#Who helped destroy his own franchise

[msclaritea]

Why I won't be watching Captain America. Disney should have recast, when they had the chance, unless this is what they want to push. The Gay Mafia wants to see this perversion onscreen. The rest of the world doesn't.

[thankskenpenders]

Help me out here: Why is there so much Ian Flynn hate going around lately? I thought everyone loved that he was contributing to the games. Now suddenly they aren't. I guess that's par for the course for this series but I don't get it. He isn't perfect but I like what he's done. Am I a weirdo?

Ian Flynn has always had a lot of fans, but any creator putting their work out there is going to have detractors as well. That's just the nature of being an artist. To some extent, it's no big deal. He's not a perfect writer. Nobody is! I consider myself a fan of his work, but I've criticized plenty of individual writing decisions from him on here.

But Ian doesn't just have critics. He has his own obsessive hatedom. And the specific nature of Ian's hatedom is... interesting.

A decade ago, Ian was only the guy writing for Archie Sonic, meaning any debates over his work were quarantined within that tiny niche of the larger Sonic fandom. Only people who kept up with the comics month to month had any real reason to have an opinion on the guy, which means we're talking about merely thousands of fans as opposed to millions.

Within that group, he had some haters. You had the people who were mad about story changes made during his run, particularly things like ancillary characters getting killed off (although over the years we've learned that most of those were editorial mandates from Mike Pellerito). You had the people mad that Ian didn't push their favorite ship, with feuding SonAmy and Sonally fans claiming that he was CLEARLY biased towards one or the other. You had the people who just really, really liked one of the previous writers way more - usually Penders, as hard as that may be to believe today. That sort of thing. Pretty normal comic fandom type stuff. Again, it comes with the territory.

Unfortunately, many of those haters only got worse over time, morphing into reactionaries who constantly try to incite Comicsgate type culture war bullshit.

There are people still mad at Ian for making Sally bi and pairing her with Nicole instead of Sonic in the later Archie comics. There have been elaborate MS Paint red string conspiracy boards explaining how people like Ian and Jon Gray have apparently been destroying the franchise from the inside for years by Making Sonic Woke. (Jon gets dragged into this because people are still mad about him drawing The Slap 20 years later. Yes, really!!) There was an unhinged change.org petition trying to get Ian fired, specifically from people who were mad that the Freedom Fighters aren't in the IDW comics. There was even a very sad little fan campaign from these people trying to get Sega to move the Sonic comic license away from IDW and over to Udon, because they thought Udon would bring Sally and Bunnie back and also make them sexy again. There's a lot of this.

(Unfortunately, Penders has also exacerbated this by gossiping about Ian on Twitter and giving these fans ammo, but that's a whole 'nother discussion.)

The thing is, for years, people who only played the games or watched the cartoons had no reason to pay attention to any of this. Now, though, Ian isn't just writing for some weird spinoff comics that only the super nerds read. Now he's writing comics that are canon to the games, and ALSO some of the games themselves, and ALSO consulting on other tie-in media like Sonic Prime, and ALSO writing the official Sonic encyclopedia, and ALSO serving as part of the new Sonic Lore Team at Sega. And on top of all this, he's got an increasingly popular podcast where he fields questions about his work on all of these things, which serves as one of the fandom's main windows into creative decisions being made behind the scenes.

As a fan of Ian's work, it's been really cool to see him rise in prominence. But the dark side of this is that his obsessive haters from the Archie days now have WAY more of a potential audience of their own. Now, every Sonic fan has to have an opinion on Ian. What this frequently means is that you'll have the Comicsgate types taking things Ian writes or says out of context, attempting to get more of the general fandom to yell at the guy.

Unfortunately, there are a wide variety of Sonic fans who take the bait:

You've got hardcore fans who disliked basically any recent piece of Sonic media and are looking for someone to blame.

You've got the people who are concerned about the sanctity of Sonic's canon, who shoot the messenger any time Ian mentions a new retcon from Sonic Team on the podcast - or any time he even mentions the THOUGHT of changing anything about the canon, as we saw recently with the Sol Dimension nonsense.

You've got people who romanticize some sort of mythical artistic vision that Sega of Japan supposedly has (or had) for the franchise. To many of these fans, American contributors like Ian just don't "get" the heart of the series and are trying to turn Sonic into something different. (This "heart of the series" tends to be some mix of Japanese instruction manual lore, the cinematics from Sonic CD, the OVA, and/or the games written by Shiro Maekawa, depending on what Sonic media the fan in question grew up with.)

You've got fans of specific characters or ships who pin the blame for how their faves are depicted entirely on Ian - most vocally fans of Shadow, even though the root problem is that Sonic Team hasn't known what to do with Shadow since 2006. At best this stops at regular old criticism, but at its worst this devolves into claims that Ian has an agenda against certain characters.

You've got fans annoyed by a perceived over-emphasis on comic-original characters in the IDW comics, ignoring the obvious facts that these characters exist because the game cast is so tightly controlled by Sega, and also, you know, that people just like the IDW characters and want more stories about them.

You've got a LOT of discourse over IDW's Sonic being a hero who tries to give his enemies second chances, as if half of Sonic's closest friends aren't already former villains and rivals. Honestly this is very transparently just reheated Steven Universe discourse lmao

You'll also see people who just think they could do Ian's job better. They can't believe that THIS GUY is the American fan working on all these Sonic projects, when clearly THEY understand the characters and lore and themes SO much better than this charlatan.

All it takes is for someone in one of these categories to be unhappy about some recent piece of Sonic media, and for them to come across an out of context quote or comic panel that rubs them the wrong way, and suddenly the leftist Zoomer Sonic fans will join the latest dogpile on Ian alongside the reactionary Comicsgate types who are mad at him for Making Sonic Woke.

In general, when fandoms get upset, they tend to want a scapegoat. A person or two to point a finger at and go "THAT's who ruined the thing I love!" This tends to be based less on reality and more on which contributors are the most visible online. You'll sometimes see teenage and adult fans of children's cartoons single out a storyboarder who's particularly vocal on Twitter, blame them for every story decision they don't like, and harass them off the platform out of a sense of retribution for their favorite ship or whatever. Failing that, fans might choose to blame every nitpick, down to individual lines of dialogue and frames of animation, on a showrunner, just because that's the name they associate with the show. And unfortunately, when it comes to Sonic, Ian is now arguably the most prolific and outspoken contributor on the English speaking internet, and therefore a common scapegoat.

Some of the things I've seen Ian blamed for are truly wild. A lot of people have claimed for YEARS that he's just lying about the existence of creative guidelines and restrictions from Sega - or, as fans call them, The Mandates - even though they're just an inherent aspect of working on a licensed property. Others claim that The Mandates are real, but somehow Ian's fault. A vocal minority of fans have convinced themselves that Ian is the sole reason the Freedom Fighters don't exist in the IDW comics, even though Ian says he's been pushing to bring them back since day one.

Sometimes you'll see people say he ruined shit he didn't even work on. A few weeks ago on Twitter I saw someone claim that Ian had written a rejected script for Sonic Forces in which Tails died. I could not find a source for this for the life of me. As far as I can tell, the rumor seems to have been born from an alleged leaked script for Forces with margin notes from Aaron Webber that criticized the way Tails was written, and also an old tweet where Aaron joked that Tails would die in an upcoming episode of Sonic Mania Adventures. These merged into "Aaron Webber criticized a draft of the Forces script in which Tails died." How'd Ian get dragged into this? Who fucking knows!

It's all just a big game of telephone. All it takes is some asshole to make something up about Ian on Twitter or YouTube or a DeviantArt journal or some forum, and at least a couple people will believe it, and then it gets repeated as fact. Again, this used to be contained by the niche nature of the Archie Sonic fandom, but now there are WAY more people who are receptive to this shit.

It's just sad to me that Ian tries to be so open and honest about his work, to try to explain the rationale for certain things, to keep fans looped in on the direction the franchise is headed, and this just gives the Flynnspiracy types more quotes to take out of context and try to paint him as the devil. If it sounds like I'm being overly defensive and dismissing his critics, man... some of the things I've seen people say directly to him are just unbelievable. People will send paragraphs-long angry screeds in to his podcast that completely tear him apart, and he has to sit there and be like "Well, that's your opinion, and you're entitled to it." People literally pay for special guest interview episodes where they just rapid fire complaints about his writing at him directly to his face. I don't know how he does it. I would snap.

All of this over Sonic the fucking Hedgehog of all things.

I don't know how to wrap this up. Engaging with fandoms online is very tiring, which is why I tend not to do it. Things like this are too common. I guess, just... remember that making art collaboratively is a complicated thing. The people involved are generally trying their best given the circumstances, but they're only human. They make mistakes. But please treat them like humans. Criticism and dogpiling are not the same thing.

[odo-apologist]

Every ENT character is the most character ever. Archer is a bitch he plays a fundamental role in the creation of the Federation he brings his dog on away missions which once causes a diplomatic incident he likes water polo he commits war crimes he saw a gazelle giving birth and implements it into his rousing speeches he had a wet dream about his first officer that included his dog's funeral he had to carry the soul of the creator of the main tenets of Vulcan philosophy in his head he gives a lecture on Tycho Brahe while getting his ass beaten during an interrogation scene. T'Pol is strict in her Vulcan beliefs she doesn't believe in time travel even as she's presented with irrefutable evidence and remains somewhat skeptical after experiencing it firsthand she is the funniest person on Enterprise she is more emotional than average Vulcans to the point that she had to have memories erased for causing her too much distress she could canonically pick up any of her crewmates and carry them bridal style she has Vulcan HIV she has it cured by the woman that later watches Spock and Kirk roll around in the sand in Amok Time she is technically canonically trans she is a recovering drug addict. Trip is a perfect gentleman he undergoes incredible emotional losses his favorite movies are Frankenstein Bride of Frankenstein and Son of Frankenstein he gets pregnant five episodes in he dies in the worst episode of the entire series (and the entire franchise) only to have that death retconned in the following tie-in novels he ran around the ship in his underwear he leaves the ship for a couple weeks only to come back after one person had been kidnapped another thrown in jail and the engines are on the verge of destruction and reacts like :/. Malcolm is gay he has 50 ex-girlfriends he has only had one friend in his life his own sister barely knows anything about him he dies alone he likes pineapple even though he's allergic to it he gets spacesick he worked as an agent for a top secret organization he's afraid of drowning he whined about getting a cold he had a spike driven through his leg and didn't complain at all he has a psychosexual obsession with a man he thinks is after his job and grows to respect once they had a homoerotic fight scene before witnessing him die. Hoshi is a linguistic prodigy she's the greatest contributor to the universal translator she has a panic attack on one of her first missions she ran a gambling ring she has a black belt in aikido and broke her superior's arm she has never been to the principal's office in her life she is afraid to use the transporter she became an empress in an alternate universe she is the only one who gets laid on Risa making her the first human to do so she reacted to the threat of getting worms injected into her brain to make her reveal secret information by spitting in her interrogator's face. Travis is the sweetest man ever he loves rock climbing he gets injured whenever he tries to use those skills he's a fan of ghost stories he grew up on a small freighter he gets neglected by the narrative his counterpart helps Hoshi become empress he works out when he's horny he dies in a alternate future where Earth is destroyed he's a movie buff who would probably love the Criterion Collection he likes to chill in a part of the ship with zero gravity which he calls "the sweet spot." Phlox grins like the Cheshire Cat he breaks doctor patient confidentiality to help figure out Malcolm's favorite food he goes crazy when the rest of the crew have to sleep through part of space because of how social his species is he has three wives who in turn have three husbands he responds to the news of one of his wives propositioning a crew member by being like "cool! have fun :]" he once nearly vivisects Travis because he's being affected by radiation and gets obsessed with knowing why the guy has a simple headache he has a menagerie in the middle of his sickbay. And they're all my best friends.

