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maya-malfoy1012 · 2 years ago

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Right! Hello! It’s episode 4 (of TDJ) time. I watched this ages ago but life got in the way, so that’s why there’s been a bit of a pause from my episode reactions. So, my review/thoughts won’t be quite as in-depth as I will be referring to (my page-long) notes. But I hope they’re still entertaining!!

[Terrible quality screenshots are incoming]

I want to start off by saying that I really enjoyed this episode, I feel like it was set up nicely into 4 different sections: The court case/the Mum (Acting as the “net”, i.e the sequence of events which will lead to Daddy Bandit getting his revenge) The Dinner Party (The people he will be rounding up) J.S.A’s character reveal (The “hitch” in this plan) The backstory (The reason for the revenge)

I enjoyed Ji Sung’s acting choices in this episode, I feel like it's the first time we see real nuances to his characterisation of Daddy Bandit. I personally really enjoyed the way he interacts with Nam Jang in one of the opening scenes. He’s acting like Mister Big Bollocks but as soon as she turns away, he deflates just enough for us to know that something is going on with him. I really appreciate that subtly.

In terms of the revenge storyline, I like it but I do think it’s a little convenient for the plot. However, I do believe there’s something else going on beyond what we know (otherwise it’ll be too easy). I like the way he punished Nam Jang and her son (reminds me of SPOILER the rapist and his dad’s punishment from The Crowned Clown); although, I wish… right, okay, when it came to the flagellation scenes, I just wished they had used a whip, or flog, or the cat of nine tails, etc. instead of using a belt. It just didn’t have the same impact (ba dum tss), for me at least. I love the concept of the punishment and how it enraged Nam Jang, forcing her to show a lack of care towards another child. [also the Daddy Bandit cult uprising???? hello!!! that is scary]

The dinner scene…. Well….. I’m going to ignore Gaon for a sec because I have thoughts about him and instead, want to focus on Daddy Bandit being clever. I like how he’s brought Gaon into the picture and showed him the people he intends on murdering/getting revenge on (not that Gaon can see that). I like the last episode of Squid Game vibes for the dinner sequence.

I like how the classical music crescendoed to a point where the visuals and music were claustrophobic in nature.

[Side note: the sexual assault scene made me very uncomfortable because of the lack of action from the other characters. Which definitely seemed like the intended purpose and of course, for it to be something egregious enough that J.S.A broke her facade to reveal her true dominatrix Mother self…. I love this for her, I wasn’t surprised by it but I do like this choice for her character. I feel like she’s going to be such a headache and perhaps… an “ally” turned villain turned “ally” turned… so on and so on.] The actual church scene had some very nice pacing. I did find some of the choices to be a little obvious (the “rich people are scumbags” narrative and the way the fireman stole the watch… the way none of the paramedics cared to check on a burnt man and an unconscious child??? ALSO, smoke inhalation is more dangerous than fire, so they probably both would have died or become brain damaged from that level of exposure) BUT I found the sequence overall to be so tragic. Also this shot:

Is so renaissance painting… it’s frankly beautiful. The religious imagery throughout this show is really tastefully done!! I love to see it! [I feel like this shot reference an actual painting but I can't figure out which one] Also…. Daddy Bandit is Phantom of the Opera CHURCH (especially with that chalandier drop)

Okay… now onto Gaon. WHAT IS THIS BOY’S PROBLEM??? Why is he still living at DB's gothic mansion??? Why is he acting like Madame of the house? He’s bonding with his new stepdaughter/niece. He's getting reallllllly comfortable, even referring to the room he sleeps in as "his" room.... duddddeee! (gender neutral) How embarrassing! The clothes-changing scene had SO much queer-subtext that it is basically 100% text. Also, Daddy Bandit really brought his twink to a work event as his plus one and really confirmed to the audience (and himself) that Gaon is not interested in women... and actually, sexual advances/flirtatious attention from them (or any age) make him uncomfortable.

I found the unneeded physical contact to be sooooo telling. [also the opposite - almost yin and yang - colour scheme is interesting... the way Gaon's silhouette is quite "feminine"...]

ALSO also!! Is Gaon going around wearing Daddy Bandit’s clothes?

Cause, unless I missed something, they’ve not shown him going home, he hasn’t gone shopping, D.B hasn’t gone shopping… sooo??? This guy is really out here investigating his employer (with whom he lives) whilst wearing his undies. COME ON!!! he's so silly

Also TDJ and BE both have their twinks directly (and with WAY too much confidence) accusing their love interest of murdering their sibling. I just wished BE had given us Dong Sik pinning Joo Won against the wall by the throat…. Joo Won would have cried his eyes out (and just died from being too horny) whereas Gaon was super into it??? This BOY!!! I can’t! (he really said "choke me harder, daddy bandit!! prove to me you didn't kill your sibling whilst awakening a kink in me")

Anyway, yes, I wrote more notes but I don’t remember what they mean anymore. But overall, I really did enjoy this episode the most so far. I hope my ramblings are amusing! Bye for now :)

SO, hi! I'm so slow in replying to ask helpp but tbf to myself this week's been hectic (currently writing this as my sir bails on my session T-T).

Episode 04, that fucker.

So, my review/thoughts won’t be quite as in-depth as I will be referring to (my page-long) notes. But I hope they’re still entertaining!!

I love hearing your thoughts, it doesn't matter if it's in depth or not 😂 Besides how could I not find your thoughts on Hoodie-Daddy-Trauma Bandit lmao

Imo, TDJ so far has done a very good job of sectioning off arcs, scenes and interactions. (A bit derailing thought but storyline wise) Gaon is subjected to this divide between Kang Yohan the Chief and Kang Yohan the man who roams the rouse in robes and although there's certain overlaps between the two personas ("I saw him driving recklessly" "Did you see something else?"), Gaon doesn't necessarily make it a point to interact with them in a similar way? At least in the ending of Ep3 and start of Ep4 (e.g when Gaon doesn't showcase much of the deference expected in workplaces when he teases Yohan or that one scene before the party where he turns this way and that on bed talking to Yohan). But the party! I think it's intentional on Yohan's part but the party! It completely rekindled that suspicion (+forced Gaon back into the role of the spy/Judas --and that's something I find interesting too, the role given to Gaon). And you're right!

I like how he’s brought Gaon into the picture and showed him the people he intends on murdering/getting revenge on (not that Gaon can see that). I like the last episode of Squid Game vibes for the dinner sequence.

Remember the revenge plot? I only realised this way later (still stuck on ep 10 help) but Yohan is essentially showing off the face of his brother to the people he intends to get revenge on and just, waits, observes to see if anyone can remember. ANd no ONe REMEBERS. I feel like from the subtle nuances of emotions we've seen from Yohan, that even a little remorse or reflection would have gone a long way but who knows.

I like how the classical music crescendoed to a point where the visuals and music were claustrophobic in nature.

I agree, it was very Squid Game vibes. It was just, a cacophony. Something meant to be beautiful & bearable turned vicious in its stifling chaos.

SO, this wasn't an observation of mine but I read it somewhere where they juxtaposed this SA scene with the extremely uncomfy vibes with Chairman Seo and Oh Jinjoo from the other ball/party. How in the previous one Kang Yohan was able to save Oh Jinjoo whereas when Jung Sun-ah tried ("She's an associate Judge...") she was brushed off but in the second party Jung Sun-ah was able to save the waitress whereas Yohan couldn't because of the persona/role he was playing. It was speculated/theorised that it's the status of the victims that allowed such difference? The waitress was practically no one, so letting her go (in public) would no impact anyone but the associate judge however is a much bigger presence and holding off the chairman could have questioned the roles.

Also, when you said SA, I originally thought of Gaon being literally submerged under those ladies (i think in an interesting way, that also juxtaposes with Oh Jinjoo's experience. While her interaction was taken as something to be wary of Gaon's isn't seen with the same lense of seriousness?)

the “rich people are scumbags” narrative and the way the fireman stole the watch… the way none of the paramedics cared to check on a burnt man and an unconscious child??? ALSO, smoke inhalation is more dangerous than fire, so they probably both would have died or become brain damaged from that level of exposure) BUT I found the sequence overall to be so tragic.

It does seem like the obvious plot route for why Yohan does what he does, especially with "the rich people are scumbags but oh whats this its not like poor people are any better" (cue Yohan and Gaon's convo returning from the party) but I think the whole set up, esp the renaissance painting feel, is actually hinting at a idk Shakespearean level of tragedy?

Also the look Yohan gives the camera, cradling little Elijah is chilling

Okay so! The religious imagery! I'm not closely related or know of much Christianity so idk much but, it's very interesting how from the beginning Yohan is implied to be Jesus when Gaon is given the role of Judas, meant to betray (?) Jesus/Yohan and, "Jesus knew that Judas would betray Him. And yet He chose Judas as a disciple and kept him near. The Bible doesn't say why, other than Jesus knew that God had a plan"

So. I'm very much excited to see where this story goes. Also another reference to Yohan having the role of Jesus is the bloody cross on his back ffs.

Can we also talk about (how I totally didnt know) how Judas' full name is Judas Isacriot and how it means City Slicker??

plus, Judas is known to have betrayed Jesus because he was possessed by Satan? It's very interesting that Yohan is called the Devil when he's also hinted to be Jesus and the side portrayed to have uphold justice is associated with Devil / or the priests who called for Jesus's fall.

Also…. Daddy Bandit is Phantom of the Opera CHURCH (especially with that chalandier drop)

that chandelier drop took me out

Okay… now onto Gaon. WHAT IS THIS BOY’S PROBLEM???

I wonder the same thing... Gaon pls what is going in on your brain

Why is he still living at DB's gothic mansion??? Why is he acting like Madame of the house? He’s bonding with his new stepdaughter/niece. He's getting reallllllly comfortable, even referring to the room he sleeps in as "his" room.... duddddeee! (gender neutral) How embarrassing!

Han Juwon only broke in a few thousand times but Gaon said "fuck that this is my home now" My dude honestly took to the role of spouse/lady of the house like fish in water.

The clothes-changing scene had SO much queer-subtext that it is basically 100% text.

I kid you not, I literally screamed at that scene.

Also, Daddy Bandit really brought his twink to a work event as his plus one and really confirmed to the audience (and himself) that Gaon is not interested in women... and actually, sexual advances/flirtatious attention from them (or any age) make him uncomfortable.

Kang Yohan: Two birds in one stone

I found the unneeded physical contact to be sooooo telling. [also the opposite - almost yin and yang - colour scheme is interesting... the way Gaon's silhouette is quite "feminine"...]

THE CLOTHES! THE FUCKING CLOTHES! You are so right, also love how symbolically yin/yang are masculine/feminine energies. This show hints at a lot of things, I missed 2/3 of everything when I first watched the eps.

GEFJDCNIEFDJKC i think the clothes he wore in the manor are yohan's (or maybe new clothes who knows, daddy bandit is a rich bandit afterall) but i think maaaaybe the clothes he's wearing here are his? i mean he could very well have dropped by his house before meeting soohyun idk but itd be hilarious if they're yohan's clothes pls

I just wished BE had given us Dong Sik pinning Joo Won against the wall by the throat…. Joo Won would have cried his eyes out (and just died from being too horny) whereas Gaon was super into it??? This BOY!!! I can’t! (he really said "choke me harder, daddy bandit!! prove to me you didn't kill your sibling whilst awakening a kink in me")

REIDJKCXIRDSJKRE SDHELPP I CANTHIJDF

I agree, but! in a weird way I also can't see Dongsik doing that to Juwon? Like, hmmm idk man, maybe it's because I don't see Dongsik as a violent person? His go to is fucking with the other guy mentally not throw fists, like even with Kang Jinmook, as a victim he could have knocked the mf out and blamed it on grieving smth smth but he holds back and instead schemes and talks (even when Kang Jinmook tried to strangle him). But oh boy Yohan and Gaon. Well. Yeah they seem super into that "hold me by the throat sir"/"pin me against the wall" thingerfjkd

Anyway, yes, I wrote more notes but I don’t remember what they mean anymore. But overall, I really did enjoy this episode the most so far. I hope my ramblings are amusing! Bye for now :)

That's so fair, I write some notes I leave for 5 mins i come back I have no clue what they mean anymore. It was very amusing, thank you for your rambling lmao, ta for now :)

#kim gaon taking one step closer to achieving stage 1 of pathetic han juwon #meanwhile daddy bandit is. well. daddy bandit #the devil judge #kang yohan #kim gaon

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lastsonlost · 4 years ago

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Many of the women promoting the “cancellation” of men in comics, and demanding they post the recent empty promise known as #ComicsPledge, are in fact hypocrites. In this article, I’m going to present evidence of lies, collusion, rumor spreading, and, in my opinion, defamation and contract interference.

