, then do a bunch of training and defeating vagrants (on our own because friendly npc fighters didnt exist yet) and thats it. Where is the plotting? Wheres the planning? It was all just an anime training montage we barely get to see or feel. I genuinely feel like we couldve just replaced the entire Watatsumi arc with 'the fatui is selling delusions to people with confiscated visions to help them cope with the lost so traveller go to the delusion factory' and NOTHING wouldve changed. Hell it wouldve made ALOT more sense why yae came to save us at the end if the whole thing happened in Narukami.

Also after all that SHOWING they did alot more TELLING about wooo how smart kokomi is she is so smart and cool and the savior of the resistance. Like girl the fatui had their grip on your soldiers to the point they almost didnt want to surrender their delusions what are you on about. While you can argue she was only a priestess before the war and had no war intellegence skills, the people prop her up as such, kujou sara took her seriously. So she has to have some merit. Well im not seeing any (fight me on this i dont fully remember what happens in watatsumi)

Also at the end we fight the literal dictator of the nation with the power of friendship then everyone and i mean EVERYONE forgave said dictator...... cool. They would definitely benefit from an extra act so that watatsumi adds to the idea that this civil war and the shoguns current decree is causing damage.

About AR

The thing is that the requirements for you to start Natlan AQ is to be AR 28 and finish Liyue AQ (which requires AR 29 for the entire thing). While starting Inazuma requires AR 30, Sumeru needs AR 35, and Fontaine needs AR 40 (highest AR requirement by far).

Id argue that each nation is supposed to be a self-contained story. Even so, based on AR requirements theyve been chronologically in order because you NEED to complete the previous AQ to start the next. EXCEPT for Natlan.

While this is obviously to be more open to new and returning players, it really.... decreases the stakes, like you would assume the more we progress the tougher challenges we will have to face. But Natlan? Nawww you can go to Natlan without fighting the dictator 👍

About Natlan

I AM ADDRESSING THE CHILD SOLDIER THING FIRST BECAUSE YES. THEY DEFINITELY DID ALOT MORE TELLING THAN SHOWING HOW THIS CHILD APPARENTLY CAN BE SENT TO WAR WITH A REAL CHANCE OF DYING!!!!! I talked about this before because they ironically did alot more showing how child like Kachina is which adds more to the FUCKING CHILD SOLDIER THING.

HOW ARE WE SUPPOSED TO BE OKAY WITH THIS??? Oh its our nations culture, its just the culture shock, OKAY YEAH BUT THE TRAVELLER AND PAIMON ARENT NATLAN NATIVES AND THEY DONT FEEL ANYTHING ABOUT THIS????? Wow yey cheer for the child to go to war! BRO SHE DIED AND WE WENT JACOOZIING WHILE WE WAIT FOR HER TO RETURN FROM WAR...............

ITS VERY OBVIOUS INFANTILIZATION BECAUSE IANSAN DIDNT FUCKING GET THE SAME TREATMENT. You know, the other small girl character there, nah she went to war just like Kachina, lived, and stood by the Archon and WAS READY TO THROW HANDS WITH A HARBINGER IF THE ARCHON DIDNT FUCKING FIGHT HIM HERSELF.

Everything just feels so.... chill? So relaxed with no stakes at all. I mean yeah the Abyss is creeping into the nation's roots but instead of sending armies we make it a tournament. Yeah people die in these excursions but we can revive them so we can ignore the horrors of experiencing death. Yeah the flames are dying so the archon has to give up some of her power to keep it lit but its okay! The harbinger is a gentleman that wont take this opportunity to do some scheming. We need the power of the chosen one of each tribes to save natlan but hey cant rush it! We got a year after all teehee.

Man. Head in hands. What the fuck.

Not even gonna go into the whole the archon is human but mavuika is the one that got reincarnated to retake the role just in time to solve a national crisis thing. Because i dont even know if THAT is accurate.

If they somehow trip and fall worse than inazuma id actually be amazed because the bar is very very low.

[thepumpkincorsair]

So, I watched the first episode of “Those About To Die” on Peacock.

I enjoyed it, and Im willing to do write ups if folks would be interested…

Since I wana talk about details, and I dont wana spread spoilers, everything is below the readmore.

What I liked: 🔵 And what I disliked: 🟠

Total Ranking: 8/10 - very good, worth the watch 👍

🟠 It dove into the Intrigue right away, which made it hard to watch while doing other things, but I can appreciate a show that grabs you by the shoulders and shoves you down into the couch to pay attention.

🔵 It wasn’t boring, quite the contrary, I felt fully engaged throughout the episode. Theres a lot of small moving parts to the story, and it orchestrates together incredibly well so far, even for Episode One. The writing is very well done, which is a lynchpin for me on a show like this. You cant pretend to be an intrigue type series without a proper plot. And, in my opinion, they’ve set their plots well right away. Tenax getting those shares in Blue was a great con, which had clearly been going a while, but we only saw the tail end of it. I see this little setup as a great look at how the writers DO their work. Connections matter, money does more than talk, and if you play the game wrong, you die. Don’t trust anyone.

🔵 I REALLY enjoyed the historical aspects of the first episode. Like, yes, this plot happened, its a historical fiction and a number of these characters exist in history, but its not just that. Its the small details, the different knives in different cultures, the veterinary care of race horses, the deities from more than just the main roman pantheon, the drinkware, the VARIOUS clothes from various cultures and climates…. And yes, women often went topless when they were a sxwrkr. Gotta advert.

🔵 ON THAT SUBJECT: can we talk about “3 sesterce… and Im tighter than both of them.” MY BOY, YOU ARE RIZZIN TOO HARD AND I LOST IT. Please, please let him be in future episodes. Omfg….