[skyloftian-nutcase]

Zelda's Personality

I did a post about how Link, despite being a player insert, has different personalities through the games that appear subtly and can be inferred based on his behaviors and responses. So now it's time for the Zeldas! More recent games have given more of a shining role to the character for whom the franchise is named, and I love the variety between them all, so let's explore it a bit! (At least for the games that I've played)

Ocarina of Time Zelda - My gosh. I love her so much. This woman ain't a princess, she is a Queen. She is so determined to protect her people that even as a child she's willing to order people around and go against the adults' wishes, despite being ignored. This girl is determined. Like, BotW Zelda gets put down over and over despite her efforts and she is understandably dejected and goes along with what her father wants. This Zelda is straight up like I'M RIGHT YOU'RE WRONG and just moves on LOL. Not only is she determined, she has a plan. A very foolish childish plan because she is a child and no one is going to stop her.

And, naturally, since it's a child's plan against an adult who has all the other adults wrapped around his fingers, it doesn't work. Zelda is left with a kingdom in flames, the evil man she was trying to stop obtained the Triforce, and her father is dead. She's fleeing her home and spends the rest of her childhood in exile. Something like this could destroy a person. And maybe it did. But she picked herself back up. And not only did she pick herself back up, she trained herself to fight. She learned everything she needed to about the Hero's journey so she could guide him when he returned. She stayed in hiding to avoid Ganondorf's watch. She protected the Triforce of Wisdom. This girl is a certified badass.

This Zelda is a fighter in every sense of the word. Nothing will stop her, not even her own mistakes. But she is sensitive too, she's aware of the damage this has done to Link and is apologetic and so incredibly sad. She carries the weight of the world on her shoulders. (Granted, this is Adult Timeline Zelda, but she is just Child Timeline Zelda put through a different scenario, so... same personality for both of them, just different circumstances).

So overall, this Zelda is decisive, resolute, never gives up, empathetic, and probably a little reclusive based on how she's always left to her own devices.

Skyward Sword Zelda - This girl is chaotic and it's wonderful. She pushes her best friend off cliffs and sky islands. She bullies the bullies. She's training in a knight's academy, which more people need to remember dang it. She's protective, she's anxious, she's bossy, she's curious.

This girl is also pretty darn adaptable. Like. She gets thrown out of the sky, out of everything she's ever known, tossed into a world of danger with no one to guide her but a stranger, and has to recover memories of being a freaking goddess and endure a journey of discovering herself while also being chased by Ghirahim. And she does it. Like... Link isn't far behind her, he goes after her literally the next day, and she's already doing her part of her adventure. She was told the fate of the world depends on you and she said okay, then, better get going. Like wow.

She has to have a strong sense of self. This girl found out she was a goddess and told Link after everything, "I'm still my father's daughter. I'm still your Zelda." She was called Your Grace, she was a spirit maiden for a deity her people worshipped, and she still said, "yes. Yes, all of this is true. But I'm still me." Like... I know we see her during her journey when she's still processing and not the aftermath, but this girl has a will of iron and will not let go of who she is.

In summary, this Zelda is courageous, has a strong sense of duty, is a gremlin, excitable, assertive, and stubborn.

Breath of the Wild Zelda - Oh, this poor princess. This Zelda is so sincere and wants to help so much, but she struggles with discovering herself and her powers. She is endlessly inquisitive and absolutely crushed under the pressure her father and her kingdom places on her. She lets it out through understandable frustration, pitting it against someone who, to her, represents everything she is not, which is so interesting.

This Zelda wants for the pieces to just fit but she can't figure it out, and instead of doing some introspection she just continues to look for alternatives. When she does do introspection, it's just to ask why she's defective. Things just need to make sense. I feel like an attitude like this implies that 1, Zelda has no instructor and therefore never learned how to learn, and 2, that implies that everything else she's good at has come naturally to her, such as technology. This girl is a scientist! Who has not learned the scientific method! Though she does try experiments, as poor Link can attest.

When Zelda is allowed to just be herself she seems very sweet and bubbly and excitable. She's so happy when she wants Link to try that frog! She's also incredibly chatty, bless her, having to put up with that silent knight all the time haha (yes, Link does eventually talk to her. Eventually.)

I would also like to note that the instant this girl gets her powers, she goes straight to the castle and holds Ganon at bay for a hundred years. The instant she's free of that burden and bondage, she wants to rebuild her kingdom. Like holy cow. This girl went from doubting herself so much to having so much hope. She is a symbol of hope for her Hyrule.

BotW Zelda is uncertain initially, but learns to have faith in herself and more importantly has all the faith in the world in her people. She is inquisitive, extremely intelligent, energetic, bubbly, and very sensitive.

Twilight Princess Zelda - One of the more mysterious and less prominent Zeldas in her series, this woman radiates quiet strength and regalness. Also, her very first scene (or maybe it's a cut scene flashback in her first interaction in the game) shows her brandishing a sword to fight alongside her soldiers. Hell yes, Queen. But she also has the wherewithal to recognize when she's outplayed. She is wise and knows when to fold to avoid needless casualties. She is willing to put herself in such a vulnerable state in order to protect others. She knew that fighting would still result in the kingdom being overcome by Twilight magic with bonus dead soldiers, so she opted for doing it without the dead soldiers. Knowing when you're beaten and taking it with grace to figure things out takes not only wisdom but humility.

This Zelda is also just... so incredibly understated. Her sadness over her kingdom's fall into disarray is poignant but subtle. Her compassion for Midna when she's dying is muted, but so clearly evident in that she gives her remaining life energy to her. Her acceptance of Link as the Hero, and her sign of respect to him and petition for his aid is just oh my goodness, the regal bow, the willingness to fight alongside him, I love her.

With as little as she features in the game and with as quiet as she can be, she honestly is hard to peg down, but overall this Zelda strikes me as someone who feels deeply and expresses little of it. She's quiet, she's reserved, but she is humble and dignified and incredibly kind.

So there you have it. Some of the ladies for you. I love them all dearly and love to compare and contrast them. <3

[being-of-rain]

I'm not a massive fan of franchises pulling twists that retcon decades of history without a meaningful reason to do it and a good story to back it up. So Empire of Death saying that Sutekh has been a stowaway on the TARDIS for something like thirteen of the Doctor's lifetimes didn't really do it for me. And if that's the case it does feel like something of a cosmic coincidence (which I know RTD can be fond of in his arcs) that all the signs of the occupation start showing around the exact same time. (Namely: the Susan Twists appearing for the first time to the audience at least; a mystery that intrigues Sutekh enough to bend reality, because I guess no other Dr Who story arcs have been juicy enough; the TARDIS making a weird sound, which was such a strange arc element to put in The Broken Time Ship Makes Strange Sounds show; and other gods infringing on the universe and speaking ominously about him.)

So I do like the idea that it was in fact the thin, lightly salted laws at the edge of the universe that allowed Sutekh to properly climb back into reality and into the TARDIS, and that any retroactive observing of the Doctor or seeding of the universe with Susans he did was through the TARDIS' complicated relationship with spacetime, or any godlihood that the time vortex gave him or whatever. Honestly Sutekh's explanation about how he got to where he is today is vague enough that I don't really feel bad about interpreting it how I want to.

I know I already sound like an awful old fandom grouch, which I'm sure I am, but I also didn't get the Doctor 'bringing death to death' at the end of the episode. Even on a conceptual or symbolic level, to me that feels like adding a negative to a negative. Not to mention the Doctor doing it by dragging Sutekh through the vortex and then seemingly dumping him in it to kill him, despite that purportedly being what he's been doing for the last few thousand years and it turned him into a god. But after rotating it in my mind a bit, it did sort of make sense to me as the Doctor reversing Sutekh down his own timeline, unwriting him (and at least his most recent, largest effects on spacetime) so that his existence unravels. The canon-welder in me can't help but wonder if the Doctor was using his Time Lord knack for dematerialising as seen in The War Games, perhaps even the powerful influence on the universe that the Time Lords have in Death Comes To Time; something he never wants to use as a weapon on principle, and is deeply ashamed to be put in a position where all of the universe can be saved if he just utterly destroys one life.

Or if you think this is all silly, that's okay. This is just how I have fun 😊 I hope everyone else enjoys TV shows in their own way.

Now I just need to do some canon-welding to explain why there's a whistle-activated laser cannon in the TARDIS console.

[missheavenfield1215]

Have you noticed that Beetlejuice and The Corpse Bride have the same climax??

A dead person

Who wants to marry a living person

Although it was against the will of that living person

When I realized this... I couldn't stop drawing

Beetlejuice ~Corpse Bride AU~

*In this AU, everyone is an adult*

*All my drawings are below in this post*

In this AU, Lydia takes the role of Victor, Beetlejuice is Emily, Elder Gudnekt could be Otto, Adam and Barbara would be the Everglot couple (of course, here, they have no bad intentions).

Lydia and her father, Charles, come from the great city of London, to expand their funeral services franchise, in addition to having gone through another marriage.

Charles had Lydia's mother, Emily, who passed away when she was 8 years old. At work, Charles met Delia, who was suffering from a fatal illness, but never told Charles that she was sick. So 4 years after their wedding, Delia also passed away.

To forget his grief, Charles became obsessed with his work and abandoned Lydia in their grief (as she also got along well with her). Lydia doesn't want to get married and hates the idea of being trapped forever in a useless marriage, which will only take away her freedom. Although she thinks that marriage is just a contract, deep inside her, she really feels that if she falls in love, it will only bring her pain and sorrow, just like her father.

Beetlejuice, here called Lawrence Shaggoth, is the only son of the honorable aristocratic marriage Shaggoth. In his youth Lawrence had a preference for men, but despite that, Adam was one of his friends. But when the time came for Lawrence to marry a young woman that his own mother raised so that Lawrence would "become normal." Juno is a homophobic bitch, so after receiving the news that her son was eloping with his lover, she decided to take matters into her own hands.