I personally know that they’ve colluded for YEARS to take down men. Specifically those with conservative politics and philosophies. This is an ongoing, coordinated effort. How do I know this?

Because I obtained access to their PRIVATE FACEBOOK GROUP.

This is Part 1 of the #Hypocralypse leaks

There is simply too much to put in one leak, so I will make the following three points for now.

1. The so-called Comic Book Whisper Network, which has been dismissed as conspiracy since 2016, is real, and I have hundreds of screenshots to prove it.

2. The Whisper Network has been targeting men and trying to destroy their careers, and use their connections in the comic book media to do so.

3. Whisper Network members have acted unprofessionally and unethically at best. At worst, they have engaged in what I believe could be illegal behavior.

MY STORY

I first heard about the Whisper Network back in mid-2016 from folks I knew at Image, DC, Marvel, and later, Valiant. Depending on who I chatted with, sometimes the group was called ‘The Women’s Network’, other times ‘The Whisper Network’, occasionally ‘The Whisper Campaign’, and eventually there were more conspiratorial names used mockingly (a friend called them a gender-swapped 4Chan, which became ‘FemChan’ to some insiders).

Regardless of the name, it was all the same group.

The same five or six names kept popping up in conversation over and again. As time ticked on, I noticed a trend on Social Media: half a decade of rumors, false allegations, cancellation attempts , and they almost always traced back to these same five or six people. The goal of this Whisper Network, according to industry folks, was simple: choose a target, smear them until they lose their reputation, their income, and are ultimately blacklisted – opening up job opportunities for the same people who started these smear campaigns in the first place.

Behind the scenes these “cancellations” are painted as morally or politically motivated, but in the end it’s all financial. As time passed, the group in question seemed more and more like a reality. I saw their influence. I saw things I knew to be verifiably untrue go viral online, appearing in what I thought were legit news sources. I felt angry and helpless seeing innocent people getting attacked, but did not know what to do.

A few years passed and by 2018 almost everyone I interacted with in the industry seemed to know about the Network, from top level editors right down to the letterers. It was an open secret, but no one was willing to speak up for fear of being targeted themselves. They knew the consequences.

And after all, this was a secret network. Without proof, there was no point in going public because members would just deny its existence, and use their media connections to smear anyone who challenged them.

THEN THINGS GOT INTERESTING

December 16, 2018, Whisper Network member Gail Simone, who joined the Network 6 years ago (4 years before the following tweet was posted), mocks “doofuses” who speculate that a “whisper campaign” exists.

At this point in late 2018, I was still skeptical of the Whisper Network’s existence. I’d heard many stories of individuals spreading rumors and lies, and plenty of malicious behavior was going on behind closed doors. Though I wasn’t ready to believe it was a coordinated effort, or collusion was involved. Then, certain people began openly mentioning the Whisper Network and my attitude changed.

March 26, 2019, Heather Antos, a member herself, did not outright mention the Whisper Network or her involvement, but she made what some took as a veiled threat to those who got on her bad side.

Heather “milkshake girl” Antos’ colorful backstory at Marvel, and later at Valiant, is notorious in the comic industry. A conversation about office rumor-spreading and bullying is never complete without someone bringing up a juicy Antos anecdote. Everyone has one.

Up until then, I still hadn’t seen ACTUAL PROOF of a larger scheme. But then, something changed in 2020.

January 8, 2020, Alex de Campi, who I would discover is one of the most active Whisper Network members, openly admits there is a Network. I have no idea if this was a slip or a brazen attempt to show off her power and influence, but this appeared.

Eventually, everything I had heard and read was confirmed beyond any shadow of a doubt after I gained access to their private Facebook group.

I WAS INSIDE THE WHISPER NETWORK!

This is the place where the Whispher Network has been colluding for years. And although their activity is not confined to just this site, from what I can tell, this was where they first met, and started their coordinated campaigns.

Members of the Secret Group called “Comic Book Women”

At present time, there are 440+ members of the secret Facebook group, called COMIC BOOK WOMEN. From what I can tell, a few are regular users, though many of them have never posted.

https://www.facebook.com/groups/comicbookwomen/

*unless you are a member, this will not show up in a search

Secret Facebook groups offer the same level of privacy as closed groups, but operate under a cloak of invisibility. No one can search for secret groups or even request to join them. The only way to get in one is to know someone who can invite you. Everything shared in a secret group is visible only to its members.

This secret group includes a list of members whose actions and connections speak for themselves. Members such as:

Zoe Quinn

Gail Simone

Alex de Campi

Heather Antos (aka Heather Marie)

Mags Visaggio (aka Magdalene Francis)

Mairghread Scott

And several key members of the group are women who work in the comics media and can be used to run damage control, including women like Heidi MacDonald of Comics Beat. They have contacts outside of the secret network as well, with some male allies in both comics and the media.

Just the fact that all of these folks were secretly linked in a private network came as a shock to me, considering their reputations and the accusations that they’ve made. Immediately I began to connect the dots…

They’ve denied for YEARS that they coordinate their actions in private. And yet they always coincidentally appear on Twitter, retweeting and amplifying each other’s accusations, signal boosting one another, and helping them gain traction. And their allies in media – Bleeding Cool and CBR specifically – will turn those same tweets into stories almost instantly & with no fact-checking or verification, sometimes within the hour.

I’m going to start explaining who the key actors are, and, from my perspective, how they coordinate these attacks.

KEY ACTORS

There are too many people to focus on at once, so I will have to break this into several posts, but I will start with one of the clear group leaders IMO.

Alex de Campi is well connected, despite never being part of the Big Two (since, from what I’ve been told management is well aware of her bullying, harassment, rumor-spreading and unethical behavior that goes back years, and depending on who you talk to she’s almost as notorious as Antos or Tess Fowler). She just wrapped up a graphic novel campaign on Kickstarter with David Bowie’s son, the Hollywood film director Duncan Jones. It grossed over $366K

All the while she makes baseless accusations while demanding transparency from everyone else.

Now, I’ll take you into their private network.

Two years ago, on May 13, 2018, De Campi launched a private campaign to target an independent creator, claiming she was using her connections to have Simon & Schuster cancel their book.

In addition to contacting the publisher, others in the Whisper Network coordinated their efforts to contact media outlets to have the narrative changed, according to the posts in this thread. Again, in my opinion, this could end up as a defamation or tortious interference case, and has many implications regarding media bias as well.

The following month, on June 23, 2018, de Campi posted private text messages between herself and writer Max Bemis in what appeared to be an attempt to damage his career. Despite Bemis being mentally ill (diagnosed with bipolar disorder in 2014), de Campi still posted the private messages with malicious intent IMO. According to US and UK law this is an actionable offense: posting private texts without both parties consenting.

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pridewon · 3 years ago

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(ushijima: super volleyball maniac) (don’t reblog!) part 1: ushijima, reon & semi.

i’m super tired, which means i don’t have the brain capacity to resist hyperfixation, so I’ve collected 70+ screenshots of Ushijima’s important moments to make a few headcanon/analysis posts, I am so very sorry in advance, it turns out I have a ridiculous lot to say about this volleyball idiot, and I’m glad I found an English version that doesn’t sound too word-to-word, because he says so little, and so little is said about him, everything easily gets lost in translation. ANYWAY, Shiratorizawa as a whole team deserves more love (seriously where are my Reon roleplayers especially), so here is a post about Wakatoshi and some of his teammates to start things off! Third years today, the other kiddos tomorrow because EESH this got long. (I blame the size of the pictures)

Very early on, Shiratorizawa is presented as a team whose strategy relies on two simple principles: height and power. No player on the team cristallises those ideals more than Ushijima: hence, the entire organisation of the team revolves around him. He is the ace and face of Shiratorizawa; but there are a few players who stand out both in contrast and in parallel to him: Reon, Semi, Shirabu, and, of course, Gôshiki. I wanted to talk about all of them in this post, but I had too much to say, so Shirabu and Gôshiki will have their own post tomorrow.

Ushijima and Reon Ohira.

Possibly one of the least discussed yet crucial characters in Shiratorizawa’s volleyball team, Reon is, like Ushijima, a hitter (or wing spiker, although I’ve learnt that ‘wing spiker’ isn’t really the right English nomenclature). His role in the team and in relation to Ushijima is explicitly stated right when we first meet him, when Hinata calls him “Benkei” - although the reference and significance of the nickname is easily lost on us non-Japanese audiences.

For context, “Ushiwaka” is Ushijima’s nickname, and the childhood nickname of very popular Japanese samurai “Minamoto no Yoshitsune”. In his travels, Minamoto no Yoshitsune defeats and gains the loyalty and allegiance of an until then undefeated sôhei, a warrior monk: Benkei. The two became inseparable, to the point that Benkei died defending Yoshitsune. When hearing the name “Ushiwaka”, it would be completely normal for a Japanese audience, Hinata included, to look for a “Benkei”. Benkei was “Ushiwakamaru”’s companion, right-hand man, and bodyguard: all roles that Reon embodies in relation to Ushijima (even if Reon himself seems a bit sceptical, bless his heart).

Right-hand man? Ushijima is the team’s captain. Furudate’s portrait of Reon has him pinned as the vice-captain (somehow in the scene at Shiratorizawa after the match against Karasuno, the designated captain is a guy named Soekawa - either a mistake, or the current second year taking over the position, now that 3rd year Reon is leaving the team).

Companion and bodyguard? Reon literally puts himself between Ushijima and the ball when a serve is aimed at Ushijima, so that Wakatoshi can dedicate himself entirely to the incoming attack. Doing the dirty work so their star ace has his hands free to shine and win the battle. And of course, Wakatoshi doesn’t make a single move to go towards the ball even thoughhe’s a very adept receiver himself: he knows Reon will be there to catch it for him. Reon, on top of his hitter duties, play the very detrimental role of relieving Wakatoshi of any “superfluous” moves that may get in the way of his primary role: scoring. He “sacrifices” himself so that his captain can save his energy, his moves, and focus on bludgeoning the other team with his spikes.

Not to mention he’s also watching out for moments when the team (especially Tendô) might be relying a bit too much on Ushijima. Reon is both Wakatoshi’s steadiest ally on the court, he’s also his keeper, and a bit of a mediator between him and the rest of the team when expectations fly a bit too high (especially since Wakatoshi himself never says a single word about having too much pressure put on him).

Fortunately for Reon, he’s not the only one to have that role!

Ushijima & Eita Semi.

Semi, aka Shiratorizawa’s Sugawara. Well, kind of. Maybe more of a perfect mix between Suga and Kageyama, really. or the exemplification of what could have happened to Kageyama, had he been accepted at Shiratorizawa. But I digress. Semi is Shiratorizawa’s other setter, who recently got benched in favour of Shirabu. His problem? Too much individuality for Shiratorizawa’s style. Again, Shiratorizawa’s entire strategy is centered around Wakatoshi, and Wakatoshi only - in their coach’s ideal world, only he really gets to stand out as their main weapon. Semi’s style, as a setter, clashes with this strategy, because he wants to (and can) shine on his own as a setter, instead of disappearing in Wakatoshi’s shadow like Shirabu does.

It’s a bitter situation, but my guy Semi doesn’t hold it against Wakatoshi. Even better, he tries to guide Shirabu in his new role, and continues to support Ushijima in whatever capacity he can. Shirabu is a second year and Shiratorizawa almost never puts first years on starting positions: that means that in all likeliness, Semi was Wakatoshi’s setter for two whole years. And he’s not about to let their new setter forget it, or to let his experience and knowledge of Wakatoshi’s limits go to waste. On top of tossing to him when he’s on the court, Semi directly calls out Shirabu twice for his excessive use of Ushijima (again, because Ushijima most likely won’t call for a break himself, and because Semi is the kind of player who can see the larger picture and not rely on their one main weapon only).

Semi probably knows exactly how much pressure Ushijima can handle, when Shirabu is still learning. He has only been setting for Ushijima for a few months, after all, where Semi has had two full years and many matches, including at national level, to learn exactly how Ushijima works. We barely get to see them interact, but - considering how blunt Ushijima is and that he’s always within earshot when Semi and Shirabu talk, I would think that if he thought Semi exaggerated, he would say so and assure them that he’s fine. Instead, he says nothing: I’m probably venturing into headcanon territory here, but what are we doing if not constantly offering our own interpreations: I want to believe that Ushijima stays quiet because just like he has faith in Reon, he has faith in Semi’s judgement, both as an experienced high level setter advising a less experienced setter, and as his former setter.

On a lighter and more openly wholesome level: even Wakatoshi makes it explicit that he believes in Semi. We know he doesn’t exactly pay compliments, and that for him, the simpler words speak louder than grand declarations. Just like he asks Gôshiki why he panics, when he has such abilities, this is what he does after Semi scores off an amazing serve. What better proof do you need that Ushijima thinkis highly of your serves, when he literally tells you “let’s use your serves to finish this set”? That’s how I interpret this panel, anyway - Semi is deliberately highlighted and has a “!” reaction, Ushijima was addressing him, specifically. How awesome of a server must you be, that Shiratorizawa’s star scorer implies he’s counting on you to wrap this up?