🟠 I am forced to concede the accuracy isnt PERFECT, the horses wore modern driving bridles to go with their ancient styled chariots. However, Im realistic about how many horses are trained today to pull anything without blinders, and how much safer modern bridles are. I’ll also note: I absolutely saw the animal handler grab the horse differently (calmly) before the riot surrounded it, then direct the horse to dance in the crowd. Great training with the horse! Bad camera angle. Lol

🔵 I also really like this cast so far. Everyone fills their roles incredibly well.

Hopkins doesnt even need an introduction, the mans a legend and brings all his experience to the stage with him every time. -chefs kiss-

Rheon was great in GOT, he plays calculatingly unhinged exceptionally well. But I wont lie, seeing him in a more commanding, level headedly calculating person?

Hashim….. HASHIM!!! Im SO excited to see where his character goes. We haven’t seen much of him in Ep 1 just yet, but he’s clearly going to be one of the main players. Im not familiar with him as an actor, but I’ve enjoyed his performance so far, and I REALLY appreciate the story being told.

Martins is also incredible. She does a fantastic job of knowing the danger her characters children are facing, but also knowing she HAS to play her cards right to save them. She personifies the strength and determination of a mother perfectly.

🔵 Quite honestly, I have to give points to that whole plot-line in general. That point of view is something we’ve had hidden from us (in America) for so long, that I think a LOT of people have… become calloused. I hope seeing it will potentially help others come to an empathetic understanding. This isn’t glossing over what happened, or whats likely to happen to any of the three children.

🔵 I also want to gush over actually SHOWING the wider Roman Empire, we get to see the direct effect of their influence in both Africa and Spain so far. Egypt was their bread basket, and without that grain, youve got problems. The Berber Coast has animals, and people they want, and we see money exchanging hands for the purpose of those ends. We see how the locals were told they’d be treated fairly, paid properly, and even eventually become citizens, like the Spaniards, only to have those promises thrown aside as soon as the Romans have better money to make. These people gave the Empire everything it wanted, but the Empire is never satisfied.

We also get to appreciate how far west the empire went when the Spaniards are trying to sell their horses. (Plot-bunny: Andies are dancing horses, exceptionally athletic, and a prime choice for chariots, though, a standardbred is the usual choice for modern cart racers)

🟠 I will say the CGI isnt the best. You can tell exactly when they change from live action to CGI. But this is a minor issue for me tbh. Its passable CGI, and they use it to avoid putting animals or people in danger which, obviously, I appreciate. A chariot wreck was shown, annnnnd it was pretty darn accurate to how messy those would have been. Not good times y’all. Not good times. Also, the ramifications of a major concussion. Oof. At least the guy would have barely knew what was happening? Still.

🔵 The sound effects were enough without being over the top. Often times when theres gore to show, theres all these extra squelching noises and gratuitous blood… not this time. It’s actually… pretty durn accurate. Don’t ask how I know. I don’t wana tell you, and you dont wana know.

Overall, it was a really solid first episode, and I plan on watching the rest.

[a-girl-in-neverland]

Once again, im here to complain about the bridgerton subplots and changes

So spoiler for Season 3 ahead

I hated that they just cast Anthony and Kate aside. Do they really had to go RUNNING to India and couldnt wait for FRANCESCA'S WEDDING???? Hello??? Werent they the head of the family??

The intention with that is great and loving but is the showrunner allergic to having Jonathan Bailey and Simone Ashley in our screens for more than 3 minutes????

Like at that scene of the night before Polins wedding. Colin mentions that Kanthony has "come back"??? From where??? Did they run off again??

(Also i would really like to know who Edwina married and a bit of her love story)

The way in which the writers simply forgot about benedict's art/painting plot is atonishing. The build up of S1 to S2 was great, with the art school, but then in S3 is like that never happened?? Why didnt they explore more Benedict's lack of purpose or even his disappoinment with Anthony's actions?? Noooo, they just rather have him have sex with people all season long

(Before you come after me, im not critizing Benedicts sexuality, im just pissed that his character had barely nothing to do this season other than have sex, but i did enjoy a lot his scenes with eloise)

The Mondrichs plot was sooooo inconsequential and had nothing to do with any other one in the entire season. What was the point of keeping them?????

Somehow the writers in this show can make up irrelevant plots for lukewarm characters but cant come up with anything for the most beloved ones

And lastly about Michaela Stirling. So many people on twitter are fighting over this that is sickening. But lemme tell you this, all my life i had the pleasure (or better, the experience) to see many books i adore turn into movies/tv shows. Sometimes in adapting change is good, sometimes is necessary. But this change alters the whole story.

To be clear, i am NOT trying to be disrespectul, or homophobic or even mean about it. I dont mind the representation. In fact i think stories centered around LGBTQ+ leads, in this period of time, is a niche that could be much explored. Bridgerton could inspire people who belong in this community to write these stories, which is great.

However, the change of introducing Michaela completely transforms Francescas story. The second-love with the exploration of sexuality trope has great potential. But changing so greatly a story thats well known between the fans is risky to say at least.

Francescas book is not my favorite (by far actually) but it is for a lot of people, and a lot of readers have been enamoured with michael for the last 20 years, at least. So i understand if people get upset, because i would too if my favorite couple/story changed so much out of the blue

And honestly, i think this is one of the ways the show is trying to remain relevant. I AM NOT trying to say that TV should use LGBTQ+ love stories as clickbait. But be serious, the books were written as 8 straight love stories, in todays society people would be complaining if they followed if by the rule.