Juno bribed Lawrence's lover, who really only wanted the young man's money. Juno told the boy that she would pay him whatever he wanted, if he took Lawrence, destroyed him emotionally and murdered him. The boy did so, but the young woman Juno had "adopted", Angeline (Miss Argentina) had witnessed the whole sinister plan.

Juno learned that once Lawrence married, she would inherit everything as stipulated in his father's will. So, to continue with the lie, Juno took a young prostitute to "convince" Lawrence to escape and leave everything behind and thus demarcate him from the surname Shaggoth, since in her eyes, Lawrence was unworthy of such a title. But it turned out that she found out about her affair with a boy, and apparently he was cheating on him.

Lawrence, about to die and feeling betrayed and very scared, recites a poem to calm himself, but he does not know that this poem would be his condemnation and his salvation. Once the conditions stipulated in the poem were met, it would come back to life.

That's why Lawrence needs Lydia to marry him, because then he will come back to life, but he doesn't really have the idea of really falling in love with that "someone" to help him.

Here Adam and Barbara are also aristocrats, but their family name is in decline and they are on the verge of poverty. They decide to adopt Adam's youngest nephew, named Vincent, to prepare him for a marriage with which they can cope with the imminent poverty that awaits their family. They believe it would be best if Vincent chooses his future wife, and he chooses Lydia to marry and she is forced to do so by her father.

Lydia runs away from the engagement after finishing the wedding rehearsal and, as if to mock her father, she says: "I'd rather marry a dead person than someone who doesn't know me!"

It is then that Lawrence appears and proposes to marry him and when he comes back to life, he will help her escape the country and her father.

But neither of them really expected to fall in love with each other when they got to know each other in depth.

But there is the problem of Juno, who no longer has money and it is then that she uses Lydia's disappearance to extort money from Charles and promise him that she will look for the young woman.

And after thinking about all that... That's when I started drawing

"I just want to be alive... And I... "

"I don't want to be alone"

"In this cruel world"

These are small test sketches

Here's a closer shot of a Beetlejuice killed by his lover...

This is Lawrence, moments before his death. When his lover asked him to elope with some of the wealth, Lawrence dressed in his white wedding suit, but it was dyed red when a shotgun bullet pierced his ribs. (yes in the same place where Lydia stabbed him in the musical, both wounds were caused by a stab wound in the back... A betrayal)

Well... I had many things to say... But in essence that is the basis of everything.

This AU really works with any version of Beetlejuice, but mostly works best with the Headcanons of the musical.

[the-eeveekins]

I definitely feel like a lot of people underestimate Suletta's skills as a pilot because she's a woman, she often fought in duels instead of a war and she was helped by Eri early on (though only with GUND-Bit control, which isn't significantly different from how non-Newtype bit control systems work in other AUs, but somehow that's usually only a knock against Suletta, I wonder why).

Just remember that when she took on Quiet Zero in the Calibarn by herself, she was not only fighting the Aerial Rebuild and it's 11 bits, but also it's support system of possibly over a hundred Gundnodes, some of which were equiped with 4 bits of their own. All while suffering significant physical strain from the data storm. She survived that battle while only taking a couple glancing blows from Aerial, destroying multiple Gundnodes in the process, all while only trying to disable Aerial.

Also remember that she started training in the Aerial when she was just a child, and despite not fighting in wars, had years of experience piloting mobile suits in harsh, dangerous conditions by the time the series started. She was already a better pilot than basically all her peers at Asticassia when she got there. She defeated Guel even when he had cheating in his favor. She practically wiped out the entire Grassley team all while specifically not using Eri to handle the bits. She defeated the Gundams she did face, even the one piloted by a child soldier trying to kill her. Her struggles in season 1 had more to do with her own self-esteem and self-confidence issues than her skill as a pilot.

(And before anyone claims that she only looks so good becase she had a technological advantage over her opponents, I think that's a laughable thing to hold against her because basically EVERY Gundam pilot holds a technological advantage against their opponents if they're not Gundams or aces in highly specialized customs, with some rare exceptions like Amuro in the Gundam at the end of the OYW. Again, just like with Eri controlling the bits, this is something fairly common among Gundam pilots but is one thing I see that is often specifically held against Suletta for some reason.)

Is she one of the best Gundam pilots ever? Probably not. Is she only average or bad? Fuck no. Her evasion skills alone are some of the best in the franchise, especially for not being a Newtype, Coordinator or Innovator. And she displayed those skills all while suffering from severe physical pain that almost killed her and left her disabled afterwards. There's only a small handful of Gundam pilots who performed that well while their Gundam was actively killing them.

She’d absolutely prove a challenge to pin down and defeat for even the beam spammiest of pilots, and if she fought seriously after fusing with Eri/Aerial and exceeding score 8, I think she’d be an absolute menace to anything short of some of the more ridiculous mobile suits out there.

I just don't see how you can objectively watch her performance at Quiet Zero and come away thinking she's only average or bad unless you're biased against her because you hate the show or you're just plain sexist.

[lazypanartist]

HELLO i fucking LOVE ur stobotnik and their kid series!!! its what initially got me to watching the movies and into the sonic franchise as a whole!!! can i request a stobotnik and their kid whos sort of like maria.... like they genuinely love the world and humanity despite (ahem) everything Ivo says. Maybe add in a sprinkle of shadow who sees reader and is taken aback by how similar they are to maria, and now stone + ivo has to deal with their kid having a new guard dog/brother HDSHSDH love ur writing, hope u have a good day!!

AHHH I'M SO GLAD I COULD HELP YOU GET INTO THE SERIES!! Super touched 💙💙💙

*Frantically googling Shadow's personality + Maria Robotnik*

*Having a Crisis™ because WOW OKAY*

Anyways! I've been working on this since the request rolled in, and am 100% invested. Willing to take related requests ^-^

Stobotnik + Sweetheart! Child, + Guard Dog Bestie! Shadow

Note: this is long. Like, LONG long

Your fathers have always loved you, if a tad.. oddly.

Papa Ivo doesn't understand your interest with the rest of humanity.

"What if one of those disgusting cretins gets my baby sick? What if someone actually wanted to hurt you?"

"No, it's far safer for you if you stay by his or Papa Stone's side. Or in the lab. The lab is VERY safe, you know. Well idiot proofed"

Not that he's calling his baby an idiot, of course -

Baba Aban, however, seems to understand you.

Of course he respects Papa's wishes, keeps you close when you do go out, but he tries to sate your interest in humanity best he can.

Always open to questions, and will try to answer everything as age-appropriately as possible.

"What does Papa do all day?"

"He builds things for the government."

"Why?"

"Because it pays well enough to raise you and keeps him busy."

"Why doesn't Papa like other people?"

He.. doesn't have an answer for that one. Not really.

"Just because" sounds too shallow, and "Because people can be horrible" is almost worse.

"To keep you safe."

It's not a lie, but it's not the truth, and the way you huff lets him know you're onto him.

Lets Ivo know before you two are finished with errands, in case you bombard the older man with questions next

They both try and keep you entertained in their own ways

Papa Ivo tries to keep you interested in his machines, how they can be used to better your life

Baba Aban takes you out for errands and helps teach you in the kitchen

Life is as balanced as it can be, considering your solitude growing up

Both dads help you set up a little greenhouse in the traveling lab

"For self sufficiency!" - Papa Ivo

"To give them a new hobby." - Baba Aban

"To keep me busy." - Baby You™

You know what's up

SO since we don't yet know how Shadow calmed tf down in the movie, bare with me here.

After the events of Movie 2 and then the unearthing of Project Shadow, you and your dads are living in the Crabmeat base deep in the Pacific

You and Baba Aban still surface occasionally for groceries and supplies, while Papa Ivo throws himself into his work to distract himself from his latest defeat.

During one surface visit, looking around the Seattle streets while on the back of Baba Aban's motorcycle, you see a strangely familiar figure on a similar vehicle.

You tug on your das's sleeve before gearuring toward the hedgehog

"Baba.. that's not Sonic, is it?"

He looks, does a double take

"Uh.. no."

He's stopping near the same lot the two of you are, and Baba instructs you to message Papa

"Found another alien hedgehog, will update"

He seems wary when the two of you approach, glancing between you as Aban steps closer, an arm in front of your chest to keep you back behind him

"Who are you?"

The hedgehog glares, and you slink just a bit closer to see him

"I am the ultimate life form."

"Decided by who?"

"That's none of your concern."

The two are almost circling one another now, Baba keeping you behind him, even if just barely

"It's my concern if you're here to.. to destroy humanity, or whatever."

You eye him from behind your dad, but he just huffs a laugh

"Destroy? I was created to preserve your human lives."

Your eyes widen again, catching his own before he glanced back towards your Baba

"Is that a problem?"

You tug at Aban's sleeve again, and he slows his movement, letting you peek out more from behind him

"No.. I don't suppose it is."

You finally slip out from behind him, smiling, and Shadow is hit, mentally, with the image of Maria, smile - the same energy as your own

A certain kind of sad loneliness, with an undertone of care

He doesn't know why he thinks of it that way

All he knows is that it feels like home again

The two of you see each other a few times after that, while out on errands with Baba

Papa wants to meet him - of course - but doesn't want another Knuckles situation

(He's very glad that the echidna didn't try and go after you for revenge - after the emerald was taken away, he wasn't sure he could have saved you)

So he lets you - and Stone - approach him on the surface

Not that you know explicitly that you're helping.

Neither of your dad's know about Maria - at least not explicitly - and Shadow still hasn't voiced why he's so attached to you

He finds himself following you whenever he sees you on earth

Of course you're with Baba every time, kept at arms length from Shadow, but he keeps coming back

Papa allows it because he hasn't made any threats

Baba allows it because he seems genuinely friendly

And doesn't seem to recognize him

Finally - FINALLY - Papa asks Baba to help bring him to the base

Respectfully, if possible. He wants to keep the peace, even if it's just for your sake

You get to be the lucky one to invite Shadow to the base

You smile when you ask if he'd like to come, and all he can see is Maria inviting him to see a new breakthrough from her grandfather

He says yes

Immediately

Your smile gets wider

"This is the first time I've invited a friend home!"

His poor, walled-off heart cracks just a little, and he gives Stone a Look™

Baba just glanced away before offering him a ride in a (rented) car

The two of you sit in the back, just talking to each other, while Stone contemplated how he got to driving one of the aliens.

To his home.

With his child in the backseat next to said alien.

As long as you're happy, and Ivo's happy, then he's sure he'll be fine

Shadow is still vague with answers around his past - every time you try and engage him about family, friends, childhood, home - he thinks of Maria

He still tries to answer you - he grew up in space, with his best friend and her grandfather.