Oh, and also: supportive Semi is the best Semi. Love this boy.

And to bring it back to Reon, look at them watching over their friend and captain from afar, even outside the court. I love them.

There are a few panels pointing at Wakatoshi, Reon, and Eita being really good friends too, but this post was more focused on team dynamics than friendships and also I want to sleep. But they are undeniably the third-years trinity of Shiratorizawa, on and off the court. And that’s it for now, tune in tomorrow for bbies Shirabu and Gôshiki or tell me to shut up, that’s acceptable too. If you read everything this far: thank you for your patience, here is a hot chocolate for your trouble: ☕.

#(ushijima; headcanons)#WEEEEE TIME TO GO TO SLEEP #anyway i need to write with a reon and a semi and i will cry until that happens #throw them at me if you have them #and please don't mind the typos in this i'm TIRED

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transcendencism · 4 years ago

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screenshots incoming later but i finished the class story with Kyaiit!!!!! despite only being Dark 1 i still got the Nox title (which, okay, is my favorite because Imperius and Occulus don’t sound as good) though I was aiming for Occulus. oh well!

of course, the problem Kyaiit faces now is that she’s out of survival mode, and actually has to figure what her goals are & finding allies on the Dark Council, so uh... she’s panicking a little bit. Very happy to have finally disposed of Thanaton though.

#also more coherent thoughts incoming too but i need 2 have lunch im HANGRY #inquisitor liveblog #oc: kyaiit

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chidoroki · 4 years ago

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The Promised Neverland S2EP1

aka: when you scream into the void and it finally answers back, because AAAHHH IT’S HERE! IT’S ALL HAPPENING!! HELL YES!

Here I am, trying my best to breathe normally, and the kids are having just as much trouble doing the same as they run for their lives.. this is wonderful.

“It’s fine! Think of it as a game of tag!” Oh my sweet daughter, I waited so long to hear your voice again.

But wow we’re starting with a wild demon chase right off the bat? No Isabella scene?.. should I be concerned?

OP I waited so anxiously for you, please blow me away.

How they used the flowers and vida to represent the human and demon bodies respectively was real nice.

Ohhh and they used that scene from the “Zettai Zetsumei” ending too!

Wow, they aren’t holding back the idea of children being food huh.

They even teased Norman with a fully bloomed vida flower.. how cruel.

Leslie and Conny aww.

Mujika, Phil and Isabella with her hair down aahh yesss!

Peter? Hello?? Don’t you show up much later?

Emmaaaa!! And her hair is braided already?

Ahh it is! She has the hairclips! She doesn’t get those until she meets Sandy at Goldy Pond though.. Cloverworks, please. you better not be getting my hopes up for nothing, I swear.

I’m surprised to see all the escapees wearing the shelter jackets though. The.. SHELTER! JACKETS! Bunker dad incoming!

Fucking hell girl, why must you be so beautiful??

And my boy Ray!! Yeess!

They left that large space beside Emma as a reminder that Norman is no longer around anymore huh.. ow my heart.

I vibe with “Identity” so much.. I love it. The sequence was beautiful. You’re winning me over so far Cloverworks.

Now that I finally moved on from watching the OP several times.. hello children! And vida flowers..

Haahaha the way Lanni just falls like that from the tree.. I’m dying.

Aw Emma sweetheart, you’re already pushing yourself too much.

Okay, Ray didn’t bonk her on the head with the water but the reaction she gave along with her facial expression was great, so I’ll let that change slide.

Also, my son!! I missed you so much!

“Sorry, Emma.” Bro, his voice was so soft when saying that!

“As long as you’re alive and smiling, that’s all I need.” aaah.. AND HIS FUCKING SMILE AFTER SHE SAYS THAT! OH MY GOD!

“Emma.. I’ll live. I’ll live and protect this family. Everyone in this family, just like you. This time, for sure, I swear. No matter what happens, I’ll never abandon them again.” They really had him say it all. The entire thing.. yeeesss! Character development at its finest btw!

“So don’t bear this burden alone.” *glances at ch180*

It’s been a half hour since I started this episode and yet I’m only 5 minutes in.. help.

“Southeast?” “Between south and east.” “Gilda, I know that much.” I love this little addition between them so much.

They also included Don and Gilda into this scene with the pen.

And the pen actually has a map now? It was Ray who figured out how the number/letter sequence worked in the manga in terms of location but here Emma just touched the screen and a map appeared.. hmm, I’m conflicted.

The younger kids are watching all this now too.

“I miss Norman.” Aww Alicia.. and everyone else is adorable too.

Ahh the new soundtracks hit different.

They really are including the other kids into the story more.. for a while it was usually just Emma & Ray figuring stuff out.

“And we’ll find more allies, then go back for Phil and the others!” *deep sigh*

Honey, I’m begging you, please take a moment to relax!

Hey there demons.

No wonder they get chased so soon, they have their lanterns lit at night making them such easy targets.

Ah, so this is the scene where that screenshot of Ray & Emma came from.

Oh yeah, y’all better fucking run.

Cgi demon looks odd, but then again demons aren’t supposed to look normal regardless, so it’s okay.

They changed how they introduced the snakes of alvapinera huh.

Hold up, we’re already on ch42? Right now? Okay wow..

“Who’s the better one at tag?” “You are.” Aaaaha.

Aw man, I thought Ray was finally going to start a fire once he threw that lantern and having it break.

Ah, and that’s where the blood splatter from the preview came from, the GF demon slaying the wild one.

“The others are already dead.” Look at his smug face! I LOVE HIM!

Aww Jemima is worried about our boy.

Rossi, you’re such a sweet child.

I’m sorta glad they didn’t show her completely passing out, but EMMA!!

Oh sweet lord, Mujika! We’re meeting you already??

They did a great job making this scene have an eerie feel though.

Aw, the scarf!

Goddamn, they made Ray look so out of breath and winded.. nice!

Okay, but the way he fell though.. sorta prefer how determined he was to try and take another step despite him struggling to do so in the manga rather than having him just.. fall over like that.

But Sonju coming in clutch!

Are we for real already at ch45 and gonna get the Rayemma hug? oh my god.

They’re gonna end the episode with Ray questioning our demons friends, aren’t they..

My poor boy is spooked.

LOOK HOW RELIEVED HE IS WHEN SHE FINALLY WAKES UP!

THE DAMN HUG! IT HAPPENED! SOMEONE HOLD ME I FEEL SO SOFT RIGHT NOW!

But why no head pat though hmm?

I’m surprised they actually remembered the bell.

He held out his arm out to shield her.. aww.

This music.. sounds good. Anndd it just got better.

Yup, figures they would end the episode there.

Okay ending song, make me emotional.

Oh? We’re seeing more of the outside world alongside Sonju & Mujika?

Wow, and hello to all the kids being shipped out.

And some quick glimpses of the sisters and mothers too.

I really like the art style they have going on here.

Interesting.. also, no Isabella scene? At all? Oh no..

And I just realized they completely left out the entire snakes of alvapinera scene.. hm.

But yeah, this is going way quicker than I originally thought.. I don’t want to get my hopes up in case GP doesn’t happen, but at this pace, hey, who knows.

I can’t believe I got three of my favorite demon forest scenes in the first episode.. fucking wild dude.

Now I can relax.. by finally diving into the tags and consuming every bit of good food available! Finally aboard the hype train!

#the promised neverland #episode reaction

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mythicalcanary-literature · 3 years ago

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FanFiction - Crossing the Stars

Hetalia (c) Hidekaz Himaruya

FTL: Faster Than Light (c) Subset Games

[CHAPTER LIST]

Author’s Note: This FanFiction is a crossover between the sci-fi strategy game ‘FTL: Faster Than Light’ by Subset Games and the manga/anime called ‘Hetalia’ by Hidekaz Himaruya. The story will follow closely to the events of the rougue-like gameplay in FTL and the human characters will be replaced with the human versions of the national personifications in ‘Hetalia’. This is a fun personal project and it requires no knowledge of either fandom to enjoy this story. I’d encourage checking the original sources out though! Use of screenshots in this FanFiction are to supplement the storytelling to help plot the course of our heroes’ journey in the universe. Whatever the outcome of the gameplay I base this story on (as each playthrough is very unique) will be translated into the plot of this story. i.e. If the spaceship gets damaged, it gets damaged in the story. If a character dies in the game, they’re dead in this fiction. (Please note that I find this kind of storytelling entertaining to play/write and I plan to do more in the future if time allows!)

Chapter 2

The crew of the S.S. APH pondered their options. At the Exit Beacon of their first Civilian Sector they had a choice on where to jump. Both branching sectors were civilian areas, one was under Engi Control and the other under Zoltan Control.

Captain Alfred F. Jones brought up the file on the Engi species. “It says here that Engi dudes are made of nanomachines. That’s pretty damn sweet! Maybe we could get them to be our mechanics?”

Arthur Kirkland, the weapons master, pulled up the file on their second option, the Zoltans. “Apparently both the Engi and Zoltans are allies. We could encounter either species in either sector so we have a coin toss here. Zoltans are energy beings, meaning that they can act as a kind of battery to save us some engine power. That’s rather handy.”

Their engines expert Francis Bonnefoy hummed in approval. “Now that you mention it, I wouldn’t mind having either of those creatures on board. An expert mechanic? A spare battery, pardon ze term… and if we can encounter them in any of these two sectors I don’t think we could lose.”

“It says that the Engi are secret allies of the Federation. That bodes very well for us. Provided the Rebels haven’t corrupted them, of course,” Arthur added thoughtfully.

Their American Captain beamed. “Hell yeah! I guess that means the Zoltan dudes are allies as well. Can’t go wrong here.”

Arthur coughed. “Actually, if we enter Zoltan territory and we’re attacked by hostiles whom have a Zoltan Energy Shield we could face problems. Those energy shields are a bitch to destroy. We need to avoid as many problematic scenarios as possible.”

“Agreed,” the Frenchman said quickly. “I am still shaken from ze last battles.”

“Engi Controlled then?” Alfred suggested. “Back to your stations! Let’s get this important cargo on the move!”

A cautionary message popped up on Alfred’s monitor. It warned them that Mantis had been preying on the Engi core worlds and those insectoids were a rather violent race. He hoped for a peaceful voyage this go-round. He programmed in the next jump, reluctantly avoiding the temptation of visiting the store located at a nearby beacon. If they could harvest more scrap maybe they could invest in some more kickass weaponry or upgrades!

A rather disgruntled British voice chimed over the announcement system. “OH FUCKING HELL!” As tempted as the Captain was to discourage swearing, he allowed it in this case. Out of the frying pan and into the literal fire!

Francis gasped, staring out of his nearby airlock window at the super-giant Class M star! They were too close, they were going to cook like that rather delicious duck l’orange he made for his crew before they left the Federation space port back home. “Oh non non non!”

DANGER! SOLAR FLARES! DANGER! SOLAR FLARES! DANGER!

“Incoming dumbass Pirate Scout ship! Kirkland lock weapons on their shields and weapons rooms before we grill like a BBQ!” Captain Jones commanded as he anxiously kept an eye on their FTL Drive charge. He really did think those pirates were dumbasses, who dares lurk around a giant star to attack passersby at the risk of setting their own ship alight? Idiots.

The S.S. APH successfully damaged the pirate ship but the enemy return shot rocked the weapons room. FIRE!

Arthur hardly knew what hit him, but the searing heat was enough of a tip-off to tell him that if he didn’t move right now he was going to die. Scrambling to his feet, he reached for the fire extinguisher and tried to combat the flames. This was very bad.

His best friend’s voice hailed him over the comms. “Artie, get out of there! I’m gonna open the airlocks to snuff out the fire. Go literally anywhere where you have oxygen.”

“Aye, sir!” he acknowledged, coughing from the smoke as he fled to the shields room. The portside and starboard side airlocks shot open along with a couple of doors into the weapons room draining the air rapidly to deny the fire any fuel.

As soon as the fire was out, Alfred closed all of the doors. That was all kinds of horrible. The pirate ship was repairing and had shields online. If they could get their weapons…

The super-giant Class M star wanted in on the action. It stretched a solar flare right out to the warring ships!

WARNING! SHIELDS CRITICAL!

Good thing Kirkland kept that fire extinguisher. Fire seemed to be following him today. Alfred sighed from the Bridge and called his crew. “Artie, get out of shields, I’ll open the starboard airlocks. Bonnefoy! Assist Kirkland in weapons, we need to get those back online.”

“Aye-aye, Captain!”