Anyway, Polin were wonderful. Nicola and Luke you are so so so loved, we couldnt have actors that loved their characters more

(And at this point i might be a Portia Featherington stan, she grew a lot on me)

If you read this far, i hope you have a great week and please dont come for my critics, they are not hate opinions, i just needed to rant <3

[its-no-biggie]

thinking about. yoohankim body swap......

mild novel spoilers ahead but no big story moments or anything just. brief mentions of skills they get later and such

okay so weve got 2 options here, right (well technically theres 6 ways to arrange 3 objects but. if we assume each of them swaps into someone else. theres 2). first one. kdj -> yjh, yjh -> hsy, hsy -> kdj. right off the bat - extremely funny. kdj in yjhs body having the time of his life (i am the protagonist!!), but also adjusts fairly quickly bc like. hes done this before. hsy in kdjs body is a menace. immediately rummaging through his pockets. everyone is unsettled by unreadable normalguy kdj making hsys evil little gremlin expressions. and yjh in hsys body is like. immediately getting bullied because his menacing aura does not work at all in hsys 5 foot frame. kdj-as-yjh is picking him up by the scruff of the neck and all he can do is glare murderously

second arrangement. kdj -> hsy, hsy -> yjh, yjh -> kdj. i think i like this one less but lets see. yjh as kdj is pretty good, i think yjh would be disgruntled no matter who he swaps bodies with but since the 2 of them are on such even footing in the narrative, i think actually spending time in kdjs weak pathetic body would make him lose some respect for him lmfao. like "what have you been doing all this time that your body is in such poor shape. pathetic." hsy as yjh is extremely salty about how op he is. muttering about cliches under her breath. definitely uses her new power to relentlessly bully kdj (omg wait that means hsys body is getting harassed by yjhs body in both scenarios..... what can i say. shes the perfect size to be bothered. the only reason she isnt bothered more in canon is because of her sharp teeth - i stand by this). kdj as hsy is. unremarkable i think. loudly complains about how much shorter he is now just to piss her off. finds an unholy amount of candy in her pockets and publicly shames her about it until she points yjhs sword at him and he shuts up real quick.

honestly i think both of these scenarios have great potential for physical comedy though. they all have such different mannerisms and such different appearances that reshuffling them is always gonna be striking. i need to draw it.....

okay lets talk logistics. do they keep all their skills or do the skills stay with the body? they probably keep them, although it might be more interesting to have like. physical skills like swordfighting and whatnot stay with the body. so if they get stuck like that for a while and end up fighting in each others bodies they kinda have to adapt to the bodies skills and fighting style. could be fun! hmmm that kinda leaves whoevers in kdjs body in the lurch though, since all his skills are mental..... and then kdj has a massive advantage, because surely the bookmark skill gets a boost if hes literally in the body of the person hes copying. so perhaps they keep all their skills - hsys avatar skill in yjhs protagonist body would be pretty op. and yjh has so many skills that he could make anything work - he might end up ripping kdjs body to shreds though lmfao. also im not sure if we get much of kdj using hsy as a bookmark in the novel? i actually dont remember an instance of it, although i can see him wanting to steal predictive plagiarism so it may have happened and i just forgot. but anyway kdj as hsy using bookmark + avatar, and then hsy as yjh also using avatar is an INSANE combo. two man army. and then theres kdjs body there like *struggling to hold up a sword* "i am yoo joonghyuk......" *passes out* LMAO sorry kdj i know youre not that pathetic its just so funny to imagine the protagonists sheer power literally destroying your fragile salaryman body from the inside out.

omg also. if the swap lasts more than a few minutes theyre DEFINITELY getting their weapons and coats back from their bodies. black coat hsy...... wait omg. okay i know kdjs coat is like a high grade magic item that changes size with him. not sure if yjhs is the same but allow me for a moment - yjh-as-hsy trying to look menacing (already failing) but his coat is way too big. its dragging on the floor. the sleeves cover his hands. 😭😭😭😭 its so ridiculous...... other notable combos - white coat hsy (head in hands). hsy-as-yjh gets yjhs coat stolen from her which means the protagonist physique is on full display - she makes a comment about how WoS should have made more use of this kind of fanservice and now she and kdj are arguing. black coat kdj..... i am yoo joonghyuk......

okay i think thats all i got for now. i hope its in character because i really havent read orv in a while..... anyway i think this has a lot of potential so i wanna try drawing it - maybe ill have more thoughts on specific character interactions once i can like,, put personalities to faces lmao

[liquidstar]

I've seen a lot of people in the Re:zero community hate puck with a passion and call him a hypocritical toxic father, and a good portion of them accuse him of deliberately mentally abusing Emilia so that she can be a naive pretty doll with no sense of independence and always obey him unconditionally.

How do you feel about that?

i dont think theyre wrong per say but i also do think puck genuinely loved emilia a lot- i dont think this is something up for debate. he will literally end the world if she dies. but is that what she would want??? i highly doubt it. emilia is a girl who would die for a world that has been nothing but cruel to her.

puck was never really meant to be a father, like, thats not what he was made for. hes the beast of the end not the beast of paternal love. but thats also something about him i find compelling, because he changed so much of himself because he loved this girl so much. his mentality is literally "if anything happens to her ill kill everyone in the world and then myself"

but he does baby her. extremely so. and he does treat her like a doll. remember part of their contract is literally that he does her hair, and thats why she chops off in greed:if as an act of rebellion (normal teen girl behavior honestly). he also literally never told her what sex is- shes 17 and she had no clue, and its played off as a joke at first, but subaru's "damn you puck" rings so true.

remember in wrath:if it was puck who pitched a deal with suabru to keep emilia trapped in the "princess room" away from all the danger. the whole princess room thing (in wrath:if and also in her childhood) is symbolic of her loss of autonomy in a lot of ways, especially when you remember she's NOT a princess. she's a candidate to be a KING!

and there are more damning things within their contract too, like how she literally wasnt allowed to SEE HER OWN FACE! its not made super clear in the anime, but whenever she looks at reflections she actually doesnt see anything back (not because she doesnt have one, but that she herself isnt perceiving it. and i think a lot of this also comes back to the self-recognition theme of the story, the whole reflections though eyes motif and all. remember how much of her we saw reflected only through subaru's eyes? she doesnt actually see her own reflection until she jumps inside the lake in the trial)

but i think thats also a big part of why he broke her contract with her to begin with. i think he knows she hasnt been allowed to grow up, that shes been overly babied, isolated, and kept away from things that might potentially make her feel bad. including her past, and even her present and future... breaking the contract off all at once isnt a good way to do this, i mean, her mental breakdown was so emblematic of that. but i think its important to look at what it all means for the meta narrative.