She was.. sick. Very sick. And she died.

Conveniently leaving GUN out of the convo.

He sees the sadness you have for him - the same Maria held when she told him to go - and decides that he'll make space for himself in your life

If you let him.

ONLY if you let him.

The three of you make it back to crabmeat safely, and both of your dads hover, but let you interact how you want

Shadow sees a lot of Gerald in your Papa, but won't say anything.

He can't

Not yet, at least

He ends up staying the night, nested on your floor next to your own little fort, facing the door even in his sleep

Ivo tolerates it, if barely

He brought the hedgehog here to study, not to befriend his baby

"What if he has.. space rabies?!"

Stone just rolls his eyes as he shuts your door most the way, alarm systems all in place for the night

"This is the first time they've had a friend over, Ivo. We'll know if something goes wrong - just let them have this."

"This" turned into "a live-in best friend" rather quickly, to both parents' surprise (and your absolute delight)

Eventually, he caves.

He starts answering questions truthfully, the pain still rather fresh in his mind

He tells you about Maria, about GUN, about his purpose and pain

And you're there to comfort him

He's not graphic, and you don't push, and he appreciates it more than he'll voice, even to you

He figures that as long as you're willing to be there and listen, he'll be there to keep you safe company

Both dads are.. annoyed

Ivo thinks this new hedgehog is overbearing - always at your shoulder, keeping you company when he's supposed to be, never seeming to let you out of his sight

Stone thinks he's up to something, the way he lingers between streets when you're out, watching from the shadows (ha)

In reality, he's just trying to keep you safe

Your dads seem to figure that out when one of Ivo's ridiculous predictions comes true - you wander just a bit too far from Baba to look at some UV lights for your plants on Crabmeat, and someone grabs your arm as they walk past, jostling you enough that you yelp

Shadow is there in half a second, sending the aggressor to the floor before tugging on your hand, coaxing you down so he can look at the bruise forming on your bicep

Baba Aban is there a second later, lowering himself and helping Shadow turn your arm before helping you back up

"We should leave."

The three of you are silent until halfway back to the base, when Baba tilts the rearview to look at Shadow while he's druving

"Shadow.."

"What?"

He always glares when he talks to anyone besides you. Typically toward the floor or their chests, but right now he's looking your Baba in the eyes through the mirror, watching your father's gaze soften

*Thank you."

And thank YOU anonymous requester for all of this!

The requests for Sonic Movieverse, and this particular headcanon set, are wide open! Please send me reqs! I'm fixating like a mofo right now!!

[sauntervaguelydown]

what's interesting about Zenigata throughout the Lupin iii franchise is that he doesn't really have a core interiority. Everything about Zenigata is exterior.

Part 4 does this insane thing with him where he's locked into his role as judge/jury/executioner to such an extent that it seems pathological--he has to keep Lupin in prison even though it is making him, personally, miserable with grief. He has to make sure Lupin dies rather than let him escape. It will literally destroy the foundation of who he is as a person if he succeeds in the goal he's assigned himself, but he can't possibly do anything else. The law is the law and his job is his job, and he can't let himself be anything else even for a moment. It's fucking intense! It's Greek tragedy!

Compare that to part 5, which was made like? two years? later. And in this one, Zenigata explicitly states that he wants to put Lupin in jail because it's the only way to make Lupin understand his actions have consequences. To force him to turn over a new leaf, make him go straight, and then meet him on the other side. Literally wants to buy him a drink when he gets out of prison.

These could not be more different--I mean it's Antigone vs A Funny Thing Happened on the Way to the Forum. Are either of them more true to the spirit of the character than the other? Well. It's really hard to say, because we just don't know these things about Zenigata in Part One!

What's his relationship to justice? How does he feel about The Law? Is he a corrupt cop, is he noble? Is his chasing Lupin driven by career aspirations or personal passion?

EDIT: I have now read the manga translations, and uhhh well. Apparently they met in college and Zenigata hated his vibe SO bad he spent the rest of his life trying to kill the guy. Not sure that helps us much here.

As it stands, here's a rough list of the stuff I've watched and what its take on Zenigata is

Part One: in the first episode, Zenigata gives a brief explanation of their dynamic (for the sake of the audience) which is already WELL established in-universe. Here he says something like, "Lupin, if you weren't the Grandson of Arsene Lupin, and I wasn't the descendant of the famous Zenigata..." implying that something about this dynamic would change if it wasn't for their Cosmically Assigned Destinies as products of their Two Houses Alike in Dignity etc. What would be different? Would they be friends? I don't know! But Zenigata definitely seems to be beholden to the legacy of his own family here.

there's also an ep where Zenigata has Lupin in jail successfully. Zenigata stays on site guarding the jail the whole 6 months, and eventually one of the other guards says if I didn't know any better I'd think you were looking forward to seeing him escape.

later episodes led by Miyazaki lean more heavily on the context of his career; his relationship to his boss, a conference he wants to attend in his field, the fear of one's job being outmoded by technology etc.

The Mystery of Mamo: Zenigata has so much personal passion! When they tell him to drop the case, he literally quits the force to chase Lupin as a private citizen! This is the one where he swears he'll follow Lupin to the gates of Hell because they are fated rivals. This is also the one where he literally tries to stake Lupin in case he's turned into a vampire. so. I don't know man. He's fucking unhinged in this movie, it's pretty great.

Mamo is known to be closer in tone to the manga than anything else, but Zenigata is not this rabid in the manga. Manga Zenigata is more contemptuous and put-upon.

The Castle of Cagliostro: this is a neutral good Zenigata at his most admirable. When he can't get justice through the law, he teams up with criminals in order to circumvent corrupt government officials. He's also headstrong and fully willing to risk his own career, but not ready to throw it away at the first inconvenience. He is "very fond" of Lupin. He enjoys the chase, but he can put it aside in order to fry bigger fish. You get the impression that he cares about correcting injustice more than the letter of the law.

Part Two: Lupin fakes his death twice that I can remember and BOTH times Zenigata cries about it. On the first occasion, Zenigata shakes the corpse, begs it to wake up, then wonders tearfully what he's going to do with himself now that Lupin is dead. On the second occasion, Zenigata first tries to KILL himself rather than allow Lupin to rescue him (out of a sense of pride) and then cries and calls Lupin a "great man" after Lupin fakes a fatal crash. The resentment IMMEDIATELY gives way to mourning. He's very cavalier with his own life, but precious about Lupin's.

By the way, I love how much this man cries. I ALSO love crying in public and being homoerotically obsessed with my enemies. He's so relatable

the other thing is that this Zenigata is VERY binary about roles; he refuses to jailbreak from extralegal imprisonment because "cops don't escape jail". Doesn't matter that the jail is run by terrorists who are going to kill him, that's Not What Cops Do.

The Fuma Conspiracy: Lupin has faked his death yet again, and Zenigata has--in direct response to this--quit the force and BECOME A MONK, and explicitly says he is busy praying for Lupin's soul so that Lupin can be reincarnated as a law abiding citizen in his next life. What the fuck does this say about Zenigata? Buddy we don't have time to unpack that whole suitcase. In brief: Zenigata is prescriptive about law and legality as equaling goodness/dharma/morality etc. But he also changed his entire life so that he could remain dedicated to THE SOUL OF HIS DEAD NEMESIS. So this is clearly very personal, and has nothing to do with his career.

Part Three: limited familiarity with this one but I HAVE seen the episode where Zenigata gets fired due to his boss's embezzlement scheme and subsequently uncovers the scheme--there's a bit where Lupin pretends to mug him in an alley so they can have a private conversation, and Zenigata IS pretty quick to jump on the trail of this embezzlement scheme instead of chasing Lupin, once he's been tipped off. Perhaps more career driven in this one.

Lupin First Contact: some combination of career-based ambition and, like, Unrequited Rivalry At First Sight. He came here to chase Fujiko and got so distracted by this other idiot that he nearly forgot about her. To be fair, this story is narrated by Lupin so it may not even be an accurate representation of Zenigata within its own canon.

Ten Thousand Movies other from 1990-2005: girl most of these are so bad they are so SO bad. Most of the time Zenigata is not a major player. I can't remember anything he did in these except--oh, in Burning Memories, he uses the jute he keeps in a shinto shrine in his apartment after it survives a major fire. Loved that.

Also, he dresses in drag at the beginning of Farewell Nostradamus. This has nothing to do with anything I just loved it.

The Woman Called Fujiko Mine: corrupt cop. dirtbag. full stop.

okay, no, really. Here he is explicitly concerned with his career; he laments that he had to take grunt work to get by, talks about being busted down the chain after reporting his dirty boss, is extremely defensive of anyone muscling in on his Case even someone he has every reason to trust... this is a man who only cares about his career

he does fuck Fujiko and it IS a corrupt move. He seems to imply he's done this before with other thieves. He KNOWS she faked an orgasm and he doesn't care. He's mean as hell.

He cares about his pride. He seems to think Having Personal Pride is incompatible with participating in corruption. Does not explain why he exploited Fujiko Mine for sex. Maybe corruption doesn't count if you don't respect the person you're violating the rights of.

So, overall, have I got a thesis?

Basically, everyone who writes Zenigata has a different take on what his core motivation is. All the stuff that is core to Zenigata is in his affect, in his actions. He's enthusiastic, emotional, hotheaded, stubborn, prone to cackling, smart but not quite smart enough. What he thinks and what he feels, what he does in his private life, remains surprisingly mysterious.

Several of these takes are mutually exclusive. Mamo and Cagliostro simply do not overlap, just like Part 4 and Part 5 are at odds with each other. You can't put Mamo and Cagliostro and Part 1 in a blender without creating some new third thing inaccurate to all three.

For my money, here's what I think the core points would be, if I was starting out to write a fresh series or something:

the Shinto angle; his duty to the family legacy, especially with a famous ancestor like the OG Zenigata, looms large over the current inspector. He has a lot to live up to.

although they met through his job, he's very specifically attached to Lupin in a way that has nothing to do with his job; in fact, his desire to be close to Lupin is at odds with his career

he started out being ambitious and career oriented--this is why he started chasing Lupin, hoping to make a name for himself.

his career has fully stalled out and he's in conflict with himself about the joy his gets from chasing Lupin vs the expectations he set for himself ten years ago

ACAB; if he's actually ethical and cares about civil rights, he's got to be Insanely Unpopular with other cops. The only reason he might be able to get away with this and still have a job is that he's A) an accidental celebrity now with a weird amount of public clout B) he's got insane tunnel vision and doesn't notice major violations of human rights unless they are Directly In his Line of Vision. Nonetheless, this is unsustainable in the long term.

*I'm also a proponent of "Zenigata used to be more ruthless and corrupt, but he's actually picked up ethics somehow from being around criminals all the time" simply because. it is funny.