In the weapons room, Arthur and Francis united to repair the systems. The Frenchman quickly pulled his on-and-off frienemy into a hug and checked him for injuries. “Mon Dieu! I am happy you aren’t too badly hurt. Ze shields are down, we have to work quickly. Are you well?”

Arthur huffed and pushed him away. “Yes, I’m fine. Let’s get to work before more fire follows me.” He was feeling a little paranoid that he had pissed off a sun god or some crap like that. They had to get away.

The pirates were fighting well! They destroyed their surveillance system, not that it was a vital system at this point in time but it was extra hull damage that our heroes could not afford to take. “Bonnefoy! Shields are broken, meet me there. Artie, I see weapons are online, stay there and give them hell!”

Give them hell indeed! The Englishman dealt the deathblow to the pirates and was glad to dust his hands of the bastards. Unfortunately the star was not done with them and heavily damaged their oxygen systems and the weapons room again. The battle was won but the war wasn’t over!

“I’m off to repair O2!” Arthur announced as he fled from his post at weapons to stop them from suffocating. Alfred acknowledged. “Francis, join him! Get the oxygen back online, we can repair other things later but our ship can’t handle more of this. I’m gonna jump us away!”

“Oui! Please get us out of here, I am sweaty and it’s gross.” The pair split directions and Alfred slammed in the co-ordinates of their next destination at the Bridge. If this was what was in the stars for them in this sector they might not live to see the end and that thought was terrifying.

The next leap took them to an existing battle between a Mantis ship harassing a small Engi research vessel. Alfred was almost ready to command an intervention but the insectoids fled as they entered their space. The Engi Captain hailed them, offering thanks for showing up, and gave the S.S. APH a new drone schematic.

Captain Jones gasped in awe. “OH SHIT YEAH! A BOARDING DRONE?! YEEEEEAH!”

His friends joined him on the Bridge. Arthur blinked in surprise. “A Boarding Drone? Wow, that’s powerful tech! Too bad we don’t have a drone room.”

“Dudes, we get one! Or we can sell it if we can’t, whatever, but damn, those Engi guys were nice.”

Francis stretched. “Let’s keep moving, mes amis. Ze Rebels are always on our tails.”

Arthur beamed. A Boarding Drone? That would be fun to use against the Rebel Fleet.

“Alright, dudes, you’re gonna hate me for this, but I’m gonna backtrack to the store. Our hull is fucked and if we can get a drone room to use this fancy-ass tech we’re sure as hell getting it!” Arthur chided him for his horrible use of the English language but agreed that the risk might be worth it. Their hull was already fifty percent damaged, it could spell death if they carried on without fixing it.

Luck turned in their favour! Alfred authorised the purchase of the new drone room to house the Boarding Drone, and it also came with a free Defence Drone Mark I! Bargain. They spent the rest of their scrap on hull repairs and moved on to the next beacon.

They backtracked to an earlier beacon and leapt right on towards the distress signal. Captain Jones listened to the plea and cringed. Oh boy, this was not a pretty distress call but he didn’t feel that they could risk a rescue mission. He called his crew to the Bridge to make an informed decision.

Francis peered through the window in surprise. “It’s an evacuation.”

Alfred hailed the fleeing vessels. “Yo, this is Captain Jones of the Federation Star Ship APH, what’s the sitch?”

Arthur glared at him for once again disregarding etiquette. He ignored his friend.

One of the fleeing ships responded; “Help! We’re being overrun by some sort of giant alien spiders!”

The Frenchman squealed. “WHAT? That’s disgusting! Call pest control!”

Arthur whacked him across the head. “I think literally anyone coming to their aid IS pest control.”

Alfred winced. “Giant alien spiders? Seriously?”

The fleeing ship yelled, “Help us or flee yourselves! Those things are evil!”

Arthur bit his lip. “Sending an away team isn’t advisable, Alfred. I don’t think we can afford to waste more time with the Rebels on our heels and we don’t know what we’re up against.”

Francis nodded. “Oui, I say we go. They’re already evacuating, we should stay ze course.”

The young Captain sighed and agreed resolutely. “Yeah, you’re totally right. Back to your stations, we have a mission to complete!”

“Heads-up, all! We’re navigating an asteroid field.” Alfred paused and checked the radar. “Incoming pirates! Kirkland, power down the Artemis missile and channel it into the drones. I’m gonna power down the medbay to support the Defence Drone, it’s gonna take out the asteroids for us.” Arthur switched the power routes and confirmed that the drone was ready.

“Ah shoot, it looks like we’ve got another coward on our hands. Enemy vessel is powering up its FTL Drive!”

“I’ve destroyed their weapons, sir!” Arthur replied, prepared to change tactics. “Thank God for this drone, it’s stopping the asteroids from striking us. Their hull is weak, the pirates won’t last long.”

True to his word, the pirates perished soon after and they could reap the rewards. There was no time to spare, they had to continue the journey!

“Hey, dudes! We have a Rebel Auto douche here with a sweet cache. Let’s attack it and steal its shit.”

Arthur audibly sighed over the comms system. “Is that an order, Captain or are you daydreaming aloud?”

“HAHAHAHA! Shut it and fire up the weapons, bro.”

“How the hell did you earn your Captain’s badge again?” he asked rhetorically.

“By bein’ a HERO, of course! Fire up!”

“I’ve taken out their weapons, Captain!” Sadly, that wasn’t enough to stop an enemy missile from screwing with their shields.

“Shields are down! That goddamn drone is setting everything on fire! Francis, run to weapons, I need to open the airlocks!”

“Oui, I’ll keep Arthur company and hope he doesn’t attract fire again,” Francis responded, running down the halls.

Arthur scoffed. “Quiet, idiot, or I’ll make sure you’re in the way of the fire beam.”

“So cruel!” the Frenchman whined as he entered the weapons room. The Englishman stuck out his tongue and switched the Burst Laser to lock on the drones as Alfred opened the airlocks to control the drain of oxygen.

Once the fires were extinguished, Alfred shut the airlocks and commanded Francis to repair the shields and medbay. The Auto-Assault ship exploded and left them with a decent reward. Arthur examined the weapon from the cache. A Healing Burst? That could be useful but he was hoping for something a little better.

The next beacon was a store! The Engi hive operating it seemed friendly enough and Alfred treated Arthur to a special weapons augmentation. As the Engi repaired their hull, Arthur installed the ‘Automated Re-Loader’. An extra ten percent recharge rate on their weapons could really give them an advantage!

Feeling refreshed, the crew embarked to the next beacon, painfully aware of how close the Rebel Fleet was getting to them.

“Yo, crewdudes! I found a dormant Rebel Automated Scout here. I’m gonna try and download its data stores. You guys chill or whatever.”

A FEW MOMENTS LATER…

“Uh… Yeah, Artie, can ya do me a favour and like… blast the ever living hell outta this thing? I miiiight have activated it into fight mode.”

Francis could have sworn he heard the audible facepalm from his friend, but then again he could have done that deliberately over the announcement system.

Fortunately these ships were quick to deal with and Arthur destroyed it without putting up much of a fight. They collected the loot and moved on with their lives.

The next beacon was located around a pulsar. A small research station orbited it, but it seemed to be abandoned. Alfred scanned the area and flipped on the Red Alert sirens. “BATTLE STATIONS, PEEPS. WE HAVE MORE PIRATES!”

“I thought this was Engi space? All we’ve seen are Rebels and Pirates!” Francis complained over the comms system.

“They could be Engi pirates? We don’t have the scanners to see into their ships,” Arthur reasoned as he powered up the weapons. “Brace yourselves for ion waves, everyone. Our electronics are going to go haywire.”

DANGER! ELECTROMAGNETIC WAVES! DANGER!

The enemy weapons room was targeted and blasted to pieces. An ion wave disrupted their engines and shields, whereas the enemy had a mild disruption to their weapons and oxygen rooms.

“We have another runner! Take these losers down, Kirkland!”

“I’m doing my best! The bloody pulsar knocked out my weapons charge.”

“Shit, they’re getting away!”

There was a tense moment as the pirates used their FTL Drive to flee. The crew of the S.S. APH were worried that they would alert the Rebel Fleet about their location. This did not happen and they could breathe again.

“Fuck, that was intense!” Alfred called over the announcement system. “Look, things are gonna get ugly. We’ll pitstop at the next store but we’re gonna encounter the Rebels at the Exit Beacon. Artie, be on high alert when we get there.”

“I’m already on high alert, but I will do my best to fend them off so we can get to the next sector.”

“Good man. Franny, come with me, we’ll get the supplies this time.”

The Engi trader was a nice entity. He showed the crewmembers his wares and allowed them to discuss budget. In the end, they settled for a Flak Gun Mark I to potentially give them an advantage over multiple shields on enemy vessels along with an extra bit of fuel to tide them over. That was it, that was ALL of their scrap, which included the extra currency they made by selling their Healing Burst. They hoped it was enough to keep them alive.

Captain Jones gathered his friends in the Bridge with a grave expression. “Okay, so the Rebels are definitely at the Exit Beacon, no escapin’ that. Just do your best and try not to die. Our priority is to buy time to escape, alright? We’re not aiming for a win, we’re aiming for an escape.”

Francis looked nervous. “I don’t want to die!”

Arthur sat on the pilot’s chair and rested his head in his hands. “We all know the risks. Let’s not be pessimistic. We’ll either succeed in getting through the beacon or they will blow us to kingdom come. We’ve better head there right now. I just hope they haven’t had time to set-up anti-ship batteries…”

“Good luck, guys! I believe in you!” They all hugged for a brief moment before marching off to their stations. Here goes nothing!

As Alfred suspected, the enemy ship had two layers of shields to deal with. The investment in the Flak Gun was worth it. Arthur warmed up the weapons and aimed the Flak Gun at the enemy engines with additional fire power aimed at their shields in the form of the Artemis missile. He also noticed that they had a teleportation pad. Well, this was about to get bloody!

WARNING! INTRUDERS DETECTED!

“Bonnefoy! Get out of engines and man the doors! I’m opening the back airlocks, don’t get caught in it, I’ll try and suffocate the bastard!” Alfred called over a private comm link as he monitored the single human intruder.

“Aye, Captain!” Francis responded, racing to his new post as the engine and oxygen rooms were starved of air. The intruder was going to regret beaming aboard alright!

In weapons, Arthur cringed as his Flak debris missed the FTL Drive. He was counting on the Artemis missile to destroy the shields to help things along. The shields were hit on both ships and they tried their best to remain stable.

WARNING! SHIELDS CRITICAL!

The oxygen room was under attack by the one intruder that was slowly suffocating because he didn’t bring a space suit. The S.S. APH’s shields were vulnerable, which meant that the Rebel Elite Fighter could definitely land more hits. This wasn’t looking great and the FTL was taking its sweet time to charge up!

Francis did his best to hold the doors firmly secured shut. This was difficult when they never invested any scrap to upgrade their reactor and subsequently their subsystems further. He could not leave his post whilst the intruder remained on board, which left the engines unmanned so that he couldn’t assist Alfred with dodging attacks, and if he left the doors to repair the broken shields Arthur would be attacked by the intruder, no doubt. This was a horrible situation and it was going to get worse.

WARNING! INTRUDERS DETECTED! WARNING! SHIELDS CRITICAL!

Arthur managed to damage the Rebel’s engines, shields and weapons but chaos had already reigned on the S.S. APH. Enemy retaliation had damaged their piloting systems, shields and engines. On top of that, there was a fire in the drone control room and the entire oxygen system had been destroyed. They were in major trouble!

WARNING! SHIELDS CRITICAL!

WARNING! HULL AT 75%!

It was a never-ending sound of alarms on the ship. Alfred was stuck repairing the piloting system so that they could continue charging the FTL Drive, Francis had left the door system room to try to fix the shields to give them SOME protection as Arthur madly aimed their weapons at the enemy ship.

Arthur panicked and knew he had to do something or they’d be stuck as a waiting target for the Rebels to destroy any minute now. He ran to the engines to repair the FTL Drive. “Alfred! I’m repairing the engines. We can’t leave if they’re broken!”

“The weapons are auto-firing, right?!” he called back.

“Yes! I…” Wow, the air was constricting in this room. He continued working as hard as he could to get the engines back online but he couldn’t focus for some reason… “We need to get vital systems online!”

The Rebels were close to destruction but that felt like a hollow promise of victory. The teleportation room activated again and now they had THAT to deal with too.

Alfred was sweating. The drone room was directly behind the Bridge and that was completely on fire now. He couldn’t run to help his friends and they were losing! He checked the ship surveillance to see how everyone was and his eyes widened in horror. “FRANCIS, GET TO THE OXYGEN ROOM NOW. FIX IT QUICKLY, ARTHUR’S DYING!”