the latter half of arc 4 was absolutely emilia's arc, and a lot of it was her sort of growing up. i dont think cold turkey is a great way for a parental figure to do this to their child, but emilia was so incredibly dependent. and a lot of that was because puck MADE her dependent to begin with. for so much of her life she literally only had him... like. she was all alone in complete isolation in a frozen forest for as far back as she can remember, and everyone in the world hated her for reasons she didnt understand, and all she had was this little cat thing to be her friend. OF COURSE shes dependent on him, and of course she thinks she cant do stuff on her own (shes so fucking scared of being alone), and i think puck sort of depended on this mindset to keep her a "child" for as long as possible

but she had to grow up eventually. she's 18, maybe almost 19 by this point of the story (still unclear exactly which month we're in) and this is just as much her coming of age story as it is subaru's. (but speaking of subaru puck also guilt trips him quite a bit about emilia's deaths, even when he himself is "gone at the most important times" in emilia's words, which is not only hypocritical but also manipulative!)

all this being said i seriously love puck as a character because when he was first introduced i was like "oh god. annoying mascot character. boring" and then the beast of the end reveal happened and i was like "oh so this is going in the kyubey ripoff direction. i guess that makes sense for a dark fantasy but idrc" BUT THEN he actually ends up being like. an actual character w a lot of depth and nuance to him, a lot of it being how incredibly fucking sketchy he actually is but in a completely different way than just "evil twist mascot." between him and matsumoto from vivy, i love how tappei handles mascot characters- theyre a really hard thing to get right w/o being annoying LOL.

[hockeyisforthegays]

gotta know how you felt after reading kugisakis epilogue :D

ooooh ok well. im pretty sure the things i have to say are overall more criticism than positivity just to warn you. let me start with some of the positive things which include: kugisaki is looking SOOOO cute. its a great outfit great hairstyle etc. i also like the idea behind her motivation for seeking out her mother, that she's doing it out of respect for gojo's last stated wishes to her, even though she has no personal interest in this herself? that has something intriguing within it. however. it also dovetails into my criticisms bc

one. i wish we learned anything at all about why that would possibly be gojo's last wishes for nobara. we don't get enough in the epilogue to see if there's anything particularly important she could derive from seeing her mom, unless it's the vengeful pleasure of siccing her grandma on her? in which case, i would love to know that. that could be an interesting move for gojo to make, and one that could potentially make sense given his own implied shitty family. however you notice how i have to reach a bit to get there? because we dont even get the text of gojo's letter or anything afaik. as it is, the way it's written leaves me wondering why the hell gojo, who has already experience with a child who Does Not Care Or Want To Know about their deadbeat parent, would decide to provide This for another child who [insert repeated phrase here]

two. kugisaki caring about gojo's last wishes to such a point seems like a really cool character/relationship decision until i think about it for two seconds and go. well. it would have been cooler, more emotionally resonant, if the gojo and kugisaki dynamic had any canonical depth at all. in fact i am trying to think about Any and Every interaction they have in the canonical story and im coming up with 1. when kugisaki is introduced and 2. when she gets eyeballed and he's one of the people she sees in her chair dream sequence and UHHH. I THINK THAT MIGHT BE ALL GANG. obviously you can say implicitly they spent a lot of time together its just not shown, they're relationship would have developed. but uh. that's an entirely different than the time and importance given to something by the narrative which is supposed to. you know. give depth to the things it wants us to care about, so that we actually can develop a genuine investment in them without having to rely on our imaginations/non canon material/etc.

connecting to the third and most obvious critique which is. like gege already set up? characters that kugisaki cared about? saori and fumi? who i hoped we'd see any sort of closure on? instead we introduce in THE LAST CHAPTER the idea of a new character never before mentioned and kugisaki literally goes Well I Don't Care About That. and then we follow her to find out about that character anyway. why? what is Anyone getting out of that narratively? kugisaki doesn't care, not even the audience is given room to develop investment in that storyline. it just happens at the expense of a storyline that was at least given some amount of set up for the audience to invest in.

and im not even touching on the Tropes used to establish the mom herself's character. in a vacuum potentially this archetype could be done in an interesting valid way (could even be taken as a gender inversion of the sleazy deadbeat dad tropes that are generally more common in this genre) but uhhh given gege's track record with female characters. well it twigs some alarm bells lets just say

[zishu-arts]

1. What's ur fav avm ep? Or generally ava ep

2. What's ur fav short?

3. And favorite character? Why is that your favorite character?

4. Do u kin anyone? Why?

5. What are your thoughts on King Orange? Personally, I do love the character but I wanna see some controversy. He was forgiven too easily. Do you think that he's affected by immense guilt of his actions? Pls go in detail as much as you wish

6. What are your favorite (hc or not) relationships? Doesn't need to be romantic. Do you have thoughts on relationships between characters that haven't interacted? Or some hc on characters that did (example: I love the hc on Purple and Red hanging out so often that Red goes to visit Purple for advice on PRANKS out of all things)

If I think of something more, I'll send it through!!