In conclusion: probably the reason we don't have solid answers to these questions is because Zenigata is like a dog chasing cars. He doesn't know what he'd do with one if he caught it. Nonetheless, he's gotta chase that goddamn fiat.

[androgynousblackbox]

More stuff for this AU:

-Vox is the benefactor for the hotel and was there literally from the start. Velvette send him an email just the same as the richest motherfuckers that she could find in hell with a copypasted message, not really expecting much from the king of hell himself, but was then surprised when Vox appeared at the door of her run down apartment claiming to be "intrigued" by her proposal. After Velvette sold her pitch to him, Vox gives the biggest laugh ever and gives Velvette all the money she needs to make the hotel, promising that if this idea of her works and they can actually turn sinners into winners she will receive a lot more money. Maybe they could have a whole franchise of redemption if all turns out okay! -Vox and Mammon are greed besties. -Velvette dates Verosika. Verosika is very supportive of Velvette´s project. -Valentino is still very much a pimp and trafficker of guns that works closely with Carmilla Carmine. He came to know about the project of Velvette after she gave a passionate presentation on the news, after destroying verbally everyone who mocked her. Valentino thought to himself that he just had to be friends with such a huge bitch. -Angel Dust and Husker are angels dedicated to the extermination. The extermination is kept a secret from the rest of heaven still, including his own twin sister Molly, who he lives with. -Adam is the oldest sinner on all of hell and the first official resident of the Hazbin Hotel. He fucking hates Vox for condeming him there, but Vox literally has no recollection of who the fuck is him. That must have been data that got lost on one of his many updates. Adam is so fucking tired of hell that will do anything to get the fuck out of there. -Lute is the second resident and a fallen angel who fell when she tried to make Husker fell. Angel Dust found her out before she could do much and casted her away instead. Originally she just wanted a place to crash, but ends up staying because it's not that bad of a place after all. -Velvette has a crush/hate on Charlie because "she is not even that pretty, I mean fuck, if Lucifer wanted a good looking bitch I could have been that" and Verosika is 100% the kind of girlfriend to be there, nod and say "yeah, babe, you are so right, you are so much prettier. Honestly Lucifer missed a chance when he didn't pick you up as his fake daughter." Velvette is also the number one fan of Charlie because clout (and also she is pretty, fuck it). -Alastor literally came back to the tower after reporting on some event on a mobile station and Lucifer had already adopted Charlie, on whom he dotted and pampered on as if she was his actual daughter. He didn't get it, but Lucifer seemed happy in a way he haven't seen him in a long time so of course he let it slide (after investigating on Charlie's background to make sure that she wasn't scamming Lucifer). After realizing that Charlie had no bad intentions whatsoever and didn't represent any danger for Lucifer, only then he started to warm up to her and treat her as his own surrogate daughter too. Obviously, since Lucifer was his then obviously they were going to have the same family too.

-Alastor at the start didn't want anything to do with Lucifer, prefering to do the overlord shit on his own, but Lucifer kept following him around and helping him out so much that he realized that it was for the best for the two of them remain together. Lucifer fell first, but Alastor fell harder kind of deal. -Lucifer had a wife and daughter when he was alive, but he was killed for an investigation he was conducting when his daughter was literally just a baby and he always regretted not being able to be there for her. Charlie fills that void for him, even if he knows the dates don't match up at all and Charlie could really never been his daughter. He was so lucky that Charlie herself carried on with her own daddy issues that makes her suck up all the affection like a sponge, instantly. -Both Alastor and Lucifer also received emails from Velvette offering to be sponsors for her hotel. They never even read it. Alastor has Sir Pentious as an assistant who reads all that crap for him and deleted it instantly because he thought it was a scam (and he was right). -Emily is the demon maid of the hotel and literally the only person who believes in redemption. Nobody has the heart to tell her that it's all bullshit made for profit, not even Vox.

(this AU is available for asks, btw! Maybe I can get inspired to write something else)

[dandytherainbowflower]

Fredbear's Family Diner was founded in the year 1967 by two enterprising individuals, William Afton and Henry. This quaint family establishment featured a friendly brown furry bear as its beloved mascot. In the early days, financial constraints led Henry to don the bear suit, as they couldn't afford to hire additional help. Both Afton and Henry were pursuing their education during this period, with William focusing on engineering while Henry delved into business administration and communication.

In the midst of running the diner, William's life took an unexpected turn when he met an unnamed woman. This fortuitous encounter led to their marriage, and three years later, they welcomed a son named Michael into the world. However, this relatively peaceful period in William's life took a dark turn when he was charged with the murder of a child who had been crying outside the diner, seemingly frightened by the restaurant's mascot, Fredbear the bear. The charges were eventually dropped due to a lack of concrete evidence.

In the early years of operation, Fredbear's Family Diner faced significant challenges, and it took four long years before it achieved any notable success. Interestingly, it was Michael who provided a crucial insight – the children found Fredbear to be boring. In response, William designed a brand new mascot, a yellow furry rabbit suit named Bonnie. The chemistry between these two characters ignited the diner's success, bringing in considerable profits. The financial windfall allowed William to indulge his engineering skills and design the first two Spring Lock suits, which were, unsurprisingly, Bonnie and Fredbear. This success only continued to grow.

The popularity of Fredbear's Family Diner attracted the attention of a larger company, which eventually acquired the establishment. In doing so, Henry and William found themselves relinquishing control and profit. However, this acquisition was marred by underhanded legal maneuvers, which left Henry and Michael's names erased from the diner's history. The new company, known as Fazbear's Entertainment, took over the reins of the franchise, much to William's dissatisfaction. In fact, he was so embittered by this turn of events that he severed all ties with anyone involved in the franchise.

Henry, on the other hand, found himself at a crossroads. Unsure of what to do next, he sought employment and became Phone Guy, serving a role within the newly established Freddy Fazbear's Pizza (FFP). This new venture, founded in 1973, introduced four furry animal suits: Freddy Fazbear, a variation of Bonnie, Chica, and Foxy the Pirate. William was further angered to learn that they had created four animatronics without his input, and this fueled his desire for revenge. 

Notably, Fredbear's Family Diner continued to operate, serving as a sister location to FFP. 

Turning the clock forward to 1976, William and his wife welcomed twins into the world, a blonde girl and a brunette boy. William began instructing Michael in caring for his younger siblings, emphasizing that "Daddy won't be around forever." During his spare time, William dedicated himself to designing and developing new robots, which he preferred to call "robots" instead of animatronics. He also laid the groundwork for his own company, Afton Robotics. However, there was another, more sinister plan hidden beneath the surface of William's activities: he aimed to destroy FFP from within.

Disguised as Dave Miller, William began working as a daytime security guard at FFP in 1980. Clad in the purple uniform that employees wore, he often lurked in the shadows to evade recognition, earning him the moniker "The Purple Guy" among the children who frequented the restaurant. It was during this time that he enacted a heinous plot using the Spring Bonnie suit he had created years earlier. He lured five children into a secluded back room, committing murder and hiding their bodies within the animatronic suits. To cover his tracks, he placed the fifth child in a spare Freddy suit, which he promptly painted yellow. Fortunately for William, the authorities wrongly arrested Henry instead, as one of the surveillance cameras had captured him wearing one of the suits. He was eventually released due to a claim of mental disabilities and an obsession with wearing the suits, along with an absence of violent behavior. Dave, however, was dismissed from his job when FFP closed its doors.

In the wake of these disturbing events, William utilized the illicit proceeds he gained from selling the children's organs on the black market to establish Afton Robotics. Everything seemed in place for him to open a new kid-friendly restaurant called Circus Baby's Pizza World. However, a newfound fascination with the act of harming children and profiting from their organ trade took root within him. He made insidious modifications to his robots, turning them into machines capable of kidnapping and killing children. Tragically, in 1982, a dreadful accident occurred when his own daughter approached Baby in his absence, leading to her untimely demise. While William was well aware of his culpability, he unjustly shifted the blame onto Michael, the older brother, citing that he should have protected his sister. This catastrophic incident led to the cancellation of the pizzeria, the crumbling of William's family, and ultimately his divorce. His wife departed, taking Michael and the other son with her, leaving William isolated.

This dark chapter in his life, coupled with his growing obsession, transformed William into a true human monster. Meanwhile, the spirits of the children he had taken the lives of began to wreak havoc. The first child found his way into a Puppet animatronic from FFP. The other five, guided by the first, merged their souls with the suits in which they had been placed. These vengeful spirits sought retribution and, in the absence of children, targeted any adults they encountered, fueled by the belief that each one was the infamous "Purple Guy" they had heard about in their past lives.

The infamous "Bite of '83" incident saw Michael's wife taking the children and settling near the still-prosperous Diner. She occasionally took her children there, reminiscing about happier times before their lives unraveled. On the other hand, William harbored resentment for these nostalgic visits and purchased a warehouse near their home. Within the warehouse, he constructed an underground chamber equipped with surveillance cameras aimed at the house, the Diner, and the street. Additionally, he prepared the warehouse for the development of Circus Baby Entertainment & Rental. He resumed his guise as Dave Miller and secured a job at the Diner, all while closely monitoring his sons.

The tragic "Bite of '83" incident took a profound toll on Michael, and he became a rebellious teenager who directed his frustration towards his younger brother. Unfortunately, the younger child had already suffered a trauma, having witnessed Baby's fatal encounter with his sister in the previous year. On the bright side, he had an unlikely friend in the form of Psychic Friend Fredbear, an inconspicuous plush toy. Unbeknownst to him, this seemingly harmless plush concealed a camera that William used to monitor his youngest son. More astonishingly, when the plush engaged in conversation with the boy, it was, in fact, the spirit of his deceased sister, haunting William's warehouse with supernatural abilities that allowed her to communicate through the camera system.

The tragic "Bite of '83" incident is a gruesome tale of a birthday party gone awry. It involved a terrible joke that led to a child's head being thrust into the jaws of a bear animatronic, causing a fatal head injury. The child was rushed to the hospital but, sadly, did not survive. His sister, deeply affected by the ordeal, made a valiant yet ultimately fruitless effort to save him. The young boy, after succumbing to his injuries, became a ghostly purple bear, forever haunting the corners of any location where the murderous animatronic resided.

In the wake of the "Bite of '83," Michael's mother experienced an unbearable anguish that eventually led to her tragic suicide. In the absence of his mother, Michael came under William's care. Still, his father held a deep-seated resentment towards him, believing that Michael's actions had led to another of his siblings' deaths. In a cruel twist, William began planning and constructing a room within the new establishment that was expressly designed for torturing children. The room was a sinister replication of Michael's original bedroom, and he would secretly abduct Michael while he slept and place him in this nightmarish chamber. Michael would be drugged, and nightmarish robotic versions of the Fazbear animatronics would haunt him during the night, a chilling reminder of the tragedy he inadvertently caused. This harrowing experience left a lasting scar on Michael's psyche but, somewhat paradoxically, contributed to his personal growth.