“What?!” came the Frenchman’s startled response. “I’ll head there now!”

“ARTIE, BUDDY! Your vitals are critical. Are you conscious?! Get out of there and head to the medbay right now. ARTHUR! Move it! Please…”

Arthur was hanging on by a thread. He could barely move but he had to get out of there. Somehow he got to his feet and felt his way out of the engine room. His health was waning and he almost fainted en route to the medbay. He had to get there. To heal. To breathe. There was so much NOISE. Where was medbay again?

WARNING! INTRUDERS DETECTED!

Arthur collapsed on a bed in the medical wing. Luckily the system was able to start helping him to convalesce but he was extremely close to death! Thankfully he made it there in time.

Francis was struggling. It took a lot of effort but the oxygen was back online! He coughed and hurried over to the medbay as his health depleted further. He was the second member close to death that day. He saw Arthur and relaxed, letting the system heal his body.

BOOM! The enemy vessel exploded leaving them with a nice bit of fuel to move on when they weren’t burning to death. That was one less worry for Alfred but he had plenty more to deal with post-battle. Namely the one intruder destroying their weapons room!

Alfred sighed with relief and spent a moment recovering. He checked on his friends’ vital signs... they seemed to be improving in the medbay. Good. That was too close for comfort. He exhaled and began opening most of the airlocks, not only to deal with the raging fire in the room behind him but also to make the intruder suffer.

He watched as the oxygen fled the ship and waited for his best friend to regain consciousness. They had to get this ship running again pronto or they’d face another vessel, which they can’t afford to do!

WARNING! INTRUDERS DETECTED!

Alfred made a beeline to the medbay once most of the fire was extinguished. He hugged Arthur once he woke up and dragged him to the door systems room. “Good job there, Artie. Sorry you almost died, but we’re alive now. I need you to focus and help me repair these doors or we’ll never be able to close them. Francis repaired the oxygen room, he’s healing at the moment, and we have an intruder on board and the Rebels are kicking our asses but we’ll be fine! Just help me fix shit so we can leave, okay?”

The shorter blond blinked his emerald eyes tiredly at him and nodded, helping to restore the systems. He put out the fire in the door room with Alfred and was feeling well enough to take back responsibilities on the ship.

Once all of the fires were extinguished on the ship, Alfred remotely sealed the doors and responded to an alert from the medbay. The intruder had decided to launch an attack on Francis whom was still recovering!

“Gotcha, Rebel scum!” Alfred yelled as he barrelled into the intruder and started hand-to-hand combat with the enemy. Arthur woke up his bearded friend and together the three of them eliminated the rebel for good. Panting, the crewmates gathered their wits as the medbay healed them.

Francis looked pale. “I think we almost died. For real that time.”

Arthur bit his lip. “I should have known that something was off when I tried repairing the FTL Drive. I didn’t realise the oxygen was knocked out, I should have gone there, but my thought was to fix the engines so we could flee.”

Alfred sat down on a bed and ran a hand through his hair. “Ugh, that was horrible. I almost lost you both. I don’t want to pilot this ship on my own, we’re already a tiny crew.”

“Well we made it!” Francis chimed in optimistically.

Alfred hugged them all tightly before standing up with purpose. “Now we’re all healed, let’s get this ship functioning again and then get the fuck outta dodge!”

Arthur stretched and saluted half-heartedly. “I’ll fix drones, Jones should take engines and Bonnfoy fix my bloody weapons. When we get to the next sector we REALLY need to focus on upgrades if we can. Our reactor power is weak and we can’t use all of our systems to full capacity.”

“I know that, dude,” the Captain scoffed. “Let’s just get out of here and then worry about the technicalities.”

With repairs completed, Alfred went back to the Bridge alone. The sector map branched out into two locations. They could either go to another Engi Controlled sector, not that this sector bore much fruit for the S.S. APH, or they could risk everything and attempt to survive in Rebel Controlled territory. He groaned. Being a space Captain wasn’t as cool as he thought it would be. He wished he had convinced his friends to stay home instead.

TO BE CONTINUED IN THE NEXT SECTOR...

Chapter 2 - END

[CHAPTER LIST]

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[Cover Art] This image was drawn in HB pencil and painted in watercolour paints on the 8th August 2021. It was digitally enhanced in GIMP Image Editor on the 9th August 2021. Paper type = 130 gsm

This chapter was written on the 30th-31st August 2021.

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Please do not repost, modify, resell or claim this work as your own.

(Reblogging is fine, though!)

[Mythical Canary Info]

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tigerkirby215 · 4 years ago

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5e Zephyr, the Hellion build (XCOM: Chimera Squad)

youtube

Would you believe me if I said that I had this build on the backburner for nearly half a year? Like honest to god I said I’d “maybe” make XCOM builds over a year ago and I beat Chimera Squad around last November. (Yeah I kinda put the game on the backburner for 3 months before finishing it.)

With that being said Zephyr was easily one of my most valuable units, and she pretty much plays like the typical Monk. So naturally I jumped at the chance to make her!

GOALS

Crippling Blow - Punching criminals is all well-and-good but if you’re fighting outworlders with psionics and poison glands you need something to get the upper hand.

Momentum - “Move fast or die slow.” Play around cover if you want to stick around.

Crowd Control - When the mobs get too rowdy get ready to run in and knock them all down.

RACE

Zephyr was literally made for war which means holy crap we actually get to use Custom Lineage to make a Hybrid! You are a Medium sized creature with a +2 in Dexterity to start. You can pick either Variable Trait as either Darkvision or a Skill Proficiency (ideally Perception to see incoming hostiles) will be useful. You can also get a Language of your choice so I’d pick whatever you fancy, though perhaps going for something more alien would work well.

Of course you get a Feat at level 1 when using a Custom Lineage and ADVENT training makes you a bit of a Martial Adept. You get a d6 Combat Superiority die to use on one of two Maneuvers: Disarming Attack can be good to disable an opponent’s weapon (especially if your DM lets you kick it away after disarming them) and Parry will let you, well, parry! While you might not reduce the damage completely like in Chimera Squad you can still absorb some close-ranged blows!

ABILITY SCORES

15; DEXTERITY - Can’t get shot if you outrun the bullets.

14; WISDOM - Used for a variety of things, notably AC.

13; CONSTITUTION - Zephyr isn’t the biggest member of Chimera Squad but giving her some body armor is usually a good call.

12; STRENGTH - It’s not that she’s weak; we can just use DEX instead of STR.

10; INTELLIGENCE - ADVENT probably teaches military strategy but history is already formed by the victors.

8; CHARISMA - Zephyr is a rather blunt edge. ADVENT training doesn’t include comedy class.

BACKGROUND

War... war never changes, and you were literally made to fight. You are a Soldier by the purest definition of the word. You get proficiency in Athletics as well as Intimidation, Land Vehicles (someone has to drive!), and a Gaming Set of your choice (chess helps you learn military strategy so perhaps ADVENT training included Dragonchess training.)

Your feature Military Rank puts you in the ranks of Chimera Squad! Members of the City 13 PD recognize your rank, and you can get supplied with standard government-funded equipment as needed.

(Screenshot by u/jasonrodriguez_dt on Reddit.)

THE BUILD

LEVEL 1 - MONK 1

Put bluntly punching is more important for this build! First level Monks get proficiency with two skills from the Monk list: Acrobatics is good for dodging and Stealth is good for the breaching phase. You also get proficiency in a tool of your choice: Grey Phoenix will never be ready for your Calligraphy Tools! You’re welcome Tulok!

As a Monk you get Unarmored Defense equal to your Dexterity plus your Wisdom, even if Zephyr does wear body armor in XCOM. But more importantly you get Martial Arts! You can use DEX to punch, your punches do a d4, and after attacking you can punch as a Bonus Action!

LEVEL 2 - MONK 2

Second level Monks get Ki for a variety of military tactics. Flurry of Blows allows you to make two Unarmed Strikes with your Bonus Action instead of one, Patient Defense lets you Hunker Down and Dodge as a Bonus Action, lowering the enemy’s chance to hit (though this is XCOM so remember that 5% chance to hit can still hit), and Step of the Wind lets you Dash or Disengage as a Bonus Action to get up close and personal.

You also get Unarmored Defense, increasing your movement speed by 10 to help you dive for cover after attacking. And because Tasha’s wants to let Monks use weapons you get Dedicated Weapon, allowing you to turn any weapon you’re proficient in into a Monk weapon! (As long as it isn’t Heavy or Special.)

LEVEL 3 - MONK 3

3rd level Monks get to choose their Monastic Tradition and to float like a butterfly and sting like a bee Drunken Master works remarkably well. You get Bonus Proficiencies with both Performance and Brewer’s Supplies, but more importantly you get access to Drunken Technique. Whenever you use Flurry of Blows your movement speed increases by 10 feet and you gain the benefits of the Disengage action, basically giving you the Mobile feat that works whenever you use Flurry of Blows.

Additionally Deflect Missiles will let you Parry bullets! If you’re targeted with a ranged attack you can use your reaction to reduce the damage by a d10 plus your Monk level. If the damage is reduced to 0 you can catch the bullet, and then use a Ki point to throw it back!

You also get Ki-Fueled Attack but it literally doesn’t matter since you don’t have any abilities which use Ki that aren’t attacks.

LEVEL 4 - MONK 4

4th level Monks get an Ability Score Improvement: increase your Constitution by 1 for a little more sturdiness and your Dexterity by 1 to punch a little harder.

Additionally you get Slow Fall to safely hop down off tall ledges, and because Tasha’s didn’t think Monks had enough features you get Quickened Healing, letting you spend 2 Ki points to heal yourself for a roll of your Martial Arts die plus your proficiency bonus. Much like Second Wind you can use this before Short Resting if you have spare Ki for faster recovery after combat.

LEVEL 5 - MONK 5

5th level Monks get an Extra Attack, meaning you can punch twice with your action plus an additional time with your Bonus Action, or an additional two times with Flurry of Blows. Which is good because your Martial Arts die now increases to a d6, making your fists just a little more deadly.

But more importantly you can inflict a truly crippling blow thanks to Stunning Strike, which forces a Constitution save on the enemy or stun them, making them easy pickings for the rest of the squad!

Tasha’s also gave you some Holotargeting thanks to Focused Aim, allowing you to increase your hit chance with Ki, just to make sure none of your blows bounce off their armor.

LEVEL 6 - MONK 6

6th level Monks can make Vital Strikes thanks to Ki-Empowered Strikes. You get to ignore magical resistance and immunity now!

Additionally you get some more boosts to your mobility with Tipsy Sway, letting you Leap to Your Feet when prone with only 5 feet of movement and Redirect Attacks that miss with a Ki point so they hit another enemy in melee! “Should’ve kept your distance!”

And to top off your mobility your Unarmored Movement increases by 5 feet, equaling 15 extra feet of movement speed or 45 feet total.

(Screenshot from stevivor.com)

LEVEL 7 - FIGHTER 1

ADVENT training teaches you to do more than just run and punch. First level Fighters get their choice of a Fighting Style and seeing as we aren’t using Knives and Guns we may as well grab Superior Technique for more Maneuver die! You can learn another Maneuver like Distracting Strike to lower a foe’s defenses for your allies. And you get another d6 per Short Rest to use on Maneuvers!

If you aren’t going to hit level 11 as Monk (total build level 14) then Unarmed Fighting is also a good choice to increase your damage output.

You can also get some help from Terminal for a Second Wind, healing for a d10 plus your Fighter level.

LEVEL 8 - FIGHTER 2

Second level Fighters get Action Surge, for another action to do either a little bit more movement or a bit more punching. Yes this does mean that if you want you can punch a total of 6 times in a turn!

LEVEL 9 - FIGHTER 3

Third level Fighters get to choose their Martial Archetype and a Battle Master can inflict all sorts of Crippling Blows! Firstly you are a Student of War, granting you proficiency with another Artisan’s Tool of your choice. Maybe pick up some Woodcarver’s Tools to do something while out in the unpopulated areas.

But of course the main appeal of being a Battle Master is the Combat Superiority. You get four d8 Superiority die (on top of your two d6 die) to use on your Maneuvers. You already have several Maneuvers but how about a few more? Trip Attack is like Stunning Strike but it forces a Strength save to knock the enemy over, making them easy to hit in melee (or with a shotgun) but harder to hit at range. Goading Attack will keep foes off your friends and force them to focus you instead. And Grappling Strike will let you try to root an enemy in place.

(Video icon by Alpha155.)

LEVEL 10 - MONK 7

We got all the Maneuvers we could want and more so now it’s time for more Monk training to master our fists. 7th level Monks get Evasion to avoid explosions (and other things that force DEX saves) as well as Stillness of Mind to avoid panicking (or being charmed.)

LEVEL 11 - MONK 8

8th level Monks get another Ability Score Improvement: better max out that Dexterity to make sure that 99% chance to hit does actually hit.