1). i dont think i can pick a favorite since there's so many but i love rewatching Lush Caves, Ultimate Minecart Race, The Chef, The Ultimate Weapon (and honestly just the entire KO arc lmfao). For AVA its gotta be The Showdown it's just SOOO GOOD the animation, the concepts, the plot, ahhhh

2). hard once again, but Music Lesson is so goddamn funny

3). THE DARK LORD THE DARK LORD THE DARK LORD (red is my second favorite tho). okay so, honestly it's just the amount of potential and trauma i could give him. i love his character and lore like, the idea of the Mission Code. what does it mean that you've been created for the sole purpose to destroy, and what does it mean that the person you're made to destory become your best friend? like, the existance of that code brings up so much potential and you could literally take it in so many ways. and like, just the story of cho and dark being two people who were coded for a purpose and run away. what...happens to that purpose? what are you supposed to do now? it's very "what am i if not a weapon?" "yourself. isn't that a wonderful person to be?" (i also dont remember where this quote is from). and also, i look at this little bastard and i think ah yes, he is a goddamn maniac. absolutely insane. i can make him as unhinged as possible and i think that's amazing.

i also think it's great that it's so easy for me to just do whatever i want with him like he's some dress up doll. i've got a genderbent version of him. i've got him with ADHD. i've got him with autism. i've got him trans. he's depressd. he has anxiety. he's in love. there's no saving him.

i also like that like. he's dead. he might not be dead. who fucking knows? and he's such an interesting character, is he evil, is he nice, does he care, what does he like? i want to know everything about him and i want to squish him like a little ball

(i alos like that he's very easy to self project into)

4). hmmmm honestly? i only ever kinned like one character (yuki from horimiya) so im not too familiar with actually kinning. if i had to pick, probably red, mostly cause i see him as a hyper possibly ADHD guy who's always running head first into situations without a thought and think damn he's jus tlike me fr

5). KO/MANGO TALK LETS GO !! you're def right, he was forigven too soon, but i like to think or hope that they at least had a bit of bonding. okay well first off i want to start off with: i see a lot of content where we view mango as like around 20 years old which i want to immedately have on the table: what do you mean 20 years old. he's got a goddamn kid that seems to be maybe 8-10, he's got to be at least reaching 40 by the time we actually see him in AVM. and no, 40 is not too old, they can still do backflips and fight ppl (as long as mango maintained a healthy lifestyle with daily exercise, healthy diet, and good sleep).

i love the fact that he went evil because he lost his son, and that he got lost in his anger and started hurting everyone around him. although i do think his and purple's relationship could do with A LOTT of work. their trust was broken over and over again (mostly on purple's end) and im not sure mango particularily remembers how to treat a child well. and did mango ever like,,,yk,,,properly grieve for his son? for all we know, he went home the same day he lost gold, punched his wall a lot, then went straight to working on the staff. now that he doesn't have that drive anymore, i think that's all going to catch up to him. he really needs to properly grieve and mourn and recover before he goes about doing anything else.

he can, in fact however, be a good person/father as long as he's got that under the belt. (which you could def see that he was pretty swag when he still had gold). i personally see him as a raspy and gruff guy so he's also a man of very few words. that also means he probably has a buttload of communcation issues that is gonna affect his relationship with other people. he has got A LOT to work on

i also want to mention how i don't particulary enjoy the "overprotective father that trails their child everywhere". i don't think a lot of people view mano this way either, but i just want it on the table that even though mango would definitely be protective of purple, he won't be weird about it

6). ohhhh okay okay if you've read my fics you know i am in love with the "siblings victim & dark" as well as "siblings chosen and second". i feel like vic and dark are both insane and enable the worst, unhinged parts of each other. and then chosen and second are pretty much polar opposites with "doesn't say a word + yapper"

i also love it when CC treat red as like the youngest hyper sibling bc he really does give off that energy. also I AGREE WITH YOU purple and red together were so cute it was so unexpected but i love that

i also really really really want to see dark and purple interact with each other. mostly because they're probably the two most least likely characters to ever see each other. but i like the idea of dark terrorizing purple and it works because purple the whole time is like 'holy fuck this is that terrorist holy fuck shit oml'

i also want to see purple and mango interact with alan. im not sure if they ever did? but id like to imagine one day alan logs onto his computer and sees these two random sticks on his screen and is like who the fuck are you guys

(my guy desperately needs a VPN)

i ADORE blue + yellow. both in a platonic and romantic sense. they're like skater girl + nerd girl to me. they're so goddamn adorable and i'm very obsessed with seeing them. they hold hands. they're polar opposites. they're always together. they're the duo that if you just see one of them it seems wrong. if one of them is missing, you automatically ask the other one where they are, because they no doubt would know. gods they're so entwined with each other

thanks for the ask !!

[filledwithfullmetal]

ok opinion!! fma 03 ending was not that bad and even good actually..

it was a gigantic deviation from the manga, but the whole 03 anime was already more of its own thing. the ending completely fits the vibe, and while it was a bit exposition-y and a lil silly i think that it is a great ending for that show nonetheless. im sad not more ppl know it, bc the angst potential is just wow!! especially for fics!!

sorry adding one more opinion: fma03 carried ed's personality (esp the more tropey parts) (tho fmab did work more on him), ed in fma03 just felt like a kid and slowly became more harrowed by the stuff that happened,, u could feel the unresolved trauma seeping off him in the ending which i like.

sorry for the long ask! im just a sucker for angst and esp for fma 03 <3

YOURE SO BASED!!!!

i admit its been quite a few years since ive seen the end of 03 but i think people who try to compare it to the manga/brotherhood are making a mistake when they do that. 03 and brotherhood are both good stories in their own right, and i think 03 did fantastic creating a storyline of their own

also you're so right about the character progression in 03! like in brotherhood, they only really focus on the more heavier plotlines, so they ended up cutting out a lot of lighter plotlines and side characters. i get why they did that for the sake of getting to the content 03 didnt cover but at the same time the lack of light-hearted plotlines in brotherhood made it so we dont get to see ed's character growth to quite the same extent

[ereyies]

i love your of mice and men oc. let me tell you i was scrolling thru the omam tag after reading that book for class because GOSH that ending destroyed me. bronwyn is so cute!!! and i love the ideas you have for her character and how she’d add onto the book. is there any more of your character that u thought of?? i’d love it hear it! ur art is stunning btw!!!

artists and writers are the backbone of dead fandoms. but i dont know if you could even call this fandom dead cuz i dont think it even had a life 💀

THANK YOU SO INCREDIBLY MUCH!!

this means the entire world to me you have no idea just how touched i am that you love my oc 💖 💖!! be VERY careful going through the of mice and men tag because unfortunately there are a LOT of nsfw bots!!

as for anything else relating to Bronwyn and her character, I don't have much else written/in mind other than that I have already shared other than maybe two things (copied and pasted from a document i made just to keep track of her lore):

Candy and Bronwyn probably wouldn't be close despite Candy having worked at the ranch for years. Not because of anything bad that happened between them, however I imagine that Candy was initially the main contributor to all the gossip said about her on the ranch and later on he learned she wasn't a bad person at all and just a lonely ill child, but by that point he had both immortalised her as a legend but condemned her from ever making real connections with people again. Knowing what he started and how he unintentionally isolated her and prevented her from being easily able to make friends with people on the ranch, the guilt would probably prevent him from forming any close connections with her.