Fast forward to 1987, another iteration of Freddy Fazbear's Pizza opened its doors, boasting a new set of animatronics. Once again, William took on the persona of Dave, but this time he committed yet another series of heinous acts, leading to the loss of more innocent lives. The establishment temporarily closed but reopened in November, only to face another incident when the animatronic Mangle injured someone. The aftermath of this incident left Henry without a job, and the situation took an even darker turn when "Dave" was recognized as William, necessitating his withdrawal into the shadows for his own safety.

In the period following his disappearance, William began to contemplate the consequences of his actions and the havoc he had wrought upon his family and others. He couldn't escape the knowledge that his own choices had led to the deaths of those he held dear, leaving him alone with only his elder son, Michael. It was during this time of reflection that he hatched a plan to set things right. In his mind, if he was the one who had caused the chaos, perhaps it was Michael who could restore order. To guide his son along this path, William sent him a letter outlining the steps he should take. William was keenly aware of the spirits and possessions haunting the various animatronics, and he knew that his daughter's spirit was tied to Circus Baby's Entertainment & Rental. Thus, he sent Michael to that location, leading to the events that transpired in Sister Location.

In Sister Location, Baby initially mistook Michael for William but soon recognized him as her brother. This realization presented an opportunity for Baby and the other sentient robots from the rental facility to leave, using Michael as a disguise. To ensure that his brother wouldn't perish from the process, Baby conducted some esoteric research and discovered a method to prevent his death. Thus, Ennard was born, as Michael unwittingly entered the Scooping Room. Ennard, taking on Michael's appearance, attempted to live a normal life as a human being, but the dark magic was incapable of halting the rotting of flesh. Eventually, the facade crumbled, and Ennard exited Michael's body, relocating to the sewers, where it awaited a new role.

However, Michael, despite becoming an undying walking corpse, had unfinished business. He was driven by a sense of duty to free the souls of his father's victims. He began working at FFP, which had reopened in the 1990s, to investigate whether the possession phenomenon was still at play there. Sadly, before Michael started his investigation, Henry had met his demise at the pizzeria. Michael, adopting a false identity under the name Mike Schmidt, secured employment at the restaurant. Unfortunately, he was eventually terminated due to his decomposing state and allegations of tampering with the animatronics. He then patiently waited for the pizzeria's inevitable closure.

With the assistance of Shadow Freddy, who was actually the spirit of his younger brother, Michael began the dismantling of the animatronics, setting the children's souls free from their physical confines. Regrettably, in the world of Five Nights at Freddy's, decayed corpses turn purple, leading the spirits to mistakenly believe that Michael was the Purple Guy and thus attacking him. Fortunately, Michael recalled the Spring Bonnie suit and utilized it to mislead the spirits, offering himself as a surrogate for their vengeance. The suit, however, failed, resulting in a horrifying ordeal that left Michael's body crushed. Convinced that their tormentor was defeated, the spirits finally departed, leaving Michael behind in an abandoned room with a broken, rotting body and the spirit of his brother for company.

The events of FNaF 3 are well-documented but not particularly favored among fans. In the midst of theste occurrences, Fazbear's Fright met its fiery demise in an attempt by Michael to rid himself of the suit, which, to his disappointment, only caused him further harm. Nonetheless, this marked the final chapter in his long, unending life, and he resolved to confront the man responsible for the nightmarish chain of events: his father, William Afton. As for what the future holds, only Five Nights at Freddy's 6 can reveal the answers to the lingering questions in this twisted tale of animatronic horror.

Ooc: holy shit that’s impressive to type in Fnaf lore 😭

WHAT

[r-2-peepoo]

The disaster family at Disneyland:

Obi Wan: organises an absolutely immaculate itinerary planning the day from start to finish down to the last second. He has meticulously calculated and timed every single ride people want to go on in order to anticipate when the lines will be the shortest, and has accommodated every single one of the parks everyone wants to visit.

Anakin: immediately runs off as soon as they get in, destroying all of Obi Wan’s plans.

Ahsoka: follows him but feels bad about it later and comes back to find Obi Wan. She forces him to wear matching Minnie Mouse ears with her which doesn’t actually take much convincing. They both look adorable in them.

Rex: looks apologetic about the desertion and will claim he wants to go off to find them and bring them back but will get distracted and inevitably dragged onto rides by Anakin. He doesn’t like rollercoasters (cue flashbacks of every time Anakin has crashed a ship or used the force to throw him) but it’s too late because he’s already in line and Anakin is very persuasive.

Cody: helped Obi Wan plan everything and can see how stressed he is so he goes to find them all and actually brings them back. Ahsoka comes back on her own though because she knows Anakin is a bad influence. Cody also particularly enjoys the parades and is trying to come up with a good excuse to hold Obi Wan’s hand throughout the day. He’ll claim it’s so they don’t get separated but no one believes that, not even him, but they’re all too scared to challenge him on it.

Padmé: An absolute adrenaline junkie. If the ride moves slowly, she’s not interested. She was fine with It’s A Small World the first thirteen times Luke made her go on it because she will gladly make sacrifices for her children but it’s getting to be too much. She longs for the rides that move so fast it feels like her head might be detached from her body. That’s what she came here for.

Luke: Wants to meet all the Princesses and is adorable doing it too. He’s scared of Mickey Mouse though and I do not blame him. That mouse is evil. He can feel it in the force.

Leia: Stays by Obi Wan’s side the entire day. She knows she’s too small for a lot of the rides, but she respects how organised he is. Refuses to let go of his hand. When she gets tired, she rides on Cody’s shoulders. She’s also able to convince absolutely anyone to buy her anything she wants from the gift shops. It doesn’t matter how expensive the thing is. She gets her persuasive abilities from her father (and Obi Wan has also been teaching her to negotiate a little too) who as it turns out is actually the weakest when it comes to saying no to her. Anakin is the biggest girl-dad and that is canon.

Fives: Points out at one point they’re in one of the parks that seems to sell merchandise with them on it. There are droids literally everywhere as well as people in very familiar costumes but no one notices. No one can see past the fourth wall except him. Once more, Fives knows the truth and is ignored. He gives up and gets a picture taken with the Darth Vader they have in the park and texts it directly to Anakin and says “look familiar?”. The reply he gets is just “is that Black Panther?” Fives sighs. Anakin has the wrong franchise and he doesn’t even know, he thinks to himself. Fives has achieved full enlightenment and self-awareness. The idea that he is a fictional character should scare him, but it doesn’t. It’s actually way less pressure because then his terrible life choices aren’t actually on him. He didn’t write them. He claims no responsibility.

Echo: kidnapped by Mickey Mouse. Luke’s instincts were correct. The mouse cannot be trusted. Echo will not be recovered until season 7 where they come back with The Bad Batch. For now he will remain lost in Magic Kingdom until he is either rescued or becomes part of the park.

[agirlwithbigdreamsforher]

FOUND YOU IN A WORLD OF CHAOS: PROLOGUE

PROLOGUE

Pairing: Eric (AQPDO) x Mary (OFC)

Summary: Eric met Mary on the ferry that was taking them away from New York. What would the future holds when you are living the end of the world?

Warnings: Any mistakes are my own. For the purpose of the story there will be elements that probably are not in the franchise, sorry about that. We are not purist here hehehehe.

A/N: Literally obsessed with Eric after I watched the movie. He is so freaking cute. I hope you enjoy this.

Disclaimer: I do not give permission for any of my works to be copied, used, translated nor reposted anywhere else but here on this blog. Do not steal what you didn’t work for. Minors and ageless blank blogs don’t interact with me or my works. Reblogs and likes are always welcome. Remember reblogs do more than likes. Thank you for reading this work of fiction.

Word count: 965

GIF'S NOT MINE, YOU CAN FIND THE CREDITS UNDER IT.

♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥♥

Eric was running to get to the ferry that was going to take him out of the city while Sam distracted the creatures. He was holding Frodo against his chest and then he jumped into the water just as one of the creatures was about to catch him.

His entire body was tired, he hadn’t eaten or slept properly in the past couple of days; he didn’t know where he got the strength to swim. As he reached the ferry the people on it helped him to get on the boat.

“You’re safe.” A dark man told him as he patted his shoulder. “You’re safe.”

Eric’s eyes watered when he saw the smiles of the people surrounding him. He moved to a corner to rest for a bit holding his cat. Where are they going? He had no idea, all he knew was that he was still alive and it was all thanks to Sam. He knew himself, he knew that if he were alone the past few days he would’ve died at the hands of those things.

It was amazing how life can change so drastically in mere hours. He woke up that day to go to school to follow the path his father told him he needed to follow. A lawyer seemed like a grown up job and that’s what his dad expected from him, he wanted his son to grow up. The next thing he knew was that he was running for his life, hiding in the craziest places; and helping her friend to get pizza in the middle of a destroyed city.

As he read the note Sam left for him the words she wrote to him resonated in his head, he wished she had come with him. Sam was dying, he was aware of that, but he would hoped she died in a peaceful place and not in the middle of that chaos, and most importantly not alone.

“Hey.” The voice of a lady brought him back to reality, he was still shaking and tears were streaming down his cheeks. “Sorry, didn’t mean to scare you.” It was a middle aged woman with grey hair who smiled lovingly to him. For a moment Eric thought he was seeing his mom but of course that wasn’t possible. “You’re the one who just got here?” Eric nodded. “I’m Lucy, come with me.” Her voice was of a normal volume, no whispers, and no passing notes. Lucy walked passed him but he didn’t move.

“Come on.” Lucy told him.

Eric stood up and followed her to a lower level in the ferry; it will be the part where the cars would normally be. He noticed it was an improvised medical ward. Some men, women and children were there with bandages in different parts of their bodies.

“Sit.” Lucy said pointing to an empty chair. “What’s your name?”

“Eric.” He whispered.

“You don’t need to whisper here. You are safe, you can talk.” He nodded and looked away.

“I want to check on you. See if you are injured. Is that ok?”

“I’m not hurt.” His British accent passed his lips.

“I’ll feel better if you let me check on you. I’m a nurse and I wanna help.” Eric nodded and let her checked on him. Lucy tried to take his yellow sweater off of him but he flinch and grabbed her hand. “Not gonna hurt you.” Eric’s fear was shown through his eyes. “We’ll keep it on, ok?”

He nodded and let go of her hand. Lucy’s voice became distant as he looked around the room. Everyone was awake except for one person, a girl. This girl was sleeping on the floor next to the chair he was on, a blanket was covering her lower half. She seemed at peace, her brown hair all over the floor, dirt and dried blood on her face.