LEVEL 12 - MONK 9

9th level Monks can defy the laws of physics with SCIENCE! Unarmored Movement Improvement lets you run across walls and liquids, as long as you end somewhere solid when you’re done. Enemy on high ground? Just run up the wall!

LEVEL 13 - MONK 10

10th level Monks get Purity of Body, making them immune to Earthbound diseases and Viper poison. Additionally you get 5 more feet of Unarmored Movement, meaning that you can now move 50 feet in a turn!

LEVEL 14 - MONK 11

11th level Monks have what the game calls Drunkard’s Luck, but I’d personally call Teamwork! If you make a roll with Disadvantage you can use 2 Ki points for some teamwork, negating the Disadvantage!

Your Martials Arts die also increases to a d8, so you can shake off the stress before going in and apprehending the target!

LEVEL 15 - MONK 12

12th level Monks get another Ability Score Increase. While we’ve got plenty of ways to be effective without Wisdom intuition is still good to not get hit. So increase your Wisdom by 2.

(Image from “Agent Profiles: Zephyr” Chimera Squad trailer video. Yeah it’s honestly really hard finding good images to put into this build.)

LEVEL 16 - MONK 13

City 13 PD are expected to be able to communicate with any species, and Chimera Squad is no exception. 13th level Monks get Tongue of the Sun and Moon, so anyone can understand what you’re saying and you can understand whatever they’re saying.

LEVEL 17 - MONK 14

Sick of dealing with things more dangerous than guns? Well Diamond Soul will give you proficiency with all saving throws! And your Unarmored Movement increases to 55 feet total!

LEVEL 18 - MONK 15

15th level Monks can live life with the game on pause thanks to Timeless Body. You can’t be aged by magic, though you will still die of old age. You also don’t need to eat, which is certainly helpful.

LEVEL 19 - MONK 16

16th level Monks get their last Ability Score Improvement for the build. I’ll leave this up to you: more Wisdom would mean more AC and more deadly Stunning Strikes, but the Mobile feat would allow you to save your Ki instead of using Flurry of Blows to move around.

LEVEL 20 - MONK 17

17th level Monks can finally lay down the Crowd Control thanks to Intoxicated Frenzy! When you use your Flurry of Blows, you can make up to 3 additional attacks with it, provided that each Flurry of Blows attack targets a different creature this turn. This means that you can target a total of 5 enemies with Flurry of Blows, not to mention the two punches you get from your regular action! And speaking of punches your Martial Arts die is now a d10, letting you really thin the herd!

FINAL BUILD

PROS

Reaper - Ever punched 9 times in one turn? Would you like to? Intoxicated Frenzy and Action Surge can allow you to really thin the herd.

Lockdown - You’ve also got plenty of ways to keep said herd from getting close with 6 total Combat Superiority die to spend on all sorts of Maneuvers.

Fearless Advance - You’re not exactly a frontliner but you can afford to take a few hits, with good health, strong AC, and very high saving throws thanks to Diamond Soul.

CONS

Berserker - Running fast with your fists out is great and all, but sometimes enemies will be in places you simply can’t get to. When that happens all you can really do is keep to cover.

Adder - Good ol’ limited resources. Even if you have plenty of Ki as well as a remarkable amount of Combat Superiority die they will still run out. Remember to take breaks between breaches.

Praetorian - Rules as written there’s few ways to boost your damage output or your armor. Bracers of Defense or an Insignia of Claws can definitely help but much like in Chimera Squad you might be left out as the party gets upgraded.

But if the streets get too full there isn’t anyone better to call. ADVENT wanted you to be the perfect soldier; it really sucks for them that you ended up fighting for the good guys! Keep the peace and stop the baddies from resisting arrest. Don’t worry about police brutality; outworld physiology is quite good at repairing broken bones.

(Artwork by Team Wreckloose on Tumblr.)

#dnd #dnd build #dnd guide #XCOM #xcom chimera squad #XCOM Zephyr #dnd monk #do people even care about this game?#idc #it's my blog #I'll make #what I want

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dancingismycupoftea · 4 years ago

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I am posting a GoFundMe link for a radical feminist male ally in need of help in case anyone has a few extra dollars they’d be willing to send his way.

His name is Doug Zachary. He is an American Veteran living in Texas. He was the caregiver to his grandchildren for a number of years. In addition to being a peace activist taught by Nuns (read the quote from his GoFundMe page below for more info), he is a self-identified “marxist feminist,” who has been open to reeducation from women activists and elevates radical feminist’s voices and actions. He firmly believes that transgender ideology is simply misogyny repackaged, and is anti sex industry. Attached are some screenshots of his posts over the years.

Recently, he had 2 strokes and discovered at the veteran’s hospital that he was Covid19 positive. Seeing the number of Vets worse off with Covid19 and in need of the hospital beds, he chose to self isolate at home, but has since lost his income and cannot get unemployment insurance.

Here is his GoFundMe link (run by his friend):

https://www.gofundme.com/f/fundraiser-for-activist-doug-zachary?utm_source=facebook&utm_medium=social&utm_campaign=p_cp+share-sheet

And here is his Facebook page:

https://www.facebook.com/DougZachary

#radical feminism #women's rights #gender critical #covid19 #veteran #male allies #men supporting women #radblr #radfem #go fund him #veterans for peace

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cedarmoons · 6 years ago

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reversed nadia & tragic heroism

aka, stop dismissing complex female characters as bitches you heathens

to preface this meta: i’ve included screenshots where i can, but as tumblr only allows 10 images, i’ll also include transcripts of scenes i want to discuss. screenshots have been cropped to only include the text, and should be read from left to right. i have left out some filler text, and “blank” boxes are only meant to keep the image even. all mentions of “Nadia,” unless otherwise stated, refers to Nadia in her Reversed route.

tldr: Nadia is Textbook Tragic Hero, it wasn’t animal abuse, Nadia did not sell MC to Satan for one corn chip, and it certainly wasn’t “bad writing.”

Long ass character meta under the cut! obviously contains spoilers for Book XX, Judgement - Reversed.

So. I originally had no intention of playing any of the reversed routes, but there were some claims about Nadia (i.e., she abused Mercedes & Melchior, she killed Lucio in cold blood, and she sold out MC for her own power) that made me think HMST and play it myself. Unsurprisingly, every single one of the above takes does not provide any greater context whatever.

I changed four (4) things to get Nadia’s reversed route: I never encouraged her to talk to her sisters or ask them for help; I told her to send Portia away; I did not allow the Flooded District partygoer to talk to her in Temperance; I told her to kill Lucio in The Devil.

And playing Nadia’s route seemed incredibly familiar to me, though it took a little while for me to realize why: Nadia, in her reversed route, is the textbook Tragic Hero. The Tragic Hero has a “fatal flaw,” which leads them to commit catastrophic errors in judgement, which leads to their allies, family, and friends abandoning them and their own isolation, which leads to the Tragic Hero realizing (too late) the gravity of their own errors.

I can’t believe I’m busting out my degree for a mobile game because some people like to twist things, but here we are. Someone has to go to bat for Nadia when the narrative surrounding her the past 48 hours has been doing her so dirty.

Part 1: The Lucio Problem

Now, let’s get straight to the first bout of character analysis: Lucio’s death. Nadia does not, in fact, cut Lucio down in cold blood. Lucio actually gets her to stop, and she allows him to explain why he should be allowed to live, which essentially is “because then I can help you overthrow the Devil.” The following is a transcript of their conversation, starting with Lucio explaining how he was supposed to be the Devil (instead of the ghost goat form we see in early-to-midgame), up to and including his death:

LUCIO: “It should have worked too! It was supposed to work! It wasn’t my fault. The Devil played dirty, he cheated me out of my chance to win! But together, we can defeat him. We can do it right this time!”

Nadia stares at him for a very long time, then throws her head back and laughs.

NADIA: “Yes, because you’ve been so trustworthy in the past.”

NADIA: “You would become the Devil and spread your treachery further than even Vesuvia. You would do the same thing he is attempting. You would cause death and destruction. Neither of you deserve the title. If you want something done right... do it yourself.”

LUCIO: “I won’t lose here! I don’t lose!”

Lucio lurches forward, anger flashing in his eyes. He reaches forward with a gold-gauntleted glove - And stops, as blood gurgles up from his mouth, trailing down his chin. Nadia’s blade is plunged deep in the center of his chest, the blade finally finding its mark.

LUCIO: “...”

She pulls the sword out and he crumples, his last words lost.

It should be noted Lucio’s sprite isn’t bloodied during his “...” dialogue. It’s interesting that no one mentioned Lucio lunged for Nadia first, isn’t it? Of course, one can always say he sensed his incoming death, and only attacked in self-defense: this is a reasonable and valid argument. But he unquestionably moved first, and Nadia also killed him in self defense: hardly the cold-blooded murder I had expected going in.

It is not Lucio’s death itself that struck me in the writing, but the aftermath. After he is dead, MC can respond with either “Why did you do that?!” or “He had it coming.” I chose the former, and the following is the transcript:

MC: “Why’d you do that?!”

My head is still spinning. Nadia just killed someone in front of me... and she doesn’t seem to be bothered by it at all.

NADIA: “We knew it would come to this, MC. I couldn’t risk him causing more chaos and destruction. He would have always remained a threat.”

She pauses, reaching out slowly toward me.

NADIA: “You understand, don’t you?”

I’m interpreting MC’s “Why’d you do that?!” as a horrified growing realization of how far Nadia has fallen. They were the primary influence over the course of 20 books in shaping Nadia this way, but the way Nadia kills Lucio really cements her fall from grace for them. And Nadia, when she “reach[es] out slowly” toward MC, seems to know that MC has realized this. She says “You understand, don’t you?” — words that can easily be considered a plea.

You understand why I did what I did, don’t you? You understand I had no choice, don’t you? You understand there was no other way, don’t you? You understand I am not a monster, don’t you? You understand I do not want to lose you, don’t you?

I take a deep breath, still staring at where Lucio’s body was, then nod slowly. Nadia lets out a soft sigh of relief, and strokes my cheek affectionately.

NADIA: “Good. I couldn’t handle you turning from me, MC. It had to be done. I had no choice.”

Nadia already considers herself alone against the world. The MC is the closest thing she has to an ally; the MC is the closest thing she has to a confidant(e). Yet her anxieties and trust issues keep her from truly allowing MC to be as close as they are in her Upright route. This is seen as early as Book 9, when in the carriage ride (and immediately after discovering Portia’s betrayal), she wonders if MC will betray her, too, and whether she is destined to stand alone in the world.

Over the course of the 11 books from Book 9 to Book 20, she has come to realize that if she loses MC, she is truly, truly alone in the world. Thus, her hesitation (“slowly”) to reach for MC. Thus, her blatant relief in MC staying with her. Thus, her admission that she would be unable to handle MC turning away from her.

Part 2: Becoming the Devil

In any heroic story, the hero must achieve a seemingly impossible feat: saving the world; defeating the unstoppable Big Bad; et cetera. Tragic heroes also seek to achieve impossible feats, but their “feats” straddle the line between good and evil, or their reasons — why they want to achieve the impossible heroic feat — are not grounded in conventional morality. Tragic heroes attempt to achieve their impossible feats, but their efforts, whether successful or not, always have catastrophic consequences.

Hamlet’s impossible feat is to avenge his father: his efforts to do so result in the deaths of his (debatable) love interest, his mother, his step-father, his friends, and himself.

Solas in Dragon Age: Inquisition’s impossible feat was to stop the Evanuris: his efforts to do so created the Veil, stripping elves of their immortality and power, leaving them open to exploitation, enslavement, and death (and opening the way for him to undertake a second impossible feat: destroying the Veil to restore the elven people’s power).

Clarke Griffin in the TV show The 100 had the impossible feat of saving her people from having their bone marrow harvested by Mount Weather: her efforts to do so saved her people, but killed hundreds of innocent people who had nothing to do with the cruelties inflicted on Clarke’s friends; gave her and another major character PTSD; and led to Clarke’s self-imposed exile from her people.

Nadia’s impossible feat is to defeat the Devil Arcana.

Where in her Upright route she believes MC is powerful enough to bind the Devil’s powers, essentially limiting him to his own realm, in her Reversed route she does not believe this: she thinks it is too risky to MC’s safety, and she is unwilling to lose MC after they “nearly died binding Vlastomil.” Instead, she will replace the Devil Arcana herself, as it is the only way to guarantee that the Devil’s threat would end.

VALERIUS: “It’s a terrible idea [to replace the Devil Arcana]. You want to be trapped here, forever?”

NADIA: “I see no other option. The Devil cannot be allowed to continue his machinations.”