I feel like if she were actually a character within the novel, her presence within the story would be similar to Andrey Bolkonsky in the musical Natasha, Pierre, & the Great Comet of 1812 (brilliant but strange musical btw, if you're interested in musicals it's definitely worth a listen!!). She is this looming presence amongst all the characters, always being mentioned in passing during conversation, this figure that everyone is aware of yet never sees, never actually being present in person up until the very end.

Candy would probably be the reader's introduction to Bronwyn, since Candy is a known gossiper. She'd be this influence in the story but is never truly there. I'm not too sure how she'd be important if that were the case though? Perhaps she'd be a figure symbolic of a 'point of no return' for all the characters. They all have a dream that isn't totally impossible which they come very close to achieving, and could very well leave their situation, but Bronwyn never had a chance and can never truly escape, locked up just to be forgotten about. Maybe she'd be a warning of the terrible fate which Lennie would have faced if he had lived and been institutionalised.

ANYWAYS moving past all of that; i have only made very few drawings of Bronwyn since my last post talking about her (admittedly due to extreme art block). But I’ve mostly been brainstorming about Curley and Bronwyn, the similarities and differences between them, mostly differences. Here is some of my recent art:

I always love experimenting and playing around with my style, trying out new brushes, techniques and colours <33 The last isn’t exactly my favourite mostly because i was just getting a feel for how to draw Curley and had little to no references for the pose and so it looks a little stiff. But!! I made many notes for my ideas while I was doing the sketch:

Thank you once more for your ask!! It means the world to me <33 I was so embarrassed when I first made her and feared being called ‘cringe’ or that people wouldn’t like her or something else along those lines, but the reception so far has been nothing but positive and encouraging!! I definitely plan to make more art and potentially even write some short fanfics including her in the future!!

oh one final thing, i also made a spotify playlist for her!! https://open.spotify.com/playlist/0qrBhwqopc6KrC7RouFxOZ?si=GPudTv12S92QwBBXqxw0Bg&pi=khdpmOzjTfeQP

Thank you once more for being so kind <33 I hope you have the most wonderful day/evening/night!!

[puhpandas]

I don’t think I’ll ever know peace until we get an official sb remaster. I need to play the intended game SO badly it’s unreal.

Most people want a remaster already, and I think they should seriously consider it. I want to see a glow up so bad. I don’t want Vanny Vanessa to return in a new game, I think that would undo what little of an arc she has, but I just really want her done well in sb. I want the other characters to be given better treatment too, as tired as people are with the setting and characters, they don’t feel finished and I don’t feel satisfied. Besides, a very strong criticism I have with sb is that it lacks outside characters and world-building, so to go back and give mentions to book characters/events would completely revitalize the game and keep Tales relevant. I get they’re working on other projects atm and don’t even want to look in sb’s direction but man, they’re gonna have to address the game’s issues eventually

man I wish it was possible for them to remaster SB but it just isnt. scott calls the shots at the end of the day, and because SB wasnt how he envisioned it (because he didnt tell them any fucking thing) is why it ended up like this. the version of SB we saw in trailers and promotional material was STEEL WOOLS version, their ideas and campaign. and because they thought afton was the villain, they designed the story around afton. lines from trailers like "you will do as I say, both of you will burn" were 100% him, and would have been majorly story relevant. the whole reason SB got canned was because they had to course correct to mimic, and they can salvage nothing but they couldnt salvage the completely wrong villain

and weve been in this 'mimic course correction and history lesson' era for soo long. I'm just as ready as you to finally get justice for the SB plots and characters, but I dont think it'll be in the form of a remaster. a remaster would mean remaking the game either with mimic as a villain, greatly changing it, or restoring SWs afton plot, and I just can't see it happening

but the good news is that theres no way in hell they arent building up vanny to be important again, with the entire nature of Vannys face being spread around for employees to use and her tagging still existing and cassie in ruin wearing her face. especially with lines like "that mask suits you" I cant see a world where she doesnt make a comeback inside cassie and has another chance to shine

also with ggy hints and just. the end of the mimics reign of terror being marked with sotm, theres gonna finally be room after the mimic shit for steel wool to actually cook with writing again, and theyll be collabing with Scott so theyll hopefully have the same level of great writing as ruin did, and also the tapes in SB

it sucks that it ended up this way but were on track to at least seeing their potential realized in a different kind of campaign, which is all I've wanted for 3 years lmaoo. steel wool just truly has not had room to talk about them with all this focus on mimic and prequels and the past and shit, where they wouldnt be relevant. after the mimic is finally just. IN the stupid story already, theyll be progressing it finally and ggy vanny vanny!cassie vanessa Gregory freddy etc will all finally at least be on track to appearing again. I'll take any Ws I can get. SW is genuinely good at writing the human characters if how they wrote cassie is any indication, so once they actually SHOW UP again, which has been the problem this whole time, then we'll be talking

[devine-fem]

how did YOU get into jondami?

someone asked me… omg 🥺 this MIGHT be a little long so let me take it back.

a while ago, i got into dc because i realized all my friends were really into dc over marvel and id never cared for superheroes but id taken a sudden interest recently after hearing about comics on youtube and they knew i was big into shipping and i loved dark tragic stories and i have one friend that likes the same and they told me to play batman telltale. i had no idea what i was getting myself into… at the end of the fking second game i was a teary eyed MESS. i cried like 9 times dude, like thats the actual number (my friends made a cry counter that night to make fun of me) then from that point on the dc hyperfixation went and i just consumed any game or comic or youtube video i found.