“You are not from around, are you?” Eric shook his head, “Did you have any family with you?”

“They’re in England… were… I don’t know.” Lucy nodded. “What happened to her?” He said pointing with his head towards her.

“She saved a kid and was attacked in the process. Her leg was injured.”

“Attacked by the creatures?”

“Yeap.” Lucy put a cotton with alcohol on a cut Eric had on his hand making him hiss.

“How is she alive?”

“Well the creature was going to attack the child, and she got in the way.” Lucy sighed, “That thing only managed to scratch her right leg with its claws or whatever they have. After that we hid and waited so we could scape and got here.” She smiled at Eric, “She passed out when we were stitching her wound. I gave some pain killers and she fell asleep.”

“Will she be alright?”

“I hope so.” Eric kept looking at her and Lucy noticed it. She finished bandaging his hand, “You’re all set.” She smiled proudly. “Nice cat, by the way.”

“Thank you.”

“You’re most welcome.” She stood up. “Now, I think you should go and tried to sleep too for a bit, you look like you need it.”

“I don’t know where…”

“Go one level up, and find a spot where you can lay down.”

Eric stood and got closer to see the girl, he noticed her things were above her head, a tote bag, her tennis shoes, a sweatshirt, and something that look like bloody ripped pants.

“You can come back later if you want. She will be here when you wake up.” Lucy smiled at him and he blushed when he was caught staring.

“Sorry.” He turned around and practically ran out of there. Lucy just shook her head.

“Hey Mary.” She whispered as she kneeled to check on her neighbor, “I believe someone wants to meet you.”

[gophergal]

I know fuck all about tf2 except for character names. Most I got is you and a few other mutuals posts, and they're 10/10. How does the game..... work exactly? Like is there plot? Is it first person shooter sort of thing? Is there a tf1?

I could google it but that's not nearly as fun

OH BOY GET READY FOR THE B I G R AM B L E

WHAT THE FUCK IS TF2?

It's a team based first person shooter published by Valve (of portal and half life fame) in 2007 with nine classes to choose from, each with strengths countered by other classes (for example, the Spy is often a counter against the Sniper and Engineer. Respectively, by picking off the Sniper with a quick, stealthy backstab or by destroying the Engineer's machines). The game has been free to play since 2009 (i think. grain of salt please), and has a healthy playerbase to this day, aside from the bots. But not every tf2 fan actually plays the game. I play sometimes, but mostly just rotate the characters in my brain like a microwave burrito.

It is ALSO, however, a multimedia franchise. Aside from the game, which shows off worldbuilding and characterization through the environment and character dialogue (as well as the update announcement flyers on the official blog), there are also animated shorts and comics created by Valve that further flesh out the world and characters of TF2. Frankly, I think you should give the Meet The Team shorts a go if nothing else. They're iconic. It's hard to pick favorites, but I'm partial to Meet the Medic (obviously), Meet the Engineer (which I can quote verbatim), and Meet the Sniper.

Broadly, the world and aesthetics of TF2 are based on 60's/70's cold war thrillers and spy movies. Think James Bond and the Manchurian Candidate. These impeccable vibes are then wrapped neatly in a cartoony artstyle that wasn't common at the time (and arguably still isn't. I'm pretending that fortnight doesnt exist, as is custom). On a related note, the soundtrack FUCKS SEVERELY. Like. They just DO. They have influence from Jazz, Funk, and miltary marching songs, with more specific influences for individual characters (ex: country western for engineer, polka for medic, and bagpipes for demoman)

An important thing to note is that every class is a play on some stereotype from the movies that inspired the vibes:

Heavy Weapons Guy is a husky ruskie and a man of few words, but he has hidden depths. He's a family man, most importantly, and has been supporting and protecting his mother and younger sisters since his father was killed when he was a teenager. He has a close bond with the Medic and speaks highly of the Engineer ("Engineer is credit to team!"). In a debatably canon piece of dialogue from TellTale's Poker Night At The Inventory, he is revealed to have a PhD in Russian Literature.

Engineer is a texan with 11 PhDs in hard science. He exudes southern hospitality and seems like the most sane man on the team. He also takes great joy in the death and destruction his weapons cause, and ALSO helps the Medic in performing deeply unethical experiments that go against the laws of nature for curiosity sake. He's the third in a line of engineers, btw, and his grandfather basically conquered death. Which isn't super relevant, but I feel is a good lead in to some of the wackier elements of this world I would like to mention.

And every character is like this to some degree. Some more so than others- Soldier is basically just "how american can a man be before it starts impacting his mental health" and Pyro is unknown in terms of nationality, gender, and background

TF2 has a plot by the way! Yes, there is a reason for these many dudes in funny hats to be fighting. They are fighting over gravel. Yeah. So, these two brothers are fighting over land willed to them by their father (who died in the 1890's) which is largely useless aside from having a lot of gravel. Their names are Redmond and Blutarch Mann, and they're the ceos of their own corporations. Reliable Excavation & Demolitions (RED) and Builder's League United (BLU) respectively. They each hired mercenaries to fight a proxy war for them with the goal of owning it all. All the while, a third party, The Administrator, has been playing both sides of the Gravel War to keep it going as long as possible. Why? It's a mystery...

RAPID FIRE TF2 WORLDBUILDING BULLSHITTERY BE UPON YE:

(most of this is just stupid shit that was made up for Pure Random Funny HaHa and has very little bearing on the plot, but tells you a LOT about the tone of the franchise)

Rocket Jumping (that is, shooting a rocket propelled grenade at your feet and crouch-jumping at the same time to launch yourself into the air) was a technique pioneered by Shakespearicles, the STRONGEST POET TO EVER LIVE. He also invented the concept of a Second Floor in a building

Btw, stairs were not invented when the second floor was invented. I want you to take a wild guess how people got to the second floor before stairs were invented. (hint: it involves explosives)

Stairs were invented by Abraham Lincoln. He died due to rocket jumping up said stairs which caused him to accelerate rapidly into a wall. He was also the first Pyro in the 1890s.

New Zealand sank below the ocean sometime in the 40's. By which I mean it was intentionally sank because a Jor-el knockoff believed that the world was ending and that going underwater was the only way to save the nation.

CisMpreg exists. This fact is Medic's fault.

OK But What About Team Fortress 1?

So, its. Not complicated but it's not exactly simple. Quick answer, the original TF game has nothing to do with TF2. Team Fortress was originally a mod for the game Quake and has the same basic gameplay premise as it's successors (team based FPS with 9 classes) and quite a few maps have actually been remade for TF2. It was released in 1996, so, as TF2 was taking A Very Long Time to complete, Valve released a sort of... updated version that was meant to hold fans over. It uses the half life 2 engine, I believe, and was released in 1999. It is called Team Fortress Classic and it's only a LITTLE confusing to research I swear.

TFC takes place in the same universe as TF2, but in the 1930's instead of the 60's. Ignore the scifi/modern looking tech. Don't worry about it. This has no bearing on TFC, really, because it was only confirmed in one of the comics released in 2014. The TFC team matters to the comic plot, but is otherwise kinda just. there. Like, they only exist in the Mann Co No More story line and otherwise just exist.

Fun fact: TFC (the game) was updated to change the ingame class models to more accurately represent the appearance given to them in the comics.

For example, look at the glow up given to the TFC Medic! (original on the left, updated on the right)

In Conclusion:

I will be surprised anyone actually reads all of this, but that is my rambling summary of what in the fuck TF2 is. To be fair, the game is richly detailed but also kinda sparse at the same time. Its all vibes and interpretation my dude. Honestly I think what has made TF2 so popular and long lasting (lore wise) is related to what early FNAF games had going on

[polysyndetonaddictsupportgroup]

What is your opinion on Toji? Both as a character and as a (deadbeat) dad?

As a character he's masterfully written, and him being a deadbeat dad is an absolutely vital part of that.

Toji and Gojo exist fundamentally as mirrors of one another. Equal and opposite images. Infinite cursed energy and absolute zero. Both were born as the most powerful members of their clan alive, but Gojo was lauded for his gifts, whereas Toji was rejected.

Even the way the universe itself treats them (and the way they treat it in turn) are inverses of one another. According to Gege, Gojo is naturally good at everything he tries, and so he doesn't try most things. In converse, Toji is a natural failure who can't stop trying. He's a gambler who loses all of his money but is still parked at the tracks, placing bets that never win. As foils they work so so well.

Taken alone, Toji himself is fascinating because of how much he's aching with failure and lost potential. It reeks of a true tragedy--and, like most tragedies, a good deal of it was of his own making even if circumstance can't be denied. He's Hamlet: introduced to his own downfall by events outside of himself but fuck if he didn't help it on plenty on his own.

Toji is a character who was cast as cursed from birth. He was born extraordinarily powerful in a clan that refused to see it and actively vilified him for his abilities. And as the audience, we can see the sheer affront of that, because we can see him for how he truly is. He's very, very plainly one of the most powerful characters in the franchise. Gojo himself initially loses to him, and if Toji had listened to his instincts that day and left the second he saw Gojo returned? He'd probably have remained undefeated against him. He'd have survived to cause problems in canon even farther down the line.

And it's especially interesting in the fact that Toji is a character who can do something that no other character in the series can do: he can destroy fate.

Toji himself is a functional loophole in canon. From a meta perspective, Gojo functions as this archetype of the Unbeatable, but Toji is the exception. When it comes to the Star Plasma Vessel, fate should have ensured that the merger happened anyway, but Toji, again, catalyzed the exception. Gojo and Toji colliding is the unstoppable force meeting the unmovable object, and the sheer waste that the Zenin out of hand rejected someone that could rival Gojo Satoru stings at the audience with a particular sort of irony. They really did throw away with both hands the person that could have made them rival Gojo, and they did it because of their own prejudices and egos. Toji's story really is one of a tragedy, but the execution of him really does function uniquely in the genre.

And to speak briefly on tragedy--if we're talking about the classical conception of tragedy, it's defined by a reversal of fortune. It's good fortune to bad. Peripeteia. That's legitimately what makes a narrative a tragedy--the audience watches as the character's fortune reverses over the span of the narrative.

In the term of the broader narrative, Toji himself acts as peripeteia personified. He is what reverses Gojo's fortune. Gojo was his downfall, but at the same time, he was still Gojo's.

Gojo starts his interaction with Toji in a state of good fortune. He is already One of The Strongest. And, more importantly, he isn't the strongest alone--which is something he spends the rest of the narrative trying to reclaim. Every single time he teaches, he's trying to encourage the students to become his equal, with Yuuji, Megumi, and Yuuta being the most notable exceptions of this. Yes, he's doing it for their own wellbeing, but that doesn't change the fact that he's still trying to cultivate a status quo that he had and lost with Geto Suguru for other people. And he says this explicitly: he does not want them to be alone. It's the loss of Geto that truly defines Gojo's tragic arc, and it was Toji himself that caused Geto's loss.