THE HIEROPHANT: “Interesting. I hold no love for the current Devil. He oversteps his bounds. ... Yes. I believe you’d make a lovely Arcana. At the very least, you’d mind your own business.”

The Hierophant tarot is all about tradition, convention, authority, “staying within your own bounds.” The Devil’s attempt to escape his realm and merge the magical and mortal realms certainly disrupts the accepted status quo. If Nadia replaces the Devil, then the status quo is maintained (“at the very least, you’d mind your own business”). Of course the Hierophant is going to encourage her to do this.

VALERIUS: “And give up your own humanity in exchange! I’ve been there, Countess, it’s no way to live.”

Nadia shakes her head, looking out the window to the vineyard beyond.

Nadia looking out the window the vineyard beyond is not only a description but symbolic of her own reasoning. Her attention is diverted by looking out the window, so she is not fully attentive to what Valerius is saying. She is unwilling to look at, and thus give attention to, those who disagree with her; she has turned her face away from reason and disagreement.

NADIA: “What choice do I have, really?”

MC: “There’s always a choice!”

NADIA: “Not this time, MC. You’ve been with me through it all... but this last thing I must do alone. I won’t risk you.”

MC then has the choice to say “I’m with you” or say “I won’t risk YOU!” here. I chose the latter option for thematic relevance: MC is panicking, now, fully understanding what Nadia intends to do — and fully understanding that they might lose Nadia forever. They are trying to undo the damage they have done in the earlier parts of the route, but it is too late. Nadia’s heart has hardened.

MC: “I won’t risk YOU!”

NADIA: “MC... That’s my duty. As Countess of Vesuvia, as Princess of Prakra... as your lover. I will do what no one else can. I will drag this world, kicking, screaming, and ungrateful, to safety.”

Again, Nadia is the only one who can do this. She will drag this world “kicking, screaming, and ungrateful, to safety” — she knows she will not be thanked, or praised, but it is necessary. It is for their own good. Nadia knows best, and Nadia can only trust herself to get things done.

MC: “We’re in this together, Nadia. I’m coming with you.”

NADIA: “You cannot follow me into the darkness, MC.”

(It should be noted that Kevin MacLeod’s “Wounded” is playing during this. This is the tragic piano that is also heard in Asra’s route on the Lazaret. I mention this because the tragic piano always fucks me up emotionally, so y’all have to suffer too.)

Nadia’s line — “You cannot follow me into the darkness” — is typical of a Tragic Hero who wishes to protect others, especially their love interest. Using my prior two examples from Dragon Age: Inquisition and The 100:

When a Lavellan Inquisitor who romanced Solas tells him, “let me help you, Solas,” Solas says: “I cannot do that to you, vhenan.”

When Bellamy Blake asks Clarke to stay at her home, instead of impose self-exile, Clarke says: “I bear it so they [her people] don’t have to.”

The point of these kinds of statements is this: This terrible undertaking is my responsibility alone; only I can accomplish this impossible feat; I do not want you to be hurt; I would rather something happen to me than you.

But where the Tragic Hero usually succeeds in isolating themself from their love interest, MC inverts this aspect of the archetype: they convince Nadia to let them accompany her to the Devil’s realm. If MC had told Nadia in earlier books, “I’d follow you anywhere,” this is truly an echo of that sentiment: MC is willing to go to Hell for Nadia Satrinava.

THE HIEROPHANT: “If you go down this path, you cannot hesitate. If you lose your nerve, he will come back. If you waver, he will see it. If you do this, you need to mean it.”

NADIA: “To keep the world safe. To keep MC safe... I’ll do anything. I won’t lose.”

It’s important to state Nadia does not want to become the Devil on her own merits. It’s not a power grab (at least, not consciously). She realizes it is dangerous. She genuinely sees no other option to end the Devil’s threat, and thus save the world, that does not risk harm to MC. As stated before, MC is the closest thing Nadia has to an ally: it makes sense she is unwilling to consider any options that have even the slightest chance of her losing MC. It makes sense that she is willing to do “anything” to keep MC safe.

She is constantly stating there is “no other choice,” even though the other characters (Valerius and the High Priestess) offer alternatives, namely binding the Devil in his own realm (what happens in the Upright end). It is not that she is not hearing these alternatives, or unwilling to listen to reason: it is that they are unacceptable to her, by virtue of the danger posed to MC. It is that [Solas voice] every alternative was worse. It is that [Solas voice] terrible choices are all that remain. If you have to kill Stranger A to save 100,000 lives, and someone offers Stranger B to kill instead of Stranger A, it is an unacceptable alternative.

An essential aspect of the Tragic Hero is colossal mistakes in judgement. In Nadia’s case, this would obviously be her decision to replace the Devil’s Arcana. But this has been reinforced to her over the course of 20 books through critical decisions made earlier in her route:

Not talking to Nadia’s sisters, which accomplishes two things: 1) reinforces to Nadia that you are on her side; 2) reinforces to Nadia that she is right to maintain her grudge against her sisters. Her first instinct is to resent her sisters. There is no challenge to Nadia to change her mind, or move past old hurts. She remains static, stubborn, and seeking to prove herself - not only to her sisters, but to herself.

Encouraging Nadia to cast out Portia, which reinforces to Nadia that she cannot trust, confide in, or believe others: she will always be betrayed. Nadia’s first instinct is to send Portia away. Agreeing with her reinforces that she is right to distrust everyone, and only believe in her own competence and ability. She remains static and closed off from others.

Encouraging Nadia to kill Lucio. Nadia’s first instinct is to kill him, as she sees “no other way”. MC agreeing with her reinforces to her that her decisions are best, and that sometimes there are no other choices, or at least [Solas voice] terrible choices are all that remain. She remains static and unchallenged in her viewpoint(s).

Part 2.1: Trusting Nadia

Nadia’s “betrayal” is framed as random, coming out of nowhere, and only for her own power. I was suspicious of this framing from the moment I saw it, because characters like Reversed Nadia — straddling the line between good and evil, isolated, pursuing their impossible feat — tend to place high priority on the people they love, to the point of over-protectiveness, obsession, and/or obsessive devotion. An excellent example would be Victor Fries/Dr. Freeze in the Batman comics, who is willing to commit evil acts in pursuance of his impossible feat to save his wife.

I never doubted Nadia’s love for MC, even in the reversed route. As stated before, Nadia thinks that MC is not like the others in her life, who are incompetent fools, or simpering power-seekers, or her detested sisters. They are unique. They are special. While she may not be able to trust them fully (again! everyone can betray her! she is the only one she can trust!), she certainly loves them for what they mean to her.

Working under the assumption that Nadia truly loves MC, then, following the precedents of other tragic characters who came before her, she would be utterly unwilling to allow any harm to come to MC. This would extend to her allegedly offering MC to the Devil without any remorse. I was more inclined to believe (even before I played the Reversed route) that it was some ruse of Nadia’s to trick the Devil.

And so imagine my surprise when Nadia and MC left the Hierophant’s realm to go to Nadia’s gate, and the book provided the following scene:

NADIA: “I have a plan, MC. Lucio failed to defeat the Devil. But that does not mean it cannot be done. Unfortunately... I cannot risk telling you. I need your reaction to be genuine. Will you be loyal to me, MC? Will you trust I want what’s best for you?”

MC: “Yes.”

NADIA: “Good. Everything that happens is for you, do you understand? Promise me you’ll remember I’ll always keep you safe.”

Boy, it would’ve been nice if someone mentioned this when discussing Nadia selling out MC!

This is such obvious foreshadowing of Nadia playing the long con it’s painful. She cannot tell MC her plan about how to deal with the Devil, because she needs MC’s reaction to be genuine; she needs MC to be surprised. If the Devil realizes he is being played, everything is over, and her efforts will have been for nothing.

For Nadia, the stakes are high. She either:

Tells her lover what her plan is, i.e. to use MC as a bargaining chip, which could have backfire in multiple ways: MC could be uncooperative, or MC could play their part unconvincingly to the Devil, and tip him off. She might stay with MC, but risk the world.

Or, she withholds it from MC, so that their surprise and shock (and, yes, feelings of betrayal) are genuine, and thus more convincing to the Devil. She loses MC, but saves the world.

Her decision is pragmatic: she will sacrifice MC, even if it means she loses MC’s love, for the greater good (saving the world). She understands that the healer has the bloodiest hands. She is accepting the blood to make things better. By choosing the second option, she is choosing to trust herself and her plan instead of trusting MC to pull off a successful deception. (In a similar vein: remember how much she enjoyed deceiving Valerius in Book 6, The Lovers.)

Still, she does not want to sacrifice MC, but sees no other way. It is painful, but for the greater good. Thus why she emphasizes why Her Decision Is Best, and In MC’s Best Interest: “Everything that happens is for you, do you understand? Promise me you’ll remember I’ll always keep you safe.”

You may be hurt, but it is for the greater good, don’t you understand? Don’t you trust me to do the right thing? Don’t you see that I have your best interests in mind? Don’t you see that you can trust me? That you should trust me?

She even goes so far as to test MC when MC promises her that they will know she’ll always keep MC safe. I call it a test, because that is what it undoubtedly is: she holds MC’s throat, and asks, “Even now?”

This is a lead-in for a premium scene, but it goes deeper than that. Implicitly, she is saying: Even when I have you so vulnerable, even with my hand around your throat, do you trust that I will keep you safe? Can I let myself believe you when you tell me that yes, you do trust me; that yes, you know I have your best interests at heart?

MC has the option of proving it to her (premium choice), or simply saying “yes”. I chose the latter. It is simple, and honest, and depending on people’s MCs, undoubtedly true. MC is willing to go to Hell at Nadia’s side; this is a minor thing, by comparison.

MC makes the interesting observation that Nadia looks at them “like a pet.” Sure, it could be a reference to Nadia’s obvious petplay kink, but I think it’s indicative of their deeper relationship: Nadia may love MC, but she does not consider them her true partner as she does in her Upright route. Again, she can only trust herself, no matter how important MC is to her, because MC, too, might end up disappointing her. They are lovers, and they are partners, but Nadia and MC are not equals (unlike in Upright). Nadia sees MC like a pet (to cherish, love, and care for, but not treat as equal) and I fully expect she will continue to do so in the next update.

Whether or not Nadia is aware that this isn’t the healthiest way to love someone is up in the air, but I’m inclined to believe that she is not aware, and she is demonstrating her love in the best way she knows how: protecting MC (which leads to making MC’s decisions for them), providing for them (which extends into petplay and spoiling), and praising them (you are special, you are unique, you are not like everyone else in my life, who disappoints me).

Later, approaching the Devil’s realm, she reminds MC of the conversation they had in her gate:

MC: “You have a plan. One you can’t tell me about.”

NADIA: “Yes. And I need you to trust me for it to work. Do you still trust me?”

MC: “I do.”

NADIA: “Good. Remember that when we’re in there.”

NADIA: “... I love you.”

(Edit March 22: Nadia’s sprite during her “I love you” line is her embarrassed/uncertain face. A subtle signal that she, too, has doubts, even if she’s trying to hide them.)

The whole point of the cliffhanger was to shock people, but I think that people who are saying that Nadia sold MC out for her own power are misguided. Nadia spent the entire book talking about how she had no choice but to do this and foreshadowing that she was going to do something that would be unpleasant but necessary. To say that Nadia sold MC to the Devil for her own power is to completely ignore everything that’s been set up throughout the book.

Also, if you still don’t trust her / consider her a bitch after I’ve gone through this whole section talking about how Reversed Nadia is a character type that would never let someone important to her (i.e., MC) come to harm (though she may use them for her own gains) and that it’s 99% likely she has no intention of actually following through on this “deal”... that says more about you than it does Nadia.

Part 2.2: The Dogs

The way the dogs were framed made me think that Nadia was straight up cruel to them. I thought the dogs were physically there, and Nadia was actually abusive to them (though I was inclined to believe it was neglect, not abuse. again, quibbling).

Considering Nadia’s treatment of the cheetah, and even the vampire leeches, I should not have taken these accounts at face value, because they are flat-out misleading (at best!).

For context, Nadia and MC have left Nadia’s Gate to go to the Devil’s realm. The Hierophant has just warned them of a perilous journey. They leave the Hierophant’s realm, go to Nadia’s Gate where they have the discussion about trust, and then enter the frozen forest background. What happens is the following:

MC: “Where are we?”

NADIA: “There are many roads connecting the realms. Lost paths in the dark. The forest is an illusion. It is likely our minds cannot comprehend the true shape of these spaces. Instead, the world changes into metaphors we can understand. But you must remember they are only metaphors, MC. Keep your wits about you.”