then i was like god, comics are hard to read and i need a fresh restart and fresh characters, like id read batman and superman but where does a girl start… then i found out that their sons had a teamup and they were a duo and i was like, oh this is perfect because theyre like batman and superman, theyre young so theyre learning stuff as well and theyre a duo so i can focus on just them.

there was a collection of four moments of me reading their comics that made me a shipper…

1. a friend of mine was anwsering questions on instagram and put jondami fanart in the back and i was like… theyre a ship? but that was when i read super sons (2017)

2. the moment where damian (after refusing for so long to let him in the titans) he was the ONLY person to raise his hand. i started verbally cussing him out through my phone. ong this whole time you believed in him and seek and find in him for what? for you to act like you hate his presence? sounds gay, damian idk

3. dceased… i dont care what kind of comphet they threw my way THESE TWO WERE MARRIED AND IN LOVE. this was when i was like okay, ill wait to see their interactions as they grow up together and when theyre older ill ship them… but we all know what happened

4. this scene. i dont know why but the chemistry and bled out through this seen and them talking about their issues together really got me thinking about how in this world they only really got each other and no one else to truly confide in because of the pressure their fathers give them. damian eating food on the roof with his friend surrounded by his culture just feels so domestic to me

then i laid down in my lil bed and got to thinking about how they would legitimately make a great couple and then i was like man, if hes aged up ill just ignore and ship him with him in the time where he was still a kid. so then i thought about scenarios as to if jon dated damian instead of pink haired boy and i was like wow… the potential and then i couldnt stop myself…

i eventually needed somewhere to put all this energy because he quickly started taking over my thoughts really really bad lol. so i got tumblr

but thats me

[norman-ratri-truther]

svtfoe finale was absolutely MESSY as hell but like. so much of the criticism i see just feels wrong..

putting it under a cut bcz this post ended up being longer than i expected, spoilers obv / svtfoe critical stuff still even if i am defending it

like "star merged two worlds causing total chaos just so she could see her boyfriend of like 3 hours" is something ive seen and that just isnt. really how it happened??

like, no.. star didnt know the two worlds would merge, like ive seen a lot of criticism of her and the finale being "star merged the worlds" but put it as if she Knowingly merged them. She didn't.

Also I've seen the "boyfriend for like one day" comment used to explain why her actions were so rash but it completely overlooks the previous relationship they had??? like they were best friends for 2 years, they spent every single day together for months at a time. They just started dating, yeah, but using that as a reason to why she shouldn't have tried to stay with him is stupid because it makes it sound like she just met him.

also, if anything them just dating could make it make More sense depending on how you interpret it. She's been crushing on this guy for 2 years and the second they get together she has to never see him again? she has to be stuck on a world she JUST wanted to get away from for a bit? a world she wanted to stop needing to hold together, a world that is going to be even more in shambles now? with a mother who just betrayed her???? ofc shes gonna wanna go to earth

like yeah, destroying the magic was an incredibly irrational decision but sometimes it feels overblown, like blaming her for things that just were not in her control. Like I dont get why people make Star sound worse than she is because like, she did some pretty shitty things already??? why do you have to make up stuff to be mad at the character for bro theres enough that actually happened..

i wish this finale was better written, i do genuinely think it had the potential to be a great and solid story. especially the destroying the magic stuff!! i think if the show built up to the concept of the multiverse being better without magic then that could have been great! instead they have the toffee storyline which was incredible for seasons 1-2-the beginning of s3 and it just ... gets dropped?? like they barely brought him up in season 4?

i want this show to get a reboot someday where the writers actually consider the overarching story better, i really think theres some great stuff that could be done with the destroying the magic plotline if it was built up and executed better.

[pixeljade]

Okay im CAUGHT UP with the magnus protocol now! Some thoughts:

Obviously we know who Norris and Chester are, and its almost certain that leaves Augustus as Jonah Magnus. The question is, are they really "them"? Or have they simply manifested in this universe as voices, echoes of who they were beyond? If they do have agency on any level, what level would that be?

Everyone seems to be trying to categorize the new statements with the entities from before. And while we see fragments of them, let us not forget: the entities are more like colors, blending into eachother. Its entirely possible this world has a different set of obvious colors, based on the fears of its inhabitants

We've heard the Magnus Institute namedropped, as well as obvious references to Grifter's Bone. Are these statements confirming that both entities exist in this world as well? Or perhaps these statements arent actually from this world, but leftovers from World A? We never did get confirmation that all the statements back there got read, and thus far the only confirmed supernatural thing in World B is the bizarre nature of FR3-d1.

There's no way that Gwen Bouchard's last name is a coincidence, nor is her desire to climb to the top of this bureaucratic structure. That said, reminder that Elias Bouchard before his possession by Jonah Magnus was described as "something of a stoner", so the characterization of Gwen doesnt match TRUE Elias, but the possessed version of him. Still possible it is truly Elias unpossessed, but the harrowing experience he went through made him more serious. And also somehow forcefemmed him? That or its someone just related otherwise to Elias.

If the Magnus Institute and Grifter's Bone DO exist in World B, how much else exists here? Clearly there's SOME similarities, but are there perhaps alternate versions of people here? The hints toward Grifter's Bone in particular would seem to hint precisely that fact.

The Magnus "Protocol" makes it sound like a contingent plan Jonah Magnus came up with in the event that someone would do exactly what happened at the end of TMA, and if so, that scares me immensely. If Jonah Magnus can see all, even with the blindspot and secrecy, he likely knew that the blindspot could be a way to another world. This could be all according to keikaku for him.

Sam's connection to the Magnus Institute has me worried. It reminds me of how Tim became so fixated on the Stranger because of past trauma. And Tim...well. We remember how that story ended.