He made Gojo The Strongest when he pushed him to the point of unlocking reversed curse energy. But, more importantly, he sent Geto on his descent into madness. Even calling himself a monkey was what fed into Geto's ideals--if it weren't for Toji, it wouldn't have happened.

The other thing that defines a tragedy is that tragic heroes are meant to be sent on their downfall because of some kind of fatal flaw. Hamartia. Outside circumstances set the ball in motion, but it's the character's own flaw that truly dooms them. A very famous example of this is Hamlet, who was set on his path to destruction by his father's ghost and his uncle's deceit, but what's widely considered to be the source of his change in fortune is his decision to not kill his uncle as he prays. Hamlet is a famously clever character, and this works against him as he decides to play god and try to not only revenge his father, but ensure his uncle's eternal damnation. It's only then that he begins to make the mistakes that ultimately doom him. If he had killed him in the moment and left his uncle's soul to God's own deliberations, then he would have likely survived the play just fine. He damns himself just as much as circumstances did.

If we accept the premise that Gojo's story is one of tragedy, then we have to ask what his fatal flaw is. And I'd argue that it's his own isolation.

Gojo is strongest on his own, but every thing he's ever lost can be linked back to the isolation that comes with that. Most notably, again, being Geto Suguru, and the fact that Kenjaku was able to use Geto's body as the way of sealing him. Gojo's own untouchability is what leads him on the path to his own destruction, and it's something that Toji specifically takes advantage of in the course of their fight, and it's something that he exacerbates when he inadvertently leads to Gojo's permanent loss of Geto. Toji really is the one to best expose Gojo's fatal flaw and take advantage of it.

But the interesting thing about Toji is that he really begs the question as to whether his own journey is that of a tragedy or a comedy.

Okay, so not to open this huge can of worms with classical infighting, but all of the definitions that we get regarding what makes a tragedy comes from Aristotle's Poetics, and the second book of it where he defines comedy is lost to history. We've been fighting about what exactly he meant to say ever since. The book's gone. People say we have ideas about what's in it but the book's fucking gone. It's gone.

Anyway Aristotle's fucking dead and it's my turn to wear the philosopher hat, and I'm saying that it's also a reversal of fortunes from bad to good. If there's any classics scholars reading this please keep walking i can't go back to this war.

There's a really good argument that Toji is a tragedy. Fuck, he has a fatal flaw flying so blatantly that he says it out loud in his death scene--his own pride. His inability to admit to his own failure or potential for it. He wants to win, even when he knows he can't. It's what leads him to fight Gojo a second time. It's what leads him to place bet after bet when he never, ever wins.

But there's one glaring issue: if tragedy is a reversal of fortunes from good to bad, did toji ever have good fortune to begin with?

If it just starts as bad and stays as bad, it's not a tragedy by definition. It feels tragic to the audience, but it's not a tragedy in narrative form. So what is Toji's good fortune in this narrative?

I'd argue it's actually Megumi. And we are left to decide whether or not he lost or gained his good fortune in his last moments of his life.

I've talked about Megumi's function in the narrative with the concept of fortune in other posts, but fuck if I know where they are. Megumi himself, as a character, is not fortunate. He's actually sort of fucked. He's doomed by the narrative from the start, but he does seem to be a sort of fortune for other people.

It's literally in his name. Blessing, but not blessed. A blessing is something that's bestowed on other people; blessed speaks to your own state of fortune. All of Megumi's seeming fortune only exists for the sake of other people, with the most notable example being his Ten Shadows Technique.

Megumi as Gojo's foil is another conversation entirely that I won't go into, but it's interesting how Gojo's relationship with his technique is indisputably one of being blessed, and Megumi is stuck as a blessing. Again, it’s almost explicitly said—Gojo states “I alone am the honored one” when describing his own relationship with his technique. But the Ten Shadows Technique is what consistently dooms Megumi in his own narrative, and it’s usually because of other people.

He was trapped into life as a jujutsu sorcerer because of it, and his relationship with it is interesting because he does not understand its true value but everyone else does. The higher ups. The Zenin. Sukuna. Megumi has no space within the narrative to breathe and grow naturally because other people have taken his existence as a boon to them and use that to his direct detriment. He’s a blessing. He isn’t blessed. He is good fortune for others and it robs him of his own.

And he was Toji’s Blessing first.

In order to really, properly analyze whether Toji’s narrative is a tragedy or comedy or neither, we have to analyze his relationship with his own fatherhood. It’s time for a massive departure into that.

The thing is that toji sort of fucking sucked at being a dad. He was a deadbeat. I’ve seen a lot in fandom that tries to construe his actions as a father in a more favorable light, but I think doing so robs him of his narrative depth.

Specifically, I’m talking about his decision to sell Megumi to the Zenin.

And like. I’ve personally seen a lot of posts that sort of justify it as Toji doing what was best for Megumi, that his family would take care of him better than they did Toji because he had cursed energy, but that's sort of patently untrue? Like, parents who are worried about their kid's wellbeing and are trying to get them guardians with better means don't put off the actual transfer of guardianship because they're still negotiating the purchase price. They don't sell them to a family they know is abusive to begin with. He already knew Megumi had cursed energy. They were just waiting on his technique to appear, specially so that they could settle on the final price, and in that time, Megumi was left with Tsumiki to fend for themselves. If he really thought that the Zenin were going to take care of him, he should have tried to get them to take custody sooner.

Moreover, there's just a lot of steps you can take before selling your kid to your abusive family when it comes to their wellbeing. Namely, actually stepping up to the plate and raising them yourself.

"They'll treat him better because he has curse energy" was Toji's justification for selling Megumi, and it's one he plainly didn't believe himself in the long run, because in the end he risked it all on this sixteen year old gayboy who just killed him rather than actually trust his family to take care of his son. Up to the point of his death, Toji just wasn't a good dad.

He was never around. He left a four year old in charge of a three year old and left them both unattended. He gambled away their money at the tracks instead of, you know, feeding them. The money that he did leave them for food was canonically a part of the down payment for selling Megumi. He was so absentee that he straight up forgot what Megumi's name was.

But, undeniably, it's Megumi who he thought of as he died. It's Megumi he tried to take care of.

Remember that tragedy is classically defined as good fortune to bad, but Toji didn't have any good fortune to start with. Like, he wasn't even living a particularly good life. He was an eternally broke absentee dad with a gambling addiction and an insecurity complex so big he needed to kill those teenage homosexuals over it. I'm pretty sure he only owned one pair of pants.

But if we accept Megumi, the son he once loved so much that he named him blessing, as his one good fortune, then he didn't have him either at the start of action. He had abandoned his only good fortune and left him, ultimately, at the mercy of his family.

And that's what changes on his death bed. Toji finally becomes the type of dad that takes care of his son.

If Toji hadn't died, there wouldn't have been the catalysis for change. He probably would have gone through with the sale. I'd like to think that he'd live to regret it, that he'd go back and save Megumi, but it's really up in the air as to whether or not he ever would. But undeniably, when he tells Gojo about Megumi as a last ditch effort to save him from his family, that's the first moment we really see in canon where Toji doesn't have any ulterior motive when it comes to Megumi. He doesn't get any benefit out of it anymore. His kid is going to be sold off to the Zenin in a few years time. Do with that what Gojo will.

This is even more interesting when it comes to the only moment in canon where Megumi and Toji interact: in Shibuya, where Toji is resurrected and fights Megumi.

To my understanding, Toji was compelled to fight whatever was most powerful in his immediate proximity, which made him go after Megumi. The second he realizes that it's his son he's fighting, he stops the fight, asks for his name, and kills himself to stop the resurrection spell, with his last words being that he's glad Megumi's Fushiguro instead of Zenin. He didn't even hesitate. He didn't take care of his son in life, but he died for him without even needing to think about it.

Saving Megumi from his family (albeit, partially because he was the one who endangered him to begin with) was the only really good thing Toji did with his life that we know of, and he dies glad. He dies knowing that Megumi was raised as Fushiguro instead of Zenin.

So. Was Toji's journey one of bad fortune to good? Or good fortune to bad? Or just... bad fortune to still bad fortune? It can be argued for any of them, but it's really undeniable that Toji's failures and successes as a father are integral to his character's complexity.

He was a shit dad. But he died for his son. And I think you lose a huge amount of his character if you deny either of those.

[abby118]

Watching the Loki series is like watching an endless gag reel. It's so bad it's surreal. Loki doesn't feel like Loki. That's not Loki. It's like we're watching Tom Hiddleston just flail and flop around in a bad suit. He reminds me, (and someone else also pointed this out, I can't remember who), of the Edgar suit in Men In Black. And I can't help but wonder if that was a conscious decision Tom made, to act like a possessed, reanimated corpse? We'll never know, of course, but every time I see video clips and gifs, I just see the Edgar suit and if it wasn't so laughable, I could cry.

I completely agree. I couldn't even get through season 1 tbh. And I'd thought ragnarok was bad and out of character...

My advice would be to avoid it completely. I've got the tags blocked, I don't look at the new content and just stick to the original. It truly makes me so sad for the entire fandom, to see such complex and deeply interesting character destroyed and stripped of his very essence. I've been a fan of Loki and the characters from the Thor movies since 2011 and hyperfixated big time. I won't let some disney bullshit ruin that. It helped me through the hardest times of my life and I see parts of myself in the personalities of the characters, having grown up with it being a safe place. It even inspired me to find interest in the norse mythology despite it being so different. I read numerous books and studies on it and I feel like you can catch little glimpses of it in the original franchise.

Sadly, it feels like Tom is so out of touch with who he is supposed to be portraying. I hope this is the result of a contract and not entirely his own input. Although, I'm worried that might be my wishful thinking.

I was studying the soundtrack of Thor 2 the other day and how much thought went into it and it made me weep internally. Brian Tyler studied the characters' personalities and brought that into what he crafted. It was full of care. He even named one track Lokasenna, which if you don't know, is the name of a poem belonging to the poetic Edda and is about the conflict between Loki and the Aesir (asgardians). I also love how the og Thor franchise had the recurrent theme of light & shadow. Returning back to the brian tyler vid- the theme he was talking about is named Shadows of Loki.

Now, compare it with what we got in the last years (sth that feels like a very badly written fanfic). That is just a single example.

For me, the ending of Thor 2 is the end of canon and I am writing my very extensive continuation. It's the best ending we could have gotten in terms of fanwork because it's an open ending. A still in-character-ending.

The series feels wrong, it feels like utter mockery and I'm not here for it. With that said, my blog is a safe space for everyone who feels like this or gets bullied by the new "fanbase" (yes that happens)

Thank you so much for sharing your opinion, I appreciate it more than you know 🖤💚