We continue walking, wary of every strange noise that flickers off the narrow path we follow. Every step we take causes more fog to swirl from the ground, until we can barely see in front of us once more. I hear a snarl behind us, close enough that I can feel the breath. Without thinking, I turn around to face it —

Two figures emerge from the fog, their mouths dripping red. Mercedes and Melchior. Everywhere the blood from their mouths drips onto the ground, a cluster of flowers sprout. When I look closer, I realize... they’re all poisonous.

NADIA: “They must have gone mad with Lucio’s death.”

She tugs me closer behind her, but the dogs don’t try to approach. They just haunt our steps like specters, snarling and howling.

(Edit March 22: I just realized Nadia tugs MC closer behind her after seeing the dogs. She’s putting herself between MC and perceived danger, i.e. the dogs, further reinforcing her fear of losing MC and determination to protect them against anything. But sure, she doesn’t care about MC at all and is only using them for her own power.)

None of the posts I saw discussing Nadia’s treatment of the dogs ever mentioned that this happens in the magical realms, or that Nadia and MC discuss the forest’s visions being metaphorical immediately before the dogs’ appearance. Which is a shame, because it completely removes any context of the scene and does the double whammy of demonizing Nadia.

I guess it’s easier and faster to type out “Nadia abused Mercedes and Melchior!” over “The magical forest in the Arcana realms manifested a bloody Mercedes and Melchior [whose sprites are their pomegranate juice sprites with a little bit of blood added] as a metaphor for the line that Nadia has crossed, i.e. killing Lucio, and the possible guilt that she is either not feeling at all or is feeling and is simply pushing away so she will not have to acknowledge it.”

But the dogs’ mere presence — they follow always at a distance, like ghosts — is enough to force her to recognize it. She remarks that they must have gone mad, and moves on. She has come too far now to doubt herself. If she looks back, if she doubts herself, she is lost, and everything will have been for naught.

Part 2.3: The High Priestess

Leaving the icy forest, Nadia and MC come upon an old pavilion, where the High Priestess and Chandra await them. MC notes that “the dogs wait [behind us], never coming closer.” Further evidence that the dogs are metaphorical visions, not actually Mercedes & Melchior.

THE HIGH PRIESTESS: “You’ve strayed far from the path, child.”

NADIA: “High Priestess. What are you doing here?”

THE HIGH PRIESTESS: “I was calling to you. Did you not hear?”

NADIA: “I have been quite busy, High Priestess. I did not have time to answer.”

Nadia’s personal card is The High Priestess. Reversed, the High Priestess means one is ignoring their own intuition and/or subconscious, to their detriment. In Asra’s Book X, Nadia states that her intuition is more like a curse than a gift, which certainly echoes here in the meaning of the High Priestess, Reversed: “Perhaps you doubt yourself or feel silly or guilty for listening to your intuition, and as a result, you deny your ability to tune in and receive this potent information.”

This conversation also echoes Judgement, Reversed: “The Judgement reversed often appears when the Universe is trying to send you a message and invite you to something bigger, but you’re not listening. You are doing your best to pretend you didn’t receive it and are [...] hoping it will go away.”

The conversation continues:

THE HIGH PRIESTESS: “And so I come to you. These are words you cannot ignore. If you continue down this path, Nadia, all will be lost to you. Your family. Your intuition. Your humanity.”

NADIA: “If I do nothing, I will lose it just the same.”

THE HIGH PRIESTESS: “You know there is another option. You can bind the Devil instead.”

NADIA: “What, and lose MC instead? Slap the Devil on the wrist and throw him in jail? He’ll break free eventually. What’s a thousand years to an immortal being? This is the only way. The only permanent way.”

Note she corrects herself: the only permanent way. She understands there are other alternatives, but hers is best. When the High Priestess offers a solution, binding the Devil, Nadia angrily rejects it because of the risk it poses to MC, and she is unwilling to lose MC again.

It’s important to note that, within the course of a few hours:

Nadia went with MC to confront Lucio in the in-between realms, only to watch (helplessly! a thing she detests!) as Lucio stole MC’s body. (The Devil)

Nadia woke up without MC beside her in her Contemplation Tower, not knowing what Lucio had done or what had happened to MC until she went to the ballroom. (The Devil / The Tower).

Nadia had to send MC to the magical realms for their own protection, alone, where she could not protect them or ensure their welfare (The Tower).

Nadia watched MC struggle to unbind Vlastomil, suffering in the process. MC passes out, and reversed Nadia states that MC “almost died” unbinding Vlastomil (The Moon).

That is four experiences of Nadia being unwillingly parted from MC, either through separation or through a near death experience. That is why she refused to let MC go through the maze alone in The Star. That is why she is so set on not risking MC once again with the plan to bind the Devil. The scene continues:

THE HIGH PRIESTESS: “In a thousand years there will be another like you to step up again. Why must you do everything yourself? Why must you alone fight this threat?”

NADIA: “Because I am the only one I can trust.”

Nadia turns away, anger flashing in her eyes.

NADIA: “You have wasted your time in coming here, High Priestess.”

me 24 hours ago, blissfully unaware of this conversation: mc has spent 20 chapters reinforcing that nadia is the only one nadia can trust me now: wow i hate being right :(

An essential component of the Tragic Hero’s cycle is the hero’s isolation: disgusted by or despairing of the hero’s choices, their family, friends, and allies abandon them, or the hero themself abandons their family, friends, and allies to self-isolate. In Nadia’s case, it is both. She rejects the High Priestess’s wisdom, confident in her own choices (or, at least, unwilling to show the High Priestess that she is anything but 100% confident). In doing so, she pushes the High Priestess away.

And then there’s Chandra, who lands on Nadia’s shoulder and “nips at her ear sadly.” (The tragic piano is still going strong in the background!) The High Priestess, seeing this, says that Chandra “mourns [Nadia’s] loss already.” MC notes that Nadia “swallows hard, stroking Chandra’s neck gently,” and then the following exchange happens:

NADIA: “Must I lose you too, Chandra?”

The owl chirps and flies off her shoulder, going to land next to the High Priestess instead.

NADIA: “... I see. You will come around in time. You will see how necessary this is. Until then... goodbye, my friends.”

Like the dogs, I’m inclined to believe that Chandra is a metaphor, and not the actual owl. Chandra has been with Nadia since her childhood; she is the only thing Nadia took with her, from Prakra to Vesuvia. Chandra abandoning her is another metaphor for how far Nadia has fallen: she is utterly separated from who she once was. She is now, completely, a new person, unrecognizable to her closest and longest friend.

NADIA: “I know I’m right. I know this is the only path to victory... So why won’t anyone listen to me? It feels like I’m speaking to a wall. Do they think me foolish? I’ve considered every possibility. I’ve examined every other avenue. This is the only course of action left. They think I cannot do this. They think me incompetent.”

This is after Nadia leaves the High Priestess, and before the Hierophant informs them that Valdemar and Vulgora are attacking the palace. Note the progression of her thoughts: frustration and certainty in her own decision; questioning why other people think her choice is the wrong one; re-affirming her certainty; assuming that people who do not support her plan are like that not because of any concern for her welfare, but because they doubt her capabilities. I know I am right, but no one listens to me; thus, they are not truly concerned for me — they only think I cannot do this.

Implicitly, her thoughts that follow: Well, I am going to prove them wrong.

MC can either tell Nadia that they listen to her (to which Nadia praises MC, once again: You are special; you have always been by my side; I know I can trust you, unlike everyone else in the world), or that people who don’t listen are foolish. If the latter, Nadia agrees, saying that people who don’t listen to her end up not doing well, and cites Lucio as an example.

In either case, the exchange reinforces Nadia’s mindset, which has been shown through Nadia’s small vent: She feels as if no one is listening to her, and she is stubbornly convinced that her choice is the best one. She is frustrated that her friends and allies have turned against her, and she does not understand why, because clearly Her Choice Is Best.

If MC says they are listening, it reinforces that MC is the only one Nadia can keep close (as close as she can allow; trust no one but yourself, after all, is her modus operandi). If MC says the others are the foolish ones, it reinforces that Nadia is Always Right, because when people don’t listen to Nadia, they end up going astray or being worse-off, which just feeds into the cycle of Nadia is Right >> People Who Don’t Listen To Her Are Wrong >> Those People Suffer or Fail >> Thus Proving Nadia Right.

Part 3: Her Sisters

For me, this was easily the most heartbreaking aspect of the book. Nadia leaves the High Priestess angry, and she and MC arrive in a vision of Lucio’s wing. Nadia remains unswayed, telling MC they must keep going (if she looks back, if she falters, she is lost!), but MC, if selecting “I think this is real,” convinces Nadia to go to the ballroom, because Nadia wonders about why her sisters and guards are not stopping the chaos. (Implied in this statement: Why are they incompetent? Why are they useless? Why does everything fall apart without me?) The music is played sped up and backwards, symbolic of how wrong things are without Nadia’s presence.

In the ballroom, MC and Nadia find Natiqa, Nasmira, and Nahara attempting to get the crowds to safety, but the crowd isn’t listening to the Satrinavas. Then Nafizah sees MC and Nadia, and the following absolutely gut-wrenching exchange occurs:

Suddenly Nafizah, who is standing off to the side of her sisters, turns her head and looks straight at us.

NAFIZAH: “Like looking through a mirror into the fog... Why are you so far from us, sister mine?”

NADIA: “You can see us? Of course you can. Why should I be surprised?”

NAFIZAH: “The others need you here. They flounder without your guidance.”

NADIA: “Need me? NEED ME?”

Nadia’s sprite when she says “Need me? NEED ME?” is not an angry sprite. It’s her laughing sprite. You can just hear the angry disbelief. NEED ME? What are you talking about? Immediately with her next line, her sprite transitions into anger.

NADIA: “Since when have any of you needed me for anything? Perfect Nafizah, always looking down your nose at me. All of you did!”

NAFIZAH: “We have only ever loved you, Nadia. As much as you have allowed. The people are in a panic. They will not listen to us. They do not respect us. You must return.”

NADIA: “I will not! All my life, none of you have ever listened to me! You always thought you knew best! I’m doing what has to be done. If I returned, it would give the true villain time to escape. I’m striking now. You will see. And don’t you dare die before I’ve proven myself.”

And don’t you dare die before I’ve proven myself. Holy shit. Cold, but understandable, when taken into the context surrounding Nadia’s relationship with her sisters.

The youngest of seven, Nadia has always felt inadequate to the rest of her sisters. That is clear even in the early route, when she worries that Nasmira will take MC away from her. She is obsessed with proving herself to her sisters. It’s why she married Lucio, to prove to her sisters that she could pull Vesuvia up by its bootstraps. Reversed, that obsession is maintained, and she has no reason to change because MC does not challenge her.

When asking for her sisters for help in Book XIII Death, she blames the servants for the Masquerade troubles: “I have everything under control, of course. But the servants, they’ve made a mess of things.” It is not her fault that the Masquerade is not ready, it is the servants’; she has everything under control, she is perfectly adequate at hosting a party on such a grand scale. Do not blame me for these failures, sisters, blame others, it is they who are incompetent and untrustworthy, not me.

Now we have even more context for Nadia’s choice to replace the Devil. Not only does Nadia feel the need to achieve her impossible feat — defeating the Devil — for the sake of saving the world and her lover, but as the ultimate way to prove herself to her sisters. They can never consider her a vulnerable baby sister to be coddled and over-protected if she literally defeats the actual Devil.

In her Reversed route, she is still pressured to show both her sisters and herself that she is not the “baby” of the family, which she resents (see the bonus scene about Nadia’s birthday). Considering Nadia is the oldest of the cast, this is obviously a deep, deep wound that stretches back decades, if not her entire life. And MC’s choices did nothing to heal that wound, only keep it open.

Part 4: Wrap Up

Nadia in her Reversed route is a textbook tragic hero. She is a character of royalty (fulfilling antiquity’s requirement that tragic heroes be noble of some sort, because nobility’s fall is always more tragic than a commoner’s); she seeks to accomplish an impossible feat; she isolates herself from her allies, friends, and family; she has a fatal flaw, which is her hubris, aka her conviction that she is in the right no matter what. We have had 20 books of buildup leading to this: the climax of her negative character development. All that remains is the denouement (aka, defeating and replacing the Devil.)

I have every expectation that she will succeed in her impossible feat, but the consequences will be catastrophic. Perhaps she will have to (however unwillingly) isolate herself from MC forever. MC might even become the Fool Arcana to join her, but that is no guarantee that they could actually be together. The Arcana are meant to stay in their separate realms, after all.

The devs promised a bittersweet ending, or a tragic romance. Nadia’s route fulfills both, because the ending is focused on MC and their relationship to their LI, not necessarily the reader’s favorite character, which may hypothetically be a relatively minor antagonist relative to the rest of the route.

Part 5: Last Thoughts

thanks for coming to my ted talk

#nadia satrinava #the arcana #my meta #the arcana spoilers #if u liked this pls reblog i worked v hard umu

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