Alice says this shit doesnt get to her, and yet she's afraid, constantly. I dont think she's being completely honest, she KNOWS there's a darkness there. She may refuse to look directly into the abyss but the very fact that she sticks with a job where she knows the abyss lives...I think she saw something she can't walk away from. She also reminds me of Tim, hiding behind jokes and pretending to be fine.

Colin clearly knows the most about the truth. Maybe he's pulling a Gertrude, trying to keep it disorganized to prevent what he views as an evil plot? Or maybe he's just a bid mad because of it all. But I think he's got interesting character potential.

Anyways thats my thoughts so far. God its good, feels like the original series never ended! When the reveal that the painter in episode 2 was editing *her own flesh* instead of the artwork with her palette knife I gasped audibly. Great stuff

[quitefair]

so, about Ballister’s origin...

alright so i’m a huge, huge fan of the original nimona graphic novel. and i’m genuinely a fan of the movie too! it did make some significant changes, but overall told the story it wanted to tell, and pretty much summed up the themes of the novel itself! it was an enjoyable ride!

but!!! there was one bit of the story that didn’t quite sit right with me. and it took me a while to realise what that thing was. (i didn’t want to make a post ranting about it without properly processing what it was that made me dislike this, so i let it ruminate)

anyway, after seeing this post, everything fell into place.

instead of ballister being a commoner rising to become a knight...

what if he was born outside the wall instead? 

(major spoilers for the graphic novel and movie below)

so in the original comic, the knights of the institution were all orphans, including ballister and ambrosius. they grew up and trained together, and were both considered among the most skilled and prominent knights of the institution at the time. however, everything changed when they were pitted against each other in a jousting match. the director gave ambrosius a weaponised lance (similar to ballister’s sword in the movie). its weight threw ambrosius off balance and caused him to lose against ballister during the joust. in a fit of jealous rage over losing, he fires the lance at ballister, causing him to lose his right arm and ruining his chances of ever becoming a knight.

all of this is implied to have happened because the director wanted ambrosius to win the joust. perhaps because of the way he looked. white skin, blonde hair, all the ideal societal characteristics of a hero. nate mentions this in a recent article as well talking about the movie.

while ballister... well. he didn’t. and now he also doesn’t have an arm. it was also implied that the director didn’t like that ambrosius and ballister were close, didn’t like that her perfect hero had a weakness, probably thought that ballister was not good enough for her poster child, idk. so yeah, she killed two birds with one stone. (except in this version no queens were harmed lmao)

the way they translated this into the movie was... well. interesting.

so now, gloreth has a bigger role in all of this. which is cool! it ties in so well with nimona being gloreth’s beast, and the entire reason that the city and the institution exists in the first place. this was actually one of my favourite changes to the comics that they made for the movie!!!

but! what i didn’t like was that our boys were no longer orphans. ambrosius is now the descendant of gloreth? which is why he’s the poster boy of the institution? and the one with the weight of familial expectation on him? 

(okay i lied this kinda slaps but it wasn’t explored as much as i’d liked. anyway wouldn’t it have been great if this was a limited series instead of a movie? lmao im going off track.)

but the weirdest part for me, and something i still felt difficult to accept, was that ballister... was a commoner. a commoner that was chosen to join the institution and to become a knight.

and it’s a controversial decision?

youre telling me that in this sci-fantasy world of super monster cops, that the only way people that can become a monster cop, is through nepotism????

and consider this: most of the commercial stuff aimed at kids, teens etc (kwispy dragon for example) sends the message that maybe, just maybe, you, the commonnest of commoner children, could also rise up and be a super monster cop hero?

there’s also the fact that in our current day and age, the story of the underdog gets the most attention and press? wouldn’t the crowds be ecstatic over a kid from nowhere, rising up among the ranks to become one of the most promising potential knights in this institution?

so yeah i dont really understand why the general population have gripes against ballister becoming a knight (it’s shown at the beginning during the whole montage that there’s some people who aren’t vibing with it) douchebag knights maybe yeah. but i don’t see how the general public wouldn’t be anything but supportive, and would turn on him so fast.

unless.... he wasn’t from the city itself.

you only really hear about the wall partly through the film. you’re shown that the city grows and that there’s a wall built around it during the intro cinematic, but nothing is mentioned until quite significantly through the film. which is odd... considering how important it is to the story. gloreth built the wall to keep the monsters out. to keep us in and to keep them out. the propaganda of there only being monsters outside the wall, and only good and respectable citizens live within the city walls.

(how does the wall keep us free? the wall keeps out the enemy. and we build the wall to keep us free, that’s why we build the wall, we build the wall to keep us free.)

which would make a ballister that came in from outside the wall... well.

1. it would make the director’s statement of ‘cracks in the wall’ make more sense. in a literal sense, ballister couldve come into the city from a literal crack in the wall. which also ties into the metaphor of gloreth’s walls/propaganda cracking. and the fact that he’s now rising up to become a knight? corruption from the inside? it makes the director’s motivations hold more weight.

(also having the director be a descendant of gloreth rather than ambrosius would make more narrative sense but that’s a whole other post)

2. now the public would have more reason to not trust this guy. it’s easier to spread propaganda about him once he ‘kills the queen’. a monster infiltrating the ranks. and then he’s allied with a monster shapeshifter nimona?

3. the parallels between ballister and nimona??? would be even more prevalent??? both literal outsiders. hated by everybody for basically no reason other than that they’re different. and the fact that ballister accepts nimona when gloreth didn’t?

4. there’s also the fact that throughout the movie, the concept of the wall protecting the people from the monsters outside is questioned - are there really even monsters outside, when we’ve never seen them for ourselves? what if you guys are lying to us, what if youre WRONG? and ballister becoming a knight might’ve been a step in the right direction towards pushing against those stereotypes, but the director wasn’t having any of it.

so yeah, those are my thoughts. the movie is still insane though i rly love it. but a lad can dream about what could’ve been, yeah?